Defenders of the Universe

Chapter 1: How it All Started

Wednesday, December 19 12:31 

Seconds before the incident

It was a normal recess. Five good friends, Harry, Damien, Rock, Lily, and Mariella were hanging out together. Damien and Harry were talking about what they did at the fair.

“And then, we rode the Drop Zone together,” said Damien. 

“That was fun,” Harry added.

“Wow, it sounds like you had a really fun weekend,” said Mariella. 

Suddenly, a mysterious spaceship came down. It was purple and had a beat-up, but still had a futuristic look. 

“What is that?” said Lily, looking up from her copy of The Eternity Code. For some reason, it seemed like they were the only ones who could see it. 

“And why is it such a tacky shade of purple?” Harry inquired.

Rock said with a nervous voice,“That’s a phantom.”

“What phantom?” asked Damien.

“I am confusion. What’s a phantom?” says Harry. 

“Seriously?” everyone else said. 

“Anyway, can we go in?” Lily asked.

Rock said, “Phantoms have gravity lifts and are heavily armed.  Do you really want to go in it now? Also, why is it not shooting its plasma cannon?” 

“YES” said Harry. 

“I am so game,” Lily agreed. 

“Me too,”said Mariella.

“You’re hallucinating” said Damien, “There’s nothing there.”

Rock sighed. Harry, Mariella, and Lily dragged him onto the spaceship, leaving Damien behind since he couldn’t see it.. Rock whispered under his breath, “We’re going to die.” Suddenly, the spaceship took off.  Rock screamed in horror. Harry just hyperventilated from the sheer excitement and Lily simply laughed from sheer joy. Mariella was screaming from excitement.

Chapter 2: DARKNESS

Tuesday, December 19 1:15 pm (most likely) 

“Is it just me or did we just go out to recess?”said Rock

“Guys, we’ve been here for forty-four minutes,” Lily said. “Do we even know where we are going?”

“Yes, I know what I’m doing” Harry shouted from the cockpit, annoyed; “I’m piloting us through space.”

Lily threw her copy of The Eternity Code (which she had borrowed from the school library) at him. 

“Ouch! And don’t throw school property! I saw that book in the library! I’ll tell Mrs. Evans. (Mrs. Evans was the school librarian).”

“Stop being a smart aleck. And how exactly can you fly this? The technology is far more advanced than any of the technology on Earth.”

“How in the world do you know how to fly this thing? It’s from several races five freaking centuries ahead of us!” yelled Rock.

“Duh, I’m both smart and good at tech. I hotwired the engine, then I did some quick calculus to figure out how much thrust the engine generates that way I could use the controls right.” Harry said.

“Still, this stuff is far beyond anything we could even comprehend.” Lily argued.

“Yeah. ‘We’ as in ‘You, Rock and Mariella’. Not me. I can comprehend it.” Harry shot back.

“You still should not be able to fly this,” Rock replied.

Suddenly, the phantom roughly stopped. 

“What is this place?” said Mariella.

“Why are we stopped, Harry?” asked Rock.

“Uh, I didn’t do that.” Harry said.

“You are controlling the thing. How did you not make the phantom land?” Rock said in question.

“Or did you lie about being able to control this hunk of junk?” Lily accused.

“Yeah, did you have the grunt pilot it?” Rock asked.

Then the phantom started moving on its own.

“Very funny, Harry. Now knock it off,” Lily said.

“I told you people, I’m not doing anything! Rock, I don’t even know what the heck a ‘grunt’ is!”  Harry retorted.

Mariella cut in, “Um, guys, I think we’re in trouble. Black hole!”

All of a sudden, they started to get sucked into the black hole. Harry tried to steer away, but the gravitational pull of the black hole was too strong. 

“Brace for impact!” Harry yelled right before they got sucked in. 

Chapter 3: Crash Site

Unknown location

“What in the world happened?” Mariella asked.

“How are we even alive? We should be spaghettified and ripped apart in an alternate universe because nothing can escape a black hole and our particles should be made of antimatter with opposite electric charges and…” Harry started rambling. 

“I think the better question, Geekazoid,  is where are we and how can we wake up Rock.” Lily said, cutting off Harry. Suddenly,  Rock woke up. 

“I’m gonna do some exploring,” Rock said in a very sleepy voice. 

After Rock left, a mysterious cloaked figure started walking toward the others. Shaking, they backed up into the phantom’s gravity lift. 

Chapter 4: The Giver

Unknown location

The figure pulled off its hood…and revealed a kid! 

“Patrick!,” said Mariella. 

Patrick said, “Oh hi, Mariella. Haven't seen you in a while.”

“HOW ARE YOU SO CALM ABOUT YOUR BROTHER LIVING IN A BLACK HOLE?!” Lily shrieked.

Harry cut in saying, “That is awesome. What’s it like living in a black hole?”

“Pretty cool,” said Patrick, “Except…. I can’t get out. Some mysterious person trapped me in here and gave me powers.”

“Can you give me powers? Just curious.” said Harry. 

“Me too!” said Mariella.

“Seems fun, add me in too, ” said Lily.

“Okay, but just so you know, I can’t control what powers you get, it just reflects your personality.”

“Okay!” the group said.

Patrick chanted something and just like that, they all got powers. Except... they couldn’t figure out what they were. 

“Okay, I know I have powers, but I can’t exactly figure out what the powers are.” Mariella commented.

“Why don’t we do a series of tests? Like we could have us jump off something to see if we could fly or levitate, or we could stand next to plants to see if we have any effects on them. Things like that,” Lily questioned.

Rock appeared out of a nearby cloud of ether with some berries in his hand.

“Maybe. But first, here’s how to get out of the black hole!” Harry began, “Sincenothingtravelingatorbelowthespeedoflightcanescapefrominsidetheeventhorizonwewillneeddarkmatterbecausethelawsofphysicsdonotapplytoitthewaytheyapplytoregularmatterthequestioniswherewouldwegetthemfortunatelythat’swhatthoseberriesthatRockhasaresowejustusethosetotravelfasterthanlight.”

“English please, English,” Rock said.

“That-was-english-you-just-don’t-know-enough-about-science.” Harry said back.

“It’s a figure of speech, Harry. We know,” Mariella said.

Lily said, “Wait, maybe that’s your power. But also stop talking so fast, even if you have this great mind, you can still talk slower.”

“Yeah, maybe your power is knowledge of nature!” said Mariella.

“Doesn’t he already have that power?” asked Rock.

“I have general knowledge in multiple fields, not just nature.” Harry said.

Chapter 5: POWERS

Wednesday, December 19 12:31

After a few Earth hours, the group found their powers. Lily could make things come to her by saying the thing she wanted and the object would come to her. She was also able to have premonitions, or glimpses of the future. Rock could morph into dragons, yautja, and Sub-Zero. Mariella could shapeshift into different mythical animals. Harry knew everything nature and he could manipulate plants. 

“Harry doesn’t have to go to school anymore(“But I WANT to go to school”), I can avoid school (“I’ll report you for truancy”), and Lily is now Professor Trelawney from Harry Potter(*giggle*)”, Rock said.

“Don’t you dare compare me to that woman! She barely has true visions and is a fraud the rest of the time!” Lily shouted.

“SO? You both wear glasses, annoy someone named Harry,  and can be very loud when you want to be!” Harry shouted. (Harry and Lily never got along.)

“Well, we better get going,” said Mariella.

The group went to the Phantom, used the dark matter to fly out of the black hole (which you can only get out of if you have dark matter) and they flew all the way to Earth. 

Chapter 6: Exogíino

Wednesday December 19, 12:33

On Earth, it seemed as though no time had passed. Everybody was still playing various games and chatting as if nothing weird had happened at all.

“Why hasn’t anything changed?” Rock said.

“The black hole warped time just like it warps space,” Harry said.

“Um, why is the sun fading!?”

It was true. Something was sliding across the sun, casting an ominous darkness upon the schoolyard.

“But there’s no solar eclipse today!” Harry said, speed reading through this month’s issue of Sky and Telescope.

Then there was a sound. It sounded something like a thunderclap.

Then the sky went back to normal, but there was an alien spaceship sitting on top of the annex building. The door opened up…

“AAAAAAAAH!!!” everybody shouted.

Then out came an alien lifeform. It had an oval-shaped middle area, dozens of tentacles, six of which had eyes at the tips, four were for standing, four for gripping, and the others had tips that were nanolaminate semicircles with serrated edges to slice anything in its path. 

“Ikee nyeta eyeta.”

“Huh?” Mariella said.

Harry said, “That’s the language that Jawas speak, from Star Wars. I think I can translate. He said, ‘I no friend’.”

Then the alien said, “Omu’sata.”

“He means ‘shut up’,” Harry said.

“Ikee shootogawa (I shoot)”, the alien said. Then a bunch of smaller aliens came out with blasters.

“Ubanya.”(Goodbye)

Then the aliens started firing their guns! When a blast from the guns hit something, the molecular bonds between that object broke and it disintegrated. 

“To the Phantom!” Rock shouted. Everybody ran for the spaceship…

But then the aliens shot it, so it disintegrated. All that was left was an amorphous purple mess.

“Now what?” Mariella asked.

“Duh, we take ‘em. We just got superpowers!” Harry said.

Rock then turned into a yautja and Mariella turned into a phoenix.Harry shot some vines and branches up around him to make a plant-like mech that obeyed his thoughts and could shoot vines out of its “fists.” 

Lily shouted, “Missile!” and a short-range ballistic missile flew to her. The battle of the millennium was about to begin.

Chapter 7: The Battle of the Millennium Begins

Harry used his vines to wrap around the aliens and suffocate them. While he was doing that, Mariella was burning the aliens. Rock was using his claws as a sword. Lily was saying, “alien” so the aliens would come to her and be killed. She was also letting everyone else know when to dodge and the best times to attack since she can see into the future.

“Watch out, Mariella!”

“Thanks, Lily!” She ducked, causing the alien to hurl right into Harry’s vines.

Then Harry used the vines to form a giant avatar of himself and used it to crush the aliens. The vine Harry picked up the real Harry and set him on its shoulder so he could see everything that was happening and crush more aliens. 

       Mariella shapeshifted into a pixie, and since everyone was preoccupied with the fighting, no one noticed she was there. She flew behind the aliens, shape shifted into a phoenix again, and burned the aliens.                                                                                                                          

Mariella had an idea. She whispered it to Rock because she needed his help. 

“What if Rock and I fly on top in dragon form while Harry and Lily use their powers on the ground? The aliens would be surrounded on all sides,” Mariella said. 

They started to execute their plan when suddenly a meteor shower started.

“Ooh, a shooting star! Make a wish!” Harry shouted.

“Why is he such a wuss?” Rock asked Lily.

“Because he’s Harry. Whenever something even remotely scientific happens he is absorbed in it and completely ignores the outside world. But, speaking of wishes, I wish Harry would stop being such a geek and focus on the task at hand.” said Lily.

“You’re a geek too,” Harry retorted.

“Am not!”

“Oh, right, I forgot, you’re not a geek, you’re a suck-up!”

“A suck-up?!”

“Good grief.” Rock said.

“Do they ever stop fighting?” Mariella asked.

By the time Harry and Lily had stopped arguing, the aliens had disappeared.

“Where did they go?” Rock asked.

“I have a feeling they won’t be gone for long,” Lily said.

“Then let the hunt begin!” Rock said.

TO BE CONTINUED