by Dan Kelly
Casey Cloudburst, a young man a little below average height for his age, but built like a tank, broad and muscular, has light brown hair cut very short and piercing blue eyes. He walks over to the outdoor swimming pool, stares at the water in it and then the water starts to rise up and out of
the pool. The water doesn’t splash down onto the playing field. Unbelievably, it maintains the shape of the pool and just hangs in the air until Casey returns the water to the pool.
Chester Comet is a curly haired, platinum blonde, light blue eyed and slightly pudgy guy with a fertile imagination and the curiosity of ten cats. Chester walks over to Headmaster Herby’s briefcase and, without opening it, tells everyone what the briefcase contains and even reads a memo that is in one of the inside pockets. Everyone is dumbfounded.
Gracie Galaxy is a graceful, stunning looking young lady with wavy golden blonde hair worn down to the middle of her neck, deep blue eyes heavily lashed beneath perfectly arched brows and a beautiful facial structure with a flawless creamy white complexion. Gracie startles everybody by slowly rising into the air and emitting an extremely bright, blinding white light from her body.
Mickey Meteor is a tall, athletically built young fellow with dirty blonde hair worn in a crew cut, alert dark brown eyes, a pug-nose sprinkled with freckles and a crooked smile. Mickey dazzles his audience by saying that he will pick some of the flowers at the far end of the playing field which is over 300 yards away and return to where he is now standing without them seeing him doing it. One instant he’s standing there with nothing in his hands and the next he’s holding a huge bouquet of flowers. His classmates can’t believe their eyes. They’re just standing there gawking. He explains that he is able to move at the speed of light which is 186,000 miles per second.
The next one up is Molly Moonbeam and Mickey has nothing on her. She walks out to the center of the field, turns to face the class and then, in a blink of an eye, she transforms herself into a lawn mower, then a ball, then a small airplane, then a puppy, then a book, then back to herself. This blows everybody away. Molly tells them that she can change herself into any physical object she chooses. Molly is the petite one of the group with light brown hair worn in bangs in front and a ponytail in back, beautiful dark brown eyes, finely sculptured features and a captivating smile.
When Molly returns to her place in line, Norman Nebula steps forward a few paces and turns to face his fellow students. Norman is more than a little overweight, has fine, straight medium brown hair of average length, heavy lidded big grey eyes, a full lipped mouth that’s always slightly puckered, but his heart is the biggest thing about him. He’s always going out of his way to help someone. For about ten seconds nothing happens, then everyone starts walking aimlessly around, babbling nonsensically and they all have this glazed, confused look in their eyes. After about a minute of this, everyone’s behavior returns to normal. All his fellow classmates remember is that they couldn’t think straight and all of their senses seemed to be out of kilter, giving them signals they couldn’t process. Norman explains that he can cause befuddlement in any living creature’s mind.
Now it’s Prince Pulsar’s turn. He’s the tallest of the group and also has the build of an athlete. His handsome features are highlighted by his thick jet black wavy hair and dark sapphire blue eyes that miss nothing. As he stands before the line of students, he extends his hands up towards the sky and then there is a loud crackling sound as powerful lightning bolts shoot from his finger tips, leaving a strong smell of burnt ozone in the air. Needless to say, all of his fellow classmates and even Headmaster Herby are shocked.
As Prince Pulsar returns to his place in line, he passes Shannon Starlight walking out onto the field. Shannon is a very attractive young lady whose dark green eyes with orange flecks can not hide the humor that is always peeking out from them. Her thick auburn hair is a mixture of loose curls and waves that bounces off her shoulders when she walks. When he turns around to face the field, Shannon is nowhere to be seen.
Several minutes go by and everyone is becoming concerned that something has gone wrong. Suddenly, there’s a soft glow emanating above the ground of the playing field and Shannon quickly materializes before their eyes. In her hands she’s holding a newspaper from the city of Zokar on the planet Clexon which is light years away from Proton in a faraway galaxy named Lerdon. It has the equivalent of today’s date on Proton. Everyone is stunned. Shannon explains that she has the capability to transport herself to anywhere she wants to go at a speed many times that of light.
It’s Sally Sunbeam’s turn next. Sally is a real carrot top. Her thick, wavy, flaming red hair, light yellowish brown eyes and heavily freckled face make her a standout in any crowd. She’s also a standout when it comes to intelligence and loves to invent things. Sally quickly gets to the business at hand. She walks out toward the very middle of the field where she’s a good 50 yards away from everyone and then, without warning, she begins to glow and all the grass around her starts to burn. Fortunately, the grass has been cut quite short so the flames are small and quickly burn out, but all of her classmates get the message. This girl is definitely hot stuff.
Finally, it’s Tommy Tornado’s turn to shake up the crowd. Tommy is the strangest looking one of the bunch. He has thick, bushy, dark brown hair that sits on top of an egg shaped head and spills over his slightly pointed ears. His dark brown eyes are heavily browed and slant slightly downward. He has an average size but sharply pointed nose and a wide thin lipped mouth. He’s not handsome, he’s not ugly, he just looks different. Standing in the middle of the playing field, he begins waving his hands in a come hither fashion and in a fairly rapid manner. Up until this moment, the weather outside has been beautiful with barely no breeze at all. Soon, however, the wind begins to blow more strongly until it reaches hurricane velocity and the students are bowled over by its intensity. Then, just as quickly, the wind calms down to where there is nothing but a gentle zephyr whispering through the students’ hair and the blue colored leaves of the surrounding trees. The kids are completely flabbergasted.
After everyone picks themselves up off the ground, Headmaster Herby instructs them to move over to the viewing stand and to have a seat in the first row. After all the students are seated, the
Headmaster begins to summarize what they have all witnessed this, for the most part, balmy afternoon. “Now you all have a much better understanding of the types of powers possessed by your fellow students as well as the impact you can have on the future of the planet Proton. You’ve been put through a lot today, so I’m going to dismiss the class a little early. This will give you some time to relax and really absorb what has taken place today and think about the future role you can play in fighting all who would like to see Proton conquered.
“But before I do, I have one more thing I want to tell you. You are not the only ones who have special powers. There is one more person that you should know about because he is a dangerous enemy, one who will very much want you neutralized if he ever finds out that you exist. I told you about Emperor Eclipse and his aim to defeat Queen Quasar and replace her as sole monarch of Proton. Well, the Emperor was also on planet Rinter when that explosion took place. He had left Erebus a few days before to spy on the research team sent from Proton. He wanted to reap the benefits of their experiments without anyone knowing about it because he knew that no one on Proton would willingly give him the data he was seeking.
“He was hiding in a supply closet which was only a few feet away from the research team when the explosion occurred. He was knocked out, but went undiscovered because of the turmoil created by the blast. When he came to, no one was about, so he snuck off and returned to Erebus with no one the wiser.
“Shortly after returning, he noticed that when he was angry he could by sheer willpower change the frequency of the visible light spectrum and bring about total darkness for miles around him. He has since used this power in attempts to wreak havoc on the planet Proton. So far, we have been able to
recover from the effects of his remarkable gift, but we are very worried that someday we may fail to do so with who knows what consequences. Ok class, you’re dismissed.”
The students gather around in small groups to talk about what has taken place this very eventful afternoon. Everyone’s excited about being a part of this very special program at Stellar and anxious to get started, but there’s also some apprehension over what lies ahead for them. After all, they are only twelve years old and they’re fearful that they might not be able to live up to what’s expected of them. But these kids are also special in other ways. They are a very brave, adventurous and determined bunch that doesn’t give up easily. So, after several more minutes of conversation, they all split up and go their separate ways. These are no longer just kids being kids, even though they do have special abilities. The seeds of greatness have been planted. The roots of aspiration to achieve very challenging goals are already beginning to take hold.
Chapter 5
The next four months are the most fascinating in Prince Pulsar’s young life. Everyday there’s something new to learn and, more importantly, to remember. His daily schedule is crammed with classes focused on subjects such as inter-galactic sciences, analytics, languages, laws, sociology and customs as well as special gymnastic classes that provide the most advanced methods of physical conditioning and self-defense. In addition to all of this, three days a week there are special classes which focus on the strengthening of his power, mastering control of this power and learning how and under what conditions to use this power. All of his classmates are going through the same thing. Pulsar, however, has to take one more class that isn’t offered to his fellow classmates, a weekly class on leadership. Putting all of this together, there is no better or more difficult curriculum anywhere. All of this is a lot of hard work, but Pulsar is having a lot of fun too.
This is especially true when he gets together with some of his fellow classmates after they’re done with their studies. High jinks and practical jokes are definitely this group’s forte and, when the opportunity presents itself, they have a ball, usually at the expense of some unsuspecting student or teacher outside of their elite group.
For example, one day when Belinda Black-Hole and Pulsar were in the cafeteria eating lunch they spotted this guy picking on a student who was a lot younger and quite a bit smaller. This bully was shoving the little guy around, taking some of his food and eating it and throwing the rest in the trash can behind him. At least he wasn’t a slob. He did use the trash can.
The little guy had spunk though. He picked up his glass of croot’s milk and threw the contents in the bully’s face. It wasn’t a smart move though because this creep came at him with his face red with rage and his fists ready to do some serious harm. Pulsar and Belinda quickly intervened with Pulsar yelling, “Hey, leave the little guy alone and take a hike.”
When the bully turned and saw Pulsar who was a little bit smaller than the bully, he began to laugh. “You should mind your own business. Now I’m going to give you the same licking I’m going to give this little twerp.”
He started to move toward Pulsar, but had only taken a couple of steps when his feet flew up in the air and he landed on his butt with a resounding whump. All the kids around them started to laugh, including the little guy. This infuriated the bully even more and he quickly rose to his feet and came at Pulsar with a vengeance. He took a couple of more steps and down he goes again, this time he falls flat on his face and his nose begins to bleed. A huge roar erupts from the growing crowd of kids and the bully is becoming more enraged. He picks himself up again and advances towards Pulsar once more. He stays on his feet this time, but now he begins to yell out as if in pain, holding his stomach, then his ears, then the top of his head, then his shins. He looks likes he’s doing some crazy dance. All the kids are laughing hilariously. By now, the look of anger on his face has been replaced with a confused, petrified look.
Of course, Pulsar knows what’s going on. Unbeknown to anyone else, Belinda has made herself disappear and has been tripping and smacking this joker around every time he makes a move on Pulsar. All of a sudden, the bully turns and runs out of the cafeteria amidst the continuing laughter. As things start to settle down, the little guy comes over, introduces himself as Freddie Foster and thanks Pulsar for helping him out. By this time, Belinda has reappeared and is standing behind and to the side of Pulsar. “You’re very welcome.” says Pulsar, “but I had a lot of help. Let’s face it. The guy wasn’t very coordinated.” Of course, Pulsar couldn’t tell Freddie what really had happened because of the need to keep the group’s special powers a secret.
Situations like this were always cropping up, but they didn’t always have the hoped for endings.
Chapter 6
At the end of every four months, there is a two week break for the students to return home to visit with friends and family. The faculty believes that the students need these breaks from the daily stress and challenges of Stellar’s exhausting curriculum to just relax and be kids. Pulsar invites all the kids in his special group to spend this break with him at Queen Quasar’s castle and all of them accept. None of them have ever been in a castle and, from what Pulsar has been telling them, Castle Capella is the castle of all castles. Queen Quasar, of course, knows nothing of this approaching herd of zealous, curious, energy packed twelve year olds about to assault her towers and parapets.
The three hour trip by sonic monorail goes by uneventfully, but from the moment this bunch walks into the reception hall of the castle, chaos rules! To begin with, they’re all overwhelmed by the awesome size of Castle Capella, but this is soon replaced with an uncontrollable curiosity that drives them to race around all over the place to check things out. Unfortunately, when this crew becomes overly excited they sometimes lose control of their special powers and this was one of those times.
Tommy Tornado is the first to lose it. As he’s waving his arms around, pointing at things and shouting at the others to look at what he’s found, a strong wind comes whistling through the reception hall and the hallways leading into the hall. The ceiling chandeliers start swinging violently and everything that’s not nailed down starts flying all over the place. Tables, chairs, pictures, urns, flower pots, vases, pillows from the couches, even the heavy metal statuary of past rulers of Proton are blown off their pedestals. The cacophony accompanying all of this is deafening. Gracie galaxy starts giggling incessantly and glowing so brightly that everyone around her is temporarily blinded and stumbling and falling over things. Molly Moonbeam starts changing into all sorts of things and Belinda Black-Hole keeps appearing and disappearing.
Needless to say, their arrival has not gone unnoticed. Butlers and servants are pouring into the reception hall to see what is happening. Disarray is everywhere. Amazingly, only one item is broken, a small clear, intricately carved crystal vase that had been given to Queen Quasar by her mother. As the turmoil begins to abate and emotions are under control once more, the Queen appears at the top of a high sweeping staircase that descends into a corner of the main floor of the reception hall. She is aghast! “Pulsar, what is going on down there and why are all these children here?” she exclaims.
“I invited them to spend our school break with us, Aunt Cue, but I don’t have a clue what caused this commotion.”
“Well, young man, you and your friends can help the servants clean up this mess and when you are finished I want you to meet me in my office and no dallying around. Is that clear?”
“Yes, Aunt Cue”. “Oh, oh. I’m in for it now. Aunt Cue never wants to talk with me in her office unless it’s something serious.”
Queen Quasar instructs the servants to assign each of the students to a room in the East Wing and then storms out of the reception hall.
It takes all of them several hours to get things back in order and when they do they all follow the servants to their assigned rooms, all that is but Pulsar who heads reluctantly for Queen Quasar’s office. The office door is closed w
hen he gets there, so he softly knocks, hoping that she won’t hear him or, even better, not be there. No such luck.
“Come in.” says the Queen. Walking into the office, he sees Queen Quasar sitting at her desk holding the broken vase her mother had given her. She no longer appears to be angry, but there’s a look of annoyance and sadness in her eyes. “Pulsar, what possessed you to invite your classmates to the castle without my knowledge and permission? Nothing has been arranged to keep these youngsters busy and out of trouble. Nothing has been done to ensure we have enough of the appropriate foods on hand to feed all of them as some have special diets. Most importantly, nothing has been done to address the security issues their presence creates. It’s going to be very difficult to keep the havoc that occurred this afternoon from public scrutiny. My staff is sworn to secrecy about all that they see and hear in the castle, but slips of the tongue do happen. And look at this vase. It’s ruined!”
