THE JOINING: The Cycle of the Shards Book One
Chapter 19

The sun was starting to disappear behind the line of two-story houses in Kyle’s neighborhood, and the sky had changed from its regular blue into a more orange-yellow hue. Critock was running, the first time he was using Kyle’s muscles for serious exertion, and he could tell as he ran that it wasn’t something that the boy did often. Already he felt weary, and slight pain was starting to occur from overexertion. He made a mental note that if he ever spoke to Kyle again that he would recommend a regimen of exercise.

Tom moved along with him, slightly ahead, trying to replace a path through the houses to their destination. The problem that both were running into was although they had a fair general knowledge of the surroundings, Tom due to the learning machine he had been in and Critock due to the limited access he had of Kyle’s mind, neither one of them had good directions other than to follow the sounds and sights of the pirate firing into Mr. Phelps’ house. Kyle had never been there, in fact didn’t know he lived so close to the teacher, so he was useless in this regard. Most of the houses had their backyards with high fences so cutting through was not an option, causing the pair to wait until they hit a cross street that was going in the direction they wanted to go.

“Fly up and see what’s going on!” Critock called to Tom, who didn’t reply, but just ascended into the sky. While the wisp was in the air, Critock found a crossing street, and headed right, jumping over a large rock in the process. There were quite a few people outside looking over in the direction of the attack, but other than the pirate’s ship occasionally coming close and then heading back in a loose holding pattern, there was nothing to see.

Tom scanned the sky, and watched the ship move over the house. After a couple moments he came back down and momentarily panicked when he realized he had lost sight of his partner. He quickly located the cross street, and caught up to Critock, still moving fast towards their destination, although at this point he was breathing very heavy. “It’s still there! Not shooting though. Probably trying to see if he got Phelps or not.”

“Someone let him in on the original plan!” Critock yelled as he ran. “If he thinks I’m Phelps, he’s not going to stop until that whole house is a hole in the ground, and then probably the school after that.”

“What’s the plan?”

“Get to his house, figure something out. I can’t run and plan in this body.” He was wheezing almost as he spoke, having to pause to gasp every time there was an opening.

“Want me to go ahead?”

“No! He knows you’re here too. He might not be able to see you, but that ship’ll have a few detectors on it. We’ll get up there and then take it slow.”

Tom sighed. “Fine.” In silence, the pair reached a stop sign as the street they were on exited the residential section and hit a two lane highway. Cars moved past quickly on both sides. They had no way of knowing that there had been a stoplight there that would have helped their cause, but it had been removed a few months ago and replaced with the solitary sign. Critock tried to edge into the road but he didn’t want to risk getting hit, not knowing anything about this planet’s primitive travel.

“We have to get past!” Tom zoomed back and forth.

“You can fly over! I can’t! Can you lift me?”

“Do I look like a strong soul? It was all I could do to get the sword down here!” Tom groaned, then stopped. “Okay. I’ll go up to the ship, and blind him. Hopefully he’ll crash.”

Critock shook his head. “He’ll see you coming a mile away.” He looked helplessly back and forth at the cars, with no real break coming. Down the road a ways he could just make out a stoplight, and was preparing to make another run for it, damn his body, when he heard a voice call out from behind him.

“Or you hop on, and we get there in two minutes.” They both turned in surprise to replace Shanna Ewing standing, her hands on her bicycle handles, one foot on the ground and one foot on the pedal of her neon red bike, ready to take off at a second’s notice.

Tom sighed. “For the love of…”

Forgetting the street, and what lay behind the trees that were blocking the view to the subdivision beyond where Phelps’ home and the pirate ship were, Critock turned angrily at Shanna. “I told you not to come with us. This isn’t something you can possibly understand!”

“And you had me come to your house, and risk getting me thrown out of school so I can hack in and get your damn pictures. I don’t know what the hell is going on with you, but you’ve already dragged me in the middle of this, so you can either get run over in the street and let Phelps die or you can shut up and let me help you.”

Critock stopped, glanced at Tom, and shrugged. “She makes a good point. Fine, but when we get there, stay hidden.”

Shanna nodded as Tom growled. “Critock, you have got to…”

Critock cut him off. “So how do I…?”

She took her hands off the bike. “Sit on the handlebars, give me enough space to move.” He quickly jumped on, sticking the sword cylinder into his belt tightly, and she started to pedal, replaceing it hard to balance. As they started to move, he found he had to spread his legs slightly, as Shanna had to put her face very close to his, looking over his shoulder. “This good?” He asked.

“Yeah. Little rough to get started with both of us. Hang on.” He put his hands on both sides of his rear, grabbing what little space there was and unavoidably brushing against her hands. She smiled as she slowly rode back the way they had come from, and then turned around and looked down upon the street, and Critock suddenly realized with some terror what her plan was. She happily hollered as they started moving faster towards the intersection.

“Wait. WAIT!” He yelled.

“Too late!” She whooped as they passed the stop sign. “Here we go!”

As Tom worriedly flew overhead, the bicycle with both occupants holding on for dear life rushed into traffic, narrowly missing a car in the process. Shanna quickly directed the bike to the right, and it turned quickly, settling into the space between the lanes as the car that had almost hit them instinctively swerved and honked at them. She rode quickly to where another road joined on the left, and Critock glanced at the car next to them, its occupants looking at them with a look of horror. He noticed Shanna reaching for a lever next to her left hand, and even though he had no idea what a bicycle was, he knew what was about to happen. He just said “No…”

She said. “Yes!” As she pulled the brake, and they watched the car rush past them. Immediately she swerved to the left, and before the car directly in front of them could strike them, they moved again into the side street, finally getting past the intersection and back towards their goal. Shanna was not slowing down even though they were past the danger, though, as she hadn’t forgotten the reason they had done this. Critock, through the panic, was holding on so tightly his knuckles were white from the stress.

“Yeah, that was safe!” Tom called down, relieved that they had made it through but angry that they had done it in the first place, especially with a civilian!

“I didn’t say it was safe, comet!” She called up, forgetting how strange this all was in the adrenaline of the moment. “But it’s getting us there, isn’t it?”

“Yeahhh…” Critock finally emitted a word, though it was more of a groan.

“Oh come on, you’re acting like you’ve never been on a bike before!” Shanna laughed as she quickly made a turn.

“I hadn’t.” He said quietly, as they maneuvered through a twist in the road, which entered them into the subdivision where Phelps’ house lay. Immediately they could see the ship, which was currently firing at the neighbor’s house directly to the right of Phelps. His house itself was scarred, with several small fires burning on the roof among other holes and damage, but at the least it was still standing. The group was silent as they took it in, Tom moving closer to Critock in an attempt to hide himself, suddenly spooked due to the comment made about the ship’s sensors.

Together, they arrived at a point where the ship had swung away from the house in the opposite direction, inevitably to return in a moment. Critock jumped off the slowing bike and ran ahead, as Tom moved just behind him, Shanna dropping the bike, swinging a leg around and jumping off herself. All three ducked behind a bush next to Phelps’ chain-link fence. Critock looked around the backyard, noting that it was mostly empty other than a large tree in the middle that was higher than the house itself, and silently started to develop a plan in his head. “Ok, got something. Tom, stay here with Shanna, make sure she’s safe.”

“Now wait a minute…” Tom and Shanna both spoke at the same time, and Critock spun around.

“Tom, we need her safe. If you have to come along, make sure she’s far away from here before you join me. Shanna, you got us here, we appreciate it, but now it’s time for me to do what I do. You’re good with computers, you’ll be the best help there. Now please, stay put.” He got up to leave again when she grabbed his shoulder.

“I…I still don’t understand.”

Critock sighed, and faced her, taking the opportunity to retrieve the cylinder where he had slipped it into his belt. “Shanna, I’m not Kyle. I came here from another planet. Second star to the right, keep going for about a billion years. I’m here to replace one of our people, get rid of him, and save the world.” She looked blankly at him. “Ok. That…” He pointed at the ship. “Is a bad guy.” She nodded. “I’m going to stop him. We’ll cover the rest when I get back, okay?” Their eyes met, and she nodded, hers starting to water. The adrenaline of the adventure was starting to wear off.

He got up slowly. She called one last time to him. “You’re really not Kyle, are you?”

He shook his head, and started to walk. “No.”

“Then who are you?”

Not breaking his stride, he retrieved the cylinder, and activated it. The cylinder expanded out into the sword quickly, instantly sparking with orange electricity, causing Shanna’s eyes to widen. As he walked alone, fully exposed as the pirate’s ship began to turn back towards the house, he muttered just loud enough for her to hear.

“I’m the good guy.”