"Checkmate!" I shouted to Larry.

He went from his "thoughtful" pose to raising his right index finger up. Eoraptors are one of the few dinosaurs that have five fingers. I think that the only other ones with five fingers are Herrerasaurus, Pachycephalosaurus, Stegoceras, and…that's all, I think.

"Checkmate," he said, moving his bishop next to my king. Then he crossed his arms and grinned. "Well, I do think that that wraps it up."

"Wait just a minute!" I said. I wasn't going to waste four hours of hard concentration against this guy just to lose to him. Even if he was letting me beat him because of my recent injury and all.

It'd been almost two days since the Red Eye attack. You can certainly say that everyone's parents were not happy about what had nearly happened to their kids. Especially Lilia's parents. You can imagine what three bullets and a bad burn to the entire back can do to a girl's father.

Larry pointed to the small, blue spot on me cheek. "Is that where Lilia's dad hit you?"

"None of your business."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. He sure was angry at you wasn't he?"

I groaned. "Would you please stop it? I don't want to discuss it anymore! Drop the subject and don't bring it up again anymore! Is that clear?"

"Yes, but that…"

"Shut up!"

"All right!"

I looked down back at the chess board.

And no, I will not discuss the matter with you either! Yeah, just because you have gone through everything with me and as a reader, you probably know things that are happening that I don't know about, but that doesn't give you any right to…

I tried to make it up to them by letting them stay in one of the residences behind the Palace. Where all the farmers live with their families and help produce all the food and drinks that we consume.

Well, I won't say Mr. Woods' was exactly against the idea, but he certainly wasn't for it either. Let's just say that for the moment anyway, I wasn't exactly the guy for his daughter anymore. The only good thing was that Lilia still loved me just as much and she was still sweet on me.

Anyways, my mind returned to the chess game. What are you supposed to do when both players have checkmated each other? "Hey, Spiny, I don't want to appear stupid, but haven't you noticed something?"

"What?"

"There are no pieces left to attack except our two kings. And we're both checkmated."

We both stared at each other. Then at our kings. Then back at each other. We began to laugh and started backing away from the board slowly. "Well, uh, what do you know?"

"I know, right?" Larry said.

"Yeah, I know."

Even dire circumstances can't change how stupid and smart-aleck Larry is. He grabbed the chess board and smacked it on top of my head. "I win! I win! I win!"

You don't think it hurt, right? You just think I'm sensitive, right?

Ha! Well, I got news for you, my friend! Just ask some idiot to grab a professional-sized chess board that is about three inches thick and have them smack it on your head as hard as they can. And if it doesn't hurt, then you call me.

Anyways, I said, "That doesn't count!"

"Yeah, it does! There's nothing in the rules that says I can't win by smacking you on the head with the board."

I knew I wouldn't be able to make a good argument out of that. But I wanted to try anyway. I was about to, when Larry's phone beeped. "Oh, hey. It's time for you to take your pill."

"What? I don't need to take any pill! I'm in perfect health."

Ignoring me, he answered his phone. "Yeah, what is it? Uh-huh. What?! When? Who…the Red Eyes?!"

I jumped when he said that and started paying more attention. I wanted to see if I could figure what the other person was saying to Larry. He continued saying, "How many? Good grief! Seventy? What do you mean they destroyed the central nucleus? I was made known that…oh, yeah. That makes sense. Well, how did they…they used dark matter gas?!"

"Dark matter gas?!"

He turned to me. "Uh, yeah. They attacked one of our bases. Completely destroyed. Only one of fighters made it out. They went into a keyhole and reached the Saturn base and reported there." He resumed talking. "Uh-huh. What?! They destroyed the Saturn base, too? Oh, you're kidding! What? Neptune?! What happened…he did? How many? Oh, good that's a relief."

"What? What?"

"The Red Eyes also attacked and destroyed the Saturn base."

"What about this Neptune stuff? What happened?"

"Oh, they just said that The Comet attacked the Neptune Station, and there are seventy injured, but no deaths. They had no electrical weapons. That's his only weakness, but they didn't have any, so they retreated to the bunkers. The base sustained about 37% damage, but we'll be able to repair it, they say." He went back to the phone conversation. "Yes, he's with me. Yes, I'm repeating all this to him. Okay, just one more…hello? Hello?" He took the phone away and stared at it. "Huh. Must have bad signal."

"Maybe it's a solar flare or solar wind," I suggested.

"Maybe. I hope not. Those can last for hours." He placed the phone near his ear again. "Hello? Hello! Yes, what happened? What do you mean the guy I was talking to you just died? Who is…" Larry's eyes got huge and he quickly hung up and threw the phone across the room.

"What? What happened?"

"I was just talking to a Red Eye."

Say what?! "Uh….come again?"

"He was killed in the middle of the conversation by a Red Eye. The base in Neptune. It's been destroyed."

"Did he tell you?"

He shook his head. "I don't need him to tell me. I can see it with my Tele-Vision Power. I can see things that are happening far away. Everything's on fire. Everyone's dead. Red Eyes everywhere. Destroying everything. And the IEO following close behind to stamp out anything that survives."

"What about those 5,000 thousand Red Eye ships they'd sent?"

"Oh, those? They turned out to be traps. They wanted us to leave Amarkia and fight them while the real army invaded Amarkia. Good thing we figured it out. The spy we'd sent in several centuries ago had been feared dead. But he warned us about 18 hours ago." He shook his head, trying to shake the vapors out of his head. "I'm sure glad I don't have to live among them anymore. It's…traumatizing."

But I wasn't listening. I'd had it. I was sick and tired of all this. They wanted to play with fire? All right! I could play along with them. I could play with fire too. And how do you fight fire? No, not with a hose. You fight fire with fire.

"That did it!" I pounded my fists against the table. "I'm tired of always running way. Of always fearing for my life and the lives I was entrusted to protect when I was crowned King of Amarkia. Now we're fighting back. I am done running. We are going to turn the tables. We will make the Red Eyes and the IEO run from us!"

He jumped from his chair. "I say that…is what we should've done from the start, you jerk!"

My jaw dropped. "Did you just…ah! Never mind. I'm not arguing. The point is that we are going to put our battle plan into action. We're going into overdrive."

"Yeah, it's about time you did something instead of just sitting around like nerd playing chess."

I crossed my arms and glared at him. "Okay, you want to hear me say it? All right, I'll say it! I should've done something faster. There, I said it! You happy?"

He grabbed something from a red-and-white striped bag and stuffed it into his mouth, crunching it. "Not really."

"And are you eating popcorn?"

He stopped chewing and blinked his eyes. "No! I'm chewing glass. Of course, I'm eating popcorn, you dummy!"

Oh, please…give me patience…

"Well then, let's go!" I started going down the elevator to the basement floor, where the Bunker is. Larry jumped in just as the doors were closing.

"So, what do we do, first?"

"I just have to take care of something quick."

"Ah, I see. Going to say your final goodbye to the lady, huh?"

I rolled my eyeballs. "I'm not planning on dying, okay? I just want to see how my baby is doing."

He gasped, like when you truly are shocked. "You have a baby?!"

"Don't be clown! You know what I mean. Baby is an affectionate term used by couples."

"Really? Since when?"

"Since….ah!" I wasn't about to get pulled into another meaningless discussion with this nitwit. It would only serve in frying my neurons. And I needed to have a clear mental state for whatever would lie ahead.

I entered the Bunker and Lilia's family was there, sitting against the wall. They didn't want to be upstairs until Lilia was completely recovered. It had been the same with Roger. He didn't leave until Darla was well enough to go back home with her sister. She even asked to cancel her summer internship to be with Darla!

"I just came by to talk to Lilia," I said as I walked past.

Her father came up and stood in my way. "Not in your life."

Well, one thing about the Woods family…they're very good at holding grudges for extended periods of time. He suddenly didn't look like the big, friendly man who reminded me so much of my father and would often treat me like his own son.

Now he appeared menacing, and quite frankly, his bulging forearms look strong enough to crush my windpipe. I...gulp…took a deep breath and tried my best to look confident yet respectful. Believe me, that's not easy when you're facing your possible future father-in-law.

"Sir, I have to see her."

"I don't want you to see my daughter. You almost got her killed."

O-kay.

"Sir, I understand how you must feel. I do feel a certain amount of responsibility. But, how can you really blame me for an unforeseen incident? How was I supposed to know that this was all going to happen? It was supposed to be just a weekend camping trip among friends. But now, it is my duty to protect those whom I love and care for. If I didn't express that love, I wouldn't be carrying out my true role as a loving King who wants only the best for his subjects. Don't you think?"

I swear, it was like a World Staring Contest with this guy. Like the first one who blinked was the weak one. I was actually starting to get worried that he might shoot lasers from his eyes. But finally, he blinked and I could see his muscles relaxing. He stepped aside and said to me as I was walking past, "You have three minutes."

Well…better than nothing.

I suppose…

She was still on the bed, white sheets covering her. She looked so serene. Peaceful. Her face was full of bliss and goddess-like beauty. So perfect. Her long, silky brown hair tumbled down over her face. Her thin, soft, pink lips that were pure roses. Her two eyebrows that decorated her face and her long eyelashes that served as shield to those heavenly honey-brown pupils that caused angels to fall from heaven and flowers to open.

I brought my face, closing my eyes until our lips made contact, sending a warm sensation that spread throughout my face. Her eyelids fluttered and yes, those same beautiful eyes looked up at me. Her sweet lips twitched until they formed that same smile that captivated my soul.

"Hey," she whispered ever so softly.

I smiled back, and saw her cheeks blush the same pink of her lips. "Hey. How you doing?"

"Fine. Feeling better. Just a little tired. And you?"

"I've been okay." My left hand caressed her cheek gently, holding the precious vase of her face in my arms while my right hand lingered down to curl its fingers around hers. "I miss you, you know?"

"So do I. Even though you come here every day." She must've noticed something because she said, "Is everything okay, baby?"

This was not the time or place to beat around the bush, nor to go into too much detail. So I said, "I've decided to not run away. They're not going to make me fear anymore. I'm going to fight for what I believe in, what I've been entrusted to protect…and for those whom I love and care about."

She blinked her eyes, those eyelashes like waves on the beach. Then she smiled and I felt the electrifying touch of her hand on my face. I closed my eyes and enjoyed her caress, longing that the sensation would last forever. "I know you'll make it. I just know you will."

I opened my eyes again and saw the confidence reflected in her expression. "Go and do it, Spiny. Go there and do what you believe is right. Do it for our people. For you family. For the gang. Do it for us." She struggled to stand up and embraced me, her cheek brushing against mine.

"I promise…and that…I'll come back."

I felt her head nodding and she whispered into my ear. "I'll be waiting for you. But if you die…I'm going to kill you, you hear?"

I smiled and took her face into my hand once again and kissed her. "I love you," we both said.