“Ain’t no use runnin’!” Charlie yelled as he thrust his revolver forward, but before he could squeeze off a shot we were all suddenly thrown into the air by a powerful wave of force as The Supernal turned and threw her hands in our direction. Ace, Tango and I all managed to land on our feet but Charlie and the rest of the soldiers that had been caught within the wave fell hard to the ground around us.
“Alright, Tango! Let’s get busy!” Ace yelled as he drew his gleaming sword and darted toward The Supernal, who’s powerful arms were now by her side with her fingers curled upward like claws.
“Right behind you, pal,” Tango confirmed as he dashed after Ace.
The Supernal sent another large group of our men flying into the air once again as she unleashed another wave of her telekinetic force, but Ace and Tango were able to push through the invisible wave of power as Ace’s swords somehow seemed to slice through the unseen forces that were pouring out of The Supernal’s outstretched hands.
“That’s impossible!” The Supernal gasped as she ducked a sword sweep from Ace and quickly backed away.
“Then I guess you’ve never heard of The Fifth Blade,” Ace boasted as he held his glimmering sword before him.
“That is not The Fifth Blade,” The Redeemer scoffed as he stood beside The Supernal while I directed our forces to surround their four subordinate Knights.
“You’re right, it’s not, but it was forged from a shard of The Fifth Blade and it carries with it the exact same blessing,” Ace said firmly.
“You are not worthy of the Goddess’ blessing. Release that accursed weapon at once, worm!” The Redeemer ordered.
“If you want it, then come and take it!” Ace dared as the shorter but much more muscular Tango stood ready by his side.
“Gladly!” The Redeemer yelled as he zoomed toward them.
Ace swept upward with his sword but was shocked to see that his blade was nowhere near its mark as The Redeemer suddenly stopped his approach a few feet away from them. In the blink of an eye The Redeemer zoomed forward once again and fired a right-handed haymaker that would have taken Ace’s head off if he had not been swift enough to block the blow with his mechanical right arm. The force of the super powered punch still caused Ace to lose his balance and he tumbled head over heels backward as he finally fell to the ground. The Redeemer attempted to zip after him but Tango quickly dropped to the ground and swept him from his feet before he had the chance.
I thrust my Desert Eagle forward and emptied an entire clip at The Supernal as she extended her hands and telekinetically lifted Tango into the air against his will. To my surprise she threw her right hand in my direction and stopped my bullets in midair, then Tango cried out in excruciating pain as she squeezed her left hand into a fist and threatened to crush him with her powerful telekinesis.
“Strangers, concentrate fire on her!” I ordered to my men as The Redeemer and Ace both climbed to their feet.
The Redeemer lunged at Ace but swung and missed as Ace quickly rolled beneath the attack. Tango suddenly dropped to the ground as Ace sprang into the air and sliced through the invisible stream of force that The Supernal had ensnared him in. The Strangers and I emptied our clips in The Supernal’s direction as Charlie and the government agents used their gas grenades to push the four subordinate Anokians further away from their Commanders. Scores of motionless Strangers and government agents littered the ground around us but even though the powerful Anokian Knights had torn through a third of our combined forces, we still had them outnumbered eleven to one.
Most of our bullets were caught within the telekinetic barrier that The Supernal had thrown before her, but even the ones that made it through bounced harmlessly away from her Anokian-Steel armor. Still we continued to fire in order to keep her busy, but my heart skipped a beat when she suddenly focused her fiery gaze on me.
“Take care of these two, Jonas! I must deal with this girl!” she shouted before she leapt into the air so high that she almost appeared to fly.
Holy crap! I thought as I turned and dashed away as fast as I could. Under normal circumstances I was more than confident in my combat abilities but I knew that I didn’t stand a chance in hell against someone as powerful as her.
“Charlie! Fall back and help Alias! Forget about the rest of them!” Ace yelled as The Supernal landed and floored my entire group of Strangers with a powerful blast of her telekinetic force.
A thundering gunshot suddenly rang out just as The Supernal threw her hands in my direction. I tripped and tumbled to the ground as her invisible tendrils of power wrapped around my right leg and yanked it backward. I thought for sure that I was finished until her head suddenly jerked wildly to the left as Charlie’s bullet pushed through her invisible barrier and slammed against her face.
“Not so fast, Hoss!” Charlie said as smoke rose from the long barrel of his ridiculously large revolver.
“You just made a big mistake, maggot!” The Supernal growled as what was left of our combined forces moved between me and her. Charlie’s bullet had not pierced her dense Anokian skin but there was now a deep bruise on her once flawless face, and from the look in her eyes she wasn’t very happy about it.
“You can save the yappin’, Hoss, ‘cause I ain’t interested… Now, git her, boys!” Charlie yelled as he extended his hand to help me from the ground.
The Supernal roared and clenched her left fist just as I made it to my feet. Suddenly, the entire group that stood between me and The Supernal flew into the air as if a gigantic invisible hand had snatched them all from the ground. Charlie and I backed away while firing our guns in her direction but she easily stopped the bullets in midair with no more than a simple wave of her right hand. The bullets dropped harmlessly to the ground as she slammed her hands together and grinded them in front of her face. Terrified screams filled the air as the ensnared Strangers and government agents that floated before her were suddenly crushed into a pile of broken bones and mangled flesh by her power.
“Ace, what in the Sam Hell did you git us into, boy?” Charlie said as he grabbed my arm and yanked me along with him as he took refuge within our fleet of SUVs.
“Is that your way of asking for help, Charlie!” Ace yelled as he and Tango ducked and dodged The Redeemer’s relentless super-fast attacks.
“Damn sure is! Now you git your butt over here before this damn girl turns us into—” Charlie started but he stopped midsentence as The Supernal unleashed another telekinetic blast that threw the entire fleet of SUVs that we were hiding amongst into the air.
“Tango, go!” Ace yelled as he tossed his sword in Tango’s direction while Charlie and I rolled and dashed away in order to avoid being crushed by the SUVs as they fell back to the ground. Tango caught Ace’s sword in stride and darted towards us while The Supernal unleashed another wave of power that ripped through the wrecked SUVs and threw Charlie and me into the air before we could leap away. We both suddenly crashed hard to the ground below as Tango leapt into the air and used Ace’s sword to slice through The Supernal’s invisible torrent of power before she could crush us to death.
“Stay behind me!” Tango ordered as he thrust Ace’s enchanted sword before him and shielded us from the ensuing blast of The Supernal’s power.
Tango gritted his teeth and pushed hard against her constant wave of force but it was only when Charlie and I began to push him in the back that he slowly began to advance toward her. I could feel the chilling winds of her otherworldly power as it whipped across my face while the three of us methodically inched our way towards her.
Meanwhile, the Anokian subordinates that Charlie and his crew had released in order to save me fired up their spaceship and prepared to escape as Ace and The Redeemer continued to clash in the middle of Times Square. Due to his nearly unrivaled combat skills Ace was holding his own against the super powered Knight Commander, but as the fight wore on The Redeemer’s super speed as well as Ace’s lack of that special sword of his, finally started to catch up to him.
“Guns up!” Tango barked to Charlie and me as he suddenly sent a wave of The Supernal’s power ripping back at her with a spinning sweep of Ace’s sword. “Alright, let ‘em rip!” he bellowed as he tucked and rolled forward just as The Supernal’s telekinetic rebound slammed into her and threw her off balance before she could react. Thundering gunshots filled the air as Charlie and I unleashed a barrage of bullets after her, but to our surprise she somehow managed to regain her balance and thrust her hands forward just in time to stop our bullets in midair.
My heart skipped a beat and a sudden chill shot down my spine as Tango abruptly sprang to his feet and swept Ace’s sword upward. The Supernal quickly pulled her head backward, trying desperately to dodge the blow, but a fountain of dark red blood spewed into the air as the tip of the enchanted sword sliced into her unguarded throat.
“Jonas!” The Supernal cried out as she fell to her knees with blood spurting from the gaping wound in her neck as well as her mouth. Ten meters away from us, The Redeemer hammered Ace to the ground with his right hand and was just about to follow up with a left when he heard The Supernal’s gurgled cry for help. In a flash he whipped around to face us just in time to witness Tango swinging Ace’s sword for The Supernal’s neck once again. The Anokian ship behind him blasted off just as The Redeemer rocketed towards The Supernal at almost five-hundred miles per hour. In a blur, he zipped by faster than the eye could see and ripped her from the path of Tango’s death blow just before he could decapitate her.
The Anokian ship hovered overhead as The Redeemer crossed the street in an instant and came to a screeching halt forty meters away from us. I couldn’t see his face due to the dark visor on the front of his sleek helmet but it was clear that he was furious as he stared down at The Supernal, whose entire body shuddered with shock as she lay within his lean yet powerful arms. Her hands trembled violently as she used her telekinesis to keep the gaping wound in her neck closed but it was still clear to see that if she didn’t receive medical attention soon she would be dead within moments.
“Stop him! Don’t let them get away!” Ace barked as he scrambled to his feet, but unfortunately The Redeemer kneeled and leapt sixty feet into the air before any of us could move to stop him. Charlie and I fired our guns after him but our bullets bounced harmlessly away from his armor as he soared towards the Anokian ship that hovered overhead.
“Dammit!” Ace cursed as The Redeemer finally landed safely inside the Anokian ship. “Where’s Reaper when you need him?” Ace continued as he ripped his mask off and glared upward just as the Anokian ship ignited its white hot thrusters and zoomed away. We all watched in silence as the small spaceship streaked across the sky like a shooting star, then disappeared into the night.
“What in the hell happened to your arm?” Tango asked Ace as he finally took his eyes from the sky and turned to face us. I hadn’t noticed it at first, but as I looked over to Ace’s right arm I saw that his metallic prosthetic limb was barely hanging on.
“I got my ass kicked. What’s it look like?” Ace snapped as he glared at Tango.
“Guess it’s not so easy without this special sword of yours, huh?” Tango smirked as he glanced down at Ace’s sword, which he still held in his hands.
“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” Ace demanded as he stepped forward and stood nose to nose with Tango. To me it seemed like Tango was only kidding but Ace had obviously not taken the remark as a joke.
“Exactly what it sounded like, pal, and you may wanna cool your jets before you find yourself missing more than just that ar—”
Before Tango could finish his sentence Ace struck him hard in the forearm with his left hand then slugged him in the face with a left hook. Tango stumbled backward and dropped Ace’s sword to the ground as his right arm went completely limp due to the nerve attack that Ace had landed on his arm. They both glared at each other with their respective right arms dangling uselessly by their sides, and I could tell that despite their temporary disabilities they were not going to stop unless one of us stepped in to break them up. Just as they dashed towards each other, I whipped my pistol forward and fired a shot between them and stopped them both within their tracks.
“Enough of this nonsense!” I fumed as the sound of my gunshot echoed throughout the deserted streets. “We should be figuring out a way to save our planet! We don’t have time to be fighting each other!”
“I don’t take orders from Strangers. And don’t ever fire that gun at me again,” Ace snapped.
“I was just trying to stop you guys from killing each other so we can figure out where to go from here. Your people sent you to help us for a reason and I don’t think it’s in anyone’s best interest if we stand around wasting time while an enemy spaceship prepares to destroy us,” I replied as I placed my pistol back in the holster on my left hip.
“Girl’s gotta point, Hoss,” Charlie added. “Now, I know you and Tango have been itchin’ to git it on with Round Three, and hell I’d even buy a ticket to that show— but we just ain’t got time for that right now.”
“This is what they want. They want us fighting each other instead of focusing our energies on fighting them. And that’s the only way we can win this… together. And I’m not just talking about The Strangers and the U.S. Government. We need everyone. Every nation, every army, and every person who has ever walked the face of this planet. We’ll all have to fight… otherwise we’re finished,” I said firmly as I glanced from Tango to Ace.
“That’s a lot easier said than done, Audrey. Most of the other countries hate us and the ones that didn’t hate us in the past certainly do now because they all blame us for everything that’s happened,” Ace replied.
“That doesn’t matter, Ace, because sooner or later they’ll all realize that they have no choice but to join forces— just as you did. The last thing you said to me before today was that when you found me you would kill me. Do you remember that? But here we are fighting alongside each other because we both realized that the threats of the extraterrestrials that covet this world are much more important than whatever differences we may have had in the past,” I urged.
“And what about The Suspect?” Ace asked.
“What about him?” I questioned.
“Does he really mean to detonate that bomb onboard The Pillar?”
“I’m not sure, but what I do know is that the threat of that bomb is all the more reason for us to go after Reaper,” I answered.
“That’s impossible, Audrey. We’ll never be able to rescue him from The Pillar,” Ace responded.
“What do you suggest we do then Ace? How are we supposed to get him back?” I demanded.
“I don’t know… and I’m not sure if we ever will,” Ace admitted as he hung his head in sorrow while I struggled to hold back tears.
“No. We can’t give up on him, Ace— because if we do we might as well kiss this entire world goodbye,” I said as I quickly wiped my tears away and tried my best to project confidence. In truth, I wasn’t sure if I would ever see Reaper again but I knew that giving up hope was the worst thing we could do.
“You’re right,” Ace acknowledged as he tried his best to remain positive despite our circumstances— but as I gazed into his worried green eyes I could tell that he was just as skeptical about our chances as I was.
15. NEVER BETTER
HOWIE:
“DAMMIT JASON, HOLD STILL!” I SNAPPED AS I HELD THE soldering iron away from his arm long enough for him to suppress his jitters. Ace was clearly worried as he sat upright and shirtless in front of me on an operating table in one of the moon base’s many labs. His entire body was badly bruised from his latest dust up with Jonas, The Redeemer but fortunately for him he was able to use his cybernetic arm to take most of the damage this time. Unfortunately for me, I was the one who had to repair the extensive damage that was done to the sophisticated prosthetic.
Jason was wearing nothing but a pair of dark grey sweat pants as he nervously sat before m
e and I was wearing a white lab coat over dark slacks and a light grey polo. I had completed most of the repairs to the cybernetic arm but I still had some minor kinks to work out with the soldering iron. In most cases Jason had nerves of steel, but I guess he just didn’t like the idea of me poking around in his arm with a tool that could reach almost five-hundred degrees Celsius.
“Why couldn’t you just put me to sleep like last time?” he asked as he nervously glanced at the tools in my hand.
“Because I didn’t have to chop your freaking arm off this time. Now stop crying and hold still,” I grumbled as I fired up the soldering tool and resumed my work on his opened arm.
“Well it still hurts,” he complained.
“Yeah, well, maybe that pain will remind you not to screw it up next time. Do you have any idea how difficult it was to build this thing?” I asked.
“Well excuse me for using your precious robot arm to shield the rest of my body from getting crushed to death, Howie,” Jason said sarcastically.
“Hey, I’d watch that attitude if I were you. I wouldn’t want something in this robot arm of yours to mistakenly get melted,” I smirked, trying to lighten the mood.
“You’ll be building yourself a robot face if that happens,” Jason quipped, causing us both to chuckle for a bit. “Do you think you could fit a knife in there?” Jason asked after our laughter died down.
“Yeah, I suppose I could,” I said as I studied the inner dimensions of the arm.
“Good, can you make it out of Anokian-Steel?” Jason asked.
“Wells would have to sign off on that, of course, and it would add some extra weight to the arm but as long as you’re okay with that I’m fine with it. I am curious as to what you need a knife for, though,” I admitted.
“To stab bad guys, of course. I sure as hell ain’t taking up whittlin’, Hoss,” Jason joked, in his best Charlie impersonation.
Savior Part 3: Legion of The Godhand (The Savior Series) Page 13