Mel tapped her foot in anticipation. This girl was such a strange alien! Then again she was fascinated more by the similarities then the differences of this curious being. Also wouldn’t any alien be strange? Of course the fact that aliens existed and were coming to Earth thrilled her. She wanted to know everything about her! Seeing one act so awkwardly human as she dressed was just so adorable!
Finally the door creaked open causing Mel to gasp in anticipation- and gasp again when she saw her new friend. “You look great!”
Pyx felt the crinkling of her hair ribbons again and puckered up her cheeks. She found it caused a little odd interference in her weird brain-wave sensing hair. She looked down at the skirt running down towards her knees… female clothes. They were held by the widened hips she had and seemed to draw more emphasis towards her large inhuman kangaroo-like feet. She was an alien, dressed in human clothes… suddenly the old program ET came to her mind. How long would she have to do this for.. when can she get her old body back!
Mel patted her shoulder. “So! The usual schedule is for warm ups first. That means maybe either athletics- oh or sometimes baseball. Though I think we’re going to do some mini-games of basketball first- hey you listening?”
“Yeah.. sorry this is just all a bit new to me.” The alien girl said looking up at her. Mel was kind of a small girl and in some ways that made her easier to talk to. Being in this body meant living in a world of giants. She ran her hand across the weird tendrils of hair..
Mel watched those three fingers mesmerized as they touched. “Your hair is so cute! Can I touch it?”
Pyx felt her hair bunch up again- and Mel seemed to take this as her queue. “Oh wow- it’s so soft!” she thought as she put her fingers around the tendrils. “They feel kinda like noodles. Makes me want to nibble em.” she moved closer…
“Ah please don’t!” Pyx felt that weird instinct again to absorb her memories and quickly suppressed it. Fortunately it seemed that any hesitation was enough to simply stop like an instinct to not jump of a cliff. The alien girl focused her attention on Mel as she withdrew her hand- and started sniffing at her own palm to take in its scent.
“It smells like… a fresh new book!” Mel declared. “Neat!”
Pyx guessed her skull must have some kind of barrier to protect her own thoughts from getting sensed in some weird feedback. It was either that or she was subconsciously able to block her own thoughts from the tendrils though there was a certain passive awareness that increased in her embarrassed state. It was akin to being aware of ones own heart beat? Perhaps the tendril motion was some kind of instinctive action to prevent that feedback? There were so many weird specifics about this body that she was just learning as she went. (At least going to the bathroom was normal.) Before she could say another word though the human girl grabbed Pyx’s arm and pulled on her.
“H-Hey-!” Pyx gasped surprised by how easily she was dragged away. This body was so weak. She wasn’t some kid though! The way the back of her legs fluttered against the new skirt sent shivers across her tail.
“Come on I’ll show you where we play!” The taller human girl grinned still beaming.
Pyx tried to stop by going onto the balls of her feet. However the floor was quite smooth as she was literally gliding like she was on roller-skates! Curiously enough her feet didn’t seem to get any damage as it moved like that. Did she have some kind of inbuilt roller-skates or something? Another thing to explore perhaps.
Mel looked down at her new friend intrigued by the lack of friction as she pulled her but they were already at a sports hall with some basketball hoops at either end and benches on the side. It was currently empty but wouldn’t be for long.
“So have you ever played basketball? They got anything like this on your planet? Do you play sports? Do you have television? Oh of course you do I mean you have a spaceship! Is there like a planetary league of sports? Oh I notice you have no shoes so does that mean you wont need them?”
Pyx stared at the dazzling display of neurological motion at each question. “Uh- yes.”
“That must be useful! Not needing to wear shoes but I guess you got to be careful where you step!”
“No- I mean- Yes I played basketball before. I.. can’t say about the rest-”
“Oh! So it’s a secret. Right I get’ya,” Mel winked. “No need to tell me. All these new weird rules that Earth is probably going to have to follow.” The girl nodded as she spun a ball on her finger only for it to move lopsided and bounce across the hallway. “oops,” she laughed.
“Uh- I’ll get it.” Pyx ran after the ball to also give her a minute to think away from the chaos that this Mel was. Though she did like her those thoughts were so- distracting! As she ran to the end of the hall so the rest of the girls began to come inside and see her. “Oh-” Pyx gulped. She had never seen so many girls in their gym clothes before pouring in. Sure sometimes in a distance but the fact that she was herself wearing a skirt made the alien-girl feel all the more at odds at the situation.
“Hey it’s the alien girl!” One of the girls exclaimed. “She’s in our class? She looks so cute!”
‘… okay karma I believe in you…’ this was what Scott had to deal with… wasn’t it? Something she herself did, God… what would he have done if Scott turned into this weird creature instead? He would have been… curious. Very curious too… “H-Hi...” Pyx gulped. “I’m G-r- P-yx.”
“Grepyx?” A tall blonde girl asked.
“Pyx.” The alien feigned a cough as she strained to look… way up at her. “Yes my name is a little tricky.” Damn it! Calling oneself a different name was hard. Also… why did girls look so hot in these outfits? Yet despite these feelings her body didn’t… well- the absence of that reaction caused a slight acute distress in her. He was literally looking at a line of (mostly) sexy girls!
Before Pyx could evaluate the feeling (or absence of feeling) Mrs Barinel blew her whistle. “Okay girl’s line up!” she said gesturing to a wall.
Pyx followed suit doing as the other girls did.. though she had to push herself a little further outward again due to her tail. She glanced down to the row at her side literally standing out from the crowd.
Mrs Barinel was a somewhat older teacher with light blonde grey hair. Pretty fit though for her age with a shapely body. Her voice still rich and warm though. “Okay girls I want to see some warm ups first, then some practice shots on the hoops. We’ll then do a soccer game outside.” The woman then looked downward towards the alien girl. “Ah, Pyx was it?” She chuckled. “Welcome to Earth.”
“… thanks Miss,” she mumbled quietly her hair in a constant state of 'crinklishness.'
Things became quite casual as everyone split into smaller ground. Though everyone was quite excited and Pyx couldn’t help but smile at the fact that the girls seemed into her- though a dash of water hit her thoughts as it was not in any way sexual, that she could tell. Maybe they saw her as a pet- crap- she was literally the mascot.. the same thing she thought Scott could become. The worst part of it was she certainly could look like a mascot being inhuman.
The cold thought came to Pyx at that point… sex was probably alien to her now. She guessed she could ask what her species did but- actually maybe it was best not knowing. No doubt it was something gross and best avoided until she got her normal body back.
Interestingly with each mind she encountered they all seemed to have a different... flavor? At least that was sort of how her brain seemed to read it. The somewhat pretty girl (certainly far more developed then Mel) was practicing placing a basketball in the net and she seemed to feel like... ice-cream? Then there was another girl, shorter and pretty average yet the thoughts were exotic tasting more like honey and cucumber. Looking at that she seemed to taste of.. salt? Huh… then again there was a color towards that sensation too- what the heck did purple mean-
“Hey catch!”
Pyx jumped and turned seeing Mel throw the ball. She threw it pretty hard as the alien extended her long arms feeling the ball’s impact pull her limbs towards herself. As she looked to Mel she got a better idea of the ‘taste’ of her thoughts now. It wasn’t really taste but her human brain was processing it that way in an effort to make sense of this new alien sense. It seemed to taste like paint- specifically the kind where a splash of every color was thrown onto a page and a straw used to mix it all up in dazzling displays. Artistic… Perhaps this particular mind elicited a more visual response? Bright dazzling lights akin to a stain glass window. It looked pretty-.
“Throw it back!” Mel called out.
“Uh- right.” Pyx threw the ball but.. her throw was actually pretty poor. She looked at her arms in confusion and in particular her wrists. They didn’t feel… like human wrists at all. Somewhat floppy? She experimented a few times and found that the muscles there didn’t seem to lock in position as they would for a human hand as easily. “Great..” she sighed. “I haven't found an advantage yet.. this is clearly a big disadvantage...” Curiously enough she could make her extended fingers very rigid. The three fingers seemed to resist bending more so then human fingers would but that strength did not exist in the wrists.. not to the same degree anyway. “Huh...”
...humans were very good at throwing. So much so they made a game of it. It wasn’t until she deeply thought about it that it was actually quite a unique ability.. maybe the Dalzins were also able to do it since they were mostly human- but she wasn’t… she couldn’t throw particularly well.
“You seem sad,” Mel tilted her head. “Did you hurt your hands? I like your three fingers. Does that mean your species count in threes too? So that would make four thirteen right? Uh...”
“I- I just realized I’m not good at throwing,” she frowned.
“Oh? Neither am I!” she giggled. “Actually I’m not good at a lot of stuff. Math, memorizing stuff, animals, cleaning, and I am terrible at baseball- hey maybe you can do good with a bat. That would be fun! You got a nice picture of a bat on your shirt. Are you a fan of baseball?”
“No! Well- yes. But-”
“I think baseball is fun!” Mel giggled.
‘Oh.. boy...’ Pyx groaned. This girl didn’t give her a chance to answer a question! Was she supposed to say something back? Though she didn’t get a chance as the ball came back to her with a bounce on the ground.
This time she didn’t catch it but gave it a strong slap back instead. Surprisingly this had a lot more impact then she would have imagined as the ball bounced higher up making Mel raise her arms high. “I got it!”
Interesting.. maybe the power of her hands were more in her fingers joints then? She could probably adapt…
The alien girl began to run a bit more and found she could sometimes move with an almost gliding motion on the back heel of her feet if she used the other to push forward. On a smooth surface as this it gave her an ability to move very efficiently.
A curious memory sparked in her- a lake of ice frozen solid. The way her feet were being used right now as a method of motion across a vast distance- where did this memory come from? A remanent memory perhaps? Urgh..
Scott felt a bit bad to keep Pyx’s origins a secret. She felt kind of sorry for the new Greg.. or Pyx. She guessed it was pretty smart to just use a new name. That was Scott’s first instinct too when her change into this body happened but it meant denying what happened to her and creating an entire new persona which- she might have kept for about a day before someone figured it out. Pyx didn’t seem to have a choice though given there were two of her- him- well- two of them. She had seen Greg- Human Greg a bit during the day and he seemed normal and casual as ever. It was like he was denying anything was different at all for him despite living with a new alien clone of sorts. The changes in schedule were designed to be shared out between them but inevitably Human-Greg seemed to have less of his own life disrupted.
He chatted with his friend Dennis and for the most part things seemed okay between them. Though She did catch Dennis look at her in.. one or two weird ways. Perhaps it was just curiosity or.. was that the way a boy looked at a girl? Would every guy look at her like…
“So what’s it like?” Asked one girl.
“Weird-” Dennis repeated endlessly with growing frustration. “Look it’s no big deal really-” She had explained her situation for the hundredth time… people had gone from surprise to curiosity to annoying very quickly. She didn’t want this celebrity status but it seemed she had little choice.
One guy a curious younger looking perhaps wearing goth-kind of attire with slim features and short black hair was clearly listening but not engaging as much. He closed his book and whispered something more to himself. “This seems unethical to me."
Dennis blinked but Scott turned to the voice. “What do you mean?”
The slim teen looked up. “… It’s not really my business.” He said a bit hesitant to say more. However with Scott looking up at him it seemed like something compelled him to say more. “No disrespect intended… but a mother is not so easily replaced… even with ‘time-stitching.’”
Scott blinked… then made a soft gasp. “You really think...” she almost stammered in anger her accent becoming thicker. “I don’t know what you mean mate, but that’s not how it is at all. It’s just.. the process made me her daughter.”
The young teen looked again down at his English assignment… then back to Scott. “They turned you into an alien.. and seem to be overshadowing the fact that you once did have a mother… isn’t that a bit unethical?” He spoke calmly but not unbothered of the gazes. It didn’t look like the boy was trying to cause distress but his words clearly caused a great tension. “… they changed reality to propagate… removing the old you. Did they value the new you more then the old human?”
Scott grimaced at the insinuation. “You would… get on well with my Uncle,” she said with a slight stammer. “They are not like that though. The Dalzin.. they care a lot about family. They just wanted it to work out-”
“… however,” the teen continued. “It is not that dissimilar to certain ancient human customs. Where one was married into a powerful family the ‘lesser’ family had to accept that as a loss. Ancient tribes and such. Still a dubious practice but it was acceptable in those times as the natural way of things,” he nodded. “Some would argue it brings stability…”
Now Scott was confused. Was this kid arguing with.. himself? “Well- I don’t know about ancient customs...” She shrugged. “I only know what happened to me.”
“… do you? If your reality is changed… how could you know? You are in the eye of that event, we are observers… you could change more and be unaware of it. If we are changed along with it, would any of us know Maybe your hair was always pink...” After this he went back to his book leaving Scott quite stunned.
The internet the humans created was… weird. Logical in some ways, a rudimentary network with some basis in real science but the protocols were the most inefficient garbage she had ever seen! Mathematics was supposed to be a universal concept- did these humans not understand the basics of a computer network?! It was like they had created a system out of string and cardboard endlessly re-engineering flawed mechanics.
This was ‘tin can on strings’ level of technology! No worse! Though.. maybe Ruri was being a little unfair. There there were some odd pockets of more notable technology- the voice recognition was pretty good… It seemed that the humans had prioritized facial recognition too? There was one planet that did come to mind when she thought of it. ‘So they are going the same way as Anair.. damn it, I thought this was going to be a nice planet too. Ah well.’
All the more reason to get off Earth before the inevitable happened. At least the humans have not yet worked out how to create R-bombs… though out of curiosity what was Earth’s current level of warfare? Oh good it was all listed in their text sites.
‘Atomic bombs, fusion bombs.. eh, nothing to worry about there.’ She heaved a virtual sigh of relief. The humans had a vague understanding of atomic science though nothing particularly serious. Mostly harmless really. She then began to learn about their current scientific endeavors and almost emitted a virtual laugh. ‘They think the universal model is- Ha- ha ha ha!’ Well… enough amusement. A quiet part of her cautioned that it was this ignorance that probably kept the Earth from its eventual fate but- they wouldn’t be ignorant forever. She gave this planet… a century or so if she was generous. For now though it might be a good place to take advantage of in the coming decades.
It was time to get back to figuring out how to get back to reality. If the saucer had proper virtualization gateway technology then obviously that was the way to pursue getting back to the real world. She had an easy ticket back! Then a simple communicator to recall back to her ship and get off this garbage world.
She grimaced as her systems brought her back to this… this stupid form. “Mischievous princess Ruri...” She sighed as she touched those large breasts and felt more then a little weird at the alien outfit. Was this a typical thing the humans created out of their artistic achievements? Why did she have long ears? Green hair flowing down to her waist and eyes to match. The outfit left little to the imagination and presented her chest quite prominently… showing her hips and legs… it was certainly not the kind of clothes she would wear by choice. How is it the humans have constructed digital avatars without proper virtual technology anyway!
This problem aside she focused on her real issue. How to get into the spaceship? Her original plan had been to access their systems but now she was on Earth’s internet she couldn’t find any obvious access ports to the flying saucer… it became clear she needed to port herself from the primitive communication device and into the saucer systems in some way...
She had one ally though that had taken an.. extreme liking to this avatar. It was almost amusing if a bit sad.
She accessed the system to give Dennis a call…
A weird anime inspired theme song started to play interrupting Dennis as he watched Scott talk to the group growing around him. “Uh- sorry just really got to take this.” The large teenager quickly walked outside to the hallways looking to his phone with quiet worry. He glanced back not even sure if he was noticed going out. “Hi- Ruri?” he asked quickly. “Is that you?” His heart beat faster…
“Yes sweetie it’s me,” She said with that synthetic voice. “You can see me if you like on your screen.”
Dennis turned the phone and saw her. Sexy… sexy Ruri. He almost had a nose bleed as he saw those aching curves and the most beautiful eyes. Green hair that was the most exotic softness as the virtual avatar shimmered on his phone. “Oh.. wow-”
“I need a favor...” She whispered looking down quietly then back into his eyes., “.. could you help me?”
“I- I would. Of course I would.” Anything to help this being- even if he knew on some level it wasn’t the real Ruri as she was a fictional character but looking at her when she asked so softly how could anyone say no? “What do you need?”
Ruri smiled. Were all humans this easy or was it just this Dennis? “Well.. I really want to reach out and.. touch you..” She said as she put her hand on the screen… on her side of the great wall that separated their two realities.
Dennis quivered as he put his large palm onto the screen... the finger eclipsing Ruri’s head. Such a small thing- so fragile.. so much in need of protection from any bad guys. His instinct and very nature demanded he help her. “You’re in luck- my friend is an alien now and she can help-”
Ruri tried to get what information she could about Scott but there was surprisingly little on the internet. Mostly she got information on various text messages between the two as they exchanged banter on various aspects of the human cultural database. “I- I am sure she can but… I need more time to figure out if her ship can help me. Your internet is a bit difficult to work in.” Difficult was an understatement. How far had she had to spread herself out to just think clearly? She was sure some small part of her existed in all local machines by now. She doubted anyone would notice though… humans couldn’t see her for what she was with their limited programs and machines. The Dalzin however almost certainly would.
Dennis looked to her again his eyes dilated like a puppy. “I think.. you’re the most beautiful and loving girl in the world brought to life. Fighting for truth and love and-”
Ruri was almost gagging. ‘Oh this man-child...’ she looked back up. “Well it’s nice to be appreciated!” she giggled- that was weird. She didn’t want to giggle exactly but it just sort of came out so .. naturally? Something wasn’t right…
“Could- Could you.. strike your victory pose!” Dennis almost gripped the phone tighter.
Ruri had no idea what he was talking about. Yet as if guided by some strange instinct her arms began to outstretch resting to her fore-head. She puffed up her chest and spread her legs slightly, with one leg at an angle. A slight blink of confusion as the words came out of her lips. “Stars shining for Princess Ruri!” what the heck?!
“Oh wow! Yes!” Dennis gasped with tears almost in his eyes. “Thank you Ruri you’re the greatest-”
“Uh.. your welcome,” Ruri blinked again. What the heck was that? Clearly the avatar had some connections to a database on this phone- her virtualised brain was spread across a few places so perhaps it was gaining associative memories… having had to improvise her brain was drawing on some of the data in their primitive internet… she could purge it though and remove its influence once she unpicked it.
Dennis continued to look to her with loving eyes. “When we get to your ship- can.. can I be captain? For a while maybe?”
“Sure.. sure.. absolutely…” She nodded. Damn this was weird! Why did she feel like she just couldn’t take advantage of him? It wasn’t what she usually did… mostly she just hacked and stole then gave the contracted item. Nobody got hurt of course… a clean entry and clean getaway. Though being paired up with someone like Dennis was putting her in a position she never thought she would be. She kind of felt… sympathy for him?
It was best to get this fixed up quickly and she could leave him and this crazy world.
Ruri looked to Dennis with determination. “So here’s the plan… I need you to go into that saucer with me.”
“Why?” Dennis tilted his head.
Ruri sighed. “Because… it’s the only way back I can think of. To- you know… touch you and get to know you.” She looked down. “I’m sorry I just don’t know any other way to get to you...”
Dennis gasped at that. Ruri needed to get back to this world and only the stuff in the saucer could do it? He felt a terrible burden. Scott was his friend after all. “I got to ask Scott first,” He said. “I’m really sorry Ruri but it’s not mine to ask.”
“Oh it’s okay I know, of course you can ask Scott-” She tried to recover his sensibilities. “We’re not going to do anything bad you know. I just want to have a look and see if the system is one I can use. It might not be possible to use anyway… if it’s no good I wouldn’t want to be a bother and can look elsewhere.”
The request seemed reasonable. Just a quick look? “Well… I guess we can do a quick look if Scott doesn’t mind. Maybe I can offer to help clean up or something.”
Ruri hoped that would suffice for now. The less attention she had the better until things were back in her favor. “Thanks Dennis I owe you one. She said. “I’ll just stay with you for a few days and I’m sure something will eventually present itself. I do want to see you in reality though.”
“Oh? Perfect! You’ll stay with me a- a few days?!” Dennis felt like the luckiest anime-fan ever. His true love was brought to life… living with him.
It was good to wait for a bit. Ruri needed to look at her systems. Something just wasn’t right… it wasn’t a corruption exactly but...That weird.. data was creeping in her brain somehow. She finally understood why. “That idiot’s communication device is loaded with trivial information and my algorithm is confusing it for memory!”
She isolated it and removed the pesky file and firewalled it out. The file structure was surprisingly compatible to her own systems. She had made the assumption that nothing Earth made would be… but much like the Avatar she was stuck with certain things seemed to just stick to her.
Curious she quietly examined some of the shows and tried to learn more about ‘mischievous’ space princess Ruri.’ The plot was.. all over the place and it seemed that there was actually very little information it in their internet. It was a show considered… rare to this species? How can information be rare? It seemed to be a ‘specialist knowledge’ type of information. She learned this was due to.. censorship? “huh…” This confused her more. So because these images made humans blush- or ‘could’ elicit thoughts that ‘might’ make them blush? “Okay, new lesson on humans… they are self loathing creatures… and probably crazy,” she shook her head. “Best get to work.”
She started to design a program. These devices had one commonality… audio. A program to convert her neurological being into sonic data form then she could upload herself into the Dalzin systems. The problem was it would take an awful lot of time… this was the equivalent of dial-up even with some fancy software she could quickly fix up. She would have to compress her data somewhat too- all of this was risky as that would require suspension when the time came…
… what if her transfer was interrupted? Certainly she had protocols to abort if that happened but it wasn’t impossible for her data to end up corrupted- no of course not. That wouldn’t happen! She just needed to be sure it would work correctly. Once she was on the Dalzin network she could access their de-virtualiser and return in the normal flesh….
It was now time for soccer. It was interesting how the girls did their sports- there were some notable differences though this might be curriculum based reasons. Everyone seemed a lot more focused on just having a good time- which was fine but… whenever she messed up Pyx expected a scolding and telling off- instead all she got was a literal pat on the back and told she did okay.
… it was almost condescending.
“Are they treating me like this because I’m an alien, a girl, or short?” Maybe it was all the above. She wouldn’t have it though. This was soccer and she had a chance to do a lot better. That was until they tried to insist on her to be a goalkeeper but no- she wouldn’t have that! She was going on the field and running.
Running on grass was.. different for her bare feet. She felt an odd shiver at the dew drops as they lingered slightly. She drew a deep breath as the ball came her way. Though actually kicking it in front of her proved a little tricky with the way her legs were built.
She found a slightly better way of kicking by going slightly more angular which resulted in some odd sensations from her tail- then the ball came back again and this time.. she waked it with her tail!
The group looked quite stunned as it went towards the goal… but missed hitting the post.
“Wow! Uh… is that a legal shot?”
“I’ll allow it,” said the couch. “she didn’t use her hands it’s fine.”
The final stages of the game went similar though Pyx couldn’t quite figure out how to move her tail like that again with fine control. Maybe that shot was just a fluke.
At the end of the game Pyx was sweating now. Feeling exhausted she let the long tail at the end suddenly lie limp on the ground as if by instinct. She was surprised as a cooling chill ran up her body from the new appendage as her heart seemed to pump harder back there. “H-uh?”
Was her tail also somehow regulating her temperature? She soon found herself less fatigued even while those around her were sweating far more. She looked awkwardly to Mel.
“That was an incredible game!” She said. “Man- you kick a ball hard.”
“I still missed the net,” Pyx muttered in annoyance.
“Yeah but the way you jiggled the ball using your tail too- how did you learn that! I kinda wish I had a tail now!” Mel beamed.
“… no you don’t,” Pyx sighed looking downward. Yet it didn’t seem that Mel was lying when she said that. In fact it didn’t look like her mind was capable of deception of any kind. In some ways she was the complete opposite of the more duplicitous Greg.. who even know had cast eyes on her body despite really being a guy- well- in her own head anyway.
“Sure I do!” Mel smiled. “I like dogs cats, horses and mice- That’s why they call me Pinky sometimes. You could be Brain!”
“You don’t say,” Pyx rubbed her own cheek a little in vague thought though she couldn’t help but grin and laugh at that reference.
The couch started to give them graded results on their performance ticking them off on a clipboard. “Mel, good job. You get a B.. and Pyx, I like the foot work and tail work. Uou get an A.”
“But- I didn’t score-”
“Hey sports is as much about effort. You put a lot in.”
… Pyx felt insulted. She was literally being given an A for effort not for a result. She deserved an F for failure! There wasn’t anything to be proud of in that game. Why were the girls so damn… forgiving?
“Time to get changed then!” Mel giggled. “Come on Pyx!”
Pyx sighed. “Yeah.. okay...” She idly wondered how human Greg was doing.
Human Greg was having a relatively easy day in school. Well… at least until the devious and dangerous reporter girl that will forever be known as Mary tried to pry more information about him and the alien.
“She’s just some exchange student,” He shrugged.
“I have contacts that look at every single drop off and alien coming to Earth. It’s not hard when they are in the tens you know, and only one or two ships at most. So either she beamed down here and they have actual transporter technology and decided to start at your house… or something else is going on. Come on, this alien was in that ship wasn’t she?”
Greg gulped. This girl was in some ways amazing with how she figured things out so quickly. Though she couldn’t tell if she was joking about these resources.. or if she just spent all day looking at news reports and putting it together- or possibly just lying to make herself seem bigger then she was. She only ran a school paper after all… one that nobody bothered reading. “Look, that alien isn’t anything I’m concerned about. I am just letting her stay at my house for a few days, then… she’ll probably go back to her world on a spaceship.”
That would be the best thing for everyone. To get that disgusting alien out of his life! That -thing- was on his bed, going through his stuff as if it belonged to him. It knew all of his secrets and it even acted like him. He was just a copy though! That didn’t make him have any automatic rights in Greg’s eyes. Sure he felt a bit of sympathy but it wasn’t his fault that the alien copied him!
“Anyway,” Mary sighed. “I got a new project. You seemed interested in learning about some alien technology before, want to try again?”
“God no,” Greg waved his hands. “Count me out. I took one step in the direction you suggested and my life has been… seriously inconvenienced.”
“How so? You have an alien guest for a while… sounds like a win to me. Maybe I’ll ask if she wants to have a sleep over with me? I’m sure there’s so much I can learn from the little pokemon-alien.”
“Hell no!” Greg gasped. “Leave it- her- she wouldn’t want that anyway.” What would that situation even- no way!
“Touched a nerve huh,” Mary tilted her head. “So your response indicates she is someone you care about.. yet you have never mentioned an alien in your life… hm… maybe uncovering this alien’s identity should be my new project. Unless of course you want to look into other alien stuff?”
Greg looked a bit annoyed. On the one hand he didn’t want Mary to pursue his new ‘sister’ clone or whatever she was until the situation can be resolved… the alien knew all his most embarrassing secrets- not that he had that many but he didn’t want Mary to know of them. He would get into trouble with his mother and… maybe a little bit of sympathy for the thing.“Alright- what’s on your mind now?”
“I want to learn more about Scott… and the process that changed her.”
Greg shrugged. “Learning about Scott is easy. Go talk to her, ask her and maybe she’ll talk. I know she won’t talk to me about it...”
“Huh… you are curious!” Mary suddenly beamed.
“What? No! I mean- well- maybe a little...” He wasn’t sure what to say to this. What could he say? If he wasn’t interested that would obviously be a lie but to confess that he was interested might imply weirder things.
“Hey it’s cool. A guy suddenly turned into a girl. Someone you personally know. Of course you want to know the implications. That’s where we can get on well you know? It’s sorta my job to find out the awkward truths… and figure a way to communicate it. Does she really feel like a girl? How much does it change her mind about things… if one has been truly, physically, right down to their very genome turned into a girl- an alien girl that can fly!” She raised her hands up to the sky. “What is that person’s limit? What is beyond our human limitations… that which we can’t see but have just caught a glimpse of?”
Greg looked uncomfortable. “Yeah so I am curious. Big deal, lots of people are. It’s not my business though.” He folded his arms defensively. The whole thing was messed up and his initial excitement was now a distant memory.
Mary gave an impish smile in return. “I am… going to tell you what I saw. You acted it up and brought the information out into the open. You -wanted- more information and tried to create the conditions for more information to flow out in your weird realm of chaos. You are actually quite crafty… I honestly think you know what you’re doing. Maybe you do love her-”
“Hey! Of course not. Not in that way,” Greg defended himself. “They were a bunch of dweebs and one of them became a hot girl. That’s all it was.”
“Right right. So, did you find out how it happened?”
Greg was glad for the change in subject. “Well- I don’t know but she spoke about it as some weird process in the wedding.”
“Right… there must be video footage. Something he did, I want pictures of the device. We’re going to figure out how it works.”
“Then... what… change reality again? ”
“Haha! You’re so funny Greg,” she giggled. “I’m just after a fun scoop. People have the right to know about alien reality shifting machines right? Besides even by looking at it we might get an idea of how it works… we could be pioneers that will one day set the seeds to create such a device of our own… I want to go among your friends and get wedding photos, footage… whatever you can find.”
“Yeah… alright… dunno what I can find but maybe I can find something.”
