Chapter Three

Facehuggers of Doom + Den of the Xenomorphs

Leaving the desolate ruins behind, the six curious and fearless space travelers hiked up the trail leading up the large and barren mountains, a cold wind blowing down from the hill top above. The group looked at their surroundings, watching for anything nasty.

That monster back there had looked very ugly, where did that come from, could the answer be waiting somewhere here on the planet and were there more of them?

A slightly nervous Sonic grasped Amy's hand to assure himself that his dearest companion was there to help, she would be by his side no matter what. He was glad to have people in his life who could help him in challenging and perilous times ahead.

Rouge held Shadow's arm for comfort, hoping he'd help her get over the hideous sight of that one rotting arm and the creature they'd just encountered. Francois didn't seem to be scared, neither was Ann or Dyson, they all did their best to be brave... or tried to.

Thunder rumbled in the sky, the wind seemingly picking up for a few minutes as creatures howled far off in the distance. The howling sounded like wolves, perhaps there was a chance the whole planet wasn't half lifeless and some creatures had survived.

Climbing further up the mountain, Sonic heard a beeping on his com and pressed the blinking green button. Tails' voice came over the radio, "You guys there? I'm just checking!"

"Oh hey, Tails." The blue hedgehog answered, "Great to hear from you, we're just exploring the planet a little bit. Get this, buddy, things are lookin' kinda shitty. Wanna know what I'm talking about, everything's wrecked and we found some mangled remains of folks."

"Yeesh, whatever happened here, it didn't sound too good. I take that you're looking into what's going on and did you find any clues."

"Well, we did find some sort of strange yet vicious looking alien creature which Shadow shot up. Whatever that thing was, we think it might be connected to whatever dark disaster unfolded on the planet that saw the loss of probably millions of people."

"Good luck, Sonic! Whatever happens down there, tell me about it. Oh, and just in case if you run into anything mega nasty, watch your back. Hope to see you back on the ship as soon as possible."

The com deactivated and the group ascended higher up the mountain until they found a dark cave entrance close by. Getting curious about where it could lead to, Sonic turned on a flashlight and the others did the same before diving into the darkness ahead.

Water dripped from the cave ceiling above, seemingly hinting that there could be a watery area somewhere. More cold chills crossed the gang's bodies, warning them of possible impending danger somewhere close by.

Francois' teeth were chattering as he tried to swallow his fear, at one point, the French wolf thought he saw a spider-looking creature watching them from the ceiling only to dismiss it as his imagination... for now.

Low screeching echoed through the cave, alerting Sonic and his friends, making them think they were in a bats' den. But the screeching did not sound like bats, it sounded terrifying and almost worse than all that.

Following the sounds, they turned a corner and soon discovered the strangest area ever, an even bigger cavern filled with sleeping creatures identical to the one in the village ruins. Those things weren't alone, for there were strange egg-shaped objects close by.

"Ok," Sonic whispered, "Let's be very careful not to wake any of those things up, we don't know if they're actually hostile. Since they probably are, we better not make any bad moves or set off a trap. Whatever happens, be very careful."

Amy nodded and gripped Sonic's arm tight, letting out a small nervous whimper. Shadow equipped his space gun just in case, Rouge held up her fists, prepared for combat. Francois, Ann and Dyson looked at each other, afraid but alert at the same time, knowing what to do.

Sonic made his first move, walking further into the area, very slowly. He dimmed his flashlight, just in case the light woke up the creatures. Whatever those things were, he did not want to find out who or what they were or where they came from.

If those things were responsible for the disaster that had taken place on this planet, then that meant they were dangerous and needed to be destroyed at all costs. As for those weird egg things, whatever they happened to be, they didn't look good.

Just then, something splattered. The gang jumped back, realizing they'd accidently knocked over one of the egg things and it had spilled some sort of ugly looking liquid onto the ground. When things settled, everyone looked at the area.

The creatures were still sleeping, but one creature was moving. It was a bit smaller than the rest and, the worst thing about it was, it resembled a hideous spider with a scorpion's tail and hideous eyes. The creature observed the group, looking for a victim.

"Oh my gosh, I dunno what this is but it's so damned cute." Ann said, taking an optimistic liking to the creature. She stepped forward and bent down to look at it. The creature looked at her, eyes narrowing. Then, to everyone's shock, it jumped and latched onto her face.

"AH, GET IT OFF ME!" The astronomer screamed, struggling to get the Xenolatcher off her face. She was flailing and shrieking in loud horror, grabbing a gun and shooting indiscriminately. This started to wake up the creatures in the cave and attracted more.

Shadow got to work, gun ready and opening fire as the weird monster aliens shrieked battle cries and lunged for the intruders. One by one, the monsters fell, heads and limbs blasted off and oozing that strange colored blood the other one had gushed out.

All the while, Ann was screaming and trying to get the spider creature off her face. Amy rolled her eyes, deciding to help her friend and began punching the creature until Sonic grabbed a space gun and fired off a shot at it.

This seemed to do the trick as the smoking and bleeding Xenolatcher fell to the ground and shriveled up, chattering in a strange language before it fainted. Ann almost collapsed but Dyson helped her up, concerned about her.

"I'll be ruddy fine." She muttered, "Just let me catch my... AHHHHHHHHH!" She fell over, screaming in agony. The front of her space clothes seemed to turn wet for no reason, Ann was on her back as something started to try and push her way out of her until...

Rrrrrip! The small elongated head of a hideous alien monster, actually a smaller version of the creatures, burst out of Ann. Now everyone knew what the Xenolatcher was, it put some sort of baby inside the host and the creature formed seconds later.

"Oh, you've got to be bloody kidding me." The astronomer moaned as the monster climbed out of her, Ann's eyes rolled up and those were the final words she ever spoke. She was gone, kaput. The creature started to grow, until it was at large size... IN SECONDS TOO!

Looking at the five, remaining space adventurers, the creature roared and ran off into the crowd of its fellow aliens, which were being dealt with brutally by Shadow until almost nothing remained of those things, save for a few leftovers.

Amy dropped to her knees, tears filling her eyes as she looked down at the lifeless body of Ann the Cat, famous astronomer. Sonic came over to comfort her as Francois saluted and Dyson lowered his head, mourning the loss of a friend.

Even Rouge looked terrified. But she took out a com, pressed a button and said, "Mission report of the Gerald Expedition, Astronomer Annie Purington Cat of Mercia, England, deceased with honors and all tributes to her family. Rouge the Bat, signing off."

"The memorial and mourning can wait until later." Shadow said grimly, blasting another alien. "For now, just get her back to the ship. Actually, I'll take care of that." He picked up Ann's corpse and teleported away, returning seconds later, having just done the deed.

Unease and suspenseful uncertainty was on the group now, especially since they were now dealing with a mysterious enemy that had just taken a life from them.

"Should we head back and go home, make a report to the Federation?" Amy asked, bringing out her hammer and looking at it with uncertainty, her heart was pounding hard and she was still in sorrow over the loss of somebody she'd known only for a few months.

"Negative," Shadow replied, "I think we should continue the damn mission and look into... whatever those bastards are supposed to be. I say we keep exploring and blast those damn monsters straight to Hell itself."

"Can't believe I'm saying this, but I agree with Shadow" Sonic said, "We should keep going, but first, let's contact Tails and let him know about what's going on." He turned on the com, "Tails, do you read me, over? I got an update for you."

"What is it, blue? I hope everything's still fine." Tails replied.

"Things just took a nasty turn; we discovered a whole den of real nasty-lookin' alien creatures just like the one in the village and lost Ann to 'em. Some strange lookin' spider-scorpion thing latched onto her and it birthed an alien monster with her as the host."

"Yikes, that sounds really bad. I don't think I like where this is going, especially with what happened to Ann. Whatever these alien things are, they're extremely dangerous. Anyway, good luck, Sonic! Try not to kick the can."

The hedgehog signed off with Tails and looked at Amy, Shadow, Rouge, Francois and Dyson, the group knowing what they had to do. With their final decision made, they headed on further into the cave into the darkness ahead, deeper into the den of the enemy...