Hacking the Sun [Old Version]

Chapter 21 The Lanterns

Jessica bent back ninety-degrees when Malvis' blade arced overhead. Time stretched into slow-mo adrenaline as the energy evaporated the sweat off her skin. Her board then smashed through her opponent's legs, flipping him as her back hit the ground.

She instantly recovered and circled back without a care for the alien's groan; it was music to her ears, actually. And as Malvis rolled in the dirt, she gravitated beside Dexter and grabbed his left hand, the remaining hand. 

"Come on!" she cried but was forced to drag his unconscious body. Her knees scraped the ground, and she noticed the gravity board split in two. Even with the agent back on his feet, pistol in his clutch, she never let go of her friend. She kicked the aluminum off her feet and pressed on

A transparent bubble suddenly wrapped around the agent, triggered by two bullets and an electrical pulse. In reality, the bullets were electrical darts, and they caused the shield to fluctuate while Malvis gawked in every direction.

"Valerie..." Jessica muttered.

The alien's brow twisted irritably. "Harmless ballistic—" An explosion sent him flying into one of the many trees. 

"What the hell?"

Shannon then sprinted next to her, face gaunt and eyes white. "You shouldn't be out here, Jessica!" 

"What are you—" It didn't matter. "Help me with Dexter!" Her friend paused and stared slack-jawed at the missing arm. "Shannon!"

"Right!"

With Shannon's help, Jessica uplifted Dexter and restarted toward the lanterns. They had to ignore the encroaching whistle of airships, though could not ignore the distant moan. Shannon looked back. "Jess," she warned.

Over her shoulder, Malvis rose from the dirt. His polished coat had become a layer of fumes, gunpowder scent splitting the senses from afar. "Faster, Shannon!"

"You will run, but you will die face down," Malvis snarled. One foot forward, he took a racer's stance. Forward like gust, the pulse from his boots stole Jessica and Shannon's chance of escape. As soon as he was upon them, Shannon let go of Dexter and turned around.

"Don't!" Jessica screeched when the blade fell. 

Shannon narrowly escaped the swift, smoldering edge, sacrificing the hem of her shirt. She followed the dodge with a duck, and the blade almost set her hair on fire. Her hands pushed her off the ground for a kick to the agent's gut. A single cough escaped his breath with a few steps back, yet he drew his arm back for another thrust. Shannon had no room to dodge a second time.

Following a sonic pitch from the woodland, Malvis' arm flailed backward. Jessica surveyed the dark around them in search of Dani, but couldn't see a thing.  Onward, she shifted her weight with Dexter the moment Malvis realigned his posture.  His torso came back into the moonlight, right arm limp and stained with a bullet hole. Perhaps shock, perhaps alien adrenaline—or perhaps total numbness—stirred the look of shock on his face when his large pupils landed on the girls, and the barrel of his pistol landed between Jessica's eyes.

His gun left a hole in the nearby tree. Valerie had forced Malvis on his back, with a furious tackle. Point blank, she crouched over the alien and emptied her pistol clip into his chest, leaving electricity and rapid breaths. Malvis lay slumped in a never-ending seizure when  Valerie tossed the pistol aside and poured all her remaining energy into her fists.

"You don't get to lay a finger on her, bitch! You don't get to do anything!"

"Val!" By the time Shannon pulled Valerie off, Malvis lay battered, bleeding, and immobilized. "We're out of fucken time! Get stepping like your life depends on it, cuz it does!"