Two more attackers joined the two already after Niki fifty feet in the air.

     Okay, this ain't fun no more, Niki thought. Where'd Trevor go?

     She looked to see that he hadn't gotten far in his efforts to get beyond the red, crackling forcefield that hovered a few hundred feet over everyone's heads. 

     A bunch of people on anti-gravs now fought to keep him from getting anywhere. 

     She shouted, "Trevor! Let's take another shot at verbal contact!"

     Trevor nodded.

     They shook the people they fought long enough to meet in midair.

     "You or me?' Trevor asked.

     "Me first," Niki replied. "Then, when I'm done, you can friendly everybody up."

     "Sounds like a plan."

     They dropped into an intersection of the paths. Two people already standing there scooted to get out of the way. To land meant to stand on  garbage that rose up over their heads. Niki got the sense, though, that, even if she stood on cement, she still wouldn't feel like she stood on firm ground. She felt something underneath where she stood, something not unlike a buzzing, although Niki heard no sound. She could make no sense of what her instincts told her, but she never discounted them. Her instincts were all she'd ever been able to count on her entire life, so she wasn't about to stop listening to them now. 

     Niki rose until her anti-grav sneakers were at the level of everyone's skulls.

     "We are trained Azure warriors!" Niki roared. "You have no chance against us in a fight, but battle is the exact opposite of what we want! Do you understand? Is there anyone out there who understands a word I'm saying?"

     Niki heard several responses, some shouted.

     She understood not a word of any of it.

     "We might be in a little trouble here," Niki said.

     'Tell me about it," Trevor said. 

CONTINUE