Thank You-Poem One

Thank You.

the air stale,

musty and misty,

missed the escape!

the ancient guard blocked-

the entrance with new paradoxes

the cell reeked of riddles!

3 days worth of why,

6 months worth of whats,

5 years worth of hows.

he gives the answers-- try to pack them in tight.

one day he'll slip,

a question will repeat.

this marathon repeats,

the cells are out of space

the last breath comes

you're free to go!

again and again, tricked into learning.

An interesting aspect of the Wizard of Oz book

At first glance, the book The Wizard of Oz seems like an innocent children’s story.  But when looking deeper, hidden political commentary begins to emerge.  The book The Wizard of Oz, by Frank Baum, has a genre of both satire and fantasy.  Directors of two films based on this story took one of those genres and used their creative license to emphasize either the hidden political view element or the fantasy fairy tale aspect, for their own reasons.  So both the film “The Wiz”, directed by Sidney Lumet, and the film “The Wizard of Oz,” by Victor Fleming changed the original to suit their needs and used various film techniques to show it better.  All of these three pieces of literature help us better understand the political situation of the age the book or film is produced.  

In The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, the tin man, the scarecrow, and the cowardly lion go through many obstacles and adventures while trying to get what they want.  They defeat the Wicked Witch of the West and get what they want.  Oz, a false Wizard, gives everyone except Dorothy what they want, while Dorothy’s magic shoes get her home, which is what she wanted. It seems like a childrens story, which is what it is mostly meant to be, but Baum had inserted his own political views hidden in the book.  This story was published in 1900, when America was a new country and monetary issues were important.  An example of this is the silver slippers.  Silver is not the most beautiful color, so why was it picked?  A possible reason is to represent the silver standard.  The shoes were precious and in the end let Dorothy get what she wanted, so the message  Baum is sending is that the silver standard has real worth and should be used.  The green emerald city and the Wizard of Oz symbolize green paper money.  The line, “but when you wear green spectacles, why of course everything looks green” shows that the Emerald City is not really green.  The Wizard is, “a humbug” so he has no real value.  Baum did this to show that green paper money is a fraud with no real value.  The tin man said of his joints, “they are rusted so badly that I cannot move them at all.”  The tin man is always in danger of rusting, which represents the fragile steel industries at the time.  Oz stands for ounce, which is what metals like silver are measured in.  All of this influences an adult reader’s opinion to Baum’s political opinion, which is one of the purposes of the book.  In spite of all this, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is still a children’s story, which is an equally important purpose for Baum.  There are witches and magic shoes which rule out that it is nonfiction.  There are many adventures like going through the forest, fighting the Kalidahs, and killing the witch of the West.  So The Wizard of Oz has both elements of a satire and fantasy mixed in to create a story which is interesting to both children and adults.

In “The Wizard of Oz” movie, which has the same plot and setting as in the book, many elements of political commentary are removed because the purpose of the film is purely to entertain.  The silver slippers are now ruby red, because ruby red is a more beautiful color.  The witch is more active in the movie than in the book, because that creates more action and entertainment.  Color plays a huge role in the movie.  It was one of the first films to use color.  Color only appears when Dorothy steps into Oz.  When she is back home, it becomes sepia again, which shows that her home is boring and dull compared to Oz.  The bright, colorful world of Oz helps show the happiness and liveliness of Oz.  This is also used for more contrast in the scenes in the Wicked Witch’s castle, where there is low-key lighting and a less colorful background.   The affect of this is to better highlight and contrast the rest of Oz with the witch’s castle and Oz with Kansas.  The director did this so people would understand better than in the book that Oz is a very great place, and therefore make it more of a mystery of why Dorothy went home.  Even though some elements which in the book made it partly a satire still exist, they are not focused on.  For example, in the movie there is a song about the wonderful thing the Wizard of Oz does, while in the book it only mentions that Oz is powerful.  So the director of the film purposefully tried to remove the political commentary or put attention of it.  

The movie “The Wiz” has a different, more modern setting of an urban city.  However, the plot is mostly the same.  Since this movie was made in modern times, when cities are the average place and much of the land is urban, the land of Oz is like different cities with taxis, bridges, amusement parks, and libraries like today.  The film made later in the past and the book were made in a time when countryside was the main landscape.  This movie was made to empower African Americans to feel more self-worth and raise awareness that they could ascend the socioeconomic ladder to positions of power in society.  That is why all the characters, including the star of the movie, Dorothy, are African American.  This alone is a unique thing which arouses emotions and makes people think.  There are very few films in which the main character is African American, and even less where all of the cast are African American.  This political message was the main purpose of the people who made the film.  The story elements are just there to keep it interesting.  So this is mostly a satire.  The sound used in the film is very important for understanding emotion.  Also, some of the music is music made by or widely listened to by African Americans, so it helps the person watching the film understand the emotions of African Americans.  

In conclusion, the book and the two films have different combinations of satire and fantasy.  The combination depends on the purposes of the people or person who made the piece of literature.  The directors of the films used an artistic license to make changes to the original to help suit the purpose.  People insert political commentary into movies and books for a reason.  People are more relaxed and open to new ideas when reading books or watching movies that they think are for entertainment.  For “The Wiz”, people can consciously see the political commentary and soak it in more readily than in a political speech.  In the book The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, even if people don’t consciously find all the political commentary, their subconscious mind may discern it and change their views without the people even knowing what did it.  This is the reason people insert their political views into entertaining literature.  This aspect is important because people can sometimes be influenced by the hidden or sometimes open political and social meanings.  So every time people are reading books, they will be aware for politics hidden deep inside.  

The Dark Prophecy

The Dark Prophecy

One day, the guardians started getting news of many disappearances.  They thought they could easily find out what was causing it.  They were wrong.  They put surveillance cameras, super powerful tracking spells so they could find out where the people were taken, and anything else they could think of.  It all failed totally.  The surveillance cameras of the disappeared people were mysteriously broken, and the tracking spells malfunctioned and didn't work.  The guardians made a graph, and it turned out that the people that were disappearing was the first week 1 squared, then 2 squared, then three squared, etc.  They didn’t know what to do.  It was a state of panic, and everything they tried failed.  The biggest blow was when a guardian that was guarding a random person disappeared mysteriously along with the person!  When the group that believed in Ore asked him, he was as clueless as everyone else.  

Just when the guardian organization was about to give up, something happened.  

It turned out that some random person named Borya had suspected this was being done by evil dark forces.  So he used all his money to buy seven of the strongest lights that existed, and placed them around his bed.  Borya put a cover over his eyes to sleep.  One day, he heard a moan and put off the lights.  He saw a dark shadow darker than the darkest black Borya had ever seen lying on the lights.  

He suspected it was the evil force causing disappearances, and quickly called the guardians.  They came, and almost fainted with joy.  They inspected the shadow and saw that it was immune to spells and made them disappear.  They now knew its weakness was bright light, but it only stunned it. The guardians started arguing about what to do next.  There were all kinds of ideas, but just a few were to put it in jail surrounded by lights, throw it in acid, smother it with lava, leave it there, put a camera on it and let it go, wait for it to wake up and ask it questions, and many more.  Everybody voted, and the final candidates were to research brighter lights, put it in jail surrounded by lights, and to try to kill it to remove the threat.

The most popular vote was to put it in jail and to put lights around it and guard it with their most powerful guards.  So they did that, and were happy.  However, when it woke up everyone was afraid it would unleash some evil spell.  It did nothing, but everyone thought it was biding its time.  The guardians questioned it, but the shadow only snarled.  They tortured it by putting it in acid, in lava, spikes, bombs, but it did nothing to it.  The shadow laughed, but they couldn’t do anything.  The guardians started to research brighter lights.  Meanwhile, they were trying to recover the lost people. 

Since the questioning failed, they searched the whole earth, even in the center of the earth where dragons and other fire creatures lived, to no avail.  They searched in the sky, the moon, mars, mercury, venus, all the other planets, even the sun!  They didn’t find a single lost person.  One day, the guardians looked at all the surveillance cameras.  When they had almost lost hope of finding the lost ones in the seventh to last surveillance camera they saw something.  It wasn’t totally broken but still mostly broken.  It was a blurry image of a ripped piece of something black on the floor.  Around it, there was a dark hole, or so it seemed.  The guardians rushed to that house as fast as they could and tried to open the doors.  They were locked.  The guardians could have done an opening spell, but in their excitement they banged the door down and rushed in.  They inspected the whole house, every crevice, corner, and under broken tiles of it.  They didn't find anything, and came to the conclusion that it was a way to teleport.  Overall, the disappearances stopped so everyone thought it was over and they could just keep the shadow in jail.  The guardians stopped researching brighter lights because the threat was over and to celebrate they made a party which lasted seven days seven hours seven minutes seven seconds nonstop.  However, they acknowledged that they didn’t find the lost people.  Overall, everyone relaxed and thought that it was finally over and there would be a long period of relaxation with no threats.  What they didn’t know was that this shadow was only one and the weakest sent to take prisoners out of a huge army of dark forces.  It was only the beginning of the beginning.  

The Journey Of Ore

The Journey Of Ore

               The greatest wizard who ever lived and ever will live was Ore.  It was he who created magic, the world, and everything we know and don’t know.  His wisdom, however, was just as great as his magic.  He made himself an island somewhere in the universe and lived there alone.  No one knew where he was and whether he was even alive.  His story was just a myth.

               There was just a little organization of seven people that believed in him.  They dedicated themselves to finding him, but they were nowhere near that, if he existed.  Before there were over a hundred members, but now only seven were left.  The others had died or deserted.

               Meanwhile, life was peaceful.  After a year, however, the human population wasn’t in check.  The guardians didn’t know what to do.  They could kill the people, or make a race of animals that would keep them in check.  Another problem was there were almost no animals except humans.  Animals like crows, pigeons, and other city dwellers were the only animals left.  Global warming had destroyed the ice, so humans lived at the poles too.  

               The only person who could save earth, and most people didn’t even believe in him if he was real, was Ore.  The organization who did asked the guardians for transporters, weapons, and recruits.  The guardians refused at first, but when there was almost no hope gave them what they wanted.  They gave transporters, which were planes made out of a magical metal called aruba and had limitless fuel, magic.  The organization also got troops who were equipped with aruba armor.  They carried laser guns, acid guns, plasma guns, and best of all, wands.  

The organization had a meeting.  The names of the people in the organization were Bob, Joe, Sillena, Tipu, Caster, Issy, and Toughy.  “Lets just fight everyone in our way until we get to him” said Toughy.  “But how will we find him?” asked Bob.  “I shall use my tracking skills to find him” said Sillena.  “Um, no offense, but that hasn’t worked all these years” snickered Joe.  “If we all work our magic together, guys who know magic, plus the troops in our army, plus the guardians, plus every magical person or creature on our side, then we should have enough power to find him” whispered Caster.  “That’s all very well, but will they listen?  If the guardians don’t listen, it will not work” criticized Issy.  “We shall ask!!!” retorted Tipu, enraged.

So they did.  After a long pleading, the guardians agreed.  Everyone who knew magic let out their strongest finding spell at the same time, linking the spells together and making one ultra-powerful finding spell.  They knew where Ore was in five seconds.    

    Everyone got into their ships, and they set off for Pluto.  It took a year for them to get there, but they had enough food and water for five.  When they got there, they met an army of creatures waiting.  They also saw an American flag under a giants foot.  “Attack”!!!!” yelled Toughy, getting a superheavy ultra-plasma gun.  It was an awesome battle.  Caster was calmly destroying monster after monster with his magical spells while in the safety of a magic shield.  Not everyone was so lucky.  A bunch of troops were dead or wounded after the battle, but they fought hard.  Some of the organization was dead too.  Issy had died while yelling at a trooper to fight harder.  Toughy, for all his strength, was lying on a stretcher knocked out.  Joe had done a heroic deed and destroyed the lead monster, saving everyone from destruction.  It cost him his life.  The enemy army was destroyed in the end, but it was not a happy victory.  

After a month of mourning, everyone knew they had to complete what they wanted to do: find Ore.  The acid blasters blasted the surface again and again, and after a long while a door was visible somewhere in the middle of Pluto.  What was left of the organization opened the door and went in.  

They had found Ore.  He was sitting in a comfy chair with his eyes closed.  The room was small, with no stuff except the chair.  They waited until Ore opened his eyes and said,“Yes.  I will help earth.  For you have been brave.  Your dead are alive again, your planet is healed.  The people have learned their lesson.   You may go back now and leave me in peace.”  With that, he closed his eyes.

It was true.  Everyone who had died or been injured was alive and well.  When they got back, they saw earth as lush as it had ever been.  There were animals, and no warming.  They were heroes, with everyone congratulating them.  Everyone was happy, except for Caster.  For the great prophecy had not yet been fulfilled.  That prophecy could be fatal, and with nobody on their guard, it was going to be hard.  He needed to be alert, and sharp.  For prophecies had very unreliable timings.

That concludes episode two.  

 

Episode one: Evil Wizard

Evil Wizard

Once upon a time there lived a wizard.  He was the most powerful wizard in the world, but he was evil.  He used his powers to see a prophecy of the future.  This is what it said: you think you’re so great, evil guy.  There shall come your downfall, when a baby of blue is born.  Beware, evil guy, for your time shall soon be upon us.

The evil wizard was enraged!  He shouted at the prophecy, and vowed it would not come true.  However, five years passed, with the evil wizard getting stronger and recruiting minions, and there was no sign of the prophecy coming true.  Meanwhile, a baby was born.  The baby was normal except for one thing: it was blue!  The doctors wanted to kill the baby so they could study it, but the dad refused.  The doctors were actually evil minions of the wizards, so they threw the dad in prison and got ready to kill the baby.  They told the wizard about the baby, and promised him it would be dead by sunrise.  

When they went to the jail where they put the baby, they didn’t find him!  They searched everywhere, with no avail.  The minions fled, for they knew what their punishment would be.  Luck was not with them, for their former master found them and killed them on the spot.  He did this with pleasure and excitement.  

Meanwhile, the baby was crawling along the busy street, with people thinking him a robot.  The bad guys had underestimated him.  He could already crawl and speak.  The baby was gaining knowledge and size by the minute.  In an hour, he went to sleep under a tree.  When he woke up, he was a wise man.  

He knew his mission, the thing he was born to do: defeat the evil wizard.  It was not going to be easy, but he knew he would do it in the end.  He also knew what would happen afterward.  

The wizard, meanwhile, was fortifying his castle, and telling all his minions to defend him with their lives.  The ones who refused, he slaughtered.  He got his best wand for the job.  He didn’t need a wand to do magic, but it channelled his energy and made his magic even stronger, if it was possible.  The blue man, not a baby anymore, was also a wizard.  However, now he was stronger than the evil wizard, for blue is the color of the most powerful magic.  

He gathered an army, but his troops were loyal to him because of his kindness, not because of fear.  He marched to the castle.  He knew where it was because he used the most powerful finding spell on earth.  There were stronger spells in the universe, but those could detect anything in the universe.  He could use them, but he didn’t need to.  

After a week, the evil wizard heard the cry of battle.  He was scared out of his wits, so he went to the basement, ordered everyone to fight, and hid there.  Though outnumbered, the good wizards recruits fought well.  The blue wizard, as everybody called him, was marching toward the castle, deflecting spells left and right.

At last, he used a finding spell to find the evil wizard and arrived at the basement.                                                             

It was an awesome battle, but at last, tired of fighting and scared, the old wizard surrendered.  For he was old, and tired of this fighting.  He allowed the blue wizard to kill him, but the blue wizard changed him into a peaceful spirit instead.  As soon as he did that, he felt utmost peace.  He had completed what he was meant to do.  He closed his eyes to relax, knowing what would happen and welcoming it.  He never opened his eyes again.  For he had completed his life, and turned back into what he was originally: a guardian orb.  For they protected the universe from evil, and he was the weakest one, sent to earth to complete the mission.  For the guardians, however, the evil wizard was the least of their worries.  For something was rising, something that was not going to be that easily defeated.  Maybe it wasn’t going to be defeated at all.

The next one of this adventure will be in a week.  Stay tuned to find out what happens!

  

The Space Phenomenon Series Chapter one

                                                        The Space Phenomenon

In 2027, there lived a boy named Ethan.  His life’s dream was to be an astronaut.  He always had dreams of flying in space and doing important missions for his country.  Also, Ethan was very ingenious, so all the children in his neighborhood, and even some adults, regularly went to him for help with all their problems.  He had once built a nuclear reactor by himself, making all the materials and setting them up just by his amazing brain.  Ethan had not used any instructions or purchased any of the parts.  His reactor was more efficient than any nuclear reactor built before it.  It gave the most energy with the least pollution.  Ethan always liked to wear white, as that was the color of spacesuits.  He was of average height, but his head was larger than that of most people’s.  One day, he called his friend Bobby.  “Do you want to sneak into the NASA base? It will be fun.”  “What if we get caught?” asked Bobby.  “We won’t, let’s just go” replied Ethan.  So they snuck into the NASA space base.  They dug a hole which led into the center of the base, bypassing all the defenses.   Ethan had a high-tech camera which had internet anywhere, was pressure-proof, heatproof, chill-proof, waterproof, bite-proof, and foolproof.  Just when they first glimpsed the training center, Ethan heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him.  He jumped inside the rear of a nearby spacecraft and shut the door.  His heart was thumping so loudly, he was sure the guards could hear him.  “Ahhhhhhh!!!” screamed Bobby.  “I knew we shouldn’t have come!” 

The guard captain ran into their hiding place and grabbed them both by their necks.  Ethan knew Tae Kwon Do, however, so he punched the guard in his stomach and left the guard knocked out.  “Don’t be so foolish Bobby! Just stay quiet” said Ethan angrily.  Then they jumped back in the spaceship.  They heard a guard say, in an excited voice, “ prepare for takeoff. Everyone inside.”  Then they heard the sound of a door lock.  When Ethan and Bobby heard the guards leave, he tried to open the door at the rear of the spaceship.  It refused to budge.  That’s when Ethan realized that the spaceship he was in was about to be launched.  With him in it.  All he had wanted to do is to film the astronauts in the training room as they trained.  Now he was in for something much bigger than he had expected.  Ethan’s hands started to sweat.  He started banging against the walls of the spaceship.  Then Ethan remembered his dreams of flying in space, and his breathing slowed. He looked at Bobby.  Bobby had fainted from fright and was lying motionless on the floor.  Ethan knew he couldn’t help Bobby, so he started to look around the spacecraft.  He saw that it was huge and he was in the back.  The size of the spaceship amazed him. But what amazed him most was the weaponry.  He saw laser guns, plasma cannons, acid guns, and cannons with names he hadn’t even heard of.  Ethan thought that he was dreaming and pinched himself.  It hurt.  A big sign over the back door said, “United States Space Corps-Flagship-Armageddon.”  Before Ethan could process all this, he heard a voice- “ready for launch.  countdown.  10, 9, 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, launch.” Ethan felt sheer exhilaration when the ship’s mighty engines started to move the ship at supersonic speeds.  “Finally,” thought Ethan, “I am living my dream.”  He was slammed to the wall and pressed against it.  After a time which felt like years, he could sit normally again.  “Launch achieved.  Your mission is to patrol, seek out enemies and annihilate them,” said a robotic voice.  It was then that Ethan realized that there was something fishy going on.  The United States was at war with something or someone, either aliens or another country, and hardly anyone on earth knew about it!  Ethan was determined to find out the truth, so he started filming the sign, the weapons, out the window, and everything that was happening to him.  He wouldn’t tell Bobby about this.  He just hoped he could get home...alive.  

While Ethan was gone in the spaceship, his mother had gotten home.  “Where is Ethan?” she cried.  His mother searched for him everywhere, but in the end she called the police and gave them a picture.  The police investigated, and in the end found the guard who had been kicked.  “That’s the person who snuck into the base and hit me.  Two hundred years in solitude, I’d say!” said the guard angrily.  The police was instructed to never let the secret of the space wars escape, so they told the mother that Ethan had committed suicide by jumping into fire.  The only way they knew is because of security cameras, the police had told Ethan’s mother.  But she didn’t believe them.  She vowed to search the whole world for Ethan until she was either dead or had found him.

Suddenly, Ethan heard a blaring alarm.  He didn’t see anything out the windows, but he guessed the radar had spotted something.  “Fire the cannons!”  he heard.  People rushed into the room and saw him.  They were very surprised.  “What-who-how- how did you get here?” the one in front said.  While that was happening, everyone was distracted from the enemies, and out of the corner of his eye Ethan saw a plasma blast bang against the hull.  Boom! “We’ll deal with you later” said the captain, running to the wheel.  The ship sped away from the enemy, but an alarm was blaring saying, “Air escaping. Warning, warning.” There was space exactly in the part of the hull which was hit with a repair kit.  The repair kit was only about a foot long, but contained extremely useful tools without which the ship could not be fixed.  It had fallen in a part of the ship which had bent inward, creating a tiny crevice.  “Grab it, or we’re doomed!” yelled the captain.  The crew were yelling and screaming.  They were jumping up and down and ripping their hair in a panic.  Alarms started screaming loudly.  The tension in the air was overwhelmingly dense.  All of the crew tried to reach it, but failed.  They were just too big to reach into the crevice.  They refused to give up.  However, the captain said wearily, “It’s no use.  Ready the escape pod.”  Ethan looked around desperately, thinking.  He had just thought that everything was wonderful and he would have an amazing adventure.  Ethan jumped up and down in despair.  Now, his heart was thumping as fast as if it was running a marathon.  Ethan asked the Captain if there was anything, absolutely anything they could do to prevent this from happening.  Ethan thought he was dreaming.  His head spinning, Ethan relinquished all common sense.  He started running randomly in different directions.  Chaos was everywhere.  The Captain tried to get everyone back in order, but it was just too hard to make his voice heard.  Fire erupted somewhere in the back of the spaceship.  Finally, holding a loudspeaker, the Captain screamed “Get in the Escape Pod if you want to live!”  He then said wearily, “Get in the escape pod, kid.  Before it’s too late!”  A rain of bullets bounced of the ship.  Some windows broke.  Alarms were blaring very loudly, even louder than before.  But Ethan refused to abandon his dream.  He knew that the only hope of the ship was the repair kit.  It had very efficient tools which could fix even the most broken of ships.  He ran to the crevice in which it was, his lungs gasping for air.  Ethan’s vision was beginning to blur, and his head hurt as badly as if he was hit by a train.  Muscles aching, he reached the crevice and squirmed his hand inside.  An inch from the repair kit, his hand got stuck.  “Noooooooooo!!!”  Ethan screamed.  “I was so close! Nooooooooooo!”  He heard a blast of more plasma hitting the ship.  From the windows, Ethan saw the enemy ships closing in fast, shooting all the time.  The smell of smoke was in the air.  The spaceship slowed to a stop.  Suddenly, it shuddered and turned on its side.  Ethan heard explosions.  A bullet whizzed by him.  He was about to die, thought Ethan.  How could his life have gotten to this?  All he had wanted was to film the astronauts in the space center.  He had not even considered that he might die.  Ethan had thought that at the worst he would be captured by guards, and maybe even put in jail.  Ethan’s lungs were about to burst.  Just when everything was fading and Ethan let go of all hope, surrendering to death, he was pushed from behind until he finally grabbed the repair kit, and with all his strength, slowly, without even fully realizing what he was doing, pulled it out.  Ethan faded into oblivion without another thought. 

Ethan woke up on a bed.  “You saved us! What a relief.  Now we thank you and you can be a part of the crew until the next time we land.  Then you, and your friend who is in the hospital, will be free to go home.” said the captain excitedly.  “Really?  Thanks a lot!” said Ethan.  “Is Bobby ok?” Ethan asked.  “Don’t worry, he’ll be fine” replied the captain calmly.  He was warmly accepted by the crew and was fed and received a bunk bed.  The only thing he couldn’t do was go into the control room.  “It is for your own good,” the captain had said.  

Ethan was walking around the ship.  He had been in the spacecraft for about three weeks, but Ethan was still learning new things.  He walked over to the weapons room.  He picked up an acid blaster and started examining it.  Suddenly, the lieutenant came into the room.  “Oh hi, how are you doing?” asked Ethan.  “I just need to get something from here for repairs” replied the lieutenant awkwardly.  Ethan turned away and continued inspecting weapons.  Next Ethan went into the escape pod.  “Wow, the technology is very cool here,” thought Ethan.  At the end of the day, Ethan dreamt about all the technology coming alive and him talking to the gadgets with them talking back to him. 

One day, the lieutenant said that he could cook for the day.  He started throwing beef and sausages around the cabin.  “Catch it, eat it!” the lieutenant said.  Ethan was walking by the kitchen.  He rushed in and smacked the lieutenant.  “Cook away, but I can do better!”   “Oh yeah, well let’s have a contest.”  “Deal.”  So each of them cooked fish soup.  Then the officer, smiling, poured some white powder into the fish soup he was preparing.  Ethan ran to the other crew and said, “the lieutenant has put some white powder into the soup!”  The crew all started laughing.  “That was just salt, you dummy, ahahahaha.”  “Oh, ok.”  “Well, too much salt is bad so I will win the contest.”  The crew tried Ethan’s fish soup, and agreed that it was a goody.  “We rate it 8 out of 10 points.”  Then they tried the lieutenant’s soup, and fell down unconscious.  “See, it was so good that they fainted from its  goodness” said the lieutenant.  “Muahahaha!“ the lieutenant roared. Try it yourself.”  “No thanks” said Ethan.  “I’m not hungry.”  And Ethan went to his room, suspicious.  His cheerful mood was gone.  From his room, he watched the lieutenant.  “Mwahahahaha,” laughed the now lieutenant general.  He tied up the whole crew and started getting something from his pocket.  Ethan, meanwhile, had jumped into the kitchen.  “I caught you in the act, so give up!” said Ethan.  His hands were sweating and he was shaking as he said that.  The officer got a pistol from his pocket, with the words absolute zero-pistol.  “You will freeze-literally” said the lieutenant general.  He started shooting balls of absolute zero at Ethan.  Ethan dodged, and they hit one of the engines, which froze instantly.  “Hahahaha.  This is most amusing” yelled the lieutenant general.  The lieutenant general ran suddenly at Ethan and pushed him against the wall.  The lieutenant general pointed the gun at Ethan’s head, while holding Ethan’s throat with his hand.  “So. The end has come.  You are just a puny, insignificant little boy, after all.  Prepare to die!”  “Ethan closed his eyes.  He knew there was nothing he could do.  The lieutenant’s words stung him, but he knew that it was true that he was just a ten year old boy, with no super strength or anything like that.  Just then, Ethan heard a slam and a loud scuffle.  He opened his eyes.  Bobby had come to the rescue.  He had hit the lieutenant on the back of the head, which made him be knocked out cold.  “Thank you so much!” Ethan told Bobby.  “Now let’s go to the control room, quickly.”

So Ethan and Bobby went into the control room and saw a map which showed Mars and the Moon.  On the moon, U.S.A. Territory was written, and there were some military garrison names.  On Mars, Russian Federation Territory was written, and there were no garrisons labeled.  Then, Ethan realized that the space wars between Russia and the U.S. were far from over.  He saw on the radar that more than twenty enemy ships were approaching fast.  He looked out the window and saw the flag of the ship in front- three stripes, the top stripe white, the middle stripe blue, and the bottom stripe red.  Ethan pressed the red button which said do not press except in an emergency, in a panic.  The spaceship’s engines went on warp speed and an enormous missile shot out, which hit one of the enemy spaceships and decimated it instantly.  However, the engines were almost all frozen over, so the spacecraft Ethan was in was unable to escape the enemy.  Laser beams hit the ship in many places, and Ethan knew that the situation was desperate.  He and Bobby loaded all the crew that was tied up, who were still unconscious from the powder, in the escape pod and untied them.  Then they themselves went into the escape pod and pressed the escape button.  The escape pod was blasted back to earth at a huge speed.  During the ride back, while still in space, Ethan shared the videos he took in space on the internet with his extremely high-tech camera.  Soon, almost everyone with internet knew about the space wars.  The escape pod landed somewhere in an ocean, and by that time the had crew woke up.  Ethan knew that his life would never be the same again.  His journey was far from over.  Will Ethan be rescued?  And even if he is, what will the government think of him and Bobby and do to them after they gave away its secret?  But whatever happens next is sure to be full of mystery and adventure.