And now it begins: Mammoths, secret Chinese stations, and some answers.

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Chapter 7

Squawks woke up on a bed, in a metal room. Scribbles was on his right and Bluewing on his left. Rodriguez was on a table, medic still doing her work. He had a painful headache.
‘Ow… my head…’ he muttered.
‘Usually happens the first time someone goes through the teleport. The disorientation will wear off soon. And your friends should be awake soon too.’ The medic responded without even looking up. She muttered something about shrapnel and how difficult it was to remove, and she got back to work. Squawks got up and glided through the door, into what seemed to be the control room. Ka-Shan was sitting on a chair in the middle, so Squawks landed on a table next to him.
‘Good! You’re awake. You up to chasing the alien mother ship?’ he asked. Squawks nodded, confused.
‘Alright! Pilot, full thrust, because we are going to follow that ship!’ he shouted. A ‘Yes, sir!’ was heard somewhere from one of the Lukarians in other seats. Ka-Shan spoke into a speaker on his armrest, which was rather near to Squawks.
‘All available personnel to battle stations! I repeat all available personnel to battle stations! This is not a drill!’ he shouted into the speaker, and he then hit a green button. His voice echoed through the hallways of the ship. Squawks was slightly more dazed then before due to the fact that Ka-Shan’s shouting hurt his ears.
‘Sorry. That hurt your ears?’ he asked Squawks.
The macaw replied with a slightly dazed ‘Yes.’
‘Sorry.’
‘So, how’d we survive? I know we were teleported, but this ship was away by then.’ Squawks asked.
‘Luckily, this ship, my ship, the Nova, was still close enough to pick us up. The pilot noticed that the mother ship was attacking, so it came back and teleported us up right when that hunk of masonry was flying at us.’
‘Right… and we’re going after the mother ship now?’ Squawks said as he looked out the front window. Outside, he could see the sky turning to a dark orange. How long has he gone now? 25, 30 days?
‘Yes.’
‘And why have you taken us along?’
‘You have traveled for a long time to find out things, correct?’
‘Yeah. To find out about my parents, my friends, and many things.’
‘Well,’ Ka-Shan said, rolling the l. ‘Your friend Rodriguez said that you were trying to find out why that plague came into existence, correct?’
‘Yeah, but it was that other species, correct?’
‘Actually, it wasn’t. If you want, I can send you and your friends down once their fit, and you can figure it out yourself.’
‘Yes, that would be helpful. Thanks.’
‘Of course. Now then, when you and your friends are ready…’
‘Well, they’re not yet.’
‘Yes we are!’
Squawks turned to see Scribbles leading Bluewing and Rodriguez out of the room. Rodriguez’s limp was gone, with a large bandage in its place.
‘You’re all alright!’ Squawks said in surprise.
‘Of course. Now what was that about heading to China?’ Bluewing said.
‘We need you to find out why the disease that wiped out the humans was created.’ Ka-Shan responded.
‘It wasn’t made by this other species, senor?’ Rodriguez asked. He had a certain perkiness to his voice, like he just had a large cup of coffee.
‘Nope. We’re coming close now.’ Ka-Shan responded. He was right. The ruined skyline of some Chinese city could be seen. It was in such a state of disrepair, that as they spoke, a section of one of the rusty building’s roof fell off, bounced of another building, and landed on a car. The car’s alarm tried to go off, but couldn’t due to the fact it was mostly rusted away. It went on for a second, and then stopped.
‘Doesn’t look very safe.’ Scribbles said.
‘No city is safe anymore, senora.’ Rodriguez replied.
‘Very true, Rodriguez. And speaking of which, there seems to be some scouts of this other species. Be very, very carful. Oh, and good luck.’ Ka-Shan said before flicking a switch and teleporting the team down to the ground.
‘Darn it! What is that guy doing?!’ Squawks shouted, practically landing on his head from the teleport. One of the turrets on the front of The Nova aimed at a wall which was then broken by one of this other species. The turret fired, ripping the creature to bloody shreds. The Nova then flew off, but not without dropping a note. Maybe it was teleported down or something, but it was just a paper note. Squawks opened it up, and it read:
Sorry about the abrupt drop off, but we had to go, needed to fight these creature’s mother ship. Meet us back here, in this square, in 5 days. Hopefully, that’s long enough to find out what happened here.
-K.S.
‘How neat.’ Bluewing said, noticing the note.
‘Wish he could of said it instead of writing it.’ Scribbles said, annoyed.
‘Well, it looks like we have a quest, a mission to do, senors.’ Rodriguez responded. ‘This, this will be fun.’

Meanwhile, in the Carabian Sea, a rust-specked speed boat skimmed the blue-green waves. In the boat, a chimp was at the controls, listing to some 60’s music. The water lapped at the sides, some getting tossed in. every now and then, the chimp would toss some water out using a bucket that he picked up before. He had visited a friend and seeing he was alright, the chimp left, with a few things.
Monkeywrench whistled with the jaunty music, slightly out of tune with it.
‘I hope Squawks and his group are alright…’ he said to himself. He heard a low rumbling sound, like a heard of elephants were just about to come over the horizon.
‘What the…’ he muttered. He looked into the water, watching some lights dance in the water. They were getting brighter, very quickly. M.W grabbed his rusty old revolver, and watched as the lights came closer. He could now tell that there were several different colors, and they were in an odd shape.
Um… is that a mouth? M.W thought. He was right. He stepped out of the way just when a large serpent crashed out of the water. It was a huge, slimy thing, with dark-green scales. Its mouth opened up, sporting some huge, sharp fangs. It looked like it was making the light, like how an angler fish attracts food. Its larger, reptilian eyes eyed Monkeywrench. The chimp responded by shooting at the thing’s eye. It missed, and bounced off its scales. The creature tried to eat M.W by taking a bite of him, but missed him. Instead, it tore a hole in the bottom. Water was seeping in!
‘What? -damn it!’ M.W cried. He fired off several more shots, only one hitting its mark. The serpent reeled back, its eye in bloody bits. It swung down, vision impaired, but it had its mark.
Monkeywrench’s last words were: ‘God help me.’ Before he disappeared in the serpent’s jaws, his revolver falling from his hands, but not before firing one more shot. That shot flew into the thing’s jaws, cracking through the base of its skull and imbedding in its brain. It died instantly, but it was too late for the chimp. The serpent fell into the ocean, taking Monkeywrench and the boat with it.

High up in the sky, the Nova flew through the clouds. Ka-Shan’s ship was an old ship, covered in battle scars. But like any good ship, it had a mission. It had to follow the enemy’s mother ship, find out their names, and, hopefully, destroy it.
‘Get those guns ready, men. We may be in for a fight.’ He said over the intercom. He and his species have visited the earth many times, even started a legend by accident, looking for galactic criminals.
But now, without the humans, who was going to protect the planet? The animals? Possibly, but they have no defenses. The dead bones of the humans? Of course not. Well, it looks like it’s up to us, Ka-Shan thought.
The Nova frightened a flock of geese that were near. They could see the ship, far off in the distance!
No time to think, time to act! Ka-Shan thought, nodding to the pilot who looked like he needed a response.
‘Pilot, take us in.’ he said.
‘Yes sir!’ the pilot chimed, like it was a happy time. It certainly wasn’t. Ka-Shan could already see the mother ship’s turrets appearing on the underbelly of the hull.
‘Shields up to maximum!’ Ka-Shan shouted. Luckily, since they get good funding for being the galactic police, they can get the best shields credits can buy. The shields raised just in time, because a large blast bounced off of it.
‘Shields down to 93 percent, sir!’ one of the workers shouted. The Nova had several weapons, one of them being what the humans called a rail gun. Their various ammunition actually pinged off the hull of the enemy ship, without the energy fluctuations of shield damage. They had no shields? So how are they still alive?
‘Fire the rail gun!’ Ka-Shan shouted. The large metal pole went flying at them and tore straight through the ship. Due to the fact they were nearly in space, it must have been de-pressurized. Did they win? Nope, because they were still getting shot at.
‘Shields down to 65 percent! Gah!’ The workman cried. A blast of steam came out of one of the pipes on the ceiling, enveloping him. Ka-Shan turned around, deciding quickly what to do.
‘Let’s get out of here! God knows where we’ll find replacement parts on this planet.’ He said, getting thrown out of his chair by the Nova shaking. The ship basically fell through the clouds, heading for a place to stop off at and repair.
‘Hang on!’ the pilot shouted. He spun the ship in barrel rolls, avoiding blasts. His seat had a seatbelt, unlike some of the others, including Ka-Shan’s. The Nova was an old ship, and it lacked artificial gravity, so the crew of the Nova got bounced off of walls, control panels, and each other. The pilot and some of the crew in the front had seatbelts, so they knocked heads with the dazed crew. When the ship stopped spinning, Ka-Shan got up from on top of one of his crew.
‘What were you doing, pilot?!’ he shouted, clearly annoyed and bruised.
‘Sorry sir, had to avoid the shots. Our shields are back to full power because of that.’ The pilot responded. He was an odd one out of his species, due to his white fur.
‘You could have warned us…’
‘I did. I shouted “hang on!” before I did the maneuver.’ The pilot interrupted.
‘…sooner.’
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Get this ship out of here, before we need to do such a maneuver again.’
‘Of course, sir.’
‘And someone get a medic down here! Unless they have also cracked their head on a blasted piece of machinery.’
‘Sir?’
‘Ugh!’ he said, before he kicked a control panel. ‘Ow!’

Down on the ground, the team of animal adventurers (yes, we can call them that now) wandered the dusty streets of the rusty Chinese city.
‘Wow, I never thought we would go this far around the world.’ Scribbles remarked. ‘I know we’ve gone far, Squawks, but China? Wow!’
‘I’ll admit, I’m a little surprised myself.’ Bluewing responded. He cocked his head. ‘Guys, stop! I hear something.’
He was right. A light rustling noise could be heard, then a yowl of a cat.
‘Here, kitty kitty kitty…’ Rodriguez said. ‘Whoa!’ he shouted, avoiding the alien that just crashed through one of these many thin wooden walls, one that was kicking around some poor tomcat like a soccer ball. It was very clearly frightened. The team reacted with some ferocity. Squawks flew above the alien’s head to a balcony where potted plants waited. Bluewing flew directly at it, trying to claw its eyes out. He was batted into a wall. Rodriguez charged him, sending him flipping onto his back, the mutt’s sombrero getting knocked off. Scribbles knocked the alien’s gun out of his hands and sent it spinning. The alien was getting up to grab it (and probably strangle Scribbles as well) but was knocked out by having a small tree land on him from above, courtesy of Squawks. Rodriguez tried to pick up the alien’s gun, but failed. He slid it over next to its head and shot it, killing it instantly. A painless kill. The battered tomcat ran off, seeing two dogs right after getting battered by a big lizard must have been nerve-wracking for the poor thing. Rodriguez slid his sombrero back on.
‘Why’d you kill it?’ Scribbles asked Rodriguez.
‘Senora, it would have called for reinforcements, seeing we’re here. They probably know us from the Monterrey crater.’
‘We’re going to call it that now?’ Squawks butted in. ‘Anyways, what about Bluewing?’
‘Oh dear… he’s unconscious again. I’ll carry him, you two go ahead.’ Scribbles responded, picking up the unresponsive macaw. But in Bluewing’s mind, he as having problems of his own…

Bluewing was in a huge room, with dark brown walls on either side, with several tunnels winding through them. He couldn’t see the other side of the room, due to it being shrouded in mist. Some force was pulling him in, like when he felt like he had to run at the Monterrey crater. Like it would be safe in there. God, something was beckoning him. He tried to fly to one of the holes in the wall, but for some reason, he went into the mist, not under his control! But he did notice that the walls were dirt, so he must be underground. He felt a chill go through him.
Underground, not the best place for a creature of the air and the treetops… he thought. He could then see some shape in the darkness, one that looked like one of the mysterious aliens. And it was! The alien was of a thinner shape, like it was a female, and it probably was. It wore a headdress (a large one at that!) and some type of robe that allowed the large back fin to poke through. He was forced to land near the creature, near enough to depict the individual scales. But the vision was blurred, like it wasn’t totally there. Perhaps it was just a hologram…
‘You are the creature that is called… Bluewing, yes?’ she said.
Bluewing could only talk, not move. So he had to respond. ‘Yes, but who are you?’
‘I am the queen.’
‘The queen of what?’
The queen of the Hive. You have been noticed at the settlement that was once called Monterrey. You and your friends are known to the Hive. You have also been consorting with the Lukarians, a vile species.’
‘Oh, you haven’t met them yet. They’re fine fellows. And how are you talking in a way I understand? All those… drones just seem to growl and roar.’
‘They are incapable of speech unless I make them talk. Now, I am warning you, Bluewing of Monterrey, you will die if you continue this petty adventure; you will be killed by my drones. Leave the planet with you mammal friends, the Lukarians, and leave this planet to us. It is ours now, and you and your friends cannot stop us.’
‘We’ll see about that.’ Bluewing said, defiantly.
‘We shall never be defeated by the likes of you! Be gone, foul creature, be gone! Go to your pitiful friends and pray that we shall have mercy on your feathery hide!’ the queen shouted, doing an odd movement with her hands (claws, possibly.). Bluewing’s vision started to fade, with the queen disappearing and Rodriguez’s head appearing, saying: ‘Wake up, senor Bluewing! Wake up!’

Scribbles was on the caved-in roof of a building which may have been a hotel, before the plague, and Squawks was wandering through the hallways of the building, looking for anything useful. He found a good few rotting corpses. Rodriguez was in the lobby underneath a crystal chandelier. Scribbles was searching for the building that where the plague may have come from.
‘What would the building look like? Probably grey, with fences, towers, and floodlights, no doubt.’ She mumbled to herself. ‘Watch dogs too, but they probably escaped weeks ago. It may look like a prison…’ she pawed a bit of rusted metal. ‘Oh, I miss the days when I was a little pup.’ She imagined the rusted little piece of iron to be a squeaky ball, one like the one she used to play with in the L.A fire depot, half a world away. She looked up from the bit of metal, and saw a building near the middle of the city, one with a huge spire towering above the rest of the buildings. Several flocks of birds had made homes in it, with clouds of black, grey, and even some yellow flying about it. Just like Tulsa, she thought. Hopefully not as many falling bits of rubble. That’s where we need to go! She watched the city for a bit longer, watching the bits of paper get blown about like they wanted to be birds, rusted buildings almost attracting them. It was peaceful, for a ruined city. She turned to see Squawks fly over.
‘Good spot you found up here. Any ideas?’ He asked.
‘See that tall tower, the one with all the birds clustered around its top?’ Scribbles responded, pointing to the tower.
‘Yeah. What about it? You think that’s where this all started?’
‘Uh-huh. Quite the distance, though.’
‘We’ll make it. C’mon, Bluewing’s awake.’

Scribbles and Squawks came down the large main stairs, noticing Bluewing talking about something with Rodriguez.
‘I saw them, when I was asleep! They’re called the Hive, and I met their queen! C’mon, Rodriguez, believe me!’ he shouted.
‘I would, senor, but it sounds just like a dream.’ Rodriguez said.
‘No, I don’t think it was. It was one of those… oh, what’s it called? Starts with an M…’
‘Mental link?’ Squawks put in.
‘Thanks you. As I was saying, it must have been a mental… oh, hello you two. I hope you believe me.’
‘I do, if that helps. I’ve always believed my friends. And you guys are my only friends, except maybe Ka-Shan, of course.’ Squawks said, landing on the stairs’ wooden railing.
‘Oh, that’s sweet! Thanks, Squawks.’ Scribbles said, walking over to Rodriguez. The lanky mutt’s sombrero looked like it was going to fall off. ‘Lets just hear what he has to say.’
‘Thank you, Scribbles!’ Bluewing shouted. ‘As I was saying, it must have been an artificial mental link between me and the queen of the Hive…’ he said. He then told his friends about the little pleasant talk he had with the queen.
‘Hardly a benevolent queen.’ Scribbles said, once the blue macaw had finished.
‘I had thought that too! She’s terrible.’ Bluewing said. Rodriguez seemed to be hearing something.
‘Senors, quiet! I can hear something!’ Rodriguez hissed.
‘Another cat?’ Squawks teased.
‘Well, it was a cat! That time, at least. Please, quiet!’
‘Sorry.’
Rodriguez was right; there was surely something out there. There was a scratching sound, a loud one. The group was frozen in fear.
‘Should we get up the stairs?’ Bluewing whispered.
‘Good idea. Very silently, now…’ Squawks responded, flying as quietly as he could. It didn’t work out very well. They were half way up the carpeted stairs when there was a loud roar and the front door, along with most of the wall surrounding it. The group just turned and ran, not noticing what the creature was.
‘Run!’ Scribbles shouted, dashing down the once clean halls.
‘You mean fly?’ Squawks suggested.
‘For you! I gotta run! She shouted, skidding down a turn. Whatever the creature was, it was having a hard time fitting in the hall. There was loud crashes as the walls fell behind it, getting the team to run (or fly) faster. Squawks took a quick look.
‘Did anyone even see it?’ he shouted breathlessly.
‘No!’ the group replied.
‘Well, I did. It was a wooly mammoth!’
‘What?’ Rodriguez said.
‘I said it was a…’
‘I heard you the first time!’ Rodriguez interrupted.
‘But why… in god’s name… is a mammoth chasing us?!’ Scribbles panted. She was starting to slow.
‘I dunno, but… let’s get out the window!’ Bluewing shouted, darting out a large open window. The group followed, jumping out the window (It was on the 4th story.), off a tractor trailer truck, off a parked car, and onto the ground. They continued running, until there was an almighty crash as the wall exploded and the mammoth dropped 40 feet through a diesel truck. There was what could classify as a whine, and it then stopped breathing. It was dead. The group turned to look at the beast.
‘Extinct again… damn, what was wrong with it?’ Bluewing said.
‘Please Bluewing, can you not swear?’ Scribbles asked.
‘Sorry. Why was it here?’
‘I had heard of scientists trying to recreate the wooly mammoth from frozen remains by cloning. Maybe they succeeded, and it got free?’ Squawks suggested.
‘Possibly. If that’s true, then there’s something very odd happening here. Probably at that tower I saw. Shall we head there?’ Scribbles said. Everyone agreed, except the mammoth.

A short time later, they were walking through the alleyways, watching the tower the whole time, as a means of direction.
‘Why do we always end up in the little by-ways, the alleys, Senors?’ Rodriguez asked. a piece of paper was then blown in his face. He said something that was muffled by the paper.
‘Wait a mo, that’s a newspaper!’ Scribbles said.
‘And it’s in Mandarin.’ Bluewing said glumly.
‘I took classes. Hey, look at this!’ she pointed at an article that she could read. It said:

New super-soldier program reveled!

Certain government scientists have been experimenting with genetics for these past few weeks. But they have finally made a breakthrough! One scientist tried mixing some different genes with a human embryo, and came up with a proven soldier! This serum can be given to any teenager, making them the ultimate fighting machine! It’s totally safe…

The page was ripped off there, and Rodriguez was still trying to speak through the dirty paper.
‘Oh, sorry, Rodriguez.’ Scribbles said, pawing off the paper. Rodriguez spit out a bit of dirt.
‘Senora, next time, could you use the ground, instead of my snout to read something?’ he said.
‘Sure. Who places their bets on saying that one of these super soldiers was created and is still alive?’ Scribbles asked. Everyone raised a hand (well, two paws and two wings.). ‘Alright, he’s going to be where we need to go, won’t he?’
‘Probably, with our luck. Still, we may be able to befriend him.’ Squawks said.
‘Or her.’ Scribbles suggested.
‘Or her- wait, the Chinese didn’t have too many female soldiers, so the super soldier wouldn’t be female.’ Squawks said.
‘You could be right…’ Scribbles said as the group walked towards the tower, and possibly towards their doom.

Chapter 8

They arrived at the tower at around dusk. Wind whooshed past them, blowing bits of paper and what seemed to be a piece of skin, from what, the team couldn’t tell. It wasn’t human, for sure.
‘Eeewww… gross.’ Bluewing said, watching the chunk of organic matter tumble by.
‘I really hope that didn’t come from this… I don’t know what to call it.’ Scribbles added. ‘Compound? Jail? A really reinforced house?’
‘All and none, it seems. It’s a lab.’ Squawks said, looking up at the flocks of birds around the top of the tower. Why are they all up there, I wonder? He thought.
‘The type that they make genetic monsters, senor.’ Rodriguez put in.
‘Possibly… well, probably. Shall we split up? Me and Bluewing to the tower, you two to the inner sections of the building?’ Squawks suggested. The team agreed, only Rodriguez had anything against it, because the last time they split up, he nearly died because of all the running.
‘That was when you had the metal in your leg, Rodriguez. And anyways, Bluewing and I can get up there much faster.’ Squawks responded, gesturing to the top of the tower.
‘Alright, senor. We’ll split up. Just be careful.’
‘Fair enough. Bluewing, c’mon!’ Squawks shouted, leading Bluewing up the tower and towards the huge amounts of birds. Scribbles and Rodriguez nudged open the rusty gates, walking towards the front doors.

On the other side of the world, the team of Lukarians did some repairs to their bashed ship, The Nova. They had landed next to the Eiffel tower, it quietly rusting away. As you can tell, they landed in France. Ka-Shan was half way up the thing, looking out for any of the aliens’ attacks.
‘I hope Squawks and his team are alright… I could never forgive myself if I sent them to their deaths…’ he mumbled to himself. There was the sound of footsteps on the stairs up to where he was, and his pilot came up.
‘Sorry about my maneuver sir. I hope you won’t demote me for that.’ He said glumly.
‘You saved our lives, pilot. You won’t lose a rank…’ Ka-Shan started.
‘Thank you sir!’
‘But you won’t gain a rank either. That life-saver nearly got us killed, and certainly put some of the crew in the infirmary.’
‘Sorry sir, won’t happen again!’ pilot said, saluting. He then made a face like he forgot something. ‘Almost forgot. We’ve been hacking into the remaining satellites that have been floating around the earth and discovered, using a program that was called GPS, we have learned that the aliens, apparently called the Hive, have set up bases all around the world! There are 7 of them, sir.’
‘Seven, eh? The humans’ lucky number… once we have the repairs completed, set course for the nearest.’
‘That would be the one in the continent of… what was it?... Africa! They have set it up near some ancient landmarks called the great pyramids of Giza.’
‘Oh, fun. I remember reading somewhere tat my great-great-great-great-great-great- grandfather actually ruled over them, posing as one of their gods… I believe it was Anubis, the god of death. I think…’
‘Of course, sir.’
‘You can go now. Call me over when the repairs have been completed on the old girl.’
‘Girl, sir?’
‘Using an old Earth expression. Think nothing of it.’
‘Yes sir.’
The pilot left, and Ka-Shan looked over the horizon. ‘Seven cities, Hhhhmmmmm? And we may need more help than the Galactic Council can give, so... I think I have a plan.’

Back in China, Rodriguez and Scribbles finally entered the area, with an open window behind them. They had entered what appeared to be the storeroom of the building, rusty metal crates all around.
‘Look, senora. This crate is half decayed. It appears to contain some type of chemical, held in test tubes.’ Rodriguez said, beckoning his friend over.
‘Interesting… it looks like this was some of the chemicals that they may have used for the super-soldier program…’ Scribbles looked down at the side. The Chinese writing on the side said that it contained a genetic serum, one that created the super soldiers. ‘Yep. It appears that they were making an army! But why was this one the least reinforced? All those other windows were covered with metal…’
‘Yes, I noticed that. Quite hard to get through those. But someone could steal some of this… and why is this building in such good shape? All the other buildings have been rapidly decayed, whilst this building only has some rust. Heck, the paint is still on!’
‘Maybe we’ll learn that soon. Help me open this door, will you?’ Scribbles responded, pushing on the only door in the room. The two dogs got up against it, and with a strong push, they forced the door open. It led into a hallway, a very dusty hallway.
‘That was a weak reinforcement…’ Rodriguez said, watching some of the dust drift through the disturbed air.
‘It was just stuck. This place’s protection is phenomenal. Let’s try this door.’ Scribbles said, walking over to the door at the end of the hallway. It had writing at the top, and of course it was in mandarin.
‘Oh dear…’ the Dalmatian muttered.
‘What does it say, senora?’ Rodriguez asked.
‘It says; subject testing room. What we’ll find in here, I don’t know. Let’s push it open. Ready, Rodriguez?’
‘Always, senora.’
‘Well then, open!’ she shouted, pushing open the rusty door. They were led into a large, circular room with machinery and control panels lining all the walls. In the center, a large glass cylinder stood broken open from the inside. A green liquid was all over the ground, with some still inside the cylinder.
‘Three guesses who was in here.’ Rodriguez said.
‘The super soldier. Who-ever or what-ever it is, it’s alive!’ Scribbles exclaimed. ‘And I can guess he-or she- is up in the tower! We need to find our way up there!’

Meanwhile, the two macaws flew straight up the side of the tower, about to storm through the flocks of birds. Some gave them odd looks, and parted out of their way. If it wasn’t for them making a sharp turn, then they would have crashed against the ceiling. They landed on one of the chunks of debris on the ground, looking around for what might have attracted so many birds. It was dark in there, because of the large flock encasing it. All that could be heard was the flapping of wings, and the only light was the occasional beam. A small shape could be seen in one corner. The shape stood up. It was one of the Hive!
‘Birds, be gone!’ it shouted, letting light into the top of the tower. No, it wasn’t a Hive drone at all… well, it was and it wasn’t… a boy of no more than 13 stood there, wearing the tatters of the normal tourist’s clothes. He was American! But they did something to him. He was part Hive drone! Fins stuck off of him in the same places you would expect on a drone, and a tail lashed behind him. His arms and legs ended in sharp, scaled talons. The gills on his neck opened and closed, and there were patches of scales here and there all over his body.
‘Why-why haven’t you two left?’ He said, with some difficulty. He was unstable.
‘I guess…’ Squawks started. He then realized this was a human, and they shouldn’t know that animals have intelligence.
‘I thought you two were different. You seem to have more intelligence Th-than most of the other animals here. God, I was about to-to go mad!’ he said.
‘What’s your name?’ Bluewing said, realizing that this one could understand them.
‘Jeffrey… my friends used to call me Jeff…’
‘Alright then Jeff, tell us what happened.’
‘Oh, I’m glad to-to have someone to talk to, after nearly a month. I had come here with another group of tourists, wa-wanting to see the Great Wall of China… my mom and I were split off from the others of the group, and they had thought we had gone another way. They had just forgotten us.
‘We were walking down an alley, if a wide one. We passed a smaller section that branched off, and a Chinese man came up-up to us, wearing bedraggled clothes, and asked if we had any change. My mom fished through h-her purse, looking for some money. The supposed beggar pulled out a pistol from underneath the rags of a coat and just… just… shot my mom in the head! He then-then grabbed m-m-me and kept hold of me until he made it to this building through the back door. He then took me to a room full of scientists and a tube in the center. They g-g-gave me an injection, and-and I found my self like this.’ Jeff said. He was trembling.
‘Good lord. We recognize the species you’ve been hybridized with. They seem to be called the Hive. A group of aliens that are currently trying to colonize the earth.’ Squawks said, surprised by the cruelness.
‘Are-are there any humans left?’
‘Very few, and those are the native tribes which, sadly, will not last for too much long with the Hive roaming the planet. I’m sorry, Jeffrey, but the human race is as good as dead.’
‘Then-then I have no reason to live!’ he shouted. He ran to the edge, tears streaming, and he jumped!
‘No!’ the two macaws cried. They flew over to the edge, and looked down. Jeffrey laid on the dirt ground, in a pool of blood, limbs astray.
‘Damn…’ Bluewing whispered under his breath. Moments later, a hidden trapdoor swung open, with Rodriguez and Scribbles poking their heads out.
‘Guys! The super solider- he’s alive! We found….’
‘We know…’ Squawks said. The two dogs came out and looked over the edge of the hundred foot tower.
‘Oh lord…’ Scribbles muttered.
‘He jumped. He had no reason to live, or so he said.’ Bluewing added.
‘Senors, senora, we have other mysteries to figure out. Lets leave the poor child in peace; he is with his species now.’ Rodriguez said, doing a canine bow.
‘You’re right, Rodriguez. To right. But which one? We need to find the records that they kept here.’ Squawks said. ‘Let’s get down there.’

Chapter 9

A short while later, the team was in a long, thin room with astray files and filing cabinets. Squawks found one that said: Building Specifications. He opened it up, and was surprised that it was in English. It stated very little that they didn’t already know. But what was useful was that it showed how the building didn’t really get decayed. A substance which seemed to be your usual chemical compound was sprayed all over the outside, stopping oxidization and other means of decay, so it acted rather like a shield. They couldn’t figure out to much more about the chemical, which name Squawks couldn’t quite read.
Scribbles was on the other end of the mess, and she found a thick file on the disease that targeted almost every human on the planet. Well, it used to be big, due to how much the file’s fold was warped. There was only a single paper in there. She called everyone over and they all read it.
The virus, really called the Devastator Virus, was just originally a bio-weapon, meant to target all humans in the area and not affect anything else. Once it had killed all the humans, it would die. But it didn’t work. According to the back of the sheet, which was handwritten, the Devastator Virus had been used in a rebellion somewhere in Northern China, the writer didn’t know exactly where, and it had done its job. But it still progressed, doing what it should do but with no limit. The virus killed and killed and killed until it reached this base. It had come in, and people were getting infected. That’s where the account ended.
‘So… that’s how it happened. Well, now we know.’ Squawks said.
‘Very true. This is some info we’ve found here.’ Bluewing responded.
‘Yeah, but we’ve gotten our questions answered by questions! I mean, that boy, the tourist, had said we were more intelligent than the other animals.’ Squawks shouted.
‘Maybe we’ve just got a bigger IQ than the others.’ Scribbles suggested.
‘Doubtful. He still could have commanded us away.’
‘Maybe we’re just different.’ Rodriguez put in.
‘Possibly. But that would mean that the ones who constructed those towns would be different as well! There’s got to be some simpler answer!’
‘Hhhmmmm… maybe… what if it’s the size of the animal? The smallest birds at Monterrey were parrots! And we didn’t get to much smaller than cats there, animals that talked anyways.’ Bluewing exclaimed.
‘What about those iguanas that brought us our food?’ Squawks asked.
‘Those were large ones, Squawks. Some of the largest. Remember? They were nearly as big as you or I.’
‘You guys could be right. And what about the mammoth?’ Scribbles asked.
‘As you heard, they were working on bringing them back. They evidently succeeded.’ Squawks said.
‘C’mon, we’ve got a long walk back to the pick up point and we’ve got about a day.’ Bluewing finishes.

Back in France, the Nova was just lifting off from the plaza it had been grounded in for 3 days. It flew its way to China, without to many problems. But over the Himalayas, a battle ensued.
‘Evasive maneuvers!’ Ka-Shan shouted when he spotted the Hive fighters. The fighters were of an odd shape, being a lot like flying spikes with 4 wings. A missile erupted from one’s front, aimed straight towards the Lukarian’s ship. They were being attacked by a squadron of 7 fighters!
‘Target the leader! Maybe we can loosen the control on the others!’ Ka-Shan commanded, hanging on to a guard rail as the ship did evasive maneuvers, drastic maneuvers. Not as bad as the corkscrew, but still sickening. The front guns, rail guns, fired at the lead ship. The first shot missed, but the second one hit its mark. The ship imploded with a fiery blast. But the others still flew, possibly more controlled than the last time!
‘Target destroyed, sir. But they are still flying!’ the pilot said.
‘I can see that, pilot!’ Ka-Shan ran over to the intercom. ‘Battle stations, people! Fire at will!’
The dodged, ducked, and even crashed a ship into a mountain before the battle was over. They had lost three Lukarians, killed when their turrets where destroyed. The Nova had withstood some ferocious pounding as well. Holes were streaked in the sides, and the front viewport was cracked from withstanding several laser blasts which had just connected and cracked the glass, bit by bit. One of the main jets was smoking, and another nearly didn’t work altogether. They’ll need more repairs after those repairs! No wonder they did so little to the Hive’s mother ship.
‘Sir, we cannot go into space like this. We need repairs!’ pilot said, like his captain was arguing.
‘I know, pilot. It’s easy to tell that the whole ship would depressurize as quick as you can unsheathe your claws. Keep on course, pilot.’ Ka-Shan replied.
‘Of course, sir.’
‘Back to work, everyone.’

The four animals sat down at the plaza and waited for The Nova to arrive. The plaza had become even rustier than when they last saw it, with buildings in ruins. Oddly, the wooden slums were still in fine shape. The team had noticed that on the straight way back. Well, as fine of a shape slums could be.
‘What if something bad happened?’ Squawks said once they were waiting for several hours. ‘They could have been shot down, or killed!’
‘Isn’t that the same thing, senor? Anyways, it has only been a couple of hours. He could be on his way right at this very moment.’ Rodriguez responded.
‘True… and why, in god’s name, haven’t the Hive attacked?’
‘Carful, you’ll jinx us!’ Scribbles said.
‘Oh, I don’t believe in that kind of thing.’ Just when he had said that, The Nova flew over head, chased by several Hive fighters. It swooped down, and opened its tractor beam hatch. The group ran over, and in seconds the team was in the ship, quickly flying away.
‘Thank god for that.’ Scribbles said, sighing after she fell over from the beam.
‘Sorry to say, but we’re not out of the fire yet!’ Ka-Shan shouted.
‘More like the frying pan.’ Squawks added.
‘Hang on!’ the captain shouted, just in time due to the fact that the ship flew straight up. Squawks and Bluewing where alright, because they flew with it, somehow. Scribbles and Rodriguez weren’t, and were pushed against the floor due to the force of the rise.
‘Good lord! That’s some force!’ Bluewing said, watching the two dogs and several Lukarians peel themselves of the floor. They were rather high up, leaving the fighters behind. The air was rather stuffy.
‘Sorry guys, but we’ll have to go back down. We’re not air-tight. Hang on!’ Ka-Shan shouted, with some difficulty because he looked terribly ill from that sudden rise. This time, the two macaws were caught off guard. They were stuck against the ceiling this time.
‘Why… do… we… have… to… go…through…this?’ Rodriguez said, worse for wear.
‘Because we’re getting chased! We’ve already sustained damage, and with that we can’t get into space. It was just stuffy in here because there was not too much air left!’ Ka-Shan said, after they rounded out the dive. They appeared to be flying over the Pacific Ocean. ‘And I have a plan.’
‘And what is that plan?’ Squawks asked.
‘A two pronged attack. I need you 4 to go to different towns, start up a rebellion. I and the others of my crew will take out the seven Hive cities. By the way, what did you learn in China?’
‘A lot.’ Squawks said. He (and the others) told the captain of The Nova what they had found in the research station they had nicknamed the Devastator Station. They left out the part about poor Jeff. The ship later was hovering near old LA, where it all started for the original duo. It looked totally different from when they had been there. Buildings were rusted hulks of brown metal, vegetation grew in its streets, and different animals wandered the alleys and by-ways.
‘Wait, before you go, take this.’ Ka-Shan said. He fitted a small device in each of the team’s ears. ‘This is a translation device. If you get attacked, you’ll be able to understand the Hive. Carful you don’t lose them, they’re costly. If you meet anyone you want to take along for the ride, ask and we’ll give them a translator. This was where you used to live, right?’
‘Um… yeah’ Squawks said. He winced as the translator was fitted. It was a small, grey device with a slight orange glow.
‘You guys ready to leave?’ Ka-Shan asked.
‘Yep.’ Scribbles said.
‘Si, senor.’ Rodriguez chimed in.
‘When you are.’ Squawks said.
‘Aye aye, captain!’ Bluewing shouted sarcastically.
‘Well then, get to it!’ Ka-Shan shouted, and the team was teleported to the ground.