"Leave it out Devlin, you creep. We've already disrupted your supply of compliant humans." Ash boasted at the villain before us, sick of his attitude.
"My dear, sweet, girl... I'm hurt that you throw such accusations at me. I'm not a creep, I merely know what I like, and have the ambition to seek it out. Maybe I'm overly direct in my approach, but why delay when such beautiful bounty is in my grasp?" He said seductively, as he stood up, approaching Ash. His sensual tone was poisoned by his depraved intent, his words poured forth as toxic wasp honey. At his utterance of 'grasp', he reached out a slimy hand to caress her cheek, tenderly. Ash turned her head, frozen with sheer disgust as Devlin traced the contours of her face.
For moment we were all too stunned in the face of obscenity to react. Dave and I stood, ashamed and shocked, while Ash was manhandled by this freak. I forced my reluctance away. However disgusted Devlin was making me feel, it had to be infinitely worse for Ashley. I had to act. I was about to tackle the creep when I saw Ash's eyes snap open, burning with raging determination. She reached up, clinging to Devlin's outstretched arm and catching him by surprise. With a twist and a crouch, she pulled his arm outwards and downwards, with all her might. To any other opponent, this would probably have ended up dislocating the offending limb. Not with Devlin though.
The arm gave with surprising ease, causing Ash to fall to the floor. She looked with bemusement at the fleshy glove in her clutches. With a yelp, she realized she was holding a skinned human arm and threw it to the ground in disgust. Devlin himself took a few steps backwards, also surprised by the damage. My eyes were drawn to the remnants of his torn arm. Where I expected to see a peeled collection of muscle and bone, I instead found a monstrous blue claw. Bizarrely, it was longer and thicker than the human arm it was contained inside. The skin was rough and hairless, a deep royal blue colour and it looked terrifically powerful. The clawed hand had three tubby fingers, ending in several inch long sharp points. He looked almost comical, completely lopsided as he was.
"Bitch!" He roared, ferociously. "You have no idea how difficult it was to aquire this skin suit." He was panting with anger now, heaving deep ragged breaths. The seam where his blue arm met his shoulder was glowing and the skin was beginning to bulge like air bubbles behind paint. "This disguise is worthless now." He sighed, reaching toward his forehead with his remaining human hand. A swipe of his thumb revealed a previously concealed zipper which he slowly drew back. From the new slit, more blue light poured forth. With an inhuman wiggle, the skin of the man known as Devlin fell to the ground like a discarded garment. Before us stood an eight foot tall alien oddly reminiscent of E.T. It had short stumpy legs supporting a bulbous, pear shaped torso. Its arms I've already described and its head sat atop an elongated neck. The face was chubby, like a baby, with a fanged smile and large blank eyes, three inches round, which disturbingly blinked horizontally.
While he was disrobing, I'd reached over and helped Ash up from the floor, and was hugging her for moral support. She was and remains the bravest person I've ever known.
"Wait a minute... I recognize you, baby blue!" I exclaimed, pointing at the monstrosity before us. "You're a Slitheen. I've seen you in the archives." I turned to my friends before adding "they have a history with invading Earth."
"Do not compare me to those green-skinned gangsters. The Slitheen are second rate criminals who bring shame on the more noble families of Raxocoricofallopitorious. While I share an unfortunate familial connection with the Slitheen, as extended cousins, the house of Jaggereen is above their petty schemes. I am Faratoth Del Quades Fel Fotch Jaggereen, and you will treat me with the dignity my house deserves." He yelled, his little tirade punctuated with sweeping gestures and measured intonations. All the while I struggled to resist pinching his chubby little cheeks and giggling. Despite his towering height, it felt like I was stood before a tiny Napoleon, raging against forces which outnumbered and outclassed him.
"I'm not seeing much difference to be honest. Kidnapping humans seems pretty criminal to me." I said, once Devlin had finished his rant.
"The Slitheen have no class, they're common thugs. I'm business-oriented, you see. I just supply demands in the market, and what the market really needs is cheap labour."
"Is that all this is about? All this scheming and planning, to get few slaves?!" I roared in anger.
"Not just a few slaves. It was to be an empire of control, farming a constant supply of willing workers, to be shipped across the galaxy. The human form is remarkably adaptable and resilient to a range of environments, you make a wonderful workforce, once you discount your trivial notions of identity." Faratoth explained, matter-of-factly.
"But what does the Nestene get out of all this?" Ash asked, freshly composed.
"What? Nothing, I merely chances upon the decaying remnants of a failed invasion when I first arrived. I used it to my advantage, like I did with that man's skin. It was expedient." he explained.
"Well, it doesn't matter. You've lost. There's three of us, one of you, and Devlin's company is in tatters." Dave said, finally finding the courage to get involved.
"You've hampered my method of procurement, yes... but there are always alternatives, once I've ended you brats. And I think our numbers are more evenly matched than you think." He said, bearing his fangs with a wide, sinister smile. One of his claws interacted with a nearby display as he continued. "Or did you forget one of you is still infected with plastic?"
Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my head, and I collapsed to my knees. I screamed in agony as thoughts that were not my own filled my mind. I stared at Ash, at Dave, and was overcome by an urge to inflict pain. The sight of them brought out intense anger in me. I knew I needed them dead. I struggled to reassert control, but I felt like a prisoner, a passenger in somebody else's thoughts. Faratoth cackled malevolently, as I staggered towards my friends. I could see the fear in Ash's eyes, and a voice in my head liked it, relished it. Then, as soon as it had began, I felt such thoughts lift. There was a moment while my head felt fuzzy, like the fading remnants of a dying dream. Then I was back. I wheeled towards the Jaggereen again, renewed in my purpose.
"Well, that's not right..." he muttered, swiping ineffectually at the screen once more. "The control matrix must have degraded prematurely. But that shouldn't be unless you were exposed to microwaves, maybe a strong electrical current, but... ah.... it doesn't seem to matter.... you're angry, I get that... surely we can end this in a dignified way...." he rambled, blinking rapidly with fear. The three of us advanced on him, slowly, as he backed away clumsily. With a jolt, he fell back into his command chair, before flashing another smile.
"And, we're out if time. I'd love to stay for my well deserved punishment, but I've got a number of buyers to sweet talk. Gotta dash."
Before we could react, he was gone, disassembled by the blue haze of a transmat. There was a distant thrum of an engine firing, and one of the screens began to flash a warning.
"Damn, he's jumped to an escape pod." I said, rushing to the controls. "There must be lasers on this bucket. He's not getting away." I was determined to stop him, by any means. Luckily Ash was there to reign in my vengeful desires.
"Arven, there's a hold full of his slaves we need to rescue." she urged, compassionately.
"Yeah. After I stop this bastard." I replied, scanning the remaining controls.
"We don't have time. Look! He's overclocked the engines remotely. This whole place is going to blow, and we're locked out of those systems." I didn't want to listen. I wanted to make Faratoth pay, but damn if she wasn't right. We had a duty to save the others first. Or we'd be no better than Con and Frank. With a frustrated thump of the ship's dash, I turned to the input for the Nestene controller. It was remarkably easy to reverse the previous command issued, telling each of the controlled humans to retrace their steps and return through the teleporters.
"Come on." Ash said, dragging my arm. "We'd better make sure everyone leaves, then go ourselves."
Together, the three of us ran back to the cargo bay. Already, the crowd of slaves had already thinned, and it didn't take long for the last of the controlled humans to get out. Ash, Dave and I all boarded a pod and returned to the warehouse too. We rushed outside in time to see a distant explosion above us, appearing as little more than a surging star from this distance. With the destruction of the spacecraft, the Nestene infected humans were returning to normal without a control system to direct them. It'd take a day or two, but as I'd learned, the plastic would degrade in short order.
We'd defeated the villain, but he was still at large, and probably pretty pissed off. Not to mention Con and Frank who were now aware of us, and unlikely to be cooperative ongoing. But for now, we were alive, the city was safe and we'd had one hell of the long day. The consequences could wait until tomorrow, we'd earned a rest.
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