“What, who the hell are you people? Someone call security!” one of the worm creatures yelled.


    “That isn’t the answer I wanted to hear!” Twonger roared as he leaped over one of the tables and grabbed an alien as he landed. He picked it up his head and threw it hard against the wall. “Anyone else wanna need some help talking? I want to the slave collar keys now!”


    “I’m not sure we still have the right people!” Cal yelled into the fray, not that it mattered. The aliens were scattering, most running for any exit they could find, as a couple of people in what looked like battle armor came through another door.


    “They aren’t, but these goons are, just had to get them to get their ass out here!” Twonger yelled, sounding like he was having the time of his life. He grabbed a nearby chair and threw it hard at one of the security guards. It knocked them backward against the door they had come through. The second didn’t even stop to check on their partner as it pulled something resembling a gun from its back.


    “Duck!” Cal called to the room as he shot out with a large arc of lightning, trying to hit both the guards at once. He succeeded, but it hadn’t done nearly the damage he had hoped her. The gun still fired its blast, but Twonger had already pulled a desk in front of himself to deflect the shot.


    The desk took the brunt of the shot, but it exploded on contact, flashes of energy darting out into the room, hitting several of the escaping aliens. A black ball appeared around the creature that had fired the shot, and suddenly, they were crashing against the ceiling of the room. Cal followed up on Andy’s attack with a stronger blast of lightning and a quick dash forward, closing the gap for a third near point-blank blast of electricity into both of them. This time, neither of them moved to continue fighting back.


    “Okay, so two down, and does it get harder from here?” Cal asked, looking at Twonger. The man had moved to the downed security guards and was taking several things from them.


    “Don’t know, but probably. Never thought it was smart to do this kind of attack on a place like this before. Having friends as powerful as you idiots is a pretty new world for me,” Twonger said, smiling in a way that almost worried Cal. Luckily he knew at this point somewhere deep down that the cyclopean actually cared about this whole thing now. He wasn’t sure exactly when that change had occurred, but it had.


    “Alright, lead the way then,” Cal replied, looking back to check that Bill and Sean were still with them. Bill, for his part, looked mostly fine, a little nervous maybe, but this wasn’t anything new to the capybara, and Cal knew that. Sean, on the other, seemed to have retreated into the blank ogre look, causing Cal to realize they’d likely need a specialist for PTSD for the ogres and maybe a few others. He specifically left himself off the list, even if he knew he should have been included.


    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The next room was already full of scrambling people, more of the earthworm types, and none of the guards. Were those the only two? That didn’t seem likely, though they were pretty strong. It had taken Cal, Andy, and Twonger just to down two of them. Maybe that was enough for most people. Twonger did seem to think they were stronger than most these days. Just as Cal was thinking this might actually be easy, several shots were fired into the room from a door that had slid open. There were another four of the same guards they had just fought.


    Andy moved faster than Cal and was already dropping several black balls in the area, with a noticeable effect on gravity, but unlike before, these four managed to fight through it. Cal followed behind Twonger as the man slashed his odd sword across the lead one, ducking around that melee to hit them with several close-range bolts of lightning. He felt the control on one of the bolts slip, but before panic set in, he realized it was Bill guiding it toward a fifth guard that had just appeared on the other side of the room.


    “Andy, Bill, focus on that guy!” Cal yelled to them as he started to channel a small void ball, wishing yet again that he had brought Sleek.


    Twonger’s sword changed colors as it stabbed into one of the guards, knocking a knife aside that had been coming at Cal’s face. Cal responded by releasing the void mana ball into the center of their attacks and trying to yank Twonger backward. He failed, forgetting how much smaller he was than the man at the moment, but both luckily and unluckily, the implosion was contained after only wounding two of their attackers.


    “Dammit, what are these things made of?” Cal yelled, furious with the situation.


    “Probably the same underlying tech used on Sean!” Twonger answered as he kicked forward and brought his sword down on the head of one of the two still standing.


    Cal took the opening and hit the last one with another powerful arc of lightning, putting more mana into it than he usually felt safe doing, but they needed to end this fight. It worked. He spun to check on the others and was glad to see them fine and their opponent down as well.


    “Attention invaders, please be aware we are scrambling all resources. We will take you alive and make you wish we hadn’t,” a voice said over speakers in the ceiling.


    “Finally, it took forever to get their attention. Anyone want a drink while we wait?” Twonger asked, looking around. He was met with several glares.


    “Twonger, just what are we expecting here?” Cal finally asked after the man offered no other words.


    “Oh, we should probably surrender. It will get us to the guys in charge faster. We can always break free after that,” Twonger said, smiling.