The Ninth Life

Shan'ica SilverPheniox

3: First Contact

Riddick blinked his eyes and lifted his head. Damn that had hurt. He was going to kill the bastard that hit him. But first he had to find Jack. As he pulled himself up he saw her, lying on the ground a few feet ahead of him. There was a figure standing over her.

Rage filled him and he attacked the figure, grabbing hold of it and throwing as far from Jack as he could, and into a wall. He stopped only for a second to make sure Jack was alive and not bleeding, then he turned and ran at the figure again.

Shane didn't know what had hit her. All she knew was one second she was standing over the girl and the next she was flying thru the air and hitting an extremely hard wall. But now she was prepared. Her attacker came at her again. Shane jumped and rolled away from him, then jumped again, this time grabbing hold of a fire escape ladder. Swinging herself upwards she landed softly on the platform and away from her attacker.

Or, at least she thought she had. The platform was so old and rusted it gave way under her feet and sent her falling to the ground. Before she had time to react her attacker had her in a tight grip, her arms pinned behind her and twisted painfully. He held a sharp object, some kind of knife she thought, to her throat and prepared to kill her.

"Damn, this guy is good." Riddick thought as he watched the figure swing itself around onto the fire escape landing. "But he ain't good enough."

Riddick saw how corroded the fire escape was, and was ready for the figure to fall thru it. Grabbing the figure from behind, he held his shiv to its neck, ready to kill it.

"Please, don't. I didn't hurt her. I saved her." The figure spoke in a feminine voice. "I swear it. The guy that hit you, he's over there. I stopped him before he could hurt her. Please..." The woman pleaded with him, begging him not to hurt her. There was no fear in her voice. In fact, there was no emotion in it whatsoever. Riddick looked in the direction that she had nodded towards. There was a large figure lying there. Riddick pulled the woman over to the body, still holding her close. As he examined the body he saw that whatever killed it had had claws. Deep gashes ran across the body's back and arms. The main cause of death had been a bite to the neck. A bite that had practically ripped the jugular vein from the body.

Keeping his shiv close to her neck, Riddick let her arms go and turned to face the woman. Once he was in front of her he recognized her. She was that cat woman thing from the ship. He could see that she would have the fangs to make a bite like that, but no claws. Before he could say anything, though, she held up on of her hands. He watched in amazement as her hand actually started to change form a little, with her nails growing out to become menacing claws and skin growing over the part of her claws that had been her fingernails. As quickly as she had done that, however, she reversed it, her hands becoming human again.

"I can't leave them unsheathed for long. It hurts my hand." She said, then turned her attention to Jack, who had begun to wake. "She got knocked over in the struggle, but she wasn't hurt." The woman walked over to Jack, ignoring the shiv completely. "Stay down and rest, little one." She purred to Jack, who hadn't yet recovered her senses completely. Jack complied with the woman and laid back down.

"I am Shane Corvan." The woman looked back at Riddick, her dark glasses on top of her head. Her eyes startled him, much as his own eyes startled others. Seeing his expression, she cocked her head to one side, then smiled. "We should get her off the street. She is vulnerable and they can smell weakness." Shane gestured with her hand to the buildings in the area. Riddick nodded, then picked up Jack and headed for their hotel. Shane followed behind him quietly, allowing him to think.