*Please see Part 1 to get the full story so far. In summary, Steve has been ripped out of his normal life and recruited to fight untrained in a battle for the city of Charlotte, NC.
Steve smiled meekly, “As long as there’s no pressure…” He wiped his sweaty hands on his pants legs, “So, when do I train?”
The driver answered, “It’s not so much training as it is a briefing.”
The woman next to Steve made a sympathetic face, “Yes, unfortunately we do not have much time, so we’ll have to keep things simple.”
She reached inside a leather carrying bag on the floorboard that Steve had not previously noticed. She handed him a sleek metallic object, “The first order of business is your communicator. One of your primary assignments will be to observe the movements of the enemies.”
“What do the… enemies look like?” Steve asked meekly.
The driver laughed and answered again, “You’ll know ‘em when you see ‘em. Trust me.”
“Trust you?” Steve thought to himself. “Sure, you just threw me in this cop car with freakin’ female David Copperfield and told me that I’m already dead, that I have a war to fight, and there’s some kind of monsters coming to Charlotte. What do I have to worry about?”
Steve did not actually voice any of his concerns, however. He made sure that he used his limited time to pick up on any instructions the woman beside him gave. Steve didn’t even have a name for this woman.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“I know that you are having trouble grasping the situation, but I already told you this information,” the woman answered. “We are members of an elite security –”
“No. What’s your names?” Steve clarified.
“Oh. In your tongue, my name is Candelaria. The helpful gentleman in the front is Josh, and this is Carmen.”
Carmen turned around and fixed her deep blue eyes on Steve. Now that she was focused on him, her stare took his breath away. Her eyes carried a message: she actually cared if he lived or died through this night. He was glad to see it in someone’s eyes.
“So are all of you people who would have died just like me?” Steve asked.
Candelaria was already handing him another object: something in the shape of a gun, but unlike any gun he had ever seen. It was small and shaped like a nine millimeter handgun, but it had enough buttons on the side to remind Steve of his smart-phone on his belt. He reached down out of habit, but his holster was empty. Candelaria said, “I’m afraid we’ll have to have the rest of our informative chat a little later. We only have a few hours before we get here, and we need to get you into position. This is your spatial disruptor.”
“Okay…” Steve replied.
She continued, “There are different settings, but you should just point and shoot. The disruptor sends the invading forces back to where they came from, and it gives them a pretty nasty headache when they awaken.”
Steve thought to himself, “I’ve got this whole war thing figured out for you. The reason you’re losing it is because you actually have to kill your enemies, not just give them headaches.” But he said nothing. Instead, he tucked the disruptor into his belt – just like he had seen actors do on all of those cop movies.
Candelaria also handed him a thin vest, “This will give you some protection, but the best protection is to not get shot. We’re not here to kill every one of the Mkhai that we see…”
“Mkhai?” Steve interrupted.
“The enemy. Again, we’ll go through the entire story another time.” Candelaria pulled her brown hair back into a pony tail. She explained, “Our main purpose is to keep them from obtaining their goals. They can only keep their passageway to this world open for a short time. If we can keep them from gaining a stronghold in the city, then they will be forced to retreat or be stuck here in this realm.”
The car stopped at what was normally a busy intersection in Charlotte, but it was now only two in the morning. “Come on,” she told Steve.
They got out of the car, and they walked over to one of the four statues that stood proudly at the corners of Trade and Tryon. Two men and two women, one with a child in hand, all sat carved in stone atop their bases. Steve pointed up at the closest statue of a prospector and said, “So I guess you’re going to tell me that these statues are actually interstellar communicator devices. I have to guard these ancient symbols of power from the angry hordes of wherever world. Is that my job?”
Candelaria suppressed a small smile. She replied, “No. Both of these streets are major thoroughfares. I want you to guard the intersection, not the statues. But they are pretty, so don’t let the Mkhai knock them down if you can help it. Now, take your shirt off.”
“What?” Steve wondered what this new part of the assignment was.
“Your shirt. Take it off. You need to have your vest against your chest. There are important sensors that feed directly into your biological systems. Also, the vest renders your entire body invisible to the human eye. We keep our battles to the shadows.”
“Okay,” he said. Feeling a little self-conscious with his few chest hairs blowing in the cool night air, he changed into the vest and then hurriedly put his shirt back on. The vest felt like a spandex shirt, and it stretched tight across his pudgy stomach. He felt ridiculous.
“There,” she said. “Now, stay sharp and report anything suspicious.”
He looked around and saw no one that looked menacing in any way. “So how long do I have to wait?”
“They’ll probably come out for the next dense passage of people,” she replied as she stepped toward the car.
“Next dense passage…? You mean rush hour?” he asked.
She nodded.
“But that’s like six hours away. How am I supposed to stay awake the whole time? I worked a thirteen-hour day yesterday.”
By this point, she was already in the car and on her way to the next posting of soldiers. Steve considered how foolish it would be for a grown man to pout, so he did his best not to indulge too much in that childish behavior.
By three a.m., he had already forgotten that the vest made him invisible, so he was rather surprised when the passing police officers did not even notice him suspiciously loitering at one of the main intersections in town. Steve had remembered the weapon on his belt and had nearly panicked as the officers drove by. When they didn’t even cast a glance his direction, he finally remembered. He felt more than a little foolish.
At six a.m., Candelaria’s voice in the communicator piece jolted Steve awake. Set in his right ear, the communicator had been set too loud and gave Steve shades of a migraine. He got the earpiece adjusted in time to hear Candelaria checking off with the soldiers.
“Josh?” she barked.
“Clear. No activity near the university,” he replied. He had a cool, smooth voice. He must have done these missions so many times that it was second nature to him.
“Carmen?” Candelaria called.
“Getting a little traffic stirring up, but no sightings,” she replied.
“Steve?”
“Nothing,” he replied groggily.
“Have you been asleep?” She sounded angry.
“No, of course not.”
“Good. I’ll check back in at seven. If anyone sees something before then, report immediately.”
“Ten-four,” the other two replied.
“Okay,” Steve said, immediately wishing that he had been able to reply with the same cool army-talk as the others.
By six-thirty, Steve was sitting again, this time at the edge of a fountain. The only hazards that he had encountered so far was someone trying to toss change into the fountain. The woman had thrown the coins directly at him, and he had hurried to dodge the projectiles lest they bounce off his invisible body before splashing in the water.
Steve’s stomach rumbled, and he remembered an incredible bagel shop that was only a block or two from here. It probably wouldn’t take that long to get over there, and he could be back in time for the boogie men.
“I’ve got them,” Carmen called out over the headpiece. “Two groups of four. They’re keeping themselves separated. Can’t tell who the leader of the pack is. Switching to sniper disruptor.”
“Sniper disruptor?” Steve thought. “Do I have one of those?”
He looked at his own gun, and he didn’t see any buttons or wording that indicated that this was one of those specialized disruptors. He nearly dropped his regular disruptor as he heard bursts of thunder ring out over his headset.
“They’re returning fire! Returning fire!” Steve’s headset barked. “Two of them are down, but I have six closing on my position. Not sure if they have reinforcements in the area.”
Candelaria’s voice cut into the line, “Keep them distracted. Lead them away from their target. I am coming to your position.”
Josh’s bass voice jumped in as well, “My bogies already have their weapons pulled. I’m switching over to engage.”
His comments were also followed with the thunderous rapport of disruptor fire.
By this point, Steve’s palms were so sweaty that he struggled to keep the disruptor from slipping out of his hands. He looked frantically back and forth, expecting a vision from the worst horror movie to jump out and take him down at any second. He alternated hands in holding his disruptor so that he could wipe the sweat on his pants. As his gaze swept the sidewalks, his eyes finally came to rest on a small group of individuals. Josh had been right. Even though Steve had never seen the Mkhai, he knew them on sight.
Each individual looked to be eight feet tall, and their skin was… well, their skin looked like scales instead of skin: silver scales. Their features looked human, but these creatures were just too big. A black suit of something that looked like rubber covered their entire bodies except for one arm. Either the left or right arm of each warrior was completely encased in a blood red device that Steve had never seen before. The device ended in an over exaggerated metallic hand with blade-like fingers.
The Charlotte-resident-turned-novice-soldier reached a trembling hand up to his communicator piece. There was a talk button here somewhere, but Steve couldn’t remember which button it was. The Mkhai walked straight towards the intersection. Even though Steve was petrified, no one else on the street even seemed to notice anything out of the ordinary. In fact, others made room for the group as though they were simply another set of pedestrians in for another day of work. What appeared like normal chatter to other people looked to Steve like sharks picking out their next meal. He realized that his vision must have been altered by the vest in order to see through enemy’s veil and recognize them for who they really were.
Steve’s voice interjected into the distress calls and instructions already flowing over the communicator, “Um… I found them… here. What do I do?”
“Just shoot the b-” Josh started.
Candelaria cut in, “Steve, fall back and stay out of sight. I’m heading your way. Carmen can handle the university now.”
“O-Okay,” he replied. He found another piece of art near the intersection: a black and gold sculpture large enough to shield him from view. The disc shape of the artwork had always reminded Steve of a spaceship from one of the old cheesy science fiction movies, but thoughts of science fiction and aliens weren’t too comforting at the moment.
From the reflective glass on the side of the building nearest the sculpture, Steve could see the… creatures stopping at the corner opposite his. There were five in this group, but Steve couldn’t see if another group lagged behind. He certainly wasn’t going to risk detection by stepping out for a more thorough search.
One of the Mkhai knelt down and pulled off a tall, thin pack apparently made of the same rubber-like material as the soldiers’ suits. In fact, Steve had not even noticed the pack while looking at them the first time because it seemed a natural extension of that soldier’s outfit. The soldier used the red device on his left arm to remove a long pole from the bag. The metal fingers pressed a button on the silver object that caused the three legs of a tripod to extend from the end. Steve strained to see the detail of the soldier’s movements in the reflection. The Mkhai pressed a few buttons, and the pole began to glow. Even from his position, Steve could hear the hum of power growing from the object.
The five soldiers crossed the street with the rest of the early morning commuters. “Where is she?!” Steve thought. “They’re going to be finished with whatever they’re doing by the time she gets here.”
They were now at the corner directly across the street from Steve’s hiding spot, and he watched as they repeated the process. Another corner, another pole. This pole added to the static hum that no one besides Steve seemed to notice. Now finished with the second street corner, the group approached Steve’s hiding spot.
The group stopped just on the other side of the statue and began to repeat the process once more. Steve longed to make another call to Candelaria to demand her presence, but they were too close now. They would hear his cries for help.
“Arghhh! I’m hit!” It was Josh’s voice over the communicator. The static hum carried through his signal, as well. Apparently, the Mkhai were setting up the same devices all over the city.
Carmen called back immediately, “Are you okay?”
“I’ll live, but I can’t get their relay unit down!” His voice was urgent, panicked. Gone was the smooth talking leader. He was genuinely scared. If he could get that scared over these stupid poles, then they must be more important than Steve realized.
The former lower level manager looked for a way that he could escape. This was too much. Steve wasn’t a soldier, he was a businessman. After all, he was only a body to fill a slot to this ragtag army. He wasn’t interested in dying for a second time today. All he had to was wait until manga-Jaws out there moved to the final corner.
As he held his breath in fear of being heard, Steve thought of the few friends that he had made since moving to Charlotte. He thought of his college roommates, of various girls he had dated, and even of some of his work associates. He tried to force the thoughts back out of his, but he couldn’t. Steve wasn’t a super-humanitarian or anything – he had ruthlessly audited a humanitarian group, after all – but he cared for the wellbeing of people. All of those people were in danger from these… things. He couldn’t let the Mkhai finish their job.
Steve stepped out from behind the sculpture and began firing. Time seemed to slow down, but no magic or unusual science was used in this instant. Pure adrenaline and the need to protect drove him forward. Steve shot the closest soldier and watched as the creature’s body shimmered and then faded away. The other soldiers were turning toward him now and pointing their red claws toward him.
He had one chance. He fired a cluster of shots toward the soldier with the pack. The soldier’s eyes grew wide as it held the third pole in its hands. Steve fired true, and the soldier, the pack, and the pole in its hands shimmered and disappeared right before him with a horrible shriek. That was the last thing Steve saw before the bursts from the Mkhai weapons struck his body and sent him hurtling through the reflective glass windows of the building behind him.
The Mkhai screamed in protest to their ruined plans and started toward the building. People all around began screaming and panicking at the sight and sound of the blown out window.
“Terrorists!” one voice cried.
“Bomb! Bomb! It’s a bomb!” another cried.
None of the panicking crowd could see anyone who looked out of the ordinary, but the residents of Charlotte knew they had been infiltrated. Someone had slipped past American borders and had sought to bring the destruction of his or her homeland into the United States.
Before the Mkhai could cram into the building, another disruptor blast tore through the soldier closest to the window. The other two whirled to defend themselves, but they were quickly shot and sent back to their own realm.
Steve’s body ached in ways he had previously been unable to imagine as he lay in the broken glass. He was bloodied, but his cuts were due to the glass and not the shots. The vest had absorbed the deadliness of those blows, but the vest had not kept the blasts from hurting.
Candelaria stepped over to where Steve lay. He gasped, “I don’t know if there are more Mkhai here…”
“There are, but they’re leaving,” she said. She smiled, “They were supposed to protect the group that you ambushed, so they’re rather useless just now.”
“What about Josh?” Steve asked.
“I must go and see to his wounds next. But he is a warrior, and he will pull through.”
“Good,” he replied.
“Stay here. You’re still invisible to human sight, so everyone will leave you alone. Carmen will be here with the car before it gets too crowded, so she’ll get you out of here and get you patched up soon,” she explained as she started to walk away.
“All right,” he gasped.
“And Steve,” she said. “Welcome to the Guard.”
He smiled weakly.
