Who leaves a quokka in a cage on a flatbed truck in downtown Los Angeles?

I mean its downright cruel to leave the poor animal there, never mind the fact that a truck had no right to be parked between the Tesla and the Nissan Leaf. The poor creature, something like a tiny kangaroo from an isolated island off Australia, forlornly held the bars of its cage.

'Oy Tenzing mate, here I am spilling my woes out, and you're off with the fairies.' Mason said.

I swirled my pint of beer and looked back to Mason, my oldest friend. He was a colourful sort but always had your back. His normally crisp blue suit and slicked back hair were both in disarray, his strong black beard still held well. A mix of Indian and British heritage showed in his complexion, but the strongest he clue he wasn't American was his drinking accent.

It was strong to say the least.

'What did you do?' I asked.

Mason's face looked aghast. 'You think I did something. I got too good for them, outgrew them. Left on harmonious terms. After all I'm the king of spin. No one fires the king of spin. I'm the bloody best news producer there is on the telly, not fancy pants esquire von Vanderbelt over there.' Mason gestured at the TV in the sports bar, where a handsome white man with perfect blonde hair and a chiselled jaw was holding off on an announcement. The 'announcement pending' sign had been up on the TV for most of the day, whenever I'd checked in.

'And you have no idea what this big announcement is?' I asked.

Mason snorted. 'Nah, they wouldn't even tell me. I did some snooping though, and you know how Cindy from makeup loves me.'

'You dated her sister. Twice.' I replied.

'Yeah, well she says some bigwig from NASA was getting made up next to the Secretary of Defence. That's gotta mean space invaders right?' He said.

'Well that or world ending asteroid.' I nodded.

Mason blanched, 'You really think?'

My straight face broke down into a chuckle. 'Nah, world ending Asteroid, they'd have already called up Bruce Willis.'

I drained the last of my beer and caught my reflection in the bottom. A mix of Nepalese and caucasian features stared back at me reminiscent of my two famous ancestors. A strong jaw, with a few dents in it. An old scar on my left cheek from a rescue mission gone wrong. My calloused hands gripped the beer and contemplated another. I had training at 6am sharp tomorrow, search and rescue doesn't take no for an answer.

I pulled out a photo from my well travelled jacket. Everest Base Camp with a younger me and a blonde haired female hanging off my arm. I sighed, flipping it over and reading the lines again. 'We climb it because it is there.'

Mason clapped me on the shoulder. 'Oy mate, you need to get back on that horse ay? You've been in a funk. How many years you been prepping for it?'

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I grunted. 'Not a good time, work needs me.'

'Work will always need you, until they don't.' Mason responded.

'I'm okay Mason, I'm happy just getting by.' I replied, my eyes tracking back outside to the quokka trapped in the cage on the ute. The LA heat was sweltering.

Mason's jaw set. 'You know what? Frak Jackson Vanderbelt the third. You and me are gonna be heroes.'

'What?'

Mason's beer collided into the screen. 'Frak you Jackson and your movie star hair transplant.' He chucked me his phone. 'Come on, I've had enough of schmoozing knobheads and kissing butt. I'm gonna go be a hero, you film me.'

Mason rushed out of the bar to the parked truck. I grabbed my coat and rushed after him, throwing my card at Terry the barman. 'Mason, wait, what are you doing?'

Mason stood in front of the quokka's cage trying to pick the lock with a paperclip. 'Quokka's are charismatic as balls mate, they have whole instagram channels devoted to em. Happiest little buggers there are.' Mason said, his British accent bleeding through the more he drank and the more emotional he got. He sounded completely different on TV or the 'telly' as he would call it in his current state. 'You should be filming.'

'I'm not filming a crime!' I hissed back, looking around.

Mason cursed as the paperclip bent. The quokka looked up in hope at them, its adorably chubby cheek spread in a hopeful grin.

'Its not a crime, I'm pretty sure leaving an animal in a parked car is a crime. Or is that kids?' Mason said.

'Mason!'

'You know what doesn't matter, both are bad.' Mason responded.

I shoved him out of the way. 'If you're going to do it, be efficient.' I said, glancing left and right again before pulling out my tools. I quickly popped the lock, my hands moving in practice motions.

'How'd you do that?' Mason asked.

'We have to be able to get people out of crashed cars and all sorts.' I replied. 'Its actually...stop filming me!'

Mason paused, 'Can't help it, I'm the king of spin.'

'Mason, you need to learn when to stop...'

A thunderous crack shattered the glass windows of every store on the street. The earth shook and I felt a wave of power rush through me, like I'd grabbed a live wire.

Giant metal spaceships descended from the sky. Honest to goodness spaceships, some like flying saucers and some more like zeppelins with hyperdrives attahed. They crackled with ethereal light. Metallic tendrils broke through the clouds, glowing with more ghostly white light. Interlocking metal segments rotated around columns that slammed into the city around me.

The ground shook again and the quokka leapt from its cage, scampering off into the distance.

A bright blue screen filled my vision.

'Attention people of Earth, your planet will explode in one year. If you wish to escape the impending cataclysm, there is a space ship in orbit. A ship that can only be reached, by climbing.'

'You what mate?' Mason said, pulling me from my screen view.

Reeling, struggling to understand what was happening I stared at monstrous metallic tendrils of some beast from the stars and saw them for what they were. Towers, escape chutes the size of a cities.

The ground around him cracked and noxious fumes spewed up. Then things started climbing out of the cracks in the ground, things with claws and teeth. Dark things that slunk on all fours and huge beasts that beat their iron like chests.

'Come on.' I grabbed Mason. 'One step at a time.'

Dragging Mason away from the monsters rising all around them, I subconsciously found myself drawn to the nearest metallic tower. Only a few blocks away, it rose in my vision, an almost inviting white light forming a gate at its base.

Behind him monsters screamed fury into the air. Then people screamed back. Mason looked at me and nodded. 'Can't be worse than what's behind us.'

I stared into the light of the tower, touched the photo in my pocket and took the first step.

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/1056728480768868442/1122297112416235701/cjtimms_spaceships_sending_metal_tentacles_into_planet_earth_da98987b-6640-42f5-98a2-37af2ea7162e.png]