Yemenis Ixtra was not going to let this opportunity pass her by. As the last able-bodied worker of her clan’s once renown Tixian Media Empire, Yemenis had the opportunity, no the responsibility, to get to earth and cover the challenge before the rest of the galaxy got the scoop. Her Gray contact, who she mistakenly thought died years ago, had reached out suddenly yesterday and advised that a challenge was happening and the Kwitle were trying to keep it as quiet as possible.

The Tixians lived long lives, but unfortunately her clan had fallen out of favor after the sudden death of her uncle a few years ago. The circumstances had been suspicious and the family was still reeling from its consequences. This week however, Yemenis alone will bring them back to glory. The galaxy will see this challenge as it happens, and Yemenis will be the face of it.

She had spent the last million credits of her families dwindling fortune on the latest and fastest drone and warp ship set. It would be worth it, she thought. She’ll have every major media clan begging for her exclusive footage at whatever price she wanted to set. If the Tixians lived for anything, it was for seeing the Kwitle humiliated. The best part was that she’ll rise to fame as well. It was a win win for the Earthlings, her clan, and herself personally.

Now as she approached the planet was the hard part however. She “just” had to sneak her drones down to the planet somehow, and find her star challengers to record.

****

“This man is…sad. He gave us a skill called “Early Stage Alcoholism”. I don’t think that’s good. He is thinking about how he wishes he had control of himself. He has groin itching problems,” the gorilla rambled on.

Every time he used the skill the symbiote said they became a bit stronger in it, and it was soon clear that this man wasn’t harboring any secrets outside of the norm. Reflect on many occasions also gave a skill, but most of the time it was useless.

“And you’re sure we can’t Tap and command them?” I asked again. That was the most frustrating part of the game. It was like hunting a deer with a knife because you ran out of ammo.

“No master it’s like trying to hit a wall of neutrinos they just rush past my lunge,” the gorilla confirmed. He made a lot of weird space references while he explained things.

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They finally moved onto their next person, while it seemed that Juli’s macaque had already spoken to half a dozen people. They came to a middle-aged woman who has hammering something down and the symbiote began to use Reflect. While Tap was an aggressive attack, his Reflect was the symbiote enveloping part of himself over the persons’ head. It was a bit distressing, especially since the macaque didn’t do it the same way.

“She’s thinking something about her children. I see a lot of reading materials? Shades of something. She is also very sad,” the gorilla said. “Oh we learned how to use ropes in some odd manner.”

Random skills we picked up as we headed down the line of people were Basic Pet Grooming, Botox Beginner, and Green Belt Karate from an elderly man. A lot of people were angry. They were trying to fight and take control back from what I gathered, the gorilla tried his best to explain.

“Master this is the guy that gave the first guy the burning groin issue,” the symbiote said after he inspected our tenth person. It was taking way too long for each person.

“I don’t think that’s the secret we needed but that’s the secret we got,” I said lost in thought.

“You should have a name symbiote,” I told him before we got to the next person. The gorilla looked at me in confusion.

“Like the AI Robot? Although I don’t believe she likes to be called Cindybot,” he said.

“I’ll ask her too then. Maybe. What do you want to be called?” I asked again.

My mind beast stopped for a moment and thought it out.

“Your favorite doll as a child. The hippo plushie one,” he said finally. Not like time was important.

“It wasn’t really a doll,” I tried to defend myself; to my own brain’s mutualistic symbiote creature. I guess it wasn’t going to work.

“Ok whatever you can be Moto Moto,” I grumbled.

As Moto Moto was about to start Reflect on our next woman we heard Juli and her monkey yell from about a hundred yards away. I looked over and it actually seemed that the person she scanned was fighting back the monkey’s Reflect. She had found the target.

If she gets the secret I’m dead, I thought with a panic.

“Moto go!” I yelled rushing to where they were fighting as fast as I possibly could.

“I’ll fight the monkey, you use Reflect on the man,” I yelled again as we approached.

I don’t know why I said I would fight this demon monkey but what else could I do? The secret holder guy was somehow staring down the monkey when I finally caught up to them and recognized who it was.

“Holy shit Dad,” I said as my voice cracked.

An older version of my face looked at me in shock.

He was the secret holder somehow? What was he even doing here? No way, this had to be a mistake, I thought as the demon monkey jumped on my face to get to him.