Alien vs. Watchtower
Rating: PG-13/T
Genre: Humor/Hurt/Comfort
Summary: For the hc_bingo challenge, prompt "Tentacles". Chloe was going to kill Tess for bringing that box in, and she was going to kill Oliver for bringing her to that movie.
Author's Note: …Just saw this movie a little while back, and while I didn't love it, I'm kind of glad I did. It certainly gave me ideas for the otherwise elusive 'Tentacles' prompt.
Disclaimer: I don't own Smallville. It belongs to Jerry Siegal, Joe Shuster and the CW. I also don't own the movie referenced here; it belongs to Ridley Scott.
()()
"YOU and your ALIEN TECHNOLOGY!"
Chloe was desperate enough that, with a cringe, she yanked the nearest computer monitor away from the cluster of nine behind her and hurled it at the… Thing on the floor.
Tess had both legs pulled up onto the table across from Chloe, and the redhead shot her an ugly look. "I didn't say it was alien technology, I said that it was a cube with what I suspected was extraterrestrial script on it. And lest we forget, you're the one that opened it, Pandora!"
Chloe cursed silently, but Tess had a point: She was the one who had cracked it open to see if there was anything inside once she noticed that it was a container. But damn it, Tess was the one who'd found it, and Tess was the one who had brought it to the Watchtower in the first place, and Tess was the one who had a habit of screwing around with alien technology!
The creature on the floor looked like a starfish, but was a pale, sickly pinkish thing with long tentacles. There was something about it that seemed dimly, vaguely familiar, but Chloe couldn't place where she had seen it- and for the moment, she was a little too preoccupied to dedicate too much thought to it. Fortunately, the starfish seemed to be having some trouble deciding which woman it should go after, and so its tentacles never got close enough to reach Chloe, on the table housing the computer monitors, or Tess, on the bare table some three or four feet away.
"Shoot it!"
"My gun is in my jacket!"
"You don't have one strapped to your thigh or something, Miss Secret Agent?" Tess gave a nasally, sarcastic laugh. One of the tentacles stretched just high enough to clear the table-top, and Chloe was immediately forced to rip another monitor down and whack it away. It made a sort of squealing noise and recoiled.
Tess braced herself on the table and swung her legs beneath her, like she meant to stand up, and edged to the opposite side of the table, eyeing her jacket on the arm of the couch some distance away. "I'll try to make a break for it."
"Hey!" Chloe banged on the tabletop, trying to draw the starfish's attention. It didn't seem to have any noticeable eyes, and so all they could go off of was its body-language. When Chloe hit the table, it seemed to freeze for a moment, and Tess took that as her cue to go.
Wrong move. Wrong, wrong, wrong move.
With a speed and flexibility they hadn't seen before, the creature lunged forward, shooting out a tentacle and wrapping it around Tess's calf. It dragged her back, and for a moment Tess seemed only to be startled by the assault, kicking awkwardly at the starfish and trying to pry the offending limb off of her leg.
And then she screamed.
The scream was followed by a loud, ugly cracking sound, and Chloe realized that it had broken Tess's leg. Her first instinct was to maybe try and jump onto the starfish in the hopes that she might stun it, but it had six other perfectly functional tentacles and the last thing they needed was for them both to get caught.
Chloe looked around frantically for something more effective than a computer monitor, and her eyes landed on the fire extinguisher on the wall to her right, some six feet away. The starfish was currently preoccupied with keeping Tess, and maybe it wouldn't be able to chase her, and she really had to do something before it ripped Tess's leg off entirely-
She went for it. Chloe scuttled along the tabletop as long as she could before jumping off and making a dash for the extinguisher. And as luck would have it, the starfish may have had some limb-strength, but it wasn't strong enough to lunge the way it had before as it was held down by Tess this time. Chloe ripped the extinguisher off the ground (briefly and insanely noting that it was covered in dust and desperately needed a good cleaning), and whipped around to face the starfish again.
Just in time, too: It must have been contented with the fact that Tess was, for the moment, immobile, because it was starting to loosen its grip on her leg in favor of coming after the blonde. Chloe fumbled with the hose until she'd pulled it loose from the body of the extinguisher, and then she pointed and fired.
For one, awful moment, she thought that it wasn't having an effect, because the tentacles continued to flail and the creature didn't seem to be withdrawing. But then, to Chloe's immense relief (and mild horror) the starfish let out a sort of high-keening noise and frantically started to slide backwards, away from the chemical foam. Chloe tried to keep her distance, not wanting to get close enough to get caught by a swinging tentacle and dragged down.
She chanced a glance to the side and saw that Tess seemed to be in shock, not really moving except for the frantic heaving of her chest. It looked like she was watching Chloe push the starfish back, but her gaze was fairly unfocused.
Chloe drove the starfish towards the bathroom near the main doors, praying that the extinguisher didn't run out of foam. In a stroke of particularly good fortune, the starfish backed cleanly into the bathroom and even tried to hide behind the toilet as she kept the stream going for another second, another, another-
Chloe slammed the door shut, locked it, and then bolted to the couch and gave thanks for the fact that it was on wheels, shoving it until it completely blocked the bathroom door and locking the wheels so that, hopefully, it wouldn't be moved so easily once the creature inevitably started struggling to get out. Then she backed away from the door, thought never taking her eyes off it.
For a moment, there was silence. The starfish made not a peep. Chloe wondered if maybe the chemicals from the extinguisher had done more damage than she'd thought. Then, slowly, she sat down on the floor before the adrenaline could wear off.
"I thought the phrase was 'kill it with fire'." Tess finally groaned, and she looked like she was going to great lengths to not move at all. Her leg was not visibly broken, at least from what Chloe could see, but damn it, she'd heard that snapping.
"That's Clark's shtick."
"Then call Clark." Tess advised.
"I'm calling everyone."
()()
"I don't know what it is, but it draws off of what you're thinking about."
"What makes you say that?"
Chloe gave Oliver a dirty look. "I have one word for you, Oliver. One word. Prometheus."
He stared at her for a long moment, turned to look back at the monitor where the screen was frozen on an image of the struggle with the starfish-creature (That door was not opening until Clark and John could get there), and then it clicked. "Oh, okay. I get it. I remember now."
"Care to enlighten the rest of us?" Tess was still on the floor, propped up on her elbows and- understandably- grumpy upon Oliver's arrival, given that nearly having their tibia and fibula crushed to a fine powder less than an hour beforehand tended to put most people into a bad mood. She was only slightly mollified by Emil's appearance shortly after, and he was currently in the process of assessing her leg.
"It's probably broken," He sighed before Chloe could respond. "We'll need to get you up to the medical center for some x-rays before I can conclude how badly. Would you like to be unconscious for that?" Moving her without something would probably be too painful.
"Please." Emil went up the stairs to get the anesthetic, and Tess laid back onto the couch pillow Chloe had supplied her with, crossed her arms and looked at the pair, eyebrow cocked. "Go on. I want to hear this while I'm still conscious."
"When I opened that box, the script on it briefly reminded me of the…" She waved her hand vaguely. "…Alien jibber-jabber we saw in the movie the other night. Briefly. And when I opened it, we had a regular little xenomorph on our hands."
"I thought the big-headed things were the xenomorphs." Tess inquired.
"This thing gives birth to the xenomorphs."
"How the hell does that work?"
"I don't know, there's a reason the movie's not getting A-ratings!"
"Okay!" Oliver interrupted before his wife and ex-girlfriend could start bickering again. "So, you think the box-thing reads what's on your mind and makes it come to life when you open the box?"
"Basically."
"So…"
Chloe, Tess and the returned Emil all stopped when they heard That Voice and saw That Look. "No." Emil said with uncharacteristic sharpness before sitting down next to Tess again and prepping the syringe. "Whatever you're thinking, no."
"I was just thinking-"
"Oliver," Chloe's voice was full of dread and warning.
"Thinking isn't always your strong point," Tess added, wincing as Emil slipped the needle into the skin of her arm. But Oliver had already scooped up the box off the table and was tossing it between his hands.
"-I'm just saying, if the box works on that principle, then I should be able to think of something perfectly harmless and have it come to life, right?"
"…Unless it's one of those 'Be careful what you wish for' things where no matter how innocent the wish is, it always turns out bad." Chloe pointed out, trying to snatch the box from her husband and failing.
"Oh God, knock me out now before he opens it." Tess groaned. Emil grimaced and patted her hand.
Chloe had a bad, bad feeling. "Oliver, seriously, don't-" But he did. Oliver popped open the box, and-
A puppy.
A small, brown lab-mix appeared on the floor, head tilted to the side. Chloe, Tess and Emil all heaved a sigh of relief, and Oliver smiled. "See? I thought about a puppy, and I got a puppy. No problem."
The puppy made a slight whining noise.
And then it growled and opened its mouth, revealing several rows of sharp teeth. Everyone's eyes widened.
"Crap."
-End