ShopDreamUp AI ArtDreamUp
Deviation Actions
Literature Text
Monster's Night - Part 2
a
MAU story
by
clancy688
D looked on his watch and sighed. Two minutes left.
Truth to tell, I never really thought that he'd make it. he thought, But at least he sold his life at a steep price.
Silently he looked at the smoking ruin of what had been one of the administrative building's offices once. After C had taken the girl with him, the shooting had continued for a couple of minutes, with automatic weapons to boot, only to culminate in an ear-shattering explosion. After that, there had been silence, so in the end the bad boys probably had gotten the guy.
Gotta tell P to give the the ATF a tip when this is over. he made a mental note to himself, Can't have garden-variety thugs running around with machine guns and explosives...
He wanted to turn to join his colleague and the rescued girl when he suddenly froze. He'd stayed focused on the administrative building's upper storey and the adjourning fire staircase, so the rest of his surroundings hadn't gotten that much attention. Which may have been a mistake.
An icy shiver went down D's spine as a dark, surreal shape crystallized out of the darkness. Large, deadly talons flashed in the moonlight, with a mighty tail twitching jittery. The creature had crept closer silently on four limbs, now it reared up on its hind legs, easily topping his head by another feet, baring gleaming teeth.
D gulped and slowly, very slowly, he put his gun to the ground, trying to appear as calm as possible to the nightmarish shape in front of him. He recognized it, of course. The Xenomorph, a fictional creature out of a science-fiction movie, therefore almost certainly a product of the transformation device.
So either it was a transformed biker. In that case, he was toast, and his lame excuse of a gun, designed to stop unarmored humans but not muscle- and talon-sporting biological weapons, would merely delay the inevitable by a few seconds. Or this was one of the girl's friends who had used the booth to become an effective fighter. Either case, if he used his gun, he was fucked. Truth to tell, in the first case he was fucked anyway, but maybe today was his lucky day.
Not that anything today has been what I'd call lucky! he thought and swallowed.
"Are you a friend of the six-armed girl?" he asked the apparition, using all the courage he could muster. The Xenomorph didn't respond, only kept its eyeless 'stare' fixated on him. But everything which didn't evolve any of its talons slashing into his flesh, D considered a good sign.
"I'm working for the government." he continued therefore cautiously. "We're tracking down the transformation devices you have been using. My partner has already brought your friend to safety, so I suggest you come with me as well. Is that all right with you?"
For a couple of seconds, the Xenomorph didn't react. Then, though, its head bobbed up and down in a jerky attempt of a nod and D inhaled sharply.
"Is there someone we need to wait for or are you alone?" he asked and the Xenomorph shook his head. Awkwardly, D turned, walking towards the waiting car, trying to ignore the anxiety coming from the knowledge that such a nightmarish creature was following close on his heels.
As they arrived at the small clearing where they'd parked their car, C already had the engine running, but all lights turned off. D saw his partner's eyes go wide as the younger man took in the monster trailing behind and couldn't suppress a small smile. It didn't happen often that he saw the normally confident lad speechless.
"The fucking hell is that?" he pressed out through clenched teeth, ogling the creature and his hand awfully close at his gun holster.
"A Xenomorph." D responded jovially. "Big, alien life form slash biological weapon, seven feet of talons and teeth, fairly deadly in close combat, I reckon. You haven't heard of 'em?"
C looked like he was close to tears now. "Why the hell do always the crazy guys get the transformation devices?" he asked resigning, "I mean, seriously, alien monsters? Couldn't we get someone who simply wants to transform into cute little bunnies now and then?"
D didn't answer, instead he watched the girl who walked towards the creature, eyeing the nightmarish form in the bright moonlight.
"Michael!" she blurted wide-eyed. "Why are you still this... monster? Where's the transformation box? You didn't get it?"
The monster uttered a frustrated snarl, shrugging its shoulders in a very human gesture.
"What?" C interjected, looking out of the car's window. "You wanted to escape with the box? And you left it there? With those guys?"
Angrily, the Xenomorph snarled in his direction and C flinched away instinctively.
"All right, all right, big guy." he muttered. "Bad day for you, I understand... not that mine has been any better, you know..."
He was still babbling when the Xenomorph's head suddenly swiveled around and the large monster went down to all four limbs, its inner jaws carting out of its snarling maw.
D's sight darted towards the forest's edge where the moonlight illuminated a large creature... a creature similar to the one standing in front of him.
"What? What's going on?" C shouted from the car and D swallowed, grabbing the six-armed girl at one of her wrists.
"Everybody in the car!" he said loudly, dragging the girl towards it and throwing her shocked body on the back seat. He jumped onto the front passenger seat and turned towards the Xenomorph.
"Stop that shit!" he shouted. "Get on the truck bed! Now! We're getting out of here!"
To his surprise, the monster obeyed his command, turning around and jumping on the bed in a giant leap. The battered truck groaned dangerously under the sudden stress, but thankfully, it didn't decide to break apart.
"The fuck's going on?" C screamed again.
"Get the fucking car moving!" D barked back, fumbling for his gun. "There's another Xenomorph out there and judging from our companion's reaction here, it's not a friend of him!"
C's face became paper-white, and wordlessly he stepped on the accelerator, the truck darting forwards with spinning wheels.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
As the booth's door opened again, all the men in the room backed off instinctively as the... thing came out.
Oh, my... Dan thought as he walked out of the box. This is certainly... interesting. The sudden influx of so much new sensory information awed him. He took in the sight of all of his men, gaping at his appearance, each human associated with a heat signature, a heartbeat, a kind of radar image and a specific chemo-print. He wiggled his talon-equipped hands and feet to get a feel for his new body and moved his tail in front of his head, marveling at the sleek lethality its blade seemed to radiate.
Slowly he opened his maw then, extending his inner jaws and letting those snap open and shut a couple of time. Having a second mouth on his tongue felt strange but not uncomfortable. Bemused by his men's horrified expression at his radically changed body he emitted a vicious hiss, inwardly laughing at their fearful faces. It felt good being feared... and in this body, he could actually smell their anxiety. With a rattling sound, he retracted his inner jaws and turned towards the fire exit. He walked a couple of steps on his hind-legs, but then went down on all fours. It felt... more natural. Almost automatically his body was sampling the room's odors now, practically 'smelling' with his hands and feet.
He detected dozens of traces belonging to different humans, some even weeks old! But almost all of them male... there were two which smelled female, though. He had no idea how he knew this difference, but it didn't matter. One of those female traces went into the building. The other one out through the door, onto the fire staircase. The six-armed girl's smell.
This is really convenient... Dan mused while he moved down the staircase on all four legs, claws clicking on the metal. I'm my own tracking hound. So let's see how far she's gotten.
In his mouth, he felt his second jaw twitch in anticipation, and his entire body seemed to burn with excitement for the impending hunt.
Easy, Dan. he calmed himself down. You don't want to kill her, do you? Just hunt her down and scare her a little bit, then she'll come back on her own...
He didn't took the whole staircase. Instead, at the level of the second storey, he simply flexed his muscles and jumped down to the ground, landing with cat-like grace. It had seemed like the right thing to do. The girl's smell trail was as strong as ever and he kept following it into the forest. Soon there was a second trail mixing in, a smell totally different from the human girl. But not unfamiliar to his body.
So... he thought. The intruder has picked up her trace as well? I guess I have to fight him when I find her?
But then, suddenly, he stopped, concentrating on the chemical imprint in consternation. In some ways, it was like 'watching' a CCTV's footage of the scene. He 'saw' now the girl stumbling into the forest, and tumbling right into a stranger's embrace. He took her to a second stranger, not far away, and this one vanished with the girl into the woods, while the first stayed. Shortly thereafter, actually less than five minutes ago, the intruder showed up, a Xenomorph just like him, and together he and the first stranger went into the direction of his companion.
What the...? Dan thought confused. He had help? But no, that didn't look as if they knew each other. Cops, then? No, if they'd have been cops they would have stormed the building with a SWAT team instead of letting one civilian go...
Furiously, Dan considered all possibilities. That's it... he concluded icily. Those must be from a rivaling gang or, even worse, drug cartel. God knows the town had its share of organized crime even before we set up shop. So he asked them for help and told them about the magic box. That may become... unpleasant.
Still, it didn't change anything of his current objective, and therefore he spurted through the forest on all four legs, as fast as he could go without losing the trail.
"Jesus!" C exclaimed as the hurt Xenomorph fell behind until it was gone. "Did we get the right one? Is the Xenomorph still on the car the good one or the bad one???"
Heavily panting, D shed a glance to the passenger on the truck's bed.
"The good one, I think."
"You sure?"
"He isn't trying to kill us, what does this indicate to you?"
C mumbled something unintelligible and the Xenomorph growled approval as well. Then D looked at the back seats where the terrified girl had huddled herself into a corner during the fight, face sheltered by all three pairs of hands. He sighed.
"Okay... I think we'll drive for a another ten miles or so and then we're looking for a nice place to rest where we can discuss all the details- wait, what's this smell?"
There was a peculiar unpleasant smell in the air, the odor stung in his eyes and throat, almost like...
"Oh fuck damn!" he exclaimed, eyes wide. "Acid!"
"What?" C flexed his head, looking at his colleague.
"Aliens!" D hissed. "They do have acid for blood. And right now the tail's dripping acid all over our car!"
He turned towards the Xenomorph, motioning at the limp tail.
"Quick, get that thing out of here! And if you find any acid spots on the car, clean them up as well!"
The Xenomorph nodded in its jerky way, then grabbed the stuck tail and removed it with a violent jolt. He spent the next couple of minutes trying to clean the truck from his opponent's blood and D used the time to think. At least they were lucky that this was a rarely frequented rural road, they didn't encounter a single other car. The sight of a live Xenomorph on a truck's bed would probably have disconcerted most drivers.
He grinned at the thought as C pulled the car over at another gravel course branching from the main road. He drove a couple of hundred yards into the forest and then stopped the engine.
D inhaled sharply and then looked at his passengers, the fearful Xenomorph and the six-armed girl which now seemed to slowly gain back her composure.
"Okay, folks." he said. "I guess now you better tell us everything, from the moment you've found the transformation box until now. And since your partner here momentarily lacks the proper voice apparatus-" he forced himself to smile at the Xenomorph's short, angry hiss, "-it means that you'll do most of the talking, Miss."
Furiously, Dan moved through the room on all four legs, his green, acidic blood dripping on the carpet and fizzling large holes into the fabric. His whole body was hurting like hell from the fight and the fall, and the pain from his missing tail was disconcerting to say the least.
He ignored his men who backed off to make way for his evil form, even ignored Alex who was standing next to the magic box, taking in his form with wide-eyes. Instead, there was only rage in his mind. He'd nearly had them, and then the other Xenomorph had not only beaten him, but humiliated him. He would pay!
Silently, he moved up to the box, staying on all fours and instead extending his inner jaw until it touched the display. After his original body appeared, he walked in, to reappear in his unhurt, human appearance moments later.
Alex seemed to hover on the brink of a tantrum. "Dan!" he started in a dangerously low voice. "What the fucking hell is-"
"Shut the fuck up." Dan barked and Alex' face took a bright shade of red.
"What did you just-" he boomed but Dan simply cut him off.
"That was one of the guys who stole our box. He was not alone. I think he got help from one of the gangs we haven't found time yet to crush them. They probably think that with the box they'll have a perfect chance to reclaim their business."
Alex seemed torn between outrage at Dan's lack of deference and concern over what he'd said.
"You-" he jabbed a fleshy finger on Dan's chest. "-will not talk with me that way, is that clear?"
For a moment, Dan simply wanted to spit his brainless asshole of a boss right in the face. But then he battled his bubbling anger back under control.
"Yes, boss." he therefore simply said and Alex kept glowering at him. Then the big man nodded reluctantly.
"Okay..." he said. "So what do you think will happen next?"
Dan gave him a malevolent glance. "They'll come back with reinforcements, I think. To take back the other girl and the box."
Alex grunted, more in chagrin than in surprise. "Should we simply take the box and run, then?"
Dan shook his head. "No... they may have put ambushes into place at the road. No, it's more secure to stay here and fight on our own property. We only have to endure for the night, if we're calling for reinforcements now, they'll be here tomorrow.
Again, Alex grunted. "You think we'll manage? That the boys are up to the task?"
Dan snorted in contempt. "After the clusterfuck before where they lost nine men and wrecked an entire storey to get one man, unsuccessfully, I have to add, I wouldn't trust them taking out a fucking a kindergarten."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Dan saw the men's faces become hard with suppressed anger and humiliation. Good. He'd meant what he's said, and sometimes you had to utilize every psychological lever you could find.
So they fucked up and failed miserably... with guns... so I think I'll have to let them fight a different way, something which's more fit to their macho-personas. So let's see what Alex says to my little brainstorm.
"But I have an idea on how we could improve our 'fighting potential'." he continued loudly. "I think the enemy will most probably advance through the forest again. Therefore we should post guards in the forest who will intercept those fuckers then. And I think I'll just give those guards some 'upgrades' to make them more effective."
Interested, Alex cocked an eyebrow at Dan who went to the magic box and worked on the display. After a few seconds, he looked up towards the men until he found a suitable victim. That is, the first one his gaze fell upon whose name he knew.
"Dawson!" he ordered. "Put your gun down and get your ass over here into the box."
Gingerly, Dawson obeyed, walking towards the box and peering on the display. He gasped as he saw the image on it.
"But... Dan!" he protested, swallowing. "That... you can't be serious!"
Dan smiled at him humorlessly. "I'm not repeating this." he said pleasantly. "Get in the box. Or do you want to resign your job here and now?" he patted his holstered gun with his hand and Dawson swallowed again.
"Okay..." he said fearfully and slowly stepped into the box. The door disappeared for a couple of seconds and then a in green and brown scales mottled leg moved out of the box, the large middle claw of its three-toed foot scraping on the bottom.
Dan grinned as he watched his creation exiting the box awkwardly while the other men behind him were gasping.
"What the...?" Alex asked and stepped closer in fascination as he took in the giant lizard which now stood in front of the box and craned its head wondrously. "Is that a..."
"...a Velociraptor, yes." Dan finished his boss's sentence. "I thought if the enemy's using Hollywood-style monsters to attack us, then we'll do the same to defend us. Just imagine what will happen to a human if Dawson attacks him with those sickle-like claws of him, or his mouth."
He eyed the Velociraptor's head again, the lipless snout displaying a long row of interlocking, spiked teeth.
"That's certainly impressive." Alex acknowledged. "But why didn't you make him a Xenomorph like you were before?"
"The enemy has one Xenomorph." Dan retorted unfazed. "If we'd have Xenomorphs as well he could easily sneak in. Therefore we need something different." That and the fact that I don't want to give any of those brainless goons the power of a Xenomorph. he added silently. No, that power is mine alone...
Dan cleared his throat and looked pleasantly at the large Velociraptor. "Dawson, if you'd be as nice and store yourself away next to the exit?"
The Raptor opened its maw to respond something, but only an animalistic screech came out. Startled, it closed its maw with an audible click and nodded, prowling over to the assigned location, the gaping men making room for the monster.
Dan coughed again to refocus the attention on his person. "I figure that we need at least a dozen Raptors to decimate the enemy when he's coming. Don't worry, we'll turn you back once it's over. So... volunteers?"
"Are you telling me-" P asked icily out of the phone's speaker, "-that if we hadn't stopped the police before, they'd have encountered no device-spawned opposition? But that they will now most certainly encounter device-created monsters, such as frigging Xenomorphs?"
D winced at his superiors tone. The worst was that he could fully understand her anger.
"This is essentially correct." he replied with the firmest voice he could muster. "The regulations worked... poorly in this specific case and I'm sure there'll be enough time afterwards to analyze exactly what went wrong and why and if the regulations are in need of adjustments. But that doesn't change the current situation, and we somehow have to react to this threat. As you're well aware, there's a time component involved."
For a moment, there was silence on the line. Then, to D's relief, P sighed. "You're right of course." she huffed. "How much time do we have?"
D shed a glance towards the six-armed girl, Susan, and the massive Xenomorph, Michael, who were both sitting in front of C. "Not as much as I'd like to have." he said unhappily. "The two device-users we rescued haven't activated the device themselves, but both claim that their friend who did, and who's still captured by this biker gang, started using it three days ago, actually four, we're already well into the next day. The earliest use of one of the two was around 11 a.m., so that's the best case scenario."
"But you don't believe so?"
He sighed. "No, Ma'am. I don't. 'Hope for the best but plan for the worst'. I think the device will stop working well before 9 a.m. this morning."
"Which would leave us with a six-armed girl and a Xenomorph. Not to mention whatever the bad guys decide to turn into. The girl is no big deal, we have experience with squirreling away device-victims with deformations similar to hers. The Xenomorph, though..." P let her voice trail off and D didn't respond. He didn't have to, really.
"Okay." P's voice came hard over the ether. "I'll rescind the block on the SWAT teams. I'll send them to your location where you'll coordinate with them. You are fully authorized to brief the police leader about the possible hazards, but I expect you to exercise your own discretion on the amount of information you're handing out. The less the better. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am!" D responded firmly.
"All right. I therefore order you to try to retrieve the device and change all the victims back before the deadline is over. Good luck." with a click, the line went dead and slowly D put the phone back into his pocket again. That had gone better than he'd expected... still, there had been one bit of information he'd withheld.
The girl's claim, or rather her captor's claim that they'd somehow managed to reactivate a device sounded too far-fetched to be true. It simply had to be a freak occurrence with one group of humans encountering a device twice. With one exception, no device had ever been reactivated, and said exception clearly didn't apply here.
But whatever the answer to this particular mystery, first he had to break the unpleasant news to the rescued pair.
The girl turned towards him with a hopeful glance as he approached, and the Xenomorph moved its head into his direction as well.
"I have good news." he told them. "My boss has authorized me to get the box - and your friend - back. There'll be police assault teams arriving soon and they'll storm the compound." the girls eyes lit up, but his next sentence squelched her joy. "You two will accompany us during the assault."
"WHAT?" the girl blurted out startled. "Why? I mean... can't we just wait until you have liberated Martin and the box and brought the stuff back?"
D shook his head. "Sadly not. There is one aspect of the device you have been using we haven't told you - yet. We don't know where these things comes from and we don't know how they do what they do. But each time someone finds such a device and uses it, the same thing happens. After exactly four days, the device stops working. Permanently."
The girl's eyes flew wide and the Xenomorph emitted a shocked snarl. "You mean...?"
D nodded grimly. "Yes. If we don't change you back in the next few hours or so, the device will stop working. And you'll be stuck."
For a moment, the girl simply stared at him. Then her face turned a shade of green and she stumbled to the side, retching. C went to her side to support her. Her companion, on the other hand, simply stood there motionlessly, and D could imagine only too well what was going on in his head. If we don't succeed in getting back the box soon I'll stay a hideous monster for the rest of my life!
"Since every second is precious and we don't know the exact moment when the device will stop working, you'll have to attend the assault in order to use the device as soon as possible." he continued. "But let me tell you this-" and he looked at them with grim determination, "-I'll do everything humanly possible to make sure that you'll get your real bodies back!"
"There, at the branch. Do you think that's our contact?" the driver said and pointed at the figure which was waving at the approaching convoy.
"Can't think of anybody else who'd be standing in the middle of nowhere at 3 a.m. in the morning and waving at armored police cars." Police Captain Maurice Gyles growled. He was royally pissed at the half a day long delay. He and his boys had been ready to storm the criminals' hide the evening before, but then an inexplicable halting order had been issued. That nobody could explain to him who had issued the order, much less why, hadn't raised his spirits in the slightest. And so he'd spent the last few hours by cursing the invisible assholes who'd put his units on the leash.
"You think we'll get an explanation for all this madness now?" his assistant Lieutenant Trevor Cromer put in cheerfully and Gyles' face darkened dangerously.
"I sure hope so." he barked moodily. As he'd finally gotten his moving orders, those had been odd to say the least. He'd been denied any usual support whatsoever. Apart from half a dozen ambulances the powers that were had graciously allowed him to keep, his SWAT teams in their APCs were alone. No fire brigade to help cordoning off the premises. No press officers to talk to the media. Nothing.
Only the ambulances and his armed to the teeth men. As if someone expected his teams to encounter the North Korean Army, but wanted to make sure that nobody witnessed it. He had a very bad feeling about all of this.
Still grumpily, he exited the vehicle and walked towards the man who had been waiting for them. "I'm Captain Gyles. Are you my contact?"
The man smiled slightly. "Yes." he said, offering him a hand which Gyles took warily. "I'm D. Good to see you and your men, Captain."
"D? Simply D? You shitting me, what authority are you working for? Who's running this show? I want answers, man."
The man who'd introduced himself as 'D' smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Captain." he said. "But I can't answer your question. If you want proof of my authority, here's my ID. I suggest you check it with your patrol car's computers."
Wordlessly, the Captain grabbed the offered card and stalked off. It looked totally nondescript, and besides the man's photo, the initial 'D' and several rows of numbers, there was nothing distinctive. He'd never seen such an ID before! Unfortunately for him, the computer had.
-Representative of the government with highest authority - provide all necessary support- it spit out and Gyles ogled at the sentence for a couple of seconds until he returned to the man, cursing loudly.
"Okay, Sir." he said through clenched teeth. "It's your show. Tell me what you want."
The man, 'D', nodded courteously. "All right." he said in a pleasant voice. "Why don't we continue our meeting in your command truck then?"
"Okay." the Captain told D. "We have to free a hostage and retrieve a valuable piece of equipment. To do this, we need to assault up to 30 criminals, many of them armed, who are camping at this abandoned factory." he motioned at the large map. "A direct approach isn't advisable since the road leading to the premises passes over a narrow bridge. This leaves an approach through the forest. We'll enter the building over the fire staircase here and roll up the bad guys from behind. Piece of cake for my guys. But of course it isn't all."
D eyed the Captain curiously. Of course he knew what was coming now. The police man seemed to be a sharp cookie. Still, there had to be appearances maintained.
"It isn't all?" he asked therefore with a cocked eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
The Lieutenant next to the Captain grinned and the senior office harrumphed.
"Don't take me for a fool, D. There's something extraordinary involving this operation. And given all the firepower you guys asked for I think it's got something to do with the opposition we'll face. It won't be thirty thugs with guns, will it?"
D sighed. All right. Time to play with open cards. "You're essentially correct, Captain." he informed him. "There was the possibility of an unusual threat which could have jeopardized your operation if you'd have assaulted unprepared. That's why we halted your deployment. To evaluate the threat."
"And...?" Gyles asked.
"And the threat has been confirmed. You will not be up against thugs with guns, probably. Or let's say not only against thugs with guns."
"Probably? What do you mean, 'probably'? What will my men be up against?"
D shrugged helplessly. "That's the problem. We don't know. Could be everything."
Gyles ogled him. "Everything?" he repeated, "What do you mean, everything?"
"What I said. You could be up against the Easter Hare, unicorns or little green guys from planet Mars. We simply don't know."
"Little green guy from planet Mars." Gyles chuckled. "Good joke."
The agent simply stared at him. Gyles' smile disappeared.
"You're not joking? The fucking hell?"
Slowly, D rose up. "I think it would be better to demonstrate. If you'd come with me, please."
The two police officers looked at each other, but then obeyed. D led them out of the command trailer, further into the woods until they arrived at a battered looking truck which was guarded by C.
"Gentlemen." he said, motioning to a girl which exited the truck awkwardly, "meet Susan."
"What the...?" Gyles muttered under his breath while Cromer whistled silently. "She got six arms? Why the hell does she have six arms?"
D smiled again. "The same reason why you could be encountering little green guys from planet Mars. It's classified, of course."
"Hm..." Gyles took the sight of the strange woman in. "Okay... that's... weird, really. But I guess we can cope with this." he grinned. "We'll need more shackles, though, if all the bad guys are in the same shape."
"That's the problem." D put in. "They probably aren't. In fact, they may be something entirely else. Therefore I want you to meet Susan's friend Michael as well..."
Oh, boys... he thought gleefully, You're in for a big surprise!
Michael felt acutely uncomfortable as he towered in front of the gaping police men. That he was able to perceive their faster than normal beating carotid arteries, to feel their heartbeat and smell their fear didn't make things easier. He tried to appear as unthreatening as possible, but while his current body was capable of many feats (most of them involving either mayhem or destruction or both), being 'unthreatening' certainly wasn't one. At least he'd managed to stop drooling!
The older of the two was the first who regained his composure.
"So..." he said, "...a Xenomorph? The fucking hell? Is that thing... tame?"
"The 'thing' is sentient, Captain." C put in frostily. "His name is Michael and he's as intelligent as any of your men. Isn't that right, Michael?"
Michael nodded acknowledging and the Captain's jaw muscles clenched.
"Does that mean that the enemy has also Xenomorphs? And that their Xenomorphs are intelligent as well?"
"They possibly have Xenomorphs." D put in, stressing the adverb. "To be fair, we've seen only one of them so far. And yes, their creatures are just as intelligent."
"I thought so." the Captain mustered Michael darkly. "I won't do it." he said then and D raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I won't do the assault. You telling me we're up against Xenomorphs and shit? Well, get the goddamn army then! But not my men! That's way too risky!"
D shook his head courteously. "I fear that is no option. As I've told you, time is essential. We can't wait even one more minute. You will do this assault."
"The fuck I will!" angrily, the Captain stared at D and the agent sighed. Then he dig into his pocket and took his ID out again.
"Do you know what this is, Captain?" he asked politely.
"A fucking ID I've never seen before in my life?" the officer snorted derisively.
"Not quite." D replied with a hard face. "It's my 'I get what I fucking want card'." apparently, the agent had decided to switch over to the Captain's language.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that one call by me and you'll be relieved of command, Captain. And I swear to God that I will play this card as often as I need until I find somebody to command the damn assault, even if it's a lowly Sergeant. So you have two possibilities now - either you're doing as I say or I'll find myself someone else who will - sadly this someone will obviously lack your skills and experience, but one can't have everything."
He locked eyes with the furious officer.
"What will it be, Captain?"
Fuming, he stared at D. Then he started cursing and ranting for half a minute. "You son of bitch." he pressed out between clenched teeth. "I'll do it. Not to give you what you want, you asshole, but to protect my men. You get this?"
"I wouldn't expect anything else." D agreed courteously and put his ID away. "After we've clarified this, what do we do next?"
"Next?" the Captain uttered a grim chuckle and looked at Michael. "Next we'll show your companion here to the boys. To prepare them for what may be waiting for them. And afterwards... we'll go monster hunting."
From his vantage point at the administrative building's upper storey, Dan looked down towards the moonlit forest where he could see four of his Velociraptor turned goons roaming the edge of the forest. The other fourteen Raptors were somewhere in the forest, waiting to intercept the attack.
Dan's lips twitched at the thought of his creations tearing the merely human assailants to shreds. This is- he contemplated -one of my better ideas. Most of my men have a predator's mindset anyway, so turning them into real predators is probably making them more effective than arming them to the teeth.
He was waiting anxiously for the attack which he was actually looking forward to. Because when the enemy gang would begin its assault, he'd once again change into his magnificent Xenomorph body and join his men... respectively Raptors in their fight. He couldn't await testing out that body's strength against normal humans. Until then, though...
Dan shed a glance to the living bruise which had been a shapely woman only hours ago, lying bound and gagged next to the magic box. After Alex had raped the girl, Dan had probed her for information. Adding additional bruises here and there in the process. You couldn't make a proper omelette without being hard on a couple of eggs, after all. At least he hadn't raped her again. There was no way in hell he'd stick his dick into something which had already been used by Alex! But aside from a lot of useless blabber, his rigorous questioning hadn't unveiled any new information regarding the wondrous reactivation of the box. So either the girl was tougher than he thought, or she really didn't have any clue.
Well... he thought, Doesn't really matter, actually. The box works again and that's all that counts. The main thing to concentrate on now is making sure that the box stays in our possession.
As the booth's door opened again, all the men in the room backed off instinctively as the... thing came out.
Oh, my... Dan thought as he walked out of the box. This is certainly... interesting. The sudden influx of so much new sensory information awed him. He took in the sight of all of his men, gaping at his appearance, each human associated with a heat signature, a heartbeat, a kind of radar image and a specific chemo-print. He wiggled his talon-equipped hands and feet to get a feel for his new body and moved his tail in front of his head, marveling at the sleek lethality its blade seemed to radiate.
Slowly he opened his maw then, extending his inner jaws and letting those snap open and shut a couple of time. Having a second mouth on his tongue felt strange but not uncomfortable. Bemused by his men's horrified expression at his radically changed body he emitted a vicious hiss, inwardly laughing at their fearful faces. It felt good being feared... and in this body, he could actually smell their anxiety. With a rattling sound, he retracted his inner jaws and turned towards the fire exit. He walked a couple of steps on his hind-legs, but then went down on all fours. It felt... more natural. Almost automatically his body was sampling the room's odors now, practically 'smelling' with his hands and feet.
He detected dozens of traces belonging to different humans, some even weeks old! But almost all of them male... there were two which smelled female, though. He had no idea how he knew this difference, but it didn't matter. One of those female traces went into the building. The other one out through the door, onto the fire staircase. The six-armed girl's smell.
This is really convenient... Dan mused while he moved down the staircase on all four legs, claws clicking on the metal. I'm my own tracking hound. So let's see how far she's gotten.
In his mouth, he felt his second jaw twitch in anticipation, and his entire body seemed to burn with excitement for the impending hunt.
Easy, Dan. he calmed himself down. You don't want to kill her, do you? Just hunt her down and scare her a little bit, then she'll come back on her own...
He didn't took the whole staircase. Instead, at the level of the second storey, he simply flexed his muscles and jumped down to the ground, landing with cat-like grace. It had seemed like the right thing to do. The girl's smell trail was as strong as ever and he kept following it into the forest. Soon there was a second trail mixing in, a smell totally different from the human girl. But not unfamiliar to his body.
So... he thought. The intruder has picked up her trace as well? I guess I have to fight him when I find her?
But then, suddenly, he stopped, concentrating on the chemical imprint in consternation. In some ways, it was like 'watching' a CCTV's footage of the scene. He 'saw' now the girl stumbling into the forest, and tumbling right into a stranger's embrace. He took her to a second stranger, not far away, and this one vanished with the girl into the woods, while the first stayed. Shortly thereafter, actually less than five minutes ago, the intruder showed up, a Xenomorph just like him, and together he and the first stranger went into the direction of his companion.
What the...? Dan thought confused. He had help? But no, that didn't look as if they knew each other. Cops, then? No, if they'd have been cops they would have stormed the building with a SWAT team instead of letting one civilian go...
Furiously, Dan considered all possibilities. That's it... he concluded icily. Those must be from a rivaling gang or, even worse, drug cartel. God knows the town had its share of organized crime even before we set up shop. So he asked them for help and told them about the magic box. That may become... unpleasant.
Still, it didn't change anything of his current objective, and therefore he spurted through the forest on all four legs, as fast as he could go without losing the trail.
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"Step on it, step on it!" Michael heard the older of the two men screaming frenetically while the truck clattered over the gravel course which connected the clearing they'd used to hide from detection with the main road. But it was too late. The other Xenomorph, following the accelerating car in long leaps, came flying through the air, emitting a blood-curdling cry. The entire car lunged in the air as it impacted on the truck bed next to him.
Michael's body reacted before he could muster a rational thought himself. He slashed out with clawed hands, leaving deep gashes in the other's flesh. The creature howled in rage as green blood splashed from the wound and tried to fight back. Its tail leaped forwards, but Michael managed to evade and the blade crashed through the passenger compartment's roof instead, burying itself in the driver's seat, the wickedly gleaming tip coming to rest only inches away from the wide-eyed driver's face.
Ruthlessly, Michael exploited the opening and let his own blade come slashing down, neatly cutting the stuck tail off. The creature screeched in agony and tried bringing its maw in position, but Michael interposed his own tail. Which was the moment when something strange happened. There was a... transfer, for lack of words, from the other Xenomorph. Call it a package, a combination of pheromones and electrical impulses. It was utterly alien - and yet it had a clear meaning.
<You asshole, I'll kill you!> the message ranted, and instinctively Michael responded in kind.
<Fuck you!> he sent back, <I'll not let you kill my friend!>
This seemed to surprise the other one, because he stopped in his attacks for a quarter of a second. It was exactly the time Michael needed. With a loud crunch, the driver threw the car into a violent turn, sliding onto the main road, and the resulting forces shifted both Xenomorphs towards the truck bed's rim.
Michael threw his entire body's weight onto the assailant and it staggered back, over the edge. Had it still possessed its tail, it probably would have managed to keep its balance. But without it, it tumbled off the speeding car, crashing onto the hard tarmac with a furious snarl.
The Xenomorph rolled several times and then, apart from the gashes and its missing tail apparently unhurt, ran after the moving car. But now, the driver had a proper road at his disposal and he floored the accelerator. The car darted forwards, the speed topping sixty miles in a matter of seconds.
The creature screamed a frustrated, disappointed snarl which Michael answered with a victorious screech of its own, and then the pursuer vanished in the darkness behind them.
Michael's body reacted before he could muster a rational thought himself. He slashed out with clawed hands, leaving deep gashes in the other's flesh. The creature howled in rage as green blood splashed from the wound and tried to fight back. Its tail leaped forwards, but Michael managed to evade and the blade crashed through the passenger compartment's roof instead, burying itself in the driver's seat, the wickedly gleaming tip coming to rest only inches away from the wide-eyed driver's face.
Ruthlessly, Michael exploited the opening and let his own blade come slashing down, neatly cutting the stuck tail off. The creature screeched in agony and tried bringing its maw in position, but Michael interposed his own tail. Which was the moment when something strange happened. There was a... transfer, for lack of words, from the other Xenomorph. Call it a package, a combination of pheromones and electrical impulses. It was utterly alien - and yet it had a clear meaning.
<You asshole, I'll kill you!> the message ranted, and instinctively Michael responded in kind.
<Fuck you!> he sent back, <I'll not let you kill my friend!>
This seemed to surprise the other one, because he stopped in his attacks for a quarter of a second. It was exactly the time Michael needed. With a loud crunch, the driver threw the car into a violent turn, sliding onto the main road, and the resulting forces shifted both Xenomorphs towards the truck bed's rim.
Michael threw his entire body's weight onto the assailant and it staggered back, over the edge. Had it still possessed its tail, it probably would have managed to keep its balance. But without it, it tumbled off the speeding car, crashing onto the hard tarmac with a furious snarl.
The Xenomorph rolled several times and then, apart from the gashes and its missing tail apparently unhurt, ran after the moving car. But now, the driver had a proper road at his disposal and he floored the accelerator. The car darted forwards, the speed topping sixty miles in a matter of seconds.
The creature screamed a frustrated, disappointed snarl which Michael answered with a victorious screech of its own, and then the pursuer vanished in the darkness behind them.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
"Jesus!" C exclaimed as the hurt Xenomorph fell behind until it was gone. "Did we get the right one? Is the Xenomorph still on the car the good one or the bad one???"
Heavily panting, D shed a glance to the passenger on the truck's bed.
"The good one, I think."
"You sure?"
"He isn't trying to kill us, what does this indicate to you?"
C mumbled something unintelligible and the Xenomorph growled approval as well. Then D looked at the back seats where the terrified girl had huddled herself into a corner during the fight, face sheltered by all three pairs of hands. He sighed.
"Okay... I think we'll drive for a another ten miles or so and then we're looking for a nice place to rest where we can discuss all the details- wait, what's this smell?"
There was a peculiar unpleasant smell in the air, the odor stung in his eyes and throat, almost like...
"Oh fuck damn!" he exclaimed, eyes wide. "Acid!"
"What?" C flexed his head, looking at his colleague.
"Aliens!" D hissed. "They do have acid for blood. And right now the tail's dripping acid all over our car!"
He turned towards the Xenomorph, motioning at the limp tail.
"Quick, get that thing out of here! And if you find any acid spots on the car, clean them up as well!"
The Xenomorph nodded in its jerky way, then grabbed the stuck tail and removed it with a violent jolt. He spent the next couple of minutes trying to clean the truck from his opponent's blood and D used the time to think. At least they were lucky that this was a rarely frequented rural road, they didn't encounter a single other car. The sight of a live Xenomorph on a truck's bed would probably have disconcerted most drivers.
He grinned at the thought as C pulled the car over at another gravel course branching from the main road. He drove a couple of hundred yards into the forest and then stopped the engine.
D inhaled sharply and then looked at his passengers, the fearful Xenomorph and the six-armed girl which now seemed to slowly gain back her composure.
"Okay, folks." he said. "I guess now you better tell us everything, from the moment you've found the transformation box until now. And since your partner here momentarily lacks the proper voice apparatus-" he forced himself to smile at the Xenomorph's short, angry hiss, "-it means that you'll do most of the talking, Miss."
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Furiously, Dan moved through the room on all four legs, his green, acidic blood dripping on the carpet and fizzling large holes into the fabric. His whole body was hurting like hell from the fight and the fall, and the pain from his missing tail was disconcerting to say the least.
He ignored his men who backed off to make way for his evil form, even ignored Alex who was standing next to the magic box, taking in his form with wide-eyes. Instead, there was only rage in his mind. He'd nearly had them, and then the other Xenomorph had not only beaten him, but humiliated him. He would pay!
Silently, he moved up to the box, staying on all fours and instead extending his inner jaw until it touched the display. After his original body appeared, he walked in, to reappear in his unhurt, human appearance moments later.
Alex seemed to hover on the brink of a tantrum. "Dan!" he started in a dangerously low voice. "What the fucking hell is-"
"Shut the fuck up." Dan barked and Alex' face took a bright shade of red.
"What did you just-" he boomed but Dan simply cut him off.
"That was one of the guys who stole our box. He was not alone. I think he got help from one of the gangs we haven't found time yet to crush them. They probably think that with the box they'll have a perfect chance to reclaim their business."
Alex seemed torn between outrage at Dan's lack of deference and concern over what he'd said.
"You-" he jabbed a fleshy finger on Dan's chest. "-will not talk with me that way, is that clear?"
For a moment, Dan simply wanted to spit his brainless asshole of a boss right in the face. But then he battled his bubbling anger back under control.
"Yes, boss." he therefore simply said and Alex kept glowering at him. Then the big man nodded reluctantly.
"Okay..." he said. "So what do you think will happen next?"
Dan gave him a malevolent glance. "They'll come back with reinforcements, I think. To take back the other girl and the box."
Alex grunted, more in chagrin than in surprise. "Should we simply take the box and run, then?"
Dan shook his head. "No... they may have put ambushes into place at the road. No, it's more secure to stay here and fight on our own property. We only have to endure for the night, if we're calling for reinforcements now, they'll be here tomorrow.
Again, Alex grunted. "You think we'll manage? That the boys are up to the task?"
Dan snorted in contempt. "After the clusterfuck before where they lost nine men and wrecked an entire storey to get one man, unsuccessfully, I have to add, I wouldn't trust them taking out a fucking a kindergarten."
Out of the corner of his eyes, Dan saw the men's faces become hard with suppressed anger and humiliation. Good. He'd meant what he's said, and sometimes you had to utilize every psychological lever you could find.
So they fucked up and failed miserably... with guns... so I think I'll have to let them fight a different way, something which's more fit to their macho-personas. So let's see what Alex says to my little brainstorm.
"But I have an idea on how we could improve our 'fighting potential'." he continued loudly. "I think the enemy will most probably advance through the forest again. Therefore we should post guards in the forest who will intercept those fuckers then. And I think I'll just give those guards some 'upgrades' to make them more effective."
Interested, Alex cocked an eyebrow at Dan who went to the magic box and worked on the display. After a few seconds, he looked up towards the men until he found a suitable victim. That is, the first one his gaze fell upon whose name he knew.
"Dawson!" he ordered. "Put your gun down and get your ass over here into the box."
Gingerly, Dawson obeyed, walking towards the box and peering on the display. He gasped as he saw the image on it.
"But... Dan!" he protested, swallowing. "That... you can't be serious!"
Dan smiled at him humorlessly. "I'm not repeating this." he said pleasantly. "Get in the box. Or do you want to resign your job here and now?" he patted his holstered gun with his hand and Dawson swallowed again.
"Okay..." he said fearfully and slowly stepped into the box. The door disappeared for a couple of seconds and then a in green and brown scales mottled leg moved out of the box, the large middle claw of its three-toed foot scraping on the bottom.
Dan grinned as he watched his creation exiting the box awkwardly while the other men behind him were gasping.
"What the...?" Alex asked and stepped closer in fascination as he took in the giant lizard which now stood in front of the box and craned its head wondrously. "Is that a..."
"...a Velociraptor, yes." Dan finished his boss's sentence. "I thought if the enemy's using Hollywood-style monsters to attack us, then we'll do the same to defend us. Just imagine what will happen to a human if Dawson attacks him with those sickle-like claws of him, or his mouth."
He eyed the Velociraptor's head again, the lipless snout displaying a long row of interlocking, spiked teeth.
"That's certainly impressive." Alex acknowledged. "But why didn't you make him a Xenomorph like you were before?"
"The enemy has one Xenomorph." Dan retorted unfazed. "If we'd have Xenomorphs as well he could easily sneak in. Therefore we need something different." That and the fact that I don't want to give any of those brainless goons the power of a Xenomorph. he added silently. No, that power is mine alone...
Dan cleared his throat and looked pleasantly at the large Velociraptor. "Dawson, if you'd be as nice and store yourself away next to the exit?"
The Raptor opened its maw to respond something, but only an animalistic screech came out. Startled, it closed its maw with an audible click and nodded, prowling over to the assigned location, the gaping men making room for the monster.
Dan coughed again to refocus the attention on his person. "I figure that we need at least a dozen Raptors to decimate the enemy when he's coming. Don't worry, we'll turn you back once it's over. So... volunteers?"
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
D winced at his superiors tone. The worst was that he could fully understand her anger.
"This is essentially correct." he replied with the firmest voice he could muster. "The regulations worked... poorly in this specific case and I'm sure there'll be enough time afterwards to analyze exactly what went wrong and why and if the regulations are in need of adjustments. But that doesn't change the current situation, and we somehow have to react to this threat. As you're well aware, there's a time component involved."
For a moment, there was silence on the line. Then, to D's relief, P sighed. "You're right of course." she huffed. "How much time do we have?"
D shed a glance towards the six-armed girl, Susan, and the massive Xenomorph, Michael, who were both sitting in front of C. "Not as much as I'd like to have." he said unhappily. "The two device-users we rescued haven't activated the device themselves, but both claim that their friend who did, and who's still captured by this biker gang, started using it three days ago, actually four, we're already well into the next day. The earliest use of one of the two was around 11 a.m., so that's the best case scenario."
"But you don't believe so?"
He sighed. "No, Ma'am. I don't. 'Hope for the best but plan for the worst'. I think the device will stop working well before 9 a.m. this morning."
"Which would leave us with a six-armed girl and a Xenomorph. Not to mention whatever the bad guys decide to turn into. The girl is no big deal, we have experience with squirreling away device-victims with deformations similar to hers. The Xenomorph, though..." P let her voice trail off and D didn't respond. He didn't have to, really.
"Okay." P's voice came hard over the ether. "I'll rescind the block on the SWAT teams. I'll send them to your location where you'll coordinate with them. You are fully authorized to brief the police leader about the possible hazards, but I expect you to exercise your own discretion on the amount of information you're handing out. The less the better. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Ma'am!" D responded firmly.
"All right. I therefore order you to try to retrieve the device and change all the victims back before the deadline is over. Good luck." with a click, the line went dead and slowly D put the phone back into his pocket again. That had gone better than he'd expected... still, there had been one bit of information he'd withheld.
The girl's claim, or rather her captor's claim that they'd somehow managed to reactivate a device sounded too far-fetched to be true. It simply had to be a freak occurrence with one group of humans encountering a device twice. With one exception, no device had ever been reactivated, and said exception clearly didn't apply here.
But whatever the answer to this particular mystery, first he had to break the unpleasant news to the rescued pair.
The girl turned towards him with a hopeful glance as he approached, and the Xenomorph moved its head into his direction as well.
"I have good news." he told them. "My boss has authorized me to get the box - and your friend - back. There'll be police assault teams arriving soon and they'll storm the compound." the girls eyes lit up, but his next sentence squelched her joy. "You two will accompany us during the assault."
"WHAT?" the girl blurted out startled. "Why? I mean... can't we just wait until you have liberated Martin and the box and brought the stuff back?"
D shook his head. "Sadly not. There is one aspect of the device you have been using we haven't told you - yet. We don't know where these things comes from and we don't know how they do what they do. But each time someone finds such a device and uses it, the same thing happens. After exactly four days, the device stops working. Permanently."
The girl's eyes flew wide and the Xenomorph emitted a shocked snarl. "You mean...?"
D nodded grimly. "Yes. If we don't change you back in the next few hours or so, the device will stop working. And you'll be stuck."
For a moment, the girl simply stared at him. Then her face turned a shade of green and she stumbled to the side, retching. C went to her side to support her. Her companion, on the other hand, simply stood there motionlessly, and D could imagine only too well what was going on in his head. If we don't succeed in getting back the box soon I'll stay a hideous monster for the rest of my life!
"Since every second is precious and we don't know the exact moment when the device will stop working, you'll have to attend the assault in order to use the device as soon as possible." he continued. "But let me tell you this-" and he looked at them with grim determination, "-I'll do everything humanly possible to make sure that you'll get your real bodies back!"
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
"Can't think of anybody else who'd be standing in the middle of nowhere at 3 a.m. in the morning and waving at armored police cars." Police Captain Maurice Gyles growled. He was royally pissed at the half a day long delay. He and his boys had been ready to storm the criminals' hide the evening before, but then an inexplicable halting order had been issued. That nobody could explain to him who had issued the order, much less why, hadn't raised his spirits in the slightest. And so he'd spent the last few hours by cursing the invisible assholes who'd put his units on the leash.
"You think we'll get an explanation for all this madness now?" his assistant Lieutenant Trevor Cromer put in cheerfully and Gyles' face darkened dangerously.
"I sure hope so." he barked moodily. As he'd finally gotten his moving orders, those had been odd to say the least. He'd been denied any usual support whatsoever. Apart from half a dozen ambulances the powers that were had graciously allowed him to keep, his SWAT teams in their APCs were alone. No fire brigade to help cordoning off the premises. No press officers to talk to the media. Nothing.
Only the ambulances and his armed to the teeth men. As if someone expected his teams to encounter the North Korean Army, but wanted to make sure that nobody witnessed it. He had a very bad feeling about all of this.
Still grumpily, he exited the vehicle and walked towards the man who had been waiting for them. "I'm Captain Gyles. Are you my contact?"
The man smiled slightly. "Yes." he said, offering him a hand which Gyles took warily. "I'm D. Good to see you and your men, Captain."
"D? Simply D? You shitting me, what authority are you working for? Who's running this show? I want answers, man."
The man who'd introduced himself as 'D' smiled sympathetically. "I'm sorry, Captain." he said. "But I can't answer your question. If you want proof of my authority, here's my ID. I suggest you check it with your patrol car's computers."
Wordlessly, the Captain grabbed the offered card and stalked off. It looked totally nondescript, and besides the man's photo, the initial 'D' and several rows of numbers, there was nothing distinctive. He'd never seen such an ID before! Unfortunately for him, the computer had.
-Representative of the government with highest authority - provide all necessary support- it spit out and Gyles ogled at the sentence for a couple of seconds until he returned to the man, cursing loudly.
"Okay, Sir." he said through clenched teeth. "It's your show. Tell me what you want."
The man, 'D', nodded courteously. "All right." he said in a pleasant voice. "Why don't we continue our meeting in your command truck then?"
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"Okay." the Captain told D. "We have to free a hostage and retrieve a valuable piece of equipment. To do this, we need to assault up to 30 criminals, many of them armed, who are camping at this abandoned factory." he motioned at the large map. "A direct approach isn't advisable since the road leading to the premises passes over a narrow bridge. This leaves an approach through the forest. We'll enter the building over the fire staircase here and roll up the bad guys from behind. Piece of cake for my guys. But of course it isn't all."
D eyed the Captain curiously. Of course he knew what was coming now. The police man seemed to be a sharp cookie. Still, there had to be appearances maintained.
"It isn't all?" he asked therefore with a cocked eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
The Lieutenant next to the Captain grinned and the senior office harrumphed.
"Don't take me for a fool, D. There's something extraordinary involving this operation. And given all the firepower you guys asked for I think it's got something to do with the opposition we'll face. It won't be thirty thugs with guns, will it?"
D sighed. All right. Time to play with open cards. "You're essentially correct, Captain." he informed him. "There was the possibility of an unusual threat which could have jeopardized your operation if you'd have assaulted unprepared. That's why we halted your deployment. To evaluate the threat."
"And...?" Gyles asked.
"And the threat has been confirmed. You will not be up against thugs with guns, probably. Or let's say not only against thugs with guns."
"Probably? What do you mean, 'probably'? What will my men be up against?"
D shrugged helplessly. "That's the problem. We don't know. Could be everything."
Gyles ogled him. "Everything?" he repeated, "What do you mean, everything?"
"What I said. You could be up against the Easter Hare, unicorns or little green guys from planet Mars. We simply don't know."
"Little green guy from planet Mars." Gyles chuckled. "Good joke."
The agent simply stared at him. Gyles' smile disappeared.
"You're not joking? The fucking hell?"
Slowly, D rose up. "I think it would be better to demonstrate. If you'd come with me, please."
The two police officers looked at each other, but then obeyed. D led them out of the command trailer, further into the woods until they arrived at a battered looking truck which was guarded by C.
"Gentlemen." he said, motioning to a girl which exited the truck awkwardly, "meet Susan."
"What the...?" Gyles muttered under his breath while Cromer whistled silently. "She got six arms? Why the hell does she have six arms?"
D smiled again. "The same reason why you could be encountering little green guys from planet Mars. It's classified, of course."
"Hm..." Gyles took the sight of the strange woman in. "Okay... that's... weird, really. But I guess we can cope with this." he grinned. "We'll need more shackles, though, if all the bad guys are in the same shape."
"That's the problem." D put in. "They probably aren't. In fact, they may be something entirely else. Therefore I want you to meet Susan's friend Michael as well..."
Oh, boys... he thought gleefully, You're in for a big surprise!
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Michael felt acutely uncomfortable as he towered in front of the gaping police men. That he was able to perceive their faster than normal beating carotid arteries, to feel their heartbeat and smell their fear didn't make things easier. He tried to appear as unthreatening as possible, but while his current body was capable of many feats (most of them involving either mayhem or destruction or both), being 'unthreatening' certainly wasn't one. At least he'd managed to stop drooling!
The older of the two was the first who regained his composure.
"So..." he said, "...a Xenomorph? The fucking hell? Is that thing... tame?"
"The 'thing' is sentient, Captain." C put in frostily. "His name is Michael and he's as intelligent as any of your men. Isn't that right, Michael?"
Michael nodded acknowledging and the Captain's jaw muscles clenched.
"Does that mean that the enemy has also Xenomorphs? And that their Xenomorphs are intelligent as well?"
"They possibly have Xenomorphs." D put in, stressing the adverb. "To be fair, we've seen only one of them so far. And yes, their creatures are just as intelligent."
"I thought so." the Captain mustered Michael darkly. "I won't do it." he said then and D raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I won't do the assault. You telling me we're up against Xenomorphs and shit? Well, get the goddamn army then! But not my men! That's way too risky!"
D shook his head courteously. "I fear that is no option. As I've told you, time is essential. We can't wait even one more minute. You will do this assault."
"The fuck I will!" angrily, the Captain stared at D and the agent sighed. Then he dig into his pocket and took his ID out again.
"Do you know what this is, Captain?" he asked politely.
"A fucking ID I've never seen before in my life?" the officer snorted derisively.
"Not quite." D replied with a hard face. "It's my 'I get what I fucking want card'." apparently, the agent had decided to switch over to the Captain's language.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning that one call by me and you'll be relieved of command, Captain. And I swear to God that I will play this card as often as I need until I find somebody to command the damn assault, even if it's a lowly Sergeant. So you have two possibilities now - either you're doing as I say or I'll find myself someone else who will - sadly this someone will obviously lack your skills and experience, but one can't have everything."
He locked eyes with the furious officer.
"What will it be, Captain?"
Fuming, he stared at D. Then he started cursing and ranting for half a minute. "You son of bitch." he pressed out between clenched teeth. "I'll do it. Not to give you what you want, you asshole, but to protect my men. You get this?"
"I wouldn't expect anything else." D agreed courteously and put his ID away. "After we've clarified this, what do we do next?"
"Next?" the Captain uttered a grim chuckle and looked at Michael. "Next we'll show your companion here to the boys. To prepare them for what may be waiting for them. And afterwards... we'll go monster hunting."
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
From his vantage point at the administrative building's upper storey, Dan looked down towards the moonlit forest where he could see four of his Velociraptor turned goons roaming the edge of the forest. The other fourteen Raptors were somewhere in the forest, waiting to intercept the attack.
Dan's lips twitched at the thought of his creations tearing the merely human assailants to shreds. This is- he contemplated -one of my better ideas. Most of my men have a predator's mindset anyway, so turning them into real predators is probably making them more effective than arming them to the teeth.
He was waiting anxiously for the attack which he was actually looking forward to. Because when the enemy gang would begin its assault, he'd once again change into his magnificent Xenomorph body and join his men... respectively Raptors in their fight. He couldn't await testing out that body's strength against normal humans. Until then, though...
Dan shed a glance to the living bruise which had been a shapely woman only hours ago, lying bound and gagged next to the magic box. After Alex had raped the girl, Dan had probed her for information. Adding additional bruises here and there in the process. You couldn't make a proper omelette without being hard on a couple of eggs, after all. At least he hadn't raped her again. There was no way in hell he'd stick his dick into something which had already been used by Alex! But aside from a lot of useless blabber, his rigorous questioning hadn't unveiled any new information regarding the wondrous reactivation of the box. So either the girl was tougher than he thought, or she really didn't have any clue.
Well... he thought, Doesn't really matter, actually. The box works again and that's all that counts. The main thing to concentrate on now is making sure that the box stays in our possession.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
"Sweet Lord." Captain Gyles whistled while looking down at the green-brown mottled lizard, "What the hell is THIS?"
After the vanguard had arrived, the SWAT team had shackled the creature with duct tape, they'd needed nearly half a roll to fixate its legs, arms and snout. Now it was lying on the forest ground like a giant turkey and stared sullenly at its captors.
"A Velociraptor, I think." his assistance put in helpfully, "Have you never seen Jurassic Park, Sir?"
Gyles snorted. "Do I look like some film buff? What was it doing out here, anyway? We're not even close to the compound yet."
"Hunting, I guess." a third voice said and the two police officers turned their heads towards agent D who was studying the bloody remains of a small animal. "I'd say he didn't pay attention to his surroundings and strayed away from his assigned guard zone. Lucky for us."
"Lucky? In what respect?"
The agent smiled thinly. "Now we know what we're up against. Velociraptors. Do you think your boys can stand up against those?"
"Hm..." the Captain stroked his thin pensively, then studied the animal, "I think so. After you told me that we'd be up against... monsters, I equipped my men with more body armor and shotguns than normally. I don't think that those claws would penetrate our armor. If the beasts are going for the throats this won't help, but our shotguns should help us to keep them on distance."
D nodded. "That's what I thought as well. I think I'll probe the 'prisoner' for information then..."
Gyles watched on as the agent went down next to the bound dinosaur. D was deliberately speaking in a low voice so that he couldn't understand a thing. But somehow, his words put the Velociraptor in great distress and suddenly the creature was answering the the agent's questions eagerly, nodding and shaking his reptilian head.
After five minutes, D raised himself up again.
"Okay. I can tell you now what you're up again." he told the police officer. "There are 18 Raptors, now only seventeen, and all of them are in the forest, between us and the target. There's a dozen more armed men, all of them in the target. And there'll probably be only one Xenomorph."
"At least something..." Gyles muttered relieved. Seventeen Raptors and one Xenomorph were one hell of an opposition, but frankly, he'd feared worse. "And our objectives?"
"The captured girl is in the upper storey of the administrative building, as we thought. And the device we need to secure is there as well."
The Captain smiled thinly. "The device which's responsible for all this craziness?" he asked while waving at the Raptor.
D simply smiled back. "That's classified. Is it of concern to your operation?"
"No, I don't think so." Gyles sighed. He hadn't expected an answer anyways. Then he looked at his men and took out his radio. "Time to tell my teams the odds..."
"Don't forget to tell them again that all of those creatures are sentient." D warned him, "Their own safety has highest priority, but they have to give the Raptors the possibility of surrender. Is this understood?"
Gyles nodded grumpily. "Thank God we brought a month's supply of duct tape with us..." he murmured.
Under normal circumstances, a commander had no business whatsoever attaching himself to his unit's vanguard. But tonight, or rather this morning, since the horizon was already showing a faint glimmer of the rising sun, normal circumstances most certainly didn't apply.
And therefore, Captain Gyles was leading his men's assault from the front. After all, he was the one who had ordered them to advance into the claws and talons of whatever creatures would form their opposition. The least he could do was standing between them and their darkest nightmares. And at least he had support.
He glanced to his left where the older agent was keeping pace effortlessly. The younger one, together with the six-armed girl, followed in the main body trailing a couple of hundred yards behind. He had no idea why she had to attend the assault, in his opinion this was way too risky. But D had decided that she would come with them, and Gyles had had other problems than to argue the point.
On the other hand... he looked at the other outsider who had attached himself to his vanguard. And he was actually damn well glad for his attendance! The Xenomorph, 'Michael' (there was still some getting used to involved in thinking of the monster as an intelligent, sentient being) followed on all fours, moving his large large shape with an astonishing noiselessness. He had a red scarf tied to his hip, to help them distinguish between the enemy and 'their' Xenomorph. The garb made him look even more evil.
Some of the boys where still shedding nervous glances to the nightmarish creature so close to their backs, but just as their CO, they were probably relieved to have him with them. After all, he had the biological equivalent of a futuristic sensor suite. According to him (the agents had organized a tablet PC with touch panel to let Michael communicate, and seeing the monster using such a device and writing in clear English on it had flabbergasted not a small part of his troops, including himself), he was capable of detecting any living thing in a radius of a couple of hundred yards, and for human-sized beings this increased up to a quarter mile.
Which meant that they probably had the most effective scout on the whole planet at their disposal. With the little refinement that the other side probably had just the same type of scout available. Which gave the ancient wisdom "If the enemy is in range, so are you" a depressingly new meaning. They'd be able to recognize any mayhem heading for them early on, but unfortunately, the mayhem in question would know that there'd be prey waiting as well.
Gyles was still thinking about all the things which could go wrong as Michael suddenly emitted a quiet but pervasive hiss. At once, the men stopped advancing and went down into a defensive semi-circle.
"What's wrong?" Gyles whispered. "You picking up something?"
Michael nodded and put up four clawed fingers. A quarter mile away. So something big. Just great.
"Another Xenomorph?" he asked him and to Gyles relief, Michael shook his large head. "So it's a human?"
Again Michael shook his head and the Captain cursed. "Great... something else. How many?"
This time, only one claw rose up and Gyles furrowed his brows. "Only one? Hmm... I'd love to know what we're up against."
He grinned at the Xenomorph. "Do you think you'd be able to... try and catch that gentleman for us?"
Michael hissed acknowledging, extending his inner jaws for a moment. The sight of the drooling monster was eerie and a shiver went down Gyles' back, but in the next moment, the Xenomorph darted forwards, jumping over the startled line of SWAT members and disappeared in the night.
"Nothing wrong with his motivation, I think..." Gyles murmured and then looked at D. "Do you think he'll be able to catch whatever is waiting there for us?"
D chuckled. "Oh, absolutely. If you want to worry about something then rather worry about whether Michael will leave the poor fellow in one piece."
And therefore, Captain Gyles was leading his men's assault from the front. After all, he was the one who had ordered them to advance into the claws and talons of whatever creatures would form their opposition. The least he could do was standing between them and their darkest nightmares. And at least he had support.
He glanced to his left where the older agent was keeping pace effortlessly. The younger one, together with the six-armed girl, followed in the main body trailing a couple of hundred yards behind. He had no idea why she had to attend the assault, in his opinion this was way too risky. But D had decided that she would come with them, and Gyles had had other problems than to argue the point.
On the other hand... he looked at the other outsider who had attached himself to his vanguard. And he was actually damn well glad for his attendance! The Xenomorph, 'Michael' (there was still some getting used to involved in thinking of the monster as an intelligent, sentient being) followed on all fours, moving his large large shape with an astonishing noiselessness. He had a red scarf tied to his hip, to help them distinguish between the enemy and 'their' Xenomorph. The garb made him look even more evil.
Some of the boys where still shedding nervous glances to the nightmarish creature so close to their backs, but just as their CO, they were probably relieved to have him with them. After all, he had the biological equivalent of a futuristic sensor suite. According to him (the agents had organized a tablet PC with touch panel to let Michael communicate, and seeing the monster using such a device and writing in clear English on it had flabbergasted not a small part of his troops, including himself), he was capable of detecting any living thing in a radius of a couple of hundred yards, and for human-sized beings this increased up to a quarter mile.
Which meant that they probably had the most effective scout on the whole planet at their disposal. With the little refinement that the other side probably had just the same type of scout available. Which gave the ancient wisdom "If the enemy is in range, so are you" a depressingly new meaning. They'd be able to recognize any mayhem heading for them early on, but unfortunately, the mayhem in question would know that there'd be prey waiting as well.
Gyles was still thinking about all the things which could go wrong as Michael suddenly emitted a quiet but pervasive hiss. At once, the men stopped advancing and went down into a defensive semi-circle.
"What's wrong?" Gyles whispered. "You picking up something?"
Michael nodded and put up four clawed fingers. A quarter mile away. So something big. Just great.
"Another Xenomorph?" he asked him and to Gyles relief, Michael shook his large head. "So it's a human?"
Again Michael shook his head and the Captain cursed. "Great... something else. How many?"
This time, only one claw rose up and Gyles furrowed his brows. "Only one? Hmm... I'd love to know what we're up against."
He grinned at the Xenomorph. "Do you think you'd be able to... try and catch that gentleman for us?"
Michael hissed acknowledging, extending his inner jaws for a moment. The sight of the drooling monster was eerie and a shiver went down Gyles' back, but in the next moment, the Xenomorph darted forwards, jumping over the startled line of SWAT members and disappeared in the night.
"Nothing wrong with his motivation, I think..." Gyles murmured and then looked at D. "Do you think he'll be able to catch whatever is waiting there for us?"
D chuckled. "Oh, absolutely. If you want to worry about something then rather worry about whether Michael will leave the poor fellow in one piece."
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*
Dawson was torn, really. On one hand, he was horrified by what the crazy bastard Dan had forced him to change into. On the other hand... it simply felt awesome being a nine foot tall dinosaur.
Right now, he was prowling the forest, three-toed legs silently moving his scaly body through the undergrowth. His new field of vision required some getting used to - spherical vision was gone, but instead he enjoyed an unprecedented viewing angle, being able to see almost around his whole body! His nose was something else, as well. All those new odors and smells!
In fact, he was currently playing with this sense, using this to follow a quite... nice smelling animal track. Suddenly his eyes sensed movement, and from a bush in front of him, a startled fox darted out. Dawson reacted immediately, following the little creature with large, powerful strides.
Run, little fox. he thought evilly, Let's see who is faster!
The fox was sidestepping desperately now, but Dawson's body was too maneuverable to be shaken off by such moves. Instead, his incomparably larger stride length brought him close the animal in moments, and purely by instincts, he slashed down on it with a foot. He felt his great, sickle-like middle-talon slice through flesh as through butter and the fox went flying, almost in two pieces.
Surprised, Dawson stopped and eyed his motionless... prey? Actually, he hadn't wanted to kill it, it had simply happened. And the speed, ferocity and lethality of his own attack had startled him.
That was... awesome! he thought and eyed the dead creature with one slit eye. There was another craving he felt now, and then he realized what it was.
Hunger? Dawson thought taken aback, My body really wants to eat my prey... but...
Unsure, he eyed his fang. It took him a couple of minutes during which his body's craving for the readily available food only became stronger until he made his decision.
Well... why the hell not? he thought, I'm currently in the body of a predatory animal, so... it's kind of natural, I guess.
Slowly, he bend his neck down, opening his large maw. Gingerly he closed it over a tenderly looking piece of meat and with a yank he tore it off. Warm fluid flowed down his throat and the meat followed. It didn't taste bad. It didn't taste good, either. In fact, it didn't taste at all. But still... there was something satisfying in eating, and therefore he continued.
Less than five minutes later, the fox's carcass was stripped to the bones.
That was... interesting. Dawson contemplated, and had he possessed lips, he would have grinned. Instead, he only hissed contentedly. But my body isn't full... yet. he thought. Let's see what else I can hunt...
He spent the next two hours hunting and eating numerous small animals, taking a perverse pleasure in using his Velociraptor body's weapons to run down the small, helpless creatures. He was so immersed in his hunting play that he didn't realize how far he had strayed from the gang's hide.
Dawson was just in the process of devouring another fox, as the attack came. At one moment, he was ripping flesh from his meal. The next moment, a large, black shape propelled itself at him.
He had only a millisecond to process the impossible. What? But I didn't smell it com-
His train of thoughts was abruptly cut short when the creature crashed into him with the force of a speeding semi. Dawson felt his body flying through the air and impacting at a tree. With a shocked hiss, he came to rest at its root, trying to stand up again. But the other creature didn't give him any time. Suddenly, there was a large weight on him, pinning down his powerful legs and pitiful arms.
A mighty tail coiled itself around his flexible neck, the tail's sharp tip pressing itself into his jaw's unprotected underside. It didn't penetrate his scales, not entirely at least. Though he had no doubts at all that the tail's owner would have no problems whatsoever in applying enough pressure to force the tip through his jaw right into his brain. That he wasn't doing this only led to one conclusion, and Dawson stopped struggling.
The Xenomorph sitting on top of him regarded his surrender with a pleased hiss and then bowed its eyeless head down. The creature's lips parted, with saliva flowing down its cheeks in large streams, revealing gleaming teeth. Slowly, the impressive jaw parted and its inner jaw extended, until it was only inches away from one of his reptilian eyes.
Terrified, Dawson, watched the small tongue-mouth snapping open and shut and then, with rattling sound, the Xenomorph retracted it again. The creature glowered at him mercilessly and Dawson understood the message. He managed the tiniest hint of a nod and then forced his body to relax all muscles. He'd just been taken prisoner by a Xenomorph.
*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~*Right now, he was prowling the forest, three-toed legs silently moving his scaly body through the undergrowth. His new field of vision required some getting used to - spherical vision was gone, but instead he enjoyed an unprecedented viewing angle, being able to see almost around his whole body! His nose was something else, as well. All those new odors and smells!
In fact, he was currently playing with this sense, using this to follow a quite... nice smelling animal track. Suddenly his eyes sensed movement, and from a bush in front of him, a startled fox darted out. Dawson reacted immediately, following the little creature with large, powerful strides.
Run, little fox. he thought evilly, Let's see who is faster!
The fox was sidestepping desperately now, but Dawson's body was too maneuverable to be shaken off by such moves. Instead, his incomparably larger stride length brought him close the animal in moments, and purely by instincts, he slashed down on it with a foot. He felt his great, sickle-like middle-talon slice through flesh as through butter and the fox went flying, almost in two pieces.
Surprised, Dawson stopped and eyed his motionless... prey? Actually, he hadn't wanted to kill it, it had simply happened. And the speed, ferocity and lethality of his own attack had startled him.
That was... awesome! he thought and eyed the dead creature with one slit eye. There was another craving he felt now, and then he realized what it was.
Hunger? Dawson thought taken aback, My body really wants to eat my prey... but...
Unsure, he eyed his fang. It took him a couple of minutes during which his body's craving for the readily available food only became stronger until he made his decision.
Well... why the hell not? he thought, I'm currently in the body of a predatory animal, so... it's kind of natural, I guess.
Slowly, he bend his neck down, opening his large maw. Gingerly he closed it over a tenderly looking piece of meat and with a yank he tore it off. Warm fluid flowed down his throat and the meat followed. It didn't taste bad. It didn't taste good, either. In fact, it didn't taste at all. But still... there was something satisfying in eating, and therefore he continued.
Less than five minutes later, the fox's carcass was stripped to the bones.
That was... interesting. Dawson contemplated, and had he possessed lips, he would have grinned. Instead, he only hissed contentedly. But my body isn't full... yet. he thought. Let's see what else I can hunt...
He spent the next two hours hunting and eating numerous small animals, taking a perverse pleasure in using his Velociraptor body's weapons to run down the small, helpless creatures. He was so immersed in his hunting play that he didn't realize how far he had strayed from the gang's hide.
Dawson was just in the process of devouring another fox, as the attack came. At one moment, he was ripping flesh from his meal. The next moment, a large, black shape propelled itself at him.
He had only a millisecond to process the impossible. What? But I didn't smell it com-
His train of thoughts was abruptly cut short when the creature crashed into him with the force of a speeding semi. Dawson felt his body flying through the air and impacting at a tree. With a shocked hiss, he came to rest at its root, trying to stand up again. But the other creature didn't give him any time. Suddenly, there was a large weight on him, pinning down his powerful legs and pitiful arms.
A mighty tail coiled itself around his flexible neck, the tail's sharp tip pressing itself into his jaw's unprotected underside. It didn't penetrate his scales, not entirely at least. Though he had no doubts at all that the tail's owner would have no problems whatsoever in applying enough pressure to force the tip through his jaw right into his brain. That he wasn't doing this only led to one conclusion, and Dawson stopped struggling.
The Xenomorph sitting on top of him regarded his surrender with a pleased hiss and then bowed its eyeless head down. The creature's lips parted, with saliva flowing down its cheeks in large streams, revealing gleaming teeth. Slowly, the impressive jaw parted and its inner jaw extended, until it was only inches away from one of his reptilian eyes.
Terrified, Dawson, watched the small tongue-mouth snapping open and shut and then, with rattling sound, the Xenomorph retracted it again. The creature glowered at him mercilessly and Dawson understood the message. He managed the tiniest hint of a nod and then forced his body to relax all muscles. He'd just been taken prisoner by a Xenomorph.
"Sweet Lord." Captain Gyles whistled while looking down at the green-brown mottled lizard, "What the hell is THIS?"
After the vanguard had arrived, the SWAT team had shackled the creature with duct tape, they'd needed nearly half a roll to fixate its legs, arms and snout. Now it was lying on the forest ground like a giant turkey and stared sullenly at its captors.
"A Velociraptor, I think." his assistance put in helpfully, "Have you never seen Jurassic Park, Sir?"
Gyles snorted. "Do I look like some film buff? What was it doing out here, anyway? We're not even close to the compound yet."
"Hunting, I guess." a third voice said and the two police officers turned their heads towards agent D who was studying the bloody remains of a small animal. "I'd say he didn't pay attention to his surroundings and strayed away from his assigned guard zone. Lucky for us."
"Lucky? In what respect?"
The agent smiled thinly. "Now we know what we're up against. Velociraptors. Do you think your boys can stand up against those?"
"Hm..." the Captain stroked his thin pensively, then studied the animal, "I think so. After you told me that we'd be up against... monsters, I equipped my men with more body armor and shotguns than normally. I don't think that those claws would penetrate our armor. If the beasts are going for the throats this won't help, but our shotguns should help us to keep them on distance."
D nodded. "That's what I thought as well. I think I'll probe the 'prisoner' for information then..."
Gyles watched on as the agent went down next to the bound dinosaur. D was deliberately speaking in a low voice so that he couldn't understand a thing. But somehow, his words put the Velociraptor in great distress and suddenly the creature was answering the the agent's questions eagerly, nodding and shaking his reptilian head.
After five minutes, D raised himself up again.
"Okay. I can tell you now what you're up again." he told the police officer. "There are 18 Raptors, now only seventeen, and all of them are in the forest, between us and the target. There's a dozen more armed men, all of them in the target. And there'll probably be only one Xenomorph."
"At least something..." Gyles muttered relieved. Seventeen Raptors and one Xenomorph were one hell of an opposition, but frankly, he'd feared worse. "And our objectives?"
"The captured girl is in the upper storey of the administrative building, as we thought. And the device we need to secure is there as well."
The Captain smiled thinly. "The device which's responsible for all this craziness?" he asked while waving at the Raptor.
D simply smiled back. "That's classified. Is it of concern to your operation?"
"No, I don't think so." Gyles sighed. He hadn't expected an answer anyways. Then he looked at his men and took out his radio. "Time to tell my teams the odds..."
"Don't forget to tell them again that all of those creatures are sentient." D warned him, "Their own safety has highest priority, but they have to give the Raptors the possibility of surrender. Is this understood?"
Gyles nodded grumpily. "Thank God we brought a month's supply of duct tape with us..." he murmured.
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Part 2 of my transformation-themed novella. Go to part 1 for synopsis or part 3 for comments.
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Part 1: fav.me/d7bkc5f
Part 3: fav.me/d7d9m27
If you liked this story, feel free to buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/clancy688
Many thanks!
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