Skye, Mike, and Saul are three teenagers who most recently made it into their sophomore year of high school. Mike Wendel is fifteen years old, and is around 5'10" in height. He is normally quiet unless he's around his friends. He is pretty much the “badass” of the group, but it's the simplest things that would mess with his head.

Saul D. Abe is a very interesting person to describe. He is around 5'9" and fifteen years old. He always had a fascination with robotics. He even had plans to one day create a machine to transfer a person's brain into it and they could live out their life as long as they want inside a cyborg's body. He was very outgoing and didn't care about what people thought about him. He was a very fun person to hang out with and always knew how to make the best out of the worst situations.

Skye Thompson isn't much different from the two. He is almost sixteen and about 6'2". One of the things he loves to do most is help people. Most recently he's been struggling with things. His brother, Chris, and his partner were trying to create a laser made of plutonium that can fix cracks in metal objects, or something's even stronger. Maybe even break through the strongest of materials. During one of their tests, one of the lasers went off calibration and it began to spin around shooting lasers all around the laboratory. The lasers eventually hit the both of them. The laser that hit his brother killed him almost instantly. Even worse, when help arrived, the only way they could tell the one body's identity was the name tag. The other body was nowhere to be found.

After that incident, Skye's brother was the most talked about thing at school and Skye became pretty popular when it came to people talking to him, even if it was only about his brother. People felt so bad for him, but Skye never wanted to talk about it. Every time someone mentioned his brother's name, Skye would get a horrible feeling inside. No matter what he’d try to come up with something else to talk about so he didn’t have to worry about that.

Skye, Saul, and Mike would almost always sit together at lunch. Once again, they did so today. After getting their lunches, they walked over to an empty table and sat down.

“Same thing for lunch again.” Saul said.
“Welcome to 2016 man.” Mike replied.
“I mean it’s still good don’t get me wrong.” Saul said as he began shoving his chicken patty into his mouth.
“My God man! Chill.” Skye said to him.
“Why?” He asked with his mouth full of food.
“And you wonder why nobody wants to sit with us at lunch.” Mike joked to himself.
“So what’d I miss in Math?” Skye asked Mike.
“Everything on the new section.”
“Did he mention anything about having homework, or a quiz any time soon?”
“Nothing about homework yet, but we do have a quiz next week.” Mike answered.
“Damnit!” Skye said to himself.
“Wanna know what the section was about?” Mike asked.
“Yeah man. I might as well get a quick lesson while I’m ahead.” Skye agreed as eyed the cafeteria, as if he was looking for someone.
“Ok so first we…” Mike began, but Skye wasn’t listening. He kept his focus on the table across the room from his.
“Yo! Skye!” Saul asked him, finishing his food.
“Huh? What?” Skye replied.
“You were staring again, weren’t you?” Mike asked.
“I have no idea what you guys are talking about.” Skye defended.
“Mhm, I guess you haven’t noticed that she is sitting over there?” Saul asked.
“Who’s she?” Skye asked.
“Shut up, you know just as well as I do who ‘she’ is.” Mike replied to him.
“Alexa man! Alexa!” Saul blurted.
“Dude! Shut up!” Skye yelled at him.
Alexa was another sophomore who had just moved towns and into their high school. Skye has had an interest in her since the first month of school. She was about average height for a woman and she had brown hair with a bit of blonde in it. Skye couldn’t help but look at her every time that she was in the same room he was.

“Dude you need to just talk to her.” Mike said.
“I’ll talk to her when you go talk to Ciera.” Skye replied smirking.

Ciera was a sophomore in their high school. She was a little bit shorter than Alexa and had dark brown hair. Mike had an interest in her a year ago, but he’s been too worried to say anything to her. He’s worried he’ll make a fool of himself.

“Well played Skye Thompson.” Mike said as he looked down at his food.
“Look she’s going to throw away her trash. Go! Take a chance man!” Saul said to Skye.
“Ugh, fine. I’ll go.” Skye said as he finished his food and stood up.
“Wait! I forgot to tell you something!” Saul yelled as Skye began to walk to the trash.
“What man?” Skye asked eagerly.
“Can you throw away my trash too?” He asked as he handed Skye the empty tray.

He watched as Alexa threw away her trash and placed her tray on the counter. He looked at her face and couldn’t help but admire it. While doing so, he tripped on the leg of a chair, dropping both of the empty trays onto the ground. He kneeled down to begin picking up the trays when he saw a hand grab the one he wasn’t grabbing first. He looked up and saw Alexa’s face. He could feel his face getting red, and the butterflies filling his body. He couldn’t even speak.

“Hey, you ok?” She asked. The sound of her voice was amazing for Skye to hear.
“Uh, yea.” He replied.
“Not everyday you see a guy trip and drop two trays huh?” She asked jokingly. Skye instantly began to blush.
“Yea I guess not. Thanks for the help.” Skye replied as they both stood up and put the trays on the counters.
“No problem.” She said smiling as she walked away. Skye began to reach out to stop her, but he pulled himself away, regretting his decision as he walked back to his table.
“You’re such a fool.” Mike said as Skye sat down. The bell then rang.

Later that night, Skye was sitting on his couch. he was home alone since his parents were still working. They wouldn’t be home for another three hours at least. He began to scroll through Instagram to see if there was anything good to see. He got bored after a few minutes of seeing the same boring stuff being posted, as always. He was about to close the app and continue watching tv when he saw that he got a direct message. After looking at it for a few seconds his eyes widened and he almost dropped his phone in excitement. He realized it was Alexa.

He read the message and it said, “Hi.”
Skye fiddled with the keyboard and typed “Hi” back.
A few seconds later she sent a message asking, “You’re the guy who dropped the trays at lunch today right?”
Skye responded, “Yup. I’m the tray dropper.”
“Tray dropper? Are you kidding me?” Skye asked himself aloud.
“So your name is Skye I take it?” She asked.
“Yea, and I take it your name is Alexa.” He responded.
“Lol. Yes it is.” Alexa replied.
“Holy crap I made her laugh!” Skye yelled aloud.
“Hey sorry, I’ll have to talk to you tomorrow. I gotta do some chores.” She sent.
“Oh okay. ”
“It was nice to help you pick up your trays.” She said with a laughing emoji.
“Haha thanks for that.”
“You’re welcome Skye.”
“Have fun with those chores of your.”
“Haha I’ll see you in school.”
“Okay see you in school.” Skye finished.

       Skye tossed his phone onto the table next to him and felt the butterflies in his stomach again. He tried to enjoy the moment, but the celebration wasn’t for long. As he grabbed his phone and walked onto his front porch, he heard some sort of a loud noise. It sounded like a really loud bonfire. He looked down the street to see the three-story home down the street was on fire. Skye ran a few houses down to Mike’s house. Skye pounded on the door, and Mike immediately came out with a few layers of clothes on.

“What took you so long man?” Mike asked. “Let’s go we need to see if they all got out okay.
“You read my mind man.”

       Skye and Mike quickly ran down the street to get to the burning house. They saw people surrounding the house. As they got closer to the house, they noticed three fire trucks spraying the house as much as they could. Once they arrived at the walkway of the house they were stopped by a firefighter. He forced them back as a couple more firefighters ran into the building.

“I need you two to stay out here!” He began. “Nobody gets inside except us.”
“We can help! We know some of the people who live in there! Let us help!” Mike ordered.
“Stay here!!” The man said as he ran inside.
“I’m going in.” Skye said. “You got my back?”
“Now and forever man. Brothers stick together.” Mike said as they shook hands before going in.
“Good follow me then.”

       Some of the adults tried to stop them, but they had already passed the point no one wanted to go by. Before they got inside, Mike saw someone with half their body hanging out of the window. Something took over him. He ran over and luckily Skye noticed and watched over him. Mike ran over to underneath the kid. He looked up and began to shout to the kid.

“Hey, down here!” Mike shouted. “I need you to stay calm and open the rest of the window and jump down!”
“I can’t!” He screamed back.
“Yes you can! Just do it!” Mike said as the kid started to open the rest of the window.
“You promise you’ll catch me?”
“May the lord strike me where I stand if I won’t catch you!” Mike responded.
“Ok, here I go!” The kid shouted as he leaped from the window pane.

       As soon as he jumped down, the fire reached his room and things began to catch fire immediately. When he was halfway to the ground, a huge flame flew out from the window. Mike ignored the flame and focused on catching the boy. He could see the fear in the kid’s eyes. The closer he got to the ground, the more Mike wondered if he would actually catch him, or not. Finally the kid landed in Mike’s arms and they both fell to the ground. They stood up and the kid ran over to his parents.

After hugging them he turned to Mike and said, “Thank you.”
“Told you I’d catch you didn’t I?” Mike joked.
“Hey good job Shia Labeouf.” Skye joked.
“Shut up, I saved the kid man.”
“I know. Quick, let’s go.” Skye said as he ran inside, followed by Mike.

       Once they got inside, they both stuck together to look for the last three kids. Mike then found one kid hiding in the corner of a room that was half filled with flames. He ran inside and told him that he would get him out of there alive. As the three made their way to the stairs they saw the firemen running out of the building.

“Where the hell are they going?” Mike shouted.
“Take him outside I’ll find the other two kids.” Skye ordered.
“I’m not leaving you in here alone man!”
“Just go! We don’t have much time before the whole place collapses. I’m not letting these kids die man!” Skye responded.
“Be careful man. Alexa won’t be happy.” Mike joked.
“Just shut up and take the kid out. Oh yea say hi to Ciera while you’re at it.” Skye responded with a smirk.

       Mike took the kid outside and Skye continued his search. He looked through the second floor and found someone in one of the rooms. He went into the room and saw the kid’s tears. He slowly crawled forward to avoid more smoke. Finally he was in front of him.

“Hey there.”
“Wh...who are you?” The kid asked.
“Me? I’m the guy who’s gonna get you to safety.” Skye replied.
“Please help. My brother...he..”
“Look, just take my hand and we will find your brother.” Skye said.
“Ok.”

       As Skye reached for his hand, they both heard a strange noise. Suddenly the floor began to crack. Skye grabbed the kid’s hand and they began to stand up. As soon as they stood up the floor collapsed and they crashed down to the living room of the first floor.

       Skye could hardly see anything. His vision was a blur. He felt the kid moving around. He thought he found his brother because Skye felt at least three hands pushing him to wake him up. Skye was slowly fading. Until he barely saw someone standing at his feet. The kids didn’t seem to notice the person standing there. Skye looked up at him and he saw his brother's face.

"Soon my brother." He said. "Soon all will be different."
"...Chris!"
"See you soon bro."

       Skye held his arm up to try to reach to him, but he walked out of a hole in the back wall and began to sprint away. Skye began to sit up and then he could hear the kids again and his vision was back to as close to normal as it could get. He looked over at the kids and they tried to help him up. As they did they heard another cracking noise. A fireman then ran inside and saw the three from down the hall.

"Come on let's go!!!" He yelled to them.

       As they began to make their way over to him, the cracking became louder than ever. Before Skye knew it, the wall began to fall over onto them. Skye threw the kids back a few feet and held his hands against the wall. The weight was too much for him to hold, but he didn't give up. He told them to go through the hole in the back wall. They listened to him and went through. Then, Skye began to slowly walk backwards as the wall began to collapse on him. As soon as he was about to fall over, he closed his eyes and almost accepted what was to come. That is until he heard the voice.

"Skye, don't do it! Don't give in." It said.
"It...it hurts!!!"
"Are you a man?"
"Y...yes." Skye replied.
"Then you're going to toughen up and fight back. Your life depends on it. Do not let this fire or this wall stop you!" It said.
"I won't! I have...too much to lose!" Skye yelled as he extended his arms, holding it back.

       He pushed it as hard as he could and made it almost stand perfectly upright again. As soon as it was like that he immediately ran for the hole in the wall. He jumped out and the wall came crashing down behind him, barely missing him. He laid there in the grass, nearly in tears, but relieved. He felt like he had just slain a giant. He closed his eyes and listened to the voices around him.

"There he is!" One voice said.
"Oh thank God you're ok." Another said.
"I love you Mom." Another said.
"Someone call an ambulance." He heard Mike yell as he ran over to him.
"Dude what the hell happened in there man?!" Mike yelled as he helped Skye up.
"Just get me to the ambulance. I'll tell you at school tomorrow." Skye responded weakly smirking.
"You really know how to might some light out of a situation don't you?" Mike asked.
"Haha. That's why we're still friends."

       As they reached the front of the house they both fell to the ground. There was a bright light in the sky. It made a spotlight around the two as they laid face-up on the ground. Everyone around them were unsure of what was going on and they didn't know what to do. Then two balls of light emerged from the sky and spiraled towards them.

       One light was green and blue and it landed on Mike's chest. It began to spread across his body until it covered his torso. The other was orange with a bit of yellow. It did the same to Skye. It landed on his chest and it spread until it covered his torso. Eventually the lights faded away and the two laid there motionless.

       The bright lights nearly blinded Skye as he woke up. He could barely move any part of his body. All he could hear were faint voices calling for the doctors. Skye’s vision was slowly coming back to him. He then realized that he was in a hospital. He began to look around him. He saw a nightstand next to him with a pot of flowers next to him. It had a card underneath it. It was larger than an average card, but it wasn’t too big. He tried to reach for it, but he couldn’t move his arms. One was in a cast and the other in a sling.

       He looked down at his feet and they were under a blanket. He tried to move them, but he couldn’t. He lifted the covers and was relieved to see that they weren’t in casts. He then rested his head and closed his eyes. He was about to fall asleep when he heard a familiar voice.

“Why exactly did you make us wait four days man?” Mike asked as he and Saul walked in the room.
“Mike?” Skye asked back.
“We’ve been in the hospital for four days and you’ve been knocked out for all of them.” Mike explained.
“What about you?” Skye asked.
“I woke up two days ago bro.” Mike replied.

       Skye looked at Mike and realized that he had a bandage around his head. His arms were somewhat cut up. They both walked into the room and sat down on the chairs. A minute or two later, the doctor rushed into the room. He pulled out a clipboard and began to write stuff down. Occasionally he would look up for a second, then immediately back down.

“Glad to see you’re finally awake.” He began. “How do you feel?”
“I can’t move anything, but my head.” Skye replied.
“That’s just the medicine we used to keep you stabilized. It’ll wear off soon now that it’s been a few days.” He explained. “I’m Doctor Carlson, by the way.”
“Thanks doc.” Skye said.
“You shouldn’t be thanking anyone. There are a lot of people who are waiting to thank you and Mike here.”
“For what?” Skye asked.
“What do you think?” Mike said.
“I don’t really remember much other than saving those kids. The last thing I remembered was seeing these weird, bright lights.” Skye explained.      
"Yea man I saw those too." Mike agreed.
"Let me get this straight here. You guys ran into a burning house and saved three kids after the fireman told you not to follow them?" The doctor asked.
"Worst part is we saw them running out of the house while there were still kids in there." Skye said.
"And those three remaining kids were the ones you saved, correct?" The doctor asked Skye.
"Yes."
"By my understanding you told Mike here to escape the building so you could find the other two kids is that right?"
"Yes."
"Why did you do that?"
"Well at first I wasn't entirely sure if there were more than one kid left in there." Skye replied sort of chuckling.
"What happened when you found the kid?"
"Well all I remember was that we fell through the floor and then there was the other kid there when I opened my eyes. Then the next thing I knew I was the only thing keeping them from being flattened by a thick wall." Skye answered.
"The wall fell onto you three?" The doctor asked.
"Hell yea it did. It was probably the heaviest thing I've ever even held."
"One of the kids said that you pushed the damn thing almost back into place. Is that correct Skye?" He asked.
"Well, yea. I don't know how I did it, but I did."
"You know kid, you're really something. We don't get heroes like you two everyday." He began. "It's good that the public has been given a glimpse of hope."
"What do you mean public?" Skye asked.
"Dude, we're all over the news man!" Mike exclaimed.
"Seriously?"
"Saul, turn on the tv." Mike said.
"Ok." Saul answered, unusually quietly.
"Hey Saul, you ok?" Skye asked sitting up.
"Yea, just a little headache." He said.
"You sure? You don't seem right."
"I'll be fine don't worry about me." Saul said as he turned on the tv.

       Skye finally was able to move his feet again. He looked upon the screen to see the news anchor talking to Mike's parents about the incident. Then it hit Skye. What were his parents thinking right now? That question was surely answered quickly as his parents then ran into the room and started crying as they saw Skye standing up for the first time in four days.

"How's your arms feel?" His dad asked trying not to cry.
"They honestly don't hurt that bad anymore." Skye replied.
"What the hell were you doing?! You nearly made us have a heart attack!" His mom said balling her eyes out.
"Hey mom, calm down. I'm fine. See." Skye said as he reached his arm out from his sling.
"No! Don't do..." The doctor stopped himself.
"What?" Skye asked turning his attention to the doctor.
"H...how are you moving...your arm?" He asked in shock.

       Everyone in the room was in shock as well, except for Mike. They all looked upon him like some sort of alien almost. They all thought the arm in his sling had torn muscles.

"Son? Your bicep and tricep were torn? How is this possible?" His dad kept asking.
"Like I said, I feel fine. Please take my arm out of the cast." Skye replied.
"Let us run some more X-Rays and we'll get back to you." The doctor said to his parents.
"Wait do they have to go?" Skye asked.
"I'm afraid so, but Mike is staying because he's still not done with his treatment either." The doctor said.
"I told you I'm fine now." Mike said from out of nowhere.

       About three minutes later, Skye sat at the edge of his bed and looked at the card under the flowers. He took it and opened it. It was a "get well soon" card and on the inside it had a bunch of writing on it. It had things like "Thank you so much!" and "You two saved our hearts!" and all that jazz. He then looked down at the people who signed it and he saw his parents signature, the kids from the house, some of his friends, and Alexa's name. Once he saw that his stomach jumped. He had just remembered about Alexa. What the hell was she thinking right now?

"You see who signed that yet man?" Mike asked as he laid down on his own bed.
"Yea I did."
"You gonna ask her out for crying out loud?" Mike asked.
"I want to, but I don't want things to end up like the last time."
"Hey, karma hit that last girl as bad as it did you. You're finally moved on. Take advantage of it and go for it."
"I'll sleep on it."
"I'm telling you man just go for it. You won't be disappointed. I guarantee it." Mike said as Skye began to close his eyes.

       Another two days passed before they were both allowed to go home. When they both returned to school they were known as heroes. Mike had a lot of people talking to him, more than he was comfortable with. They both didn’t really want this much attention. It was almost too much for them to handle.

       There was a lot of speculation as to why the two were able to recover so quickly from their injuries. The doctors complained that it wasn’t something that they could just sleep off. However, by the looks of it, that’s exactly what they did. Meanwhile, Mike and Skye may have been heroes, but there were things to come that they were not ready to handle. They were on their way to lunch when suddenly, it all changed.

“Hey punks!” They heard a voice say behind them.
“Let’s just keep walking.” Skye said. “They’re nothing man.”
“Whatcha want Kevin?” Mike asked turning around.
“So, you two? The mighty heroes?” He asked looking back and forth between his ‘goons’.
“What’s the big deal?” Mike asked as others began to surround them.
“You two look like you couldn’t save a cat from a tree.” He told them.
“Is your ass jealous of the amount of s*** that just came from your mouth?” Mike asked causing everyone around them to scream in excitement.
“Oh you must be stupid, right?”
“At least I’m not ugly.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I’m saying that you’re so ugly that when your mom dropped you off at school she got fined for littering.” The crowd screamed again.
“How many more of those insults you got in your pocket there boy?”
“You know, I’d like to see things from your point of view. Unfortunately I can’t get my head that far up my ass.”
“You little punk!”
“Man you must have been born on a highway, cause that’s where most accidents happen.” After saying that Kevin ran at him and the two moved out of the way, causing him to trip and hit his head on a bubbler and pass out.
“Oh crap, that’s not good.” Skye said as they both started running through the crowd, followed by the two goons.

       They were chased all the way to the gym where they stopped in the middle of the court. They noticed that the two had kept up with them along with five others, including Kevin. They walked around the gym, surrounding them. Skye and Mike stood back to back, looking at the seniors as they stalked their prey.

“I don’t care if I get suspended again. I’m making sure I put you two back in the hospital for a long time!” Kevin said as he wiped the blood from his mouth. “Got anymore insults smart guy?”
“How many times do we have to flush to get rid of you?” Mike asked jokingly.
“That’s it, get them!” Kevin exclaimed as they all began to run towards them.

       Skye closed his eyes hoping for some miracle. In fear, Skye threw his hands out in front of him. Suddenly they heard no more sounds of running. Skye opened his eyes to see Mike in shock and all seven of them on the ground, knocked out. Surrounding the two was an orange-yellow bubble, almost like a shield.

“What the hell?” Skye said as he put his hands down, which caused the shield to go away.
“Wh…?” Mike stuttered.

       The two looked around them and then at each other. They tried to understand what the hell had just happened. They figured that they’d get out of there as soon as possible. As they started to run, Kevin tripped Skye and then punched his face. Mike ran back and grabbed Kevin by the jacket. He swung his fist as his gut and Kevin went flying back across the gym and into the wall. Amazed at what just happened, Skye looked at Kevin from across the room as Mike picked Skye up to his feet and the two hurried out of the room only to be stopped by the principal.

       The two were escorted to the principal’s office. They look outside the office as Kevin was being carried out on a stretcher. The two were then escorted into a smaller room with three chairs in it. They sat down and the principal told them that she would be with them in a moment. They looked at each other wondering what the hell they should do. Should they try to run for it? Were they about to be thrown in prison? Would they get in trouble for self-defense? That’s when a police officer came into the room.
“Afternoon gentlemen.” He said as he flipped through some papers in a folder.
“We didn’t do anything wrong officer.” Mike began. “It was self-defense!”
“Calm down, calm down. I didn’t even say anything yet.” The officer said calmly, still looking at his papers.
“Huh?” Skye asked aloud.
“Ok gentlemen. Tell me what happened here.” The officer said as he sat down and put the folder at his side.
“Well, we were approached by two of those guys in the hallway and he tried to attack us because we said something to them in retaliation to their ‘bullying ways’.” Skye began. “Then they chased us all the way to the gym and there were more of them. They attacked us and we fought back.”
“How did you manage to take on all of them?” The officer asked.
“All I remember is closing my eyes and they were all on the ground.” Skye lied.
“Interesting.” The officer said suspiciously. “I’ll be right back.”
“Mike, we can’t tell them what really happened.” He whispered when the officer left the room.”
“What kind of idiot do you think I am? I’ve seen more superhero movies than you have fool.”
“Geez man I just wanted to make sure we were on the same page.” Skye joked.
“Well I guess we are.” Mike replied as they heard the door knob turn again.
“I need you to tell me something Mike.” He said.
“Ok?”
“Kevin said to us before being carried out on a stretcher that you punched him in the stomach, which caused him to be sent all the way to the other side of the gym.” He explained as he looked at a paper. “Is this statement true?”
“Well I did punch him cause he was punching Skye in the face.” Mike explained as he motioned to Skye’s bruised face. “I did send him flying, but not all the way across the gym. You and I both know that’s impossible.”
“Then how was he on the other side of the gym?” He asked.
“He wasn't there when we left.”
“Yea he was in the middle of the gym almost.” Skye added.
“I think you two are lying.” The officer said leaning forward in his chair.
“And how could I have done it? Huh?” Mike asked leaning forward in his chair.
“...” Silence throughout the room.
“You have no proof of anything against. All there is is that we were trying to defend ourselves from being put back in the hospital. And we did just that.” Mike finalized.
“I guess you're right then.” The officer said calmly with a straight face.
“We're telling the straight up truth.” Skye said. “There's no way anyone could punch someone and have them fly how many feet?”
“About fifty yards.” He said to Skye.
“Fifty yards. Fifty.” Mike said to the officer.
“Our point made.” Skye added.
“You two aren't off the hook you know. There will still be consequences for hurting those kids that badly, no matter how you did it.”
“So we're getting in trouble for self-defense? What about them? Huh?” Mike asked furiously.
“Don't worry, they'll be punished for their actions as well.” The principal said walking into the room.
“What are you doing sweetie?” The officer asked the principal.
“Part of my job.”
“You two are…” Skye said confused.
“She's my soft side kids. I couldn't live without her.” He said smiling at her.
“I thought you weren't supposed to flirt on the job.” She said jokingly.
“Eh what they can't see or hear won't hurt them.” He replied.
“Ok you two. Your parents are here and waiting to pick you boys up.” She began. “You two will be suspended for the next couple of days.”
“Fine.” Skye said getting up with a temper.
“He gets a little fired up sometimes.” Mike said sort of jokingly.
“Shut up Mike!” Skye's voice echoed.

       They started walking through the hall after getting their bags to leave the school. Once they reached the door, Mike was out of there almost as fast as he saw the door. As Skye pushed the door open he felt something grab him by the elbow. He turned around to be surprised.

“Hey.” He heard Alexa say.
“Oh holy crap hi.” He replied.
“I scare you?” She joked.
“A little not gonna lie.”
“Did you guys really beat up those kids and send Kevin to the hospital on a stretcher?”
“Yea the Kevin part was all Mike. I was the one who was getting punched in the face.” Skye said as he pointed to his bruise on his face.
“Yea I noticed that are you ok?” She asked as she looked in sorrow at his bruise.
“I'll be fine, it just kinda hurts a little.”
“That's a good one right there.” She said as she pressed her fingers on it.
“Ow!” Skye let out.
“Sorry.”
“No, it's fine.”
“Hang on a second.” She said as she got closer to him and placed her hand on his face. She moved her hand, rubbing the bruise at an attempt to make it feel better. Skye began to melt. He loved the feeling of her soft hands against his face.
“That um...that feels a bit better actually.” Skye said to her.
“I sure hope it feels better.” She said as she laughed and looked at eyes.

       Skye couldn't stop looking at her eyes. They both stayed locked and they both stopped moving. For about ten seconds they looked at each other and they started to move closer and closer. That's when Skye heard the honking of a car horn.

“Oh, my parents need me to go.” Skye said disappointed.
“Yea, ok I'll text ya later?”
“Uh yea sure. That'd be great.” Skye said walking into the wall, missing the door.
She chuckled and then Skye said, “The door’s uhh, here.” Skye said trying to play it off all cool before walking out. When he got outside he facepalmed himself before getting into the car.
“So who is she?” His dad asked.
“Was about to be the second girl I've kissed.” He said staring him down.
“Oh...my bad.” He said as he started driving.
“I take it I'm in trouble now huh?”
“For fighting those kids?” He asked Skye.
“What else?”
“Don't get sarcastic with me.” He snapped.
“Ok sorry.”
“But anyways. I'm proud that you stood up to them. It's not everyday you see two sophomores beat the hell out of two seniors who can bench press nearly two hundred pounds.”
“Yea but I got socked a few times.”
“Yea I noticed. That's a nice bruise you got there Skye.” He told him.
“I know. That's what Alexa said.” Skye replied.
“Ah so her name is Alexa.”
“Don't even.”
“Why not?” His dad asked jokingly.
“I just wanna sleep for now. It's been a long day.” Skye said as he rested his head against the window.

       Skye woke up in his room and looked at his ceiling, thinking of what happened throughout his day. He looked at his clock and he noticed that it had been almost five hours since he got home, 3:26 to be exact. He got up and was about to grab his phone when he looked at his mirror for a second and then noticed his face. It wasn’t bruised anymore, but he wasn’t even surprised at the sight. Instead he went back to picking up his phone. No notifications. He tossed his phone back onto his desk and walked into his kitchen. He was home alone again.

       Suddenly he heard a noise coming from his room. His phone vibrated a couple times. He ran back to check it because he thought that it would be Alexa. Instead it was Mike.

His message read, “Did Saul’s mom call you?”
“No why?” He replied.
Just then his phone began to ring.
“Hello?” Skye said.
“Skye…” A female voice said.
“Who is this?”
“It’s Saul’s mother. I need to tell you something.” She started crying.
“What’s wrong?” Skye asked, worried of what she’d say.
“He...He had a severe stroke and he’s in the hospital.” She forced out before balling in tears.
“Where are you now?!”
“I’m going to be...heading there.”
“Mike and I will come to your house ASAP!” Skye said before hanging up and running to Mike’s house and pounding on the door. Mike came outside.
“We going to his house?” He asked.
“His mom is going to the hospital and we’re going with her.” Skye explained.
“Okay.” He replied as they ran to Saul’s house.

       Once they got there they saw his mom in the car waiting for them. They got into the car and off they went to the hospital. Once they got there they ran inside and asked where his room was. They tried to get to his room as soon as possible. Eventually they came to his room and almost burst through the door. They saw Saul laying on his bed and they all went quiet.

“H...hey.” Saul said quietly.
“He just woke up a few minutes ago. His stroke was worse than we expected.”
“Dr. Carlson…” Skye said.
“It’s good to see you two again.”
“What’s the uhm...what’s wrong with him?” Skye asked worriedly.
“Well...there’s no easy way for me to say this I’m just warning you.” He replied.
“Just tell us!” Saul’s mom said.
“He is suffering from a rare form of...terminal brain cancer. We can’t figure out what caused it, but we know that…” He stopped and looked down.
“Know what?” Skye said getting angry.
“That he’s…” Skye cut off the doctor.
“You look me in the eyes when you tell me that my best friend is going to die!” Skye screamed as a tear fell from his eye.
The doctor looked up and began to tear up. “There’s nothing we can do. He has a few hours left… I’m so sorry…”
“Oh no! Oh no no no! NO!!!” Skye screamed as he slammed through the door, running down the hall.

       As he ran down the hall he could just feel the faces staring at him, wondering why he was running down that hallway. He almost felt as if time was slowing down the further into the hall he got. He ran into a dining center in the hospital and saw a door. He ran outside and then slowly dropped to his knees. He pounded his fist onto the ground ten times, making a dent in the cement. He screamed as loud as he could. His “roar” seemed loud enough for the whole town to hear. His cries could make even the most stone-hearted people feel sympathy.

       The Gods above watched his fit of rage and agony take place. They wished that they could save Saul, but it was too late. Skye screamed again and again like it would do something. Finally he lost the strength to keep screaming. He looked at the ground and slammed his fists on it again, and again, leaving dent, after dent in the ground. He turned to see the door crowded with people, watching him. At the front of the ground was Mike, with a plain face. Skye looked away and back at the ground.

       Mike walked over to him and put his hand on his shoulder, but Skye stood up and walked over to the doorway and stopped in front of the people. They all moved out of the way for him. Skye walked through the crowd of people and they all stared at him as he walked with his head down. Skye would then walk all the way back to Saul’s room.

       Mike had followed Skye to see him sitting in Saul’s room, talking to him. Saul was even laughing. Mike was wondering how the poor kid could even smile. But it was happening before his very eyes. He listened in on their conversation.

“Man we've had some good times huh?” Saul said weakly as he laughed.
“We're gonna have some more too.” Skye said back.
“Just stop dude.”
“What?”
“You don't have to pretend that you think I'm gonna make it.” This made Skye tear up again.
“You're gonna be fine Saul. We've all come too far to lose you now man!” Skye retaliated.
“Calm down bro. It's ok.” Saul said as he looked at the ceiling.
“No it's not ok.”
“How long have we been friends?” Saul asked.
“Since the first day of kindergarten man…” Skye replied.
“Long time huh?”
“Yea I guess so.”
“I want you to take something.”
“Huh?”
“My jacket that I was wearing the other day is over there on the chair. There's a pocket on the inside. Reach inside it.”
“Ok.” Skye said as he did so.
“You find it?”
“What is this? A computer chip?” Skye asked.
“You know that robot I was working on?”
“Yes?”
“If there's one last thing that I would want, it would be for you to finish it. That's the final piece for it.” Saul answered.
“Saul...I can't do this…”
“You have to Skye.” He ordered.
“Ok...I'll do it.”
“Thank you…” He said. “And one more thing as well.”
“What is it?”
“You need to ask her out Skye, she'll say yes. I know it man.” He said quietly.
“You haven't lost your sense of humor haven't you?”
“Never…” Saul said as he started to slowly fade.
“Saul?”
“It's fine Skye.” He said with a weak voice.
“SAUL!! NURSE!!” Skye yelled in hopes of help. That's when Mike entered the room and ran to the bed.
“Mike.”
“Hey buddy. Don't leave us.”
“Too late my friend.” He said.
“Please man, come on!” Skye said.
“Go under my bed...and into the trap door.” He said coughing.
“Huh?” Mike asked.
“Just do it guys. T...trust me.” Saul said as his skin grew more pale.
“Ok we will.” Skye said in a calm voice. “We're...gonna miss you pal.”
“I won't be gone for long.” Saul replied as his voice faded out and he was not moving and staring at the ceiling.
“Saul?! SAUL!” Skye yelled as he tugged on the bed sheets.

       The doctors, nurses, and Saul’s mom finally got into the room and saw what had happened. Some of them began to cry. Saul’s mom was balling her eyes out. Dr. Carlson walked over and put his hands on their shoulders. They stayed there for almost a half an hour. Eventually they realized that they should go to his house and do what he said to do.

       When they got to his house they were almost afraid to go in. They felt like there was something keeping them from moving any further. Finally they gathered up the courage to go inside and do the task. It terrified them, but they pulled through.

“He said it was under his bed right?” Skye asked.
“Yea. Under the bed and there should be a trapdoor.”

       They went into his room and moved his bed. They saw the trapdoor that Saul was talking about. Skye grabbed a handle on it and lifted it up. Then they saw a ladder and climbed down it. The room seemed endless and was dark, but from the light shining from the bedroom they could see a switch next to the ladder. They flipped it and then saw a bunch of boxes and dusty computers.

       They searched around the room like it was Narnia. They never knew that Saul had this place. But then they were wondering why this place was so important. That is until they found a door. Once they opened it they looked inside to see what they thought was something out of the batcave. There was a giant computer with an advanced map of Massachusetts. It showed dots on the screen and they were locations of towns in the state.

       Once they stepped into the room they heard a computer voice say, “Scanning facial features…” After about fifteen seconds it then said, “Mike Wendel, Skye Thompson. Access granted.” Then the screen split into two as the walls spread apart.

“How much s*** did this kid keep from us?!” Mike exclaimed as he watched in awe.
“This place is like Area 51 or something!” Skye yelled in amazement as he couldn't stop grinning.

       Inside the next room was an eight foot tall metal capsule. It had a lock pad with a code on it. Skye and Mike looked at each other puzzled.

“Well how are we supposed to know the code?” Skye asked.
“One second.” Mike said as he walked over to the lock pad.

       He looked at the buttons cracked his knuckles and punched in the numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4. It began to open. 

“Should've known.” Skye said walking into the room.

       Once the capsule opened, fog started to come pouring out and cold air blew from inside. The room felt like it had dropped 50 degrees in a matter of three seconds. They saw in the capsule what looked to be a man that was made of metal being held by bars. Two on each arm and two on each leg.

       Skye noticed that there was a small slot on the robot’s head. He took his phone out of his pocket. He took off the case because he put the computer chip that Saul gave him inside of it. He then put the case back on after he grabbed the chip. He put his phone in his pocket and began walking towards the lifeless bot. He placed the chip in the slot and pushed it in like a CD tray.

       After about twenty seconds of silence Skye was reaching to try to see if he could take the chip out to try and put it back in again, but then the machine moved. It broke free from the metal bars holding it back. It's eyes lit up with a red glow. It began to walk towards the two of them. The robot was about six feet tall so it was staring practically eye to eye with them. After looking back and forth between the two it finally spoke.

“What took you guys so long?” It asked with a familiar voice.
“Wait a minute. Saul?” Skye asked.
“Well kinda.” It responded. “My new name is Meta Aberar, but you guys can call me Aberar if you want.”
“The fu…”
“There isn't a whole lot of time to explain how I did this.” Aberar said.
“And why is that?” Mike asked.
“Cause we're superheroes now boys!”
“Huh?”
“I know what you guys did. I'm not that stupid.” Aberar explained.
“What are we supposed to do about it? We aren't gonna be able to save the world.” Skye explained.
“You guys don't even know your true powers yet. You've only been given a sneak peek. Mike if I'm correct you have super strength?”
“Something along the lines yea.” He replied.
“Then I'm gonna guarantee you that you have another power.” Aberar predicted.
“And what is it?” Mike asked.
“Touch my arm.”
“Ok?” He did so and when he did his skin began to feel colder. It then all of a sudden his skin became metal.
“Adaptation.” Aberar said boldly.
“What the hell?!” Mike said looking at his hands.
“Well now you don’t have to act black Mike.” Skye joked.
“So I’m made of f***ing metal now?” Mike asked.
“Let’s see.” Aberar said as he threw a punch at his stomach. It didn’t even hurt him.
“Wow.” Skye said in amazement.
“Do you know if it’ll wear off?” Mike asked.
“Touch Skye’s arm.” Aberar suggested. Mike did so and he returned to normal.
“Well there you go.”
“How does this work?”
“When you touch something with only the palm of your hand, your skin transforms into the material it touches.” Aberar explained.
“What happens if I touch water, or any liquid?” Mike asked.
“I’d suggest wearing gloves for a good while before you can control when you want to ‘transform’.” Aberar answered.
“You mean that I can learn when I want to transform?”
“In time, yes. That doesn’t mean go trying to learn. It’ll just come to you I promise.”
“How do you know all this?” Skye asked.
“Remember how people in school would call me the ‘Biggest comic book geek’ of them all?”
“Yea.” The two said.
“Well they weren’t really kidding.” Aberar explained laughing.
“I guess not then.” Mike said to himself.
“Skye. You made a shield out of pure energy to save you and Mike.” He pointed out.
“So that’s my power? To make shields?”
“Well, yea actually.” He replied. “I mean, you could probably create the energy and use it for something else.”
“Should I try it?” Skye asked.
“One second, Mike touch my arm again.”
“Ok?” Mike replied as he did so, transforming again.
“If you make an explosion, then I want to make sure he doesn’t get hurt as well.” Aberar said laughing.
“Gee thanks. Now what do I do?”
“Try holding your arm out towards the wall over there and just focus.”

       He held his arm out like he was told to and closed his eyes. He did not move a muscle. Suddenly there was an orange energy force surrounding his hand. Mike and Aberar watched in awe. The orange energy then began to surround Skye all the way to his mid-thighs. Skye’s eyes then shot open and all the orange went right back to his hands and shot out towards the wall. The impact sent them falling to the ground. It left a hole that was almost like a twenty-five foot tunnel. They all looked at each other in silence.

“This is gonna be fun!” Aberar said laughing.

       It was a couple days after the incident and Mike and Skye were allowed to go back to school. Once they walked into school, some people looked at them funny, while others asked them how they kicked the crap out of those seniors. They both brushed off most of the people that were trying to talk to them. That is until Mike had a certain someone talk to him.

“Mike! Wait up!” He heard a voice say.
“Huh?” He asked turning around to see Ciera walking towards him.
“Hey Mike.” She said smiling.
“Hey Ciera.” He said back.
“Is it true?”
“Is what true?” He replied.
“That you and Skye beat up those seniors?”
“Yea. One hundred percent true.” Mike said proudly.
“So you really sent Kevin flying across the gym?” She asked.
“Oh no no no.” Mike replied quickly. “That part was exaggerated. I sent him flying, but just not all the way across the gym.” Mike explained.
“Either way that's still pretty cool that you two stood up to them the way you did. I thought he was gonna kill you especially.”
“You saw?”
“I was in the crowd when that whole thing happened.” She explained.
“Wow I'm surprised I didn't notice you.”
“It's fine.”
“Hey where you going right now?” He asked her.
“Chemistry.” She said.
“I'll walk ya there if you want?”
“Yea sure.” She said as she started walking. Mike followed and looked back at Skye and flipped him the double bird as he smiled with joy.
“Well there ya go kid.” Skye said to himself as he began walking to his class.

       Skye was walking to his math class when he saw a piece of folded paper nailed to the wall. It had his name on it. He took it off the wall and opened it up. He looked at the words and began to read.

It said, “Hello Skye. I'm glad to see that you and Mike are finally discovering what you can do. Now I think it's time we put that to the test. You know, one of my favorite movie quotes, ‘Some people just wanna watch the world burn’. That's true. Some people do. I do. And soon, you will see the world burn, but first, your place of education.”
“What the?” Skye asked himself.
“Yo Skye, whatcha reading?” Mike asked as he walked up and grabbed the note.
“It's like a threat or something.” Skye said as he watched Mike read it.
“What does this mean?”
“That something might happen to the school!” Skye realized.
“What should we do?!” Mike asked. “We can't show this to the principal cause the person who wrote this hints our ‘powers’.”
“We need to get everyone out of the school!” Skye suggested.
“How are we gonna do th...No you're not thinking?”
“The fire alarm!”
“Should we wait to see if anything is really gonna happen?”
“We can trust it.” Skye said as he ran over to the fire alarm.

       He pulled the alarm and then people started coming out of the classrooms and into the halls. Before they knew it they were all outside. The teachers knew someone had to of pulled the alarm so they went around asking each other if they knew who pulled it. Skye decided to talk to one of the teachers about the note.

“Is there anyone who knows who pulled it?” He asked the students.
“Look I had good reasoning.” Skye said as Mike hid himself in the crowd.
“What the hell kid?!” The principal said as he walked over to him.
“Look, Mike and I found a note with a bomb threat on it. We were worried so we left it in there and pulled the fire alarm cause we didn't want anyone getting hurt.” Skye explained.
“I guess you could say that it wasn't completely a bad thing to do, but we have to deal with the fire department now. Looks like you'll have to explain this to them too.” The principal explained.
“Yes I know.” Skye said as he saw the fire trucks pull up in the school’s parking lot.
“Where's the fire?” The man said to the principal.
“There was a bomb threat and one of our students got scared. He pulled the alarm and here we are.”
“We’ll take a look just to make sure everything is in order inside.” He said as he motioned some more firefighters to go inside with him.
“No you can't go in there!!” Skye yelled as he grabbed his shoulder.
“Look kid, we'll be fine. We'll be out of there before you know it.” He said as he walked inside.
“Mike!” Skye yelled as he looked over to him.
“Yup.” He said appearing from the crowd as they all walked over to the other side of the school.
“Come on.” He said as he started running to the opposite way everyone else was going.
“We get to show off our super suits?” Mike joked.
“Yes actually.” Skye said as he pulled a mask out of his bag.

       It looked like a mask worn by the Green Lantern, except it was orange. He put it on and began to transform into a black helmet with orange stripes. There was a face mask that looked like a Halo Spartan. It was orange and Skye's eyes were covered by the original part of the mask.

       Mike took out something just like Skye’s the only difference was that instead of all the orange it was a lighter blue color. They both stood up, left their bags there and took off their shirts to reveal the suit within their clothes. It was a black jumpsuit with their designated colors as stripes going from their shoulders to their waist and looping around to their backs, and back to their shoulders. Their pants had their colored stripes going from their hip to their boots.

“We gotta get inside.” Skye said.
“Right!” Mike agreed.

       The two had ran back around the corner and were about to run in through the doors. Suddenly there was an explosion that came from the front office. It sent them flying back into some cars that were parked there. When they got up they looked at what was left of their school. It looked like the entire center of it was a giant hole. Almost the rest of the school was on fire. They got up as quick as possible and ran through the broken glass.

       Once inside they found three bodies immediately in the hallway. Mike picked them all up and brought them outside while Skye kept searching for others. After those three there were still four more men trapped in the school. Skye could slowly hear the sounds of cracking and began to have some flashbacks to when they were in that house that was on fire.

       The two had made their way to the gym and saw it practically engulfed in flames. Mike and Skye looked at each other.

“Looks like you get to show off your powers first.” Skye said as he motioned to a piece of metal on the floor.
“I’ll be right back,  check on everyone outside.” Mike said.
“Yea. On it!” Skye said as he ran through the broken doors.

       As Skye ran out he saw all the students in the parking lot. They all watched in horror as the school went up in flames. Skye ran up to all of them. He tried to think of something to say to calm them down.

“Everyone!” He yelled as they all looked at him. “I need all of you to remain calm.”
“Our school is on fire and exploding!” A student yelled. “How exactly are we supposed to remain calm?!”
“My partner and I are doing whatever we can to get the firemen out of the building. There are only four men and my partner is taking care of it.”
“Oh my god.” He heard a bunch of them say as they looked up at the school.

       Skye turned around to see that the school’s wall was slowly falling towards all of them.

“QUICK!!! GET BACK!” Skye yelled as he put his hands together and closed his eyes. “COME ON!!!!”

       His hands started glowing orange again. The orange surrounded his body down to his knees. He separated his hands and there was an orange ball with a light red outlining, and a yellow spark on the inside. He threw his hands into the air and the ball spread to the size of the wall and pressed itself against the wall. When this happened the wall was about six feet from hitting anyone.

       Skye held the wall up, but had one eye closed. He let out a mighty cry of pain, anger, and strength. He began to inch forward and the wall was slowly being pushed back. He began to twist his hands and the “shield” began to surround the wall. He began walking now and the wall was being pushed far more upright. Finally he got the wall to stand upright. However, once he did so, he felt weak and collapsed to the ground. The wall still had the force of being pushed so it kept going and collapsed on more of the school. Mike saw this just as he had exited the building with the rest of the firemen.

“You tenacious bastard.” Skye heard someone say.
“Where am I?” He asked as he stood up.

He looked around him and saw that he was in light green and black room.

“You just won’t give up will you?”
“Who the hell is saying that?!”
“I am.” Skye turned to see a figure standing behind him.
“It’s so good to finally meet you.” He said.
“Who are you?” Skye asked.
“Oh, where are my manners?” He said as he paced back and forth. “You can call me Plutonio if you want.”
“What do you want?”
“Well now I thought you were the hero.”
“So are you the villain then?”
“I guess you could say that.” He replied as he stopped pacing and stood there looking at Skye.

       The two then stood there in silence. Plutonio was just a couple inches taller than him, but it seemed like they were eye to eye. However, Skye could not see the eyes behind Plutonio’s mask. Skye was wondering how he could’ve caused that explosion, or what he was gonna do next. He wanted to pounce and try to fight him.

“Soon my friend...soon.” He said as Skye’s vision started to fade to black before he fell to the ground.
“Hey! You ok?” Mike asked him as they were surrounded by the crowd of people.
“*cough* Yea, I’m fine.” Skye said as he sat up, making everyone back up.
“You two saved us!” The principal said as he walked up to the two.
“I wish we could’ve saved this place as well.” Skye said looking up at the wreckage.
“The building can be replaced, these kids can’t be. I’m sure all the parents would say the same.”
“I guess you’re right.” Skye said getting up from the ground.
“Who are you?” Skye heard a voice say. He turned to see it was Alexa.
“He’s the Adaptor,” Skye said, beginning to feel the utmost confidence he’s ever felt in his life. “And I’m the Shield.”

       They then both ran over to the other side of the school and grabbed their bags. Aberar was waiting for them with an odd looking car. They got in and drove off. Alexa was peeking from the corner of the school, looking puzzled, like she was trying to figure something out. Then she looked up and watched the car pull away.

       As they drove home Mike and Skye squeezed into their other clothes. They pushed a button on the side of their helmets that transformed it back into the “Green Lantern”-like masks. The took them off and put them back into their bags. They pulled into Aberar’s driveway and they all got out. The pavement opened up and the car was pulled underneath and then the pavement closed back up.
“How the hell did nobody see that?” Skye asked jokingly.
“Luck?” Aberar laughed.
“Get inside man. No one can see you!” Mike said to him.
“Good job today boys.” Aberar said before he walked inside.
“You going home now?” Mike asked.
“Yea, I got a lot to think about.”
“Ok, I’ll see ya man.” Mike said as he began walking to his house with his hands in his pockets.

       Skye walked into his house. His parents were still at work so he took off his suit that he had on underneath his clothes and put it into his closet. He heard his phone ringing and sw it was his parents.

“Hel…” Skye was cut off.
“OH MY GOD SKYE ARE YOU OK???” He heard his mom scream so loud he took the phone away from his ear as she said it.
“Mom I’m fine. I got a couple scratches on my neck but that’s all.”
“Were you in the school when the explosion happened???” She asked nervously.
“Let’s just say that I got out just in time.” Skye said as he looked at his suit before closing the closet door.
“Ok good. I’ll be home soon and so will Dad.”
“Ok mom, I’ll talk to you then.” He replied.
“I love you Skye.” She said.
“Love you too mom.” He said before hanging up.

       He laid back on his bed and looked at the ceiling. He hated the fact that the school was destroyed. He felt like his efforts were in vain. Then he realized that he stopped that wall from killing everyone else. He felt good, but tired. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

      Waking up, Skye heard a buzzing noise. He looked over at it to see that Alexa had texted him over Instagram. He picked up his phone trying to get a grip on it and opened up Instagram.

“Hey where were you today?” She asked.
“I was at school.” He began. “I was in like the middle of the crowd when that wall almost fell on all of us.”
“That was terrifying!” She responded.
“Yea it really was.”
“What are they gonna do about the school?”
“They’re gonna have to rebuild it or something.”
“What about the students? What are they gonna do with us?” She asked.
“Maybe we’ll have to figure something out involving the middle school.”
“That sounds like a bad idea tbh.” She said.
“Hey, I’m just brainstorming.”
“Yea I know. No one was killed thank god.”
“Really?!” Skye yelled aloud as he typed.
“Yea those two guys saved us all.”
“Who were they?” Skye asked as if he didn’t know.
“Well I think our town has some superheroes. One said his partner’s name was The Adaptor I think it was. And he looked right at me and said his name was The Shield.”
“I looked right at her?!” Skye said to himself before he started typing again. “Wow. So that’s who they were.”
“They were so brave. It was so awesome.” This made Skye blush a little.
“Did you see how he kept that wall up?” Skye typed proudly.
“I know! The thing almost crushed us into a bunch of teenage pancakes!”
“Haha, teenage pancakes.”
“What? You like that one? Lol” She asked.
“I’ve just never heard that one since like three years ago from my…” Skye purposely stopped typing but just sent that.
“From your what?” She asked.
“My...brother.”
“Oh. I heard about what happened. Do you not wanna talk about it?”
“No, I think it’s about time I did talk to someone about it.” Skye realized.
“I know what happened, but how did you know it was his body?”
“It had his name tag around his neck.”
“My god that’s awful for you to go through.” She said. “I’m so sorry.”
“I know, it’s not the best thing for me to talk about, but I’ll be fine.”
“You need to be open about things. It’s the only way you’ll be able to succeed with anything.” Those words stuck to him.
“I see your point.” Skye replied.
“So, what was he like?”
“Distant from everyone.” He began. “He was always so focused on the work he did. He was fascinated with Pluto for some reason. One day, him and his best friend decided to make some sort of laser out of Plutonium that could fix cracks in metal. I remember him saying that it may also be strong enough to have some sort of setting to break through even the strongest of material.”
“That’s pretty neat actually.”
“Yea it was. Only problem is, something went wrong and the whole place blew up.” Skye replied. “They could only find my brother’s body that had the name tag on it.”
“What about the other one?” She asked but then typed, “Oh wait that’s right I forgot, they couldn’t find it.”
“Yea…”
“What would you do if that wasn’t your brother’s body?” She asked.
“I’d be very confused. It wouldn’t make any sense. We still don’t even know what could have happened to the other body.”
“I’m sure it’ll all be fixed someday Skye.”
“It can’t be.”
“Why not?”
“Cause Chris is still gone.”
“I’m sure that he misses you just as much as you miss him.”
“I just wish that I could see him one last time.”
“I know Skye, is there anything I can do to help?” She asked.
“I think you actually helped just by talking to me.”
“Well I’m glad I did.” She said.
“Hey do you...wanna FaceTime?” Skye asked. “I have something to ask you.”
“Okay. Yea sure one sec, I’ll call you.” She answered.
“Alrighty.” Skye answered along with his phone number as his phone started to ring.
“Hey. So what’d you want to ask me?” She asked.
“So... I was wondering if you would maybe want to go out to dinner tomorrow?” He asked nervously.
“Are you asking me on a date?” She asked in return.
“Yea, I am. I like you and I would like to take you on a date.”
“I’d actually love to Skye.” She responded smiling.
“Really?!” He asked in surprise.
“Yea, text me the details.”
“Ok great!” Skye said as he heard a knock on the door. “Crap, I’ll text you later about the details and what not.”
“Ok, sounds good. Bye.” She said as they both hung up.

       Skye walked over to the door and opened it to see Aberar standing on the other side.

“Dude I gotta show you something!” He said as he walked right past Skye.
“Dude! What are you doing here?!” Skye asked as he slammed the door shut.
“We made the news man!!”
“What?!”
“Check it out.” He told Skye as he turned on the tv.
“Well folks if you’re just joining us then you’re in for a treat.” The news anchor began. “I’m pretty sure I can speak for everyone watching when I say that we finally are having some good news to tell you all.”
“He’s talking about us?” Skye said looking at Aberar.
“Believe it or not folks we have superheroes in our state. They saved the students of local school in the small town of Leicester. They building was believed to be the target of some form of a terrorist attack. There were no casualties, but a few injured, but are being taken care of. There are only few to thank for the act of bravery. First we must thank the bravery of the local fire department. They ran in when it was believed to be certain death to make sure everyone was safe outside. However, we cannot forget the courage and the strength of The Adaptor. He was the one of the two heroes that ran in to rescue the firefighters from death. If it weren’t for him, they would all have been as good as dead. Lastly let us thank The Shield. The school wall was about to fall and crush every single student, but he was the one who prevented that wall from collapsing. He held it up with what looked to be a shield of some kind of energy.” It suddenly cut to a video of someone recording The Shield holding up the wall.
“Who recorded that?” Skye wondered to himself. “I don’t remember seeing someone recording us.”
“Well yea, cause you were too busy holding up a two ton wall.” Aberar said as Mike walked in.
“Yo Mike did you see…”
“Yes Saul, I saw the news.” Mike said smirking.
“It’s Aberar!!”
“Damn dude, calm down.” Skye said before he started looking at the news again.

       He continued to watch the news when he began to squint his eyes at something. He was looking towards the top left of the screen. When the screen cut back to the news anchor, Skye reached for the remote and pressed the rewind button.

“What’s wrong?” Mike asked confused.
“I need to see something.” Skye replied as he played it back again and then paused it. He pressed the rewind button on the remote to the point where he saw it and paused the video. Once again he squinted and looked carefully. He then realized what it was.
“Plutonio?”
“Who?” Mike asked.
“The one that blew up the...I haven’t told you guys yet…” Skye realized.
“So remember when I blacked out during the incident at the school?”
“Of course.” Mike replied.
“Well I had a vision of someone standing in front of me and they were saying that they were the cause of the school being destroyed.” Skye explained.
“Plutonio you said?” Aberar asked.
“That’s what he said I could call him.”
“So is he like our villain that we have to stop.”
“He told me ‘I guess you could say that’.”
“Well if he’s a human capable of destroying a school without even going into it, then he’s not gonna be taken lightly.” Aberar began. “I’ll try to find any match to that image.

       Aberar began to walk to the tv. Out of his eyes shot red beams that scanned the image on the screen. Aberar’s face lit up in horror as he began to search. He could feel the cries of children. The burning fires and explosions. He looked at the two and if robots could cry, he’d be balling up a storm.

“So much anger. So much hatred. So much death. So much to worry. We aren’t dealing with some villain wanting to take over the world. We are dealing with a madman that wants every inch of this world to burn.” Aberar said and then looked at Skye. “He was the one who killed your brother Skye. He was his partner.”
“Wants the world to burn?” Skye said as him and Mike looked at each other.
“He’s insane, yet has no emotions. Except one. Pure hatred.” Aberar added.
“What can he do?”
“He has plutonium mutated with his blood. He can manipulate it to give him immense strength. Then from his hands, he can use the plutonium to make weapons from his hands. And then he’s able to shoot lasers of frikin plutonium from his goddamn eyes! Straight up plutonium coming from his eyes!”
“Can you do that?” Mike asked Skye.
“I think that’s the only thing he has on us.” Skye replied.
“Maybe not necessarily.” Aberar said.
“What now?”
“Skye I want you and Mike to follow me. We are heading to the practice baseball field by the school.”

       They then left, headed for where Aberar said. Once they got there they walked down the hill and stood almost in the center of the field.

“Why are we here?” Mike asked.
“Ok, Skye. I need you to make a ball of energy in your hands.”
“What?” He asked in confusion.
“Just do it.”
“Ok.” He said as he began to create a ball of energy in his hands. Once done he held it in front of him with his palm.
“Now you may feel a bit drained after this.” Aberar said after grabbing the ball with his hands and then began to absorb it which made Skye feel all dizzy.
“Watch this.” Aberar said as he turned and fired thick red lasers out of his eyes for about ten seconds.
“...” They all stood in silence for a good minute and a half.
“I think we are about equal now.” Aberar said.
“Think?” Skye and Mike asked in surprise.

“What now?” Plutonio asked as he entered the dark room.
“I guess plans are going to have to change.” A voice in the dark said.
“Where are you?” Plutonio asked as he reached for the light switch. He felt a brush of wind fly past him and turn on the light switch.
“Right here you fool.” He answered as he came into Plutonio’s view.
“What do you mean that plans are going to change?”
“It’ll only be a matter of time before they find us and try to stop us.” He said to Plutonio as he began walking towards a giant box.
“Why are you wearing those robes?”
“Why not?”
“Because the plutonium makes it likes a thousand degrees in here.”
“I can cool myself down.” He replied as he twirled his hands around creating wind and let it flow through him.
“You love being dramatic don’t you?” Plutonio asked.
“We are going to have to initiate our plans much sooner than expected.” He began. “We will take this machine to their other school. The field there is perfect for us to place it. Once there I will be able to take care of two of them. I need you to be able to take care of one of them.”
“You know who I want.” Plutonio said.
“Yes I know. Shield is all yours.” He said as he opened the box, letting the green light shine on him.
“You are definitely on board for this right?” Plutonio asked. “You know it’s a suicide mission.”
“I’ve seen too much hell on this world. There’s more to come, whether it’s better or worse. Either way I’ve had enough. If no one on this world wants it to stop, then we’ll have this world’s existence be erased. Might as well take the solar system with it.”
“The sun is the key to everything on this planet and its neighbors. Light, energy, formation, even life. Now, it’ll be its destruction.”
“I like the way you think. Glad YOU came to me with this offer. I’ve been waiting for someone like you to help me with this.”
“There’s only one problem with our plan.” Plutonio added.
“What?”
“Them.”
“We could try to take them out even before we initiate our plan.”
“And how will we do that?” Plutonio asked seeming very interested.
“Earth.”
“Earth?”
“We will send my minion after them. If it won’t take them all out then it’ll at least weaken them up one way or another.” He explained.
“Where is it?”
“See that rock over there?”
“Where the hell did that thing come from?” Plutonio exclaimed as he saw the seven foot rock in the corner of the room.
“Ore!” He yelled as the rock began to crack and split in two.

       Once he yelled the name out and the rock split, a figure stood up and stretched like it had been taking year long nap. The figure was what looked to be a person made of rock, wearing a red shirt and jeans. It stood at about seven and a half feet tall, looking at them and began to walk to the door. Before exiting, it turned around and looked at the man in the robes.

“Who?” It asked.
“Take out The Adaptor, Meta Aberar, and The Shield.”
“Not my brother! I want him myself!”
“...Fine.” He sighed. Take out The Adaptor, Meta Aberar, and injure The Shield.”
“Yes, master.” It said as it left and turned into a rock and rolled down the hill they were on.

       Meanwhile, Skye was looking into the mirror and was adjusting his collar and then heard a knock on his door. He ran to it because he thought it was his parents. He threw the door open and saw Mike standing on the other side. He went from being super excited to disappointed. He could tell Mike had news to tell.

“What is it?” Skye asked.
“We need to get to the town ha… What’s with the get up?” Mike asked.
“I have a date in less than an hour.” Skye answered.
“Well we better hurry then.” Mike said as he dragged Skye outside by his arm. “Quick put on your mask. You have your suit on right?”
“I always do.” Skye said as he took off his shirt and pants to reveal his suit.

       They both put on their masks and ran to the town hall. Once they got there they saw Aberar waiting there for them. They ran up to him and tried to catch their breath.

“Took you guys long enough.”
“Shut up. We aren’t a frikin robot.” Mike said.
“Well I’m glad you guys got here. We didn’t have much time. It’s almost here.” Aberar explained.
“What is?” Skye asked.
“A creature that looked like it was a rock monster.”
“What?” Mike and Skye asked.
“You’ll see, but I have an idea of how to defeat it.” Aberar continued.
“How?” Skye asked.
“Form the phalanx.”
“Yes! I’ve been waiting for this day!” Skye yelled as he turned around and formed a shield with his energy and a spear.
“Aim for the gaps!” Aberar yelled as Skye began to move towards the narrow opening between the buildings.
“What gaps?” Skye asked.
“You’ll see. Mike get behind him.”
“What about you?”
“I’m going to provide covering fire. Skye I need some energy.”
“Alrighty.” Skye said as he made a ball of energy and shot it at Aberar.
“Thanks. Get ready.” Aberar said as he absorbed the energy and jumped to the top of the building.

       As he got to the top of the building they all saw the rock-like creature walking towards them. Skye stood steady while Mike got ready to push. The creature began to run and get faster. Skye readied himself and once the creature got close enough, Skye rose his shield in front of him. Skye created a shield behind him in front of the two buildings. The creature smashed into Skye’s shield and Mike pushed as hard as he could and the creature stumbled backwards.

       As it stumbled backwards Aberar began firing lasers at it. It did nothing, but temporarily disorient the creature. It let out a fierce roar as Mike touched the building then ran at the beast as his skin began to turn into a brick-like texture. He leaped into the air and drop kicked the beast. Once more it stumbled back. Mike went for another attack, but the beast threw a punch and sent Mike flying across the field and into the shield Skye set up. The beast began to run over towards Mike. before reaching him, Aberar fired lasers and it drew the beast’s attention away from Mike. Aberar soon ran out of the energy that Skye gave him and wasn’t able to fire anymore lasers.

“Now Skye!” He yelled.

       The beast turned around to see Skye jumping into the air. Skye looked to see the beast’s eye had not been covered by a rock. He thrusted his spear at the eye of the beast. He was right to strike there. The beast cried out in pain and Skye took out the spear. As Skye landed, the beast fell to its knees and held its eye. Skye stood over the beast and aimed his spear again. He thrusted once more at the eye. This time, the spear went through the creature’s entire skull. The beast didn’t move anymore.

       Mike ran over and grabbed its arm and ripped it off. Then he punched a hole right through the beast’s chest. Skye removed his spear and Mike removed his fist and the beast fell apart into a pile of rocks. The two looked at each other in pride as they stood over the fallen beast.

“Oh my god!” Skye yelled.
“What?” Aberar asked as he ran over.
“Alexa! My date!” Skye said as he began to run to the restaurant, throwing on his other clothes he had in a bag.

       Once Skye got to the restaurant, he asked if Alexa was there. They said that they were sorry, but she had left because she was tired of waiting. Skye looked at the clock and realized that he was forty-five minutes late. Skye hit himself in the forehead with his palm and walked out with his head down.

      After the events that took place at the high school, the students were told that they would still be going to school. However, it would have to be at their middle school. In a weird schedule, one day high school would have school, then the next day middle schoolers would have school. It has been a full week since Skye has seen Alexa. She hasn’t returned his messages or his calls. He knew she was pissed at him. Finally he was going to see her in school again.

       He walked into the building and had flashbacks from when his friends and him were in their middle school years. So much they could have done different. So many things they could have changed. He walked into his designated homeroom and sat down at his desk to see there were none of his good friends in his homeroom. He put his head down and waited for his first class.

       The bell rung twenty minutes later and he stood up. For the first time he actually looked to see who was in his homeroom. By the door, he saw Alexa walking out holding her books. He ran over to catch up with her. He finally reached her and tried to talk to her.

“Hey Alexa.” He said trying to catch his breath.
“What do you want?” She asked with anger.
“I want to explain.”
“What is there to explain?” She began. “You lead me to believe that you actually liked me just so you could embarrass me like that.”
“No that’s not the case at all.” Skye responded.
“Then why didn’t you show? Huh?” She asked with sass.
“I...I...I couldn’t make it in time because…” He stuttered.
“Because what?!” She snapped as she picked up her pace a little.
“I...I can’t tell you.” He said with his head down. “I really do like you Alexa.”
“How can I ever believe you again?” She asked as she stopped and turned around with a tear in her eye. “I liked you. I was the happiest person in the world when you asked me out. I couldn’t wait for our date. But no! You have to leave me there waiting for almost a hour!”
“I’m so sorry Alexa.”
“And you can’t even tell me why you didn’t show up!” She interrupted.
“I wish I could.”
“Why?!” She snapped. “So you could make me feel even worse? Well too late! You’ve already made me feel like I’m worth nothing. Goodbye Skye. Enjoy the rest of your life.”
“Alexa.” He called softly as she kept walking. “Wait.”

       He put his head down and walked to his class he heard the bell and realized he was late. He didn’t care anymore. He walked into the class and the teacher let him off with a warning due to the fact that it was the first day in the “new” school. He couldn’t concentrate on anything other than how bad he felt. He then asked if he could go to the bathroom. He went in and paced around the room. He thought back to when she said how he made her feel worth nothing.

      He turned and threw a punch at the stall. The door was closed so the sound only echoed in the bathroom. No one heard the noise other than Skye. He then turned to the mirror and saw he had a scratch on his face. He wiped the blood off his face. He noticed that a piece of metal hd flung off and sliced his skin. He suddenly felt a cold breeze rush by him. He then saw a figure standing next to him, dressed in robes.

“I’ve been waiting to meet you Skye.”
“Who the hell are you?”
“It’s pretty simple Skye. I’m the wind.” He answered.
“I mean name. What is it?” Skye asked.
“Fine. Call me Cyclone.”
“Okay ‘Cyclone’, what do you want?”
“You’ll see soon enough Skye you’ll see soon enough.” He answered as he became a gust of wind and flew towards Skye.

       Skye stepped back and made a shield of energy and held it in front of him as he felt a cold breeze flow past him. He opened his eyes to see that Cyclone was gone and he left the bathroom as his shield disappeared. He began to walk back to his class when he heard an announcement saying for everyone to report to the auditorium. He did so. When he entered he saw Mike sitting in the back row. So he walked over and sat next to him.

“Hey.” Mike said.
“What’s this about?”
“Something to do with the news. Principal was given a memo for all of us to report here.”
“How do you know that?” Skye asked.
“I know people.”

       After he said that they all saw the principal walking onto the stage. He said that there was going to be an important announcement on the news. They hooked up a computer to a projector and they played it onto a screen. They saw a news anchor preparing, as if he didn’t know that he was on the air. He was told that they were rolling and he straightened his tie and held his papers in front of him.

“Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, we have important news today.” He began. “I’m Tom Tompkins and this is the 10:30 Newz, comin at you with the latest insight on America.”
“You know what it is?” Skye asked Mike.
“We’ll be finding out soon enough.”
“We take you to…” He was interrupted by an audio malfunction, followed by the screen turning to static.

       Once the screen turned to static it, after about five seconds, it slowly faded into a video of two figures standing in a room. In between them was a large screen that showed a video with a large box. One of them began to walk towards the camera. His hood glowed with a light green color to it. He took it off to reveal his mask. Skye knew right then and there that it was Plutonio.

“Greetings everyone. I am Plutonio. The wielder of the sun.” He began, everyone looking confused.
“That’s him!” Skye whispered to Mike.
“I might as well get right to it then.” He began but then looked at the camera and said, “Wow, we’re really live. Never been on tv before. Hi Shield! Hi Adaptor!”
“He knows about us.” Mike said.
“Told you.” Skye said.
“I’m not gonna bore you with ‘Oh we are the villains and here’s our notorious plan’. You won’t have long enough to worry anyways. Possibly 48 hours to be exact.” He began as everyone looked at each other worriedly. This machine you see on the screen is what I call the Solar Burner.”
“That’s new.” Mike said.
“Man has feared how our solar system will end. Many think the sun’s gravity will change. Many think asteroids will destroy our way of life. Others such as me know that our sun will become a red giant and swallow our inner planets and then die out itself, causing the rest of the planets to become nothing but frozen spheres.”
“He’s got a point there.” They heard someone say.
“This machine uses plutonium to create a magnetic force to build up energy. Once it’s reached it will fire a laser of plutonium directly at the sun. Once it reaches the sun. The energy mixed with the plutonium will manipulate the sun’s atoms.” He paused. “It’s said that a few billion years from now the sun will be unable to produce its hydrogen fuel and become a red giant. Well the mix of the energy and the plutonium will cause the sun’s core to be unable to produce its hydrogen fuel. Then force upon it, trillions and trillions of helium atoms in seconds. Causing the red giant formation to speed up.”
“My god.” Skye feared.
“This world and our solar system is doomed. You have 48 hours to clear your sins and hope that God will mercy you. Thank you all for listening. Finally all the pain and suffering will be over.” He finished as the footage cut out and went back to the news anchor, who was tearing up at the thought of what just happened.

       The room was filled with panic and everyone was screaming to talk to the person next to them. Skye and Mike fled the room almost immediately when the screaming started. The staff tried to do whatever they could to calm down the students. No matter what they did the students would not stop screaming. They all eventually started to stand up and run to the halls. Each and every one of them went outside and called their parents.  Panic swallowed the town, and the world itself.

       Skye and Mike went around to the back of the school. Taking off his backpack, Skye reached inside for his mask. Then he realized that it was in his pocket. Skye then put the mask on and his helmet formed.

“What are you doing?” Mike asked.
“Someone’s gotta calm them down.” Skye said. “Might as well be us.”
“We aren’t going to be able to do much help.” Mike added.
“Almost anything can help at this point.”

        After saying that Skye threw off his shirt and then stopped to take off his pants. Luckily he was wearing the suit underneath. He leaped into the air and created a plank of energy to jump off of. He flew through the air and landed in front of everyone. They were all crowded in front of the school and were too scared to do anything. They all went silent after they saw him land. Some began to have a happy expression on their faces. Others were still terrified. Skye stood up and looked at the crowd.

“Hello everyone. It feels good to see you all again.”
“Are you gonna be able to help us?” Someone asked.
“There’s always a way to stop someone.” He responded.
“It’s useless. We’re done for.” He heard a voice say.
“Everything is going to be…” He stopped talking because he noticed the person who said that was Alexa.
“We aren’t gonna be able to stop that from happening.” She continued.
He walked over to her and put his hand on her shoulder and said, “Look at me.”
“What?” She asked as she lifted her head up.”
“Everything happens for a reason.” He began. “Those people showing up on the news and threatening to destroy our solar system, us showing up to save you all from the destruction of the school, us even existing, even me telling you all this. He is trying to show us all that we have wasted our time doing nothing but hating one another. This is his ‘wake up call’ and he has made us all open our eyes. Things may all be coming to an end.”
“Even you think we are done for!” She interrupted.
“You never let me finish.” He added.
“Oh.” She said looking down again, but Skye put his hand under her chin, lifted her head up, and looked her in the eyes.
“We will stand, and we will fight! We were meant to fight!” He began. “We will not surrender. We will fight to keep this planet, and the solar system alive. And we won’t fail. That’s not a promise to the people of Earth. That’s my promise to you Alexa. We can’t do this alone though. Sometimes everyone has to be a hero themselves.”
“How do you know my name?” She asked.
“That uhh… That’s not important. Adaptor and I have to find a way to stop these guys.” He said as he backed away from her.
“Who are you?” She asked.
“I’m uhh… I need all of you to remain calm and go home to your families and embrace them. We won’t know who’s going to win, but it’ll definitely be the birth of a new era one way or another. I can promise you all that. I want everyone in the town to gather here in 48 hours so that we can be together in our most desperate time. Spread the news. We can’t beat them without your support.” He yelled as he jumped up and did the same thing he did to enter, and flew away to the back of the school.
“So how’d it go?” Mike asked as Skye came back.
“We have them believing somewhat.” He answered as he took off his mask and put his regular clothes back on.
“What’s that mean?” Mike asked.
“It means we better frikin win.” Skye said as he threw his backpack on his shoulder and began to walk away.

      It has been 24 hours since the announcement of the end of the solar system. Everyone in the town was getting ready to gather the next day. Some were saying their prayers, while others were saying their last goodbyes to distant relatives. There was some hope, but there was mostly despair. Skye and his family were in their living room talking about times of their past.

His mom was about to cry but Skye said, “Mom why are you gonna cry? Nothing bad is gonna happen.”
“Thank you son, but you and I both know that this is it.”
“Who was the one to teach me never to give up?” He asked. “And the one who taught me to fight for what we believe until the end.”
“But this is the end.” His dad said.
“No it’s not you guys. This is the beginning.”
“What?”
“I don’t know about you guys, but I will fight with everything that I have until we’ve either won, or died trying. No matter what happens I will not give up.” He said as he stood up.
“How are you going to fight that?” He asked.
“I… I…” He stuttered as he looked down and walked outside.
“Where are you going?” His mom asked.
“I’m going to see Saul’s mom for a moment. I’ll be back later I promise.” He said as he walked off.

       Once he got there he saw Aberar standing in the kitchen with his family through the window. Skye was shocked, but he soon realized why. His mother was crying with tears of joy and hugging the robot as it told her everything will be ok now. He knocked on the door and opened it.

“It took you long enough man.” He joked.
“Like always, you’ve still got the jokes.” Skye replied.
“Where’s Mike?” Aberar asked turning, with his mom still hugging him.
“He’s hanging out with his family.”
“Hey mom. I’m ok. See.” He told her as he loosened her grip.
“I thought I lost you son.” She said as she tightened her grip again.
“I know mom I’m here though, and I’ll be here forever.” He told her.
“Saul can I talk to you?” Skye asked.
“That’s the first time you’ve called me that since I got this body.” He laughed.
“Ha, I guess you’re right.” He said. “We need to… you know.”
“Yea you’re right.” Aberar said as they both went into his lab in his room.
“Saul we need you in this fight.” Skye said.
“I know.” He answered.
“The only thing is I won’t be able to resupply you with energy every so often.”
“I’ve come up with a solution for that.” He replied.
“I’m listening.”
“All you have to do is give me so much energy right now. That way you can recover overnight all the energy and I’ll be able to process it and then use it for battle.”
“You do realize that this isn’t just a battle of good vs evil right?” He asked. “This is a war for the future of our solar system. Fought on one of the smallest planets in it.”
“I’m ready to fight Skye.”
“Then let’s prepare for war.” Skye said as he placed his hands together and concentrated.

       Skye separated his hands and created a large sphere. The size was probably ten times the size of an average basketball. He held it in front of him. Aberar put his hands up and touched the giant sphere. Slowly, he began absorbing the energy. The smaller the sphere got, the more red he glowed. Finally, he had finished absorbing the energy and they both fell to their knees. Aberar was the first to stand up.

“Thank you my friend.” He said finally.
“You’re...welcome pal.” Skye said as he stood to his feet.
“You better get home.” He began. “Get ready for tomorrow. Cheer your family up.”
“I will.” He said as they shook hands and Skye left the house.

       As Skye walked back he tried to call Alexa. She wouldn’t answer. He called one last time in hopes that she would forgive him. Finally, right before it would have gone to voicemail, someone answered.

“Hey.” She said in a quiet voice.
“Hey Alexa.” He began. “I really want you to know that I am really sorry for what happened. I do like you Alexa, a lot.”
“Really?” She said softly and kind of surprised.
“I mean it.”
“Then why did you do it? Why did you not show up? Or why were you late I should ask.”
“I can’t tell you.” He responded and he heard her sigh. “Look I really can’t tell you. I’m sure that one day you’ll find out, but now… I can’t tell you.”
“I just… *sigh* I guess I understand. I just really wish that everything wasn’t so screwed up right now.”
“You have no idea.” He said quietly.
“Huh?”
“Nothing.” He snapped. “Can you find any reason to forgive me?”
“I don’t wanna leave this world with karma on my burnt shoulders. But I now realize that you don’t seem like the type of guy that would stand a girl up like that. So I will believe you when you say you were late. I knew I should have stayed a little longer.” He replied.
“Thank you Alexa. Hey can I ask you something?”
“Yea, sure.”
“Can I make it up to you?”
“I don’t see any way how to…” She said sadly.
“Listen to me. Tomorrow, that Plutonio guy, is not gonna win.” He began. “And the day after tomorrow we will go on that date that we were supposed to have.”
“You have high hopes for them don’t you?” She asked.
“I know that they will fight to the death for us. We have to give them as much belief in them as possible.”
“But do you think they can do it?”
“Like I said, the day after tomorrow.” He answered. “Are you in?”
“If we survive… Yea. Yea I’m in Skye.” She answered.
“Thank you Alexa.”
“Hey my parents are calling me. I’ll talk to you soon.” She said.
“No problem. I’ll see you tomorrow at the school.”
“Alrighty. See ya Skye.”
“Alright bye.” Skye said as they both hung up and Skye continued on home.

       The night was full of despair. Not only that, but people were rioting like it would make a difference. People were committing crimes left and right. Skye went to the tv before dinner and looked at the news. There was only one person there. He said that he was going to be the only one giving any news and that he was the only one there. He claimed he had no family to go to and would let the world know what was happening.

       He talked about how the crimes of the world had reached its maximum amount. A new record was set for the most crimes committed in twenty-four hours. There were news helicopters showing footage of people rioting the streets of Chicago. Then it cut to a more disturbing image. It showed footage from the streets of New York City. People were jumping off the top of the Empire State Building.

       Skye couldn’t bare to watch the madness any longer. He shut off the tv and went into the bathroom. He looked down at his sink and reached into his pocket. He pulled out his mask and clenched it tight in his hand. He started to cry as he threw it down next to the sink.

       After about three minutes he looked at himself in the mirror. For the first time since before he talked to the crowd of people at the school, he felt doubt in his mind. He began to feel fear. He looked at himself and stopped crying, but could feel the tears rolling down his face. He soon felt a cold breeze come through the window.

“How does it feel Skye?” He heard a familiar voice say behind him. “To finally fear your death?”
“I…am...not afraid.” He said as he began to get angry, as if he already knew who it was behind him.
“It’s okay Skye.” He began. “I can feel your fear.”
“I am not afraid of you!” Skye snapped as he turned around and stood face to face with Cyclone.
“No, but you’re afraid of failing your friends. Right?” Cyclone’s words made Skye’s heart sink.
“I...I won’t.”
“Ah, but you’re beginning to doubt yourself. And tomorrow at your school, that doubt will cloud your judgement. It may make you hesitate.” He said menacingly.
“You don’t understand me Cyclone.” Skye began. “I am going to fight you two, even if it’s by myself. I will fight until this world is burnt to ashes. Plutonio killed my brother, and I can never forgive him for that. He had the chance to save him, he was his buddy. I will make sure that Plutonio pays.”

       Cyclone laughed and looked at Skye like he has eight heads. After stopping himself from laughing, he looked at Skye with a sinister smile.

“Well I guess I’m gonna have to tell you then. Since your little buddy of yours couldn’t.”
“What?” Skye asked confused.
“Plutonio didn’t kill your brother.” He chuckled. “He is your brother.”
“Wh...no...it can’t...You lie!” Skye said as he threw a punch at him, but Cyclone turned into a gust of wind and was gone in the blink of an eye.

       Skye looked around his bathroom. Then he put his hands on his head and cried even more. He flew the bathroom door open and saw Aberar standing on the other side.

“How could you?” Skye asked to him angrily with a tear falling from his face.
“I would’ve told you, but I thought you weren’t ready.” He responded.
“I wasn’t ready?!” Skye snapped. “My brother was alive this whole time and you never told me?! How could you?!”
“I’m so sorry Skye. I really am. If it helps I’m still on your side to help fight them tomorrow.”
“I think you’ve done enough to ‘help’ us Saul.” Skye said sincerely.
“Are you saying that you don’t want me to fight with you guys?” He asked sadly.
“Look, we need you to fight them. Just help Mike. Don’t even think about ‘helping’ me. I’ll bring some sense into my brother. You two take down Cyclone.” Skye ordered.
“You’ve never been pissed at me like this before.” Aberar said as if he truly had been feeling emotions.
“Yea well things change pretty quickly man. Like my trust in you.” Skye said as he stormed past him and went to his family to have dinner.

      I woke up under a pile of rubble. The ceiling gone, I saw the sky. Looking to my left, I saw him. He wasn’t moving. I couldn’t move. My arm felt like it was broken. My leg was bent in a way that I was surprised it wasn’t torn off. I could feel the blood running down my face. I closed my eyes and began to cry. I begged for someone, or something to save me so I could get back to my family. I heard my partner cry for help.

       I felt something surge through me. I opened my eyes once more to see my body surrounded by some green aura. Suddenly, I felt no pain anymore. I lifted my leg up to straighten it. It worked. I was stronger. I could feel it. I sat up and felt like I could break down a wall or something.

       Suddenly, I felt something creeping through me. It felt like I was being possessed. I couldn’t control myself anymore. My partner looked at me and begged for help. I walked over to him slowly. He reached up to me and I kicked his arm. I then put my foot on top of the piece of the ceiling that was crushing his lungs. I listened to him scream until finally, he stopped moving.

       I then threw the block off of his chest. I clenched my fist and then extended my arm towards his face. I incinerated it within five seconds. Looking down at myself, I saw my name tag. I ripped it off and put it on his body. I smirked and walked away. I never looked back, even though I wanted to.

      Skye woke with dread inside him. He felt like there was a piece of his heart just ripped right from him. He sat up and looked around his room. He saw his mask on his nightstand and stared at it. He held back anymore tears from falling down his face. He heard his parents talking to someone out in the living room. He stood up and opened his door to go to the living room. To his surprise, he saw Alexa sitting in the living room talking to his parents.

“Alexa?” Skye asked surprised. “What are doing here?”
“I just came for a visit.” She began laughing. “Is that not ok?”
“Oh no it’s perfectly fine, I just wasn’t expecting you to come to my house.”
“Well surprise.”
“Nice going.” His dad teased him as he walked passed him giving a bump on his shoulder.
“You wanna go outside and talk?” Skye asked.
“Yea sure.” She said as she stood up and walked towards the door.

“Today’s the day.” She said as she sat next to him on the steps.
“Don’t remind me.” He said as she looked at the ground.
“Hey. What’s got you so down about this all of a sudden?”
“I just, have a lot on my mind right now.” Skye replied.
“Talk to me.”
“Let’s just say that I found out that my brother has been alive this whole time.” Skye said as a tear fell from his eye.
“Wait, what?”
“The body that was found was his partner. The body they found wasn’t my brother’s. It was his partner’s. All my brother had to do was put his name tag on the other body and cause so much confusion and sadness.”
“My god. Do your parents…”
“They don’t know. I can’t tell them.” Skye interrupted her.
“Why the hell not? Your brother is alive!”
“Shhh. Quiet down a bit.”
“Why?” She asked confused.
“I can’t tell them.”
“Wait a sec. How do you even know?” She asked.
“I…”
“Can’t tell me?” She interrupted.
“Yea…” He answered quietly.
“Just tell me, or I’m leaving.”
“Fine. I’m the super hero that saved all those students from being crushed by that wall, including you. My brother is the one that is trying to destroy the solar system. I found out last night because his partner in crime told me. My pal Mike is the other super hero that saved those firefighters from dying inside the school. We only have a few hours until we have to fight these two and save the solar system from being destroyed.”
“Goodbye Skye.” Alexa said as she began to walk away.
“Wait, it’s the truth. The reason I was late to our date was because we were fighting one of their goons.”
“You’re even using that stupid excuse for our date now?! I can’t believe you!” She said as she turned to him.
“Please believe me Alexa.”
“I’ll see you at the school. By the way, a good 90% of the town won’t even be showing up. They’d rather be at home when this world literally goes up in flames.”
“Are you going?”
“I am.” She said furiously.
“Then I’ll see you there?”
“Oh I’m sure of it.” She said sarcastically as she walked away.

       She walked her way home and Skye just stood there for almost an hour before sitting on the ground. He went inside after another ten minutes. Once again, he went into his bathroom and looked at his costume by pulling his shirt down kind of like Superman. He was beginning to prepare for the battle to begin. He tried to focus but there were too many things going on for him to focus. First, he found out his brother was the one trying to kill them all. Then, he became furious at Aberar. Then, Alexa. Now here he is.

       He heard a knock at the door. It was his parents saying that they were going to be heading up to the school soon and wondered if he was ready or not. He told them he was ready and they went out to the car. Once they began driving, Skye knew that the Revelation Day was upon them at last.

       He got to the school and saw everyone in a crowd gathered around the side of the school by their tennis and basketball courts. Once going into the crowd, he saw Mike standing in front of the large crowd. He walked up to him to see where Aberar was.

“Yo, where’s Saul?” Skye asked as he walked up to him.
“Not sure. I saw him on my way to the school and he seemed off. Like, really upset.” Mike replied.
“I bet.” Skye said to himself.
“What? What did you do?”
“Plutonio is my brother.” Skye blurted out to him.
“Hold up, he’s what?”
“Plutonio’s partner Cyclone came to me and told me himself. And now I have to face my brother, so I can change his mind.”
“He’s your brother?”
“Yes.”
“The guy that’s trying to kill us?”
“Look, I’ll explain later.”
“What does this have to do with Aberar.” Mike asked confused.
“He knew all along, but didn’t wanna tell me.” Skye responded looking at the ground.
“Wow. I’m so sorry man.” Mike said.
“Don’t apologize, we have to worry about saving the damn planet first.” Skye said. “Then I’m gonna kick his ass.”
“I’m sure he had good reason man.”
“Ha, well that good reason just got rid of all my trust in him.” He began. “What more is he hiding from us? What does he know that we don’t?”
“Those are basically the uh, the same question Skye.”
“Sh… shut up.” Skye replied.
“There he is.” Mike said pointing to the side of the corner where Saul was standing.
“Guys. Over here.” Saul whispered loudly while waving.

       Skye and Mike walked over, unseen, to the corner of the building and hid around the corner. Alexa saw this happen, but didn’t think much of it because of what happened earlier. Although she was confused as to why he was doing this. Once behind the wall, Saul looked at Mike with determination.

“K Mike, you and I will take that Cyclone guy?” He asked.
“But that leaves Skye with Plutonio.” He replied.
“That’s what I want.” Skye said as he was leaning against the wall, looking at Alexa in the distance.
“Do you think you can beat him?” Saul asked.
“I don’t want to beat him.”
“What?!” Mike said confused out of his mind.
“I want to change his mind.” He said as he turned and looked at them.
“You can’t do that Skye. He’s a villain that wants to destroy the solar system, and more if he could.” Saul said.
“That’s not something that he would want to do.” Skye began. “He was too kind of a person. Something must be controlling him.”
“I’m sorry Skye.” Aberar began. “He is one hundred percent gone. You can’t get him back.”
“There is absolutely nothing on this planet, or in this universe that is impossible. I found that out when Mike and I got these powers and you became a frikin robot. I’m not gonna stop trying. I won’t fight him. I’ll change his mind somehow, even if I die trying.”
“Dude we need you in order to save this goddamn solar system. You die, the phalanx shatters.”
“Is that what we’re called now?” Aberar asked.

       Suddenly they heard a loud wind coming from the top of the hill on the other side of the school. They threw their masks on and ran to the crowd of people. They ordered for everyone to stay in place. They were told that in case of an emergency they were to all go inside. The two then ran to the field on the other side of the school and stood in a line. Mike on the left, Skye on the right, and Aberar in the middle.

       They looked up and felt the wind heading towards them. Suddenly, a miniature sized tornado formed in front of them. Skye created a shield for caution and held it up. Mike touched Aberar’s shoulder and turned his skin into metal. He stood with his feet planted firmly on the ground as he watched the tornado. Aberar stood with no emotion. He watched as the tornado began to deteriorate. They saw two figures standing on the inside of the tornado and once it disappeared, they saw the faces. Plutonio and Cyclone.

“Sure is nice to finally see you all at once.” Cyclone said as he folded his arms.
“You can’t do this. It’s not right. It won’t solve anything.” Skye replied boldly.
“On the contrary, it solves everything.” Plutonio blurted out as he looked Skye in the eyes.
“Where is this ‘machine’ that you two have been bragging about?” Mike asked.
“Why, you’re all standing on it right now if you couldn’t tell.” Cyclone said smirking.
“What do you mean I don’t see anything.” Skye said as they all looked down.

       The ground began to shake as if there were an earthquake. The ground beneath them began to split in two. A platform from beneath the ground rose up to the top and there it was. The doomsday machine. The contraption that would end the solar system as they knew it. It had an eerie green glow to it that could be clearly seen even though it was the middle of the day. It began to open on the top of it. An odd pedestal arose from within it and it began to make a weird buzzing sound.

“Behold, the end of mankind. Our Revelation Day!” Plutonio said as he shot a green blast from his hand and it was absorbed by the machine.

       Once the blast was absorbed, there was a purple portal that formed on top of the pedestal. Shooting out of it, were spiralled purple lines that flowed from outside the portal to inside of it. Skye and Mike looked at each other while Aberar looked on in confusion, amazement, and a bit of terror.

“Soon my friends.” Cyclone said. “Soon.”
“Intimidating, isn’t it?” Plutonio asked as he looked towards Aberar.
“I never expected something like this.” Aberar said as he looked at Skye.
“Now all it has to do is absorb the required amount of energy from the world, and it’ll be good to go.” Cyclone added.
“You can’t win Cyclone.” Skye said.
“Prove it to us then.” Plutonio said as Cyclone and him prepared to fight.

      Everyone on the other side of the school saw the purple streams in the sky. They were debating on whether or not they should go inside yet or not. Skye’s parents began looking for him. Along with Mike’s parents as well. They felt as if they just disappeared and they began to get worried. Alexa began to get a little suspicious about Skye as well. She looked around but didn’t see him at all. She eventually saw Skye’s parents and walked over to them to see if they knew anything.

“Alexa?” His mom asked.
“Hi it’s good to see you again.” She replied.
“Hey do you know where Skye is?” His dad asked.
“That’s what I was just coming over here to ask.”
“Oh god.” His mom began. “Last time we saw him he was talking to Mike and then they both just vanished.
“I’ll help you guys look for him if you want me to.” She offered.
“We’ll take all the help we can get.” His dad answered. “See if you can find Mike while you’re at it. He might know where he is.”
“Okay I’m on it.” She replied as she began to walk through the crowd.
“Wait?!” His mom yelled to her.
“What is it?” She asked quickly.
“What happened between you two this morning?”
“I don’t wanna talk about that right now.”
“Look, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he really likes you.” His mom began. “His dad and I can clearly see it. Every time he looks at you he blushes.”
“He didn’t mean to be late to the date. He was busy with school he told us.” His dad said.
“Yea.” She responded softly.
“We both know that he’d never stand a girl up. He thinks of you as some sort of goddess.”
“I never knew that.”
“He’d probably try to stop like a moving train from hitting you, or a building from collapsing on you.” His mom added.
“Okay honey, I’m sure she gets the point.” His dad said to her.
“A building?” She said to herself shocked.
“What was that?” His dad asked.
“Uhh, nothing.” She stuttered. “I was just thinking that we should really find him.”
“Yeah, we’ll split up and meet back here in a few minutes.” His mom suggested.
“Sounds good.” Alexa said as she began walking through the crowd yelling Skye’s name.

       On the other side of the school, the two teams of superhumans stood off with each other. Cyclone stared down Mike and Aberar. Skye stared down Plutonio. After about a minute, Skye looked at Mike.

“Separate Cyclone from Plutonio.” He told him.
“On it.”
“So are you three ready?” Cyclone asked.

       Mike touched Aberar’s shoulder and his skin changed, becoming solid steel. He and Aberar ran at Cyclone and he turned into a gust of wind and vanished. They turned to their left and were blasted by Plutonio. They were sent flying towards the woods and landed right in front of the thorn bushes. Yea, close call.

       Cyclone appeared above them and flew down to begin attacking. Aberar fired his lasers at Cyclone. He dodged them twice and began to speed up. Mike jumped up and the two collided. They spiralled to the ground. Before they hit, Cyclone turned into a small gust and Mike slammed into the ground.

       Aberar ran over to see if Mike was okay, but to his surprise he stood right back up, looking for Cyclone. The two stood back to back, waiting for Cyclone to make his move. Suddenly, Cyclone appeared right in front of Aberar and disappeared again as soon as Aberar fired his lasers at him. He appeared right in front of Mike.
       Mike threw punches only to have them either blocked, or sent right through Cyclone’s without even affecting him. He soon disappeared again and the two heard him say, “Now it’s my turn.” He appeared in front of Mike and began throwing punches but were blocked. He disappeared then appeared in front of Aberar and started doing the same to him. Aberar was able to block, but then it got to the point where Cyclone kept on teleporting back and forth between the two, one after another, punch after punch.

       Meanwhile, Skye and Plutonio hadn’t moved yet. Plutonio had a smirk on his face, like he’d been waiting his whole life for this exact moment. Skye had a sense of hesitation in his look. Plutonio could even sense it. He knew Skye didn’t want to fight him, but he had no choice. And that’s what made him even more excited.

       Plutonio held up his palm and looked at it. Changing his expression, his hand glowed green and he shot a green blast at Skye. Skye quickly created a shield around his arm and deflected the blast. Skye watched as the blast was frozen in mid air after he deflected it and it was absorbed into the portal behind him. Once absorbed, the portal became slightly larger in diameter. Skye then looked at Plutonio once more to see he was laughing.

“I’m not going to fight you.” Skye said to him.
“Well, you see Skye, you don’t have a choice.” He began. “It’s either you fight, or you watch as I destroy everything.”
“This isn’t you bro. What happened to you?”
“I woke up.” Plutonio responded.
“There’s something controlling you! You don’t have to let it win!” Skye began. “You have the strength to fight it! I just know it!”
“Well what if I don’t want to fight it?! Huh Skye?! What if I like the way I am?? What if I don’t want to be normal?! What if I don’t want to lose the powers I have, or the rush I feel when I take away someone’s life?!”
“You...like being...like this?” Skye said beginning to get angry.
“Like? I love killing people and ruining everything!”
“How dare you?!” Skye exclaimed with his head down and a tear coming out of his eye.
“I DARE to fix the problems that we’ve all caused.” He began. “Look around you. All we, the people of Earth, ever do is cause conflict. We fight. Just like we are going to. Everything we do and everything we will do will destroy this planet faster than we even know it. What I’m going to do will bring peace to the universe before we ruin that too. Don’t you see it brother?”
“Don’t ever call me that again!!!” Skye yelled with his eyes practically flooding.
“What?”
“You’re not my brother! My brother is not a killer. I don’t know what you are, but I want my brother back!” Skye said as he made an orange kopis sword in his hand and a shield in the other. The sword made a noise that was heard from even down to the center of town.
“In all the years I’ve known you, I’ve never seen you this mad before.” He said as he made a green blade in his hand, and prepared to fight. “I like it.”

       Skye stood there as Plutonio charged at him. Plutonio swung his sword and Skye held up his shield and blocked it. Plutonio’s sword shattered on impact. Skye then hit him in the head with the edge of his sword and then kicked him in the gut, sending him flying back about fifty yards. Skye ran after him. He thrusted his sword towards him, but he rolled out of the way, causing Skye’s sword to be stuck in the ground temporarily. He took it out of the ground and ran towards Plutonio. They both jumped at each other. Skye swung, and Plutonio punched his shoulder. Skye couldn’t get an accurate hit on him, but he scratched Plutonio’s stomach.

       The two fell to the ground hard. Skye got up, and then Plutonio did as well. Skye still had the same look of anger on his face. Plutonio just began to laugh. Skye got rid of his sword. He still had his shield and never let his expression change.

“Wow Skye. I guess I see why they call you ‘The Shield’.”
Skye had no response.
“The silent treatment I see?” He began and then joked, “What did I do to you?”
“You son of a b****.” Skye said before charging again.

       Skye threw his shield into the face of Plutonio. Afterwards, a punch into the stomach and then the chest. Laying on the ground, Plutonio looked up at his brother and laughed. Skye began to stomp on his chest. Then he kicked the slice his sword had made. Plutonio had screamed in agony. Skye felt relentless. He held up his shield and prepared to come down and nail Plutonio in the face with it.

“No brother please.” Plutonio said in a convincing voice, causing Skye to stop.
“You fool.” Plutonio said as he tripped Skye and then blasted him in the stomach, sending him flying across the field.

       Mike and Aberar, meanwhile, had been stuck in the same predicament. They had been blocking attack after attack. Finally Mike had a plan.

“I need to adapt.” He said to Aberar.
“What?”
“If I can adapt to the element he turns into, I’ll be able to fight him. Then when he turns back to normal, that’s when you strike him.” Mike explained.
“And just how do you plan on doing that?”
“Like this!” Mike exclaimed.

       Cyclone appeared right in front of Mike and threw a punch. Mike caught it and it surprised Cyclone. Trying to escape, he turned into a gust of wind. However, Mike had done the same and he was now in the form of a gust of wind, clenching Cyclone’s fist. He began to crush it slowly, more and more. He fell to his knees and Mike towered over him. Soon enough, Mike let go and Cyclone returned to a normal state and Aberar threw him up into the air and blasted him with a laser.

       Cyclone flew through the air and then was hit in the back by Mike, sending him flying towards Aberar once more. Aberar blasted him back towards Mike. It eventually looked like a pinball machine. Finally Mike slammed him down to the ground. They both walked over to him. They were unsure if they should end him, or try to capture him. Before they could make any final decision, Cyclone looked at the portal and closed his eyes. He began to deteriorate and was absorbed by the portal within seconds.
       Once he was absorbed, the portal began to vibrate violently. Seeming to cause an earthquake. Skye noticed this and realized that everyone need to get inside. He looked over at the people, which was a mistake to do. Plutonio saw what he was looking at. He then had evil intentions.

       Skye knew that Plutonio had seen him look over. They both looked at each other for a second. Within seconds, they both started running over to the people. They all noticed the two running towards them. Some were then filled with terror. Plutonio then held his hand out to fire a blast. Skye began to run faster and then leaped in front of the crowd of people. He created his shield that deflected the blast, causing it to be absorbed by the portal.

“Everyone has to get inside now!” Skye yelled to the people. “Go now!”

       Everyone immediately obeyed the command and began to scurry inside. Plutonio fired another blast from the sky down towards them. Skye jumped in front of the blast, and took the hit. He was sent flying and landed behind the crowd of people. They all stopped and looked to see if he was okay.

“Why are you stopping?” He asked. “Don’t worry about me! Go!”
“What a fool.” Plutonio said before preparing to fire another blast.
“Go now!” Skye yelled as he jumped up to deflect the blast, holding his side.

      Skye and Plutonio continued to fight and he lured him away from the crowd. As the people were now almost fully inside, Skye’s parents were even more concerned. Even Alexa was becoming more concerned. They searched and searched, but their efforts were in vain because the two were nowhere to be found. They eventually met up in the gym.

“Could you find them??” Skye’s mom asked in grief.
“If I did, he’d be right next to me right now.” She replied.
“Do you even have a clue as to where he is?” His dad asked.
“...” She was thinking, but couldn’t think of anything.

       Suddenly she saw a couple children walking to the exit of the gym. They began running and then she told Skye’s parents that she’d be right back. She ran out the exit of the gym and saw the children running through the hall and towards the entrance they all came in. She kept following them screaming for them to stop. Finally she caught up to them and watched as they were witnessing the fight between The Shield and Plutonio. She was confused as to why they were just standing there in silence. She would soon find out.

       Skye and Plutonio stopped the fighting for a second. Both men were heavily trying to catch their breath. Before Skye was about to continue attacking, he heard the ground shake again. Suddenly, he saw the machine teleport right in between them, off to the side. The portal was even bigger than before.

“It will absorb our energy as we fight. It will become bigger and stronger.” Plutonio laughed.
“I was going to give you a chance.” Skye said angrily.
“A chance for what? Going back to believing that there’s hope for this world?”
“Everything you say…” Skye said to himself.
“What?” He asked confused.
“Everything you say!” Skye exclaimed. “It just…”
“Show me what it does.” Plutonio antagonized.
“Fine…” Skye said as an orange/yellow aura appeared around him.

       Skye began to get even more furious. It was almost like he wasn’t himself anymore. He felt like a killing machine. On his body formed what seemed to be like yellow armor, with small spikes on his shoulders. Then a yellow helmet was formed. In his hand was a yellow kopis sword, and in his other he had a yellow spear. Plutonio was truly amazed at the sight of it.

“One of us isn’t going to make it out of this.” Plutonio said. “Either you kill me, or I kill you.”
“...” Skye stood in silent anger.
“The machine wants the energy of our dead corpse. That’s what it shall receive.”

       Skye began to walk slowly towards Plutonio. Aberar and Mike then showed up from behind the school. They looked on from about fifty yards behind Skye. Mike was about to charge in to help, but Aberar stopped him by putting his arm in front of him. Aberar knew something that Mike didn’t. Aberar had a look of terror and amazement on his face.

       Skye was about to reach Plutonio when Plutonio charged at him. He made a katana in his hand and went to swing at his side, where the wound was. He flew by Skye and they both stood still. Plutonio looked at his blade and it shattered. Skye turned around, unscathed. He stared down Plutonio.

“My turn.” He said quietly before charging at a crazy speed.

       He threw the backend of his sword up and hit Plutonio in the face. He then smacked him with his spear in an uppercut fashion. He sliced Plutonio’s arm and leg in mid air with his sword. Skye then threw a kick and nailed him in the face as he came down.

       He laid on the ground. Skye walked over and stood above him with his foot on his chest. He held up his spear in the air and prepared to thrust downwards for the killing blow. Right before he began to, Plutonio disappeared. Skye was shocked. He looked up to see Plutonio holding Alexa in a headlock. Skye wanted to snap, but he knew that if he took a step closer, he would kill her. Plutonio looked at Skye and began to laugh.

“You try so hard. Yet, you can’t get the job done. And look what it’s about to cost you.” Plutonio said as he looked at Alexa and then laughed.

       He threw her and she landed a few feet away from Skye. Plutonio, standing in front of the machine, began to generate a bunch of power. His arms had green aura swirling around them. He then put his arms together and clasped his hands. The aura went from his arms, into his fingertips. The aura became brighter and the ground shook. He went from aiming at Skye, to aiming at Alexa, who was still unconscious.

“This is the price you pay for loving these traitors!” Plutonio yelled as he fired the blast.

       A bright green blast flew from his hands and was headed straight for Alexa. Skye ran in front of her and made a big shield. The blast hit the shield and parts of it bursted through. A large part of the blast hit Skye in the side of the face, destroying that part of the helmet and mask. However, he reformed the shield and began to gather his strength. He slowly began to walk forward. Plutonio tried to push him back with more energy put into the blast, but it wouldn’t work. He kept walking and getting closer and closer to Plutonio.

       Finally, he was a few feet away and Plutonio’s blast was only about a yard in length. Skye pushed hard and Plutonio stumbled backwards a bit. He kept doing the same thing and soon, the blast had less than a foot of distance remaining and Skye thrusted his arms straight ahead and Plutonio was sent flying backwards and into the portal. His hand held the edge of the portal, holding on for dear life so it seemed. Skye walked over and kicked his fingers. He watched as the body flew into the portal and the portal closed and everything was quiet again.

       Skye fell to his knees and looked at the ground. He thought about what he had just done. He truly lost his brother now. Finally, he stood up and saw Mike and Aberar standing there, in shock almost. He then heard something behind him. He turned to see Alexa. Once he saw her, her facial expression changed from confused to surprise and disbelief. She covered her mouth. She saw that the mask was broken and she could see Skye’s face. It was partially scratched and blood was running down the side of his face, but she could still tell it was him. He smiled at her and she let out a small laugh and a cry.

       Right before Skye was about to walk over to her, the portal opened up again and a arm reached out and grabbed Skye’s arm. It pulled him inside the portal as Alexa screamed. Mike and Aberar ran over to try to help, but they couldn’t reach for Skye in time. Skye was trapped in the portal with Plutonio.

      Skye’s vision was blurry. He could barely see his surroundings. Once his vision began to clear up, he noticed that all around him was like the center of a portal. There were purple streams that were all spiraling towards the platform he laid upon. He looked to his right and he could see Plutonio sitting there. He appeared to be meditating, but he was waiting for Skye to get up. Once Skye rolled over and slowly started to stand up, Plutonio opened his eyes and stumbled to his feet.

“Well brother, I see you’re awake.” He said as he began to limp over to him.
“*cough* Where the hell am I?” Skye said as he got to his knees.
“You, my friend, are in...the eye of the storm.” Plutonio struggled to say.
“I thought you were dead once I threw you into the portal.” Skye let out.
“Well you thought wrong!” Plutonio yelled as he kicked him in the part of his stomach where his wound was.
“Ahh!!” Skye screamed in pain as he was kicked and fell to his side again.
“You know it’s funny,” Plutonio said as he chuckled. “You can’t kill me.”
“Huh?”
“No matter how much you want to hurt me or beat me up or grind my face into the ground with your sword or shield, you can’t kill me. You just aren’t mentally able to,” Plutonio explained. “Even though I’m trying to destroy the solar system.”
“Because... this isn’t you.”
“It is me! What don’t you understand!? I am evil! I want to kill everyone! I’ll be remembered finally! They’ll know who I am!” Plutonio yelled as he backed away.
“So that’s what this is about?! Skye began to yell back as he got up. “Being remembered?! Are you freaking kidding me?!”
“Yes! All of our lives, we’ve been the ‘unlucky’, or ‘unnoticed’ family! Never seen for what talent we really have! Never acknowledged! Now look at us Skye!” He yelled as he stuck his arms out. “All eyes are on us! Doesn’t it feel good man?!”
“I want to be remembered for changing this world in a positive way! Not destroying it!” Skye responded.
“A positive way?! Skye, I’ve already told you that this world has no hope for it! It’s too late to change that!”
“It’s never too late for anything! There’s always room for change.” Skye finished as he looked down.
“Well this planet is about to change alright! And so is the rest of the damn solar system!” Plutonio began. “But you my long lost brother, you have a choice to make!”
“What?” Skye asked looking back up at him.
“You want to save them right?”
“Y-Yes.”
“In order to escape this,” He began as he looked around him holding out his arms again. “You have to kill me.”
“*cough* No…”
“If you let me kill you, then the machine will absorb your energy and I’ll be free to kill the rest of your friends, and then I’ll pay Mom and Dad a quick visit.”
“N...no.”
“Tick tock lil bro. Time’s running out.” Plutonio laughed to himself as he made a dark purple sword in his hand, surprising Skye.
“There has to be another way.” Skye said as he let go of his side.
“It’s time Skye. Make the choice, unless you want me to,” Plutonio suggested. “I’m sure Alexa won’t like the choice I have in mind.”
“Don’t you dare even lay a finger on her.” Skye said angrily.
“You know, she’s a pretty girl Skye.” He began. “I might as well enjoy myself one last time once I kill you.”
“Don’t you go near her!” Skye yelled as he lunged at him with his sword.
“Try and stop me.” He smirked as he swung his sword, making the two clash.

       Skye’s sword and Plutonio’s sword caused orange and purple sparks to fly outwards and into the surrounding streams, before disappearing. They swung back and forth various times before Skye kicked Plutonio, sending him flying several feet before landing on the ground.

“I thought you hated cheap shots.” Plutonio teased before jumping up again.

       He flew at Skye and he had no time to react. Skye was punched in the stomach and fell to the ground. He laid there, almost curled up in a ball. Plutonio stood over him, wondering what to do next. Then he realized something.

“Are you holding back Skye?” He asked.
“No…” Skye let out weakly.
“Even after all those threats I just made you STILL can’t do it?” Plutonio exclaimed.
“I…”
“You know you can beat me, don’t you?” He asked.
“I wish you didn’t become this,” Skye began. “You missed out on so much.”
“Huh?”
“You missed out on so much,” He continued. “You could’ve helped me try to get Alexa *laugh*.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Mom and Dad have been devastated ever since we ‘lost’ you.” Skye said as he slowly stood up.
“I’ll kill them! I hated them!” He yelled in denial as he began to tear up.
“They always believed in you!” Skye yelled back. “They thought that you and I would be the ones to change this world for the better. We are their everything! Even though they think you’re dead they still love you!”
“You never told them?” Plutonio asked.
“No!” He replied. “For one, they wouldn’t believe me. Second, if they even did believe me, do you know how much worse it would make them feel. What if you had a kid and he turned out to be the one that was trying to kill you and destroy the solar system.”
“Shut up…” He ordered quietly.
“You should have seen the service we had for you.”
“Shut up…” He said a bit louder.
“We were all crying.”
“Shut up!” He exclaimed.
“Mom wished it could’ve been her instead.”
“Stop!” He cried as he fired a blast, hitting Skye in the shoulder.
“Dad wished he never let you go that day.” Skye slowly continued.
“Shut your goddamn mouth!” He yelled as he fired another blast, knocking Skye down.
“I wished that we could’ve gone to heaven together as a family instead.” He said as he got up.
“What?” Plutonio asked as he cried.
“I wished that all four of us were at the place when it happened,” He said as he smirked. “That way we could all be in heaven together and nothing could ever separate us from being a family again. Nothing else could go wrong. No more dealing with the world’s problems. Just together, as a happy family.”
“Shut up!!” He yelled once more as he began to run towards Skye.

       He ran faster as Skye closed his eyes. Plutonio made an aura of dark purple energy that formed into a blade around his entire arm. Skye took a deep breath and held his arms out. His body began to glow yellow a small bit. Plutonio screamed as he leaped into the air, with a tear coming out of his eye. As he started to come down, Skye opened his eyes with fury. He created a spear in his hand, grabbed it with the other, and thrusted forward with his eyes closed.

       He opened his eyes and saw Plutonio standing right in front of him. He looked down to see his spear went straight through the upper abdominal region. Plutonio’s feet were elevated from the ground. He looked at his arm and saw the purple blade disappear. He then saw purple aura leaving his body. It swirled into the air and began to spin in a circle. Skye looked up to it form into what looked like a human figure. It roared at him loudly.

       Skye then looked down to see what wasn’t Plutonio anymore. He saw a man who was maybe six years older than himself. He was wearing denim jeans, and a plain white T-shirt. His shirt was stained with blood. It was his brother. He put his hand on Skye’s shoulder.

“Why Skye?” He forced out.
“Chris?” He asked with a tear running down his face.

       Skye was then thrown, along with his brother, to a hole that was made and it flung them outside. They were back in the yard next to the middle school. Skye opened his eyes to see his brother next to him, with the spear still in his chest. He scurried over to him. He grabbed the spear and made it disappear. Looking at where the spear pierced, the shirt was stained and looked bright red. He began to tear up. He screamed in agony and depression. His roar loud enough for the world to hear.

       Alexa walked over and put her hand on his shoulder. He looked up at her and cried. She hugged him from behind. He then picked up his brother. He slowly walked into the school towards the gym.

       He had a flashback to when he was running through the halls of the hospital after he found out about his friend Saul. He felt that same feeling. He felt like time was slowing down the more he walked through the halls.

       Finally he reached the gym. The whole room went silent as they saw him carrying the body. He screamed for his parents as he cried. From the crowd they came out. They saw the face of the body and immediately recognized it. His mom began balling her eyes out as she grabbed her husband. People around them were crying due to the fact that they remembered who it was. Skye looked at his mom and dad and felt their pain. They looked at him and ran over to them.

“How?” His dad forced out.
“He… He was the one trying to destroy us.” Skye replied.
“What?” His mom asked.
“He was being controlled by some evil that made him do this. He survived the explosion in his lab and escaped. He made you think the body that was found was his.” Skye explained sadly.
“Is he..?” His mom asked.
“Not yet, but very close.” Skye explained.
“Oh my god…” His dad said as he walked over to him. “Sk… Skye?”

       Skye pushed the button on the back of his helmet and it formed into that small mask again, but part of the right eyepiece was ripped and broken. The right side of his face was all scratched up and there was still a small amount of blood running down his face. He looked at his father with a tear in his left eye.

“Hey dad.” He said to him after he laid his brother on the ground.

       Skye looked at his brother and ignored the crowd. His dad kneel down to check on his brother. His mother ran over and kept crying. She called his name, but he wouldn’t respond.

“What did you do?” His mom asked.
“In order to save the world, I had to kill him. When I delivered the final blow, the dark energy left his body before it could be destroyed.” Skye explained.
“So was he like possessed?” His dad asked.
“...” Skye looked down quietly.
“Son?”
“There was more to it. He…” He stopped himself.
“He what?” His mom asked.
“He let it take over him.” Skye began. “He loved the attention that was being brought to him. He wanted to be remembered in the biggest way possible. I guess that means being the one who would end all the suffering, but in the wrong way. He felt like this was the only way to solve this planet’s problems.”
“No…” His mom cried in disbelief. “That can’t be true!”
“I knew it was him talking. I could see it in his eyes.” Skye replied.
“So he truly snapped...?” His dad asked finally looking up at Skye.
“I tried all I could to bring him back to us alive and unscathed. Instead of choosing to do so, he threatened to come in here and kill you two… He was too far gone. This was the only way.” Skye explained as his mother balled her eyes out.

       As Skye continued to explain, his brother twitched. His dad grabbed him and lifted his head up slowly. All eyes were on him. Skye kneeled down as he grabbed his side. His mom held Chris’s hand. Chris opened his eyes to see his family all around him. Finally he looked right at Skye.

“Not…over.” He forced out.
“What?” Skye asked.
“It’s...not over yet.” He began to explain.
“What do you mean?”
“You killing me didn’t even matter.” He began slowly. “The machine will still absorb my energy.”
“That means…” Skye stopped himself as he looked up and realized what was about to happen. “Oh no.”
“I’m sorry…” Chris said.

       Skye put the mask back on and it was still missing the same part as before. He looked as his parents and put his hands on their shoulder. He looked at them calmly.

“I love you guys.” He said as he began to back away.
“Don’t you leave us too.” His mom said right before he began to run away. “Please.”
“I’m going to save the world Mom.” He began. “I’ll see you again I promise.”

       As Skye began to run back outside, his mom began to cry even more. The two of them held Chris close, trying to keep him alive. Once Skye was back outside he saw Aberar, Mike and Alexa standing out there next to the machine. They were all looking at it, trying to figure it out. Skye began to run around the corner of the building to warn them.

“Get away from it!” Skye yelled as he stuck his arm out as he ran.

       They all looked at him, puzzled. Suddenly, the machine began to glow a dark purple color and shook violently. It then sent out a pulse wave that sent all three of them flying backwards. Mike slammed his feet into the wall of the school to catch himself. Aberar leaped off the wall and into the air. Skye jumped up and caught Alexa and landed on his back.

       They all got up to see the machine shoot a dark purple beam up into the sky in the direction of the sun. The ground shook more than it had before. The four of them watched in horror as the beam raced towards the heavens. NASA’s telescopes projected images to the world on the news. It showed the beam racing through space almost as fast as the speed of light. After a couple minutes it made impact with the sun.

       It struck the surface and a purple field surrounded the sun. After eight minutes, Skye and the others saw the purple field as well. The temperature almost instantly increased by twenty-five degrees.

“We’re too late.” Mike said.
“We’re done for…” Alexa added.

       Skye looked around at all of them. He looked at Aberar and he was already looking at him. It looked like Aberar was going to cry if he could.

“This is how the world ends Skye.” He began. “I’ve seen it already. We were all standing right here. The sun melted the Earth’s crust into molten lava. We tried to destroy the machine, but we couldn’t do it in time.”
“We needed more time?” Skye asked.
“Well...yea.” He answered confused. “Why you ask?”
“I have an idea.” Skye said as he looked at the sun.

      The sun suddenly has a massive increase in temperature. They all felt it. Some people from inside peeped around the corner and saw what was happening. They fled back inside in terror. They ran into the gymnasium and began spreading the word. People began to cry and panic. Some wanted to end it all before it could get any more painful. Some started to pray to the Gods. All in all, it was utter madness.

“What are you talking about?” Mike said.
“Aberar said we needed more time right?” Skye began. “Well I have an idea that might give us more time to destroy the machine.”
“What do you mean idea?” Alexa asked.
“Well…” He began. “I’m gonna ‘eclipse’ the sun.”

       Meanwhile inside, Skye’s parents were freaking out. After just realizing that their boys were the ones fighting for the fate of the planet, it’ll take a psychological toll on you. That’s exactly what was happening. Eventually Mike’s parents .

“Oh thank goodness we found you two.” Mike’s mom began. “Have you seen Mike? We can’t find him.”
“I’m sorry, we haven’t seen him.” Skye’s dad replied sadly.
“Please…” Mike’s dad said. “You have to know.”
“I’m sorry we haven’t been paying much attention to Mike.” Skye’s dad explained as he looked to his fallen son. “We’ve been tending to him.”
“I can’t even imagine what that must feel like.” Mike’s dad said to him.
“We just need to stay here and help him.” Skye’s mom said.
“I’m actually a doctor I can help.” Mike’s dad offered.
“Please that’d be great.” Skye’s dad replied.
“So…” Mike’s dad began as he check Chris’s pulse. “Your son? Our boy’s best friend? Is…”
“Yup.” He responded with a deep breathe. “My boy’s the hero.”
“I can’t even imagine what it would be like to feel what you’re feeling.” Mike’s dad replied.
“Yea Greg, it’s quite something. I’m still trying to wrap my head around it all.”
“Lucky for you Charles, this boy of yours right here still has a pulse.” Greg began. “Bad news is we need to stop the bleeding. Otherwise he won’t last very long.”
“Are you going to do that thing they do in the movies and press something up against it that’s extremely hot?”
“Yeah you are definitely Skye’s dad.” He said as he looked back at Chris then turned to yell, “We need some help here!”

       Meanwhile, Skye walked over to Alexa. He grabbed one of her hands and held it in both of his. He looked her in the eyes and she began to worry about what he was about to do. With his other free hand, he pressed the button on the side of his helmet and he took off the broken mask. He threw it and it landed, sticking up from the ground. He then looked back at her.

“We are going to finish this.” He began. “I need you to make sure that everyone stays inside that gym. Don’t let anyone out.”
She began shaking her head. “I’m not going anywhere Skye.”
“You have to it’s not an option.” He said as she began to tear up.
“I didn’t believe you Skye. You told me the truth and I didn’t believe you.”
“I don’t blame you to be honest. I mean, who would?”
“I don’t care, I should’ve, but I didn’t.” She replied.
“Then prove to me that you believe we can do this.” Skye suggested.
“Please save us.” She forced out, trying not to cry.
“I will. I’m about to do whatever it takes.”
“No no. Skye. Please. Don’t leave me…” Alexa cried as she looked down.
“Alexa.” He said as he lifted her head up. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“Promise me.” She ordered.
“I…” He took a deep breathe. “I promise.”
Skye had his fingers crossed behind his back.
“Can we redo that date?” She asked.
“Well I was just about to ask, but you beat me to it.” Skye responded with a smile.
“I’d love to Skye.”
“Okay so we could either do the same deal as last time, or maybe we could go see a movie, or maybe we could…” Alexa kissed Skye, cutting him off.
“Yes!” Aberar yelled as he threw his arms in the air.
“Go, now.” Skye said after they stopped.
“Okay Skye.” Alexa said as she kissed him one last time before running inside.
“Saul, you and Mike are going to find any way you can to destroy that machine.” Skye explained.
“What about you?” Mike asked. “What are you doing?”
“Giving you more guys time.” He said as he looked down at the ground.
“Are you doing what I think you’re gonna do?” Aberar said.

       Skye began to concentrate. He held out his arms and streams of orange energy flowed outwards from the ground and towards him. They spiralled around his arms and into his hands and torso. Soon enough his whole body was surrounded by the orange energy. Once that happened, he absorbed all of the energy and closed his eyes.

“I’m going to save the solar system, or die trying to.” Skye answered finally.
“Skye…” Aberar said.

       Skye pressed his hands together as if he were praying. He could feel the energy flow through his veins. It felt like he was laying in the clouds. He felt at ease, but with great power within him. Finally he separated his hands about two feet apart and in between his hands was an orange/yellow ball of energy. It was barely bigger than the size of his head. He held up his hands. When he did and the ball was in the air, its size increased ten times of what it was. Then it did the same again. Then it increased twenty times of what it was. It eventually got to the point where most of the state could see it in the sky.

“Wow…” Mike said looking up.
“I didn’t know he had this much power.” Aberar said.

       Alexa looked from around the corner to see this. She smiled then ran back inside to make sure everyone was safe.

       Skye increased the size one last time. The energy ball was massive. More than massive. It was larger than most of New England. He kept his eyes closed for a few more seconds. He could feel the air getting hotter and hotter. He knew he had to act now or else all would be lost.

“Guys?” Skye asked.
“Yea?” They both answered simultaneously.
“If this doesn’t work…” He began. “Tell my parents…”
“Skye…” Aberar said. “I thought you promised Alexa too.”
“I had my fingers crossed.”
“So you think this won’t work?” Mike asked nervously.
“It may just work, but it might…” Skye stopped himself. “But it might take too much energy from me. Even my life’s energy. I’ve put almost everything I could into this. So it’s a hit or miss.” Skye explained.
“What…?” Aberar asked.
“There’s no time!” Skye yelled. “Destroy the machine go! I’ll handle the big one!”
“Okay Skye.” Aberar replied as he and Mike began to run over to the machine.
“Alright you son of a b****.” Skye said directing towards the sun. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

       Skye opened his eyes and screamed. He flexed his arms and the energy ball shot in the direction of the sun. As it travelled through the air, the size increased again, and again, and again. The farther it went, the bigger it got. Soon, the news reporters showed footage from NASA satellites showing the energy ball heading for the sun at about the same speed of the beam that was shot at the sun. People watching the news were fearful that it was something that was going to make the terrifying process even faster.

       Finally it reached the sun and the energy ball’s size was about three-fourths of it. It made impact and surrounded the sun along with the purple energy. Skye felt the impact and was forced backwards, but he stayed on his feet. He knew it was going to be tough, but he never thought it would be like this. He could feel the energy of the sun. It scared him. His body felt the chills. But then he shook it off and took a step forward with as much strength as he could gather.

“He’s actually doing this.” Mike said as he watched on.
“Come on there’s no time to waste here.” Aberar said. “The longer we wait, the weaker Skye gets.”
“Okay okay, how are we supposed to destroy it?” Mike asked.
“We have to unload everything we have on it.”
“Hold up.” Mike said as he touched Aberar’s shoulder, allowing himself to transform. “Let’s do this!”

         Mike ran back to the wall and ran up it and fell towards the machine. As he descended, he held up his arms and yelled. He swung his arms onto the machine and it dented and began to shake violently. He left a crack in the machine. Suddenly purple smoke came out from the crack and it became a cloud of purple energy. It flew over their heads and landed behind them.

       It began to form into a humanoid looking figure. First its legs appeared, then its arms, then its body, and finally its head. At first it was an all-purple figure. Suddenly, the figure transformed into Cyclone. However, he was wearing a purple suit with green stripes along the arms, back, and legs.

“Cyclone?” Mike asked confused. “I thought we beat you.”
“The machine absorbed me. Then I took control of it.” Cyclone explained. “You released me from the machine, but I still control it and get power from it.”
“So you’re back for round two, eh?” Mike asked.
“I’m back to stop him.” He said pointing towards Skye.
“We won’t let that happen!” Aberar said standing in between Skye and Cyclone.
“You have a choice my friends.” Cyclone began. “Let me put an end to Skye’s efforts, or you can die trying to stop me. Either way I win.”
“We’d rather die than let you kill him or anyone else.” Mike said as he prepared to fight once again.
“We are in this until the end!” Aberar said as he did the same.
“Very well then.” Cyclone began. “If that’s what you want then I won’t fail to deliver.”

       Cyclone held up his arms and in his hands formed purple energy that swirled in his hands. He closed his eyes and the color turned darker. It almost got to the point where it was pitch black. He opened his eyes and then threw his arms to the ground. Mike and Aberar were flung into the air. Skye was startled by this.

“Guys!” Skye yelled.
“Keep going!” Mike yelled. “If we destroy him, we destroy the machine. We got this!”

       After he said that Cyclone smirked and then telepathically threw the two into the wall of the middle school.

“Let’s have some fun then.” Cyclone said as he began to walk over to them.

      Charles and Greg had been working on Chris for almost a half an hour without any breaks. They managed to stop the bleeding. They kept his head elevated and soon enough he opened his eyes. Chris looked around to see about a dozen people looking at him. Chris’s dad began to shed a tear.

“Hey buddy.” He said to Chris.
“D...Dad…?” Chris asked.
“Yes Chris it’s me.”
“I…” Chris began to cry.
“Don’t worry son.” He stopped him. “I told you I would always love you no matter what. I’m just happy you’re here with us still.”
“But I…”
“I said don’t worry son.”
“No Dad. Please listen.”
“What is it son?” He asked Chris.
“I know how to save us all. I need to get to Skye.” Chris answered.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“I don’t have much time, I need to get to Skye.”
“I can help him.” Alexa said as she walked over.

       Meanwhile, the second fight between Cyclone, Mike and Aberar began. Only this time, Cyclone was not the same as before. He had become twice as powerful. Mike ran at him with all his force and tackled Cyclone right out of the air and onto the ground about thirty yards away. Aberar flew over to assist him. Before reaching them, he saw Cyclone throw Mike into the side of the Middle School.

       Aberar turned back to see Cyclone fire a purple beam straight at him. Aberar flew to the ground, dodging the attack, but was blindsided by Cyclone as he clobbered him in the face with his fist. Cyclone turned to see Mike getting back up and into a fighting stance. Cyclone laughed and created a sword from his hand. Mike stood his ground as Cyclone charged at him. Cyclone was curious as to why Mike was so calm. He soon found out when Aberar’s foot kicked him in the side of the head out of nowhere.

Cyclone stood up after being kicked to the ground. He looked at the two of them and laughed as he disappeared into the air. Mike and Aberar stood there clueless and looking around. Suddenly, Mike was pushed in the back. He turned to find no one there. Then Aberar was kicked in the gut. Mike was punched hard on the arm. Aberar was punched in the back of the head and fell hard. Cyclone then appeared once more in front of the two as they stumbled to their feet.

“You’re both going to die before the sun even kills you…” Cyclone laughed. “Then I’ll kill Skye. Or I might keep him alive just so he can die along with his friends just so that he knows how badly he failed.”
“I’m afraid we’re not gonna let that happen!” Mike exclaimed.
“So noble, yet so naive.” Cyclone thought aloud. “Very well, I guess I’ll spare you some of the pain and end your lives a bit quicker.”

He raised his arms and what seemed to be a purple wind began swirling around him. It gradually became darker and thicker. It surrounded his whole body and he began to grow in size. Eventually, the purple wind cleared and Mike and Aberar were left standing in front of a ten foot purple beast that had spikes on its shoulders, horns like a minotaur, and a blade attached to the skin of his right arm. They were left in awe.

“Now.” He said in a deeper voice. “Let’s have some real fun.”

***

Alexa had helped Chris walk to the front entrance. Chris’s stomach was still partially bleeding and he could hardly walk. She set him down to push the door open and propped a rock under the door so it would stay open. She helped him up again and continued to walk out.

Skye was still putting up a fight with the sun. His facing was sweating and his arms and legs were burning. He was nearly screaming at the top of his lungs. The blood from his face had run down to his collarbone. He didn’t care though. He knew that he was the solar system’s one last chance for survival. However, soon out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Alexa walking around the corner with Chris. He slowly tilted his head to face them.

“What’re you two doing out here?!” Skye shouted.
“Chris said that there’s a way to stop the machine!” She shouted back.
“How do you do it?!”
“I don’t know!” Alexa began. “He never told me that part!”
“This is insane! He needs to get back-” Skye was cut off by the strength of the sun.
“Skye!” Alexa shouted in concern.
“Keep going…” Chris said. “He can do this…”

Alexa kept pushing forward, dragging Chris towards the machine. Alexa had slightly tripped and the two fell about ten yards from the machine. Chris was able to push himself to his knees. Alexa got up and grabbed Chris as she tried to get him to his feet. The two were about to start walking when they saw Cyclone fly in front of the machine.

“Well well well.” Cyclone said as the two noticed Aberar and Mike laying face down on the ground.
“You can’t do this!” Chris forced out.
“I didn’t have to. You did it for me.” Cyclone replied.
“You evil bastard!” Alexa screamed.
“No…” Aberar said as he looked upon them.
“Well, I had my good use of you. Thank you for helping me cleanse the universe Chris.” Cyclone said as he held up his arm.
“Chris! Alexa!” Skye yelled as he prepared to run over.
“No Skye…” Alexa said with a tear.
“Finish the job…” Chris said as he fell to the ground with Alexa.

Cyclone’s hand began to glow. A swirl of aura appeared around his arm. It glowed a dark, ominous purple. It was as if he were taking the energy of the air and using it to create his death blow. The ball of aura increased in size. He laughed as he got into a stance, his right leg forward. He flexed his arm and a blast fired from his hand. Aberar jumped in front of the blast and took the hit directly in the torso. He flew over the two and hit the wall of the school, not moving at all.

“Saul…” Mike said as he finally got up.
“Well. I wasn’t expecting that, but I guess it will do for now.” Cyclone laughed as he prepared to fire another blast.

Mike looked at his fallen friend. His fist clenched as the ground shook. He began to shed a tear as aura appeared around his arms. The material of his arms turned to a light blue color as he got more angry. He shouted at the death of his best friend and lightning began to form around his forearms. Cyclone was about to fire another blast until Mike came out of nowhere and punched Cyclone in the side of his head, sending him into the ground.

“You killed my best friend!” He shouted as he leaped into the air and stomped on his chest.

Cyclone turned into wind and tried to fly behind him, but Mike grabbed the purple dust flying through him and held onto an ankle of Cyclone. He swung him into the ground. He kept hold of his ankle as he dragged him away from the machine and smashed him into the wall of the school. He leaped into the air, holding Cyclone, and held his ankle with two hands and then swung downwards from over his head and threw him into the ground once again.

“What is this..?” Cyclone said as he tried to get up. “How dare you t--”

Mike interrupted him by landing a powerful punch to the gut. The two were frozen in their tracks. Cyclone was groaning in agony. Mike had on a face of pure anger. Holding onto his stomach, Mike lifted him into the air. He looked directly through his eyes and into Cyclone’s now-found fears.

“I will bring justice to my friend…” Mike said calmly.
“I-it… H-he…” Cyclone couldn’t speak.
“Talk you asshole!” He said as he threw him face first into the ground.
“Wh-why do you die… for others..?” Cyclone asked as he got up.
“Because that’s what friends do!” Mike yelled. “They give themselves up to save the lives that others love! Saul gave his life so he can save the people Skye holds closest! We do this for the world so that people can see their loved ones tomorrow, and not in the afterlife!”
“But… what have they done for you…?”
“Nothing! They don’t have to! We will protect this world so that we can prove that we can do anything if we work together and learn to cooperate! So that one day… people like Saul won’t have to die like this…”
“You’re a fool…” Cyclone said. “He was a fool…”

Those words made Mike go from sympathetic to the raging nature he previously had. He grabbed Cyclone by the back. He lifted him in the air. He held Cyclone’s neck with his right hand and his spine with his left. He looked at Saul’s body lying there against the wall. He shed a tear for another moment. Then a fire in his eyes took control as he looked back up at Cyclone. He yelled at the top of his lungs as he threw him down onto his knee, ripping his body in two almost instantly. Mike stood there victorious with the two pieces of Cyclone’s body in each hand and threw them to the ground.

Alexa had gotten Chris back to his feet once more and had brought him over to the machine. Chris had plopped his body onto the machine.

“What are you going to do?” Alexa asked.
Chris looked back at Skye, who was starting to lose control. “I’m going to make it up to my brother…”
“How..?” Alexa asked worriedly.
Chris kept his focus on Skye, who could only use one arm now. “I can use the rest of my power to destroy this machine.”
“But will you-”
“No… I’m going to die Alexa…” Chris said with a tear.
“I can’t let you do th-”
“We don’t have a god damn choice here! Skye is losing his energy!” Chris said.
“But…”
“There is no buts Alexa…” Chris said. “However… tell Skye and my parents one last thing for me.”
“...okay…” Alexa said as she began to cry.

Skye was losing whatever strength he had left. He looked over to see Mike standing over Cyclone’s ripped body. However, he then looked to see Alexa running from Chris, who was standing on his own now. His hands were on the machine. They were glowing as the machine seemed to be vibrating. He could see Chris getting paler.

“Chris!” Skye yelled. “No!”
Chris looked back and smiled as the machine glowed a purple aura and exploded.
“Chris!” Skye cried.

The beam firing at the sun vanished. The Sun began to reduce in size. Skye felt himself taking control of the Sun. He felt it’s width decreasing. He released the shield as he dropped to his knees. He looked into the smoke and saw the body of his brother. He ran over and dropped beside him. Chris’s eyes were closed and he wasn’t moving. Skye cradled his head as he cried. Soon he noticed that Chris’s body began to disintegrate.

“Chris! No no please!” He reached for the ashes but was stopped when he felt Chris’s hand cup his cheek.

Skye looked into his eyes as they both shed a tear. Soon enough, Chris’s whole body fell to ashes. Skye screamed to the air as the smoke fully cleared. Alexa ran over and the two hugged as Skye cried like a baby. Mike came over and sat next to the two as he returned to a normal state. People began flooding out of the school. Skye’s parents ran out to the front. They saw the three sitting there. They ran over as soon as they saw them.

“Skye where’s Chr-” His mom stopped herself.
Skye looked at her and balled his eyes out.

He jumped up and hugged her. She began to ball her eyes out. She knew they really did lose him this time. Skye’s father hugged the two of them as they all shared their grief.

“He did mention something before he did what he did.” Alexa said as she walked over to them.
“What was it…?” Skye’s dad asked her.
“He told me that no matter what he said or did… he wanted me to let you three know that… he didn’t deserve a family as great and caring as you.”

At this point even the people around them began to shed their emotions for the family. At some point, Skye had looked back to see Mike walking over to Aberar. Skye let go of his mother and father. He followed Mike slowly. The two had reached their friend, who was sat against the wall.

They looked at his wound. It was a hole in his chest. The place where his energy had been contained. It leaked and he was almost out of it. Mike reached out to put a hand on his shoulder. Once he did, Aberar put his hand on it. Skye and Mike jumped but then comforted him.

“Saul…” Skye said.
“Did we do it…?” He asked.
“Yeah man… We did it.”
“Good. Skye?”
“Yeah Saul?” Skye asked laser focused.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you… about this…” Saul began. “I’m sorry that I made you lose your trust in me…”
“Oh my god Saul…” He cried. “No… please I-”
“It’s okay bro… I know what you mean…” Saul said as his eyes closed.
“No! Saul!” Mike yelled as Saul began to drift away.

Skye looked at the wound. It felt as though the world around him grew quiet. Skye held up his own right hand to his face. He saw the orange color coursing through his veins. He looked back and forth between his hand and Saul’s wound. He held up his hand to Saul’s wound.

“What’re you doing?!” Mike exclaimed.
“I’m not losing this son of a b**** a second time!” He cried as his hand began to glow.
“You have almost no energy left.” Mike explained.
“I don’t care! He did everything to save us! I’m not gonna let him die again!” Skye said as he began to pump the energy into him.
“Skye…” Mike said.

Skye screamed as the energy flowed out of him. Saul began to wake up to see what Skye was doing. Saul grabbed his arm to try to pull it away. Skye shook his head as he blasted his energy into him. Everyone watched in awe at the sight. Alexa started to run over and so did his parents. Skye stood up with Saul, still holding his chest.

“This is for being my friend…” Skye said as he finished pumping the rest of his energy into Saul.

Skye fell to the ground immediately. His friends and family all ran over to him. Skye seemed to be awake but couldn’t move his body. His parents shook his body as the others screamed for him. Alexa was balling her eyes out as she watched her mother cradling his son’s head, like Skye did with Chris.

“Please!” She yelled repeatedly. “I can’t lose both my sons! Please!!”
“Oh god Skye…” Alexa continued to cry.

      Most of the people had returned to their homes, to their families, to their televisions to see that everything had been saved. However, Skye’s parents, Alexa and her parents, Mike and his parents and Saul with his mother never moved from that spot. They all looked down at the fallen hero. Skye’s body laid there lifeless as tears fell upon him.

“They really did it honey.” Skye’s dad said, not taking his eyes off his son. “They saved our lives.”
“I don’t want him to go…” Skye’s mother said as she hugged him.
Skye’s dad put his arm around her as he kept looking at his son.
“He gave his life for me…” Saul said.
“You gave yours for him…” Mike replied.
“There has to be a way…” Alexa said.

Suddenly, behind them, in the sky, was what seemed to be swirling clouds forming. They turned a somewhat dark shade of blue. Out from the eye of the storm came what seemed to be a tornado, but there was no wind coming from it.

Emerging from the tornado were five figures, all wearing sparkling armour. They flew to the ground at tremendous pace. They slammed to the ground only about fifteen yards behind the group. Aberar and Mike stood in front of everyone, prepared to fight.

“Let your guard down.” One said. “We mean no harm.”
“Who are you?” Mike asked.
“Funny you should ask.” The tallest one said. “My name is Kulous, God of Peace.”
Another one stood to his right and said, “I am Contra, God of Virtues.”
A third stood to Kulous’s left and said, “I am Tonthra, God of the Moon.”
The fourth, a female, walked in front of them and said, “I am Elsoi, Goddess of the Sea.”
Finally, the fifth one, also female walked up and said, “I am Luarae, Goddess of Truth.”
“We are the Gods of Earth.” Kulous said.
“I…” Mike couldn’t speak.
“Why do you come here?” Aberar asked.
“We are the ones who gave Mike and Skye these incredible powers. They were the chosen ones.” Luarae explained.
“We sent out two powerful energy orbs to locate two subjects humble enough to be the heroes this world needed.” Tonthra explained further.
“That’s what those were…” Mike remembered when Skye and himself saved the kids from the building.
“We watched as you two faced off against the greatest threat this world has ever seen. You are very well deserving of those powers.” Contra stated.
“My son gave his life for us…” Skye’s father said.
“That’s why we are here.” Kulous said.
“What do you mean?” He asked.
“There were a lot of sacrifices made today.” Luarae began. “This is something we haven’t seen in the longest of time. You Saul, threatened your life to stop Cyclone from killing Alexa and Chris. Your son Chris, the man who had sworn to kill us all, gave his life to make up for his mistakes. A sacrifice that will be remembered throughout history from now on. He will be remembered for something huge, just as he always wanted. And your Skye gave all his life energy to give life to the friend who he had shut away, lost trust of, and nearly despised because of what he didn’t tell him. He didn’t care about that any longer. So he gave his life to you Saul. He didn’t want to lose you again.”
“I wish I could thank him.” Aberar said.
“And you will.” Elsoi said as she began to walk over towards the crowd.

As she walked closer her hands formed water around them. She moved towards Skye’s body. She kneeled down beside him. She held up her hands and plunged them onto his chest. The water began to spread throughout the whole length of his body. It covered every part of him. Then the water began to glow as she took her hands off of him.
“He deserves a second chance.” Elsoi said as she looked as his parents, who couldn’t take their eyes off of him.

The water began to soak into his clothes and skin. It went from a light blue glow, to an orange color. It soon fully soaked into his skin and he was left lying there in his wet clothes. All was silent, yet all eyes were on him. Skye’s eyes slowly opened as his parents and Alexa gasped. The three of them piled onto him and hugged him tightly.

“Ow ow can’t...breathe…” Skye forced out.
“Oh my god Skye!” His mother said as she held onto him.
“Where am I?” Skye said.
“We’re at the school buddy.” His dad said.
“Who are they?” He asked nervously.
“I am Kulous, God of Pe-”
“They’re Gods Skye.” Aberar cut him off.
“Wh-what?! Gods?!” Skye freaked.
“They gave you your life back.” Alexa said.
“Okay now I’m having a hard time believing you.” Skye joked.
“Oh shut up!” She said as she hugged him.
“Well now…” Kulous said. “We must be going, but remember this everyone, there is always a chance for this world. Now that all of this is over, don’t stop trying to make this world a better place!”
They all nodded as the Gods flew into the sky and back into the swirling clouds.

(The Next Day)

Skye got out of bed the next morning. He walked out into his dining room to see his parents at the table. They had seemed to have been waiting for him. However, they seemed to have a weird expression on their faces.

“Morning son.” His dad said.
“Uh, morning?” He replied.
“Have a seat.” He ordered.
Skye obeyed. “What’s the problem?”
“The problem is that you never told us about this 75 on your math test.” He said trying not to laugh.
“We’re only joking around honey.”
“Damn it sweetie we really had him going!” His father laughed.
“You guys scared me for a minute.” Skye laughed.

The three of them had breakfast together for the next two hours. They enjoyed each other’s company once more. Skye’s mother almost never let go of his hand. Suddenly, he heard his phone buzz on the counter.

“Oh who could that be?” His mom smirked at him.
“I bet it’s Alexa. ‘Oh Skye, you saved me! How could I ever repay you?’” His dad teased.
“You guys are never going to let that go now are you?”
“Well no I mean you saved the world sooooo.” His dad said.
“Go answer her.” His mom said.

Skye got up from his seat and went for his phone. He turned it on and saw a text from Alexa saying “Come outside.” He ran over and kissed his mom on the cheek and hugged his dad tightly.

“And where are you going?” His dad joked.
“Leave him alone dear.” She laughed.
“I love you guys…” Skye said as he walked back into the dining room.

The three stood in the middle of the room hugging for about a minute. After they broke it up, Skye walked to the door and opened to see Alexa outside. He stepped outside and stood in front of her.

“Hey you.” She said.
“Hi.” Skye blushed.
“How’s it been?” She asked.
“I had a really nice sleep.” He explained.
“Oh I bet.”
“So.”
“So?” She edged.
“What do you say we make up that date I screwed up?” Skye asked.
“You better not ditch me this time.” She kidded.
“I won’t, I promise.”

He took her hands and looked into her eyes. They both smiled and blushed.

“Hey! You two should kiss!” Mike and Aberar yelled from across the street before entering Mike’s house.

The two of them laughed it off and then kissed each other passionately. Skye held her hand as they began to walk down the street, past Mike’s house.

Meanwhile, Mike and Aberar went into Mike’s room. They went into the closet and pressed a button. The closet door closed and when it opened again, it turned into an elevator. They stepped inside and closed the doors. They traveled four stories down into the ground. Once they stepped out they reached a room that looked similar to the lab Saul already had.

However, it was different. There was more high tech equipment in it. There was a large computer screen that showed a map of the world. It showed the path of air flights, ship transports, and other possibilities of disturbances. There was a keyboard in front of it that Aberar had sat in front of. He pushed a few buttons and behind them, the wall turned around and had three body-sized glass containers that held brand new suits for the three of them.

“Man I love this life!” Aberar said as Mike and him looked back at the screen to continue monitoring the world’s activity.