“These things never have good timing, do they?” Seth said holding onto the upper railing of the train. Kathryn felt the stone vibrating against her throat tickling her skin and shook her head.
“Never do. I hope Sarah’s okay.”
“Yeah me too. I’m too sober for this. Looks like this one is coming in near the beach.”
“It’s Thursday. There shouldn’t be people but knowing our luck there will be.”
The train jolted to a stop and they both got off to the empty station. From their position they could see the lake though the beach was obscured by buildings. They’d have to run to get to their destination if they wanted to make it any amount of time.
And then a boom echoed and both of them looked past the station to the water in the distance. The water leaped high into the air, a pillar of froth peaking far higher than any wave rising up.
Seth sighed and walked toward the railing gripping it, “And I guess we’re going to be public again. Can’t wait to see the news talk about us.”
“If we hurry we can try and get people out before it can do real damage,” Kathryn touched her stone and glanced at him. “Ready?”
Fishing his stone out of his pocket he nodded, “Yeah.”
They powered up, their armor covering them immediately. Flexing his arms slowly Seth looked toward the closest rooftop and pointed. “Follow my lead.”
He took a few steps back and then leaped dozens of feet in one go. He rolled coming down on the rooftop but barely felt the landing. Glancing back, he watched Kathryn soar through the air before landing beside him and skidded forward.
Seth nodded toward her and started running, her on his heels. They jumped across another building going further and closing the gap. As they got closer they could see the beach better and watched as people scattered from the beach. Kathryn narrowed her eyes and the helmet zoomed in as she watched a shape working its way through the water.
“It’s going to surface soon,” she said as she brought her legs up rolling against the rooftop.
They broke past another building and this time landed on the highway. Cars sped past and screeched around them as they moved. They jumped across lanes and then finally off the highway and landed on the beach. People screamed as they arrived rushing past them. They walked forward and watched as the water began to spread apart.
The dome headed robot clambered out of the waters with four legs and four arms this time. Each of them had a rifle attached to the end and the head had several red dots at the center but each of them looked in opposite directions. It raised its arms quickly and Kathryn’s eyes widened.
Darting forward she thrust both her hands forward and the air shimmered with blue light before her shields manifested like a massive wall around the Taq-Law. Its bullets erupted, slamming into the walls of the shield and Kathryn winced but kept it up. With a hiss her hands glowed and started reflecting the bullets. After enough of the bullets bounced off it’s body it rotated slowly to face her. The red eye rotated around and all focused on her.
“Great,” she mumbled and raised her hands creating a shield around herself preemptively.
Before it could fire it was knocked aside as Seth threw a heavy glowing purple fist at the head of the Taq-Law. He landed in the water sloshing forward. Getting his bearings he jumped forward, punching one of the legs of the robot bringing it down. It stumbled, sliding backwards but whirled around and slammed two arms into him.
He caught the arms and skidded up the sand and almost fell into the water. The other arms rotated around angled around and aimed at him. The red dots focused on his chest and head. It opened fire and he covered his face with a free arm as he was blasted into the water.
His armor was protecting him but his already bruised body wasn’t screaming protest. The water rushing around him didn’t help matters as he fought to keep himself standing under the barrage of bullets. When the pressure suddenly stopped he didn’t move, just in case it was taking a second to reload.
But he felt a tap on his shoulder and he lowered his arms to see a blurry pink shape and smirked. Jumping out of the water he said, “Look who finally showed up.”
“My boyfriend let me out of the house,” Cal said grasping his sword and pointing at the Taq-Law that was now missing one of it’s arms. “Had to get some exercise.”
“Well don’t let me stop you,” he said raising his arms. “Let’s get a work out.”
The Taq-Law raised its remaining arms and started firing but Cal was too fast. He jumped and swung with the sword cutting the barrel of another of the guns. The Taq-Law rotated swinging its arm and hitting him into the water. Seth came in behind it and smashed both his fist into its back blowing it out of the water and onto the sand.
There was a shout amongst onlookers who had put some distance between the fighting and themselves but were still watching what they had only seen on the news. The Taq-Law’s two guns aimed at the crowd and glowed to life with energy. Before it could get a shot off a blue slate of light appeared in front of the barrel shoving it into the sand and pumping bullets into the ground.
The Taq-Law turned toward Kathryn watching her glowing hands that controlled the shield. It’s eyes settled on the crowd behind her and the head split open with a hiss. Resting within the dome of its head was a mount with three rockets.
Each one sparked to life as the first launched out of it’s head. Kathryn threw her hand into the air and caught the rocket with a hastily put together shield. It exploded almost shattering the shield in one go and her vision went hazy from the feedback.
The crowd scattered and started running but it fired off the next two rockets. Kathryn threw her hand again and managed to deflect one down into the ground. It exploded into a mushroom cloud of sand. She tried to find the second but the moment she locked onto it, it exploded in a shower of electricity.
Through the smoke an axe flew end over end slamming into the head of the Taq-Law. The axe glowed discharging electricity into the machine rapidly until it collapsed with a thud and exploded. Sarah’s boots crunched on the sand as she walked toward Kathryn, “You guys looked like you needed some help. Sorry I’m late.”
Kathryn shook her head, “Better late than never.”
The Harlequin Library 