"Phew!" Howell slumped back in his chair, putting on his most confident expression despite the cold sweat trickling down his spine. "I think, Eternal Knight, that your organization must be very interested in aliens, robots, and these kinds of life forms, right?"
The Eternal Knight stood motionless across from him, his expression hidden behind an ornate helmet. When he finally spoke, his voice carried barely restrained fury. "Mr. Wainwright, tell me, have you brought us another blurry photograph of something that might be alien? Or perhaps another stuffed creature you've cobbled together from taxidermy scraps?" The knight's gauntleted hand clenched into a fist. "We've grown tired of your jokes."
Dealing with dangerous people was like walking beside a tiger. One wrong step and you'd become the meal.
"If this turns out to be another waste of our time," the Eternal Knight continued, his voice dropping to something far more threatening, "we will terminate our arrangement. Permanently. I trust you understand what that means."
Howell's throat went dry. He swallowed hard and forced himself to speak. "E-Eternal Knight, I swear to you, this isn't speculation. I have video evidence! I saw everything with my own eyes!"
Something shifted in the knight's posture. The determination in Howell's voice, even after being threatened, seemed to carry weight. "Send it," he commanded. "And make certain you leave no traces."
"Yes! Right away!"
Howell's hands trembled as he extracted the memory card from his camera and slotted it into his laptop. Within moments, the video file was uploading through their secure connection.
The Eternal Knight received the footage and cached it locally for offline viewing. When the buffer completed, he clicked play.
The video ran for two or three minutes.
The first thing that appeared on screen was a towering humanoid robot, massive, imposing, like something straight out of a Hollywood blockbuster. Smaller drones floated around it, their weapons systems actively scanning the area.
But the Eternal Knight had walked the shadows of this world for many years. His eyes had long since learned to distinguish genuine footage from clever fabrications. He could tell at a glance that this video was authentic. Howell hadn't dared to deceive him.
The robots were real.
Then the footage shifted.
A creature emerged from the lake, humanoid but distinctly aquatic, with gills, webbed hands, and rows of teeth that could shred steel. Beside it fought a girl with striking orange hair who called herself "Lucky Girl." Together, they tore through the robots with devastating efficiency. Metal parts crashed into the water park's pools, sparking and useless.
The robots themselves held little interest for the Eternal Knight now. What captivated him were the two figures who had appeared seemingly from nowhere.
His gaze fixed on the symbol displayed on the aquatic creature's chest, a distinctive hourglass pattern.
"That symbol," he murmured, leaning closer to the screen. "I've seen it before. I know I have. But where?"
He couldn't quite place it, but instinct told him this pattern was the key to understanding these creatures' appearance.
"Find every surveillance camera in that water park," he ordered his subordinates. "Decrypt the footage. Now."
Within minutes, his men had pulled the security recordings.
There, on screen, stood three children in front of the park's largest water slide. Two boys and a girl, talking casually as if they hadn't just destroyed advanced alien technology.
The Eternal Knight's eyes narrowed. On the wrist of the brown-haired boy, Asher, according to the records they'd pulled, sat a device bearing that same hourglass symbol. The pattern matched perfectly with the one on the aquatic creature's body. And the girl's orange hair... it was identical to the so-called Lucky Girl's.
"You," he commanded his lieutenants. "Investigate their identities. Full backgrounds. I want everything."
These children possessed extraordinarily powerful alien technology. One of them was suspected of wielding actual magic. And the brown-haired boy, even setting aside the watch, was clearly no ordinary child.
From the moment the Eternal Knight had seen the footage, he'd known.
This technology. This magic. It would all belong to the Forever Knights. By any means necessary.
His subordinates returned within the hour, presenting their findings with military precision. "Ben Tennyson, age ten, elementary school student. Gwen Tennyson, age ten, his cousin. And the one with the watch, records show him as Asher Tennyson, also a cousin. They're currently traveling with their grandfather, Max Tennyson."
The Eternal Knight absorbed this information in silence. Three children and an old man. It should be simple enough.
"Dispatch two advance teams," he ordered, his voice cold as forged steel. "Capture the children. Do not engage them directly if you can avoid it, we've seen what they're capable of. If they attempt to use that alien technology or that magic pendant, point your weapons at them. Threaten the ones who can't fight back. Children are sentimental. They'll surrender to protect each other."
His subordinates saluted and split into two teams, moving out with practiced coordination.
Howell had been listening to all of this from the corner of the room. A faint unease crept across his face.
Children? he thought. What do children have to do with any of this?
The image of Grey Matter flashed through his mind, the small alien he'd captured at this very water park, who had turned out to be far more than he'd bargained for. The Forever Knights had tried to dissect it. They would have dissected him too, given the chance.
Are they really going to hurt a bunch of kids?
"Now then, Howell," the Eternal Knight said, drawing his attention back to the present. "The intelligence you've provided today is genuinely useful. With luck, we'll acquire some very powerful equipment from this. Your payment will be deposited on schedule."
The knight clearly had no interest in further conversation. He closed the laptop with a decisive click and waved his hand dismissively.
A million dollars transferred to Howell's account with a soft chime.
In a dark chamber deep within the Forever Knights' stronghold, the Eternal Knight stood alone, his eyes gleaming with cold ambition behind his helmet.
A watch that transforms the wearer into aliens. A pendant that grants magical powers. And a third child with unknown capabilities, some kind of device hidden under his shirt, perhaps.
He would have all of it.
Your equipment will belong to us.
At that moment, Asher and his family had no idea they'd been marked by a terrorist organization.
After their adventure at the water park, they'd returned to the Rust Bucket. The RV's air conditioning hummed pleasantly, creating a comfortable refuge from the summer heat. Asher had settled onto the couch with a book while Ben commandeered the laptop for video games. Gwen was browsing something on her phone, occasionally giggling at whatever she'd found.
"This is so cool!" Gwen suddenly exclaimed, looking up from her screen. "Asher, you and I made the news! They're calling us 'The Lucky Girl and Alien Hero Duo!'"
Asher glanced up from his reading, mildly curious. Back at the water park, he'd transformed into Ripjaws to fight Vilgax's robots while Gwen had donned her Lucky Girl persona. Apparently someone had captured footage.
I suppose it was only a matter of time before we ended up on camera, he thought.
"Really?" He set down his book and walked over to look at her screen. "Let me see how they're describing us."
The article made him wince. Apparently the reporter had described Ripjaws as some kind of "beast creature" while calling Gwen a "mysterious magical girl." The combination sounded like something out of a low-budget monster movie.
"Beast and girl?" Asher shook his head. "They clearly didn't get a good look at Ripjaws. He's way more handsome than that."
Gwen laughed and stood up, stretching. "You know what? We should celebrate making the news! Let's go get some ice cream!"
Asher's eyes lit up. "Now that's an idea I can get behind."
It wasn't about the celebration, really. He just wanted ice cream.
From his spot at the laptop, Ben perked up immediately. "Asher! Bring me back a Big Mac ice cream sundae! Make sure it's got both chocolate and vanilla, mixed together with, "
"Ben," Asher interrupted, shaking his head as he headed for the door, "you really shouldn't eat that much sugar. You'll make yourself sick."
Besides, Gwen thought with a mischievous smirk, if that idiot wants to catch a cold in the middle of summer from eating too much ice cream, that's his problem. I'll make sure to get him something extra sweet.
To prevent another round of sibling warfare, Asher grabbed Gwen's arm and pulled her out of the RV before she could say whatever cutting remark was clearly forming on her lips.
The ice cream shop was about a thousand meters away, roughly a ten-minute walk. The two cousins strolled through the parking lot and onto the main road, enjoying the late afternoon sunshine.
When they arrived, there was already a line stretching out the door. Popular place, apparently.
While they waited, neither of them noticed the two vans that had been parked near the Rust Bucket.
Inside the first van, Forever Knights in civilian clothing watched through tinted windows.
"Two of the primary targets have left," one reported into his radio. "Should we pursue and apprehend all three together?"
"Idiot," came the reply from the second van. "There's only one secondary target left in the RV, along with an old man. Easy pickings. Why would we send everyone chasing after the dangerous ones? Split up. One team follows the kids to the ice cream shop. The other team handles the RV."
The plan was agreed upon instantly.
One van began rolling slowly toward the ice cream shop, its engine barely audible.
The other van's doors slid open, revealing armed men ready to move on the Rust Bucket, and its unsuspecting occupants inside.
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