Nina

Red hefted Nina up, freeing her from her panic.

“Thanks,” she mumbled.

“Head to the bar,” Red yelled, over the loud music. “We need to initiate the emergency shutdown of the planets to get as many as we can off safely.”

Her eyes instinctively went back to the dead man. He was intertwined with several maimed bodies in a mass of sickening carnage. She shuddered.

“Hey!” Red said gripping her firmly on the shoulder. “We have to get to the shutdown. Focus.”

“Yeah,” she said, taking a calming breath. She could do this.

After pushing through more crowds stampeding in the opposite direction, they could see above them club security forces and a few Wreckies already inside the club trading fire with several Sovs. After passing several clumps of bodies strewn out across the floor, they made it to the bar where they found several bartenders cowering behind it.

“Where is the emergency shutdown?” Red barked at the closest bartender who was in the fetal position. She looked up with tears streaming down her face. She pointed to a dark grey door at the end of the bar a couple of hundred feet away.

“You go for the shutdown. I’m going to try and find the wizard.” Red grabbed the closest bottle on a shelf in front of him. He took a long drink as he continued to look up at the ensuing battle. “You have to have a drink to cling to the walls.” He handed the bottle to Nina, but she didn’t take it. She looked around trying to focus. Even with the loud music, the distinctive sound of bodies hitting the ground with a wet thump could be heard. Each one more grotesque than the last.

“Hey!” Red yelled, over the music. “You, okay?”

“Yeah, yeah…” Nina grabbed a bottle and turned it up. The burn of the ESH charged alcohol soothed her. “I’m good.”

“Alright, let’s do this.” Red took another drink from the bottle. “Shield up, head down, okay?”

Nina fought back the panic trying to roar out of her chest and nodded with fake confidence. “Yeah, you too.”

Adelfried

Adelfried, Jim, and Ying had to reorder their chain of invisibility since everyone only had two hands and they had to stay connected. Getting into this formation was a lot more challenging than Adelfried thought it should have been but considering no one could see each other they did the best they could. When they finally got sorted, they ended up with Adelfried leading, followed by Ying, then Jim dragging Federico. It was Jim’s idea to bring him after all.

Next, they had to make their way through a panicked crowd and do what everyone else was trying to do, which was planet hop their way to the wall or ceiling to make it to the ground. Their first attempt to hop off Saturn and catch the passing Neptune failed miserably as they realized they would have to time their jumps precisely if they had any hope of making it as a group. Their next jump in unison gave them enough lift to drag the unaware Federico along with them. But once they landed, a blast hit their new planet causing it to lurch and shake violently.

“We better get off before Pluto goes down!” Ying yelled. “Look, here comes Mars. Everyone, get ready to jump…now!” They all jumped in unison pulling Federico along once again. Another bolt hit Pluto robbing it of its planetary status yet again, sending it spiraling to the ground. Their crash landing on Mars broke their chain.

“Can I just say that you knowing all the planet names on sight as we are hopping for our lives and defying death, is kind of sexy,” Jim said, in a jovial voice considering the situation.

“I work for NASA, it’s kind of part of the job.” Ying retorted. “But really, now? Now is when we are going to talk about this?”

“What, can’t I be turned on by my invisible wife while we hop for our lives?”

Adelfried felt a firm hand grab his behind and squeeze. “That’s me, Jim,”

“Sorry, sorry,” Jim said, apologetically.

Another barrage of blasts came raining down on the planet. The Sovs were methodically destroying planet by planet to drive their invisible quarry to the Sun which was the only one that didn’t move.

“Adelfried. you better do something, or Mars is going down, too,” Ying yelled.

Nina

Nina headed down the length of the bar using it for cover. She climbed over groups of bartenders and patrons hiding where they could. It was the only cover on the ground floor. A large blast rang out high above. She glanced up as a rock booth dislodged from its orbit and careened into another booth. The resulting chain reaction sent a swarm of stone booths falling towards her. Two men screamed as their booth plummeted downward. She focused everything she had on slowing their descent, but it was too late. It shattered on impact with the ground. Their bodies twisted, bloodied and limp within the rubble. She took a steadying breath. She had a job to do, she had to initiate the safety shut down.

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

She glanced up again to make sure it was safe to proceed when two Sovs were almost on top of her. She smashed her shield into the first one’s face as he landed. A bolt shot past her head. She spun around as the other Sov fired again. She deflected the shot right back at him. His chest burst into a ball of yellow fire before he fell to the ground.

Breathe, breathe, she told herself. She could make it.

After another thorough aerial scan, she hurried towards the door situated at the end of the bar. She gave the door knob a turn. It was locked. She stepped back and fired a blast of bright orange ESH into the door only to have it bounce back nearly hitting her.

She tapped her helmet radio. “Red, I need help down here, the door is heavily shielded, no way I am getting it open.”

“Sorry, I’m having my own issues. Figure it out.”

Nina scanned the sky until she spotted Red and another Wreckie fighting a mass of Sovs standing on a planet. Think. She started looking around for another way in when she noticed the MEAR the unconscious Sov had dropped. She picked it up and fired several blasts at the door which had no effect. She was going to need something stronger. Then she remembered the night at the ballpark. She ripped the crystal out of its chamber and smashed it against the ground cracking it. She balanced the crystal gently on the doorknob of the secured door and stood back as the crystal started to smoke. After a few seconds an intense foot wide explosion of energy vaporized the door handle and a part of the wall.

She kicked the door open and walked in to find dead security staff and two Sovs watching the wall of security screens. They immediately opened fire. Nina deflected a few bolts back into the confined office with her shield, taking one of the Sovs out with a body shot. A sonic wave slammed into her shield, sending her flailing backwards and to the ground. Her head hit the ground but luckily her helmet took the brunt of the force. Weakened and dazed, she noticed a monitor lying on the ground next to her. With a thought she sent it like a bullet towards her lone assailant. There was a loud thud, but she couldn’t see her target. When she sat up, she found that it had taken his head clean off.

Still in pain, she stood up and limped towards the end of the office. She frantically scanned the controls until she saw a big red button on the side of the wall covered by a plastic lock box. She ripped the box off with a pop of telekinetic energy and hammered the button down with her fist.

The club lit up like it was daylight and a loud siren went off. Like the end of a massive amusement park ride, the remaining planets slowed until they stopped spinning and descended to the ground gracefully. The battle, however, continued to rage between the Sovs and Wreckies who both continued to show up in larger numbers.

Adelfried

Adelfried looked around hoping to find another way off their sphere, when at last, something had gone their way. The planets were now drifting downward, slowly, and safely. Once on the ground they walked past debris and bodies towards the foyer when Adelfried froze. A tuft of short green hair and pale skin were in amongst a pile of bodies. The kind soul who had helped him was now just another corpse at the bottom of the club, piled up like so much chopped firewood. Anger burned in his chest.

Jim spoke up “Why did we stop, is everything alright?”

Adelfried’s voice trembled. “This was Debbie…she helped me and now…she’s dead.” Magic pulsed in him as his body tensed. He felt his arm reaching upward ready to deliver a massive attack. He was tired of running from these cowards who kill those too weak to fight back.

He felt Jim’s hand on his shoulder. “Hey, let the Wreckies deal with it. We need to get out of here. Think about Evan and Kae. Minna and Leyna. They want to see us again. We can’t risk it.”

Adelfried slowly lowered his hand. Jim was right, but all he wanted to do was punish the Sovs. “Why...why are they doing this?”

“Why does anyone kill?” Ying jumped in. “Because they don’t know any other way to get what they want. But now is not the time for a debate. We have to keep moving.” Adelfried felt his hand jerked forward as Ying dragged the chain towards the exits.

They were able to slip out of the club and into the foyer where they saw their door was guarded by at least ten Sovs all armed with rifles.

“We have to take a different door,” Jim whispered. “There’s too many.”

No there had to be a way. “I…I can surprise them. We can defeat them.” He was ready for a fight.

“Are you crazy?” Jim whispered. “It’s one against ten, even with invisibility those are long odds.”

“We can do this.” The fire of anger burned in Adelfried. He wanted to let it out to feast on these evil doers.

“Adelfried!” Jim whisper yelled. “You’re the only one who’s armed, if you go down, we’re done for. We can’t do this, it’s too big of a risk.”

“Damn you,” Adelfried said, putting his hand down and doing his best to not attack in anger. Again, Jim was right. “Which door then?”

“How about any door that isn’t crawling with those grey eyed nutjobs?” Ying snapped. “That one!”

“You’re invisible dear, we don’t know which one is that one.” Jim’s voice said, grumpily.

“Just…come on.” Her hand pulled them towards a door in a far corner with “30N31E” written above it.

Adelfried took one last look around. “I think we’re clear.”

The door crept open and Adelfried felt Ying’s hand jerk him through. Once on the other side of the threshold they were no longer invisible.

“Must be some kind of field to disable enchantments” Adelfried said, examining the door they had just come through. “I don’t understand, how could—”

“Close the damn door!” Ying barked, as she pushed past the group and slammed the door shut. “Between Mister DIY, Mister I Won’t Hit a Girl, and Mister Tears I’m surprised we made it out alive.” Ying took a big breath so as not to hit anyone. “Any guesses where we made it to?”

Adelfried looked at the sad little room they had stumbled into for any clues as to where they were. The walls were lined with large metal shelves stacked high with non-descript cardboard boxes. The only light in the room came from harsh tube lights hanging from the ceiling.

Panic had now made its way into Ying’s voice. “My purse, it was on the seat of the booth, with my phone. Jim, check your phone, maybe that will tell us where we are.”

“Crap.” Jim replied looking at his phone. “It’s asking if I want to sign up for a cellular plan for Cairo, Egypt.”