Part 6: The Mice and the Hound, POV: Sam

"Are we ready to go?" Xeno called out to us from across the rooftop. 

All three of us nodded at him. 

"Hahhh, now I know that means yes!" he leapt down the fire escape and we followed. 

When I hopped down the ledges to the fire escape, I could hear Quinn faintly calling out to us, "good luck!"

Through our masks I heard, "Can you all hear me?" from Xeno's voice.

"Loud and clear!" replied Zack.

"Quinn told me that these masks give us the ability to communicate on this private frequency, so now while you all follow me I can give the debrief of the mission," Xeno started to relay our orders while he dashed after him, I'm surprised that we can mildly keep up with him now instead of lagging behind constantly.

"The first ship I fought a few weeks back was the Zankoku advance ship, a calling ship to measure the strength of a planet. From the basic strategies I've logged, we'll likely face an army twice that size for a ground securing fleet and from there they may decide with a larger onslaught from time to time." Xeno rattled off to us.

"Basically," Sheila turned on her mic, "we're fighting lots of guys and somehow going to derail their spaceships onto New York City?" 

"It'd be preferable if the ship didn't crash into lots of buildings," I added, "Maybe lure it to Central Park or any of the rivers?" 

Xeno sighed, "We do what's possible. The three of you are giddy and happy now, but facing down real battles can change a rookie really quickly."

The three of us went silent to let Xeno continue,"hahh, the Zankoku Empire is what causes mine nightmares. The Zankoku is the largest Empire in our Universe. The devils expand by constantly conquering new planets and building their military with other planets' resources, not just alloys, but people and magic too."

I broke the silence by saying, "then there's no other choice but to fight them off, correct? That and you say my not mine in that instance."

"Yes that is simple enough," Xeno assured us that, "our current objective is to defend the people and then Quinn will be able to grab the alloys and ships for more research of his." 

"So uh, where are we supposed to be going?" Sheila asked us. 

Zack tacked on "Yeah, where are we supposed to engage them?" with a little fear in his tone.

Xeno checked for us and he said with a very unsure voice, "A certain corner of the city called Times Square?" 

"HUH!?" All three of us were confused.

"Why Time Square? That's one of the most populated places in New York City at this hour!" 

"What's the reason behind this!?" 

"What both of the idiots said!"

The three of us ratted off.

Another familiar voice tuned in, "Well for starters, my men are starting to evacuate Times Square, and we know that the aliens are tracking for magic signals ergo: you four." 

"Quinn, that still doesn't explain why Times Square and not just, outside of the city?" I rebutted. 

He quickly shut down my argument with ..."We don't have enough time to transport you out of the city and even if we did, we'd be at a less vantage point because of a lack of cover and surroundings to use for combat! Besides, Times Square is fully lit up, a decently open space AND lots of vantage points to use!"

"Ooohhh get destroyed Sam," Sheila teased.

"Though not all battles will occur at Times Square because we aren't certain when they'll come all the time." 

Zack asked, "Then how did we know they'll come now?" 

"The ISS's telescopes caught glimpses of a fleet of Alien ships with one farther ahead than the rest so we safely assumed so." Quinn provided, "that and he's descending onto New York City now, look up." 

All three four of us arced our heads up to stare into the sky. Tonight it was lightly snowing so clouds covered most of the sky of the already blocked skyline from all the skyscrapers.

"I don't see anything." Zack commented on the obvious.

"No shit Sherlock." Sheila shut him down.

"Wait, there might be something," Xeno extended his arm to signal us to stop sprinting and jumping, "Just, wait." 

Slowly a light from the skies started to shine on us, "Ohhhh shit." I said. 

Piercing out from the clouds came a black and purple ship easily twice the size of the last one with four large white lights shining down on the four of us. Cannons started to aim at  us, Xeno started to push us and wail, "Go Go GO GO!" escalating in volume each time he shouted go. 

We started to dash towards Times Square, easily running faster than any other time we've run. 

I was farthest ahead so I turned back to look for the others. Sheila and Xeno were behind me and Zack was a bit farther back, so I caught a glimpse of the aliens for just a second. They were starting to launch smaller tanks and carriers that flew through the air to catch us. 

I stood frozen in shock, "this is really getting real… I don't know if I'm ready for this" I thought. 

At that moment Sheila grabbed onto my arm, "C'mon dumbass, keep goin ya fuck~!" Despite the word choice, that was the most endearing yet also frightened I've heard Sheila to date.

I sucked up all the bad feelings and tossed em' out! "Heh, you're scared or something?" I said while leaping past and over Sheila. 

"Not a chance!" She sped up too. 

"What's the plan?" I asked Zack 'n Xeno. 

"Uhhh- I- I don't know." Zack started to stutter and freak out, "I- I just don't know!"

Xeno said, "Just destroy them." 

"Yeah okay both of you suck at plans, Sam got anything?" Sheila retorted. 

"Uhh… lets start making spells and do the thing that saves them. once we get to Times Square we turn back and fire at them? That work?" I suggested. 

"Yeah- uhh that'll work." Zack frantically replied. 

"Yes, start creating your highest damaging spells!" Xeno opened up a magic circle while still running. 

The rest of us started to do the same but we lagged behind him, "it's hard making these under stress." is probably what Zack's thinking… I'm probably trying to hide it too.

I could see the bright lights of Times Square ahead of us so I called out to the four of them, "ya ready!?" 

"Ready enough for now." Zack called out. 

Before Sheila could finish what she was about to say I said, "we need to time the shots to do the most damage!" 

"Then fucking count down then hmm?" Sheila sarcastically commented.

We turned backwards and saw flying tanks galore speeding right at us. 

All of us stood silently as I started to count down, "three… two," waiting for one felt like an eternity, "one… NOW!" 

[BAM!] 

Four magic circles with respective colors of: red, blue, purple and white fired out geysers of elements towards the enemy creating an explosion on impact of them. Some of the tanks exploded and some crashed to the ground. About three made it through the explosion and kept speeding at us. 

"Get down there and clean up any that survived the impact, I'll stay up here and handle those three." Xeno instructed. 

"How are you going to stop three FLYING tanks? You aren't exactly the tankiest and bulkiest person I've ever met." Sheila remarked. 

"Stopping forces isn't all about brute force," Xeno commented while getting in a stance with his spear's tip facing down like a hockey stick. 

Zack started to nervously climb down the fire escape while Sheila and I watched, "Don't worry we'll catch up!" I told him. 

The tank kept speeding at Xeno until it started to fire lasers from a cannon at the front. Xeno ran zig zag to swerve the blasts and thrusted the spear with a wind spell to back it up right down the cannon in the front, "HAH!" The tank started to tip over Xeno and he backed away to let it crash on the rooftop, "I told you I'd handle it! NOW GO!" 

We didn't even nod, we just followed Zack's move and darted down the fire escape. 

"I think that Xeno's much stronger than we assumed, right Sam?" Sheila pestered me with questions as we ran down the ladders and stairs. 

"Yeah that much is obvious." 

"What do ya think happened to him that he's here now?" 

"Obviously something is not good." 

"Should we ask him about it?" 

"I don't know." 

"C'mon," Sheila landed on a dumpster and leaped out, "Your responses are boring." She yelled up at me. 

"I'll be more likely to answer if you buy me a coffee and we're not in the middle of a fight where I could die." I said as I dropped down onto the ground brushing the snow off my coat and started running out to the streets. 

Sheila retorted back at me, "I'm not going on a date with you," then ran past me.

"Not what I meant!!" I shouted out to her! 

Stepping onto the streets we saw Zack staring at the crashed tanks with flames roaring on top of them. There was something cathartic knowing that we were the ones who caused this, that and in combination with the snow falling on top of it created an inexplicably relaxing feeling and I felt less tense in the moment.

"Sam," Zack cried out to me, "Can you control the flames to envelop the whole tanks so we won't have to come face to face with them?" He said with a larger emphasis of fear in his voice.

"I can't do that, y'know how bad I'm at with free form magic." 

Sheila drew out and cracked her whip, "then let's lure them right into Times Square!"

"Yeah we should do that quickly," I pointed out past the flames, "Three more tanks coming our way!" Even then the survivors from the tanks crashing down started to climb out of the flames and readjust themselves.

Sheila cracked her whip against the icy road making a loud glass shattering-like sound, "COME AND GET US!" 

She turned back to us, "Go out to Times Square and prepare some more spells to fire. I'll bring em to ya! Besides, both of you have more firepower than I do at the moment." I could hear some unsureness in her voice but also assurance at the same time. 

"Heh," Zack acknowledged as we both turned around to start dashing to Times Square,  "Just like I planned." he said sounding like he's trying to calm  himself down

I commented to him as we ran, "Mmm not exactly, all three of us were meant to play bait. But now we're improvising." I started to create a magic circle of another fire blast. 

Zack sighed as he kept weaving more into his own circle, "Heh. Making up shit on the spot and it somehow comes together, your specialty." 

About a week ago Zack came up with the first battle plan: "To use the three of us as bait and gather as many troops as possible and the final onslaught would be Xeno casting a large wind spell eradicating all of them." is how Zack put it. That was the original plan, to have the three of us play as mice for the cats to chase us. And, finally have the hound eat up all the cats. 

We made it to Times Square and we turned back to Sheila running at max speed while trying to avoid fire from the laser cannons. 

"Why do they use lasers?" I inquired towards Zack, "They are visually slower than bullets." 

"Maybe it's because they're easier to mass produce and hold? I don't know, just be ready." 

Sheila came so close to us, about a few feet away then swerved to the right, "NOW!" she shouted at us. We fired both our spells and the laser cannons at the front were destroyed and the fronts were mostly ripped, but it wasn't enough to completely shut down the tanks. 

The troops inside the tank climbed out of them and dashed towards us, "Alright, this is getting real now." I drew out my odachi and Zack grabbed his axe. 

"Did I ever tell you guys how much I hated fighting?" Zack propped up out of sarcasm. 

"I don't think you have a choice right now." I stated, "That and I think we should…" I sprinted in front of them and tried to slash the opponents, "Try to get first touch!" I exclaimed while struggling to parry the enemy's spear, "Don't cha think?" I tried to focus and light my sword on fire but I just couldn't. I managed to somehow parry the troop's spear and slash his torso with my odachi before pulling back. 

"See, first touch!" 

"More like first blood," Sheila remarked and she lashed her whip at the upcoming spearmen. Zack jumped forward and tried slashed three of them with his axe but only hitting two. No worries, I covered the third one for him.

"I gotcha!" I said while slashing the one Zack missed

"We need to move back into the light. We need to see them easier." Zack turned tail and dashed into the lights of Times Square. 

The three of us saw FBI agents still evacuating a few citizens out of Times Square, "OI GET THEM OUTTA HERE! THEY'RE COMING!!" I yelled out to them. All they did was silently salute and slowly pushed along the people. 

Zack rotated his axe in a circle and when he completed a full arc, the axe was crackling with lightning, "That's how you do free form magic Sam!" he frantically joked at me. 

He leapt forward and shot out the lightning at them. Some had their spears electrocuted and they dropped them, some just fell to the ground. 

"That's my chance!" I ran up and slashed out the ones taken aback for a bit, "C'mon let's go both of you!" 

They both followed suit and charged upfront. Sheila used her whip to disarm as many of them as possible by either whipping their hands causing them to drop it or grabbing their spears using her whip and pulling them out of their hands. From there it was up to either me or Zack to deal a finishing blow. 

I'll admit, they were terrifying. Most of the time they were bulkier than us but they also felt overwhelmed by us. Was it because we were faster? I couldn't tell…

At some point the pace of the battle started to slow so we swept back into the lights of Times Square. I put my sword on my belt as Sheila started to say while wheezing and heaving, "Huff huhh, where is Xeno?" 

"Has anyone seen him? Hahhhh…" Zack added. 

"Huff Huff… No I haven't, none of us have." 

Zack charged his axe with lightning again, "Well get ready for round two." You could physically see his arm start to drag and slow in movement.

"AGHH God this is the toughest workout." Sheila sighed. 

"It's not a workout," I drew my sword out again, "This is about survival." 

Sheila commented, "HAhhh, shut up… Nerd. huff, come back… when you can use free form magic." Sheila coated her whip in water and you could see the water on the whip slowly start to pick up frost. 

Droves of alien troops started to gather in front of us with their spears drawn and crowded out in front of us. 

"What are they waiting for?" Zack heaved. 

"Us." I commented.

Through the droves of oncoming enemies I see an explosion in the back and a bright white leap over, "What's up? As the adolescents of this planet would say."

"Way to ruin the entrance Xeno!" Sheila waved at him. 

I asked, "Where have you been?" 

"Destroying the tanks on the roofs then correcting your wrongs!" He exclaimed. 

"What do you mean by correcting our mistakes? By the way, it's not 'wrongs' in that phrase," Zack first corrected his grammar, "But what do you mean? We've been attacking them like you asked."

"You need to kill, not just slash or give wounds or to knock them down. Thy enemies won't stay down unless they are dead!" He enunciated, "Be prepared to take lives!" He charged a vortex of wind into his spear and he dashed back into the fray!

"Did he just tell us to commit murder!?" Sheila impugned, "Cause I think he just told us to commit murder?"

"Do we have a choice?" Zack recharged his axe again, "Either our lives and our friends 'n families or their lives. Personally I choose my life and my loved ones. Thank you very much." 

"So like the Train track problem?" I added on.

"Not really, that's which would you rather kill, this is kill or be killed." Zack took a deep breath… and his lightning disappeared.

"Are you good Zack?" Sheila and I asked. 

"If you need to rest, we can cover for you for a second." Sheila patted his back.

"No-, no I'm fine," Zack started to hyperventilate, "I'm fine, I'm… fine." He started to push us away.

"BREATH, TAKE A SECOND ZACK! Take a second to calm down!" We sat him down on a bench in Times Square. We checked him and on the left side of his hip he was grazed and a slice of his stomach was bleeding, "I'll bandage it" I said. I grabbed some bandages from my belt and patched him up a bit. I removed his mask and I saw the top of his forehead had been bludgeoned on the left side. Zack told me to  "Give me- Gah! The bandages. Trust me, I'll bandage myself and clip my mask back on, grhh! Just go…" He struggled to say, "They need you, not me." I could see the desperation in his eyes, I just nodded, passed him my bandages and ran to Sheila and Xeno.

While I was bandaging up Zack, Sheila kept whipping the onslaughts while Xeno dodged her whip and started to impale or slash deeply into any of the soldiers that were pushed back and went off balance. 

All I could do was stare at my Odachi, "If only I could make you ignite" I stared at it. 

"OI!" I heard Xeno shout at me, he was holding his spear up with both of his hands on the spear's shaft holding back a bunch of the aliens from Sheila, "What are you doing!?" 

I just stared and gasped while Sheila cried out, "GET THE HELL OVER HERE AND HELP!!"

I looked at Zack and he was still on the bench, axe on the ground and he was either out cold resting or barely conscious. I could see both Sheila and Xeno staring death in the eyes. 

"C'mon ya fucking loser, get your shit together and ignite your own weapon!" I yelled at myself internally.  I started to dash towards Xeno and Sheila, charged up magic into my legs and leaped over Xeno, "Damn that was a high jump!"  and right at the last second… my Odachi burst into flames!

Finishing my attack I arced my slash into a semi circle and the flames spread across all of the soldiers. 

Xeno and Sheila took the chance to finish them off, so they did. 

"Well done Sam, may you replicate that stunt?" Xeno requested. 

"The jump or the flames?" I joked, "I'm kidding," and then I lit up my sword again, "Also, uh Zack's condition could be dire. If we're the targets, then we need to either protect him or wrap this up quickly." I reported to Xeno. 

"I see," Xeno leapt back into the air and towards Zack, "Then the obvious choice is to stand by our comrade." 

Sheila and I dashed around to Xeno, the only problem was at that time all of the Zankoku foot soldiers started to surround us all. The bench we placed Zack on, was next to a wall in the middle of Times Square for advertisements, the Zankoku forces formed a circle around in front and behind the wall so we had nowhere to run even if we jumped over with Zack somehow.

"As you said Sam, this situation is pretty dire." Xeno looked up and ALONG with us being surrounded there were also tanks in the sky that aimed at us with the spaceship even higher up shining lights down on us. 

"Yeah," Sheila sighed, "Pretty shitty if I say so myself." 

"Are they just going to wait for us to make a move?" I asked. 

"Perhaps," Xeno took a stanced spreading his legs and putting his spear out at the soldiers in front of us, "The commanders are allowed to lead their men however they see fit. This one could be quite honorable." 

"So what you're saying is we're going to 'go down with honor'? Or some media bullshit like that in animes?"

"Wait! I may have a plan…" I whispered to both of them and also the plan. 

…

"It's worth a shot," Sheila shrugged, "Don't see how else we're gon get outta here alive." 

"It's risky, but everything about this is risky." Xeno tried to joke about it. 

Suddenly at that moment, an axe coated with lightning was thrown at the tank right in front of our eyes, "I… like that plan." Zack strained to speak much less throw the axe and he collapsed back on the bench. 

The axe started to drop a bit, "Shit It's not gonna make it!" An updraft picked up the axe and finished lobbing it into the tank causing it to crash and explode down onto the crowds of soldiers below. 

"You're Welcome! Sam! Sheila! You're up!" Xeno called out.

Both of us opened a magic circle to create fire and water spells at maximum speed and aimed them right at each other.

"We don't have a lot of time!" Xeno shouted as groups of spearmen started running our way

"Don't worry, we're good!" I called out and both of us released the spells to create some steam and we all hid in the mistiness.

"What now?" Sheila asked. 

"In the confusion," Xeno drew his spear, "WE FIGHT!" He ran up to them and stabbed three of them. 

"No other choice," I shrugged while igniting my sword, "Shit! it's a bit weaker than the last one." I still sprinted up nonetheless and started slashing the forces. I looked back and saw Sheila fighting as well, soon looked even further back to see Zack and then I… [BAM] 

There was a ringing in my ears and my eyes were blurry. My eyes started to drip red and I knew, "Shit I'm bleeding… C'mon, you don't have time to just bleed, LOOK AND EVALUATE YOUR SITUATION!"

I forced my eyes open and saw I was down in the snow in Times Square. Away from Zack, I saw Sheila standing a foot away near me and Xeno not far away. "Where's my Odachi!? I don't see it anywhere! I need to get up… don't lie around like a useless sack of shit." 

Struggling to grasp anything in the snow, I strained myself to push myself back up. I thought to myself that, "I can't just fight with nothing and if I don't have a blade… no other choice." I tried to light my own arms on fire… and I did. 

"Shit it hurts! But no better way!" [WHAM!] 

I slammed my flame ignited fist right into the head of an alien that was right where I started to stand up. 

"SAM!" Sheila called out, "We thought you were dead! Actually it was just Xeno, but y'know." Sheila was wielding my Odachi on her right hand and her whip on her left. I looked to my right and saw Xeno, "or what I think is Xeno" with his spear and Zack's Axe. 

"Good job surviving kid." Xeno assured me, "Keep your soul attached to your body, most of the workload is done here. We'll get you help in a short span of time!" 

"Yeah our little steam and blend stunt did a lot of the work for us to get our damage in!" Sheila put a thumbs up. I could feel a slight unease in her voice, like she either got hit in the throat or had started crying, "Oh and uh," she tossed my Odachi at me, "You probably want this back. My moves are way too sloppy with that heh heh." she laughed off.

I couldn't do anything but just stare at my blood-stained blade. It was pristine and shiny before this, and now it's covered in red blood and my own eyes were starting to go red. I couldn't cough out anything more than, "Thanks," I looked towards Zack, "uhh… How's Zack?" 

"I'm… existent." He called out to us. He leaned on the side of the bench with his body slightly arced up while he tried to get up, "I'd like my precious axe back so I have something to walk with…" he extended his hand out. Xeno scuttled over and handed Zack his axe. 

"I appreciate the sentiment here but I NEED HANDS TO HELP ME!" Sheila shouted to us. She was whipping the group of the soldiers to keep away from us for the time being. 

Xeno finished off the last batch without saying a word. He got back to us and sighed, "Now we must conquer the ship above."

"We… need to hit that… hrn, with the biggest spells we have," Zack heaved and leaned on his axe to hobble over to us, "Because I doubt we can fight our way up… Gah! Hueh, Not in this condition anyway."

"Then we shall fire with every ounce of Magic Power left!" Xeno claimed. 

"Yes but where do we aim our shots?" I asked. 

"How about the broken light?" Sheila pointed. The ship had four lights and somehow in the fray of the chaos, one of the lights were destroyed and had a crack right into the rest of the electrical circuits into the ship. 

"... That'll work." I commented, I didn't even notice the light was out. I was seeing only out of my right eye because I was scared blood would drip into my eyes. 

"I think," Zack dropped to the ground, "We.. need to take a quick breather… and bandage ourselves up." 

"Yeah that'd be nice," I knelt down, "I need to wipe the blood off my left eye." 

"We'll rest and recover afterwards," Xeno planted his spear into the ground from the shaft, "We need to create spells right now!" Xeno opened a huge magic circle and started weaving. 

The three of us groaned and started to open up our own magic circles. 

"Oi Sam! Sheila! Look at this!" Zack called us over to him. Sheila and I have to keep our stances to keep our magic circle from breaking, we had to just waddle over awkwardly. 

"What is it? We really have to focus on this, y'know, end of the world possibility but it's fine I guess." Sheila shrugged 

"Are you not injured?" I inquired, "How are you able to still make sarcastic remarks in this situation?" 

"It's how I cope with serious events." Sheila flatly said, "But thanks for exposing that for me." She remarked again!

"Can both of y'all shut up!" Zack made a movement which added to the spell circle the ability to cancel the spell and instantly resummon where he left off for another time, "Why didn't we think of that!?" I thought. Sheila and I did the same and then Zack told us to "Look," he flipped over a corpse of a Zankoku Soldier. "Look at this," he pointed at a hole in his back, "That's a bullet wound. Not a stab or impale wound, a wound from being shot."

"Does Xeno have a gun?" I asked. 

"No. He doesn't have a gun," Sheila recalled, "So now, who did it?" 

"None of us, that's for sure. Someone else is out there in the dark," Zack peered into the dimly lit street that the Zankoku flew their tanks from towards us.

"But regular bullets shouldn't work on them right!?" Sheila shook Zack down for answers.

"You're right Sheila, now stop shaking Zack," I told her off, "So either someone has harvested metal from the asteroids to make bullets or… someone could have magic like us and put their magic into the bullets like how we coat our weapons in our elements." I extended Zack's point. 

"That's true, but there is no sign of a burn or an electrocute or… really any possible damage, it looks like being shot from a regular bullet." He started to pull the corpse a bit so we could see the wound more clearly. 

"I think I'm gonna throw up," Sheila gagged. 

"All for science… well? Anyone wanna try pulling a bullet out of a corpse?" Zack questioned us. 

"FUCK NO!" Both of us yelled at him. 

"Fine fine, I was joking anyway… partially." 

"Can we go back to making spells to blow up a spaceship in front of us?" I opened my magic circle again. 

Sheila called out to Xeno, "Wait Xeno, why doesn't this ship just fly away and come back with more men to pummel us into red, blue, purple and white pastes?" 

"The culture surrounding the Zankoku is utter victory. Forces are disbanded from the offer to retreat under any circumstance, unless someone super SUPER high of ranking demands it." Xeno stared up at the ship, "So, the devils are here to stay and are plotting our demise with what little resources they have left! Have you finished your spells yet?" 

He could clearly see us still making them so Sheila sarcastically replied with, "Mhm yup we're ready to fire away!" 

"Finish quickly, I sense we have about an Earthen minute before they try something." 

"What do you mean by 'sense'?" Zack asked. 

"As in, I can sense emotions and intentions around me. It becomes a thing you can train with magic. A few of my old comrades used to train to heighten their senses to feel movements from hundreds of quargons away." Xeno explained to us. 

"And a quargon is approximately how long?" Sheila led on for Xeno. 

"About one Earthen meter. Wait, this was a waste of time, FINISH THY SPELLS!"

The three of us started to frantically scramble in weaving our spells. 

We aimed our magic circles right at the broken light as I noticed that, "Y'know if Xeno's right about this, we need to start running for our lives." 

"Should be fine y'know with half of our team in not too safe physical conditions." Sheila sarcastically remarked.

"Three fourths Sheila, you're not doing too hot for yourself." Zack commented. 

Sheila fired back by saying, "Much better than you though~!" I could 'sense' Sheila sticking her tongue out, not really that's just the vibe that she's giving off.

"Shut up guys!" I told them off, "We shoot on my mark!" As I said that my right eye started to twitch, "Shit. Just hold on for five seconds." I started the countdown, "Fire on three… two… one… NOW!" Four blasts more intense and vibrant than the last combined spells attack sparkling in the snowy night sky of Times Square shot into the sky!

[CRACK!] 

The four spells had hit the ship right into the lights and may've affected the rest of the ship because the alien ship started to list and dip down on its Starboard side.

"Sam was right! We need to start absolutely sprintin'!" Sheila grabbed me and ran from Times Square. Xeno grabbed Zack and also booked it. 

[CRASH!]

The Zankoku spaceship crashed down onto Times Square, flinging tons of debris and crashing into some buildings…

"Well, nothing collapsed" Zack surveyed the area. 

"No shit, but a lot of the building's facades got destroyed." I pointed out while having my mask unclipped and wiping the blood off my face, "pahh it stings," I strained a bit. 

"We must inspect the damages before we exit the field of battle!" Xeno drew out his spear and started to run towards the crash site. Xeno carved out a small hole into the ship and he slipped right in. 

The three of us shrugged and climbed into the ship too. It was a classic 'alien movie destroyed spaceship' vibe with dark purple walls and open wires and electricity flying. Some lights were broken on the ground and still illuminated but sometimes shuts on and off. 

"Where is… everyone?" Sheila asked. 

"Well uh, that might be it." I pointed at the ground to see a dead corpse of a soldier but he wasn't in any armor or held any weapons. 

"That's an engineer, likely." Xeno told us, "The purpose they serve is to keep their ship in pristine quality. Some become tacticians and help strategize military plans." 

"Clearly there was no tactician on this ship if all they did was throw their forces right at us," Sheila mumbled. 

"Of course not, this ship was just the first onslaught. They'll send more and more challenging foes as time moves forward." 

"Just like a game's level system," I thought to myself. 

We kept treading through the open wires and sockets of the crashed ship before we came across the door to the bridge of the ship. The three of us leaned against the sides of the wall just in case there was anything while Xeno was going to open the door forcefully with his spear. 

[CREAK!] 

The door squeaked and creaked as Xeno opened it and… there was no resistance. 

"Sam, light." Xeno signaled to me. I lit my Odachi on fire and peered into the dark bridge. Zack started to survey the area inside with what little was exposed with the light. "There's nothing," he said, "Can you sense anything?" 

"I sense nothing." Xeno calmly stated. We walked around on the bridge, easily the most spacious portion of the ship we've seen thus far. Xeno and Zack started to tinker around with the keyboards at the front of the ship checking if anything still worked. Sheila and I were just walking around the room and taking a look at what stuff from space is like. 

"Honestly, not as weird as I thought." she said, "Like it's pretty clean in here besides the fact that we crashed it ten minutes ago, but besides that… not bad."

"Did you think there would be an alien goo or mutagen in here or something?" I joked around. 

"I don't know, maybe." Sheila commented, "I didn't expect anything because literally anything could be in here." 

"True." 

Xeno got the cameras in the ship to start working and then declared to all of us, "I think it's safe to consider that there are no remnant soldiers left." 

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Zack asked. 

"I sense no one plus the cameras are on and there's no movement tracked besides us." He pointed at the monitor.

"So we're done here? We can go get medical help and then go home?" I asked. 

"That's correct." Xeno sighed in relief. 

"Alright let's get out of here!" Zack stated in a scared tone as he started to go towards the door in the bridge. 

"Yeah, let's just go home." I added on while patting him on the back. All four of us started the trip outside of the spaceship and crawled out of the same hole that Xeno carved. 

Quinn was outside with ambulances to greet us, "Hey." he waved, "Good work out there. We'll get you to the labs with a fresh change of clothes. We'll debrief and then send ya home." He turned around and started instructing a bunch of agents and construction workers to "remove the damages and bring it to my facility" I quoted him. 

The three of us started to tread towards the ambulances and then we turned around towards Xeno to see if he's coming, "Go on, I'll be with you at the debrief." He went on to help the construction workers talk about the material used. 

We got into the ambulances as they checked our conditions and started to drive off to the labs, "One down, many more to go." I sighed and whispered to myself as the ambulance started to drive.