PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE READ THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS BEFORE READING THIS ONE. (LIKE CHAPTERS 9 &10)

The temperature began to rise as our time went down. It’s bad enough it was mid day in the desert; did Aubrey have to increase the temperature too? After a few minutes of walking, we saw an abandoned oil factory. We obviously knew it wasn’t abandoned. The mission stated that we should beware of the bandits and to save the girl, so obviously there was somebody here.

We entered the oil factory and it was full of cobwebs. Please tell me we don’t need to fight a mutant spider bandit. The place smelled of dirt, which was strange considering it was supposed to be producing oil. The windows, high on the walls, were dirty but still let in enough light for easy access around the place.

“Should we split up?” I asked and looked at the piece of paper containing our mission. Tied up somewhere high… I glanced up at the ceiling but saw nothing that caught my eye straight away.

“No. What if I need you to protect me?” Yoolhee took the piece of paper away from me. “It says she’s tied up somewhere high, but how high are we talking?”

“We’re running out of time, let’s just split up. If you are in dire need of help, use that bullet. Besides, can’t you just make them slaves or something?” I took the black belt and went an opposite way.

Since the mission hinted at her being somewhere high up, I went up a few ladders and checked the scaffoldings. On the highest scaffolding, there was another piece of paper and a sign that read “take me”. Since I am a very polite person, I took it. Little did I know, it would cause the building to implode. As I took the paper, sirens went off and the place flashed with red lighting. Oil began spilling into giant tubs, making the place hard to breathe in. The doors we entered through shut closed and became barred, preventing an escape.

“What did you do?” Yoolhee called out in distress.

“I picked up a piece of paper!” I called out over the scaffolding. From the edge, I saw her running away from what looked like to be an alligator.. made out of oil? “What are you running from?”

“I want to say a bandit but there’s no girl to save in here, so I’m going to say a monster!” She started climbing the ladder that I came up and met up with me on the highest scaffolding. “Let me see that paper.” She ripped the paper out of my hand and began reading. “Did the mission tell you to look at an oil factory? NO! It said somewhere high, like a cliff. OOPS! I SPOILED THE MISSION! Oh well, you probably won’t escape this death room anyways. Say ‘hello’ to Ali the Oil Alligator for me.” I could almost hear Aubrey’s voice in that message.

“Okay, so we need to escape?” I grabbed the paper and threw it into Ali the Oil Alligator’s mouth. “AUBREY SAYS HI!”

“She actually said ‘Hello’.” Yoolhee corrected me.

“I MEAN AUBREY SAYS HELLO!”

“Focus on the situation at hand, you idiot!” She hit me on my half-healed shoulder, causing me to shriek in pain. “You didn’t get that healed?”

“I did! He said it would take a while for it to be fully healed, though.” I scanned the room for an escape. At the bottom, the room was being filled with over flowing oil. Ali the Oil Alligator was patiently waiting for the oil to rise to our level.

“We can’t use our items here, this is a side mission. We need to escape without using them. Got any ideas?” Yoolhee, the intelligent one, asked.

“I know! Make Ali the Oil Alligator into your minion and he can bust the windows or something.” I said and she obeyed, causing the gator’s eyes to glow yellow. As soon as the oil level was about the scaffolding’s height, Ali swam over to us and we hopped onto the yellow-eyed creature. Its body felt empty, like we could have fallen through it, but we didn’t. The gator swam us to the dirty windows that were high up against the walls and began smashing its body up against it. Just before the oil reached the ceiling of the oil factory, Ali broke through the window, causing an oil leak to fall to the ground as we held on tight to the Oil Alligator.

As we hit the ground, the oil stopping our fall, the walls of the oil factory began imploding. We hopped off the alligator and looked around for the tallest sand cliff. The highest one was about a minute run there, so we decided that was our best hope. We decided to leave the alligator at the destroyed oil factory, just in case ten minutes passed and it goes rouge. The clock in the sky told us we had approximately five minutes remaining; we needed to hurry.

At the base of the mountain, a bandit with a bandana covering its eyes stood guard. We hid behind a rock as he walked around, holding an old-fashioned gun.

“We need that weapon so we can shoot this bullet.” Yoolhee whispered. “I can’t control them, they have no eyes. This is all you.”

I looked at the scenery around the bandit for anything of use. The shrubbery around him seemed lifeless, that wouldn’t be of much help. I looked out into the distance and saw my inspiration: a cactus.

As the bandit moved around, I summoned in mini cacti as he stepped. When he made his return trip, he didn’t bother looking down and tripped onto a pile of baby cacti. Sorry, cacti. His gun flew out of his hand and I caught it before it could fall onto the floor. Smooth, Wonwoo, really smooth.

Yoolhee snatched the gun out of my hand and loaded in the bullet we picked up at the beginning of the mission. Then, we made our way up the mountain. At the top, a plateau was set up perfectly for a fight scene. Too bad we didn’t feel like fighting. In the middle of the plateau, a girl with brown hair was tied up. She was surrounded by a bunch of men that looked like the bandit at the bottom of the mountain; all of them had their eyes covered. Did Aubrey know about Yoolhee’s new power?

Standing at the cliff of the mountain, a Cyclops waited with his arms crossed. His giant eye glared at the oil factory.

“DID THEY DIE IN THERE? SOMEBODY GO CHECK!” The Cyclops’s voice was loud and manly, despite him not being human. The surrounding bandits ran down the mountain. Hopefully we save the girl before they realize we are already here. Yoolhee, and her brave soul, stepped out to confront the Cyclops with her gun at the ready. Before the Cyclops could say anything, she fired her weapon.

Instead of a bullet firing, a person was summoned.

“MINGHAO WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHERE’S MY BULLET?” Yoolhee looked furious.

“You summoned me, duh. I’m here to help.” The sassy Minghao said.

“GAURDS, THEY’RE HERE!” The Cyclops shook the mountain. Almost immediately, the bandits made their way back up the mountain and began shooting at us.

 Like the smart people we are, we hid behind the small, yet sturdy, Minghao. His body acted as a shield from their over-sized bullets.

“So those items at the beginning were items to summon a certain sophomore! We should have taken the cross, it was probably S.coups and we could sure use a voice of reasoning right about now!” Yoolhee threw a fit.

“Does that mean the black belt will summon Jun?” I didn’t allow her to answer. Instead, I threw the black belt behind the bandits and waited for his summon. A cloud of smoke took the place of Minghao, leaving us vulnerable to the firearm.

Considering the bandits used older guns, their ammo was much larger than a normal bullet in modern day. A few shots from them left us on the floor, almost unable to move. Luckily, the black belt did summon Jun. Using karate; Jun incapacitated the bandits, stopping their gunfire.

“Thank you for getting me out of class, Professor Suarez has been on my case all week!” Jun smiled over our bleeding-out bodies. “Oh, right!” He helped us out and healed us using some ninja technique that he recently learned. It stopped the bleeding, but the pain didn’t leave.

“GAURDS, WHY DO YOU LAY THERE? I TOLD YOU TO STOP THEM!” The Cyclops jumped in a fit. His tantrum reminded me of a crazy Seungkwan. Before the Cyclops could realize what he was doing, the floor underneath him gave way and the Cyclops fell to his doom.

“The bigger they are, the harder they fall.” Jun laughed. “Was Minghao here?” He picked up the bullet that didn’t fire earlier. “Aww. I missed all of the fun.”

“No, he was just the bulletproof vest before you arrived. You didn’t miss anything except bullet wounds.” I stood up in pain. I helped Yoolhee up and we untied the girl. She didn’t speak or make any reactions to just being saved. Did Aubrey forget to program her with.. I don’t know, emotions?

“Congratulations on passing my pop quiz. Your score is: 93. Time left is: fifty three seconds remaining. Congratulations, you will be seated in 30 seconds.” The emotionless girl became Aubrey’s intercom.

“Well, thanks Jun. See you at lunch, oh and tell Minghao that we’re sorry for not using him properly.” I smiled weakly.

“That’s okay; I will make it up to him!” Jun chuckled and combed his hair with his hand.

Thirty seconds passed and color dripped from our eyes, revealing a classroom. Cool transition, Aubrey. Most of the class had been already finished their quiz but a select few had their heads down, most likely stuck in Aubrey’s pop quiz. She allowed us to leave class as she waited for the other kids to escape. Before I left, I heard her sob as she tried adding more paint onto the messy canvas.

I went back into my dorm and remembered why most of my stuff was missing. I had a decision to make: Do I go up to the roof and meet the ghost or do I ignore it completely? I sat on my bed and thought for a while. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep in my dorm. I woke up at 8:57 pm and rushed out the door, having made up my mind.

I went up to the roof and waited for 9 pm. There was no sign of anyone coming to meet me, but I waited a little bit longer. My eyes began getting heavy as my head started to fall. Just before my eyes closed, I saw a figure form out of dirt and dust.

“Sleepy, are we?” the voice was muffled by my exhaustion and his rocks-for-vocal-chords. I passed out as my body levitated upward.

NOTE: FEEL FREE TO ASK ME QUESTIONS (PERSONAL OR STORY-RELATED). I'D LOVE TO INTERACT WITH YOU ALL!!!

QUESTIONS:

What is going on with this ghost? What did he do to Wonwoo? Did he kidnap him or put a spell on him? I DON’T EVEN KNOW!

Do you think I am overusing Aubrey’s power? Should I add more scenes with other teachers? Maybe a fieldtrip or real-world missions?

Who do you think the items represented? (Band-Aid, running shoes, and worn out rubber band)