Archie’s senses prickled as his consciousness returned. He could hear the chaos of the city, distant gun fire, helicopters and explosions echoed around him. Chris had managed to sit up, relieved Archie ran over to him.
“You got abilities too” Chris groaned.
“Yeah… are you going to be ok? I’ll find help” Archie mumbled.
The bell to Drip Coffee rang as the door was pulled open, Wren stood in the doorway, mouth agape. “Archie” she gasped “what… what.. what is that… what’s happened”.
Chris had started to deteriorate, the deep wounds on his back not showing any signs of healing. One of the faces peering out from a shop window approached. An off-duty doctor, she quickly got to work, packing the wounds and tactically treating him with a medical supply kit someone else had brought over from the cafe.
“Thank you, thank you, thank you” she said frantically. “Now let me help you” She whispered gently to Chris.
Archie brought Wren up to speed on what had happened. More faces appeared at windows, curious onlookers wandering onto the street. The sounds of the city kept everyone tense.
Eventually, Chris began to improve.
“So I got pointy little sticks and you get a magic Axe” Archie chortled, trying to lighten the tension, wandering over to him whilst he flicked a latte art pen between his fingers.
“Yeah… er, the voice said that I’m a Warrior class and I have some abilities… ‘Heroes leap’ and ‘Conjure Axe’ and just after that monster died I got another…. Something called “Heroes Might’ which passes my strength to an ally temporarily for 10 seconds” Chris said, in a daze, still recovering from the battle. “I don’t really know what else to say… this is nuts!”
“Well ‘aint that a thing Chris” Archie grinned… “I can pick locks and magic latte art pens out of thin air and you get all of that” he paused, then added “Seriously though. Thank you”
“That wasn’t all me Archie, don’t talk yourself down. We did that” Chris said, pointing towards the creature's decapitated body “together”.
This was the first time Archie had ever killed anything. He looked at the body, the pool of blood and felt nothing. He told himself it was the adrenaline, this would all hit him later on. Everything was so confusing he was struggling to feel anything, he was numb.
A rumbling of vehicles got gradually louder, sirens ringing out above the city. Police and military vehicles rounded onto the street approaching the scene with caution. Armed guards leaping out from the side of vehicles and shouted orders for everyone to remain calm and to move back in doors where possible.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
A medic came over to Chris, examining him she determined it best to transport him to a nearby temporary medical facility they had popped up by the naval college. They helped him gingerly get to his feet, Chris followed her to a departing vehicle, patting Archie on the shoulder gently as he left. Unspoken recognition and thanks between them.
Moments later, an unarmed man in civilian clothing was examining the troll and turned to Archie for an explanation. He was tall and oddly slender, wearing a casual white shirt with small light blue dots dotted unevenly, cream chinos, brown belt and shoes. The most noticeable thing about him was his titanium framed glasses that had clear lenses which sometimes, depending on the angle, looked solid white, reflecting the sunlight.
“How do you know I had anything to do with it?” Archie said defensively.
“That might have given me a clue” he scoffed pointing towards Archie’s shirt, which was spattered in deep green blood.
Finding a spare jacket and green military shirt, he helped Archie clean up and shared with him and Wren that the images seen on the TV were in fact real. Canary Wharf and other locations around the world had been razed to the ground and replaced with unknown towers, buildings, cities and forests, all enchanted in some way. Creatures of all shapes, sizes and mythologies had been appearing at random across the world.
“For those that saw the change happen in real-life, they said it was as if an alternate reality had ripped into existence, solidifying into our world, whilst ours faded away. Almost as if swapping places.” He continued
Archie and Wren’s jaws were agape. They stood up to move, wanting to head towards Cutty Sark, which had a direct view of Canary Wharf, with only the river Thames between them. Slowly placing his hand on Archie’s arm, the unnamed man settled them both back down.
“We’re creating a secure perimeter around the Thames and surrounding areas of Canary Wharf. There are other sites across the UK, Europe and rest of the world all going through the same thing” the man said.
“What’s going on” Archie replied
“We’re all learning as we’re going. There’s been reports of foreign creatures appearing in pockets, outside of these areas too. Every single resource we have is stretched thin trying to get people to safety and figure this out” the man said, his voice shallow and exasperated
He continued “We’ve heard from a few onlookers that you had something to do with bringing this thing down, nice work. We’re bringing you in to answer a couple of question”
“Er, I can answer questions here?” Archie said hesitantly, thinking back over the last fifteen minutes he hadn’t actually seen or heard this guy speak to anybody else, he’d come straight over to Archie, Wren and Chris.
“No can do my friend. I’m with the service and we’re trying to pool together all of our information, you’ll have to come with us - it’s not a request” pausing after seeing the hesitation in Archie, he added “don’t worry you’re not in trouble, you’ve done a real service to your country here.”
Panicked, Wren chipped in “Let me come with him, I saw everything happen”
“Have it your way, if you could both get into the back of the van over there, we’ll get on our way and back to safety. I’m Damian, Damian Leezy”
With that, Archie and Wren followed Damian to the armoured van. Once in the back, the lock of the door was turned and bolted shut, making Archie’s heart shudder.
“We’ll be ok Archie, don’t worry” Wren said smiling kindly, “I just know it”.