Lost Friends, Chapter Two

The Four Heroes Ultimate Cycle climbed into Earth-orbit, Dylan piloting, Phoenix and Neetra strapped into the side-seats, Bret manning the guns at the rear and Joe in his preferred place crouching on the drive-section. All five were wearing satellite link-up headsets and microphones that connected them to Doctor Mendelssohn in his laboratory on Mars. Planets glittered coldly in the black emptiness above as they reached the desired altitude and Dylan brought them back about, so that the prow was pointing directly down. Before our heroes’ eyes glowed the blue-green topography of their homeworld, thousands of feet below.

“None of you just ate, did you?” Dylan checked.

“Prepare yourself, Neetra,” spoke Doctor Mendelssohn’s voice through the transmitters. “And Dylan, on my mark. Mark!”

Dylan threw back the throttle and the Ultimate Cycle plunged. Planet Earth spiralled nearer and nearer by the second as an aura of red heat enveloped the vehicle, making our heroes steel themselves against the burning friction of re-entry and the gravitational forces that roared in their ears and crushed them to their seats. Beyond the fiery veil they could see mountains, deserts and forests laid out before them like a carpet, then suddenly rooftops were hurtling into view, and at the heart of the endless sprawl of miniature buildings blazed the flame-enclosed dot they were plummeting towards.

“Neetra, on my mark,” said Doctor Mendelssohn. “Mark!”

Yellow light swallowed up the Cycle in a monumental flash, and when it was gone our heroes were cruising through a blue sky with the city close beneath them. Dylan levelled them out and reduced their speed.

“We are through!” Joe cried. “Neetra, what is your status?”

“Never…better…” the girl groaned semi-consciously, as she lay slumped. “Just don’t expect…any more teleporting…for about a week!”

“You did well, my loved one. Rest,” said Joe. “Dylan, have you located those we are here to save?”

Speeding by below the Ultimate Cycle’s fuselage were derelict buildings and streets that disclosed no sign of life. All was in ruin, littered with the remains of tanks and Dimension Borg robots left over from the war, and over the hollow husks of shops and houses and the empty rubble-strewn roads hung an ominous silence. Dylan consulted the life-sign scanner.

“Two large concentrations, a short distance apart, and both under cover,” he reported. “I don’t know what that means, but my guess is nothing good. I’ll set course for the nearest one, and maybe we’ll – ”

A scream from ground-level shattered the hush. Throwing off his seatbelt at once, Dylan yelled: “Take her down, Joe, stay with Neetra!” and leapt into the slipstream, closely followed by Bret and Phoenix. Joe scrambled forward into the pilot’s position and brought the Cycle banking around as his three comrades swooped streetward, rebounding from walls and fire-escapes to touch down mere moments later in the shadowy back-alley from which the cry had come.

A girl was at the mercy of a strange something that our heroes could barely see, as it was visible only by the distortions it made in its immediate surroundings. Dylan and Phoenix recognised it immediately for a liquid-crystal shielding device, intended to make its bearer all but undetectable to the naked eye. Summoning his powers Dylan sent the nearest lamppost crashing down upon where the thing appeared to be, shorting out its shield and putting its true form on show as it turned from its victim and scuttled round to face them.

It looked somewhat like a giant robotic crab, with a body low to the ground and numerous many-jointed legs. Grey urban-camouflage armour adorned its shell, two hefty limbs stretched from the wide shoulders like claws, and a tiny head swivelled furiously from side to side atop the whole. Phoenix whipped her pistol from her garter and fired off a stream of bullets that cracked and pinged from the enemy’s carapace, and while it writhed and protested under this barrage Bret launched himself high over her head in a swirling of blue light and came down with a hammer-blow that spread the robot across the pavement.

The girl it had been menacing raised her head to take in the sight of her saviours, and slowly stood. She looked, as anyone would expect, begrimed and tired from her long incarceration in so perilous a place, but not quite so much so that she was unrecognisable to Bret, Dylan and Phoenix. It was not even the roller-skates she was wearing that gave it away in the end. It was rather the expression of hope and joy that dawned on her face, illuminating her fine features and reviving her beauty such that any who loved her would have known her without a doubt.

“Kumiko,” Dylan breathed.

The next second they were in each others’ arms. At an earlier time in their lives Phoenix might have been less than happy to witness such an embrace, but all that felt long ago now, for the moment they drew apart she flung her arms around Kumiko without hesitation. When finally they disengaged, Kumiko hugged Bret too.

“Miss Rintari…Kumiko…you are safe!” Phoenix beamed, tears in her eyes.

“I never gave up on you,” Kumiko declared, her own voice choked with happiness. “I just knew sooner or later you’d find a way through, and come to save us. Guess I’ve been a Four Heroes buddy long enough to be sure of that!”

“Kumiko, what’s going on here?” Bret asked, surveying the remains of the robot. Kumiko sighed.

“Simple supply run, and I got careless,” said she. “Must have been doing this too long. These Mekanikron things are most dangerous at night, but they can get the drop on you by day if you don’t watch out. They never rest from stalking through the Circle of Flames, looking for more humans to round up.”

“You mean the Ring of Fire,” Dylan corrected her.

“I can’t help what you’ve been calling it out there,” Kumiko returned. “Anyway, there might be more of them, so let me take you to where we’ve been holed up. I’ll explain it all there. Everyone’s going to be so glad to see you!”

The four friends rendezvoused with Joe and Neetra, the latter of whom had recovered but was still grumpy, and Kumiko led them to a well-sheltered hideout deep within a maze of ruinous factories. Here was to be found one of the two large clusters of human lives earlier detected by Dylan. A large compliment of dishevelled men, women and children who had been unlucky enough to be in the vicinity when the gas refineries ruptured greeted The Four Heroes with manifest gladness, cheering and celebrating and laughing. They had apparently been scraping by these last months, surviving on what food and water could be salvaged and leading a barren existence within this gloomy but relatively safe network of run-down industrial buildings.

“Kumiko, you’ve been living like this and helping them ever since you were trapped here?” Dylan said to her with an admiring smile. “I knew you were strong, but this is something else again!”

“Oh, every princess ought to try roughing it from time to time – I can be a bit too fond of life’s little luxuries!” she replied with a brave smile. “Besides, like I say, I knew you’d be getting to us. But you’ve not seen everybody yet, and I think there’s two who are going to want to see you…!”

END OF CHAPTER TWO