The humans on Earth had no clue what was going on.

Despite the imminent threat of the Dark Legion fleet, life continued on Earth. None of the telescopes or satellites had witnessed the battle or even seen the Dark Legion Fleet. The Elders hadn’t released the Conduit. For everyone on Earth, it was just a normal day in the mid-twenty-first century.

In northern Arkansas at a Community College students were going back into classrooms after the big lunch rush. On the first floor of a very new Math building, a red-haired teacher crossed students off of his roll sheet as they walked into the classroom. The teacher pulled a black dry-erase marker out of the pocket of his green dress shirt and twirled it between the fingers of his right hand. Alexander Hancock tapped his black tennis shoes softly to tune with one of the latest pop hits while waiting on any stragglers. He flipped the marker and tapped anxiously on his black dress pants. This was his last class to teach for the day. Once he finished this lecture he was heading home to work on the hiking trail that he had started cutting through his property earlier in July. Now it was the middle of September and he hoped to have it finished before the beginning of the next week.

A glance at his watch told Alex that class should have started two minutes earlier. He stood up, walked over to the door, and closed it. He cleared his throat to silence the hushed conversations jumping between the students.

“Are there any questions from last time?” Alex asked

The answer was a hum in his pants pocket. The phone was supposed to be on silent, but he pulled it out so he could turn it off. As he did, he noticed every other phone in the room was buzzing as well.

“Everyone stay calm, this is probably just another test of the alert system.” Alex tried to keep agitation out of his voice. The number of cases of school violence has risen in the past few years. The system at the college had recently been updated and a test was supposed to be happening next week. It had probably been pushed up and he hadn’t got that email.

The red-haired teacher flipped his phone open and was shocked to see a pointy-eared being with gold eyes staring back at him. He wasn’t the only one, from the back of the class a thin, wavering arm held a phone up. The hand belonged to a shy, freckle-faced, blonde-haired girl. Alicia’s blue eyes were wide and her white skin had turned pale as her hand refused to cease wavering. Alicia folded her left hand over her to steady the screen. She turned the phone around so everyone could see the same gold-eyed alien looking back at them.

“What’s going on?” Alicia whimpered as the rest of the class started whispering

“Don’t panic,” Alex pushed buttons on his phone, but nothing happened, “This is probably just a prank that the comp-sci students are playing.” He motioned for the class to be quiet as the phones began to talk.

“Hello people of Earth, I am Feletis, Master Vita of the High Elves,” there was a sadness in the elf’s voice as he continued, “For over two thousand years my people have been charged with protecting your planet from the forces of darkness in the rest of the universe, but situations have progressed to where that is no longer possible.” The Elf paused and stared right through Alex, sending a chill down Alex’s spine. Alex held his breath waiting for the warmth to come back into his body.

A dark-haired, brown-eyed boy in the front row stood up. Derek had played sports in high school and still retained his athletic frame to compliment his six-foot height. His skin was tanned dark peach from lounging on the tanning beds. His clothes were new. Alex guessed that Derek’s blue jeans, sneakers, or even his yellow polo cost more than Alex’s entire outfit.

Derek cocked back his arm and threw his phone at the wall behind Alex. The phone dug a hole into the wall before shattering into tiny pieces. “This is a bunch of bull! I’m out of here!”

Alex glared at Derek. “Sit.”

Derek flinched under Alex’s gaze and quickly retook his seat.

Alex smiled inwardly as he turned his attention back to the phone to listen to the message.

“Many of you will get abilities beyond your wildest imagination.” He paused and this time Alex was sure it was for dramatic effect. “I would caution you to respect this power and to not abuse it; it will destroy as surely as it will save you. Learn what you can to master it quickly so you will be able to protect yourselves from the threats you will soon face. We will be sending you emissaries to help you develop and govern these new powers as soon as we can; I hope that you will not destroy yourselves before they arrive. Until then may God be with you.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The screens on every phone around the room went blank. Alex stared at his phone for a moment and then pressed the power button. A wave of dread washed over Alex when the phone came to life, and he realized that it had been off for the entire message. Alex looked up and tried to think of something to say to calm the students down. The hushed whispers were becoming deafening.

Derek spoke up before Alex, “This is crazy! Can you believe this?”

“Derek, please.” Alex tried to think of a way to diffuse the prank. It had to be a prank. For it to be anything else was just… unthinkable. “Everyone be quiet for a moment.”

The only sound in the room was the ticking of the clock above the board behind Alex. The students looked at Alex for direction. Alex looked at his students and tried to think of something comforting to say. It wasn’t going to help. The confusion and fear on every student’s face spoke what no voice dared.

“I believe it.” Alicia’s quiet voice broke the silence

“You’re an idiot!” Derek snarled as he twisted in his chair to face Alicia.

Alicia bit her lip and brushed a tear from her face, but she stared him down, “I-I-I am not-t,” She stuttered and her teeth were chattering, “You saw that the aliens are going to come take us.” Her skin had turned bleach white and her breaths were going in short gasps.

“Everything is going to be fine,” Alex tried to keep his voice calm even though he was as freaked out as they were, “It’s probably just a prank that some punk kid is playing, there’s nothing to be freaking out about right now.” he tried his best to look calm, but by the looks on his student’s faces it wasn’t working, so he tried a different approach, “In light of this tasteless prank class is canceled. You can use the rest of the hour to take a breather.” he congratulated himself when he saw most of their faces light up. The last place that most people want to be was in a math class.

Alicia erupted from her seat, sweeping up her books in one motion. She flipped over her chair in the back corner as she dashed out the door.

Alex watched as the rest of the students made a slightly calmer exit out of the room. From the noises in the hallway, Alex guessed that many of the other teachers had the same idea. Derek waited in his seat until everyone else had left and plodded towards the door. Derek paused at the door and the sneer that he sent in Alex’s direction sent a chill down Alex’s spine.

Alex maintained his composure and smiled as Derek melted into the chaos of students in the hall. With Derek gone, he released his control and allowed his body a small tremble. Once he was satisfied that he had got the creepy feeling out of his system, he walked to the doorway to watch the last of the students vanish out of the building. He walked back over to the table in front of the classroom to collect his notes when he heard a noise coming from the door.

It was Bill, the dean of the community college and he looked like he was more afraid than most of the students had been. Bill was short, only five foot three compared to Alex’s six foot three, and on a good day, he might have weighed one-eighty. He was balding and his glasses gave him an intelligent and professional aura. Right now his forehead was sweating and his tie and suit jacket were missing,

Alex swallowed a knot in his throat as Bill took off his glasses and cleaned them with a handkerchief. He could count the number of times he had seen Bill not wearing a tie on school property on one hand, and it was never good.

Bill focused his eyes on Alex, “did you hear?” he whispered.

Alex had to watch Bill’s mouth to fully understand him because he was talking so softly. That was another bad sign; Bill usually talked in a very loud and powerful voice to make up for his short stature.

“You mean the prank call?” Alex asked with as much sarcasm as he could muster, which wasn’t much. Bill flinched when he said prank. “That’s probably just some kid who wanted a day out of classes. Remember last semester when that one kid pulled the fire alarm during finals to get more study time? It’s probably just something like that.” His forced grin didn’t do much to calm the atmosphere.

“It didn’t just happen here,” Bill wiped his face with his handkerchief; “Reports are coming in that this” Bill made quotation marks with his fingers, “prank’ as you call it, happened worldwide.” His tone had grown serious, and Alex tried to digest what had just been said.

“Then this isn’t just some localized event,” Alex shuddered as Bill nodded. Alex dropped his papers on the table as he sank into the chair behind it.

“We need to get the students to their homes until we can figure out what is going on, I’ve closed the school for the rest of the day and tomorrow so we can deal with this.” Bill looked Alex over before he continued, “Can you help clear the campus?”

“Sure,” Alex said weakly, “It’ll take more than this to fry my nerves,” It was a lie, but he wasn’t going to let his fear show.

The look on Bill’s face said that he wasn’t buying it, “Thanks. Too many teachers are freaking out worse than the students,” He paused, “I have to go to the other buildings. Our phones are tied up with parents calling because the cell towers are congested.” He placed his hand on Alex’s shoulder, “Go to the courtyard and tell everyone what is happening and try to keep them calm.”

Alex nodded slowly. It was too much information to take in at once. This wasn’t anything that he thought would ever happen. “Did you use the alert system to inform everyone that the campus is closing?” Alex’s question stopped Bill halfway to the door

“I thought of that, but-” Bill chuckled. “I decided that another talking computer might just freak the kids out more, so we’ll tell as many as we can and then I’ll go to the alert system.”

Alex nodded, and then let out a long breath after Bill walked away, “This is going to be a long day.”