Cal was sitting back in his cage watching his captors with a sardonic smirk. It had all been a big rush before now, the van driving recklessly through the streets of the city; then they had unloaded his cage into some sort of parking garage before rolling it into an elevator and bringing him even further below ground.
That had been fun, he’d used his body's compact strength to jump and jostle and make their life hell as they manoeuvred him out of the van and into this concrete room. The agent he had felled when they first grabbed him had been carted off for medical treatment and another Agent had walked off quickly through a door carrying his visor and the rest of his stuff.
Of course if this had happened at home, he’d be dead or dying by now. He’d have been carried off by a predator and eaten. So this was an improvement on that, he was quite sure from what he’d learnt about Earth and its people he wasn’t about to be eaten or killed. They clearly wanted his technology which was why they had rushed off with it, he didn’t think he was in a lot of danger right now.
Now he was alone with his two guards, they’d forced him to remove his robe and hand it over. That was fun but also a little bit terrifying. They were all clearly scared to open the cage and had waved guns and a shock baton at him instead. He’d co-operated, not having clothing didn’t really bother him as a bunny. He had however hidden his phone from them, they had been able to see his bandolier full of trinkets and money and other items and confiscated that; but he’d used the moment whilst his arms were inside his robe before he took it off to tuck his phone into the thick fur that hung around his neck and shoulders. It was a trick all bunnies learnt when they started foraging, how to twist the thick fur and create little hidden pockets to carry small objects when out foraging.
It was actually harder now his fur was clean and conditioned, it worked a lot easier with natural mineral washed fur from the village lake. With his new silky and clean hair it had not been easy to re-learn how to store things in his neck-ruff but Cal was currently very pleased that he’d kept up practising and adapting to learn how. He was pretty sure he wasn’t deep enough to stop the phone sending a signal and even if he was, the cage was not sealed, so his phone would have sent a signal all the way from the street to their destination.
“Have you decided to let me go yet?” Cal asked, leaning forward to tap the bars of the cage, “You realise this isn’t going to end well for you right?”
“Shut up bunny,” one of the men growled trying to sound tough but Cal just tilted his head, with a fake cute expression, “I was wondering, do they pay you enough to face off against an Avali Defender?”
“Shut up!” The other guard shouted, Cal couldn’t tell if they were male or female, their scent was mostly lemon and cloves, "Whatever an Avali Defender is, they are not coming to save you.”
“You really think that?” Cal asked curiously, “You realise the Living Earthquake is literally on my ship right?”
“Doesn’t matter if they are,” the first guard responded, “They can’t operate down here on Earth, you are in our jurisdiction and you are ours bunny.”
Cal tilted his head one side then the other and smiled, “Oh right you are just dumb, or you’ve been lied to,” he shrugged, “I’ll shut up.”
He then sat back against the far side of the cage and casually drummed his fingers against the metal floor, humming out a litany of insults in bunny song. It was something to pass the time with but he could smell the unease and worry slowly increasing from both humans, it was even washing out the lemon and clove scent.
One of the humans stood up and walked over to bang the cage with their baton, “Stop that singing,” the growled, “You will sit in silence.”
As they banged the cage with the baton again Cal moved, one paw shooting out to grab the baton. He yanked it through the bars and brought the human down hard, they crashed face first into the bars. Whilst the human was cursing and stumbling back with a broken nose Cal snapped the baton into three then tossed it back out of the cage.
“Oh sorry, when something lunges at me instinct kicks in,” he smiled up at the humans with his most adorably cute expression, as the one he’d face planted into the cage pinched their nose and tilted their head back, “Sorry, see we have to deal with predators lunging at us to eat us back on own home world so we learn to react to protect ourselves.”
Both humans backed away from the cage and the injured one was soon replaced, glaring at Cal as they departed. The new human was wearing a nicer suit and smelled faintly of perfume. She was tall with broad shoulders and her thick brown hair was bundled up into a bun. She was clearly higher up the human hierarchy then the other goons and Cal smiled at her.
“Hello, did you come down to see how fucked you are?”
“Ignore them,” the lady said as she settled back onto a chair, “Our job is to hold him until we receive word from the boss that they’ve got the visor to safety.”
“Oh I see,” Cal smiled, “You are after fancy Avali tech, you know my visor isn’t that swish, you probably want my displacer beam.”
The guards paused for a moment and one asked, frowning, “What the fuck is a displacer beam?”
“Do you guys know nothing about space and the tech I am packing?” he smiled, “Of course I have a displacer beam, it’s basic survival gear, I could really set it to Human and dissolve every human in the building.”
“Shut up”, the female guard said, then told the other one “He’s bullshitting”.
“Why would I bullshit things? I am neither a bull nor a pile of shit,” Cal replied putting on his most innocent expression again, “But Avali tech is so cool and you guys don’t even know how fucked you are, you realise I’m not making it up about the Avali Defenders right?”
The male human kicked the cage in a fit of pique and Cal pounced, grabbed their leg and yanked, pulling them over. He fell back with a yell and scrambled away from the cage as Cal released their leg, “Oh there it goes, those instincts kicking in, you should be careful, I could have used my poison bite on you.”
The other guard banged on the cage with her baton then jumped back as Cal made a pretend lunge for it, “Stop this,” she ordered, “Just sit quietly and wait, this will all be over soon.”
“Mmhm, yeah it sure will be over soon,” Cal settled back down and grinned, “Tell me, are you guys immune to Gesundheitis? You took my visor so there isn’t anything to stop it spreading with my fur now.”
The humans retreated to the far side of the room, threatening Cal and ordering him to stay quiet. The bunny smiled at them and settled down, making sure to shed a small cloud of fur particles and blow it in their direction. He was worried, but he had something to pass the time with, taunting the uneducated louts guarding him. He was pretty sure the Trail pack would be coming for him soon, these guys had no idea how much shit they were in with Firi in orbit. He just hoped all this fuss didn’t ruin the end of their holiday, he had been really looking forward to arriving in London by train! Still he was coping, he didn’t need Cri to give him directions or Ki or Selenu to hand out orders, he was staying calm and this time he could be a brat all by himself.
“That’s the situation to date,” Ka’er said to Ck’akk as the Director of the Illuminate looked out of the screen at the Ambassador and Seinu, “The Secretary General assures us this is the action of rogue actors, but he’s having a hard time getting the Italian Government to take the fall for him.”
“Despite the fact Cal is being held in the basement of a police station in Milan?” Seinu said as he shook his head, “Ka’er offered them a way out but everyone involved has shouted that they aren’t responsible which has obviously caused an argument.”
“I can imagine,” Ck’akk shook her head, “I mean I can see the news reports pouring out of the Sol system, the tracking data is even live, Cal’s phone is literally pinging live data from beneath that police station, so what do they expect to get out of lying?”
“No idea,” Ka’er said, shaking his head, “It is the usual political circus here with the humans, it’s even more interesting on the ground.”
“Oh how so?” Ck’akk asked curiously.
“Well, the local authorities in Milan have all but laid siege to the police station in question, the regular staff have all “evacuated” and the local police chief is making lots of noise demanding to know what is going on and who is using his police station without permission, and he’s got the Mayor and a couple of government members with him.”
“Oh boy,” Ck’akk laughed, “Let me guess: They have some arrangement with their local intelligence agency or something?”
“Probably,” Ka’er sighed, “But it all looks a bit suspicious, a visiting tourist gets kidnapped and is being held in the basement of a police station with live tracking data proving it beyond a doubt, so they are all denying everyone and having a right panic.”
“Well, that visiting tourist is one of the people under our protection,” Ck’akk said softly, “Deploy Firi, in the most terrifyingly spectacular way you can arrange, considering the massive risk we just took allying ourselves with the Babu to thwart the Horkers we need a proper show now a bunny has been kidnapped so publicly,” She glanced up at the ceiling for a moment as if reviewing data behind her glasses, then nodded, “Yes, you have permission, drop the Living Earthquake on them, just do not kill anyone, I suspect it will all fold pretty quickly after that.”
“Understood ma’am,” Ka’er said softly, “And sorry for all the fuss, this wasn’t how we expected the Odyssey’s visit to go.”
“It is not your fault, either of you,” Ck’akk said, “The humans caused this, we just now need to react to it. The coalition council is watching and will be using this as a chance to judge if we are serious about protecting and uplifting the vampire bunnies.”
“So we need to respond firmly,” Seinu said softly, “I have one other thing to add,” he touched his visor and transmitted a file, “The Kasvane just appeared in the Secretary General’s office to demand and I quote, “What in the name of the Guardian do you think you are doing.”
“Oh dear,” Ck’akk grimaced, “Ok deploy Firi, I am sure people are going to start panicking and that puts Cal at more risk if some idiot decides it is safer to just shoot him to “clean up the mess.”
The call ended and Ka’er sighed and leant back in his chair, eyes closed, ears wilting, Seinu meanwhile was staring off into the middle distance then gave himself a shake, “What do we do next?”
Ka’er smiled softly, “Don’t worry, the worst case scenario is someone does something stupid, but I think with a proper show we can diffuse this, since publicly the local authorities have claimed they’ve “Lost control” of the police station we have every right to secure the site ourselves,” he leant forward and touched a panel, “Firi you are go, deployment authority direct from the Director of the Illuminate herself, just please don’t kill anyone.”
“Don’t worry, I am honour bound to not harm anyone, the code of a defender is clear, enemy combatants only and I am treating this whole thing like a bunch of civilians being stupid.”
“Oh good,” Ka’er sagged in relief, “I’ve never sent a Defender into action before, thank you Firi.”
“Fear not, we got this. Showtime then!” Firi sounded way too cheerful over the com line, “Thank you ambassador and don’t worry bro, we’ll have Cal back safely within an hour or two.”
The call cut out and Seinu stood up, “Well then, I guess we better get ready for our part in the upcoming show.”
“Indeed,” Ka’er also stood up and adjusted his mantle, “Lets pick up Selenu and our Sleriki friends and go cause diplomatic headaches.”
Cal had watched with interest as the guards' attitudes had changed over the last few hours. They were coming and going with more frequency, the lady who seemed to be in charge was growing more fraught and frantic. Cal could smell it on them all, something clearly had or was going real wrong for them. So far as he could tell there were at least four guards and their boss who were in charge of guarding him and they were all smelling and acting increasingly frantic.
By hour three it was actually making his eyes water how bad the humans stank of a mixture of fear and anxiety. Outside in the open it wouldn’t have been such a problem, but this room was really small and closed in with bad ventilation meaning the human funk had nowhere to go. He wrinkled his nose and looked up as the boss lady walked up to the cage. She was still trying to look and act like she was in charge but he could smell the stress pouring off of her.
“Where is it?” She demanded, clearly resisting the urge to bang the cage, “We can’t find it in any of your gear.”
“Where is what?” Cal asked politely, “You took all my stuff, as you can see I am quite naked,” he spread his arms and did a little jump up and down, “Which I am sure is breaking a whole bunch of Coalition rules too.”
“We know you have your phone,” she all but shouted, “Give it to me!”
Cal stared up at her and then stood up, spread his arms wide and did a slow circle, “As you can see, I am quite naked,” he shook his tail from side to side, “I don’t have my phone, I will admit I did leave it on, did that fuck your plans? I assume the Odyssey tracked our location from orbit.”
“Where did you hide it?” she almost hit the cage but stopped herself, taking a step back as Cal smiled at her with all his teeth.
“I dunno, what did you do with it? You took all my clothes, the bandolier, all my gadgets, I sure did leave it on and stuff it someplace.”
He sat back down and wiggled his nose, “Now did you want to discuss all the rules you have broken? You really aren’t very well informed on coalition rules for a bunch of people who kidnapped an alien visitor.”
“Don’t get cocky with me,” she snapped, “You are our prisoner and no one is coming for you.”
“You really are dumb aren’t you? Or do you just not get it? Your boss has probably already abandoned you,” Cal taunted them, after watching so many Earthian films with Seinu and the others on their way here. As well as a bunch of extra ones he’d watched himself, Cal knew all about hostage situations! He’d already quoted James Bond at them and Die Hard and a few others, it was clearly driving them crazy. Cal smiled at them with his most charming, fluffy smile, “You realise they will be scrambling around working out how to blame this all on you?”
“I… you… shut up,” she shouted and hurried off, pulling out her own phone and typing on it. Cal shook his head in amusement and settled back down; from what he had learnt about humans this whole thing was probably going to be a mess to tidy up. Still he didn’t want to push them too much, they were clearly getting more and more stressed, from the way they were all frantically exchanging messages he figured their handlers had all gone dark.
He wasn’t sure what their plan had been, they could have just snatched his visor and left him on the street with Kathy. He had to assume that their plan had been to grab him, steal all the tech he had on him and then after it was somewhere safe they’d dump him on a random street. Hiding his phone and letting the Odyssey track his location had thrown a spanner into their works. It was his own little defiance, his way of rebelling. Maybe whoever had orchestrated all this had been planning to manage his miraculous rescue from the ner’dowells who had kidnapped him or something as a way to curry favour with the Avali.
Either way, after all this he decided it was probably time to start being cautious about interacting with his jailors as they were so wound up and stressed now that if he pushed them too much they might do something to hurt him. Hopefully Firi, Seinu and the others would come for him soon.
“We should be doing something,” Cri shouted as he glared up at Ki and Kathy, “It’s been hours, he is alone and scared and maybe injured we should be out there rescuing him.”
“We have to stay here,” Ki said firmly, reaching out to place a hand on Cri’s head, “I want to run over there too, I could level that building but that won’t help us or Cal, we need to wait for Firi and the human authorities.”
“We need to get to Cal,” Cri chirped angrily, “He’s my brother, they can’t just take him like this!”
“It is being dealt with,” Kathy said softly, she smelt scared but she was putting on what the humans called ‘a brave face’ as she faced down Cri, “We will just make things worse if we run off and do our own thing.”
Cri clenched his paws into fists, he could push past them both. Neither the human or Ki could stop him. He could overpower them both and run to Cal, it wasn’t right. His brother was probably alone and terrified, they had rarely spent any time apart like this and it was driving Cri crazy. Outside of the train carriage the platform was empty, the local police had pushed all the reporters and curious people outside the station. Only the people actually checked in on the Orient Express were allowed onboard or the staff and the occasional police detective.
“Why hasn’t anyone been to give us an update,” Cri chirped, “Something is happening, we all know it, we should be there.”
“We aren’t going anywhere,” Ki said firmly, “Selenu told us to stay here, the Human Police told us to stay here.”
Cri thumped a paw against the chair he was sitting on and the antique wood creaked, “We can’t just sit here doing nothing though.”
“That is exactly what we need to do,” Kathy said softly, “You heard what Miss Selenu and the Ambassador said, Firi is coming down to secure Cal’s release, us being there would just get in the way.”
Cri sighed and slumped back in his chair, “I want to help,” he grumbled “Cal won’t know what to do when captured, he’ll be scared, our instincts kick in and he’ll be so worried.”
“He might surprise you,” Kathy said, “He is a tough little bunny, I think he’ll be ok, but we have to wait here for news.”
Ki nodded then paused as he looked up, data scrolling across his visor, “Firi has just left the Odyssey, seems like this will all be over soon.”
Kathy looked nervously out the window where a few local police officers had appeared, “Should we prepare for anything?”
Ki thought for a moment and then reached out with his cybernetic arm to grab Cri as he tried to power out of the room, “We wait here until contacted, the last thing we need to do is distract the media during whatever stunt Firi is pulling.”
Cri glared up at Ki and tugged at his arm but even his bunny strength couldn’t over-whelm the Avali’s cybernetic arm. “Cri, stop fighting me and listen…” Ki reached out and gripped the bunny's head with his other hand and turned his head to face him, staring into his eyes, “Stop thinking with that big brain of yours for a moment and listen, actually listen for once.”
Cri stopped trying to pull away, jerking back in surprise at the way Ki said that and the Avali just stared at him sternly, “What will you do if you run out there now? Everyone is wired up and worried, if you go charging through the crowd like a crazy wild animal the police will taser you or shoot you.”
He glanced out the window, “Besides, Firi is coming…” he looked up at the ceiling then out the window again, “Think of what that means, Firi is coming, you charging in there could derail her plan. We need to stay exactly where she expects us to be in case she needs to vaporise the city or knock down a skyscraper or blow up the Opera House.”
Kathy let out a choking sound, raising one hand, eyes wide in shock and horror as Ki casually described the destruction Firi could rain down on Milan. “She is the living Earthquake, odds are she hits the central plaza at the speed of sound and blows a crater in the Italian peninsula where Milan used to be. So….”
Cri sighed and slumped regretfully, “We need to stay exactly where she expects us to be so she can keep us safe regardless of what she’s planning,” He sighed and flopped down where he stood, “Fine, but I don’t like this, Cal needs me!”
“That’s better,” Ki said, releasing Cri’s arm. He then turned his cybernetic arm sideways and pulled the blind down then stuck a small device to the windowframe.
“What was that?” Kathy asked worriedly as Ki then reached out a hand to stroke Cri’s ears.
“Parabolic Microphone scrambler,” Ki explained, “Someone in the station cafe was pointing one at the carriage.”
“Oh good lord,” Kathyh slumped in her chair, “So all that stuff about blowing up buildings or vaporising Milan was to spook the reporters?”
Ki’s head came up and he shook his head as Cri spoke, “She is Firi Trail, an Avali Defender, the Living Earthquake, wielding Armageddon, Archaeotech hammer of the Forge of Ice… she could sink the whole Italian Peninsula if she had reason to do so… If my brother isn’t alive and well she will do much, much worse to your planet then sinking Italy, her honour will demand she avenge her student.”
Kathy visibly paled and gulped nervously as she shook her head, standing up, “Excuse me, I think I need some fresh air.”
Cri’s head came up and he watched Kathy leave and pull the door shut behind her, “Do they really not understand what an Avali Defender could actually do?”
“Most people don’t believe it,” Ki said softly, “Regardless of race, they think us Avali are all about diplomacy and talking, but push us too far and we will snap to defend our pack, our family and our people.”
Ki leant back in his chair, “Now if you have calmed down a bit, we should talk about how you were treating Cal earlier? Before Kathy comes back and decides to bring it up herself, she is a human, they wear their emotions on their sleeves at the strangest times and over the weirdest things and she’s really pissed off that you care about Cal now suddenly after treating him like dirt all week.”
“But that is why I need to be there,” Cri wailed, the tears finally coming, “I was horrible to Cal and now he’s been kidnapped and he might be hurt and….”
He sobbed quietly as Ki held him in his arms, “It’ll be ok,” he promised, “Firi will fix this and then the two of you can make up and talk this out.”
The planetary command centre deep beneath the UN building in New York was in an uproar. Secretary General Kannator watched from his chair by the table watching as advisors, Generals, the Admiral and a variety of other functionaries scurried back and forth.
After a few minutes he banged the table and everyone froze, “Admiral Bellinworth, would you please tell us what has happened?”
The Admiral froze and then sighed, sinking down into a chair, he was a fair skinned individual in his late fifties with short cropped hair and a crisp uniform. But right now he looked pale and agitated but he took a moment to compose himself then touched a control on the table. A hologram of the planet Earth appeared, including the orbital track of the Odyssey and their own forces.
“As of two minutes ago the shuttle Momentum launched from the Odyssey, it and one of the Odyssey’s weapon pods are on a descent course towards Milan.”
“So they are invading,” Judith, the Secretary of Solar Affairs screamed, “We’ve got them now!”
“No,” Admiral Bellinworth sighed, “The Odyssey has informed us, via the Ambassador, that as we have been “Unable to resolve the kidnapping of their protected citizen within the time frame given us they have deployed the Living Earthquake, Firi Trail to resolve matters.”
“The what?” one of his advisors asked in baffledment, “What the heck kind of title is the Living Earthquake.”
Kannator slammed a hand on the table. “The Living Earthquake is an Avali Defender,” the Secretary General growled, “One of the most insane, loose cannons in the entire Avali Illuminate Military. And those idiots in Italy kidnapped one of her students, if she decides to crack the moon open, sink Italy or blow every Volcano on the planet at once because any harm comes to her student the entire Galaxy will shrug, tutt and then say “Serves you right you idiots.”
“Surely no one could…” the advisor started but Kannator slammed his hand on the table again to silence them.
“Shut up, she could do it as easily as we might make a coffee, now get the fuck out of my sight, you clearly didn’t bother reading the briefing or you’d know all this. Go, now.”
The ex-advisor was escorted out of the command centre by a burly bodyguard and Kannator sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before he turned to look at the latest member of his team to raise an objection.
“They… they can’t just do this though can they,” Judith, his Press secretary asked hesitantly, “Can they?”
“They can,” Kannator said and everyone in the room froze and he sighed, “I spoke to the Coalition Representative and even called the Kasvane running the gate,” he paused and took a deep breath, watching the holographic icons depicting the shuttle, “Both confirmed that as we have declared this the actions of a rogue agent and have been unable to secure their release within the six hours they gave us the Avali Illuminate have every right to deploy their own forces, in this instance a member of the so-called Avali Defenders to rescue Cal Trail.”
“They… we…. what” Judith trailed off and stared at the hologram and the Admiral spoke.
“We have no means to stop an Avali Defender, the Living Earthquake is aptly named, from what we’ve been able to ascertain from her non-classified portfolio Firi Trail is quite capable of levelling Lombardy let alone the city of Milan.”
“Surely they can’t be that dangerous,” Judith asked worriedly as she glanced toward the door where the advisor Kannator had just disposed of had gone, “It must be an intimidation tactic? Propaganda to make us back off.”
“Hardly,” the Admiral said softly, “Their reputations are well earned, as the Secretary General said, if she decides to melt the moon she could do it and I doubt anything we have could stop her.”
The room fell silent at that and into this silence Kannator spoke, “What is the public’s current reaction?” Kannator asked, glancing at one of their other ministers. Hiroto the Minister of Terra Affairs jumped in surprise then turned to face Kannator.
“Protests are springing up all over the planet, mostly outside of government buildings,” he glanced at his notes, “Practically all of them are in support of the Avali, no one believes our cover story that this is the action of rogue actors. They either believe the Italian Government ordered this or we did since we’ve backed the rogue actor story.”
“Great,” Kannator sighed and turned to the UN Representative for Italy, “Any word from Rome, Dario?”
Dario jumped and then slumped into his chair, “I can tell you what the Pope has said, they have condemned the actions of the Italian Security and Police forces for kidnapping an innocent visitor to Earth,” he sighed and stroked his beard as he stared at the scattered papers in front of him, “As for the Italian Government as far as I can tell they are either in hiding, denial or condemning what has happened but no one is making any decisions.”
Kannator sighed and settled back into his chair, “Well we have until that shuttle lands to come up with a solution or…”
“What,” the Admiral sat up, one hand raised to his ear, “How did you… we need too… Sir it’s too late!” he frantically touched the controls for the table and zoomed in, “Air Traffic control above Italy has detected another object, it is ahead of the Momentum and already breaking for landing… Firi Trail isn’t on the shuttle!”
The gravity wings flared behind her armoured suit, slowly spinning and undulating, sparkling with thermal energy as she dropped toward the Italian peninsula at speed. Her armour reported that her rate of descent was within expected levels and that the Earthian authorities had picked her up when her gravity wings fluoresced with heat.
After her ridiculous drop through a storm on Babupekakkerok this was nothing even with Earth’s gravity being notoriously higher; her armor’s antigravity system wasn’t even stressed. The mighty blades of energy spread wider to increase surface area as she slowed, her target the ancient city of Milan. Shifting one hand she made a few minute adjustments to her trajectory then launched the Armageddon ahead of her. The hammer head separated from the back of her armour, leaving behind the handle and dropped, the technology packed inside the hammer adjusting its external profile so all those radar systems and scanners watching her would see a flare of light as it dropped toward the Earth.
It seemed to grow in size, unpacking itself from the small hammer head that usually hung on the back of her armour into something truly terrifying. The slotted, modular, dimensionally inconsistent storage systems deployed more blocks, the entire thing seeming to grow and shift before all those cameras.
Her armour was recording a marked scrambling and exodus of the crowd as she descended above the plaza outside the police station where Cal was being held. Everyone was panicking but according to Selenu who was following in the Momentum there had been no response from the Earthian Governments.
“I am on course to land in sixteen minutes,” Firi reported, “The Armageddon will land in seven minutes, it is tracking the crowds and is currently aiming for the centre of the plaza, it will not harm any of the civilians,” she reported, “How are things going on your end Ambassador?”
“I’ve just submitted the documents to the Secretary General,” Ka’er reported, “I’ve informed him I will be releasing it publicly as well, the entire paper trail, names, orders, everything lifted directly out of the computers and storage devices of those responsible.”
“Well this will be fun,” Firi ran a systems check and adjusted her trajectory by a few degrees, “I assume the planet is watching my little show of force as intended?”
“Oh yes,” Ka’er laughed, “Everyone is watching, the Italian Military have just informed the Prime Minister that there is nothing they can do.”
“And the general public?” Firi asked curiously, “We want them on our side after all.”
“Most of the people watching are cheering you on, news is also breaking that we have just delivered the verified orders of who ordered this to the Secretary General.”
“So think he’ll be ready for a public statement by the time my boots are on the ground?”
“Probably not, carry on as required and secure Cal and deliver the list of names to the Mayor of Milan,” Ka’er replied, “He is technically in charge down there.”
“Excellent, well then Ambassador, if you will excuse me I need to turn up the showmanship a bit and focus, speak to you on the other side.”
“Thank you Firi,” Ka’er signed off and Firi turned her full attention to her descent. The gravity wings spread wider, the drones she had surrounding her began to fire lasers at the ground, bracketing exactly where her hammer was about to land. The secondary set of drones breaked to hover in place before their lasers swept across the town, focussing big beams of red light atop a whole variety of government, military and civic buildings. To everyone on the ground it would look like the Avali had just locked targeting lasers on everything of notional importance in Milan.
A secondary set of targeting lasers flowed down over Italy, bracketing the government buildings and parliament. More lasers stabbed down to illuminate military camps, naval ports, the main Italian Navy harbour, ammo dumps and even their most secret of military bases. For all intents and purposes Firi was sending a message that she could strike all of them, seemingly simultaneously and there wasn’t a thing any of them could do to stop her.
It was all for show of course, if she had really been on a military operation the humans would have had no chance of detecting her before she levelled the city. But Ka’er’s plan was to recover Cal safely and to put the human governments back in their place, especially since his tech team at the embassy had recovered the entire trail of who and when and how this had been ordered.
There wasn’t much to do for the next few minutes as the ground loomed up closer and closer. She just had to maintain her systems and keep an eye on things but as the city of Milan grew larger and larger beneath her she watched in satisfaction as the Armageddon’s hammer head slowed down, aerobreaking just enough that when it landed the thump rippled out across the plaza but otherwise seemed to do no damage.
By the time it landed it was a solid black, polished and gleaming black lump of metal glowing with residual heat from the sudden breaking. It had adjusted its size to be about the size of a human car and as Firi came in for a landing, the gravity blades of her descent system filled the sky above Milan with glimmering lights. Once she was sure she had all their attention she summoned the handle and sent it ahead of her. It grew to an appropriate size and slotted into the hammer hand and as Firi passed it she grabbed it, the augmetic muscles in her suit allowing her to swing the massive hammer up into the air besides her effortlessly, the whole thing crackling with energy and gravity.
She knew the humans on the ground wouldn’t see much but an impossible show; the military grade sensors in the drones and ships in orbit however would be able to detect the mass irregularities as she pulsed the hammers core. As her feet touched the ground she activated the external speakers of her armour and hijacked the communication system the local police and authorities were using to stay in touch.
“Good day people of Milan,” her armour projected in perfect Italian, “I am Firi Trail, the Living Earthquake, an Avali Defender,” she turned to look directly toward the police command cordon, shifting her hammer, the air around it emitting a deep thrumming “Hum” as the mass compensators worked around the singularity it contained, “Mayor Bernardi, I would speak to you if you would be so kind as to come over here, I am sure we can still settle this peacefully.”
The mayor's head appeared from behind one of the barricades at the edge of the square. He was a portly, bald human in their mid forties, quite popular with the local populace for putting Milan first over national government demands.
Several people emerged with him, cautiously walking towards her, “You may want to pause and arrest Chief Marino though,” she said and everyone froze, “He was well aware of this operation and was co-operating with the intelligence agencies who did the dirty work.”
The Mayor froze as did the chief, she was amazed how quickly Bernardi turned on the Police Chief and shouted at him. Then several of his officers were grabbing the chief as he tried to deny any involvement but they all fell silent as Firi swung the hammer, causing a lamp-post to suddenly twist into a pretzel of crushed and twisted metal.
“I only have so much patience,” she said quietly, her voice echoing across the silent square as the pretzel of metal dropped to the flagstones, it was twisted and flattened, “Now Mayor Bernardi shall we talk?”
The Mayor gestured at the officers holding the Police Chief then warily walked over, his eyes never leaving her hammer as she held it casually out to one side, “Now I am going to link you directly to the communication frequency the kidnappers are operating on, please tell them to come outside and surrender to your people and we will leave them in the custody of the people of Earth… or… I will go inside and retrieve Cal myself.”
As she said that she moved the hammer and a nearby statue exploded into powder, the entire marble and bronze edifice just crumbling as she gently tapped it with the armageddon. At the same time the Ambassador’s special ops pack who had been sent in ahead of her confirmed they had located Cal and engulfed him in a bubble of energy. After all she was just the distraction, the covert ops team had already begun infiltrating Milan and the city as soon as they determined where Cal was.
“They really will not like it if I have to go inside and retrieve Cal myself,” she said softly, “So be really convincing, they have one choice here… face me or submit themselves to your justice.”
The mayor accepted the communication device off Firi and started to speak rapidly, “You may also want to inform them that they have already lost custody of Cal,” she turned her head to look at the police station, “So I advise them to choose carefully.”
The Mayor nodded and started to talk again, the whole city seemed to be holding its breath, the whole planet watching them. Would the Living Earthquake have to deal with this herself or would the humans be sensible for once.
To be continued…