A Past with an Alien

CHAPTER 37

IRIS

Chords attached to my body retreated on their own. I felt an intense shudder, and the short aliens surrounding me ran away in every direction. I couldn't stop crying every moment, and loud booming sounds were everywhere.

Although chaos was everywhere from my peripheral point of view, I turned deaf, and everything went into silence. My eyes squinted at a flashing light above me. At first, I thought the gates of heaven were opening, and all the angels were coming out of them. I stopped crying and stared at it with wonder, looking at it with an absent gaze. I couldn't tell what was real or not from everything I witnessed. Was I dead or still alive?

The dazzling lights in the sky turned to thick smoke and then to fire. Objects were falling toward me, but I couldn't avoid them. I couldn't stand and run away. I lost my reflexes. The white glow above me had hypnotizing power. I still couldn't hear any sound. The world went into slow motion again until an oval-shaped metal figure popped into my vision. It had a black metal mask that opened and shifted, revealing a handsome face and pink-colored hair.

The handsome man opened his mouth as if to speak to me, but I couldn't hear him until I began to levitate. Was I floating? Because I wasn't in my right mind. Then a pain struck me, and I felt it in my cheek. I came back to reality. Different noises came back and became audible in my ear. Only then did I realize somebody had slapped me on my cheeks, which wasn't a hand. It was metal, and the pain lingered.

"Are you okay now?" Hector's face popped in front of me.

I grabbed my left cheek and glared at him. "Why did you slap me? Ouch!"

"You look spaced out, and it was just a tap, not a slap," he said.

Just a tap? My cheek ached like hell. I turned my gaze around and noticed the chaotic scenes again.

"We're at war now, Iris," Hector said. "We will save all of your people."

I pointed my finger toward the church. "They're hiding them all there." I noticed the stray laser beams kept hitting its walls.

"Let's go now, Iris."

When Hector said those words, my courage soared again. I was back to being okay now. But I felt stunned when someone popped out near us. "Hector, behind you!"

I screamed in shock. A tail struck Hector's waist, flinging him high in the air away from me. It was Crey, the animal, who did it. He glared at me and leaped forward, which made me step backward. My fear returned, and I didn't know what to do until someone blocked and punched him.

"S-sir Ezeros?" I uttered.

Sir Ezeros looked at me and kicked a weapon toward me. This was the weapon they taught me and gave me. I nodded at him without saying anything, grabbed it, and gathered some determination. My courage came back again. I remembered the shell Nommos gave me, so I searched for it inside my suit. I pulled it out and rubbed it between my palms. Then a blue-colored light like water inflated like a balloon and wrapped around my whole body. I paced forward and searched for Hector.

I couldn't recognize the plaza; even the whole Poblacion looked devastated. I couldn't accept that the places where I grew up were now in ashes and rubble. I don't want to see our house at this moment.

Even though everyone was intermingled together, they still knew who their friends and foes were. I felt a sense of belonging that made me almost believe I was already a member of the Alien Convention for real. Imagine that they do these things for us, and I am very thankful for them. They indeed exist, and now I'm a part of them. I will battle it out just like them as a token of gratitude.