Andrew Mackay - Pink Symphony

Tripp moved away from the window and offered Wool his hand, “Get up.”

None of them saw the view of the ocean through the window. If they had, they’d have seen the tree slowly re-emerging in the center. This time, the branches resembled limbs rather than branches.

The spinning sun above it ravaged the sky, creating a soft vortex-like shape amongst the silky white clouds.

“What happened?” Wool groaned and held her forehead. The scratches on her face were still fresh, not that she’d noticed.

“We’re going to fight the bad guys—” Tripp threw Jaycee off him and grabbed his K-SPARK in both hands.

“—Wha… where’s Jelly?”

“We’re going to protect her,” Tripp pulled the creases out from Wool’s crumpled inner-suit, “Stay here and keep an eye on the E-MRI report. It’s the safest place for you.”

Wool saw half of Tripp’s face was missing, “My God, what happened to your face?”

“I fell.”

Jaycee burst with laughter at Tripp’s crap retort. At least his friend had finally snapped out his depression.

“That’s one hell of a staircase,” Wool attempted to touch the broken half of his skull, “It’s okay, Tripp. You’re human to me. I can’t imagine what it must be like discovering you’re an Androgyne. Just know that I’m on your side.”

Jaycee shook his head at Wool’s fresh naivety, “Better the devil you know, eh?”

“Jaycee, let’s go,” Tripp walked backwards toward the door and threw Wool a wink with his right eye. A partial success, given his eyebrow had ceased operation, “And I’m sorry for hitting you.”

“You hit me?”

“Never mind,” Jaycee bounded after Tripp as he walked through the door.

Wool felt the scratch on her cheek, “That explains that , then,” She turned to the E-MRI image and clicked her finger, “Commence diagnostic report, please.”

The abdomen contour glowed a bright pink. “What’s that ?” she whispered, surprised by the image.

“ETA three minutes,” advised the machine.

Jelly bounded on all fours through the sliding door to Botanix. She slowed down to a cautious crawl, splashing along the three-inch pool of water that had formed from the broken H 2O unit.

She lowered her head and lapped away at the water with her tongue.

CRASH-BAM-BAM-SCREECH !

The force field blanketing the broken end of Botanix prevented thousands of Shanta from entering the ship.

Jelly had yet to clock the apocalyptic commotion from outside. She was thirsty, and feeding time came first. Her ears lifted, finally attuned to the chaos that lay fifty feet away.

Bonnie ran into Botanix and clocked the Shanta trying to get in. She slid behind a battered plant and held her Rez-9 at the force field, “Jesus, they’re everywhere.”

Tor ran in after her and froze solid. “Oh, jeez. Forget that.” He turned around and made for the door.

“Hey, ass clown,” Bonnie pointed her gun at him. He threw his hands up and gasped.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Um, I thought I’d—”

BLAM!

She fired a warning shot across his shoulder, “You’re not going anywhere. You’re staying and fighting.”

“I don’t have a gun.”

“I know. We might need you as a protective umbrella, so stick around. Get over by the H 2O unit and quit your whining. Now.”

“Okay.”

It was either get shot by Bonnie or torn apart by those things outside.

“Yeah, that’s right,” Bonnie smirked as she watched him run, “Our own little maggot bait to hook the fish.”

Jelly lifted her head at the word fish . She clamped eyes on the Shanta jumping at the force field and growled.

“Jelly, sweetie?” Bonnie yelled, “What are you doing?”

She pushed herself back on her hind legs and squatted on her knees. “Miew,” She lifted her behind, straightened her tail and stood up straight for the first time in her life.

“Oh, good God …” Tor’s jaw dropped at the wondrous sight of Jelly standing up straight like a proper, regular human.

She arched her back and pushed her chest forward. Her arms stretched out sideways. The infinity claws on each hand sprung out like a bladed star.

“Nggggg,” she winced and threw her head back, feeling spine adjust and straighten to that of a human. “Uh, uh, uh…”

Tripp and Jaycee stormed into Botanix, ready for war.

“Shhh!” Bonnie turned to them and waved them over. “Something’s happening to her.”

Jaycee clomped over to the opposite wall and sneered at the Shanta. He lifted the mount lever down on the side of his K-SPARK and lowered it to the ground.

“Stand back, people.”

The gun’s grip folded out in three directions and attached itself to the floor, propping the bulk of the weapon on a tripod. A devastating-looking turret waved its barrel left and right ready to open fire.

“It’s armed.”

Jelly’s hair dropped down the back of her neck. Standing a clear four feet tall, the back of her neck and shoulders suggested she’d formed into a healthy adolescent.

She turned around and faced Tripp, Bonnie, and Jaycee.

“Jelly…” Bonnie said, softly. “You’re…”

“I am,” she said in her new sultry and husky voice. Only a small semblance of cat remained as the ship hovered a few feet from the grounds, “They like war. Let’s give them war.”

“Okay, Jelly,” Tripp said.

“Then, we go,” she finished in her six-year-old girl’s voice.

He lifted his K-SPARK in both arms, “Do it.”

Gracefully, Jelly twisted around and held her palm out. The pain in her stomach bulged a glowing, bright pink color.

She spread her infinity claws out and held her palm to the force field, humming to herself, “Da-da-da-dumm…”

“Wh-what’s she doing?” Tor peered out from behind the water unit.

“Shut up,” Bonnie snapped.

The ship’s thrusters double-powered, lifting the lip of Botanix up from the sandy surface by a few meters.

A pink beam of light waded through the air from Jelly’s stomach and sucked into the padding in her palm.

The infinity claws lit up like a sparkler, surrounding a beautiful pink orb of light between her fingers.

“War… Mage, ” she whispered softly to herself.

WHOOSH !

She threw the ball of light against the force field and cowered, slapping her tail against the ground, “Quack-quack.”

“What?” Tripp blurted.

“Ah. Uh, duck ,” Jelly giggled, correcting herself.

Bonnie, Tripp and Jaycee turned away and crouched as the ball shattered the force field into a thousand sharp pieces.

The stalactite remains stabbed through the first row of Shanta, severing their limbs and impaling their opened, central mouth-slits.

The badly injured Shanta collapsed to the floor, trampled by the onslaught of hundreds – if not thousands – more.

“Open fire,” Tripp began blasting at the swarm of Shanta bouncing across the walls and swinging from the ceiling by their limbs.

BLAM-BLAM-BLAM-BLAMM!

“Get some of that you ugly bastards!

The floor-mounted K-SPARK rotated left and right, firing off sixty rounds per second. The bullets tore through the nearest flurry of Shanta, separating their limbs in a gory torrent of pink liquid.

FLUMP-THRASH !

Tripp sprayed a round of bullets at the Shanta, killing off the Tetris-like build-up of creatures flooding around the planets and walls.

“Tripp, this is Wool,” her voice came through his wrist, “Can you read me? Christ, this is urgent.”

“What is it Wool? I’m in the middle of a gun-fight.”