CH26:GRIM ON EARTH

[The next day]

[4am]

Ace and the rest of the people in the base were fast asleep when suddenly, they were all rudely awakened by loud, ear piercing siren noises and the sounds of heavy footsteps echoed across the hallways of the base. Ace peeped through the doors and saw military, armed men running to each door as they handed out certain uniforms to each of the students in their rooms.

Before he knew it, the door to his room was rudely opened as two armed men barged in with a pear of clothes in their hands. "We know this is unexpected but please, get into these and gather in the first floor, NOW!!"

The clothes were handed over to Ace, Roy, and Steven and each one of them hastily put them on, since they were half awake. Once on, the three boys noticed how different the clothes were and they each like them.

They were full body clothes, similar to the ones babies wore, with shoulder, elbow, and knee pads. The chest area had a hexagon shape with futuristic designs. Ace's suit was dark chocolate brown in color. Roy's was white and Steven's was a royal blue.

"This seems too big for me." Steven said but then, his suit readjusted and hugged his body like a clove. "Incredible."

"Come one guys. Let's go. Something terrible must have happened." Roy said as he and Steven headed out the door. Roy noticed Ace's reluctancy to move so he and Steven stopped and asked, "What's wrong, friend? Is something bothering you?"

Ace glared at Roy angrily and said, "Some friends you are. Laughing at me and that girl yesterday."

"Err…Ace, we were…."

"Save it." Ace replied coldly as he walked past them. The hallways were filled with other boys, dressed in similar but differently colored outfits like him. Like him, they were all confused but they just followed the orders they were given and headed to the first floor.

The elevators were filled so those who could made their own way to the top, either through flying, teleporting or climbing their way up. Ace noticed that the girls also had similar uniforms like him and theirs were also brown, white, and blue in color.

"Hey!!" Sky jumped from his back with a half-smile and frown on her face. "Do you know what the heck's going on?"

"Err…I'm not sure but judging from the way things are, there's definitely something really really wrong. Just look." Ace and Sky leaned over the balcony and saw the armed men below them running around with never seen before weapons and special vehicles that were made from the wrecked, salvaged alien technology.

"Something terrible's happening." He said again. "I can feel it."

[Ding]

[Your instincts do you well. Survive the war that's yet to happen.]

[Rewards: 5 Level ups and two added skills.]

"Five level ups?" Ace said to himself. "This is really bad." Worry covered Ace's countenance as he and Sky entered the elevator.

Once they got to the top floor, they were immediately handed a small, cylindrical staff and helmets according to the color of their uniforms.

General Luke and the others five generals came fully dressed in white uniforms with the same staffs, helmets and each one of them had a large gun mounted on their backs. General Luke stood to address the students but he didn't have a good look on his face.

"Men and women. I personally apologize for rudely awaking you all but, we're under attack once again. In the last three months, you all received basic combat training and were taken through a crash course on how to use your gifted abilities."

"Well today you'll all be put to test. Do not fear, the army will fight with you but do not engage unless you are told to. Is that clear." Luke ended as he ordered for everyone to put their helmets on.

"In your hands are weapon staffs. They are designed to turn into any weapon of your choice. They can turn into a bow staff, axe, knife, or sword. Use them wisely. Those uniforms were specially designed to help your gifted bodies in battle and they can reshape to better suit those who can transform. They're also tough, so they can act as armor sets for you, temporarily."

The titanium doors slowly opened and everyone could see what exactly the Generals were talking about. The early morning sky was colored in a bright orange as thousands of fire balls fell into the Earth's atmosphere. The scene looked like something from a movie show casing the extinction of dinosaurs.

"MOVE OUT MEN."

As soon as the orders were given, all the students in the base moved out in unison, just like they were taught in the past three months. However, Ace wasn't there in those months so he had to simply follow what they were doing.

[Ding]

[ATTACK ON EARTH: Survive the oncoming Raid.]

Looking up, Ace could see a large, alien ship slowly landing far away from where he was. The small, fireballs were actually space pods with Grim's Granian warriors. As soon as they landed, they set themselves in order as they waited to attack.

The large ship landed and out of it came out Grim. All of this happened miles away from them but thanks to Ace's ability, he was able to see it clearly. Or so he thought.

"Is anyone else seeing this?"

"I didn't know those creatures have black ones."

"No. This one's different. Don't you know in every sci-fi movie, the different colored one is the leader."

"That's their leader?"

"And he's here to lead them to slaughter us."

[ETA: 1:59:59]

[Commence fight mode?]

[Fight mode commenced. Training videos will play out as you fight.]

-----

Grim slowly and calmly walked out of his ship with a smile on his face and a little skip in his steps. As soon as he breathed in, his lungs were set ablaze, so like the others, he had to ingest some liquid that helped all the Granians survive the Earth's oxygen. "Well well well. This is the planet that has given my people a hard time, ey? Well, Earth. Grim's here. Now, where are you hiding, Ace Underwood?"