Zeronia

Chapter 17: A Call For Zeronia

Toby P.O.V

Tragon didn't appear on Earth until the following day. An announcement came over the loudspeaker that said that there is another alien invasion and that all students should line up in an orderly fashion and go outside. There will be busses waiting to take all the students to a safe place.

As I was walking with the rest of my classmates I heard Brian who was in front of me said, "Don't worry, Zeronia is going to kick that alien's butt!"

"I don't think so," Jerry Wynton who father worked for the Channel 6 News said. "This new alien had been there for three hours and Zeronia still hasn't shown up."

"You think she's scared?" Jack Lawrence asked.

"She might be," Henry Douglas said. "This new alien is a lot tougher than the others. I heard the army couldn't even stop it. They shot missiles from their tanks at it and they didn't have any effect on it." He laughed. "Zeronia is probably hiding somewhere!"

"That's what you get when you send a girl to do a man's job," Jack Lawrence stated.

"She's not scared," Brian protested. "She's probably just running late."

Henry Douglas gave him a nasty grin. "No, she just off someplace doing her nails!"

"That is sexist," Mary Higbee jumped in.

Just as I was passing the door to the girls' bathroom it opened and hands grabbed me and pulled me inside.

I saw that it was Debra.

"Debra, I can't be in here," I told her. "This is the girls' room!"

"If I can survive the boys' room, you certainly can survive the girls' room," she said.

"What do you want?"

"You need to become Zeronia again."

"You're right."

"I know you don't want to, but--" She paused. "What did you say?"

"You're right. I do need to become Zeronia again."

Debra shook her head. "Wow. I didn't expect you to agree with me so quickly," she said. "I mean, I had a whole speech thought up. You know, about Zeronia being the beacon of hope. That you should never give up."

"I'm sure it was a great speech."

"You want to hear it anyway?" 

"Maybe some other time," I said. "The problem is, I don't have my Zeron Crystal. I gave it to Laloc."

"Could you have Tak teleport you to her ship so you could get it back?"

I shook my head. "Laloc isn't on the Crillinarian ship. The Crillinarians turned against her and now she's on Earth."

Debra brightened. "Well, that's good."

"Not good."

Her face fell.

"Tak and Laloc were in my room last night," I told her. "They told me about the Crillinarian coming to Earth and tried to give me my Zeron Crystal back. I refused to take it."

Debra gasped. "You refused to take it?"

"Not only that, but I also insulted them, so they probably left the planet."

"How stupid can you be?" Debra scolded.

"I know, I was the biggest fool on the planet."

Debra placed both hands on my shoulders and looked into my eyes. "There is only one thing to do. You must find Tak and Lala..."

"Laloc," I corrected.

"...Laloc and apologize and maybe they would give you your wand thingy back."

"I suppose we can go to Tak's port-o-potty," I said. "At least she might be there. Unless I made her and Laloc so mad they left Earth  for good."

"We'd never know unless we see for ourselves."

We left the bathroom. When we went outside students were packing into yellow busses.

Just then we heard honking. I looked over and saw Judy sitting in her car waving at me.  Debra and I raced over. I got into the passenger seat and Debra climbed into the back.

"Take us to Tak's port-o-potty," I instructed Judy.

"Way ahead of you," Judy murmured and turned the key in the ignition.

Getting to Tak's port-o-potty wasn't easy. Because of the alien attack, a lot of the streets were blocked off.

When we finally got to the port-o-potty we saw that the padlock was gone and the sign on the door was turned to occupied.

"Someone is inside," I said.

"Should we knock?" Judy asked.

"Allow me," Debra said, stepping up to the port-o-potty. She placed her index finger on the red occupied sign and slowly turned it to the green unoccupied sign.

When Debra opened the door we were hit with a bad odor. I wished Tak didn't add that feature.

All three of us squeezed into the port-o-potty and shut the door. I turned the lock, there was a whooshing sound, and the next thing I knew we were in Tak's spaceship.

We saw Tak and Laloc going at it. Tak with her sword and Laloc with her ax.

"Stop," I yelled.

The two stopped fighting and looked over.

"Toby, what are you doing here?" Tak asked.

"Stopping you from killing each other!"

Laloc sniffed. "We weren't trying to kill each other," she said. "We were just practicing before we take on Tragon."

"That is why I'm here," I explained. "I want to become Zeronia again."

Tak gazed over to Laloc. "I told you he'd be back."

"I owe you a Poopsi," Laloc replied.

Laloc pulled out my wand and held it out to me. "Take it and may the true power of the Zeron Crystal be with you," she said with a wink.

"You're not mad at me?" I asked.

Tak rolled her eyes. "Do you know how many wars we've been in?" she declared. "We can survive a little name-calling."

I took my wand from Laloc, then, holding it aloft, I yelled, "Zeron Crystal, activate!"

A bright light washed over me. I could feel my body growing and shrinking. When the light disbursed I gazed down at myself and saw that I was wearing armor over a purple tunic dress that hugged my now curvy and very female body and high silver boots.

I wiped my hand through my long flowing hair that moved through my fingers like fine silk.

All four girls stared at me in awe as though seeing me transform for the first time.

Then Debra grinned and said, "Welcome back, Zeronia."