Heretical Edge

It turned out the guys in the landed ship, who apparently worked for some sort of intergalactic zoo or private collector, weren’t exactly just going to sit around and twiddle their thumbs after shooting down their attackers. The moment that other ship went crashing down in the distance, that one rose into the air and flew that way. So not only did we have to worry about the crashed ship ending up near the rift, these guys were heading straight there as well. Because of course.

“Okay, Flick,” Jazz put in with a somewhat shaky voice a moment later as the three of us took a few steps back away from the edge of the cliff, “exactly how likely is it that those guys finding the rift could end up doing real damage? Just so I know about how panicked I need to be right now.”

Grimacing just a bit, I replied, “I don’t know exactly, but if they go through the rift, it could tell the Fomorians on the other side everything they need to know about humans before they even create us. Hell, it could lead to Fomorians coming here. Can you imagine if there were Fomorians on this planet before we even ended up here ourselves? What if Cronus comes?”

“That,” Theia remarked flatly, “would twist the entire timeline into a knot and snap it in half.”

My head bobbed once. “Exactly. So let’s not let that happen.” Even as I said that, I was sprinting forward toward the edge of the cliff. The other two trailed right after me, our feet kicking up dirt as we raced straight at that sheer drop. All I could think about, with each step, was how dangerous this was. Not the cliff, that barely registered. No, I was thinking about that ship finding the rift to the Fomorian homeworld at the precise moment that their civilization was being… changed. I hadn’t been exaggerating about the potential problems. This whole thing could go so incredibly badly. What if Cronus did show up here? Ehn had obviously been planning on keeping the rift hidden, but these guys? They could go through that thing, draw attention to themselves, and let the fledgling Fomorian monsters find a portal that would take them here to… to wherever and whenever it let them out. Would it take them to this place because those guys went through it so it was the most recently active? Or would it take them to the place and time of the original rift?

Either way, it would be a very bad thing, to say the least. We had to stop these guys from reaching it before they ended up changing the entire course of the future and turning the Fomorians into an even bigger universal threat than they already were. Which was saying a lot. No matter what, the only thing that mattered right now was making sure that didn’t happen.

All of that went rushing through my mind during those few steps where I was moving toward the edge of the cliff. It took five steps. Five steps for me to think my way through that whole situation, as time seemed to slow down in my own head. Then my foot hit the edge of the cliff, and I sent myself hurtling off it without another thought. All the doubt, confusion, and uncertainty about what was going on or what we were going to do was pushed out of the way with that one final step.

The ground was over a hundred feet away. But we didn’t go straight down. Those guys had too big of a lead on us. Instead, I grabbed Theia’s outstretched hand with one of mine, while holding my staff with the other. The moment I caught her, she immediately used a spell to make both of us almost entirely weightless. That was when I triggered a mix of the boost from my staff and my own rocket-burst power. And because that wasn’t enough, I put my acceleration rings in our way too, just to speed us up even more. The two of us were launched across the sky, our lowered weight allowing the momentum to carry us a hell of a lot further than it should have.

Jazz, meanwhile, wasn’t exactly dropping like a stone either. Instead, she used a power she had to copy the motion of anyone she was looking at. As long as it was simply a way of making her body move, that power would allow her to do so. She couldn’t copy energy blasts or anything like that. But physical motion worked just fine, even if that motion should have been impossible. As Theia and I were sent rocketing through the air, that power allowed Jazz to be right behind us.

Those brachiosaurs(?) in the distance twisted their long necks around to watch as we went sailing right over their feeding area. It made me wonder what exactly was going through their minds. Sure, dinosaurs weren't supposed to be all that smart. They were simple animals, after all. But still, what exactly would be going through those small brains when they saw us flying just over their heads? Hell, if they saw that spaceship, what had they thought about that?

Okay, honestly, maybe part of me just wanted to keep focusing on the awesome dinosaurs rather than the fear of what could happen if we screwed up here and the whole thing went wrong. Seriously, we were millions of years in the past. I was looking at dinosaurs! Actual real dinosaurs, damn it! And I’d only managed to be here for roughly three seconds before ending up smack in the middle of a situation that could destroy the entire timeline of the universe forever.

Oh well, it could be a lot worse. I wasn't certain exactly how, since I flatly refused to come up with hypotheticals, even in my own mind, that the universe could turn against us. But I was absolutely positive this wasn't the worst possibility. You hear me, universe? I knew it could be worse.

Our weightlessness combined with my staff boost and rocket burst could only have gotten us so far. But I extended that by continually putting those acceleration rings in front of us. Every time our speed started to drop, we went through those and doubled it. Even then, we couldn’t go on forever, of course. But the combination carried us deep over the once-distant woods. On the way, I could see other forms moving through the shadows below, but didn’t have time to focus on them. Not when there were a bunch of aliens on their way to completely fucking over the timeline.

Honestly, if I didn’t get a chance to actually interact with some dinosaurs in a meaningful way before this was over, I was absolutely going to scream. Someone would pay for that, damn it.

Tell me about it, Locke, who had shifted places with Story through that time to become the Flique member riding shotgun with me now, put in. If we don’t get to ride a dinosaur before leaving this time period, I will absolutely find a way to strong-arm someone into bringing us back here so we can. I want a dinosaur vacation damn it.

Extended as our flight time may have been, it couldn’t last forever. Even the acceleration rings could only keep us going for so long. Soon, we were dropping down through the thick tree canopy. As far as I could tell, we had only traveled about three-quarters of the distance to the spot where those two ships had gone. Already, I could hear the distant sound of laserfire and explosions. Which--honestly, good. If they were fighting, it meant they were distracted. Gunfire was a positive thing right now. It was when the gunfire stopped that I was going to be worried.

Even as we touched down in the dirt, the three of us were already starting to run once more. We raced through the forest toward the sound of that fighting. On the way, I tried to think of how we could stop these people. Or if we even needed to. Dinosaur-riding desires aside, the only thing that really mattered was finding the rift and sending me through it. If we could manage that without even confronting these guys at all, that would be the best case scenario. We could finish this whole situation before it became that much of a problem.

That, of course, was the moment that Theia snapped her hand out to grab my arm, yanking me backwards in midstep just as a yellow-tinted laser blast shot right through the space where my head would have been. It punched a hole through several trees beyond and kept going. That was one seriously powerful blast. Not to mention bright. It made me flinch slightly, recoiling even as I spun toward the source of it with my weapon raised.

Jazz and Theia both spun that way with me, the three of us ready to deal with whatever had just tried to blow a hole through my head.

At least, we thought we were ready. But we couldn't possibly have expected what we saw push its way through those trees right then.

With that first glance, I thought it was a dinosaur. But it was made entirely of gleaming silver and glossy black metal. It looked like a life-sized stegosaurus robot, and the fin or spiney things along its back--

Scutes, Locke informed me. They're called scutes.

Funny name aside, the scutes of this particular stegosaur robot seemed to be made up of solar panels for absorbing energy from the sun. That was the impression I had in that quick glimpse anyway. Then the thing's eyes glowed yellow, and I immediately focused on my energy absorption power just as it fired again. But that time I was ready. Or, sort of ready anyway. The blast was so strong that it immediately overloaded my absorption power, leaving my skin sizzling a bit. I rocked backward before expending the energy by sending it right back at the source. As cool as robot dinosaurs might have been, we didn't have time to waste dealing with this thing. Not when either group of those warring aliens might stumble across the rift at any moment. We had to finish this and get there.

Unfortunately, our new ‘friend’ didn't seem to want to cooperate on that front. As soon as I sent its own blast back at it, the scutes along its back glowed, drawing the energy into itself. Right, I could absorb what it shot at me, and it could absorb it right back.

Jazz and Theia were already reacting. The former produced her falchion and sent a blast of white-hot flames at the thing. Simultaneously, the latter girl threw a small metal bar that way. Which, at a word from her to activate the spell on it, exploded into a mess of wires clearly meant to wrap around the robot and hold it down.

Neither accomplished anything. Those scutes glowed once more, absorbing the fire into it. At the same time, some sort of electrical-like burst shot out of its body, disintegrating the wires meant to capture it. The thing wasn't going to go down that easily. Wherever it had come from, whoever was responsible for it, the robot stegosaur was absolutely not a pushover.

Even as I was processing that, the thing shot at us again while stampeding forward. No, it was shooting at Jazz, not me. The thing had apparently learned its lesson on that point. Instead, its mouth opened as it came charging forward, revealing a set of metal teeth that were very different from what I was pretty sure an actual stegosaur should have had. It wasn't trying to shoot me anymore. Instead, it was going to literally bite my head off.

Meanwhile, that spiked tail was snapping around toward Theia. Just so she wouldn't miss out on all the fun. I wasn't sure how intelligent the thing behind it was, if it was operating on an animal-like mind, a much smarter computer, or if it had actual living being controlling it. But whatever the case, it had registered all three of us as threats to be put down.

Realizing this thing could absorb any energy I hit it with if I'd tried using a blast from my staff, I instead used my rocket burst under my feet to send myself into the air just as its wide-open metal beak snapped through the space where I had been. Before I could pull back, I focused on its head and used the power that allowed me to make nonliving objects move much slower. This thing was a robot, after all. So I could use that power on it directly.

On top of that, I sent a dozen ghosts to hold its head in place as well. Both those things together meant it wasn't going to be able to move very easily.

Jazz, meanwhile, held both her hands up as the robot fired that shot from its eyes at her. She created some sort of three-foot wide circular pane of glass or energy with a kaleidoscope pattern across it in the air. As the laser struck the kaleidoscope, it seemed to transform into simple bright but undamaging light.

Oh, right, I had heard of that power before, but hadn't actually seen her use it. She could transform any ordinary light that went through it into a damaging focused beam, or create the opposite effect, turning a laser into harmless light. Pretty useful right now.

Then there was Theia, who had that spiked tail still going straight at her. In that case, she didn't create a shield, dodge, or do anything to avoid the hit. She didn't need to. Instead, she literally stepped into it, allowing the metal club to slam right into her body. Aaaand then she used the power she had inherited from her mother to send the damage from that blow into a nearby giant tree. The thing snapped in half, that top part dropping toward the robot while my ghosts and I kept its head in place.

My rocket burst sent me past the falling tree, and I quickly snapped a hand out to grab the thing so I could possess the wood a second before it slammed down onto that metal head and neck.

Even with the weight of the massive tree slamming into it, the robot dinosaur barely seemed to react. This thing was truly tough, standing there without any apparent damage while the tree shattered into splinters against its paralyzed head.

I was in one of those splinters, which ended up falling onto the dirt right under the thing just as its beak-mouth opened once more to let out a terrifying-sounding shriek that echoed through the surrounding forest. Was it just angry, or calling for help? Did it even need to make a sound to summon reinforcements? I had no idea, but either way, we needed to end this right now.

Already on it, sister, Locke put in, sounding equal parts determined and excited. Just keep this thing busy for a minute and we’ll be done with it.

Right, keep it busy for a minute. I could do that. Or rather, we could. Jazz was already working on that without even knowing anything about Locke’s plan. Or about Locke in general for that matter. She was running straight at the thing, jumping as it tried shooting another laser at her (apparently it could shoot those eye lasers in various directions, even if its head couldn't move). That jump carried her a full fifteen feet in the air before she made a swiping motion with her sword. The air in front of the blade, extending all the way down to where its scutes were, solidified into a sharp, hard form that hit hard enough to snap two of the things off entirely.

The robot clearly didn't like that. It struggled even more to move so it could counterattack, but by that point, I had sent a dozen more ghosts to help hold it down. They were keeping its tail in place along with its head, though it was a very close thing. This cyberdino or whatever was really strong, and I could only fit so many ghosts in around it. The thing was like a bucking bull doing its damndest to knock them off so it could twist around and keep shooting at everyone in sight.

Jazz seemed to have the right idea though, so as I popped out of the wood sliver I’d possessed, I followed her lead. A quick boost from my staff angled toward the ground took me up and forward, landing on the robot’s back. Instantly, I felt a burst of electricity from its defenses. But it wasn’t enough to knock me back, not with my electrical protection. Even as the shock coursed through me, I gritted my teeth, reared back, and lashed out with my staff. The blow connected with one of those solar panel scutes, heavily cracking the thing and snapping it partway off as the lights around it went dark. Three down, leaving what looked like fourteen more to go.

Of course, that was when the robot stego got really mad. And in this case, getting really mad meant calling in reinforcements. I barely caught a glimpse of something coming through the treeline before a concussive blast slammed into my side, sending me flying through the air to bounce along the ground a bit. Jazz was similarly hit, though Theia managed to avoid hers.

There were actually three newcomers, all of them also robot dinosaurs. Two stood on two legs, with an almost goofy-looking fat barrel-like body, a couple smaller but still serviceable arm-legs in front, a long, segmented tail with a drill on the end, and a head that looked almost too small for the large body. Standing in that hunched over position, they were almost seven feet tall, and roughly twenty feet from the tip of their nose to the end of the drill-tail. It took me a second to place what these things were based on, then I had it. Camptosaurus. They were Camptosaurus robots.

It was the third newcomer that had knocked me and Jazz around with those concussive blasts. This one almost looked like a smaller Tyrannosaurus, shaped the same general way but standing only about as tall as the Camptosaurs. It had a horn on the front of its snout and thick ridges over its eyes. The concussive blasts came from that horn. Once again, it took me a moment to place the thing. Ceratosaurus. We were facing robot versions of a damaged Stegosaurus, two Camptosaurs, and a Ceratosaurus. And they were all very pissed off.

“We don’t have time for this,” I snapped, looking around quickly while the robo-dinos advanced. “Which I’m really annoyed about, because any other time this would be fucking awesome.”

Oh you wanna see awesome? Locke put in. Tell everyone to duck. Duck now!

“Duck!” I blurted, dropping to the ground immediately. Instead of waiting for the others to follow my lead, I instinctively had several ghosts shove them down.

It was just in time, too, as something came crashing through the trees behind us. Its tail whipped through the air just over our heads, as the thing slammed into one of the Camptosaurus robots, knocking it over. At the same time, it grabbed the Ceratosaurus robot by the head in its own massive jaws and gave it a toss off to the side, before twisting its body around to slam into the other Campto, knocking that one over.

Even as the Stegosaurus robot tried to turn to face the new attacker, a second one came through the trees from behind it. This one snapped its head down to bite half those scutes off, forcing the Stego to retreat backwards away from them.

These things weren't robots. They were real dinosaurs. The same type of dinosaur, actually. Both stood about fifteen feet tall, and almost forty feet long. Seeing them towering over the robots, I murmured dumbly, “Tyrannosaurus?”

“Allosaurus,” Jazz corrected me, sounding similarly awed. “T-Rex didn’t live at the same time as these guys. But why are they here? What the hell are they doing? I mean, not to look gift horses in the mouth, but why’d they show up to fight the robots?” Said robots, at that moment, were already regrouping and clearly figuring out how to react to being attacked by a couple living dinosaurs. Dinosaurs summoned and controlled by Locke, using the animal compulsion power I’d given her.

“They’re not here to fight them,” I realized, already scrambling up. “They’re our ride, come on!” With that, I used a burst from my staff to send myself up and over, landing on the nearest Allosaurus’s back. Jazz and Theia both followed suit, scrambling up onto the other one.

And just like that, before the robot dinos could regroup fully, our new rides pivoted and began to sprint through the forest while we held on for dear life. The three of us were riding a couple living Allosaurs, crashing through the jungle in pursuit of a couple alien spaceships to stop them from accessing a rift that could end the entire timeline of the universe, while robot dinosaurs pursued us.

“Now this,” Theia announced while we bounced along, “is the only way to travel.”