White Shadows

Chapter 21 - Run Boy Run

***ALEX***

Right away, as soon as we emerge in Heavenly skies, Elijah flies away as quickly as he can - which is practically the freaking speed of sound compared to us.

"Coward!" Gabe and I yell after him as he streaks away into the sunset.

"Let him go," Annie says, waving her hand dismissively.

"Yeah," Harlan says, pointing at the big old quantum-physics-breaking hole in the air above us. "We've still got a shit-ton of angry military scrivs coming after us on all sides!"

"Then let's show 'em who's boss already!" Fionna cries, charging up both barrels of fire in her hands. Juliet joins her, ready to tornado the shit out of any attackers - and, to my delight, they're going to do the Flamethrower. It's one of my favorite moves to see, especially since it's dangerous enough that we're officially banned from trying it out at school. This evening, however, the occasion definitely calls for it.

Gabe and I fly lower, down towards the lake, where we can get water to use against the scrivs. Now we can bring those scrivs who follow us as close to drowning as possible. We force the water on their heads for about fifteen seconds before they shoot us with light pulses, forcing us to fly away.

I get a fleeting glimpse of the action overhead. More scrivs are spilling out the shining hole in the sky, but nowhere near as many as the huge cluster we're all facing right now. Are they seriously going to just stay here and surround us until we're all picked off one by one? I'm starting to think, in spite of myself, that Elijah may have had the right idea by flying off. Maybe we should follow his example, but all at once, not lone-wolf style like he did. We could sure lead these scrivs on a merry chase across the sky.

That is, if we can coordinate ourselves. Which, right now, looks unlikely, given how scattered we've all become. Gabe and I flew north, towards the lake. Annie and Harlan went with their mom to the south somewhere - I think. It's hard to tell with all the light and dark elementals flying around. And everyone else is going west.

I snap my fingers Gabe's way and point at our good scrivs. Getting the idea, he turns around, catches Fionna's eye, and beckons her and Juliet to follow us. We lead our scrivs, who are still recovering from the near-drownings and near-Flamethrowings they've encountered at our hands, in the direction of Annie and Harlan. They're only too ready to do what we couldn't before - incapacitate our assailants. We do the same for them, but not without some help from Marian.

"You guys are so horribly misguided," she says to the nearest scriv as she sprays him with dark energy, coating his entire head. "You might as well be blind."

The way she delivers that line is so neutral, so deadpan, it's scary. It's like she's an alien queen. I half-expect her to shed her skin and reveal a scary sharp-toothed lizard face underneath.

Juliet looks from Marian to the scriv soldier (who's trying to get the dark shit off his head, to no avail) and back again. "Annie did that to Gideon once," she said. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone...but with these guys? I'll make an exception."

Marian tilts her head to Annie. "What did this Gideon person do to make you cocoon him?" she asks.

Annie growls to herself. "I said I was sorry!"

"Not often enough, I don't think," I chortle.

"Sure, fine, whatever," Annie says, waving her hand - and then raising her hand to block an incoming attack.

Speaking of attacks, another scriv tries to get in behind Marian by stealth, but Gabe and I are too fast for him. Together, we dive under Marian, then rocket back upwards and grab this scriv's ankles just as he gets ready to swing what looks like a solid club of light. He loses his - well, is it really accurate to say he loses his balance when there's nothing but air for him to balance on anyway? Either way, he doesn't get to hurt Marian. He does, however, get to tumble end over end and fall a few hundred feet, narrowly missing a large patch of tall trees below.