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Chapter 26
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Throughout Paragon City, the battle waged on.

Walter Dallevan and his fighting companions prepared to go down like a trio of badasses, but the numbers of surrounding invaders were assaulted from behind in several places. Explosions popped from one direction, soldiers came in from another, an icon from a third, and the hunter Dissarap lunged into a crowd of invaders from the fourth.

Adamast Cross, as uplifted as he was by the support, had no desire to be outdone, and he hit harder and faster than ever. It was a new awakening for him, he would later learn, as his powers were no longer limited to ice armor and its manipulation.

In the sky, War Lagoon and Blaze had managed to evade the red beam that sliced through the alien ships within its range. Chunks of wreckage now fell toward the outskirts of Paragon. Other metahumans and their technological kin did what they could to slow the fall and push the pieces further away from doing any harm. One huge chunk fell into the sea to the south, missing the island with the Asylum on it by half a mile.

Princess Undercut teleported behind her would-be assailants, and took them for a short ride into the air where she dropped them one by one before teleporting back to the ground. Psi Wizard had broken away from the fighting to heal minor injuries for many people. He spotted Princess Undercut with a gash on her cheek, and he wasted no time healing it. His heart went into the act more than usual.

The red beam was reported in the military camp. No one knew who had fired it, but they knew that it bought everyone in the city a short reprieve from additional ships, however brief that it was, because the few ships that had exited the warp and were waiting their turn to attack were now watching warily from as far away as Earth’s moon.

New ships arrived from the warping train-of-sorts, and they threw insults at the ships that were hanging back for being good-for-nothing loafers. Then the news ships flew into position on the green speck of dust known as Earth, totally unaware of the fate that had befallen the last few ships.

All of this was known to one woman, now standing on a roof, because she had seen it many months ago. Ages ago. It was in the shadows, and now the events had come to light for all else to see. The woman looked down on the girl before her.

Did the woman feel pity for the girl? Fear?

Pixeletta turned to find a woman who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent.

“It’s you. You were at that mental health facility as we were leaving,” said Pixeletta.

The woman crossed the rooftop, taking her eyes off of her. “The seven who cast a shadow as brilliant as the greatest star, and the eighth not yet among them. All unaware of the choices and events that will shape them. Who else looks to the shadows for answers? Who else sees them? The greater the shadow, the greater the choices that will be made.”

“What does that even mean?”

“There is a great shadow over the whole city now.” She looked at Pixeletta again. “For your shadow, I see, and it saddens me. It shames me to know what can be. There is a shadow over us all, and yours is one of eight legs supporting the terrible fate that awaits us all. I am so sorry. Some choices are just more frightening than others, and these next six years will be difficult at best. You poor child, if you could only know.”

Pixeletta opened her mouth to respond, unsure what she could say to a thing like that. For one she wanted to ask the woman to speak normally, but then Mortar Mage’s voice came over the earpiece again.

“Princess Undercut! Pixeletta! If you’re both out there, meet me on top of the tallest tower in Paragon City. I have an idea for how to win, and almost nobody’s going to like it. I’ll be there in twenty minutes.”

The young heroine said to the mysterious woman, “You should probably get to somewhere safe right now. Do you need help getting there?”

“I will be fine,” said the woman, “perhaps most of us will be by the end of the day if you go now. Out there is at least one hero falling to the taste of death. Somewhere out there is a doctor deciding which patient will be the first to take his care, knowing full well that the other might die if he waits on them. Our choices, our ability to make them and discover the unknowable, all end at one point or another. And yours . . . Remember your choices and the impact they make.”

Her form sank into the shadow on the roof, and Pixeletta could see her no longer.

She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not.

When Pixeletta reached the roof of the highest skyscraper in Talos, no one else was there just yet, so she waited. However, it didn’t take long for her to hear the sound of a high pitched engine approaching.

Two of them, actually.

She turned in time to dodge shots from a couple of invaders floating around the tower, and Pixeletta ducked behind the first solid object she could.

“Oh, come on,” Pixeletta said. “Aliens in jetpacks? Are you serious?”

What was next? Alien invaders who shared superpowers? Their equivalents to Captain Patriot or Swan Diva? She wanted to ask as much, but Pixeletta knew she would only be jinxing it.

Pixeletta charged up her hands, and aimed first for the jetpacks when she had the chance. Her bolts struck in mere moments. One of the packs burst into flames, but both aliens fell when one alien collided with the other.

An arcane portal opened the next moment, and Pixeletta turned, ready to strike if it was an alien with magical powers. However, it was Mortar Mage. She put her hand down, the buzz from her power dissipating.

“Hi there, Pixeletta,” he said. “No sign of Princess Undercut yet?”

She shook her head.

“I guess we can wait a few more minutes for her. I’ve been jumping back and forth between fighting, grabbing intel, and processing the information since this battle started a couple hours ago.”

“It’s only been two hours?” Pixeletta asked.

Mortar Mage nodded. “Strange, though; I had heard reports of a pair of aliens flying around before I opened that portal. They were supposed to be in this area.”

“And what? You wanted a chat with them?”

“I’d have loved a peek at their jetpacks before someone destroyed them. What? Why are you shaking your head? A man needs his hobbies.”

“Hobbies, right. One of these days your hobbies are going to blow up the whole city.”

A moment later, Mortar said, “I hope my plan works. It hinges a lot on your ability to get inside their technology and understanding it enough.”

“Understanding it’s not a problem, actually. It all looks and feels like the same thing as within our own computers.”

“How did you find that out?”

“More than a third of the invaders are equipped with computerized suits or weapons.”

“Not just mechanical?”

“No, they’re each operated by computer systems. I’m only confused by one thing.”

“And what’s that?” Mortar asked.

“How or why are they not teleporting onto the rooftops?”

“Ah. I have absolutely no idea.”

They looked up at the few ships hovering over the city. One of them shot projectiles at the buildings’ sides and roofs. A number of fires were noticeable now.

Princess Undercut teleported in, and shook a fist. “Yuck, what a mess. Sorry I’m late. Traffic was murder.”

“I’m starting to think you spend too much time around Wyatt,” said Pixeletta.

“I agree, but fat chance if I’m gonna stop. So, Warren, what’s this plan of yours?”

Pixeletta and Princess Undercut had teleported from the rooftop to the nearest ship, and the next two after that. They needed time to do what they came here for. They crossed their fingers and hoped that the ships all belonged to all separate races of aliens.

Mortar’s explanation of the plan remained fresh in Pixeletta’s mind.

They came here following Tatiana’s signal, which I will gladly do something about once this is all over. It stands to reason they would know if she was suddenly aboard any number of the ships. The first step will be to test this theory.

Alarms sounded, as did a voice on the intercom that neither of them understood.

Pixeletta, how familiar are you with schoolyard drama, internet trolling, or the art of turning your enemies against themselves? Those ships up there should all be able to communicate with one another. I need you to do what you can to make the races angry enough at one another to start shooting at themselves.

“Come on,” said Pixeletta, “hopefully one of these consoles will be connected to some sort of mainframe or communications device.”

They traversed a few corridors quickly—Princess Undercut teleported the patrol to the second ship she was on, and came back presumably after bouncing around other ships not yet in the atmosphere—before finding a computer.

“Whew,” Princess Undercut said, “I’m going to need a moment to rest before I can teleport anywhere again, I think. I’ve done a lot today, and the last few jumps were pretty far.”

“Hopefully the patrols won’t keep up then. Wish me luck.”

Pixeletta submerged into the ship’s network. All around her, within her, she could hear alien voices shouting words beyond her comprehension. It would have been nice if she had some sort of codex.

Just then, she found a program that taught language basics for a handful of races. Two of the available languages were from Earth.

Japanese and Latin. Nobody spoke Latin anymore!

She skimmed through the information, comparing words coming and going with the ones bookmarked inside of the program, and suddenly the information was hers. All of it was. She expected her head to hurt from learning so much so quickly, but she didn’t have that to worry about while inside of a computer system. Now she had to test the languages against the alien invaders to be sure it was theirs.

[“The beacon is on your ship. Do not lie to us!”]

[“It is you who are lying, you malnourished pile of space slime. I can read the signal on your ship. And on yours! This is some sort of conspiracy.”]

[“Don’t be a fool.”]

[“I’ll tell you who the fool is.”]

The heroine looked through the programs for what other resources she could use now that she had confirmed at least two of the three languages. There was a voice modifier. And signal scrambler. Weapons access. Warping. Flush? What did that do?

[“Sir, all of our toilets appear to be operating at once.”]

That was unexpected.

Pixeletta took over the weapons and communications from there. She took a shot at one of the other ships, and shouted at another. [“What is this? Which one of you poor excuses for ass suckling thieves hacked us?”]

[“What? We are not saying this.”]

She made the alien say [“Yeah, come suck on my gun barrel.”]

One of the other aliens from the other ships said, [“Have you lost your mind? Ensign, prepare to fire on this fool with everything you got. Shoot his friends too if they come close.”]

Finally, I made this device for you to plant in the weapons drive and warp drive, and then start them both up, aimed for home. Theirs, I mean.

Pixeletta pulled out of the system and ran those few steps over to where her friend was waiting for her.

“We need to teleport to another ship,” she said. “Now.”

Princess Undercut said, “What, why?”

“This ship’s going to go boom before I can try to plant Mortar’s device.”

They teleported to another ship that was closer to the atmosphere. There, they looked out a window and saw two of the ships firing upon another. One shot hit the ship they were on at the moment, but the shake didn’t feel serious.

Deciding to look for another console, Pixeletta opened a door. One of the aliens screamed frantically from the far side of the room using the third language she had picked up.

[“They blew up our taco stand. Why?”]

Then she promptly closed the door, and chose another one.

“Let’s not go that way.”

I would first like you to try attaching the device to both systems in the form of a program. If that doesn’t work, then you’ll need to attach it physically to the main computer of the ship you’re using when you fire off both systems at once. Yes, this will be risky. There’s about a 38.647 percent chance of the ship instantly blowing up and tearing a hole in space and time. The risk is always greater when it’s something that isn’t my high suit.

Pixeletta took the canister-like device from inside her winter coat before submerging again. This time, it took no time at all to find the systems she sought after.

She focused on the device Mortar had given her. She visualized a program or computer virus instead of a fragment of her file extension. Then she transferred the device’s code to the warp drive and weapons drive.

“Shit,” said Princess Undercut. “Sweety, this ship has those walking slimes on it. Please hurry.”

Then Pixeletta activated both systems. They aimed for the same place the ships were all coming from. Everything rumbled all around her. It was time to go. She had pulled out and returned to Princess Undercut when a patrol of bipedal blobs spotted them, and they left when one alien was mid-swing in an attack.

The city watched as the ships tore one another apart and lifted out of the sky. The only people who could offer an explanation were saying nothing.

Not publicly, anyways.

“So, what was that device?” asked Pixeletta when the League met at the military camp outside Faultline.

Mortar said, “Call it a time bomb. I had to get help on it, since time magic isn’t my forte. Basically, it was designed to interact with both the fore side of the warp and the aft, and slow down everything that was in it on the course to Earth, spreading out their number over a much longer period of time.”

“Wait. Wouldn’t that mean the invasion isn’t over?”

The man raised a finger, probably trying to offer a brilliant explanation, but his words were failing him. “Ah, technically no, it’s not.”

“Mortar,” said everyone in the room.

“But, at the rate we’ve slowed them all down, the next ship won’t arrive for anywhere from the next week to three weeks. For the next few years, it will look like the three races will be invading us again and again, only to be batted out of the sky every time. Probably best if no one here tells anyone that.”

War Lagoon said, “This is why we leave the planning to Walter."

“I like it,” said Walter. "It adds a unique sort of haute couture to this city's tourism."

“And that is why we’re going to die.”

“What time is it?” asked Pixeletta.

“It’s a quarter after Noon. Why?”

Pause. “I need to go change and head back to school, assuming they weren’t let out over this whole thing. If I don’t I might be grounded or worse until the next ship arrives.”

Plus she had to pick up her things from class either way.

“Judy?”

“Yes, Denise?”

“I had to sit through two hours of folk music. I hate you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Did you at least have fun out there?”

“Depends. Would you call it fun to learn three alien languages in under a minute?”