“How many are there?”

Theo’s unspoken words made his neck tingle as they entered his brain.

“Looks like five.”

“We’re really outnumbered, just the way I like it.”

Ryan’s mask felt tight on his face as he smiled.  Theo started around the left side of the rubble they were crouched behind, so Ryan slunk to the right.  The five alien figures were a mashup of extra limbs and strange growths.  Ryan reached back and pulled out two shuriken.

The light was dim under the churning dark clouds above their heads, but a faint ray must’ve glinted off the metal.  One of the aliens looked over.  The tattered remains of a suit and tie covered most of its body.  The two extra arms coming out of its chest emerged from jagged tears in its shirt.

One eye was larger than the other, and an angry red.  The crimson orb focused in on Ryan, but he was already in motion.  His suit crackled with electricity and his arms smeared forward into a blur.  The two shuriken tore through the air.

Ryan’s aim was dead on.  The two blades whirled right on either side of the alien.  Just before they passed their target, forks of lightning shot between them.  The electricity passed right through the alien’s head.  Its eyes grew wide and it tried to call out, but instead collapsed on the ground, twitching.  It wouldn’t be able to move for the better part of an hour.

Theo’s shuriken came in a split second later, but the four remaining aliens were already reacting.  They skipped and dodged over the broken chunks of concrete.  Electricity flared, but Theo’s shuriken ground harmlessly into the rock.

They charged together, their suits giving them the strength and grace to skip over the broken terrain.  As soon as they moved towards the antenna, the aliens reversed course to intercept them.  Whatever they were doing, it was more important than their own safety.

The closest alien grabbed a piece of concrete almost the size of its chest.  Muscles bulging, it threw the small boulder right at Ryan.  He had less than an instant to react.  Static pulled at the hair on his arms as electronic signals raced through the artificial muscles of his suit.

Leaping into the air, Ryan twisted his body and brought a palm down on the rock as he passed it.  It slowed him down, but it was better than being clipped by a hundred pounds of concrete.  When he looked back at the aliens, he saw they were ready for him.

One had grabbed a rusted length of metal rebar and the other had picked up one of his shuriken.  From the sound of it, Theo was fighting the other two just out of sight.  Ryan smiled again.  The armory lab had cooked something up for just this kind of situation.

Ryan focused on the shuriken in the second alien’s hand until there wasn’t anything else.  His head shook and his neck ached with the effort, but it worked.  The alien tried to let go, but the surge of electricity kept its hand glued to the metal.  It collapsed in a heap, leaving Ryan with an even fight.