Hi readers! I'm back again with yet another fanfic! And I would just like to say before we begin, I've had what some might call 'fun' coming up with this story. I went into it with a few little tidbits of ideas, and then had to pull something together out of them.
As for HERO… still not sure what to do with that. I just haven't been interested in continuing it… We'll see what happens when summer gets here. Fingers crossed that I'll actually find some inspiration.
Now, a little about this story. I debated for a long time about making my next story a sequel to ALL I EVER WANTED, and I have a decent idea for that. But after some time of going over that idea, I wasn't sure if I liked it. So keep on the look out for that one in the future!
I had a hard time finding a song name to use as a title for this one. So in the end, the song is by Avril Leveign,(please forgive spelling), but the song has nothing to do with the story except for the title. Yeah.
So, without any further babbling on my part, I give you the first chapter of Contagious!
P.S. Disclaimer: I do not own the MBC. All I own are original characters.
Danny's POV
Okay, something is definitely wrong here, I thought. Usually, this is something that I would say out loud, but I really don't know if that's the best idea right now. A few minutes ago, the alarm that signals an alien attack went off. Naturally, the rest of the MBC and I ran to see what the problem was. But by the time we got to the source of the signal, nothing was there. Nothing was even showing up on the A-scan. But the alarm hadn't deactivated yet.
"This doesn't make any sense," Cathy whispered from about two feet behind me. I could tell that she was looking to what was my right by the way her voice echoed around the four of us. We were walking through a nearly pitch dark, abandoned factory on the edge of Single Town. For some odd reason, whoever built this place has decided that windows were a terrible idea. The only reason that the building wasn't completely submerged in darkness was the emergency lights shining here and there. Once again, something is terribly wrong here.
"No, it actually makes some sense if you think about it," I said in a voice equally as quiet as Cathy's. "It's hiding from us. It knows that we know that it's in here somewhere. But it wants to play with us a little bit. What's the fun in jumping on the enemy as soon as they enter your hideout?"
"Well, the enemy sure would be less freaked out if they did that," Cathy replied honestly. And she was right. Even I was freaked at this point.
"So how long do you think this little 'game' will last," Sam asked, emphasizing the word 'game'.
"Until the alien gets tired I guess," Chris answered.
"Or until we're right where it wants us," I offered another answer, trying to sound like one of those creepy dudes from the horror films.
"Danny! Don't do that!" Cathy cried quietly. "We're already scared enough as it is!" And that's when we heard the first noise. It wasn't a normal everyday noise either. It sounded like nails scraping a chalkboard.
"I think our game is coming to a close," Chris said so quietly that I wasn't even sure that he'd spoken at all. Another nails on a chalkboard noise sounded, closer this time.
"It's too dark in here! We'll never be able to fight what we can't see!" Cathy exclaimed, trying really hard to keep her voice down. I honestly didn't see the point in keeping our voices down anymore. It already knew where we were. What was the point in trying to be sneaky?
"We'll be fine. We've got the emergency lights," Sam replied, pointing to the wall where one of the lights was glowing bright. It was a small light, but at least it was something. I could hear a small hint of fear behind her words. Gosh, why were we all so afraid of this alien? We'd never been this scared to fight anything in the past. Why was this one any different?
The chalkboard noise sounded again and with it came a low growl. Both were dangerously close.
"Any guesses on what our friend's gonna look like?" I asked, trying to hide the fact that I was literally scared out of my mind.
"Why don't you ask them yourself!" Chris exclaimed, pointing up to one of the pipes running along the ceiling of the factory. Sitting between the pipe and the ceiling was a dark figure, hidden by the shadows. Actually, I don't think it was actually sitting. It was in more of a crouched position, just waiting to jump down on us.
And when would be the best time to jump on us? Hmmm, how about right now?
"Shoot it!" Sam cried as the creature hurled itself from its hiding spot and landed in the middle of our little circle. In all honesty, it looked like a werewolf. (And not the Twilight kind! More like the one from Harry Potter. Only with black fur and less of a hunch in its back.)
"What is it?" I asked, while pulling out my blaster.
"We'll look it up later," Chris replied, testing a freeze ray on the beast. No such luck. The creature just gave an agitated roar. I guess its fur was weather resistant.
"Yeah. But for right now, just attack it before it attacks you!" Sam cried, backing away from the creature while shooting it with her blaster. The creature growled again as it was hit with the blasts. It kept moving its gaze around to whomever had shot it last. And did that thing ever have creepy eyes. Those solid red orbs were that kind that you would imagine staring at you from your closet at night! (And that's why my closet door is staying closed every night from now on!)
"I don't think it's working!" Cathy called after a few minutes. "It just looks confused and a little more than really angry!"
"Don't stop!" Sam instructed. "We'll weaken it eventually!"
Just then, the creature leapt out of our circle over Sam's head and ran at the small box that held some type of controls. It slashed the box open, effectively putting out every single source of light in the area. I guess that controlled the emergency lights. Shoot.
"You can't fight what you can't see," an eerie voice that had to belong to the creature said, sounding pretty pleased with itself. I guessed it must have heard Cathy earlier. And judging by the audible gasp from Cathy's general direction, she must have realized that it had heard her too.
"Who are you and why are you here?" I heard Sam cry in the darkness.
"Vasilis is Vasilis' name," the creature replied in third person. Oh great, he's one of those aliens. "And Vasilis is here as a scout for his master."
"Who's your master?" Sam asked.
"Why should Vasilis tell you that? You are the enemy," Vasilis growled. "You are nothing but pieces in master's game. Pieces in Vasilis' game now!" I really don't like where this is going. Every time the wolf man spoke, his voice echoed from a new position. That last comment was dangerously close to my left shoulder.
"Don't count on it," Cathy spoke up, trying very hard to hide her fear.
"Are you not the one that said that you couldn't fight what you couldn't see?" Vasilis said with a tone that could only mean that he was about to pull something on us. And sure enough, within a minute, all four of us were on the floor, defenseless.
"How did you…" Chris began asking.
"Vasilis is a nocturnal creature," Vasilis answered before Chris had actually asked the question. "And now Vasilis can call master and hand the enemy over to master."
"As I said before, don't count on it," Cathy said, actual confidence in her voice this time. I don't actually know what happened, but I heard Vasilis scream, then growl, and then Cathy yelled: "RUN!"
So naturally, Sam, Chris, and I got up and ran in the direction that we heard Cathy's footsteps running. Vasilis roared behind us and it wasn't long until we heard the sound of him chasing after us. And chances were good that he was fast.
"Chris, get the vacuvator ready. I think that's our only option left," Sam instructed.
"Got it," Chris replied.
"We're almost out!" Cathy cried. And she was right; I could see the exit and the pale light of the afternoon, which had been drearily cloudy all day. It was just enough light for Chris to be able to get a clear shot of our little 'friend.'
"Cathy, Danny, just get outside. I'm coming with you. Chris, as soon as you get outside, turn around and shoot," Sam instructed. Man, she is so good at coming up with plans when we really need her to. You can always count on Sam when you need help. Always.
"Got it," the three of us replied as we finally reached the doorway. Cathy, Sam, and I raced out and onto the grassy field in front of the factory. Chris turned around, ready to pull the trigger on the vacuvator, but Vasilis was closer behind us than we'd predicted.
"NO! YOU WILL NOT GET AWAY!" Vasilis roared as he bounded out of the door, leaping into the air. He landed somewhere in between Chris and the three of us. "Master wants you! So master will have you!"
"Not today," Chris said and shot the vacuvator at Vasilis. A blue beam of light caught the creature and pulled him into the little container.
"Well that was close," I said. "I wonder who this 'master' is."
"There's only one way to find out," Sam said in reply, watching intently as the wolf creature beat against the glass of the container, trying to escape. "Let's do some background research on our little friend Vasilis here and see what we can find."
"Good plan," Cathy began, but was cut off by her v-com beeping angrily. All four of us stared at each other. Two missions in one night were rare. Two missions in the same night right in a row were just downright bizarre. Something was totally, way not right here.
"Signal's coming from the woods," Chris broke the silence, checking the readings on his v-com. "We should probably…"
"Yeah," Sam cut in, nodding her head. "Come one, guys. We can't let one little stunt freak us out. We have to go investigate that signal."
"Right!" Cathy agreed. "Nothing can stop us!" As if on cue, a fat raindrop landed right on her nose, causing the blonde to flinch. She looked up at the sky as another drop hit her cheek, and more started to fly at the rest of us. The clouds had started to grow darker, more threatening. Cathy looked back around. "Like I said, nothing can stop us! That includes rain!" In response, thunder rumbled from the sky.
"Come on guys. Let's just get over there and bust us an alien before Cathy gets us all struck by lightning," I said in reply. Chris and Sam both laughed as Cathy stuck her tongue out at me as I turned to start running for the forest.
As I ran, I realized that something was making my ankle sting. Really bad. I looked down to see a small cut exactly where the stinging was coming from. I must have cut it when Vasilis pushed me to the ground inside the factory. Or maybe while we were running out of the factory.
The rain started to pick up speed as we raced around the edge of town to the forest, so we wouldn't get caught in our MBC gear. There wasn't any point in changing as we transitioned between missions. As the trees came clearly into view, I could already see out target. He was really hard to miss: neon green skin with a yellow overcoat and some weird contraption on his head that was all sorts of colors. Thank goodness it had started raining, otherwise we probably would've run into civilian trouble.
"Is that our guy?" I asked, even though I already knew the answer.
"Yep," Chris answered, bringing the a-scan down. "Something tells me this isn't going to be anything like our last encounter."
"HUMANS OF EARTH, ATTENTION!" the alien called, his voice slightly drowned out by the wind that had joined the rain. "TO TAKE OVER YOUR PLANET, I AM NOT HERE FOR. TO RULE OVER YOU ALL, INSTEAD AM I HERE FOR!"
"Is it me, or is he using really odd word placement?" Cathy asked in a whisper as we approached the alien, blasters on standby. He smiled when he saw us. That didn't usually happen. Yet again, something was definitely off.
"Earth humans, greetings," he said, his orange irises flitting between the four of us. "Care to listen to my plan, do you?" We all exchanged a look. We could take this guy down in our sleep. Chris got out the vacuvator again.
"Sure, go for it," Sam said. The alien beamed and started twitching his fingers around in excitement.
"Take over the Earth, my master said. My mission is that. For master, I shall take over Earth," he began, nodding seriously. "To the Earth humans, I must deliver the message. This is my job, delivering messages at home. A hypnotist I am. And I shall take over the Earth, for master, with my hypno…" I grabbed the vacuvator from Chris and sucked the guy away.
"Danny!" Sam exclaimed.
"Oh come on! You can't honestly say that you wanted to hear anymore of his little spiel," I replied.
"Actually I did, because if you noticed, which you obviously didn't, he was also talking about a master like Vasilis was," Sam pointed out.
"Oh," was all I could think of to say. And now I felt stupid. Way to go, Jackson.
"It's alright, Danny. We'll try to look him up later when we look Vasilis up," Chris said in response. "There can't be too many intergalactic hypnotists floating around out there who are intent on taking over planets."
"You'd be surprised," Cathy commented, starting to walk back towards town. The rest of us followed after her. This second mission hadn't taken us very long, but it had been just long enough for the day to officially transition to twilight. The few rays of sun that had been desperately trying to fight through the clouds had given way to night, disguising the rain clouds with its darkness. But we all knew the clouds were still there; the rain itself hadn't disappeared.
Luckily, we were pretty close to the clubhouse.
Rushing inside, Sam disappeared to contain the two glass orbs with the villains inside as Chris started up the super computer to start doing some research on our little friends. The sting returned to my ankle and I moved over to the hover table, changing back into my real clothes.
Examining my ankle, I found a decent sized cut. It wasn't bleeding anymore, but it had been and had left a small trail of dried blood down my foot. It stung much more than a simply cut should have.
"Danny, what happened?" Cathy's voice asked. I looked up to find her watching my, worry evident in her crystal blue orbs as she stared at the injury.
"Oh this? Nothing but a battle scar," I shrugged it off. "I think I got it when Vasilis pushed us down in the factory, and I think something on the floor got into it because it really stings."
"Oh no!" the alien girl exclaimed, kneeling down to examine my injury closer. "Will you be okay?" I laughed.
"I'll be fine, Cath. It's just a little cut," I said reassuringly, smiling at her concern. "It's not gonna kill me." She smiled back at my joke.
"Ok, looks like our hypnotist goes by the name of Torpor, and he comes from the planet Rorin 5 where they actually do speak in that weird inverted English that he was speaking earlier," Chris said back to us, his eyes still focused on the screen. "I can't find anything about his line of work, other than the fact that he is a hypnotist. It says nothing about employers."
"Try looking up Vasilis," Sam suggested as she walked out of the containment room and moved closer to the blunette, whose fingers started flying over the keyboard again. Cathy and I made our way over to them as well, just as interested in learning more about the creepy alien. In a matter of seconds, the screen was filled with a digital file on the wolf like creature, picture and all.
"Anyone see anything about employment?" Sam asked, scanning the document closely.
"Nope," Chris replied.
"Nothing," Cathy shook her head.
"Surprisingly, I don't see anything either," I added sarcastically.
"Three strikes, and we're out," Sam sighed, placing her hands on her hips.
"Hey, don't get discouraged. If they're related in any way, I'm sure someone else will show up within a day or two trying to take over the earth for their master," Chris responded, turning away from the screen to face us. "If there is a master, he'll be mad that we foiled his first two scouts and definitely send more. It's natural evildoer protocol."
"I'd listen to him, he's good about these things," I added, nodding my head as though this were a very serious matter. Sam rolled her eyes at me and did her best not to laugh.
"All right, I'll believe you this time," she said. "And if you say that there's nothing more to do tonight, then…"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
We all locked eyes as the signal went off again for the third time that night.
"You have got to be kidding me," I said with disbelief, staring up at the ceiling. "Again?!"
"Looks like it," Sam sighed, "Where to, Chris?"
"We've got another one at the old factory," the blunette answered, typing a mile a minute on the super computer. "And by the looks of it, there's more than one."
"Then let's get moving," Sam instructed, moving towards the tunnel to the pods. A large boom of thunder rumbled overheard. "And bring your umbrellas. We're gonna get wet."
So, what do we think? Hopefully you readers liked it. I know that nothing really happened, but I promise that it's just setting up the rest of the story. I enjoy reading your thoughts, so please review. No flames, please. Constructive criticism is always welcome!
Just a little side note, language arts class has made me very sensitive to symbolism and foreshadowing this year. Just be aware of the little things…
Read on! =)