Kirian turned to see that Ari had fallen on her back. Her whole body was trembling, like she was having a seizure. Her mouth was not foaming. Was that a good sign? Kirian didn’t know, she had never in that kind of position before.
She dove on the floor next to her. “Ari! Ari! Are you okay? Talk to me!” She felt for a pulse. She really couldn’t tell though. If a pulse was there, it was so light as to barely be felt. The ring. It did this to her. She grabbed Ari’s hand and pulled on the ring. Not only did the ring not come off, it gave Kirian a jolt of electricity strong enough to make her teeth hurt.
“Okay,” Kirian said, pacing. “That takes me back. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten buzzed with that much juice. Dislike.”
She tried to think of her options, but there was only one. She ran to Ari’s apartment phone and called the Regal front desk. “This is Kirian, tell Harry to get up here to Ari’s apartment and bring doctors right now! Tell him something’s wrong with Ari…”
Then she hung up, sat down next to her friend and waited. This time, the galaxy’s salvation might be over before it even began.
Soda led her group back toward the Galactic Ambassador Hotel. She quietly took out some ghost drones to get there. She felt like a ninja.
Take that, stupid ghost drones, Soda thought as she backed up. She wanted to find Drexyl, but she wasn’t in a particular hurry to find Floyd and Froggy. How was she supposed to know where they were? Wow, an apocalypse really does make strange bedfellows.
The ghost drones were climbing out of their holes now and more were streaming in through the portals. Which was bad news, because even though Soda was right about the head and neck area of the blue chessmen being vulnerable, they were still outnumbered. That’s when Drexyl found her. It was a welcome surprise.
“Drexyl! Just in time as usual.” She slithered her tentacles into Drexyl’s pants pockets where she knew he hid additional weapons. Then she turned and fired at blue chessman and drones.
Suddenly there was the thudding sound of heavy footsteps behind them. What fresh hell? Soda asked herself, turning to see what new horrors the alien invasion was going to unleash.
Instead of a new horror, it was just Chipmunk, Ray’s pet troll. And also, Froggy and Floyd. “Where have you guys been?” Soda asked. “Just in case you guys were wondering, this is what happens, worst-case-scenario when you’re late to Overlord Candidate meetings,” Soda chided.
Then she turned to the troll. “Hi, Chippy. Feel free to squash anything that’s not us, okay?”
Chipmunk held what looked like a giant club carved out of heavy oak in his hand and it was dragging on the ground. He nodded and brought the blunt object down on three chess men which were in the process of trying to rip one of Mantix’s antennae off.
They made a howling noise as they fell to the ground. The giant club barely missed Mantix’s head.
“Hey!” Mantix yelled. “Whose side are you on?”
“Don’t yell at Chipmunk, it wasn’t his fault,” Soda said. “Hey, Chippy, also protect the giant green bug, okay? Hey, where’s Ray?”
“Right here.” Ray came out of the hotel in a flourish of robes.
“Alright, magic-man. What’s the plan?” Soda asked him.
“Keep killing bad guys?” he asked.
“Look, you have to bring something to the table beyond just a cape,” Soda said, turning one of her weapons on him.
“Yes, yes. I have something that will help. But now you spoiled the surprise, Soda. I can’t believe you used to be the Overlord, you have no sense of style.”
“Take that back,” Soda answered.
“And get on with it, already. Show off your stupid style before we’re all dead!” Drexyl yelled.
“Okay, everybody in the hotel,” Ray yelled. “You too, Chippy.”
“You’re crazy,” Soda said. “You won’t last sixty seconds out here by yourself.”
Ray pulled a small red sphere out of his robe and held it in his hand for them to see. It was shiny, like a mini disco ball.
“Luckily for you people, I saved this for a rainy day. It’s a stunning mechanism or freeze ray, if you will. It should make everything out here come to a stop for, oh, ten or fifteen minutes.”
“What about the portal? Won’t they keep coming through?” Mantix asked, while throwing a chess man out of the way.
“I’m pretty sure it will freeze the portal too.”
“Then what?” Soda asked.
“Then we make a better plan. We‘ll have time to think,” Ray said.
“I don’t know how much that’s going to help,” Soda said.
“Neither do I,” Ray answered. “But unless you have a better plan right now, you should go into the hotel; otherwise you’re going to spend an undetermined amount of time frozen out here with the bad guys.”
“Okay, let’s move,” Soda yelled. “Everybody inside. I call dibs on the window and lay ten to one odds that Mr. Freeze here doesn’t last three minutes.”
“I’ll take that action,” Drexyl said.
They all moved inside to a window so they could see what Ray did.
“You go with them, Chippy,” Ray said.
Chippy looked dubiously at the seven-foot entrance doors to the Galactic Ambassador Hotel.
“Hey, Soda! Does this hotel have a loading entrance anywhere? You guys forgot about accommodating Chippy again. I’m starting to think you’re doing it on purpose. Stop being jerks.”
After taking out a dozen more of the drones, Chippy joined the other civilians inside the Galactic Ambassador Hotel.
Ray whirled around to make sure that nothing was sneaking up on him. After all, the last thing he wanted was to actually have to fight these creatures. It wasn’t his style. Not when he could use magic.
He turned, smiled, and waved dramatically at the window, which had the faces of overlords and friends pressed up against the glass. They waved back.
Then he got down to business. He held up the small orb. It glowed and swirled. He had always loved these types of orbs and would stare at them for hours on end while at college. He broke eye contact so he wouldn’t get sucked into it. He knew the alien attackers wouldn’t be so lucky.
After shaking his head to clear it, Ray said the magic words. The enemy was closing in now and he had to back up in order to buy a little time. Then he rolled the orb forward into the courtyard. He rolled it gently, like he was trying to aim a bowling ball. Luckily for him, the shiny ball got the attention of the aliens. They halted their advance to watch it roll across the grass.
Ray counted to three in his head after it stopped rolling. Then he turned and ran back toward the hotel as fast as his feet would carry him. In fact, he was halfway in the door when the light blast wave hit.
Oohs and ahs sounded from inside near the window.
“It’s beautiful, Ray,” Soda said. “You’ve been holding out on me. I’ve been to ten boring work functions with you that could have been way more fun with that sort of thing.”
Ray ran to the window they were all looking through and wormed his way to the front, prompting complaints of ‘hey, we were here first’.
“Magician coming through,” he said. He stared through the window as the light blast dissipated. As he had hoped, nothing in the courtyard was moving. And nothing was coming in through the portal. He sighed in relief. “Okay, what do we do now?”
“I wonder what Ari’s up to,” Soda said out loud. “Hey Ray, when your magic freeze bomb wears off, we’re going to need help.” She pulled out her cell phone. Ari, are you done playing with your jewelry yet? We could use help over here. She hit send. “I just texted her.” She went back to staring out the window while she waited for Ari to reply.
The others milled around. Drexyl headed off to the bar to help himself. Oh, thought Soda, that’s a good idea. “Hey, Drexyl, can you make me a margarita?”
“Can do,” he answered. “Mine aren’t as good as yours though.”
“Damn right,” So
da replied. She checked, but there still wasn’t a text back from Ari. She stared at her phone. Huh. Is Ari busy or not paying attention or in trouble? Or is something else going on? She got her phone out and texted Ray. Hey Bobo the magician. She hit send. Then she decided to text him again, since he was nearby and she would hear his phone chime and know the texts were getting through. Then she remembered something. Where’s your troll, anyway? She texted. She waited. She didn’t hear a notification noise from either of the texts though.
“Hey, Ray?” Soda asked. “Can you check your phone for me?” She giggled and hoped that Drexyl would hurry with the margarita. He brought it, right on cue. “Thanks, pet,” she said to him.
Ray checked his phone. Then he looked back up at her. “What am I supposed to be looking for, Soda?”
Soda frowned. “I just sent you two texts. You didn’t get anything?”
Ray shook his head. “Nope. Nothing.”
Soda texted Drexyl. Thanks for the apocalypse margarita, hottie. Send. She waited right next to Drexyl, but his phone never made a noise. “Hey, Drexyl, could you check your phone, dear? I don’t think my messages are getting through.”
He pulled out his phone. “I don’t have any messages.”
“Okay,” she said. “This isn’t good, but maybe it’s me. Text me something.” She waited.
He tapped on his phone and then looked up at her.
She checked. Nothing. “Oh no. Texting was our last available line of communication. Nothing was coming in from out of the galaxy or planet to planet, and phone calls hadn’t worked in hours. That means we have no idea what’s happening with Ari.”
“And she has no idea what’s happening with us,” Drexyl answered. “It means she doesn‘t know we need help. We’re on our own.”
Soda took a sip of her drink. “Well, at least now we have alcohol. Hey, where did that troll get off to?”
“He’s hanging out in the loading bay,” Drexyl said. “It’s around back, so it wasn’t affected by the magic light bomb. I sure hope Ari is okay.”
Soda slurped down more of her drink and looked out the window again. “Well, Ari has Kirian and that weirdo Fleek. They’ll probably be fine. Well, as fine as any of us are.”
Drexyl put his arm around Soda. “Well,” he said, “I hope that they get back soon. Or we might be out of drinks.”
Soda looked out at the courtyard again through the window. She thought she saw movement. Oh no. “Hey Drexyl, how long have we been in here?”
“I don’t know, ten minutes or so,” he answered.
“It looks like our time’s up.” She whirled around to find Ray. “Ray? Where’d he go?”
“I think he went to find his pet troll,” Floyd said. He had turned back into a human and was sitting in a corner playing a game on his phone.
“We’re about to have incoming bad guys,” Soda told him. Then she ran off toward the back of the building where the loading bay was. Ray was out there with Chipmunk, and they were staring at something. She went outside and followed their gaze.
There were more chess men and more drones streaming through the portal. In fact, there were four more portals in the courtyard. And something else, a buzzing sound zoomed past her and into the hotel.
Soda knew what that meant immediately. “Now they know where we are. They know everything. And with those numbers of drones streaming in through the portals, we don’t have a chance.” She looked at Ray. “You wouldn’t happen to have any more entertaining magic bombs in that cape of yours, would you?”
“That was my last one,” he said. “Most of my magic has been cut off along with the dice. And Fleek’s fractals. I suppose our only hope now is Ari and that ring.”
The enemy horde was approaching now. Soon they would be in full view. Ray and Soda headed inside with Chippy. After all, death might be inevitable, but that didn’t mean that they weren’t going to make the enemy aliens work for it.
“Ray, do you honestly think Ari and the ring are going to make a difference here?”
“I don’t, no,” he answered. “But the dice do. And as I keep saying, the dice are never, ever wrong.”
Soda stopped once. To text Ari one more time. Just in case, for a split second a message was able to get through. It was an SOS text. Short, sweet, and to the point. Then there was only one thought on her mind. She had to find Drexyl. And then they had to hide or fight or do whatever it took to stay alive.
10
Kirian watched Ari continue to twitch. It was horrible, and just as she was sure she couldn’t take it anymore, Ari stopped. And in the ensuing silence, she knew that was even worse.
“Hold on, Ari. The doctors are coming,” she whispered and grabbed her hand. Ari’s hand was cold and her face had turned blue. That can’t be good. This can’t be happening.
Kirian jumped up and started CPR. “Come on, Ari. We need you, you know that.” She performed chest compressions and then a couple of breaths. Then she paused that for a moment to try to pry the ring off again. Stupid ring. But it wouldn’t budge, no matter how hard she tried.
Kirian backed up for a moment and sucked in a few frenzied breaths, thinking about hard choices. She pulled out her Stingr Light Sword. Maybe she should just cut the ring off. It could mean the difference between life and death. It seemed extreme though. Kirian couldn’t believe how out of control the situation had become. She didn’t want to lose Ari, but she wasn’t quite ready to start hacking off her appendages either.
“Wake up, Ari! What did that stupid ring do to you?” She did a few more chest compressions, then a couple more breaths. She paced for a minute. Then she activated her Stingr Sword. It sprang to life, adding light and energy to the room. She placed it over Ari’s finger and prepared to cut it off. “I’m sorry, Ari.”
Behind her, the door to Ari’s apartment burst open. Harry and the doctors were here. Kirian breathed a sigh of relief, maybe they’d be able to help her. She deactivated her Stingr Light Sword.
Harry looked to Kirian. His expression was a mask of concern and rage. “What the hell happened here?” he asked.
“I have no idea,” Kirin answered, watching the doctors go to work on her friend. “She put on the ring. Then we were going back downstairs to you guys, but she lost consciousness. I think she had a seizure. Can a ring do that? Is she allergic to the metal or something?”
She tried to peer at Ari in between the doctors. “Is she going to be all right? Do you guys have an epi-pen or something? She’s still alive, right?”
She turned to face Harry. “I didn’t know what to do. Was it the ring? Should I have cut the ring off of her finger? I’m pretty sure she wanted that finger, though.”
Harry put an arm around Kirian as Fleek drifted into the room.
“What’s going on?” he asked the doctors, who were working feverishly. “Is she going to be okay?”
They didn’t answer him. They didn’t stop trying to help her either. “Is Kirian right? Was it some kind of allergic reaction?”
The doctors continued working on Ari, setting up all kinds of portable machines and monitors and IVs. The beeping and then lack of beeping couldn’t have been good. Kirian’s mind raced. She couldn’t help thinking she should be doing something. Anything.
“It wasn’t an allergic reaction,” a doctor said while still working on Ari and spitting out orders. “Her heart stopped. She’s not breathing. All of her systems are failing. And something else is happening that’s odd. Her body temperature is up to a hundred and ten degrees. But there’s no sign of any kind of allergy. There’s no rash or swelling on the finger with the ring.” The doctor looked up at Kirian for a split second. Then she stared at the numbers on the monitoring equipment for a moment before turning back to Kirian and Harry. “I’m sorry about your friend, but it wouldn’t have done any good to cut off the ring. You did the best you could.”
“No!” Kirian said. “You can’t give up.”
The monitors hooked up to Ari made the flatline sound yo
u hear in all of the movies.
Kirian felt like none of it was real, like she was having an out-of-body experience. “She was fine a few minutes ago. We were talking. She put on the ring and then collapsed.”
The doctors were unhooking the equipment now. For them, the urgency seemed to be over.
“No. This is not possible,” Kirian said. She pushed the doctors out of the way to get to Ari, who was still lying there, eyes closed and unmoving.
“Kirian,” Harry said softly. His voice broke. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not okay.” Kirian pulled the rest of the medical personnel off of Ari and out of the way. “It’s not okay and this is not happening. It’s the ring. I’m telling you. As soon as that ring is off, then she’s going to be okay.”
The doctors were moving out of the way now and exchanging sideways glances at Harry. “Just get out of her way,” he told them.
Kirian ran forward and dove near Ari’s head. She spoke to her. “I’m sorry, Ari. I’m so sorry. I don’t know what happened, but I’m going to fix it. Just hang in there.”
She grabbed Ari’s hand and placed it on the floor, then she spread out the fingers.
“You’re not really going to cut her finger off, are you Kirian?” Harry asked. “What the hell?”
“You don’t understand,” Kirian said, raising her Stingr. “It’s the only way. It has to work.” She raised the sword and aimed. She released a breath. Then she began lowering the light sword.
Ari gasped and sat straight up.
The simple action was so unexpected that Kirian dropped the Stingr Sword on the ground, nearly clipping her own foot in the process.
The medical personnel that had just stopped working on Ari gasped.
Kirian gasped. For a moment, she was too shocked to think of something to say. She turned to Harry, whose face had turned white as a ghost. Then she turned back to Ari.
“Ari!” Kirian worried that Ari sitting up was maybe just a muscle reaction or something, but Ari appeared to be breathing again, and her eyes were darting around the room.
Overlord Alliance: Book 2 of the Neon Octopus Ally Series Page 6