Chapter 7: Return of the Corporates

Mac-11: lol. I know that cliffhanger was evil. Just to let everyone know a certain death threat from a reviewer "convinced" me to update faster. (cough cough Linnafan cough). In honor that he won't be able read my story for a while after this since he is going to basic combat training I made this chapter extra long. He's in the military so I'd just like to say if you're going to Iraq KICK SOME ASS!!! And may God be with you. And please don't shell my house. Anyway this chapter is deticated to Linnafan.

Shou'nk grabbed his Shuriken off his belt. He figured he'd only need one to finish this Xenomorph spider off. Maybe it would be tough to the ancient Yautja, but he was a modern and experienced enough warrior. The spider opened its mouth wider and two large venomous fangs came out. In the young predator's vision he saw the lock on effect and the crosshair show up on the alien. He threw it. It was a perfect throw; there was no way it would miss.

Suddenly the spider spit out some webbing from its mouth. The webbing completely covered the shuriken. The webbing fell to the ground, but it was as if the shuriken had just disappeared. It was then that Shou'nk noticed it. The webbing was a color of yellowish green, the same as alien blood. The webbing was made of a different form of acid.

Shou'nk grabbed more of his shuriken and readied himself. The spider crawled on the walls and into the empty stands of the gladiator ring. The young hunt knew he could jump high enough to reach the stands and did so. He had jumped on the other side so that the spider wouldn't ambush him or something.

He looked at where the spider should have been, but it wasn't there. He had lost it. He began switching through vision modes to see if they'd help. The hunter looked up and noticed it was right above him. It suddenly jumped down and fell right on top of him. Shou'nk kicked it off him. He kicked it so hard it flew back into the ring. The predator threw three of his shuriken at it and it spat out a stream of acid web at him. The acidic silk engulfed the throwing stars and headed straight for him. It wrapped around his body and tightened. He could feel the acid eating at his skin. The other end was still in the spider's mouth. It yanked its rope of silk and it was so powerful it pulled the young Predator off the stands and swung him across the stadium into the other side.

Shou'nk landed on his left arm. He heard a distinct crack to signify his arm was broken. The silk was still roped around his body and he felt another powerful pull from the other side. This time he was about half way in the air when he activated his wrist blades. They cut straight through the silk and let him free of its gasp. This time he landed on his feet. Unlike his shuriken his wrist blades were acid proof.

Shou'nk jumped off the stands and back into the ring. He charged the spider and extended his wrist blades to their full length. The spider charged back and with the sharp point of its jointed leg it stabbed him in the shoulder. Its point came out the other side of the hunter. The arachnid creature pressed harder and pinned him to the ground.

Shou'nk didn't expect it to move so fast. The spider crawled over his body. It then lifted its fangs and sank them into the Predator's gut. Shou'nk roared out in pain as he felt venom slide down in him. There was only one thing he thought of. He used all the strength he could muster to stab the spider in the face with his wrist blades.

The spider ripped out its jointed leg and jumped off him. Shou'nk barely had the strength left to get up and stand, but he found it and got up.

Meanwhile…

The marines and the reporter were leaving the ruins and heading toward the exit they had found earlier. "Do we really need to leave?" asked the reporter. "Yeah, man aren't you worried about them?" question Steve. "Don't worry. If you knew them as well as I do you'd know they'll be fine," answered the marine leader.

They continued down the narrow hallways and found the entrance they had come through. Suddenly a light from a flashlight went by. Jason took a peak and saw men with the corporate insignia on their shoulders. They were planting explosives on the ruins. It looked as if they scanned the place and found the predators and himself along with his friends inside so they were trying to blow it up in an attempt to kill them. They ran back to get the predators.

"We got to reach them before they set off those explosives," said Sean. After a while of running they found the clan waiting outside the door. They were all panting and out of breath. "We gotta get out of here now!" panted Richard. Just then the first explosion went off. It rocked the whole ruins.

Meanwhile…

Shou'nk looked at the spider ready to continue the fight. Suddenly the ground beneath them began to rattle. He looked to see if the spider was doing it, but the spider seemed just as surprised as he was. Just then the door he came through reappeared. It looked like the ruins themselves were under attack.

He ran through the door and the spider followed him. He quickly scooped up his weapons that lie on the ground and ran outside. He found his clan and his friends waiting for him. As soon as he caught up with them they all ran out of the pyramid. Going through every twist and turn they finally reached the exit.

They all jumped out as half the ruins collapsed only to be confronted by an army of Corporates. The clan each grabbed one of their friends and leaped away. Merc'rk carried both Jason and Shou'nk seeing that the young clan member was now too weak to walk.

An Hour Later…

They were all inside the ship. Shou'nk was lying flat on a table and screaming as Essra was using the most painful, but most effective equipment on her medicomp. The young hunter's whole body was burnt from the acidic silk, his left arm was broken, he had been stabbed, and was injected with some venom.

"Will he be alright?" asked Jason hoping his favorite buddy wouldn't die. "He'll be fine, but he will be weak for a few days. He'll need to rest," she answered. If anything she was like the clan's doctor. "Shou'nk, one question before you go to sleep. Can you tell us anything about what it was like inside?" she question. "You can take only two weapons. A ranged weapon and a close... combat... weapon…" Shou'nk fainted before he could say the rest.

Reco'de almost immediately went to his room. "Where are you going?" asked his leader. "I'm going to go upgrade my best close combat weapon," he answered and then continued.

Netak smirked at the fact that whatever was behind those doors would be a worthy challenge. He was sitting in his room sharpening his spear when Meagan opened the door. He looked at her as if asking 'can I help you?' She looked back with a curious expression. "What?" he finally said in a rude tone. It was intentionally rude, because he felt that whenever he was around her something would soften him up. Not that Netak would admit that. He thought of her as more of a weakness. The way to fix that problem would be to kill her, but she had saved his life and he was in her debt so it would be considered dishonorable to do so. "Hi," she started. "I was wondering if you were the one I met next to the base the other day?" she asked shyly. "So what if I was?" he answered her question with a question. She of course knew that meant 'Yes.' "Just curious," she answered back.

Meanwhile…

"I got to get back to base and warn them of what's going on," said Sean. "Come on guys," said. Meagan got out of Netak's room, Jason went outside, Richard and Steve left with him and lastly Sean left.

The Next Day…

At the marine base they had set up defensive positions around the base. The reporter was giving a report on it while they continued to set up.

"I've got a bad feeling about this," said Jason. "Why is that?" asked Sean. "Well, we come here and find a new kind of alien. Then we find ruins that might have come from the predators. It contains a prophecy. They need to pass five challenges and the very first one nearly killed Shou'nk. Suddenly the Corporates are back and blow up half the ruins to try and kill us. Doesn't something seem wrong about this whole thing?" asked his friend. "It does seem pretty unusual," replied his leader.

Meanwhile…

The clan prepared for their next hunt. They sat in the main room fully armed and ready. "This hunt will be to the Corporates. We just need to ask them some questions," informed their leader. In other words what he was really saying was 'get ready to give a major ass kicking.' They all got the message and smirked with delight.

They all got fully armed minus Shou'nk who was still lying across the table. "Why can't I go?" he asked. "The medicine hasn't completely removed the venom. You will be able to get up tomorrow," answered Essra. They left the ship. Before Merc'rk closed the door he looked at him and said, "Go to sleep. That's an order." Then the door closed.

Shou'nk laid back and began to think about the passed events. 'What had happened to that spider?' he thought. The young hunter lay there for a while and eventually drifted off to sleep.

The clan reached the corporate base after a few minutes of leaping and trying not to get discovered. They were all cloaked. The clan saw that the corporate base was made around the ruins they were inside. Corporates also swarmed the place. They at first were deciding which way to start this out. They could always attack with all their weapons at the same time, but that would leave them with out complete surprise.

"I got it," said Essra as she pulled out some disc explosives. She used her wrist computer to pin point the best spot to plant them. She threw one and the blades jammed themselves in the bottom of a pillar from the ruins. She threw another one that landed inside a bunker. The huntress again threw one at another bunker. And lastly she launched one that went inside one of the several ammo boxes. Of course the explosives were so small no one noticed them.

"Get down," she simply said. The clan took cover. Essra pressed a button on her wrist computer. A large explosion came. The one that landed on the bottom of the pillar exploded first. The pillar fell over and crushed a few Corporates. The two inside both the bunkers exploded and the place the most Corporates were standing at was engulfed in flames. Essra waited a few seconds before she detonated the last one. She looked over and waited for them to get up. The corps all walked over to places that had just been attacked and began inspecting them. The ammo boxes were right in the middle of them all. When they were all close enough she detonated the last one. It made huge explosion and killed several of them. Only three of them were left.

The clan stared at Essra with amazement. "It is possible," she simply said.

Before first two corps even got up a disc sliced through one and a bolt of plasma struck the other. The last one was left alone and afraid. Just then he saw what looked like five figures made out of thin air walk up to him.

The clan of hunters decloaked. Reco'de and Netak walked over to the bodies of the humans they had just killed. They made sure the Corporate was watching when they ripped off the head. They both pulled out their wrist blades and began skinning their trophies as loud and as gruesomely slow as possible just to show the human what would happen to him if he didn't cooperate.

Merc'rk grabbed him by the collar and lifted him off his feet with his metal arm. "What is your business here?" he asked clearly. The corp was amazed that it spoke his language and only stared. "Well," asked the Yautja Leader trying to speed things up. "Uh, we are on a scientific mission," answered the corporate. "Go on," said Merc'rk. "Umm… I don't know much, but I do know that the Corporation we belong to knows about your existence and wants to learn more about you. A satellite caught these pictures of some ruins and they had your specie's writing all over it so they sent us to find out all we could. I fact there are more of us sent on the way here-" he stopped himself and realized he was going to far with telling them more corps were coming here.

The clan leader dropped the man on his buttocks and drew his wrist blades. The corp turned white and looked frightened. He was so frightened he couldn't even move. The bough Predator raised his arm to strike the human. The human closed his eyes and waited for the blades to come down and pierce his body. Instead the blades landed right next to his face and less than an inch away. "Tell this to your leaders of your corporation. Never ever try to study us. And if they do, we'll kill them."

With that message given the clan got up and went heading back to the ship. "Aren't we going in the ruins to continue those five challenges?" asked Reco'de. "No, We'll stand a better chance with Shou'nk. Let's head back to the ship and when he is better we'll come back here," answered his leader.

The clan of hunters headed back to the ship with the Corporates defeated and Shou'nk was still out of comition, but the corps were gone for now and that was all that mattered.

Mac-11: Well that's over so far. The more reviews I get the sooner the next chapter will be up. And by the way everyone I'm currently suffering from some MAJOR Computer problems. It crashed, but luckly I had this chapter saved on a back up file. Good luck in combat training Linnafan. I hope you come back soon.