Lana’s voice quivered as she looked at it. “We came in peace after receiving your message, but it was just a lure to get us here, wasn’t it?”

The creature just stood there, eyeing her up and down with obvious interest.

The dark-haired woman gulped and gathered her courage. “Well, it’s not going to work. You might be stronger than us and have all this alien technology to support you, but we’re humans. You don’t mess with us and get away with it.”

The creature took a threatening step forward and his two jaws opened, emitting the ominous death-rattle sound.

Lana paled but stood her ground. She held up her hand and the creature stopped to look at it. “I’m not finished yet. As I’ve said, we might be weaker than you, but we have something that you don’t.”

The creature looked at her expectantly.

Lana smiled at him. “The numbers to create a distraction.”

The creature whirled back on its feet, just in time to meet Bulco’s fist. The Puncher discharged and hit the alien’s chest with enough force to punch through a brick wall. The monster was hurled off its feet and his huge bulk was thrown five meters away, skidding on the floor.

Bulco grabbed the metal bar Lana threw earlier. “Nice one, girl. Come on, we have to take it out while it’s down.” He took a step toward the creature that seemed to be dazed. More clicking sounds came out of it.

“Stop!” A voice came from behind him, and the Engineer froze with his makeshift weapon hovering above the creature’s head.

Nori came slowly back to her feet. “Don’t attack it. We’ve made a mistake.”

She staggered toward the now alert creature and knelt beside it. “We are truly sorry, Mr. Alzigo. It was a huge misunderstanding. Will you accept my apology?”

Lana’s eyes widened as she heard the woman call the creature by its name. She narrowed her eyes as she focused on him.

Alzigo, Exhar, level 8

The creature’s jaws opened and more clicking came out. Lana could have sworn they sounded complaintive.

Nori nodded. “I know, it’s our fault. We’ve never met an alien … I mean we never met someone outside of our own species before. We are truly sorry. How can we compensate you?”

The clicking continued and Bulco took a step back. “Holy hell. It talks!”

Lana and Nathan exchanged glances. “You can understand what it’s saying?”

Nori nodded. “The thing he injected us with somehow made us able to understand him.” She stopped and listened to the next bout of chittering. “He’s offering to inject you and Nathan as well so we can all communicate. I think you should do it.

Lana blanched, and Nathan paled visibly. “You … you mean with that ... that … snaking needle thing?”