Yellow Alien

"Hey, Alex! Where are you going?" Chet said. He was standing on the side of the street, just outside the light. The bartender was with him.

"We were going to find you," Alex said. "Didn't see you there. Is she coming?"

"Yeah. She wants to check out Mount Olympus. See if I am who I say I am and all that," Chet said.

"Who did you say you were?" Alex said.

"Chet. Obviously," Chet said.

"Right," Alex said. "Not what I meant, but we'll go with that. We're going to get the core. Meet us at the portal."

"Ok," Chet said.

Alex and Amirilia went to get the dimensional core from her dad's office. Amirilia grabbed it out of a drawer.

They walked out of the spiritual center, through the tall grass, and through the field of massive flowers to the portal. Chet and Fairglo were already waiting for them.

"Are you ready?" Alex said.

"We've been ready," Chet said.

"Alright, I'm going to put forcefields and psychic shields on us, just in case there are aliens waiting for us on the other side," Alex said, as he did just that.

"Alright, let's go," Alex said, stepping through the portal.

They all stepped through the portal. Nothing seemed too amiss other than the fact that the white alien Alex choked out wasn't laying on the ground.

Which made sense, it had been several hours since he did that. He left a loose end. Sloppy. He'd have to work on that.

"Extraction device, Chet," Alex said as he got out his device.

"Got it," Chet said.

All of a sudden, a troop of blue alien soldiers came into the clearing. They were being led by a yellow alien this time.

'Hi,' Alex thought using open telepathy. 'We were just leaving.'

'You're not going anywhere,' the yellow alien thought.

'Oh yes we are, but first, was there something you wanted to discuss?' Alex thought.

'Hand over the dimensional core,' it thought.

'No. I don't think I will,' Alex thought.

'Then I'll make you,' it thought.

Alex felt an intense pressure wrap around his mind. Tendrils were wrapped tightly around the psychic shield. They started to burrow into the shield, making holes for them to reach through.

Alex felt as the first tendril entered his mind. It was excruciatingly painful. It made him want to hand over the dimensional core, which he pulled out with his left hand and held out towards the yellow alien.

"Chet, hit the button!" Alex said.

"What about you?" Chet said.

"Just do it!" Alex said.

Chet hit it, and he disappeared along with Fairglo.

The yellow alien walked up to Alex and tried to pull the dimensional core from his hand. But it wouldn't come out. Alex was holding it too tightly.

'Release your grip,' It thought.

'Hold it tighter? Ok,' Alex thought.

His defiance was still too strong, but there was only one tendril in his mind so far. A second one entered his mind, and his grip loosened. The alien tried to remove it from his hand, but still his grip was too strong.

'I said, release your grip,' it thought.

White hot pain lanced through Alex's mind as he slowly felt around the extraction device for the cap. He finally found the cap and popped it off.

'Release your grip!' It thought.

Alex's grip loosened again, and just as the alien was about to take the core out of his hand, he said, "Amirilia, hold onto me."

As soon as she put her arms around him, he pressed the button and disappeared. As did Amirilia and the yellow alien.

They all appeared in Mount Olympus. The alien finally got the core out of Alex's hand and released the tendrils from Alex's mind.

Hermes ran up to them and said, "Another alien? And a girl? When are you going to-"

"Kill it!" Alex yelled.

A look of understanding came over Hermes' face. Hermes ran up to the alien and went to choke it, but his hand stopped. Then a look of terror came over him and he ran in the other direction and disappeared.

Alex sealed the holes in his psychic shield. "Everyone! Help me fight this alien!" Alex yelled.

Gods and chosen from all over came to help fight the alien and promptly ran away as its wave of fear took hold over them. Alex didn't care about that, though.

All he needed was a distraction. The fact that the alien was focusing on a wave of fear instead of mind controlling him was exactly what he wanted. He could handle the wave of fear.

He could feel the pressure it was putting on his psychic shield, but it would hold. It was that single target mind control that he couldn't contend with.

Alex built up fire in his hands and released it directly at the alien that was only a couple feet from him. The alien caught fire, fell to the ground, and rolled around. It was dead within seconds.

[New skill created: Fire Spray]

Alexed over at Amirilia. "Are you ok?"

Amirilia was frozen. She was staring at the alien's burnt corpse with her mouth open.

"Amirilia, are you ok?" Alex said.

"You killed it. Just like that," Amirilia said.

"I did," Alex said. "This is what I meant when I said 'the real me'."

"You didn't hesitate. You just did it," Amirilia said, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I couldn't hesitate. If I had, we might be dead right now," Alex said.

"I understand. It's just hard seeing it for the first time," Amirilia said.

"I know. It was hard for me to even kill for the first time," Alex said. "I almost died a second time before I could get myself to do it."

"It's harder than I thought it would be," Amirilia said, wiping away her tears.

"It always is," Alex said, putting his arms around her.

"Thank you," she said, putting her arms around him as well. "This is nice."

They held each other for a while, until Hermes came back and dealt with the body.