Fan Fiction ❯ An Alien Ate My... ❯ The Acquaintance ( Chapter 3 )

Disclaimer: The line "Doesn't this just beat all..." is a copyrighted line owned by Rei of Breath of Fire III from Capcom, and is used without permission.
Claimer ^_^ : This story and all affiliated characters are owned by me, so please don't use them without my consent (if you want to use them, mail me and we'll see...) All names were chosen randomly and any similarities are completely incidental.

An Alien Ate My...

Chapter 3: The Acquaintance

Cross squirmed in his bed.
"Cross! Cross!"
Cross hummed.
"Cross!"
Cross took a huge lump of air and blew it out again. He opened his eyes sleepily. "Yes, Lena, I'm awake."
"Cross! Look! Look at me!"
Cross woke up to sit and sleepily turned to his desk. "What is it, Lena? Why are you so..." Cross stopped his sentence. He took his hands to his eyes to rub them before trying to reconfirm what he saw on his desk. "Lena?"
Lena was still a pile of alien blob, with her eyes, nose, lips, and two limbs, but she was a bit dark in color. Well, comparing with semi-translucent pink, the semi-translucent light brown she was then was pretty much a darker color. "I've gone into my next stage of growth. Thank you, Cross, for giving me the nutrients I need."
Cross smiled.

It was a glorious Sunday. Cross was walking through a park with a duffel bag on his side. "Cross, it's so hot it here! Please let me out..." A telepathic message arrived at Cross' head.
Cross looked around. After making sure that no one was watching him, he acted to look for something in his bag. Lena was slumped inside. She didn't look as blobby as that morning. Cross raised an eyebrow at her condition. "Lena, are you melting?" he whispered.
"I might. Please..."
"Okay, okay, wait a while." Cross closed the bag as he looked around. He spotted a park bench under some trees. He casually walked there and slumped on it. He casually opened his bag and laid back.
The alien blob inside closed her eyes, looking up to the bag opening. After a moment she opened her eyes, frowning. "Cross, I need your sun's rays!"
Cross turned to her. "I thought you're hot. Now you want to be under the sun?"
"Nutrients, Cross, nutrients." Lena moved her limbs around. "The rays, not the heat."
Cross sighed as he went back to stand, taking the bag with him. But he then saw that the shadow of the trees above him protected only the bench. A spot next to it had sun rays all over it. Cross sat back onto the bench, putting the bag under the sun.
"Ahh, that's better..."
Cross smiled. "Why were you so eager to go out today?"
"I need air too, you know. And besides, something is blocking the rays in your room. I can't see it, but I can feel it. Strange stuff..."
"Are you talking about the glass?" Cross asked. "You should've told me. I can open them for you."
Lena didn't reply. She seemed to be enjoying the sun.
Cross sighed, smiling. He laid himself onto the bench, enjoying the slight breeze.
"Cross!"
Cross groaned in irritation. He opened his eyes and turned to the voice. "Hi, May, Bart." he greeted them. If he hadn't been so tired, he would've noticed that May was holding Bart's hand. She let go as soon as Cross laid his eyes on them, though...
"Say, what are you doing here? How's Lena?" May asked.
"Oh, she's fine..." Cross said, pointing his thumb into the bag next to him.
Bart and May peeked inside and found the alien blob. "Wow, what happened to you?" Bart asked.
"I've reached my next stage, thanks to Cross." Lena replied happily.
Bart gave a grinning side look at Cross. "Oh, is that so?" his grin widened.
Cross humphed, but smiled nevertheless. "Oh, stop it already." he sighed. "Or maybe you want to have a session with her?"
"Oh, no, thanks." Bart replied quickly. "I have other activities than supplying my sperm to aliens."
Cross just hummed. He laid himself onto the bench. He's feeling strange. So tired, somehow...
"We'll be going, then." May said.
Cross just waved them goodbye without even opening his eyes nor saying anything. He felt so...tired. He barely noticed someone walked passed him. Then he heard Lena.
"Hey, Cross, I'm enjoying the sun. Why did you close the bag?"
Cross frowned. "I didn't do anything..." he sighed. He opened his eyes and saw a man next to him, holding his bag under his arm. "H-Hey, you!"
The man smirked, then ran away.
"Ah, C-Cross? Why are you running? Ah, ow, it hurts!"
Cross got on his feet, but he was fighting just to stand. "L-Lena! That's not me!" he exclaimed.
Approximately one second later, the robber stopped in his tracks, and fell to the ground.
Cross was ultimately surprised when he felt his strength back. He was wondering, but he ran towards the robber anyway. "Hey, you!"
The robber tried to stand, but he seemed to have lost his strength, just like Cross just now.
Cross seized his bag and opened it. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw Lena inside glowing a dark hue. "L-Lena! W-What are you doing?"
Lena stopped glowing. She opened her eyes and turned to Cross. Her eyes were wet. Maybe of tears. "Oh, Cross, I'm so scared..."
"It's alright now." Cross said, patting her with his hand.
"S-Suraimu..." The fallen robber said before fainting.
Cross turned to him. Kneeling next to him, he wondered, 'Did he just say Suraimu? How did he know...?'
Then, something unexpected. An unfamiliar telepathic 'voice', "S-Suraimu...tasukete...onegai..."
Cross frowned. Looking around, he tried to find the source of the foreign language message, but he didn't see anything.
"C-Cross...can you hear that? Another Suraimu!"
"Yeah, I can hear it." Cross said. "But I can't see it. Can't understand it, too."
"You can't? But...she's talking normally."
Cross raised his eyebrow. "...She?"
"Tasukete...onegai..."
"There is it again." Cross said. "I don't understand. Lena, translate, please."
"But she's talking normally."
"Then repeat her words."
"Help, please."
Cross fumed. "Right...Where is she?"
"Suraimu, can you hear me? Where are you?"
"S-Suraimu...atashi wa...konohito no...hara..." Then the voice stopped.
"What did she say?"
"I'm...this man's stomach...she didn't say a verb..."
Cross turned the man around so that he faced up. He then opened the man's shirt and his eyes bulged again for the umpteenth time that day at the sight of the man's stomach. It was covered with a thick layer of very-pale-blue jell. It was moving in a steady beat, but very slowly. Cross touched the jell and it twitched.
"T-Tasukete..."
"She's begging us to help her, Cross."
"I understand that part, Lena, but...how?"
Lena was finally able to open Cross' bag and climbed out. She set her eyes on the jell and screamed. "O-Oh, Lord, t-that's...that's...!"
Cross gently touched the jell and it twitched again. "Is this a Suraimu...?"
"In a very bad state. We must help her, Cross! She's...s-she's..." Lena's telepathic 'voice' started to stutter, "She's...my kind...and...she's dying..."
Cross choked. "Doesn't this beat all..."

Cross had cleared his desk and now a layer of almost transparent circular jell was laying on it. About half an inch thick and about 6 inches in radius. Lena was slumped near it...near her; her expression extremely sad.
Cross was sitting on a chair next to the desk. His face was a mix of expressions.
Just then, the door to Cross' room burst open. May and Bart plundered in. "Another...?" May's sentence was already cut by Bart, "Is it true?"
Cross waved his hand onto the pile of jell on his desk.
"Eww, what's that?" Bart cringed.
"This is a female Suraimu in her worst condition." Lena replied. Her 'voice' was shaking.
May went to take Lena into her hug. "Is there a way to help her?"
"She needs a huge amount of speiro-oil." Lena replied. "Too much for Cross to provide." she quickly added.
"That's why I called you, Bart." Cross said. "I'm going to put her at your apartment for a moment." Then something hit him. "Why did you come together? I called Bart on his hand phone."
"W-We were...walking down the park." May quickly replied, since Bart was too astonished to do it himself.
"Put her at my place?" Bart finally able to ask. "A-And do what exactly...?"
"Feed her, of course." Cross raised a shoulder, grinning.
Bart choked. "Wh...If you can't feed her, what makes you think I can?"
"I need to feed Lena." Cross reminded him. "She needs me. And she," he pointed at the pile of jell on his desk, "needs you."
"B-But I..." Bart tried to shake it off.
"Oh, help the poor girl, Bart." May said, the shaken Lena on her hug.
Bart's eyes stared at May for a moment, then, after a sigh, he nodded. "Alright. I'll take her."
"Thank you, Bart." Lena said. "She...I thought I'm the last...She..."
Bart smiled; his expression of compassion. "I'll try my best."

Cross sighed on his bed as he made a recap on what happened that day. He started the day feeling a bit tired. But as Lena insisted on going for a walk, he couldn't say no. Then the robber, then him fainting and Cross getting his energy back and Lena glowing a dark hue, and it all lead to a dying Suraimu. Cross realized how screwed his life had become. Luckily the police didn't ask him questions when he turned the robber in.
"Cross," Lena's voice was tentative. "I, I have something to confess."
Cross turned to his chest, where Lena was, fidgeting. "What is it, Lena?" he asked softly.
"You must've felt weak this morning..." Lena began. Her eyes showed sorrow when she found Cross nodding. "Well, it's...I'm sorry, but I kinda sucked some life energy from you this morning..."
Cross' eyes widened slowly. "What?" he asked, not believing his hearing (well, his brain, since it's telepathic).
Lena looked like a guilty kid confessing a sin to her parents. "I just found out last night, after our...session, that I can connect your energy bank with mine, and that I can transfer energy from you directly. Your sun's rays were blocked so I tried to get your energy. But it's very inefficient. I'm afraid you'll die if I continued, so I think I should go outside instead."
Cross was kinda surprised. He never saw Lena 'spoke' that much before. And it looked like she wasn't stopping.
"I think our link is created because I had some of your DNA in me."
Suddenly something came into Cross' mind. "I was getting weaker and weaker when I was on the park bench..."
"Yes, I think the man was forcing the Suraimu to drain your energy and transfer it to himself."
Cross frowned. "But my DNA...I've never..."
"There is a forbidden technique on our world. We can draw energy from any creature, even though their DNA had never been absorbed. This technique...it's horrible. A Suraimu could as well drain his own energy just by trying to accomplish it."
Cross then understood. "Was that when you were glowing...?" Cross nodded slowly, following Lena. "And you think this Suraimu had been forced by the robber to absorb his target's energy?"
"Yes. That would explain her dying condition."
"Why would she comply to him?" Cross asked. "She could've just say no."
"Maybe he was threatening her speiro-oil supply..."
Cross nodded. "Makes sense." he said. A few minutes silence before Cross asked the long awaited question, "Are we going to have another eating session tonight?"

Cross stared into the sky through the window which let Lena in that fateful day. He turned to Lena as she squirmed a bit. She was silently purring on his side. Cross smiled. He returned his stare to the stars outside. His mind wandered. 'There's another Suraimu here on earth.' he thought. 'She fell into the wrong hands and end up assisting robbery. She was worked as a slave...I feel sorry for her.' He then couldn't stop asking himself the obvious, 'Can there be more of these Suraimus who survived the explosion...?'

Cross was staring at Lena who was sunbathing under the golden rays on his desk. He smiled as he sometimes see her sparkle.
Just then, he heard the doorbell. "I'll be right back." he said to Lena as he raised to stand and walked outside the room.
Lena didn't reply. She was facing the sun. Her eyes closed, she seemed to enjoy the rays to her heart's extent. That is, if she had a heart...
The next thing she heard was Cross and Bart walking into the room. "Hi, Lena, enjoying your sunbath?" Bart said.
"Yes. How's she?" Lena asked, turning to face him.
Bart sighed as he put a bag on the desk. "She's regained her composure, but she wouldn't talk to me." He said as he opened the bag. He reached into the bag and pulled out a semi-translucent blue blob. He put her under the sun and went to sit on Cross' bed.
"You recovered her in only one night? How much speiro-oil did you give her?" Lena asked as she bounced towards the new blob.
Bart blushed under the stare of Cross. "I-I just...well, all you need to know is I helped her." he said, trying to ignore Cross' grin.
Lena touched the Suraimu with her limbs. "Suraimu, how do you feel?"
"...S-Suraimu...?"
"Yes, my name is Lena. What's your name?"
"...I am...Jun..."
"Hey, I can understand her now." Cross said.
"Don't you always?" Bart asked.
Cross shook her head. "The last time I heard her she was talking in a foreign language."
"I think her weakened condition prohibited her to send out universally understood telepathic messages." Lena tried to explain. She returned her attention to Jun. "How do you feel?"
"...I am...alive?"
Cross chuckled. He went to her. "Yes, you're alive." he said as he gently touched her on her top.
To everyone's surprise, Jun turned into her previous state, shivering uncontrollably. "W-What happened?" Cross asked.
Lena bounced nearer and put a limb on the shivering jell. "She is in a trauma. I think she had been abused or some sort."
"Abused?" Bart's tone was anything but calm.
Cross thought of his guess. "Seeing her in that state under the 'care' of a robber makes me think that he's using her to assist his robbery. He told her to weaken his victims before robbing them. That was what happened to me."
Bart went to the jell. He touched her gently. "Jun..."
Jun's shivering diminished. She seemed to be calmer.
Lena smiled. "Jun, this is Bart. He's the one who supplied you with speiro-oil for your recuperation. You should thank him."
Jun stopped shivering. She slowly returned to her blob state. Finally, she opened her eyes, displaying deep green eyes. She turned to Bart and tried to smile. "Thank you..."
Bart smiled back. He gently tapped Jun's top with his finger.
Cross gestured Lena to leave them alone for a moment. She bounced to the other edge of the desk as Cross did. "Lena," he whispered, "is she going to be alright?"
Lena nodded. "Yes. She has a supply of speiro-oil, she has someone to care for her. I'm optimistic she can catch up on her growth if given enough time."
Cross nodded. "And, aren't you going to ask her? About, you know, other survivors?" he asked carefully.
Lena's eyes lost her shine. "Yes, but not now. When she's better. She had gone a very tough ordeal for a Suraimu at her young age."
Cross raised an eyebrow. "So she younger?"
Lena nodded.
Cross turned to Jun, who was still shaking under Bart's soft taps. "Let's hope for the best."

To be continued...

Author's Note: Okay, what's been cleared in this episode...How the Suraimus can 'talk' in English, there are other Suraimus alive, and a hint on the Suraimus' home language (guess what it is). What do you think so far? Any ideas, comments, praises, flames, critiques, anything at all (no viruses, please...), mail them to storymasterq@yahoo.com.