The Sun rose shone over the desert, with an unbearable heat settling in. The deserts of Mexico are known to be a very inhospitable place, devoid of any kind of life... but there, in a remote area of Sonora far away from any civilization, a truck could be spotted driving through a lone dirt road.
It was old and decayed, product of many years spent in the sands of the desert. The truck was going at full speed, kicking up a cloud of dust behind... and driving that truck was none other than Will Volkov himself. The boy had stayed pretty much the same since the last time we saw him. The only visible change was that he had a tan; that and the cool sunglasses that he was wearing made him look like a Hollywood star.
"I'm going to roast with this heat...", thought Will as he brushed off the sweat on his forehead. He kept driving the truck under the suffocating heat. As he drove, though, Will took out a wallet from the glove box. He opened it, revealing two photos inside. One was a picture of his family, yet the one that interested him the most was the second. In it, Will was posing for the camera, all while his beloved Talulah was hugging him from the back, a warm smile adorning her pretty face. "If I only could be with you now...", the nostalgia gave him a recomforting feeling.
Putting the wallet aside, Will refocused on the road ahead, and after an hour or so of drive, he finally arrived at his destination. It was a remote farmhouse situated in a cliffside. Its clay walls were old, but they still kept their white color. The boy parked in front of the house.
Upon entering through the main door, he was met with a heavy smell of food. Following it, Will walked into the living room... and there he found his dear friend Matthews, having some tacos. He waved at him.
"Hi there. *ñam* *ñam* How was your little trip?"
"Not bad. I've bought food and water at the village. It should be enough for this month."
"Good thing *ñam* then." He pointed at the chair besides him. "Hey, sit down. You want some tacos?"
"Yeah, I'm hungry as hell."
With that said, Will sat down and ate the tacos. Minutes later the two had finished the entire plate. Matt leaned back on his chair, and then he spoke.
"Hey, Willy. Now that I think of it; it has been like half a year since we moved here, time surely flies..." DiAngelo's death had angered a lot of people back in the US, and many in the Government were eager to take revenge on them... Matt and Will weren't dumb, so they immediately fled the Stated and took refuge in Mexico. There, with Méndez's help, they settled in this remote farmhouse, far away from everything... a perfect hideout.
Will nodded to his friend's words.
"Yeah, and half a year since they left... It was a shame such good friends had to leave, especially Tal. God, I miss her so much..."
"Heh, me too bro. I wish we could see them again..." Matt reached for two bottles of beer. He passed one to Will. "But for the time being, let's enjoy our little exile. For Amiya and the rest!"
"Yes, for Rhodes Island." The two toasted and took a deep sip.
Matt soon finished his beer and put the empty bottle on the table with an audible slam. He sighed.
"Ahhh, this is life..." At that moment something came to his mind. "Hey, now that I remember... tonight's the final of the Champions!"
"You're right!" Exclaimed Will. "Manchester United and Real Madrid are playing today. Let's watch the match, then!"
"Yeah, but before we'll have to repair the f*cking antenna... Damn, it breaks so often that it's more like a piece of junk more than anything else."
Will let out a sigh.
"Very well. Bring the toolbox, I'll go fix it."
/ /
Hours later, the sun set and the nigh finally settled in. With the sun rays now gone, the heat had diminished and was replaced by a comfy weather... perfect for things like, for example, watching the Champions Finals.
"...The Manchester's strikers are going for the Madrid's rear! Their defenders aren't catching up, the English are about to score a goal... Wait look at that! Vinicius has come to save the day! He's just stolen the ball from the Manchester! Look at that, Fred, Vinicius is making a dash towards the other goal! The defense is scrambling a response, but the striker skillfully evades them all! Oh my God, he may actually do it! He's almost there, the goalie prepares to intercept and... GOOOOOAAAAALLLL!"
The TV showed as the stands erupted in joyful celebrations, an excitement that rubbed off on the boys.
"HECK YEAH, BOY! GOAL!" Cried out Matt.
"Hahaha! That was epic!" Exclaimed Will, taking a sip of beer. "The Real Madrid is the best!"
"Yeah... oh, here they come again!" They turned their attention back at the match. It was the night of their lives, and they wanted to live it to the fullest... but fate had other plans for them.
BUMP! – Suddenly, a loud noise came out from a nearby room. Slowly. Matt and Will rolled their heads around and directed their gazes towards the room's door.
"... I hear footsteps inside..." Whispered Matt.
"Someone broke into the house." Said Will keeping his voice down. "Come with me."
Silently, the two stood up and walked to a nearby drawer. Will kneeled down, and from under it he took out a pair of rifles. Matt took one.
Without making any noise, they slowly made their way towards the room's door. They stood on the door's sides, their weapons fully loaded and ready for action. Making a gesture, Matt counted to three.
"*three* *two* *one*... Now!"
The two boys slammed the door wide open and burst in, pointing at the figures that were hiding among the shadows.
"You've picked the wrong house fool!" Cried out Matt.
"Don't move!" Will reached with his hand for the light switch. "Now let's see whether you're from CIA or Navy Seals..." He flipped the light on, and there he finally saw the intruder's face. "Wait, LAPPLAND?!"
Yeah, that's right. In front of them was none other than Lappland in the flesh. Her aspect hadn't changed a bit; her crazy-like smile and chilling look on her eyes hadn't abandoned her... But her presence wasn't the end of the surprises, far from it. It wasn't only that she had appeared out from thin air in their house, she had brought some friends with her.
Apart from Lappland, three other girls were standing there. The first one had a stoic expression, with two wolf ears poking from her long dark hair. Her friend, meanwhile had a completely different appearance, she had reddish short hair, her expression seemed lively... but what shocked the two boys the most was the fr*cking angel halo floating over her head. Ah, by the way, she's the only one carrying a real gun, not the dipsh*t that the Terrans use. As for the third, well she stood out from the rest. Like her angel colleague, she had the same halo floating overhead... but contrary to her, she had a pair of demon horns. Apart from that, the woman had long blue hair and eyes, and her lips had a playful smirk caved in them.
Matt and Will were left completely astonished. Seeing their reaction, Lappland smirked, and then she spoke.
"Hi there, boys~! Did you miss me?"
"Oh, no... not this shit again..." At that same moment Matt almost fainted, his legs gave away and making him trip to the floor. Will caught him just in time to prevent him from reaching the ground. He then helped his friend to get back on his feet.
Once the two had overcome their initial shock, they scrambled a response.
"Ehm... Hi, Lappland." Said Will. "It's when a while since we last met..."
"Yes, half a year I think!" She responded in a merry tone. "But as you see, I didn't come alone."
"Yeah..." Matt turned to the rest. "Your faces are somewhat familiar... By any chance you work for Penguin Logistics...?"
"You've guessed it!" Exclaimed the pink-haired sancta. "We're all employees from Penguin Logistics, the fastest delivery company in Lungmen!" She paused for a bit. "My name's Exusiai, nice to meet you!"
"Ok." Said Will. "You're Exusiai, and your friends are..."
"I'm Texas." Replied the stoic lupo. 2And that one over there is Mostima."
"Hi there." She waved at them.
Once the introductions were done, Exusiai walked over to the boys.
"Well, I assume that you're the famous Matt and Will." She said. "I've heard many in Rhodes Island speak wonders about you, like... C'mon, even the deadpan Dr Kal'tsit made a compliment about you two!"
"Seriously?" Asked Matt. "That's impressive."
"She's exaggerating a bit, it isn't like that, but..." Mostima adopted a teasing smirk. "There's no doubt that you have become very popular among the staff, especially the female operators..."
"Mostima." Texas cut her, her face remaining stoic. "I think you're going overboard, you're making them uncomfortable."
"Ohh, don't be such spoilsport...!" Pouted Lappland. The lupo suddenly started poking Texas's wolf ears. "Cellinia, you don't want to get me sad, don't you? *poke* *poke* *po...*"
SLASH! – Without any warning, Texas grabbed her blade and threw a slash at Lappland. The lupo just barely avoided the orange sword from slicing her throat. Oddly enough, Lappland reacted to this sudden attack with a smirk.
"Hahaha! That was a nice one, but you were too slow!"
"Shut up." Replied Texas in a cold tone.
Tensions were about to explode, but before this could go any further Matt irrupted into the fray with a shout.
"STOP RIGHT NOW!"
The two lupos stopped right on their tracks and stared at him.
"I don't care if you two want to fight to the death, but you won't do it here, NO SIR!"
When Matt finished yelling at them, he noticed the stare of the rest, including Will. He realized what he had done.
"Sorry! I didn't mean to...!"
"Nah, no worries." Casually replied Mostima, shrugging off the matter. "Besides, I've met people way louder than you."
The situation calmed down, and eventually returned to normal. There Will took the chance to speak.
"Guys, I have a question... How did you get to Earth? The machine and blueprints were all destroyed..."
"Well, it turned out to be a lie." Said Exusiai. "You see, months after Dr. Kal'tsit and the rest returned from your world, a cleaner robot found a strange pen-drive in W's room... And guess what? It had a full set of blueprints of the portal gate!" The two boys looked at her with wide eyes. 2You can't imagine how angry Dr. Kal'tsit got, like... Damn, she was about to kill her!"
"Yeah, good thing in the end she didn't." Added Lappland.
"That damned cockroach..." Matt said to himself. "Ok, the issue has been now settled... But thar arises another question. Why did you come here? I don't think Kal would have just simply let you..." He stopped. He noticed that the girl's expression had become serious. Even Exusiai had dropped that characteristic smile of hers, replaced by an earnest face.
Mostima let out a sigh and said.
"About that... We've come here searching for you. We need your help."
"Our help?" Asked a surprised Will. "We... we aren't the best when it comes to Terran matters, but I guess we could lend a helping hand..."
"Believe me, Rhodes Island needs you more than ever."
"Why is that? What happened?" Asked Matt.
"We had thought nothing like this would ever happen, but..." Mostima said with an off tone. "Terra has been invaded."
"What, Terra invaded?" The two boys couldn't believe her words. Had someone really managed to get to Terra? Will pressed for more answers. "My God, if that's true... Who's invading you, Mostima?"
The blue-haired sankta simply replied.
"A country called... Russia."
X-X
Hi there, dear readers! If I'm writting this, it means that... you've guessed it, I'm back!
I had intially planned to post the entire work once I finished writing and posting it in Wattpad, but since is taking way longer than expected I'll begin posting what I've got so far here. Anyways, I hope you enjoy this second installment of the Visitors from Terra triology. Feel free to post your comments and vote.
Until then, author out!