Fall of the Stars: Clint's Story

Chapter 11

"Pain changes people." -Unknown

~~~

The light blinded Clint for just a temporary second. The next thing he knew he was facedown, Lisa dragging him with her teeth. They dug into his shirt.

"Come on!" She muffled. "Get up! You're too heavy!"

He stirred and tried to get up. There was another muffling screech, and the Leader stepped in front of them.

"You two aren't you going anywhere," he declares. "Give it up, Nyra."

Nyra? Clint looked back at Lisa. She was frowning a little. Her wings folded back a little.

"That's not my name anymore," she said. "You should know that."

Clint watched her. She seemed sad, her eyes were dark and somber. She looked back at Clint.

"It always has been," the alien leader insists. "Leave the boy here. I will allow you to escape."

"And you maul him?" Lisa brushes herself up to make her look more intimidating. "No. He's coming with me. His power will not fall into the wrong hands."

The Leader looks back in forth between them. Clint's hair on his neck is up and he's scared of both what Lisa will do if the alien attempts to do anything, and the creature's reaction to something that she might do. "It's like democracy," Lisa continued. "Let him choose where he wants to go."

She can't be serious. That form of government was abolished with reality itself! The wheels in Clint's head were spinning. With the crumbling of the United States, came the crumbling of democracy. It was more like anarchy now for the human race. If people wanted an equal government, the best thing to do was to surrender to the creatures. There was no other way.

Lisa prodded his side with her wing. Her eyes were genuine. What is she really? She can't be human, that's out of the question. But then comes the line, what am I? Where did I come from?

He knew both the Leader and Lisa could answer the questions no problem. But something yearned for him to have a father, but another part of him warned that there was a balance to that. There's always been a balance to good versus evil. Besides, Lisa's promised she can teach me what the Overlord will.

Finally he took a deep inverse of breath. "I'm not going anywhere with you," he said to the creature, trying to draw on strength.

He might have been confused but he thought he saw a glimmer of anger and sadness in the creature's eyes. But then it was gone in the blink of an eye. "You will come back." The Leader mustered. "This girl cannot teach you."

Lisa snorts from behind him. She says nothing. Finally, "Come on, Clint. Lets go."

"Don't think this is over," the overlord said from behind them. "It's far from over."

Clint dreaded to hear that but he knew it was true. He's right. This is the beginning of every story. Then comes The End.

<>

"What are you really?"

The little group in the escape pod, Clint, Lisa, Angelica, Jackie, Ethel, and Joan, were sitting down in the small area. The view of space was purely visible from here, and that's what held Clint on.

He's asked her that question so many times. She is not human, but maybe a replica of it like the others, minus the powers and wings.

"What am I?" She returned. "I'm a being, Silverwing."

Confusion showed in Jackie's eyes. "It's my alien name," Clint explains to her. She nods understanding.

Lisa snorts. "Humans are weird."

"We are not," Jackie retorts. "We're a diversity of cultures."

"Oh sure you are. Your name is Jackie isn't it?" The blonde teases.

The brunette slowly nods. "Yes... Why?"

"I've seen the way Jack looks at you, Jacqueline," Lisa laughs. "He's in love with you." She watched Jackie flush and look down.

"Who's Jack?" Clint was worried now. He liked to defend Jackie.

Lisa tilted her head. "The Zyger Leader. In other words your father."

"What!" Angelica shot up.

Clint's eyes twinkled with fury. "He's not my father."

"Father?" Jackie spoke up from behind Clint.

"He's a Halfblood, Miss," Lisa interjected. "As much as he doesn't want to admit."

"Cause I'm not!" Clint flared back.

"Where do your abilities come from then? They are deemed unnatural," Lisa shakes her head in disgust. "They defy your Laws of Physics."

"Doesn't mean I'm like him," Clint muttered.

"My ancestors," Lisa began.

"Wait, what's a Halfblood?" Angelica chimed in.

"It's a being that has mixtures of two different genes," Lisa replied. "That's what Clint is. Now let me finish. As I was saying, my ancestors-"

"Who are your ancestors?" Angelica was curious.

"Let me finish!" Lisa roared, slamming her hand down. Blue light formed under her palm and the humans shrunk back. Not Clint however. He was fascinated.

Lisa calmed down. "Millions of years ago, there was life on other planets."

"Not a surprise," Clint muttered. "NASA told us there was."

"The artifacts were erased however. My ancestors predicted of the Coming of the War of Worlds," Lisa continued. "They knew someone was bound to stop it. At the time, we were like Vikings. We roamed the galaxy, we were protectors."

Clint raised an eyebrow. "We were from a planet called Hoole," Lisa said turning around. "We were Guardians of the Galaxy, from what the other species called us. We were respected." She took a deep intake of breath. "Till they came."

"The Zygers?" Clint prompted.

"Oh yes. They were an unstoppable force. More like Terror. They filled the skies with terror themselves. They were unstoppable." Lisa's eyes were welling with tears.

"You can stop there if you want." Jackie saw her crying and tried to comfort her.

"No," Lisa tried to hold herself. "I will finish. As I was saying, we tried to stop them from spreading. We formed a barrier across a galaxy that would be known as the Milky Way."

"Our Galaxy," Clint realized.

Lisa nodded. "For about a million years, we held it together. We started to push them back. It wasn't till the rise of the humans themselves did the whole system collapsed."

"When did it collapse?" Clint asked.

"In 1945, right after the beginnings of the Cold War," she replied. "The spaceships you saw in the sky? Those were Zygers. The dead bodies collected that your NASA friends had were from other creatures that had been slain by that very race. Some were even Guardians."

"Are you one?" Clint whispered.

She laughs. "I don't consider myself one. But I have the abilities of one."

"Then how can you teach me?" Clint was sulky.

"I just can, alright?" She tapped in some coordinates with her finger. "Lets see..."

"Where are we going?" Angelica whispers.

"We have to find the Guardians," Lisa says turning to him. "They're the only ones who can save us."

With that being said, she pinned her finger down on the hyperdrive.