Power Core Series 3: Reptiles

The Vinto invasion was in full force, and no one was prepared for it. While the rest of the world was busy dealing with the Cydonians, the Vintos had infiltrated the population of Earth and set up small camps of troops. And then when they attacked…well no one expected it to come the way it did…

The President of the United States had requested an immediate meeting with the Protectors, well those that remained anyway.

“What do you want Ray?” Tom snarled as he entered her office with Jack, Naomi and his three daughters.

            “I said bring your whole team,” she snapped when she saw what she was stuck with.

            “Well I am sorry if everyone else is either dead or missing,” Tom snarled back. “This is all I’ve got.”

            “Well, if that is true…I need you to take out a small enemy stronghold in Austin, Texas,” Ray explained. “They are able to launch attacks on anywhere in the United States from there, and we haven’t been able to get close.”

            “And I couldn’t have been told this over the phone because?” Tom questioned the logic of bringing him to the white house.

            “I wanted to see proof that you were alive,” she explained. “I couldn’t take everyone else’s words for it.”

            “Whatever,” Tom sighed, rolling his eyes. “Vinto encampment, Austin, Texas. Got it.”

            “Good luck,” the president snarled, hating that she was, yet again, forced to rely upon the Protectors.

*****

It took them about an hour to make it to Austin, but once there they set to work on taking down the scouts that the base had sent out. A snapped neck here, a slit throat there and they were outside the base, which looked as if it had been further fortified following their retrieval of intel on the base.

            “This…won’t be fun,” Emma noted.

            “Neither was that Cydonian ship,” Tom smiled. “At least this time we’re on the ground.”

            “I like the air,” Naomi and Emma countered simultaneously.

            “I know,” Tom laughed quietly. “Connie. Burn us a hole.”

            “Okay,” she smiled sweetly as she placed her hands out in front of her before releasing a large barrage of fire that began, slowly, melting away the metal wall the stood between them and the inside.

It took about twenty minutes, but eventually they got through the wall, with Tom sending Connie back to the ship as she struggled to remain awake. “You sure this is the right way?” Jack asked, concerned about the surprising lack of enemies.

            “As right as I’ll ever be,” Tom noted. “But you’re right, it is unusually quiet. Where are the bloody reptiles.”

            “Mum…can you…” Emma asked.

            “Yeah…” Naomi agreed. “They’re everywhere.”

            “Jack?” Tom quizzed, unsure of what to make of what was happening.

            “They’re right, light is being bent all around us…I hope they like knives,” Jack smirked before forming a small hard-light knife in his hand and throwing it at what appeared to be nothing. Tom followed the knife, expected it to harmlessly hit the wall, however it instead stopped moved before the area around it began to slowly turn red. Tom reacted quickly and formed a force field around his team, protecting them from the disintegration bullets that was fired at them.

Naomi and Emma let out a small shock wave that blew all of the Vintos on the rooftops into the air and about twenty metres backwards while Maddi began sucking out the life of the Vintos that were in their path. Jack blinded, and then decapitated three Vintos that were coming up behind them.

            “That went well,” Tom noted as an alarm sounded. “Run. Straight for the centre.”

The others nodded in agreement and rushed onwards while Tom picked up his phone. “Connie, there is a jammer in here, I need manual pickup from the centre. Can you fly that thing?”

            “I think I can find something that will help,” she replied cheerfully before Tom hung up and started on his way towards the centre of the base.

Jack went high and invisible, Naomi and Emma went low with wind. Maddi however did not have any effects of her powers that could hide her, or protect her. As such Tom took off after her in hopes of protecting her should she need it.

And need it she did.

Tom came to a stop in an alley just before the opening where Maddi was surrounded. Inside he could see at least ten Vintos, with more probably hidden within the blind spots; he could also see Maddi slowly moving her hand around in a clockwise motion.

Keep going, he thought to himself. You that immense power you have and finish them. Suddenly, Maddi let out a blast of pure death energy that instantly killed everything it touched in the opening and in the alleys leading to the opening, Tom however saw what was about to happen and had ducked behind a dumpster and formed a force field bubble around him to ensure complete protection.

Once he was certain that it was over, he stood and made his way into the opening where he found Maddi laid on the floor, unconscious. “Well done, sweetheart,” he stated as he picked her up before moving towards the centre of town.

Once he made it there he found that Jack had already made it, while Naomi and Emma were still a while out. Above him he could see Connie moving into position. He picked up his phone again and told Connie to bring the ship down to the floor, after which he placed Maddi onboard. “Come on,” Tom whispered as he readied the power source of the encampment to go critical. “Come on guys. We do not have all day.”

Then his phone began to ring. He answered. “Tom, start the countdown!” Naomi’s voice screamed. “We are almost there. Start the countdown and get onboard!”

            “Jack, on the ship. Now,” Tom ordered as he set the timer to five minutes. “You have five minutes. Get here yesterday!”

            “On our way,” she replied as Tom climbed onto the ship.

            “Connie be ready to fly this thing out of here on my mark,” Tom called up through the ship.

            “Got it,” she agreed.

Naomi and Emma were having a few issues with Vintos constantly preferring the rooftops to the ground so they could never see them coming before they shot. “What if we hurricane?” Emma asked as they ran through their fifth ambush, blowing the reptiles on the roofs backwards.

            “We could, but there is no guarantee that it wouldn’t hit the others, and flying up will just make us bigger targets,” Naomi countered.

            “Tornado then,” Emma decided and began loosening her control over the ones that appeared naturally around her head.

            “That would work,” Naomi agreed, duplicating her daughter. Once they were all reformed they released the mini-tornados into the nearby buildings where the natural law of nature caused them to shoot skywards and join with the clouds above.

            “One minute,” Emma noted as they approached yet another clearing.

            “Tom,” Naomi yelled into her phone after Tom answered. “We’re not going to make it. Come to us and we’ll fly up to you.”

            “On our way,” Tom agreed, his mind screaming at him about how much of a bad idea it was.

            “You realise they are now a target,” Emma moaned before jumping up to a balcony.

            “You mean if they weren’t already,” Naomi countered and Connie flew overhead, the backdoor of the craft wide open. “Jump, now!”

The two collectively jumped and used the air around them to propel them towards the aircraft, after which Connie quickly sped away as the generator detonated with the force of three nuclear bombs, but without the radiation.