So our story begins as two garrisons students, breaking curfew are cruising down through the middle of nowhere…
They can see a shooting star in the sky. "Woah make a wish Tross" Says Eric.
Tross closes his eye and wishes. To the surprise of both guys, the star isn't vanishing quite yet instead they noticed its getting closer... TO THEM!
Tross sees this and immediately responds, "That was not what I meant!"
Eric, meanwhile grabs the wheel, pumping the gas to the floor and turning around sharply, hoping to dodge the worst of the blast.
As it gets closer and breaks through the atmosphere they can see that it is no star, but a large metallic object. smooth on the outside and winged in shape. roughly the size of two RV's next to each other. It hits the ground at 45 degree angle. not very graceful, but the object remained in tact.
Through the open window, they both feel the rush of hot wind hit their faces. Eric, realizing that the thing had crash landed already, brought the car to a stop. Both young men stared at the wreck, unabashedly curious. "We need to report this to the Garrison," Tross suggests, while Eric immediately responds, "We should go check it out!"
"Okay," Tross mutters warily, "But we need to be careful." His curiosity having gotten the better of him, he slinked forward, both ducking down and trying to keep hidden among the newly risen dust.
there's a shuffling sound and they see a hatch open on the side of the object. Out popped a strange looking man. Though humanoid, he was tall with spiked black hair and pointy ears. he had two gray marks going down the side of his face and his skin was completely purple. He came out of the wreckage coughing from the smoke. He bent over catching his breath as he noticed Tross and Eric for the first time.
Their eyes widened in shock, both not expecting to be spotted so soon.
"Holy crap, dude," Eric mutters aside, "Is that cosplay?"
"Don't think so," Tross shakes his head, "Cosplayers normally don't crash-land in giant ships."
"Yeah," Eric whispered. "But aren't aliens s'posed to look more... Alien? Where were the pod people? The body snatchers? The little grey men?" Somewhere in the back of his mind, his inner movie enthusiast was very disappointed.
Tross steeled his nerves, "Are you alright? Can you understand me?" He shouted towards the gasping purple... man...thing? It looked masculine, by human standards... whatever it was.
"You guys wouldn't happen to have a quantum combustion engine on you by any chance?" he replied
Tross and Eric glance at each other, bewildered. "Ask him. He's the brains." Eric gestures with a thumb towards the shorter man.
"Sorry, but I don't..." He'd been researching quantum physics lately, sure, but he hadn't any idea what the purple thing was referring to.
"What-Who are you?" He asked.
"Daemon."
he said abruptly like that was supposed to explain everything.
"Could you tell me what direction I go to find the nearest three dimensional engineer or repair shop. My ship was shot down by a Galra cruiser out around the far reaches of your solar system. Had to make an emergency landing."
Eric and Tross shared another look. Then, they turned their mutual gaze back to "Daemon", who could instantly tell that these two had absolutely no idea what he was talking about.
"Great." said daemon kicking the sand. "I'm stuck here aren't I." he took a deep breath. "Is there anyone on your primitive planet then knows how to fix a space ship." He said very slowly, like if he was talking to toddlers
"I could take a look," Tross offered, striding cautiously forward, leaving a semicircle of space around the alien newcomer. "Do you know what might be wrong with it?"
"There are laser blast holes in the engine. I could fix it myself if I had the tools, but clearly your kind hasn't invented them yet."
Ignoring Daemons passive aggression, Tross swiped at the smoke, and leaned over to look inside. "This thing won't blow up on me, right? What's it running on?"
"The blood of the innocent"
he stared at Tross seriously for a moment
Tross immediately reacts with a short look of horror, before turning back to the open engine slowly, "Good thing I'm not innocent."
His face is calm again as he begins to assess the damage.
Daemon raises an eyebrow, impressed, he never had that reaction before when making that joke to new alien species.
"It runs on a compound that there is plenty of on your planet. liquid hydrogen dioxide."
A fancy word for water, Tross thought.
"Fascinating..." Tross took in the info, but his mind was on the wreckage. Most of it was just damage to the wiring around the engine, nothing that couldn't be fixed with a bit of time. Some of the more complicated pieces, little hard drives here and there, he might be able to fix up with a night's work and some spare computer parts, if he could re-adjust them. Worst case scenario, he'd need to ask Jonah if his friend could 3D print them. But there was one component, a small still-glowing spiral, that had a bullet shoved straight through it. He wasn't even sure what it was made of, but it didn't seem like an easy find on earth. He pulled back, turning to face the purple man, "That spiral thing in there. Is it important?"
"The quantum defibrillator! Of course! Now I just need a sonic ratchet and some spare lead based alloy."" Daemon paused before turning to look at Tross and Eric's car. "How much do you like your land vehicle?" Daemon said eyeing the hubcaps.
Eric defensively throws his body over the hood of the car, hugging it with both arms.
"A lot." Tross says, turning back to Daemon.
"hmmmmm" Daemon mutters something to himself in a language neither of the humans are familiar with. He eyes Eric and Tross, analyzing their size and muscle mass. He thinks his plan over in his mind before executing. Daemon pulls what looks like a fancy gun out of his jacket pocket and hits Tross over the head with it. Tross drops to the ground. Eric moves in to an offensive stance ready to help his little buddy. He throws three punches all of which Daemon dodges with expertise and grace. Daemon winds up his legs and hits Eric square in the head with a roundhouse kick. Eric falls over unconscious.
Daemon while the two are out begins stripping the car and gathering the parts he needs.
As the two of them sleep, Daemon feels a slight tremor in the ground. He continues working. Then there's another. He ignores it. He's almost got the last of this bit out, now all he needs is to do is gather the pipe from the back and—
Suddenly, there is a much louder vibration. It racks the earth below him, and he realizes, that the earth underneath him seems to be moving. With a slow shifting that quickly gains speed, he watches as the ground sinks inwards, surrounding the crater where his ship had lodged itself.
Daemon Tross and Eric fall helplessly into the cavern…
When he awakes Eric pulls out his phone and puts on the flashlight. He finds Daemon lying unconscious on the ground next to Tross. The first thing he does is kick him where he thinks Daemon's balls are. This prompts Daemon growing in pain. As he shines the light around the room he notices hieroglyphs surrounding it of a large blue lion, drawn in crude blue paint.
That's strange, I wonder who drew these. They look ancient. Thought Eric.
Tross shifts and sits up with a soft groan of his own, rubbing the back of his aching head. "Eric?" He asks the beam of light ahead of him, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine," Eric responds.
Tross takes out his own flashlight and checks his friend over for injuries. He seems to be okay, but Eric had a bad habit of letting himself take a lot of damage without fully realizing. Or caring. Depending on his mood.
"Check this out," Eric points with his chin at the heiroglyphs, "Any clue what these mean?"
"No idea... They aren't Egyptian, that's for certain. They look really old though. I wonder if they were put here by an ancient indigenous civilization. They almost tell a story." Tross says tracing his finger over a painting of a blue lioness emerging from the sea. "Like this blue lion thing is repeated a lot. I wonder what significance it would have?"
He hears another short groan behind him. Before Daemon can fully stand again, Tross walks over to him, and grabs the gun from its holster, aiming it square at the alien. "Don't move. Don't even think about running away."
"You don't even know how that thing works" He says wiping magenta colored blood from his nose. "its not even on."
Tross fumbles around the gun until he found what looked vaguely like an on button. The gun lit up blue and he aimed it again at daemon. Tross takes a moment to meet the other's eyes, "You're right. I don't know how to work this thing. But it looks like it's on now, and even if that weren't the case, I still know that it hurts like hell when you swing it at someone's face." His voice and his bright blue eyes are cold.
"You haven't got it in you" said daemon with a cocky grin.
"You don't know me"
"I can see it in your eyes. Your scared, to nice for this kind of thing you-"
He shot daemon in the shoulder. Daemon screamed and went to cover the bullet wound with his hand "YOU SHOT ME!"
"In the shoulder. You'll be fine. " Tross replied smugly. "I mean unless that's where your heart is. I don't know what your anatomy is like." Tross grinned "I'm going to be honest with you," He continued, smile dropping off his face, "I got lucky with that warning shot. Or should I say, you got lucky. But I'm more than willing to find out which parts of your anatomy are weakest," He gives him a wicked smile, "Providing, of course, that you're willing to keep pushing your luck."
"Fine," Daemon spits out, "You can have the parts to your vehicle back. Happy?"
In the meantime, Eric had been looking around. The hole they were in was too steep and deep to climb back out of. There were a few tunnels underground, but he had no idea where they all led. After a bit of examination, he directed the light into one of the tunnels. It was the one marked with more extending hieroglyphs, and had a faint blue glow to it, which they all assumed meant it was an exit. Or, maybe there was something at the end of it that could help them out? There was one way to find out. "Tross!" He yelled over his shoulder, "I'm checking this place out!"
Tross nudged the gun into Daemon's back, "You aren't going anywhere until we have the means to get home. Then, you can solve all your little problems yourself."
Daemon followed Eric, gun at his back I hate this planet. I hate it so much they followed the tunnel for about ten minutes, heading deeper and deeper into the earth. Eventually the cavern became wide again and it opened on an impossibly large cave where stationed inside was a blue, gigantic mecha lion, protected by a strange blue force field. "What the quiznak." Said daemon.
"And what on earth is this thing supposed to be?" Tross stated, starting to wonder if this wasn't all somehow an extremely elaborate prank.
Eric poked the force field.
"I-I have no idea." Daemon said. Though as he entered the room his head felt a little tingly and he thought he heard something. Like a voice talking to him, but it wasn't using words. He felt drawn to the lion and pulled away from Tross and Eric and walked up to the forcefield. He paused before stepping through. As he did the lions eyes lit up and it bent it's head down and opened its mouth, allowing him to walk on board.
"Hey, wait a second!" Tross rushed forward, "You still need to get us a ride back home! I'm not just going to let you escape into a robot."
the force field dropped down so Tross and Eric followed Daemon on board the lion. Then the door shut behind them
"Whats with you two? Are you really that desperate to catch me that you'd get LOCKED inside a Godamn CAT ROBOT"
"Well, he's stubborn and I'm an asshole" Said Tross "Thank you very much!" He huffs.
"Look, I already said you can have your stupid vehicle parts back. What else do you want, you little quiznak! This isn't the flipping Galra empire!"
"Oh yeah? Well, I don't know about this '"empire"' you mentioned, but here in this country we have a little rule called 'keep your hands off my shit'!'"
Eric, in the meantime, stares up at the flashing letters on screen. They make no sense to him, but they're flashing with an urgency that's difficult to mistake. "Hey, guys," He says, "I think Kitty wants our attention."
Daemon feels a strange force beckoning him to the control panel. The same force that told him to come on board the lion. He sat down on the chair and fliped a switch.
The cat gets up. "Woah!" Daemon can't believe his eyes. "Keep your parts dude. This thing is gonna sell for a million units at the space mall."
"Space mall? What space mall?"
"If I can just figure out how to get it to go where I want?" Leaning forward on the handles the cat races forward faster than any spacecraft any of the guys have ever been on. "You really don't know the space mall? It a great place to unload junk fast with no questions asked."
"Can this thing really get to space? I mean, I know technology has come a long way-Trust me, no one is as aware of that as I am, but this thing isn't even aerodynamic! What's it supposed to do against the earth's gravitational pull, anywa-" Tross' rambling is cut off as the lion suddenly bursts with speed. Eric and Tross are both slammed into the wall with an oof while Daemon yells out, "Whoo hoo!"
But that persistent pull telling him to listen to this machine doesn't stop.
Suddenly the cat shoots a blue beam out of his mouth and a portal opens up. they sail through it.
to daemons disappointment is not the space mall.
Tross realizes, with abject horror, that they've just been space-kidnapped.
Eric vapes.