An Unusual Encounter

"This is hopeless." Mark sat on the ground with his head in his hands.

"I don't think so," said GT. "We can build our own rocket ship! All we need are the right materials."

"Yeah," grumbled Spencer sarcastically. "That and a truck load of luck."

"Guys, think positively," said Reena. "GT's right. We can do it!"

All of a sudden, a brown object streaked through the sky like a falling star. It crashed right into the earth with defeaning impact. It was a space capsule, a small one, with no windows or entrances.

"Don't go near it," GT warned. "It could be something the cransacols left behind for us. Something bad," he added.

The capsule began to shake, bits of metal rocketing off it as it swelled with the unknown force within it. Then, the capsule burst open and a worm-like monster slithered out.

"An earth suthgg," gasped Spencer. "I didn't think they'd send one of those."

The suthgg was huge, as big as an entire skytrain, its body shape being brown segments attached to one another. It had two thick arms tapered with three-fingered claws, and two red eyes glaring at them. It had a circular mouth filled with pointy teeth, and, as GT found out, could spew a column of fire. GT jumped out of the way just in time, but the fire just nicked the end of his shirt.

The suthgg glared at them and lunged, bringing his claw down at them.

Voltergeist quickly blasted out an electric shock and deflected the claw, causing the suthgg to fall backwards and then burrow into the earth.

"Where'd it go?!" cried Mark. He aimed his hands at the ground as if the suthgg would burst out at any moment.

"I don't know," said GT, "but we can't leave it here. Suthggs are dangerous, and there's no telling what it can do on this planet."

"Does the ground feel unusually warm to you?" asked Spencer. He lifted up his feet, checked under them, then set them back down. "It's still warm! What is this?"

Flames flew up from the scorched earth, and the suthgg burst out of the ground, roaring and flailing its claws. Mark quickly shot out four arrows and all of them hit the monster in the side, but it didn't react in any way. Either it didn't feel it, or didn't care. The suthgg shot out fire at Mark, and he quickly spun his arrows in a thick spiral, creating a thick shield that defended against the flames.

"We've gotta do something quick," shouted GT, "before we get killed!"

Voltergeist zapped the suthgg right in the face, and it recoiled, growling in outrage. Acting quickly, Reena spread her wings and flew arond the beast, landing on its head. She bared her teeth and dug them into the suthgg's forehead.

The suthgg reeled, snarling, its eyes slowly shutting. Mark shot out some more arrows at its back, and the suthgg fell forward onto the charred grass, defeated.

"Victory!" hollered Spencer.

"We can't stay here," said Voltergeist. "More might come. We should get out of here."

"But how are we going to get home?" asked Mark. "The cransacols made off with our parts."

"We're just going to have to make our own," replied Reena. "There's no other way. I'm not strong enough to fly you all back, and even if I was, none of us would survive the trip. It'll take thousands of light years to get to Varcanzoggle from here."

"Well..." started GT. "Maybe we can send a distress call to Varcanzoggle?"

"I could," said Spencer. "I'm a mechanic, so I could create a machine of some sort to help us contact our planet."

"Are there any necessary parts or tools that you'll need?"

"Naw," grinned Spencer. "I was just going to wing it."

"That's what I like to hear," said Mark. "Let's get to it."

___________________________________________________________________

Roman was at Central Park with his family. They were going on a family hike, and also feeding the squirrels there. However, it was getting dark.

"It's getting dark," Mom stated. "We should head back soon."

"Wait!" Ava cried. "There's a douglas squirrel!"

Sure enough, a douglas squirrel hopped out of the bushes and looked around at them. Ava bent down and held out a nut to it. On sight of the nut, the squirrel rushed over, reached up, and took the nut from Ava's fingers. It positioned it in its mouth, then turned and bounded away.

"It took the nut right out of my hand!" Ava said. "Aww, it just reached up and took it. He was like 'give me the nut! My nut!'"

Mom laughed.

"Is it time to go yet?" Roman asked.

Mom checked her watch. "Yep, it's pretty much time. Let's go-"

Her sentence was cut off by a loud rumbling and crashing in the distance.

"What was that?" Roman asked.

"Humongous sounds were reverberating across the feild, like boulder crashing to the ground with tremendous impact. Then, all was quiet.

"I repeat: what was that?!" Roman cried.

"It sounded like someone in trouble," Dad said. "Or it was construction or something. I think it's okay now."

"I don't know why, but I suddenly have this urge to see what caused that noise," said Roman.

"e too," Ava agreed.

"It was construction!" said Dad. "Nothing else could have made that."

"Yeah," Roman spoke/thought, "but there aren't any construction sites anywhere around here."

"Good point," said Dad. "Let's check it out, then."

The five of them headed towards the direction of the mysterious noise.

_____________________________________________________________________

"Okay," said Spencer. "I think I've got it." His communication device looked like a basic walkie-talkie.

He pressed a button on his contraption and a static sound emenated from a speaker.

"Hello?" asked Spencer into the speaker. "Can you hear me?"

Nothing.

"We're stuck on Earth," he said. "Some cransacols made off with our parts, because our ship broke once we landed, and now we don't know what to do. Can you send a rocket over to Earth?"

The static continued.

"Crap," muttered Spencer, shutting it off.

"I knew it," said GT. Varcanzoggle is in an entirely different galaxy; I don't think your transmission will get through to it."

"So... we're really stuck here?" asked Reena. There was a hint of panic in her voice.

"No," said Mark grimly, clenching his fist in determination. "We're going to get back to Varcanzoggle, one way or another, no matter what."

"Um, guys?" said Voltergeist. "Some people see us."

"Where?" asked GT.

Voltergeist pointed.

There were people, a family of five, staring in curiosity. There was a man, a woman, a girl, a boy, and another girl, but smaller.

"Let's go talk to them," said Spencer. "Maybe they can help us."

"I don't know..." said Mark warily.

"Come on," Spencer replied. "They don't look dangerous."

"Okay."

The five walked up to the family cautiously. GT stepped forward.

"Um, hi..." he said slowly. "I couldn't help but notice that... you were... looking over at us?"

"Yes," said the woman. "We heard some loud crashing and thudding, as well as some fire, so we just went over to check out what happened, and we saw you five."

"Well, you don't look dangerous to us!" said Spencer cheerfully. He stuck out his hand. "I'm Spencer."

"Spencer!" muttered GT over his shoulder, then turned back to the woman and smiled. "Sorry. Spencer sometimes has social issues with other people."

Mark raised his hands above his head. "'Don't shoot me! Take my wallet! It's in the left pocket!'" he mimicked. "That's what he said when we first encountered someone."

"Hey!" whispered Spencer. Reena giggled.

"I'm GT," said GT, "and these are my friends: Spencer, Reena, Voltergeist, and Mark."

The boy gasped. "No. Way."

"What?" GT asked.

"You guys... you're just like characters I made up in a story!" said the boy. "Like you, for instance," he continued, pointing at Reena. "You look just like a racabat, a creature I made up."

Reena leaned back a bit, stunned. "That's right! I am a racabat!"

"This is insane," the boy said in disbelief.

"He isn't gonna electrocute us, is he?" asked the man, pointing at Voltergeist.

"Not unless you want me to," Voltergeist replied.

"What are your names?" asked GT.

"I'm Anne," the woman replied. "This is my husband Victor, and these are our children: Selena, Roman, and Ava." She gestured to each one.

"You look really cute," Selena said to Reena.

"Oh!" Reena said, blushing. She smiled and her tail curled around her legs. "Thanks. You do too."

"Um... thanks?" said Selena.

"what's this story you're writing?" asked Mark.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"It's called 'SWAT'," said Roman, "and there are five characters in it, and you... you five are the main characters."

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"What?" said Spencer in disbelief. "No way."

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"Way," Roman replied. "I can show you if you want."

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"Sure," said GT. "Can we see?" he asked Mom.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"Um..." she said hesitantly. "All right, but you have to behave yourself. Don't act weird, like Conner."

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"Who's Conner?" asked Mark.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"The brother of a friend of mine," said Ava.

<p style="text-align: LEFT; margin-bottom: 0in; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none">"Let's go," said Mom.