FedoraChar
06-20-2015, 10:55 PM
http://i1229.photobucket.com/albums/ee474/SnowSong09/Stranger%20Knights%20Title.png
He was here again. For the fifth time.
You’d think that after getting a rancid bucket of old roses dumped on him, he’d get the message. At least he had the decency to use the front door this time, instead of startling me in the back alley.
He was browsing the front cooler when I came to the front of the flower shop, all blue-eyed and innocent. If he hadn’t come off as such a creeper, I would have considered him handsome, with his sandy-blonde hair and solid build. He couldn’t have been much older than I was—probably some rich jock in his last year of high school. I scowled openly when he flashed me a dazzling white smile.
My boss wouldn’t have appreciated the first thing that came out of mouth.
“You again? Listen, if you’re not here to buy anything—”
“I am here to buy something,” he responded evenly.
I raised a doubtful brow.
“I would like a wrap with three red roses, please. Carry-out.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out what he was playing at. He returned my gaze calmly, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. I couldn’t decide if he was a good actor, or just a complete idiot. Our staring contest continued, until he held up a twenty dollar bill.
Freakin’ Andrew Jackson.
“One moment,” I growled, heading to the storage cooler.
As luck would have it, the station where we made wraps was right behind cashier, meaning Mister Creepo could watch me the entire time I filled his order. He was polite in his wait, but I couldn’t hold back the suspicion that he was up to something. Part of me felt tempted to pull our designer, Phoebe, out from the back and let her deal with this, but I knew she was busy making an expensive order. I had no excuse, and no escape.
Sometime while I was sticking the roses in water tubes, Mr. Creepo spoke up.
“I, um,” he started off on an awkward note, pulling at his collar nervously. “I’m really sorry about the, uh… other day.”
I dropped what I was doing to give him a look. He squirmed, looking rather childish—which might’ve been amusing if I hadn’t been so annoyed.
“I-I really didn’t mean to—”
“Look, mister,” I leaned against the counter, a hand on my hip. “I don’t know what crazy universe you’re from, but decent people don’t creep up on young women in dark alleys at night.”
His face grew bright red. “I-it w-wasn’t like that, I-I swear. I was trying to warn you.”
“Warn me? About what?” I continued pressing him with a glare.
He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again. After an anxious glance over his shoulder, he responded in a low, hushed voice. “Listen, you’re in danger.”
I stiffened, feeling my insides ice over.
“My… friends and I have been trying to protect you, but it’s gotten out of our hands. We need your cooperation. If you’d come with us—”
“No!” I shouted. This was insane! This guy had just confessed to being a stalker, and now he wanted me to come with him to meet his “friends”? Yeah, right! “Get out!”
I must’ve been loud, because Mr. Creepo-psychopath stumbled backwards in alarm. He blinked at me rather idiotically, as if he couldn’t believe his stupid plan didn’t work.
“But I—”
“I said, get out! Before I call the police!”
He looked at the half-finished wrap with a frown. I did what came naturally. Gathering it up, I threw it at him from across the shop. That finally got him into action. Raising his hands to shield his face, he bolted out the front door.
I stared at the entrance long after he had disappeared, hardly hearing Phoebe’s cries of concern. Glancing down at my hands, I realized I was shaking. What was wrong with me? I never let creeps like him get to me like this, but…
“Cassie!” Phoebe slid into the front, brandishing a baseball bat. “Cassie, are you alright?” She paused, gaping at the scattered greenery all over the floor. “What on earth happened?”
I couldn’t respond at first. I sat there and stared at my hands like an idiot, which didn’t do anything to ease the woman’s worries. I snapped out of it when she started babbling about calling the police, and managed to convince her that I was fine. Though I was sure I wasn’t.
For the rest of the day, I tried to forget it all happened. I busied myself with mindless cleaning chores, washing buckets and mopping floors, but there was no fooling it. The stranger’s words had left me deeply disturbed. The trouble was, I couldn’t decide if he had been threatening me… or genuinely warning me.
I had never been the paranoid type. Being raised alone by my father, I had learned that fear was a useless thing. The time and energy it took was better spent on good, honest work. I found that if you kept yourself busy, you’d have no time for worries. Life in the city of Kingsvale was tough, but you had to be tougher.
Given that attitude of life, I couldn’t understand why I felt so on edge when I walked home that night. My apartment was just up the street from the flower shop—five minutes was all it usually took. But as I walked, I wished that I had accepted that ride from Phoebe.
Especially after the lights went out.
Startled gasps rang out along the busy street. I froze in place. I hadn’t realized how dark it could get without the glow of the streetlamps. Even the headlights from passing cars had gone out. Just as I was debating what to do, I felt something latch onto my arm.
“Cassandra Poole,” a deep voice whispered in my ear, instantly paralyzing me. “I need you to come with me.”
I didn’t move. I was pretty sure I forgot how to breathe.
Down the street, a lamp suddenly burst, showering sparks on the bystanders below.
“Miss Poole,” the voice repeated, his tone urgent, “unless you want innocent people to get hurt, please come with me.”
How many psychopaths could a person run into in one day? First the guy from the flower shop, and now I had this guy threatening me?
Breathe, Cassandra, breathe, I told myself over and over before I forced my panic-stricken body to turn my head. A wall of a man stood behind me, dressed in a slate-gray overcoat. Between the upturned collar and the felt fedora on top of his head, I couldn’t see much of his face. Through the small sliver I could see, I found… worry. This stranger looked as scared as I was.
I don’t know if that was what spurred me into motion, but I found myself retreating into a back alley, with the stranger gently guiding me by the elbow. This was nuts. I was nuts. But I felt too terrified to fight back. What was I doing?
I was about to open my mouth when he stopped. We stood in a square clearing, dimly lit by the faint moonlight shining in from above. Across from us were four figures—one which I recognized after my eyes adjusted to the dark.
Forgetting my situation, I stopped and gaped at him. “You?”
The young man from the flower shop grinned the very definition of sheepish.
“Hello,” he offered.
I was seconds away from shouting obscenities at him when my guide spoke up, whipping the fedora off his head.
“They’re coming,” he started peeling off his overcoat. “I’m certain we’ve lured them this way.”
The moonlight bounced off something reflective on his chest. Looking closely, I realized the man had been wearing… a metal breastplate. I kid you not, he had on a piece of armor. Like, medieval-style armor.
“So we get to fight?” one of the four people in the square spoke up, sounding excited and surprisingly young. I gave him a second look, and realized he was a boy fourteen or thirteen years of age. He had been wearing a backpack, which he had shrugged off and was currently rummaging through it.
My guide sighed. Without the overcoat, I could see his face clearly now. He looked to be in his late forties, with the first signs of age appearing on his skin and hair. His eyes were startlingly blue in the little light we had in that dark square. “I’m afraid we have no other choice now.”
“Very well,” a second person spoke—a woman. She stood just as tall as the guy from the flower shop, though she was dressed almost entirely in black leather. After pulling off her studded jacket, she slipped a metal gauntlet onto her hand. “Let’s get this over with.”
The young man from the flower shop gave a sigh of his own, looking at me regretfully as he took off his own jacket. “You know, this would’ve been a lot easier if you would’ve come with me, earlier.”
A chuckle came from the last person in the party—a smartly dressed man who was slipping out of his shoes. In an accented voice, he teased, “Live and learn, as they say. Granting that we get the chance after tonight.”
Right, so I was surrounded by a bunch of crazy people taking off random articles of clothing. I imagine that would have set anyone on edge. As it was, I was getting increasingly fed up with being freaked out. “Can someone please tell me what the h*** is going on?”
“No time,” said the fedora guy. “Here they come.”
I had more obscenities on the tip of my tongue, but they never got the chance to come to fruition. Around us, the air grew charged, making my hair send on end and filling my mouth with a metallic taste. Turning around, I watched reality fall apart.
I’m not quite sure how else to describe it: there was a pinch in the air before us, as if someone had reached out and twisted the very fabric of space. Electricity spat and cackled around the distortion, which soon widened into a gaping black hole.
The hole wasn’t empty. A long, slender piece of metal slipped through, twitching like an insect leg. Other pieces followed after, probing the air until they found solid ground. The rest of the body followed after, pulling an arachnoid body into the alleyway.
I paled. I was looking at a robotic spider the size of a Great Dane. And it was looking at me.
The spider clicked its mandibles together and made a series of hissing noises that sounded eerily like knives being sharpened. Behind it, more metal legs began emerging from the hole in space.
“W-what is that?” I squeaked. My knees felt weak, and I was pretty sure I was seconds away from fainting.
“That would be an ION, dear,” the guy with the accent remarked, sounding rather calm despite the circumstances.
“Miss Poole,” ex-fedora guy stepped in front of me, moving slowly, “you should stay behind us.”
I thought I had met my repertoire of crazy already tonight, but these guys went above and beyond crazy. Were they going to fight these things? I started at him, blurting, “Are you nuts?!”
“On the contrary, Miss Poole,” the good ole Brit winked at me. “I find everything is much more enjoyable when you stop trying to make sense of everything and just embrace the insanity of it all.”
Jolly good, sir—would you like a cup of tea with your crazy?
“Mind yourself, William,” ex-fedora guy muttered at him. “Jericho, Samuel, stay close to Miss Poole.”
With that, he brought his fist across his chest, banging the breastplate. The metal rang out like a bell, and began to glow. I watched as the light flowed like liquid across his body, down his arms and legs to his fingers and shoes. The same transformation happened to the others; my former customer slammed his hand against a pauldron. The woman tapped on her gauntlet. The boy slid on a helmet. Mr. British Accent slipped his feet into a pair of metal boots. One by one, their bodies began shining with a bright light.
In a brilliant flash, the light dispersed, leaving me in the midst of five armored warriors. Though their suits looked reminiscent of archaic knights, they weren’t as bulky. The metal plates clung closely to their bodies, offering protection while enabling movement. They almost looked like motocross riders who decided to put a medieval flair to their uniforms. Fedora-guy had the heaviest-looking set, but even then he dashed forward towards the growing pack of robo-spiders with surprising speed.
As I watched, he drew a black sword from his side and swung it across the nearest ION, its edges glowing with white light. I didn’t think he’d even be able to scratch the metallic arachnid, but to my surprise, the sword sliced through it like butter. The spider’s red LED eyes blinked faintly for a moment before it collapsed into a heap of scrap metal.
He just… How?! How was this possible?!
The spiders weren’t sympathetic to my brain melting. Spurred on by the attack, they surged forward at the other knights. Eight had crawled out of the dimensional hole by now, with more on the way—well, minus one. Will had drawn two swords of his own and made quick work of another ION. Fedora-man was already taking on another, and to my left, the woman in the team was shooting fire-balls from her hands.
Yeah. Her hands.
I must have been hyperventilating at that point, because I felt someone’s hand on my shoulders.
“Easy, now,” the guy from the shop attempted to comfort me, his voice slightly muffled behind the black visor he wore. “You’re going to be okay.”
I glanced at the incoming spiders and wondered just how things were going to be okay.
“Yeah, we got this covered!” the younger boy piped up, giving me a thumbs up before turning and bashing an ION in the face with a mace-like weapon.
“My name’s Jericho, by the way,” shop-guy said, as nonchalantly as he could while kicking aside another robot. That thing must have weighed a ton, yet he managed to put a good dent in its metal carapace. “But I go by Jerri or Jer, for short.”
“And I’m Sam!”
“Over there is Will and Kendra, and you already met our leader, Henry.”
I blinked stupidly at the both of them. “Who are you people?”
“We’re Knights!” Sam replied eagerly. I imagine behind his visor he was grinning like a madmen. What had these people done to this innocent child?
“Knights,” I repeated, giving Jericho a dubious side glance.
He shrugged, though I wish I could see his expression. “Yeah, we’re… kinda like superheroes.”
As he said this, Will ran up the side of a building—vertically, mind you—before jumping off and gliding a short distance before impaling an ION that had just crawled out of the vortex.
“Superheroes,” I frowned, slowly nodding my head. “First, creepers, then kidnappers. Then, giant metal spiders. And lastly, superheroes. Could my day get any more interesting?”
Electricity surged around the vortex again, this time cracking with ear-splitting volume. The hole widened for a new machine—this one several times larger than the spiders. It towered over us, looking like a cross between a serpant and a centipede—all limbs and blades, with two especially deadly-looking scythes sprouting from its shoulders. It turned its searching gaze towards me, and its four pairs of eyes turned red as they locked on to me.
To me.
Jericho groaned. “Yep.”
“An alpha!” the fedora guy, or Henry, shouted. “Jericho, get Cassandra and Samuel out of here!”
“What?” Sam shouted back. “But I—”
The snake-like alpha ION screeched, bringing down scythe-like arms on Will and the woman, Kendra. The two jumped aside just in time to avoid an impaling, but the attack left an impressive crater in the pavement.
“Alright,” the fourteen-year-old muttered, turning back around. “Let’s go.”
“Cassie?” Jericho turned to me.
I didn’t need an invitation. I took off after Sam, letting my flight response carry me out of that square of insanity. I could hear Jericho following after, his metal suit of armor clanking with every step. We took off down one of the connecting alleyways, though at some point I tripped on something in the dark and fell on my face. Sam slid to a stop, lifting his mace above his head. The strange weapon began producing a glow that illuminated a bunch of garbage cans.
“Sorry,” Sam scratched at the back of his helmet. “I should’ve done that sooner.”
“You okay?” Jericho helped me get back on my feet.
“Fine,” I grunted. Slowly losing my mind, but other than that—yeah, I was just peachy.
“Fence up ahead,” Sam piped in, sounding as cheery as ever.
“I’ll get it,” Jericho volunteered, pulling a sword from his side. As I watched, the edges began to glow with golden light. Running forward, he swung it across the chain-link fence blocking our way, and sliced it right in half.
“I could have done that,” the fourteen-year-old pouted.
I stared at the splintered fence, still trying to wrap my mind out of these guys’ weapons. Swords shouldn’t cut through metal. Not unless they were made of diamond or…
“Let’s keep moving,” Jericho said. “The alpha—”
As he spoke, Will flew into the alleyway behind us, ramming into the side of a building. He put a pretty good dent in the brick before falling onto the ground with a groan. Soon after, the mechanical snake-insect thing spilled into the alley. It hit the wall beside Will, but ignored the downed Knight completely as it glanced in our direction.
“Run!” Jericho shouted at me, leveling his sword at the creature. Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me along. The alpha screeched with its mandibles wide open. Light flashed in its throat seconds before a bolt of energy shot down the alley towards us, illuminating the brick with an icy white light. Jericho leapt in the line of fire, holding up his free hand, which quickly flashed with a light of its own. In seconds, the enemy’s bolt bounced harmlessly off a shield.
I didn’t see what happened next. Sam had pulled me around another corner, leaving Jericho to face down the ION alone. I could hear the clashing of metal against metal as the two of us stepped out onto a street. With the power out, I couldn’t see much beyond the glow of Sam’s weapon—although I did catch a few startled glances. The street wasn’t busy, but it wasn’t abandoned, either.
“Sam…?” I muttered to him, fearing for what would happen if they all saw a giant, menacing robot.
“Not good,” he muttered, taking a step backwards. “Uh… Okay, I got a new plan.”
He tossed his mace skyward. The light intensified, nearly blinding me, before scattering in a burst of sparks. Looking up, I saw that it had… transformed. Now it resembled a scooter, made entirely of metal and lacking wheels. It drifted back down to our level, the underside glowing with light. Sam hopped onto it without reservation, grabbing the handles.
“Hop on,” he held out a hand to me.
I blinked at the contraption. You’d think that at this point, there’d be nothing left that could surprise me, but boy, I had no idea what was going on anymore. I don’t know if I had embraced all this insanity, but either way I found myself climbing on behind the kid. As soon as I lifted my other foot, the scooter lifted—and drifted skyward.
I screamed and clung to the kid with my life.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Sam tried to assure me. “I’m a good driver, I promise.”
Needless to say, that didn’t make me feel any better.
We rose above the rooftops, back-tracking away from the street and the startled gasps below. I wondered what all those people would think in the morning—the power going out and a kid in a suit of armor taking off on a hovering scooter. Maybe they’d blow it all off as a dream. I sure wished I could. As we flew over some apartments, I caught sight of something glinting in the moonlight on a nearby roof. When we drew closer, I could see one of the Knights.
“Looks like Henry,” Sam reported, and started our descent.
I’m not sure how he could tell, but I narrowed my eyes at the figure. He was waving his hands in across his chest, shaking his head vigorously from side to side. “Sam, I think he’s trying to tell—”
Blades of metal rose around us, thrashing in an attempt to knock us out of the air. One succeeded, flipping the scooter over. I lost my grip on Sam, and started falling. Below me, the alpha ION, clinging to the side of a building, reached up with its jaws wide open.
I was going to die.
I heard a cry of rage, saw Henry raise his sword… and everything went black.
*****
“…Miss Poole?”
I groaned, suddenly aware of the aching in every inch of my body. I felt like I had been through a garbage disposal.
“Cassie, are you all right?” another voice spoke up.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes. I was lying on cold hard pavement, surrounded by several concerned faces. They were unfamiliar to me at first, but after a moment of frowning, the memory came back.
The Knights.
I groaned again, bringing my hand to my face. I heard a collective sigh from everyone around me.
“What happened?” I mumbled, sitting up.
“You fell,” Jericho answered, his expression still creased with worry. “The alpha almost got you, but…”
He glanced up at the woman—Kendra—who quickly stood and walked away.
“The alpha?” I repeated. The memory struck me like a blow, and my eyes widened. I whipped my head around, though earning a headache in the process.
“Easy,” Jericho held me back. “You’re okay. We took care of it.”
“You should’ve seen Henry!” Sam piped up, eyes glinting with excitement. “He jumped off the roof and was all like—wooooo, wha-bam! Stabbed his sword right into the things face, then—”
“It’s gone?” I cut him off, looking between all their faces. When they nodded, I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Fantastic. So now that that’s out of the way… What the h*** was that all about? Why were those things after me?”
Jericho flashed one of his sheepish grins, and glanced desperately at the others.
Will came to the rescue, clearing his throat before saying, “Miss Poole, do you know anything about energy signatures? Some people refer to them auras.”
“Auras.” I quirked a brow.
“Yes—it refers to the field of energy living things radiate. Now, everyone has an aura, but you have a particularly unique aura.”
“O…kay? Why’s that?”
“Because, my dear, you one of us.”
I blanked. “…I’m what now?”
Henry took charge of the conversation, his tone much gentler than Will’s slightly conceited one. “Miss Poole, this is difficult to explain, but… bear with me. We refer to ourselves as the Knights of this realm; we are sworn to protect this world from invaders like the IONs. But knights, as you know, always have a liege to serve… A queen, if you will. And it is from her that we draw our power.”
“A queen…” I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.
Henry nodded. “Our… former queen passed away recently, but she had an heir. A princess.”
My bad feelings only continued to escalate. “And the princess is…”
“You, Miss Poole.”
I stared at him. I stared at all of them. Their expressions were all grim, as if they were taking this all very seriously. Even Sam looked solemn. I couldn’t help it. I started laughing—maybe because I was cracked, or because I was close to screaming. “This is crazy. Absolutely crazy. You realize how crazy this is, right?”
“Yes, it sounds unbelievable,” Henry acknowledged, endlessly patient with me. “But I will swear on my name that it is true. Listen to me when I say that you shouldn’t be afraid of what you are capable of. You have a wonderful gift that is capable of much good in this life. I am not a man who believes in destiny. There is only potential, and we choose whether or not to live up to that potential—and you, Miss Poole, have the potential to become more powerful than you could imagine. But you have a choice, Miss Poole. You decide who you will become.”
My fake smile faltered, my heart fluttering with sudden fear. “You’ve… You’ve got to have the wrong person. I… I can’t be a princess. I’m a nobody. I work minimum wage at a flower shop. I’m not even the best in my graduating class. I’ve never done anything extraordinary. No powers, no… nothing.”
I had to hand it to Henry—he had the best poker face. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking behind that stone mask of his. I didn’t know if he was disappointed or angry or what. But maybe, there was something… sad. I couldn’t explain it.
“Your powers have not yet awakened, though they are stirring,” he said. “It might be some time before you can bear the title of Queen. But for now… you should go home and think about what has happened tonight. Jericho will escort you home.”
The young man nodded in agreement, though I continued giving Henry my attention. As crazy as this all was… I was reluctant to leave the Knights, knowing that there were robot assassins out to get me. “What about the IONs?”
“We took care of them,” Jericho responded, giving an honest smile. “They shouldn’t bother you for a while.”
“For a while?”
Kendra stepped in, sounding rather harsh as she said, “The IONs have been trying to break into our world for a long time, now, and they aren’t going to give up any time soon. They will continue to hunt you, because you are all that stands between them and taking over this world. Just by existing.”
Well, she certainly knew how to candy-coat things.
“Whatever you decide, Miss Poole,” Henry added before I could get panicked all over again, “we will keep you safe. We are sworn to protect you. Always. If you choose to live a normal life, then we will ensure it.”
I gave each of the warriors a searching glance, but I couldn’t keep it up. Now that the adrenaline and fear had left me, and some sense of normalcy had returned, I was exhausted. “I… I think I’d like to go home, now.”
Henry inclined his chin, and with that, the Knights back away, everyone except for Jericho. He offered a hand, which I took. After he pulled me up, the Knights bowed in reverence. It gave me the strangest feeling, like I was out of place and out of time. I didn’t deserve this, but for a moment… I imagined what it would be like, to be royalty.
Without another word, Jericho led me from the alleyway, my hand tucked into his elbow. Out in the streets, the lights were all back on, and people were going about their business as if nothing had happened. I could see no sign of the IONs, not even any scrap. Jericho said nothing as he led me down the block, which I was grateful for. My head was swimming, and I’m pretty sure that without his guidance I likely wouldn’t have found my way back home.
Before long, I stood before the door of my apartment complex. I didn’t reach for the handle, at first, instead staring at my reflection in the glass.
Henry’s words echoed back to me: I am not a man who believes in destiny. There is only potential, and we choose whether or not to live up to that potential—and you, Miss Poole, have the potential to become more powerful than you could imagine. But you have a choice, Miss Poole. You decide who you will become.
I had the choice. I could continue to live as I was, barely scrapping by as a florist cashier and live in constant fear of robots.
Or… I could be a princess.
My fullest potential… Was this it?
He was here again. For the fifth time.
You’d think that after getting a rancid bucket of old roses dumped on him, he’d get the message. At least he had the decency to use the front door this time, instead of startling me in the back alley.
He was browsing the front cooler when I came to the front of the flower shop, all blue-eyed and innocent. If he hadn’t come off as such a creeper, I would have considered him handsome, with his sandy-blonde hair and solid build. He couldn’t have been much older than I was—probably some rich jock in his last year of high school. I scowled openly when he flashed me a dazzling white smile.
My boss wouldn’t have appreciated the first thing that came out of mouth.
“You again? Listen, if you’re not here to buy anything—”
“I am here to buy something,” he responded evenly.
I raised a doubtful brow.
“I would like a wrap with three red roses, please. Carry-out.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to figure out what he was playing at. He returned my gaze calmly, as if he hadn’t a care in the world. I couldn’t decide if he was a good actor, or just a complete idiot. Our staring contest continued, until he held up a twenty dollar bill.
Freakin’ Andrew Jackson.
“One moment,” I growled, heading to the storage cooler.
As luck would have it, the station where we made wraps was right behind cashier, meaning Mister Creepo could watch me the entire time I filled his order. He was polite in his wait, but I couldn’t hold back the suspicion that he was up to something. Part of me felt tempted to pull our designer, Phoebe, out from the back and let her deal with this, but I knew she was busy making an expensive order. I had no excuse, and no escape.
Sometime while I was sticking the roses in water tubes, Mr. Creepo spoke up.
“I, um,” he started off on an awkward note, pulling at his collar nervously. “I’m really sorry about the, uh… other day.”
I dropped what I was doing to give him a look. He squirmed, looking rather childish—which might’ve been amusing if I hadn’t been so annoyed.
“I-I really didn’t mean to—”
“Look, mister,” I leaned against the counter, a hand on my hip. “I don’t know what crazy universe you’re from, but decent people don’t creep up on young women in dark alleys at night.”
His face grew bright red. “I-it w-wasn’t like that, I-I swear. I was trying to warn you.”
“Warn me? About what?” I continued pressing him with a glare.
He opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again. After an anxious glance over his shoulder, he responded in a low, hushed voice. “Listen, you’re in danger.”
I stiffened, feeling my insides ice over.
“My… friends and I have been trying to protect you, but it’s gotten out of our hands. We need your cooperation. If you’d come with us—”
“No!” I shouted. This was insane! This guy had just confessed to being a stalker, and now he wanted me to come with him to meet his “friends”? Yeah, right! “Get out!”
I must’ve been loud, because Mr. Creepo-psychopath stumbled backwards in alarm. He blinked at me rather idiotically, as if he couldn’t believe his stupid plan didn’t work.
“But I—”
“I said, get out! Before I call the police!”
He looked at the half-finished wrap with a frown. I did what came naturally. Gathering it up, I threw it at him from across the shop. That finally got him into action. Raising his hands to shield his face, he bolted out the front door.
I stared at the entrance long after he had disappeared, hardly hearing Phoebe’s cries of concern. Glancing down at my hands, I realized I was shaking. What was wrong with me? I never let creeps like him get to me like this, but…
“Cassie!” Phoebe slid into the front, brandishing a baseball bat. “Cassie, are you alright?” She paused, gaping at the scattered greenery all over the floor. “What on earth happened?”
I couldn’t respond at first. I sat there and stared at my hands like an idiot, which didn’t do anything to ease the woman’s worries. I snapped out of it when she started babbling about calling the police, and managed to convince her that I was fine. Though I was sure I wasn’t.
For the rest of the day, I tried to forget it all happened. I busied myself with mindless cleaning chores, washing buckets and mopping floors, but there was no fooling it. The stranger’s words had left me deeply disturbed. The trouble was, I couldn’t decide if he had been threatening me… or genuinely warning me.
I had never been the paranoid type. Being raised alone by my father, I had learned that fear was a useless thing. The time and energy it took was better spent on good, honest work. I found that if you kept yourself busy, you’d have no time for worries. Life in the city of Kingsvale was tough, but you had to be tougher.
Given that attitude of life, I couldn’t understand why I felt so on edge when I walked home that night. My apartment was just up the street from the flower shop—five minutes was all it usually took. But as I walked, I wished that I had accepted that ride from Phoebe.
Especially after the lights went out.
Startled gasps rang out along the busy street. I froze in place. I hadn’t realized how dark it could get without the glow of the streetlamps. Even the headlights from passing cars had gone out. Just as I was debating what to do, I felt something latch onto my arm.
“Cassandra Poole,” a deep voice whispered in my ear, instantly paralyzing me. “I need you to come with me.”
I didn’t move. I was pretty sure I forgot how to breathe.
Down the street, a lamp suddenly burst, showering sparks on the bystanders below.
“Miss Poole,” the voice repeated, his tone urgent, “unless you want innocent people to get hurt, please come with me.”
How many psychopaths could a person run into in one day? First the guy from the flower shop, and now I had this guy threatening me?
Breathe, Cassandra, breathe, I told myself over and over before I forced my panic-stricken body to turn my head. A wall of a man stood behind me, dressed in a slate-gray overcoat. Between the upturned collar and the felt fedora on top of his head, I couldn’t see much of his face. Through the small sliver I could see, I found… worry. This stranger looked as scared as I was.
I don’t know if that was what spurred me into motion, but I found myself retreating into a back alley, with the stranger gently guiding me by the elbow. This was nuts. I was nuts. But I felt too terrified to fight back. What was I doing?
I was about to open my mouth when he stopped. We stood in a square clearing, dimly lit by the faint moonlight shining in from above. Across from us were four figures—one which I recognized after my eyes adjusted to the dark.
Forgetting my situation, I stopped and gaped at him. “You?”
The young man from the flower shop grinned the very definition of sheepish.
“Hello,” he offered.
I was seconds away from shouting obscenities at him when my guide spoke up, whipping the fedora off his head.
“They’re coming,” he started peeling off his overcoat. “I’m certain we’ve lured them this way.”
The moonlight bounced off something reflective on his chest. Looking closely, I realized the man had been wearing… a metal breastplate. I kid you not, he had on a piece of armor. Like, medieval-style armor.
“So we get to fight?” one of the four people in the square spoke up, sounding excited and surprisingly young. I gave him a second look, and realized he was a boy fourteen or thirteen years of age. He had been wearing a backpack, which he had shrugged off and was currently rummaging through it.
My guide sighed. Without the overcoat, I could see his face clearly now. He looked to be in his late forties, with the first signs of age appearing on his skin and hair. His eyes were startlingly blue in the little light we had in that dark square. “I’m afraid we have no other choice now.”
“Very well,” a second person spoke—a woman. She stood just as tall as the guy from the flower shop, though she was dressed almost entirely in black leather. After pulling off her studded jacket, she slipped a metal gauntlet onto her hand. “Let’s get this over with.”
The young man from the flower shop gave a sigh of his own, looking at me regretfully as he took off his own jacket. “You know, this would’ve been a lot easier if you would’ve come with me, earlier.”
A chuckle came from the last person in the party—a smartly dressed man who was slipping out of his shoes. In an accented voice, he teased, “Live and learn, as they say. Granting that we get the chance after tonight.”
Right, so I was surrounded by a bunch of crazy people taking off random articles of clothing. I imagine that would have set anyone on edge. As it was, I was getting increasingly fed up with being freaked out. “Can someone please tell me what the h*** is going on?”
“No time,” said the fedora guy. “Here they come.”
I had more obscenities on the tip of my tongue, but they never got the chance to come to fruition. Around us, the air grew charged, making my hair send on end and filling my mouth with a metallic taste. Turning around, I watched reality fall apart.
I’m not quite sure how else to describe it: there was a pinch in the air before us, as if someone had reached out and twisted the very fabric of space. Electricity spat and cackled around the distortion, which soon widened into a gaping black hole.
The hole wasn’t empty. A long, slender piece of metal slipped through, twitching like an insect leg. Other pieces followed after, probing the air until they found solid ground. The rest of the body followed after, pulling an arachnoid body into the alleyway.
I paled. I was looking at a robotic spider the size of a Great Dane. And it was looking at me.
The spider clicked its mandibles together and made a series of hissing noises that sounded eerily like knives being sharpened. Behind it, more metal legs began emerging from the hole in space.
“W-what is that?” I squeaked. My knees felt weak, and I was pretty sure I was seconds away from fainting.
“That would be an ION, dear,” the guy with the accent remarked, sounding rather calm despite the circumstances.
“Miss Poole,” ex-fedora guy stepped in front of me, moving slowly, “you should stay behind us.”
I thought I had met my repertoire of crazy already tonight, but these guys went above and beyond crazy. Were they going to fight these things? I started at him, blurting, “Are you nuts?!”
“On the contrary, Miss Poole,” the good ole Brit winked at me. “I find everything is much more enjoyable when you stop trying to make sense of everything and just embrace the insanity of it all.”
Jolly good, sir—would you like a cup of tea with your crazy?
“Mind yourself, William,” ex-fedora guy muttered at him. “Jericho, Samuel, stay close to Miss Poole.”
With that, he brought his fist across his chest, banging the breastplate. The metal rang out like a bell, and began to glow. I watched as the light flowed like liquid across his body, down his arms and legs to his fingers and shoes. The same transformation happened to the others; my former customer slammed his hand against a pauldron. The woman tapped on her gauntlet. The boy slid on a helmet. Mr. British Accent slipped his feet into a pair of metal boots. One by one, their bodies began shining with a bright light.
In a brilliant flash, the light dispersed, leaving me in the midst of five armored warriors. Though their suits looked reminiscent of archaic knights, they weren’t as bulky. The metal plates clung closely to their bodies, offering protection while enabling movement. They almost looked like motocross riders who decided to put a medieval flair to their uniforms. Fedora-guy had the heaviest-looking set, but even then he dashed forward towards the growing pack of robo-spiders with surprising speed.
As I watched, he drew a black sword from his side and swung it across the nearest ION, its edges glowing with white light. I didn’t think he’d even be able to scratch the metallic arachnid, but to my surprise, the sword sliced through it like butter. The spider’s red LED eyes blinked faintly for a moment before it collapsed into a heap of scrap metal.
He just… How?! How was this possible?!
The spiders weren’t sympathetic to my brain melting. Spurred on by the attack, they surged forward at the other knights. Eight had crawled out of the dimensional hole by now, with more on the way—well, minus one. Will had drawn two swords of his own and made quick work of another ION. Fedora-man was already taking on another, and to my left, the woman in the team was shooting fire-balls from her hands.
Yeah. Her hands.
I must have been hyperventilating at that point, because I felt someone’s hand on my shoulders.
“Easy, now,” the guy from the shop attempted to comfort me, his voice slightly muffled behind the black visor he wore. “You’re going to be okay.”
I glanced at the incoming spiders and wondered just how things were going to be okay.
“Yeah, we got this covered!” the younger boy piped up, giving me a thumbs up before turning and bashing an ION in the face with a mace-like weapon.
“My name’s Jericho, by the way,” shop-guy said, as nonchalantly as he could while kicking aside another robot. That thing must have weighed a ton, yet he managed to put a good dent in its metal carapace. “But I go by Jerri or Jer, for short.”
“And I’m Sam!”
“Over there is Will and Kendra, and you already met our leader, Henry.”
I blinked stupidly at the both of them. “Who are you people?”
“We’re Knights!” Sam replied eagerly. I imagine behind his visor he was grinning like a madmen. What had these people done to this innocent child?
“Knights,” I repeated, giving Jericho a dubious side glance.
He shrugged, though I wish I could see his expression. “Yeah, we’re… kinda like superheroes.”
As he said this, Will ran up the side of a building—vertically, mind you—before jumping off and gliding a short distance before impaling an ION that had just crawled out of the vortex.
“Superheroes,” I frowned, slowly nodding my head. “First, creepers, then kidnappers. Then, giant metal spiders. And lastly, superheroes. Could my day get any more interesting?”
Electricity surged around the vortex again, this time cracking with ear-splitting volume. The hole widened for a new machine—this one several times larger than the spiders. It towered over us, looking like a cross between a serpant and a centipede—all limbs and blades, with two especially deadly-looking scythes sprouting from its shoulders. It turned its searching gaze towards me, and its four pairs of eyes turned red as they locked on to me.
To me.
Jericho groaned. “Yep.”
“An alpha!” the fedora guy, or Henry, shouted. “Jericho, get Cassandra and Samuel out of here!”
“What?” Sam shouted back. “But I—”
The snake-like alpha ION screeched, bringing down scythe-like arms on Will and the woman, Kendra. The two jumped aside just in time to avoid an impaling, but the attack left an impressive crater in the pavement.
“Alright,” the fourteen-year-old muttered, turning back around. “Let’s go.”
“Cassie?” Jericho turned to me.
I didn’t need an invitation. I took off after Sam, letting my flight response carry me out of that square of insanity. I could hear Jericho following after, his metal suit of armor clanking with every step. We took off down one of the connecting alleyways, though at some point I tripped on something in the dark and fell on my face. Sam slid to a stop, lifting his mace above his head. The strange weapon began producing a glow that illuminated a bunch of garbage cans.
“Sorry,” Sam scratched at the back of his helmet. “I should’ve done that sooner.”
“You okay?” Jericho helped me get back on my feet.
“Fine,” I grunted. Slowly losing my mind, but other than that—yeah, I was just peachy.
“Fence up ahead,” Sam piped in, sounding as cheery as ever.
“I’ll get it,” Jericho volunteered, pulling a sword from his side. As I watched, the edges began to glow with golden light. Running forward, he swung it across the chain-link fence blocking our way, and sliced it right in half.
“I could have done that,” the fourteen-year-old pouted.
I stared at the splintered fence, still trying to wrap my mind out of these guys’ weapons. Swords shouldn’t cut through metal. Not unless they were made of diamond or…
“Let’s keep moving,” Jericho said. “The alpha—”
As he spoke, Will flew into the alleyway behind us, ramming into the side of a building. He put a pretty good dent in the brick before falling onto the ground with a groan. Soon after, the mechanical snake-insect thing spilled into the alley. It hit the wall beside Will, but ignored the downed Knight completely as it glanced in our direction.
“Run!” Jericho shouted at me, leveling his sword at the creature. Sam grabbed my hand and pulled me along. The alpha screeched with its mandibles wide open. Light flashed in its throat seconds before a bolt of energy shot down the alley towards us, illuminating the brick with an icy white light. Jericho leapt in the line of fire, holding up his free hand, which quickly flashed with a light of its own. In seconds, the enemy’s bolt bounced harmlessly off a shield.
I didn’t see what happened next. Sam had pulled me around another corner, leaving Jericho to face down the ION alone. I could hear the clashing of metal against metal as the two of us stepped out onto a street. With the power out, I couldn’t see much beyond the glow of Sam’s weapon—although I did catch a few startled glances. The street wasn’t busy, but it wasn’t abandoned, either.
“Sam…?” I muttered to him, fearing for what would happen if they all saw a giant, menacing robot.
“Not good,” he muttered, taking a step backwards. “Uh… Okay, I got a new plan.”
He tossed his mace skyward. The light intensified, nearly blinding me, before scattering in a burst of sparks. Looking up, I saw that it had… transformed. Now it resembled a scooter, made entirely of metal and lacking wheels. It drifted back down to our level, the underside glowing with light. Sam hopped onto it without reservation, grabbing the handles.
“Hop on,” he held out a hand to me.
I blinked at the contraption. You’d think that at this point, there’d be nothing left that could surprise me, but boy, I had no idea what was going on anymore. I don’t know if I had embraced all this insanity, but either way I found myself climbing on behind the kid. As soon as I lifted my other foot, the scooter lifted—and drifted skyward.
I screamed and clung to the kid with my life.
“Hey, don’t worry,” Sam tried to assure me. “I’m a good driver, I promise.”
Needless to say, that didn’t make me feel any better.
We rose above the rooftops, back-tracking away from the street and the startled gasps below. I wondered what all those people would think in the morning—the power going out and a kid in a suit of armor taking off on a hovering scooter. Maybe they’d blow it all off as a dream. I sure wished I could. As we flew over some apartments, I caught sight of something glinting in the moonlight on a nearby roof. When we drew closer, I could see one of the Knights.
“Looks like Henry,” Sam reported, and started our descent.
I’m not sure how he could tell, but I narrowed my eyes at the figure. He was waving his hands in across his chest, shaking his head vigorously from side to side. “Sam, I think he’s trying to tell—”
Blades of metal rose around us, thrashing in an attempt to knock us out of the air. One succeeded, flipping the scooter over. I lost my grip on Sam, and started falling. Below me, the alpha ION, clinging to the side of a building, reached up with its jaws wide open.
I was going to die.
I heard a cry of rage, saw Henry raise his sword… and everything went black.
*****
“…Miss Poole?”
I groaned, suddenly aware of the aching in every inch of my body. I felt like I had been through a garbage disposal.
“Cassie, are you all right?” another voice spoke up.
Reluctantly, I opened my eyes. I was lying on cold hard pavement, surrounded by several concerned faces. They were unfamiliar to me at first, but after a moment of frowning, the memory came back.
The Knights.
I groaned again, bringing my hand to my face. I heard a collective sigh from everyone around me.
“What happened?” I mumbled, sitting up.
“You fell,” Jericho answered, his expression still creased with worry. “The alpha almost got you, but…”
He glanced up at the woman—Kendra—who quickly stood and walked away.
“The alpha?” I repeated. The memory struck me like a blow, and my eyes widened. I whipped my head around, though earning a headache in the process.
“Easy,” Jericho held me back. “You’re okay. We took care of it.”
“You should’ve seen Henry!” Sam piped up, eyes glinting with excitement. “He jumped off the roof and was all like—wooooo, wha-bam! Stabbed his sword right into the things face, then—”
“It’s gone?” I cut him off, looking between all their faces. When they nodded, I breathed out a sigh of relief. “Fantastic. So now that that’s out of the way… What the h*** was that all about? Why were those things after me?”
Jericho flashed one of his sheepish grins, and glanced desperately at the others.
Will came to the rescue, clearing his throat before saying, “Miss Poole, do you know anything about energy signatures? Some people refer to them auras.”
“Auras.” I quirked a brow.
“Yes—it refers to the field of energy living things radiate. Now, everyone has an aura, but you have a particularly unique aura.”
“O…kay? Why’s that?”
“Because, my dear, you one of us.”
I blanked. “…I’m what now?”
Henry took charge of the conversation, his tone much gentler than Will’s slightly conceited one. “Miss Poole, this is difficult to explain, but… bear with me. We refer to ourselves as the Knights of this realm; we are sworn to protect this world from invaders like the IONs. But knights, as you know, always have a liege to serve… A queen, if you will. And it is from her that we draw our power.”
“A queen…” I wasn’t sure I liked where this was going.
Henry nodded. “Our… former queen passed away recently, but she had an heir. A princess.”
My bad feelings only continued to escalate. “And the princess is…”
“You, Miss Poole.”
I stared at him. I stared at all of them. Their expressions were all grim, as if they were taking this all very seriously. Even Sam looked solemn. I couldn’t help it. I started laughing—maybe because I was cracked, or because I was close to screaming. “This is crazy. Absolutely crazy. You realize how crazy this is, right?”
“Yes, it sounds unbelievable,” Henry acknowledged, endlessly patient with me. “But I will swear on my name that it is true. Listen to me when I say that you shouldn’t be afraid of what you are capable of. You have a wonderful gift that is capable of much good in this life. I am not a man who believes in destiny. There is only potential, and we choose whether or not to live up to that potential—and you, Miss Poole, have the potential to become more powerful than you could imagine. But you have a choice, Miss Poole. You decide who you will become.”
My fake smile faltered, my heart fluttering with sudden fear. “You’ve… You’ve got to have the wrong person. I… I can’t be a princess. I’m a nobody. I work minimum wage at a flower shop. I’m not even the best in my graduating class. I’ve never done anything extraordinary. No powers, no… nothing.”
I had to hand it to Henry—he had the best poker face. I couldn’t tell what he was thinking behind that stone mask of his. I didn’t know if he was disappointed or angry or what. But maybe, there was something… sad. I couldn’t explain it.
“Your powers have not yet awakened, though they are stirring,” he said. “It might be some time before you can bear the title of Queen. But for now… you should go home and think about what has happened tonight. Jericho will escort you home.”
The young man nodded in agreement, though I continued giving Henry my attention. As crazy as this all was… I was reluctant to leave the Knights, knowing that there were robot assassins out to get me. “What about the IONs?”
“We took care of them,” Jericho responded, giving an honest smile. “They shouldn’t bother you for a while.”
“For a while?”
Kendra stepped in, sounding rather harsh as she said, “The IONs have been trying to break into our world for a long time, now, and they aren’t going to give up any time soon. They will continue to hunt you, because you are all that stands between them and taking over this world. Just by existing.”
Well, she certainly knew how to candy-coat things.
“Whatever you decide, Miss Poole,” Henry added before I could get panicked all over again, “we will keep you safe. We are sworn to protect you. Always. If you choose to live a normal life, then we will ensure it.”
I gave each of the warriors a searching glance, but I couldn’t keep it up. Now that the adrenaline and fear had left me, and some sense of normalcy had returned, I was exhausted. “I… I think I’d like to go home, now.”
Henry inclined his chin, and with that, the Knights back away, everyone except for Jericho. He offered a hand, which I took. After he pulled me up, the Knights bowed in reverence. It gave me the strangest feeling, like I was out of place and out of time. I didn’t deserve this, but for a moment… I imagined what it would be like, to be royalty.
Without another word, Jericho led me from the alleyway, my hand tucked into his elbow. Out in the streets, the lights were all back on, and people were going about their business as if nothing had happened. I could see no sign of the IONs, not even any scrap. Jericho said nothing as he led me down the block, which I was grateful for. My head was swimming, and I’m pretty sure that without his guidance I likely wouldn’t have found my way back home.
Before long, I stood before the door of my apartment complex. I didn’t reach for the handle, at first, instead staring at my reflection in the glass.
Henry’s words echoed back to me: I am not a man who believes in destiny. There is only potential, and we choose whether or not to live up to that potential—and you, Miss Poole, have the potential to become more powerful than you could imagine. But you have a choice, Miss Poole. You decide who you will become.
I had the choice. I could continue to live as I was, barely scrapping by as a florist cashier and live in constant fear of robots.
Or… I could be a princess.
My fullest potential… Was this it?