Out of This World

Krel

When he looked back at her, she was holding tightly to the hoverboard and screaming her head off. But it wasn't terrified screaming, it was ecstatic screaming. She was having a blast.

"GO FASTER!" she yelled, so he put on a burst of speed. He had borrowed Aja's hoverboard to show Andy how it worked, but they had sort of accidentally taken it for a joyride.

After a little while, he slowed down and turned to look at her. "Are you positive you are not wanting to take it for a spin? I think you would be better than me."

She giggled. "I mean, I can try."

"Definitely!" he exclaimed, and they swapped places on the board. She stood and shuffled to where he had been standing, and he crouched at the front of the long and glowing blue board.

They ducked in and out of the trees, weaving through the forest and dodging the occasional wild animal. She put on a burst of speed, going faster than Krel had initially. He knew she had experience longboarding around Arcadia, but great Gaylen, she was going fast. She took a lower stance on the board for better stability as the two of them shot forward, the dodging and weaving getting more and more frantic.

Suddenly she lost control of the board, spinning out and sending the two of them flying. They came tumbling to a halt, Krel on top of Andy. As he picked himself up, he paused and looked at her. "Ow," he laughed. "You crashed us!"

She was bright red, not really speaking much at all except for a few stammered phrases. Krel shrugged and stood up, helping her up as well.

Once she had seemed to regain her composure, she nodded. "Yes, we did crash, didn't we? I wonder what went wrong?"

"I am sure we simply hit a rock," Krel said, taking her hand after pocketing Aja's now folded board.

Andy shrugged in agreement. "Yeah, you're probably right. Hoverboarding feels different than skateboarding." She took his hand when he offered it, smiling at him with that big genuine smile that he loved so much.

They walked for a little ways, chatting about honestly nothing in particular, when suddenly Andy stiffened and stopped, arm going taut.

"What is it?" Krel asked, turning back to look at her, mounting concern on his face. "What is wrong?"

"Did you hear that?" she asked softly, looking around with an apprehensive expression on her face.

He shook his head. "I hear nothing," he said plainly. Wait! There was something... A shiver ran down his spine and his stomach tied itself into a knot. "Oh no," he whispered.

Out of nowhere, a hail of lasers rained down upon the two of them. Thinking fast, Krel whipped out his serrator and opened the shield, lunging to his right and wrapping Andy up into his arms. After a moment the lasers stopped, and a large creature came barreling down out of the trees at the two of them. Zeron Omega slashed at them with their claws, but Krel pulled them out of the way just in time.

However, as they lunged, Krel felt a large hand pull him back by the neck of his shirt. Andy's eyes went wide with fear, but the scared expression slipped off her face in an instant and she set her jaw. "Let him go," she growled.

Okay, that was a little hot.

"Like I listen to children," said the voice belonging to the arm that held him, the voice of Zeron Alpha.

"That wasn't a suggestion," she said, sliding her feet apart and slipping into a fighting stance. She pulled up her fists. "It was a command. Let him go."

"Come any closer and your precious prince gets it," said Alpha, lifting his fist cannon to Krel's neck. Krel could tell this freaked her out, but only because he knew her so well. Her expression changed almost imperceptibly, skin turning a shade paler and a muscle in her temple twitched.