I looked around. The doors in the room all read different things. One read Math and Multi Fighting Avatar Arena. Another read English and How to Fight the Opposers. And yet another read Social Studies and How to Control the Inner Beast. But the one I chose would turn out to be the smart one. I went through the door that read Science and Liftdromending Battles. I guess I really like Science. And I seem to recall Liftdro-whatever being related to Rex. So I just wanted to see what that was all about. I walked down the long hallway. There were doors on either side of the hallway. One read Biology. Another read Human Body. All the doors were Science classes. I could see a couple of people in them. Not too much, though. I guess that there weren’t enough students to fully fill every class. But what caught my attention was a red flash at the end of the hallway. I walked to the two huge glass doors and peered through. What I saw pretty much killed the idea of extinction. In the room, there were about twenty or thirty kids seated colosseum style around a huge bubble. But the bubble was made out of the weirdest material I’d ever seen. It looked like a clear plastic, but every second or so, it would flash a different color, like red, yellow, and blue. But what was inside the dome was what caught my eye. A Tyrannosaurus Rex and a Spinosaurus were locked in battle. They were trying to bite each other, kick each other, and stuff like that. I almost believed that they were real until the T.Rex threw his head up, his mouth on fire like it was a comet. Then he launched a huge ball of fire at the Spinosaurus. The Spinosaurus in turn launched a stream of water from his mouth the width of a billboard. The two elements collided, throwing up a cloud of steam so thick you could cut it. I couldn’t see anything for a minute, then the Spinosaurus’s head landed not two feet from my face, the T.Rex’s jaws clamped around its neck. A buzzer sounded. The steam was cleared so fast it seemed like a hurricane had swept it away. A teacher I’m guessing walked toward the door of the dome and opened it. The T.Rex released its hold on the Spinosaurus and walked toward the door. I had no idea how it was going to fit, but it blew some smoke from its mouth, blocking it from view. Then, a kid walked out of the smoke, right out the door into a section with a whole bunch of other kids. They were all dressed in different colors. I spotted Rex way in the back, dressed in a purple skin-tight uniform. He didn’t look too happy about it, either. Then a girl dressed in a blue leotard stepped out of the dome, rubbing her neck. I guessed that these two kids were actually the two dinosaurs I had seen fighting two minutes earlier. Then I heard a tap on the door. I looked to see a teacher waving me in. I stepped in. He addressed me very warmly,

“Hey there, kid. I’m so glad you could arrive in time to see this battle. We’ve all been anticipating it for weeks.”

“Oooooookay. Where do I-”

“Oh, just take a seat right in the stands. Now, don’t put your face too close to the dome, don’t distract the Dinos while they’re fighting, and most important, don’t step in the dome unless you wanna get killed.”
I went up to a deserted aisle and took a seat. I watched as the teacher walked toward a microphone and started talking into it.

“And now, the battle you’ve all been waiting for. Rex, the school champion, versus the runner-up, Thomas!”
The T.Rex kid, Thomas walked back into the dome. Rex walked in the opposite side. Thomas looked a little nervous. But then again, who wouldn’t? It was just your average dinosaur fight with a 100 million year old dead beast. Rex looked down at his uniform very sourly and said to Thomas,

“Look, can we just get this over with?”

“All right. But prepare to lose!”
Rex replied very coolly, like he’d heard it before.

“Uh huh. Sure. Let’s do this!”
Rex’s tail sprouted at the same time Thomas’s legs began to thicken. Rex fell on to all fours, his back swelling up and hardening like the world’s biggest egg. The Saichania that stood in his place moments ago looked at the rapidly changing Thomas. His legs kept thickening until I thought they were going to burst. Then they started to grow upward, like a huge elevator. His skin turned a scarlet red. Everything stated to grow to monstrous proportions, including his teeth. And boy, did those teeth grow. By the time they stopped, they were about the length of steak knives. Each one. The only thing that didn’t grow were his arms. They stayed short and tiny. But I knew T. Rex didn’t have big arms. I figured that Rex could just knock him over and instantly win, because I didn’t think those arms were going to help him to get up. Apparently Rex thought so too, because he swung his tail in a wide arc right at Terry’s feet. But Terry was ready. He jumped up, landing on Rex’s tail. Rex yelped in pain as Terry jumped toward his unprotected neck. But Rex turned just in time for Terry to land on all of his spikes. Terry roared out in pain. Most of the kids covered their ears. But strangely enough, I didn’t need to. The roar just seemed like a low rumble to me. Terry jumped off of Rex, gingerly taking every step. Then his mouth lit up on fire, and he shot a column of fire right at Rex’s vulnerable stomach. But then Rex glowed bright purple and rocks shot up out of the ground, extinguishing the flame. Before Terry could recover, he was slammed by a rock about the size of his head. Rex had rocks of many sizes hovering above him and was flinging them at Terry in quick succession. Just as it seemed Terry was about to collapse, he quickly fired a huge ball of white-hot flame at Rex. Rex just barely sidestepped it. The flame hit the dome, melting into it. The dome flashed a bright blue, then returned to its clear state. Rex regained his balance just in time to see Terry charging at him at over twenty miles per hour. There was no time to dodge him, so Rex swung his tail at Terry again. But Terry was well prepared and easily jumped it. But Rex had a surprise of his own. A solid mountain of rock blasted Rex into the air. Terry had time to utter a surprised “squeak!” before Rex’s tail collided into his skull with a sickening thud! Terry landed on the ground unconscious, while Rex landed and blasted out a victory cry. Mostly everyone cheered, including me. Just then, a huge Pteranodon swooped over my head and landed on a platform. It picked up a mallet in its claw and banged a gong, signaling the end of the match. It then swooped down onto the ground, and shifted into the most gorgeous girl I’d ever seen. She was wearing a weird looking outfit with weird looking wings, but she was cute nonetheless. If there was such a thing as “love at first sight,” this was it. She walked out a doorway, saluting to a teacher before leaving. Rex, now human, walked out of the dome as some other teachers carried Thomas out on a stretcher. He had a nasty looking lump on his head, courtesy of Rex’s tail. I was still thinking about that girl when the teachers dismissed us for the next class. I got up with everyone else and walked out the doors to find another class. I wondered which one I should choose. I was just deciding when a familiar voice behind me said

“Hey, squirt. I see that you’re here too. Wonder why. You’re too weak to be here.”
I groaned and looked behind me to see David, his face distorted into a scowl. I replied back to him

“Yeah well, too bad about your jerko father.”
David’s face went from red to purple.

“You did that to him. And when he knows you’re here, he’s gonna kill you.”

“Wait a sec. You’re dad’s alive?”

“That’s it! First you mock him, and then you choose to play dumb. I’m gonna flatten you!”
Somehow, I found myself in the Multi Fighting Avatar Arena. Somehow, I found myself agreeing to David’s challenge. And somehow, I found myself in some serious trouble. Stupid, right? Absolutely. So there I was, all alone fighting David. David popped his knuckles quite loudly.

“You know that causes your joints to wear down, right?”
David snickered. Not a good sign.

“Nerdiness isn’t gonna save you this time, jerk. I’m gonna pound you into a pancake!”
And with that said, David taught me how to fight. And it wasn’t a friendly lesson. Again I thought that his muscles were swelling up. If I weren’t used to transformation, I would have thought I was losing my mind. But it turns out that David and Rod both have the same avatar. Yeah, yeah, I know, Spoiler Alert! But it ties in later in the book. Trust me. Turns out David’s muscles really were swelling up. His shirt tore at the seams, and he grew to probably seven feet high. He grew curly horns from his head, and his feet grew all shaggy. No, not Scooby-Doo. Like, furry shaggy. His shoes exploded, revealing goat hooves. If his upper body wasn’t so heavily muscled, I would have had a giggle at his cruel expense. But as it was, he had muscles the size of watermelons. The Minotaur a.k.a. David lowered his horns at me and snorted. I realized he was getting ready to charge, and I was on the receiving end. But then, something inside me snapped. Why was it he was always so scary? He’s just a big, fat bully. He’s always picking on the poor souls that get in his way. I’m going to put an end to it. My vision went all red again, and I saw the shape that was David shrink. No wait, I was growing. I realized I was becoming the Monocyclone or whatever. David seemed surprised too, because he stopped mid-charge and started to run away. But I wasn’t going to let him. Time for payback for everything he’s done to me. I focused on tripping David. Without me even controlling it, a tail about ten feet long and covered in barbs lashed out and wrapped around David’s legs. He bellowed in pain and fell. When I uncoiled my tail, I saw his legs were green turning purple. I guess the barbs were poisonous. I heard a faint whoosh and turned to see a teacher shaped blob come rushing toward us. I focused on me. Slowly, very slowly, I shrunk back to me size, and my vision returned to normal. The teacher rushed toward David, pick him up as if he were a log, and carried him off. The woman I’d seen when I entered, Kurenai, entered the room and turned to me. I thought of the smartest, wittiest, most mature thing I could say.

“He started it.”
Kurenai looked fairly mad, but she mostly looked surprised.

“Yeah. I know that. He picks a fight with every new kid. Sends every one to the Infirmary. Except you. You taught the jerk a lesson.”
She gave a grin that greatly reminded me of a twelve year old who’s just passed a math test.

“I’m quite glad, actually. With the potency of your venom, he’s probably gonna be in there for a week, minimum.”

“A week! Is it really that powerful?”

“No. The full poison on just your tail alone is enough to kill over two hundred people. You probably gave him a dry dose.”
I’d heard of that. When a snake feels threatened, but is either out of venom (yes, snakes run out of venom) or doesn’t feel like killing, it gives a dry bite. It bites, but doesn’t inject any venom.

“So my poison’s so powerful, it-”

“Even a dry bite can poison an opponent, yep.”
I was a bit awestruck, a bit weirded out, and a bit curious.

“How potent is my other venom?”
Kurenai looked like I was nuts.

“Don’t ask. Anyway, you’d better get some sleep. It’s quite late.”
Now it was my turn to look at her weirdly.

“Late? It’s only like three o’ clock.”
I looked at my watch. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was nine o’ clock at night! Kurenai noticed the look on my face.

“Yeah, time isn’t the same here. Some kind of hex from a dumb magician. Sometimes an hour will pass by in a minute. Sometimes a day will take two hours. Heck, sometimes an hour will pass by in a day’s time. Oh, and if you wake up different, it’s just the hex. It will wear off after breakfast.”
Before I could ask what she meant, she walked out the door and trotted down the hall. I decided to turn in. I walked out into the main room. I walked up the stairway to the rooms upstairs. Most were marked based on creature. One read Dinos. One read cat-based. One read over six foot. But I decided to enter the one that read poisonous dragons. I went in to a room of my dreams. It had a bed that was huge, comfy looking, and soft. All around it were my belongings, and a snake?! I didn’t own a snake! It was asleep, so I didn’t need to worry about it biting. There was a sign on the door. I picked it up and looked at it. It read:

Dear Matt,
Welcome to MCAA. I hope you’re having a lovely first day. Nice job with David. I look forward to seeing what else you can do. Anyway, do whatever you want in your room. There are other boys in the room, but they can’t see you. Every one of their rooms is the same as yours. Cool, huh? The King Cobra in your cage is your pet. Every student has one. They are enchanted, so be nice to it. Since you can speak to them, it will not hurt you, even though you’re immune to every venom in the world. You will need it in order for the Pet Contest. I’m sure Kurenai already mentioned it, but you might wake up feeling strange. Don’t worry, and don’t panic. It will wear off after breakfast. Sleep in, as there is no curfew. From now on, your school day is your own day. Everything will be by yourself, unless someone you like is sharing the same time frame. Classes will go from twelve to midnight. Enjoy all the classes, as they change every day. Have a nice school year, and have fun!

Yours truly,
Professor Karma
P.S. Try not to kill anyone, and your snake needs one serving of food every month. He likes pizza, and feeding him a whole pie will make sure he doesn’t eat again for the whole time you’re here.

I was enthralled. Every thing I did would be whatever I liked. I had my favorite animal in the world as a pet, and I was apparently a big, poisonous dragon. But I still couldn’t shake the “waking up weird” part. I decided to face it in the morning. I went into my bed, which was beyond soft. I was asleep in seconds.

I woke up to a strange feeling in my head. I thought about the letter Professor Karma had written. I wondered why he said I’d feel strange. The feeling in my head was gone. I looked at my clock. It was nine o’ clock. Well, at least I’d managed to sleep in. Well, then again, it could actually be six.

“Well, Sleeping Beauty awakens.”
I whirled around, looking for the voice.

“Over here, buddy.”
I looked at my new king cobra. He was looking at me. But, no way…

“No way…”
Then, it opened its mouth, and talked.

“Yes way. Hey there, I’m Icarus. You must be my new master. Good to see you.”
Then, he looked at me a little strangely. Well, as strangely as he could without eyebrows.

“Say, you look nothing like Matt. Karma described you differently. Are you sure you’re him?”

“Of course I’m Matt. Why wouldn’t I be?”
The snake looked a little offended.

“Okay, okay, no need to be offensive. Well, you just look a little different.”
I wondered what he meant. I went into my personal bathroom. It was a very big bathroom, with a shower, a sink, and a separate bathtub. I looked in the huge mirror. What I saw almost made me scream. My whole body was different. It was way tanner, and my body looked way more athletic, with muscles the size of baseballs. My face was really brown, and my hair was slicked up in the style that’s “all the rage.” I personally thought it was stupid. My hair was a black color instead of brown, and my face looked perfect. I was so shocked, all I could do was stare. Later I would have hoped for that body to impress the girl I liked. As of now, though, I wanted out! Right as I was about to scream and run around in circles, I noticed a note on the mirror. I looked at it. It read:

Dear Matt,
I said don’t panic! It’s just temporary. Like we’ve said, it will wear off after breakfast. Just stay calm, and inform your snake. Have a good day.

Yours truly,
Professor Karma
I almost fainted right there and then. But I managed to pull myself into control. I walked out and told Icarus about the hex. He looked a little huffy.

“Humph. No wonder I felt really refreshed at five. Ok, but I hope to see that you’re different coming back from breakfast, or I’m outta here.”
I nodded to him as I dressed.

“Yeah. Me too.”
I walked down the hall. I encountered a kid walking down the hallway in the same direction as me. He had blonde curly hair down to his shoulders, and he looked really smart. He was dressed very plainly, and he wasn’t very tall. I wondered why I could see him if I didn’t know him at all. I walked up to him.

“Hey there. You look new. Have you ever been here?”
The boy looked me over. I was about a foot taller than him.

“Yeah, I’ve been here for years. You look new. What’s your name?”

“I’m Matt, who are you?”
The boy started to snigger.

“Hey, what’s so funny,” I demanded.

“Holy crabapples Matt, you look different. You look like an athlete.”
He eyed me a little jealously

“Nice muscles. Wish I had some like that. Nice form for a first morph, though.”
The voice sounded familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Oh yeah. And who are you to be telling me that?”

“Dude, it’s me, Rex.”
I gave a start.

“Rex?! But you look-”

“Weird? Yeah, I know. I’ve had weirder. You look totally weird yourself. Relax, you’ll return to normal after you get some food. It reverses the process. Don’t ask me how, it just does.”
We walked to the dining hall together. I felt weird, because Rex is about an inch taller than me, and yet here I was, with him coming up to my shoulder. The Dining Hall was most arguably the greatest place in the whole school. It was kinda like the Great Hall in Harry Potter, except without the candles and the four tables. It was just one big table heaped with food. No one else was there except for us. Rex and I sat in one of the seats.

“So, why isn’t anyone here?”

“Oh, there are people here. There’s probably someone sitting on you. There’s just a spell on the school that we can only see who we want to. Like now, I can see kids I know, or at least I think I know, that you can’t, cause’ I’ve been here longer.”
I heaped my plate with food that only I liked, such as scrambled eggs, cinnamon buns, and pancakes and started chowing down. I turned to Rex, who was back to normal. I realized I was too.

“So do we only find food we like, too?”
Rex swallowed and nodded.

“Hey, you’re back to normal. Yeah, we only have food we enjoy. Gets a little tiring, seeing no one but your friends the whole year, but you’ll survive. Oh, and you’ll be able to see everyone in your classes.”
I finished my huge breakfast and walked with Rex to the main room. Rex headed toward the Math room, which was now the Dino fighting room.

“Feel free to join me. But after what I heard about David, you’d be in better shape in the Avatar Training Room.”
I looked to where he was referring. The English room had disappeared to be replaced with Foreign Languages and Avatar Training Center. I turned back, but Rex had already walked down the hallway. I turned back to the door and walked through into the hallways. I walked down the hall until I found the door I was looking for, even though I had no idea what I was looking for. The door I found read: Avatar Training for Amateurs. Well, I certainly fell into that category. I entered the room. The room was a football player’s worst nightmare. The place was a ballerina room, with pink stripes all around the walls. I looked back into the hallway, but there was no other door that fell into the category of Amateur. I groaned and walked into the room. I was either gonna get nightmares about doing this, or someone else was gonna make me.

In the room were a bunch of kids and a teacher. But the weird thing was, the teacher was in a wheelchair. Don’t get me wrong, wheelchairs are awesome. My fourth-grade teacher was in a wheelchair, and she could cream everyone in the class in arm wrestling. But if the class was set up as a ballet studio, why was the guy in a wheelchair? Anyway, the guy looked up at me as I entered. He smiled at me and nodded toward the kids.

“Welcome. Please, take a seat and join us.”
I sat down amidst a bunch of other kids, not much older than me. They were all different ages, from about seven to fourteen. No one was weird looking, apart from a kid who was over six foot, and a kid who was, like, three hundred pounds. I’m guessing his avatar was either a flab related creature, or he really needed to cut down on the cupcakes. As I sat down he whispered to me

“Hey creep. Nice eyes, did your mom marry a lizard?”
I was kinda used to this kind of foul talk from David, but coming from a three hundred pound ten year old I’d never met, now that I didn’t expect. I was about to give him a good load of his own medicine, when the teacher spoke up.

“Jason, no lip to the other kids, or I will have Karma weave a curse on you that makes you believe that you’re a five year old girl.”
The fat kid, Jason, looked at him doubtfully.

“You would? He can?”
The teacher gave him a grin I didn’t suspect was playful or friendly.

“I’d have Kurenai play dress up with you.”
All of the other kids snickered. Jason looked embarrassed. I liked this guy, even if he had a terrible sense in classroom design. The teacher turned toward us.

“Hello class. For all of you first timers here, I’m Mr. Siphon. And the class you’re in trains you to use your avatar correctly. Some of you have already learned how to use your avatar’s power and control. But some of you need some help. That’s why I’m here.”
He looked right at me and I felt like his stare went right through me. I couldn’t decide if this dude was cool, scary, or dangerous. I didn’t really want to find out, either.

“I will teach you to use your avatar correctly and safely. First, we shall learn to channel our energy.”
One of the kids spoke up.

“What?! But why can’t we just use them first?”

“Because you might end up wrecking the school and hurting your fellow students. Now let’s all go to the energy field.”
He rolled himself over to a blue mat not so different from the snack time rug at my kindergarten class. I was about to say something when I heard someone. Except it wasn’t coming from anyone’s mouth. I kinda heard it from inside my head.

{Yes, it’s just a regular mat. But don’t speak out. You might send them into a riot.}
I looked at the teacher. He was looking at me. He nodded and gestured toward the mat.
{Now, care to join us?}
Either I was going nuts, or this guy was a psycho.
{I’m a psychic, not a psycho. Now, come sit.}
I didn’t want to disobey the guy in fear of him rummaging around in my brain and driving me insane, so I walked over to the “energy field of doom” or whatever and sat down. We were all seated in a circle. Mr. Siphon looked around and started to say something when the door burst open. A teacher rushed in and ran over to Mr. Siphon. He whispered something to him I couldn’t hear. Mr. Siphon looked at him like he had five heads then turned back to us.

“All right. Class is dismissed. Come back tomorrow at this same time. Well, relatively speaking. Try to aim for ten o’ clock. Go have dinner and then go straight to bed.”
Pretty all of the kids looked down at their watches in surprise. Jason started to say something, no doubt a complaint, but Mr. Siphon cut him off.

“No Jason. Straight to bed. No after dinner activities, no talking in the halls, just go to bed. All of you.”
We all got up as Mr. Siphon rolled off with the teacher. We didn’t really know each other all that well, so we all just left without talking. I walked down the hallway and into the main room. As soon as I entered it, everyone in the class disappeared. They simply just dissolved into the wind. Rex appeared in the room exiting the room labeled Dino Room and walked toward me. He looked just as confused as I felt.

“Do you know what’s going on here?”
Rex shook his head.

“I have no idea. Nothing like this has happened before.”

“Maybe there’s a gas leak or something.”

“No, nothing like that ever happens here. There must be an emergency or something like that.”
We both walked down to the main hall. We sat down and began to fill our plates a little uneasily. I tried not to think about how there was an emergency the very first day I showed up here. But as I ate my pizza, I kept noticing something out of the corner of my eye. Something like a little tiny ball of flame hovering outside the window. But whenever I turned to look at it straight on, it disappeared. I assumed it was just part of the school, but even so, I had a bad feeling about it. I turned to Rex and said to him

“Hey Rex, do you see those fire balls?”
Rex turned to look where I was pointing. He turned back to me and jumped.

“What?”

“Um, Matt, your eyes are, um…”
He waved his hand up and a big slab of earth came up out of the ground. It began to wear itself down until all that was left was the crystals. Then the crystals all smoothed out into the nicest mirror I’d ever seen in my life. I peeked around it to look at Rex.

“Nice trick.”
He gestured toward the mirror. I rolled my eyes and looked into it. My eyes were a nasty acidic yellow instead of my usual hazel. But as I looked, my eyes returned to its usual color. Rex waved his hand and the mirror floated off down the hall. I watched it go.

“Where’s it going?”

“To the school bank where it’ll get grounded down for money.”
I nodded.

“Cool.”

“Not really. We can only do it about once a month. Otherwise someone might fall through the floor. It’s happened before.”

“So, what was up with my eyes?”

“Well, sometimes when our avatars come into our lives to do something, the body part they’re influencing takes on a characteristic of their form.”

“So what does that have to do with me seeing little balls of fire?”
Rex whirled around to look at me. He had a purple fire all around him and he looked like he wanted to kill me and eat my corpse.

“Um, Rex? You okay?”
He clenched his fist. Rocks all clenched up at me at my feet like a steel trap. But the weird thing was, I saw it coming. Kinda like I saw it closing on me three seconds before it actually closed. I jumped to one side right before it took off my legs. Rex waved his hand at me and I ducked just in time before a huge chunk of rock took off my head. I leapt up and screamed at Rex

“Have you totally gone loco?!”
He didn’t answer, but instead swung a fist at me. A chunk of rock as big as a basketball was sent flying at my legs. Again, I saw the attack coming in slow motion. I leaped up as the rock flew under my feet. In my mind, I saw myself landing on my feet, sweeping my legs and kicking Rex off balance. In reality, I landed hard on my tailbone. But, I did focus on knocking Rex off his feet. A spiked, scaly tail whipped out and sent him flying almost all the way across the hall. He got up bleeding from a cut on his face, and cracked his neck, like people do before they’re about to unleash some awesome move. I decided talking was out of the question, so I focused on maybe knocking him out for a bit. My tail grew out and whipped toward his head. I thought it was going to take off his skull, but Rex’s tail whipped around and wrapped around mine. The only thought I had was: Uh oh. He yanked me right toward him and punched me with a fist hardened by stone. Now it was my turn to fly across the hall. I landed on a platter full of ripe tomatoes with a nice, gooey splat! I got up sure that one of my ribs was broken, but I looked down to see that while my shirt had been totally shredded, my chest was covered in acidic green scales. And I didn’t feel any pain at all. Rex seemed to notice it too, and his face started to cover themselves in purple scales and I realized that this battle was going to get a whole lot more difficult. My fears were confirmed when a Saichania landed on the table in front of me. He whirled his tail at my face and my tail only just had time to block the blow. I was sure the force would’ve cracked my bone in half, but Rex just roared like he was the one who had been hurt. Rex whirled his tail and about a dozen football sized rocks flew at me. I knew my tail couldn’t block all of them, so I thought about blocking all of them. I don’t know how I did it, but two huge leathery wings grew out of my back and the rocks just bounced harmlessly off them. Rex growled at me and swung his tail at the ground. I saw a rock about as sharp as a needle and as thick as a table come up out of the ground. In slow motion, of course. I flapped my wings and shot up as the rock pierced the air where I’d been standing a moment ago. Unfortunately, I’d underestimated my strength. My head hit the ceiling with a dull thump. I rubbed my head and looked down at Rex. He was looking around to see where I’d gone. He was foaming at the mouth, and his eyes were blood red. I definitely figured rabies, but dinosaurs can’t catch rabies, could they? I wondered how I could stop Rex from killing me without killing him. I tested my wings, which had been keeping me in the air. I just stopped myself from slamming into the ceiling again. I glided down toward Rex, expecting him to try and kill me again. But to my surprise, my wings were silent. They made no noise as I swooped toward Rex. But as I got lower, he suddenly perked up, and I knew he smelled me. When I was almost on top of him, I spread my wings wide to swoop over him. He looked up at me far too late. My tail looped under him, flipping him onto his back. I tried to land in a cool manner, but I wasn’t quite used to having dragon wings. I flipped head over heels into a giant cake. I got up dripping icing and I looked at Rex. He was on his back, flailing his tiny legs and roaring something I suspected wasn’t nice. I was wondering what to do with him when the door slammed open and three more super crazy dinosaurs ran in. They were all foaming at the mouth like Rex, except they were all a little more dangerous. I was wondering how I could survive a T-Rex, Velociraptor, and a Spinosaurus attack, when the Tyrannosaurus shot a fireball right at my face. I didn’t know if my wings could block the fireball, so I tried something I knew was a bad idea. I flapped my wings and shot right over it. Unfortunately, I still couldn’t control my landing. I plowed into the Velociraptor and we both went down together. Suddenly, I had an idea. My tail wrapped around the Velociraptor’s neck. I got up off the ground with the struggling raptor in front of me like the world’s meanest shield. I hoped the other dinosaurs/humans would give up with their comrade hostage. But, no such luck. The Spinosaurus flipped Rex right side up as Terry shot a column of flame right at the both of us. But apparently, the Velociraptor was ready. He whipped his hands backward into my wing, flipped behind me, and kicked me right into the flame’s path. I thought I was roasted for sure until a shield very much like the one in the Fighting Arena surrounded me. The flame melted into the dome and all the dinosaurs turned to look at the source. Professor Karma and Kurenai came running through the door with my snake, Icarus, leading them. Kurenai shouted something I really couldn’t understand that sounded like what Rex had said to get into the school. A huge dome encased the four dinosaurs. It slowly began to shrink in on them, forcing them to crouch down. They were all on their knees now, except for the Velociraptor, who was still standing. But before long, they were all scrunched together in a tight bunch. Right as I thought she was going to kill them all by squishing them into dino pancakes, the dome exploded in a burst of blinding white light. My wing automatically flew up to protect my eyes, and the two teachers closed their eyes. My poor snake, however, with no eyelids, was left slithering around in circles, waving his head in an attempt to clear those annoying white dots. Where the dome once was lay four kids, slumped on the floor, out cold. Kurenai dropped to her knees, looking completely wiped. Karma helped her to her feet and muttered something at Icarus. He shook his head and slithered up to me, looking at my tail and wings.

“Hmmmmmmmm, I like the new look. You must tell me what you’ve done to your eyes.”
Karma looked at Icarus, then at me.

“ He could feel your distress, a trait no pet has had since…”
His voice trailed off, and he suddenly looked sad. Kurenai put her hand around him in an attempt to comfort him. I looked at Icarus. Without him, I probably would have been dinosaur dinner. I patted his head fondly.

“Thanks, buddy.”
He looked up at me with unblinking eyes, his pupils just thin slits.

“No problem. Without you, who else would I have?”
I turned to Karma and Kurenai. They were muttering to each other under their breath and they both had deadly serious expressions on their faces. My wings folded up and my tail disappeared, so I looked like the world’s scaliest angel. I went up to the two of them.

“What just happened?”
Kurenai looked at me and Karma nodded in defeat.

“Well, it’s only fair we should tell you. You’re in grave danger, and chances are, you’re not going to leave this school alive.”

All right, so long story short, without Professor Karma’s long tedious physics lecture about how I couldn’t control my flight pattern, the balls of fire were actually mind control devices hidden with a ball of invisible fire. Only I could see it because of my heat sensor “Reptile Trait”. They originated from that nasty rebel group Rex told me about in the taxi. It took over all the Dinos in the school and pretty much sent them to kill me. Thankfully, Professors Karma and Kurenai saved my butt with their amazing hoodoo voodoo brouhaha. That’s why all the teachers dismissed their classes. They didn’t want anyone to be eaten. Anyway, back to the story.

After my fun visit from the deranged Dinos, I went up to my dorm, room, whatever they called it here. I was climbing the stairs when I saw a kid leaning against my door. As soon as I saw him, all the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Icarus let out a frightened hiss and slithered right up my leg onto my shoulder. Right away I could tell that kid was dangerous. Icarus whispered in my ear,

“I reeeeeeeally don’t like the smell of this kid. He smells like…”
He stopped to take a little whiff through his tongue.

“Ozone and really old things. I’d prefer to stay away from him.”

“From who?”
The voice from right next to me made me jump about a foot in the air. The kid had appeared right next to me. I hadn’t taken my eyes off him, and yet he had moved without me seeing. Icarus pupils dilated and he reared on my shoulder and before I could stop him, he struck at the kid. But he clamped down on nothing. The kid was right on my other side now. Icarus gave up attacking and simply perched on my head, glaring at the kid. I was a little scared of him. I had no idea what kind of avatar he had to instantly teleport. The kid was older than me, about sixteenish, dressed all in black. He had one of those faces that instantly struck you as mischievous, but his eyes… His eyes were insane. One was sapphire blue, but the iris looked like it was on fire. It was constantly flickering and shimmering, much like a mirage. His other eye was a ruby red, but the color kept shifting. It would form a ring or two, and circle the pupil like an atom. Just looking at them made me dizzy. He took a step back and looked me over.

“Hmmmm, it’s a relief to have another kid with cool eyes here. It gets a little tiring being a misfit.”
I remembered something Rex had told me.

“How come I can see you? I don’t know you at all.”
He snapped his fingers and I saw a little image. Sort of like another galaxy made of gems. Orbit rings were emeralds, planets were diamonds, and meteoroids were all sorts of pretty jewels. Then I saw an age ruled by dinosaurs. Pterosaurs soared in the sky and dinosaurs roamed the land. I even saw the head of a Plesiosaur break the waves. Then I was back in my school, with the kid still looking at me. I had no idea what had just happened, but he still had a calm look on his face, and I suspected that he did. He looked at me and gave a little smirk.

“Anyone can see me if I want. I am one of, possibly the most powerful avatarian in the world.”

“An avatarian?”

“Yeah. If you have the power of your avatar but can’t turn into one, you’re considered an avatarian. In my case, I can summon my avatar. Well, avatars, plural. I have two.”

“And what are they?”

“Well, I can’t tell you. That’s cheating. Anyway, I am quite impressed with your performance tonight. Never seen a first year student fight off a Dino.”
I had no idea how he knew that. He hadn’t been in the dining hall, unless I just didn’t see him. This school was confusing.

“How do I know? I know everything. I know what will happen, what has happened, and when it will happen.”
I put two and two together.

“So you can control time?”

“Yes and no. I can control time and space. My avatars, are well, unique.”
His eyes flashed. Out of the kid’s sides, two wings emerged. But they were like no wings I’d ever seen. The one that came out of his right was like a monster bat wing, but it was all metallic, like a wing made out of every metal imaginable. Inside the wing, images shifted through. Images like the election of George Washington, the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, the attack on Pearl Harbor, the war in Iraq, and other really famous events. The wing on his right was like an angels wing, but it was made of what looked like all the jewels in the world, like rubies, sapphires, amethyst, and everything else. But each individual jewel had what looked like a galaxy inside, exactly the opposite of the image I’d seen seconds before of the galaxy made of jewels. Both started to glow, and the light transferred into two shapes on either side of the kid. The metal wing turned into a dragon. It was about the height of a man, six feet or so, but the thing was about the length of a school bus, stretching down the hall as far as I could see. Out of its sides, two of those metal wings emerged. They were about the size of a fruit bat’s wing. Well, compared to body size, obviously. Those wings were huge. They couldn’t even fit in the hall, so it had to curl them up at its sides. But the head was the weird thing. The head split into, let’s see, one, two, three… twenty heads. Each of those twenty heads had eyes so powerful that even just by looking into them, you felt like you were just a tiny speck in the universe, like so much had happened in the history of the world that you didn’t matter in the slightest. It was quite depressing, actually. The other side formed into a spirit creature. It was completely see-through, and it looked like a gigantic firefly, if fireflies had four gem/galaxy wings that simply shined with brilliance. The bug was big enough, but its tails dwarfed even its dragon partner. The butt of this giant firefly ended in eight tails that looked like they were made of fire. The tails were the only things that you could actually see, because each tail was a different colored fire. The eyes were equally powerful, seeming to go on forever.

“Like them?”
I broke out of my stupor, thank God, because I felt like I was falling into those eyes. I looked at the kid, who seemed perfectly smug in all of his glory. Each of the dragon’s heads looked at me with such force that I couldn’t say no.

“Yeah, they’re cool.”
The firefly, meanwhile, was just hovering there, doing really nothing. It wasn’t looking at anything, just staring off into the distance. The kid noticed it too.

“Hmmmm, you okay, Flash?”
The bug snapped back to reality, and looked at the dragon, then at me, as if seeing me for the first time. His wings flickered, then blazed with an aura so powerful it made the room spin. Both the dragon and the kid looked at the bug, then the dragon shot beams out of all twenty heads. A giant wormhole opened right where the beams would hit the bug, sucked in the beams, along with both the dragon and the kid. It then closed, leaving me alone with my terrified snake and the firefly from Dimension Z. Let’s just say, it didn’t waste any time. Before I could even recover from what I had seen, the thing shot one of its fire tails at me at a pace that even Sonic The Hedgehog would find fast. The only thing that saved me was Icarus. He bit my leg even faster than the blast, making me double over. The tail soared right over my head. That gave me enough time to roll out of the way as it curved around and just missed me again. As I straightened up, I wondered how I was going to survive two tails, forget all eight. I tried to summon up my avatar, but I couldn’t think, I was so terrified. I decided to negotiate with the big bug, hoping it would understand reason. But before I could even open my mouth, the thing was gone. Just poof! Vanished into thin air. All that was left was a tiny ripple in the air. Then it hit me. Space. It had sucked the dragon and the kid into space, and it had probably warped itself some place where it could ambush me. I took a couple deep breaths, and pulled myself together. I had no idea where the thing would hit me from, but I had a suspicion that it would be from behind, below, or above. Well, obviously. The thing wouldn’t strike right in front of my face. Then, the thing materialized right in front of my face and whipped out with all eight tails. Two massive wings whipped around me and blocked the blows. I thought I had been saved, but to my horror, I saw that where the tails had hit, my wings had disappeared. Space. This thing had warped my wings into space. That wasn’t good. I figured I’d need to try to call on my avatar to even get a shot in at this thing. So I tried to use my “inner chi” or whatever. But, I realized even that would be a problem. The bug wasted zero time in trying to kill me. Its tails all curled towards its mouth. Where they joined, a sphere of energy began to form. I could feel the massive pulses emanating from that sphere. Contact with that blast would incinerate me. The thing let loose. A huge blast of concentrated space shot at me. Then, it stopped. The bug was frozen mid blast. As I drew my wing from my face, I saw that the dragon had reappeared and one head was looking right into the bug’s eyes. The kid was back, too. He went right up to the bug and touched its forehead. The thing instantly vanished, along with the blast (Thank Heavens). The dragon disappeared too, and the kid turned toward me. He looked exhausted and slightly ticked. He brushed himself off, and to tell you the truth, I got ticked too. His avatar had just tried to kill me, and he was acting like it was a puppy that had just misbehaved. I folded my wings behind me, and they pretty much dissolved. I guess that the damage to my wings was still taking effect. I didn’t know if the space would spread to my body, but to be safe, I retracted my wings. I walked up to him and asked him

“What was that all about?”
He looked up and shrugged

“I have no clue. My avatar has never wigged out like that before.”
His expression darkened and I couldn’t help but look into his eyes. They were so deep, like dark pools of death. He snapped his fingers, and I came out of it.

“Geez, you too. Do I have to wear sunglasses or something? Anyway, you have a certain kind of avatar that mine doesn’t like. I have an…”
He hesitated. It looked like he was struggling for words.

“Acquaintance. He…It’ll help you with your avatar.”
I was confused. Was this not a school for avatar training? As if he had read my mind, the kid answered

“The teachers don’t know what they’re dealing with. I saw the battle while I was trying to get out. All of my opponents die in the first five seconds. I’ve counted. The fact you survived, and the fact that it fought you means something. The battle was short, and it hadn’t even really begun, but you’re lucky. Even Karma can’t face off against Flash.”

I didn’t know how powerful the old man was, but I’m guessing that it wasn’t good that he was comparing the bug’s power to him.

“Where will I find this…acquaintance?”
The kid shrugged.

“He’ll find you. Make sure you stay up until midnight some time this week. He’ll be there. And I mean RIGHT THERE. So don’t panic. He’ll help. Mention my name, and he’ll do everything in his power. He owes a blood debt.”

“But you haven’t even told me your name!”
As a massive portal opened in front of him, he turned.

“Oh yeah. It’s Malum. Have a nice time.”
And with that, he was gone, with just me, my confused snake, and no idea what to do.