He put the needle back.

The young Predator was done nursing his wounds with the painful but effective blue substance his people had invented for such purposes. He reassembled the small kit and strapped it around his waist before getting back on his feet and checking the weapons. Fortunately, they had been forged over all the years of their evolution and technology to withstand even the acid blood of their enemies. So his arm blade and spear were not etched away when he stabbed the alien with them.

However, he heard another sound here.

Immediately, the three red dots of his visor shot forward at the target, but it showed from invisibility. His colleague had only found this place and was apparently looking for the son. Growling, he became annoyed, thinking his fellow hunter was an enemy trying to sneak up on him. The young hunter punched the other against the shoulder with one fist and both growled angrily at each other. When the Predators finally calmed down, his colleague explained that their third member was missing. Somewhere lost in the jungle, he was making his way alone and would fight the snakes alone. They were in this trial together, so they would take up the quest to find their lost comrade and regroup together.

The son abandoned the hunt for the lombaxes for the time being.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the temple, the four heroes had finally managed to escape and were back in the deep jungle. "Oh...I'm out of breath," Ratchet admitted as he leaned on his knees and breathed a sigh of relief. Rivet also leaned against a tree for a moment to regain her strength. "Can we talk about the things and the hunters fighting each other," Kit let it all go again. The fact that the strange giant had ignored the lombaxes to fight the parasite was still on the little robot girl's mind, "Is there a reason for that?" "I think...it has something to do with the engravings on the walls in the temple," the orange Lombax said, stretching one last time.

"That could be. After all, they depicted them fighting," Clank now thought about it. There had to be more to it than just hunting. There was something special between the two aliens who were hunting him and his friends. "Whatever. We have to find the others and try to contact Qwark." The female rebel was now fit again and put her arm around the male lombax, ' Are you alright?

"No problem. I'll be ready in a minute," then his cool grin appeared, which also made Rivet grin. So the couple walked on through the bushes and woods to find something.

The four heroes continued to walk through the woods and then the orange hero decided to contact the Special Force. At first there was silence, but then Adrian's voice could be heard, "Commander? Are you there?"

"Adrian... we're still alive, and how are things with you," glad that the metal-like one was showing signs of life, he continued to listen, "Quite well. But we have hardly any supplies and the boys are hungry. I'm afraid I can't really say where we are... just trees nearby!" Ratchet's expression became a little sad again when he was also surrounded by nothing but forest, "So are we... keep looking for a way, we'll find you!"

Adrian chuckled in response, "I swear...if we survive this, I'll invite you and your friends to dinner. My Granny makes the best Snagglebeast stew in the galaxy, hehe."

Even the lombax laughed at this, as did his best friend, who was listening to the conversation, "...Yes, that sounds good! I have to get going, take care of yourselves!"

"You too, Commander," and the call ended. Rivet then came a little closer to Ratchet and snuggled up slightly at his side, "How are the others?"

"So far so good. Adrian has invited us to dinner when all this is over," he put his arm around the rebel and pulled her closer to him. He needed Rivet's closeness now and the white Lombax lady really liked that, "We'll make it...they're definitely not going to finish you off. You're too tough for that!" "That's true. But so are you," they both laughed briefly before Kit's voice suddenly became loud and attracted the attention of her friends.

"Guys! There's something up ahead!"

And just beyond the clearings of the bush, something had caught their eye. It looked like a base. Similar to the other one where they first met the parasites. The company logo was also visible. "This is... a base," the hero twitched his omniwrench as soon as the last word was uttered, to which Rivet immediately replied with her hammer. If the aliens were in there again, they had to be prepared for anything, but there was something unexpected in store for them: "But that's where the distress signal is coming from!"

"Really now," Clank was also surprised when the yellow one spoke up again, "We have to help him, no matter who's in there!" The lombaxes, on the other hand, were rather suspicious until Kit detached himself and ran to the door.

"Kit, wait," Rivet and Ratchet followed. If there was a nest there too, the smaller one would run to its doom. Kit got in before them until the lombaxes finally reached them and the rebel put her best friend on her back again, "Don't do something so reckless without me!" But before they could both turn around, a slightly loud bang could be heard in the room down the corridor ahead. Quietly and armed, the lombaxes set off. Fortunately for them, there was none of the strange mass that the aliens spread on the walls.

Instead, there were many labs here as well, who had built some strange cages that were round. "What is this place," and Ratchet opened the gate, which shot upwards. There were large installations with lots of buttons and screens everywhere, and a large window on the opposite side. Slowly, the hero walked ahead, closely followed by Rivet, who gripped the hammer tighter in her fist, and her boyfriend also gripped his weapon tighter. As something else was knocked over, the heroes were finally ready to attack when...

"DON'T SHOOT!"

Suddenly, two hands stretched upwards behind the system that operated it. Now the stranger stood up, arms still held high in the air. It was not an alien, or Predator, or any other alien from this galaxy or dimension they knew. This man was tall, had a dark skin tone, wore strange uniform pants, but a casual gray sweater. Only small hair was visible on his head as the stranger lowered himself to his knees in surrender, "I mean no harm!"

"...Are you...a human," came from Ratchet, who stared at the man in confusion. Rivet himself didn't know how to deal with this, and neither did Clank and Kit.

The stranger had the floor again, "Yes. I work here for Weyland Yutani... at least when the facility was still standing. Now I'm the last one here." This time, the rebel came slightly closer to the man and stared at him suspiciously, "What are you doing here all by yourself?"

"I was the last one stationed here before the creatures broke out," the human looked into the blue eyes of the strange, fluffy alien. He could see the mistrust in the look and instead suggested not to say anything that might provoke them, "Have you already had contact with the aliens?" "Yes...they almost wiped out our troop," Clank sat down and walked towards the man, "You work here, what are these things?"

"We call them xenomorphs!"

"A xenomorph," Ratchet and Rivet had never heard of such a species before as the dark-skinned man continued, "That's what we call them though. Even we humans know little about them...that's why we have this facility from the company. In addition to our goal of creating better worlds for us humans, we want to know the secret of it's origin." The man lowered his arms slightly again until Ratchet's gaze signaled him to let them go, "What's your name?"

"Call me Eric," Eric held out his hand, which Rivet did not yet take, but Kit did, "Hello, Eric. Is everything all right with you?"

"Yes...I've been hiding from the xenomorphs here. Thanks for asking," a faint smile graced his face. For a human, Eric didn't show much emotion, but he was probably just exhausted, or so Ratchet thought.

"Eric, if you've made the emergency call here, you can radio someone," the lombax looked around the room with hope, but the human just shook his head gloomily. "I'm very sorry," he began sorrowfully, "A xenomorph that was chasing me destroyed the communication devices. I managed to beat the monster off, but the damage was irreparable."

"OH DAMN," Rivet kicked a box, as did the male Lombax. "Now we're still stuck here," Ratchet and Rivet frantically thought about how to contact Qwark. Eric, on the other hand, remained very calm, which gave the rebel a strange feeling. The human here didn't have that many worries and wasn't at all scared of the xenomorph, when he told that he managed to send one running away.

"I might be able to help!"

The four heroes looked at the employee, who smiled slightly. "R...Really? How," Ratchet came closer to the human, "Do you have a comm?"

"Not quite. There's another base of ours that had served for contact calls to other planets," Eric activated a map, thanks to the help of the display that showed the surroundings. An orange dot was illuminated and his finger was placed on it, "You can radio your friends there and escape!" The lombaxes were about to jump up and hug each other in excitement until the human intervened again: "The only favor I ask for this is...to help me save someone."

"Wait... there's another human alive," the rebel looked questioningly at Eric, who nodded in agreement, "Yes, Mr. Christopher Iron. He's the head of the base and should still be alive. The last time I had contact with him was two days ago. He's hiding here somewhere, without help or weapons. Please help me and I'll lead you to the base!" The four heroes thought hard. Could they really trust Eric if he was already offering them a base, or was there something more devious behind it? Ratchet was the first to step forward and stare at the dark-skinned man, "...If the base with the radio is really still in tact, as you say...then we'll save your friend!"

"Thank you," and the two shook hands until the lombax introduced himself, "I'm Ratchet. This is my best friend Clank, Kit and my close friend Rivet." The other heroes stepped forward and shook hands with the humans too. Rivet hesitated for a moment until she also shook hands, but Eric recognized the prosthesis, "You have a prosthesis...I'm very sorry about that."

"Oh... I got used to it," was all the rebel said before she remembered something terrible, "Damn, our ammunition is empty. If we hit that xeno-thing again, we're dead!"

"I could help with that too," the Weyland Yutani employee walked over to a large cabinet, which he activated with red buttons.

"The Colonial Marines used these weapons when they tried to save me... unfortunately no one made it." Large rifles appeared. They barely fit into the hands of the lombaxes, and Eric handed out the assault rifles. Everyone was also given a pistol and weapon of their choice, until the human armed himself with a pistol. "Don't you want a bigger gun, Eric?" Kit sat down at Rivet's back again, to which the man replied calmly, "Oh, I'm not a born fighter. The pistol will be enough for me." And he strode down the corridor first to open the large door. Waving, he asked the lombaxes to follow him, but when Ratchet tried to take the first step, Rivet held him by the arm.

"Ratchet," she began to whisper in his big ear, "How do we know we can trust him?" The orange lombax thought about it for a moment. Perhaps his girlfriend was right, but then he thought of an answer, "Rivet. Of all the monsters we've met, he didn't try to kill us the first time we made eye contact." He then kissed her cheek to reassure her before smiling softly, "We should go! His friend is waiting for us." And so the heroes set off to walk through the jungle with Eric once more. With new weapons, they were ready to rescue this Christopher Iron, who was the head of all these facilities. Maybe they would get some more answers. "But there's just one small problem," the human next to them suddenly started talking, which the four heroes didn't notice, "And that would be?"

Eric closed his eyes in disappointment, "Mr. Iron is being guarded...by out-of-control security androids."