Start of Part 8__________________________________________________________________________________________

“Bullshit. The Luudesi aren’t gonna show up and say hello, especially not to you.” Ashley scoffed and holstered her gun.

I flipped the safety on and stuffed my own gun back into my hoodie pocket. Ashley scowled as she watched me do that. She’d given me a holster when she gave me the gun. I “misplaced” that holster shortly after. Having things hanging from my belt just feels so stupid. She hadn’t been happy about it and still isn’t. 

“Not that kind of alien. I’d be the first to run and hide if the Luudesi had pushed past the front and made it to earth. These aliens are a bit different. Think bump in the night, mythos, demons, those kinds of aliens.” I said vaguely.

Ashley’s eyes flashed with interest for a moment and then fear. Which confused me, Ashley isn’t the kind to scare easly. So why was this different? She walked out from behind the ticket booth she’d hid behind to use as cover and I noticed it. Ashley's entire left arm was covered in dull green scales. I gaped at her and didn’t know what to say. She looked at her scaled left arm before looking back at me and shrugging.

“I thought it was a rash at first. Then it ended up like this. I can believe in new aliens if I’m suddenly growing scales.” She explained with a pained look in her eyes.

I nodded mutely. I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t bring myself to form a single word. The stuff Malinda had said about whatever the Ether thing is. It had gotten her as well? I focused my sight on her and the bar appeared and slowly filled before a plethora of knowledge burst forth to overwhelm me. I couldn’t make sense of it and wished I could just pick and choose what I wanted to know. I wanted to know how much ether she’d been exposed to. I wanted to know what it’d done to her. I attempted to wade through the information and find something relevant. Though I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. Was there even a point to doing that? Unfortunately there wasn’t a convenient feature that just organized and listed everything I wanted to know. I had to do that myself and the information changed and bounced around to much for me to make heads or tails of it. This was frustrating, really frustrating. Never had I felt such appreciation for google and it’s hired monkeys. I kept trying to work through it all and make sense of it before Ashley spoke up.

“What’s with the glare?” Alesha asked me in a growl in her voice. Misunderstanding my look and returning my unintended glare right back at me.

“What!? Is this that shocking to you? You’re talking aliens and my arms bothers you?” She asked me with disbelief and scepticism.

“No, I- No. It’s fine, I’m just worried what else might change.” I sighed and turned to the door with a meaningful look.

“I have some new friends of mine that I want you to meet. Don’t freak out and shoot them.” I warned her. Ashley has a record of getting trigger happy when she’s experiencing something new.

“Come on in.” I called to Malinda and Welkin from the doorway.

The two walked in slowly. Ashley drew her gun as soon as they came into view and gave me a look like I’d betrayed her. I’d expected this to some extend so I moved between them with my hands out in an attempt to assure her. I realized for a moment that I was treating her like a mistreated animal and grimaced when I thought to myself that it was probably an accurate analogy. Ashley and I had similar upbringings and yet I’d been taken in by the Yurman’s while Ashley at lived with her own personal hell for eighteen years before joining the army so she could get away from them. Ashley and I kind of sympathize with each other and we both deal with it in a different way. I got depressed, she got angry and now we are who we are.

“What the fuck are they!?” Ashley asked or rather, shouted me. 

Her eyes had widened, her hands shook and her finger was on the trigger. Well at least she hasn’t already pulled the trigger. That’s a good start, we can work with this.

“They’re aliens. They’re a little different from normal people.” I fought to keep a smirk from my face as I said this. It didn’t work however; because of my scars I always looked like I was smirking at some dark joke.

Ashleys eyes seemed to haze over a bit and her entire expression shifted very slightly. I chucked a glance back at Malinda and purely by chance I noticed a small red box open in my view of the street behind Malinda with a red exclamation mark in it. Years of gaming tell me that red and an exclamation mark pared together means something that’s gonna kill you is happening. I however in all my genius simply wondered what that mean and raised my arm in an attempt to shield my eyes from the snow of the street so I could get a better look. To my surprise I felt a burning sensation pass from my pocket and into my chest before it traveled up my arm. Somehow I could feel the air, I could feel the molecules reacting as they made contact with plasma. Electricity sparked in the form of an orderly triangle grid around and I watched as a bullet hung in the air and spun like a top. It had been coming straight for my head. I started at it and fell onto my arse, I almost just died. 

Welkin grabbed the collar of my hoodie and flung me practically across the room behind the ticket desk and into cover. From the doorway he and Ashley fired shots into the street. Welkins oversized pistol boomed like a cannon every time it fired a round and was absolutely terrifying. I thought to myself that if any human could use it without it flinging up and breaking their jaw, then they’d have to be build like a tank. Malinda came over to me a checked if I was injured with a troubled expressed.

“H- How am I okay?” I asked her in shock. My brain was still processing the fact that I almost died just moments ago.

“That was a class nine defensive spell I put in your phone. It takes a stupid amount of mana to maintain so keep back.” Malinda explained flatly. Her tone had the obvious undercurrent that she was saying I owed her but I didn’t care. At that moment I wanted to kiss her and my phone for saving my stupid mediocre life.

Malinda crouched in cover with me behind an old ticket desk and started speaking in a stilted language. She took from one of her pouches a small twig with yellow leaves before snapping it in one hand. The air outside the door began to ripple, a bullet struck it and deflected at a 90° angle away from the rippling invisible wall of air. The air cracked as more rifle rounds flew through the air and struck the barrier before being deflected away. The barrier rippled and let out a harsh high pitched reverberating roar at each of numerous bullet deflections. Whoever was firing at us seemed to give up after a few more shots and Welkin and Ashley slowly lowered their weapons and moved away from the door..

“These fucking bastards again!?” Ashley shouted over the noise. 

She looked pointedly at Welkin and then at Malinda before pointing at the barrier and asking over noise, “One of you a witch or something!? I ain’t givin you my first born! Go find someone else's first born for your fucked up fetish play!”

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

Malinda shrunk in on herself a bit before adjusting her feet and standing taller. This made her chest look bigger and I found my eyes wander towards them more than a few times. However I managed to mostly keep my eyes on the real issues, mostly.

“I am a sorceress and Witches do not take firstborns for any reason. That is merely a stigma attached from when the dark priest were mistaken for witches.” Malinda tutted.

She waved the hand toward the door and continued, “This is the spell bullet barrier, created by a Dark elven mag-” Malinda began explaining, shouting over the noise. This really wasn’t the time though.

“I don’t care about your D&D speak. How long does it last for?” Ashley interrupted.

Malinda frowned before saying, “The spell only remains in effect until the magic used in casting spell runs out. It should stay in effect for the next few minutes unless they decide to use a larger caliber bullet. It’s impossible to know for sure how long a spell will last because of varying ma-”

Maybe she was used to being in this kind of situation or maybe she just really liked magic. None the less this wasn’t the time to turn fantasy wizard professor and begin educating us. I glared reproachfully at the side of Malinda’s head.

“Malinda I don’t think this is the time for a lesson.” I interrupting. 

Malinda scrunched up her nose at me, “Fine.”

“Got any better guns?” Welkin asked Ashley because of course he could. I mean when your gun is basically a mini cannon, everything else is just a pee shooter.

Ashley checked her gun as she thought for a moment before saying, “Not really, it’s hard justify even owning a pistol here.”

“Not to mention it makes you seem like a country bumpkin, a coward or a wheezy rich fuck who can’t feel confident without a sidearm to back themselves up.” I added unhelpfully. Maybe I am a bit biased? But when you go to a high school full of rich kids and most of them like to flaunt their superiority for having rich parents. Well I think you’re starting to get where I’m going.

“That’s just city kids belittling others Haris. Only idiots pull a gun over an argument.” Ashley chided me.

I shrugged. I’m really not a fighter. Even when I got into fights at school I generally just gave up, even if it is kind of pathetic. Why should I have to prove myself to others? To bolster my own pride and ego? No thank you.

“Anyway, since the noise has died down at least for now. We need to talk.” Ashley said with an awkward smirk. 

She eyed Malinda and Welkin for a moment before going into the back of the station. From the back she brought out documents and a locked box that she had to drag across the floor. I would have offered to help but she would have refused and I’ve gotten used to her doing so.

Ashley sat on the floor next to the box and put the papers on it. She motioned for me to sit across from her. I didn’t even raise a brow and proceeded to sit on the dusty floor. I glanced at Malinda and Welkin who seem to have decided they should be on the lookout for if whoever it was that had shot at us decided to try again.

“This is what the military has planned.” She said as she handed me some of the papers.

I read over them. I knew not to speak about what was written, we’d had exchanges like this before in the past. We don’t talk about what’s written and we don’t exchange details through spoken word. We did speak about these kinds of things, not unless there is something that needs to be said. In the end we are doing something illegal and one fuck up will doom us.

The military had been running tests of the cities residents. They’re confirmed a substance that they’ve decided to call P301C that seems to be building up in the bodies of people in the city. From observations they were able to gather that P301C slowly mutates the body to better adapt to the atmosphere coming through from the event horizon. However these mutations are often horrific and at times the subjects turn into unknown lifeforms that only vaguely resemble humanity. There was a list of subjects under observation. Thankfully I didn’t recognize any of the names. The last few pages were part of an operational proposal that had been given the green light. They’re going to round everyone up for observation and those that resist with lethal force will be dealt with lethal force in kind.

I narrowed my eyes at what was written and read over it a few times. This P301C was most likely the ether that Malinda had mentioned. Glancing at Welkin and Malinda I could see the two were uneasy about staying here and they had every right to be. I’ll need to repeat this information back to them when we get back to my apartment. I put the papers back on the box and conveyed my understanding to Ashley with a nod.

“Good.” She replied curtly before taking the papers I’d just read and tearing them to pieces. She collected the pieces in an old can and lit them on fire.

Picking up some other papers she straightened them in an uncharacteristically business like manner and handed them to me. It was a list of equipment and costs of delivery. I raised my brow at her, not understanding what this was about.

“My dad wants you to distribute this information on the forums. Fens Clan is selling arms to unaffiliated now.” Ashley scowled when she mentioned her dad.

“Fen asked you?” I asked to confirm. 

Ashley nodded mutely. Ashley’s father was the sociopathic madman that ran Fens Clan. Fen Timber. I try to forget that most of the time because I actually like Ashley. Not to mention it’s not her fault her father isn’t right in the head and is a crime lord. Just like how it’s also not her fault that the reason I was in the process of dying the first time we met was because one of her fathers men shot me.

End of Part 8__________________________________________________________________________________________

AUTHOR uses foot to his own face attack: Today's been harsh. Actually no it hasn't, I slept all day... Anyway... Funny fact! This was originally where the MC got shot in the head and died. Then I decided against doing that because it made writing further troublesome and annoying. So yay for me not being a bag of dicks! Feel the awesome power of plot armor! Tremble in fear of it's OPness! It's massive, pulsating OPness!

Boasting of the size of my OPness said and done... I wanted to just say a few things about how I'm terribly sorry for any grievances entailed through my long draw out blubbering in the next chapter. I don't write emotion terribly well in my opinion, though I am trying. Not that there will be much emotional content in the next chapter; I just wanted to share a random fact that I believe to be true about myself.

That was the last of my back log so I'll be delaying a day or so from now on in an attempt to build up another back log of chapters. It'd be annoying for me if I wasn't able to write for some reason and wasn't able to post anything.