Luna found herself torn from her hiding place and now free falling, the ground rapidly approaching. She luckily remembered her wing pack and pulled the plug, slowing her fall to a safe pace. She lowered her helmet and watched intently as the nose of the craft crashed violently into the ground, and the rear winged section flew out of control with no control inputs and an out-of-balance center of gravity. In a small amount of time Luna thudded onto the ground with one of the Florian pilots nearby. The other one was nowhere to be seen.
The Florian immediately began running towards her and didn’t stop. Instead, he just yelled “Run!” and kept going.
Luna complied and began chasing after him, sprinting as hard as she could. “How do you plan on getting out of this?” she asked him referencing the meteor shower threatening to finish the job it started with the bomber.
“Just keep running and hope you don’t get hit,” he replied.
“That’s your plan?!?” Luna screamed, “You brainy Florians can’t think of a better plan than to just run straight through a meteor shower?”
“If you have a better one, feel free to tell me,” the Florian said in a teasing manner. Luna didn’t reply because she knew her spite would chase her only hope out of this mess away. She’d teleport, but for some reason she couldn’t feel the Crystal Empire’s energy way out here.
Meteors rained down around them kicking up dust whenever they hit the ground. One landed so close in front of them that it knocked the Florian on his back, but luckily Luna was far enough away that she was only staggered by it.
“Dammit!” the Florian yelled as he was forced onto his back. “It’s almost over,” he said with relief as he pointed upwards. The last of the meteors were just below the clouds and none seemed like they would come very close to them anymore.
“What’s this thing made of?” Luna asked after the meteors stopped falling. She examined the fallen one in front of them closely and noted that its skin wasn't made of rock at all.
“I don’t know,” the Florian replied as he stood up and got a closer look at the asteroid. It was made of metal and had absolutely no traces of rock. It also seemed to have no erosion or burn scars even though it should. Most was buried in the ground so neither of them could see what the meteor’s entirety half looked like, but thanks to the Florian’s aerodynamic understanding, the round part always falls first if given enough time. Knowing that, it made sense that the other half was round as well, so the entire thing must be a giant ball.
“Is this natural?” Luna asked knowing the Florian has had some experience with asteroids already.
“No,” he replied and lowered his helmet to get a better look, “It shouldn't be a perfect circle. It also probably shouldn’t be entirely metal, but I’m not sure about that part.”
Luna smiled, “I had a feeling it was you.”
“Well no one flies quite like me,” Jolterix replied, “But why were you on my bomber?”
“I think there are more urgent matters at hand,” Luna replied.
“I don’t. What were you doing?” His voice was much more forceful and at this point.
Luna just looked at him and blasted him with a bolt of magic as soon as she felt its influence again, and he was blown back off his feet and a fair chunk of his combat suit was burned exposing his bare skin. The attack caused his helmet to go back up, and Luna looked at her hand in surprise and shock at how effective her magic was. Jolterix quickly clutched his burnt skin and glared at Luna. Even though she couldn’t see his face, she knew he was furious. “I’m sorry!” Luna said when she realized the kind of damage that she did.
“Ach…why did you do that?” Jolterix asked angrily.
“You were being mean, Jolter.”
“Back to elementary school?” he teased her.
“I’ll blast you again.”
“I’m your only way out of here, Luna. You wouldn’t dare.”
“You know I can just teleport?”
“Do it.”
Luna attempted to teleport, but somehow she couldn’t access her magic. She kept trying and eventually tried lower skill spells, like blasting Jolterix again. In the end, it all failed. “What’s going on?” she asked panicked.
“I don’t know, but what’s up with your hair?”
“What?” Luna asked.
“It’s all…stiff,” he replied.
“What?!?” Luna screamed as she grabbed both sides of the Florian’s head and looked at her reflection in his face mask. Indeed her hair was different: it was no longer flowing and dotted with stars, but rather it was like anyone else’s hair and a lighter shade of blue than normal.
“What? Why’s that such a big deal?” he asked.
“This is bad,” Luna muttered to herself, “This couldn’t get any worse.”
“What? What’s going on?” Jolterix asked her.
“Do you have any idea what it means if my hair goes like this?”
“Well…no.”
“It means I can’t use my magic anymore. If I can’t use my magic anymore that means that the Crystal Empire has been attacked…and probably razed.”
“So you’re telling me during our battle here, these invaders managed to sack the Crystal Empire and destroy it completely rendering your magic useless?”
“Yes, is that not clear?”
“No. Try to remember that I’m not from here.”
“Very well, how do you plan on getting us out of here?”
“Well since Tennerac’s on his way here I figured he’d be able to give me, er us, a lift.”
“And how long will that take?”
“About an hour.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Yes, I'm kidding," he laughed, "It’ll be two.”