Terran Knights 3: Chapter 10

 “Is that everyone?” Owen asked gently.

The old man hobbled out of the house looked at him, then looked back toward the building. Before he could answer a young woman ran over to him and grabbed the man around the shoulders then looked at him. “Yes this is everyone,” she said nodding quickly. “You’re those people. On the TV.”

“Yeah. I mean. I’m new. But yes we’re them,” Owen said and then there was another tremor bigger than any of the others he’d felt before. He straight up fell down and then looked behind them as the building shook through the blue light. And unlike the other tremors it didn’t slow down, in fact it got worse.

He looked over toward Kathryn and she was still standing, still holding onto her staff but she didn’t see what he saw behind her. The towering mechanical monstrosity rising from the ground. Staring at it, he shuddered and stumbled backwards.

Staring at it he was suddenly back in Chicago. He could hear his siblings crying, feel their hands in his. Feel how terrified they were. He protected them as best he could but he could see the massive monster coming from the ky. Powerless to stop the thing from shattering his family.

“Owen!”

He gasped and Kathryn was in front of him. She had both her hands on his shoulders and shook him back to reality. He gasped looking at her and then looked past her. The people were surrounded by her blue light but the building behind them had finally collapsed into rubble.

“Kat do you see that?”

“Yeah.”

“What do we do?”

“What we do best. Work together and stop monsters like that,” she held out her hand and pulled him off the ground.

“What about these people?”

“If the earthquake is tied that thing the tremors are gonna stop. So as long as they avoid that thing they’ll likely be safe,” she said. “But we need to get out there and stop it.”

Owen looked at the people, looked at Kathryn and then looked at the Taq-Law as it remained in the sky. “Okay. Let’s take it down. The Taq-Law aren’t hurting anymore people.”

“That’s the spirit,” she said and then walked back over to the group of people from the building. She pulled a disc out of her armor and held it out to a woman. “Take this. Hold onto it. It’ll protect you all for a little bit. Get away from this area and find someplace safe.

“Yes. Thank you. Thank you.”

They started moving, trying to help those who weren’t wounded and those too old to be fast. They watched them for a little while and then heard Marco’s voice. “I know everyone can see the giant robot. Me and Jack are on the way there. Priority number one taking this thing down. Help anyone you run into along the way but the sooner we take this thing down the safer everyone else can be. Let’s go to work knights!”

“You’re getting good at that,” Jack laughed as they moved together hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Though the city was in ruins it wasn’t in nearly as bad shape as they initially thought. The tower was even still standing for now.

“What kind of leader would I be if I wasn’t good at speeches,” he said and watched the giant machine. It wasn’t moving like they thought it might be. It was actually standing still. Marco watched it and glanced at his gun and red light flashed a sheet of numbers and information appearing in front of him. “What the heck?”

“What is it?”

“My stone is saying that thing is dormant.”

“Dormant? It just broke out of the ground and that used up the last of the power,” Jack asked confused.

“I don’t know. Maybe.”

“Are the Taq-Law smart?”

“Let’s ask it.”

They both jumped down skidding across the grass and stared up at the machine. It had seen better days. The armor was covered in dirt and grimed. It was chipped and had exposed wires. But more than that when they looked at the chest there was a giant gaping hole in it’s chest. They could see the sky clear through it.

“Jack,” Marco said softly.

“I see it too,” Jack replied. “That’s the same one from Chicago.”

“I thought we got rid of it after the fight.”

“We did. So what is it doing here.”

Before either could put out a thought the head of the formerly destroyed Taq-Law glowed red and they tensed together. But nothing happened. It creaked and then sank down to the ground. It sank down and slumped hard until it was half as high up in the air as it was before. Neither knight relaxed until some time passed. And then Marco stepped forward.

Marco raised his gun and pointed at the giant machine, scanning it slowly and then it paused. When it came back it told him what he had thought. The machine was dead. Whatever powered it had ceased. They exchanged glances and Marco asked. “Think it’s dead?”

“Who knows,” Jack shrugged. “Let’s jump dump it on the moon and figure out what to do with it later.”

Laughing softly Marco shrugged, “Sure. I don’t have a better idea now and we can’t just leave it here.”

But before they could move again the entire machine flashed a bright red and it vanished. One moment it was there and in another it had been blasted into the sky covered in some sort of green light. Jack and Marco stared dumbfounded for a long moment.

Touching his helmet Marco called out to everyone, “It’s alright team. Whatever this blast from our past was doing here, it’s over now. Let’s get back to the city. Clean up and go home.”