2.15.1

Reckless Endangerment

A crystalline blonde that shimmered in the sun charged to where Astrid now fought to untangle the teenaged boy.

The dark-armored operative that held him withdrew yet another pulsar, and Astrid involuntarily flinched. Still, she kicked at the device with the fury of a woman unwilling to endure such torture again.

Her boot landed on a wrist, and the man, with a cry of pain, relinquished his hold on both the stick, and the boy in his custody.

But instead of fleeing, the young man, pale under his hood, resisted the blonde girl that now tugged to pull him away.

“I’m going.”

He didn’t shout or scream. Not like she did at his declaration.

“Menloh! You can’t!” The girl clasped her hands around his wrist to stay him, but he resolutely shook her loose.

“Some got away, Celeste. They have our kids. There’s only one way to protect them now.”

In awe, both Astrid and the girl, Celeste, stared after him.

Peridot eyes stared into the specialist’s face, as though he meant to thank her for her help. But nevertheless, the young man turned and headed for the nearest empty pod. He climbed aboard of his own volition, sat himself upon one of the tiny benches, and waited to be claimed.

Celeste went to him, presumably to argue, but Astrid turned to yet another problem.

Three pods remained. Too few.

One closed shut on a packed bench of shaking, sweaty kids, some unconscious, with two S.O fighters. It launched, and alarmed, Astrid tried the only thing she could think of.

She raced beneath its shadow, and with a mighty heave, she reached for the energy of the jets that propelled it upward. She focused only on the jets, careful to feel only them and not the life signs above, then pulled.

The blaring lights dimmed, but she never before tried to drain something so large.

She felt a strain, as though she tried to lift a barbell several kilos over her limit, but its trajectory slowed all the same.

She gnashed her teeth and willed the energy to gather for her. To answer the call of her core, and her gut, to come to her command.

It fought. The power of the jets warred with the physics of a Channeler’s pull. The pod trembled. From inside the tube, muffled voices screamed.

She managed to stall the pod, as though frozen in the air, but she couldn’t take more. She couldn’t force it down. It hung there, against her pull, and burned fuel in its constant attempt to climb. And worse, the energy she drained needed to be expelled like any other. Channeled, not stored.

At Astrid’s left, the second pod prepared to take off. At its door, Riley and Dell scrabbled desperately to keep the S.O. inside from closing the door.

Someone inside gripped at Riley’s wrist and tried to haul her in, too, but Dell lashed his own long fingers to yank her back.

To the right, the third pod also prepared for takeoff. Opposition dove inside before the vessel ejected without them. Within, Menloh still sat, his face set with grim resignation.

Above, Astrid still strained against the first. She could do nothing for the others while it summoned all of her power and focus. Simply looking away waned her hold, and the pod inched ever upward.

Then, a gunshot at her left whipped her head around. The discharge of one of the energy weapons cut a horrid path through the air.

In a horrifying visage, Riley’s body flew away from the vessel with which she fought.

The pod that strained under Astrid’s tension lifted further from her grasp. For the energy sensation that could not be ignored now came from another direction.

Astrid worried before what might happen if a Channeler were struck with one of the specially designed weapons. Why the arms remained so favorable in the S.O.’s eyes when a trained Channeler like herself could potentially deflect them.

She managed to avoid seeing their “value” herself. But now, the truth of their purpose burned from her left.

For Riley’s signature, a recycling well as any of Astrid’s energy-kin, reverberated with the shot. But unlike with the Statics, whose vitality wafted peacefully back into the universe when they died, Riley’s did not.

The moment the shot took her, Astrid felt an unspeakable sensation that took root in Riley’s core. The teen’s life energy shook, tightened, and compressed under the immense power forced within her.

Then it exploded.

Riley’s body remained intact, and perhaps the Statics couldn’t sense it. But Astrid’s skin broke out in goosebumps and bristled hair. For Riley’s life—everything she was, burst in a violent, invisible eruption.

Not the gentle drift of Static death. A complete annihilation that scattered waves of energy apart, no matter where on the Channeler the hit landed. Instantaneous and utterly absolute.

Perturbed to her sickened stomach at what she felt, the pod under her control finally broke the limited distance of her control.

Whether she could have stopped it might’ve been debatable. But the second pod, having given up on the Channeler girl now dead in the courtyard, closed its door, but could yet be halted.

And Astrid, her body alight with everything she’d taken from the vessel now boarded above, unleashed it all in a cone over the second pod.

In all her horrified rage, she funneled every ounce of power stolen from the jets. Far more than she anticipated herself capable of channeling. The burst flashed, broader and taller. Empowered by her new strength, and wild in the wake of desperation instilled in her, it splayed outside her control.

And Dell sailed through the air, caught in the blast.

The jets to Astrid’s target fried, overcharged and useless, before they could even make it off the ground. But its inhabitants stay locked inside. Perhaps confused, but too timid to disembark or inspect what happened.

In the few seconds Astrid stood, aghast over Dell’s still form sprawled over the concrete. The S.O., too, noticed themselves one captive down. From Menloh’s pod, one of the operatives screamed to his allies.

“We lost one! Grab the girl!”

A squealing cry followed, and the pale blonde, Menloh’s friend, struggled under wrangling hands.

The Aldebaran’s crew split. Romo and Astrid both ran to Dell. Tenya fought with the abandoned brunette fighter Astrid punched, who still scrambled to find a place in the last pod. And Anders did his best to fight the last operatives that fled. But the vessel pulled away before he could plot a shot that wouldn’t risk Celeste.

Her and Menloh’s pod rose into the gaping maw of the S.O.’s ship hold. And the Opposition ceased to wait for the others.

Anders alerted the Aldebaran through the comm that the ship retreated, but they, too, could do nothing against children aboard. Neither could London order pursuit without abandoning his task force, which included the entirety of the ground team.

One pod remained on the ground, abandoned. Tenya and Anders clambered at the door. When it finally popped open, what few children loaded inside made a break for it while the agents within fought the soldiers to the last man.

Astrid, however, could see none of it.

For she found herself on her knees on the concrete, with Dell’s head cradled in a gloved hand.

“Dell?! Dell!” She shouted to his closed eyes. Coastal wind swept his hair. She patted his face but even that did not stir him.