Marco opened his eyes and came down from the air gently. He caught himself, landing on his feet, he let his powers fade away. His armor fell away, his gun disappeared, and he was just there in street clothes. Letting his hair fall down he reached back and tied it behind his head clearing his vision.
He crouched and put his head down, dragging his fingers through his hair quickly and forced himself to breathe. Forced himself to relax at least for a moment. The loud fall of the water behind him definitely helped to clear his mind. Out here in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees, a running stream, and a small waterfall he could even see the stars in the sky above him. He couldn’t get anything like this in the city. And considering how far away from the city he was it made sense.
He turned around and watched the five flashes of red appear behind him. They appeared in front of him, fully armored but then those disappeared in a flash of their respective colors and standing in front of him were his fiancés and his friends. His teammates. A smile broke out on his face as he waved at them, “Hey team. Good work today.”
“Good work he says,” Seth tossed the bag at him and Marco caught it carefully. “What even is this stuff.”
“Qamidum rock,” Kathryn replied but from the blank and annoyed look Seth gave her she laughed. “Space glass violet.”
“Neat. What’s it for?”
“With any luck it’ll help us to figure out what this crystal is doing here.”
As he said that he turned around and watched the air shimmer behind him. Just shy of the waterfall and the trickle of the stream that passed by a large crystal appeared out of seemingly nowhere. Embedded deep into the ground the crystal stood easily taller than Marco. Probably taller than Jack’s guardian.
It was a solid material thing, cuts in strange dimensions and utterly clear. However, the crystal was anything but. Whenever any of them looked at it, it reflected their faces. Out of all of them Marco was the only one who could use it. It was like a turbo steroid for his powers.
“The thing crashed landed here two months ago,” Jack said walking over to it.
“Don’t touch it Jack,” Sarah said sharply.
“I’m not going to break it. Relax,” he shook his head and glanced at Marco. Marco held up his hands sighing. “It’s just a giant red paper weight, right?”
“That’s what we think but Ley has other ideas remember?” Kathryn replied.
“It would explain why all of these aliens have been coming here,” Owen noted and Kathryn nodded her agreement.
“Two months straight of random alien attacks all talking about ‘getting the crystal’” Sarah said mimicking the rhino man they’d just fought against. “It’s exhausting.”
“Well with any luck this stuff will help us to build the cloaking device so they’ll stop coming here and making us do shit at every hour of the night,” Seth yawned stretching his arms above his head.
“If there weren’t constant alien attacks we’d at least be able to finish the wedding plans,” Sarah pulled at her hair. “It’s almost here.”
“I thought things were going smoothly?” Kathryn asked.
Jack sighed, “They were. But Marco’s been gone dealing with this stuff. And Sarah’s just freaking out about everything. Cause you know she’s insane right.”
Sarah glared at him and he made an ugly face back at her. “Fuck off.”
Marco stepped between them, “Please you two. I know you’re stressed about the wedding but I’m betting part of that is because none of us got much sleep last night. We haven’t for a while.”
“No, we didn’t,” she glanced at Jack. “Wonder why that is.”
“You want to do this here?”
“Have any of you heard from our friendly neighborhood Celestial?” Kathryn asked changing the subject quickly. “Haven’t seen them in our dreams for a while.”
“They’ve been gone for almost a week now?” Sarah asked and Marco nodded.
“Unfortunately,” Marco made a face. “Disappeared without a trace.”
Seth scowled, grunted and looked away, “Super natural alien being and we don’t even got them on speed dial when we’re in the middle of alien magic bullshit.”
“Come on Violet.”
Seth continued to scowl and he looked away from them folding his arms, “Shit pisses me off.”
“Honestly me too,” Kathryn replied. “They told me and Marco how to construct the cloaking device but didn’t say what to do with it once we do it.”
“But hey we went to space!” Seth said sarcastically.
“I feel like we should talk about that more later,” Jack said. “I haven’t been to space yet!”
“Oh come on not this again.” She rolled her eyes slowly. “Tired of hearing this.”
“I’m just saying. My turn next,” he said glancing away from her and at Marco. “Next time. Listen to that. I mean guys. We can go into space now! How cool is that?!”
“It was really cool,” Owen smiled and Jack held out his hand. They high fived and grinned together.
“Alright everyone,” Marco said glancing at the team. He waved his hand over the crystal and it disappeared. “For right now I think we all need to disperse and get what little sleep we can get. You free tomorrow afternoon Kathryn?”
“Sure. I can come by after work and then we can figure out an alien instruction manual in our minds. No pressure.”
“Exactly. I’m assuming I’m taking everyone, home right?”
“Yeah.”
“Mmhm.”
“You got it.”
“Alright then. See you later team,” Marco manifested his stone and then clasped his hand on it. They each one by one glowed red and then disappeared together one by one back to their beds.
The Harlequin Library 