The next day started as usual. After breakfast, Rosalie and Lura went to work on the ship, and Will and Cosmo watched TV. After watching a few episodes they made their way outside to the front yard. Here their training would commence.

  Kicking, punching, leaping, Will and Cosmo practiced them as you'd expect children too. They had no martial arts training, and nobody to teach them, so they just tried their best to mimic what they saw in the cartoon. After doing their best for a while the two would get tired and rest.

  Will laid on the ground, chest heaving as he caught his breath. Cosmo sat beside Will, also breathing heavily.

  “I think we're getting better. What do you think, Cosmo.” Will asked, between heavy breaths.

  Cosmo shook his head and said, “getting better.”

  Cosmo's understanding and speaking continued to improve every day. He was like a sponge and easily absorbed what he saw around him. He was still only able to speak in short one or two word responses.

  “I wish we had some kind of long range attack though. Intergalactic Hero Cosmo had his ray gun that helped him in fights. If we had something like that we'd get much stronger.” Will said, and Cosmo silently nodded in agreement.

  “I might know something that could help then.”

  Will, still laying on the ground, tilted his head back to see who was speaking. He saw Lura standing behind them with a bottle of water in each hand. Will quickly sat up, and turned to face her.

  “Lura? What do you mean?” Will asked, grabbing the bottle of water Lura handed him. Cosmo accepted the other bottle.

  “I don't know how helpful it will actually be, since it comes from an old story. But, most of my people didn't think monsters truly resided in those eggs we celebrated either, so maybe the chances of it being true are more likely.” Lura said.

  “Story?” Cosmo said, tilting his head.

  “That's right. There are many stories about what Cosmo did in his previous life. One of those things was a long ranged attack, like you two want.”

  Hearing this, Will and Cosmo got excited, and we're fully invested in Lura's story. They sat in anticipation waiting for Lura to explain further.

  “In a previous life Cosmo fought alongside a man named Iora. Old Cosmo and Iora as well as Gil and the other monster are celebrated as being the ones who put my planet on track to get to where it is today. They were soldiers, doing their best to protect their homeland during war times.

  “The appearance of Cosmo and some of his feats vary from storyteller to storyteller, but one thing almost all the stories have in common is his ability to shoot lighting. Typically it is depicted as being black lightning, but some stories say it was red or blue. How he projects it can be different with some stories saying he shot it from his hands, others his tail, and some saying it came from his mouth.

  “Anyways, the main point is, Cosmo might be able to create lighting. I don't know how you will figure it out, or even if it is actually true, but it is something you can try.” Lura explained.

  Will and Cosmo both hopped to their feet, the exhaustion from a few moments ago washed away by the determination to learn this ability. Will said his thanks to Lura, and then he and Cosmo went back to training. Now instead of punching and kicking at nothing, they were trying to figure out how Cosmo could conjure lightning.

  Lura watched over them for a moment, a slight smile appearing on her usually stoic face. After a moment, Lura left giggling as the boys thrust their arms trying to create lightning from their fingers. Making her way back to Rosalie and the ship, Lura was greeted by a promising sound. Static rang out from the radio inside Lura's ship. For the first time since repairs had begun, some progress had been made.

  Hurriedly, Lura jumped into the cockpit. With Rosalie on the outside trying to tune it, Lura stayed inside telling her when the signal was getting better or worse. For a few hours they sat there fiddling with the signal, but being unable to get it entirely clear.

  Lura climbed out of the ship with mixed emotions. Finally, she felt like progress had been made, but she was also frustrated at how close they had gotten. She leaned against the ship, looked down at the ground, and let out a sigh.

  “I'm sure you are probably getting fed up with how long this is taking, but this was a big step. We had been simply hoping a repair was possible, but now we have clear evidence it can be fixed. We're getting closer.” Rosalie assured her.

  Lura looked up and replied, “You're right. We are making progress.”

  Rosalie's calm smile twisted into a more scheming one, and she spoke again. “And soon I'll have more extraterrestrials I can interview and photograph. Heh heh heh.”

  As Rosalie's real goals slipped out, Lura let out another sigh. She had no room to complain though, if Rosalie and Will helped her she would want to give them a reward of some kind. With how big a deal this whole scenario was, Lura was sure the Kitanian government would insist on some kind of reward even if Lura hadn't wanted to.

  Rosalie and Lura decided to take another break for the day and headed toward the house. Out front, Will and Cosmo were still trying to figure out how Cosmo could produce lightning, to no avail.

  “You two are still out here? What are you practicing now?” Rosalie asked, calling out to Will and Cosmo.

  Will approached his mother with an excited expression on his face. “Lura told us an old story about powers Cosmo used to have, so we are trying to get them to work.”

  “Is that right?” Rosalie asked Will, then shifted her attention towards Lura. “Tell us more over dinner tonight, Lura. We don't know much about where you come from.”

  “I suppose it won't hurt to tell you about Kitania.” Lura responded.

  Rosalie, Will, and Lura made their way towards the house happily talking. Cosmo however, was not following behind. His attention was on a small bundle of trees off in the distance. He couldn't see if anything was there, but he was getting a strange feeling from that direction.

  “Cosmo, come on.” Will called out, getting the red lizards attention. Cosmo chased after the rest of the group, looking over his shoulder towards the trees one final time.

  In a dark building in the abandoned main street, Respyn sat waiting. Holes had begun appearing in walls, and the furniture that had been left had been growing smaller, as Respyn had been sampling them. His race's diet mainly consisted of woods, and Earth was abundant with trees. While the forest wasn't that far away, Respyn had no interest in chopping down a tree to eat. In this stretch of abandoned buildings there were plenty of leftover wood materials for Respyn to fill his belly. They were all small enough to easily break off a piece or two to eat, and they were nice and dry. Just the way Respyn liked it.

  As Respy broke a piece of wood off the remains of what used to be a desk, the frog creature slicked into the building. His demeanor and appearance had changed over the last few days. He was always cowering from fear of Respyn attacking him, as he was one to do. The creature's color was also changing. His once blue skin was now entirely gray, and his body was completely dry. Because his body had stopped producing the mucus-like substance to keep his skin moist, it had gotten very dry, with cracks forming over his body.

  “About time you got back. Show me what you found.” Respyn said, grabbing the monster by the scruff of its neck.

  Respyn held the creature in front of his face and looked into its eyes. Using his mind reading abilities, Respyn was able to see exactly what the creature had seen. He saw the Gray's house, Will and Cosmo training in the backyard, and most importantly, he saw Lura and Rosalie working on the spaceship.

  After seeing everything he wanted, he tossed the monster to the ground. A thud rang out as the frog landed, and then skid back across the floor. He stood back up and stepped away from Respyn, cowering.

  “So that's where she's been hiding her ship. We take that, and I'll finally be able to get off this rock. Tomorrow night, we'll go take it.” Respyn said, as a wicked smile formed across his face.

  The next morning the Gray household was a bit more hectic than usual. During the previous night's dinner, Rosalie and Lura had decided to take Lura's ship to the hill where Will would use his telescope to work on it today. They had managed to get some static on the radio, but never a clear signal. The idea that being tucked behind the house may not have been the ideal place to try and get a clear signal was discussed, so it was decided they would go to the hill where it was elevated and had a large clear area. This idea eventually turned into plans for a day-long adventure, with a picnic.

  Rosalie and Will were preparing food for lunch. Just some simple sandwiches, a pasta salad, and a few fruits and vegetables to fill out the basket. A large container of lemonade had been made the night before, so there was nothing to prepare when it came to drinks.

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  Lura was making preparations to take the ship to the hill first. She was stuffing it full of the materials that had been working best, as well as a few they had yet to test yet. She had dragged Cosmo out back with her. She had him on the outside of the ship handing her materials so she wouldn't need to keep getting in and out of the ship to pack it.

  Before long everything and everyone was ready. Everybody had tinfoil hats adorning their heads, at the behest of Rosalie. Lura had tried to get out of it, but she was unable to beat Rosalie's persistence.

  Lura took the ship airborne, though she stayed relatively low to the ground. Flying too high risked the chance of someone, particularly Respyn, seeing the ship and coming to investigate. It only took a few moments for Lura to reach the hill. She landed her ship, and used the time she would need to wait for everyone else to unload the ship as much as she could before they arrived. It would have been much more convenient if everyone could have come by ship, but Lura's ship was a one-seater. It had some storage space, but there wasn't enough room to fit a second person with her.

  Rosalie, Will, and Cosmo made their way to the hill by foot. While Rosalie had a car, there were no roads leading to the hill so it was best to just walk. All three were wearing backpacks, and attached to the straps of each one was a compass. Lura also had been given a compass to use to watch for Respyn being nearby. Rosalie, who was leading the pack, was holding her compass, and glancing at it occasionally.

  A smug smile spread across Rosalie's face. “With this, there is no way that guy can catch us off guard.”

  “Good job, mom.” Will praised his mother, causing her smug smile to grow larger.

  “Haha. Yes, praise me more.” Rosalie said.

  Thinking for a moment, Will asked a question. “But what happens if the thief is directly north? Wouldn't these be completely worthless?”

  Rosalie's smug expression faded quickly. She tried to think of a response, but she was unable to deny Will's observation. So instead, she made excuses.

  “Come on. What are the chances he would be directly north? There is no way that could happen.” Rosalie said, unconvincingly.

  The rest of the walk was business as usual, with Rosalie now making sure to pay extra attention to what was happening north of them.

  Before long the group was reunited with Lura at the top of the hill, the place where the Gray's involvement with this entire ordeal had begun. If not for Will being on this hill that night, he never would have met Lura, and Cosmo never would have hatched from the egg. Those thoughts went through Will's mind as they got to work.

  Rosalie, Will, and Cosmo met Lura at her ship. She had almost everything unloaded, but the group helped her with the last few items. The items that were going to be used on the ship were placed down closest to the ship. Then, everyone's backpacks and the picnic basket with lunch were set a bit further away. Lura had her compass Rosalie had given her placed on top of the nose of the ship. This way her or Rosalie could casually glance at it while they worked to see if the needle moved.

  With the unpacking completed, Will and Cosmo moved away from Lura's ship. It was too dangerous to wander off, but they didn't want to be too close to Lura and Rosalie while they continued to try and summon a lightning attack.

  The methods they were trying today were reasonable, Will was trying to get Cosmo to meditate and summon the lightning from within himself. The problem lied in the fact that Will was a 12 year old child that had little understanding of meditation. Cosmo, still only a few days old and relying on Will a lot since he was born, took all of Will's advice very seriously.

  Will's instructions were simple, close your eyes, take deep breaths, and imagine shooting lightning. This went on for a few hours. Cosmo would silently breath and try his best to conjure lighting. Will sat on the sidelines and encouraged his friend.

  “Come on Cosmo, take a deep breath. Then, when you exhale imagine that the air you are releasing is lightning.”

  No progress was made before lunch.

  Across the hill, Rosalie and Lura were having slightly more success with their objective. The comms device was working, but there was still too much static to send or receive messages.

  “I think trying to do this patchwork might be a lost cause.” Lura said. “Maybe it would be best if we took it apart more, and fully replaced the parts that are damaged.”

  With that suggestion they got to work dismantling the comms device, taking extra care, and lots of photos, to remember how to put everything back together. By the time they had taken it apart enough to begin replacing things, it was lunch time.

  Both groups got together and talked about their progress over the meal. Rosalie excitedly talked about the progress they are making, Will talked about how they still hadn't been able to conjure lightning, and Lura and Cosmo mostly sat on the sidelines watching the mother and son talk back and forth.

  Despite everyone having things they wanted to get done today, nobody tried to rush the meal. Everyone was having a good time just listening to how things were progressing. Before long an hour had passed, the food had been eaten long ago, and everyone cleaned up and got back to work.

  Will and Cosmo went back to where they had been practicing earlier and got back to it. For the next twenty minutes the two continued beating their head against this meditation technique to no avail. Eventually, Will figured this was a lost cause and began thinking of a different approach. As Will sat there thinking, Cosmo sneezed as he meditated. The sound of the sneeze gave Will an idea.

  “Cosmo, I just thought of something.”

  Hearing Will call out, Cosmo stopped what he was doing and approached the boy. “What?” Cosmo asked.

  “We are being too quiet. If you want to do a special attack, you need to call out its name first.” Will explained.

  This explanation made perfect sense to Cosmo. In Intergalactic Hero Cosmo, Cosmo always shouted out the names of his attacks.

  The two of them then got to work making a list of names a lighting attack could have. Cosmo was little help on this front however, with his limited vocabulary. Most of the lizard's suggestions were just names the character Cosmo used in the television show. So the naming was done entirely by Will.

  After a few moments he had brainstormed a dozen names with either lightning, thunder or electric in them. Then it was time to practice with them. Will would tell the name to Cosmo, and then in unison they would shout out the name while Cosmo tried to do a lightning attack.

  “”Lightning Strike!””

  Nothing.

  ““Thunder Crash!”

  Nothing.

  “”Electric Blast!”

  “”Black Lightning! Thunder Crash! Electric Burst"”

  Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

  After many more tries, and many more failures, the two slumped to the ground after exhausting their list of names. Will's mind raced as he tried to think of what could possibly be the problem. Then a thought came to mind.

  “Cosmo, do you know what lightning is?”

  “No.” Cosmo replied, shaking his head.

  Cosmo had only hatched a few days ago, and there hadn't been any lightning in that time. This was something Will had forgotten, because even though they had only been friends for a short time Will felt they had known each other forever.

  As Will tried to think of a way to explain what lightning was to Cosmo, he remembered something.

  “Do you remember the episode of Intergalactic Hero Cosmo where they had the big sword fight on top of a tower in the floating city?” Will asked.

  “Yes.” Cosmo replied.

  “Okay, and do you remember all the flashing lights that were happening around them during the fight?”

  “Yes.”

  “That's lightning. Those lights that fell from the sky, you should be able to create them.”

  With a sudden understanding, Cosmo leapt to his feet. Now, with a clear image of what he was trying to make, Cosmo was ready to try again. Will followed Cosmo's lead and got ready himself.

  “Alright, let's try again using the last attack name we tried, okay” Will asked.

  “Okay.” Cosmo replied.

  Cosmo took a deep breath as he prepared himself, keeping the image of lightning he'd seen on TV in his mind. Will on the other hand was nervous that he had started holding his breath without noticing. When they were prepared the two shouted louder than they had all day.

  “”Lightning Javelin!””

  After screaming the attack name, Cosmo felt something within him trying to escape. He opened his mouth, and out sputtered a weak and short bit of black lightning. It had only extended out of his mouth a few inches, and certainly wouldn't be able to be used as an attack in this state. That didn't matter to Will and Cosmo though. They were jumping for joy, and screaming their heads off from excitement. Rosalie and Lura lifted their heads to see what the commotion was all about, and when Will saw them he ran up to them.

  “Mom! Lura! You have to come see! Cosmo did it! He made lightning!” Will rattled off.

  Grabbing Rosalie's right hand and Lura's left hand, Will dragged them over to where they had been practicing. Both would have walked over on their own, since both were curious, but Will was so excited he didn't even give them a chance to walk over on their own.

  Will had Lura and Rosalie stand by him looking at Cosmo from a short distance. Again, Cosmo readied himself. Then the two shouted again.

  “”Lightning Javelin!””

  Just like before, Cosmo felt energy welling up inside of him. Now understanding what it was, he reacted to it better. As the energy inside him built up, he opened his mouth to release it. A bolt of black lightning emerged from his mouth, this time lasting about ten seconds and reaching one foot in length.

  “Ooohh.” Lura said, amazed that Cosmo was able to do it. However, her normal voice was drowned out by those around her.

  “Aaahhhhh! That was incredible!” Rosalie shouted, as she ran towards Cosmo.

  “It's really cool, right?” Will shouted.

  Rosalie began looking Cosmo over, interested in how he was able to do such a thing. She had Cosmo open his mouth, and she began shining a light inside to investigate.

  Calmly approaching, Lura could help but be a bit overwhelmed by Rosalie and Will's excitement at times. So she just watched over them until she found a moment to speak up.

  “Good job. I wasn't entirely sure it was possible, but you really did it.” Lura said to Cosmo with a smile.

  Cosmo also began smiling and replied with a simple, excited “yes!”