Ask, "What are you?"

That slick, black tongue flicks out again, making you shudder.

"That's your question?" the lizard asks. "I'd have thought you'd be more concerned with what I'm going to do with you. But whatever. I'm a GEHAH, or Genetically-Engineered Human/Animal Hybrid."

You shake your head. "Th- that's not possible. Scientists can't do that."

"Maybe not in your dimension," the lizard says, "but in ours, genetic-engineering has been commonplace since WWII."

Dimension? WWII? You stare at the lizard, trying to form a coherent thought. "Are you from a parallel universe?"

"That's right," the lizard says, sounding surprised. "I guess humans on this side of the rainbow aren't as dumb as we thought."

"Of course we're not dumb," you say, frowning. "What do you mean, rainbow?"

"I meant no insult," the lizard says. "We assumed, erroneously, that because your technology developed along a different path than ours, that you were, for some reason, not as intelligent. We had limited data about your universe, so I imagine we were mistaken in a lot of things. As for the rainbow, when parallel universes are brought into isolated alignment, it creates a shimmering energy field that looks like a swirling rainbow, hence the term. When the field is breached to allow passage from one universe to the other, the portal reflects red light on the entrance side and violet light on the exit side."

"I saw a flash of purple light!" you gasp. "Was that you?"

"Yes. My team is on a reconnaissance mission to gather information. We want to know if there's room in this universe for us."