Getting a trace of a scent, Dan sniffed, questing for a direction. There! A faint trace of a scent, something large and carnivorous. It had left spore near a tree, Dan straightened and pointed down a small game trail.
Not saying anything but stepping lightly and balancing on the balls of his feet he started to jog. Zakalisss may have been surprised at the humans speed, but his silence was uncanny.

Preferring to use the high road, Zak looked up into the canopy and saw that an abundunce of trees would be his path for hunting. With nary a sound, but the slight flick of fabric from his cloak, up into the tree tops he went.
Following Dan was no problem for a being such as Zakalisss.
Dan, turned and saw he was alone, but heard the soft tread of Zaks boot from above. Allowing a further shift within himself, he became more athletic looking, his arms and legs grew a bit longer and more muscular. I very fine layer of hair or fur covered his limbs. One would have to be very close to see it.
The darkness and his clothing hid the change.
They traveled for some distance, when they heard a snarl from up ahead, Dan looked up and Zakalisss made a signal that he too had heard it.
From their different vantage points each hunter readied their choice of weapons and made their ways towards the sound.

Once in my room, I head to my bed room and open a trunk. Inside lay my entire armor and hunting gear. I quickly strap on my armor piece by piece, empting the entire contents of the trunk.

"You ready Ki 'Nain?"

"Shut up ooman, I am."

"Good. Hey, you are lucky that I did not interupt you much on your date. Not like with your previous dates."

"You better not interupt."

"Allright I won't. By the way aren't you going to choose your favorite weapons?"

"Oh, yes. I almost forgot"

Going to the other side of the room. I pull out a smaller trunk. I open it, and inside are an array of wristblades of all sorts of materials and sizes and my smart disks. I immidately take my two smart disks and place them in their prespective pouch in my utility belt. Now to choose which wristblades to use. Scanning through all of them I encouter the right ones... the ones that I used to kill those that had destroyed my life.

These were special; the memories that they brought back. They were painfull yet satisfiying. On their outer sides there was something engraved in yautja language. Two names. Finally it was time for my brother and I to kill once more...

I felt weak. Tired. I was in a bad mood. I was still trapped inside a cage of glass. Hold on. Still? So I was here earlier. I must have been. Otherwise why would I have thought still? But I don't remember...

The thought made me angry. My rage started building. I was trapped someplace where people where doing humiliating things to me, and (they were?) they had must have drugged me, cause I still can't remember who I am (I can't? Oh, wait, I can't). I couldn't hear what the lab technitions where saying but I could read their lips. 'He's perking up a little. I'm detecting an adrenaline spike and his emotion readings are gearing more towards the rage/hate/anger side of the spectrum' He was right. I was rather pissed off now. The guy pushed a button, and white-hot pain filled the void. Consiously, I had no idea what to do But while I sleeped, my sub-consious seemed to be working overtime. It was prepared for it. Instead of the white eating me, I ate the white. I directed the white to fuel my anger, my hate. My drug-induced numness and tiredness was washed clean away. I was ready for anything.

The technicians were frantic. They didn't know what I had become. I didn't know what I become, but I suspected that I enjoyed the feeling a hell of a lot more than they did. I ripped the IVs away from my and stood up. Dizzyness attacked my brain with the full fury of someone who hasn't significantly moved for weeks. I streched out a little because I figured that I would need it later. I rushed up to the glass wall and smashed my fist into it. It held, not even a crack appeared. However, my hand did not hurt at all, like I know it ought. So I used my eyes to find the seam. This seam was a hairline crack. I aimed my next punch at the door. The door made a nice ring and "jumped" a little bit but nothing further. I then proceeded to smash my hand into the door until the crack spread a little. My hand by then was cut and bloody at the knuckles, but I still didn't feel it. I smashed into the glass door several more times until I could squeeze through a hole the size of a small trash incinerator. They had brought in the suits as well as the military. They thought they were ready....They were wrong.

Waiting there, Kore drives on down to Ki'Nain's room on his vintage "Crotch Rocket". He knocks on the door, and she tells him to enter. He walks into her nice room and see's her getting ready.
"Hey sexy, you're lookin deadly over there." Kore flirtingly complements her. "You're also gonna love my ride."

Kore checks his wrist watch...1120.
Okay, whack this guy, and be done before 2 pm.

"Thankyou handsome, you look great when you are fully armed." I return the compliment.

Taking my mask from its resting place on the wall and placing it into my utility belt, I then turn to Hanz and say, "O.K. I'm ready handsome. Shall we?"

We walk out my room towards his vehicle. Taking a look at how fabulous his ride is, I just can't help but compliment him. "Nice ride handsome." We get on and we take off to accomplish our little job.

I stood up, waiting to see what they what would do. "You might as well give up, kid. We wouldn't want anybody to get hurt now, would we?" the lead suit sneered. Oh, no, of course I didn't want anybody to get hurt. But I three options. One, I give in and live the rest of my life in captivity or until they think I'm ready for whatever infernal plan they may have. Two, I fight them here and now, and probably die. Three, I atempt suicide. I wasn't ready to kill myself, and I sure as hell wasn't going to spend the rest of my life cooped up helping them, so I guess I'm going to die fighting instead.

Without any warning, I rolled forward, right underneath the suit's legs. The whole group of them started firing their guns, but they were painfully slow. Too slow. I came out of my roll as they had begun to fire, and the adreniline was rushing throughout my body, small as it may be. I stood up quickly, turned around and broke the suit's neck. I immediatly went for the next closest guy, who was just started to turn towards me. I punched him in the throat and broke his windpipe. The first guy hadn't even hit the floor yet, and two of those bastards were dead. I jumped up over the still falling second body to deliver a kick to the kneecap of a marine that broke the man's leg. I then buried my elbow into his throat and continued on to the next one. I had to hurry, though, as if I waited much longer they would be pointing their guns strait at me, and I didn't think I dodge a bullet. I rushed up to a marine holding a shotgun, and then I gave her an uppercut to the face. The move first broke her jaw, and then it moved so as her own teeth cut through to her brain. As the gun fell from her already lifeless hands, I dove for it. I caught it in mid-air, and then decided to roll through this dive.

I came up on one knee, and leaped backwards. Fuck! Gas grenades! They all had masks on now. I sensed that one was behind me, three were on my right and four more were to my left. I dropped down and swept the legs out from the suit behind me. As he fell I reached down and pulled his mask off. I quickly fitted it to myself before anyone else had a chance to react. And now I had a shotgun. It's time to roll the dice.

Kore gets on his crotch rocket and kick starts it with his right leg, the engine roars to life with a low sounding "4-stroke" growl.
"Get on baby, and hang on." Kore said winking cutely at Ki'Nain.
She smiles and gets on behind Kore, holding on to the motorcycle with her knees and wrapping her arms around Kore and holding on tight to his chest. Kore revved the throttle with the clutch in and the engine roared low and booming, then Kore gassed it and released the clutch, making the rear tire spin out kicking up smoke and leaving a black mark on the ground. They sped off toward the traitor's cottage; the wind blowing in Ki'Nain's face and her dark hair in the wind.

They finally came to a stop a block from a small house on the corner of the current city. Kore hid the street bike in a dark alley.

"Okay here's the plan, you can do whatever you want to this guy, but if he comes out the back entrance I'll waste him. If you really want the kill, I'll let you have it. If we are detected by the local authorities, meet me by my bike, and we'll haul to my place." Kore scans Ki'Nain visaully, she looked deadly AND sexy. With a quick smile, Kore puts his hand at the back of her head and puts a kiss on her cheek.

"Let's rock!" said Kore cocking his M20.

Tam gripped the handle of her sword even tighter within the small confinements of the gated cell as the roar of the crowd grew in lust for the next match. Pretty much drowing out the voice on the intercom system reading out the next match of her and the brother, and when their names came out as anonymous the crowd went into a frenzy over the certified mystery match.
Her breathing echoeing inside her mask and heart already beating at a rapid pace.
The gate opened and walked out and was met by the brother, in full body armor. Her mandibles clicked and tightened as raged coursed through her bulging muscles from the sight if it. "As if your skin wasn't enough," she said, "you wear full body armor?"
He hissed as his forked tongue quickly flicked in and out of his mouth. "I'm glad to have disapointed you."
"Ready!" A voice boomed form the speakers, "Fight!"
And then the two ran for eachother.
"Hello!" A voice rudely spoke, "A yous a-even lisenin ta me?"
"Huh?" she said coming out of her dreamy state looking across the bar to the small human man standing in front of her, he looked irritated. "What?" she asked in confusion.
His head wavered slightly, "Lukea it, yous bina sittin dere fer neardy dewndy minates duin nuttin buta lookin ata food. Eida eat, a get atta herea."
She couldn't understand entirely what he said but got the idea from a few words, she wanted him to leave.
Looking down to her swirling bowl of Sanchi. She couldn't even eat with food right in front of her she was so worked up about this match. So she paid for the dish then walked out.

"It looks like I'm going to enjoy this job" I say with a smile. I get my mask from my utility belt and put it on. Now I was really ready. As I start activating my cloaking device, I tell, Hanz that I'll be back shortly, and then disapear.

Inside the traitor's cottage, the voice in my head returned. This time just in my head as a thought. "Hey Ki 'Nain, how about we scare the traitor a bit before we kill him."

[/i]"sure, why not? But first we must deactivate his means of communications."[/i]

Once I found the box where all power and communications wiring is, I unsheath my wrist blades and shred the thing to pieces. The lights went out. Time to play.

Attentivly listening, I hear water running in a shower and a "Shit! the lights went out." comment. I stand in front of the bathroom door but with some distance waiting for the traitor to come out. After one minute he comes out with a towel wraped around. He still hasn't detected me. Taking some more distance I play one of my very old recordings. Hello, do you like scary movies? The guy turns around and freaks out on not seeing anything. He runs to the phone and picks it up. A dead line. "Who is there!" he screams. "Show yourself!"

"Wish granted" I reply as I uncloak right in front of him. I could see the fear in his eyes at the sight of my mask; the god of death, Anubis, was here to take his soul.

Unexpected, he runs towards the closest exit. But before he could even touch the doorknob, one of my smart disks had done the job as his body went limp and fell the carpeted ground with his head just hanging by a thin flap of skin.

"Mission accomplished" I whispered to my self as I headed out the back door.

Zakalisss eyed the large creature below him. It had dreadlocks of hair and dirt hanging from its entire frame. If it had a color it was lost in the camaflouge of grime, leaves and lichen growing from the dirt caught in its coat.
Its three eyed head swung up and it stood on its hind legs, a huge set of claws could be seen on those feet, and on its front paws the toes almost looked like stubby fingers. Its thumb was mostly a huge killing claw. But now it used it to rip into the hard hide of a creature it had killed.
It had small ears, almost hidden in its mane of hair, but it was a nocturnal beast so its eyes were very large and its sense of smell almost infalible. Almost.
{{Now}} Zakalisss heard in his head. He unsheathed his scythes and landed just behind the neck of the shag bear. he heard then saw Dan move in front of the beast to keep its attention from him.
As he started to strike with his scythes, the shag bear reared up and Zak punched it with a scythe, creating a hand hold while he hung on and continued to slice at its head and neck. He struck between the ribs trying for the heart he could hear beating. Hacking off grimy hair to create a better area to punch through the hide he slowly made progress.
Mean while the shag bear reared up and tried a dozen times to dislodge the thing in a black cloak that hung onto it, and hurt it worse than any burr.
Zakalisss saw Dan unsheath his Khukri knife and dart between the massive front paws of the shag bear.
Just as Zakalisss was about to inflict the killing blow, he felt a shudder, and as his scythe blade hit the beasts heart, and he felt it stop, the shag bear toppled downwards.
He leapt clear of the descending body, flipped and landed facing the dying creature. It must have stood about 2 stories high when alive and weighed nearly 9 tons.
He rushed to its side trying to lift it. But in his current form, Zakalisss was not able to. Putting his ear to the side, he heard another heart beating, it was beating very fast. But it would only be a matter of time before the weight would crush the human.
Coming to a decision quickly, Zakalisss folded his cloak around him. He scanned the area for any other hunters. He found no signs and heard nothing. His cloak became a blacker than black skin. A chitin and from his back fluted tubes arose. His hood became spiky and a crown of thorn like spikes arose and grew. Looking like a ceratopsian from the age of dinosaurs, but then going beyond that, his long elongated head with its massive crown of spikes, his long grasping claws with scythe like blades on the back of them. His tail whipped out, a blade on the end of that. The eyeless vissage looked at the massive carcass, and his tongue stuck out for a moment, its killing jaws snapping shut.
Knowing even in his emporer form the dead shag bear would be heavy, Zakalisss started to tear into it. Hoping to reach the human, Dan, in time.
He had snapped the spine in two and had carved out about 3 tons of flesh when he heard a bone snap beneath the heavy rib cage. Then he heard a snarl and the innards started to shift around.
He backed off, his tail swishing back and forth. The smell was familiar, but the amount of blood threw him off.
Looking like an new born from a demonic birth, the blood covered Wolfen clawed his way out of the hole he had created.
Eating and digging his way through another 3 tons of flesh, he met Zakalisss in the middle. He heard a voice in his head, {{And I thought they smelled bad on the outside!!}} It was tinged with a dry humor, but it sounded exactly like Dan.
Slash stepped out of the hole that Zakalisss had created and the two stared at each other. Both covered in the blood of the shag bear.
Secrets revealed, a bond was formed. Hunger was at the forefront of each beings mind. And like a pair of hungry creatures, that they were. They settled in their newly revealed forms and ate a fine very early morning meal.
After sating their immediate hungers, the two shifted to their human forms. But not before finding a waterfall and making the water run red from the blood of their kill.
Dan salvaged the remnants of his clothing and he and Zakalisss simply sat and enjoyed the wild of the area and the feel of a full belly.
"All intelligent beings hide something. Now you know mine, and I know yours. It makes us both different yet the same. On pain of death by your hand, I will never reveal what I know.
And I hope you will do the same kindness for me."

Hearing the noise, Kore blows the lock away and steps inside. Seeing the corpse, Kore smiles at his mate.
"Good job, now let's roll."

As they were leaving, a man weilding a large pistol busts out of the restroom and fires several shots at Kore, non of which hit him. Kore looks down at his chest...no bullet holes.

Kore raises his M20 and squeezes the trigger, with just mere clicking noises, bloody holes instantly appear in the man's chest. A ragged and gory hole was blown through, Kore could see straight through his chest. The anonymous man coughs once and falls to the floor dead.

The two walk back outside and get on Kore's bike, he kick starts it and they speed off back to his apt. room.

Kore couldn't help but smile in satisfaction, he killed a bad guy and has a dead sexy mate to share the glory with. He holds her hand which was around his midsection.
"Now back home." Kore said

Once back at his appartment we have a pleasant conversation. We look into each others eyes just enjoying the moment. "So, handsome, what's next?" I ask as we embrace in a cuddling session.

Looking through the electric bars onto the heated form of the crowd seated above the ten foot wall then across the way at a form standing behind bars.
The form looked back at her and was revealed as the bounty hunter, the brother.
The speaker reading out through the intercom of the coming up match and as she expected, and thought earlier, the crowd went into a frenzy.
A doorway was finally revealed and she stepped out. The brother also stepping out and Tam breathed out in relief when seeing he was wearing no armor.
They walked to each other and stopped only three feet apart.
"Ready," said the voice, "and fight!"
Tam swung her sword for his chest while jumping to her right but was caught off guard as he dodged, also jumping to the right and into a spin slapping his tail across her gut. Instinct made her buckle forward, dropping her sword and wrapped her arms around her hurting stomach.
Even with armor she was still able to feel the major blow.
And before she could react, the top of his left foot came reeling forward upper cutting Tam-gotchi on the under part of her chin nearly breaking her neck and sent her onto her back in loud painful shouts.
He went to kick her but she blocked it and on the second kick grabbed the foot with both hands pulling it to her chest and twisted the ankle making him fall. Once on the ground she spun using her arms and slammed the heel of her right foot across his chest. And in the process felt the small spur on the heel penetrate the scales but it also sent stabbing pains throughout the entire foot.
The brother swatted the foot knocking it off and spun as she did regaining his footing.
In the process of this Tam was already moving - grabbing her sword and stumbled to their feet, mostly the left since the right was numb and hurting and purposely kept low when seeing an open arm pit as he stood.
Ninety percent of a Tee's body was covered with the hard scales but only a few places were soft, the arm pits was one of them.
Tam moved quickly. Blade tip pointed toward it's target and muscle power with weight thrusted it up slightly making sure some of the blade would go in then into a vertical position pushing the blade through vital organs.
The brother shuttered with a roar and almost instantly collapsed to his knees.
Tam jumped back as he fell forward in dying gurgled breathes and onto the floor.
The crowd roared over the quick match.
Rubbing the back of her sore neck that felt like it was already bruising and limped toward the body pulling out the sword and flung most of the blood off then exited the blood stained ring.

Smiling and cuddling close to her, Kore smiles and replies, "why my sweety, its only 3pm, lets spend the afternoon quietly together..." Kore runs his hand through the her black hair. He gives her a quick kiss on her soft and mottled neck. She smiles with her top mandibles raising, Kore runs his hand on one of her bottom mandibles and asks:
"How about we get started on the Dex case later on tonight, in the meanwhile how about enjoy the time together..."

Before Ki'Nain could answer there was a knock on Kore's door.............

I walked out of that room, miraculusly, without a scrach. Those buffons hadn't been able to touch me. The room I had just walked into was cooridoor. I had no idea where I was going, I would winging it until I got out of here. The doors looked like they were all locked, and the doors were all made out of durasteel armor. I wouldn't be going that way unless I got lucky. I saw down the hall some had been, until I showed up, repairing a cable that was run through the celing, which meant that I was likely in a basement. A basement of a military base, which meant I was likely on the bottom of several basements. Anyways, with that guy run off, I climbed up into the celing and crawled around. I hear voices below talking. "That rat from A-26 escaped. Station's on alert code Zelta" "That bastard actually got out?" "Not only that, the fucker killed about a dozen guards on his way out of the cell" "Shit! There goes another paycheck! Do you hear something?"

That was my entrance cue.

"It will take more then death for me to reveal your secret..." Zakalisss replies. Then looking up at the stars he gazes at them for a bit. For some reason they were extremely captivating to Zakalisss.
Noticing this Dan/Slash say in a whisper "In ancient human cultures when humans only lived on terra. Some cultures beleived that everytime a being dies a star is born."
"According to that beleif the sky would have been alot brighter with me around then if i wasnt. Most likely the same with you.
Anyways... What should I call you now?" Zakalisss replies.

Dan looked at Zakalisss, then sat down and looked up at the stars. Seeing part of a nebula and its sweeping cloud bring color to the normal black and white sky.
"Well, before I got infected, or what ever the doctors want to call it. My name was Dan Gerolds. In an attempt to try to keep me from totally becoming a Lupine Panteris. They injected Nanobots to change the symbiote and prevent it from changing my DNA. It sorta worked. It incorporated my original DNA into the strands and I have five forms instead of the normal four that occur if a normal humanoid gets infected.
But it took 10 years for the nanos to do their job.
10 years of death, destruction and blood. It wasn't untill Slash was almost killed in the arena, that the human DNA became active. And I came out of a dream."
Dan looked at Zakalisss to see his reaction. But the young man only nodded and kept looking at the stars.
"Slash was named that by Grogers. Slash had killed any humans who came near him. And then he was stolen from the scientists who had tried to save Dan. We were brought here and used in the Pits. Unbeaten, and would still be doing it, if Grogers hadn't gotten greedy and agreed to fight another multi form shapeshifter. For 10 years Slash has lived and fought. He is a seperate personality, but still me. Co-existing, like the symbiote with in me. He is the lupine pantheris and its symbiote, and I am the human host."
"So I guess when you see me as a human, unless we are with people, you can call me Dan. If we are in a bar, or in public, I go by Smith, or Dex. When I am hairy and wolfen, that is Slash. We share memories, drives, regrets, everything."
"So what is your story?"

"What is your story?" Dan asks. Zakalisss looks into the darkness and is quiet for a minute. Just as Dan was about to say that Zakalisss didnt have to tell him Zakalisss starts talking.
"I am one of the many results of hundreds of experiments done by humans. Hybrids are easy to make. Not so easy to keep alive or keep in captivity. But rather easy compared to what I am a product of. A hybrid of a xenomorph and a human. If done right has the possibility to be the greatest bio weapon ever made. Except that the scientists didnt stop when they got the hyrbrids made. They had to improve apon the hybreds. Make them specialized. They made me to be big, strong, intellegent, insane, and blood thirsty. Unfortunatly for them the hybrid they used to make me had kept certain things hidden from them. Like the ability to change and a few other things. I was not the perfect result they had been searching for. I was big, strong, intellegent, crazy, faster then they had expected, But i was not their blood thirsty killer. I had a concious. If I felt that someone was innocent I wouldnt kill them. The scientists just passed me over for my blood thirsty siblings, if you want to call them that. I was put in a less secure room compared to my siblings. I also never demonstrated that I could turn into a xenomorph. Anyway thats all..." i stop for a second as images of my siblings circling me flood my mind. "unimportant. I escaped from the testing facility when I was 13" images of my dead or badly injured siblings lying all around the room. Blood on my hands steaming. "I lived in the darkest places for 10 years. Occasionally i would meet people. Usually they were scum and became my lunch" image of people sitting in chairs with their chests and abdomens cut out, torn out. Blood all over the floor.
"It was on the day of my tenth year down in the darkness... I found a strange and ancient book. The book talked all about someone called the grim reaper. A figure in a black cloak armed with a scythe to reap the souls of mortals. For some reason I was transfixed by the grim reaper. I came to an exit of the darkness and saw all of the mortals who didnt deserve their lives. There was no grim reaper now adays. There was just too many of these mortals who didnt deserve their lives if the grim reaper was around. So I took it apon myself to do the grim reapers work. I have been doing that for the past 8 years. Killing the wicked and those deserving to die. Im older then I look. I believe that my nanobots keep me young and healthy. The nanos come in handy very much when I can not deal with something in this form.
anyway... thats my story...." Zakalisss finishes and stares off into the darkness. He had never told anyone that much about him.

Dan looked at him, wondering how to very strange people who came to be together in all the worlds, in all the galaxies.
"I know what you mean by Nanos. I wish mine did what yours do. I was part of a study team on this planet, when it was quarrantined. The images taken by remote cameras and the findings in the ruins of the original inhabitants were a great mystery. Also the disappearance of the first teams and the rescue team that came after."
He shook his head as the images from the photos swam accross his eyes.
"We found that there was a natural symbiote that lived within the original inhabitants of this world. When they died out, who know why or how, from the last survivors, over the last millenia of the few that struggled and sank into a type of dark age. The symbiote changed and became parasitic. There is records that a few alien races came to the planet, and when they came in contact with the few survivors, they were infected. A spore, like that of a mushroom, or mold, would come out of a Lupine Pantheris and be inhaled by their would be rescuers. Only one problem, the lupine would then die. And by changing the new hosts DNA, it caused them to go insane. Once it attacks and changes the DNA structure, it becomes symbiotic again. But when host is near death, the colony will grow polyps and those line the nose and the lungs so in the hosts dying breath, the spore is released."
Dan shook his head, remembering the old wolfen. And how he tried to warn him to get away.
"The new host has an insane hate for the race they once were. To kill them, and to stay away from them. If I didn't have the nanos, I would still be trying to kill any human or human looking person I see. That is how I can talk, by the way. I and Slash can sub-vocalize. Its like I am talking, just as I am now.. But the nanos project a tight beam, like a wireless headset so that only one person can hear me. Or people in close range. "
Dan laughed to himself for a moment, then looked at Zakalisss. "You see yourself as the grim reaper.. I see my self as the hell hound. Quite the pair, aren't we."

He sat back, breathing in the night scents, sensing the morning heat to come as the sun started to rise.
"So do you want the head as a trophy, Or just the memory of a good hunt?"

There were two men in the room. I had landed in a fairly large office, and it was plainly one of significance. One of the two was a guard, a military man, and the other wore white, which figured.

Standing up, grabbed the back of the guard's head with my hand and smashed into the wall. The wall was durasteel, but it still dented. That was nothing, however, to the damage his head, skull, and brain received. I turn towards the man in white, and said "Now you are going to show me exactly what has been done to me. Now"

The guy didn't say anything, although I doubt he could, because of the way his skin paled, his eyes widened, and his hands trembeled. He did sit down, though, and start showing me things I may want to know...

Those bastards! They messed with my fucking Phht! I had just been stabbed with a needle, no, a syringe. I felt kind of wozy for a moment, and then something, inside me, it woke up. And everything was different.