To Butterfly: I've wanted to play around with these kinds of horror/suspense elements with an alien story since introducing the concept of aliens in "Running out of Time."
To yellow 14: Things should become a little less ambiguous… but perhaps not in this chapter!
Étienne stretched his neck in both directions until he heard a satisfying crack. He and his new alien "friend" had spent almost the entire day lying prone on the flat roof of an apartment building across from the Champs de Mars, waiting for something to happen. He sighed. When Victor had insisted that he alone had the best skill set to help him stop this Shunjar alien's plan to contact the rest of his people, Étienne had hoped the skills he had in mind were his ability to think through an entire situation and see the solution faster than anyone else. Or perhaps his ability to hit a moving target from more than five kilometers away. Or even his abilities in hand-to-hand combat – both armed and unarmed he had been one of the most adept fighters in his unit.
Honestly, his sniper's ability to lie perfectly still for days at a time under a blanket without losing his mind due to boredom while waiting for something interesting to happen was not the top of the list…
For the fifth time that day, Étienne began another game of mental chess against himself. Next to him, Victor fidgeted restlessly while gnawing on a piece of beef jerky. "You know that stuff will just make you thirsty, right?" Étienne asked, not taking his eyes off his spotter's scope. The sun was just starting to dip over the horizon behind them. He frowned as black lost its first pawn: the shifting sun might silhouette them from just the wrong angle if the heroes didn't arrive soon.
"Sorry I don't have your ability to lie still," the alien retorted, flaring his nostrils in annoyance. "Are you certain this is where they will come?" he asked, holding the binoculars up to his eyes and turning them vertical so he could look through a single lens. "After all–"
Victor fell silent instantly and Étienne smirked as a glowing white portal appeared in the air at the base of the Eiffel Tower near the support leg closest to them. "As if they would have gone anywhere else," he scoffed. "Tallest structure in Paris? Made entirely of metal? Built like a giant antenna?"
Victor dipped his head and let out a high-pitched cackle. "This is why I needed you for this job!"
"Back when Hawk Moth was a thing, it seemed like half his Akumas went after this stupid tower for some reason. The Lynchpin's messed with it a time or two, also. Why shouldn't an alien invasion start at a park named for the god of war?" Étienne set the spotter's scope aside and carefully switched to his rifle, adjusting the scope a tick to account for distance and wind. He watched through the scope as Pegasus, Rena Rouge, and the same tall greenish-brown reptilian alien he had encountered the night before emerged from the portal. Rena Rouge leaned casually against the base of the tower, watching the alien carefully through slightly-narrowed eyes. Pegasus dropped a large metal box to the ground and placed a device a little larger than a lunchbox on top of it. He passed two wires from the second device to the robot hovering next to his head. The robot rose ten meters into the air and attached the wires to the tower. Pegasus fiddled with a few levers, altering the direction of the two laser emitters on the top of the device. "You know, I could just shoot the green bastard right now," Étienne pointed out, fixing his crosshairs over the alien's forehead, his finger gently brushing the trigger.
"As tempting as that is, it would be unwise," Victor warned, shaking his head. "Killing him will not show the Heroes that he was using them; for as noble-intentioned as they appear to be, they may choose to activate his device all the same so his people can claim the body. We need to stick to the plan."
Étienne sighed as Pegasus removed a rectangular object from the top of the device and handed it to the alien. Pegasus pressed a button on the side of his device, and Étienne fired twice in quick succession.
"Hit!" Victor whooped, slamming his fist on the roof.
The other alien dropped the smoking communicator to the ground, shaking its hand in discomfort and spinning around wildly to look for the source of the energy pulse. Étienne allowed himself to relax slightly as he moved his scope to check on the two Heroes. Pegasus kicked the destroyed communicator device away and withdrew the horseshoe from his back before kneeling next to the transmitter. Rena Rouge, however, was looking straight at Étienne, staring at him through his scope. "They know we're here," he warned quietly as she and the alien ran in their direction.
"If we are really going to stop them, we need to get closer," Victor told him. The alien grabbed the roof edge, levered himself over, and dropped the three stories to the ground, coiling his legs and rolling as he landed to cushion the fall.
Étienne dropped his rifle and jumped off the roof to follow him, allowing his climbing rope to move freely as he rappelled to the ground. On landing he released the quick-harness from his belt and raced across the street after the alien.
Rena Rouge and the green alien met them at the very edge of the Champs de Mars. Rena Rouge ran straight to Étienne, jumping and aiming a kick at his head the moment she was close enough. Étienne dove forward and rolled under her flying kick, allowing her to sail over his head. He sprang to his feet and raised his arms in front of his face to block her follow-up punch before dropping one arm to his side to counter her kick – she wasn't putting all her effort into the fight just yet, he noticed idly. Her flute whipped around at his head, and he leaned to one side, allowing it to swing past him. A few meters away, the green alien pounced on Victor with a roar, his long talons extended and clutching at Victor's side. Victor sidestepped around the other alien but stumbled over the other's feet, falling to the ground and rolling back to his feet just in time to avoid being caught in the talons on the green alien's feet.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" demanded Rena Rouge, dropping to the ground and sweeping Étienne's feet out from under him.
"What do you think I'm doing, Foxy?" he retorted, jumping over her leg and springing back away from her. He drew his baton and flicked it out to full length just in time to parry her swinging flute, redirecting it into the ground. He lay the baton along his forearm to block her next punch, ducked the follow-up, and slapped her side with the baton. "I'm trying to stop you! You're making a mistake here!"
"Says the psychopath who just committed mass murder right in front of me yesterday!" She parried his baton, stepped inside his guard, and punched him in the stomach. He gasped as the air was forced from his lungs. "Who's even now working with an alien murderer! One who may be eating people! But maybe I should have figured you'd team up with him: murderers travel in herds, I guess. So you'll forgive me if I'm not inclined to take your word for it!"
Étienne stumbled back a pace and groaned. "What the hell are you talking about? Are you seriously going to contact aliens just because some other alien you met last night told you to do it?" he demanded.
"Hypocritical much?" she scoffed, spinning into a double-kick aimed at his head. He ducked the first and blocked the second with his baton, pushing her away from him to the ground. She landed in front of him with her fists raised. "After all, it looks like you joined forces with a different alien since then!"
Étienne shrugged. "An alliance of convenience to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Like contacting aliens!"
"Hugo just wants to leave," Rena Rouge insisted. "Taking your friend with him, too, I might add. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner they are both on their way, the better for all involved!"
Their fight had by now moved away from where the two aliens appeared locked together in a wrestling match. Victor, over a head shorter than Hugo, had given ground and was fighting primarily defensively. Hugo had grabbed him by both shoulders, and as Étienne watched he pulled Victor in as if to rip out his throat with his teeth. Victor brought his own arms down on Hugo's arms, breaking his hold, before sinking his teeth into the alien's arm. Hugo let out a roar of pain, and Victor scratched his chest with his claws, slicing through his shirt and drawing blue-green blood. Victor dropped back several paces, raising his arms defensively. Hugo clutched his bleeding chest with one hand, his eyes trained on Victor.
"You can't stop me!" Hugo shouted, advancing on him.
"You can't succeed!" Victor retorted. "Whatever happens, I will stop you!"
"Why?" Hugo scoffed. "We both want the same thing, right? We just want it for slightly-different masters."
Étienne turned back to Rena Rouge. "He's using you!" he shouted, catching her leg with his own and blocking her half-hearted attempt to trip him up. "You're naïve if you think he isn't using you!"
"And you aren't being naïve?" she demanded. "How do you know that your buddy is telling the truth? How do you know he isn't trying to keep them both trapped here for his own purposes? How do you know he isn't what Hugo claims he is: an alien mass murderer who will keep on killing unchecked if we don't stop him?"
Étienne grabbed her arm and leaned in until their faces were centimeters apart. "You need to listen to me!" He yelled, glaring into her eyes.
She swung her arm up and pulled him up off the ground before slamming him down on his back. He let out a startled gasp, staring up into her face. Kneeling over him she ground out, "Why? When have you ever given me a reason to trust you?"
"Look," he wheezed, holding his hands up defensively in front of his face, "I know I've done things I'm not proud of, but the fate of our world is at stake!"