A robot attacks me, slamming its fist into my armored shoulder. This blows out my shoulder pad and knocks me to the ground. I jump back up and continue to fight. Soon, Nick runs over to us.
"Everyone is in the shelter, now we just have to stop these guys!" He tells us. I nod, making a fireball and throwing it at a soldier.
"Enough!" I hear a loud yell from the front of the street. "This fighting is useless, bring me the X-Team, alive!" Who is this? Another soldier? Someone higher in command? Suddenly, I get surrounded by a sphere of absolute darkness. I can't see anything other than myself, and I can't hear anything.
"Let me out!" I shout, but all it does is echo around the ball. Then, the area my watch was buzzes. I look at it and see a screen and a button. I hold the button, and Aaron's voice comes through.
"X-Team? This is Aaron. Is anyone else trapped in this sphere as well?" Aaron asks through the screen.
"Yeah. It just surrounded me. I think they're sound-proof," I reply.
"I think so, too," Aaron tells me. This must be some kind of communication device.
Suddenly, the ball around me disappears, and I fall to the ground. I was only in there for a few minutes, what now?
"Ah, the X-Team. Boy, am I happy to see you. All I did was raise my tower, and once I had collected all Eight Generals you came running. I guess it's in your nature, isn't it?" A tall man asks us. I look around and find myself in a dark room, all eight of us in front of this man. He is holding some kind of staff. "If you are unfamiliar, I am the Shadow Ruler. And you, are the X-Team. I have come to retrieve you, and bring you home. Where you really belong. With the rest of your kind, aliens."
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"Let us go!" Nick shouts at him.
"Silence!" The Shadow Ruler shouts, blasting a dark stream of energy at Nick. It conceals his face in darkness, similar to the ball. Is he an elemental master as well? "General One, deactivate their armor. We'll see how strong they are without it." An armored man walks up and presses a button on a remote. Our armor deactivates, folding back into the watch. "Take the watches," The Shadow Ruler commands, and the general confiscates our watches.
"You want to see a magic trick?" Aaron asks him quietly.
"A what?" He asks, narrowing his attention on Aaron.
"A magic trick. It goes a little like this," Aaron tells him, looking up at The Shadow Ruler. There is energy surging out of his eyes and shining through his shirt. "Ratchet!"
The dragon soars in through a window, shattering it. He unleashes a wild blast of energy on The Shadow Ruler, knocking him backward.
"X-Team, run!" Aaron shouts, and we all stand and run to the window Ratchet blew out. We each jump out, and Aaron stands, energy blasting out of his arms. He shoots the power right at The Shadow Ruler on the ground. This knocks him back even farther, and as he tries to get up, Ratchet shoots the same power from his mouth.
"Generals," he struggles. "Get . . . them." And at that, eight generals begin to run at us. They seemed to appear right from the shadows. I leap out the window and start running.
"Split up!" Nick shouts, and I run to the back of a building and start to climb up the ladder. I reach the top and start to run across it.
Once I get to the edge, I realize that I didn't have a plan. I notice another building not far away. I take a deep breath and back up, getting a running start. I run at the edge, and at the last second I jump, shooting fire at the ground to propel me higher. If it worked before, perhaps I can do it again. I shout in excitement as I'm in the air.
The fire shoots me higher and I roll to a stop on the next building. I look back and see smoke from my fire floating into the air.
"That's them! The ones that saved us!" I hear from the street. A couple of girls from my grade are standing down there, gaping at me. I quickly throw my hood over my head and take my hat out of my packet so they don't recognize me. I put my hat on under my hood and continue running.
And there I am, running across buildings with my old, plain red hoodie over my head. I then prepare my next jump and leap off the edge. I use the fire trick, and land again. I'm getting used to this. People are now crowding and taking pictures. I never get this kind of attention at school. The funny thing is, most of these people are from school.
