Red light raced across the ground like a laser pointer was dragged along the street. A line of explosions appeared along that line shattering windows and blowing cars into the air. A house collapsed drowning out the screams of the people trapped beneath them. Another streak of light moved across the street highlighting a path.
The explosions raced down the street toward a group and before it hit them blue light flew over them immediately and the explosion shifted away and into an empty field continuing the line. Kathryn panted as she let the shield fade away and turned to the group. Walking toward the bricks she shoved them hard but it didn’t budge. Cal hovelled past her and grabbed the edge of wall and lifted with her.
They worked together and shoveled the debris away. They managed to shift them up and off letting a man crawl forward and then brought to his feet by two others. They stared at the pair of them with eyes mixed with fear and anger and she couldn’t blame them. She just pointed away from the street. “Get to safety. Far far away from here!”
“Yeah no shit. You guys just came in and fucked up our whole neighborhood!” the limping guy shouted at them and she ignored it because he wasn’t wrong but she didn’t care at the moment. This was the fifth group of people that she had managed to save but looking at the destruction, it wasn’t enough.
“This is a nightmare,” Cal shuddered hearing the crackling fires and smelling the smoke on the air. “Are they still going?”
“I think so. Let’s see if we can’t help them out.”
Stumbling forward they ran through the destruction toward one of the buildings and jumped landing on a toppled rooftop. Kathryn stumbled almost falling but Cal caught her arm. They looked up and watched as sparks flew across the air. They could just barely keep track of the movement of the shapes in the darkness but the noise let them know that Seth and Sarah were still fighting.
Sarah lunged through the debris swinging her axes with a fury that only destruction could bring. She screamed as she hacked but the Taq-Law deflected the blows easily back at her. She slammed them together and swung them in one heavy blow and it stepped around the attack. It lunged with a drill at her open side but it was forced into the ground by a purple hand.
Seth stepped forward both of his hands, glowing bright purple, and he landed a powerful punch to its chest. Seth kept his hand on the robot’s wrist and kept hammering blows on its chest and head. The Taq-Law finally righted itself and caught his fist in its hand. Its head faced him and the glowing dot appeared.
Sarah shoved him aside and they both tumbled away as the laser tore open the roof and they rolled away. Seth groaned as he got up and helped her to stand, “Thanks.”
“No problem. This thing won’t go down.”
“No it fucking won’t.”
It glided forward lunging after the two of them. Seth raised his glowing hands and ducked under a thrust from the drill. The second one was already coming at his blind spot and he did his best to catch it despite being driven back across the roof. The Taq-Law’s head faced him and glowed as another laser prepared.
Sarah jumped forward from its back slamming her axe into its back the edges charged with electricity. They dug into the plate of the machine and it staggered forward. Instead of stopping the head spun around entirely to face her. Turning its torso, it spun around quickly its arms hitting both of them in the chest and throwing them off the roof.
It turned jumping off the roof and fell upon Sarah with both arms brought back ready to finish her off. Cal got into its way swinging his sword to deflect its drills. Upon landing he spun his sword around and lunged thrusting it through its abdomen. He grinned behind his helmet but the Taq-Law raised its arms and thrust them on either side of the head.
His body glowed blue, the shield taking the brunt of the attack. The blue warped from Cal’s body and wrapped around the arms of the Taq-Law. Cal dragged his sword out and slashed across the chest of the machine, sending it staggering back. Its head faced him and glowed to life readying the laser.
Before it could fire it off a red blade hooked around it’s neck and forced it to look high into the air. The laser traced the sky and split the clouds radiating light into the night. Jack stumbled forward rolling his scythe across his shoulders and shoved the butt of the weapon against its torso.
“You guys okay back there?” he shouted over his shoulder through gritted teeth.
“Not even close,” Seth said grasping Cal’s hand as he leaned against him. “This is beyond us. We’re getting out matched and destroyed.”
“He’s right babe,” Sarah shook her head. “We need to get out of here and regroup.”
Jack swore under his breath and nodded backing up holding his scythe. “Make an escape. I’ll cover you guys.”
“You sure?” Cal asked and Jack nodded quickly.
“Please don’t be stupid Jack,” Sarah said her voice wavering slightly.
“I won’t.”
Spinning his scythe, he watched as the Taq-Law lunged at him. He stepped to the side dodging the drills and swinging the scythe around the blade cutting across its chest. It bounced backwards but righted itself and the red light traced across the ground. The explosions followed and Jack jumped forward to avoid the blast.
The four of them were blown backwards from the force and hit the ground stumbling into the street. The smoke was thick in the air but Sarah struggled back to her feet ready to run back into the fight. She hoped that he was doing alright but that didn’t stop the fear in her heart. “Come on Jack. Get out of there.”
Leaning forward it thrust one arm forward hitting the staff of the scythe, sparks flying off from the contact. Leaning forward he shoved the machine back and jumped forward swinging the scythe around at its head. It ducked down low and crouched kicking him in the chest driving the air from his lungs.
Continuing its movement, it hooked its foot on the scythe and wrenched it from Jack’s hands. Its limbs whirred and it rotated around lunging at his exposed chest. His armor did its best to stop it but finally one drill pierced his chest. Jack stared down at the Taq-Law the pain white hot in his chest and he could hear someone screaming. And then nothing.
“Celestial imbued human. Terminated.”
The Harlequin Library 