It had felt kind of douchey, but they had to do something about their prisoners. They didn’t want them to be found before they had a chance to do anything, so they had decided to lug them back upstairs. They found a secluded room and tossed the pair of them into it. Before locking the door, Krizzik had drugged them both.

“As I said before, that should last eight hours,” Krizzik said.

“I’m just checking. It would suck if they woke up early and told everyone we were here,” Alex said.

“You do not need to worry. We will have plenty of time. We should be out of here way before they are able to awake.”

“Aren’t we going to blow this place up when we’re done?”

“Yes.”

“So…,” Alex trailed off, obviously hesitant to finish his thought.

“I do not see what you are leading into.”

“Well, if they’re unconscious, and then we explode the building, they’ll die.”

Krizzik looked at him for a long moment. His eyebrows drew so close together, it looked like he had a sausage under his skin above his eyes.

“You have not cared in the past. I have seen you kill many times.”

“You’re right. This just feels different. They are so helpless right now because we drugged them,” Alex said rubbing his arm like an awkward teenager.

“But you killed the brute and it was drugged.”

“Yeah, but it was waking up and would have brought attention if we had to fight.”

“This is nonsensical. They would likely die regardless of if they were drugged or not. This entire floor, and hopefully many of the upper floors should crash down. They would not survive.”

“I guess you’re right. It still makes me feel kind of weird,” Alex said, choosing to drop the issue.

It really didn’t make much of a difference, the aliens would likely die anyway. He just needed to accept that maybe things wouldn’t sit right all the time when fighting in a war. That didn’t mean he would turn into a war criminal and just kill anyone he saw. He had to draw a line somewhere, and this just wasn’t a hill he felt was worth dying on.

Krizzik just shrugged and started to lay out the plan for the group. Now that they had a rough idea of where the research notes would be stored, they were able to direct their attention somewhere. Their main goal was to grab anything and everything they could about the variants. The Saxans wanted to know what the Zotari knew—how to do it, what were the side effects, how to replicate it, and any potential weaknesses as well so they could deal with the variants already created.

There were at least four tents that held the majority of the transcribed notes. Any new discoveries would likely still be in the individual tents the doctors would write as they made notes, but the older notes were compiled and sent to be stored. Alex felt like that was extremely convenient for them until the Zotari had told them the storage tents were in the middle of the basement. That was a lot of ground they would need to cover and a lot of potential eyes.

With that in mind, they would need to create some type of diversion. Krizzik had suggested that Alex move around one side alone, while the rest of them moved along the other to get into position. Alex would create the diversion in whatever way he deemed appropriate, and the rest of them would move as soon as possible. Alex thought this was a solid plan. He wasn’t great at sneaking around no matter how many times he tried. What he was good at was drawing attention. Plus, he would probably be better at defending himself than any of the others.

That just left one more thing for them to discuss. They needed to plant some bombs around the room. They had already done a quick survey of the area and had pinpointed a few areas that they would focus on. They had more bombs than targets, so Alex had suggested just dropping bombs in random areas along the way to their starting positions. They would save some bombs for on their way out, especially since the majority of the building’s occupants resided on this level currently. If they were cut off from higher floor, there was no way for them to exit.

They started on their separate paths. Alex dashed from tent to tent. He could hear muffled conversations in each one. He couldn’t make out what anyone was saying. He heard a rather heated discussion taking place in one of the tents and couldn’t resist and took a look inside. It was a male and female Zotari standing close to each other. Alex normally couldn’t tell the genders apart, but the body language said it all. When he looked a little closer, he could see some minor differences between the two. He still didn’t believe he could confidently pick one from the other, but in this situation he could.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

The woman slapped the man and they both got quiet, silently staring at each other. The man was breathing heavily as if he was trying to hold in his anger and barely succeeding. He rested his hands on a cluttered table full of papers and other equipment. As if they had planned it, they both moved in an embrace. Then, it was more than just hugging. Then, Alex had to look away.

Holy crap! I did not read that correctly. Maybe I need a little more experience reading body language. Or maybe I just need a girlfriend. That would probably be nice. No, that would definitely be nice. I’m just gonna keep moving. They need their privacy and I still need to create a diversion.

After he moved to the next tent, he jumped back to the steamy tent. He placed a bomb nearby.

I’ll give them an explosive end. Serves them right for getting me all flustered. I’m so lonely.

He could hear things crashing to the ground and he imagined they had just cleared the table for some recreational activities. Alex stifled a groan and moved on. He continued planting bombs along the way until he felt like he was far enough away from their starting position to start.

He had debated how he would create a diversion. He had so many cool ideas of explosions and setting free caged animals. Sadly, there were no animals to release and he needed something a little more subtle than explosions.

So, with slumped shoulders, Alex moved to a less exciting third idea. He would catch one of the tents on fire. He picked one that was decently far from him, but still in his view. He focused energy into his finger. He concentrated to have only a thin strand of energy as opposed to his normal, finger width projectiles. When this one fired, it was only as thick as pencil lead and was a continuous stream, not a short burst.

He aimed at the edge of one of the panels and held it there for a few seconds. A few moments later, as he had expected, the tent began to smolder. Smoke started to rise and before long, flames erupted.

Shouts could be heard from multiple parts of the basement. He knew the others would probably be on the move soon, he would just need to keep the Zotari distracted. They had decided they would need at least five minutes, but Alex would give them as much as he could.

The Zotari were scrambling around trying to put the fire out. Alex smiled until he saw a Zotari with a bucket, water splashing out the sides.

I don’t think so. It’s way too early for you guys to be thinking rationally.

Alex shot at the bucket, using as large of projectiles as he dared. Tiny holes peppered the surface of the bucket. It began leaking its contents all over the basement, but not even one drop landed on the fire. Normally, the Zotari probably would’ve noticed his bucket being blasted and holes opening up all over it, but there was enough craziness around it, it hadn’t noticed.

Alex started three more fires in similar fashion. The pandemonium only increased from there. More tents caught fire and before long, nearly a third of the basement was aflame.

Ok. I might have gone a little overboard with it.

He started to retreat back when suddenly, he was lifted off of his feet. Like the neighborhood bully holding a squirrel, a brute was holding Alex by the scruff of his back. Alex didn’t really have any scruff, so really this translated to the brute grabbing the little bit of extra skin Alex had and hoisting him up that way. It hurt. Which was funny because in recent months Alex had gone through much worse pain. He had blown up nearly his entire body, but this still hurt.

Alex was trying to come up with some kind of excuse that the Zotari would no doubt not even believe, when his face was suddenly six inches in the ground. Then he was face to face again, then back in the ground. This continued for several moments. If not for his durability, Alex would definitely need to meet with a dentist after this. As it was, he could feel the bones in his face fracturing and healing almost instantaneously. It was an odd sensation. Almost like there were a million magnets in his face that popped everything back into place.

Alex couldn’t pry the Zotari’s fingers from his neck, so he instead began channeling energy into his neck. It began to heat up. Alex could feel his skin start to boils from the sudden increase in temperature. The brute reflexively let go of Alex, dropping him mid smash. It was obviously angry it had done this as it kicked Alex before he had even hit the ground. Alex went flying through two tents before rolling to a stop. One of the tent poles had snapped and was now embedded in his gut. He pulled it free and launched it at the brute. It effortlessly batted it to the side before it began stomping towards Alex.

Alex wasn’t sure how Krizzik and the rest of the group were doing, but he hoped it was better than he was doing.

Alex dove to the side just as a supersized foot came crashing down. He launched a few attacks of his own at the brute’s side before dashing away again. He took a jagged path through the tents, hoping to lose his tail. The behemoth simply slapped the tents out of his way, heading in a straight line towards Alex. This at least allowed Alex to gauge how close the alien was. He timed it as best he could and when he felt the alien was close, he made his move. Alex sliced through one of the ropes keeping the tent flaps taut with a super heated hand. The rope was about the size of a quarter in diameter.

The brute was right on top of Alex. It lunged to grab him, but Alex had anticipated this. He did a backflip right over the alien’s outstretched arms, landing on its back. Wasting no time, Alex doubled up the rope and wrapped it around the alien’s neck. He pulled with all the strength he could muster. He felt like a cowboy riding a bull as the hulking figure thrashed about trying to grab him. Fortunately for Alex, this brute suffered a similar disability that many body builders had—its muscles made it nearly impossible to reach its neck.

Alex twisted his hand in the rope giving himself even more leverage, and pulled back even harder. The brute dropped to its knees. Alex could feel the life leaving the alien’s body. It fell to the ground, lifeless.