A Small Talk

Akira felt the skin on his arm and face singe as a draft of hot air rushed past him. He had his eyes tightly shut, but the energy blast's intensity was so great that everything looked bright orange through his closed eyelids. Suddenly, he felt something soft yet substantial hit his back, and he put his weight on Rin. The flying bike rolled forward, and he didn't need to open his eyes to see that they were falling. Akira gritted his teeth and held on tightly for his life as the bike made it for the ground, turning in all directions as it corkscrewed toward the earth.

"Hold on," Rin was screaming. "I got this. I got this."

Rin did manage to get some control on the bike. They began to slow down and soon stopped. "Open your eyes and get your hands off me." Akira heard Rin yell in his ears.

Breathing hard, Akira parted his eyelids and looked around. Tall trees surrounded them. "H-how did we survive that?" he said, sliding off the bike and dropping to his knees, giddy.

"I blocked it," Pako said, appearing next to Akira. "All of you alright?" the alien cat asked, placing a black, smoking mass of metal on the ground using his telekinetic powers.

"Is-is that your ship?" Akira asked.

"I don't think we can call it a ship anymore, can we-yo?" Pako said and shook his head.

"How did we survive?" Akira asked. "I thought that thing was going to incinerate us to nothing."

"Can't you tell," Rin said, and for the first since the attack, Akira looked at her. What he saw made his heart shrink in pain. Melted, hanging skin, and smoked, black blood clovered most of her left hand and left side of her forehead. Her burnt fingers were twitching in pain. "Can't y-you tell?" she repeated, breathing haggardly. "Pako brought his ship between us and that blast."

"Yes," Pako said, "but that was not enough. Rin also used her abilities to protect us."

"Don't mention," Rin said, got off her bike, and winced a bit. She glanced at Akira. "Why are you looking like that? I didn't do this for you. This act was also for my protection. There is no need to act this emotional."

"I'm not acting emotional," Akira said. That was a lie. The truth was that he had been moved beyond words. Not only had Rin let herself take damage but also had fought the intense pain and had made sure that they land safely. Up until now, Akira didn't care much about her. But now, in his heart, he had nothing but awe and respect for her. "No need to act tough," he said, faking a frown. "You are clearly in pain."

"I told you," Rin said, "this is nothing for me. We need to get away from this place before that thing--"

She stopped mid-sentence as a huge shadow fell over them. The thing that had attacked Akira, Rin, and Pako crashed right next to them, raising a cloud of dirt and dust, knocking them off their feet, and showering the area with rocks of various sizes and shapes.

Akira coughed, covering his eyes. "What the--" He got up and started groping around at the air. If it had not been difficult enough to see in the night, the thick, brown curtain of dust and dirt had turned visibility next to zero. "Pako? Rin?" he squinted and continued to grab at the air before him. "Where are you, guys?"

Slowly, the dust began to settle down, and Akira felt something huge looming over him. He froze. His heart began to race in his chest. Somehow he forced himself to move and look up at their attacker. The thing was huge, and it was definitely not a space ship. It looked like a giant snowman, but instead of snow, someone had made it out of metal, and instead of that pointy, carrot nose, it had pointy spikes strewn all over its body. At first, Akira thought that the whole structure was floating above the forest, but as the air cleared, he realized that it was being supported by four giant, tentacles-like, long, mechanical arms punctuated by claws way bigger than Akira's tiny body.

"You okay, kid-yo?"

Akira glanced behind him. Pako was floating right next to him, and above him, suspended in the air, was Rin.

"I'm fine," Akira said. "How is she doing?"

"Not good," Pako said and placed her gently on the soil. She opened one of her eyes slightly and muttered. "Are you--uhhh--talking about me?"

"You shouldn't overexert yourself," Akira said.

"We finally found you," a loud voice reverberated across the moonlit forest.

Akira turned and faced the giant robot. The loud voice had come from inside it. "I thought it was not a ship. Is there someone driving it from the inside?" he asked Pako.

"No, it's a remote-controlled drone," Pako said and moved in front of Akira. "Who are you? What do you want from me?"

The person controlling the robot began cackling. "Is this a joke? Don't tell me you died and forgot about us and the stuff you stole from my ship."

"That's what happened here-yo," Pako said.

"Don't shit with me," the person said, his voice now extra loud. "You bastard, do you have any idea how much time we have wasted chasing you? Four-star days!"

"I don't know what you are talking about," Pako said.

The robot raised one of its mechanical arms. The arm was long, probably as long as a ten-story building. It was broad, broader than Akira's bedroom if his assumption was right. "It doesn't matter. Just return the container that you stole from us."

"Did that container contained a stone?" Akira shouted at the giant cone-shaped, round machine.

"Who are you? How do you know about the stone?" the voice asked.

"I'm Akira--"

"Nevermind," the voice controlling the attack drone said," I'm done talking." And the robot brought his long arm down like a whip.

I'm dead, Akira thought. He was not wrong. Who wouldn't be dead after being spanked by something as huge and as flexible as that arm?