Proton (A Protogen Story)

Invaders from...

I was blacked out for God knows how long, a pulsing sense of pain shot through my head as I regained consciousness with blurred vision.

The air was thick with otherworldly tension, and strange sounds echoed around me.

Half expecting to wake up in a UFO, I could tell I was outside, surrounded by an unfamiliar landscape. Distant arguing reached my ears, creating an eerie backdrop to my disoriented state.

"Hey, come on! I said I needed an S-Circuit for the warper."

"This planet has Stone Age-level electronics. How am I supposed to find an S-Circuit?"

"Our allies already killed those guardians where we landed. I expect more will arrive here... We have one spy here, Li1-W4yn3; he can relay us more information."

Listening in, making out their speech was challenging, especially with their semi-robotic voices.

I recalled the news coverage with body cam footage, vividly remembering how easily they dispatched those cops. If they kept me alive, it was for no good reason, but that was answered just after that thought.

"And why are we keeping that thing alive?"

"Just trust me, we need him."

I breathed a sigh of relief. 'Phew, thank God it's not torture.' I gathered the courage to sit up but fell right back down. They definitely used some sort of tranquilizing agent on me.

"Yo, the thing's awake," the one with the deeper voice said.

The two walked up to me, and for the first time, I got a real good look at them. The first one was the black one I saw before.

The other had tan fur, the same black visor but a light blue digital face, and metal, what I assumed to be armor.

"I think we should introduce ourselves to you, human. I'm L0R3N70, you can call me Lorenzo. My friend here is W4TT7, call him Wattz," said the blue-faced creature with a smirk on his visor.

"For the time being, you're ours. Don't try to disobey or run away. If you do?" Lorenzo unholstered a handgun with rapid speed and pointed it right at my head. I nervously nodded.

"Good. Now, those tranquilizers should wear off in a few minutes since you're conscious, but we can't stay here much longer."

Before I could react, Lorenzo picked me up and effortlessly tossed me over his shoulder. Wattz pressed a button on the side of their spacecraft, and it shrunk down until it was no longer visible.

"H-how did you do that?" I mustered up the courage to ask, curious and scared at the same time.

"It's microscopic camouflage, normally to a species as technologically advanced as ours, this isn't a viable means of hiding a craft, with new detection methods. However, your species does not possess such tech." gloated Wattz. We had to keep moving, though.

The mysterious alien duo, seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere, we moved deeper through the forest without much sense of direction, as far as I could tell at least.

"Now keep your head down, I bet that government of yours tracked us since we landed" Lorenzo commented as he glanced around the treeline, clutching his weapon firmly as if expecting trouble.

I was a little nervous at this revalation... Shit, what if the military came barring down on us. Or just straight up dropped a missle on our head!

Maybe these guys could survive that and take over the Earth and shit, but I sure as shit couldn't.

Wattz who was lacking a bit behind before, sped up to catch up to Lorenzo, ushering to put me down so they could speak in private.

"Huh? Alright, aye kid think you can walk?" Lorenzo said in a slightly condescending tone as if I was a kid who ran off in the toy store.

"Yeah, I'll be good" I snort, as he callously dropped me at my response. Wattz started right up, I caught some of but I couldn't hear most of it over the river we were walking by

"You think... ... attention to us... ... their plan?... ... can't be good" that was about I could pick up, both of them seemed pretty quick to drop the topic.

Soon after that a military helicopter could be heard in the distance, rotor blades slicing through the calm air. It appeared over the treeline in no time at all, shining down a floodlight.

Lorenzo just growled, pulling out his handgun and aiming it right at the helicopter.

The pilot noticed this and tried to pull away, but with the squeeze of a trigger, a red thunderous ball shot from the barrel at rapid speeds, slamming into the chopper as it exploded midair.

I was shaken by the loud bang and concussive force, looking up to see a cloud of black smoke where there was once an Apache helicopter.

"Stupid humans and their lackluster technology," Lorenzo muttered.

Now I was really scared. Before it was wether the military would kill us.

Now... What if nobody COULD save me? What will my parents do? What will my friends do? I'm sure they were watching this all unfold on the news and the internet.

If the military responded, it can't be a secret anymore.

The gravity of the situation weighed heavily on me as we continued our mysterious journey into the unknown...