Oriphiel

I don't feel that great right now. It's times like these that I need something to distract myself with, so I guess it's time for some more ridiculous Hi-NRG and nonsensical writing. Here's a super cheesy yet oddly catchy song that I stumbled upon awhile back, along with a gloriously bad music video.

Chapter Thirteen



The aliens were continuing with their work in Luke's spare bedroom, save for Qez, who was searching through cabinets in the kitchen with one hand and holding a beer in the other. The other aliens dripped with sweat as they kept up their tireless pace in the hot apartment, and they took a few moments now and then to consume a type of flavorless nutrient paste provided by Heyt. Valk set down his soldering gun and wiped his brow, leaning back in his chair as he stretched and yawned. After quickly swallowing some of his ration of nutrient paste, he turned his attention towards the open door of the room. "Hey Qez," he shouted, "you alright?" Qez briefly glanced over her shoulder, before continuing her rummaging. "Uh, yeah. I feel a little better," she replied. Valk picked up his soldering gun, and before getting back to work said "Well, take as much time as you need. That was a pretty nasty fall you took. How's your arm feeling, anyway? Still too sore to start hauling again?" Qez looked down at her arm, which she was using to pry open the bottle of beer. "Uh, yeah. Still hurts like a fuckin' son of a dog. I'll be fine, though, just give me..." she stopped and flipped through a TV guide, looking at what was on today, and she noticed a few good shows coming up soon. "Ooh, nice," she whispered, before looking up towards the spare bedroom and continuing "Give me like, two hours, alright?" "Sure," replied Valk with a smile. As he continued soldering, he once again picked up a book with his free hand, the cover and pages of which were now warped by his sweat, and continued where he had left off. A delicious sandwich in hand, and a television in front of her, Qez yelled "Thanks. Hey, you guys make sure to enjoy that nutrient paste, alright?" Retix looked towards the doorway and gave a weak smile, amused yet obviously still in pain from her ceaseless headaches. She and the other aliens knew exactly what Qez was up to, yet they humored her and played along with it. After all, Qez was the youngest of them and tended to be treated with leniency, especially since her experiences during the war were the worst of all of them. Retix brushed back her hair before starting to work again, and shouted "Are you sure that you don't want us to save any for you?" "Oh yeah," replied Qez, lifting up her sandwich. "I'm sure."

After having a few drinks and clearing his head, Luke stood up from the bar and prepared to leave. He wasn't too worried about being gunned down where he stood; he knew how the Boss' assassins handled their targets, and that they almost never carried out hits while inside the Blue Shirt's hideout. The Boss liked to have such things handled privately, away from where he did business, in a place where there were no Blue Shirts around with old loyalties who might feel obligated to jump into the fray. Though he rather felt like being alone as he walked back to his apartment, he was joined by an old friend of his, who he ran into in the street outside of the hideout. "Luke!" he shouted, sitting on the steps to an apartment building with a few other Blue Shirts. After Luke nodded towards him in acknowledgement, the man threw away the cigarette he was smoking and jogged towards his friend. "Hey, Luke! You alright?" he asked as he caught up to him. "Yeah," replied Luke, with his gaze fixed to the asphalt. "I'm good, Dave. It's just been a shitty day, born from a shitty night, you know?" "Yeah," replied Dave, "I heard about that shit that went down last night. And judging by the word on the street and that cut on your face, it seems like you really have been gettin' the shit kicked out of you lately. But that's old news, man. I mean, the universe is always tryin' the beat the hell out of you. Remember the Jones brothers, how they ambushed and almost gutted you? But no matter what shit gets thrown at you, you always make it through in the end." Luke glanced towards him and somewhat abruptly said "The Boss put out a hit on me." Dave's eyes widened slightly and he nodded his head, a grin appearing on his face. "No shit?" he asked with a air of excitement. "No shit," answered Luke. "Damn, that's fuckin' awesome, man!" shouted Dave. Luke looked at him and smiled back through a confused expression, saying "Well i'm glad someone is getting a laugh out of my impending doom." Dave stretched his arms and replied "No man, it's not like that. It's just... after you take out those assassins, your reputation is gonna hit the clouds! Nobody's ever gonna fuck with you, test you, ever again." "You're really that sure that i'm gonna get through this alive?" "No doubt in my mind, man. Not a single fuckin' doubt."

Of course, John wasn't too pleased about the arrival of Luke's friend. His plan was to confront Luke a few blocks away from the Blue Shirt's hideout, when he was seperated from anyone in his gang that might be watching, and question him. In fact, after learning from Cleo that the leader of the Blue Shirts had put out a hit on Luke, John had hoped that he might even be able to convince him to join the Red Sleeves. A former member of high ranking like Luke could show them where most of the Blue Shirt's illicit operations were located, helping them to take out all of their sources of revenue, and also assisting them in the inevitable war between the gangs. But most importantly, John needed to know about the aliens. Did they actually exist, or were they just a hallucination? And if they were indeed real, then what exactly were they doing on Earth? He followed Luke and Dave in the shadows, waiting for his chance. As the two approached the building where Luke's apartment was located, they stopped and continued to talk beside the building's steps. Meanwhile, a street musician was playing a saxophone, and Dave made a few gestures to let him know that he wasn't impressed by his music. After a short amount of time had passed, the two friends went their seperate ways, and John prepared to follow his quarry. Luke walked up the steps and prepared to open the door to the apartment building, when he stopped in his tracks. After thinking for a moment, he turned around and walked away. John wasn't too surprised at his erratic behavior; he figured that Luke was starting to become paranoid of being ambushed by his would-be assassins. Following with as much stealth as possible, he watched as Luke climbed up the fire escape and crouched outside of a certain window. After scanning the inside of the apartment, Luke sighed with relief and knocked on the window pane. At this point, John had been hoping that what he had seen last night was simply the result of a tired mind and too many punches to the head, however a shiver ran across him as one of the aliens appeared on the other side of the window. Luke pointed to the latch and gestured which direction for the alien to pull it in, and the window was soon opened. Luke stepped into the apartment and closed the pane behind him, latching it shut. Of course, John wasted no time in silently making his way towards the window, crouching as he carefully looked into the apartment.

"How did it go with your friends?" asked Qez. Luke rubbed his eyes and shook his head, replying "Not that great. They, uh... well, they're sending some people to come and kill me." Qez smiled, and said "That's wonderful!" Luke looked up at her in disbelief. "Why is everyone so happy about me getting filled with bullets?" he asked, putting a hand to his forehead. "Oh," said Qez, noticing Luke's stress and patting him on the back, "I didn't mean it like that. Your death would certainly make all of us stop and pause for a moment of reflection, maybe even for a whole minute. Anyway, your situation is good news because it puts you in a position where you would benefit from assistance. As we have been meaning to ask for your assistance in a certain matter, we now have the opportunity to fairly exchange services with each other." Luke looked at her with a questioning expression, asking "You mean, I help you aliens, and you all help me?" Qez nodded. "I already said I'd help all of you out," said Luke. Before Qez could respond, a voice to Luke's side said "You did, and you have helped us considerably by giving us a place where we can work in peace. However, we require more from you." Luke turned to face the speaker, recognizing the voice as belonging to Retix, who was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. "How much more?" he asked. "I'm afraid that our device needs considerably more resources than we currently have, and many of those necessary components are somewhat difficult for us to find as we are newcomers to this world. We need natives to assist us." "Natives?" asked Luke. "Yes," interjected Heyt, who had just stepped out of the spare bedroom. "We need people, and as many as possible. Do you, by chance, have any friends that don't want to kill you?" "Yeah," replied Luke with narrowed eyes, "I do. In fact, if I survive this attack, I'll have the whole gang on my side again." "Splendid," replied Heyt, though he sounded more tired than excited. "Consider it a deal, then. We'll protect you, in exchange for access to these friends of yours." Luke scratched his head, and said "Uh, well... it's not that simple. They're not just gonna run a bunch of errands for me unless I can..." Suddenly, he was interrupted by a knock on the door, and a voice exclaimed "Pizza delivery." Luke looked at Qez and sighed as he began to walk towards the door, however she quickly put a hand on his shoulder and stopped him. "Uh, Luke? I didn't call for a pizza," she said. The doorway exploded in a cloud of splinters, sending Luke and Qez to the ground. A woman rushed into the apartment with a smile on her face and reckless abandon in her heart, as well as a shotgun in her hands. Luke crawled backwards behind cover, and made his way towards a pistol that he kept in a drawer. He could tell that she was wearing bulletproof armor underneath her clothes, and he knew that probably nothing short of a bullet to the head would be sure to put the assassin down.

Qez quickly got to her feet and rushed the assassin, who sent her back to the ground with a powerful shot to the stomach. Snapping the lever action of her shotgun down and up as she turned, the assassin fired another shot towards Retix and Heyt. Though the shot hit them and stopped them for a moment, they seemed relatively unharmed. The assassin wasn't startled in the least by the appearances of the aliens or their durability, since she had already seen firsthand that a well placed blast could send them backwards just as it would to a human. Unfortunately for her, Qez was far from dead, and the angry alien got to her feet and quickly closed the distance between her and the assassin. Luke opened the drawer, but found nothing inside. He quickly realized that someone (Qez) had gone through almost every drawer and cabinet in the kitchen, carelessly throwing the contents around as if looking for something (food), and he began to look around for wherever the gun might have been placed. Qez rushed the assassin and grappled with her, eventually slamming her against the wall. The other aliens, who had been working when the assassin attacked, were now joining the fight as well. The assassin collected herself and fired off as many shots as she could, now frantically fighting for her life. The aliens were much more powerful than they looked, and Qez broke one of the assassin's arms with relatively little force. Using her last bit of energy, the assassin fought off Qez, Retix, and Heyt, using her final shot to get them off of her. This time, the shot didn't simply push them away from her; the blast also left Qez with a wound in her side. The assassin used the opportunity to dash for the door. However, just before she could escape, Tyl lifted up some sort of alien weapon and fired an energy blast towards her. The assassin was knocked off of her feet, hitting a wall before hitting the ground. Her right hand and the majority of her right leg seemed to vanish, and the whole right side of her body was littered with burns. It was then that Luke found his pistol, tossed haphazardly into an empty bag that once contained chips. No longer having a need for it, he left it there, and stood up as he looked around the apartment. Qez noticed him looking at her wound. She looked down and pressed her hand against the bleeding injury, commenting "Damn shield needed time to recharge after taking that first shot dead on." "You'll be fine," spoke Retix, as she and the others helped her into the spare bedroom, presumably to perform medical procedures. Valk, however, stayed back from the rest of them, and knelt down over the assassin. "You okay?" asked Luke. "Thinking," replied Valk. After a few moments, he bent forward and picked up the assassin, who seemed to still be alive, carefully carrying her into the spare bedroom. Luke rubbed his eyes for awhile, before reluctantly following the aliens into their workshop.

John had witnessed the entire event, and didn't quite know how to proceed. He could confront Luke and offer to help, but they might take him for an assassin and kill him out of caution. Besides, he had no idea what the motives of the aliens were, only that he had overheard them saying that they needed more resources and humans to help acquire them. Unbeknownst to him, he was not the only person watching the scene from afar; there was a man in a room in a building across the street from Luke's apartment complex, spying on the events with binoculars. "Fuck," said the man as the fight came to a close. He shook his head, saying "Goodbye, Sam. You always were too fucking reckless." "We should have attacked at once, Stan, like I recommended," said a voice behind him. Stan laughed, replying "No, because that would have been the smart thing to do. Sam always had to try her best to fuck everything up for us, begging us to let her take the first shot and prove herself... guess we don't have to worry about that shit anymore, right Jason?" Jason shrugged, saying "I don't disagree. I'll still miss her, though. Nobody could put together a mixtape like she could." Stan gave him a brief smile, before looking down at the ground. "So, what now?" asked Jason. Stan stopped for a moment to think about what he had seen through his binoculars; he could have sworn that Sam fired right at those weird looking people helping Luke, yet only one of them was injured. And that blast that killed Sam was unsettling. It seemed to seriously burn her, yet the surrounding apartment was somehow not scorched from the shot. "Those fuckers who killed Sam... there's something off about them. They're wearing this shiny clothing, some kind of fucking armor... I mean, it doesn't look like much, like somethin' out of a fantasy novel, but it can take a hell of a lot of damage. And they've got some kind of weapon... I've never seen anything like it." "You were the one with the eyes," replied Jason, gesturing towards Stan's binoculars. "Who do you think they were?" Stan bit his lip and thought about it, before answering "Rival gang would be the best bet, but I didn't recognize their style. Maybe they're from out of town, looking to expand and using Luke as a contact..." Jason scratched his chin, and asked "You think Luke is a traitor, helping another gang move in?" Stan shrugged, replying "Well, he hasn't been on good terms with the Boss for awhile now, ever since that time that the Boss killed one of his friends for insubordination. And with the shit that happened last night... I wouldn't be surprised if other gangs have been contacting him for awhile, and i'm thinkin' that last night he finally said yes. After calling a war without permission, and getting his ass kicked, he knew that the Boss would try to take him out, and so after losing the battle he asked for help." "I don't know," said Jason, "to me, it just doesn't really add up. But it's clear that these are no ordinary gangbangers. If a well equipped gang has their eyes on our territory, and is making a move, I think the Boss will want to know about it." Stan nodded, and handed Jason his binoculars, saying "You're right. Since i'm the one that saw what happened, and got a good look at those crazy fuckers, I'll do it. You stay here and keep an eye on them." "What about the guy outside the window?" asked Jason. Stan laughed, and replied "The Red Sleeve? Fuck him. He's probably following Luke, looking for revenge or some shit. I'm guessing that seeing Sam get blown to bits probably took his nerve from him, so I doubt that he'll make a move or get in our way. But by all means, if he hasn't run away already, feel free to kill him if you want. I'll be back in a bit."