Alex’s eyes were closed shut. He wasn’t sure if it was safe yet…but as the silence swallowed the hill, he couldn’t resist the urge to open them. He peeked out with one, then the other as he took in the path of destruction from the spacecraft. Looking over to the other side of the dug-out crater between them, he coughed from the dust and called out.

  “Hey, are you guys okay? Amy? Jill?”

  Nothing.

  “You guys!” He called louder.

  “Yeah, we’re okay!” Jill called through the dust cloud between them.

  “How’s Julian?” Amy chimed in.

  “Oh!” Alex looked beside him and realized that Julian had been thrown a little from the warped space launching them.

  “Y-yeah, I’m good!” The spike-haired young man pulled his head from the shrub he had landed in. “Just a ruined suit…”

  All of them got up and looked at each other over the cavity carved out from the impact. They turned to where the ship landed. What just happened?

  Jill stared for a few more seconds before reaching for her holo-phone. “We should call this in.”

  Julian slipped himself into the indent in the ground and grabbed Alex, guiding them both over to where Amy and Jill were. “Yeah…I don’t even recognize where that ship could be from.”

  Amy had a look of worry as Alex got himself up out of the divot. She helped him get on his feet.

  Typing in the emergency number, Jill kept looking over to the crash site and then back to her phone. “Doesn’t look like anything from my end of the system, either.”

  “You think it could be…” Julian clearly didn’t want to sound paranoid. But the ship was so…different. It was fully black and checkered with little cubes floating around the spots where it had broken apart, like it wasn’t actually put together. Like it was morphed together instead. It seemed just big enough to fit a small crew or some cargo, perhaps.

  Scally and Aliya came over to their human counterparts and acted protective over them, staring at the landing sight. The younger two looked at each other and back at the ship. A strange feeling crept up their skin, and something was…encouraging them. A feeling…

  Alex swallowed and reached out to Amy’s hand, who bit her lip before slowly reaching back for his.

  They could hear the older two still talking.

  “I dunno. Maybe, but we shouldn’t just reach conclusions. Probably something from the outskirts? Or maybe a new model they were testing.” Jill wasn’t getting a connection.

  “I’ve never heard of a ship making dirt and air explode….” Julian said while he got to her side. “Like…the air is buzzing.” He shook of a shiver from his shoulders.

  “Dang it, I’m not getting through!”

  “It’s okay. We can make our way down the hill and get help, probably not safe to…” Julian trailed off as he and Jill saw the younger two make their way over to the ship.

  “H-HEY!” The older two made their way over to them. “WHAT ARE…!” Jill lowered her voice. “What are you guys doing, we’ve got to get you back to your parents and take care of this. We can’t just get closer to that thing!”

  Alex furrowed his eyebrows. “I just…thought I felt something.”

  Julian was kneeling and inspecting them for bruises now. “Felt something? Okay, look, I know you guys wanna make sure whoever's in there is safe, but we need a professional to do it! Let’s just get out and—”

  He was cut off as cubes on the side of the ship morphed and opened up like a door. The four kids jumped and clamored for a hiding spot behind some bushes.

  Alex peeked between the leaves to see what exactly was coming out. None of them could contain their curiosity.

  Their inquisitiveness was swiftly answered. Out from the opening came an anthropomorphic robot, but strangely, this one didn’t seem even close to any robot the four had ever seen before. It looked softer and gentler, unlike the giant ones or other anthropomorphic designs. This one was almost welcoming in a way that even the helper and aid-oriented models couldn’t match.

  It looked their way.

  They all gasped and backed up as the robot got closer. But the gentle, pacifying feeling that surrounded it held them from running or taking defensive action. Its blue eyes scanned them over as it calmly stepped in front of the young four. All of them stared back, confused and nervous.

  The tall mechanical being tipped its head to the side as it absorbed whatever data it was gathering, almost as if expressing a curious and surprised emotion. The air was silent. Then it reached out with a welcoming arm towards them. The four flinched back a little more. The robot opened its hand up and out came a little blue-white orb of light from the palm. It looked expectantly at the young ones.

  Alex frowned and looked at the orb, then back to the robot’s face. Was it…offering this?

  He wasn’t sure what to make of it. What should he do? Well, he knew what he should do but…something inside told him to try. He reached his hand out slowly—

  “Hey!” said Julian in a shushed voice. He grabbed Alex’s wrist carefully and shook his head at the younger kid.

  Alex almost responded when voices suddenly echoed from the opening of the ship. He and the others silent and looked at the entrance, not sure what to do.

  The robot looked to the opening and stood back up. With the young four staring on, it sauntered its way back to the ship and stood silently, waiting as four new figures emerged.

  Alex, Amy, Jill and Julian couldn’t believe what they saw: one tall, broad-shouldered blackbird-like figure; a gelatinous blue organism in the shape of a more heavyset woman; another a tiny, pixie-like creature in a bright, bubbly shade of yellow, buzzing its wings around like a fairy; and an amorphous feline-like creature that kept changing shapes as it floated alongside the others. All of these beings were speaking in an unintelligible language.

  They really were aliens.

  The anthropomorphic blackbird caught the other’s attention and snapped his fingers. Out came a deep voice. “…Okay, local language testing…looks good.”

  The birdlike man took some steps forward to lead his group to the robot. As Alex watched his bare feet, he noticed something; with every step the birdman took, the ground beneath him seemed to shimmer and traces of glowing particles seemed to shift in and out between the foot and the ground. Like it was circulating the matter…

  It was strange. The air and space itself seemed to curve around the silhouettes of the four figures.

  “Well, hopefully we can explain away the crash!” The little fairy’s eyes were like dancing emerald pearls, flitting about to take in her surroundings. She scratched her beehive-styled blonde hair. “Good golly, we made a mess. And what are you doing out here, anyway?” she exclaimed in her high bouncy voice and pointed to the mechanical biped with her other hand on her hip.

  The robot stared back at the crew with little chirps emanating from where its mouth might be.

  “Hmm…we seem to be adjusting properly to the environment so far.” The gelatinous one leaned down to inspect a leaf. “Matter interaction took a little getting used to though.”

  Before she could touch it, though, the floating cat slipped his face in front of her and gave a broad, sly smile. “Ooh, but it gives a delicious buzz when you swing through it!”

  As he was pushed away by her, he seemed to hone in on something with his spinning eyes. “Curious…Something does seem unstable, though.” He looked over to the others. “I thought it was still a result of the intercosmic friction from the ship, but it’s big, whatever it is. We’ll want to inspect it.”

  The young four were just dumbfounded at this point. Aliens…four aliens stood in front of them, inspecting things with as much curiosity as young ones had watching them.

  Alex had never been deeper in a mix of delighted and anxious.

  The tall blackbird stopped in front of a pebble, picking it up before he beckoned his cohorts over to him. “Wait before you start looking around. We should figure out the mechanics of this universe…” Holding up the pebble in the middle of his palm, surrounded by the other three aliens as they huddled around him, he lifted his other hand over the small rock and flinched his fingers.

  As the young four looked on, they bore witness to the strange creature tearing apart the matter of the rock. Both ends of the pebble split, and in between them, the individual particles spun around and seemed to react to whatever the alien was doing. The bare elements were warped and glowing, yet did they didn’t explode as they should. It was fission and fusion at a speed that was unheard of.

  “…Before we interact with it too much.” The black-feathered birdman continued. “It seems similar to ours, with some essential differences. Much more heavy, yet excitable.”

  “I agree. It probably has some affect on the local lifeforms.” The blue translucent woman beckoned one of the particles over. “We should be prepared for matter-conductive species.”

  The little one buzzed over and landed on her bigger counterpart to watch the blue one pick apart the matter. As she held her chin in thought she slowly sunk into the jelly. “Hmm…I bet they’re on advanced stages, from what I can sense.”

  When she was knee-deep in the blue matter and was subsequently pulled out by her dragonfly wings by an annoyed blue hand, she looked to the others. “So…what should we do about the little ones over there?”

  Crap.

  Alex and the others glanced to each other nervously and began to creep backward, prepared to dash at any second as needed. They had been there too long, distracted by the novel discovery in front of them. Now they were finally snapped back to reality, desperate to get out of there. Slowly they turned around. Maybe it was too late to run, but—

  “Elloooooo!” They were face to face with the little pixie. “Now don’t panic but—"

  All four screamed and jumped back through the bushes and into the open. How did she—!

  Then they realized they were exposed. They twisted around in fright, staring up to the other three aliens who looked back down at them.

  The young four gulped.

  “Well, well.” The birdman kneeled down on one knee, inspecting them. “Are you four okay?”

  None of them answered.

  “It’s alright. I know this is probably shocking to you. We had hoped to make contact with older iterations of your species, but why don’t we take you back to the group of people down there?” He smiled, no doubt in an attempt to reassure them.

  The mention of the party down below, however, only heightened their panic. Julian slowly raised his finger behind his body. He sensed them there, and they felt hostile to the aliens, too.

  “It’s okay. I know you want to defend yourselves.” This alien seemed to be able to sense a lot. From behind him the cat creature raised an eyebrow, as if in anticipation.

  Julian stayed steady. Jill got ready to move the two kids.

  “Now…let’s just—”

  Suddenly the older ones acted fast, grabbing Alex and Amy’s hands and jumping back away from the four aliens. Julian flicked his wrist and suddenly the wild animals hiding in the forest leaped out in front of them, hissing and staring down the foreign creatures. Some of them fused together to make larger, stronger beasts.

  Even Scally and Aliya, as well as Julian’s companions, joined in to defend the young four.

  “Don’t move, okay?” cried Julian, his hand ready to command the wildlife.

  “Just let us go and nobody needs to get hurt,” uttered Jill with a low threatening voice.

  “Oh…extraordinary!” The cat creature’s lazy eyes widened with curiosity. He drifted closer to them to inspect the animals. “So, your species has formed some sort of connection with other life forms! And biological fusion…Now that’s not something you see very often—"

  With his eyes tensed, Julian flicked his wrist again and the animals struck out, leaping to the aliens.

  However, the foreign ones were ready and flicked their own wrists, causing most of the wildlife and companions to fly backwards. One creature opened its mouth and a furious beam of energy formed, gathering strength to get brighter and bigger before shooting directly at the cat creature—

  And by raising one hand, the alien stopped the energy in its tracks. He smiled with a big, strange grin.

  The young four swallowed hard. Their hearts pounded, but now it felt like they could do nothing about it. They were helpless against these extraterrestrials, weren’t they?

  “And energy conductivity…These life forms are truly on another level than most!” The cat reigned in the energy and morphed it into different shapes with its paws, as if experimenting. “Why…with enough help…” He glanced at the other aliens.

  The birdman raised his head, getting the message. He looked over to the humanoids. “Now, let’s try this again.” He walked close to them. “We know this is frightening you. We understand you have no reason to trust us. But we want to help you, and we want to meet with your leaders to warn them.”

  The young ones looked at each other. Warn them?

  Alex licked his lips and tried to speak through his dry mouth. “Why would you need to warn us?”

  The aliens shifted their gaze amongst themselves, then turned back.

  “…We aren’t the only ones coming from far away,” said the bird man.

  “…More of you?” Julian chimed in.

  “Well…not exactly us.” The fairy flew close with her wings, flicking her scorpion-like tail. “More like…well, this guy!” She pointed to the robot who had been watching the whole time. “But different. A lot more scary!” The bug-girl raised her hands over her head and made an exaggerated angry face.

  “Robots?” asked Jill. “Why would they be coming? And why should we believe any of this?” She got on her feet cautiously. “We’re not going to bring a bunch of…Well, we’re not going to bring you guys over to anyone, unless you give us a good reason.”

  Although it was risky, Alex could tell that she wanted to see if she could prod their nature out by threatening to not show the aliens their “leaders.” If they reacted harshly…

  “Then we should just get you to safety,” said the birdman. “We have no idea how dangerous it could be here right now, with you staying around us for too long.” He looked to the opening on the hill. “You head out and we will look for answers on our own.”

  The young four frowned. That was too easy.

  Jill wasn’t buying it. “C-come on, you’re serious? Just a second ago you were saying how important this thing is.”

  “But you’re right.” The big blue one stepped forward. “You shouldn’t be wrapped up in all this. It’s best for us to find someone better suited to establish contact with leadership.” She was still focused on the leaf in her hand, willing it into the air to spin it around. “This is an important mission that could help save the life forms of this universe.” She looked up at Jill and raised her eyebrows. “The best thing for you four is to stay safe.”

  Jill tilted her head down while keeping eye contact. It wasn’t clear if they could believe what they were being told, but they should get a move on, anyway. There wasn’t much else they could do.

  “…Come on.” She reached for Amy’s hand while Julian gestured to Alex with a look. The young four turned, ready to go back to their families, taking one last look at the four creatures. All eight of them staring at each other.

  Suddenly the aliens’ eyes widened and they turned toward the hill.

  A spark snapped in the air, exactly where the foreigners were looking.

  Each of them walked with urgency toward the spot and stared at where it fizzed out, their faces in shock.

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  They looked beyond the spot to the open hilltop.

  Alex and the others were taken aback. What was happening? Why were they reacting this way? They turned back to the aliens.

  “What’s wrong?” asked Jill.

  The blue alien turned with confusion. “You didn’t see that?”

  “See what? The spark? That happens all the time.”

  The aliens looked at each other.

  “Things just got much more curious…” The cat alien floated forward to the open spot.

  The birdman responded to the confusion of the young four. “It shouldn’t be normal. That’s not just any spark. We may be dealing with some dimensional friction—”

  “Woah woah, what?” Julian shook his head. “Dimensions? What are you talking about?”

  “What do you think?” said the little fairy alien. “We’re dealing with unstable space and time, there’s something crazy going on!”

  “Er, speaking of which, come over here!” The floating feline gestured to the others. “I may have found the source of the problem!”

  The other aliens reacted swiftly and dashed to the hilltop, sifting through the branches and breaking their way into the open—

  And each of them grew a look of horror.

  “…Get the young ones to safety.” The birdman looked at the humanoids, who crept up to see what the aliens were looking at.

  It was the white-lit dome of energy down below.

  “Wait wait wait…what’s wrong?” Julian pulled back when the fairy reached her hand out. “Are you freaking out about the Light Dome, there?”

  “Uhm, you’ve seen that thing before?” The blonde alien buzzed in front of his face. “Now that’s what we were worried about! A little pocket dimension that’s just waiting to burst!” She flung her hands out and made a little fireball in the air to demonstrate her point. “That is not normal!” The little one pointed to the Light Dome.

  Alex was getting confused. “But those things are all over the place! We’ve had them around forever!”

  Amy’s reaction was the most confounded. A pocket dimension…? The ecological temple that her family prayed to?

  The birdman turned himself completely around to them. “Are you serious? They’re everywhere?”

  “Yeah, they started popping up hundreds of millions of years ago!” Alex glanced at the Light Dome below. “We were told in school that they created life—”

  “—Well, that’s the theory anyways.” Jill looked at the confusion spreading over the alien’s faces. “What do you think they are? Beyond pocket dimensions, I mean.”

  The blue alien paused before answering. “…Light Domes like that occur when a pocket dimension gets close to flooding into the larger universe it resides within, but it shouldn’t take millions of years or more to do it. They should have inflated larger and larger until the theoretical dam breaks, and all the matter from within would just…pour out.” She looked at the Light Dome. “And it would likely destroy everything. At least, everything within a one-fourth light-year radius.”

  “It’s like decay!” The feline hovered above them, looking over the blue one’s shoulder. “A small dimension rubs against the bigger one, goes pop, and then we all get a violent explosion of entropy. But the fact that it’s somehow stable like this is crazier than Ludwana’s appetite.” He glanced at the tiny fairy who stuck her tongue out at him. “There’s only one reason they might be like this, but on such a scale…” He rubbed his chin, trying to calculate the possibilities.

  This was all swiftly flying over the young four’s heads. Amy stepped forward.

  “…S-some people here think that gods live in them.” She glanced among the four alien creatures. “We worship them. Is it possible that there’s something inside?”

  The aliens glanced at each other and back to the little girl.

  The birdman kneeled down again. “Well…” He looked to the floating cat creature, then back to them. “If Fann is right, then I think there is someone in each of them.”

  “Someone?” Alex tilted his head.

  “Someone like us,” Fann said mid-thought.

  BANG!

  A burst of energy shot through the opening at them, causing the four young ones to turn swiftly towards the light and sound of the beam. Their eyes flashed with horror, then confusion, as the beam was frozen much like the one from the wildlife had been before.

  The aliens had moved into swift action. Fann and the blue alien had swiftly shielded the four young ones.

  “Didn’t take long to…argh! Find us!” The birdman had thrust his arms out and was pushing the beam back with the others. “Ludwana, the ship!”

  “Aye aye, captain!” said the little one, making a salute before she snapped her fingers at the ship.

  The craft shifted and slowly lifted into the air. As Alex and the others watched, it appeared to invert on itself and twist to aim towards the group of eight.

  The alien robot jumped into the air and entered inside as the flank of the ship opened up an entrance like before. Then the spacecraft sifted its way through the trees, the strange black metal substance simply breaking up around them like streams of water before reconnecting after each rock, branch and stump. It shot towards the group, and before the young four could fully understand what had happened, it enveloped them and they were suddenly inside the cockpit.

  The feline slipped into the cockpit chair and waived his hands over the strange marking on the glowing panels. “Alright, little ones! Let’s get you all to safety!”

  “W-wait!” Alex and the other three were so confused. Everything was going too fast! “What’s happening, who shot at us?!?”

  Julian’s eye caught a stream of electricity out the window and he jerked his head to see the birdman still outside, shifting his arms vertically to split the beam of energy in two. He followed the stream of light to the source and his breath caught in his throat. It was one of the colossal Defender units.

  “I take it you’re associated with them,” said the blue alien.

  Julian turned to her in confusion. His mind, like the others, was thrown deeply into a rising tower of questions.

  She sighed in response as the young four buckled a little. The ship was taking off. “It’s not unexpected, but they aren’t your technology.”

  Jill thrust herself back up on her legs and turned indignantly to the alien. “Wait a minute! You can’t just take us off like this, they’re after you! Not us!” The more she listened, the less she bought this story. “You’re talking about the Defenders? Those things are around to fight anybody who causes severe trouble! And I can guess that you’d qualify!” She stomped her way to the big blue one.

  “It doesn’t make sense though…” Julian shook his head to himself. “They aren’t supposed to attack unless they’re provoked!” He looked to the aliens. “Maybe the crash landing…B-but still! The Defenders are reactionary, they aren’t supposed to get violent like this, especially that much!”

  The spacecraft shot into the air to escape its pursuer. The birdman bent his legs and sprung forward to the enemy.

  “Uhm, they’re kidnapping us! Hellooo?” Jill threw her arms up. “I think they have a reason to get a little aggressive!”

  “T-then why are they shooting at us?” mumbled Amy. “They aren’t supposed to fire at civilians…”

  Jill was taken aback. On the one hand, she knew they were right. These steel behemoths didn’t just fire at anyone, and certainly not without severe provocation. But on the other, they were being scooped up and whisked away by aliens! The four of them didn’t even know if the aliens had done something else before this! She was drowning in information like they all were, but there was more than just some room for doubt in anything the aliens said.

  “We’re dropping you off with your kind,” said the blue alien to Jill. “You’re right, it’s safer for you to be with them right now.”

  “It’s okay, we’ll take care of the big guys!” said Ludwana from her control panel beside Fann. She waved her hand, and the sound of a laser shot came from outside, zipping across the span of the window.

  Ignoring their wary reactions, the blue alien raised an arm. “Make sure to keep them safe as best as you can. Tell them to keep making their way to shelter.”

  Flicking one finger, she caused the floor around Alex and the others to shift and envelope them in an orb. All of them gasped and huddled together, not knowing what was going to happen.

  Fann turned his head and smiled before the orb closed around them completely. “We’ll see you around!”

  Suddenly they felt the sensation of an elevator quickly dropping from a skyscraper’s highest floor. The orb became transparent, as if it could tell they were freaking out. As light and visibility flowed into their confined transport, the young four registered their surroundings and froze in place. The mountain-sized Defender stood staring intently at the birdman and space ship, unleashing a wave of smaller minion bots that tangled and fought with the foreigners. But even that paled in comparison to the next intake; 2 more Defenders flew in the direction of the fight, their grim shadows casting down from the already-darkened night sky.

  Alex and Amy had no idea what was happening. This wasn’t what they had seen in videos of the Defenders in action. And when did they have minion bots like that? What was happening?

  “This is really weird. I know they might have been updated, but I thought most of these things were going to be stored for emergencies only, over the next few years!” Julian was as confused as they were. “What the heck are they doing?”

  Jill shot a bewildered look at the others. A part of her didn’t understand why they were so attached to the safety of these aliens. The creatures had thrust them into their ship; no one had any idea what they were planning. Sure, the creatures hadn’t done anything to harm the four of them, but it was still too early to tell whether the foreigners were trustworthy!

  And yet…

  A part of her agreed that this level of reaction was too much. The way these robots were attacking the four newcomers was needlessly violent at best and crisis-inducing at worst. What would happen if any of these aliens were badly hurt or killed? Would the star system be thrown into a war, subjected to revenge and overwhelming attacks?

  One Defender ordered its smaller army to unleash a thousand beams of energy upon the bird man and the space ship behind him, both of which scattered the energy and shot the beams right back.

  At the very least, she agreed with the other three that the Defenders were going too far.

  ***

  Inside the ship, the three aliens continued to guide their craft out of harm’s way. A beam shot straight towards them and Fann flicked his paw to pull out one of their tricks.

  “They’re certainly feisty this time!” He growled excitedly while the ship split into two pieces. The beam shot right by his head, through the gaping rift, and he looked back at the others. “Keep an eye on the humanoids below, we’re in for a bumpy ride!”

  “There must be a reason that they’re this cocky.” The blue alien sat at one of the holographic screens that fed data about the giant robots. Running her fingers along the surface, she looked for useful information as they scanned their foes. “Two more incoming, and they’ve definitely been here for at least a decade!”

  “Hit me with more info, Bel!” Ludwana’s little wings twitched in concentration. “We talking full-force or just assimilated baddies? I really can’t tell at this point!”

  “Assimilated…but you’re right, their power is extraordinary.” Bel watched the little fairy struggle to keep the rays of energy from hitting the ship, or them, dead on. One of the laser shots that missed arced back towards them.

  Fann thrust his arm forward and the ship dodged sharply, spinning off to the side. “I’d wager they’ve already started finding what they want, wouldn’t you?”

  “They wouldn’t be so hostile if they hadn’t!” Bel rubbed her chin in thought, looking through the data at light speed. “I might need to help Gell out there.”

  She took a few steps towards the side of the ship, relaxed her body, and suddenly thrust forward and shifted through the black element into the night sky.

  “Just in time!” Gell was locked in a duel with dozens of the Defender minion-bots before snapping his hands closed and crushing their heads. “I think more are on the way!”

  “I’m still worried about the big one!” Bel bodied her way through the chests of a battalion that was creeping up on Gell from behind before taking a quick look at the seemingly empty sky. “It’s just watching…I know you don’t want to do it before we explain it to the mortals, but—”

  “If it comes, it comes! We’re going to do what we can without resorting to that yet.” Gell pounded his way through a field of minion bots before being shoved far back by the Defender that was unleashing them. He winced at the gash on his cheek that slowly healed and regenerated. “Ugh…how are the young ones?”

  “On their way back down to the others. The four of them are more than a little confused.” With a slash of her arm, the giant robot menace in front of them was split in half before the cross sections were desintegrated.

  “Heh…I bet!” The bird man shot himself forward towards the next enemy battalion, staring for a moment at the debris falling towards the ground as it desintigrated. The glow of the Light Dome below shimmered in his eye. “That makes the both of us.”

  They split and shattered and pummeled their way through the barrage of minion bots and two of the Defenders, finally getting some momentum on their side as the ship behind them broke past the metal armies as well.

  The towering mechanical forces would have to turn the tide if they wanted to win at this point. A newly joining group came in from behind, pursuing them closely. They readied their cannons to draw the foreigners’ attention…

  ***

  The bubble containing the young four safely made its way closer to the ground, but not without some shocks and reverberations from the nearby air-skirmish. All of them watched with worry, but Alex was especially nervous about how this would turn out.

  He wanted to help. He didn’t know how, but he wanted to do something. This was the first time that extraterrestrial life had been discovered, and even if they did turn out to be enemies, the only shot at truly knowing more about their origin would be to somehow subdue and capture them. Yet the Defenders were shooting to kill.

  Another laser shot nearly engulfed Gell, but the birdman narrowly evaded the energy blast. Surprisingly to Alex, even after the shot was well past Gell, he took the effort to dissipate the energy and transform it into glittering dust particles before it hit the ground.

  Without even having time to think about how that was possible, he was already thinking on why the bird man would do that. The young boy looked towards where the shot would have landed and saw a herd of wildlife dashing away, seeking cover.

  Was he…saving them?

  Suddenly another shockwave hit the bubble, and they all trembled from the turbulence.

  “Jeez, they don’t play gentle!” Jill shook her head. She looked behind to see that they were almost at the field in front of the building where their parents were. Without wasting time, she caught the other’s attention. “Okay, I dunno how this thing works but get ready to run if it bursts. We’re going straight to the crowd and sticking together, okay?”

  “S-should we really be near other people after being so close to them?” asked Amy. “I don’t know if they’re good or what they’re planning, but either way we might want to keep away from everyone else for now, right?”

  “You’re talking about germs or something?” asked Julian while keeping his eye on the fight.

  Another beam was torn to shreds, this time by the spaceship.

  “I mean…it’s possible they were carrying something, even if they had good intentions…”

  “Fair enough, we’ll get near them but stay far enough away.” Jill patted Amy on the shoulder, mustering a smile to help calm the younger girl. She knew they were all confused and at least a little scared, and the best thing was now to focus on a plan. Her smile gave way to a more serious look as she stared down at the crowd rushing into the building. “We’re still gonna tell them what happened though.”

  “Did you try your phone again?” asked Alex while comforting Scally. The four creatures inside the descending spherical capsule were all acting aggressively towards the lopsided dogfight overhead. They kept hissing and barking at the spaceship and the two aliens outside, but Alex could swear that Scally was occasionally howling at one of the Defenders, in the same way that she did with the foreign beings.

  “Easy girl…don’t worry!” He soothed her and raised his hand, using his healing ability to calm the wandermouse.

  Jill fumbled with her phone. “Dang it, still no signal…oh! I got—”

  BOOM!

  A thunderous noise crackled through the air, and the shock wave rendered all the occupants of the capsule to their hands and feet. It shook the land below. The whole crowd was knocked off balance, and the building shook around them.

  Alex was shellshocked. They all were. Slowly he looked up past the ringing in his ears to see the nearby mountain blown to pieces. His eyes went wide. He looked for the source of the assault…

  One of the Defenders had its arm outstretched. The barrel in its wrist had the faint hint of light from the beam that had emerged from it.

  The only problem was that it was facing towards the capsule, not the mountain.

  “…WHAT THE HELL!” screamed Jill. “These things are going haywire, it almost killed us!”

  The remnants of light in the air faded, leaving the impression of a U-turn on their eyes that headed straight to the giant dust cloud and flying debris. It was obvious to them where the path would’ve led had it not aggressively changed course. And right behind the four of them was the crowd below.

  Gell was in front of them, right where the direction of energy blast had been warped and bent. He lowered his hand and turned to meet their eyes for a single moment.

  Alex wasn’t sure, but it felt like there was the slightest hint of confusion on his face too.

  The birdman turned back to the fight, hurling himself towards the defender and punching through the armored chest of the behemoth to send it flying into another.

  The young four’s transportation bubble slowly, finally made its way to the ground and dispersed itself. It felt like no time for them, though. They felt cornered from this whole mess with almost no time to think, to take it in.

  Amy was shaking. Jill and Julian took notice and tried to comfort her, even though they were lost for words.

  Alex had gotten in front of them, like he wanted to be a shield. Everything was numb.

  Suddenly, they didn’t feel safe anymore.

  “…ALEX! KIDS!”

  He turned around, hearing his name. There she was, at the head of the crowd, a few dozen feet away. “M-mom…?”

  A blast came from behind them.

  ***

  “What in the bumfairy was that about!” Ludwana looked at the others in disbelief. “I mean, I know they’re already acting bold, but this is just nuts!”

  Fann watched the bubble land through the walls of the ship. “Strange things indeed…”

  “Don’t worry about it!” Gell put his wrists together in an X formation before breaking it with some effort, sending a shockwave that tore another Defender into microscopic pieces. “The most important thing right now is to break these guys and get to that rift!”

  Bel swept her hand in the air and the line of Defenders coalescing around her were shredded into bare matter. “It’s been relatively stable this whole time. I admit it’s a bit hard to multitask…Hmmph!” She levitated the giant chunks of falling mountain all the way towards them at near-light speed, then with a strange gesture caused them all to explode like nuclear bombs as they hit the flying fleet of robots. “But I’ve only sensed a tremor or two, nothing that’s going to set it off!”

  “Fair enough,” said Fann. “But with all the excitement going on around here, we have no idea if that’s going to last, now do we?”

  Ludwana turned and pouted at the cat. “Hey, I’m being as careful as I can! You couldn’t be more in-control than me if you—woah!” One of the beams she shot out flew at the Defender, and in a surprise move it deflected the blast much like Gell had. It flew back towards the people below, but the sprite collected herself quickly. “Ohhh no you don’t!”

  She reached out with her hand and clenched a tight fist, making a pulling motion that turned the blast right back at the defender and blew it up from the side.

  Wiping her forehead and heaving out a sigh, the sprite went straight back to work fighting off the rest in her range. “Phew! These things are getting antsy!”

  Gell stared down at the crowd 10,000 feet beneath them. Their faces were full of horror and confusion, not just from the narrow miss of the beam slicing a hundred feet above their heads, but from the fact that the Defender had deflected the shot in their direction.

  “We need to stop this now.” Gell guided the creatures safely from the remains of the mountain, gently landing them down as far away as possible while Bel defended him. “I’m getting concerned about the local lifeforms.”

  “But what are we going to—” Bel paused.

  They all looked at once.

  “What in the…! Now where are you going?” Fann shouted.

  Yet before they could do something about it, the Defenders launched another offensive round.

  ***

  Alex saw it first.

  Everyone was getting up on their feet again after dropping to the ground to escape the blast, as good as it might have done them.

  “Amy! C-come over here, we need to run!” The young girl’s mom struggled to get up on her legs. The rest of the crowd around the young four and their families were staggering away from the danger.

  Amy was covering her head, still too scared to move at the moment. She slowly took in her mom’s voice and peeked up. “Mom? I-is Dad okay?”

  “I’m right here, honey! Don’t worry—”

  Bang!

  Another blast overhead.

  “Jillian, you get your butt over here!” Jill’s parents began stomping over to retrieve their child, her younger brother in tow.

  “W-wait! Not yet!” Jill raised her hands to signal them to stop, remembering Amy’s warning. “We don’t know if it’s safe, just stay a bit away from us for now!”

  “What do you—” Her mother stopped.

  Amy had already noticed too. She and Alex were watching it descend.

  Jill and Julian turned around. They saw it up in the sky, floating down with grace until it landed just a few feet in front of the four of them.

  It was the robot from before, the one that came with those four beings.

  Alex and Amy shakily got up as it approached them, the calming presence lending them some strength again. The two of them felt nervous, but they felt like it was here for a good reason.

  Jill and Julian got up to stand by their sides, feeling more protective of the younger two than ever. Still, they couldn’t say why exactly, but they didn’t get the impression it was here to fight.

  The robot kneeled down on one knee, much like before. It stared peacefully at all of them, extending its hand.

  Linda stared at it blankly, then her expression softened. She looked between the robot and her son.

  The other family members were more concerned.

  “W-what is that thing?”

  “Julian, get those kids over here now!”

  “Sis, stop screwing around!”

  Yet the four were staring expectantly at the robot. For this moment, everything else felt like it was drowned out. They all wanted one thing right now.

  The glowing ball of blue energy appeared once more in the palm of the mechanical being.

  Jill bit her lip. Julian stayed silent, not sure what to do.

  Amy and Alex looked at each other, though. They could both feel it. She looked nervous, and he felt it inside. But they turned back to the robot’s outstretched arm, each lifting their own—

  “Alex??”

  The boy turned around to his mom. Linda stared back, like she was going to say no, like she was going to tell him to “get over here” and let it be.

  He expected her to tell him to stay safe and go by her side.

  For a single moment, she was likely going to. She furrowed her brows and took a breath, ready to speak.

  But it caught in her throat as she saw the look on his face.

  It was that same look from a year ago. That look that he always gave when he felt like he needed to do something. It caught her off guard. She couldn’t say it.

  All those years to stay safe.

  She closed her mouth and lowered her chin, still keeping eye contact.

  Alex blinked, not expecting that at all. But another explosion sounded from overhead. He looked back at Amy, who returned the stare. She was still shaking a little, but they both knew they had to do it.

  They just wanted to keep everyone safe.

  Both of them reached out and grabbed the glowing orb.