Carmody and the Electric Dragon
Chapter 16

The Halloween Festival was in full swing once the parents and siblings of the students arrived. With a crowd now numbering over three thousand the school was a sea of happy, shouting faces, many painted or masked to match their costumes.

Angelina stood in the vortex of yelling, running, eating and occasionally being sick children and parents like it was only natural. As the youngest Festival Committee member her task was to oversee the replenishment of food and drink supplies to the food stands, ably assisted by a team of small cargo robots and delivery drones.

Her computerised headset and linked datapad let her control dozens of the robots at once, sending them scurrying between the storage vans parked in the school lot and the many stalls she was in charge of. The pace was frantic and she hoped they could keep up with the demand.

“Hey, Angelina!” called out a friendly voice and she spied a yellow lion forcing its way through the crowd to her, carrying a can of soda in each paw.

“Hi Sarah” she greeted the girl once she made it to her. Her location was atop an elevated stand to give her a good view over the crowd. It also gave her signals to the robots and drones a better chance of reaching them. Angelina climbed down the ladder on the side to meet her friend, letting her datapad hang from its shoulder strap.

“It is crazy out there!” Sarah had to shout to her friend over the surrounding noise. The two of them sheltered against the side of the stand, opening the cold cans and taking a swig of highly sugared soda. They watched the cavalcade of costumes go past, noticing that there were indeed a lot of one-sheet ghosts going past.

“How come you are running the supply drones?” Sarah asked the other girl. “I thought they would have had someone from the Remote Vehicles Club doing this?”

“Actually, I have had a bit of practice doing this stuff at my parent’s warehouses” she said loudly over the din. “They wanted me to know how the family business works”

“Cool!” Sarah yelled back. She drained the last of her drink and nodded to Angelina. “We are all meeting up at sundown in front of the main stage. I’ll see you then!”

“Okay!” Angelina replied and finished her own drink. She checked her datapad and saw the Fried Peanut Butter stall was running low again, so she clambered up to her stand and sent the drones into battle once more.

“Roll on sundown” she said to herself. “At least I can take a break then!”

=====

Carmody had not managed to find any of her friends yet and was wandering aimlessly through the crowd, jostled by vampires, ghouls, witches and one terrifyingly realistic zombie. It took all of her self control not to take a swing at it with Excalibur. It helped that he was eating a hot dog, which she was pretty sure most of the Undead would avoid. Not enough meat content.

A slender woman in a long coat walked across her line of vision, a sword in a leather scabbard hanging from a shoulder strap. She had a red and white fox mask concealing her face but with the long braided dark hair and silver crucifix at her throat she knew who it was.

“Hey, Nata!” she called out as she shouldered her way to the young woman. The person in question turned, saw Carmody, and pushed her way through the crowds in the opposite direction. Carmody called her name again and tried to follow but she realised the person was gone.

“Maybe it was someone else?” she wondered to herself. It could have been one of the older students dressed as some kind of Monster Hunter she thought. There were certainly plenty of monsters wandering about the festival.

With a sigh she shouldered her cricket bat and headed to the main stage, hoping to see her friends there. Her Maths teacher Mr Ishikawa and the other Telekinetics at the school were scheduled to give a performance they called “Dance of the Dead”.

It sounded fun.

=====

“Hi Sarah” Eric called out to the girl as she walked down the lane of stalls, stepping around the costumed students and families. She stopped and looked in his direction, an expression he could not read on her painted face. “It’s me, Eric” he added uncertainly.

“I can see that” she said in a flat tone. “How did you find me in this crowd?”

“Oh, that was easy” he replied. “I had Fiona on the roof run a face matching program through her processor, then she sent me your location via the quantum network. Plus you really stand out in that yellow outfit”

Sarah was still regarding him with that strange expression, so he walked closer to her. They stepped to one side, against a food stand, so the moving crowd did not jostle them as much.

“You could have just called me and asked where I was” she said to him.

“Um, yes, I could have done that I suppose” he admitted sheepishly. “Are you doing anything right now?”

“Yeah, I am going to catch up with Carmody at the main stage. She says Mr Ishikawa is going to do some Telekinetic puppetry. Apparently he is quite good at it”

Eric was fidgeting, obviously nervous and uncertain what to say or do.

“Look Eric, Carmody and I had a talk” she said to the boy. “We both want to meet up with you later this evening and work some stuff out. Will you come?”

“What? Of course I will. I have some things I need to say to both of you too”

“Fine. It’s a date then” she replied and went to move off. Eric reached out a placed a hand gently on her arm to stop her and she glanced at him in surprise.

“Before you go, please take this” he asked. He handed her one of the special earpieces with built in microphones that the AURA team had been issued. “Please take this one to Carmody as well” he added, giving her a second earpiece from a pocket of his jacket.

Sarah looked at the two items and realised Eric had his in an ear already, the thin microphone snug against his cheek.

“Are you expecting trouble tonight?” she asked, suddenly serious.

“Maybe. I just want to be ready in case anything happens”

“Then I need to tell Stanley. He needs to be prepared” Sarah said urgently.

“It’s Okay. I briefed him already” Eric assured her. “I used the new communication set up that Achmed and I designed”

“Huh? I guess pretty soon you won’t need me at all” she said, feeling deflated.

“You’re wrong Sarah. You are the Dracoris Familia, the only one in this whole world that we know of. Without you, Stanley won’t be able to communicate with any of us in a battle. The Project needs you”

He paused and his face grew solemn. His hand was still laid gently on her arm and he squeezed it lightly.

“I need you”

“Well, everyone likes bananas” she replied with a smile. “I’ll talk to you later”

He let go of her arm and she ran off into the crowd, turning back once to give him a wave. Eric watched her go and felt a warmth in his chest blossoming. It felt weird and strangely nice.

“I like bananas” he said to no-one in particular.

=====

“I wanna go on the Slippery Dip!” Vance demanded, his face covered already with the remnants of hot dogs, cotton candy and one spectacularly bright blue shaved ice cone. Carmody’s dad looked apologetically at her and shrugged his shoulders.

“Do you mind, kiddo?” he asked her. “He has been talking about this festival for days, like it was arranged just for him”

“It’s fine, Dad” she replied. “I am meeting Sarah here anyway so I need to stay put”

Her dad slipped her a couple of Ten Panda notes before being dragged off by her little brother. At least she could treat herself and her friends to some snacks she thought. She idly wondered if Sarah or Angelina had found their parents yet, as she was sure both had said they were expecting them to attend.

Carmody had met Sarah’s parents a few times already, but she was apprehensive about meeting Angelina’s mom and dad. The only time she had seen them before was at the disastrous Parent Teacher night when Mr Albright opened the Portal. That had only been a brief encounter, so she barely recalled what they looked like.

Once Angelina had been restored with her Soul Spark, her parents had been all super grateful and crying. Carmody found that hard to reconcile with what Eric told her about the Brackenridge family, or what Angelina had revealed herself.

It made her wonder though what the future would hold for her friend. If the family business was some big, criminal organisation, would Angelina become part of that? From the little she knew of such things, it seemed very likely. If that were the case, could they remain friends?

Her thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a bright yellow girl in a one-sie.

“Hey, Lion King” she greeted her friend Sarah.

“I will have you know I self-identify as a Zombie Banana these days” Sarah corrected her with a grin. “Have you seen any of the others?”

“Not yet” replied Carmody. “I bet Lilly and Achmed are off snogging someplace quiet so I don’t think we’ll see them again”

“Yeah” muttered her friend. “Never saw that coming! Who would have guessed they liked each other that way?”

Carmody eyed her yellow companion with a look of disbelief.

“You are kidding, aren’t you?” she gasped.

“Of course I am!” bluffed Sarah and decided she had better change the direction of their conversation. “Anyway, Eric is worried that the Emissary may try something tonight. He wants us to wear the earpieces they issued us and be alert for any trouble”

Sarah handed her friend an earpiece and they both fitted them into their ears.

“Now what do we do?” Carmody asked.

“I dunno, keep an eye open for anything that looks strange” Sarah replied.

The two girls looked out upon a sea of monsters, Undead, Anime characters and superheroes.

“Stranger than usual I guess” Sarah amended.

=====

Angelina was already exhausted and the festival still had the big performance on the stage to go. Her little flock of drones were nearly spent too, most needing to recharge their batteries again.

She wondered how they ran these kinds of events in the old days, before computers and remote controlled drones. They probably made the kids do all the running around instead of letting them play she reckoned, because adults were mean like that.

“Hey, stop day-dreaming up there!” someone called out to her and she snapped out of her reverie. Her parents were smiling up at her from next to the elevated stand, with Hammers the Butler and Monique the Head Maid standing respectfully behind them.

“Mom, Dad! You came!” she exclaimed and climbed swiftly down the ladder to the ground. Her mom swept her into a big hug while her dad just beamed at her.

“Of course we came” her mom replied. “We couldn’t miss a chance to see our daughter showing off her management skills”

“Cut it out, mom, I am just driving drones around to make supply drops” Angelina said with a blush. “Anyone could do this job”

“Nonsense!” her dad said loudly. “Everyone knows that when it comes to delivering supplies on time and on target, Brackenridge is Best!”

“Dear, please stop quoting the company motto” her mom interjected. “Self-advertising is very uncouth” Her dad promptly closed his mouth, only because he loved his wife and in no way because he was deathly afraid of getting her mad. Mr Brackenridge had been a soldier long ago and it still showed in this erect bearing, trim physique and alert eyes.

“There sure are a lot of drones in the sky tonight” he observed.

=====

Lilly and Achmed were supposed to be meeting Sarah and Carmody at the Cold Drinks stand next to the main stage. That had been nearly an hour ago. What they were actually doing was sitting in one of the gang’s favourite rooftop lunch spots, seated side by side and holding hands.

Getting up here had been easier than ever using the access codes all of the AURA team had for the school. The couple looked out over the vast city they lived in, enjoying the view as the sun was heading to the west behind them. Sunlight gleamed off the glass fronted towers, turning them into tall pillars of golden light.

“Do you think Sarah and Carmody are jealous that we became a couple before them?” Lilly asked her companion. She was still wearing her Ghost costume and Achmed had been pondering the viability of trying to kiss her through the mouth opening in the sheet.

“Well, I never really saw Sarah and Carmody as a couple...” began Achmed before Lilly gave him a playful punch in the ribs. “Anyway, I don’t think either of them can get Eric to make his mind up. It may take a while”

“Yeah” agreed Lilly and leaned against her friend’s shoulder. Movement in the sky caught her attention as the sunlight gleamed off the metal and plastic bodies. “I wonder why there are so many drones in the sky tonight?” she commented.

“Uh-huh. Angelina will be running a bunch of them to supply the stands. I heard the RV Club was sending some around to capture images of the festival too for the school website”

Achmed frowned as he looked more closely at the ones he could see hovering and diving over the school grounds.

“Those don’t look like cargo or camera drones though” he muttered. “Wrong profile and the colours remind me of maintenance units”

The setting sun was highlighting them, showing a veritable swarm in the air, moving down towards the crowded school playing fields. Achmed reached out with his ability, Scanning the command data streaming into the drones. It was at the limit of his range, pushing his ability to the very edge of his power.

“Those are not regular signals being sent to the drones. They are attack programs of some sort!” The boy leapt to his feet and pulled out his new phone, hastily hitting the contact number for Eric.

“What’s happening, Achmed?” Lilly said in alarm.

“Eric!” Achmed shouted into his phone. “There are drones over the school. I think they are attacking the festival!”

“Thanks for the warning!” Eric answered and seconds later the school’s alarms started to sound. It was the one every student dreaded to hear, the one that warned of armed attack.

Screams started to be heard from the festival, rising in counterpoint to the blaring alarms. All around the outside of the school building, armoured shutters were slamming down across all the windows, leaving only the ground level access doors open for now.

Lilly and Achmed ran towards the rooftop door they had come up by. As they ran a high pitched buzz could be heard coming rapidly closer.

“Get down!” shouted Achmed and threw Lilly to the ground, covering her with his body. A dark shape flashed by scant centimetres above their prone forms, whirling around to come back again. The boy risked a glance upwards and saw it was a repair drone of some sort, yet the body had long blades and spikes welded to the front.

He knew that if it hit either of them, it would hurt them very badly, maybe kill them. The drone was lining up on the two of them so he stood up and ran a few steps to the side, waving his arms wildly.

“Hey, you hunk of junk, over here!” he shouted, trying to draw its attention. It worked and the evil looking machine raced towards him, the fading sunlight glinting off the blades as it came.

“I hope this works!” he yelled and pushed his power at the oncoming drone. He had only seconds to make this work, even if he could do it at all. His Ability flowed over the tiny processor that ran the drone and he saw the control signal in his mind. With a frantic shove of power, he overrode the signal and sent the drone slamming into a ventilation stack.

It drove itself deep into the metal housing, breaking the leading pair of rotors. Like an angry wasp it tried to pull itself clear, so Achmed dove into the machine brain again and found the deactivation code. The drone spluttered to a stop and hung limply by its spikes from the housing.

“We need to get inside” Lilly told the boy as she got to her feet. “There are more of those things coming!”

Another spiked drone hummed over the rooftops, too close for the couple to react in time. Achmed and Lilly clasped each other and the boy nearly unleashed his EMP burst when the drone exploded into fragments, the sound of gunfire almost simultaneous.

“You need to seek cover, Miss Somers and Master Leroi” Guard Unit F-Thirteen told them calmly, lowering his Assault Rifle. He glanced briefly at the nearby rooftop door and the lock was electronically disengaged. “You may now enter”

“Thanks, F-Thirteen” Lilly told him as she opened the door.

“Please call me Lucky” he said and strode off, weapon raised once more as he searched for targets.

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