In Earth’s orbit, the three members of the little girl’s team were crowded around the monitor for the scanner. Einstein read through the data on the screen, “Well, bad news is it’s definitely not a magical fish.”

Fred disagreed, that was fantastic news.

“However, the really good news is there is definitely some fish magic down there and it seems to be attached to a regular Earthling,” She looked up from the screen with an excited smile, “Guys, let’s go do an alien abduction!”

“Uhhh… I don’t think that’s a good idea. We don’t even know which fish cast the spell. What if it was Virus Fish and he set this earthling to explode plague everywhere when he panics? We should just send drones.” Fred asked, taking his role of responsible elder seriously.

“I think that’s a brilliant idea, Einstein!” Edison cut in, “I checked them out, Earthlings are weak! If you guys put on a battle suit, and I equip my strong arms, it’ll be a cinch!”

“Two things: First, we have to take a scanner down to the surface. There are too many Earthlings down there now. We can’t get an accurate read on which alien has the magic attached unless we go down there and use the scanners attached to the battle suits,” she held up a hand stopping Fred from speaking, guessing what he was going to suggest, “No, we are not going to waste our time attaching a scanner to a drone.”

“Secondly, someone needs to stay with the ship and coordinate things from up here. Direct us to the target and help us escape if things go sour, which they won’t.”

“That'll be me then,” said Fred.

“That’ll be Edison,” retorted Einstein, “As I said, we need the battle suits and Edison’s robotic parts make it hard for him to fit into one. Furthermore, I feel like facing some fish magic is a good first step to helping you overcome your ichthyophobia. As leader, it's my responsibility to fix any weaknesses in my team. And speaking about responsibility, you’re the oldest, so you’re responsible for protecting me.”

Despite her having already clearly thought things through and made up her mind, Fred and Edison both protested:

“We’re the same age!”

“That’s racist against Cyborgs!”

“Shut up both of you; I don’t care. Now suit up Fred, we’re flying down soon. Edison, you prepare an alien containment room and extraction drones. Do a good job and maybe I’ll even restore your space WiFi.”

“Aye Aye Ma'am!” Edison dropped all complaints at the mention of having his space WiFi restored.

However, Fred still had more in him, “It’s dangerous. If something were to happen to us then hiding out into space in the first place was meaningless.”

Einstein stopped what she was doing and turned seriously to Fred, “We shouldn’t be hiding at all, Fred! The Smarties are at war! We should be helping, but instead we were exiled because we’re “too young”! What’s the point of our intelligence if we don’t find a way to use it! If we can discover anything at all to help, with this glimmer of magic YOUR genius power found, then I say it's worth the risk!”

Fred opened and closed his mouth. Unable to find any words.

Einstein's voice softened, “I’m not mad at you Fred. I understand, you are the oldest, it’s your job to protect the team. You’re doing your job by worrying about our safety. But we can’t sit idly and let this opportunity pass us. I’ll tell you what we’ll do to put your mind at ease. I’ll bring the laser pistol and you can wear the strongest battle suit. Edison was right about Earthlings; they are weak. We won’t even have to use them, but they'll be there if we need them. OK?”

Fred couldn’t argue with her passion and resolve. She truly was a genius and a born leader, “OK, fine. We run if things go bad. Promise?”

“Deal. Now, we’ve got some science to do! Let’s go abduct an alien!!!”

Two buses and a truck, painted with animal faces, drove past the Chook’s Creek pub. Many of the patrons were already outside trying to catch a glimpse at the commotion going on outside of Wanda’s. Many eyes widened upon seeing the convoy, “Oy, it’s them circus idiots back for more! Grab the boys inside, fight’s brewing!”

Inside Wanda's place, Wanda sat at her table with a police officer telling her story, “They just came charging in here firing their weapons around my shop. I thought it was those horrible men from the circus again. But one of them definitely said,” There he is,” and pointed at that man,” she explained, pointing across the room to where Wally was being interviewed by another officer.

“Any idea who he is or why they’d be after him? We found no ID or anything on him.” the officer asked.

“His name is Wally or Tomas. It’s hard to explain. All I know is that he’s trouble and you should keep a close eye on him,” She replied.

“Uncuff meeeee!” Wally shouted from the far end of the room. His one hand was cuffed to the chair he squirmed on.

The police officer sighed. Wanda and the Chook’s Creek cricket team were like magnets for trouble. The police department was always on high alert for whenever a call came in from this location. The officer firmly believed that If the police didn’t come in full force within a few minutes every time, the town would have probably burned down long ago. Memories of tear-gassing circus clowns, cricket players, and trapeze artists only a few weeks ago were still fresh in his memory.

“Hold it until I’m done here, mate.” Wally’s policeman said.

"Look mate, I need to hang a slash something chronic. If I don't go right now, my bladder is gonna burst right out of me guts and into your face and you'll be the one forced to scrub up the pieces." Wally angrily explained.

The policeman scowled. He was about to reprimand Wally for his language, when another policeman interrupted, coming in through the broken front door, “Officers, we might need you outside, looks like trouble.”

“God, what now? Wait right here you two,” both officers excused themselves and left the room.

“OI! I’M SERIOUS! DON'T LEAVE ME HERE I GOTTA PEEEEEE!” Wally screamed at the officers' backs.

The church convoy pulled up just outside of the police lines and dozens of cultists armed with bats, clubs, and wooden swords got off the buses, lining up to face the police. Head priest Roy stepped out from the back of his truck. Before joining his cultists, he first turned to address the Matriarch inside, “Wait here, I will retrieve Tomas and bring him to you shortly.”

The Matriarch growled and locked eyes with Roy. She did not like being told what to do.

Roy realised his mistake and stammered, “I-I-I apologise, Matriarch. I didn’t mean to... What I meant was, that I believe it best we reveal you to the world when you are at your most glorious and powerful. That is why I suggest you wait here until after I’ve retrieved Tomas. Again, I am sorry for my careless words.”

The Matriarch huffed and laid her head back down.

Roy wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead, “Wonderful, I will be back shortly,” He closed the truck behind him and started walking over to his lined-up cultists. The police were starting to line up as well, looking concerned.

Roy only made a few steps before a voice behind him drew his attention, “OI YOU!” He turned to see a large group of men and women wearing matching uniforms exiting the pub behind them. They all held cricket bats or hard cricket balls, "COME BACK FOR MORE HAVE YA?!"

Roy’s face flushed in anger. The man had called him “you”, but he didn’t have time for this, “I have no business with you commoners, I’m here for the person in that building. Begone!”

"HUH, WHASSAT?!" a man in the crowd turned his head so that his other ear was facing Roy, "WHAT DID YOU SAY?!?”

“He said he was after Wanda!” another person shouted.

A cricket ball hit one of the buses and shattered its window. Most of the cultists turned around to see what the commotion was.

A scowl of murder filled Roy’s face. He pointed at the man who had called out, “Who do you think YOU are?!” He pointed to the bus window, “YOU just broke church property!”

The hard-of-hearing man’s face twisted in fury too, “HE SAY CIRCUS PROPERTY?! I KNEW IT WAS THEM GREEDY CIRCUS BUGGERS BACK AGAIN! LET’S GET ‘EM BOYS!!!" He screamed.

Another cricket ball flew and hit one of the church members in the chest. This was the starting pistol for both sides. The line of cultists and the Chook's Creek cricket club each ran towards each other simultaneously like ancient soldiers charging into battle. Their forces clashed in the middle of the street and chaos began.

One cultist shoved over a cricket player and raised his weapon to finish the job, only to be hit in the stomach by a wild swing from another man. A few steps away, a different fighter held her club in both hands, spinning around, hitting anyone who came close until someone ran over, jumped and kicked her square in the back with both feet. She was sent falling forwards into another cultist. There were screams of rage, screams of pain, and screams of confusion all through the pandemonium.

The onlooking police force gave each other a “not again” look, before charging into the fray to break it up. This did nothing to calm the mayhem. Neither group respected the law and so a two-way brawl quickly became a three-way brawl. One officer kicked away the cultist who was grabbing at his nightstick, he turned and pulled a cricket player off of another officer. As he was doing so a cultist leapt through the air and punched him in the face. The officer shook his head to dispel the stars spinning in his vision and find the guy who punched him. However, his attacker was already somewhere else fighting off a cricket player who had grabbed him from behind and bit into his arm.

This was when the aliens arrived.

A flying saucer the size of a house whizzed down from the sky and slowed to a hover about 15 metres off the battlefield. A ramp opened from the bottom. On it stood two aliens covered head to toe in shiny white battlesuits that looked like motorcycle racing outfits with robot parts and flashing lights. The crowd below was too occupied to look up and notice them.

"That's a lot more natives gathered than when we were in orbit. And they look all riled up. I'm feeling less enthusiastic about this every second," Fred whined.

"Hahaha, you were never enthusiastic. I think this is gonna be awesome. Nothing has changed: twenty aliens, one hundred aliens, it's still the same. They’ll flee in fear when they see us and we get to chase them down until we find which one has magic on it. Remember, they’re weak. Try not to kill any," Einstein bounced from one foot to the other. She pressed a button on her arm to open communication with Edison inside the ship, "We're heading down, Edison. Keep track on the computer and be ready to launch the retrieval drones once we catch the alien. Got it?"

"Yes, Captain!" Came Edison's enthusiastic reply.

Einstein grabbed Fred by the hand. He stopped staring down at the crowd and paid attention to her, "Try not to land on a native,” She laughed, “Ready? We jump in 3,2,1, let's goooo!" She leapt off the ramp, pulling Fred behind her.

STEP 7: TURN ON SPACE WIFI

Edison’s smarty phone beeped.

Air rushed past Fred and Einstein as they fell to earth. They hit the ground with an enormous ‘bang’ cracking the asphalt underneath their landing zones. Their suits and the street took the shock of the fall. Einstein stood up straight and pressed a few buttons on her suit, “Ok scanner is on and we didn’t land on anyone!” She relayed to her team, then turning to the riled-up crowd of natives she said loudly, “OOooOOoooOo We come from another planet! OOooOOoOOO! Flee for your lives!” A cricket ball hit her in the side of the helmet, bouncing off onto the road, “Hey what the hell!” she barked.

While Fred was watching the ball roll away after bouncing off Einstein. Someone then ran up behind him and hit him in the back with a large club. He stumbled forward a few steps. As his attacker rushed over with a follow-up swing, Fred ducked under the club and countered with a heavy punch to the Earthling’s stomach, sending him flying, “Einstein, they’re not fleeing!” he shouted, noticing several more approach.

He turned to check on his leader to see her already in the thick of combat with several Earthlings. He rushed to help her, only to have his path blocked by a golf club-wielding Earthling, “Get out of my way!” Fred screamed, picking the Earthling up and throwing it into another. He took two more steps forward before kicking another man in the chest. He received a blow from a wooden sword in the back of the knee as he kicked and nearly fell over. Only his heavy-duty battle suit’s heavy dutiness kept him standing. He backhanded at the one who had hit him, missing completely, ”Arrrggg!”

In the ship, Edison was watching a “top 10 things you didn’t know about your favourite celebrity” video.

Fred had lost sight of Einstein in the chaos but he could still hear her over the suit's communicator, “Einstein! Are you ok? I can’t see you. Raarh!” He finished his sentence by punching an Earthling.

“Yahoo! Take that! Haha, Oh Fred? I was just about to contact you, HIYAAAA!, I can’t reach Edison for some reason, OOPH YOU SON OF A… GET BACK HERE! I'll gut him later but for now let’s just clear out this crowd and do what we came here to do, ORYAAAAA! The magic Earthling must be close.”

Fred spun an Earthling around and flung him away, “I’m going to turn the suit up to full power. This is dangerous!” He said.

“What?! Don’t you dare! You’ll end up killing the target. Just have fun. Imagine that they are all magical fish. EINSTEIN PUNCH! Seriously Fred, there's nothing dangerous at all here! Hahaha.” Einstein laughed with unrestrained glee.

As usual, she had a point. Fred realised he had not really been in danger so far despite how many Earthlings were attacking him, “Alright, nothing dangerous, let’s have fun!” He smiled, smashing his fists together.

Nearby, the back of a truck slid open and yellow eyes looked out sinisterly from within.