Overlord Alliance: Book 2 of the Neon Octopus Ally Series

by L. A. Johnson

  “You weren’t there, Ray. And Darduk had us dead to rights. Even after Kirian chopped off his head.”

  “Oh shit,” Fleek jumped in. “That didn’t even work?”

  “Well, here’s the thing. He has a magic ring too. And his ring heals him, even with a decapitated head, just like Demon Yoda said.”

  “Okay, that is possible with a powerful enough magic ring,” Ray said. “But it’s incredibly rare.”

  Ari looked at him. “Ray, Demon Yoda said I could just chop off the ring and be done with it and not risk turning into, well Darduk. But only before it granted me magic. He said once I did that, I’d have to magically pair successfully or lose myself completely. Is that true?”

  Ray’s expression answered her question immediately.

  Ari found a nearby chair to slump into.

  “You wished you and Kirian back here, didn’t you?” Ray asked.

  “I’d be dead if she hadn’t,” Kirian chimed in. “We both would.”

  Ray wiped his face with his hands, like he was thinking. “Okay, that’s good news, Ari. The ring worked with you, it saved your life. It’s also a necessary part of the magical pairing process. So you’ve begun on your magical journey, and that’s not a bad thing, right?”

  Ari was following along right until the weird hippy magical journey stuff. “Don’t make me punch you in the face, Ray.”

  “So now what are we going to do?” Kirian asked, struggling to get back onto her feet.

  “Stay down, Kirian. We don’t even have a new plan yet.”

  “What was the old plan?” Soda asked.

  “Kirian cut off his head. Then we were going to grab it, run away, and cut out the magic ring; ending it once and for all.”

  “I told you it wouldn’t work.” Demon Yoda materialized in the middle of the gathered group. Everybody except for Ari and Kirian jumped.

  “No, you didn’t,” Ari said. “Demon Yoda everybody, everybody, Demon Yoda.”

  “That’s not my name,” Demon Yoda complained.

  “Don’t care, Demon Yoda,” Kirian said, “and don’t trust him, people.”

  “And for the record, I said you’d have to get eaten by Darduk and then cut off the ring from the inside,” Demon Yoda clarified.

  “Where’s his ring?” Fleek asked.

  “It’s on one of Darduk’s back molars,” Ari answered. Then she turned to Demon Yoda. “And you weren’t there.” Ari thought about the whole thing again and wobbled. “You didn’t hear the crunching and the screaming when that Darduk thing ate one of his own full-sized Viking warriors. The minute that giant head chomps down on me, I will be dead, you idiot. And the last I checked, dead people cannot do oral surgery, can they?”

  “I’m with Ari on this one,” Fleek said. “That sounds like a terrible plan.”

  That’s when Froggy came up. “What’d I miss?”

  Everybody groaned.

  “There’s gotta be another plan,” Ari said to Demon Yoda. “Something other than get chewed up by a magic mutant Viking.”

  “Hey, maybe your magic ring will fix you like it fixed him,” he said, shrugging. “I did also tell you that you were a sacrifice, didn’t I?”

  She had forgotten about that part. It was more than Ari could take. She crossed the room and launched herself at the tiny green demon, who stood there smirking. Ari went right through him and landed on the floor.

  “Whoa,” Froggy said. “Is that little dude really here or not? Is he, like a projection?”

  “Not exactly,” Demon Yoda said, “but I can protect myself with my own magic. Plus, I can guess the immediate future, most of the time.”

  “Guess?” Soda asked.

  “It’s not exactly knowing the future,” he replied, “it’s more like seeing the most probable immediate future. And no, Ari, don’t try to kick me in the balls again, I’ll see it coming a mile away.”

  Soda raised an eyebrow. “Did that really happen?”

  “Yup,” Ari said proudly. “And it will happen again before all of this is over, mark my words.”

  “Enough,” Soda said. “What now, Ari?”

  Ray jumped in. “Ari, quickly sum up what has happened since you put on the ring.”

  “Ok, I put the ring on. I died. Then I woke up. Then me and Harry and Kirian went down into the tunnels to face the monsters and recharge the ring.”

  “What the hell are you smoking?” Soda said. “You said you died.”

  “Oh yeah,” Kirian chimed in. “Ari’s like, a zombie now. Don’t worry, she doesn’t bite, so it’s okay.”

  “Alright, even I think that’s freaky,” Froggy said. “Go on.”

  “Anyway,” Ari said. “We got past the tunnels, recharged the ring.”

  “So you did what it wanted?” Ray asked.

  “Yes, we got it all recharged.”

  “Then you wished yourself here, right?” Ray asked.

  “Yup. You’re all caught up now, Ray, happy?”

  “Yes!” Ray answered. “You’re on the first half of the second magical pairing,” Ray blurted out. “That’s great. All you have to do now is figure out what the ring wants next.”

  “And I’m sure that The Devourer will figure out where we’ve gone eventually, so whatever you need to do, please do it fast,” Kirian said.

  It was as good a plan as any. Ari closed her eyes and concentrated. She waited and listened until she heard the ringing sound in her ears again. Then she knew what the ring wanted. When it popped into her head, though, she couldn’t believe it. She opened her eyes. “Ohmygosh.”

  “What is it?” they asked. “What does the ring want?”

  Ari jumped up. “The ring wants us to be pirates.”

  Kirian frowned. “Ari, what do you mean the ring wants us to be pirates?”

  Ari crossed the room to look out the window. “According to the ring, there is rare booty buried out in Arcturis Square. Something it wants. Oh, boy, there is an awful lot of ghost drones out in that courtyard.”

  “Well, you can use your magic on them like before, right?” Kirian asked.

  “Yeah, but if I do and I pass out, then we won’t find what we’re looking for.” Ari frowned. Then she remembered that she had the junior mints in her pocket. That might help in a pinch.

  “One thing’s for sure,” Kirian said, “we will only get one shot at this.”

  Soda slithered over. “Fine, I guess it’s all hands on deck to help Ari go dig in the dirt in the square while we do all the hard work.” She stared at Ari with her octopus eyes for a moment.

  “What?” Ari asked.

  “Buried treasure?” she whispered. “Is this just a test for the ring? How many of these do we even have to do before we can attempt to win?”

  “One more cycle after this one, according to Ray,” Ari said. “Trust me, I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t want to win. I want to destroy The Devourer and kick his ass, and this could be the only way. According to Ray if I cooperate with this ring a little more and vice versa, then we achieve some sort of magic symbiosis like Ray has with his dice and Fleek has with his fractals.”

  “If you achieve that symbiosis, then you can kick ass knowing the ring won’t kill you and take over or turn you into something hideously ugly like that Devourer guy?”

  “Yes. That. I’d like to win without that happening,” Ari answered. “And since I can’t use my magic without passing out yet, we’ll need the other two magical dorks.”

  “Ray’s here,” Soda said, “but I don’t know where Fleek got off to.”

  “Fleek?” Ari called, being careful not to yell too loud. The others did the same, but the low volume Fleek calling did not locate the rock star.

  “Where the hell is he?” Froggy asked. “He was here a few minutes ago.”

  “Doesn’t matter, we’re out of time,” Ari answered. “Froggy, do you still have a robot with some ammo?”

  He nodded.

  “Okay, and I know Soda can kick ass. You too, Ray, come o
n. We need you to roll the dice or give advice, or tell the future. Or hopefully you can find a few magic tricks up your sleeve now that the magic is back on.”

  They made their way back to the hotel lobby when they passed the gift store. In the display window were honest to goodness pixie sticks.

  Sugar, thought Ari.

  “Hold on,” she told them. She ran inside and grabbed all the pixie sticks. Then she stuffed them into her pockets and threw cash at the clerk before rejoining the others.

  Soda gave her a judgy look.

  “I told you I need sugar. For the magic,” Ari said, pouring the delicious pink substance into her mouth. Then they continued to make their way toward the lobby.

  “Well,” Soda answered, “I sure hope that ring will be able to cure diabetes.”

  “Wait,” Ray said, “the plan is to just walk out into the square filled with thousands of weird ghost drones?”

  The group knelt just outside the front door, looking out the window where their opponents were massing.

  Ari took a deep breath. “Yes, but at least you’ll get to have your eyes open.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “Demon Yoda said I had to close my eyes to communicate with the ring more efficiently.”

  “Does that work?” Soda asked.

  “Believe it or not, yes.”

  “Does somebody need to guide you?” Ray asked. “How are you going to find what you’re looking for with your eyes closed?”

  “Oh, I can see with my eyes closed now,” Ari said. “It’s just different.”

  “Bullshit,” Froggy said. “I don’t believe you.”

  The rest of them smirked at her. Ari decided. She took out and downed the rest of the junior mints.

  Soda started to say something about it, but Ari stopped her with a dirty look.

  Then Ari stood up and closed her eyes so that everyone could see. Then she knelt back down again. “This won’t work. You guys won’t be able to tell if I opened my eyes again because you’ll be busy battling ghost drones.”

  “Hey,” Froggy said, getting into the spirit of things. “I have a bandana.” He dug through his jacket pockets and produced an orange bandana that had nearly naked women on it in various poses. He handed it to Ari.

  Ari took the bandana like it was a dirty banana peel plucked out of a trash can. She looked it over for a moment and then frowned at him.

  “What?” he asked.

  “I’m going into battle with this?” Ari asked.

  Soda burst out laughing. It was contagious, and for a few minutes, they all let out the nervous, false bravado energy they had been holding in for days. It was wonderful and cathartic.

  As Ari looked at all of them with her eyes open, maybe for the last time, she knew for certain that this galaxy was, in fact, worth fighting for. Maybe even losing yourself to a badass ring forever for. Either way, as the laughter died down, she knew now was the time to find out. She hoped that the ring would understand. And that maybe the ring would find that she was worth fighting for too.

  Ari folded up the bandana and placed it on her face and tied it. Then she stood up for all of them to see before striding to the Galactic Ambassador double doors. “It’s showtime people, let’s look alive!” And with that, she kicked open the doors.

  19

  Out in the courtyard, Ari could see, even with her eyes closed and the bandanna on her face. She could see better even, but it was different. Maybe with her eyes closed, she could see the world the way the ring saw it. Either way, with the group of super-friends behind her, she could see the hundred or so ghost drones now rushing in their direction.

  With a wave of her hand, she took the first wave out like they were bowling pins. They collapsed to the ground.

  “What the—” Soda said. “I thought you’d pass out if you used magic.”

  “I told you, that’s why I needed the sugar. Look, you guys take care of the rest of the bad guys while I find what this ring wants me to find.”

  Robot Froggy came around the corner and fired missiles. “Okay, Ari,” he said over his loudspeaker. “I believe in your magic now.”

  The sound and light of missiles from Froggy’s robot lit up the plaza.

  “Great,” Ari said to herself, looking around in different directions. “Now if I could just believe too, then we’ll be onto something.” She had to admit that it was fun showing off. Plus, the ring vision was cool. In fact, what the ring vision was showing her right now was one of the disabled ghost drones, twitching. What her friends couldn’t possibly notice, is that the ghost drones she had disabled two minutes ago were about to wake up again.

  “Watch out, people. You’re about to be up to your eyeballs in resurrected ghost drones.”

  “What about your magic?” Ray asked. He was out of breath from fighting off the ones that were left over.

  “Sorry, Ray. You’ll have to deal with them on your own this time. I don’t have any more junior mints.”

  Ray did a double take.

  “Sugar, remember?” she asked. “It helps to counteract the effect that the magic has on my body. I could pull out more pixie sticks, but that would take even longer.”

  “Don’t care anymore, the moment passed,” Ray said. He was firing two weapons at the same time. “Just find what you’re looking for so we can go back inside and maybe live a little longer.”

  Ari’s ring vision could see that he was almost out of bullets. Cool, she thought. For me though, not for Ray. “Ray, you need to reload.”

  After giving him the heads up, she stopped and concentrated. Well, she tried to concentrate with her eyes closed and an R-rated bandana over her face while resurrected ghost drones closed in on her. She should have known this wouldn’t work.

  Those things were programmed to follow her around. They would mass wherever she happened to be. And now she and her group were about to get overrun. Again. She would get all of her friends killed before she even got to find the object. Then she got an idea.

  “Soda!” she said. She went running over to the Neon Octopus who was acquitting herself nicely by knocking out eight of the drones at a time without even breaking a sweat.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be looking for booty?” Soda asked. “I mean, either pirate booty or the kind on your bandanna, I don’t know your life anymore. I was sure I had you pegged until a few days ago, honestly. But I’m not sure if you’re cooler now or just more annoying.”

  Ari grabbed onto a tentacle.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Soda asked.

  “I need you to teleport me. Somewhere close, but not here.”

  “You finally lost it, eh?” Soda replied, shaking her bulbous head. “I guess it was just a matter of time. Or it could have been all the sugar.” She took out a few more drones, but they were massing around her now.

  “See?” Ari asked. “There are more drones around you now than there were before I got here. I’m sure someone has programmed them to come after me. And I’ll never find whatever it is I’m looking for with this many around.”

  Soda whirled on her. “You might be right. You’re saying that if I teleport you somewhere else-“

  “That’s where they’ll go. Clearing out the place for me to come back and have a shot at finding whatever it is the ring wants.”

  “Okay, I get it. Hey, guys, we’ll be back in a few.” Soda threw the drones were still in her tentacles. Then she arranged her tentacles in weirdly specific angles.

  Ari had a flashback of Soda doing Yoga before shaking her head and trying to clear it from her mind. Then the two of them disappeared.

  Soda and Ari reappeared a few blocks away, in front of a crumbling building. It was a concert hall a week ago, and the sight of its current condition because of the first wave of the alien invasion made Ari angry. She had just seen the Orion Orchestra there a few months ago. Stupid invaders.

  “Now what?” Soda said.

  Soda’s voice broke Ari out of her reverie. Soda
then waved a tentacle in front of her face.

  Ari easily waved the tentacle away. “I can see, Soda. I know it’s weird, but we have other fish to fry right now.”

  “Okay,” Soda said. “What do we do? How do we get them over here to clear out your square?”

  Ari pulled out her phone and texted Ray. “Are the ghost drones leaving the square?” She waited. Her phone rang. It was Ray. She answered it.

  “You’re on speaker phone, Ari,” Ray said. “And by the way, the number you have reached happens to be under attack right now.” Ari could hear weapons fire and blows nearby. “Although, I’m becoming quite fond of Froggy’s robot missiles. Those do plenty of damage. How’s it going where you are? And where is that?” More blaster fire sounded through the speaker. “Did you guys run off to Hawaii or are you getting a quickie wedding in Vega? Because whatever you’re doing, I’m sure it’s better than what we’re doing in this square. Hey, if you’ve given up getting us killed over hypothetical trust exercise pirate treasure, is it okay for us to go inside now?”

  Ray screamed. The sound worried Ari. The plan should be working by now.

  “No, Ray. I haven’t given up. We’re coming right back. It’s just that the drones seem to follow me around, so I’m trying to lure them away. Is it working?”

  Ari looked at Soda. “What do you think, should we go back? Maybe it’s not working.”

  “They’re leaving!” Ray’s voice said. “I guess your stupid plan worked. They’re headed toward the arts district. It’s like they’re not even interested in us anymore. In fact, call me when you get back. I’ll be in the Galactic Ambassador getting a double.”

  “Oh man,” Soda said. “Why does he get to drink and I don’t?”

  “Because you’re stuck with me, Soda. Sorry about that.”