Pizza Is...

Disclamer: I don't own anything, except Morrick.

I love summer nights. The cool heat, the sky...

The sky?

As I sat up on my pool floatie, I saw the sky. For some reason, it didn't look... right. Well, right wasn't the word. Normal... It wasn't normal. Almost directly above me, it was like the road on a hot day. That blurring, sight-bending... strangeness. It looked like an arrowhead. With wings.

I, being the slightly mad creature that I am, threw my arms wide and muttered, "Take me with you," to the strange vessel. The thing was silent, but it moved away from me, gaining altitude as it went. I didn't know whether to feel happy or insulted.

It was close to eleven. I think fell asleep in the pool after dinner. That was stupid, I know. I'm a fourteen year old boy, though, and I can do whatever I want. Yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself to get through the day. I rolled off the float and into the searingly cold water. It woke me instantly. Slicking back my hair - I need to do this, as my hair is very long for a boy - I retrieved the Mountain Dew bottles I'd been playing with. Each was half-filled with sand from different beaches. Normal people keep scrapbooks, I keep sand filled plastic bottles.

Blah, blah. Towel, shower the chlorine off, boxers, bed. Did I leave the tiki torches on? No, you put them out before dinner. Did I leave the stove on, no, no I didn't. Insomnia sucks, yes it does. Talking to oneself in one's head sucks too. Yes, it does. Shut up. Oh, look, a clown.

That ain't no clown. My blue eyes grew wide, and I stared at the thing at my window. I have floor to ceiling windows, which wasn't helping my shock at the... thing. Eight foot ceilings, this thing was having to haunch over to look at me. I couldn't see its eyes, but its mask was pointing dead at me. Its rubbery-looking dreadlocks shifted slightly, with gold bead-things clinking. Full body armor, the little flesh I could see covered in a fishnet-type mesh. It looked like my sister's fishnets... It all looked as if it'd been designed for someone bigger than this creature.

Then I noticed the weapons. A knife at the thigh, a cannon at the shoulder, more blades along the arms, oversized-looking throwing stars (I'd a few of those myself, but I didn't dream of getting at them right then), and a three foot stick-thing. Oh, yay, bop me on the head, no don't. It probably had more weapons on its person, and some of those weapons probably were its person. I eyed the claws apprehensively.

It was examining the window, which was really just a big, clear door out to the deck, pool, etc. I stared at it as it traced the outlines of the door with one claw. Fear held me in its powerful grip, stilling me, widening my eyes, making my breath come in harsh gasps. Desperate, I pinched the skin at my inner elbow, praying for it to be a dream. Needless to say, this was not a dream.

I leapt nearly a foot in the air when the creature slapped both of its hands on the glass, palms to me. There were tattoos on its palms, intricate circles that reminded me of Muslim art. Or was it Hindu? I always used Art History as Nap Time… It pressed its masked face to the glass, and I knew that it was staring at me again. I wasn't about to let an armed alien monster into my home. Did I have a death wish? No, I didn't.

But still, my kinder sensibilities told me it was very rude to not even acknowledge this creature. It deserved at least a maidenly shriek of fear, simply for the outfit. I, being the gentleman that I am, waved and said "'Ello," in a falsely cheery voice.

Now it jumped back about six feet. "Yes, I can talk," I said in my normal voice. "Can you? If you can't, this is going to be a very difficult, if intelligent, conversation." Ah, human vanity.

Seeing its evident shock, I made my voice soft and soothing. "It's alright. If you aren't going to kill me, of maim me, or eat me, I'm not going to do any of that to you. I'll even let you in. Yes, I'll let you in," I said, seeing it's head perk up as if it understood me. "C'mon, you can trust me and I can trust you. We're both civilized sentient beings here, I hope. C'mon," I coaxed gently. I slowly approached the door, waiting for any signs of aggressiveness from the creature to make me leap back. None came. It remained about six or seven feet away, arms at its sides, mask pointing at me.

I unlocked all three of the door's locks, bolts at the top, bottom, and side, and pulled the it open. I faced a creature that was at least a yard taller than me. Well, maybe two and a half feet, but that's still intimidating. This thing was very bulky as far as muscle went, and I didn't see any fat on it. What skin I saw was a cross between beige-ish and light orange-ish, with darker speckles in fetching patterns.

"Er, hello again," I said, feeling decidedly awkward. There was something I needed to know, so I could give the "it" a rest. "I apologize if this seems rude, and it isn't meant that way, but, please, are you male or female?" Doh. And the award for intelligence goes to…

With a guttural, growling voice, it said, "Female." She seemed rather empathetic about that. Oh, good, I'm great with ladies… not. I'm doomed, doomed.

A/N: This being my first, um, effort, please don't grill me too hard. Chapter two will be up soon. Only constructive criticism, please.