Forums → Art, Music, and Writing → Red Alien (By Rapyion)
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I really hope you like this. Please comment on my thread and state what was wrong in my story. I'd really appreciate it. Here I go!
By the way, Malaysia's schools are different from other schools. All schools require the students to wear uniforms. This is just fiction and they do not wear normal clothes to school. Please do not start an argument here, those from Malaysia or Singapore.
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Prologue
Year 2010, May.
Rumours were spread across Malaysia where there was an alien which crashed into the South China Sea. Scientists from other countries didn't bother because they were too infested in their inventions of computers and iPads and they said it was just a rumour, not proven yet.
The government had had search teams to investigate the crash site. None came back alive. The news shook the country and was afraid the world would end in the 21st of December, 2012.
Louie, a small boy, by the age of 12, took interest in this rumour. He had black hair, his fringe touching his brows. He usually wears a T-shirt and jeans to school. He was timid and shy, an introvert to be precise. He is lean and thin and he weighs about 85 pounds. He is tall, almost as tall as the typical doors in your houses. But he made friends with a guy who was athletic and smart, always getting medals and straight A's in tests. His favourite subject was Physics and he was crazy about aliens.
Everyday, he would look through the internet and find clues to the whereabouts of the search teams. But everyday, searches that were made were fruitless.
His friends would just laugh at his theories of aliens. His best friend didn't make any remarks or replies. One of his theory was that the aliens were not in grey, but in bright and blood red. He'd even thought that the aliens are ruthless killing beasts, but not travelers to investigate this planet.
"Just give up and forget about it," Amelek advised, his best friend, in a sorrowful tone. Amelek was serious about it.
The 12-year-old ignored his best friend's opinion and became more obsessed with aliens to the point when he tried to put posters of aliens in his neighbourhood. He got laughed off more instead.
Aliens are always believed to be intelligent and smart. He thought they were violent and devious and they had just borrow technology from another species.
One day, Louie was walking back home, excited to research on the paranormal activity that happened last month. He lived in a normal neighbourhood. Kids would laugh at him because he was supposedly crazy. But he didn't care. He promised himself that he would humiliate mankind when aliens were proven real.
A hazardous factory based on nuclear was in the neighbourhood since last year. But nothing obvious has happened since then, just another factory that existed.
Louie thought, "It was about time I find out what's in there." He changed his direction from his house to the factory. Metal fences higher than him by would block him from entering. He willed himself to climb over the fence and continued towards it.
He stopped his steps in front of the giant door. The exterior of the factory has no sharp curves but roundish ones. There's not even one giant tube facing up to let out smoke and small pipes leading to a river because there's no river in this neighbourhood. The giant door in front of him is about three times his size.
"Time to get in," He cracked his knuckles and pushed the door open.
There was nothing but a corridor leading forwards. It's a straight walk to doom.
And he was going to doom.
He walked through the lifeless and dark corridor and came across another door. Now, it's smaller than the previous one. He opened the door and saw red aliens doing experiments on numerous humans.
Even a young and obsessed alien researcher didn't get any news on abduction of humans.
The door creaked loudly and the alienated figures looked at him instantly. They were outraged. One showed its alien teeth, sharp and nasty. Louie noted the teeth colour as they're red too.
He felt a sharp pain from his left shoulder. A large cut from an alien. Its claws were soaked with fresh blood. Louie held his left shoulder with his right hand. He forgot that touching wounds would cause more pain. He shouted in agony and his mind couldn't take it anymore. So, he fell unconscious.
- 49 Replies
C H A P T E R 12
- - - The Investigator - - -
John Kalburg, a short, but smart man, working as a chief investigator.
He lies on his bed.
"Let's see here.."
"Louie," He tries to deduce. "Was kidnapped from the factory's workers. They keep them for two years, but never put any ransom."
Of course, John is wrong, but he tries hard to solve the hardest case in the world, which is this one.
"We still don't have a warrant on the factory.." He rubs his temples to think further.
"Possibilities, possibilities.. Number one, he could be kidnapped and be taken to be raised. They would have killed him, but that would mean the rotten body will stink up at least the houses between it. So, that theory is wrong. He could-"
"Oh, stop it, John," His wife walks in with a cup of coffee.
"But it's my career, and you know I need to have a job, don't you?"
"Well, of course, sweetie. But, you're stressing over this too much," She calmly says. "You need to take a break, have a vacation or just rest for a day."
"I can't. My pay is getting low because it's been two years since the incident. He's already presumed dead and-"
"Then close the case, darling," The wife smiled.
"I might not want to do that. I don't know why, but the boss is getting crazier by the second. He says that if I close the case, I'll get fired. It's stupid. I think it's like a hypnotic power consuming him."
"C'mon now. Hypnotic powers don't exist."
"I know. I'll have to visit the factory."
"Like you said, you don't have a warrant."
"I'm not going in as a chief investigator. I'm going in as a civilian with a bunch of friends."
His wife raises and eyebrow. It seems strange.
Kalburt and his bunch of friends, who are actually hired bodyguards, went to the factory in Louie's neighbourhood. The bodyguards' size are almost twice as big as John, who is just about 150 centimetres. Anyone unluckily enough to come across them was provoked really badly. Some ran, crying until they slept, kids especially.
They barged in the factory with firearms in their hands. Some were modified until the gun almost couldn't handle anymore. In the dark corridor, they checked their guns and pistols to see if they're jammed or fire-able.
"They're good," John declares.
If John can close the case without the boss firing him, which is quite impossible, but possible enough. If the theory he made that red aliens (Information collected from Louie's classmates two years ago), then he could get a huge reward in cash.
A bodyguard, Skitz, kicked the door open and finds red aliens. He was the one to die first by their hands. Skitz dropped dead on the ground and John saw a huge wound at his chest. He could see the ribs, but not the heart, probably popped by then.
The red aliens' teeth were bright red. John's theory was correct. The aliens have killed Louie.
John nervously took out his camera with high quality. It has the words, 'Megapixel 30.0'.
He took a picture of the aliens by the time all the bodyguards died trying to protect him. But John's stamina was low, because he's about 40 years old now. When he ran, he ran slower than Louie could walk. The aliens got to him before he reached the front gate, which was probably a few yards away. Instead of cutting him up, they devoured him alive.
The camera dropped, making a bit of a shock. A big alien, about the size of Skitz, smashed the camera into a thousand pieces. The memory card wasn't broken.
Then, Paul, the usual smart Halbertian, opened the front gate. He was spying on the investigator the whole time through his spy cam. He wore a watch that allowed himself to vibrate at a high speed, causing people to go unnoticed about his presence, except red aliens, including the mutated ones.
"Gilbert, expect some saving," Paul smirks.
He ran with his Pair Of Blades to the agitated mutated beasts.
C H A P T E R 13
- - - Uprising - - -
Louise woke up first because of Louie's sudden loud snore.
"Oh, silly you!" She chuckled.
She got off the bed and heads off without saying an invisible goodbye. She knew she's going to come back.
Amelek, Gilbert and Bill were sleeping too.
"Wait, where's Paul?" She wonders.
She sees a computer, complicated hardware, but no trace of wires. Every component were now wireless. And this invention was a few centuries ago, when the Portuguese was conquering Malacca. Louise, Amelek and Louie had learned about it because it was part of Malaysia's history. That time, it was 1511 when Afonso de Albuquerque, the one who led the attack, had started the war.
She types as quick as a split second and results came pouring form the screen. Paul the Halbertian has been located, thanks to the watch that makes himself vibrates. A detection chip is attached in case Paul needs saving. And he does, since on the screen, the watch is showing Louise that mutated red aliens have captured him.
Louie had told her that Gilbert cannot wake up unless something really important is happening. This is not enough for the pig.
She found an alarm on the computer to shut down the lab with blast gates. She thinks about it and thought it was a brilliant idea. She pressed the Enter key and alarms screamed alternatively. Blast doors were going to trap them when Bill ran to one door and held it open with a hand. Bill was smarter after eating the chicken, or maybe Gilbert had set that Bill was to guard the lab from sealing it. The blast doors work as one, so the other doors were held up just like the poor door victim.
Gilbert woke up, because he was familiar with the tone of the alarm. It was going to shut down.
He got up and quickly pushed Louise aside gently and typed in the code to disable it. In a flash, the doors were raised. He flicked off cold sweat from his head.
"Okay, Louise. What do you want?" says Gilbert.
"We need to save Paul, right now."
"Since you've waked me up, sure. But don't blame me if you find me sleeping on your feet."
"Sure. We can leave you to die."
"What?!" Paul was getting nervous. "No, no, no. You've got to bring me back!"
"From what? The dead?"
Gilbert was silent this time. He nods to the saving of Paul.
Amelek too woke up before Bill did, but pretended to sleep until Gilbert woke up.
"What happened?!" He shouted.
"I set the alarm to wake Gilbert up," She explains.
"Anyway, let's save Paul."
She nods, then heads off to Louie. Ultimately, he was still sleeping, in spite of the loud noise that echoed in the lab.
Louise shook him up, but he didn't get up. She thought of something.
"Okay, this should work.."
She slapped him across the cheek. The pain receptors received enough pain for Louie to wake up.
"Woah!" He surprises Louise.
She got back and shouted at the same time.
"Okay, Louise. What do you want?" He looks at her with disappointing eyes.
"We're saving Paul."
"Again? How does he get captured all the time. He had the fastest reflex, not to mention the top tenth and he was smarter than anyone on Earth."
"Sometimes his mind goes blank just from being so smart."
"Really?" He craned his neck forwards. Anxiety crowded his mind.
"Nope!" She smiled while connecting her hands together at the back and tiptoed.
"Great. Where is he?"
"The factory."
This time, it was a bit bigger and too luxurious for a Halbertian, but Gilbert liked it. Bill had to bend down in order to fit the size of the door, let alone the ship's volume.
Gilbert sat at the front driver seat while Louie was inches next to Louise, obviously trying to get closer. Even Bill noticed. He sat at the back. It was quite big for a stealth ship, but nevertheless, it can still be considered one.
"So.. You worried about your family?" Louie started by Louise's side, almost touching her.
"Well, they'll be shocked to see that I'm missing for a day, but, no, well," She corrects. "Yes, I am worried."
Louie thought for a second.
"If I say: 'Then why did you come?', that would cause Louise some emotional pain. No, no. Something positive.. Positive.."
"Oh.. Well, we're coming for Earth. Do you want to go back to Earth? Gilbert doesn't allow us to, actually."
"Sorta. But I won't live there unless you come with me," She smiles, showing a hint of friendship.
He looks down, blushing. Gilbert has set the ship to autopilot and looked at the drama for quite some time now.
"Good show! But I need you guys to focus. Think of a way to outsmart those bad guys. They are smart, actually," Gilbert interrupts.
Amelek was too in the ship, sitting beside Bill. Bill was drooling which causes Amelek to back away from him while his face was shouting disgust.
"Sure, sure, whatever you say," Louie says.
"So, now," Louie continues. "We have a sniper blaster-"
"I'm using it," interrupts Amelek.
"Okay, fine. I'm not that good in aiming anyways. We have Pairs Of Blades for everyone here. Bill's probably not using it since his strength is just too much for the guns. Bill will be our tanker, taking damage from the claw attacks. He could probably knock them out in a pinch. Amelek is good at aiming. He also has the fastest reflex among us-"
"Paul has the fastest," Gilbert interrupts again. This is the third time Louie was interrupted.
"Gilbert, please," Louie begs. "Don't interrupt me. You do realize I'm smarter than you, right? It was Paul who actually thought of the lab, wasn't he?"
"Uh.. I.. I guess so," He admits.
"Alright," Louie continues. "As I've said, Amelek has the fastest reflex among us. Paul isn't here, which makes Amelek the most, understand, Gilbert?"
He nods innocently. He also felt guilty for trying to be smarter than Louie. Louise was smiling and Bill was still drooling.
"Louise and Gilbert are the hackers here, because I have observed Gilbs use the computer with good skills."
Gilbert resisted the temptation to make a remark about his shortened name.
"But-"
This time, Louise interrupts.
"How did you know I can use the computer good?"
Louie smiled.
"It's a secret."
"Oh, great! When I disturb, you complain, when she disturbs, you don't complain," Gilbert thought.
"But, Louise will take over the supercomputer which is in this ship, which is weird because supercomputers are big and won't allow the ship to mobilize, but it did. Gilbert, Bill and Amelek will come with me. Remember here, no jokes. I have felt the pain and Gilbert has said that the mutated red aliens' claw attacks are one-hit-kill. Everyone, understood?"
Everyone except Bill synchronized, "Yes."
Bill's drooling has stopped when the ship was floating above Earth at about 2 metres.
"Yes," Louie says. "Before I forget, wear the watch Paul wore. We won't be noticed."
Bill's watch was a big watch, three times the size of Amelek's biceps, which were quite big for a fourteen year old teenager. The watch made Bill's body vibrate and lose sight. Only Gilbert could see him.
Everyone else except Louise wore them and they vanished, from a human's view.
The team got out, Bill being the last. The ship was a 100 metres away from the factory and they were walking for that length. Pressure envelopes everyone's ears, so Gilbert broke the silence.
"So, you guys wanna hear a joke?"
"Yeah, sure. Why not?" says Louie.
"So, why did the chicken cross the road?"
"To get away from your smelly ***."
Amelek laughed so hard, he dropped to the ground.
"Oh my goodness! Nice one!!" He shouted in laughter.
Louie just grinned. Gilbert didn't give a slight hint of laughter. Bill, of course, is walking. He didn't even get the joke one bit. He was only in Gilbert's command.
"That's mean, Louie."
"Move it, you're gonna be late for your kicking in the ***."
Amelek laughed more and Louie chuckled this time.
Gilbert shakes his head and continues on without waiting for them. Louie helped Amelek up and went on to the factory.
Luckily, it's night, so no one will see them. Although it's dark, they stay vibrated in case someone comes in on a close inspection.
They reached the front door. Louie compares the team's sizes.
"Okay, Gilbert, open the door by a little and fit in. You'll spot them with your watch cam and tell us of their position."
"Why not we bomb the place?" Gilbert asks.
"'Cause, you fool," Louie spits. "It'll be in the papers."
"The papers?"
"The newspapers, which Earth's humans read. And they can find out what kind of bomb, when it was set and who set it. This could cause a war."
"What? We usually bomb other planets."
"Wait, so you want to bomb Earth? No way, my parents are here and I will stay here."
"No, we don't leave Halbertians on alien planets unless the council allows it."
"Then, I kill you and live here," He didn't think about Bill. "And set the war, if you like," He brags, even though he knew Earth would lose.
"No, we do not bomb planets until we search every last crust on it. Then, we blow it."
"But how are you-" He pauses. They had the watches, but even so, being invisible doesn't mean the stuff you're doing is invisible.
"How?" Louie asks simply.
"Well, we can just kill them if the council orders to. If not, we don't."
"Yeah, the council said nothing about bombing Earth."
"So, we'll not bomb it."
He facepalms himself. He didn't know Gilbert was this stupid. It was him that suggested the plan, then said the plan was disallowed.
"Gilbert, just.. Get in."
"Gilbert, just.. Get in," He mimicks.
Louie was not offended. He was mimicked a lot before.
"Hey, red aliens are real! You guys, c'mon!" said a big bully, who was taller than him.
There were also many others.
Gilbert enters the corridor and silently walks to the next door. He opens it without the door creaking and peeked through the opening gap and saw a plan that humans couldn't read from far away because the words were small. But Gilbert has prepared an eye lens that can magnify his view by 32. Indeed, it is far, but he just set it to magnify at 4 times. The eye lens could take pictures too, but if it's too dark, it will flash. Another creation by Paul, although the flash part is utterly stupid. Paul will remove it, eventually.
He looked at the surroundings. It was the same lab, or a replica of the lab. It was bright enough. Then, he spotted an A0 paper, written in Halbertian language. He took pictures of it and read it to Louie.
"Louie, there's a plan here. About world domination. Let me read it for you."
He slightly coughed, but it couldn't be heard by the mutated aliens. Paul could hear it. He was relieved, but he didn't show any.
"We steal the giant battleship that weights about a three hundred thousand metric tonnes and the volume about five hundred billion cubic kilometres from Halbert and use it to destroy Earth, then every planet in the Universe."
"A rebellion," Louie was marvelled, not happy marvelled. Shock marvelled. "You've got to warn the council quick!"
"On it. I need to-"
Louie heard a loud thump.
"Gilbert, report!" Louie tries to mimic a soldier's lines.
His head stoops down.
"Louise, what's the locations of the red aliens and Paul?"
"Huh?!" She was sleeping, it was jet lag, of course. "Yes, Louie?"
"Uh, listen, Louise. We don't have much time so.. What's the locations of the aliens and Paul?" He repeated.
"Okay, on it."
He heard some buttons being typed and a pop was made.
"I have the map of the factory. It's quite easy to operate this thing."
"Send it in to our watches, except Bill's."
"Roger, general," She giggles.
He blushed, then got serious when the map was produced.
"Alright! Bill!"
Bill's body turned to him in a creepy and slow way.
"Your master is knocked out," He explains slowly. He'd even knocked his temple with his fist lightly.
Bill exhaled air loudly that a few neighbours could've heard it, if they weren't asleep.
"Slow down, boy. I command you for the time being, okay?"
Bill nods eagerly, ready for action, but not violence.
"Okay, Bill, charge!"
Bill ran like a bull towards the large door. Louie had thought about who crashed the door. But he didn't worry. Bill knocked the door open and it was loud. The door was crashed as if an adolescent could smash it open. Bill definitely left the dent small enough for a normal human to make it. Police will be searching for the invisible man forever. Louie is smart.
"Okay, Amelek, let's go."
Bill has smashed open the door, but leaned forwards to fit the size of it. Louie detached a Pair Of Blades while Amelek set up the heavy, yet light to Halbertians, sniper blaster on a bipod.
"I'll wait here."
"Sure, whatever, noob camper," He laughed.
Amelek was extremely annoyed by this. By the time he tried to fight back, Louie was at the far side of the corridor, just entering it.
"Okay, fine. I won't be a camper."
He set the bipod back to place and ran to the action with the sniper blaster, intending to kill red aliens like a quickscoper.
C H A P T E R 14
- - - Uprising: Part 2 - - -
Paul was strapped in the same material when he was kidnapped and yet again, it is badly tied. The mutated aliens were hasty and wanted to destroy the Universe quick.
He saw the door in front open a fraction. He knew it was Gilbert. The smaller it is, the better the sneaking, sometimes, not always. And he'd guessed that Louie is commanding, but the orders could be ignored, as they're advice to others only.
"Okay, Hellbertians," Paul proclaimed. They are exiled aliens and throw problems to Halbertians, so Paul calls them Hellbertians.
The mutated aliens spoke in English, which is the language that Halbertians don't recognize. Then, the conversations between the Halbertians, Louie, Louise and Amelek are translated back and forth.
But Paul did some research on Earth's most common language, English and already had a vocabulary of 500 words in an hour, which is very fast for a Halbertian.
He spoke without a hint of Halbertian accent, unlike most that do.
"If you're going to dominate the Universe, you're going to have to go through our planet first, you dumb fool!"
An alien rakes Paul's face with its claws, causes red blood to pour slightly. But Paul didn't flinch because he'd expected that.
He saw Gilbert mumbling into his mike. He could read lips.
"We steal the giant battleship... The volume about five hundred billion cubic kilometres... And use... Earth, then every planet in the Universe."
Of course, he was very fluent in both English and Halbertian, so he tried to join them and roughly got the answer. Hellbertians are going to destroy the Universe with a giant ship that volumes about five hundred billion cubic kilometres. And that ship is only in Halbert. It has the Universe record for biggest ship ever. The ship is called 'Naigo' (Not deviantart). The ship holds account for 499 planets destroyed, making it a very powerful ship to have. Of course, fallen into the wrong hands, shall the fate of the Universe be rested on the evil one.
Paul thought.
"How could they steal a ship that big? The total population of mutated ones are only a few thousand. The ship needs about a million to control the ship at minimum, which means only movement was available. Shooting would require another five hundred thousand more to operate that."
But of course, he didn't underestimate them Hellbertians, because a few of them have shown far more intelligence than 130 I.Q.
From Paul's view, he couldn't see the plan, but he figured it out with Gilbert's unintentional help. Aliens noticed the gap between the door and the wall, but not Gilbert. So, one opened and noticed Gilbert. Now, he isn't as strong as Paul. Which is why he got unconscious even after a petty claw attack.
"Bill would be charging at the gate right about.."
He waited.
"Now."
There was a loud crash and Bill slammed in the second door. Hellbertians everywhere jumped on Bill and clawed away. But the barrages of slashes weren't even enough for Bill to bleed him out. He flailed his arms around, sending each and everyone of his enemies to slam against the wall. This didn't stop them.
One was agile enough to react and dropped to avoid the flinging of aliens. Then, he cut through Bill like a samurai in a duel.
Bill was wondering what happened and looked at the alien. His huge hands grabbed it with ease and send a giant knuckle to its head. Bill couldn't handle violence, so he knocked it out.
The aliens were scared and even more afraid as Louie came in. He supposedly aimed at one, but the pistol didn't fire. Yet, the alien died. It was Amelek with the sniper blaster. Paul notices that Amelek takes quite an effort to carry it.
Louie goes over to Paul to carry out the same procedure, cutting the strongest ropes on Earth with laser cutters.
"Thanks," Paul said in English without his translator.
"Hey, you can talk English. Better yet, fluently!"
"Well, yes," Paul assures.
"Oh, as expected from someone who is ultra smart. Anyway, let's just kill them."
"Got any Pair Of Blades?"
"Only one. But you can't-"
Paul takes a pistol from Louie's hands. Pairs Of Blades can be separated, but cannot be used as cutters.
Paul shot accurately at an alien that was about to stand up. The laser cut through the flesh, organ and bones like wool.
In a short time, Amelek and Paul had the same amount of kills, Louie and Bill being none and of course, dear Gilbert, who was unconscious.
Only Paul had noticed an alien escaping from the factory before he could even shoot. By the time his arm was in position, it was gone.
He cursed in Halbertian.
"Hey," He spoke in English. "We'd better get going. I'd already confirmed that they will proceed with stealing the giant battleship that resides on Halbert."
"How do you know?"
"Gilbert told me," He smiled freakishly. If it hadn't been for his red teeth, it wouldn't have been freaky.
The thought of the teeth made Louie shake in disgust.
Louie thought of his love and contacted her.
"Louise, are you there?"
"Yeah.. About to go to Facebook," She said. She was typing '.com' when Louie shouted out.
"Wait, don't! Louise, your friends now know that you're missing. Most probably one of them will report it to the police and interrogate you on why you escaped and et cetera."
Louie knew she had a computer, but not a laptop. So, the police would make a conclusion that she ran away from home if she had a laptop, but only for a few hours' use. If not, something is wrong. Of course, Louie had spied on her to see if she had any boyfriends. She didn't had one, even now.
"Okay, Louie. The path to-"
The page was refreshed every millisecond, but Louise didn't notice. On the page, two small red dots appeared from the edge of west of the factory.
"Two unidentified hostiles mobile to the factory's direction, sir," She giggled.
He felt like a commander already.
"Alright, everyone. I suspect it's the police. Let's get back to the ship. And bring Gilbert along, Bill."
Bill carried Gilbert and laid him on his massive shoulder. Death for a human, unconsciousness for a Halbertian, the injury was only a scratch for Bill and it looked like it's a light tattoo. Bill had a lot of cuts and injuries. It was then when Bill's planet wasn't taken by Halbertians.
Bill had always spent his time in the forest, crowded by trees, sometimes willow and yew trees, mostly normal trees. He was 10 years old and a normal Creddian could think for himself, but not him. More strength costs more intelligence. But this isn't quite true. Gill, Bill's brother, was smart and strong. In fact, smarter and stronger than Bill. He could carry a 10 ton creature than Bill could carry a dinosaur when they were young. When the Halbertians came, they were in their mid-20s by then. Bill could carry dinosaurs and Gill could carry more.
But Gill's super muscles and super brain (As commented by most of the Credders), was turned from good. He tried to destroy the village he lived in, destruction laid at his wake. That was when Bill faced his brother. They both never said a word, and they were off dueling to the death. Ultimately, Bill won, but killing off Gill accidentally. Bill has a clear mind than the second's one. Puns intended too.
They've returned to the ship, finally, leaving the bodyguards' and a short man's bodies to rot.
"Louise, press the autopilot button and let Gilbert drive, since he has a license, after all."
She nods and does what he said. Gilbert takes the front seat now and the ship was off before Louise could even sit down. This caused her to lose balance and fall into Louie's arms. No, that's a dream of people in a crush. She fell on the metal plating hard. Louie quickly helped her up and let her rest on the three seats. The fourth seat was a bit cramped, but Louie could take it.
"Thanks, Louie."
"Aww, no problem."
Amelek was too busy witnessing the drama. He was focusing on the sniper blaster and wiping the dust off it with a cloth. Paul didn't even know where the cloth was from.
But Paul witnessed the drama.
"I'm pretty darn sure Louie loves Louise very much," He thought.
And the ship was out of the atmosphere, back to planet Cred.
Two squads of policemen came with noisy sirens, red and white flashing over at the houses in between them.
When they reached the place, they started investigation immediately.
Even Paul forgot the memory chip that stored the images of aliens. Hellbertians, that is.
A policewoman wore her gloves and started searching the bodies and the corridor. She found the chip.
"Camera chip found!" She shouted.
"Come back and see the recordings," said an officer.
She sighs and her eyes was heavy due to lack of sleep. She yawned on her way to the DVD player..
She inserted the CD inside and definitely saw something interesting. Red aliens.
"I wonder if that Louie has proof of it. But, Louie's body isn't here."
The temporary chief investigator, Kelly Kalburg, John's wife, was determined to find out what caused this curse that was fallen upon Kelly.
"I will find that murderer!" She thought loudly.
The dead Hellbertians were long since decomposed, even on metal, so they have no proof of aliens except the plan that was used for destroying the Universe and the memory chip.
C H A P T E R 15
- - - Hellbertians, Mobilize! - - -
A minute after the incident
Xernian is a good planet. Full of hydrogen, in fact, clean hydrogen. They didn't like it back in Halbert with all the rules. There's even a little pollution in that planet. It was liveable and the Halbertians there understood the situation and is trying to fix it. And that was a few days ago. But Hellbertians never liked it anymore, not because of the pollution, though.
Up close appears a large city, made by the Hellbertians a millennium ago. Even closer, a mutated alien yawned in a very beautified office, vases of hydrogen-made flowers were kept near the entrance door. The whole room is red, as usually liked.
It was Falcon. He was the head council of the Hellbertians. Even they accepted Hellbertians as a race already. He was about 130 centimetres tall and he was plump.
Falcon pushed his sharp and limp index finger on the intercom button.
"Bring the vice president here, now," He demanded.
"Yes, sir," said the other voice.
A minute later, the vice president, who was apparently his brother, Folcan, burst into the room without knocking. Firstly, when Paul said half of the Hellbertians showed intelligence. But Folcan wasn't one of the half and he were rude and mean too.
"What is it, brother?" boomed Folcan. He looked big, bigger than his brother. But not in power. Folcan was always following duties that were sent by Falcon. Ironically, Folcan is older than Falcon.
"Our people back on Earth has been wiped out, so bring in a few more men in there, now. Before the Earth police cleans the place up."
Folcan stared at Falcon with mad eyes, then left, slamming the door at the same volume of when the door was smashed open. The vases between the door almost dropped and broke.
Falcon rubs his alienated temples, which were really big. He was careful not to stab the temples with his talons. Falcon had to think about something before stealing the big and bad ship from his former home planet.
Falcon knew that the security there was very tight. It seems impossible to steal the ship. But Falcon was the other half who was smart.
The guards there were very unique, only take 1 minute to rest up and they would be back with energy. But the weakness here is that they all sleep for 1 minute, leaving this time lapse the opportunity to get the ship. The number of population here is only 700,000 Hellbertians and only a quarter of them are working for the council. The ship needs at least one million to drive the ship out. He didn't have to worry about it because there's just enough men to steal it, albeit less than a million.
Falcon was done rubbing his temples. His gruesome smile could have made people totally crumble to his knees. But he could only do this for a few milliseconds, so it was hard to see. But not this time. It was wide open for a few seconds before they covered the red teeth. Falcon's plan to take over the Universe is now mobilizing.
C H A P T E R 16
- - - Lay Down - - -
Halbert, the most modern planet in the Universe, filled with trillions of red-skinned freaks. The technology there is the most advanced with wireless components in computers, a metal pole that could blow air out of nowhere, or in this case, hydrogen. Polymer is still used, but for the classical furniture. A chair, for an example. In today's generation, you find a matter that isn't named yet. It has been proven the strongest in the Universe. Yet, another record. Games are so good, they decided to have a galaxy-wide competition. One will represent its planet. The best game, you ask? It would be the classic, Lay Down, which is a huge sellout
It is a first-person shooter, but its mechanics were unique. When someone, say, a Halbertian, plays this game, he is the character. Something Earth would probably invent sooner or later. Halbertian is a gas giant and the planet is about 10 times bigger than The Solar System's star. So, there's a lot of space here on Halbert. An area was used as the game field, where you use a laser pistol and shoot your enemies. Of course, the pistols are just blanks, and they will cause crackles of sound, unless attached with a silencer. And it's not like paintball. It will be the greatest game a human will ever have. If he gets it. Competitions will be held on Halbert, since it's the biggest in the galaxy, but not the Universe. There are bigger ones.
Louie sat on a polymer-made chair, facing the arena. It was bigger than a stadium. It was a stadium where 10 other stadiums back on Earth would fit in there. Louie was amazed. He didn't spot any machines. Just a plain old field. But he was wrong. There are, but they are well-hidden. The machines will not produce whirling sounds or malfunction easily. An A.I., or an artificial intelligence, controls all this machines. If a machine get hacked, this A.I. will always solve the problem. It's a handy A.I.
Paul stood at the arena, preparing his laser pistol and his laser rifle. He also had a laser knife, with a short range, of course. Paul quickly spots Louie. He was too obvious. Paul laughed out loud, but Louie didn't notice, because he couldn't find him.
Before, Paul, together with Louie, had planned to recruit the fastest reactor in the Universe. This guy is always playing Lay Down. It was his favourite game. He had lost when he first got the game. He wasn't even the fastest yet!
But Lay Down has helped him improve in reaction, leadership and thinking. He was smarter than a dumber him in the past. But not as smart as Paul, let alone Albert Einstein.
His name is Jake. Jake Yulli. But he prefers to be called Yulli. Jake from Earth and Yulli from Halbert. Halbert language had changed over time, changing from almost-English to purely its own. And he was just recently transferred to Halbert. He could be there a few years ago.
Yulli steps out of the arena cage he was trapped in a few minutes ago. The crowd goes wild.
Yulli waved generously at them to stop the cheering. He was humble on the outside, but arrogant on the inside.
Paul suddenly open his mouth. Louie couldn't lip-read from far. It was literally about a kilometre from here.
Other players came in. Paul was representing Halbert, because he begged the game coach there too. He had convinced the coach without much effort, thus the reason why he's smart too.
A game master said through a loud megaphone, "One minute until start of game."
Paul counted one minute in his brain.
"The rules are simple. You pick off anything you see or move in the arena. If you get shot, you're out. The stadium can transport you back to the locker room."
"Simple enough," Paul mumbled. He wasn't worried about the rules. Rather, he was worried about Yulli. The other eight record holders weren't in nature of gaming. Instead, seven eighth of them were soldiers. One was a brain surgeon. He was equally as smart as Paul too.
Ten seconds. Paul rechecked his weapons to see if they were jammed or not. The game is built with realism too. Weapons could go wrong or short-circuited.
"No, nothing wrong."
A horn blows. The game has started!
Louise was beside Louie, looking at Louie, who was immersed into the game, focusing on Paul. Paul thought this recruitment plan would work. Louie doubted it.
"Give it a chance, man!" Paul argued, back at the lab.
"No, I don't think it can work."
Of course, Louise was there to manipulate Louie. Most of them are usually by accident, but this one was on purpose.
"C'mon, Louie! Give it a try!"
"Um.. Sure, whatever."
He snapped back into reality. The horn was blown. The game has started. Paul was hiding behind a wall.
Then, he looked at the crowd. There was about a few million here, each cheering for their idols.
Most cheered for Yulli, since he was the best player. Ever since 2005, Earth time, he hadn't lost one game in his entire career. Maybe he would lose now. The planet he was representing was unknown, as he manipulated the Halbertians to enter him in the tournament. Others don't know why. But Paul was going to find out when he recruits him.
The nerve cells were moving so fast, some literally came out, acting as brain waves. This was his other talent Paul was jealous of. Yulli was the only one capable of doing it. Perhaps he did this to the game masters.
Louie was eating Earth popcorn and of course, sharing with Louise. Bill was in this too, in case there needs to be muscle work. But Louie can't seem to find him. Gilbert has regained consciousness after his cells healed the wounds. Louie predicted he was in a coma before he woke up the next minute.
Gilbert was sitting cross-legged opposite Louie. He did this to avoid suspicion. Louie and Louise are half human, half Halbertian, but not Gilbert. As for Amelek, he is playing Lay Down in the arena.
He was prepared with a light sniper rifle and a magnum revolver. It is just lasers, but the damage will be exactly as a magnum revolver or the sniper rifle. And he hopes that Yulli doesn't kill him. He rages to himself every time he dies.
Paul and Amelek have secretive mike recorders and transmitters like a phone, but disguised to the max.
"Amelek, there's a guy on your right, hiding behind a wall! Shoot at the wall! Shots as powerful as the sniper rifle-"
Amelek turns around and pulls the trigger. Lasers flew as fast as light and a loud bang was made. A screen above shows that Amelek killed a guy virtually. He ran off his original spot and hid behind a wall. The enemy was actually a Hellbertian, but just looked like a Halbertian.
Paul was fast at running. Of course, Usain Bolt was faster.
He ran to the seemingly-dead Hellbertian, who was about to be summoned away from the stadium back to the locker room. He immediately recognized the face.
"There are Hellbertians here, Amelek! Be careful! They might have real weapons."
"Sure, Paul. Then, Yulli is a Hellbertian?"
"No. He's a human-Halbertian hybrid. I've already explained it to you!"
"Right. There's 10 more, besides us."
The plan was simple. In this game, it's a Free-For-All match, where everyone kills everyone. Paul will kill Amelek if they survive Yulli. But that is undoubtedly impossible. So, Paul and Amelek will team up to kill him. Since Yulli is equipped with a laser blaster that holds up to 11 shots, meaning that one shot to kill one, he has to save all those bullets. If Yulli kills Amelek, Paul has the chance to kill him. The ten beings' reaction time is barely a nanosecond difference. Perhaps a picosecond. If Yulli kills Paul, they would go to Plan B. Kidnapping him. Which, of course, it's an almost impossible task, but possible.
Amelek shot another Hellbertian, making him owning the most kills right now. He is representing for Earth, even though Earth itself doesn't know. A player can represent a planet if it's valid. If the whole population doesn't know, then:
"Who cares?!" Amelek says.
He checked his sniper rifle's clip. This weapon is unique. On Earth, a clip was have about 5 bullets or more. This was semi-automatic, but serving only 2 bullets each clip. He grabbed the empty clip and laid it down silently. This arena could reflect even the slightest sounds, except by the fans' sounds out there.
Paul, on the other hand, is somehow struggling. Even geniuses struggle. He knew he was put in a situation of 1 on 1 on 1. Two Hellbertians or even Yulli is there. There were two shots made when Paul was about to get up. Two shots, two kills and two deaths for both of them.
He smiled, then went off his hiding spot to another one.
C H A P T E R 17
- - - Paul and The Hellbertian - - -
Paul was hiding at a corner, a new corner, that is. Louie was cheering mostly for Amelek, but not Paul. He wasn't his favourite. Louise wasn't cheering, but in her mind, she is rooting for both of them, thinking:
"C'mon! You can kill them!"
Paul releases the current clip of his laser pistol and put it down slowly, in case there's anyone nearby listening for footsteps. He took another clip from his armoured-with-kevlar chest's pocket. A clip comes out and inserts itself into Paul's laser pistol. The rounds were blank rounds too. Paul got up and ran a theory.
"I'm in the corner of a wall. One could come from my left, but not from my right. So, I just aim at the left wall.."
He did so, and a Hellbertian came strolling by and got shot. The poor guy got transported back to a spectator's seat. He smiled, not because he shot it successfully, but he had put a silencer in case anyone comes.
But if Yulli were to observe the death, he would suspect there was someone hiding in a corner, a dark one.
Yulli wasn't there, but Amelek was and he saw the transportation device from the game master's table a few levels above the field blinked white and red simultaneously and the victim got teleported back to a seat.
Amelek was smart enough to know that the kevlar armour was the object. The weapons are the emitters for the transportation device. But if that were to be broken..
"Aah-"
A voice got cut off. Amelek jerked back to take cover of a wall. That shout was familiar and it was Paul. His bet was that Paul got shot. That's impossible unless it's..
Amelek began to run away from the source of the voice. But his earpiece picked up a sound. And it wasn't Paul's.
"If you want Paul back, meet us at Earth."
Amelek's face has gone wrong. From scared to terrified. He had to do something.
It took about a minute or two for Paul to set the radio channel to fit Paul's, but not Louie's or Louise's. Paul made a grave mistake and since Amelek suspected this could be a kidnap case, they would want the ransom. And it will take a huge load of money to cover that up.
For Amelek, it took more than a song's time length to change it to Louie's channel. Luckily, there was no one around to shoot him with the laser toy.
"Louie, Paul might have been kidnapped."
Louie's eyes widened, seeing white around the iris. Louise looked at him and got worried immediately.
"Amelek, didn't you cover for him?!" He shouted with a rather guilty tone.
"I was near him, but I didn't see him. I think he was hiding behind a wall."
"See, Amelek, you screwed up! We need Paul to negotiate with that hybrid, Yulli! Or.."
Amelek frowned. Louise starts to shake Louie by the shoulder and forearm.
"Louie, what happened?" She asks in an innocent tone.
"Paul.. Paul's been kidnapped by the mutated, again," He says. Even the look on his face was scary enough that Louise decided not to look at it after her first glance.
"Wait, how?"
"The teleportation device! They're smarter than they look. And they're bringing him to Earth. No, they'll being him to Halbert."
"But we're already in Halbert."
"The giant ship part of Halbert, Louise. Earth could be destroyed. Our family could die. Grasp the situation, Louise!!"
Louise sobbed, looking down from him, because he was too scary.
But Louie, who became sane again, consoled her and apologized.
"Soon.." He muttered.
But even after that moody conversation, Gilbert was drooling in his slumber and Bill was drooling over nothing, because he didn't focus on anything.
Well, this is awkward.
Sorry for the double post. Didn't mean to spam, since my browser didn't see Chapter 17..
C H A P T E R 18
- - - Falcon's Plan Of Demise - - -
Back at the hosts' room where hosts talk all day to their microphones to inform what is happening on the battlefield, Falcon lay on the comfy chair, relaxing at most, but sometimes wincing because of discomfort. He preferred his own chair back in Xernian which was ironically a very annoying chair to most Halbertians. But this would do for the time being.
A pair of Hellbertians were taking an unconscious Paul at the shoulders.
"Why do we have to do this?" one muttered.
He was hoping his other partner didn't hear it, but he did.
"Just kidnapping the smartest being in the Universe to take over the Universe ain't so bad, ya' know?" one talked.
The complaining one registered an American English phrase.
"Why are you speaking in that form of English?" He asked.
"You noticed? These phrases are kinda cool-"
"Now, you're calling it cool? Cool is for Earth, not Hellbertians. We call it.."
The complaining one trails off as his pair of eyes caught sight of Folcan bursting off to another room.
"Why is the vice president upset?" He asks dumbly.
"You think I'm the one that knows minds?"
He pushes the other one off as an irritation and a joke mixed together. But the push wasn't pleasant.
It made Paul drop to the floor, causing an elbow to fracture. It made a cracking noise that the two heard.
"What was that?" The American Hellbertian asked.
"I-I think it was a bone fracture."
"How do you know that?"
The other one didn't look complaining anymore. He looked more like doomed. Contagious doomed. His face caused the American to also make the face.
"President Falcon said not to harm him. What do we do?"
"Just put him on the chair like nothing happened."
"I hope so."
The pair of musclemen carried the red smarty pants to the hosts' room and sat him on the same type of chair and tied him up with ropes. Falcon was looking at the field, focusing on Amelek. He couldn't find Gilbert. He was hoping Gilbert would also join his plan. But Paul is the top-most prioritized target of it.
He had run a theory that Paul was be in the games to invite Yulli to join their force. If Paul hadn't been there, it would take another few years for them to prepare the crew. By that time, Paul would've figured the plan thoroughly and catch them red-handed. Paul's not the only one smart in this planet.
Amelek was panicking, tuning something in his neck that Falcon couldn't notice, but could depict.
"Going according to plan," There was his smile again. The cruel smile.
His mind of theories broke up when the pair of musclemen slammed the door.
He snapped his neck to his right.
"Watch the door, you freaks!" He shouted.
The shout made Paul wake up and look up suddenly. Then, Falcon turned his chair to his side of view and was surprised to see Paul's rigid eyes.
"Where am I?!" Paul asked in a loud voice in Halbertian. But he knew a millisecond later.
"This, Paul," He cleared his throat. "Is the hosts' room. Fancy, eh?" He spoke in English.
The room is about 260 square feet, had the floor carpeted with blue and the room was blue as well. Behind Falcon was a set of machinery for announcements. There's a pair of microphones set in too. Paul registered every inch of the room in a few seconds.
"I know I'm not good at Halbertian," He spoke in that language. "But at least I can speak decent."
"Falcon," Paul said in English. "Nice to meet you."
"How-"
"Elementary, my dear Falcon. Research is all it takes."
Already a few seconds of meeting has already gotten Falcon annoyed. Wait 'til Gilbert is here. He'll be madder than Folcan.
"Paul. Unless you want to die, you will work for us. To operate the ship. You can have 250,000 men to work at it-"
"Really, Falcon? Is that what you want? Taking over the Universe? I thought you were smarter than Yulli. Firstly, the ship needs at least 1 million for it to operate the movement. Secondly, you guys aren't as smart as me and you need me to help commandeer the ship. So, you can't kill me. I doubt you will be ever smarter than my future children or my future wife!"
"Shut up! You will work for me or.."
Paul raises his chin in mockery. A gesture that shows that Paul is smarter than Falcon.
"Amelek dies," He concluded.
"Well, then, I won't work for you," He smiled.
"We'll kill him, then you'll work for us."
"Oh, really? And how do you do that?" Paul prepares himself for the absorption of data. He was right to do it.
"Since you're gonna be in my custody the whole time, why not tell you?"
He released his tension on almost everything, basically by holding his breath.
"We will send in a group of undercover Halbertians to cover Cred, especially the lab you always work in. We will get in snipers to pick off Amelek and whoever is in that building."
"Hmph, is that going to work?" His right side of his lips raised by a centimetre. He has already thought of the solution to escape and warn them.
"Say, the ropes here are really uncomfortable. If you won't, I won't work for you."
Falcon was already stressed after his short speech. His mind went blur and decided to release him.
"You promise you won't escape?"
"I won't," He smiled. Of course, he bluffed. But there wasn't a hint of untruthfulness in that sentence.
Falcon walked over and released his hands. Paul didn't move, but his hands did, tensing his fists and fingers.
"I thank ye, ol' mate!"
Paul smiled at the stressed Falcon. This was the first mistake the president made. Or rather, Paul's plan worked. His goal was to make Falcon unable to make decisions, since mutated aliens cannot think straight unless their minds are really focused. Paul had made this research when the mutated war broke out on Halbert. But the war only lasted for a few hours because of the advanced weapons and warheads. This has drastically reduced the population into a pulp.
Falcon walked back to the chair, suddenly zombified, and fell asleep immediately.
"Now, let's see what's in Falcon's pockets," Paul said mischievously. His talons were rattling against each other and his mouth in a wide and prideful arc.
C H A P T E R 19
- - - Louie's Plan Of Redemption - - -
Louie's team was at a crisis. Their smartest being was held captive by the Hellbertians, which was bad because there were tons of ways what they could do to him. And it was just Louie's thoughts.
Louise sat there, looking at Louie with pitiful eyes, almost sobbing when she encouraged herself.
"Louie, what's going to happen now?" She asks in pity.
"We go back to Earth. The mutated will be there."
"We could die there," Louise suggested angrily, suddenly. "They are foolproof-"
Louie cut her off by turning his head somewhere else, but not intentionally though. He noticed a small flying craft floating above the stadium. And it looked similar to the one they have-
Louie quickly got up and left in a flash, followed by Louise.
"Hey, what's happening?!"
"Our ship's stolen. Hand me my Pair Of Blades."
"But Louie, remember? All our weapons were stashed in Amelek and Paul's locker."
"Locker-?!" He gagged. "Alright, another direction, then," announces Louie as he heads the other way.
Louise jerked back to avoid the flailing of Louie's arms and followed his tail.
After a few ten seconds, they've reached their lockers, which was at the entrance of the stadium, but opposite the way of the craft, which was bad. Louie took out a duplicate key card that Paul made himself for the locker. He stabbed it into the hole and lasers read the card. The locker door popped open without delay and Louie instantly snatches a Pair of Blades. He armed it and ran off, hoping Louise would catch up, which she did.
"What about the rest?" asks Louise while trying to catch up with him.
"I already came up with a plan."
His smile was yet cruel.
Amelek stood on the rubber floor, wielding a sniper rifle and a laser knife. He aimed the heavy contraption up in the air and shot. It made a noise that attracted every player in this stadium, including Yulli.
According to Louie, Yulli is the furthest from Amelek, so Yulli wouldn't have time to reach Amelek before others did. The others were, of course, Hellbertians, but luckily, Paul searched each one of the players with thorough and full scrutiny.
Four players were already out, excluding the ones who kidnapped Paul, which makes it seven if included. In this game, there are fifteen players, including Paul, Amelek and Yulli. Five others were Hellbertians and the investigation turned out to be fruitful. These five were very special troops called 'L337 Troopers', which was quite amusing to Earth, but not Hellbertians.
The L337 Troopers were trained soldiers who can handle touch situations under tight circumstances, such as killing a Cred with bare fists and talons, which they had done before. One didn't even broke a sweat. In their record of marking or killing enemies, they were in the top 100 of soldiers, including other trillions of planets out there in the Universe.
One very lucky detail of them were that they were best friends with Falcon, the president. So, holding them hostage and trading them for Paul would be clever. But this was the downside.
Amelek is going to be up against 6 people, Yulli included. And the hybrid doesn't know if Amelek wants a truce or not. So..
"Yulli, you and I, truce?!" He shouted.
There was no response for the next few milliseconds, then a shout.
"Sure, why not?!"
Amelek was pleased with the results. This would mean two against five. But with Yulli's quick brain reaction and Amelek's accuracy, they wouldn't feel outnumbered at all. Instead, they feel like they can overpower them easily.
Amelek reveals his Pair Of Blades. This was the golden part of the plan. The L337 Troopers were actually too naive to bring lethal weapons, even though Falcon told them of the plan.
Yes, bringing lethal weapons into Lay Down tournaments was against the rules of this game and the law. But Louie figured out how to sidestep this rule. The fans.
They wouldn't let one piece of the game masters' words stop the game, which defeats the purpose of the rules. But they don't care. Credits are on their way.
Of course, the police here has the power to stop the game, but not the fans. Unless they had a way to harm the police, the fans couldn't be stopped.
"The police wouldn't kill civilians now, would they?" Louie said once into the microphone that was sticking out in his throat.
The only way the plan would fail if both Yulli and Amelek were eliminated from the game. Amelek, maybe, but Yulli, not in the slightest chance.
Amelek ran over the plan and waited for the Hellbertians to arrive. Three arrived, bringing up their weapons at the second they saw his face. Amelek was already firing and shuffling to cover. Yulli came to view and fired a round to a Hellbertian and it disappeared. Yulli wasn't given information to the plan, so Yulli was an asset that could ruin the plan if Amelek wasn't fast enough.
The laser shots whom Amelek fired headed for the kneecaps of both mutated aliens. They fainted from the shot.
The fans were suddenly confused, but they cheered, according to Louie's last-minute plan.
Yulli spotted an enemy and gave a shot to its torso and vanishes.
"All enemies eliminated, though two fainted. But they won't be up so soon," reports Yulli.
"Good, just don't shoot me just yet," Amelek requests. "Can we form an alliance?"
"Alliance? Joining your team of geeks? I have heard of the rescue of Paul back on Earth."
"It was famous?!" says Amelek, suddenly excited.
"Just tell me what you want," His tone definitely told Amelek he was annoyed.
"Alright, we need to recruit you because the aliens on Xernian-"
"The Hellbertians. They cause a lot of trouble."
"Yeah, I've heard. They have an enormous plan to destroy the Universe, starting with Earth."
"Oh, I don't care about that stinkin' planet. But I do want Halbert to live. Sure, I'll join you."
"Wow, that was easy," Amelek silently mutters.
"On one condition."
"Oh no, something really bad, I guess," Amelek says aloud.
"Bill doesn't drool on me, Gilbert doesn't annoy me, Paul doesn't tall smart to me, Louie doesn't try to kill me, and you don't talk to me about Call Of Duty or any First-Person Shooting games, except Lay Down."
"How do you know the names of our team?! And there's more than one condition here!"
"Research, of course. You think I'm dumber than an animal? I always investigate my enemies beforehand. And you made two fainted for a reason. If you want to kill me with that piece of cr*p, think twice."
"Uh, alright."
"I hope this mission finally has some more action that Lay Down."
Amelek and Yulli both laughed together.
C H A P T E R 20
- - - Introducing Falcon's Frienemy - - -
Year 2005, May, five years ago.
"You know, Xernian ain't so bad," said a voice from a Hellbertian. "Got mutated species, something even better than Halbertians. There are a lot of downsides, though."
"But we are going to repair them," said Falcon. "I assure you, the population of Xernian will increase in time."
Falcon sat on his favourite chair in his office. It was dark except his table, which illuminated only a little light from a small hot bulb. This bulb was from Earth, but taken away when Falcon was there and he robbed it off a lady that bought it almost 50 years ago.
A face loomed in from the darkness. The look on his face was already starting to creep Falcon out.
"Don't worry. I have a plan to stop the problems and the downsides."
Falcon was piqued.
"What kind of plan, exactly?" He leaned forward, almost pinning his stomach against the table.
"We.." The face said like a wait-for-it moment. "Take over the Universe!"
Falcon giggled at first, then when he thought more about it a second later, he went into laughing stage.
Then, a fist appeared from the darkness and banged the table.
"Shut up, Falcon!"
"What? How are you planning to do that, huh?!"
Then Falcon became serious.
"You do not have power to shut me up. Get out before I cut your head off, spill your blood to feed to the mutated vampire alien, then your head to the wolves in the North Pole and your body to the pit of lava filled with lava crocodiles."
"Just.." The face was nervous. "Hear me out."
Falcon suddenly became calm.
"Sure, what is the plan?"
"We steal the biggest ship in Halbert and just dominate the Universe. We all know Halbert is the best planet."
Falcon massaged his chin.
"I'll think about it," He said calmly, yet again. It was clearly a very risky plan, but Falcon decided it ahead after a few days because he was a greedy alien.
"Of course, you'll think about it. It's the best plan ever!"
The face disappeared and the rustiness of the door made screechy 'creeks'.
"Wait, what's your name?"
"My name?"
He chuckles. It was creeping Falcon more.
"Just call me Kage. Remember, Kaa-Geh."
The door was slammed shut behind him.
"Man, I don't like him, but he's got a good plan, though. A risky one," Falcon commented.
C H A P T E R 21
- - - Kage, The Criminal Scum - - -
Year 2012, May, three days before the Lay Down tournament.
Kage, one of the top ten notorious villains with the power to outsmart, charm and threaten other people. He looks short with the height of 138 centimetres and weighs 34 kilograms. His face is usually demented, even with alcohol taking over him. Once, he destroyed a bulletproof window with just his fists and sharpened nails. But he was drunk that time.
He was in his favourite bar, Gurgley Bar. It serves vodka, champagne, wine and even illegal alcohol. Hellbertians have immunities to certain poisons and toxins. Some even enjoy them, like the illegal alcohol.
He spitted clumsily as he took his tenth sip off an illegal drink.
"100 years old and still drinking!" He laughed. He cursed too, if you didn't know.
Other people looked at him with faces of disgust and annoyance.
One eventually came up to him. He looked like a bodyguard to someone very important, his body size reaching up to 180 centimetres and was broad with muscles.
"At least spit that and your words somewhere else," said the huge Hellbertian.
"What? You wanna start a bar fight?!" He spitted some more, but at the figure's head and obviously saying it blurrily.
It quickly jerked away, dodging the alien saliva and drink. It reacted with anger and sent its massive fist to the now-retorted face. The fist was caught head on by Kage's palm.
"Hey, take it easy. You don't wanna start a bar fight-"
There was a slam to his right cheek and he fell off the chair. It was the figure's left fist instead.
Kage felt blood mixed with saliva and he spitted once more to its direction. This time, red splatted on its face and its face flushed off from anger.
It was about to send a kick when the door was opened wide with a bang.
"Kage!" shouted a voice from the door.
Kage was too drunk to see at that range, but it came closer and closer towards the couple of fighters.
"Folcan, that's enough," Falcon says as he lays one hand on his left shoulder.
"But he-"
"Now, before I fire you."
Folcan jerked his head forward as a threat to Kage, which he did not realize it was a threat. He moved his legs and walked out with a blabbering mouth.
"Kage, Paul is going to be in the tournament, which I found out earlier. C'mon, we need to get you going."
"To where?" Kage said with a slur, and it was by far the most annoying slur to Falcon. It made him twitch his right eye momentarily.
"To my apartment, you drunk piece of-"
Folcan kicked the door open.
"We need to leave now," he said in a low but loud voice.
Falcon nodded and pulled Kage easily. And they were off flying to Falcon's apartment, which also contained an armoury of weapons.
C H A P T E R 22
- - - We Meet Again, Young One - - -
Paul was ransacking Falcon's pockets in the studio. Paul mentally noted not to damage anything at all, especially with his super-long talons.
Footstep sounds enter Paul's ears and he immediately jumped.
"People. Folcan?"
Paul pulled the unconscious body to the direction of the hinges of the door. He set it as to so that the unknown intruder is unable to see his right because of the door blocking his view, which is wide. A mixture of stereoscopic and monocular vision in one Hellbertian's eyes. Once, Falcon was in Earth, stealing, robbing and carrying out criminal activities under the alias, Eagle. He was surprisingly able to hide his talons when it was long. When he needed to kill and had made sure no one was there except the victim, he will unsheathe those talons and stab him. Ruthlessly.
The door opens wide, but not to at least a 130 degrees, which was lucky for Paul. He saw a champagne bottle at the edge of the door.
"Falcon, are you in here?"
Paul recognized the voice. Then memories flashed before him in a few picoseconds.
"Kage." He whispered so softly, Kage wouldn't have heard it.
Kage was Paul's apprentice in mind and body. Paul took him in because he had nothing to do, no things in his life to occupy. But that was about a few decades ago. Kage would meet Paul on Mars to do training on Mount Olympus. Kage had to carry a ton and 600 kilograms more of useless rocks on Mars in a very big bag and he had to make sure no one witnessed it, especially the occasional probes sent in by Earth. After that, his training would begin by doing small things, like breaking bulletproof glass, like what he easily did in his pastimes or calculating how big the Universe is by theories and jumping across the volcano pit thousands of times.
When one day, Kage suddenly stopped meeting Paul on Mars. Paul waited for a few hours and had come to a conclusion that Kage hated Paul for the training. Which he did.
"But why?" He said when he was on Olympus Mons.
"He took it upon himself to be my apprentice and he stopped," Paul became sorrowful, but took over the sorrow a few seconds later.
"I taught him good and good he will become," He mutters.
But he was wrong. Kage became a criminal, the strongest he knew and the smartest he knew. But of course, Paul was much smarter than Kage, catching him red-handed more than 52 times. He counted. He even advised him on how he should do better in crime because he loved him so very much. This matter took over his life. Until he met Gilbert. Then everything changed. He stopped chasing after Kage. He followed Gilbert and found Cred. He outsmarted the Creddians and took Bill for the team and tried to stop the Hellbertians. Then a few decades later, Louie, Amelek and Louise entered their lives as Halbertian hybrids. He never saw Kage. Until now.
"Falcon?" His words were slurred.
"Kage. Is that you?" Paul said out loud without thinking, which was ironic for him.
"What? Whozzat?!"
Kage fell and splatted on the floor with his face slamming upon it. The door was closed by his pinky toe accidentally. He then turned his head right and saw Paul, his ex-master.
"Paul?!"
There was terror and fear in his voice and Paul noticed he became mutated when Kage wasn't in his supervision, including the times when he was capturing him.
Even when drunk, he got up with ultimate speed, which was hard for slower brains to receive what they had seen. He moved to the opposite corner of Paul.
"You! I thought you were with Gilbert, founding Cred or something."
"Wow, now you're sober," Paul thought. Then, he cleared his crimson throat.
"I was. I still am. And there is a big evil and sinister plan coming up and I am putting a stop to it."
Then he quickly corrected, "We are."
Kage started giggling, showing his red and carnivorous teeth.
"Paul, I came-"
"Up with the plan," Paul finished. "Why? Why go for the Universe? You would have to go through me to get the Universe, which is everyone."
"No, I came up with the plan. Falcon supplied it, which means he wants it to go well," He giggled more. And laughed non-stop now.
The features of Kage shocked Paul. He was so different than before. But the voice still didn't change, as all Halbertians and Hellbertians didn't when they hit puberty.
His head was larger than before. The eyes were all black now and the body was smaller than usual. And alcohol. It made Paul furious and scared at the same time.
"Kage, really?! Alcohol? It's illegal in here too."
"Who cares? It's.."
He went blank for a few seconds, chanting something unreadable even for Paul.
"What happened? Kage?!"
The big-headed figure was thrown into a fit and it fell unconscious.
"Magic?"
And that was when Amelek and Yulli laughed together.
I love the format you put your story into. It's bold and captures the reader's attention. As for the story, it's quite original.
Thanks, Salvidian! It's been a long time since someone actually commented on my story. Though, there must be some errors I have. We're all humans. Please, help me by criticizing constructively. Thanks again!
C H A P T E R 23
- - - Kage's New (Forced) Master - - -
Paul's jaw wasn't dropped from the shock. His pair of eyes twitched insanely instead. It was his kind of shock. Paul had trained himself not to drop his jaw in shock just for specific moments, but not this.
He was from the opposite corner and he suddenly appeared by Kage's side, revealing his full speed.
"Kage?!" He shook the dead-like body vigorously, like the power of a gorilla shaking a plastic mannequin. "You will not die in front of me, I tell you!"
"Die in front of me," He thought and fumed.
Why is he still fond of Kage, even after what he did, like murdering Creddians and Halbertians? Or even Earthlings. Paul forgave him for these doings today. Kage even explained his hate on Paul by cutting him up, especially part of his brains.
Kage was on Mars, searching more probes to destroy, even though he hates that planet.
"Gimme somova probezz!!" shouted Kage.
He switched to drinking recently. It was probably because of a reason Paul was not sure of.
Paul, who was at Cred, picked up vibrations from Mars, which seemed unusual because Mars was supposed to be deserted until maybe 2030. Even with his smarts, he couldn't detect human intentions.
He immediately dashed to his scout craft and boarded it. Gilbert and Bill was asleep, but with comfier beds than today. With his strong memories, the beds were of feathers in a mattress on a metal bed holder, like those in prisons or the hospitals.
He took his key card out and swiped it down at the air. The craft started immediately and it went off to Mars.
"Alright, report number 25 of Mars. It has abnormal activities, with unusual vibrations detected on the planet. Paul out."
Gilbert still slept like a Snorlax in Pokemon.
The drunken Hellbertian swallowed the whole champagne drink, then threw it down like it was rubbish.
Paul yet picked up another vibration. The craft came in closer in about a few minutes. It was close enough for Paul to identify any movements on Mars.
"Of course there's someone there. How could I be wrong?" He shrugged off the embarrassment he made and took it upon himself, plus to take away the pressure in the ship that was overwhelming.
He landed the ship on the red sands. The boosters folded themselves into the gaps and the ship didn't land against any uneven surface, which was good for Paul. He didn't want noise, let alone scratches on his beloved ship.
He had already set the ship to stealth mode, so no being in the Universe could ever detect it. Especially with Earth's detectors too.
When he slid the door open, he saw a probe looking at him.
"EEEK!!" He squeaked, when the probe was suddenly smashed into pieces by glass shards.
"That power. Either a Halbertian or Creddian did that," He theorized when Kage came up to the probe.
"You ain't seein' anyzing tonaite, probezz!!!"
Paul saw Kage in an instant and reacted.
He whipped out his Pair Of Blades and started to fire. The Pair Of Blades was modified just for him. It was smaller than usual, which makes it easier to pick up, specifically like this scenario. The laser bullets are smaller, causing them to only sting the enemies. But Paul was confident he was faster and could fire more shots than the enemy could even bring his weapon out. The hand grip's shape is changed slightly to fit his talons inside and conveniently fit his five fingers in too. It has a double barrel, instead of one, making it shoot two bullets at one time, but it's bad because of the recoil. Paul's hands are strong. He was very sure his hands were much steadier than Gilbert's, as well as any enemies he may encounter.
The first two shots hit the intruder, but the second pair of shots missed.
"Incredible. How could someone-"
Kage went inside without permission and started to extend his talons to Paul.
"What?!"
The talons impaled Paul and somewhere in the injuries, the heart was punctured too.
Paul felt like he could die here, right now, where there would be no more sufferings.
He was wrong.
Kage started to cut his guts opens. And to add to the gore, he ridiculously chucked them out. By this time, Paul had already fainted, making it hard for Kage to torture him as much as possible.
Then, Paul's tortured periods were over. Someone shot Kage at the head, causing him to faint due to concussion.
Gilbert was in the battle ship with Bill. It was set on auto-pilot. Gilbert jumped down to Mars at a 100 metre height. The drop broke his bones, but healed instantly and tremendously. Of course, it was discomforting, but time was of the essence.
Gilbert took out his Pair Of Blades, which was not modified, and fired away.
The shots knocked Kage off Paul's guts and smashed into the metal chassis of the craft.
Then, Gilbert combined the Pair Of Blades when he reached the craft and stabbed the now-twin laser cutter and twisted it to make an 'O' shape around Kage's heart.
He fainted almost immediately. When Gilbert pulled the Pair Of Blades away from the heavily injured chest, the wounds healed slowly. He walked over to Paul, who had his guts laid all over the shuttle and blood pumping out of the wounds profusely.
"Don't worry. 3 years and you'll be fine," Gilbert says with a smile.
3 years was short time to Halbertians, unless humans are within the range of view or somewhere close to that.
Gilbert was pulling Paul to the automatically landed ship. It was obviously not Bill that landed it. Kage was left behind first. Gilbert made a note to himself that he'll get Kage later.
Paul's moaning, which resulted from the gut pulling, was starting to annoy Gilbert.
"Oh, c'mon, Paul. Heal up. You've got a lot of work to do, idiot."
Paul's life force started sucking up the blood and slowly, but not obviously, stitching the wound up. Though, life force cannot replace guts or any important organs but the skin.
He was put on a cushioned chair that has served Gilbert for more than a few centuries.
"Paul, don't soak 'em!"
He went out with his Pair Of Blades, preparing for another fight.
When he went in the ship, which was surprising because Kage would have stolen the ship and flew off and escape like a sissy.
But no, Kage was standing, his right hand resting on the wound Gilbert had made, his left hand readying its talons for another strike.
Gilbert first caught the sight of pressurized magical runes that surrounded Kage. It was as if it was made a second ago.
"Or maybe it is," He thought, while shooting laser rounds at Kage, disabling his left hand.
He shouted in agony and ran off like a sissy. But the speed he revealed was extremely fast even for a Hellbertian, who had increased physical conditions, but had weaker mental conditions.
But Gilbert was too stupid to figure it out.
A few ten seconds ago
Kage's chest was heaving heavily. His talons of his right hand almost met with crimson skin. Dangerous to let himself get injured, let alone get injured at all.
A shadow appeared in front of Kage.
"Kage, do you value your life?" The shadow's voice came from nowhere actually, not from the shadow itself.
"What? Who are you? And of course I value my life," He smiled widely.
"What kind of question is that?!" He thought, but with no voices produced from his throat.
"You must remember this: Louie." And then the shadow released its sharp tendrils and stabbed through Kage's throat and moved its tendrils in a weird fashion, inputting runes through pressurization.
"Stay put. I am transferring some of my powers to you."
Kage's eyes went blank for a few seconds; no pupil in sight. His neck became imprinted with runes in a few seconds. Then, it disappeared to let Kage see Gilbert. Black pupils returned immediately after the shadow disappeared.
Surprisingly, no blood spilled from the neck, since there wasn't any injuries there, even from close inspection.
Kage ran in a vampire-like speed to the Olympus Mons to see the ship off.
"What was that?!" He spoke this soberly.
Then he remembered what the shadow figure said after the tiring movements of two legs.
"Louie."
C H A P T E R 24
- - - "Louise Is Hot" - - -
Louie passed through a bunch of Halbertian passers-by in the lobby before he reached the exit, where the stolen craft was.
"Louie!" Louise startled. "Don't shoot the driver!"
Louie was startled. In fact, he was so startled, he almost shot the hard metal floor with his Pair Of Blades, which was armed.
"What is it, Louise?" He turned with a calm and smiling face.
"I said, don't shoot him. The craft will be destroyed."
"I know. I called the police."
Louise blinked her eyes so fast, it could be a blur, which of course was a side effect for being half-Halbertian.
"You called," She started giggling. "The police?!"
She was laughing hysterically, like Joker in Batman. Louie had never seen or heard her laugh like that before.
"Well, maybe one time," Louie thought.
2 years ago
"Louie!" Louise shouted like a small girl while spamming at the doorbell. "Let me in!"
She could hear some booming sounds and Louie opened the front door, which was opposite the front gate. Almost all houses here had gates. The only one without gates was a very small house. It is said that it was haunted, but Louie didn't care about it, since he wanted to reveal red aliens instead of ghosts, which weren't in the small house.
"Yes, yes. Coming. Don't shout. It's still 7 A.M. here.."
Louie was in his pajamas, covered with four-leaved clovers and the background colour blue. It was also squared. He was very tired, as he was suddenly awoken by his crush. He was in a dream where he was doing affectionate things with Louise.
"Speak of the devil," Louie thought as he rubbed his red eyes with his two index fingers.
"C'mon, Louie. You walk so slow!" She shouted once more, even waking up some neighbours. But, some people were actually grateful of her shouting, only one to be precise, and he was a hardcore gamer.
Louie opened one side of the gate, letting the girl into his house.
"What do you want, Louise..?" Louie asked, filled with exhaust and fatigue. He felt like sleeping on the floor already.
"I need your help for homework, duh!" She said it like a I-told-you-so tone, which wasn't the right tone, though.
"Okay, which?" He noticed her bag was a sling bag which suited her. It's small, but it's certainly filled with some things.
"I need help with Science, Math and Geography."
"Ugh, I hate Geography, but what the heck?"
She took the sling bag off her shoulders when they were inside. She stuck her hand inside and took out three books. Louie assumed each books were to their subjects. They were.
They were all workbooks, riddled with questions that Amelek himself can't solve.
Louise kept on asking him on whether how she should do it. Louie halfheartedly told her methods to solve each problem, which she adapted to, quickly. Louie was actually staring at her beautiful and calm face. His focus would be off every few seconds, so Louise had to shake him up to ask him more questions.
"Hey!" She said with a rather desperate but cute face. "Listen to me!"
"Alright, sheesh.." He fumed. Even if he was in front of his crush, he wouldn't want a relationship, or that will cause both of them to be suspended from school. It's bad, trust me. And if they did get into a relationship, they would have to have it very secretively, spending only a few minutes holding hands or just spending time together.
"Here, I need help on question 26. It's based on circles. Do you know the formulas?" She grinned.
He leaned over, but something he didn't notice made Louise laugh. Crazily. With this level of craziness, she's eligible to be admitted to the mental institutions here in Malaysia.
"What? What happened?!"
He was forayed by Louise, who was still laughing.
"Hey! Louise-" He gagged when Louise's forearm choked him.
Then, she turned around, causing clothes to swirl together. Louie was uncomfortable the whole time. Now, Louise was facing the ceiling while Louie's face was in her hair.
"Louise, what happened?!" He asked, despite the literal breathtaking and hairy situation.
She kept on laughing, and looked up at the ceiling.
"I wish we could do this someday."
"Louise, you know today is just Sunday, not Monday, right?"
Louise suddenly jerked sideways, causing Louie to roll.
"It's not Monday?! Oh my goodness!!" She started laughing again, like the previous one.
He slapped his forehead.
"This couldn't get any worse.."
Now
"Louie, hello?!"
Louise shook Louie like a person on a mad bull. He snapped out of the memories he had.
"The craft is caught, by the way. I'm.. Sorry for laughing.."
Louise looked apologetic and innocent. She looked even more beautiful than two years ago, and Louie just realized it; the muscular boy's jaw dropped in amazement and realization, or even guilt and frustration that he didn't notice it from the day she came until now.
"Um, Louise. We need the craft," He leaned back by an inch, possibly because it was his habit to do so.
"Oh, don't worry. The police will take 'em..."
Louise flinched in horror. There was illegal equipment in that craft and she remembered some of them because she uses them consistently.
"There's.. A bunch of stuff Paul set in. Those stuff are illegal in Halbert," She spoke with softness and with controlled temper. But even so, this made Louie angry, mad bull angry.
"What?!" He boomed across the lobby. All the beings, including the Halbertians, turned to him as quickly as possible due to their instincts.
They murmured as they turned away. Louie recognized the first two Halbertian words they let out.
"Stupid fools."
His robotic translator changed his English language to Halbertian language.
"Hey, who do you think you are?!" The robotic translator boomed. "I am definitely smarter than you! I am-"
He was held firm by Louise at the shoulders.
"The craft, Louie?"
He saw the desperation in her beautiful eyes and nodded. Then saw Louise ran off on her own towards the craft, moving faster than an extreme runner.
"Louise is indeed hot," He says with widened eyes and ignoring the fellow Halbertians and other beings aside, chasing after Louise, whom Louie was obviously faster with more muscles.
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