Chapter 7

A Strange New World

Liliandra tried to back the ship but they were being pelted and apparently the ships weapons were low on power and wasn't doing much damage to the larger ships heading towards them. They realized that the ships were different from the ones on their tail, apparently they had jetted right in the middle of an already hostile zone.

"Zodiac, your people are firing at us!" yelled Fred as he was tossed to one side, causing the ship to shift.

"They are not mine! Mika's older, their his!" yelled Zodiac as she hit the wall hard.

"It's a Matriarch!" yelled Mika as he hung from a chair.

"Nature, your directions suck!" yelled Lance as he held onto the controls, Liliandra yelling at him, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOUR SAYING!"

"Fire back!" yelled Pietro.

"We are!" yelled Lance.

"At the ships behind us!" yelled Pietro, "They think we're with them…. What's that alarm!"

"Our left engines down," said Mika looking at the screen.

"This is like a bad episode of Star Trek, yo," Todd yelped as they were thrown again to the back of the ship as they were hit again."

"Can we communicate!" said Zodiac as she clung to the back of Liliandra's chair, "Let them know we're not Triccidians…"

"They would not believe this," said Luna, "They are in armor and in their ship… the silver haired man is correct, fire the opposite way."

"And lead a fleet into battle?" asked Lance, he and Mika looked at each other and shrugged, "Might as well go out in a blaze of glory."

"That's a whole lot of ship," said Tabitha as they swung around to a series of ships headed towards them.

They had no idea what they were doing and the only one who had any idea how to fly and fire the ship was Liliandra who was still adjusting to the ship and she didn't exactly understand them at all times and Luna was too scared to translate from where she'd taken to clinging to the chairs. The other ships had indeed stopped firing at them now and they had become unwilling leaders in the charge. The onslaught attack seemed to have weakened the fleet in front of them and two larger ships, one being the Starjammers had now joined the firing squad and was chasing off the smaller violent ships. Their ship seemed to creek as the onslaught stopped, but the alarms were still blaring as they seemed to have lost balance until the larger of the non-Triccidian ships seemed to surround them with some sort of barrier and caused the alarms to stopped. The small sreense changed to see a man with jet black hair and very familiar sharp and thin face. Todd instantly thought of Candy's mother, Raven, the resemblance was striking, he spoke a rather flowy language unlike that of the Triccidians, it seemed softer somehow.

"What?" asked Zodiac, as she got up from behind where she'd fallen behind the ship, "Do you know what he's saying, Luna?"

"Safety," said Luna, whom Tabitha had currently coaxed from where she'd been hidden, "He said our ship is damaged and he's taking us to Animite and not to try and… ohm.. not to try anything… but he did not say what thing."

"Guys, pep talk," said Lance quickly.

"Don't do or say anything that may be seen as hostile or alarm and frighten them, " said Fred casually, "Yeah, yeah same speech we get every time we go over to the mansion, we know the drill."

"And yet every time we leave with a weeklong ban," muttered Lance, "Good to know it's just blatant disregard for my feelings and not just selective hearing."

The ship floated along behind the fleet and back towards more of the brightly colored planets to be in line with a large planet that looked similar to earth with more water and swirls of purples in parts of it. The planets they seemed to pass, the smaller ones, were apparently moons. A planet in the distance looked similar to Saturn except it was a mass of golden color with slight swirls of reds and blue. The scene looked straight out of a fantasy film. Tabitha marveled at the colors and cursed wishing she had her camera with her, this was breath taking.

"Is everyone okay?" asked Mika, who seemed to have just recovered from the last ten minutes.

"Really?" asked Zodiac with a rolled eye at her older brother as she looked out the window, "That's Animite?"

"Yeah…. I guess it is," said Mika, who held the same look of awe that she also had, "It's beautiful."

"Wonder what the purple is?" asked Fred, "Flowers? Like seas of flowers?"

"If so, can we get them too earth?" asked Todd, Lance nodded.

"I think alien flowers are a good souvenir to our fiancées," said Lance, he looked less nervous.

"Suddenly calm?" asked Pietro.

"There's no ships firing at us or creatures trying to kill us," said Lance.

"That we know of," whispered Tabitha, "Still an alien planet, Zodiac and Mika may be earth raised but apart from everyone saying their peaceful…. What if there not… we don't know the qualifications of peaceful in space. Everyone seems nice at first. We are being way too trusting right now."

"Says the person who picked up a hitch-hiking axe murderer," said Lance.

"They didn't have enough proof to prove that," said Tabitha confidently, "I'm just saying lets be cautious… this is coming from me, not Wanda."

"Way to be a downer," said Wanda with a raised brow.

"Once a month, we're sending her to space," said Pietro, "She gets mellow out here."

"I am remaining calm, but when we get home….." Wada gave Pietro a dark look.

"…. I wonder if there's a job I could get on Animite," said Pietro quickly, avoiding his sister's look, "I think she found out about the water balloon fight."

"The one where you used our bras to attack Bobby and the others, yeah… she knows," said Tabitha.

"Interesting," said Nature, they all looked at her, "Todd your right…. It's hard to separate their stories from my families."

"I think we're landing," said Mika as he sat down as they drew closer to a large white and purple area on the planet.

As they landed on the planet, it became far more apparent what had created the different colors. They landed down on a marble or stone landing pad that was surrounded by long grass and plants that were hues of purple, blues, and greens all mixed together. The water was clear and the colors looked like caverns of different colored and gigantic sea life. They landed on the strip of marvel, the skies rich with swirls of blues, green, and golds where they could see the moons and planets in the skyline. The white and purple mass was a gigantic building, a palace of sorts, with large amethyst structures and jem embellishments and swirls on it. There were thousands of smaller structures scattered throughout the wildlife. Zodiac stared at these… homes? She could see small dots of people going in and out of them and towards the large building.

"What are those?" asked Lance, Zodiac followed his gaze outside the opposite window. There were twisted structures in the distance that looked like a Tim Burton hill rather than the mountains they most likely were.

"This is where Mom's from?" asked Mika out loud as he watched a large bright colored bird fly by, "What they hell is that?"

"Pterodactyl?" suggested Fred, "Or a giant parrot…. But did you know they think dinosaurs had feathers so that's a possibility."

"I wonder if father realized we'd only watch Discovery Channel if he got us cable," said Pietro, Wanda shrugged.

"Shi…!" Nature jumped as a knocking came at the door and a demanding voice came through.

"We are not Triciddian," said Luna, "I am of Caldonian."

"Please step out," said the voice in clear English, "Or we will be forced to remove you."

"They sound less demanding in English," shrugged Lance as Mika opened the door.

"Polite even," said Nature.

However opening the door wasn't exactly polite as there was a small horde of people greeting them with what must have been strange colored guns. The Animite soldiers were in blue uniforms with strange striped emblems on the shoulders. The guns were thin and sleek with each having different glows to them which broke the uniformed looks. The people in general had vastly different looks and hues to them. Zodiac grabbed her head and flinched before stepping around Nature to see better. The air was lighter here, clean. She could hear a strange series of noises in her heads, but they didn't confuse her, in fact they felt normal even though she couldn't place it, it was familiar.

"State your status," said the one man in front, his skin was copper and almost shiny, black eyes looked through the helmet he wore.

"Panicked, lost, and slightly wounded," said Mika, Nature slapped his arm, "Married? What status are they asking for?"

"I don't know," said Nature.

"I felt it was a good answer," said Pietro, the guns seemed to be raised, "Alright, I got this."

"Were all dead, yo," said Todd in defeat.

"We come in peace," said Pietro confidently as he strolled towards the army.

"Looks like your dying a virgin," said Tabitha as she patted Lance's shoulder, he nodded.

"He… not… spoken, no," said Liliandra as she looked over Lance's shoulder.

"We're used to being misrepresented and nearly killed by my brother," said Wanda, "It's to be expected."

"I feel your pain, it often happens with my siblings," said Luna with a cringe.

"Same," said Liliandra.

"Good to know stupidity is universal," said Tabitha as Pietro was tazed, "I'm not defending him."

"Nope," the Brotherhood nodded.

"O for crying out loud," said Zodiac as she helped Pietro back up and he chose the moment to flee behind the Brotherhood leaving her standing in front of the guards.

"You're fired," said Nature as she quickly headed by Zodiac.

"I would have preferred to have been fired on Earth, and not after getting the crap kicked out of me by aliens," said Pietro.

"We would have preferred you didn't get Chinese food in the first place," said Wanda.

"I am personally enjoying this adventure," said Mika, they all looked at him, "I thought we were all sharing out current declarations."

"Ignore him, he's an idiot," said Nature as she started pulling Zodiac back.

The soldiers began to step back and aside but keeping the guns drawn on them. A smallers party of soldiers made their way through. Two of which were female but next to a center figure. His uniform was not like the others but was dark and nearly black; he had a high collar flanked by a sharp edged helmet that looked similar to a bird. He was obviously a general for the army as with one hand motion the soldiers seemed to stand down.

"Why are you here?" asked the general sternly.

"Accident," said Nature.

"You guys brought us here, we're not hostile or Triciddians, we are earthlings," said Zodiac, "We made a wrong turn."

"Lies," said the general.

"Excuse me?" asked Zodiac, "That's not a lie."

"I can testify… not a lie!" said Mika.

"Well then we got lost," said Lance.

"All true," said Nature, "Come on Zodiac, let's not stare down a general."

"Will you stop pulling me," said Zodiac, yanking her arm from Nature's grasp, "We are not lying, and we just want to go home to Earth."

"I see, I did not mean to call your ordeal a lie," said the general as his helmet retracted revealing jet black hair with streaks of silver, sharp features, and piercing eyes, Todd immediately thought of his future mother-in-law, "I meant as my niece, you are not a complete earthling, Zodiac."

TO BE CONTINUED