Chapter One:

Rio

Rio's fist connected with the red leather of his punching bag. The punch was so powerful, the bag crumpled slightly with the impact. He pulled his other arm back and punched again, the chain connecting the bag to the ceiling rattling. He punched and punched, running through every combination of hits he knew. First, a left hook, then a right, then an uppercut. A thousand hits, over and over and over again.

His blood pounded in his ears as sweat dripped down his olive skin. With every punch, he imagined the sneaky, sniveling face of the little rat who'd approached him one day with an offer from his boss. On his next punch, he imagined the smug grin and double chin of Don Brasi, sneering at Rio and warning him that he'll regret this. His ears rang as he kept punching, over and over, his rage building as the words of the news report echoed all around him.

"—Rodrigo Higueras," the woman on the television had said. "An up-and-coming boxer, having just celebrated the twelfth victory of his career, is now wanted in connection with the murder of a young couple who lived next door to the boxer."

Rio punched even harder, remembering himself and his sibling packing up their things and running for it, only to find the police already at their door.

With one final hit, the chain connecting the bag to the ceiling broke and it slumped to the floor. Rio fell to his knees with it, breathing heavy as his blood kept pounding louder and louder. He closed his eyes, forcing himself to calm down. Little by little, his blood pressure went down, his muscles relaxed a bit, and he slumped back against his bed.

He shook his head and cleared his throat, swearing as he looked out the window at the gray stone wall of the building next door. He let out another long breath and forced himself to his feet. He hefted up his punching bag, inspecting the damage, and setting it up against the wall. He'd have to get a new chain and patch up the gash he'd left in the side, but that would have to wait until later.

He grabbed the towel off his bed and wiped his forehead, pulling on a shirt and heading out to the kitchen. The apartment he and his sibling now occupied was a tiny ramshackle dump in Detroit, far away from the life they'd had to leave behind back in Vegas. It was a miserable sight, but until this was over, it would have to do.

He grabbed a bowl from the cupboard and poured himself a bowl of cereal, sitting down at the tiny table to eat.

While he ate, his sibling's door opened, and his brother Tomas stepped out, wearing a flowery pink nightgown, courtesy of Princess the night before. Tomas, or Princess, or Princess Tomas as was their stage name, was gender fluid, meaning he was sometimes male and went by Tomas, and sometimes female, going by Princess. Thought it was often confusing to many, Rio knew his sibling well enough to tell the difference, noting subtle changes in their expressions and the way they carried themselves moment by moment.

Tomas, as he was right now, slumped down into the seat opposite his brother, pulling over a bowl of his own and pulling curlers out of his hair. "Good morning, Rio," he said, with a smile. "Lovely day, isn't it?"

"Morning, Tomas," Rio said. He watched as his brother pulled over the morning paper. "Maybe you shouldn't—"

Tomas's smile dropped the moment his eyes fell on one of the front-page stories. The drag show Princess Tomas had been a part of, back before everything, had just put on a big performance for some very important people. A performance Tomas would have been a part of, if it hadn't been for—

Rio turned his head away in shame. Tomas must have seen the movement, because he cleared his throat and put the paper away. "Good for them," he said, putting on a fake smile. "They earned it. Every single one of them."

Rio looked back at his brother as he went back to his cereal, noticing his spoon shaking in his hand. "Bro, I—I'm sorry—"

Tomas cut him off. "You have nothing to be sorry for," he said, fixing his brother with the most serious glare Rio had ever seen on him. "You have been there for me, through . . . everything. I can be here for you now. The world will just have to experience the splendor that is Princess Tomas some other time."

Tomas put on a good face, but Rio could see the pain there that he was trying to hide. Before he could say anything in response, his phone buzzed with a text message.

"Looks like Yoselin's here," Rio said, checking it. "I'd better go meet her."

Tomas nodded him away and went back to his food. As Rio crossed to the door and slipped his shoes on, he heard his brother call, "Say hi to Yoselin for me."

"Will do."

Rio stepped outside, onto a balcony overlooking a dismal parking lot full of cracks and potholes. On the bus stop bench across the lot sat a young woman with long dark hair, wearing a formal suit. Rio headed down and sat on the bench beside her.

"Agent Jimenez," he said.

"Mr. Higueras," the woman responded. She passed him a small stack of bills. "Spending money," she said. "And your rent's been paid for the month."

"I appreciate it. Any word on Brasi yet?"

"None yet," she said. "We're still looking into leads. We'll let you know if we do find anything."

Rio's shoulders slumped and he let out an annoyed huff. Once again, day after day, nothing, over and over. "It's been months now."

"Do you think I don't know that?" Yoselin said. "My agency is doing everything we can—"

"Well, it's not good enough."

"Hey!" Yoselin turned on him, her eyes fiery. She was distractingly pretty, but Rio did his best to ignore that. "You and your sibling are lucky you have what you've got. Every scrap of evidence still points to you being the killer, and you only got this deal because I stuck my neck out for you. And it does nothing to help my career when you're picking fights with every random yahoo—"

"They were going after my sibling," Rio shouted back. "What was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know. You're in witness protection, Rio. Act like it!"

Rio and Yoselin held each other's gazes for just a second, before Yoselin's eyes softened and she slumped back against the bench. "I'm sorry," she said. "I should not have said any of that. It's just been a stressful couple of months, and I can't imagine it's been any easier for the two of you."

Rio sat back as well, shaking his head. "I'm sorry too."

Yoselin pulled out the morning's paper. "I saw Princess Tomas's troupe performed yesterday. Seems they brought down the house."

Rio smiled a little. "I saw," he said. "Tomas was proud of them."

Yoselin glanced back at the siblings' apartment. "How is . . . he doing today?"

Rio shrugged. "Sad because he missed out on it, but he's putting on a good face."

"And how are you?"

Rio shook his head. "I'm just trying to survive."

Yoselin bit her lip. "I can see about moving you to a new area," she said. "One more accepting. I know people can be gross, sometimes."

Rio shrugged. "It's not that bad," he said. "Most of the people around are fine. Just a couple of meatheads at the gym, and we don't go there anymore."

"Still."

Yoselin looked down the street to see a bus headed their way. "That's for me." She gathered her things and got to her feet. She turned back to Rio. "You two take care of yourselves, alright? I do worry about you."

Rio smiled a little. "We will," he said, meeting her eyes. "Thanks for everything, Yoselin."

Yoselin turned away. For just a moment, Rio thought he saw her blush a little.

"By the way," she said. "Your old friend, Tony? We spotted him in Chicago a few days ago. We don't know if he's headed here, or if he knows you're here, but keep a lookout, alright? Call me if you see him."

Rio scowled. He could never forget the slimy face of the rat that had come to him with Don Brasi's deal in the first place. "Will do," he said.

The bus pulled to a stop and opened its doors. Yoselin stepped on. "See you in a couple of days," she said.

"Same time, same place," Rio said.

The doors closed, and the bus pulled away. Rio watched it go, waiting for it to disappear from sight before letting all of his frustration rise back up again. He balled his fist and punched the bench, letting out a swear word or two in Spanish and English. He returned to the room for a second to hear music coming from Tomas's room.

"Tomas," he shouted. "I'm heading out to get groceries!"

"Have fun!" his brother shouted back.

Rio walked the two blocks to the local mart, picking up eggs, milk, bread, all the basics they were out of, and paid with the money Yoselin had given them. Afterward, he walked another block to visit the local sports store, to pick up a new chain for his punching bag. As he was looking through their assortment, testing their strength for one sturdier than his last one, he noticed some guy across the store watching him.

Rio paid him no mind. Maybe he recognized him from the news or something. It happened. As long as Yoselin's agency caught his police report, it normally wasn't too big of a deal. What did concern him was when the guy followed him through the racks to the front counter, and then pointed him out to his buddy.

Rio tensed. Both of these guys looked like just the kind of thugs Don Brasi hired. He did his best to act natural while paying for his chains, and then headed straight out the door. Through the storefront window, he could see them following him out. He picked up his pace, walking down the street away from the store and taking the first turn he saw, walking straight into rat-faced Tony.

"Hey, Rodrigo," Tony said. "How's it going?"

Rio backed up, seeing two goons standing behind Tony. He made to turn the other way, only to find the goons from the store had caught up to him, boxing him in.

"See, as soon as we figured out that you were somewhere in the area, I figured you'd turn up at the nearest sports store eventually," Tony said. "What'd you get? Can't be new boxing gloves. Last I checked, that career was over."

Rio's heart pounded in his ears. They'd found him, he thought. And if he didn't do something, they'd find Tomas too. Acting on instinct, he raised one of his grocery bags and smacked Tony across the face. The bag broke open on impact, sending eggs flying everywhere. Rio then ducked and weaved as one of Tony's thugs swung at him, coming back up and punching the guy in the face. He sidestepped another one coming his way, and smacked a third with his carton of milk, causing that to burst on impact too.

Seizing the opening created, he dashed out across the busy street, rolling up and over the hood of a car and just missing being struck by another one. He reached the other side and kept running, pulling out his phone and dialing one of the only numbers on it.

"Hey, you've reached Yoselin," the phone said, going straight to voicemail. "Call me back at the sound of the beep."

Rio groaned in frustration. "Yoselin," he shouted. "It's Rio. You were right. Tony is here. He and his goons found me. I'm at the corner of Hart and Oliver. I need help. Hurry!"

He shut the phone off and kept running. He looked back to see that Tony and his goons had managed to cross the street and were now giving chase. Rio kept running. All around him, people screamed as he and his pursuers shoved them out of the way in their haste. Rio did his best to keep his breathing controlled and think about the situation. What could he do? Where could he go?

He turned a corner and past a back alley. Acting on instinct, he dove inside and hid behind a dumpster. At the end of the alley, he watched as Tony and his men ran past, shouting "Where'd he go?"

"He can't have gone far," Tony said. "Keep looking."

Rio backed up away from the dumpster and hurried down the alley, hoping to come out the other side. As he ran, his ear caught a strange sound, and he stopped dead in his tracks. The sound was barely more than a whisper, but it was ethereal and entrancing in a strange way, making it so that Rio couldn't pull his attention away from it if he tried.

He took a step back, looking down a side alley he had just passed. The sound seemed to be coming from there. His feet moved on their own, leading him down the passage until he came to a blank wall with a large crack down the middle. The sound seemed to be coming from inside the crack. The more he focused on it, the more the crack seemed to be glowing with a faint red light.

At the end of the alley, one of Tony's goons rushed into view. "There you are," he shouted, rushing toward Rio. Though Rio's conscious mind could see the man coming, he couldn't stop himself from reaching out his hand and touching the crack.

A burst of light filled the alley, blinding Rio and knocking the goon back. When the light cleared, he found he wasn't in Detroit anymore.

Rio shook his head and looked around. "Hello?" he shouted. He seemed to be in some kind of underground cave, the walls lined with carvings of strange alien creatures, the design feeling oddly familiar to him.

His eyes widened as the reason why clicked in his head. He had seen designs like these in the news reports about the alien invasion that had almost happened last year. Similar artwork had existed in the strange castle at the North Pole, and inside the now destroyed pyramid at Giza, and in those strange tunnels the Iron Legion had been breaking into.

Rio's heart pounded even louder.

"Hello!" he shouted.

That same strange whispering met his ears again, coming from somewhere down the tunnel ahead. Not knowing what else to do, Rio followed the sound.

The tunnel led him out into a large open cavern, with narrow bridges leading to a pedestal in the center, over a raging underground river that seemed to be bloodred far below. Above the pedestal, a perfectly round orb of crystalline glass floated in midair, glowing brightly from the inside. The whispers emanating from it were now louder than ever, beckoning him to come forward.

Despite the growing panic in his chest, Rio felt his legs move on their own, carrying him across the narrow bridge and up to the sphere. Before he could stop himself, his hand rose, reaching out and touching the orb's smooth surface, which felt warm and alive at his touch.

Another bright flash filled the room. Upon contact, the orb's crystal body seemed to break down, transforming into particles of light that swirled through the air and entered Rio's body through his fingertips, surging up his arm and across his chest.

Rio stumbled back, staring as bright light now emanated from his skin, spreading all across his body and making him feel unbearably warm. "No, no, no, no," Rio said, his heart racing. He turned and ran, stumbling across the narrow bridge and making it to the other side, trying desperately to get away, to escape the light glowing brighter and brighter from inside his body. He had almost reached the point he started from, when, finally, he blacked out.

Far away, a hundred lightyears from Earth, a Vader Clan ship floated lifelessly in space. Upon Rio's contact with the orb, the ship seemed to awaken, all of its lights and systems coming back on, its crew waking from their pods. The largest and most ornate of these pods contained the ship's captain, the great Vader Clan general Ikros.

Ikros opened his bright green eyes, sitting forward as the feathery wings on his back rustled. He looked around, seeing all of his crewmen stepping out of their own pods around him.

"The Shine has been awakened," he said, his mandibles buzzing with excitement. "Set a course for its signal. Our invasion has finally begun."

Thanks for reading! I have no idea if the problem with my viewership numbers from the previous work has been fixed, so reviews are much appreciated. Thank you!