STORY

THE second MOON

Hey, how`s it going? My name is Reed Name, Madison, Wisconsin. Well, my real name is Calamo Uno-Nomine. So, since that is Latin for Reed Name, that`s what I call myself and everyone calls me. Until last fall, my life wasn`t a problem.

It all began at my field trip. My best friends, Alex Mcenzy and Isaac Boone were having a heated game of arm wrestling (in the bus! I know, right!). “That`s cheating!” Alex protested when Isaac tried to use his thumb to twist Alex`s pinkie. “All right, sorry, sorry.” Isaac said. He was this big guy about six feet tall, black hair and green eyes so intense that you could almost see him thinking. Alex was a science geek. He had blonde hair and sharp blue eyes that seemed to pierce through you when he glared. He was smarter than most adults. He could make anything from a mini drone to a candle “Alright, kids! This is the planetarium! Now, enjoy yourselves. Oh, just before we go…” Then our teacher, Mr. Drew, began telling us what to do and not do. You could chew me out (like my parents) that I should listen to the safety rules, but I figured I was safe.”

Oh, the bliss of ignorance!

As soon as we entered the place, we went strait to the second floor, the snack bar. We passed spaceships that Alex ogled at and some of our school bullies that Isaac sent to the destination (well, not literally). We reached the snack bar. That`s when my rotten luck began to unfold. Well, my corn dog had mayonnaise. Who puts mayo on a corn dog? As I carefully nibbled around the mayonnaise, my lack of hearing let me down.

Well, if Mr. Drew said something along the lines of “…and don`t go to the snack bar because a meteorite might hit it.” Then I would never hear another word without writing it down. The meteor was invisible. I first thought that the roof was caving in. Then I noticed the fact that all the rubble bounced off a section of the air. “Dive!” Alex yelled. He dived inside a titanium spaceship. Isaac went below rubble. Somehow, he kept his fort together. Me? I had nowhere to go. I threw my half-eaten corn dog like a dart and saw it bounce off a section of the air. From the spaceship, a muffled voice of Alex said, “DUDE! THAT THING IS SOME SORT OF CLEAR MATIREAL! HIDE DIVE WHATEVER!!!!” I got a piece of cement and lugged it with another piece, making a stone tent. I dived inside. For some reason, the meteorite was round, like a ball, and it was a lot bigger than I thought. With dirt and bits of rock covering it, it became visible. The part that flattened the snack bar was almost flat, but I could feel some round texture as it hit us. Then I blacked out.

I woke up again in a hospital. My eyesight was blurry, but I could see my friends studying me with concern. I rose out of my comfy bed. Alex was holding a newspaper. I could see the headline: INVISIBLE MOON FLATTENS WASHINTON DC. “Dude. That thing that hit us-it was the size of the entire state of Washington. We`re the only known survivors. Accounting for the fact that the Earth`s atmosphere should have burned down a lot of the meteor, in space, that thing was the size of Pluto. And, it was in earth orbit, and a new theory is that there were two moons.” Alex said. “And the entire thing is made of a new kind of substance that could withstand pressures strong enough to crack diamonds.” Isaac added. I looked out of the window. I could see an entire city flattened to the ground, leveled. Thankfully, because of the white powder that the scientists put on the new meteorite, I could see it. It was huge, bigger than anything I`d ever seen before. It must`ve taken a lot of time to put that powder. Which means… “How long was I out?” Alex shook his head sadly. “Honestly, I don`t know. I just know that we were all unconscious for a long time, I woke first, then Isaac, than you, exactly one month apart. But the time that we were in the hospital after they found us… maybe about five months ago.” Alex twirled his fingers. For a moment, I saw something. It was kind of like a blue light, that flickered for a moment between his fingers then disappeared. I shook my head. “Whoa. Alex, what was that blue light thingy?” I asked. Alex looked up innocently. “Nothing. I don`t know what you`re talking about.” I could feel it in his voice, the same humor that I felt when he said he did not eat my lunch. Lying. “ Alex Marine Mcenzy! What are you not telling me?” Alex`s eyes widened. He tried to bolt to the door, but I was faster. I grabbed him by the arm and judo flipped him, like the time I found out he ate my lunch. Then Isaac intervened. He smacked Alex with a pillow and sent him into a daze. I set him down on my bed. “Um… Alex wouldn`t tell me about that blue thing either. I hope you can get him to tell you.” Then my rotten luck got worse. My hands burst into flames. I looked at it, shocked. I tried to shut it down. Then my hand froze. Like, literally froze, into ice. Then it returned to normal. Since I didn`t want to be hit by a pillow, I told Isaac everything before he even asked. It was “I don`t what happened, I swear.” Isaac seemed to accept that. Then Alex woke up. “I`m not going to tell!” was his respond. “Well, you better, or I`ll make you.” Isaac said. Alex glared at him. “How?” Isaac tried to grab him, but Alex vanished in a flash of blue light. He reappeared on the other side of the room. “Whoa. What was that?” I asked. Alex sighed. “Alright, alright. So, the clear thingy was surrounding something. It was hard to see, but it`s the size and shape of a lizard and it emits so much radioactivity that it messed up our DNA. For some reason, mine became highly affecting the electricity into the air, allowing me to break up my atoms and let them carry it into another place, in the speed of light. And it also allows me to do this.” He pointed at a section of the wall. From his fingers shot tendrils of blue light, blasting me with heat. “DUDE, THIS IS A NUCLEAR EXPLOSION STOP BEFORE YOU KILL US!!!” I screamed. Alex stopped. Then I remembered my own powers. I raised my hands, and one side froze and the other began to burn. Alex`s eyes widened. “Your DNA was affected so that it could turn into and withstand any temperature. That rocks, dude.” Then Isaac got bored. “Enough talk about DNA and stuff like that. Right now, we need to find a way to get out of here. The last search party went out a week ago, and they still haven`t come back. And they locked the doors.” He punched the door for emphasis. The door popped open like rubber. “Um… and you got super strength.” Alex said, clearly knowing that if he said one more word about DNA, Isaac would kill him harder than a machine gun. “Where do we go?” Asked Alex. I had an idea. A horrible idea. “Come on. Let`s go to my grandpa`s”.

Is my grandfather an evil person? No. He`s a science professor, studying atomic energy. He only lives half a mile from our hospital. I figured he could help us out. On the other hand, his sense of humor…

I called him on the way, using Alex`s electricity and his gadgets to make a phone. “Hi grandpa. How are you?” I asked. “Good. Why?” “Um…. A rock kind of fell from space and destroyed DC with radioactive and physical powers and gave me and my friends superpowers. So, we need your help.” “Sure, my boy.” My grandpa said, unfazed. “Thanks.” I hung, well, kind of destroyed the phone.

When we got to the door, my grandfather was waiting for us. “Hey, kids! So how can I help you?” Then came the requests. “Can you make us a suit?” “Can you give us cookies?” “Can you launch that moon thing back into space?” My grandpa answered them all. “Yes, yes, and no. Come on in, I have cookies and armor!”

As we enjoyed our snack, my grandfather went in his room. After half an hour, he poked his head outside. “Come on in!” He led us into a room. He showed me mine first. That`s when I knew coming here was a mistake. He showed me a hot-pink shirt with a picture of marshmallows dancing with peacocks. “Gee… thanks.” “Your welcome. It`s temperature resistant, so you don`t need to worry about it when you use your powers. It`s also woven from titanium, so it`s real strong.” Who paints titanium pink? Then he moved on to Alex. He gave him a suit of polished metal armor. “This is made from bronze, copper, and brass, so it`ll help your powers tenfold. It has gauntlets made from uranium and platinum, so it has massive power. Only use the gauntlets in an emergency.” As Alex admired his new suit, my grandfather moved on to Isaac. “This suit is made from woven titanium, and it is designed to be elastic and durable. It could stop a bullet and be stretched to over twenty feet long.” Then the roof blew open.

I had enough time to think this is familiar before I dived behind rubble and braced myself to die. I didn`t. The woven titanium was strong. Then Isaac caught a piece of the falling roof and flung it up. It hit something and the falling subsided. “Grandpa?” I called. “Over here, kid.” He was in the other room. Then a familiar laugh shook the building. Down came my teacher, Mr. Drew. He floated down. “You kids causing trouble? How dare you think of sending that moon back to space! With that kind of power, ours will hundredfold, into energy so strong we would rule the world!” He pointed at Alex, who was closest. A piece of sharp rock flew toward him, but Alex blasted the thing to dust. Up and down his armor were tendrils of electricity. Mr. Drew fired another blast, at me. My hands caught fire. They melted the rock into lava. “Our teacher is telekinetic!” Isaac yelled. He charged his former teacher, distracting him long enough for Alex to punch him.

People always complain that they were ‘sucker punched’. Well, imagine that pain, at a nuclear electric blow, and imagine it coming from an angry twelve-year-old. That`s probably what Mr. Drew felt after getting hit by Alex. He didn`t use his gauntlets, but it still made our teacher fly back and hit the wall. Mr. Drew cursed and rose to his feet. Then he snapped his fingers, and the entire house began to detach from its foundation. Tons of rock rose and began to fall on us. Thankfully, my grandpa had a vacuum cleaner. It was as big as a truck, with two nuclear reactors powering it. It sucked up the rubble, and then he began to pull in Mr. Drew as well. He roared with defiance and sent the vacuum flying away. Then he snapped his fingers again. This time, the earth and rocks rose and started two enormous twisters. Mr. Drew glared at us, and the cyclones flew right at us. “We need to run the opposite way!” I screamed. “Um, no. Your thinking of Flash on Netflix. First, none of us has superspeed, and second, Mr. Drew is controlling the sand, not the winds.” “Oh. Then use another vacuum and suck up the sand!” Isaac yelled. “We don`t have another vacuum! But I got a better idea.” Then I closed my eyes and concentrated. I touched the nearest twister, and it froze in place. That way, I made two huge glaciers and covered the ground with thick ice. Mr. Drew growled. He flew up and a tree about five blocks away popped up and flew toward us. I burned it. By now people were beginning to look at us funny. As in, the cops were lining in with guns drawn and mouths open. But they couldn`t get past my ice. “Hands up!” They yelled at us, but unfortunately, Mr. Drew obliged, and the entire police-force flew backward. “I used to like you as a teacher.” Isaac growled. “ Yes, but naughty kids need discipline, no? Once I punish you, I will free the radioactive lizard in the moon! Then our powers with thousandfold, and everyone else would have power.” “They will die! There was about five thousand in DC. Only four survived the falling moon!” My teacher rolled his eyes, a gesture he told us never to do. “If they die, they die.” He said. Isaac scowled. He picked up a metal chunk that was frozen to the ground, about as big as a car, and threw it at Mr. Drew. He would have stopped it, but it was coming so fast that it hit him on the chest. He stumbled out of the sky and hit the ground. “Kill him!” Alex said. “Nah. That`s like, murder. Just send him to jail.” Isaac said. “You know he can just bend the bars and escape, right? I going to freeze him in place.” I said. “That`s worse than killing him. We must neutralize his power. If I could cover him in a radioactive blanket-” “I have one!” My grandpa said. He picked up a shimmering chainmail. He wrapped it around Mr. Drew, and then gave him to the police officers. “Make sure the blanket is around him.” I said.

After the ordeal, we sat around my grandpa`s house, talking with my friends. “We need superhero names.” Alex said. “Sure. You can be lightning McQueen.” I said. “Shut up, Nomine.” Alex glared at me. “You can be Ice cream.” “Nah. For real.” Isaac said. “How about Reed can be Reed? I mean, that`s already a nickname.” “Not bad. Then you can be-dunno? Dumbbell?” “Um… can I just be me? And Alex could be Alex? Fine, no superpower names, then.” Alex nodded, which seemed not the worst reaction he showed. “Good. So, bye!”

When I got home, my parents lit into me. “HOW COULD YOU WE WERE SO WORRIED YOU SHOULD HAVE CALLED US FIRST!!!!” they yelled. Like it was my fault that the meteorite hit the snack bar. I was grounded for a month. I didn`t tell them about my powers. Instead, I spent my time making my powers more powerful. I took my pink armor and put it on. I touched the wall. Instantly, frost began to gather. I decided to make the room like Elsa, so I covered my entire room with ice. I replaced the lamp with a burning torch. I figured that if my parents ever came in my room, they would kill me. So, I froze the door completely. Every night, Alex visited me. He was grounded too, but since he could teleport, he snuck out every night. “So, the thing is, I think that Mr. Drew isn`t the only one with powers and the urge to let out the lizard.” “Why?” I asked. “First of all, we couldn`t be the only ones that survived and got powers. Second, I saw some voices behind some rubble, just now, and Isaac already snuck out. You want to come?” “Oh, sure.” I was going crazy, stuck in my room. “Great! Now burn down your house and go!”

I didn`t burn my house. I just melted the ice that kept my door in place, made an icy bicycle, and rolled all the way to DC. It took over five hours, and it was beginning to be dawn. Alex had already gone without me, so I was alone. When I finally reached around the globe, I could see a cave built into the side of the meteorite. There was an orange glow coming out of it. I could hear voices coming from it. “Did you hear about Mathew`s escape?” A gruff voice asked. “Of course! Old Drew finally chopped it!” Wait. Our teacher`s name, the one who tried to kill us last year`s name was Mathew Drew. I crept silently up to the cave-when a huge hand clamped around my mouth. I turned, startled, into the green eyes of Isaac Boone. “Shh!” He said. Alex was right behind him, in his sparking bronze armor. Isaac was holding a metal pole that had been sharpened into a spear, and Alex held a brass sword. I had on a pink shirt with a neon yellow bicycle frosted over with ice. “We need to move.” I whispered. Just as I said it, three people came out of the cave entrance. No- not three people-two people and a large silverback gorilla. “We need a lot of wood to keep the fire going.” The gorilla grunted. “I wish that your DNA also kept your mouth shut, Silver, if you’re going to keep stating the obvious.” A guy said. He had black clothes and had a long pole of bamboo. He kept swinging it back and forth, as if trying to swat an invisible cat. “Oh, and why don`t we kill the ones spying on us? They caught Mathew in the first place!”

Alex went nuclear. He literally let out a scream that cleared the rubble around us by turning it into dust, hefted his brass sword and charged. The gorilla stood up and deflected the blow with it`s hand. “The power of the moon turned me into a gorilla! But not just any gorilla, a talking silverback!” He thundered. Then I figured out why he was proud of being a silver back. From his back, molten silver began to bubble up and fall into his hands. The silver hardened into swords, and he deflected the crackling bronze sword of Alex`s.

One thing you need to know about silver. Electricity travels well through it. As soon as Alex`s blade touched Silverback`s, the gorilla flew back ten feet and landed hard on the ground. Alex pointed at him, and nuclear tendrils arced up his body. Alex materialized next to the guy with the bamboo stick and punched him in the gut. “It`s like being punched by an electric car!” He groaned. He staggered back a few steps, and he lifted his pole. I could see that its surface was smooth wood, with a hole in the top and bottom. He touched the tip and punched it, sending a gust of air right at Alex. I knew that kind of gas. It was laughing gas, and I could taste the dizzying feeling ten meters away. That dude with the stick could control gases. Alex collapsed from sheer anesthesia, and the gorilla and the other guy charged at us. Isaac jested with the gorilla, who was actually very good at fighting with duel-swords, and other guy faced me. He was holding one of those toy water guns, which made my pink shirt seem elegant. “Your Mr. Drew`s cronies.” I guessed. “Bamboo guy controls gas, you water, and my teacher is solid. And your silverback…” “He is my assistant, his name anonymous. But enough talk!” He fired at me with his water gun. It hit my gut with the force of a bullet, and I was pushed backwards. Only my titanium armor kept me alive. I touched the water, and it froze into a thin stick of ice. Then a water wrapped around me, constricting me completely. “You`re hopeless. You don`t know what happened, did you?” He showed me a tablet.

Mr. Drew was wrapped like a mummy in chainmail. Only his face was out, but he couldn`t do much with that. His eyes were closed, unmoving. When the guys who got him food got him food, e he he 돋 he still wasn`t moving. “Wait. Is he alive?” A policeman asked. He checked to see if he was breathing. “He`s not breathing.” He reported. “Check his pulse.” Another guy said. As soon as he ripped of the chainmail to check his heartbeat, Mr. Drew`s eyes snapped open. He roared in fury and the people flew back. He waved his hands and the bars bended wide enough to escape. The roof blew open, and he floated out of the jail house. The tablet went blank. “Yes.” He said, gleaming with happiness. “He is coming. And with him here, we will be able to control the three elements of the earth.” My hands heated up, vaporizing the water. I dropped down and touched his forehead. Frost gathered. The air froze, completely trapping him. “NO!!!” Bamboo guy shot a gust of air, laughing gas-probably-but I forced myself an icy mask. Alex finally woke up. He rose unsteadily to his feet and stabbed at Bamboo. His stick deflected it, but not before getting a long slash. Another blow and the stick were cut in half. Then they began fighting lightning against wind. Then I heard Isaac yell out in pain.

He had a long cut on his arm. His spear was in his other hand, but it was crushed under a foot of a gorilla. I did the natural thing. I tossed him an ice ball and yelled, “HEY!” Gorilla grunted. It charged at me, but I leaped out of the way. And icy javelin appeared in my hand, and I stabbed it into the gorilla`s back. The point shattered, because the back was a shell of liquid and solid silver. But my next spear was more successful. I drove it into the gorilla`s shoulder, making it growl in anger. He cut my spear and stabbed me in the gut. The titanium chainmail deflected the point, and I grabbed the sword by the flats of the blades and melted it back into liquid. Then I heard a large boom. The gorilla fell, dead at my feet. A cracked spear was impaling it both ways, glistening with blood. “Dude!” I yelled. “Thanks, but um… ewww….” Then guess what happened. It always happens in action movies. The gorilla pulled the two metal poles killing it and pulled them out. Then he began to heal. His wounds closed. This eyes opened, and liquid silver filled the holes as they closed, clogging out the wounds. He staggered around for a few seconds. Then he glared at Alex. “ROAR!!!” He roared as he charged him. “Alex!” I screamed. He was dodging an enormous hurricane of wind, but he turned. His eyes widened. The gorilla howled. His back began to leak gallon after gallon of silver. When I figured out why, it was too late. A small ball of silver rose and formed a bullet. It flew right at me, and it bounced off my T shirt. I turned. The guy I froze was free. A flurry of sliver bullets flew right at me but splattered on my armor. The silver formed a cocoon around me, only exposing my head, and hardened. I was trapped. Meanwhile, Alex was having a double duel. As two huge twisters tried to kill him, a silverback gorilla tried to kill him as well, as liquid weapons floated and hardened themselves around him. The gorilla would pluck a weopon out of the air and fight with it once and discarded it. Technically, Alex was fighting all three of our enemies. I was trapped, and Isaac was weaponless. Then Alex pulled out his secret weapons. Three glittering steel ninja stars. He threw them at the gorilla, and they embedded themselves on the gorilla`s arm. He roared in pain and charged Alex again. I didn`t see the bronze threads that were tied to the shurikens until they shot electricity right into the gorilla. It fried the gorilla whole. Then, before it could heal itself, Alex wove the threads around him, binding him. Then he tied the threads into a generator that he brought and turned the generator on.

I`ll spare you the gruesome details.

Isaac ran over too my side, and he began ripping chunks of silver with his hands. Once I was free, I took Aqua man. I destroyed his water gun, so he used tiny moisture droplets in the air to attack me. They affected me like rain, and I got right to him, and punched him in the gut with my fist wrapped in ice. He doubled over, and he and his friend retreated into the city. Unfortunately, I knew where they were going. “We need to follow them!” I yelled. “Their going to my granddad`s nuclear power plant!” Thankfully, Alex had a plan.

Imagine how surprised you would be if your best friend returned a few minutes after you said you needed transport with a limo and a driver. That`s how surprised I was when my best friend showed up with a limo and a driver. “Transport! Let`s get going!” He said.

As we were driving, I asked Alex my most obvious question. “Where did you get the limo?” Alex looked at the floor. “It`s my dad`s. He is this scientist that develops health medicines and vaccines. He made like five new cures for a serious case of flu, cancer, and other stuff I don`t know, like malaria. I just called him and asked for some transport. I told him to bring the most subtle car. Apparently a limo is the most subtle transportation for him.” “Oh.” I knew that his father was a scientist. Alex never mentioned he was a billionaire. Then again, it explained why he was such a science wiz.

After a few minutes, we stopped at a near farm. “Here is okay. Thanks Mr. Porsche.”

I had to bite my tongue. A driver named Porsche? This world was ridiculous. “The nuclear power plant is only a few blocks from here.” I told my friends. “If my teacher or his friends gain access to my grandfather`s plant, he would get all of it`s power. I mean, the place is so powerful that it makes truck-sized vacuum cleaners. If it explodes, it could make an explosion strong as the invisible moon. Then our teacher would get his wish and murder half of the US.” “Plus, the explosion could trigger the moon to let out new waves of radioactivity again.” Alex added. That made me feel a lot better. Soon we entered the powerplant. “Okay. So here is where we should-” Alex doubled over. Then he collapsed. “Alex?” I asked. “I think since his body operates on radioactivity, so much of it will make him comatose for a while, but it`s fine. Meanwhile, I`m going to knit you a bronze mask!”

Isaac did exactly what he said, plus some gloves. He took some bronze threads from Alex, which would have gotten him fried if Alex were conscious and took out a needle and began to knit. He weaved a mask with two small eyeholes and two glimmering bronze gloves. “How do you feel?” He asked. “Somewhere between Elsa and Black Panther.” I said. As I did, I realized I was practically indomitable (invincible). Bronze responds well to temperature change, so I could still use my powers. My mask let me breath, hear, talk, smell, and see. My shirt was splattered silver titanium cloth. My pants were blue jeans made by my granddad when I was five, made from expensive titanium cloth, designed to fit me until I was an adult. My socks were made the same way, and my shoes were black Nikes. I figured I had about two million dollars’ worth of clothing, not to mention my sunglasses at my house, which were regular sunglasses but still about a hundred dollars. Thankfully, my grandpa was rich. I mean, I never told anyone, but he almost got the Nobel prize. His factory is one of the biggest in North and South America. Only problem: He locked all his money in his bank vault, and I can`t even get a slice of pizza without permission. Anyways, about five minutes after Isaac finished weaving, Alex woke up. “I swear, Boone.” He growled. “If you hadn`t used my strings for Reed, I would have fried you with my cables.” Isaac backed slowly away from Alex. I couldn`t blame him. Alex had a well-polished bronze sword, razor sharp shurikens, and had the ability to kill a unkillable gorilla. “Come on, you guys.” I said, breaking the tension. “Lets go to the nuclear powerplant!”