FSE

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A week after an 'interesting' trip to Draco's planet with Iris and Khamsina, not to mention Zac, I arrived early on Saturday morning to find out we were to take a visit to a new planet, with the usual. Nothing known about it, no scans, and I would ping.Except with Devlin added to the crew. Nothing like a Hell fire dragon to boost your enjoyment on a planet. So with the usual kit, I decided to leave, when they all arrived in the main hall, and I hit my teleporter.

After the usual thirty seconds, I arrived, landing practically into the middle of a bush. Prickly things grabbed at my clothes as I opened my eyes.Then I realised this was possibly bad.

I was in the middle of a park, in a crowded city.People were going about their normal business, and I do mean people, for they were just like me, except maybe a foot or so shorter. Oh, and they were wrapped up heavily, against the cold or else I don't know.

Several of them were looking around for the source of the bang my teleporter had caused as I arrived. I was currently hung up on a couple of branches, but the bush was rather thick, so we couldn't see one another, or rather I could only just see them and they couldn't see me. I stopped moving, as the people realised what they had heard. The foot steps of many people stopped, and I could feel the quizzical glances people were giving as they looked around.

The teleporter BANG, as I have occasionally gone on about, is about as loud as a large balloon bursting, and naught could be done about it. So I just relaxed while everyone turned and looked at one another.

Then people started searching in different directions for the source of the noise. I heard someone approach, and I shrunk back as branches were shifted aside. A frowning face looked around in the bush, and spotted me. His face shrunk back in astonishment. He looked like he was about to call for help, so I spoke.

"Thank you, I was beginning to wonder if someone heard that. I appear to be stuck, I was playing a game with a friend, and got caught up."

The man stopped looking so afraid, as I spoke in his own language. Now he was wondering how I had gotten in.

"You got yourself pretty entangled." he said, unhooking my clothes from the thorns.

"Yeah, I was concentrating on the thought my friend was coming, and got ensnared. I'm sorry to be a pain."

"It happens occasionally." the man replied cordially, as I weaved my way out of the bush lawyer variant of plant.I sat on the ground picking leaves and thorns out of my shirt.Thank God I hadn't been in bionic form, he would have panicked. People came over.

"It's alright," I said warmly,"I just got hung up, and tried to make myself noticed."

Confusion.One or two thought this was unlikely.

"Why didn't you shout?" one asked.

"I find people tend to enquire about a banging noise, not so much if shouting appears from a bush."

"So who are you?" the dissenter asked suspiciously.

"My name is Alduin, I..."and then stopped. I wasn't going to mention Central, they wouldn't believe me." I guess I'm a little lost, I was playing a game with a friend, and I can't remember where he's gone."

"A friend?" a second asked, suspiciously.

"Help." I said in Draconic.

"Alduin!" a stentorian voice said from across the road. It was a short human, and he seemed to be smiling at me, as if he knew me. A necklace was around his neck, and I had a suspicion. Pressing back a desire to laugh, I smiled and waved.

"You went straight past me, Simba." for it was he, I recognised the way he moved, the sort of feline swiftness.

"Did I?" he looked confused as he walked over.

"I was in the bush." I laughed. The nearby group started to disperse. The man who had come to my aid smiled.

"Correction, he was stuck in the bush." he laughed at his own attempt at humour. Simba smiled as I replied back.

"Thank you very much, sir.Right, where to, Simba?"

"I've got an idea." the disguised lion replied, and we walked off from the man. Everything was back to normal.

I switched to Centralite, and spoke.

"Cheers for that Simba, I needed some back up on my story."

"You did, I teleported across the road disguised, in a back alley." he replied with a grin. "Now we're going back to it, and getting the rest here."

"And bravo on coming up with such a load of rubbish in such a short time." Draco laughed in my ear piece.

"It wasn't rubbish, just, just, partaking in a campaign of misinformation." I tried to tell the truth, while lying through my teeth.

"Yes, very impressive. Did you see the look of fear he gave you? I don't think these guys would react to alien landings well."

"So it's stealth mode, is it?" My favourite, until I generally reveal. Not today, but I still enjoyed the secret ness of the job. True, most planets we had gone to we hadn't been in stealth, although when you look at some of the cases, it's not exactly hard to see why. The harpy elves, well I had landed in front of them, T'rahzahr there were so many creatures, we were not surprising.

Other examples, the dragon rider's planet, blast, need to visit Veronica again, we were initially treated with suspicion by the dragon riders, and the prisoners they knew.A couple of others, yeah we needed to try stealth for once.

We went into a dark alley, and hid behind an old dumpster. I placed the scanner, and heard my friends teleport. They arrived, all looking like normal six foot tall human beings. Draco was wearing nothing on his top half, it wasn't that cold, and neither was Devlin, his radiance noticeable even when he was looking human.

Thus prepared, we turned and walked back out of the alley. With determined casualness, we talked to one another, while Draco had his optical translator going. He wanted to look for a hotel. We got about ten metres before something strange happened.

The foot paths cleared for about five metres either side. Everyone was looking quite surprised or suspicious. I turned to my friends, who were all still talking, no, none of them looked particularly wrong or deformed, it's just everyone was looking at us quietly.

"Er guys,"I whispered,"We've got the plague again." this was of course a reminder of the planet we were hailed as gods, except this didn't look like gods, this looked like aliens. And we looked exactly like them. Draco, with his glasses on, looked around as we walked.

"Right, a hotel's a really good idea, while we find out what's going on." he said in Centralite quietly.

This didn't stop the stares, it just meant we could get out of the public limelight. The technology was slightly more advanced than on Earth, one or two cars were definitely not in contact with the road. Furthermore, and much more worrying, a couple of the civilians seemed armed. One had a rifle over his shoulder, so my own wasn't that surprising, and while Javid had disguised his I still had my RPG.This wasn't causing a stir, or at least wasn't the focus of the stir. Two men had swords, so it wasn't Salbar's dual pair that had them worried. While trying to appear casual, I tried to triangulate where everyone was looking.

"This idea of stealth, it isn't working too well." Javid said in Centralite quietly, while Salbar and Simba were having a noisy argument over my hiding place. Draco shrugged at the wolf, while observing signs with his glasses.

"One reason I prefer havoc and chaos, you know where you stand."I said, shooting a smile at the wolf who looked human.Now I come to think of it, the topless three, the two dragons and the wolf were getting the majority of the crowd's attention.

Devlin was walking with his hand against his slightly bearded chin,he was thinking about why we were so obvious. He was only six foot high in his disguise, so it wasn't as if any of us loomed like he did when he didn't have a necklace. The necklaces were showing on all of them, so it couldn't have been that, otherwise everyone would have been getting looked at. It was just Javid, Draco and Dev.Finally we arrived at a hotel, and we walked in.

The entire lobby went quiet as we entered, the big oaken doors swinging back as we crossed the polished marble floor and walked up to the big mahogany front desk a man was talking on his phone behind. With gentle politeness, I tapped the little bell to mention I was here, and he turned to face me. With a casual smile, he bid his friend farewell, and as he stood up he spotted my friends, and his smile vanished. He seemed to be sweating all of a sudden.

"Excuse me, sir, I'm looking for a double room, for one night." I said politely. The man tore his gaze off Javid, and his throat bobbed nervously as he swallowed.

"Umm, I'm sorry, we don't have any double rooms."

I turned to Simba."Will a single do?"

"I don't see why not." the lion replied calmly. I turned back to the man, and looked inquiringly at him. He was now noticeably sweating, and with practised nonchalance he mopped his brow.

"There's a room, on, on the fifth floor.Yes, the fifth floor." he stuttered, looking at his plan, determined not to meet my gaze.

"How many beds?"

"Just the two, I'm afraid. Your, your, friends, will have to sleep where they can, we're, very well booked at the moment."

It didn't take a lie detector to know he was not telling the truth. With a generous smile, I pulled out a bag that had a couple of Central gold coins.

"How much for the night?"

He seemed to be shaking slightly now. What on the devil's name was wrong with us?

"I-I-I, it's,"he paused, his voice failing,"Two drevi."

I casually pulled out two solid gold coins, and placed them firmly on the desk.

"That should settle that, then." I smiled,"Which room, and where's the key?"

The man almost physically backed away from the currency, but he grabbed a key from a drawer, and handed it to me, his hands shaking violently as he reached towards me.I smiled to him politely.

"Thank you. Are you feeling well, you look ill?"

"A s-s-slight col-cold." he replied, stuttering even worse. "Ro-Ro-Room 571." If I had been a vampire, he would have been holding his holy symbol with intensity, or be placing garlic in his pockets. He was terrified of us.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see others doing just that, they seemed to be holding things in their hands, looking fearfully at the six of us. I tossed the key to Simba, and the lion led a very bewildered party up to the elevator. There was absolute silence, save for the passing traffic, and as I glanced outside, I saw a bunch of people looking in at us. The elevator dinged, and a smiling couple stepped out, and then stopped, looking at Draco. Then to Devlin, and then Javid, yet again why them. The three passed into the elevator, followed by the rest of us.

The bell dinged, and Draco pushed the button for the fifth floor.The doors shut.

"Did anyone notice something strange about that?" I asked.

"You mean apart from the fact the guy behind the desk was literally having a coronary?" Salbar asked, with a sweet smile on his face.

"Or the fact that the entire lobby looked like a gunman had burst through the door, instead of six weary travellers?" Devlin added.

"Or that the entire street cleared the moment we were noticed to arrive from the alley, and treated like we had a highly contagious disease?" Javid replied.

"Correction, Javid."I replied, looking thoughtful," You three were receiving the seriously bad looks.Their eyes were darting between you three quite a few times."

"Yeah, I noticed that." Devlin replied."Maybe we're not allowed to be topless?" he suggested, but Simba shook his head.

"It's more than that, everyone was looking in real fear at us."

We arrived at the fifth floor, no one was about, and walked silently down the carpet to the room. Simba unlocked the door and we stepped into a perfectly normal hotel room. A television was on a desk, and a balcony was opposite, we had a window view. In one room was a bunk bed, and in another was the toilet and general bathroom stuff. The kitchen was an integrated part of the living room.

"Well, it's looks nice." I said, walking across to the television, and I switched on the television. There was a man on the television, and he was speaking about recent news events. It was like the news at home, and he seemed to be talking about a recent game between two teams.

"...It was a fabulous run from the striker, he really has been improving this season..." the voice said.

"Well, we can sit down and relax for a minute." Devlin said, and sunk down into a very cosy leather chair, removing his necklace. Everyone else did likewise, while Simba firmly locked the door.

"So, we did something wrong?" Salbar asked.

"We must have omitted something so basically obvious that caused people to panic inwardly. They must have something underneath their clothes that they don't want people to see, and the idea of seeing three bare chested people instantly made them know there was something wrong.

I was watching the television.

"Of course, it isn't surprising when you consider his form..."there was a pause as a hand gave the reader a piece of paper, and vanished again."The reader looked in confusion at the writing, and I just knew it had something to do with us.

"Quiet!" I hissed.Everyone turned to look at me as the reader spoke.

"This has just come in, there are unconfirmed reports of a group of people in a hotel, who are not wearing their identity numbers on their arm. As everyone is aware, the identity number system, introduced by our great dictator Joz Efs Taline, is to make sure everyone acts rightly, and that criminals are easier to find.Burned into the skin, it is impossible to replicate it, because it also leaves a distinctive trace.These three, and presumably the other three with them, are not of this planet,or are from somewhere in the world that we don't know about, which is unlikely."

"Oh bugger, that's why." Simba shook his head.

"The police are investigating the case as we speak, and the public are advised not to approach any of the six. They appear to travel together,so report their position to the police immediately."

"I just paid for this suite." I looked disconsolately,"Does this mean I won't be getting my deposit back?"

BANG. The door tilted,as something heavy smashed into it.

"They move fast, I'll grant it." I said, drawing my phaser and loading my Eryx. Everyone else had their phasers, or in Salbar's case, dual swords. The door rocked again.

"Wait." I shouldered my Eryx, and spoke at the door, trying to sound annoyed.

"Here!, What are you doing, I was having a peaceful nap!"

The door stopped rocking.

"Come out where we can see you, with your hands up, and that goes for the other five in there. We know what you aren't." a strict voice shouted back.

"I haven't the faintest clue what you're on about." I said, while Salbar muted the TV.

"I warn you, we will blast our way in there in ten seconds."

"This is ridiculous." I shouted back.

"We are not prepared to risk the safety of the public." the voice shouted,"Five seconds."

"You tried." Draco put a consoling paw on my shoulder. I aimed my phaser, changing into my bionic form, and Draco and Simba did the same, standing in front of the disadvantaged vis armour. Javid had his bullet proof vest, but still.

After five seconds, there was a huge explosion, and the entire door was blown down. We began firing pulse blasts at the rate of three per second from each of us, fifteen in total. Salbar stood on guard, swords raised.

There was some shouts and cries through the dust and smoke, and we saw shadows moving around through the smoke.

"Does this mean stealth is no longer necessary?" I asked Devlin, as we stopped firing.

"Just be yourself." he replied. I rushed forwards, breaking rank, and grabbed the door. With a monumental heave I pulled it up, drawing my octo bonder, and quickly set to sealing it. Within seconds, the door was reattached to the wall, although in a way it couldn't be opened.

"There, the manager won't notice, I think."I said, staring at the slightly uneven joints. There was a chuckle from Devlin.

"I think he might notice the layers of dust and the unconscious bodies though.What does the scanner say, Draco?"

"There's about twenty of them, but about five of them aren't moving, they seem to have got hit." his cousin replied."They're breaking ranks, and running towards the stairs."

"Was that it all it took?"I said in disbelief. I went into the toilet, and opened it ever so slightly, so I could look at the street and surrounding area. There were about a thousand people down below, staring back up. None of them knew the room we were in, and several other windows were opening in response to what the firing was about. Looking into the multitude, I could see policeman rushing out of the hotel to their cars.

"We might have a situation." I said to Draco. They were pointing their weapons at the door for the remaining eight conscious men at the door. Devlin spoke.

"How bad is it?"

"Well, there's a mob down there, two of them are waving banners and flags saying Kill the aliens."

"Nothing new, anything else?"

"Yes, six policemen went back to their cars, and they look like they're pulling out anti tank rockets and speaking into head sets."

"O.K., Javid, can you take out the rocket launchers? Try not to kill them."

"Hey," I heard the wolf sound injured," I'm a professional sniper, I could shoot the watch off one of them and not harm the skin."

"That I have got to see." Salbar replied cheekily. Javid joined me in the bathroom. The window was easily wide enough for both of us to fit there, and I stood beside the wolf as he pointed the barrel through the slot in the window.

"I can see the leader, they're all listening to him, he's carrying an RPG. Can I hit him in the arm?"

"If it means he doesn't fire it, by all means." Draco replied. Javid stood exceptionally still, barely breathing, and he pulled the trigger. I was expecting it, and was watching the cluster of policeman. One wearing three chevrons on his sleeve clutched his shoulder and dropped his bazooka.Everyone turned, and Javid reloaded. All the policeman clustered around their head policeman, as the wolf aimed at the shoulder of one of the N.C.O's.

The man in question collapsed next to his superior officer. The remaining policeman took cover behind their cars. I looked in appreciation at the wolf.

"You ARE a damn good shot."

"Thank you, Alduin, I know that." the wolf rolled his eyes at me briefly,and then the next thing that happened was a huge explosion of gunfire.

"Look out, attack chopper!" Simba shouted, and I saw him dive into the bathroom next to us. There was a staccato round of machine gun fire, and bits of wood were blasted from the wall. We all took cover, as the bullets made three passes. I grabbed my Eryx, and as the window shattered and the stream of bullets went to menace the bedroom, stood with my top half through the window, Eryx pointed at the chopper.

Through the glass of the copter, I could see the pilot,who turned to look at me at that moment. The chopper was facing the other way to get a better shot at the bedroom, and the gunner turned and I saw his eyes widen. Both leapt out of the side of the chopper in an instant. I gave them two seconds to fall, and then fired my Eryx at the vacant chopper.

Their parachutes deployed, which saved their life, but the chopper exploded in mid air, bits of red hot metal went flying everywhere, raining down on the crowd below. One of the rotors embedded itself in the wall next to me, and I wisely retired my head before a sniper had a shot. Then I went back into the living room.

My companions were fine. Salbar was still slightly shell shocked, hiding behind the fridge, and both my draconic companions were in the bedroom, under the bunk bed. They came out, and spoke slightly shakily.

"I take it they don't like us." Draco said, slightly unnerved.

"I'll go and talk to them." I replied. Devlin looked amused.

"How?"

"Go in my Tripod form, that's mostly invincible." I replied, turning towards the balcony. All the glass was gone, blown over the carpets by the hail of gunfire.

"So what are you going to say?" Simba said, straightening his shirt.

"Something along the lines of we mean no harm, blah, blah, but apart from that, I'll make it up as I go along." I replied, shrugging.

"O.K." I was glad they had the confidence in me.

"Very well, Alduin, don't forget, we're here if necessary." Devlin ruffled my hair."I don't want to watch you stampede everyone by yourself."

"Yeah, yeah.I'll keep someone for you." I replied with a disarming grin. I changed into my Raptor form, and Devlin and Draco picked me up on either side of my sleek form, and ceremoniously held me raised pointing outside. I ignited both my normal engines, and my ion drive, and I charged forwards, dipping slightly, and then I was out the window.I took off like a missile, and flew hard and fast across the park. I could see everyone was looking at me, as I banked doing eight hundred kilometres an hour.

Then I began to slow down as I dropped towards the entrance to the hotel. Policemen were staring at me in fury, and I hovered above the ground, facing the multitude. The policemen were standing beside their cars, with a variety of weapons pointing at me.

Then I changed into my Tripod form, all three legs hammering into the ground, and I stood there, looking back and forth. at them, the creaking of my legs the only sound.

"What...is...your problem?" I asked metallically.A tentacle came out of my hemisphere, clutched around a bottle.

"What are you?" one of them spoke.

"Mostly human." I replied,"Now I have something here.It will heal your officers who were shot, but it's their fault for carrying RPG's.If I give this to you, will you leave my friends alone?"

"Did you do this?" the man who had assumed command hissed, pointing at the leader, who was sitting up and being worked on by a medic.

"No, but I have the antidote."I said, proffering the bottle.

"Very well, alien. You give me the cure, I'll give you my word we won't harm you yet."

"I suppose it's all I can hope for."I said, flicking my tentacle, tossing the bottle to the man. He dropped his pistol, and caught the vial.

"How does it work?"

"Pour a small amount onto the wound, give them another small bit to swallow.They should be right as rain in about three minutes."

As the medic stiffly took the vial from the policeman, the officer looked at my carapace.

"So, what is your purpose here?"

No joking around, these guys would shoot at me if I was sarcastic. Pity, but there we go.

"We landed on this planet with the intention of observing the planet. Clearly if we were to mingle without being noticed, we would have worn the identity number, except we didn't know about it."

"You intended to mingle?" the man scowled. There was a gasp, and as the man turned, the officer's wound was healing rapidly.

"What devilry is this?" the officer looked back.

"It's a vial of liquid specially designed to heal open wounds." I replied off handedly, shrugging my tripod form, by sinking slightly.

"So these other aliens look like you?" the officer replied.

"Nope."I smiled, or would have." Nothing like this at all.I merely have powers of wilful transformation, as do a few others of us.Our intentions are peaceful, but you wouldn't believe it if you saw them."

"And why not?" the sergeant said, as someone hauled him to his feet.

"Because they look very imposing, which is why we disguised ourselves.You would have had more of a panic if it hadn't been for that."

"So where are they?"

"Still in the hotel room I paid for, with my own money, I should point out.We've broken no rule I can think of, except for defending ourselves from a couple of attacks from policeman and an attack chopper.Speaking of which, where are the pilots?"

"Do you honestly think they would reveal themselves?" Draco said in my ear.

"They are going back to their base. Did you shoot them down?"

"I did, with my own rocket launcher. We explorers tend to be fairly well armed, because we find it helps to fight back when people are trying to kill you."

I changed into my bionic form, and stared at the officer, arms folded. Eryx over one shoulder, rifle over the other, phaser on my belt, and large backpack, I looked like a soldier in civvies.

Oops, forgot two weapons there. My sword, and Veronica's dagger. The officer looked critically at me.

"You are well armed."

"I am prepared for any situation."I replied straight faced. "And furthermore I have this special DNA, which makes my body steel plated, so people firing guns at me will find the rounds bounce off."

"So how did you come by that?"

"A long story, but it involved another planet I was visiting, and I recall I lost my temper on that planet."I did, but I was hardly likely to do anything to the transformers, even if I knew I had weapons, I doubt they would have dented one of then,"Don't make me do the same here."

"The flying thing looks familiar." the officer looked critically.

"It is a fighter aircraft from my own planet."

"I see. Your planet sounds dangerous." the officer scowled.

"Not really, I am the only creature on it who's ever made interstellar contact." I smiled.

"So what about the other five?" the sergeant interrupted, rubbing his shoulder.

"They're not coming down, on account that you'll fire on them."

"That was a misunderstanding." the sergeant replied."I will give you my word that we will not shoot at you."

Draco spoke in my headphones.

"We've all got teleporters, I suppose we can."

"Except Salbar." the lizard replied, pointedly. Draco chuckled.

"Than hold onto someone." Devlin suggested."You and Javid take the elevator. Simba, Apache?"

"Of course." the lion replied smoothly.

"And we'll just jump off the balcony." Draco finished.