Authors notes: behold, the next installment of a hunter in waiting.
let it be known, our protagonist supports throwing, or slapping, their enemies into orbit, and they need to be held down if you want people alive.
A hunter in waiting
1.2
As we and Taylor entered the house, we looked around the house and saw that the house was... well we couldn't exactly see the interior of the house... because... no eyes.
But we attempted to observe the interior as best as we could. The one known as Taylor Hebert, guided us along the way, as she might have noticed our unique blindness through our connection. We did not resist to her pulling, as we didn't want to make her angry with us.
Then she guided us to sit down. And then she spoke to us.
"I'm going to get you something to eat, alright." Taylor then moved to the kitchen way before we could tell her that lek'golo do not eat the same things as humans do, for example, lek'golo diet mostly consists of iron... but we feel as though she wouldn't believe us.
As we were left to our own devices, we decided to get up and search the house, for any suitable technology or ingredients that could aid in the construction of the forerunner lek'golo translator. As we looked, we found a broken radio... and took it so we could dismantle it for parts. We do not remember if the Heberts had anything like this in the story, but we couldn't remember all the tiny details.
Then we found some Cd's, we didn't know if they were being used... so we just added them to the ingredient list. For all we knew, they could either be films or... other eccentric films... we didn't know is all.
We then found some glass, and for some reason the blueprint was requiring us to get it. So, we just grabbed it and added it to the pile of ingredients we had in our other arm.
Then we were in the basement, looking around... and then we found an audio recorder. 'Perfect, we have everything that's required. Now we shall return to the living room and craft the item as we wait for Taylor.' we thought to ourselves, unsure of whether if Taylor could read our private thoughts through the connection or not.
As we returned to the living room, we noticed that Taylor was still searching for something to feed us... 'Silly mother- did we just call her mother?' we asked ourselves, before dismantling the broken radio and audio recorder.
We did not question how a complex device created from the forerunners could be made from simple house appliances, for we linked it to tinker bull. If we were forerunner, we would be most definitely questioning and furious. We also had gotten some tape to work with, as tape can solve everyone's problems.
A piece of paper torn apart? Tape!
Relationship with your significant other falling apart? Tape!
The criminals are keep on breaking out of prison? Extra Tape!
Super villain on the loose and their spreading fire to the city? Tape can fix that!
A hole in the fabric of reality? Easy, tape can solve that problem.
A depressed eldritch abomination that is the source of all powers? ALL OF THE TAPE!
We don't know why everyone doesn't use it, it's very useful. If we had any other life experience other than the current moment, we would be using examples from our life. But alas, we do not remember.
Halfway through dismantling the audio recorder, we accidentally activated one of the recordings, and out came a voice... two voices. One sounded like Taylor's voice, but younger... the other we had no clue.
"Hey Taylor look at this, I found this in the basement! It would be a great addition to our game that we're playing!" the voice, sounded happy at the mention of the name of Taylor's name.
"What is it, Emma?" young Taylor asked... she was happier, we could tell.
'Emma... Emma... that's familiar...' we thought... what was that one tid-bit of information we were forgetting? It had to be something important, otherwise we wouldn't be recognizing the name.
"I think it's a voice recorder, we could use it to announce our cape names whenever we play pretend cape!" Emma proposed. That was kind of bright, but we were reusing this recorder sadly.
"That's brilliant, Emma!" young Taylor praised her. We started to wonder if these two were still friends... but we had an eerie feeling that something bad happened. As if... they don't like each other anymore. But they were friends, cooperating with each other to have fun, why would they have any reason to hate each other now?
Then, the recorder ended... and started to play another recording.
"So, what do you think of the name Taylor?" a different, female voice chimed in.
"That sounds like a great name for a baby girl, hon." a male voice responded... these were Taylor's parents... but earlier Taylor mentioned only her father earlier... what happened to her mom... we didn't remember exactly; everything has been foggy.
Then, a final recording played... and it was just Taylor's voice that spoke then and there... and she was the only voice in the recording... and she was crying.
"I... I'm hoping this will work... I heard putting this on a recorder so I can get it off my chest..." Taylor spoke into the recorder... crying... why was she crying? She sounded much older than that of the first recording, but why is she crying?
"So, when I came back from summer camp, and decided to see Emma... and when I got there... and she opened the door, there was another girl... and... and... she told me that she was only pitying me after mom's death... said that I was worthless and didn't want to be friends anymore... and when school started, Emma and that other girl, Sophia... they started to bully me for the kicks, I don't know..." she paused for a bit...
For some reason... the mention of a Sophia had... enraged us... and the betrayal of Emma... filled us... with a rage of a thousand suns. For whatever reason Emma had, it was not pity... but her being a... EEERRRAAA! A traitor to the core.
"The pranks... their cruel, I try and report them, but no one will investigate... no one will listen... no one will even step up for me. NOT EVEN GREG! And he stalks me!" Taylor spoke, with rage.
We held ourselves from crushing the recorder in our palm. That was getting close to pushing us off the edge, as we despised the thought of inaction, and the lack of justice... and hearing pain in the one called Taylor... is awakening primal anger within us...
"This has been going on after nearly two years... I've tried to tell the teachers, but they turn a blind eye, and even when they get punished, they just come up with something worse to torment me. The school just ignores me... so I've stopped trying to report them. My grades are suffering because the duo now newly minted trio keep on sabotaging every assignment of mine, as well as tests... I can't even get out of this hell hole of Winslow! I came to this school for Emma, and then she went on to betray me..." then the recording 'ended'...
I say that as we crushed the recorder... if we were in a cartoon, we would be steaming, turning red, and smoking all over... 'Oops... didn't mean to do that...' we commented.
This trio had already earned their free tickets to the atmosphere, and into orbit. It didn't matter if one of them were secretly working for the government as a member of the wards or whatever nonsense. Sophia, Emma and the third shall sent into an orbit with close proximity to the simurgh. And if that wasn't enough, then straight to the surface of the sun. We tolerate no traitors, for we are the Lek'golo...
'Hm... we should come up with a hunter sounding name... OOOH! How about Collaboration! Yes, that is a very hunter'y sounding name... oh... when did Taylor get here?' We thought, before noticing that Taylor was standing right there, with an... is that an apple in her hand.
"How much did you listen to that?" she asked, her stare growing darker... oh no... we crossed a line...
"Almost... everything... but... WE... will... help... you... WE... want... to... help... you." we told her, still sounding monotone, but Taylor had heard our rage in our connection with each other.
"Please don't... do anything. I can handle it on my own alright. I don't need a bunch of worms stomping into the school and killing them, alright?" she told me.
"We... promise... we... won't... kill... them... only... send... them... into... the... same... orbit... as... the... Simurgh... whoever... that... is..." we commented.
"NO SENDING THEM INTO ORBIT! ESPECIALLY THE SAME ONE AS THE SIMURGH!" she yelled at us.
"Fine... mother... only... broken... bones." we stated
"NO BROKEN BONES EITHER!" she yelled.
While she yelled, we also had finished the translator, using what was left of the recorder to add onto the translator. We then held it up to our face, or the head of worms. There was a glow from the piece of technology.
"What is that?" Taylor asked, with concern in her voice. Oh, we didn't tell her about what we were going to do.
"It... is... a... method... that... will... making... speaking... for... us... much... more... easy..." we informed her, before putting the piece of forerunner technology within the mass of worms that made us up.
The worms then got to work, as the technology moved into place, several worms attached to the translator and got to work with it.
Now with the translator in working order, it is time to say our first artificial words.
"Greetings, is this working? Ok... pee is stored in the-" before we could finish that sentence, Taylor interrupted us.
"Ok, that's enough... um... here, have an apple, I couldn't find something plentiful..." before Taylor could finish that sentence, we put an arm on her shoulder.
"Taylor... we don't need to eat an apple; we can just eat some metal... like iron... what other reason do you think that we are orange? Because we eat our carrots?" we questioned her.
Now that we realized it, we could quite possibly devour anything that the one villain called Kaiser could throw at us. And quite possibly even lung... We are not sure about that.
"... you could've told me." she complained.
"Taylor... you moved to the kitchen before we could even tell you about it... also an apple is only going to fill one worm... and we find it somewhat offensive." we told her.
"How would giving you an apple be offensi- ohhhhhhhhhhhh... I see... sorry." she apologized as she realized what I meant.
"NOW! We will need to construct eyes for ourselves, so we can fully appreciate the quite possibly beautiful house you brought me into!" we announced, pulling Taylor to our side and raising our arm to the sky. "We can just picture the flowers... right there." we commented.
"There's no flowers there." she commented.
"Hence the reason why we need to make eyes for ourselves." we told her, motioning to our worm head.
Now... we need to learn the local environment and gangs.
"Now, we need you, as a mother, to teach us the local things to avoid or beat up... oh and by the way, we have named ourselves." we spoke, with our nonexistent eyes staring into Taylor, as if we were staring into her soul.
"Ok, what did you name yourself?" she asked, sweating.
"Our new name is Collaboration! What do you think of it momma?" I asked her, like a toddler to their mother.
"It's a nice name... it sounds like a cape team name... also stop calling me your mom!" she complained.
"It's not our fault that you're the only mother figure we have had in the past few hours. Blame whatever made us lose our memories." we made a comeback.
Then we heard a door open... and a familiar male voice call out, the same male voice from the recorder. But his voice sounded older.
"Hey Taylor, I'm ho- what the fu-fudge is that thing?!" he yelled in confusion.
"Hello grandpa! How was work?" we greeted him.
Taylor then whispered to us, "First off, he's not your grandpa, second off, I didn't adopt you for the last time!"
"But mother? You found us and took us in. That smells like a good momma to me!" we nick picked at her.
She then proceeded to facepalm. "Dad, please don't call the protectorate and the PRT, please." she asked her father.
"Uhhhh... no, I'm going to have to call them. This is a case 53 that we're dealing with." our grandfather said.
"But dad-" but we cut her off.
"You can call them in the morning, though we will be gone by then. We will be on the lookout for resources to build ourselves some eyes. So, you will not have to worry about any protrusion onto the sanctity of your home, grandfather. It is already late, and they might send in one of the stubborn capes... they won't be cooperative with you." we stated, in order to convince the grandfather.
"... alright fine, in the morning, ok?" he agreed.
"We understand, grandfather. For tonight, we shall inhabit the basement for the night." we said as we turned around and headed to the basement.
"Don't you need dinner?" he asked.
"We can eat the scrap metal in the basement for you." we told him.
"Wait... wut?" he asked, confused as he didn't have the context.
"Due to their condition, they can eat metal." Taylor explained to her father.
Later...
As the momma and grandpa enjoyed their dinner, we were in the basement, producing more lek'golo worms. Sounds like an orgy, but if we just ignore it, it won't bother us to an extreme extent.
It wasn't a long process, but we developed only enough to get to the height of eight feet tall instead of six feet tall, we were close to the standard height that all hunter forms require in order for a bond brother to be produced.
Now we thought on what we plan on doing in the future... if we were to produce enough worms, we could make a mega-hunter. Hunters the size of behemoth, the first of the endbringers. But the question is, where would we produce the hunter?
Then it popped up in our head, under the city! We could place our bond brother underneath the city, order it to continue to produce the mega-hunter. And when Leviathan comes to the city, we shall unveil to the world, the mega-hunter that we produced.
And maybe even develop a covenant spaceship while we're at it as well as make a scarab.
Yes, very good... now... We sleep.
We proceed to call on our face and fall unconscious. Today was a good day.
Authors notes: and there we go, the second installment has been posted, give feedback, it is appreciated. and tell me what you think about the name Collaboration? I came up with it by looking at the two named hunter pairs, Colony and Myriad, and thought: 'Those names sound a bit villainy, but the names are centered around them being gestalt consciousness's, so why not something more creative for a good guy hunter.' and yes, our hunter boi is going to be a hero... but their gonna be edging between chaotic neutral to chaotic good.