It stands over me, the light of the unimpressive sun on this planet serving to starken the shadow which it casts on me. My mouth moves, struggling to find words appropriate for this situation, and my mind goes through the last few hours like water gushing over a rock. I can sense the information I've barely managed to accrue and compartmentalize buzzing in this pathetic, slow mind.

"I was supposed to contact you," I tell the shape, whose hulking proportions make my thin body look like one of the twigs lying nearby in the leaf litter, as compared to the trees overhead. My hand hits something hard. "Plastic," I state smartly, half turning around.

"Yes, that's what playgrounds are made of," Caroline crouches down to my level. "Good job."

Playground. Sounds like some kind of barbaric place for human ritual. My face scrunches up, a gesture which is completely beyond my control. "How did you get here?" I ask.

"I can feel you there," it says, moving its larger flesh stumps-- fingers-- towards its heart. "Was that not part of the..." It trails off, fixing me with brown eyes.

"Plan." I finish for it, and I reach out without moving a single muscle. Sure enough, there are five signatures lurking at the back of my brain, which I am aware of as easily as I am aware of my limbs. Caroline has the strongest signature, perhaps owing to proximity, while the others are distant, like the stars.

"Is there a plan?" it asks.

"You're taking this well," I say. "Are humans generally a militant species? Are you used to interplanetary calls to arms?"
"No one even knows aliens exist."

"You're going to find out fairly soon if we don't get a move on," I say, and then my eyes widen. I pick myself off the ground, brushing off plant refuse and stick chunks from the soft human exoskeleton. "Wait. That's it. That's what we're doing. There are aliens coming. A lot of them."

It nods. "And?"

"Well, obviously they're going to terraform the whole planet. I guess we're supposed to ensure they don't... do that. It's going to involve a lot of deviant behavior. Your species has some kind of established code of moral behavior," I turn my hands for the right words, surprised by how easily the words are coming, as well as how the body seems to be collaborating. "So you'll likely be against things such as breaking into those large carapaces, potentially aggressive other humans, who will likely be aliens as well... things of that ilk."

"There is one human rule." Caroline says to me, with a gravelly certainty that makes me shiver. "Don't get caught."

Dread rises within me. I think I have somehow stumbled upon the most terrifying warrior this planet has to offer, and I'm not sure if this is the best possible outcome for my escapade the other day or the absolute worst. "Well, I... I'm going to try to contact the others."

"Alright."

I reach out again, trying to draw them closer to me like I might draw my fingers in, but this is not working. Hello? I ask.

Caroline shivers.

"You could hear that?"

"You might want to work on volume control," it informs me, placing its hands on its ears. "Among other things."

I do not know what the human platitude is for expressing that I regret my current actions, nor do I want to engage in lengthier conversation at the moment, so I open my mouth, close it, and try again. I am..."I don't have a name," I tell Caroline. "This is going to be a problem when trying to make correspondence."

"Tell them we're not hostile and we're in Wellsview Park." it suggests.

Not hostile and in Wellsview Park. Please engage me at these premises so I can explain the situation.

"Come alone."
Alone. "Do you think that sounds too suspicious?"
"As suspicious as you sounded yesterday," Caroline says.

"I..."

"You did horribly yesterday. Just so you know."

I bite the fleshy bit at the edge of my mouth. It is nearly as painful as my inadequacy at human social interaction. "Thanks." My legs are still burning from the previous night, so I do myself a favor and sit down on one of the large plastic structures. They are brightly colored, as some species are to attract mates, but I believe fornicating with any of them would be impossible. As such, I can not possibly deduce any purpose for their existence, save for the juvenile bloodsport 'playground' seems to imply. Are these broken chips of wood human bones? What do humans look like on the inside? Caroline stands watch over me, unflinching, and I imagine her at one of these 'playgrounds', with many similarly sized humans crushed beneath her.

"So."

Caroline looks up. My heart stops.

"Weapon of choice?"
"Baseball bat," she says. "I stashed mine behind the trees. I figured you might freak out if I pulled it on you."

"That might have been the correct assumption," I say, slightly awed. "Do most humans keep weapons on them?" I didn't see any earlier. "Do you have... venom of any kind? Claws? Any kind of battle transformation?"

Caroline shakes her head. "We're a fluffy species."

"Despite your general lack of hair, your adipose content is great enough that I suppose you could qualify as 'fluffy'. I do believe, however, that 'incompetent for purposes of war' is a more accurate and relevant statement."

I have no idea how long the ensuing silence takes, but it is only ended when the human with the black hair, Bella, peeks into the park. Upon seeing me, its face seems to split open. I believe mouths are supposed to do that, but that does not make this any less unsettling. It runs up to me and announces, "You!"

"Me." I say. I believe this is correct human syntax.

"I could-- I woke up, and I could hear everything. All the radios, and the televisions, and-- and-- and that was you, wasn't it? I heard you. I'm so sorry it took so long. My mom was biting my elbow about my chores and I was still freaking out and... oh! Oh! You're a real alien, aren't you? This is the best thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life." Bella grips my face, feeling the harsh lines of my face, and then its fingers make their way down to the Lace. When it touches it, I feel harsh pain shoot through my body and I push back instinctively. It falls a little ways back in the pit of dead trees, but it's still making that same split-face expression. "Sorry! Is that some kind of sensual thing?"

"It's... what is currently binding me to this body," I correct it.

"So you don't usually look like that," whispers Bella, awestruck. "Can you change back?"

"I would not be here if I could," I assure it. I can sense the other signatures converging on us. "I'll explain when everyone's here."

Bella's face split is growing more severe. I hope it's not injured-- it doesn't look half as sturdy as Caroline does. "Oh, wow. Oh, wow, oh, wow."

I recall an earlier comment. "Are you a human, Bella?"

"Well, yeah." It does that thing with the eye again. Does it have some kind of infection? Can I catch human disease?

Caroline crosses its arms. "Did you choose us at random?"

"Random for me. I think the universe has some underlying reason for all of this, but when do fate's nebulous designs ever conform to some strain of routine logic?" I ask. I am sure this didn't land, although I think I get a huff from Caroline. Is this good or bad? Who knows? "Why do you ask?"

"You might have made some bad decisions," Caroline informs me.

Two blonde humans enter the park, still attached by the hand. I recognize them from yesterday, and they look no more friendly now. Like the other humans, they have changed exoskeletons, which I suppose are detachable as well as functionally useless, and the shorter one is practically leaning on the taller one. The taller one is leering at me... no, its leering past me.

"Why the fuck is she here," it exclaims, pointing at Caroline. "I don't know who you are, what that is, or what's going on, but I have a phone and I will call the police."

"This is an alien!" Bella flourishes her hands towards me as if to offer me something, but her hands are empty. "We're going to save the world. Probably. We're just waiting on everyone else to show up... please don't call the police."

"Who are 'the police'?" I ask. This is probably somewhere in the bank of information I've been given but searching for it is going to take me far longer than I can afford to waste right now. "What's a 'she'? What's--"

Caroline steps forwards. "Why are you here?"

"I don't know," the taller human says. The shorter one clutches its hand a little tighter, then its fingers move up and tap along the flesh of its arm. "Joel, I'm pretty sure the alien doesn't understand gender."

"The alien does not and would like to know," I say. "The alien is in this conversation."

"It's... well, it has to do with how humans procreate, so whatever sexual organs," begins Bella.

"Not always." The taller human cuts it off. "It's very complicated. You just don't understand pronouns."

"Those are what you call objects. I've been using pronouns all day." I say. The basics of communication are thankfully not lost on me. Language barriers during a mission like this would be nearly impossible to overcome without attracting a copious amount of attention.

"Gendered pronouns. For example, I use 'she', as does everyone here except Joel, who's a guy, and uses 'he'."

I think I'm half processing this, but my brain steps in and decides yes, you're an idiot, this is entirely fundamental to human society, and was probably hiding in the back of the information we gave you for this mission. Thusly I am imbued with the gift of gendered pronouns by whatever mystical force sent me here. "Do I need to choose one?"

"How do you identify?" the taller human asks.

"Alien."

The smaller human cracks up slightly.

I correct myself, "I think it's kind of arbitrary to start labelling myself based on reproductive organs. I also... have no idea what I have, so there's that." Please tell me I don't need to check. Please, please tell me I don't need to check. There is no time on this mission for procreation.

The smaller human raps out a quick pattern on the taller one's arm, and the taller one does the split face thing. Smiling. (It's still creeping me out but I digress.) "Joel agrees."

Caroline shoots her-- I really hope I'm doing this correctly-- a look.

"I guess we could just use neutral ones?" Bella suggests. "Do you need a name, too?"

"Yes, I think so," I say. "Is there some kind of emissary I need to go to to acquire a temporary one during my stay?"

"We don't get many aliens around here," says the taller human.

"I'll say. Your welcoming committee was garbage." I fire back.

"Did you have a name back home?" asks Bella.

"No." I scoff.

"Do you know... anything about yourself?"
I ponder this. Probing back into memories before coming here is like dipping my hands into the sun. It comes to me as a dissonant roar of light and color, spiralled atop itself in too many dimensions for the human mind to take in. I must be making a pretty horrifying expression, because the others look at me like I'm about to hurt them. Only then do I realize that my breathing has become incredibly labored. I ease my respiration, hands clutched around my neck, and manage to spit out, "N... not much. I was from... the Andromeda Galaxy... does that help?"

I'm really, truly, absolutely alone.

"We-ell, if you kind of shorten that, you get 'Alix'?" Bella suggests.

Caroline raises one of her eyebrows.

"Good enough. I don't care." I say, regaining my composure. "So, you're Bella, that's..." I point, "Caroline, Joel, and..."

"Sigil," finishes the taller human.

I think if Caroline's eyebrow rises any further it's going to leave her face.

"What," breathes Bella.

"Did I stutter?"

She did not. "Thanks. That means we just need..." There's someone watching us at the edge of the park. Its teeth are grit in a way distinct from Bella's, and amongst its hair are two thick, coiled cords that definitely were not there yesterday. Its whole body rolls with electricity. "Oh. There we go."

"What are you?" it asks, angrily.
"An alien. Can I get your name and gender? I just worked everyone else's out, but I don't think we've been properly introduced yet." I say, trying to imitate Bella's earlier gesture with the teeth.

"Erin. Female. Usually not--" her voice shakes, "--electrokinetic, but that's your fault, isn't it?"

"You all have powers." I say. "At least, that was the point of the transfer. I did not pick the abilities, but I'm guessing that whoever sent me here had some kind of plan in mind when assigning these particular humans and these particular abilities, so we're going to have to--"

"Roll with it?" suggests Caroline.

"I'm going to assume that was a proper idiom, so yes! Thank you. You've been given the abilities of various alien species that will hopefully help us with the ensuing mission, which I'm undertaking as..." I try to squint into my memory banks. "Penance of some kind, I think. Anyways, there's going to be a massive invasion, and the head of development is located in this city."

"Invasion?" Erin says, startled.

"Yeah, so the end of the world is in what the kids call 'two months'." I say. This is met with stony silence from the group. I should have realized that telling them about the impending doom of their planet was not going to go over smoothly. "Two months or some indefinite, far longer period of time, depending on your collaboration."

"Wait, wait. You want us to..." Sigil pauses.

"Save the world," Bella says. "Told you."

"None of you are panicking," Erin says, hand trembling. "Guys."

"We've got one male here," I correct Erin. "Obviously. Also, yes, that's exactly what I'm implicating, and no, I can not take the powers back until the mission's up. I'm guessing a lot of this will be fairly unwieldy to live with, so collaboration is probably in your best interests. I'm just saying. Are you in?"

They are dead silent.

"That... was rhetorical."

Joel makes some confusing motions with his hands.
"What's he doing?" I ask.

"Sign language." Sigil says. "To translate, we don't have much of a choice. It's not like we can just let the world end."

"You can do all that with your hands and you still choose to communicate using the orifice you put fuel into?" I ask.

"There are plenty of unsavory things you can do with your hands," Caroline says.

(The subtleties of their confusing human penchant for sarcasm are likely lost on me.)

"Hear me out. I can't-" Sigil breathes, and with a quick sweep of her arms, she sighs, "but I can't not."

"I'm not questioning this." Bella says, extending a hand.

"Maybe you should?" Sigil says.

"You were just saying we should all be in." Caroline says.

"I'm saying we have to be. I'm not saying we should accept everything." Sigil folds her arms across each other. "Everyone else?"

Caroline shrugs.

Erin looks at the others, then says slowly, "I think I... but I really don't... I... this will be over when we finish, right?"

"Yes." I assure her. "Things are generally over when they are completed."

Erin looks at me like I just slapped her across the face. "Well, fine." Slowly, after biting the fleshy bit in her mouth, she asks, "What now?"

I am a creature of intellect greater than they could possibly imagine. I have such a wealth of untapped knowledge that doubtless their inferior scholars would kneel at my feet if they knew the kind of secrets that I assuredly possess. In light of all this, in service of all my greatness, I must say that I have absolutely no idea whatsoever.

It is going to be a long, long mission.