Chapter 13:Hide and Seek.
"Jesus H Christ on a bike, did you fucking see that!? They're like a fucking river!" Spike exclaimed as he and Inferno watched the crazed Xenomorphs running down the rails ahead of them.
Inferno growled, watching intently, "I am not blind Spike, of course I see them," she said darkly.
He made a humph noise, "ok fine, don't need to bite my head off girl, I'm only saying, hey did they look right to you? I mean they look like Xeno's but they sure as shit don't act like them, I've never seen Xeno's move like that before," he said.
"Nor have I, I believe they are infected with what ever this is that's afflicting the populace here" she replied as they both watched the Xeno's vanish into the distance, Spike groaned deeply.
"Thats all we need, fucking zombie Xeno's! Could this shit get any fucking worse?" he moaned and Inferno growled darkly.
"It can always get worse," she said, standing up now that she was sure the Xeno's couldn't see them any longer, Spike joined her, both of them looking over at where the Xeno's had vanished.
"Well aren't you ever the bundle of joy," Spike moaned grimly, she snapped a look at the obviously frightened human male.
"I am a realist, and a Spirit, I expect the worst and I ready myself for it, you are a Spirit, you are Elite, the best of the best, somehow, but you should remember that they won't call us if the mission is easy, they call us if the mission is nearly impossible," she said, glaring at him, and he visibly seemed to shrink under her gaze.
"Yeah I know, but just once I'd like the mission to be to save the bikini clad girls from the planet Sexstarvius, we could swoop in and gallantly save them from a life of loneliness!" he said with actual hope in his voice and Inferno looked at him with both a pitying and withering look.
"You've been reading too many of those, what do you call them...fanfictions, yes this is the thing I seek, you've been reading to many of those again haven't you?" she said, looking accusingly at him and he balked and looked at her defiantly.
"You like punching things and I like reading things, especially if those things involve a planet full of hot alien babes in skimpy bikini's!" he declared in a surprisingly proud voice, she made a humph noise and raised an eyebrow under her hunting mask, despite the fact that he could not see she knew that he knew, he was surprisingly good at reading her body language, for an ooman.
"You would change your mind very quickly if it was a Yautja planet and they were Yautja females," she said darkly, and now it was his turn to raise an eyebrow.
"I fucking doubt it, a load of big ass Yautja girls dressed in skimpy bikini's all supporting a where's Spike look? Works for me!" he said, causing her to look at him in surprise, that had not been the answer she had been expecting him to give.
"You find Yaujta attractive?" she asked, and he gave her a wry smile.
"Big, strong, powerful, and whole lot of woman, sounds good to me, my kind are boring, who the hell wants a boring life? You don't get much more of a ten on the exotic scale than a fine Yaujta girl," he said, which actually made her chest swell with pride and hope, if he felt this way then maybe Reaper could too, but she couldn't resist needling him about it.
"Yautja females would eat you alive and still be hungry, not to mention she would squish you flat if you were somehow able to get her her to want you, skinny ooman," she said teasingly, he laughed out loud.
"Least I could die happy, what a way to go, screwed to death by a horny huntress, ohhhh, that sounds like a title for a fanfiction if I ever heard one, the horny huntress, I'm so writing that when we get back," he said, and now it was her turn to laugh, though more in surprise than anything else.
"Keep praying skinny ooman, who know's maybe Paya will take pity on you and maybe there is a huntress out there who is desperate enough to taste ooman that she would consider you worthy," she said and he grinned at her.
"Gee thanks, way to stoke a guys ego and fill him with confidence, but enough talking about yourself in the third person my ooman starved desperate huntress friend, I'm flattered and all but I have a rule, never date friends or comrades, it can get complicated, I want my own huntress thanks, now come along lets go find that wayward ooman of yours before he gets too far away, though do me a favor when you're reunited with him, don't do the whole slow motion run and hug and kiss thing yeah? It's real cliche, just, I don't know mix it up a bit, like grab his ass, sling him over your shoulder and drag him off to a broom closet or something," he said, making her flush bright red under mask, she threw a swat at him and missed as he ducked under it laughing the whole time.
"I was not talking about me scrawny fool ooman! Like I would ever claim you! I want my ooman to have meat on his bones and fire in his heart!" she yelled, and instantly Spike began clapping.
"Finaly! Finally I got you to say it! You're attracted to oomans, and in particular one ooman we all know and love, though some more than others, am I right?" he said.
Inferno was screwed, she'd messed up with her rage induced tongue slip, but before she could speak to try to come up with an excuse he spoke again, though this time he didn't poke fun, "It's alright big girl, nothing to be ashamed of, hell we all know you fancy the living shit out of Reaper, hell we've even got a pool going on when that dumb SOB is going to realise it and finally give it up to you, but don't lose hope there big girl, he likes you the same, as much as he tried to hide it he can't get one past ol' Spike, no sir, I see the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is looking, and hell haven't you ever noticed the way he smiles when the pair of you roll around on that mat when you do your whole unarmed combat slash mating ritual thing you both do?" he said, smiling at her.
Inferno's heart seemed to have begun doing gymnastics in her chest, "Y-Y-You know?" she exclaimed, and his smile widened.
"Hell yes, the pair of you are like teenagers, hell you both couldn't be more clueless if you were in a fucking anime, though who knows, maybe he'd like it if you dressed up as a Japanese school girl for him?" he said with a shit eating grin.
She growled darkly, "I am not a cartoon!" she snapped, and Spike laughed out loud again.
"Can't blame a guy for trying can you? But seriously you two are made for one another, you just have to be more confident with him, a little more aggressive so to speak, now I'm not saying force him or anything like that because I know you are not like that, hell me or any of the others wouldn't speak or work with you if you were, but stop hiding who you are and what you truly want, be proud of yourself big girl, you a proud, strong, powerful as all hell seriously badass huntress who is easy on the eyes, embrace that and move on, or you'll never be happy, now look, I know Reaper is a bit blind when it comes to the opposite sex or their attentions, ok well, rather a lot blind, but he's a good man and well worth the effort, you just have to be clear with him because if your waiting for him to make the first move you're going to be waiting a life time, so get your fine Yautja rear in gear and make a move on him," he said, and she just stood there, utterly dumb founded.
When Spike chose to have one of his mature moments he could really show just how incredibly intelligent and observant he was, with the way he acted half the time it was easy to forget the man had an IQ over two hundred, but when he opened up like this and showed the real him that wasn't cleverly masked under the facade of a buffoon and an idiot he truely was a wonder.
"D-D-Does everyone truely know that I am attracted to him? she asked, sounding uncomfortable, and he smiled while nodding.
"Yeah and half the team are wondering whether someone, most likely Tank as he's the only one strong enough, is going to have to bang your heads together or lock you both in the gym until you find a better use for the sparring mats, I even heard of a rather funny plot involving some Dumera root," he said, sounding rather wry and Inferno balked.
"D-D-Dumera root!? B-B-But that's a Yautja aphrodisiac!" she exclaimed and he grinned.
"Well yeah, that was the idea, let you two go and do a little sparring, the entire time you're in possession of a spiked water bottle, oooooh boy, something tells me you two would have been fighting for stakes, and oh boy would I not want to be on clean up duty in the gym that day," he said with a grin.
Inferno now felt incredibly uncomfortable but she was more shocked than anything else, she couldn't believe her attraction to Reaper was public knowledge among the team and that they were not only rooting for her but actually coming up with plans to get them together, but it actually made her feel so very happy, it made her feel like she had a chance to woo that beautiful ooman that she had longed for for so very very long, all the nights of sweet longing dreams of a life spent wrapped in ooman arms had never felt so real and so obtainable than it did right at this very moment, after being told by one of their very own that not only was she an attractive member of her race, capable of being admired and desired by their race, but that the one she loved felt the same way about her, but was just too nervous and fearful of rejection to risk their friendship by making a move on her to have it fall flat.
suddenly a swell of emotion rose up in her, creating a warm glow and a powerful rush deep within her soul and her heart, along with it rode determination, a powerful determination to get what she had longed for for so very long, she would make him hers, she would confess her heart's deepest secrets and she would make him see her as she deserved to be seen, as a woman, a powerful and strong woman.
She turned to Spike, "Come we have a lot of ground to cover and it is getting dark, while we have night vision it would be best not to be out after dark," she said and he nodded as they turned to move, then she stopped with her back to him, "Oh and Spike? Thank you," she said then began moving before he could respond.
Running the rails was easier than she'd thought, except for where the Xenos had been shot and their blood had melted holes in the rails and they had to be careful stepping over the holes but other than that they made pretty good time.
"They went this way," Inferno said, pointing towards a large round building with blue walls, Spike looked where she pointed and frowned slightly.
"Umm, how can you tell?" he asked, she pointed at the ground and then at the side of the building.
"The claw marks, the Xeno queen's claws are a fair bit bigger than their smaller cousins so they make more of a mark on the ground," she said, and Spike looked at where she pointed, nodding as he did.
"Ok yeah that make sense, though god only knows how Reaper got a Xeno queen to help him, only bloody Reaper could pull that off," he said, Inferno glanced at him.
"What do you mean?" she asked, he shrugged.
"Well, you know, getting some big powerful utterly alien girl to help him out, only Reaper could pull something like that off," he said, and Inferno growled to herself softly and with more than a twinge of jealousy in there, he was right, Reaper just had this way about him, this confidence and this utter vulnerability that drew you to him, made you want to help him achieve his ends, but also made you drop your guard around him, a thought of Reaper showing that big Xeno how very very thankful he was swam through her mind and Inferno growled menacingly as she chased it away, no one was going to steal her male! No paulking one! And definitely not some tail lifting Xeno queen!
Suddenly a soft laughter echoed though her mind like warm silk ticking her senses, she spun on the spot looking for the source, her casters coming online and spinning up, Spike instantly went on the defensive, bringing his weapon to his shoulder and spinning around, looking for a target.
"What? What you got?" he exclaimed, looking around.
"Didn't you hear that?" she exclaimed.
"Hear what?" he asked, looking about himself rather nervously.
"That laughter!" she said and Spike looked confused.
"What laughter?" he asked, and now she looked at him, her ire obvious.
"You don't hear that?" she asked and he shook his head.
"I don't hear anything except the wind and the moans of them lot below us," he said, pointing at the small crowd of undead below them, Inferno felt confused and looked around herself again, she grumbled but decided to shrug it off, must have been her imagination, maybe exhaustion was finally catching up with her, they had been on the run all day since landing, she guessed it was only natural that it would play tricks on her, they needed to get hunkered down and recoup themselves.
Spike's voice snapped her out of the space her mind had gone to, "ok, so if they went that way how do we follow them?" Spike asked, looking up at the sheer wall, now she smiled.
"We climb," she said, Spike looked at her gone off.
"Are you for fucking real!? That's a sheer smooth side! How the hell are we supposed to...Ahhh shit, you want to use the grav grappler's don't you?" he said, and she smiled under her mask.
"Well it's either that or we go down to the ground level and make our way up through the inside," she said, instantly causing Spike's face to brighten up.
"Yeah, I like that option better, I fucking hate heights," he said, making her growl.
"Youngling, and you said you'd like to be on a planet full of Yautja females, you have no hope," she said, he balked and looked at her funny.
"Don't see what one has to do with the other but fine, if it keeps my feet on the ground and not dangling by a magnetic fucking bungee line it works for me," he said, Inferno pointed at a gap opposite the rails close enough for them to jump to.
"We jump to there and make our way down," she said, making him nod enthusiastically, then, before she could say another word, he took a running leap and rolled into a standing position, covering her as she leapt over and used the roof to abseil down to the ground level.
They came down opposite a fairly large group of undead, they could see humans and Yautja as well as a few Scalathor and Felenis wandering around, Spike winced upon seeing a male Felenis who appeared to have had his tail chewed off right to his ass, even from this distance he could see the teeth marks in the man's flesh and he jumped when Inferno silently tapped him on the shoulder and pointed to the building.
Nodding, he followed her silently, moving slow and low to avoid detection, most militaries called the process duck walking, bending double and walking pretty much from the knees in a low crouch to be able to maximise any cover potential.
They reached a pair of large reinforced glass doors and they peered through the slightly smoked glass to the inside of the building, they could see a few undead milling about inside but nothing that they couldn't handle in Inferno's opinion.
"We need to be swift and silent," she said, and the look of grim determination on his face said that Spike was in the zone with her, he may be a bit of a limp wrist with some things but he was still a trained soldier and he had the very best training that he could have as a Spirit, and very very few passed their selection process, he nodded and opened the door as she drew her wrist blades, while his plasma weapon was pretty quiet hers wasn't, the dual plasma casters made a loud whiny pop as they fired but both possessed a much higher plasma charge than most plasma weapons up to Whisper's rifle, and rather than blow a hole through something they just tended to obliterate their target.
Inferno stepped inside first with Spike right behind her, he had his weapon in his shoulder, tracking the target nearest to him, a woman in a rather smart uniform marking her as more than likely a member of staff here, a big happy looking name tag announced that her name was Jenny, "Sorry Jenny, girl, hope you find peace," she heard him hiss in a barely audible voice before firing a single shot drilling a smoking hole straight through her left temple.
Even before Jenny's body had begun to fall the others in the room had already turned around, as quiet as Spike's weapon was it wasn't silent and the squeaky pop noise it made while nearly inaudible passed this wide open lobby, echoing across the entire area and being amplified by all the marble which was great at causing echoes, engaging her active camo she dashed forward with her wrist blades and lunged forwards with them extended towards a once very pretty female Felenis who caught both blades through her eye sockets before they burst through the back of her skull in a shower of dark goo.
Spinning and using the momentum to throw the now dead dead body off her blades she used her left hand to pull her modified smart disc from her belt and it flicked open, sending a targeting reticle to pop up in her mask's hud, as she turned on the spot various undead glowed green to show that they had been marked and when there were ten queued targets she threw the disc.
The lethal self guided frisbee spun away from her, cutting a swath as it homed in on its marked targets, thanks to it's upgraded targeting software it evaded Spike who it knew as friendly and spun around him in a large curving arc to take out three in a line behind him, at the same time she was moving forward, stabbing left and right with her wrist blades and her now extended hunting spear, the lethal forge double tipped war spear had been the last thing a great many people had seen, usually as it decloaked, buried through their chest while pinning them to an object.
It took only three minutes for them to clear the lobby, working like a well oiled machine, both covering each other's backs and moving together, thanks to Spike's upgraded hud he could see right through Yautja cloaking technology and to him she would appear lit up as blue to highlight the fact that she was cloaked, this did have the side effect of drawing the undead to him instead as he was now the only visible target.
But in that two minutes they took down roughly twenty of them scattered about, and from the noises they could hear there were more deeper inside the hotel they were inside of.
"Let's move, Reaper and his friends will be on the upper levels as they would have come in through the roof entrance," Spike said, and Inferno decloaked and nodded her agreement, he went to head for the stairs until she stopped him, "Do you have your auto assenter on you?" she asked, pulling her's from her belt to show him, he nodded.
"Yeah why?" he asked, and she pointed at the elevators.
"It will be quicker and a lot less painful to ascend that way rather than trying to fight our way up through either a crowded stairwell or floor by floor," she said, and he nodded, sighing as he did.
"Always with the climbing, what is it with Yautja and climbing stuff, I swear to god if you were on Earth you'd have been one of those people who actually climbed up the side of Everest to get to the Starbucks at the top rather than ride the grav lift," he said, shaking his head and Inferno laughed, he looked at her strangely, it was one of the few times he'd heard her laugh, "What?" he asked.
"Everest was a joke and the coffee was terrible," she said, and without another word she headed for the elevator banks to pry open one of the doors.
Once inside they pushed the doors closed behind them and they began to get their ascension gear ready, "Make sure you tie on your safety line," she said, but when there was no response she turned to find Spike standing motionless in the rather large elevator cab like time had just stopped for everyone but her.
She moved to his side and shook him but his body was solid as a rock and he didn't even twitch at her touch, "Spike! Spike can you hear me!?" she exclaimed, but his eyes didn't even flicker.
"He cannot hear you, I didn't know if it would work with one of his kind but I am rather glad it did as this is not a conversation for him, just for the two of us," a strange and silk smooth and almost smoky voice said from behind her, causing her to whirl so fast her dread locks whipped around her in an arc, but what she found caused her mandibles to drop open inside her mask.
Standing behind her was an exquisitely beautiful and powerful looking Yaujta huntress dressed in pure white armor and carrying a rather large spear, a huntress she knew incredibly well although they had never met, she'd heard every single tale of her, every Yautja had, for she was Paya, the goddess of the hunt.
Inferno dropped to her knees, "M-M-My lady! I-I-I am not worthy of this honor to look up on your presence!" Inferno cried in a panic laced voice, the rather young looking goddess laughed softly and striding forward in utterly silent steps she gripped her under her ams and lifted her to her feet as if she weighed nothing.
"Come now my beautiful daughter if I'd wanted you on your knees I would have demanded it, but I did not, so on your feet you shall be," she said, smiling at her with her elegant and gold decorated mandibles.
"M-M-My lady I..." Inferno began but Paya raised a hand to silence her and the goddess just smiled at her.
"I have come here on the request of a very good friend of mine, Macha, the goddess of fertility and love, now I know you have most likely never heard of her and that is to be expected as she is an ancient ooman celtic goddess, but that makes her no less important or real than myself, but I digress, you see, she came to me to request my help in defusing and enhancing a certain coming situation, but not just that but also to put to me a proposal most odd but also most fortunate, so let me kick this off with a question, do you love the ooman called Aiden?" she asked, making Inferno's mandibles fall open.
But lying to a goddess is neither wise or honorable so she just nodded silently, making the goddess smile, "Good, then this ties in with what I both sense from you and what your aura showed me at the merest mention of his name, oh how beautiful it is, swirling around you like a golden fire as it does him when I sneaked a peek at him earlier, I can see why you like him as he is very beautiful, damaged but beautiful, but I see a problem ahead of you child, and only two ways to solve it, both would test you greatly but only one of them results in you claiming your prize and flourishing under his love, the other leads to a dark path and one that not only poisons his love of you but of yourself," Paya said.
Inferno looked at the radiant goddess curiously with her head cocked before she suddenly had a thought and before she could stop herself she gave it voice, "The Xeno queen," she said in a barely audible whisper which made the goddess's smile widen even broader.
"Got it in one as oomans like to say, yes the Xeno queen, she too is in love with your Aiden and what's more, he is rapidly falling in love with her as well," Paya said, Inferno felt like she'd been punched in the guts.
"W-W-What!? He's falling in love with her! I-I-I'm going to rip her paulking tail off and feed it to her! That's my male! He's my male!" Inferno roared with a passion and a fury that few beings could match, causing Paya to tilt her head as she looked at her.
"Really? He is yours? So you have laid claim to him and he to you?" she asked quietly, which caused Inferno to balk.
"Well, no, not exactly, but I have loved him longer than any other!" she said, and Paya nodded in agreement.
"Yes you have my daughter, but you have done nothing about it and, before you say a word, yes I know why and I understand your hesitance and your fear, you did not want to loose his friendship on the off chance that you both may become something more, but this is not a claim and besides, answer me something, is he a free and powerful ooman warrior or is he a slave and property?" Paya asked.
This angered Inferno, the thought of Aiden in chains was utterly intolerable to her, "He is stong and he is free!" she exclaimed, and Paya nodded in agreement, smiling as she did.
"So he is free to choose then is he not?" she asked, and Inferno felt that gut punch again.
"Y-Yes he is, but I would fight for him! I cannot give up on my love for him so easily!" she said quietly but defiantly, making Paya smile.
"Yes you will, oh daughter of mine, and this is the nature of the problem," she said.
Inferno felt both betrayed and angry at that, "Y-Y-You wish me to give up on my love for him and allow her to take him from me?" she exclaimed, and Paya looked at her curiously.
"Did I say that to you?" she asked, and Inferno looked and felt confused, the goddess appeared to be talking in riddles.
"Well, no, not in so many words..." she began but Paya's look silenced her.
"Good, as I didn't believe that was what I said, it is possible to fight for your love without fighting physically, you can fight for your love by proving that you are willing to go further than you ever believed possible to not only catch him but to keep him, now answer me this, when going after large prey what do Yautja do?" she asked, and Inferno looked thoughtful.
"We work in pairs to...wait are you saying what I think you are saying my lady!?" Inferno exclaimed so loud the elevator cab echoed it back to her, and Paya just smiled innocently at her.
"I don't know, what do you believe that I am saying daughter?" she asked.
"That you want me to join forces with the Xeno queen in order for both of us to secure Aiden as a mate!" she exclaimed, which made Paya laugh.
"Got it in one daughter, you believe you and he would be strong and yes you would be, of this I have no doubt, but with her you will be even stronger, her love for him is pure, the same as yours, and she is no less worthy of his, but the pair of you as rivals has a very dark and unfortunate result, one of you will end up killing the other to secure the prize only to lose him because that act poisons his love and makes it so that he cannot love either of you, so the victor loses in the end, but if you truly want him you have but one option and one option only, you join forces with her, then you work together as a hunting team would and together you are able to not only secure him as your mate together but your life long partner, plus this approach has an unexpected benefit for both you and her as well, your love for one another," she said, making Inferno's mouth dry up and her mandibles fall open.
"M-M-Me!? Love another female!?" she exclaimed in utter shock and surprise, Paya smiled and then with a swiftness and grace only one of the divine could achieve she stepped forwards pulled her mask from her face and entwined her mandibles with hers locking them together as her tongue invaded her mouth, flooding it with a sweetness that made honey look like lemons.
Inferno stood there in utter shock, her muscles were frozen and her mind along with them, after a second the goddess released her and then her face lit with a radiant smile, "Now tell me, oh daughter of mine, was that revolting? Disgusting? Awful?" she asked softly, and Inferno shook her head.
"N-No," was all she managed to stammer in shock.
"Then it is as I thought, you have the capacity to love a woman, but not just any woman, one woman and one woman only, her," Paya said with a wry smile, Inferno was at a loss for words, a sense of utter shock had descended over her.
"Listen my daughter, and listen well, I know that this is not what you envisioned but his is what it is, now the rest is up to you, if you truely believe that Aiden is your future and that he is all that you truely desire then you must make the sacrifice, prove that you are worthy of his love by paving the way for another to love him as well and in return she will do the same for you, then together you will ensnare and subdue your prey as a team of mighty huntresses and your prey will love you both with a fire and a passion that you can scarcely imagine, not only for him but for one another too, and together the three of you will forge a love the likes of which has never graced this universe before, strong, proud, passionate and beautiful, truely radiant, tell me daughter is that what you wish to have?" she said.
Inferno stared at the radiant goddess with eyes that were misted and full of wonder, "Yes! Yes that's what I want!" she cried, her voice quavering with raw emotion, and Paya nodded approvingly.
"Good, I'm glad, then you know what you have to do, sometimes your greatest rival is not your enemy but your ally in disguise, prove yourself to her and your intentions and then together hunt that ooman hard! And win, my daughter, show the universe the pride of the Yaujta," she said.
"I will my lady, I swear it to you!" Inferno said, and Paya smiled brightly.
"Good, good hunting, my daughter," she said, and with a whoosh of invisible wind, she was gone and time restarted again like she had never been.
Spike looked up at her curiously, "What?" he asked, thinking she was looking at him, she simply smiled at him and placed her mask back on.
"Nothing, now come along, I have a partner to find and an ooman to hunt," she said, reaching up and levering the escape hatch open above their heads.
"Ummm, yeah sure, what ever that means," Spike said, and with that they climbed into the narrow space above, hooking themselves to the lines and beginning their motorized ascent.