The Dark Hunt.

Hunt

         The touch of the fog, so calm, so enticing. Its cool streams wash away fear, all anger, all worries. There is only the calm silence as we prepare. Going through the motions, I ensure that all parts of my amour are in working order, from my leg blades to my spitfyre core & finally my two attachment guns. With everything looking good, I turn and nod to my companions. Breathing in a last deep breath, I put on my helmet and I'm finally ready. The hunt is on.

         Twelve of us, 6 to a group; spitfyre and thunderfyre. Our suits of armor like second skins, enhancing us, while we hunt capture or kill. Me personally, I'd rather running through this without a suit. I've trained to a point where I can take on almost anyone with a class C suit and those we're chasing don't have any armor. When I suggested that we do a hunt without any suits, most of the group laughed at me, except for Corona and Solaris. These two shared a look that hinted at something more, but they let it pass.

         I'd heard some rumors about Corona, but never about Solaris. Sisters by a sharing of blood and oaths, these two took care of each other. With smooth dark skin and piercing brown eyes, both had figures that some men hungered for. What was known about them was mainly what command passed on and the occasional rumor. Rumored to resist most company, the sisters were known to be dangerous warriors, with Corona rumored to hunt food the primitive way, in the grey green forest where the dalShark roamed.

         Sounds of thunder pierced my thoughts. "Ha-ha, heh. Looks like thunder got some o that early fun." Grimgun, sometimes slow, but strong and deadly. More loud sounds of thunder, nearer now followed by a piercing scream. The group tenses a bit. Someone naked, comes screaming out of the fog. Moving quickly, I leap infront of this person and hit him with a light spin kick that sends him flying through the air and crashing to the ground. Moving to capture him, I'm startled by a roar of thunder that turns his head into a squashed melon. Calmly turning to Grimgun, I whisper, "Why?" With his big leery grin, that you can see, even through the helmet, he shrugs his shoulders. Always one to have a problem with my methods he asks, "Wanna do something?"

         "Enough, we have some thunderheads coming our way." Corona, always direct in what she says. Through the fog, a few figures begin to materialize. We counted ten as they reached the clearing we had traversed to. Three of them wore thunderfyre suits, their dull red armor marked with designs of jagged stripes of lightning. One of them stepped forward and spoke in a deep commanding voice, as the other slowed behind him. "We need to return. The hunt is cancelled."

         "Ha, ha, ha." Grimgun's laughter boomed into the night sky. "Who are you to cancel the hunt? As far as I'm concerned you just made our job easier, less fun, but still easier." As he raised his hands, the same thunderfyre hunter stepped into his path, his voice fierce as he shouted. "You fool, look around you. Three of ours are dead! These aren't even the total number of carrion we're supposed to hunt and some aren't even those we released!" Sighing he turned & looked to the few who followed him. "We were taking them back to study them, but something out there attacked & killed some of us easily. You can continue this damn hunt; but all who want to are going back to the damn base now!

         A long silence followed, with Grimgun staring directly at the panting hunter. Then finally, the silence was broken by a few loud whistles and some light laughter from within the fog. While some of us looked frantically around, most of us turned to the right where a woman's moaning could be heard. There we saw the outline of two slim figures, their bodies entwined in a tight embrace, with the person on the left arched in a stance of rigid pleasure. As the right figure disengaged from their embrace, hands appeared from the fog & slowly led the shivering woman away.

         Turning to us, the man stuck his upper torso out of the fog. Steam rose from his hairy and muscular body, while he stared at us with purple eyes and red stained lips. "Bravo captain, bravo."  His voice was hypnotic as his eyes flickered over us. "Yet you all have forgotten one thing. Since when does this fog ever give you all a clearing?"

         "Fuck this;" was Grimgun's cry as he fired a massive fireball at the mysterious man. The ball struck the point where the man had been an instant ago, yet instead of lighting the fog on fire as usual, it seemed to be held by the fog, getting smaller and smaller till it vanished. Laughter rung out from the fog and the man's voice was heard again. "Come now, you almost ruined my hair. By the way Cap'ain, I believe this man to belong to your group." A head came whistling through the air to land in front of us, the marking depicting him as thunerfyre still etched into his eyeless head. As some stared in shock, the captain rushed forward, aimed his guns and begun to fire blindly.

         Laughing, the man's voice rang out," Come now captain. I though you better composed. Oh another thing! You should always be careful who you have among you!" Screams rang out and as we turned, we saw three of the survivors ripping apart the two remaining thunderfyre warriors, while the other four sprinted towards the captain. We opened fire on the sprinters, yet they seemed to dance around the shots. Two quickly changed directions and headed towards us as the other two reached the captain.

         Turning to the left, I saw Grimgun with a grin on his face, as he raced to meet the two sprinters and pummeled them into bloody pulps. "Shara, with me!" Shara and I ran towards the Captain who was being beaten to the ground. I heard one of the survivors cry out in agony as bullets managed to tear into his body. Then the man's voice rang out; "Now, let's up the fun!" A huge number of people suddenly rushed out of the fog.  My eyes widened as one of them suddenly barreled into me, his weight throwing me to the ground.

         As he raised his fists, I thrust my hand into his abdomen and fired a heated burst of energy that flung his ruined body far away.  Leaping to my feet, I blocked someone else's kick, grabbed her legs pulling her towards me, causing her head to snap into my outstretched hand.  As her neck snapped, two others approached me, their bodies moving left and right at quick speeds. I clasped my hands together and flung them out in a wide arc, sending a line of fire searing through their bodies. As they burned, I looked around the clearing, a bit shocked to see most of us down. Shara lay dead, with her blades and a few bodies besides her. The captain, though he had managed to defeat his initial assailants was also dead, with the mysterious man, arms bloodied, standing on top of his chest, laughing.  Grimgun seemed to be the only person still up, surrounded by bodies, while others kept on attacking him. With every blow he shouted, "Betrayers, traitors, I'm coming for you!"

         As I begun to move towards him, I felt a searing heat pass through my back. Falling to my knees, I stared with wide eyes at my midsection, where a bright energy blast had seared through my spine. Struggling to raise my legs, I felt someone lift my helmet off my head. Solaris stared at me, a beautiful smile on her lips as she pushed me to the ground. From above me, Corona's hand caressed my armor causing it to vanish in a blinding light. Moving her naked body in front of me, she spoke in a jovial tone; "Don't worry. We chose you. You're special. Everything's gonna be alright."

         A third woman with long dark hair and deep blue eyes came to stand in front of me. Her voice seemed the center of the world. "Long have we lain away and now we wake to this! No more! Our time has come once again. Time to rise." She turned to face me, her red robes clinging to her body. Smiling she opened her mouth and licked her lips, as she lowered herself unto me. With darkness closing in and my body growing weak, the last thing I felt was a pair of fangs and soft, cool lips as they touched and penetrated my neck and begun to drink.