Avalon Springs Park. Not far from the post office, downtown shops, and the police station was a small public park of manicured grass, large bushes, and pine trees. There was a small brick building which was the public restroom, and near the restroom doors were two drinking fountains. The park had a tall metal slide, a swing set, and a large jungle gym with spongy turf underneath.

The street next to the public park had a few vehicles parked in the shade. Parents with toddlers came to the park to relax in the late morning. A Billy Joel song played on someone’s phone.

Two puppies held the attention of most people in the park. The two puppies rolled and yipped and played in the grass.

A little boy pointed up to the sky. He pulled on his father’s hand, but his father ignored the boy at first. The boy pulled harder, because the sky seemed much more important than the puppies. Finally, the boy’s father acknowledged the tugging.

“You need the bathroom again?” asked his father, picking the boy up easily.

“Fire,” said the boy, pointing to the sky.

The father followed the boys eyes, seeing an orange fire ball, high in the sky. It was arcing from downtown, headed straight toward the park. The father heard something downtown. He assumed it was a car backfiring.

“Oh my god!” gasped the father.

Parents in the park heard the father, looked to where he was looking, and similar gasps quickly rippled through the park until everyone in the park was looking to the fireball in the sky. Even the puppies had stopped playing.

A woman said to her friend, “Is something falling from the sky?”

The park was mostly silent--the silence that only comes with the collective recognition of impending doom. Something was falling from the sky, trailing smoke behind it. Getting closer. It’s path distinct, although no one had spoken about the truth of the matter.

The father was the first to snap out of the trance that came with the intial impact of terror. He looked around, saw no one was running. Everyone was apparently hypnotized by the quick approaching death.

“INCOMING!” yelled the father. “RUN!”

The father and his little boy who first spotted the fireball ran. People scattered from the park. Most had fled from the public park in a few seconds when the fireball hit the brick restroom, sending bricks and smoke and wood into the air.

Moments later, standing from the smoking crater which moments earlier had been a small brick building, was Emily. Clearly groggy, Emily took a shaky step, blinked, tried to right herself. Emily shook her head, trying to regain her bearings. Dust and splinters of wood and rock fell from her hair.

Jordan floated through the air, landed gracefully at a cautious distance away.

“You can’t win,” Jordan taunted. “Even now you must realize you are outmatched.”

Emily’s diagnostics appeared in her field of vision in white letters:

     Left Arm, unresponsive

     Left Lung, collapsed

     Concussion

     Left Eye, 30% function

     Repair time Left Arm, inconclusive

     Repairing time Left Lung, 31 hours remaining

     Repair time Left Eye, 4 hours 17 minutes remaining

The words vanished, images of Jordan appeared in Emily’s field of vision:

     An image of Jordan playing basketball; her date of birth.

No information about Jordan’s source of power. But Jordan was not an alien. In fact, there was plenty of information detailing Jordan’s time on earth. She was human.

Or at least she had been human.

“Who are you?” Emily asked, brushing pieces of brick off her arms, shaking it from her hair. Emily's left shoulder and arm still did not work.

More information appeared in Emily’s field of vision. This intrigued Emily. Among Jordan’s friends there were no photos of Kaya.

“I am Jordan Spencer,” Jordan said. “Who are you?”

“A defender of Earth.”

Emily launched herself at Jordan, right fist ready to crash into Jordan’s teeth. But instead of smashing Jordan’s teeth, black vines with jagged thorns burst from the earth, piercing Emily’s legs, chest, and arms. Emily shrieked, and pain like burning blades racing through her body. Emily was left trapped above the ground like a fly in a hellish spiderweb.

Every movement, every shudder, caused Emily’s pain to ratchet up. When she moved her leg, it caused pain to increase in her leg and arm. Every shuddering breath sent pain rippling through her body.

“Surrender,” Jordan shouted. “I will not hesitate to kill you to protect my friend.”

Blood trickled from Emily’s mouth, and she hissed, “Fuck. Off.”

One of the vines snaked through Emily’s leg, wrapped around Emily's waist, snaked higher, and then tightened around Emily's neck. Pieces of metal were now exposed under Emily’s torn flesh. Emily coughed as the vine squeezed her throat.

“How long have you known Kaya?” Emily gasped.

“My entire life,” Jordan said. “She’s my best friend.”

“... really...”

Emily gasped, struggling to breath, her face reddening.

“I’m willing to kill you to protect her,” Jordan said. “Why do you want to hurt her?”

“I’m trying to save her,” Emily said.

The following appeared in Emily’s field of vision:

     Jordan Spencer, corrupted files

     Jordan Spencer, Queen of all Vampires

     Corrupted files

     Corrupted files

     Jordan Spencer, powerful sorceress, unknown levels

     Jordan Spencer, age unknown

     Corrupted files

“... time is being rewritten ... ” Emily muttered.

Emily kept her focus on Jordan, quickly audited her surroundings in the public park. An abandoned baby stroller, a slide, swings. The destroyed brick building.

“When is Kaya’s birthday?” Emily asked.

“What?” Jordan asked.

“When is Kaya’s birthday?”

Jordan blinked.

Jordan cocked her head.

Jordan didn’t know.

How could Jordan’s so-called best friend not know the date of Kaya’s birthday?

Emily knew.

But while Jordan was distracted, Emily focused on the slide. The slide dropped through a portal of green fire, and then the slide appeared above Jordan, falling fast from another portal. The slide slammed onto Jordan’s head, flattening her to the ground.

Jordan’s eyes bulged with shock, she crawled from under the crumpled slide, her head and back bleeding badly.

The vines were no longer under Jordan’s control, and they could not longer suspend Emily above the ground. Emily was lowered to the ground, and the vine around her loosened. Emily’s feet touched the ground, and she tore the vines from around her neck. With every vine she ripped from her body, she shrieked. And with the last thick vine, buried within her right leg, she roared as she ripped it from her leg.

Jordan leaned against a picnic table, stunned, trying to recover from the slide that fell on her. A long piece of metal was sticking out of Jordan’s shoulder. She couldn’t get it out of her shoulder. Jordan struggled to breath, coughing up dark blood.

“You won’t hurt Kaya,” Jordan said, wiping her bloody mouth with a napkin from the picnic table. “She’s my friend.”

“I believe you will fight for her,” Emily said, limping toward Jordan. “But I don’t believe you are friends.”

“Because I can’t remember her birthday?”

“Best friends know that kind of thing.”

Jordan, with a final tug, ripped the metal from her shoulder and hurled it at Emily. Emily caught the metal, but the force of it knocked her off her feet, sending her crashing into a pine tree. The tree cracked, then slowly toppled from the impact.

Emily’s field of vision:

     Power reserve cells damaged

     Secondary power reserve cells damaged

     Emergency power activated

     Repairs paused

Jordan stalked toward Emily.

“You’re trying to trick me,” Jordan said. “It won’t work.”

Jordan bounded forward, and then like a soccer player in perfect form, kicked Emily in the head. The shockwave of the impact scattered the debris in the park.

Emily tumbled through the air, hurtling over trees and buildings, slapped into water in a pool, skipped like a rock on water, tumbled several hundred yards, and hit a parked yellow school bus. Emily was in the parking lot of Avalon Springs High School.

Emily’s field of vision:

     System failure imminent

Shit.

Emily's hair was soaked from the pool water, her clothes were soaked with water and blood. Emily was dazed, confused. Emily saw the high school. The sound of her body hitting the bus had drawn the attention of several people at the school. The place was mostly deserted after Emily’s visit earlier that morning.

People who were still inside the school looked out the windows, whipped out their smartphones to take pictures of this woman who fell from the sky.

Jordan stepped from thin air, appearing only the length of a school bus away from Emily.

Emily flexed her jaw, blinking the stars away. She reached out to touch a bus. Emily's balance was bad. Emily fell on her butt.

“I don’t want to kill you,” Jordan growled. “But I will. Tell me who you are...”

Jordan pointed at a nearby school bus, and the bus hovered into the air. Jordan flung her hand forward, and the bus was thrown through the air at Emily. 

Emily raised her hands over her head, the bus buckled and broke in half on Emily hands. The two halves of the bus tumbled to Emily’s sides.

Jordan sprang forward, kicked Emily in the stomach. Emily was sent crashing through a bus, through a car, and bounced off the rooftops of a few scattered vehicles in the parking lot, then smashed into the front of a bus which crumpled like an aluminum can under the impact.

Emily ripped herself from the front of the bus, staggered toward Jordan.

Emily’s field of vision:

     Critical system failure imminent

Jordan surveyed Emily like a wolf measuring wounded prey, and then Jordan leaped forward, prepping to kick Emily to the moon, or Mars, or who knows where. Jordan planted her left foot, swung her right foot forward—

Emily raised her hands, and Jordan slipped forward into a portal, melting away from view—

And then Jordan fell from a portal above Emily.

Emily spun, driving her right fist deep into Jordan’s chest like a spear.

Jordan laughed, clutched at the arm in her chest. Jordan staggered back. Jordan laughed, but she realized this might be a problem. Jordan’s eyes widened with realization.

Emily grabbed the collar of Jordan’s shirt, made sure Jordan was looking her in the eyes.

People snapped more photos on their smartphones from the safety of the school windows.

“I don’t want to hurt Kaya Potts,” Emily growled. Emily ripped her fist from Jordan’s chest. “And I’m not going to kill you. At least not now.”

Jordan took a staggering step back, blood dripped from her mouth and nose, her shirt reddened from the hole in her chest. She slumped against a bus, and slowly sank to the ground.

Emily inched forward, her own body was not working very well. She wondered if they were both going to die.

Emily sat next to Jordan, who had a faraway look. Emily wondered if she had done too much damage to Jordan.

Weakly Jordan asked, “... why don’t I know when Kaya’s birthday is ... ”