Author’s Notes: This time it’s aliens!

-X-

"Thank you, have a good night." Andrew gave the last customer their change and plastic bag containing cigarettes, condoms, Mountain Dew Code Red, and skittles. Why did the weirdoes always have to come to his store? 7Eleven was always where Andrew wanted to be working when he started college. Not. Classes by day, store by night. It was hardly the life of Batman. As usual, he counted out the cash, put it all in the safe, filled out his timecard, pulled down the shutters, and locked the door. While the boy had a car, it was pretty pointless to drive when campus was just a fifteen minute walk down the street. Sticking his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie, Andrew started down the street.

This walk was usually pitch black and uneventful. Maybe once in a while something would skitter across the road, or Andrew might trip over something. But, the tired routine of his nightly walk back would be completely changed this chilly night. About half way through his walk, the pitch blackness was suddenly cut through like a knife by a blinding red light, thin like a laser pointer, steadily making its way down the road and heading straight for Andrew.

Naturally the red light caught his attention, but he didn't think much of it. This was a tech school. A local sect of nerds was probably trying out their latest contraption. Maybe they were even UFO geeks trying to replicate the latest Mother Ship they saw on . Andrew just sighed and shook his head. "I should have gone to business school," he mumbled as he continued toward his dorm building.

When Andrew and the light met in the middle of the road to his dorms, the light suddenly vanished. And instead, a huge mechanical arm reached down from above the clouds that coated the night sky and grabbed him, encasing his body as it started to project a garbled message in some incomprehensible language.

Okay... So maybe this wasn't some science fair project. Andrew struggled in the arm's hold, but it was far too strong for him. The buzzing nonsense was making his ears hurt and giving him a splitting headache. "What do you want?!" he shouted up into the air. The wind tousled his short brown hair wildly and his green eyes had to squint in order to keep from drying out in the elevation.

The hand just continued to emit the garbled words as it shot back up into the air. As they broke over the clouds, Andrew would get to see what the mechanical arm was attached to, and that was what looked like a gigantic rotating spaceship. The bottom hatch in the dome-like center opened up, and the arm carried him inside. When the door closed under him, he'd be suspended in pitch blackness.

"The fuck is this!" he shouted more out of fear than to anyone in particular. Andrew reached around in the darkness, really unable to see past his own nose, but hoped he would find a wall or a ledge of some sort to grab onto. "Who are you? What's going on? Duncan, I swear to god if you and your buddies spiked my soda... And if Reggie comes out wearing Spock ears I am gonna punch him square in the face!"

The garbled mess continued, seeming to radiate from all around him. Suddenly, it stopped, and there was only the sound of shuffling before a deep voice suddenly began to speak in an understandable way. "Greetings, creature of Earth. We have a few questions for you."

"What, like intergalactic Jeopardy? I don't think so. I am the one who wants answers!" he snapped. "Who. Are. You."

There was a resounding laugh, and then the lights all sprang to life at the same moment. Andrew would soon realize that he was on the floor of a plastic tube. Standing outside were three giant creatures all peering down at him through inverted eyes, their pupils white and irises black. They had long, thin faces that ended in pointed black noses and fins flickered on either side of their heads. They all had bones emerging from their chests and similar bony spines from their backs. Spikes from rose from their necks and backs, both of which were long and sloping. They had long arms that reached the ground, even though they were sitting up on giant kangaroo-like legs. Two smaller sets of arms grew from their hips, and a long whip-like tail thrashed around behind each of them. Each was different in color, all of them scaled.

The one on Andrew's left, who was mostly covered in red and orange scales, tapped on the edge of the tube with one of his three claws to demand the boy's attention. "We are the Obiryld. We are your superiors."

"Holy..." Andrew thought he might wet his pants. These creatures were huge, at least 24 feet tall. Their eyes sent shivers down his spine. Guy knew there was no way they were nerds in costumes. Hell, these guys looked they could toss him into the air and eat him for a snack if they wanted to. Andrew jumped when the red alien rapped on the plastic encasing him. Obiryld? "I... I'm having a bad dream..." he breathed.

One of the Obiryld smiled a fanged, toothy smile, and the other turned to what looked like a bank of computers and began typing furiously on oversized keys. "Believe what you want, but we still demand you answer our questions," the red and orange Obiryld continued.

Andrew pulled up his sleeve and pinched his arm. "Wake up... Wake up... Ow! Wake up!"

"Excuse me," he grunted. A small mechanical hand suddenly emerged from the floor and placed a collar around the boy's ankle. Only a second later, a shock coursed through Andrew's body from the collar. "Stop your nonsense."

"Ahh!" he cried out and clutched his leg. "What do you want from me?!"

"Are you a part of the dominant species on your planet?" he asked.

"Y-You mean humans? Well yeah."

Two of the Obiryld exchanged a disbelieving look. The last one just silenced them with a hissing noise. He then turned back to Andrew. "How long does your species live?"

"That all depends," he answered truthfully. Andrew was probably a little too smart for his own good right now.

"Give us an average," the Obiryld demanded, another shock traveling through Andrew's body.

"Ow!" His body started to tingle. "Ei-Eighty. Eighty years."

"And how old are you, human?"

"I just turned twenty years old a few months ago."

The Obiryld all looked at each other, and the one at the keys pressed a button and abandoned the bank of computers. "Good." The second Obiryld, this one a dusty yellow in color, suddenly lifted his hand and reached his long arm into the tube. He grabbed the back of Andrew's shirt and lifted him up, pulling him out so the three of them could look at him. "Are you sure humans are the dominant species?" the yellow one asked the red.

"They must be. We could not communicate with the others," he responded.

The third, a dark green one, just frowned. "He looks too small for this."

Andrew yelped when he was lifted out of the tube. This actually felt humiliating, dangling in the air like this. "I mean... there might be more animals combined than humans, but our intelligence and emotional capacities are greater than theirs. If that's what you mean." The boy squirmed nervously. "H-Hey guys, look... If I'm not right for what you're looking for, maybe you can just send me back to earth, huh? Sound good?"

"Silence!" the red and yellow Obiryld snapped, both at Andrew and the others. "We came all the way here to get the dominant species, and I'm not leaving without one! Gol'ye-rn, get him to the table, and For'gr-ne..." He paused, before grinning slyly. "Get my brother."

Gol'ye-rn looked at Andrew, before shrugging and making his way over to the other side of the room. There sat a long metal table, machines of all sorts looming over it, each still save for a few flashing lights. The gold Obiryld laid Andrew on the table, and at once, metal clamps emerged from it and snapped into place around his ankles and wrists.

"Oh god. Oh god. Oh god." Andrew was clearly panicking now. His breathing was fast and his heart beat wildly in his chest. He'd seen those movies. He knew what this was all for. "Please don't probe me!" the boy cried. "Oh my god. I'm still a virgin, man! This is gonna suck so bad. Please, please let me go. I won't tell anyone I was abducted, I swear. Please!"

"Probe you?" Gol'ye-rn asked, as For'gr-ne bustled out of the room, the doors sliding open as soon as he approached them and then slamming shut as soon as his whip-like tail had made it out. "I don't know what you humans think, but that isn't what we're going to do. We already have sufficient information about humans."

His green eyes widened and Andrew strained to get his head up and look at the alien. "Then what do you need me for?!"

Gol'ye-rn just made a face. "You? I personally don't think we need a human, but Cri're-br..."

"Are you talking to it?!" The red and orange Obiryld was at once over at the table, snarling angrily at Gol'ye-rn.

"No, Cri're-br, I was just---"

"Do me a favor," Cri're-br cut him off, pointing at the equipment. "Just man the machines and shut your mouth."

Gol'ye-rn sighed and slunk behind the table to put his hands on the buttons, making a few of the machines suddenly jump to life. As he did, the door slid open again, and For'gr-ne returned, but a slightly smaller, young looking Obiryld followed him.

He was red, like Cri're-br, but instead of fading orange scales, he had random bands of black along his long arms, the bridge of his nose, and his tail. "You wanted me for something?" he asked, only for his inverted eyes to fall on the table.

"It's your turn," Cri're-br said brightly.

Oh jeez... There was another one? Why was it looking at him? Why were the machines suddenly turning on? If they weren't going to probe him, then what were they going to do? Were they going to eat him? Kill him? Make him their pet? By now Andrew's breathing was frantic and the poor boy was sweating bullets. "What's going on!" he suddenly cried as loudly as he could.

The newest Obiryld flinched when Andrew screamed. The others just seemed to ignore him. "Brother, I don't think I can..."

"Oh, come now, Has'wh-ai," Cri're-br said, slinking over to the littler red Obiryld and wrapping his arm around spiked shoulders, pulling him over to stand in front of the table. "Aren't you honored? It's finally your turn! Just use the Earth specimen and we can get the ship moving again."

"I..." Has'wh-ai started, biting his scaly lip with huge, white fangs. "I want to use the machine."

Cri're-br groaned loudly. "I thought you scored high on the draft, little brother! Why do you need to use the machine?"

"I just want to, okay? I don't want to do it myself my first time," Has'wh-ai said, though he seemed to stumble over his words.

"Fine," Cri're-br said, shaking his head. "Remove your sac and put it in the tray."

"Alright," Has'wh-ai said, looking sympathetically at Andrew as the spines on his back suddenly retracted. Instead, two long, red tentacles emerged in their place, carrying a circular object that morphed between purple and black. He placed it on a tray hovering over the table, and a long tube dropped from it, snaking its way down, guided by the Obiryld at the controls.

"Beginning implant in 3, 2, 1…" He counted down before the tube was suddenly pushed down Andrew's throat and the black and purple liquid from the tray began its slow decent down the tube.