"Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's..."
"...C for cat, D for dog..."
The TV babbled as Mrs. Jenkins flipped through channels. "Aha! Finally," she said with relief. "There you are."
She'd been hunting for a channel broadcasting news.
It was a rare, calm morning. With no extraterrestrial sightings yet, it had been a while since she could sit by the TV with her legs crossed, a mug of green tea in one hand and the remote in the other, watching the news without worrying about the safety of people she didn't even know.
Mr. Jenkins, meanwhile, was in the bathroom showering. He'd made one of his bold decisions and gone for a jog early that morning, despite the state of the world.
The smell of toasted bread filled the kitchen and living room. Both electric fans were on, humming at power level three out of five, and soft music played from Mrs. Jenkins' small Bluetooth speaker.
"Reggie..." Mrs. Jenkins called out without turning from the TV, still settled in her comfort zone.
Upon hearing his mother's call, Reggie closed his laptop and slipped the object he'd been given three days ago on the shore into his trouser pocket.
He'd been researching and examining it for so long that he was starting to think it had no special properties. He was starting to doubt everything that had happened three days ago on the beach. He hadn't undergone the transformation again, and he didn't feel like a solid crystal was somewhere in his body. The only thing that convinced him he hadn't been daydreaming that day was the metal ball.
The object was round and metallic, with nothing else to it—not even a button—and about the size of a golf ball. It was lightweight, definitely not a solid mass of metal.
He made his way downstairs just in time to hear the Minister of Education wrapping up whatever he was saying.
"...and all of this led us to select the date I presented to you as the reopening date for all schools. Also..."
Mrs. Jenkins started talking over him. "Did you hear that, dear? You'll be going back to school next month, and there'll be a short test on each subject to see whether you watched the off-campus teaching videos they sent."
As soon as she quieted down, the news presenter's voice became clear.
"The heads of our country, together with the countries experiencing the space intrusion, have decided to refer to the non-terrestrial lifeforms as SEOPEs—Strange Encroachers Of Planet Earth."
"SEOPE... that's a name we can get used to," Mr. Jenkins said, moving closer to them.
Knock. Knock.
"I'll go and check," Reggie said, heading toward the door.
As soon as he opened it and stepped outside, the world blackened and twisted. His eyes snapped open. He was lying on a bed in an unfamiliar room. He sat up and looked around.
The room was small, barely larger than the bed and cabinet it held. White walls, white linens, no windows. The air smelled faintly of antiseptic. Everything was arranged too neatly to be human—sharp corners, no clutter, like the room expected inspection. The only color came from the marigolds on the cabinet, slightly out of place.
Just then, the door in front of him opened and a SEOPE entered. It was pale-skinned and had four arms—the second pair below the first on its long body.
The SEOPE wore a long-sleeved lab coat made just for him, taking his four arms into account. It went down to his feet and had a side slit. He also wore a nose mask that covered most of his face. One might mistake him for a human if not for the abnormal number of arms.
When Reggie saw him, he instinctively grabbed the small vase of marigolds next to his bed on the cabinet, poured out its contents, slammed its base on the cabinet top, got up from the bed, and pointed it at the SEOPE.
The SEOPE continued walking toward him, unfazed. The next thing Reggie knew, his makeshift weapon had been sent flying.
The SEOPE called out:
_× _√¥°{¢=√•gjstjfku$57#47%@¢π•¢•π€;21!:2!1275_
A minute later, two other SEOPEs entered the room and cleaned up the mess.
Reggie wondered, _What did he mean by "he made a mess as I predicted"? And why was he ordering them? Was he the boss?_
Just then he said out loud, "How the f**k do I understand you?"
Before he could say anything else, the SEOPE questioned, "I thought you'd react this way when Wayf talked to you, and that would spare me the trouble?"
He sighed and continued, "At least your interaction lowered your defenses around me. I expected you to cry out for help in tears."
Reggie, clearly not paying attention and lost in thought, said out loud, "Wayf... what a weird name."
The SEOPE fumed, "He's not even listening?! Okay, let me make it quick. You've been unconscious for about 45 minutes now—your parents might start to worry. I wasn't aware that Vbloi's hypnosis had this side effect"
"So you're the ones he said would find me," Reggie confirmed.
"Yes, and if you just keep quiet, I can finally..." the SEOPE got cut off mid-speech.
"But how... how did you locate me that easily? Does it mean his pursuers already know where I live and that my life is in danger because of the curse he gave me?" Reggie asked, almost rapping.
"No!... and what curse are you talking about?" he shot back at Reggie. "We tracked you through the location pinpoint orb."
At this point, Reggie was lost in thought, so he added, "I mean that metallic ball he gave you."
"Ooh! Why didn't you just say that from the start?"
"Just keep quiet and let me continue the explanation..."
"Is it going to be long, because my parents would..."
"Just shut up already. One more word from you and I'm gonna gobble you up..."
"It doesn't work anymore. It's too late. Can I get popcorn at least?"
"Alright!" the SEOPE exclaimed, clearly annoyed. "Can we get him the human food, 'popcorn,' now?"
The word 'popcorn' was in English.
A minute later, another SEOPE came slithering in with a bowl of popcorn balanced on her back.
Reggie took it, said thanks, and sat on the edge of the bed. "I'm ready now, four arms."
The SEOPE called for a chair, sat down, and spoke up, "I'm Gfjyu, not four arms."
"I'll call you Jude then. Okay, Jude, go on."
"...Huh. I'll only brief you on part of the story for now. So it all began...
As long as anyone can remember, the Crystal of the Dead has been around. The crystal that entered you has passed through the hands of countless beings across the universe.
Legend claims it came into existence to help those who experience injustice, and it has been confirmed by many beholders who truly bonded with it and used it for the right cause.
This wasn't the only case. Others also misused it, exploited the power it gives, and did unsightly things."
"Wait, did you say power?... Wait, I get it. You meant it figuratively. Okay, continue," Reggie interrupted.
"The crystal grants unique abilities to the beholder to carry out the cause I mentioned earlier—literally," he continued, trying not to give Reggie an opportunity to interrupt again. "As the Crystal of the Dead circulated across the universe, beings that saw what it was capable of began to crave its power in order to carry out their ominous plans.
Such people were the pursuers of Wayf and the non-terrestrials coming to this planet. Wayf has had no choice but to be in hiding for the past two weeks, around the same time the SEOPEs started coming, until three days ago when he was brutally murdered roughly an hour after the gem chose you—the second time the gem has chosen a beholder for itself—and two hours before we could arrive to give backup.
So to summarize everything: the SEOPEs are coming to search for you —not that they can tell that you're the chosen one even if they see you—and kill you in order to obtain the crystal and put the world in danger, unless you learn to utilize its powers and fight back until all opposing forces are gone..."
Just before he could finish, Reggie collapsed from information overload and exhaustion. He hadn't slept since yesterday—he spent the night binging about 30 episodes of One Piece.
He gained consciousness later, and this time he was on his bed in his room. He opened his eyes to see his mother talking while standing next to the bed, towering over him.
"...yeah, he's lying on his bed asleep. I told you we should have checked the house first before going out, but I guess your reasons were reasonable too," Mrs. Jenkins said, turning toward the exit. "I hope you're not far. Get back home."
Reggie rose and sat up on his bed right after she left. He felt the what-what orb — the metallic ball — in his pocket.
He slipped his hand into his pocket, pulled out the ball and a sheet of blank paper with words written on it.
It was in English but written in poor handwriting. It read:
_"Please come to Raves Park around 8:00 a.m. tomorrow. We will come for you again then."_
It surely wasn't a dream, then, he thought. "It was probably written by Gf-Jude. I wonder how fast they're learning and adapting to the human world," he said to himself with a half-smile.
He got up, put on his sweater and hoodie, and left after checking with his mother, who was still waiting for his father.
He walked through the streets. There were more people out compared to when the SEOPEs first began to show up, though there were still far fewer than in the pre-invasion days.
He saw a small crowd ahead as he walked with no specific destination in mind. He pulled his hoodie over his head and moved in to see what they had gathered for.
Three SEOPE response team soldiers stood there, equipped with weapons designed to exploit the weaknesses of the SEOPE beings that had been intruding often.
Reggie asked a woman in the crowd, "Ma'am, which direction did the SEOPE come from?"
"That's what we're puzzled about," the woman answered almost immediately. "All those who saw the SEOPE attack the man claim it appeared out of thin air. Fortunately, the response team was nearby."
The SEOPE was about the size of a dog. It had an exoskeleton, two feet, and a tail that dragged on the ground to help with balance and movement. It moved by hopping and shot poisonous liquid from its mouth.
The response team had managed to corner it after it had already harmed two of them.
The soldiers started shooting the now-weakened SEOPE with everything they had.
"I'm out of juice!" one of the soldiers exclaimed."I might have picked an uncharged vigazer — the current modern long range weapon made a decade ago following the discovery of limpitiums some centuries ago, specifically the 21st century — when we were coming, how careless".
He slid open what looked like a lid on the side of the vigazer, exposing a built-in solar panel. He placed it down with that side facing the sun to charge, then ducked on reflex to avoid the poisonous liquid the SEOPE shot at him.
The Vigazer uses a high-density energy battery charged through a port or its built-in solar panel. Pull the trigger and the battery dumps a quantized burst of energy into the limpitium core, exciting its atoms. When they drop back down, they release all that energy at once as a single photon cascade — a focused laser beam.
The limpitium was highly in conformity with the atomic spectra rules making this possible.
There are five quantized energy levels to choose from the vigazer, each with determining the quantum of energy to release into the limpitium affecting the output laser beam.
The other two soldiers opened fire. The SEOPE was starting to take hits, now severely injured and unable to dodge as well as before.
The crowd began to grow, moving in closer and closer.
"The SEOPE response team are our heroes. Look at how they're dealing with the SEOPE," a woman with long blonde hair said.
The crowd murmured in agreement, and it quickly turned into cheering for the soldiers.
"Yes, with them around we are safe — for now!" a man in his 50s said, silencing the crowd instantly.
"This SEOPE took down two of the five equipped soldiers and is still battling two as I speak. SEOPEs are not animals like the ones you know on Earth. They are non-terrestrial beings we hardly know anything about. Some of them could be as intelligent as us, or even more so. They have features that give them the upper hand against us. They will sure be tough.
So why are you happy when this is how five of our soldiers are faring against one? The other kinds could be worse."
Just then, the SEOPE let out loud screeches at different frequencies. It wrapped its thick, large tail around itself vertically and inserted the tip into its mouth.
"We're winning, it's going on defense now," the standby soldier with his charging vigazer said.
The SEOPE crouched, ready to hop again. Its left and right sides, clearly defined after the tail division, began to swell at a fast rate.
At that moment, Reggie froze. Cold sweat ran down his face. He finally managed to calm himself and shouted, "Everybody! We need to run! The SEOPE is about to commit suicidal self-destruction!"
"What are you saying? The soldier said it's going defensive," one person replied.
"Yeah… what kind of prank are you trying to pull?" another added.
"No, it's not a prank," Reggie defended as he tried to think of something. "It's just that…it's... uh-huh! It's just that I've seen another SEOPE of this being do this. A week ago, one attacked my neighbors."
Before he could finish the word 'neighbors,' people began to run.
The SEOPE abandoned its stance and turned toward the crowd, watching them flee with Reggie looking at it, moments before also running. The soldiers also started looking for a chance to escape.
The now-inflating SEOPE was confused. What had the boy in the sweater said that made everyone run? It wasn't like its self-destruct plan was a trait among its kind, it wondered. Before it could dwell on it, it exploded — not with flames, but with poisonous liquid splattering outward. It missed its chance to jump, which might have spread the explosion farther, and it forgot about the soldiers, giving them a chance to escape with the two wounded.
Some people, hearing the explosion, began turning back to see what had happened. Reggie didn't. He took a less populated route and made his way home.
The next day, Reggie got to the appointed place before the appointed time. The Raves park was big, but almost no one was present. As he waited, he stared into the sky, thinking about everything again.
He lost consciousness suddenly and gained it quicker than the previous time.
This time he had very faint memories of walking to the place himself, but he couldn't recall the path.
He was in the room he had been a day ago.
He spotted Jude as he tried to get up from his bed.
He was again in the four-armed lab coat.
Reggie asked, after a few seconds of silence, "Tell me, what power does the Crystal of the Dead give?"
Jude answered straight away, "It grants the beholder powers and abilities not common to their being,like in your case flying."
Reggie nodded slowly repeating the word 'flying' He asked, "Is the ability to understand SEOPEs one of them?"
"Ahh… that, together with others, is like a side effect, or a second set of abilities.
This set defines abilities related to the fact that the crystal has passed through millions of different beings across the universe.
You're able to understand the previous holder and me because he was a holder, and I was of the same being as him, my friend–the reason why I know a bit about the crystal of the dead.
It is believed that once you awaken—truly bond with the crystal—you will be able to communicate with previous awakened ones.
Who knows what more there is to achieve?"
"Yesterday I heard a SEOPE in a fight say that if it would die it would die with as many people as possible, before his self-destruction. I guess the was a holder from it's being", Reggie prompted him.
Jude looked surprised for some reason but he placed it aside and said,"The more reason why we need your power, you are the world's new hope.
These SEOPEs are a joke compared to those I saw during my days on my planet".
Reggie said suddenly,"Jude, I'll do it. I'll fight them so please teach me all know about the power".
End of chapter
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Next chapter- Entering a New Life.
Involves Reggie learning how to utilize the powers of the crystal of dead