Blake descended the basement stairs, alone.

He had sent Montgomery and Jeff to the walls while they waited for their classes. They had initially protested the order, until he gave them the confiscated rifles. After that, they readily agreed.

Meanwhile, his brother went to his alchemy workshop, while his mother headed upstairs to her office to watch the news.

He paused for a moment at the bottom of the dimly lit stairs. His footsteps echoed across the stone-floored hallway as he approached the jail cell which contained his prisoners. They stiffened on their rustic cots when they noticed his presence, their hands still tied behind their backs.

“Time to talk to your Commander,” Blake informed them as he confidently opened the cell door.

He approached the assumed team leader, and reached for the man’s headset. Just as his fingers fell on the electronic device, the team of four silently moved. The man before him attempted to tackle him to the ground, while the others rushed in with knives.

Where did they get those?

“Stop that,” Blake calmly said and stood his ground. The leader’s arms wrapped around him, and he grunted as he strained against Blake’s immovable form, while the others moved to assist him. “You’re going to hurt yourselves.”

They ignored him.

Okay, they need to see just how pointless this is.

When the leader adjusted his stance to gain leverage, Blake reached to the officer on his right, grabbed his body armor, and lifted him one-handed into the air. The man flailed his feet and whipped his body around in an attempt to dislodge himself, yet Blake easily held him aloft.

Once the others saw they could not contain him, they switched tactics. The policeman on his left thrust his knife forward into Blake’s tunic. When it bounced off, he warned the others, “He’s wearing body armor, go for open skin.”

That was when the last man came for him from behind. The sneaky SWAT member suddenly held a dagger to his neck and growled, “Put him down and surrender, or I’ll slit your throat.”

Blake snorted. “Go ahead and try.”

“I’m serious.”

“So am I,” Blake assured him. “You couldn’t hurt me, even if I were sleeping.”

The knife wielding SWAT member attempted to put greater pressure on his neck. After the sharp knife failed to bite into Blake’s skin, he said, “What the hell?”

“I told you, you can’t hurt me.”

The man used his full strength, yet still could not scratch his skin. “It’s not working!” he barked.

“Plan B!” The leader ordered, while he continued to try and move him.

Blake watched in amusement as the knife-wielding SWAT member on his left rushed out of the jail cell, slammed the door behind him, and ran for the stairs.

“Now you’re stuck in here with us!” the team leader crowed to Blake. He then spoke into his headset, “Target is contained, I repeat target is contained.”

A moment later, he received a message from his friend.

Montgomery Brown: Hey, Blake! Another SWAT team is moving for the walls. They have ladders.

Okay, enough of this.

Blake activated his Charged Guided Spatial Step and appeared outside the cell behind the fleeing man. He then snatched the policeman from behind and used his last charge to teleport both of them inside the cell.

When he suddenly appeared before the group, they stepped back in unison. Blake released his errant prisoner and watched as the frightened team backpedaled further until their backs hit the wall.

“What the hell are you?” the leader asked, eyes wide.

“That’s what I’m here to talk about,” Blake replied. He then pointed to the bed. “Now, sit down on the cot so we can have a nice conversation with you and your Commander.”

Once they complied, he retrieved the leader’s headset and placed it over his ears and looked into the body cam on the leader’s helmet. “Commander Niles, call off your men. Now!”

“Mister Summers, this is Agent Harris of the FBI,” said a soothing, female voice. “I’m here to assist you with whatever you need so we can resolve this peacefully.”

Damnit.

Blake knew they would eventually escalate and recruit more people, but he hoped to have more time before they did so.

“Okay, Agent Harris, if you want to resolve this peacefully, call off the other team before someone gets hurt.”

“Of course, Mister Summers,” the negotiator replied calmly. “Sorry about that. Tensions are high, as you can imagine.”

Montgomery Brown: They’re backing off now. But, they left the ladders leaning against the wall.

“Agent Harris, tell them to take their ladders with them.”

“Of course, Mister Summers,” she agreed. “Do you mind if I call you Blake?”

“I don’t care what you call me,” he replied. “Just make sure they don’t try anything again.”

“I’ll make sure that happens, Blake,” she assured him. “In the meantime, what is your end goal here? How do you see this being resolved?”

A moment later, Montgomery confirmed their compliance, and Blake responded. “Ideally, you don’t try anything else, and I let all four hostages go in a couple of days.”

“Why a couple of days, Blake? Why not just let them go now?”

“If I did that, you wouldn’t sit there and listen to me, would you?” Blake countered. “You’d send in more people, and I’d be forced to deal with them.” He saw no reason to inform them of the Shield Generator. Instead, he decided to focus on convincing them of the truth.

“I’m listening to you now, Blake. What would you like to say?”

Blake took a deep breath and glanced at the uneasy men in the cell with him. “In two weeks, an alien technology will disable all electricity on the planet. It will open up portals everywhere, and send creatures through to kill people. Billions of people will die.”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Blake paused to gauge her reaction. If it was anything like the four SWAT team members before him, she no doubt thought he was insane. Their eyebrows rose in incredulity as they exchanged glances.

“Okay, Blake. I must admit, this is not where I saw this conversation going,” she said, voice laced with concern.

He laughed. “I bet you didn’t. I bet you also think I’m crazy now, right?”

“It does seem far-fetched,” she agreed. “Do you have any proof of this claim?”

“You mean, besides the footage from the helicopter? The body cam footage of me teleporting around, or the fact that your guys here couldn’t slit my throat, no matter how hard they tried?”

“We’re still reviewing the video footage to determine what happened,” she informed him. “But, Blake, even if these things were possible, how would you know of an upcoming ‘alien invasion’? Are you in contact with these ‘aliens’? Did they tell you to do this?”

I don’t think telling them I’m a time traveler is going to go over well.

Blake snorted and shook his head. “Okay, this clearly isn’t going to work. If you won’t even believe your own eyes, I’m not going to bother trying to convince you.”

“Blake, please don’t do anything rash,” she urged. “Consider me ready to be convinced.”

“Actually, I do have a demand.”

“Yes?”

“I’d like to do an interview with Jennifer Taylor. I want her to post it online, so millions will see it.”

“Are you referring to the social media influencer?” she asked. “Host of ‘The Taylor Report’?”

“That’s the one,” he nodded.

“That may be difficult to arrange,” Agent Harris informed him. “I can’t guarantee she’ll be willing to talk to you, and it may be some time before we can get a hold of her. But, as long as she agrees, I think a phone interview is possible.”

“Not over the phone,” he corrected her. “Live, in person, with video cameras.”

“Blake.” Agent Harris’ voice sounded pained. “I’m sorry, but I can’t allow you more hostages.”

“That’s fine. Get Jennifer here with a cameraman, and I’ll surrender. I’ll release all hostages and do the interview in handcuffs while under guard. How does that sound?”

Come on, bite.

He knew they would never let him do an interview. Especially if he released hostages and ‘turned himself in’. However, they may pretend to go along with his demands. If they did, by the time they flew her into Show Low and staged her outside the walls, the shield would be up. Then, he could kidnap her if necessary and force an interview.

Does it count as kidnapping if I return her immediately after the interview?

“We will see what we can do, Blake. In the meantime, can you tell me more about this ‘alien invasion’? It sounds interesting. I would love to know more.”

Blake rolled his eyes. “Nope. I’m not going to say another word to you until I see Jennifer with my own eyes outside the gate. Why waste both of our time?” Before she could respond, he ripped the headset off and tossed it to the SWAT leader. He then teleported outside the cell and strode up the stairs.

“Mister Summers!” he heard the leader shout. “Come back, Agent Harris needs to talk to you!”

Blake ignored him and continued to climb. There was no point in continuing the conversation. All he needed was for the police to leave them alone for a day and a half. Then, there would be nothing they could do.

If they actually contacted the podcaster and brought her to him, that would be great. Not just as a stall tactic, either. He would do the live interview and hope people believed him. However, Blake felt the chances of that happening were small. More likely, they would pretend to comply while they planned their next assault.

Even if they do ask her, she’ll probably say no. Who in their right mind would willingly go into a hostage situation? Although, Oliver did say she likes attention. Maybe she’ll do it for the clout?

He continued to climb the stairs until he reached the third floor and entered his mother’s office. She was behind her desk on her laptop.

“How did it go?” she asked.

Blake shrugged. “About what I expected. They won’t believe me, even with video proof. At this point, I’m just stalling until we can get the shield up.”

“What about this podcaster? Did you ask them to talk to her?”

Blake snorted. “Yeah, but that’s not going to happen.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure of that. We made national news.” Donna rotated her laptop so they could both see and unmuted the audio.

On the screen was a live video, recorded on the road outside the front gate behind police lines. A reporter talked into a microphone while a chyron beneath him stated, ‘Domestic terrorists hold SWAT team hostage’.

“... standoff continues. So far, there has been no word from the FBI on any demand.” The camera zoomed out until the corrupt sheriff was in the frame. “Sheriff Slater, you have intimate knowledge of the terrorist and his group. What’s his motive? Can you enlighten us?”

The overweight man nodded gravely. “I sure do. Blake Summers is a psychopath who comes from a family of criminals. He and his family killed five law enforcement officers in cold blood. Now he holds four members of SWAT hostage. He…”

Donna muted the audio. “Okay, probably not,” she admitted.

“Yeah, not with that asshole on the air,” Blake agreed. He ran his fingers through his long, messy hair. “How long would it take you to post a video online along with the primer? I want to get the word out somehow, and clearly it’s not going to be through a podcast.”

“Well, the document is easy, it’s digital, so I can just copy and paste. The video will take a bit longer, but once we record and upload it to Selftube, we can just email the links to a bunch of news channels and post it on Tweeter. Somebody is bound to see.”

Blake nodded. He opened his mouth to ask another question, when he suddenly received a message.

Montgomery Brown: Got my class! I can totally throw fireballs!

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Great! Now we just need to figure out how to get you, Jeff, and Kuruk out of here.

Montgomery Brown: Got you covered, fam. I took Fade for my aether spell. They’ll never see us leave.

Blake winced.

Well, better than nothing.

While the spell would indeed make them harder to see, they would still be visible. It was more akin to camouflage than invisibility, and was generally only useful if the enemy were not alert. Blake would need to get rid of the drones for them to have a chance

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: That might work, but we have to get rid of the drones first.

Montgomery Brown: You want me and Jeff to shoot them?

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: No, I don’t want them focused on you two. Go grab your gear and get Kuruk, I’ll take care of them. Just be ready to leave when I give the word.

Montgomery Brown: Uh… How do we get outside the walls? They’re twenty feet high.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Easy, you use the secret back entrance.

Montgomery Brown: Since when do we have a back entrance?

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Since the wall went up. The entrance is inside the quarry. I had Owen make it. Just ask him, he can tell you where it is.

Montgomery Brown: Why didn’t you tell me about it?

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Because it’s supposed to be a secret. If I told everyone, it wouldn’t be, now would it?

Montgomery Brown: That hurts.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: You’ll get over it. I didn’t tell Rajesh, either. Just be ready. I’m heading outside now.

He informed his mother of the plan and then slipped outside. Blake travelled along the gravel road to the front gate, and then climbed the stairs to the battlement. He retrieved his bow, pulled an arrow from his quiver, and scanned the skies.

Blake spotted at least five drones above the town. They hovered a hundred feet in the air, and were spread equidistant to give them full video footage.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Are you guys ready?

Jeffrey Miller: Yes.

Montgomery Brown: This is so badass! This tunnel is like fifty feet long. The trap door is pretty sweet, too.

Blake ignored his friend’s remark. Instead, he fed chi into his ammo, pulled back the string, and aimed at the closest drone. Initially, the drones patrolled at greater height and remained mobile to present a more difficult target. However, after two hours passed and no drones were fired upon, they descended and remained stationary.

Doubt you expect to get taken down by a bow.

Blake released his arrow and watched in satisfaction as it tore through the lightweight aircraft. Unfortunately, there was no explosion as the projectile pierced through too quickly. However, the drone was brought down all the same. Its rotors faltered, and it listed to the side, while the other drones immediately rose higher.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Now.

Blake retrieved another arrow from his quiver and fired again. This time, with the drone’s constant movement, he missed. Regardless, he raced along the battlement and continued to fire at the moving objects until his quiver emptied.

When he was out of ammo, he contacted his friends.

Lord Blake Summers, Scion of Humanity: Did you guys get out? Are any drones after you?

Montgomery Brown: Of course we got out! I told you this would work! They never had a chance.

Blake let out a sigh of relief.

Now that his friends were free, he just needed to stall the police until they completed a level one scenario. With any luck, they would be finished in a few hours, and progress on the shield generator could resume.