Chapter Text
“Is this really necessary?” Sonny asked, his head looking down at his body that was entirely covered by a hazmat suit.
“Safety protocol,” Vox replied. “They reported an explosion in Area 481, and we both know the air there is already toxic enough as it is, even more so if something broke loose because of whatever the hell exploded.”
Darkness enveloped the alley where they strode. Upon reaching the area where the said explosion occured, they were welcomed by the sight of a conveniently abandoned building that was already run-down to begin with. Smoke and dust filled the air, and piles of debris surrounded a huge crystallized rock.
"It's a meteorite," Vox muttered. "I'll call for back up. We're gonna have to bring it back to HQ." He took out a geiger counter and continued, "Radioactivity is low. We can extract samples and... Wait, it's spiking up!"
Sonny stepped forward, hands moving as if he's cracking his knuckles, and stood in front of the rock. "Let me handle this." He looked back towards Vox over his shoulder, nodded at him in assurance, then kicked the meteorite with full force.
"Sonny! What are you doing?!" Vox struggled to pull him away, but the blonde man kicked it a few more times before finally relenting. "I literally just said it's radioactive! Think, Sonny, think! Do you have a death wish?"
Before the older man got to yell out more barrage of words, they noticed the rock started to glow blue, and heard a low thrum, then a hiss.
Somehow, the already smoke-filled air got even heavier, and with a loud crashing sound, the meteorite cracked open, revealing the figure of an unconscious, horned man in nondescript dark clothing.
Vox had let out an audible gasp and loudly wondered, "Is it an alien?"
Sonny approached the unknown creature and slowly raised his leg, but his fellow agent seemed to read his mind and pre-emptively scolded him, "For fuck’s sake, Sonny! Stop kicking things! And hands off your weapon; don’t think I couldn’t see you reaching your holster."
He was about to kick the figure anyway, when the creature suddenly opened its eyes and locked in contact with Sonny's. With its mouth agape, the creature's eyes then widened in either awe or recognition, and just continued staring at him.
"Is it really an alien?" Vox's voice echoed in the space filled with awkward silence between them.
"Are you an alien?" Sonny repeated.
The horned man seemed to be snapped awake by his voice, and answered, "Well, from my perspective, you're the alien. But yeah, I am."
"You can speak our language?" Vox asked.
The weird man with horns, who was apparently an alien, looked confused, "Who can't?" In a lower voice, he mumbled, "I think it's only your planet so far that can't speak the galactic standard language, to be honest." His gaze then landed back at Sonny. Flashing a wide smile, he greeted, "it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is..." He made a series of incoherent hisses and tongue clicks, and when Sonny was about ready to punch him just to see what happens, the alien finally said, "but you can call me Ren."
"Why are you here? How did you—“ Vox started rambling once again, which Sonny naturally tuned out.
"Can't we just bring him to the headquarters?" Sonny suggested, in hopes that they can just drop the alien to the other agents and be finally done with it. "Can you come with us?" he said to the alien in question.
Still with a beaming smile on his face, the alien agreed, "Come with you? Gladly."
"That was easy," Vox mumbled off to their side.
The three of them walked back to their car, with Vox pestering the alien with a lot of questions, to which the horned man patiently and willingly gave the answers to. However, Sonny also noticed that the alien remained close to him, sometimes even leaning in towards his nape and shoulders, so he stayed on guard, assuming that the alien might be sizing them and looking for weak points.
Inside the car, Sonny sighed in relief, being finally able to strip out of the hazmat suit. He worked on the tapes and moved to open the flap and zip of his suit.
"Aren't we supposed to go through a decontamination chamber first?" He heard the alien commenting beside him. "Is it safe to remove your protective gear just... like... that."
With his coveralls stripped down to his hips, Sonny removed his helmet, shaking his head to get his hair off of his eyes and forehead.
At the corner of his eyes, Sonny noticed the alien, who was definitely gawking at his face. He looked straight back at the horned man in defiance, "What? We look just like you."
"No," the alien replied, "you look breathtaking."
"The fuck?" Sonny uttered.
"Language, kid," Vox interjected.
With their suits disposed, they finally took off.
It all happened in a blur—a very long one that Sonny both tuned out yet also boringly sat through. First, they arrived at the headquarters, and the other agents immediately fawned over the alien that literally also looked human, but with horns. They then all took turns in interrogating the apparently nonhuman being, who kept on clinging to Sonny's side.
Sonny wanted to get this over with; he wanted to head over to their captain's office and ask for another assignment, hopefully one that will require the use of weapons. When he did finally get called to the captain's office however, of course with the alien still in tow, he was given the mission to look after the alien.
He was assigned to babysit him.
Sonny tried to argue. The alien was so sociable; he could talk to the other agents just fine. Except for the fact that the alien kept on sticking to his side, Sonny thought that the task could have been given to the others—hell, they could even ask an intern to keep an eye on him, or the alien could just stay in their HQ and behave on his own.
"We can't keep him here," Captain Eveland retorted. "Regardless of how harmless he may be, we still have a lot of classified information here, and an alien, who literally admitted that he's scouting for new planets, cannot stay here." When the captain glanced towards the said alien, the horned man just proudly nodded with a smile. The captain sighed and continued, "And for some reason, he seems to be attached to you. But please, just try not to assault first, and don't say anything offensive. Please make sure that no intergalactic dispute would occur. Please. Can you promise me that?"
Sonny nodded.
Although for the record, his co-workers' usual comment that Sonny is very violent and just wants to watch the world burn is completely untrue. Case on point: Sonny noticed the alien sniffing him several times, but he never said "disgusting" and "get the hell away from me" out loud, because he actually cared about the Earth, and didn't want to offend the alien. Sonny thought that maybe it was also his way of saying hello, so he kept his mouth shut.
Hours after filing several reports yet just a little before the crack of dawn, they finally left the headquarters. Minutes later, Sonny found himself and the alien standing awkwardly in his apartment.
"Make yourself at home," the agent nodded towards the couch, but when the other man still didn't move, he said, "Just sit there."
The alien did sit on the couch, but when Sonny headed to the kitchen and rummaged through his fridge, the horned man stood up and followed suit.
That was the moment he remembered that none of them has eaten yet.
"What do aliens eat?" Sonny asked as he scanned through several tupperwares and take-out boxes.
"I'm not really picky. I've been to several planets and I've never found it difficult to appreciate the food."
Sonny only nodded in acknowledgement, took out a tupperware from the fridge and opened it, revealing parmesan spinach gnocchi.
"Taste it," Sonny said, handing the tupperware to the alien.
He took it, pinched out a piece and placed it in his mouth. With a gag in between chews, the alien mumbled, "No offense to Earth cuisine, but it tastes bad."
"That's because It's spoiled."
"What?" The alien looked dumbfounded. "Why did you still make me eat it?"
"I wasn't sure," Sonny shrugged his shoulders, and absently gave a salute. "Thank you for confirming."
"You're kinda mean," the alien chuckled.
"Then why are you laughing? You sound like you like it."
The horned man laughed even more.
"You laugh like a fuckboy," Sonny remarked.
"A what?"
"Like a chad."
"What’s that?"
The blonde man thought for a while before responding, "Does your specie have single parents?"
The alien still look confused but nodded, "Yes."
"It’s the other parent."
Sonny took out two packs of ramen noodles from the cupboard and opted to cook it for their extremely late dinner. It had been a very long, exhausting night, and he still had nothing to fight.