If Vexx could have been amused, they would have been. Watching the self-absorbed, overly talkative, pompous Kree go screaming off into the bushes was, admittedly very cathartic for the Kappa Vrul from where they floated next to the house. Unfortunately for Vexx the dog didn't eat the Kree, and he got away with only a minor loss of some of his tailfeathers, but still it was better than nothing, and a good distraction for the Vrul who now floated by the second story of the house. From there it was pretty easy to slip in through a window, and past the sleeping humans into the hallway. Most Vrul would have been to terrified to even attempt such a stunt, but as far as Vexx was concerned, it was just a normal day.

They floated out into the hallway and concealed themself in a hall closet where they found pilings of towels.

This would be a fine enough place to hide.

They couldn't move any further as the human and his pet would be back up soon enough and the Vrul didn't want to give away their position. They waited listening to the footsteps as they moved up the hall, and I the darkness they plotted the Vrul's death.

They had nothing against Dr. krill personally, but the council had ordered it and so they must obey. Personally there were more interesting things they could be doing, but not by much. At least an assassin it brought them to interesting places.

Earth itself was quite fascinating, though they didn't have the fear center of the brain to properly appreciate just how terrifying earth actually was.

They waited in the closet as they heard the man and his dog walk past and waited for the door to close. As soon as they were asleep, they would strike.

They waited, and the door closed.

They waited just a little longer, and were about to open the door when they heard another door open and watched another heat signature creep down the hall. This one was a small two legged creature. Vexx stood frustrated as the creature went down the stairs, into the kitchen and then came back up a few minutes later. Once the door shut, they began their count again, and were about to leave when another door opened.

This time it was a larger human who walked down the hall to the bathroom before returning to their room.

Vexx was growing frustrated.

This same routine went on and off for almost two hours before the humans began to wake up, with Vexx still stuck inside the closet waiting for an opportunity to arise.

He could hear the humans talking and wondered what had happened to the Kree.

They waited.

And waited.

Eventually most of the humans left for somewhere, and the only three remaining were the dog, the human, and the target.

This was good, he could do soemthing with this.

He waited until the dog was lying outside on the back porch and the human was in the bathroom before venturing from the closet. He could hear water running through the pipes and was sure that he had enough time to get the job done, The Vrul was in the far room next to the bathroom. And would be easy enough to quickly kill.

Vexx floated out into the hall readying the poison dart that would take the life of the Unknowing doctor.

"JUST A SMALL TOWN GIRL!"

Vexx paused, what was....?

"LIVIN IN A LONELY WORLD!"

They staggered back, hit by the wall of sound.

"SHE TOOK THE MIDNIGHT TRAIN GOIN' ANYWHERE!"

Vexx staggered against the wall as their cortical hemispheres were suddenly overloaded trying to analyze the pattern of the music as the human continued to sing.

They tried to move forward but the noise continued and only grew louder, as the human's private shower performance grew more and more intense.

"JUST A CITY BOY!"

"BORN AND RAISED IN SOUTH DETROIT!"

Vexx collapsed to the floor dragging themself away from the door and down the hall with all the strength they could muster past the singing. Though the voice grew quieter, it was still present and the thrumming harmony was to much as Vexx slid down the stairs and eventually ended up seeking refuge in the basement where the dog wouldn't be likely to find them and the human's voice didn't reach. They lay on a sack of rice and stared up at the dark ceiling.

Foiled by a human singing in the shower.

***

The Kree had a bandaged foot and a good position in the nearest tree. This time he wasn't going to be stupid. The pellet gun had been a great idea, though it required close range and he had had no idea what he was getting into. He would have preferred up close measures, because he could have made that look like an accident, but this was going to have to do.

He tucked the rifle up against the crook of his wing and peered through the sights towards the house. If the Vrul just came in front of a window, he would be a goner. The Kree thought about shooting the stupid dog, who lay panting on the back porch, but thought better of it He just needed his target. Just one shot and he could retire and how own little moon for the rest of his life.

A shadow passed overhead.

The Kree looked up from his place in the top of the tree and noted a very small black dot circling in the sky overhead. It was one of those earth birds, so he simply turned his head back to front to look through the sites.

He could see the Vrul's signature through the house floating slowly down one set of stairs. There was a window here, and if he just got close enough....

His finger moved towards the trigger as the window came into line of sight, just one more second and.

A sharp shriek interrupted his train of thought, and he jolted upright, looking skyward as a massive shape descended from the sky.

The bald eagle stretched out it's talons and grabbed the kree by the shoulder and neck. Despite the Kree's height, his ability to fly made him very light, and the eagle was able to jerk him upwards out of the tree. It's massive wings beat hard as it pulled them both into the sky The Kree screamed and batted at the huge bird whose talons tug into his flesh.

The bird peck at him with it's sharply hooked beak tearing a chunk of feathers and flsh from his chest. He kicked and screamed some more prying at the talons that held him. The eagle dropped a few feet mid air screamed and dropped the kree, who opened his wings in order to glide safely towards the ground.

Unfortunately for him the eagle divebombed straight into his back and he lurched forward as talons raked his back.

A short ariel combat ensued before the Kree went crashing through the canopy of branches and then onto the forest floor, his fall broken by branches and mulched foliage. The bird landed in the top of the tree nearest and chirped a warning at the Kree before flying off.

The Kree lay there staring up at the sky as the monstrous animal flew away.

***

He had recovered from his failed attempt later that morning and was forced to languish in the basement for the rest of the day as the rest of the humans returned. They hid behind a sack of flower and plotted his revenge.

This was embarrassing.

No one had ever gotten past them like that, and no one ever would again. They were forced to wait until nightfall hiding behind a sack of flower as the humans went to bed one by one. They snuck out from behind the bag a moment later waiting quietly and staring at the top of the stairs were a small beam of moonlight crept in.

He could see the Vrul up on the second story. He would probably come down into the living room soon enough, and when that happened.

There was a flicker of motion at the top of the stairs.

Vexx paused watching as a sinuous shadow made their way down and into the room, a simple silent and black shadow.

For a moment he almost thought it was nothing and moved silently forward towards the stairs.

That was until a soft crunch came from his left, and he turned to see the same shadow sitting on top of one of the rice bags.

A thin beam of moonlight trickled in from above to illuminate the pitch black fur and glowing yellow eyes of the strange animal.

It was small, smaller than Vex, and about a foot tall when sitting as it was now. It had a long sinuous tail that flicked from back and fourth where it was wrapped around it's paws.

The eyes blinked, and it leaned forward slightly.

It let of a soft

Burr

And tilted it's head.

Vexx pulled back, "Get away from me filthy creature."

The animal just blinked at him.

Vexx tried to shoe it away. He couldn't help but notice the large, forward facing eyes, that indicated an animal that was meant for hunting. He certainly expected it only to go after small animals, Unlike the large predator dog upstairs that could take out a human if it really wanted.

He tried to shoo it away again.

But this time the animal was not having it, and decided that Vexx was a threat.

It yawled, its fur standing on end as it's back arched, and then it sprang forward, retractable claws out and landed right on Vexx's face.

The weight of the animal dragged Vexx to the ground as it clawed and bit him viciously.

The sound was loud enough, and surprised voices started on upstairs as lights flashed on. As soon as they did the creature streaked off into the darkness, leaving Vexx lying on the ground staring up at the ceiling.

He did his best to crawl away into the darkness, hiding under a tool shelf as the humans rushed in looking around with wide eye.

"Comet what are you doing in here. You were supposed to be locked up in grandma's room." The animal burred again softly as one of the human's picked it up and carried it upstairs.

Vexx was under the impression that it was still watching him as it was carried away.

***

The Kree didn't want the job anymore. He wanted to go home.

Over the course of this assassination attempt.

He had been attacked by a dog.

Attacked by an eagle.

Harassed by a squirrel.

There had been a massive raging thunderstorm that set a nearby tree on fire.

And then that had caused mild flooding that stranded his ship in foot deep mud.

Following that he had accidentally stumbled across a black and white creature that's defense mechanism was clearly bio warfare, and THEN he accidentally sat on a nest of ants.

Not enough money in the world could convince him to finish this as he slogged through the mud trying to push his ship into a position where he could get it moving again. All thoughts of his job were done. His weapons were broken or missing somewhere in the forest, and he didn't really care.

***

Vexx was almost half dead.

Any more and they were going to lose it.

They had been foiled by a human singing in the shower, than a cat , and THEN when they tried to get away a strong windstorm had blown them off course by almost two or three miles into a tree where they encountered a beast that looked like a string of spaghetti, but was much meaner. Vexx had fallen to the forest floor, and then been chased by some sort of long fuzzy animal that looked sort of like an elongated rat.

By the time they got out of that situation, a human had almost hit them with a car, and it was only by mere chance that they didn't find themselves electrocuted when they almost ran into a set of powerlines.

Vexx may have had no fear compared to other vrul, but they knew when they were defeated. Just because they had no fear didn't mean they wanted to die, and this was clearly to dangerous for anyone to attempt. There was no point in going back now, and their only hope was to get back to the Kree ship where they might be able to get away somehow.

***

It was bout the time the Kree was beginning to use a stick as a leaver when Vexx showed up from the trees looking just as worse for wear as the kree felt. That made him feel a little better, "If you can lodge something in on the other side, I might be able to lift it out of the mud. The Vrul made an argument and they worked in silence for a moment before finally shifting the ship back into position. He just needed to run get some things he had left by the tree at the edge of the clearing.

The Vrul accompanied him the next few feet, and he bent down to reach for his things when there was a sudden cracking of branches.

Slowly, he looked up

What could be worse?

And was met by the sight of a massive animal. It was at least six feet tall from head to hooves, with a massive rack of antlers, and must have weight a few thousand pounds.

And it looked mad.

It's ears were back and it's head was lowered, and even as they stood there gawking it started forward its head lowered and swinging. The two of them turned and ran as the moose chased them back towards the shuttle, stomping its feet and waving its head, massive horns swinging from left to right like a great deadly pendulum.

They screamed and squealed as they were chased around their ship.

On the front porch of the house, waffles lifted her head and cocked it slightly to the side, then lay her head down again.

This was not a fight she was interested in getting into.

She licked her paws once tail flicking back and forth listening to the soft purring as Comet rubbed up against her. The humans didn't know but they had chased invaders off their territory.

They had done a pretty good job.