Well here it is ladies and gentlemen, the latest chapter of Enemy of my Enemy hot off the press written today and as promised published today, so please do forgive me if it's a little raw and unpolished but writing and editing in one sitting is pretty taxing but I promised both myself and you guys that I would do just this and I always keep my promises, so here you go and let me know if it was worth the wait you guys, there's much more to come, so for the first time in a long time and fuck me it feels good to say this again, this is GhostNobody signing off and saying on with the show...
Chapter 10: On the run again.
The door bounced through the factory floor with a huge crash and metallic rattle as it took various bits of machinery out on its course to rest atop a large conveyor belt, Reaper looked down into the dust through his scope, slowly shapes began to appear as if being cautious which from what Reaper know of the creatures they most certainly were not.
Most likely they were trying to locate a target to pursue, which is exactly what they got as soon as Reaper got his first good look at what was emerging from the gloom, the large head of a Praetorian loomed out of the darkness taking shape, it stood up straight turning its giant head from side to side looking as if it was sniffing the air around it.
Reaper took slow deep breaths unlike Missy to his left who really sounded like she needed a fucking paper bag right about now as she was panting in short intense breaths, Reaper watched in horror as right behind the praetorian the shapes of multiple xenos loomed out of the dusty gloom.
"Oh shit" Reaper breathed softly,
"What are we going to do?" Missy breathed softly in her raspy young voice to his left,
"Only two choices I can see kiddo run or fight, or more accurately, fight then run because with that door open more of them are going to get in even if i somehow manage to kill this lot" Reaper breathed back, he knew their options we limited but running outright would be a poor plan thanks to the fact that these creatures could stick to the walls like they had glue on their feet, so no matter which door they went out of the fuckers would just follow them.
So with a slow expulsion of a held breath Reaper very gently squeezed the trigger of the P.I.M.P and it released its signature high pitched squeak pop noise sending a high velocity shot of heavy plasma traveling at incredible speed straight the top of the pretarian's head and exiting as near as damn it through his arse hold and all the while leaving as handy dandy plasma trail right back to the very tip of Reapers weapon, which in effect was the only true down side to using plasma weapons compared to regular ballistic weapons, but the damage pay off was way with it.
As one the collected Xenos all turned to look at the their large comrade as he crumpled into a large heap with a rather obvious and accusing smoking hole drilled through the top of his skull not to mention a second smoking anus under his tail, all of them as one turned to look into the rafters at Reaper and Missy.
"Oh shit now you've done it!" Missy exclaimed, Reaper flicked the P.I.M.P in to assault mode and without wasting a single second he began firing in to the crowd that had gathered through the blown blast door, firing in semi auto to keep his shots on target, as round after round stuck home more and more Xeno blood began to eat into the various machines and super structures around the factory floor, Reaper was using the speed his augmentations allowed his to it's fullest potential as the Xeno's began to climb the support struts that their platform rested on, not to mention the walls of the building itself, while he was trying for kill shots for those that were climbing response shots did just as well and blowing them off the struts and the walls making them fall and wipe out their comrades directly below them.
But for every one that Reaper killed two more replaced it, the pair of them were slowly backing up towards the entry area where the rails came into the factory, "Better get packed in a real fucking hurry kiddo! Something tells me were going house hunting in a real fucking hurry real fucking soon!" Reaper yelled over his shoulder as he spun on the spot shooting Xeno after Xeno down, suddenly the ground beneath their feet shook and seemed to drop a couple of inches bouncing them like they were on a giant diving board, Reaper lost his footing and bounced forwards rolling forwards before trying to stop the slide on his arse, Missy thanks to her feline reflexes faired better, she looked at Reaper with a look of fear and shock written across her face, "Go now!" Reaper yelled and Missy took of at a run towards her bed area.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"How can that human be so infuriating and enticing all at the same time!?" Macha growled kicking a metallic bin that was innocently sat on the platform, and now found itself flying through the air with a rather large claw shaped foot print in its metallic arse before landing atop a wandering animal human with a lot metallic bong like a large bell stuck with a hammer.
The animal human landed on its back with a bang it's top half now wedged inside of the bin and as she watched it slowly and serenely rolled away like and over turned barrel, she huffed at it and then looked at her now very slight sore foot, grumbling to herself about being stupid, but it gave a mild sense of satisfaction.
She began to have slow flashes of his mind and the truly mind bending pain that the confusingly alluring human had suffered, she couldn't help bet let her mind back to Tyler and it opened a dreamy smile across her face before they returned to Aiden and her smile vanished, he was just so incredibly confusing! On one hand just like her Tyler he was kind and compassionate and caring, but devilishly smart and cunning like a true predator, always thinking and planning and scheming.
Like her Tyler his aesthetic looks were utterly sublime, simply looking at her brought warm feelings to her chest and send flurries of tingles scurrying up and down her spine and through her entire body, but unlike her Tyler he knew pain and suffering and strife, his memories of losing his arm and his eye flashed through her mind making her tail switch and twitch as she tried to chase them out, that's when it his her like a lighting bolt to the chest, they were the same he and her!
Both of them knew struggle, knew pain, knew the darkness of the loneliness like she did, they were the same, but what did that mean really? But then in the same thought what was the chances of finding two beautiful humans on this world?
This line of thought frustrated her all over again but this time she was fresh out of bins to kick, growling she looked around the platform she noticed what appeared to be the lid of the bin she'd kicked and stamping on it it flipped into the air spinning on its axis, deftly catching it she spun on her own axis and threw it like a frisbee.
The large metallic lid arced through the air like a aa giant metallic frisbee as it spun gracefully down towards where the animal human wearing his new homemade bin armor was wandering around blindly bumping into various objects generating enough noise for for others to join him on his tour now he had stopped rolling and managed to get up, with a dull wet thwack noise a female animal human was hit directly at the knee on her left leg, Infact she had just enough time to actually look down at where her leg had been moments before and where was now a few feet away before she promptly collapsed face first into the ground before promptly crawling over to her now severed leg, retrieving it and promptly began to eat it.
Macha watched this and promptly felt rather sick, but her next thought was interrupted by a deep boom from behind her, she whipped around so fact she saw her own tail arcing around and she looked at the place she'd been staying with Missy, for a moment she held her breath as she tried to tune her sensitive hearing past the ambient growls and moans of the animal humans wandering around along with the other races that were among them adding their own unique voices to the symphony of death surrounding her, but that's when two very very distinct noises pierced through it, the screeches of her people and gun shots.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!" Reaper yelled as he ran with Missy towards the exit onto the hover rails, "They're following us!" Missy yelled as Reaper shoved her ahead of him so that he could protect her from the rapidly climbing Xeno's, "Is there a door?" Reaper yelled, Missy pointed to a large valve handle, "There!" she yelled, Reaper ran to it,
"Go! Run! I'll catch up!" Reaper yelled over his shoulder,
"I'm not leaving you!" Missy yelled back her voice filled with an odd mixture of fear and determination, he really didn't have time to argue with the youngster so slinging his rifle over his shoulder on its sling he gabbed the handle and began to strain to crank it, even with his enhanced strength it was quite a challenge to get the rusted and damaged system to cycle but eventually and with a fair bit of swearing in both English and a few more choice Yaujta curses that Inferno had taught him the door cycled.
It was only two feet off the ground when the first Xenos arrived and Reaper struggled to hold his nerve as a flurry of clawed hands appeared under door and tried desperately to to grab or swipe at him, some where so close he could literally feel the air from their long claws as they narrowly missed his body and some his face, not a single one of them actually pulled their arms out as the huge metal door slammed down crushing the grasping their arms under ther incredibly heavy metal, thats when the smoke began to rise from the blood liberated from the Xenos.
A loud crash behind them made them both jump and spin Reaper flicking up his rifle as he did so only to find Macha standing swishing her tail, "Don't point that thing at me human" she growled angrily,
"Well don't fucking sneak up on me then!" Reaper yelled back, she hissed and swished her tail angrily, "Stop it!" Missy yelled and they both looked at her in surprise,
"We don't have time to argue! We have to get out of here!" Missy yelled, Reaper sighed and nodded as he looked at Macha, "She's right that door won't hold them for long especially when they discover the joy of windows" he said pointing up at the glass far above their heads at the top of the building, "But they are my people!" Macha yelled,
"Not right now their not, right now i get the distinct feeling that they'd kill you as soon as look at you the same as they would us, I saw a ton of them down in the sewers and in the subway and they were not right, what ever has infected them has turned them into mindless killing machines, look i know a lot of humans think that your people are nothing but killing machines anyway, but trust me when i say i am not one of them, I believe it or not respect your people and what they are capable of, these are not regular Xenos" Reaper said.
Macha looked at Missy while searching the memories she''d gotten from him when she was walking through his mind, Missy nodded, "They're like the animal people Macha!" Missy said bouncing up and down on the spot obviously very anxious to get as far away from the Xeno factory as quickly as possible, a sentiment that Reaper shared.
"We need a back up plan and we need to get out of the open, plus i need to find a way to recontact my squad" Reaper said as they ran along the rails, Missy was riding on Macha's back like a small furry jockey wearing a bouncing backpack with what looked like a small teddy bear strapped to the rear of if as Macha slowed her pace to allow Reaper to keep up, he was in no doubt that if she wanted to lose him he had absolutely zero chance of keeping up with her, he'd seen Xeno's running at full clip and boy could they burn ass when they wanted to ans he couln't doubt that a queen in her obvious healthy form could seriously cover some distance, as she walked along on all fours looking a bit strange as it was obvious that as a hybrid queen she was more adapted to moving as a biped, plus it made her look kinda funny with her shapely rear stuck in the air as she flexed her tightly wound thigh muscles.
The Yaujta DNA in her showed proudly in her make up and it made her look vastly different from her brothers and sisters, gone were the small chest arms that he was so used to seeing and always reminding him of TRex arms. Instead a smooth looking carapace and what looked to be Yaujta sized breast swells took their place.
Infact Reaper really couln't help but admire the body that genetics had gifted the mighty female, the perfect blend of Yaujta and Xenomorph DNA rolled into one, but it was her face that surprised him the most, it was the fact that unlike the majority of her race, she actually had eyes.
They were bright and intelligent despite being dark in color, he noticed that constantly during the run she had glanced at him repeatedly almost like she had questions she was dying to ask and that more than anything intrigued him, she had walked in his mind and seen his memories as he'd found out from Missy and he begun to wonder just how much she'd seen and what she'd discovered about him.
Missy's young voice snapped him out of the thought patten that found him rather much to his embarassment staring at her rear end as she jogged along on all fours swishing her long majestic and supremely deadly tail as she moved.
"I know a place, i used to use it before i moved to the factory, if we can reach it before dark it should be safe enough, i only left it because the factory was better, but it is ummmm smaller than the factory" she said, Reaper nodded, he really needed to sit still for a few real moments, he'd been moving or unconsious or having encounters with frigging zombie Xeno's and now talking hybrid Xeno queen's with nice bums since his pod had hit the atmosphere, he'd barely had chance to fucking fart let alone get his head wired on straight and formulate a working an operational plan, not to mention his team were most likely at this very moment scouring the very city for him.
"Right now I'd take a fucking Pulowski shelter over being on the street" Reaper said, Macha seemed to be confused,
"What's a Pulowski?" she asked drawing the name out as she tried to say it right into their minds,
"A credit operated public toilet, those things smell nasty, when all this first happened I opened one or two of them i found around the place in the hope that I might find someone alive, all I found were a collection of lunch boxes for some reason and not even useful ones and someone seemed to have pissed on every single one of them" Missy said with a hard note of disgust in her voice.
Macha looked confused, "I"ll second that" Reaper said nodding,
"Your species are strange, mine would never urinate inside out own hives" Macha said proudly,
"Must be fun looking for a toilet in your home then" Reaper said,
"We have great fortitude" she said,
"No one's that strong when they really need to go" Missy said,
"We are" Macha replied smugly looking at Reaper as she said it,
"Hmmmm we'll see the next time your busting for the toilet and your stuck unable to go" Missy said,
"Five credits says she pisses on a laid out newspaper like a dog actually now that the point is raised, is she house trained Missy?" Reaper said trying to make the tone of his voice playful, he really didn't want to upset the rather big Xeno but he for some reason flt the need to tease her, that's went a really strange thought swam through his mind lazily like a big silver fish, was this how Spike felt around Inferno? He saw this big obviously powerful and for the life of his he couldn't explain this next part but dare he mentally voice it anyway, beautiful female and he felt an odd need to tease the shit out of her like he just needed to get rise out of her to get her attention onto him.
That's suddenly when the fish of thought made a swish, holy shit did Spike fancy Inferno!? Note to self ask him next time he saw him then proceed to tease him mercilessly.
Macha looked utterly mortified at that point and so did Missy until she realized that by the look on the Reapers face that he was joking, a smile crossed over her face, "Nah didn't have to do much though she did look like she was going to paw at the door a few times" Missy said playfully and Macha's mandibles dropped open at the insinuation, "I am not a dog!" she yelled,
"Oh come on girl don't be sulky, you want a treat?" Reaper said and she snarled at him,
"By the way you enjoyed her kiss I'd say she was the one who gave you a treat" Missy said and now it was Reaper's turn to blush and Macha's mandibles cracked into a wide smile as she realized what was going on, she realized that they weren't being serious but teasing her,
"He would have to prove himself worthy of the treats that I am capable of offering!" she growled which caused Reaper to flush an even deeper shade of red, Jesus she should be able to handle this kind of ribbing given what he put up with every single day, like the time Spike reprogrammed his active camo unit while he and Inferno were doing a stealth training mission to not hide him but to project an image of his naked body wearing a very small posing pouch onto the outside of his armour and his visor to make him think he was indeed cloaked, took him twenty minutes of Inferno staring at him like a starving woman staring at a T bone steak through a restaurant window to the point of nearly licking the glass for him to figure out what had been done.
He got his revenge by filling oxygen processing unit to output a safe but very fun amount of helium into his atmosphere while he was out on a space walk, Spike as Micky Mouse had been great.
"You'd be surprised what I can handle big girl" he responded somewhat snottily, Macha grinned through her mandibles, she seemed to actually be enjoying this exchange with him and God he'd never imagined not only having a conversation with a Xeno but fucking flirting with one, how the hell did that happen exactly?
"Oh having walked through your mind somewhat I think i have a good idea" she said smugly, that made him balk, the though of having one of his own race wandering around in his memories would have sent a chill down his spine but having this unusual Xeno queen doing it was both scary and fascinating all at once.
"Hmmph you had to bring that up didn't you?" he said grumpily and she smiled but there was something unsure in the smile, like she could sense the actual hurt in his voice that she'd seen some of his private moments and it made it worse the fact that he didn't know exactly haw much and just what she'd seen.
"Come on we've got some ground to cover to get where we're going, it's more towards the middle of the city and we'll have to be on out guard because the ground is swarming with crazies down there" Missy said, Reaper nodded and so did Macha and together the all picked up the pace and began to jog faster along the rails.
000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
"Holy shit! Inferno look here!" Spike called from his temporary work station, which was basically an upturned barrel inside the basement of the security substation that they'd broken into, with the power off they'd gone down into the basement where the emergency power systems were located and while she stood guard making sure nothing followed them into the small innocuous building while he worked.
She loomed over his shoulder and looked at the holo screen he was operating with the mess of connectors and shunts that he was using to power up and temporarily run the city's cctv system, but with the sheer amount of cameras located though out the city the power drain on both the emergency system's remaining power and the self charging solar cells which ummm didn't exactly self charge in a dark basement but would give them a few extra minutes of work, a few extra minutes that Spike had apparently put to very good use.
"That's him! That's Reaper! And holy shit is that a Yaujta Xeno queen with him!? And is that a Felenis riding her?" Spike exclaimed as he tried to use the camera to track the small figures he's located from a camera overlooking the rail system.
Inferno clicked her mandibles in both confusion and surprise at what she was seeing but it was indeed Reaper and he did appear to be traveling with a Xeno queen and a Felenis girl was riding her like a jockey wearing a pack, "Where is this?" she asked, Spike began pressing keys rapidly, "Not far from here actually about five miles as the crow flies and they seem to be heading towards the centre of the city" he said, she clicked her mandibles with both curiosity and more than a little relief, Reaper was alive and the happiness that swelled in her heart was mind bending, but where had that Xeno queen come from and what was going on around here?"
Suddenly the holo screen that Spike was looking at when black and she swore, "Fuck the power's out, well that's all he wrote girl so what's next? We chasing them?" he asked and Inferno growled,
"Of course we are, Reaper is probably looking for a highly fortified building in the hope that we are there, if we move now we can catch up to him" she said,
Spike nodded knowingly, "Gonna take me a bit of time to unplug this lot" he said, she nodded,
"Be quick about it I wish to move out as soon as possible" she said,
"Getting Reaper withdrawals eh girl? Just when we catch up to him try not to go all anime schoolgirl on him and jump on his and hug him to death, I'm sure your hugs could actually kill someone" he said with a grin that swiftly faded as she cuffed him over the back of the head with a satisfying thwok noise,
"Owwww what the hell!?" he moaned,
"Your wasting time and I shall do that every five minutes untill we are moving, now I'm going to contact the team" she said,
"Yeah you go do that" he grumbled both rubbing his head and pulling wires from the console at the same time,
"This is Inferno to all call signs, we have confirmation that Reaper is alive, I repeat we have confirmation that Reaper is alive, he is about five clicks due west of our current position moving along the rail system, he appears to be traveling with a civilian Felenis and what appears to be either a captive or tame Xeno morph we will move to intercept, Inferno out" she said before received a set of agreements, then she turn and twatted Spike over the back of the head again,
"Owww what the fuck was that for!?" he exclaimed,
"Your not moving fast enough and I am eager to leave" she said,
"Jesus your more violent than any anime male protagenist's love interest I can tell you that" he grumbled,
"I am not a cartoon ooman schoolgirl!" she growled,
"Keep twatting me over the head like that and I'll reprogram your armor's cloak and you'll be giving Reaper your best ecchi panty shot before you know it, just do me a favor and try not to fall down any stairs and somehow wind up sitting on his face, he won't get chance to enjoy the view before you crush him to death" he said, Inferno clicked her mandibles in annoyance knowing that with his skills he was only partly joking about doing it, he'd done worse already,
"What the pauk is an ecchi?" she asked as he carried on pulling wires and packing this away at rapid pace, he smiled to himself while his hands never stopped moving, "One cannot be told what thee ecchi is, one must experience it for themselves and no offence I really don't think your woman enough to experience it yet" he said, Inferno snarled in annoyance, how dare he question her femininity,
"I am more than enough woman to experience this ecchi what ever it is!" she snarled and Spike grinned to himself,
"Oh I am so totally going to hold you to that statement and just to prove it I recored that" he said, suddenly Inferno had a bit of a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, he was way to smug and that worried her, whatever if it was a bad thing she'd make him pay for it later on, right now they had to concentrate on getting to Reaper before they lost him to the depth of the city, she had to see him again, she just had to, but the question was, could they reach them before he vanished off the grid yet again?