Alice shook her head and dug herself out of the ground. She got to her feet and realized that she had crashed into a tent somewhere. Raising her eyebrow, she saw the people gathered around her. Saw the flashing camera lights and faces. She caught worried and concerned eyes but also very curious faces.
“Is that one of the Celestial Knights?”
“No way they look different.”
“Wasn’t the black one, one of those other knights?”
“But that one had foxes.”
“Is this one dangerous.”
“Would they let me get a selfie?”
Alice ignored the majority of them and started forward when she paused. She knew the office woman there. She stared at her in the remains of her business professional clothing and her eyes widened. She wanted to say hi to her. To talk to her but to Judy she hadn’t even been born yet.
Taking a deep breath, she started running again. She stomped on the ground and launched herself forward with a block of earth. From up above she saw the red beam of energy slam down from the sky and right into the thick of things. Before she could land properly, she saw a yellow orb being flung her way.
She turned and brought the flat of her machete down like a baseball bat and smacked the orb away. She landed and turned around, glowering as the possessed machine made their way forward. She looked at them and winced internally, “Yaya had hoped this hadn’t happened. Tahu deserved better. Better than you. Better than this.”
Tahu spread their arms, “I would never waste a perfectly good knight.”
Alice tensed and raised her machete, “I won’t let you hurt Yaya anymore. She’s been through enough!”
“Once she joins the collective, she will know piece,” it said through Tahu and Alice shouted ready to attack when they both felt the rippling back lash of energy in the air. She looked and saw the pristine white light that covered the sky. Tahu turned toward it and spun back to face her. Tahu lobbed a pair of bombs her way and she immediately raised her blade. Instead of exploding on contact they blew up in the air covering her face in smoke.
She coughed swatting through it as the zorg started running back toward the park. Coughing hard she launched herself through the smoke on a slab of rock. Landing on her feet, Alice chased after them knowing that whatever had just happened had to be good for her.
When she landed back in the park, she saw the light fade away. She watched Owen slide backwards across the ground, his armor cracked and broken. She watched Marco fall to his knees, his red armor gleaming with a fading white light. His revolver had changed, the barrel thicker and looking like it had more colored barrels.
“Like I said. Things were going to be different,” Marco glared at it and Owen’s eyes were wide covering his face. The entire right side almost entirely obliterated and Owen’s skin was singed, almost burned. Whatever Marco had done hadn’t been that deadly but it had been powerful.
“Clever. To think a psykik awakening would happen on this back water planet. I’m startled and impressed. The meddling of a celestial is truly an unpleasant thing.”
“Ley had nothing to do with this,” Marco challenged and got back to his feet spinning the barrel. “Now I’m going to take back my friend.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that,” he looked up and watched as a rain of yellow orbs appeared in the air above their heads.
“Look out!” Alice shoved her blade into the ground and swung it upward erecting a dome of stone to block and take the brunt of the damage.
Alice turned to watch the pair of possessed knights. Tahu helped Owen to stand and then they both glowed bright green then disappeared. They shot into the sky leaving the Earth’s atmosphere behind. Sighing Alice’s shoulders slumped and let her blade disappear. Rizier walked over to her slowly and looked down.
“Tahu is really gone then?”
“Yeah.”
“He’s not.”
They both turned together as Marco’s armor flashed and faded, “What do you mean?” Alice asked dejectedly.
Panting softly Marco looked at them and they gasped. Resting in Marco’s palm was his red crystal but right beside it was another white one. Marco lowered his head exhausted and both disappeared.
“Because I’m a psykik now,” he looked at Rizier who gave a nod of understanding. “We can sever Legion’s hold on them. We can get our friends back.”
“Don’t bother!”
Gen stood her armor all but gone, half her face revealed and she fought to keep the frustration and anger off it. Her armor was unstable, vibrating against her skin and body. Even her foxes were gone. She looked down at her hands in disbelief as her armor fell off against her will.
She stared at her self, still wearing the costume from the shoot. Her shoulder burned and she looked over to her stone. As her eyes fell onto it she saw it shudder and then a sharp crack appeared in the center. Watched it travel along the entire stone until it popped, tumbling from the arm band.
Hesitantly she reached out to the stone but when she it, it turned into sand, blowing away on the wind. She watched the shards of stone disappearing before her eyes and shook her head, closing her hand into a tight fist. “Your friends aren’t in there. Owen’s not in there anymore.”
Marco reached out slowly but she slapped his hand away. She didn’t, couldn’t, hear any arguments to the contrary from any of them. Turning around, she held one hand to her shoulder and limped away slowly. She kept her head up as she cried, not bothering to hide it. By the time she found Judy again her eyes were red and tired and Judy didn’t say anything. She just gave her a jacket, wrapped her arm around her, and led her back to the car.
The Harlequin Library 