CH68:WAR IS COMING

[Nightfall]

Nightfall. The sun had long set behind the horizon with the sky painted with a navy-blue color. The stars, however, didn't seem to show in the sky. The cold, desert wind blew dust allover as a gentle dust storm occurred in this particular area.

Buzzards and vultures circled the area as the stench of death filled the dry air and chocked the lungs of those who would soon fall victim to it. Flies, mutated jackals and worms sprung up from the ground and took carcasses of dead men and women while those who were still alive took cover on higher ground.

"My goodness. What happened here?"

"Seems like a wild massacre happened."

General Luke and the Gifted students were currently making their way to the center of the human base that was built in a large crater. All around them were dead bodies, some decapitated, and others drained of blood, were scattered all over the place.

Blood stains were smeared all over the walls and on the ground with pools attracting insects to feed. The stench of dead bodies nearly made them hurl, but Luke didn't allow this to stop him from getting to the children he spoke to earlier.

"Sir," Michelle spoke, "Please can we move onto somewhere else? This sight is giving me the chills."

"She's right," Jason replied. "This is depressing to look, let alone experience."

"Plus it stinks as hell."

"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU," He barked back, having had enough of their complaints. "I've had enough of you lot complaining and fusing about…."

"Hello!!" Luke's bod froze as a familiar voice passed through his ears. Turning around, he saw a little boy standing on top of a building dressed in an oversized charcoal gray shirt with a dusty teddy bear clasped in his hands. His big, round eyes were curved with sadness as tears run down his terrified, dirty face. "Please help us."

Luke quickly run to the boy and gently got him down from the roof. The smell alone coming off the boy showed that he'd soiled himself and hadn't showered in a while. However, his feet were covered with dry blood.

"What happened to you, little one?" Luke asked with his voice nearly breaking down as tears run down his old face. "What did this to you?"

"Monsters," The boy replied. "Monsters dressed like that." The boy pointed at Luke's armor as he said, "They had guns too."

"Could he mean?"

"The Granians."

"What did they look like?" Luke asked as gently as possible. "What did the monsters look like?" While asking questions, more children came out from different buildings. Their age groups ranged from three to eight with the exception of one girl who looked to be around twelve.

Each one of the little ones was scared, malnourished, and sleep deprived. Luke's heart was grieved at the sorry state of all the children. However, without letting his emotions get the best of him, Luke turned over to the oldest girl and asked, "Can you describe who did this to all of you?"

"I'm sorry but I didn't see the first person who attacked. I heard our leader shout demon boy and I managed to catch a glimpse at a kid with orange hair and…red eyes."

"That's the exact description for Ace…."

"After that, earlier this day we saw a girl with orange hair and a boy make dust and go away…"

"Can you skip forward to who did this?" Luke asked, having lost his patience already.

"Sure. The alien things did this. One with a circle sword killed everyone else. She nearly killed me and the others but a bigger one protected us before they went that way." The little girl pointed at the same direction Ace, Sky, Cherry, Huntress, and Murdock went.

As soon as the girl stopped speaking, Luke immediately contacted the military in ArkVille, both for the Gifted under and above twenty saying, "Mayday, mayday. This is General Luke from the Gifted under twenty military group. We have a situation on our hands. The aliens have broken a part of their treaty and slaughtered innocent men and women. I request for immediate backup and send this message to all the military groups in the world as soon as possible."

"What's going to happen now, Mister?" The little boy from earlier asked. "Are you going away from us?"

"No, little one." Luke replied. "We're going to get all of you to safety and make sure those monsters go away, okay?"

"Okay."

Luke and the others fixed up a small house, made beds, cleaned the little ones and fed them as they waited for Luke's backup to arrive. Once they were fed and put to rest, Luke allowed the Gifted teens to rest while he kept watch. "You guys get rested. We're moving out first thing in the morning but I doubt we won't encounter any of those aliens."

"Why do you say so, Sir?" Zain asked.

"A part of the peace treaty stated that the Granians weren't allowed to harm any human being during the given period of a full year. However, this massacre clearly shows they violated their part of the deal."

"What's that supposed to mean for us?" Zain asked one more time.

"It means war," Lilly replied. "We're going to war again."

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[ArkVille Military Academy]

At this ungodly hour of the evening, all the Gifted teens that were well skilled with powers were rudely awakened and debriefed about what General Luke had informed the base and the other military academy for those who were above twenty. Both bases were buzzing with activity with the Gifted being handed new armor sets, weapons, and getting a quick briefing about the possibility about a war.

However, they were not the only ones moving about for their enemies, the Granians, had moved out earlier in the evening. While the humans were just a few hours away from them, Grim and his men were getting closer to Huntress and Murdock's last known locations.

Each one of them were equipped with the same armor sets the other two had, a special breathing liquid to help them breath in Earth air, and unique weaponry for each individual. Grim, on the other hand, was dressed in black-scaled armor, tipped with red energy crystals. Mounted on his back was a thick katana sword made with a special black metal.

"These Earthlings have interesting weaponry," He said while standing in his training room with his hands yielding the sword. "These weapons are so small, so light, and yet so deadly." With one slice, he was able to slice through the machines behind him. "With this crystal energy as well, handling these humans will be twice as easy."

"Let's not forget about the Gifted ones." His ship's system replied to him. "According to a scan I conducted earlier, we'll need each one of our forces to yield a powerful crystal if we want them to survive. These so called "Gifted" humans have powers that make them almost tough to beat.'

"Don't bore me with such boring news, system," Grim replied with a grin. "These humans don't even posses half the power of the Ethisians and Parsians, yet we were able to defeat them."

"Were." The system replied. "Remember why we're here in the first place. They may be weaker but their intelligence is almost at the same level as ours. With time, they'll soon crack space travel and maybe even learn how to use these crystals."

"Let's just see about that." Grim frowned.