I was lying on dirt with my back facing up. I felt the air very thick and moist, like as if it was humid. I was not used to this type of atmosphere, so I did not like it. I wrinkled my nose and slowly slid up to my knees to figure out where I was.

I found myself in the middle of a room entirely made out of dirt, like as if someone dug up the ground, went inside, and made a ceiling of dirt to stay in place. There were lights installed in the ceiling, casting brightness into the area and making shadows very visible. I looked in front of me and saw what seemed like a metallic box with blue-painted edges and a keyhole on its side.

This place seemed very familiar, like as if I've been here before, but I just don't know when. I made a confused look, staring straight at the machine.

Suddenly, a mist of black smoke appeared in front of me, diverting my attention, and The Enemy sauntered out of it; he had an evil smirk on his face.

"Well, well, well, it's about time we all encountered each other," he told someone who was behind me.

I snapped my head over to my shoulder to see who he was talking to.

Behind me was Andrea, Bree, Cade, and Poncho--all of HEROES. Oh my goodness, this is like a...what's that word? I went through this before! I thought to myself. But when? I saw that they were scared; I wasn't scared like them, I was more confused.

"You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment," The Enemy continued on, rubbing his hands together. "I got you guys, HEROES--" He extended his hand toward us. "--and the one and only..." He reverted his hand toward the metallic object. "...Machine of the World."

So that's the Machine of the World, I thought to myself. That's what we were trying to avoid The Enemy from getting... We failed. Suddenly, an idea floated into my mind: But it can't be destroyed and it can't be opened. It's far too dangerous if it's either destroyed or opened.

"Thanks to Brent, or as you guys know him as Poncho, for helping me claim this wonderful piece of supernatural ability--" He extended his hand beyond me; I followed it, seeing that he was pointing to Poncho, who had a guilty look on his face.

He is evil, I thought to myself. Of course, it shouldn't be a surprise.

"--I couldn't have done it without you," he told him.

Poncho just dipped his head down with his hands clasped on top of his lap.

"But don't worry guys," he continued on talking to us, "the school isn't destroyed...just the football field, which is what we're under right now." We all looked up at the brown, dusty ceiling. "So, there won't be any football for a while here at your school." We all looked back at him.

This has got to stop, I thought to myself as I stared at The Enemy with seriousness as he continued speaking. No one is doing anything. If that's the case, then I'll make the first move. I began rising to my feet and saying, "Give that machine to us...and everything will be fine."

The Enemy landed his eyes on me with raised eyebrows. "And you think I'm gonna fall for that, Sasha?" He turned to look at the rest of us. "The machine is already in my possession." He reached into his black cloak, pulling out an old-fashion, golden key. "And I'm going to use it to its fullest." He then faced the machine and began extending the key toward it, intending to unlock it.

"NO!" I automatically threw my hand in front of myself and emitted a long shard of glass; the glass hit his hand that occupied the key, causing the key to drop onto the dirt ground.

The Enemy snapped his eyes up at me with an irritated look.

"You are not going to open it!" I thundered with my hands as fists; I then dropped the tone of my voice. "Not here, not now, not ever..."

"Oh-ho! So you're gonna make this challenging for me, eh?" He letted out bursts of chuckles. "Okay, I'm up to that." He scooped up the key from the ground and placed it on top of the machine, resting his hand on top of it. "Try to catch this."

Immediately, the machine and the key bursted into a blast of black smoke; when the smoke cleared, they were no longer in the room.

My eyes flew wide open. "Что?" I breathed out harshly. What?

"And try to catch me as well." He then turned into a cloud of smoke, teleporting out of the room.

Now it was just us five underneath the football field.

"Poncho..." Andrea started softly; I turned to face her; she was looking at Poncho, who still had his head dipped. "...it's time to redeem yourself."

With a deep breath in, the leader lifted his head up; he had a look of determination mixed with anxiety. "Okay..." he forces out, facing us. "Hen, Russia, you guys go after The Enemy. Katt, Freshman, you guys go after the Machine and the Key."

"But what about you?" Andrea asks with a concerned look.

"Oh, I'll just stay here...as punishment for what I have done." He seemed devastated.

"Poncho, you can't stay underground here though--"

"Listen to my commands, Hen." He narrowed her eyes at her.

"But you work for The Enemy!" Cade cried with his arms crossed.

Poncho looked at him. "Not anymore, I'm suffering the consequences of significant guilt. If I was working for him still, I would've gone with him..." He gazed down at himself and his wheelchair. "...or more logically, he would've taken me with him." He faced us again.
"But that's not the case, he left me behind." There was silence for a moment. "Go get him before he opens that machine!"

"Alright!" Andrea nodded her head, turned around, and began walking toward the middle of the room. "Let's bust outta here and tackle this task." She raised her hands high into the air.

A thick, tangled blast of purple energy emitted from her hands, crashing through the dirt ceiling; piles of dirt fell around us along with grass from the hole forming. When the hole was completed, we were able to see the night sky.

She then turned to face us. "Let's go."

«««««»»»»»

Andrea and I sped through the night sky.

We both had our suits, but we were flying with different styles: I of course was flying by my gilder, while she was flying by her massive, purple wings.

We were heading toward a crowd of aircrafts of all sizes belonging to The Enemy. We are so in for war.

I brought Zashchitnik up to ready position, turning it on and placing the end of it on my shoulder. I narrowed my eyes at the nearest biggest aircraft, making it my target.

"Try to get to the middle aircraft of the pack; that's where The Enemy is most likely hiding in." I heard Andrea's voice crackle through the speakers of my helmet. "Okay?"

I nodded my head, not tearing my eyes away from my target. "Yeah."

"Alright, let's do this!"

I then pulled the trigger, sending a thick ribbon of blue energy straight at the target.

I saw Andrea zooming ahead of me, holding what seemed like a sword with a line of purple glowing energy going up and down the blade. I turned back to my target, seeing that an aircraft smaller in size got in the way and took the energy instead; it disappeared on contact.

"Ugh!" I aimed at the big aircraft when suddenly, a series of red beams came shooting out at me. "Whoa!" I pushed my front foot down, making myself dip down, dodging the rain of energy. In this low position, I raised Zashchitnik higher up, locking my aim at the target. Then, I pulled the trigger and released more blue energy straight at the aircraft.

Bingo, I thought to myself as the aircraft zapped out of existence.

I then felt my left shoulder getting hit with a warm impact, not enough to knock me out, but enough to grab my attention. I quickly turned myself around, spotting a small aircraft coming toward me; I saw that the tubes connected below the aircraft where the shots came from were glowing, notifying me that I was going to be shot down any moment if I didn't move.

I quickly pressed my back foot down and blasted upward, getting out from the aircraft's range. I heard an explosion from where I once was, which was a sign that something was hit by the aircraft I came face-to-face with.

I spun around to see more small aircrafts coming at me; I began shooting at them, like as if I was in some shooting rampage. One by one, they disappeared in blasts of blue energy. I had to swerve, dip, and rise up in order to not be hit significantly. I was hit a few times, but luckily, the suits were fireproof, which also mean that they were heatproof, so not much damage was done to me.

I found myself back in front of the pack of aircrafts when a small aircraft came zooming in on me. I didn't have time to shoot since it was coming at me so rapidly, so I grabbed onto its glass windshield mentally and threw it out diagonally. The flipping aircraft hit serval other aircrafts along its descent, until it exploded in midair.

I can use my powers, that's right! I extended my arms out to my sides as I commanded the four aircrafts closest to me to be separated and casted out of the battle scene.

As I saw the aircrafts flying out of the battle zone, I felt my right hand, which had Zashchitnik, being knocked away by a flying object. I snapped my head to see if Zashchitnik was there, but it wasn't. In shock, I looked behind my shoulder, seeing it fall down in two pieces with an aircraft next to it.

"NOOO!" I made a sharp 180-degree turn and zoomed down, trying to catch the flying pieces. I caught one piece, which was the bottom of it, but the other piece was long gone.

I snapped my eyes up to see the aircraft that took my gun away fly past me. "Вы так спускаясь," I muttered to myself in Russian. You are so going down.

I quickly deactivated my left glove, revealing my bare hand, and aimed my hand at the aircraft. I generated a long shard of glass and threw it straight at the back of the aircraft. The glass was driven through the aircraft, causing it to stop flying and start descending.

With all the turbo my gilder can produce, I chased the free falling aircraft, trying to grab it with my mind. I managed to slow it down, which was luckily enough for me to catch up to it, and I glided over to it with sharp speed. I then punched my fist through the windshield multiple times in fury until the capsule was completely open; inside, I mostly saw darkness, which helped me find a gun inside it: a gun with glowing orange designs. I scooped it out and immediately made a sharp U-turn, rushing back up toward the sky just as the aircraft below me crashed onto the ground.

I began unravelling the broken piece of Zashchitnik, trying to reveal its core. While doing this, I noticed that my left hand was covered with blood because I used it to punch the windshield. What was odd though was that I didn't feel any pain that would've come with cuts. I ignored the strange situation and saw that I gotten to the core, which looked like a miniature version of the energy source that was part of my suit. I pulled it out and reluctantly casted out the rest of Zashchitnik down below me. I quickly opened up the covering of the bottom of the new gun, pulling out its core, throwing that out happily, and placed my core into its place. I snapped the covering back on and held it out farther than Zashchitnik, since it was a smaller gun that didn't need the assistance of my shoulder.

Suddenly, I saw the middle aircraft of the pack come into view. How did I know it was the middle aircraft? Because with its front covering lowered down, The Enemy was revealed from inside the aircraft. I saw that he was ready to battle me since there was black mist swirling around his hands. Did he open up the machine? Does he have the machine? We'll see.

Then with this opportunity of me between him, I pulled the trigger of the new gun.

A streak of orange energy was unleashed from it. I made an odd look, not knowing why it was orange even though Zashchitnik's core was in it, which should've made it turn blue. But I continued watching in slow motion as the energy made its way to its target. I saw The Enemy beginning to dissolve in smoke, but just as he was about to disappear, the energy made forceful contact with him.

In a blink of an eye, the smoke all around him was sucked out of existence and he was thrown onto the flooring of the aircraft's inside.

And he did not move a single muscle.