01.128 Belong

That evening (Saturday, May 28, 2022)

Ella’s childhood home, Jackson Heights, Queens, New York, United States

Harish told his girlfriend he was tired and wanted to call it early. Hell, honestly he was tired, senior year was tough. Too much partying and all the girls figuring there were no consequences now that everyone was going off to college.

It was heaven.

His date tonight had been promising. Graduated last year from some all girls Catholic school. He had figured he would be getting lucky.

When he had come home to his mother making dhal he had wondered if he had done something wrong and was in trouble again. But it had been Eesha!. Usually it was all, “Your music is too loud?” or “Why do you always date bimbos?” or “Fold your laundry like this instead.”

Even if Eesha had been a lot cooler than usual lately, playing video games with him and stuff. She had always been the over-achieving, annoyingly smart sister. Half his crew was in love with her and she didn’t even notice which was hilarious.

And now he got to find out why she was in trouble?

Ella sat on the couch. She crossed her legs one way and then crossed them the other. She got up and paced around. Damn, her arms were all kind of toned, she looked like she had been working out or something. Harish wasn’t into being swole but he wondered if she had taken up lifting or something.

“Mother, would you mind leaving us? I would just prefer this to be one on one. I’ll tell him everything but it would be easier by myself.”

To Harish’s surprise, his mother just nodded and walked out with dad. What the hell?

“Are you coming out or something?” Harish figured Eesha had just been too busy for a boyfriend. He had met her friend Charlie once and while she was cute, she was the most aggressive girl Harish had ever met. Like a damn tiger going to pounce on a guy or something. Her roommate was hot too, but was maybe into girls?

“What? Coming out? No… Not that.” Ella looked at him with an awkward laugh.

Fuck, this is creeping me out, thought Harish

“Hey sis… whatever it is, it’s cool.”

Ella was thinking why it was so much harder to tell her brother than her parents. But it was obvious wasn’t it, everyone she brought in, she changed their world entirely. Harish was just her kid brother. But he was going off to college soon, and she needed to tell him as an adult.

“Harish, you know all that weird stuff that has been happening in the news?”

“What? Like that island that appeared? Kirk said it was probably filled with treasure and stuff and that was why those UN closed off all the news and blocked it off. Juan said it was some sort of fake news thing.” Eesha’s nervousness was making him babble.

“Yeah that. But there is more going on out there. Lots of violence too”

“Well you know what the man say, summer so the street’s gettin’ hostile.”

“Who says that?”

“Jid… you know what, it doesn’t matter. Cmon you are freaking me out. Spill.”

Eesha looked at him and then stood up and walked. She looked outside and spoke distantly.

“So… I think the first thing you need to understand is that magic is real. Like actual magic.”

Harish looked for the joke, “You mean like dungeons and dragons and shit? Hobbits?”

Ella looked at him and her eyes seemed a bit bright. “Yeah. Except different. I met someone and, well, my life changed a lot. And the world is changing now. Magic is real. Dead real.”

“Yo. is this a joke or something? Cause this isn’t your type of scam, you know.”

Ella looked at him and smiled gently, and perhaps that was the thing that really made Harish nervous. She reached up to her eyes and with a practiced motion pulled out those colored contacts she had taken to wearing. Harish had always thought the color wasn’t that cool, he would have done green or blue or something.

But when he was his sisters eyes now, he almost fell out of his seat.

Her irises were glowing prismatic white. You could see a dark ring separating them from the whites of her eyes, but her eyes were goddamn crystal rainbow things.

“Who, what?” Harish was freaking out now. He started to edge to the door of the room.

“Hey bro, it’s me. Just like I said, changed a bit. But, first, magic.”

She raised a hand and pointed a finger up and started moving it around, leaving a small trail of light in the air.

She drew a smiley face and a stick body. It hung in the air and then turned into glitter that faded away.

“I never could draw that well.”

“Ummm… yeah. That was…”

Ella stared at him. Those eyes were fucking creepy as hell.

“Look, there is more. A lot more. But you gotta understand that magic is real first. Mom and Dad know. So do some other of my friends. But magic is coming back into the world, and everything is going to change.”

Harish didn’t know what to say about that. He didn’t even know if it was real or he was dreaming.

Ella suddenly frowned, she jumped up and moved faster than he could react and tackled him to the ground.

Harish was too distracted to hear the sound of glass breaking but Ella rolled off of him to her feet, and pulled a god damned piece out and was aiming it at…

There was suddenly the sound of gunfire outside. And not just some guys shooting some pistols off but full on automatic weapons fire. Even inside the noise was loud.

Eesha had taken cover behind a couch and her eyes were glowing brightly. She pointed to Harish and then to another spot. “Move, stay low.”

Harish was paralyzed. He couldn’t bring himself to move. Ella cursed and then ran at him, picking him up by the fucking waist and shoving him down in to a corner behind the couch and hunching over him.

“What? How?”

“Stay here.” She checked the handgun in her hand and the chamber. “This gun is loaded. Put your trigger finger here,” and she pointed to the guard, “and don’t point it at anything you don’t plan on killing. Just point and squeeze.”

Eesha looked at him and smiled, it was a sad smile, and Harish, the small part of his brain that was functioning, envied that she was so calm and had the ability to actually emote. He felt cold and sweaty.

She handed the gun over, taking his hands and positioning them on the gun. He could feel the leftover warmth of Eesha’s hand on the handgun.

“Safety?” his voice was trembling but he remembered there was something about them.

“It’s my personal weapon, it doesn’t have one.”

She was hunched over him scanning the surroundings with her glowing eyes even though they were behind a couch. She pulled out something from her pocket and stuck it in her ear.

“Break. Break. Guard Team Daleth, Guard Team Gimel. This is Innana Actual. House is under assault. Six drow and unknown number of human hostiles. Plan to secure civilians. Over.”

Harish looked up at his sister whose eyes were still glowing. She suddenly pointed a finger at the couch and a blinding white light shot out and right through the couch. There was a small smoking hole where it had gone through.

“Mom is going to be pissed about that one.” Ella said, “Come on, let’s get the fam safe.”

Ella grabbed his hand, Harish was shaking.

She looked at him again, “Harish, look at me.”

He looked at her. Her eyes weren’t glowing anymore but they still looked like crystals.

“Hey, I was going to explain all of this. But as they always say, I don’t have time to explain. We gotta save mom and dad. They are upstairs. I’m going to get you to the basement, you wait there and I or one my soldiers will call down before coming. Otherwise, it is easy, just point and shoot. Just remember, it is louder than the game.”

There was another crash of glass.

“The safe word is šulmu.”

Harish was not processing anything that was going on.

“Harry, fucking say it. šulmu.” Ella was messing with her phone. She frowned when she saw there was no signal.

“Sulmu”.

“Good enough. If they say that they are on our side. If they don’t, well I guess you’ll get to live that gangster life.”

Ella looked up, “Shit!” Eesha said. Her eyes glowed brightly and she started talking to herself, “Focus on what you can’t see. C’mon Ella. Ah, there you all are. Hanging out in unlikely superpositions.”

Her eyes began to glow and something was starting to glow on her head. She raised her hand and another thin white line extended from her hand forward and Harish watched as it went right through the wall.

“Harry, I gotta grab mom and dad. Okay? I’ll lead, you follow.”

Harish just nodded.

Another sound outside, more windows broken and what sounded like loud thumping.

Ella went back to talking on her earpiece.

“No damnit. Keep them out of here. Shit. Okay, I got it.”

Ella went to the door to the entry hallway, crouching.

“Harish, move back just a little bit. There you go. Just a bit further back. You remember those stupid escort missions you always complain about in games? Don’t be that guy. There.”

Ella waited. The door handle opened and Harish watched the muzzle of a rifle coming through. Ella waited behind the other French door and kicked the door hard, off of the hinges which tore from the wood frame. The old heavy wood door fell back hard and Harish heard a muffled yell.

Eesha was through the door in a flash, he heard a series of thuds.

“It’s clear Harish. Cmon.”

Harish went in and saw that Eesha picking up the door and jutting it against the front door to block it.

The soldier that had been beneath the door was on the ground bleeding and breathing heavily but unconscious. The other soldier, his neck was twisted to the side and his eyes were open.

Eesha came back and grabbed the handgun from the dead soldier’s side. She then pointed it at the unconscious soldier and put two bullets into him.

Harish recoiled in horror, and Ella surged up to pull him back down. He whimpered.

“Look Harry. We gotta focus on saving mom and dad. You have to be cold right now. Freak out later.”

She began stripping the soldier with the broken neck down. She threw him his vest which caused Harish to stagger as he grabbed it, it was heavy.

“Put it on dummy.”. He scrambled to put it on.

Eesha was talking to her team, and Harish tried to listen to the one sided conversation. He clutched the gun in his hand and it went off, shooting a bullet into the ceiling.

“Shit!”

“Harry, don’t put your finger on the trigger. Damn it.”

Ella came back, adjusted the gun in his hand and stuck his finger so that ti sat on the trigger guard.

“Just point and shoot. And it will be okay, I promise.” Ella smiled.

She opened the basement door and quickly ducked down with a flashlight she had stripped from the dead soldiers.

“Harish, it’s clear. Remember the safe word?”

“Sulmu.”

“Yep. I am going to go get mom and dad. They are just up there.”

“No Eesha, we are here.”

Eesha looked to see her parents in the kitchen doorway.

“I was… I was making some cookies.” Navneet Jindal-Witten was trembling. “I heard the noise and thought it was fireworks, and…”

Her father finished for her, “We saw what you did to those men.” His voice was quiet, thick with emotion.

“Can we do therapy later? You guys get in the basement.”

“What are you going to do? You come with us.”

Ella looked at them grimly and her eyes flared. Harish saw what looked like a crown forming on her head.

“They came and attacked my family. I am going to kill them all.”

“Eesha!”

They stared at each other. The sound of gunfire outside still muffled.

“Get in the basement mom. Harish needs you. I don’t.”

“Eesha Jindal-Witten,” but Henry put his hand on Navneets arm

“Let’s discuss this later.”

They went to the basement and Ella closed it behind them.

“Give me the gun, I at least used them on set once a long time ago.” she heard her father say as the door closed.

Eesha grabbed her gun and started looking for any magical signatures. There had been a couple that she had taken care of already.

Ella made her way to the front window and took a peak out. It was her lucky day, there were two soldiers outside the window taking cover behind a parked car from the Aqrabuamelu soldiers across the street.

“Gimel, This is Innana. I have the two behind the blue car.”

She took her time and shot both of them.

“Hostiles down.”

“Woohoo,” came the voice on the other end. “Helicopters inbound from base. ETA four minutes.”

Ella heard a crash from behind. Someone had come in from the kitchen. She fired a couple of rounds back through the door to keep them cautious.

“Enemy came through back. Where is Daleth?”

“No response. Daleth’s down.”

There was a staccato burst from the kitchen through the doorway and Ella changed her angle. She absentmindedly shot a couple more rounds with the handgun, and began casting.

Her spiderweb spell bloomed all over the kitchen. And then she decided to try something, which was a terrible idea in combat. She took her initial strand spell and set it low across the doorway and then charged it up.

Magic was flowing so much easier since she had woken up, but she was still confining herself to focused attacks.

Her spiderweb quivered. She took careful aim and three shots through the doorway and the open shelf on the right side. A figure fell down and across her vision.

Now where was that other.

“Daleth, This is Innana. Where are my reinforcements?”

“We are pinned down. Trying to advance.”

“Copy. Don’t be heroes. I’ve got this.”

Her spiderweb moved again. It was out of her line of sight. There was one to the left of the door hoping to catch her on entry.

Was that all?

She waited. Time was on her side here.

Another movement, further back behind the kitchen island. She took aim and sent another ray of light at the target. But no joy. The pots and pans in the cabinetry must have blocked her.

Two in back. She had taken one down. So maybe two more if a squad of five had made it in.

“Innana. This is Gimel. We have cleared the street.”

“Copy. At least two hostiles in back of house. Press them from back.”

She needed them to move forward through that doorway. No way was she going to be able to push through that killbox.

She slowly slid over to the dead soldier and grabbed his rifle by the tip and pulled it to her.

“Hey guys. Your team out front is down. You guys are fucked. Surrender, and you’ll live.” Ella was angry. Not the rage from her last fight, this was cold and burning hate. She was going to let Davcina practice her interrogation on whoever was left.

The soldiers sat still. She suddenly noticed another string vibrating, a third soldier.

She took a couple of shots and then checked the rifle. It was another one of those beastly Sigs that Zaidu had found in the field. Next-gen rifles that were crazy expensive right now.

It had half a mag left, ten bullets.

“You guys aren’t eating the cookies in the oven are you? Those are mine. I’ll be coming to get them soon.”

One of them couldn’t resist, “Hell yeah we are eating them. Why don’t you come and stop us?”

She heard another one of the soldiers admonishing the one that had yelled out. One that hadn’t moved yet.

That makes at least four.

She pointed her finger at the same point she had before and then started a constant stream of light. She could see the burning flame on the other end.

“Sorry mom.”. The burning light kept going in a stream. Ella could feel that magical turbulence in her, trying to choke off the constant effort but she wrestled it to her will and kept it going.

And then it was through and she heard a choked yell and swearing

They started firing with abandon, the bullets ripping through the hallway. Ella dove to the left behind the stairwell and even then some of the bullets made it through the risers. Zaidu had said the new rifles were armor penetrating.

A bullet grazed her arm and she hissed in pain. Suddenly there was a pause.

“Innana, this is Gimel. We are in position.”

“Push now.”

Gunfire sounded off behind the kitchen from the yard.

Ella waited for opportunity. She wanted them to come through that door so she kept crept back down the stairs and waited.

There was a sound of helicopters overhead. Four minutes had felt like an hour.

That was the cue for them to move. She felt her webs dissipate as the team of… five started cutting a retreat towards her. She set up with her rifle between the bannisters of the stairs.

One of them came through the door checking if it was clear.

And the thin wisp of a line she had charged neatly sliced him off mid-thigh and he went down quietly in shock and dead almost immediately.

The second soldier went through also but he had time to yell before dying and Ella took a clean shot the third soldier behind him which overpenetrated and winged the soldier behind him. The rifle kicked a bit too much for her taste.

The soldier she had winged and two other soldiers, shit that meant there were six — she had missed some with her web —threw down their arms and started surrendering.

She heard Gimel go in and secure them. “Clear!” called the squad leader

Ella got up to her feet and rubbed where the stairs she had been lying on had hurt. She walked in and saw the three soldiers on their knees, hands zip-tied behind them. The one she had winged was still bleeding from his soldier. He wouldn’t make it. Ella didn’t care.

“Take them to the compound,” she said. “Sergeant, I want to know who these men are. Where these guns are coming from, and how Daleth was overrun. I also need to know what the police are doing and what our cover story is.”

She heard some thunks on the roof of their brownstone. The buzzing of helicopters was intense.

She let herself relax as multiple squads and medics came in through the rear and then helped move the wedged door out of the way of the front door to let in more. There was a bit more gunfire as they apparently shot some of the retreating soldiers.

Ella could see the telltale signs of spotlights. She could hear the announcement for everyone to drop their weapons.

She took position by the door and called down, “šulmu. šulmu.”

“Eesha?” came her mothers voice calling up.

“Yeah. It’s me. It is safe now. Come on up.