and leans up against the wall in silent contemplation. Mliroth stands awkwardly. He still doesn’t know how to interact with humans very well. When Kent looks his way Mliroth smiles like somebody was taking his picture. It startles Kent at first, but he smiles back, knowing that Mliroth is trying his best to act like a human. Kent looks to Sally. She’s stone-faced with a look of confidence and determination. The rest of her body, trembling with fear, tells another story. Kent wraps his arms around her, holding her as tight as he can.
“We’re going to be okay, right?” she asks him.
“Yeah,” he says before kissing her on the cheek. “We’re going to be just fine.”
They four of them jump in sync when they hear an explosion.
“Sounds like we need to get going.” Daniel says. Kent, Sally, and Mliroth nod in agreement. They each flip a switch on the side of their jetpacks, turning them on and shooting them up into the air. It takes several seconds for Kent, Sally, and Daniel to get their packs under control, but when they do flying becomes as natural as walking. They’re taken over with childlike excitement for a brief moment before they remember their mission. The four of them fly towards the building. When they reach it Kent takes a moment to marvel at its size. Somehow it looks even bigger when you are flying up the side of it. They get about two thirds of the way up without a problem.
“Look out!” Mliroth yells as a Nazi ship speeds toward them. Without wasting a second Daniel raises his weapon and pulls the trigger. A large beam shoots out of it, knocking Daniel ten feet backwards. The beam cuts through the middle of the ship, sending one half crashing into the side of the Empire State Building, while the other falls into the street below.
Daniel yells in excitement; “I could get used to this!”
Kent and Sally laugh as they continue their flight to the top. They reach the observation deck on the 102nd floor, but find it well protected. The Nazis, both human and alien, open fire. The four fly away from the blasts as fast as their packs will carry them. Daniel noticed a swarm of ships coming toward them. He fires a blast into the side of the 100th floor to open a door for Sally, Kent, and Mliroth.
“Go! I’ll be fine out here. The quicker you are in there, the sooner we’ll all be out of danger.” Daniel yells to them before flying head on into the swarm. Kent, Sally, and Mliroth quickly fly through the hole and land in the 100th floor. They turn off their jetpacks.
“Stop!” yells a human Nazi before Mliroth opens fire on him, splattering the Nazi across the walls.
“There will be more than just him, let us go.” says Mliroth.
They walk through the hallway, without incident, until they find a stairwell.
“We should see what they are doing on the floor above us. I think the disruptor should be up there to allow for more room for them to build their mind control machine on the one hundred and second floor.” Mliroth says.
He opens the door and for the second time in the day everything moves in slow motion for Kent. A voice comes booming through the doorway; “So, Mliroth the deserter came to Earth after all.”
Mliroth slowly backs away from the door if fear. He meekly says; “Brother, we can stop this.”
The voice responds; “You are right, we can stop this, but you cannot.”
Six laser blasts come through the doorway. Every one of them hits Mliroth.
“NO!” Kent yells as Mliroth’s blue blood sprays across his face. Sally and Kent both look for their ally, hoping he moved out of the way, but there are no parts of him left to look for. Kent frantically wipes the blood off his face. Suddenly he is pulled down to the ground by Sally, who has taken cover behind an overturned wooden desk.
“Shut up and wait for them to come to us.” she tells him.
Kent and Sally listen for the footsteps of the Nazis as they descend the staircase. The Nazis are talking to each other, but it isn’t clear what they’re saying. Suddenly one of them, a human, pops out of the doorway, gun drawn. He looks around, not seeing Kent and Sally huddled behind the desk. Sally wonders if they’re actually good at hiding or if the Nazi is just incompetent.
The Nazi signals to his comrades that it is safe for them to come through. Five more Nazis, three Martians and two humans, enter through the doorway. They have a quick conversation in German that is interrupted by a boom that makes the building shake. The Nazis turn in the direction of the sound, turning their backs to Sally and Kent.
“I have to use this opportunity.” thinks Kent. He rises to his feet. One of the Martians notices Kent out of the corner of his eye. Kent quickly fires off six laser blasts hitting each of the Nazis before they even knew that they had been a target. The six Nazis explode. The blue Martian blood and the red human blood mix into a purple gore cloud. Sally is dumbstruck by what she just saw Kent do. He grabs her by the hand and pulls her to her feet.
“We need to get up those stairs and finish this.” he says to her. They walk cautiously, through the mess created by Kent, toward the door. Kent peeks his head through the doorway and everything looks clear. Kent and Sally run through the door and speed up the stairs.
“STOP!” they hear somebody yell before the sound of many feet running up the stairs fills their ears. Sally looks right into Kent’s eyes and says “Go.”
“What?”
“Get up those stairs and shut off the machine. I’ll hold off these Nazis. It sounds like they’re still a couple of floors down.”
“Then come with me!”
“If we get onto that floor and have to fight Nazis coming at us from all sides, we’ll be dead for sure. I’ll buy you time to turn off the machine.”
“But-”
“Every second you waste not going up those stairs is a second longer I’ll have to fight off these bastards. Go.”
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Kent kisses Sally and then bolts up the stairs. He has to climb up two flights before he reaches the door of the 101st floor. He opens the door and is shocked by what he sees. The entire floor has been turned into one large room. The walls, floors, and ceiling are coated with a shiny, metallic substance. A giant pillar covered in switches, dials, and lights stands in the direct center of the room. To the left of the pillar is a large plush chair, its back turned to the door. A man holding a staff sits in the chair. Kent fires his weapons at the top of the head of the person sitting in the chair. The unknown person uses the staff to block the blast as though it were nothing. A male voice with a German accent speaks up from the chair;
“Many have said that words are the most powerful weapons of all. I was young when I discovered that. My words seemed to have a profound effect on those around me.”
Kent fires off two more laser blasts, both of which are blocked by the staff.
“Would you please stop that?” the voice continues, “It is an annoyance. As I was saying, my words have power. They give me the power to control others. They help me achieve my goals. They gave me this.”
The man stands up from his chair, walks behind it, and faces Kent.
“So, do you intend to stop me?” says, the very alive, Adolf Hitler. Kent’s brain can’t fully comprehend what he is seeing.
“You… you’re… how are you-”
“Alive? Faking your own death is much easier than it would seem to be. All you need to do is have a perfect replica of your body made. When you have money and power even the most herculean of tasks become child’s play. That’s how I got this. Do you recognize it?”
Hitler is talking about the staff he holds in his hand. Kent looks at it and notices upon further inspection that it is a spear.
“No. Should I?”
“No, I wouldn’t expect someone like you to recognize it. This is the Holy Lance, the legendary spear that supposedly pierced the side of the Christ as he hung on the cross. It is one of the most powerful single objects in the universe. I suppose that’s what happens to something that is covered in the blood of a god.
“You s
ee, while we may have the futuristic Martian weaponry in our hands, this spear is the most powerful weapon of all.”
Hitler marvels at the spear as he holds it in his hands. He may have seen and held it many times, but the power of it still overcomes him.
“Now I’m sure you’re here to destroy the gravity disruptor, aren’t you?”
Kent shudders at the thought of this supreme being of evil knowing the plan.
“Answer me, boy!”
“Yes, that’s why I’m here.”
“Then you’re wasting your time.” Hitler says with a gleeful, mocking tone. “No such device exists. The technology of the Martian’s still functions on this planet not because of technology, it is because of magic. The Holy Lance and I are the source of the power. You’re wondering what all of this machinery is for, aren’t you? I’m sure that Martian traitor told you all of our plans to control the minds of you Americans. Truthfully, that plan was not very realistic. You Americans have always been resistant to control. In the time that I was gone, there was an emergence of something that was able to control the populace; the television. That is what will be your undoing. Using the technology of tomorrow and the magic of the past, I shall summon all manner of dark demons from hell to crawl their ways into America through the televisions that so many of you have brought into your homes. I can turn your source of entertainment into a portal to hell.”
Kent, hoping to catch him off guard, fires a blast at Hitler,