Chapter 12: The Final Challenge and an Explination

Mac-11: I'm back with my new chapter and thank you those of you who reviewed! Enjoy.

Netak walked out of the fourth door and, without a word, sat down in a corner and pulled out his medicomp.

"Finally, the last one!" nearly shouted Reco'de.

Merc'rk walked up to the last door. It opened and waited for him. As soon as he entered his weapons fell off (minus his spear a plasma flechette). The Predator entered the last dark room. The door closed and torches lit up the halls. The lead hunter looked around and found himself in an jungle room. There were trees everywhere. It was as if a portion from the outside jungle had been taken and placed inside.

Merc'rk walked to the center and found a large cocoon. Suddenly a jointed leg cut through the cocoon from the inside. The clan leader was surprised that it had sat here for several thousand years and was waiting to fight him. This was no coincidence, something was up.

Whatever was inside began to quickly rip the cocoon apart. Large wings with a unique design sprang out of the cocoon. One last tear and it revealed a large... a large... Butterfly? "What in hell?" thought the hunter. He didn't let his guard down, but what could a butterfly do against the clan's most powerful Predator.

Its wings started flapping and it readied itself. Merc'rk also readied himself and unfolded his spear. The creature dived for him and hovered infront of him and began rapidly trying to stab with the points of its legs. Merc'rk was able to block all the strikes with extreme precision. The leader returned the attack with one of his own. He cut off one of the legs. The butterfly gave a shriek and flew higher up to avoid another attack. The Predator jumped higher up a continued his assault. He slashed at it, but to his surprise it grabbed the spear at the shaft with its remaining legs and threw him into the ground.

Merc'rk got to his feet. He turned around and looked at the large butterfly. Its wings began to make a pumping sound and the began to beat faster. Merc'rk activated his plasma fletchette. He didn't even want to find out what the creature was about to do. Several shot of plasma shot out of his wrist gaunlet. To his surprise they hit the wings, but nothing happened. He fired again and got the same results.

Just then in his thermal vision he saw the heat of the wings greatly increase and all the shots he fired came back at him. Merc'rk jumped behind a tree for cover. The butterfly's wings acted like absorbing fields! At that moment the Xenomorph dived at him with its wings moving at the same incredibly fast speed. Merc'rk jumped up and it flew under him. The Predator landed on a tree branch and looked at the alien butterfly. It flew towards him and rammed him. The clan leader grabbed onto the Butterfly's head as it hit him.

They began to both fly around the room with the Xenomorph rapidly trying to shake him off and Merc'rk holding on for life. The clan leader looked at where his left hand was and found iit was in the exact right position to crush the creatures head. He exerted pressure, but instead of crushing it the head snapped off. The wings stopped flapping and the dead and headless body began to glid through the air with the Predator on top of it.

The Predator jumped off of it and landed on the ground. Merc'rk, who was slightly disappointed with his challenge, walked back to the room and back to his clan. Then again ever since he got his metal arm everything had been much easier.

He found them in the same place as before. Shou'nk was in a conversation with Essra, Reco'de was drinking a frappichino, and Netak was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. When Merc'rk came out they all looked at him.

"Okay, now what?" asked Reco'de. At that moment a wall next to them slowly slid down under the ground and revealed a door made out of Yautja metal. The door was very thick and not even Reco'de's plasma caster would be strong enough to blow it away. The Metal door also moved into the ground and opened. The clan first looked at eachother and then at the passage. Merc'rk started walking towards it and his clan followed.

Inside was a small, cylinder shaped room with an orb in the middle of it on a uniqu looking stand. The orb was about 12 times the size of a human head and it was glowing bright blue. "What is it?" asked Shou'nk who was curious about the glowimg blue sphere. Essra slow moved her hand towards it. As it got closer she felt something. It was like she needed to touch it and it was her purpose. She quickly dismissed the thought and finally decided to touch the orb.

Nothing happened. "What?" said Essra in disappointment. Shou'nk put his on the orb and also touched it. "All this work better not have been for nothing," he said. The young Predator sighed and closed his eyes. Just then at that very moment he fell asleep in the same position, standing up with his hand on the orb. "Shou'nk, wake up! This is no time to fall asleep!" said his clan leader, but the young hunter did not move. "Wake up, Shou'nk!" yelled Essra but it was also no use.

Inside Shou'nk's Dream: He was standing on nothing. It was as if he was hovering in outer space with the stars and planets all around him. "Where am I?" he asked to no one in particular. "You are in my mind," answered someone in clear Yautja language. He couldn't tell who it was or where it came from; it was like the voice was all around him. "Who are you?! Come out and show yourself!" yelled the young Predator. Suddenly all the stars warped toward a spot only a few feet in front of Shou'nk. They formed one huge star and then a Predator walked out from it.

This Predator was indeed very old. The armor he wore was an out-dated class, the weapons he had were far from the modern equiptment that Shou'nk had, and he had many battle scars. "So you are one of them?" asked the extremely old Yautja. "One of what?" asked Shou'nk. "I see that you do not know yet?" he said in a shallow tone.

"Know what?"

"The Prophecy."

At that same moment Merc'rk, Reco'de, Netak, and Essra appeared right next to Shou'nk. "Where are we?" asked Essra. "You must be the rest of the clan. Welcome. You have finished the challenges and are now inside my mind," said the elder as he looked at them. "And who are you?" asked Netak in a rather rude tone. "Forgive me for not introducing myself. My name is Jentr'ck," said elder Predator. "Why are we here?" asked the clan leader. "I see you do not know either. Come, I shall show you," said Jentr'ck.

At that very moment they zoomed towards a planet at speed far faster than what their ship could travel at. They stopped when they reached the surface and there they found the ruins on the planet which they were on, but not the old, rusty, and half burried one. This one was new and clear. There were even some Predators walking around and living inside of it and two of them gaurding the front entrance. All of them had the same ancient class armor that their old leader Doun'ch wore.

Suddenly they lifted off the ground and hovered over to the ruins. They thought they would smash into the wall, but they flew right through it without any damadge to themselves or the wall. They were ghosts inside this dream. As they flew by they saw many things modern Predators do including their rituals and dueling Xenomorph. They flew to a landing pad and saw that a ship was just returning to land on it. Several Predators were walking out with net sacks and cans that contained specimens from different plants.

"We were in search for the creature that would be greatest to hunt. We came upon the ooman planet and found several creature worthy on fighting, including the humans themselves, but one type creature interested us: their insects. Each of their hardmeat had amazing new traits, but they were very small and contained no acid blood," started the Jentr'ck. They then flew towards a chamber and went inside. Inside the chamber was a few Predators that were experimenting something with the bugs from earth. "They were so small they couldn't even be face hugged," continued the elder. At that moment a Predator pointed to the bug, and to the little hole at the bottom of the face hugger he was holding. He shook his head and the Predator holding the bug looked dissapointed and handed it to another hunter.

At that moment Jentr'ck fast forward the time only a year later. In one second they were there. "That's when we got the idea of using the bug's raw DNA." In the same chamber a Yautja was sucking the guts out an insect with a needle. That same Predator pushed a button a wall to activate something. A stand came up and a large sphere about twice the size of a basket ball came up on the stand from the middle of the chamber. "It would give the hardmeat the traits of ooman insects," continued the elder hunter. The Predator stuck the needle into the sphere and injected its contents. Another Yautja came out holding a face hugger. The face hugger was dead and cut open with the acid blood sucked out. This new predator pulled out the small embryo for the dead face hugger and stuck it into the sphere. It was working and the embryo started to grow inside.

At that same moment Jentr'ck fast forward the time once again at about two hours later. "It was time for the first test," he said as they were suddenly transported in the arena where Yautja would fight with tough aliens and the skilled ones would fight Praetorians and the even more skilled ones would fight eachother. They saw a, supposedly, skilled predator walk on into the arena. The large spider Xenomorph crawled onto the arena as well. The fight started and spider crawled right up to the hunter and tore him apart in no time. A second Predator walked up to fight the arachnid, but was also slaughtered. "It then became known that no one hunter could kill one on his own, all, but one." Almost at that exact same moment another Yautja walked up. This one was strangly familier and he wore their clan's signature scar on the forhead of his mask. "Doun'ch!" yeld the Shou'nk as he recognized his previous clan leader.

Indeed the ancient class predator was Doun'ch and he was very young. The spider lounged for him, but the hunter grabbed his spear and dodged the attack. In a few short moments of fighting Doun'ch's spear pierced the spider's head and he was victorious. Another Yautja approached the predator and, in a ritualistic manner, he grabbed the head of the dead alien and handed it to Doun'ch, who stuck it in the air and gave a victory roar.

Jentr'ck fast forwarded and transported them to a different place in the ruins. "Due to the fact that no Hunter could take them on in a one on one fight we created more advanced weaponry," the elder informed. They were now in a targeting area with dozens of targets. Doun'ch walked in with a newly created weapon and the clan was shocked to find that he had the first plasma caster ever built strapped to his shoulder. He blew away all the targets in a matter of minutes. "We designed a weapon that could kill them in a single shot: the plasma caster. Your clan leader was the first to use it."

The time and place changed once again and they were back in the chamber. "Once the plasma caster was made, as a weapon to control them, we massed produced these creatures as the ultimate prey to hunt." In the chamber were dozens of the spheres on the stands all in a several rows. It was like a crop field of worthy prey and it was almost time for the harvest.

"We began to hunt them and needless to say all were worthy hunts. Sometimes we'd even entire clans would not come back." They saw several different types of aliens inside each sphere molting. "But something unexpected happened, when a queen embryo was, unexpectedly, placed inside one of the spheres and molted inside. Once the Queen fully molted we caged it and readied it for production use. Another problem came when one we were trying to experiment with putting controllable blades inside an alien. It escaped and killed several hunters. While it was killing it freed the queen. The queen left and escaped into a place were it could lay an army of eggs. Once the eggs hatched it had been too late," said Jentr'ck again, this time with sadness in his tone. The elder once again fast forwarded time and the whole clan knew what he'd show next.

They were now out side the ruins in a high up view. Just then several aliens crawled out of the jungle and slipped inside the ruins. Several predators inside grabbed their weapons and a battle broke out. Aliens and Predators were dying left and right. Claws pierced armor, plasma burned skin, and acid ate at flesh.

Jentr'ck took them closer to the battle and as they closed in on him the clan saw Doun'ch in a hunt for his life. He was killing any alien that was stupid enough to get near him, when suddenly the com link on his mask turned on and a message came into the transmission. It told him to head for the king's throne.

He obeyed his orders no matter how bad it pained him to do it and leave his fellow hunters. Once he was inside the throne he saw the kings throne and several childern Yautja who had been told to take cover there. There was no alien in sight, but the sounds of battle cries and plasma casters was still loud enough to hear. "The battle is not going well. I don't know if we can hold them off any longer," said Doun'ch. The King looked at him and revealed himself to be Jentr'ck! "I have forseen we will lose this battle," he said to them. Apparently Jentr'ck must have been psychic or something. "I do however have a plan that might be able to save us and the rest of the universe. Give this offer to these children. You will train them only if they promise to forsake all conections to their original families and teach the same technic to their offspring and give them back to you as hunters in your clan. Once you have gathered them leave this planet and train them as best you can. In my vision you have no presence, thusly, that means you have fallen." The term "fallen" meant dead, and he took the news very well. What kind of kids would be willing to forsake all connections to their original families, which include changing their names, changing their marks, and giving all the glory of their hunts to another family.

Doun'ch, again, thought the idea was stupid, but he did not complain. He found ten children that accepted the offer and each were only ten years old. They were five males and five females. They also bared a striking resemblance to the clan themselves. "Our fathers and mothers!" cried Shou'nk. To their surprise, he was right. Reco'de's father was a brawler class and his mother, a hybid class. Netak's father was a spear master class and his mother, a disc master class. Merc'rk's father and mother were both an unknown class of the highest rank and Essra and Shou'nk's parents were all Ancient class.

They all got on a ship and left the planet. Back on the planet the Predators were losing the fight. "There's only one thing to do," said the King predator. "Activate the plasma freeze," he ordered. A Predator pushed a button with several warninng marks around it and suddenly a blinding flash of light filled the ruins. When the light was gone, every thing was frozen instantly. Outside even the battle seen had been fozen in place.

"And so that's what happened," said Jentr'ck. "I don't get it. He was talking about saving the universe, but the bugs can't reach into outer space," said Essra. "They can with those," said the elder as he pointed to an alien with an abnormally large abdomen. "That hardmeat can launch smaller hardmeat into outer space. It covers them with a type of ooze that protects them from atmospheric entry friction," he answered. "There is one last thing that I must show you," said Jentr'ck and suddenly he changed the place.

Mac-11: Sorry it an even longer time to update. I'm just so busy, but thank you guys for the reviews. remeber to review if you want me to update.