Luna Maarkus vs. the Phantom League

One.

She showed up at my door, soaking wet, bruised, and covered in glitter. "What happened to you?" Luna looked ready to knock somebody out, but I knew her too well to think that she would swing at me. "Let me in, Atticus, and I'll tell you." I stepped aside and waited for her to pass by before shutting the door to my home in the trees. I served her a glass of Wendyll juice and asked her to tell me everything.

***

"Well you did disturb an ancient religious site. To be honest, I'm not surprised it tried to kill you." She raised an eyebrow. "Lu, it was obviously some kind of defense mechanism the Niridians set up before they all, you know, died." She scowled into her drink for a moment before tilting her head back and draining the cup. I had known Luna since we started at the Kilveraan Academy. We had only met once before this after we graduated, and we both agreed to never speak of it again. Kilveraan boasted the best Academy of any in the Belt. Sure, the one on Xasha was good for craftsmen, and Lih had the best journalism program, but Kilveraan was definitely of the highest standard when it came to education. Children started at an Academy at the age of seven, and graduated at eighteen. You could switch schools at any time with little to no hassle, but it wasn't very common. "So...Atticus..." Oh no. She wants something. She never starts a sentence like that unless she wants something. "I was wondering if you would help me with something." There it is. I knew it. "I need to get back to Xasha to talk to my boss. Could you maybe, possibly, somehow..." I rolled my eyes. "Get you there? Just because I'm a manipulator, doesn't mean that I'm allowed to zap people here and there whenever I want. It's a privilege and a responsibility." Once I realized that Luna had been sarcastically mouthing my words along with me, I slapped her arm and stood up. "Fine. I'll take you to Xasha to see...whoever. But first, you're going to come with me while I pick up some stuff from the Base." The Base was why I was on Niruna in the first place. The Niridians were the only natural manipulators, and so their homeworld was the only place you could go to train and master the skill. I had come here just after graduating, and the only place I could afford was in the most heavily Pikilla populated region on the asteroid.

***

The Base was fairly far away, but a zip-car could get us there in minutes. Luna, though somewhat reluctant, had agreed to join me, and we climbed down to the zip-port just in time to catch the last car to Gavlin, the city where the Base resided. Niruna, being almost all forest, was made up of levels. To get to another level, you just had to use the reinforced rope bridges that connected the trees to go up or down. It was a bit tiresome, but you got used to it. Luna and I squeezed into the back of the zip-car and waited for the driver to call out. Luna made faces at me from across the row while I stared at a spot just above her head, trying not to laugh. "Release in three!" Three, two, one, CLICK! The car was released from the dock and sped down the cable at a dizzying speed. There were no windows in the car because if there were, the port employees would be cleaning up a lot more than empty cups and crumpled paper. I was used to traveling this way, but Luna had only been on this world a few times and had never used a zip-car. I reached out and held her webbed hand as her green complexion darkened. Luckily, it was a shorter ride than the ones I usually took. The door slid open, and we both pretended that I wasn't holding her up as we made our way to a nearby bench. "Thanks." Luna probably wouldn't have said more than that anyway, but I still felt concerned for her. "Do you want me to get you something to drink?" She nodded, and as I started walking towards a kiosk, she called out, "I want the-" I grinned, not even turning around to respond. "I know."

***

As Luna sipped her koz berry smoothie, no hyasa leaves, no cream, I tried to get a bit of work done on my Beeper screen. It wasn't the most efficient way of doing things, but it was good enough. Luna wobbled only slightly on her way to the garbage can, so I thought that we could go ahead and start walking to the Base. "Hey Lu, are you coming?" She had stopped in front of a drooping poster on the wall and was staring at it intently. "Lu, come on!" She seemed to snap out of her thoughts and jogged over to where I was standing. "Sorry Atticus, I'm ready to go." I made a mental note to check out the poster on the way back and led my friend over to the exit of the zip-port. 

Pictured above: Beeper

***

It was a short walk to the Base, and Luna seemed to be feeling much better. She hummed a song that had recently become popular, and I couldn't help but get it stuck in my head. Once it was our turn, we went up to the gate screen and I typed in my access code, adding the three extra digits that would allow me to bring in a guest. The scanner gave us a once-over, and after the screen flashed green, we were on our way. "What are we here for, anyway?" I steered Luna towards the second building on the right. "I need to pick up my new amulet. I finished my training in invisibility, so this was my reward." Luna looked around as we navigated through the stream of people in the hallway. "What does it do?" We entered a large room with walls that featured storage units in a honeycomb pattern. I went up to one of them and pulled out a chain that was attached to a chunky glass pendant that had a silver half-moon across the top. "I'll show you." I slipped the amulet over my head and under my shawl. I held it in my hands and felt it warm up as I chanted the words taught to me by one of my tutors. The amulet started to glow faintly, then brighter and brighter until it began to shake slightly. I lifted it up and let go: the pendant stayed floating in front of me, glowing, shaking. Suddenly it froze and the glowing stopped, but it remained suspended in midair. A second later, the amulet and I were completely invisible. "That's insane..." Luna's eyes were wide as she whispered excitedly to me. "Are you still here? Do you even have a corporeal form anymore? Oop! Looks like you do." She had been waving her arms around through the air, trying to find me, and her left hand had hit the mark. The mark, as it was, happened to be my sternum. I grabbed my amulet from where it was still floating. I whispered the chant backwards, and managed to turn myself visible again. When I looked up, Luna was at the door. She was standing very still, and seemed to be concerned about something outside. I went over to her and spoke quietly in her ear. "Hey, what's going on?"

Pictured above: typical manipulator outfit with invisibility amulet