The Midvale Girls
The further adventures of the teenaged Alex and Kara Danvers
Metamorphosis
Chapter 7
The Emerald Eye of Ekron wasn't pointed exactly in her direction, but it was close enough. If it behaved like a normal eye, she would definitely be in its field of view when she stepped into the cone of light. Not wanting anything to go wrong when she was this close to her goal, Alex circled around until she could approach it mostly from the rear before moving any closer. And, as she moved, she tried to keep at least one of the catafalque holding the dead aliens between her and the Eye at all times.
Once she was in position, she paused to stare at the Eye. It hadn't moved or given any sign it was aware of her presence. But then she had no idea how a disembodied eye would even move. She hoped she would never find out.
"Buffy, how do I touch it?" Alex breathed at barely a whisper, as she realized they had never discussed this detail.
"When you are close to the Eye, just reach out with your right index finger. I'll retract the suit from that finger at the last second."
"Okay."
Alex stepped clear of the pile of alien bones she had been crouched behind and then had the suit lift until it was hovering three inches above the floor and then commanded it to glide forward. It didn't seem like an eye should be able to hear, but she didn't want to take any chances. Who knew whether a foot scraped on the floor might be enough to alert it.
She halted the suit when it was eighteen inches from the Eye. Even at this range, the Eye still looked like a normal eye, albeit a hugely oversized one. For a second, she wondered if she could force herself to touch it just due to the ick factor.
Taking a deep breath, she raised her right arm, closed her hand into a fist, and then extended her index finger. Slowly, she reached forward, hoping to touch the Eye as lightly as possible. She had no idea how this would release Salu from the Eye or how long she would have to maintain contact. Hopefully, it would be obvious when the deed was done.
One inch before her finger reached the Eye, the armor around the finger slid back exposing the tip and most of the fingernail, but leaving the first knuckle still covered. As lightly as possible, Alex touched the Eye. It felt like it had a consistency a little stiffer than jello.
When nothing seemed to happen after a handful of seconds, Alex whispered, "What now?"
"Let's give it ten more seconds," replied Buffy. "If this approach is going to work, it shouldn't take that long. If it hasn't worked by then, we might as well retreat back to the ship to regroup. Maybe Brainy will have some other suggestion."
Alex had no desire to spend all day standing here with her finger pressed against an alien eye. She was more than happy to follow the suit's suggestion.
She mentally counted down the seconds; she still felt no reaction from the Eye. Nor did she feel like someone had swept into her body. Of course, if Salu was currently small enough to fit within a single cell, then she wouldn't feel anything.
When she was certain the ten seconds had expired, she carefully pulled her finger back. The digit had moved less than an inch when Buffy once again enclosed the exposed fingertip.
The suit was still hovering a few inches above the floor. Alex commanded it to glide backwards about two feet and then slowly spun in midair until she was facing away from the Eye.
And that was when she saw at least twenty red spots between her and the distant point where she had entered this mausoleum chamber. She instinctively knew they were the feral gleam from the eyes of a large pack of predatory creatures. Shit! She had come all this way and it was looking like the whole trip was going to be a failure. And now this!
"What now?" Alex whispered even though she wanted to scream not whisper. She could feel the panic welling.
"I think those are Montressors," answered Buffy, calmly. "My lightning weapon should be able to stun some of them or potentially scare them away, but if I use it this close to the Eye, it will surely be alerted. We are going to have to get around them."
Montressors were one of the alpha predators that Lyle had specifically mentioned while they were still on their way to the planet. The creatures had two legs and four arms like the sentient race that had once inhabited this world. However they stood fourteen feet tall. They also had two long tentacles where an elephant would have tusks. And they had a single large eye in the middle of their forehead like a cyclops. Therefore the twenty red orbs she could see meant there were twenty of the creatures not just ten like there would be back home.
The ceiling of this chamber was high enough that she could fly, but not so high that fourteen foot tall creatures couldn't reach it. So she couldn't simply fly over them. She would have to go around them and hope there weren't more of them waiting at the opening in the ceiling where she had entered.
Alex started slowly gliding to her left, which took her away from both the Eye and the creatures. She didn't want to make any sudden moves that might attract their attention on the off-chance they were here for some other reason than being in pursuit of her.
No such luck though. She had glided at least twenty feet away from the Eye, but the creatures were all still staring fixedly in her direction.
"Buffy, can you enhance my vision further? I would like to try to out run them, but when it's this dark, I'm likely to hit one of the catafalque."
"It would be the simplest, if you would let me take control for the moment," suggested Buffy.
Alex hated the idea of giving up control even if the suit had her best interests in mind. Still . . .
"Okay. Do it," directed Alex.
And almost as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted it. The suit lifted a little higher into the air and then accelerated hard while dodging from side to side to avoid the countless obstacles of catafalque and ceiling support columns. Alex had never been that prone to motion sickness and she was certain she could move this fast while in control of the suit without a problem. But when she was nothing but a helpless passenger with no warning of which way the suit was going to dodge next, it was quickly overwhelming her sense of equilibrium. She tried closing her eyes, but it didn't seem to help.
"Buffy, you need to slow down. You are making me sick!"
The suit slowed for a moment, but then there was a large crash nearby and they were hit with a heavy rain of debris. The suit accelerated again and jinked even faster.
"Sorry. The Montressors are trying to stop us by hurling catafalque in our direction. If we take a direct hit, I may be crippled long enough for them to catch us."
Buffy had barely finished speaking when something slammed into the side of the suit. They careened sideways, straight through a moldering, long desiccated corpse, and crashed to the ground. They tumbled until finally coming to a stop against another catafalque. A rain of bones poured down on top of them.
"Anti-grav is offline and it will take thirty seconds to restore," stated Buffy. "Alex, you need to run."
Alex shook her head and struggled to her feet. Her vision swam for a moment and she wasn't sure if it was due to the crash or the nausea of the previous erratic flight. She finally spotted the distant light that had to be the opening where she had entered this chamber. It looked a long, long way away. She put one foot in front of the other. The first steps were hesitant, but as she moved it seemed to become easier. She was quickly up to at least a jog, if not quite a sprint.
Then another catafalque crashed down not six feet to her left. That definitely helped with her motivation. She pushed up her speed, but she needed to constantly zig-zag to avoid the seeming haphazard placement of the intervening catafalque.
Another catafalque came flying in. It also missed, but it raised another shower of bones and rotted corpse bits that sent her sideways into a column. She glanced over her shoulder and the monsters seemed to be gaining on her even as they lofted more projectiles in her direction.
"Buffy, is your lightning weapon working?" demanded Alex as she got moving again.
"Yes, but as I said before, it may draw the Eye's attention."
"And you don't think all the noise these creatures are making won't do that? I mean it's enough to wake the dead." She instantly regretted that choice of words. She could just imagine all the corpses in this chamber suddenly rising up to attack her like some scene from the Lord of the Rings movies.
"Okay. Just point your right hand towards one of the creatures and think fire, I'll do the rest," answered Buffy.
Alex dove behind the nearest catafalque. She turned and pointed towards the nearest creature and thought fire.
In the near dark of the chamber, the jagged blue-white bolt was almost blinding. It raced across the forty foot distance and struck the creature in the center of its chest. The Montressor was knocked back ten feet and slammed into the creature directly behind it. They both tumbled to the ground.
Alex quickly fired two more bolts targeting creatures to the left and right of the first one. These, too, were thrown to the ground. That was enough to cause the rest of the creatures to hesitate.
She grinned for a moment; however it quickly faded when she spotted a green glow emanating from what had to be the spot where the Eye had been resting. It steadily got brighter and brighter until the whole cavernous chamber was as bright as mid-day back home.
Alex took two stumbling steps backward and then turned and ran. If the initial battle with the Montressors hadn't awakened the Eye then the lightning bolts most definitely had.
"Buffy, tell me the anti-grav is back online!" shouted Alex.
"Online . . . now," stated the suit in its now familiar and utterly irritating calm tone.
Alex leaped into the air as though she had been flying as long as Kara or even Clark. She raced towards the exit flying just below the ceiling so she was well above the height of the catafalque and only had to worry about the support columns.
The green glow behind her got even more intense as she pushed forward as fast as she could until the columns raced by in almost a blur. In mere seconds, the central opening in the ceiling was right in front of her. She raced through it and straight up through the small structure that surrounded it. She was moving so fast, she nearly hit the ceiling of the chamber above. At the last moment, she managed to angle her trajectory and avoided an impact by bare inches.
She was back in the large chamber with the four tiers of walkways around its perimeter, the room with the hundreds of potential exits.
"Buffy, where is the passage we followed to get here?"
"It's in the opposite direction, Alex," stated Buffy.
As soon as Alex began to turn, the direction indicator she had used while crossing the jungle reappeared on her display. She raced in the indicated direction, which required her to pass close to the small structure in the center of the chamber. As she got even with it, what looked like giant ten-foot green flies came boiling up out of its depths.
"Oh my god, Buffy, it's the Dralgo!" shouted Alex. Of all the creatures, Lyle had shown her that were potential threats on this planet, this was the one that had scared her the most.
"Actually," stated Buffy calmly. "I don't believe they are Dralgo. They appear to be force-construct versions of the creatures created by the Eye. Of course, they are just as deadly as the real thing."
"Thanks, Buffy, that helped a lot," said Alex unable to keep the panic out of her voice. She turned her attention forward and focused on reaching the passage out of this underground nightmare. She could only hope the suit was faster than these creatures whether they were real or just a creation of the Eye.
The far wall of the chamber was rapidly approaching. Buffy's directional display better be absolutely precise, as she intended to take the passage beyond without slowing. To the best of her recollection, it was perfectly straight. She had to hope they wouldn't careen into a wall or column.
She didn't dare look back. "Buffy, are the Dralgo gaining on us?"
"The nearest one is one hundred twenty feet behind and closing. If neither of you slow, it will catch you in twenty seconds."
If she didn't slow, twenty seconds at this speed should see her clear of the passage and the last chamber before she would be outside. Then she would have some room to maneuver. Hopefully, that would help, but if not . . .
"Buffy, open a channel to the ship."
"But . . ."
Alex cut the suit off. "The Eye is awake and aware of us. We need to warn the others."
It was only a couple of seconds later that Alex heard Lyle's voice.
"Alex, you weren't supposed to . . ."
"Lyle. The Eye is aware of me and its constructs are on my tail. You need to withdraw beyond its range. I'll catch up once I'm clear."
The mission appeared to be a bust. And now she had monstrous flying creatures hot on her tail. This day was really beginning to suck. She wished she had never heard of the Legion of Superheroes or time travel or hyper-dimensional drives.