Head priest Roy sat in the back of a moving truck feeling worried. He had not heard back from the team in Chook's Creek yet. They were on their way now with two buses full of cultists. It was past time for the team to report back. He desperately wanted to call them, but he couldn't while in the truck. He didn't want to let the Matriarch know that there might be a problem.

She sat now in front of him, resting on her stomach like a wolf. She still needed to rest for recovery. Patches of black fur and red unhealed flesh wounds stood out against her blue and silver fur. Her breath was uneven and wheezy.

She should have been overflowing with power right now. Damn that Tomas. Consuming a chosen pup always brought about a Golden era of the church. Roy had been really looking forward to it. Roy had not even been born the last time one had occurred. Perhaps it had been so long that the lightning had hit her in an already weakened state Roy. Once Tomas was eaten and the Matriarch back to full health. Roy vowed offer to provide her with pup after pup until she was truly indestructible. If she'd have him.

Roy shuddered to think of the consequences if Tomas had escaped again or worse, been killed. That's why he had ordered his cultists stationed in Chook's Creek to proactively capture Tomas using tranquillisers. Now he was worried his haste was a fatal miscalculation

His phone rang. It was McDonald, the scout who had rang him earlier. The Matriarch's ear perked up and listened as Roy answered.

"Please tell me you have him!" He hissed into the phone.

"Sorry head priest, I don't. There's been some complications.'' McDonald answered.

Roy glanced at the Matriarch nervously. "Elaborate" was all he said.

"Well, I was on lookout when the team went in and I heard a bunch of shots from the tranq guns you told us to use and then there was silence for about 10 minutes and then a bunch of Police vans and ambulance's showed up just now." McDonald summed up everything in one breath.

Roy looked up and saw the Matriarch had raised her head and was looking straight at him with her bright yellow eyes. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face.

"Tomas is still there, right? He hasn't left?" Roy kept his voice toned as positively as he could.

Roy startled when the Matriarch growled menacingly.

"Yeah, he's still here. I can see him sitting in the back of one of the ambulance's now getting looked at by a paramedic."

"Good! We are only 5 minutes away now. You are to ensure that he doesn't leave before we get there. Just keep him there and I'll come take care of the rest!"

"But sir, there's like every cop in the area here. Like 20 or 30 of them. How are you gonna grab him in the middle of this?"

Roy looked up at the Matriarch again. She was now standing on all fours bristling.

"I highly doubt they will be a problem," Roy said, smiling wide.

In orbit.

"Well, the bad news is that it isn't a fish."

Fred disagreed with Edison, that was fantastic news.

"Good news is that there definitely is something with fishy energy down there. It's attached to one of the primitive creatures that inhabit this planet. You know what that means? We get to go abducting!" Cheered Edison.

Einstein's face lit up, "An alien abduction!?" She stamped her little child feet in excitement. "I've always wanted to do one of those! We even have those sweet battle suits oh my science this is perfect! Let's suit up Edison!"

"We're going down there in person?" Fred asked.

"Of course! 'old-school' style!" Said Einstein.

"Old school!" Edison whooped.

"Oh, but um, you should actually stay here Fred. We gotta be careful not to damage the 'fishy' thing. You should stay here and guard the ship for us. Oh! And can you attach a bunch of stunners to a bunch of the repair drones and send them after us to zap anything that chases us. Do you know how?"

"Yes, I am a machinery expe..."

"On second thought, never mind. We'll get the A.I. to do it. You just chill and guard the ship. Computer do the drone thing I just said."

'AFFIRMATIVE'

"Let's go Edison!"

"Alien abduction! Alien abduction!"

They ran off (slowly because of Einstein's short legs) chanting together.

A couple of fellas were out the front of Chooks Creek pub having a smoke. They chatted loudly as they were all hard of hearing. From out of town a couple of buses and a truck all in silver and blue drove in and passed the pub. The people inside all wore uniforms of the same colour and glared out the windows with hostility. The natural conclusion that any Chook’s Creek resident was that this was a rival cricket team, come to cause trouble. Cricket was taken extremely seriously in this area. They rushed inside to let the boys know.

The police were awfully suspicious of Wally. He was clearly inebriated, he had no ID, and he was clearly lying about what happened. His claims that he beat the home invaders half to death with a coat hanger was frankly ludicrous.

The home invaders were another giant question mark. They had the look of some kind of private militia. They wore matching uniforms and carried illegal weapons. No one knew who they were and they were all too badly hurt to explain themselves.

Wally was feeling very uncomfortable. The wine Tomas had drunk earlier had finally passed through his system and was now making itself Wally's problem.

"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 my guts and into your face and you'll be the one forced to pick up the pieces." Wally gently explained to the police officer.

The officer winced and replied, "Jeez, There's no need for that language. Alright, an officer will accompany you to the restrooms and when you come back we can go over it again. Tell us what really happened then ok"

"Yeah, alright, he can grab it and aim for me. Let's go!" He got up to rush inside Madame Wanda's to find the bathroom. He passed Madame Wanda who was sitting with an officer at the table. Poor Tomas' soul still sat in the centre in the jar.

As Wally went about his business inside, there was a commotion outside. The church buses and trucks had pulled up and dozens of cultists got out. Roy hopped down from the back of the truck dressed in battle robes. He turned back to the truck.

"Please wait here for now, Matriarch. You should rest, unless necessary. I will get Tomas and bring him back to you." Roy explained.

From inside the truck the Matriarch huffed her ascension and lay down to wait in rest.

"Wonderful! I will return shortly!" Beamed Roy and closed the back of the truck behind him. He turned to his congregation and spoke. "We have come to return a heretical deserter to the Matriarch. We must show the Matriarch that she can rely on us as we rely on her. Be prepared to use any means necessary." He could see that most were already armed with bats and batons.

They turned towards the police who were lining up, looking confused. Roy took a step forward.

"OY YOU!" A voice from behind shouted.

Roy turned to see a large group of men and women wearing matching uniforms. Most held cricket bats or hard cricket balls.

"COME TO START SOME SOMETHING HAVE YA?!"

A cricket ball hit the bus and shattered the window.

The cultists look angry. Roy frowned and addressed the crowd of cricketers. "Dear sirs and madams there seems to be some kind of misunderstanding. We are the church of the wolf and we have not come not come to cause any troubles for you and yours. No, our true purpose in your fine town is to rescue our dear friend who has fallen ill mentally and is now a danger to himself and others. I beseech you good people of Chook's Creek, let us calm our tempers and discuss this misunderstanding like mature and reasonable adults."

"HUH?!"

"WHASSAT?!"

"WHAT DID HE SAY?!? DID YOU JUST CALL US MENTALLY ILL?!" Was the reply Roy got.

Another cricket ball flew and hit one of the church members in the chest. This was the go signal. The church and the Chook's Creek cricket club charged simultaneously like ancient soldiers into battle. Their battle lines clashed and the chaos began. One Cultist pushed over a local and raised his baton to finish the job, only to be hit in the stomach by a cricket bat. There were screams of rage, screams of rage, and screams or confusion could be heard all through the street.

The onlooking police force were needless to say, caught off guard. All of a sudden, there was a large brawl going on right in front of them. They had a duty to break it up and so, charged into the fray. This was the wrong thing to do. Neither group much cared for the police 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 another player leapt through the air and punched him in the face. The officer was stunned but recovered quickly. His attacker was already fighting off a cultist who had grabbed him from behind and bit into his arm.

This is when the aliens arrived.

Einstein and Edison swooped down in their battle suits and landed directly in the centre of the ongoing battle.

"Nononono!" screamed Einstein, wishing she programmed the ability for the AI to change her custom battle suit's landing zone. When she had inputted the original landing zone it was the quietest and emptiest part of town. That had changed dramatically since she put one her Battle suit and flown down from orbit.

As she landed, some people were down. Edison landed nearby. She turned towards him and was hit in the back by a blunt object. She spun back to her attacker and zapped him with her stun fist. The man got knocked back but sat up soon after and shook his head. 'Dangit, I set the setting too gently.' she thought. There was the suit's ultra lethal mode available still but didn't wish to slaughter the locals just yet.

She messaged Edison through radio, "Edison, refrain from switching to ultra lethal mode. This complication changes nothing. We are going to retrieve the fishy individual unharmed. The stun drones will arrive shortly."

"Understood, ma'am. Let's have some fun!" The ever confident Edison replied. Edison was already fighting off several attackers. He was confident that the battle suits would protect him. Unfortunately, because they were specifically designed to withstand attacks From monstrous fish wielding the powers of reality, they were surprisingly weak against blunt weapons wielded by savages. The battery packs drained quickly to maintain the self repair function. An important detail that Edison missed as he was having entirely too much fun brawling.

He threw a savage in black into a savage in green. Two savages in blue and silver hit him from behind with their savage clubs. He spun and knocked them away. He faced a new savage in black who was hit from behind by a savage in blue. Edison swung his fist to stun the new savage and turned to find more foes.

Much the same was happening with Einstein at first but she was not enjoying it as much. She hit one savage for every three hits she received. She had noticed the battery drain and was deeply concerned. She reserved 10% of her battery for emergencies and fought on.

The back of the church's truck opened. Out stepped the hulking figure of the Matriarch. She surveyed the chaotic battlefield in front of her. Growling menacingly, she stepped down from the truck and entered the chaos.

From Wanda's house Wally and Wanda peaked out from behind the door.

"Wonder what that's all about?" asked Wally.