Earth Takes a Stand
Chapter Two: They Meet
by Anonymous
That night, after the three had enough of speculating, Chris suggested
that they start searching around Los Angeles. After all, if someone was
after Aurora, the best way to find him would be to let him find
her. Besides, she had to go back to the beach for her backpack
anyway.
After a brief flight over, a little digging in the sand, and an exchange
of "good luck," the three seperated to cover more ground. After all,
Aurora had beaten these machines with little problem and it would
probably not require the three of them to handle anything else that would
be thrown at them!
Chris headed in the direction of the particle physics lab, thinking that
the disturbance there might have had something to do with the fact that
the car-creature and one of the orbs had energy weapons. They had all
agreed that the coincidence had been far too strong to simply ignore.
Laura decided that since all the machines were made from scrap, she would
take a look at the srap metal yards. It turned out there were three of
them in Los Angeles. A lot of cars tended to get heavily damaged in this
traffic, especially since the Arion/Velorian conflicts had started a few
years ago.
Meanwhile, Aurora decided that a rare personal apperance would attract
quite a bit of attention. She flew back to the site where she had first
encountered the strange orb with the laser, and began to sign autographs
and bend tire irons into balloon animals for people. She was reveling in
the attention for a change when she heard something like a jet flying in
her direction, only much lower and not nearly as loud.
Looking up, she saw a winged armored figure streaking towards
her. Trailing twin blue flames from behind the wings themselves, it
lowered to the street as a plane making it's landing approach,
lowing the legs to eventually come to a running stop about a hundred feet
in front of her. The voice boomed from over a loudspeaker built into the
powerful looking suit, "In the name of every race's right to choose it's
own destiny, I order you to leave this world and return to your planet of
origin, or the nearest convenient pocket dimention. You have 24 hours."
The armor was clearly built for function and not form. Still, it
had a bit of a sinister look to it that was completely accidental.
Something about the cold functionality of it gave a few of it's parts
an extra something she couldn't quite place. The eyes were narrow and
slanted sharply downword. The arms ended not in hands and fingers, but
in three pincer-like claws. The wings, even when folded
in half and resting flat on his back, gave it a demonic appearance. And the
.50 calibre machine gun mounted on the right wing didn't help matters.
The armor was so loaded with gadgets it looked like a mad scientist's
grarage sale gone horribly awry. Most unsettling was the fact that she
could not see inside the armor, as it seemed to be made of a very dense
material like lead, but much stronger.
"Oh yeah? Well, what about the passenger pidgeon? And the dodo
bird and the bengal tiger and the panda? You hypocrites didn't let them
decide they're own destiny!" The armored figure paused. The cold steel
helmet revealed nothing about the emotions of the pilot, but a slow smirk
still grew across her face with the realization that she had just
embarressed him in front of a large crowd of people.
Finally, he spoke again with the same booming loudspeaker. "In
the name of the right of all races with particle beam technology to
choose their own destiny, I order you to leave this world and return to
your planet of origin or the nearest pocket dimention. You have 23
hours, 58 minutes." A giggle spread over the crowd as they waited for
her to do something.
The two were clearly at a standoff now. She was out of witty
comments, and he apparently seemed to think that tin can with wings would
let him stand up to her. "You have 23 hours, 57 minutes. I suggest you
use your time to begin collecting your valuables." Underneath a mask,
more than a mask actually, it was easy to him to emit an aura of
confidence. No emotion was visible under his helmet, even though he
might actually be sweating blood. If you didn't see his smooth motions
as he came in for his landing, you would swear that there was no man
inside that suit. He was depersonified under a mass of weapons and steel.
She on the other hand had to put significant effort into just
standing there. First of all, it was her move. He had issued the
challenge and had only to wait. Secondly, she had no mask to hide any
nervousness or confusion, only her resolve. Lastly, there's just
something about having a swivel mounted .50 calibre machine gun strapped
to your back that gives you the upper hand in a negotiation.
"Who do you think you are? You can't just kick someone off a
planet. Where would I go?" She decided to try to talk him down,
humiliate him in front of the crowd, it might end at that.
"Where did you come from?" That was low. You can't answer a
question with another question. Besides, there was no way he could know
that a Protector can never return to Velor. The male-dominated society
would never allow a woman, who had so recently felt like a goddess given
flesh, to bring her newly found ego and assertivness back to the
homeworld. But how do you explain that to a crowd of people expecting a
powerful comeback from a powerful woman? Or to an adversary who is just
waiting for you to admit any sign of weakness? Admitting that she had
nowhere to go was simply not an option.
"Look, I'm here because your planet needs a Protector. There are
other alien races out there nearly as powerful as I am, ones who could
sweep over this planet and 20 more just like it if I wasn't here to
defend it for you. I'm doing you a favor here, and I'd appreciate
a 'Thank you' once in a while. Instead, I get a lunatic dressed in metal
ordering me off the planet. That's gratitude." She was rather pleased
with herself. The only comeback possible would be something along the
lines of 'We didn't ask you to come here.' and she was ready for that
one. She'd say some more about the Arions and how they weren't exactly
invited either, and then it would be over. There would be nothing more
to say and he'd have to leave in shame. Despite herself, the smirk began
to curl the edges of her mouth again.
"We're not children." Her jaw nearly dropped, but she caught
herself. She wondered if anyone saw her expression change or if they
were too focused on the guy in the armor to notice. "We don't need your
protection. We don't want your protection. We can take care of
ourselves. 6 billion people can hold their own against any threat that
you could stop by yourself, to think otherwise is an insult.
"No, we're not invulnerable and we can't pick up cars and yes, we
can get hurt. But it's our planet, our destiny, and we won't be kicked around
by the likes of you or your hostile alien friends you think you're protecting
us from. I'm taking our planet back and quite frankly there's nothing you
or anyone else can do to stop me."
Well, that just about said it all. "You really don't have any
idea what you're up against! The Arions could rip a person in half,
demolish a building single-handedly, mow down your armies, conquer your
planet without breaking a sweat! You can't hurt them any more than you
could hurt me." Oops. She realized what she had said the instant she
had said it. She had just challenged him to a fight, albiet inadvertantly.
There was no way to back out of it now. She had to convince him and everyone
else that she really can't be hurt by anything on this planet, and that
included this armored loudmouth. She had to convince them all that they
needed her.
With a wirr and a click, the right wing swivled down to attach
itself to his right arm, the .50 calibre locking into a forward position
facing down the wing now instead of to the front of it as it had been in
flight. A burst of fire, a hail of bullets, and a volley of lead that
would have torn holes in a car's engine block caught her off guard as she
was cursing herself for saying something so obviously stupid. Several
people in the crowd screamed, others ducked, many did both. This assault
had come completely without warning. Aurora was
thrown back onto the sidewalk from the street, hitting a streetlight as
she fell uncontrolably backwards and bending it nearly 90 degrees with
the impact. "Consider yourself hurt."
The gun's barrel was still
smoking as it and the wing swiveled back to their original position
folded onto his back, all without any apparent action on the part of the
man in the armor. No buttons, no siwtches, no gesture. It was like the
armor was an extention of himself, every action as natural as blinking.
She picked herself up from the street with fire in her eyes and
nothing more than an uncontrollable desire to hurt him back in her mind.
He hit her, even though it didn't really hurt, and embarrased her, even
though anyone caught in a volley of machine gun fire had every excuse in
the world to fall down. And here he was, still standing there like he
was invulnerable, like he could win a fight without moving from that
spot. He had even holstered his weapon!
"All right, I've tried yours, now you Try Mine!" She was
obviously furious as she raced toward the shiney metal armor, determined
to crush this fool before he could make another move. She was doing
about 65 when she hit him, giving his armor a good dent and sending him
flying into the side of a convenience store. Now they were even.
A silver claw reached up from a pile of bricks and Twinkies to
get a handhold and he righted himself. Stepping out from the wreckage,
he spoke again. "If you are still on this planet in 23 hours and 45
mintues, we'll continue this. But away from anyone who can get hurt.
Go home." At that, the wings unfurled behind him. The twin blue
flames erupted once more from the engines, and he took off trailing two
clouds
of light grey smoke that dissipated quickly. There was no clear winner
here. It was also obvious that neither one of them would back down now.
In 23 hours she was going to have to be ready to defend her right to stay
on Earth, but for now, she had a little cleaning up to do.