Terran Knights: Chapter 29

“I’m Seth.

“Kathryn.”

“Cal, short for Calvin.”

“And I’m Marco.”

The five of them stood together outside of an old junkyard. The sun was peaking over the clouds and Cal shuddered at the cold. They were there for an early meeting at Marco’s request. They’d met once but a formal introduction was needed now. He and Sarah barely had time to sleep when they got back after he told her the gist of what happened and how he got there.

“So you want to give the cliff notes on how you became one of us,” Seth asked keeping his hands deep ins his pockets.

Marco shrugged, “I had a dream. I talked to Jack in,” he frowned and felt Sarah squeeze his hand lightly. “Long and short, Jack asked me to take his place. I said yes and woke up with the stone. You guys saw the rest.”

“Just when I thought this stuff couldn’t get weirder,” Seth mumbled and looked at the two of them. Despite his tone his face was sympathetic. He wanted to say more but he wasn’t sure if he even should so he stayed quiet.

“It’s nice to properly meet you,” Kathryn ducked her head slightly. “But why are we meeting out here this early and not like in a coffee shop or something.”

“Because I was thinking about the team,” the term still felt foreign. Shaking his head, he kept going, “When we were fighting yesterday we were kinda all over the place.”

“What do you mean?” Cal asked raising his eyebrow. “We watch each others back and work together.”

“You do.  And it works,” Marco touched his new necklace lightly. “This thing showed me some of your old fights too. You guys fought together on instinct but there was never a plan.”

They exchanged glances with one another never having thought about it that far before. “We’ve never done plans,” Cal said and Kathryn nodded. “We just kinda did what we had to.”

“So you want us to do some teambuilding?” Seth asked laughing but Marco nodded. “Seriously?”

“Why not?” Marco shrugged. “Have you ever just tried to figure out what you can do?”

Seth held up his hands, “I hit stuff hard. And I’m pretty tough.

“I have my axes that do electric stuff sometimes,” Sarah added.

“I have a sword,” Cal laughed to himself but Kathryn was actually thinking.

“I used to just make shields. But me and Seth fought one of them and I figured out how to redirect things I guess. Even reflect some stuff.”

“Whoa for real?” Cal asked facing her. “You just figured it out?”

“Yeah but I didn’t know I could do that until I just kinda did it.”

“That’s what I’m talking about,” he said and motioning toward the junk yard. “This place will be empty most of the day. Especially the morning. So we have to try and see just what we can do. So we don’t repeat what happened before.”

One by one they nodded or voiced their agreement. Marco led them around the side of the junkyard and showed them a hole in the fence that they all could climb through. There were mountains of metal, cars, and just overall junk waiting to be bought or turned into scrap.

They grabbed their stones and powered up one by one.  “Do you ever get used to that?” Marco asked glancing at Sarah.

“Eventually,” she rolled her shoulders and then called her axes. Cal did the same with his sword and Marco with his gun.

Seth glanced at Kathryn and then at the three of them, “Been wondering this for a while. How come we don’t have weapons?”

Cal started to say something but then paused. “No idea actually.”

“Maybe you do?” Marco suggested and shrugged. “Have you ever needed them?”

“I guess not. Maybe that’s why?” Kathryn said glancing at him. “Should we give it a go?”

“Might as well,” Seth looked at the three of them. “Any advice on making it appear?”

“Just feel it,” Cal said. “Picture it in your head? I don’t know.”

“Okay. Not vague at all,” Kathryn said and held her hands out wiggling her fingers just willing whatever it was into life. But nothing happened. She tried again but still nothing. “Well that was a waste,” She let out an annoyed breath threw her hands down.

And suddenly a blue beam appeared between her hands and solidified as a crystal blue staff. She jumped back almost dropping it. She stared at the weapon before giving it a slow spin. “This is cool. But it feels super light. Is it fragile? Maybe I can put a shield on it.”

She squeezed it and it glowed blue before suddenly separating into three pieces linked together by blue energy almost like a chain. She whipped it around slowly catching the pieces without hitting herself like she’d been practicing with it her whole life. She crouched and spun watching the pieces clink back together. The staff was longer than she thought though and almost slammed into Seth.

He threw his hands up and the staff slammed into a pair of triangular shields resting against his wrist. Pushing back lightly he stared at them and rotated them slowly staring at the shields and the sharp points on the edges. “Now this I can work with. Though how do I power these up?”

As if on cue they glowed to life, bright purple that traced the fronts of the shields and around his fists. Raising his fist and swaying back and forth he threw a few punches getting the hang of it. Leaning back, he threw a sharp hook and the glow from one shield shot out like a missile hitting a car with a small purple explosion.

 Stumbling backwards he stared at the shield, at the car, and then at the rest of them and threw his hands into the air. “Okay that was cool.”

“Yeah it was,” Cal grinned. “Welcome to the Cool Kid’s club.”

 Marco smiled, “Now let’s see how well we actually work together.”