“Sir, the public increasingly becoming aware of the presence of aliens. We have failed,” an agent said to Connor Murren as he closed the door to his office.

“Well…,” Connor, the head of the CIA, began. “That happened much sooner than expected,” he said without concern and without looking at the agent. He had his sights on his computer screen, which demonstrated where aliens were reported being seen and the reports were scattered randomly across the globe.

“We’ve also heard that Gilgamesh is conversing and possibly assisting one of the aliens, against your orders.”

“Not necessarily,” Connor replied. He looked in his late thirties, with short, dirty blonde hair and light blue eyes. “All I told him about the aliens is that we would handle it. His only job is to take care of high level poets. If he thinks an alien would help him, then so be it.”

“Don’t you think he should have notified us? Keeping it a secret from us seems traitorous.”

“This is why nobody has ever hired him to do anything other than kill poets. Just keep a close eye on him.”

“Okay, but we still have to handle the alien invasion. Everybody down stairs is losing their minds,” the agent said.

“Who says this is an invasion? Have you read descriptions of some of them? No two aliens look the same. None of them are the same species. In fact, I’ve heard that some of them are fighting each other,” Connor explained.

“But they all came at the same time. This is clearly coordinated,” the agent replied, shaking his head slightly in disbelief.

“It is coordinated. Just not by the aliens,” Connor explained. “I said from the beginning that the poets would use the chaos to make a move and now I’m convinced they started this. I don’t know how, but it looks too perfect to have gone any other way. So tell your buddies to stop playing into their hands by losing their shit. Military and police forces have likely already been mobilized. Our plan is the same. Find out what the poets are planning and keep an eye on Gilgamesh. His findings will be important.”

“With all due respect, I think they’re justified in ‘losing their shit.’ Invasion or not, this is easily going to be the most catastrophic event in history. What happened in Japan twenty years ago won’t compare to this. The world will never be the same. I know you know that, yet you seem unconcerned.”

“I’m not unconcerned. I’m trying to remain vigilant. I hope you’d do the same. This is what we’re trained to do,” Connor said, taking a deep breath. It was true. Whatever was going on involved absolutely everyone and it will take everyone to stop it. “Let Gilgamesh know that the aliens are all different species.”
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Gilgamesh watched Elysia’s face carefully as she thought her way through his seemingly simple question, but a response didn’t come as fast as he would’ve liked. At first he thought she was searching for another excuse, but he spent a lot of time interrogating people to know that the look of confusion on her face was genuine. She repeated the poet’s name and slammed her fist onto the armrest before explaining that she had no idea how she got to Earth and only the poet named Skylar would know the answer. A poet capable of sending another person to a different planet, Gilgamesh thought, how is that possible?

“We’ve just received a report from the CIA. They’ve discovered that thousands of aliens have somehow made it onto Earth and they’ve yet to discover at least two of them being of the same species,” one of Gilgamesh’s soldiers said. “Which means it’s unlikely they’re all from the same planet,” he continued, glancing quickly at Elysia as he said it.

Gilgamesh grunted and then chuckled cynically. That’s absurd, he thought. “And what do you make of that?” he asked Elysia, hoping that something about that information would either jog her memory or lead to a logical conclusion about her predicament.

“They also said that the mission to hide the aliens from the public has been abandoned. The aliens are running rampant and many are hostile. Connor said to continue with our mission but to be cautious,” the soldier added.

“What did the fool think we were going to do?” Gilgamesh asked rhetorically before the jeep came to a screeching halt. Several yards away, a creature on all fours and twice the size of a full grown wolf stood facing them, baring its fangs. Its skin was leathery and teeth were massive. It had claws the size of daggers and its shoulder blades protruded out at an abnormal length. It had no eyes. The soldiers were frozen into silence. “Do you speak?” Gilgamesh shouted at the creature. The creature merely roared viciously in response and showed no indication of moving out of the way. “Kill it,” he said with distain as he stepped out of the jeep. His soldiers took their rifles, stepped out of the jeep and began unloading their clips into the creature.
---
Elise dashed out of the elevator and through the apartment exit, looking frantically around for the creature that had jumped out of the window. I don’t know how it could have possible survived, she thought as she stood where she could see broken glass. People were staring at the location with fear and the cement on the sidewalk was destroyed. It looked like the roots beneath the cement had broken through somehow. It can control plants, she concluded, understanding now why Dr. Plant had shown interest in the creature. But it was nowhere to be found.

“Where did the creature that did this go?” She asked one of the civilians nearby. Some of them pointed and she could see a green figure running down the street. She ran after it as quickly as she could. It doesn’t just manipulate plants, it looks like it IS one, Elise thought as she got closer to it. “Wait!” she shouted. “I can help you! There’s a park down there!” she pointed as she shouted. “There’s water!” Does it understand me? “Water!” she continued to desperately point in the direction of the park. It was about two blocks away from where they were.

Fighter jets flew hundreds of feet above them, heading in the opposite direction. It was a rare sight and although she wanted to look back to see where they were headed, she didn’t want to divert her attention away from the creature. A few moments later there was an explosion quite a distance away from them and screams of terror. She was sweating now and nervous. “What in god’s name is going on?” she huffed between intakes of air.