Chapter 14
Houston City Limits, Texas, 18:00
They neared the city but Serena had been incredibly quiet, she wanted nothing more than to throw up those souls she had just sucked into her body. She knew she would always feel them inside her even though their cries were quieting as her mind adapted to the presence of their power and what parts of their consciousness had transferred to her. Her parents could also feel it; it was as though their daughter was in some way reaching out to them.
“Serena, are you okay?” Alex asked as he put his hand on her shoulder
“No.” Serena had to admit, “Uncle Max, put it over.” Max did and in seconds Serena was out the door and spewing vomit once more onto the road. It took a few minutes for her to stop but when she did she sat on the road with her knees up to her chest and just hung her head down. “So much for the bad girl look.”
“Hey it happens to the best of us.” Isabel said as she moved next to the girl
“I just want them out of me. I don’t care about the power boost, I just…” Serena said
“Is there any way to do that?” Liz asked
“No. They’re in me. It would be like trying to get the exact same drop out of a glass of water after putting it in. The only way would be not to do it and that is one of the few reasons why I’m back here to begin with, to make sure that baby doesn’t ever need to do it.” Serena said
“Any other problems from doing this?” Alex asked
“Just the headache, had one for a few hours the last time I did it. I expect this to be quite worse since there were at least 20 more than that time in the future.” Serena said
“23.” Michael said
“Really need to know that uncle Michael.” Serena said, “Thanks.”
“Sorry.” Michael said
Then Serena just shook her head, “For gods sake, why me? I obviously can’t handle it. It makes me sick to my stomach just to…I suck life from them like it was nothing but every time it makes me feel like this and I just want to rip it out of me.” She said with nothing but hatred for her ability
“Actually, Serena that isn’t your ability.” Tess said, getting everyone to look at her
“You want to explain that?” Serena asked
“Nacedo once taught me that our powers could often be influenced by emotions. Skins manipulated everything. They got your dad killed even though that dick general pulled the trigger and all through your life you watched us all die one by one. That had to take its toll on you.” Tess said
“Powers are genetic.” Serena said
“No, the energy is genetic. How we use that energy is genetic to a degree but there are a lot of influences on the body. Chemicals, hormones…you told us the first time this happened to you, you were surrounded by Skins. Skins who were going to kill you and what was left of your family.” Tess said, “One day Max felt threatened and he formed a shield but all the time before that he could heal.”
“So what was I supposed to end up with?” Serena asked, “Be like mom? A dreamwalker?”
“Maybe. Or maybe a healer.” Tess said, “Its more incentive to get up off your ass right now and make sure the future turns out better, making sure baby Serena’s powers turn out all right.”
“Uh, question. Serena, why didn’t you know about that?” Michael asked
“Cause I wouldn’t have told her.” Tess said, “In the future, it already happened, there was nothing to change it. Tell her would have just gotten in the way and when it came down to it we’re dealing with survival. We would have need that power.”
Serena looked up at her aunt, “What? You…you should have told me aunt Tess.”
“I have a feeling I would have wanted to…badly. But…”
“Yeah.” Serena said, she did understand. She may have only used the power once in her time but there was never any guarantee that she wouldn’t have need to use it. Something getting in the way of that at a crucial point would have been bad. Besides she knew her aunt well enough to know that she would have wanted to tell her.
Alex then moved down and knelt on one knee next to her and stoked her hair lovingly before hugging her. “You’ll be okay and we’ll always be there for you. How about we go make sure of that?”
Serena looked at him, “Yeah. There better not be a Skin, soldier or fed in our path from now on…I’m in a really bad mood.”
“That’s my girl.” Alex said as he helped her up
Dupree Enterprises Head Offices, Houston, 18:30
The car pulled up into the parking lot of Laurie’s company and they all got out. Serena kept her gun hidden while Tess prepared to mindwarp any guard into missing that little chuck of deadly metal. Each walked confidently, led by Laurie to the front door of the office block where a guard stopped them.
“Ms Dupree, haven’t seen you around for a few months. You working late tonight?”
“Hey Chester. Yeah, I’ve been travelling around a lot but it’s not exactly work tonight. My brother Michael wants to get to know the family business so I’m showing him and his friends the company.” Laurie said
“Uh, Ms Dupree…you don’t have a brother.” Chester said, he may not know the boss’s family well but he knew its members and there was only supposed to be the three of them left. Laurie, whom he liked, and the Aunt & Uncle who treated everyone beneath them feel like inferior scum.
“Oh that’s right, you probably done know.” Laurie said as she pulled out a locket that had a photo of her granddad inside. She handed it over to the guard and he insistently spotted the overwhelming similarity, “My dad was…well. Once upon a time he and my mom had issues and dad made a mistake. But, it left Michael so happy times for me.” She really didn’t like saying that about her father, he was incredibly devoted and loyal to her mother even through the times when they were having issues but it was a necessary evil to pass Michael off as her brother and not as the clone of her grandfather that a bunch of aliens made.
“Well, I guess since you are the owner after all. But you know the rules, I have to search you all.”
“Hey, I set up the rules remember.” Serena said with a smile and lifted up her arms
The guard proceeded to pat her down before checking her bag and then followed suit with the others. Each willingly let themselves be searched as Tess focused on warping the guard’s mind to make sure he didn’t find Serena’s weapon. Each handed over their ID’s when asked, Alex arranged for one that said that his daughter was in fact Isabel’s cousin since she had inherited her mother’s height, build and more than a generous portion of her looks. Besides right now she looked to old to be their daughter.
“Okay, all clear.” Chester said, “But we’re had a bit of a bug problem lately. We’ve had to call in the fumigators, they’re working floor by floor, they should be up on floor 9 by now.”
“A bug problem? What kind of bugs?” Laurie asked, she was kicking herself for not keeping in contact.
“Roaches.” Chester said
Laurie lost any trace of a happy face, “I really hate roaches. Why are there roaches in my building?”
“Just bad timing.” Chester suggested with a fake smile
“Floor 9?”
“Yes, they’re sealing them off as they go.” Chester said, “They should be up at your office in 3 hours.”
“Well this wont take that long.” Laurie said, “I swear if I see a roach it’s dead.”
“That’s the plan miss.” Chester said
“Tell me you can kill lots of cockroaches?” Laurie asked each of her family
“Oh they’re dead.” Max said before looking at Michael
“She hates roaches.” Michael said
“Yeah who doesn’t?” Tess said
“Oh did I say hate? Let me put it this way, that little hospital room my aunt and uncle kept me in…I had room mates…lots and lots of creepy crawly room mates.” Laurie said
“Okay, enough said.” Liz said
Soon they were through the doors and got to the elevators. To get to the upper offices you needed a special key and Laurie took hers out of her pocket before sliding it into the lock on the button panel. She turned it and pressed the button for the floor in which her office was situated. Then they were heading up.
Skin Compound, Washington D.C., Same Time
Kivar sat in his chair, looking at the massive screens before him that showed the last images of his attempted ambush. He watched as the girl approached his people, covered in white fire before his people started to fall and die very slowly. Soon one of his people approached him.
“Who is she?” Kivar asked, impressed at the power he saw and wished he could do that.
“Unknown, although the scans of our people out there shows that she has human and Antarian genetics. In fact her Antarian side appears to be from Vilandra. If I had to say…she appears to be the daughter of the human Alexander Whitman and Vilandra’s hybrid form.”
“That’s not possible. She’s too old. We anticipated rapid gestation is she mated with a human but normal physical development there after.” Kivar said
“Yes sir but there is also an unusual signature within her cellular makeup.”
“Signature?”
“A temporal variance…with energy modulations similar to that of the Granolith.”
“Ah, a time traveller. Who would have thought they would have figured that out?” Kivar said, “She killed all of the team we sent?”
“Yes my lord. Which means Zan could obtain that code your operative spoke of.”
“You can remove those components from our systems?” Kivar asked
“I’m afraid not my lord. You engineers have said that the components are ultimate necessary for the operation of each system. To remove them or disable them will shut us down just like that code would. The person that came up with it was very smart. We are putting together replacements components that bypass the affected circuits but it will take time. We certainly can make enough for our internal systems here but for the equipment in the field there is no way can make anywhere close to enough.”
“Very well, crucial systems only. Just replace them as fast as possible. But we need to stop them getting that code.”
“That girl having that power gives them the additional advantage over our personnel. It doesn’t matter about their defensive or offensive capability, she can take down any force we send against them.”
“Then I guess I’ll just have to up the anti.” Kivar said as he started pressing keys on his pad. Instantly his screen changed to a map of the world and then zoomed into the US eastern coastline. There was a ship just off the coast, stationed there by legitimate military protocol when everything started just in case a foreign power tried to take advantage of the disarray in the US.
On board things started going chaotic as the sailors and the captain most of all had no idea what was happening as a hatch opened on the deck of his vessel. Kivar had gained control of their computers and now the ship was launching a single cruise missile. It shot out of the ship, extended its flight wings and flew smoothly over the water to the land.
“Let’s see them get out of that.” Kivar said
Resistance H.Q., Immediately Following
“What’s going on?” Torias said as he came into the tactical centre
“We’ve just detected a missile launch from a destroyer, the USS Reverence. It just off the coast…it’s a cruise missile.”
“What’s it target?”
“Current course…Houston, Texas.”
Torias looked up from the map on the table, “Kivar. He’s trying to destroy that code.”
“And no doubt he can spin this. If Max gets the code then it’s an attack to gain access to weapon schematics. If the building blows then its an attack, a confirmation test that alien infiltrators can access US military systems.” Torias said, “Call them, call them now and get them out.” He said as he looked over at Zeezu. “Does he have to do that?”
The alien ball kept bouncing up and down in front of baby Serena who was giggling and attempting to reach out. Zeezu loved entertaining the newborn just as much as she loved watching the ball bounce. However, it proved to be an irritating distraction to the resistance commander.
Philip moved closer, “It keeps Serena happy and distracted. Given that we know she remembers everything this is a good things since her mother and father are out there in danger.” He said, “Even if she doesn’t understand that now, in time she will.”
Torias looked back and forth between the baby and her human grandfather, and nodded. “Of course, sorry. I guess helping her helps us all, if she does grow up and things don’t work out then she might have the opportunity to come back again and finish it.”
“I hope you don’t mind me saying that I hope she doesn’t need to.”
“Believe me, the feeling is mutual.”
Laurie’s Office, Dupree Enterprises, 18:45
In her building, Laurie opened her office and let everyone inside before she flicked a switch and turned off the security cameras in the office. Just a little feature she had installed in case she ever needed a little privacy or if she was in a private meeting, she never figured that she would be using it so that she could steal some disks from her own company.
“What’s the combination?” Michael asked as he moved to pull a picture off the wall to access the safe door.
“We can’t use the combination. Opening the safe will be logged into security records and the cameras automatically switch back on.” Laurie said, earning stares from everyone, “What? I needed to protect my company’s work and if it got to someone else then I figured it would be good to know when the safe was opened and who did it.”
“You know, you’re too smart for your own good.” Michael said to his sister
Laurie smiled, “I’ll remind you that you said that.”
Michael grumbled and rolled his eyes, “Okay, so how do we do this?”
“Hmm.” Max said, “We make a door inside the door.”
“Come again?” Tess asked
Max waved his hand over the door, creating a break in the thick metal lining down to the locking mechanisms. He was careful not to damage any of them but on the other side of the door he worked way until it fell back into the safe. Inside everyone could see files, discs and piles of money as well as a few special personal items from her parents and grandfather. There was enough space for Laurie to reach inside and open the hidden compartment. Inside were all the true details on her company’s work and the disc that contained the shutdown codes.
Laurie pulled them out and put them in her bag, as well as all the personal items and the cash. She didn’t know if or when she’d get back here and she’d left them here once before and she wasn’t going to do it again. “Now, how do we get this out? Security wont let anyone out with these or anything else for that matter.” She said just as Max’s cell phone started ringing.
“Yes?” Max said, his eyes went wide and hung up, “We need to get out of here, there is a missile coming this way.”
Liz turned to Laurie, “How many people work in here?”
“I have no idea, janitorial staff and workaholics mainly.” Laurie said
“Wait, you have a few labs in here right?” Tess asked, “With hazardous chemicals?”
“Yeah.” Laurie said
“Fire alarm.” Michael said, “No one will want to be caught in here if those things go up.” In a second he aimed his hand to the smoke detector in her office and fired a minor blast of energy at it. In seconds it went off and everyone started heading out. The took the stairs was the 15 or so more people the came across who were all trying to get out of the building. Tess arranged for a little mindwarp so that people saw smoke and the flickering light of flames coming from above them.
Downstairs…
Minutes later Laurie’s staff was pouring through the doors and fire exits just as fire engines and ambulances approached the area with their lights flashing. Liz looked around; she could feel the missile on its approach yet this was the worst possible situation. Instead of getting people out, they had just brought more people into a place where they would probably be killed when the missile hit. The building was off by itself, not in the downtown of Houston or near any residences and while that may limit the collateral damage but the emergency service personnel here now wouldn’t stand a chance.
“How do we get everyone out of here? This blast could take out everyone here.” Liz said
“Uh, idea.” Tess said as the fire department approached. In a second she focus on creating a massive mindwarp over everyone here with the exception of her family.
Suddenly everyone heard reports coming in over the department’s radio system of a series of explosions happening across town and that all units were being called in. She simply planted the suggestion that it was a hoax call by someone. Tess nodded to Max.
“There might be people hurt out there, go.” Max said
“But if there is a fire here…?” the chief fire officer said
“Prioritise. Big boom there, it was a little fire here that I put out with an extinguisher. There’s just a lot of smoke now.” Max said
The guy nodded and turned back. In minutes they were pulling away but Serena saw the ambulances and had an idea. She used her power, with the lowest usage of power she could. It really didn’t take a lot to make people from within the building to start choking, including Laurie who still had her bag over her shoulder and the guards. The med techs from the ambulances were soon by them, no one was getting searched with this going on and that meant no discs being found.
“Serena?” Laurie spluttered out
“Go with it.” Serena whispered, just keep your bag on you.
Michael went with Serena as she was taken to an ambulance. Soon everyone was being driven off. Max and the other ran to their car and speeding off in the same direction. Minutes later the missile practically flew over their car and they saw the offices blow up in a massive ball of fire. The resulting shockwave almost threw them off the road and after swerving and a little creative driving they were able to straighten themselves up and head off in search of Michael’s sister.
For as long as they could, they watched as Dupree Enterprises burned to the ground. It reflected in Serena’s eyes until they went over a hill and out of sight of it, “That’s another part of this family burnt up.” She said
“Serena can rebuild it. It was only the offices, the main work is among those disks and in their main labs.” Max said
“Still, Aunt Laurie loved that company. It was the one of the things her Grandfather left her that her aunt and uncle didn’t totally mess with. They may have used it and added a few things to the business that Laurie wouldn’t have done but it’s still Dupree at its heart.” Serena said, “I am really getting pissed.”
“Serena.” Isabel said, chastising her daughter, “Language.”
“You’re kidding right.” Serena said
“Serena, not kidding.” Isabel said
“Wow, certainly didn’t expect that when I came back. Believe me, I’ve used a lot worse in my time.”
“Oh really?” Alex asked
“Okay, it was only when the situation called for it.” Serena said
“Trust me, that changes.” Alex said
“Oh you bet.” Isabel said, “Is that understood?”
Serena looked back and forth between her parents, “Yes mom, yes dad.” Serena said, feeling very small
“Hell if we could do without it I would take that gun and melt it.” Isabel said, “Unfortunately, none of us can shoot quite like you.”
“Well hopefully even baby me will never ever learn to shoot like me.” Serena said
“Couldn’t have said it better myself.” Alex said
After 20 minutes they reached the hospital that Laurie was taken to. With a little bit of a mindwarp and manipulated test results, Laurie was discharged with what the doctors diagnosed as minor smoke inhalation with no continual treatment required. Laurie was safe to leave and she took her bag, walking out with Michael they both got in the car as it pulled up and they drove away.
Sub-Level 5, The Pentagon, 19:00
The Pentagon had gone on high alert and once more everyone was running around. The General had heard what happened but he still couldn’t believe it when he entered his command room, “That ship did what?” he asked
“It fired a missile that impacted and completely destroyed a building in Houston. The captain said he never authorised a launch or even received a command to do so.”
“Then what happened?”
“We done know, a signal was detected and traced back to Washington D.C. just before the ship fired. The way he reported it, it was like his ships computers did it themselves.”
“Damn it.” The general said
“Sir?”
“That alien, Kivar. He has control over our weapons, his contacts and advancements through his projects…he put equipment on over 90% of our resources.”
“General, he’s put upgrades into our nuclear silos.”
The general closed his eyes and sighed deeply, “He’ll still require the launch codes from the president, those systems cant be overridden and they were kept separate from any modifications. We can launch faster and go further at a greater speed of acceleration but he cannot initiate a launch.”
“I hope so.” His lieutenant said
“Hmm. How are our redeployments going?”
“The last group will arrive at their new base from California in 6 hours.”
“And the civilian problems?”
“The more accusations from the internet broadcast that are confirmed the more there are civil unrests. Most notably in area that are represented by someone that is guilty. Half our black projects cant get anything done since our hidden bases and undercover offices have been exposed and now surrounded. The press is everywhere on this.”
“What about what’s going on in Washington?”
“The city is being filled with new protestors every hour, and reports from the Joint Chiefs suggest that the President is considering deployment of the National Guard to restore order. As well as all other available troops if need be.”
“Given how things are out there, that could very well set off a full conflict.”
“The president, Senate and Congress are concerned that the current situation makes us look weak and could invite attack from our enemies. They want it over now.”
“Then half of those people should have done what they did to cause this situation.” The general said, “I think it’s time I talk to the president about his most trusted general Ivar.”
Oval Office, The White House, 20:00
The president wanted into his office to find the general standing there, “I’m a little busy general, what is it?”
“Mr president, I have come into some information. The aliens that we’ve been hunting the last few years…they are not the threat we’ve been concerned about.
“Oh really? Have you looked out the window? It was those aliens that leaked that information that’s caused widespread chaos over the entire country. I’ve had to ground every flight except for military excursions, the stock exchange dropped nearly 1000 points today and I’m closing it tomorrow.”
“The sent it out in retaliation for the strike on their home as well as driving them from Roswell. However…I have been informed that there is another alien, one from their planet who is some kind of psychotic dictator. I’ve been told that he seeks to use us to wipe out a significant proportion of Earth’s population before his own forces set about eradicating what’s left and colonising this planet.”
“Who?”
“His name is Kivar, we know him as General Ivar.”
“WHAT?” The president asked, “Who told you this?”
“The girl that sliced my arm open, during the attack on their hotel.”
“And you believe her?”
“I have no reason not to sir, she was very convincing and recently a device we’ve had at my project activated when in the presence of Ivar and only then. It appears to detect him and not anyone else.”
“Why haven’t you reported this before?”
“I didn’t know who to trust sir, his influence is incredibly extensive but with the launch of the missile from the USS Reverence…I felt you needed to know in order to take action.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes sir, but even if I wasn’t we shouldn’t take the risk of ignoring it. This Kivar…he needs to be taken down and soon.” The general said
“I will consider it General. Have all your data on this on my desk in 30 minutes and the Joint Chiefs and I will decide on the action to take. Go back to the Pentagon and wait to hear back from me.”
“Yes Mr President.” The general said before turning and leaving the office.
In the second that followed, the president stared at the door the general left through before looking down at his phone. He picked up the receiver and dialled a number he knew off by heart, “This is the President, I need to speak to General Ivar.” He said when someone picked up on the other end, soon Kivar was on the phone, “General, I’ve heard something very interesting about you…”
Skin Compound, Washington D.C., Immediately Following
Kivar listened to what the President told him, he was among the few that he had arranged a little special influence with. Kivar had programmed the president with his powers so that any pertinent information that could be compromising to him would be communicated back to the alien as soon as possible with the added bonus of it not being believed by the person who heard it.
As Kivar listened he just laughed off the accusation, “Oh I needed a good laugh Mr president, thank you. As for his report on the device that activated…I have been exposed to multiple alien signatures from researching their equipment, it is possible that I have picked up some kind of low-lying radiation that his device picked up on. For all we know it could be an alien equivalent of a Geiger counter. However, to more important matters sir, the aliens…the actual aliens that is, they have been moving rapidly. I believe they struck the headquarters of Dupree Enterprises as some sort of test of their capabilities. I will contact you if I get anything more…thank you Mr President.” Kivar closed off the line to the president and didn’t look happy.
“My lord?”
“In the words of the humans…damn.” Kivar said, “That annoying little general has been talking to the wrong people and knows who I am.”
“Terminate?”
“Terminate.” Kivar said
His underling moved to a nearby consol and started entering commands. On his screen he brought up the massive list of names and selected the generals. Within seconds he activated the system to detonate the explosive implant they still believed was in his arm. They had no way of knowing that Serena had cut it out of him. “Uh…My lord, there is a problem.”
“What is it?” Kivar asked
“We’re not receiving anything from the implant in the human. We should have received a confirmation signal a millisecond before detonation occurred.”
“There is nothing?”
“No.”
“Running a tracking request. Get his location.” Kivar ordered as he moved from his chair and went to the consol.
The Skin worked away and started shaking his head, “It’s no use my lord, there is no signal at all. It’s like he doesn’t even have an implant.”
“Stupid question but…”
“I implanted him my self my lord, I did all general grade military officers. All the implants were fully functional.”
“Could it have been removed?” Kivar asked
“They would have to know the precise location. No one has that information.”
“Maybe not yet. But in the future…”
“The girl?”
“The girl.” Kivar said, “She probably got the information at some point and used it to get the implant out of him.”
“My lord, without a way of tracking him or killing him…”
“He can do anything without being monitored. He could be outside my door right now and we wouldn’t know it.” Kivar said, “Send a squad, find him and kill him now.”
“Yes my lord.”
The Skin went off and put together a five-man team to go out and find the General. Within 20 minutes they were out and hunting. There were only so many places the general would be, they might not be able to get access to the Pentagon but that didn’t mean they couldn’t wait in the massive crowd of people currently protesting outside of the military command building and wait for him to just stick his head out of a window.
Resistance H.Q., Beneath the Diner, Texas, 20:20
With stars overhead and hell waiting over the horizon, the group arrived back at the diner and went down into the concealed bunker. Laurie carried her bag over her shoulder and as they reached the bottom of the steps she pulled out her collection of discs. She handed them to Max who handed them to Torias with a smile.
“Mission accomplished.” Max said
Off to the side, Alex and Isabel spotted their daughter and headed straight over, “There’s my little girl.” Isabel said, as she took Serena from her mother
“Did you like playing with your old grandparents?” Alex asked as he looked at the little bundle
“Enough with the old.” Diane said to her son in-law
“Yes Ma’am.” Alex said
“Oh I like that.” Diane said
At the tactical desk, Torias inserted the disc and a holographic display of the code appeared above the desk. “Impressive…simple. Unfortunately we don’t have the resources to broadcast that over the planet, we had to leave them in the ship.”
“Can we get access to the ship? Maybe raid it and get what you need?” Maria asked
“Raid a highly secured military base, fight our way through hundreds of heavily armed personnel down into the underground complex beneath it and access a sealed spacecraft. And then get out with what we need.” Torias said
“That would be no?” Maria asked
“Yes, that’s a no.” Torias said
“Could have just said that.” Maria said
“Yeah, but that doesn’t quite get the point across.” Michael said, “But what do we do?”
“The VLA.” Liz said
“That’s a very good idea.” Max said
“I’m sorry, the what?” Kyle asked
“The Very Large Array in New Mexico…west of Socorro, it’s the biggest collection of radio telescope dishes in the world. It’s intended to pick up signals from out in the universe and hopefully find some signs of intelligence as well as do a little cosmic mapping. SETI is set up there.” Liz said, “Of course if they knew what they were looking for was already here…”
“Anyway, it’s capable of transmitting things all over this planet. It can get access to satellites and well…we can send out that code without bringing everyone right here to the Resistance.” Max said
“Using the VLA means we can do the job we need to…do.” Liz said as she started looking over her shoulder
“Liz?” Isabel asked
“Uh oh.” Liz said as everyone started hearing noises from the restaurant above them and they all looked up.
“What’s going on?” Torias asked as bashing sounds started coming from the bunker door. The explosions kept coming, almost in time with the bashing. Soon dents started forming on it and everyone backed away.
“Defensive positions; activate automatic weapons systems.” Torias said and then turned to the teenage Serena, “I thought you said Kivar didn’t know where we were?”
“He doesn’t.” Serena said, “But I know that sound…that’s not Skin weapons.”
“Then who?” Torias asked
Suddenly the door exploded inward, flying across the room and imbedding itself in the wall directly opposite. Zeezu started trembling as from the smoke emerged his red brother. He walked in and jumped up onto the metal railing, looking down at the Skins and everyone else. Then in bounced the other three Gemods came bouncing in and stood next to the red one.
“Neezu daka Zeezu.” The red one said before the yellow one started laughing insanely.
“Okay…this never happened in the last timeline.” Serena said with great concern.
To Be Continued…
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Chapter 15
Resistance H.Q., Immediately Following
High above them at the entrance to the base, four multi-coloured little balls stood menacingly over the mass of Skins and the extended family. Zeezu had rolled his way over under a table in the corner and just hid there Serena was very worried and couldn’t figure out what she had changed that would have brought the Gemods here so quickly. Last time they didn’t track him down for quite some time, they got away and Kivar nuked the area they were in. As expected it only slowed them down being stuck under a mass of rubble and surrounded by enough radiation to interfere with the blue ball’s ability to teleport out. However, what caused it wasn’t important right now, they were here so she just put it down to one of those things.
All of a sudden the balls leapt off the upper balcony and started to bounce off every wall and panel, heading down to the ground. The Skin rebels knew of the Gemods every bit as much as Kivar’s people and there wasn’t one who didn’t run for or grab their weapons and start firing. The yellow started firing back as his brothers bounced off many of them, they hit with such force that the Skins were thrown backwards into the wall. Max his his family in one corner and raised his shield to protect them. Each impact weakened him to the point that the others started feeding him their own strength to keep it up. Michael took the opportunity to take the occasional shot but his power didn’t even phase them.
“We’re not doing so good.” Michael yelled
“No kidding.” Kyle said, “Any ideas?”
“Other than dying?” Michael asked
“Uh, yeah, other than dying.”
“Well…no, nothing.” Michael said
“Would you two shut up.” Tess said
The Gemods then suddenly stopped as they came to rest on top of a desk. Max never lowered his shield as he looked around at the mass of wounded Skins on the floor. Thanks to their husks, they were only weakened and not fatally hit. Then Neezu looked to the table that his wayward brother was under. He smiled as he suddenly bounced off and hit the table, smashing it into a billion shards of wood before landing back with his other brothers.
Zeezu opened his eyes and looked around, suddenly realising that his hiding place was gone. He looked up to his brothers and then decided to smile widely and give a little wave. “Zeezu beda zu.” He greeted his brothers, even if it was a fake smile.
“Neezu da bal cada ma.” Neezu said before he and his brothers bounced off their table and all headed to Zeezu
Each started to glow as energy crackled between them until they impacted Zeezu. The resulting flash of light from when they made contact was almost blinding and caused everyone to retract back from it. When they were able to look back, they heard a laugh, a deep, gruff laugh that came from a big lump of brown flesh that stood up. Unlike the parts that formed it, this thing wasn’t a ball. It was big, bulky, almost human shape with bulging bumps all over. It had gleaming green eyes and little pointy ears, energy crackled all over it with sharp claws. This creature was designed to be a soldier and one that could decimate armies all by itself if need be.
“Uh…our little ball’s all grown up.” Maria said
“Zeezu?” Serena asked
“Gemodzu cada marok.” It said
“Gemodzu? Sounds like a Japanese cartoon character.” Michael said
Just then it stretched out its arms and yawned, the only problem was the sound of that yawn was almost deafening. The creature moved around as the Skins tried to move out of the way. Suddenly it was covered in a blue glow and vanished. That was when Max lowered his shield.
1 Hour Later…
Everyone spent the next hour helping the Skins, their husks could easy regenerate with sufficient power but that was a simple matter of the hybrids resting their hands on the rebels and letting their energy flow out a little just to get the process started. When everyone was back on their feet most of the Skins started to clean up the mess.
“So what do we do?” Isabel asked
“We have to get Zeezu back is what we do.” Maria said
“Why did that thing take off?” Max asked Serena
“The merging takes a lot of energy, Gemodzu was meant for emergency in a war so it wont take long. 23, maybe 24 hours. But after that he’ll be at full strength. Right now he’ll be finding some where to sleep, remote, dark…somewhere where he won’t be disturbed.”
“It takes a day to get him up and running? I guess they have a different definition of emergency.” Kyle said
“Not really. They have good sensors for detecting incoming ships. If they pick up a threat they put him together.” Serena said
“Okay, they put him together. How do they take him apart?” Maria asked
“I have no idea. Zeezu never told me.” Serena said
“Okay, so, Liz…future sight thing, she can find him. Let’s go.” Michael said
“Wait.” Max said
“What?” Maria asked
“We also need to use that code and take down Kivar.” Max said
“Kivar probably knows about the code, that’s why he sent that missile. He’ll try to replace his affected equipment, he’ll adapt but he might not be able to do it quickly enough. We need to move now.” Torias said as he came closer, “And we’re still outnumbered 2-1.”
“We need help.” Michael said
“And I know where to get it.” Max said, “I have an idea. We’re going to have 3 teams…” Max started explaining his plan briefly to his family and when he told them what he had in mind for himself, they were not happy. However he quickly silenced them.
“Max, this is insane.” Michael said
“I think that’s all we’ve got left.” Max said
“Uh, no. We’ve got lots more left before we get anywhere close to insane.” Liz said with a lot of agitation
“Name one.” Max said, knowing she couldn’t
“Max…” Isabel said
“If we do this we could end it all and maybe do a little more.” Max said
After a little while and a lot of arguments, Max held his ground. He played the king card and used whatever tone of leadership he could come up with and hoped it was enough. Eventually they had to relent as they saw Max’s determination to go through with this although they still weren’t happy about it. Soon Isabel went to speak to her mother.
“Mom, I’ve made up several bottles of formula…mom, if we’re not back in 2 days or you don’t hear from us but then, just take Serena, all the money we have and head south. Don’t stop.”
“What?” Diane asked
“I need her to be taken care of.” Isabel said
“Isabel, that baby needs…”
“She needs her mother.” Alex said as he came closer, “Isabel…”
“No…I am not staying behind while you go into danger.” Isabel said
“Actually, Max and I want both you and Liz to stay back.” Alex said
“What?” Isabel and Liz said
Both young men knew they were going to end up in pain for this decision but they knew it was for the best. “Look, Liz, you’re pregnant…”
“Yes and not an invalid.” Liz said
“But you could go through one of those growth spurts that Isabel went through when she was carrying Serena. You saw how much it took out of her and that can happen to you any time.” Max said
“Oh yeah, like when?”
“Actually in about 5 hours.” Serena said as she overheard the conversation
“Oh.” Liz said as she remembered what happened with her sister in-law
“You can still stay in contact with us and your powers may give us the edge.” Max said
“And what’s your excuse with me? And you can’t use the pregnancy thing on me, cause we haven’t…you know since Serena was born.” Isabel asked her husband, as much as she did want to stay with her daughter, she was torn. Her love for both of them was warring with each other even though she knew that trusting Alex would return to her would help her as she cared for their daughter who truly did need her.
“And that’s pissing me off.” Serena said as she walked passed them, “I always did want brothers and sisters.”
Both Alex and Isabel looked at her and then did a double take at her comment. “Simple, Serena needs to be kept safe and she needs you to raise her. I need to go to hack the computers of the VLA but I can’t teach Serena how to use her powers. You can.” Alex said
“She needs you too.” Isabel said
“And I intend to be there…but if something happens out there then you should be here.” Alex said
“Yeah.” Isabel said before she hugged him, “You better come back to us.”
“I will.”
“No, you don’t get it, you better come back to us or I’ll really go to work on you. I will get Max to bring you back and I will kill you” Isabel said
“Yes ma’am.” Alex said, even more determined to get back in one piece, “But there is one thing I could use your help on.” Isabel nodded, instantly knowing what he wanted to do. The two of them moved over to their newborn daughter who was sleeping in her grandfather’s arms. He handed the girl off to Alex who rested one hand on her head as Isabel placed hers over his. There was a soft, gently glow but Serena never awoke.
“What was that?” Philip asked
“Just a few feelings for her.” Alex said as he kissed her forehead and gave her to Isabel.
It took another twenty minutes for everything to be ready and they all split off into their teams that Max had specified. The only person he hadn’t mentioned anything about was Tess.
“I guess I’m going with Kyle then?” Tess eventually asked
“Uh no, at least not as far as they are going to the VLA. Tess…I have another job for you…” Max said to her
Washington D.C., 12 Hours Later
With the new working day beginning, not very many people were working. They were in fact out in force listening again and again to the news on hand held televisions and radios that confirmed more accusations. The Pentagon was virtually surrounded with a line of armed soldiers between them and the building. It was the same in many other key buildings to the operation for the government except they were using police and Secret Service.
Around the roadblocks and sealed off streets, Max’s first team arrived outside the Pentagon. It was himself, Serena, Torias and a handful of other Skins. Torias may have been one of Rath’s loyalists but this young man was still king and didn’t like the fact that they were this close to their enemy or so close to humans that would stick them all on a medical table to cut them open. Serena wasn’t too happy about it either, she never figured her uncle would do this when she decided to come back but she had to admit he was right. After all this was the result of her not killing the S.O.B who killed her father, he had a purpose that only he could fulfil.
“This is a bad idea.” Serena said
“Maybe, but it’s what we’re doing.” Max said as he looked over to his niece, “You are an incredible girl, do you know that?”
Serena smiled, “Yeah but I still like people staying it.”
Max couldn’t help but chuckle at the way she said it, so confidently like it was unthinkable someone would think otherwise. “You came back for us…I just hope it wasn’t a wasted trip.”
“I got to know my dad and he’s alive. Not one but of it has been wasted…on the other hand if Kivar wins this time around then it will be wasted.” Serena said
“In that case. Let’s go kick his ass.” Max said as he got out of the car and looked in through the window, “Torias, keep her safe. If everything goes well then I’ll see you back at the motel.”
“Don’t worry. I know what to do.” Torias said
Max nodded and turned around. He took a single deep breath to buck up his courage and started walking. There was a bench across the street from the Pentagon, behind the crowd but well within the view of the security cameras. Max sat down, took out a book and started reading. He didn’t know how long this could take but at least he had something to do to pass the time.
Sub-Level 5, The Pentagon, 5 Minutes Later
Everyone was sitting at their stations when a phone call came. The lieutenant picked it up, gave a questioning look before bring up a security feed on his monitor.
“Uh, sir. You are not going to believe this.” He said
“What?” the general asked as he moved to the station. There as large as life as Max Evans just sitting there reading a book. “Get him in here. Now.”
“Yes sir.” The lieutenant said as he got up and headed out to the elevators.
“Lieutenant!” The general called after him.
“Sir?”
“Use people not under the control protocols. We want him alive.”
“Yes General.”
20 minutes later the elevator doors reopened in front of the General and there stood Max next to the lieutenant with soldiers around them, each armed with large rifles with big hole making bullets. They all came out and the General looked at the young man barely out of his teens.
“After all this time.” The general said, “Take him to interrogation room 1.” Soon he and Max were the only ones in the room but the guards were just outside, waiting for the least little sign for them to go in with bullets firing. “I have to admit, I didn’t think you’d ever be this stupid. You’re not are you?”
“No. So general, how’s the arm?” Max said with a smile, just thinking about how his niece sliced it open made him happy.
The general felt a twinge of pain from his arm but didn’t let it show, “I spent 2 years after you and the others and now you just walk in. My lieutenant said you didn’t even put up a fight when he detained you. So…what’s going on?”
“Serena said she told you about Kivar right?”
“Yes.”
“By now you should be aware just how much influence and connections he has.”
“You’re talking about that missile.”
“Not just that. Kivar has spent the last 60 years building everything up. He has access to everything from the president to the pope. Every world or religious leader he’s had meetings with he leaves them with levels of control implanted into their minds.”
“I’ve already informed the president of Kivar.”
Max chuckled, “Then it’s a good thing that Serena took that implant out of your arm. You would be dead right now. Not that I mind that, you were going to kill Alex and have spent the last few years trying to get all of us with bullets in our heads.”
“You were a threat…”
“No we weren’t. Not when you first found out about us and not now.” Max said angrily
“Oh really. Have you looked out of the window?” the general said
“Believe me, for my perspective you’re getting off lightly. You forced us into that the second you broke in to the hotel. We lost another home that night.”
“And I lost 50 soldiers.”
“Who were going to kill my family…big whoop.” Max said, “I’m so sorry.” He said sarcastically
“Those men had families.”
“Well we each take care of our own.” Max said, “As I said, you forced us into it each time you came after us. All we were doing was trying to stay safe and hidden…we kinda failed on the last count but I wont let anyone hurt my family. Unless Kivar is stopped that is exactly what’s going to happen, along with everyone else.”
“That’s why you’re here? Can you stop him?”
“Yes and no.”
“Well that cleared that up.”
“We know how to.” Max said, “The only problem is taking him down. We don’t have the manpower to do it. You do.”
“Ah.” The general said, “That would be the other shoe.”
“Yes. Can you get troops together?”
“I’m already in the process of doing so. All of which haven’t gone through Kivar’s mind control protocols. What do you propose?”
“So you’re open to it?”
“From what I’ve seen so far, he’s a bigger threat than I consider you to be.”
“Then lets go.” Max said
“Go?”
“Unless you trust everyone here I don’t think it’s a good idea to discuss that here.” Max said
“Very well.” The general said
With very few people knowing of Max’s presence it was a simple matter of getting him out but the general did insist on a few accompaniments. His head scientist and his lieutenant, both of which found it incredibly odd to be sitting so close to an actual alien as they drove from the Pentagon and used their military clearance to get through all the road blocks and follow Max’s directions.
...
..
.
Resistance H.Q., Immediately Following
High above them at the entrance to the base, four multi-coloured little balls stood menacingly over the mass of Skins and the extended family. Zeezu had rolled his way over under a table in the corner and just hid there Serena was very worried and couldn’t figure out what she had changed that would have brought the Gemods here so quickly. Last time they didn’t track him down for quite some time, they got away and Kivar nuked the area they were in. As expected it only slowed them down being stuck under a mass of rubble and surrounded by enough radiation to interfere with the blue ball’s ability to teleport out. However, what caused it wasn’t important right now, they were here so she just put it down to one of those things.
All of a sudden the balls leapt off the upper balcony and started to bounce off every wall and panel, heading down to the ground. The Skin rebels knew of the Gemods every bit as much as Kivar’s people and there wasn’t one who didn’t run for or grab their weapons and start firing. The yellow started firing back as his brothers bounced off many of them, they hit with such force that the Skins were thrown backwards into the wall. Max his his family in one corner and raised his shield to protect them. Each impact weakened him to the point that the others started feeding him their own strength to keep it up. Michael took the opportunity to take the occasional shot but his power didn’t even phase them.
“We’re not doing so good.” Michael yelled
“No kidding.” Kyle said, “Any ideas?”
“Other than dying?” Michael asked
“Uh, yeah, other than dying.”
“Well…no, nothing.” Michael said
“Would you two shut up.” Tess said
The Gemods then suddenly stopped as they came to rest on top of a desk. Max never lowered his shield as he looked around at the mass of wounded Skins on the floor. Thanks to their husks, they were only weakened and not fatally hit. Then Neezu looked to the table that his wayward brother was under. He smiled as he suddenly bounced off and hit the table, smashing it into a billion shards of wood before landing back with his other brothers.
Zeezu opened his eyes and looked around, suddenly realising that his hiding place was gone. He looked up to his brothers and then decided to smile widely and give a little wave. “Zeezu beda zu.” He greeted his brothers, even if it was a fake smile.
“Neezu da bal cada ma.” Neezu said before he and his brothers bounced off their table and all headed to Zeezu
Each started to glow as energy crackled between them until they impacted Zeezu. The resulting flash of light from when they made contact was almost blinding and caused everyone to retract back from it. When they were able to look back, they heard a laugh, a deep, gruff laugh that came from a big lump of brown flesh that stood up. Unlike the parts that formed it, this thing wasn’t a ball. It was big, bulky, almost human shape with bulging bumps all over. It had gleaming green eyes and little pointy ears, energy crackled all over it with sharp claws. This creature was designed to be a soldier and one that could decimate armies all by itself if need be.
“Uh…our little ball’s all grown up.” Maria said
“Zeezu?” Serena asked
“Gemodzu cada marok.” It said
“Gemodzu? Sounds like a Japanese cartoon character.” Michael said
Just then it stretched out its arms and yawned, the only problem was the sound of that yawn was almost deafening. The creature moved around as the Skins tried to move out of the way. Suddenly it was covered in a blue glow and vanished. That was when Max lowered his shield.
1 Hour Later…
Everyone spent the next hour helping the Skins, their husks could easy regenerate with sufficient power but that was a simple matter of the hybrids resting their hands on the rebels and letting their energy flow out a little just to get the process started. When everyone was back on their feet most of the Skins started to clean up the mess.
“So what do we do?” Isabel asked
“We have to get Zeezu back is what we do.” Maria said
“Why did that thing take off?” Max asked Serena
“The merging takes a lot of energy, Gemodzu was meant for emergency in a war so it wont take long. 23, maybe 24 hours. But after that he’ll be at full strength. Right now he’ll be finding some where to sleep, remote, dark…somewhere where he won’t be disturbed.”
“It takes a day to get him up and running? I guess they have a different definition of emergency.” Kyle said
“Not really. They have good sensors for detecting incoming ships. If they pick up a threat they put him together.” Serena said
“Okay, they put him together. How do they take him apart?” Maria asked
“I have no idea. Zeezu never told me.” Serena said
“Okay, so, Liz…future sight thing, she can find him. Let’s go.” Michael said
“Wait.” Max said
“What?” Maria asked
“We also need to use that code and take down Kivar.” Max said
“Kivar probably knows about the code, that’s why he sent that missile. He’ll try to replace his affected equipment, he’ll adapt but he might not be able to do it quickly enough. We need to move now.” Torias said as he came closer, “And we’re still outnumbered 2-1.”
“We need help.” Michael said
“And I know where to get it.” Max said, “I have an idea. We’re going to have 3 teams…” Max started explaining his plan briefly to his family and when he told them what he had in mind for himself, they were not happy. However he quickly silenced them.
“Max, this is insane.” Michael said
“I think that’s all we’ve got left.” Max said
“Uh, no. We’ve got lots more left before we get anywhere close to insane.” Liz said with a lot of agitation
“Name one.” Max said, knowing she couldn’t
“Max…” Isabel said
“If we do this we could end it all and maybe do a little more.” Max said
After a little while and a lot of arguments, Max held his ground. He played the king card and used whatever tone of leadership he could come up with and hoped it was enough. Eventually they had to relent as they saw Max’s determination to go through with this although they still weren’t happy about it. Soon Isabel went to speak to her mother.
“Mom, I’ve made up several bottles of formula…mom, if we’re not back in 2 days or you don’t hear from us but then, just take Serena, all the money we have and head south. Don’t stop.”
“What?” Diane asked
“I need her to be taken care of.” Isabel said
“Isabel, that baby needs…”
“She needs her mother.” Alex said as he came closer, “Isabel…”
“No…I am not staying behind while you go into danger.” Isabel said
“Actually, Max and I want both you and Liz to stay back.” Alex said
“What?” Isabel and Liz said
Both young men knew they were going to end up in pain for this decision but they knew it was for the best. “Look, Liz, you’re pregnant…”
“Yes and not an invalid.” Liz said
“But you could go through one of those growth spurts that Isabel went through when she was carrying Serena. You saw how much it took out of her and that can happen to you any time.” Max said
“Oh yeah, like when?”
“Actually in about 5 hours.” Serena said as she overheard the conversation
“Oh.” Liz said as she remembered what happened with her sister in-law
“You can still stay in contact with us and your powers may give us the edge.” Max said
“And what’s your excuse with me? And you can’t use the pregnancy thing on me, cause we haven’t…you know since Serena was born.” Isabel asked her husband, as much as she did want to stay with her daughter, she was torn. Her love for both of them was warring with each other even though she knew that trusting Alex would return to her would help her as she cared for their daughter who truly did need her.
“And that’s pissing me off.” Serena said as she walked passed them, “I always did want brothers and sisters.”
Both Alex and Isabel looked at her and then did a double take at her comment. “Simple, Serena needs to be kept safe and she needs you to raise her. I need to go to hack the computers of the VLA but I can’t teach Serena how to use her powers. You can.” Alex said
“She needs you too.” Isabel said
“And I intend to be there…but if something happens out there then you should be here.” Alex said
“Yeah.” Isabel said before she hugged him, “You better come back to us.”
“I will.”
“No, you don’t get it, you better come back to us or I’ll really go to work on you. I will get Max to bring you back and I will kill you” Isabel said
“Yes ma’am.” Alex said, even more determined to get back in one piece, “But there is one thing I could use your help on.” Isabel nodded, instantly knowing what he wanted to do. The two of them moved over to their newborn daughter who was sleeping in her grandfather’s arms. He handed the girl off to Alex who rested one hand on her head as Isabel placed hers over his. There was a soft, gently glow but Serena never awoke.
“What was that?” Philip asked
“Just a few feelings for her.” Alex said as he kissed her forehead and gave her to Isabel.
It took another twenty minutes for everything to be ready and they all split off into their teams that Max had specified. The only person he hadn’t mentioned anything about was Tess.
“I guess I’m going with Kyle then?” Tess eventually asked
“Uh no, at least not as far as they are going to the VLA. Tess…I have another job for you…” Max said to her
Washington D.C., 12 Hours Later
With the new working day beginning, not very many people were working. They were in fact out in force listening again and again to the news on hand held televisions and radios that confirmed more accusations. The Pentagon was virtually surrounded with a line of armed soldiers between them and the building. It was the same in many other key buildings to the operation for the government except they were using police and Secret Service.
Around the roadblocks and sealed off streets, Max’s first team arrived outside the Pentagon. It was himself, Serena, Torias and a handful of other Skins. Torias may have been one of Rath’s loyalists but this young man was still king and didn’t like the fact that they were this close to their enemy or so close to humans that would stick them all on a medical table to cut them open. Serena wasn’t too happy about it either, she never figured her uncle would do this when she decided to come back but she had to admit he was right. After all this was the result of her not killing the S.O.B who killed her father, he had a purpose that only he could fulfil.
“This is a bad idea.” Serena said
“Maybe, but it’s what we’re doing.” Max said as he looked over to his niece, “You are an incredible girl, do you know that?”
Serena smiled, “Yeah but I still like people staying it.”
Max couldn’t help but chuckle at the way she said it, so confidently like it was unthinkable someone would think otherwise. “You came back for us…I just hope it wasn’t a wasted trip.”
“I got to know my dad and he’s alive. Not one but of it has been wasted…on the other hand if Kivar wins this time around then it will be wasted.” Serena said
“In that case. Let’s go kick his ass.” Max said as he got out of the car and looked in through the window, “Torias, keep her safe. If everything goes well then I’ll see you back at the motel.”
“Don’t worry. I know what to do.” Torias said
Max nodded and turned around. He took a single deep breath to buck up his courage and started walking. There was a bench across the street from the Pentagon, behind the crowd but well within the view of the security cameras. Max sat down, took out a book and started reading. He didn’t know how long this could take but at least he had something to do to pass the time.
Sub-Level 5, The Pentagon, 5 Minutes Later
Everyone was sitting at their stations when a phone call came. The lieutenant picked it up, gave a questioning look before bring up a security feed on his monitor.
“Uh, sir. You are not going to believe this.” He said
“What?” the general asked as he moved to the station. There as large as life as Max Evans just sitting there reading a book. “Get him in here. Now.”
“Yes sir.” The lieutenant said as he got up and headed out to the elevators.
“Lieutenant!” The general called after him.
“Sir?”
“Use people not under the control protocols. We want him alive.”
“Yes General.”
20 minutes later the elevator doors reopened in front of the General and there stood Max next to the lieutenant with soldiers around them, each armed with large rifles with big hole making bullets. They all came out and the General looked at the young man barely out of his teens.
“After all this time.” The general said, “Take him to interrogation room 1.” Soon he and Max were the only ones in the room but the guards were just outside, waiting for the least little sign for them to go in with bullets firing. “I have to admit, I didn’t think you’d ever be this stupid. You’re not are you?”
“No. So general, how’s the arm?” Max said with a smile, just thinking about how his niece sliced it open made him happy.
The general felt a twinge of pain from his arm but didn’t let it show, “I spent 2 years after you and the others and now you just walk in. My lieutenant said you didn’t even put up a fight when he detained you. So…what’s going on?”
“Serena said she told you about Kivar right?”
“Yes.”
“By now you should be aware just how much influence and connections he has.”
“You’re talking about that missile.”
“Not just that. Kivar has spent the last 60 years building everything up. He has access to everything from the president to the pope. Every world or religious leader he’s had meetings with he leaves them with levels of control implanted into their minds.”
“I’ve already informed the president of Kivar.”
Max chuckled, “Then it’s a good thing that Serena took that implant out of your arm. You would be dead right now. Not that I mind that, you were going to kill Alex and have spent the last few years trying to get all of us with bullets in our heads.”
“You were a threat…”
“No we weren’t. Not when you first found out about us and not now.” Max said angrily
“Oh really. Have you looked out of the window?” the general said
“Believe me, for my perspective you’re getting off lightly. You forced us into that the second you broke in to the hotel. We lost another home that night.”
“And I lost 50 soldiers.”
“Who were going to kill my family…big whoop.” Max said, “I’m so sorry.” He said sarcastically
“Those men had families.”
“Well we each take care of our own.” Max said, “As I said, you forced us into it each time you came after us. All we were doing was trying to stay safe and hidden…we kinda failed on the last count but I wont let anyone hurt my family. Unless Kivar is stopped that is exactly what’s going to happen, along with everyone else.”
“That’s why you’re here? Can you stop him?”
“Yes and no.”
“Well that cleared that up.”
“We know how to.” Max said, “The only problem is taking him down. We don’t have the manpower to do it. You do.”
“Ah.” The general said, “That would be the other shoe.”
“Yes. Can you get troops together?”
“I’m already in the process of doing so. All of which haven’t gone through Kivar’s mind control protocols. What do you propose?”
“So you’re open to it?”
“From what I’ve seen so far, he’s a bigger threat than I consider you to be.”
“Then lets go.” Max said
“Go?”
“Unless you trust everyone here I don’t think it’s a good idea to discuss that here.” Max said
“Very well.” The general said
With very few people knowing of Max’s presence it was a simple matter of getting him out but the general did insist on a few accompaniments. His head scientist and his lieutenant, both of which found it incredibly odd to be sitting so close to an actual alien as they drove from the Pentagon and used their military clearance to get through all the road blocks and follow Max’s directions.
...
..
.
.
..
...
On the Road to Roswell, Western New Mexico, 10:00am
Team 2: Alex, Kyle, Laurie and 5 Skins with Tess in tow. All of them found it strange being so close to their old home, they had said goodbye to it once with the firm belief that they would never lay eyes on it again and here they were not 5 miles from the small desert town. They knew the terrain off by heart and could walk to town wearing a blindfold without any problems. It was here that Kyle pulled over and got out along with Tess. The two embraced and simply held each other.
“Stay safe.” Kyle said
“You too.” Tess said as they separated
“Will you be okay?”
“Yeah, I can get to town easily.”
“Just swipe a car and get going. Don’t stop for anything.”
“I know.” Tess said
“I should be going with you. Or at least a Skin.”
“They need you for the VLA, god knows how much security they have there and you always could get passed security.”
“Yeah with one of your mindwarps covering me. I don’t like the idea of doing it without you.”
“I’ll be there, I’m always with you.” Tess said
“You should go. There isn’t much time.” Kyle said and Tess nodded.
Quickly she headed off toward Roswell, Kyle watched until she was no longer visible when she went over the ridge of a hill. Kyle then got back in and drove them off to Socorro. Tess moved quickly across the desert, she had food and water in her backpack to last for days but she hoped that she wouldn’t be out here that long. Tess sneaked around; she didn’t want to come across anyone who knew her from before. Explaining what happened to herself and the others was not something she wanted to get caught up on even though the parent’s of the others did make up a quick story of going off to university abroad.
At any rate she came across a gas station, there wasn’t many people there and there was a very nice looking motorcycle getting filled up. Tess waited for the owner to go inside and pay for the petrol when she started a mindwarp to make herself invisible to everyone. She hopped on, made the bike look invisible and drove off. Tess travelled for a mile before she lifted it and headed off to her destination, the owner and no one else saw anything. By the time the police arrived they had found that the security camera was faulty and that there were no leads on the theft.
Heading into Colorado, Same Time
Team 3: Michael and Maria. Since Michael and Zeezu always managed to get a reaction out of each other, Max though it was a good idea if he went after Gemodzu. Unfortunately Michael wished he had a few tactical nukes with him for backup. Zeezu he could handle, Zeezu he liked but the big brown monster with the power of all five to decimate armies made him nervous. Zeezu was modified to be the conscience of the beast but their creator feared the others could get powerful enough to override their pink brother’s influence.
“Maybe Zeezu’s in there somewhere.” Maria said
“If he was…there wouldn’t have been that psycho laugh.” Michael said as he drove the car
“I know.” Maria said, “But he’s our friend, our cute little pink ball that liked to bounce.”
“And loved creampuffs.” Michael said
“You know, as much as I want him back…what do we do about the other four?” Maria asked
“God knows. If the race that created them can’t contain them then we wont be able to do much.” Michael said
After a while, Maria’s cell phone rang, “Hey Liz, what’s up?” Maria listened for a while before hanging up. “She got another vision, drive at this speed for 20 more minutes and stop.”
“And then?”
“And then we’ll be close to a cave where he is hiding.” Maria said
“How close?” Michael asked
“It’s a brisk climb.”
“Brisk, that’s you’re way of saying I’m not going to like it.”
“It’s high in the Rockies. We’re going to have to be very careful on the way up.”
Michael drove on and stopped when he was supposed to. From there they started their slow and troublesome climb up. Each helped the other, working their way to their destination and talking breaks when they needed. Eventually they found the cave from Liz’s vision and deep inside they found the sleeping form of Gemodzu.
“Okay.” Maria said, “Now what?”
“Hmm.” Michael pondered, “Well let’s not wake him up just yet.” He whispered
Motel, Washington D.C., 12:45
At the motel the lieutenant pulled up and everyone got out. Max lead them to the room he had and knocked a few times. When the door opened they all moved inside. Seconds later the door slammed shut and the lieutenant and doctor found two people with weapons aiming at their heads.
“Sorry, they weren’t expecting additional company.” Max said as he indicated with his hands for the two Skins to put their weapons down. “General, you remember Serena?”
“Yes.” The general said
“Hi.” She said coldly, “Going to give me a reason to slice the rest of you open?”
“Not today.” He responded
“Oh goody, so we can try that tomorrow then. Don’t get me wrong, I think its great you’re here and all but I still have the memory of you killing my dad so I’m all for a little hack and slash on you.” Serena said
“Serena.” Max warned, “You’ve changed the future.”
“Uh excuse me?” The scientist said
“Time travel.” Serena said
“That’s impossible.”
“Humans.” Serena said, “Uncle Max, how is it possible you guys found people who are probably the only humans on the planet with decent brains. Okay little egghead guy, just because all your little brainpower can’t figure it out some stuff like time travel and the whole faster than light travel without the relativistic effects of people aging back home, it doesn’t mean another race can’t. You’re not the end all and be all.”
“Uh huh.” The scientist said
“And this is Torias.” Max said
“Who is?” the general asked
“The leader of a group of alien. 200 strong who oppose Kivar. They arrived the same time he did to stop him but haven’t made much progress.” Serena said
“200?” the lieutenant asked
“Relax. As far as you’re concerned we’re the good guys.” Torias said, “However, we are still out numbered.”
“Fine.” The general said, “We can provide personnel. What is your plan? I am assuming Kivar would have protected himself well.”
“Correct but he left an opening. We now have access to a code that will shut down his systems, weapons which includes the ones he’s put in the field to your people and whatever else he’s hooked up to Dupree Enterprises components.” Torias said
“But we do need to move fast before he can adapt. A spy told him about our code.” Serena said
“The plan is to shut him down and attack simultaneously. Take him down as fast as possible. We have the details here if you’re interested.” Max said
The general looked at all of them, “Given what’s at stake…we’re interested. And you probably already know that we can’t do this without you.”
“Well we weren’t going to say it first. But there is a price.” Serena said
“Oh of course.” The general said, “What do you want?”
“We get left alone. We’re not a threat, we’ll live quiet lives as far away from you as possible.” Max said
“What about your own world?”
“Liz and the other humans can’t survive there. Serena…she’s debateable since she’s part human. We can get out DNA adjusted back but we’re not leaving our family.” Max said, “Consider this witness protection if it makes it easier for you.”
The general looked at them, “Done.”
“We also want the ship from the Roswell Crash.” Serena said
“Excuse me?”
“That ship belongs to us.” Torias said, “And unless you want us aliens stranded on you’re backwater planet.”
“That ship is potentially the best hope of finding a defence from alien incursion.” The scientist said
“A ship that you can’t get access to and probably not be able to for another few centuries.” Torias asked
“Hand it over and you wont regret it.” Max said
“Oh?”
“In exchange we’ll solve all your current civilian problems.” Max said
“How?” the lieutenant asked
“Us to know, you to find out but we will do it.” Serena said
“Very well, when Kivar is dealt with you can disappear. When the problems out there stop, we will hand over the ship to a place of your choosing.” The general said
“Good.” Max said, from there they all sat around the room and discussed the plan.
The Very Large Array, 50 Miles West of Socorro, 23:10
Kyle and his team pulled up a short distance away from the array and sat there for most of the day. Their timing had to be precise and they didn’t want to be sitting inside that place all day and risk an armed response from police when they took over the facility. However, when Kyle first saw the field of 27 massive dishes, his jaw hit the deck.
“Wow. You do know what to do in there, right?” Kyle asked
“Oh yeah, sure.” Alex said
For hours they waited, the sun set on the horizon, they had dinner in the form of sandwiches they brought with them, they worried like mad about how the rest of their family was doing. Then the alarm on Alex’s watch went off and nodded to the others. The Skin rebels with them lead the way; they had powers and very useful little handheld weapons that could be put on stun. Silently they moved across the desert, moving between the dishes.
Security really wasn’t an issue, yes there were some people but they were at the weak end of the training spectrum. They had no idea what hit them as the highly trained alien soldiers moved up to them and rendered them unconscious without so much as a bead of sweat forming. The heart of the facility was where all the work was done; the dished picked up signals from the big black and fed all the data into computers for the scientists to go over. With regard to S.E.T.I, they were just aching to pick up even the slightest hint of a signal from an alien intelligence. Most of the time they were disappointed with stray broadcasts from Cold War satellites.
3 Skins took the lead, 2 at the rear with Kyle, Alex and Laurie in the middle. They moved quickly, the Skins took out any human that they saw (that they weren’t protecting) and as Max very clearly ordered – no fatalities. The Skins knew from experience that any human they stunned would wake up no sooner that 2 hours later and that was more than enough time. Unfortunately there were some that were immune to the energy from their weapons, resulting in a look from their human companions.
“What? It happens sometimes.” The Skin unit commander said before using a more physical approach – i.e. he beat the crap out of him with swift punches and powerful kicks.
Those that weren’t affected were tied up and locked in a closest. After a while there was only once person left, at this time of night there was always at least one person on duty to monitor what they were getting in, usually since that was nothing they ended up playing video games on the computers. He had no idea that while he was searching for aliens, a bunch of them were sneaking up behind him. With earphone in his ears and the volume up high he had no idea there was anything going on until he saw a reflection in the screen of his monitor.
He turned around out of surprise and shock of someone being there but he didn’t have a chance to register it. A Skin placed his glowing hand on his head and he simply slumped back in his chair. Now it was time for Alex to do his job, he grabbed another chair and sat before the computers. Alex started typing away as Kyle opened the backpack and pulled out Laurie’s disks, he made sure they were all ready and waiting for Alex to use them while Laurie pulled out one of the notebooks she swiped along with the discs. She was good at many things but remembering the passwords she put on her many projects was not one of them.
Alex worked for nearly thirty minutes; outside the dishes realigned themselves and moved into the positions that Alex programmed in. He linked up to whatever satellite he could but when he was done he inserted the correct disc. “Okay, Laurie I need your password.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…2 seconds.” Laurie said as she flipped through page after page of her notebook, “Ah, there we go. 2-X-B-C-3-5-1-2-3-4.”
Alex typed as she said it. “Okay, now we wait.”
“We wait?” Kyle asked
“We do this too soon, Kivar’s people won’t be thrown off when the attack comes.”
“Yeah, right.” Kyle said, “How long?
“About 5 minutes now.” Alex said
Road Outside Kivar’s Human Residence, 5 Minutes to Midnight
The general knew where Kivar’s house was but it took scanning equipment provided my Torias for him to see the extent of what lay beneath these few streets of Washington. The general put up a surveillance team to keep an eye out under the cover of a road repair van. Next to which they set up a tent to cover their work from prying eyes, but as far as everyone else was concerned it to cover the road works from the rain that Max had arranged for with the wave of his hand. Everyone here was dressed in work clothes as part of their cover, even the general as he entered the back of the van as he and a few others walked in. Inside, Max and Torias were already there, waiting and watching. It may have been late at night but they were silent enough to make anyone that was still awake to think that they had finished for the day.
“What’s happening?” The general asked
“We’re close. Alex should be sending the signal in a few minutes.” Max said and then looked at Serena, “You okay?”
“Yeah, just buzzed. This is why I came back.” Serena said
“Listen, I know Kivar. He would have an emergency exit, he always has them in his facilities.” Torias said
“You’re telling me this now?” Max asked
“Can we find it?” the general asked
“I already have. I scanned the ground when I was out for a walk earlier. There is a tunnel that opens up to a nearby children’s park about 5 blocks over. It’s covered to look like a simple manhole for camouflage.” Torias said, “I’ve diverted your people there.”
“Excuse me?” The general asked
“Your people are relatively new to the job and the hole we’re digging wont take a lot of people through it at once. Putting your people down his escape tunnel keeps him from getting out and adds a little surprise attack thing that you humans like so much.” Torias said
Just then Max’s phone rang, “Hey Liz…yeah…uh…okay…kay…Honey…okay…bye bye.”
“What was that?” The general asked
“The signal will go in 30 seconds.” Max said
“All that for that?” Torias asked
“Yeah but lets go.” Max said as he jumped out of the van
The general spoke into his radio and told his people to be prepared. They moved out to the tent and went under it. All afternoon they had been using an alien beam to cut a shaft deep into the road. They climbed down and counted down…
Skin Compound, Beneath Washington, Midnight
Kivar sat back in his chair with his eyes closed, pure Antarians didn’t need sleep but given that at any given time half the planet was asleep there wasn’t much to do. “Badadadaddadadada.” Kivar hummed away with the tune from Independence Day he couldn’t get out of his head yet he found it oddly appropriate, “This planet sucks.” Just then the lights started to flicker on and off constantly, quickly followed by the computers. The entire base started to malfunction, resulting in every Skin looking around and trying to get a handle on things. They weren’t given much of a chance to do anything because seconds later there was a massive explosion from the roof. An almost perfectly circular appeared and was promptly followed by a small metallic ball being dropped in. It quickly exploded and the wall of light from it sent Skins flying backward from it. From there, the Skins of the Resistance started pouring in to the enemy compound.
They moved everywhere, their weapons blasting any Skin they saw but they quickly got their act together and start fighting back. Kivar turned to his security monitors but as they continued to have an intermittent picture, he saw as a strong force of humans started pouring in through his tunnel. Kivar was not going to go down like this, he grabbed his own weapon and started firing. He wasn’t going to waste his own energy until he’d drained every kilowatt of power out of the device. Max, Serena, Torias and the General were among the last to enter but they were by no means idle in the fight. Serena’s skill allowed her to hit the seal of the Skin husks with the first shot. Each fired again and again as Skins turned to dust on both sides. One shot from the enemy got uncomfortably close to Serena, resulting in Max pulling her down behind cover.
“What?” Serena said with agitation
“What do you mean what? That was close, you’re dad would kill me if something happened to you.” Max said
“Hey if we finish this I disappear anyway so what difference does it make?” Serena said
“It makes a difference.” Max said as he shot a couple of times over their cover
“Uncle Max…this is why I’m here. Lets finish this.” Serena said
Max looked at her and nodded. He let Serena up and they started firing again and again as the human soldiers burst in through Kivar’s hidden exist. They joined in the fight from behind the Skin’s position. Each had been told to aim only for the small of their backs; anywhere else would end up in their own deaths and not that of the enemy. The surprise of the rear attack had killed 5 Skins from just a few soldiers sending a spray of bullets in their direction. It went on and on, a barrage of weapons fire was being sent back and forth causing the casualty list to rise every minute. Grenades were tossed causing blasts of fire sending shrapnel into Skins and equipment. Then Max’s eyes turned black. His alien side waking up at the treacherous actions of the Skins firing on him and he stood up. A shield blasted out without him even raising his hand and it blocked off the enemy in an impenetrable barrier. Then he started walking forward.
“Zan.” Kivar spat as he saw him.
“Kivar.” Max said
“I suppose you think this means you’ve won?” Kivar said
“Not really. But this might.” Max said as he raised his hand and clenched his fist closed. In response his shield constricted and rapidly closed in on the Skins. The energy shot through them with such intensity that their husks instantly degraded beyond any level of stability causing them to die into piles of dust.
“Alright Uncle Max.” Serena said as she looked on
“Hmm, didn’t think he had it in him.” Torias said
“You’re telling me.” Serena said
“Impressive.” Kivar said, “But then you always did know how to protect your family…even if you did fail back on Antar.”
“You wont be a threat to them much longer.” Max said
Kivar smiled, “You still haven’t won. I will always win.” He said with spite as he waved his hand over his consol and it lit up. It was still fully functional thanks to being installed with the first batch of replacement components from the alien king wannabe’s engineers. Kivar slammed his hand hard down upon a button and the monitors all switched to view nuclear missile silos all over the planet. Max reacted almost immediately, thrusting out his hand and sending a wall of energy to Kivar. The alien was slammed back against a wall but all they could do was watch as a timer appeared, counting down until the point where the missiles flew out of their silos. Then the consol started sparking and exploded as though it had been programmed to detonate.
“As I said, I will always win. You can’t stop those missile from here any more.” Kivar said
Max moved over to the fallen alien, “Where? Where can I stop them?”
“You really think I will tell you. Upon detonation my work will come to fruition and this world will begin its transition to our new home world.” Kivar said
“I’ll stop it.” Max said
“You cant.” Kivar said, “Even if you knew where to go, you’d never be able to get access. It’s too heavily shielded. And it’s all thanks to those stupid humans you like so much.”
“Oh yeah.” Serena said, “Who’s stupid?” She said before kicking him in the face, causing him to roll over and expose his back. He was too weak from Max’s attack to do much but Serena raised her gun and fired. Her single shot rang out as the bullet penetrated the seal on his back and caused him to erupt into a cloud of dust.
“We needed him.” The general yelled at the girl
“He wouldn’t have told you, not in a million years. Now…how do we stop the nukes?” Serena asked
“I know where to go.” Max said, “Colorado.”
“Yeah, uh, why and how?” Serena asked
“Because I know how he thinks.” Max said as his eyes returned to normal, “Now that I remember everything from before. I guess being under fire like that sparked something in me.”
“Okay, Colorado. Why? What’s there?” Torias asked
“NORAD.” Max said
To Be Continued…
..
...
On the Road to Roswell, Western New Mexico, 10:00am
Team 2: Alex, Kyle, Laurie and 5 Skins with Tess in tow. All of them found it strange being so close to their old home, they had said goodbye to it once with the firm belief that they would never lay eyes on it again and here they were not 5 miles from the small desert town. They knew the terrain off by heart and could walk to town wearing a blindfold without any problems. It was here that Kyle pulled over and got out along with Tess. The two embraced and simply held each other.
“Stay safe.” Kyle said
“You too.” Tess said as they separated
“Will you be okay?”
“Yeah, I can get to town easily.”
“Just swipe a car and get going. Don’t stop for anything.”
“I know.” Tess said
“I should be going with you. Or at least a Skin.”
“They need you for the VLA, god knows how much security they have there and you always could get passed security.”
“Yeah with one of your mindwarps covering me. I don’t like the idea of doing it without you.”
“I’ll be there, I’m always with you.” Tess said
“You should go. There isn’t much time.” Kyle said and Tess nodded.
Quickly she headed off toward Roswell, Kyle watched until she was no longer visible when she went over the ridge of a hill. Kyle then got back in and drove them off to Socorro. Tess moved quickly across the desert, she had food and water in her backpack to last for days but she hoped that she wouldn’t be out here that long. Tess sneaked around; she didn’t want to come across anyone who knew her from before. Explaining what happened to herself and the others was not something she wanted to get caught up on even though the parent’s of the others did make up a quick story of going off to university abroad.
At any rate she came across a gas station, there wasn’t many people there and there was a very nice looking motorcycle getting filled up. Tess waited for the owner to go inside and pay for the petrol when she started a mindwarp to make herself invisible to everyone. She hopped on, made the bike look invisible and drove off. Tess travelled for a mile before she lifted it and headed off to her destination, the owner and no one else saw anything. By the time the police arrived they had found that the security camera was faulty and that there were no leads on the theft.
Heading into Colorado, Same Time
Team 3: Michael and Maria. Since Michael and Zeezu always managed to get a reaction out of each other, Max though it was a good idea if he went after Gemodzu. Unfortunately Michael wished he had a few tactical nukes with him for backup. Zeezu he could handle, Zeezu he liked but the big brown monster with the power of all five to decimate armies made him nervous. Zeezu was modified to be the conscience of the beast but their creator feared the others could get powerful enough to override their pink brother’s influence.
“Maybe Zeezu’s in there somewhere.” Maria said
“If he was…there wouldn’t have been that psycho laugh.” Michael said as he drove the car
“I know.” Maria said, “But he’s our friend, our cute little pink ball that liked to bounce.”
“And loved creampuffs.” Michael said
“You know, as much as I want him back…what do we do about the other four?” Maria asked
“God knows. If the race that created them can’t contain them then we wont be able to do much.” Michael said
After a while, Maria’s cell phone rang, “Hey Liz, what’s up?” Maria listened for a while before hanging up. “She got another vision, drive at this speed for 20 more minutes and stop.”
“And then?”
“And then we’ll be close to a cave where he is hiding.” Maria said
“How close?” Michael asked
“It’s a brisk climb.”
“Brisk, that’s you’re way of saying I’m not going to like it.”
“It’s high in the Rockies. We’re going to have to be very careful on the way up.”
Michael drove on and stopped when he was supposed to. From there they started their slow and troublesome climb up. Each helped the other, working their way to their destination and talking breaks when they needed. Eventually they found the cave from Liz’s vision and deep inside they found the sleeping form of Gemodzu.
“Okay.” Maria said, “Now what?”
“Hmm.” Michael pondered, “Well let’s not wake him up just yet.” He whispered
Motel, Washington D.C., 12:45
At the motel the lieutenant pulled up and everyone got out. Max lead them to the room he had and knocked a few times. When the door opened they all moved inside. Seconds later the door slammed shut and the lieutenant and doctor found two people with weapons aiming at their heads.
“Sorry, they weren’t expecting additional company.” Max said as he indicated with his hands for the two Skins to put their weapons down. “General, you remember Serena?”
“Yes.” The general said
“Hi.” She said coldly, “Going to give me a reason to slice the rest of you open?”
“Not today.” He responded
“Oh goody, so we can try that tomorrow then. Don’t get me wrong, I think its great you’re here and all but I still have the memory of you killing my dad so I’m all for a little hack and slash on you.” Serena said
“Serena.” Max warned, “You’ve changed the future.”
“Uh excuse me?” The scientist said
“Time travel.” Serena said
“That’s impossible.”
“Humans.” Serena said, “Uncle Max, how is it possible you guys found people who are probably the only humans on the planet with decent brains. Okay little egghead guy, just because all your little brainpower can’t figure it out some stuff like time travel and the whole faster than light travel without the relativistic effects of people aging back home, it doesn’t mean another race can’t. You’re not the end all and be all.”
“Uh huh.” The scientist said
“And this is Torias.” Max said
“Who is?” the general asked
“The leader of a group of alien. 200 strong who oppose Kivar. They arrived the same time he did to stop him but haven’t made much progress.” Serena said
“200?” the lieutenant asked
“Relax. As far as you’re concerned we’re the good guys.” Torias said, “However, we are still out numbered.”
“Fine.” The general said, “We can provide personnel. What is your plan? I am assuming Kivar would have protected himself well.”
“Correct but he left an opening. We now have access to a code that will shut down his systems, weapons which includes the ones he’s put in the field to your people and whatever else he’s hooked up to Dupree Enterprises components.” Torias said
“But we do need to move fast before he can adapt. A spy told him about our code.” Serena said
“The plan is to shut him down and attack simultaneously. Take him down as fast as possible. We have the details here if you’re interested.” Max said
The general looked at all of them, “Given what’s at stake…we’re interested. And you probably already know that we can’t do this without you.”
“Well we weren’t going to say it first. But there is a price.” Serena said
“Oh of course.” The general said, “What do you want?”
“We get left alone. We’re not a threat, we’ll live quiet lives as far away from you as possible.” Max said
“What about your own world?”
“Liz and the other humans can’t survive there. Serena…she’s debateable since she’s part human. We can get out DNA adjusted back but we’re not leaving our family.” Max said, “Consider this witness protection if it makes it easier for you.”
The general looked at them, “Done.”
“We also want the ship from the Roswell Crash.” Serena said
“Excuse me?”
“That ship belongs to us.” Torias said, “And unless you want us aliens stranded on you’re backwater planet.”
“That ship is potentially the best hope of finding a defence from alien incursion.” The scientist said
“A ship that you can’t get access to and probably not be able to for another few centuries.” Torias asked
“Hand it over and you wont regret it.” Max said
“Oh?”
“In exchange we’ll solve all your current civilian problems.” Max said
“How?” the lieutenant asked
“Us to know, you to find out but we will do it.” Serena said
“Very well, when Kivar is dealt with you can disappear. When the problems out there stop, we will hand over the ship to a place of your choosing.” The general said
“Good.” Max said, from there they all sat around the room and discussed the plan.
The Very Large Array, 50 Miles West of Socorro, 23:10
Kyle and his team pulled up a short distance away from the array and sat there for most of the day. Their timing had to be precise and they didn’t want to be sitting inside that place all day and risk an armed response from police when they took over the facility. However, when Kyle first saw the field of 27 massive dishes, his jaw hit the deck.
“Wow. You do know what to do in there, right?” Kyle asked
“Oh yeah, sure.” Alex said
For hours they waited, the sun set on the horizon, they had dinner in the form of sandwiches they brought with them, they worried like mad about how the rest of their family was doing. Then the alarm on Alex’s watch went off and nodded to the others. The Skin rebels with them lead the way; they had powers and very useful little handheld weapons that could be put on stun. Silently they moved across the desert, moving between the dishes.
Security really wasn’t an issue, yes there were some people but they were at the weak end of the training spectrum. They had no idea what hit them as the highly trained alien soldiers moved up to them and rendered them unconscious without so much as a bead of sweat forming. The heart of the facility was where all the work was done; the dished picked up signals from the big black and fed all the data into computers for the scientists to go over. With regard to S.E.T.I, they were just aching to pick up even the slightest hint of a signal from an alien intelligence. Most of the time they were disappointed with stray broadcasts from Cold War satellites.
3 Skins took the lead, 2 at the rear with Kyle, Alex and Laurie in the middle. They moved quickly, the Skins took out any human that they saw (that they weren’t protecting) and as Max very clearly ordered – no fatalities. The Skins knew from experience that any human they stunned would wake up no sooner that 2 hours later and that was more than enough time. Unfortunately there were some that were immune to the energy from their weapons, resulting in a look from their human companions.
“What? It happens sometimes.” The Skin unit commander said before using a more physical approach – i.e. he beat the crap out of him with swift punches and powerful kicks.
Those that weren’t affected were tied up and locked in a closest. After a while there was only once person left, at this time of night there was always at least one person on duty to monitor what they were getting in, usually since that was nothing they ended up playing video games on the computers. He had no idea that while he was searching for aliens, a bunch of them were sneaking up behind him. With earphone in his ears and the volume up high he had no idea there was anything going on until he saw a reflection in the screen of his monitor.
He turned around out of surprise and shock of someone being there but he didn’t have a chance to register it. A Skin placed his glowing hand on his head and he simply slumped back in his chair. Now it was time for Alex to do his job, he grabbed another chair and sat before the computers. Alex started typing away as Kyle opened the backpack and pulled out Laurie’s disks, he made sure they were all ready and waiting for Alex to use them while Laurie pulled out one of the notebooks she swiped along with the discs. She was good at many things but remembering the passwords she put on her many projects was not one of them.
Alex worked for nearly thirty minutes; outside the dishes realigned themselves and moved into the positions that Alex programmed in. He linked up to whatever satellite he could but when he was done he inserted the correct disc. “Okay, Laurie I need your password.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…2 seconds.” Laurie said as she flipped through page after page of her notebook, “Ah, there we go. 2-X-B-C-3-5-1-2-3-4.”
Alex typed as she said it. “Okay, now we wait.”
“We wait?” Kyle asked
“We do this too soon, Kivar’s people won’t be thrown off when the attack comes.”
“Yeah, right.” Kyle said, “How long?
“About 5 minutes now.” Alex said
Road Outside Kivar’s Human Residence, 5 Minutes to Midnight
The general knew where Kivar’s house was but it took scanning equipment provided my Torias for him to see the extent of what lay beneath these few streets of Washington. The general put up a surveillance team to keep an eye out under the cover of a road repair van. Next to which they set up a tent to cover their work from prying eyes, but as far as everyone else was concerned it to cover the road works from the rain that Max had arranged for with the wave of his hand. Everyone here was dressed in work clothes as part of their cover, even the general as he entered the back of the van as he and a few others walked in. Inside, Max and Torias were already there, waiting and watching. It may have been late at night but they were silent enough to make anyone that was still awake to think that they had finished for the day.
“What’s happening?” The general asked
“We’re close. Alex should be sending the signal in a few minutes.” Max said and then looked at Serena, “You okay?”
“Yeah, just buzzed. This is why I came back.” Serena said
“Listen, I know Kivar. He would have an emergency exit, he always has them in his facilities.” Torias said
“You’re telling me this now?” Max asked
“Can we find it?” the general asked
“I already have. I scanned the ground when I was out for a walk earlier. There is a tunnel that opens up to a nearby children’s park about 5 blocks over. It’s covered to look like a simple manhole for camouflage.” Torias said, “I’ve diverted your people there.”
“Excuse me?” The general asked
“Your people are relatively new to the job and the hole we’re digging wont take a lot of people through it at once. Putting your people down his escape tunnel keeps him from getting out and adds a little surprise attack thing that you humans like so much.” Torias said
Just then Max’s phone rang, “Hey Liz…yeah…uh…okay…kay…Honey…okay…bye bye.”
“What was that?” The general asked
“The signal will go in 30 seconds.” Max said
“All that for that?” Torias asked
“Yeah but lets go.” Max said as he jumped out of the van
The general spoke into his radio and told his people to be prepared. They moved out to the tent and went under it. All afternoon they had been using an alien beam to cut a shaft deep into the road. They climbed down and counted down…
Skin Compound, Beneath Washington, Midnight
Kivar sat back in his chair with his eyes closed, pure Antarians didn’t need sleep but given that at any given time half the planet was asleep there wasn’t much to do. “Badadadaddadadada.” Kivar hummed away with the tune from Independence Day he couldn’t get out of his head yet he found it oddly appropriate, “This planet sucks.” Just then the lights started to flicker on and off constantly, quickly followed by the computers. The entire base started to malfunction, resulting in every Skin looking around and trying to get a handle on things. They weren’t given much of a chance to do anything because seconds later there was a massive explosion from the roof. An almost perfectly circular appeared and was promptly followed by a small metallic ball being dropped in. It quickly exploded and the wall of light from it sent Skins flying backward from it. From there, the Skins of the Resistance started pouring in to the enemy compound.
They moved everywhere, their weapons blasting any Skin they saw but they quickly got their act together and start fighting back. Kivar turned to his security monitors but as they continued to have an intermittent picture, he saw as a strong force of humans started pouring in through his tunnel. Kivar was not going to go down like this, he grabbed his own weapon and started firing. He wasn’t going to waste his own energy until he’d drained every kilowatt of power out of the device. Max, Serena, Torias and the General were among the last to enter but they were by no means idle in the fight. Serena’s skill allowed her to hit the seal of the Skin husks with the first shot. Each fired again and again as Skins turned to dust on both sides. One shot from the enemy got uncomfortably close to Serena, resulting in Max pulling her down behind cover.
“What?” Serena said with agitation
“What do you mean what? That was close, you’re dad would kill me if something happened to you.” Max said
“Hey if we finish this I disappear anyway so what difference does it make?” Serena said
“It makes a difference.” Max said as he shot a couple of times over their cover
“Uncle Max…this is why I’m here. Lets finish this.” Serena said
Max looked at her and nodded. He let Serena up and they started firing again and again as the human soldiers burst in through Kivar’s hidden exist. They joined in the fight from behind the Skin’s position. Each had been told to aim only for the small of their backs; anywhere else would end up in their own deaths and not that of the enemy. The surprise of the rear attack had killed 5 Skins from just a few soldiers sending a spray of bullets in their direction. It went on and on, a barrage of weapons fire was being sent back and forth causing the casualty list to rise every minute. Grenades were tossed causing blasts of fire sending shrapnel into Skins and equipment. Then Max’s eyes turned black. His alien side waking up at the treacherous actions of the Skins firing on him and he stood up. A shield blasted out without him even raising his hand and it blocked off the enemy in an impenetrable barrier. Then he started walking forward.
“Zan.” Kivar spat as he saw him.
“Kivar.” Max said
“I suppose you think this means you’ve won?” Kivar said
“Not really. But this might.” Max said as he raised his hand and clenched his fist closed. In response his shield constricted and rapidly closed in on the Skins. The energy shot through them with such intensity that their husks instantly degraded beyond any level of stability causing them to die into piles of dust.
“Alright Uncle Max.” Serena said as she looked on
“Hmm, didn’t think he had it in him.” Torias said
“You’re telling me.” Serena said
“Impressive.” Kivar said, “But then you always did know how to protect your family…even if you did fail back on Antar.”
“You wont be a threat to them much longer.” Max said
Kivar smiled, “You still haven’t won. I will always win.” He said with spite as he waved his hand over his consol and it lit up. It was still fully functional thanks to being installed with the first batch of replacement components from the alien king wannabe’s engineers. Kivar slammed his hand hard down upon a button and the monitors all switched to view nuclear missile silos all over the planet. Max reacted almost immediately, thrusting out his hand and sending a wall of energy to Kivar. The alien was slammed back against a wall but all they could do was watch as a timer appeared, counting down until the point where the missiles flew out of their silos. Then the consol started sparking and exploded as though it had been programmed to detonate.
“As I said, I will always win. You can’t stop those missile from here any more.” Kivar said
Max moved over to the fallen alien, “Where? Where can I stop them?”
“You really think I will tell you. Upon detonation my work will come to fruition and this world will begin its transition to our new home world.” Kivar said
“I’ll stop it.” Max said
“You cant.” Kivar said, “Even if you knew where to go, you’d never be able to get access. It’s too heavily shielded. And it’s all thanks to those stupid humans you like so much.”
“Oh yeah.” Serena said, “Who’s stupid?” She said before kicking him in the face, causing him to roll over and expose his back. He was too weak from Max’s attack to do much but Serena raised her gun and fired. Her single shot rang out as the bullet penetrated the seal on his back and caused him to erupt into a cloud of dust.
“We needed him.” The general yelled at the girl
“He wouldn’t have told you, not in a million years. Now…how do we stop the nukes?” Serena asked
“I know where to go.” Max said, “Colorado.”
“Yeah, uh, why and how?” Serena asked
“Because I know how he thinks.” Max said as his eyes returned to normal, “Now that I remember everything from before. I guess being under fire like that sparked something in me.”
“Okay, Colorado. Why? What’s there?” Torias asked
“NORAD.” Max said
To Be Continued…
Other Paths - Edited and Reposted - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3667
Risen in Light - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3694
Viral Apocalypse - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=6837
Risen in Light - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3694
Viral Apocalypse - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=6837
Chapter 16
Gemodzu’s Cave, High in the Rockies, 30 Minutes Earlier
Michael and Maria stood in the dark cave, their only source of light was coming from Michael’s glowing hand but he kept it low. They didn’t want to wake him before they knew what to do, hell they didn’t want to find him before that yet it was here that they found themselves. Their little friend was somewhere in that brown mass and they wanted him back; they just had to reach him somehow.
“Maybe if we take a chainsaw to him, he’ll just separate.” Michael suggested with a whisper
“What did you just say?” Maria whispered with wide eyes
“Well he did start in lots of parts.” Michael said
“Uh, men.” Maria said, “Always thinking about the power tools.”
“Where as you are always thinking about one power tool in particular.” Michael said
Maria then blushed, “Well…uh…yeah.” She said as she took a step back and ended up stepping on a twig.
The snap was loud and echoed throughout the cavern. Michael and Maria froze, he just looked at her and she mouthed the word sorry to him but the damage was done. They heard a low mumble and slowly turned their heads to the monster before them. Gemodzu started moving and rolled over, its eyes opened and gleamed brightly in the darkness.
“Grrrrrrrrrr…” the creature grumbled before it shot up. It roared loudly, it was definitely not a morning person. It likes its sleep and did not like being disturbed by anything for any reason. “Gemodzu cab dala na.”
The beast’s hands glowed and they ready to blast at the intruders. Angry and violent was only the tip of the iceberg that the young couple were dealing with from the full powered form of the Gemods.
“Michael.” Maria said
“Yeah.”
“Let’s run away.” Maria said, she moved so fast it was virtually like a cartoon. If she’d been wearing a hat it would have been spinning in midair. She dived away the second that Gemodzu darted to them.
However, Michael held his ground, reached inside his bag and pulled out something. “Monster wanna creampuff?”
Gemodzu stopped dead in its tracks and sniffed the air, “Ceampuff…Yum yum.” It said with a gruff and deep voice
Maria stuck her head up from behind the rock she was behind. She watched as it opened its mouth and sank its teeth into the dessert. Gemodzu swallowed it whole.
“That was just weird.” Maria said as she stood back up
“You ran fast.” Michael said
“Yeah, in my defence…great big monster.” Maria said pointing to Gemodzu
“Gemodzu yum yum.” It said as it closed its eyes and enjoyed the taste before it looked back at them. “Ceampuff.”
“No.” Michael said
“CEAMPUFF!”
“NO.” Michael said, “Remember what happened last time?”
“Zeezu zoom.”
“Yes, Zeezu zoo…Zeezu? You in there?” Michael said
“Zeezu?” Maria asked
“Grrr…Gemodzu cad ala ma soc.”
Skin Compound, Beneath Washington D.C…
With Kivar’s dust still drifting down, the disruption to the systems thanks to Laurie’s code had resulted in power losses all over the Skin compound. Many Skin’s that weren’t on the front line were stuck in varying sections. Many could only watch on flickering monitors what was happening. When Kivar died, they surrendered on mass. There were several who wanted to continue fighting but they didn’t last long against the Skins who were attacking. However, it did leave a mass of prisoners to contend with.
“What do we do with them?” the general asked
“Once we get the ship we can load them up and take them back home.” Torias said, “A trial for high treason isn’t exactly the last think that should be done on Antar before it dies but it needs to be done.”
Max looked at his watch, “We have a little under 5 hours before nuclear war breaks out and Kivar wins.”
“You’re sure Kivar set this is at NORAD?”
“Yes. He would use your own systems against you. He had control over them from here but if this is his last resort option then all he would need to do is start the launch process.” Max said
“Well there’s no way we can get to Colorado in time, not with the primitive modes of transport.” Torias said
“NORAD will be locked up by now but as for getting there in time…never say never.” The general said
“Well we better find a way because if we don’t then my time back here will be for nothing.” Serena said
“Then you better come with me. But we don’t have the space for all your people.” The general said
“They’ll relocate the prisoners to our home base, there they will wait for us to finish this…one way or the other.” Torias said
“Then we better get going.” The general said
Project Fallen Angel, Langley, Virginia, 30 Minutes Later
The base was almost empty; troops were everywhere and most of the elite guard that was stationed here died when the hotel burned to the ground. However, it was what else that was stationed here that they were after. The general got them into the CIA building without too much trouble and got to the base in the carved out caves beneath. When they arrived they saw the equipment and advanced aircraft that they had only glanced at when they were under attack.
“Cool.” Serena said
“Cool?” Max asked
“Yeah well mostly I’ve just seen wrecks of these. In my time they were everywhere only Kivar had finished with his need for the military so he turned them against each other and they were crashed everywhere.”
“Well, thanks to you, Kivar is now dead so that wont happen.” The general said as he looked at the aliens, “Come on, these move 50 times faster than the best of our super sonic jets. We’ll be there quickly.”
“What about getting into NORAD?” Max asked
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” The general said
Everyone boarded the aircraft. The general had received some basic training in its operation in case he ever needed it and right now he was thankful for it. The hatch above the hanger opened. They strapped themselves in and listened as the turbines started and the engines powered up. Soon it darted out and headed toward the Cheyenne Mountain Complex that housed NORAD.
NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, 01:00am
From here satellite data flowed into the room, monitoring all activity over the globe from submarine deployment to the positions of nuclear silos. 1 Hour ago a countdown started on their screens and everyone moved around to find out what was going on as missiles started fuelling up. With each one that became ready, they lit up the screen. However, with Kivar’s range of influence he had managed to arrange a nice little treat of getting access to the arsenals of other nuclear capable nations and they too were getting ready.
With 4 hours to go the base personnel were doing their duty with the commander, an air force officer at the rank of brigadier general, looking on and smiling inwardly through it all. Kivar arranged for his position here and the Skin, naturally, took up a lesser rank than that of his lord and master. In his role here the Skin could make sure the launches went smoothly.
“Status.”
“Launch authorisation codes have been confirmed general. However, we can’t get through to the Situation Room at the White House.”
“The codes could only come from the President sergeant. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are in full launch mode and you will perform your duties. We may not know what is happening but we have all been trained for this and this is happening. Follow your orders, and lets hope we get out of this in one piece.” The Skin said as he smiled inwardly, he knew that not one of them would. He already planted a canister of a particularly nasty gas in the ventilation system. When the countdown finished and the launch happened, the gas would flood the complex and kill everyone but himself. His husk would protect him. As more and more silos acknowledged the closer they got to total nuclear holocaust.
Gemodzu’s Cave, The Rockies, Same Time
“Okay…now I know you’re in there, Zeezu.” Michael said
“Aka na Zeezu. Daba aka Gemodzu.”
“Nah, not buying it.” Maria said, “Your brothers may have forced you into this but your still the cute little pink ball. The science egghead guy that came up with you made you the nice one for a reason. You can control them when you’re all like this.”
“Gemodzu dalno maka na.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, da bungo bobo…whatever.” Michael said, “No spreken ze Gemod. Look, I know how little Zeezu like to bounce around the room. So why don’t you break up and we can play a little football.”
“Fooball?” Gemodzu said softly
“Yeah, you know when you acted like a ping pong and hit off every wall there was before clapping.” Michael said
“Football.” Gemodzu said again
“I think our boy is coming out to play.” Maria said
“Don’t jinx it.” Michael said
“Gemodzu, you have Zeezu as your conscience. Get over what it is your brothers have done to you and make them listen to you. They’re nutcases with powers but you’re the link between them all.” Maria said
“Gemodzu, delu bada.” It said calmly as it sat down
On the Road, Leaving the VLA, New Mexico, 01:40
Kyle, Alex, Laurie and the Skins with them had left the array and were heading back. They had untied all of the people they had secured and returned their computers back over to them; as far as this team was concerned they were done with it. Not one of the people there knew what was going on or what had happened but they were on the phone to the local police station to report the attack.
Their car sped off, heading east but stopped several miles away so that one of the Skins could change the licence place and the patterns of the tyre tread so that no one could track them. Before long they were heading on a road that would eventually take them passed Roswell. They weren’t going to pick up Tess, she still had her role to play but they would get her soon enough. At least Kyle knew she was safe within the Granolith Chamber.
After a while his phone rang and Kyle answered it. “Hello. Oh hey Max, how’d it go?”
“Kivar is dead and the surviving Skins are being transported back to HQ.”
“Hey, big party time.” Kyle said, “I’ll bring the keg…not that you guys can touch it.”
“Kyle.” Max said
“Something tells me there is a but.” Kyle said
“Kivar started a countdown to launch every nuke there is.” Max said
“Ugh, I really hate the last couple of days.” Kyle said
“You and me both. We’re heading to NORAD to stop it…if we can.”
“And if you can’t?” Kyle asked
“Don’t go there.” Max said
“Okay, well we’re heading back to Texas right now. Is there anything we can do?”
“Just get in the bunker and stay inside until I call again, if I don’t then after the bombs have stopped falling get out of the country quickly.”
“Max…”
“I’ll be dead if this doesn’t work. Liz will…well you know Liz.”
“Yeah I do, I’ll keep an eye on her.” Kyle said, “Good luck.”
In the Skies, Heading South West, 01:50
“Thanks.” Kyle said over the phone before Max hung up. “Okay, if I know Kyle he’ll call the others and let them know. But do we have any ideas yet?”
“NORAD is a heavily protected. It’s shielded to survive anything but a direct hit from a nuclear weapon. Once it’s sealed, it’s a case of nothing in, nothing out. You can’t just wave your hand and say “open sesame”.” The general said
“Uh, why not wave the hand?” Serena asked, “You guys did melt off safe doors.”
“Well since we discovered you aliens exist we researched ways of blocking your abilities.”
“We know about the drug you guys have.” Max said
“I’m not talking about the drug. One of the systems we developed was under a project run by Ivar’s father. Since I now know Ivar is Kivar, it’s a safe bet that his father was just a cover for himself. He developed a device that once activated produced a form of radiation that blocks the flow of energy from your hands into the surrounding environment.”
“My, isn’t that handy.” Serena said
“Kivar must have known we’d try to stop the missiles so he protected his plan.” Torias said
“Then I guess we just need to find a way to force the door open.” Max said
“That is impossible.” The general said, “The door is 4 foot thick reinforced with 4 6-inch steel bolts along the edges. Nothing opens it and it is air tight.”
“What about shutting off the device that blocks our powers?” Serena asked
“That can only be done from inside the command room.”
“There has to be a way inside…ventilation duct, emergency hatch…something.”
“All of which have booby traps that activate when the base is in lockdown.”
“You know, I really wish you guys would include backup plans for when you actually need to invade your own facilities.” Max said
“Well then I guess we can just put that down to a lack of foresight.” The general said
“Dealing with alien infiltrators, lack of foresight is the least of what you’ve done wrong through all of this.”
“Anyway, we should be there soon.” The general said as he looked at his watch.
Gemodzu’s Cave, The Rockies, 02:30
Michael and Maria quickly found themselves taking shelter behind a rock as Gemodzu was blasting away and punching at the cave walls with his strength. The creature was practically causing minor earthquakes.
“What the hell did you say?” Maria asked
“ME?”
“Yeah you. I was outside remember.”
“We were just talking when he went nuts.” Michael said
“And you didn’t say anything?” Maria asked
“Yes, I totally made a mistake cause I want to be killed by the big brown gemod.” Michael said
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just lets get out of this one alive. Then I guess it could be the other four trying to be themselves and blowing things up.” Maria said as her phone rang in her backpack.
Michael was the closest to it and pulled it out, “Hi, this is Michael on Maria’s phone. We’re about to die horrible and probably very painful deaths so please leave your name and number at the beep and we’ll get back to you as soon as extra terrestrially possible…beep. Oh hey Kyle, what’s up?”
Kyle proceeded to tell Michael what was going on and he didn’t like what he was hearing, aside from the part about Kivar being dust, but that didn’t help right now. When Kyle was done he hung up.
“Well?” Maria asked
“Lots and lots of sweary words.” Michael said
“That bad?”
“Whatever’s in your head right now…triple it.” Michael said
“That bad.” Maria said
Michael nodded and then took a deep breath. “Damn it. Damn it all the way to hell.” He said before he started yelling. “ZEEZU, NOW I’M PISSED. I’M NOT KIDDING AROUND ANYMORE.” Michael darted up with his hand ready and a blast of white light shot from him. It hit the massive Gemod and threw him against the rock face but it didn’t do much other than give them a break from the attacks.
“Zeezu, I know you can hear us.” Maria said, “You can stop this and your brothers.”
“You are their conscience and I know you can stop them but right now I know you can stop Kivar and what he’s doing. He’s launching weapons that will kill everyone including us…well maybe not you, I don’t know what could do that but…”
“Da zu cada da zeezu?”
“Zeezu? That you?” Michael asked
“Zeezu bada dadoo. Kivar da la booboo.” It said before the mass started glowing brightly.
The blue radiance filled the entire cave. Maria and Michael felt as though a few million tiny insects were crawling over their skin but in seconds the glow stopped and nothing was left. The entire cave was empty.
Outside the Secure Door, NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, 03:00
NORAD was built inside a mountain with a single tunnel allowing vehicles access up to a point. From there, there was a massive door that could be closed to seal off the base beyond. With 2 hours to go before pillars of fire began to rise from the ground, the aircraft flew in, circled around the mountain once before gliding smoothly into the tunnel and came to a stop just meters from the door. The four people jumped out of the aircraft and ran to the door. The general moved to the security station, on this side it was abandoned with everything now being controlled on the other side. The cameras were already on them and the general pressed his finger to a button to switch on the intercom.
“This is General Pax, open this door right now.”
A voice then came through the speaker, “I’m sorry sir, the door is sealed.”
“Get General Locke on the comm. right now, I want to speak with him.”
“General we’re in final launch mode. Control of in lockdown. There is nothing I can do.”
“You listen to me, the President did not order this strike. Open this door right now.”
“General under executive order 2329 if you do not leave immediately I am authorised to order security outside to move on your position with lethal force. This door will not open for you or anyone else.”
“Well this is useful.” Serena said
“He’s been trained not to comply with this.” The general said, “No one will opened that door.”
Just then there was a bright blue flash and three forms suddenly appeared. “Wow.” Michael and Maria both said as they fell to the floor with overwhelming dizziness.
“Holy god.” The general said as he looked over the massive alien creature.
“Gemodzu fadra coda ra.”
“Oh shit.” Serena said
“What?” Max asked
“Uh…duck.” Serena said as she dived down behind the wall. Everyone followed her as Max reached his hand out just enough to form a shield around Michael and Maria who were still trying to stop the room from spinning…and to keep down their last meal.
Although they didn’t see what happened next, they most certainly heard it. Gemodzu ran straight for the large door and focused all the strength he had, when he hit the door it smashed into dozens of large chunks that went everywhere. One even sliced across the top of the security booth and took it clean off. Gemodzu didn’t stop running, Max ran over to help Michael and Maria up who had quickly recovered when a chunk bounced off the shield covering them. As fast as they could they all took off after the alien monster. The sight of Gemodzu, an actual and very obvious alien, freaked most of the soldiers out who then hid but when the others came past they were ready with their guns drawn. Max made sure any shots that were fired never got close to them.
Inside…
Alarms started blazing red everywhere. “What the hell is that?”
“Security breach and main entrance, sir. We’ve got reports…of something.”
“Define something.”
“Something kinda like that.” He said as he pointed to a security feed
“Holy…” the Skin said, the problem was he wasn’t looking at the feed that showed Gemodzu. He did see that one and he knew what it was, while that did make him want to soil his husk it was the screen next to it that caught his attention. He instantly recognised the human forms of Zan and Rath and that they had in toe one of the human generals who was supposed to be in the dark about the true nature of things going on. “Speed up the countdown.”
“General?”
“Enemy incoming, security is breached. Enact the emergency protocol.”
Within 10 keystrokes the numbers of the counter sped up until they were a blur and in seconds they had gone from just under 2 hours to just under 7 minutes. Then the doors exploded open and Gemodzu stood there with cracks of different colours all over his body and looking very tired. The creature fell to the floor and when it impacted there was a flash and five multicoloured balls rolled away, all zoned out with spinning eyes.
Then the others entered and Max spotted the clock. “Oh god.” Then he looked around the room. Security was moving in fast with their guns drawn. They didn’t even bother telling them to surrender, they just opened fire but Max raised his hand and a shield protected them all. Michael moved his hand like he was swatting a fly and a swipe of energy tossed the air force MPs aside. Everyone else in the room froze at the display of power.
The two generals looked at each other, staring each other down and the one with Max was wondering if he truly was an alien. “Stop this.” He said
“You don’t have the authority. Only the president can stop this.”
“He didn’t order it.”
“Wait…he is a Skin.” Max said, ever since his little power spurt in the Skin compound he could feel differences around him. With Torias he could see the husk body but Max swore that he could see a form of light within him. He could see the alien inside the disguise and now he was seeing the same thing with the general standing at the command station.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Max said
The Skin reached for his sidearm but Serena was much faster. She drew her gun and shot the alien’s shoulder, causing him to spin around enough for her uncle Michael to throw everything he had at the Skin a fraction of a second later. His blast hit the seal and every airmen/women in the room watched as their C.O exploded into a cloud of dust.
“Shut down the launch.” Max yelled
“I can’t.” the sergeant said
“DO IT!” Max ordered as his eyes went back to black
“I can’t, only he had the codes.” He said as he pointed to where the general had been standing
“Oh…great.” Maria said, “Of course he would be the only one.”
“Yeah well, when is it ever easy.” Max said, “But then we don’t need it to be.”
“What?” the general asked
Max moved over to the main computer, the look of his dark eyes got everyone out of the way. He rested his hand on the consol and closed his eyes. Everyone watched as his hand glowed, Michael and then Serena also moved over. They knew what he was doing and fed his power into Max while putting their hands next to his on the computer. The flooded the system with their power, the system that was connected to every missile silo there was in the country as well as the planet. Most of the people didn’t know about it being global and if it wasn’t for Kivar’s determination to wipe out the population it wouldn’t have been.
“2 minutes to launch.” The sergeant called out
Maria moved up to behind Michael and put her hand over his before leaning up to his ear, “You can do this.” She whispered to her lover
Michael sent more power in, as did Max and so did their niece. All three were glowing with a faint aura, an aura that spread into Maria and penetrated deep into her body. She felt a deep warmth and didn’t want it to end.
“One Minute!”
Then Max opened his eyes, “NOW!” he called out and the wires were flooded with power that travelled everywhere.
The massive wave of power surged into the computers that controlled the individual missiles. They fried the second the power hit and then exploded. In NORAD the countdown stopped at 42 seconds and everyone gave a deep sigh of relief.
“Nice, now, what do we do about the psycho brothers over there.” Maria said as she pointed to the sleeping Gemods before picking up Zeezu.
“One thing at a time.” Max said as he sat down in a chair, “One thing at a time.”
The Diner, Northern Texas, Sunrise
Sitting by a window and looking out at the light filling sky that had a distinctly red tint to it, the general just sat and breathed in the air. Everything was very nearly sorted and he didn’t need to worry about the alien threat of infiltration. He had no idea what was beneath his feet and that was the way Max wanted it, no need to let him know about it until he had to. When they came here, Isabel, Liz, baby Serena and their parents were already there waiting for them. When Max saw Liz he ran to her and lifted her up before kissing her. The pronounced bump on her belly was much more pronounced than one day ago and was ecstatic.
It took them a few moments of alone time when they were simply happy to be back together. Max then went over to the general and put down a cup of coffee. “Figured you could use one last pick me up.”
“Thank you.” The general said, “So what is this place?”
“It’s a diner. We figured this would be a good drop off point; its quiet, remote and in a wide-open space. Not many people come here.” Max said
“Where are the rest of your friends?” the general asked
“On their way. You’re jet got us here a couple of hours before they would get here but they are coming.”
“So. I guess we’re ready for the next thing on our agreement.” Max said
“Which is?”
“The ship in exchange for us dealing with the riots.” Max said
“Ah yes, that.”
“Yes. That.” Max said with a little concern.
“Relax, I called on our way down here. The ship is on route as we speak. However, it wont make it here unless I see a news report talking about the end of those problems.” The general said, “It’s time to do your part.”
“Of course.” Max said as he pulled out his phone and dialled Tess’s number. The general smiled as he watched, he pulled out his own phone to call in and check in on the progress of his delivery.
Granolith Chamber, Outside Roswell, Immediately Following
Tess was sitting before the Granolith and drinking coffee. She was up all night waiting for Max’s call and was on the verge of complete and utter mind numbing boredom. The blonde was almost falling asleep but she did have enough coffee to see her through at least another hour. Then she received Max’s call.
“Hi, Max?”
“It’s me Tess.”
“Oh thank…I take it everything is okay?” Tess asked
“It’s over. Kivar is dead, his plan stopped and his people are prisoners.”
“So my turn then?” Tess asked
“Yes.” Max said
“Okay then, see ya soon.” She said and then hung up
Tess packed up her gear, knowing that she would be going home soon but the next stage was hers. Tess got up and moved to the Granolith, Serena had told her aunt everything she needed to know and she put her hands on the surface of the obsidian device. Tess focused her mind and the Granolith started to glow from within itself. Then with a resounding pulse it shot its energy out.
The Diner, Texas, 07:00
All over the planet and unseen ripple roamed over the surface and warped the minds of everyone. As the General sat he suddenly felt a tingle all over his skin.
“What happened?” the general asked Max
“Tess used her power. She calmed the population and took away all the anger. We’ve given them a chance to think before they act.” Max said
“That’s it?” the general asked
“Don’t underestimate it. They’ll kick out the old crowd, arrest and prosecute all the ones we found information on. Any action that was illegal, even by the military, there’s no getting away from that. Anyway, the people are supposed to be in charge so they will probably make sure that no one with key ties to the old government is allowed to participate in anything…well other than advising. They’ll vote in a new government calmly and rationally and avert a civil war unless the current administration puts up a fight. Oh and just in case the president does, please tell him we still have information about the five interns in the Lincoln bedroom.” Max said
“Five?” the general asked with wide eyes
“And not all of them were women.” Max said, “I think there was a saying…the only thing that can end the career of a politician is being caught in bed with a dead girl, or a live boy. Well at the very least I think his wife would like to know.”
“That’s blackmail.” The general said
“No, well yes it is, but it’s making sure people do what’s right instead of what their egos tell them to do.” Max said, “People in power will rarely give it up.”
“Fine, I’ll let him know.” The general said, “At any rate your ship will be here in 3 hours.”
“That’s good.” Max said, “I’ll tell the Skins to get ready to leave.”
“Where are they?”
“On their way.” Max said, it still wasn’t time for him to know he was standing on their base. “Their base is California. They’ll dismantle it and be here in time for the launch.”
3 Hours Later…
Over the horizon, a huge flatbed truck came driving along with the Roswell ship on board. It was covered by a large tarp that kept it hidden and there were spikes coming from the truck altered the shape so that no one would even be able to guess at what was beneath. It came to a stop right outside the diner; everyone else was already there aside from Tess. The Skins were also absent aside from Torias, he wanted to make sure everything was okay before his people were exposed.
Alex’s team arrived back a little while back and they were eager to see a real life spaceship. They watched as the couple of military personnel that drove the truck got out and pulled the tarp back to reveal the ship. Torias approached the ship and raised his hand to it. Instantly symbols along the vessel’s hull started to glow and hum at varying pitches and tones as though they were communicating to the alien. It was almost musical and the alien smiled.
“Torias?” Max asked
“It’s good. The outer hull was virtually undamaged; it was enough to keep the humans out. The automatic repair sequences have been working to bring the ship back to operational status.”
“It’s safe to launch?” Isabel asked
“More than safe.” Torias said as he pushed his hand forward. The ship reacted and lifted off. It floated off of the truck and hovered above the ground before an opening formed with a wide beam of light projecting down to the ground. Torias walked up that beam and accessed a terminal by the hatch. “Atmospheric systems are online. Engines, propulsion, defensive capability…everything is optimal.”
Torias came down and gave a nod to one of the Skins. The general was then watching every single Skin walking out of an opening in the diner floor that he hadn’t seen before. Even the waitress stopped what she was doing and walked up the platform and into the vessel. A steady line of aliens, every other one had a weapon aimed at the person in front of them as they were the prisoners, made there way inside and into their old living quarters that they had on the journey here. Then suddenly, the diner started to glow with a green light.
“What’s happening?” The general asked
“They’re dismantling their base.” Michael said as the building and what was beneath vanished, leaving nothing but an incredibly large cubical hole in the ground
“It’s here?”
“Right under your feet. Sorry but we didn’t think we should risk telling you.” Max said, “But they’re leaving now so nothing to worry about.”
“No.” The general said, “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“What are you going to do about Antar dying?” Isabel asked the resistance leader
“There’s nothing we can do.” Torias said, “Our terraforming technology requires very specific parameters. Most planets are capable of supporting our people but the time field situation…that requires a planet with that has developed a sentient species…rare in our neck of the universe, which is why Kivar came here. Don’t ask me why, it just is. There are a few nearby and our ship has the necessary equipment on it. We’ll find one.”
“Uh, you’re not going to wipe out a species are you?” Liz asked
“Oh no, those species became extinct a while back but it should still work.” Torias said, “We’ll find a home out there some where.”
“Well don’t be strangers.” Max said as he watched the last Skin pushed a cart up that held four containment fields around the Gemods.
Zeezu looked up and waved his brothers goodbye. “Zeezu da baba.” He said with a smile
“Oh we wont. After all, you are the royals.” Torias said as he headed up into the ship, “We’ll see you around. Majesty.”
The hatch closed over and within minutes the engines powered up. The ship shot straight up and was out of the atmosphere in less than 2 minutes. From there it headed off even faster into space.
“That was cool.” Kyle said
“Okay, so we’ll be off now.” Serena said, “No offence but I want mini-me here kept as far away from you as possible.”
“Oh I understand.” the general said with a smile before he reached around to his back and pulled out a gun. As if on cue, like that one move was a signal, 4 dozen soldiers came out from hiding behind the ridgeline and bushes. Each carried weapons with laser sights and all of the young family, their parents and Zeezu were covered with red dots. “You honestly don’t think I’d let a threat stay on this planet did you?” the general asked
To Be Concluded…
Gemodzu’s Cave, High in the Rockies, 30 Minutes Earlier
Michael and Maria stood in the dark cave, their only source of light was coming from Michael’s glowing hand but he kept it low. They didn’t want to wake him before they knew what to do, hell they didn’t want to find him before that yet it was here that they found themselves. Their little friend was somewhere in that brown mass and they wanted him back; they just had to reach him somehow.
“Maybe if we take a chainsaw to him, he’ll just separate.” Michael suggested with a whisper
“What did you just say?” Maria whispered with wide eyes
“Well he did start in lots of parts.” Michael said
“Uh, men.” Maria said, “Always thinking about the power tools.”
“Where as you are always thinking about one power tool in particular.” Michael said
Maria then blushed, “Well…uh…yeah.” She said as she took a step back and ended up stepping on a twig.
The snap was loud and echoed throughout the cavern. Michael and Maria froze, he just looked at her and she mouthed the word sorry to him but the damage was done. They heard a low mumble and slowly turned their heads to the monster before them. Gemodzu started moving and rolled over, its eyes opened and gleamed brightly in the darkness.
“Grrrrrrrrrr…” the creature grumbled before it shot up. It roared loudly, it was definitely not a morning person. It likes its sleep and did not like being disturbed by anything for any reason. “Gemodzu cab dala na.”
The beast’s hands glowed and they ready to blast at the intruders. Angry and violent was only the tip of the iceberg that the young couple were dealing with from the full powered form of the Gemods.
“Michael.” Maria said
“Yeah.”
“Let’s run away.” Maria said, she moved so fast it was virtually like a cartoon. If she’d been wearing a hat it would have been spinning in midair. She dived away the second that Gemodzu darted to them.
However, Michael held his ground, reached inside his bag and pulled out something. “Monster wanna creampuff?”
Gemodzu stopped dead in its tracks and sniffed the air, “Ceampuff…Yum yum.” It said with a gruff and deep voice
Maria stuck her head up from behind the rock she was behind. She watched as it opened its mouth and sank its teeth into the dessert. Gemodzu swallowed it whole.
“That was just weird.” Maria said as she stood back up
“You ran fast.” Michael said
“Yeah, in my defence…great big monster.” Maria said pointing to Gemodzu
“Gemodzu yum yum.” It said as it closed its eyes and enjoyed the taste before it looked back at them. “Ceampuff.”
“No.” Michael said
“CEAMPUFF!”
“NO.” Michael said, “Remember what happened last time?”
“Zeezu zoom.”
“Yes, Zeezu zoo…Zeezu? You in there?” Michael said
“Zeezu?” Maria asked
“Grrr…Gemodzu cad ala ma soc.”
Skin Compound, Beneath Washington D.C…
With Kivar’s dust still drifting down, the disruption to the systems thanks to Laurie’s code had resulted in power losses all over the Skin compound. Many Skin’s that weren’t on the front line were stuck in varying sections. Many could only watch on flickering monitors what was happening. When Kivar died, they surrendered on mass. There were several who wanted to continue fighting but they didn’t last long against the Skins who were attacking. However, it did leave a mass of prisoners to contend with.
“What do we do with them?” the general asked
“Once we get the ship we can load them up and take them back home.” Torias said, “A trial for high treason isn’t exactly the last think that should be done on Antar before it dies but it needs to be done.”
Max looked at his watch, “We have a little under 5 hours before nuclear war breaks out and Kivar wins.”
“You’re sure Kivar set this is at NORAD?”
“Yes. He would use your own systems against you. He had control over them from here but if this is his last resort option then all he would need to do is start the launch process.” Max said
“Well there’s no way we can get to Colorado in time, not with the primitive modes of transport.” Torias said
“NORAD will be locked up by now but as for getting there in time…never say never.” The general said
“Well we better find a way because if we don’t then my time back here will be for nothing.” Serena said
“Then you better come with me. But we don’t have the space for all your people.” The general said
“They’ll relocate the prisoners to our home base, there they will wait for us to finish this…one way or the other.” Torias said
“Then we better get going.” The general said
Project Fallen Angel, Langley, Virginia, 30 Minutes Later
The base was almost empty; troops were everywhere and most of the elite guard that was stationed here died when the hotel burned to the ground. However, it was what else that was stationed here that they were after. The general got them into the CIA building without too much trouble and got to the base in the carved out caves beneath. When they arrived they saw the equipment and advanced aircraft that they had only glanced at when they were under attack.
“Cool.” Serena said
“Cool?” Max asked
“Yeah well mostly I’ve just seen wrecks of these. In my time they were everywhere only Kivar had finished with his need for the military so he turned them against each other and they were crashed everywhere.”
“Well, thanks to you, Kivar is now dead so that wont happen.” The general said as he looked at the aliens, “Come on, these move 50 times faster than the best of our super sonic jets. We’ll be there quickly.”
“What about getting into NORAD?” Max asked
“We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.” The general said
Everyone boarded the aircraft. The general had received some basic training in its operation in case he ever needed it and right now he was thankful for it. The hatch above the hanger opened. They strapped themselves in and listened as the turbines started and the engines powered up. Soon it darted out and headed toward the Cheyenne Mountain Complex that housed NORAD.
NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, 01:00am
From here satellite data flowed into the room, monitoring all activity over the globe from submarine deployment to the positions of nuclear silos. 1 Hour ago a countdown started on their screens and everyone moved around to find out what was going on as missiles started fuelling up. With each one that became ready, they lit up the screen. However, with Kivar’s range of influence he had managed to arrange a nice little treat of getting access to the arsenals of other nuclear capable nations and they too were getting ready.
With 4 hours to go the base personnel were doing their duty with the commander, an air force officer at the rank of brigadier general, looking on and smiling inwardly through it all. Kivar arranged for his position here and the Skin, naturally, took up a lesser rank than that of his lord and master. In his role here the Skin could make sure the launches went smoothly.
“Status.”
“Launch authorisation codes have been confirmed general. However, we can’t get through to the Situation Room at the White House.”
“The codes could only come from the President sergeant. Ladies and Gentlemen, we are in full launch mode and you will perform your duties. We may not know what is happening but we have all been trained for this and this is happening. Follow your orders, and lets hope we get out of this in one piece.” The Skin said as he smiled inwardly, he knew that not one of them would. He already planted a canister of a particularly nasty gas in the ventilation system. When the countdown finished and the launch happened, the gas would flood the complex and kill everyone but himself. His husk would protect him. As more and more silos acknowledged the closer they got to total nuclear holocaust.
Gemodzu’s Cave, The Rockies, Same Time
“Okay…now I know you’re in there, Zeezu.” Michael said
“Aka na Zeezu. Daba aka Gemodzu.”
“Nah, not buying it.” Maria said, “Your brothers may have forced you into this but your still the cute little pink ball. The science egghead guy that came up with you made you the nice one for a reason. You can control them when you’re all like this.”
“Gemodzu dalno maka na.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, da bungo bobo…whatever.” Michael said, “No spreken ze Gemod. Look, I know how little Zeezu like to bounce around the room. So why don’t you break up and we can play a little football.”
“Fooball?” Gemodzu said softly
“Yeah, you know when you acted like a ping pong and hit off every wall there was before clapping.” Michael said
“Football.” Gemodzu said again
“I think our boy is coming out to play.” Maria said
“Don’t jinx it.” Michael said
“Gemodzu, you have Zeezu as your conscience. Get over what it is your brothers have done to you and make them listen to you. They’re nutcases with powers but you’re the link between them all.” Maria said
“Gemodzu, delu bada.” It said calmly as it sat down
On the Road, Leaving the VLA, New Mexico, 01:40
Kyle, Alex, Laurie and the Skins with them had left the array and were heading back. They had untied all of the people they had secured and returned their computers back over to them; as far as this team was concerned they were done with it. Not one of the people there knew what was going on or what had happened but they were on the phone to the local police station to report the attack.
Their car sped off, heading east but stopped several miles away so that one of the Skins could change the licence place and the patterns of the tyre tread so that no one could track them. Before long they were heading on a road that would eventually take them passed Roswell. They weren’t going to pick up Tess, she still had her role to play but they would get her soon enough. At least Kyle knew she was safe within the Granolith Chamber.
After a while his phone rang and Kyle answered it. “Hello. Oh hey Max, how’d it go?”
“Kivar is dead and the surviving Skins are being transported back to HQ.”
“Hey, big party time.” Kyle said, “I’ll bring the keg…not that you guys can touch it.”
“Kyle.” Max said
“Something tells me there is a but.” Kyle said
“Kivar started a countdown to launch every nuke there is.” Max said
“Ugh, I really hate the last couple of days.” Kyle said
“You and me both. We’re heading to NORAD to stop it…if we can.”
“And if you can’t?” Kyle asked
“Don’t go there.” Max said
“Okay, well we’re heading back to Texas right now. Is there anything we can do?”
“Just get in the bunker and stay inside until I call again, if I don’t then after the bombs have stopped falling get out of the country quickly.”
“Max…”
“I’ll be dead if this doesn’t work. Liz will…well you know Liz.”
“Yeah I do, I’ll keep an eye on her.” Kyle said, “Good luck.”
In the Skies, Heading South West, 01:50
“Thanks.” Kyle said over the phone before Max hung up. “Okay, if I know Kyle he’ll call the others and let them know. But do we have any ideas yet?”
“NORAD is a heavily protected. It’s shielded to survive anything but a direct hit from a nuclear weapon. Once it’s sealed, it’s a case of nothing in, nothing out. You can’t just wave your hand and say “open sesame”.” The general said
“Uh, why not wave the hand?” Serena asked, “You guys did melt off safe doors.”
“Well since we discovered you aliens exist we researched ways of blocking your abilities.”
“We know about the drug you guys have.” Max said
“I’m not talking about the drug. One of the systems we developed was under a project run by Ivar’s father. Since I now know Ivar is Kivar, it’s a safe bet that his father was just a cover for himself. He developed a device that once activated produced a form of radiation that blocks the flow of energy from your hands into the surrounding environment.”
“My, isn’t that handy.” Serena said
“Kivar must have known we’d try to stop the missiles so he protected his plan.” Torias said
“Then I guess we just need to find a way to force the door open.” Max said
“That is impossible.” The general said, “The door is 4 foot thick reinforced with 4 6-inch steel bolts along the edges. Nothing opens it and it is air tight.”
“What about shutting off the device that blocks our powers?” Serena asked
“That can only be done from inside the command room.”
“There has to be a way inside…ventilation duct, emergency hatch…something.”
“All of which have booby traps that activate when the base is in lockdown.”
“You know, I really wish you guys would include backup plans for when you actually need to invade your own facilities.” Max said
“Well then I guess we can just put that down to a lack of foresight.” The general said
“Dealing with alien infiltrators, lack of foresight is the least of what you’ve done wrong through all of this.”
“Anyway, we should be there soon.” The general said as he looked at his watch.
Gemodzu’s Cave, The Rockies, 02:30
Michael and Maria quickly found themselves taking shelter behind a rock as Gemodzu was blasting away and punching at the cave walls with his strength. The creature was practically causing minor earthquakes.
“What the hell did you say?” Maria asked
“ME?”
“Yeah you. I was outside remember.”
“We were just talking when he went nuts.” Michael said
“And you didn’t say anything?” Maria asked
“Yes, I totally made a mistake cause I want to be killed by the big brown gemod.” Michael said
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, just lets get out of this one alive. Then I guess it could be the other four trying to be themselves and blowing things up.” Maria said as her phone rang in her backpack.
Michael was the closest to it and pulled it out, “Hi, this is Michael on Maria’s phone. We’re about to die horrible and probably very painful deaths so please leave your name and number at the beep and we’ll get back to you as soon as extra terrestrially possible…beep. Oh hey Kyle, what’s up?”
Kyle proceeded to tell Michael what was going on and he didn’t like what he was hearing, aside from the part about Kivar being dust, but that didn’t help right now. When Kyle was done he hung up.
“Well?” Maria asked
“Lots and lots of sweary words.” Michael said
“That bad?”
“Whatever’s in your head right now…triple it.” Michael said
“That bad.” Maria said
Michael nodded and then took a deep breath. “Damn it. Damn it all the way to hell.” He said before he started yelling. “ZEEZU, NOW I’M PISSED. I’M NOT KIDDING AROUND ANYMORE.” Michael darted up with his hand ready and a blast of white light shot from him. It hit the massive Gemod and threw him against the rock face but it didn’t do much other than give them a break from the attacks.
“Zeezu, I know you can hear us.” Maria said, “You can stop this and your brothers.”
“You are their conscience and I know you can stop them but right now I know you can stop Kivar and what he’s doing. He’s launching weapons that will kill everyone including us…well maybe not you, I don’t know what could do that but…”
“Da zu cada da zeezu?”
“Zeezu? That you?” Michael asked
“Zeezu bada dadoo. Kivar da la booboo.” It said before the mass started glowing brightly.
The blue radiance filled the entire cave. Maria and Michael felt as though a few million tiny insects were crawling over their skin but in seconds the glow stopped and nothing was left. The entire cave was empty.
Outside the Secure Door, NORAD, Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado Springs, 03:00
NORAD was built inside a mountain with a single tunnel allowing vehicles access up to a point. From there, there was a massive door that could be closed to seal off the base beyond. With 2 hours to go before pillars of fire began to rise from the ground, the aircraft flew in, circled around the mountain once before gliding smoothly into the tunnel and came to a stop just meters from the door. The four people jumped out of the aircraft and ran to the door. The general moved to the security station, on this side it was abandoned with everything now being controlled on the other side. The cameras were already on them and the general pressed his finger to a button to switch on the intercom.
“This is General Pax, open this door right now.”
A voice then came through the speaker, “I’m sorry sir, the door is sealed.”
“Get General Locke on the comm. right now, I want to speak with him.”
“General we’re in final launch mode. Control of in lockdown. There is nothing I can do.”
“You listen to me, the President did not order this strike. Open this door right now.”
“General under executive order 2329 if you do not leave immediately I am authorised to order security outside to move on your position with lethal force. This door will not open for you or anyone else.”
“Well this is useful.” Serena said
“He’s been trained not to comply with this.” The general said, “No one will opened that door.”
Just then there was a bright blue flash and three forms suddenly appeared. “Wow.” Michael and Maria both said as they fell to the floor with overwhelming dizziness.
“Holy god.” The general said as he looked over the massive alien creature.
“Gemodzu fadra coda ra.”
“Oh shit.” Serena said
“What?” Max asked
“Uh…duck.” Serena said as she dived down behind the wall. Everyone followed her as Max reached his hand out just enough to form a shield around Michael and Maria who were still trying to stop the room from spinning…and to keep down their last meal.
Although they didn’t see what happened next, they most certainly heard it. Gemodzu ran straight for the large door and focused all the strength he had, when he hit the door it smashed into dozens of large chunks that went everywhere. One even sliced across the top of the security booth and took it clean off. Gemodzu didn’t stop running, Max ran over to help Michael and Maria up who had quickly recovered when a chunk bounced off the shield covering them. As fast as they could they all took off after the alien monster. The sight of Gemodzu, an actual and very obvious alien, freaked most of the soldiers out who then hid but when the others came past they were ready with their guns drawn. Max made sure any shots that were fired never got close to them.
Inside…
Alarms started blazing red everywhere. “What the hell is that?”
“Security breach and main entrance, sir. We’ve got reports…of something.”
“Define something.”
“Something kinda like that.” He said as he pointed to a security feed
“Holy…” the Skin said, the problem was he wasn’t looking at the feed that showed Gemodzu. He did see that one and he knew what it was, while that did make him want to soil his husk it was the screen next to it that caught his attention. He instantly recognised the human forms of Zan and Rath and that they had in toe one of the human generals who was supposed to be in the dark about the true nature of things going on. “Speed up the countdown.”
“General?”
“Enemy incoming, security is breached. Enact the emergency protocol.”
Within 10 keystrokes the numbers of the counter sped up until they were a blur and in seconds they had gone from just under 2 hours to just under 7 minutes. Then the doors exploded open and Gemodzu stood there with cracks of different colours all over his body and looking very tired. The creature fell to the floor and when it impacted there was a flash and five multicoloured balls rolled away, all zoned out with spinning eyes.
Then the others entered and Max spotted the clock. “Oh god.” Then he looked around the room. Security was moving in fast with their guns drawn. They didn’t even bother telling them to surrender, they just opened fire but Max raised his hand and a shield protected them all. Michael moved his hand like he was swatting a fly and a swipe of energy tossed the air force MPs aside. Everyone else in the room froze at the display of power.
The two generals looked at each other, staring each other down and the one with Max was wondering if he truly was an alien. “Stop this.” He said
“You don’t have the authority. Only the president can stop this.”
“He didn’t order it.”
“Wait…he is a Skin.” Max said, ever since his little power spurt in the Skin compound he could feel differences around him. With Torias he could see the husk body but Max swore that he could see a form of light within him. He could see the alien inside the disguise and now he was seeing the same thing with the general standing at the command station.
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Max said
The Skin reached for his sidearm but Serena was much faster. She drew her gun and shot the alien’s shoulder, causing him to spin around enough for her uncle Michael to throw everything he had at the Skin a fraction of a second later. His blast hit the seal and every airmen/women in the room watched as their C.O exploded into a cloud of dust.
“Shut down the launch.” Max yelled
“I can’t.” the sergeant said
“DO IT!” Max ordered as his eyes went back to black
“I can’t, only he had the codes.” He said as he pointed to where the general had been standing
“Oh…great.” Maria said, “Of course he would be the only one.”
“Yeah well, when is it ever easy.” Max said, “But then we don’t need it to be.”
“What?” the general asked
Max moved over to the main computer, the look of his dark eyes got everyone out of the way. He rested his hand on the consol and closed his eyes. Everyone watched as his hand glowed, Michael and then Serena also moved over. They knew what he was doing and fed his power into Max while putting their hands next to his on the computer. The flooded the system with their power, the system that was connected to every missile silo there was in the country as well as the planet. Most of the people didn’t know about it being global and if it wasn’t for Kivar’s determination to wipe out the population it wouldn’t have been.
“2 minutes to launch.” The sergeant called out
Maria moved up to behind Michael and put her hand over his before leaning up to his ear, “You can do this.” She whispered to her lover
Michael sent more power in, as did Max and so did their niece. All three were glowing with a faint aura, an aura that spread into Maria and penetrated deep into her body. She felt a deep warmth and didn’t want it to end.
“One Minute!”
Then Max opened his eyes, “NOW!” he called out and the wires were flooded with power that travelled everywhere.
The massive wave of power surged into the computers that controlled the individual missiles. They fried the second the power hit and then exploded. In NORAD the countdown stopped at 42 seconds and everyone gave a deep sigh of relief.
“Nice, now, what do we do about the psycho brothers over there.” Maria said as she pointed to the sleeping Gemods before picking up Zeezu.
“One thing at a time.” Max said as he sat down in a chair, “One thing at a time.”
The Diner, Northern Texas, Sunrise
Sitting by a window and looking out at the light filling sky that had a distinctly red tint to it, the general just sat and breathed in the air. Everything was very nearly sorted and he didn’t need to worry about the alien threat of infiltration. He had no idea what was beneath his feet and that was the way Max wanted it, no need to let him know about it until he had to. When they came here, Isabel, Liz, baby Serena and their parents were already there waiting for them. When Max saw Liz he ran to her and lifted her up before kissing her. The pronounced bump on her belly was much more pronounced than one day ago and was ecstatic.
It took them a few moments of alone time when they were simply happy to be back together. Max then went over to the general and put down a cup of coffee. “Figured you could use one last pick me up.”
“Thank you.” The general said, “So what is this place?”
“It’s a diner. We figured this would be a good drop off point; its quiet, remote and in a wide-open space. Not many people come here.” Max said
“Where are the rest of your friends?” the general asked
“On their way. You’re jet got us here a couple of hours before they would get here but they are coming.”
“So. I guess we’re ready for the next thing on our agreement.” Max said
“Which is?”
“The ship in exchange for us dealing with the riots.” Max said
“Ah yes, that.”
“Yes. That.” Max said with a little concern.
“Relax, I called on our way down here. The ship is on route as we speak. However, it wont make it here unless I see a news report talking about the end of those problems.” The general said, “It’s time to do your part.”
“Of course.” Max said as he pulled out his phone and dialled Tess’s number. The general smiled as he watched, he pulled out his own phone to call in and check in on the progress of his delivery.
Granolith Chamber, Outside Roswell, Immediately Following
Tess was sitting before the Granolith and drinking coffee. She was up all night waiting for Max’s call and was on the verge of complete and utter mind numbing boredom. The blonde was almost falling asleep but she did have enough coffee to see her through at least another hour. Then she received Max’s call.
“Hi, Max?”
“It’s me Tess.”
“Oh thank…I take it everything is okay?” Tess asked
“It’s over. Kivar is dead, his plan stopped and his people are prisoners.”
“So my turn then?” Tess asked
“Yes.” Max said
“Okay then, see ya soon.” She said and then hung up
Tess packed up her gear, knowing that she would be going home soon but the next stage was hers. Tess got up and moved to the Granolith, Serena had told her aunt everything she needed to know and she put her hands on the surface of the obsidian device. Tess focused her mind and the Granolith started to glow from within itself. Then with a resounding pulse it shot its energy out.
The Diner, Texas, 07:00
All over the planet and unseen ripple roamed over the surface and warped the minds of everyone. As the General sat he suddenly felt a tingle all over his skin.
“What happened?” the general asked Max
“Tess used her power. She calmed the population and took away all the anger. We’ve given them a chance to think before they act.” Max said
“That’s it?” the general asked
“Don’t underestimate it. They’ll kick out the old crowd, arrest and prosecute all the ones we found information on. Any action that was illegal, even by the military, there’s no getting away from that. Anyway, the people are supposed to be in charge so they will probably make sure that no one with key ties to the old government is allowed to participate in anything…well other than advising. They’ll vote in a new government calmly and rationally and avert a civil war unless the current administration puts up a fight. Oh and just in case the president does, please tell him we still have information about the five interns in the Lincoln bedroom.” Max said
“Five?” the general asked with wide eyes
“And not all of them were women.” Max said, “I think there was a saying…the only thing that can end the career of a politician is being caught in bed with a dead girl, or a live boy. Well at the very least I think his wife would like to know.”
“That’s blackmail.” The general said
“No, well yes it is, but it’s making sure people do what’s right instead of what their egos tell them to do.” Max said, “People in power will rarely give it up.”
“Fine, I’ll let him know.” The general said, “At any rate your ship will be here in 3 hours.”
“That’s good.” Max said, “I’ll tell the Skins to get ready to leave.”
“Where are they?”
“On their way.” Max said, it still wasn’t time for him to know he was standing on their base. “Their base is California. They’ll dismantle it and be here in time for the launch.”
3 Hours Later…
Over the horizon, a huge flatbed truck came driving along with the Roswell ship on board. It was covered by a large tarp that kept it hidden and there were spikes coming from the truck altered the shape so that no one would even be able to guess at what was beneath. It came to a stop right outside the diner; everyone else was already there aside from Tess. The Skins were also absent aside from Torias, he wanted to make sure everything was okay before his people were exposed.
Alex’s team arrived back a little while back and they were eager to see a real life spaceship. They watched as the couple of military personnel that drove the truck got out and pulled the tarp back to reveal the ship. Torias approached the ship and raised his hand to it. Instantly symbols along the vessel’s hull started to glow and hum at varying pitches and tones as though they were communicating to the alien. It was almost musical and the alien smiled.
“Torias?” Max asked
“It’s good. The outer hull was virtually undamaged; it was enough to keep the humans out. The automatic repair sequences have been working to bring the ship back to operational status.”
“It’s safe to launch?” Isabel asked
“More than safe.” Torias said as he pushed his hand forward. The ship reacted and lifted off. It floated off of the truck and hovered above the ground before an opening formed with a wide beam of light projecting down to the ground. Torias walked up that beam and accessed a terminal by the hatch. “Atmospheric systems are online. Engines, propulsion, defensive capability…everything is optimal.”
Torias came down and gave a nod to one of the Skins. The general was then watching every single Skin walking out of an opening in the diner floor that he hadn’t seen before. Even the waitress stopped what she was doing and walked up the platform and into the vessel. A steady line of aliens, every other one had a weapon aimed at the person in front of them as they were the prisoners, made there way inside and into their old living quarters that they had on the journey here. Then suddenly, the diner started to glow with a green light.
“What’s happening?” The general asked
“They’re dismantling their base.” Michael said as the building and what was beneath vanished, leaving nothing but an incredibly large cubical hole in the ground
“It’s here?”
“Right under your feet. Sorry but we didn’t think we should risk telling you.” Max said, “But they’re leaving now so nothing to worry about.”
“No.” The general said, “Nothing. Nothing at all.”
“What are you going to do about Antar dying?” Isabel asked the resistance leader
“There’s nothing we can do.” Torias said, “Our terraforming technology requires very specific parameters. Most planets are capable of supporting our people but the time field situation…that requires a planet with that has developed a sentient species…rare in our neck of the universe, which is why Kivar came here. Don’t ask me why, it just is. There are a few nearby and our ship has the necessary equipment on it. We’ll find one.”
“Uh, you’re not going to wipe out a species are you?” Liz asked
“Oh no, those species became extinct a while back but it should still work.” Torias said, “We’ll find a home out there some where.”
“Well don’t be strangers.” Max said as he watched the last Skin pushed a cart up that held four containment fields around the Gemods.
Zeezu looked up and waved his brothers goodbye. “Zeezu da baba.” He said with a smile
“Oh we wont. After all, you are the royals.” Torias said as he headed up into the ship, “We’ll see you around. Majesty.”
The hatch closed over and within minutes the engines powered up. The ship shot straight up and was out of the atmosphere in less than 2 minutes. From there it headed off even faster into space.
“That was cool.” Kyle said
“Okay, so we’ll be off now.” Serena said, “No offence but I want mini-me here kept as far away from you as possible.”
“Oh I understand.” the general said with a smile before he reached around to his back and pulled out a gun. As if on cue, like that one move was a signal, 4 dozen soldiers came out from hiding behind the ridgeline and bushes. Each carried weapons with laser sights and all of the young family, their parents and Zeezu were covered with red dots. “You honestly don’t think I’d let a threat stay on this planet did you?” the general asked
To Be Concluded…
Other Paths - Edited and Reposted - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3667
Risen in Light - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3694
Viral Apocalypse - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=6837
Risen in Light - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3694
Viral Apocalypse - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=6837
Chapter 17
Northern Texas, Immediately Following
They were surrounded, no way out with dozens of guns aimed at them as well as 3 rocket launchers that would certainly kill them. There was no way out and the general before them smiled contently as if he knew something they didn’t.
“So this is how you thank us? You’re a real son of a bitch.” Max said
“Hmm, well no doubt you think that all those little talents of yours can get you out of this. That shield of your for instance would be very effective.” The general said, “Go on, raise it.”
“I’m sorry?” Max asked
“Go on.”
Max looked around and lifted his hand but there was nothing. He did everything he usually did to form the protective barrier but nothing happened. “What did you do?” Max asked
The general indicated with his hand and one of the soldiers with him turned around to reveal his backpack. The only problem was that it wasn’t a backpack; it was decidedly more technological. “I borrowed a little toy from NORAD. That emitter I told you about that dampens your powers…very useful for alien ambushes.” He said
“Serena?” Michael whispered
“I’m good but not this good.” Serena said, she wanted nothing more than to go for her gun but knew that at best she could take out 3, maybe 4, before the barrage of bullets would kill her entire family.
“You so much as move an inch, you’re dead.” The general said
“Oh come on you’re going to kill us anyway.” Serena said
“You know, you’re right. But this is a family event and one of you is missing. I have a feeling you wouldn’t want to be separated for long so she’s nearby. Get her here now.” The general said to Max
Max nodded and slowly lowered his hand into his pocket. He pulled out his phone and speed dialled Tess. “Uh Tess…It’s time to come back.” He said and looked at the general, “Yeah, everything went just as we thought…okay, I’ll see you soon.” Max then hung up, “She’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Good.” The general said
“You know, sometime there are times when I hate having my visions.” Liz said
“Yeah and sometimes I wish you weren’t right. And sometimes I wish I was a little more trusting of people otherwise I wouldn’t have asked Tess to do this before you even told me about the vision. But right now, I think we’ll settle for a little mistrust.” Max said
“Uh what are you guys talking about?” Kyle asked
“That’s a good question.” The general said
“Well it’s like chess…you think four moves ahead and what moves your opponent can make.” Liz said
“So?”
“So…checkmate.” Max said
Suddenly all of the soldiers there heard a continuous metallic whine scream through their minds. It hit with such intensity that each of them dropped their weapons and grabbed their ears, trying in vain to stop the sound but it was in their heads. In the Granolith chamber, Tess had her hands on the Granolith and using it to magnify her power. She really hoped that she wouldn’t have gotten that call but then she was even less trusting of the military than Max was and knew that it would probably be inevitable. Soon the soldiers doubled over in pain, falling to the floor and writhing in searing pain that was tearing through their minds. Max and the others moved around them, kicking away their guns as their noses and ears started to bleed.
“So you knew this would happen?” Isabel asked
“Kinda had a feeling.” Max said, “I really wanted to be wrong. It’s why I really sent Tess to the Granolith, of course setting things right with the people was a bonus.”
“Then I had a vision when you were all on the way back and…well.” Liz said as she pointed down to the soldiers.
“Well we can’t leave this guy around. Obviously he wont stop.” Serena said above the general as his eyes became bloodshot, “Unless Aunt Tess isn’t going to stop until their dead?”
“Oh she’ll stop in a second or two. But you’re right. He wont stop.” Max said
“Oh.” Serena said. “Good.” She took out her gun and let off a single shot. “That’s for killing my dad.” Then she tossed her gun into the hole left by the Skin Resistance base. She knew that she didn’t need it anymore and was happy to be finally rid of it.
Max leaned down and checked for a pulse, as he expected he found none. He should have known his niece would have taken the opportunity but he still didn’t expect to see her do it so quickly. Then the screaming stopped, the family looked over the soldiers who were all still breathing but the bleeding had stopped and they were all unconscious.
“I guess Tess has finished.” Kyle said, “What did she do?”
“Erased their memories of anything alien related. Everything from our faces to even sci-fi television shows.” Max said, “But we’ve got a little more covering up to do.”
“Oh?” Alex asked
“He means this.” Serena said as she stretched out her hand and pushed the general into the hole. His body went crashing to the bottom to join her gun just as Max moved up to the side of the pit.
He reached down and rested his hand on it, Max focused and the entire rim glowed before he backed away from it. “Michael.” He ordered.
Michael blasted the edge and the entire pit came crashing in on itself. Serena’s gun and the general were buried under 100 feet of rock and dirt. Isabel then took the opportunity to make sure that no one would find that spot. She waved her hand over the rough patch of land and the rubble started to sprout wildly until the whole area was covered with plants, bushes and a few trees. More than enough to make sure it appeared as though they had been there for years.
“Well we’re done here.” Max said
“When that truck doesn’t show up they’ll send people out to find it. These guys wont have long to wait.” Liz said
“Is that you speaking or a vision?” Maria asked
“Both.” Liz said
“Good, now lets go pick up my fiancé and get the hell out of here.” Kyle said
Their cars were still in the area where they were parked when Serena first brought them to the diner. They got inside and made sure that everything was there that they needed before they drove west.
Pod Mountain, Outside Roswell, New Mexico, 3 Hours Later
They arrived at the mountain to find Tess already waiting for them at the base of the rock. She had come back out when she finished and when she saw the approaching cars she jumped up. Kyle got out the second the car stopped and ran to Tess. The two of them kissed passionately like they hadn’t seen each other in months and not just a day and a half.
“Are we done?” Tess asked
“We’re done.” Kyle said
“So no more military, FBI, crazy psycho rich guys who wants us to rob museums?” Tess asked
“Well nothing is guaranteed.” Max said
“Yeah, right.” Tess said
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what could happen.” Alex said, “What about right now?”
“What do you mean?” Liz asked
“Honey,” Alex said to Serena, “Don’t take this the wrong way but why are you still here?”
“You mean because we’ve saved the planet, saved all of us and right now no one is running an alien hunt?” Serena said
“Yes.” Alex said
“It’s a good question and believe me I don’t know. I should be gone. The time I came from is completely erased, or at least it should be.” Serena said
“Maybe you haven’t changed enough…although I have no idea what’s left.” Isabel said
“Oh…I think I know.” Serena said as an idea hit her
“Like?”
“You’ll see. You guys got enough money for a descent boat right?” Serena said
“Yes.” Max said, “More than enough. What do you have in mind?”
Serena just smiled innocently as she walked back to the car, got in and started the engine, “Let’s head south for a while, till we get to Mexico.”
Small Island off Hawaii, Noon, 2 Days Later
The island was practically nothing more than a tropical dot in the ocean. Nice surf, white sandy beaches that circled it completely aside from a massive protrusion of rocks on the northern shore line that isolated one small section of beach. There was a small network of roads and trails that covered the island but its most important feature was what brought the family here.
On the northeast corner of the island there was a derelict hotel. It was set up by a millionaire attempting to create an ideal little getaway but it failed. Most of the people didn’t want to take the boat ride from Hawaii over to the island when all of the things to do were over there. However, this little group had a way of compelling people to visit their last hotel. Serena had brought them to Mexico where they bought a boat and sailed over to Hawaii. They considered it a vacation from everything that just happened but when they arrived at the volcanic island they set about looking into setting up their lives.
They learned of the hotel on the nearby island and the fact that it was up for sale. When that happened they didn’t need to look at each other to know what they were all thinking. They got back to their boat, sailed over and checked it out. When they got back they headed off to the real estate agent handling it. They pulled the same routine as with their last purchase, using Tess’s mindwarp ability to give them identities as foreign businessmen.
“As you can see the hotel has been unattended for the last five years. The last hurricane to come through the region did some damage but other than that there is very little wrong.” The estate agent said
“What about wiring?” Alex asked
“All recent. The hotel was built to be very modern with all the latest conveniences. It will take a little to bring it back to life but it can be done. There is also a marina and dock to the south that will also need work but all in all it is a very cheap buy.”
“Who is the current owner? Why would he just leave all this?” Liz asked
“Well it was an experimental business venture for himself. His primary business was automotive out of Detroit.”
“Was automotive?” Max asked
“He passed away 6 months ago. He didn’t have any living relatives but his will did specify that his primary assets with regard to his business be left to his partners while a sizable chunk of his fortune went to charities. He fancied himself a bit of a philanthropist but it did leave this island to one charity in particular. However, they don’t have much use for it. They initially wanted to turn it into an animal sanctuary but they don’t have even close to the money required. They still have that idea but without the resources…they came to the decision to sell it about 5 months ago but so far no one is interested.”
“Well they are now.” Max said as he looked at his family who all nodded, “We’ll take it. All of it.”
“Really?” the agent asked with considerable surprise.
“Yes but the thing is, well as your background checks on us have shown on us we’re primary involved with diamond mining.”
“You wish to pay with diamonds?”
“Yes. They are all quite legal and certainly not conflict stones. Whatever their price is we’ll meet it within reason of course and we’d like it to be settled by the end of the week.” Max said. He was only kicking himself for not doing this the first time, diamonds took up a lot less space that the lead they converted to gold. A couple of large sacks of coal, add their powers to create massive amounts of pressure and they end up with relatively natural diamonds. Max wanted this purchase to be fully legitimate, minus how they would get the gemstones, but it would be without the robberies that financed their last set up.
“I…eh…really?”
“Really.” Max said confidently
“Well I need to speak to my clients of course.”
“Of course.” Max said, “We can take you back on our boat.”
“Oh thank you. May I ask…why don’t you deposit the diamonds in a bank and have the currency electronically transferred to my clients account?”
“We prefer a more hands on approach. And tell your clients that we would be happy to set aside an area of the island for their sanctuary. We’d be more than happy to help with that.” Tess said
“We would?” Michael asked
“Yeah, it would be nice to do something…you know…nice.” Tess said, “Besides it’s the right thing to do and with our money in their pockets they could either say yes or find somewhere else. This makes it easier for them.”
“I’ll give them your offer.” The agent said, “If you’re sure?”
“Yeah, I think we are.” Max said
“Good.”
Soon they were all heading back to the main island. The family docked their boat in the marina and set about having fun around the sun-soaked island while the agent went back to her office.
Small Cove, Northern Beach, 19:00
Much later in the day they returned to the island. They had toured much of it but as a few of them walked over the high rocks on the beach they found a small cove. It was a simple stretch of beach but on either side and at the back that was adjacent to the hotel there were high protrusions of rocks that effectively sealed it off. The rocks themselves speared out onto the ocean around the island and ensured that no boats would approach from that way. It was perfectly serene and a good little private spot.
“Oh I can totally see myself being raised here.” Serena said as she looked at her younger self in her mother’s arms, “Oh yeah, me, small bikini and lots and lots of studs.”
“Yeah, this is a bad idea.” Alex said
“Oh come on daddy, it’s perfect.” Serena said
“It is.” Isabel said
“Besides, something tells me that mom will be wearing a bikini too most of the time.” Serena said
“That is a safe bet.” Isabel said
“Is this supposed to tempt me?” Alex asked
“Uh huh. And it’s working.” Isabel said
“Yeah okay it is.” Alex said
“You know, we can keep this cove for ourselves, build some steps into the back rock up to the hotel so we can get down…a nice private place for the kids to play.” Max said, “I like it.”
“The other beaches can be for the hotel customers.” Michael said
“You know this could really work.” Max said, “Kyle.”
“Yes oh great and wondrous alien king?” Kyle said
“Do you still have the information on the people who worked at the last hotel?”
“Sure, well I have their names and phone numbers in my book. God knows why I packed it in my bag when we left but I did.” Kyle said
“Good.” Max said, “I want you to give them a call.”
“Why?” Michael asked
“Let’s see if they’ll be willing to re-locate from New York to here.” Max said, “We build some employee housing, pay for their tickets out here and move their belongings. After all they were the best we could get and I liked a few of them.”
“That will cost a lot.” Michael said
“We can afford it.” Max said, “Besides we’ll need help getting this place up and running. We need to put in some entertainment, fix up the docks, there will be people wanting to go scuba diving which is something I wouldn’t mind doing once in a while. There’s diving, sailing…trips back and forth to Hawaii.”
“We’re going to be busy for a while.” Liz said
“Well maybe not all of us.” Max said, “You are going to be resting for a while.”
“Well, I guess I’ll go run up our phone bill for a while.” Kyle said as he headed off back to the boat to use the satellite phone on board
Everyone else continued to move around what was left of the hotel. This wasn’t as derelict as their previous purchase and would be easier to get up and running but it would still take time assuming they actually got the go ahead from the islands current owners. It took another 3 days before they got a call from those people who accepted the offer and named their price. They were also eager on getting a section of the island and turning it into the sanctuary they wanted although they were concerned about how they could do it and keep a continuous stream of people coming that would be safe. They didn’t think the two mixed well and mostly that was correct but they didn’t know that they could keep people away from it with but a thought.
1 Month Later…
Much faster than they anticipated, the hotel was up and running. Occasionally a little extra cash was required and a few lumps of ordinary coal were changed into diamonds that were sold before the cash was deposited into the bank. Nearly all of their old employees were happy if not eager to move to Hawaii and take up their old jobs in this place. As promised their employers took up the burden of financing their relocation as well as putting them up in suitable housing for them. They and their families were all comfortable, kids were ferried back and forth to Hawaii for school and they themselves were in walking distance to their jobs. Each new home had one hell of a view of the ocean.
As before, the top floors of the hotel were made the homes of the pod squad and their families. There was more than enough space and just in case they included all of their old security features. Michael spent a day carving stairs into rock from the hotel down to their own beach and it was frequently used. 3 weeks after their purchase, Liz gave birth to her son. Just as when Serena was born his eyes were jet black but quickly changed to their human appearance. Everyone dotted over him and his older cousin and Serena had a new playmate. All through the work Serena kept an eye out and made sure that everything was on track. She may have been here longer than she thought she would but she wasn’t going to waist any of the time. The girl from the future made sure her family was as it should be and she kept things well in order, the main feature of which was arranging the nuptials for Tess and Kyle.
They wanted to be married but the constantly arising situations resulted in them putting it back again and again. Serena arranged it and didn’t tell them about it until that morning. Their faces were priceless when she told them and captured it on a picture. That entire day was then devoted to that event. Since the building work was all completed and they were expecting their first guests within a few days they didn’t have much to do except sign for the food deliveries for the hotel but that could be taken care of by the manager who was touring the hotel and making sure everything were to his standards…which was high.
Today, with the sun high in the sky, Michael and Maria were out talking. Both were wearing swimwear, which had become their unofficial standard of dress lately, not that any of them minded. With a sarong around Maria’s waist and her hand in Michael’s they were out and enjoying the feel of the warm sand between their toes.
“Michael…can I tell you something?”
“Any time. You know that.” Michael said, “What’s up?”
“Ever since NORAD…I’ve been having dreams.”
“I guess if you’re bring this up it’s not the usual kind.” Michael said
“Well…yeah. They…eh…well they’ve been really, really erotic.” Maria said with a slight blush as she remembered each one in gloriously pleasurable detail
“Maria, you have those dreams like every day since we hooked up.” Michael said
“Haha and…well yes I do but these ones are different.”
“How?”
“When we’re really into it your eyes turn black and them I see myself only I’m very pregnant.” Maria said
Michael stopped and looked at her.
“What?” Maria asked with a little concern
“Those are my dreams. I’ve been having them.” Michael said
“Uh…oh.” Maria said, “So I’m…”
“No. I don’t think you’re pregnant. We would know for sure by now, Max said that when he and Liz…well, he said his eyes turned black. Unless you haven’t told me, mine haven’t.” Michael said, “But I did have a flash once.”
“Of me being pregnant?”
“No. It was when we were in that diner restroom. I saw you breastfeeding a baby.” Michael said, “Our baby.”
“Michael, do you want us to have kids?” Maria asked
“Your mom would kill me if I got you pregnant before marrying you.” Michael said, deliberately avoiding the question. He couldn’t deny how that single brief flash made him feel but he had to wonder if he was ready for that.
“Yeah.” Maria said, feeling his hesitation, “So…the dreams. Do you think that I’m becoming like you?”
“You’ve had them since NORAD right?”
“Yeah.” Maria said, “Oh the glowy thing…when you fried the computers.”
“I’m thinking you got yourself an alien cellular suntan. At least I think that’s how Liz would put it.” Michael said
“A cellular suntan? That’s good.” Maria said, “Now what does that mean?”
“I think you’ve changed. Not as much as Liz has changed but I think Max’s link with Liz bled into me and Michael with mine…enough to link us. At least our subconscious minds.”
“Wow.”
“You agree?” Michael asked
“Maybe but I do know you’ve been around Liz way more than I have.” Maria said with a smile.
“Yeah, probably.” Michael said
“Ah screw it, if we have kids, we have kids. It’s not something we need to rush into.” Maria said
“Right.” Michael said
“And you’re right, my mom would kill you if you didn’t marry me first so let’s take it just a little take it when it happens.” Maria said and Michael nodded, “Of course we’re going to get in a ton of practice…and a lot of fun, starting tonight.”
“Amen.” Michael said, “But we’re going to be late. Come on.”
Private Cove, North Beach, 13:00
Michael and Maria come running up to find all of their family gathered in a semi circle around Tess and Kyle who stood close to the water with the priest Serena had arranged. It was simple and with family, just the way the couple wanted it. Tess wore a long white and light dress that gleamed in the sunlight; she wasn’t going to tell anyone that there wasn’t anything beneath the dress. Kyle wore a shirt, tie and a very smart jacket but he wore a matching pair of shorts. Not exactly the typical wedding outfit but not one of them cared so long as this day ended with Kyle and Tess being married. Everyone was barefoot, Liz held her new son as Max gave Tess away just as Isabel held her own daughter. Teenage Serena was also there, listening and smiling.
“Do you Kyle Valenti take this woman, Tess Harding to be your wedded wife?”
Kyle smiled, “I do.”
“Do you Tess take Kyle to be your husband?”
“I do.” Tess said
The couple exchanged their golden rings and slide them onto each other’s fingers as they said their vows. They stood together on the shore until they heard the words, “I know pronounce you husband and wife.” Then they kissed before he could even indicate for them to do so.
Everyone clapped and moved into congratulate the newlyweds. Jim shook his hand and was the first to kissed the bride on her cheek, although he long ago considered her family she was now is daughter in-law. The priest gave his own congratulations but left, this was one of many unions he was presiding over today. Max had set up a ferry back and forth between the islands and the priest was on it soon enough. However, while Serena was happy about seeing this she had felt a change and started to walk away.
“Serena?” Isabel asked
Serena turned and smiled, “Time’s up. I have to go now.” She said
“What? But…??” Alex said with concern
“Dad, it’s okay. I don’t belong here. I’ve finished what I had to do. I guess I was just here to make sure that everything had settled down. It has.” Serena said as she started to glow with a yellow outline, “Take care of her…and any other alien juniors that come along.”
“Serena, wait…OUCH!” Maria said as she took a step forward and stood on something.
“Oh now see, there you go ruining my surprise.” Michael said
“What surprise?” Maria asked
Michael knelt down and lifted something out of the sand, “I was going to have this whole thing laid out. But…” Michael said as he opened his hand and exposed a diamond ring, “I guess now is as good a time as any. Maria Deluca will you marry me?”
“Wha…wha…wha…wha…” Maria repeated over and over again with complete and utter shock.
“I’ve had this planned with Serena since last night. Will you marry me?”
“Ohmygodyes.” Maria said as she pulled Michael up and wrapped her arms around him.
Soon he put the ring on her finger and hugged her again before he whispered in her ear, “Remember, you’re mom would kill you if you were pregnant before we tied the knot.”
Maria looked at him with glistening eyes. Then everyone looked over to Serena as the glow became more pronounced.
“I love you guys. See you in 16 years.” She said before she vanished leaving nothing but her footprints in the sand.
Isabel and Alex looked down at their baby daughter and smiled at her. “Thank you.” Isabel said as her daughter waved her hands up at her, “Thank you for everything.”
Before long they all headed indoors for the first official party in the ballroom, Tess and Kyle reception. The party went on for a while, everyone happy and enjoying their freedom their new home provided.
Balcony, Top Floor, The Hotel, 3 Hours Later
Liz and Max were together on their balcony from their bedroom. Both were wearing their swimwear and sunbathing after they teased themselves mercilessly by running sunscreen into their skin. Of course they didn’t take it too far, in a playpen to the side was their son Malcolm sleeping next to his older cousin Serena. Max and Liz just loved to watch them sleep; it was just so relaxing. After a while, Michael and Maria came out and joined them.
“How’s the party?” Max asked
“Didn’t last too long.” Michael said
“Let’s just say the happy couple were a little eager to do a little consummating.” Maria said
“Well…something’s just don’t seem to change.” Liz said with a smile
“Nope.” Maria said with a smile
“Do you think we’ve seen the last of the bad guys?” Michael asked
“We can but hope. And that’s enough. If they come around again looking for a fight…they wont walk out of it and we’re done running. This is our home now. It may not be Roswell but people do move away sometimes.” Max said
“What about the Granolith?” Maria asked
“It was hidden and safe for 60 years.” Liz said, “no one’s going to find it and even if they do they can’t get access.”
“I can tell you this, if something does happen something tells me our niece will be stopping by.” Max said
“I wonder how she’ll turn out this time around. The girl we knew was a little hard after seeing her dad killed but this time Alex is around and practically with her every 5 minutes.” Michael pondered
“He loves his daughter. Besides, who can blame him? Future version is kick ass, gun toting, Skin mass-killing and a little cold when it comes to a few things. He’ll want her to get to have as much of a normal and quiet life as possible.” Maria said
“Oh yeah, I wonder who thinks will be when she gets a really serious boyfriend and decided to tell him what her mother is.” Liz said
“Well, whatever happens in the future it’s safe to say she isn’t going to want for anything and least of all love from her parents.” Max said, “And us. We’ve got two adorable little people here who are going to love it here.”
“Maybe they’ll be joined by others soon.” Maria said
Max and Liz looked over to the other couple, “Something you want to tell us?”
“Relax, no we don’t. Maybe someday and maybe that would be soon but not today.” Michael said
“Then again, judging from the sounds coming from Kyle and Tess when we walked by their room, they’re certainly working on it so maybe they’ll have something to tell us.” Maria said, “Hey, where is Alex and Isabel?”
Private Cove, North Beach, Sunset
Alex and Isabel had come down to the beach. She was wearing a stunning red bikini that left nothing to the imagination and what Alex was wearing simply didn’t hide the result. The two of them walked in the surf as the waves climbed up onto the sands, their hand in each other’s as they enjoyed each other’s company. Isabel lost her sarong and both headed out into the water for a swim. They spent a great deal of time swimming and playing together as the waves continued to wash over them, neither were more than a few inches from the other.
Eventually the happily married couple ended up kissing in the water. They had become so lost in each other that they lost their footing in the water and were washed up onto the sand. Their arms were wrapped around each other as Alex lay on top of his wife, waves continued to come up around them and all the while their bodies pressed together. Their tongues snaked into each other’s mouth, tasting the sea salt on each other and they were glad that Liz and Max were minding their daughter. The last thing the wanted was for Serena to remember witnessing this.
Soon the kiss broke and Alex looked down into Isabel’s eyes. Gently he stroked some sea-soaked hair from her face and caressed her face, “It’s been a while since we’ve done this.” He said softly
“Well with everything happening after Serena was born…we never really had a chance.” Isabel said as her hands glided over his upper arms slowly, “I’m going to enjoy making up for lost time.”
“Serena did say that she wanted brothers and sisters.” Alex said
“Like we ever need a reason.” Isabel said as the two locked their lips together for another passionate kiss.
Isabel bent her knee and raised her legs slightly, feeling him against her was always exhilarating but they felt like they hadn’t been with each other in absolutely ages. It only served to enflamed their lusts and desires. She could feel his erection pressing against her through their swimsuits. Slowly the blonde slid her hands along her lover’s sides, over his back to his butt and slowly pushed his swim shorts off. She couldn’t get them all the way off but Alex backed off just a little so that he could get them the rest of the way off.
Alex then reached forward and slowly caressed the flesh of her breast above the fabric. Isabel’s skin got goose bumps and her breath hitched. She was quickly beginning to breath faster and heavier as Alex slipped his hand up and moved the strap of her top off her shoulder. Alex leaned down and kissed the previously covered skin, his warm lips sent tremble with delight. Then he started to kiss lower over her large breast, slightly lowering the loosened fabric covering the mound and kissing more. He could feel her hot breath on his ear and he could resist kissing her lips once more.
Isabel leaned up, pressing her body against his. She held the side of his face in the palm of his hand before she reached back and unclasped the top of her bikini. Alex’s hand moved from her face, slowly caressing her neck and down her chest, taking the top off as he moved down. The scrap of red Lycra slid off Isabel’s arms and she tossed it aside before she leaned back into the sand. Alex stared slowly moving his hands over her pliant mounds and flicked his tongue over her nipples.
“Hmmm…” Isabel moaned slightly
Alex used his mouth and made love to her sensitive chest, making fire arch through her body and making her whimper slightly. Isabel still felt his dick pressing against her thigh, slowly she started to push her leg forward and Alex couldn’t help but grind himself against her. Then he moved his hand lower and lower, gliding smoothly over her belly and circling her belly button a little. He was reward with a giggle, he loved exploiting her ticklish spots for his own ends but not as much as what he was about to do. He moved his hand down further, brushing her sex before he moved it to her leg. He spread her legs slightly before he extended his tongue and ran it down over her belly, all the way down.
Isabel leaned her head up and looked down at her husband as his teeth gripped down on her bottoms. Isabel raised her hips and Alex dragged them off her body. Alex lowed his head and latched his mouth onto her pussy. Isabel arched her back and groaned deeply as her husband’s tongue probed her slit, then he started to flick his tongue over her clit, pleasuring her completely and going at an agonisingly slow pace that was driving her insane.
“Ughn…hmmmm…ughnnnn…Ale…xxxxx…hmm…ughnnnnn…uhnnnnn…”
Isabel writhed on the sand, her body becoming hotter than the sun the beat down on them. Sweat was forming on her from the heat as she ground her hips and pushed her pussy into Alex’s mouth. Alex put her legs over his shoulders and caressed her tights as he ate her to the heights of bliss.
“YES…YESSS…UGHNNN…ALEXXXXXXXXXXXX…OH SWEET…AGHHNNNNNNNNNN!” Isabel cried out
Alex moved up and was on top of his wife in a split second, their arms around each other and kissing intensely. Isabel was so hot for her lover that she could have turned the sand beneath her into glass, which was something she could do anyway, but she wanted him inside him now. Isabel reached down between them and stroked his hard length, she pumped him enough to make him sweat but soon she pulled him to her opening and placed his tip of his cock to enter her.
Alex slowly pushed forward and sank into her body until they were unified as one flesh once more. They stayed still for long minutes before their hands caressed every inch of naked skin. Then the couple gazed into each other’s eyes as Alex slowly withdrew his penis and then sank back in slowly. Isabel felt him spear into her depths, spreading her slit open and made them both feel utterly incredible. Soon she moved with him, rolling her hips and meeting each gentle thrust. Alex glided his hands over her body, moving along her until they caressed her arms and sought out her hands. Their hands locked tightly together with their fingers locked in place.
“Ughmmmmm… ughnnnnnnn…”
“Isabel…yes…ughnnn…ghnnnnnn…unnnnnnnnnhhhhh…”
Together the couple made love, Alex moved his body over hers and relished in the feel of their bodied grinding together. With each thrust, they moved just that little bit faster. Alex pushed his dick deeply into his wife and made her moan again and again. They kissed and their hands gripped tighter and tighter each time he filled her. Fire flowed through their veins, all the while they were being splashed by water from the waves that were coming up around them.
“Hmmmm…Alex…so good…I love you…ughnnmmmm…oghhnnnnn…aghhhh…”
“Ghnnn…ghbnnnnnn…mnnnnuuuuuuuuuuu…godddddd….hnnmmm…”
“Yesss…yesss…ughnnnn god yesss…UGHnnnnnnnn…”
“Isa…Isabell…ughnnnn…”
Isabel then rolled them both over so that she was on top and sat herself up. Patches of their skin were covered with sand that glistened in the last light of the day. Isabel looked down at Alex as she sat upon his waist, their eyes locked as she placed her hands on his chest. She started rocking her hips, moving her sex around his dick. Both were getting into it but it wasn’t as slow and tender as it was before, not that they weren’t making love; they simply wanted to feel their orgasm spiral through their bodies.
“UHGHNNNNN…” Liz groaned
Isabel was riding Alex and his dick; she was sliding on and off his cock, taking him deep within her. Alex reached up and held her breasts, massaging them and playing with her nipples. Isabel ran her hands over his chest as they rocked together. Alex looked down and watched as his dick disappeared and reappeared from her body. She arched her back and moaned loudly as he lurched up. He captured a pebbled nipple between his lips. The rosy knot of tissue was hard as stone and ached fiercely for more contact. She thrust her breasts upwards into closer contact with Alex’s mouth. He bit into the small protrusion, no pain, just pleasure.
“Ughnnn…oh god Alex…” Isabel groaned
Isabel continued to impale herself on his meaty spear over and over. Her lusty gaze commanded his attention as continued to move her body over Alex’s. Alex’s hot, filling cock slid outward again and then back in. Each time was slow; enough to torment the part of their bodies that desperately wanted to quench their lusts. Alex smiled as he watched her slender body writhe with him. Each thrust was accompanied with a gentle moan of utter contentment
“Ohhh maaaaannnn…” he groaned slowly in sheer ecstasy as Isabel’s tight folds kept enveloping his prick. Her eyes had fluttered shut in absolute bliss.
“Isabel…so…cloooooseeee…”
“Give it to me Alex…ugnnnnn…please…”
“Ughnnnn…”
“Ohhhhh…yesss…”
Alex leaned down, both pressing their bodies together as their mouths joined. They kissed passionately, never stopping the primal movements of their bodies and moaning into each other. When the mounting heat within her began to burn, Alex felt it run through her. He sensed the explosion building inside him and knew that Isabel was just as close.
“Ughnnnn…”
“UGHNNNNN...”
“UGHNNNNNNNNN YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” They cried together, Alex shot his seed up into his mate as Isabel collapsed on top of him.
Their bodied wracked and jerked continuously as the sensations rolled over them. As their mutual highs passed, their arms wrapped around each other. They held each other tightly; only their hands moved as they slightly caressed each other until they looked up and into each other’s eyes. They kissed; it was filled with gratitude and love that could never be expressed with words as they rolled onto their sides. Isabel kept Alex between her legs, wrapping them around him before they broke their kiss to watch the last inch of sun sink behind the horizon.
16 Years Later…
Times had been interesting on the small tropical island. The alien families had turned a run down hotel into a full resort that thanks to their gifts had become popular with people seeking a nice relaxing couple of days to a full blown few weeks vacation. The southeast corner of the island had been turned into an animal reserve as they promised the charity that previously owned it. Patrons of the hotel knew where to keep clear. A diving school had been set up along with water-skiing lessons. The island was traversed with simple buggies similar but larger than the ones found on golf courses.
Each member of the family took up their new roles and lived life as fully as they could, even though they always kept an eye out for the people they feared. They knew that there was always that chance but it never stopped them. Each of the couples had four kids, two boys and two girls. Not that Serena ever lorded over the younger members of her family but she simply loved being the oldest, of course Mal was always there to keep her ego in check. After all she was the one who risked all travelled back to save the world and they all knew it. None of them would have existed without her doing that. They always took care of each other.
They all developed powers, and Serena’s developed naturally without the severe emotional twist caused by her father’s death. Since that event never happened she discovered that she didn’t take life like her alternate future self, instead she gave it. Serena found she was able to find problems in people’s bodies and change it into something positive instead of something that could be fatal. All the others had her distinctive brainpower that allowed them to remember every little detail, a curse as Malcolm called it since he walked in on his parents in the middle of something very private. No matter what he tried he simply couldn’t forget that. Of course he aced his exams but remembering that one day was simply not worth it.
On the mainland of the U.S, things had calmed down the night Tess warped the country. As expected a civil war didn’t happen but elections were the business for several months until everything was once more stable. Military projects were put directly under civilian control of a new agency, they made sure that anything that shouldn’t even have been started were scrapped. For the first time in a long time people were less apathetic when it came to choosing their leaders, voting turn out was at record highs and not just in the US. What happened there seemed to act as a wake up call for all those that simply had a problem caring about it.
The grandparents continually enjoyed things. Philip set up his own law firm on Hawaii, Jeff had set up another little café, not the Crashdown but it was close enough, each with the help of their wives who helped run it all. Alex parents got involved with a little Internet café in the hotel while Amy ran a gift shop. Jim may not be a Sheriff anymore but that didn’t stop him arranging for security on the island. Laurie had managed to convince her own board of directors of her grandfather’s company to move the head office to somewhere that wouldn’t be blown up. On Hawaii she rebuilt the building that Kivar destroyed, to exacting detail of the own her grandfather built as a tribute to it.
12 years after the Skins left and message was received. The Antarians had come into orbit, hacked a satellite and sent a message down to the hotel. They told them that they had successfully changed the environment of a planet a few dozen star systems over and had now colonised it. They tried 15 planets in the region before they ended up with a stable one. Their people relocated, Antar died but the culture went on and nearby. Their king may have chosen to stay with his queen on Earth, something they understood given that she and their offspring couldn’t live on their world, but they wanted to be as close as they could be to their royal line. For government they simply appointed a reagent, one from Larek’s own house while they continued with Zan’s original plans that sparked Kivar’s treason. The reagent acted as the head of state while all of the new elected leaders worked with and for him.
As for the Gemods, Zeezu spend his days bouncing throughout the length and breadth of the island. He stayed out of sight of the islands human population but enjoyed spending time with the local animals. It was inevitable that someone caught a glimpse of him and he became something of a local myth like Bigfoot and Nessie. As a result there were people coming to track him, hunt him and snap a picture but they never did. Instead it only increased the resorts popularity. Zeezu’s four brothers on the other hand left the encounter of being Gemodzu with a slight twist. They had stayed with the Antarians in containment for sometime before they got out but whenever they got it into themselves to act crazy they felt a sharp pain in their heads and heard their pink brothers little voice telling them to knock it off. Eventually the four reluctantly started to reform themselves. They were still nuts but they vented it by using their various talents to help around the planet.
On this day everyone was in the ballroom, family, some of the many friends they made on Hawaii and guests at the hotel. It was Serena’s birthday and everyone was gathered around the main table as the birthday girl cut her very large cake. Serena had grown up beautifully, looking pretty much like her alternate but she never developed the taste for the tight leather. She had a fondness for bathing suits but whenever she was at school she wore denim cut off shorts and thin tops. Serena liked letting as much of her skin show as possible so that she could get sun, she never had to worry about the health problems that came with it, instead her skin was bronzed from the years of being under the sun on this island like her other family. If she and her siblings weren’t on the island, they were on the water and if they weren’t on the crystal clear water they were diving through it. Each loved it here.
Alex was by her side and clapping before he kissed her forehead, then he looked to his wife and nodded.
“Okay, I know that look.” Serena said, “What’s up?”
“Oh just your present.” Alex said
“Yeah, it’s nothing really.” Isabel said as she pulled out a box from under the table
“Oh yeah.” Serena said as she started unwrapping it and then pulled out the contents, “A key? Okay, I know it’s not a car. There isn’t one on the island aside from the buggies.”
“No, it’s not a car. But this is on the condition that you pay attention to your lessons.” Alex said
“We thought you might like a more private way of getting back and forth to Hawaii without getting the ferry all the time.” Isabel said
“Oh my god, you are kidding right?” Serena said giddily as her family cleared a path to the window and she looked outside and seeing a new & shiny speedboat moored outside in their marina, “We have seriously way too much money.” She said as she looked at the boat
“Uh huh. But that’s what happens when we own an obscenely popular resort.” Alex said
“Of course there is something else.” Max said
“Oh yeah, what?” Serena asked as her uncle looked over to her mass of brothers, sisters and cousins. “No way an I letting them have goes at driving…well except Mal but that’s because he knows how to.”
“Well duh.” Malcolm said, “But he’s talking about you being the designated driver and giving us lifts.”
“Oh…that. Well, yeah sure.” Serena said, “Come on, big hug time.”
Everyone moved around the girl and hugged her. Never again did anyone in the family ever see so much as a gun on their property. There may have been military families that vacationed on the island but they never knew about the nature of the owners of the resort. No one came after the aliens, MPs from the army searched for the general but never found his body, not as deep as he was and as far as they were all concerned they left in the alien ship. The general had to tell them why he wanted it and accepted that letting an alien army leave would be a good thing rather than trying to take them on. And the strange thing was that no one seemed to question, tropical storms and hurricanes never seemed to get close to the area. A funny thing that.
The End.
Thank you everyone for the wonderful feedback. Unidentified Flying Hormones is coming soon.
Northern Texas, Immediately Following
They were surrounded, no way out with dozens of guns aimed at them as well as 3 rocket launchers that would certainly kill them. There was no way out and the general before them smiled contently as if he knew something they didn’t.
“So this is how you thank us? You’re a real son of a bitch.” Max said
“Hmm, well no doubt you think that all those little talents of yours can get you out of this. That shield of your for instance would be very effective.” The general said, “Go on, raise it.”
“I’m sorry?” Max asked
“Go on.”
Max looked around and lifted his hand but there was nothing. He did everything he usually did to form the protective barrier but nothing happened. “What did you do?” Max asked
The general indicated with his hand and one of the soldiers with him turned around to reveal his backpack. The only problem was that it wasn’t a backpack; it was decidedly more technological. “I borrowed a little toy from NORAD. That emitter I told you about that dampens your powers…very useful for alien ambushes.” He said
“Serena?” Michael whispered
“I’m good but not this good.” Serena said, she wanted nothing more than to go for her gun but knew that at best she could take out 3, maybe 4, before the barrage of bullets would kill her entire family.
“You so much as move an inch, you’re dead.” The general said
“Oh come on you’re going to kill us anyway.” Serena said
“You know, you’re right. But this is a family event and one of you is missing. I have a feeling you wouldn’t want to be separated for long so she’s nearby. Get her here now.” The general said to Max
Max nodded and slowly lowered his hand into his pocket. He pulled out his phone and speed dialled Tess. “Uh Tess…It’s time to come back.” He said and looked at the general, “Yeah, everything went just as we thought…okay, I’ll see you soon.” Max then hung up, “She’ll be here in a few minutes.”
“Good.” The general said
“You know, sometime there are times when I hate having my visions.” Liz said
“Yeah and sometimes I wish you weren’t right. And sometimes I wish I was a little more trusting of people otherwise I wouldn’t have asked Tess to do this before you even told me about the vision. But right now, I think we’ll settle for a little mistrust.” Max said
“Uh what are you guys talking about?” Kyle asked
“That’s a good question.” The general said
“Well it’s like chess…you think four moves ahead and what moves your opponent can make.” Liz said
“So?”
“So…checkmate.” Max said
Suddenly all of the soldiers there heard a continuous metallic whine scream through their minds. It hit with such intensity that each of them dropped their weapons and grabbed their ears, trying in vain to stop the sound but it was in their heads. In the Granolith chamber, Tess had her hands on the Granolith and using it to magnify her power. She really hoped that she wouldn’t have gotten that call but then she was even less trusting of the military than Max was and knew that it would probably be inevitable. Soon the soldiers doubled over in pain, falling to the floor and writhing in searing pain that was tearing through their minds. Max and the others moved around them, kicking away their guns as their noses and ears started to bleed.
“So you knew this would happen?” Isabel asked
“Kinda had a feeling.” Max said, “I really wanted to be wrong. It’s why I really sent Tess to the Granolith, of course setting things right with the people was a bonus.”
“Then I had a vision when you were all on the way back and…well.” Liz said as she pointed down to the soldiers.
“Well we can’t leave this guy around. Obviously he wont stop.” Serena said above the general as his eyes became bloodshot, “Unless Aunt Tess isn’t going to stop until their dead?”
“Oh she’ll stop in a second or two. But you’re right. He wont stop.” Max said
“Oh.” Serena said. “Good.” She took out her gun and let off a single shot. “That’s for killing my dad.” Then she tossed her gun into the hole left by the Skin Resistance base. She knew that she didn’t need it anymore and was happy to be finally rid of it.
Max leaned down and checked for a pulse, as he expected he found none. He should have known his niece would have taken the opportunity but he still didn’t expect to see her do it so quickly. Then the screaming stopped, the family looked over the soldiers who were all still breathing but the bleeding had stopped and they were all unconscious.
“I guess Tess has finished.” Kyle said, “What did she do?”
“Erased their memories of anything alien related. Everything from our faces to even sci-fi television shows.” Max said, “But we’ve got a little more covering up to do.”
“Oh?” Alex asked
“He means this.” Serena said as she stretched out her hand and pushed the general into the hole. His body went crashing to the bottom to join her gun just as Max moved up to the side of the pit.
He reached down and rested his hand on it, Max focused and the entire rim glowed before he backed away from it. “Michael.” He ordered.
Michael blasted the edge and the entire pit came crashing in on itself. Serena’s gun and the general were buried under 100 feet of rock and dirt. Isabel then took the opportunity to make sure that no one would find that spot. She waved her hand over the rough patch of land and the rubble started to sprout wildly until the whole area was covered with plants, bushes and a few trees. More than enough to make sure it appeared as though they had been there for years.
“Well we’re done here.” Max said
“When that truck doesn’t show up they’ll send people out to find it. These guys wont have long to wait.” Liz said
“Is that you speaking or a vision?” Maria asked
“Both.” Liz said
“Good, now lets go pick up my fiancé and get the hell out of here.” Kyle said
Their cars were still in the area where they were parked when Serena first brought them to the diner. They got inside and made sure that everything was there that they needed before they drove west.
Pod Mountain, Outside Roswell, New Mexico, 3 Hours Later
They arrived at the mountain to find Tess already waiting for them at the base of the rock. She had come back out when she finished and when she saw the approaching cars she jumped up. Kyle got out the second the car stopped and ran to Tess. The two of them kissed passionately like they hadn’t seen each other in months and not just a day and a half.
“Are we done?” Tess asked
“We’re done.” Kyle said
“So no more military, FBI, crazy psycho rich guys who wants us to rob museums?” Tess asked
“Well nothing is guaranteed.” Max said
“Yeah, right.” Tess said
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, that’s what could happen.” Alex said, “What about right now?”
“What do you mean?” Liz asked
“Honey,” Alex said to Serena, “Don’t take this the wrong way but why are you still here?”
“You mean because we’ve saved the planet, saved all of us and right now no one is running an alien hunt?” Serena said
“Yes.” Alex said
“It’s a good question and believe me I don’t know. I should be gone. The time I came from is completely erased, or at least it should be.” Serena said
“Maybe you haven’t changed enough…although I have no idea what’s left.” Isabel said
“Oh…I think I know.” Serena said as an idea hit her
“Like?”
“You’ll see. You guys got enough money for a descent boat right?” Serena said
“Yes.” Max said, “More than enough. What do you have in mind?”
Serena just smiled innocently as she walked back to the car, got in and started the engine, “Let’s head south for a while, till we get to Mexico.”
Small Island off Hawaii, Noon, 2 Days Later
The island was practically nothing more than a tropical dot in the ocean. Nice surf, white sandy beaches that circled it completely aside from a massive protrusion of rocks on the northern shore line that isolated one small section of beach. There was a small network of roads and trails that covered the island but its most important feature was what brought the family here.
On the northeast corner of the island there was a derelict hotel. It was set up by a millionaire attempting to create an ideal little getaway but it failed. Most of the people didn’t want to take the boat ride from Hawaii over to the island when all of the things to do were over there. However, this little group had a way of compelling people to visit their last hotel. Serena had brought them to Mexico where they bought a boat and sailed over to Hawaii. They considered it a vacation from everything that just happened but when they arrived at the volcanic island they set about looking into setting up their lives.
They learned of the hotel on the nearby island and the fact that it was up for sale. When that happened they didn’t need to look at each other to know what they were all thinking. They got back to their boat, sailed over and checked it out. When they got back they headed off to the real estate agent handling it. They pulled the same routine as with their last purchase, using Tess’s mindwarp ability to give them identities as foreign businessmen.
“As you can see the hotel has been unattended for the last five years. The last hurricane to come through the region did some damage but other than that there is very little wrong.” The estate agent said
“What about wiring?” Alex asked
“All recent. The hotel was built to be very modern with all the latest conveniences. It will take a little to bring it back to life but it can be done. There is also a marina and dock to the south that will also need work but all in all it is a very cheap buy.”
“Who is the current owner? Why would he just leave all this?” Liz asked
“Well it was an experimental business venture for himself. His primary business was automotive out of Detroit.”
“Was automotive?” Max asked
“He passed away 6 months ago. He didn’t have any living relatives but his will did specify that his primary assets with regard to his business be left to his partners while a sizable chunk of his fortune went to charities. He fancied himself a bit of a philanthropist but it did leave this island to one charity in particular. However, they don’t have much use for it. They initially wanted to turn it into an animal sanctuary but they don’t have even close to the money required. They still have that idea but without the resources…they came to the decision to sell it about 5 months ago but so far no one is interested.”
“Well they are now.” Max said as he looked at his family who all nodded, “We’ll take it. All of it.”
“Really?” the agent asked with considerable surprise.
“Yes but the thing is, well as your background checks on us have shown on us we’re primary involved with diamond mining.”
“You wish to pay with diamonds?”
“Yes. They are all quite legal and certainly not conflict stones. Whatever their price is we’ll meet it within reason of course and we’d like it to be settled by the end of the week.” Max said. He was only kicking himself for not doing this the first time, diamonds took up a lot less space that the lead they converted to gold. A couple of large sacks of coal, add their powers to create massive amounts of pressure and they end up with relatively natural diamonds. Max wanted this purchase to be fully legitimate, minus how they would get the gemstones, but it would be without the robberies that financed their last set up.
“I…eh…really?”
“Really.” Max said confidently
“Well I need to speak to my clients of course.”
“Of course.” Max said, “We can take you back on our boat.”
“Oh thank you. May I ask…why don’t you deposit the diamonds in a bank and have the currency electronically transferred to my clients account?”
“We prefer a more hands on approach. And tell your clients that we would be happy to set aside an area of the island for their sanctuary. We’d be more than happy to help with that.” Tess said
“We would?” Michael asked
“Yeah, it would be nice to do something…you know…nice.” Tess said, “Besides it’s the right thing to do and with our money in their pockets they could either say yes or find somewhere else. This makes it easier for them.”
“I’ll give them your offer.” The agent said, “If you’re sure?”
“Yeah, I think we are.” Max said
“Good.”
Soon they were all heading back to the main island. The family docked their boat in the marina and set about having fun around the sun-soaked island while the agent went back to her office.
Small Cove, Northern Beach, 19:00
Much later in the day they returned to the island. They had toured much of it but as a few of them walked over the high rocks on the beach they found a small cove. It was a simple stretch of beach but on either side and at the back that was adjacent to the hotel there were high protrusions of rocks that effectively sealed it off. The rocks themselves speared out onto the ocean around the island and ensured that no boats would approach from that way. It was perfectly serene and a good little private spot.
“Oh I can totally see myself being raised here.” Serena said as she looked at her younger self in her mother’s arms, “Oh yeah, me, small bikini and lots and lots of studs.”
“Yeah, this is a bad idea.” Alex said
“Oh come on daddy, it’s perfect.” Serena said
“It is.” Isabel said
“Besides, something tells me that mom will be wearing a bikini too most of the time.” Serena said
“That is a safe bet.” Isabel said
“Is this supposed to tempt me?” Alex asked
“Uh huh. And it’s working.” Isabel said
“Yeah okay it is.” Alex said
“You know, we can keep this cove for ourselves, build some steps into the back rock up to the hotel so we can get down…a nice private place for the kids to play.” Max said, “I like it.”
“The other beaches can be for the hotel customers.” Michael said
“You know this could really work.” Max said, “Kyle.”
“Yes oh great and wondrous alien king?” Kyle said
“Do you still have the information on the people who worked at the last hotel?”
“Sure, well I have their names and phone numbers in my book. God knows why I packed it in my bag when we left but I did.” Kyle said
“Good.” Max said, “I want you to give them a call.”
“Why?” Michael asked
“Let’s see if they’ll be willing to re-locate from New York to here.” Max said, “We build some employee housing, pay for their tickets out here and move their belongings. After all they were the best we could get and I liked a few of them.”
“That will cost a lot.” Michael said
“We can afford it.” Max said, “Besides we’ll need help getting this place up and running. We need to put in some entertainment, fix up the docks, there will be people wanting to go scuba diving which is something I wouldn’t mind doing once in a while. There’s diving, sailing…trips back and forth to Hawaii.”
“We’re going to be busy for a while.” Liz said
“Well maybe not all of us.” Max said, “You are going to be resting for a while.”
“Well, I guess I’ll go run up our phone bill for a while.” Kyle said as he headed off back to the boat to use the satellite phone on board
Everyone else continued to move around what was left of the hotel. This wasn’t as derelict as their previous purchase and would be easier to get up and running but it would still take time assuming they actually got the go ahead from the islands current owners. It took another 3 days before they got a call from those people who accepted the offer and named their price. They were also eager on getting a section of the island and turning it into the sanctuary they wanted although they were concerned about how they could do it and keep a continuous stream of people coming that would be safe. They didn’t think the two mixed well and mostly that was correct but they didn’t know that they could keep people away from it with but a thought.
1 Month Later…
Much faster than they anticipated, the hotel was up and running. Occasionally a little extra cash was required and a few lumps of ordinary coal were changed into diamonds that were sold before the cash was deposited into the bank. Nearly all of their old employees were happy if not eager to move to Hawaii and take up their old jobs in this place. As promised their employers took up the burden of financing their relocation as well as putting them up in suitable housing for them. They and their families were all comfortable, kids were ferried back and forth to Hawaii for school and they themselves were in walking distance to their jobs. Each new home had one hell of a view of the ocean.
As before, the top floors of the hotel were made the homes of the pod squad and their families. There was more than enough space and just in case they included all of their old security features. Michael spent a day carving stairs into rock from the hotel down to their own beach and it was frequently used. 3 weeks after their purchase, Liz gave birth to her son. Just as when Serena was born his eyes were jet black but quickly changed to their human appearance. Everyone dotted over him and his older cousin and Serena had a new playmate. All through the work Serena kept an eye out and made sure that everything was on track. She may have been here longer than she thought she would but she wasn’t going to waist any of the time. The girl from the future made sure her family was as it should be and she kept things well in order, the main feature of which was arranging the nuptials for Tess and Kyle.
They wanted to be married but the constantly arising situations resulted in them putting it back again and again. Serena arranged it and didn’t tell them about it until that morning. Their faces were priceless when she told them and captured it on a picture. That entire day was then devoted to that event. Since the building work was all completed and they were expecting their first guests within a few days they didn’t have much to do except sign for the food deliveries for the hotel but that could be taken care of by the manager who was touring the hotel and making sure everything were to his standards…which was high.
Today, with the sun high in the sky, Michael and Maria were out talking. Both were wearing swimwear, which had become their unofficial standard of dress lately, not that any of them minded. With a sarong around Maria’s waist and her hand in Michael’s they were out and enjoying the feel of the warm sand between their toes.
“Michael…can I tell you something?”
“Any time. You know that.” Michael said, “What’s up?”
“Ever since NORAD…I’ve been having dreams.”
“I guess if you’re bring this up it’s not the usual kind.” Michael said
“Well…yeah. They…eh…well they’ve been really, really erotic.” Maria said with a slight blush as she remembered each one in gloriously pleasurable detail
“Maria, you have those dreams like every day since we hooked up.” Michael said
“Haha and…well yes I do but these ones are different.”
“How?”
“When we’re really into it your eyes turn black and them I see myself only I’m very pregnant.” Maria said
Michael stopped and looked at her.
“What?” Maria asked with a little concern
“Those are my dreams. I’ve been having them.” Michael said
“Uh…oh.” Maria said, “So I’m…”
“No. I don’t think you’re pregnant. We would know for sure by now, Max said that when he and Liz…well, he said his eyes turned black. Unless you haven’t told me, mine haven’t.” Michael said, “But I did have a flash once.”
“Of me being pregnant?”
“No. It was when we were in that diner restroom. I saw you breastfeeding a baby.” Michael said, “Our baby.”
“Michael, do you want us to have kids?” Maria asked
“Your mom would kill me if I got you pregnant before marrying you.” Michael said, deliberately avoiding the question. He couldn’t deny how that single brief flash made him feel but he had to wonder if he was ready for that.
“Yeah.” Maria said, feeling his hesitation, “So…the dreams. Do you think that I’m becoming like you?”
“You’ve had them since NORAD right?”
“Yeah.” Maria said, “Oh the glowy thing…when you fried the computers.”
“I’m thinking you got yourself an alien cellular suntan. At least I think that’s how Liz would put it.” Michael said
“A cellular suntan? That’s good.” Maria said, “Now what does that mean?”
“I think you’ve changed. Not as much as Liz has changed but I think Max’s link with Liz bled into me and Michael with mine…enough to link us. At least our subconscious minds.”
“Wow.”
“You agree?” Michael asked
“Maybe but I do know you’ve been around Liz way more than I have.” Maria said with a smile.
“Yeah, probably.” Michael said
“Ah screw it, if we have kids, we have kids. It’s not something we need to rush into.” Maria said
“Right.” Michael said
“And you’re right, my mom would kill you if you didn’t marry me first so let’s take it just a little take it when it happens.” Maria said and Michael nodded, “Of course we’re going to get in a ton of practice…and a lot of fun, starting tonight.”
“Amen.” Michael said, “But we’re going to be late. Come on.”
Private Cove, North Beach, 13:00
Michael and Maria come running up to find all of their family gathered in a semi circle around Tess and Kyle who stood close to the water with the priest Serena had arranged. It was simple and with family, just the way the couple wanted it. Tess wore a long white and light dress that gleamed in the sunlight; she wasn’t going to tell anyone that there wasn’t anything beneath the dress. Kyle wore a shirt, tie and a very smart jacket but he wore a matching pair of shorts. Not exactly the typical wedding outfit but not one of them cared so long as this day ended with Kyle and Tess being married. Everyone was barefoot, Liz held her new son as Max gave Tess away just as Isabel held her own daughter. Teenage Serena was also there, listening and smiling.
“Do you Kyle Valenti take this woman, Tess Harding to be your wedded wife?”
Kyle smiled, “I do.”
“Do you Tess take Kyle to be your husband?”
“I do.” Tess said
The couple exchanged their golden rings and slide them onto each other’s fingers as they said their vows. They stood together on the shore until they heard the words, “I know pronounce you husband and wife.” Then they kissed before he could even indicate for them to do so.
Everyone clapped and moved into congratulate the newlyweds. Jim shook his hand and was the first to kissed the bride on her cheek, although he long ago considered her family she was now is daughter in-law. The priest gave his own congratulations but left, this was one of many unions he was presiding over today. Max had set up a ferry back and forth between the islands and the priest was on it soon enough. However, while Serena was happy about seeing this she had felt a change and started to walk away.
“Serena?” Isabel asked
Serena turned and smiled, “Time’s up. I have to go now.” She said
“What? But…??” Alex said with concern
“Dad, it’s okay. I don’t belong here. I’ve finished what I had to do. I guess I was just here to make sure that everything had settled down. It has.” Serena said as she started to glow with a yellow outline, “Take care of her…and any other alien juniors that come along.”
“Serena, wait…OUCH!” Maria said as she took a step forward and stood on something.
“Oh now see, there you go ruining my surprise.” Michael said
“What surprise?” Maria asked
Michael knelt down and lifted something out of the sand, “I was going to have this whole thing laid out. But…” Michael said as he opened his hand and exposed a diamond ring, “I guess now is as good a time as any. Maria Deluca will you marry me?”
“Wha…wha…wha…wha…” Maria repeated over and over again with complete and utter shock.
“I’ve had this planned with Serena since last night. Will you marry me?”
“Ohmygodyes.” Maria said as she pulled Michael up and wrapped her arms around him.
Soon he put the ring on her finger and hugged her again before he whispered in her ear, “Remember, you’re mom would kill you if you were pregnant before we tied the knot.”
Maria looked at him with glistening eyes. Then everyone looked over to Serena as the glow became more pronounced.
“I love you guys. See you in 16 years.” She said before she vanished leaving nothing but her footprints in the sand.
Isabel and Alex looked down at their baby daughter and smiled at her. “Thank you.” Isabel said as her daughter waved her hands up at her, “Thank you for everything.”
Before long they all headed indoors for the first official party in the ballroom, Tess and Kyle reception. The party went on for a while, everyone happy and enjoying their freedom their new home provided.
Balcony, Top Floor, The Hotel, 3 Hours Later
Liz and Max were together on their balcony from their bedroom. Both were wearing their swimwear and sunbathing after they teased themselves mercilessly by running sunscreen into their skin. Of course they didn’t take it too far, in a playpen to the side was their son Malcolm sleeping next to his older cousin Serena. Max and Liz just loved to watch them sleep; it was just so relaxing. After a while, Michael and Maria came out and joined them.
“How’s the party?” Max asked
“Didn’t last too long.” Michael said
“Let’s just say the happy couple were a little eager to do a little consummating.” Maria said
“Well…something’s just don’t seem to change.” Liz said with a smile
“Nope.” Maria said with a smile
“Do you think we’ve seen the last of the bad guys?” Michael asked
“We can but hope. And that’s enough. If they come around again looking for a fight…they wont walk out of it and we’re done running. This is our home now. It may not be Roswell but people do move away sometimes.” Max said
“What about the Granolith?” Maria asked
“It was hidden and safe for 60 years.” Liz said, “no one’s going to find it and even if they do they can’t get access.”
“I can tell you this, if something does happen something tells me our niece will be stopping by.” Max said
“I wonder how she’ll turn out this time around. The girl we knew was a little hard after seeing her dad killed but this time Alex is around and practically with her every 5 minutes.” Michael pondered
“He loves his daughter. Besides, who can blame him? Future version is kick ass, gun toting, Skin mass-killing and a little cold when it comes to a few things. He’ll want her to get to have as much of a normal and quiet life as possible.” Maria said
“Oh yeah, I wonder who thinks will be when she gets a really serious boyfriend and decided to tell him what her mother is.” Liz said
“Well, whatever happens in the future it’s safe to say she isn’t going to want for anything and least of all love from her parents.” Max said, “And us. We’ve got two adorable little people here who are going to love it here.”
“Maybe they’ll be joined by others soon.” Maria said
Max and Liz looked over to the other couple, “Something you want to tell us?”
“Relax, no we don’t. Maybe someday and maybe that would be soon but not today.” Michael said
“Then again, judging from the sounds coming from Kyle and Tess when we walked by their room, they’re certainly working on it so maybe they’ll have something to tell us.” Maria said, “Hey, where is Alex and Isabel?”
Private Cove, North Beach, Sunset
Alex and Isabel had come down to the beach. She was wearing a stunning red bikini that left nothing to the imagination and what Alex was wearing simply didn’t hide the result. The two of them walked in the surf as the waves climbed up onto the sands, their hand in each other’s as they enjoyed each other’s company. Isabel lost her sarong and both headed out into the water for a swim. They spent a great deal of time swimming and playing together as the waves continued to wash over them, neither were more than a few inches from the other.
Eventually the happily married couple ended up kissing in the water. They had become so lost in each other that they lost their footing in the water and were washed up onto the sand. Their arms were wrapped around each other as Alex lay on top of his wife, waves continued to come up around them and all the while their bodies pressed together. Their tongues snaked into each other’s mouth, tasting the sea salt on each other and they were glad that Liz and Max were minding their daughter. The last thing the wanted was for Serena to remember witnessing this.
Soon the kiss broke and Alex looked down into Isabel’s eyes. Gently he stroked some sea-soaked hair from her face and caressed her face, “It’s been a while since we’ve done this.” He said softly
“Well with everything happening after Serena was born…we never really had a chance.” Isabel said as her hands glided over his upper arms slowly, “I’m going to enjoy making up for lost time.”
“Serena did say that she wanted brothers and sisters.” Alex said
“Like we ever need a reason.” Isabel said as the two locked their lips together for another passionate kiss.
Isabel bent her knee and raised her legs slightly, feeling him against her was always exhilarating but they felt like they hadn’t been with each other in absolutely ages. It only served to enflamed their lusts and desires. She could feel his erection pressing against her through their swimsuits. Slowly the blonde slid her hands along her lover’s sides, over his back to his butt and slowly pushed his swim shorts off. She couldn’t get them all the way off but Alex backed off just a little so that he could get them the rest of the way off.
Alex then reached forward and slowly caressed the flesh of her breast above the fabric. Isabel’s skin got goose bumps and her breath hitched. She was quickly beginning to breath faster and heavier as Alex slipped his hand up and moved the strap of her top off her shoulder. Alex leaned down and kissed the previously covered skin, his warm lips sent tremble with delight. Then he started to kiss lower over her large breast, slightly lowering the loosened fabric covering the mound and kissing more. He could feel her hot breath on his ear and he could resist kissing her lips once more.
Isabel leaned up, pressing her body against his. She held the side of his face in the palm of his hand before she reached back and unclasped the top of her bikini. Alex’s hand moved from her face, slowly caressing her neck and down her chest, taking the top off as he moved down. The scrap of red Lycra slid off Isabel’s arms and she tossed it aside before she leaned back into the sand. Alex stared slowly moving his hands over her pliant mounds and flicked his tongue over her nipples.
“Hmmm…” Isabel moaned slightly
Alex used his mouth and made love to her sensitive chest, making fire arch through her body and making her whimper slightly. Isabel still felt his dick pressing against her thigh, slowly she started to push her leg forward and Alex couldn’t help but grind himself against her. Then he moved his hand lower and lower, gliding smoothly over her belly and circling her belly button a little. He was reward with a giggle, he loved exploiting her ticklish spots for his own ends but not as much as what he was about to do. He moved his hand down further, brushing her sex before he moved it to her leg. He spread her legs slightly before he extended his tongue and ran it down over her belly, all the way down.
Isabel leaned her head up and looked down at her husband as his teeth gripped down on her bottoms. Isabel raised her hips and Alex dragged them off her body. Alex lowed his head and latched his mouth onto her pussy. Isabel arched her back and groaned deeply as her husband’s tongue probed her slit, then he started to flick his tongue over her clit, pleasuring her completely and going at an agonisingly slow pace that was driving her insane.
“Ughn…hmmmm…ughnnnn…Ale…xxxxx…hmm…ughnnnnn…uhnnnnn…”
Isabel writhed on the sand, her body becoming hotter than the sun the beat down on them. Sweat was forming on her from the heat as she ground her hips and pushed her pussy into Alex’s mouth. Alex put her legs over his shoulders and caressed her tights as he ate her to the heights of bliss.
“YES…YESSS…UGHNNN…ALEXXXXXXXXXXXX…OH SWEET…AGHHNNNNNNNNNN!” Isabel cried out
Alex moved up and was on top of his wife in a split second, their arms around each other and kissing intensely. Isabel was so hot for her lover that she could have turned the sand beneath her into glass, which was something she could do anyway, but she wanted him inside him now. Isabel reached down between them and stroked his hard length, she pumped him enough to make him sweat but soon she pulled him to her opening and placed his tip of his cock to enter her.
Alex slowly pushed forward and sank into her body until they were unified as one flesh once more. They stayed still for long minutes before their hands caressed every inch of naked skin. Then the couple gazed into each other’s eyes as Alex slowly withdrew his penis and then sank back in slowly. Isabel felt him spear into her depths, spreading her slit open and made them both feel utterly incredible. Soon she moved with him, rolling her hips and meeting each gentle thrust. Alex glided his hands over her body, moving along her until they caressed her arms and sought out her hands. Their hands locked tightly together with their fingers locked in place.
“Ughmmmmm… ughnnnnnnn…”
“Isabel…yes…ughnnn…ghnnnnnn…unnnnnnnnnhhhhh…”
Together the couple made love, Alex moved his body over hers and relished in the feel of their bodied grinding together. With each thrust, they moved just that little bit faster. Alex pushed his dick deeply into his wife and made her moan again and again. They kissed and their hands gripped tighter and tighter each time he filled her. Fire flowed through their veins, all the while they were being splashed by water from the waves that were coming up around them.
“Hmmmm…Alex…so good…I love you…ughnnmmmm…oghhnnnnn…aghhhh…”
“Ghnnn…ghbnnnnnn…mnnnnuuuuuuuuuuu…godddddd….hnnmmm…”
“Yesss…yesss…ughnnnn god yesss…UGHnnnnnnnn…”
“Isa…Isabell…ughnnnn…”
Isabel then rolled them both over so that she was on top and sat herself up. Patches of their skin were covered with sand that glistened in the last light of the day. Isabel looked down at Alex as she sat upon his waist, their eyes locked as she placed her hands on his chest. She started rocking her hips, moving her sex around his dick. Both were getting into it but it wasn’t as slow and tender as it was before, not that they weren’t making love; they simply wanted to feel their orgasm spiral through their bodies.
“UHGHNNNNN…” Liz groaned
Isabel was riding Alex and his dick; she was sliding on and off his cock, taking him deep within her. Alex reached up and held her breasts, massaging them and playing with her nipples. Isabel ran her hands over his chest as they rocked together. Alex looked down and watched as his dick disappeared and reappeared from her body. She arched her back and moaned loudly as he lurched up. He captured a pebbled nipple between his lips. The rosy knot of tissue was hard as stone and ached fiercely for more contact. She thrust her breasts upwards into closer contact with Alex’s mouth. He bit into the small protrusion, no pain, just pleasure.
“Ughnnn…oh god Alex…” Isabel groaned
Isabel continued to impale herself on his meaty spear over and over. Her lusty gaze commanded his attention as continued to move her body over Alex’s. Alex’s hot, filling cock slid outward again and then back in. Each time was slow; enough to torment the part of their bodies that desperately wanted to quench their lusts. Alex smiled as he watched her slender body writhe with him. Each thrust was accompanied with a gentle moan of utter contentment
“Ohhh maaaaannnn…” he groaned slowly in sheer ecstasy as Isabel’s tight folds kept enveloping his prick. Her eyes had fluttered shut in absolute bliss.
“Isabel…so…cloooooseeee…”
“Give it to me Alex…ugnnnnn…please…”
“Ughnnnn…”
“Ohhhhh…yesss…”
Alex leaned down, both pressing their bodies together as their mouths joined. They kissed passionately, never stopping the primal movements of their bodies and moaning into each other. When the mounting heat within her began to burn, Alex felt it run through her. He sensed the explosion building inside him and knew that Isabel was just as close.
“Ughnnnn…”
“UGHNNNNN...”
“UGHNNNNNNNNN YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!” They cried together, Alex shot his seed up into his mate as Isabel collapsed on top of him.
Their bodied wracked and jerked continuously as the sensations rolled over them. As their mutual highs passed, their arms wrapped around each other. They held each other tightly; only their hands moved as they slightly caressed each other until they looked up and into each other’s eyes. They kissed; it was filled with gratitude and love that could never be expressed with words as they rolled onto their sides. Isabel kept Alex between her legs, wrapping them around him before they broke their kiss to watch the last inch of sun sink behind the horizon.
16 Years Later…
Times had been interesting on the small tropical island. The alien families had turned a run down hotel into a full resort that thanks to their gifts had become popular with people seeking a nice relaxing couple of days to a full blown few weeks vacation. The southeast corner of the island had been turned into an animal reserve as they promised the charity that previously owned it. Patrons of the hotel knew where to keep clear. A diving school had been set up along with water-skiing lessons. The island was traversed with simple buggies similar but larger than the ones found on golf courses.
Each member of the family took up their new roles and lived life as fully as they could, even though they always kept an eye out for the people they feared. They knew that there was always that chance but it never stopped them. Each of the couples had four kids, two boys and two girls. Not that Serena ever lorded over the younger members of her family but she simply loved being the oldest, of course Mal was always there to keep her ego in check. After all she was the one who risked all travelled back to save the world and they all knew it. None of them would have existed without her doing that. They always took care of each other.
They all developed powers, and Serena’s developed naturally without the severe emotional twist caused by her father’s death. Since that event never happened she discovered that she didn’t take life like her alternate future self, instead she gave it. Serena found she was able to find problems in people’s bodies and change it into something positive instead of something that could be fatal. All the others had her distinctive brainpower that allowed them to remember every little detail, a curse as Malcolm called it since he walked in on his parents in the middle of something very private. No matter what he tried he simply couldn’t forget that. Of course he aced his exams but remembering that one day was simply not worth it.
On the mainland of the U.S, things had calmed down the night Tess warped the country. As expected a civil war didn’t happen but elections were the business for several months until everything was once more stable. Military projects were put directly under civilian control of a new agency, they made sure that anything that shouldn’t even have been started were scrapped. For the first time in a long time people were less apathetic when it came to choosing their leaders, voting turn out was at record highs and not just in the US. What happened there seemed to act as a wake up call for all those that simply had a problem caring about it.
The grandparents continually enjoyed things. Philip set up his own law firm on Hawaii, Jeff had set up another little café, not the Crashdown but it was close enough, each with the help of their wives who helped run it all. Alex parents got involved with a little Internet café in the hotel while Amy ran a gift shop. Jim may not be a Sheriff anymore but that didn’t stop him arranging for security on the island. Laurie had managed to convince her own board of directors of her grandfather’s company to move the head office to somewhere that wouldn’t be blown up. On Hawaii she rebuilt the building that Kivar destroyed, to exacting detail of the own her grandfather built as a tribute to it.
12 years after the Skins left and message was received. The Antarians had come into orbit, hacked a satellite and sent a message down to the hotel. They told them that they had successfully changed the environment of a planet a few dozen star systems over and had now colonised it. They tried 15 planets in the region before they ended up with a stable one. Their people relocated, Antar died but the culture went on and nearby. Their king may have chosen to stay with his queen on Earth, something they understood given that she and their offspring couldn’t live on their world, but they wanted to be as close as they could be to their royal line. For government they simply appointed a reagent, one from Larek’s own house while they continued with Zan’s original plans that sparked Kivar’s treason. The reagent acted as the head of state while all of the new elected leaders worked with and for him.
As for the Gemods, Zeezu spend his days bouncing throughout the length and breadth of the island. He stayed out of sight of the islands human population but enjoyed spending time with the local animals. It was inevitable that someone caught a glimpse of him and he became something of a local myth like Bigfoot and Nessie. As a result there were people coming to track him, hunt him and snap a picture but they never did. Instead it only increased the resorts popularity. Zeezu’s four brothers on the other hand left the encounter of being Gemodzu with a slight twist. They had stayed with the Antarians in containment for sometime before they got out but whenever they got it into themselves to act crazy they felt a sharp pain in their heads and heard their pink brothers little voice telling them to knock it off. Eventually the four reluctantly started to reform themselves. They were still nuts but they vented it by using their various talents to help around the planet.
On this day everyone was in the ballroom, family, some of the many friends they made on Hawaii and guests at the hotel. It was Serena’s birthday and everyone was gathered around the main table as the birthday girl cut her very large cake. Serena had grown up beautifully, looking pretty much like her alternate but she never developed the taste for the tight leather. She had a fondness for bathing suits but whenever she was at school she wore denim cut off shorts and thin tops. Serena liked letting as much of her skin show as possible so that she could get sun, she never had to worry about the health problems that came with it, instead her skin was bronzed from the years of being under the sun on this island like her other family. If she and her siblings weren’t on the island, they were on the water and if they weren’t on the crystal clear water they were diving through it. Each loved it here.
Alex was by her side and clapping before he kissed her forehead, then he looked to his wife and nodded.
“Okay, I know that look.” Serena said, “What’s up?”
“Oh just your present.” Alex said
“Yeah, it’s nothing really.” Isabel said as she pulled out a box from under the table
“Oh yeah.” Serena said as she started unwrapping it and then pulled out the contents, “A key? Okay, I know it’s not a car. There isn’t one on the island aside from the buggies.”
“No, it’s not a car. But this is on the condition that you pay attention to your lessons.” Alex said
“We thought you might like a more private way of getting back and forth to Hawaii without getting the ferry all the time.” Isabel said
“Oh my god, you are kidding right?” Serena said giddily as her family cleared a path to the window and she looked outside and seeing a new & shiny speedboat moored outside in their marina, “We have seriously way too much money.” She said as she looked at the boat
“Uh huh. But that’s what happens when we own an obscenely popular resort.” Alex said
“Of course there is something else.” Max said
“Oh yeah, what?” Serena asked as her uncle looked over to her mass of brothers, sisters and cousins. “No way an I letting them have goes at driving…well except Mal but that’s because he knows how to.”
“Well duh.” Malcolm said, “But he’s talking about you being the designated driver and giving us lifts.”
“Oh…that. Well, yeah sure.” Serena said, “Come on, big hug time.”
Everyone moved around the girl and hugged her. Never again did anyone in the family ever see so much as a gun on their property. There may have been military families that vacationed on the island but they never knew about the nature of the owners of the resort. No one came after the aliens, MPs from the army searched for the general but never found his body, not as deep as he was and as far as they were all concerned they left in the alien ship. The general had to tell them why he wanted it and accepted that letting an alien army leave would be a good thing rather than trying to take them on. And the strange thing was that no one seemed to question, tropical storms and hurricanes never seemed to get close to the area. A funny thing that.
The End.
Thank you everyone for the wonderful feedback. Unidentified Flying Hormones is coming soon.
Other Paths - Edited and Reposted - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3667
Risen in Light - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3694
Viral Apocalypse - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=6837
Risen in Light - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=3694
Viral Apocalypse - http://www.roswellfanatics.net/viewtopic.php?t=6837