His legs skittered against the white scales as Dustin leaped to the back of the snake. It reared back, in preparation to bite. Timing it just right, he jumped into the air as it went to strike, and then started running along its back, towards the head. It struck at him several times, and each time, he jumped so that it would miss. Just as it went to strike again, he leaped high into the air, and landed against its hood, clinging with the claws at the end of each foot.

As the snake rushed at the ground, probably to crush him, or rub him off, he opened his maw and leaned forward. Getting as close to its eye as he could, he jabbed at the scale with all of his tongues. They broke through, breaking all of their venom filled needles.

The ground rushed up at him, and he sprung away from the head as hard as he could, grabbing the trunk of a nearby tree, and vaulting further away.

“Remove the scales over Olivia,” he said, dodging the spasming coils.

(EVOLUTION INITIATED)

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

“What the hell!” she screamed as soon as the first scales released her.

“What?” he asked innocently, as he started running along the ground again.

“You just leapt at that things head, like the four-foot fangs weren’t anything to worry about!”

“They weren’t,” he said, with a shrug.

Her mouth just hung open for a moment, and he chuckled. She was speechless until he ran past the giant turtle. It had gotten too close to a tentacle tree, and was in the process of being devoured.

“Was that tree really eating a giant tortoise?”

“Yep.”

“Okay, I think I’m officially alright with leaving this planet. This place is messed up.”

“So, what do you think about having some kids?” he asked, as he jumped over several trees that had fallen at some point.

“Never wanted any. I was sterilized before heading out to be an alien advisor.”

“What?” he asked, feeling the pit of his stomach drop. No kids? Sterilized? Who the hell WANTS to be sterilized??

“It’s standard practice before heading to an alien home world, to ensure that there aren’t any mishaps.”

“Mishaps?” His voice was a little strained. Since when was having kids a mishap?

“Well, the Ogifgar are known for raping every species that comes to their planet, just for the interesting half breeds that occur. Since them, every person who becomes an alien advisor has to go through the sterilization process to ensure no mishaps.”

“Right,” he said, totally not getting it. Maybe she could use her PED to fix the sterilization?

As they passed through a clearing, almost to the station, Dustin could see that there were stick people moving in the evening dusk. As he got closer, it became obvious they were fighting with the Josagn!

Pausing in surprise, he watched them as they fought. The stick people must have some kind of hive mind, because all of their moves were in tune with each other’s, even when they couldn’t see what the other was doing. It was very weird, and he couldn’t help but imagine some great puppet master controlling them.

“What’s going on?” Olivia asked, leaning forward for a better look.

“It’s civil unrest. The locals are complaining about the renovations to their home town.”

“What?” she wasn’t impressed.

With a sigh he explained how he had taught one to fight and kill, because they didn’t want the Josagn changing their world. She sat back, in contemplation.

“That means the Josagn are here illegally. They will try even harder to kill us now that we know they are intentionally misusing another races planet.”

“Great, as if they needed another excuse to kill us.”

Spying a Josagn whip out a sonic gun, he backed up quickly.

“PED, initiate second skin,” he said briskly.

(EVOLUTION INITIATED)

A second layer of normal scales grew over his crystal ones, leaving an air pocket between the two. Dustin knew that sound proofing often used dead air spaces to lower sounds, so he was hoping this helped if he was targeted by one of the sonic guns. He wasn’t sure about the mounted gun the prince had told him about, but by this time he wasn’t sure anything the prince had told him was true.

(EVOLUTION COMPLETE)

“This is about to get nasty. I’m going to run through the fighting and try to get inside the shuttle station. Do you want me to cover you with scales again? I know they have laser guns.”

She looked around in the dim light, as the stick people were slowing succumbing to the onslaught of the Josagn, and their hi-tech weapons, and nodded. She leaned down, and he initiated the crystals over her again. Once they were complete, he took a breath and then darted as fast as he could, towards the shuttle station. The laser that had shot at him the last time was too busy with all of the fighting going on, to target him, too, so he was able to get all the way to the station without any problems.

Running around the side, he tried to find the front door, but wasn’t having much luck. Holding his small arm out, and trailing it along the wall, he was finally able to find an opening that had been hidden by some kind of hologram.

Annoyed at not being able to see past in, he wasted no time in swiftly entering the station. Inside, his eyes needed no time to adjust, but the Josagn inside, hadn’t needed any time to react. Bullets of all kinds were shot at him, from an arsenal of waiting Josagn. Bullets ripped through the normal shells, but made no impact on the crystal ones. The same went for the lasers, though there was heat involved too, he was able to ignore it for the most part, as long as he kept moving. The sonic guns were slower to shoot, giving him just enough time to outrun the aim of the Josagn with that weapon.

After circling the room twice, he realized the entrance to the shuttle bay was hidden just like the door had been, but if he slowed down to drag his arm, like he had with the outside wall, the weapons that were just missing him, would start hitting more. Dirt marks on the floor gave the entrance away. The person shooting the sonic gun managed to actually hit him, when he ducked through the entrance, and he found himself skidding across the floor, in horrible pain.