The rain was coming down in waves over Charleston and Tom struggled to keep a proper grip on his weapon. In that moment a million thoughts were running through his brain like a swarm of scared little flies buzzing around without coherence. But one thought surfaced above all else: if the alien in front of them would prove to be a foe, then the fighters of Charleston would have one hell of a battle to get ready for, and little time to do it.
The alien regarded the large group of people with curiosity and in that moment Tom risked looking behind him only a second.
"Get the civilians back inside!" he yelled over his shoulder, "everyone else take up defensive positions!"
The mass of confused civilians were quickly ushered inside while anyone who was holding a gun joined Tom in creating a barrier.
"There is no cause for alarm" the alien sudden said in an oddly calm voice. "I have not come here with thoughts of battle. I do not intend to harm you."
"What about the rest of those pods?" Tom asked, pointing with his gun. "You're a little overstaffed for someone who claims to be here in peace."
"They are scouts, not fighters."
"So who are you and what are you doing here?" Tom asked, still pointing the gun at the bizarre creature.
"We are the Volm and I was sent here as a representative in hopes of forming a partnership."
"And why's that?" Weaver asked, frowning. "Almost every other alien we've met seemed hell-bent on either killing us or talking our children. As far as we know, you could be working with the Espheni."
"If you could just put your weapons down, we could discuss things in detail" the alien said as he took a step forwards.
"You stay where you are" Weaver said firmly.
"I am holding no weapons and no not wish to attack you" the Volm said. "Believe when I tell you that I do not plan to fight."
Tom regarded the Volm and realized that he was indeed without weapons. "He's got a point, Dan."
"He's gotta be lying, Tom, don't you believe him. He could have all kinds of guns in that pod behind him."
"If you'd like, we could move somewhere else to talk" the alien said, angling his head so that he was speaking to Tom rather than Weaver.
Weaver shook his head. "The last time we tried to be peaceful with a bunch of aliens we ended up with our world turned on its head. So you'll have to excuse me if I don't exactly trust some creature that just happened to drop by unannounced in a space ship."
"My kin have all agreed that if this alliance will prove fruitful for all of us, we would be more than happy to share with you our technology."
"What kind of technology?" Tom asked.
"Weapons that are effective against the bipedal robots you have been fighting. And a machine that can safely remove the parasite that your children have been implanted with."
Tom struggled to keep his face from betraying just how surprised he was.
"You're lying" Weaver said simply. It just sounded too good to be true.
The Volm turned around slowly towards his ship and gestured at it. "I can return in one day with the equipment if you would like to see for yourself."
"I think we should really consider talking to him" Tom said in a hushed tone, leaning towards Weaver. "It's a leap of faith, sure, but all signs so far point to him telling the truth."
"And if he's not? Are you willing to risk what little we have left?"
"For all of those harnessed kids out there, I am."
Weaver took a deep breath and thought for a second. He then nodded. "Alright" he told the alien, "alright, we'll talk. But if you have to leave all your weapons and those scouts behind and come with us."
The Volm seemed a bit reluctant at first, but he then began to walk towards the crowd of fighters.
"Tector, Anthony, Pope" Weaver said pointing, "you three escort our new guest over to the conference room." He then gave a look which conveyed that they should keep a close eye on him. "The rest of you stay here with the other pods. If any of them show the slightest sign of hostility, then-"
"They will not, Captain" the Volm said quickly. "There will be no reason to damage our ships."
"Don't worry, our fighters will stand down" Tom said.
The group that had gathered in the rain began to disperse, all still regarding the new alien with both curiosity and apprehension.
"I'm not getting my hopes high just yet" Tom told Weaver as they walked back inside, "but this could be our big break to ending this war."
The Captain sighed. "Or it could just be the dumbest thing you've ever done. But if we have a shot at getting our captured children back, then it's worth it."
Jeannie didn't like that they 2nd Mass was now dealing with yet another alien race. She also didn't like that she had been standing outside in the rain along with the other fighters, keeping her gun trained on dozen pods that were completely unmoving. The eerie silence that persisted in the air was only interrupted by the trickle of rain.
"So what do you think?" she asked Maggie, who was beside her, "These aliens really friendly or are they just pulling our leg?"
"I'm tempted to side with the Captain on this one. We've been burned too many times before, so we should be careful."
Jeannie noticed something move from the corner of her eye, but when she turned her head to take a look, the darkness revealed nothing out of the ordinary. She began to wonder if the new tension that had formed in Charleston was starting to play tricks on her mind.
She shivered. "It creeps me out how they're just standing there in those little ships... Every time the wind shifts I'm scared that they'll change their minds and attack us."
Maggie nodded, her eyes still fixed on the pods.
"It's weird how they've showed up now all of a sudden" Jeannie went on "You think they spent all this time watching us? Like we're some parasites that need to be analyzed."
Maggie smiled a bit. "You know, if Hal was here, he'd make some sort of lame joke about this being '1984', but with aliens."
"How's Hal doing anyway? He'd probably hate to miss all of this weirdness."
Maggie shifted, seemingly uncomfortable. "He's just resting after the mission. And don't worry, I'm sure he'd much rather be in his warm bed than stuck here in the rain, babysitting a bunch of pods." She glanced around. "I'll go walk around and stretch my legs a little bit. All this waiting is starting to get to me."
Jeannie nodded as she watched Maggie take off towards the pods. She glanced at the other fighters who were scattered around the area where the aliens had landed. But despite that there were still other people around, Jeannie felt like the uneasiness creeping back. She could almost swear that there was someone lurking in the darkness to her left.
Hal knew something was different the moment he woke up in his bed, even if he couldn't exactly pin point what it was. Was it the sudden silence that had fallen over Charleston? Was it the fact that he couldn't remember a thing since the mission to destroy the Overlord cannon? Where was everyone anyway?
Whatever was going on, he didn't like it. Nothing good ever came of sudden change in Charleston.
He sighed and moved to swing his legs over the bed. Except they weren't moving. His thoughts instantly darted to the one night as a kid when he had suffered from sleep paralysis. Except this was different. There was nothing dreamlike about it. His room was calm and quiet and dark and lacked anything bizarre. This was for real.
"Maggie?"
Silence. Even if he strained, Hal couldn't hear any breathing from his right. He was all alone.
Panic instantly set in as Hal struggled to move his arms and his legs but realized they weren't willing to budge one inch. Something really bad had happened after the mission, and he couldn't even remember what it was.
"Maggie!"
Dread settled in, and Hal quickly realized that he was trapped in his own body in a room where no one could even hear him scream. Everyone seemed to have simply disappeared.
"We were attacked by the Espheni many years ago" the Volm said, pacing the conference room, "and ever since then we've attempted to free the worlds that they have captured."
"Why?" General Bressler asked, eyeing the alien. "Sounds like you aliens are keeping a grudge when you could just look the other way."
"You are not the only species that has suffered after their attacks. We consider them tyrants that must be stopped." The Volm took a breath. "The Espheni are threatening what little peace we have left in the galaxy. You have seen what they've done to the insectoid species they have captured."
"And, in turn, the skitters caused trouble for us" Porter said, sighing.
Weaver nodded. "It's like one big chain of chaos. So how do we stop it?"
"We join our forces" the alien said. "With our technology and your strength of numbers, we should be able to drive them off or at the very least weaken them."
"Our strength in numbers?" Tom asked. "I'm not sure what you think you know about the 2nd Mass, but there's not exactly that many of us left."
"But you are much more numerous than us."
Bressler arched an eyebrow. "Exactly how?"
"There are about thirty of us left."
The room sunk into silence for a moment, most of the people inside finding that their heads had lowered. This wasn't good news. And it suddenly became quite clear why the Volm wanted nothing more than to stop the Espheni.
"We'll need to think about this before we make any kind of agreement" Porter said, "I'm sure you'll understand."
The alien nodded. "Of course."
"So assuming we'll agree to this partnership" Weaver said, "what do we call you?"
The Volm paused for a moment, and began to recite what sounded like a complicated series of sounds. Once he was done, there was silence in the conference room.
"Could you run that by us again?" Weaver asked, confused.
"We expected that your people would have a tough time with our pronunciation."
"Is that supposed to be a dig at how inferior we are to you?" Bressler asked.
"I'm sure that's not it" Tom said, shaking his head. He turned to the alien. "How would you feel if we used a nickname?"
"A nickname? I'm afraid I'm not familiar with such a thing."
"It's symbolic, like a short title."
The Volm nodded. "Very well."
Bressler frowned. "We're playing pin the nickname on the alien now? What are we, in kindergarten?"
"Bressler" Porter said, his voice conveying annoyance.
"You're already rifling through that history textbook you call a head looking for a name, aren't you, Tom?" Weaver asked, a small smile on his lips.
"Already found one" Tom said.
"Well then let's hear it."
"There was this great Apache chief during the 19th century" Tom said, regarding the Volm, "who was the leader of an uprising that resisted intrusions by the Americans. I really couldn't think of someone with a more fitting nickname than Cochise."
The alien almost seemed humbled by the chosen name. "Thank you. I can return in one day until you've made your decision."
Cochise turned to exit the room.
"Wait" Weaver said, stopping him in his tracks. "Were you serious? About the machine that can de-harness the children."
"I would not lie about such a thing. Letting your progenies be under the Espheni's control does not bring us any gain. We only mean to help."
Porter rose from his chair and took a few steps until he was within the alien's reach. And then the General
extended his arm. Cochise apprehensively shook it.
"Now this doesn't mean we agree to any of this yet" Porter said, "but we definitely appreciate what you're trying to do here. Truly."
Pope lay in wait outside the conference room along with the other Berserkers. His orders were to keep anyone else from entering, but Pope had decided to use this opportunity to eavesdrop.
"You're crazy if you think they'll take any deal with that zombie-face" Crazy Lee said.
"That's a good one" Lyle chuckled, "zombie-face..."
Crazy Lee scoffed at Pope's attempt to eavesdrop. "What're you, actually taking an interest in this whole mess? Don't tell us you're starting to care, Pope."
Pope turned around. "If you idiots won't shut up, I'm going to have to use my gun here for free but very brutal colonoscopies." When the others went silent, he added, "This right here actually concerns us, you know. If any of those morons agree to work with that alien, then we should know ahead of time so we can haul ass outta here as fast as possible."
"And go where?" Tector asked. Pope gave him a dirty look. "I don't know, I think I'd just rather sit here in comfy Charleston and work with some alien than be on the run again."
Tector felt an unfired bullet cartridge bounce off his shoulder. When he turned around he realized that Crazy Lee was the one who had thrown it at him like it was a ball of paper.
"You're talkin' crazy, Tec" she said, "unless you're thinking of going soft or military on us all over again. Cause if ya are, just let us know now so we can give you a well deserved kicking."
"What did I say about shutting your cake holes?" Pope said.
At that moment the door began to open, and Pope jerked back out of the way. He saw Porter, Bressler and Tom walk out along with the alien like they were old war buddies.
He began walking along with Weaver. "So what's the word, Cap'n?"
"No word right now, Pope."
"You mean not one you're willing to let us know cause we're troublemakers, that it?"
Weaver sighed in frustration. "If you're hankering for a fight, son, you're gonna get it."
Pope lifted his hands in a gesture of innocence. "I just wanna know if for the next weeks I'll actually have to start pulling punches whenever I see an alien in my face. Because it's human nature to want to pop them one, you know?"
"Nothing's decided right now, so why don't you go make yourself useful elsewhere?"
"Yes, sir" Pope said, resentment in his voice.
Hal felt as if he had been screaming out for help for hours. But no one could hear him and his throat was hurting like a dozen stingers. He wondered what it was that had caused everyone to disappear above ground. He was still struggling to coax his arms and legs into moving for the umpteenth time when he heard footsteps closing in.
"Someone out there?"
Maggie soon entered, looking tired and soaked from the rain.
"Jesus, Maggie, where've you been?!" Hal was almost yelling. "What's happening? Why didn't anyone hear me?"
He frowned. "What're you talking about? I thought you'd be asleep."
"Listen, you need to tell me what they did to me after that mission with the Overlord cannon because I'm scared outta my mind here."
Maggie took a seat on the edge of the bed, worried. "What they did to you? Who's they?"
"Doctor Glass or Lourdes or whoever took care of me after the mission because right now I can't move. At all."
Maggie could only look at him, eyes wide.
"I'm paralyzed, Maggie, and I don't know what happened."
The Masons ended up spending most of the remaining night in the medical bay, where Anne did her best to figure out what was causing his paralysis. But after hours of tests and trials, she had to admit that she was stumped.
"I really couldn't tell you what's happening" Anne told Hal, sighing. "All your vitals are within normal parameters... you have no wounds or punctures to tell us that you might've been injected with something. You don't even have a fever."
"So he's gonna stay like this forever?" Matt asked, worry on his features.
She shook her head. "We're not quitting. Far as I can tell, your brother should regain at least a bit of his normal mobility within the next few days. If you take a closer look, you'll see that the extremities of his fingers can move lightly. So we'll keep trying to find out what's going on until we get to the bottom of it, alright?"
Matt nodded, halfheartedly.
"Don't worry about me" Hal said, "I'll be back to my annoying and infuriating big bro self soon enough, you'll see."
"He's right, you know" Maggie chimed in, "if you thought he was annoying on two legs, wait till you see him with wheels."
"You're just jealous cause I'll be faster than you" Hal said.
"Not in this lifetime, pal."
"Are you willing to bet your secret Skittles stash on that?"
Maggie raised an eyebrow.
"You really thought I didn't know? You're not always as stealthy as you think, Margaret."
"If I find that stash disturbed in any way, you're in so much trouble."
"Okay, I think that about wraps things up for now" Tom said "Think it's best if we call it a night."
"You're just saying that cause gambling with candy really isn't appropriate talk with Matt here" Hal said, smiling.
"You got me there. But it's still way past all any kind of reasonable hour for anyone here."
Tom could tell that they were all exhausted and worried. But everyone was putting a tough front for Matt and making jokes because they knew it was always worth doing it for family.
When Tom walked out of the medical bay, he saw Weaver. It looked like he had respectfully waited outside instead of intruding on his family time. Tom wanted to tell him that he wouldn't have minded him there, but Weaver spoke first.
"I'm really sorry about all this, Tom."
"Well, Anne thinks he might regain some of his mobility soon. So we're not rolling over just yet."
"Listen, I know what you're thinking."
"You mean other than a bunch of really bad words intended towards Karen and the Espheni?"
"You're thinking that this is another reason to take the deal with the Volm. They probably have the proper technology to figure out what happened to your boy." He paused. "And I don't blame you one bit."
"I appreciate that."
"Some of us were talking about deciding what to do with a vote."
Tom nodded. "Sounds fair."
"I'll gather everyone tomorrow. But we still have one important thing to do before that."
As if sensing what was happening, the weather had turned somber the next day, sending light rain across Charleston. And the miniature city had fallen quiet as people prepared to bury yet another soldier.
"Dai was one of the most skilful soldiers I ever had the fortune of meeting" Weaver said, glancing at the overcast sky. "His mind was always on the job and he never faltered. He was always loyal, and forever by our side no matter what. He didn't tell that many people about this, but he moved from Vietnam when he was a child, in hopes of finding a better place to live. He never did say if he liked what he found... but if he was ever unhappy, he never complained about it. Because even if he wasn't a man of many words, when he said something, you knew it was worth listening to."
Waver stopped to look at the flag that was sitting wrapped-up inside the freshly-dug grave. "Dai didn't lose a family when the skitters attacked because he had no family left... But I like to think that he found one in the 2nd Mass. We gave him a home and, in turn, he gave us his loyalty. Wherever he is right now, I hope he knows that we will always carry him in our hearts."
The small crowd soon began to form a line as they all took turns to either say a few words or throw a handful of dirt into the grave.
Weaver headed to the sidelines and watched as everyone moved over to pay their respects. The Captain looked away when it was Matt's turn. Weaver just couldn't look into the eyes of Tom's youngest son. The boy had seen so much destruction and death already, and he wasn't even a teenager yet.
Weaver felt a tap on his shoulder and turned around to see Pope.
"Sorry to interrupt things, Cap, but the others want you in the conference room. They're saying that the zombie-faced fella is supposed to come this afternoon and you all need to make a decision."
Weaver nodded and prepared to head back inside when he saw that Pope was joining the line that was surrounding the grave.
"I didn't really think you liked Dai, Pope. Or anyone, for that matter" Weaver said, surprised.
"Truth be told, I never really knew him all that well. But he was a soldier fighting for the same cause as me, and that's hella respectful."
Weaver didn't say anything, just kept looking at him, amazed.
"Look, I might be an ass most of the time – I know that, and it's definitely my choice - but make no mistake about it, Cap'n. I know the value of a man."
Weaver nodded in acknowledgement before walking away.
Things in the conference room were in full swing by the time Weaver and Tom had gotten there. It sounded like spirits were quickly heating up.
"Tom, wonderful" Manchester said as soon as they walked inside, "you mind telling these bullheaded people that they're absolutely crazy for considering this deal?"
Tom cleared his throat. "Actually, I'm one of the people who strongly suggests we should take it."
Manchester gaped at him, and then shook his head. "You don't know what you're doing. Any of you. Allying with some creature that just fell out of the sky one rainy night?"
"With all due respect, these creatures might hold the key to ending this war."
"He's right, Arthur" Porter said, nodding. "As crazy as this whole idea is, I really think we should do it."
Manchester sighed. "If you're going to subject this to a vote, then there's nothing I can say. But I will back you up if that's what all of you agree on."
Tom smiled. "Thank you."
"Alright, then" Weaver said, "let's stop wasting time and get things on the road before Cochise shows up and catches us with our pants down."
In the end, the vote had turned out to be unanimous, much to everyone's surprise. Tom wondered if Manchester had changed his mind because he wanted to support them, or simply because he didn't want to be singled out as being an unbeliever if the Volm would turn out to be really helpful allies.
After the voting, the conference room emptied, and Tom and Weaver headed outside, waiting for the Volm to arrive, as promised.
"Let's hope we did the right thing" Weaver said in a small voice.
Tom and Weaver, along with a few other fighters, waited outside in the same place as the night before, guns in hands, waiting.
But their faith began to dwindle, little by little, as the day move forward without any sightings of the Volm ships. Before they knew it, the sky had darkened to a pitch black. Even if it was past midnight, Tom still sit sat outside, his head craned upward, finding it bizarre how for the first time in his life he actually wanted to see an alien ship descending.
It was well past 3PM when Maggie felt an arm hit her in the back.
"If you're searching for a fight, then you'll regret it..." she mumbled into her pillow.
"Maggie."
She sighed and turned slowly from her side until she saw Hal standing up in bed. He seemed to be smiling.
"Check it out" he said, and without warning, he punched her in the shoulder.
"Ow! What're you-" She stopped. "You can move."
"Screw moving, I can punch!"
Maggie sat up and grabbed his right hand to inspect. It wasn't that she was expecting to see something different about it, but she just couldn't believe what was happening.
"So you're not really paralyzed after all" she said, feeling like she was still stuck in a dream.
"Well my other stiff hand and my legs that feel like two blocks of granite would like a word with you. But other than that, hey" He flexed his right hand. "Improvement."
"Improvement..." she echoed. "So how come you're awake at this hour?"
Hal was glad that the darkness made lying easier. He really didn't want to explain why he was dreaming of running around in a forest, chasing after Karen. Especially when he couldn't explain it himself.
"No reason" he said, trying to sound genuine.
"Well that means it's something."
"Maybe I didn't know how to tell you that your snoring woke me."
"You're really taking advantage of this you-not-moving bit so I won't kick your ass, huh?"
"Not moving, what're you talking about? I thought I already showed you my mad punching skills."
Maggie smiled and scooted closer to him. "So how long do you think it'll be until you're back the way you were? You know, so you can get back on kitchen duty."
Hal laughed. "You've got a fondness for self punishment I'm not aware of?"
"Nah, I just miss the extra can of peaches you'd steal for us."
"Hush, woman" Hal said, "if Pope found out about that, he'd cook me for dinner."
There was a series of knocks at the door, and Maggie jumped up to see who it was.
"They're here! They're here!" Matt said enthusiastically.
"The Volm?" Hal asked from his bed. "You sure?"
"Now we'll get to use those advanced machines they have and fix you! C'mon, let's go!"
Matt ran off before either of them could say another word. Hal just shook his head at his little brother's enthusiasm.
Inside the medical bay, Anne stared at the piece of machinery the Volm had brought inside.
"I still don't understand why you're only allowing one person to operate this machine" Tom said.
"It is a, what you like to call, a leap of faith, Professor" Cochise said. "Please trust us with this."
"Are there any side effects from using this thing?" Tom asked worried.
"There should be no adverse effects at all."
"So you're sure you want to do this?" Tom asked Anne. "Because you don't have to if you don't want to. Especially with the baby on the way and-"
"I'll be fine, Tom, really." She looked at Cochise and nodded. "Alright, show me the ropes."
Cochise looked at her, confused.
"It means that she's ready to show her how the machine works" Weaver said.
"Of course" the Volm said. "In the meantime, you could show the others how to properly use our weapons, Professor Mason."
Things were going much smoother than expected, and within only one day Anne had managed to learn how to use the de-harnessing machine. Meanwhile, Tom and Weaver tried to get the fighters used to the Volm's much more powerful weapons.
"It's not fair" Matt said, who was watching his older brother practicing with one of the laser rifles outside.
"What's not fair?" Ben asked. "I mean other than this whole world after the invasion..."
"You get to use this new awesome guns and Dad won't even let me see one up close."
"Well that's called good parenting, which is meant to sound unreasonable."
"Then how come you're allowed to shoot them?" Matt asked. "You're only a few years older than me."
"True, but I've also got some weird alien DNA thing in my body from the harness, and that stuff makes me a little bit more skilful than anyone my age."
Matt crossed his arms across his chest. Silence had fallen between them, and Ben soon turned around to see his younger brother still looking upset. Ben placed the gun on the ground and came over to sit next to Matt.
"Okay, look at it this way" Ben said, "Hal's currently a semi-functional vegetable, and I'm basically a half-alien freak. And Dad? He had an actual alien worm stuck inside his eyeball. His freakin eyeball" Ben almost touched his eye for emphasis, causing Matt to recoil. "You're the only Mason man who's still normal, Matt. The way I see it, you're not doing too shabby."
It took a few moments, but a smile finally managed to appear on Matt's face.
"Alright everyone" Weaver's voice boomed from afar, "we'll all get the chance to actually use these guns today. One of our scouts spotted a group of harnessed kids not far from here. So let's move!"
When Maggie walked inside their room, she saw that Hal was using his right hand to bounce a pebble against the wall in front of him.
"You're getting better" she said looking at his movements.
Hal made a face of uncertainty while still keeping his eyes on the rock. "You might not want to look at the floor, then."
She instinctively glanced at her feet. There were dozens upon dozens of pebbles scattered on the floor in all directions.
"Still, at least you're moving" she said, walking under the pebble's arc and moving towards the wardrobe. "That's progress, right?"
"Oh yeah, I should be up and nimble in time for the next apocalypse. You know me, never miss a party."
Maggie stopped rifling through her belongings. "You gonna be alright by yourself while we're away on this mission?"
"I'll be just peachy."
"You know I don't like this any better than you do. Going on missions without my proper partner won't feel right."
Hal suddenly smiled. "Didn't I tell you you'd eventually miss my lame jokes? You never know how much you love my stupid sense of humor until you're deprived of it. That's a Mason rule right there."
Maggie couldn't help but smile as she strapped on her guns.
There was a knock at the door, and a tall man walked inside soon after.
"You ready to go, Megs?"
The man stopped when he noticed Hal. He moved over to the bed.
"You must be Hal, right? Lars" he said, reaching over to shake his hand. "The Captain said Maggie needed someone to watch her back in this mission, so here I am." He paused. "Hey, I'm sorry to hear about-"
"Don't sweat it" Hal said, waving it off.
"Alright, let's get going before the Captain looses his cool" Maggie said, grabbing her jacket. She turned towards Hal. "You sure you're gonna be okay?"
Hal rolled his eyes. "I wasn't aware that I'd suddenly turned into the girl in this relationship."
"Don't be stupid" Maggie said, giving him a goodbye kiss, "you've always been the girl."
Hal was left with nothing but the sound of the door closing and a wall to take his frustrations on. But despite the constant reassuring from Maggie, he couldn't help but feel like he was being replaced.
The mission to rescue a group of harnessed children had proved to be a success, but as with any victory, there were still some who thought it could have gone better.
"Look, you need to drop this, Dad" Ben said annoyed.
Tom sighed as he watched Lourdes patching up his son's wounded arm. "All I'm saying is think about it. Getting a partner to have your back can't hurt. You'll be safer and I'll finally have to stop worrying so much every time you're sent out into the field."
"Is this about Hal? Because you know that probably won't happen to me. I think the Espheni reached their tampering quota with me."
"It's just something to think about, Ben, nothing's set in stone."
"I work alone better, Dad, you know that. Always had."
Tom frowned. "Well that's not true. What about those kids who were always around you in high school?"
"You meant the football team who tried to tape me to my locker?"
"See, that's all the more reason to have someone there for you."
"Well I had the entire chess team there but they were too scared to do anything."
Tom crossed his arms. "I still think it's a good idea. What do you think, Lourdes?"
The girl was caught off-guard and made it a point to quickly wrap the last of the gauze on Ben's arm.
"Oh well, look at that, all done" Lourdes announced and she quickly busied herself with another patient.
"That was kind of low" a voice said from nearby, and Anne walked into view, "trying to rope in an innocent soul into your argument. You really thought that would work?"
"I had to try. That's one of my responsibilities as a parent." Tom lowered his voice. "For the record, you agree with me, right?"
Anne smiled but shook her head. "Hey, this is between you and Ben, so you can parade with your sandwich-board somewhere else, mister." She turned to Ben. "Could you do me a favor? One of the kids I de-harnessed woke up, and she's asking a lot of questions. I'd usually let Lourdes deal with this, but we're just so swamped right now."
Ben hopped off the bed he was on. "Don't worry, I'm on it."
"You're just using this as an excuse to end the argument, aren't you, son?" Tom called after him.
"And here Hal thought you were going senile" Ben said before disappearing from sight.
When he walked into the room where the kids were recuperating, Ben was stunned to see that the entire area was full of children and teenagers that were in various stages of awareness. He saw Lourdes by a girl's bedside who seemed to be talking very fast.
"So these new aliens, what do they look like?" the girl asked.
"It's hard to describe, really, but they look more like us than the skidders" Lourdes said. When she saw Ben walking over, an expression of relief appeared on her face. "I don't know how Anne talked you into this, but thanks, we're just really busy today." She turned to the girl. "Okay, Denny, this is Ben, and he's going to tell you everything you want to know."
Ben frowned as he looked at Lourdes. Everything?
"So here's something I don't get" Denny said, mere seconds after Lourdes' departure, "how exactly can these new aliens speak English?"
Ben paused. "Well I'm not sure, but my dad says that they have this collar around their neck that glows purple. And that's some sort of translator."
"But that just explains how they can understand us, not how their alien vocal chords can make it sound like they're speaking perfect English."
Ben sat down on the edge of the bed as he thought for a second. "Well it can work both ways, actually. Look, have you ever seen an episode of Doctor Who?"
"Doctor what?" Denny asked, frowning.
Ben looked appalled. "You're serious? You've never seen one?"
"Well we didn't really have a TV after my little sister threw her Easy-Bake Oven at the screen." She paused. "Long story. Anyway, you were saying something about some surgeon or another?"
"Doctor. But he's not actually a doctor, he's a time traveler."
Denny looked at him with a frown. "Are you pulling my leg here?"
"I swear I'm not. So this guy – his time machine has the power to translate, right? But it also makes you sound like you're speaking the native language whenever you're on a foreign planet. Even though you're just speaking English."
"So you think these new aliens are actually speaking whatever their native language is, but it just ends up sounding like English because of the collar they have on?"
Ben could tell he was losing his credibility in her eyes. "Well, it's just a theory..."
"Gotta say, you've got some crazy tastes in TV shows. I mean come on, a doctor who travels through space but isn't a doctor?"
"If you think that's crazy, then it's safe to say you've never read manga before" Ben said, laughing.
"Well I read my dad's entire comic book collection, and you can't tell me manga can be more interesting than that."
Ben looked at her with awe. "Oh, I have so much to teach you."
7 months later...
"Dad! Anne's having the baby, Now!"
Tom hadn't even realized he had started running until Manchester appeared in front of him.
"Tom, I think I've done it."
"Done what, Arthur?"
"Narrowed the list down to a dozen possible suspects. Now you're not gonna believe it-"
"I can't talk right now" Tom said, still bewildered by the news, "Anne's having the baby!"
"Oh" Manchester said, Oh! It can wait. It can wait."
Manchester felt a bit disappointed that he had to wait until he had to share his good news, but he figured a few more hours couldn't be that bad.
He retreated back to his office to look over the list again, hoping he'd be able to knock off a few more names. He didn't even realize two hours had passed until he heard a few footsteps outside his office. The door opened soon after and she walked in.
"Oh, I didn't even hear you come in" Manchester said, "Is it that time already?" He didn't remember if this was the time he had promised Weaver he'd talk to her.
The man froze when he saw that a gun was now pointed at him. "So it's you...?"
Manchester was quickly knocked back, a gaping hole now where his chest used to be.
"I'm really sorry" Jeannie said in a soft voice, "but they said they'd take Diego again if I didn't help them..."