"So I spoke with Jess she seemed pretty pissed off at you, but she's cool now... I think".

"Thanks man... I guess". There was a moment of silence before Alex continued.

" Have you ever thought about what all this means?".

"No not really. I've just been reacting. Not really much time to think and act."

" It's obvious that we aren't the only descendants of those aliens. They could be more, and even more aliens. What's going to stop them from landing their ship or something. They could be anywhere even in our government". Jason thought about it, it pretty much made sense but  something else was bugging him.

" Then why haven't they bothered to try and make contact with us".

" Maybe they don't want to or maybe we're just not worth their time". Jason was about to reply to that when Kevin called out to everyone to gather round. Alex ran forward and Jason followed. There was a clearing there in between the trees.

When Jason reached it, he realized it wasn't a clearing, it was a crater. Something had landed here and pretty forcefully by the looks of it. At the bottom of it lay something small and whitish.

Kevin slid down to the bottom of it and everyone else followed. The object at the bottom was shaped like a pill and a little  bit bigger than a casket. For something so small it had made quite a mess and it didn't appear to be dented.

"It's clearly extraterrestrial" Alex Said. "So what do we do about it?".

" We open it" Mia said. And with that she proceeded to kick it. At first everyone was shocked but when nothing happened everyone seemed kind of disappointed. Jason saw some kind of green glass attached to the surface.

" Hey how about that?". Mia saw what he was talking and kicked it. Not what exactly what he had in mind but it seemed to do the trick because with a hiss the top rolled off.

Inside lay a boy. 

He seemed around their age with jet black hair and yellow matching clothes.

"He looks kinda hot". Mia observed.

"Is he dead". Alex asked.

"Probably, he's not breathing". He must have heard them because he opened his eyes and yawned, everyone stepped back curiosity gone and replaced by fear. The boy got out of the capsule and stretched like he didn't notice anything amiss. When he was done he went back to the capsule and brought something out. It was a sword, a katana actually (he remembered the name from Chuck's anime shows) then he finally faced the them.

"ignoscas potestis intelligere me?". The words all seemed strange to him. What had he expected that the alien would somehow be able to speak english. The boy remain undaunted and tried again.

"excusez-moi pouvez-vous me comprendre". The language sounded somehow  familiar but Jason still couldn't understand him, or it. Alex must have gotten a feel of what the alien was trying to say and replied.

" I'm sorry but we can't understand what your saying".

" Can you understand me now?". He said much to the surprise of everyone. Alex didn't seem able to continue so Kevin had to chip in 

" Yes we can".

" Where am I?". 

" Earth". The alien looked at Kevin like he had just said something stupid.

" What earth?". Kevin didn't know what to say so Mia had to help him out.

" What do you mean what Earth? We're on our earth, like the only earth". The alien walked back and sat on the capsule.

" How many planets are in your solar system?".

" Nine... I guess".

" Eight actually. Pluto's a dwarf planet". Alex added.

"I see and this is which one?".

"The third one", the alien looked up at the sun " a bright yellow sun". The alien seemed to be deep in thought, Jason was about to say something about his legs hurting when the alien spoke up.

"You have twenty-four hours in a day, correct?"

"Yeah".

"And Three hundred and sixty-five days in a year, correct?". Jason hadn't noticed it earlier but the alien had a strange British-ike accent, he spoke in clear cut words. 

He didn't like how this alien was treating them. Asking the questions and not letting them get one in, so he spoke up.

"Yeah, we've got all that, but how the heck can you speak English".

" Is that what it's called here? Strange. I can speak it because I learned it, but I'm curious. What are you doing here?".

" What do you mean? I live here". The alien stared at all of them.

" Now that I think about it. What are all of you doing here? your clearly Xeterrans. And I'm pretty sure this isn't a colony world, if it was I would know". He pronounced it Zeh-teh-rah.

" What are you talking about?". Jason asked, he didn't understand anything this alien was saying.

" Your an Ignis, aren't you? it's faint but I can singed flesh and ashes on you". He turned  and faced Mia.

" And you. Your a noir user. What an intriguing gathering". He must have noticed that nobody had any idea of  what he was talking about because he asked.

" You guys have no idea of what talking about, do you?". 

" No we don't". Alex said. The alien laughed.

" Will you look at that, Exterran halflings on a backwater planet with no idea of what they are". He pointed at Kevin.

" I suggest you sit down". Nobody made any move to do so so he continued.

"There's a planet called Xeterra, that's our home world". 

"Wait. That means you have abilities too?". 

" Abilities, yeah". He pointed at a rock, a kind of dark aura covered it and the stone floated up. Jason was about to say that that wasn't really impressive when a black beam shot the rock and turned it to dust. Cool he thought.

"But you should know that not all Xeterrans have abilities, only about five percent. Those privileged ones are called Xenoids they're the ruling class of Xeterra and it's colonies".

" I don't really understand. Where do our abilities come from? how do they work?". The alien pondered over the question for a while before replying.

" No one knows.  it's been a matter of debate for a long time, but no one really knows. Some say that it's a gift from God or the heavens, others say it comes from different dimensions but what we do know is that whatever it is it's heridatary".

" Why are you here?".

" Because my ship was involved in a collision and I used an escape pod to... Well escape. I think that's enough for our question and answer session, I demand shelter".

" And what makes you think your in a position to demand anything?". The alien held up his sword. The sheath was black with beautiful little gold designs. He drew the blade and they saw that the blade was also black. 

"I've figured you guys out. Your halflings and you've only just discovered your abilities. Do you think you can really  stand up to me if I decide to resort to violence". He wasn't exactly far off. Some of them had discovered their abilities long time ago but that didn't mean nothing. They were up against an alien that had probably trained from birth on how to use his abilities, if they were to fight now they would be lots of casualties and most of them if not all, would be theirs.

"Come on, let's go".

    *                                    *                                *

Mia walked down the stairs holding a paper bag. In the bag was a hamburger, fries and soda. Immediately the alien had settled down he announced that he was hungry. Since everyone was busy discussing how to retrieve the escape pod she had volunteered.

The alien's Name was David Ivan Blackheart and he was seventy eight in earth years. Apparently Xeterrans aged way slower than humans. Mia didn't like David, he was too bossy, too self centered, Alex probably had a word for it.

David had guessed each of their abilities, according to David this was actually very difficult to do but his ability allowed him to do it quite easily.

While the list of abilities were almost  endless they caused changes in the host's body that made it easier to tell what he, she or it was, or at least make a guess. They also came in with a bunch of other quirks and "Fringe benefits".

Jason's ability And kind were called Ignis. They had the ability to control heat, according to David they were quite rare both because Ignis hardly had any offspring and because they were so hot tempered they usually got themselves killed. Kevin's kind was even worse. Apparently his were hardly ever seen in the same place twice. For some reason no one had ever worked out, Xeterrans lived longer the closer they were to their homeworld, so they usually stayed put. Jess's own was called Vitarius which had to do with life energy. Which probably explained why she could heal, David said with more training she could probably do more than that, they all could. 

Alex's own was called Ventus which allowed him to control the air and maybe gases. Every Xeterran varied. genes played a part on affecting ones powers as well as mindset, upbringing and a bunch of other things.

Mia didn't really understand what he was talking about and it didn't bother her, what bothered her was what he said when Alex had asked him what his was.

"Oh me I'm a Vitarius with a little bit of her thrown in". he said pointing at Mia.

" What's Mia?".

" A Noir. Probably the most feared type, do you know why? Because the Noir's are the most likely to turn into social miscreants. The Noir's are the crazy ones, they are dark inside they hate the light". And everyone has just looked at her like they expected her to go crazy and murder everyone. Everybody had been so excited by the aliens arrival that they had forgotten to ask the question on their mind even Kevin who was supposed to be the most level headed, and Mr Pierce as usual had disappeared. He was always gone when you needed him. She stepped into the lounge and met them the same way she had left them about fifteen minutes ago. Alex noticed her and looked up, he looked like a kid at Christmas unwrapping his favorite toy. The nerd.

"Mr Pierce came in. He said that we could go into the lower levels with David". He said happily.

"That's if we manage to get David into  'An institute of learning' apparently he's a nerd".

" We can probably think of something". Their banter was driving her out of her minds, she had to ask the question that had been in her mind since, he wasn't a member of their "gang" he was a very questionable person so why didn't anybody have any doubts about him.

"Did you do it?". Everybody turned and looked at her. They had finally noticed her.

"Are you talking 'bout me". Jason asked.

"Not you. I mean the alien". 

"I believe such questions require further explanation, and I have a name. I do not find the term 'Alien' pleasurable".

" The fire at the building. Something. No someone started a fire at the building and it wasn't human. They were footprints that were burnt into the floorboards. No human could have done that, alien". Before she could finish getting the Last word out David was standing right in front of her. His sword was unsheathed and barely a few millimeters from her throat.

"I told you I found the term 'Alien' unsavory". And with that he sheathed his sword, took the paper bag and walked back into the lodge.

" I don't know what your talking about because I've never left my pod. Escape pods put their inhabitants into a suspended state to reduce their body functions. I was in that state when you found me, and if I had left the pod earlier I'm not sure I would have come back. You see the escape pod lacks certain 'Amenities'."

" Then what was able to burn through that floorboard. It clearly wasn't human." Jess asked.

" Their two options" he said raising up two fingers "one it's another sentient which would be unlikely, and the Other that it's probably a flea."

" A flea?"

" Yes. A parasite that can take over it's host's nervous system. They are a lot of them in this part of space, hence the name the flea bottom. That's what this part of the Galaxy is called."

" Why did you say it was unlikely that it was another alien?"

" The only reason I crashed here was because I crashed face first into a plummeting prison transport. My escape pod landed here but there's no telling were the less savory members of the crash landed".

" It's a prison transport, their supposed to be still inside. The prisoners should still be in place. Or didn't they have like a beacon for help , or broadcast some emergency transmission or Something. What I'm trying to say is that Some sort of alert  must have gone out or there must have been some kind of precaution put in place for something like this."

" On normal circumstances they would have but I doubt that would have been much help. I was distracted for a while and my ship crashed into the prison transport, but at that time the ship was already crashing. That was the only reason I crashed here in the first place. My theory is that the prisoners had already engaged a prison break." Mia remembered that she was still standing outside and walked inside and sat down.

"Doesn't that mean that they're dead" she asked.

" Not necessarily. Unlike humans most other beings don't die that easily."

" So what your trying to say is that escaped prisoners just floating around here, and when are the authorities or somebody going to do something about it?" Jason asked.

" Who knows. They would have to estimate  where the ship stopped responding. That's if they didn't change path, then they would have to comb space looking for them, which is not easy and I'm pretty sure the prisoners have hidden themselves quite well. So you guys might want to brush up on your very limited arsenal."

" What do you mean." Mia felt like they had been asking that a lot lately.

" Those prisoners could take out this your primitive planet without batting an eyelid. Your the only ones who know about the threat and this your the only defense. A very sorry one if you ask me, you'll have to do something between now and then."