

The Universal War

Nikhil Dhingra

Copyright 2012 by Nikhil Dhingra

Smashwords Edition

This book is dedicated to the creators of

Badguy Goodguy

Thanks for the inspiration

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Draktos Lives!

2. Garion, The Gatekeeper

3. The Daring Escape

4. Finding a Comrade

5. One Step At A Time

6. Negotiations

7. The Answers

8. The Battle At Jupiter

9. It Has All Just Begun

10. The Secret Is Out

11. Back To The Basics

12. The Plan Unfolds

13. The Darkness Rises

14. No Way Out

15. More Bad News

16. Uncovering The Sinister Plot

17. You're Under Arrest

18. The Master Plan Launches

19. Draktos' Secret

20. The End Of Garion?

About The Author
Preface

They say Draktos was one of the first beings who ever existed. He used to be a God of Light until he accidentally released the darkness into the containment chamber where he was raised. His power was too strong and uncontrollable, as he was only a baby back then. Thus the shadows were born. Since the damage was irreversible, Draktos's dad made a decision that Draktos would only be allowed to stay on a remote side of space, which he named the Dark Dimension. Today though, Draktos would escape.

Chapter 1: Draktos Lives!

Nirem sighed, glancing down at his watch.

"It's 2:15 p.m. already? Time for science."

Nirem, walking down the hallways towards the science room, reflected on his horrible life.

Nirem was the top student in his class and considered a teacher's pet by all of his classmates. Now you probably would think this is a good thing, but not at Steven Park Middle School. Being only a 5'6 junior, with a very skinny build (his dark black hair hiding his sensitive skull), glasses, and a very plaid and boring shirt that stood out from the rest of his classmates, Nirem wasn't treated well. People bullied him, made fun of him, and even shot rubber bands at him when teachers weren't looking just because he was smart. Today though, everything was about to change.

When Nirem and his fellow juniors arrived at science class, the teacher, Dr. Evanston, was waiting patiently for them at the door. He greeted each student individually as they walked into the classroom.

Four large, rectangular tables with metal legs formed two rows. There was a big stainless steel sink in the corner of the room that had a shower head; a giant periodic table was taped to the wall above it. A fifth table was centered at the head of the classroom—presumably the teacher's because of the messy stacks of paper on top of it. The items that caught most of the students' eyes, however, were the various glass test tubes filled with different colored solution that stood upright in wire holders on each of the tables.

Before the students even got seated, Dr. Evanston, eager to introduce them to their new subject, closed the classroom door and got started.

"Now class, today we are going to mix some chemicals and see what you can create. Your main goal here is to create the most unique compound, try to make something no one else has made in your class. Get in your seats quickly, class. Let's get started!"

The children hurried to find seats and immediately began rummaging through their backpacks for their science books. Dr. Evanston seemed unusually excited and they didn't want to disappoint him in any way.

"Turn to page fifteen of your science manual and follow the steps on mixing chemicals. Be careful and make sure to follow the instructions," the teacher warned. "I had almost forgotten about this project. It's a good thing one of the students reminded me about it."

Dr. Evanston started walking through the classroom to make sure that the students were correctly following his instructions. When he reached Nirem's table, he noticed he was slumping down in his chair. Little did he know, Nirem had just been hit in the back of his head by a flying rubber band.

Dr. Evanston was a bit surprised to see Nirem all slumped down like that. Nirem was one of his best students. In fact, he not only could make any creation that Dr. Evanston would invent, he also helped Dr. Evanston come up with entirely new concoctions that always produced amazing results. Dr. Evanston was convinced that Nirem could one day be a great inventor and make new discoveries.

When Nirem realized Dr. Evanston was looking down at him, he quickly sat up and began to work on the task at hand. At the same time, he nonchalantly twisted his body toward Dr. Evanston so the teacher couldn't see his back covered with red marks from the rubber bands. Dr. Evanston sensed something was wrong but understood Nirem didn't want to call any attention to whatever it was. He moved on to the next table.

Nirem was relieved that Dr. Evanston didn't say anything to him, but he was fuming inside. He knew that Quishow was the culprit. Quishow was the leader of the rubber-band shooting army. He organized an army of people to shoot rubber bands at Nirem everyday. Quishow was the one who started it to begin with. He always started it. If he forgot though, his right-hand man, Max, would remind him. Sometimes, Max actually protected Nirem from the rubber bands when he realized just how much Nirem got picked on. Of course, Max couldn't let Quishow know this, so he stayed quiet when Quishow was around.

Only ten minutes remained until the bell would ring.

"Now, let's see what you've done so far," Dr. Evanston announced. "How about Max and Quishow? Why don't you show the class your findings?"

Both boys groaned at the same time but stood up to present their results. Quishow started reading the steps from the manual aloud while Quishow demonstrated with the test tubes. Max took the lead in explaining the results of their mixture.

...

"Hey, watch it!"

"What's the big idea?"

"Hey, punk, get off the road!"

But Draktos just kept walking. As he approached Steven Park Middle School, the smirk on his face just grew bigger and bigger.

...

Back in the science lab, Dr. Evanston was ready to call up more volunteers to show their creation.

"Now, class, would anyone else like to share their...."

The door was kicked open before Dr. Evanston could finish his sentence.

"How did our janitor manage to kick down the freaking door?" one of the students asked.

"I shall resolve this conflict, students."

Dr. Evanston approached the janitor.

"What seems to be the problem, Harold?"

"You."

The janitor grabbed Dr. Evanston by the neck, and started to choke him, sucking out all of the life from his small, bony body faster then any of the students could comprehend.

"Hey, cut it out!"

One of the students attempted to stop him, but as he approached the janitor, he was blown away by some sort of dark energy blast, knocking him towards the edge of the room. With that blast, the entire class froze.

"Woah," Max barely made out.

Dr. Evanston's time was running out, but the students refused to intervene. They were too afraid of the school's janitor. He gasped for breath, but his old lungs died out, and then his pulse was gone.

The janitor threw Dr. Evanston to the ground. He stared at Dr. Evanston for a while, then he suddenly stared into the class of students. Specifically at Nirem. Harold then dropped to the floor, seeming to almost immediately lose all sort of life that the 60 year old brittle man in his 30 year old janitor's suit seemed to even have. Before the students could even react Dr. Evanston woke up.

"Stay calm students, let's get back to work," Dr. Evanston said calmly, as if the whole event never even happened.

"Back to work," Nirem exclaimed. "Back to work? How the hell do you expect us to get back to work after that...that...that scene just unfolded out right in front of us?!"

"I said get back to work," Dr. Evanston said in a strange tone. "Now Nirem, would you like to present your experiment to the class?"

Nirem started to back away slowly, realizing that before the janitor dropped dead he stared directly at him.

"I said, would you like to present your experiment to the class?"

At that moment, a blood curdling scream ripped through Dr. Evanston's body. A bright light started penetrating through his flesh and bones, ripping him into millions of tiny atoms. Almost immediately, he disappeared.

When the bright light cleared, the children slowly opened their eyes and looked toward the front of the room where Dr. Evanston had been. Instead, there stood a black-skinned man, with no legs, wearing a long, black cape. The cape was draped over his face, making it difficult to see what he really looked like.

He pointed at Nirem. "You are The Gatekeeper!" he said solemnly.

Nirem, ignoring the comment, was mostly worried about the safety of his classmates. Catching his breath, he knew he had to get his classmates out of there.

"Run, everybody!" he cried.

With that, he grabbed a few of their arms and led the way out of the classroom, trying to ensure their safety before this curious demon took hold of them. Everyone ran except Quishow.

"Let"s go!" Nirem snapped at him.

But all Quishow did was stare back, as the beast slowly moved closer and closer to him.

Nirem, fearing his own safety and not that of his school bully's, left Quishow to deal with whatever that thing was as he ran through the dark school hallways, fearful for his own life. He mostly feared for his purpose in all of this; that thing called him The Gatekeeper or something. What was that all about?

"Maybe he has the wrong guy," Nirem hopefully thought.

After about a half block of running frantically through the confused streets of Manhattan, the beast seemed to be out of sight.

"He's gone," Nirem panted to the students following close behind him. "He's finally gone."

But the beast followed close behind, not letting Nirem out of his reach. Right as it was about to catch him, a flying saucer appeared out of nowhere.

Looking up, Nirem recollected every spaceship sighting he had ever seen reported, the UFO shaped exactly like them. It seemed to have a circular shape and was made completely out of metal. On the top of the circle was what appeared to be a small dome which acted like the cockpit's station. Shaped exactly like the UFO's Nirem used to watch, Nirem stared up in awe.

Shocked, Nirem looked up as it hovered directly above him. After seeing a bright, green beam hover above him, the UFO sucked him up. Nirem then collapsed out of stress into an unconscious state.
Chapter 2: Garion, The Gatekeeper

Nirem shot up out of his seat as he jolted awake, his vision blurred from the sudden consciousness that occurred in his brain. It was much to Nirem's distress, though, that he was chained to whatever holding place he was in.

Looking around the room, Nirem noticed he was surrounded by what appeared to be actual aliens with thick strands of orange and green strings hanging all over them. He was strapped into a machine with his head under a steel metal cap. Nirem was terrified. He pinched himself, wondering if—hoping—that it was all a dream.

"This is not a dream, Garion," a voice whispered.

"Who's Garion?" Nirem asked, in complete shock and confusion.

"It is you," the voice replied. The voice called to another one of the aliens. "Push the button," it instructed.

Nirem heard a click and then at first started to feel a tingly feeling. Next thing he knew his whole body started to slowly be enveloped in something that felt like an old, wrinkly coat. Then Nirem looked down at his skin in shock. The same tentacles on all of these aliens were growing around Nirem's skin, eating away his old body in the place of a new one. The tentacles grew on like a plant, leeching onto Nirem's skin as it became him, turning his whole body into an extraterrestrial being.

"What are you doing to me?!" Nirem demanded.

But the man just stood there and watched.

Nirem felt strands of orange and green strings swarming all over him and actually growing out of his skin. He screamed but no one was there to help him. The strings then slowly started to envelop his face. Afterwards, everything suddenly started to go black....

Eventually he came to. Dazed, he immediately recognized he was still in the nightmare. He couldn't move.

"What did you do to me?!" Nirem demanded.

The alien spoke again in a deep and what appeared to be male voice, "We have just revealed who you are. Now let me explain to you what is going on."

Nirem wasn't so sure he wanted to know. He just wanted to go home. The alien then stepped out from his dark corner of the room, revealing his true identity.

He too, was covered in this sort of colored string, from head to toe. Though his basic human features were still visible, making him different from Nirem and, Nirem thought, everyone else on this planet.

"I guess that's how these...things are told apart," Nirem thought, "but the real question is: What are these things?"

"I'm just going to cut to the chase here, because we don't have much time," it sighed. "There is life on every planet. Humans just haven't figured it out yet. We are some of the creatures from that other life form. Draktos, the person chasing you, was from the Dark Dimension that is filled with villains from around the galaxy."

"What did he mean when he said that I am The Gatekeeper?" asked Nirem, noting the fast pace the alien was moving at and mostly scared for his life.

He just wanted some information, so he did whatever it took to keep up with this strange creature to grasp hold of the fact on what was going on.

"You are the Gatekeeper," the alien stated. "It says so in the Prophecy."

"What Prophecy?" Nirem asked, confused.

The alien continued, "In the Prophecy given to us by our all powerful God, Shabithi. Well, he didn't exactly explain it in black and white, though."

"What do you mean?"

"Shabithi sent us a coded message long ago, back when Mars was first being formed and its civilization being brought up together. For millennia we have tried to decode it, but have only understood a few words that were already put in our language for us...."

"Does your language happen to be English?"

"No, Bujan. Now, as I was saying, the only words that were in Bujan were: To end the reign of the shadows, to restore peace to the once peaceful, you must find the truth behind the message enclosed. You must unlock its secrets, its treasures, its belongings. You must find The Gatekeeper. You must find Garion.

"So how did you assume I was Garion?"

"A DNA sample was attached. And what also gave it away was Draktos chasing after you on Earth, since Draktos hasn't visited Earth in over 1,000 years. Since we have obtained the DNA sample, we have scoured the universe and back, trying to find you. We knew we had to destroy Draktos and his shadows."

Nirem gasped at this newfound information. All of those facts just presented, they undoubtedly lead to the conclusion that Nirem was in fact this all powerful chosen one! This had to definitively prove it! He couldn't deal with this realization though, not just yet. The thought of being an all-powerful savior of the universe hit him too hard, so he tried to make up excuses for himself.

"That couldn't be," Nirem tried to comprehend inside his mind, "I'm just a normal kid. I didn't do anything that could have landed me this fate. Why me?!"

Struggling to get back into focus, Garion asked, "The shadows?"

"Draktos' minions. They are forced, for their sins, to eternally serve Draktos in the afterlife. He controls them in every sense of the word, using their lives as a day planner. If any shadow tries to escape, they are dead within the instant."

"Wait, so why didn't this 'Shabithi' just tell you where to find me, if I'm even the right person?" Garion asked with a hint of hope.

"We're not exactly sure. We think it's because, not only were you not alive yet, but he wanted to, in a way, have you find us. Obviously, Shabithi somehow knew that we would inform you of your fate, but I guess Shabithi wanted you to find out your own Prophecy. He wanted you to do the hunting for your true purpose, not for the fun to be spoiled. I guess that's also why the Gatekeeper is human. After all, humans are the most clueless race."

"Well, that doesn't seem like the best reason...."

The ground started to rumble. Everyone there started to shake. The whole place seemed as though it was going to collapse on them any second. Nirem, having enough stress for one day, attempted to break free of his seat in his new body, squirming around.

"Earthquake!" he shouted.

"There's hasn't been an earthquake on Mars since the planet has been formed!" the alien shouted back.

"MARS?!"

"Never-mind that, for now, run!"

The alien unlatched Garion from the chair, and he stood up and practically fell down. Looking at himself, he couldn't believe what he had become.

"What...is this?"

"Come on!" the alien shouted at him.

He ran to the door, but then he noticed that Garion was not behind him. He turned around to see him on the floor, gasping for breath, continuing to stare at his now unique skin.

"Garion, get your...."

It was too late.

The ceiling collapsed onto Garion, and as he tried to run away, he collapsed again, barely missing a falling stone. He then looked up, and nearly fainted again.

Above him was nothing. Nothing but what appeared to be a mere shadow of the spaceship that had picked up Nirem. The shadow looked like a simple shadow back on Earth that was just a reflection of you from the sun, and nothing more. This shadow seemed all too real though, seeming to reciprocate the tractor-type beam that captured Garion earlier that day.

"Garion!" the alien shouted.

What he saw next would open his eyes to what he could possibly achieve in his new alien body. The alien took his hands and seemed to get into some sort of phase of concentration. Suddenly, his hands, or tentacles, started to stretch out and grow longer. Each tentacle, slimy with who knows what type of goo, seemed to be heading straight toward Garion. Garion didn't know what was going on but, based on the circumstances, he considered the alien with his peculiar hands to be the one to trust.

"Whatever your doing, you better do it fast!" Garion screamed.

Right as the alien stretched out his tentacles to the tractor beam, he was pushed back by some electric force, sending him to the ground in defeat as he looked back at Garion.

"NO!" the alien shouted.

But Garion was sucked into the ship's hull, and as it closed, he could have sworn that he saw Harold's body, just sitting still on the floor.
Chapter 3: The Daring Escape

Garion woke up to a very different welcome this time.

"Get up!" a voice screamed.

It was an odd voice, but at the same time threatening. So Garion did what he was told.

Garion got up, and then fell down again. He was still confused on how he was supposed to move in this new body. The sliminess of it all, it was too much for him. He could barely stand on his own two feet, much less go to wherever this man wanted him to go. Based on his circumstances though, he would have to learn soon.

Garion was then brought up by two bulky...aliens. He could feel it, their unearthly breathing, their soft body, their sliminess something like his. In the barely visible light, he could even manage some of their see-through, unearthly skin.

When they brought him up, Garion looked at his surroundings. He was in some sort of prison cell. Just like Earth's, except in Earth, their were cold, metal, and steel. Not electrically made bars with a shining blue light. The jail cells, being the only source of light in the room, gave Garion the ability to look back in his tormentors. However, when Garion looked back, he saw nothing propping him up, as if the beings were invisible. He started to question the soft body's he even felt, thinking he was about to go insane. Garion still continued to hope this was all a dream.

Looking forward, all he could make out was a dark hallway, seemingly deserted. The hallway didn't even seem to be there. Everything just seemed to be some sort of shade of darkness, which gave the ominous effect of nothing being there at all. Still in a daze from the whole situation, Garion tried to look for any ways of escape.

"The boss wants to see you."

Garion, somehow managing to walk, stumbled toward the edge of the cell doors, almost falling into the blue electric jail bars. He got up to realize that the "boss" was right in front of him; to be more specific, the dark figure that killed Harold and Dr. Evanston today.

"It's you," Garion said, shock in his voice.

"Well, someone catches on fast."

The figure grabbed Garion by his strings. Since they were attached to his body, he was in much pain.

"STOP!!! PLEASE!!!" Garion screamed at the top of his lungs.

"Actually, I'd rather not."

The figure pulled out some sort of blade, covered in a shadowy mist.

"It's time to finish what I should have done thousands of years ago!"

"What have I ever done to you?"

"You killed my family and banished me to the farthest reaches of space. It's time I get my revenge once and for all, and summon forces past the TLS!"

Garion didn't know what to do. He was imprisoned on an alien spaceship with an alien wanting him dead. To make matters worse, he had just been given an entirely new body that he had no idea how to work. While Garion was still hoping this was all some sort of sick and twisted dream, he knew he still had to survive. So he tried to replicate.

He closed his eyes, and focused. His tentacles started to shoot out of his hands, stretching towards the dark force slowly taking his life away. The next thing he knew the man, or shadow, was on the ground, the dark figure struggling to regain balance. Garion was shocked at the powers these tentacles held. He managed to stretch these things out and defeat his captor! He tried to contemplate how this could be even possible; how he could even manage to use this new body, to somehow stretch out his body parts and, not only that, use them as a weapon! Garion knew he didn't have time to think, though, so he moved fast.

"What the hell?!"

The two alien bodyguards, reacting almost instantly, tried to grab onto Garion. He shoved them both to the ground, by repeating his newly learned hand trick.

Both the guards fell to the ground, not with a thud, but with no noise at all. It was, again, as if they weren't even there. Garion didn't know what to do, and he knew he had to act fast.

He looked around at the bodyguards. There had to be a key of some sort. He couldn't see anything of notice around them. In general, he couldn't see anything at all. Then, Garion had a crazy idea.

The dark figure got up.

"You're dead meat you piece of...."

But before the figure could finish his sentence, Garion grabbed him and threw him into the electric bars.

"AAAHHHH!" it screamed.

But Garion didn't stop there.

He then jumped through the gates with the dark figure, using him as a shield. He could feel the electricity rushing through his body, probably 10,000 volts, Nirem remembered from his math class. The electricity surged through him like a million bee stings piercing his body until he couldn't stand it anymore. Garion still couldn't believe that he went from a normal nerd in science class to fighting aliens in less then a day. He didn't know what else to do, so Garion just kept on pushing, praying for his escape and freedom.

They both fell through the gates, stinging with smoke. They were both panting heavily from the episode, neither of them able to get up. Garion knew he didn't have the time to pant, though.

He tried to get up, not realizing that, since he could barely move in this body, he immediately fell down.

Now he thought he was dead. He kept panicking, wondering if there was any way out of here, anyway to get back to the life he used to live. He knew the first key to doing that though was getting off this strange place. He calmed down for a second and thought.

"O.K.," Garion thought to himself, "it seems like I'm in some sort of ship, that's probably why I fell, since this ship is moving. I have to get out of here somehow. My guess is extra guards will be coming any minute to subdue me from the front of the ship, wherever that is. So based on my surroundings, the only escape would have to be...."

Garion looked around, and, with the little source of light, couldn't find any sort of escape. Then he saw it.

To the right of his small cell, which now seems to be in some sort of confined space, was a door. It said, "IN CASE OF EMERGENCY'S, USE THIS AIRLOCK."

Garion started crawling toward the door, not caring if he could breath in space or not.

"Aliens probably would be able too," he thought and mostly hoped.

Something then suddenly grabbed his leg.

"You're not going anywhere," the dark figure said, still smoking from the jump through the electric bars.

He pulled out his knife again, and this time managed to stab Garion in the leg. He didn't feel a thing.

Garion looked back and realized that the knife had gone right through his tentacles, seeming to simply fade between them. Garion felt nothing at all, the pain being absent as he started to realize the true power of this new body of his. He not only managed to use his tentacles on his hands as a weapon, but Garion also managed to deflect a knife attack! He was shocked by the composure of this new body of his, having the flexibility of a rubber band but density strong enough to knock someone to the ground. Garion though, knew he didn't have time to marvel. He was running out of time. Garion still managed to look back at the knife, and a big grin came over his face.

He lifted his leg from the knife, managed to stumble up, and ran for the door, the dark figure right behind him.

"No!"

The dark figure shot something in the ground, some sort of portal. Inside the portal was nothing but darkness. He then shot the same portal at Garion. Not wanting to know what was inside, he jumped out of the way and shoved opened the airlock door.

"NOOOO!"

Garion jumped into the dark and infinite void of space, not knowing where he would go or how he would get there, but just happy to be away from the hellhole he was once in. He turned around to look at it, then realized nothing was there, the only object visible was a shadow of the hovercraft that sucked him up back in Mars. You couldn't even see any part of the ship. All you could see was a shadow, the same darkness and shyness of shadows on Earth. Whatever that ship was, he knew it would chase after him, and he knew, once it caught him, he would be dead. Garion tried to think if there was anything he could do with his newly found tentacles to avoid this untimely fate, anything he could do to avoid this ship. Then it literally hit him. In the face.

The asteroid smacked right into him, and then, before a proper reaction could even be administered, the asteroid opened, Garion falling in. He fell inside the hollow asteroid, and felt the doors close. He looked around at his surroundings, and the first thing that he noticed, was the alien that tried to save Garion back at Mars, standing over him.

The pain and shock finally hit him; this was all horribly real. All the action and danger that had just gone on during the past day have all been real. Garion was not only abducted by aliens, but now destined to become one. All the pain inside him, the new life he knew he would have to adapt to, the dead teacher and janitor, everything boiled up inside him, until he then started crying. He just stood there, in front of this alien and at least 10 more, crying like a little girl.
Chapter 4: Finding A Comrade

After two days of traveling, Garion was still huddled in a corner, with a blanket over him. The alien who tried to save him and everyone else in that ship seemed to be talking about him.

Garion was too afraid to say anything, except, every now and then, he would ask "What the hell is going on?"

To which the alien who helped him would respond, "All will be explained in time."

When he finally mumbled up the courage to open his eyes and realize that none of this was a dream, he realized he was in a giant, hollowed out asteroid. All the walls were a dark shade of orange from all the cooled off magma, as it seemed. It also seems that the asteroid had been hooked up electronically; Garion was able to see buttons on the side of the meteor, each with a letter on them: M, V, E, M, J, S, U, N. Too dazed to realize what these symbols meant, he ignored them.

Garion also, in his daze, managed to pick up some of the conversation that these aliens were having: he picked up things like "What do we do now?" and "We have to get him to safety somehow," and "'We can't let him die.'"

"How am I important to these...these...things!" Garion thought. "I didn't do anything to deserve this fate, I haven't done anything at all! Why me?! WHY ME?!"

With this, Garion cried some more, trying to comprehend the unique yet intense situation he was in. He didn't do anything to deserve this! He just wanted to go home, and nothing more.

The asteroid suddenly came to a halt, thrusting Garion forward a bit like a suddenly braked car. The aliens all seemed to panic at once; whether they thought it was the dark figure's ship stopping them or if their "motor" was dead, Garion didn't know.

Though he mostly heard conversation like, "Where are we?" and "Did Draktos get us?" Then the alien that saved him silenced them all down.

"I came here because it is the only place we can trust. Now please, step out of the asteroid."

All the aliens stepped out of the asteroid, and before Garion could even try to move, which he now felt he mastered, the alien who saved him picked him up and carried him, and they walked outside into their misty yet noticeable surroundings.

The first thing Garion noticed when they landed on Venus was a huge gate at least 500 feet tall, and two guards standing on each side of it. The guards were in red uniforms but it was apparent that they were aliens due to their purple texture.

"Password?" barked one of the guards.

"Muta," Rebolto said.

The gate creaked opened slowly and they went inside.

When Garion got inside, he saw a little purple room that was no bigger than his bedroom back home, except this room was much different. It was filled with aliens, all of whom had purple skin, which made it difficult for Garion to see them clearly. The alien led him into another room, in which he had to enter another passcode lock. Except Garion noticed the numbers weren't even normal.

The doors opened, and Garion saw a big conference room, just like the ones back on Earth. There was a big brown table in the center of the room, polished clean without even a scratch. Around it was many different black roller chairs. Nirem remembered roller chairs back on Earth. Towards the top of the table was a big, red, roller chair. This was where the alien that saved him sat. He also noticed an alien as he walked into the room, behind him, except this alien didn't have Garion's strange tentacles (or, as he was guessing from the planet he was captured in, this alien wasn't Martian). Garion noticed the alien watching him from outside the door as it slowly shut on him.

The alien that saved him called for Garion to come over.

"Come here," he said.

Garion walked over to a large ring of couches, where he was sat down. The alien that saved him leaned in close to him.

"We don't have time to explain everything because Draktos is probably on our tail. So here it is."

The alien then sat back up, facing the rest of the aliens.

"My name is Rebolto. I am the ruler of the planet Mars. Around you are the council of Mars. They are like your Congress in your home country of the United States of America."

He struggled to pronounce it, since it was a foreign word to him.

Nirem looked around at the council; all similar in a general appearance, but unique in their own way. It was fascinating. He couldn't believe it. All of his life he grew up on sci-fi comics, sci-fi movies, sci-fi everything! Nirem always grew up thinking that something was out there in space, watching the skies in search of any life. He was mostly hoping that someday, at least in his lifetime, he would get to meet these aliens. It was only a dream of course, but now he was standing in front of the Congress of Mars on an alien planet! Nirem couldn't believe the circumstances he was under!

"We have been searching for you ever since the universe was created, as I've already mentioned. To recap what I had told you back at the Martian palace before you were abducted, you are the Gatekeeper and you are destined to save the universe from the evil god Draktos, as stated in The Prophecy given to us by Shabithi. All we know beyond that is that you CANNOT be killed. It is not only vital to your own safety, obviously, but vital to the entire universe's as well."

Garion struggled to gather all of this information in. Him? Saving the world? It couldn't be. He remembered what Rebolto had told him earlier, but he still couldn't manage to comprehend it. There had to be something else, someone else, but obviously these men would be sure it was him. They wouldn't waste their time without checking their facts. The whole truth of Garion's destiny started to hit him head on as he got dizzy. The entire fate of the universe in his hands! That must be why that dark figure wanted him dead. Because that dark figure is Draktos.

"Yes, you are correct. That dark figure is Draktos."

"H...H...How did you do that?"

"We aliens have many powers. You will actually be practicing these momentarily. We just didn't want to leave you clueless."

"Wait a second...how did you know where to find me?"

"We don't know," one of the council responded. This one's tentacles seemed to be turning gray.

"An unknown message was given to Rebolto many weeks ago," another one of the council responded, this one having a darker orange and green shade, "saying that you are the chosen one. We didn't know how to confirm this, but we didn't want to risk losing your location. We also didn't want to run the risk of sending spies into that territory. So we just watched from above."

"That is," another council member responded, having slightly more curved tentacles then the rest of the aliens. "until we saw Draktos. He hasn't been present for thousands of millennia, and would definitely never go near this galaxy. When we somehow found Draktos through the TLS and attacking you though, we knew we had to strike."

"And so we did," said the council member with darker tentacles.

"That's all we know," Rebolto responded, as Garion noticed Rebolto's thick tentacles. "The rest you will have to find out on your own."

"Wait a second," Nirem responded, a bit shocked, "so you're just going to give me a bit of information on what the hell just happened, and then throw me back into...wherever to stop an evil alien that almost killed me back on his...shadow ship?! Dude, I'm 17!"

"We will be along for guidance," Rebolto said calmly, "but, yes, the bulk of the work will be done on your own."

Garion just stood there, trying to process all that he had just heard. How could he manage such a task alone?! He couldn't just venture off and challenge one of the most feared evil villains.

"That's right," Rebolto responded, "you can't just do this on your own. Here's some advice to start off with: build a team and get a base. That will get you moving on your quest to defeat Draktos.

"Can you please stop doing that?" Garion begged.

"Sorry."

Garion, still shocked by his new destiny, couldn't think of anything else to do but accept it. He had been trying to process what had happened to him for the past two days, and what will become of him in the future. So now, with most of the missing puzzle pieces fitted in, Garion couldn't think of any other practical thing to do then to start on building his team so he could end up not only saving the universe, but avoiding his own death.

"Guess there's nothing I can do about it now," said Garion, with a sigh as he got up.

"I almost forgot," the council member with gray tentacles said. "In all of this talk about the Prophecy, we forgot to see if you could even decipher it.

The councilman reached inside his tentacles and pulled out a piece of printer paper with a picture of a strange tablet on it. The tablet seemed to be made of stone with a type of material Garion had never seen before. The symbols on the object seemed like nothing even close to anything on Earth, as well. Nirem squinted, questioning how he was supposed to be able to translate such a work of art.

"Where's the real piece of stone?" Garion asked.

"Lost centuries ago with most of our relics overtime," Rebolto sadly proclaimed. "Unfortunately, Council member Jones, we recently found some old test work done on the stone for any hints as to deciphering its message. The scientists final report was that they found traces of a never-before seen source of energy inside the stone, having a unique composition structured like DNA."

"Are you trying to tell me the stone was living?" the councilman asked in shock.

"In a way. The stone's DNA structure seemed to bond with that of its matching partner. In this case, the Gatekeeper."

"So we need the real stone for me to read this 'Prophecy?'"

"Exactly. So, since we have misplaced this stone somewhere, we just have to pray it shows up when the time is right. It is to be hoped that Shabithi will make things right. For now, you build a team. You find a base. You figure out what your plan is. Most importantly though, you take down Draktos one way or another. Obviously, since your the Gatekeeper, you have some sort of unique composition that could, in the long run, help you defeat Draktos. So your goal right now is to focus on killing him. If we could manage to accomplish that without The Prophecy, that would be spectacular.

Garion, having held in the question for too long, asked, "What do you mean when you say I am The Gatekeeper."

"I almost forgot," Rebolto realized, "the Gatekeeper is...."

Rebolto suddenly heard a beep on a wristwatch he was wearing. He tapped the watch a few times, and then turned toward Garion.

"Listen, I have to head off to a meeting to discuss what to do now that we have finally found you and the guidance we should be giving you, since we don't want to intrude upon Shabithi's wishes. For now, look around for teammates, see who you can find. I would start with the one behind the door, admiring you from afar," Rebolto said, with a grin creeping over his face.

Garion remembered the alien staring at him as he walked in.

"Well, why not give it a shot?" Garion asked sarcastically.

"That's the spirit," shouted Rebolto, as he patted Garion on the back.

He still couldn't ponder the fact of what had just occurred. In less than ten minutes of time, Garion was briefed on his current extraterrestrial situation, and then sent out into the real world to handle it himself. Not only that, apparently the entire universe was in his hands now. Garion wasn't sure if he could handle that kind of responsibility yet.

He walked through the conference doors, over to the large lobby of what it seemed to be visitors to the planet walking all around. He approached the alien.

"What's your name?" Garion asked, approaching the new alien.

"My name is Purstan," the alien answered in a light, shy voice. What's yours?"

Garion looked closely at the alien, looking at the first time at this alien's race without bigger concerns being on his mind. He was a light shade of purple, maybe because he was a young alien. But that was about the only thing young about him. The alien had a very heavy build; he seemed to be totally ripped. He also only had shorts on, though this is understandable since he literally had spikes growing out of his back, along with his hands and feet. The spikes seemed to be growing from inside his body and ripping through him. Garion was disgusted yet fascinated at the same time. Though luckily his face (besides his big chin) was human enough.

"My name is Garion," Garion replied, still getting use to saying that. "Apparently, I just became an alien." He smiled weakly.

"Well then I hope you get adapted to . . . wait a second, Garion? You mean the Garion? Like, the Gatekeeper Garion?" Purstan asked in disbelief.

"Yes," Garion answered, a little surprised.

"That is so cool!" Purstan cried. "I overheard that you have to build a team to help you fight Draktos. May I join your team? Please?"

"Um, sure," Garion shrugged, surprised at this man's interest in him. Then he stopped and thought for a moment.

"Actually, let's see how you can use your powers," Garion said, very cocky about his new status of saving the world.

"Coincidentally, I was about to do the same," Purstan said, a smile creeping upon his face. "Come here."

Purstan led Garion into the ring through a back door at the corner of the lobby. Garion was amazed at what he saw. It was just like a wrestling ring back on Earth! A large rectangular platform stood in front of him with a dark purple floor and rope railings on each side. Heavy steel posts stood at each of the four corners. They positioned themselves diagonally on opposite sides of the ring. Purstan called another alien into the room and instructed him to ring a metal bell when they were ready. Purstan glanced over at Garion.

"This is just like Earth," Garion said, the words barely uttered from his mouth.

"Oh, you're from Earth," Purstan realized. "Almost all planets used Earth as the modeling planet. Since your life came first, we had nothing to model after except the genius that was humans."

"I guess that makes things a bit easier to understand as I travel through space," Garion said, getting a bit more calm about his role. Garion then realized that if Purstan knew he was before he did, imagine how popular Garion would be on other planets. Garion thought getting a team was going to be a piece of cake.

"Let's start the match then," Garion said, feeling confident about his predicted victory.

The match started. Purstan threw him to the ground without even touching him, simply using hand gestures to lift him off the ground. Garion got up from the dusty floor, amazed at Purstan's abilities.

"I thought you modeled after Earth!" Garion accused.

"Yeah, but we evolved."

Garion simply shrugged off the idea; he didn't want to question anything else about these alien races, for fear of learning more about them.

Garion continued to demonstrate the powers he used to escape Draktos.

"Watch this," Garion gloated.

He closed his eyes and concentrated; his tentacles slowly started to stretch out toward Purstan. He then felt a sharpening pain that made him squeal as Purstan twisted his tentacles and continued to throw him to the ground again, his tentacles as a propeller.

"Who's Chosen now?" Purstan gloated back, smiling over him.

Garion was sick of being humiliated right then. Humiliated by Draktos, by easily being captured. He was sick of it all. He was not only the most important person in the universe, but now obviously the most clueless. He couldn't take it anymore.

He threw his hands to the ground out of anger, oblivious to the fact that they melted inside the walls of the stadium floor. Garion then stood up from the ground, and as he did this his hands rose up from the stadium floor and punched Purstan high into the sky.

He flew ten feet in the air, soaring high above the stadium floor. Before he knew it, Purstan was then back onto the stadium floor, in a daze.

After realizing what he had done, Garion sarcastically commented, "Still me."

"I see someone knows how to use their powers," Purstan commented.

"Not really," Garion replied, "I just found out my 'destiny' less than ten minutes ago, so I'm still learning."

"Well, you've obviously been quickly making progress. I've hung around the Martians a lot though. Maybe I could show you the ropes from what I've learned."

"Sounds good to me."

The fight went on for about two hours until Rebolto finally came in to see the progress. He immediately noticed Purstan panting on the floor and Garion standing next to him in triumph.

"I see that you won, Garion."

Purstan quickly got to his feet.

"Yep!" Garion said proudly.

"Okay," said Rebolto, "now show me what you have learned."

"Sure," Garion said with confidence. Since Rebolto was still standing near the door as he spoke, Garion quickly transformed into an alien liquid and started seeping through the ground. Moving like a mud puddle in heavy rain, Garion quickly traveled through the floor. He then reappeared in his normal form right next to Rebolto. Rebolto laughed, amused by Garion's creativity. They both quickly moved into the ring and began.

Garion tried to throw Rebolto using his first tentacles trick, but Rebolto threw him first.

"Good try," Rebolto commented.

Garion got up, feeling weak for being thrown down.

"In my defense, I didn't see it coming," Garion said as he brushed off some dust.

Rebolto laughed, then turned to Purstan, who was watching from the inside corner of the ring. "Now let's see you, Purstan."

"I"m ready!" Purstan said. He made a dark purple ball out of his hands and threw it at Rebolto, but Rebolto blocked it with a shield made entirely out of tentacles. The tentacles seemed to stretch out of his body and dodge the incoming attack, blocking it quickly.

"Energy ball," Rebolto nodded. "Good job."

"How'd you do that?" Garion asked.

"Well, that would just be a spoiler, now wouldn't it?"

Garion groaned, and then remembered about the exciting news he had to tell Rebolto.

"Purstan's on my team now," Garion excitedly made known.

"Oh, good," said Rebolto. "You're getting a start on building your team. Now let's go. You two need to quickly finish building your team so you can figure out how to take down Draktos."

Garion smiled, feeling excited about his new fate, said, "We"ll just need a lift to Earth."

Rebolto nodded, saying, "Get in the meteor. But don't tell anyone who's not on your team that you are aliens," he warned. "If you do, they will think you are trying to take over the world like Draktos. They will want to get rid of you."

Garion and Purstan agreed to this information, but they didn't fully register this information given to them. They didn't realize now, but later they will learn that this information was the difference between life and death.

Garion and Purstan got in the meteor, Rebolto hit the 'E' button (Garion now realized what this meant), and they took off.

Chapter 5: One Step At A Time

The spaceship landed in the middle of a narrow, dark alley in Garion's former neighborhood, Lower Manhattan of New York. When they first landed, all Garion could make out was that it was midday. Just as quickly as it landed to drop off Garion and Purstan, the meteor disappeared again.

Before Rebolto left, he tossed Purstan some clothes. Garion noticed that there was only one pair.

"Wait, what about me?" Garion asked.

"Tear off your strings!" Rebolto yelled as the meteor almost immediately went hurtling into space.

"Did he just ask me what I think he asked me?" Garion questioned, a hint of fear in his voice.

"That will easily...wait, did you go through the purification process?" Purstan asked.

"The what?" Garion replied, puzzled.

"The purify...." Purstan sighed. "Were you born an alien or did you become one?"

"I became one," Garion replied.

"That's what I thought," Purstan commented, "considering you barely knew how to use your powers when we started practicing."

"Yeah," Garion replied, feeling a bit down, "but now I can do this."

Garion started making a ball out of his tentacles in his hand. He was about to shoot it at Purstan, before he caught it in mid-air.

"We don't have time to fool around, Garion. We have to go. Just trust me when I say tear off your strings, they will grow back. I will put on these clothes while you deal with that."

Garion started to tear off his strings, expecting pain. Though, as each individual tentacle fell off one by one, his normal clothes started to show. Before he knew it, he was Nirem again.

"I'm...I'm not a...a...a...freak!" Nirem could barely make out the words.

"Just keep in mind that you should only do this rarely," Purstan replied, "because you never want to expose your human body, where you are more likely to die than in your alien one. But yes, you're still human on the inside. Literally."

Within seconds, they looked like normal kids again, wearing worn baseball caps, torn jeans, and basic T-shirts. No one would have second-guessed them.

"The first thing we have to do now is look for a place to build our team base," Garion said, taking charge, feeling more confident about the fact that he is still human. "We'll need an area to build our training ground and then search for the right team to assist in helping us defeat Draktos."

"Agreed," Purstan said back. "Let's look around for an available lot of land." They both looked at each other from head to toe one last time to make sure they looked normal and then headed out of the alley into the city streets.

The city was busier than ever. There was a huge line of traffic that stretched so far that Garion thought it ended out of town. People were everywhere, walking up and down the sidewalks and back and forth across the streets; cars were honking for the people to stop blocking traffic. For some strange reason, it seemed that almost everybody had a copy of the newspaper in his or her hands. Some were huddled together reading while others were walking and talking so fast that it was hard to make out what they were saying.

"What"s going on?" Garion asked Purstan, confused. Purstan shrugged.

They crossed the street to get closer to the action. Garion found a copy of the newspaper, left on top of an outdoor café table of a restaurant, and picked it up. He started scanning the headlines.

There was a lengthy article about Tom Granger, CEO of a major construction company, and known billionaire, and his plans to build a majestic mansion, surrounded by a moat, on a large, private section of land in the heart of the city.

"Perfect!" Garion exclaimed. "Now, all we have to do is somehow get access to Granger and negotiate with him directly to give us the mansion and land, which would be a key part in building our plan to eventually defeat Draktos."

"We have a little problem, Garion," Purstan realized.

"What?"

"Not only the problem of how we could convince TOM GRANGER to give us his land for no cost at all without revealing that we are aliens, but also how we even get across the moat?"

"Darn it, I forgot that we can't reveal that we are aliens," Garion groaned. "If worst come to worst, we could always think of a 'creative' way to obtain the mansion from Granger."

Purstan smiled.

"Wait, but what about the moat?" Purstan asked, still puzzled on how they could even attempt to accomplish a task like that.

"Don't worry, I thought of something for that, too. Follow me."

When they reached the moat (by walking, due to the intense traffic), they ducked behind the nearest alley.

"There are security guards everywhere," Purstan gasped. "Where's your genius plan now?"

"Like I said, follow me."

They walked outside, towards the two security guards next to the bridge toward the moat, near the surrounding boats around the moat, keeping watch for intruders.

Garion, not wanting to tell Purstan that he didn't realize how many security guards there would be, then noticed the kayaks. A big smile started to creep over his face as he noticed the rocks at the bottom of the moat.

"Purstan, you're able to levitate things, right?" Garion asked.

"Yeah," Purstan answered, confused to what Garion was up to.

"OK," Garion responded, "so here's the plan. I want your to levitate that rock hard enough to break the kayak right above it. Then, just follow my lead."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Garion."

"Me too," Garion murmured as Purstan started to levitate the rocks.

Garion watched the rocks slowly rise off of the moat's floor, reaching towards the kayaks. The stone's then broke the kayak's bottom surface with a rigid blow, sinking the kayak, along with the two startled security guards, into the water.

Before anyone could even react, Garion jumped to the rescue.

"We'll save you!" Garion screamed in the most cheesy, unheroic voice.

He then called for Purstan.

"C'mon Jacob," Garion called in the similar voice, "let's show Jordan what heroes really are!"

Purstan, realizing his cue, started running for the water along with Garion.

"Wait," one of the security guards called out, "we can handle the situation! You don't need to...."

But Garion and Purstan were already in the water, swimming toward the security guards.

Garion knew they had to act fast. When he reached the first security guard, he quickly shoved him down deeper into the water, motioning for Purstan to do the same.

Purstan, still puzzled, did as he was told.

Both of the security guards, still in a daze from what just happened, we're confused on what to do, where to go. Garion already made sure to use this time to his advantage.

He motioned for Purstan to follow him as he swam around the moat to the other, unguarded side. It took them a little while, but as they swam Garion noticed they didn't have to breathe.

When they reached the other side of the moat, they swam to the surface gripping onto land as they did so. Purstan started gasping for breath, while Garion just stood there, calm as he could ever be.

"What kind of plan was that?" Purstan asked in disbelief.

"Well," Garion started, "now all of these security guards saw us jump in the water, trying to play hero, right?"

Purstan, still confused, nodded.

"Well, now that we vanished and no one saw our disappearance, they're looking for two missing children that tried to play hero. No one wants missing children on their hands. Especially a billionaire."

"I think I see where your going with this," Purstan understood.

"So, while all the security guards are looking for us 'missing children,' we use this window of time to talk or, if needed, forcibly negotiate to Granger about our team base. Then we move on to Draktos."

Purstan stood up, feeling satisfied.

"I did want to ask you something about my breathing...." Garion asked, but was then cut off by a familiar voice.

"So what are you waiting for?" Granger asked from behind them with a stern, old voice. "How about you 'forcibly negotiate' with me?"
Chapter 6: Negotiations

While Granger may have been old white man, he did dress in style. Being about the height of Garion, he walked the two inside his mansion, blazer on and looking sharp. He seemed like a typical corporate CEO, ready to pitch a business deal to anybody and everybody. Unfortunately for the two of them, they weren't meeting this very famous man in the best of conditions.

As Garion and Purstan entered inside the back door, they noticed the inside of the mansion was absolutely gorgeous with shiny white marble walls and matching marble floors. Purple curtains surrounded every window, greatly commenting the rest of the mansion. To the right of them was a shiny, white, giant marble staircase leading up a floor. The staircase, seeming to cover most of the back of the entire room (the main hall being about the size of an average house), stretched up and in two directions, left and right. Garion and Purstan noticed two small hallways on those two top floors on either side of the mansion, probably leading to bedrooms.

All Garion and Purstan could pay attention to though was Granger walking ahead of them, telling every other person near him that he had to quickly attend to other matters. Nirem felt like he was being taken to the principal's office after doing something awful. It was an agonizing feeling.

Granger led Garion and Purstan to a little room off to the left of the hallway that also had shiny marble walls and floors. The three of them sat down at a large solid oak table; the two boys sat on one side and Tom sat on the other. Tom folded his hands on top of the table and smiled again. Garion and Purstan looked at each other, puzzled.

"By now, I would have usually thrown you out and slap you with a fine, but I heard you mention Draktos."

Granger sat up in his chair, a serious look coming over his face.

"Now, for the sake of argument, I'm going to assume that you two aren't some childish teenagers trying to fight a mythical creature. This is mostly because I pay attention."

Garion and Purstan looked at each other, worried that their secret might have been revealed.

"That's right," Granger started again, "I figured it all out. But it didn't really hit me until I saw you two."

Granger looked into Nirem's eyes directly. He felt that principal feeling in his stomach again.

"You see, my limo was driving by Steven Park while it happened," Ganger continued, "so I got to see a little glimpse of the action. What I did manage to catch though was that spaceship. Along with you being sucked inside it, with a dark figure following after you."

"What's he talking about?" Purstan whispered.

"I grew up on the legend of Draktos," Granger continued, "so you can probably imagine the look on my face. So when I found you sitting at my doorsteps, I knew you wanted to be some kind of hero and take revenge on your kidnapping. Though what still confuse me is what that blasted figure was shouting at you. With my old ears, I couldn't make out any of that gibberish."

Granger then looked at Nirem with a puzzled face.

"So tell me boy, what is your real role in all of this?"

Garion, still shocked from what Granger knew, managed to make out, "More than you need to know."

Ganger stared at him for a second, then laughed.

"Of course it is! Guess I was wrong about you two. You are just some crazed teens. Well, off you go then."

Granger stood up from his seat, and Purstan followed, leaving Garion in his state of confusion.

"Listen, we really need this land...."

Granger turned around, startled that they would even attempt to ask such a question to a man of his stature.

"You two honestly expect me too give up a plot of land worth more than your parents probably even make," Granger said, looking at their street clothes, "just to find the person that captured you? Now, since you helped shed a little light on a mystery that has been on my mind for the past couple of days, I will permit you to leave right now without me having to call security."

Purstan was about to retaliate, but Garion stood up and stopped him. They knew talking was no use. They knew what they had to do.

Purstan then tried to communicate to him with facial expressions, putting on a face that said, "We could find another plot of land."

Garion then retaliated, with a face that said, "With a plot of land isolated from the rest of the city where we could plan for Draktos? That's not going to happen anywhere else but here. Also, we don't have the time to look for another land. Draktos could be on his way right now to Earth."

Garion then closed his eyes and concentrated. He wasn't sure if it would work, but he had to try. Steadily, tentacles started creeping over his body. Nirem felt like he was back where he was first transformed, the "Purification Chamber," as he remembered Purstan calling it. The feeling was agonizing. All of those strings seeping out of his body again. Garion almost collapsed under the stress.

Once the strings had fully enveloped him, Garion looked over at Purstan, who took his shirt off, unearthing the spikes he hid in his skin.

Granger just stood there, in a state of shock. He managed to stumble back into the conference room, closing the door behind him.

"What...are you?" Granger asked in shock.

"Aliens," Purstan answered. "And we need this land."

"Unless you want your 'childhood legend' to take over this planet," Garion sarcastically remarked, "That's the most we can tell you, so you will have to base your decision off that knowledge only."

Granger slumped back into his chair.

"What happened Granger? The puzzle pieces to big for a CEO like you to handle?"

Granger thought for a second, and then responded, "Sorry, guys, but no. I need this land to build my new mansion and use it as a tax shelter. Even if I could give you this land, there's no way this would go unnoticed. 'Granger gives tax shelter to random teenagers.' The press would eat this story up."

The hopeful boys frowned as Tom tried to lighten the mood, "Unless you have $500 million to offer for it?"

This wasn't going to be as easy as Garion and Purstan first thought.

"Can you give us a minute?" Garion asked. Tom, still dumbfounded why two aliens wanted a tax shelter, obliged. They excused themselves and went outside to talk.

"What do we do now?" Garion asked. "I mean, he is right. There is no way he can just give two people, especially teenagers, a tax shelter just because they asked nicely. Also, he probably wouldn't give it up anyway."

"We don't need to worry about him giving the mansion up," Purstan said calmly, "we're aliens. He'll give us his fortune if we phrase the question right. What we do need to worry about though is what you said: how can he just give us his mansion?"

Purstan and Garion thought for what seemed like hours, wondering how this could be done, until the idea flew over his foot. Literally.

"Okay," Garion said. "If we can't negotiate with him, we're going to have to fool him into wanting to give us the mansion."

"So how are we going to do that?" Purstan asked, totally confused.

"By finding the creepiest animals and putting them in the mansion, scaring everyone, including Granger, away," Garion smiled.

Still puzzled, but not finding much point in arguing about it, Purstan sighed, "Okay."

Garion and Purstan snuck back inside the mansion into one of the partially completed bathrooms so they could plot out which creatures they were going to put in the mansion.

"What animal should we even put in the mansion that would scare away a billionaire?" Purstan questioned.

"Don't worry," replied Garion. "I already found an idea." He picked up the rat that flew over his foot as it tried to again, and held it up like a prize. Purstan smiled.

They went back inside the conference room, but then they saw it. Granger was gone.

Garion and Purstan knew they didn't have time. Granger would tell everyone who they really were. And Garion knew they couldn't afford to be seen.

Garion was about to run inside to the main lobby of the mansion until Purstan stopped him.

"Change back," Purstan whispered with force, "now!"

Garion started the transformation process again, feeling like a master at it. He ripped off each strand of tentacle, one by one, until he was human again. He then watched the tentacles sink into the ground, pondering where they were headed. Garion suddenly started to realized that when Purstan showed Granger his true alien from, he ripped off his clothes as well.

"Purstan!" Garion exclaimed. "Your clothes!"

Purstan looked down and realized it, knowing he would have to stay behind.

"We've wasted enough time already, go!"

Garion ran into the main hallway, looking out for Granger. The main hallway, filled with construction workers with plans, hammers, etc., flooded the hallway in orange suits, so it wasn't hard to notice the old man running through the back door as fast as his little legs could carry him.

Garion started pushing his way past all the construction workers, but it got harder as people realized he was just a teenager.

"What the hell?"

"Hey, this is no place for hide and seek!"

"We have work to do!"

Some people even tried to grab Garion and shove him out of the way, pushing towards the door. Garion kept pushing along, until three construction workers stopped him.

"Hey," one of the workers yelled over all the noise in the room, "this is no place for kids."

"Get out now and we won't bring you to the guards," another construction worker said.

Garion, surrounded by guards didn't know what to do. He had to get to Granger and fast. He couldn't afford to waste time like this. On the other hand though, the construction workers surrounded him. He didn't know what to do. So, without really thinking, Garion threw the first punch.

The entire mansion erupted like a roar of fire, as one punch led to the other like a Rube Goldberg, and the entire mansion was in a fight. Punches led to lamps being thrown, lamps being thrown led to guards being pushed into a marble wall. It was like a bar fight in a mansion.

While everything (and everyone) was exploding in anger, Garion took this chance to sneak through under one of the men's legs, darting through the back door, through all the chaos. He ran outside to the area where he and Purstan swam in and saw Granger, ready to jump.

"What are you doing?!" Garion exclaimed.

"A..A..aliens...they're not real...none of it...," Granger mumbled as he stumbled toward the water.

Garion knew what was going to happen so he didn't move, and tried to calm Granger down.

"It's O.K.," Garion calmly whispered, "we're not going to hurt you. We'll just...walk away from your life. Yeah. We'll just walk away, and pretend this never happened."

"Impossible...you...can't be...I'm dreaming."

With that, he jumped.

Purstan jumped out from the bushes he was concealed in and leapt like a panther on Granger, as they both collapsed on the ground.

"I'm not staying out of this fight," Purstan panted, "not after that riot you caused inside."

They sat Granger on the edge of the moat, holding him down as they talked.

"Listen," Garion sternly said, "we don't have much time so this is how it's going to work. You don't even need to shun your image by giving us the land, just leave. Purstan and I will start a rat infestation and you will get out due to this. We will deal with the unoccupied mansion."

"But...my mansion...."

Purstan realizing that Garion was right on their time restraints, continued with the sternness, "You will give it to us, or do we have you use our powers on you?"

Granger tried to back away, but Purstan and Garion held him down firmly.

"No! Please! It's yours! It's yours!"

"That's what I thought," Garion smiled, "now, here's the plan. Go inside to your mansion, and just act normal. We will work on the rats."

"O...Ok."

As Tom went inside, Garion turned around and saw the boats.

Five of them, headed straight for them. Garion managed to make out, from a distance, that they were the same security boats from when they "entered" this facility. Each one with guards, looking very worried. That's when he then realized that they hadn't seen him yet, and were still looking for them. He pulled Purstan into the bushes as they passed. Garion did manage to hear some crosstalk though.

"We can't keep doing this," one of the guards said, "they're just not here."

"Well, what else are we going to do?" another guard asked. "Go tell the public two kids drowned trying to play hero?"

"I say we just make one more round, and then we give up. There's no point in looking for something that's not there."

As the boats passed, Nirem thought for a second. One round. Nirem, with his high school and college math education, did some calculations.

"We have 7 minutes," he said grimly.

"So how are we going to get the rats inside in time?" Purstan asked.

"With a little 'pet' I picked up before the mob."

Garion pulled out the rat from his pocket, still breathing and scurrying. He then, also feeling like a master at this, changed back into an alien, growing back each string one by one. When they all grew back, Garion stuffed the rat inside his string.

He then held out his arms, closed his eyes, and concentrated.

Persistently, rats started to fly out of Garion's hands as they scurried across the island, most of them aiming for the open back door with the still-rioting construction workers.

Before they knew it, Garion and Purstan heard screaming from the hallway. Tom's voice echoed through the hallways.

"Rats! Filthy rats! In my mansion?! Who knows how many more rodents there could be in here!?"

Garion and Purstan quickly ran back inside.

Granger came storming out the front door shortly after, as Garion and Purstan silently followed. His face was beet-red.

"Listen," Granger whispered, "just make sure no one knows you're here. If you get caught, it's my butt they're frying, so try to avoid any detection at all."

"You better remember not to expose us," Garion whispered back, "or else." He did manage to mumble a thanks though before Granger left.

Granger walked away with some guards steaming mad, but looked back and managed a wink at Garion.

All the construction workers, forgetting their past, ran away from the rabies-infested animals, completely forgetting about Garion and Purstan.

Before they knew it, the construction workers started to run off to the lifeboats, leaving their supplies for the rats as they quickly made their escape from the island.

"We did it!" Garion smiled.

"Okay, but remember that that is only half of the job," Purstan reminded him. "Now we should start making our team and actually building our base."

"Now all we have to do is just lay low and make sure it doesn't get out to the public that we are staying here," Garion told Purstan.

"Then we build...I mean finish building our team," Purstan smiled.

He then walked inside the mansion and stood in the center of the hallway and stretched out his hands, palms up. Within seconds, he sucked the rats back into his hands. They were now really ready to build their team.
Chapter 7: The Answers

"It's beautiful," Draktos whispered to his shadows, lurking around his newly built base. "Just...beautiful."

He put his blueprints away, and looked around at all the tunnels; leading from the front hallway all the way to the back door, and all of them fully operational. In front of him a there was a small dugout built with a podium towards the front of the room for announcements, and to the right lay the sleeping quarters, a bunk bed and a desk in each one. While none of them were in "quality" condition (the bed's used, podium a faded shade red, white, and blue, and the tunnels still with chunks of dirt in them), it was good enough. Besides, it would soon be over, anyway. Draktos took in the entire lair.

Everything was going according to plan. It was only a matter of time before the universe was his. He just needed to tie up some loose ends.

Draktos then gathered the construction workers that helped him build this together.

While all of these workers had a build that showed that they could start a bar fight (like Garion's base) at any moment, they definitely didn't act like it.

Draktos floated his way over to the podium, calm as ever.

"C...c...can we go now?" one of them asked, muffled in his speaking.

"We..we...did everything you asked," another worker responded. "We just wanna go home...."

"We haven't even had dinner yet," Draktos said calmly.

Before the workers could even respond to such an accusation, the shadows descended on them like hungry beasts, each one feasting on a worker's soul. Pushing a worker to the ground, the shadows started their meal, slithering into their body from their already screaming mouths, feasting on the contents inside. Some tried to run but the shadows simply blocked their path, and without even realizing it they had run through the beasts, collapsing after doing so. The shadows devoured through the workers like a human would devour through dinner, feasting on their souls and insides like a fresh hamburger.

As the blood-feast and screaming continued, Draktos simply walked away to his sleeping quarters of his base, never looking back. Directly above them, Garion and Purstan had just walked inside to their mansion, about to respond to a call from Rebolto.

...

"How did it go?" Garion asked Rebolto from a monitor that they managed to set up.

"20 contestants at LEAST on each planet," Rebolto responded. "We don't have time to watch all of them, but head over to Jupiter. They haven't started their tournament yet, and you can still tune into that one. I'll send in the meteor to the dock. ETA, 10 minutes."

The monitor clicked off, and Garion took one of the many seats in the repainted conference room.

"What were you saying earlier about those flyers being 'stupid?'" Garion teased.

"How did they end up working, anyways?"

"Just plaster my name and 'team' on the same poster, and everyone would be attracted like flies to a dead guy," Garion replied.

They both laughed, as Garion opened his newly ordered mini-fridge and tossed Purstan a soda, opening up one for himself as well.

Garion still marveled at how fast he adapted to these people's alien culture and his destiny, now starting to get more comfortable with the fact that the fate of the universe rests in his hands. As the days went by, it seems Garion's fears went with them. Garion started to realize that not only would he be able to take on Draktos, but he would have his soon-to-be team to help him do so. So far, Garion has been amazed at the powers Purstan had shown him, and was eager to learn more. It seemed as though Garion started to form a bond with Purstan; a friendship like Garion had never had before.

"Besides," Garion continued, "I learned that from you."

"The only reason I was excited to see you when we first met was because I followed that type of news," Purstan replied, "I didn't think anyone else did."

"When we 'first met'?'" Garion chuckled. "You act like we've known each other for years. It's only been a couple of weeks."

"Yeah," Purstan replied, "but look at how much we got done in those weeks. We finished building AN ENTIRE MANSION."

"Well," Garion replied, feeling good about himself after that statement, "that's mostly because we are aliens. Also, we only needed to repair the damage from the damage the construction workers made from that one fight."

"Was the fight really necessary?"

"I panicked."

After saying the statement, Garion ran it over in his mind repeatedly. Aliens. That's what they are. They are aliens. Only two weeks ago, he had been living a normal life, not dealing with the pressures of universe saving. He had been at a normal school, with normal....

"MY PARENTS!" Garion practically fell off the chair screaming.

He ran to the monitor and started video chatting with Rebolto, the fear in his eyes unavoidable. When Rebolto answered the call, Garion just blurted it out.

"Can I help...." Rebolto started.

"My parents! My parents! Where are they?" Garion screamed into the monitor as if Rebolto was really there, standing right next to him.

After cussing under his breath, Rebolto replied, "Ah. Your parents. Well, we had an original plan for them, as well as you, when Draktos arrived. We were supposed to take them with us when you were evacuated from your school but...."

"But?" Garion angrily demanded.

"But...we couldn't really extract them from their homes with you being kidnapped. Your safety was our number one priority."

Garion, shocked at what he just heard, practically whispered his response, so much that even Purstan, still confused at the current situation, couldn't understand him.

"Are you telling me that my parents could be dead?" Garion whispered.

"We will send out a rescue team to your house immediately," Rebolto responded hurriedly and then the monitor clicked off.

Garion stood there, paralyzed in shock. How could he have forgotten his own parents? Even in all the excitement, he forgot the two most important things in the world to him?

"Garion, listen...."

The roar of the meteor heated up the backyard, the roar of the engines heard from the conference room.

"We should probably go," Garion responded, seeming to not pay attention to his surroundings.

They walked outside to the meteor and got inside, Garion's parents on his mind. Purstan clicked the J button, and they were off.

...

"Attention!" Draktos called out to his fellow shadows.

"Garion and Purstan have just left on their asteroid-device. Here is our window of time, use it well."

Draktos' teammates started eagerly whispering amongst themselves.

Draktos continued, "The blueprints of the mansion have been made. Now all we have to do is find the hidden parts. The team will be divided into four groups. One covers the back, one the front, one team on the moat and one team on the actual inside of the mansion."

The team unanimously agreed to the plan.

"Then let's get ready to show Garion what we're made of," Draktos said with a big grin forming over his face.

...

"I still don't get how we can survive on Jupiter with all of that gravity," Garion asked, now realizing that, for the time being, there is nothing he can do about his parents, "we would get squashed like a cockroach."

"That's why we have these," Purstan said.

He walked over to the edge of the "room" inside the meteor, and opened a camouflage door. Inside it were multiple types of suits, each type for a different planet. They were all conveniently modeled after Earth, being shaped like astronauts suits. Each of them were color-coded based on the general color of the planet. Purstan grabbed two suits from the Jupiter section, and tossed one to Garion.

"Planetary suits," Purstan said to Garion as he put on his. "They adapt to what type of species you are, and modify the suit accordingly. These suits are the entire reason we were able to travel to different planets to begin with."

"You aliens are really advanced," Garion commented.

The meteor started to land, and then Garion asked the one question he had been holding in the whole flight.

"How are we at Jupiter in only a couple of hours?" Garion asked in shock.

"How do you think the Martians got to Earth so fast when they needed to?" Purstan answered. "We discovered how to travel at the speed of light and survive many years ago. You humans must be really behind, then. You can take off your travel suit now."

"Well, I guess I just figured out what the 'travel suit' is for," Garion realized, "light speed travel, right?"

"It's kind of the same idea of a plane," Purstan tried to explain, "how can you travel at 600 miles an hour and barely feel a thing?"

Garion considered this idea and thought of reasons to counter it, but didn't feel like arguing with a being that is obviously more advanced than he is.

The meteor landed, and Garion got off. He kept trying to hide his excitement (after all, he was the first "human" to land on Jupiter) as he walked into what he thought was an entirely gas planet. He walked outside and was amazed at what he saw; an entire civilization, built completely out of stone.

"I thought you said aliens were more advanced then humans," Garion asked, continuing to stare at the barren landscape that is Jupiter, "these ones seem to be living in what us humans used to live in hundreds of years ago."

"I keep forgetting that you are not a 'normal' alien," Purstan responded, "so I guess I forgot to tell you. Out of all the planets, Jupiter is the most barren. Since no one realized that this planet had life on it since everyone thought the planet was entirely made out of gas, no aid was given to the planet. By the time it was discovered that this planet had managed to sustain life, it (and its inhabitants) had already plummeted into a deep depression. We are trying to help them out right now, but it doesn't look so good for them."

Garion looked around at the planet. There was nobody in sight, not a soul stirring.

"Please don't tell me these aliens are invisible."

"Don't worry, you're good."

"Then where is everybody?"

"Waiting for you."

He then started leading Garion through the rocky desert of Jupiter, and as Garion passed each stone house he observed it more closely. The brown stone was slowly starting to deteriorate, showing signs of fading. Peeking inside the "windows" (holes in the stone walls), Garion saw a stone table, stone chairs. Purstan wasn't kidding when he said that these people were in poverty.

As they walked past all the houses, they wandered into a very sandy and deserted area. All Garion could see ahead of him was the force of the desert sand hitting him full on, with no break. Managing to catch glimpses of his surroundings for periods of time where he could quickly look up without getting sand in his eyes, all Garion saw was a barren wasteland that seemed to stretch out for miles. The land seemed infinite to him; he felt like he was sent on a death march, walking until the end. Though, he obviously didn't want to tell Purstan that.

After what seemed like hours of walking, Garion started to make out something in the distance. They seemed to be the same fading shade of brown Garion noticed earlier, but this time the rocks seemed to be moving. Not blowing in the wind, but walking.

One of the rocks appeared to get closer and closer to him, until before he knew it, he was on the ground, a giant rock right on top of him. Though as Garion tried to push the rock aside of its path, it punched him in the face.

"Hey, you think you can...." the rock started, until he looked more closely at the face of the person he had just landed on.

The rock then preceded to get up off the ground with its two working legs, and bowed in Garion's presence.

"Oh Gatekeeper," it started, "I am so sorry for my landing upon you."

He started to dust off Garion, feeling very ashamed of his actions. Garion just stood there with his mouth open. The talking rock had two arms and two legs like a normal human being, except no fingers and toes. Also, his entire body was made out of a solid gravel and cement type of rock. Each rock was easily noticeable in his body, so he looked like a last-minute science project glued together with light, scared yellow eyes. Garion, thinking of the rock as just some birth deformity, was shocked by the poor formation of the rocks throughout the alien's face. Though, while it may have been made out of solid rock, the alien seemed so scared and innocent. In addition, he was only up to Garion's waist.

"Please forgive me," the talking rock continued as Garion stared with no shame at it, "and please consider me for your team. I am an excellent fighter and...."

"You can speak...." Garion tried to cut him off, but he too was cut off by Purstan.

"Sorry, but the champion is the only one that can join our team. You really need to be the best of the best."

The talking rock frowned, and walked away in sadness.

"You don't want to hurt our reputation by letting all of Jupiter know that you didn't know about all of Jupiter," Purstan whispered to him.

He then started to speak normal again, noticing that the talking rock had disappeared.

"What...was that?!" Garion asked, still in shock from what he just saw.

"That," Purstan responded, "is a fellow Jupiter inhabitant. That's what they look like. That's also why their houses are made out of stone; they like living in their own material. Though we feel they just don't know what's out there yet, and, once all they obtain our new technology, we bet they are going to love it. Now come on, the coliseum's this way."

Purstan took Garion's hand, and walked him over to the giant, white dome in the middle of a desert during a heated sandstorm. Garion was going to ask about the peculiar location of the dome, but now he learned to stop asking questions and start judging fighting rocks.
Chapter 8: The Battle At Jupiter

Pedestrians passed the island as normal, not realizing the shadows at their work directly in front of them. The shadows moved swiftly through the night, without even the sound of a whisper. Gliding through the air like a paper airplane, they crept along, looking for anything out of place. The doors to Garion's base may have been locked, but no matter; all they had to do was glide in with ease, and slip through the walls by blending into them. As they melted inside the wall as gentle as the morning breeze, and reappeared on the other side as if the task was like walking, they looked around in marvel at the mansion that would soon fall.

They never looked down; never wanting to see their faceless reflection staring up at the moon, mocking them for the bright young people they used to be.

"This is hell," they always thought, "punished by the gods and forced to work for a madman, this is what happens when you've been bad."

As they moved through the night they gathered information: ventilation system in the garage leading to main hallway, a small hole near Garion's room, etc. They continued to search throughout the whole night, their peak of fruition. As they floated past one another, Draktos stood and watched at the foot of the water facing the mansion. He too a being just a mere shadow with a cape, Draktos stared at Garion's mansion with glee.

"Just two more days my brethren," he whispered to the shadows, "just two more days and Garion shall die."

The shadows whispered in excitement, in an eerie, foreign language it seemed Draktos could only understand. He simply smiled and flung a rubber-band at Garion's mansion, the mansion that would soon tumble to the ground.

...

"Give them hell!" they shouted.

"Pull off one of his stones!"

"Break off one of his legs!"

The crowd was screaming like a herd of rhinoceros when they walked in, not even pausing to realize that the reason they were fighting just walked in the room.

"How do all of these aliens even speak English?" Garion asked as they walked into the dome to find their seats.

"Adaptation," Purstan shouted back, "now let's go to our 'court-side' seats."

As Garion and Purstan maneuvered their way through the violent crowd, Garion noticed the similarities.

Besides the fact that it was the most high-tech stadium Garion had ever seen, the entire stadium was shaped exactly like a football field. There were rows and rows of benches stretched in a circular fashion, stretching farther than Garion could see, and these rock-aliens filled the stands, each one cheering as if their life depended on it, even throwing objects into the ring. Though there were many distinct differences as well; all the benches were a bright, new white, unstained. Each row of benches had a row of computers as well, where it seemed people could place bets on the fighting aliens. Around the area Garion noticed food stands, selling very peculiar items like a rock-squid and moon spiders; 3 for 4.68! While Garion wasn't sure of the currency that those were for sale in, he was sure of one thing that was different, and that was everything.

"What happened to Jupiter being 'the poorest planet?'" Garion asked sarcastically.

"Well," Purstan responded smartly, "like I said earlier, we are trying to help Jupiter get adapted to our new technology. So, as you can see, there are definitely no complaints."

Garion and Purstan walked through the gates standing directly in front of them as they walked in, as the two guards, immediately recognizing them, opened the gates. When Garion and Purstan got to their seats, Garion noticed that there was a large, plasma screen T.V. towards the South wall of the building. And they were right on it.

The crowd gave a standing ovation for the two, screaming as loud as they could in excitement. Garion felt the energy around him as the crowd applauded, the vibe as each person in the seemingly endless stadium stood up applauding, and it felt so good. That was the moment that Garion knew, that he was special.

As Garion and Purstan got situated, a rock alien about the size of Garion was thrown at the stone wall beside him, seemingly unconscious. Garion noticed the chunks of stone that seemed to be ripped out of his body, and looked over to the stage where he saw the individual pieces on the floor.

The crowd endlessly roared boo's for the victor, a man two Garion's tall, as he descended upon the two. He then bowed in their respects, gracefully.

"I am honored to be in such a noble warrior's presence," the alien responded in his voice almost as deep as a hard, shallow rock itself. "I hope you will pick me as your fellow teammate."

The tall rock got up and walked toward the center of the stage, preparing for battle. His face was unreadable; his eyes, nose, and mouth emotionless; all Garion knew was that the Jupiterian was ready to kill whoever came out of the door directly in front of him.

"Ladies and gentleman," the announcer said loud into the microphone in his deep, rock hard voice, "if you haven't noticed, we have a special appearance from the contest holders themselves!"

The crowd roared in excitement, some of them even standing up again. Garion simply waved to the people.

"And they came just in time, because this is our FINAL BATTLE!"

The crowd continued to scream and roar, almost fainting at the sound of the announcer's words.

"I guess we're a little late," Garion whispered to Purstan.

"Tonight's contestants are: Tyrone, the crusher of the competition!"

The crowd booed at the sound of his name, the tall rock that Garion talked to getting ready for battle as the name was said, cracking his knuckles like fighters did on Earth. Garion was amazed at the alien's adaptation skills.

"Also, our last competitor, Jordan, the destroyer of souls!"

The crowd roared and screamed in excitement as the doors in front of Tyrone opened. Smoke seemed to cover the competitor's entrance, so Tyrone waited, keeping his eye out for anything suspicious. But when the smoke cleared, there was no one there.

Tyrone started to move close to the door, keeping his guard up. When he was inches away from the smoke screen door, he stopped. Tyrone turned around rapidly, but saw nothing. Suddenly, Jordan jumped on Tyrone's back from behind the door, pushing him to the ground. His body hit the ground with a hard thud like an earthquake, as Jordan got up from Tyrone's back. Before Tyrone could react, Jordan then continued to kick him rapidly, starting to knock off chunks of stone from his body.

Jordan then grabbed Tyrone by two loose stones, and threw him against the wall right beside Garion. As the wall started to give away with all the cracks and dents it sustained from that hit, Jordan was ready to charge.

It was in his eyes; the goals, the anger, everything boiled up as Jordan ran screaming across the room, ready for his belly flop.

Garion watched intensely as Tyrone gasped in pain, seemingly giving up as he attempted to crawl toward the other side of the ring. Then his eyes met Garion, and he rolled out of the way of Jordan's belly flop as he hit the ground with a thud as well.

Before Jordan could react, Tyrone was already on him, ripping off loose stones from his body and chucking them back at Jordan. Jordan then tripped Tyrone with his leg and attempted to get on top of him, but as Jordan jumped into the air to land on Tyrone, he grabbed Jordan by his two already loose shoulders and head-butted him, sending him too the floor. But Jordan wasn't done yet.

Jordan got up from the other side of the ring with the smoke screen doors, as Tyrone got up as well. They both looked each other dead in the eyes, ready to put all of their anger into one punch, Jordan seeming the more enraged of the two.

He ran tackling for Tyrone but, in one quick motion Tyrone moved out of the way and tripped Jordan with his leg, as Jordan fell to the floor again. Jordan got up this time, furious. He then started to attempt to punch Tyrone several times, but he simply dodged or blocked each punch, and returned it with ones ten times harder. Every punch Tyrone happened to fail dodging or blocking he took as a lesson to himself, applying the skills he learned seconds later, and Garion noticed this. Jordan tried to throw one more punch at Tyrone, but he caught the punch with his hands and squeezed it.

"Get out," Tyrone said calmly.

Tyrone head-butted Jordan, and he fell to the ground with one more grand thud. Tyrone walked over to Jordan's body and reached into his chest, pulling out his center stone. The crowd fell silent as he took the stone, and held it up. He then crushed it with his hands.

The crowd, with a sudden change of heart, erupted in applause and cheers. Rocks fell down from the audience as a sign of thanks, and Garion simply stared at Tyrone and smiled. Getting up, Garion walked over to Tyrone in the center of the stage, and stared at him intently as Tyrone returned his glance. They were both studying each other, knowing that they were soon to be work companions, day dreaming about their experiences together. The crowd quieted down as Garion started to speak.

"Tyrone," Garion started, "I may have just gotten here but after seeing you put it up with Jordan for what felt like hours, fall back down but then get back up, combating strength with wits, I can say only one thing."

Garion started to walk away from Tyrone, motioning for Purstan to follow him. The crowd started to worry and Tyrone started to sulk as the gates were opened and Garion walked outside.

Before Garion walked outside though, he turned around and asked, "Are you coming or not?"

The crowd applauded in excitement again, as Tyrone eagerly follow them outside of the stadium, his face full of glee.

"I did it," he thought. "I took down the strongest in our planet, and I beat him. I actually did it. Now it's time to take down Draktos once and for all. I will avenge you, my family."

He bowed again before walking outside with Garion and Purstan.

As they walked towards the meteor in the deep, rocky desert, the once buff Tyrone acted like an obsessed fan meeting his idol for the first time.

"So," Tyrone started, a big grin on his face, "where are we going now? Are we going to meet the rest of the team? When are we fighting Draktos?"

"Slow down, buddy," Purstan cut him off, "our goal is NOT to run into Draktos until we have a plan. Yes, we are going to meet the rest of the team. Where to, Garion?"

"Why me?" Garion asked.

"Because you're the gatekeeper," Purstan sarcastically responded, "and you can check if Rebolto called you."

Garion pulled out his new phone, or, as they call it, "Communication device," and stared at it. It wasn't even human-like; it was just a simple screen, no thinner then a piece of paper. When touched though, the screen changed like magic. After a few numerous taps on the phone to get to the video chat screen, Garion video-conferenced Rebolto.

"How'd it go in Jupiter?" Rebolto asked.

Garion turned the communication device towards Tyrone, who curiously looked at the phone, wondering what he should do. Garion turned the communication device back to himself.

"Perfect," Rebolto responded. "We are currently sending your whole team back to your base, but there is one that you will need to pick up, since they are not responding. Your first stop: Saturn. I'll meet you at your base, which, by the way, I heard about. We are going to have a serious talk about what you told Granger back at that mansion."

"Listen, Rebolto...." Garion started, but the screen clicked off, and Garion stuck the phone into his tentacles (his unlimited pocket) in sadness.

"What did he say?" Purstan asked.

"Well," Garion started, "besides the fact that we got busted for telling Granger we're aliens, he said we have to go pick up a teammate from Saturn that isn't responding to Rebolto's calls."

Purstan simply looked away from Garion, and cursed under his breath. Tyrone kept walking, being careful not to question anything.

When they arrived at the meteor, Garion started to notice life on this planet. He saw the rocks go back to their homes, the kids playing on the street with rocks they found on the ground. He looked all around and realized something; these aren't aliens. They're just like us: they have a society, a home, a family, and they shouldn't be treated as such. As Garion looked around at all the happy and eccentric faces, he noticed Tyrone following his glance.

"It's beautiful, isn't it," Tyrone told Garion as he watched the children run and play. "All of these people, free to live and play. It's such a happy time."

"And," Garion responded, still watching the children, "if we want to keep it like that we have to kill him."

Tyrone nodded, and they both walked onto the meteor's sliding door, Purstan inside waiting for them.

Garion started carefully looking for the S button, but as he looked around he noticed something very peculiar.

There were buttons underneath the nine scratched out, except they seemed to have been torn off. The light color of the walls made the dark, scratched out buttons stand out more easily, and Garion started to notice different letters: Q, T, Y, P. So many different letters, but they were all torn out and scratched off. Not wanting to bother Purstan with anymore questions, he clicked the S button and they were off to Saturn.

The journey was longer then the Jupiter trip, but only by an hour. Throughout the trip Garion constantly looked out the window, holding in his excitement for Saturn. Purstan fiddled with his communication device, while Tyrone sat and thought.

"I've never been to Earth," Tyrone suddenly spoke.

Both Garion and Purstan looked at Tyrone, it being the first time he has spoken since the coliseum.

"It sounds beautiful, by the way I've heard of it. Is it that great?"

"Yeah," Garion responded, "yeah, it's...a piece of work, that's what it is."

Then they started to talk, all three of them; about life, Draktos, their families. Purstan shared his story as well, something even Garion hasn't heard yet.

"A couple of years back," Purstan started, "I was playing with my friends while my mom watched me from our house. My dad was in Uranus for a business trip."

Garion and Tyrone watched intensely, as Purstan caught a tear falling out of his eye.

"One day, I get news. Just a rumor, but news. News that something happened to Uranus."

He caught another tear.

"Obviously, I was scared. My dad was on Uranus. Uranus was on my mind constantly, when he would be coming home. The business trip was supposed to be three days, and it took three weeks for me to find out that the entire planet of Uranus had been wiped out by some dark force. It only took me a couple of minutes from there for me to figure out it was Draktos, slowly leeching his way into our solar system."

Purstan tried to catch the next tears, but they just kept streaming down his face.

"Draktos killed my dad and, not only that, I used to live on Uranus. All my relatives were on Uranus. Now all I have left is my mom, who is constantly paranoid that Venus is next."

Purstan sniveled, and continued.

"I just don't get it," Purstan asked, "what did we ever do? So I investigated. After a little bit of digging, I found out why Draktos wants you dead."

To this Garion leaned in closely, listening intensely.

"It's something that people like to call TLS, The Lone System. Legend has it that long ago, when the universe was created, the creator made a boundary, a wall protecting this galaxy from outer dark forces, making the planets inside this line the ideal place to set up life. The shield extends throughout the Milky Way galaxy, but as time passed the shield has deteriorated. It has shrunken so much, being pushed by so many dark forces that the line only now extends in our solar system. Even now, Draktos is still able to destroy planets just outside the core of the TLS, our solar system."

Garion and Tyrone just sat there listening, not a blink out of their eyes.

"But the creator knew he had to entrust the power of gatekeeper, the person who keeps this boundary active, to somebody. A special somebody. Someone who would defeat the dark forces and withstand the evil. You are the gatekeeper, Garion."

Garion took in all of this information, still trying to process his role in all of this. Then he asked the big question:

"So they weren't kidding when the Council of Mars told me that the fate of the universe rests in my hands. But how has the TLS shrunken that much, even after all of this time?"

"Mix in natural falling asteroids with Draktos' failed attempts, and you have a shrinking TLS. The outskirts seemed to be simply a shield for the shield, though. The real TLS, as I said earlier, seems to lie this Solar System."

"So then how did Draktos manage to get inside the TLS to begin with?"

"I have no idea. The fact that Draktos enters the TLS specifically to find you could mean that he's known how to all along, and that he has just been waiting for the right time to use his trick."

"Wait a second, when the attack at Steven Park High School occurred, Draktos seemed weak. He not only had to takeover our janitor's body, but he also had to take over our teacher's, killing them both in the process. That doesn't sound like someone who had a method to get inside the TLS."

"Maybe," Purstan thought out loud, "just maybe, Draktos didn't have a plan. He couldn't get into the TLS. Maybe when the Gatekeeper, you, were born, maybe he triggered some sort of force, allowing Draktos, and only Draktos, to enter the TLS."

"But why? My goal is to keep Draktos out of the TLS."

"Maybe this is how your god, Shabithi, wanted it to be. Maybe Shabithi wanted you two to have this final showdown to determine the fate of all the shadows."

"So if I die then the TLS...."

Purstan nodded, and the engine started to slow down.

"Lets go," said Tyrone. "The quicker we get back to Earth, the quicker we kill the man that killed my family."

Tyrone, obviously being the most excited yet nervous one, was the first to open the door.

The cold air rushed through the meteor, the chilling feeling filling the room since all three of them forgot to put on their planetary suits. It felt like the entire North Pole had been thrown like a snowball right into their faces, as they combated the tyranny of the air. Though they had other things to worry about, as well.

The wind that followed the cold air rushed in the meteor as well, pulling on anything near it. One by one objects began to fly out of the meteor as the vicious wind tore the meteor apart, and sucked Tyrone out of it like a vacuum.

Garion grabbed for the nearest object, being a the closet door handle that decided not to pray victim to the despicable wind. Purstan grabbed for the other door handle, clinging onto it for dear life.

"Tyrone!" Garion shouted. "Tyrone!" "Answer me!"

"We have to close the door!" Purstan shouted over the wind.

"Not without Tyrone!" Garion screamed.

"We have to close the door! We can chase after Tyrone later, let's not end up like him!"

Purstan reached for the door. But Garion extended his tentacles, pulling Purstan back. He saw a hand.

A rocky hand. Then another. The unique pattern of rock Garion had been staring at the whole flight was much different then the space rocks floating by. He knew, from the texture of the rocks, the cracks on the hands, that Tyrone was clinging on for dear life. The smile on Garion's face was indescribable.

"Push!" Garion screamed.

"How do you expect him to do that with all this wind?!" Purstan shouted even louder through fear.

Though, like a dog to its owner, sure enough Tyrone's hands started to struggle, some of it even crumbling away. He pushed harder and harder, the stress on his hands evident, until his face was visible in sight, resisting the strain.

Tyrone then with one mighty motion jumped inside the meteor, and clung on to a piece of rope Garion had thrown him from the closet. Garion struggled to hold on.

"The button!" Garion screamed. "Click the button!"

With a click of the nearest button Tyrone could find marked to close the vessel, he hit it with all his might, and the door to the meteor shut, Tyrone barely making his legs inside.

The three fell to the ground from the lack of wind, and stood there panting. Garion and Purstan were panting half the might of Tyrone though, breathing louder then an elephant, not even to make out part of a word. After five minutes of gasping, Garion stopped panting while Tyrone continued, and he raced up to the window.

"What the hell was that?!" Purstan yelled when he stopped panting moments after Garion.

"It's gone," Garion screamed, "it's gone, it's gone!"

"Are you sure we are even at the right place?" Purstan asked in anger.

Garion opened the window, and his fears were confirmed.

"Purstan," Garion asked calmly, "you know how you said that the core of the TLS lies in this Solar System?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the core is starting to deteriorate."

Purstan ran towards the window and looked outside, gasping at the sight of what was once Saturn. The chunks of the planet floated around in the endless void of space, only bits and pieces of the planets remaining at the initial sight of it. What once seemed to be a lively planet was now just chunks and rocks floating in space like someone forgot to take out the trash. It was awful. Garion could still see marks on these asteroids, almost like bite-marks. It seemed as though hoards of shadows had simply flown to the planet and devoured it up for energy.

"Just like Uranus," Purstan made out.

"How could this be, though?" Garion questioned himself. "How is the core deteriorating?"

"The TLS has been around for millennia without a slight ripple in the core," Purstan whispered while still staring out of the window, "and now the core deteriorates right as the Gatekeeper is born."

Purstan then turned towards Garion, saying, "Before the Gatekeeper, the TLS had no weaknesses. It could not be broken."

Purstan looked back out of the window, continuing, "But now, the core deteriorates. You being born, Garion, somehow weakened the TLS, exposing it's one true weakness. Somehow, the power that needed to be inside you was so great that that power had to be taken away from the TLS, shrinking it dramatically. Did you know what was inside the core of the TLS, Garion?"

Purstan looked back towards Garion, tears streaming down his face, and whispered, "My father."

Purstan charged towards Garion at full speed, punching him straight in the face and knocking him to the ground. Purstan then bent over Garion in anger, throwing each punch for a memory him and his dad could have had. He continued to punch Garion in the face out of anger, spilling all of his emotions from his dad's death since the incident.

"I never had a father!" Purstan screamed. "I never had a father, because of you!"

Tyrone finally got up, after all of his breath was regained, and grabbed Purstan off the floor. Purstan spastically resisted Tyrone's firm grasp, but knew there was nothing that he could do about it.

Once Purstan had calmed down, Tyrone set him on the ground.

"We have to get back to the base," Tyrone said, still out of breath, "before anything else happens."

Garion got up, managed a quick, fierce glance at Purstan, and then walked over to the control panel. He clicked the Earth button, and the meteor was off. The three sat back on the floor for less then a minute, before having a good three hour rest.
Chapter 9: It Has All Just Begun

Draktos sat at the edge of the moat facing the city, and thought. Only a few more days, and the TLS would be broken. The world would be his for the taking. All that stood in his way was a stupid 15 year old boy.

One of the shadows approached Draktos, disrupting his train of thought as the shadow came floating up behind him and whispered into his ear.

"Sir, it is almost sunrise."

Draktos never realized how bright it was getting.

"We'll wait about 15 more minutes," Draktos replied, calm and at ease, "I need some time to marvel over what soon will be mine."

"It shall be done, sir. Though we must leave before full sunrise. Our powers shall be weak then, and we cannot afford an unplanned attack during daylight."

"Sounds good," Draktos replied.

The shadow floated away as Draktos sat there comfortably in his lawn chair, looking up at the sky, particularly at the rising sun he started to notice.

"The sun is starting to get awfully bright," Draktos thought.

Then he saw it. That wasn't the sun.

"EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY!" Draktos screamed to all of his shadows.

"TAKE WHAT YOU HAVE AND GO! ABORT MISSION! ABORT MISSION!"

The shadows frantically started running around, grabbing all of their notes and blueprints as fast as they can, retreating through the tunnels they came from. Draktos started panicking, picking up any notes left behind by the shadows. Once they were all in his hand, Draktos retreated to his lair, the fear of getting caught in his mind. The meteor splashed into the moat when only half of the shadows were back in Draktos's lair.

"Get out!" Draktos screamed.

The last of the shadows crept through the rest of the secret tunnels to Draktos's lair as he ran to the closest tunnel and closed it as he went inside. By the time the meteor floated to the top of the moat, Draktos and the shadows were gone. But one of their papers weren't.

...

They were awoken by the sound of the deafening burning flames. Jolted awake, they all panicked.

"What happened?" Garion screamed without consciousness. "Are we in space again?"

Purstan then preceded to look out of the window, and saw the flames around the ship. He then saw the back of their mansion below them, approaching almost faster then light.

"We're just reentering...."

Before Purstan could finish his sentence, they were already at the bottom of the moat, floating back up to the top slowly as the engines automatically shut off.

When the meteor floated to the top, they saw Rebolto waiting for them with the rest of his team, and he didn't look very happy. The three got out of the meteor, and Garion looked around at his team.

From a man about three feet tall made out of lava to a 6 foot tall ice monster, Garion only had little time to observe his team before Rebolto approached him, pulling him and Purstan to the side while the team started to chat.

"What the hell were you two thinking?!" Rebolto screamed a whisper.

"We had no other choice," Garion started, "a billionaire isn't just going to give up a mansion to two random teenagers that asked nicely."

"Then find another base!" Rebolto responded back.

"We didn't have the time," Purstan answered calmly, not wanting to disturb his new friend's "boss," (and still trying to make up for his outburst on the meteor), "we had to get our base ASAP so that we could fight Draktos."

"Whatever," Rebolto responded, "but don't come crying to me when Granger spreads the news of your existence to the world."

Rebolto then turned Garion and Purstan towards their team, as Purstan started to get first glances at the team as well.

"Well," Rebolto started, "I guess we should make proper introductions. This is Purstan, an alien from the planet Venus that is another member of this team."

Rebolto pointed at Purstan.

"And this..." Rebolto hesitated, "is Garion."

The entire team buzzed with excitement, trying to comprehend the fact that they were standing in the presence of a legend.

"Now then," Rebolto continued, "let me introduce you to the rest of the team."

Garion was finally ready to use the skills he learned in the course he took in profiling (which he attempted to take to show his classmates that he may want to become a tough detective someday), which would definitely come in handy now.

Rebolto started with the mini-man, made out of lava.

"This is Malix," Rebolto said, pointing at the small man, "he comes from Mercury."

Garion looked down at the man. He was about three feet tall, but he was made entirely out of pure, molten lava. The lava was visibly streaming down his face like an active volcano, and, by Garion's guess based on all the other aliens he had met, this man could probably shoot magma from his hands like Garion and his tentacles. While this alien (like all the others) had the basic features of eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, the rest was all lava. He didn't even have hair.

Garion also noticed that he had to look away from Malix; since it seemed that when the sunlight reflected off him, it went straight into Garion's eyes. He worried that the reflection could make him blind if he kept looking, but at the same time was excited at the new energy that could be used to their advantage.

"Welcome to the team Malix," Garion answered, "I am honored to be in the presence of the greatest fighter on all of Mercury."

"Please," Malix responded in a groggy, deep voice, "the pleasure's all mine."

Rebolto moved on to the next one.

"This," Rebolto said, pointing to the ice monster, "is Nelkima. She comes from the planet Neptune."

Garion couldn't believe what he saw. She was 6 feet tall, and, at least her entire outer layer, was made of solid ice. Like a simple block of ice except expanded, Nelkima was covered in it from head to toe. The ice was completely frozen solid, never to melt, and as Garion noticed this he also noticed that her hands and toes were simply icicles, though they were sharper then a thumbtack. The most interesting thing to Garion though, was her inner layer.

He could see through the ice and see it very clearly; inside her was someone, or something, shaped exactly like a human. All around this human-shaped being was icicles acting like wires; they seemed to take the human-shaped being and put it inside this ice monster.

That human being was definitely Nelkima's lifeline, and Garion had to make sure that it remained untouched, somehow.

"Glad to meet you Nelkima," Garion said, "I definitely feel that you will make a great edition to our team."

"I hope so," Nelkima responded in a deep feminine voice.

Rebolto then directed Garion to the next team members, and as Garion took a quick look at them, he was completely shocked at what he saw.

They were either aliens from Venus, Mars, and there were even some humans from Earth.

"So these are the remaining planets?" Garion asked Rebolto, pointing at the rest of the team.

"I'm afraid so," Rebolto answered, "Draktos took out the rest of them."

Garion nodded and then looked down at his feet, trying to comprehend that there are now only six planets left in our solar system.

"Wait a second," Rebolto asked, "what happened to the alien I told you to pick up from Saturn?"

Garion looked at him with a stern yet depressed face, and Rebolto took the hint.

"O my gosh," Rebolto reacted, "this is too much for me."

"Well," Rebolto started, pointing at the other fellow Martian, "let's get going again. This is Brendan. You obviously know what planet he is from."

Garion looked at Brendan, not seeing much of a difference between each other. The significant characteristic that Garion noticed on Brendan though, was curved shoulders and his older looking tentacles, which could probably help in the long run since the older they are, the wiser they are. Brendan may even be able to help Garion with his alien heritage. Besides that, Garion noticed that he was a normal Martian in every way. Judging by the look on his face though, he was ready to fight.

"Welcome Brendan," Garion kindly said to him, shaking his hand, "hopefully you can help me understand my Martian heritage."

"I'll do my best," Brendan responded in a cheerful yet serious voice.

"Moving on," Rebolto continued, pointing at the alien from Venus, "this is David. Again, it is very evident from what planet he comes from."

Looking at David, Garion noticed that this alien was much older then Purstan, judging by the fact that his spikes seemed to be somewhat larger, and that he seemed to be taller than him. Garion realized that his age could definitely help in the long run, because this probably meant that David had better control of his powers, which meant he could teach Purstan a few new tricks. He also mostly noticed the stern look in his face; perfect posture, looking straight ahead, and not even flinching. This man looked like he could be in the U.S. Marines with his evident level of discipline.

"Glad to have you, David," Garion said to him in a stern voice.

"Glad to be here," David said, reciprocating the stern voice.

As Garion moved to the last two teammates, he turned to whisper to Rebolto again.

"What happened to 'humans can't know about our presence?'" Garion asked sarcastically.

"These two humans are undoubtedly the best of the best," Rebolto responded, "I couldn't ignore their talents."

"Just like this land was the best of the best," Garion teasingly responded, "I couldn't ignore its talents."

Rebolto simply ignored the comment, hiding in a smile, and turned Garion towards the two humans.

"This is Mason," Rebolto said, pointing to the man with multiple weapons all around him tucked in different pockets, "if you haven't noticed, he specializes in marksmanship."

Garion looked at the man and studied him. He was definitely physically fit, his muscles visible through his dark black T-shirt and his pale white skin reflecting them off the sunlight. Being about a head taller then Garion, he noticed that Mason was noticeably nervous, the sweat running down his forehead. Garion couldn't blame him though, considering the fact that, besides the man next to him, he was the only human in that backyard. His dark black jeans also seemed very professional, probably again because he was nervous to be on a team full of aliens. At the same time though, Mason seemed confident, even though, judging by his bright face with few wrinkles and a 5 0 clock shadow, he was only around 24. He also, as mentioned earlier, had weapons of almost any kind around him in various pockets, including a black backpack filled with them.

From machine guns, to snipers, to bow and arrows, this man was definitely prepared. But preparing never outdoes qualifications.

"So," Garion asked, "how exactly good of a sharpshooter are you?"

"Well," Mason started with a deep monotonous voice, "one time I...."

Suddenly, Garion threw one of his individual tentacles into the air. The tentacle, only being about 1 cm thick, was almost unnoticeable to anyone but Mason. Immediately realizing the test, he pulled out one of the pistol's he had in his pocket and hit the string dead on, splitting it in half.

Garion watched as the two parts of the string floated down to the Earth like a feather, and then glanced at Mason and smiled.

"Glad to have you aboard," Garion said kindly.

Mason smiled and put his pistol away as Rebolto introduced the last teammate.

"Lastly," Rebolto concluded, "this is Greg. He specializes in takewando, kung-fu, you name it."

Garion immediately noticed that this man was practically on steroids. Having an enormous build and being more fit then most professional boxers nowadays, Garion also noticed that, not only was Greg not wearing a shirt, but also he was wearing shorts. He was even wearing sandals, when it was November in Manhattan! Obviously, Garion immediately noticed, he was trying to appeal to the boss. Judging by his light blond hair and adult-like facial features (a few wrinkles, big chin, paler white skin, etc.), Garion guessed that this man was about 35. He mostly focused on the fact that, like David, this man's face was very stern and focused. Also, based on the fact that Greg was actually human and had all of that muscle and sternness (also based on his age), Garion assumed that he used to be a Marine.

Garion then realized Greg had boxing gloves on, probably expecting some kind of tryout.

"Maybe I could give him a tryout," Garion thought to himself.

"So," Garion started with Greg, "how good of a fighter are you?"

Greg simply put up his boxing gloves, ready to fight, and punched the cement ground, making a dent in the cement about 2 cm deep. He then looked up at Garion, still not flinching.

"Well then," Garion continued, a bit frightened, "glad to have you on our team."

"I hope I can help you in your quest to defeat Draktos," Greg responded with a deep voice as he saluted.

Garion quickly pulled Rebolto to the side again.

"Did you already brief them all on the situation?" Garion asked.

"Yes," Rebolto answered, "we had some time while you were wandering off in space."

"In my defense," Garion retaliated, "we had a little situation in space when we thought we landed on Saturn."

Garion turned back around, took one last look at his team, and then turned back to Rebolto.

"Is this it?"

"What do you mean?"

"While there is no doubt in my mind that these are very gifted people," Garion started, "are you sure that they will be able to hold off Draktos's entire army?"

"No," Rebolto responded, "which is why you will have the best soldiers from Mars here by tomorrow. Until then, relax. You guys have earned it."

With that, Rebolto stepped back onto the meteor, hit the M button, and Garion watched as the meteor launched into the sky in less then a second, the trail of smoke behind it practically invisible. He then turned to look back at the team.

"O.K.," Garion started, "I bet we've all had one hell of a day today, so how about we get some rest."

"Sounds good to me," Malix replied.

With that they all walked inside the mansion, through the main lobby (which obviously everyone was astonished by), and to the conference room. Though as Garion walked through the front doors, he noticed a peculiar piece of paper on the ground, and it didn't seem to have been left by the contractors. He picked it up and put it inside his "pockets" (his strings made good use as serving as them), hoping the team could help him identify what it was.

Each team member sat down in the conference room, as Garion tossed each member a soda from his mini-fridge.

"What...is this?" Malix asked.

"You've never had soda before?" Mason asked.

"What's soda?"

Mason stood there for a second, paralyzed in shock, and then awakened from his momentary trans, by simply shaking it off.

"It's great," Garion bumped in, "just try it."

That being a signal to the rest of the aliens to figure what this "soda" was, each one opened their can, and, as the bubbles fizzed and the sweat of the soda can dripped down slowly, Garion remembered something he had to mention to his team.

"Hey guys," Garion mentioned between gulps, "I thought you might want to take a look at this piece of paper I found outside of our base."

He pulled out the piece of paper form his pockets, and showed it to the team.

"No offense Garion," Tyrone answered between gulps, "but I don't really want to focus on work today. Let's just worry about tomorrow."

"Sounds good," Garion nodded, as he placed the piece of paper on the table, and went back to drinking his soda.

Garion then raised his can.

"A toast," Garion cheerfully proposed, "to new friendships, and to getting rid of Draktos conclusively. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" the whole team cheered at once as they clicked glasses, the soda in some bottles falling out of the can and onto the table from excitement form some of the teammates.

They chugged their heads back and drank, the soda fizzling and bubbling as it fell into their mouths.

Garion decided to take one quick glance at the paper, just in case they were something he should be worried about. He skimmed the papers, noticing just basic blueprints of the mansion. He also noticed a time marked on the bottom right portion of the document. Garion looked at his watch. The date and time right now and on the sheet were the same.

"Probably just left by the contractors," Garion thought to himself, "they were probably just going to do certain renovations right now."

Then he noticed that there were other blueprints drawn. Except they were under the mansion.

"Garion," Purstan asked, "are you O.K.?"

Garion simply looked up at his entire team, that went quiet staring at him.

He then whispered, so quiet that some had to lean in to hear, "Get out."

When no one seemed to pay attention to him, Garion started to say it louder.

"Get out, get out, get out!" Garion screamed.

He got up from the table, his heart beating so fast Garion felt as though he was going to faint again. Garion motioned for his team to follow him as they hurriedly did so.

Garion ran into the main hallway, and darted up the giant staircase to his left, and, as he ran up the stairs, Purstan asked, "What the hell is going on?"

"He's here!" Garion screamed. "Draktos is here, and he's attack...."

Suddenly, everyone stopped dead in their tracks. They were at the center of the giant marble staircase now, with two pairs of stairs leading in either direction. And they heard a rumble.

The whole team stood their in silence, as they heard the rumble getting louder and louder. The rumble seemed like an earthquake, immediately drawing everyone's attention from anything else to focus on the current situation. As the rumbling seemed to get louder and louder, though, Garion started to notice that this rumbling didn't seem like much of an earthquake, but a stampede. The stampede was coming from underneath them.

The whole team readied their weapons and their powers. Garion then remembered the blueprints.

"Ambush!" Garion screamed.

It was too late.

They came in herds, the shadows storming up out of the ground one by one as they attacked Garion's team. Like an infestation of rats, they swarmed the mansion, destroying and breaking everything in their sight. The whole team gasped in awe at their intangible figures, scared for what to do next. Not knowing how to fight shadows, Garion and his team did their best and used their powers to the fullest.

"There's too many of them!" David cried. "There's no chance of us surviving!"

"Don't think like that!" Malix shouted.

Using all the energy in his little body, Malix unleashed a giant shield upon the whole team, made entirely of magma. The shield sprung up from his tiny body, encircling the team. The lava then started to melt down the shield, as Garion noticed something peculiar at the top of the dome-shaped shield. In the connecting center point the lava seemed to be flowing infinitely down, like rain running down a car's windshield before the car driver wipes it off with his windshield wipers.

"Let's see them get through this!" Tyrone shouted.

The whole team heard the shadows hiss as they touched the lava shield, and burn shortly after as they heard the faint cries of the shadows, coming in a small whisper. Garion could hear the shadows outside the shield though. While his heart may have been beating as fast as a stampede, he was angrier then ever. They've worked so hard to build up this mansion, to even obtain the land to begin with, and these shadows are taking it away from them.

"The shadows are tearing apart the mansion, and we're just going to sit here and let them?" Garion asked in disbelief.

The whole team turned to look at Garion, him feeling more powerful and motivated then ever before.

"When you were recruited," Garion continued, letting the thoughts in his head simply flow out of his mouth, "you weren't just because of your fighting skills. You were recruited for your bravery as well. You fought long and hard to get on this team and now, when the fight you've been working toward is staring you dead in the face, you're just going to hide in a little shield?"

The whole team looked at each other, until David stepped forward.

"We should scatter around the mansion," David pitched. "Two people to different sides of the mansion, and three courageous ones in the middle."

He looked toward Garion.

"I'm guessing your friend Draktos will be there."

"Guys," Malix reminded them, "this shield won't be able to hold that much longer.

"It's a plan," Garion agreed. "Find a buddy, and run for anywhere safe ASAP. Cover yourself until you get into that spot, and, when you do, kill as much of them as you can."

Garion turned around to face the shield and think, as he watched out of the corner of his eye the whole team dreadfully nodded in agreement, grabbing the hand of the one closest to them.

Garion looked back at the team.

"Oh," Garion reminded them, "and please don't die the first day on the job."

The team smiled as Garion looked towards Malix.

"Now!" Garion screamed.

Malix broke the shield, and, as the last remnants of the lava came pouring all around the shadows so that the team had a couple seconds to disperse, all hell broke loose.

As each teammate grabbed for another, Garion's main concern was his and Purstan's safety. Each group of team members went running for opposite sides, darting for a place for cover while protecting themselves along the way, running since their lives depended on it. The shadows did not stop in their effort to kill, though; chasing down each individual team member, they had a common goal and failure was not an option to them. Garion grabbed Purstan's hand (who was holding onto David) and they darted back down the marble stairs, as Purstan attempted to cover them by throwing balls of energy towards the shadows, but the beams simply went right through them, and they continued in their horrendous task as if the incident had never occurred.

When they reached the end of the marble staircase, the shadows were closing in on them. Garion knew they had to do something, and fast. The three were fending off the shadows with as much as they could; Garion whipping around his tentacles in an attempt to whip the shadows away, Purstan throwing balls of energy at them, and David using more advanced powers like telepathy, attempting to drive the shadows away as well.

All of these attempts were futile though, since all of these hostile attempts of self-defense simply went through the shadows like a ball gliding through the fresh air, the air not disturbing the ball's constant motion.

The next thing Garion knew the three of them were backed in a corner, right behind an office window and a door right next to it. Garion considered the option, but he knew the shadows would simply morph through the office walls. Garion felt cornered; he didn't know what to do or how to fight these creatures, and the fear of death constantly lurked around him like a scented aroma. Instead of attacking the three of them though, the shadows simply surrounded them, and nothing further.

Suddenly, the ground in front of them seemed to grow darker. The ground slowly started to bubble and, like a magically fast growing plant, Draktos spurred out of the ground in full blossom, the cape covering his true form darker then ever. The dark "portal" under him still remained though, probably as a token of escape in case anything went wrong.

Then, Draktos took off his cape.

Throwing it to ground, he slowly started to grow legs. The legs, about the average size of human legs, were again made completely out of shadows. Draktos's entire body seemed to morph into an entire shadow of a human being; his arms, his body, even his face seemed to morph into simply darkness, only two beady yellow eyes visible, but, besides that, all Garion saw was the general shape of a human being. Except the strange part was that there was no noticeable characteristics about this "human being."

It looked like your average Joe's shadow in every way; nothing unique or different about him, which made the experience for Garion much more scary.

"It's over," Garion thought. "I let my team down on the first day. How could I be so stupid?"

"I see we have some troublemakers on our hands," Draktos said cheerfully in his dark, deep, and disturbing voice. "You may as well just surrender now, Garion. And we will spare your team."

Garion then remembered: If he couldn't attack the shadows, how could his team? Apparently the only pair that could possibly survive this brutal attack would be Malix and his buddy, since Malix's shield somehow fended off the shadows. He couldn't risk the safety of his team, and he knew that. They came in with a commitment to fight for Garion, and he couldn't let them die for him on the first day. Then again, he couldn't risk the safety of the world, either.

Garion, having made up his mind, finally said, "In your dreams."

"So be it," Draktos replied, still cheerful, "we were going to attack them anyway."

The shadows closed in on Garion, and he started to regret his decision. He started to back against the wall, cornered not only by the shadows but by fear, and then he saw it. It was just a flicker, but it was noticeable enough for Garion to realize. It was fire.

As the fire slowly consumed the curtains on the opposite side of him, it started to spread around the entire house. From the walls to the carpet, the flame sought out anything flammable in its sight, and consumed it like a target. Not stopping for any man, or any force but the coolness of water, it spread around the house in seconds, and before Garion knew it the whole house was ablaze. Garion knew it was too late to do anything about it, he knew this was the end. He slowly backed away from his imminent death, hitting the window he forgot was behind him, and slumped down, not realizing the immense power rising behind him through the window.

The next thing Garion knew the shadows became more tangible. Their ghostlike blackness turned into a deeper, darker, more real blackness. Their see through figure turned into thick, dark, floating beings who seemed alive in every way. Their now tangible figure seemed to be able to attack, as well. Garion then looked out of the window he hit.

He look outside and saw nothing peculiar. The grass, the sky, the rising....

"It's the sun!" Garion screamed. "The light! The shadows turn into beings that can be attacked when the sun's light is visible to them! It's the sun! The sun! Open all the windows!"

The shadows, ignoring their newfound weakness, still attempted to converge on Garion. He stretched out his tentacles, pushing them all away with one quick scoop. Purstan and David, both cornered against the wall next to Garion, continued with their newfound knowledge by converging on the shadows, hitting them with energy balls, using telepathy to send them to the ground. The whole atmosphere of the base seemed to change as the sounds of fear grew to noises of triumph.

"So the retaliation begins," Garion thought.

Suddenly, Garion was shot in the back with some sort of energy ball, propelling him towards the center of the main hallway, where the fire started to spread. As Garion attempted to get up, Draktos grabbed him by the neck and, him also being a tangible figure now, transformed his hand into a makeshift knife.

"Do you think this can stop me?" Draktos questioned in anger. "I am the almighty Draktos! People shiver at the sound of my name! There is nothing you can ever do to keep me from sending my forces into the TLS!"

"This is for killing Harold," Nirem barely managed to mutter as he, having his hand behind his back, revealed his makeshift machete, which he stabbed into Draktos' stomach.

Draktos released Garion from his grip and, as Garion regained breath, he quickly attempted to stab Draktos a second time, only to be foiled by Draktos quickly dodging the sudden second strike.

Draktos then shot another energy ball at Garion, plunging him even more towards the fire, as it started to completely consume the right side of the house. Garion realized the imminent threat of the capsizing house and knew he had to save his fellow teammates.

Draktos was quick to follow, as he ran toward Garion at miraculous speed, the makeshift knife already in his hands. Garion quickly dodged the makeshift knife attack by rolling over from the floor as Draktos fell to the ground.

Garion then got up, barely dodging another attack attempt made by Draktos. He then quickly grabbed Draktos' hand on his next attempt of attack, and flipped him over on his side, using all of his newfound strength towards his advantage. As Draktos, fell to ground, Garion got on top of him, wrestling to pin him down. The fire now started to spread towards Draktos's head, and Garion knew he had to go. He looked back up at Purstan and David, who seemed to be covering the shadows with ease. Guessing that they could handle themselves, Garion threw one good punch to Draktos' face and ran up the marble stairs, amazed at the power his strength now held.

"Get out!" Garion screamed. "This side is going to collapse! Get out!"

Garion ran toward the edge of the hallway, noticing a herd of shadows surrounding Greg and Mason, edging toward them slowly. The two attempted to fight back against the shadows, but their human weapons were useless against them. Right as Garion came, Mason had to reload his weapon. Garion then noticed the draped curtains next to them. He then had an idea.

Right as the shadows were about to attack Mason and Greg, Garion shouted, "Hey! Over here!"

The shadows all turned to see Garion, their main target. Buying Greg and Mason those seconds of time given to them so they can reload their weapons, Garion let the flame he noticed next to his feet consume the carpet he was standing on in seconds (as Garion jumped out of the way), and then spread to the curtains. The curtains quickly caught ablaze, the now-pouring sunlight spreading all across the shadows, and Garion knowing to use that time wisely.

"Attack!" he screamed.

Seeing no point in arguing in a situation like this, Mason continued to shoot his weapons at the shadows, now proving highly effective as they fell to the ground one by one. As the sun was on the brink of sunrise, Mason realized the connection and emptied his clip of his semiautomatic machine gun into the shadows, clearing a path.

The sun started to grow even higher in the sky, and the shadows started to retreat from the mansion, knowing that they wouldn't be able to survive if they stayed.

Garion knew they had to attack fast.

"Mason, Greg," Garion called, "come on. We have to move, now."

Mason ran after Garion, but Greg seemed to stay behind.

As they both ran down the hallway towards the marble staircase, Garion was about to call after Greg when Mason stopped him.

"Greg's dead," Mason told him.

Garion attempted to process the information he had just heard, and then realized they didn't have the time. Running down the marble staircase, he saw it. They were gone. Every last bit of them, completely vanished into thin air. Even Draktos.

The fire was still spreading, and it was only a matter of time before the entire right side of the mansion collapsed, and only a bit more time before the police start asking questions about how a fire was caused in an abandoned mansion.

Garion then noticed Purstan on the floor, apparently sobbing. David was next to him, and he wasn't moving.

Garion sorrowfully sighed and knew that there was no time for funeral arrangements.

"The media will be here soon." Garion called to Purstan, along with the rest of the team scattered throughout the mansion. "The police will be here soon. Everyone will be here soon."

Garion sent Mason and Purstan out to find survivors, while Garion collected the bodies. They all knew that they had little time before the right side of the mansion collapsed, so Purstan quickly searched that side first.

Moments later, Purstan found Nelkima and Malix in a corner, both alive but scared. He picked up Malix (being very small and less hot then he appears to be), as Nelkima slowly got up, and they all ran out of that area moments before it collapsed.

The collapse was like an explosion; the deafening sound of it piercing through the teams ears, as the entire mansion fell upon itself, each piece contributing to the noise that beckoned the media. The dark cloud of ash that formed from it was practically a giant beacon begging for the press' attention. The small remnants of flame from the first major explosion spread in pieces like rainfall, as the ash did as well. The pieces of the mansion were all in the general area of the blast though, all of them evidently very hot, some pieces even on fire.

Mason ran back to the center hallway, or what was left of it, with the rest of the team, all seemingly intact. Garion looked up at the team members; each one with battle scars to tell their story.

The team gathered in the center of the mansion and sat down on the ground, with nothing to do but mourn their losses. As people started to stare from across the moat, Garion, along with the rest of the team, knew there was nothing that could be done about it. An epic battle had just taken place in the mansion less then an hour ago. There was nothing possible that they could hide.

As Garion laid down on the sizzling wooden floor of the mansion, finally ready to get some rest, the realization of this war had finally driven into his thick skull; he thought he could end it today. He thought he could finish a battle so great the day it started. He thought he could just finish it off and have a normal life. But with Draktos' army tonight, and Draktos himself, Garion was horribly mistaken. He could not finish a war in one night. This was not the last battle. In fact, it had all just begun.
Chapter 10: The Secret is Out

The next morning, Garion was suddenly jolted awake by Purstan, telling him there is something he should see. Garion, fearful for another attack, immediately got up and walked towards the front of the mansion, being wide open since the door was burned down in the fire (along with the entire right side of the mansion).

Garion got up to the media and police surrounding the moat, and at least 600 pedestrians trying to get a good look at them. There were cars surrounding the entire perimeter of the moat; from police cars to news vans, they practically created a barrier so that it would be impossible for them to escape. Realizing the possibility, he quickly got up and surveyed the room, making sure he wasn't surrounded by federal agents. Seeing none, he also noticed that the rest of the team was asleep, some slowly starting to get up, though.

Garion looked towards the right of the mansion, praying that it was all a dream. But he saw Greg and David's bodies, and his worst fears were confirmed. Still smelling the burning smoke from the ashes of the mansion, a P.O. voice seemed to come from a police car on the other side of the moat.

"Listen, I don't know if you are actual aliens, or if you are just some punk kids in a costume. But judging by what went down last night, we are going to assume the worst. Now I don't know if you can speak English, but, if you can, please understand that we don't wish to hurt your people. We come in peace."

Right as the P.O. voice seemed to shut down, like a wave the entire crowd all at once stuck up their index and middle finger in the air, all of them silently symbolizing that Earth is not a hostile planet. The whole crowd fell silent while doing this, coming together in a mutual fear for their lives as they positioned their peacefulness. From men in business attire to homeless men on the streets, everyone had their fingers up.

"It's amazing," Garion thought, "we constantly fight each other in society every day. Over politics, religion, race, etc. But I guess when the safety of the entire planet is threatened, that's when we learn to get together. I guess that's all it takes."

Right as the pedestrians put their peace signs down though, several black cars and limousines drove in from behind them, and immediately braked behind the entire crowd. Multiple men dressed in black suits quickly walked out of the car and were running around everywhere; each one seeming to have an individual task that needed to be achieved. From some agents opening the trunks of the cars and gathering equipment to others being bodyguard's for a person that wasn't in Garion's line of sight, the people surrounding the moat now turned around to stare and question the man in the black suits. Most of the onlookers pulled out their phone ready to gain some viral footage, while others already began to talk about conspiracy theories.

Suddenly, about three agents walked side by side towards the front of the crowd, pushing through the curious onlookers. Once they reached the edge of the moat, they pulled out their guns and shot into the air. Garion shot up from his restful state as did the rest of the team, as panic immediately arose from the frightened pedestrians.

All of them were running, screaming, and pushing; all trying to get away from that area as fast as possible. The frightened pedestrians dispersed from the area faster then a scared rabbit. In just minutes they were all gone, and Garion and his team used this time to survey who these men in suits were anyway.

Two men then, pulled from the trunk of the car what appeared to be some sort of fold-out bridge. Garion knew that there was no possible way the bridge could reach all the way across the moat, being at least 30 feet long, so Garion mainly focused on how to get out of there. Then, Garion was suddenly proven wrong.

With what seemed to be from the push of a button on a remote control, the fold out bridge expanded, stretching the entire 30 ft, and latched onto both sides once the task was completed. Then, Garion saw the real reason of the men in the dark suits' purpose.

With multiple agents surrounding all the limousines and other black cars for protection, four agents escorted the President Of The United States, President Tim Carter, across the bridge and towards Garion. Garion, immediately recognizing the figure and quickly alerting the other team members of his importance, stood straight up in his best posture.

Once they reached the end of the bridge, the four agents along with the President stopped dead in front of Garion, pausing for a moment, hoping for non-aggressive actions.

After what seemed like ages, the president finally spoke, "Do you speak English?"

"Mr. President," Garion started, realizing there was no time to be shocked that the President of the Untied States was standing right in front of him, "this is not what it looks like...."

"How did you know I am the President?" Carter asked in shock. "How can you even speak English?"

"Listen," Garion continued, "you have it all wrong. We're not the ones you should be worried about. We are the good guys here."

"Prove it," Carter challenged them.

"If we weren't, don't you think we would have done something by now?" Garion asked in retaliation.

"Yes," Carter agreed, "you would have. Seeing as though how you did not attempt to kill all of those pedestrians, we deemed you safe to meet with. Also, I wanted to get a chance to meet you face to face. Also, we have squad teams surrounding this mansion. Every inch of the perimeter, from head to toe, is covered with heavily trained agents. Alien or not, they would level you in an instant. You don't have the courage to try anything with me."

"Come," Garion invited, a bit frightened, "sit in our conference room."

The four men in suits, Garion assuming them to be secret service agents, went in first to survey the room. Once they deemed it clear, Carter went in second, and Garion along with his entire team followed, each person sitting down in a separate chair, Garion and Carter sitting across from each other.

"So," Carter started, "how about you tell me your side of what happened here last night, assuming you didn't come to Earth to have a party?"

Garion knew about his government, and the secrets they probably hid from the general public. He knew that whatever he didn't tell them not only would they find out, but they would accuse him of harboring secrets, possibly giving him the appearance of a threat to the world. And that was the last thing Garion wanted, especially with an intergalactic super-villain he was already eternally set to battle based on a vague prophecy on his plate. Also, Garion was only 17, and he was scared. So he told the president everything.

He told him about the Prophecy, he told him about the TLS, about Draktos. He spilled out all of his secrets to the president, showing off his secrets like a published book made for anyone to read. Not leaving any details out for fear of karma catching up to him later, Garion told the tale of the high schooler who turned into a universal superhero overnight. Now a war was being fought over it. Also, throughout the story, he milked the fact about the kindness of the aliens he had met throughout his journey.

When Garion finished about 45 minutes later (which felt like an eternity to him, since he was going against everything Rebolto had told him not do) he pleaded, "Please don't try to kill us, Mr. President. We are friendly aliens and we won't hurt anybody. Honest."

He almost sounded like the young, innocent boy he had once been not so long ago.

The president laughed. "Why would I try to kill you?"

"Because everybody thinks aliens are harmful," Garion said matter-of-factly. "Many people think aliens are evil and want to take over the world. Just look at all the films made about intergalactic takeover."

The president nodded. "Well, when I first heard about your little 'battle' that happened last night, that's what I thought," he admitted. "When I looked into it a bit more though, I discovered you were fighting the evil god, Draktos. I knew you were the good guys, but I just had to be sure. There is just one thing . . ." he said cautiously.

"Oh? What's that?" Garion asked.

"There is no way anyone in the world would accept what they had just witnessed. So I need you guys to keep your business on the down low. Don't tell anyone about it."

"What about the thousands of witnesses only an hour ago who's videos probably went viral by now?"

"A cover story is already being worked out," the president responded. "You shouldn't be worried about it. You should, on the other hand, be worried about your training of your 'powers' since, judging by your battle yesterday, you need some work."

"Could you help us out with that equipment-wise?" Garion asked. "I mean, if it isn't too much of a burden."

"Of course," the president calmly answered. "In fact, I think we have the perfect training facility for you. It's called 'The Virtual Room.' The room works through scanners and projections. One person, in the top right corner of the room, operates the different sets of machinery that creates the different training scenarios. The scenarios then project throughout the rest of the room, and the graphics and technology put into the room could convince someone that they are inside that physical scenario. So, for a cause this big, we would gladly let you use this room, obviously under close observation though."

"That sounds great," Garion excitedly responded.

"Perfect," Carter responded, eccentric at the fact that he was now working with extraterrestrial beings. "The room will be set up in a secure test location by tomorrow morning. We will pick you up very early so you will have time to train. We will also have the mansion rebuilt shortly, but, for today, just take a breather and stay inside the mansion. It seems that your team needs it."

Garion looked around at his entire team, each one of them sound asleep in their chairs. It seemed as though they probably stood guard all night after the attack.

The president then got up from his seat, as did Garion.

"Well," the president said, "I have to go to a meeting to cover up this story. It was excellent meeting you, Garion."

"The pleasure was all mine," Garion responded. "I do want to apologize about my team though, we did just have a...."

"No problem," Carter responded.

He then walked out of the conference room, and Garion saw as one of the most important men on Earth walked down the fold out bridge, how the bridge was taken away in a matter of seconds, and how the cars immediately drove off into the wind.

Garion then went back inside to the conference room and stared at his team.

"They stood guard," Garion thought, "all night. Without any sort of orders whatsoever."

Garion then scavenged what he could find from their burnt rooms, and managed to get enough blankets to fit the whole team. He went back to the conference room and made sure to put one on each of them, laying it softly as to not wake them, and then went outside to the back to think.

After about 5 minutes of Garion engaged in thought, he saw Rebolto landing the meteor on the back porch of the mansion, right in front of him. Garion didn't move an inch, though; he already knew what was coming.

Rebolto slammed the back door behind him in fury.

"What have you done?!" Rebolto cried. "You are a fool!"

"It's okay," Garion tried to calm him down, now standing up and facing Rebolto, "The president knows we're the good guys."

"What if he double-crosses you?" Rebolto asked. "Then what are you going to do?"

"He"s not going to do that," Garion calmed him.

"What if he does, though? The next thing you know, the entire planet knows you exist, and mass pandemonium breaks out. Suicides, riots, robberies, all on you. What will you do if he double-crosses you then?"

"We can defend ourselves," Garion replied, "we are already getting training from a complementary room the president provided for us tomorrow."

"You've already sprung into another trap?!" Rebolto questioned in steamed anger. "How can you expect to be a prosperous team if you believe everything your told? Do you know how many aliens we have lost in Earth during exploration trips? They date all the way back to 1947!"

"Roswell?"

"Precisely. And since I don't want you to become another victim of government experimentation, I'm taking you and your team to Mars immediately."

"No! You can't do that! We've worked too long and hard for this mansion here on Earth, and we aren't just going to abandon it like that!"

"You will if it concerns the safety of you or your team. Now come on, start gathering your team up so we can leave."

"No."

Rebolto looked at Garion with a stern yet shocked face, to which Garion responded, "Do you know what happened here last night?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you know that last night, only an hour after you left, Draktos ambushed us?"

Rebolto's expression completely changed into a shocked one as Garion continued, "Do you know that Greg and David are dead? Do you know that Draktos managed to get a small army of shadows in here? Do you know this army not only killed two of my teammates, but also burned down half of my mansion? Do you know that the explosion from the burning of my mansion was what led the president here to begin with? Do you know any of this, or did you just judge a book by its cover? Oh, and by the way, how's that army that was going to get here doing?"

After a rigid face that Rebolto seemed to keep up for what felt like hours, he responded, with the same face, "The army refuses to go to Earth because there's no place to hide them. Frankly, I don't feel as bad anymore. Less then a month into such a high position and you are already back-talking me?! Have fun with your team, just don't come crying to me when the S.W.A.T. team is knocking at your door."

With that, Rebolto walked back to the meteor, too furious and disgusted at Garion to say anything else. Rebolto clicked the M button, and the meteor blasted back to Mars.

Suddenly a sinking feeling lingered in Garion's chest. Had he done the right thing? He had just destroyed the relationship he had with the one man who could possibly help him, and all for a half-burnt down base. He had practically destroyed his chances of ever defeating Draktos in that one spontaneous moment. Garion shook the negative thoughts out of his head. This was no time to second-guess himself.

...

But Rebolto was right, as he always was. The president had gone straight out the door and into the wind—coming back moments later through a secret tunnel leading to under Garion's base.

Navigating his way through the well-memorized tunnels, before he knew it the president was at the center of the base. He then approached the podium set up to address all the shadows. As they gathered around the man, he had a big grin across his face.

"I did it!" he announced proudly to his audience. "Garion really thought I was the president!"

Everybody in the room laughed.

Then the impostor dug into his pocket and pulled out a remote control the size of car keys. Pushing the big red button on the remote control, the hologram of President Tim Carter disappeared into thin air, and Draktos' hooded form reappeared in replacement as the shadows whispered in excitement.

"The playing field is all set now," Draktos shouted to his shadows. "Tomorrow, Garion dies!"

With that, he took a nearby rubber band from the floor and flung it at a picture of Garion hanging onto the wall opposite of him, while all the shadows cheered in excitement.

Chapter 11: Back to the Basics

Garion didn't end up getting any sleep that night. He kept having the same dream, replayed in his head repeatedly. He couldn't make out much, but what he did notice was that there was some kind of cylinder-shaped machine with a hole in the center, shooting out some sort of dark energy blast into the sky above. The beam seemed to darken the sky completely; leaving no trace of sunlight anywhere around it. The sun had completely vanished from the sky, the dark, treacherous storm clouds produced from the machine hovering over the whole world; watching, waiting for it to act, waiting for it to retaliate.

Garion felt agonizing pain as he tried to crawl towards the machine, hoping to stop the evil force resonating from it. He kept crawling closer and closer to the machine, each step closer causing more pain to his insides.

The machine seeming to be the only thing he could recognize as a tangible object, Garion reached for it as a lifeline; hoping it would stop this agonizing pain he continued to feel. As he crawled, his head continued to spin, but he kept on crawling, the goal of the machine in his mind.

The machine seemed to be beckoning towards him, as well; an unknown force seemed to be pulling him towards the machine, begging for his arrival. It seemed to be as though it was a voice, coming from the machine, forcing Garion to keep trudging along.

As he approached the machine though, attempting to complete the mysterious forces' task, something seemed to stop him dead in his tracks.

He looked up to see Draktos looking over him, laughing in joy. Draktos, cape off, took his foot and stomped onto Garion's face, erasing all sight from him. Garion was able to hear Draktos' sinister, cackling laughter in the background, as he continued with the act.

Garion would then wake up startled, survey the area for anything suspicious, then fall back into a deep sleep, only for the sequence to repeat itself, like a never-ending life cycle.

Nonetheless, the constant agony of waking up in the middle of the night startled did not seem to fade from Garion whenever the dream ended, since he continued to follow the surveying pattern throughout the whole, sleepless night. Every time he saw the dream though, he seemed to experience more of it.

From the sounds of the ocean in the background, to a tropical smell in the air, Garion noticed more as the dream repeated itself. It was like he was a detective watching security footage, looking for clues to the killer's identity and whereabouts. Putting on the detective cap, Garion continued to survey the dreams, until, before he knew it, he could hear not the sound of a meteor, but of jets in his backyard.

Suddenly, he was violently shaken, as the bits and pieces of his dream started to fade away in the earthquake-like scene.

"Get up," a voice urged him. "Get up."

Garion opened his eyes in alarm, only to see Purstan standing over him.

"Get up," Purstan said, "it's time to go."

Garion got up from where he was lying down, surveying the area. Everything seemed to be normal; the mansion was still a mess, the right side of the mansion was still completely gone.

Also, as Garion walked down the stairs with Purstan from his room, he noticed David and Greg's bodies, both laid gently on the floor.

"It almost seems like they're sleeping," Garion thought, trying to keep that thought in his head as we walked by the bodies and towards the back door.

As Garion walked out the back door, he turned back one more time to look at the bodies. They were so peaceful that Garion almost convinced himself that they were just asleep. Then he reminded himself of the truth: they were dead, and they were just the beginning of what would probably a long and painful war. The enduring hardships and strife throughout the war would be horrid to bear, but would have to be done to survive. If Garion grieved this much over each individual death of his teammate from now on, he knew that he would be dead almost instantly and the TLS would be broken, the end of everything coming with it. And Garion knew he could let that happen.

"I will not let my teammate's die in vain," Garion thought. "They fought for me until the very end, and I will reciprocate their actions. I will kill Draktos not only for the sake of humanity, but for David and Greg."

Garion then looked away from the bodies, throwing the thought of grief away from his mind, and closed the door behind him.

As Garion walked to the jet, he not only noticed his entire team standing beside it, but he also noticed that this jet didn't look like anything he had ever seen before.

It was sleek and thin; seemingly undetectable by a normal radar. The jet being completely black, it seemed shaped like any other jet. The main difference was the sensors on either side of it, though. Seeming to be some sort of device (maybe used in combat), there were two small sensor-type machines on each side of the jet, each one covering a good chunk of the side of its wall. Another huge difference was the fact that this jet had no landing wheels. It seemed to be just sitting there, like a piece of junk named a museum relic. Garion started to question how they were going to even fly in this, and where they were going to be stored.

Garion then noticed that there was a small compartment towards the front of the jet for the pilot to step in and, at the back of the jet, there was a large, hollow part of it used as a storage facility. In this case, Garion and his team seemed to be the storage.

The pilot got out of the jet, looking around at Garion's entire team next to him, standing in militaristic format, mostly out of fear of giving a bad impression.

The pilot, shock in his eyes, simply said, "Are you the 'special guests' the president briefed me on?"

"We know it's probably not the kind of 'guests' you were expecting," Mason commented, "but here we are."

The pilot, not changing his state of shock, tried to move but felt stuck to the ground. There were real aliens. Right in front of him. Every conspiracy theory he ever heard throughout his life; at the bar, searching online, was staring him dead in the face. He could take pictures. He could make millions. He could finally pay off the debt he needs to fill for his home.

"Right this way," the pilot said as he led them toward the back of the jet, clearing all of his thoughts and intentions as he did so.

He led Garion towards the back of the jet, helping him (along with the rest of the team) get situated in the back, seating each teammate down properly. Looking around this area, Garion noticed several small backpacks on shelves on the walls behind him.

Once the team were all situated, the pilot closed the big door to the back gate and took off.

As the jet was flying, Garion looked out the window.

In just the span of one month, his life had completely changed. He had traveled to different planets. He had fought in a battle. People have even died for him. The grief started to come back to Garion as he realized what he had done, who he had caused to suffer. Two dead the first day on the job, and for all Garion knows Draktos could be planning something as he spoke.

Looking out at the world beneath him (or what he could see of it), Garion knew that it was all for a good cause. If they didn't stop Draktos from gaining access to the TLS, the world would be his for the taking. He could mold it, twist it, and form it in his own sick concoction of what he envisions Earth should be. He would have complete control not only over Earth, but over the entire universe, choosing what goes where and how it should go. The Earth would be his, and with that the rest of the universe. Garion, shivering at the thought of the universe ruled by a madman, then realized that all of these deaths would be just a small loss in the grand scheme of things, and something that may have to even be sometimes ignored.

"We were never really prepared for an alien attack," Garion thought. "We never knew what was out there. I guess my team and I are the only hope for Earth's survival."

Purstan, noticing Garion being deep in thought, let him think instead of bothering him. He knew that Garion needed to take some things in.

...

Draktos, despite strong recommendations from his shadows that Garion will be there momentarily, continued to passionately work on his machine, refusing to leave until completion.

All he needed to do was calibrate the machine, and it would be done. Just a few more minutes, and then nothing, not even that horrible excuse for a gatekeeper, could stop him. Just a few more minutes, and he could control everything; the planet, the galaxy, the entire universe would be his for the taking. And it all started in a top secret military base in Quantico, Virginia. All he needed was just one more minute....

Suddenly, one of the shadows walked into the dark room, with only a single lamplight shining over the machine.

"He has arrived," the shadow told him, "we must go."

"Is everything ready?" Draktos whispered to one of his shadows.

"Yes," one of the shadows responded, "the virtual room is all set up for Garion's arrival."

"Perfect," Draktos responded. "He will never see it coming."

Draktos walked towards the edge of the dark room towards what was visible of the door, pushing a big red button directly next to the door with a speaker above it.

"Attention shadows," Draktos announced through the P.O. system, "I have just gotten word that Garion has arrived. This is it. The moment we have been training for, the critical point. After today, we will show the world that Draktos and his league of shadows exist! We will show them that we are not only real, but we are worse then the legend. We are the creators of evil! We are the monsters under your bed, the horror movies you watch at midnight! After today, we will show this to this miserable planet by taking it over! We shall break the TLS, and it shall be done in only about 4 hours! Now let's get out there and set up Garion for his own demise!"

Draktos could hear the screams and chants of the shadows throughout the building, the shadows screaming being just a loud whisper.

He walked out of the dark room with two shadows accompanying him, and, as they walked outside of the room, what appeared on the other side of that door was president Tim Carter and his two bodyguards.

...

As the jet landed, Purstan nudged Garion from his train of thought.

"We're here," Purstan told him.

The big loading bay door to the back of the jet slowly opened and standing there was the President of the United States, Tim Carter, and his two bodyguards, one on each side. The two guards stepped onto the jet, helping each teammate off.

As the guards helped accompany the teammates, Garion walked off of the plane and approached the president.

"Welcome to Nevada," the president said with ease as Garion walked off of the jet.

"Where exactly in Nevada are we?" Garion asked.

"That's classified," the president answered with a smile. "Come this way."

The president led Garion, along with the rest of the team who had finished boarding off of the jet with the president's guards, across a deserted airstrip and towards a giant building.

The building appeared to be a run-down hospital. Garion noticed the faded plus sign on the top of the building, along with multiple giant broken light-up letters hanging in various places on the building: H, S, P, L, O. He also noticed that the paint on the walls were past the point of fading; they were literally peeling down the walls. Garion could even see the plain wood in certain parts of the building.

But before Garion had time to question the building, the president opened the doors and led them through a narrow hallway with multiple doors, each one seeming to hold more secrets then the next. Garion stared from door to door, trying to quickly read the labels on the doors but at the same time keep up with the president's quick and seemingly urgent pace.

When they reached the end of the hallway, the president opened the last door on his right, and Garion was amazed at what he saw. The entire room's walls were coated in a green and black texture with no real pattern, and Garion also noticed that it wasn't paint on the walls. Each strand of green or black throughout the walls had electrical wiring running down it. Each of the strands of green or black seemed to unique in its own way, following no design structure. Garion also noticed the control panel directly to his right, filled with what seemed like hundreds of different buttons, and the steep stairs below him leading to a wide open space filled with the strands of green and black and the wiring all along the floors and walls. He knew this was it.

"I bet you can probably guess what this is," Carter said, motioning his hands towards the whole room.

"It's...I don't even know how to describe it," Tyrone gasped.

Malix, looking at the control panel, asked, "How the hell do you expect us to use that thing?"

Garion then lightly punched Malix in the shoulder, reminding him of who he was talking to.

"Sir," Malix added.

"Don't worry," the president responded, "I'm keeping one of our highly praised scientists here to work the control panel. He designed it himself, so I'm confident he will know how to use it."

"Your 'highly praised scientist' could have made the machine easier to use," Malix murmured.

Garion punched him in the shoulder again.

"I need to head off to a meeting," Carter told them, eager to get back to his machine, "so I'll let you get started."

"Sounds good," Garion responded.

So as quickly as he came in, the president was out the door and gone.

Garion then noticed the scientist coming in through the door right as the president left, and approaching the control panel. The man was no taller then 5 feet, and he had a hunch. His hair was in the shape of an afro, and he wore a lab coat that seemed to have been bought 20 years ago.

"This guy obviously doesn't get out much," Nirem thought, remembering his days in Steven Park High School.

"So," the scientist asked in his very high pitched voice, "what shall I change your training environment to be?"

Garion turned towards his teammates, realizing, "I guess we relaxed so much yesterday we forgot to plan what we were exactly going to train about."

"Luckily," Mason mentioned, "it's obvious on what we need to train on."

"True," Garion realized. "We know that Draktos and his shadows weakness is light, so all we have to do is find a way to concentrate that into some sort of energy beam that we could use as a weapon against him. But the real question is, how do we do that?"

"I think I can help and step in there," Malix offered. "You see, on Mercury, the beings that live there are simply made of alien bacteria formed through the combination of molten lava colliding onto Mercury's surface. That bacteria then molded into the hot molten lava that lands on Mercury every day. So, when we were formed, our only source of survival was the light of the sun constantly shone at us daily. We knew we had to use that to our advantage somehow, and then we later found out that the bacteria that was molded to form us actually attracts light. So when we noticed that, we started to use those light-attracting abilities we had to our advantage; using the light as energy to keep us surviving throughout our lives."

"So," Nelkima asked in shock, "are you trying to say that, to defeat Draktos, we need to take a piece of you and put it inside us so we can use the light attracted to us to defeat Draktos?!"

"Precisely," Malix responded with ease.

"I don't think you get what she's saying," Garion helped, "she's trying to point out that we would have to kill you to get a piece of you inside us!"

"Actually," Malix replied, "since I am the best light-bender in Mercury, I can not only use light as an energy source, but I can also change the formation of the light to my favor. Which means that I can bend the light that I attract to attract more light, and then shoot that new beam of light into each one of you."

"English, please," Garion asked, confused.

"I'm saying that I can give all of you the ability to attract light."

The whole team had a shocked and eccastic look on their faces at the same time.

"Well," Mason asked, "what are you waiting for?"

Malix closed his eyes, and started to make very peculiar hand motions. He seemed to be moving his hands as if there was some cylinder shaped object in between them, almost like a ball about the size of a basketball. He acted with his hands as if he was feeling this basketball-shaped object, moving his hands all around the invisible object. Suddenly, something started to appear.

Garion's team watched in awe as a ball made entirely out of light appeared in Malix's hands, replacing the empty space that was once there. The team then noticed how inside the ball of light everything seemed to be going on at once.

Light was colliding with each other, separating apart, or just simply flying around the space of the see-through energy ball, as if frantically trying to escape its imprisonment. Suddenly, Malix, eyes still closed, stretched his hands farther apart from each other.

Seeming to be putting all of his focus and attention into the task, all the hyper particles of light inside the actual ball of energy suddenly stopped moving, and started coming together. Each individual particle seemed to come together in the actual beam of light and, when they finished doing this task, a small tornado seemed to form around the collected particles.

Then, as Malix spread his hands farther apart, the beam of light seemed to mimic his movements as they spread into smaller beams of light. Once this process finished, there were exactly 7 small beams of light; one for each team member.

Then, without warning, Malix shot each one of them into each teammate. Each person's reaction was different. Some of them took in the energy, while others collapsed. Garion seemed to feel some sort of strange force inside of him, making his stomach feel bigger and bigger. The pain was agonizing; whatever Malix had just shot into Garion seemed to continue to suck in light, without warning or a possibility of stopping. Right as he was about to scream out in pain, the feeling suddenly stopped, and he sat on the ground in relief.

He also noticed that most of the team (besides the ones who were already on the ground, who simply seemed to relax) started to do the same, probably because the force in their bodies stopped sucking light in as well.

Malix, on the other hand, opened his eyes, dropped his hands, and looked towards the team.

"So," Malix asked, "what do you think?"

The whole team just continued to sit on the ground, trying to relax after the pain that had just been brought upon them.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Garion spoke, "I think we're ready to start training."

Seeming to be the signal to get up, the whole team got off the floor and walked down the stairs.

The scientist, witnessing the whole event in amazement yet horror, asked, "So what should I make your training environment look like?"

Garion, already having the idea in his head, responded, "A dark mist of shadows surrounding us, please."

"Are you insane?" Brendan asked.

"This is the only way that we will be able to truly test our powers," Garion responded.

"Do you even know how to use them?" Nelkima asked.

"Well," Garion replied, "that's the fun of it."

Without warning, the whole room was covered in a dark and eerie mist. The fog was so thick that Garion couldn't see the teammate directly across from him. The entire mist seemed to surround him, like a rope slowly wrapping around him. As the purple-like mist closed in on Garion, he knew he had to act fast. He could smell the shadows, real or fake, slowly tightening their grip around him, ready to consume his soul in an instant. He then suddenly heard a voice from somewhere in the shadows, but he couldn't tell where. It seemed to be Malix's voice, though.

"O.K.," Malix shouted the team, "to use your powers, you simply have to close your eyes, and concentrate. Concentrate on all the light inside of you, and let all of that light boil out into your hands, to be used as a weapon. Also, if you were paying attention, try to reciprocate the hand gestures I was doing as well. Most importantly though, let the light flow out from inside of you."

Garion did what he was told. Closing his eyes, he put his mindset towards the light inside him, not letting any other thoughts into his head. Garion cleared his mind completely, the light inside him surging brighter than ever as he focused more intently into it. He even tried reciprocating the hand motions that Malix made, hoping that would help in any way.

Suddenly, he felt the light surge in his hands. The energy ball seemed to be growing larger and larger, as Garion got more excited. All the power in his hands, all of that energy. The key to beating Draktos was in his hands. As Garion got more excited though, the ball of light started to grow a bit too big. Before he knew it, he was on the ground, the blast recoiling and hitting Garion right in the gut. The rest of the team managed to clear away the shadows as Purstan came to check in on him.

"Are you O.K.?" Purstan asked.

"I guess I got a bit too excited there," Garion responded.

"Indeed you have."

Garion looked up to see President Carter staring down at his progress next to the scientist above him. Garion tried to smile as he got up from off of the ground.

"Didn't see you there, Mr. President," Garion chuckled as he got up.

"Yes," Carter answered, "I just came up here to check on some things. How's your training going, for starters?"

"I seem to still be behind my team in learning how to control light beams," Garion jokingly commented, "if you haven't already just noticed."

"Perfect," the president said out loud.

"What was that?" Garion asked, confused.

"Nothing," Carter responded as if what he had said had never happened, "just for security purposes, what exactly do you think Draktos is planning?"

"Well," Garion thought out loud, "I guess we've never really thought about it."

Then Brendan, usually quiet, spoke up, "Well, in a way, we already know what he's planning. All we need to do is add up the facts. We know Draktos' weakness is light, so he is probably trying to build some sort of machine that blocks out light. Since our main source of light is the sun, his machine is going to most likely be able to block out the sun."

Garion, along with the rest of the team, looked at Brendan in shock as Carter responded, "Very good. Actually, I should say spot on."

"Thanks!" Garion responded in happiness. "Our team is trying our best."

"Wait a second," Brendan stopped him, "how do you know what Draktos is planning?"

"Spot on again, Brendan," Carter responded, a smirk look forming upon his face.

He then motioned towards the scientist.

"Do it."

With the click of a button, four steel bars shot out of the ground and, once they reached the height of the team, started stretching out towards the center of the square they had just created. Upon reaching the center, each individual steel bar of the jail cell seemed to spread down from the outskirts of the cage-like shape, stretching down towards the ground and forming a jail cell.

Immediately imprisoning them inside the cage, Garion felt trapped. Except it seemed to be a familiar feeling, Garion just couldn't remember from where. As he looked around at the tic tac toe style jail cage, the thought hit him. The jail cells were made out of blue, electric bars.

"Mr. President," Purstan asked in shock, "what are you doing? We've already told you numerous times, we're the good guys!"

As the entire team seemed to panic, Garion raised a fist and the whole team fell silent. He then walked towards the edge of the cage, looking directly at Tim Carter.

"I'll have to admit," Garion admitted, "the disguise fooled me."

Draktos hit the big red button on his car-keys-shaped remote again, revealing not only Draktos but the scientists true identities. As the two did so, the whole team watched in horror. But Garion simply watched.

When the deed was done, Garion asked, "Is the real president still alive?"

"Don't worry," Draktos responded calmly, "he is alive and well. So is the rest of this miserable planet. For now."

Draktos walked towards the door with one last remark.

"Now, if you need me, I have a portal to create."

Before he closed the door behind him though, Garion said with confidence, "Your never going to get away with this."

"I already have," Draktos laughed as he slammed the door behind him shut.
Chapter 12: The Plan Unfolds

"Unplug the machine," Draktos told one of his shadows as he walked down the hallway in a quickened place, hurriedly walking towards the runway.

As he opened the door at the end of the narrow hallway and walked toward the runway in a noticeably quick pace, his shadows followed close behind him.

"Is the jet ready?" Draktos asked impatiently.

"Yes," one of the multiple shadows around him responded, "we are working on loading the machine into the jet."

"Work faster!" Draktos demanded. "Nothing can ruin my perfect day!"

"We are working as fast as we can," another shadow explained, "but the shadows that are unplugging your machine are also trying to take the spare parts around it. It is to our understanding that you never finished the machine."

"The last steps must be completed at the island," Draktos replied, "it is the only way for the machine to work."

"Very well then," the shadow responded.

When Draktos reached the end of the airfield, he got inside the big black loading bay doors at the back of the jet, sitting down on the benches on either side of the small room, waiting for his machine to arrive.

...

Garion couldn't help but feel Rebolto was on a roll with these predictions. He had fallen into another trap.

"There has to be a way to escape this cage," Purstan told Garion. "We can't just sit here while Draktos is out doing who knows what!"

Garion sat in thought for a moment, wondering about any way out of this contraption. He shouldn't have been so stupid. He should have realized that the President of the United States doesn't just meet an alien, talk for two hours then invite him to train at a top-secret facility. He should have been more cognizant. He should have predicted this right from the start. Now he was trapped in the same jail cell as when he was first captured, probably just to mock him. Then the idea hit Garion like a lighting bolt. Literally.

"If this is the same cage as that ship," Garion thought, "then the flaw in the cage that led to my escape must be the same as well."

"There is a way out," Garion told the team, getting up from what seemed like hours of thought, "it's just that someone's going to get injured over it."

"When it comes to injury's," Tyrone offered, "I'm made for them."

"I hope so," Garion told him. "So here is the plan."

After a few minutes of whispering (so the shadow watching them doesn't hear), Garion was ready to attack. Reminding Tyrone of the battle plan again, they prepared to charge into the blue electric coils blocking their path to freedom, ready to tackle them down.

"OK," Garion counted down, "Three...two...one!"

At once, Tyrone, Garion on his back, charged at the electric coils, running at them with such speed and intensity Garion was starting to become afraid of injury. As they passed through the electric jail bars, Tyrone felt the surge of 10,000 volts flow through his rocks, heating them up to the boiling point. Refusing to stop in pursuit of triumph, he kept pushing until they made it all the way through the bars, Tyrone collapsing once the task was completed.

"Stay here," Garion told Tyrone as he ran towards the stairs.

"I don't think so," the shadow whispered.

Garion heard the click of a few buttons, and before he knew it he was in a tropical rainforest, surrounded by thick trees, wildlife, and the sound of animals all around him. The smell of the newly dropped rain was familiar to his middle school camping trips, as Nirem remembered cooking hot marshmallows over a fire. But he knew this was no camping trip.

"Hello?" Garion shouted throughout the forest, hoping his echo would be picked up by any of his teammates.

"Can anyone hear me?" Garion tried again.

No answer.

"Where is this?" Garion muttered as he trudged through the leaves, scouting ahead for any sign of his team.

Searching this exotic jungle, he started to hear some sort of growling from a distance. Heading toward the sound in hope of finding any sign of his teammates, before Garion knew it he was surrounded by three ferocious lions. And they all looked very hungry.

...

"Sir," the pilot asked through the P.O. system, "are you sure we should be venturing into this type of territory? There have been many bad rumors about this place."

"Don't worry" Draktos assured him through another P.O. system button, "a jet like this will be able to handle anything."

"I hope so," the pilot muttered in response.

Then, the question bothering the whole flight, the pilot asked, "Why do you need me to pilot your plane? Can't you get one of your sick...creatures to do it?"

"Well," Draktos responded calmly, "my 'sick creatures' aren't as familiar with operating a jet of this stature. Well actually, they aren't familiar with operating a jet at all. A man of your ranking though must be familiar with this jet. You, in fact, set the overall record for fastest round trip with a jet like this. So, how about you just keep flying this plane and maybe you will get to be reunited with your family again."

"Please," the pilot responded in despair, "they didn't do anything wrong. Don't involve them in this. I didn't even do anything wrong!"

"Exactly," Draktos responded, "you did everything right. Which is why we couldn't ignore you."

With that, Draktos let go of the P.O. button, and stared outside into the world beyond.

Looking out the window, Draktos saw the blue, murky waters of the Atlantic Ocean touch the sun in the horizon. The waves, flowing more gently then a summer's breeze, crashed onto the ocean's surface like a tsunami, it's hard and violent thrash causing the water around it to ripple. As Draktos looked out the window, he mostly paid attention to the sun, the giant circular ball of light that's fate would soon be in his hands. Marveling at the thought of the sun's life in his power, he then realized he had to concentrate on the task at hand.

Turning back towards the machine, he continued to work on the interior wiring inside of it, connecting and then reconnecting every wire, making sure that no calibration is off, that no malfunction occurs during the initial launch. Just a few more wiring connections, and the dream would have been completed.

"Green to green," Draktos told himself. "Yellow to yellow. Now I just need to screw those in, tie some knots around here and...."

As Draktos finished up the last of the wiring, making sure red connects to red and yellow connects to yellow, he took his screwdriver and nailed metal plating to the cylinder-shaped part of the machine.

...

The three lions started to close in on Garion very fast. Their growling seeming to be louder than an earthquake, the lions didn't seem to be that patient. Their bright yellow mane helped add to the affect, as Garion remembered a TV episode he watched where the superhero saved the kids from the zoo they got stuck inside, as the lions closed in on them fast. This time though, Garion couldn't rely on anyone but himself.

He noticed their sharp, vicious teeth glowing in the sunlight, making them seem ten times scarier. Then Garion realized that there was no way that was sunlight.

Looking up into the sky above him, he saw the virtual room's glossy panel's, seeming to glow in the sky.

"Of course!" Garion thought. "We never left the virtual room!"

As the lions were just about ready to pounce, Garion shouted to his team, "These are all just projections! Don't worry about the wild animals, focus on finding the shadow and taking out the control panel next to him!"

About 15 seconds after the announcement, he heard the screams.

Seeming to come somewhere towards his right, the person screaming was undoubtedly terrified, as the screams echoed throughout the room. The fear that resonated in the scream was that like no other; sounding as serene as a roar of a wolf on a full moon, yet powerful enough to break glass. Sticking like a tattoo in Garion's brain, it caught him completely off guard as he attempted to trace the source. Even after the high pitched sound, bits and pieces of her voice could still be heard calling for help, as whatever killer that lurked in these forests finished their duty with her. Once the noises stopped, even the lions stayed quiet for a moment. Garion then heard a lion roar in the distance.

Garion was already a good 10 feet away from the lions once he gained consciousness of his current actions. Darting from tree to tree in an attempt to loose the ferocious beasts, Garion knew he had to find a safe spot and fast. He knew he had to find someplace, anyplace where he could hide.

While Garion was darting from tree to tree, he heard the footsteps behind him started to gain pace, so he looked around for anything; a hole in a tree, a pit in the ground, even a large rock. He knew he only had seconds before the ferocious, now obviously tangible objects lunged at his body and consumed his flesh. Running for dear life, Garion knew he had to act fast, but didn't know how to. In the end though, none of these came to use when Garion started to hear a rattle in front of him, and the rattle seemed to be coming closer fast.

The second the rattlesnake lunged out at Garion, he grabbed it in midair. Remembering his teachings in science class about how to hold a snake, he grabbed the mouth shut, holding onto the slimy, reptilian body with his other hand.

Waving the snake at the approaching lions, they seemed to stop dead in their tracks, the realization of the animal Garion was holding seeming to be comprehended into their brains.

"That's right!" Garion shouted towards the animals. "You better be scared!"

The next thing he knew, Garion was head first in what seemed to be a bucket of ice cubes. Looking up onto the new environment, Garion wiped the snow off of his face in amazement.

Around him everything was purely white; no contrast in colors, no variations, no patterns. A simple white blanket seemed to be spread across the entire immediate area, covering everything in sight. The cold immediately rushing through his body in a surge of energy, Garion knew he had to move, that he had to find shelter through the snowy blizzard and freezing winds around him. Amazed at what he was seeing, Garion stumbled through what appeared to be 10 feet of snow, trudging along looking for any sort of safe house.

About 20 steps into the walk though, Garion collapsed onto the snow, screaming, "What kind of virtual room is this?!"

"I expected 'The Almighty Gatekeeper' to be smarter than this."

Garion, shocked to hear any sort of response, asked, "What the hell is this?"

"Well, isn't it obvious?" the shadow responded. "This is no 'virtual' room. This is a real room! Everything you see here is as real and living as the false hope you have inside of you that you are going to make it out of here alive. Of course, you probably have already noticed that with the death of your frozen friend. It's funny, actually, this is probably the one environment where she could have served an actual purpose."

Anger boiling up inside him, Garion asked, "So are you trying to tell me that we are actually in some frozen wasteland?!"

"All this room is," the shadow responded, "is a giant teleporter. Made to bring in actual scenario's from around the world, to train soldiers by putting them in the real environments without them ever leaving home. You see, this room teleports the entire environment here, so we don't have to venture out into enemy territory. In this case though, we are just using it to hold your team."

"Wherever you are," Garion shouted, "we will find you! And, rest assured, we will kill you!"

"Good luck," the shadow taunted right before clicking the P.O. system off.

...

The plane started to lightly shake as it reached the island, the slight tremor being of no disturbance to Draktos, who continued to stare out of the window in awe.

The pilot seemed to ignore the turbulence as well but, as the plane got closer and closer to the island, the plane started to shake more violently by the second.

"Sir," the pilot asked in concern, "are you sure that these rumors about the island aren't true?"

"Oh yes," Draktos responded calmly, "the rumors are very true. Nonetheless, we keep going."

The pilot, stuttering, replied, "S...s...so do you mean that...all of the planes...the boats...all really vanished?"

"Will that be a problem?"

"Of course not," the pilot responded, his sturdiness and decorum immediately coming back to him. "We shall continue with our current course."

"Damn right you will," Draktos muttered as he went back to staring out of the window.

Suddenly, the plane started to shake more violently then ever. Draktos, immediately falling out of his seat onto the hard, cold floor of the plane, grabbed for his machine with a grip that seemed tighter then Earth's gravity itself.

Draktos looked around the plane, trying to find something sturdy to grab onto. But the problem was, nothing was sturdy: not only were Draktos' tools flying off of the benches they were seated on, but the physical benches themselves were jagged loose, roaming freely around the plane. The entire plane itself seemed to be shaking like an earthquake; it felt as though a toddler with a temper tantrum decided to take his anger out, except they were the stress reliever.

"We can't take much more of this!" the pilot screamed through the now barely audible P.O. system. "We're going to crash!"

"Keep going!" Draktos yelled.

"Are you mad?!" the pilot responded back.

"You either keep going, or you die in this storm!" Draktos exclaimed. "Moving forward is your only hope of survival!"

The pilot, fearful for his own life, started to push the lever on the plane up towards the sky, praying that this will work. As the plane started to slowly venture away from the murky waters below him, the storm ventured on without a pause.

"Here we go!" the pilot yelled to himself as he clicked a big red button covered with a seal reading: FOR EMERGENCIES ONLY.

The plane suddenly seemed to go into hyper speed, its speed instantly increasing to miraculous speed in just a matter of seconds. Draktos, now being pushed towards the front of the plane, felt the speed intensify tenfold, seeming to instantly pass through the treacherous storm with ease. As the plane passed through the last of the storm in a mere 6 seconds, the hyper speed quickly died out, along with most of the engines fuel.

"We are about to loose fuel," the pilot told Draktos, "and I don't see your island."

Suddenly, through the horribly dense mist and fog that seemed to surround them, the pilot saw something. Just a glimpse, but it was something. Veering down a bit more towards the surface, the pilot was able to make out the shape. It was a tree.

"It...it...exists!" the pilot stuttered in joy. "It exists! The island exists!"

Draktos, hearing the pilot's stutters of joy through an accidental click of the P.O. button, smiled as the plane started to land on the surface of the island.

As the plane touched ground after what seemed like centuries, the pilot opened the cockpit door in joy.

"The island exists!" he screamed in joy. "It actually exists!"

Stepping out from the darkness of the plane's storage compartment onto the warm sandy beach, Draktos looked around at the beautiful view.

To the right of him were mountains glistening as far as the eye can see, and to the right of him was a forest that seemed to be thicker then a stack of hay on a farmers farm. All around him the island was completely peaceful; the serenity evident throughout the island was amazing. Draktos felt like he could grab a hammock and retire here. He found it amazing how the humans couldn't have figured out such a place of importance existed inside a few minor energy fields.

After all of these years, these humans couldn't figure out the obvious truth of the Bermuda Triangle. These pesky humans weren't even able to venture out into that type of territory. Draktos had done his research though, he had seen the connections. The major pulses of energy coming from this concentrated area, Earth being in the exact center of the TLS. So now, after a few minor adjustments, he could finally concentrate that energy. He could finally use The Bermuda Triangle, the source of the TLS' energy, as a portal. His shadows will soon finally learn what it feels like to be on the other side of the coin.

"So how do I get home now?" the pilot asked, interrupting his thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

The pilot, fear rising in his stomach, responded, "You said that I could go home to my family."

"Wrong," Draktos responded, "I said you could be reunited with your family. And I am always a man of my word."

With that, Draktos shot an energy ball at the pilot, instantly knocking him onto the ground. Kicking his body aside, Draktos then started to pull his massive machine outside from the dark interior of the plane's storage facility, dragging it towards the sand.

When he finished pulling the machine out, Draktos took off his cape, grew his two legs, and carried the machine (being about the size of Draktos himself, with double the width), into the dark forest.

...

Garion couldn't take it anymore. So many different environments, so many hardships to trudge through. From a muddy swamp filled with crocodiles to the endless Saharan Desert, Garion was ready to collapse and die. As he walked through the desert, he kept looking hopefully for any sign of his teammates, any sign that they could still be alive.

All he saw though was endless sand, hopelessly spread out on hilly terrains. He walked up each hill hopeful, and down each hill with sorrow in his eyes. He started to develop a pattern for it, as if he planned to do this for the rest of his life. Finally, Garion collapsed on the floor in pure agony.

"Why are you doing this to us?!" he shouted to the sky.

Standing there, he let all of his emotions that he had been bottling up for the past month spill onto the desert. In that desert for everyone or no one to see, Garion started crying. Each tear hitting the desert floor representing a hardship that Garion had to go through, he let his emotions pour out through him and screamed the one thing that had been on his mind since Harold's death.

"I didn't ask for any of this!" Garion screamed this time not to the shadow, but to the sky, to anyone willing to listen. "I didn't ask for my 'destiny!' I didn't ask to save the universe! This is unfair!"

With that Garion went back to staring at the desert floor and moping, the tears continuing to drip down from his tentacle-filled face on to the hot desert floor below him.

Suddenly, after what seemed like ages of crying, Garion noticed the sand below him start to sink. The sand slowly started to recede into the Earth, as if the entire room was a bathtub and someone had just pulled the drain. Looking around him, Garion noticed all the sand starting to follow this maneuver; sinking down towards the earth, receding away from the above.

He then started to hear chatter from the shadow on the control panel somewhere above him: "It's the virtual room. It's losing power faster then ever."

There was a long pause and then another voice, probably another shadow, responded, "The virtual room isn't losing power. Something else is gaining power."

"What are you trying to say?" the shadow working the control panel asked with a familiar voice.

"I am trying to tell you that someone is stealing the power in this virtual room to use it for their own necessities," the other shadow responded.

"Can you pinpoint who exactly is taking our power?"

"Yes, the stealer seems to be located in the Bermuda Triangle."

"Why the hell would someone in no man's land want our energy? How did they even get it to begin with?"

"I'm not sure, but however they got it, this virtual room won't last longer then a few more seconds. We should get out of here before Garion's team escapes. He's already mad enough that one of his teammates is dead, and we can't be his stress reliever."

With that the voices stopped, and Garion stopped crying, knowing it was over.

...

"Yes, yes!" Draktos screamed in joy.

The energy transfer had just finished. He now had all the energy he needed to power his machine. All he needed to do now was flip the switch and wait.

"Welcome to hell, Garion."

Draktos clicked the button with the power symbol label on the front and, after a few seconds, the hole in the cylinder-shaped part of the machine started to produce some kind of dark energy. Within seconds, a beam of purely black shot into the sky above him and touched it, seeming to spread across the entire horizon. The blackness seemed to simply consume anything standing in its way: the clouds, the sky, even the birds were all swallowed by the blackness that was now being spread all over the world like a virus, soon to turn every living and breathing humans day into a never ending nightmare. Now all he needed was Garion.

Draktos sat back on the ground, looked up at his machine, and a big grin grew upon his face as he turned from tangible to intangible in about 4 seconds.

...

They were all staring over her body. She was beautiful in a way; her hollow shell seeming like a statue ready to fight, her lifeline's head severed close to its body. It felt as though the team could simply carry out Nelkima's hardshell and place it as a memorial in her honor. Obviously though, they didn't have time for that.

"We have to move," Purstan told the team. "Whatever Draktos is planning is big."

"He fooled us right from the start," Garion suddenly blurted out, still staring at Nelkima's body. "Even from the first attack. He needed that attack as an excuse to visit us, to invite us for training. And training was obviously the path to us walking into our own cage, and being helplessly trapped, looking for a way out that doesn't exist while Draktos is out probably on his grand scheme."

Garion then looked up at the team in sadness.

"No one plans this big for some sort of simple attack. At least, not a simple attack. There is no way whatever Draktos' device is going to be simple. That machine, whether we like it or not, is somehow going to break to TLS with me still being alive."

The whole team looked at Garion at shock, as he looked back down at Nelkima.

"Now she's dead, and it's all my fault," Garion whispered.

"Don't say that...." Purstan started.

"Say what?!" Garion screamed in retaliation. "That my teammate is dead because I thought those beasts were holograms? That I let an innocent teammate die because of my impatience and my inability to think before I spoke? What shouldn't I say? That this isn't my fault? That it's the lions fault?!"

Purstan simply looked down in despair.

"There's nothing we can do to bring back Nelkima," Purstan told Garion, "but we can still avenge her. We can still take down whatever Draktos' scheme is. For Nelkima."

"For Nelkima," Garion repeated.

With that, the team ran outside the virtual room, through the abandoned hallway, and outside through the narrow door leading to the runaway, only to see the blackened sky above them at 2:30 P.M.
Chapter 13: The Darkness Rising

"He wasn't kidding when he said Brendan was spot on."

The entire team looked up at the sky in shock. It was completely black; there wasn't one star visible in the sky, not even the moon. The sinister sky seemed to gaze over the team, tempting them to make their next move. Then, as Garion looked around him to make sure him and his team were alone, he saw it.

At first he thought it was part of the sky, the way it blended in with the darkness all around him. Then Garion started to notice small pulses around the area of the peculiar shape, almost as if the sky had a beating heart. He then noticed that whatever it was, it wasn't part of the sky. It seemed to be a cylinder-shaped beam of energy that was attached to the sky, seeming to be shooting into it. Every now and then a small pulse of energy came out of the shape and morphed into the sky.

"There," Garion motioned, pointing to the peculiar shape.

The whole team stared at the shape in awe.

"That's the source," Mason realized. "That's where we'll find Draktos."

"Then let's go," Purstan said, motioning towards one remaining jet on the runway, the rest probably taken by the fearful staff when they evacuated.

"I'm going alone," Garion said without hesitation.

"Are you crazy?!" Malix asked in shock.

"This is it," Garion told them, "this is the battle that was meant to happen. This is the battle that Draktos wanted me to fight. Today, I can defeat Draktos once and for all. Today, I can fulfill the prophecy. I've already caused three of your deaths, so I refuse to cause anymore. But I can promise you this. I will kill Draktos. I will stop his scheme. And I will return home to you with triumph on my face."

The team, respecting his heroic decision, backed away from Garion as he walked toward the last remaining jet on the runaway. As he stepped onto the jet, ready to start what may be his second but last battle with Draktos, Garion looked back again at his team.

All of them made a commitment when they first joined this team; while it may not have been a verbal one, they all pledged to stick by Garion to the very end. They knew their stakes, they knew what they were getting themselves into. They knew the enemy, and what he would do to succeed in his destructive quest to destroy the TLS. Yet they still accepted this job, they still we're willing to pay the ultimate price for Garion. Some of them did have to pay that price. Like Nelkima.

He mouthed the words, "For Nelkima," and then turned back towards the jet. Getting into the cockpit part of the jet and sitting down on the black leather swivel chair, Garion started to search for the autopilot button, praying that it existed. After much time of searching and what must have been awkward for the teammates to watch, Garion found the button, switched it on, and suddenly a speaker popped out of the detailed control panel below him.

"Where shall you be headed today?" the speaker asked in a robotic-like tone.

Garion, trying not to look like an idiot in front of his team seeing him off, replied, "Follow the big dark black light towards my right."

"Scanning," the speaker repeated for around 10 seconds.

Eventually, the speaker retracted and the jet took off on it's own. As the jet lifted off the runway, Garion never looked back.

...

"Where is this?" Garion asked himself aloud in amazement.

The whole area was covered from head to toe in fog, the mist being so hazy and dense Garion felt like he was inside a never ending cloud. As he looked around through the see-through glass of the cockpit window trying to establish any hint of where he might be located, the jet's speaker seemed to have picked up his question.

"Current location: The Bermuda Triangle."

Garion's blood ran cold as he heard of their current location.

Just to be sure, Garion asked, "How long until the destination is reached?"

"Checking," the speaker replied in its monotonous tone. "You are 3.7 miles from your destination. ETA 4:33."

Garion checked his watch. It was 4:31. He couldn't believe it. Draktos' machine was located in The Bermuda Triangle. Remembering the source of the energy drain from back at the training facility, Garion couldn't comprehend the confusing thought. Why would Draktos steal energy from Garion's trap to feed his machine? What was the point of even trapping him to begin with, then?

As the plane started to lightly shake, Garion started to have some sort of daydream, going into some sort of meditative state. He wasn't able to make out much; the dream seemed to appear as random pieces of film from a movie set. Though while it was just in flashes, Garion could still make out the basic shapes: he seemed to be on an island of some sort, and he seemed to be crawling, crawling towards....

"The cylinder-shaped machine," Garion muttered as he awoke from his trans with a shock.

The plane suddenly started to shake more violently, feeling as though a 9.8 earthquake had just been thrown at the plane. Garion, trying to find something to cling too, started to get worried. If this plane crashed, then he would be stuck in one of the most haunted places in the world. So with Draktos lurking somewhere on this mysterious land, Garion knew that couldn't be good. The words that came next hit Garion like a lightning bolt.

"Auto pilot malfunction. Auto pilot malfunction. Switching to manual control."

Garion knew he had to act fast, but at the same time knew he didn't know the first thing about flying a plane. As the plane seemed to be shaken by an angry boxer punching his opponents multiple times, Garion tried to think if he knew anything about how he could keep this plane in the air. He then noticed what seemed to be a circular type steering wheel, instantly recognizing it from every action movie he has ever seen.

"Let's hope those movies paid off," Garion said to himself as he thrust the steering wheel upward as hard as he can.

Steadily, the plane started to rise away from the murky waters beneath him. Garion knew though that he couldn't rejoice just yet; the tedious task wasn't over. He was still in some sort of violent type of storm, thrusting him from one way to the other, almost at the point of ripping the jet apart. Garion then, remembering more about action movies, thrust the steering wheel forward to the maximum amount of speed, almost seeming to break it as all of his might and weight pushed against it.

With major struggle, the plane managed to survive the brutal storm. Though, as the plane passed through the last remnants of it, both of the engines not only died out, but fell off of the plane.

The plane immediately started to thrust downward, aiming for the ominous yet treacherous waters below. Garion quickly clicked the eject button he had been glancing at for most of the flight, and his seat popped out of the cockpit seat as a parachute opened shortly afterwards, slowly drifting him towards whatever lied below.

As Garion started to land though, he noticed that it wasn't water waiting for him, but land. As his seat touched the soft beaches of the island, Garion noticed that there was no more fog to clog his sight.

Looking around at the island, Garion noticed the beauty of the palm trees and mountains. The entire environment itself seemed to be at peace. Garion just felt like throwing down a bag and settling to live here. He knew better, though. After much searching around in the sky, he finally spotted the black beam of energy, dead inside the forest ahead of him.

Garion trudged forward, ready to face Draktos once and for all. As he crawled through the murky forest, Garion noticed many anomalies; squirrels with two tails, rabbits with three ears. The entire forest seemed as though someone had dumped genetically altered biohazards waste onto the land, and let the animals soak in it for a good 50 years. After crossing the thickness of the trees without approaching any of the animals, Garion finally saw him.

Looking up, marveling at his creation was Draktos, cape off, seeming to smile at the sight of his sinister work.

Garion realized that, since Draktos wasn't paying attention to his surroundings, a sneak attack may actually succeed. As he started to creep up on Draktos, getting ready for his pounce to attack, some sort of knife seemed to slash him right in the stomach, as one of Garion's strings fell out.

Garion cried in pain as Draktos turned around and walked towards Garion. When he approached the weakened Garion, he simply grabbed him by his shoulder strings, shot an energy ball straight into his gut, and waited for the explosion.

Strings were flying all over the area once the explosion hit; it was as if someone had just mixed too much Mentos with a giant bottle of Coke. Garion felt like he had just been hit with a concentrated atomic bomb, shattering not only his physical body but his soul as he fell to the ground in defeat. As Garion stood on the ground in sadness, part of his human side starting to show, he watched as Draktos turned around and picked up a piece of his string.

Walking towards the machine, Draktos then lifted the string up near the cylinder shaped part of the machine and, right before he was about to toss it in, Draktos finally spoke.

"Any last words?" Draktos asked.

"Why?" Garion managed to make out. "Why drain your own base? Why block out the sun? WHY?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Draktos asked in confusion. "I didn't need you trapped. I needed you stalled just long enough so I could set up my machine. After that, I set the bait and watched you fly towards me. Once you came here, all I needed to do was steal a piece of your string and place it in my machine. Then, you can watch the shadows fly."

"Why not just kill me then?" Garion asked. "Why go through all of this trouble and then just keep me alive?"

"Because the machine needed a living strand of your DNA to work," Draktos replied, "furthermore, I wanted you to suffer like you made my family suffer."

"What are you talking about?" Garion asked in confusion.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Draktos replied angrily. "Now, you can sit back and watch your world die before your very eyes."

As Draktos dropped a piece of his string into the machine and as it lit up, Garion knew he had to act fast. Persistently, he started crawling towards the cylinder-shaped machine, trying to reach it before it had time to start.

Garion felt agonizing pain as he tried to crawl towards the machine, hoping to stop the evil resonating from it. He kept crawling closer and closer to the machine, each step closer causing more pain to his insides.

The machine seeming to be the only thing he could recognize as a tangible object, Garion reached for it as a lifeline; hoping it would stop this agonizing pain he continued to feel. As he crawled, his head continued to spin, but he kept on crawling, the goal of the machine in his mind.

The machine seemed to be beckoning towards him, as well; an unknown force seemed to be pulling him towards the machine, begging for his arrival. It seemed to be as though it was a voice, coming from the machine, forcing Garion to keep trudging along.

But as he approached the machine, attempting to complete the mysterious forces' task, something seemed to stop him dead in his tracks.

He looked up to see Draktos looking over him, laughing in joy. Draktos, cape off, took his foot and stomped onto Garion's face, erasing all sight from him. Garion was able to hear Draktos' sinister, cackling laughter in the background, as he continued with the act.

This time though, he dodged the foot. He barrel rolled to the right, missing the foot, and then attempted to sweep kick off the ground. Draktos smiled as the leg went right through his skin, not leaving even a mark.

"Don't you get it?" Draktos smiled. "This darkness isn't only a portal. It's eternal invisibility! No one will ever be able to touch us!"

Turning towards the machine, Draktos screamed at the top of his lungs, "Rise my shadows, rise!"

Garion managed to make out the shadows from the rest of the darkness, and his heart stopped at the sight of them. There had to be at least a billion of them, the shadows scouring the sky like flies near a dead body. The entire sky seemed to be made up of a shadow; each spec being an individual warrior ready to fight for Draktos. The entire night sky seemed to come alive as the shadows were about to pour out into the world like water into a cup. Garion knew he was cornered, that there was nothing he could do to stop his horrible and undeniable fate. The shadows felt like a mob targeting only him, slowly backing him into a corner until he could no longer avoid his imminent death. So Garion breathed in, and prepared for the worst. But he got the complete opposite.

Out of nowhere, a giant flash of light seemed to swoop in from the heavens like a ray of sunshine, destroying the barrier of darkness it penetrated. Garion could not get a good look at it; though what he could make out of the creature was amazing.

It seemed to be completely human in every way, just with a fancy suit on. Nirem could only make out that the suit appeared to be dark black (covering everything but his eyes and mouth), but besides that this "man" could have walked down the street and not be second-guessed. But the things he did in just seconds amazed even Garion.

In about a second's work of time, Draktos' machine was gone, and all the shadows started to disappear instantly, vanishing into the night sky before Garion could even notice their departure. Then after a couple seconds of delay, the sky slowly started to turn back to normal; the normal, Earthly sky now seeming to fight back against the dark night sky, eating it away in the same manner the darkness did when it first arrived on Earth.

"What the hell was...."

It was too late. There was another swoop of light, and Draktos was gone.
Chapter 14: No Way Out

"People all over the world were in for a surprise yesterday when they came outside of their homes and looked up into sky to see it completely darkened. Not only that, for most people, was it around 11:00 A.M. with no storms predicted for the area, but there were also not a sight of stars or even the moon in the sky. With this anomaly being shortly after the alien sighting only three days ago, people are questioning the meaning of this strange event; some have already formed conspiracy theories claiming that the same aliens spotted two days ago are...."

Purstan clicked the miniature television off and dug his face into his hands. It had been two days now. He couldn't take the agony.

"There's no way he could be dead," Purstan kept telling himself. "He turned everything back to normal. There's no way he could be dead. There's just no way."

Malix walked in on Purstan's sadness, and walked towards him to comfort him. They were sitting in the boarded up yet burned down mansion; the boards only being there to hide themselves from the rest of the world.

As Malix put his hand on Purstan's shoulder, he said, without looking up, "There's no way he's dead. He's just...taking a long time getting back to base. Yeah. That dark pulse could have taken him anywhere from Paris to Tokyo."

Malix just sat there, quiet, continuing to pat his back to calm him down.

"Yeah," Malix attempted to agree, "he's probably just...."

"For once Purstan, you're right."

Purstan breathed again, feeling relieved as Garion, dirt smudged all over his tentacles, stood there with a dazed look on his face.

"What the hell happened to you?" Malix asked in shock as they went to give Garion a hug. "We thought you were dead."

As Malix called the rest of the team downstairs to share the exciting news, Garion seemed to just stand there in a daze.

Purstan, impatient to know the details, asked, "How did you do it?"

"I didn't," Garion responded, his eyes constantly facing forward.

As a concerned look grew on Purstan's face, the rest of the team came downstairs filled with questions to ask him. As they all got seated on the floor, eager to hear how Garion saved the universe, he didn't know how to start his explanation.

"Come on," Malix asked with excitement. "Aren't you going to tell us what happened?"

"Is Draktos dead?" Mason asked with excitement.

"He just vanished," Garion said, still in a daze. "Into thin air. Him and his machine, just gone."

"So Draktos is dead?" Purstan asked excitedly.

"He's gone."

"So dead."

"No, gone."

Garion pulled up the remnants of a chair, and sat down. He then tried to explain everything; from The Bermuda Triangle being some sort of source of energy to the disappearance of Draktos. He tried to capture every detail, trying to put the team inside his situation. Garion took the phrase, "You can't just make your problems disappear," literally as he told the tale, telling it not as if his troubles were over, but if they had just heightened.

When he finished with his story, Brendan asked, "How did you make it back?"

"After what seemed like hours of staring off into deep space for the man who took Draktos, I used Draktos' jet to get off the island with the remaining fuel it had left. After that, I ended up in a small part of the Bahamas and, with some petty thievery, managed to smuggle enough money for a flight back to Manhattan. Afterwards, I simply trudged towards the mansion. But here comes the part that interests you the most."

Garion pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and started reading it:

Dear Garion,

The events you have just witnessed have probably shocked you. I cannot explain much through this note, but I can tell you this: at 3:15 P.M. in two days, I will swoop you up personally from your base for an explanation. Also, if you haven't noticed, I am obviously on your side.

Sincerely,

Nightblader

"Where did you get this note?" Brendan asked.

"Another swoop of light appeared with it moments after Draktos' 'disappearance.'"

It's 3:05 right now," Purstan realized, checking a barely working clock on the wall to the left of him. "You sure are cutting this meeting real close. Are you sure you can trust this guy?"

"He just saved the entire world from an eternity of being ruled by shadows," Garion replied. "I'm sure I can trust him."

"Well, then here is another question," Brendan asked, "are you prepared to meet this man?"

"My only hope is that he knows something about my past. Maybe soon I can finally piece together what this whole 'prophecy' thing is supposed to be about. Until then, you all are dismissed. I guess I'll see you guys whenever I come back."

"Wait a second," Tyrone interrupted, "you just went missing for two days, made national news, and now you're going to leave again after only an hour of being here?"

"He's one man," Garion replied, "there is no way he will be able to take all of you."

"That doesn't mean you have to go."

"You know I have to go."

With that, Tyrone shut his mouth and walked up the stairs towards his room, not saying another word. Garion simply stuck his head into his hands and waited, the anticipation killing him. Who was this man? Was he actually who he said he was? Garion knew he couldn't trust anyone after his incident with the so-called "President," so he knew he had to be on his edge. With all of these thoughts racing through his mind, Garion couldn't focus on anything. Within minutes, a light swooped in and grabbed Garion from his seat, taking him towards the place where he hoped to find all the answers.

...

Garion couldn't feel any part of his body. He seemed to be flying faster then the speed of light, blasting through the very fabrics of space and time itself. Not thinking of anything but how he planned to survive such a trip, Garion tried to remain calm as they blasted through all of space, pushing anything in its way past him. In about an hour's worth of time, their journey ended as they arrived at Nightblader's base and Garion vomited on the floor beneath him.

Wiping his face, Garion looked around and saw what seemed to be a massive laboratory, about the size of the Library of Congress; there were test tubes with multiple experiments set up all along the room, the walls were coated with some sort of steel, and each experiment seemed to have its own unique taste in the entire scheme of things. Towards the corner of the laboratory, Garion noticed a small desktop set up next to big wall of empty space directly on the left of Garion.

What was most interesting to Garion was towards the other corner of the laboratory, where there was what seemed to be a giant armory covering a good portion of the entire room. Except half of the guns, Garion noticed, weren't anything like the guns we had on Earth; it seemed as if all of those ray guns Nirem used to watch in science fiction movies when he was little was modeled after real alien guns. These weren't only just pistols, though: there were machine guns, rocket launchers, and even what seemed to be mortars. What made these guns different from any other gun on Earth though, was their barrel; there was no hole for a bullet to come out from, just a skinny circular tip of the gun that seemed to shoot off whatever ammo was inside it. Another major difference in these guns were their metallic texture, each type of gun seemed to be decorated with a different type of color, almost like a color code.

He also noticed papers everywhere; near the desktop, on the ground, etc. It looked as though a giant tornado had swept through the entire laboratory.

"Where is this?" Garion asked in shock.

"I know I have much explaining to do, but follow me," Nightblader responded in what changed from a dark voice to a high pitched voice by the end of the sentence.

Garion followed Nightblader to what seemed to be a blank metallic wall.

"First things first, I have to make sure that you don't set off my DNA alarm system," Nightblader told him. "All you need to do is stand onto this wall and I can start the palm scanner."

"Um, sure," Garion hesitantly responded.

He stood next to the wall, hands and feet apart and facing the wall. It seemed to Garion as if he was about to be searched for any illegal materials that he may be harboring.

"OK," Garion asked, "I'm standing propped up against a wall. Now what?"

"Now I finish what I once started."

With what seemed to be the click of a button, metallic bars seemed to come out of the wall and encircle themselves around Garion's hands and feet, cuffing him to the wall. Then, a giant piece of metal about the size of Garion completely covered everything of him besides his head, and then squeezed tighter towards the wall as Garion struggled to break free.

"You are just too predictable," Draktos laughed as he took off the all black suit.

"Your Nightblader?!" Garion asked in shock.

"No, but I feel that I did a good impersonation of him, don't you think?"

"Wait," Garion asked, "if your not Nightblader, then...."

Draktos clicked another button on the wall, and it swung around in one full revolution. When the wall ceased to spin, Garion looked next to him and found someone else cuffed to the wall. The person looked familiar to Nirem, but he couldn't quite make out the face since the person refused to make direct eye contact with him. Except what seemed peculiar to Nirem was that this person seemed human in every sense of the word; he looked just like the figure that kidnapped Draktos, except more familiar. Garion also noticed a small dark stain in between them, one that hadn't been there before. The substance looked like something Garion had never seen before. He knew he had much more important things to focus on though, so he went back to Draktos.

"But...how?" Garion asked in shock.

"It's quite simple," Draktos explained. "When Nightblader captured my machine and I, he clearly underestimated my strength. After a little ruckus and some interrogation, I subdued him in these restraints. Then I thought: Why not have a little fun in his suit? Now, because of Nightblader, I can get rid of two problems at once. So long for now."

"No!" Garion screamed.

He attempted to shoot his tentacles out at Draktos, but the steel metal bars that bound him refused to let him do so.

"I don't think so," Draktos laughed. "Those metal bars are reinforced steel. You'll have some trouble getting out of those. Also, if you somehow manage to do so, well then I have another surprise waiting for you. Rise, Synthesis!"

Suddenly, the dark stain on the wall seemed to expand, becoming more thick as it did so. The stain seemed to be a living organism, slowly wrapping its way around Garion and (the real) Nightblader, enveloping them completely. After the stain had completely wrapped around the two fallen heroes, it seemed to be growing a face. Looking like a rabid animal, the beast grew two giant eyes at least two times the size of a normal humans, and inside were two sinister, dark, small pupils, gazing at the world in fury. The beast then grew a giant mouth, with at least 60 razor sharp teeth, ready to close its gap on any force that may resist its fury. The beast growled and shook as it came to life and enveloped the two men, not only making resistance futile but also enforcing the metal steel bars, along with shooting fear into their souls.

"Meet a piece of genetically enhanced bacteria," Draktos smiled, "or, as I like to call him, Synthesis. He'll be sure to keep you right in your place as I make my getaway. Don't worry, you will find out the rest of my plan later. And trust me, it will go off with a bang."

Garion struggled to break free of the beast's tight grip, but realized that it was impossible.

"So now what?" Garion screamed in anger. "You just go back to Earth and reactivate your machine? Don't expect to get away with this, because if I don't stop you, my dedicated team will. You and your nefarious plan will never succeed in the conquest for Earth! We will destroy you, one way or another!"

"I have no time for your petty small talk," Draktos replied as he grabbed his machine from a back corner of the room. "I have waited too long for this day, and it has already been delayed enough. Now there's no more waiting. I will destroy the TLS and your miserable planet if it's the last thing I do!"

"I guess, in a way, it was a good thing that my project was delayed by Nightblader's useless attempt to subdue me. After glancing through some of his research and through some heavy interrogation techniques, what I have discovered is quite interesting. There's a shadow storm coming to Earth, and its energy and power shall be mine! Even your so-called 'dedicated team,' can't stop that from happening. Now I must be off: shield's to break, lives to ruin. You can enjoy your last moments with your friend Nightblader. The man did look familiar to me from when I first visited you in your pathetic learning facility, and, to me at least, it seems you two knew each other."

With that, Draktos walked towards the small desktop at the left of the room, and typed in a few codes into the keyboard below the monitor. Shortly afterwards, a loud siren echoed throughout the room, and a voice continued to repeat itself: "SELF-DESTRUCT IN TWO MINUTES. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY. SELF-DESTRUCT IN TWO MINUTES. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

"At least I'm thoughtful," Draktos screamed to Garion as he grabbed his machine and opened a small hatch next to where Garion "spread his emotions," "I gave you both two minutes so you can say goodbye. Aren't I so kind?"

With that, Draktos jumped through the open hatch into the endless void of space (closing the door as he left), leaving Garion and Nightblader with less then two minutes to survive.

Garion looked towards Nightblader; he was looking up, managing to frantically panic without speaking, looking around for any source of escape. As Garion took a closer look at Nightblader's face, he couldn't believe what he saw.

"Max?" Nirem asked in shock.

At first startled by this name, he answered, " I don't know who you're talking about. My name is Nightblader, protector of the TLS, mainly the gatekeeper."

"Max, it's me, Nirem! From school!"

"That's impossible."

"You protected me, Max! From all of those rubber bands flung at me during school! You stood up for me when things went too far! Steven Park High School, Max! It's me, Nirem!"

Max looked up at Nirem, shock in his eyes.

"Wait a second, if you're Nirem, then you're the gatekeeper?!"

"Yes," Nirem replied, then paused. "How did you assume that, since I'm Nirem I'm the gatekeeper?"

"Because I'm your protector," Max shyly admitted. "My job is to protect the gatekeeper. That is my purpose, my goal. So now, with you here tied up next to me, I have failed my only purpose."

"So," Garion asked, "when you stood up to me in front of Quishow...."

"That's right," Max responded, finishing Garion's question. "I was given the task as protector of the gatekeeper, along with watcher of the TLS. So now I am about to fail both of those tasks, as Draktos hurtles towards Earth in my suit, getting ready to destroy the TLS using the approaching shadow storm."

"Shadow storms?" Garion asked.

"There isn't much time to explain what they really are, but all I can say is they are the destruction of worlds, along with the reason I was born."

Garion's heart stopped as he remembered what Draktos had said about a shadow storm heading for Earth. Was Draktos really right when he said that this was something even his team couldn't stop? Are his team (along with the rest of the world) really doomed to a fate they cannot resist? Everyone he once knew, gone: his friends, his family....

"My parents!" Garion thought. "How could I have been so stupid as to forget about them again?! I have to escape this prison now. Not only does the world depend on the vital information Nightblader and I now hold, but my parents do as well."

"We have to escape!" Garion shouted to Max. "We are the only chance for Earth's survival!"

"There's no way!" Max shouted back. "Not only are these metal bars holding us reinforced steel, but we also have Synthesis blocking our escape!"

"There has to be a way!" Garion shouted back.

He attempted to slip his string through the parts of him the metal wasn't covering, but Synthesis simply growled as he ripped the small pieces of Garion's tentacles to shreds.

"No luck with me!" Garion shouted to Max. "How about you?"

"I can't do anything without my suit or weapons," Max replied, "and with my suit stolen and my weapons out of reach, we're screwed."

"Is there any way we could somehow get those weapons?" Garion asked hopefully.

SELF-DESTRUCT IN 30 SECONDS. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Max lowered his head in silence.

"Well," Garion shouted, "if we're going down, at least we're going down together."

"Yep," Max gulped.

After some work, they managed to grab each others hands and squeeze onto them for dear life.

"It's been a pleasure knowing you," Max replied, praising the last words coming out of his lips.

"Same," Garion replied, closing his eyes as he did so.

"SELF-DESTRUCT IN 5, 4, 3, 2, 1,...."
Chapter 15: More Bad News

"Where am I? Who are you? Max!"

"Calm down, sir. Everything is fine. You're fine."

"Max! Where is Max?"

"You mean your friend that came in with you?"

"Yes, Max!"

"He's survived as well with minimal bruises."

"Survived? Wait, what?"

Garion looked around. The small room (a horizontal shaped room, being about the length of an average backyard) was completely filled with Martians, each one with some sort of apron on with a plus sign on it. Around him he noticed multiple stretchers filled with wounded bodies, one of them Garion noticed was Max. The only reason Garion even noticed Max from the rest of the bodies was because there were multiple surgeons crowding around him trying to operate on him. In fact, looking above him, Garion noticed multiple surgeons around him trying to do the same thing. Pricking out the needles from his skin and the patches inside his tentacles, Garion sat upright on the firm stretcher and sighed.

"Surprised to be alive?"

Garion looked towards the door in the center of the room and saw Rebolto walking in towards him, a smile on his face.

"Last time I saw you, youbursted out the door babbling on about how the S.W.A.T. team's out to get me."

"In a way, I was right."

"I just have one question for you," Garion asked as Rebolto took a seat next to him on the stretcher, "how?"

"We were hoping you could answer that question," Rebolto explained. "When we tracked your location to the far reaches of space, we found pieces of metal and what appeared to be some sort of black ooze all over you, as well as all around you."

"Synthesis," Garion thought out loud.

"What was that?"

"The bacteria," Garion explained, "and the metal. Draktos trapped us in reinforced metal and genetically altered bacteria, so we wouldn't escape in the explosion. I guess all of those different methods of keeping us from escaping, they all acted like shields once the explosion hit."

"Are you trying to tell me that Draktos, without realizing it, saved your life?"

"The irony of it all is killing me."

"Anyway's," Rebolto continued, "you're alive, that is what's important. We're going to keep Max in here a bit more because he had some injuries that need to be attended to. Nothing serious, but we need to stitch him up a bit more and keep him here for observation. As for you, Garion, you sustained little to no injuries, so I can show you a little surprise I have waiting for you in the main hall."

Rebolto cleared Garion's departure with the staff and, as they walked out of the room, Garion shouted to Max, "When we get back, you have some more explaining to do about those 'shadow storms.'"

Garion didn't notice the hospital staff shudder at the sound of the words.

As Garion trudged down various hallways of what seemed to be the Royal Palace in Mars, Rebolto escorting him, he noticed that, besides many placards across the plain orange and green (tentacle-patterned) walls, the rest of the hallways were clear. Each placard and/or picture seemed to be from a former ruler of Mars, each picture showing the dignity of the leader and the obvious courageousness this leader was willing to do to fight for his planet. When Garion and Rebolto finally reached the main hallway, Garion's blood stopped cold. Except this time, it was in happiness.

"Mom, Dad," Garion sniveled.

He ran up to them both, standing in a lounge area with basic sofas, tables, and chairs, and gathered them both into a group hug. He squeezed and felt as though he never wanted to let go, that he wanted to hold on to his parents, them being one of the only connections to his old life. As Nirem held both of them in his arms, he felt human again. He felt as though he didn't have a giant destiny weighing over his shoulders, he felt as though he didn't need to turn around every other second and check for Draktos. It was the happiest feeling he had felt in weeks, and Nirem wanted to hold onto that feeling.

When Garion finally released his grip on his parents, he looked up at them and smiled, tears coming down his eyes. His mom and dad looked just like they used to be: both of them being about the same height (which was relatively short, around 5'5), their blond hair flowed smoothly and gently as Nirem's once did. They seemed to be wearing special clothes for this occasion as well; his dad was wearing a blue, cotton buttoned-down shirt with fancy dress pants, as his mom was wearing a silky red dress.

Rebolto smiled as he got all of them situated in the sofas and chairs: Garion and Rebolto sitting on a sofa parallel to the two separate chairs their parents were sitting them. There was a clear glass table in front of them, along with what appeared to be some magazines. Garion was surprised at how much the Martians modeled after Earth.

"I'm sorry I never contacted you," Garion started, "but I've been horribly busy with Draktos. He's been killing off my team one by one, and we had to act fast with each nefarious plan he threw at us. There was almost no time for me to contact you."

"We're sorry we didn't do the same," Garion's dad started in deep, monotonous yet caring voice. "We should have attempted to contact you as well but, with you being The Gatekeeper and all, we had much work to do here in Mars as two of the biggest heads of Mars' government."

"Wait a second," Garion asked in shock, "you two are aliens as well?"

"We should have told you sooner," Garion's mom started in her high-pitched voice, "but we wanted to wait until you were ready. So when we got the call about the abduction, well, we couldn't help but feel that it was our fault."

"Well, it doesn't matter anymore," Rebolto told them all. "You're here now, and that's what counts."

"Hey mom," Garion started, "how's our dog...."

Suddenly, the entire ceiling crashed down onto all of them, a piece of the ceiling crushing right next to Garion, causing him to get dust in his eyes. As he wiped the dust from his eyes and coughed up the foul substance, Draktos was already flying off in the distance with them.

"Mom!" Garion cried. "Dad!"

This time it was personal. Garion used his strings as a boost to propel him hundreds of feet off the ground. As he was shooting up in the air at miraculous speeds, his eyes were focused directly on Draktos. He's taken enough from Garion. His parents weren't going to be added to that list. Garion hovered directly above Draktos, and then, thanks to the force of gravity, he dropped towards Mars' surface, holding onto the surprised Draktos as he did so.

"Leave my parents alone!" Garion screamed towards Draktos, the wind seeming to be louder then the sound of a plane taking off. "They have nothing to do with this!"

"Actually," Draktos responded calmly yet loud enough, "they do."

Garion and Draktos hit the inside of the Royal Palace with a bang as they crashed through the ceiling and hit the ground, pieces of stone and dust flying all over after the collision. It felt as though a missile had just shot through the palace, the damage the two made possibly being able to bring the whole palace down on top of them.

As Garion got up from the impact, searching for his parents and brushing the dust and stone off of him, Draktos charged at him from below, shooting him up to the sky at sonic speeds. As they approached the tip of the atmosphere, Draktos chucked Garion to the distant land below, flying down towards him as he did so. As Garion was free-falling down, he thought this was the end, that he had failed at his quest. Suddenly, just as he was about to collide with the ground, Draktos swiftly caught him at the last second from the fall, and then threw him to the ground below him.

"I don't know how you survived that explosion back at Nightblader's base," Draktos screamed in anger, "but it doesn't matter. I followed the ships and I tracked you here, right where I wanted to be. Now, unless you want the next fall to be real, you will tell me where the Time Freezer is!"

"I don't know what you're talking about!" Garion shouted back.

"TELL ME!"

Draktos started make hand gestures as if he was holding a circular ball in his hands. Suddenly, an energy ball started to form in his hands, attempting to remind Garion of the last time he had used an energy ball on him.

Garion, taking the hint, replied, "Alright, alright! I will tell you where the Time Freezer is."'

Draktos, hands still in the necessary formations for an energy ball, permitted Garion to show him the way. Garion, hands above his head, got up off of the ground and started aimlessly walking down the hallway he landed in, trying to think of a way to ambush Draktos when he least expected it.

Garion still couldn't comprehend how this could happen. How did Draktos get to Mars so fast? How did no one notice him enter? What is more important, why did he even need Garion's parents? They had just reunited, why were his parents so important to Draktos? Considering the current predicament he was in, Garion didn't want to find out.

After a few minutes of walking, Draktos started to question Garion's motives.

"Is this some sort of trap?" Draktos asked, using more hand gestures to make his dark energy ball noticeably bigger.

"No," Garion told him, scared, "it's in here."

Garion led him to a random room and opened the door. Inside it were simply shelves of cleaning materials, such as detergents and brooms and mops. All around the room were cleaning supplies. The room seemed to be an average janitor's closet in every way.

"What the hell is...."

As Draktos was busy being distracted by the nature of the room he had walked into, Garion whipped his tentacles at him, chucking Draktos to the ground. He then grabbed Draktos using his strings and chucked him from one wall to the other repeatedly; each bash being payback for a horrible task he had committed.

After what seemed like the tenth collision, Draktos grabbed ahold of Garion's tentacles and ripped the bond between them apart, throwing him to the ground beneath him. Draktos then quickly shot an energy ball at Garion's legs, forcing him to fall to the ground in defeat.

As Draktos approached Garion for what could be the final kill, Garion slowly melted inside the ground, his tentacles seeming to blend in through the small cracks and nudges, allowing him to disappear from Draktos' line of sight.

"You can run, Garion, but you can't...."

Garion then popped up out of the ground below Draktos, pushing him into the air like a basketball in mid-flight. As he fell back towards the ground, Draktos shot another energy ball at Garion but he barely dodged it, letting it glide through the air and smash the dented wall next to him, making a hole into the outside world. Draktos hit the ground with a thud, and Garion walked up to him in triumph.

"Don't mess with my...."

As if by a sudden administer of a shock serum, Draktos sprung awake and punched Garion where it hurts, the agonizing pain sending him tumbling to the ground below him.

As Draktos got up and looked over Garion, him now being the one with the triumphant face, he told Garion, "Don't you get it? You can never beat me. Never! I am the god of darkness, the bringer of shadows. I shall rule the universe if it's the last thing I ever do!"

"The last thing you'll ever do," Garion told Draktos, "is speak what you just did right there."

With that, Garion closed his eyes and concentrated. He started to make hand gestures in his hands, as if he was holding a circular ball in his hands. As Draktos laughed at the attempt, Garion, in deep focus, started to develop a ball of light within his hands. He felt all the power surge inside him; all of that energy, that strength, and Garion did not take advantage of it. He let the energy flow within him, creating a wave as Garion let the light inside him envelop him. Within seconds the ball of light had become about the size of a fully grown basketball, and Garion shot it directly at Draktos.

Draktos flew through the hole made in the wall behind Garion and onto the hard, Martian rock below him. As Draktos hit the ground this time it seemed as though all of his pride and dignity did as well.

Garion walked through the hole in the wall and towards Draktos, cowering on the ground like a scared little girl.

"Get out," Garion told him, "and never mess with my parents again."

With that, Draktos used his shadow powers to blend into his surroundings, and almost immediately disappeared. As Garion heard the wind rushing as Draktos flew away, he sat down on the ground and looked at the mess he made.

"Surprised to be alive?"

Garion laughed as Rebolto walked towards him with a big smile on his face.

When Garion and Rebolto walked towards what was left of the main hall, a triumphant look on Garion's face, they found Max (with an astronaut-like suit on) standing in the center of the rubble, head in his hands.

Rebolto ran up to Max and asked, "What happened?"

"When I heard the explosion," Max started, "I knew it was him. But the hospital staff locked the room so that they wouldn't be attacked. By the time I managed to get out of the room, I saw Draktos flying off with your parents."

"Don't worry," Garion assured Max as he walked towards him as he walked towards him and Rebolto, "I dropped him right out of the sky and took him down."

"What are you talking about?" Max asked in confusion. "This just happened less than a minute ago."

All of Garion's blood seemed to stop as fear replaced it.

"Mom! Dad!"
Chapter 16: Uncovering The Sinister Plot

Garion ran away from it all; away from Rebolto and Max, away from the pieces of the main hall. He ran through each hallway, looking at every corner with only one goal in his mind: to find his parents. His family were his only connection to his old life, and now Draktos had managed to steal that away from him as well. The two things he loved in the world were now at the hands of the most cynical man in all of existence; Garion couldn't stand the thought of it. So he kept searching through every part of the entire palace, trying to come up with multiple possibilities as to their whereabouts as he did so: maybe Max was having hallucinations after the incident, maybe Max lost track of time and didn't realize that Garion took Draktos down from the sky the first time, maybe his parents had gone into hiding once they had hit the ground. After about an hour of searching, he found the meteor sitting outside of the main hall of the palace, Rebolto loading Max inside of it. When they saw Garion panting and staring at the meteor, they had a long pause.

"We should go," Rebolto told him after what seemed like hours. "Your team is waiting."

"They're really gone," Garion told Rebolto but mostly himself. "He managed to take them away from me as well."

"We can't change the past, but we can prepare for the future. Draktos didn't want you parents for their job on Mars. Their job would serve no use for him. He wanted them because their your parents. He's setting the bait Garion, and you can't eat the worm. The best thing you can do for your parents right now is figure what Draktos is planning back at the base."

Garion reluctantly got inside the meteor as Rebolto clicked the E button. The door slammed shut and the rockets started up, the rev of the engine seeming to ease Garion's dazed yet depressing state. The meteor roared into the sky and they were off back to Earth.

During the flight, Max pulled out something from his back pocket to show Garion.

"Here," Max said, giving the slip of paper to him, "Draktos left this when he took your parents. I already showed Rebolto here, but I wanted to give you a little time to cool off before I showed you."

Garion took the note from Max's hands and read it aloud:

If you ever want to see your parents alive again, you will hand over the Time Freezer inside my old base by tonight at 8:30 P.M.

Your Loving Enemy,

Draktos

Garion crumpled the note in his hands and threw it to the ground in anger, ignoring its existence. Rebolto and Max simply stood in silence as Garion looked out the window at the never-ending vastness of space.

When the meteor touched down in what was left of Garion's base, the team helped the three out of the meteor.

"Why do you keep disappearing like that?" Purstan asked in anger.

"First for two days, then for a week?"

"You can't expect us to be part of a team when the leader is always trying to pull some lone wolf crap."

"I'm sorry, guys," Garion told them as he realized how long he was gone after the explosion, "and I know I have a lot of explaining to do. The bottom line is this, though: we're a team from now on. Where I go, you go. No one gets left out of the loop this time."

The team felt semi-comforted by this statement as all of them walked inside the back door of the mansion. Each person took a seat on the remains of sofas and chairs, some having to share a chair due to the lack of sitting material.

As Garion took the last seat available, he started to explain what had happened in a short summary.

"Listen," Garion started, "we don't have much time so I'm going to cut to the chase."

Pointing to Max, Garion told them, "This is Nightblader. He is the protector of TLS, along with protector of the gatekeeper."

"Now here is the deal. Nightblader was the person who made Draktos vanish into thin air, and his machine as well. Apparently when Nightblader tried to subdue Draktos, it didn't go so well and we both ended up tied to a wall and almost getting blown to bits."

The whole team seemed to at once gasp as Garion said this, disturbed by the fact that their leader was almost blown up.

"After our miraculous survival, which is why I was gone for so long, Rebolto took me to meet my parents after about 1 month of separation. After we talked for about a minute, Draktos decided it would be the perfect moment to swoop on down and kidnap my parents. After some fighting I thought I managed to scare him off, but that...that...horrible man managed to sweep my parents right from under my nose. Now he's holding my parents hostage and demanding something called a Time Freezer. All we know about his plan is that it has something to do with 'shadow storms.' Any questions?"

The whole team, opened mouthed, didn't know how to respond to the twisted tale of what had happened to Garion in the past week.

"Good," Garion hurriedly responded, "now if we could just...."

"Wait a minute," Malix interrupted him, "did you say shadow storms?"

"Yes."

"Do you realize what those are?!"

"I was hoping one of you would know that."

Brendan spoke up in a deep, depressing voice, the subject seeming to be to hard to put into words.

"A shadow storm," Brendan started, "is practically the end of life on a planet."

Garion gulped, but motioned towards Brendan to continue on.

"It all starts with the first drop," Brendan continued, "falling slowly onto the ground, the planet in mass pandemonium afterwards. After the storm follows in simply with heavy rain, except this isn't no ordinary rain. Each drop of this storm is like pure acid; it melts through whatever it touches. There are no safe places to hide, and nothing that can prevent it's destructive power. There is no material strong enough in the entire universe that could even hope to prevent the horrendous storm."

Garion, scared half to death, managed to ask, "So how could Draktos use this to his advantage?"

"From the time of the first drop falling onto the ground and the rest of the drops following the first one, the shadows gain unlimited power, and unlimited strength. Not only that, they also become unstoppably invisible during that time, so that there is no chance of their death. The first drop acts like a never-ending source of fuel to their bodies, it being the most powerful. The drops preceding this one drains out that fuel, and causes the first drop to blend in with the rest. Luckily though, this period only lasts for a few seconds, and is useless without a...."

"Time Freezer," Garion finished in a whisper.

"Many shadows have tried to find this technology after they found out the connection," Brendan told him, "and it seems that Draktos believes you have it."

Garion stood there in awe. His whole planet was about to be wiped out by a storm no matter what he did, but if he didn't give Draktos the Time Freezer his parents are as good as dead. He was in a deadlock.

"There is another part to the shadow storms that you may find useful," Brendan continued. "Legend has it that the shadow storms were created long ago by an infant who was born at the precise moment the first drop of the first shadow storm hit the ground of Garlock. Ever since then, this man seemed to have some sort of special power inside him, since this infant was the sola survivor of the Garlock Shadow Storm, seeming to be protected by some sort of shield. If you can manage to find that person and learn his secrets, you may have a shot against Draktos."

Max raised his hand into the air, an embarrassed look on his face.

"That would be me," Max told the team.

Out of the entire team, Brendan looked the most startled, the man in the legend seeming to be just purely a legend. Even though he just told Garion to search for him, that was just to lift up his spirits. He never expected the sole survivor of a shadow storm to be right in front of him.

"How?" Brendan asked.

"When you said that stuff," Garion started, "back at your base. About how shadow storms were the reason you were born. Max, are you really this guy?"

"I guess it's time to share my story," Max realized out loud. "Well, I should start by telling you that I'm not from this planet. I came from a planet called Garlock, if you haven't already figured that out. Garlock was created when Pluto froze up."

"Wait a second, Pluto was once warm?" Nirem asked, trying to recall his mental notes from all of his science and social studies classes, but nothing jogged his memory.

"Yeah, but then an ice comet hit it," Max said. "Anyway, the Plutonian's fled Pluto and found another planet with no life on it. The Plutonian's figured that the inhabitants of the planet must have evacuated or something, so they claimed that planet as their own and named it Garlock—after their chief leader, Garlock."

"Only about 500 years after the people of Garlock settled down though, strange raindrops started to fall out of the sky, destroying everything in sight. These raindrops didn't only disintegrate through structures, they disintegrated through people. I was born at the beginning of it, as this gentleman mentioned, right as the first drop fell onto Garlock. My parents, both killed in the storm, tried to get me to as safe of a place as they could when the storm hit. Immediately after birth, as the hospital staff, along with the rest of the hospital, started to die, my parents tried to bring me out into a bunker they knew was built long ago. They only made it halfway there, though. By that time, they both dropped dead onto the ground as I started to scream and cry as loud as possible. After all, I was only 15 minutes old."

"Though suddenly, I realized that I wasn't dying at all. To the contrary, some sort of shield was enveloped around me, protecting me from the sinister raindrops above. I don't exactly remember if the shield was visible or not, but, whatever it was, it saved me from the storm that killed my planet along with my people."

"After the storm was over and the planet was literally destroyed, I ended up wandering around in space for about 6 months until a nearby spaceship found me and picked me up. Realizing that I looked exactly like a human, they drove me to Earth and left me there for adoption. Ever since then, all I've known is that, from what appeared to be your God Shabithi, I've been destined to protect the oncoming gatekeeper."

"How do you remember all of this?" Rebolto asked in awe. "After all, you were only an infant."

"The man that rescued me told the parts of the story he had gathered up to my foster parents once I was adopted, having them tell me when the time was right. It took a little convincing, but eventually everything worked out. That's not the real point, though."

"So what is the point, then?" Garion asked, still amazed at Max's tale.

"The point is that I found out, through a little research that I can not only survive shadow storms, I can predict them as well."

"Wait," Rebolto intervened with shock, "how?"

"What's so surprising?" Garion asked in confusion.

"Shadow storms are unpredictable," Rebolto explained. "They appear at random anywhere in the universe. We actually don't know about shadow storms until they are reported usually during the beginning of the storm."

"So how can you detect them?" Garion asked Max.

"It's my blood," Max explained. "Apparently when I was born that first drop fused inside me, it's composure and structure being infected inside my blood. So, to track shadow storms, I simply take a blood sample of mine and enter it into a personal handmade machine I made that uses probes I sent throughout space to look for shadow storms. If I find any, I immediately help evacuate the entire planet."

"Why didn't you report to Earth about the shadow storm approaching us?" Garion asked.

"I had it in my notes, which Draktos took, but I didn't know how to inform Earth about this oncoming catastrophe. After all, they are the most clueless planet when it comes to outer space."

"Well," Garion nervously responded, "I wouldn't say the most clueless...."

Max looked at Garion with a stern face, then he changed the subject.

"Well, in that case we're glad to have you as a valuable resource," Garion politely said. "Our main goal right now should be to figure out what Draktos is planning. Using all the information we know so far, we should start by...."

Suddenly, Rebolto's wristwatch started to beep.

"I have to take this."

He walked away from the talkative group towards a corner of the room, but that didn't stop the group from silencing to listen in on Rebolto's call.

"Are you sure?" Garion heard Rebolto murmur, although he knew they were all glancing down at him.

"Well, how come you didn't stop him then? I don't care how big of an army they have, or that our palace was just attacked, we should have been prepared!"

With that he slammed off the wrist watch in anger, and looked back towards the team.

"I would try to avoid the topic, but you would all just ask about it anyway. So here it is: When Draktos snagged your parents after he disappeared, he also managed to steal one of our valuables as he left. It is a teleportation device, creating a portal from one location to the other. Any ideas on why he would need something like that?"

"My question to you Rebolto," Garion said with rage, sick and tired of the constant thought on his mind, "was how did he know where to find this device? How does he know what the Time Freezer is? How does he manage to get all of this information on us, right under our noses?"

"Are you accusing me of something?!"

"Damn right I am!"

The two men then got in a heavily worded fight, accusing each other of multiple felonies. The team were just innocent bystanders as Garion and Rebolto dueled it out, hitting each other with every insult available. It almost seemed as though they were about to get physical at one point, which is when Purstan finally stepped in.

"Guys, guys," Purstan calmed them down. "We can't be accusing each other of crimes at a time like this. This world is about to end by a ruthless storm we cannot stop, along with an evil, cynical mastermind who seeks to use this storm for his own nefarious purposes, and you two are accusing each other of spying?"

"I guess you're right," Rebolto admitted. "We have much bigger things to worry about then pesky suspicions."

Garion, still keeping a close eye on Rebolto, agreed to the plan, "We'll continue with what we were doing before Rebolto got his call on his wristwatch, which was figuring out Draktos' plan based on the knowledge we have. So, any ideas? How about you, Brendan? You seem to be the wise one when it comes to these type of things."

"I'm drawing a blank as well," Brendan responded. "All I can conclude is that Draktos wants to use the energy in this shadow storm for something, and it has something to do with his first plan back in the Bermuda Triangle."

"Well," Tyrone offered, speaking up for the first time in a while, "let's gather what we know. Draktos wants to block out the sun. Draktos has a machine that can do this. Draktos wants to use the power of the shadow storms to his advantage, particularly the part about the shadows gaining unlimited strength for about a second's worth of time."

"Which is why he wants the Time Freezer," Garion realized, his parents still in his mind.

"See," Tyrone continued, "now we're getting somewhere. Now all we need to figure out is how infinite energy and blocking out the sun relate to destroying the TLS. Also, what the hell is the teleportation device for?"

"Maybe it's not blocking out the sun that Draktos is worried about," Mason pitched in. "I mean, the whole point of him blocking out the sun was to gain infinite power. Why would he need infinite power from blocking out the sun though, if he already gets that from the shadow storm?"

Mason paused for a minute, and then added, "What did you say his machine was made out of again, Garion?"

"It seemed to be pure dark energy."

"Maybe he's trying to mix the two. Maybe, just maybe, Draktos, is trying to create some combination of dark energy and shadow storms to take out the TLS."

"And he's using the teleportation device to teleport whatever beam he's shooting into the TLS!"

"Of course," Rebolto realized. "That's horribly genius. He's molding the power of the shadow storms into a pure beam of dark energy that can be shot at the TLS, causing it to break and for his army of shadows to pour into this galaxy. Not only that, because he shot a concentrated beam of a shadow storm at the TLS to break it, all the shadows would be subject to the rays of this beam, causing them to have these infinite powers as well. So once he conquers this galaxy, he will have the technology to conquer the next one. And the next one. And the next one."

"And he's using the Time Freezer to gain infinite power so nobody can stop him!" Garion realized again, continuing to think about his parents.

"The plan is foolproof," Rebolto told them, "besides the fact that we know about it. We cannot let Draktos get away with such a plan, and we must act fast. Max, when did you say the shadow storm was going to strike?"

"Sometime around the next week," he told them.

"Then we must act fast. Some sort of planetary evacuation is in order. We cannot just leave Earth in the dark about something this big. We will announce our existence to the world tomorrow."

"When we first arrived in Manhattan though, you said...."

"I don't care what I once said, this is what I'm saying now. We will tell them about us, one way or the other. Now, we have more concerns we have to deal with tonight. Particularly about your parents, Garion."

"We have to get them back," Garion urged.

"I agree," Rebolto agreed, "but, as you already pointed out, we cannot just give Draktos the Time Freezer. There has to be another way we can make the drop-off and catch him in the act."

"There isn't," Max pointed out, "Draktos took my suit, remember?"

The whole team, remembering the super sonic speed powers of Nightblader's suit, realized this in sadness as they knew that there would be no way that they could intercept that fast of a drop off.

"So," Tyrone sadly asked, "we're just going to let them take it?"

"We could give them a fake Time Freezer," Garion offered, "or place a bug on the real one. We could even mess with the wiring on the real one so that it doesn't work."

"You and I both know that Draktos would have thought of that," Rebolto pointed out. "At the speeds he would be going, Draktos would have dropped off your parents, ran to test the machine, then ran back and stolen back your parents before we could count to ten."

"We can't just give him technology like this," Mason declared, "it's mad!"

"We have no other choice," Garion finally realized.

"Well, we could always...."

"No. Never. There is no way in hell I'm losing my parents, and I don't care if I have to fight every one of you for it. There's no other choice, like I said. All we can do is plan for Draktos' major plan, and find a way to prevent it."

So Garion watched as the meteor that came to deliver the Time Freezer arrived, and he helped Rebolto load the heavy machine outside of the delivery meteor, right before it flew away. He glanced at the machine. It was no bigger then the size of Draktos' old machine, except it was completely different in every way. The machine was simply a giant, metallic ball propped up on two stands; one on the bottom and one on the top (both made out of metal). The stand on the bottom also had a control panel, where the device can be configured. The control panel was filled with confusing yet colorful buttons, each one seeming to perform an intricate task. Even Nirem, being great with computers back in high school (a time that seemed as distant to him as his youth), couldn't even begin to comprehend this intricate keyboard, staring at its immense detail.

Garion helped Rebolto search for a tunnel leading to Draktos' underground base (remembering where the ambush had came from) and, once they found it, the two men lifted the surprisingly heavy contraption into the tunnel and towards what seemed to be the main gathering area of the base, a podium in the front of the stage.

The two men then watched in sadness as a quick flash of light appeared for a brief second, and then was gone. Garion ran to his parents, crying as he did so, being so happy to be in their presence. Rebolto, on the other hand, stared at the spot where the Time Freezer used to be, despair reeking over his face.
Chapter 17: You're Under Arrest

There was a sudden knock at the pieces of wood that Garion considered to be a door. He pulled away the blanket and pillow, got up from the floor, and stepped quietly past the other teammates in their deep sleep as he went to answer it. Rebolto, deciding to stay there for the night, was startled by the knocking.

"Who could that be?" Rebolto wondered out loud.

"Only one way to find out," Garion told him as he pulled apart the big chunk of wood that served as the main door.

Suddenly, multiple agents dressed in hard helmets and S.W.A.T uniforms, along with bulletproof vests and machine guns stormed into the mansion, their footsteps slowly waking the entire team out of their sleep. As the team started to get up the S.W.A.T team seemed to pay no attention to any of them; they simply seemed to be storming the house for evidence, ignoring the extraterrestrials existence.

After the S.W.A.T. team entered the mansion, a tall dark man in a tall dark suit with an earpiece on his right ear seemed to follow them, writing things down a notepad consistently, seeming as though one word out of place could upset the whole balance of the world. As he continued to write these things down, several agents accompanied him inside, each one wearing the same dress code: a tall, dark suit with dark sunglasses and earpieces, seeming to extend to under their shirt. There seemed to be at least five on each side of him, each agent standing erect, a stern yet simple look on their faces. Garion watched through their sunglasses as their deadlocked eyes did not gaze or wander, as their erect posture did not bend or twirl, the proper edict they had. To Garion, it felt like that if these men did not perform at their highest duty, they would get shot on sight.

Garion, startled by the random appearance, asked the tall dark man in the tall dark suit (still taking notes), "What the hell do you think you're doing in my house?"

The agent looked up in surprise at the man, as if they had just magically teleported into the room.

Not wasting a second on gazing, he looked towards one of the agents and said, with a monotonous voice, "Get him."

Being a signal for the whole team of agents to act, they took out their pistols and immediately opened fire on Garion along with the rest of the team, the same stern and official look on their faces.

Attempting to dodge the shots, Rebolto screamed, "What the hell did you do this time Garion?!"

"I didn't do anything!"

"What should we do?"

"Fight back!"

Garion closed his eyes and concentrated. With speed now, his tentacles quickly wrapped around the legs of three agents, the force of his tug causing them to trip and fall to the ground without warning. He then quickly shot multiple tentacles around the room at various agents, each tentacle hitting them and paralyzing them for a few moments while they attempted to pry the leech-like substance off of their faces.

Mason took quick advantage of this opportunity, pulling out both of his pistols and aiming them directly on the two agents heads His aim being dead-on accurate, a bead of sweat dropped down form Mason's eyebrows as he contemplated the fact that these men could be on our side. Before anyone else could do anything else, Mason hesitantly spoke, silencing everyone.

"Now you men listen here. I don't know who you are, or what you want, but I can assure you that we don't want any trouble. Now, if we can all just put down our weapons and maybe talk this out...."

A pistol shot barely missed Mason's head as he was talking, driving him to the breaking point.

"You put this on yourselves you sons of...."

With a bullet to the shoulder Mason fell to the ground in agony, as an agent closed in on his current state of turmoil.

"No!" Garion screamed.

He ran through the gunfire towards Mason, refusing to lose another teammate. As the agent was about to pull the trigger on Mason, Nirem tackled him to the ground as hard as he can, trying to replicate the small things he had learned in gym class. As the agent fell down onto the ground with a thud, Mason then preceded to finish the job as the bullet entered the agent's skull, ending his life on the spot.

After quickly thanking Garion for saving his life, Mason knew he didn't have time to contemplate what he just did. He knew he had just probably shot a federal agent. He knew the consequences for his actions. At the same time though, Mason knew he had acted in self-defense, and that if he didn't continue to do what he does best, he would soon be killed. So Mason pulled the two triggers on both his pistols and watched two agents go down.

As Garion continued to fend off the agents using all of his tentacles in the most creative ways possible, he knew that this couldn't last forever. The S.W.A.T. agents started to pour down the marble staircase, opening fire on anyone who looked threatening in the least amount of ways. Their waves of bullets immediately outnumbering Garion's fancy noodle tricks, he knew he was in trouble. As Garion started to get closed in on by two agents, he knew that he was as good as dead.

"Goodbye," an agent whispered as he pulled the trigger.

Garion, managing to duck down and hear the bullet pierce the wall behind him, took things the old fashion way. He grabbed onto both of the men's legs and flipped the two to the ground by tipping their legs over. He then turned the two bodies around so that they faced stomach forward, and punched each one in the face with all of his might, knocking them both unconscious.

Tyrone, on the other hand, was plowing through the agents like barriers in his path. He charged through the crowd of S.W.A.T officers and agents, pushing them to the ground as he tried to clear a path. He even, for the people that provoked him, slammed some of the agents onto the floor multiple times, showing pure anger as he stomped through each one of them without a second thought as to their ranks, only thinking of them as pure enemy's.

Rebolto attacked the alien's with pure precision, using his tentacles quickly and precisely to whip out attacks at these agents that not only would they never expect, but would leave them helpless against him as he rushed in for the final blow. He seemed to use his abilities as an art; patiently yet with quick precision knocking down his opponents and stuffing them onto the ground in retaliation towards their aggressive actions.

Malix simply steamed hot lava at the approaching agents, creating a large barrier around himself so that agents wouldn't attack him. He heard the agents burn and sizzle as the shadows once did as they ran towards his shields doubting its existence. The shield was definitely real, though; so real, that Malix was able to help out other teammates clear up certain agents since he was so well guarded.

Brendan was having a hard time keeping up, his old body not used to this kind of combat. He struggled to match the precise agents kicks and blows as they came to him, and had a hard time blocking their gunfire as it surged into his tentacles. These agents were too fast for him, and he knew if he didn't act soon he was going to die. As he was backed into a corner by three agents that seemed to arrive by the front door (apparently the team hadn't noticed new squads of agents start to come in), he knew he had to do something and fast.

Suddenly, all the agents put gas masks on at once. Before anybody could tell what was happening, there was a loud bang and there was then suddenly a thick gas throughout the room, stinging the team's eyes and ears as they were backed into a corner by their unforeseen enemy. As the team members, mostly Mason, struggled not only to inhale this strong substance but to see in it as well, Garion suddenly heard the clicks of what seemed to be thousands of guns cocking back their hammer, ready to fire at will. As the smoke cleared, Garion saw at least 50 S.W.A.T. agents and 20 highly trained agents (the ones with the dark suits on) surrounding them throughout the mansion, guns pointed at them. Without question Garion placed his hand on his head, as the rest of the team did as well, Garion's motion acting like a universal sign.

The tall dark man in the tall dark suit, seeming to be taking notes while this entire event unfolded, put down his notepad and finally spoke.

"Well, what do we have were? A few extraterrestrials trying to hop on a free ride to Earth. Well, we'll have to prevent that, won't we?"

"Who are you people?" Garion asked in confusion.

"The United States Government," the man responded in shock, seeming to be surprised by Garion's English, "and you are trespassing. I guess we're going to have to take you to a 'special' place. Now, if you'll just come with us, we won't shoot you in the face right now."

Garion, attempting to play around with his alien heritage, cockily responded, "And what makes you think we can't take a bullet to the head?"

"You all may not be able to," the tall dark man realized, "but your human friend here can."

The man raised his pistol on Mason and cocked it back, ready to fire. Mason thought about reaching for his pistols for protection, but knew that the agent seemed to have a dead-on shot as well.

"Wait!" Garion stopped him. "Fine. We'll comply."

The agent lowered his weapon but let the numerous S.W.A.T. agents keep their weapons pointed at each member of the team, them too probably having dead-on aim. Garion felt like he was in one of those cop movies that he used to watch, where the suspect was cornered with cop cars surrounding him and he had two choices: Comply or Die.

Garion, even though he was trying to avoid the second choice, had to explain himself, "You don't understand. We're the good-guys here. There's someone else that's trying to...."

"I don't care what anyone else is trying to do. You all, on the other hand, thought that you all could hop onto a foreign planet and go unnoticed. That little stunt you pulled though, the one with the fake president rolling in to drive away suspicion, that was clever, I'll give you that much. Thanks to an anonymous tip though, we finally found you."

Anonymous tip? Garion couldn't believe it! Draktos set him up from the start! He knew that Garion would figure out the plan, he knew that he would know how to train. And he managed to set up for that too! Draktos thought of everything in this plan, of his, and Garion couldn't let him get away with his sinister plot. First things first though, he had to calm down all of these government agents. He had to explain to them what was actually going on here.

"Listen," Garion tried to explain, "the fake president thing, that wasn't us...."

"Sure it wasn't. Don't worry, we have a special place for people like you."

All the conspiracy theories Garion had ever heard in his life were immediately confirmed. He knew what that man was talking about. He knew where they were going to be taken.

"Area 51," Garion realized solemnly.

"That's right."

He then turned towards the hundreds of security guards, their guns still aimed directly at the team.

"Take them in."

"Well, that's no fun," Draktos thought from a distance. "Nobody died. At least, nobody from his team did. We're going to have to change that up a bit."

Draktos then got up from his lookout position at the top of the hill behind Garion's mansion, and he then abandoned his shadow's body. He took off his cape, letting his average shadow of a human's body grow as his legs grew into tangible legs, along with the rest of his body rapidly growing. Once the transformation from his cape was done, he simply let his body evaporate, turning his entire body into a gas, letting it float and disappear into thin air as he invisibly made his way towards Garion mansion.

"Listen," Garion continued to try to explain, "there's someone trying to take over this world, and his name is...."

"Feel what Harold felt."

Garion suddenly felt a chill inside his entire body as he seemed to lose control. His arms, legs, every part of his body seemed to freeze up at once, he was completely immobile in every sense of the word. His eyes still worked though, but only to an extent: he was only able to see out of his eyeballs, but no more. He could not move them, just observe and watch his own body unwillingly act, pivoting on it's own and speaking false words.

As the chill receded, Garion felt as though he had risen up out of his own body and was watching the events unfold from a birds-eye view; he was not able to do anything but watch. As he watched what seemed to be Draktos taking over his entire body, he could not bear to see what Draktos decided to do with his newly acquired host. He tried to close his eyes so he wouldn't have to watch, but Draktos had control of them now.

"What was that?" the tall dark agent asked in suspicion. "Were you calling your other troops?"

"Did you say you were the United States government?" Garion/Draktos asked in a noticeably deeper voice.

"Yes."

"I never liked those people."

He then quickly shot his tentacles out at the tall dark agent, launching them onto the surprised agents face. As they hit the man's face, he struggled and squeezed to immediately get them off, as the leech-like substance seemed to pry onto his skin.

"This new body is not that bad," Draktos murmured through Garion.

"Garion?" Purstan screamed. "What have you...."

"Fire!" the agent managed to make out.

The entire S.W.A.T. team immediately opened fire on the innocent bunch, instantly killing Mason with a bullet to the head. As the gunfire rained down on the team, each one attempted to get back into their battle strategies and start to retake their base. But there were just too many agents.

One by one each teammate began to fall, steadily easing a little closer to death as each bullet pierced their bodies. Garion could see the teammates struggling, each one clinging to life hard, but then eventually losing the desperate battle as the S.W.A.T. agents closed in on them, putting thick bullets into their skulls with ease.

"No!" Garion thought to himself.

He tried to regain control of his body, trying anything and everything to save his teammates. He struggled and strained against the hard pulls of Draktos' control, trying to somehow simply push Draktos out of his body. He couldn't though, Draktos' power was too much for him to handle. So Garion had to sit there and watch his teammates die right before his very eyes, being helpless to do anything about it.

Garion/Draktos moved with a swift and keen style, brushing past S.W.A.T teams left and right, using his new strings for all kinds of tricks as he melted into the ground, only to reappear in front of a group of S.W.A.T. agents. He then shot all of his tentacles out at each of their faces and, as the struggled to get the leech-like substances off of them as they ate away at their skin, Draktos took one of their pistols and shot them all in the back of the head, execution style.

He moved through the S.W.A.T. officers with ease, feeling no danger as he attacked each officer with brutal force.

Meanwhile, Garion, watching from above, saw Malix go down as a frag grenade was tossed inside his open mouth, only to have his insides explode seconds later. Right in front of Garion's eyes he watched the left side of his mansion catch on fire, and he could do nothing to stop it.

Then he reached the breaking point.

Purstan fell to the ground with a thud, as the last few bullets were put into his skull. Garion watched Purstan as he grabbed for the ceiling one last time, his last effort to grasp onto the thresholds of life itself, then watched as he silently slipped away into the darkness.

Garion started fighting it as hard as he can. He didn't know what he was doing; all he knew was that he had to get Draktos out, he had to save what was left of his team. He kept fighting Draktos' spirit that conquered his whole body, trying to move anything at all: an arm, a leg, even a toe so that he could somehow use that toe to save his team. He had to gain back control. Garion pushed and pushed as hard as he could, fighting Draktos' soul until Garion finally collapsed onto the ground, out of breath.

As he looked up towards the S.W.A.T. men, he noticed that he was looking up towards the S.W.A.T. men, and no one else. He did it. He fought Draktos for his body, and won. He was finally in control. Now he had to save what was left of his team.

Garion frantically looked around, trying to find any team member that was still breathing. All that he found alive was Tyrone, blocking the bullets with his rock hard body as he plowed through the soldiers. Garion knew, though, that it was only a matter of time before they brought in the big guns.

"STOP!" Garion shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to cease the gunfire. "WE SURRENDER! TYRONE, PUT YOUR DAMN HANDS UP!"

The S.W.A.T men, not wanting to lose any more soldiers to the massive beast, lowered their weapons as Tyrone complied with Garion, placing his hands on his head. Garion then noticed the tall, dark man get up with multiple bruises and scars, looking anything but happy.

"Look what you've done!" the man screamed without any monotonous voice whatsoever. "You've killed hundreds of agents, and at what cost? Did you actually think you were going to make it out of here alive? Now, because of your actions, your friends are dead. I hope your happy."

The tall, dark man, looking towards the S.W.A.T. men again, said worriedly, "Take them away."

This time Garion and Tyrone complied, tears falling down Garion's face as he stared at all of his friends dead bodies, each one motionless on the floor Garion, refusing to put himself under the illusion that they were sleeping. He couldn't believe it; not only was most of his old life dead, but now his new one had just perished in the blink of an eye. Also, his parents were nowhere to be found along with Max, so all Garion had left in this world was Tyrone. All of his friends, even Purstan, were now sprawled out onto the floor on display for the world to see. He let Draktos kill all of them, and he just stood idly by. Suddenly, Garion noticed that Rebolto was barely breathing.

"Rebolto!" Garion screamed. "Please, you can keep your guns pointed at me! Just let me say goodbye to my friend!"

"You have thirty-seconds," the agent replied, feeling a hint of remorse for this creature.

Garion ducked past all the agents and, avoiding the densely smoky areas from the fire, went towards Rebolto, telling him, "Don't worry. You're not going to die. You're not going to die."

"Yes, I am," Rebolto whispered. "Yes I am. It's better to accept it now then to deal with the guilt later."

"You always do have the best quotes," Garion attempted to smile as tears trickled down his face.

"Listen to me very closely, now."

Garion tuned in, trying to hear Rebolto's almost inaudible last words.

"You must leave immediately."

"Twenty-seconds."

"You must leave now. The only reason Draktos would call the police on us today means that he didn't want us interfering with his plan. Which means...the plan is happening today. Right now."

Garion, realizing the truth in this statement, gasped.

"Listen," Garion tried to explain, "about when I attacked that Secret Service agent...."

"It was Draktos, wasn't it?"

"How'd you know?"

"I figured out that you weren't that stupid."

Rebolto managed a smile and placed something into Garion's hand, closing it tight in his palm so the other agents wouldn't notice. He then slowly started to pass away. Right before he left this world though, he managed to whisper, "I told you so."
Chapter 18: The Master Plan Launches

"We have to start. The shadow storm is 6 minutes away."

"We have to wait."

"If Draktos doesn't show up soon, he'll miss it."

"We have to wait!"

"We can't just let a once in a lifetime opportunity like this pass us by!"

"WE HAVE TO WAIT!"

Suddenly, a portal opened next to the two conversing shadows, it's spiral pattern slowly opening up. As the borders of the portal continued to spiral, the actual portal itself showed an image of the top of the hill above Garion's mansion, the grass slowly swaying against the gentle breeze of a spring day. The entire day looked so peaceful; birds chirping, trees blossoming in the background, but that was only if you took Garion's mansion out of the picture.

The whole house seemed like a puzzle piece placed in the wrong spot. One half of the house was burned down, the other half currently burning. There were bullet holes in every little corner of the mansion; it felt as though the entire building was going to collapse just because of those small holes made in the weak, old, horrible attempt of planking up the burned area of the mansion. Not only were the sizzled spots still clearly visible, but there was more holes in those pieces of wood then there was bullet holes.

As the shadows looked closely into the portal, they noticed Garion and a large figure seeming to be entirely made out of rocks being dragged to multiple police boats surrounding the outside perimeter. Suddenly, Draktos appeared in the portrait frame and simply stepped through onto the misty terrain of the Bermuda Triangle, sniffing the air of where he had world domination in his grasps.

"This time though, I will not only grasp it, I will taste it as well," Draktos thought to himself.

As he closed the portal he created with a circular device seeming to be shaped like a miniature portal (it's metallic coating and tiny intricate wiring making it's shape be about the size of the palm of a hand), he looked around at what he had teleported into.

Beyond the thick fog, Draktos couldn't make out much; all he could make out though was his giant, beautifully metallic machine, standing propped up facing the sky, ready to absorb the shadow storms energy at any moment.

"When is the shadow storm?" Draktos asked.

"Five minutes."

"What?!"

"It seems you were leisuring too much back at Garion's mansion."

"Don't worry, it was all worth it."

"It'd better be."

"Quickly, turn on the machine and start the calibrations. I will start calibrating the Time Freezer to the appropriate settings."

"Already done, sir. We were just awaiting on you to check our progress."

"Good work to you, then. Now, off to your jobs."

The shadows rushed off in opposite directions as Draktos walked towards the Time Freezer, a big grin forming on his face as he did so.

"Just five more minutes," Draktos thought to himself. "Just five more minutes and it will all be mine."

Draktos started to toy with the intricate wiring of the Time Freezer, making sure each setting is set for the appropriate date. He had to make sure he connected all the wires right so all the settings were done correctly, that nothing but time itself was frozen.

"Just a few modifications right here, some wiring to fix right there, and...."

Suddenly, a giant spark shocked the entire machine into activation. Draktos, thinking he had connected the wrong wire, watched as a flare was shot high into the far depths of space, seeming to move towards a certain location. Draktos then watched as the machine disintegrated onto itself; the glossy, metallic ball spinning so fast it went off its hinges and dismantled from the machine, as the rest of the machine slowly started to turn into dust.

...

"You don't understand," Garion shouted as he was loaded onto one of the multiple police boats surrounding his mansion, "we're innocent!"

"Innocent or not," the tall, dark, bruised agent explained, "your trespassing on foreign soil."

"Stop giving me all of this crap and let me help you find the real perpetrator!"

Suddenly, with a bang, a flare exploded high above the remains of Garion's base, the ashy relics floating to the ground soon after the explosion.

"What was that?!" the agent screamed. "Was that a signal for an attack? Was that your people?"

"I'll be back for you, Tyrone. I promise."

Garion, gathering all the strength he had left in his 17 year old body, shot pieces of his tentacles at each one of the surrounding officers. Blinding them completely, the officers ducked down trying to get the leech-like substance prying away at their skin off of their faces. Before the other S.W.A.T. officers had time to react, Garion shot his tentacles to the ground with one big burst, shooting at least 1,500 feet into the air, soaring above the sky.

Garion slipped through his handcuffs with quick melting of his tentacles (that he picked up from Draktos while he was killing Garion's team) and then attempted to spread his arms out and glide through the air, hoping the holes in between his tentacles could catch in the wind.

Garion started to plummet 1,500 feet as he realized how stupid of an idea that was. As he started to plummet towards the Earth at sonic speeds, he realized he was closing his fist by muscle memory.

Carefully opening his fists, Garion found the small item Rebolto placed into his hand: a pair of keys, about the size of Garion's palm.

"What the hell is this?" Garion screamed out loud.

Garion, realizing he was going to die, decided there was nothing better to do then click the button on the keys. He heard a small beep resonate from them, then nothing more.

Garion really started to panic now. He was now about 500 feet away from the ground, and he didn't want to go out like this. His life seemed to flash right before his very eyes, but mainly the death of his team. One by one he watched them each plummet to the ground, each one of their last calls for help, their final cries. He even left Tyrone back there to possibly die. All of his team gave their lives for him, and he made them do so. All because of his selfish actions of watching and waiting, Garion let his team die. Now he had to pay the price. Probably 150 feet to go.

Garion was about to vomit right before a jet with an open cockpit caught him in midair, continuing to head straight forward on some sort of autopilot mode.

After Garion spilled his emotions onto the bottom floor of the plane, he quickly wiped his mouth and observed the jet. It looked very familiar, seeming to have the same surroundings as a previous model he once used. Then Garion remembered the only time he had ever used a jet before.

Looking out onto the window, Garion noticed a small envelope taped onto the windshield. He grabbed it and teared it open, dumping the scrap pieces of paper onto the floor. He opened up a small, folded piece of paper and took a quick glance at it. It was a note from Rebolto, and it said:

I found this outside the hill behind your mansion after you returned from your little "trip" to the Triangle. I thought the advanced technology of this jet should come to some sort of use with your 'plan' that I managed to glance at minutes before the Time Freezer was grabbed. Also, I'm sorry. He had my family.

Rebolto

Garion stared sternly at the last sentence, all of his fears being instantly confirmed. He tucked the letter into his tentacles, the last relic he had of Rebolto's existence. As he looked out towards the sky, a stern look on his face, he said to the jet "Take me to the Bermuda Triangle."

...

"What the hell was that?!"

"Sir, I...."

"It just...disintegrated!"

"I'm not sure, sir."

"Is this your sad excuse for calibration?!"

"You were supposed to...."

"Enough! I've had it! I've waited too long for this day, and I refuse to wait any longer. We move on with the plan. Once the first drop of the shadow storms falls into my machine, we will have to find another way to stop the machine from being destroyed by the shadow storm."

"What about us and our invincibility?"

"Screw the invincibility! Once the army is here, that will be the least of our worries."

"What about Garion, sir?"

"Garion...Garion doesn't have a chance. Fire up the machine."

The shadow walked up to the machine and flipped some switches, lighting the entire metal plating up like a Christmas tree. The lights seemed to spread from the bottom to the top of the machine, until finally the cylinder-shaped part of the machine itself started to light up. The machine then started to make many heating noises as it seemed to prepare for the one drop of rain as it's power source.

"Now what?" the shadow came back over and asked.

"Now we wait," Draktos expectantly replied. "Garion will be overjoyed to watch the takeover from whatever cage he may be sitting in."

...

"5 miles away. ETA 2 minutes."

Garion dismissed the computer as the jet started to near its destination, Garion starting to get increasingly worried as it approached.

He knew he had to do it, but he couldn't. He wouldn't have the courage to. He had to somehow muscle it up inside of him, because if he didn't then his jet would get shot down and he would be an easy target for Draktos. But he just couldn't find that type of courage.

"I've already been through all the scenario's," Garion thought to himself, "this is the only possible way."

His heartbeat started to race faster and faster as he neared his destination. As the computer notified him his destination would be arriving any minute now, he almost threw up again. He knew what he had to do, though.

"Computer, turn off auto pilot."

"Auto pilot off."

The jet suddenly started to swerve around as Garion quickly grabbed hold of the steering wheel and thrust it downwards as the computer told him that he had arrived at his destination. As the mist started to clear Garion saw a small shape in the distance, along with a lit up machine.

Before Garion knew it he saw something small, about the size of a raindrop, falling out of the sky before it landed on the machine. The machine then shot up a giant beam of darkness, enveloping the sky above before starting to consume the sky around it slowly, eating it away like it was breakfast. Garion knew he had to act fast, and he had to act now. He had to do it now.

"Warning. Collision approaching, 500 feet away."

Garion let the plane slowly tumble to the ground as he banged on the glass repeatedly. After around the tenth try the glass shattered, a clear exit point for Garion. He managed to make his way out of the cockpit seat and onto the nose of the plane, the now 100 feet drop coming ever so closer staring at him in the face. Suddenly, he froze.

How could he do it? It's hard enough in the movies when the main character has to jump out of a moving car, how about a moving plane?

Garion couldn't do it. He just stared at his impending doom right in the face, until it was about 50 feet away.

Out of pure fear for his life Garion leaped from the colliding plane, gliding through the sky as the plane crash landed onto the ground in a fiery explosion. As Garion hit the ground hard, he wobbled a bit before falling to the floor and spilling out his emotions again.

"I did it," Garion thought out loud. "I somehow did it."

Garion slowly got up and looked at the sky, seeing if he managed to destroy Draktos' machine. The sky still continued to blacken around him though, as the darkness grew ever so farther from the starting point, continuing to envelop the bright sky around him.

Garion walked over to the burning scene of the crime only to see an untouched machine, but a fatally weak Draktos on the ground beside him. Garion looked around him. Their were bits and pieces of the jet all over the island; covering every inch of it, some pieces even seeming to start some sort of forest fire. It felt as though Garion was in a movie, the sole survivor of a plane crash left to wander the wilderness in hopes of survival. He could even smell the burning of the plane, exciting yet scaring him even more.

"You fool!" a weak Draktos shouted as he got up from off the floor. "You idiotic fool! Do you realize what you have done?"

"I see the Time Freezer 'overreacted'," Garion sarcastically replied.

"You little...I was talking about the plane! That was you that rigged the Time Freezer?! Your dead!"

"You and what army?"

Draktos, smiling, looked up at the sky as Garion followed his eyes. Above them, the shadows started to form again as Garion saw Draktos' massive army of shadows scouring the sky gather right before his very eyes, each spec of the sky seeming to be an individual shadow ready to strike on our planet. Each of the shadows seemed very eager to explore Earth, their bodies constantly moving as Garion started to see them all as one giant, moving blob.

Though, as the shadows started to chatter, so did the rain drops that followed. They each fell down at once, seeming frozen in midair as they made their decent towards the ground.

"No!" Draktos screamed.

He quickly darted for his machine and turned himself back into a shield for it, his now circular formation with a dark, sinister face in the middle completely blocking the machine from the approaching raindrops as they reached our planet.

Garion attempted to run after Draktos and stop him, but when the raindrops hit, they felt like acid. Each drop seemed to make Garion weaker as he slowly fell to the ground, a tentacle inside him seeming to disintegrate with every drop that poured onto his back, Garion being collapsed on the grass floor below him.

The raindrops disintegrated everything from trees to mountains, seeming to simply destroy anything that was blocking its path to the ground. The storm continued to thunder throughout the sky as the shadows started to get even more anxious.

Draktos then heard a beeping inside his machine, faint through the sound of the raindrops thundering towards the ground.

"The transfer is complete," Draktos smiled, "the darkness has spread all around the globe."

Suddenly, all the shadows poured out of the sky like a mob, as if a bucket of water had been dumped out onto the floor. Except, in this case, each individual shadow was a particle of water inside that 5 feet full bucket.

The shadows poured out like bees to a beehive with honey dripping out of it, spreading like madmen throughout the world as they started their reign of terror among humanity. Garion, still not being able to see much with the acid disintegrating him slowly, managed to make out the herd of what appeared to shadows in the shape of some sort of...mythical creatures. Garion didn't know what to call them except non-human, some having horns while some had claws for hands. They spread around in various shapes, sizes and forms. Garion even managed to see a shadow floating as a 6 foot beast, flying through the air ready to cause havoc, club in hand. Garion reached up for the sky in an attempt to help the situation in anyway, but fell to the ground in anxiety.

Draktos then changed back to his normal, cape-less form as he watched his machine turn to dust like the Time Freezer did moments ago.

"The portal transfer is already complete," Draktos thought. "All the shadows have already broken the TLS and there is nothing Garion could do to stop that. Now, I get to watch my shadows fly."

Suddenly, Draktos seemed to shoot a shield of shadows like the one Draktos himself was now made of, shooting it around Garion. The shield enveloped him in the mystical shadow force that seemed to block out all the deadly raindrops, saving his life in the process. After a minute of heavy breathing and screaming in pain like a hyena, Garion looked at Draktos with shock.

"Why did you save my life?" Garion asked in amazement.

"Because I wanted to show you one last thing before you die, something that I have been waiting for the right time to tell you."

"What could be so important that it was worth saving my life for?" Garion asked, still in shock.

"My true identity," Draktos responded softly.

"Your identity?" Garion asked, confused. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Remember that one boy you left back at the school," Draktos told him as he looked over his tiny shield, Garion lying on his back looking back up at Draktos, "the boy who liked rubber-bands?"

"Max?" Garion asked in shock.

"No, no," Draktos shrugged, "the other boy."

Garion's blood ran cold as he pronounced the name slowly, "Quishow."

Chapter 19: Draktos' Secret

Draktos slowly ripped off his shadow form, tearing it off like it was a loose piece of clothing. As the shadow form Garion once saw Draktos as fell to the ground, disintegrating in the shadow storm, Garion looked up to see the same old Quishow; bigger, badder, and scarier then ever.

He was about a head taller then Garion, and had frightening skull jackets and dark, ripped leather pants on. His pale white skin seemed to counter the dark, sinister, evil face he had on. Also, Quishow didn't look normal this time.

He wasn't just that old school bully Garion used to avoid back at school. He had some sort of dark ora emanating around him; it seemed as though Quishow had some sort of shield, guarded by thousands of shadows ready to serve him. He looked down at Garion with a sinister smile as he prepared to lift off the shield and watch Garion perish.

"You never escaped the building that day...," Garion realized in a soft whisper, slowly getting louder, "it was because, you formed a partnership with practically the devil himself?!"

"Thanks for reminding me," Quishow realized.

He then closed his eyes and concentrated, seeming to try to bring some sort of being from inside his body into the outside world. Quishow's nerves started to strain around his forehead, beads of sweat slowly dropping to the floor. Suddenly, a bright light shined from inside Quishow, seeming to be directly inside his stomach. The white light then seemed to move up; it maneuvered its way through his throat, finally reaching his mouth, until it escaped a big flash of light. Once the light cleared, all Garion saw after that was Quishow standing next to a dark, ominous, mist.

"What are you doing?!" the mist asked in shock.

"You have helped me a lot," Quishow told it, "but I no longer require your service."

Garion gasped as the mist screamed, "You can't do that! You need me! You need my knowledge!"

"With you being inside me for all this time," Quishow responded with a smile, "I've already gained all the knowledge I need."

"These shadows will never follow you without me as their leader! You will be dead within an instant!"

"Not unless I have your energy, which I already absorbed from you when you were inside me."

The mist seemed to attempt to change form, slowly changing to various shapes as it struggled to get back to what it once was.

"But how?" the mist asked. "You were just a stupid boy, a pawn!"

"You know," Quishow replied, "there's always something special about pawns. When they reach the end of the chess board, they can become an almighty Queen."

With that, Quishow gathered all of his strength, creating a giant ball made out of shadows. Still in focus, Quishow shot the shadow ball into the mist, obliterating it from sight. Garion watched in awe as the mist simply vanished into thin air, never to be seen again.

"Well," Quishow responded calmly, "now that Draktos is taken care of and you know my true identity, I guess your purpose in this world has ended. Also, thanks for the plane crash by the way. It really helped weaken Draktos' inner presence inside of me, which made it very simple to get him out of my body."

"But...you were just an idiot! Back at school you could barely tell positives form negatives! Now you're able to take out an all-powerful evil god?!"

"It's amazing what can happen in just a couple months, isn't it? I consider it to be my personal rehab. What do you think?"

"So," Garion asked in shock, "this entire shadow storm plan...was your idea?"

"Partly," Quishow explained. "You don't think I would try to destroy the TLS without anticipating some sort of guardian, do you?"

"You knew?" Garion asked, shocked. "All along?"

"Exactly," Quishow responded. "I've done my research. I found out about Nightblader's powers, his predicting abilities. You see, this was my entire plan. Threaten the TLS, get abducted by the man who can predict shadow storms, and find out when the next one hits. It was just pure coincidence that the next shadow storm was on Earth."

"So your plan was just to simply go to the planet with the next shadow storm and use its energy to destroy the TLS?"

"That's right."

"Why? Why cause all this havoc? Why use a shadow storm, not just your original plan to create a portal?"

"Because a shadow storm is the perfect diversion."

With that, Draktos lifted the shield off Garion as the drops of the shadow storm slowly started to resume, piercing his skin again. The agonizing pain Garion felt was indescribable, each drop feeling like a flaming knife to the back, slowly eating away his life as he tried to crawl towards Quishow.

"Now, if you need me, I'll be at the V.V."

Quishow then darted off into the sky, disappearing into the dark, ever-moving sky above him.

Garion knew he had little time left before his impending death. He had to leave this planet somehow, but he couldn't muster up the strength to use his tentacles as a boost. He couldn't die, he just couldn't. It was in the prophecy or something, wasn't it? Yeah, it said that Garion would be the one to save the world and defeat the evil god Draktos. But, if Quishow just did that, what was left for Garion to do? Even though Quishow became the new Draktos, he was still the one to defeat him. Does that mean the prophecy's wrong?

"No," Garion thought, "it means I have to now conquer my fears and defeat the school bully. I have to destroy my Draktos."

He knew he couldn't, though. Almost all of his tentacles were gone, and by the time the raindrops hit his human form, he was as good as dead. His life started to flash before his eyes, his friends, his school, everything he once knew and loved in his old life. His parents. His parents!

"I didn't see their bodies when I looked around the mansion," Garion realized, "and I didn't see Max's, either. Maybe they didn't die! Yeah, they must have hidden when they saw the S.W.A.T. agents!"

"I guess it doesn't matter, though," Garion realized in his head, "they've probably already been killed by this vicious storm. If that didn't kill them, the fire in the mansion must have."

Why couldn't he just live a normal life, in a normal school with normal people? Why was he destined to be some sort of alien bent on saving the world from an evil force fifty times stronger than him? He didn't need this, he shouldn't have this destiny. All he wanted was to become a science major at Harvard and make new discoveries throughout the land of science. He would have never dreamed for a fate as big as this.

"There has to have been a mistake," Garion thought, "I'm only seventeen. How could they expect a seventeen year old to take on this kind of responsibility?"

His tentacles were just about gone. Garion could start to feel his normal clothing coming back to him, sweaty and reeking of filth since he hadn't changed them in months. He started to feel his human form again and, for the first time, it didn't feel so good. He knew it was over, he knew he was done.

"I've failed," Garion whispered aloud right before a bright light swept him up from the ground and into the dark sky above, piercing the dark sky in the exact path it traveled in.

Chapter 20: The End Of Garion?

Garion couldn't feel any part of his body. He seemed to be flying faster then the speed of light, blasting through the very fabrics of space and time itself. Not thinking of anything but how he planned to survive such a trip, Garion tried to remain calm as they blasted through all of space, pushing anything in its way past him.

Before he knew it, Garion and Max were panting on the staircase towards the Martian palace, Garion still struggling to breathe. Garion looked back towards space as he saw Earth completely shrouded in darkness, seeming like a big black ball that makes its inside invisible to the surrounding planet. The dark shadow surrounding Earth acted like tinted windows of the president's limousine so spectators cannot glance through to see the limousine's true purpose; they hid Earth's activities from other planets. Garion couldn't believe what Quishow caused, what he could have stopped from unfolding before his eyes.

"Are you O.K.?" Max asked.

"How the hell did you survive?!" Garion exclaimed.

"We hid in the mansion once the agents barged down the door," Max explained.

"We? As in...my parents?!"

"Yes, I put them in as safe a place as possible in a storm like this. Then, I had to save you."

"How did you know where to find me? More importantly, how did you get your suit back?"

"To find you, I just followed the dark beam into the Bermuda Triangle. Also, I never really got my suit back. The power always resonated inside of me, the suit just amplified my powers. It was actually hard to even muster up the strength to rescue you, but I managed the task with a little help from the Stars."

"The Gods?"

"No, the Stars."

"So then how did Quishow...."

"Apparently, old dogs can learn new tricks."

"How," Garion roared, "how did Quishow gain all of this knowledge? How did he turn from an idiotic bully to a massive super-villain in just a couple months?!"

"He must have had help from the Stars as well," Max sulked.

"What do you mean by the Stars? You treat them as if they are living beings, not large bodies of heat."

"That's because they are living beings. In fact, they are the most powerful living beings in the entire universe."

"These bodies of heat?"

"No, the...."

Suddenly, an alien came bursting out of the palace wall beside them, tumbling to the deserted, rocky ground below him. Garion ran over to the Martian only to see most of his tentacles missing and his unconscious eyes gazing off into the sky above. Garion closed the man's eyes in sadness as he looked back at Max.

"Go," Max told him, "this is your fight, not mine."

Garion managed to give Max a courageous face as he ran through the hole in the wall and into what was left of the waiting room of the palace (the crumbled pieces of the wall still there from the last attack), only to see Quishow darting through a small tube in the small hallway right in front of him.

Garion ran like no one had ever ran before, darting for the small entrance in the hallway directly in front of him on the wall to the left of him, right next to a locked door. Garion squeezed himself down what appeared to be a tube slide right before the small entrance, no bigger than a water-slide's entrance, shut behind him.

The next thing he knew, Garion was sliding at a fast pace through a completely dark slide, having no sense of direction besides the feeling of a turn every now and then. As he slid through the slide, Garion realized that Draktos would probably be waiting for him at the bottom, so he prepared.

As the light started to show and Garion started to make out Quishow's dark figure in the bright room, and shot a giant light beam directly into his stomach.

Quishow flew against the back wall of the room as Garion slid inside and observed his surroundings. He seemed to be in an all golden room, bright and shiny. The room, being no bigger than an average sized kitchen, had a giant safe covering most of the wall towards Garion's left, the safe being made entirely out of gold. Written in big letters above the safe's massive spinning wheel to open it was the letters: V.V. Garion looked around at all the safe's mechanisms, and it was hardcore material.

The safe seemed to be at least 4 feet thick made of some Martian version of reinforced steel, its bolts on the side of the safe probably tighter then the strings on the Golden Gate bridge. A giant, rotation wheel covered the majority of the safe, the wheel being at least two Garion's tall and three Garion's wide. Next to the giant, rotation wheel (and towards the ground) was a small control panel with not only a passcode lock but a handprint identification as well. The control panel also had some sort of biometric lock above it, and next to the scanner there seemed to be a camera tracking the movements of the room, observing for trespassers. Along with all of those scanners was a small compartment next to the passcode lock for DNA analysis scanning, the hint being a slot about the size of an average Martian's tentacle.

"For security like this for a giant safe," Garion thought, "there must be something worth stealing in there. Whatever it is, I can't let Quishow have it."

Garion then immediately dodged an incoming shadow ball heading for him as he somersaulted out of the way towards the direction of the vault. Mustering up the energy to shoot another ball of light directly at Quishow, he dodged it as well with a simple turn of the head as he shot a ball of shadows again at Garion. This one hitting Garion in the leg, he fell to the floor as Quishow slowly made his way towards him. Garion immediately got up and shot some of his tentacles at Quishow.

Quishow simply flicked them off like small bugs though, ignoring their presence as he walked towards Garion. Panicking, he slowly melted into the ground, disappearing from Quishow's line of sight.

Quishow looked around frantically for Garion until he suddenly popped out of the ground, thrusting Quishow towards to ceiling with a simple punch in the wrong places.

He fell to the ground with a thud as he grabbed Garion by the leg and yanked his tentacles as hard as he could. Garion started to pull away, shooting his leech-like creatures at Quishow's clinging arm until he was eventually forced to let go. Quishow quickly stood up and stared at Garion as he did the same.

"I see you've gotten stronger as well," Quishow sneered.

"Strong enough to beat you," Garion replied with confidence.

"Oh we will see about that," Quishow laughed, "because once I open that vault and obtain the S.T.U., this universe is mine for the taking."

"The S.T.U?"

"Star Transporting Unit."

"What are these Stars? What do they do? What are their purpose?"

"You fool! You don't even know the true purpose of a Star?! What kind of Gatekeeper are you, anyway?"

"What are the Stars?!"

"They are only the most powerful beings in the entire universe! They control light and dark, night and day; everything you see around you has been hand-crafted by the Stars!"

"So," Garion realized, "if you teleported to the Stars home and...."

"That's right," Quishow smiled, "their power will soon be mine. All you can do is watch as I finished what I should have done a long time ago."

"We'll see about that," Garion said as he shot another light beam directly at Quishow's face, hitting him spot on as he flew towards the back wall again.

"Aaah!"

He got up slowly, his face badly singed from the blast. Garion looked at him in shock as his entire face was badly burned, his whole face burning like a Smore on a cool, summer's night as his skin seemed as though it was about to peel off. Yet in that moment, the moment where Quishow's face went from evil to disgusting, Garion felt that much more scared of him. Quishow was mad now, smoke still rising from his face and his skin acting like an old grape, the shell rusty and flabby. Though, through Quishow's now deformed facial features, Garion managed to make out the anger in his eyes as he started to make a giant shadow ball.

Garion quickly jumped to the ground and shot another beam of light at his legs, collapsing him onto the floor in defeat. The shadow ball simply shot towards the wall behind Garion and exploded, barely leaving a mark on him. Garion walked towards Quishow in triumph as he prepared something cocky.

"I guess that...."

As quickly as Garion saw victory though, defeat fell upon him as Draktos came clashing down on him, grabbing his legs and swinging him to the ground. He then shape-shifted his hand into a makeshift knife and grabbed Garion by his tentacles, propping him up onto his face.

"How's about we finish this how it started?" Draktos laughed a he plunged the knife deep into Garion's tentacles.

Right then Garion felt the pain. Not the pain of getting his tentacles ripped out, not the pain of watching his friends die, but real pain. The blade, made entirely out of shadows, pierced Garion's human form, going not only inside his skin but into his organs, seeming to punch a vital one as Garion shockingly coughed up blood. He felt the blood seep out of his human form and spread through his tentacles, not only leaving a literal but a metaphorical stain as Garion collapsed onto the floor in pain. All of his blood seemed to pour out his wound, spilling onto the floor like he did as Quishow made his way towards the vault.

Quishow, staring at the vault, started to whisper in some sort of foreign language. Garion, bleeding out on the floor, couldn't manage to make out any of the language. What Garion did realize though, is that Quishow whispered this language in some sort of native tongue, seeming to perfectly pronounce the incomprehensible words. It felt as though he was chanting a prayer at some sort of funeral, wishing the dead well quietly as it parted on to its other life.

After about a minute of chanting, the door to the vault seemed to automatically unlock and slowly creak open, it's treasure's on the inside revealing itself. Quishow stared in awe at all the objects in the room (being about the size of a house), most of them made out of solid gold. From ancient statues to not so ancient metallic machines like Quishow's, valuables of all shapes and sizes scoured the room in an unorganized fashion. The only thing that was organized though was the small, circular device propped up on a stand at the back of the room. The title on the inscription on the display stand read: STAR TRANSPORTING UNIT. USE ONLY IN CASE OF AN EXTREME EMERGENCY AND WITH THE APPROPRIATE CLEARANCE.

Quishow smiled as he started to make his way towards the back of the room, making sure not to step on any valuables. After what seemed like numerous hours of trudging through valuables like stepping on Lego's, Quishow finally made it to the back stand and broke the glass casing surrounding it, an alarm setting off as he did so. Draktos grabbed the small device from it's stick-shaped stand and stared at it.

After long last, he was now able to meet his fellow mentors, bow in their presence as he slowly slipped a knife behind their backs. He finally, after all this time, all of this planning, had the key to opening a door to another world. In his hands, he was finally grasping his dreams. Quishow now had the key to the Stars, the almighty beings of the universe. He could finally meet the Stars, and he could finally have their power.

"After long waiting," Quishow whispered, "it's finally mine."

Suddenly, small pieces of tentacles hit his hand. Quishow, shocked, quickly attempted to get the vermin off of his hands, but it was too late. The tentacles sucked up the STU and then flew back to a now standing (yet limping) Garion, ready to fight one last time.

"GIVE IT BACK!" Draktos roared as he shot a giant shadow ball directly at Garion.

Garion quickly dodged the ball and ran inside the V.V. (Garion now realizing meant Valuables Vault), trying to find anything that could be of use to him. All the while, Draktos was close behind him, chasing him throughout the room and trying to shoot shadow balls at him every five-seconds.

Garion continued to run around the room in circles, fearing a dead end as to his search for anything useful. Garion then suddenly tripped over what appeared to be a blank tablet of stone, falling to the ground with a thud as Quishow closed in on him. Garion grabbed for the nearest object to defend himself, that object being the tablet that caused him to fall to the ground. Now that he looked at the tablet more closely, he noticed its uniqueness.

The tablet seemed to be made of stone with a type of material Garion had never seen before. The symbols on the object seemed like nothing even close to anything on Earth, as well. As Garion stared at this tablet in deep thought, the first two words of the message slowly started to translate in his mind. Once the words formed, they read: To end the reign of the shadows, to restore peace to the once peaceful, you must find the truth behind the message enclosed. You must unlock its secrets, its treasures, its belongings. You must find The Gatekeeper. You must find Garion.

"This is it," Garion realized in his head, "this is the Prophecy. All of my memories, whatever my destiny was supposed to be, lies in this tablet."

"I believe you have something of mine."

Garion looked up from the tablet to see Quishow looking over him, a dark ball of energy starting to grow bigger and bigger at his fingertips.

"Give it back. Now."

Garion slowly started to back away towards the wall as Quishow's shadow ball got bigger and bigger. By the time the shadow ball was almost as big as Quishow himself, Garion was cornered against a wall of the giant room, fear pulsing through his already throbbing veins.

"It's over," Quishow smiled, "there's nowhere left to run, nowhere left to escape. This ends here and now."

Garion knew he had to do something, but he was fresh out of ideas. There was no Max to save him this time, and all of his friends were dead. This time, there would be no easy escape. This time, Garion couldn't dart to the left or right in an attempt to dodge the shadow ball. This time, Garion was cornered and he wasn't going to escape. This time, Garion would die, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Well," Garion thought, "if I'm about to die, I may as well finish that Prophecy. Maybe that could somehow save me."

So Garion closed his eyes in his last moments and concentrated; his mind focused intensely on the Prophecy that lay in front of him. He started to try to decode the language, trying to make out the syllables and words. Suddenly, the words didn't start to appear on the tablet, but instead in his head. He felt the all the Prophecy surging through him like a blast of energy, until it all finally formed in his head.

Saying it aloud, as if for the world to hear, the Prophecy read:

TO BE CONTINUED...

About The Author

Nikhil Dhingra is a ninth grader at Francis W. Parker school in Chicago, IL. He is currently a writer for Say What! Online magazine, weekly publishing articles onto the website. He is also part of Say What! Online Magazine's Division Street 2013 project, in which he attempts to capture the story of Division St. through the eyes of its residents. Furthermore, Nikhil is an editor for Polyphony H.S., practicing editing submissions. During his free time, Nik likes to play basketball and video-games, and hang out with friends as well. Nik aspires to one day get his book published on a hardcover book by a publisher, and he continues to search for the publisher that would be interested in his book.
