The IBIF Chronicals

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Once the video was over, Tybalt put the news back on. "We all start out that tiny." He responded to H-30's comment. He hadn't really watched the video, but he hadn't averted his eyes either. It was just kind of there for him. Once it was over, he got up from the chair and came across to sit in front of the cage again. He supposed then, that H-30 hadn't. They didn't have to, if they just thought each other into existence.

"You're welcome." he added with a nod. "What is something your species, as a whole, hates?" His questions seemed so dark in comparison to H-30s, but H-30 didn't have to worry about an invasion and eventual take-over of his world. Tybalt did.
 
'Black holes.' H-30 replied with a harsh voice. 'Someone as young as me is dead if he stumbles upon one of those. Even the strongest of us have problems with them if they get too close. Sometimes they appear in problematic places, and even for the strongest of us, they're extremely hard to relocate.'

'That aside, hmm, there's a certain species out there... We all know we have to kill whatever member of that species we come across, no matter the circumstances. They're very similar to us, and the only ones able to offer resistance so far.' He glanced down, not wanting to speak further about that.
 
Tybalt wanted to hit his head against the glass wall between them. Black holes, and some other, even worse species. Why could nothing be simple? Neither of those options were available for use to Tybalt, even if he knew how to get either of those things here on Earth. The black hole would swallow all of them, human and whatever H-30 was alike. As for the other species, even if Tybalt COULD contact them, he wouldn't.

Scientists had tried getting rid of one species with another before. Guam was a prime example of that. They had a spider problem so they introduced snakes to the island, and now there was triple the snakes than they ever had spiders. No, trying to kill a different species with another would just make everything worse. He sighed. "Okay."
 
Tybalt's frustration was almost tangible for H-30. He didn't look like it, but he was starting to feel concerned about the man. And on top of that, if he kept that up, his irritation would make a wreck in H-30's system. He might feel bad, he might lose control of his powers, he wasn't sure, but the outcome wouldn't be good.

'This may not sound like it, but my question is part of the game. Why are you so... Miserable when talking to me?' H-30 asked, finally his concern showing on his face. His lips weren't moving. He was speaking just inside of Tybalt's head. From the guards' point of view, he was silent.

'It might not seem true to you, but I'm trying to cooperate with you, since it's the first time you've allowed me to do something else than let other people experiment on me. Plus...' He made a short pause before continuing. '...our interests are the same. Or... Maybe we don't want the same, but our interests overlap.' He continued timidly.
 
H-30 was under the wrong impression. It was interesting though, to see that concern on his face. Was he concerned about him, or about the fact that he thought he made everyone miserable. Tybalt shook his head and was about to open his mouth when he thought better of it. Instead, Tybalt decided to try something else before he answered H-30. He hesitated before he spoke inside of his own head, feeling a little dumb because this might not be how it worked at all.

'Well, I dont mean this to be a question before I've answered yours, but can I talk to you this way?' Tybalt honestly wasn't trying to break the rules. He just didn't feel comfortable answering out loud, and if this worked he'd answer this way instead.
 
H-30 was confused by the man's answer. "Isn't this how we've been talking all this time?" After all, for him it seemed like the humans were communicating with their minds, but for some reason had the habit of moving their mouths along with what they were saying. From his point of view, nothing was different.
 
Tybalt made a face that showed he was clearly confused, but he didn't admit verbally that he was. Instead he responded; 'No, we haven't. And as for your answer I'm not miserable talking with you. I'm upset with your answers because they don't help me at all. With every answer I get from you, it only seems to suggest that there is nothing we can do to stop your race from taking over Earth and killing every once of us.' And that was what made him miserable.

Tybalt took in a deep breath. He hadn't wanted to say it out loud because even if it was just the two guards in the room, he hadn't wanted them to panic, or tell anyone else what he was thinking. Tybalt just didn't see a way out of this at present, and every time he thought of another solution, it was thwarted.

'What is this overlapping interest you think we have?'
 
H-30 took his time to reply. He was afraid of going further that line, but Tybalt had opened himself up a little bit. Maybe he could do the same. 'My main interest is to not be killed by those of my race. A not so urgent, but no less important interest, is to stop my race from... Expanding. That's what makes me a deviant.' There, he finally admitted it to Tybalt.

'And don't feel so defeated already. The most powerful of us might be totally out of your league, but... They're far away. At distances I suspect your mind is not capable of imagining entirely. The ones who wander the general area of the Earth aren't that strong. There are those who are stronger than me, yes... But stopping them doesn't have to be an impossible task. You've already managed to imprison me. That's a nice improvement.' He talked slowly inside of Tybalt's mind, not wanting to end up reading the man's mind by accident. He was able to distinguish the thoughts that were aimed at him from those Tybalt wanted to keep private.
 
Tybalt had suspected that he was a deviant yesterday, but he had not suspected the reason. Tybalt's eyebrows raised. Was H-30 saying this because he wanted to be let out, or because it was true? was he trying to pull a fast one on him? If he was, why would he bother trying to encourage him with the rest of it? He wrinkled his nose a little. It was hard to get a read on H-30. He was so alien, and Tybalt had no idea what his motives were. Especially when it might not be as malicious as he first thought.

But then, what if that was just H-30 getting into his head? He frowned and then sighed. They had gotten lucky, imprisoning H-30. 'And just why would you want to stop your race from expanding?' He questioned. It didn't seem natural to him, that H-30 should go against his own kind. Why?
 
A faint sensation of sadness invaded Tybalt's mind. It was something that slipped from H-30, but he quickly pulled it back. He didn't want the other to know in so much detail how he was feeling. 'I've been there, witnessed firsthand how some races suffered from war. Some of them ceased to exist. Others were forced into slavery. For my race, that is alright. They have the power to make it that way, so it must be the natural order of things, right? I'm... I'm a deviant from thinking differently. I think we should all be able to exist... To exist without anybody trying to make us cease to exist.' He finished the idea awkwardly, not knowing the human language equivalent for the ideas of peace and freedom.

'There's also a personal grudge. As I said, they eliminate those who are deviants. They tried to erase me from existence. I'm... I'm ashamed of this, but I hold a grudge against them. I resent them.' A brief pause came before his next words. 'I shouldn't be able to hold a grudge, specially against my people. I'm a failure...'
 
Tybalt was, honestly, just filled with surprise. He couldn't help but ot think that this was some sort of trap or trick. To get him to thinking that maybe they weren't all like that, let H-30 out, and then he'd kill everyone. Tybalt frowned, toying with the hem of his shirt as he looked at H-30. He wasn't sure what to say.

'Well I don't believe in natural order.' Tybalt claimed. 'Order, certainly. There must always be order. But a natural one? I don't think so. Anything and everything can change, and I'm perfectly happy to help it do so if its for the better.' Tybalt thought on this a moment. 'So what if you resent them? I resent all the bastards taking over Earth or killing our people, and I'm doing something about it.' Tybalt found himself a little amusing. He was kind of starting to sound like his friend, Gerhard.
 
"Maybe it's okay for you to feel that way. Maybe it's okay for humans to resent other humans. Or at least, it seems like that is the case from what the News are constantly showing me. But that is something that shouldn't be in me. I'm broken. Or malfunctioning."

The happiness from being given the dictionary faded away. Now his mind was filled with painful memories, and the stress of telling Tybalt all of this. To save some of his energy, he went back to the appearance he was most used to, the one that made him look like blue jelly. He saw the guards readying their weapons. It seemed like no matter what he did, it came off as hostile. Trusting their never fired their weapons until he clearly attack, he payed them no mind. He put his tentacles under himself. He usually looked bright blue, but now his substance looked darker, and duller.

"I don't know if those two were supposed to be questions from the game -in that case we just broke the rules- or if just had a conversation. Judge or adjust the rules accordingly, and keep going."

"What does 'the one in charge' want to do with me?" he asked, taking his turn.
 
Tybalt shrugged. He didn't see why H-30 shouldn't show resentment. 'You know, if you think about it... if you really think your people are wrong then you shouldn't think you're malfunctioning. If your people are wrong then their ideas are wrong and I'm just going to assume that not showing resentment is your species idea and not one you made up yourself. If you're going to be a deviant you might as well do it all the way.'

When H-30 told him to either change the rules or keep going, Tybalt saw no reason to change the rules. He figured it was just a conversation. One that had stemmed from the game but not one that had changed the game. It was too difficult to change the rules of the game now anyway. He liked the rules as they stood.

When H-30 asked his question though, he frowned a bit, and answered out loud again. "He wants me to get all of the information I can out of you, and then he'll likely order you killed." Tybalt answered. Sometimes he was good at breaking news or sugar coating things, but he wasn't today.
 
"What a limited idea. 'The one in charge' isn't very intelligent, is he?" H-30 kept talking just inside of Tybalt's head. He felt like he could explore the human body for ages, and that was just the beginning. He supposed the Earth was full of wonders he could explore, and that was limited to just one planet. He could bring knowledge from the other side of the universe, and once the barriers of language were down, he suspected he could keep supplying 'the one in charge' with information for a lifetime. But since the information wasn't "You can kill me THIS WAY.", just like that it was deemed as useless. He wondered if all humans had such a limited mind, or if it was just the ones he spent time with.

He perked up when he felt a familiar energy relatively nearby. He glanced around his surroundings, but couldn't find the source. "I think another one like me is near here." He commented to Tybalt. He wondered if it was a friend, or a foe.
 
Tybalt didn't think this was particularly limited at all, but Tybalt also didn't feel like using up energy to argue with H-30. He didnt see what else H-30 might think to do with a prisoner besides make it useful and then kill it when it wasn't. Before he could ask a question, however, H-30 said what was, possibly, the most worrying and terrifying thing he'd heard in a long time. Tybalt got to his feet, drawing a hand gun from the inside pocket of his jeans.

"Prepare yourselves! Stand guard!" Tybalt barked to both the people in the room and beyond. He moved to the door, standing beside one of the guards. "There might be another alien nearby. Inside or out, information from an unreliable source." Unreliable or not, Tybalt would rather be over prepared than under. He opened the door a crack to look outside, spotting another guard. "You. Survey the entire area. Com back to this holding cell no matter what you find." Tybalt had a mind to put the entire place on lock down, but he wouldn't just yet.
 
The source of energy approached, and then the familiarity turned into full recognition. It was someone from his race. One that had been chasing him near the Earth. He knew there were other from his species in the planet, but a good friend told him the planet was so overpopulated, there it would be ease to lose his chaser. He had to escape, since this being was more powerful than him, with skills and capabilities he hadn't developed yet. He couldn't beat his pursuer on his own, but... He looked at the armed people near him, and wondered if it'd be worth it to take the risk.

From the ceiling of the room where H-30 was locked up, the being made itself present. It went just through the ceiling, as if neither itself or the ceiling were tangible. Its appearance was similar to H-30, but was transparent. When it noticed the hostile people, his whole being turned bright red, the same as H-30. It attacked one of the guards with an electrified tentacle, as it sent a loud, screeching noise as loud as it could inside of the guard's mind.

H-30 couldn't go through objects as his captor, but at least the cage had a weak point. The wall where he had written his name. The carved letters where an imperfection in the resistant glass, the easiest place to break. He made his claw reappear, and hit the glass until he could carve a small hole through it. He then flowed out of the cage through the hole, as water.
 
Tybalt turned when he heard something happening behind them. "Get everyone in here NOW. Kill the intruder but I want H-30 alive." He hissed, already starting to fire through the small hole H-30 had made to get out. He had no idea if his bullets would have any effect, but he was going to kill it or die trying. Where the hell was Gerhard when you really needed him? Then again, he might blow the entire place up just trying to kill the one alien. Several of the guys behind him were shooting too, although they didn't have near as good of an aim as Tybalt did
 
The alien floated trying to chase after H-30. It initiated its mental attack on H-30, but the noise from the bullets being fired, the distraction of some bullets hitting and destroying parts of its body, and having to concentrate on making the bullets go right through his body without doing any harm, made it difficult for the creature to focus on attacking H-30.

H-30 flew up to where the televisions where, and covered them with his body. He sucked energy from them so fast, some pieces of the televisions got burnt in the process, but he managed to regain some of his lost strength. The new alien attacked another guards with a tentacle that had a sharp claw on its tip. H-30 grabbed the guard with a tentacle of his own, saving him from the attack, and initiated his own mental attack against the creature. It gave a pained noise, and some of its tentacles lashed out at H-30 and Tybalt, hitting H-30 on the side and sending him flying across the room.
 
Tybalt ducked out of the way before the tentacle could really do him some harm, but it managed to graze him. He gasped but kept shooting, quickly grabbing for his other gun with his free hand. He got up, looking around for something that could help them. Tybalt wasn't sure these guns were doing much damage. He needed something bigger, but he rarely carried anything bigger than a sniper rile, and he didn't even have that on him. Where the hell was Gerhard when you needed him? He was the guy with all the big guns.

He shook his head and then let out a frustrated growl. He kept up his hand gun attack because at the moment, he had nothing better. He slammed his hand down onto one of the computers. "Gerhard!" His voice could be heard over the loud speaker, and he quickly turned it off again afterwards to duck another attack. If nothing else, they could just stall until he got there with a bigger weapon.
 
As H-30 tried to get his mind back under control, which was hard to do with the wide spectrum of emotion coming from the humans in waves, he noticed the lights flickering, and the televisions around his cage stopping working. Since he wasn't responsible of that, he guessed it was the other alien's doing. Lucky him, the same problems he was having with the humans' emotions, the other alien had them too, and for a moment, H-30 found the other's mind vulnerable for reading. As he guessed, he was preparing an attack, but it wasn't for him.

The alien wasn't pleased with Tybalt asking for reinforcements. In the brief time it took the alien to gather and prepare the energy, H-30 could barely put himself in front of Tybalt. In the worst case, he'd be hit by the attack, but he wanted to make a desperate attempt to make the attack useless. The alien shot a ray of red light, and H-30 received it, and managed to transform it. It was too much for him to consume it safely, but at least he could dissipate it without getting damaged.
 
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