“Oh wow this guy’s strong!” I looked in awe at the purple gaseous mass that used to be one of the majestic animals of this planet. The only recognizable feature still visible was a pair of antlers that it was using to throw debris at me. Speaking of which, I quickly dodged to the right, diving to the floor.

  ”Ugh, that was close. Stronger AND smarter I guess.” I picked myself up and examined my situation. My hard-headed opponent refused to move from its spot. Instead, it was forcing more of the destroyed buildings around us to become its projectile. Another round of concrete and dust was already hurtling towards me. This was starting to get fun!

  ”Alright buddy, It’s time for my counterattack.” I used this planet's lighter gravity to my advantage and jumped into the air, dodging the debris. I almost instantly felt a pull of gravity. My body began to speed towards our gaseous pal. I extended my foot outwards for a kick, I’m sure I looked like some of those classic martial arts masters from ages past.

  I burst into an energetic laugh as my body started to accelerate. “It’s game! Time to die!” I was so sure of the coming impact that I didn’t even bother to make sure that I was lined up properly, this was business as usual after all. Big mistake.

  I sped past my purple adversary and I felt the push of gravity as my body continued speeding up toward a wall. “Nice, I can’t believe one of these things finally learned to dodge!”

  My body was 2 seconds away from becoming paint on the wall but at the best possible moment, I felt my partner grasp my hand. She spoke with an annoyed and serious tone: “ No Alex, you just missed…” She sighed and then planted her weapon into the ground so that she didn’t get swept off her feet and hit the wall with me. “Take this seriously lest that wall becomes the sight of your memorial.”

  I began to laugh again as my body finally started to decelerate. “Meri, you’re no fun.” Meri let go of my hand, and I stretched as my body slowly touched the ground. “I guess you’re right though, hey Distract it for a moment so I can call the others.”

  Meri Pulled her weapon out of the ground and turned to face the purple monstrosity. “ ‘K, but you’re making dinner tonight.” At saying that, Meri dashed off. She could take care of herself so I turned around and pressed a button on my earpiece:

  ”Lisa, T, you’ve got our coordinates right? We’ll need you here in about 30 seconds.” I felt the gravity around me get heavier for a brief moment so I turned around. Meri had cut one of the weaponized balls of debris in half. I guess the purple bastard didn’t like that. I’d be mad too.

  I pressed the button on my earpiece again as a smile slowly crept onto my face. “T, prepare a G5 level- NO a G3 level blast! This guy doesn’t deserve half of our power.” I didn’t wait for them to respond, I began to circle around the purple mass while it fought with Meri.

  I quietly observed, not just the fight but also our surroundings. This planet was on the same level as early 20th-century earth, but it was hard to tell since it looked like a nuclear bomb went off, at least the city block around us did.

  I found a nice piece of debris to sit down on, and looked up at the orange sky, waiting. “It should be aaany second now…” No soon as I said that, My spaceship appeared in the sky. I looked back towards the earth and shouted: “MERI! GET OUT OF THE WAY!” She glanced in my direction for a moment before nodding and doing 3 consecutive back-flips to dodge one of the monster's attacks. What a show-off.

  I stood up so that I could get a better view of our coming victory. The air around me began to get denser, as the wind started to flow upwards. I knew what was coming, so I took a few steps back. The monster was ignoring the changes in gravity and instead lumbered its way towards Meri. Big mistake.

  In an instant, the gravity around the gaseous monster became 3 times more powerful. The ground cracked, and the air pressure that had built up around it instantly pushed him to the ground. The purple gas faded away into the dirt, revealing its original form; a teal-colored, bull-like animal with antlers and bio-luminescent fur. The animal freaked out, but now that the ghastly mist was gone, we could finish this.

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  Meri was quicker to move than me, she ran up to the animal with her pole-like weapon, and slammed it onto its head, knocking it out. I walked up to the creature and marveled at it for a moment. “Shame, you truly were Majestic.” I reached for my holster and grabbed my customized antique pistol, and aimed it. “Time to go to sleep.”

  BANG

  --

  “Apollios. Monsters that span the entire galaxy. They possess random entities and grow in strength until they turn your world into a rock to throw around and crush! We are called the Anti Apollios Squad, and we’re here to save your planet.” I looked around the quiet room, it seemed like my audience liked my presentation.

  My younger sister Lisa face-palmed “Alex that was horrible. and it doesn’t explain anything.”

  I turned to the blonde man sitting next to her, T, and glared at him. He responded by shrugging and looking away. I knew he liked my speech, but he opened his mouth to speak against it regardless. “W-well I mean, I don’t see why we have to explain ourselves to begin with.” He shrugged again then continued. “Why not just destroy Apollios and leave? Who cares what people think?”

  I nodded. “That’s a valid point. We could use espionage, get in and get out, like spies or something.” As I finished speaking, I felt a warm hand smack me in the back of the head then that same hand rested on my shoulder. I turned to look at my assailant. It was Meri, she looked at me with a disapproving expression.

  ”That’s only a good idea on paper. Nobody here is particularly skilled at acting after all.” I watched as Meri’s serious expression faded into a tender smile as she spoke again. “Your speech was wonderful babe, it was short, to the point, and made perfect sense.”

  I couldn’t help but return the smile, oh how I loved that woman. Anyways, I could feel the annoyance build in the direction of Lisa, and just I as began to turn around to face her again, she started speaking with a desperate tone. “Oh my god. Meri, why in the galaxy would you agree with him?”

  “Alex is making dinner tonight.” Meri’s response was instantaneous and incredibly funny to me, I couldn’t help but laugh. While I laughed, Lisa groaned. T sighed, He couldn’t take our antics any longer so spoke up one last time.

  “In any case, We have two for and two against. We need some way to break the tie, how about-”

  “I’ll break the tie!” A small voice from the back of the room reached us. The owner of said voice, was the only other person in the room and my daughter; Melodie. Everyone turned to look at her as the little girl made her way to the front of the room and sat down next to Lisa. “Sorry for interrupting you, Uncle Terrance.”

  T simply shrugged, Lisa’s expression went from slight surprise, to utter terror, as she realized what was about to happen. I did too. I silently nodded in approval as Melodie spoke again. “I like Daddy’s Speech Idea!”

  “Nooooo!”

  “Yeeeeessss!”

  And so, On that night. The official A.A.S. introductory speech was decided upon.