The Therteenth Child

Red nodded. It was obvious that Gwharr wasn't all that social. For god sake, he was a lumbering caveman in the 21st century. He must be truly out of his element.

Red could say that he felt the same. He was far from his home city with which he was the most familiar with. It was his city and he knew it like the back of his hand. Here in New York he wasn't all that confidant. This city was unknown to him. But he had an obligation and he didn't allow the fact that he wasn't familiar with the city, impair him in anyway. But even so he couldn't say that he knew what it was like to be the last of your kind. He felt a bit bad for Gwharr.

Red looked forward. There was a dim light at the end of the tunnel. He first taught that a train was coming but immediately dismissed it. The tunnels were highly resonant so he could here the train long before he could see it and also, the tunnel abandoned and locked away from the rest of the subway line. This was something entirely different. He remembered the blueprints he "acquired" and knew that there was a larger chamber of some sort at the end of this tunnel. Red turned to Gwharr.

"Get ready. We're close."

He felt a certain relief when the newcommer decided to be quiet. He didn't seem to be a bad sort, and it would be difficult if his temporary alliance ended in a quarrel about leadership and such. Gwharr thought this would go easy as long as none of them tried to boss their partner around. After all, they were both currently acting the part of loners.

Our primtive hero quickly buried all thoughts of the life he had once lead once more and instead focused on his movement and surroundings. He had been involved in enough hunts to know that distractions could be hazardous when you were trying to stalk prey. Right now he had to focus more on the men they where after and the evil acts they had commited, and the rightfull retribution that the rather awkward pair would deal when they finally caught up to them

He followed his temporary ally along, and despite his massive bulk, his feet and arms hit the ground almost soundlessly, and with an a gility that are very uncharacteristic for huge, apelike cavepeople. Gwharr was on edge right now, he was a hunter, and he had been a hunter for as long as he could remember, and seveal millenia worth of skills and instincts made him very good at his job, despite his intellectual shortcommings. He listened for footsteps in the all but abandoned tunnels, filtering away the tittering of scurrying of rats, the distant thunder of the trains and the sharp humming of faulty electrical wires. . .

Soon justice would be done!

Red made his way toward the lighted entrance. He quickly moved into the shadows when getting close enough and motioned for Gwharr to do the same. He peeked around the corner and was immediately disappointed. The room that spread before them was filled with dirty young men. The all wore makeshift respirators and protective goggles and stood around large tables that were covered to the brim with improvised lab equipment. A chemical smell lingered in the air and it was enough to make any man's stomach turn. A meth lab. About ten men walked around the large room casually, brandishing automatic weapons. There were smaller such weapons like uzis on the tables. The possibility that all those people were working against there will was immediately discarded by Red.

This wasn't what Red was looking for. His eyes scanned the room and saw, on the opposite side of the room, another door. He quickly realized that this meth lab was nothing more then a small bump in the road. Until that moment, Red was worried that they were going the wrong way. Now he was sure that it was the case. He turned to his companion.

"Do you know what a 'flanking maneuver' means?" he whispered.

Gwharr nodded slightly, to show he understood what he meant, although he did not agree. These men with their silly little death-sticks and their stupid tables could not hurt him! Nor could the ones that where on the floor, their pink little fist was about as useless against him like toenails was useless against a tank. Besides, if they flanked the men, some of them might escape to bring others with bigger, dangerous death-sticks. Flanking-manouvres would be pointless against people like these, since they might act like a flock of deer and run off. Hunting them all down would be difficult. No, the best way was to block the exits, maybe using the tables, and then carefully pick off everyone when they where trapped, making sure that nobody got away.

"To no flank, to trap! Block exits, then crush!" The caveman said, silently clenching his fist as if to accentuate what he actually meant. A rather vicious smile then crept onto his face, and his small. beady eyes glinted maliciously deep within the perpetual shade of his massive brow "Then we feast!" he said happily, licking is lips with anticipation of their little after-battle meal. He was pretty sure he could devour one or two of the sweetmeats before he was filled up, and when the Red hunter had eaten as much as he wanted, they would split the remaining meat. This aught to last even a hungry creature like Gwharr for quite a some time

He quietly moved closer to the meth-people, using the darkness in the tunnel for cover, his steps being completely quiet, when he looked back to see if the red hunter would follow him. He figured that the best way to do this was to simply leap into the middle of the room, smack one table towards each door, effectively blocking-them, and then methodically start to take out the people in the room, although, out of respect for the hunter he did not leap into action, in case the other one had some form of reservation against his most brilliant scheme.

"Humh feast" Red hoped that the caveman didn't mean what he thought he meant. But the strategy of blocking the exits and surprise attack Gwharr suggested made sense. It didn't surprise Red all that much, after all Cavemen were natural born hunters. He looked around the room and followed Gwharr silently using large support pillars as cover. He got close to Gwharr and whispered "There are only two exits. You block the one over there" he pointed at the exit on the other side of the room" I'll take the one we came through".

Red twisted his wrists a bit and his blades popped out ready to be used. He reached in and pulled one of his guns in his left hand. One would be more then enough.

The caveman nodded quickly at his temporary ally, to show that he understood and agreed. The little man would cover this exit whilst he would do his best to seal the other one. When that was done, the pair would easily be able to pick off all the little thugs one by one before continuing on with their mission. Gwharr quickly noticed that the one armed with deathsticks were the one doing the guarding. The others seemed to be either some sort of workers or slaves, making whatever it was they made at those horribly smelling tables. Smelled like dangerous. Luckily for our primitive hero the room was large and rather poorly lit, the only lights being flourescant ones hanging low over each table, However, besides the sub-standard lighting it would still be nigh-impossible to move through it undiscovered on the ground. However, the roof was surprisingly high, and just like the majority of the population, the guards rarely watched the roof. Gwharr silently scaled the wall, reaching the roof, were was above most of the lights. There he quickly climbed over to the other side of the room, looking down at the floor where the ever-vigilant guards paced around between the tables. Fortunately the noise of a subway-train masked what little sound he made, making his journey across the room nearly flawless.

When he was near the opposite door, he waited for a moment or two untill a guard passed under him, seemingly unaware of his presence. Gwharr then let his grip go of the steel pipe he had been holding, dropping down onto the ground, crushing the poor man beneath his mighty feet. The poor thing never even saw him comming. All eyes in the room where on Gwharr now, most of them too baffled to actually take action, whilst some of the more coolheaded criminals raised their guns against the caveman, firing away. However, the gesture, as rational as it might have seen was ultimately useless, since the bullets did nothing but bounce against our heroic beastmans skin.

Gwharr wasted no time bothering with protecting himself against the bullets, but instead grabbed ahold of two of the nearest tables, one wich each hand, and heaved them into the air as easily as if they had been nothing but pinecones. One of them he slammed into the doorway behind him, making sure that anyone wishing to exit the room through the door, would have to move the extremely heavy table first. The other one he hurled through the room, like an oversized throwing-weapon, seemingly without effort. Unfortunately for the methboys, the size of the table made it rather difficult to avoid, and several of the more startled criminals met their end because they stood in its way.

Red kept to the shadows. He watched Gwharr make his way to the opposite door. He had to admit that seeing the caveman make his was across the sealing using the smaller sewer pipes like an ape was amusing. But there was no time for that. He focused onto the large crowd of criminals ahead of him. Analyzing there movement and positions, he was already thinking about the process of dispatching them. Almost like coming up with a combat choreography.

Gwharr was in position. Red would allow him to attack first. Then when all the attention is on him, Red will slip in and take out as many as possible. The caveman attacked two enforcers nearest to him. Just as he thought, all eyes were on Gwharr now. Red slipped out of the shadow and quickly dispatched the nearest guard by slashing his through. Another thug nearest to him turned and saw him. He opened his mouth to shout a warning but, before he could, Red's right fist slammed sharply into the thugs stomach. Red turned to see one of the meth-boys charging at him from behind with a switchblade held high above his head. Red quickly crouched and swung his foot so that it connected with the attacker's shins. The meth-boy lost his balance and fell forward just to be greeted Red's combat knife straight through his face. Red heard a familiar sound. It was the sound of a shotgun chambering a round. He turned to see another thug with a large sowed-off shotgun pointed at him. Red had to move. He zig-zaged toward the thug dodging almost all shots. One of the bullet slammed into his chest armor making him stagger slightly but Red was close enough already. He grabbed hold of the guns barrel and shoved it into the thugs face. with a free hand he pulled the trigger and the thug's head was blown clean off by his own weapon.

Grasping the shotgun with both hands now, Red turned to see Gwharr swinging a table at there enemies. Beneath his mask, Red smiled slightly, cocked the acquired shotgun and used it blow two more armed thugs away.

Gwharr loudly roared at the humans in front of him, most of them still firing their bang-sticks in his general direction. That was the problem with guns. If you came to rely on them too much, you expected them to be the universal solution to all confrontation, but Gwharr knew better. And if he would have let these men survive they might get a chance to partake of his wisdom. Although Gwharr was not the source to be handing out mercy right and left. These where his tunnels, and if he allowed these people to be down here without doing something about it, more people would move in sooner or later. All this brand of topsider understood was strength and the willingless to use it, and Gwharr had both Strength and the will to send all these men to meet whatever beitn it was that created them in the first place!

He snarled viciously as he once again leapt forward, grabbing another of the tables, smashing it down on two of the dirty men, who was untill recently trying to make a grab for their uzis that where lying on the table. Describing what manner of sound the two men made, or what they looked like after the attack would be nothing but unsavory, so I will simply state that they where dead, and that not even their own mothers would recognized them anymore. Gwharr then proceeded to grab one of the guards who had gotten carelessly close to fire of a burst of bullets directly into his face in a desperate attempt to do some damage. His massive, oversized hand caught the man around his torso, and then proceeded to squeeze. the man tried to scream, but no sound came, since the air had already left his lungs. Nonetheless his silent scream continued as Gwharr squashed his torso, like a normal man might crush an egg in his hands, entrails, blood and other assorted liquids pouring out between his fingers, as the man faced his last, agonizing seconds if life. Gwharr then threw the crushed body across the room, so that all may see it. He then proceeded to leap back, towards the door where one of the dirty methheads had decided to remove his blockage, however he had not gotten very far, when a vicious blow from Gwharr broke his neck, almost tearing his head off his body. He died without even realizing it.

Gwharr paused to beat his chest in triumph and roar loudly, partly out of sheer joy, and partly to inspire fear in his opponents! These where the caves of Gwharr, his kingdom and his home. All who came here where food for Gwharr, the king of the caves of new york!

There were three criminals left. Not three men Red chose to take out but three in general. Red stood behind one of the thugs and stabbed him between the ribs thus puncturing his lung. He flipped the shotgun he took from the thug mere moments ago and slammed it's handle with all his might into the second thugs temple thus fracturing his scull, driving a piece of bone into his brain. Red turned toward the third on who was looking at a triumphant Gwharr pounding his chest. Red approached him from behind and jabbed him with his knuckles on the side of his neck. The thug went out cold.

Red turned toward Gwharr and raised his arms in a calming gesture "We need this one alive. I have questions for him".

Gwharr Cackled viciously as he saw how his companion took out hte last stragglers. He slapped the ground and took a slight leap out of sheer joy as his vicious cackle turned into an almost childlike giggle. The pair of them had won this fight, and winning always made our primitive caveman rather happy. However, Red's words quickly brought him out of his personal little celebration, and his previously grinning faced soured somewhat.

He nodded, although he let a single, rather derisive snort told the the Red Hunter that he did generally not agree with this type of thing, but that he was free to do as he will. "To think Red make things not-easy." Gwharr rumbled as he approached his companion and the downed thug, squatting down next to the pair, bringing his face down to Red's level. His small, beady eyes glinted in a confused manner in the perpetual shadow beneath his massive brow. He licked his thin lips thoughtfully as he ripped an arm from a nearby corpse and absent-mindedly starts to eat it, the bone crunching noisily in his mouth

"To hunt in not-easy, strange ways. To hunt to fill brain, not stomach, yes?" The caveman asks, raising one massive eyebrow. He thought he was on to something here, but he was not yet quite certain. A part of him hoped he would never understand, because in understanding, he might find it sensible, and in finding it sensible, he might slowly turn into one of the inhabitants of the world-of-light up there. He had to keep his mind like a rock, uncompromising and unchanging.

He grinned slightly, revealing blood-stained teeth as he looked to the slowly awakening thug "To tell it Gwharr eat it if no do what told!" he said conspiratirically before bursting out in a rather evil giggle. For some reason these upworlders seemed to have weak stomach, and the threat of being eaten would probably make it less keen to act defiantly

Red took in Gwharr's words. It was good idea. It might speed up the whole interrogation process. Even though the thought of cannibalism was a bit disturbing, Gwharr wasn't actually human. He was an ancient variation of the species know as the modern day human. Red had to take into account that this kind of behavior might have bin natural for his caveman ally. Red gave a small, almost indistinct nod and knelt down.

The thug was awakening and ground as he slowly opened his eyes. As his vision focused the first thing he saw were three red dots. Then a huge silhouette of head came into view. Then he felt himself hoisted onto his feet by a pair of hands wrapped tightly around his shirt collar. Then a deep distorted voice spoke.

"Listen closely and cooperate if you want to live" The thug's eyes were wide open now. He now saw the two....men that killed all his partners. He looked into those blood-red unfeeling three eyes. He opened his moth shakily.

"You're the... the Red Hu......" Then he noticed the huge man standing beside the Red Hunter "DEAR GOD WHAT IS THAT!?"

Red smiled, this might even be more efficient then he thought. He brought himself from his thoughts back into the situation at hand.

"'That' is a real life caveman" he said, looking at Gwharr munching on his 'handy' meal "and as you can see, cavemen have a tendency toward cannibalism. And judging by the way he is looking at you, he would like you to be the main course"

Red slowly pulled the thug closer to Gwharr, his hands firmly grasping his collar. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING? STOP!! YOU INSANE!!" yelled the thug in panic and fear. Red sneered beneath his helmet. The guy will be easy to brake.

Despite his limited intellect it did not take long time for him to realize what hunter was doing. He knew all too well that frightening people was a rather important part of what they where doing here. Frightened people served as a detterant to others, and even though he was loathing to admit it, letting this one escape might be a good idea. He would tell his friends of the monstrous caveman living down in the tunnel, and the way he managed to take out a pack of heavily armed men and proceed to eat them. If more of them came down here, he would repeat the slaughter and soon enough they would learn to stay away from his little piece of home. His only piece of home in this accursed world-of-lights.

His beady little eyes glinted as the human seemed to return to consciousness and looked up at the pair, first noticing his companion, and seemed to recognized him. His hypothesis was soon confirmed as the punch-drunk human started muttering about the hunter, before noticing Gwharr, who was munching on the amputated limb of one of his comrades. Gwharr had already realized what the hunter had in mind, and thus took another bite from the arm, making sure the bones he was chewing crunchsed and gracked as noisily and disgustingly as he could. He may be a caveman, but he certainly had aflair for theatrics.

He stared right into the eyes of their prisoner, licking his lips, seemingly absentmindedly, but Red, who had seen him do it earlier might notice he did it a little slower and noisier than he had done earlier, showing his row of blood-stained, sharp teeth and the way they cut through the arm, like it was made out of taffy.

He noticed how Red pulled him towards him, his mouth splitting into a milk-curdingly cruel smile, and his eyes glinting hungrily in the perpetual shadow beneath his brow. "To give it to Gwharr! To think it taste gooder when alive. Warmer, juicier" he said, slowly and somewhat theatrically reaching for the man with his oversized hand, his fingers slightly bent, like the talons of a bird of prey. His smile grew even wider, and bits of gristle and skin could be seen stuck between his bloodsmeared, but otherwise perfectly pearly white teeth. Their prisoner looked away briefly, as Gwharrs blood-scented, sweet breath hit him in the face, and Gwharr wasted no time, quickly turning to Red, winking at him, to let him understand he really wasn't going to hurt the methhead. "Gwharr claim all flesh that wanders into his kingdom!" he said, his voice slightly more bestial that earlier. Oh, god he really enjoyed this! Even if Gwharr didn't know this at the moment, he would enjoy a visit to the theatre immensly-

Gwharr was selling it beautifully. Red couldn't help but smile. He wanted to laugh but remained silent. After all, he had an image to keep. He felt a bit weird then. He didn't have a reason to laugh in a long time. Not since...

"OK OK, I'll DO WHATEVER YOU WANT! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME!" cried there prisoner. The look of pure fear now adorned his face.

Red reached up and tapped a small stud on his eye piece that started up a small digital camera built into one of his lenses. He recorded and archived all his interrogation, just in case he missed something in the field.

"What is you name" he said, his voice now flat and emotionless.

"Da-Danric Manson" replied the thug.

"Good now pay attention" Red reached down to his belt and produced a small Polaroid picture of a midlleaged man with a round nose, small sunken in eyes and a balding dark brown scalp. The first thing Danric noticed was the guys look. The look of a twisted man. A predator.

"I have information that this man, Brian Fellps by name, was seen in these tunnels. I've bin following his tracks and the went through this very room" Red paused to let the information sink in. Danric's brow furrowed as his eyes widened slightly. That told Red that he knew something about the man but pretended not to notice as he continued, still in a monotone, cold, emotionless tone that would make Hal 9000 proud.

"Now, have you seen this man. And if you did, what did he do?"

Danric's lips quivered. Red saw the fear in his eyes grow even more. Danric spoke meekly "I can't... I-I can't... I mean I don't....."

"TELL ME!" Red voice almost seemed like roar of a great beast. He squeezed Danric's neck slightly, threatening to snap it like a twig. The sudden change in his attitude was necessary to make Danric totally vulnerable and brake his fear induced resolve. It was obvious that Danric knew the man in the picture but was scared of revealing anything about him. All Red had to do was make him fear him and his caveman ally even more. Pretending to sound disappointed Red spoke "Fine have it your way" and he pushed him toward Gwharr "He's all yours" he in the emotionless tone again.

The red hunter pushed the man towards Gwharr, who's twisted, blood-stained grin grew even larger, growing into cheshire cat-like proportions. He cackled evilly as he theatrically licked his lips again. The man immediatelly started to run, but Gwharr had already anticipated this, and an he even let the man get a few steps untill an almost seven feet long arm shot out ang wrapped around his shin, causing the man to fall forward in an almost comical fashion, whilst Gwharr once again cackled evilly and slowly started to pull the man towards him.

The man wasted no time before he started struggling, wildly kicking backwards with his free foot, in the hope that he would push himself free, even though he probably knew it was useless somewhere within his panic-addled mind. He wasn't even trying to crawl away anymore, he literally clawing at the ground, trying desperately to increase the distance between himself and the gargantuan monster with his bloody teeth, evil laughter and hungry eyes. He wailed, looking at the Red Hunter with terrified eyes, probably praying to any god that was listening that the hunter would have some pity, and not let the slavering monstrosity eat him.

He didn't even speak anymore, he just sobbed, somewhat like a terrified child, he was truly in the grip of panic now, and Gwharr knew this as he slowly pulled him closer through the grime on the floor. The man was bleeding from his finger-tips now, as he had tried to fruitlessly claw himself away from the caveman, and his wailing had turned into a panicked, blubbering gibberish. Gwharr realized this and dragged him closer quicker. The man's blubbering turned into a horrified, gut-wrenching wail, as he felt Gwharr lifte his foot towards his mouth, and the wail turned into a shrill, shriek of pure terror as he felt the teeth clench around his foot.

Gwharr once more winked at Red as he ripped the man's shoe of with his teeth, causing a few, small tears to appear on the exposed flesh below them. As he spit the shoe out, he knew the man was more than ripe to be questioned. And he didn't even have to hurt him physically. In his opinion, it wasn't really such a bad interrogation. Especially not considering it was his first time either!

Red was having the time of his life. There was a small sadistic side of him that always gave him thrill at the sight of the wicked and the corrupt suffering. Especial when Danric looked at him with those terrified pleading eyes, silently begging him to call of Gwharr. Then Gwharr tore of Danric shoe of. Red almost busted a gut there and then but kept his outward appearance as stoic as ever. But now the fruit was ready to be picked, as they say. Red raised an arm motioning for Gwharr to stop. He walked over to now terrified man and grabbed him by the hair on the back of his head. He pulled him up to face him, his cold, emotionless attitude on again.

"Talk." Red ordered. After what Danric endured, Red was pretty sure that he said enough.

Danric's voice was shaky. He sobbed more then he spoke "He came through this place two days ago. Some of our guys caught him and wanted to kill him. We didn't want witnesses. But then he talked to the guys and showed them some documents. I don't know what the talked about and what were those documents, I swear. I was to far to hear or see anything. After a few minutes the guys let him go. After that day, I've seen gang members bring kids down hear. They lead them through this place and out that exit" with a shaky hand Danric pointed at the door opposite to the one Red and Gwharr came through "Every time they brought kids down here, that guy in the picture was with the gang members. Yesterday, I asked one of the guys who caught him the first time he came here, what was all that about. Then he told me.....oh God...." Danric ran a hand through his hair "The guy in the picture is working for people, man. People that can kill a low level guy like me with a single word.... I don't want to die.... I DON'T WANT TO D..." Red slaped Danric out of his short fit.

Gwharr carefully put his hand on the man's shoulder and gave him what seemed to be a light slap over the head, but in actually was just about powerfull enough to knock him unconscious for a some time. He would wake up soon enough, be a bit groggy but no worse for wear, ready to run away and never come back. Unlike earlier, there was no malice or overtheatrical bestiality in his blow, just effectiveness. After all, the time of theatrics was past, and the hunt had once again resumed. the caveman smiled slightly mishceviously towards his grim, stoic partner. "To have fun. To like pretend-like to eat." He chuckled as he started to move forwards, carefully removing the table blocking the exit they where going through, rendering the door accessible, at wich point he felt the door, realized it was locked, and then carefully proceeded to punch it with enough force to split it down the middle. If someone was nearby they had probably heard the gunshots anyway.

"To remind I of time in forest. Much pretend-like stuff in forest. Fun!" he said, a rather warm smile appearing appearing on the cavemans smile as he remembering all the fun he had been having back in the redwoods, when the silly humans came around. He had enjoyed that portion of his stay on this continent immensly and had built up quite a reputation. At some point he might return there and keep pretending, just ot make sure they did not forget about him. a small chortle escaped from his lips as he contnued through the newly opened doorway

The corridor was dark, but Gwharrs eyes where just about sharp enough to see the outline of shapes in the corridors and to avoid walking into a wall or hitting his head on a pipe as he knuckled forwards through the corridors. He had been here before at some point, although it was long ago. He didn't quite like these parts of his little "kingdom" since they where too close to the sewers.