Jessica bent back ninety-degrees when Malvis' blade arced overhead. Time stretched into slow-mo adrenaline as the energy evaporated the sweat off her skin. Her board then smashed through his legs, flipping him as her back hit the ground.
She instantly recovered and circled back without a care for the alien's groaning; it was music to her ears, actually. And as Malvis rolled in the dirt, she gravitated beside Dexter and grabbed his left hand, the remaining hand.
"Come on!" she cried but was forced to drag his body. Her knees suddenly hit the ground, however, and she noticed the gravity board split in two. Even with the agent on his feet, pistol in his clutch, she never let go. She kicked the aluminum off her feet and pressed on
A transparent bubble suddenly wrapped around the agent, triggered by two bullets and an electrical pulse. The bullets were electrical darts, and they caused the shield to fluctuate while Malvis peered in every direction.
"Valerie..." Jessica muttered.
The alien's brow twisted irritably. "Harmless ballistic—" An explosion sent him flying into one of the many trees.
"What the hell?"
Shannon then sprinted next to her, face gaunt and eyes white. "You shouldn't be out here, Jessica!"
"What are you—" It didn't matter. "Help me with Dexter!" Her friend stared slack-jawed at the missing arm. "Shannon!"
"Right!"
With Shannon's help, Jessica lifted Dexter and restarted toward the lanterns. They had to ignore the encroaching whistle of the airships, though they could not ignore the distant moan. Shannon looked back. "Jess," she warned.
Over her shoulder, Malvis was rising from the dirt. His polished coat had become a layer of fumes, gunpowder scent splitting the senses from afar.
"Faster, Shannon!"
"You will run, but you will die face down," Malvis snarled. One foot forward, forward like a gust, the pulse from his boots stole Jessica and Shannon's chance of escape. As soon as he was upon them, Shannon let go of Dexter and turned around.
"Don't!" Jessica screeched when the blade fell.
Shannon narrowly escaped the swift, smoldering blade's edge, sacrificing the hem of her shirt. She followed the dodge with a duck, and the blade almost set her hair on fire. Her hands pushed her off the ground for a kick to the agent's gut. A single cough escaped his breath, yet he drew his arm back for another thrust. Shannon had no room to dodge a second time.
Following a sonic pitch from the woodland, Malvis' arm flailed backward.
Jessica surveyed the dark around them in search of Dani, but couldn't see a thing. Onward, she shifted her weight with Dexter the moment Malvis realigned. His torso came back into the moonlight, right arm limp and stained with a bullet hole. Perhaps shock, perhaps alien adrenaline—or perhaps total numbness—stirred the shock on his face when his large pupils landed on the girls, and his pistol aimed between Jessica's eyes.
His gun left a hole in the nearby tree. Valerie had forced Malvis on his back, with a furious tackle. Point blank, she crouched over the alien and emptied her pistol clip into his chest, leaving electricity and rapid breath. Malvis lay slumped in a never-ending seizure when Valerie tossed the pistol aside and poured all energy into her fists.
"You don't get to lay a finger on her, bitch! You don't get to do anything!"
"Val!" By the time Shannon pulled Valerie off, Malvis lay battered, bleeding, and immobilized. "We're out of fucken time! Get stepping like your life depends on it, cuz it does!"
When Shannon jumped back to help Dexter, Jessica peeked back at the unmoving white suit.
The flying lights expanded over the wilderness when a pair of hands touched her scalp and steered her attention. Valerie's mug. Homegirl said nothing, but her brow trench and baggy eyes showed fear.
"I'm fine, Val."
Along the way, Danielle's dark figure appeared by the side of a log. Rifle perched on her shoulder, the teenaged marksman eyed their every step until they crossed paths. A forlorn grimace crossed her shadowed face.
"We can't stay here, Dani" Jessica told her, aware of the debt she owed.
"Yea, it is time for you to go," she said.
Why did she say it like that?
When they arrived, Gideon and Raptor strode at the behest of a scrambling ranger camp. Lanterns gathered in a wave as innumerable Woodsmen rushed out of their hideouts and into the open. The encroaching lights served as their warning, the direction from which Jessica and her friends raced.
They have to be warned.
Jessica and her friends halted next to Gideon, where she attempted but failed to part lips. Danielle stomped up to her uncle, reloading her rifle, mutely, with an expression that made him cock his shotgun. Valerie scanned the woods for signs of evil as Shannon ran back to the mansion.
"What happened?" Gideon interrogated.
Raptor stared a thousand yards before he inspected his brother's unconscious state. "There's no good explanation for this."
"An Azarean agent!" Jessica practically yelled.
Gideon penetrated the dark pillars of timber with his eyes. "Perimeter's been breached, boys and girls, which means the next bullet better hit whatever slips through those trees!" By his command, the Woodsmen collectively vaulted behind their network of barricades. Several scouts advanced into the woods, accompanied by night-vision goggles.
"No! This Azarean is a gigantic variable, and there's more coming!" Jessica protested. "He—Asgard knows where we are. They've known since the beginning. Judging by the lights and the rotors, they're less than a kilometer away. We have to leave!"
"Sounds like they came here for a fight!" said Gideon.
Raptor wrapped the leftover half of his brother's arm around his neck, face gaunt after one look at the damage. Then he looked away. "It's cauterized... Did you do that?"
Jessica wiped a single tear. "No, but he needs help."
"We're in the middle of nowhere! He's not getting the attention he needs until we make the rendezvous!"
"Jessica!" Valerie raced over with their belongings. Jessica parted from Dexter, ensuring his balance with fluttering hands, and then opened her mouth to speak.
She cracked. Garble fell out while total chaos pulled the tip of reality. Malvis had already done his damage, yet there was more to come, and it took everything in Jessica's power to leave panic alone. She had to be herself in order to keep everyone else standing. Alive. Fear, however, clung to her joints. Dexter was half-dead with the one arm, and Raptor seared right through her with his gaze. None of the trauma could compare to the impending blaze.
"We have to get out of here!"
Valerie saw panic. "Jess!"But Shannon stepped in between them and took Jessica in her arms, laying her head to rest.
Am I traumatized?
Her perception slithered between cracks in hypotheticals, so she broke from Shannon's warmth to look her friend in the eye.
"We're leaving!"
Airship rotors tolled over the forest, drawing everyone to the sky.
"Get ready, Woodsmen!" Gideon lifted his gun. "Rockets in the air! No airship touches down, ya hear me?" The leader stormed down the fortification column of the ranger ruin. As he stepped to, the feet tremors reverberated. Many more Woodsmen arrived. With their arrival, every lantern's light began perishing throughout the expanding wall of darkness. Before the light could disappear completely, Jessica caught up to him.
"What are you doing?" she exclaimed, eyes on fire. "There's no fight when you can't win. There's no repelling a strategical Asgard assault using archaic weapons."
Gideon looked her in the eye. "Haven't you been paying attention, missy? You have. Winning's not our mission. You and yer friends get that Bobble to where it needs to get, and we'll be shooting in the meantime because there is no home away from home for the Woodsmen. We're all here."
Jessica fumed. Danielle stood a few feet from her uncle. Silent she may have been, silence may have hidden resistance, so Jessica leaned in and pressed the girl's shoulders. "Tell your uncle this is a busted plan! The odds are not in your favor, no matter how prepared you think you are!" Teeth clattering, she probed Danielle's expression. Its resolve still betrayed the slightest shadow of reluctance. Another idea struck. "Come with us!"
Danielle opened her mouth but paused. Powerful hesitation, surprise, or sorrow stopped her reply. As the lights around the camp died, another Woodsman interrupted their exchange.
"We're ready, Gideon," said Jimmy.
Lantern after fading lantern sent shivers down Jessica's spine before everything went black. The last glow ingrained the image of rockets pointed toward the sky, and the last flicker under Dani's touch kept nothing but solemnness alight.
A green laser split Jimmy's chest and left him dead where he fell.
"Cover!"
ns 15.158.61.5da2
