[Dark Elite_H2]

PERILOUS JOURNEY
The journey to Boontown (cont.)

Pain pulsed through her face, feeling the blood crusting scrunch her cheeks to where the stingers had fallen.
She felt a burning sensation come from all over her body, but her nerves singed around her neck. The control of the Shredder left a terrible achy feeling, and nothing but pounding pain.
But what hurt most was her pride. Her ability to control herself from situations like this would always end up either shot and wounded, or held captive.
And it was mostly being shot, then held captive.
Umi groaned, her eyes slowly fluttering open, and her ear drums pounding with her headache, and the rhythmic stomps of the Shredder.
Why does this have to happen to me... she thought wearily.
The Shredder's pace slowed, its head lowering down from the irritating scratching canvas above.
"About time you wake," the Shredder's voice telepathically spoke through her mind.
"I was thinking you'd be dead,"
Umi's head perked up from her dangling legs to the Shredder that spoke.
"Why did you take me?" she said loud enough for the Shredder to hear.
The Shredder kept quiet, staring ahead, and ignoring the human's request.
Umi became frazzled to the Shredder.
"'ey! Do I stutter!? I said why did you take me!?"
Its head spun around to her, eyes glaring deeply.
"Isn't it obvious, Umi?" it said eerily.
Umi stuttered with her words, blinking dumbfoundedly.
"H-how d'you know my name?" Umi said, giving a suspicious eye.
"You are a threat to that...thing you travel with...and to your future people," it said.
"What?" Umi almost screamed.
Its eyes grew softer.
"I've been monitoring your dreams, right when you left the Grubb tribe. Those aren't nightmares of your conscious, Umi," it shook its head.
"Those are true visions, that will come true,"
Its head moved away from her face, moving a leg forward to keep its balance.
She frowned suspiciously, leaning her head closer to it.
"So...why are you taking me from Stranger?" she asked again.
"It's the only way to save him, and yourself," it replied.
"That...doesn't make any sense..." she blinked.
"I've already told you, young human. Your visions you have will come true. And this is only for your sake, and the sake of innocent lives that you will be around," it said more exaturated.
"I don't believe it! They won't come true!" she began to shout.
Its eyes went back to a glare.
"Don't fight the ineffable, human," its voice sounded angrier.
Umi gritted her teeth together in anger, her face turning a flush red.
"No...they...will...NOT!" she screamed.
"Stranger would never do a thing to me! Never! I know it, and he does, too! All yer tryin' to do is scare me, and it ain't workin', you over-sized crustacean!"
A flourished growl came from the Shredder, its mandibles twitching angrily.
"Then how do I know!?" it roared.
It's tail whipped across the tangled webs of trees, breaking then in half from their trunks.
Splinters and cuts of wood slashed across her cheek, leaving a deep bleeding gash dripping down her jaw.
"Do you think I'm stupid!?" it brough its tail back up to its face, glaring at the human.
She stared wearily out of her impaired eyes, her head falling slightly down.
"I know, because I can forsee it! I'm psychic! How do you think I contacted you, gave you those contractions of your mind!? I knew you'd be coming, because I saw it!"
The Shredder sighed through its nostrils, its anger cooling down.
"I saw the Steef attack, because I read its mind,"
Its eyes grew more soft, and its voice became melacholny.
"And I knew you two would become family...I saw it as well. I've been watching you, ever since you came to Oddworld, watching your thoughts, seeing the world from your eyes. I didn't do anything to you at that time, because I really couldn't. I was just...studying you..."
Umi panted, her head slowly coming back up.
"I've never seen a complex creature as a human before. Closely related to a Mudokon, but never like this,"
"What...you've...you've seent his coming as well..." she spoke almost in a whisper.
It looked down from the weary human.
"No...I didn't..." it said.
Umi sighed, her head falling forward, but bobbing back up.
"This still...doesn't explain...the fact, you kidnapped me..." she brought up, her head down, but her eyes on the Shredder's face.
"That..." it glanced back forward, taking a few steps before replying.
"I will not say again..."
Umi scoffed, her head heavily laying back on its tail.
She closed her eyes, letting out an exhausted sigh.
She was tired, the control of the Shredder taking most of her energy, and the pain that was stringing through her cheek.
But she longed to be in Stranger's loving arms again.
It only felt of another nightmare brewing again...

-**-

"Odd...damn..."
Stranger breathed deeply in, feeling the pain from the back of his head string and sink in on his spine.
He slowly lifted his head off the trunk that had stopped him, his face speckled in mud.
Stranger stood up on the ground, keeping an open hand on the back of his head.
When he touched his hat, he felt a dampness warm his hand.
He whipped off his hat, and gently patted on the throbbing part of his head, only to feel a liquid-warm feeling cover his hand.
He brought it back to his face, the color of violet-red staning his palm.
He snorted, holding his hat down by his leg, then stared down at the broken path of trees leading away from him.
The thought of his defeat by the Swamp creature had came up in an instant, its tail whipped across his ribs, sending him flying in to the tree.
Then again...
Umi.
She being taken by the Shredder.
Anger bursted, nostrils flared of a furious sigh. A growl flurried in his throat, growing greatly in to a full-burst roar in the air.
Furious as he was, that was only a fraction of his anger.
The fact of his kin being stolen away from him made him furious.
Again.
He couldn't stand the fact that something so precious to him was taken away like he didn't deserve.
Stranger came back down, his teeth clamped down tightly.
"Don't worry, lil' one..." he said to himself in a low growl.
"If tha' thing done somethin' ter you...I'm-a rip out its spine..."
He gazed up at the trees standing completely still. He leaped up on the trunk of a tree, beginning to travel branch from branch spider-like, his eyes glowing deep green, and full of fury.

-**-

An echo of a bellow croaked far beyond the trees.
Umi felt a flood of relief draw over her, as the heat flushed back in her mind.
"So that explains things. Your Steef friend isn't far from where we are," the Shredder spoke, then shuddered unintimidated.
"No matter. He won't be able to get you,"
Umi glared back to the Shredder's head.
"He will get me, and he will kill you..." she spoke darkly.
"'cause he's pissed...very...pissed,"
The Shredder scoffed a chuckle.
"You think I fear such a puny threat from the likes of you? I have control of you! And he wouldn't dare to do anything that would cause harm to you, which gives me the ultimate advantage," the Shredder told.
"He'll figure a way to get you. Believe me. And when I'm safe, you'll see what he'll do to you," she spat.
It chuckled out of character.
"We'll see..."
Umi kept on a look-out, watching the trees mostly instead of the ground.
She knew he'd take the high route, if he knew what's best for him.
Trees near them rustled violently, moving with the Shredder's path.
Umi snapped her head to the moving leaves, her mind racing, but keeping her thoughts to a minimum, not to alert the Shredder.
But as always, she couldn't control herself.
C'mon, Stranger...
The Shredder stopped immediately, staring at Umi with one eye, shining craftily.
"I knew it..." it growled, then stared around its surroundings.
Umi felt herself panic, worrying of the danger Stranger would be in.
"Watch out, Stranger! It can read your thoughts!" Umi screamed.
The brush moved continuously, more violent from Umi's outburst.
The Shredder turned to the brush, making it suspicious of its presence.
It raised a sickled claw, and swiped the leaves in one liquid motion.
The branches broke down in one piece, leaving a thick covering of leaves on the ground before it.
It continued to move, even though cleanly cut.
Just as it continued, a flutter of feathered wings flapped panic-striken out of the leaves, brushing passed the Shredder's face.
It growled irritatingly, moving back to Umi's face.
"You little prick! It was just a bunch of birds!"
She hid herself under a shadow under her bangs, a dark grin growing.
"I don't think so..." she said, keeping her head down.
Opposite of where the Shredder faced, a body shot out from the trees, keeping in a straight sart towards the Shredder's neck.
The Shredder turned to the body that took flight, but before it could stop it, the body grappled its claws in to its skin on its neck.
A sharp prickling pain was sent up through its muscle. The Shredder growled in frustration, careful not to use its claws to brush off the body on it.
It began to crawl steadily up its neck towards its neck.
The Shredder began to panic.
But Umi, however, felt joy spring in her throat
His green eyes looked over to Umi.
"Don't worry, kid! I'll get yer in a second!" Stranger shouted.
Umi nodded quickly, as he crawled up to its lower eyelid.
He clawed up on top of its head, maintaining his wobbly legs on the top of its flat head.
The Shredder's eyes moved in to its head, trying to see what the Steef was up to on its head.
Stranger's bow unlocked, pre-loaded with Boom-bat Seekers and Rabid Fuzzles. He kept a heinous glare on its skin, his lip twitching angrily.
"Go ter hell, you bastard..." he growled.
Stranger leaped off its head, keeping his arm down at its head.
A cluster of Boom-bats flew off to the Shredder's forehead, and as he fell half-way down, Rabid Fuzzles flung off on the Shredder's face.
The Shredder screeched a deafening scream, its tail whipping everywhere, and loosening around Umi.
Its tail unwrapped from her, sending her in an uncontrollable spin out towards the forest.
"Umi! NO!" Stranger shouted, rushing through the trees she flew through.
The Shredder's head fell down in exhaustion, the Fuzzles still nipping irritatingly at its face.
It heard the scattering footsteps of the Steef fleeing to the human, as a plot was created in its mind.
It now glared out to where the Steef fled to, a growl rumbling deeply in its throat.
One thing for sure, the Shredder wasn't very happy...