Weston Covanger had only ever lost one fight, it had been with a friend, brief, so it hadn't hurt, not until he'd gotten home:

'To fight for one thing is to fight for everything.' Grandpappy Covanger's lessons could be harsh - 'We bury our enemies.'

To this day - he hadn't taken a beating like that, nor did he fight lightly. The younger ones knew not to mess with Weston, just as their parents knew not to trouble a Covanger.

And therefore he had to admire Hickory, even if the runt had more balls than brains, approaching across the lunch lawn toward his table - he'd give him that. Weston almost felt bad for the pup, falling over May, even if Weston hadn't chosen her Hickory wouldn't have a chance, he was a nobody.

Still within Hickory's eyes Weston saw that need -

Because it was just a look. And Weston Covanger was looking back, would have already closed if Hickory was looking at May, had so much disrespect - with him sitting right here - but Hickory was looking at him.

Admiration.

He hadn't known the boy had so much...class, manners - it was an invitation, to discuss the matter as men would. A chance for Weston to bow out gracefully - if he wasn't a man. If he wasn't worthy of May, or if she wasn't that important to him...

He wiped his lips with a napkin, dropping it on his meal and the casual conversations between the people that had noticed, had seen the obvious and already knew - went silent.

The spectator eyes followed its slow descent like the dropped gauntlet it was, bright in the high noon sun down to the table where it settled, their attention becoming a pendulum, swinging between Weston and Hickory.

Weston stepped cleanly up and away from the school picnic table where they'd been enjoying lunch - a whisper, names - their names.

May gasped as though surprised. Pleased? That Weston would fight for her? That was certainly more then asking a lady to the dance, that she was that subtle. That she'd never asked if he even liked her -

Dangerous - Imagine what she could accomplish in the Kitchen?

Weston Covanger and Hickory began to converge, a slow walk - a clear path opening before them as students backed away, feeling the sharpness that had emerged in the space between them -

And if this wasn't a time for smiling? It was a mirrored grin they both held, not hatred, because they weren't enemies, just two men eyeing the same land claim, the only question was -

Who wanted it more?

Three paces between and they slowed to a stop, their shoulders square, still neither had blinked. Weston could feel the grass under his calfskin boots, the soft breeze as he unbuttoned his cuffs, rolled them back, took off his gold ring, the family crest, tucked it into his back pocket.

Hickory's hands opened, fingers fanned out quickly in a wave -

No weapons. Just me. Ready?

The slow nod, and -

The world tore open, a drop of light that bled like a wound in reality, impossibly bright -

The roiling globule hissed like lava in it's expansion, roared like ocean waves pulled back from tide, and what the fuck!

"The Heavens call for aid!" What? No - but it looks so real. And yet? It can't be - Weston could feel his skin vibrating from the sound, air whipping his clothes - It can't be, and yet Weston saw it. Something emerged from that ripe multi-faceted glow, a head -

And for some reason - perhaps it was the word heaven, but - No, it certainly wasn't an Angel -

Screams! May's shrill voice, "Hickory!"

Hickory hadn't backed away - Weston's feet were slipping on the slick grass as they drove space between himself and the absence of sanity, his eyes couldn't leave the sight of -

Hickory punched it.

"He punched it?" What was it - And he wasn't ready to admit, there weren't wings, and yet, did there have to be? It was flying - beautiful, more beautiful than any human, the word 'heaven.'

People shouted -

"My God!"

"Hickory!"

"He punched an Angel!"

Weston didn't believe - but - now there was no Hickory. And the beings? Aliens? Was that worse? They were gone as well, returned to the ball of multi-hued light shifting like a perfect diamond and it was just shouts now - but he'd seen it, seen the light wrap around Hickory's hand, it slushed over him and then pulled him in -

Gone. That was impossible - that wasn't a hologram or a...

All the adrenaline that hadn't appeared for just a fight, an easy fight, now coursed through Weston's veins, his body electric, he felt his head slam into a tree, the rough bark forcing the halt as he realized he was still trying to get back, get away from -

Weston scrambled against the bitternut trunk to take his feet, continued to stare at the glowing orb that floated above ground in impossible weightless wraith.

It ate Hickory.

Turning he looked at May's face, seeing a shocked, blank expression that matched his own mental discordance, praying, her already perfectly pale features gone milk. The entire world around them was frozen in shocked silence, friends clutched at each other gasping or screaming like a car accident you couldn't turn away from, you couldn't stop -

Weston saved May, they were still in danger, he pulled her from the table, guiding her back, away from the threat -

His action was like a gunshot, students scattered. The fire alarm was suddenly wailing, blaring around them but May was dazed, zombified movements and dead weight - they were going to be trampled!

Weston clutched May tight to him, drew her close, swinging them behind another tree and away from what was now a stampeding horde of panicked faces driving past them, she screamed in his ear, her nails digging into his arm.

He lifted her up, light and lovely against his chest, running - carrying her to the soccer field, to safety - the rally spot.

The world moved in slow motion, his thoughts trying to process everything he had seen and coming up blank, hardly hearing May's still shrill voice in the emergency, not a minute had passed -

Emergency.

'They see emergency. We see opportunity.' Grandpappy's wisdom was loudest, what he heard, couldn't forget, not even in this bedlam. Not if the world itself were ending, for those words were a Covanger's world...

Hickory punched an Angel.

May prayed.

Weston made the call, the right call. Not to the police, not his father or even his grandfather, but his uncle - a call that would change his life as much as that thing, those - aliens or light people, whatever they were - would change the world.

"Mayor Covanger's office."