Today was probably going to be the worst and last day of my life. Sure, it had started out normal enough. I went to school, took a physics test, practiced a little with the soccer team, and then went to Mr. Smoothy with Julie after she finished Tennis. It was almost perfect, because I had my girlfriend next to me and a smoothie in my hand. Yet as fate would have it my day was just too good to be true. I went to take a sip of my smoothie, and then I heard the sound of a muscle car in the distance, and I knew what was coming. It was only seconds until a familiar green Camaro zipped into the parking lot at a very unsafe speed. The wheels screeched to a halt leaving skid marks on the ground. The passenger window rolled down revealing Kevin and Gwen.

"Get in!" Kevin shouted at me.

I looked at Julie apologetically, and she smiled. "Be careful."

I set my smoothie reluctantly on the table. "I will. See you tomorrow," I called over my shoulder as I ran to the vehicle, and crawled into the backseat. Kevin instantly pushed down on the gas pedal before I could even buckle my seatbelt. "Geez, what's the emergency?"

"There was a ship that crash landed in the desert," Gwen said.

"So, that happens a lot."

"Yeah, except this one is different. It's not from space, it just appeared all of a sudden," Kevin started to explain.

"How is that possible?" I asked.

"The scanners picked up traces of a photon trail which indicates inter-dimensional travel. So I'm gonna say the obvious. The ship came from another dimension."

"Okay…that is a little different. Do you know which dimension?" I asked. Not that I was knowledgeable about aliens from different dimensions.

"Uh no," Kevin replied. "That's why we're checking it out."

"I guess we'll find out when we get there," I looked out the window and watched as the desert streaked by. There was the occasional cactus and some cliffs in the distance, but no alien spaceships. "How far out is the ship?"

Kevin looked at his dashboard which was hooked up with all kinds of different technology. Mostly stuff that he 'acquired' while we were on missions. There was a radar screen in the middle of it all. "Scanners said it was about seventy miles outside Bellwood. So by now I'd say we're probably thirty miles away."

"Are you really going that fast?" Gwen asked, surprised. She leaned over to look at the speedometer. "You know it's a good thing we're Plumbers, or we would so get pulled over."

Kevin laughed at the thought of being pulled over. "No cop can keep up with me."

"And you know this how?" Gwen asked. She was staring him down like she does when he slips and says something he shouldn't.

"I'm just guessing. You know my car is pretty fast and all."

They continued with the subject of Kevin's speeding for a few more minutes and then moved onto other topics. I tuned them out, and watched the paint lines on the road until they seemed to mix together. It was oddly comforting as the white merged with the black completely, and my world was suddenly fell silent. Kevin and Gwen's voices faded completely, along with the soft rumble of the engine and the tires rolling along the blacktop. It was just me, and an infinite black abyss surrounding me. I didn't understand what was going on. Where did the desert go? I tried to speak, but no words would come out no matter how hard I willed them to. So instead I tried to move, but was stuck floating aimlessly in the black space. I was about to panic, but then it sounded like someone was laughing at me as I tried to struggle in place. A wind suddenly whipped past me. It grew stronger until it felt like a hand was on gripping my shoulder and pushed me flat onto my back. The impact was great and left me breathless.

"Ben!" I lurched forward at the unexpected sound of my name, gasping. Gwen had her hand on my shoulder, and a confused expression on her face. "You fell asleep. Are you okay?"

I realized it was just a dream, but it was frightening in a way. Though, I didn't know why. I looked at Gwen; she was waiting for me to say something. "Um, yeah. Sorry. How long was I out?"

"Only about fifteen minutes, but we're here." Gwen said. I looked past her, and saw a rather large spacecraft sticking out of an even larger crater.

"Okay…"

"Well, we don't have all day, Tennyson. Let's go!" Kevin said. His car door was already open.

"Alright. I'm coming," I got out of the car behind Gwen. The three of us stood in front of the ship trying to decide what to do. "So are we going to wait until whatever's inside shows itself, or go aboard?"

"I would have to say wait until they show themselves. Which would be now," Kevin pointed to the ship.

Near the rear hatch were about twenty aliens standing there just watching us. From the look of it there were two different species in the group. The first were very peculiar looking. They had a similar appearance to a raptor, like the ones from Jurassic Park movies. But stood more erect, with longer leaner bodies and their scales were a shinning white color. Each one had different intricate black markings on their bodies. They looked like they could eat you whole with their teeth emerging from their jaws, and past their lips. Finally their eyes shined like a cat's eye, glowing an eerie purple in the desert's darkness.

The other species appeared to be a bit more humanoid. There were only about five or six of them in the group. They stood at about eight feet tall, and were very thin and elegant looking. Their faces were white and eyes glowed purple, similar to the raptor-like aliens. Their bodies were covered in dark robes, with hoods up over their heads.

"What should we do?" Gwen whispered.

"Pound 'em?" Kevin answered. Gwen gave him a questioning look. "What? It was just a suggestion."

"I don't know. They aren't moving. They might not be violent," I glanced back at them. They hadn't moved, but their stares were starting to freak me out. "I guess I'll try talking to them." I took a step forward, but still kept a good distance between us. "Um, greetings and welcome to Earth," there was no response from the aliens just their constant stares. It was beginning to frustrate me.

"Say something else. I think their listening," Gwen urged.

"Okay. Uh, I'm Ben Tennyson, you may have…" They suddenly made movements amongst each other. They were talking in harsh rushed whispers, the raptor-like ones listening carefully to the robed ones. Apparently they were they leaders. Then one of them pointed at me, and shouted something. The raptors hissed, and moved forward.

"I told you we should have beaten them!" Kevin shouted, as he kneeled down to armor himself with the rock from the ground.

"Yeah, okay you were right. We'll talk later," I quickly activated the Ultimatrix, and Jetray's hologram popped up. I was a second away from pushing the dial, when all of a sudden I was shoved from behind, a sharp pain raking across my back. I could feel something warm trickle down my back. Blood? I stumbled forward, only to find one of those stupid white lizards in front of me. It turned around whipping its tail and swept my legs out from beneath me. The air was knocked out of my lungs instantly. How had they managed to get so close without any of us noticing? Then I got my answer as more appeared out of thin air, they were invisible.

Kevin and Gwen shouted, but I couldn't see them. I was totally surrounded by those creatures. They were growling and chirping, at each other. They sounded happy, and then a command came from one of their leaders. The one closest to me cocked its head toward me, looking at me with those solid, pale, purple eyes. Then it unexpectedly bit into my shoulder. I cried out as its long teeth swiftly sank into my flesh. It burned, but felt like ice had slithered into my veins. I heard Gwen yell, and could see the vague image of Kevin trying to push his way through the crowd of aliens, punching them away viciously. The alien that had its teeth in me pulled away, my blood dripping from its mouth. I could smell the metal tinge of the blood. It was a sickening sight, and I almost retched.

For a moment I wondered why they had attacked. I've never seen them before in my life, but then I remembered I'm famous. I have so many enemies that I can't count them all, and some just hate me because of my reputation. I almost laughed, because it just seemed odd that I was going to be killed by someone I didn't know.

But the reality was that I'm a target for millions in the universe. So now I was lying on the hard, frigid ground that seemed to be draining the warmth out of me faster than the blood seeping from my wounds. My lungs were fighting to inflate with much needed oxygen as I lay there gasping. It was probably due to shock or how fast I had hit the ground a moment ago. I couldn't move anymore, and it felt like I couldn't blink. All I could do was watch the alien with its maw stained with crimson. However, within seconds my body began to go numb, and my vision started to double and blur. Their saliva must have been toxic. That was just fantastic. I was supposed to be a hero, but didn't even have time to make one heroic move. Instead I was a beaten, bleeding mess dying in the middle of the desert.

Thanks,
Emerald Lotus