"And here's where I'd put a trophy. IF I HAD ONE! Sorry! Lost the happy. But, the happy's back!" Alyssa couldn't help but snort as she watched the dumb cartoon out of boredom. She was starting an internship at her parents' job, with Weyland-Yutani. Her parents were scientists, ones that studied other other planets for Peter Weyland; wanting to see what other planets humans could inhabit. She loved the idea of finding another planet to colonize, but she also loved archeology. Finding ancient civilizations and seeing how people used to live centuries ago. The past was fun for her to learn about.
"I'm telling you both, you're daughter's going to LOVE going out into the field with the other scientists and exploring these ancient ruins. You said she wants to find ancient civilizations, didn't you?" She looked up to see her parents and Charles Weyland coming into the room.
"Well, she does, but is this really the best start for her? This seems a bit too soon as an intern," her mother, Renee stated.
"Not to mention we study other planets, so it's a little strange to have us go as well," her father, Markus, added.
"Nonsense! Think of how great this will look on her resume, and as a freshman in college at that!" Mr. Weyland said in excitement. "Not to mention, we've found TWO of these pyramids. Now I won't send her to the one in Antarctica, I know you said she hates the cold, plus I'm still trying to get in contact with Alexa Woods to act as a guide for that trip."
"Didn't you sue her?" Renee asked.
He just waved that off. "Let's not go into the details of something from the past," he said while stopping in front of Alyssa. "Let's instead focus on the future of your daughter!" He held his hand out to her as she stood, taking hers to shake it. "It's a pleasure to meet such a bright eyed child, little lady."
She smiled at his goofy demeanor and chuckled. "Nice to meet you too, Mr. Weyland."
"So, are you excited for this expedition?" He asked, hopeful.
She nodded, a large smile on her face. "Are you kidding me? Of course I am. You said the pyramid looked like it had been built by Aztecs, Cambodians and Egyptians?"
"From what my experts say, yes. They just can't agree on who built it and when. Same for the one in Antarctica."
"When will you be making the trip out there?"
"In a week, same as your trip."
"Oh, you're not coming?" She asked, surprised.
He shook his head. "No, I've got to be able to get BOTH of these places under my name before someone else does. But that's where YOU come in, sweetheart. I'd love to see your name on this pyramid's find, in the nice warm weather of the amazon, while I'll discover the one out in the cold. Think about it," he started, putting his arm around her shoulders while fanning his hand out in front of them. "18-year-old college student helps discover ancient civilization in the Amazon with Weyland-Yutani industries. How does that sound? Get your name on something BIG like this. Have your future set for life. Big house, family of your own, don't have to worry about your own kids' college expenses? Big fluffy dog or cat, maybe both?"
"Sounds great if I'm being honest."
"Doesn't it? And what'll be even better is having your parents right beside you to share your achievement! And this way, they'll see you're perfectly safe!"
"Well, I certainly feel safer with my parents going as well," she said.
Her parents looked at eachother, unsure, but sighed when they saw how excited their daughter looked. "I…I guess it could be a great opportunity," Renee said.
"Yes!" She cheered while Charles ruffled her hair with a laugh.
"You'll love it, kid. There will be plenty of other scientists and another archeologist going with you. I'm sure you'll get to learn some things you didn't originally know!"
"She's always loved learning," Markus said with a laugh while Alyssa jumped up and down in one spot in excitement. "Even with her learning disability, she's loved going to school and learning."
"Just an abnormal weirdo in society," she joked. She couldn't help but snort as her mother rolled her eyes before making her lean down to kiss her forehead. She was an inch and a quarter taller than her mother, being 5'4.25" and yes the quarter inch was important to her, while her mother was 5'3".
"I think we all are in our own way," Charles said with a laugh. "Now let's go see the group you're going to work with," he said while leading them away. There was a large group of people that were listening to a man talk.
"Some of you may wonder why this team was assembled. Your host will give you that answer now. Mr. Weyland."
"That's our cue, kiddo," he said to her with a smile as they walked into the room, her parents close behind. "The other day, my satellites over Antarctica and the Amazon, hunting for mineral deposits, discovered a sudden heat bloom beneath the earth which outlined this." The screen before the group showed an outline of a temple. "The red lines indicate solid walls. Through thermal mapping, we generated a rough three-dimensional image of the structure. It's massive, containing hundreds of rooms, all built around a central core. My experts tell me it's a pyramid. What they can't agree on is who built it and when. One expert tells me it has features reminiscent of the Aztecs," he said while pulling up an actual picture. "One tells me it's probably Cambodian. But what they all seem to agree on is that the smooth side is definitively Egyptian." He then looked at Alyssa. "Now that you've gotten a good look at it, what do you think?"
Her eyes were wide with wonder. "It's all three. All of them are right. It contains features of all three cultures. This…this has to be one of the first pyramids ever built!"
"By whom?" One man asked with a scoff.
"The first civilization."
"And there just so happens to be two in two different places?" He asked, sounding unimpressed.
"It's possible one was built first and then abandoned it to build somewhere else, landing themselves in the other location," Alyssa answered.
"But how could a pyramid be built out in Antarctica?" Another man asked, sounding more confused than anything.
"There are ancient maps that show Antarctica free of ice. My guess is it was built first and then abandoned for the one here in the Amazon when the climate started to change," she said.
"Well, I can't tell you who built it, like my angry friend here," he said while pointing to the man that gave her attitude. "But if I could take a sample from it, I could tell you how old it is. If the Antarctica team does the same, then we can find out which one was built first."
"Well, Dr. Matthews, that's why I'm offering to put you right next to this thing. The chemical engineer I'm hiring for the other team will be Dr. Miller. And Professor Jamerson, I'd like for you to treat our younger guest here with more respect. She IS the one who corrected a translation error in the Smithsonian afterall over egyptian text. This is going to be a great first hands-on experience for her, and I'd like for it to go well."
"You're having a KID go with us?" Jamerson asked, annoyed. "I'm a professional archeologist, I HAVE my degree already."
"And yet she corrected your work back in high school as a freshman," Charles countered, shutting him up.
"So, what exactly caused the heat bloom?" Another man asked.
"I don't know, unfortunately."
"Where is this pyramid at in Brazil?" He asked.
"Cotoca. But it's not anywhere by it, it's 2,000 feet below it."
"So a lost city was also hiding another lost pyramid. Fascinating," the man said.
The man that had been talking with the group looked at one other man. "Mr. Johnson."
"Mr. Stafford, you are looking at one of the best drilling teams in the world. We'll chew through that rock in seven days, tops."
"That's what I like to hear. Now, I hope your expedition turns up successful." With that, he turned around and left, with Alyssa and her parents following close behind.
"Is that why you wanted me to come, Mr. Weyland? Because I had fixed that man's mistakes?"
He just chuckled. "While it's true that I trust your translation and judgement far more than his, I wanted you to come so you could see what it's like to work for me first-hand, like your parents."
"But they look at other planets," she commented, making him laugh.
"Yes, I know. But who knows, maybe one day we'll find life on other planets and you'll be one of the first to explore other life-forms' histories!"
"You really think I could be the first?" She asked, hopeful.
"Who knows, but you never really know until you try. So why not try seeing what it's like working for me by going on this trip?"
She just nodded. "I can't wait!"
"You know what, we need a picture of you before and after you're famous," Charles stated. "Let's head up to my office and get a picture." Once up there, he grabbed a small whiteboard and wrote "Future Explorer" on it and handed it to Alyssa and went looking through his office closet to grab a tripod camera and set it up. "Alright, you two stand on either side of your daughter right behind her. Let's hurry, timer's going!" They all laughed and huddled together, both her parents and Charles had their hands on her shoulders and smiled just before the picture was taken. "Alright, let's take a look." He smiled at the result. "Perfect!" He showed it to them. "I'm proud of you, kid." He said.
"Thanks, Mr. Weyland."
"We're all proud of you. You're a special girl," her mother said.
"Hell, I'm going to have to fend off some idiot boys with a stick after this," her father said with a laugh. She just smiled. Next week was going to be the best week of her life, she just knew it.
By the next week, up in space, two large ships were floating nearby. One over Antarctica, and one over Brazil. Both fired a laser directly at the Earth, drilling a hole deep into the ground. A large, terrifying alien looked over the destination over Brazil, a mandible quirked up slightly in the form of a smile. "Alright, by this time tomorrow, both sets of unblooded hunters shall be released to hunt the hard meats. I wonder how many Yeyinde shall obtain in this hunt?"
"I bet I shall obtain more than you did on your chiva, brother," another alien said as he walked into the room, smirking.
The older alien barked out a laugh and slapped him on the shoulder. "Perhaps you will or perhaps you won't. What I am sure of is that you shall impress many females as I have, and our father is eagerly awaiting to hear how you do while he takes the other group to the cold lands of this planet."
"I look forward to making you both proud and siring many sons and daughters for mother to spoil," he said with a laugh.
His brother, Bakuub, laughed as well. "You are the youngest, afterall. She has seen our brothers and sisters start their own families and is ready to see you start your own as well. She is worried, you know. The women you are wanting to impress are…not exactly wanting to bear more pups."
He scoffed. "When they see the amount of trophies I bring back, they'll be demanding I serve them in the bedroom and impregnate them. I shall have many wives and many children."
Bakuub just rolled his eyes. "So you always say, brother. But, maybe, you'll actually want a lifemate like the rest of us."
"One woman is not enough for me," he said before looking at the hologram of the pyramid. "Just like one trophy is not enough for me to bring back home." There was one female in mind that he wanted to impress more than anything. A brown and red female named Da'dtou-di. She was vicious and cunning, wasn't afraid to take on anything or anyone. She was decorated in many scars and practically towered over every male she came across. She refused to mate with any male, though, unless they could beat her in battle. So far, no male has received her attention yet. But he would change her mind. He would make her one of many wives, but she would be his favorite. Or maybe he'd change his mind once he had her attention.
Alyssa yawned as the trucks drove to their destination. "Tired, sweetheart?" Her father asked.
"Well, it's like 1 in the morning, so yeah," she stated with a snort.
"Ah, don't worry. Once we're done exploring this place, you can sleep all you want on the way back home," he said with a laugh.
"I plan on it, don't worry." Once they made it to their destination, they were surprised by what they saw. There was already a giant hole drilled out in the ground.
"What the hell. It's drilled at a perfect thirty degree angle," Johnson stated as he took measurements on some device and opened up a computer.
"How far does it go down?" Alyssa asked.
"All the way down to the pyramid, ma'am," he said, surprising her and annoying Jamerson.
"Ma'am?" He asked.
"Mr. Weyland seems to trust her more than you, so we're looking at following her orders over you," Johnson stated.
"Oh this is bullshit!" He argued. "She a fucking college freshman! This is my ACTUAL JOB!"
"And yet she does it better," Johnson argued back, pissing him off.
Alyssa didn't feel too good about this and decided to call Charles. "Hello?" He answered once he picked up.
"Hi, Mr. Weyland. So we're here at the site but…it appears someone must have gotten here before us somehow. There's…there's already a hole drilled."
He sighed. "It's the same here, too. It leads all the way to the pyramid. It wasn't here yesterday either. And, looking at your location, it's the same for you guys."
"This should have taken weeks…not hours," Alyssa said under her breath as she looked at the computer herself, deciding to check the satellite's time stamp by each hour. "No…not even, this showed up in seconds."
"How was it done?" Dr. Matthews asked.
"Thermal equipment of some kind," Johnson said.
"Like yours?" Charles asked over the phone.
"More advanced. Incredibly powerful."
"That's what my guy's saying over here, too. You guys proceed with caution, ok?"
"We will, Mr. Weyland." With that, he hung up and Alyssa sighed.
"I've never seen anything like this. There's no machine or team that could cut through solid rock like this to this depth in 24 hours."
"Well, I guess the only way we're gonna know for sure is to go down there and find out," Alyssa stated. Something wasn't sitting right with her, though. Not to mention, she felt like they were being watched.
"Well, we'll set up base camp up here. Everyone get ready, we're heading down soon!"
Back up in space, Yeyinde and his two other comrades were gearing up to go down to Earth and start their Chiva. Bakuub walked over to Yeyinde, a smile on his face. "Are you ready, brother?"
He just laughed and grabbed his mask after strapping his weapons on. "I should already be down there killing hardmeats, but yet I'm still up here talking with you."
"Hey, I'm your brother and commanding officer; I'll stall you as long as I want to make sure my idiot brother makes it back alive so our mother doesn't bite my head off."
Yeyinde just snorted and put his mask on. "I'll be just fine, Bakuub, I promise. I may be excited but I won't do anything to get myself killed. Have the humans entered yet?"
Bakuub looked at the hologram, seeing many humans walking around down there. He was a little concerned with one of them, though. "She looks far too young to be a sacrifice," Bakuub said under his breath, gaining the unblooded hunters' attention and making all three of them come over. They looked to see a young girl bouncing around in place, looking extremely nervous while the male next to her placed his hand on her head to make her stop and she just laughed. They then took notice of all the equipment the humans had brought with them. "Cjit, these aren't normal sacrifices. It's a bunch of scientists and they brought a pup with them."
"What do we do about her?" Maukule, one of the other unblooded hunters, asked.
He took a deep breath and sighed, scratching his head in thought. "Do what you can to get her out of there without getting killed. Damn oomans, getting their own pups killed at such ages. Pauking ridiculous." It wasn't long before the three were sent out in some escape pods and went crashing into the ground below, miles away from the humans.
Back down on Earth, everyone was strapped up and slowly making their way down the hole, until Alyssa's cable suddenly released and she went falling back. "ALYSSA!" Her parents screamed as they watched their daughter fall, screaming along the way as no one was able to catch her.
She tumbled all the way down, ending up covered in dirt, cuts and bruises until she finally came to a stop at the bottom. "Uhhhhh….everything hurts." The radio at her hip went off.
"Hey, kid, can you hear me!?" It was Johnson.
Groaning, she picked it up and answered. "Yeah…yeah, I can hear you."
"Oh thank god," her father answered on his.
"What even happened?" She asked.
"A sudden dust storm picked up and knocked a tarp loose. It went flying into your cable."
"Well," she groaned as she sat up. "Nothing's broken." She lit a flare she had in her pocket and looked around. "Weird…there's…there's no drilling equipment down here."
"None?" Johnson asked.
"No, nothing at all. It's just…just a giant cave system."
"Sweetheart, you just stay put, we'll be down there soon!" Her mother said.
"Trust me, I'm not going anywhere right now. Waaay too sore."
"Does anything feel broken?" Her father asked.
"No, just bruised and scratched up a bit. I'll be fine." With that she sighed and waited until everyone came down before standing back up.
Jamerson started another flare once Alyssa's went out. "I don't understand it. There's no equipment. No sign of another team."
"Well, the tunnel didn't dig itself, that's for sure," Alyssa stated. The others came in and started setting up lights and power so they could all see. Once the lights were on, they could see the pyramid in front of them. "Well, let's go make history." They made their way up the pyramid steps and walked inside. Alyssa found herself intrigued by the markings on the walls. It looked like a warrior fighting some alien, lizard-like creature with a second mouth coming out of its mouth. Without realizing it, Jamerson had stepped on a trap tile that activated something terrifying in the bottom chamber below the pyramid.
"Jackson," Jamerson said to one of the men with them, as he pointed his flashlight at a wall.
"What is it? I recognize the Egyptian."
"The second symbol is Aztec," Jamerson said as Alyssa came over to look. "Pre-conquest era. The third is Cambodian." He looked annoyed as he gave Alyssa a look. "Seems that you were right. The pyramid contains all three cultures."
"You may…choose…to enter. Those who choose may enter," Jackson read, only for Alyssa to give him a weird look while Jamerson looked more annoyed.
"Who taught you to translate?"
"Funny, kind of looked like you."
"Unfortunately he taught you wrong, then. Because this actually says chosen. Only the chosen ones may enter," Alyssa stated, making the others around her snort.
"I guess this is why Mr. Weyland wanted her to come with us," one woman stated.
Jamerson just scoffed and started walking away. "Whatever," he said in annoyance.
Meanwhile, outside as the dust storm raged on, one man was by himself, trying to find his way back to the group as he had gotten a bit lost after walking off to relieve himself. Strange clicks surrounded him, and he pulled his gun out in fear, thinking a large animal was stalking him. "Quinn, is that you out there?!" He hoped.
Back at the campsite, his companions heard him scream in pain before he was silenced. It wasn't long before they were suddenly attacked and slaughtered as well, wasting all their ammo trying to kill whatever invisible being was attacking them. "Mikkel!" Johnson came running in when he heard the fight, just to see his crew members being strung up by their feet and an invisible set of blades covered in blood just two feet away from him. He rushed out and quickly closed the metal door just for a combi stick to pierce through it and force him to take off running. He tripped on a gun from one of his coworkers that was lying on the ground and started firing when he saw something ripple on top of one of the drills. The thing he shot at uncloaked itself and roared at him before jumping down and punching him straight into the hole they drilled, watching as he screamed all the way down.
The other two hunters he was with uncloaked next to him. "Did the ooman actually manage to hit you, Yeyinde?"
He shook his head. "No, just the armor. If he doesn't die from the fall down there, I'll be taking his head as one of my trophies." He then pulled up a hologram of the pyramid on his gauntlet. "It looks like they've made it to the sacrificial room. Hopefully the female doesn't stay in there for too long"
Back in the pyramid, everyone was surprised by what they found. "What is all of this?" Renee asked.
"It's a sacrificial chamber," Jamerson stated.
"Just like the Aztecs and Egyptians," Jackson said. "Whoever built this pyramid believed in ritual sacrifice. This is where the chosen ones were offered to the gods." There were skulls all over the walls of the room, and skeletons covered in spiderwebs and dust, dressed in Aztec jewelry. And something strangely spider-like laid upon their heads.
Jamerson looked at the bodies. "Those that were chosen would lie here. They weren't bound or tied in any way. They went to die willingly. Men and women. It was considered an honor."
"Lucky them," Renee said with disgust.
Jackson was looking at some more carvings. "They gave their lives so the hunt could begin."
Alyssa walked over to look at it with him. "What could that mean?"
He just shook his head. "Not sure."
She then looked at the body. Something about it didn't look right. "What exactly happened to them?"
"It's common in ritual sacrifices to take the heart of the victim."
"Morbid. Unfortunately, that's not where the heart is. Also, look at the bones. They look like they've been bent out, like something broke out from the inside." She noticed Jamerson was cracking a glow stick. "What'd you find?"
"It's a shaft to another level," he said, dropping the glow stick down the hole. "Looks like there's another room down there."
Back at the entrance, Johnson ended up waking up just as the Yautja entered the tunnel and quietly watched in fear as the two walked by, completely oblivious to Yeyind staring down at him until it was too late as he noticed the blades swinging for his head. "Yeyinde, we don't have time for you to play with the inferior trophies. We have bigger ones to obtain as well as trying to protect a young oomani," Halkrath, the other predator, stated, making him roll his eyes.
"What are we even supposed to do with this ooman anyway once we get her out of here? She'll have seen too much," Yeyinde brought up.
"I don't believe she'll really talk about what happened here," Maukule said. "She'll probably be too afraid and run the second we get her out of here and go back to doing whatever it was she was doing before being brought here." An idea then came to mind. "You weren't planning on bringing her back as a pet for Da'dtou-di, were you? That female will kill her! There's no honor in that!"
Yeyinde just scoffed. "The oomans used to worship our kind as gods. What's so bad about keeping one as a pet? They can be bred and have their offspring sold off as pets as well."
Both of the other hunters just shook their heads in disgust. "Unlike the other prey we hunt, oomans cry at the loss of their pups. You're really ok with listening to a female cry every night because you took her babies? If that's how you feel then Da'dtou-di has already warped your mind, my friend. The female is better off living amongst her own kind. She wouldn't survive on our planet."
Back in the pyramid, everyone was getting ready to move out of the room until Jamerson made them stop. "Jackson, I want you all to stay here. We need documentation about everything in this room. After that, go ahead and take everything you found back to camp."
"I don't really think that's a good idea," Alyssa said, making him groan. "We can just come back and document everything later."
"Look, kid, you may be smart enough to translate another language, but I do this shit for a living, so I know what I'm doing. Ok? Now you all stay here and do your damn job."
Alyssa could only stare at him, bewildered before looking back at the others. They just shook their heads. "Don't worry about us, kid. We'll get what we need quickly and get everything back to base."
"Well, alright. If you guys say so." With that, she and the others not staying behind followed after Jamerson, making their way down below until they found the glow stick Jamerson dropped. "This should be below the sacrificial chamber." She noticed something against the wall. "What's this?"
"It's a sarcophagus," Jamerson answered. "This is the long count." He blew a large amount of dirt off of it. "This is the Aztec calendar. And this- it's some kind of combination lock." He looked at the dials on it. "Months…days…years. The date is set for…1904."
"Someone opened this 100 years ago?"
"What's today's date?" Jamerson asked.
"October 9th."
"10/9, 2004."
"Is this going to work?" Markus asked.
"I don't know," Jamerson stated as he fiddled with the dials. It managed to open and started spewing smoke, causing all of them to run. Jamerson walked back over to it once the smoke was just settling inside the sarcophagus. "Oh my god. Take a look at this." Inside were three strange weapons.
"Any idea what these are?" Dr. Matthews asked.
"No idea."
Alyssa sighed and scratched her head. "Well, I think we've been out here long enough for today. I say we head back to base camp and come back down tomorrow to explore the rest of the pyramid." Everyone nodded in agreement.
"What should we do with these?" Dr. Matthews asked.
"Just leave them for now, I'd rather we didn't accidentally break them if we try to move them," Alyssa said and turned around to start walking when she heard someone pick one up, followed by the next two. Jamerson had grabbed all three and the sarcophagus had immediately closed. The door back had suddenly closed, locking them inside, but stairs had opened up below them. "You idiot! It was a trap!"
At the entrance of the pyramid, Yeyinde saw on the hologram that their plasma guns had been obtained by one of the humans. "We're officially on a time limit. Let's hurry up and get the female out as fast as possible."
Back in the sacrificial room, everyone had tried to keep the rock doors from slamming down with their equipment, but with no luck. They were trapped. "We'll never be able to move that wall," the lady next to Jackson stated, just as something behind them started to move. They turned around to see some eggs appearing behind them where the dead bodies lied. There were seven of them, for all seven of the humans in the room. Jackson shined his flashlight on one of the eggs and saw something spider-like moving around inside. "What did you say this room was called?" She asked.
"Sacrificial chamber," he said with fear, just as the eggs hatched and the spider-like creature leaped out and attached to their faces. They gave out muffled screams, which the others could hear below.
"Jackson, come in!" Jamerson tried calling him on his radio, but the man wouldn't pick up, neither would anyone else.
"We need to round up the rest of the team and get out of here."
"What about Jackson and the others?" Jamerson asked.
"We'll have to find them on the way back up."
"Well, the heat bloom that the satellites picked up makes sense now," Dr. Matthews brought up. "A building this sophisticated would require a major energy source. That must have been what the satellite was detecting; a power plant for this pyramid firing up. Preparing."
"Preparing?" Alyssa asked. "For what?"
He could only shrug. "I don't know. But I have a feeling we're not going to like it when we find out." They went down to the lower levels, the rest of the team carrying their guns and leading forward. Alyssa looked around at the many statues surrounding them. They looked like the same warrior that she'd seen carved earlier. She couldn't help but notice something familiar as well.
"Do you recognize what's on their shoulders?" She asked Jamerson.
"Yeah," he said. "We worshiped these things?"
Alyssa looked at some of the hieroglyphics on the wall. "According to this we did. Not only that, but the artifacts you removed from the sarcophagus seem to be their weapons."
Renee was looking at the compass on her watch. "Let's keep moving. Only another 200 yards until we reach the entrance. Alyssa, sweetie, stay close."
"Yes mom," she answered. She heard Jamerson mock her under his breath and she glared at him. "What the heck is your problem?"
He just scoffed. "What do you think? A child is leading a team that I should be leading, and yet I have to listen to you. It's ridiculous."
"You know, thanks for reminding me that I'm the one leading. Because now, once we're back on the surface, you're no longer needed for anything. You're fired." She turned on her heel and he sputtered.
"You can't fire me!"
"I think you'll find that I just did," she stated with a growl as she caught up to her parents. She stopped short though when she heard a set of feet b-lining for her and she quickly turned around and thrusted her leg up into Jamerson's crotch while he had his hand raised, making him drop to the ground.
"If you even THINK about laying a hand on my daughter again I'll gut you immediately," her father warned, making Jamerson growl at him. With that he turned around and placed an arm around his daughter's shoulders, as did Renee.
Up above on the statues, Yeyinde, Maukule and Halkrath watched as Jamerson slowly stood back up, trying not to throw up it seemed as well. "Huh, wasn't expecting a female so short to stand up to a taller male," Maukule said in surprise.
"Father did actually find that the shorter female oomans had a temper, like our women, and tend to put the males in their place," Yeyinde commented. He couldn't help but feel…slightly proud of how the young female handled the angry male. And the look on her face said she didn't put up with shit, either. She would probably have strong children if she found a mate.
"The older male and female must be her sires, from how they're protecting her," Halkrath stated, bringing Yeyinde out of his thoughts. He had started stringing up a noose as well. "Whatever the reason they came here, it must have been for training if there's a family unit." They quickly shut up when she suddenly looked towards their direction and immediately cloaked themselves.
"Alyssa? Are you ok?" Her mother asked.
She just tilted her head in confusion, not taking her eyes away from them until she suddenly shrugged, finally looking away. "Yeah, just thought I heard something. A clicking. Must be some of the wall falling apart, who knows."
All three Yautja sighed when she looked away before uncloaking. "Why was THAT the most terrifying thing I've ever had to deal with?" Yeyinde asked, only to receive nods.
"Probably because we weren't expecting an ooman to hear us," Halkrath stated as he lowered the noose. They were only meant to get the girl out, no one else. But seeing as her sires were unarmed, maybe they could get them out as well. At least they would try. For now, they'd try to pick off the team one at a time. He tried to rope Jamerson, since he had tried to attack the female, but he moved out of the way at random, leaving the guy behind him to get snared instead. Eh, he had a gun anyway. "Cjit, I wanted the other one," Halrath hissed. Now he'd just have to pray that the ooman didn't-and he dropped the gun just as he was pulled all the way up, startling the other humans. They quickly moved and waited for the right time to strike.
"Where's Anderson!?" Dr. Matthews asked as everyone looked around, only to freak out when Alyssa's flashlight landed on one of them just as he threw a javelin-like object into the chest of one of her crew. Everyone else started firing, causing the Yautja to take off and regroup just before the pyramid started shifting.
"The pyramid's shifting!" Jamerson shouted and ran with Alyssa and her parents and another crew member while the others were split up. One man was trapped underground while Dr. Matthews and another man were trapped together.
The man trapped underground was hyperventilating, terrified. "Hey! Can you hear me!?" He shouted, trudging his way through the small space. "It's Connors! Where are you!?" He ended up falling down a small shaft and landed in another area, dropping his gun. When he picked it up, he found something slimy on it. "What the fuck?"
"We're never getting out of this place." Dr. Matthews said to the man with him.
"Do you have children?" He asked.
"I've got a son."
"Yeah. I've got two and a little girl. That means we do not have the luxury of quitting. We're going to make it out of here. We're surviving this if I have to carry you the whole way." That made him laugh a little.
"Thanks for cheering me up a bit."
"Of course."
Alyssa paced back and forth as she looked over their surroundings with her father and mother. "There's no way out back there," she said. Just then, Jamerson's watch started beeping. "What's that?"
"Just a theory. The Aztec calendar was metric, based on multiples of ten. I'm guessing that the pyramids change every ten minutes." He noticed Alyssa gave him a look. "What?"
"Wouldn't that be the Gregorian calendar, then?"
He just groaned. "Look, we're currently trapped in a pyramid with some monsters chasing us. Fixing whatever I get "wrong" isn't exactly important right now."
"Alright, alright, point made," she said, trying to make peace. Some stones started moving around and Jamerson actually smiled.
"Heh, I was right."
"Let's stick together," the man with the gun said and led the way through the new hallway.
Meanwhile, back with Dr. Matthews, a new path opened for them as well. A much smaller one that they would have to crawl through. "It would seem…that we're rats in a maze," he stated. He shook his head and sighed, crawling through with his friend, just before it closed on them. As he was walking through, he heard the man scream behind him.
"Matthews!"
He rushed back and found him in a hole. "Oh god!" He had broken his leg from the fall.
"Dr. Matthews, get me out of here!"
"It's ok! I'm going to find a way to get down to you, okay?" The hole suddenly started to close up and both men screamed. "NO!" He suddenly heard him screaming in fear and pain just before he seemed to be dragged off…and heard something growl at him. "Oh god." Some creature, black as night with an elongated, curved head slowly started to stalk its way out of the shadows.
Back with the others, they were carefully making their way through the new corridor when her dad suddenly tripped. "Dad! Are you ok?"
None of them knew it, but they were being watched again. "Yeah, sweetheart, I'm fine. Just wasn't paying attention." Her father said through the infrared device the Yautja was watching through as he looked for the guns. He could only inwardly growl when Jamerson handed Markus one.
"Get rid of that thing, it'll only slow us down and it's the whole reason we're all trapped here to begin with," Alyssa hissed.
"Look, too much has been lost to leave here with nothing," Jamerson stated, making her sigh.
"Fine. But put the stupid thing in my backpack at the very least, that way it's safe." He agreed with that and unzipped her bag to put it in there."
"Here's our chance. Yeyinde, grab the girl while I distract them," Maukule said just as Yeyinde cloaked himself while he stepped out and trapped the man with a gun in a net.
Everyone ran to him and tried to pry the net only, only to shriek in pain as it was sharp and would cut into their hands. "Look out!" He screamed just as Halkrath came out of hiding and stalked his way over, batting all of them out of the way aside from Jamerson, whom he grabbed by the neck before killing the man in the net.
Alyssa rubbed her head in pain as she had hit her head but shrieked in fear as she was suddenly grabbed by something invisible. "PUT ME DOWN! HELP! DADDY!"
"PUT MY BABY DOWN!" He shouted and rammed straight into him. Her father wasn't skinny, there was a lot of muscle that was always hidden by his lab coat. He made the monster holding her actually drop her, much to his surprise and grabbed his daughter. "We need to g-AH!" Something sharp suddenly went through his chest and dragged him up into the air, bringing him face to face with the same midnight black creature that Dr. Matthews faced.
"Daddy!" She screamed, just as it's inner mouth shot through her father's skull, splattering her with his blood.
"Alyssa, RUN!" Her mother shouted just as the monster grabbed her and did the same to her.
"MOM!" She cried out, just as Jamerson grabbed her.
"Cry in agony later! Let's get out of here!" He shouted and quickly ran out of the room with her before the monsters turned their attention to them. "What were those things!?"
"You tell me! You're the supposed pyramid expert! Plus you get mad at me everytime I open my fucking ADD mouth!"
"ADD? You have a learning disability?"
"No shit, sherlock! I say shit without thinking! I had to work HARD to catch up with my classmates on everything but things finally started to click by 8th grade and I just followed the serotonin! I do not control the hyperfixation!" She cried out before tripping and falling onto her face on the stairs, her nose hitting first. "Son of a-!" She hissed in pain while Jamerson dropped down to look at her.
"Let me see," he said, pulling her hands away. She was bleeding, a lot, but it thankfully wasn't broken. "Well, it's not broken."
"I wouldn't have given a shit even if it was," she hissed in pain. She looked up when Jamerson gasped and saw another one of the monsters that had tried to grab her was following them.
"Come on, let's go!" He grabbed her hand again and took off running, causing the thing to roar at them and chase after them. His watch started to beep again and they stopped. "Wait." The ground below them started rising and they immediately hauled ass through the hall and jumped over another rising floor, just barely making it through to the other side before it crushed them while also nearly getting sliced by the monster's throwing star.
Yeyinde growled in anger as the two slipped past him. How the hell was he supposed to obtain the female if she was with the male? He honestly thought with how angry the male was at her earlier, he would have just abandoned her and he could have easily grabbed her while the others hunted the last human male down. He didn't have much time to continue pondering that, though, as he immediately had to kill a facehugger that had launched itself at him, cutting it in half with another throwing star. Along with the hard meat that thought it was doing a good job of sneaking up behind him by cutting its face off. "Did you see that?" He turned his head just barely when he heard the female whisper. She and the male were watching through the small holes in the wall. "He just cut the asshole's face off!"
"Yeah, and he'll do that to us next if we don't get out of here!"
"But it was cool! Also, I have a feeling that we're only being hunted because we weren't supposed to fucking be here to begin with," she whispered in an annoyed tone.
He had impressed her? That surprised him, and the other male, apparently. "Why are you impressed by that?"
"Maybe because it killed the thing that killed my parents? I'm more afraid of them than I am of him. Also, when one of them grabbed me, it didn't feel…murderous, if that makes sense. It felt like…like it was actually about to run out of here with me."
He purred quietly at that. She was smart, for a youngling. He looked down at his kill and wondered something. What would she think if she saw his face? He unhooked his mask and pulled it off, hearing the male gasp in fear while the female did nothing. He then removed one of the fingers from the hard meat and drew a curved T symbol on his mask before drawing it on his forehead. "He's marking himself," he heard the male say. "Ancient warriors would mark themselves with the blood of their kill. It's a rite of passage."
"Cool," he heard the female say. "So badass alien warriors come here every so often to kill these ugly ass…bugs? Whatever they are."
"Bada-are you serious? You think that ugly fucker looks badass?"
"You say ugly, I say his face looks fascinating and I would poke it if he'd let me." That made Yeyinde chortle and she gasped. "He understands English!"
"Fuck, let's get out of here before he finds a way to get us!" She squeaked as Jamerson grabbed her and took off running, leaving Yeyinde to feel…strange.
The female found him more interesting than the females on his planet that he wanted attention from. Not only that, but he didn't exactly like the male dragging her off as rough as he was, even if it was to protect her. "Protect." He said the word out loud, tasting its foreignness. It was normal to say for a suckling, but for a female…his species females could protect themselves, without a male's help. The thought of a female needing his protection…oh. Oh, that was something he desperately wanted.
There unfortunately wasn't a way out, but Jamerson felt they were far enough away for the giant to not hear them. They also happened to notice some hieroglyphs on the ceiling. "It's a little hard to make out…but the story's all here. Thousands of years ago, these hunter's found a backwater planet. They taught humans how to build, and were worshiped as gods. Every hundred years, the gods would return. And when they did, they would expect a sacrifice. Humans were used to breed the ultimate prey. The hunters would battle with these great serpents to prove themselves worthy to carry the mark. But if the hunters lost, they made sure nothing survived. An entire civilization wiped out overnight."
"So…the humanoids, the hunters…they brought those creatures here to hunt?"
"And they use us like cattle. We're hosts for them to breed in. The heat bloom was designed to lure us down here. You were right, this whole thing was a trap. I'm…I'm sorry I didn't listen."
She just sighed and wiped her eyes as more tears tried to fall, allowing herself to be pulled into a hug. "Save the apologies for when we get out of here and away from this place…but I'm sorry, too, for acting like a know-it-all."
He just chuckled softly. "I shouldn't have been so mean to you, anyway. You're just a kid." He then looked back at the door, since they were still stuck in the room. There hadn't been an escape but they were at least far enough away to actually talk. "When that door opens, we're dead."
"Not if we set things right."
"What do you mean?"
"This pyramid, it's like a prison. We took the guards' guns, and now the prisoners are running free. To restore order, the guards need their guns. When that door opens…we're going to give big guy out there his gun back."
"Are you crazy? During a big game hunt, the animals being hunted don't arm the hunters!"
"They're not hunting us, though! They're hunting the things that killed my parents! We need to pick a side; the side that'll kill us without hesitation or the ones that might spare us for stupidly entering the pyramid."
"We're on OUR side."
She gave a shaky sigh. "We need to consider the thought that we might not make it out of here alive…and I think that's probably why they were trying to grab me."
"But why only you and not all of us?" He asked.
"What's the only difference between me and everyone else that was here?"
It was then he realized something. "You're just a child."
She nodded. "I might legally be an adult…but everyone still considers me to be a kid. Just like big game, there's probably a limit to what they can and can't hunt. It doesn't exactly look good killing a child. Maybe he'll let you live if I beg him. But one thing's for sure, we can't let those monsters reach the surface. Otherwise the human race will go extinct."
He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."
His watch started beeping again and a door opened up behind them. "Let's go find our friend."
"Hey, you're Italian, right?" Jamerson asked as they walked along the corridor.
"My mother is, I'm first generation American from her side. Dad's Irish. Why? And how'd you know? I never brought it up."
He gave a sigh. "When you first corrected my work, I was told an Italian girl translated it. Also, I wanted to know how to say "I'm scared shitless" in Italian…to make you laugh."
She snorted. "Non vedo l'ora di uscire con te da questa piramide perche mi sto cacarsi addoso. Inoltre, penso che anche tu sia carino. Per uno stronzo. More or less."
"I understood the asshole part," he said with a smirk, making her snort. There was a low growl, making them give a quiet gasp. They looked around, pretty much hoping to find Mr. Warrior…but found something thick and slimy dripping from the ceiling down the hall. Followed by a tail. "MOVE!" he grabbed her hand and took off running again. Jamerson jumped over the broken bridge before them without a problem but Alyssa…she found herself just barely hanging on as it began to crumble the second she landed and went falling through, just barely grabbing the ledge in time. "ALYSSA!" He grabbed her hands and started pulling, trying to keep her up while she grabbed onto a stable part of the ledge.
"Do you want to know why I even saw the mistake in the first place?!" She asked, fearing for her life and making him look at her. "I was obsessed with your work! I loved hearing about you in my classes! And I just thought you were cute!" He pulled harder at that, bringing her up just slightly.
"I think you're cute, too!" He admitted, surprising her. "When I first heard you found an error in my work, I was impressed! A high school freshman found something most adults can't figure out! It takes skill to get to where I'm at! I was excited! And when I found out you were going to be visiting with Mr. Weyland, I was excited to finally meet you in person, until I found out you were joining us on something dangerous! I wasn't mad at you, I was mad Weyland was putting you in a dangerous situation and was hyping you up for this!"
"Not gonna lie, he kind of just convinced me and my parents into doing this, we weren't too sure about it ourselves!"
He struggled to pull more but kept trying. Their hands were so sweaty. "If we make it out of here, promise me you'll join me for coffee afterwards!"
"Fuck that, I'd rather get drunk instead!"
"Even better!" He shouted, only to freeze when he felt something next to him. He turned, fear in his eyes, seeing the beast they were just running from with its teeth bared. He screamed as it grabbed him, and tried to hold onto the bridge for dear life as he stared into Alyssa's eyes with tears in his own. "I'm sorry," he hiccuped before screaming as he was quickly dragged away.
"No!" She struggled on her own but eventually got herself up and over the edge. Ever so slowly and quietly she made her way down one of the hallways that were across from her. She was shaking like a leaf, jumping at every rustle of rock and dirt that she herself made. Only to gasp when she saw two bodies lying in the room in front of her. "Mom…dad?"
She thought that, by some strange miracle, they'd actually survived their attack, but still cautiously made her way forward and placed her hands on them. They didn't move. And she grew even more upset when she turned them over to see their horror stricken faces with holes in their foreheads.
"H-how did they even get here, then? I-I-I d-d-do-don't get i-i-ittttt," she cried as quietly as possible, only to freeze when she heard a low snarl. Getting over her sadness as fast as possible, she got up and took off running, screaming her heart out as loud as she could and actually managed to disorient the monster as it shrieked with pain. She ran through so many corridors, so many hallways, everything looked the same. That is, until she ran into something giant and heavy and actually knocked it over, scattering its weapons. "SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!" She screamed in fear and immediately grabbed its hands to pull it back up, only to stop when she heard something running on all fours in their direction and screamed bloody murder when the monster was in the same room as her again. She immediately picked up one of Yeyinde's throwing stars and threw it directly at the monster's neck, cutting the head off, much to Yeyinde's surprise. But what surprised him more was how angry she got when she saw the inner mouth was still trying to shoot out and reach her. "Why…are you…still…moving!?" She shrieked at the head and stomped over to kick its head. "FUCKING STUPID PARENT KILLING BITCH! NO! PUT ME DOWN! IT'S NOT DEAD UNTIL I SAY IT IS!" She shrieked and gave one last kick as the giant tried to drag her away, but managed to kick a hole into its skull, causing acid to shoot out of it.
Yeyinde had to quickly move her away before she hurt herself. He couldn't help but feel slightly amused though. As sad and terrified as she was, she was angry beyond all reason and wanted to continue beating up the hard meat's body just to vent out her anger. His amusement was short lived, though, as she screamed in fear again and pointed up at something as it dropped from the ceiling.
"Take the bag! Take the bag!" She shouted and quickly pulled the bag off as the hard meat stalked its way over, seeming more focused on her than it was on him. She shrieked and dove out of the way as it charged her, before running for the side wall just to run up and flip off of it so it dove into the wall next, leaving it disoriented enough for Yeyinde to shoot it. She looked up to see he had installed the gun onto his shoulder.
He was definitely impressed by the young female now after that little surprise. Slowly, as to not startle her, he made his way over to her and kneeled down in front of her as she crumpled to the floor and just…lied there, holding her knees to her chest. He could only imagine what was on her mind as she started crying. His comrades were right, he wasn't immune to her crying at all. He purred to her and sat down fully before dragging her onto his lap, attempting to soothe her.
"It…it dragged my parents' corpses here…just so I'd actually stop running." She cried out, making him purr louder. "I…I don't know what to do now. My parents don't have family, they were all that I had…I've…I've got no one. I…I want to go home but there's no one there now. Please…please just let this all be a bad dream. I want to wake up…I want to wake up." He just rubbed her back to soothe her as best as he could while she took her phone out of her pocket.
"H-hello?" A male voice answered.
"M-Mr. Weyland," she said, her voice shaking. "We…we shouldn't have come here."
"Alyssa? What's wrong?! Are you ok? Where are your parents?"
She took a deep breath, trying to remain calm. "They're…everyone's…I…I'm the only one that survived. They're gone…they're all gone," she said, breaking down again.
"Sweetheart, I'm so sorry. I never should have…I didn't know any of this would happen."
"It's not your fault, sir. It's not…you didn't know."
"Where are you right now?"
"I'm-I'm still in the pyramid, currently. I can already assume you've met the monsters and the giants hunting them?"
"Yeah, yeah we have. It's just me, Lex and Professor Sebastian left. Are you safe?"
She looked up to the giant holding her, he didn't seem interested in killing her. "Yeah, yeah I'm safe, oddly enough."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Well," she gave Yeyinde a look, not sure how to go about explaining what was going on. But he just nodded so it must have been ok to admit to what was going on. "I-uh…I'm currently being…comforted by one of the beings that had this pyramid built." She was worried when he said nothing, but she did hear a curious clicking on his end. "Mr. Weyland?"
"You're telling me that, one of these things that currently has me by the neck and holding me off the ground, is comforting you?"
"Um…yes?"
Charles couldn't believe what he was hearing as he looked up at the monster holding him. "Please, I need to make it back to her. It's my fault her parents got killed, I need to make things right and protect her."
Scar scanned over him anyway, seeing as he was struggling to breathe. He wasn't going to be much of a trophy, anyway. He couldn't kill him. He had lung cancer. With a huff, he set him back down but took his phone. "Why are you protecting an ooman female?" He asked, curious.
"Old enough to be an adult by ooman law, but too young to actually hunt. Too much potential to also breed strong offspring as well." He couldn't help but smile when he saw the female staring up at him, just in awe. She was truly fascinated by him. He took his mask back off, letting her see his face up close and letting her do what she wanted to do earlier; touch his face. "She killed a hard meat by herself and got mad that it was still moving. She went over and kicked it repeatedly until the head broke and I had to pull her away." He had to hold in a purr when she suddenly traced over the mark on his forehead, completely focused on it.
"Huh, it kind of looks like ugly over there, but with an intact head," she muttered to herself, making him want to laugh.
"What did your general say to do?"
"He wanted us to get the girl out of here with little to no harm." He flinched slightly when she touched his hair, but thankfully she immediately pulled away. He honestly wished she hadn't.
Scar huffed on the other end. "Hurry up and get her out then. I'll make sure this one makes it out alive as well." With that, he gave the phone back to Weyland, who seemed surprised when Scar gestured for him to follow.
"Alyssa, you stay safe and get out of there as fast as possible. I'll call Ms. Yutani to have you picked up. Don't tell her ANYTHING that happened. We'll just say there was a freak accident and we were lucky enough to survive. Also, no more explorations after this. From now on, you're going to be doing what your parents did. I should have listened to them."
"It didn't help that I was pretty excited about it too, to be honest," she said.
"I'll see you soon, kiddo."
"Bye, sir." She sighed when he hung up and rested her forehead against Yeyinde's chestplate, feeling drowsy as she listened to him purr and rubbed her back. "Why didn't you kill me?" She finally asked, looking up at him.
He knew very little English, he could understand it, but speaking it without lips was hard. "Young," he answered her.
"Young? As in, I'm too young to hunt."
"Sei-i," he said with a nod.
"Huh, so I was right then. So you guys have rules for hunting?"
"Sei-i. Hunt dangerous prey, don't harm children, females with pups or sickly. Honestly thought you were prey from scream."
She just gave him a look. "But I'm not a child."
He just huffed out a laugh. "Still not old enough. Also, didn't attack."
"So, I pretty much wound up safe because I took off running?" She asked, only for him to shake his head. "Because I'm young." She groaned when he nodded. "At least being young saved my ass." She then sighed. "So, are we getting out of here or are we going to stay in a demon infested pyramid?"
He just laughed again but first pointed to his mark and then poked her cheek. "Mark."
"Mark? You want to mark me?" He nodded. "Why?"
"Worthy," he answered while waiting for her to think.
She thought for a bit before nodding. "I…you can mark me." He trilled slightly and had her stand up so he could get up and walk over to her kill, breaking off one of its fingers and had her walk over. "H-how bad will their blood hurt?" He said nothing but stroked her face with his finger, giving her slight comfort before taking her face into his hand and gave her the same mark as him. She winced and clenched her eyes shut, trying her best to ignore the searing pain of acid burning her cheek. When he was done, he stroked the new mark with his finger, almost lovingly she noticed and opened her eyes to see him just…staring down at her, looking lost in thought. "I'm Alyssa," she said, holding out her hand to him.
"Ahhliiisahh," he repeated, the name being foreign to him. She giggled, more so when he took her hand into his just to more or less feel it instead of shaking it like she expected.
"Close enough. What's your name?"
He shook his head sadly. "Can't say."
"Another rule?" She asked, earning a nod. "I understand…so I'll just call you Big Guy!" She smiled as she teased him, making him smirk.
She was a funny one, this human. Smart, strong even. Not only that, but he had impressed her easily. And in his opinion, he could even say she was beautiful, which was a word Yautjas barely used. He then had an idea, and went back to her kill to rip out its inner mouth. She couldn't exactly take home the head as a trophy, mostly because she broke it anyway, but he had seen other humans wear sea creatures' teeth as jewelry before on outings with his father. He would make something for her, before he had to leave her forever and forget about her. The thought didn't sit well with him, but he knew she would be better off without him…even if the thought of protecting her sounded nice. He then went over to his own kill and cut the head off before strapping it to his back. This kill was special to him, for he had saved her from it.
He made a quick call to his hunt brothers to see where they were at. "Did you find the female?" Halkrath asked.
"Yes, she's with me right now."
"Doesn't sound like she's struggling. Did you knock her out?" Maukule asked.
"No, she's wide awake and ok. A little shaken up from losing her sires the way she had, and the fact one of the hard meats actually dragged their bodies over here to get her to stop…but she's ok."
"Well, just get up here with her soon. We've already set the bombs after killing the remaining hard meats that dragged the male into the nest and the queen's been refrozen. He's already been infected, so there's no point in saving him now if she wanted to."
"Alright. We'll be there soon." With that, he ended the call and turned towards Alyssa with his hand outstretched, just as he'd seen everyone else do with her. "Come," he said and took her hand in his to lead her out of the pyramid. Although they also ended up going through the nest where everyone had been turned into hosts for the hard meats.
"Oh god," she gagged, trying so hard not to puke.
"Aly…ssa," a voice moaned out, causing her to freeze. She looked around and found Jamerson plastered to the wall.
"Jamerson!" She rushed over to him and tried to pry him free.
"It's too late, sweetheart, I'm sorry. It's inside of me," he cried, looking down at her. She saw a spider-like creature on the floor and kicked it away out of fear. "Alyssa, Alyssa, look at me." He begged. "There's a gun, over there, by Dr. Matthews' feet. Go grab it."
She did but looked at him like he was crazy. "You…you can't really-"
"You have to!" He cried. "They mustn't reach the surface! They mustn't reach the surface!"
She cried and begrudgingly cocked the gun. "I know." She cried harder as he groaned in pain, the creature cracking through his ribs.
"Have a drink for me when you escape!"
"I will! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" She shot him in between the eyes, killing him instantly. Yeyinde watched her as she walked away, dropping the gun behind her as she went out to the hall and immediately threw up. He then looked back just in time for the baby chest burster to break through Jamerson's chest and caught it in his hands, snapping its neck so it died immediately. With a growl, he shook his head in disdain and went over to comfort his human as she leaned herself against the wall. "I…hate…this place," she managed to sob out.
Yeyinde made her turn around to hold her to him. He'd made up his mind. To hell with Da'dtou-di, she wasn't interested in him to begin with. "Sain'ja."
"Hm?" She looked up at him, confused.
"Warrior," he said and thumped his chest. "Make proud."
She let out a sad laugh. "So you gave me a nickname. Does that mean I'll see you again soon after all of this?"
He shook his head. "No. Not soon," he admitted. It would probably be a while, at least he hoped. It would take a lot of convincing for his father to allow him to bring her with him. He was certain there would be many arguments, but he would do whatever asked of him to make her his mate.
"Oh," she looked away and sighed, feeling dejected. She thought she'd somehow made a friend…so she wouldn't be alone. She followed silently as he led her out as fast as possible, only for another hard meat to be waiting for them at the entrance of the hole and jumped down from the ceiling on top of Yeyinde. Neither were expecting her to tackle it, though. "GET OFF OF HIM!" The monster shrieked and clawed at her as she was on its back, twisting the head around until she managed to make it pop off with a feral yell, burning herself from the acid that sprayed onto her. She then turned to Yeyinde once he stood back up and handed him the head. "Do you want this one, too? For your trophies?"
She had no idea what she'd basically just done. Not only had she just saved him, in Yautja-like fashion, but she had offered him a trophy she had rightfully earned. Proposing the way a Yautja would. Now his father would have no choice BUT to accept her. He purred and accepted her gift, strapping it to his back with the other one before picking her up in his arms and running up the hole with her. The bomb detonated the second they were far enough away from the hole, much to his relief. He looked down at the female in his arms and trilled, making her look up from his chest. "Safe now," he said. He held her tight though as the others came to him, including his brother. "Brother," he greeted in their language.
"How is the female?" He asked while leaning down to check on her. She was covered in cuts, bruises and burns, but other than that she looked ok. She surprisingly didn't flinch away from him.
"Stronger than any ooman female I've seen or heard of. She killed two hard meats on her own. Using my weapons on one and tore the head off of the other."
"She tore its head off?!" Halkrath asked, surprised, taking his helmet off to look at her. "Kill two hard meats?" He asked her.
She nodded. "I just did what my parents would have done." She made a face at that and looked down at the ground.
Yeyinde just trilled at her. "Sires would be proud."
"Let's get her wounds looked at and treated. Father contacted me about the female's friends coming for her by tomorrow, or at least one of them. She will stay with us until then."
He nodded and brought her to their ship, bringing her straight to the medical bay where a nurse looked her over. It was strange seeing one of his kind in scrubs, but she guessed that…other planets had similar ideas of how doctors and nurses should dress. He had some hand-held device that he ran over her body, seeming to scan her, and nodded when he was done before going over to a table and made some green paste to smear on her cuts and burns. "How is she?" Yeyinde asked.
"No internal bleeding, no broken bones. Just some bruising and the cuts and burns that you see already." He couldn't help but chuckle as the female looked uncomfortable and tried not to scratch where he applied the paste. "It will itch, just don't touch it. It's healing."
"K," she said, trying not to scratch still. Although she looked more at ease once Yeyinde picked her back up and walked out of the room with her and brought her to a bedroom. It pretty much looked the way she expected it to, but at the same time different. Just the metal walls with a few tables with sci-fi equipment and a round bed in a dip in the floor, so one would have to crawl out of it. It reminded her of a nest. Yeyinde stepped down onto the bed and set her in the middle of it.
"Stay. Will bring you food." He smiled as she nodded and quickly left to get her something to eat, along with preparing her gift. Thankfully he ran into Bakuub in the kitchen. "Brother, do you still have the necklace I started on?"
"The one for Da'dtou-di?" He opened a pouch at his hip and took out a blue crystal attached to a thick string. "Are you wanting to work on it more?"
"Yes, but not for her," he said, taking it out of his hand. "I know of another female who has earned this more."
"Another female?" It took him a moment before he realized. "Wait, the ooman?! You know father won't permit that!"
"Well pauk him and anyone else that disagrees with my choice. I will do whatever it takes to convince him that she is strong enough to bear my pups."
"And there's no denying that an ooman that can rip the head off of a hard meat is strong, but…they are vastly weaker than we are. Aren't you worried about how your pups will fair if they are part ooman? How they'll be treated in society? How SHE will be treated? Our kind might hunt her, regardless if you are her mate or someone else's."
He sighed and turned back to look at him. "I will do whatever it takes to prove to everyone she deserves to be one of us, and I won't allow anyone to hurt her."
Bakuub sighed and set a hand on Yeyinde's shoulder. "What are you adding to the necklace?"
He just smiled and pulled the inner mouth of a hard meat from his bag and then pointed to the head of the one she ripped off on his back. "The teeth from these as she killed them."
"Oh, you grabbed her trophies for her?" He asked.
"No. She GAVE me the head for ME to keep."
Bakuub coughed at that. "She what?! Does she even know what that means?"
"I doubt it, but now father HAS to accept her."
Bakuub wasn't so sure about that. "For your sake, brother, I hope you're right. Because every other female you've wanted has had no interest in you."
"Oh pauk off," he said, making his brother laugh. He would get the necklace done as soon as he could and have it around her neck as soon as possible. Afterwards, he would work on earning the right to bring her to his planet so they could start their own family. He would stop at nothing until he had what he wanted. After some more teasing from Bakuub, who surprisingly seemed on board with him having an ooman mate, he gathered some food together and brought it to his room, where he unfortunately found the room empty. "Sain'ja?" He called out, concerned. He jumped when he felt a tap on his arm and turned around to find her with Halkrath. She looked annoyed.
"I had to pee," she said while Halkrath laughed at him.
"Your female came out looking for you because she had to relieve herself. I just brought her to the bathing chambers so she could. She's so small that she fell in the toilet," he said while laughing.
She just turned and glared at him. "I know you're laughing about me!"
"Sei-i," he admitted, making her groan. "Maybe you should keep her as a pet."
Yeyinde just shook his head. "No, not a pet. I've gone a different direction now."
"You mean as a mate?" He asked in surprise. "Good luck trying to convince the Elder of that."
"Do you think she could hold her own on our planet?"
Halkrath just scoffed. "She kicked me in the balls for laughing at her. She'll get along with our females just fine. I nearly threw up," he grumbled, earning a sadistic laugh from the human. She knew he was still sore from her kicking him. He just shook his head. "Regardless, if you can actually convince the Elder to let you mate her, just remember…she's small. You could break her if you're not careful."
He nodded and turned to the female once Halkrath left and brought the food over to the bed, setting it on the floor beside her. He had a small fire set up so she could cook her meat and a metal skewer. Before her was some cubes of black meat, some orange, a root-like vegetable and some berries. "What is all of this? I've never seen meat like this."
"Vy'drach and blood pig meet. Vy'drach sweet," he said, taking the chance of skewering one of the orange cubes and cooking it for her before bringing it to her mouth.
She smiled at him and ate it after blowing on it. "It's really good. I wish my dad had taken me hunting, it would have been fun…maybe. I don't know."
"He hunt?" He asked.
She nodded. "Yeah, all the time. He was also a colonel in the Marines. That's how he and my mom met. They stayed there for ten years before having me. Then they were recruited by the Yutani corporation, which eventually merged with Weyland Industries…and that's what led us here," she sighed and ate another piece of meat that he had cooked for her.
"Sires fight in wars, then?"
She nodded. "Yeah, pretty much. Mom was kind of hoping I'd follow in their footsteps with that as well but…she was also worried about losing me." She then snickered. "Not that she had much to worry about. Just like she could drag my dad across the room, I could do the same. In fact, that's how their relationship started. My dad had been dancing around trying to ask her out and one day she just got sick of waiting, kicked in the door to his office and dragged him out by his feet while saying "you're taking me on a date whether you want to or not!" all while he was screaming like a scared child." She sighed out a laugh. "I think my mom has that video somewhere in the living room in our house."
Yeyinde couldn't help but laugh at the thought while he continued feeding her. "Sound like our females."
She snorted. "What? They drag you around when they want sex?"
He shook his head. "Females control mating, but really only want it during mating season. See no other point in doing it. Males have to fight to be on top, literally being beaten by the female half the time." He was confused when she looked horrified.
"Jesus Christ! I could never do that! If I don't want it, all I'd say is "no, not right now" and pray that he's the one on top. I'd rather he be the one controlling everything. The thought of being on top scares me, honestly," she admitted. Yeyinde couldn't help but purr at the thought. HIM being on top, every male's dream! And a female that wants the MALE to control everything? That was unheard of. Humans were so VASTLY different from his species. "Hey, aren't you going to eat?" She asked, snapping him out of his thoughts.
He looked down at her plate and brought a berry up to her lips. "Want to make sure you eat first."
She just smiled, quickly eating the berry, before picking off one of the cooked pieces of meat and holding it up to him. "Well, maybe I want to share with you." She was blushing as she said this. Meanwhile Yeyinde felt his heart beating like crazy. She had no idea what she was doing, but among his kind, only life-mates did this. Unless of course she DID know and this was part of human courtship as well, with their females being much more shy about it instead of demanding like his females. Regardless, he gladly let her feed him before dragging her onto his lap, much to her surprise, but she laughed it off and made herself comfortable on him until he made her go to bed. "Those things are all dead, right?" She asked him as he was about to leave the room.
He turned to her and nodded. "Sei-i. No escape from the blast. Nothing would survive." She sighed at that and lied down underneath the pelts on the bed just as he left. He would return to his quarters in a moment. He walked into the main area where his brother and hunt brothers were at, just conversing with one another, until he came in.
"How is she?" Maukule asked.
"Still scared that the hard meats will come out of the hole, but she's finally resting."
"That's good, I'm sure she's drained from all of that running," Bakuub said. He then sighed. "Also, father demands for you to call him…immediately. He's not happy with your choice of a mate."
Yeyinde scoffed at that. "He wasn't happy with ANY of the women I chose before her!"
"Yes, well, he was worried about you not having children because of those women. Now he's afraid yours will be weak if you mate with the oomani. Although mother thinks they'll be fine," he brought up.
"Really? MOTHER doesn't have an issue?"
"Far from it. She said if she killed two hard meats and already has you wrapped around her finger then she'll fit in just fine and will gladly accept her. In fact, she's trying to convince father right now."
Yeyinde was curious and decided to give their father a call on their large screen, all of them looking surprised when their Elder answered while baring some new scratches and rubbing his jaw while his wife glared at him with her arms crossed. "Son," he greeted in a pained tone. "It has come to my attention that you found a female you wish to…become life-mates with."
"Where is she, anyway?" Their mother asked.
"She is resting in my quarters," he said while pulling up the security footage to his room. There were cameras put in to keep an eye on injured Yautja in their rooms, to make sure they were doing ok. A smaller video pulled up on the screen their parents were on, also being shared with them, to show Alyssa fast asleep in his bed. Her wild strawberry blonde hair strewn about the pillow she was hugging close.
His mother hummed slightly. "She might actually produce some cute pups. To have a Yautja with her hair color, it's unheard of. Oh, it would just be too cute on a little girl."
"If you just want another girl-"
"I WANT MORE GRANDCHILDREN, DAMMIT, AND FROM THE ONE THAT HASN"T HAD CHILDREN YET BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT HE NEEDED ANOTHER YEAR OF TRAINING!" She shrieked loud enough that it woke Alyssa up. She crawled out of bed and poked her head out the door.
"Is everything ok out here?" She asked, concerned.
"Sei-i," Yeyinde answered. She wasn't so sure but chose to believe him and went back to bed. They watched as she tossed and turned with her eyes closed, seeming annoyed.
"I feel like I'm being watched," she grumbled, causing the queen to laugh in her hands.
"She's a smart one. I already like her."
The King just grumbled. "If you're truly set on mating with this female, you must prove as such. Once you have, the only way she will be accepted into the clan is if she's pregnant or you become a general."
"What do I have to do to prove I want her?" Yeyinde asked.
His father sighed. "There's an old Chiva site that we will not be needing anymore, which means the queen needs to be terminated. Go with the extermination team, bring back her head, and you may start the process of bringing your female into the clan."
"It shall be done, father." After a while, he returned to his room and finally disarmed himself, leaving only his loincloth on before getting into bed with his female. He could tell she wasn't asleep by the way she was breathing, and the fact she slightly inched closer to him, just ever so slightly. She seemed afraid. Not wanting there to be any space between them, he dragged her closer, making her squeak. "What's wrong?" He asked her.
She sighed and snuggled herself into his side, breathing in his scent, he smelled like a forest. "I'm just scared. Also, it's kind of hard to sleep when I know it's day time." She hummed in content when she felt his mandibles run through her hair, it was comforting.
"Hard meats gone now, won't hurt you anymore."
"I know, but that's not what I'm scared of. Once I go home…I'll be completely alone in that giant house."
He just purred and rubbed her back comfortingly. "Won't be alone for long," he said, insinuating that he would be collecting her soon. But she didn't know that. By the next day she had received a call from Ms. Yutani that she was there to collect her. She was followed by the Yautjas to make sure she made it back to the area safely, as she was scared of going back alone. Not to mention that Yeyinde had placed a tracking device on her clothing so he could find her at a later date. Once in sight of the older woman, she put on a show of breaking down into hysterics of the whole event, not saying how she was the only one that made it out alive. Just that everything collapsed around them and that she'd somehow made it out. It was enough for the woman to believe along with the security there with her. She was then loaded up into the jeep and could only stare off into the direction she knew Yeyinde's ship was in, wishing he'd just taken her with him so she wasn't going to be alone.
