forum “You don’t know what they did to me. To us.” (a continuation of an abruptly deleted thread)

Started September 23, 2020 by @Tired-but-passionate

tune

Kali blinked open her eyes, her whole body hurt. She couldn't hear the aliens talking anymore, and tried to move her hand slightly, bitting down on her lip and internally cussing.
She knew she could move her head without pain, she sighed, hoping that the guy had made it over and wasn't dead. She turned look around the area and front of her and just decided to wait before initially just continuing to play dead until the other dude got up and walked over to her. She had burnt out her powers just a tad, so some rest was due.

Alister had been silent, awkwardly fiddling with the handles of Evan’s wheelchair and feeling like an outsider in the conversation. Noel listened as Eli explained the destroyed car (aliens had chased them and almost blew it up, and they had escaped, invisible), seeming to forget about him. Alister sighed, taking a sideways glance at Evan. He still seemed to be thinking about the girl; he didn’t even glance up at the mention of the car getting destroyed.

He was in deep thought looking down, he seemed to be staring at the ground or maybe his feet. He was thinking about the girl he had seen earlier, and the girl that been described. He couldn't place it, all the details matched but the blonde hair. it probably wasn't her, but he had a feeling it was.
what if you took away the blonde hair?
would you bald or would you find another set of hair underneath?
she could have been wearing a wig.

The humans weren’t dead. Pgavk hadn’t expected them to be. They’d learned the hard way that humans were less fragile than they looked.
Their siblings had left them to watch while they went to report to the meeting. Standing near the door, they crouched onto their dinosaur-like legs and looked between the humans on the opposite side of the fence, their eleven eyes narrowing.
Arden 0631… she might as well be left alone. She’d been a useful asset, but her spasms and seizures came at the most inconvenient times. Taranaba 0723, however… once failure, always a failure.
Pgavk cocked their gun, aiming at Taranaba’s neck.
They nearly dropped it when the song came. It sounded human, and yet…
It carried through through the trees, the lilting notes flowing like a river. What did humans call it? A lullaby? It made them scared enough to aim the gun away from Taranaba and into the trees.

(gasp, I wonder whos singing)

Kali finally moved and it didn't cause her pain, she slowly crawls over to malachi and lays a firm hand on him keeping one eye on the alien that's pointing there gun at the forest and one on the door, she shadow travels behind the tree's, then after breathing for a few seconds makes them both invisible. She separates her hand from malachi and leans against the tree, the both of them still invisible.
She takes in some heavy breathing but eventually slows to normal breathing.

(I wanted to keep alternating between the POVs, but dang it Malachi’s is too exciting!)

Chat noir, why must you keep torturing me with your nevertheless useful abilities? Malachi managed to think before blacking out again. The song had been keeping him mostly conscious ever since it reached his ears, but not even it could defend him against this girl’s weird shadow teleportation.
It was five minutes (though it felt like five hours) before he woke up again, his body aching. The singing felt… closer now.
He managed to process that he was in the forest now, with the girl panting beside him. His nerves buzzing, he softly stroked her hand to let her know he was, well, alive.
A pause. A breeze passed, making the trees whisper to each other as the song came closer.
And then a gunshot exploded in the air. The song abruptly stopped, replaced with a low rumble.
In the distance, a face peered through the trees. As it came closer, Malachi could make out the delicate, feminine features; the large, dark eyes, milky skin, small button nose, and the long, silky black hair framing it all.
What nearly made him stop breathing was everything else.
The black hair extended like a mane down the creature’s neck, which lead into the black and white striped fur of a tiger’s body, riddled with scars. Now he could see the glint of metal tubes inserted into the creature’s skull, poking through the dark hair, and connecting to the shoulders.
The creature stopped about ten feet away from them. It’s eyes flicked to the fence and beyond it, at what must be the alien that made the shot. Then it turned to the girl, somehow able to see them, and seeming keen on giving a message that Malachi couldn’t understand.
Safe. Cover your ears.

She watched as the creature noticed her somehow through her ability, how it did that she had no idea and was way to tired to defend them against it. Somehow though, she could tell it wasnt going to hurt them and relaxed
He glanced at it as well seeing the message, hidden in her eyes. That is until she heard the voice inside her headband jumped ten feet.
"My e-ears?… What about him?" She whispered out, pointing at malachi before covering her own ears. Waiting.

Malachi only heard a sliver of the girl’s voice before he slipped into unconsciousness again. Did she… somehow understand what it was saying? Was it even saying anything?
The creature blinked a few times, expressionless, then looked back to beyond the fence. Either the alien was frozen in fear or shock, or they had run out of bullets.
The creature’s pupil’s seemed to dilate, then go back to their original size. It opened it’s mouth wide, a vibrating whistle emanating from it. A brief, raspy gasp could be heard, then a thud.
The creature seemed to nod, as if it had accomplished something. Then it turned to the girl, it’s lashes fluttering.
Child, come. Safety.
Then it kneeled, allowing passage onto it’s back.

She covered her ears best she could, somehow still having a bit of the ringing in her ears but she could still hear and see clear as day the message that it was trying to put across.
She nodded althought she didn't know where they were going, at least it was away from this place. She got up and slung malachi on her shoulder before climbing onto the creature's back whispering a breath thank you to it.

He was in deep thought looking down, he seemed to be staring at the ground or maybe his feet. He was thinking about the girl he had seen earlier, and the girl that been described. He couldn't place it, all the details matched but the blonde hair. it probably wasn't her, but he had a feeling it was.
what if you took away the blonde hair?
would you bald or would you find another set of hair underneath?
she could have been wearing a wig.

The crowd that had been there when they’d gotten downstairs had mostly dispersed. Arabelle sighed, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “It’s fine, cars are replaceable. You guys get some rest. I can send a team to find him.”
August, Eli, and Ethan stood. Now that they were, you could see that the twins were joined at the pelvis; one pair of legs with two upper bodies. They walked passed Noel, Alister, and Evan, giving a little wave to them. “Nice seeing you again.” And they went upstairs.
August went over to Arabelle. “Maybe you should get some rest too, y’know.”
She huffed, nearly smiling. “I can’t, not right now.”
“Well, when you get the chance…”
She kissed her cheek. “I’m fine, babe. Don’t worry about me.”
They hugged, August muttering, “I can’t help it, I always worry about you.” They parted and she went upstairs.
Arabelle turned to the other three. “Alright. Storm already gave me a report on Arden’s rescue, but I’m going to need to know about what happened when she wasn’t there. First, Arden, can you give me a basic account of what happened after you were arrested?”

He was jerked away from his thoughts when arabelle turned towards them and started towards them talking to them.
"Well I can definitely try too at the very least." He thought back a little to what happened before responding and actually saying words. "I know I was thrown in a cell while they spoke a bunch of alien tongue and then they placed Alister," he gestures to Alister "as my guard and I tried to get something out of him but I didn't end up getting much, they ordered me out of the cell and then took me to a room with a chair. They sat me down and locked my hands to the chair.
They started out by electrocuting me, over and over. I just simply spat at them, I remember they grabbed me out of the chair and I think threw me at the wall. I hit my head hard against the wall, and it started to bleed a little bit. It's a bit fuzzy after that…I do remember Alister coming in the door and wilting flowers but that's about it." He looked up at arabelle after focusing on the last details he could make out.

“Wilting flowers? Are you-“ she pointed at Alister, but stopped. “So that’s what you wanted talk about alone…” She put her hands on her hips. “Okay, I just needed your story. Good on you for not giving anything away. Now, Alister, I need your story too. I know you saved Arden, but you spent a significant amount of time with the extraterrestrials. We need to know if we can trust you.”
Wait, did she figure out that we were…? He blinked, trying to get used the shift in attention and find his words. “I… me and Noel got separated three years ago. I was too young to find her on my own, so I tried… how did you describe it?” He glanced at Noel. “Climbing the social ladder.” She smirked. “At first I was stuck in a weapons factory, But after about a year I reached an age suitable for entering the prison staff. I wasn’t sure of how it all worked at the time, but I wanted to start out with the prison because I knew it was near the experimentation labs, and that A: she was being experimented on, or B: she was a servant to any of the aliens working in either building. I wasn’t old or trusted enough to go to the experimentation labs, so I decided to stick with the prison. I was… interrogated for a while, so they could find a use for me. I showed them my abilities, and then I was put into an orientation class, I think? They told me what was to be expected of me, which was basically that I was to be a servant. For a couple months, I made and served food in the cafeteria, which, I admit, wasn’t all that bad. Only thing was, I wasn’t being paid and they weren’t providing me shelter, so I often slept in the streets or in generous people’s houses. Then I was promoted to being sentinel. It was the opposite of being in the cafeteria. I had money and a place to sleep, but instead of giving people food, I had to discipline and watch them. I… I didn’t like it much, but if I slacked off, I was punished, and that meant more time at the bottom of the ladder, unable to get to Noel. When Arden came in, I guess…” he trailed off, turning his eyes to Evan. “When I let him go to be interrogated, flowers started growing on me, and that… that put guilt on my conscience. I guess you know the rest.”

Evan put a hand on Alister, to show him he was there and it was okay and he was doing great without saying anything.

As he talked, Noel took his hand and leaned on him, also giving him silent comfort. Alister gratefully accepted both, squeezing Noel’s hand and gazing warmly at Evan.
(Just thought I’d add that before posting for Malachi)