by Archer, Mia
Rescued?
The thing’s foot felt all leathery and dry. Not at all slimy. Were lizards supposed to be slimy? I didn’t know.
Whatever. This one wasn’t. I pushed up with all my strength, and boy did it feel good to be able to do that again! The lizard went off balance and a moment later the foot was gone.
I watched with no small measure of satisfaction as the thing stumbled forward and slipped down the ridge I’d been looking over when the lizard so rudely interrupted me.
Then it hit me what I’d just done. I’d taken the giant lizard that was outside the city and threw it towards that city. I was pretty sure the last thing they wanted down there was another giant lizard stomping around causing trouble.
Well crap. I totally didn’t mean to do that! I flew over the ridge and dove for the thing in a desperate bid to stop it before it reached the city limits. Only the lizard was already waiting for me, and if I thought that thing was pissed off before that was nothing like now when it saw me as a threat!
The clawed hand slammed into me again and I found myself hurtling through the air onto the other side of the dune. I slammed into the sand again and hit hard enough that once again I was buried in the stuff.
I was getting really sick of slamming into this sand. It was going to take forever to get this stuff out of my hair.
Assuming I could find a shower and a hair dryer on this planet. I had no way of knowing if they even had advanced technology like that. Maybe I could explain it to their top scientists and get them to come up with something if they didn’t.
I looked over the edge and realized I probably shouldn’t have gone looking over the edge of anything. Not when there was an oversized dinosaur thingy on the other side of that edge looking to make a snack out of me.
Like it was something straight out of that creepy animated dinosaur movie my mom thought would be fun. Yeah, a lifetime of nightmares about an animated T-rex killing my mom and chasing me all over creation was really fun, mom.
And now I was getting flashbacks to that movie. It was eerie how similar it was. The big monster trying to scramble up a cliff towards me. Snapping its teeth the entire way.
There was one big difference between then and now, of course. Back then I hadn’t quite realized I was pretty much invulnerable to everything. That didn’t happen until I was a little older and we were playing superhero. Which involved jumping off the second floor of my house with my best friend Cassie Thomas.
Cassie ended up breaking her leg and getting an awesome cast that everybody in the fifth grade signed. I got a reputation for being unbreakable because, well, my leg didn’t break when I landed.
Then a little later I discovered that I didn’t even need to hit the ground if I didn’t want to.
I grinned. I was indestructible again. I could fight this thing off. If it thought it was going to turn me into a bite sized snack then it had another thing coming. I didn’t get a chance to take one of these things on back home, but you bet your sweet butt I was going to take one on now.
The thing reached a clawed hand up and let out a bellowing roar. It was the kind of roar that was terrifying more because of the thing’s breath and not so much because it was roaring at me.
I grabbed its claws. I liked to think the thing looked surprised. At least as surprised as an oversized lizard could look with those beady little eyes. Then I lifted it and did a toss over my shoulder.
The thing was tough enough that its entire arm didn’t snap off when I did that, which I’d totally been expecting. Natalie had tried telling me about some weird square rule that meant big things like these lizards shouldn’t actually be able to exist and something about the radiation giving them strength, but I’d never paid attention.
All that science stuff I don’t understand. This was just my job. To kick some serious ass. I’d let the hot eggheads like Natalie worry about the particulars of how it worked.
The thing flew over another ridge and landed with a thud. Purple dust kicked up in the distance and I leapt into the air.
I was feeling good. I let out a laugh. It’d been way too long since I’d been able to do this, and I was going to take this lizard to pound town!
I blushed. I totally realized what that sounded like as soon as the thought crossed my mind. Natalie would’ve had something to say about that.
God I missed her and it’s not like I’d been here all that long. I guess fighting a giant monster was making me nostalgic for our first date.
I crested the hill and was ready to hit the monster with another punch when something streaked through the air and slammed into the thing. One moment it was rolling around in the sand on its back trying to get up, and incidentally giving me another flashback to the childhood terror that was Sharptooth, and the next it looked like something out of one of those cheesy old movies Natalie was always watching where the people talked but their mouths were never synced up with what they were saying.
Missiles and beams and explosions rained down. It was a good thing I’d gotten my powers back, because otherwise I would’ve been caught in the crossfire and fried to a crisp. Not fun.
The lizard let out an indignant screech and finally managed to get to its feet. It didn’t look like any of the stuff that’d been fired at it had so much as left a scratch in its leathery hide. Dang.
Those things were tough. Then again it did take Natalie getting turned into giant lizard poop to kill one.
I totally wasn’t doing that. I didn’t care if it did take me longer to beat the shit out of the thing from the outside. Better than traveling through its digestive system to literally beat the shit out of it.
Natalie had shields and stuff to protect her from the kind of yucky that no doubt lurked in a giant irradiated lizard’s digestive tract. I didn’t. Can you say gross?
The only problem was it was starting to look like I wasn’t going to be given a chance to beat the crap out of anything. More of those missiles rained down, along with some weapons that looked a lot like the kind of firepower Natalie always loved using on her enemies.
Strange things floated over another ridge. It looked like there was rock under the strange purple sand, but I couldn’t see any mountains nearby. Weird.
The things that came floating over the edge were like discs with their outsides twirling in a circle. So basically your typical flying saucer you imagined whenever you thought about aliens invading from another world.
Huh. Maybe we’d had visitors from this world before and that was why the whole idea of flying saucers had become such a big deal over the years. That’d be the kind of thing Natalie loved.
These saucers were open at the top, and there were armored people who looked mostly humanoid firing at the monster. They wielded the kind of weapons that looked like something straight out of Natalie’s armory.
Again. Weird. Or maybe it was just that I was still pining for Natalie and thinking of all the ways I missed her.
Clearly the aliens, they had to be aliens even if all their body parts appeared to be in the right place, didn’t realize that the giant monster was up and ready to do some business. The thing crouched down like a housecat about to attack the little red dot that so vexed it. I couldn’t believe it. This stupid giant monster was actually planning an attack against those aliens!
I wondered if this wasn’t the first time they’d gone up against this particular giant monster. Its tail lashed back and forth, again looking a lot like a cat that was getting ready to attack its owners angles.
Cats. That was something else weird about this whole situation. Those weird open air flying saucers all had things that looked like oversized armored housecats.
That was so weird that I thought I was seeing things until I blinked a couple of times and yup, sure enough the oversized armored housecats were still there. Which begged the question of what a bunch of oversized armored housecats were doing on a military expedition fighting a giant monster.
Alien world. I had to keep reminding myself th
at I wasn’t back home. Nothing here was going to make sense. It wasn’t like those cheesy shows Natalie watched where everything was basically earth with some makeup and a futuristic set that was obviously some building in California where they let the architect have a field day…
Damn it. There I went thinking about Natalie again. I seriously needed to break myself of that habit.
The monster swiped at the first saucer to come over the sand ridge. Whoever was piloting the thing clearly wasn’t expecting an attack. One moment the saucer was flying through the air as happy as can be, and the next it flew into the sand at high speed where it skidded to a halt and sent the people on top of the thing flying.
Their armor seemed to help them with their landing, but they obviously weren’t doing so hot. They clearly didn’t have some of the stuff Natalie’s suits had that kept her from being hurt if she got tossed around.
Damn it. I’d done it again. I was not going to think about Natalie. I was going to think about the giant monster and how I was going to stop it from hurting those poor aliens.
The giant monster made quick work of the aliens on the ground with a stomp from its massive leathery foot. Something told me they weren’t going to recover from that quite as easily as I had. Its tail swished and took out another flying saucer that was moving in for another shot.
More flying saucers and even some bigger things that looked like they were dedicated to giant monster eradication showed up, and the more they fired on the thing the more it kicked their collective asses.
I hated watching all those aliens being hurt. I hated it even more because I’d just been forced to watch the same thing happen in Starlight City and I hadn’t been able to do anything about it.
But I could do something about it now. That monster stomped on some of the people who’d been trying to crawl away, and when its foot came up there was nothing but a footprint left. Nothing dug its way out of the sand either.
No.
I wasn’t going to let this happen.
I was Fialux. I was a heroine. I’d taken on the greatest villain our world had ever known and won, and I wasn’t going to let a giant lizard stomp those people even if I didn’t know a damn thing about this world!
“Stop it!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
3
Smackdown
Huh. That’d never happened before. Sand moved away from me in a rippling wave. When that rippling wave hit the lizard the thing fell ass over teakettle on top of another flying saucer.
I winced. I hadn’t intended to send the thing flying right into another one of the saucers. I felt bad for the people fighting, but I also figured they knew what they were getting into if they were out here fighting this thing.
Everything was pushed back by that wave. Like it was moving through the air and through the ground. A couple of flying saucers fell to the ground, though at least those weren’t crushed under the giant lizard.
Considering how this fight had been going so far I’d take what I could get.
Everyone, including the giant lizard, turned to look at me. The aliens didn’t look too happy at having their giant lizard fighting interrupted.
I blushed and favored them with a little wave. They still didn’t look all that happy. Maybe waving was a rude gesture on this planet or something. Some looked at one another in confusion, and a couple of them even scratched their heads in a gesture that looked very human.
The oversized armored house cats looked less confused and more… Predatory. They stared with the same intensity I’d gotten when I was visiting a new tiger enclosure at the Starlight City Zoo a few years back. It was this neat thing where the only thing separating people from the tigers was giant thick glass that was supposedly impenetrable.
Tell that to the tigers who’d obviously been stalking and hunting the humans on the other side. The way they’d looked at me that day was sort of how I felt like these giant armored cat things were looking at me today.
I didn’t like it. Even if I’d known I was invulnerable back then and I was pretty sure I was mostly invulnerable now.
Several of the cats sprinted across the desert sand towards me. I suppose it was entirely possible this was their way of welcoming me to the planet, but something about the way they moved said that predators on this planet worked the same that they did back on earth and these jerks were on the prowl.
I’d seen enough nature documentaries to know what it looked like when some cute little monkey was about to be turned into dinner. Even if I was a human and not a cute little monkey.
Though as far as these things were concerned I might as well be a cute hairless monkey.
Whatever. I didn’t have time to deal with armored cats that mistakenly thought I was on the dinner menu. There were more important things going on here today. Like the giant thunder lizard that had decided it wasn’t going to mess with me anymore.
No, it had turned back on the aliens in their strange armor and their flying saucers, I guess it decided they would be easier prey, and it looked like things weren’t going to go well for them.
Crapola. Not good.
Maybe their pets were attacking me which wasn’t very nice, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to save their stupid butts.
I took to the air. Purple sand flew up around me in a cloud of dust. I let out a laugh.
Despite being involuntarily transported to an alien world, attacked by a giant monster, inadvertently caught in an attack on that giant monster by the locals, then attacked by their cats, this felt amazing! I felt more alive than I’d felt since…
Well since I lost my powers.
I tried not to think about that. I’d gotten good at that. I’d already sank into a deep depression once over that where I hated Natalie for a few days, and I wasn’t going to let that happen again. I was going to enjoy having my powers back and I wasn’t going to let anything ruin that enjoyment.
I slammed my fist into the giant lizard and the thing’s head flew back. Its jaws snapped shut.
I turned away and tried not to puke up everything I’d eaten today. Unfortunately the thing had been pulling one of those armored humanoid aliens towards its mouth, and me hitting it with an uppercut had the side effect of making its jaws snap shut on that alien. They let out a blood curdling scream as the jaws bit them in two.
Okay then. I totally hadn’t seen that person in the big monster’s claws, but that didn’t make me any less responsible for them getting chomped in two.
I told myself they were going to get chomped in two no matter what I did, but that didn’t make me feel much better about what’d just happened. Natalie might’ve been able to brush something like that off, but not me.
We were just built differently.
“Sorry!” I said, more out of instinct than anything, at the half of the person that was still flopping out of the giant lizard’s mouth.
Not that it did any good. From the way they were flopping around they were clearly good and deceased. Not to mention they then slid down the thing’s front and fell to the purple sand below where the lizard stomped on them as it tried to regain its footing.
Okay then. That person was definitely a goner, and that one was definitely my bad. Darn it.
That made me angry. I looked at the monster. It was all this thing’s fault that had happened, not mine. It was the one trying to kill these aliens. It was going on a rampage. It was the thing that had tried its best to turn me into a meal before it realized I’d be no easy meat.
I slammed my fists into the thing over and over. For all that the skin on these things was supposed to be indestructible it sure looked like I was making a dent. Then again I was hitting with a lot more power than Natalie could ever hope to come up with even with all of her wonderful toys.
It was also clear the lizard didn’t know what the heck to do. Maybe it’d spent so much time at the top of the food chain lately that it wasn’t used to the idea of someone kicking the crap out of it. Maybe it simply had trouble deali
ng with a world where something so small could kick the crap out of it.
Whatever. I flew down and grabbed it by the feet. Pulled up until the thing was falling back. I grinned and gave a little wave as it fell back into the sand and found itself sinking.
I frowned. That was weird. Sure I’d seen some of those armored aliens go sinking into the sand, but they always had the giant irradiated lizard on top of them in some capacity to facilitate that sinking into the sand.
The giant irradiated lizard was sinking into the sand at a pretty rapid pace though, and from the panicked way it started flailing around it didn’t like the fact that it was rapidly sinking into the sand.
And it was big enough that it was taking a couple of the flying saucers that’d crashed in the sand with it. Right along with some of the aliens who were still trying to get out of that saucer.
I guess they knew what the heck was going on. This was their world, after all. They’d know a local danger when they saw it, and from the way they scrambled and desperately tried to get away from the sudden sand suck they weren’t happy about being caught in this interstellar quicksand.
A moment later the lizard was completely gone. The last thing sticking up was its tail which lashed violently a couple of times, but eventually even that slowed down.
It looked like some of the aliens were going to make it out though. I smiled as I saw them slowly climbing their way out of whatever the heck the lizard had landed in.
That smile froze as something massive rose out of the sand around giant lizard aliens alike. A giant maw that looked like something straight out of someone’s worst nightmares with rows of razor sharp teeth came up and slammed down around the giant lizard.
This time the tail twitching left no doubt that the poor giant lizard was still alive, but it wasn’t going to make it. The jaws slammed down a couple more times for good measure, and then whatever the heck that giant thing was pulled the lizard, and all the aliens who’d been dragged into that oversized sand trap with the lizard, down to their certain doom.
