by A M Lopez
Allison yelled. “What’s happening?”
Eva grabbed onto Connor’s arm for balance. “An earthquake?”
Arthur had taken to jumping onto Dimitri’s back, piggyback style. “If this was an earthquake, then we would have felt the tremors before hand!”
Connor widened his stance, trying to keep upright. “Then what is it?”
Aaron was having the least trouble standing. “Above us!”
Everyone followed Aaron’s pointed finger to a blue streak above their heads. Suddenly, the streak stopped above them and in its place was a man. Gasps replaced the team’s confused shouts when they saw the figure, Richard. He slowly started to close his fists and the trembling got worse, cracks beginning to appear in the ground. His strong features began to settle into a menacing glare, green eyes glowing brightly and black hair flowing wildly around. Purple light shined from the cracks, which were steadily making their way to the team.
Suddenly, Richard’s voice sounded from around all of them, loud as thunder. “I’ve been escaping your grasp for two years, and you think I would make such a simple mistake now? You are all dumber than I thought!”
Richard’s head turned toward his son with a sharp glare. “Join my side and you will live! I will stop at nothing to get where I need to. Be by my side when I take over the dimensions!”
The air began to get thinner, making it harder for Eva to breathe. The others were trying to stay standing, the pressure building up on the planet.
Connor glared at his father, struggling to hold himself up. “Never in a million years! I’d rather die than join you!”
Richard sighed, completely fine with his answer. “Suit yourself.”
He closed his fists completely and as he did the ground began to fall into pieces around the team. They tried to make a run for the nearest hill to climb and reach him, but he was too far away. Suddenly, the ground around them crumbled. They each grabbed for the rocks around them, as they began floating upwards. Eva grabbed her gun from the side of her belt, and pointed it towards the floating man. The rock underneath her shifted, and she lost her balance. Catching a glimpse of Richard, Eva saw him raising his arms above his head.
Suddenly, Arthur let out a yell. Eva’s head snapped to his body which had begun floating upwards.
Dimitri screamed. “Arthur!”
He let go of the rock he was holding onto and flew higher into the air. He grabbed Arthur’s hand, but they had raised higher than any of the rocks and without anything else to hold onto they continued their ascent. Next to Eva, Connor released his hold on their rock and followed them, grabbing the highest rock and reaching for the twins. He was able to grab Dimitri’s ankle, stopping the twins abruptly. Arthur cried out when his sore arm was pulled.
The blue light around Richard began to spread out. “From now on, no more games!”
The light reached the boys first since they were higher in the sky and wrapped around their throats. When the light finally reached the girls, the three boys were already unconscious. Eva watched as the boys began floating upwards toward Richard, who was about to move his arms down when he got shot out of nowhere. Everything that was raising higher stilled, floating in place. Turning her head what little she could, a huge ship began to shoot Richard down. He snapped back to his original position in the sky and dodged most of Dawn’s attacks.
The few attacks that got in caused him to lose his concentration and the light around the team’s throats disappeared. The girls gasped for breath, their windpipes wide open. Richard began shooting back at Dawn, blue lightning flying across the sky like spiderwebs being woven in a small period of time. Dawn was quick to move out of the lightning’s path, but her massive size made it difficult to maneuver. Finally, a streak of blue lightning hit Dawn in the side and her attacks stopped temporarily. Now unoccupied, Richard glanced at the team and raised his arms once more before slamming them back to his sides. Suddenly, the team was free falling.
"Connor, no!" Eva cried out, reaching to Connor, who was losing height fast.
"See if you'll change your mind now, Astrolabe." Ats his last words, Richard shot bright blue light out of himself and disappeared.
The ground around them split completely into pieces of land. It was as if the planet had no core. The pieces separated as the purple sky turned into a purple galaxy.
"Eva! Turn on your boosters!" Aaron yelled from far behind her.
Eva stomped twice on the land she was on and boosters came from inside her boots, allowing her to fly towards Connor. She zoomed towards him, maneuvering away from the pieces of land. The boosters were designed to only work for a small while before deactivating, and Eva flew desperately towards him. Before Sshe could get to him, his head hit the ground and he tumbled onto it.
"No!" She cried out, seeing his head bump on the purple floating ground.
As his head was thrown backwards, his eyes rolled and he slumped on his side. Eva could feel her boosters failing so, she quickly grabbed Connor by the waist and flew towards Dawn.
"No, no, no!" Eva yelled as the power from her boots began to fail.
A yellow light began to shine from the bottom of the ship, just as her boots deactivated. Eva gripped Connor and hugged him, quickly shutting her eyes shut. His unconscious body began to float in the air.
"What is this?" Eva questioned, her body also beginning to float towards Dawn.
"It's a Tractor Beam baby! Thank you, Dawn!" Allison chirped while floating next to her, Aaron coming up her other sides. The girls were carrying the boys towards the ship, their boots reactivating when they got in its range.
"Dawn! Open up the bottom!" As Eva flew towards the vessel, Dawn opened the circular entrance at the bottom of the ship. The door whirred open, and Eva burst into the ship. The familiar hallway greeted her, and her boosters finally failed just as she landed.
"Robotic first aid kits in the elevator!" Eva rushed towards the open elevator on the rightP side of the hallway, and dragged Connor into it.
"Connor, please wake up." She held his face in her hands and examined him. He was still breathing but barely doing so. Blood covered his black hair, and dripped down his face.
The miniature robots exited their place in the elevator and scanned his body, automatically cleaned him, and sprayed antibiotics.
Allison and Aaron also entered the elevator moments after and up they went to Dimitri's room. The boys remained unconscious, their heads tilting to the side as the girls dragged them onto the beds, the robots still taking care of them.
"I should've seen this coming, why didn't I see this coming?" Aaron muttered under her breath while pacing, giving quick glances to the boys. She headed over to Allison and Eva who were seated on the other two beds, letting the robots do their jobs.
"Are you two okay?" Aaron scrutinized them.
Eva let her face fall onto her hands. "Yes, but are the boys?"
Screens turned on to the right of each bed, showing the vitals. Aaron read each one out loud.
"Dimitri and Arthur will be okay, they are just knocked out. Connor is the most hurt, he lost a lot of blood."
"I don't get it, what would cause a father to hurt his own son just because of whatever?" Eva groaned.
"I don't know, but it's not normal." Aaron responded, laying a hand on Arthur's head. Unconsciously, he flinched.
The team was halved in a single blow. What would've happened if there were twice the attacks? Eva didn't want to find out.
Chapter Nine
Aaron sighed. “Alright, we need to figure out our situation immediately.”
Eva’s head tilted to the left. “How do we do that?”
Allison stood up. “I need to check on Dawn. I’m not sure if you guys saw, but she took a hit from Richard’s lightning.”
Aaron shifted her weight from one foot to the other, catching Eva’s attention. She watched as Aaron scanned the room. Her eyes stopped on the three boys before continuing their path. Finally, she was looking back at Eva and
Allison, who had fallen silent. Aaron’s brows were scrunched together before she sighed once more.
“Allison, go check on Dawn and find out what damage she sustained, then report back to me. I need to be in the control room, so Eva you need to stay here and watch over the boys.”
Eva tensed before hopping off the bed. “What? I can’t do that. I don’t know enough about the medical field, so maybe you can— ”
“You know even less about piloting this ship. I know it will be hard, but you can do it.”
Eva groaned, giving in. Aaron had been using her calming voice for a reason.
“Fine. Just hurry back.”
Allison smiled. “Don’t worry, Eva. We will.”
Aaron nodded at Eva, a grateful look on her face. The two briskly walked out, leaving Eva with the three unconscious boys. She turned toward them and sighed, looking at the robotic first aid kits. The robots had finally stopped attending to the boys, so she figured they were as okay as they could be without a medic. The thought moved her to look at Dimitri, who had spread himself out across the bed unconsciously. This was the opposite of Arthur, who had curled in on himself. Connor was pale and Eva felt a spike of fear run though her. She had no way of proving that he was alright or if he needed anything until he woke up.
After a solid ten minutes, beeping came from her watch and drew Eva out of her thoughts before they could turn even more sinister. Bringing her wrist up, she flicked it to activate the watch. Two holograms appeared from it, Allison and Aaron. Eva would have been relieved if it had not been for the stressed look on Allison’s face.
Apparently, she wasn’t the only one to notice. “Allison, what’s wrong?”
Allison’s hologram sighed. “Dawn is too damaged to make it back to Triangulum. I need to do some repairs, but most of them need to be done from the outside of Dawn. We will need to land somewhere.”
Aaron’s hologram pinched the bridge of its nose before looking at something Eva couldn’t see, its eyes widening. “I see a place to land, but you guys might not believe what it is.”
Eva raised a brow. “What do you mean?”
Aaron’s hologram gently shook their head. “The library and some of its surrounding land is still intact. I think there is enough room to land Dawn.”
Allison froze, which left Eva to speak up. “I don’t know if going to the library is a smart choice, especially since that is where Richard’s spike was coming from. Is there anywhere else we can land?”
Aaron scanned what was in front of her. “Not anything I can see. I don’t think we have a choice.”
Allison sighed. “Well, let’s do this.”
"Alright, let's move out." Aaron and Allison disappeared and Eva's attention was brought back to the boys. They looked peaceful and relaxed. The robotic first aid kit had cleaned their wounds and done some other things, but Eva had to patch them up. Shuffling her feet, she walked over to the cabinet and took out some bandages, preparing them for application. She first walked over to Connor and carefully lifted up his head, placing it on a bandage. His eyes tightened as she worked quickly, not wanting to hurt him. Sitting down on the chair at his side, she held his hand.
"It's funny how this keeps happening to us." She smiled softly. "You remember our first mission? We were all still getting used to each other, and kept tripping over our feet."
She moved his hair out of his face, the movement a tender whisper of intimacy. "We all fell on top of each other, as if it were some game of Twister and even though it wasn't anything serious, you still made an effort not to get me hurt." Eva shook her head. "Why do you do that? You go through so much effort to make sure I'm okay and many times I don't deserve it." She looked down at him, his wounds causing her heartache. "I'm so affected by the past, I can't assume anything. I'm always afraid you all will be ripped out of my hands." She glared at him. "Idiot. Why do you have to be so righteous?"
His hand squeezed her's, but he didn't awaken.
"Figures. Even though you're unconscious, you’re still annoyingly caring." After a while of silence, she stood and went over to Dimitri, his wounds and white hair giving him years on the clock.
"Alrighty, what would you have me do?" She looked down. Eva could picture him saying, "Imbecile. Remember the basics."
"I know, I know." She went to slide the bandages over his arms, but as quickly as lightning strikes, he grabbed her by the throat. An unearthly sound came from him.
"Where is my brother!"
Eva widened her eyes and struggled underneath his hand. It was as if recognition had not dawned upon him. After not responding to him, he reached behind him and grabbed a scalpel. Slowly bringing it upon her throat he said, "Where. Is. Arthur?"
Eva tapped the hand holding her throat while trying to pull in air. Dimitri’s hold on the scalpel got tighter, but he loosened his grip on her neck. She took in the lungful’s of air he had denied her seconds ago, regaining her breath quickly. Despite how quickly she recovered, Dimitri pressed the scalpel closer to her neck, glaring.
“Where. Is. He?”
Looking at Dimitri, Eva realized his eyes looked glazed over, as if he wasn’t all there. Realizing the situation, she knew she had to tread carefully.
“You and Arthur got hurt when—”
Dimitri cut off her air supply. “I asked where he was.”
His hand loosened, allowing Eva to speak. “He is in your room, which is also the medbay.”
Dimitri pressed the scalpel against her throat until a line of blood appeared, Eva winced.
“Stop lying. My room is the cell, not the infirmary. Where is Arthur?”
Unable to speak without cutting herself on the scalpel, she looked into Dimitri’s eyes before moving her eyes to stare at Arthur, who was behind him. Dimitri followed her eyesight to his twin and froze before jumping out of the bed. Eva took a deep breath settling into a chair, eyes never leaving Dimitri.
“The team was attacked by Richard, remember? Arthur lost his grip and you didn’t hesitate to go after him. Richard took you guys out at one point so Allison, Aaron, and I brought you back to the ship, to Dawn. He is okay.”
Eva watched as Dimitri processed her words, his brow furrowing. Suddenly, his eyes widened and he snapped his head toward her, scalpel falling from his hand. He scanned her quickly, his sight lingering on her neck. He watched as she slowly stood up, lifting her hands in surrender.
“Are you okay?”
The softness of his voice surprised Eva, especially after hearing it filled with aggression and anger. She looked him over warily, body tense. The more she looked at Dimitri, the more she calmed.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Are you?”
Dimitri’s following wince was answer enough. He dropped his arms and hung his head when Eva had fully relaxed. His body was tense, and his hand would occasionally twitch.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay, but that didn’t answer my question. Are you okay? I don’t think I have ever seen trauma that bad before.”
Dimitri sighed, dragging a hand down his face and slumping his shoulders down. “I got it from when Arthur and I were kidnapped. I haven’t been able to overcome it completely. I still get nightmares and, rarely, flashbacks. During those, the only person I recognize is Arthur.”
Eva tilted her head. “You recognized me pretty quickly.”
Dimitri shook his head. “I was able to come out of the flashback and recognize you, during I had no idea who you were. That is a big difference.” Dimitri sighed, wringing his hands. “After being around Arthur for years, learning information helps calm me down and keep a level head. When you explained what happened, I picked up on the information, processed it, and realized where I was.”
Eva smiled. “So even unconscious, Arthur is there for you.”
Dimitri grinned, looking at his twin. “He has that affect, yeah.”
Suddenly, Aaron’s voice came on the intercom. “We are about to land. Everyone meet up in the medbay.”
Dimit
ri tilted his head and began to look around for materials. “Land? Land where?”
Eva sighed. “The planet we were on is destroyed and Dawn took a hit during her fight with Richard. We need to land for repairs, so we are setting down on the only piece of rock we think can fit Dawn, the one holding the library.”
“That is not good.”
Eva rubbed her arm. “Nope.”
~
After Dawn landed on the dangerously safe area, Eva watched as Dimitri worked on Arthur and Connor. The two were anxiously waiting for Allison and Aaron to join them.
“Great! You’re awake!” Allison chirped, opening the door to the room and walking in alongside somber Aaron.
“Yeah.” Dimitri’s blue eyes glanced to Eva’s, his broad shoulders slumping. “I am.”
“Good, because I need to get going and inspect the source of the spike.” Aaron said, already walking over to the counter. “While Allison works on the ship, and you help Connor and Arthur, Eva and I will check out the situation.”
Dimitri furrowed his brows, his face slumping into disapproval. “That’s dangerous, why don’t we wait until the whole team is assembled?”
Aaron shook her head, taking off her backpack and putting in robotic first aid kits. “The dimension will soon crumble, and I don’t know how long it will take for everyone to be up and running.”
Dimitri went to talk, but quickly shut his mouth and turned around to work on Connor, shaking his head.
“Alright, let’s get going Eva.”
Eva got up from her chair, and grabbed her backpack. With a final glance at Dimitri, who still had his back turned, they walked out of the room. Aaron and Eva settled in front of the opening.
"Dawn, what's the situation out there? Can we go in without helmets?" Aaron asked, opening the closet near the door.