The Third Kind

               Out of all the people in the world, who would have thought that it would have happened to me?

               It was just another typical night, me lying on my bed SMS-ing with my best buddy Politt and not doing anything else. I rolled to the other side of my bed to take a glance at my clock; it was already one in the morning. ‘ Perhaps I really should hit the hay soon , or mom will be furious if she finds out that I am still awake. ’ I thought in my heart.
     

             At that instance, I heard a loud ‘thump’ outside my bedroom.  ‘ Oh no! Mom! ’ my instinct took over and I immediately buried my head under my blanket. When my bedroom door opened, I pretended to be fast asleep. Then, I heard heavy footsteps walking into my room, weird footsteps, which sounded nowhere near like human feet. Thieves were the first thing that popped up in my mind, but the real situation was not that simple......

            Without thinking too much, I reached out my hand from my blanket to take my baseball bat which was placed at a rack beside my bed, then hid it under the blanket, gripping it hard with my right hand. I opened my eyes for just a moment to catch a glimpse of the room intruders. The dark surroundings made it hard for me to see properly, but I could make out the shadows of two towering figures, each reaching a height of at least 180cm. I cursed silently, knowing that I would be no match for both of the criminals. While I was busy planning a counter under my blanket, a loud noise broke the silence.

             ‘ SQUEEEEEKKKKK!!! ’

            ‘ Silence, XR2! Do not let your action foils our mission! ’ hollered one of the intruders.

            ‘ Apologies, captain. It was my fault for being so careless. Looks like this kid loves playing with rubber toys huh? ’ replied the so-called XR2. ‘ What a weird name for a thief, are they psychos? ’ I had in mind. Apparently, XR2 accidentally stepped on one of my collector’s edition rubber ducks placed on the floor, where the squeaking originated.

           I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my blood streams as the seconds passed by, the intruders were slowly approaching me, and at any minute they could be pointing a knife at my neck. I fastened my grip on my baseball bat, like a predator ready to strike. I braced myself for the worst case scenario.

           Once their dry and coarse hands touched my body, the reaction was instantaneous . ‘ DIE NINCOMPOOPS! ’ I gathered all my strength and swang the bat as hard as I could with a battle cry. ‘ Thwack! ’ my hit found its target, one of the figures collapsed to the floor. Panting, I looked up to the still standing figure, and I had the greatest shock in my life.

           There, standing in front of me, was a thing we could only have seen from a sci-fi television programme. That thing was grey-skinned and it’s body was illuminating with a bluish effulgence. Its face was wrinkly and somehow looked like a casaba melon, except it was grey in colour. The presence of its huge white-coloured eyes reminded me of a full moon high in the midnight sky. It neither has a nose or ears. In addition, what made it worse was that it was fully equipped with a pure white space battle armor, with high-tech looking guns hanging from its belt.

                   

            It stared down at me, its stare pierced through my heart, destroying all the confidence and courage I had like a wisp. In my bedroom, I was standing as straight as a die, trembling like an aspen leaf, completely helpless, thinking ‘ Why are there aliens in my bedroom?! ’. Silence continued for what I felt like ages, until the alien finally spoke up.

           ‘ Halt, earthling. Put down your puny stick and do not attack again, or you will face the consequences..... ’ said the alien coldly.

           ‘ What do you want from me.....? I did nothing wrong, please do not hurt me...... ’ I responded in a shaky voice, holding back my tears. Nevertheless, it  was a vain attempt, as the tears came splashing down my cheeks seconds later.

           ‘ Stop crying or I will send you straight to the heavens! ’ shouted the alien. Immediately, I wiped off my tears and put on a serious face, for the sake of my dear life. ‘ It was rude of me for barging in your bedroom, but we are against the clock at this moment. Let me introduce myself, I am Captain Gekiga, hailing from Planet Utopia, located at the far end of the Andromeda Galaxy. My unconscious friend here is XR2, and we are here seeking for your aid. Are you willing to follow me back to my spaceship? I will explain the details later. ’ continued Captain Gekiga.

           Completely boogled, I was in lost for words. Two aliens, in my bedroom right now, inviting me to their spaceship? To assure myself that this all was just a dream,  I pinched myself hard in the face, only to find that it hurts.  Crestfallen, I questioned Captain Dicker, ‘ But how do you expect I can trust you after you and your pal crept up to me like this? ’. ‘ Trust can be earned. For now, I will take your reply as an agreement. Be ready to be transported back to my spaceship, the NeuraniaZX. ’ answered Captain Gekiga.

            Afterwards, Captain Gekiga proceeded by lifting XR2 from the floor with a fireman’s carry and called out into the air with a commanding voice, ‘ Teleporter, activate! ’ In eye-blinking speed, a ray of blinding light shot through my bedroom’s window and shone upon all three of us. Soon after, an intense force sucked me into the void, knocking me out cold in the way.......

            ‘ Beep...beep...beep... ’ After listening to these endless beeping, I somehow regained my consciousness. I slowly lift myself up from the cold hard floor, while letting my vision cleared. Like a fantasy, I found myself standing in a laboratory full with scientific equipments far more advanced than that of human’s. I took a good look around to get a clearer image of the laboratory. Monitors were flashing long paragraphs of weird messages containing unfamiliar symbols, most probably in the aliens’ native language. At the other side of the lab, weapons of all sort were arranged neatly at a weapon rack; there were grenades, shields, space helmets, armors and much to my surprise, lightsabers. ‘ Woah, this is just like Star Wars! Since XR2 and Captain Gekiga are not around, perhaps I may get a hand on these cool lightsabers just for a while...... Heheh...... ’ And just when I thought there were no one to interrupt me, I felt a tap on my left shoulder and it scared the living daylights out of me. I promptly turned around, only to see XR2 wearing a smirk on his face with his arms crossed.

           ‘ Am I interrupting your train of thought? Who knows what will happen if I do not stop you in time, perhaps you slashing one of your arms off with a lightsaber? ’ mocked XR2 in a provoking voice. ‘ Follow me, my captain is waiting for you in the command center. Let’s make haste. Oh, and before I forget, you owe me one for the bump on my head.  ’ XR2 pointed his head before leading me into a tube elevator made out of emerald glass-like substance. We went down the elevator and arrived at the command center seconds later.

           The moment I stepped out the elevator, a magnificent view entered my eyes. Standing at the center of the command center, I could see the starry night sky through the window panels of the spaceship 360 degree around me. Up, up in the sky I was, I felt like the lord of the sky, that feeling was superb, unmatched. Control panels with myriad buttons and switches were attached to the edges of spaceship, forming a hemisphere. At the far right of the command center, Captain Gekiga was staring at a green capsule in front of him with his back towards us, unaware that we had arrived. ‘ Go, do not let my captain wait. ’ urged XR2 and he gave me a little push on my back. Staggering forward, I approached Captain Gekiga step by step.

           ‘ I see you have woke up, that was the teleporter’s effect to blackout strangers, hope you do not mind.  ’ greeted Captain Gekiga before continuing on, ‘ Here, have a look at this green capsule. ’ Beside Captain Gekiga, I poked my head forward and looked down into the green capsule.  At the bottom of the capsule, a beautiful, angelic alien girl with long, lustrous red hair and perfectly smooth white skin who appeared to be in a deep slumber was lying there peacefully. After staring for some moment, I asked Captain Gekiga, ‘ Sorry for being blunt, but is this your daughter? Why is she sleeping in here? ’

          With a look of sorrow and grief etched on his face, he answered me sadly, ‘ Yes, she is my beloved daughter, Aliace. She was perfectly fine a year ago, until one day when she went on a trip with me to a plant-infested planet called Biozain, she accidentally smelled some poison flower’s fumes and fell unconscious, until now. I searched high and low, far and wide through the intergalactic realms for the best doctors to cure her weird disease, but none succeeded. Nevertheless, each and every one of them told me to look for a ZXV-2 type DNA which can only be found in the cells of Earthlings. This disease, known as the Never Awake by doctors, can only be cured with the injection of the ZXV-2 DNA into the bloodstream of the patient. That is why I came to Earth, to extract that DNA from your body. So, now here is the question, are you willing to help me? ’     

           ‘ Wait wait wait wait, hold your horses Captain Gekiga. There are over 7 billion humans in this whole wide world, and you choose me? Why? ’ I questioned him.

           ‘ I have run a scan over every living Earthling, and you are the only one with the ZXV-2 DNA. Are you satisfied now? Please, your one small kind deed can save my daughter’s life, and other extraterrestrials facing the same problem as I am. Your DNA is what I need the most now, will you help me? ’ pleaded Captain Gekiga, almost falling to his knees just to beg me. Touched by his sincerity and love for his daughter, I accepted his offer.

            ‘ Thank you, thank you very much earthling! Please, stripped yourself to that lab chair, and we will do all the other work. You will be paralysed before undergoing the extraction, so I promise that you would not feel even a tiny bit of pain during the process. XR2, get ready! ’ explained Captain Gekiga to me. Soon enough, XR2 appeared in front of us with a set of surgery equipments. Captain Gekiga on the other hand went into his captain’s quarter and came out gripping something in his right hand.

           I stripped myself tight on the lab chair. I felt like there were butterflies in my stomach, anxious and worried. Captain Gekiga stepped up to hold my hands and passed to me what he was holding – a star-shaped badge with a peace symbol at its middle. ‘ This is the token of friendship in Planet Utopia. I hope you would accept it as a remembrance of our bond. ’ Captain Gekiga told me. I thanked him for his kindness and pocketed the badge. With one last look around the spaceship, XR2 and Captain Gekiga, I bid them farewell. ‘ Thanks for bringing me up to your spaceship, it will be the most memorable day in my life, you are a good father, Captain Gekiga, and I hope your daughter will recuperate soon enough. ’ ending my sentence with a smile. Captain Gekiga returned the smile and ordered XR2, ‘ XR2, let’s do it! ’ XR2 turned down a lever and I was electrocuted. Slowly, my vision blurred and I fell into the darkness once more......

          When I woke up, it was morning and I was in my bed again. Rubbing my forehead, I recalled the events and thought that it was just a dream, until I pulled out a star-shaped badge with a peace symbol at its middle from my pocket. Looking at the badge, I smiled to myself and rushed downstairs, yelling ‘ Mom! Dad! Guess where had I been to last night!................ ’