Aubrey Adkins | Odysseus Laërtiades | Kyra Muller | Miyamoto Musashi | Emily Prichert
Day of the Arlaaekan Invasion
Pacific Point, CA
Odysseus and Kensei, despite hailing from cultures worlds apart, were warriors in heart. Many an Arlaaekan scoffed at what they believed were neanderthals pelting them with primitive weapons. Yet the aliens’ arrogance could not protect them from the divine arrows the two heroes were launching from their bows. Even Kensei’s sword, the Kusanagi, ripped through the advanced exo-suits the Arlaaekans wore into battle.
But it did not take the Arlaaekans long to reevaluate the threat level of these two individuals. Ever since the onset of the invasion, the Arlaaekans had established air superiority and, when these two heroes became troublesome for them, they could utilize that advantage to eliminate them. Or at least that was their intention, as they had not expected an entirely different metahuman to jump to the rescue at just the right moment.
Once Odysseus and Kensei were safe, the mysterious metahuman inquired about whether they actually possessed a plan for taking down the newly arrived Arlaaekan reinforcements. The Japanese samurai was the first to answer.
“Our primary objective has been to thin the crowd on the ground so they wouldn’t pose as much of a threat to the civilians. But I can see the danger that warship poses.” “If we’re going to have any chance to taking that spaceship down, we’re going to need some reinforcements,” Odysseus suggested as he notched one of his own arrows onto his bow instead of those he had borrowed from Kensei. “Considering they just tried to vaporize us, being discrete does not really matter anymore.”
Aiming his bow skyward, Odysseus drew back the bowstring and released the arrow. Once the shaft had reached the apex of its arc, the arrowhead detached and launched forward, propelled by a miniaturized rocket. Specifically designed for this purpose, the arrowhead began spitting out flares profusely. With the signal sent, now all the three men could do was wait.
These Arlaaekans just seem to keep on coming (that’s what Emily said her alternate came from called their universe’s counterpart). No matter how many of them Emily and I had beat up and took out of commission, there were just as many soldiers ready to take their place. I’m pretty sure Athena made some obscure metaphor about them being like the Lernaean Hydra. I hope she wasn’t insinuating that fire was the key to stopping them. I’m not the type of gal who liked to torch things.
“Wow, it’s felt like we’ve already fought off a small army,” Emily wiped the sweat from her brow after she tossed an unconscious Arlaaekan onto a pile of already knocked out aliens.
“Hey, is your arm okay? You’re bleeding.” Emily peered down at her arm and saw what I had spotted: there was a cut on her arm, which was bleeding way more than an injury that size should.
“Oh, it’s nothing. Just web it up. It’ll be fine,” Emily answered, although I could tell from the tone of her voice that she was holding something back. But since we were in the middle of an alien invasion, I didn’t want to press her on it. Instead, I just made a make-shift bandage on her arm and left it at that.
“So, what’s our next move?”
As soon as she had spoken up again, my spider-sense began to buzz. Before I could turn my head, an energy bolt flew over my shoulder and landed harmlessly against the pavement. Up on the roof, another Arlaaekan soldier had taken up a position as a sniper. Under normal circumstances, I would have been amazed at how the Arlaaekan missed his shot, but because Athena was at our side stuff like that tended to happen.
The Arlaaekan sniper was readying another shot when a winged figure swooped down and hoisted him up by his shoulders with her talonlike feet. The initial shock of the sneak attack had caused the alien soldier to drop his weapon and before he could draw a sidearm or anything, she dropped him into the pile of unconscious Arlaaekans that we had already made a bit before.
“It’s looking like you ladies could use a hand,” Kyra told me and Emily once she landed next to us.
“Against these guys, we could use all the—look out behind you!” I shouted as I noticed the sniper Kyra had surprised and dropped was stumbling back to his feet and drawing another weapon. With a flick of my wrist, I shot a webline at the gun and yanked it out of his grasp. Meanwhile, Kyra’s hair and the feathers on her winged arms burst into flames as she extended her hand towards the alien. A fire blast launched from her palm and impacted the Arlaaekan’s chest. He was tossed backwards by the force of the blow until he hit a lamppost with a thud and crumbled to the ground unconscious.
“I guess we all could use a hand,” Kyra quipped as the flames on her hair and feathers died down, revealing no damage to herself whatsoever.
It was at this moment when I noticed Kyra peering over towards where Athena was standing. Even Athena looked a little perplexed that someone besides me could see her. At first I was too surprised until I remembered that Kyra’s alternate would have undoubtedly encountered her world’s Athena at some point, which would explain how she could see the Goddess of Wisdom now.
“Um, what are you too looking at?” Emily asked, since she obviously couldn’t see Athena.
Luckily (or unfortunately, mattering on how you view the situation), right when Emily asked that, the Arlaaekan capital ship fired a green energy beam at a target all the way on the other side of the town. The three of us stood there in shock until we barely spotted an arrow fly into the sky, only because of the flares it was setting off. I’ve been a member of the Immortals for long enough to recognize one of Odysseus’ arrows. Since the arrow originated from approximately the same area as the blast had hit, he had somehow survived it. With that crazy dude, you can’t ever count him out.
After seeing this, I turned to Emily and Kyra. Without saying a word, we all knew where we all had to go, even though we couldn’t see any of our eyes, since we were all wearing masks or some eyewear. But before I could turn back, I felt the goddess’ hand grasp my shoulder. We had been working solo together for much of my superhero career that old habits must have caused her only to try to teleport me and forget about my two friends and allies. Well, good thing for my spider-sense and my enhanced reflexes, as before Athena teleported me to Odysseus’ location, I was able to hit both Emily and Kyra with a webline and drag them towards me. I would soon find out that might not have been the smartest idea.
I’m not an expert at teleportation and such, but this is how Athena tried to explain it to me a while ago (and how much I remembered from said conversation). Since the teleportation was nearly instantaneous, there was a fraction of a moment where you both present at your starting and end points simultaneously. Plus, with Athena warping space around you throughout the process, you’re even stretched out between the two spots (Athena explained you couldn't interact with anything in this state, so you can't trip someone or anything). This process even makes you feel like your body was being twisted like a Twizzler. Honestly, it sometimes feels pretty great on the old back.
Well, that’s how it was
supposed to work. But what actually happened was, well, weird to say the least and I definitely didn't foresee it happening. Because Athena was only warping enough space to teleport me, Emily, Kyra, and I found ourselves being forced into this space intended only for a single individual. And remember that Twizzler effect? It was still there and made much worse by the presence of two too many people. Instead of just being turned into a spiral, the three of us were twisted around each other like a freshly woven piece of rope, our bodies awkwardly squished together. Let's just say we were pretty uncomfortable in this situation. And that's an understatement.
Once the teleportation had completed, by some miracle we arrived without any further complications. Thank God we didn’t pop out of there as a three-headed, six-armed, twelve-legged monstrosity. For a few seconds, we didn’t speak a word, but only traded glances, until I piped up.
“We are definitely never mentioning this ever again.” “Don’t have to ask me twice,” Kyra agreed, and Emily nodded, too.
“See, what did I say? I told you this was going to work,” Odysseus told Kensei and another metahuman I didn’t quite recognize.
“I will admit, I did not expect your plan to bring us the aid of an Olympian deity.” “In our line of work, you should always expect the unexpected. We need all the help we can ge—"
“Wait, am I the only one who can’t see this person everyone has been interacting with for the past hour?” Emily exclaimed when she interrupted Odysseus.
“Maybe, unless he’s not blessed by the immortal gods,” Kensei answered Emily as he pointed towards the third individual standing next to Odysseus and Kensei.
“And why would you guys even be on first-name basis with a god?” Emily asked.
“Really? You’re really asking people named Odysseus and Arachne how they know Athena?”
“Then what about her?” She pointed towards Kyra.
“My alternate went by the alias Phoenix and—” Kyra began to explain, but I quickly interrupted.
“And that’s a story we don’t have time to tell. Shouldn’t we focus on the problem at hand, namely the aliens trying to cause an extinction event on our planet?” “Agreed. Do you have any insights into our situation?” Kensei asked the one man whom I couldn’t quite place my finger on his name.
Zombiedude101
