“I’ve never been in an earthquake before,” Owen stumbled forward as the ground shook at his feet. He tried to keep his balance but another shock hit and he wasn’t doing that great. Seth put his hand on his shoulder to steady him though he wasn’t doing that great either.
“First time for everything when you’re with us,” Jack said his eyes were moving. He saw the destruction and heard the alarms going off. “Marco what’s the plan?”
“Split up,” Marco told them glancing at the six of them. “Groups of two. Get out there and help as much as possible. The crystal only goes off if it reads alien signatures on Earth. And it went off hard. So be ready for anything.”
“You heard the man. Let’s go to work,” Sarah said jerking her hand up.
“Seriously is everyone taking our thing?” Marco asked looking at Jack.
Jack shook his head, “You know how it is. Her way or the high way.”
Marco gave him a look but dropped it. They flourished their arms forward manifesting their stones and then flashed in a rainbow of colors before jumping off the rooftop.
Kathryn and Owen sprinted down the street their armor suddenly giving them the balance and sure footedness despite the tremors. A powerline came down and Katherine tossed her hand up deflecting it off the shield to the ground. Owen rushed forward in a blur of pink grabbing a trio of people and ushered them forward.
Kathryn placed her hand to helmet and looked around quickly before focusing it toward a tall white building, “Go that way!” she shouted and was sure her helmet was translating her words to French as fluently if a little robotic. “It’s earthquake safe! Go!”
They looked at her nodding quickly before running as best they could. The pair of them started to move when they heard another crack and watched as a building cracked and started to crumble. “Kathryn! There’s people in that building!”
“I see it! Go! I’ll keep the building upright!”
Conjuring her staff, she slammed it into the ground as he sprinted to the building. Blue light raced across the ground beside him. It lanced up and attached like additional support beams and wrapped around the structure. Grunting she felt the full brunt of it on her mind and watched Owen run straight into the building. “Hope you’re fast Owen.”
“Hang on Seth!”
“Only thing I can do is hold on!” Seth shouted back at Sarah.
He was holding onto a double decker bus, his hand shoved straight into the grill of it, as it hung over a crack in the ground. People were hanging on for dear life trying not to scream in the process. Seth wasn’t holding onto the edge of the ground, he was holding onto Sarah’s new axe. He could feel the lightning radiating from it but that was keeping him focused.
“Any bright ideas?” Sarah asked.
“Maybe,” Seth looked down and stared at the bus wincing as it creaked.
He looked down and there were less people down there than he remembered. Either they fell off when it came down or they’d fallen off since he’d caught it. Either way he wasn’t comfortable about any part of it. Taking a deep breath, he felt the new power inside him and looked up.
“Okay, Sarah! Got an idea and it’s going to be pretty crazy!”
“Crazy? So the regular nine to five with us!”
“Exactly! Shock me! And make it a good one!”
“You’re right! That is crazy! You ready?”
“Ready!”
Taking a deep breath Sarah snapped one of her axes off the combined weapon and then brought it down. Lightning slammed into it from the sky and raced across the shaft directly into Seth. It didn’t go past his shield but he took the brunt of all the pain. And considering how strong Sarah was it hurt a lot. But importantly it charged his shield to a bright purple.
“You good?!”
He grunted his response and took a deep breath, “Okay. Crazy part incoming!” he shouted. Looking down at the people in the bus on he shouted in perfect French, “Hold on!”
The purple light transferred from one arm to the other and he gritted his teeth lifting the bus slightly. And then he let go of Sarah’s axe. He fell for a moment and grit his teeth together, shouting as he threw the bus forward. As he sank he took the rest of that charged and sent it back into his other fist.
Punching the air, he discharged it all at once and propelled himself, going shoulder first to the back of the bus shoving the bus out of the hole. Seth floated in the sky for a moment, saw the bus land properly, albeit in better shape and started to sink again.
Before he could fall back into the hole his arm was hooked by Sarah’s axe and he was dragged back onto the street. “And here I thought Jack’s dumb ideas were crazy.”
“Come on this way!” Marco shouted. “Don’t worry the blue light is entirely safe! And it’s safer on the other side of the bridge!”
“Move quickly! Don’t stampede each other but keep it moving!” Jack shouted then looked over at Marco. “We’re doing pretty good aren’t we?”
“We are but we don’t know what caused this.”
“It was an earthquake. Nothing bigger than that,” Jack shrugged. “Right?”
“I want to believe that,” Marco mumbled then waved with his hand as more people crossed the make shift bridge of blue light over the actually destroyed bridge. The ground shook again and people screamed terrified. It wasn’t nearly as powerful as the ones in the center of the city but it was still terrifying.
Jack crouched trying to keep his balance and then his eyes widened. He stared at the city and saw an explosion from the ground in the distance going as high as the Eiffel tower itself. But through the smoke they saw a flash of red cut through the smoke and both knights recognized that noise. It sent a trill of fear through their minds.
“Marco.”
“Yeah Jack.”
“Is that what I think it is?”
“If you mean another giant Taq-Law then yeah.”
“Why can’t anything ever be fucking simple.”
The Harlequin Library 