"No Problem, now watch the experts!" Sam boasted, he annoyingly shouted a usual "RAHH!" as he swept out of the alley and shot out three blasts of fire. He missed two of them, but thankfully hit the last to save some amount of dignity… the one he shot burned to death by the way. The squad of five on the left side are now shooting at me while the other just did nothing. Sam ducked behind a car from volleys of magic bolts.
I strutted out there making sure that I wouldn't be shot, "Watching the experts huh?" I commented. A part of me wanted to say, "We should've called Xeno then… or, just about anyone that isn't you" too.
I summoned my magic circle once more and broke it in half to cast both of them. A geyser of water emerged right in front of me and it broke into two smaller geysers which bent right towards the squads of soldiers impacting all of them at once, knocking them down. I smirked, "that's an expertful use of a spell, now lets clean them up."
Sam unsheathed his sword, the both of us broke off from each other. I went right, and he went left. I cracked my whip and kept the soldiers that were already on the ground from coming back up. I heard Sam say from behind me, "is expertful even a word!?" I guess he's trying to lighten the mood. I'll play along…
"I'm pretty sure it is," I replied while quickly forming another water spell to shoot a rough wave right at them, finishing off two of them. They all started to get up though so I was talking while whipping one, "I don't know maybe-" had to whip another, "we should," and another, "ask Zack!" And heavily whipped the last to end my sentence, "Jesus they all REALLY need to back off, I'm trying to have a conversation here." I stated while watching them all lie dead on the ground.
I turned around to look at Sam since I already finished my part and at that moment, he quickly lit his sword on fire. He slid down using the ice on the streets and slashed the front barrels of their rifles clean off, "Wow that actually worked for you!" I exclaimed. He quickly slashed them all in one fell swoop.
We both got back into the alley and checked on Cyrus. Sam went in to get Cyrus out while I patted down my gloves while saying, "Alright let's go," and pointed towards the direction of the labs.
"So it's safe now?" Cyrus peered out of the alley.
"Yes. It's perfectly fine." I called out to him and then reached into my back pocket, "Oh and put this on." and tossed my spare mask.
"What's that?" Sam stupidly asked.
"It's a spare mask I have, I can't have random people seeing him run alongside us and know who he is." I explained.
"Aight I'm good ta go." Cyrus adjusted the mask around his face, "the mask bit too small doe."
"It is what it is, let's go!" I kept rushing Cyrus so we could return to the battle ASAP. The three of us were starting to sprint down the empty streets. Windows in every apartment down the streets had their blinds or curtains fully closed, cars were piled onto the street yet not a single soul was in any of them. No one was on the streets.
Once we got there, Sam pointed and said, "It's that one."
"Bro that is straight up just an accounting firm." Cyrus was confused but in his defense, the first floor really looks like or maybe is an accounting firm.
Sam assured him that, "If you just walk in and go into the back, you'll find it. Hell we'll ask for someone to find you."
"We will?" I whispered to him.
He whispered back into my ear "I will." correcting his mistake.
"That's better."
He called in Quinn, "Quinn! Either send an agent or take the elevator and find Cyrus. He's not our problem anymore."
"Sure, I'll send the few agents left here," Quinn told us.
Sam patted Cyrus's right shoulder "This is goodbye for now, Quinn will take care of you but he's pretty weird and likes to ramble. Trust me he's a good guy."
"Goodbye? Where y'all goin'?" Cyrus asked.
I patted his left shoulder, "Yeah that's crazy…there's still kinda a battle going on at that park back there."
"McCarren Park Track." Sam corrected me.
"Shut up." I told him.
"Okay anyway, We gotta go-" and then Sam and I booked it away at max speed. We arrived back at the park and ran back into the center, the ship was still in the sky, but none of the others were in our sight.
Then I found something… I squatted down to get a better look.
I was shaking to the core of my body. I was about to vomit but I wasn't gonna do it in front of him, "Hey um… Sam, what is that?" I asked in a very frail tone. I cupped my mouth –or rather the part of my mask where my mouth was– with my left hand and pointed at it with my right. In front of me, there was a dead corpse sitting in a pool of blood. The blood was pouring out of him like tons of tiny waterfalls and was gathering to make a puddle of dark red.
Sam came around me and put his hand on my shoulder, "That's… a guy. A definitely dead guy." I was too shaken to say anything snarky.
He took a step into the puddle and squatted down, "Sam what the hell are you doing!?" I asked him frantically.
"Getting a better look," he said to my face and then turned around, "This dude has light purple skin with silver markings. Cuts, and bruises in several spots, hell a missing leg and one huge impale wound in the chest… This has to be Xeno. We'll know better once we contact them" he stated.
He stood up and stepped out of the blood pool and shouted into the call, "Zack, Xeno, Sage… Andrew! Where are you!?"
"We're on the inside of the ship." Zack reported, "WOAH!" I heard a bolt strike by him and got cut out of the call.
That caught me by surprise. I asked, "Wait, what, why? Why are you guys inside the ship and didn't try to shoot it down instead!?"
"Hey guys," Sage came up from behind us and waved, "Yeah so… Zack, Xeno and Andrew decided to fly up and storm the ship or something."
"That's correct." Xeno exclaimed in the call. Okay so he is alive, phew I thought they would be goners, "We're currently in the bridge of the ship, in an attempt to claim the ship, it seems easier than trying to snipe down the ship does it not?"
"I guess so?" I was so confused, "I've literally only fought like this twice in my life so-" I know they won't see it, besides Sage and Sam of course, but I shrugged anyway.
"This is my first so I'm REALLY stumped," Sage joked, "An art student becoming an archer, hah! Who knew!"
"Quinn did." Sam sarcastically stated.
"Shaddup," Sage hit his arm lightly, "anyway, did y'all find the new guy?"
"Yeah he's at the labs right now," I pointed towards the labs, "He was a pretty big dude."
"Real. Very toned and muscly dude." Sam added on.
I heard Sage say under her breath, "Hah, gay."
"Got a problem with it?" Apparently Sam heard her too.
"No, no, I'm gay so I was just making jokes."
"Fair." I stated, "But Sam is right though, honestly I didn't expect him to be so buff considering how the other men are built."
"Hey." Sam called out.
"What?" I started reasoning, "You and Adam could stand to bulk up more and we all know Zack's a literal stick. I don't even know how Andrew is built cause he's never wearing anything that shows his physical build. The only one here that shows he's mildly built is Will."
"Yeah yeah, lil' mean though to say it." Sam shrugged.
"Yeah that's a bit harsh Sheila." Sage commented.
"It's the truth though. We should also be bulking up a bit more too." I stated, "wait a second. Sage, why are you down here?"
"If you can fly up there," Sage pointed at the ship that was like at least fifty feet above us, "be my guest. I was just tasked to wait here for any stragglers that try to ditch."
At that moment Zack said, "y'all might wanna clear the area right now."
"... why?" Sam asked.
"Because Xeno may or may not have thrown a wind spell that was a bit too strong right at the controls for the engine of the ship," he stole MY sarcasm bit, "So the ship possibly possibly," he enunciated even more, "be crashing down right on top of you guys."
"Do not fret, Andrew is in a current attempt of fixing the controls!" Xeno attempted to assure us.
"Damn you Xeno, I have literally NEVER seen this tech before! The best I can do is try to play around to almost no avail god damn it!!!" That was the loudest I've ever heard Andrew yell. It was so loud you can hear it from Zack and Xeno's end.
I groaned, "Not againnnnn bruh, we have to run from a spaceship AGAIN!?"
"Yeah. See ya guys!" Sage waved once and immediately started dashing. Sam quickly followed and I dragged along.
"Man, I'm getting a HARD cardio workout today." I stated.
Sam told me to, "Stop complaining. I don't see how this is different from any other day besides we have an actual purpose to run: TO LIVE!"
"Yeah Yeah whatever." I put him off.
"I know y'alls entire like chemistry and friendship or whatever is to argue but like," Sage turned around to face us, "You could at least can it during these situations or something."
"Nah, no I don't think I will do that," Sam shrugged, "It calms me down and makes me forget or stop caring about the number of cuts, bruises, grazes etc on my own body and the suit."
"True that," I high-fived him,"I got distracted by arguing with him instead of feeling immense amounts of pain. Speaking of, where are the ambulances and medics? I kinda need to see them."
"Just outside of the park. I saw and heard the sirens through the trees earlier." Sage informed us.
"Cool, that's where we're going then!" I shouted in relief. From there, we kept on running until we met up with the cluster of four ambulances lying in wait for us and any other first responders. There were already a couple of first responders in two of the ambulances who attempted to slow or fight off the aliens that pushed through their perimeter and ran to Sam and I.
I talked to one of the paramedics where my open wounds were to have them brushed down and cleaned. But a few of them seemed to have already healed.
"Just bandage the ones that are still around please," I told them.
The little strains of pain from applying bandages hurt more than actually taking graze shots of magic bolts, probably because I don't have much to be paying attention to. I stepped out of the ambulance and Sam was waiting for me. "Are ya good?" he asked.
"Yeah," I sighed, "I'm fine."
The silence between us was calming. Even with sirens and blaring lights around us, the little awkward silence between us made the world feel peaceful for a whole five seconds.
"Ya gonna say anything more or..?"
"Oh right uh," Sam carried on, "I was gonna say the ship collapsed while you were in the tent and the others are coming back. We should see to it that they're all back and well. Y'know say hi to Zack and thank Andrew for being there with us."
"I'm not doing that second part."
"What? Why?" he asked me.
I whispered into his ear, "I don't like how cocky Andrew is, he's too full of himself dude. I need to knock him down a peg or two before I show him any grace."
"Oh c'mon be nice. He helped." Sam whispered back.
"Yeah uh no. I carried when we were back in the center of the field. I think y'all would've died without MY water dome. He should be thanking ME."
"Jeez, cut him some slack." and he lightly hit my shoulder,"C'mon Zack and Xeno are right there, let's go."
We met up with both of them and did the regular nerd talk y'know with Zack and Xeno's broken ass english. Zack and Xeno both had obvious injuries, they were partially covered in soot from something I don't know what.
… And then we saw Andrew, he was completely covered in soot from the front and his grapple wires on his arms were completely blown apart, "What's up?" Sam said.
He heaved, "Could've done better, but we need to get to the debriefing." A very Andrew-like answer. And then he walked up to me, "Thanks for the dome. The three of us wouldn't have survived without it. Even me since I was suffering from some jams in my wires."
"Well I guess that was… half a thanks." I sighed, "you're welcome, to an extent."
A few SUVs pulled up and out stepped Quinn, "Good work everyone. Assemble the entire crew and head back, we'll be doing our regular debriefing on this event and plans for future ones. Of course my men are here to plan out the excavation of this ship and steal all its precious metals." he signaled his men to go into the park, "Are you sure that there aren't any more stragglers?"
"Positive." Xeno said from the back. He limped over using his spear as a cane to walk on, "We checked within the ship and had Sage stand watch."
"Awesome," Quinn thumbs upped, "Head back to the labs, I'll be with y'all shortly." he nodded and left.
Sam, Zack and I waited for everyone else and soon Sage opened the door to the passenger seat, "Xeno and Andrew will be taking the other SUV I guess." she said as she sat down and closed the door, "Shotgun" she turned to us and put up a peace sign.
"Alright." Zack plainly said while staring out of the window.
Sam just tilted his head to the side allowing her.
"Oh right, Sage I forgot to ask this before," I asked her, "How do you like your suit?"
Sage turned around to face us and then she unclipped her mask. We did the same and then she said "It's very nice, I like that it looks fashionable yet it's also very durable because it's somehow made of metal or something. It doesn't feel like it though, it feels so light."
"Yeah that's right," Sam chimed in, "Quinn said he made the suits from alloys in space by stretching the metal so thin it can become threads meant for sewing."
"Yeah I remember him saying that!" Sage pointed, "Oh also what are these debriefings for again?"
I stated that, "the debriefings are to go over civilian casualties, covering the play by play and a slight analysis at doing better… which normally I would say is boring, but we might die not listening to it so, "I shrugged, "Eh just basically important stuff."
And then we arrived at the labs. The four of us went into the basement and into a new meeting room at the end of the hallway. The room was really dark besides one table with a projected hologram of the park. There were eleven chairs set, "These are for all of you, your master and sir."
"You call Quinn, 'sir'? Pfft." I chuckled.
Zack flicked the back of my head "Cut it out, just sit down." Sam sat down and then I sat to his right. And Zack to his left and Sage sat to MY right. I stood up for a second, flicked Zack's forehead, "that's payback," I sarcastically commented.
Zack was about to stand up before Sam grabbed his shoulder and said, "Don't dude. It's not that deep." I was about to stand up but he stopped me too, "Just chill. We completed our mission already. Let's just… wait for everyone else to get here."
The door burst open with Will, Zack's twin, Cyrus and Adam popping through. They kept asking us annoying questions like "are you safe?" "How was the fight?" "You're not hurt are you?" and basic stuff y'know looking out for people. It's nice and sweet at first but the more they ask the more annoying it is.
Not long after, Andrew, Xeno arrived too and we ended up waiting a while more for Quinn. "Sorry I'm late everyone." He slammed his right hand on the table and revealed the hard drive he was clutching to and stated, "Let's start this debriefing."