The Final Showdown - The Moon Trilogy - Book 3

Chapter Twenty-four:

   Clarity didn't even have to search to locate the source of the deafening cacophony.

   Blocking out the sun entirely was a sleek, narrow ship, unlike anything she'd ever seen outside of a science fiction film. Soft blue flames shot like sun flares from gauges all over the ship as it made it's slow descent towards the rooftop.

   Directly towards the rooftop.

   Shiny, sleek. It was a dragon, stalking its prey. It stopped, hovering over the building. She could hear the hiss of the blue fire as it spurted from the tubes that speckled the ship's underside.

   Movement in the corner of her vision tore her unwilling eyes away from the impossible sight. A new group now stood on the rooftop with them.

   The aliens were in the center, Clarity and her friends were at the end closest to the doors, and on the opposite end of the roof, there was a group of about ten people—aliens—no, aliens still counted as people.

    Four of them held large, very-much-so not human guns. All of them wore slate-grey uniforms with a shining, chrome insignia in the shape of a shooting star. And though some of them wore masks, she could still tell that not a single one of them was remotely human. Humanoid, maybe. Human? definitely not.

   One of them stepped forward, supposedly the leader. Their stance was clearly dominant. No fear. They were in control and they knew it.

   The leader of the other group was female, from what Clarity could tell. Her nose and mouth were like that of a fox; narrow and pointed. And she was also just as covered in fur as a fox would be. Though she sported a tail that, rather than a fox's tail, looked more like a wolf's, or a really poofy cat's tail.

   She flicked a clawed finger over her shoulder, and one of the people in her group that wasn't holding a gun pressed a few buttons on a device that looked remarkably similar to earth's holo-screens. There was a short series of beeps that were eerily reminiscent of something she'd seen in some ancient space show.

   Johnny pushed his way to the front of the group, and no one made any moves to stop or question him. Every one of them knew that he probably knew a whole lot more than they did about what was going on. They would let him handle this one.

   The fox woman was sneering down at Johnny and the rest of them. Her face was scrunched into a look of disgust. Apparently, expressions were a more or less universal thing.

   "Geez, Alnur. You really have downgraded." Her flint-hard glare raked over each of them in turn, and one eyebrow snaked its way up her furry forehead.

   The English was more of a shock than any alien gibberish she ever could have spouted. Her voice was just a flint-hard as her eyes, yet somehow smooth as silk. Not to mention how deep it was; low and almost masculine.

   Also, who was she supposed to be talking to? Johnny or one of the aliens, obviously. But which one?

   "In my opinion, I've upgraded." Johnny shot back. So he was Alnur. His stance was protective, angled slightly and tensed to spring at a moment's notice. She thought she could imagine the scales ready to appear as he shifted into a dragon in mid-air.

   The woman scoffed. "You really betrayed The Alliance to come here and hang around with this earth-scum?" she asked, her voice filled with scorn.

   She spoke as if they were cockroaches. Clarity felt a hot retort springing to her lips, and she almost stepped forward to serve this pompous mouse lady a full helping of opinions, but something in the air defused any words that she might have spoken.