That last graze to the skull stunned Trevor for a single moment.

     Still, when a half dozen people are beating on you with clubs all at the same time, a single moment could be way too long.

     He took a hard blow to the shoulder, another to the hip.

     He shot out blindly with his stun-lines. Whether or not they had any effect, he had no idea.

     He went into pure instinct with his laser blades. Blood spurted, but from where Trevor couldn't guess.

     Then,

     WAOOOOSH!

     The sky blossomed with flame.

     That got everyone who'd been attacking him to look up.

     The heat intensified so that Trevor broke out in an immediate sweat. 

     Where Niki was, Trevor didn't know, but he suspected she had something to do with all that fire. He'd rise on his anti-gravs to...

     WHACK! 

     A club to the leg.

     Even over the roar of the flames, Trevor heard the biggest and strongest bone in his body, his upper leg, snap! as the club broke it in two. 

     Agony slammed into Trevor like a dynamite blast even as he shot out a stun-line to strike his attacker in the chest to knock him out.

     Then,

     Trevor took a blow to the back from an extremely strong man swinging a huge club.

     He pitched forward to land flat on his face in a pile of refuse.

     Ow! Fuck!

     He stun-lined Mr. Extremely Strong as he twisted to face up. Still... 

     Trevor now felt totally vulnerable.

     He knew the only reason he wasn't getting beaten into the ground was because of the flames.

     Some seemed mesmerized by them.

     Others ran.

     Trevor knew that, at any second though, they'd be turning their attention back to him. He had to be ready. He had to...

     Then,

     Another strange fucking thing happened on that already so very strange fucking day.

     A woman rose up out of the Earth itself to stand next to Trevor.

     Thin, this woman's face was.

     Shrouded. She reminded Trevor of a human shadow.

     She leaned to peer into Trevor's eyes, a woman Trevor's mother's age if Trevor's mother hadn't died.

     Trevor saw wisdom in her eyes. Compassion.

     What in the fuck was she doing there?

     The others backed away from her. 

     Trevor looked up, past the woman, into a still burning sky.

     He went to open his mouth, say something, when she reached out to touch Trevor's cheek with a forefinger.

     Trevor felt something very much like a needle enter his cheek...

     and out he went.

CONTINUE