Debris shattered the windows, sirens went off, and everyone scattered, pouring out of the building. Ace and Levi were stuck underneath a mound of steel beams, a glittering, iridescent shield around them, Invictus protecting them from imminent death.
Coughing and groaning, shaking and still under the blankets, Ace, Levi, and Chewie did not move.
“I think I’m cursed,” Ace said.
The Rock turned green.
“No, no. Let’s not panic. Let’s try and make our way out,” Levi replied.
“I can get you out,” Invictus said. “You have to promise to be nice though.”
Ace and Levi nodded furiously, more than happy to agree to whatever he wanted to get out alive.
“Buckle-up,” Invictus exclaimed.
A feeling of overwhelming dread sunk in as Levi laid down and prepared himself for death. The shield, an iridescent orb, spun in place. It tore up the floor, split the metal beams, the only part of the apartment left being a part of the floor the bed was on.
It spun, churning downwards, wood flying haphazardly, the dog barking, and they clutched the bed as it descended through several floors of wood, metal, and dead neighbors.
It slowly stopped spinning and landed on the bottom floor. Nothing could be seen through the unsettled dust and ash, the only thing they could hear was more screeching of metal and screaming outside.
Slowly, the orb rolled forward, into the parking lot, and came to a slow stop, all three of them and the bed untouched. The shield didn’t fade, it started to expand and Levi watched incredulously as Invictus stood next to Ace, looking younger and younger.
Invictus was now a small child, with a foam sword, a blanket cape with stars and moons, and a plastic shield, declaring nothing was stronger than the power of friendship and love, as Ace was losing his sanity with two hours of sleep.
“What the fuck,” Levi whispered. “How is he this strong without you even changing ?”
“The closer to home, the stronger I become,” Invictus replied.
Ace shrugged, still not knowing what it meant after the many different times he had asked Invictus to repeat it to him. The cannibalistic monsters inside Levi’s earrings told him the same thing, the closer to home, the more their strength grows.
Which made no sense, because Ace’s entire apartment building was destroyed, most of his neighbors dead, the survivors sitting in their cars, watching the sky burn.
Night had embraced Paradis once again, the sky lit up with fireworks and giant pieces of flaming metal and corpses. Emergency patrol vehicles flew off into the hyper way, dodging the hazards, attempting to rescue anyone that might still be alive.
Atlaan was being destroyed, pieces of Sky Stadium falling apart, spreading the fire because the GPS had a set course. Sky Stadium was meant to circle all of Atlaan, and if not stopped soon, the entire town would be on fire.
“Rikka is up there,” Levi said. “She has a show tonight.”
“She got out, don’t worry,” Ace replied. “Emergency pods are coming out right now!”
Emergency pods flew out, some leaving too late, combusting in mid-air, pieces of metal exploding, raining over the sky, popping the balloons that floated upwards, mixing in with the confetti falling downwards, setting them on fire, miniature meteors, striking anyone in their path.
“Rikka’s dead,” Levi cried. “ She’s gone. ”
“Maybe she left,” Ace said. “She has to be alive. We’ll find her.”
Ace coaxed his boyfriend and dog up, giving them plenty of neck rubs, which strangely works just as well for Leviathan as it did for Chewie.
A giant chunk of something fell onto another apartment building next to the one that was destroyed, splitting it into two, and Ace immediately spread his arms out, expanding the size of his shield. It covered half of the street, pushing the building back, and the giant sheet of metal slid off, with a loud boom , and demolished the rest of the building.
A sound similar to thunder rang out as the metal sheet slid off, and people gasped, as a simple man in shorts and a stained, sweaty shirt saved them all from death. They clapped, cheered, cell phones recorded, and Ace blushed as his neighbors came up to him, thankful, and then desperately begging for him to never leave for the rest of the night.
“You can help me too, right,” Levi asked Tair and Trom.
“Will you let us consume the yellow, four-legged beast,” they asked.
“No.”
They refused to help.
They refused to help as more and more flaming debris plummeted over several blocks, but thankfully the chaos was not long-lasting.
The owner of Sky Stadium, unlike most, was responsible and had a fail-safe that could move the floating spire of death over the emptiest part of the ocean, so the city wouldn’t be destroyed.
Ace, Levi, and all of Atlaan watched from afar as the last of it exploded, all of it falling into the murky depths, far away from the underwater towns.
Levi screamed, he screamed because Rikka never picked up after the dozens of phone calls he made, and no one else could reach her.
Not her parents, not Mary Jane, none of his seventy-something family members could reach Rikka Slater-White and no one knew where she was, no one knew where anyone was because ten blocks had giant chunks of metal and bodies decorating the storefront windows and gutters.
Ace cried, because Levi cried, and then the dog cried because everyone was crying. For the first time, Levi allowed himself to be vulnerable in front of someone else but it took the death of someone he loved.
It was horrifically beautiful, the fireworks exploding along with the wreckage over the ocean. The final number was going to have a beautiful fireworks display, and in the sky, the letters flashed little hearts as the limbs of young people fell to the ocean floor.
Ace and Levi’s attention was caught by shouts in the parking lot and they turned to see people looking upwards in the sky, pointing, a strange light soaring, and then plummeting right down, leaving a dent in the parking lot.
The Rock landed in front of Ace’s feet, bright yellow and friendly.
The chum was released to the media, the feeding frenzy was intense.
The same young man who was found to be in a relationship with a witch several years ago that had killed and eaten several children was revealed to be charged with murder during the morning news.
During the demise of Sky Stadium, neighbors and passerby had recorded the same exact young man run down several blocks, guarding people against biblical flames punishing a town stewed in sin.
When the sun rose over Atlaan when most of the bodies had been swept off the streets and the blood washed away by the emergency services and good Samaritans, Levi awoke to many missed calls on his phone from his wife, and Ace was arrested yet again for breaking the terms of his bail by leaving the confines of his house, the numerous videos uploaded online used as evidence.
Levi was at his cousin Mike’s studio loft apartment, sleeping in his bed, with Chewie, and Mike had been up all night, making various phone calls, yelling at several people, furiously typing away at his holo-screen.
Around six AM Mike’s two assistants came in, Oreth and Tinh. There were his drones, dressed like him, always orbiting, like little moons. Oreth came with a portable desk, Tinh with several books as legal references.
Levi awoke at ten am to see what looked like a small office as more people congregated inside Mike’s loft, interns from a nearby college trying to get in the minimum required hours to graduate.
The lighting was perfect, the beautiful modern walls creating natural light for what effect Mike was trying to invoke, public sympathy. A white sheet was pinned to the wall, and the camera was adjusted so that it appeared to be a pure white background.
Levi marveled at the thriftiness of the entire setup, the simple stool put in the center, and looked around, trying to find out who was going to be interviewed. It didn’t take him long to find her, she was the only person there who wasn’t dressed as if they were going to an arraignment hearing and she looked like Candice.
She opened the bathroom door, long brown hair, smiling, and Chewie ran up to her. He was so excited it seemed as if he would explode from her mere presence. Levi did not stop to think that it was not who he thought it was because Chewie was willing to greet anyone who opened any door.
Levi’s hair stood up, the pressure in the room dropped, and electric waves pulsated over his body. The woman slammed the door shut, but the silverback gorilla broke it open, hitting the doorknob repeatedly with his foot until it broke off.
Blue sparks skittered across the inside of Mike’s apartment floor as he saw red and tuned out the screams of terror around him. Levi pushed down the door, beating his chest, making guttural grunts, and claiming his territory by picking up the heavy door, raising it over his head and-
He paused.
The woman was in tears, cowering in the corner, Chewie was barking and jumping, and Mike was holding up a chair, instead of one of the many guns he owned.
“Candice, Candice is in your house,” Levi rasped.
“Levi, put the door down,” Mike screamed, swinging a chair wildly in the air as if it were a lethal weapon.
“I just came to help Ace,” Sierra shouted. “I’m leaving!”
The pressure in the room returned to normal, but Levi’s hair still stuck out, a warning sign of his insanity, and he numbly walked over, placed the door back into its frame, and apologized.
“She, she looks just like her and—”
“This is Sierra! Her name is Sierra, ” Mike insisted. “She came for an interview!”
She exited the bathroom, and Chewie had a defensive pose, growling, barking at anyone who got too close, and Levi’s senses returned, his feet hot, standing in a puddle of coffee, his coffee mug broken all over the floor.
Sierra was only mentioned in passing, even though Ace and she were together a year, and now he knew why. His skin crawled, wondering if he was the replacement as well for Ronnie.
She was similar, but her demeanor was much softer, and she wore regular clothes, not the constant, I’m only wearing this to be decent, that Candice wore. Her hair was brown, instead of black like Candice’s but all her other features were similar as well, and Levi didn’t like looking at her longer than necessary.
“Who are you,” Sierra shouted.
“This is Levi. He mistook you for a robber,” Mike lied.
“I look nothing like a robber,” Sierra exclaimed. “I even came to check on the dog!”
Chewie barked and wagged in approval, and walked around her in a protective circle, and Levi remembered that Mary Jane said that every day he was more and more like his father, and worried that now the dog was afraid of him too.
“I thought you were going to kill everyone,” Levi said.
“Why,” Sierra asked. “ Why!?”
It dawned on Levi that Sierra didn’t know. She didn’t know, and for the first time, Levi wanted to tell someone the truth because she deserved to know. She would not know, because Mike told him that he thought it would be best if he left, and now Levi had no choice but to do something he should have done long ago.
He called his wife.
