by Gini Koch
“You guys told us about that last night,” Reader said. “And while Serene insisted she could rig things so that she could handle and control the orb, Chuck also made the point that it was extremely dangerous and that only he, Serene, Lorraine, or Claudia were even close to being qualified to do so.”
“I think we’re going to need to try.” Pointed to the two ships that were hovering—they were moving slowly down toward us.
“You think we can turn the telescope into a weapon?” 2.0 asked. “Because I thought of that, a while ago. I can’t touch it. As far as I’ve been able to tell, no one can touch it, because I’ve been up here a few times and I’ve seen youngsters try to reach it, and even if they’re on each other’s shoulders, they can’t. I think it moves away from them, though it doesn’t appear to.”
The Clarence Clone nodded. “No one can touch the All Seeing Eye.”
“Is that what you call it, or what everyone calls it?” As I asked this I took a better look around. There were other beings up here with us. Far away, because this was a big area, but still, here. And I was pretty sure that they were katyhoppers. Based on the coloration that I could just make out, they were Matriarchs. Meaning they weren’t up here by accident, because per our katyhoppers, the Matriarchs never came up here all as one.
“It’s what it’s called.” The Clone sounded stubborn, but like a child would be. He looked down. “I know the Gods know all the names.”
Looked to Fancy, who shrugged. “Different regions refer to things differently. I have heard it called that before, Shealla—by you, for example.”
She had a point. “Fine, fine, works for me, then. And, Clarence, you’re right about the name. I’m sorry I doubted you.”
He looked up at me and smiled. “It’s okay, Shealla. Everyone says the Gods like to test you. I guess that means I passed?” The Clarence Clone wasn’t very much like his original other than in looks and expressions. I preferred the Clone.
“Yes,” I said gently. “You passed.” Cleared my throat. “So, Clarence, Ronnie, have either of you ever seen a big glowing orb or something like it, most likely in a cave?”
The Clarence Clone shook his head. “No. But I don’t go into any of the caves.”
“Why not?” I asked him.
“They scare me. Everyone is afraid of the caves.”
Fancy nodded. “This is true for my people. Haven is not the same as the caverns.”
Knew this to be true from what we’d seen of the planet so far, so I didn’t argue with it. 2.0, on the other hand, didn’t look afraid—he looked pissed off. “So she put some sort of power source here and never told me about it?” He sounded pissed off, too.
“No, actually, I’m pretty sure she didn’t know about it. Frankly, she might not even know about the All Seeing Mountain and the All Seeing Eye. We think the power orbs have been here a really long time. Like, beginning of the world long time.”
2.0 shook his head. “That should be impossible.”
“You’re both clones of dead guys, which should also be impossible. Welcome to the New Realms of Possibilities.”
2.0 shocked the hell out of me by laughing. “Okay, good point. So, what do we do? Even if we can find the orb you think is up here, I don’t have a scientific background.”
“What background do you have?” Reader asked.
“Business. I know why I’m supposed to dislike all of you, I have all of the original Ronaldo’s memories. But the father you killed isn’t someone I knew or know. And I’m smart enough to know the difference between someone else’s memories—even someone who was and is technically me—and my own. And I didn’t know Ronald Yates. He didn’t raise me. And, as you pointed out earlier, I’m not the person who conspired against you, either.”
“Other than here,” Abigail pointed out.
“Yes, but I’ve seen the error of my ways. I’m willing to not care about the past wrongs I’m supposed to be all worked up over, and far more willing to do what I can to ensure that we all have a future. Not that I can offer any help at all here, because, again, science is not my area.”
We had scientists with us and a certified genius, too. Only they weren’t actually with us right now. Which was frustrating on so many levels I lost count. “Can anyone actually reach Chuckie telepathically?” Hey, it was a long shot, but I liked to live by the cat motto that it never hurt to ask for what you wanted.
Abigail cocked her head. “You know . . . I think if Ronaldo and I work together, we just might be able to.” She looked at me. “But can I trust him? Really?”
Took her hand in mine. “I don’t know. But I’m willing to take the leap of faith. However, the decision has to be yours, because it’s your head he’ll be in.” I could ask the Matriarchs if we needed to, but with Abigail’s powers seemingly fully back and then some, it would be better not to let everyone know that the katyhoppers were mind readers, 2.0 and The Clarence Clone in particular.
“My world is going to be destroyed,” Fancy said quietly. “If our now-deposed king could enter my mind and help me to save it, then I would take that risk.”
Abigail got a funny smile on her face. “The good of the many outweighs the needs of the few. Sis and I risked similar before, when our world was under attack. This world deserves the same help.” She reached her hand to 2.0. “Prove that Kitty’s right to trust you.”
He took her hand in his. “I’ll do my best. And not only because I know the rest of you are all ready to kill me if you even think something’s going wrong.”
“I think LaRue enhanced your brain from your original’s. You seem a lot smarter than Ronaldo Number One.”
This earned me a grin. “He was in love with her. I’m not. That probably helps.”
“I’m sure it does. Was she in love with him, do you think?”
“I don’t know, but I doubt it. She’s been alive a long time, much longer than she looks. When you’re that old, you probably have a fondness for someone, but love?” 2.0 shrugged. “I think she loves her mission.”
“What is her mission?” Reader asked.
2.0 looked mildly surprised by this question. “To take over the galaxy.”
I sighed. “Or, as we call it, James, routine.”
Abigail laughed. “Nice to know nothing ever changes. Okay, Ronnie, let’s see if we can reach the smartest guy on any planet and figure out how to save this one.”
Abigail and 2.0 faced each other, held both hands, and concentrated. Couldn’t speak for anyone else, but I was ready to knock him to the ground if she appeared to be in any kind of distress.
She knew it, too. “It’s okay, Kitty. Remember, if you guys are stressed, it makes me stressed, if you’re angry it makes me angry, and so on. So relax—I’ll let you know if something’s wrong.” True enough, that was how part of her talent worked, she was sort of a reverse empath.
2.0 grunted. “This is harder than it looks. I’ve never tried this before, so can you all stop sending threatening thoughts about me out? I can feel them through Abby’s mind and not only is all the distrust unsettling, understandable or not, but it’s making it really hard for the two of us to link up.”
“Why are you calling her Abby?” Reader asked suspiciously.
2.0 heaved a sigh. “Because that’s the nickname she prefers. I’m in her mind, remember? There are some things that are fairly easy to spot.”
“Let’s let them work, gang.” I took a giant step back and the others followed suit.
Before we had any time to fret, Abigail jerked. “Kitty, I’ve reached Chuck!”
“That’s awesome, go team.”
She and 2.0 opened their eyes. They both looked terrified.
“No,” he said, voice shaking. “It’s not.”
CHAPTER 76
“COME AGAIN, RONNIE?”
“All the rest of your people are captured.”
2.0 sounded as freaked out as he and Abigail both looked. “They’re in one of the ships above us.”
“Chuck said we need to run and hide, Kitty.” Abigail matched 2.0’s terror. “He said to tell you that we’re up against people who are like Thanagarians. Complete with the attitudes.”
“Oh. That’s not good.” Looked around. We could run down, but the katyhopper Matriarchs were up here, and I wasn’t going to allow them to be destroyed. “Follow me!”
I ran toward the katyhoppers, everyone else running after me. Reached them pretty quickly, and I’d been right, they were the multicolored Matriarchs. Heard Reader explaining who they were to those we’d found in the castle. Unsurprisingly, 2.0 and The Clarence Clone had no idea what the katyhoppers were.
“We’re under attack,” I said without a lot of preamble. “We all need to get off the top of the mountain.”
The Matriarchs all waved their antennae calmly. They knew what was coming, better than I did. And they were not leaving, thank you very much. Because they felt I’d need them. Well, nice to have more backup.
“What are Thanagarians?” Abigail asked. “Chuck didn’t give us a picture, he knocked us out of his mind fast.”
“That might mean the Thanagarians have mind-reading capabilities or similar.” Fantastic. That meant the Matriarchs weren’t going to have the edge. “And Thanagarians are hawk people. Like Hawkgirl and Hawkman.”
“And that means absolutely nothing to me,” 2.0 said. Could tell Fancy felt the same, and the princesses probably didn’t have a full grasp, either.
“They are comic book characters,” Rahmi said, proving me totally wrong.
“Humanoids with wings, so very birdlike humanoids,” Rhee added, showing that both of them had been boning up on things I cared about.
“In the comics the Thanagarians are warlike,” Reader said. “So that certainly fits.”
“And that means those who captured the other Gods are not the same as those who saved Lecanora from the castle,” Fancy concluded. “How do we fight these Thanagarians?”
“Having Superman around helps.” But they’d captured Superman, in the form of Jeff. And Batman and the Flash, aka Chuckie and Christopher, too. Plus all our other potential Justice League and Avengers stand-ins.
Sure, I’d been Wonder Woman in Bizarro World, but here I was Wolverine With Boobs. Normally that was enough, but right now, wished I had Wolverine’s adamantium claws, because I wasn’t sure if my skills were going to be up to the task.
“We have Megalomaniac Girl with us.” Reader flashed me the cover boy grin. “That’s usually all we need.”
“You’re a liar, but I love you for it, James.” Before I could say anything else, Fancy gasped and pointed up.
Sure enough, the hull of one of the ships opened up and bird people flew out. They weren’t as human as Hawkgirl or Hawkman. They were humanoid, and they had giant wings, but Hawkgirl and her comics compatriots had human faces and bodies and they wore raptor masks as their helmets and such, along with attractive, skimpy outfits to show off impressive abs and other muscles.
These didn’t look or dress that way. Though they had the same giant wings as Hawkgirl, their heads were bird heads, complete with beaks and eyes that indicated they were not now, nor would they ever be, mammals. Their arms were muscular, but ended in bird claws, not hands, and while they weren’t wearing clothing on their upper bodies, it was impossible to tell if they were ripped or not, because they were covered with feathers.
Their lower bodies were far more humanoid. Unlike the tight track pants that Hawkgirl favored, they were all in what looked a lot like Roman togas or tunics, but only the skirt part, which went down to mid-thigh on all of them. Their legs had no feathers, but appeared to be covered in down. Their feet were a combo of human feet and bird claws that any number of horror movie makeup artists would love to imitate.
The only guess I had for which were males and females was size—the females might have had breasts, but since they all appeared to be quite muscular, the feathers did a good job of hiding gender. Took a wild one and figured the smaller and slighter ones were the females.
Even though they appeared to be weapons all on their own, they were carrying weapons as well. Completing the Hawkgirl comparisons, most of them were carrying maces or flails. On the plus side, I saw no projectile weapons, but then again, their ships had those in spades.
As they flew nearer, Ginger backed up against me, growling and hissing, and Wilbur shoved next to me, growling and snarling. Clearly they weren’t fans of the hawk people.
“Stay with Kitty,” I said quietly. “Kitty doesn’t want Ginger or Wilbur attacking or getting hurt.”
Considered calling for the Poofs, but diplomacy should be tried first. Not that I was going to try it for long, but I knew without asking that the attempt had to be made.
Some of the hawk people landed. The rest stayed in the air, wings flapping lazily. Now that they were closer, noted that each one of them wore a circlet with a shiny jewel that sat right over their foreheads, as if it was a third eye.
One who I felt was a male stepped forward. “You will surrender.”
“Or what?”
He blinked at me. One of those very birdlike blinks. Other than the Peregrines—and Bellie the parrot, on rare occasion—I wasn’t much of a girl for birds. This group wasn’t doing anything to change my mind. “We claim this world in the name of Beta Sixteen.”
“Nice to see you’ve joined the solar community with gusto. This world already belongs to the people of Beta Eight, sorry.”
“We have destroyed their king,” the spokesbird said. “Therefore, we now rule this planet.”
“Not how this works. But let’s be polite. I’d like to know what you call yourselves, as a race, I mean.”
“Why would that matter?”
“To me? Honestly it doesn’t matter all that much. I’m going to call you Hawkpeople no matter what. Well, I might call you Thanagarians, too. It’ll depend on my mood and if we are ever, at any time, friends. However, if you’d like the others to use your preferred designations of choice, I’d spit it out right now.”
A smaller specimen, so probably a female, stepped up. “We are the Rapacians. And we demand your complete surrender.” She sounded female. Sort of. Their voices had a cawing tone to them, as if they were about to screech or squawk, not talk. Maybe they did screech or squawk and the universal translator turned it into something we could understand. Decided now wasn’t the time to care.
“Or, I ask again, what?”
“Or we will destroy you,” the male said.
“Okay, good to know. Why is it that you think you have the right to destroy this planet and all the people on it?”
They stared at me, big bird eyes unblinking. “Because we want it,” the female said finally.
“Doesn’t everyone else want it, too?”
They nodded. “But we are here first,” the male said.
“Oh, the old ‘I saw her first’ rule. Yeah, I can confirm that that one doesn’t really hold up over time, here or in a court of law.”
“Why not?” the female asked.
“Because we were here first. And I say that the people who live on the planet get to keep it, because it’s theirs, and they were really here first.”
“We have captured your people,” the male said derisively. “Easily.”
“Using subterfuge, sure. Not in a straight-out fight.”
“Are you suggesting we fight?” the female asked. Was pretty sure she was trying to sound cagey. She didn’t do it well.
“Oh, no, not at all, at least, not at this precise time. But why use a dead body as a trap? Just curious and all.”
“We are no friends to those from Beta Twelve,” the female said haughtily. “They have lost the Way and want harmony. We have not lost the Way and we want dominati
on.”
“Huh, interesting, especially for people who didn’t have space travel until those nice other planets gave it to them.”
“They have shown that they are not strong,” the male said. “Therefore, we no longer will follow their rule.”
Interesting. Apparently they were mistaking kindness for weakness. At least, I hoped. But we needed information and I also needed to come up with some kind of plan for what to do. Meaning it was back to my most favorite go-to move—keep ’em talking.
“We tend to like to know the names of the people we’re talking to, by the way. One of my names is Kitty. What are your names?”
They were quiet again.
“Sorry, but was that a hard question?” Reader asked. “Because if you’re so primitive that you don’t have names for each other, I don’t see how you can hope to claim another planet. I don’t see how you can keep your own, frankly. One of my names is James, by the way. I mention it because we’re not primitives.”
That worked. “I am Otari,” the guy I was going to call Hawkman said. “And this is Kares,” he indicated the female, aka Hawkgirl. “I am the leader of our forces involved in this battle, and she is my second in command.”
Nice to know I’d guessed genders right.
“What are those with you?” Kares pointed to the katyhoppers. Which had to be her being cagey again, because I knew they had Saffron, Pinky, and Turkey up there along with King Benny and Zanell, as well as the five strautruch. And all my people. Wondered if they had my daughter, too. Decided getting really, seriously pissed was probably in my best interests, so assumed they did.
“The actual highest sentient lifeform on this planet. And they don’t want to let you destroy their home or their people, either. Oh, and I don’t think you’ve destroyed the king as much as you think you have.”
Otari glared at me. At least it looked like a glare. Wasn’t sure, but probably best to assume glaring unless or until this was proven to be his Pleasant Expression Face. “We understand we have captured the Gods of this planet. That makes the planet ours.”