After Rosalie had cooled her head, she and Lura went back to working on the ship. They had lost about an hour of sunlight because Rosalie had gotten too excited over Cosmo breathing lightning. Her endless curiosity about extraterrestrial physiology had distracted her from her interest in fixing Lura's ship.

  The day had been long, and the work had been tedious. After hours of tinkering, they finally made a breakthrough. From inside the ship they heard the comms turn on. Lura rushed inside, and for the first time it was working with no interference.

  Rosalie silently celebrated outside the ship as Lura recorded a distress message to broadcast. Because of Respyn's warp pulling Lura along, she was unsure how far away from Kitania she was. She didn't know if the message would reach home, and if it did she had no idea how long it would take for help to arrive. However, those thoughts didn't stick in her mind long. The satisfaction of fixing her comms, and the relief the distress message gave her was overwhelming. After days of being on Earth, Lura felt like she had finally made some progress towards getting home.

  Lura crawled out of the ship, and Rosalie, Will, and Cosmo were waiting outside excitedly but also a bit hesitant. Lura looked over each of them for a moment before deciding how she wanted to speak.

  “I have caused you a lot of trouble these last few days. I have selfishly relied on you without providing anything in return, but all of you have continued to help. Thanks to your help, I was able to send out a signal, and now I just have to wait for a response. Thank you so much.” Lura bowed her head as she thanked the group.

  The rest of the day was uneventful. Will and Cosmo continued practicing Lightning Javelin, while Lura and Rosalie stood around the ship waiting for a response. As sunset began, the group began packing up. Lura's ship once again was stuffed full of odds and ends, while Will, Rosalie, and Cosmo flung bags over their shoulders.

  “Alright, Lura,” Rosalie said, "We're heading back now before it gets dark.”

  “Okay. I'll be back soon. I just want to broadcast the signal for as long as I can tonight.” Lura responded, sending the group off.

  Once the group was out of sight, Lura climbed into her ship and waited for a response to her distress call. Having the distress signal working felt like a weight had been taken off Lura's shoulders. With this, she was hopeful that everything here on Earth would be wrapping up soon. Her fellow Kitanian soldiers would arrive, help her subdue Respyn and his monster, then they would take the four of them back to Kitania.

  While thinking to herself, Lura had a realization. “What are we going to do about Cosmo?” She thought. At first it was obvious she would take Respyn and the two eggs back with her, but now that Cosmo had hatched and become such a friendly companion to Will, Lura was conflicted.

  Lura let out a sigh, “things can never be straightforward and simple, huh?” she said to herself as she looked up from her seat in the ship's cockpit toward the orange sky above.

  While Lura was lost in her thoughts, Rosalie, Will, and Cosmo were happily making their way back home. Will was asking Rosalie about Lura's ship, Rosalie was asking about how training went, and Cosmo would chime in here and there.

  “Really? So Cosmo was able to shoot a three foot long lightning bolt?” Rosalie asked.

  “Yes!” Cosmo said happily, having no knowledge of what a foot, or any type of measurements, are.

  “Just about. The biggest one he could make was about this big,” Will said, holding his hands around three feet apart to show Rosalie how big it was.

  “That's great. With a bit more practice I'm sure it will be a strong attack.” Rosalie said, glancing down at the compass in her hand. The needle was still properly pointing north, so she brought her full attention back to the conversation.

  “So you fixed Lura's ship,” Will said, changing the topic. “I wonder how long she will stay out tonight.”

  “I wouldn't be surprised if she doesn't come home tonight. She finally can try contacting her home, so I'm sure she will be too eager for a reply to sleep. Hopefully, she'll at least come back for dinner.” Rosalie said.

  “I guess soon Lura will be going home.” Will said sadly, looking towards Cosmo.

  Rosalie wanted to tell her son that everything was going to be fine. That him and Cosmo would be able to continue being good friends. The reality was, Rosalie didn't know what was going to happen after this. If Lura left and dragged Cosmo along with her, then chances are they will never see each other again.

  Cosmo looked at Will and Rosalie confused as the two of them grew quiet, but as they got close to home, Cosmo's attention quickly shifted towards the house. Will and Rosalie noticed Cosmo's change in attitude and began to look towards the direction Cosmo was glaring. Rosalie quickly looked toward her compass, and saw it was no longer pointing north. Instead it was pointing in front of them, towards their home.

  “Will, Cosmo, we need to hurry and get out of here! The pirate is that way!” Rosalie hurriedly tried giving Will and Cosmo instructions, but it was already too late.

  From a distant tree, where Cosmo had been glaring, came the frog monster's tongue. Cosmo easily swatted it away, and the tongue quickly retracted. The frog hopped to the ground and took a few hopes towards the group, but still kept plenty of distance.

  Shortly after the surprise attack, Respyn walked into view.

  “I was wondering why you ran off, you trash. I see you found the people we were waiting for, but it's strange. I should have been able to sense them coming a while ago.” Respyn spoke to his monster, and stared at the group puzzled. His ability to read minds should have allowed him to hear the group's thoughts before they had gotten this close, but he had heard nothing.

  Will, Rosalie, and Cosmo stood still. They could hear Respyn speaking in the distance, but they couldn't understand the language he was speaking. Rosalie's head raced as she tried to think of a way to get them all away safely, but before she had a chance to think of a plan, Will and Cosmo stepped forward.

  “Alright, Cosmo. This is our chance.” Will said. “Try not to hurt him too badly.”

  “Okay!” Cosmo said, then he began charging forward towards the frog.

  Respyn, pleased that they were facing them head on, back off to let the two monsters fight. He had come to the Gray's house to take Lura's spaceship, but had been unable to find it when he arrived. If he can beat the group down and figure out how they were blocking his ability to read minds, then he could simply read one of their minds to find where they had moved the ship.

  “Will! Cosmo! What are you doing!” Rosalie shouted out, confused by their actions. “We need to get out of here. Do you remember how they beat you the last time?”

  “We can't run away,” Will said, looking at his mother with a serious expression. “We have to save the frog.”

  “Save him? What are you talking about? It's evil.”

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  “I was able to talk Cosmo back to his senses last time. So I'll do the same this time. Cosmo and I decided this after our last fight.” Will explained.

  With that, Will stepped forward to be closer to Cosmo. “Let's go, Cosmo.”

  “Yes!” Cosmo responded, and the two of them charged towards the frog monster.

  The frog saw Will and Cosmo approaching and decided to meet them head on. He shot out his tongue, which appeared to be back to the length it had been before Respyn cut it off again. Cosmo easily swatted it away, and continued closing the gap between the two.

  Will and Cosmo's plan for if they met the monster again was for Cosmo to subdue the frog, and then Will would try talking it down. Cosmo was currently trying to get close to the frog to pin it down. However, getting close wasn't going to be an easy feat. The frog was much faster and more agile than Cosmo. If Cosmo got within ten feet of the frog the frog would create more distance.

  Having jumped back from Cosmo, the frog again shot its tongue at Cosmo. This time, instead of swatting the tongue away, Cosmo held up his arm and let the frog latch on. With the hand of the entangled arm, Cosmo grabbed the stretched out tongue. Now with a hold of the frog, Cosmo once again tried to close in.

  The frog quickly realized Cosmo's plan, and began trying to shake free. Cosmo's grip was too strong, so the frog was unable to escape. Instead of trying to get Cosmo off, the frog began trying to entangle Cosmo more. With his superior speed the frog began circling Cosmo.

  Cosmo had yet to catch on to the frog's plan, but Will called out to him. “Cosmo! Let go and back away!” Hearing Will's call, Cosmo released the frog's tongue and leapt backwards.

  It was easy for Will to see what the frog was doing from a distance. Cosmo getting tied up would make their plan nearly impossible, so Will made sure Cosmo got away.

  The frog, once again putting some distance between them, watched before making a move. Cosmo on the other hand, didn't wait at all. He began charging forward towards the frog. The frog continued observing as he continued leaping away from the oncoming lizard. The two monsters began chasing each other so far that Will, Rosalie, and Respyn had to chase after them.

  Reapyn kept his distance from Rosalie and Will, but made sure to keep an eye on what was going on. He kept himself at a distance of about 40 feet. He didn't want to approach without figuring out how they were blocking his mind reading abilities.

  Rosalie was also just silently watching for the time being. She hesitantly watched over Will and Cosmo as they charged into battle, but she knew she wouldn't be able to convince them to stop. For now she was just watching the fight, ready to leap in if things started to seem like too much for Will and Cosmo. She had also been keeping an eye on Respyn and her compass. If she glanced away from the fight towards where Respyn had been but couldn't see him, she would check the compass and find where he had moved. All she could do for now was keep an eye on where everybody was.

  The chase between Cosmo and the frog had managed to lead the group the rest of the way to the Gray home. Now on the front lawn the chase came to a stop as the frog jumped to the top of the house. Cosmo stopped twenty feet away from the house, so he could still see the frog atop the building.

  As the others caught up and looked on from a distance, the frog made his next attack. He leapt towards Cosmo, spun his body, and attempted to stab Cosmo with his spined tail. As the tail closed in, Cosmo reached out and grabbed the frog's tail, shifted his weight, and flung the frog to the ground.

  Not giving the frog time to recover, Cosmo threw himself on top of the frog, pinning him to the ground. Seeing this as his chance, Will ran close to the two monsters.

  “You don't have to keep fighting for that man. We've seen how he treats you. We can help you get away from him!” Will instantly began trying to talk the frog monster down, but to no avail.

  The frog thrashed and twisted trying to get free. The spines on its back were facing the ground, so Cosmo didn't need to worry about them. The frog's tail however was free, and the frog managed to stab Cosmo in the side with the spike on his tail. Blood sputtered out, but Cosmo didn't move. He continued holding the frog down.

  “Will, get away from it. It can't understand what you're saying.” Rosalie shouted as she ran up to Will.

  “Cosmo understands me, so this one should be able to too.” Will responded.

  “Cosmo understands you because he heard English when it was young. Like how babies learn to speak. This one hasn't been exposed to English. Only whatever language he speaks.” Rosalie said, pointing towards Respyn.

  As Rosalie looked towards Respyn, she saw him standing calmly with a large grin on her face. Rosalie had been keeping an eye on him, and up until now his face had been mostly expressionless. At most she had seen him show anger on his face, but she hadn't seen him smile like that before. This caused Rosalie to get nervous, and she began trying to figure out why Respyn was smiling.

  She looked around to see if perhaps Respyn had set up some kind of trap. She figured he had been here already since when they bumped into each other Respyn had come from the direction of the house. There were no signs of any traps she could see, but then her attention was grabbed when the frog let out a loud scream.

  The frog monster was making an agonizing expression, and crying in pain. Cosmo quickly hopped off the monster and moved away, grabbing Will and Rosalie's hands pulling them along. After they made some distance, they looked back towards the frog.

  His skin began bubbling, and his body began to grow. Just like before, the spines on its back grew, and sprouted barbs on them, the spike on its tail became mace-like, large sharp claws appeared on its frog-like feet, and its tongue became too large for its mouth to contain. The frog had once again transformed, but with a difference from last time. It appeared skinny and sickly this time, with its ribs and other bones being visible through its skin. It's once shiny slimy skin was now incredibly dry in many spots, with only a few patches of moist skin.

  Will and Cosmo had seen this happen two times before, once with the frog and once with Cosmo himself, so while they were scared, they weren't surprised. For Rosalie, this was her first time seeing one of the monster's change into this large beast-like form. The detailed descriptions she had gotten from Will and Lura didn't do a good job preparing her for the real deal.

  The beastly frog towered over the group of three. It stood there, calmly staring, like a predator waiting for its prey. Will, Rosalie, and Cosmo stood there motionless, unsure of what they should do.

  Lura had been sitting in her ship for a while now. The sun on the horizon had almost completely disappeared, and she hadn't received any response to her distress signal. She stepped out of her ship to get a bit of fresh air.

  She let out a sigh, and talked to herself. “Getting a response on the first night was just wishful thinking. Who knows how far the message needs to travel to reach Kitania.”

  Looking toward the disappearing sun, Lura let out another sigh. “I suppose I should head back for the night. Rosalie has probably already prepared dinner.”

  She stood there for a moment taking in the fading sunset. Then, she heard a voice coming from her ship.

  “This is Captain Ziame Tregor responding to a distress call we received. Officer Lura, can you hear me?”

  Lura hurriedly crawled into her ship, stumbling as she went to answer the call. “This is Officer Lura Farjor-Grekian. I can hear you loud and clear Captain.”

  An instant sense of relief came over Lura as she responded to the call. Simply hearing the voice of her superior who she had been working under for years made it easy for her to relax.

  “Give us a status report, Officer.” Captain Ziame said.

  “Aye sir.” Lura explained the events of the last few days to Captain Ziame. How Respyn had used some kind of warp technology and dragged her with him, how her communications had been damaged, how Respyn was stranded on Earth, and how both the eggs were not only safe, but had both hatched.

  “This has become quite the mess.” Captain Ziame said with a sigh. “We now have coordinates for where you are, but it is going to take a while to reach you. We don't have the technology to warp, but we might be able to borrow a ship that can from another planet.”

  “Is that going to be possible, sir? I don't think any planet with that kind of technology has been too keen on helping Kitania in the past.” Lura asked.

  “Since you've been gone some interesting things have been developing on that front. During the ceremony, there were a few foreign diplomats in attendance, and some reached out to offer help after the incident.” Captain Ziame explained. “Now that we know where we can find the criminal Respyn and the stolen items we might be able to get them to lend us a ship.

  “In the meantime, try to keep an eye on Respyn, but do not engage with him. We will send a squad to get you, Respyn and the eggs. Stay safe in the meantime.”

  “Aye sir.” Lura responded and the call ended.

  After the call ended Lura sat silently in her ship for a few moments. A sense of relief she hadn't felt since she arrived had left her motionless. With a smile on her face, she finally got ready to head back.

  “I can't wait to see Rosalie and Will's faces when I tell them they will get a chance to meet more aliens.” Lura said to herself with a chuckle, as she began piloting the ship off the ground.