Lila was trying to make more and more sense of what was happening. She was starting to wrap her head around everything with the awakening, tutorial, and subsequent return to Earth. It was still strange, but at least she was starting to come to terms with it all. It was her new life and she was actually starting to get excited about it all. She could be a super hero.

She had spent her life in fear. Her family verbally abused her constantly. Every day, every minute. It was emotionally draining. She didn’t feel like she could trust people. Why would she? If she let them in close, they would just treat her the same way her family did. Like trash.

Lila worked hard to get through school. She was one of the smartest people in her entire school. Much smarter than any of her family members. She often wondered if that was why they treated her so poorly. Were they jealous of her? She doubted it. They were just cruel.

Her hard work had paid off, however. She had been offered a full ride to her dream college. The best part about it all was that it was in another state. She wouldn’t have to be anywhere near any of her family.

She was smart so her classes were going well. Lila was stunted socially however. She didn’t have any friends, barely talked to her roommates, and overall was considered a loner. She didn’t want to be, but she didn’t know how to be any different. She had made a goal to make a new friend by the end of her first semester. It was hard for her to get out of her comfort zone and talk to people. The end of the semester was nearing its end and she still hadn’t made what she would consider a friend.

Two months before the semesters end is when it happened. She saw the prompt and was promptly, pun intended, removed from Earth. That was where she had met Alex and the others. There was something about Alex that had made it easy to trust him. She obviously didn’t tell him about her childhood trauma. Why would she? You don’t really share that kind of stuff with someone you just met.

By the end of the tutorial, she had truly felt she made a friend. She had even done it by her deadline.

Go me! She mentally high fived herself.

The end of the tutorial had come so abruptly that she hadn’t gotten a chance to open up more to Alex. She liked the others but she didn’t really feel the same bond with them. She had really only met them for just a small portion of the already short time they spent on Morathis.

Another weird thing to add to the list. She had lived on an alien planet for a while fighting alien panthers and alien golems.

Am I kind of awesome?

They had all gotten their rewards, but she had received extra rewards. The Forge had awarded her for being in the first three to finish the tutorial she had gotten an upgrade to her skills. She had a few options for upgrades, but had decided to go with a special attunement.

Burning Ice (Attunement, Unique)-

Frost so cold it burns your foes. All abilities using the concept of frost, are empowered by the concept of burning as well. Extra damage done to enemies within a frosty domain or environment. Enemies that remain in contact to your frost for extended durations will become fuel for the frost fire, being engulfed in icy flames.

This had seemed like it would have the greatest impact on her future progress. She wasn’t sure what exactly an attunement meant, but she did like the side effects of it so far. Her ice gotten a new color. It now matched her shield and it was also her favorite color: red. It was meant to be.

Things were going so great. That was why she was so upset at the system prompt she had received upon her return.

You are in hostile territory. This planet is under enemy control. Reinforcements are not readily available to you at your current location. Please retreat to the nearest Starbound Coalition controlled planet.

Nearest planet-not in current solar system. Teleportation required.

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Alex slept longer than he had in weeks. It was good rest too. He felt rejuvenated. That didn’t mean that it was a long rest. Only six hours passed from the time they left him to the time they woke him up again. He felt much better, but he was still desperate for more sleep. A desire that would not be fulfilled any time soon.

The night was dark and frigid. He looked down and was surprised to see his symbiotic armor had thought it necessary to allow his nipples to stick out. He had made fun of hero suits in movies for this exact thing. He tried to will them back in to no avail.

Just my luck. I get the dopest super suit ever, and it has nipples. Guess I’ll just have to avoid getting cold. Maybe if I wear an insulated shirt underneath I won’t get cold.

These were all super important things to think about as they silently moved across the valley.

The Zotari could be anywhere so they had to move with great care. The fighting had mostly died down. Both sides sent out squads to try and either assassinate unsuspecting soldiers or to push their lines forward. The Saxans were extremely easy to spot as they were completely white.

The Zotari were the opposite. They blended into the darkness. They wreaked havoc during the night. Their muffled movements nearly undetectable until they are right on top of you.

Alex’s squad was charged with the task of defending their various camps. They had been patrolling around the perimeters for an hour with no incident. They each patrolled individually, but were to raise the alarm if any of them made contact.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

Alex made his way around yet another camp. He was starting to grow bored of this routine. He would travel around each camp on the outskirts, just where the light of the camp was starting to fade. He could see in, but he should be mostly undetectable.

At least my suit is black, and I don’t have any stored P.E..

He had found out a while ago that his eyes and suit only gained the glowing blue when he had P.E. stored. The more power he had, the brighter it got and the more lines showed up. He wondered if he filled his reserves, would he turn into an electric blue beacon of power.

Only one way to find out, he thought while shadow boxing in place for a few seconds.

He was itching for a fight, if only to break up the monotony.

They could’ve at least given me a fun job. All day they’ve been fighting in a straight on brawl. That’s my style. I see things, I punch them. Easy and straightforward.

He kept walking around what felt like the millionth camp tonight when suddenly a hand reached out and clamped down on his mouth from behind. He knew it was a hand as he had immediately reached up to pull it away. It felt like his face was being smashed in a trash compactor. Before awakening, he would likely already have had his jaw ground to powder. As it was, his face was creaking under the pressure.

More hands joined the first. Instead of holding his face, they held staves and shields. They began to beat him with their knobby sticks. Near silent blows, landing on all parts of his body. He began to glow, revealing his attackers. Four Zotari, including the one holding his mouth shut, were pummeling him relentlessly. Alex noticed they were not using their energy blasts. He reckoned it was to not raise the alarm too early. Their stealthy approach on this camp made it likely they were planning to ambush the unaware residents.

There wasn’t a second that went by that a punch was not landing. Lucky for him, that gave him the edge he needed. Alex channeled some of his stored energy into his neck. He reserved his head back in an attempt to slam it into his captor’s.

It did not work.

Instead, the Zotari holding him drove his head into the ground. He even rubbed it around for good measure. They lifted him again. Alex stood, slightly woozy and disoriented. Blows continued to land on him. He had no idea what to do. He couldn’t get enough leverage to make any sort of move against them. His energy reserves were increasing rapidly but he had no way to use it. A few more minutes of this went by.

“It is resilient. I thought it would fall unconscious at least by now. It would be much easier to eliminate if it would. I fear we will be discovered if this continues on much longer. We are too exposed here. We need to do something quickly,” one of the Zotari said in a hissing voice.

Alex began to squirm against their grasp. There was no way he was just going to let them kill him. His life was kind of crazy right now, but he would take crazy over dead eleven times out of ten. He leapt a little to try and release himself that way. Him and the entire group lifted a few feet into the air.

Hey that isn’t a bad idea.

He rotated the energy into both of his legs. He waited until all of his assailants were all holding onto him and the second they were, he exploded into action.

He propelled himself towards the camp and his assailants came in tow. A few of them let go of Alex once they realized what had happened. The one that had grabbed ahold of him first was not so lucky. Alex grabbed his arms as they plummeted to the ground. They crashed into the middle of camp. Sleepy Saxans rushed out of their bunkhouses.

“You guys take this one. I’ll get the other ones,” Alex called out. He gave a parting blow to the Zotari’s head before sprinting off in the direction he came.

He looked at his energy reserves as he ran to the remaining Zotari.

P.E.- 750/820

Oh yeah. It’s business time. A huge smile spread across his face.

He quickly caught up to the first Zotari. While in a full sprint, Alex grabbed the alien by the ankle and dragged him behind. The dirt acted as sandpaper. The frontside of the Zotari was torn to shreds. Anytime Alex passed a larger rock, he made sure to swing the trailing body in its direction. After Alex felt like he had inflicted enough damage, he hoisted the alien up as if it were a javelin and hurled it backwards towards the camp that was already hundreds of feet away. It landed with a crunch, barely bouncing off the ground. He continued his pursuit. He still had two left.

The next one seemed to have heard Alex’s chase and turned to face him just as he approached. Alex readied his fist but was swiftly put on the defensive. The Zotari aimed his shield and fired a heavy blast in Alex’s direction. He dodged it and continued closing the distance. A few more seconds passed and the shield fired another blast.

Ok so those things aren’t machine guns. There’s no rapid fire. That at least gives me an opening.

He wasn’t quick enough to dodge this one. He raised a hand reflexively to protect himself. The blast landed directly in the middle of his palm. A searing pain made his vision turn white momentarily. When he looked down at his hand, he expected to see a hole. What he saw instead was a slight burn mark the size of a quarter. He checked his reserves and saw that he had gained some more energy.

Looks like I’ve got one in the chamber. Alex thought while reminiscing about childhood memories playing video games.

His heart beat loud in his ears, each thump bringing that much closer to his target. Step after step until he finally reached it. He brought both fists down on the aliens head. It raised both hands to block the strike, but it was futile. Alex felt the bones mold around his fists as if he were punching through pudding. The Zotari yelped out, but crumpled into a heap. Alex grabbed this one and threw him back in the direction of the camp. He was too far now to make it all the way, but streams of Saxans were flowing out of the camp by now. A mass of bodies swarmed the fallen Zotari, beating it senseless. Alex could’ve sworn he saw a leg flying through the air through his peripheral vision.

Alex continued on his path forward. He had one left and he wasn’t going to let it retreat. He sprinted in the direction he had last seen the alien. They had already left the light of the camp. Alex only had the illumination of his suit to guide him. A ring of blue light radiated from him creating a sort of starburst shape. It extended out twenty feet, giving Alex a decent view of his surrounding.

He looked to the ground to see if he could see any indication of where the Zotari had gone. He found what he thought could be tracks and without a better idea, he followed.

I guess I can add that to the resume. Expert tracker! That sounds nice.

The tracks became harder and harder to follow. He slowed from a run to a jog, and a jog to a walk. He felt like he had lost the trail. He backtracked a little to find where he had gone astray. He had to backtrack a long ways back. He followed the trail again, but yet again lost it. He tried backtracking again, but quickly began seeing a problem.

Tracking is hard. I have no idea what I’m doing.

What was worse was Alex didn’t even know how to get back to the camp. He had already been chasing the running Zotari for ten minutes, with no sign of it for the last three. He went back, following his path the best he could. It was slow going. He came up to a larger cliffside that looked similar enough.

All of these cliffs look the same. Who am I kidding? I have no idea where I am. He sighed and walked forward, kicking up dust in resignation and defeat.

When he rounded the corner he froze. Twenty eyes reflected in the halo of his blue aura. Their bodies, black as night.