The Arrival
View Online

Arrival, Book 1

The Arrival

The Psionic

***Alex POV***

My eyes drift across the clear sky, enjoying the sun warmth. A waiter walks over and place a the drink I ordered on the table next to me. She then talks to my little sister sitting next to me, ordering both of us some food. Closing my eyes I sit back and just enjoy my surrounding.

Man it such a nice day out. I’m so glad natalie and I were able to get the time off to just fill normal. Though I wish command would let us go further than downtown. I frown slightly, I know the Board of directors doesn’t even want us to leave the base because we are oh so such Valuable asset. Oh well at least we can just feel normal for today. Natalie even went all out and is where the flower sundress Doctor Vahlen got for her. It was white with dark blue flowers all over it. I think Vahlen got it because the flowers match her eyes.

“Alex…”

“ALEX!”

I sit up and look to my right at Natalie, who is now glaring at me. Putting on the dorkiest smile I can I say.

“What is it Nat”

“Really you have not heard a word I have said the entire time have you?” she asked while still glaring at me

I just chuckle “ Maybe you might want to run it by me again really quickly.”

She let out an exasperated sigh “ I swear what am I going to do with you. I was talking about what we should probably do since this is our first time out. we could go to the mall or even that Chocolate place the guards always talk about.” at the thought of ice cream she seems to brighten up.

“ Chocolate Lover's does sound good to get before we go to the mall or we can also go to the zoo. I know how you love animals.” as I say that Natalie gets a little twinkle in her eye showing that she's excited.

We continue to talk about the things that we could possibly do on our time off, as the waiter brings up their food. Natalie got me a simple burger with some fries and it looks like she's trying a strawberry sundae with the slice a kiwi pie. I can’t help but chuckle at the sight of all the sweet she ordered.

“ What? We don't get that many sweets while we're on base.” she says with a mouth full of sundae. I laugh even more and put my hand on her head giving it a like she was a child. Doing so got me a slap on the hand and another glare.

“ Don't do that, I'm not a child. I'm 16 thank you.” she say. You wouldn’t guess she 16 years of age do to her young looks and the fact that she is 4 foot 8 inches tall. Which is quite funny when I stand over her at 6 foot 3. Doing as she wishes I didn't retract my hand and just begin to eat as she continues telling me of ideas of what we could do throughout the day. As we finish I'll pay for the bill and we get up to go to that ice cream stand she overheard one of the guards talking about. As I get up I wince in pain.

“ does it still hurt” Natalie looks over at me worryingly

“ nah I'm fine, the genetic modifications just take a bit to get used to. and I'll get used to it soon enough.” I say that while looking at my hand flexing my fist. Still thinking about it the things they did to change me. putting that Meld stuff into my body making it so I am less capable of dying. The doc said something about a neural dampener, which allows me to be more resilient to psionic attacks. They also increase my depth perception allowing me to see clearer when looking further and able to intake more details of things up close. Heck apparently I have a second heart now, which is crazy to think about. They even made my leg muscles stronger, meaning I can jump even higher than most. Doc said something along the lines of like two stories which is crazy to think about. As well as I am capable of healing faster. though I think the craziest thing of them all is that I am capable of camouflage.

As I think this I start to wave my hand in front of me releasing the Meld and causing it to disappear before of my eyes. This did not last long however as Natalie punched me in my shoulder.

“ Ouch, what was that for.”

“ idiot you know you we’re not supposed to use any of our abilities outside of the base. It was already hard enough for the both of us to be able to be out here in the first place. If you do something stupid like that you'll get us sent back and we won't be able to come back out and have fun.”

“Alright alright I'm sorry. I won't do it again I'm just so curious about what I can do.” I say while grinning at her

“I know, though I really wish they didn't change your eye color. It was much better when it was blue.” she says

“Hey what's wrong with sun yellow. plus the doc said it was something along the lines of a side effect with the Meld substance. And I bet you're just saying that because we had matching eyes before I underwent the operation.”

she just harrumphed and we continue to our destination. As we walked to Chocolate lover’s shop, dark clouds started to roll into View as they passed over the tall skyscrapers.

At the site I found slightly “ it was not supposed to rain today it was supposed to say sunny. I swear you think with all our advanced technology we would be able to understand the weather patterns by now.” I say shaking my head

Natalie is also frowning “I guess that means we won't be able to go to the zoo. Well I guess the mall will have to do for now I'm sure there's something in there that we can do.”

We arrived at our destination, Chocolate Lover’s. It’s supposed to be the best place to get chocolate from all over the world right here in Central City. I for one have never cared for sweets, but Nat is entirely different story. Just standing in front of this place I can see the joy radiating off of her as she begins to race off towards the doors. Calling out to me to hurry up which only causes me to laugh. I begin the short walk the rest of the way to the sugar addict's store.

***Natalie’s POV***

I stood at the entrance my eye’s wide by the sheer volume of chocolates I see in the store. In all my life I have not seen this many different types of chocolates. 3 floors with rows upon rows and shelves upon shelves of the world's best treat. I dashed forward unable to contain my excitement ready to get at least one of every single chocolate in this building.

*** 10 minutes later***

After running through the store seeing and try any and all the free chocolates I could I pat my stomach satisfied.

“ Wow there were so many free chocolates to try that was good”

“ I see someone enjoyed themselves” he says while laughing.

Looking to see Alex standing there with a smile on his face I can’t help but smile back. But my smile is short lived when I noticed that he now has a gun holster over his dark blue shirt and black vest. In the holster looks to be a normal military issued Beretta M9 pistol, with a 4.9 inch. Barrel, It obviously fires 9mm rounds. Then there is the two carbon reinforced swords on his belt or his black pant. I can’t really tell as they are on his back side. The last thing I see is a carbon reinforced knife in his right boot almost hidden from the rest of the world. Frowning I look back at his face to see an apologetic smile.

“ I’m sorry Nat but we need to get back to the base. There is something going on.” He then pulls a bag off his back and hands me it “ A change of clothes are in there as well as your psy booster.”

Still frowning I take the bag and head to the nearest restroom. Once in I go to the end stall locking the door behind me. I slowly take off my beautiful sundress Doctor Vahlen got for me. I just stare at it for a minute then let out a sad sigh. When will I even get to wear this next. Alex and I didn’t get to do anything we wanted to at all. Still standing there in just my underwear I start to fold the dress as neatly as possible. Grabbing the bag I look to see the Usual grey blue combat outfit and armor. As always it looked so bland and unappealing. Before I can even start to put it on I hear a knock on the bathroom door, with it opening soon after.

“ Hey Nat hurry up will you. You're taking forever.” I hear Alex at the door

“ okay pervert geez give a lady some time to change.”

“ wait… what… I’m not a…. Ug never mind just hurry up. Plus you have to be a little more developed to be called a lady.” he says and I can hear the smugness in his voice.

With my face beat red I yell at him to get out. I hear him close the door and laughing while he walks away, I’ll get him for that. I go back to getting dressed, the uniform hug my body tightly as well as the kevlar vest. I the grab the last item, my psi booster. The only reason I can use my psy powers is because this helps boost what little I have. The funny thing is that only the top psi users are able to control it. Even with my brothers vast pool of psionic power, he can’t fully control his power like me. That's why they made us a team. Unlike all the others we can use our psi powers In sync with one another. I control the flow of our power while he launches it at our enemy.

Placing the psi weapon on my hip I take the bag and head out to wherever we have to go now. I find Alex not to far leaning against a wall humming a tune. I walk over to him ready to go. When he sees me he starts walking to the front of the store. As soon as we get to the front I notice all the people are gone.

“What happen to everyone, it was packed a second ago.”

“ they’ve been all evacuated to bunkers around the city and before you ask I don’t know why. I guess we'll just have to find out when we get to base.”

“ It must be big if they want us in our gear before we even get there.”

“I know and that’s what worrying me. I just hope we won’t have to be called into the field.” Alex frowns. I know we are both psy users and that we are a team. However he has never like to think about me going into the field with all the bullets and crazy stuff that can happen. I guess this is what I get for having an overprotective brother. We now exit the front of the store to see a Warthog outfitted for troop transit. With the vehicle there are four other soldiers. They see us as soon as we exit the store and the captain makes his way over to us.

He salutes to Alex “ Sir the your transport is ready to go when you are, sir.”

Still looking at Alex I see his face go from one that is happy and smiling to one that is serious and commands respect. I frown at this as he shows who he is when we are in front of the soldiers.

Alex nods his head “Good then let's hurry and get back to the…..” Before he says anything else his head quickly turn to look at the sky. I follow where he is looking and see a massive fireball falling right at us. Before I can even move I feel a hand grab the back of my vest lifting me into the air. I’m suddenly Lurched backwards, then it seems as if time starts to slow. I still see the captain and my brother still standing there but my brother is in a position like he was the one who threw me backwards. what felt like minutes were only seconds as I could see the fireball rapidly approach where I once was. I fly through the store doors with my eyes on Alex. The further I fly back the close that death ball gets. I see the soldiers trying to make a run for it. It won’t matter because I see Alex look back at me with a sad smile. I try and reach back for him, but nothing i do now will stop that thing. I then slam into a shelf hitting my head hard. My vision starts to blur and hearing starts to leave me. As I fall into the darkness I see the explosion the shake the earth.

“Alex” saying at a near whisper I succumb to unconsciousness.

*** Alex POV***

Pain. The only thing I feel is pain. I start coughing hard and fill warm liquid come out of my mouth. Opening my eyes I see the damage before me. The Warthog was torn into two and the soldiers didn’t fair any better. Looking to my right I see the captain. His back is completely burn and the smell of burning flesh filled my nose.If it wasn’t for where he was standing I would be dead right now. I look at the others and see even worse. The soldier in the shotgun seat was smashed and burnt to a crisp with a pool of blobbing blood. The other two that were in the back tried to make a run for it. One was cut clean in half with his entrails being dragged as his body was thrown across the pavement. the other one was missing an arm as well as half as face with brain matter leaking out onto the pavement and another pool of blood.

I coughed again and more warm liquid came up. Bringing a finger to my mouth I look to see blood. Looking down I could also see a small piece of the warthog sticking out of my chest where my left lung is. I could also see that the Meld was already at work repairing my body as skin was trying to form around the metal piece. So clenching my teeth I grab the metal piece and ripped it out. It took all the power I had to keep from screaming with the amount of pain I just felt. Coughing up even more blood I could already feel my lungs starting to heal but I knew it would take more time than just a few seconds. Very slowly and very easily I stood myself up leaning against the now crumbling wall of Chocolate Lovers. After I got on my feet I slowly begin to walk towards the inside of the store to make sure Natalie was okay. When I rounded the corner to my relief I saw her unconscious against a shelf. Getting to her I knelt down and started to use my psionic powers to wake her up. After a minute of doing so I got a grown from her.

“Oooow, what hit me.” she grown and shifts slightly

“Good to see your awake. Did you enjoy your nap princess” I said chuckling
At the sound of my voice her eyes shoots open then she proceeds to punch me in my left shoulder. Doing so causes me to yelp in pain and hunch over still kneeling. Natalie then apologizes profusely when she notices the injury on my chest.

“ I’m so sorry, but you shouldn’t have worried me like that. I thought you had died throwing me out of the way like that you idiot.”

Chuckling “ I would have but luck seemed to be on my side today now help me up we need to get to base”

Natalie helped me stand and we left the now burning sweet shop. Exiting the shop we see the carnage of the soldier. The sight causes Natalie to gasp and hug me more then support me. Pushing her forward we pass the area of death. As we pass the warthog I see that it was an alien pod that landed on top of it. Green mist and ooz coming out of the side. I walk over to the pod see that it was opened on one side. There was something in it before it had landed. From the open side I see a small trail of the green stuff going to the alleyway across the street from where we were. Pulling my pistol out of its holster I start to follow it with Natalie tailing me. She also has her psi weapon out ready to give me support.

In a hushed voice Natalie asks “ You thing it’s a sectoid?”

“ Most likely that’s what they tend to send first. Being cannon fodder and all.”

As we continue to follow the trail I check the pistol, it only has seventeen rounds. Frowning we get to the first four way of the ally. Getting up against the wall and looking down both ways I spot the sectoid walking northward toward the center of the city. The same way we have to go to get to the base. As it walks I can tell its injured and alone. Giving Natalie the pistol I start moving forward quietly and unsheath one of the short swords I have. Moving cover to cover I activate mimic skin turning invisible to the naked eye. Quickly I come up behind the sectoid taking it by the head and ramming the tip of the blade straight throw. Letting the now dead sectoid fall to the ground, purple blood and brain matter now spilling all over the ally. Pain then shoot through my chest causing me to kneel down and start coughing again.

Natalie come running to me with a worried look. “ Are you okay? You should have just shot it and not pushed yourself.”

“ You know where there is one there are going to be a few more near by. Those ugly monsters are never alone.”

“Still you should have let me do it then. We have had the same training after all.”

Chuckling I stand up when the pain passed. Continuing north we start to hear explosions all around the city, meaning the rest are on there way. It’s not long after that we start to hear gun and plasma fire echo throughout the the city. As we exit the alley and back on the street with the nasty surprise we that awaits us. The street is now littered with pod and aliens of all kinds start it organize themselves. In the sky there in a mother ship right over us in downtown. All I can do is think of one thing.

“Shit”

Natalie started to tug on me then point down the road where the aliens were. My face paled as three chryssalid were now staring in our direction. They are horrid creatures standing on four blade like legs, claws instead of hands. Their face was insect like with fangs, they also had a nasty habit of laying an embryo in their kills to make more of them. Without missing a beat Natalie and I start sprinting down another alley going north west. Knowing Natalie couldn’t outrun them I picked her up and through her on my back. Pain shot through my chest as I stumbled for a second. Gritting Through it I see a low enough fire escape where I can jump from it to the roof of the nearest building. As I jump on the side of the fire escape Natalie remove the hand that is holding the pistol. the sound of three shots fill my ears. I also hear one of the chryssalid Screech in pain. Not even caring to look I then jump onto the roof and start sprinting across the graveled ground.

I hear Natalie yell “That should at least slow that one down.”

We get to the edge of the roof and I prepared to jump to the next. I here landing on the gravel behind us as two chryssalid jump to the roof. Once again Natalie shoot at one of them and again I hear another screeching noise. In the air I take a look back and I see one of the crystal it hunched over while the other one is charging to catch up with us. As I hit the other roof I dropped Natalie allowing her to run for cover. I then draw both swords preparing for combat. I knew with Natalie supporting me I could take one on. The last chryssalid flew over the gap continuing its charge as it landed. It was on me in seconds swinging one of its clawed hands. Ducking I cut at it midsection, missing as it jumped back. Natalie fires three more rounds into its chest making it real in pain. Taking advantage and jumping forward I cut downward toward the head. It jumps to the right dodging the killing blow, but not without me taking its arm off.

Screeching in pain it brought up it’s front to spiked legs and back down trying to stab be. I quickly roll under it turn and stand stabbing it in the back. Turning the blade and cutting upward at an angle right out it’s neck. Green blood Flew through the air as the creature dropped forward dead. but before I could celebrate the other chryssalid landed on the roof next to me. It immediately swing its claw at me but before it could hit, it was blown backwards off the edge. Looking over to Natalie I saw she had her psi weapon out, it then clicked that she had just fired and null lance.

“ I don’t think it’s getting up from that one” she yell

“ Me neither, but we have one more coming.” meld starts to leak from all over my body as my mimic skin starts to activate.

“What hey that's not fair. Damn it, it better not come after me first!” Natalie then runs for cover I then see her shoot a psionic wave at me. It energizes me making me feel like I can move even faster. I channel my own psi into my blade getting ready for the last chryssalid. As predicted the last chryssalid jumped up from the alleyway and started stalking the roof. Thankfully it couldn't see me, so quickly I get behind it. Continually channeling psi energy into my blade I cut down. The purple energy extends the blade's length, cutting through the chrysalis and continuing forward cutting through the roof.

“ Well that was fun” I say while sheathing my swords “ how many shot do we have left?”

Natalie comes out from her cover checking the gun. “ seven with one in the chamber, so eight in total. So what now?”

Sighing I look up to seeing that there is now a big battle of UFO’s and our jets all over the city. The city itself is now on fire in several locations. Explosion are going off in all directions. “We need to get a hold of command. Once we do that we can then get transport.”

Natalie is now looking at the cut in the roof “ I hope so. You also use to much psi again.” she says now poke the cut. It looks to almost have gone all the way through.

“ Ya, I know. The control doesn’t come a naturally to me as you.”

“That’s why you need to work harder. That way if you have to use the mini black hole you won’t lose an arm” she smirks

“Ya ya whatever you say oh master of control.” I say sarcastically. which only gets a giggle out of her. “ I think it would be safe if we stay inside going from one building to the next. Less chance to be seen that way.”

Natalie just nods her head making her way to the roofs door. Following I bust the lock and we make our way inside. I have to remember to thank the architect that designed all the buildings in Central City. Every single one is connected in some way. Whether it be a door in the walk or sky walks spacing the gaps. Out the windows there we could see packs of aliens marking in the streets. Chryssalids charging forward to killing anything in there path. Mutons were now also among them, they are big bulky aliens with heavy armor on. They also carry heavy plasma blasters that can rip through some of the heaviest armor there is. Sectoid are shadowing the mutons to provide psi support. I don’t see any of the other types. Knowing that there are aliens everywhere on the street we continue traveling through the buildings on higher levels to keep out of sight.

Walking for nearing an hour, we kept to the shadows dodging and patrols that we found. The further north we go the louder the gunfire and explosions became. We come up to another skywalk, hugging the wall I look around the corner. The Skywalk is clear however right below us we can hear gunfire and grenades going off. looking out the window there are soldiers holding the line against the alien forces. I can see Chryssalid charging the line but are down by heavy ordinances. Mutons are taking cover in the alleys and I can see the sectoids using their psionics to reinforce the mutants armor strengthening them. The soldiers are so focused on the forces in front of them that they don't see movement in the building to the right . the building Natalie and I are going to.

Looking over at her, she nods her head. We start making our way over there to see what is in the building. On the other end of the skywalk it opens to a five story mall. Over the edge on the Third floor there's a Cyberdisc and for drones. the Cyberdisc floats horizontally and a circular like the aliens UFOs. However when it enters attack mode it floats vertically and involves two massive cannons that can rip through almost any heavy armor. the drones look like floating claw like machines. By themselves they're not very dangerous however with the Cyberdisc they make it really hard to kill it. Since they have a repair function that can repair any of the aliens equipment. I look at natalie again to see her checking the pistol and her psi weapon. With a sigh I get ready myself, a yellow meld mist starts to rap around me and I start to fade into the background.

*** Natalie’s POV***

Alex disappears getting ready to ambush these robotic enemies. I myself get ready by channeling dark blue psionic energies into my hand to fire a null lance. Knowing I've already fired one, I can only fire up to two more. Positioning myself on one of the walkways between the floors I point my left hand towards the cyberdisc preparing to fire. The cyberdisc and drones slowly hover towards the windows and walls where the soldiers are. with confidence I have it in my sights I fire the null lance. A beam of dark blue psionic energy flies through the air towards the cyberdisc and two drones. The two drones get hit and are destroyed immediately. The Cyberdisc shoots to the left going vertically and revealing its two Heavy cannons pointing them directly at me. I dive out of the way as it fires both of its cannons obliterated the walkway where I was. Getting back up I take the pistol and fired five rounds into it now exposed eye. The bullet hit directly destroying its eye, it then immediately goes horizontal again closing up and retrieving back into the mall.

Only one of the other two drones follow it as I look over to see Alex on top of the second with both swords through its core. He then immediately chases after the last drone, but dives for cover as energy beams shoot towards his direction. Running to the railing, jumping from the fifth floor to the fourth, I see the last drone now repairing the eye of the cyberdisc. Firing the last 3 bullets in the gun they hit the core of the Drone and it explodes. it was too late however as the Cyber desk now have a fully functional I again. it was vertical with its cannons pointed in my direction. before it could fire Alex jumped on its side stabbing his swords into it's left Cannon. the cyberdisc then tried to close up again and start floating horizontally. It started to spin sending Alex flying through the air into Forever Young clothing store.

“Alex ! you okay!” I yell. In response I hear a muffled yeah. However my relief is short-lived as I see the cyberdisc pointing its cannons at me. It fires but the left one explodes while the right one narrowly misses me hitting the wall where the soldiers are fighting the other alien forces. the explosion of the Canon sent it into the wall on left side of the mall. It hovers up right again and six barrels appear from the top and starts launching grenades toward me.

I just sigh thinking to myself why does this thing keep going after me. turning a dive into a different store. Explosions shake the entire mall and I am blasted towards the back.I slam into the counter and I hear an audible snap in my right arm. Tears form in my eyes as I scream in pain while laying on the floor. The cannon go off and one of the walls in the store blast apart. The Cyberdisc is now outside of the front of the store with the six tube now full with explosives pointed towards the back. It fires all the grenades but before they can even get that far Alex jumped into the air somehow grabbing all six and throwing them behind the desk.The resulting explosion sent the disc forward lodging it into the wall behind me. Alex runs forward yellow psionic energy coming off his blades. Stabbing them deep into the core of the disc resulting in its shutdown.

***Alex’s POV***

After the machine is destroyed i’m next to Natalie. Her right arm is broken, other than that there are scrapes and bruises. “ How you feeling Nat.” I help her to her feet.

“ Other than my arm killing me right now, I’m dandy.” Natalie walk over and kicks the cyberdisc. The side of the machine pops open with a loud bang and shoots out a round ball. Natalie jumps back and Yelps in surprise While I laugh. “That's not funny, I thought it was still active” she glares and pouts at the same time. Walking over to the ball and picking it up “what is this thing”

“Not sure, looks like one of the drone cores but higher tech.” I take it to look. I poke it in areas that look like it’d do something but nothing happens. I have no idea what this could be, like I said it could be a core of some sort. Though I thought I destroyed its core, we'll just have to get it too the lab so they can look at it. I gave it back to Natalie for her to put it in the bag she has. as we started making our way to the front of the store we could here multiple footsteps coming your way. Preparing ourselves for another fight my blades drawn and Natalie with her psi weapon. As we turn the corner instead of alien force’s, we see one of the front line squads meet to infiltrate enemy territory.

The man in front stops and raises his fist as a sign to stop. Lowering his weapon he then approached us saluting me “ Captain Black, It’s good to see you and your sister are alright. We saw drones on the way here.” he then looks into the store seeing the cyberdisc. A questioning look forms “ And a cyberdisc as well it seems. Though it’s odd how it’s still in one piece”

“Wait what! A disc Intact, that's never happened before. Every time we engage these things they explode when retaining too much damage.” a female soldier said as she broke rank and made her way to the machine. Unlike the others she was carrying field equipment meant for scanning and sampling anything they came across. Looking back at us and pointing to the hatch “ What was in this part? It looks like something is missing.”

“ It was a small sphere like object.” Natalie responded. She was still holding her arm.

Squad leader “ Are you okay Mam?”

“ She broke her arm in the last fight, if you have any nanite gel that would be great.” As I respond he signals the squad medic to help her. He also tells other to let command they found us.

The techie looking soldier was now next to us staring at me. “ Can I see this small tech you recovered?”

“Sure” I grab the thing from Nat's bag and hand it to her. I also see Nat cringe when she sees the needle that's about to go in her arm. As the medic pokes her she lets out a whimper.

“ huh thats weird it seems that this thing is able to accept or send a form of psi signal of some sort. But why it would be in a disc I have no idea.” she says puzzled. “ oh well I’m sure command will want to research it.” she hands it to me which I in turn put it back into Nat's bag.

The squad leader walks up to me. “Sir, command is having us escort you back. We’ll have to take a ground transport, the air is riddled with enemy aircraft so a going by air will be impossible right now.”

“Understood, let's get out of here. Oh and do you have any extra weapons or ammo? We ran out that last fight.” He tosses me a mag from one of his straps. Nat also hand me the pistol with her left hand as her right is now in a sling. That make seventeen more rounds, it’s better than nothing.

“We have a couple of weapons back at the transport.” He then takes the lead leading a group of now eight. I notice that with Nats arm in a sling her pack is now hanging of her left shoulder. I offer my hand to take the burden from her which she hands me smiling. Continuing the path we take is through a different part of the mall. As we walk there is more and more damage the can be seen. Walls are blow apart, holes in the floor, and bullet holes riddle both. Looking down another path I see that an entire wing is gone, replace by a massive UFO that crumbling and on fire. Alien bodies are everywhere, most full of lead. Others, pieces could be seen here and there. After a few minutes of walking we come up to a fortified garage entry way.

There was no one on the outside but the SL approached the door and knocked a couple times. a clicking noise could be heard then the door opened. walking through the entryway there were several groups of soldiers and vehicles. Guess they're using this as a staging point. As our group walks through I notice a lot of the soldiers looking at Natalie and I. There are Whispers awesome soldiers saying that we were in the center of the attack, other shock that we were able to survive. it's not hearing this considering there are almost no aliens in our way besides a couple of Patrols in the ones we killed along the way. how we were in the center of it and didn't see more is unknown. could it be possible that we just got lucky and didn't hit Many of the patrols. The SL stops next to a create and picks up a rifle handing it to me. he also picked up another pistol to hand to Natalie. A smile spreads across my face when I see him pull out of couple grenades. I happily take them and attach them to my belt.

“Sir, we will be taking a detour route around as they're still aliens within our line of defense. we have not had a chance to clean them all up.”

“ how did the aliens even get here without us knowing?”

“From what I know, they somehow infiltrated us and shut down our defence and radar systems.” the SL said frowning

In the corner of my eye I see Nats head tilt to the side. “ How did they manage that? I thought we had systems in place to prevent this.”

The tech lets out a sigh. “ Command is still trying to figure that out. Though there's rumors. Like psionic readings were off the charts before everything went dark. There is also a rumor of a special type of ethereal here. But this is all rumors and speculations, we don’t really know.” she shrugs her shoulders.

We reach the vehicles we would be taking. Three warthogs, one has a gauss cannon, another with a gattling gun, and the last is a troop transport. Natalie and I jumped on to the transport while the SL took driver and the tech took shotgun. A driver and a gunner got into the other two warthogs. We took off from the garage out onto the road and sped Eastward to take a detour around to get to command. Looking around there weren't any aircraft in the sky anymore except for the big mother ship over downtown. The city around us was falling apart, skyscrapers were blown in half, some engulfed in flames.Taking my eyes off the scenery I looked at Natalie and noticed that she had her eyes closed. so instead of bothering her to preoccupy my time I decided to take the sphere out of the bag and look at it.

If I remember correctly the tech said this device works by psionic communication. With a bit of effort I channeled my psionic power into the device. The machine started to glow a bright yellow matching the color of my psionic abilities. Closing my eyes I concentrated more to see if I could discover the purpose of this machine. Pouring more psionic energy into the it I started to see yellow lines connecting like a vast Network. Following each strand I could see a different point or origin where it connected to. it could possibly be the location of aliens that are connected to the same network this device is. looking back to the device noticing the line shifting within it. Fiddling with the frequencies and try to manipulate them to see what happens. A second later I hear a popping noise and open my eyes. the thing is now floating in my hand and it has come apart and it looks like there's an energy source inside. the frequency I was messing with only seem to open it but there were hundreds if not thousands more I could play with. Again I close my eyes and start messing with the frequencies after I close the object. Choosing at random I pick another one and start to try to manipulate it. The second I start a large psionic pulse goes off blinding my inner mind. slightly disoriented I go to open my eyes but find I can't. I go to speak but nothing comes out of my mouth, I try to move but my body doesn't. then I hear a laughter, it was deep and seemed to echo all around me.

“So this is where my pray is hiding. Killing you will be amusing to me.”

Before I could respond I found myself back sitting in the warthog and we were stopped. Everyone was staring at me, Natalie had a worried look. A loud bang came from the mother ship, looking to see I saw a massive pod heading right for us.

“SHIT!” I look at the SL “ We need to go NOW!”

*** Natalie’s POV***

My eyes shot open as soon as I felt the psionic blast. All the warthogs came to a screeching halt as the ground beneath us shook. I looked all over to see where the source was, as well as the soldiers. Looking at one of them I see the he is point at Alex and I. turning my head I see him sitting there every muscle in his body tensed and the sphere thing floating in his hand. A purple energy coming of it and surrounding his body. I try and shake him but the tech yells.
“No don’t touch him, he’s linked to their network. If you do you might get pulled in too.”

“Then what am I supposed to do I’m not going to leave him there!” I growl at her

“ Listen I know you're worried but remember who he is. You of all of us know he can pull through this.”

Before we can talk more the energy around him vanished and he relaxed. He’s eyes open and looked around. He then looked at me but before he can say anything a loud bang come from the mother ship. His head quickly shift looking right at it.

“SHIT!” He looks at the SL “We need to go NOW!”

All three warthog spin their tires as the drivers floor it. SL shouts “ What happen sir?”

Alex gets a worried look “I may have invite a really bad guy to our party. One we won’t stand a chance against right now.”

“What the hell Alex! We…” We all look as the pod crashes into the group. When it bounces the side bursts open and a massive alien jumps out landing then sprinting after us.

“Fuck, Nat barrier now!” Alex yells taking aim.

I release a psionic barrier like Alex said to. It will keep that creature from using psionic mind attacks against us. I then see both gunners opened fire at it. The thing dodges the gauss round and most of the gattling rounds. From what I could see the massive alien was tall, roughly around 12 feet. It’s skin… no carapace was a reddish gray. Running on two legs, it feet look like it had long sharp claws. Four arms come from it’s shoulder and chest area, each hand has claws as well. There’s a long tail that looks to have a spike or barb on it. It face was covered by some sort of mask. Though horns were coming out and curving along the back of the mask. The alien also has armor that looks like the Mutons but is more agile.

The gunner in the gauss cannon makes a direct hit sending it fling into a building. Tech “ That thing has a mask like a Prime Ethereal. But that one’s an unknown, never been seen. It’s so odd to as the Ethereals prefer to stay back and let the minions do the fighting.”

Before more can be said the Ethereal burst out of the building and shot a psi lance hitting the gauss cannon. The Gunner is thrown back falling in the seat next to the driver. Alex takes one of his grenades and throws it. As it gets close to the Ethereal, it goes to swipe it away. Alex fires a single shot causing the grenade to go off in its face. Before I could see what happen we turned down a road heading north.

“How is he?” I hear The SL shout

“He’s fine just disoriented”

We come up to the big ravine that separates the north and south of the city. The vehicle come to a stop as we see the bridge was completely destroyed. Scorch marks riddle the remaining pieces as if the bridge was hit by superheated plasma.

“ Shit everyone in the nearest build now!” The SL shouts

Moving we enter a multi story chain of different Restaurants. All of us moving to take cover I jump behind a bar. The Ethereal run into one of the warthogs and thrown into the ravine. We can then hear it laughing it's voice deep and echoes.
“HAHAHA! Run all you like I will kill you all.” It then looks at us through the windows “ How cute, you Inferior creatures think you can stand against me.” he says smiling. Sharp teeth could be seen. I feel Alex place his hand on my back as he forces psi energies into my body.

“There now you can use another null lance, make it count.” with that said him and the rest open fire prompting the Ethereal to charge in. I need to wait for the right moment and fire to injure this thing so Alex can kill it. I ready myself, The monster bust through the glass doors sending the metal frames flying. Dropping his gun and drawing the two sword Alex runs forward to engage. The soldiers around start making precision shots to not hit Alex. Most the bullets do nothing as the armor it’s waring renders them useless. Alex ducks under a claw and jumps to the left only to have to deflect its tail. Inturn he brought his right sword upwards and cut into the tail getting howl. The Ethereal turned and backhanded Alex sending him soaring through a wall. A grenade is thrown and lands behind it.when it explodes the Ethereal is launched into some tables and chairs. I hear the soldier celebrate too soon as the Ethereal immediately jumps up then shoots a psi lance lance that hits him squarely in the chest. He falls to the ground dead with a hole where his heart was.

With a yell of rage his partner next to him open fires doing all he can to kill the monster. The ethereal response by swiping it’s tail hitting him with the bladed end. The soldier is cut in half his lower body falling immediately while his upper body goes in the air and does a flip landing hard on the floor. As The soldier coughs up blood and tries to say something the Ethereal Stomps its foot on his head sending blood and brain matter all over the ground. Evil laughter escaping from it’s mouth. Alex rushes through the wall with a massive leap his swords giving of yellow energy. In the blink of an eye, his at the Ethereal bringing a sword down and cutting off its tail. It howls in pain as it jumps away from Alex. the four remaining soldiers opened fire while the SL throws a grenade. another explosion goes off sending the Ethereal into a wall, one of its smaller arms look badly injured. As it gets up I see my chance and fire the null lance. The large beam of blue psi energy tares everything apart in its path. The Ethereal jumps and flips over it.

Landing it looks right at me, it’s haunting black eye with red irises can be seen through the mask. In one massive leap it jumps right for me with Alex right behind it. However the Ethereal reaches me first and sink it’s clawed hand into my stomach. Pain courses through me, tears forming in my eyes. I try to speak but hot liquid runs down my chin. I see Alex’s leg slam in it’s head so hard that it flies through the walls and into the back alley. With it’s claw gone I fall.

***Alex’s POV***

“Nonononono, Nat NAT.” I’m kneeling with my sister in my arms. Tears in my eye as I’m trying to keep her from bleeding out.

The squad leader run up to us. “Sir take her to safety, we will hold this creature off as long as we can!” He ordered me. In no mood to argue I nod my head. Picking up Natalie I run out the front and into another alleyway. Every time my foot hit the ground I can hear her grown in pain and cough up more blood. Knowing if i continued to move her, she would die from the pain. Looking around I see a building that's be blown in half. Quickly moving we go up to the top floor where I find a room that has it wall. Setting her down on a broken table, I take a piece of burnt curtain that is left and wrap it tightly around her wound. She yells in pain as I put pressure on it.

Raising her against me “ it’s going to be okay I’ll get you out of here.”

She coughs more. “Shut up you idiot. I know what this wound I'm not going to last long.”

“Come on you a black we can survive anything thrown at us.”

“Alex you need to go and stop trying to coddle me. We both knew this was a possibility when we were recruited to the x-com project. Now please go before it finds us.”

“ Like hell I’m just going to leave you be. I Promised that would protect you no matter what. no matter the cost I would always keep you safe. And if I have to fight that thing alone then I will.” I set her back down to look out to the city space to see what was going on. I could hear gunfire and explosion not to far from where we are.

“ Alex you can’t fight it without me. You don’t have enough control of your own power. Heck last time you tried to use anything on the advance level you nearly took your own arm as well as half the base.” Natalie sounded weak and tired as she said this. Turning back I could see how white she has gotten from blood loss. She won't last much longer. I have to do something now. Kneeling back down I push a black strand of hair out of her face causing her to smile.

“you're right I can’t take that thing on my own. I’ll just die and it would change nothing. That's why we need to make it where you have my power and I have your control.”

She just stared at me confused for a second before it clicked. “ No! We have no idea if something like that could work. If it fails you die.”

“Nat without you I’m as good as dead anyway. There is no way I can out run that Ethereal. So the way I look at it, no matter what choice we make we both die. So I say we choose the one where there is a chance of us living.”

“ I can see what your saying but the chance that it would work… well I guess I don’t have a choice do I.” I shook my head. “fine...”

I smiled as she me a blank expression. We both closed our eyes and started to channel our psi energy’s into one another. Doing this made a mental link between us. 'Okay you need to take over my body and pull me in. Absorb everything that I am that make me.' Yellow energies started to envelope Natalie’s body as mine started to obtain a pitch black color. As our link strengthened I could fill her psi energies be absorbed into my body. I could feel her mind against mine, her worries, her sadness, her happiness, I could feel them all. Then I started to see her memories. The day we were recruited, our training over the years, the joy she felt when she fire her first null lance. The time I tried to control a mini black hole with my powers, it was also the day we found out we could meld our psi abilities together. The black energy started to cover her body. I started to fill the pain where she was hit. My mind start to reel back and push the pain away. 'Alex you have to accept everything even the pain i’m going through. If you stop now we will both die.'

'I know Nat, don’t worry I will do this.' I pushed forward again as the pain washed over me. The black energy now has us both covered where no like can escape. I feel her body dissolve, then a wave of new found pain course through every inch of my body. Every nerve ending screaming in pain. The pain began to become to much as I fall forward. Darkness is all I can feel as my mind slips into unconsciousness.

*** sometime later ***

I groan in pain, my body feels like it was hit by a two ton truck. Cracking my eye open I see that dark clouds that were blanketing the city have now unleashed it’s downpour. I slowly stand as my body feels like it’s on fire. “Shit that hurt” my eyes widen as I hear myself sound more feminine. I also feel like I’m a bit short but not by much. I Whipped my head around looking for something with a reflection only to get struck by long strands of black hair. Spitting out hair from my mouth and brushing what I can behind my ears I see a slightly broken standing mirror. I see myself, I have hair to my shoulders, with a more curvy body. I would say I’m about six foot now. I am still wearing my clothes though they fill tighter than normal. Looking now at my face it look more feminine as well but still look male thankfully. The thing that get me though is that my eye are now different colors. The left is a dark blue like the night and the right is a yellow that shines like the sun.

‘HAHahaha is this what the merging did to us HAHAHAHA. You look like we had a kid or something. Those are quite the curves you have as well Alex.’ I hear Natalie’s voice, frown at her taunting. “ I can’t help this you brat and just you wait till you get your body back because I'm going to make you regret your teasing.” ‘oh I seem to hit a nerve hahaha. Okay enough of the teasing I get it. I’m glad you're okay. Now I do believe we have some soldier to go help.’ “I’m glad you're safe as well and you're right we need to hurry and find them.”

Closing my eyes we both Unleash our energy. listening out for anything we hear the sounds of two sets of running footsteps not too far off in the distance to the west also sounds like something big is right behind those footsteps. with a mighty leap I jump from the opening in the wall to the roof of the building across the street. “ Wow, it seems that my strength has increased quite a bit.” ‘That may be do to me controlling not just our psionic energies but the meld that in within your body as well.’

“Sound goods to me.” I say happily. Ready to get payback for what that Ethereal did. I continued running and jumping along rooftops as I followed the sound of the two sets foot steps continuously running west. after a moment I draw my swords as we get closer to the sound where they're coming from. Jumping down into the street I see the captain and the tech running. The tech seems to have the captain's arm around her neck trying to pull him along as his right leg is missing. Right behind them I see The battered looking Ethereal who seems to have a smug grin on its ugly face.

The tech sees me and yells in a panic voice “ Please help!”

The Ethereal runs forward about to cut them both down yet it get my boot to the face launching it 200 meters back.

‘ the speed I just went was ridiculous did you do that Nat?’

‘ Yup you can start praising me now if you want, though I’ll accept it after as well.’

‘Wow ego much?’ I laugh.

“Alex is that you?” the tech is looking at me wide eyed.

I look at her and smile. “Yup! Now get out of here.”

“ Okay, but what happen to your sister?”

I point to my side of my head and poke myself “ in here.”

Without another word I charge the Ethereal that is now standing. It’s mask was destroyed from my kick. It roars in anger and charges me as well, all four arms extended. Getting within range it bring down all it’s hands to cut my into ribbons. I leap over doing a flip while turning. With Nats help I channel psi into my blade then cut downward. Two curved blade of energy shoot to the ethereal, one blue the other yellow. Hitting it in the back in an x, the energy cut through the Ethereals armor and carapace. Making it face plants as purple blood flies out and a howl of pain comes from it.

The Ethereal gets back and growls. “ you will pay for that you worm! I will gut you and eat your entrails.” Jumping at me it swipes its claws. I raise my sword and block it, but the swipe was quickly followed by a kick to my gut. Sending me flying back a few meters, I manage to land on my feet but kneel and the pain causes me to see red spots. ‘Alex duck!’ I quickly drop to my stomach as a psi lance passes over me. ‘Damn thanks Nat.’ I jump back on my feet and see it launching more psi lances at me. Dodging I sheath my swords. “ Nat going to need you help on this.” I say out loud. ‘Of course, I’ve been helping the whole time.’

With Nats help I channel a null lance in each hand. Again the left one is blue and the right is yellow. Putting both hands forward I fire them. As both travel towards it’s target they start to merge into a huge beam of yellow and blue psionic energy. The Ethereal didn't have time to move as it take a direct hit resulting in a big explosion. Dust and debris filled the air making it impossible to see. Looking to see if we got it, the Ethereal launches out of the dust. I barely have time to block its fist, the attack breaks my left arm and sends me through a building and into another.

I lay in the rubble holding my arm as pain courses through it. ‘Alex let go and straighten your arm i’m going to fix it.’ doing so I feel it snap into place, the meld mist and Nats psi encasing it. Within seconds I can move my arm again however I feel tired. ‘sorry Alex but that use a lot of our energy. So we need to end this fast.’ “I understand.” Getting up I walk to the street and ing the street stands the Ethereal. I stand there shocked as all it’s injuries have been healed. It also had it’s tail back. “Fuck me”

Laughter echo through the street. “ Did you really think it would be easy to kill me. An Inferior creature like you could never accomplish such a feat.” it laughs again.

‘Natalie we’re going to use the mini black hole’

‘But Alex we have never actually tried to do it together. We may fail like when you tried by yourself.’

‘Again I don’t think we have much of a choice. Otherwise we may really die.’

I could hear a sigh come from her as she started to gather our psi together. While she did so I need to buy us time. as if the Ethereal could sense me getting ready to charge, it charged forward as well. It shot multiple psi lances, dodging I return the attack by shooting my own. Once in melee range it brings it tail around the stab me using my sword I parry it. I bring my other sword to cut along its chest but it uses its claws to block as well bringing another claw down to strike me. Jumping back I channel psi into my sword while swinging sending a burst of energy. It jumps to the side and strike with the blade tip of the tail again. Ducking I go under both the Ethereal and it’s tail. ‘Alex I’m ready.’ getting back on my feet, sheathing my right sword. A black ball forms and start sucking in everything it can, even the light around it starts to distort. I can feel immense strain as Natalie tries to hold it together without it ripping my arm off. Turning I jump aiming for the Ethereal, even with it's ugly face I can see the look of horror as it see that thing in my hand.

Thrusting my hand forward I go to plant the black hole into it’s chest. Before the attack lands the Ethereal falls into a vortex of purple energy where the ground was. With no target to hit Natalie let the black hole go and it dissipates into nothingness. I then begin to fall into the vortex as I couldn’t reach the edge.

“FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!”