The Guardians of Gaia

Chapter Thirty-Two

The Guardians appeared in the midst of Northbury, at the town hall. AThey all were doused with a strong torrent of rain, the water rolled off Marina, who could repel and control water well enough to keep herself dry. The sky was grey, filled with dark clouds. It must have been raining for a long time because every step they took, they stepped into water.

"Ah come on!" Astroman hollered. His boots weren't waterproof and with every step he took his socks squelched in the boots. He hovered after that. He looked down the road and saw the flooding went down all as far as his eyes could see. The moon overhead made the water molten silver. Obsidian trees rose out of the water in odd places like in the middle of a parking lot and on top of park benches.
The world seemed silent. Abandoned cars peppered the roads. Left in the middle of action, it seemed. 

"This is really weird," Sthade muttered. He wanted to go back to Titan and act like nothing had happened. He wanted to act like not having control over his powers was normal, that Beaster was still alive, that he had never met Marshall, that he and Marina were the only heroes in the city. In fact he wanted to go back further to that, before he ever met Ophelia, before he was roped into the life of a hero, and he was just a regular, run-of-the-mill monster.

As group charged toward the city centre, six shadows skirted under the water and materialized in front of the group. Their heights varied but seemed to hover around seven and eight feet tall. But there was who stood in the middle and wore a gold bracelet around his bicep. As they materialized, the knot of dread in Shade's stomach tightened. They looked like humanoid reptiles with claws and menacingly sweeping tails. The large one on the right was green, the middle one dark grey and the one on the left was burgundy. The two larger ones wielded sharp spears that glistened in the rain. Shade was amazed at the sight of them; they looked exactly like him. Pyro looked accusingly at Shade, as if he had summoned those beings. Shade returned his look with one of sheepish embarrassment.

"Don't go any further," the one with the gold bicep bracelet said in perfect English. Cryo recognized that voice at once.

"Lance!" Cryo hollered, as the three creatures started to surround the group. Cryo's shoulders brushed against Marina's. Their backs pressed against the backs of their fellow teammates. "Lance is-"

The middle grey one chuckled. "Me. My real name is Kobaham. It am astonished that you ended up being the most observant one. I expected that from the girl."

"Who are you? What's going on?" Shade cried.

"We've come to claim the planet, all thanks to you," Lance said with an uncanny grin, baring all of his spindly, razor sharp, teeth. "Men, take the others out. Er . . . Faust and I have business to attend to."

The others fought but were no match for the guards. Shade lunged toward the guards but Kobaham ensnared his arms and held him back, leaving his cronies to carry out their work.

They had Shade's powers, the shadow wielding and shape shifting but their movements were much more fluid, and powerful. Pyro was knocked out, Astroman and Marina tied up, Cryo was the hardest one to subdue because he froze the webs but at that point he was the last one left and couldn't fend off assaults from six different attackers.

"Faust, what a strange name your earth parents gave you," Kobaham said, as he used one honed index claw to slice through the bonds that held Shade. "Come on. Walk with me, don't bother looking back at your friends. My guards will take them to a safe place. Your real name is Irjod. Not a particuarly popular name on Skivoy but you parents weren't about being popular."
"Are my parents alive?"

Faust asked, walking toward the city hall with Koboham.

Kobaham shrugged. "Probably. The radiation won't kill the Skivs left on the planet. At least, it won't kill them right away," Kobaham said with a shrug. "I knew who you were before you started to react to the flowers and lose your ability to stay human. Those eyes. Purple, it's the colour of the lowest of the skivs."