May 23rd 2085

“Ya know, Kate, if you would have focused on the five or six goblins like I told you to, I could now help you with the war ogre.” Kyle said into his radio as hundreds of the small robots chased him down the hallway. He tried to dismantle the hallway floor, he succeeded, but the little demons simply crawled up the walls and the ceiling. 

“If I had done that you wouldn’t have gotten your cardio for the day.” Kate said as she swung her bow around and fired off a salvo of energy arrows from her bow. Though she had been given a small sword to help focus her magic for her tenth birthday, she had reformed it into the shaft of a bow so that she could focus her natural ability into energy bolts infused with fire, plasma, or wind varied upon the opposition. Kate had little difficulty when it came to manifesting energy. It was the solid objects that she had problems with. Telekinesis and telepathy are the magics that Kyle excelled at, so much so that he made Kate’s energy seem weak by comparison.

The war ogre was not an ogre as you may imagine it. This was not a lumbering, dimwit of a monster. This was a machine built during a technological advancement, a pinnacle of mechanized warfare. It was a tank with mechanized automation, ammunition to contend with infantry and medium armor. It’s speed and might were not to be matched easily. The four legs that it was mounted on had orbiting wheels that allowed for movement in three hundred and sixty degrees without sacrificing the foundation for heavy firing. The forty-five caliber rounds for the dual machine guns could perforate most targets without armor with deadly accuracy. The small three inch cannon fired either a an armor piercing round or a incendiary shot based upon its need. All this fire power and the virtual intelligence was at the helm for this vehicle. Realistic Intelligence Kinetic Yeoman, or RIKY, was the brain behind the firepower. Each RIKY was different and acted differently according to its opponents. 

This RIKY worked with a squad of drones call goblins. Just simple hecklers that caused shock damage and act according to the higher intelligence that may be controlling them and they act. A human would be considered skilled to control three drones. A RIKY, however, could control anywhere between one and fifty drones, based upon its need and opponent. RIKYs were not stupid, they learned from experience. The longer they fought the more they knew how to defeat their enemy. 

So all that to say that the War Ogre and its goblins are extremely dangerous to anything that it deems an enemy. So it was with Kate and Kyle, they were its enemies at this time. 

“This would have been easier if we had dealt with the smaller ones before they woke up.” Kyle said as he willed some broken debris to fall on top of the hovering goblins.

“You’re just saying that because you are running away from them.” She launched another volley of arrows at the weakening joint of the monster machine. Its armor was not quite used to the pinpoint barrages that it now was dealing with.

“And you are enjoying running from that thing’s blind fire?” 

“As long as we stay within the jammer’s limit it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” She hid behind a pillar and tried to bring down the precarious perched concrete that would be perfect for crushing the RIKY. She still couldn’t force it no matter how much she want it to fall.

“You can’t force it.” Kyle said as he began to get more out of radio range. “You need to relax and just suggest to it that it would be good to fall.” 

“How is it that you have time to worry about me when you’re being chased yourself?” 

“The goblins have been destroyed. Their batteries died halfway up the stairs.” Kyle was sitting on top of a building with a good view of the mall that they had found the Orge in. “My guess is that this group has been under constant threat to the point that they can’t rest long. Now, focus and relax. Imagine those boulders falling right…” 

The concrete slabs had fallen and the war machine lay quiet. Kyle undid his backpack and pulled out two sandwiches wrapped in tinfoil, two apples and two bottles of water. A few minutes later, Kate approached from behind and took her seat next to Kyle.

She cracked open her bottle and took a swig of water. She had grime and dirt from the top of her head to the bottom of her feet. The two teenagers sat on the edge of destruction and ate their lunch in relative silence, except for the odd bird that made a chirp here and there.

“I pulled the boulders down.” Kate said after she finished her sandwich. She took a big chomp into her apple.

“I know. I heard, saw, and stopped talking.” Kyle said with a little grin spreading across his mouth.

“You might’ve helped when you could have.” She said as she swept her brown hair behind her ear.

“I could have, but I thought that you needed telekinetic practice.”

She looked at him sideways. She then looked down at her clothes and saw that they had become more destroyed than usual. Holes and tears could be seen protruding from various places. 

“Your mom is going to kill you if you go home with tattered clothes again.”

“Maybe we can stop by Eve’s on the way home. She set up on the outskirts of the Colorado River. We could make it if we took off right now.” 

“Let’s go then.” Kyle said as he finished off his apple. “I’m sure that Eve wouldn’t begrudge a little company.”

The pair took off the feet leaving the ground with a surprising boost of speed. Flying had been one first bits of magic that they had learned. It was instinctual at this point. They had gone from simple floats to soaring to moving the air currents around themselves to allow for faster travel in mere instants. Flying performed in this last way was easiest when both Kyle and Kate embraced and combined their efforts. Sonic booms could almost happen with this sort of flight.