
It was the first day of school and Rose’s teacher was asking everyone to come to the front of the classroom and share something they did over summer break.
“I went to see my grandma,” said George, “She always has the best food.”
“I went to Happyland and rode all the rides,” said another.
When it was Rose’s turn, she hesitated for a moment. She didn’t want to sound boastful, but she knew she had a pretty amazing story to tell.
“I saved an alien world from destruction,” she said finally.
There was a moment of silence as her classmates stared at her in disbelief. Then they all started talking at once.
“What? How? Like in a video game?”
Rose shook her head. “No, it was real. my friends Xander, Penny, and I helped an alien race defeat villains who were trying to destroy their world.”
Rose took a deep breath and began to tell her story.
One day after we had done our chores, Xander, Penny and I were riding our bikes to the park when we saw an old man struggling to get his cat out of a tree. We didn't think twice about helping him. We all stopped and got off our bikes and walked over to the tree and asked if we could help.
It turns out that the cat was stuck pretty high up, and the old man was worried he wouldn't be able to get her down. We all took turns trying to climb the tree, but it was too tall and there weren't enough low branches to hold onto.
Finally, Penny had an idea. She ran home and got a rope from her dad's garage. Xander tied it like a lasso and threw it up over a branch. I held onto the other end of the rope, and Penny was able to climb up the tree and rescue the cat.
The old man was so grateful, and he told us we were heroes. We didn't feel like heroes, though. We just did what anyone would do in a situation like that.
The next day, when we were out riding our bikes again, we saw a strange man watching us from the shadows. He looked like he was up to no good. We pedaled away as fast as we could, but he followed us. We were trying to get to the park, but it seemed like he was trying to herd us in a different direction.
Suddenly, we heard a noise that sounded like an explosion. We turned around and saw a huge spaceship descending from the sky. The man who had been following us was gone, and in his place was a creature that looked like it was made of metal.
The metal creature spoke to us in a language we didn't understand, but we could tell it was friendly. It needed our help with something and it was motioning us onto his ship
We didn't know what we were getting into, but it just felt right to help.
When we got on the ship the Alien's Universal translator kicked in and we were able to understand each other. The metal creature's name was Zorx and he was a member of the Galactic Guard. Their planet was being attacked by an evil race known as the Draxx, and they needed our help to stop them. Zorx had seen us help the old man get his cat out of the tree, and he knew we were kind and brave.
He had heard the old man say that we were heroes, and he believed it. He decided then that we needed to be recruited into the Galactic Guard to help them to defeat the Draxx.
We didn't know anything about being galactic heroes, but we were determined to save Zorx's planet. He gave us each a special bracelet that would give us the power to fight the Draxx. It was a lot to take in, but we knew we could do it.
We spent the trip from Earth to Zorx's planet learning how to use our new abilities. We could do things like shoot energy blasts from our hands, fly, lift heavy objects and create illusions. It was pretty cool.
When we arrived, we were thrown into the middle of a battle. The Draxx were everywhere, and it seemed like they were winning.
At first we tried to use the powers that our bracelets gave us to fight them, but it was no use. The Draxx were too strong. We were about to give up when we remembered what the old man had said to us after we rescued his cat - that we were heroes.
We realized that we didn't need superpowers to be heroes. We just needed to work together and use our courage and our brains.
We came up with a plan and put it into action.
The Draxx were winning because they had a giant ship that was blasting energy beams at Zorx's planet. As long as the ship was in the sky shooting energy beams the Galactic Guard stood no chance of winning. We needed to find a way to stop it.
Penny came up with the idea of using our bikes to distract the Draxx while Xander and I snuck aboard their ship and deactivated the energy beams.
Penny jumped on her bike and rode straight at the Draxx ship. She pressed the duplicate button on her bracelet and created a dozen copies of herself. The Draxx were so confused that they didn't know which Penny to shoot at.
While they were distracted, Xander and I snuck onto the ship by using our levitation powers to fly up to the entrance. Once we were aboard, we used our heat vision to melt the control panel. That deactivated the energy beams and gave Zorx's planet a chance to fight back.
But melting the control panels worked too well. The ship started a self-destruct sequence. We had to find a way to get off the Draxx ship before it blew up.
We didn't know how to do that and we were afraid that we weren't going to make it, but we didn't give up.
We used our powers to create a shield around ourselves and flew through an energy beam, back to Zorx's planet. We were battered and bruised, but we had done it.
The Galactic Guard was able to defeat the Draxx and we were hailed as heroes. We had saved the day, and we learned that anyone can be a hero - even a 2nd grader.
But none of this would have happened if we hadn't been kind to the old man and helped him get his cat out of the tree. That's what being a hero is all about - helping others and making a difference in the world.
Rose’s classmates were mesmerized by her story. They had never heard of anything so amazing.
“That’s incredible!” yelled Thea
“You’re so lucky,” said Jill.
“I don’t believe you, You made that up!” complained Abe
“Abe, we can talk about this later, but right now it’s Rose’s turn to tell us what she did,” Their teacher said.
“It’s OK if he doesn’t believe me Mrs. Rogers, It is a pretty crazy story.”
And with that Rose reached down to her wrist where she was wearing a peculiar bracelet, pressed a button, and flew back to her seat.
Rose just smiled. She knew that anyone could be a hero, no matter how big or small they were. All it took was a little bit of courage and a whole lot of heart.