Chapter 10

Alex turned his attention to the elephant in the room. The giant alien spaceship that was crashed into the planet with what wasn’t more than a tarp covering it. He walked into the room made of the canvas like material. He noticed that there were some notifications that he had to look at.

­-You’ve Defeated a Rival

-Dusk

-12,000xp (12,000each)

-50 Anti-Hero Points (302) (I do things my way, whatever that may be.)

-50 Hero Tier Points (88 Until next Tier) (4)

~~~

-You’ve Defeated a Raid

-36x Cold Collective Foot Soldiers

-18,913xp (Range 400 – 800 each Average 591)

-50 Anti-Hero Points (352) (I do things my way, whatever that may be.)

-50 Hero Tier Points (38 Until next Tier) (4)

Obsidian went to work as she always did after a battle. She got a major kick out of gathering everything from their defeated foes and Alex was not complaining. Looting in every other game that he had played was simple click and accept, but this not only resembled real life in that regard it was real life for them.

The Alien ship was massive. From front to back it was over a hundred and fifty meters long. The engines were off the ground nearly the same height as a six-story building and the front tapered down to a narrow-rounded point. At its widest point Alex figured that it was nearly fifty meters across. He couldn’t see any kind of windows or anything of the sort.

The scientist who had been violently thrown by Dusk stood by the side of the ship. She had a tablet in her hand that was not much more that a shard of glass. Wires made of clear plastic like material that were glowing ran from a small opening on the hull of the ship into a box that was pulsating with a cyan light.

“You’ve defeated Dusk?” She asked looked up to Alex as he approached.

“Yes.” Alex said with a firm nod.

Without warning she lifted a circular device in the palm of her hand and Alex was blinded by a flash of light. He blinked several times as spots took over his vision. Holding out his hands he tried to reassess his surroundings.

“What they hell was that?” Alex demanded.

“I just scanned your profile. I deem the trustworthy, Aether.” She said. Alex could just make out a smirk as his vision began to return.

Before Alex could say another word, she pressed a button on her tablet. Alex was still surprised that the light had circumvented his mask's environmental filters.

A loud mechanical whirring sound rang out through the room as did a sharp hiss. There was a loud clunk as a section of the ship’s hull receded inward with a sharp movement. It then lifted upward revealing an access into the ship’s hull.

The inside of the ship maintained the same bright white coloring and blue lights that comprised the outside. The walls also kept the same swooping curves that the outside had. The scientist made to step into the ship.

Alex reached out and grabbed her arm. She fought him for a moment, but finally ducked back with a frustrated sigh.

“Hold up there.” Alex said putting about ten feet between them and the door.

“What?” She demanded almost stomping her foot.

“We need a little information and context for this situation. I’d like for you to answer a few questions before we go running off into a crashed alien ship.” Alex said thinking that it was a fairly reasonable request.

“Right.” She said after a long sigh.

“Ok, well… who are you?” Alex asked. He wanted to start from the beginning. Even though he had just saved her life he wasn’t exactly sure that he wanted to rush into the unknown for a complete stranger.

“My name is Kandace Evers. I am a scientist and I am about to make the largest discovery of my lifetime, if this wannabe hero would get the hell out of my way.” She said in nearly a hiss.

“Alright Kandace,” Alex said in an irritated tone, “how did you get mixed up in this?”

“I’m the one that found the damn ship, made my trek up here,” She said shifting her weight and then rolled her eyes, “Then not two seconds after I got here, did they show up.” She said motioning towards the bodies that Obsidian was now piling up right outside.

“And what do we think we are going to find in there?” Alex asked. At this point he was just trying to extend the conversation because she was being so impatient.

“I don’t know ass hole that is the point of going inside. To explore.” She said throwing up her hands. The conversation was over because she stomped off towards the ship.

For a split-second Alex considered letting her go alone, but he didn’t have it in him.

“Wait up.” He called after her as she went to enter the ship.

Obsidian noticed the two of them going into the Alien spaceship and decided to follow. She’d already stacked up all of the bodies and piled up their weapons and collected all of their money. Dusk was heavy but she was able to toss his body into a sitting position next to the pile of his men.

The corridors were wide enough for the three of them to be able to walk shoulder to shoulder. They walked past many doors, but they were closed and there were no obvious mechanisms that would open them without Kandace’s hack.

When they came to the last door just before the end of the corridor it instantly opened for them. Sliding away into the wall it revealed what Alex thought was the bridge. A massive chair sat in the center of the room made of the same ceramic-like material as the rest of the ship.

It was surrounded by what looked like some kind of screens, but they were all blank, so Alex wasn’t exactly sure that his assessment was correct. They walked into the room while watching their movements very carefully in an effort not to disturb anything.

“I think this is the command center.” Kandace said as she approached the chair. She reached out and touched the arm lightly with a single finger.

The moment that her finger touched the chair a bright white light began to fill the room from the space in front of the chair. Before the light became so bright that Alex could no longer look at it, he noticed that there was some kind of oval pod embedded in the floor. The light was emitting directly from the pod.

“What did you do?” Alex demanded taking a step back from the pod.

“You touched something! I know you’re new, but we have a rule, don’t touch things!” Obsidian snarled from behind Alex.

“It was just the arm of the chair.” Kandace complained stepping away from the chair in the center of the room.

The light became so bright that the whole front side of the room was nothing but a white blur. The filters on Alex’s mask kept his eyes from being hurt, but he was unable to make out anything beyond the edge of the light.

When the light subsided, he was the first to see the change in the pod. I had risen up from the ground to stand upright. The front had opened to expose the contents. Standing inside the pod was a humanoid alien. It stood nearly seven feet tall. Its legs and arms were very thin as well as its fingers. The being’s skin was not just pale it was white. It had silvery blue hair that draped down to just below it’s slender shoulders. When it opened its eyes, they were a deep solid amber with no visible pupil.

Kandace had no fear and walking straight towards the being. She smiled and held her hands against her chest.

“Hello.” She said clearly and loudly, not obnoxiously loud, but a very high volume.

The Alien didn’t do or say anything. Its eyes were fixed on unblinkingly on Kandace like it was trying to figure out what she was. Kandace considered the being for a long moment.

“Well I think it is safe to say that it doesn’t understand you.” Alex said breaking the silence.

Something triggered in the Alien when it heard Alex. It moved swiftly around Kandace and approached Alex in a swift very fluid like movement. It moved its face uncomfortably close to his and looked deep into Alex’s eyes.

“Hey there buddy.” Alex said nervously.

“Hey there buddy.” A voice rebounded around inside of his head, but the Alien didn’t actually speak. That was when Alex realized that it didn’t have a mouth.

“Did everyone hear that?” Alex asked looking from Obsidian to Kandace.

“I did.” Kandace said with a nod. Obsidian nodded as well.

“Who are you?” Alex asked calmly.

“Who, buddy.” The Alien said in their heads.

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“I’m Aether.” Alex said putting his hand on his chest, “this is Obsidian.” Alex put his hand on top of her head. “That’s Kandace” He motioned to her.

“Alex.” The alien said as he reached out and pressed its hand to his chest like he had.

“Technically yes, but I tell people my name is Aether.” Alex said with a huff.

“Show me more speak.” The alien said in their heads.

“Show you more speak?” Alex asked in confusion.

“Maybe he will understand more if we speak?” Obsidian asked.

“Show me more speak.” Kandace murmured to herself.

“I never know what to talk about in these situations.” Alex said with a shrug.

“Yeah me either.” Obsidian said.

The alien shook its head in almost what seemed to be frustration. It reached out and gently placed his head on Alex’s head.

“Permission to see speak.” The Alien asked.

“You want permission to see us talk? Sure?” Alex said with a questioning look.

For a moment if felt like his brain was literally being sucked out of his head. He didn’t know why but he went back to when he was a small child, and someone played the brain sucker game. The it became clear what was happening. The Alien was literally looking at all the talking he had done through his mind.

“Oh god.” Alex said bending over the moment the Alien pulled his hand back from his head.

“Indeed. There was some stuff in there that was cringy.” The Alien said as he had spoken their language as long as Alex had.

“I would appreciate if we could keep that to ourselves.” Alex said trying to stand up straight.

“I apologize for outing you to these two. I did not know that you were using a diversionary tactic to protect your identity. I believed that there was something wrong with the translation as the word Alex screamed in your head but Aether is what you said out loud. You also do not need to worry about the thing that is from you past. These two do not know about or care about the incident.” The Alien droned.

“Come on dude!” Alex exclaimed

“I do not believe that dude is the word that you need to describe me. I am a female of my species.” The alien said.

“Why did you have to ask to look at my memories if you are looking into their minds?” Alex asked motioning to the girls.

“I apologize. In my culture we are allowed to look into the minds as they are currently. We have to have permission to look farther and we must specify what we will be looking for. I was having a hard time finding a word to properly describe what I would be looking for.” She said.

“Okay, so first thing of copasetic life here on NuValla,” He almost said Earth but caught himself, “We don’t go looking into any part of people’s minds without permission. That is considered a violation of privacy and is also considered to be bad.”

“I understand.” The alien turned to both Obsidian and Kandace, “I apologize for my transgression.”

“Alright, so what exactly is it that we call you?” Alex asked. A notification popped up in the corner of his vision, but he resolved to deal with it later.

“I have no way of translating it into your language, but I will try and tell you what I am called.” The Alien said. She began to make a long string of sounds that Alex could never in his life recreate if he tried.

“Alright name is something that we might have to come back to.” Alex said as another auto-minimized notification appeared.

“Why are you here?” Kandace asked stepping forward.

“I am a researcher who discovered the existence of a new planet in our galaxy that simply came in to being in the blink of an eye. That would be a phrase that would not go well in my culture as we do not blink like you do.” The Alien said.

“Come again?” Kandace asked angling her ear like she had misheard.

“I was observing a section of space that seemingly did not have any inhabitable planets and then I woke up one morning and this place had appeared. It was the closest planet that could support life so I,” she paused for a second, “Commandeered this vessel to investigate.”

“Grand theft space ship. I like it.” Alex said with an approving nod.

“I witnessed your battle with the one that was called Dusk. His mind was filled with evil thoughts. Your minds were only concerned with safety. This is why I decided to show myself to you.” The Alien explained.

“Now that you are here, what are your intentions?” Alex asked.

“I cannot return on this ship in its current state. It will fly and it is even space worthy, but I’m afraid that my interstellar drive was destroyed beyond repair. At sub-light speed it would take me several centuries to return to my home. After my final actions I think that I would return a fugitive.” The Alien said. Alex noticed another notification appear.

“So, what you’re saying is that others will likely follow you.” Kandace said adopting a defensive tone.

“Well I’m sure that they will. My brash movement of coming here will guarantee that they will recognize that there is life in the cosmos, however, this was the only one with the working prototype interstellar drive and working I’m using loosely it dropped me into the dirt. It’s likely to be years before they are able to get here.” The Alien said.

“And the others like you, are they hostile?” Alex asked.

“That depends on if your species is of hostile intent.” She said with a shrug.

“We’re all going to die.” Alex said with a scoff. Obsidian threw her arms in the air and Kandace sighed deeply.

“What is the problem? Not having permission to look into your thoughts is very inefficient.” The Alien said.

“Our planet and those on it are a shoot first ask questions later kind of people. If an alien ship shows up, we are likely to try and blow it up. Judging from the fact that your ship smashed into the ground coming out of FTL and looks like it has nary a scratch I’m thinking our weapons will do nothing but piss your people off.” Kandace said as she paced around the room.

“Yes, your weapons are maddeningly ineffective.” The Alien nodded. Another notification appeared in the corner of his vision.

“Thank you for that.” Alex said shaking his head and looking at the ground.

“Could I offer you some help?” The Alien asked.

“What kind of help?” Alex asked looking up at the tall Alien.

“I can see that your people have powers like those on my planet. Some of us were born with the power to unlock and even reclaim lost power points.” She said looking down at Obsidian, “I can see that there is a great deal of lost potential in you.”

“What do you mean?” Obsidian asked looking a little defensive.

“It might be easier if I showed you instead of trying to explain.” The Alien said.

“Alright.” Obsidian said with a little bit of hesitation.

The Alien reached out its long arm and place it on Obsidian’s head. It’s eyes changed from being a silvery looking liquid to a solid black as energy pulsated down the alien’s arm and into her head. Obsidian’s arms locked up for a moment while she yelled.

Alex moved to step in, but Kandace put up her arm to stop him. When he looked at her, she simply shook her head. They watched as the process continued. With one final pulse of energy the Alien dropped her arm and her eyes slowly returned to normal as silvery clouds moved back into her large eyes.

“Obsidian?” Alex asked.

For a moment she didn’t say anything. She was occupied with something else altogether.

“Obsidian!” Alex demanded.

“I’m sorry,” She said looking over and Alex, “This is amazing. She reset everything about my powers. She even went back and got me my power points that I didn’t get before the change. It cost me two levels, but I now have the option to choose three starting powers like bridgers and I have a power point for each level instead of every other level.” She explained feverishly.

“That’s awesome and it settles it!” Alex said clenching his fist.

“Settles what?” Kandace asked.

“I know what we will call you! Respec.” Alex said with a smiled.

“Ah yes a video game term for rebuilding a character that you are unsatisfied with at a late point in the game.” Respec said holding up a finger.

“Yes, that is what that meant. I don’t know why you had to explain it that way.” He said shaking his head in response to the ruin of the perfect moment. Another notification appeared and Alex finally decided that he should check into what was going on. He opened the messages which turned out to be phone messages from Calson.

Calson: Hey Aether, just wanted to let you know that there is some weird stuff going on back in Winter’s Garden.

Calson: This is Calson again, there was an incident that took the power down for several hours.

Calson: Calson again. It turns out that that incident was a terrorist attack that took out a factory a few blocks down.

Calson: This is Calson in case you don’t have my number saved. There were several people killed in the explosion.

“Apparently there was an explosion back home caused by a terrorist.” Alex said looking and Kandace and Obsidian.

“Really?” Obsidian asked.

“Yeah, I got a bunch of messages from Calson. I think he is a little shook up because it was a factory a few blocks down that was hit.” Alex explained.

“We should probably head back.” Obsidian said looking over at Respec.

“Right. I need to figure out what I am going to do about this mission. I am supposed to report my findings of the crash site to an unknown party.” Alex said shaking his head, “I don’t know if I want to tell anyone about what we found up here.”

“Why don’t you lie?” Kandace asked.

“I would never.” Alex said mockingly pressing his hand to his chest.

“I’ve done it. If they accept your report, then you still get the mission rewards.” Kandace said with a shrug.

“Alright, I’ll give it a try. Function take a letter for me.” Alex said using a still mocking old English accent tone.

“Yes sir.” Functions said.

“To whom it may concern. I have investigated the crash site at the indicated location. I regret to inform you that there was nothing of interest to be reported about this information. Thank you for the mission, Aether.” He said with a smile.

Obsidian, Kandace and even Respec gave him a judgmental look.

“What?” He asked.

“I hope they buy it.” Obsidian said walking out of the tent.

“I had to make it official.” He said following behind her.

The four of them walked out into the cold outside air. Alex quickly realized that they could not let Respec walk into the city the way that she looked, but at the same time he did not want to leave her behind. He wanted to keep an eye on here.

“Respec.” He said stopping and turning to look at her, “This might be rude but is there any way that you can change your appearance. You kind of stick out like sore thumb and I’d like to keep an eye on you so that the wrong people don’t get their hands on you.”

Respec lifted her arm and pressed her finger to a circular device that was embedded in her arm. Blue laser like lights projected from the device and scanned over Alex, Obsidian, and Kandace. Once the lights had moved over each of them entirely it vanished. A few silent moments passed before she tapped on the device again.

Her skin began to glow white, brighter and brighter until they couldn’t see her body anymore. When the light died away a beautiful woman stood where Respec had been. She had long blond hair, a very attractive curved body and soft facial features. Her eyes opened showing her crystal blue irises. Her body was covered with a skintight white suit that covered the parts that would get her in trouble if exposed to the public, well like not get her in trouble, but would definitely cause a scene. The stomach was cut out as well as the shoulders and leg portion only went to just above the knee. She was still super tall, but her body was not as narrow as it had been in alien form.

“Wow.” Obsidian said before anyone else could open their mouth to say anything.

“That was the exact word that came to mind for me as well.” Alex said with his mouth nearly on the ground.

“Is there something wrong? I did my best to replicate the appearance based on an average of your three appearances.” Respec said frowning. She started to spin around and look at her new appearance.

“No, no. It is fine!” Alex said shaking his head.

“Better that fine.” Obsidian said with a smile.

“Oh alright, your reactions had me worried. So, I will be able to blend in with this appearance?” She asked looking relieved.

“Blend in?” Alex said looking over at the other two, “Maybe not blend in, but you look human and that is what counts.”

“Aren’t you a little cold?” Kandace asked. This question arose because Alex and Obsidian were wearing supped up super suits that had special equipment and she was wearing a large coat that had fur around the corner all while Respec was standing in the falling snow wearing not much more than a bathing suit.

“My people have a naturally high resistance to the cold. We can also survive in a vacuum for many hours without the need for a breath.” She explained in a matter of fact tone.

“That must be nice.” Alex said with a shiver after thinking about her exposed skin, “We should probably get going.” He suggested when another message of urgency appeared in the corner of his vision.

“Here is the stuff that I collected.” Obsidian said handing him a bag as they set off on the hike towards the truck. Alex decided to go through it as they walked.

-Needle 37x

-Total Value: 27,682t

-Your Share: 24,914t

-Deposit in personal Account?

-Yes | No

~~~

Health Serum I (10x)

Health Serum II (3x)

Health Serum III (1x)

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Energy Serum I (12x)

Energy Serum II (4x)

Energy Serum III (2x)

Energy Serum IV (1x)

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Power Serum III (1x)

Feat Serum I (1x)

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Basic Computer Components (30x)

Basic Electrical Components (15x)

Advanced Electrical Components (3x)