"Used up all your wishes, huh?" General Love spit above me. My hands began to shake uncontrollably. That made him even more excited. Stealing a quick glance at my still glowing scars, I dared to find the General's stare again.

"I guess," I said, quietly. A rumbling filled his chest as he bent down toward me, his grimacing face only inches from mine. He grabbed my arm with the scars.

"Thirteen markings on your arm, Mr. Ryan. The eternal Thirteen Breaths."

"Breaths?" I mumbled, confused.

"I believe you call them wishes," he corrected. "A true master of the Jynshee Orb can make his wishes last for centuries...a small millennium. But not you, Mr. Ryan, you squandered yours like the wasteful species you are!"

His words rattled me, robbing me of the last little bit of hope I was clinging to. I only had thirteen? Why hadn't it told me? Why would it let me waste so many of them without warning me? I had so many unanswered questions, so many fears.

"Wake up!" General Love threatened, as a cold slimy hand wrapped itself around my right shoulder and neck. It shocked me back into reality. I tried to pull away, but his strength was unbelievable. His touch pulled against my skin and clothes with the tearing sound of Velcro, keeping us locked together as one. The ground began to tremble below our feet with the unmistakable sensation of an earthquake. All my friends huddled closer to one another instead of running for safety. As the shaking intensified, I wondered where my magic dragon had gone, leaving us all to die.

"Get out of here!" I tried to scream over the deafening quake. None of them moved an inch. General Love cackled wildly and pulled me closer to his repulsive mouth. My heart raced behind my ribs, pounding to get out.

"So, here's my dilemma, Mr. Ryan. You managed to destroy my precious Hive, even freeing one of my lesser minions. You used up all the energy of the Jynshee before I could eat it. Now, you two have become one," he growled, gawking at my inner wrist. "I guess I'll have to eat you now."

I cringed as he coughed up a chunky patch of liquid phlegm and spit it to the ground. As I watched it stain the floor a new calm came over me.

"Will you leave then?" I asked, giving up. General Love tilted his head, bewildered by my question. I looked him dead in the eyes, holding his bewildered gaze.

"If I let you eat me, will you leave? Leave my friends alone, leave this town, this world? Forever," I said, tired and cold. The rumbling ground stopped, instantly. My friends couldn't believe their ears, especially Roland and Morgan. They called out to me as if I had lost my mind.

"No!"

Looking back at them with a half smile, "It'll be okay."

"Ha! No, it won't! Not for you!" General Love said, twisting another monstrous arm around me. I think he could actually smell the fear on me.

"Do we have a deal, General?" I asked, angrily. His evil hug tightened around me and he laughed louder.

"Mr. Ryan, when I am done with you there will be no need for me to be here. I have no need for your friends. My only need will be to find my next meal, the next Jynshee Orb." An alligator smile split along his face with teeth buzzing inside of it. I didn't think I could trust him, but I had no choice. I had to protect this world, my friends, and her. I had to save Olivia.

Giving up I nodded in agreement and lowered my head in submission, "Let's get this over with, General."

He lifted me above the floor squeezing the life from my lungs. It rushed pa.s.sed my dry lips hot and thick. From the corner of my eye I could see Olivia shaking her head, no.

"We have to stop him," she said, but no one heard her. She moved closer to Sophia and reached for her comforting hand. Sophia slid her hand in Olivia's, trying with all her strength not to cry. Olivia felt the new bands around her little sister's fingers. They were all glowing in the familiar yellow pulse that the stone had done before. The same hue it would turn just before her and I would talk to each other with our minds.

"Oh my G.o.d..." Olivia gasped. Quickly, she scooped up her sister's other hand and held them up before her face. She noticed writing carved on each of the rings that wrapped around Sophia's thumbs. Olivia turned her sister's hands so that the writing could be seen easier. On one hand the glowing ring read...

"Believe," Olivia mouthed, breathlessly. Sophia stared harder at the other hand before reading the single word aloud.

"Fight," Sophia whispered. Both their eyes bulged with shock. Sophia started to cry, but Olivia made her focus on the words again. She slid each of her hands into her little sister's and concentrated. The golden yellow glow changed to a soft pink, almost red color.

"What's going on, Sis?" Sophia asked, worried. Olivia closed her eyes and concentrated harder.

* Listen to me, Soph...you have to trust me. * Olivia spoke inside her sister's mind. Sophia froze in disbelief.

* Don't freak out! You have to listen to me now. You need to do exactly what I tell you. *

"How are you doing that?" Sophia asked, upset. Olivia squeezed her sister's fingers even tighter.

*I'll explain later. Right now we have to save Lucas. *

"Is this what you and Lucas were doing earlier in the Music room?" Sophia quipped.

*Yes. Now focus! I need you to pay attention to what I am about to tell you. We have no time! * Olivia's face fell flush with nerves.

"Okay, Sis...what do I need to do?" Sophia shuttered. From behind them Felicity listened to the one-sided conversation, patiently. Olivia slowly removed the ring with the word believe from Sophia's thumb, and wrapped her fist around it. Sophia watched in silence, barely breathing.

* We need to get this ring to Lucas. His power is in you now, but I think we can still help him. I think he can still use it. * Olivia explained staring intensely into her sister's eyes. Sophia frowned.

Power? How do you know that? Sophia asked in her head and almost jumped out of her skin when Olivia answered her back.

"I don't know, I believe."

Higher and higher the General lifted me up. I didn't think he was this big. Maybe he was closer to twelve-feet tall. It didn't matter anymore. All that mattered was my sacrifice would save everyone else. General Love arched his back and the alien bones in his spine cracked like firecrackers. His mouth opened wide, unhinging itself like a snake to make more room for me. He noticed movement from the corner of the room and realized Olivia was running at full speed, directly for us. He purred in a thick growl and slammed his mouth into my neck and shoulder. His teeth felt like fire and the pain was absolute and mind-numbing. My veins felt as if they were filled with thorns cutting into me from the inside out. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I could barely feel anything as the world started to fade to black. In the final seconds of my eternal blackout, my wrist ignited in a new, red flame, awakening me for a split-second.

* Look behind you! *

Olivia? She was in my head again. My head fell backwards as I dangled in the General's filthy, blood-soaked claws. The entire room turned upside down in my view and it was the first moment I saw Olivia racing for me. She moved in slow motion and looked like a beautiful dream. Her fist was raised above her head and she was screaming at the top of her lungs.

"Lucas! Catch!" She whipped the tiny luminescent ring through the air in a desperate toss. I reached out as far as I could knowing that it wouldn't be very far as I hung in the General's meathooks. General Love sunk his teeth even deeper into my flesh, readying to rip away his first huge piece of me. It was impossible to focus on anything other than the pain.

The ring tumble through the room with the yellow light spinning off and on like a broken light switch. The markings on my wrist copied its furious flashing, locking both the ring and my hand in a dance of flickering power. Like a magnet, the ring shot into the middle of my hand, spinning directly in the center of my palm. Immediately, I filled with strength and hope. General Love lost a step, flailing back in pain and releasing his mammoth bite from my body.

"Aaaaarrrgh! What the...?" he bellowed like a bullhorn. I fell to the ground in a loud thud, smashing the back of my head on a large broken piece of News Chopper 4's helicopter blade. The room started spinning. Inside that spinning I heard a new voice.

* Lucas? Can you hear me? *

It was Sophia. She was talking to me inside my mind and she sounded absolutely terrified.

Soph? I asked through the pounding migraine in my skull.

* Oh my G.o.d! It worked! Olivia was right, you can hear me! *

Yes, I can hear you, but how are you doing this?

* I have your gauntlet thingy...well, what's left of it. It changed. It turned into some crazy rings and bands...thirteen of them. I'm wearing twelve of them and you have the last one. *

"Lucky number, 13..." I whispered, to myself.

* Olivia said you would understand what to do. *

I tried to clear my blurring eyes, concentrating on the metallic ring in my hands. It took a moment, but when my sight returned, it was all I needed to see to understand. One word.

"Believe," I said, turning my eyes upward at the beast in front of me. My wounds had already begun to heal, thanks to the power of the ring. Sophia and Olivia ran up behind me as I found my footing in front of the General. From above us he salivated black slime that stretched all the way down to the floor. He hunched over and roared with the force of a hurricane. Pieces of the battlefield rose into the air and spun past us, slamming into the opposite wall. Hate dripped from his eyes as he saw the ring in my hand and then the matching bands hugging Sophia's fingers, wrists, and neck.

"The power of the Jynshee! You pa.s.sed it on to the girl?" General Love spit.

"Neat trick, huh," I said, smugly. He roared in an even louder fit, sending more debris into the air. The thick smoke from his otherworldly body started to turn solid again. A crackling of fresh skin formed around his behemoth torso and head. The skin snapped and popped with embers under its surface, hot and bright, resembling lava. He looked like a walking volcano, erupting its violent magma in front of us.

"It doesn't matter...you're too late, Mr. Ryan. You can't stop me! None of you can stop me!" The last words were hard to understand when he spoke, because it sounded as if he was gargling boulders in his throat. New legs sprouted from his waist, drilling into the floor. One after the other until there were eight in all. Crooked tentacles punched through the crackling skin of his back. They slashed at us as they reached for the sky, each with a deadly blade at its tip. With a snap and a shuffle of his new legs, all the appendages lined themselves with silver razor-like spikes that resembled broken shards of stained gla.s.s.

Grabbing Sophia by her shoulders, I yelled as loud as I could, "Soph! Believe in me! Believe in us! We have the power to stop him forever!"

"It's too late!" General Love warned with a chomp of his jaws. His giant clawed hands shredded the floor in front of us. Olivia stepped back and one of the General's jagged tentacles sliced between Sophia and I. It s.n.a.t.c.hed Olivia up by her waist before quickly jerking her back towards him. She screamed out, reaching for my hands.

"Olivia!" Sophia panicked. I squeezed the ring tightly in my hand and steadied Sophia with my other one.

"Let go, Soph. Dream it and it will come to life, trust me," I said, calmly. She shook her head as if she couldn't do it.

"I'm too scared..."

I nodded to her, "Watch me."

I dropped to one knee and shoved my fist into the ground with a pout. Light covered the floor and a large shape formed from my fist. Inside my grasp was the handle of a giant weapon, eight-feet and growing. The end of it ballooned in size with the familiar outline of an enormous mallet. It burned in fiery white flames, blinding General Love in fear.

Grinning like a wild deviant, I jumped into the air with an obvious battle cry, "It's hammer time!"

With the first swing of my mighty hammer of light, I nearly removed the General's head. The face of my hammer struck his nose and cheek with a crunch of bone and smoke. Half of his legs faltered and he fell backwards. Olivia dangled from his twisting appendages just out of my reach. With my second swing, I concentrated on the shape of my weapon and it change from a mallet to a sickle blade. It sliced through three of his tentacles and half of his left arm. Olivia fell into my arms as my shining weapon disappeared. General Love leapt into the air in obvious pain and awe from his severed body parts. He clutched at his missing arm only to find liquid smoke pouring out.

"You filthy, dirt monkey!" General Love cursed, as he came smashing down into the ground again. He reached for a mangle police car on his right side, ripping it in two pieces as he pulled it from the floor. He shrieked and waved it above his crooked head, ready to crush Olivia and I like two tiny c.o.c.kroaches.

Sophia ran up behind us with long rippling strands of blue energy snapping from her hands. She flicked her hands and the fierce blue whips responded with a loud electric clap. They danced along the floor filling my arms with saluting hairs. Her eyes were still filled with fear, but her posture was strong and fearless. She twirled the strands into the air, immediately finding the General's neck. Each one tightly wrapping around his throat, melting into the crackled flesh. He let go of the police car halve and it crashed to the ground only feet from us. The vehicle's siren squealed out for a split-second, as if warning us of its destruction.

"Back off, General!" Sophia warned. She gritted her teeth together and pulled tighter on her power whips. General Love tried to pull backwards, but found he was locked in place. All eight of his legs fought the strength of Sophia's whips trying to keep himself upright, but it was no use. Black fire spilled from his mouth, scorching the air around him.

"I should have ate you when I had the chance, little girl!" General Love tried to threaten Sophia. She cringed from his disturbing remark.

"Ignore him, Sophia," I encouraged. She took a deep breath and yanked with all her might on the sizzling whips, sending the General into the ground, head first. His two front legs broke on impact.

"That's it, Soph! You're doing it!" I cheered, hysterically.

"Holy moly, I am!" she said, overjoyed.

"Lucas, help her finish him. Hurry!" Olivia said, from over my shoulder. I looked down and slid the ring onto my finger and smiled. I made a fist that had already started filling with light.

"You wanted your weapon, General...now, you're going to get it." I placed my other hand over my fist, cupping as much light inside of it as possible. Gold and purple waves of energy began expanding in all directions, slipping through all my fingers. Slowly, I walked up to the writhing body of the General.

Tilting his horned head toward me in a warning, he promised, "I'll kill you all!"

Stopping inches from his face I opened my hands to reveal a new mirrored orb. It was the size of a golfball and had the number 13 painted across it. The number glistened in a deep red glow. General Love fell still as he realized what I was holding.

"Not if I kill you first," I smiled. Swiftly, I buried the magic sphere into his upper forehead, just between both demonic horns. Twisting the top of the orb as I let go, the number on its shiny surface started counting down.

13...12...11...10...

"Nooooo!" General Love strained, his body covering itself in a violent seizure. His alien spider legs clawed at everything to escape.

9...8...7...6...

"Run, get out of here!" I shouted to everyone. Olivia grabbed her sister and pulled her backwards. The flaming blue whips snapped back into the palms of Sophia's hands. The two sisters ran as fast as they could. Taylor scooped up the twins in a gentle tackle, hoisting them over his broad shoulders. Morgan on his right and Roland on his left. All three of my friends bounced out of the destroyed gymnasium with Olivia and Sophia only seconds behind them. I couldn't see Dax and Felicity, but I didn't really care. Hopefully, they had both escaped this madness minutes ago. The General grumbled from the floor, trying to stand up on broken arms and legs.

"No matter how many deaths that I die, I will never forget this, Mr. Ryan! I will come back for you. You will suffer," he began to laugh. The small orb continued its countdown.

5...4...3...

"This is not the end!" General Love swore.

With a wink I turned to run, but one of his many tentacles swept my legs out from under me and I slammed face first into the floor. It knocked the wind out of me and cut my lip and eyebrow open. I didn't even try to get up knowing I had run out of time.

2...1...0... BOOM!.

The explosion started from inside the General's b.l.o.o.d.y temple with a p.r.i.c.kly sucking sound before pushing its fires outward, in a blinding orange and red blast. The force of it swept me from the ground and spun me through the burning air. I screamed until everything fell black.

As my limp body embedded itself into the old wooden bleachers of the gym, my ribs shattered and my head split open. I fell to the floor in a heap of broken flesh, devastated.

"Oh, no..." Taylor wilted from the gym's doorway. He ran for my lifeless body, conquering the obstacle course of debris just to get to me.

"Hold on, Luc..."

LEVEL 26: In The End.

The dust had only begun to settle when my hearing returned to me. I still wasn't completely conscious, but I could at least hear all the commotion around me. Taylor was close to me and growing more and more upset. He gently rolled me to my back, carefully steadying my head and neck. I groaned a little and he let out a large puff of air in relief.

"Lucas? Can you hear me?" he asked, weary. I could only let out another agonizing moan. It was enough to attract a new delivery of annoyance, courtesy of my school nemesis.

"Is he dead?" Felicity asked, from over Taylor's shoulder. It startled him for a moment and he whipped around ready to strike. Felicity flinched from his defensive posture and filled with anger, crossing her arms in a pitiful pout. Taylor shook his head annoyed and aggravated.

"No, he's still breathing. I think he's coming out of it, a little," he said. Felicity noticed something flickering on the floor next to me. She quietly knelt down and picked up the thirteenth ring. It was warm and inviting and soothed her inner insecurities. She backed up against the nearest wall, never taking her eyes from its exotic beauty.

"Lucas, come back...you can do it..." Taylor pleaded under his breath. A single tear found its way onto his cheek, making him furious and he scratched it away with a fist.

"Tay?" I asked, in a slurred mumble.

"Hey, tough guy, you're gonna make it," Taylor said, calming himself.

Trying not to move too much, I asked, "And the other guy?"

"General Love is gone...just a stain on the floor," he said, relieved. I turned my head just enough to see the scorched floor. All that was left of the General was the burnt floor and fluttering pieces of ash.

"Good. Next time, you get to save the world..." I coughed, with a sad smile. He let out a huge laugh and waved for the others to come over. Olivia and Sophia ran up first, followed by Roland and Morgan. Olivia teared up when she saw how much damage I had sustained, but she was happy I was still alive. Sophia was crying hard and fell down to me, placing her arms around me. I didn't want to tell her how much it hurt when she did it, so I held my breath and tried to smile. A small pool of blood emerged from under my head, sliding out in a loose circle. Olivia's face washed over in panic.