Alex grunted as Jim-Jam impacted onto the top of the Jora asteroid. Behind her several others, including June and Nathan, landed. They kicked small dust clouds into the air as their feet touched the ground. They had chosen to land on the top of the asteroid as anywhere else meant climbing, which severely limited their fighting prowess.

So far the Jora hadn't reacted to their presence, content to crawl like spiders along the bottom of the asteroid to reach the Varnoss below. But it was only a matter of time.

"Are you sure Caleb's here?" Alex asked Nathan as she looked around for an entrance.

The paladin nodded. "This was the only place that had an outline of him. If he's not here he's not on this planet."

"Stop chit-chatting and help us find an entrance to this place," June commanded. "We're not here for a full-on fight."

While the three were arguing, a Jora crawled up out from behind an outcropping. Seeing the group, it roared a challenge at the humans and charged.

"I don't think we're going to have a lot of choice in that," Alex said.

She grabbed Rocket and catapulted him into the charging monster with her skill. Rocket's claws pointed forwards, ready to drill through the Jora's torso, but only impacted the monster and knocked it over.

"Holy shit," Alex said in surprise. Rocket bounded back over to his lord while the monster stood up. The only sign it had been hit was a dented chest that was rapidly filling out.

"How the hell are the Varnoss fighting these guys?" She demanded.

"Think about it later!" June shouted. More Jora were starting to pop up out of the asteroid from all sides.

"We need to get past them to get to Caleb," Nathan said, stating the obvious.

A Jora swung a mighty fist down at one of the squad members and June focused her power. The monster stopped to lay down for a quick nap. "My power works on them," June said to Nathan. "So yours should too."

Nodding, Nathan pulsed his blessing. A Jora behind him was trying to jump at someone. With a quick use of his power the Jora impulsively jumped and launched themselves right off the asteroid. A second Jora moved to swing its fist at Alex and Nathan acted again. The Jora put too much strength into the swing too early and spun around in a circle.

While this happened June led the squads down into the closest tunnel, using her power to keep the enemy from acting. The inside was roughly hewn as if someone punched the rock into a tunnel. Since the Jora hadn't used any tools yet, it was a good bet they did just that. Alex made sure to go first to sniff out anything getting close.

Nathan brought up the rear and kept the pursuing Jora at bay. Emotions washed over him. The Jora radiated a battle frenzy he'd never felt before and underneath he slight emotions of fighting their brethren. Taking that impulse, Nathan pushed the idea to the forefront of the Jora's minds. It didn't take on everyone, but enough of the Jora reacted to cause a brawl outside the tunnel. He'd have to hope that kept them busy for a while.

Alex followed her nose into a large cavern lit by various campfires near the center. Other tunnels branched off from the sides leading to places unseen. Inside groups of Jora milled about with haunches of meat. A smaller Jora noticed the group and roared. The entire cavern turned towards them.

Alex pulled out Butterwhiskers and directed her at the crowd of Jora. "Stall them for a bit."

Butterwhiskers hazed away and reformed in the middle of the Jora. Black tendrils spread out around the monsters. Someone tripped and knocked another into the campfire. The Jora grabbed at another as it fell, stripping off its loincloth. Both Jora and loincloth fell down into the fire and burst into flame. The Jora was none worse for wear but the loincloths burned.

Butterwhiskers snatched the burning cloth with a tendril of smoke and weaved it around the other Jora. More loincloths caught fire, spreading throughout the entire camp. Heat blazed and smoke curled upward while June pressed Nathan to search for Caleb.

Nathan pinged out again around the asteroid. The entire structure of the asteroid laid itself bare. It was like an anthill, filled with tunnels and large caverns where Jora milled about. His pulse reached the center of the asteroid and there he found the familiar hollowness from Caleb's immutability.

"He's in the center."

"Damn it of all the places," June complained. "Alright, let's go. Nathan lead the way."

Taking forward position, Nathan led the group down a side tunnel. The tunnels all spiraled downward and at some points, the group had to slide down as the tunnel inclined. Whenever they met small groups of Jora, June would use her power and stop them.

Finally, the team saw a pale silver light emanate from the tunnel ahead. Passing through it led to another cavern, but one vastly different than the others before. In the middle of the cavern, supported by two stone pillars, sat a giant pulsing ball of energy enclosed in a transparent crystal.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Wow," Alex muttered, the words escaping her lips.

The others had to agree. The place looked like crystal caverns back on earth but more ethereal. The energy pulsed with a pale green and receded into a dull blue. Every pulse washed the cavern in its light, creating an aurora on the walls.

"How do monsters like them make something like this?" Alex asked.

"We can ponder it later," June said. "Nathan, are we close?"

Nathan pulsed his power. As he did so he caught Caleb's image emerging from a tunnel ahead and heard, "Fucking hell."

"Caleb!" Alex shouted and waved.

The group ran over to their rescuee. It seemed the time away hadn't been good to Caleb. His clothes were gone and replaced by one of the terrible loincloths the Jora wore. But with the size of it, the loincloth sat more like a kilt. Dirt and other gunk had been smeared over the man's body. Though he still had his smiling bat. All in all, he looked like an apocalyptic caveman.

"What the hell are you all doing here?" Caleb asked.

"Coming to rescue you," Alex said. "Now come on let's get out of here."

"We need to do something about these Jora first," Caleb said.

"Rocket's claws couldn't even pierce the monster's skin and you want to do something about them?" June said.

"Look, these things are nasty. They have this larval stage that eats some of the toughest materials out there. And then they eat each other in a survival of the fittest gladiator pit. The fact that there are so many of these monsters just goes to show how dangerous they are. We leave them here they'll only grow stronger and we won't be able to do anything about it."

"Are we sure this is Caleb?" Alex said. "He's awfully serious."

"Hello, I'm always serious?" Caleb said.

Everyone stared at him.

"Yeah okay its Caleb, only he could act like this."

"Back on track," June said. "Not even Rocket's claws could hurt these monsters. How do you expect us to kill them?"

"What really?" Alex nodded as Caleb looked at her. "Well shit."

"Well shit indeed," Nathan said.

"Well this place has got to be special. It's a glowing energy sphere in the middle of the asteroid. If that don't scream important I don't know what does." Caleb said.

"We don't have time to spend figuring out what it does!" June snapped. "We found you so stop trying to play hero and let's get out. Let the Varnoss handle their planet."

Caleb shook his head. "They won't be able to."

"Why not?" Alex asked.

"The whole reason they did all the recruiting in the first place is because they were losing the fight against these things. That's why I was taken."

"Why would they want you?" June said.

"Hello? Immutable remember? Nothing works on me. I'm sure that seems like a pretty good thing when you're desperate."

A Jora roared in the distance, reminding everyone that they were stuck in enemy territory.

"Okay so they're losing, we can deal with it later when we're all safe!" June shouted

"You don't get it!" Caleb shouted back, silencing June. "These things are practically unkillable and my little sister is up there! Plus the rest of Three Cities. If the Varnoss were losing before what do you think happens where their capital planet falls! That puts everyone in danger and I'm not going to let something happen to Hailey if I can help it. Sure you see me as an idiot but I still care about my family. So I won't let something happen to her."

Caleb's outburst reverberated throughout the room and silenced everyone. Nathan was the first to speak. "Alright, we'll help." He looked over to Alex and June. Alex nodded in agreement. After a second, June did too.

"Fine, but if we can't figure something out in ten minutes we're leaving."

Caleb opened his mouth to argue.

"You know if we take too long Hailey will send more people down, she might even come herself. I know you don't want that."

"Fine, ten minutes," Caleb said begrudgingly.

The team went to work in the cavern, June taking the rest of the squad to secure the tunnels while Alex and Nathan went with Caleb to look over the pulsing energy sphere.

"It's just two pillars and a crystal ball," Alex said.

"There has to be something more," Caleb answered.

The two milled around the pillar in search of something, anything, else.

"Its an engine," Nathan breathed out. The other two turned to look at him. The paladin had pulsed his power again, this time focusing on the sphere. He had gotten an inkling of it before but wasn't paying any attention once Caleb showed up in his vision. But the pulsing energy signaled a faint aura of movement every time it beat.

It was the purest impulse of movement Nathan had ever seen. Every wave felt like running through fields, or racing through the skies like a bird, or outswimming a shark in the water. "It's amazing," Nathan said.

"So its an engine, can we do anything with that?" Alex said.

"We could push the asteroid somewhere else, maybe into a sun?" Caleb mused.

Nathan felt the pulses of movement wash over him again, understanding dawning on him with every beat. Images of a Jora jumping, of a Varnoss running, and of countless other creatures flowed into him. "It runs on their kinetic energy."

"What?" Caleb said.

"This engine gathers the kinetic movement of everything in an area and keeps it. I don't know how but it is. They use it to travel between planets."

"So how do they stop it?"

"Why?"

"You make it sound like sending this thing into the sun is a good idea. But if they can stop the engine we can't do that."

"The pillars," Alex interjected. The two turned to look at her. She pointed down to the pillars. "They aren't built from the stone, see there?"

The base of the stone pillar on the floor was ringed with a jagged line that connected snugly with a similar pattern on the floor. Alex looked up to the top of the pillar on the ceiling and saw a similar pattern. "These pillars lock and unlock for some reason."

Nathan pulsed his power and focused on the jagged ring and below. "There's a cavern under there, the pillar continues through it. I see the same up top."

"So they use the pillars to stop somehow?" Caleb asked.

"I guess?" Alex shrugged. "It's hard to tell without trying."

"Still probably safe to say that if we break the pillars we can destroy their brakes," Nathan said.

"Alright, let's try it. Let's break their brakes," Caleb swung his bat against the pillar in an attempt to crack it. All that happened was Bat rebounded off the stone with a clang. "Well, I'm out of ideas."

"Time to go!" June shouted.

"Wait we figured out how to kill these guys!" Caleb yelled back.

"Too late! Terry's saying a ton of them are heading this way!"

To emphasize her point, the ground rumbled slightly. Roars and hollers in the Jora's signature popping voice echoed from down the tunnels.