Paranormals (Book 2): We Are Not Alone

by Andrews, Christopher

  PCA

  “There they are!” Vortex had called a minute earlier, shouting over the wind rushing across the jet’s open door. He could make out a pair of glowing entities, gold and silver, south of the Taalu encampment. “There! That’s gotta be Della and Charl!”

  Takayasu joined him in time to see both Lan siblings fall. “Lincoln, Mark, listen close! The second, I mean the second we hit the ground, drop Vortex and me and get over there! We’ll catch up! Engage the enemy as fast as you can! It looks like the triclops is going to reach Della before the others reach Charl! Whoever gets there first, get it off Della’s back! Then make sure Charl is clear! After that, Lincoln goes after the walrus and Mark sticks with the triclops, to counter that earthwave trick! Vortex, we’ll see how the wasp handles a compression wave from you! Let’s go!”

  Seconds later, they were in the open air.

  PCA

  Upon landing, Powerhouse dropped Vortex as ordered, took a few running steps, and leaped at the triclops — thankfully, the stony alien made for a big target. He slammed into the alien with explosive force. They tumbled together, Powerhouse striving to wrap his arms around its torso, but the creature was too large for his hands to meet at its back, frustrating Lincoln’s desire to crush the damn thing once and for all. Instead, he settled for a series of quick blows to its belly and an uppercut to its chin; neither area seemed as vulnerable as they would on a human, but as far as he was concerned, every shot counted. He wanted to keep going, but he was mindful of the Lieutenant’s assessment that only he could survive the walrus’ gravity attack. Settling for one final kick to its knee, he shoved away from the triclops with enough strength that he was airborne for a moment before landing on his feet. The timing worked out well — the instant they separated, the triclops’ extra arms extended from its torso and just missed grabbing him.

  Scanning for the walrus, Powerhouse found it standing over Shining Star’s brother as the triclops had been over his sister. Shockwave was attacking from a short distance away, hitting the bulky alien with kinetic waves strong enough to keep it from advancing but not enough to push it back.

  Hold him off a minute longer, he thought to Shockwave as he hustled over to the shallow crater containing Shining Star’s helpless sister.

  Not so helpless, as it turned out. She was on her hands and knees by the time he got there, straining to get up.

  As he knelt beside her, her energy sheath flared again. “Della!” he said, drawing back. “It’s all right, it’s me.”

  Della lifted her head, a clearly painful effort, and said something to him in that Russian-sounding language of theirs. If she’d been wearing her translator going into this fight, it had been destroyed.

  “Sorry, I can’t understand you,” he said, trying to figure out the best way to help her up. He fell into the mode that most people unconsciously did when speaking to a foreigner — he spoke louder and slower, and used lots of gestures. “I’m going to get you back to your ship, but I have to move fast.”

  Della said something else, the word “lipat” included more than once, and she sounded desperate. She raised a hand to point, only to collapse forward upon losing its support.

  Powerhouse thought he got that one. “I’m going to help your brother, too. I promise.”

  Then she looked past him and her eyes flew open wide.

  Powerhouse whipped around toward the triclops, but it was still recovering — a loud buzzing told him that he had turned the wrong way. Lincoln hunched his shoulders, prepared to take the brunt of the wasp’s attack, to protect Della, even if it meant getting stung ...

  Ten feet away, the wasp’s power dive came to an abrupt halt — the air around the insectoid rippling and wavering in a familiar way.

  Smiling, Powerhouse called out, “Thanks, Vortex. Good timing.”

  Between running on his bad leg and generating the vortex, his costumed colleague was already winded, but Vortex called back, “Get her clear. I got this.”

  Nodding, Powerhouse carefully worked his arms underneath Della’s torso, trying to help her up without undo pressure. “I won’t be long. I think the gravity attack is already wearing off. I need to help Mark with the ugly bastard before it gets close enough to use it on him.”

  “Shockwave’s keeping his distance,” Vortex panted. “I will, too. Go, get her out of here. And as for you, you creepy son of a bitch ...” He advanced upon the writhing wasp. “Let’s see just how tough that exoskeleton really is.”

  The wasp twisted around and around, bending in ways that its Terran equivalent could not have matched. And despite his bravado, Vortex learned that it was strong — really strong. The triclops had done the bulk of the physical combat and the walrus had stood up to a few blows from Powerhouse, but it looked like the wasp had Class One strength to match the rest of them.

  To make matters worse, he could also see with his exceptional peripheral vision that the triclops was on its feet again and moving this way — the beast was a little unsteady from its tussle with Powerhouse, but it was coming.

  Damn, I really wanted to squash this thing into oblivion. How do they keep foiling us, over and over? Why won’t just one of them stay down?!

  Giving the wasp one final surge of pressure, he used his vortex wave to drag the insectoid over until it was between him and the triclops, then switched his attack from compression to repulsion. The wasp turned into a projectile weapon, slamming into the triclops and bowling them both over. And this time they didn’t just tumble a few yards away — they rolled and rolled, driven by his vortex wave, away from the Taalu ships, out of sight into the Montana night ...

  PCA

  Shockwave was having increasing difficulty keeping the walrus away from Charl. His head was aching a lot worse than he had let on to the others, and he could feel hints of the predicted nausea creeping around the edges. His fists, extended forward as the focal points of his shockwaves, trembled. If he could get closer, he was sure he could give the bastard a better run for his money, but that would also mean getting within range of its gravity attack — he didn’t know what its range was, exactly, but the fact that he was still standing showed that his current thirty or so yards was safe enough. Testing his luck, he took a tentative step forward, then another ...

  ... and that’s when he saw the telltale arm gesture that Powerhouse described in his warning.

  Redirecting some focus to his bare feet, he pushed himself up and back. A fleeting sensation of increasing weight washed over him, but it came and went fast. His shaky landing put him another ten yards back, outside the apparent danger zone, but that much further from Charl as well. The walrus leaned forward and gained another step toward the unmoving Taalu boy — one more, and the alien would be able to stomp on Charl.

  Not on my watch, dumbass!

  Mark laid his shockwaves on stronger than ever, the spreading blood in his left eye the only outward indication of what it was costing him ...

  PCA

  Powerhouse had Della on her feet now; he tried to pull her arm over his shoulder, but their height difference made that difficult.

  “Shockwave’s in trouble,” Vortex said, limping a few steps in that direction. “I’ll see if I can get Charl clear—”

  “No!” Powerhouse insisted. “You can’t get that close to it.”

  “Listen, I can’t help Della — she’s still too heavy for me. Until the gravity attack wears off, you’re the only one here strong enough.”

  “Then how will you move Charl?”

  That made Vortex hesitate. “And the wasp and triclops won’t be long. And we have to make sure they don’t do an end run around us and hit the Taalu ships. Damn it ...”

  Della said something in Taalu, forcing her hand up to point, but she wasn’t pointing at Charl or toward the other Noctoponm.

  Powerhouse sighed in relief. “The Lieutenant’s here. Maybe he’ll have an idea.”

  “Yeah, but what took him so long? And who the hell is that with him?”


  Takayasu and an attractive, dark-hued woman were running their way, both winded but in good enough shape to keep up a steady pace. The brunette, wearing simple jeans, T-shirt, and windbreaker, looked familiar to Vortex, but he couldn’t place her.

  “Guys ...” Takayasu called in greeting as they got close enough. He and the brunette took a second to catch their breath, then he said to Lincoln, “Powerhouse, I come bearing gifts ...”

  PCA

  Shockwave’s head felt like it was ready to split in two by the time the walrus shifted on him. For the few minutes they’d been in this unstoppable-force/immovable-object competition, the bulky alien had been leaning forward into his shockwaves, striving to gain the final ground on Shining Star’s brother. Now the walrus twisted around, putting its stumpy shoulder against the shockwave. But why? Why was it doing that?

  It spat. Its acid fluttered in the pseudo-wind of Shockwave’s attack, but it came damn close to splattering onto Charl’s head!

  “Stop!” Shockwave yelled, like he was shaming a bad dog. “No! Stop that!”

  The walrus ignored him, working its mouth for another try.

  Shockwave didn’t know what to do. He was already pouring on as much as he could, so upping the ante to keep the acid back wasn’t an option. He didn’t have any choice — he was going to have to get closer again ... which he was pretty sure was what the son of a bitch wanted.

  “Shockwave,” he heard, “get ready to stand down.”

  Turning his throbbing head, he saw Powerhouse and a hot chick approaching.

  “You took your sweet time— Wait a minute, is that—?”

  “Backup,” Powerhouse said, a devilish smile matching the one now growing on Mark’s face. “Specialized backup. You be sure to thank your partner for this.” He asked the woman, “You ready?”

  The woman’s brown eyes were a little buggy as she took in the lamprey-faced walrus, but she nodded.

  Moving forward while giving a wide berth to Shockwave’s kinetic attack, Powerhouse called out, “Hey!” He clapped his hands a few times. “Remember me?!”

  The walrus rolled its head toward the new voice, blabbering something guttural upon seeing Powerhouse.

  “I’m ready for Round Three, you ugly motherfu—!”

  Bellowing in rage, the walrus twisted around, almost losing its balance under the pressure of Shockwave’s attack, and raised its flabby arms toward Powerhouse. More importantly, it had turned away from Charl.

  Powerhouse readied himself for the oncoming assault and yelled, “Now, Density!”

  The brunette, Density, who had crouched near Shockwave as Powerhouse challenged the beast, placed her hands upon the ground before her and closed her eyes.

  Powerhouse’s march slowed when his body weight increased by several hundred times, but he kept moving. And this time, the ground did not collapse or crumble beneath his weighty feet.

  Judging by the erratic movement of its eye-orbs, the walrus must have known something was wrong. But how could it have suspected that Density had increased the solidity of the earth around them until it was as hard as diamond?

  “Shockwave!” Powerhouse grunted as loud as he could. “Cease fire!” Leaning forward, letting his great weight build some momentum, Powerhouse picked up speed as he pushed toward the walrus. The creature retreated, but its shuffling feet weren’t fast enough. It spat acid at him, striking him upon the already irritated flesh of his chest. He ignored it.

  At the last moment, Powerhouse put everything he had into a leap, straining his paranormal leg muscles like never before. In defiance of all probability, he left the ground, leaving cracked impressions in spite of Density’s augmentation.

  The bulky Noctoponm’s lamprey mouth split wide as it screeched in horror. It was music to Lincoln’s ears.

  “This is for Greg Pendler!”

  Powerhouse’s interlocked hands crashed down upon the alien’s head, a double-fisted blow delivered by a superhumanly strong man who now weighed nearly one hundred tons.

  Something cracked in the walrus’ thick neck. A rush of air exploded from the alien’s mouth as it collapsed in on itself; acid spurting from its puckered lips, some dripping down onto its own ample belly while the rest sputtered to the hardened ground. The thick, elephant-like hide rumpled and bulged as the creature deflated, worsening when Powerhouse collided with it.

  The walrus fell over backward with Powerhouse on top. The tremendous impact echoed throughout the Montana mountains.

  PCA

  Powerhouse lay still atop his enemy, stealing a moment to recover before undertaking the arduous task of standing up under his great weight. He had not come through this unscathed — his wrists had broken when his fists connected with the walrus’ head ... but it was totally worth it.

  A moment later, he heard footsteps approaching. They didn’t sound like they belonged to a colossus or an insect, so he turned his heavy head slowly.

  “Okay, it’s official,” said Shockwave as he, Takayasu, Vortex, and the beautiful, wonderful, amazing Density, whom Lincoln planned to kiss when this was over, joined him. “I’m startin’ to like you after all.”

  “Guys,” Takayasu said, “I hate to rain on the victory parade, but ...”

  Buzzing and rumbling their respective rage, the wasp and triclops returned to the battleground, stinger and wrist-blades ready to strike.

  “Oh, my God ...” Density whispered, her voice trembling. She turned to Takayasu and said, not at all joking, “Next time, tell me what I’ll be up against, you asshole.”

  Vortex reacted first, firing a widespread repellant wave to slow them down. The wasp’s flight was knocked askew, corkscrewing off sideways; the triclops’ stride turned slipshod, but it leaned into the vortex and kept coming. Shockwave knelt and fired low, striking the behemoth in the shins. Vortex cut off his attack, and the triclops toppled forward headfirst, sliding several yards on its face.

  Powerhouse tried to push himself up onto his forearms, thinking that if he could just fall on top of the triclops while it was down, he might stop another Noctoponm. But the added weight left him too sluggish, and the triclops was already rising. A volley of Vortex’s lasers struck its armored crown to no avail.

  Instead of getting all the way up, the triclops rose to its knees and jammed its wrist-blade into the ground — the hardened soil protested audibly, but it wasn’t dense enough to resist the penetration. The ground buckled under them until Shockwave countered the move, drawing another roar of anger and frustration from the beast. It doubled its efforts, and Shockwave stayed with it — Mark didn’t know how much longer he had before passing out (or blowing a gasket upstairs and dropping dead) — while Vortex tried his lasers again, this time concentrating at the point where the triclops’ blade disappeared into its right wrist.

  PCA

  Takayasu, deciding they should get out of the big guns’ way, motioned for Density to follow him as he headed over to check on Charl.

  “Oh!” Density gasped, her hands covering her mouth. “Is that blood?”

  Takayasu, like the others, had assumed Charl remained down because he was trapped under the walrus’ gravity attack, but now he saw that might not be the case. Charl was lying on his belly, his face turned away from them, with a pool of darkened ground around his torso.

  “Okay,” he said as he knelt next to the Taalu boy. “Here’s what we’re going—”

  In that instant, Takayasu’s gut instincts, that inner part of him that sometimes reared its head, screamed at him that Danger! was behind him. He spun on one knee, his stun gun ready, for all the good it might do.

  The wasp exploded from the darkness, its stinger tucked under to spear him through. Takayasu threw himself backward, flattening Density, who squealed in surprise. The stinger came close enough to drag against the front of his trench coat, ripping away his PCA badge. Lying on his back, still atop Density and Charl’s legs, Takayasu fired his V9 at the retreating wasp; it accomplished very little, but it felt better tha
n doing nothing.

  PCA

  The triclops, which had been growling at Shockwave as it tried to win their earthquake contest, suddenly barked a cry of pain. It jerked its right hand out of the ground, away from Vortex’s laser, which had finally penetrated its stone skin. This left only one wrist-blade in the solidified soil — Shockwave’s counter attack was suddenly the only force at play, and the ground around them crumpled inward. Thanks to Density’s alteration, it wasn’t enough to create an especially large pit, but Shockwave, Vortex, and the triclops were all pitched forward together into the depression.

  Caught with its left blade stuck in the ground at an awkward angle, the triclops fumbled to spear Vortex with its wounded blade, but the superhero rolled out of the way. Unfortunately, this brought Vortex within range of its lesser arms, one of which grabbed him by the ankle; he kicked to free himself, but it was a futile effort, and the right blade was swinging around again.

  Shockwave lunged toward them, but he didn’t see how he could fire a kinetic wave without catching Vortex in the crossfire.

  Time to improvise.

  Shockwave drew back his right arm as though he intended to punch the triclops’ hand holding Vortex’s boot. He fired off a kinetic wave, but instead of sending it outward, he generated it along the thumb-side of his hand and willed it to loop around, sliding across his knuckles and wrapping back into the outer side of his clenched fist. That energy washed through his skin, along his bones — that part hurt like hell! — only to reemerge from the thumb-side again, over and over, faster and faster, in an ongoing circuit that built in strength and speed.

  All of this occurred in the single second it took for him to connect with the wrist of the triclops’ lesser arm, and by that time, the shockwave was cycling so fast, he might as well have struck the blow while holding a radial saw of pure kinetic energy. It sounded like it, too, as the shockwave and the triclops’ stony skin screamed upon contact. The triclops bellowed in pain, jerking away from the assault and, as Shockwave had hoped, releasing Vortex in the process.