Maxim sat in the Skyranger. They were going to Japan somewhere. He wasn't sure exactly where, he'd been too relieved when the Commander had told him his parents were fine to pay attention to where they were going. The science team had been busy, they had laser weapons now. They weren't quite finished with them, they still needed to make the special variants, like sniper rifles, shotguns, and machine guns, but they had pistols and rifles, they were really cool. He'd tried out his pistol a few times, he felt like he was in a Sci-Fi movie, firing lasers, fucking lasers. He was still giddy about it. There was 5 of them on this operation, Aya, Keith, William, Himself, and Karl, the new guy they picked up last time.

"Wait. Karl, you don't have a call sign" Maxim said

"Call sign?" Karl asked

William pointed to them all in turn "Psycho, Scotch, Crash, and Vampire. We need one to call you"

"I don't know" Karl said

"You don't get to pick" Maxim said, a bit annoyed that they'd given him a chance to choose his own

"He's right, we gotta give you one" Keith said

"He's a street artist right?" Aya asked

"Yeah" Karl answered

"What about, Paint, or Spray or something like that" Maxim jumped in

"I like Spray" Keith said

"It's agreed then. You're Spray" William said

"Why is his better?" Maxim moaned

"Because he's cooler" Keith replied

They landed and they moved out. They were at an office building.

"The aliens attack weird places" Maxim noticed "A Burger King, now an office. What's next, an amusement park"

"That'd be fun" Karl said

"Enough chit chat guys. There's another lamp post for you Vampire. Scotch, come with me. Spray, Psycho, head inside"

They broke off, Aya and Karl going to opposite sides of a door inside the building. Maxim jogged to his lamp post, and crouched behind it. William and Keith began heading up the middle, going to take cover behind a fountain.

"Thin Men, inside" Aya shouted, using the name that had been given to the new aliens they encountered last time, followed by a flash, and a whoosh noise as Karl opened fire "We've got them" she moved inside, and pumped a shell into the other creatures head. Maxim hoped he didn't get body duty again.

"Wait a second. I think I see something" Maxim said as he scanned the building. Bottom floor, across from Crash and Scotch. I only saw an arm, but it didn't look human"

"Keep your eye on it" William said "Scotch, head round, see if you can get eyes on it"

"On it" Keith said, running around the fountain for a better angle "Woah, big fuckers!"

"What is it" William asked

"Really big aliens. I think we need a rocket for this one. Aim for that table, they're gathered around it"

"Good idea" William said, taking the rocket launcher off his back "This is going to take out the wall as well. Get ready, anything behind there's probably going to leg it" He waited a few seconds until Psycho and Spray had come up, then launched it. Destroying the corner of the office. When the noise from the blast died down, they heard a very loud roaring.

"They're not dead!?" Keith shouted, bringing up his rifle, just missing one of the creatures

Maxim got his first real look at the aliens though where the hole used to be, they were huge things, probably 7 to 8 feet tall, bulky, clearly extremely muscled, and were wearing some kind of armour, now scorched by the blast. He brought up his rifle, and fired a shot into the head of one as it ran for cover "We can kill them though"

There was another whoosh as Karl fired his rifle at another one, there was a red flash, and the alien stumbled, but kept running, until a second shot from Karl brought it down. But the final alien reached a bit of wall that remained standing, and raised it's rifle, firing its ball of plasma, which struck the fountain Aya was behind, splashing her in a small amount of plasma. Aya screamed and dropped her shotgun as she tried to wipe the plasma off of her face. William rose from behind the fountain with his machine gun in hand, and sprayed the alien with bullets, destroying the bit of wall it was behind, but it ducked under the spray. Maxim readjusted his aim, and pumped a shot, which skimmed it's arm, but failed to do any real damage. Finally Karl ran close to it, his rifle practically pressed against it's head, and fired, point blank into the aliens head, just as it swung around to shoot him. The aliens head disappeared in a puff of dust as the rifle disintegrated it's entire skull. Keith ran over to Aya, producing some kind of spray from a holster, "Move your hands, you'll be fine" he said as he sprayed a blue mist onto her face. Aya hauled herself to her feet once Keith was done, on hand holding her shotgun, the other still covering her face

"I'm fine" she said, but she swayed slightly as she stood "Any left?" she asked into the coms

"3 left" Bradford replied over the coms

"They're probably on the other side" Maxim said as he stood up from behind his lamp post

"Right. Vampire, Scotch, you guys head over there" William said "Psycho, Spray, you come with me" They began moving into the building to go around the other side.

"That was a close one" Maxim said as he met Keith by the door

"No kidding" Keith replied

"Will she be alright"

"She'll be fine, that spray got the plasma off. But she'll probably have some scars there, and she'll need some time off after this to heal"

"At least she'll heal though"

"No kidding. If that-" Keith began

"Get ready to breach" William called over the coms "I'm starting this off with another rocket. Try to keep one alive"

Keep one alive? Oh, that's right. Vahlen had created, what Maxim liked to call an 'Uber Tazer', so they could capture one of the aliens

"When you hear it explode, breach and take your shots" William called

They heard a bang as he opened the door, followed by a loud bang as the rocket went off. Keith opened the door and fired off a beam, striking one of the aliens, the same kind of aliens as the last 3, striking it straight between the eyes. Maxim brought up his pistol, firing the beam, hitting another one in the arm. Maxim saw 2 bright flashes, and the 3rd alien fell to the floor. Maxim was about to raise his pistol for a second shot, when Aya came sprinting around with the 'Uber Tazer' in hand, she raised it to the alien, and it fell to the ground, convulsing as electricity pulsed through it.

"Great job, all contacts down" Bradford said over the coms

"NOT IT" Maxim shouted, touching his nose

Keith looked at him "What"

"I'm not doing clean up again"

Half an hour later and Maxim was getting back on the Skyranger, Aya was already there, in her seat, a hand still covering her face "Are you alright?"

"I'm in pain, but I'll live" Aya took a shaky breath and moved her hand from her face, turning to look at him "How does it look"

Aya had a serious burn on the left side of her face, the skin was red and swollen, but he couldn't see any bone, so Maxim knew it wasn't as serious as it could have been, but it still looked pretty bad "Not too bad" he lied

"You not a good liar"

"Sorry"

"I do appreciate the attempt to calm me"

"No problem"

"But honestly. How bad does it look"

"Well, it's a serious burn. I don't know much about injuries though. I can't see bone, so it's not too horrible. It's probably going to scar though"

Maxim heard a grunt, and turned to see Karl, who had been assigned body duty (It was looking like the new guys always got that job), dragging one of the new aliens by it's legs, it looked heavy). "Don't mind me. I'm just dragging this stupid fucker to the ship" Karl complained

Maxim got up and began moving over to help when he heard a groan, and saw the alien start to drag itself up. It moved it's legs, and Karl fell to the ground, it moved on top of him, and was about to wrap it's hands around his neck when the was a bang and it collapsed on top of him, blood spraying from a hole newly bored in it's skull. Maxim ran over, and pushed it over, Karl gasped and dragged himself out, turning over and vomiting on the ground. "Oh god" Karl retched again "That blood is horrible. Thanks for that by the way"

"It wasn't me" Maxim said, and turned to Aya, who was standing by the edge of the skyranger, a hand covering her face again, she shook her head.

"Then who-" Karl began, interrupting himself as he saw a man walking up, a smoking pistol in hand "Who are you?"

"You're welcome" the man said, he had a thick Japanese accent, hardly surprising, they were in Japan.

"Who're you" Karl asked again

"My name's Ryo Goto"

"Well, thank you Mr. Goto"

"No problem, one of these mother fuckers killed my friends, I'm going to pretend it was that one"

"Who's this" William asked as he and Keith came walking around the building "Are we just picking people up now?"

"This is Ryo. He saved Karl when the alien got back up" Aya stated, still in her monotone

"Well, guess we know Aya's opinion" Keith said "You wanna come with us?"

"Join X-COM?" Ryo asked

"If the Commander agrees" William replied

"A chance to bring the fight to the aliens. Of course"

"Well then. Come on, we're leaving" William said as he began getting on the Skyranger, but we almost pushed off the ramp as Karl ran back down, a stencil under one arm, and several spray cans in his hands. "Woah, what're you doing?"

"I gotta leave my calling card" Karl replied as he ran to the nearest wall, and began spraying the stencil

"Should we-?" Maxim began

"Let him have his fun" Aya replied as she walked back into the Skyranger

"Let's get this guy on the ship" William said as he began dragging the alien on board

Maxim walked over to watch Karl do his painting.

A few minutes later Karl stood up, and removed the stencil from the wall "Whadda ya think"

On the wall was an image of the X-COM logo in blue, with the words 'SUCK IT ALIENS' written in red around it

"It's..."

I know it's crude, but it's just my screw you to the aliens, so I think it fits"

"It's certainly memorable"

"Thanks"

"We should head back to HQ"

"Sure" Karl shuddered

"You alright?"

"Yeah, just, that alien blood was horrible, I think I need my stomach pumped"

"You should probably have the doctors at HQ check that out. The blood might be poisonous or something"

"Good idea"