“Wow, that’s really something, isn’t it?! I mean, who would’ve guessed that they’d follow you all the way here, of all places?!” Peel didn’t show much effort in hiding her excitement. The tiny black-and-white TV’s image flickered, showing the all-too-familiar form of the Starman destroying a nearby car, then turning on a bus and upturning it.
“Yeah…wonderful.” Julian’s scathing reply didn’t leave the mark it intended. He knew Peel had never seen one of those things up close…otherwise she’d be a lot less excited than she seemed to be now. Brief images of the other two times he’d faced a Starman washed over his mind’s eye, and he lost himself in sea of emotions that his memories brought.
“…that thing. So, are you going to, or what?” Julian was snapped back to reality by Peel’s words. He stared at her quizzically. “I’m sorry- what did you say?” Peel scoffed in exasperation and pointed to the image of the Starman on the TV. “I said, are you going to go after it? I don’t think anyone else can stop that thing.” She accentuated this with a demanding look on her face. Julian paused. He hadn’t actually thought about that last part.
“Well…yeah, I guess so.” He answered reluctantly. Peel squealed and jumped up and down. “Great! Let me just get my gear and we’re off!”
“We?”
“Yes. We. You think I’m going to just leave an awesome piece of machinery lying around like that? I gotta see it up close!”
“Well, no, but…”
“But nothing! Get your shoes on, we’re going now!”
***
The Starman had just finished it’s ‘search’ of the Merrysville train station when it encountered the boy. As far as semi-sentient, artificial killing machines go, it’s programming was very simple: kill the boy, get the prism, return to base. It’s protocols were limited to ‘destroy any opposing force with great prejudice’, and ‘take no prisoners’. This dumbed-down programming made the Starman both extremely effective and extremely lethal.
Julian charged a blast of PK energy in his hand, assuming a fighting stance at the same time. He figured that since he already destroyed two without ever actually trying, a third should pose no problem. Still, that didn’t stop his heart from going into spasms and the butterflies in his stomach from fluttering like crazy. He shot Peel a look. “Stay back. I’ll handle it.”
Peel rolled her eyes and adjusted the mechanic’s goggles on her head. “Uh-huh.” She tightened her grip on her backpack, which she had filled previously with several ‘Starman-slaying gimmicks’, as she referred to them. She stood a few paces behind Julian and tried as hard as she could to position herself so that, if the need arose, she could run away easily.
A shot of PK Freeze flew from Julian’s hand and sped towards the Starman, hitting it’s arm and causing it to reel slightly. Julian’s eyes narrowed, and he sent another blast of PK Freeze. This second one, unfortunately, missed it’s target entirely, as the Starman side-stepped the attack and began charging towards Julian. Panic surging within him, the boy tried again and again to hit the robot, blasting to the left and to the right, but never managing to hit. Finally, when the Starman was within close-combat range and tried to grab him, Julian dived out of the way and rolled to the side. “You’re kinda losing right now, ya know?” called Peel from the sidelines as she waved her hand over her head to get her friend’s attention.
“I know, I know!” Julian jumped forward and tried to kick the Starman, but the robot stopped the blow with his tentacle-like arm, then grabbed Julian’s ankle, swung him around, and tossed him aside. Julian tumbled and crashed into a nearby wall, knocking down some loose debris in the process. He staggered to his feet in time to see the Starman charging again, his mind reacting instinctively and propelling him up and over the Starman with a bit of Telekinesis. While in the air, Julian flipped over and, while upside-down, cupped his hands and fired a PK Beam, nailing the Starman in the back and slamming it against the wall where Julian was previously, fully knocking it over and onto the Starman.
Julian flipped again and landed, rather clumsily, a few feet away. He turned to Peel and spoke as he dusted himself off. “See? That wasn’t so hard.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure.” Retorted Peel, pointing to the wall behind. Julian turned just in time to see the Starman’s arm flying towards his face. He stumbled backwards, narrowly avoiding the attack, then rolled to the side to avoid the laser beam aimed at his body. He spent the next few moments dodging a series of beams aimed at close range, one above and two to the side. A third beam grazed his right shoulder, interrupting Julian’s rhythm and giving the Starman an opening through which he tried to smash Julian’s head with its arm. Panic rising again, Julian grabbed the robot’s arm with his own left arm and channeled his PK Freeze energy through. The Starman’s arm immediately froze over, at which point Julian snapped it off with a rough gesture. Enraged, the Starman punched Julian and knocked him to the side. The boy skidded to a halt a few meters away and remained still.
“Hey! Leave him alone, you big pile of junk!” Peel had opened her backpack and taken out a few of gadgets. She laid one on the floor, placed a second on top of it, then took a third in her hands. “Eat this!” She cried, then pointed her finger at the Starman, who was just barely turning to look at her. The gadget she had in her hands beeped, causing the one on the floor to sprout wheels and speed off towards the Starman. The latter followed the trajectory of the small device until it reached its leg and bumped to a halt. Instantly, the other gadget on top beeped to life, and the Starman’s visor flashed in realization briefly as the entire contraption exploded, crippling it’s leg. Before it had a chance to react, Peel took out a large wrench and ran up to it with a loud cry, smashing its visor. The robot assassin staggered, then slowly lifted its arm and pointed it straight at Peel’s head. Then, quick as lightning, Peel whipped out a mirror and held it out. The laser beam fired, bounced harmlessly off the mirror, and hit the Starman full on, destroying it outright.
Peel rushed to Julian and helped him up. “Are you okay?” she asked softly as she helped him up. “You took a pretty bad fall.” Julian put his left arm around Peel’s shoulder and got up slowly. “I’m fine.” He said, then used his free hand and placed it over his right shoulder. “LifeUp.” He whispered, and the wound on his shoulder closed slightly. “I’ll be better when we get home. I wouldn’t want to attract any attention.” He scanned the small crowd that had begun to appear around the scene. “By the way,” he began, “how’d you do that trick with the mirror?” Peel raised her eyebrows. “Oh, that? That’s simple, really. You see, a laser is a concentrated beam of light, so I figured, ‘hey, I should be able to reflect it, right?’ Which I did! Neat, huh?” She stumbled a little while Julian tried to shift his weight back onto himself. She wrestled Julian back onto herself, then resumed walking.
“So, when’re we heading for Podunk?”
“We?”
“Yes. We.”