[center][img]http://i.imgur.com/v3izJII.png[/img] [i][h2]Vs[/h2][/i] [img]http://i.imgur.com/kg13KWO.png[/img] Featuring [color=00aeef][b]Zeta Squad[/b][/color]. in [h1][b]The Eater of [color=662d91]Worlds[/color], part 1[/b][/h1] [/center] It vibrated softly where it materialized. Parasite had almost finished digesting the family of five whose minds he had eaten. It knew it had been a big risk. If there was anything capable of hurting it, it most certainly was on its tail now. But the payoff had been more than worth it in the alien monstrosities opinion. Now it swelled and retracted from human form to a cloud of strange glowing miasma like substance. Again and again, as if it was breathing heavily. It felt the last presence of Esper Girl melt away inside and it began to stabilize once more. Soon it was a vaguely human shape, but no features could be seen. Staring at it would only make you go mad as the body drew your eyes into it, making you see alien worlds and constellations playing across its shape. Swirling deep inside that vast, cold darkness that made out the parasites main body. It moves slowy towards a large broken window. It was holed up outside LA's industrial areas, where old factories now stood like empty husks. Only a single lightbulb hung from the high cieling. Casting almost no light. It didn't need light. He could feel their presence. And with them, a noise. A static. It tilted its head as it pondered this. It appeared humans were more advanced then it first thought. It would have to get ready. +++ 40 minutes earlier, on route towards Parasites hideout. ++++ Chief Lyota looked at the large alien as he rode in the back of their repurposed police van. He had seen him eye his rifle. She knew something was up. A creeping feeling was starting to settle in. A feeling she felt before. She wasn't sure that if Parasite died, the hunter would let them go. "Let me ask you something Tin Man." She shot the Hunter a questioning look. "You have any kids? Family back home?" [color=1E90FF]"Do all your people speak pointlessly, when their minds should be focused on the task that lies in their future?"[/color] Hunter cut off the question coldly, he had no interest in an exchange of pleasantries with someone he thought would likely die fighting an extraterrestial psionic in the very near future. "No. That is uniquely a me thing, Tin Man. I have seen men and women die. And one of the big regrets I have, is not knowing who they were. Not knowing what life was just snuffed out. You may find it pointless prattling. But to me it is about knowing, and dedicating myself" There was no venom in her voice, a little bit of steel but nothing that sounded hurt or indignant. [color=1E90FF]"Do you think it would make you a better fighter, if you carried the burden of knowing those who you saw die?"[/color] He ignored her questions about his race, the message was clear, you don't get to know anything about the big armour wearing alien, for your own sake perhaps. "It makes me a better person." She said. "And If I can, I do the rounds myself. Talking to the familys. Letting them know their son, thier wife, their brother or their niece is dead. And those looks on their faces. That heartbreak of knowing you lost a dear one. That is what I try to prevent Tin Man. So yes. I makes me a better fighter." She said as she casually rested the alien rifle on her shoulder while Ace, their driver, called out. "10 Minutes to objective. Our sensors are picking up a clear trail!" Lyota smiled at Hunter. "I have seen a woman carry a man twice her size because she was his best friend, and she really didn't want him to die. I have seen a man hold back 20 hostiles by himself in order to buy his comrades time to flee. You do well not to underestimate the potential of human unity. Tin Man." He grinned then hollered. "Get your shit together everyone. It's Extermination time." [color=1E90FF]"Parasite will take what makes you a better person and use it against you, Lyota. It is psionic, and it is a monster. Your platitudes may serve you well against what minor threats you have encountered in the past as a species, but it will serve you poorly now. Be, as you would say it, ruthless."[/color] There was a metallic clank as his helmeted head made contact with the side of the van. [color=1E90FF]"Or none of you will survive."[/color] I am hoping you find it in your heart not to be ruthless when this is over. She thought bitterly at that. She clicked the first safety of the alien weapon and whirred with life. "T minus Five minutes." Ace called out then grew silent. "What's the matter Ace?" Chief spoke, tension creeping into her voice. "Its the sensors Chief. It's.... it's lighting up everything like goddamn christmas." "Shit. Stop the car!" There was a wrenching sound as the road began to shift under the car. ++++++ Parasite +++++++ Parasite had felt the accursed static approaching. And among them, a distinctly inhuman creature. He couldn't be sure. It had been dormant for so long. Over millennia, embedded in ice. Why and how was a Hunter here of all places. So it did what it did best. It hunted. As the car took a turn, suddenly Parasite was there. Surging with telekinetic power, a tendril of psychokinetic energy erupted like a invisible whip, smashing into the side of the car, lifting a large chunk of the asphalt with it. The car rolled and tumbled, but Ace kept her cool, gritting her teeth and used the steering wheel wrench the car from landing on its side through sheer skill. Her head was ringing from the crash but Bowen was already out the car, scrambling behind it towards the back doors. Chief grunted as she found herself still sitting upright due to the four point belt. The last of their little outfit spat out a tooth. "Motherfucker.." He mumbled. "No time to piss about. Out!" They kicked up the door as a crouching Bowen shot a psi-shredding round against the target. Parasite stayed out of effective reach for now, irritated that it could not get passed the static of their collars. Hunter registered the attack a moment before everything went to hell. Unsurprising behavior, from an instinctual creature like the Parasite. Put bait in front of it, and it would bite. As the vehicle started to roll, Hunter engaged magnets in his suit usually reserved for traversing the outside of space craft, keeping him in position. For the most part, he did this to prevent his armoured bulk crushing his temporary allies. Even as he went upside down, he was giving orders. [color=1E90FF]"Use the Sarastors I gave you, they will disable Parasite and his psionic constructs, temporarily. Point and pull, some mechanisms are universal, retain your discipline."[/color] The idea of the alien warrior relaying this information as they tumbled and fell around him was sort of surreal. Then, finally, they stopped and Hunter stepped out of the opened back doors. He was only equipped with his strange mega-phone like weapon. His psionic sensors were already cutting out in proximity to the entity, but his vision filter was working just fine. He had a clear view of Parasite, moving in its unnatural fashion through the industrial state. He aimed and shot in one fluid motion even before he was completely out of the vehicle, sending a pin-point line of disabling sound toward his quarry. Shame it wasn't quite as fast as an ordinary projectile, sound having something of a speed cap, at around six hundred miles per hour. It was set to too tight a spread to do any lasting damage, but if it hit, Parasite would know about it. He might even have some trouble holding that part of his body together. Parasite swerved, flickering more then it walked or ran. avoiding a burst of bright blue and purple rounds that it realized would hurt. Hurt more than it had any right to. These humans and their alien ally were armed to really deal with him. The sound burst caught it by surprise, hitting one of its newly formed tendrils and dissolving it as it was about to attack. It let out psionic screech of frustration that rattled the psi-blockers. But the tech held. Ace, now out of the car, shot her own burst of sound. She had taken to the weapon like a fish to water, moving keeping low, and shooting small concentrated bursts around it, cutting off its movements. Chief flicked the last safety of her rifle and aimed it. "Eat shit." She growled and then the beam erupted from the helix shaped barrel. A bright, white beam of incandescent burning light seared the night away as it lite up he entire area. Parasite wasn't stupid. It knew the nomad weapon when it saw it. But it still had a hard time understanding how a primitive human had gotten hold of it. The beam hit it across the shoulder and the supercharged photons smashed through its kinetic fields, disrupting the telekinetic bond that held that part together. The Parasite screamed again, this time in pain. And then, in cold fury. ITs eyes flared and suddenly stones flew up then rained as hail from hell down over the Zeta Squad and hunter. Hunter had been firing continuous blasts of pin-point sound, keeping Parasite moving, distracted. He was also allowing his human allies to keep track of the entity, as he clearly had the superior sensory capacity. The Nomad weapon the human's leader used was a potent one, its travel time was far shorter than the sound waves from the Sarastor, though it was serving the role of a hammer to metal, the Sarastor was more like super heating. Parasite would keep putting itself back together if blows were rained down upon it, but hit it with enough blasts of debilitating sound, and it would stay down. [color=1E90FF]"We must cut it off, take the flank, give it no route to escape us. Split in two, take left and right, I will advance."[/color] Hunter gave his orders and moved forward, rocks clinking down against his armour as he set his weapon to wide spread fire and knocked back a literal rain of rocks and pebbles, more for the benefit of his human allies. He wanted to keep Parasite's attention on him, but likely it would seek to destroy the Nomad weapon and its user. No matter, he could work with either outcome. They didn't need to be told twice. They split up in pairs at the order. Chief and Ace to one side, going left. Bowen and Bush to the right. They kept their weapons trained on it. Short blasts of the Nomad Weapon lit up the night as it made contact with the Parasite that twisted and flickered away from the beam whne it could. Another tendril shot out towards Hunter, ripping up the asphalt at his feet, pushing him off balanced. Another tendril lifted the remains of an old truck and hurled it at the pair of Chief nad Ace who scattered to either side. Never stopping their onslaught. That was when everything went to shit. Parasite bounced between weapon fire as swirled and tried to swell. Only to seemingly grow more compact. It suddenly shrunk back to the size of a man, and Bush yelled over the fire. "Its weakening!" As he yelled, he dropped his guard for a single second. Parasite hadn't weakened, it had just made itself a smaller target. And concentrated its power. A blade like surge of kinetic energy rushed across the distance between it and Bush. And bush sound weapon was still to dispersed to handle such concentrated and focused attack. It sliced Bush in half. From groin to scalp, it was a clean cut. "BUUUSH!" Ace screamed in horror as her Brother was made into two halves. She roared and put the machine in he hand on highest possible concentration, firing with unnerving precision. "DIE YOU MOTHER FUCKER" Parasite reeled as it was hit in the head again and again. Not understanding how someone could be so precise despite its movements. But it also felt the anger. The agony. of her loss lingered. And it was all it needed. The psychic wave that it unleashed weakened it considerably, but it was enough. While Chiefs and Bowens collars sparked and rattled, Aces anguish at her brother's death made her a conduit. Her collar exploded around her neck. She yelped, screamed and went down, her neck bloody but still whole thank god. But then Parasite was in her head. The scream was heart wrenching. But Chief, forced herself to keep firing. Hunters words echoing in her head. [i]Be Ruthless.[/i] Hunter casually fired a nauseating blast from his Sarastor at the fallen human woman, the sound ringing in her ears would do her no particular harm, seeing as how she was not a psionic, but Parasite was trying to establish a connection with her and it would hurt him. There wasn't much he could do for the man, not under those conditions, and there were more important matters at hand. He turned his weapon away from Ace after saturating her in a wave of the debilitating sound and back to the Parasite. [color=1E90FF]"Concentrate fire now."[/color] He yelled, unleashing his Sarastor at full blast, pinpointing the points of highest psionic concentration with his optics and aiming to put holes in it. Then, he wasn't firing pin-point anymore, he was rushing forward, short-jets allowing him to cover the ground as he closed on Parasite. At full charge, he fired the Sarastor as a large cone of sound like that he had used on Ace, hoping to exploit Parasite's weakness as his mental connection with the girl was forcibly severed. The cone was more like a flamethrower, a persistent and devastating effect that Hunter intended to use to drive the entity into the ground, and disperse it entirely. Flecks of paint and metal began to sheer off his armor as the psionic storm raged around him, and still he focused that blast on the Parasite. The parasite wailed at them as its attempt at hijacking the girl was cut short and another sonic shock wave crashed into it. But it kept its mass somewhat intact even as it weakened. The White hot beam of photons crashed into it again and again. Searing of parts from it. And Bowen kept it down with his own bursts. They stayed back however, even as parts of the fences began to peel up and fly around, then the fence posts followed. A torrent of psychic energy building up, the Parasite not going down easy. It strained against the Sarastor. Its eyes staring death at the Hunters visir. "[color=a187be]You... Your pathetic Republic... Cannot... Will Not... Stand... Forever. All worlds must end."[/color] It snarled inside their heads. The psychic storm overpowering even the scramblers. Chief and Bowen felt their grow hot, close to the limit and detached them quickly. It was all will from here. Reality itself seemed fold around it. [color=1E90FF]"Not this one, not to you."[/color] [color=a187be]"This. Is. Merely. A. Prelude"[/color] It said as its body began to throb and and pulse. Rippling as it began to break up in its seams. [color=a187be]"I'll FIND YOU SAHUSANAR."[/color] And then it exploded. For a brief moment, it overpowered even Hunters safeguards. Images of a twisted world flashing before their minds eye. Strange and twisted realities where nothing made sense. Where just breathing made you cry and where you could feel your sanity slip away. And then, it was gone. Bowen heaved and began puking. He had tears streaming down his face. Ace lay cataconic, eyes wide, breathing steadily even if no light shone in those eyes. Two halves of Bush lay on the cold pavement, eyes permanently fixed in a look of disbelief. Chief stared at the spot where it had been. "It isn't dead. Is it." She said coldly. Her eyes moving to stare at the Hunter. "That sounded like a retreat. Not a last stand." As the chaos cleared, Hunter stood victorious over the remains of the creature, and turned his head to the Chief. [color=1E90FF]"No, it seemed confident that it would be able to reform its body, but we defeated it easily enough."[/color] He made those remarks coldly, barely glancing over the dead soldier. [color=1E90FF]"It seems I must trust in your team to continue this search."[/color] His visor was scarred with the residue of the psionic wave he was caught within, and his head ached, but the Hunter was less wounded than he had expected. In some ways Parasite was more than he had believed, in others, he was lesser. [color=1E90FF]"But next time I will not be equipped with just a side arm."[/color] He looked at the Sarastor, that powerful weapon which debilitated psionics, destroyed their hard-light structures and their ability to form mental links, and then placed it at his side. The real importance of his words out in the open, if the Singer was akin to just a pistol, what else did he have access to? Chief stared at him for a second more. Then spoke to Bowen. "Get Ace into the car. See if it can still drive. If not, Call extraction 20 minutes away. Tell them to hurry. Go." Bowen nodded as he picked up the body of Ace who didn't as much as blink. As bowen left, she said. "I have a feeling if we said a single word. To anyone. We'd be disintegrated. Am I correct in assuming this?" [color=1E90FF]"I do not care about what words you speak, Human, you will say what you will. Without proof, it is meaningless."[/color] His visor seemed to flash for a moment. [color=1E90FF]"For now, I will need back the weapons I loaned you."[/color] "Mhm... Right..." She went to collect Ace and Bushs guns before returning. "Here you go." She said as she handed them over. "Do you eat. Stuff like burgers I mean?" [color=1E90FF]"You used them well."[/color] He complimented the human warriors as he took the weapons back from them, securing them to the mag holsters along his leg. For a moment though, the question she asked took him aback. [color=1E90FF]"Yes, I eat, but I do not know what a burger is, I assume it is an indigenous food?"[/color] For the first time since she met the alien. She grinned. "Oh man." She sized him up. "Well Tin man. Allow me to extend a pan-galactic dinner invite. I have some... Meaningless Prattling to do. And as you are my fellow ally and warrior in this, you are obliged to listen. In turn. I buy you food." [color=1E90FF]"I see. I respect your notion of hospitality, but that would be impossible. Perhaps when the Parasite is destroyed we may feast for the lost lives as my people would say, but for now, I have work to do."[/color] And with that, the Hunter's form began to shimmer and disappear, leaving him with a parting word. [color=1E90FF]"You will hear from me again."[/color] "Well. Shit." Five minutes later, the clean up crew showed up, starting to clean up the scene. Chief produced a cigarette, lit and took a drag. " Fucking Tin Man" She muttered when she was sure he was gone. "Well I am getting a fucking burger at least." She walked towards the city. It was a nice night out and 24/7 grill was only a few kilometers away.