Troy blinked, trying to process the fact that his best friend Sam was gone on a world-saving quest and that there were real life magical aliens with some unknown agenda possibly attacking their world. It was eerily silent, especially considering the huge amount of essence that was being pumped into the ground. The way everything turned pink and then faded back to regular colors made the whole experience incredibly surreal. He pulled his little sister tighter to his chest, looking around at all his friends as they nervously tried to decide what to do next.
Rose looked like she was on the verge of breaking down. “I can’t believe Sam would do something so foolish—and brave.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Troy said. “Hopefully the mouse alien can actually talk to Sam through that blue bracelet, and we’ll know more about what is going on soon.”
“His name is Pip,” Troy’s little sister Emily scowled up at him.
Pearl nodded. “I wish Pip had told us more about the link filling the world with essence. We know virtually nothing about what is going on. We need to find him and keep him safe.”
Everyone paused as another wave of essence shot through the ground, and then, right as everything was settling back to its regular colors, Jack’s phone rang, causing everyone to jump. After a short conversation, Jack hung up and looked almost longingly at the stream of essence. “Guys, my parents are kinda freaking out and want the van back, so we need to take off.” With a promise to stay in touch, the majority of the group ran back to the house, piled into Jack’s 12-seater van, and headed back towards town.
The only ones left with Troy and Emily were Pearl, who had come on her bike, and the twins, Phoenix and Porter, who lived on the other side of town and had walked over after school.
They cautiously made their way down the hill toward the giant pulsating umbilical cord. Troy noted absently that the link had essentially wiped out a large part of the wheat crop that his dad, after watching many instructional videos, had worked so hard to farm.
“What do you think Pip meant by this being a link that is ?” Pearl asked.
“Yeah, I sure hope that doesn’t mean what I think it means,” said Porter. “But, since you guys are all probably thinking the same thing I am, I’m just going to go ahead and say it. I bet they are turning the world into a playground for their little cat princesses and are going to use the essence to turn us all permanently pink!”
“I was thinking more along the lines of it terraforming the world to make it more like their home world,” Pearl said. “Like, maybe it will help their native flora and fauna grow here.”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Dude, yeah, that is exactly what I said.” Porter beamed at Pearl. “Terraforming our world pink so their princesses can come conquer us. I knew you were thinking the same thing as me.”
Porter’s twin sister Phoenix picked up a rock and threw it at the giant link, causing Troy’s heart to lurch. The column rang like struck glass as the rock bounced harmlessly off of it. And then everyone held their breath as Phoenix walked up and confidently reached out her hand, running into an invisible barrier about an inch away from the pink stuff. “It’s like a giant glass tube extending off into space. And it's kinda warm.” She and Porter made a quick circuit around the link, which took up the majority of the field, and then the two of them started digging around the edge with their hands.
“I actually hope it gives us magic powers… oh, but what if it takes us over and turns us all into zombies?” He gave an exaggerated shudder. “Pink zombies would be the worst.”
“Worse than being slaves to mini cat alien princesses?” asked Phoenix.
Troy let Emily go, with a promise to not run off or to get too close to the link. He then sent a quick text to his parents saying he and Emily were ok, and offered his phone to Pearl.
“Oh, no, you misunderstood me, oh sister of mine,” said Porter. “We would still be slaves to those diabolical princesses, as they would obviously have some sort of pheromone to make us do whatever they wanted. But if they turn us into zombies we’d be stuck eating brains for sustenance, instead of hamburgers. And, no offense to brains, but I don’t think I could live without hamburgers.”
Pearl finished sending a message to her own parents, and then started searching the news feeds. It turned out the Mim’s hadn’t just made one link. Pictures from space were being circulated that showed six giant pink links, one for each of Earth’s continental plates, all pumping vast amounts of essence into the earth, like 6 giant umbilical cords bringing bursts of magical blood to a baby. Further out in space, the essence was actually bright green, but it changed to pink as it approached the earth's atmosphere.
The satellite images were awe inspiring. Bursts of essence slammed into the earth and the leading edges glowed faintly as they spread out from the point of impact making beautiful concentric rings spreading across each continent. The very first burst of essence was the brightest. Troy thought they looked like a continent-sized target was being painted on the ground, and then shuddered at the thought of the Kaks bringing huge Death Stars to blow up the planet.
Pearl gasped, noticing a video that looked extremely familiar, and quickly logged into her streaming account. It looked like, thanks to Troy’s awesome internet, the video she had been streaming actually captured and uploaded everything right up until the Kak reached out his hand and snatched the phone—and as the Mim’s giant link was anything but subtle, people were already connecting Pearl’s video to the giant pink rope in the sky.
“Woah,” said Troy, looking over Pearl’s shoulder. “You just became famous.” Her views were rocketing up faster than any video Troy had ever seen. It had almost one million views and it was less than half an hour old. Phoenix and Porter joined them and they were all watching in fascination as Pearl’s video skyrocketed up the ranks. Troy looked around to check on Emily, who was climbing on the fence nearby and realized that it was starting to get late. The sun must have just set while they were all preoccupied.
Bright lights suddenly appeared in the sky along with the roar of rotors as a fleet of helicopters arrived and surrounded the giant link.
