Lacuna

Chapter 17

"I missed ya the other night."

Antoine looked up from his desk and smiled as Kahli came in through the door.

"Heard you were too busy writing smut or something."

Antoine's cheeks flushed. "Shut up, no I wasn't," he sputtered quickly. "I have a life besides hanging out with you guys at the Round Table every night."

Kahli raised a brow. "Do you?"

Antoine sighed and put his chin in his hand. "No, not really." He examined his nails in disinterest as he moved the course of the conversation. "What's going on with you and Arlo?"

Kahli squeaked, then sneered at him. "Nothing," she hissed through her teeth.

"Annoying, huh?"

Kahli rolled her eyes. "Whatever."

"You guys seem pretty friendly."

"Yeah, it's called being friends."

Antoine met her gaze and grinned. "Alright," he said.

Kahli pulled a commission off the board, and without another word, she left the building.

"See ya tonight," Antoine called behind her.

She trotted down the front steps, muttering to herself. As soon as she stepped down into the plaza, however, an odd sound caught her attention, drawing her gaze to the sky. At that moment, something that seemed to resemble a fiery spacecraft soard overhead and plummeted to the ground towards the hazardous ruins.

Without another thought, Kahli ran in the direction of the aircraft, but it seemed the rest of Porita had had a similar idea. A crowd had gathered in front of the gates, and Sam stood before them in a desperate attempt to try to calm the alerted citizens.

"What the hell was that?" Mars demanded. "Are we under attack?"

"It fell from the sky!" Martha exclaimed.

Mei eagerly stepped forward with a notepad in hand. "Can you at least tell us what it is? This is big news!"

Paulie crossed his arms. "I'm tellin' ya! It's aliens!

"This must be fully investigated," Petra said.

Sam gestured for them to calm down with her hands. "Alright, alright, calm down," she said. "We're on top of this. Arlo and Remington are at the crash site right now. We'll let you know what it is as soon as we find out!"

But it was just at that moment that Arlo and Remington came through, and Sam turned to them expectantly.

"And there they are now," she said. "What's the word."

"It appears to be a relic of some sort," Remington said.

Both Petra and Mei spoke up simultaneously.

"Relic?"

"Really?"

"Aliens," Paulie muttered, as if he knew it all along.

"But we've got a small problem," Remington continued. "The relic knocked over a tower and created a giant hole on the ground, and some monsters came out as a result. I measured it to be around 4 or 5 meters. We need it patched right away." His gaze found Kahli. "Think you can give us a hand?"

"That's what I do best," Kahli said.

Remington turned back to Sam. "Don't let anyone in until the hole's plugged. Arlo and I are gonna clear out what we can in the meantime."