by Alan D Jones
Fallen Angels
Year: 2243
I am the Alchemist. This is why they call me. This is who I am.
I was in the midst a waking dream navigating the dream of another, when the siren brought me back to the present consciousness. I heard my cousin, Darnell over the loudspeakers, “We have a level one incursion. I repeat, we have a level one incursion. All Jump team members please report to the launch room immediately!” I was dressed and out of my room in less than a minute.
Our worldwide observation system, which some might call latter day cloud sitting, had detected an incursion. A powerful being from our off world watch list had just arrived on Earth. While others like us typically battled demons who sought life in the realm of flesh and blood, my family, known as “The Willing” also had responsibility providing protection from hostile aliens, many of whom had in past propped themselves up as gods to the ancients. I arrived in the launch room first and asked Darnell, “What’s up?”
“Take a look.” Darnell replied as he began gathering items for the flight. “Akina just teleported there to do some recon. I’m going out to the ship to prep it. Bring the others when they arrive. ”
Just as Darnell exited, my daughter Rachel entered the room. “Who?” Rachel asked quickly as she continued to fasten her garb.
“Nemesis and an unidentified companion.” I replied.
“So, the chickens have come home to roost, eh?” Rachel sighed.
“Yes, they have.” I answered.
Present that day were, Rachel (ageless warrior with a special suit of armor), my cousins Darnell (all around hero), Reggie (indestructible strong man), Akina the Time Walker, Kim (electromagnetic powers), Nick my oldest (Can transmute the state of any molecule) and Elizabeth (fire starter) Nick’s childhood friend from the academy.
Nemesis was the Greek goddess of vengeance. She existed not to protect the Olympians, but rather to avenge them should they ever fall. It was her sole reason for being. Her presence was concerning, but not totally unexpected since the aunties were off planet. My mother Sarah and her sisters Cil, Deborah and Ruth had destroyed her home world, Olympus, and killed the remaining old gods there nearly a hundred years ago. However, many of the children and other descendants from these gods were not present and escaped that Armageddon. Thus whenever the Elders sent the sisters across the universe to eliminate some threat, they’d call some of us home to take up residence in Aunt Ruth’s place, Vigilance, to watch over the Earth in their stead.
A negotiated peace between star faring civilizations had largely protected the Earth from the time the old gods were forced from the Earth by our ancestors, until Poseidon returned in 1981, when he and his cohorts attempted to build an Omni Portal on Earth. Breaking this truce cost the sea god his life. As a matter of protocol for the death of a god, Olympus launched a full scale attack against the Earth. The Aunties repelled them and then at the direction of the Elders retaliated by traveling to Olympus and leaving only once it was dust beneath their feet. The Olympians were not the last civilization to suffer such a penalty, as the Elders decided that a message needed to be sent that would last across the ages. One after another the enemies of Earth toppled across the heavens.
The remainder of the team arrived at the control room one by one. Reggie who was lodging separately down at the lagoon rode his motorcycle into the control room. When he entered Nick and Rachel were hovering over my shoulder as I scrolled through data on my monitor. “Ah, I see that the Wonder Twins are indeed here.” This is what he called them, even though they had no reference for the moniker. Still it seemed to amuse Reggie every time he said it, so he did. Upon his arrival a week before, he’d not ventured from his station at the beach. If you wanted to see him, you had to go see him. I did. My kids did not. Long story.
Nick and Rachel mumbled almost in unison, “Hi Cousin Reggie.”
As Reggie was dismounting his bike, in walked Kim and Elizabeth. One of the two roomies seemed to have gussied up just a bit more than the rest of us. Reggie gave a quick glance towards to the red headed Elizabeth and then back Nick, before shaking his head in disbelief. It was obvious to all that they, over the years had a thing for one another, but circumstances and commitments had prevented them from ever following through. Reggie liked to tease Nick about this fact. Rachel, who had simply affixed a baseball cap atop her head, and I exchanged glances as well. But our glance was in regards to the fact that the world could be ending, but this child took a minute fix herself up a bit before joining us. Elizabeth was in a relationship at the time, but as Chris Rock used to say back in the day, “You never know.”
While boarding our low orbit transport it was decided that Darnell would pilot and play center field for this mission. Besides the fact that most of Darnell’s powers wouldn’t kick in until after sunset, it was our way to leave at least one resource just off the battlefield to watch everyone’s back. If things happened to go south, Darnell would join the conflict using weaponry built into our craft, or if the battle raged into the night, he could swoop in himself. It was odd for us to engage pretty much every alpha level resource in the compound for this mission, but Nemesis was a level one threat, and she had backup with her. We hoped that they were acting alone and that this wasn’t part of some larger invasion. Once in the air it would only take us twenty minutes to arrive. Akina, who can walk across time and space as easily as one would walk across an empty room, went ahead of us to access the situation. Once in the air, Darnell called back to the others from the cockpit, “Akina has eyes on the second threat, you’ll see her visual in a second.”
Elizabeth gasped, “That’s Magni, isn’t it?”
Nick confirmed, “Yes, that’s him and he has his father’s hammer.” At his father’s death, the Norse godling had inherited Mjollnir as his birthright. With it, he was just as big a threat as Nemesis. Our hands would be full with these two scions from realms long since dispatched by our aunts at the direction of the Elders.
Kim shouted back over the din of our thrusters, “I hope Akina can keep them entertained until we arrive.”
I noted that both aliens were from star systems lacking in the element iron, and thus Oxygen was no more to them, than Nitrogen is to us humans. So, I started figuring, “Hmm…”
My daughter Rachel tilted her head and asked, “What?”
“Just thinking on something.”
Once we’d completed discussing our plan, Reggie leaned in and asked, “Hey, Black Jesus,” that was what Reggie sometimes called me. He had nicknames for pretty much everyone. “You still doing that manna from heaven thing?” His reference was to the fact that in my outreach work on other worlds, I did indeed convert commonly found matter into foodstuff, that the locals could eat.
“Black Santa, you know that I still do.” Black Santa was Reggie’s nickname within the team. I asked, “Sure you don’t want to try some?”
“Naw, cuz I’m good. I wonder how anyone eats that stuff.” Reggie said.
“You get hungry enough, and there will be little wonder about it.” I replied.
Reggie nodded and then shifted gears asking, “Y’all heard who the new Elder in waiting is, right?”
Kim lifted her head from her tablet, “Another Immortal, right?” Immortal within our community referenced those of us who did not age. No one on our teamed used that term about ourselves, but that term was how many of these individuals referenced themselves.
“Yep,” Reggie replied.
Elizabeth shook her head, “So, that will mean that eleven out of twelve Elders will be ageless. I’m so not cool with that.” It wasn’t a rule, but historically of the twelve elders seldom contained more than four members who were ageless.
Nick chimed in, “The reasoning is that having less turnover will result in more consistent policies and practices.”
Rachel reflected and nodded, “Well, yeah, I can see that, but…”
I jumped in, “Yes, the point is well taken, but while it may sometimes be uncomfort
able, stirring the pot every now and then is healthy.”
Reggie put a bow around the conversation, “It smells, don’t it cuz?”
As we descended, Nick, as he often did, even when the Aunties were in play, took the lead. Both he and his sister Rachel served as officers in Starship Corp, he as captain, and she as a chief medical officer. She’d left the Corp some time ago to start a family, but Nick lived and breathed it just as much as ever. Everyone listened to his instruction, with the exception of the big burly Reggie, who’d engaged in far more of these battles than anyone present. Once Nick finished laying out the plan, Reggie crowed, “So, basically, get them, but don’t get got.”
As we broke through the rain clouds we saw the two giants in the midst of causing mayhem on an epic scale. Golden skinned, with black twists dangling, Nemesis was busy trying to stabilize a shiny metal contraption as energy arched from the clouds into it. Akina buzzed around her like a gnat, jumping in and out of this level of existence. The device Nemesis held was just as tall as she was, and just a wicked looking. Elizabeth stood up, “That’s a planetary drill! They’re trying to destabilize the Earth’s core. Open up the back, I’m jumping out!”
Darnell did as Elizabeth requested and she flew down to join Akina. Over our communicators, we heard Akina tell her, “I was
