Part 39. First Contact

Arnie was shaking by the time she reached the rooftop. Not from the chill wind that swept across the city centre, but from the realisation of what she was doing. Her power was in finding routes, and running. But somehow when she'd heard the glass shatter, and the chorus of screams, she had known that she couldn't hide today. She'd run straight to the rooftops to see what was happening, and hadn't found a locked door in her way. So she knew before she arrived that the monster was close. Only the hand of the Enemy would bring back powers that she'd barely scratched the surface of in her normal life.


It reared over the buildings, something like an eight-legged horse and something like an outsized lizard, its skin decorated with letters from a dozen alphabets cast in bronze. It was an image the terrified people would never forget, even if the news reports never quite managed to catch a picture. The problem was deciding what she could do about it. She'd already found that she could move faster than the thing could strike, leaping from one surface to another. On the way over here she'd managed to distract its attention long enough for one group of screaming shoppers to escape. But all the agility in the world didn't mean anything if she couldn't hurt the enemy. Perhaps she could lead it away from the city before there were any more casualties, but that would be testing her powers to the limit.


"You can't do this on your own," Amber called from behind her. "Take this."


A broadsword. She didn't even want to think where the little girl had managed to find a weapon in the middle of a busy shopping centre. But it only took a moment to remember that Amber had the power of creation. If she needed something she could make it, and it only made sense that the crisis would have boosted her powers as well.


Arnie took the blade, not even sure she'd be able to use it. But she felt the power as soon as she held it. She had to believe that this could at least hurt the demon, if she could work out how to use it. But the monster seemed to be homing in on them, getting closer every minute. So she leapt into the air again, seeing a path between the winds that would carry her right across a street packed with motorists fleeing the terror. Clawed hooves swung through the air around her, but she could always see the direction to move so that they didn't hit her. When she ended up standing on the back of the creature's claws, there was something that seemed oddly familiar; like she'd used the same move before. It must be something from her past life, she thought, and then put it out of her mind until she could check with Mel later.


She swung the sword down, and was rewarded by a reptilian scream of pain. Now she knew that she could hurt it, and if she could find a space without so many people in, she would be able to lead it away from the crowds for the fight. But right now there didn't seem to be anywhere to go that wasn't surrounded by vulnerable crowds. So she let herself land on another rooftop, where a tower clock seemed like it might be solid enough to give her some shelter. The monster turned towards her somewhat awkwardly, clearly a body not built for confined spaces. With so many legs, it could probably catch anyone in an open field, but had trouble turning on the spot without tripping over itself.


"Violet!" she spoke softly, but was shouting inside her own mind, "Does this thing sense our souls? Can you pull us out of here like the one at Amber's school?" She didn't have time to wait for a response, though. The creature was already lashing out towards her, but it turned out that the ancient iron in the clock's mechanism could withstand its blows better than the fragile concrete and faux-stone that made up most of the shops around here. While the thing was trying to tear its claws free of the metal, Arnie ran up onto its leg and did her best to keep her footing, dragging the tip of the sword through the thing's scales the whole way.


The monster screamed and thrashed around, trying to reach towards her. Arnie knew she was pushing herself to the limit, but she had to hope that the fatigue would take a little longer to bring her down. Her muscles already felt like useless lumps of lead, but she wouldn't let herself stop until the people around here were safe. She managed to reach the back of the thing's neck, and put her whole weight onto the sword. It sank into the creature's flesh, but then she had to jump clear as a double-jointed claw managed to reach her position. Without the sword, there was little she could do except hope that she'd hurt it enough.


* * *


On the rooftop, Monica's eyes were wide as she saw a high school girl leaping between buildings like some kind of superhero, and saw the flashes of pink light every time she struck at the monster. It was the first time she'd seen one of these things, and she could instantly understand what people had said about it being so terrifying that you couldn't remember the details. But now there was somebody fighting it, and she could maybe use that to give herself a little reassurance. Enough, at least, to keep moving forward.


Mel had screamed at her to leave, but she hadn't been able to leave Amber in there. And with his own niece to take care of, she couldn't blame him for taking the exit. She'd thought she could just grab Amber and follow him, and the line scored in the ground by the weight of that sword meant it wasn't hard to follow her. It was hard to believe Amber could even carry it, and that was before Monica started wondering where her daughter had picked the thing up. There were too many details here that just didn't make sense, and she couldn't keep her mind on any of them for long enough.


She didn't need to understand right now, and that was the thought that kept her going. Her daughter was out there on the rooftop, trying to help a foolhardy teen who thought she could take on a monster. Admittedly, the teen seemed to be doing surprisingly well, but that still didn't mean this was a safe place for a little girl. And Monica knew that her most important duty as a mother was to keep Amber safe. It was the single thread of sanity holding her mind together in this chaos, and she just couldn't give up.


There she was. Amber was sitting amid a pile of boxes, wooden struts, piles of bricks, and a length of ducting from the air conditioning. The detritus from a corner the monster had knocked off an adjoining building, and Amber was using it like some kind of construction toy. She didn't seem to realise the danger she was in, as she pulled one piece after another together.


The monster's roars had almost a physical force, and Monica had to fight against waves of pressure as she made her way across the rooftops. She tried to shout to Amber, but she could only squeak in terror. And still that other girl leapt through the air in front of the thing's misshapen head, drawing its attention as it turned around and around. It could have been moving more slowly now, it wasn't easy to tell, but then the superhero was falling to the ground. Even those impossible moves hadn't been good enough. It was a sign that the whole world was doomed, but Monica only had eyes on her daughter, so perilously close to a monster that armies around the world had failed to fight.


And then Amber was standing, sighting along a piece of metal. She gripped pieces of metal and fragments of timber, and they seemed to just clip together like a model plane, like they'd been designed to fit. And the piles around the girl had a clear shape now; a skeletal frame, metal twisted into a spring, a crossbar, and a counterweight. Amber pulled at some piece with all her strength, and the exertion was visible on her face. The catapult leapt into the air and disintegrated as all the tension in its frame was released at once, but a girder six feet long leapt towards the monster's chest as it reared up. There was a shriek and a thunderclap, and the scene was lit by green light for a moment.


Amber smiled in triumph before she collapsed, and her Mom ran closer just in time to catch her.

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