Hey peeps GhostNobody stopping in to say a big thank you to those of you that checked out my new Podcast series, Radiance my new Fallout based fanfiction is now live with new chapters being uploaded each week, so if humans on sexy Deathclaws, crazy robots,bpissed off mutants, action, adventure, not to mention a huge dose of interspecies romance appeals to you, come along and listen to it, avalible on Spotify as well as all major Podcast carriers just search for Radiance chapter 1 or Hunter Hunted chapter one, so till next time this is GhostNobody signing off and saying on with the show...
Chapter 22: Small Bodies Big Hearts.
Smoke after many attempts at twiddling knobs and leavers and so very nearly getting his skin sandblasted off finally figured out which knobs controlled both the overhead rain dropper shower heads, as well as the temperature of the water.
So once he'd got the water to a level where it either wasn't going to melt his skin from his bones and wash it down the many drains in the floor or turn him into a human-shaped ice cube they'd have to chisel him out of the pried his arse off the glass of the cubicle and stepped into the stream, it kinda reminded him of the decontamination showers they had in both Citrus and Yoshi's hive in the chemical and biohazard labs in the underground section of the hive, or the ones they had in the Battle Angel's hospital hive of Zara and Cortez.
Those labs tended to work towards understanding and curing any viruses, bacteria or any other contagion that they ran across anywhere, plus knowing those Xeno's they probably had plans to send teams to the Serpentinus homeworld to collect a sample of any indigenous biohazards they'd detected when sweeping the planet so they could come up with inoculations against them, the only ones that really didn't have to worry about things like viruses were the Xeno's themselves, weren't many organisms that could live in a bloodstream that could melt a space ship hull after all.
He hadn't exactly brought a bathing kit with him as he wasn't exactly expecting to be doing anything but running around a dense jungle fighting Scalathor and Draconis, so he hadn't exactly planned on getting out of his armour for a few days, so cleaning products wise he was going to have to make do with what they had here, he reaches down and picked up a little white and green bottle with a picture of what was blatantly a male Raptorian on the side of it and he appeared to have the lushest most vibrant looking feathers running over his head that you could ever hope to see, he looked like he was wearing a rainbow on his head, he couldn't translate the scratches on the side that were obviously describing what it did so he just decided to call it feather wash, plus he figured if it worked on feathers then his hair would probably be fine as the feathers looked more fragile than his hair anyway.
He squirted the red liquid into his hand and sniffed it, it smelled like flowers or what he assumed were flowers because it had that kind of airy scent to it, didn't smell like any of the flowers they had back home but it was the same kind of quality scent and shrugged before rubbing it into his hair and closing his eyes.
While he rubbed he swore he heard a little creak noise and hushed whispers, but he put it down to his imagination and the whispering noise the combination of the water jets and the steam made as it rushed through the cubicle, he rubbed the frothing liquid through his hair and instantly felt it getting softer, the stuff must have some kind of fast-acting conditioner mixed in with the shampoo, in only seconds the grease from Smoke's hair was utterly gone and it once rinsed returned to its snow-white shine, or at least going by his reflection in the glass of the cubicle it had.
He leaned down and picked up another bottle this one unlike the feather wash wasn't in a soft green and white bottle with a gentle happy looking male on the front, this one was jet black with red lightning bolt patterns on the sides, on the front was a picture of a strong-looking female Raptorian that seemed to have an eye patch over one eye, she was holding a gun propped up on her rather broad looking shoulder and was doing a bicep flex with her other arm to show off the size of her other gun, around her there appeared to be a ring of adoring looking males all looking utterly love-struck and awed with their hands clasped together against their chests as they looked at her and the female was giving a knowing smile to the camera or person holding the bottle.
Smoke couldn't help but snort a laugh, maybe she was some kind of fictional hero on this world who was used to advertise brands or something, but the whole bottle just screamed power, it was like using this product and you'll have the boys queuing up to get the chance to join your pride, for some reason Smoke got the feeling that this was most likely Vippy's body wash, he squirted some of the vibrant blue gel into his hand and unlike the feather wash this stuff did not smell of flowers at all, it was a really hard scent to pin down, more like a mixture of them than one particular scent but it was strong stuff whatever it was.
Smoke began to lather his body with it and the gel turned into a thick foamy lather that coated his skin and clung to it, inside the stuff he felt what was obviously some kind of abrasive substance as it kinda felt gritty as he rubbed it over himself, obviously designed to remove dead scales or to soften them, kinda like sand would do he guessed, he knew the Yautja liked to use something similar and the clever Xeno's at Citrus and Yoshi's hive had come up with this microbead stuff that was fine while in gel but once exposed to water began to biodegrade until there was nothing left, they had originally thought about using plastic but they'd decided that was just fucking stupid as obviously it was gonna end up in their water supply and Clan Mason was all about making sure their home remained every bit the paradise it was meant to be.
as he massaged his abdomen, pelvis and lower half he swore he heard what sounded like a muted gasp from his right and just as he turned his head to look he swore he caught a glimpse of a flash of colour but when his head completed the turn, there was nothing there, he shrugged and put it down to the slight paranoia of being in a very unfamiliar place while being as naked as the day he was born and vulnerable.
Finishing up his shower and feeling certainly fresher than when he climbed in Smoke shut everything down and walked to the edge of the shower block, there seemed to be a towel rail on the end but oddly there only seemed to be one towel hanging on it, all the others seemed to have fallen on to the floor, it was obvious from their positioning that they'd been lined up in a neat little row of six, obviously one each for each of the little Raptorians, but five had fallen onto the floor and one blue one was still on the pole, Smoke wondered if he'd bumped them or something when he'd got in and hadn't noticed.
Shrugging he took the towel hanging on the rail and dried himself all over with it before returning it, he wondered if he should try to replace it with a fresh one but given that he didn't know where any of their stuff was he'd just inform them and they'd probably take care of it, so carefully he hun all six towels back up and then put his suit back on along with his underwear, finally, he reached for the door and to his surprise found it unlatched, he frowned at it, he could have sworn he'd pulled it closed properly when he'd come in, he was sure he'd done so when he was looking for a way to lock it, he shrugged again, maybe it hadn't been seated properly and had popped open when the room began to heat up, the door in his own bathroom was kinda like that.
Stepping out of the bathroom the cooler air of the apartment hit him after being inside the hot humid bathroom it felt brisk and kinda refreshing, he was so distracted by it he very nearly tripped over Skeeva who was just outside the door, she instantly looked a little flustered, "Err hi, I was just coming to call you, food is almost ready and we're preparing to set the table, umm out of interest which towel did you use to dry yourself off with?" she asked.
Smoke cocked his head curiously, "The blue one, why?" he asked and she gave him a smile and a dismissive wave.
"Oh that's fine that's my towel, it's just err my turn to do the laundry this week and I needed to check so I know what to change and what not to," she said quickly and before Smoke could process this in his head she quickly grabbed his hand and began pulling him towards the couch in the living room before seating him dead centre in the middle of it, by the chaos coming from the kitchen the girls hadn't heard the term 'Too many chefs spoil the broth' before.
Moments later they all came buzzing out of the kitchen each carrying an assortment of dishes and plates and in only a few seconds the table before him filled up with some utterly incredible looking and smelling things, some were blatantly meat dishes as he could see chunks and cuts of a verity of meats in them, some in sauces others just seasoned, then there were the vegetable dishes, again some on sauces and other cut and tossed like a salad, then there were grains like what appeared to be six different types of some kind of rice like grain and then and given that they lived underground this last one did not surprise him in the slightest, mushrooms, oh so many different mushrooms.
Once the table was set complete with pitchers of different drinks there was a mad scramble, they all seemed to want to sit next to him but Vippy and this time Uma won out each snatching his left and right flanks much to the obvious disappointment of the others, Smoke was actually pretty curious of this, was it some kind of honour or something to sit next to the alien, or was there some other kind of deep meaning there that he wasn't seeing?
Smoke remembered something that their Grand Matriarch had told them about eating food they were unsure of and how it went double on alien worlds, always always always scan first eat second, because otherwise you would eat first regret second die third.
So smoke flipped up the wrist computer on his right forearm which was the only part of his armour that came with him when he got out of it, a Hunter never took it off, "It all smells and looks amazing girls, thank you so much, now not to be rude I just have to scan it all to make sure there's nothing in there my body can't handle" he said pressing a few buttons as they watched him curiously.
They all understood at once and nodded in unison, "Of course, we did our best based on the information our doctors provided us to ensure your proper care and nourishment, but obviously you know your body better than us, something I'm sure in time will change" Vippy said causing Smoke to glance at her with an eyebrow raised, he was simply met with a sweet, innocent but somehow predatory smile.
The wrist comp's sensors swept everything and gave him green lights across the board, there was nothing poisonous or indigestible in the many dishes, he closed it and gave them a thumbs-up, "All good" he said and there were smile and nods all around.
"Ok, then Sema would you like to lead off on the thanks?" Vippy asked and she nodded before Smoke could understand what was going on both Vippy and Uma had grabbed a hand of his each and also of those next to them.
"Great tree we thank you for blessings of your bounty, of the harvest you provide our farmers, of the game you provide our hunters and of the friendship and sisterhood you provide our Prides, we thank you for the gift of this male from the stars that now sits at our table among our pride and we swear to you we will protect and cherish him, in your sight Great Tree we and humbled," the pride said as one with Sema leading off.
Smoke instantly got it, it was like the prayer of fortune that all Hunters said to Paya before heading off on a hunt asking for not only her blessing on their hunt to provide them with great worthy prey but of her protection for their kin.
Before Smoke's brain could even process where to start the dishes were being passed around in what looked like a synchronised dance, they weren't even saying a word, they just instinctively knew what their sisters wanted and would hand it to them, he being the unknown was getting served a little bit of everything and as he watched both Vippy and Uma were placing items and servings of various things onto his plate until it was full of a rainbow of different foods, "Do humans typically speak during meals?' the pride asked as one.
"Umm yeah if we're sharing a meal with someone, like we're in the mess hall eating with our fellow Hunters, or we have friends or family at our homes, it becomes a kind of social event, but generally those of us that don't have a romantic partner or family of our own eat alone," Smoke said and he could see the thought of either eating or being alone worried them somewhat.
"As a Raptorian you are rarely to basically never alone, well as a female anyway, our males often spend some time alone before they join a pride once they leave their birth pride once they come of age, but that's a much more modern trend, it used to be a few decades ago they would go straight from their birth pride into their romantic one, so they would never be alone, but our more modern progressive boys seem to like a little independence before settling down," the pride said.
Smoke nodded selecting what almost looked like steak chunks, he took a bite before realizing it was actually some kind of fish by the flaky meat, which was odd because he'd never seen dark fish like this before, it looked and tasted like red meat but had the consistency of fish, when she saw his face Vippy's lit up, "It's called Anklebiter, they're a fish that lives in the rivers but we've brought them down here so farm in the underground lakes, along with a couple of other species of course but these guys breed and grow quickly so they make a good food stock" she said as he chewed.
"Anklebiters?" he asked once he swallowed and she grinned and nodded and the pride went back into all together mode.
"Yeah they have a nasty habit of biting your ankle, foot or leg if you spend too long in the water on the surface, they won't kill you or anything but it can be damn painful if you're not wearing armour and they lock their jaws so you pretty much have to snap them off to get them to let go," the pride said making him wince.
"Is there anything on this planet that doesn't want to eat or kill you?" he asked popping a rather delightful fried mushroom into his mouth that had a very buttery flavour.
"Not many, the fauna on our world is incredibly aggressive, as I'm sure you saw for yourself having been on the surface," the pride said and Smoke nodded remembering the tree spider ant thing that had attacked and eaten the Draconis.
"Yeah, not going to be able to forger that shit for a while," he said and both Vippy and Uma patted both his thighs at the same time with Vippy actually giving the one on her side a brief squeeze as if testing how dense the muscle was.
"No need to worry, down here you are perfectly safe, we will protect you," they said and he felt like huffing and saying he didn't need it, but honestly it felt kinda nice that they were so overprotective in a sense so he just chose to ignore it and just gave them a smile instead which seemed to make them happy almost like they won something.
"So tell us what is your world like?" Vippy asked suddenly and Smoke smiled.
"I can do one better than that, I can show you," he said and they cocked their heads curiously, he flipped up his wrist comp and detached a small sphere that now came as standard with the mark five wrist computers, he placed it down in the gap between the dishes and he accessed the files on the computer, the little silver ball instantly began to roll around until it found a suitable space while every set of eyes tracked it curiously then when it popped open they all jumped before a little image of the capital city of Clan Mason's homeworld appeared floating in mid-air.
"Wow, a portable holographic display amazing!" Sema said waving a little hand through the image making it wobble like it was made of water before reforming.
"Yeah our science hive came up with them a little while ago for face to face communications a while ago, but our Grand Patriarch had the idea to load our wrist comps with images of our home to show any alien species we encountered so they could learn more about us, this here is our capital city and the heart of Clan Mason" Smoke said proudly.
"Imagine being able to live on the surface so freely, it kind of reminds me of the Serpentinus home world except a lot greener," Vippy said.
Smoke nodded, "Speaking of which here, this is the welcoming ceremony for the Ghost Slitherers at the Seeker Temple," he said quickly selecting the video file, the image changed and all of them watched in fascination as the Serpentinus males danced on the grounds of the temple surrounded by various members of Clan Mason, it even had the part where the rescued Draconis male Kelmar Littlewing began to dance with them.
"I-I-Is that a Draconis with them!?" the pride exclaimed in perfect unison, then they seemed to freeze up, "No wait...there's something different...ITS A MALE!" they all exclaimed in utter shock before switching their gazes to Smoke to demand answers.
"Yeah his name's Kelmar Littlewing, he was a slave aboard a Scalathor transport we boarded, our teams found him and a Serpentinus woman called Celia Dimondscale, that's her right there with her pack and their human husband Seeker Liam Silver Dimondscale, our Grand Patriarch Jack Mason, that's him right there with our Grand Matriarch Tik eleth Mason, used his Dream Warrior abilities on him and saw all the horrible things that had been done to him by the Scalathor, so he gave him asylum and made him a member of the Clan, from what I heard in the Hunter Barracks he's joining the Savior core now and is destined to become one of our Saviors," Smoke said proudly and the pride looked at one another and then at the image and then at Smoke in utter amazement.
"We've never seen a male Draconis before, we've heard all sorts of terrible things about what their females do to them, it is utterly shaming to us that we once shared a birth world with them and even more so that we once thought as they still do, before the time of the Great Sorrow," the pride said and Smoke cocked his head curiously.
"The time of Great Sorrow?" he asked and they all nodded.
"A vile and shameful time in our past where the Great Tree punished our kind for straying so far from her divine words, a time that all Raptorians save for the pride of the Grand Priestess are forbidden of which to speak lest we tarnish the suffering of the few wrought by the many with our inadequate words, when you meet them tomorrow you many ask them about it if you so wish," the pride said and Smoke nodded.
So Soke decided to carry on showing them the pictures to lighten the mood, "So this is the Seeker Temple where our Dream Warriors become Seekers of Truth, this here is where the Hunters like me train under Grand Matriarch Tik eleth Mason, that's her there leading from the front as always, this here his our great scientific hive lead by queen Citrus of the Xenomorphs and her human King Yoshi that's them there right in the centre, queen Citrus prefers to teach while king Yoshi prefers to get stuck into solving the mysteries of the universe" Smoke said flicking from the Seeker temple, onto an image of the Hunter proving grounds where the image showed Tik eleth in her bright golden armour looking every bit the heroic Grand Matriarch as she put the Hunters through their paces, before onto the huge hive showing all the Xeno's in their lab coats and engineering overalls solving and fixing things with Citrus and Yoshi right in the middle.
"By the Great Tree! That's queen Citrus!? She's Huge!" the pride exclaimed and Smoke nodded.
"Xeno queens are big girls alright, our three queens are the kindest gentlest creatures you could ever wish to meet, unless you intend to harm their kings or their children, do that and you'll soon learn why we say harm a king answer to his queen, I once saw Citrus tear a boulder the size of a house out of the ground and throw it at a dino dozer simply because it came near her hive where her king sleeps, and to give you some perspective, this is a dino dozer," Smoke said flicking through pictures till he found one.
The pride stared wide-eyed at the enormous armoured creature, "How can you possibly live on the surface with those roaming about!?" they exclaimed.
"Simple, they leave us alone and for the most part we leave them along unless the Yautja are hunting them, but they only do that every so ofteren to control their numbers, plus the things are generally smart enough to know that you don't go near things that will tear your tail off and beat you with it simply because you looked at their king funny, in other words our Xeno queens, those hives are like pest deterrent as they have some kind of pheromone built into the resin they're made out of that acts as a kind of repellant, only the stupidest creatures wander into a city filled with blooded Hunters, Seekers and Xenomorphs, imagine an anthill where all the ants have plasma casters, railguns and real big blades, thats essentially what Clan Mason is like if threatened, threaten one deal with all, simple as that, once we had a cave badger come wandering into the grand park where all of our cubs tend to go with their families to play, these things are nasty to say the least, they're just a bit smaller than you guys but with a temper that would make you swear the things are bigger than fire tigers, our Grand Patriach reckons they're related to something called a honey badger but I'd have to take his word on that, well it starts going off at a group of cubs when out of nowhere just as we were running towards them, a Savior called Vivi come full on charging out of nowhere and with a roar that shook half the city she kicks it so hard up the arse that it sailed clear over the top of Citruses hive and you just saw how big that place is, I swear you could see her boot print still in its arse as it flew over the hive, we've never had another once come withing five miles of the city since" Smoke said with a chuckle as he remembered the group of confused Xeno's all standing outside their hive watching the upside down badger fly clean over their home and into the distance.
The little group of Raptorians looked amazed at this, that's when Lima piped up, "I'm glad you mentioned your weapons I was wondering if you'd allow us to discuss them with you?" she asked solo and Smoke looked at her and nodded.
"Sure I have no issue with that," he said.
"Well we use a form of ballistics in our weapons, we need them to be quiet for the most part especially on the surface where noise attracts unwanted attention, so we use a smart charge system, we set the weapon into a specific model and it applies the correct charge of propellant to use for our needs, if we need real quiet it applies enough to make the round subsonic so our suppressors are ultra-effective and if we need power it applies more to up the punch, here let me show you," she said pulling her pistol out and placing it on the table before disassembling it.
It kinda felt odd to have firearms at the dinner table but none of the others seemed to mind or even slightly phased by it and just kept on munching away happily while they watched her, so Smoke simply shrugged and watched too.
The weapon was sleek with a curved top and a large grip to fit their hands, the barrel was thick and wide as it was obviously an integrated suppressor for the most part as well as a barrel, Lima pulled a clip out of the bottom and it contained thirty shining metal slugs but with no jackets, just the slug themselves, "I thought you said it uses propellant? Where's the case?" he asked and she smiled brightly.
"Good eye! Yes once upon a time we used to use jacketed ammunition with a preset charge made up of a substance we called spark powder, its basically an explosive if you contain it properly so a slug would be pushed into a jacket that was filled with a measure of the stuff and a striker cap at the back of the jacket would be struck and set it off, but it was inefficient to what we needed, so our scientists developed this" she said and she pulled a small cylinder from the butt of the gun where the clip had also been and held it up so he could see it, it was see-through so he could see the viscous liquid contained inside.
"Don't worry it's perfectly safe, stuff only goes off if you pass an electric current through it, the gun contains a rechargeable battery in the top, its a form of liquid explosive, depending on the amount of power required for each shot the gun will spray a set amount of this into the breach behind the slug and an electric charge will detonate it, the more propellant the more power, less power and also noise" Lima said.
"Our rifles use a far larger version, it fires a slug about the size of your thumb," Vippy said with a proud look on her face and Lima nodded in agreement.
Smoke took the little canister and looked at the odd cream coloured liquid inside it, given how thick it was he figured it was probably pressurized as well to help with distribution, "What I wanted to ask was what your weapons use?" Lima asked and Smoke nodded handing her back the canister which she clipped back into the gun along with its magazine.
"We have two variants, our rifles and our casters, the rifles are two-stage they are both rail guns and plasma accelerators and the casters are plasma only," Smoke said and the whole pride looked at him curiously.
"Rail guns? Plasma casters? We have never heard of this technology" the whole pride said in unison, Smoke held up a finger before wheedling himself out from the dinner table and retrieving his rifle and returning with it, they moved dishes out of the way so he could set it down and they all looked at the blocky weapon with fascination.
"This weapon doesn't use any kind of chemical to fire its ammunition, instead it uses these, a series of powerful electromagnets all along the telescopic barrel, when the weapon is made ready the barrel extends and the magnets charge up from the battery pack, though the shooter can vary the amount of charge depending on the power and range required, when the charge is released it propels one of these tungsten slugs down the barrel at incredible speed, far far faster than any chemical weapon is capable of, the result is its able to hit far harder than any conventional firearm, on impact all that kinetic energy gets converted into thermal energy which is aided by the air resistance that worked on the slug during flight so it tends to work like a sabot round a good section of it turning into a molten form on impact and burning right through armor while the back of the round hits whatever it is like a hammer forcing the jet of molten metal through" Smoke said ejecting one of the tungsten slugs and handing it to Lima.
She turned it over in her hands and looked at it before handing it around, "Is surprisingly heavy for its small size" she said.
"You don't want big with a railgun, bigger the slug more magnets and power required to fire it and far greater risk of not only over-penetration but splash damage, so small is good," he said and suddenly found the whole pride smiling at him.
"We're very happy you think so," they said and he felt rather confused by that taking the slug back that was held out to him by Vippy.
"Well err yes anyway, the second mode is plasma shot, basically super heated gas is held in magnetic suspension at the rear of the gun in the breach, when fired it's accelerated down the barrel and away towards the target, when it hits this stuff is burning hotter than the surface of a sun so it just melts right through, or as you saw with the mimic incinerates it, the casters work on a simular principle except that they unlike the rifle go for area damage as well, they use a form of magnetic compression to squeeze and pressurise their shot which is why they make that whining noise when their charging up, when they fire the shot is basically like a small plasma grenade that when it hits something explodes sending super heated plasma gas washing over the entire target, it very capable of blowing enemies apart, they're great for firing into groups of enemies or into buildings or vehicles, they're shot is far more powerful than the rifle but not so useful up close, my armor is designed to protect me against backwash but not so great if you have unprotected friendlies in the area" Smoke said before taking the weapon back and putting it back with his armor.
"That's utterly incredible! I know our science and R&D prides would utterly kill to get hold of one of those!" Lima said and Smoke nodded.
"I'll bet and I do not doubt in my mind that when we make contact with my Grand Patriarch he'll approve giving you the schematics to build your own, but as I'm sure you can understand being soldiers yourselves I can't make that call myself, I'm authorised to do whatever I can to help you but when it comes to handing over tech that's in the hands of the Clan's leaders I'm sorry," Smoke said and the whole pride nodded in unison.
"Do not worry Smoke we are not asking and would never ask you to betray your Clan, it would be like asking one of us to betray our pride, it simply would not happen and would die first" they said and he nodded blowing out a held breath, he had been repeatedly warned what a lure advanced tech could be to those that didn't have it and he knew that it would be a diplomatic balancing act all the way but he was glad they understood his position.
"What about the bladed weapons? Those were some interesting designs" Lima asked and Smoke nodded.
"All based on traditional Yautja hunting weapons, the wrist blades are forged from an alloy made on our homeworld that's incredibly light and strong, hell the stuff makes titanium look like lead we use it for all sorts of things, put it this way those things are so sharp they cut through metal like normal steel cuts through paper," he said proudly.
"Good for piercing armour up close then?" Vippy said thoughtfully and Smoke nodded.
"Yeah that's the idea, the Yautja follow the way of the honourable hunt, they used these weapons like the wrist blades, the combi stick which is the large retractable bladed spear you saw me pick up in the recreation zone and the things we call smart discs in their hunts, but now Clan Mason has turned them into weapons of war to be used on our enemies to great effect," Smoke said.
"Smart discs?" Lima asked curiously, it was obvious who the weapon buff of the group was and Smoke nodded.
"It's a hand-thrown disc about the size of one of these plates, when thrown it can either track a target that's been marked by the targeting system in my suit or I can guide it manually from my heads up display, the edge of it is so sharp its quite capable of cutting limbs off and then returning to the user" Smoke said making them all wince.
"Nasty" Vippy said softly and Smoke nodded.
"Never had to use mine in combat yet, but I'm fully trained with them though honestly, they are incredibly easy to use, simply use the lasers to mark the target throw the disc and forget about it, once marked the disc will chase the target until it brings it down or hits something and gets stuck," Smoke said.
All of them looked impressed and they continued to ask him questions about both his weapons and armour systems while they finished their meal, once they were done Smoke insisted on helping clear the table and with the washing up though that simply involved him passing dishes along a daisy chain to Lima who was on the end who loaded them into a rather large dishwasher before setting it to wash then once that was done they steered him back towards the couch and planted him in the middle before all of them clambered on to the couch and pretty much surrounded him, for some reason an odd image of a girl sat on a couch with five guys around her flashed through his mind but then it reversed to become once guy surrounded by six girls and that was now his actual reality especially with the way they were all looking at him.
"So err what do you girls do on your evenings off?' he asked trying o break the slight tension which had sprung up.
"Depends really, some times we just relax and watch a movie or broadcast if there is something good on, sometimes we work out, sometimes we do a bit of sparring depends on how we feel really," they said and an idea struck Smoke.
"Actually I wouldn't mind doing a bit of sparring with you guys, it would be fun to see how different our fighting styles are, we might learn something about each other, well you know once our food has had a chance to go down so to speak," he said and he couldn't help but grin at the instant freeze-up of all of them, it was like watching a network crash as they processed what he had just suggested to them.
"Y-Y-You want to fight us?" Vippy exclaimed and Smoke nodded.
"Yeah nothing major, no weapons or anything like that, just someone on one sparring, grips and submission holds," he said watching her closely, he could practically hear the steam coming out of her ears as she contemplated fighting with a male.
"I-I-I could never do that! I could never willingly hit a male! It would go against everything we stand for!" she said and the others all nodded and Smoke laughed causing them all to glare at him.
"I'm not saying we punch the living shit out of each other and before it affects your decision I can already see what's rattling round in that pretty head of yours and I forgive you for the busted nose alright? That was an accident caused by misunderstanding, look, good as new, not even a scar" he said trapping his nose with his index finger and he could see her feathers bristling and fluffing as her emotions caused a bit of a mental cascade.
"Just a friendly interspecies bout, nothing serious, well unless the big bad surface stalkers are all worried they'll be shown up by what is basically a walking talking naked monkey of course, in which case I utterly understand," he said resorting to the same trick that worked on every single Yautja girl he'd ever known, give her pride a quick poke and watch the sparks.
There was a collective growl from them, "Don't be so smug human we beat you once we can do it again!" Uma growled before suddenly looking startled by the words that had left her own lips, too late, he had them.
"That's the spirit! Well alright then sparring it is and I tell you what, we can even make it interesting if you want" he said and they all looked at him after glaring at Uma for a brief moment.
"What do you mean interesting?" they asked.
"Well we could make a bet, just a fun little wager, we Hunters do it all the time, like the loser has to clean the winner's armour, or their weapons, or the loser is the winner's servant for the day and has to do anything the winner says well within reason of course Sargent Major Duffy told us all a story once about how a bet like that went sideways real fast once and yeah wasn't pretty, but it worked out in the end, but yeah boundaries and hard limits in place on that one," he said and suddenly they were all looking at him very very curiously.
"Anything you say?" they asked and he nodded feeling like all of a sudden he may have very well talked himself into a world of shit once again.
"Well yeah within reason, you can't force the person to hurt themselves or others, or betray their life mate or anything like that, or utterly humiliate themselves in public, but other than that most other things are fair game, I once had to clean Xema's home in her hive after I lost an intersection bout to one of the Battle Angels, god for a Xeno that girl sure was messy, took me all damn day to clean her room and she just sat there the whole time smiling at me, which wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the damn get up she made me wear," he said laughing at the memory but also cringing internally.
The Raptorian's launched into a group discussion that was so fast his translator had yet another shit fit and went out for a smoke break, they seemed pretty torn, it was obvious that half the group didn't want to strike a male under any circumstances, he wasn't sure what reasoning the other half was using, probably the lure of the bet, "We agree on three conditions, one you are to wear full padded armour so that there is no chance of you receiving an injury, two you will spar with only one of us not the entire group and three the loser will have to do whatever the winner says for one whole day, agreed?" they said.
"Ok firstly if I have to wear pads then so does my opponent, it's not fair if I have my mobility limited but my opponent does not it handicaps me, two I get to pick the opponent from the group and three there will be limits on what the loser will and won't do that will be outlined before the bet is set, agreed?" he said they looked at one another and nodded.
"Agreed," they said in unison.
A half-hour later they walked into the gym the girls had gone to change into some very distracting and form-fitting work out gear that looked like someone had painted it onto them, Smoke found himself utterly amazed just by how incredibly feminine the little reptiles were, they all began stretching out incase he picked them as his opponent and right in front of his eyes Vippy began bending over to touch her clawed toes, which he noticed she'd put some kind of caps on her claws to blunt them, smart considering how bloody sharp the things looked, but it wasn't her toes that really caught his attention, as she bent forwards and began touching her toes her tail lifted and revealed an ass that looked like he could have bounced a grenade off, it was like a perfect scaly apple wrapped in skin-tight synthetic fabric, what he didn't see was she glancing back between her ankles as she did so.
Smoke shook his head and tried turning somewhere else, he couldn't afford to let them distract him, that's when he saw Sema doing lunges and her torso was stretched back, his eyes ran from her large feet up her incredibly toned and powerful legs, to her slender but utterly ripped torso to the two perfect little teardrop-shaped breasts that sat planted on her chest, he silently cursed himself as he tried to push the images of his hands encompassing both of them within them down into his mind while also trying to fight something else back down as well.
He began to distract himself by warming up with some shadow boxing, throwing punches and kicks at an invisible target far enough away from them to avoid accidentally clipping them, once he was warmed up the group assembled and they handed him his armour, it consisted of a one size fits all helmet that covered his entire head except his face in padded blue rubber, plus a torso and crotch cover that adjusted to fit his size as it was strapped onto him, he was curious as to why they had something like this made to fit someone larger than they were.
"This is the biggest one we have, made to fit a Serpentinus so it should fit you," Vippy said going behind him and clipping the straps into place along his back and pulling them tight, the last thing they gave him were wrist guards that hooked around his middle two fingers but were obviously not made for hands with five fingers, but with a bit of wheedling he got them on, they just protected the backs of his hands and wrists anyway and didn't really impede his movement.
"Ok the rules and these are absolute, no punching or kicking to the face, head or crotch, body shots only, tap to submit, three submissions to win, acceptable?" they said and Smoke nodded.
"Alright choose your opponent," they said and he looked them over.
"Sema," he said and he saw Vippy instantly look disappointed but they all stepped back and quickly put her armour on her, hers was red.
The pair climbed up into the ring and Smoke's heart began to pump hard, adrenaline coursed through his veins as his body prepared itself to fight, infact he began to wonder why in the name of hell he'd chosen to convince them to do this in the bloody first place, this was utterly unlike him at all, he so much more preferred being at his computer to anything violent but somehow the way they'd been treating him had wormed itself into his brain, then it clicked, he felt emasculated, he'd felt driven to prove his bloody manhood to them and suddenly he felt like a fucking royal idiot, but it was too late now, there was a loud ding from a bell he'd failed to notice and Smoke instantly drew up into a guard stance.
Both he and Sema both had guard stance's and they both stood there just watching one another, waiting for the other to make the first move, he wondered if she was having problems throwing a blow at him because he was male and was waiting for him to attack so she could simply defend herself, he could see her bright eyes darting about watching his every muscle tense, so he stuck.
Throwing a faint punch to her right she bit and dodged only to be caught out when he drew out of the punch and dropped into a leg sweep which she pretty much ran full tilt into winding up face down on the padded canvas, before she could right herself Smoke was on her dropping onto her backflipping her grabbing her arm in both of his and jamming his legs over torso he wrapped it and extended his whole body trapping her, he felt her incredible strength fighting against him and her muscles bunched and shifted beneath him, but in the end, it was futile the lever effect of his long body won out and she slapped her tail on the canvas as a signal of defeat to which Smoke immediately released her and got up offering her a hand up, she took it but did not look happy.
"That's err one nill to Smoke," Vippy said looking utterly astounded, the bell rang again and again they both dropped into guard stances but this time there was no hesitation from Sema, her pride was wounded and she was determined to regain her honour, she struck hard and so fast he barely saw her move, she shot forwards under his guard and instead of going direct for his leg she used her tail to whip both his legs out from under him like being hit by a steel cable, he landed on his back with a hard thud that took his breath away and before he could get it back she was on him.
Sema clamped his waist between her powerful thighs and squeezed preventing him from being able to breathe properly, Smoke made the fatal mistake of sitting up trying to force her off him with his bodyweight advantage but this simply allowed her to utterly wrap those long powerful legs around his entire midsection and squeeze even harder, he tried to push against her but she got his wrist and pulled them up behind his head holding him till he simply ran out of breath as both his hands were locked and unable to move he had to use one of his feet to bang on the canvas to signal the yield.
Sema released him immediately and as the pressure on his midsection was released he sucked in a breath which helped to stop his vision swimming and pulsing, he'd been right in thinking that those thighs of their were like steel traps, if she'd gripped him any higher he'd have been fearing for his rib cage.
This time Sema helped him to his feet looking a bit more smug and all of her pride were cheering at the side of the ring which actually made him feel kinda bad as he didn't have anyone cheering him on in his corner, he was a little unsteady on his feet as he retook his spot as his body tried to catch up the oxygen debt from the previous bout, "Are you ok?" Sema asked noticing his unsteadiness a note of concern coming into her voice, he nodded.
"Yeah fine just a little winded," he said waving her off.
The bell rang again and Smoke saw her move going for the same trick but this time even in his unsteady state he was ready, as she dropped and her tail cracked around Smoke did something she wasn't expecting, he jumped.
He jumped over her tail like a skipping rope and landing on one foot he planted the other right into her upper chest sending her flying backwards with a yell of surprise, he wasn't worried about the blow hurting her as that's what the body pads were for, they would absorb the impact of the blow and leave only the force to act on her, no sooner had she landed on her back than Smoke dove forwards and dropped on her grabbing her wrists and hauling them above her head.
The pair wrestled and struggled in the rather intimate position with her smaller body pinned beneath his much larger and heavier one, he felt her legs coming up either side of him going for his flanks again and quick as a flash he tucked in making sure she couldn't get to his lungs again only his hips, but she was also able to use her strength advantage to roll them both so now she wound up straddling him and he was amazed by how heavy she felt for something so small, she was seriously dense muscle, this position was dangerous and he knew it he had to think of an escape quick or he was going to get trapped here and then a thought struck him, something he'd seen a male human use on a Yautja girl once and he wondered if it would work here, it was worth a try.
Quick as a flash he bucked his hips twice in quick succession, once to throw her grip the second time to smash his pelvis into her crotch, it worked like a charm, her eyes which had shown fierce determination instantly snapped open wide with a look of pure surprise and confusion and a high pitched squeak noise broke free of her and before she could recover Smoke threw her over spun her and locked both her arms and her legs in something called a figure four, two slaps from her tail when she realized she was going nowhere.
He helped her up again and again she glared at him, again her entire pride looked stunned, the bell went again and this time she didn't hold back, she lunged forwards into a rolling dive but instead of coming up on her feet she came upon her tail, he'd wondered if the incredibly dense muscle in their tails was strong enough to support their weight well here was the proof and using it like a spring she planted a double footed kick right into his chest sending him flying backwards into the ropes which catapulted him back towards her like a slingshot.
Spinning backwards she dropped sending her tail out like a tripwire which Smoke couldn't avoid, he went sprawling face-first down onto the canvas with a hard crash which rattled his senses as it was so quick he was unable to save himself with his hands instead of taking the impact with his chest and head which both took his breath away even with the armour and rattled his brain in his skull sending his senses haywire, which was all the time Sema needed to drop onto his back grab one of his arms and force it up behind his back while pinning his legs down, though she did the smart thing and left his other hand free to tap out otherwise he'd have been screwed until she pulled something out of its socket.
He tapped with two hard bangs to the canvas and she released the pressure on his arm which was making his nerves scream, she let him up and as he got to his knees he saw a hand in front of him which helped him to his feet, there was that smug look again as her pride cheered from the ringside, he rolled his shoulder and felt it pop so she must have gone some way to pulling it out, it was seriously aching now and he got the feeling that when the battle adrenaline wore off he was in for some serious stiffness.
Once again her face switched from smug to concerned when she heard the loud pop from his shoulder, "I did not damage or hurt you did I?" she asked and Smoke gave her a weak smile.
"That's kinda the point isn't it?" he said getting into a stance again but feeling a fair amount of tightness in that shoulder as he lifted it, he got the feeling that he'd possibly pulled or maybe damaged the muscle to add on top of the weakness in the joint, Sema shook her head.
"No I will not continue if you are hurt!" she said and Smoke shook his head.
"I'm fine honestly," he said and she looked doubtful, behind her he could see all of the rest of the prides eyes boring into him, analysing his every movement to see if he was telling the truth, he held his arms out to his sides and made sure his face didn't display the shot of pain that travelled down his right shoulder as he lifted the arm, oh he'd damaged the muscle alright but he wasn't going to let that stop him, Sema looked unsure but Vippy and the others nodded so she took her stance again.
The bell went and Smoke dropped low and seeing the movement dove forwards into a roll to dodge her quick side strike but as he began to rise he felt a sharp kick into to the back of his left knee which caused it to buckle but because of the way his weight was balanced it also caused it to twist at a sharp angle and he felt another pop, this one rather sharp but before his brain could comprehend it or the pain that was currently travelling up his leg, his injured arm was yanked hard out and he felt not one but two feet against his head and neck as Sema used her tail to balance and stretch his arm while twisting causing him to roll with his fall before being locked in the very same lock he'd put her into, they learned real fast these Raptorians.
Two white-hot pains shot up through his nerves and collided together inside his brain one from his knee and the other from his currently injured shoulder as Sema applied pressure to the lock, this time Smoke didn't fight the lock he just tapped out as fast as possible so she'd let go which she did.
This time all of the pride jumped into the ring and hugged and celebrated Sema's victory, "Well done sister I know you could do it! We won!" Vippy cried happily, Smoke rolled over gritting his teeth against the sharp pain in his muscles along the top of his shoulder, it was definitely a pull or a tear one of the two, he'd done enough of them during his training as a Hunter to recognise the feeling and also his knee was sprained, he'd felt that one before as well, he was royally pissed at himself in his eagerness to begin the match and to show what he was made of he'd failed to warm up and limber up correctly, he'd warmed up some of his muscles with the shadow boxing but not all of them and that had left them vulnerable to what had just happened to him, it was a lot harder to pull or tear a muscle that is full of blood and stretched because it is far more elastic than a cold one, same thing with the joints, limbering them up purged the nitrogen from the joint and reinforced it thanks to the muscle surrounding it being engorged with blood, it didn't make it impossible just a lot less likely to happen, this was week one basic training stuff and he'd fucked up.
Hobbling up to his feet he hopped slightly which they didn't notice s they were busy fussing Sema, "Good match, well won" he said through slightly gritted teeth as he offered his hand to be shaken.
"You too I never imagined that I'd ever lose to a male let alone twice" she said taking his hand and shaking it, the sudden pull on his arm caused his chest to shift and him to wince as the it caused the band of muscle and nerves across his shoulders to tighten and tense, it also pulled him forwards slightly causing him to have to shift his weight, which in turn caused him to have to put weight onto his sprained knee unexpectedly which caused it to buckle.
As he began to fall the whole pride move as one, in blink of an eye they had him gripped from all directions and held and were barraging him with questions, "Are you hurt?" "What's wrong?" "Where's the injury show me?" were among the one's he heard.
"I-It's fine, honestly, just sprained my knee with that kick was all and my shoulder got done during that lock up, it's fine nothing I haven't had before" Smoke said trying to put more weight on the leg again but it refused to play ball because of the angle he was at.
Vippy utterly erupted, "I knew this would happen! We let our male talk us into this bloody folly and now look whats happened! He's injured! We did this! Us!" she yelled as he felt her clawed hands rapidly moving over him trying to locate the injuries on his alien anatomy.
"His knee is swelling, oh Great Tree what have I done?" Sema said her voice sounding very low and shaky.
"And his shoulder, look here" Lima said pulling his under suit to one side making him wince as she'd noticed the redness of the pull that had caused blood to surge to the area, Smoke silently cursed his physiology he knew damn well he bruised super fucking easy and in about two hours time his body was going to look like he fell down a flight of stairs, even if they didn't hurt it always looked terrible, something he'd inherited from his mother, she'd always been the same, he once saw her bang her arm on the coffee table at home because she was rushing to go to work, when he got home from school he found six Saviours in his house worried about potential spouse abuse, he'd had to tell them what his mother had done in the morning and all the Saviours had been mortified and apologized to his father profusely, but that was how the Clan was, stuff like that was not tolerated at all, so he could somewhat understand their concern and anger here as it was obvious this society were the same and despite him not being their spouse or in anyway romantically involved with them, male abuse was a serious thing to them.
"I'll be fine honestly, once I'm back in my armor it'll detect the injuries and admister some anti inflamotaries to kill the swelling and it has power assisted movement which will support my leg, I'll be fine, it's not your fault Sema, not at all, please don't be angry with yourself, it was a sparring match these sorts of things happen in the ring you guys must know that, hell if its anyone's fault its mine, I talked you into it and I failed to warm up properly I was a little distracted and i guess exited, I let my desire to prove my manliness cloud my better judgement and I was stupid, so not you fault" Smoke said giving Sema a smile before reaching out with his uninjured arm to gently stoke the side of her warm scaly face.
Vippy made a huff noise as she blew out a breath through her nostrils, he could almost hear her mind whirring away and the moment an idea dropped in he saw it because those bright golden eyes of hers lit up, "Fault or not it still doesn't change the fact that you are injured and we are responsible, however Sema did win the match on your terms correct?" she said and Smoke nodded.
"Yeah I guess don't know what good I'll be as a cleaner though, well until the painkillers I'll get my suit to admister kick in anyway he said and Vippy shook her head.
"No you agreed that if we won you would do what ever we asked of you correct?" she asked and he looked at her strangely.
"Well yeah within reason obviously" he said.
"Define reason?" she said.
"Well err nothing thats going to cause me public humiliation like running naked down a street, or nothing that goes against the rules of Clan Mason and err nothing umm sexual without prior consent given" he said his voice dropping to a near whisper out of embaressement for the last part.
Vippy puffed up looking like her feathers might fly off her head, she actually looked like she was wearing a fluffy halo, "We would NEVER even touch a male against his wishes! Let alone take him, Ever!" she snarled though somehow it didn't feel like the anger in her voice was aimed at him more at the idea of it.
Smoke nodded, "Well umm good to know I wasn't accusing or stating anything by that, it's just after that incident I mentioned before there has to be a prior agreement between both parties before anything like that could happen, so please don't take those words personal, its not a slur against any of you, you are fine and beautiful females and any male would be damn lucky to have you as their pride" Smoke said quickly trying to quash the misunderstanding and anger with a little flattery though it did come off a little rambly it seemed to work and Vippy seemed to deflate as she got his meaning.
"Oh so mean that both parties would have to have put that on the table before making the bet correct? Not that the male would be forced to perform against his will?" she said and he nodded.
"Yeah and it would have to be clear and concise and consensual, you know what someone is willing to do and is not under any circumstances willing to do, hard limits I guess you call them and if someone is not willing at all they simply say no and thats it done, no arguments, honestly that stuff just confuses me" he said grateful for the gear switch from angry Vippy to understanding Vippy.
"Now I understand, for a terrible moment there you had me thinking that a male could be forced against his will to perform for a pride and something like that around here would be met with the full force of the law and rightly so, to imagine making a poor male give up his most sacred treasure against his will, vileness in its purest form, males are to be treasured and cherished, that is something that should only be given to a pride that is worthy of it and of him, males are not things or toys to be used and then thrown away when you are done with them and any female I ever caught treating a male like that I would happily beat to with in an inch of her life" she said with such passion in her voice that Smoke felt it burn across his skin, all around him he saw her entire pride puffing up and nodding in agreement.
"Well then now that we know where we stand pretty much anything else is ok though yes?" she asked and he nodded glad to be stepping away from that awkward conversation, Smoke never felt very comfortable at all talking about sex, which was a bloody nightmare when you worked and lived around ooman loving Yautja girls who delighted in making him go as red a tomato all day, to him females were a bloody mystery at the best of times.
"Well yeah apart from the aforementioned, everything else is fair game" he said and she nodded.
"Very well then it is agreed, sisters to the bath!" Vippy declared holding up a hand and dropping it to point towards the bathroom like she was leading a battle charge.
Smoke's eyes nearly bugged out of his head, "The what now!?" he exclaimed and Vippy smiled at him, it was a sweet but also predatory smile.
"The bath, all of us never got chance to bathe earlier so we were going anyway and now with this it makes more sense, you are sworn to do what ever we ask, so you are going to let us bathe you in order to allow the heat and warm water aid the recovery of your muscles and the you are going to let us pamper you how ever we see fit" Vippy declared and the group began to march towards the bathroom taking Smoke along with them.
"Err I thought given I lost the match I was supposed to be the one pampering you!" Smoke exclaimed despretly and the entire pride laughed at that one.
"You were determined to show us how your kind do things and now you are going to see how we Raptorians do things and no arguments, you gave us your word, so you are going to let us do with you as we see fit, now you will see how a real Raptorian pride treats its male" the whole pride said and Smoke's heart sank, done in by his own hubris and his own honor and some might say he'd been done in by pride.