So it turned out the aliens weren't all that alien. Even though she knew they were human, Elena still sort of expected them to be frightening. The only thing about any of them that was scary was how they dressed. They all wore black coats and pants with white metal spaulders, boots, and gloves. The two boys were clearly twins, the only difference being that one was built heavily and had fiery red hair, whereas the other was scrawnier and had pink hair.
The girl had darker skin, on Earth she might have been considered black. Elena somehow doubted that aliens cared about skin color. But clearly hair color was different, because usually on Earth black people don't have orange hair.
She waltzed up the walkway of the ship, King Caesar trailing at her feet. It was bigger than she expected, occupying the entire cul-de-sac. It was also more wounded than she thought, with scratches and dents all over.
The humans on the walkway were clearly surprised at how collected Elena was. Here she was, an ordinary girl being dragged into an interplanetary war with monsters made of darkness. She looked like she was made for this, and she knew that she had to act like she was.
She walked right passed the aliens and onto the ship. When they stared at her wordlessly she said, "Well? The Army is going to be here soon, so we outta get going."
The ship walls were curved like the inside of an egg shell. Blue lights traced their way along black lines for some reason. There were three seats lining each wall and two before the controls in the cockpit. King Caesar took a seat on the right. There was a pod shaped elevator that almost certainly led to a bottom floor and a similar pod that looked like it might be some kind of robotic doctor.
The red haired boy and the girl ran toward the controls and the pink haired one stopped at Elena.
"Arm," he commanded.
"Arm?" she asked. It took her a moment to realize that he probably didn't speak any English. He said it again so she extended her arm, Prizmod in hand. He took the Prizmod and started pressing hologram buttons. He placed it on her forearm and a series of hologram hexagons extended, tracing along the shape go her body until her grunge clothes had been replaced by the same armor and coat he wore. The Prizmod was now stuck in a slot on the vambrace of the glove, presumably for easy access later.
"It'll turn into a watch when you need it to," he said. "I'm Jett, by the way. They're Ajax and Talia," he explained as he pointed to his companions.
"So now you speak English?" she asked, teasingly. She wasn't dumb enough not to notice that his words didn't match up with his month's movements. Obviously he was using a translator and obviously he was going to tell her all about it.
"Actually no, I'm speaking Nanairan. I activated the translator in your Prizmod," he explained with a smile.
Elena could feel the ship begin go float. "We have jets incoming," Ajax shouted from the cockpit. "Everyone buckle up."
Jett pulled Elena to the curved wall where he took a seat on the far left, so when Elena sat she was between him and the komainu. The ship was off like a bullet, and before she knew it they were in orbit. It was faster than any roller coaster she had ever been on, and stranger than video game she could play.
"Sorry about that," Jett offered as he unbuckled and stood back up. "He really likes speed."
Elena stayed in her seat, just in case Ajax decided to go fast again. "So are you all siblings?"
"Ajax is my twin brother. Talia is from another star system entirely."
"And how many star systems are there?" Elena asked. She needed as much information as possible before she could commit to helping these people.
"Well there's Nanairo where Ajax and I are from. Talia is from Lindor. Kaio is a strong ally, they actually invented Cosmolink technology. And then Kagero is being repopulated. Plus there's Hyoga, an orphan planet."
"Orphan planet? What happened to its star?"
He was going to speak, but then held his tongue. He extended a hand and a hologram appeared. The words were all in Nanairan, and as he pressed each one the image changed. When it was finished it showed a two planets and a star. "This planet here is Hyoga. It used to be warm and tropical, a lot like Earth. When the Krawl came they destroyed its companion planet, whose name has been lost to us. Instead of destroying Hyoga, they turned it into a breeding ground to produce more Krawl. You have to understand, the Krawl are creatures of darkness. They don't like light, so they have no qualms about destroying stars." The hologram changed as the second planet collapsed on itself and a stream of purple shadows covered the sun. When the sun evaporated, Hyoga's green surface turned a pale blue. "My father destroyed the breeding base on Hyoga so we could colonize it. It's frozen, but we managed to colonize some areas.
"So you're saying these things can eat stars?" Elena asked, suddenly feeling a lot more skeptical about this entire endeavor.
"They can," he replied solemnly. His voice was too high pitched for such a serious discussion. "They're a silicon based fungal parasite. We believe they evolved on an orphan planet, or perhaps an ocean world. We know for a fact that ultraviolet radiation from suns hurts them. We also know how to fight them." The Cosmolink on his wrist glowed for an instant and suddenly a massive green monster stood beside him. It had horns like swords and paws big enough to squash Elena in one stroke. But what was most surprising was the spiked ball it had for a tail.
And in another flash, it returned to the Cosmolink. Instead of acting scared or confused, Elena asked the first question to enter her mind. "So you have a Prizmod too?"
"No, actually I can't use a Prizmod. This is called a Cosmolink. It's the same thing, but it splits into two parts to be shared between a Spectrobe master and a trusted friend. Ajax is the master, not me."
"Is it a redhead thing?" Elena asked.
"Actually it is. Spectrobe masters always have orange hair, and we don't really know why."
"So let me get this straight," Elena said as she unbuckled and stood up. "The only things stoping evil fungus from eating my planet is a team of alien redheads with some fancy monsters."
"That's correct," he said with a smile.
"When do we start?"
"Right now," Ajax interrupted. Elena hadn't even noticed that they landed. "We've got Krawl readings from the inside. Talia is calibrating the dynaliums."
"Dynalium?" Elena asked.
"A light based weapon. It's powered by sunlight," Jett explained. "They're the main reason we've had a fighting chance in this war."
"I thought that was the Spectrobes?" she replied half teasingly.
"One in every million humans is a Spectrobe master. We don't have enough to fight a war on this scale."
"Let's go," Talia said as she handed each of them large, black rifles with blue, red, and green crystals on the edge. It was heavier than Elena expected, but she wasn't about to complain.
"Wait, where are we?" she asked, momentarily confused that she wasn't in Florida.
"The official name is Nellis Air Force Base," the pink haired boy replied. "Most people call it Area 51."
Alarms blared in his ears and smoke filled his nostrils. Snowell couldn't understand what was happening. The entire east half of the facility had been destroyed as black vortexes crashed down. Satellite and cellular communication had been taken down before the attack even began. Lights flickered ominously as the fire spread to electrical equipment.
The foe was a strange one. It was clearly not of this world. Instead of hands it had tentacles and where it there should have been legs it was just a blob. Red and black patterns decorated its skin and its head was nearly a perfect circle.
It probed around the room, stalking the soldiers hiding under desks and tables. One by one they fell. A thousand bullets could have been fired at the creature and a thousand bullets would have been wasted. So Snowell did the only reasonable things.
He ran as fast as his legs could carry him. Through hallways and corridors, passed laboratories and offices. He made it to the Roswell Room, easily the most secure room in the building.
A three feet thick steel door kept the outside away from the secret history of Roswell. One single room contained the crashed ship, both alien bodies, and the strange fungal substance. Prototype weapons and engines littered the room, none of which could save him.
The vial containing the strange fungus began to shake violently, as if sensing his brethren nearby. The vial fell from the table and shattered, allowing the material within to climb out. It began crawling toward Snowell, just as a pounding began on the door.
One knock.
Two knocks.
Three knocks.
Each knock put another dent in the door, and the fourth took it off its hinges. Through the doorway walked a shadow, amorphous and shapeless. It seemed to be speaking, but it's voice sounded like nails on a chalkboard.
The fungus from the vial crawled onto the doctors hand. It traced its way along varicose veins and liver spots until it reached his face. He was simply too afraid to try to remove it, and soon it reached his face. He couldn't breathe under the creature. But then, after a noise came from the shadow, the creature removed itself and retreated.
Then the shadow sprang onto the elderly doctor. It landed on his face and covered his mouth, as if trying to get inside. What Snowell couldn't realize was, the shadow was trying to get inside. It crawled over his tongue and down his throat, fusing more and more with the doctor with each moment. Soon the shadow was gone, absorbed by Snowell. But he wasn't Snowell anymore.
His mind had been shattered and corrupted by the Krawl's influence. Where he once was a man of science and righteousness, he was now a creature, half shadow and half human, who would seek only his own gain.
He was not just a man anymore. He was a High Krawl.