Invasion

by Jon S. Lewis

  “What are they doing here?”

  “Why don’t you ask them?”

  Colt decided to let it go. He watched as the hostess pulled out a key card. She swiped it on an entry pad, entered a code, and the door clicked open.

  “Where are we going?” Colt asked.

  “Will you relax?” Oz said. “Trust me, you’re going to love it.”

  “Whenever you smile like that, it means something bad is about to happen.”

  “O ye of little faith.”

  The hostess led them through the doors and into a long hallway lined with torches. As Colt watched her walk through the doorway, he could have sworn her body flickered before she passed through. He held back to let Oz go next, and the same thing happened. It was like watching a movie reel skip.

  “Did you see that?” Colt asked as he paused at the threshold.

  Danielle nodded. “Do you think we should follow?”

  “I guess but I’ll go first. If anything weird happens, I want you to run.”

  “Do you see the shoes I’m wearing?” Danielle asked as she looked down at her high heels. “I’m not running anywhere.”

  Colt closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He felt Danielle grab his hand.

  “Let’s go together,” she said.

  As they stepped through the threshold, Colt felt a tingling sensation shoot up his leg. The air around him started to sizzle. He looked down to see what resembled static electricity crackling over his clothes and the same thing was happening to Danielle. Her eyes were wide as she watched the energy travel over her fingers and up her arm.

  “What’s happening?” she asked.

  “You just traveled through a gateway,” Oz said.

  “Wait, you mean we’re not in Arizona?” Colt asked.

  “You’re not even on Earth.”

  Danielle narrowed her eyes. “Don’t you think you should have warned us or something?”

  “Would you have come?”

  “Probably not.”

  “That’s why I didn’t say anything,” Oz said. “Look, I promise nothing will happen to you, okay? I’ll even have you home by eleven o’clock. That’s your curfew, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Oh, and McAlister, you might want to take that ring off,” Oz said, looking at Colt’s Phantom Flyer ring. “Some of the other guests aren’t exactly fans of CHAOS, if you know what I mean.”

  Colt slipped the ring off and put it in his front pocket. Then they hurried down the hallway to catch up with the hostess.

  “So if we’re not on Earth, where are we?” Danielle asked.

  “Think of it as a bridge between two worlds,” Oz said.

  “Which world are we going to?” Colt asked.

  “Technically we’re going to stay on the bridge,” Oz said. “It’s kind of an in-between place, I guess. You two don’t have clearance to travel to any other worlds, so this is the best I could do.”

  Colt looked at Danielle before turning back to Oz.

  “By the way,” Oz said. “Don’t lose those bracelets. You won’t be able to get back home without them.”

  : : CHAPTER 35 : :

  Colt’s hand went to his bracelet without a thought, making sure it was secure. The last thing he needed was to be locked away in the middle of nowhere with no way to get home, much less anywhere else. He started to wonder if the Thule passed through this hall, not to mention all the other aliens and monsters that populated the twelve worlds that the Earth was supposedly connected to.

  “Let’s go, McAlister,” Oz said when he saw Colt standing there staring at the bracelet. “As long as you stick with me, you’ll be fine.”

  “Oh, sorry,” Colt said.

  “So is this part of the restaurant?” Danielle asked.

  “Kind of,” Oz said as he spotted the hostess waiting for them at the end of the hallway. “Come on, we don’t want to be late for the fights.”

  “What are you talking about?” Danielle asked. “You said we were going meet someone who could tell us about Trident’s mind-control program. You didn’t mention any fights.”

  “We are,” Oz said. “Look, Basil invited us to his luxury box tonight. I mean, how could I pass that up? These fights have been sold out for six months, and more than five million people across twelve planets have ordered it.”

  “Ordered what?”

  “The Intergalactic Heavyweight Championship,” Oz said. “It’s a big deal, so when you meet Basil, be sure to say thank you.”

  “Is it boxing?” Colt asked.

  “It’s more like mixed martial arts.”

  “Enjoy your evening,” the hostess said as she opened the door to Basil Hyde’s luxury suite. Inside was an opulent room with overstuffed leather couches, a stone hearth with a blazing fire, a crystal chandelier, and a buffet of savory food where chefs in white hats carved a variety of meats for the guests.

  “You’re staring again,” Oz said as he leaned over to whisper in Colt’s ear.

  Colt wasn’t trying to be rude, but he was having a hard time trusting his eyes. The room was filled with characters straight out of his father’s Phantom Flyer comic books. Not five feet away were two Undarians, humanoids who came from a planet that was virtually underwater.

  They were tall, with scales of blue and green. Tentacles swept back over their heads like dreadlocks, tied off by leather straps. Goggles covered their large eyes, and a breathing apparatus filled with water was wrapped around their necks and mouths. It was connected to a pair of tanks that hung from their backs like scuba gear.

  There were others as well. The Fimorians had smooth gray skin with long necks, and the tiny Ulos looked like children despite the fact that an Ulo didn’t reach adulthood until its seventieth birthday. Colt even saw a Nogalar, who looked a bit like a walking rhino, though much more colorful. It wore fanciful robes and its fingers were covered in rings with bright jewels.

  “There you are,” said a man with a British accent. He wore a charcoal suit with a white shirt and a dark tie. His hair was kept short, he hadn’t shaved in days, and his eyes were so blue that it looked like he was wearing colored contacts. “I was starting to think that your father had had second thoughts. It’s good to see you, my boy.”

  “It’s good to see you too,” Oz said as they embraced.

  “I think you’ve grown another foot since I saw you last,” the man said as he broke away to look at Oz from an arm’s length. “How long has it been?”

  “Almost a year, I think,” Oz said.

  “How’s the old man?”

  Oz shrugged. “The same, I suppose.”

  “I figured as much. He needs to take a vacation.”

  “No kidding.”

  “So are you going to introduce me to your friends?”

  “Absolutely,” Oz said. “Basil Hyde, I’d like you to meet Danielle Salazar.”

  “A pleasure, young lady,” Basil said, taking her hand to kiss it. Then he turned to Colt. “You must be Colonel McAlister’s grandson.”

  “Yes, sir,” Colt said. He shook Basil’s hand.

  “Sir? Clearly this young man has a lot to learn.” Basil put his arm around Colt’s shoulder as though they had known each other their entire lives. “This is my associate, Mercedes Castro.”

  Colt hadn’t seen the slender woman who was standing behind Basil. She was short, with black hair that was pulled up in a twist. Her crimson dress made her stand out from the other women in the room, who appeared to prefer black, and her diamond necklace glimmered in the light.

  “It’s nice to meet you,” Colt said.

  Mercedes nodded her head slightly before turning her attention to Basil. “Lord Percival has asked to speak with you,” she said.

  “Ah, yes.” Basil patted Colt on the back. “You missed a few of the preliminary fights, but there are plenty more to come. And please, help yourselves to as much food as you can eat.” With that he excused himself to walk over and speak to an older man with a sharp nose and sagging eye
s.

  “Let’s do this,” Oz said. “I’m starving.”

  “What about Trident?” Danielle asked.

  “We’ll get to that, but we have to play the game a bit. When Basil’s ready, he’ll talk,” Oz said. “Right now there’re too many people around, but he’s going to be watching you. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know, but whatever it is, don’t do it.” Oz led them to a buffet laden with roast beef, ham, garlic mashed potatoes, and shrimp skewers. There were plenty of surprises as well.

  “What’s this?” Colt asked as he reached for a fruit that looked a bit like a kiwi, though it was pink and nearly twice as big.

  “I forget the name, but it’s from an island on Undar,” Oz said.

  “That’s an alcadia fruit,” one of the chefs said.

  “That’s right,” Oz said. “There’s a grove of them just outside the coliseum.”

  Colt cringed after Oz scooped what looked like a pile of maggots wriggling around in some kind of gravy.

  “Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it,” Oz said. “These slugs are amazing. They kind of taste like escargot, but they aren’t as chewy.”

  “I’ll take your word for it,” Colt said. He continued down the line, watching Oz fill not one but two plates with things that made the slugs look tame. Colt and Danielle stuck to food they were familiar with.

  “It looks like they’re getting up,” Oz said, nodding to a table next to a wall of glass.

  As they sat down, Colt could see that they were in some kind of indoor stadium. Below the ring of skyboxes were thousands of seats filled with excited fans, few of which were human. There were clusters of spotlights shining down on the ring, where an announcer was stepping up to a microphone that hung down from above. Video cameras were stationed around the ring, and an army of photographers flashed their cameras.

  “What is this place?” Colt asked.

  “Hyde Field House,” Oz said, “though most of us just call it the Pit.”

  “As in pit fighting?” Danielle asked.

  “Don’t get too worked up,” Oz said before he stuffed some kind of squid with eight eyeballs into his mouth. “There aren’t any dogs, if that’s what you’re worried about. These are all professional fighters, and it’s perfectly legal.”

  “Then it’s more like professional wrestling?”

  Oz slurped down the last of a tentacle before smiling. “This is the real deal,” he said. “I’m talking the best fighters in the twelve worlds. Can you imagine how amazing it would feel to walk into that ring with everyone chanting your name?”

  : : CHAPTER 36 : :

  May I offer you a program or some binoculars?”

  Colt turned to find a robotic servant standing near their table holding a silver tray. Though it was a machine, there was no denying it had been made to look and sound like a female.

  “Thanks,” Oz said, reaching for a program. He grabbed one for Colt and another for Danielle. “Do you want the binoculars?”

  Danielle looked down at the ring below. The pitch of the stadium was steep, which made it feel like the skybox was almost hanging over the stadium. They had an amazing view. “I can see well enough,” she said.

  “What about you?” Oz asked, turning to Colt.

  “How much are they?”

  “Everything here is on the house,” Oz said. He took a pair of the binoculars from the tray and handed them to Colt.

  “And you, sir?” the robot asked.

  “I’m good.” He pointed to a series of monitors that were hanging from the ceiling and on the walls. “We get a closed circuit broadcast, which is great for the replays, but I like to watch it live.”

  The lights in the stadium dimmed before the spotlights flared bright. Loud music started pumping through the speakers. The announcer introduced the first fighter as it came out of the tunnel. The creature looked something like a praying mantis, though its armored hide was bright orange instead of green.

  “That’s Cho’rex,” Oz said. “He’s won his last eight fights, six of them by knockout.”

  Colt had opened his program, where he found bios on all the fighters. “He’s almost nine feet tall.”

  “That’s pretty average for a Krilian,” Oz said. “Wait until you see who he’s fighting . . . it’s one of the instructors at the CHAOS academy.”

  Once Cho’rex was in the ring, the announcer introduced a fighter by the name of Lohr. When he did, the crowd erupted, and so did Oz.

  Lohr was a Tharik, though on Earth he would have been called Bigfoot. The difference, at least with Lohr, was that he had robotic components fused to his body. His left arm had been replaced with a mechanical prosthetic, and there was a second head with glowing eyes bolted just to the left of the head he’d been born with.

  “That thing is an instructor? What does he teach?”

  “Combat.”

  “I guess that makes sense,” Colt said. “What happened to him?”

  “His arm got blown off by a Panzer.”

  “Why the second head?”

  “The first one was so ugly, I guess he wanted to try again.”

  Colt looked sideways at Oz.

  “What? That’s a great joke,” Oz said. “To tell you the truth, I’m not sure why the surgeon decided to give him another head. All I can tell you is that Cho’rex is about to have his winning streak snapped.”

  The referee went over the rules as the fighters met in the middle of the ring. From the moment the bell sounded, Cho’rex tried to use a series of jabs, taking advantage of his height to keep Lohr at bay. Lohr was patient as he studied his opponent.

  The crowd, however, was growing restless. It wasn’t long before they started to boo.

  Cho’rex made a clicking sound with his mandibles before he swung with a wild right hook. Lohr ducked under the haymaker and took Cho’rex to the ground. From there, it was only a matter of time. Lohr used his superior strength to keep Cho’rex pinned as he pummeled the Krilian. The referee stopped the fight with more than a minute remaining in the first round.

  “What did I tell you?” Oz said.

  “You actually like this?” Danielle asked.

  “Are you kidding?” Oz said. “It’s incredible!”

  “It’s barbaric.”

  “Look at the video games you play,” Oz said. “They’re way more violent than this.”

  “That’s different.”

  “Why?”

  “Because nobody gets hurt in a video game.”

  “Remember that we’re guests, so try not to be too critical, okay?” Oz slid his chair away from the table. “I’ll be back in a minute. I need to get some more food.”

  “What’s wrong?” Colt asked once Oz was out of earshot.

  “Nothing,” Danielle said.

  “Come on, I know you better than that. We used to watch wrestling all the time, and I never heard you complain.”

  “I don’t know,” Danielle said. She leaned forward to rest her head in her hand. “I guess I just want all of this to end before . . . well, before something really bad happens. That’s all.”

  The lights dimmed once again as the ring was lowered through a trap door in the floor. Then, though Colt had no idea how they did it, a glass tube rose up, replacing the ring. It was at least thirty feet tall and filled with bubbling water that was lighted from below.

  “Did I miss anything?” Oz asked as he sat back down with two more plates piled high with food.

  “It’s just starting,” Colt said.

  “I’ve seen underwater fights on television, but never live,” Oz said. “You’re going to love this.”

  Colt lifted his binoculars to see that three people were already in the tank. The first was an Undarian, tall and slender with webbed hands and feet. The tendrils on its head waved in the water like snakes on a Gorgon’s scalp.

  There was a referee wearing scuba gear, as well as a creature that looked like someone had spliced a man a
nd an octopus together. It had six arms that looked like tentacles, with suction cups that lined the underside of each appendage. Its skin was olive green, its head was bald, and its mouth was lined with rows of jagged teeth like a shark’s. Colt’s eyes shot wide. Was that the creature that had attacked him on his surfboard?

  “What’s wrong?” Danielle asked.

  “Oh . . . um, nothing,” he said.

  “Undarians and Roraks don’t like each other too much,” Oz said. “This could get bloody.”

  The referee must have had a microphone inside of his regulator, because everyone in the arena could hear him giving the instructions. Then, after the bell sounded, the fighters started circling each other. The crowd shouted, encouraging them to engage. They didn’t have to wait long.

  The Rorak was first. He shot two of his tentacle arms at the Undarian, who slipped out of the way. Then he sent a third to latch around the Undarian’s neck. A fourth tentacle shot around one of the Undarian’s arms but the Undarian used the tentacles to reel the Rorak in. Then he kicked out, catching the Rorak in the stomach before hitting him in the side of the head with a second kick.

  The Rorak was dazed. His tentacles went limp, and then the Undarian went on the offensive. He attempted a number of submission holds, trying to slip around the Rorak’s back to choke him out, but the Rorak was too strong and broke free.

  “What did I tell you?” Oz said after the first round ended.

  “It’s amazing.”

  “Who do you think won that round?”

  “I don’t know,” Colt said. Then he noticed that two Undarian diplomats were seated at the table next to them. “I’d probably give it to the Undarian.”

  “Me too.”

  The fight went back and forth for another four rounds, leaving the judges to declare the winner. It was a split decision, but after the results were announced, the referee raised the Rorak’s hand in victory as the Undarian bowed his head in shame.

  The Undarian diplomats were outraged. One slammed his drink onto the table before all three of them stormed out of the skybox.

  “Don’t worry,” Oz said. “They probably had money riding on the outcome.”