When Squirrel Bees Attack! (Flash Fiction)

4am, Brooklyn, 22nd Century

Monifa's boots pounded up the sidewalk, demi mask clinging to her mouth with every panted breath. Buzzing grew louder at her back. Then the humming was right in her ear. Slapping at her head, she tore around the side of a building, desperately looking for any kind of cover.

"Get down! Mona, hit the ground, now!"

Monifa skidded to a halt, falling to her knees. She winced at the sharp pain but huddled into a ball. Lightning crackled all around her, immediately followed by a close rumble of thunder that shook the confit under her. Then lots of little thumps against her back and sounds like kids' toys winding down in exhaustion.

Tiny claws scratching down her neck and back sent Monifa into another panic. She jerked up, flinging the fairies off in disgust. She threw off her pack, hastily unbuttoning her coat.

Xiu Fang landed on the sidewalk. "Are you okay?" asked the modulated voice coming from her helmet's speakers.

A fairy stung Monifa's shoulder. "Ow!" Another buzzed and latched onto her ear lobe. "Are you blind under there?! Get these things offa me!"

She yanked her undershirt out of her leggings, shaking both shirts furiously. Hot pain shot down her left arm from the sting, muscles cramping and spasming.

"Hold still, let me..." Xiu Fang grabbed her arm and pulled at the fairy attached to her ear.

"Ow, you're ripping at my ear cuff and mask!"

"Put your hand on my boot."

"Oh no..." But the kinetic ignored her, holding Monifa's hand onto her rubber boot as she shot an electric cloud over Monifa's body.

"Get off of me!" Monifa shoved at the purple helmet. Her ears, nose, and nipples burned where their rings had heated up. Smelling singed hair, she kicked Fang for good measure.

"Ow, Mona!"

"Do not touch me! And my name is not Mona, you fuuu...it is Monifa. And I hate working with you." She pressed her palms together, then her thumbs to her ajna. "Spirits give me strength," she whispered, blowing out a deep breath. "Now, I am going to get my evbags out and you are not going to speak to me." With shaking hands, she rummaged in her backpack for her evidence bags and small scoop.

Xiu Fang's helmet retracted into her jacket collar. Underneath, her short lavender hair was pulled into a knot. Silently, the security guard used her gloved hands to brush the fairies into a pile, and then the scoop Monifa held steady.

Monifa shuddered. Each one was smaller than a quail egg, but still, a vicious monster. Head, clawed hands, and body that looked like a squirrel, with the wings and stinger of a bee. Except the stinger was hidden in a mass of feathery hairs disguised as a tail.

"They're not monsters," Ciaron called, soaring over their heads.

"You didn't just have them crawling and gnawing all over you." Monifa smiled at Ciaron's wobbly arc. Her partner may have perfected using psypathy to read minds, but needed a lot more practise using her new aerokinesis to fly.

Unlike Xiu Fang, who flew using the lectrokinesis she was born with, Ciaron landed awkwardly, stumbling almost to her knees before regaining her balance with a gust of wind. Tiny bodies blew off the edges of the furry pile at Monifa's knees.

"Ugh!" She shivered, hands scraping and flapping again.