CH42: PANICKING JASON

"Well…are you going to answer my question?" Sky and Ace walked hand in had as they made their way to a human settlement that was just a few yards away from them. The hot, changed biomes made them sweat so much that Ace stripped his body halfway, only keeping his military suit around his lower waist.

Sky kept hers around her waist too and luckily, she was already wearing a bra that kept her fairly sized basks hidden. Both teens admired each other's bodies. Ace admired Sky's while Sky never realized how good Ace was at acting weak, since his body was fit for an athlete.

He had a premature six pack, slightly detailed man packs and mid shredded arms that needed a little bit of work to get even more detailed. Sky's hands nearly inched to touch Ace's body, but she quickly and forcefully drew them back as she pestered him with her question.

"Explain yourself, Ace," She asked as she inched closer, her hot, unbrushed breath blowing against his face, making him almost vomit. "I can be very persuasive, my friend." She replied as she held his hand back, stopping him in his tracks.

Ace, having had enough of it, faced Sky and said, "I'm an alien in the form of a human being." Sky felt her heart almost falling into her stomach as fear quickly took over. She let go of Ace's hand and took a few steps back. Ace's gaze sent chills and shivers all over he body, making her nearly shake in her boots.

"Relax, Sky," He replied after giggling. "I'm something they call blood mutants."

"T-they?" She asked. "Who's they?"

Ace pointed up into the sky and Sky noticed the faint image of the main Granian alien ship hovering over the Earth from outer space. "Three months ago, before the Earth was invaded, I was an asthmatic orphan who lived with a loving foster family and my only real family member left, Cherry."

"W-was she you're aunt or cousin?" Sky asked, totally oblivious about how she sounded to Ace. The teenage boy smiled at her as he said, "Cherry's my younger sister. See, after the Granians invaded Earth, my sister and I were abducted and a few weeks ago, I found myself inside a large, green cylinder, more like a test tube. Before I made sense of where I was, I saw my dear sister in a similar test tube next to mine."

"I…I tried to save her but they evacuated her and the others immediately."

"Then how did you escape?"

"You will get scared, trust me." He replied without batting an eye toward Sky.

"Come on, please." She pleaded. "I won't. Trust me."

The blood mutant kept quiet as he continued walking. Sky winced, whined, nagged and begged bitterly for Ace to tell more about what he was but he did not budge at all. Eventually, Sky got fed up and instead asked, "How did you escape and where's your sister?"

"The way I escaped is unexplainable but, my sister's still on that ship. I just hope I'll be able to rescue her and get those blasted aliens out of our planet." He said as he folded his fists tightly.

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"We've been walking for hours, Murdock." Huntress complained and whined. "When can we take a little break? Have a little bit of fun and just relax for a while?"

Murdock glared at her and said, "We'll do that when we find the boy and the two girls."

"Two girls?" Huntress playfully asked. "I thought we were only after a boy and girl."

"Well you thought wrong." Murdock replied as he showed her a message on the computer like screen on his left arm. "Grim sent us a new target. Apparently, she's the sister to the first target so we're uniting lost siblings."

"Aww, how sweet." Huntress replied. "I'm tired, bored, and hungry. Let's rest." She said as she took off her helmet. She then quickly drank from a small, white bottle that was filled with a special breathing liquid that helped creatures like them adjust to a new planet's air.

"Surprisingly," She continued. "This place is not as bad as I thought it would be. It's nice encountering other intelligent species that fight back in a galaxy that's so vast yet empty of other life forms, unlike the others.."

"Well don't get used to it." Murdock replied while laying his heavy weapons down. "After that failed attempt with the Ecaps, Grim vowed to use every resource to never lose capturing another race so he's not going to lose to these humans."

"Well, I think they're cute." She replied. "Their soft bodies makes it much more fun when you squeeze the air out of their bodies. And I just love seeing them scream for help. In fact," She bounced up on her feet with a chilling smile on her face. "Let's go and hunt for some right now."

"Are you insane?" Murdock asked. "You just said you were tired and needed to rest. We can't go around killing innocent beings just because you find them cute."

Huntress puffed her cheeks and sulked as she lay flat on the ground. She may have been a skilled huntress and bloody being, but she acted more like a little child than a blood thirsty alien. "We'll move out when the sun cools down," Murdock continued. "In the meantime, keep vigilant or stretch your muscles. This planet's atmosphere will make you go soft."

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[ArkVille underground base.]

[Status: Panic mode.]

General Luke and the Gifted students, alongside the trained military personnel, prepared themselves for the morning attacks Grim promised. Almost half the base members were afraid and grew weary since none of them knew what the Granians were capable of.

Just to prepare themselves for anything, the strongest Gifted students, including Jason, were put at the front line and were equipped with heavy armor to keep them alive. The weaker ones were also included but section differently according to their powers.

Luke formulated a battle line strategy in this way. The long-ranged warriors, either elementals, or unknowns, were positioned at the front while the body cultivators stood behind them as the second line of reinforcement. The middle layer had short ranges fighters, shape shifters, and healers that acted as buffers for the first two lines and the last line, which had the weakest ones, contained the ones who would deliver the final attacks, in case none of the Granians weren't executed properly.

The titanium doors slowly opened as the forces spread out. Jason, who was partly responsible for this, stood way ahead of the others. This may seem harsh to some but it was the only way to keep infighting within themselves.

"Alright, Jason," General Luke spoke through a communicator. "You know what to do. We're in this mess because of you, so get out there and….." Jason begun to panic as his communicator lost signal.

He looked back at the base, but everyone was too far for him to at least shout to.

"Hello, boy." A deep, gravel voice startled Jason, making him fall over on his bottom. He lifted his eyes and observed a tall, large black scaled alien standing in front of him. The alien had a collar on the base of its neck that had a translator wired into it. "Smart choice of your leaders to send you out here, alone, all by yourself." He grinned, revealing his pointed teeth.

"P-please…don't k-kill me." Jason stuttered. Grim got closer to Jason and wrapped his thick, muscular tail around his neck as he elevated his body. His calm, gentle face turned into an enraged scowl as his reptilian eyes glared into Jason's.

"Listen here, boy. You're the reason I and my kind are still on this planet." His grip around Jason's neck tightened. "You're going to find that boy and bring him to me, ALIVE." Grim scratched Jason's face and poured a green substance inside the wound as he let his body drop to the ground.

"W-what is this?" Jason cried. "What did you do to me? What did you put inside of me? ANSWER ME." Jason shot out a bolt of lighting at Grim, but it bounced off his hard scales and hit the ground between his groin area.

"That's a little special something to make sure you'll get the mission done. You have exactly two weeks according to your Earth time to find the one known as Ace Underwood and bring him to me, ALIVE."

"And what willll happen if I don't?" Jason asked with tears running down his face. His heart was thumping just from looking at Grim and now, he had some unknown substance in his body, which he had no idea of what it did.

"If you fail, your body will brutally transform into something not even the strongest person on this planet can kill. Only I will cure you if the transformation doesn't complete but after it does, the only way to end it is by death."

With that said, Grim walked back to his ship, leaving Jason in a panic sort of mood. His minded was now rushing with thousands of thoughts and ideas on how to find Ace. He had no clues, no ideas, and no leads on how to find Ace. He was stranded, desperate and worst of all, he was going to turn into an unknown freak of nature.

"How the f*ck am I supposed to find him?" He wondered to himself while he slowly went insane.