Chapter 5

Asher, Zack, and the zever were sitting at a nearby camping ground. Asher's face is that of a cold gaze. Zack sits nearby with a look of confusion.

"AAAAAAH!" Asher yells out. "I can't do it! It's too funny!" He begins laughing uncontrollably. 

"Why are you just staring at the guy!?" Zack asked loudly. "Do you even KNOW HOW TO INTERROGATE SOMEONE!" 

Asher was still laughing but had begun to calm down, although very slowly. He then falls, looking up at the starry night sky. His eyes were sparkling with joy. His smile grew wider, going from ear to ear. He then jumps up onto his feet.

"WE JUST TOOK DOWN A ZEVER FACILITY!" Asher yells at the top of his lungs. "TAKE THAT ZEVERS!"

"Dude!" Zack sternly whispers. "We don't know where the zevers could be. Let's stay low and quiet." Zack then turned to the zever they had captured and sat at the bench. "Ok, so what was the purpose of the town?" Zack asked the zever.

"L-like I'll ever t-tell y-y-you!" the zever fearfully responds. He begins to stare at Zack, attempting to look menacing. Zack sighs and reaches for his pocket, grabbing a knife and holding it to the zever's throat.

"Tell us," Zack said coldly. He stared daggers into the zevers soul.

"F-fine!" the zever exclaimed loudly. "B-but you h-h-have to le-let me go! Please!"

"Good," Zack said with a chilling voice. "So now do you have an answer for me?"

"Y-yeah," the zever said. "The town was being used as a checkpoint for deliveries to and from the base in the city you once called Chicago. The downtown area was used for storage. It was some sort of crop. It was yellow and had little seed-like things. I-I forgot what it was called though."

"Corn?" Asher asked.

"YEAH!" the zever replies. "That was it!" He then reaches behind and takes out a piece of corn. "This right?"

"OOOOOOO!" Asher yelps. "Food!" He then grabs it hastily and scarfs it down. In a matter of no time, the entire thing is gone, including the center part no one eats.

"WHY DID YOU EAT THE CENTER?" Zack questioned, with a loud voice. "WHY WOULD YOU POISON YOURSELF?"

"Wha-WHAT?" Asher yells out. "POISON?"

"Yeah POISON!" Zack reiterated. "Arent's the centers of the corn poisonous?"

"N-no?" Asher responds, "I used to use it for cornstarch when I needed ingredients for lunch or dinner. If they were poisonous, I would be long gone by now."

"Oh," Zack learns. "I always thought they were filled with cyanide or something."

"That's bamboo!" Asher exclaimed.

"Ohhhhhhhh!" Zack realizes.

"And you called me stupid!" Asher continues. "At least I know the difference between bamboo and corn!"

"Yeah, and you thought it was a good idea to kidnap a zever and bring it here!" Zack retorted. "Why would you even try to reason with the enemy?"

"Well, I thought he would give us some useful information!" Asher exclaimed in frustration. "I didn't know he was a security officer or whatever!"

"C-can I go now?" the zever asked.

"SHUT UP!" Asher and Zack yelled at the zever.

"I do have one more piece of information for you!" the zever desperately said to them. "If I tell you, then you have to let me go!" Asher and Zack looked at each other and nodded.

"Ok," Zack began. "We'll listen and then let you free."

"Oh thank goodness!" the zever said excitedly. "I thought I would never see another one of my kind ever again! Ok, so we intercepted a transmission from some of your human friends on the moon base. They are planning to launch an attack in a few days. The attack will be in the city called St. Louis."

"Woo!" Asher excitedly yelled.

"Wait, Asher," Zack said. He then turns to the zever. "How do we know this little pissant isn't lying!"

"I-if you want proof, I have a copy of the transmission!" the zever said. He then reaches for the tablet from before and plays a voice recording.

"The attack is all set to go. All the preparations are ready. All we need now is a clear sky to launch the attack." The transmission then shuts off. 

"C-can I leave now?" the zever requests quietly.

"Yeah leave," Zack said coldly.

"We should probably leave too," Asher stated. "He may call in reinforcements."

"That actually sounds like a good idea!" Zack taunted Asher. They begin towards the bike when a laser blast hits the ground in front of Asher.

"It's been a hot minute," Ruby then said from a tree above. "Are you boys going to help me?"

"RUBY?" Asher yells. "Why are you here?"

"Answer the question dumbass!" Ruby yelled.

"Fine!" Asher yelled. "Yeah, we were about to head to Urbana. Do you want a ride or something?"

"EW!" Ruby spat in disgust. "Why would I ride in that piece of junk? No, I came to tell you the plan."

"And what makes you think we would follow up with your plan!" Zack retorted loudly. "What if we wanted to-"

"We," Asher interrupted. "Will follow your plan. As long as we get everyone out, we'll be safe." Zack then pulls Asher aside.

"Hey, can you give us a second Ruby?" Zack asks. Ruby nods and takes out a knife to sharpen. "Hey Asher," he whispers. "Are you sure this is a good idea? This girl seems to wanna use us for something."

"Don't worry," Asher begins. "Anyway, we don't exactly know her motive, and I really wanna know it. Besides, she isn't that insane to lead people to death… I think."

"Fine," Zack hesitantly said. "But keep your guard up. I'm still skeptical of this girl."

"Ok!" Asher said with a little excitement. He then turned to Ruby. "Alright, we're in. But tell us what the plan is first. If it's stupid, we're leaving."

"As if you could create one better than mine!" Ruby mocked. "You're the same kid that decided to interrogate a zever. Talk about a deal with the devil!"

"Yeah, at least I did something!" Asher yells.

"Oh yeah?" Ruby asks. "Then where is the little bastard?"

"Uh…," Asher started, "He left…"

"You just let him go!?" Ruby asked aggressively. "Why would you do that!?"

"Well he isn't going to cause us any more trou-" Asher trailed off. His eyes began to look up. A giant shadow cast over the three, blocking the little light from the still, cloudy sky. 

"Asher you idiot!" Ruby yelled at him. "You careless idiot!"

"Maybe they haven't seen us?" Asher hoped. The shadow became more defined. It was a kilometer long, with a hull as strong as steel and twice as light. The cannons on the side were oddly threatening for cylinders. A massive golden ring rotates around the shadow. Hundreds of thousands of lights shined on the ground, looking for any humans. A spotlight shines on the three in the rest stop, in blinding light. The lights turn off almost simultaneously. The darkness flooded back into the air. "They saw us," Asher said hopelessly. The shadow's colors began to show, with dark grays around the entire thing. 

"It's a zever cruiser!" Zack yelled. 

"The little bastard must have tipped his friends off," Ruby fumed. "Asher!"

"It's not my fault the guy ran away!" Asher responded with annoyance.

"Hey!" Zack yelled. "We have to go!" Asher and Zack jumped on the bike, attempting to turn it on.

"Ruby!" Asher yelled. "Where are you going?"

"To my truck!" Ruby yelled. "Idiot." Ruby fled into the forest, disappearing into the darkness.

"Asher!" Zack began loudly. "We have to go! Why are we still here?"

"The bike won't move!" Asher yelled. "We can't go!"

"Try kicking it," Zack suggests. Asher then sets his leg on fire and kicks the bike. The bike then revs back to life. Laser bombardment began to destroy the ground below. The rest area's main building is already mostly destroyed, with fires raging, spreading to the trees and grass. The lasers get closer to Asher and Zack.

"Let's go!" Asher yells as the bike's wheels spun at hundreds of rotations per minute. The bike jumped onto the on-ramp and into the interstate, riding as fast as the motors would let it.

The zever cruiser began to turn to face the interstate. Doors on the sides begin to open slowly, and outcome swarms of zever fighters, bent on destroying the bike. Shuttles from the cruiser join in the swarming formation. The fighters are streaks in the sky, going several magnitudes more than the speed of sound.

"OW!" Asher yelps. "That hurt!"

"What was that?" Zack asks.

"It's probably a sonic boom," Asher began, "Created when an object goes faster than the speed of sound. The object breaks the sound barrier, creating a loud sound that can be deafening."

"Meaning there's gonna be more?" Zack asked. "Because if so, then we can say goodbye to our ears."

"We should be fine," Asher says, "As long as we-" Asher stops as he looks at two zever fighters aiming missiles at them. "Zack! I need you to shoot those down! NOW!" Zack then stands up, charging electricity on his right arm while holding Asher with his left.

"Take this ya scumbag!" Zack yells out. His arm briefly flashes before a bolt of lightning projects itself through the air. The sky is illuminated for a few seconds, before nothing. One of the fighters then explodes, with the debris taking out the other. 

"Whoa," Asher said with astonishment. "Now that's some power!" A cloud of smoke filled the air above the highway. Light then began to fill the cloud, like the sun on a partly cloudy day. A thin spire ejected from the darkness, with orange flames bursting out from behind, setting the sky ablaze.

"AAAH!" Asher yelled in terror. "They shot at us!"

"I see that!" Zack yelled back. "We need to swerve off the road!" 

"We'll fall into the ditch then!" Asher yelled again. He looks around quickly and sees lights in the trees. Many trees began to fall, with a truck flying out of the forest. A small projectile then flew from a small cannon mounted above the truck and right into the missile, causing a show of fireworks in the sky. Bright yellow and blue flames replaced the former orange flames in the sky, causing a sunset sky. 

"Whoa!" Asher said with amazement. "What was that!"

"Don't tell me," Zack began. "Is that Ruby?" Zack then watches the truck fall back onto the ground, bouncing a little with the suspension on the tires. The window then rolls down, with Ruby looking at the two boys.

"We have to go now!" She hastily said. "NOW!" Her rear wheels then begin spinning and the truck speeds away. Asher then speeds up on his bike in an attempt to catch up. "Try getting in the truck bed!" Ruby yelled to Asher.

"WHAT?" Asher yelled. "ARE YOU INSANE? WE'LL CRASH!"

"If you act stupid you will!" Ruby answered back. Ruby then looks through her rearview mirror and sees Asher change onto the same lane. Now behind Ruby's truck, Asher begins to speed up, taking his feet off of the pedals. He orients his leg to be perpendicular to the road and then tilts his foot back a few millimeters.

"Asher!" Zack yelled with growing concern. "We're about to crash!"

"Just trust me!" Asher yelled back. He then took a few breaths and set his legs on fire. The flames began to condense, with the pressure beginning to build up. He then lets all the flames go, launching the bike into the air and just high enough to make it into the bed of the truck. "LET'S GO!" Asher exclaimed in excitement. "Ruby! We're on the truck!"

"Stop celebrating dumbass!" Ruby shouted. "Did you forget about the swarms of alien ships behind us!"

"Oh," Asher remembered. A zever shuttle begins to descend onto the truck. The shuttle was thirty meters long. The hull was as dark as the cruiser. The hull then opens up, revealing hundreds of bike-like vehicles inside. The latches detach and all the bike vehicles activate and land on the road, immediately advancing toward the truck. There were no drivers and instead small cannons on the top and sides.

"Asher!" Zack yelled. "Get ready to fight!"

"Got it!" Asher said, setting his fists on fire. He looks forward, preparing to attack. Asher leaps onto the back of the truck, blasting away at the bikes. A shot from one of the bikes is burned to a crisp by Asher's flames. Another is shot and almost hits Asher in the shoulder when a chain of lightning neutralizes it.

"Don't think I'll let you have all the fun!" Zack said to Asher with a smirk on his face. They both then look up to see more fighters coming towards the truck. Zack then charges his fingers, concentrating lightning into his body. He then exhales before unleashing a storm of lightning upon all the alien fighters swarming them. The lightning chained from one fighter to another, like a rope of plasma joining the fighters together. The lightning illuminates the cloudy sky like several storm clouds having successive strokes. All the fighters were now held up by the rapidly flowing electrons flowing from Zack to the sky. The lightning eventually fades, causing the fighters to lose the support from the lightning and all the energy from before. The fighters drop like flies, along with Zack who collapses from the immense power expelled from his body.

"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT!" Asher yelled in amazement. His jaw was almost on the floor, and his eyes wide as the zever cruiser itself, which had managed to avoid severe damage.

"I got that trick from a sci-fi movie from 2019," Zack said weakly. "This one dude used lightning to destroy hundreds of ships.

"You mean the rise of-" Asher began

"Yeah that one!" Zack interrupted with his remaining energy.

"Alright, you get some rest, I'll handle these motorbike things," Asher told Zack. He then lays him down for him to rest. Asher gets on his feet to look at all the bike things. "These guys are mine!" Asher then sets his fists ablaze and inhales slowly. His chest pumps up and his shoulders are raised. His belly muscles are tense and full of air. Asher then pulls his arms back, preparing to make a punching motion. He then launches his fists forward, expelling air from his stomach and lungs and, as such, launches bright red flames from his arms, creating a wave of fire across the interstate. The motorbikes were melted almost completely, creating a molted combination of asphalt and metal. "WHOO!" Asher yelled in excitement. "Did you see that Ruby?"

"Yeah yeah, just shut up and watch our rear," Ruby said with much annoyance. She then looks in her mirror again, seeing Asher looking at her with a funny face. He then feels a tug on the end of his pants.

"Asher!" Zack tugged. "Look up!" Asher turned to look toward the sky above him. The remaining fighters began to turn back. The zever cruiser began to turn east. The golden ring around the ship then projects beams of light in front. The light then began to condense and created a circular tear in the sky. The ship then flew into it and disappeared, with the tear closing behind.

"What the hell was that!" Zack said in confusion. He then looks up and up until his eyes shut and falls back down on the bed of the truck.

"ZACK!" Asher yelled. He kneels and checks on Zack, who seems to be fine and just extremely tired. Asher then opens the back window and puts Zack in the back seat.

"Hey!" Ruby angrily yelled. "What are you doing?" 

"Just let him rest!" Asher barked back. "The man just needs some rest! If you want us to help you, we need to be in top form. Zack just took out an entire swarm of fighters!"

"FINE!" Ruby yelled. "But you're staying in the back!"

"Fine," Asher said coolly. He then closed the window and dropped to the bottom of the bed, laying down for the first time that day. His eyes wandered through the sky, watching the retreating clouds, as the stars began to shine. Asher's eyes began to close peacefully for the first time in many days. "I have a good feeling about this," he said as he drifted to sleep.