First, though, let me tell you about Sydney. Sydney, Australia, that is. As I've mentioned before, Enclave recruits from all over the world; they also attack sites all over the world. I'm sure there must be a pattern of some sort to the places they attack, but I've never figured out what it is.
All I know is, when they send out a monster, we have to go put it down, no matter where or when. According to Wizzit, Enclave sending a monster to Earth is sort of like them poking a hole in a dam. If we don't manage to plug the hole pretty quickly, then it just gets bigger, which means that more monsters can get through, which makes the hole bigger still, which means still more monsters, and . . . well, maybe you get the idea. If there's even one monster we can't get rid of, Enclave could wind up overrunning the entire planet in a matter of weeks.
So, when the monster alarm went off in my room around half-past midnight one night, I groaned, but I got out of bed. Monsters have to be put down. In less than five minutes I was dressed and jogging down the hallway to the common room.
"This is a big one, folks," came Wizzit's voice from my belt. "Better bring your weapons with you."
Nicolai was already in the weapons room by the time I got there. "Good morning, Trevor," he said cheerfully. "I have Shelley's sword and Mike's club. I am going to use an axe today, I think. You had better get something for yourself. Do you want to carry Toby's hammer?"
"Sure." I grabbed Toby's weapon. It's a weird-looking thing, with this huge hammer head on it -- bigger than my head -- and a haft that's about four feet long. Looks like something that Tom might try to squash Jerry with, but I guess Toby likes it. I saw Nicolai pick up some sort of war axe that looked almost as cartoonish. "Hey, Nicolai," I said, looking around, "can you hand me that baton?"
"This old thing?" He held up a stick about a foot long. He tossed it over to me. "Come on, Trev, why don't you get yourself a real weapon?"
I caught the baton. "I just prefer the smaller stuff, that's all. Doesn't get in my way. Speaking of which . . ."
"Not ready yet," he said tersely. "We should go. The others will be waiting for us."
Toby and Mike were in the common room already, and Trina and Shelley joined us in a few moments. I know it's the stereotype that women always take longer to get ready, but I've noticed it's also true, especially with our middle-of-the-night affairs. I figure that in our case it's because they have to tie back their hair and put on at least one more article of clothing up top than us guys do.
Nicolai and I handed the others their weapons. Trina, of course, had her triple-blaster with her already. She never goes on a mission without it. "Where are you sending us?" Shelley asked Wizzit.
"You're going to bright, sunny Sydney," came Wizzit's voice. "It's late morning there. Enclave sent out a twin set of monsters; not sure what they do yet." Then he added with malicious glee, "If you have any trouble understanding the locals, I'm sure Mike could translate for you."
"For the hundredth time, Wizzit, I am not Australian," Mike retorted. "New Zealand is a whole different country, thousands of miles away."
"Uh huh, if you say so." He adopted an accent that was even thicker than Mike's. "Down Under is Down Under."
"That's enough, Wizzit," Shelley interjected calmly. "Are there any Zoinks for us to worry about?"
"A couple of dozen. No other alters nearby, though."
"Got it. Let's go, team."
We activated our force shields and soon found ourselves standing on the top level of a parking garage. Not completely deserted, so we scared a few locals when we 'ported in, but Wizzit does the best he can. I expect that the downtown of a major city doesn't have too many deserted alleyways during the late morning of a working day.
We ran down some steps and out into the street -- Pitt Street, to judge by the signs. The monsters weren't hard to find; they were admiring a building that proclaimed itself "Commonwealth Bank of Australia". Actually, they weren't admiring the building as much as the wrecked doorway of the building. Standing between them, surrounded by Zoinks, was my favorite, jumpsuit-clad minder.
"That's Lily Lee," Shelley told us all, Prime-to-Prime. "If she starts attacking, don't any of you try to take her on yourselves. Remember, our weapons don't work on her because she's not an alter. Leave her to me or Indigo."
Me or Indigo? Hmm, I guess I suddenly got promoted to Deputy Zombie Chick Catcher, which was fine with me. Lucky for us, Lily didn't seem to be in Crazy Kung Fu Zombie Chick mode. As soon as she spotted us, she shouted, "Get them! Now!"
The Zoinks charged. The two big baddies turned around and saw us, and right away they started jumping. Yeah, jumping. Up and down, like little kids. The first one would jump up, and as he was landing, the second would jump up. It looked kind of dorky . . . right up until the shock waves started hitting us.
The ground began shaking beneath my feet, and in seconds I was on my backside. Not very dignified, but at least I had the satisfaction of seeing all five of my teammates fall on their butts, too. Trina got a shot off, at least, but it went wide, splattering harmlessly off a nearby building.
The Zoinks were on us now; somehow, they weren't bothered by the shaking of the ground. Shelley was the first one of us to get to her feet, and right away she started swinging her broadsword, trying to clear an area around herself.
A couple of Zoinks grabbed my arms and hauled me upright, while a third Zoink planted a jumping sidekick right on my chest. Mike and Trina seemed to be in the same position I was; Toby was struggling to his feet with three Zoinks hanging off his back, while Nicolai appeared to be at the bottom of a dogpile.
Shelley was making her way over to Trina, swinging her sword the whole way, but she was having a lot of trouble because of the continuing ground vibrations. That left me to rescue Nicolai, because he seemed to be in the most trouble. My jumping-kicking Zoink buddy was preparing to go at me again, so I bided my time and twisted myself around at the last second, pulling the Zoink holding my right arm directly into his path. The jolt knocked me off-balance, but it sent the two of them to the ground in a tangle of arms and legs.
I struggled upright and punched my remaining Zoink in the face three or four times with my baton, which temporarily took the fight out of him. "Hang on, Yellow," I called out. "Help is coming."
Mike, I saw, had managed to free himself and was holding his two-handed club like a baseball bat. Or maybe a cricket bat, who knows? A pair of Zoinks charged him, and whap! whap! he send them sailing back, tail over teakettle. Toby had shaken off his Zoinks and was standing in a wide-legged stance, trying to keep from falling over again as he searched for his hammer.
Not trusting my balance over the shaking ground, I scrambled and rolled over to the pile of Zoinks and started pulling bodies off. The ones that resisted, I pounded into submission with my baton. Eventually I dug my way down to Nicolai.
"Thanks, Indigo," he said as I gave him a hand up. "They caught me by surprise." He staggered a step and put a hand to his head.
"No problem, Yellow. Careful with your balance here; it's tricky." I steadied him as he bent to pick up his axe.
Shelley had freed Trina by now and seemed to be giving her instructions. Trina nodded. Shelley formed a stirrup with her hands. Trina stepped into it, and Shelley launched her high into the air.
I'd seen them do this before; often it's a way to get Trina some more height so she can pull off a tricky blaster shot. In this case, I assumed it was to get her off the shaking ground so she could take steadier aim.
She arced up high in a lazy backward somersault, and as she came back around, she snapped off two quick blasts. The first struck one of the jumping monsters as it was landing, and it staggered back. The other shot hit the second monster in the air and sent it flying backward into the rubble of the bank's doorway.
The ground vibrations stopped almost immediately. I heard a roar and saw Toby rise u
p to his full height. He's a big guy, taller even than Shelley, and when he starts swinging that huge hammer of his, suddenly it doesn't look so cartoonish any more. He looks like Thor, the freakin' God of Thunder.
He ran forward and began hammering on the monster that was still on its feet. It started pounding back at him, and the sparks flew -- literally. Shelley ran forward to take on the other monster, which was just getting to its feet. "Orange, Yellow, Green, Indigo," she snapped out, "there are civilians in the building that need your help getting out."
Mike, Nicolai, Trina, and I ran to the ruined doorway and began pulling the rubble away from it. Shelley was right; I could see a number of people trapped inside, including a few who were lying on the floor and appeared to be injured. Within minutes, we had the way clear for them.
"I don't trust this wall," Mike called out. "Let's get them out as quick as we can."
The four of us rushed inside, calling out for the civilians to leave by way of the entrance we had cleared. Most of them were eager to get away, and a few were injured and had to be carried out. By the time we had cleared these, the ground had started shaking again. Glancing out the windows, I saw that Shelley and Toby had been swarmed by Zoinks, which allowed the Happy Bouncing Twins to start their seesaw jumping act again.
"Is there anyone else in here?" I heard Mike shout.
"Just these two," Nicolai replied. He was pointing at a couple, a man and a woman, both large, both cowering under a table and mewling hysterically.
Mike hesitated only a second before saying, "Yellow and Green, get them out of here right away. Indigo, go help Red and Blue. I'll make a search of the rest of the building." He ducked aside as a chunk of the ceiling fell and nearly hit him. "Damn, I hope this thing holds together long enough!"
Now, I may have given the impression up to this point that, except for her sharpshooting skills, Trina is fairly useless in a battle. That's not really the case. True, she wouldn't be my first choice as a fighting partner, but see, her martial arts training is in aikido, which is about holds and throws, not punches and kicks. Remember how Shelley tied up Crazy Kung Fu Zombie Chick's leg so she couldn't move? Odds are that Trina could have done it just as well.
So, as a Zoink basher, sure, Trina isn't all that great. But if you have a couple of uncooperative fat people that you have to move somewhere in a hurry, who would you call? Not me, that's for sure. I'd wind up pounding them into unconsciousness and then dragging them out by the hair. I didn't see what happened, of course, but I'd bet a penny that Trina grabbed the whimpering guy in a very persuasive come-along hold and hustled him out the door while Nicolai was still trying to muscle his girlfriend off the floor.
As for me, I was running out to help Shelley and Toby. I took a slight detour to knock one of the twins off-balance, trying to disrupt their mini-earthquakes, and then made a beeline for Blue. He was trying to knock the Zoinks off himself with his hammer. Unfortunately, it's not effective as a super-short-range weapon; it works best if your enemy is a couple of feet away.
Just like with Nicolai, I waded in and started pounding on Zoink bodies. A few minutes later (and after ducking one wild hammer-swing from Toby) I pulled the last Zoink off his back. "This was fun," I told him cheerfully, "but I expect Red would like some help about now."
"I'm not sure Red needs it," he replied after a moment.
I looked around and saw that he was right. Shelley had stopped fighting. In fact, she wasn't moving at all. I would have been alarmed, given the way she was being swarmed, but I had seen her do this before. Sure enough, after a second of concentrating her power, she let loose a shock wave that blasted every last Zoink off of her.
According to Nicolai, all of us Primes are supposed to be equally powerful. What one of us can do, any of the rest of us can theoretically do. The fact is, though, that I have seen Shelley perform some stunts as Prime Red that I doubt I could ever match, and this shock wave is one of them. As often as I have tried to duplicate it, I have never even come close.
(Nicolai also says that most things become easier as your associated prime number gets lower, and because Shelley represents the number two, the only even prime, some of the more amazing things have become as natural to her as breathing. Somehow that doesn't make me feel better.)
I dashed off to help Shelley as soon as her shock wave subsided, without waiting for Toby to tell me to go. The shock wave is a pretty cool trick, but it completely drains your force shield, all except for the blurring and the voice alteration. Until it recharged itself, Shelley was almost completely helpless.
"It's all right, Red," I called out to her. "I've got you covered."
"Thanks, Indigo." She sounded winded, which is pretty unusual for her. Those Zoinks must have been pushing her awfully hard. She retreated until her back was against a wall. "Wizzit, how long until we can blast these guys to Kingdom Come?"
"It won't be soon," he replied promptly. "They're plenty plenty tough. How many of you can I count on for the final shot?"
I clobbered a Zoink that was coming too close, while Shelley took in the battle scene. "Indigo, where's Orange?" she asked me abruptly.
Two more Zoinks approached. I swept their legs out from under them and dropped an axe kick on the first one's chest. "Inside the bank building, looking for civilians," I said. The second Zoink was struggling to get up, so I bashed his chest a few times with my baton. Then I grabbed the two of them by their wrists and hauled them away.
"Wizzit, we should have Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, and Blue." She glanced at my baton. "Indigo, too, if necessary."
"Roger that. I'm working on it. Keep them busy."
Shelley shook herself. "You'd better go join the fight, Indigo," she told me. "Don't worry about me."
I looked around. Right now, it appeared that Trina's triple blaster was the only thing keeping the Wonder Twins from sending out their ground-shaking vibrations. Toby and Nicolai were on either side of her, keeping the Zoinks at bay. "Are you sure, Red?" I asked. "You're not fully charged yet."
"Yeah, I'll be fine. Go. Try hitting the monster on the right."
"Will do." I took off running, calling out for Trina not to blast me accidentally. For a short time I did my best to keep my monster off-balance; sometimes that's as much as you can do without using a special weapon, and it was difficult to get as close as I would need to be in order to use my baton. I decided that maybe Nicolai had a point; I could have used his axe about then.
That was when Lily (remember her?) started to use strategy. A crowd had started to gather at the outskirts of our battle, including a television crew, and she ordered the Zoinks to begin attacking them. Not good. Very not good.
Shelley yelled for me and the others to go after them while she took on Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee all by herself. Bless her heart, that's exactly what she did, even though she still wasn't quite charged up yet, which meant that she was essentially just a non-powered human. Despite her best efforts, and they were pretty impressive, she wasn't quite able to keep the twin monsters completely occupied. They managed to get in a few of their ground-shaking bounces.
All of a sudden, Shelley started shouting for everyone to get away from the bank building. I heard an ominous grinding sound, and then the whole front of the building collapsed. I did have the satisfaction of seeing Lily nearly get caught in it; she was coughing and waving away building dust as a handful of Zoinks pulled her away.
All of a sudden I had an awful thought. "Red," I shouted, "Orange was still in there!"
"D'you mean me?" came a voice directly behind me. I practically jumped out of my force shield, and I whirled to see Mike's face grinning at me. Well, I assumed he was grinning, since his features were obscured by swirling orange mist.
"Damn it, Orange, don't do that to me!" I yelped.
"Sorry, Indigo," he said, not sounding the least bit sorry. "Wizzit 'port
ed me out about two seconds ago."
Well, the battle continued for quite a while after that. Whenever we had one of the twin monsters on the ropes, Lily would order the Zoinks to start attacking bystanders. Most of them smartened up after a while and fled the area, but that darned television crew seemed to think it was their special destiny to stay in harm's way.
The fight went on for long enough that I know Wizzit was getting worried that Enclave would soon be able to send more of its monsters through. Eventually, though, he announced that if all six of us hit one of the monsters at the same time, then our combined energy (as he had tuned it) would overload its Enclave enhancements. You can bet that we all rushed to do that, and six seconds later, it was bye-bye baddie. Five seconds after that, we destroyed his pal as well.
Lily and the Zoinks 'ported out even before the second monster had finished exploding, and afterwards we all just sort of collapsed. The television crew ran up to us then and started peppering us with questions. I didn't envy Shelley at that moment, as the spokesman for our group. I knew she wasn't in the mood to chat, but blowing off the press is generally not a good idea.
She used her sword to push herself to her feet and walked painfully over to the perky young female reporter, telling her that she would agree to a two-minute interview. I'm not sure how much of the exhaustion in Shelley's voice was just acting, but the reporter suddenly looked a lot less perky and a whole lot more subdued.
Shelley patiently told her that yes, it had been a tough battle; no, she wouldn't grant the reporter an exclusive look at her real face; no, there was no romance of any kind between Blue and Yellow; and no, she had no objection to being called Eric the Red. She paused when the reporter asked about the missing Prime Violet. "That's a very perceptive question," she said, and it came out sounding like a sincere compliment. Shelley's good like that.
"It has not been a secret that we haven't had a Prime Violet on the team for several months," she went on. "The Primes have a tough job, and our membership undergoes occasional changes. We are looking at several promising candidates, though, and we hope to have a new Prime Violet ready for action very soon. I can't tell you any more than that."
After the questions were done, I heard Shelley ask that the cameras and mikes be turned off, and she spent several minutes talking quietly with the crew. I knew what she was doing; she had done it to me often enough. She was undoubtedly dressing them down, pointing out how their refusal to leave the scene of the battle had put both them and us in unnecessary danger, or something along those lines. The thing is, when Shelley chews you out like that, she does it in such a quiet, reasonable way that when she's done, all you can think is, "Damn, she's absolutely right."
When she was done, the reporter looked decidedly abashed; I thought she might be about ready to cry. But then Shelley administered the coup de grace -- she gave the woman's shoulder a friendly squeeze to show there were no hard feelings and thanked her for the interview, and then she finished off with a laugh and some quip or other. Probably something like "Sydney's a beautiful city; let's all hope we don't have to come back anytime soon." After that, she told Wizzit to bring us home. The reporter watched us go, eyes shining with admiration for "Eric the Red". Shelley had won us another fan.
Chapter 15