Alrighty, guys and girls! The next chapter is here! I know it took me a little longer than expected, but I wanted to make a few tweaks here and there. Are you ready? Let's begin then, shall we?
Nova
To come unprepared against the guile of alien scum meant certain defeat - a mistake that Markus Kane would not make twice. He'd stared death in the face once already, felt his lungs beaten into pulp, chocked on his own infected blood.
Once was more than enough.
"We're here, Miss Belrose."
Markus brought their dinted rental car (useful for little else than to carry their copious amounts of firearms unnoticed) to an abrupt stop. The thunderous brutality of EDM music reminded him all too clearly of the task ahead. Lusties awaited, on this a busy Friday night. The prodigy had been smart enough to park away from the droves of students lined up by the doors.
It provided a small amount of time for additional preparations.
Audrey left the car in a hurry, having complained one time too many about it smelling like vomit on the way here. "Okay, Mark," the redhead drummed her fingertips against the roof of the compact blue four-door impatiently. "How're we gonna do this shit?"
"Quite simply, I assure you." Markus climbed out from the driver's seat and shut the door, popping the trunk with a press of the car key as he went. He had to act with caution when it came to unloading their 'cargo' of sorts.
"There is side door for staff and performers with little in the way of security. I'm well-known by the management here, so they should let me inside without issue. Once there, we shall look for anything of suspicion."
Yet Audrey's sudden sniggering caught the prodigy by surprise. She shook her head at his idea, wearing an expression of disdain. "Reeeal funny, Richie. What? You think these blue-skinned knife toothed fucks are spiking drinks or something? Get real."
"Then what would you suggest, Audrey? Please, indulge me."
It took a sparked up cigarette and an apparently much needed drag before the primadonna graced him with anything in the way of an answer.
"The alley 'round back. All the sleazy shit happens there. Once saw this guy balls deep in some coked-out skank. The pair of them were leaned up against the dumpster like-"
Markus silenced his comrade with a wave of the hand, at least before she could indulge him in the gory details.
"I can well imagine. There's no need to be so blunt in your recounting of the event."
"Gawd you're so fucking conservative! Ever been laid there, Richie?" Audrey was the first to unzip their large duffle bag of armaments in the trunk of the car, carefully bringing out a switch blade and hiding it away in the left side pocket of her crimson hued dress.
While Mark wouldn't have usually entertained such a crude question with an answer, he felt the need this time. Purely out of irritation.
"Multiple occasions, Miss Belrose. And I'll have you know that there's such a thing as tact. Something in which you are sorely lacking."
"Oh please! Fuck off." Audrey barked with a crooked (equally annoyed) grin. She slipped the simple seven shot handgun from the bag. She strapped it to her leg by way of a small support holster, the sight of the weapon thankfully obscured by the length of her garment.
"I say things how they are. No point in stepping around shit like my rich ass uncle. I swear, that's why you're kind make my blood boil. All his hard work and what'd he get? The idiot got hitched to some gold digging bitch for his troubles."
Miss Belrose was no stranger to wealth? I must admit that I am surprised.
With that, Markus decided to leave well enough alone. Once Audrey was finished getting together the items she needed, he began getting ready also. His coat would work in obscuring at least a pair of sizable handguns from view- both of which he procured with haste from the bag.
"This should be enough for simple information gathering."
Once the trunk was locked up tight, Markus began on his way, sure beyond all else to keep a close eye on Audrey.
"Please stay close," he instructed her sternly, adjusting his sunglasses due to the streetlights.
"Yeah yeah. I got it. Some fuck with tentacles comes at me, pop 'em, right?"
Tonight is going to be long indeed. Mark shook his head.
Regardless of his company, the prodigy could rest assured in the knowledge that he was more than adequately prepared to defend them both, if need be.
Hour after of waiting and Audrey was nowhere to be found. Mike sighed, having wondered more than once if the text message he'd been sent was some kinda practical joke. Maybe somebody had got a hand on his ex's phone and thought It'd be funny to mess around with him?
"What time is it? Feels like I've been here all night."
The musician's concerns became fact once he flashed an eye at his prized watch. Not far from midnight. Yep. He'd been waiting for a while! And he'd knocked back plenty of free drinks (thanks to his ties with the bar staff) since getting here, too. Snapping his top button to cool the excess heat, Mike fanned his face.
This whole thing was beginning to feel like a practical joke. An elaborate one, yeah. But a joke nonetheless. He could've been halfway across town by now, working his vocal chords on stage at one of the many open mic watering holes near the liquor store. But instead, here he was, leaned up against the back door of Lusties like an idiot, watching one of the doormen sneak out for what must've been his third line of white gold tonight.
"No wonder people are going missing," Mike scoffed at the sight. "Security always been a joke in here."
Alone again once the supposed bouncer was done, Mike pushed off - it was about time he spent the start of his weekend doing something worthwhile.
"Even the country music club downtown's better than this."
"Hey... Thought you said you'd wait up for me! Is that any fucking way to treat a lady?"
That shrill bark would've irked most people - but it was special enough to hold Mike's feet to the ground. He swung back to meet with a sea of deep red, frills and lace. Five feet of diva stared him back. Emerald eyes collided with rubies. His chest pulled tight. "It's good to see you again."
Audrey stepped out from the shadows, stubbing out a smoke and flicking it against the concrete.
"That all you got to say, asshole? How about you get over here and give me a fucking hug, huh?"
Mike didn't think twice. And Audrey met him halfway. The two of them collided, wrapped up tight in an embrace. The redhead buried her face against his chest, breathing him in with a contented sigh.
"Been crazy without you," she edged back, locking their eyes together and giving her sassiest smirk. "But now I'm back in town we should celebrate. Wanna get shitfaced?"
Slow down a second there. Maybe it was best to dial things back a notch.
"Hold on, Audrey. You mind telling me where you went? It's been over a month. There're posters all across town with your face on them. Some rich dude even came on local news offering up rewards. Everyone's been worried about you."
Audrey snorted with laughter at the news.
"Fuuuuuck you've gotta be kidding me? No one gives a shit enough about me. 'N that 'guy' you brought up? Prolly my uncle. Useless sack 'a shit he was. Starts giving a damn now cuz he feels bad for leaving me with my dad... Fuck 'em. Fuck all of 'em."
A snarl, bitter and hateful. And Audrey grabbed Mike by the hands. Further into the dark of the alley she took him, and well away from Lusties back door and even further from people.
"Know what?" She giggled - her grip tightened harshly around his shoulders. "Screw the drinks. Know what I want, Pretty Boy?"
Mike's eyes strained in the inky blackness of his surroundings. He shivered as Audrey's lips brushed his ear. This was all happening fast, even to Audrey's admittedly hasty standards. Sometimes she wanted it, and wasn't fond of waiting, but this? It was like she was hungry for it, thirsty even.
The diva's hands went straight for the buttons of his pants, bringing them free with a couple of short snaps.
"I want what you've got..."
A pair of orange orbs flashed in the dark. Audrey's voice twisted inside his head, songlike and distorted. Mike's head spun in circles - something close to horrible, gut-wrenching sea sickness.
And yet
... his blood burned red hot. His lungs filled with the scent of Audrey's purfume, almost as thick as a choking mist.
A beam of light split down the alleyway. Mike winced in discomfort. A low hiss trailed out before him. And in the all revealing bright, the haze of his thoughts washed away, the musician saw the truth.
W-what are you?
Mike froze solid. He would've broken free if a grungy wall wasn't at his back. He couldn't move!
"What am I? How about I show you? Bet you'd love to see the real me. It's gonna get c-raaazy..."
Two orange orbs stared into him, distorted, pulsating and inhuman, with slimy back pupils.
Audrey's physical firm began shifting before his very eyes, so very slowly.
Her usually deep red hair morphed into a stiff, icy white. The shade of her skin flashed through every imaginable tone like some kind of sickly chameleon, until it finally settled on a dark, bloodied orange. Talons split from the flesh of her fingers. And with a disgusting squelching, two insectoid feelers sprouted from her head. They stood on edge upon making contact with the open air.
This 'thing' wearing Audrey's skin, flashed a smile, her pristine teeth bent and broken - a sea of razor sharp, glassy knives. With a single talon she held Mike against the wall, using the other to effortlessly rip away her dress like tissue paper.
Absolute horror stole Mike's ability to suck in a breath. He pulled his head as far from those jagged teeth (glistening with thick silvery saliva) as he could. His entire body pulsed with pain.
"Pretty, don't you think?" The creature snarled with low, frozen laughter. She inched nearer and nearer, lolling out a long leathery tongue and lashing against the buttons of his shirt.
Urgency struck home - or maybe it was instinct. Mike snapped back to the here and now.
G-gotta get this bitch off of me.
It was a struggle to wrestle an arm free, but Mike wasted no time. He squeezed his fist tight and cracked it against the monster's temple, not so much as looking back when he was finally able to get loose. He ran for it, as fast as his feet would carry. The salvation of the street lights was so close.
"Hmmmm... you're not getting away from me." Audrey's imposter cackled. She gave chase with a howl, platform shoes clacked against the dirty ground, getting closer and closer.
Wind kicked up. A red blur sped into of Mike's direct path. It whirled like a tornado, coming to a stop with arms stretched wide, blocking his escape. When the dust cleared, he was face to face with the very thing he'd fought to avoid.
"Nice try," Audrey's loathsome copy come in close, one nerve-wracking step at a time. Mike backed up reflexively, his fists clenched tightly at his sides if the need arose to protect himself. "But I said you wouldn't get away from me... Not when I've been watching you so closely..."
Watching?" The singer felt his back meet yet again with cold stone - a dead end preventing escape. Again came a haunting chorus of clacking heels. The inhuman pulsating orange eyes. The lashing of an alien tongue, slick with spittle.
"Errr yeah... watching."
Mike swung a punch, only to have his hand grabbed in in mid-flight. He yelled out as Not Audrey clamped her hand around his like a vice grip, constricting his fingers to damn near breaking point.
"Don't do that again, or I'll bust every bone in your hand," she warned, releasing Mike's throbbing digits. He quickly went about nursing the pain, again at the mercy of this... creature. He quivered as she burst his bubble of space, rubbing her bare skin against the fabric of his shirt. She pulled his eyes downward by way of yanking his chin, bringing his line of sight in line with her... disgustingly human anatomy.
The alien's petite breasts swelled in coldness of the late night air. She forced Mike to cup one of them with his injured hand, and gave a toothy, wicked grin. Soft. Stomach-churningly soft and firm.
"W-what are you?" Mike asked, his voice cracked under the pressure. "One of Crull's lackeys?"
"Ohhhh Mikey. Mikey. Mikey. Mikey..."
'Audrey' tore away the buttons of Mike's shirt with one of her jagged talons. "You think I answer to someone like him?" She winked, bringing one of her claw-like fingers against his skin with a cracked and crooked smile. "Nah. This here... with you? It's something personal. Something special..."
Personal? Mike squirmed at the very thought of what might've been going through 'Audrey's' head.
"Call me 'Nova'. Ever since Daddy Drell spawned me... I've had so many memories stuffed into my head. People I don't know. Things I've never seen before. 'N at the front of all this shit? You... I keep seeing you over and over. It's enough to drive a girl crazy... So I asked Daddy to help me find you... and now?"
Nova's tongue flopped out of her gaping mouth and crawled up Mike's chest where her finger had been - lapping up the singer's nervous beads of sweat. Her entire naked body quaked in bliss. And, contented, she licked her lips clean.
"I'm going to get what I want. I can't explain why... but there's a fire burning my body inside out. And you're gonna help me with that."
Mike's hand (forcefully) found its way to Nova's behind.
"No..." He refused outright, trying with all he had to shove the 'girl' away, but to little avail. "Don't touch what isn't yours..."
"Fine... Then I'll-"
"Get down..."
A comforting voice from the inky nothingness, but for the vocalist it was almost impossible to find. Especially while he was pinned up like a rat.
'Stun charge activated.'
A painful white flash burned out Mike's vision. He felt the something as cold as ice against his face. The heat of hands crawled over his chest in sharp contrast and the next thing he knew?
Darkness.
"Put your hands where I can see them."
"Gah! You go to hell, bounty hunter!"
Mike forced his eyes open, rewarded with nothing but a grayed haze. He struggled blindly to stand upright, only to stumble and fall to his knees. His ears rang out as a high-pitched beep tore through his sightless shroud. "C-Celeste?"
"Put the Terran down, mutant. He is not your plaything to be tampered with."
"Not gonna happen. He's mine..."
Mike shivered as Nova's tongue crawled across the exposed skin of his back. Blinded, there was nothing he could do to defend himself. He felt her nails stab into his neck. Weakness overtook his body, making him feel heavier and heavier... until he slumped against the concrete.
"Terran? Mike? Mike!"
Celeste's scream bounced off the walls.
"I told you... back off."
Nova's laughter hissed through Mike's skull in a horrifying echo. A sharp jolt of electricity shot through his legs, travelling higher and higher to his lungs. C-can't breathe. Where there should've been panic there was nothing stilness and terror in the melody of his heartbeat.
Thump-Thump. Thump-Thump. Thump... Thump.
Thump... Thump.
A flash of white burned away the world.
"A-Audrey..."
"..."
To be continued...
There you go! Another chapter finished! What do you think might happen next? Thank you as always for reading and please feel free to leave your feedback. As always, keep on supporting Huniepop and Huniecam Studio and I'll see you in the next chapter!