What the fuck do I do now!? I said looking at Sam's body flying through the sky in an explosion.
I yelled aloud, "SHIT!" and I stood up on the edge of the fire escape reaching my hand out, WHAT DO I DO!?
In less than a second I saw the light go away for a second, "CATCH!" That's Zack's voice. I saw a tiny hook in front of my face. I grab it really quickly, there's a rope attached to it!
"What's this!?" I asked him really quickly.
He's free falling to Sam but still had shouted, "A CABLE CLAMPED TO MY BELT, PULL WHEN I SAY SO!"
"GOT IT!"
He barreled through the air and quickly grabbed Sam's hand, "PULL DAMN IT!" He shouted because he was seconds from the ground.
I pulled as hard as I could but, DAMN ARE THEY BOTH HEAVY TO PULL. I almost instantly coated my hands in water to pull harder using its weight to my advantage. I yanked with full force using every muscle in my arms possible and [CREAK] the rope stopped slipping in my hands.
I leaned over the fire escape and asked him, "Are you… hehhh," I exhaled in relief, "still falling!?"
"No!" He yelled back, "JUST PULL US UP."
"I Don't… I don't think I can!" I struggled to pull on the rope.
"Don't worry," Someone grabbed onto my arms and I looked back, it was Will! "I gotcha." He said.
The both of us together pulled until they were on the same floor as we were and then [FSHHHHH] a long bridge of ice came out from under us out reaching just under the two of them.
"I'll pull ya in!" Will peaked his head over mine and yelled to them. Slowly he kept moving the ice bridge back to the fire escape, "Just don't move around a lot… or at all!" he told them.
"I don't INTEND TO!" Zack said carefully looking over the ledge of ice. They got pulled in close enough to the edge of the fire escape, I grabbed Zack by the shoulders and pulled him up while Will pulled Sam up.
The three of us with Will carrying Sam climbed up to the rooftop again. It was completely torn apart. Sage and Adam were there waiting for us. The glass from the small building part of the roof was completely blown out. All of the lights that were hooked to the poles on the side of the building were also destroyed.
"I think all of the tables and chairs here became debris and fell to the bottom of the street." Adam said with a shake in his voice.
"What the… fuck?" Sage couldn't even form full sentences! "What the fuck? What… was that? What kinda spell-"
I walked back to the edge of the building and looked over. I saw some debris and fires at the bottom. Car sirens were going off and everything, "guys we should go down and help-"
"Oi, look up," Cyrus just came up and cut me off. I did as he said and saw a light through the clouds, "that might be that bitch's ride."
The light in the sky suddenly stopped… then it got brighter, "shit." I said, "They're coming to check on us."
"Everyone, disappear!" Zack said in the voice chat, "I don't care what it takes, hide in a dumpster, whatever. Just don't show them you're here. And if you can't do so, try to surprise attack them!", he ordered us while leaping through the broken window and landing into the shattered glass and hiding behind the bar counter, "What're you guys waiting for, DISAPPEAR!"
Will nodded to me to go down the fire escape, I followed him while he still carried Sam. We got halfway through to the bottom and whispered, "This might be good enough."
"Let's hug the wall just to be safe." Will said, backing himself to the brick wall.
I rolled my eyes then joined him, "Is this going to work?"
He just shrugged. I hope it does, or else we have to fight. We heard some whirring from… probably robots or something from the rooftop. Then I saw a white light flash down onto the street and around then… nothing?
"Zack, what do you see?" Richard asked in the voice chat.
"They left. Coast is clear for now." He told us.
"Oh thank god," I remarked and then leaped off the fire escape to the street level.
Some people were initially spooked when I came down, "hey hey," I extended my arms, "Don't be scared… I'm trying to help you guys." I raised one arm towards a car that's burning up and made a spell to hose down the car. When water rained on the car and I put it out I said, "see, I'm just here to help," I told them all. Then I just continued putting out other fires.
"I'm here to help too." I heard from Will. I turned around to see him spreading frost over other fires that erupted.
Cyrus came too! He came to pick up debris and throw it into back alleys where the dumpsters were, "We gots to help the community 'n all." He said in voice chat, "we got dis. Zack continue your thinkin' for us to win!"
Richard came down and used his magic to grow a couple of trees where the old ones that burned down once stood, "It is advantageous to restore natural life after all," he commented.
While we were cleaning up the streets surrounding the exploded building, Zack said, "I think they think they got us in that explosion. What came down were sixteen small robots that could fly, they only hovered for a bit and then came back up to the ship. The ship's light then went to the other building and then fled into the night."
"What're you saying?" I said under my breath to not disturb the people, but enough for the voice chat to be heard.
"They think we're dead." Zack stated, "They think they won and took out eight of us, when in reality the only major injury we have is… Sam. Where did you leave him Will?"
"He's safe on the fire escape," Will whispered into the mic, "when Quinn gets here, he has to get checked."
Zack just said, "That's good." He soon came down and helped us all move debris off the streets and first responders arrived too. Everyone helped clean up the streets and that's when Quinn, Xeno and Andrew arrived.
Andrew came up to me and asked, "What's the situation?"
"You're late," I put my hand on his shoulder, having to reach up, "You're way too late."
"So I take it that you all failed?" he asked next.
"Fuck you mean 'fail'?" Cyrus aggressively asked him, "Nah whatchu mean by fail bro." Cyrus got right in front of Andrew's face and even though they were both wearing masks I could tell Cyrus was trying to threaten Andrew and his face was definitely bored.
"The rooftop," he pointed up to the building, "You were all attacked by some large spell right? And I do not see a body that you all either killed or captured, meaning you failed to incapacitate your assailant. Meaning, overall: you all failed." He stated.
"We didn't fail." Zack came up to us and said, "We arguably did well for being ambushed. They fired at us with a large spell and seven out of eight of us are pretty much unharmed. Only Sam is unconscious and they think we're all currently dead and lifeless but you and Xeno. This gives us an optimal position to counterattack."
"I suppose so," Andrew turned around. He then said without facing us, "Though there wouldn't need to counterattack had you just done a good job this time and killed your assailant."
"That's not important right now Andrew!" I yelled at him, "Can you pull either Quinn or Xeno from talking to the cops so we can talk with them and a medic to check on Sam!" god is it so hard to get anything done around here!?
He didn't say a word. He just nodded and then left to go get one of them.
I went back up the fire escape and grabbed Sam, why did you push me off the building and didn't jump instead? I thought looking at his body, "you're so stupid. I probably could've taken the hit." I said to him… even though I knew it'd fall on deaf ears.
I picked him up and carried him over my right shoulder down to the ground. Yeah this is already heavy enough. Two people would destroy my back.
Quinn was there waiting for me, "is he okay?"
I said sarcastically but still seriously, "none of us are doctors. You send someone to check on him."
"... Alright," he just shrugged. He called over two medics and a stretcher and loaded him up. I took a look at Sam's body, his mask was removed and a Non-rebreathing mask was on his mouth. His sleeves were rolled up and they had to patch up the blisters. Damn… I had to look away.
Quinn then pressed his ear piece and said in the voice chat, "Get into the SUVs. We have a mandatory meeting to both recap the battle and a new serious development. We were gonna do this tomorrow but since I saw that the suits were called into battle, I knew something was up. I apologize for not being able to arrive faster. This new development is seriously important."
"If you say so," I exhaled, "we'll be there."
By the time we finished up and actually came to the labs, all of us were SUPER tired. I knew I wanted to just collapse and fall asleep.
We all sat in our chairs then Sage immediately said, "what is it? I want to go home."
Quinn pulled up a tab in the hologram that looked like an mp3. "An mp3? You had to record something for us instead of just telling us?" Adam asked while crossing his arms looking like he's offended or something, "To be honest I'm a bit offended." Oh… nevermind-
"Just listen to it," Quinn rolled his eyes.
"Wait wait hold up…" Quinn stopped his hand before he clicked the recording again, as I told him to hold up, "What exactly is this recording? Like is this recording of the aliens or something?"
"Yes it is, it's a recording we captured of the Zankoku Empire," he stated.
"Cool cool… how exactly are we gonna understand them?" I followed up.
"Alright let me ask you this," why? I just asked a question- "How does Xeno understand us?"
"I don't know," I shrugged.
"Ask him," Quinn nodded at Xeno.
I just looked at him and he said, "My collar is the key. A scaled replica, to fit thy necks better, of my collar is built into each of your suits that empowers you to understand other languages and speak them."
"Did you guys all remember that?" I asked the room. There were mixed reviews of people like Zack and Sam knowing but the ones I'd expect to not remember a lot… didn't remember a lot.
"Now can we play the recording?" Quinn asked.
I just nodded, and then he clicked play.
What the initial sound was first was a bunch of static noises and then-
"Lieutenant Proxima. You fall under Captain Gouche's company and you were recommended by her for being one of the best at espionage." A deep cold voice stated.
"What the hell?" I whispered to Zack. He shushed me back, a little rude but whatever.
"That would be correct," a confident feminine voice replied.
"Hmm," the initial cold voice sounded, "perhaps Captain Arzo's 'plan', which had wasted a vast amount of both resources and men allotted to division, may not be the way towards success."
Quinn paused, "Xeno and I think that's the big boss," he said, "the top dog of the people currently right outside of Earth's gravity right now."
"I do not think it is Mr. Quinn, I know." Xeno clarified, "Mael is a truly terrifying man. His weapon, a spellbook that he can hastily pull spells out of."
"In any case. We were finally able to connect the listening device and just in time too. I think this person was the assailant who attacked the eight of you." I'd believe it, "let's just have you all continue listening and analyze anything useful we can use with it." He said before leaving the room.
"If he's leaving, I'm gone too." Andrew immediately stood up and went to leave. But, he stopped when his hand was on the handle, "Actually," he started, "Having this intel might be vital towards our victory." And now he went up to where Quinn was sitting and was about to press play himself.
"Captain Gauche!" Mael called out, "Explain to Proxima our current set of circumstances!"
"Of course," presumably Gauche bowed, I don't know what their customs are, "It has been approximately one-twelfth of this planet's rotation cycle around their home-star, in our Empire's universal time unit that would be eight center-zero rotations, since our division has begun expanding the Zankoku's territory on what the locals call this planet: Earth."
"And how much have we annexed thus far?" she asked.
"Zero percent." Gauche stated.
"But, But-" The confident voice became not-so confident, "But in the time we've spent here, zero percent would upset General Kinoku or even worse: Juzo."
"General Kinoku and Juzo are not our current troubles. Our troubles reign on the surface of this planet. Currently what stands in our way is a force of only ten wizards, the majority of which seem to still be in the developing age of their species." Is she saying a ton of words just to say that we're teenagers? "Your goal is to conduct espionage on these wizards and when there is a large amount of them together. Catch them off guard and wipe them off the face of this planet. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes captain," she stated. We then heard the sound of an automatic door whirring open and footsteps leaving.
"Captain Gauche," Mael said, "Ensure that she knows our targets are the wizards and no one else. Only kill civilian life to lure them out as necessary. The civilians of this world have great builds, very suitable to do manual labor for the Empire."
"Yes sir!" She shouted.
"And if anything goes awry," he stopped for a second, "You shall go down and personally do something about it." he ordered.
"But sir if I may, why not Sa-Sa? He is much more fit for combat-" she was stopped by Mael's words.
"Sa-Sa only goes down if the situation is so dire. Losing one lieutenant will not nearly affect our operation as much as losing Arzo." We heard the squeak of what could be a chair and then a different sound of footsteps. More heavy and powerful than Proxima's, "We've already lost a lot of foot soldiers, but it is okay because they are foot soldiers. If they were to amount to any power, they would've already been promoted to at least a lieutenant by now. When a lieutenant's life is in danger, it is their captain's job to deal with it."
"But sir! Sa-Sa's foot soldiers haven't even made a move. He doesn't even have any lieutenants under him!"
"It is because I didn't recommend any to be promoted." The sound of the door happened again.
"Hey that's the guy that kicked our fuckin' asses!" Cyrus yelled!
"If any of my infantry soldiers truly show any talent, even a smidge to what Commander Mael possesses, I would consider them for promotion. But none have shown so." He stomped his foot, "My section of infantry soldiers and I are Commander Mael's personal spear. Your section is meant to be his information network and Arzo's his muscle. And yet, I alone have done a better job than Arzo's entire section. Must I alone do better than your section too?"
The recording ended and then Andrew said, "That's all that Quinn had for us."
"Damn. I'm not gonna lie, that last line is SUPER cool," Sage remarked, "too bad it came from the guy that whipped our ass instead of a friend that's chill with us."
"Wow… there's a lot to unpack to that." Zack said emptily, "First of all what is a center-zero rotation!? Is that their unit of time?" He looked at Xeno.
"Center-Zero is the commonly-known codename of the Zankoku Empire's capital solar system. In their coordinate mapping space, Center-Zero is marked as '(0,0,0)'" Xeno said as he typed up (0,0,0) on a hologram for us.
"And who are the other names!?" Cyrus asked, "The ones that were like a K sound then a J sound, I don't remember."
"The names were Kinoku and Juzo," Richard said.
"I do not know," Xeno solemnly stated, "If I had to guess: their commanding officers."
"... how far does the chain go?" Zack asked, "How far does the command chain in their military go till they get all the way up to their emperor. Since they ARE an empire, their emperor has to be the chief of the military, right? How many ranks are there?"
"I simply can't recall." Xeno then thought about it, "Each Commander has a few thousand soldiers in their force."
"How many is a few?" Zack pressed more questions, "Your english is still a bit broken. Few means three or four commonly, but it can also mean much more if you want. So how many is a few?"
"Personally, I do not have an exact number." Xeno sat back in his chair a bit.
Zack sat forward and slammed his fist down on the table then angrily yelled, "THEN GIVE ME AN ESTIMATE!" he exhaled and leaned back into his chair, "I'm sorry, I'm stressing out a bit too much."
"Your stress is valid," Andrew commented, "Didn't you say before that information is the strongest weapon in warfare right? Your anger and hunger to gain more weapons is valid then."
"Sure knowin' shit is strong 'n all," Cyrus started a counterpoint, "But we need real ass weapons too! You can get as much as ya want but do NOT get it from yellin' at our Master!" He said something amazing, in his own words.
"I understand," Zack nodded, "We should have to plan out our next move very carefully. What we can presume is that they think most of us sitting around this table are dead. Our prime attackers at the next time they come should definitely be Andrew and Xeno. Thoughts?"
"I don't object," Andrew kicked his feet up onto the table, "Y'all won't get in my way that way."
"But they attacked us via ambush," Adam brought up, "Andrew nor Xeno have a reason to leave the labs often. Would they come anyway and ambush us here." He put his right index finger on the table.
"There's a solid chance of that," Andrew noticed, "Our last attack hasn't happened in almost three weeks. Meaning they could've been watching us this whole time considering the last couple of attacks have been more frequent from each other."
"Then if they've been watching us," I'm having a Eureka moment, "then they should already know where the labs are and if they see us," I implied to the ones who were attacked by waving my hands at them, "Then they would know we're alive completely ruining the advantage of the aliens thinking we're dead."
Suddenly a hologram of Quinn appears on the table, "Then the logical decision-"
"AUHH!" Sage leaps up from her chair and back, "What the fuck Quinn. You startled me!" she cried out. I'll admit, a few of us chuckled.
Quinn rolled his eyes, "as I was saying… the logical decision is to keep the eight of you who were attacked, down here!" he exclaimed like it was a good idea.
"Are you nuts!?" Will asked, "What the hell do we tell our schools!? What about our home lives!? 'Hey we're gonna be in an underground lab for weeks until an alien shows its face and we kick its ass!'" He tried to mimic Quinn's voice.
"I'll provide any necessary information and coverups like claiming you're currently at a research camp for the US government as a learning opportunity," Quinn stated, "And provide any materials all of you would need to stay here. All you have to do is actually stay."
"So… we would be living the 'Andrew' life," I joked. No one really laughed, "really guys? Really? Alright fine," I crossed my arms. I hoped jokes would lighten the situation and our mood, especially my mood…
"Must we really live in these labs?" Richard asked Quinn then looked at Jeeves.
"If I may master, it seems like the best option currently." Jeeves nodded.
Richard thought about it for a second, "BAHAHA!" he laughed off, like always, "SO BE IT THEN! We shall make the most of our situation and bond as a team!" he YELLED enthusiastically.
"Nah," Andrew sat up, "I'm okay. If that is the plan that we're going with. Then that's it." He stood up and now walked to the door, "I'm outta here." He opened the door and left. He still had the decency to close the door though.
"Well I guess we're having a group sleepover." I joked again. This time I got a couple chuckles and exhales, that's better. I stood up myself, "I still have a change of clothes from a couple days ago. I'm actually gonna use the shower amenities in the locker rooms because I just want to collapse and sleep somewhere AND feel clean."
"Ditto," Adam said and then he left faster than I could.
"So you're all dismissed. I'll call someone to fetch necessary preparations, and find a nice place to sleep for the night. There's the break room, maybe one of the gyms. I don't think Andrew would take too kindly if you slept in his room. I know I wouldn't be kind if you slept in my office." Then he signed off.
I just left right after Quinn signed off. I went to the locker rooms and took that shower I was talking about.
"I could've done better," I thought to myself while drying my hair. Woah what the fuck was that thought!? Done better during what? Saving Sam!? There wasn't anything I could do. Water dome takes too much time to cast and I couldn't have grabbed him in time…
"Hey, do you mind if I rant for a bit?" huh? Who was that? I turned to see Sage standing in the doorway from the tiny hall of the locker room, "I asked if you mind if I rant for a bit?" she repeated herself.
"Yeah, sure, go ahead." I exhaled.
"You sure?" She sat down next to me on the same bench, "you looked pretty spaced out before."
"Were you watching me dry my hair!?" I asked her.
"Uh yeah." that's a bit creepy!
"For how long!?"
She admitted, "Thirty seconds… maybe a minute." That's very creepy! "So, am I good to rant?"
"Yeah, is it a serious topic?" I asked.
"Definitely." She confidently stated.
"Woah alright, lay it on me." I matched her confident tone with my own.
"That spell… that explosion or whatever. What the fuck was that!?" Her voice became much more frantic, "Like seriously that was some terrifying stuff. Do you think whoever attacked us can do more of those at once? This encounter made me really wonder, what's the extent of power in magic!? I can't tell if I'm scared, well I'm definitely scared, but there's a couple other emotions I'm feeling like curiosity and excitement. Life and emotions are weird y'know? What do you think?" Yeah she definitely ranted to me alright.
"I think that they probably can't fire off a ton of those. They left right after they did that after all." I thought positively, "But then again they thought we were dead so they could've just left right after," then negatively.
"That last part doesn't really help my case." She said, sounding like she was feeling upset.
"Are you upset?" I had to be sure.
"Not really, your statement doesn't really hurt me that much, now I'm just more curious on the limits of magic." she looked down at the floor.
"In my opinion, maybe none." I said, "I think the only limit is how much magic power we have in ourselves to do stuff."
"Really?" She looked up at me.
"Yeah. When I first started learning magic, Xeno told me that magic gave you the ability to change anything in our universe. Create and destroy things. Stuff like that."
Sage looked back down, "So, other aliens can do those same explosions…" Shit I'm losing her.
"Hey hey. Stop thinking that." I stayed silent for a bit to think of a response, "Look on the bright side, we can always keep practicing and building our magic power and then we," I pointed at her then me, "we can both be able to do attacks like those as well."
"Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better," Yay I got her! "Now for you." WHAT!?
"How're you doing?"
"Why do you care?"
"I'm your new friend, work-buddy, work-wife, whatever you wanna call me," she told me, "I want to know if you're doing okay. I heard from Zack about what happened. I didn't think Sam would be ballsy enough to take the hit for someone." she reflected.
"I- yeah, I wonder why he did it." I remarked.
"So…" she waved her hand.
"What?"
"That can't be it. You can't be troubled by only that, he's fine, you can literally just ask him tomorrow."
"He is!? How do you know?"
"Adam asked Quinn then he told me about it," Sage explained, "so… how're you feeling?"
"I, okay what stuck with me," I exhaled to think of what to say, "What troubled me most, is looking at Sam's… body? He's not a corpse cause he's not dead and body also sounds like he's dead… body I guess, " I shrugged, I'm ruining the mood heavily, "Anyway, when I saw him breathing in the non-rebreathing mask and the medics patching up his blisters, burns whatever… I wanted to know if there's something I or really anyone on the team can do. Like if we can only get treatment AFTER the battle's over, then what happens in longer ones? In my first battle it lasted like two hours, maybe more, and at the end I felt like I was going to collapse and die. Y'know why?"
"Because you couldn't get any medical treatment during the battle?" She responded but didn't sound sure.
"Pretty much." I told her she was right, "Any cut or bruise or whatever I got had to be resolved by myself covering them up with a bandage from my own belt."
"Doesn't that apply to the other three battles too? Including this one." Sage asked.
"Yes, but I fortunately had less injuries. Because there are others on the field too," I looked right into her eyes for maybe half a second then looked back down onto the ground.
She didn't say anything for a bit, "Oh. That's very good. So what do you want to do about this?"
"... I don't know," I looked out at my own locker, "I don't know what to do from here."
"What if," Sage stood up, "You asked Xeno, if there was a magic that could heal people and things y'know? Like healing magic you see in TV and movies!" she enthusiastically stated.
"That might work," It could exist, could not exist who knows, this shit has been so weird for me.
"So you'll give it a try?" Sage asked.
"I'll ask Xeno eventually," I then stood up, "Thanks a lot, I'm gonna go find a place to go to sleep. Today's been a long day."
"Yeah Imma do the same then." The both of us got out of the locker rooms.
In the meeting room Quinn left us each a sleeping bag and a pillow with a list of empty office rooms he numbered himself and a map of the rooms with the rooms numbered.
Some of the rooms had the words "taken" on it. I guess we just have to label one as taken then sleep there. I chose one of the ones near the break room.
I grabbed one sleeping bag and pillow each then walked over. I first knocked and asked "anyone in here?" I heard nothing. Alright I guess it's free.
I opened the door and saw what was a simple cubic room with a white tile floor, light gray walls and white sealing. There was only one light in the center of the ceiling. The furniture was even more bland with just a white or light gray wooden desk attached to a cabinet with a table, with a couple drawers, in the corner and a printer on top.
It's so bland it makes me think this is what a teacher's office would look like… if it was new.
I picked around in the drawers to find a sheet of paper, a pen and some tape. I wrote "This room is occupied" with a cute smiley face on it.
I turned out the light and lay down in my sleeping bag. I don't even know what to do with myself and this wizarding shit anymore…