An IFC short story.

Hey peoples. I know the All Star round is already technically over, but I was working on an entry and figured I might as well share it anyways. :)

Artwork by @yeszuzia on steemit and instagram

Below is the ending of the story I'm suppose to finish from that iexplore made and then below that is where my part of the story begins. I'll have a couple of extra thoughts to share at the end as well.

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As he turns his gaze to the sky. There appears to be a long irregular shaped craft. It's the Oumuamua and appears to be slowly approaching. Terror sets in as Apolymask turns to help his fellow Cryptopians, but he is summoned and dematerializes and rematerializes into the Oumuamua.

Apolymask looks over himself as he feels the affects of the transport. He slowly looks up to see a giant Grey standing in front of him...

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Apolymask was certainly out of his element and could sense no emotion from the creature.. Before he could think another thought the Grey pointed at him and technological restraints zoomed in to entrap and bind Apolymask.

Yelling out in frustration Apolymask felt most of his physical freedom fade.
He tried to break free from the device but it was futile.

The alien being continued to stare at him as if Apolymask was being studied.
Still no emotion from the creature, it was almost sort of robotic in a sense, or like an insect perhaps..

"What is your purpose?" Apolymask asked.
No response from the being, instead it turned and opened up a floating screen, sort of like a computer.. But with no physical monitor.

A holographic image appeared of Apolymask with alien language and arrows pointing to certain parts of his anatomy.

He did not like the looks of this.. He started to feel like this was the beginning to a really bad horror film.

The alien creature touched a few places on the screen and then what looked like a sophisticated medical energy cutting device was pulled down from the ceiling connected to tubes and wires.

"Uhh.. That doesn't look pleasant.. Hey.. Are you going to at least like give me a drug for the pain or to make me forget or something like that..?" He joked morbidly.

Still no response or emotion from the being as it approached Apolymask with the weird creepy looking device.

"This doesn't look good" Apolymask thought to himself.. "What can I do..? Can I do anything..?"

The creature started to aim the weird energy blade towards Apolymask's mid section and advanced closer.

Suddenly something slammed into the arm of the alien and knocked the tool out of it's hand and then darted off before Apolymask could figure out what it was.

The Grey alien appeared to be confused and almost sort of startled as well as it looked around the room trying to locate the source.

Simultaneously it uttered a command in an unknown language and lights started flashing and a noise periodically went off as if it was some sort of emergency warning system.

In a few moments numerous more grey aliens entered the room from other areas of the ship and the previous alien had retrieved his instrument and was once again approaching Apolymask.

Apolymask suddenly felt foreign telepathic intrusive thoughts full of fear and anxiety.

Not like he needed any additional anxiety at this point with a room full of aliens approaching him and still being unable to move much but his face.

Right as he was about to give up hope or perhaps even black out from the stress, something weird happened.. He fell limply to the floor and the restraints peeled away.

Gasping as if in disbelief Apolymask got up to his feet quickly though was a bit wobbly, he turned around to look and was surprised to see a creature that looked like a mix between a ferret and a butterfly.

Apparently it had clawed through some of the gear that was holding Apolymask in place and had helped free him.

He gratefully thanked the strange but extremely beautiful and intelligent looking creature unsure if it was able to understand him or not and then turned to face the approaching Greys.

Even more had entered the room at this point and he saw at least a good ten or more of these creatures approaching.

He wasn't sure how powerful his seemingly new ally was but he had his doubts they could defeat all of these aliens.
The closest alien started moving faster with it's weapon aimed at Apolymask.

And once again the flying ferret creature swooped in to deflect the attack and knocked the blade to the floor again.

This time Apolymask charged the alien and did a flying side kick which knocked the Grey alien into the wall damaging some of the technology and another floating screen appeared.

On the screen Apolymask could see Cryptopia in ruins and ablaze with smoke everywhere and people panicking.

Not only were many of the other Greys getting closer and closer, more had entered the room and there were probably at least twenty of them now, this wasn't looking good!

Three of the closer aliens tried to engage Apolymask and once again the flying ferret interrupted the closest one this time savagely biting into it's arm with it's sharp teeth.

The grey squealed in some kind of strange piercing alien manner as Apolymask took the opportunity to land a super man punch straight to the face of the Grey which jarred the being to the ground as the flying ferret continued to ravage it.

Another one of the Greys tried to strike Apolymask with a similar instrument as the other alien had but this one was longer and more like a spear.
Apolymask easily dodged, grabbed the weapon and then twisted until he smashed the alien into the wall.

Taking the weapon from the creature he used it to swiftly and powerfully dispatch the next with a strike on the blunt side to the face that incapacitated the being without killing it.

More and more aliens continued to approach and one shot Apolymask with some kind of immobilizing device.

It didn't totally prevent him from continuing, but.. Seriously sapped his energy and ability to move and was extremely painful.

With creepy hostile alien beings closing in on him and the flying ferret, he looked once again to the screen and saw a familiar person among the crowds of people.

It looked like it was @kryptocek attempting to help some of the villagers.
"Good!" He thought as he was happy to see kryptocek taking charge and helping the citizens of Cryptopia.

Right then Apolymask got stabbed by one of the beings he didn't realize was there and should have paid more attention to.

Perhaps it was because the alien being had some sort of advanced camouflage technology, or maybe Apolymask was just getting old. But.. He didn't expect that.. He was usually extremely OCD about his surroundings..

"Ughh.." He muttered as blood dripped down. With one hand he grabbed the weapon, and with the other he reached out and accidentally pressed his hand up against the floating screen where Kryptocek and other villagers were standing.

All of a sudden kryptocek and around six or seven other Cryptopians materialized aboard the ship all around Apolymask and the Greys.

Kryptocek immediately knew what to do, though some of the others who were transported were not fighters and they screamed and panicked and created even more chaos trying to escape.

Smashing the face of the Alien that had stabbed Apolymask, Kryptocek quickly continued on to the next one before Apolymask even had a chance to thank him.

He yanked the alien tool out of his midsection and fell to the ground watching the chaos unfold..

Kryptocek was a brave soul indeed taking on more than his fair share of opponents.
He had a little bit of help, but most of the other Cryptopians beamed aboard were not fighters and were adding to the difficulty of the situation.

Apolymask was no longer in much condition to fight.. Looking around he tried to think of something he could do to help.

One of the aliens had pinned down one of the Cryptopians and she was screaming.
He instinctively wanted to help, it was tearing at him though knew he was mostly useless at this point.

Until.. He once again saw the floating screen and more villagers had gathered in that same spot as if they were investigating what just happened, he recognized another face @iexplore was among a newly gathered crowd.

Apolymask put his hand up against the screen again and once again more Cryptopians were transported into the ship and began evening the odds.

Iexplore quickly pulled the alien off of the screaming lady and restrained the being while the others who were beamed aboard moved off to help Kryptocek and the others.

It helped, but.. The Grey aliens still massively outnumbered the Cryptopians and before long they would be overwhelmed.

There were no more people gathering at that area and were probably rightfully scared they would disappear as well, so he tried to move the screen and sure enough.. He was able to look around.

He spotted another group of people and transported them aboard, and another group, and another until there were hundreds of Cryptopians versus hundreds of Grey aliens.

Just then he saw @mr-bike tackling one of the Greys and helping to save a nearby Cryptopian. The battle was roaring and thankfully at this point they had pushed back the aliens far enough that Apolymask was able to receive medical attention.

Apolymask got back to the task of bringing more individuals on board to help, but.. There was one specific person he was looking for..

"We need to get @bengy up here to work on understanding how the ship works!" Apolymask thought to himself as he kept scanning the landscape searching for bengy.

Just then he noticed the flying ferret whiz by with @plushzilla and @luckysteem following close behind. What a strange sight he thought to himself..

Also.. He didn't want to be the unfortunate Grey aliens that had to deal with those three! These things don't seem to have much emotion but I imagine that combo might strike some fear into even them!

A grey was approaching Apolymask with hostile intentions, unable to move he started to get a bit nervous. "Uhh.. Can someone give me a hand?" he yelled.
Thankfully just in the nick of time @addempsea noticed and tackled the being before it could get any closer.

He kept beaming more and more people aboard in order to try to overwhelm the aliens until finally! He spotted bengy who was staring back at Apolymask through a pair of technologically advanced binoculars, just the person he needed.

He pressed on the floating screen where bengy was and right when bengy materialized the whole ship shook."Uh oh, not good" he thought.. Apparently the anti aircraft guns surrounding the city had finally kicked in and had been activated.

People and aliens went flying all over the place and as soon as he got his bearings Apolymask called bengy over and explained what he needed.

"Hey bengy! Nice meeting you here.. We have a problem.. I sorta got beamed up here by the aliens.. And then I beamed kryptocek and a few others up on accident and then decided to bring a buncha other people up here to help, and there's a huge battle of Cryptopians fighting aliens and we need to be able to get back to the city and not be stuck up in this ship! Could you please try to figure out how to do that? I was able to beam you all up here but not sure how we get back! By the way I'm not sure how many more hits we can take from those AA guns, so we really need to get back down there quick and tell them to stop firing!"

Without hesitation bengy immediately went to work ducking and avoiding and dodging a number of Greys on his way to the floating screen.
Just then he noticed @charisma777 and @xomegax tying up and restraining a few of the beaten aliens..

"Could you two please go protect bengy? He might be one of the only ones who can figure out how this ship works."

They both nodded and quickly followed after bengy while Apolymask took a moment to rest.

The ship shook again as it took another hit from the anti aircraft defenses.
Apolymask flew against the wall as much of the rest of the ship was shaken about as well.

It was only about 5 minutes later when charisma777 showed up to report that bengy had figured out how to use the transporter in the other direction.

Apparently bengy had already warped himself to the surface to go warn the anti aircraft gun crew to cease fire by the time Apolymask had got back to the floating screen.

He stared intently at the floating screen and moved it around and was thankful to see a group of people in the form of @youhavewings @magicalmoonlight @wholeself-in and @artgirl who were helping to put out the fires and bring order.

@enforcer48 brought him reports which were mostly positive as it seemed as if the aliens were being pushed back.

Seemed like it was only a matter of time now until the Greys were outnumbered and swarmed as Apolymask continued to beam more Cryptopians aboard.

Team after team of Cryptopians joined in to push back and then Apolymask collapsed from exhaustion and his earlier injuries and lost consciousness.

When Apolymask came to he was surrounded still aboard the weird spaceship and he wondered if what had just happened was real or a dream and with the hairs on his body standing up he looked around to thankfully see Cryptopians and not Grey aliens.

After a bit of rest he got to his feet and went out to see what was happening.
It was less a scene of fighting and more one of joy and laughter, people were joking and smiling and the atmosphere was very relaxed, quite a world from what he had just witnessed.

He immediately set out to find charisma777 or someone he recognized to see what had happened and what was going on.

As he left the room where he was recovering he was happy to see many familiar faces.

@simplymike was sharing some food with her neighbors from her garden.
@bashadow had his shoe shop set up in the new ship already.
He saw @headchange walk by humming a little tune.
@plushzilla was poking about behind the scenes talking to people likely discovering new talent and facilitating connections between important individuals.
@yeszuzia was painting away.
@irvinesimages was taking a group photo.
@boladayl was writing something likely powerful and poetic.
@jbreheny was joking around with @kenneth1 and @grizzman

It seemed like such a world of difference from the almost nightmarish scene the other day.. Or.. However long ago it was, he was unsure how long he had been unconscious.

Waving to various peoples he recognized he continued his stroll and found charisma777 was feeding a flock of children.

He greeted her and she helped bring him up to speed quickly. Looks like the council had come together to decide to take advantage of the ship and use it for our own means and purposes.

Thanks to bengy and some of his scientists we were able to figure out how to use much of the ship, though apparently some things are still unknown to us.

It will still take a while to repair the damage done, and to get everyone situated and a new Marketplace built, but.. Amazingly no one died and while some important texts were lost in the fires, most of the damage will be able to be repaired.

Thankfully none of the aliens died either, there were a lot of injuries on both sides and a few serious injuries.. But no lives lost.

For now the Greys will be held prisoner in Cryptopia and our scientists will attempt to try to learn how to communicate with them, but eventually it would be nice if we can return them to their kind.

Hopefully there are some friendly aliens out there and not just hostile one! And who knows, maybe all Greys aren't like that.. Perhaps it was just a stray group or perhaps there was something deeper to the story.. Maybe they even needed something from us for their own survival and it was more an act of them trying to keep themselves or their species alive?

However.. As peaceful as we are.. We will not sit by and do nothing if attacked.
We will try to keep ourselves alive as well, if that is indeed what they were trying to do.

The flying saucer we had is great for Cryptopia, but it's more of a scout ship.. Not meant for long distance travel especially with larger numbers of inhabitants.

Now with this ship we can go explore other worlds. Cryptopia will always be home, but.. I wonder what we may discover out there?

Artwork by @jimramones

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This wasn't an all exhaustive attempt by any means, so if you didn't see your name in my short story I apologize. I did try to put many people from the IFC world in there though there were many who did not make it in.

Also my idea was to have the space ship be the "new castle" for next season and we could sort of fly around in space exploring new places sorta like something from Star Trek or something, lol.

I thought it was a neat idea and almost totally opposite of my original idea which was to flee from the Greys under the earth into the mountains and have a castle that was underground.

It looks like that is the route we will be going though as plushzilla won and he used that for his template.

It was fun to write up either way though! I think it's making me a better overall writer and I enjoy fiction more than I thought I did! It's actually pretty fun to write. Err.. "type".. Anyways.. Thanks for reading if you did! And hope you liked it! :D Bye until next time!

PS.. The flying ferret is a "steempet" which is a game a friend of mine @thebugiq is working on and it's suppose to be basically as the name says a game where you can have pets on steemit and like take them for walks and feed them and stuff, and I bought this one and asked if we could use it as a mascot for our game and he said yeah!

I would have included the artwork, but it's either not done yet or hasn't been sent to me yet.
If you'd like to buy one you can send 20 steem to @derosnec
There might still be a deal for 10 steem pets? I'm not sure, but.. I would assume it's probably 20 steem now.