On Tv
Ben makes a startling discovery that gets Adia in trouble.
"Dude."
The layphon didn't move. He was tired. Close calls, consistent drains on his ard, the scare with Adia. He remained flattened on his stomach, wings haphazardly splayed out to almost hug the boulder he had draped himself over, great head in his arms.
The sun beat down hard on his fur. The boulder cooked him from underneath, baked in the blazing heat.
Fie, he needed this.
"D.. dude.."
"For heaven's sake, I'm trying to r-"
"Cindy seriously Jesus I mean.. oh God.."
He sighed. This sape child could be such a hole in the shard. "What."
"We're.. we're on tv."
Rumbling, Cindre ponderously raised his head to look Ben in the eye. "The hellf-"
"We are in some serious trouble." The mae looked scared. Really scared. Oh entomnis save me. What now.
The skinny little rake of a sapien was surrounded by his data, symbols and shapes and all manner of lights. A holo gone wrong, to his eyes.
He'd never gotten the hang of dataetica. Too cold. Too passive.
"Tv, television? You know? Cartoons, boring soaps, sports? News at 6.."
"Mmh. I'm familiar."
Ben pulled out his phone, and raised it. For the ten or so feet between them, Cindre trained his sharp ears on the primitive device, and listened.
".. have declared the images you see to be verified by Channel 6's own investigators. What appears to be a large winged, black creature, hanging in the air. Viewers will recognise the shape next to it, a young boy, also floating by unknown means. Ryan?"
They stared at each other as the tinny voice changed to a deeper, mae tone. "Thanks, Karen. I'm here in the town of Albion, the source of these images taken by our own Channel 6 reporter, Neil Teston. The fields behind me are the very same where he and his crew captured a snapshot of what is becoming a regular sight in this small town. With me I have Mallory McManus, who owns and runs a farm here. Mallory, can you tell me again, what you've been seeing."
"I've seen this rabbit, like a little girl. Thought it was a prank, just some dumb kids, but I've seen her too many times to be sure. Swear she took some of my carrots."
"Your carrots, sir."
"Damn right, mate, caught her a few times, once in broad daylight, little scrawny thing, blue fur, white markings."
Cindre felt his fur crawl. "Adia.."
"You heard it on Channel 6 first, viewers. Floating creatures, flying kids, rabbit girls. What does it all mean? You have your say, call our --"
Ben snapped his phone shut. The reporters voice dropped, leaving the air heavy and still.
"Holy crap, Cindy, we are screwed."
"Show me those images."
"What?"
The layphon leaped suddenly, landing with a hurried grace at the boys feet, clutching at him by the shirt.
"I want to see what they saw. Show me! Now!"
"Jesus, mate, okay okay, I'm not so good at that, give me a moment, I'm not a damn walking aerial."
Cindre flinched as he was pushed away, watching fiercely, as Ben quickly manipulated the datas around him, using eye-glances and his fingers. A flat panel popped into existence, covered in static. "One of those alien computers would be handy right now.."
"It's not my fault you broke the perella," he barked. "Focus."
"Okay okay.. jeez.." Ben winced as the 'screen' in front of them suddenly cleared, showing a silent loop. One large, dark and ornately detailed shape, another small and brightly coloured. An alien and a boy in school uniform. Hanging in the air, conversing.
"Shit."
"Clean it up," Cindre growled.
"What do you.. no, this is the exact image the reporter shot."
The layphon stalked closer, until his whiskers touched the projection, distorting the image where they brushed its surface. Ben balked. "I'm going to have such a headache."
"This could be worse."
"What?! Worse? You mean they could have my mum's maiden name and shouting it from the rooftops?!"
"Exactly."
"I don't think y- wait, what?" Ben gawked between the alien and his projection.
"This image is abysmal. They know how I look, they know about Adia. But you're just a smudge on some simple sapien imagery-tape."
They stared each other down.
"Cindy.."
"Sape. You are safe. They are looking for something they cannot understand in a place we don't even operate any longer."
"But this will get out! The media, the news, the government."
"Your masters have been looking for you and I since I got here."
"For the last time, they aren't my masters."
"Don't deviate on me. Focus. The sapien masses got a glimpse of me. Of the lape. And they know one of their own is somehow involved. It changes nothing."
Ben sighed. His datas faded, the air cleared. A background chorus of cicadas exploded into their droning cheer.
"Keep telling your lies. We keep to our plans. We have a war to finish." He turned, and flexed his wings, shouldering them, raising them high, and paused. He glanced at his shard.
"Where are you going, rabbit."
He bristled at the term, feeling it impact as an insult along with the ridiculous nickname. Impudent alien youth.
"Adia and I need to talk."
He took off with a great lunge of feathers.
"Oi ya great daft bird," Ben yelled after him, "don't call me a monkey!!"