Evening all. So I want to apologize for the last post...one of my very good friends took his own life this weekend due to his on going struggle with depression. It has hit me and so many of my friends with heavy hearts. I just wanted to write a small note to any and all who read my stories...Please be there for those who need you. Listen to those who are having problems and be friends to those who have reached out to ask. Do not turn a blind eye because you think you have better things to do. Take it from me, there is nothing better than the friendships that we craft over the very small life that we have on this earth. So I hope that after reading this you will text, call or see a friend that you haven't talked to in a while. Re-connect and bring someone back into your life, we are all richer for those we have around us, not the items we are surrounded by.

R.I.P Mitch you will always be family and my brother.

Chapter 16: Surprise

"Father, it's too tight here. I cannot move much." Abby explained as the two walked through the forest.

"I know my daughter, but it is the only place to hide you." And in fact it was, for she now hid within one of the large back tubes that protruded from his exoskeleton. She had crawled in as far as she could before Bobby covered the hole with resin. She did the same to his other four tubs to hid what they had done from anyone smart enough to notice.

Abby shifted slightly, trying to pull her tail from behind her back, but there was really not much room. Even though she had been smaller than her sister, it was still a rather tight fit. One that he hoped she would not have to be in for long. Amun knew she was not comfortable.

"How much longer?" She asked and he felt he tail shift.

"To the city, not much further." They two had been walking for a day or two along the only paved road they could find. Amun was not truly sure if this was even the right road, but he could only hope. The time passed quickly with his daughter chatting away with the way they talked about a great many things that Amun could remember from his life before this one.

"So...then they throw it away?" She asked.

"Sort of, they have to throw it across a small, white plate to another human who is trying to catch it."

"O, and that is when the batter hits it?"

"He will try yes."

"Interesting...I don't think I would do that. I don't understand why you would throw away something you just caught." Amun had to laugh, Abby was truly a tracker and a hunter. He was glad she was with him. " I am interested in this other thing, what did you call it? Pop corn?"

"Yes, it's a light snack that you can flavor with many different things."

"It sounds good, I would like to try it with that mustard you mentioned." The comment made him smile. His smile was short lived with a strange sound that caught his attention. It had come from his left, somewhere past the trees that engulfed the road. "What is it Father?" I cannot see anything!"

"I do not know...it might be the outer sections of the city. I have to see." As he explained to Abby, he left the road and cut into the thick forest. This part of the forest was nothing like the area with the giant trees they had made their nest. It was littered with smaller, skinny trees that were tall with very little branches near the ground. Amun had to duck to keep his head under the canopy of leaves.

Soon enough he noticed a clearing just ahead and got low to the ground in attempts to see what was beyond. He could hear voices and cheering. Only when he was almost on the ground did he see what he had found.

A soccer game! He had stumbled onto a recreational field with a game going on. He watched as what looked like teenagers ran back and forth on the flat, gray grass. Their bodies were surrounded by clouds of colours. Some were excited and happy, others were to covered in sweat for him to see anything else. And a sea of white mist surrounded the crowed, it must be a rather good game from the amount of pheromones they were putting off.

"Father? I can hear voices? What is it?" He could tell that she was excited with the amount of fidgeting she was doing.

"Those are humans Abby. I wish you could see them. They look so happy with one another." It reminded him of the family he had before the first attack. And of the one he would have after this was all done.

"I wish I could play with them, it sounds like they are having fun. What are they doing?"

"They are playing a game called Soccer. It is one where you can only use your feet to maneuver a large ball into a goal while the opposite team attempts to stop you." As he explained the game, he was surprised that she did not rip through the resin cap that held her in and run onto the field. Amun could feel the overwhelming feeling of excitement from her.

"O father please! Can we?" Amun paused at the thought of walking out onto the field and realized that they had to make an entrance sooner or later. Why not during a game. He stood up slowly in the trees until his head was just under the soft leaves. he took a deep breath and prayed to anyone that this went off without a hitch. He lifted his head up and took a few steps forwards until he was out of the tree line.

Everything stopped and there was more than one hundred people staring at the Xenomorph King that was now at the edge of the field. Amun watched as the clouds of colours that surrounded the people turned a disgusting shade of yellow. As people stared, no one dare move or make a sound. Amun was not sure what to do, and then he remembered the last time he made himself public. He reached down and began to write with his large claws.

"HELLO. WHICH WAY DOWNTOWN?" He finished writing and looked up at the many stunned faces that had now watched the three story creature write in English. He watched as a few players that were closest to him moved to read the message better. After a few of them did, they all pointed fingers to the left side of the field. There was a large hill a small distance away which must be hiding the towers of down town. He bowed his head and took one step before he stopped. He looked back towards all the people who still had not run in fear. He reached down once more.

"NOT AFRAID?" He wrote, wondering why the screaming had not happened the moment he came forth from the trees. A few of the players read the message and looked up at the Xenomorph.

"You are the same alien aren't you? The one who wanted to save his friend?" One of them asked. Amun was a bit shocked that they still remembered. It had to have been a few years now since he had sat in the middle of downtown and talked with the chief of police. Amun nodded his large crown.

"The news said that you were dead. They said you destroyed a few towns. So they took you out with some missiles or something." The teenager explained. The fact that they thought they could kill him so easily was amusing, but strange that they created such a lie. What was the end goal? Would it not have been better to have the whole country looking for him? And then it all made sense.

The reason they had been left alone with no one chasing them. The random attack that took out most of his family. They had been tracking them since day one. Following their every move so they could watch and learn. They didn't want to chase them because then they would have never acted naturally. This whole thing had been an experiment! Planned so that they could gather all the information they could before striking them down.

"Son of a bitch!" He let out a low growl, one that caused all the players on the field to take a few steps back.

"Father? What is wrong? What is a bitch?" Abby asked, feeling his anger and frustration.

"They tricked us Abby, they have always been watching us. They knew the exact time to attack our hive, the exact time that we were vulnerable because they always knew." He reached done one last time to write.

"WHERE ARE THEY?" He watched as they read.

"They have an office down town I think. They became a huge deal after killing the alien." It was all he needed to get going, his rage partially leading the way. How could he have been so stupid! He didn't waste another second, he took off running towards the hill they had directed him towards. And that was when the screaming started. He had not meant to cause them fear, but a giant Xeno King taking off towards town probably had that effect. Into the small trees he drove, having nothing large enough to slow his powerful legs down. Amun tore a path through the vegetation, letting out as much anger as he could upon the innocent vegetation.

"Father? What is going on? I hate not being able to see!" He did feel that he had left her in the dark a bit.

"We are making our way to the center of town. Be ready, I will try to help you but if anything goes wrong you will need to think on your feet. Once they take me, you will break out of my tube when you feel there is no one around. Hide until you find a way to sneak away and explore the labs. You need to find a way to cut the power. Do you remember the house on the farm?"

"Yes, the big box with the wires that I cut?"

"This might be a lot bigger, you will have to find a way to destroy the power without touching it. Next, you will hav-" His sentence was cut short as he crested the hill and something impacted his chest. It threw him back with such force that it took him off his feet and onto his back. Amun could see nothing but smoke and trees. The pain in his chest burned and he could hear nothing but ringing.

"Father? What happened?" He recovered quickly to his feet and took off running once more. This time he ran along the base of the hill. As he did, he could feel the acid blood begin to flow from his rib cage.

"Hit with something. I'm ok, just need to find out from where." He slowed and crested the hill a second time. He waited and watched before something caught his attention. He sharply cut his body to the side, just in time for something to fly by and barley miss him. He looked in the direction it had come from to see something he did not expect. He could just make out the shapes of what ever was making the attack and knew what they were. A line of tanks far off in the distance to his left along another tree line. The only thing that was a dead giveaway was the cloud of smoke from the barrel that had just fired. They were outside of the city limits thank god, the company was not completely crazy. However they were still taking shots towards a populated area! Abby had felt his fear.

"Run! She screamed, knowing that whatever it was he was looking at was not good. He took her advice just as another crack in the distance signalled another round in the air. He lowered his body in time for the shell to whistle passed.

"This is not how I wanted this to go!" He said as he ran towards the tall sky scrapers in the distance. He hoped he could find cover using the large buildings. He only hoped that the company cared enough for innocent lives that they would not fire. It might be a big gamble.

He slid down the hill and came upon a major road that seemed to lead right to downtown. It's six lanes busy with traffic from people who were unaware what was happening in their city. Amun quickly studied the road and found that the only path he could take was a grass divider that was between the lanes. He crouched and leapt to land between the speeding cars. He wasted no time and took off running, as he did all the cars in the immediate area began to slam on their breaks. Everyone in their vehicles now stopped to stare at the large alien that was sprinting full speed along the highway.

Amun hoped that everyone was alright and that no injuries would occur. Just then, a patch of grass exploded in front of from another tank shell. Dirt and grass flew up and impacted his face as he ran. It did nothing to slow him, but it showed that his attackers did not care about shooting near people. He had to find a safer way to do this, he had to find a spot where no one would be hurt.

"Father, are there any forests nearby? One within the city?" Abby must have felt is mental conflict and wanted to help. Amun thought for a moment, but realized that aside from knowing of the city, he still had no memory of his life before becoming a Xeno. He would have to find higher ground to find something. A tank shell exploded beside him, this time the impact flung him from the grass and onto the road. He slammed hard into the pavement before rolling into the container of a semi truck, crushing it flat.

His head was ringing and spinning violently which caused him to stumble as he attempted to stand. He tripped over a car as he did, taking the top clear off of it. He looked down to see a screaming figure still in the driver seat. He had no time, he had to keep moving. He took off once more, this time on the shoulder of the road. his clawed feet tearing up the pavement as he went.

"Father we cannot keep getting hit like that, we need to find cover!" Abby screamed. Amun looked towards the towers. A park would have been better, but the towers were all he had now. He leapt from the highway and onto a side street where he began to zig-zag down streets and between buildings. He ran and ran, dodging people, vehicles and buildings as he went. After a while, he noticed something off so he slowed down to a jog.

"What is it father?" Abby asked when she noticed their change of pace.

"Something is wrong...what happened to the tanks?" It had been too long since the last shot on the highway. They should still have been able to see him from where they had been located. Something was wrong. He came to a complete stop, took a deep breath and listened. He heard the screams of terrified people running for cover, he heard the screeching of tires coming to a quick stop, he heard...something else...something far off in the distance. It was a loud rumble in the sky.

He brought his large head up and to his right to gaze into the sea of gray. He noticed something small off in the distance, hovering in place. He watched it, not knowing what it was. That was when he saw something break off from it and began to rocket towards him. That's when it clicked and fear washed over him. He turn and ran as fast as he could for the tall towers downtown.

"Father?! What is it!?" Abby quickly asked.

"MISSLE!" It was all he had time to say as he ran. He had to focus, had to get himself and Abby out of harms was. Even over his thunderous footsteps, Amun could hear the missile as it cut through the sky towards them. It was close...to close. The first buildings were only a few hundred yards off, he prayed he would make it in time.

Closer and closer he heard it come as he ran, he knew they would not make it. So he leapt, aiming for the side of the first building of down town that he wanting to use for cover. He shot through the air, his large body like a comet. Before he knew what had happened, he was flying through the air in a different direction. The missile had struck the building as they went by and flung him sideways. His back impacted the structure that was across the street, taking the wind from him.

Again his head rang and spun as rubble, glass and steel fell around him. His senses snapped back when he realized what part of him had impacted the building first.

"ABBY!" He shouted mentally at her, hoping she had not been hurt.

"I'm...I'm ok, just a bit squished. Keep...keep going Father!" Amun knew she was lying, she was slightly injured but determined to keep going. Amun had to work his body out of the crater he had made in the side of the shorter building. When he got his weight to his feet there was a sharp pain that ran up his leg. He looked down to see a rather large piece of steel protruding from his left calf. He watched as his acid blood ate away at it before causing it to drop to the ground, half of it melted away.

Amun quickly worked up some resin from his mouth and collected it in his hands. Using it as a band-aid, he smeared it across the wound until it was closed. The resin began to harden immediately but he had no time to wait, he was sure another missile would be on the way, and he now had no speed to outrun it. He had to think, he had to change his plan.

" Abby, we may have to both play this one by ear." He told his hidden daughter as he slowly made his was deeper into the towers. He felt a wave of confusion from her.

"What is an ear?" The comment made him laugh, he had forgotten that his daughter was still new to the world.

"Never mind, it means that we will have to think on our feet and adapt as events unfold." He felt agreement from her. Amun rounded a tall glass tower and made his way down the street, still having to watch where he stepped. There were still many people going about their lives who had not yet known of their presence. Amun stopped and realized that he could help with that. There was a way that he could help keep the collateral damage down to a minimum. He took in a monstrous sized breath and began to roar. Glass from every direction shattered, the ground rumbled and everyone for a few kilometres would now hear the mighty sound of the king.

His roar was long, displaying his strength and might to its fullest. As he continued, he watched as more and more people evacuated from the base of each building and started running in the opposite direction. When he was satisfied that everyone had heard him, and that most of the glass was shattered, he stopped and continued on his way.

He had to think of a way to make this work. He needed to be captured, but had to make sure Abby was still safe and hidden. Being blown up by a tank or a missile would not help with that.

"Think Amun THINK!" He thought to himself as he hobbled his way between the buildings. It was then that he heard it, he turned around quickly, but not quick enough. The second missile impacted the ground in front of him, sending him tumbling through the air. He could not tell which way was up or down. It did not matter for his head slammed into a concrete pillar of a near buy building and the world went black.