A Piece of the Pie (Chapters 53-55)

Chapter 53 – Bring Them

A collection of shapeshifters gathered on the plateau around Noruav's corpse.

Rodm was not happy about this, but Noruav was about to kill the Earthling outside the mountain. He needed to die within the sacred grounds in order to nullify the barrier protecting the blasted rock – and there would have been only three others here if Noruav had killed this one.

Yes, of course one of those would do, but Noruav's life was not worth cutting their chances by a quarter, and this was the first time humans from that damn planet have been in this dimension since the rock was first formed.

Rodm still could not fathom how a loose cannon like Noruav ended up running the initial assault in the first place.

"Now what do we do?" the largest of the shapeshifters kicked at the ground angrily.

"We bring him back," Rodm replied evenly, "someone will find them on the ship, and hopefully have more sense than this idiot and bring him back here."

Rodm kicked at one of Noruav's limp arms.

"All your plans have been such a waste, why don't we just assault Earth directly?" a second shapeshifter turned on Rodm, roughing him with armoured fists.

Rodm drew his gun and held it against the man's forehead. The other shapeshifters pulled out their own weapons and snarled at the humanoid.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Rodm maintained his calm, "you know as well as I that we cannot just pass through to Earth."

He lowered his weapon, but the others did not.

"Why shouldn't we just kill you?"

"Because you need me."

"Why? You seem to be fine with going around taking out your friends."

"They are expendable. I am not," Rodm's eyes glinted a sickly shade.

"Enough of this shit, what is your plan?" a smaller shapeshifter took the lead in the discussion.

The others lowered their weapons and the tension in the air settled down somewhat.

"There are four Earth humans on this planet right now," Rodm explained, "we just need to bring one of them back here. Everyone else can be annihilated wherever and however you feel like."

Chapter 54 – Stowaways

For the moment, Strad and I could take a breather. Lying on the cold floor I tried to take in my surroundings. It was somewhat brighter in here, lights flashed and machines whirred around us.

Strad was first to come to the obvious conclusion that we weren't the only ones on this ship. I followed him, walking softly across the metal floor and drawing my sword as the king stealthily moved to the doorway leading further into the ship.

I assumed these shifters were on course to Luno Versa for the assault. Along with whoever else is working with them – we now might have other, possibly more dangerous enemies to fight.

I nearly lost my footing as the ship suddenly accelerated with a great burst.

"It won't take us long to reach the city," Strad whispered in my ear, "one less shifter transport means a few less shifters attacking Luno Versa."

He grinned and pulled what looked like a small grey brick out of his pack, "this is a little treat James picked up while he was visiting your planet. Now, there's got to be some parachutes on board somewhere..."

"How did he get a hold –" I was about to ask how James got a hold of that sort of explosive on Earth when we heard heavy footfalls fast approaching the doorway.

Strad pressed himself out of sight against the wall before the shifter came through. As the armoured being turned his gun on me, Strad took the opportunity to deftly apply a hard kick to the chest. The shifter dropped their gun and crashed against the back wall, likely with a few broken ribs.

"Let's move!" Strad whisper-yelled.

I chased after Strad down the corridor. We came to a small storage room, shuffling quickly inside as we heard soldiers rounding the corner up ahead.

"Stroke of luck! Parachutes!" Strad whispered excitedly, pulling two backpacks out of a locker cage, "hope these work. You ever use one before?"

"Uh, no..."

"No worries. Just jump and pull the string. Feel free to close your eyes and scream," Strad slapped his grey brick to the outside of the cage with a flourish and pressed a number of buttons on it. An LED on its surface began to slowly blink green, and the C4 hummed.

"Hope ten minutes is enough..."

I think he's having a little bit too much fun.

"What are you doing here?" Three un-armoured men dressed in robes like Noruav and Weed-Whacker Face had just shoved their way through the door and pointed their guns at our heads.

"Shit," Strad said.

"It's the Earth punk. Take him. Kill the Versanian," the middle one ordered.

As the biggest of the men approached me, I whipped out my short sword like a gunslinger and ran it into his right bicep. He let out a howl of pain and loosened his grip on the energy gun long enough for me to grab hold of it.

"Alright, nobody move!' I shouted, waving the gun around like a very convincing psychopath.

The other two turned their blasters exclusively on me – just as I was hoping not to get into a gun fight on a spaceship.

The first man still looked at me with surprise, which quickly turned into a look of unconsciousness as Strad slugged all three in one swift motion. We hopped over the limp forms and backed out into the hallway, tightening the parachutes to our backs.

"Fairly impressive my young friend."

"Yeah, I just kinda panicked," I shrugged.

Strad drew out a blaster and I was still carrying my stolen weapon – which was a good thing too because four shifters rounded the corner up ahead.

We avoided them for the time being by turning down another hall and into another room. Closing and locking the door behind me, Strad and I stopped for a moment, breathing heavily – until we heard the sound of energy weapons being charged up.

"Oh come on!" Strad whispered in disbelief.

A tinny voice came over the PA system.

"This is your captain speaking, we are approaching the city of Luno Versa. Proceed to exit zones, and prepare for world domination."

That last part was said with a hint of a snicker.

Still running on instinct and adrenaline, much less logic and strategy, I turned my weapon on the nearest wall. There was a loud explosion, and then came the rushing sound of the wind outside.

"Nice thinking Dim, we are a little short on time," Strad said as he dragged us both to the opening and flung us out into the open air.

This was a bit of a shock to the system – the rushing air was freezing!

A muffled "YEEAAHHH!" was about the only thing I could hear from Strad, and when I looked at him he appeared to be laughing and pumping his fist through the air.

It was pretty incredible.

I always wanted to go skydiving, but have to admit I've been a lot scared. Between the danger and adrenaline, this forced me to do it.

I took a look upwards and saw the ship we abandoned mere seconds ago growing smaller as we sped away from it.

Another second later it exploded into millions of pieces, and a split second after that came the sound of what – had we been any closer – would have been a literally deafening explosion.

I turned my attention back to the ground – mainly to check how quickly it was approaching. We dropped through a gathering of thick dark clouds, and upon exiting these I was disturbed by what I saw.

Below us towers of flame rose into the sky, and even from this height I could hear screams and the rattling of gunfire. A solemn look replaced the expression on Strad's face as he narrowed his body like a diver and I attempted to do the same.

We focused on reaching the city – and our friends.

I always wanted to go skydiving – I never planned on it being into a battlefield.

Chapter 55 – It Can't Happen Like This...

I ripped the cord a couple hundred metres from the ground. Our chutes released and we decelerated with such amazing speed and force that I thought we hit the ground before we really did.

I was fairly relieved this wasn't the case and my bones were still intact as we continued our descent, trying to zero in on town square where a large number of shifters were pinning down our people – luckily they hadn't taken notice of us yet.

About 20 metres from the ground, Strad pulled out his sword, cutting the strings to his chute and free-falling the rest of the way. Awestruck, I watched him land on his feet, cracking the cobblestone a little, but himself unwavering.

This provided an adequate surprise to stop the shapeshifters' relentless assault just long enough that the small group of Versanians gathered behind the fountain were able to spring from cover blasting.

As the shifters turned to face their worst nightmare – I am assuming with their drawers damp – Strad sent one of them into the wall of the closest building with a wide swing of his arm.

Man that dude is awesome.

A little bit distracted, I had allowed my parachute to catch on the edge of an upper apartment balcony, subsequently ripping it in two. I bounced off an awning below and into the street.

I jumped up, shook it off, and drew as many swords as I could hold. A little less badass than Strad – but I'll work on my entrance technique.

By the time I was ready to join the battle, Strad and the others had already dealt with the problem at hand. The Versanians shouted their thanks and welcomed back the returned king, then hustled off to more fighting.

Strad nodded towards an alleyway, where we pulled off what was left of our chutes.

Feo stood her ground with Uly near the water, trying to fend off a group forcing them out into the ocean.

"This isn't how it's supposed to be," Feo said sadly at her friend's side, firing an energy ring at their nearest attacker.

"I know hun. I never imagined our city could be taken. I hope your dad gets back soon, and I hope he brings Dim with him," she managed a smile at Feo.

The two women continued to slowly back toward the waves.

"Hey, Uly... I'll see you on the other side, 'kay..." Feo flicked a single tear from her cheek.

Uly grasped Feo's arm tightly.

"Hey turdnuggets!" Sam's joyous – if not overly cocky – voice could be heard over the din of weapon fire coming from the park.

The group of shifters turned their maces and swords and other assorted weaponry on Sam, who was backed up by Jake and Mouk of course.

The shifter carrying a large mace with rather nasty spikes on it swung this about his head menacingly.

"Oh shit," Mouk breathed, "this was not planned well."

The armoured monsters rushed the three guys. Six on three, not exactly fair.

But Sam moved with surprising speed. He ducked low to the ground as the first shifter took a swing at him, thrusting upwards with his own sword. The next advanced before the first fell, Sam came down on him with such force to shatter his helmet with a crunch. The third, the one with the deadly mace, swung this now at Sam. Sam weaved to the side and drove his heavy blade through his attacker's weapon arm. The shifter let out a grunt of annoyance.

Mouk and Jake seized the opportunity to join in themselves. As Sam struck a second blow to the shifter's knee, Jake slashed him across the chest, and meanwhile Mouk brought down the fourth shifter.

The final two approached. One grabbed hold of Jake and threw him against a thick tree trunk where he collapsed with a heaving sigh.

Mouk looked to his friend then leaped through the air.

Sam swept the legs.

The shifters stood no chance against their combined momentum.

Mouk drew in another deep breath and looked to where his friend had fallen.

"Jake!" Uly ran to where he lay sprawled against the tree.

"I'm fine," he struggled to his feet, massaging his shoulder, "dude, Sam. That was insane! Where did you learn to do that?"

"I just don't like it when I have to break my character of being the chill slacker, you know?" Sam grinned.

Strad and I hurried through the alleyway and made our way to the park. Many Versanians were there, but so were so many shifters, most in their humanoid armoured forms, but some I noticed – with no little worry – had taken the form of unrecognizable monster-type things.

These would be a bit tougher to deal with.

The other evil guys – I need a name for them...

Maybe the Douchemen... how does Douchemen sound?

The Douchemen were here too.

Strad tapped me on the shoulder, "I'm going to the wall to assess the situation a little more!"

I nodded and he hurried off, leaping over fallen rubble. I saw Mouk a ways away, helping a little girl into the safety of a shop.

I took up my pillaged weapon and hurried down the street, ducking and weaving between pillars to avoid gunfire. I tried to look into the park to see where I should head to. I needed to find Feo and make sure she's okay.

I just want all these people to be okay.

Then I heard a roar above me – another battalion dropping from an airship.

Feo made her way swiftly through the park, the Versanians had managed to dwindle down the shifters in this area, but there were still a few stragglers to fend off. Uly still ran with her.

"There's my dad!" Feo pointed toward the city gates, where the king's unmistakable form could be seen mowing down anyone who stood in his way.

"I hope he found him."

"Look, by the surf-n-turf!" Uly directed Feo's vision about two-hundred metres in the other direction.

"DIM!" Feo broke into a run.

A shifter tried to take a swipe at her but Uly gunned him down. She neared the edge of the park when thirty or so shifters landed in the street in front of the surf-n-turf shop.

One of them shouldered a massive cannon and pulled the trigger.

For a split second, Feo and Dim's eyes met, and she could see the smile in his eyes when he saw her.

Then came the explosion and Dim was engulfed in flames.