General Grawl x Captain Charles

Chuck is Back! (Back again)

The night after the town celebration ended, everyone returned back home to get a restful night's sleep for once. Lem offered to walk Neera and her brother home, and after saying goodbye to his friend Skiff as well as Glar and his friends, he, Neera, and Eckle went down the sidewalk. Eckle was, of course, recounting the day's events from the moment they went to Base 9, to when they were up in the sky in the astronaut's space shuttle, to which Lem and Neera just listened and laughed as he retold the story in excitement.

Eckle then sighed and looked up at the stars. "Man, how cool would it be to be up there right now in that space ship."

"Yeah," Neera said, holding Lem's hand, making him blush. "I think he might be watching us from up there right now."

"I hope he comes back to visit us!" Eckle exclaimed, hoping on the porch of his and his sister's house. "And when he does, I hope that he brings some things from his home planet, too!"

"That'd be cool!" Lem remarked, agreeing with the kid.

Neera then cleared her throat. "Meet me inside, Eckle. I'll be there in a second."

Eckle nodded and then waved goodbye to Lem. "Thanks for walking us home, Lem! And for the adventure!"

Lem laughed awkardly and waved back to him, and watched as Eckle went inside the house. He then turned around and met Neera's gaze, and he blushed harder when she took both of his hands in hers.

"Thanks again, Lem," she said. "I think this is the most fun I've had in a while."

"Y-Yeah, it's no problem," he stammered.

"It's not every day that you go into space. It still feels surreal that I actually saw our own planet."

"Mhmm.."

"I can't imagine how excited you must feel. After all, learning more about the universe and our world as a whole is basically your dream!"

That was true. Lem was excited to learn more about space, now that he's seen in first hand. But for now, he just wanted to be with Neera.

A moment of silence passed before Neera glanced at her house. "It's getting late. I better get ready for bed."

"Oh, r-right." Lem said. "D-Don't let me keep you."

Neera smiled at him and gave him a small peck on the lips, catching him by surprise. She giggled and walked into the house. After making sure that no one was watching, he pounded his fist in the air and whisper-screamed: "YESSsSS!" and then returned home.

The next morning, Lem woke up from the sunshine in his bedroom. He stretched before getting out of bed, and then he went to his window to open the blinds. He saw the familar rocket ship in his backyard and then went to the bathroom to brush his teeth. As he did, he thought of Neera and about the kiss last night. Maybe he should give her a call and--

Wait, ship?

With his toothbrush still in his mouth, Lem ran back into his bedroom and looked out the window again, seeing Chuck's space ship sitting there and taking up the lawn. His eyes practically buldged out of his sockets, and then he rubbed his eyes. He had to have been dreaming, right? There was no way that Chuck's ship was in his backyard, right?

After making a quick trip to the bathroom to spit, he grabbed the telephone and called Skiff, antsy to tell someone. After a few rings, he heard his friend yawn and say, "Skiff speaking."

"Skiff, thank god!" Lem whispered into the phone. "You're not going to believe this but Chuck's rocket ship is in my backyard!"

Back at Skiff's house, the alien shot up out of bed immediately, startling Rover the robot. "What?!"

"I know, it sounds crazy, but it's true! Or at least I think it is. I don't know if I'm dreaming or not, but I just need you to come over, fast!"

Skiff got out of bed and instantly changed into his clothes. "I'm on my way! Don't go anywhere!" He then hung up the phone and as he struggled to slip on his Humaniac shirt, he said, "Rover! Let's go!"

The white robot wheeled away after his new alien owner, curious as to what the fuss was about.

Meanwhile Lem was pacing back and forth in his living room, still in his pajamas, and it wasn't 5 minutes later when he heard the doorbell ring. He rushed over to the door and Skiff bolted in with Rover sliding in behind him. "I got here as fast as I could!"

"Shh!" Lem shushed. "My parents are still asleep." He then gestured to the both of them to follow him to the window, and he opened the blinds a little to show Skiff. The taller alien couldn't believe his eyes.

"Gee whiz, Lem! You weren't kidding!"

"What do I do?" Lem asked.

"I don't know," Skiff whispered. "Should we call the military?"

"Not a chance."

Just then, movement from outside made them both radio silent. Stepping out from the ship was none other than Chuck Baker. He was out of his space suit now in his blue NASA uniform and pacing around the exterior of the ship, taking notes on a little notepad. Lem and Skiff looked at each other, and Rover's little antenna-tail started wriggling in excitement.

Lem and Skiff ended up going outside, and as soon as the door opened, Chuck smiled and saluted raised his head to them in greeting. "Hey, Lem! Skiff! Long time no see!"

"Long time no see indeed!" Skiff remarked.

Lem rushed up to the man in confusion. "What-what are you doing here? You're supposed to be in space! Why are you back?"

"Did you forget something?" Skiff asked.

Rover did circles around Chuck's legs, and the man laughed as Lem continued to throw questions at him. "How are you even here in the first place? I thought you said that the ship was programmed to only go back to Earth!"

"It is, until in the case of an emergency," Chuck said. "Which happens to be the case right now."

"What happened?" Skiff asked.

Chuck gestured to the rocket with his hand. "See for yourself."

Nervous, Lem and Skiff peered around the robot and saw that one part of the rocket was black and looked to have been completely burned off, like an explosion happened. Lem couldn't almost believe what he saw, and Skiff turned to Chuck while pointing at the debris. "That happend while you were in space?" he screeched.

"Yep," Chuck said, putting his pencil on his ear. "And where I was nowhere close to Earth, I figured that my best bet would be to come back here and try to fix it. Better here than potentially getting lost in space forever."

"That's intense."

"It was very scary, yes. But, at least now at this point, I can return this to you."

"Return what?" Lem asked.

Chuck went back into his ship, and moments later he brought out the squriming gray xenomorph. He set it down on Lem's lawn, to which it ran straight to his mom's garden and pissed acid, browning the flowers within seconds. Lem and Skiff winced in disgust.

"Well, what is it that you need for your ship?" Lem asked. "Maybe we can help."

"I'm still trying to figure that out," Chuck said. "I'm not really much of a tech guy when it comes to ships. I'm just some guy that wanted to go into space." He looked back at the exploded engine. "However, I might remember some of what I learned back in school on just how to fix this thing. It just needs to come back to me."

"Whatever you need, we are here to help!" Skiff proclaimed.

"Yeah. Maybe there might be some old parts in the junk yard that we could harvest."

Just before Chuck could reply, all of a sudden the backyard gate opened and a crowd of aliens, including news reporters, rushed over to the three of them.