>Ok. This is not going to be easy. Thought Joanne, as she sat with the people she'd ran across. While everyone else was experiencing an uncomfortable silence, Joanne was busy touching each of their minds, seeking for those who where comfortable with her presence. She sighed, there weren't many. Not that she could really blame them, She'd found that none of them had any encounters with alien races before, to the extent that some were still in denial about where they were and things they had encountered since waking up. The shock of being kidnapped and placed in an unfamiliar, hostile environment had made them suspicious of everything, but if Joanne wanted to stay with them she was going to have to convince them she was no threat, if not useful.
She shook her head, why did she want to stay with these suspicious people again? Oh yeah, because they were the only living humans she'd come across plus she was scared and tired, having been on her own and therefore having to stay constantly alert all the time. Besides, as harsh as it may be, there was safety in numbers. The more people around you the smaller the probability that you would be the one picked to die.
Joanne rubbed her eyes and looked around again. They were in a medium sized chamber, a bit too small for them all to comfortably be in, so some where standing while others sat. Four where lying down, and all of them had injuries. Not daring to ask what had happened to them, Joanne had quickly searched their heads for memories, and saw the various attacks they'd experienced or seen. As she looked at their memories however she saw that none of the antagonists where Predators, many were even recognisable animals from Earth. There where some that she'd never seen before though, probably more alien species from distant worlds brought here, like them, simply for Predators amusement. Her hatred for the warrior race flared once more, what gave them the right to take creatures from their homes and slaughter them? Just because they where stronger and had more advanced technology than everything else?
Angrily she withdrew her mind before her negative thoughts announced her presence to those she was looking into. Somehow revealing that she was psychic to this already on edge group didn't seem a good idea, yet her normal reservations about invading other people's thoughts had gone now that her survival depended on knowing what was going on in her immediate vicinity.

"What's that you've got there?" a guy asked, keeping his distance but eyeing her small collection of weapons intently. He was in shadow, but she could see he was holding a larger version of the gun she had, and Joanne could feel a greedy, oppressive attitude drifting from him.

"These are my weapons." Joanne said plainly. "I started with the knife, and found the other two." Another large guy approached her,

"If you want to come with us them I'll have the gun. Only a certain few here have the fire arms." The one called Jake who'd originally questioned her came up and held out his hand. Now he was in the light Joanne could see he had three guns, including the big one he held. She could feel fear from the rest of the group, and looking around she could see some people had no weapons at all…

>Looks like I've found some bullies… Joanne thought. Situations like this often brought both the best and worse out in people, and for these two it was clearly the worse. She frowned, while 'Jake's' mind fit the stereotype bully profile the other guy seemed calmer, and not so much of a coward. Then she 'found' the reason he was taking charge, he'd had some leadership training, and experience with guns, making him the logical choice to have a projectile weapon and to lead this group of scared, hurt people. She noted he only had one gun, and forgave him slightly for trying to intimidate her. He was trying to do what he thought was right, what would keep the small band of people safe. Jake on the other hand was just a power freak. The most experience he'd had with what he was carrying was a couple of rounds of paintballing, which incidentally he'd lost.

"C'mon just hand the gun over. You can keep the knife and the stupid stick" Jake said, bending down and reaching for what he wanted. Joanne pressed the indent on the spear's handle and it extended, putting out its spikes, right past Jakes face. He jerked back, going white before looking angrily at her. He went to grab the spear when the 'leader' spoke,

"Don't you think you have enough Jake?"

"I'm not letting that go Will! She could've had half my face off with that thing!"

As Jake started towards Joanne again Will held one of his shoulders back.

"Yeah you will. Now back off."

Joanne smiled. Maybe she'd misjudged Will…

"Now, miss, like I was saying, the gun?" Will extended his hand. Joanne raised her eyebrows slightly, looking straight at him, and shifted slightly so her spear pointed more in his direction. Will looked down at its point the up to meet her gaze again.

"Look. Only people who know how to use them get them. Can't have a God damm rookie missing beasties and hitting people when something's attacking us. For everyone's safety, it's better if I have it."

"I can use it." Joanne simply said. Now it was Will's turn to raise an eyebrow, and she quickly decided a lie would be more plausible and reassuring than the true explanation of how she knew how to use the weapon.

"How do you think I survived so long on my own? I've shot everything that's tried to get me, or I'd be dead by now."

"Bullshit" Jake snorted. "If you're that good then why did u come running into us?"

"Shut up Jake." Will said, still holding Joanne's gaze. "You know you can't hit those things that were on her tail anyway." Joanne looked at him, "Well you can't. The blue crap that comes outta these things just goes straight thought them. Only thing that keeps them from getting us is Michelle's key over there." He pointed at a woman older than the others in the group who was removing a card from a slot in the wall. She didn't say anything, just put the card into her pocket and went and sat down by one of the injured. It was only then that Joanne noticed it was a teenage boy lying on the floor, the youngest of the group. His shirt was in tatters, red with blood and his torso had many slashes across it.

"That card she has is a door control of some kind," Will explained, "put it in once, the door opens. Put it in again and it closes. Took us a while to work out what it was but hey, it's one of the most useful things we have at the moment…" Will started to talk about what they'd encountered so far and how they'd dealt with it, but Joanne wasn't really listening. She was watching the woman, Michelle, sitting by the boy. A quick thought got her inside Michelle's head, revealing that the guy was her son. Joanne retrieved her thoughts when she felt the shock, despair and disbelief that was rampant in the woman's mind. She fought back tears herself, being in emotional peoples heads always affected her too, and looked at Will, who was looking straight back at her. She decided to see if they knew anything she didn't the traditional way.

"Know what the hell is going on?"

Will exhaled slowly. "I have no fucking clue. You?"

Again, somehow lying seemed the better option, "No. Just woke up here."

Will shook his head. "I started in a group of six. Two of those people are dead, and another is hurt. Keep finding people, loosing them, being attacked. It's like a fucking video game or some thing."

Joanne looked away, staring at the floor. "Can I tag along?"

"Yeah what the hell. Weren't really gonna turn you away to fend for yourself. Its just the gun. You've gotta see why I can't let you have it, just on your word that you can shoot."

"Why not? You gave that idiot three." Jake scowled at her.

"Yeah but he's managed to kill some things with them, believe it or not."

"Well what do you want me to shoot?"

"What?"

"What do you want me to shoot? Name a target, I'll hit it, I get to keep the gun and you get someone else who can help defend this bunch."

"You mean that?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, keep it. But if you miss, or freeze up when we need you, then it'll be your ass."

Joanne smiled at him as he walked away, Jake shooting a final look at her before following Will. Joanne grinned and then once more sent her mind out to find people who might actually talk to her. The least hostile seemed to be two people sitting a little apart from everyone else, a couple. Joanne smiled, and went over to intrude on their private little world.

D'ran snorted loudly as he started hacking at the corpse of a newly killed lion, severing its head and carving chunks of hair and flesh off its skull. He didn't have time to make a proper trophy out of it, and it joined several bloody skulls with globs of tissue still attached hanging on his belt. The beast had fought well, but had been no challenge to him. Grunting impatiently as he stalked away from the beheaded body he wondered if Cth'ctchi had released the hard meat yet. That would be a real test of his strength and skill, yet he could hear none of their scrabbling claws or high pitched voices near by and he'd been searching for quite some time now. He wondered if he could find the Queen's chambers, as the ship's layout in the hunting zone had been changed so that even the Predators didn't know their surroundings. Would he be up to taking down a Queen? D'ran was proud, and so far undefeated in combat so naturally he assumed he was capable of it. Then he rejected the thought. Without the Queen the supply of warrior hard meat to fight would dry up. Better to leave her how she was for the present, yet eventually the hunt would draw to a close and then maybe he'd get his chance…
He strode down the endless corridors, his sensors picking up nothing new to fight with while he waited to cross paths with a xenomorph. He started to walk faster, they had to be somewhere! He had almost passed a corridor going off to the right when he heard a familiar laugh drifting from it. Cth'ctchi. D'ran snarled, was that cheating scum laughing at his inability to track down worthy prey? He went down the tunnel, towards the noise, and eventually came across his captain. D'ran was ready to drive his wrist blades through Cth'ctchi's face but without even looking around Cth'ctchi waved at him to stay still.

>I'm not laughing at you D'ran, although I'm sure you'll present me with an opportunity to do so later. I'm watching this unexpectedly entertaining fight.

D'ran put a clawed hand to his head as Cth'ctchi spoke directly into his mind, clearly to avoid disturbing what ever he was watching. It always hurt, but thankfully at the moment he felt only mild irritation with the communication. Cth'ctchi motioned D'ran to come beside him and see what he was watching.

>Amazing really. Who'd have thought face huggers could be defied by anything?

Despite himself, D'ran was intrigued at the scene before him. A massive reptile was hissing angrily at several of the parasites, which where nimbly dancing just out of range of its huge jaws.

"Where…" Cth'ctchi silenced D'ran with a single painful thought, and D'ran projected his words in his head to communicate even though he always felt ridiculous doing so.

>Where did that thing come from?

>The human's planet surprisingly enough. One of the recruits found it in the southern hemisphere of the globe, on a large island I believe. Apparently there are lots of them there, and this was the biggest he could find.

D'ran looked at the saltwater crocodile as it snapped at a leaping face hugger. The creature was crushed instantly and the reptile began shaking its head while making strange roaring sounds as the acid blood of the alien burned into its mouth. Its jaws and tongue where pitted and bleeding from the corrosive fluids of the many face huggers it had fought and killed, their remains scattered all around. D'ran looked at the reptile's mad eyes, burning yellow as it started hissing again.

>The face huggers cannot work out a way around its elongated mouth structure, especially with all those teeth around every edge, but that hasn't stopped them from trying. I honestly thought they could infect any beast but this one appears to have them stumped.

There was an almost admiring tone in Cth'ctchi's thoughts now as he watched the struggle yet D'ran knew he would not do the honourable thing and either drive the face huggers away or put the creature out of its misery. It had fought well and deserved a quick end yet their leader would never relent, its torment being far more amusing to him.

>Come D'ran. Let us leave them to it. Cth'ctchi told him as the Predator walked away. Gritting his teeth while trying not to think of Cth'ctchi's many shortcomings, D'ran followed.

>Are you looking for hard meat like every other Yautja on the ship? And after I went to all the trouble of getting such a range of exotic and dangerous creatures here all anyone is concerned about is them?

>The other beasts are entertaining my Elder, as you can see I have battled several of them. Yet the true test of a Yautja's skill has been and always will be with the xenomorphs. We all seek proof that we are honourable so that we can return to our society, so we all seek the hard meat, and the prestige their trophies bring.

Cth'ctchi nodded, for once agreeing with D'ran. He was not so lost in his own amusements or revenge plans that he'd forgotten the main purpose of this hunt. They both strode off down the corridor, away from the crocodile and aliens still fighting behind them.