The ship zeroed in on Carlene, the Circus Master and Ashlei who clung to Carlene in fear.

The Hylexans were somewhat perplexed by the three time travellers who were unlike any other life forms in their galaxy. The commander was not sure if they should burn or abduct the strange aliens for study.

Whilst the aliens were debating on what to do, Carlene pulled several magical explosives from her beehive and hurled them at the vessel to no effect.

The ship instantly fired in retaliation, but Carlene and the Circus Master both managed to evade it thanks to their reflexes. (With Carlene carrying Ashlei to safety.)

The Circus Master drew the ships attention away from both Carlene and the fleeing crowd. He jumped to a nearby deserted building and continued to dodge the ships firey blasts, as well as its tractor beam, whilst Carlene got Ashlei a safe distance away.

"You need to get out of here." The vampire said.

"I can't leave you two against that thing!"

"You need to help the civilians Ashlei." Carlene didn't have the time to argue any further. The Circus Master could barely avoid the Hylexan's rays any longer. Carlene hurled more weapons from her beehive at the Hylexan craft, but again they made no effect on the craft. In fact the Hylexans didn't even notice.

Ashlei meanwhile ran towards the area the monsters had fired at. It was littered with the remains of burned Quilax corpses.

"Monsters" Ashlei thought to herself as she looked at the charred remains of helpless men, women and even children around her. Suddenly in the distance, through the smoke, Ashlei could see something move. It was a small child Quilax. He was burned quite severely and was crying.

"It's okay I'm here to help you." Ashlei said to the boy as she lifted him off his feet.

"My, my parents, I was separated from them."

"Don't worry we'll find them. I promise." Ashlei said.

The Hylexans meanwhile grew frustrated with the Circus Master. They had never met a target that could move so fast.

"What is this thing? Is it even real? Probably just an illusion those idiots conjured up with their third rate magics." The commander thought in anger. "How can he evade our ray? No ship can move that fast let alone a creature."

"He seems to be an illusion sir. I can't detect any life signs from him other than some traces of magic." Another Hylexan explained.

"We'll figure out what those monsters are later. They clearly can't hurt us or else he would be attacking us now. Focus the fire back on the civilians." The commander ordered.

The Hylexan vessel opened fire on the massive sea of Quilax running through the streets of the glowing city ahead. With one blast it burned hundreds of fleeing men, women and children to cinders. As the crowd, which included Ashlei carrying the boy retreated, the octopoids then fired at several buildings nearby causing them to topple over and a wave of dust to sweep the streets, choking the civilians.

Ashlei managed to take cover between two buildings, whilst the young boy tried to run out into the wave of smoke.

"My parents, they might be out there." He cried.

"I'm sorry but there's nothing we can do right now." Ashlei said as she held the hysterical child back.

The soldiers bravely kept firing at the flaming craft, but again they didn't even slow it down. Carlene jumped in front of the smoking crowd, right in front of the Hylexan craft and started to hurl more weapons at them.

"Pathetic." The Commander sneered. "Their magics even after all this time are nothing but simple tricks."

The Hylexan's fired at more buildings, blocking off all routes of escape for the fleeing crowd of civilians. The Hylexan craft then started to burn each Quilax one at a time in front of each other. Carlene screamed at them to stop, but it did no good. The monsters relished every second of the Quilaxs suffering.

Carlene continued to throw more and more weapons at the Hylexans, until she eventually saw a small parting appear in the flaming craft. The combination of the various different magics Carlene had thrown at the craft and the fact that it had been forced to sacrifice part of its core to defeat the beasts guarding the city had begun to affect the force field, albeit only slightly. The craft was not actually made of fire. Underneath was a metal ship that was simply moved and protected by the magical flames. Carlene soon grabbed a rifle off of one of the soldiers and fired at the parting. It still did not do much damage, but it alerted the Hylexans who soon turned their attention towards Carlene instead.

The ship fired its ray at Carlene who continued to dodge its attacks whilst the other soldiers continued to follow Carlene's lead and fire at the parting. Their concentrated fire at the ship’s one weak point caused a small explosion which sent the ship whirling through the air. The Hylexans fired blindly as their vessel lost control, hitting several buildings. Carlene then reached into her beehive and hurled the most dangerous magical chemical she could find at the parting creating an even bigger explosion in the ship which vaporized the entire flaming force field and blasted the ship to the other end of the city; albeit straight into several large buildings.

Carlene and the Circus Master both instantly ran through the crowd to where the ship had crashed. Ashlei meanwhile headed into the crowd to try and find the boy’s parents. The smoke had begun to clear and Ashlei and the boy searched through the mass of people for a few minutes before the boy screamed out for his mother.

Ashlei turned around to see a young female Quilax covered in burns run towards her. The boy leaped out of Ashlei's arms and ran towards his mother.

"Risia, I can't believe it, it's a miracle." She said as she tearfully embraced the boy.

"What about father?" The boy asked.

Risia's mother couldn't bring herself to tell her son, but he knew already.

"No, no please." The boy said as he broke down in his mothers arms.

"I'm sorry son. I would have done anything to save him." The woman turned to face Ashlei.

"I don't know who or what you are, or why you came here, but thank you." She said to Ashlei.

"You're welcome. I know what it’s like to lose someone before their time. I wouldn't want anyone else to go through that." Ashlei replied.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

"Oh my god" Carlene said as she saw the devastation the crashing ship had caused in the Quilax city. "I didn't mean to."

"You had no choice, Carlene. If you hadn't they would have killed all of the aliens we're here to protect." The Circus Master said somewhat coldly. For all his enthusiasm and jokes there was also a certain unnerving callousness to the vandal when it came to people caught in the crossfire.

Three buildings had been collapsed by the Hylexan craft. There weren't that many civilian's nearby, but there were a few soldiers who had been caught under pieces of rubble.

Carlene focused all of her efforts on helping them. Using her vampire strength she was able to remove the large boulders off of the soldiers. Sadly not all of the soldiers had survived. Carlene wanted to break down and cry with guilt at having caused their deaths, but she knew she had to keep her head to save the soldiers that she could now.

The Circus Master meanwhile inspected the crashed ship. It was shaped like a spear head and completely grey and smooth. There were no markings or design's on the craft whatsoever. It appeared that it was nothing more than a hollowed out lump of metal that was protected, powered, decorated and piloted entirely by magic.

Suddenly a hatch on the upper section of the ship began to open. The black Hylexan commander started to crawl out. It was bleeding from several parts of its amorphous body, whilst several of its tentacles were ripped or burned. The monster crawled pitifully from the hatch and dropped to the ground below. The Circus Master approached the dying Hylexan carefully. He slowly unsheathed his claws. The vandal couldn't tell whether the alien was alive or dead. It was nothing but a mass of black flesh and tentacles with green slime dripping out of various parts.

Suddenly one of the monster’s tentacles rose up and in a lightning flash impaled Carlene through the stomach and before she could even scream the magical abomination thrust another tentacle through the vampire’s heart. The Circus Master jumped onto the alien commander and started to slash it with his claws, but the Hylexan commander wrapped its tentacles around the Circus Master too and hoisted him into the air.

The Hylexan wanted to focus all of its remaining strength against Carlene, but she tried to fight back and pulled the octopoid towards her. Though the Hylexan was weak after the crash, it was still able to overpower Carlene by stabbing more of its tentacles into her stomach and chest. Carlene struggled to fight back, but she soon collapsed. The monster then lifted Carlene's unconscious body into the air and prepared to rip her to pieces while the Circus Master watched on completely helpless.

Suddenly however the alien dropped both the vampire and the vandal. The Circus Master looked up and saw Ashlei in the distance holding one of the Quilax's rifles. After making sure the boy was reunited with his mother; Ashlei had followed Carlene and the Circus Master.

The Hylexan attempted to impale Ashlei with one of its tentacles, but the Circus Master jumped at the tentacle and sliced it in half with his claws.

The invader then retaliated by impaling the Circus Master with another one of its tentacles. The Circus Master, knowing he wouldn't be fast enough to get by the monster, pretended to die from the Hylexan's attack and dropped to the floor. The Hylexan lifted his "corpse" into the air and impaled the Circus Master a few more times to be sure before tossing the vandal aside. It then turned its attention towards Ashlei who fired more shots at the Hylexan commander. The tentacled beast, despite screaming from the pain, nevertheless overcame her barrage of gun fire and batted the weapon from her hands and wrapped its limbs around her body. It slowly began to crush Ashlei, but fortunately while the Hylexan was distracted, the Circus Master jumped the monster from behind and stabbed his claws into its back. He tore several chunks out of the beast before one of its flailing tentacles batted him away.

The Circus Master had dealt the Hylexan a mortal wound however and within a few seconds the beast dropped to the ground and it gave one final groan of pain before its lifeless carcass collapsed into a pile of slime.

Behind the Circus Master could see a few more blue Hylexans attempting to crawl out of the vessel. Unlike their commander however they were clearly too weak to even defend themselves.

Several Quilax civillians and soldiers soon arrived in the area. They all descended on the few surviving, wounded Hylexans who they tore to pieces with their bare hands.The Circus Master watched the bloody display from the side, whilst Ashlei tried to rouse Carlene.

"What the hell is that thing?" The lead Quilax engineer said about Denika, as she flew into the room accompanied by several soldiers.

"That thing is going to do your job for you and get this city in the air." Denika snapped back as she landed in front of a large red/blue sphere at the centre of the room, in reality the core of the magical city that the engineers worked to maintain every day.

The engineers were all shocked at the sight of this strange alien, but the soldiers who accompanied Denika quickly explained the situation to them.

"It's no surprise this city couldn't get off the ground."Denika said as she inspected the core. "Don't get me wrong for a species that only just learned magic it's not bad, but there really isn't enough magic left on the planet to power it. Until now." She said as hovered back into the air. Denika then started to fly around in circles creating green waves behind her.

"What are you doing?" One of the engineers asked.

"Even I don't have enough magic to power something this big," Denika said. "So I'm drawing power from my time ship. In there I've stashed a massive supply of magic, gathered from all over the universe. I use it to create new weapons and spells. I'm using up most of my supply for this I hope you know. After we're done here I'll have to start building my magic collection again." Denika said as she flew faster and faster.

A few minutes later, the sphere started to glow green instead and the whole city began to shake.

"It worked!" She said. "Though hold on, it's not going to be smooth flying."

The city began to tremble so hard that the engineers were thrown off their feet. Above buildings began to shake and in some cases even crumble. The introduction of Denika's foreign magic began to upset the entire structure of the city, with several of the buildings beginning to constantly change shape in a matter of seconds and in some instances vanish completely. Carlene, Ashlei and The Circus Master tried to get the civilians and the wounded soldiers to safety, but they were barely able to keep on their feet, the ground shook so badly. Still Carlene was able to push a small family away from a large piece of rubble that fell from a nearby building, though in doing so she was buried under it. The Circus Master rushed to try and help her, but the magical rubble soon vanished in a puff of green smoke.

The civilians and the soldiers from the outer parts of the city began to rush to the centre as the outer sections of the city began to break off. Not all of them made it, but when they fell they were caught in the force field which surrounded the city.

Within a matter of minutes the City was able to break its way from under the ground and fly several hundred feet in the air. Carlene, the Circus Master, Ashlei and several soldiers ran to the outer edges of the city to see if they could help any of the civilians who had been caught in the rubble.

Below they could see the barren, dead surface of the Quilax's once prosperous home planet. "I can't believe it." Said the female civilian who had agreed to let Denika see the engine of the city in the first place.

"It doesn't even resemble the world I grew up in. Even in our darkest days we never reduced a planet to that hell hole below."

"Magic is the strongest force in the universe." The Circus Master replied. "Sadly like all resources it can be used for great things or abused."

Suddenly they were alerted by the sounds of several screams below. Through the bits of floating rubble the Circus Master and Carlene could see several Quilax floating around in the force field around the city, completely helpless. Carlene and the Circus Master both jumped down onto a piece of floating rubble and reached out to pull the civilians closer to them. Carlene managed to grab a young woman and her daughter, whilst the Circus Master rescued a young couple. The vampire and the vandal both jumped back up to the edge of the city with the civilians in tow.

As they prepared to jump back down and rescue more civilians Denika suddenly flew overhead and levitated the few remaining civilians below to safety.

"It's my mess, I should clear it up after all." Denika said.

"You did it Denika." Carlene replied.

"I'm afraid it's not as simple as that. I had to draw energy from our ship. We're being drawn towards it." Denika explained

"Well what's the problem?" Ashlei asked?

"If our time vessel has fallen into the hands of our enemies. Then we'll be dragged to them."

"Look," one of the civilians shouted. In the distance there was a Hylexan craft being attacked by several Lystergias. Behind however there was what looked like an entire fleet of Hylexan war ships, who had been summoned by the others distress,

"We have to get out of here" The Circus Master said.

"I'm afraid we can't. It’s as I feared. One of those ships clearly has our vessel. We're heading their way." Denika said.

To Be Continued