Marc Cerasini - AVP - Alien vs. Predator

But time had run out. As she stumbled across the whale graveyard, the Queen’s black head loomed out of the fog behind her.

Narrowly avoiding the Alien’s raking claws, Lex ducked into the nearly intact skeleton of a whale. The bones rose out of the ice to form an ivory cage of protection. The Queen’s jaws snapped as she tried to grab the woman, but the sharp whalebone splinters pierced her hide. The Queen let loose with sibilant cries of rage and pain.

Racing among the bones, Lex circled the graveyard and hurried back the way she had come—toward the wharf and the only shelter she could find. Scrambling up the edge of the cliff, Lex dived under the tottering legs of the huge iron separator just as the Hive Mother reached out to snatch her.

“Damn it!” Lex cried, rolling away.

The Queen thrust her head between the separator’s support beams. Lex felt hot breath wash over her. It smelled of blood. She grabbed a chunk of ice and threw it at the creature’s gaping jaws. Then, narrowly avoiding decapitation, Lex ducked as the Alien whipped a barbed chain at her head.

“Come on then!” Lex cried defiantly as she slipped under the heavy iron pot.

Arms flung wide, chains dangling from her limbs, the Alien Queen bellowed in frustration. Lex dropped to the ground, crawled through the snow, and placed her shoulder against the weak support beam. She pushed against the wooden strut with all of her remaining strength. A tiny rivulet of blood trickled from the thunderbolt scar on her forehead. Lex tasted it, and pushed harder.

The Alien matriarch hissed like a rattlesnake and her toothy mouth gaped wide. Out of that noxious hole the inner jaws shot forward, snapping at Lex. Then Lex heard the wood crack, and she felt the support beam tumble as the iron pot dropped from its pedestal, to slide a few feet down the icy slope. But instead of falling on the Queen’s head, it remained in place, held only by a single stout wooden beam sunk deep into the glacial ice.

Collapsed on the snow, Lex panicked. The Queen was advancing, but Lex was out of weapons, ideas and luck.

Just as the Queen’s gnashing jaws were about to close in on Lex’s throat, an unholy howl cut through the frigid air.

Scar!

As he raced forward, Lex could see that the Predator was bleeding from a dozen wounds. But in his hand he held her crude spear, and he was ready for a fight. Fearlessly, he leaped, landing on the Alien Queen’s broad back. With a powerful thrust, he drove the spear clean through her throat.

The Queen bellowed with rage, and the Predator jumped clear. Spinning in the air, Scar landed in the snow next to Lex, where he crouched in a fighting stance.

While the tormented Queen clawed at the shaft, Lex tried to lift one of the chains linked to the Queen’s body and lash it around the iron separator. But the links were too heavy, and her strength, taxed to the limit, finally failed. Dropping the chain, Lex stumbled to her knees.

At that moment, Scar appeared at her side, taking up the task and lifting the chain links, wrapping them around the separator’s handle. Lex rose to help, and for a few triumphant moments they labored together, side by side.

Then Scar suddenly stiffened as the spiked tail of the Alien Queen punched a hole clean through his chest. Arms flung outward, the Predator was hoisted off the ground, writhing on the end of the razor-sharp tail.

With a flick of that deadly, albeit maimed, appendage the Queen dashed Scar to the ground and loomed over him, ready to finish him off.

But Lex was faster.

She rose and stumbled forward, slamming her body against the last support beam. The shock of the blow rattled her teeth and bruised a rib, but Lex heard a satisfying crack as the final leg tore free of the ice. Immediately, the huge iron vat slid the rest of the way down the slope and over the edge of the cliff, tumbling toward the harbor far below.

The long chain snapped taut, and with a jerk the Queen was snatched away at the very moment of her kill. Dragged through the snow, she kicked and clawed helplessly as she was pulled toward the icebound harbor.

The separator bounced end over end and struck the thick pack ice. Under the weight of the cast-iron vat, the ice cracked—but did not shatter. The roaring Alien was dragged along, but she came to an abrupt halt at the edge of the cliff—right in front of Lex.

Lex watched desperately as a spiderweb of cracks spread outward from the vat, but still the separator did not sink.

Then the Queen struggled to rise, and Lex knew she was doomed.

Suddenly an earsplitting crack echoed up from below, and with a groaning sound the frozen sheet caved in under the three-ton separator. With a splash the vat slipped through the hole and into the bay.

Once again the chain was pulled tight and the Alien Queen was yanked, wailing, toward the widening gap. Tittering and slobbering, the creature clawed at the ice, but to no avail. Limbs thrashing, wailing in protest, with hot gore gushing from the wound in her throat, the monster was sucked into the harbor, where she was swallowed by the cold ocean depths, the heavy separator as her anchor.

As the Alien Queen sank, Lex rose and hurried to Scar’s side.

Sobbing, she fell to her knees in the bloody snow, cradling the dying Predator’s head in her arms. His body broken, the Predator seemed resigned to his fate.

As Lex held him, Scar reached up a battered claw and gently traced the thunderbolt scar on her forehead with the tip of his finger. Using a distorted version of Lex’s own voice, the Predator spoke.

“The enemy of my enemy…”

“…is my friend,” said Lex.

Then the Predator shuddered once, and died.

As Lex pressed his face to her breast, a strange wind blew. Something large was passing over their heads. The Predator spacecraft shimmered into visibility, energy crackling across its hull. It hovered over Lex and the fallen warrior, engines humming.

As the shadow of the starship fell over her, Lex looked up. A few feet away, on a low ice shelf overlooking the battleground, a dozen Predators winked into existence before her eyes. Then multiple shadows cast from nowhere played over Lex. With a crackle of strange energies, more Predators became visible.

In a moment they pressed in to surround Lex.

Bowing low, they offered their respects to the lifeless Predator, then they lifted his corpse and carried him toward a long ramp that lowered silently out of the belly of the spaceship.

Lex fumbled at her belt for a weapon but came up empty—her club was gone, lost in the fight. She crouched in a martial arts fighting stance, fists raised and ready to lash out. Lex was willing to take them all on if she had to. For a long moment there was a tense standoff.

Stepping in front of her, a tall Predator with long, drooping dreadlocks and ornate, jewel-studded armor considered her through blank eye slits. Slowly, the creature lifted its hand and traced the scar on Lex’s forehead, then pointed to the same symbol burned into its own mask.

Lex’s eyes darted to the others. All of them bore the same distinctive mark.

The Predator elder nodded once, then presented Lex with his heavy spear. As she grasped the object in her hands, the inhuman hunters bowed their heads in a gesture of respect.

Then the elder turned his back on the woman and winked to invisibility. Lex traced his retreating footsteps, along with the prints of the others, as they marched through the snow to the starship.

The ramp silently closed and the craft’s main thrusters roared. Saint Elmo’s fire danced across its metallic surface and the ship vanished, though Lex could still hear its roar and feel the hum of its engines rumbling in her chest. Finally, in a blast of snow and ice, the spacecraft was gone.