RESCUED (8)

Despite how badly outmatched she was, the female did not run. She fought with everything she had against her attackers. Mei-ab'we wasn't sure why the female didn't escape. Perhaps she didn't want to. He wasn't sure whether that was brave or stupid, but he had to give her credit, she had spirit.

Unfortunately, she wasn't rewarded for her valor. Mei-ab'we could not let them kill her though. He would dishonor her by saving her, but he needed her alive if he was to find the bad-blood.

The rogue appeared just as he was about to go to her aid. There was recognition in the female's terror. "Nightmare." he heard her say when she saw him. Mei-ab'we's hypothesis was correct. The ooman had seen the rogue before. Now he'd come back to claim his prey.

The rogue was distracted by three of the oomans who had tried to kill the female, but their attacks were pathetic. The female had tried to fight back, but even as strong as she was, she was no match for the bad blood.

As the bad blood closed in on his unconscious prey, Mei-ab'we made his move.

He drew his bow-caster and took aim. He preferred it over a plasma-caster. Ranged weapons were considered less ethical than edged weapons in his culture, but the bow caster was much more difficult to use than most other ranged weapons. It required skill to be utilized effectively. Mei-ab'we had to aim, rather than rely on a targeting system, and while the weapon didn't require a recharge like other energy weapons, it was also less powerful than a plasma-caster because of that. It also needed a steady supply of arrows. Due to these limitations and the great skill needed to use it, Mei-ab'we thought it was the most honorable weapon he had.

Mei-ab'we found his target and let the arrow soar. The energized projectile flew into the bad-blood's shoulder, discharging a small explosive blast upon impact. The rogue roared in pain, before tearing the arrow out. The Bad-blood shot a plasma charge in the direction the arrow had come from, but Mei-ab'we was already gone.

The Hunter rematerialized beside the rogue. He swiped at him with his fist, grazing the Bad-blood's mask with his claws. Mei-ab'we followed with a swift kick to the rogue's chest. The rogue fell to his knees. Mei-ab'we flexed his wrist, causing his wrist blades to deploy. Foolishly, he thought he was going to savor the kill. The Bad-blood laughed as he shot Mei-ab'we with a plasma blast. Mei-ab'we recovered quickly but the rogue had disappeared.

Suddenly, he was stabbed from behind. The rogue picked him up and threw him into the side wall. Mei-ab'we broke through the soft material and landed on his back. He quickly assessed the wound. The blades had gone deep, but the damage wasn't fatal. The rogue arched his back extended his arms outward and roared. Mei-ab'we accepted the criminal's challenge with a similar display.

Mei-ab'we charged first. The rogue side-stepped, causing Mei-ab'we to barrel into the wall, leaving a large hole. The rogue picked Mei-ab'we up and slammed him into another wall. Mei-ab'we retaliated by jabbing his elbow into the rogue's face. Mei-ab'we grabbed the dazed Hunter and threw him through another wall. As the bad blood got back to his feet he shot another plasma blast at Mei-ab'we. The shot hit its target and blew Mei-ab'we back, damaging his chest plate as it hit. The rogue continued to bombard Mei-ab'we with shots, but he reacted quickly, avoiding all of them.

Neither of them could see it, but the room was suddenly illuminated with light.

"Target sighted!" it was an ooman's voice, "Fire at will!"

The oomans began firing at the rogue. Their shots bounced harmlessly off the bad-blood's armor. The few shots that did connect broke skin, but his hide was too dense for them to do any real damage.

Mei-ab'we saw the oomans and began to retreat. They knew they were here somehow, and he could not risk revealing himself to them. He would need to finish this another day.

As Mei-ab'we made his escape, he looked down at the ooman female in front of him. She was still alive, but her wounds were too severe. Mei-ab'we thought to himself. He didn't know why he suddenly cared for this female. Perhaps it was because he thought she could be useful to him, or that he thought she didn't deserve to die such a slow and painful death. Either way, he knew he had to take her with him.

Mei-ab'we easily lifted the unconscious female over his shoulder. She was only a foot or so smaller than he was, yet strangely she was very light. He reactivated his cloak before charging towards the glass doorway, breaking through it. He leapt up to the building's outer stairway, before clawing up the wall to the safety of the building's rooftop. Despite his immense size and weight, his strength allowed him to pull off such amazing feats. From there, he and the ooman female disappeared into the night.

/

"Talk to me, Hollingsworth," Walker said as he exited the car.

"We found them, sir..." Hollingsworth began right before his superior cut him off.

"Them?" Walker exclaimed, "There's more than one?"

"Affirmative, sir. One of them got away before we could stop it. We tried to catch the other one too, but it got away as well," Hollingsworth said as he adjusted his glasses.

"Son-of-a-bitch!" Walker cursed, "Are there any casualties?"

"No, sir. We must have surprised them or something," Hollingsworth replied as the two walked into the building. The place was trashed, bodies lay everywhere, and it looked like war had broken out in the building, which it had. The civilians had already been evacuated, the place had been sectioned off, and was being inspected. As Walker glanced around he noticed that all of the bodies were Pit Vipers, and, aside from three of them, they had all simply been shot with a regular handgun. .45 ACP by the looks of it.

"What the hell happened in here?" Walker demanded.

"We have reports that shots were fired just before the creatures arrived, sir. Something must have gone down and it attracted their attention," Dallas said as he came up beside his superior. Walker looked around at the carnage in front of him. He was sceptical. He knew this wasn't just a regular hunt. Something wasn't right.

"Security cameras capture anything?" Walker asked.

"We haven't checked yet sir," Hollingsworth replied.

"Well, go look!" Walker told him impatiently.

"Right away, sir," Hollingsworth said obediently before running off.

"Did you get an ID on everyone in the building, Dallas?" Walker asked.

"Yes, sir," Dallas replied, handing him a clipboard full of names and IDs. One of them was highlighted. Lucy Ishikawa. "Some of the witnesses said they saw her being chased by Pit Vipers when the shots were reported," Dallas added.

"That explains the mess," Walker said. He wasn't surprised. "Where is she?"

"No sign of her yet, sir. We're still looking," Dallas replied.

"I want to see her as soon as you find her," Walker requested. "Has anything been salvaged from this fuck up?" Walked questioned.

"We didn't find very much here, sir, but we did find this," Dallas told him as he showed him the object they'd discovered. It was an arrow and a large one at that. The design of it was simple enough, its weight was balanced. Overall, it looked like a normal arrow, until Walker looked at the pointed tip. The thing was glowing, almost sparking. Walker touched it and a sharp pain shot up his body.

"Ouch!" Walker exclaimed as he dropped it, "Damn that's hot!" As Dallas carefully picked the object up, Walker regarded it for a moment. "Send it to the lab. I want it in the archive as soon as possible," he ordered.

Just as Dallas left, Hollingsworth returned. "Sir," he called for his superior's attention. "I got you the footage, but there's something else you need to see," Hollingsworth told him.

Hollingsworth led Walker over to the building adjacent to the apartment building. The sight was one they were becoming all too familiar with as they entered, one more appropriate for what they were dealing with. Skinned bodies strung up all over the place, heads and spines missing, half-eaten body parts, the works.

Hollingsworth gagged at the stench and the sight of flies landing on the skinned corpses.

"Shit," Walker exclaimed. "Party went on in here too," he murmured.

"Actually, sir, nothing happened in here," Hollingsworth told him, holding his nose.

"What?" Walker asked.

"Nothing happened in here, sir. No fighting, shooting, no nothing. Nobody in here was armed,"

Hollingsworth said.

Walker's eyes went wide when he heard that. "No fighting, no guns, no conflict? Half-eaten bodies?" he listed. This wasn't like any of the others. "What the hell are we up against?"