“Jeff!”
My concern wasn’t the master.
I was just worried about the handsome sheriff’s condition.
“JEEEEEFF!”
I screamed as loud as I could to the fallen Jeff laid out on the stone plaza floor.
If something were to happen to him, I would be completely crushed (I am too embarrassed to say I would surely follow him to heaven, so I won’t).
Did my impassioned cries reach their target? After screaming again and again Jeff finally responded.
First his arm moved.
Then his head. Slowly, so slowly it was starting to irk me, he raised his head up.
“!”
I swallowed my breath. His face was smeared with blood. It appeared either his temple or forehead was cut. A stream of blood flowed down his face between his eyebrows and split around his nose and dripped down off his chin. I could only barely see his eyes, but it was clear he was conscious.
He brought his hands together and pulled them, checking his strength.
He then used his arms to push himself up to a sitting position. He then slid his knees between his torso and the stone plaza. Pushing off the ground with his legs, Jeff stood up straight.
He staggered back and forth a bit. However, he was able to stay up. Spreading his arms out wide he regained his balance. It seemed he had completely broken the master’s spell.
He shook his head lightly, and then put pressure on his cut with his right hand. He was bleeding badly. Jeff tore the hem of his shirt off and wrapped it around his head.
He looked around at his surroundings. Since the master had disappeared, this area had grown relatively quiet. The battle had moved to where the Children of Heaven had assembled at the tunnel.
“Jeff!”
Until then he hadn’t noticed me stuck up here, and when he finally did see me, I couldn’t help but call his name again. Jeff answered by raising one hand in the air. He then picked up the hand blaster from the fallen mobile infantry, and riding atop his unstable legs he slowly made his way to where we were.
One step, then another step, he made his way.
At first, each step was like a major accomplishment, but he got better as he came closer. He had recovered well. Maybe any leftover rigor had finally melted away. By the end he jogged up to the crosses.
“Turn away,” said Jeff. He had found the control panel for the crosses and was aiming the barrel of the hand blaster at it.
He pushed the trigger button.
A fireball lit up the control panel, completely destroying it.
The crosses leaned back to the ground from the base and all the electromagnetic cuffs sprung open with a click.
Jeff pulled us upright.
“You all right?” I asked Jeff, my head overflowing with emotion.
“I’m sorry,” Yuri cut in. She reached for his hand and took the hand blaster. She then went to Mugi’s side. Wha! Could someone really be that cold? Here I was trying to set the mood and everything. I understood wanting to help Mugi out, but there was a time and a place for everything!
“How did you two get here?” Jeff turned and asked me as I sent a resentful sneer to Yuri.
I quickly switched to a bright and cheery look.
I summarized the sequence of events up to this moment.
“When I saw that crater, everything went black,” I said, my voice shaking. “I thought you had been swallowed up in that white light. What an escape!”
“I didn’t exactly escape. Before that I had already been captured,” said Jeff, shaking his head. “Hearing about the accident, we headed to Mine #4 by helicopter, where the master was waiting for us. There I was called a heretic, and was gassed. I don’t remember anything after that, so I didn’t know anything about a white light or a crater. Right after they got me, I saw the owner land in the VTOL. The master shot some light beam that hit somewhere on his plane, but somehow he barely escaped from crashing and made it over the rocky mountain.”
“Owner? Don’t you mean the mayor?” I asked. The VTOL with a damaged fuselage could only be the mayor’s Pegasus, right?
“The mayor wasn’t aboard,” answered Jeff, negating my question. “The only people at Mine #4 were the owner and his bodyguards.”
“Really…”
“Hey! It’s no good,” shouted Yuri, coming back toward us. “It isn’t strong enough. If we could somehow overload its circuits that might work, but this isn’t going to be enough. We need a more powerful energy source.”
“The beam cannon was still there. The power unit was still attached,” replied Jeff. He was still a bit hazy, but ready to rise to the occasion. That was our Jeff! Even in his state he was able to spot the important survival items on his way over to us. For a moment I was entranced, and just took in that handsome face.
“Kei!” Yuri shouted in a pointed tone.
Loudmouth. I was in my happy place.
“Up! Look! It’s coming down!” she screamed in a panic.
“What?”
That voice put me on edge.
I quickly looked up.
That’s when I noticed it. Our surroundings were darkened by its shadow.
I looked straight up.
Whoa!
A saucer.
Its altitude was only four or five hundred meters.
This single saucer was coming down onto the plaza.