Chapter 1
A rainy afternoon in Missouri. What a perfectly dreary day. A perfect day to stay in and snoop through her father’s old things. She’d done it plenty of times before, always finding a new trinket to fidget with or a new book to read. This time, it was a ring. The thing was a sort of tarnished looking gold, two bands attached at the top by a thick oblong shape. Odd designs were carved into the top, another meaningless novelty it seemed.
That was, until she spotted the book beneath it. A thin journal, leather bound and old. But imprinted on the cover, it read, “Everything About Sling Rings”. Curious, she opened the book. A picture of the ring was illustrated inside, and a description explaining what it does and how to use it. Carefully, she decided to put the ring on, holding her hands in front of herself just like the book described, she began the motions. Instantly, sparks appeared in the center of the room. She dropped her hands immediately, staring at the room in awe. Decidingly, she grabbed some of her things, mainly, a belt with throwing knives hanging along it. Then, a few minor necessities, like her long, but light, cloak-like cover-up. To hide the knives of course. And so randoms on the street would leave her alone once she put the hood up.
Now she needed a destination. Anywhere she could picture, the book had said. In her mind, she pictured a place from when she was a child, although when she had been it was snowing and alight with Christmas cheer. Positioning her hands in front of her once again, she went through the motions, a clear picture in her mind. Sparks flew and a portal slowly opened in front of her. She stared through in awe, the bookstore just how she remembered it, minus the Christmas decor. She stepped through the portal, allowing it to close behind her. Although now that she had made it, something was wrong. Something was very wrong. It was as if the store had been deserted in a hurry. Recently. As in, maximum, a couple hours ago if not sooner than that.
Screams suddenly resounded from outside. Rushing to the entrance, she peered out the windows. The sight that met her was devastating. Creatures roamed the streets and flew through the sky. Literal creatures. From the sky they emerged, a blue beam holding a portal in the sky open. Although it looked more like a tear in space. She weighed her options. On one hand, she could help some of the people outside. On the other hand, she could go home and forget about it. Although these things were so horrifying she didn’t think she could if tried. So, she stepped outside. The noise tripled, screams and screeches everywhere, human and alien.
One of those things had a small group of people huddled in a building just across the street. Quickly, she pulled her hood over her head and drew one of the knives from her belt. She whipped it at its neck, and the thing fell. Human or not, a knife to the neck was likely to be fatal. Running across the street, she approached the, hopefully, corpse. Gripping the dagger in its throat, she pulled it to the side, essentially half decapitating the thing. Ensuring it wouldn’t revive itself or anything. She turned to the people, telling them to get somewhere safer, underground likely. Wiping off the dagger, she left the building again.
Something that she didn’t expect, was to find more of the aliens crowding around the entrance to the building. They didn’t seem too happy that she killed one of them. She quickly realised she should’ve gone home. This was a horrible idea, she didn’t even know what these things were and she decided to fight them. But it was too late now. The only choice she has now is to fight her way out. These things didn’t seem like they could be reasoned with whatsoever so talking wouldn’t do any good.
Planting her left foot behind her, she raised her arms offensively. Orange sparks danced around her as rope-like magic surrounded her forearms. The creatures screeched and charged at her. She slid between two and pulled two daggers from her belt, flinging them into the necks of the aliens. The things fell and the other two twisted around, pointing their weapons at her. Eyes widening, she retrieved her daggers and blocked the aliens' fire, the same orange sparks as before flying off the magic she braced her arms with.
The assault continued, energy pulses from the alien technology bouncing off her make-shift shields. She began to panic, unable to form a plan to get away from these last two creatures. They pushed forward, screeching and howling until something hit them, killing them instantly. Red and gold and whirring machinery whizzed by afterward, swooping low and soaring upwards. More aliens that seemed to be following it crashed into buildings and into the ground, lacking the agility the machine possessed.
Dumbfounded, she stepped over alien corpses wiping her daggers clean and sheathing them in the holster. The whirring sound drew closer again and she ducked into a building to hide, unaware the intentions of the thing. It landed on the ground where she just was, scanning around for any other citizens. It looked like a man, clad in red and gold, a shining blue disc in the middle of its chest. It said something to itself, like a command. Then promptly flew off again, presumably to kill more of those creatures.
She slowly climbed out of her hiding spot, which happened to be part of a fallen building. Roars from the creatures began to ring out against the harsh sounds of battle once again. They were getting closer and she didn’t think she’d be able to fight them off again. Instead, she spotted a tall building, the source of the portal, and envisioned the top of it. The same motions as before, she opened a portal and stepped through.