Rishaan

 

Ademola Sowande, the host to the alien that called itself Paladin, was as in-the-dark as I was, but he had a suspicion who one of the roof-jumpers in Canada might be. He’d been in communication with the host of Emissary, who had been in the area when the meteor shower started. They’d not been in contact with the others since the alien machine had appeared, and the other figure was a complete mystery.

For the past half an hour we’d been watching the huge main screen, where the news channels were still tracking the mysterious figures as they moved from rooftop to rooftop, dropping down lower and lower in the process. They were drawing closer to their machine while staying out of its line of sight and avoiding the smaller drones that were rumoured to be running around below.

From time-to-time, the media’s narrative would be interrupted by live-feeds of missiles, rockets and some experimental kinetic weapons that were fired from long-range. Every single one was intercepted by its defences before they arrived.

It had become quite a regular occurrence to see streams of projectiles peppering the sky, along with a strange glow lighting up the buildings in the late afternoon.

“What’s going on?” I heard Martin ask as he stepped up beside me. 

I chanced a glance up at him, catching sight of his mussed hair and the strain in his jaw. It couldn’t be easy to be all the way over here without much of a clue what was going on. The time in Austria was the same as in Sweden, so it was getting pretty late and we were all flagging.

“Well, there’s two symbiote hosts running across the rooftops of Calgary, doing their best Neo impressions. Ademola thinks that he might know who one of them is, but the other one is an unknown at this point,” I answered, flicking through a few images that I’d managed to scrape together from the internet. “Oh, and the military is throwing everything they have at it, but nothing can break through.”

He nodded, peering over the gallery I’d accumulated of the figures. He ran his fingers across the late-night shadow on his chin, but I couldn’t tell what he was thinking.

“Do we have any more news from the girls?” he asked, glancing back at my face.

I shook my head and he sighed, but I scrolled through the messages I’d been exchanging with Ademola anyway, just so that he could be kept in the loop.

Gasps from the others in the room caused us to look up, but all eyes were on the screen again. My breath caught as I read the headline that was stamped just beneath the newscaster.

The news anchor on screen was trying to keep his expression neutral, but he looked as tense as anyone else in our room. It wasn’t hard to see why and there was hesitation in his voice as he read out the sentence that had caught everyone’s attention.

‘US prepares to launch a nuclear attack on Canadian soil’

“What the fuck are they thinking?!” Martin barked, stepping away from me so that he could get a better view of the screen. He began barking orders to get someone from the USA on the line, and everything in the control room went to hell-in-a-handbasket. 

The feed returned to showing us a long-range view of the city, and I glanced back just as the camera zoomed in closer, revealing the outline of the two figures as they dropped down out of sight. 

 

---

Erin

Every breath felt like a dagger was being driven into my chest. Elsewhere, I could feel my brain registering nerves only for them to loudly protest their torture. My consciousness was hit by another wave of darkness that threatened to leave me unconscious and defenceless. There was a tiny voice in my head whispering how good it would feel to just lay down and sleep.

The machine below me still rumbled forwards, its legs carrying it towards the cluster of soldiers that had been such a thorn in its side for the last Goddess knows how long. The only reason they were still alive was because of my warrior princess of a girlfriend.

As I felt the first spot of rain on my face, I couldn’t help but smile. The storm wouldn’t wait for me much longer – it was growing impatient.

I wracked my brain, trying to recall all the lessons I’d had at school and university around storms and lightning. It had only been a few hours since my last close encounter of the zap kind, but this time I was trying to do something more specific.

Storms acted like giant static generators, creating a charge as all of the air tumbles and churns to rise above itself. This charge is the opposite to the one that the Earth naturally holds and if there’s anything that everyone knows, it’s that opposites attract. This is especially true in the world of electromagnetism.

As soon as the difference between the cloud and the ground became too great, charged particles known as leaders would be created that were attracted down to the ground. They moved in jerky steps rather than in a smooth movement, so often they got the name ‘step leaders’.

Many of these particles get created each time and they act like cables in the air. They didn’t carry any current until they made contact with the ground. The instant that happens, a pathway is formed and a massive electrical discharge travels from the ground up into the sky in the form of lightning. 

I just had to hope that the machine wasn’t wearing rubber shoes.

Every inch of my body protested as I lifted my left hand to the sky and I gritted my teeth through the agony. I considered waiting for my symbiote to heal a little more before continuing, but I knew deep down that this was the moment.

Ignoring the sliver of self-doubt that had begun to creep up on me, I picked the first song that came into my head and quietly began to sing. Muse joined in almost immediately, her voice enthusiastically singing along, and I closed my eyes. The memories from a few hours earlier were my only guide and I sought to remember how it had felt to manipulate a storm.

I searched for those step leaders that would be streaming downwards, forming their paths for the lightning. Everything was running on auto-pilot at this point but I felt like I could feel them getting ready to make their descent. There was no real way for me to explain it, except to say that I could feel their potential above. 

At the same time, I reached inside the machine with my other hand, using Muse’s senses to search for something of the opposite polarity that I could use to create a path upwards. The machine’s internal components were unbelievably well insulated – the cables were giving me nothing – but the crystals themselves felt like they were humming with charged energies.

That would have to do – I’d just need to hope that it flowed to earth at some point otherwise I wouldn’t get the massive discharge of energy that I needed. It took half a second to create the conditions to form our upward leader, which Muse and I launched heavenward towards the grey clouds overhead. We had to manipulate the electrical field around my body to get it moving, but Muse did that kind of thing with my eyes closed.

Which was convenient.

I didn’t have time to react to what happened next. The descending leader must have made contact with the ascending one, forming a bridge between storm and robot. Physics took over and everything happened far too quickly for my mind to comprehend, even in turbo-boosted brain mode. All I managed to register was a bright, searing flash of light behind my closed eyelids before everything went black.

 

Casey

My heart was pounding in my chest as I waited for some kind of sign that Erin was alive. It had been nearly five minutes since the missile had smashed into the bot and I’d seen no sign of her since.

As I watched, the clouds overhead began swirling and churning around it and I felt myself hold my breath in anticipation. There were gasps from the soldiers around me and some of the spiciest German I’d ever heard from the General in the truck. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that we were all witnessing a spectacle that no human had ever seen before.

To be honest, a couple months ago I would have been thinking the same thing. But right now I was terrified.

The rain, when it came, was sudden and fierce and without warning, a fork of electricity jumped from the stormclouds above to strike the top of the machine. There was barely a second’s delay before the shockwave passed over us, bringing with it the deafening clap-boom of thunder.

My jaw went slack as I stared in awe at what was unfolding before us. The giant spider robot stopped moving mid-step, one of its legs freezing in place halfway through a stride as it came closer and closer.

Its legs began to collapse in on themselves in pairs, beginning at its head. I swore in surprise and disbelief as it suddenly tilted forwards, causing the ground to shake as it collided with the ground.

"Oh shit!"

There was a growing chorus of similar cries that began around me – soldiers were questioning whether it was over and if it was really dead. In the growing confusion, the gloom of night and through sheets of pelting rain, I noticed a small figure plummet limply from the now-defunct robot.

I cried out again, breaking into a blind sprint towards the prone shape on the ground.

“Erin!” I screamed, my tired legs working overtime to get me to her side as quickly as they could. 

The storm had already soaked me all the way to the bone, my feet were sore, and my arms were screaming at me to just let them rest. They didn’t appreciate having been held out for so long, but I ignored everything but the spot where I’d seen someone fall. 

Tears were prickling at my eyes, but they were forgotten too. Besides, my face was already dripping wet, what would a little more hurt?

I could hear someone following some distance behind but I didn’t turn to see who it might be.

As I neared her, the first thing I noticed was that it was definitely Erin, and the second thing was that she wasn’t moving. Her gorgeous red hair was soaked through and had fallen to cover her eyes, her head had turned to one side. She lay completely still, and I dropped down to my knees to see if she was still breathing.

Her hips were twisted in the opposite direction to her head, with her legs splayed haphazardly. I couldn’t see any injuries, but I didn’t dare to move her in case I made anything worse. First aid training kicked in and my first reaction was to reach out to touch my fingertips to her neck, searching for a pulse. She was still warm despite her saturated wet clothes and I could feel a faint rhythmic thumping – she was still alive!

Dad had made me take courses before he’d allow me to go camping and Mom had gone right along with him. They weren’t usually the over-protective kind of parents, but they’d insisted on that. I was thankful that they had now. 

Sebastian fell down to his knees beside me, using his body to shield Erin from the rain and reached out to touch her shoulder. There was a loud zap of static and he flinched away, flicking his wrist in pain. Erin took in a deep, shuddering breath but her eyes remained closed.

“Ow!” the Swede uttered, grumbling to himself. “She shocked me! Her symbiote shocked me!”

Relief washed over me and I gently pushed her onto her side, settling her into the recovery position.

‘The scouts are known to self-destruct when destroyed, so it is interesting that it is still in one piece,’ Artemis told me as we waited for rescue.

Wait, what? Only now do you think to tell me?

If this thing was going to explode should we even be near it?

“We need to get her out of here,” I said, glancing behind us towards the celebrating soldiers. “I don’t think it’s safe to stay.”

 

Sebastian offered to ask for help from the soldiers while I stayed with Erin. I agreed and he dashed off through the pouring rain back towards the mass of movement, backlit by the glow of flashlights from the military presence nearby. When I turned back to her, all the emotion flooded through me at once. I gently pulled her hair out from over her face and caressed her cheeks.

But I needed to know what was happening and whether she needed anything. I reached for her hand and was immediately zapped in turn, making me jerk my hand away. That brought a smile to my face, but I tried again and this time Artemis was able to make contact with Erin’s symbiote.

Muse was working to the limit of her ability and didn’t appreciate the interruptions, but she let me know that Erin was going to be unconscious for at least a day or so. She had taken a near-direct lightning bolt and suffered massive nerve damage as a consequence. That damage needed to heal before she was able to wake up again.

Relief flooded me –  Erin was going to be okay. As the adrenaline began to fade the urge to collapse to the muddy ground was overwhelming, but we weren’t out of the woods just yet.

As soon as our help arrived, we prepared to move the heroine of the hour to a safe place some distance away. Just in case it decided to, y’know, explode.

General Schulz had decided to be helpful – apparently, he was in a good mood – and directed a medic over to us with a stretcher. Mika had decided to help out too when she heard what had happened.

A truck was given orders to wait for us to take us to the nearest airfield once we’d had Erin’s injuries looked over and she was stable enough to move. I didn’t feel like arguing with him over those criteria even if it was pointless having a human physician look her over.

The destruction of the machine meant that the comms blackout was over, with reports flooding in of the situation all across the world. Flights would be able to start up again soon, and we were to be on one of the first airplanes back to Austria.

The end of the radio interference also meant that news of what had happened here would be spreading like wildfire around the world. I was too tired to think of what that would mean in the long term – I just wanted to sleep, goddamnit.

Erin was wrapped in a blanket and covered in a waterproof sheet to keep the water off. She looked so peaceful as she lay there, the war of survival that was raging within her completely hidden behind a face that I’d woken up next to for the last week and a half.

“You are both something special, and it has been a privilege to fight alongside you,” Mika told me as she helped carry the stretcher back.

“You’re welcome to come with us, for sure,” I said, flashing her a grin. “We’ll likely go back to Austria after this, though.”

She politely shook her head, “No. My family is still here and I need to find them. Thank you.”

“Well, I’m glad your family still has you around,” I answered back. “Y’know, if you ever need something, just ask around. I’m sure someone will know where we are.”

A camp was already being set up a short distance back from the road with tents beginning to appear in neat rows. It didn’t surprise me that some more long-term interest was being taken in the disabled machine if I were being honest. Whichever country could unlock its secrets would have a huge advantage over its rivals.

Soldiers had cleared a passage through the bustle of the fledgling camp so that we could carry Erin through without problems. They lined up to stare in awe at the woman that had just felled a giant space mech. She’d also saved their lives because I couldn’t have held out much longer.

I wasn’t spared the looks of amazement, either. Plenty were thrown my way, but it was the injured woman that deserved far more of their adoration. She had mine, too.

Mika helped me settle the stretcher down in a tent, out of the rain, and gave me a salute. That only earned an eye roll from me. Instead, I pulled her into a friendly hug which startled and amused her.

Not long after, the medic returned to take Erin’s blood pressure, monitor her pulse and check for other signs of injury. I had to explain to them what had happened and what her symbiote had told me before they’d give her the all-clear to travel – if it had been anyone else they would have been evacuated to the nearest field hospital.

By the time our transport was ready to go and the stretcher loaded into the back, a few teams of soldiers had started to inspect the fallen scout. Flashlight beams were tracing their way across its massive bulk, and some more permanent floodlights were being hauled towards it. I tried to warn them that it could explode, but the General only ordered a team of engineers to work swiftly so that they could salvage what they could before that happened.

Feeling completely ignored and about ready to fall asleep on my feet, I hauled myself into the back of the truck and sat down alongside my girlfriend. Sebastian came with us, guitar and all, and we set off on the journey to our nearest active airfield so that we could make our flight back to Austria.

I watched the girl that had completely stolen my heart, gently caressing her cheek until I couldn’t keep my eyes open any more. The last thing I remember before sleep overcame me was the sound of Erin’s gentle breathing in my ear.