Marco sat up and immediately looked to his side and saw the emptiness of the bed around him. His heart panged doubly hard as he climbed out of bed. None of the lights were on and he couldn’t see Sarah anywhere in their bedroom. He frowned but imagined that she couldn’t stay in bed any longer.
Hovelling around he checked the couch but it was empty and also missing the blanket. Same with the chair and pillows. She wasn’t in the kitchen either and he panicked slightly, the thought of her having disappeared suddenly in his irrational groggy mind.
When he heard vibrating from the bedroom he rushed back and saw his phone. Picking it up slowly he saw a text from Sarah that was about ten minutes old.
Sarah: There was an alert
I’ll be back as soon as it’s down
I love you
Marco read it a few times and frowned hard knowing she was out there in danger. She had been back at it for a few days now but it hadn’t been any easier. A vibration in his free hand brought him out of his thoughts. Opening his hand, he stared at the stone that vibrated like an old phone. It felt warm and as he stared at it seemed to glow.
“That was real,” he said softly. “Which means I should be out there. With Sarah.”
Throwing on his clothes quickly he tied the necklace around his neck and it was happy against his neck. Running toward the door he took the stairs three at a time. Stumbling down the last few steps he caught himself against the wall. Slowing down he walked onto the street and looked around not knowing where to even start.
And then the stone started going off against his neck. It was telling him to take a hard left and just start going. Not a proper voice in his mind but just a feeling. He broke into a run a few cars hanging around on the streets but everything was mostly empty at this point. He was rarely ever out this late and there was a comfortableness to the quiet streets.
The further he ran the more the stone vibrated and it even started to glow as he glanced down at it surprised. But he felt the stone telling him he was going to get closer to the Taq-Law. The street took him down and through a tunnel. But from within the tunnel the stone told him to walk toward a solid wall.
He touched and leaned against the wall and the stone vibrated even harder. For a second, he entertained the thought of just breaking through the wall but dashed that from his mind. Leaving the tunnel he ran up the slight incline to get back on the street. Crossing onto the grass he climbed the hill and saw the flashes of light on a bridge. He didn’t know how he knew but he knew that the four of them were there fighting and they were in trouble.
“There’s no way I can make it there just running,” he said softly and the stone radiated light in response. Reaching up he touched it and the warmth that flowed through him radiate confidence that became his own. “I guess I’m trusting this thing.”
Taking a deep breath, the light exploded and covered him and he felt the armor along his hands and feet, the material along his body and the helmet enclose his head. Leaning forward he shifted back and forth getting used to it and saw the red. It was a darker red than he remembered Jack’s being but he suddenly felt unstoppable.
“So this is what it’s like. Now let’s get over there,” he said and sprinted moving like a blur across the road. It was effortless to run like this as he ate up the distance in seconds. But as he approached he realized the road he was on curved away and there was a huge drop off of highway beneath him.
Suddenly he could see all the way to bridge. The blue one was keeping traffic back with shields. The Taq-Law blew the purple and pink armored ones away and lunged after the yellow. It knocked away her axes one by one as she tried to defend herself.
“Sarah!” Running harder he lowered his head, took a deep breath and then just jumped over the curve. Hanging in the air he knew he wasn’t going to make it off this jump but his palm started to tingle. Whipping his arm out he felt a gun appear like a large pistol but with a pentagonal barrel in front of the trigger with multi colored sides.
Holding one arm in front of him and resting the pistol on it to aim, he spun the barrel feeling it click on the red one. He fired and time stood still as the red bullet shot through the air at the bridge. It hit the ground in front of the Taq-Law, glowed for a moment, and then suddenly he was there in a red flash.
Spinning around he blocked a glowing blade with the barrel of the gun and stared at the faceless machine. It leaned forward and thrust the other blade at him. Shoving the gun forward he threw the machine off and stepped aside blocking the next blow.
Stepping around he crouched and tilted the gun up and spun the revolver again. It clicked into place on the purple clip and he fired blasting several bullets into its chest and blowing it backwards with each shot. The final one knocked it off it’s feet and sent it spinning away. Standing up quickly he spun the barrel again as it settled into the blue clip.
Sarah stood up slowly her eyes widening and staring at his back. She felt full of energy, energy she hadn’t felt since the last time all five of them had been together. She reached out to him shakily and whispered, “Jack?”
Marco felt his chest tighten at her words but didn’t turn around yet. The Taq-Law got to it’s feet and darted toward the pair of them. Marco shot the ground, the blue bullet splashing across the ground and erecting a translucent blue wall. It knocked the Taq-Law backward and Marco moved spinning the barrel again.
Sarah brought her axes to life and stepped to his side crashing them together generating her lightning. She darted forward as the Taq-Law spun to it’s feet. It blocked both axes with one glowing blade and rolled backwards planting its feet into her chest kicking her back. Before she hit the ground, Marco fired another bullet a blue wall appearing under her feet letting her land.
Cal and Seth came, Seth grabbing one of the Taq-Law’s arms and pinning it down. Cal thrust his sword forward and clashed his sword against its free hand. Rotating it a few times he twisted the arm in the wrong way and broke its arm off. Sarah came forward and slammed one axe into it’s head and another one deep into it’s chest.
The Taq-Law spasmed from the electricity and it’s stomach opened. A red light flashed before exploding in a blast of energy. But the explosion was contained in a blue sphere wrapped around the machine. Silence hung as the four stared at Marco.
“Who are you?” Sarah asked the hurt palpable in her voice.
Marco sighed letting his suit fall away, “It’s me Sarah.”
The Harlequin Library 