Disclaimer - please see earlier chapters.
Thanks to everybody who has read this so far as well as those who have reviewed.
Have finished my exams finally, so decided to get this up. Hope you like.
Alec went on a few hunts after that, nothing complicated, just as backup. He wanted to understand what these men did and why they did it, while he tried to find something that would prove to John, 100 percent, that what they were hunting were warped products from failed genetic experiments, rather than ghouls and goblins.
Ellen didn't say a word about it, neither did Molly, although he did find out that Kenny, the guy Molly was seeing, was also one of these hunters – which was part of the reason that John and Ellen didn't like the guy. He was one of the ones that left nothing but trouble in his wake, Ellen said.
Billy, though, thought it was great; he could tell Alec the stories, stories he had first heard as a baby. Stories of the Banshee that Sam took out in Florida with Dad when he was sixteen, the rawhide that almost got away until Dean tricked it into a pool of water allowing John to electrocute it. All the stories of the things that his brothers did before that day when they disappeared.
John was all right about Alec not wanting to push himself forward, thinking that it was for the best. The hunters in the Roadhouse were still divided about the situation in Seattle. Some were saying that 'the freaks', as the transgenics were being referred to by some in the bar, were just as bad as some of the things that they met in the night, that they were biding their time lulling people into a false sense of security before striking.
Not that they said the last part in front of Alec, knowing that he had friends among the transgenics out West. Alec was surprised how few of them had actually seen, let alone met, a real transgenic in the flesh, other than him; not that they had any idea he was one of the freaks they spoke of.
It was on a hunt in New Mexico that it happened; though at some point Alec should have realized that it would, especially with his luck.
A chupacabra was taking out cattle near Santa Fe, possibly a family of them seeing how many ranchers had noticed chickens had also been disappearing, but it wasn't until a little boy was attacked that it was brought to the attention of the hunting community.
John and Alec had packed up and driven west with a couple of other hunters who had talked a drunken John into helping them; damn things are like Road Runner, they said, and another pair of hands would be good.
Ellen had been more than a little pissed off seeing how she had gotten word that there was a possibility that they could get an appointment for Billy with a cardiologist in Lincoln. When he had heard that, John had tried to call the hunt off, though in the end Ellen agreed that if Alec went with them the job would probably be done quicker, four pairs of hands were better than three. As for the doctor, Ellen would get in touch as soon as she heard anything concrete.
The hunt itself wasn't difficult; basically waiting in fields as the sun went down, which meant they spent a lot of time sitting in the trucks. They found the last ranch that had been targeted. It seemed to be on the edge of the feeding range; the hunters guessed that the ranchers, fed up with the attacks, had moved the cattle elsewhere, so cutting off the food supply and sending the creatures after the local neighborhood children.
It had gone dark when it happened. The chicken coop had been hit; the hunters heard the disturbance. The things they were after had tasted human blood, and it was too risky to leave the creatures alive in a populated area.
When the hunters got there the coop had been emptied, and the thieves were making their way through the long grass. They seemed to disappear down an old storm drain. Alec followed them down, seeing how he got there before the other three men who were trailing behind him.
He carefully made his way along the drain making sure that he wasn't going to be blindsided. It was then that he caught sight of something in one of the side tunnels; it was close enough to make a grab for. He reached out, pulling it to the ground; it struggled, twisting in Alec's arms while holding onto its loot. It was small and dirty and kicked and bit for all it was worth. Alec twisted it around, taking a look at its pale face framed by a mass of white hair.
"Oh, hell no!" Alec exclaimed as he was attacked from the side by something slightly smaller than the child he had trapped in his arms. This one wasn't pale, had no hair. It had mottled skin like a reptile, was definitely male, and was carrying a large pipe.
"You let her alone!" the boy yelled, charging toward Alec.
"Great, I've got a gecko to deal with," Alec said, easily grabbing hold of the pipe and disarming the child.
The boy stood there, baring his teeth at Alec, ready to attack again, as was the other one who was now on her feet. Alec couldn't help but let out a little laugh at the tenacity of the kids in front of him. "It's okay; I'm not going to hurt you."
"You lie," the boy spat out. "Smooth skins lie."
Alec ran a hand over his face. It wouldn't be long before the others worked their way down here. "Right, kid, I lie." Alec squatted down and twisted around to show the kids in front of him the barcode hidden by his hair.
"You're an X?" the pale transgenic stammered.
"Yeah, kid, I am," Alec replied.
"You believe me now?"
The two of children looked at each other before snapping to attention. "Yes, sir, ready to report, sir!"
Alec sighed. "Brilliant, just brilliant."
The girl, who was an arctic transgenic, turned and whistled in the direction of one of the tunnels; a smaller desert unit came scurrying out of it. It held on to the chickens it was carrying, only dropping them when it snapped to attention as soon as it reached the other two.
"DAC 127 ready for duty, sir," it said in a small, but strong voice.
"Today is getting better and better," Alec said to no one in particular.
The hunters were at the edge of the storm drain, trying to work out which was the best way to go after Alec and the creatures they were following, when the voice cried out.
"I'm coming out," Alec shouted. "Put away the weapons."
"Alec, you all right?" John asked with more than a little concern in his voice.
"I'm fine, but I'm not coming out until the three of you put down the guns." There was a little pause, followed by some mumbling, and John could swear he heard Alec sighing before he added, "And we'll know if you don't because we can see you."
"Alec?" one of the other two men asked. "You sure you're fine?"
"Will you just put down the damn shotgun? I'm standing knee deep in God knows what here, and I'm sure I just saw something floating by that I don't want to know where it came from," Alec said, more than a little exasperated.
The three older men looked at each other before carefully lowering their weapons.
"Good – right, I'm coming out, and I'm just warning you I'm not alone."
"Alec," John said, a little more agitated, peering down the darkened stretch of pipe. "What's happening?"
"Take a step back and I'll come out, and before you get any ideas, they aren't the ones we're after."
"Who's with you?" one of the other hunters yelled.
Alec didn't reply for a second. "They're not who we're looking for, all right? Just back off and let me come out."
The three men nodded, not letting their guard down, but they took a step back, waiting for Alec to appear.
It took a second as Alec appeared from the dark; two arms were around his neck and there were two small forms trailing behind him, one wearing a cape and the other a woollen cap.
John raised the gun, not liking what he was seeing, causing Alec to stop.
"Pop, put the gun down. They've been stealing chickens, that's all. Nothing else, all right?"
John knotted his brow, slowly lowering the gun. Alec continued on his trudge, the small DAC on his back and the other two trailing behind.
"What the hell?" one of the other hunters said.
John opened his mouth to say something, but Alec beat him to it. "I don't know about you guys but I could really do with a shower right now," he said, continuing to walk by them, followed by the children.
John and the other two hunters sat in the motel room facing the three transgenic children as Alec took his long wanted shower. Two of the transgenics appeared to be the same type, lizard–like, although one of them was a clear foot taller than the other one. The third, in the cape, was very pale, and continuously eyed up the refrigerator although it hadn't made a move toward it.
As soon as the bathroom door opened, the three of them snapped to attention, causing the hunters to look at each other, a little shocked.
Alec turned to John, nodding to the other hunters, Rowl and Coflax. "You filled them in?"
John nodded. "Told them."
"And?"
"So you're really a… you know?" Rowl asked. Coflax picked up the half-empty whiskey bottle that was lying on the table.
"Yep, one lot of stolen human DNA and a few pieces from wild kingdom, and bingo you get me. Just like them three," Alec said, gesturing to the three children in front of him. He looked at the pale one. "Kid, water should be cold enough for you now, knock yourself out."
She bit her lip, not sure, if she should move.
"Go, now!" Alec ordered.
She looked at the other two before running toward the bathroom.
"Arctics' – promise them something cold and they're yours for life," Alec said jokingly before turning toward the older of the other two. "Saw a sandbox out back, kid. Take your friend and see it's secure and suitable; if it is, do what you have to, and I want to see the two of you back here in five."
The boy nodded. "Yes, sir."
The younger one followed the other to the door as Alec went to his bag, pulling out a couple of tee shirts and some sweats, throwing them in the direction of the kids. "Here, they'll do you for now. 'Cause the clothes you're in stink."
"Yes, sir!" the two said firmly before going outside.
Alec ran a palm over his face.
"What the hell was that?" Coflax asked, whiskey bottle still in hand.
Alec raised an eyebrow. "I'm not sure when they last had a bath, but from the look of them, it's been a while. Anyway, for DAC's at that age it's not too good for their skin if they don't make sure they get the rough stuff off first; a sand bath should do the trick, then they can have a proper shower. Anyway, she'll take awhile, it's almost 70 degrees already, poor kid must be suffering like hell in this heat."
"Suffering?" John asked.
"Yeah she's an arctic, the other two, desert. Looks like they've been running since the fire."
"And you are?" Rowl asked.
"X-5. It is a long story, but they're only kids. I'm not going to hurt you, and none of us have got anything to do with the dark-side, all right?"
The two older men looked at John. "What?" asked Coflax.
"He's Dean's clone," John replied. "I don't like it, he doesn't like it, but that is the way it is, and I'm not going to hold him responsible for what the bastards that made him did to Dean."
"Is that what happened?" Rowl asked. "The government?"
"Jesus, I knew it!" Coflax exclaimed. "Hunters have been disappearing for years; never did think all of them went through the hunt."
Alec sighed. "No, the government, to my knowledge, didn't pick you hunting types up off the side of the road to play with. It was Dean's dumb luck to get picked on."
Rowl looked at the doorway. "Guys, how do you know that we ain't going to have a momma coming looking for those three – we could have goddamn ten-foot lizard thing banging on our door."
"No, momma for the three of them was probably some junkie doing five to twenty, renting out her insides for a cushy ride inside and a guaranteed quality fix after the birth of the mutants she was carrying," Alec said as he started to look through his bag.
John knotted his brow, not exactly liking what Alec had said. "What?"
Alec looked up. He saw the look on John's face and realised that the two of them had never really discussed the subject. He scratched his nose. "Ahhh, well, that was what I heard. Transhumans, like them, didn't get the prime stock when it came to surrogates, and prisons were an easy place to get a lot of desperate women who they could control."
"And you?" John asked cautiously.
Alec shrugged. "Don't know, really. Some say the X's got girls from the local area, healthier ones, cut down the chance of mutation in our genome or something. Though personally, I don't know, never really thought too much about the rent control apartment I spent the first nine months in."
"Okay, I'm confused," Rowl said.
"He's saying we ain't going to get creature of the black lagoon tracking us down," Coflax said. "But how do you know that they weren't the ones we're after? How do we know that you two ain't covering their backs?"
"He's covered my back on the job and I know him. If you don't trust him then you don't trust me," John said firmly.
"John, its not that we don't trust you, but I'm just saying that you might have blinders on here," Coflax replied.
"That's right, no offence, John," Rowl said. "All you have is 'his' word, so how the hell can you be sure that these things aren't the things we should have been after in the first place? How do you know they ain't dangerous?"
"If they're dangerous? That dead kid was sucked dry; those three don't feed like that," Alec said.
"Yeah, like I'm going to take your word for that," Rowl replied.
Alec clenched his jaw. He really didn't need this. He picked Rowl, and the chair he was sitting on, clean off the floor. "If you want to worry about a transgenic, worry about me, because I can be dangerous. But if I was going to hurt you I would have done it already, and you wouldn't have known what hit you."
"Okay, I believe you," Rowl said.
"Calm down, now," John said. "Alec, back off. He was just asking."
Alec let Rowl down and took a step back. "They have a taste for chicken, not human; it wasn't something they used to feed us back at Manticore. Anyway, you asked us to come, not the other way around."
"Okay." Coflax nodded. "If you're sure that they ain't what we're looking for, do they know where we could find it?"
Alec shrugged. "You could ask them to see. But first, we need to get them some clothes because what they were in really needs to be burnt."
"What?"
"Clothes?"
"Yeah, clothes, and something for them to eat," Alec replied.
"Right, and if we do that, they'll be able to help?" Coflax said as he got up and headed toward the door. He stopped, turning to the others. "What the hell do we feed them?"