A sleek silver shape dropped silently out of the clouds. It swept over the rows of houses, slowing when it reached a dwelling with a massive yard. Hovering in the air, a beam of white light shot out of its crystalline nose, joining with lights streaming from the jewelled wing tips, and from the illumination, a humanoid figure appeared. He stood at six feet in height, and sported a beautiful light blue swirl and spot pattern on his grey skin. His eyes were a little large, and flared bright green with reptilian black pupil slits, and his mouth had a slightly square bottom jaw. He had a long tail that darkened into a deeper shade of grey across its length, and lifting it, he stroked a few black strands of hair from his eyes. His hair was very different, more like thick tentacles, but without the muscles to behave like independent arms.

He turned to the property’s occupant, who was currently standing outside, seemingly waiting for this strange visitor. The alien smiled, showing rows of small sharp white teeth. Its ship diminished in size behind it until its owner finally was able to fit it within his palm and slide it into a small slit of skin in his glossy side.

The girl who stood before him had hair that was a very dark brown, coming a little past her shoulders in straight strands. Her eyes bore a similar color, and the smile on her face appeared to light the yard like a little shard of sunshine. She dashed forward, barely able to contain her joy as the alien bent down and spread his arms wide. The two embraced, and held each other for a long time. The girl was crying, and the alien patted her reassuringly once and a while. Soon they parted and stood before one another once more, smiling as if this reunion was the most wonderful thing in the entire world. For the girl, it was.

“Hello Cassandra.” the alien said.

“Vipex…” Cassandra replied, joy overflowing in her. “It’s all been figured out. It was Jenny’s fault. She set me up.”

Vipex Corla shook his head, grinning. “Ah, most humans cannot get along. You said in your letter that she imitated you? How is this possible? I came as fast as I could, but it seems as though the troubles have been cleared up.”

Cassandra shifted her feet a little, and her smile slowly faded. “Yeah, some guy crashed his car into me while I was turning a corner on my bike. I was doing everything right, I even signalled my turn and stayed on the bike section of the road. I think he may have done it on purpose. Anyway, my leg suffered injury and I had a nasty limp for a few weeks.”

Vipex frowned, concerned. “Are you alright? Where does it hurt?”

Cassandra brightened again. “Don’t worry, I’m better now! And anyways, Jenny copied my limp by watching some of my animations.”

Vipex looked up, inquiry swimming in his eyes. “How was she able to do that? Did you animate yourself walking?”

Cassandra shook her head. “No, I took a video of myself walking across a street and I animated a dragon flying overhead. That’s all. It was just a short animation, but I had a few similar ones afterwards. You could really see my limp in all of them.”

A few days ago, Jenny, who used to be Cassandra’s friend, committed a serious crime. She had been hanging out with a certain older boy called Carlin Josephson, a neighbor who lived a few streets north of her house. He soon got another girlfriend, Sasha Morrison, who Jenny found was meeting him in secret. She was very mad, and then tricked the girl into walking into a dark alley. Carlin went to get a flashlight, and while he was away, Jenny came from the dark with a hood over her face. She was imitating Cassandra’s limp, and strangled Carlin’s girlfriend to death before she could cry out. The security camera from a nearby store captured the event, but its nighttime video quality was terrible. The only thing that could be recognized was the limp Jenny was imitating.

Carlin spotted Jenny standing over Sasha when he returned, and all Jenny told him was that she’d just got there and Cassandra had fled at the sight of her. Carlin was furious and went to Cassandra’s house right away. But after questioning her harshly for the better part of an hour, he found she was innocent and went home very confused.

The next day, he went to see Jenny, and got suspicious of her happy attitude. He pressured her with direct questions, and finally she admitted to killing Sasha. Cassandra, Sasha, Carlin, and the store owner all made court appearances, and after many exhausting hours, Jenny went to prison, and Cassandra went home, quite shaken by the ordeal. She’d never contacted Vipex Corla, but somehow he had a way of knowing when she needed help. It was nice that he was here.

Vipex grinned. “Are you sure you’re better?”

Cassandra swung her left leg back and forth. “Positive.” she answered.

There was a short silence. Suddenly Cassandra looked around, slightly concerned. Vipex Corla observed the surrounding environment as well, and then turned to the girl in question. “What troubles you Cassandra?”

“Oh, I’m just afraid someone would see you that’s all.” was the reply. “The people of my world aren’t that happy when extraterrestrials visit. It’s just all too weird for them.”

“I can hardly see my first visit as hostile.”

“No, I don’t see that either. But people come off on the wrong side of things about aliens ever since the Rani launched attacks on Earth all those years ago. There was a recent targeting of the small town Jade City. I doubt you’ve heard of it, but anyways the Rani’s plan was to exterminate all who lived there and shapeshift into them, so that the next time any tourists came around, the Rani could hitch rides to other cities undetected.”

“Wouldn’t it be suspicious though? The disappearance of an entire small area’s population?”

“It’s happened before, in little towns in some parts of the world. People vanish, and they don’t come back.”

Vipex’s pupils slitted. “It’s the Rani, isn’t it?”

Cassandra nodded. “That was my guess too. But thanks to some of my other friends, they aren’t much of a real threat yet. But that worries me. They might be planning something big.”

The alien looked at the teen for a while before responding. “I will remember to keep an eye out for them.”

There was a short silence. Suddenly a black car surged up outside Cassandra’s fenced yard, flashing red and blue lights all over the place. There were no sirens though. A few more cars joined it, also flashing their lights. Vipex turned towards the vehicles in slight confusion as armed men began to pour out, all aiming their weapons at him. Cassandra took the alien’s hand, trying to pull him back. “Come on! Vipex they’re going to take you away!”

“Stop right there!” an officer shouted. “Freeze and no one gets hurt!”

Vipex held his position in silent obedience. Cassandra stopped tugging on his arm, huddling close to his side. “Vipex?” she asked, her voice trembling a little. “What are you doing?”

“I’m listening.” Vipex responded. “I came here to visit you, not get you in trouble. I’m no longer on my own planet, so I must respect the rules of this one.”

“But…”

Vipex knelt down, holding Cassandra’s shoulders tenderly. “Dear Cassandra, do not worry. If I need to leave, I will. But for now I must listen to these men. If I follow the rules, they may let me go, and if they do not, I’ll find a way to escape. I do not wish to hurt anyone, but I also wish to preserve my own life. Above all, I will never endanger my own species.”

A tear began to trace a moist path down the teen’s cheek. Vipex Corla wiped it away and smiled. “Don’t worry…” he said, and then he approached the armed men. He stopped before the closest one, keeping his actions calm and non-threatening.

“Please forgive my seemingly intrusive behaviour. I am…”

The man opened fire. Vipex dropped instantly from the tranquilizer dart.

“NO!” Cassandra screamed. She dashed towards the men, but she also fell under the spell of the darts. The men weren’t interested in her though, just the alien, so they left her sleeping form in the silent yard, turning off their lights and driving swiftly away.



Vipex Corla opened his eyes. His head felt slightly light, and then he remembered what had happened. “Not the nicest of greetings.” he said to himself. Upon a quick glance of his current surroundings, he noted that he was in a spacious metal room, with no visible windows and a single door in the far right corner of his position. What did they mean by bringing him here? He looked up at the ceiling, spotting a human video capturing device on the ceiling. It wasn’t on yet, since the indicator light was off. If it turned on, then a movie of his actions would be taken. Vipex left his own skin, leaving a very advanced copy of him sitting in the seat. His true form, cloaked in the protection of invisibility, walked to the corner of the room where he could observe in peace. He didn’t need to wait long, for in the next few moments, the filming device activated, and a single human entered the room.

“Greetings human.” Vipex said.

“Hello.” the man said flatly. “I’m Max. That is all you need to know. But now I must know from you, what you are doing on Earth.”

Vipex was silent. After a while, the alien spoke. “I was visiting a friend.”

“The girl?”

“Yes.”

“Why did you meet her?”

“She had gotten in some sort of trouble, so I came to Earth to see if I could help. But it was over already when I arrived. She was fine.”

“Tell me what you really are doing here.”

“I have already told you of my intentions. I did not come here for anything else.”

The man narrowed his eyes, and repositioned himself on the chair he had brought in with him. “Where do you live, creature? Where are you from?”

Vipex sat down, cross-legged, on the metal floor. “I’m sorry, but you cannot know that.”

“Isn’t there anything about you that we should know?”

“Nothing besides my physical features and intents. That is all.”

“Let me make this easier. Where. Do. You. Live?” the man asked, talking at a reasonably slower pace than usual.

Vipex closed his eyes, squeezing back a hiss of annoyance. “I can understand English. But I will not give you information you are not meant to know of.”

The man clenched his fists. “You will tell us. You have to!”

Vipex turned to him. “No. I don’t.”

The man’s voice changed, his forced speech becoming more like a plea. “Earth’s resources are dwindling. Within the next few years, we’ll all have to survive off of very little.”

“Earth is indeed getting weaker.” Vipex Corla agreed. “But I cannot grant you your wish. Using my homeworld’s resources to improve your planet will help for only a short while. Then you will need more, but for that our planet would have to give all it has, and that I cannot stand for.”

The man was silent.

“You humans have made reckless choices in the past few years. You attempted to negotiate with the destructive Rani species, and in turn, they totally annihilated a large densely populated area you call China. You used the Firestone to boost power to your planet’s atmosphere, to prevent a massive Rani invasion fleet from entering. The flaming shield destroyed all the Rani, but it also provoked the phoenix that lives within your planet’s core, causing it to attempt coming to the surface. But we stopped that from happening, for that would have guaranteed your extinction. We gave the stone back, and you’ve left it alone ever since. You’ve also made negotiations with several other inhabited worlds. However, your peaceful promises are nothing but a cover-up of your true intentions. You wish to steal the energy and technology of the worlds, since a reasonable number of you want to be considered the most dominant species in the galaxy. Come to think of it, most intelligence you’ve managed to acquire in this time of technology has seriously decreased since this planet’s creation.”

The man sighed. “I really thought you would help.”

He got up and snapped his fingers. A massive robotic claw came down from the ceiling, clamping hard around the alien. Vipex struggled, but it was futile. The true Vipex looked on from his corner. Humans had strange emotional desires. He felt nothing but sorrow for this race. It was so sad they had to be so dependent on their machinery. If anything broke down for whatever reason, they poured all they had into them to make them work. Money was a seriously sought-after commodity for them, but in the end it was not doing enough. When would they ever learn to work as a united team, to get along, to eliminate any corruption…? Vipex shook his head. That was the sad thing. Most humans were not capable of any selfless, pure, loving actions anymore. Their values had no value.

A small squad of soldiers came into the room, ready to blast Vipex’s shadow form into pieces. To their surprise however, the alien thrashed violently, sending the claw flying to bits. The soldiers stumbled back, metallic fragments raining around them. Vipex took this chance to slip in among them and shapeshift into a copy of one of their members. Since all these combat humans were dressed in the same full gear and clothing, he was unnoticeable among them. They all sped after his deceiving image, chasing it through the halls of the structure for long hours. Soon, Vipex stepped back from the pursuing soldiers, forming once more into his true self. His shadow responded by rounding a corner and inexplicably disappearing before discovery.

Vipex Corla retreated, turning invisible again, and rushed down one of the halls. At length, he found a window, and with a few clever finger tricks, he disabled the lock and slipped out into the sky, removing his miniaturized ship and flinging it into the air. The craft returned to its normal form in absolute invisibility, pouring unseen light over its concealed user, and all at once the craft had gone, distancing itself from Earth and surging way off into space.