Huntress

Part Two

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Without looking where I was heading, or perhaps I did intend it without actually realizing it consciously, I found myself in the neighborhood of the Uryten Syndicate's headquarters. I was still very shaken up from that nightmare. I needed to do something to clear my head; I needed to... feel powerful again, to feel like I was in control.
 
"Hell. Why not?" Two thirds of thirty eight thousand wasn't too bad for a single night, far better than sitting in the park for days, accomplishing nothing. I made up my mind.
 
This place wasn't a secret in the least, it was officially a public nightclub. In fact they often held parties there for those they did business with: C.E.Os and VIPs, lawyers, and even some government officials who were on the take, could all frequently be found inside. The Urytens knew the cops didn't have the balls to touch them, and PC-304 wasn't a terribly big or important place, so it was unlikely that the Federation would send any enforcers. As such, things like this often fell to hunters to deal with; however the last hunter that went after Xien Ryse wound up disemboweled and hung from a street light outside of the police station.
 
I wasn't afraid of them, however. I spent many nights perched on the roof, looking through the skylight window, dreaming about the day I could cash in on the treasures within. I knew the layout; I knew the operation, the routines of the syndicate members inside, and that Xien liked to hang out in the back in a room with a window overlooking the lounge.
 
I knew exactly what I was doing when I jumped down through that skylight, and into the midst of two dozen Uryten goons. At least I thought I did. I didn't expect it to erupt into gunfire so quickly and so intensely, almost like they were expecting me. Although, their light blaster fire would do little to my armor, as long as I didn't take sustained hits, not that they could hit me.
 
With my cannon adjusted to deliver more of a concussive force rather than searing heat, its shots would be the equivalent of being hit by a sledge hammer. I laid down a suppressing fire, doing severe damage to the structure and furnishings. If one of them got too close, I'd quickly incapacitate him with a swift kick to the face.
 
This was more my thing. I wouldn't say I had enjoyed it, but it was a welcomed relief from investigating. I should have gone with my original plan and took this job instead, and received full payment on it. For just a few minutes of work I would have gotten a rather hefty reward and could already have been on to something else, instead of the several days I'd invested into searching for a ghost with no results.
 
I stood over Xien, looking down on him as he backed away and up against the wall. He pulled a blaster on me and fired a few shots that were harmlessly absorbed by my armor‘s shielding. I stepped on his hand, forcing him to release the weapon.
 
"God-damned raptor, you think you'll get away with this? You have no idea who you're screwing with. Just who do you think I am?"
 
"I think... you're easy money."
 
It was then that one of his remaining flunkies broke a wooden barstool over my head. As the furniture splintered and came apart I slowly turned around to face a very terrified thug. Realizing his mistake, he timidly backed off as I dragged his boss out by his ankle, as he refused to come willingly.
 
Outside, I had an unexpected encounter.
 
"That was an impressive show you put on, Aran."
 
I spun around to see Shl'ex Bryci sitting on a window ledge, coming within a fraction of a second of taking his head off.
 
"Hey easy... Nice job in there, way more brazen that I'd have been," he said.
 
"Why are you here?" I asked.
 
"I was waiting for that fellow there to make an exit so I could grab him, but you beat me to it apparently."
 
"You were too slow."
 
"I don't mind really, I still get half even though I didn't do any work."
 
'Damn!' I cursed myself. He had signed for this bounty, that's why he was at the police station the other day. I'd only get half instead of the two thirds I originally thought. Though now I understood why it seemed like they were expecting someone. They undoubtedly had informants within the police and knew someone accepted the bounty on Xien.
 
"But don't make a habit of it. Just because you're licensed now doesn't mean you have free reign to do whatever you want. Not everyone is as laid-back as me, you'll get yourself into fights."
 
"I'm always in fights. Stop trying to protect me like I'm some stupid kid! You're always doing that."
 
"You are a kid... And I doubt you've gotten into a fight with a hunter before."
 
"None of them impress me."
 
"Maybe none of the ones you've met. There are some pretty scary guys out there that you don't want to be messing with. You should be more careful."
 
"I don't need you to tell me what to do. I'm going."
 
I left, but he followed me. Obviously, he was owed half the bounty, so we were going the same way.
 
"Here." I pushed Xien Ryse over to Shl'ex. "Make yourself useful," I said as I dematerialized my powersuit.
 
"You have no idea what you are doing." Xien said.
 
"Shut it."
 
"We have people everywhere; we can get to you at any time. You're making a big mistake here."
 
"Well if you do send someone after me make sure they have a price on their head... saves me the trouble of tracking them down." I wasn’t posturing; I honestly wanted them to send bounties my way.
 
"You don’t get it... It doesn’t matter how tough you are. We'll go after your families too. You can't be everywhere at once, but we can. Let me go, and we'll just forget about all this."
 
"I ain't got a family."
 
"Humph... what about you?" he said to Shl'ex.
 
"Even if you did convince me to let you go, she'd never agree. And honestly I'd rather be on your bad side than hers."
 
"Why don’t you two just talk between yourselves and leave me out if it." I said.
 
"I can pay you...both of you. Far more reward than you'd get for bringing me in." That comment actually piqued my interest but Shl'ex quickly shot it down.
 
"We'd get our licenses suspended. Now be quiet."
 
"Damn you, no good raptors..." Xien continued to mutter.
 
"So, Aran, tell me... where'd you learn to fight like that? How'd a kid like you get to be so tough?"
 
"I told you I'm not a kid."
 
"Touché. You don't operate like a greenhorn, was all I meant... So you gonna tell me where you learned to fight? And where did you get that impressive armored suit from?"
 
"Ugh... from my grandpa," I said reluctantly, hoping he'd quit pestering me if I answered his question.

"The fighting or the suit?"
 
"Both."
 
"That grandpa must have been one hell of a warrior."
 
"He was a scientist, actually."
 
"Oh? In any case, I think you've got what it takes."
 
"For what?"
 
"To be a great hunter... To make it outside of a place like this. If you're this good this young, imagine once you've got some experience under your belt. Honestly, I'm at my limit here. I'd been sitting outside that nightclub for two days looking for some lax moment to nab this guy here, some opportunity or opening to slip in unnoticed. Then you just come along, burst right in there, shoot up the place, and in less than three minutes drag him out by his collar, literally," he said in a dramatic tone.

"It's no big deal."
 
"It's a huge deal. There must have been twenty armed bodyguards in there. I couldn't have done it. There aren't many that could."
 
"Well then, you're pretty weak," I said flatly.

"That was uncalled for," he scowled at me. 
 
"It's true."
 
"Didn't anyone ever teach you manners, young lady?"
 
"Don't call me that either. Maybe this would be easier if you didn't talk anymore."
 
Despite that, he continued to pester me but I tuned him out. And, once we had collected the reward on Xien, I was relieved to be able to part from him. He had other ideas apparently, and stopped me as we left the police station.
 
"Alright, now that we're done with work, why don't I buy you a drink?" he said.

"What are you talking about?"
 
"I kind of feel bad about taking half the money when I didn't even do anything to earn it. So let me buy you something to drink to make up for it"
 
"You mean alcohol?"
 
"Don't tell me you've never had a drink before," he said, sounding surprised.

"No! Besides, don't I have to be older to..." I stopped myself there, I had always hated being limited by my age and that one particular rule really pissed me off.
 
"Nah it's alright, I told you, I'm buying."
 
"Fine then! I will," I said defiantly.
 
He took me to a bar and had me sit at a table while he went to buy drinks from the counter. He came back with a couple beers, and I took my first sip of alcohol ever.
 
"How is it?"
 
"Gross." I didn't like the taste, but I was determined to flaunt the rules, so I kept drinking.
 
"It takes some getting used to," he said and started in on his own drink. "So, Aran... uh... Samus... Mind if I call you that?"
 
"It's my name. Why would I mind?"
 
"Alright then Samus, I've been meaning to ask you. What's a... uh... young person like you doing bounty hunting here on the station? How'd you end up in this situation?"
 
"I ask myself that all the time."
 
"What about family or school? Shouldn't humans your age be in school? Do your parents condone what you do every day?"
 
"They're dead," I said bluntly.

"Uh... sorry. Anyway, If you ever... need any advice or something--"
 
"Stop it. Stop trying to look out for me. I don't have any parents... I don't need any. I don't need you or Jansen or anyone else trying to act like one."
 
"Hey, Jansen's a good guy, cut him some slack. He just wants to make sure you're alright."
 
"I can take care of myself. I don't need anyone's help."
 
"You live alone?"
 
"Yeah, so!?" I took offense at his question.

"I'm just asking..."
 
"You saw how I was in there; if a bunch of syndicate bodyguards couldn't touch me, what can? Nothing! Nothing can! Nobody's going to hurt me, ever. So that's why I don't need help with anything."
 
"Accepting help doesn't mean you're helpless."
 
"Yeah, it does!" There was no way I would have been able to accept his logic at that point in my life. Even now, when I know his words to be true, I would still find it exceptionally difficult to accept help from someone without it feeling like an assault on my strength and self-reliance, on my pride.
 
He stared at me for the longest while, with a different facial expression than he normally had. I'm not sure what it meant, because I couldn’t read Seloptian faces; I wasn’t that good at reading human ones back then either. Had he been Chozo, however, I could easily have read him.
 
"Let me see your license," he said finally.
 
"Why? You have one, look at that."
 
"I want to see yours, they switched to a new style recently, I want to see one."
 
With much irritation I pulled the badge out of my shirt and held it up for him to see, the string still around my neck.
 
"Sharp," he exclaimed after looking it over.

"It's just a piece of metal."
 
"No, that's your livelihood. It's proof that you have the right to hunt. You need to take care of it."  He spoke in the same condescending tone Jansen almost always used with me.

"More advice?" I huffed in annoyance.
 
"And I don't just mean not to lose it. Make sure you don't do anything to get it revoked."
 
"Alright already..."
 
"Anyway, I'm glad you finally got it, you deserve it."
 
"Humph, aren't you worried I'll take all the best jobs? ...like I did tonight."
 
"Yeah well... there's no holding you back, right?"
 
Looking back on it, it seems to me that he was afraid of me. He was trying to get on my good side, although doing a lousy job of it.
 
It makes sense, I'd be afraid of me too. I was a kid with a lot of power, which could be a very terrifying thing. Children are prone to tantrums, mood swings, acting without thinking and bad judgment, myself much less so than the average kid, but he didn't really know that. The assumption was that I'd misuse all that power at some point; he was making sure he wasn't on the wrong end of it, which made him a lot smarter than most.
 
Most of the rest of the conversation was a blur. The effects of the alcohol for sure, but I never thought it'd be as powerful as it was. It wasn't something I appreciated; in fact I was sure I hated it. It made me sluggish, unfocused, vulnerable... helpless. Not being in complete control of my faculties, I suddenly felt very threatened.
 
"I have to leave." I said flatly.
 
"What, is it past your bed time?"
 
I might have kicked him for such a joke had I been sober, but I just wanted to get the hell out of there.
 
To this day, I have never consumed another drop of alcohol.
 
The hangover I experienced the following morning only reinforced my aversion to alcohol. Despite how my head felt, I went back to the park and waited, using the same strategy to use myself as bait. I resolved then to never again go after bounties that required much investigation. Breaking things was more my style and those were the jobs I'd be taking from then forward. Though, I couldn't leave this job undone; someone had to do it and from what I learned the previous night, most hunters wouldn't touch someone else's bounty. And I couldn’t quit it without getting penalized, so I had to do it myself.
 
But it really irked me, I could have been doing something else besides sitting on a bench on the off chance someone would try and abduct me. I could have been be pursuing other bounties.
 
"Damn it." I muttered out of frustration, and kicked the dirt. 'I got myself in to this now I have to deal with it.'
 
I waited longer still; it was mid day by now and still nothing. I was about to shout another obscenity when a girl about my age approached me.
 
"Hi," she said cheerfully. "Want to hang out?" she said with a smile, tipping her head to the side.
 
"Not really."
 
She leaned forward clasping her hands behind her back. "Come on, this place is boring. Let's go someplace cool."
 
"I'm busy." I said, still looking around the park, barely paying her any attention.
 
Without another word she left. I was relieved I didn't have to actually chase her away as I was unlikely to be attacked if I was with someone else.
 
I continued searching and eventually I noticed one guy who was paying a little bit too much attention to one kid in particular. Though she was a bit younger than the other victims, it was still suspicious looking. After a tense long while the guy finally approached the kid. I stood from the bench and my hand went into my pocket grasping my powersuit's storage unit. At the last minute the kid turned to see him and ran to him. It turned out that he was her father.
 
"Damn it!" I said and sat back down. I said that a lot, it was my favorite curse phrase. I think I heard on the one of the net shows, and it just stuck
 
As I looked around scanning person after person, I noticed that girl who talked to me before, now talking to another girl. She used that same approach as she had with me.
 
"Persistent, isn't she?"
 
I wondered if this was how normal kids socialized. After being turned down again she moved on. I noticed she had an odd way of looking around, like she was searching for something.
 
I then thought I found my target. I saw a really seedy-looking guy approaching, a thug if I ever saw one, and on top of that he was of a species known for their propensity to be indiscriminate eaters, and on occasion have been found to attack and consume other sentients. He walked through the park looking like he had a purpose, he wasn't just taking a stroll.
 
'That's got to be him.' I thought.
 
I saw Persistent Girl talking to yet a third prospective playmate;  he was going right for them. Again my hand went for my armor. He would grab one or both, I knew it. But just as I thought he would, he passed them by without even glancing at them. I watched him a while longer and realized he was just cutting through the park.
 
I continued searching, letting my eyes pan across the park, back in the direction the guy had come from. My sight passed over the bench where the two girls had been, it was now empty.
 
'They were there just fifteen seconds ago...' The realization hit me. 'That can't be!'
 
This time when my hand reached for armor's storage disk, I finally did pull it from my pocket and ran my thumb across its surface. The matter conversion sequence activated, which materialized the powersuit onto my body, no doubt startling any nearby onlookers. I ran over to the bench and looked around for some sign of them but saw nothing. Using my scanners I searched for some sort of trace evidence, a trail, something to follow. I found nothing still. They'd gotten away.
 
"Damn it."
 
As I said before, things aren't always what they seem. I don't know how I could have missed that. Her behavior was so obvious, so typically predatory, I just wasn't looking. She had the same look I did when searching for a bounty head. But still, I had trouble accepting that she really could have been the one I was looking for.
 
'She's just a young girl, no older than me...' I felt quite stupid. Of all people, I should have seen it; I should have been open to that possibility, given how much I hated being judged by my age. I felt like a complete hypocrite.
 
"Damn it."
 
With nothing to pursue, I went home, very upset with myself. I thought about going to take out my frustrations on a bunch of syndicate thugs, but then remembered I'd already done that.
 
'It's alright,' I thought. 'She was a repeat offender. I can get her next time,' I reassured myself I hadn't actually lost anything.
 
I didn't once think of the victim. If that had happened today I probably wouldn't be able to sleep at night. I'd be worried sick knowing that I let some poor girl get taken to be raped, tortured, or killed... probably all three. Though I know the Chozo tried to teach me it, the true value of sentient life wasn't something I learned until much later in my life. It was quite a painful lesson at that... but that's a story for another time.
 
The only thought I had towards the victims at that time was how stupid they were for allowing themselves to be taken so easily. I thought them even stupider now that I knew the one grabbing them was just a child herself... I really had to stop thinking like that; what a hypocrite I was.
 
I just realized that I never even informed the authorities to warn people that the abductor was a young girl... A hypocrite and an unthinking child.
 
When I saw on the news that there had been another abduction, and the girl taken was in fact the one I saw at the park that day, any and all doubt was erased. I now had a solid lead to chase after. Though after two more days of hanging out in the park and getting nothing I made up my mind to try a different approach. I sat a top one of the taller buildings in the area where most of the abductions happened. From this spot I had a clear view of two public parks and a school. Using my visor to magnify the image, I spent the day scanning each site for the girl to make an appearance again.
 
"This waiting sucks." I really just wanted to shoot or hit something at that point.
 
I went that entire day without seeing her. The artificial sunlight had begun to dim, and the school had let out hours before, so I concentrated my attention on the two parks which were also beginning to empty. I never did see that same girl again. However I did see a different girl acting suspiciously, she had been at one of the parks all day, alone. I paid her no mind before, since I was looking for a specific face, but once I had really looked, I noticed this new girl displayed the exact same predatory behavior.
 
I didn't understand why there were two of them, two young girls stalking victims. I thought it might have been a copycat but then realized I was the only one who knew about the first. They had to have known each other then, and done this in conjunction, I thought. Though I couldn't be certain if I was reading to much into her behavior or not, she hadn't actually done anything wrong yet. And in fact she never did; at the end of the day she left the park alone. I followed her to see if she would lead me to the other girl, so I would know for certain.
 
I tracked her, following across the rooftops, back to wherever it was that she was going. She walked with a purpose, focused straight ahead, reminding me of myself, not distracted like so many other children. Though I was the way I was for a very good reason, I wondered what hers was.
 
'What happened to her to drive her to this?' I thought. 'And why two of them? Did one convince the other to join her crime?'
 
It also baffled me as to what their motives could be. They weren't ransoming these girls, and they're both human, not any of the alien species known to eat other sentient beings... though they could have been cannibals... What possible gain was there? I was still very naïve and one of the most obvious motives never even crossed my mind, and I probably wouldn't have believed it even if someone had explained it to me.
 
Other than her odd behavior at the park I still had no proof that this girl did anything. However, when she entered a dilapidated and abandoned apartment building I became certain that she was guilty. The place looked like it hadn't been used in quite a few years.
 
I entered from the roof and quietly made my way down through the building, looking for any signs of movement. Several floors down, I caught a glimpse of a figure moving past at the far end of the hall that quickly disappeared around the corner. I gave chase but only found an empty corridor. However, there were only four rooms at the end of the dead-end hall.
 
One by one, I checked inside the rooms. Most only required a quick glance from the door, as they were completely gutted and empty. The place was truly in shambles, with gaping holes in the walls, broken windows, and wires hung out of the ceiling in many places.
 
Entering the last room, I could see it looked slightly more used than the other rooms; the dust wasn't quite as thick, though there were vermin everywhere. Here, the interior walls had been left up, dividing the apartment into smaller rooms.
 
I moved slowly as I made my way deeper in, cautiously checking around each corner. I could hear my own breath loudly inside my helmet; my heart was racing as well. I don't know why I was so nervous, it was unlike me, but it turned out I had good reason to be. It was there that I encountered what was probably the second most horrible sight I had ever beheld.
 
Scattered about the room were not quite a dozen bodies of young girls, all stripped naked and in various stages of decay. They were simply left to rot where they had fallen. This was the first taste of death I'd seen since the pirate raid on K-2L and it was more than a bit unnerving, taking me back to a place I didn't want to go.
 
To my shock one of them was still alive, it was the girl that I had seen disappear from the park two days before. She had been chained to the floor by her ankle, was completely naked, and very filthy. She didn't look injured other than that. I then noticed another still-living girl there in similar condition; the alpherian who had been taken almost ten days prior. Though she was in much worse shape, looking like she hadn't eaten it a long while. And indeed my scanners told me the cause of death of the others had been starvation.
 
The first girl grabbed onto my leg and said something to me, but her voice was weak and her words unintelligible. She looked up at me with incredibly sad and pathetic eyes. I'd never been so disgusted in my life. I shook my leg, knocking her off, as if I'd stepped in something on the street.
 
"Where is she?" I asked firmly, yet I could feel the tremble in my voice.
 
I only got the same indiscernible babble out of her. I then heard a sound from the back room and went to check it out. In the small room I saw nothing, but using the audio filters built into my helmet I was able to discern a heartbeat. The sound came from a small closet. I swung it open.
 
"Don't shoot me!" I was met by a very frightened looking girl, the same girl I had followed.
 
"Where's your partner?" I said.
 
"Who..."
 
"The other girl, the one from two days ago."
 
"I don't know what you mean."
 
"Don't play games with me!" I slammed my cannon into the wall next to her head, causing her to jump.
 
"I don't know!" she cried.
 
I then noticed the lower half of her body was different, changing. The clothes were completely different than before, her legs were different, and in fact she wasn't human at all. I grabbed her by the throat, ripped her out of the closet and slammed her against the opposite wall. In an instant her face completely changed. She, or rather he, was a shape shifter; not a human, not female, and not a child. And incidentally, nothing like me at all as I had previously thought.
 
He had been using the guise of a young girl to stalk his victims and elude the police. He must have used a different face each time out to avoid any common descriptions among witnesses. No one would expect a kid, no one except me that is.
 
"Please, don't kill me."
 
"Shut up," I snapped at him and pushed him towards the door. "Get moving."
 
As I marched him out of there we passed his two captives on the way out. They recoiled from him as much as their chains would allow. For some reason their cowardice was offensive to me.
 
"What the hell is wrong with you? Stupid cowards... Weak! You're weak!" I shouted angrily. But they only shrank away more.
 
"What's the use...?" I raised my cannon and fired two shots, severing the chains that bound their ankles to the floor. "Just go the hell home." I said, and then left as quickly as possible.
 
I couldn't stomach seeing them one instant longer. I hated their wretched state; their miserable, sad, and frightened faces. When that girl was clinging onto my leg earlier I felt utter terror. It was weakness I feared most, and I thought hers would somehow infect me and make me as feeble as her.
 
My first encounter with the Space Pirates and Ridley was the only time in my life that I was truly a helpless person. To me, any sense of weakness meant going back to that place. It was something I wanted to avoid at all costs. Those girls actually frightened me more than their captor did, more than imagining the terrible things he'd done to them; though thankfully my naive mind didn't put together exactly what that was.
 
Walking my catches back to the police station I usually would take my armor off, unless I judged them to have above average combat capabilities. But this time I didn't, and he didn't have any combat potential at all. I could have easily taken him down even without my armor, yet I left it on. I didn't want him looking at me. I didn't want him to see what I really was, that I looked like the girls he victimized. I didn't want anybody looking at me like that, like I could be a victim, like I was defenseless.
 
"I know you..." he spoke suddenly.
 
I became worried that he knew. Did he catch a glimpse of my face through my visor and recognize me from the park? Could he tell from my voice? Or did he know by reputation who, or rather what, I was? Did he know that what I was under the armor? Was his mind now transforming me into that wretched sight back in that apartment? Did he know? I was horrified at the thought.
 
But that wasn't what he meant.
 
"You're her," he continued, "the one they all talk about. You're the Huntress."
 
'Huntress? So I have a name amongst the outlaws too?'
 
It was the first time I'd ever heard the epithet that would stick with me to this day. It figures that my prey would be the ones to come up with it. It had a very different feel about it, not like what the cops and hunters called me, it was uttered in fearful tones and with respect. There was a dangerous air about it, which I thought fit me perfectly.
 
Of all the names I'd been given, it was the only one I didn't mind being called.
 
Close log.

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Next chapter: What is Normal