Linilya Elf – You are too funny! I probably deleted your email. A thousand pardons for my blunder! There are an abundance of bad guys in this sequel. I love writing about the bad guys. And yes, get going on your updates.

Laebeth – Thanks so much! I appreciate your compliments. I hope you keep enjoying this because its going to get a lot more exciting…and maybe tragic…don't know yet. But don't worry, I'm not going to kill off Legolas. Or (scary music)…am I? runs away to avoid the snipers

Onhiro – I laughed so hard when I read your review. Yes, why not smoosh them like the bugs that they are? But then again, why didn't the Valar get involved when Sauron was trying to take over? There's a reasonable explanation behind all of it. I just haven't figured it out yet. And afterall, don't we want Legolas to save the day? Oops, don't want to give too much away.

Frodo01228 – Thanks. Is Ariedel going to die, you ask? Hmmm…wouldn't you like to know. There will be deaths, but I can't tell you who…and I promise it will all work out in the end, so don't cry. :o)

Stacey – How sweet. Thanks so much for your compliments. I will endeavor to continue the quality you've come to expect. But if you see my work start to deteriorate, please let me know. My brother will kick the "crap" out of me for you.

Lou – Oh hi, Lou. So when am I gonna see another review from you, my own sibling?

A/N – When I created "Freak", I totally pictured Will Smith as the character. He has both a serious side and a not-so-serious side that lends to the character's distinctiveness. Hope you enjoy reading about him as much as I enjoyed writing him.
Chapter 5 – A Big Favor
Avalon
Earth date: December 14, 2357ad

Dane "Freak" Truman stared at the gargantuan hulk of a man waving him forward, not a scratch on him…But all that was about to change. At least that's what Freak hoped. Behind him, his fellow shipmates yelled out words of encouragement.

"Come on, Freak, you can take him!"

"Rip his head off, Freak!"

"The bigger they are, Freak, the harder they fall!"

"Don't let him castrate you, Freak!"

That last comment had Freak turning his head back. Then he realized his mistake. The last one that spoke wasn't one of his friends, but some knucklehead who was rooting for the other guy. The blow came the minute Freak turned forward again. The hulk grinned, revealing a mouthful of missing teeth, except for three. With the force of the punch, Freak couldn't even get his face to smile back. Shaking his head briefly, Freak swung a right fist and punched the hulk. The hulk flinched for a second. It didn't even phase him, while Freak's fist throbbed violently. He cried out silently and started hopping up and down, alternating from one foot to the other, shaking his fist to make the pain go away.

The crowd standing around the dance floor pushed forward. Some cheered him on, while others booed. Bets were tossed around as to who would be left standing. The odds were definitely against Freak. Even though Freak was six foot two inches tall and his frame made of solid, rock-hard muscle, the hulk he fought was twice as wide. The only thing Freak had going for him was that the hulk was also twice as stupid.

"Hey!" yelled Freak. "Look there, it's Jennifer Lopez!"

Never mind the fact that the singer/actress had been dead for over three hundred years, the crowd went silent and the hulk turned his head anyway. In fact, so did several others in the crowd. Freak slammed his boot into the hulk's knee and followed up with a left hook into his fleshy gut. When the hulk folded over, Freak sent his knee slamming into the fat face, probably knocking out his remaining three teeth.

The hulk fell backward with such force that the floor actually shook. The crowd went wild. Some were happy, some were pissed. Freak's buddies rushed up, slapping him on the back. He rejoiced with them and allowed them to lead him to the bar for a much-deserved shot of something fierce. Tequila, whiskey, vodka…anything would do. Even the local sake would be satisfying.

A shot of tequila awaited him as he leaned on the bar. He quickly tossed the shot down his throat and accepted the cold, wet rag from the grinning bartender. The right side of his face felt like the size of a football, but when he looked at himself in the mirror behind the bar, his face looked only slightly swollen with a cut on his cheek. He put the cold rag on the cut and quickly realized something. When he glanced back up at the mirror, sure enough he knew that face.

Freak turned around to face his old buddy, Seth Schuyler. "Goddammit." Without even thinking, he grabbed Seth in a rough embrace. "Look at you, man. Where the hell have you been? You fell off the face of the universe." He held Seth at arm's length.

"I fell off the face of the universe?" countered Seth. "I've been looking all over for you, Dane."

Nobody in their right mind dared to call Freak by his given name, if they enjoyed life. But Seth wasn't anybody. Plus he knew Seth was saying it just to push his buttons. "You want something? I'm buying."

"No, I'm all right. Listen, I really gotta talk to you about something."

Freak's crewmates didn't follow as he led Seth to a booth and they sat opposite each other. He continued to hold the cold rag to his cheek, waiting for the blood to stop.

Seth laughed. "I can't believe you're still picking fights in bars."

"Hey, I didn't pick nothing. That King Kong over there was messing with my head. Ain't nobody gonna tell me to go fuck a bug."

Seth laughed again and shook his head. "Same old Freak."

"So what brings you out to the bad part of the neighborhood looking for me, Sky?" Freak had a nickname for absolutely everyone and had even been the one to come up with his own.

"I need a big favor and there's cash in it for you."

"Yeah? How much cash are we talking?"

"Let me tell you about the mission first and then I'll tell you what it pays."

"All right."

"You remember my sister, Crystal?"

Freak grinned. "Do I ever. Man, I wanted to date her and you told me you'd kick my ass if I touched her. So, what is it? Is she interested in me now?"

"No, it's not like that at all. Besides, she's married."

"Ouch, that hurts. You let some other shit take over what should have been my responsibility?"

Seth knew Freak was only joking. She was like a kid sister to him as well. "You know she would have laughed in your face if you asked her."

"Yeah, and rubbed salt in the wounds, too," he said sarcastically, but still in good-nature. "So, is something up with Princess?" That was his nickname for Seth's sister.

"She went on a transmutation mission to SR-682 about a year ago to kill a single alien. Something got screwed up and she had no weapons and no way to communicate back to Gateway. She met some Elf on the planet and got married." Before Freak could ask, Seth held up a hand to stop him. "I'll get to that later. Let me just finish with the relevant shit first. The alien must have had an egg, a queen, because the next thing Crystal knew, there were several hundred aliens running around. Without any weapons, she couldn't dispose of them, but her Elf husband managed to kill the queen. Then Randle Dorian turned up. You remember him, don't you? He translocated to SR-682, found Crystal and together they blew up the hive and the rest of the bugs. Unfortunately, her Elf didn't realize he had been impregnated and she translocated him to Gateway to get the thing removed. Long story short, he was fine, Crystal was fine and they were translocating back to his planet, according to her last transmission to me."

"But she definitely left before Gateway was destroyed," Freak stated rather than asked, hoping that his friend wasn't going to tell him that she didn't make it off.

Seth ran a frustrated hand over his face. "Yeah, I'm hoping she did. Before that she called me from Earth, from Tahiti and told me they were heading back to the Translocation platform on Gateway. I don't know if the station was infested by that time. I just don't fucking know."

Freak made a fist and reached across the table to lightly tap it on Seth's shoulder. "Hey, man, let's just think positive, all right? So, you want me to go to SR-682 and check on her? See if she's fine? You know, you don't have to pay me to do that. I'll do it for free."

"Yeah, I want you to check on her, but that's not the real mission. The real mission involves Weyland-Yutani."

Freak closed his eyes and shook his head. "Dammit, I was really hoping you weren't gonna bring up the fucking Company."

"Before Gateway was infested by the aliens, the director of the station contacted General Burbank and informed him that the queen they extracted from the Elf was able to communicate with him and vice versa."

Freak's jaw dropped. "Communicate? As in, vocally?"

"No, it was telepathically."

Freak leaned back in the booth and placed a hand over his heart with a sigh. "Jeez, you scared me, man. I thought you were gonna tell me these fuckers can talk now."

Seth couldn't stop the smile, despite the seriousness of their conversation. "Yeah, thank God for that, huh? Anyway, somebody at The Company intercepted the transmission and the execs decided they'd resurrect the cloning project started by the late General Perez of the Auriga, thinking it'd be a fabulous idea to clone an impregnated Elf and at the same time use the Elves as hosts for aliens that will have Elf-like qualities. They've set up a base of operations on SR-682."

"Let me guess. A cloned Elf with alien qualities would make a great addition to our military. Is that what that dickhead Defense Secretary thinks?"

"He didn't exactly come out and say it, but I have a feeling he's expecting something like that because he's making all kinds of excuses not to stop Weyland-Yutani's operations. Now General Burbank and I, on the other hand, want to squash those attempts."

"You know, I always liked that General Burbank. A real classy guy."

Seth smiled. "You're not saying that because he's my father-in-law, are you?"

Freak returned the smile. "The thought never crossed my mind."

"I know you've done this sort of thing before, Freak. We want it to look like an accident. Get their systems screwed up and nonfunctional. Don't hurt anybody unless they're asking for it, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I value my life way too much, buddy."

"And if you come across any clones…in whatever stage of growth they're in, I'm gonna leave it up to you to decide what to do with them."

"Understood," he said as he nodded gravely.

"I'll send you some databanks on the research I did on SR-682. The planet watchers did a pretty thorough job, even though the data is over ten Earth years old. That's about two hundred years on their planet. A lot could have happened since then. Maybe not so much for the Elves incidentally, because they're immortal."

"So Princess married an Elf, huh? Are they like making little crackers and cookies inside trees now?"

Seth laughed. "You must have really had some foresight when you came up with that nickname for her because she really is a princess. The Elf she married is the son of a king."

"No kidding!" exclaimed Freak. He had always hoped good things for his buddy's little sister, but he never imagined she'd marry into real royalty.

"Prince Legolas, son of King Thranduil. When Crystal called me, luckily I had the unit on record, so I keep playing it over and over. I memorized all the details she told me. Oh, that brings up an important issue. On SR-682, Crystal's name is not Crystal. It's Ariedel. That's the name of the individual she transmutated to. So that's the name everyone knows her by. But I think Legolas knows the truth because he was on Gateway for awhile."

"Wait a minute. If she transmutated to the planet, what happened to the real Ariedel?"

"From what Crystal told me, Randle Dorian decided he was giving up his womanizing ways and took the real Ariedel down to Earth with him and they're living happily ever after."

"This is a really fucked up story, Sky. I'm about as confused as a fly on a pile of fake bullshit."

"This isn't bullshit, Freak. It's all for real." Seth knew Freak had only made the statement as sarcasm, but truly believed what he was saying. "I assume you still have your ship?"

Freak perked up. "Yeah, she's on dry dock right now, getting provisioned."

"Burbank told me he'd pay the mission leader enough to buy a new B-class ship, if you wanted."

Freak raised his eyebrows. B-class was a much smaller ship than his A-class, but a new B-class was still a lot of money, so he had a rough idea how much the mission would pay him. With that kind of money he could make a bunch of improvements on his ship and provision the hell out of it. "You got yourself a mission leader," he said as he reached across the table to shake Seth's hand. "I just need to make a connection with a temporary addition to my crew, someone I think will be useful in this and I'll be on my way. Is it safe for me to wager that the people of SR-682 have no advanced technology?"

"They have no technology whatsoever. But given the fact that they've had their share of supernatural wonders over the last eight thousand years, I think it's safe to make an appearance without blowing their minds too much. They'll just think you're some kind of God."

Freak chuckled. "Yeah, I'm used to it. I have that affect on the ladies already."

"Maybe they'll address you as Prince Dane," added Seth with his own chuckle. But then the laughter died down and their faces grew serious. "Thanks for doing this, Freak. I owe you big time. If I could go with you, I would. But…"

They clasped hands in a brotherly manner. "Yeah, man. I hear you. I'll take care of everything and I'll check on your sister before I do anything else."

Valinor

The queen flew toward the landmass ahead. She had kept low over the water for the last few miles, skimming her claws over the cool surface. In the darkness she knew no one could see her approach. When she finally reached the surf, she swooped upward to cross over the mountains. With her senses open, she projected her arrival to the alpha. In return the alpha projected his location.

For the last few days, the alpha had been busy with two tasks. One was to build a suitable environment for his future offspring, secreting resin in an underground chamber. The second was to collect hosts. He had over a hundred fixed into the walls. Their cries and pleas were annoying to the drone, but they went unheard. Soon they would be silent, once the eggs began to arrive and hatch.

With the pending arrival of the queen, the alpha drone put the finishing touches in the hive and scrambled out of the chamber to greet her. The sky was dark, but he needed no light to see with. He was able to sense her approach and parted his dripping jaws.

The queen swooped down and landed. After tucking her wings away, she stomped forward and bent to accept the greeting of the drone. Their faces touched and she gurgled her approval of him.

After the introduction was over, the drone led the queen into her new hive. There she selected a place where she could easily produce her eggs. The drone quickly set to work, building a cradle for her to lay in while she secreted the material to make the egg sack.

And the doomed Elves continued to scream as they watched the hideous creatures working. They were unaware of the cruel fate that lay ahead of them.

Valinor
Weyland-Yutani Research Base

Jordan stared open-mouthed at the monitor in front of her. What kind of weird coincidence was at work? The lieutenant and his four men had gone out looking for Elves and reported back that they had found a set of twins. She watched the screen as the two dark-haired Elves fought their captures, yelling in a language she didn't know. From the emotion behind the words, Jordan could only think they were cursing the military men.

Beside Jordan, Dr Leland leaned in and pressed the com button. "Lieutenant, why aren't they unconscious?"

Lieutenant Thomas Train didn't bother to turn in the direction of the camera. "They were heavily sedated and just came out of it a few minutes ago." Train retrieved something from his utility belt and inserted it into what looked like a pistol. He stepped up to one of the Elves being held, stuck the end of the pistol against his neck and pulled the trigger. The Elf instantly went limp. The other Elf cried out in shock and tried to get to his twin. But Train reloaded another injection and rendered the second Elf unconscious. "Okay, take them down below."

Jordan hadn't realized she had been holding her breath until she suddenly released it. She had been unprepared for the reality of the crimes they were all about to commit. All in the name of science. The only saving grace was that once the blood samples had been taken from the impregnated Elves, the embryos would be safely removed from them. There was no need for the Elves to die. But the problem was that they would have knowledge of what happened. Leland said he had it covered, intending to perform a few alterations to erase current events from their memory. But Jordan was still concerned. She wanted nothing to happen to the Elves.

§

Tom Train knew he was being watched. Besides the obvious ones outside the ground floor structure, there were video cameras in every room and every section of the underground base. After all, he had supervised the placement of them, so he knew where each one was located. He also knew what he needed to do to disable them…when that time came to be necessary. His orders, as given to him by Defense Secretary Rohlwing, were simple and in no uncertain terms was Train to deviate from those orders, no matter the circumstances.

He watched as his men placed each of the two Elves into a chamber with an alien egg. There was no need to restrain them in any way. The facehuggers would do their job. It was a rare occurrence that any person could ward off the attack of the crab-like creatures which were extremely powerful. Once a facehugger wrapped its reticulated tail around the throat of their prey, cutting off their air supply and forcing them to open their mouth, it was usually a done deal. With any luck, the two Elves would still be unconscious when the facehuggers hatched.

Train walked to the com unit on the nearby wall and pressed the call button. "They're all set. You want us to hang around and wait?"

"No," came the response from Leland. "You and your men are free to return to your patrol."

Train turned to his men and motioned with his head for them to leave. After they filed out, he checked his watch. In two hours the Elves would be impregnated. Two hours after that the blood would be drawn and the embryos removed. This gave him plenty of time to figure out how he would implement Rohlwing's orders. Once the clones were grown in Leland's special growth chambers, Train wasn't going to have much time to think about how he was going to handle things.

Are there enough sleazy characters so far? I haven't even started yet…just wait. Oh and sorry for the lack of Legolas in this chapter. I'm just trying to set the stage for things to come.