Chapter 9

Alice just looked at me a little worried, “no, I feel fine actually no different.” That was when I saw that her eyes had gone wide. “What, what is going on?” A look of fear came over her as she rushed to me. “What is this?”

I reached in seeing what she was. My god, she was seeing energy patterns like I was. “You have to turn it off, think of it going away.”

She took a deep breath then concentrated. A few minutes, I could see that she was starting to relax, plus the patterns were fading. “Like that?” She asked.

“Yes, very good, you have a quicker handle on it than I did,” I told her.

“It seemed easy the way that you asked me to do it,” she said. She then looked up at me, “thank you so much, I thought I was going mad.”

“I will do all I can to aid you, all of you. We are at twenty-one, though I am afraid that we will need more. I am glad that all of you are now beyond the agents, though you will need more,” I told them.

They looked at him as if they had missed something. “We need more? What are you talking about?” Alice asked.

“There are a lot of tricks that you need to know that can save your lives later,” I told them.

Still, they were looking at me as if I had two heads. “I’m afraid, like a lot of us, I am not really understanding,” Alice said, speaking up again.

“There are things that you need to learn, tricks to defeat the enemy. Tricks that many don’t know will save your lives and those with you.

I had finally got all of them to grasp the first one when I felt another cry for help. Damnit, I thought I had taken out all but three ships. You’d think they would hesitate to attack.

I looked at my daughters then vanished. I almost immediately could feel them following. I appeared a moment later, near a fountain. I saw a small child surrounded by at least twenty adults.

What the hell I thought, reaching out, I could feel the aliens that had taken over the adults. I just so happened to pass over the small child. What the hell? For all intents and purposes, it felt like an alien.

I hung back a bit longer to actually watch. It was as I thought it might be, the child wasn’t really fighting the adults. I thought about it longer, then blanketed all of them with a pulse.

I wasn’t really surprised when they all went down. With all of them out, I actually felt the real PERSON that needed help. Appearing on the other side of the town, I saw a young male being attacked.

I was about to reach out to help him, when I felt another younger male. Son of a bitch I thought that young male is a powerful natural.

I concentrated on the younger male. Can you hear me? I asked.

For a moment I only felt fear, then I heard, who are you? Are you here to hurt me and my brother? The voice asked.

No, I replied, I am actually here to help you both. I have a place where these things can’t get to you. I feel that you and he are tired and need a rest. I am sure that you and he would like it.

I’m pretty sure he would, if you can help, I would appreciate it.

“OK, let him know that they are about to fall, OK? I told him.

Sure, he said, then all went quiet. No one but the two males were even aware that something was about to happen. I reached a hand out toward all the people that had been trying to get to them. A little concentration and all but one fell.

So, I thought you weren’t still hanging around. Like the rest of your supposed warriors, I thought you had run. Still here to have your ass handed to you. I am here to do just that,” I told the warrior from before.

Oh no, I am not here for conflict though, I do want to be here when you are finally and totally defeated.

So, you are, like the others, afraid of me. You are a coward, as I thought.

No, like you, I am not brainless. I know when I should pull back, no, what is coming, you will not defeat.

Funny, they said the same thing about the first race we defeated. When we did that, we only had a few more than we have now.

Yes, a great victory though, I don’t think you are prepared for the sheer amount of power that is coming.

With that, the warrior was gone, suddenly. Damnit I could have ended it then and there. I thought about what it had said. If what it said was true, we were in a lot of trouble.

I mean, yeah, we had twenty-one now three, they had a lot of power. The thing was that they were almost completely unfocused.

Then there was the fact that we didn’t know how much more time we had. My daughters and Alice appeared a moment later.

“I have two more take them to the house. I feel another, I’ll be back as soon as I can,” I told them, then blinked out. I knew that one of my daughters were going to back me up. Damn I thought, she’s gotten faster.

This time when I appeared, I was again, in a thick forested area. I shook my head why in the hell did this area feel so familiar? The smells here evoked memories that I hadn’t had in a long while.

I started to move forward toward the person I could feel. Damn, they felt familiar. What was going on?

As soon as I reached where the person was, I realized that the universe or whatever was truly screwing with me. I could only shake my head as I looked at a man I hadn’t seen in a very long time.

He, as shocked as I was, threw his arms around me, giving me a crushing bear-type hug. As I struggled to breathe, an older teen came out of the house behind him.

“Oh,” he said, “you remember my sister, don’t you?” I just nodded, as I realized it was her and not him that I was looking for.

The thing was that her mental power was by far almost the strongest that I had run across. OK, now I felt bad, I knew just how dangerous this was. That the survival rate wasn’t that good, though doing nothing was a death sentence.

I also felt her try to probe me, then I saw the look of astonishment on her face when she couldn’t get through. “So, what have you been...” her brother was saying when she interrupted him.

“Who are you?” She asked with a look of surprise and fear on her face. “I have never not been able to get through.” This also caught the attention of her brother as he stepped between the two of us. “Don’t do that, he is very powerful, he can hurt you without touching you,” she warned.”

He laughed, then almost moaned as he was frozen to the spot, unable to move. “You should listen to her. Though going into another’s mind is rather rude,” I told the both of them.

I could feel her trying to free her brother, and her frustration that she could do nothing. Again, she asked a question, “why are you here? I am obviously of no use to you.”

I then went into the war that we were fighting. What was at stake and the cost it might cost us.

“NO!” Her brother yelled. “You can’t guarantee she’ll come back? Hell no you aren’t going,” he said.

She put her arms on her hips as she pointed a finger at him. “If the world is at stake and I can help, I am going! It was just like when you went into the Army, it was your duty. Well, this is mine! You know you can’t stop me, so stop it!”

Her brother struggled a moment more, then dropped his head. “It should be me, not you, you know that.”

“Yeah, I know, though life sucks, and it’s never fare as you know. I’m sure that Mr. Black isn’t going to let me go into this not being trained a bit,” she said.

“Bill?” Her brother said as soon as I let him go. “You promise to try and get her back? She’s all I have now. I don’t want to lose her.”

“I’ll do what I can though you realize that this is a war. A war that we cannot afford to lose, cause if we do? That’s it the end,” I told the both of them.

He sighed then nodded, giving his sister a hug, then we vanished back to my house. I immediately reached out to add another three rooms to the house. Damn getting to mansion size, I thought.

I was surprised when I saw that both my daughters were working on uping the two new brothers.

Though, that was nothing when there was a knock on my front door. The only ones that could get through were normal humans. As I had no neighbors, who in the hell could it be? None of the government people could get through, so who?

“You can imagine my complete surprise when I opened the front door to find my sister standing there. “Doris?” I said, shocked to see her. I knew she only lived an hour away, so this was unexpected.

I was also shocked when she threw herself into my arms and started to sob. “Bill!” She cried. “He’s gone, just gone!” She yelled, then started to cry again.

Though the most shocking thing was the amount of power I felt pouring off her. OK, I thought, just what in the hell was going on? I had never, in all the years since I had developed my power, ever, felt anything from her.

As I held her I could feel the complete desperation that she was feeling. A moment later she looked up at me as I felt her almost probe my mind. That I knew wasn’t going to happen. Then I also her surprise at not being able to.

I knew that it was just her and my older teenage nephew. I suddenly felt a chill that this was about him.

I then sat her down as both my daughters looked at me confused. “Doris?” I said, “I’d like to introduce my daughters, this is Bell, and this is Trina. Yeah, I know it was a surprise to me too,” I said as her eyes got huge. “Trina, Bell, this is your Aunt Doris, I haven’t seen her for a few years. She also has a son a little younger than you Bell, called John.”

They were both nodding though they still had shocked looks on their faces.

I turned back to Doris, “you said he’s gone. Who are you talking about?”

“John,” she tried to hold it together. “I saw him walking away from the house, then nothing. I haven’t seen him almost all week. I went to the cops, but you know they said he’s an older teen rebellious, that kind of shit. Bill, you have to help me, I know you can feel him.”