Disce quasi semper victurus vive quasi cras moriturus

"Show me where you hunt", the Elder had said once they'd left the building the hosts had died in, so she did - both where she had hunted, and the places she'd watched and planned to hunt in later. Some of the buildings she'd hunted in a long time ago were back in use, but the ones from more recent hunts were still deserted. Security was tight in the places in use, and they didn't bother entering those – this was a scouting mission, there was no point in alerting the prey.

The more time she spent around the two Yautja, the easier she found her mind slipping into the headspace of a hunter. She found herself considering most everything as being prey, but she knew it still wasn't in the way she had feared. Marisa's faith in her maintaining her sense of humanity seemed to be justified so far.

They were ostensibly searching for any trace of kainde amedha in the buildings they were able to enter, trying to see if there really was a connection between the hard meat and the drug stashes. They'd found traces of kainde amedha in two of the abandoned sites, mostly the viscous slime the hard meat seemed to leave everywhere, but no sign of the aliens themselves. She began to doubt her theory as they came up with little result again and again.

At the same time, the Elder required her to explain her hunting of each place they visited, even going so far as to make her give the two Yautja a walk-through of her actions in the still-abandoned locations. She'd been completely open about her methods, even going so far as to mention the mistakes she had made, and how she had corrected them. She knew that she was still "on probation" in a sense with the Elder – yes, it had seen her fight two kainde amedha that first night, but it was placing a lot of trust in a pyode amedha and wanted to be confident in her abilities.

It was only when the both the Elder and the hunter started offering critiques of her methods, suggesting ways she could have done some things more effectively, that she realized that they were in a sense also training her, by sharing their own considerable experience and skills with her freely.

For the two Yautja, learning about how this human had been trained and how she hunted was giving them a new-found, if still grudging, respect for her. At times, both of them could easily forget that this was a pyode amedha they were traveling with. She had a quiet assurance about her that belied both her species and her age, and her willingness to admit her errors and listen to their comments was so unlike any young blood that they were beginning to enjoy her presence.

The more the hunter watched this human, the more it understood the Elder's wisdom in inviting her to hunt the kainde amedha with them. She would be a good addition to the hunting party, and it was beginning to see that hunting this human could be a worthwhile challenge indeed. Wryly, it was reasonably sure at this stage that this 'mere' human, prey, would easily acquit herself better in the coming hunt than that impulsive unblooded Yautja it had argued with on the ship.

As daylight began to break, the Elder took note of her condition. She had become quieter, and exhaustion was beginning to set in. It remembered that she was still recovering from her injuries, her limp had returned and was more pronounced as time went on. As they finished examining the eighth building of the night, the Elder crouched down, and as the human and the hunter joined it, the Elder looked at her.

"We shall stop now. You're tired and need more time to rest. Go back to your nest, sleep. Be prepared to hunt again at dark." She was tempted to argue but knew that the Elder was right. For the past hour her legs had felt like jelly, and her calf felt like the kainde amedha was sticking its claws into it all over again. The Elder looked to the hunter then.

"Escort her to her nest, then return to the ship. Make sure her equipment is safeguarded." The hunter growled in assent, but she looked to the Elder sharply. "Your storage is inadequate, young blood. It would be easy for someone to compromise it." It tapped at the armor shield covering her computer. "Some things should not be allowed to others." She nodded in understanding. Standing again, they left the building and split up, the Elder returning directly to the ship, while she and the hunter made their way to her apartment.

-

She was so tired by the end of the journey that she had to stop twice on the fire escape to catch her breath, the hunter waiting impatiently for her. The early morning bustle of commuters and the beginning of rush hour were going to test its stealth skills on its way back to the ship, it wasn't happy with the delays.

As they entered through the balcony doors and turned off their cloaks, they were greeted by the sight of Marisa curled up on the couch, a mug of coffee in her hand, watching TV. She startled as they both wavered into sight, spilling the coffee a little, before grinning at her friend and standing.

"Coffee will be five minutes babydoll." Marisa stared at the hunter for a second. "Think it wants some too?" She stared in bemusement at her friend, then shook her head.

"I don't think it would appreciate it, hon. What are you doing here? I thought you'd have gone home by now!" Marisa grinned again, heading towards the kitchen area to hit the button on the coffee machine. She pulled down an empty mug from a cupboard, then stood waiting by the machine, looking at them both over the counter.

"I figured you'd need some coffee when you came home, babydoll. And there was nothing worth watching on TV, so ..." Marisa shrugged.

"If I am going to return to the ship in time to get any sleep before the hunt tonight, we should fix your equipment storage now", the hunter growled to her.

"Give me a few minutes hon, I need to get changed into something less ... metal." As she led the hunter to the bedroom, Marisa laughed from behind them.

"Don't be too noisy!" She groaned, turning and sticking her tongue out at Marisa before remembering her friend couldn't see it. So much the better!

She opened the hidden closet for the hunter, and while she removed the weapons from her armor it examined the inside, and the drawer her armor was usually kept in. It reached into the sack it had brought from the ship and held up a box, about the size of a book.

"Say something." She looked at it.

"What would you like me to say?" It nodded before turning and pressing the box against the back wall of the closet. Her mask brought an almost inaudible beep to her ears, then a strange crunch noise. The hunter removed its claw, but the box stayed affixed to the wall. It turned back to her, stepping to one side.

"Remove your mask, then look at the device. It will shine a light in your eyes. Do not blink or look away until the light goes out." She nodded, reaching up to the side of her mask to disconnect it from the rest of her armor. As she pulled the mask away, breaking the pressure seal, the box emitted a beam of blue light right into her eyes. It felt like someone was shoving a spike through her eyes into her head, and she tried not to squint. After a few seconds, the light went out and she blinked away tears. The hunter growled and clicked something, and she quickly pressed her mask against her face again.

"The device is normally used to protect the ship of a solo hunter. If the door is opened, but it does not hear you speak, or it is not looked at to provide an optical scan, it will detonate." It said that so calmly it took her a few moments for the words to register.

"Detonate? How big a detonation?"

"It is designed to destroy a ship and leave no evidence. Approximately seven times the yield of the destruct device on your armor." As it was explaining the device, it was removing the rest of the objects from the sack that she had rejected earlier, placing them on the back wall of the closet.

"Why are you leaving those?" The hunter glanced across at the weapons she had removed and placed on the bed.

"A hunter should not specialize, it leads to predictability, and predictability is a sure way to fail when hunting pyode amedha. Not all weapons are suitable for all hunts. This gives you more choice in how you hunt", it explained patiently. She sat down on the bed and watched it finish placing everything in the closet, both the items it had brought from the ship as well as the weapons she had been carrying, before it turned to face her.

"Why did you say when hunting pyode amedha? I thought we were hunting hard meat?", she asked softly, looking at her newly enlarged arsenal. She had to admit, even the way it had arranged everything against the wall and the back of the door looked ... decorative, on display. She wasn't sure if it constituted a trophy vault, but it certainly was different from her own haphazard "if it fits, it goes there" method. It crouched down in front of her and looked directly into her eyes, hidden though they were behind her mask.

"Do you intend to stop hunting human bad bloods?" She looked across to the doorway, seeing for the first time that Marisa was stood there watching them.

"No", she replied, surprise evident in her voice. She hadn't even thought about 'after' the hunt. It growled with pleasure at her response.

"Then you need to learn how to hunt them better. Your skills are advanced, for a human, but still raw by the standards of Yautja." She nodded. The hunter reached up with a clawed hand and held her chin.

"The Elder has decided you are part of this hunt. That means you are held to the same standards as any other Yautja, for the moment. Be honored by that decision, but also be careful, young blood. You have gone some way to proving yourself capable tonight in my eyes, and the other blooded will respect my view and give you the opportunity to prove yourself to them. But there are those who disagree with the decision of the Elder." She tried to nod, but the hunter's grip held her head firmly.

"Why are you telling me this, hunter?"

"I am ----------, the Second for this hunt. It falls on me to ensure the hunters are prepared." She tried to figure out what the word was that didn't translate, but gave up, instead growling an assent. The hunter, purred in delight, she had answered almost in the Yautja language. "You hunt with us, therefore you are my responsibility as the others are." It grasped her chin tighter for a second. "Unless you wish to challenge me, of course." She snorted, and the hunter growled a laugh.

"Rest now young blood. Conserve your energy, we hunt again tonight." The Second released her chin, and she nodded. It stood, and Marisa had to step out of the way quickly as it left through the doorway. Without another word, it cloaked and was gone. Marisa turned to her friend, who was wearily releasing the catches on her armor.

"Ready for coffee now?"

-


-

"Miss McCullough?" She turned at the voice, but didn't recognize the speaker.

"Yes?"

"My employer would like to speak with you regarding a matter of mutual interest." The man was obsequious to the point of fawning. She was used to it, she had her share of people that were in awe of her being a TV reporter, but something about this 'fan' was setting alarm bells off in her mind already. She made to move to her car, but the man stepped closer.

"I'm sure your employer knows how to contact the network", she snapped, beginning to get irritated and a little scared.

"He does, yes. However he would like to speak with you directly, regarding a certain incident the night before last, involving a fire?" She started in surprise, and looked closer at the man. She could see the outlines of tattoos showing below the cuffs and above the neckline of the dark blue polo-necked sweater he wore, and irritation became totally replaced by fear. Although the man was in his late thirties, balding, and obviously a westerner, she was certain he was Yakuza, one of the three big organized crime groups that controlled the city.

"And your employer would be ...?", she left the question hanging.

"Offering you breakfast and a conversation" the man replied, deliberately misunderstanding the question. "He was very specific in his instruction to assure you that he places great store in your safety should you accept his offer."

She knew that could mean a lot of things. The Yakuza of the city were still operating under the 'old' traditions, and this guy's assurances could be taken as a safe conduct, a guarantee that this was simply a meeting. On the other hand, the assurance could also be also a threat that this man's 'employer' would place no value at all in her safety if she didn't accept.

The man stood there, smiling as she went over the options in her head. With a resigned sigh, she looked at him.

"Fine, are we taking your car or ..." She stopped as the man gestured politely towards a large black sedan parked at the curb. She shrugged, and as he held the back door open for her, she slid onto the leather rear seat. Despite her expectations, the man didn't follow her onto the back seat, instead getting into the car on the passenger side, the driver waiting patiently for the doors to be closed before gliding smoothly out into traffic.

"So where are we going for breakfast?" she asked, after a long silence. The man in the passenger seat turned to her and smiled again. That was really beginning to make her nervous.

"A small restaurant my employer owns, Miss McCullough. It is very close by. But I must first ask you to hand me your purse and jacket, and to promise you have no recording devices on your person." She was about to argue with him, as he continued. "I'm sure you understand my employer is a very private man, and would feel more able to speak candidly with you if there was no chance of you recording his voice, perhaps for later use."

In other words, whoever she was going to meet was probably about to threaten her. In the nicest possible way, she was sure. Without a word she handed over her purse and jacket, and at the man's request (order?) leaned forward in her seat so he could expertly and professionally pat her down. Once satisfied she wasn't carrying anything she shouldn't, he made a motion to the driver, and a few minutes later they pulled up outside a small Japanese restaurant, just off the main part of downtown.

The man opened her door and walked her into the restaurant, leading her past mostly empty tables until they reached one towards the back of the restaurant, currently only one person sat there. Standing with a smile, he sketched a bow to her, and she nodded curtly. She wasn't interested in his manners. Unperturbed, he stretched out an arm to indicate the seat across the table from him.

"Good morning, Miss McCullough, thank you for joining me for breakfast. Please, sit." The man who had brought her here had already withdrawn the chair from under the table, and she did as bidden. With a look to the seated Japanese, the man bowed and left silently. Nothing more was said between the two of them until they had ordered breakfast, she had no idea what half the menu was but was happy to see the restaurant also served western food, so she ordered an omelette. Witht hat out of the way, they looked at each other for several minutes, before he spoke.

"I believe that we may have something in common, Miss McCullough."

"Really? And what might that be, Mister ...?" He smiled tolerantly at her.

"We both seem to be having difficulties with monsters." Her jaw dropped.

"I ... I think that you must be mistaken. I have no idea about monsters", she stuttered, trying to regain her composure. "I thought that was something they only had in Japan", but the cheap barb didn't buy her any breathing space, or even seem to be noticed.

"I'm not sure, since I was born here, but that's not important, Miss McCullough." He picked up a knife from the table and started twirling it through his fingers. "I do know that you have encountered the same creature that has been causing my business ... enterprises, difficulties. I thought merely that we might share some information on the recent events in the city, and perhaps come up with some plan to ... deal with the problem?" Her eyes narrowed.

"Share what sort of information?"

"Information you might be able to use in your reporting, on the murders, perhaps? In exchange for your information on the creature that tried to kill you." She mulled it over, and he gave her time to do so. This wasn't something Wen could obtain through his more direct methods, the woman obviously had taste, and style, and was greatly offended by the attack upon her person. Ito was a master of finessing his 'marks', the victims of his scams, and he knew that he had her the moment he dangled the bait of information about the other attacks in front of her.

Their food arrived, but whilst he set about his daintily, she left her untouched, her mind thinking all the permutations and possibilities. This was obviously someone very high up in the Yakuza, to be offering such a deal, and the thoughts of the information she could get had visions of Pulitzers and much much more dancing behind her eyes. The question was, how could she get the information without giving away her ace about the attack the other night, the woman in black? However he had found out that she had been there and the ... thing ... had attacked her, chances were that he'd gotten a description of that, but had he heard anything about the other things, the black insect aliens? Maybe she could hold that back as well.

"They was big", she said, suddenly. He leaned forwards, listening intently, as she described it. "Eight, maybe nine feet tall, and bulky. Whatever they were, they were wearing some weird armor, like those knights in the movies."

"You say they. There was more than one creature?" She nodded.

"Two of them. We were watching through the drug flap in the wall. We got there after the gunfire started, almost ended up running over a pair of junkies that ran across the road. We looked in, and there was this thing standing there over the bodies in the room." She didn't elaborate that the bodies were not just of the dealers, but also of the the black aliens, and the woman in black. He nodded as she continued.

"It must have seen us, it roared and came barreling towards the window. I figured it was going to try to jump through the window, but it didn't bother, it just hit the wall and it collapsed, making one big monster sized hole. We were knocked over by bricks, and it tried to spear me." She didn't see any harm in playing up her own role in this. "It missed but hit the camera, I guess the spear it was using was electrified or something because it melted the camera electronics down and ruined the recording."

He tried not to let his frustration at that tidbit of information show. If the woman had only managed to save the recording ... ! Impassively, he motioned to her to continue, taking a sip of water as he did so. She matched his move, gulping down several mouthfuls before going on.

"We picked ourselves up, and looked inside the room, but nothing was alive as far as we could tell. So we went inside, and out of nowhere another one of the monsters appeared and roared right at us. We figured we were next to end up as sushi", she paused and blushed, considering her surroundings, "so we ran back out to the van. Next thing we know, there's an explosion, and red fireballs going off inside the room, and it came running out of the hole the other one made, and vanished."

"Did you see what direction it left in?" She shook her head vehemently.

"You don't get it, I mean it vanished, right in front of us. Disappeared into thin air!" She took a halting breath, realizing she was beginning to sound hysterical. With a visible effort she calmed herself down. "I'm sorry, I've never come that close to dying before." He nodded with concern, all the time trying to process the new information.

"You were very brave, Miss McCullough, both then and now. I'm sure that it must have been a difficult few minutes for you." He reached into a pocket inside his sports jacket and withdrew an envelope. She looked at the envelope, then at him. "Oh, please, be assured it is nothing as crass as a bribe. This is simply some information that I had prepared for you, should you be willing to share what you knew." She nodded, picking up the envelope. Without her purse she had nowhere to ... The man from earlier appeared by her side, her purse and coat in hand. She smiled up at him instinctively as she opened her purse to put the envelope away, but it froze on her lips as she looked into his eyes. Emotionless.

"My associate here will return you to your apartment, Miss McCullough. I am sure we will meet again, but if you should find out more about our mutual interest, please don't hesitate to give me a telephone call." He handed her a business card that had a phone number only printed on it, and she was walking towards the restaurant entrance before she bemusedly realized that the "interview" was over. She turned quickly, but of the Japanese man there was no sign, the table they had sat around empty and cleaned already. She allowed the westerner to guide her out the door and into the waiting car, replaying the conversation over in her mind to see if she had let slip anything she shouldn't have. Satisfied she'd not said anything untoward, she relaxed back into the car seat as it rolled smoothly back into the morning rush.

Both parties believed they came away the stronger from this meeting, but in reality they'd only shown each other a fraction of the information they thought they could offer, both of them playing their game, both trying to gain the upper hand. Practically, it had resulted in a draw, this time.

She was unaware that she would still be just a pawn in the game, however. The information Ito planned on giving her would be very damaging, but only to his associates. He was sure that the Yakuza would both be relatively unscathed at the end of this, as well as the sole dominating criminal organization in the city. And that position would likely be consolidated by having this reporter both in his debt and under his thumb.

-


-

She was tired already. It was taking longer than her instincts told her it should to produce each one, and the number of them that were viable was much smaller than was normal. She knew that she needed to work quickly to build up their numbers, they were losing almost as many as were born. She seethed as she thought of those creatures that had deprived her of her siblings and children. She wanted to hurt them, to destroy them.

But to do that she knew she needed to find more hosts, better ones than they had found to date, to allow the hive to grow stronger. She would need to widen the area they took hosts from, even though the hive was still small and weak - a risk but one she had little choice but to take. Detection was less of an issue, if they could find many hosts and grow quickly.

She sent the command to her children.

Find more hosts

-


-

It wasn't in the mood for another argument on its return to the ship, and was grateful when it reached the Elder's chamber without encountering the brash unblooded that had stopped it earlier. It wanted to make its report, and head back to its quarters for some sleep.

"Everything is secured?"

"Yes Elder. The human's friend was waiting for her when we arrived, but did not present any difficulties." The Elder nodded, purring in satisfaction.

"Good, she likely will need a friend." The Second waited while the Elder considered what to do next. It was surprised at the short bark of its orders.

"Train her." The Second cocked its head questioningly.

"I cannot rely completely on the remaining unblooded we have with us in this hunt. Even if she is pyode amedha, she has hunted hard meat before, and her experience may make the difference between success and failure." The Second nodded, it had been having similar concerns about the success of the hunt. It had expected the Elder to integrate this human hunter with the rest of the group in the hunt, but it hadn't expected to be formally instructed to train the female.

"And afterwards?"

"If she is worthy, then that will become clear. If she is not, she will not survive. We will address the future when it arrives. In the meantime, begin exposing the other blooded hunters to her, so they can make their own judgment of her abilities. When we hunt the queen I want this group to be able to operate as a group, not a collection."

"Yes, Elder. The unblooded will not be pleased, the one she chastised already is disrupting the group."

"Their happiness is not my concern. They will either learn, or die", was the growled response.

-


-

She woke up to the smell of heaven. At least that was her first reaction, but she couldn't be sure if that was the tail end of her dreams or just her stomach complaining. She realized that she hadn't eaten anything since the night before, and if the clock was any judge (it unfortunately always was), it was already late afternoon, and beginning to get dark outside. Woozily, she swung her legs over the edge of the bed and into the slippers she kept there, before making her way out into the living room.

"Morning sleepy head! Food's almost ready, your timing is great." Too grumpy to argue the point just yet, she shuffled over to the sofa and sat down, gingerly testing her wounds for strain.

"Marisa, why are you still here?" she asked, as her friend brought over a steaming cup of coffee. Marisa grinned at her.

"I figured you could use the company right about now." She shook her head.

"You're probably right, only ...", her voice trailed off.

"What, babydoll?"

"You're burning the bacon hon." Marisa let out an eep and sprinted back to the kitchen, pulling the frying pan off the stove top and fanning smoke away. She laughed, and leaned back, running her fingertips across the flexible surface of the regenerating gel coating her wounds. She looked up as a shadow passed over her to see Marisa watching her, compassion in her eyes.

"Do they still hurt?" She shook her head and Marisa nodded, bending down to put a plate piled high with slightly burned bacon, fried potatoes, eggs, and toast on the coffee table in front of her friend as she continued.

"A little, but nowhere near as bad as they should. As far as I can tell there's some sort of pain killer involved with it, just there's no such thing when you put the stuff in. Yautja naturally heal pretty fast, and their medical technology might be painful but it's damned effective." She took up the knife and fork and began attacking her breakfast avidly. "From what the Elder said, the stuff in the medical kit that was left for me was specifically created for use on humans, so I guess it's got a similar effect for me."

"Why do you look like that's two different sorts of the blue stuff?" She looked down and saw the top of her breasts were just visible above the neckline of her night shirt, the blue of the regeneration gel contrasting with the lighter blue of the fluid she'd used previously.

"There's two sorts. The lighter blue is from a liquid I used to seal my wounds the other night, it's from a standard Yautja medical kit under the bathroom sink. I only got this new kit the same night I got beaten up pretty bad and my leg got hurt." She grinned at Marisa with a glint in her eye. "You remember, that was the leg you grabbed and tried to put new holes in." Marisa blushed and laughed.

"This is what happens when you forget to tell your friend you've been out hunting aliens all night long."

"That's what you get for missing staff meetings." Both of them cracked up laughing at some unknown shared joke that was part of the exchange.

They swapped idle small talk as she finished her food, then she took a quick shower, trying to wash off some of the powdery blue substance that was flaking away from the healed patches of skin. As she left the bathroom to go to the bedroom to equip for the night, she watched for a second as Marisa cleaned up the kitchen and the dishes. She shook her head, thankful at having such a friend for all of her life, but she knew that Marisa needed to back away somewhat. She decided to leave it until she had equipped.

As she opened the door to the hidden closet, she blinked as a light hit her eyes. She remembered suddenly the bomb on the back wall, and for a panicked second thought she'd done something wrong when the light went out, and the device went dormant. She kicked herself mentally, she'd have to warn Marisa not to go peeking through this closet any time soon. In no time, she had her armor on, but waited to place the mask over her face and connect it until she had her talk with her friend. She walked back into the living room and stood at one end of the sofa, facing Marisa.

"Hon, you can't stay here." As Marisa's face fell, she reached out a hand and placed it on her shoulder, gently guiding Marisa to sit down on the end of the sofa. She looked into her friends eyes, deadly serious now. "It's not safe for you to be around Yautja." Marisa pouted.

"It's not exactly safe for you to be around them either, you know. In case you'd forgotten, one of them's planning on killing you."

"It's not planning on killing me, it's planning on hunting me. There's a difference. The whole idea is that it won't know for sure if it can kill me. I can just as easily end up killing it. But that's not the point hon. There are so many ways you can offend Yautja. Especially that you could." She smiled despite herself as Marisa tried unsuccessfully to look innocent. "Part of my training was how to behave around them, you're missing that training. If you annoy them, they'll kill you. It's that simple."

"Then you need to give me a crash course on how to not piss them off, babydoll." Something about how she said that made her friend turn to stare at her.

"Why?" Marisa pointed towards the balcony doors.

"Because it seems they've come early tonight." She turned back and saw the Second and a Yautja she didn't recognize standing there as they turned their cloaks off. The Second growled something, and she remembered she needed to put the mask on to be able to understand it. She fumbled the connectors, but was finally rewarded with the wash of cool air across her face as the pressure seal drew the mask to her skin, holding it tightly, and read the words as it repeated itself.

"We have found some kainde amedha. We hunt now."