Chapter 1
Tom was hiking with his family at the Grand Canyon. His sister was singing annoying songs, his brother was making loud sound effects, and his mom and dad were talking about the trip. It was scorching hot and water had to be drunk often.
They had finally reached the outlook and stared at the amazing view of the Colorado River down below. It seemed like it was a mile wide from one side to another, and one hundred thousand feet deep.
Tom climbed on a rock to get a better view.
Just then, his younger brother shouted, “Tom, look, there is a lizard!”
Tom got surprised.
“Be careful, Tom!” his mom said. But it was too late. He lost his balance and started plummeting toward the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
“Bye, world!!” he cried. He covered his eyes tightly.
He was about to dive into the Colorado River but suddenly, a huge gust of wind made Tom fly in circles. Tom felt like he was in the middle of a twister. Without warning, everything, including him, got sucked up into a huge, purpleish portal. Within seconds, he was traveling at the speed of light toward another world far, far away.
He landed hard on a rocky surface which made him open his eyes. The sky was blue and the sun seemed to be purple. Little did he know that he was in the Andromeda Galaxy, where things are very different.
Chapter 2
In the distance, he could see some tall buildings and mountains. He decided to explore the city. After a few minutes walking toward the city, he saw a weird-looking, greenish-slimy kind of creature coming to his direction. He quickly hid behind a big rock before he could find him.
The alien walked closer and closer and said, “I smell something fishy going on!”
Tom quickly ran away as fast as his legs could carry him.
The alien exclaimed, “There he is! Get him immediately!”
Tom ran faster than he ever did as the aliens chased him. After a few minutes of running all around the place, Tom was exhausted. He eventually slowed down and fell to the ground and fainted. When he opened his eyes, he was in a prison cell and there were lots of guards.
One of the guards said, “Look, he’s awake!” Immediately, the guards dragged him out toward the high court. The guards lined up in the side and the king of the aliens sat on the throne at the end of the room.
Chapter 3
“What brings you to disturb this planet, Earthling!?” the king of the aliens shouted.
“Wait, you know about Earth?” Tom asked, surprised.
“Of course! For years we had tried to communicate with your species, but you had not been able to understand us. No earthling has come here before.”
“Excuse me,” Tom said. “But why would you want to communicate with us?”
“That’s a great question. BECAUSE WE WILL SOON TAKE OVER THE EARTH AND THEN THE WHOLE UNIVERSE!!”
“And how exactly are you going to do that?” Tom asked curiously. He really hoped this was just a weird old nightmare and that the aliens WOULDN’T take over the world.
“Easy. You will tell me everything you know about the Earth, and I will use the knowledge to destroy the human race and conquer Earth.”
“And what if I don’t?” Tom asked.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to hang you in the town square.”
Ouch, Tom thought. He didn’t want to die, or even worse, get hanged… I’m just in a dream, he told himself. A dream that is very, very scary. Just snap out of it!! But he couldn’t. Maybe this dream is real… he thought.
Chapter 4
“OK, so what’s the plan? Die or help?” The king of the aliens demanded. “If you don’t choose right now, I will use my sword to kill you here this very moment.”
Tom thought about the decisions. If he helped him, the whole human race would be dead, or he could choose to die… Without thinking, Tom punched the king in the face and grabbed his sword and stabbed him from the back.
“GET HIM!!” the king screamed. The guards rushed to attack with their spears. Tom ducked, rolled, stabbed, and took the stabbed guards’ spears.
“Archers, ATTACK!” the king yelled with anger. His back, gushing with blood, looked like red paint splatter all over the floor. Hundreds of archers fired arrows at Tom. He ducked and threw back spears at them.
He heard screams all over the place. How am I doing so good? He wondered. He felt like
he was in his favorite video game, ‘Alien Wars.’ Just then, an arrow flew into his right arm.
“Ouchhhhh!” he exclaimed. He took the arrow out and jumped back in action. He saw an exit to a space shuttle. He ran into a changing room and stole a guard’s armor (that was very slimy). He raced to the shuttle that was about to take off.
When he was there, the guard asked, “Where are you heading, sir?”
“To Earth. I’m going there to help his Majesty set up the laser beam,” Tom said in his best alien voice.
“You may go in,” the guard said. After two days, they had reached the Earth. The shuttle had used the wormhole shortcut that brought spacecraft from one end to another end of the universe.
Chapter 5
He never saw his home planet that beautiful from space. He almost forgot that he was supposed to save his home planet from destruction. He sneaked into the room where the ray was held and tried to defuse the bomb that was going to destroy the human race. There were only 10 minutes left before the bomb dropped down.
Tom saw two wires that lead to the bomb and didn’t know what to do. The digital timer on the bomb said ‘5:00,’ that meant that the bomb was exploding in five minutes. He couldn’t diffuse the bomb so he decided to do something else. He could make the humongous trap door where the bomb would drop get stuck so the bomb would explode the ship instead. But if that happened… he would get trapped and he would also get exploded with the aliens.
There were four minutes left before the bomb exploded the Earth. He quickly decided to jam the trap door. Then, he had an idea. Nearby, there was an emergency exit out of the spaceship and a spacesuit that had a parachute inside. He quickly buckled up the helmet, the spacesuit, the pants, and prepared the parachute following the instructions (although everything was way too big for him). He was going to freefall until he reached the earth’s atmosphere. There was only one minute left.
He opened the hatch and looked down. He took deep breaths. He thought about his family and all the people on the earth. There were thirty seconds left. He closed his eyes and jumped down.
Chapter 6
He flew toward the surface, screaming in his oversized helmet. Just then, the spaceship exploded into pieces. Tom was glad that the aliens wouldn’t destroy the human race, but the bad thing was that he didn’t know how to activate the parachute. He got closer and closer to the surface. Suddenly, the spacesuit slipped off and Tom was in his regular clothes. It seemed like it was magic.
“Ahhh!!!” he screamed louder than a screeching hyena. When he was about to fall head first into the ocean, the same mysterious wind that took Tom to another galaxy carried him and light disappeared.
When he opened his eyes, he was in a dark and damp place. That smelled like a sewer. In the distance, he could see a creature coming toward him.
Oh no… he thought. It’s not the aliens again. Then, the creature approached. It was not an alien, it was a human. Tom told himself.
“Well young man, I’ve seen you have saved our planet from those intergalactic aliens,” the woman said.
“Who are you?” Tom asked nervously.
“I’m the one and only president of the STEP as Save the Earth Project,” the woman said. “You deserve to be rewarded. What do you want?” she asked.
“First of all, I really want to go back to my family. Second of all, can you send me back in time so my family wouldn’t know what happened at all. Third of all, next time please don’t send me on a mission in such a dramatic way,” Tom said.
The woman replied, “For number one, I’ll teleport you back to the Grand Canyon where your family still is. For number two, I’ll try to make you go back in time… do you want to forget about this moment?” She asked.
“Better not,” Tom said. He didn’t want to lose this exciting adventure, and promised that he would never forget it.
“And last but not least, for number three, I will try not to do something that dramatic to send you to another mission. Although I might need you back very often, because more and more aliens are targeting this planet.”
Tom’s jaw dropped open. Very often did not sound that good to him.
“Well, I think it’s time for you to go,” she said. As she snapped her fingers, a round, purple portal appeared in front of him.
“Step in,” she said. So he did. The wind got stronger and stronger. Tom was flying in no time. Light disappeared.
Chapter 7
The portal opened up again and he landed on his back.
“OUCHHHHHH!!!” Tom screeched.
“What’s wrong, Tom?” his mom asked.
“I just landed. I mean, I just tripped on that rock,” Tom mumbled.
Just then, his brother said, “Look, Tom, I see a lizard!”
Tom knew he was going to say that. After all, this was the past from where he came from.
He was glad that he had come back with his family and hoped he wouldn’t have to go back to another mission soon. He was also glad that he had officially saved the whole entire planet from major destruction.