Alien in the Family

good.
    Maybe I’d wait to go for the brown-belt test.
    ACE thinks that might be wise.
    Geez . . . I didn’t even have to actively think the thought with ACE inside. I wondered if Martini could read me like this now.
    Not quite. Jeff is very upset. All the others are very upset.
    Why?
    The other consciousness and ACE have blocked everyone out. Kitty and Uma will fight alone now. No one can help Kitty.
    Other than you.
    Yes.
    That’s all I’ll need, ACE.
    ACE subsided, but I could feel him there. It was as though my whole mind expanded to see every living thing in the world and beyond. It was startling and amazing and a little frightening. Distracting, in a way, but a scary Valkyrie with a loaded ax can really pull you back into the moment.
    Uma ran toward me, and I knew we were moving fast, but it seemed slow at the same time. I looked into her eyes, and I could see the other consciousness there. It was filled with hatred and anger, and it despised me, despised us, despised ACE most of all. By taking a name ACE had become more human, and so the other one loathed ACE.
    Uma’s ax swung, I dodged, and it whizzed by me. I flipped the staff toward her stomach. She twirled, and the staff missed. She kept spinning, the ax swung toward my head. I ducked and spun the staff toward her legs. Uma jumped and landed farther away.
    This went on for what seemed like moments and hours at the same time. I was tired, but stopping wasn’t an option.
    The song in my ears changed, and I realized I still had my iPod on. I’d been so involved with staying alive that I hadn’t noticed. Aerosmith’s “Nine Lives” came yowling on. I started to laugh.
    “What is funny?” Uma hadn’t hit me yet, but I hadn’t hit her, either.
    “God likes me.”
    “Your God does not exist. Only power exists.”
    “You know, every time I fight some fugly monster or crazy bitch like yourself, Uma, someone tells me there is no God. But I know they’re wrong.”
    Uma lunged at me, but I managed to jump out of the way. As I did, I realized we weren’t on the ground any more. We were floating in the air.
    Looking around at the view was stupid. Uma slammed into me, with her body, not her ax. I was lucky that way. Not so lucky that I didn’t lose hold of my staff. It fell, and apparently it didn’t get to float if I wasn’t holding it. I saw it hit the ground and stick in the sand.
    I rolled and kept rolling, Uma’s ax just missing where I had been a moment before. I started to feel like a hamster in a ball.
    AC/DC’s “Back in Black” came on. Fitting—I was the Black Queen, after all. I managed to roll and shove away against nothing to get far enough way from Uma to get to my feet. I started running.
    I was a sprinter, and I was staying in front of her. But the superconsciousnesses had created some sort of weird bubble around us. Which meant I was running in circles, but circles in any direction, including the impossible ones. Laws of gravity seemed suspended, but the ax was still missing me, so I was good with it.
    ACE, any shot of us doing something more proactive? Just asking.
    If ACE does, she will attack the others.
    An odd thought occurred. ACE . . . name her. Name the other consciousness.
    ACE cannot do that, Kitty! ACE does not have the right.
    Why not? I name stuff all the time.
    Uma was almost on me. Decided to see just how out of whack with the laws of physics we were. Instead of running, I jumped. I was standing upside down on the air, so the ground looked like the sky to me. I jumped for the ground.
    It worked. I was across our Super Hamster Ball, and I hadn’t gone splat.
    Decided all the talking in my mind was getting old. “ACE, name her!”
    “Who are you talking to?” Uma shouted at me while she barreled toward me.
    I jumped again, in a different direction. “I’m talking to ACE. He’s in me. Like Lilith Fair is in you.”
    “That is not her name!”
    “Well, she didn’t pick one, neither did you. ACE and I like Lilith. Sort of fitting.”
    “Stop using that name!”
    Wow, this really bugged them. Good. “Lilith and Uma, sittin’ in a tree, trying to kill poor little Kit-ty.” Hey, wasn’t the greatest rhyme, but I was trying to stay alive here.
    This continued for a bit, me taunting, them trying to kill me. I didn’t have a weapon other than my speed and my mouth, both of which were running down. The ball of nothing we were in shifted—I got the impression Lilith had won some fight she and ACE were having