by Melissa Wong
“Darkstar Shot!” she heard Purple Tiger call out.
“Seismic Strike!”
“Whirling Tornado!”
Cretora used her staff to bat away their attacks like they were nothing and Blue Caracal inhaled sharply as she scrambled to stand. If standard attacks couldn’t touch her, then would combination attacks be enough? They weren’t prepared to fight Cretora—they’d already fought Vetrina’s minions; then they were having a moment between Sara and Chase, and now they’d been thrown into this?
“Cloaking Darkness!”
Purple Tiger’s spell settled over the area, causing Cretora to growl in frustration. That’s right—when they’d interrupted their dinner, she’d been completely blinded by it! They had the upper hand now.
The serpent woman began to fire off attacks randomly and as Blue Caracal dodged one she heard someone cry out. She turned her head toward the sound and saw Purple Tiger holding her shoulder on a roof across the way, so she raced over to her.
“You alright?”
“Yeah, it was just a graze,” Purple Tiger said, taking her hand off her shoulder. Her sleeve was torn and a small black mark smoldered just beneath the split fabric.
“Thank god.”
She then held out her hand, offering it to her with a grin. “Wanna kick her ass?”
“I thought you’d never ask!” Blue Caracal replied.
She took her friend’s hand and felt the storm building behind them, lightning of their own crackling within towering charcoal-colored clouds.
“Twilight Squall!” they cried, sending the attack hurling at the alien. It struck her head on, and Blue Caracal swore she saw some of her pink hair fly away from her head.
“Got her!” Purple Tiger exclaimed, clenching her fists. Her excitement was short-lived as they almost immediately had to dive in opposite directions to avoid another one of Cretora’s dark bolts.
Someone landed beside her, and Blue Caracal spotted White Lion. He began to run past her, but she reached out and caught his arm.
“Hey! What the—?”
“Combo attacks are the only thing that can touch her!”
He nodded and put his hand in hers, the wind from their joint spell already whipping to life behind them. They were facing Cretora’s back and they held out their hands, aiming directly for it.
“Hightide Hurricane!”
The spell flew towards her, frigid droplets trailing behind it as it went. Blue Caracal took a deep breath as it was about to land but suddenly it struck something they couldn’t see and shattered.
“What the hell!” White Lion yelped as Criatan slid behind his wife, large shards hovering in midair beside him.
Criatan flicked his fingers and sent the pieces flying at them. Blue Caracal summoned her strobe and used it to smash them out of the air, the sound of broken glass ringing in her ears. She briefly glanced down and stepped on one of the sparkling bits littering the area around them. It was broken glass!
“It’s just like Mother to send me millions of light years into the back end of the cosmos with a defective servant and unreliable ships,” Cretora hissed to her mate, “The only good decision she seems to have made regarding this whole escapade was to bind me to you.”
“Is that legitimate affection I hear in your words?” Criatan replied, ripping another window from a nearby business.
So that’s what he’d done! On one hand—it was an annoying move. On the other, at least he wasn’t able to turn their own spells back on them like she’d thought!
“Don’t read anything into it beyond momentary appreciation, Husband.” Cretora’s eyes narrowed as they landed on Red Panther and Clokua. Her Ruby Band was extended into a stave, and she held it across Clokua as the alien princess focused on them.
Someone slipped their hand into hers, and Blue Caracal looked over to see Green Jaguar. There was a spark of power between them, catching her off guard.
“Let’s hope this is something good,” he snarled as Cretora leveled her staff at the two of them.
The air around them grew heavy with the smell that follows a storm, notes of drenched greenery and soil swirling into a harmonious petrichor that caused goosebumps to form on her bare arms as their spell formed behind them.
“Enveloping Landslide!” they cried, swinging their hands apart as the ground liquefied before them, racing towards Criatan and Cretora. The wave of mud slid past the two aliens, locking their lower halves to the rooftop.
“Get her!” Pink Ocelot shouted to Purple Tiger, using his wand to fire a burst of energy at Criatan, “I’ll pin him down.”
The two of them leapt in circles around the strip mall, periodically firing on the aliens. They were both unable to do anything but defend; however the Warriors’ weak attacks weren’t doing anything other than annoying them. Maybe this was the time to use their elemental spells.
“Raging Stormtide!” Blue Caracal yelled, directing the burst of water at Criatan. His knees buckled, and she noticed he was able to pull one foot loose. Crap! She hadn’t thought it would help them!
“Blazing Firewall!” Red Panther shouted, the heat from her arc of flame baking the mud to a hard, unyielding surface. “That should hold them!”
“Do something!” Cretora barked.
“Get them off of me first!” he snapped.
She let out an enraged screech and slammed the base of her staff into the cracked surface, an unavoidable red ring of energy bursting from the orb at its tip. The attack caught Blue Caracal in the side, throwing her across the gravel and tar paper before she came to rest against an air conditioning unit. The first thing she saw when she opened her eyes was Red Panther’s back, her suit torn open from waist to shoulder from the attack.
She winced as she stood, using the air conditioner for support.
“Save your strength,” Criatan admonished. Cretora whirled to face him, her torso twisting impossibly far.
“Shut your stupid Tronatian mouth slit and kill them!” she roared.
His jaw clenched as he used his telekinesis to lift up several chunks of rubble and fling it at them. Blue Caracal grit her teeth against the pain in her side as she dodged them, the bits of concrete and glass giving way to larger objects as Criatan became angrier. A broken utility pole came flying at her, and she dove for shelter behind a large section of brick planter that had been weaponized earlier. She sat with her back against it and it struck hard, scooting her and the wall several feet across the rooftop. But it held, and that was the important thing.
She heard someone talking and looked across the way to see White Lion looking Pink Ocelot up and down disdainfully.
“What?” Pink Ocelot snapped.
“Do you think air and light would make anything good?” she heard her brother ask.
Pink Ocelot grabbed him and threw him to the floor before diving down himself. Another utility pole sailed past them and splintered into pieces as it struck the wall of the store next to them.
“Who the hell knows!”
They climbed to their feet and White Lion hastily took his hand. “Well, think devastating thoughts or something!”
“Etheric Diffraction!” they yelled out. As far as she could tell, nothing happened. Cobalt and AJ had never really liked one another, so the combination attempt had probably failed. She’d expected as much anyway.
“Of course!” White Lion shouted, throwing Pink Ocelot’s hand away from his.
“Okay—listen here you little—”
“We don’t have time for this!” she shouted. “You need to focus!”
Green Jaguar landed next to her as he barely avoided the sign for the cell phone shop. He had his lenses active, and was tapping the arm furiously as he kept his eyes on the invaders.
“Did you learn anything?” she asked. He looked startled for a moment before frowning again.
“No—all it tells me is that Criatan is using telekinesis, and we already know that!”
She left him and ran for the ledge, jumping acro
ss several stores before she found who she was looking for.
“Clokua!” she called, panting as she ran towards them. “Do they have any weaknesses we can exploit?”
“Princess Cretora possesses none other than her indomitable pride,” he told her. “However, Prince Criatan has trouble maintaining—”
“Silence, traitor!” Criatan bellowed, ripping the flagpole from the plaza and hurling it at the three of them. They managed to leap over it, Red Panther holding Clokua to herself like a child. It crashed to the parking lot below, shattering a planter.
“He can’t control his power when he is upset,” Clokua finished.
“We’ll just have to piss him off then!” Purple Tiger said with a smirk, landing on the roof beside them. She cast Cloaking Nightfall again and followed it up immediately with Darkstar Shot before dropping to one knee.
“Purple Tiger!” Blue Caracal exclaimed.
“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just... a bit winded,” she huffed, “After all, this is our longest fight yet.”
Purple Tiger’s spell faded as her energy dwindled and Cretora put a hand to her chest. When she pulled it away, teal ichor was running down the front of her gown.
“Ha, got her,” she laughed breathlessly.
“Are you alright?” Criatan demanded, turning toward Cretora in a panic. As Clokua said, he dropped the concrete barriers he’d been preparing to use on them.
“Of course,” Cretora replied, “But I feel it is time to stop holding back.”
She held her staff high in the air, a strange humming sound filling the area.
“Ancestors of Darvori, I call upon your power. I am your scion, your heir—fill me with your mystic might!”
Pink Ocelot swore as he landed on the roof beside her along with Green Jaguar and White Lion. “That doesn’t sound good at all.”
“Ya think?” Green Jaguar snapped.
A column of red light shot down from the sky, filling the orb on her staff and flowing down her body as she chanted. When it reached the hem of her dress, it burst outward, obliterating the mud that had been holding them in place.
“I am Princess Cretora of Darvori,” she shrieked as she and the ground beneath her shone with the same sanguine light, “And I do not accept failure!”
As if in slow motion, the attack pulsed away from her in a ring then shrank back before exploding in an enormous blast that rapidly consumed the area. Blue Caracal didn’t even have time to shield her eyes before it overtook her, her arm halfway to her face. The spell reached out for her feet, then was forced violently upward. She screamed as she was flung backwards, watching in disbelief as it raced back towards its source with a sharp crack.
She flipped head over feet several times before landing on her back, the breath knocked from her lungs. There was a brief moment where she thought she might have escaped unscathed, but then the burning sensation came flooding through her limbs, reminding her that she was still fighting for her life.
“What happened?” Red Panther cried, lifting herself off of Clokua and staggering to her feet. Green Jaguar was beside her, looking for something on the ground. He reached up and felt his lenses hanging off his head and jammed them back on his face.
“I don’t know, but I hate it,” Purple Tiger groaned as she wiped blood from her cheek.
“That was Cretora’s most powerful attack,” Clokua said. “I’ve only ever seen it performed one other time, and it obliterated an entire fleet of ships. It is improbable that we are all still alive.”
“Ha!” Pink Ocelot screamed triumphantly, pointing at White Lion with both hands. “It was a shield, and it saved us from certain death!”
White Lion brushed dirt from his uniform, pretending to ignore him. However, her brother’s face indicated that he wasn’t thrilled about being gloated at.
Shield or no, it had still hit them hard. Cretora should be frothing at the mouth at the fact that they’d survived—but she and Criatan were suspiciously quiet. Blue Caracal looked across the way to find her bent forward, shaking, her staff discarded beside her. Criatan was nowhere to be found. Was the attack that draining for her? She was wide open right now!
“I’ve lost life signs on Criatan,” Green Jaguar reported, “Either he fled the area, or—wait, something’s happening!”
A swirling spot of darkness appeared in the air before Cretora, rapidly expanding until it was large enough for a pair of tall, stiletto-heeled boots to slide out from it followed by the rest of Vetrina.
Of all the damn—this was the last thing they needed during an already difficult battle!
They landed on the roof as the buxom alien bent down without a word and picked up Cretora’s staff, seeming to examine it critically.
“Vetrina!” Blue Caracal yelled, turning her name into an accusation. Cretora finally moved, turning to peer over her shoulder.
“Vetrina. Take him back to the ship,” she heard her say weakly. “We might be able to save him if—”
“Oh my dear former princess!” Vetrina exclaimed, looking down at her with a smile playing at the the corners of her black lips, “You used to cut such an intimidating figure until I figured out your little secret.”
“What are you—”
“You didn’t have any idea as to what you were doing!” she exclaimed, putting a hand beside her mouth and punctuating her statement with a wicked laugh. “And no one figured it out except for me. Which is why I am here, and you are there.”
“Vetrina, I order you to—”
“No,” she said, a flash of violet-black light forming into a long crystal in her hand. “I don’t take orders from you anymore.”
With that she drove the petroite shard through Cretora’s chest, a self-satisfied grin on her face as she did so.
Blue Caracal gasped, covering her mouth as blue-green fluid bubbled from around the petroite, running down her scales and darkening her dress. Her brain was trying to catch up with what was happening. Did Vetrina just do the same thing to Cretora that she had done with Maria?
Vetrina turned to her, shifting her grip on the staff. “You kitties look like you have your paws full. Don’t worry... I’ll finish the job for you. She’ll be dead in less than three of your Earth minutes.”
White Lion flew past her before she could stop him, the wind already gathering at his back.
“Whirling Tornado!” he cried, heaving the attack at her.
Vetrina raised the staff and blocked it effortlessly, flinging her braid over her shoulder with her free hand as she did so. He grabbed his chest, panting as he tried to catch his breath through his anger. Blue Caracal put a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t. We’re in no condition to fight her right now,” she whispered.
Vetrina turned to leave and had one hand through the portal before she spun around and kicked the crystal deeper into Cretora’s chest. The fallen alien princess grunted as the tip of it exited her back, and she fell forward onto her palms.
“Next time we meet, I will be more powerful than she ever was,” Vetrina told them. “More powerful than you can even imagine. I will conquer this planet—and everything else in your miserable little backwater sector. You may thank me by staying out of my way as I do so. Otherwise, I will destroy you.”
And with that she stepped into the portal, the swirling vortex closing behind her with a snap.
“God dammit I hate her!” Green Jaguar seethed.
Clokua broke free from Red Panther’s grasp and ran to Cretora. Blue Caracal followed him and discovered that Criatan hadn’t fled—she had been kneeling over his body this whole time!
“We need to remove the petroite,” Clokua commanded, reaching for the shard. Cretora swatted his hand away weakly.
“Don’t...” she gasped, a black substance leaking from her eyes.
Was she crying? “Cretora, is he...?”
“He foolishly threw his body in front of my own when my spell was reflected,” she said, stroking his head. The bright red of her claws contrasted
sharply with his navy-colored hair. “Such a waste... I was... I liked him.”
“What?” Clokua asked in surprise.
“This is why I don’t like getting attached to anyone. The second Darvorian royalty shows any kind of weakness, someone will swoop in to take advantage of it.”
She laughed, a bitter, choking sound that caused the wound in her back to ooze a bit.
“After all, that’s how my own mother came to power. Now look at me—felled by the tricks of a simple Kaheenian mercenary. My ancestors are looking down on me in shame.”
“Cretora... don’t feel bad for falling for Vetrina’s trap,” Blue Caracal said, kneeling beside her. “She’s a sneaky opportunist who doesn’t play by any kind of rules.”
“Yeah, and she’s a skank, too!” Green Jaguar added. Red Panther socked him in the arm.
“Let us take the petroite out,” Blue Caracal said gently.
“No,” she said, curling forward and grasping the crystal in her own hands. “I don’t want to live anymore. Not like this! Not defeated and alone.”
She heard the water drop sound again and looked at the others. Had they heard it this time?
“Maybe if we’d been born here as humans,” Cretora continued, taking a shuddering breath, “In some other lifetime... perhaps we were happy together.”
Blue Caracal stood, summoning her strobe. “Would you like that chance?”
The alien looked up at her pathetically, her voice barely a whisper.
“Where do you get your boundless hope from—is it ignorance? There is no way for a Darvori like me to become truly human.”
“No, I think it’s because we are human,” Blue Caracal said. “I mean, books and movies like to beat you over the head with it, but that’s only because it’s true.”
“As a species, we don’t settle for hopelessness,” Purple Tiger told her.
“We personify lifeless things like vacuum cleaner robots,” Pink Ocelot chimed in. “You have to have a lot of spare optimism to do that in such a bleak world.”
