The Old Jackson Twins Book 2

Chapter Fourteen

Officer Krupke (I've been listening to that song and I couldn't resist, blame my school cuz we did West Side Story for our musical) thought Thanos was the end of it.

But as he and his men watched the ship slowly descend from the sky, the shadows of his cop car darkened and spit out a dog the size of a minivan and two young women. One of them whistled, and two metal dogs came out of literally nowhere what the f u c k.

"Uh, hi?" said the other woman. Like her friend (lol), she looked about 18 or 19, and had blue hair, multiple piercings, and enchanting eyes. "I-I'm Aria. We're here to help, I swear."

The first one was staring up at the ship, and then she let out a low whistle. "Do you see that? That ship looks like it's been through Hell and back, maybe twice."

"It'll land soon," Aria said. She tapped her wristwatch, and it spiraled outwards into a gleaming bronze shield.

"What the bloody hell?" Officer Jeanne sputtered.

"It's kind of a long story," said the one without a name. "But it's like she said, we're here to help."

Then the ship fired.

The shot hit the ground at Officer Krupke's feet, and he was blown backwards, dust and dirt flying everywhere. He heard a sickening crack as his arm hit a rock, and sharp pain stabbed through his body right before another shot hit his leg and his consciousness ebbed away.

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The guy officer was definitely a goner if he didn't get help soon. Luckily, the ship was small enough, far enough, and weak enough that the shots weren't immediately fatal.

The dogs had disappeared when the ship started firing. Reyna had thrown her cape, woven with threads of Aegis, over the both of them when the first shot hit, and now they peeked out from under it, wondering what they could do.

The answer? Not much.

"I love you," Aria whispered. If she was going to die, she would make sure those were her last words.

"We're not going to die," Reyna whispered back fiercely.

"Really? Because the spaceship firing at us says otherwise." So much for her last words being touching and romantic.

She yelped as another shot blew shards of rock over her feet, and tried not to panic. "What are we supposed to do?"

"I-I don't know. But I worked my ass off last winter to make sure both of us survived. I'm not letting all of that go to waste."

Survived. What a powerful word.

Her breathing shaky, Aria peeked over the edge of the fabric. The ship was much closer now, and would probably be on the ground in about twenty seconds. "We're going to die."

"Don't say that, love." Reyna gripped her hand. "We'll survive."

Then a blur of metal came out of nowhere, and a silver-and-red shape swooped into view.

Sam.

The ship started to glow red and slow down, and Aria glanced around wildly for Wanda.

"On your left!" Steve shouted, and then he was running up on their left and joining the fight.

Now that they weren't in immediate danger of death, Aria and Reyna could take a second to get their shit together, grab their weapons, and run into the chaos of screaming police.

Ever since they'd shadowtraveled in, Aria had been acutely aware of a little stream not far away, and now her subconscious started gathering water, holding it in little reservoirs all around the site until she had enough to do anything with. In the meantime, she searched for chinks in the ship's armor and aimed a few well-placed knives. With her knives, Sam's insistent attacks, and mostly Wanda's telekinesis, they brought the ship crashing down on the path surrounding Stonehenge.

And a woman and a wolf stepped out of the wreckage.

No human could have survived that wreck, but Hela and whoever the wolf was weren't human.

Hela smiled wickedly. "Well, what a lovely greeting."

"Look, can we wrap this up?" Aria called. "I've gotta be home for Christmas or Mom might actually kill me."

"Oh, little hero. She'll never get the chance." Hela drew two knives and stepped forward theatrically.

"Look, as sinister as that was, I gotta say, I love how dramatic you made that. I mean, that could've won you an Oscar," Aria said, her brain wildly scanning how much water she'd collected.

"Is she always like this?" Sam asked.

"Yeah, she is," Reyna said with a smile and a shake of her head.

Bucky ran straight into battle, and Sam followed. The two of them kept Hela busy long enough, and Wanda with Fenris, for Aria to pull Reyna and Steve aside and quickly explain her plan.

"That is maybe the worst idea you've ever had," Reyna said immediately.

"I once flooded Bunker 9 to mess with Leo," Aria reminded her.

"No, this- this might actually be worse. You want to drown her?"

"Hela can't drown," Steve added. "I mean, technically she could, but according to Thor, it takes a lot to kill an Asgardian."

"How did she die last time?" Reyna asked. The girls spent so much time poring over old myths it wasn't even funny, but it had saved their lives more times than Aria could count.

"A giant fire-lava-giant-demon thing smashed her into the wreckage of Asgard."

"So that's a dead end," Aria said weakly.

"Can you sing her down?" Reyna said thoughtfully.

"Unfortunately, nearly making Paul crash the Prius is pretty much the extent of my siren powers. Look, let's just go hold her off and maybe we can figure out an idea."

Reyna ran to the left to fight Hela, and Steve and Aria went up against Fenris. She climbed up a rock - which probably would have made an archaeologist faint - and studied the wolf, searching for weak spots. The eyes looked promising, but she'd have to work really hard to get a knife there.

Then she heard Sam yell, "FUCK!"

She turned to look and saw her girlfriend - and then her girlfriend again.

Hela had pulled a Loki and transformed into Reyna.

"Which one do we hit?" Bucky asked, confused.

Unfortunately, neither of the Reynas were giving any clues as to which one was real. They were staring at each other, looking equally confused.

Aria paused and studied them, but Hela had nearly perfectly replicated Reyna.

"I'm the real one!" the one on the left promised.

"No, I am!"

Aria hesitated, then remembered the early morning bus ride. Gods, how long ago was that? "Roll up your sleeves," she ordered.

One of the Reynas looked confused, but the other one obeyed with a spark of understanding in her eyes, revealing the intricate henna-like Sharpie tattoo.

"That one's real."

The other one muttered some ancient curse and then called for Fenris. She transformed back into Hela at the same moment that she and the wolf disappeared.

"Well, fuck," Bucky said after a moment.

"Yeah," Steve agreed, staring at the spot where Hela had been. "Fuck."