A Hero in the Dark: 2nd Edition

Chapter 14: Battle Cries at the Lakefront

It's even more hectic at the lake, which must stretch between fifty or sixty feet in all directions. I'm surprised to see a giant serpent-like creature in the middle of the water, close to a hundred stories tall! It's terrifying; it's like we're in some sort of monster movie now.

"Good heavens," Héctor says, ducking under the jeep's roof bar to see the thing's face. "Is that what I think it is? Is this a—what do you call it—Loch Ness Monster?"

"Olivia!" Ella cheers.

"Can you get us closer to the people in the other side?" asks Adelina, watching our surroundings. "Run those Kraul over or something."

Mogadorians are everywhere, all of them wielding some kind of weapon; cannons, swords, blasters. Even beasts on four legs and little weasel creatures slink about; some of them chase our little jeep when we roar past. "Look!" shouts John. "There they are!"

A dagger flies at him from the side, but before I can warn him, it's slapped away midair.

Héctor drives us around the edge of the lake and comes to an abrupt stop where we take cover behind a fallen log; I wonder if it fell while we were gone or if it fell ages ago.

"Olivia!" Ella cries, and we turn to see what has her so concerned: the Krauls. They've started crawling up on the giant serpent. "No! Papa, do something!"

I haven't even noticed that Crayton now wields a weapon; an AK, I think. I have no idea where he got it from. "He might hit Olivia if he tries to take them out," Henri notes.

"Can't Marina or John use their telekinesis to get them off?" I ask.

"We can try," John says, and so Marina and John start plucking the Kraul off ten at a time before they reach her neck and bite into her flesh. They're tossed by invisible strings and fall into the water with a plop. Crayton fires when they rise for air and they're dead within seconds.

"How much ammo do you have in that thing?" I barely hear Héctor ask over a volley of gunfire.

"Less than three more rounds," Crayton answers. "We'll want to end this soon."

I peek over the log to see the Krauls fall in number, though the Mogadorians have a truck on the far side. I assume it carries Piken—at least two is my guess. John and Marina are focused on the Kraul though. Henri's firing his shotgun, taking out any that get too close while Crayton's busy with Kraul and Mogadorians too. Héctor, Ella, and I are really the only ones that stand by and do nothing. Although Héctor looks more rattled than me, I think I feel more guilty about it.

I came to help, and now, I don't know how to do that. I have no weapon—not that I can use it if I did—and I have no Legacies. All I have is a shapeshifting alien hare and a Chest full of valuables I need to protect. Wait...

A shapeshifting alien hare... I look over the log again to try and get an angle. There're trees to our right; the forest continues that way to the road. There's a fence on the left, wired and electric with signs that say: KEEP OUT and DANGER. Slowly, a plan begins to take shape.

I tug at John's arm. "I think I have an idea," I tell him. "But it involves Pixie and Olivia. I need you to tell them what to do."

"Ok. What is it?"

"If Pixie can sneak around to the other side of the lake, she might be able to kill the rest of them before they send in more or release whatever's in the truck. It might give us some leeway."

"And you're sure she can do that?" he asks. "That seems like a lot for one Chimæra to handle."

"You haven't seen her in action," I say. "She can handle herself, but I need you to tell her exactly what I say." Alien boy stares at me, like he's checking if I'm for real. But I'm as for real as I can be. I don't want to die; it's become the mantra of my boring life.

John nods and just as Olivia screeches in pain and Marina calls for his help to keep the next wave of Krauls off, he asks me: "How do we start?"

"I need her to shift into some kind of creature, more deadly than a lion, and preferably one that flies," and with a moment, John shares the thought and Pixie transforms with a quiet yip. In no time, she's a legendary dragon, one with scaly camouflage skin and wide wings that must spread a metre in width with a dark underbelly. She isn't that large, but she looks threatening with pointy ears slicked back and teeth sharper than any king of the cats. She's the perfect representation of deadly and exactly what I was hoping for. "Now I need you to tell her to sneak into the forest 'till she gets to the road. She needs to stay low and move slow."

"Then what?"

"Then she'll take them out. I'm going for stealth more than anything. If she can stay hidden the entire time, the plan is gold. But we can't let them open the truck, at any costs."

Another pause. Pixie scratches the ground with her extended claws, as a dog might when it digs up a hole to bury its bone. "That's it?" John asks.

"Yes. Now tell Olivia to roar." John does and Olivia roars a loud screeching roar. I cover my ears to soften the blow. I pat Pixie on the head, tell her to be safe, and point to the trees. She darts off and crawls her way through, staying low like John told her, slowly.

We're in too much of a depression with the lake, so we can't see when she gets to the road. But eventually, she comes into view again, hiding under the truck. There're probably fifty Mogs laid out around her—thirty to the right, twenty to the left. They don't see her. Good.

"Now," I tell John, nudging him gently. "That Mog on her left? Far left. All alone. Tell her to go for that one." It's her safest bet.

We'll start that way: left to right; that seems to be how they're operating. The Mogs on the left have more cover, and they're not shooting at us consistently, and when they do shoot, they're shots are more precise. Generals, I think, or something along the lines.

Pixie lurks closer, jumps, and attacks, then drags him back to the bottom of the truck and resumes her hiding spot.

She does the same with the next, and the next, and the next until the last one drops his weapon and fires a single ray into the fence; the others zip their heads to him. Shit. "Tell her to kill him quick and fly!"

Sure enough, she does. She soars up, up into the sky, and most of the Mogs divert their attention from us to her. Now I'm worried—no, not worried. Scared. "I want her in the trees! Tell her to fly into the trees!" My heart's beating as strong as it did in Paradise. I can't watch Pixie die. I can't watch Pixie die. I can't watch her die.

"She's fine, Emily," John assures me, a hand on my arm. "Don't worry."

But I am worrying. I watch her fly out of the forest back to me while the Mogs fire blindly at the treeline. Crayton and Henri pick them off. The dragon looks up at me, like she's wondering what the worry is... but that's not all I'm worried about.

Yes, I'm scared of losing Pixie even though I've only been with her a few days, but I'm also scared of not being useful enough, useful as plainly as I am. I want to be more than just their guidebook...

"John..." Marina strains. "I could use your help."

"Right," he says. "Sorry."

I sit with my back against the log; it's being destroyed by the chunk, but otherwise is holding together better than I expected. The Mogadorians are thinning, their angered shouts fading one by one. Crayton's clip clicks, and he tosses the gun aside. I hold myself still, not moving, but listening to sounds echo, holding my knees. Pixie's a rabbit again; she hops closer to sniff my hand. I smile a little until I see a patch of red under her leg.

My chest constricts. She... She's hurt, hurt because of me—because I was so desperate to prove my worth. I wasn't even thinking about what could happen to her until she was out there. I was selfish, and that just makes me wonder: What if I'm no use to them?