Chapter 9: Skirmish

John felt antsy and nervous. As he walked home, he chanced a glance at the guards on the corners. They kept jumping at small noises and looking over their shoulders, gripping their guns tightly. John reached for his doorknob, and heard a scream nearby. The scream sounded somehow familiar. Cindy? He let go of the door and ran toward the sound of the voice. Around the street corner, he found little Cindy pinned to a brick wall, Combee trapped in a net held by another Guardsman.

"Hey! What are you doing? Leave her the hell alone!"

The third man of the group approached John, barring his path.

"Let her go," John said slowly. When they said nothing, he tried to push past the man, but the man held firm. "What's she done wrong? You don't have any right to arrest people like this!"

"Ya wanna bet? It's called martial law, kid."

Cindy was crying against the brick wall.

"I said, leave her alone."

The man just smirked at him.

Cindy whimpered, "It's OK. I'll go with you if you let little Combee go free."

The man holding her to the wall growled, "Little girl, this thing might be small, but it's still a little monster and it's making you sick. So what we're going to do is we're gonna squash this nasty bug, and then you'll feel better soon, OK?"

"No!" Cindy was crying again.

John yelled, "You can't do that!"

The man said, "And why not? What are you going to…?" He broke off and looked into the net.

Combee was glowing bright as a star, and the man holding the net held it as far from him as possible, as if it were ready to explode. The bright silhouette expanded and grew to the size of a four foot tall person, tearing through the net as it grew. The light dimmed and John gaped at the creature in front of him. It had the coloring of a gigantic bee, and had a pair of insect wings on its upper back. Its lower body resembled a dress, it had a small midsection and a pair of arms, and its head was shaped like a crested crown; its mouth a pair of vicious looking mandibles.

"What the hell!"

The giant insect gave a shrill squeal and the three men scrambled for their weapons. There was a dim buzzing in the air, and the men all looked down the street, where a huge swarm of insects was buzzing toward them. A cloud of tiny bodies whizzed past John, and covered the three men, who ran, trying to escape the biting and stinging bugs.

Trying his best to ignore the giant bee beside him, he bent down and helped Cindy up. "Are you alright?"

"Thanks to Vespiquen."

John frowned. "What's a Vespiquen?"

"She's right beside you!"

"I thought you said her name was Combee."

"It was, but I just know her name is Vespiquen now."

"Okaaay…" said John, feeling confused. "Well, let's get you home before anyone else sees you."

Vespiquen suddenly flew high into the air, then came back down.

"She says there's nobody nearby."

"Uh, OK, let's go."

He escorted her back home, but he couldn't help himself from looking back at the giant insect following behind him; it was really a very startling image. John left Cindy at the door. He could imagine what her mother would think of Vespiquen, and he didn't want anything to do with that moment, so he headed home post haste. When he got home, he told Monozu what had happened.

"Assholes got what they deserved."

"Woah! Watch your language, buddy!"

"Hey, I'm not even human and even I know that roughing up a little girl is low."

"Not to mention that they wanted to kill Combee, and we both know what that would mean for Cindy."

"To be fair, they couldn't have known, but I was hoping that with all the Touched being kids, people would accept it a little more. It's not like they'd be willing to kill off the whole next generation."

"We're kind of stuck here, though. The ones that come through the rifts could really hurt people, and the National Guard is admittedly doing a good job of keeping them at bay, but at the same time, they could end up killing some of us."

"Do you want my take on it?"

"Well, obviously, considering you're technically me."

"We're better off dealing with the ones that come through the rifts. So far they haven't seriously injured anyone, and it sounds like most of the Touched are actually enjoying having their parallel with them, you included. Don't even try to deny it; I've seen just about everything in that noggin of yours; you can't hide stuff from yourself."

"So you're saying that what's going on is mostly a good thing?"

"Who knows what fate has in store? Maybe all people are meant to become Touched."

John just stared at him. "Wait, why am I even listening to a three month old animal thing on matters of philosophy?"

Monozu stared back. "Jackass…"

"So what do you think we should do?"

"Find a way to get these Guardsmen to high tail it."

"And how exactly do you propose we do that?"

Monozu thought for a while, then said, "I don't know, but we definitely can't do it with just the two of us. I think… we should try to find out where they're taking the Touched and their parallels. If they're not treating them well, and you get some proof of it, people might start to side with you. One of the few things I do get about your kind is that you care more about your young ones than almost anything else. I don't know how much good it'll do at first, but if the town doesn't want these soldiers around, it will be a step in the right direction."

"And what if the ones coming through the rifts really are just monsters? What if none of this was supposed to happen at all?"

"I… understand. We can't know for sure, but either way, wouldn't you feel better if you knew the young ones are being treated well?"

"Maybe."