My friend Beau and I saved the world one day. I know, I know, you’re probably already judging this story and saying its baloney, but hold on! I swear this is 99% true! Well maybe 98%, but anyway here it is.
“Ouch!” The pellet bounced off my skin as I hurried through the forest. The pain lasted for about five seconds then I relaxed. “Calm down” I told myself,” I have to win this!” I was in the midst of the most important battle of my life, The National Airsoft Championship.
“There goes Beau and Noah as they each have one hit. Remember you can only receive three hits per team!” The announcer’s voice boomed overhead. “Along with Brian and Terry, they each have one hit. This is a very close competition!”
The voice droned out as I continued my trek with Beau. We found ourselves in a small forest surrounded with thin streams. We had to find Brian and Terry quickly or we had the chance of them finding us. I didn’t want to think of what would happen then. With the prize money on the line (20,000 dollars) we had to win.
“We have to find higher ground to get an advantage point” Beau exclaimed.
“Alright lead us on!” I was already dehydrated from the intense heat, and my water bottle was empty, so I really wanted to win this thing. We continually hiked up a ridge for about 20 minutes when it happened. Beau disappeared into the underbrush and I heard a shout.
“Ahhh!” He yelled.  As the cry quieted I ran over and didn’t see anything so I started to frantically search. Where was Beau? All of the sudden, I felt a rush of adrenaline and the breeze of a draft as I went down, down, down into an abyss of nothingness.
“Argh!” I woke up in a cold, damp sweat as I set up in my bed. “Whoa!” I thought to myself. Was that really a dream? My memories rushed back to me as I realized that everything was real… but the hole… I remember falling for a long time and then my memory stops. I got out of bed slowly trying to wrap my mind around the events that had just unraveled before me. “Beau!” I said aloud.  I knew he was my partner for the championship, and that he had also fallen in before me, so I was sure he had answers. I ran outside, jumped on my long board, and flew down the road to Beau’s house.
When I arrived I rang the doorbell with urgency as I waited.
“Hello?” Beau answered. “Oh it’s you! This is crazy! Wait… you remember what happened right?” he said with a puzzled look.
“Dude, I can’t even explain this it’s like… I feel…weird…” I started to respond when the weirdest thing happened. My mind went haywire. I could hear thoughts that weren’t mine even though they sound a lot like mine. I couldn’t focus and the other thoughts that were popping into my head gave me a splitting headache.
I started to yell and grab at my head when I realized Beau was going just as crazy as I was. When Beau started to yell and fell to the ground the voice in my head was screaming, “What is going on? What is this voice in my head?”
Suddenly we stopped screaming at the same time as an idea formed in my head. I discovered that I was hearing Beau’s thoughts and he was probably hearing mine. Of course if this were true than Beau would be able to hear my idea and that would explain why we stopped screaming at the exact same time. Beau questioned, “What in the world is going on?”
I was about to reply when I realized that he had not spoken out loud. Finally Beau broke the silence and exclaimed, “Dude! We can hear each other’s’ thoughts!”
“So it seems but how is this possible?”
“I don’t know but this ability could really come in handy someday.”
I eventually decided that it would be best if we got some sleep so we agreed on a time to meet in the morning. As I rode home on my long board the strangest event occurred. I started to see visions. There weren’t just words in my head now, I was seeing images. I saw a black hole about five feet wide. I saw the heat of the airsoft battle as the vivid images raced through my mind. Then it hit me.
“The hole must have done something to our brains!” I shouted aloud as I looked around quickly regretting my outburst. “Why aren’t we back in Denver where the tournament was being held?” I remembered driving to Denver with Beau and spending the night in a hotel room, and then the battle. Something didn’t feel right. We aren’t supposed to be here. Something happened and I was going to find out what.
I came to an abrupt stop and turned around to head to Beau’s house so we could work this out here and now. As I went a large black van pulled up beside me so I kicked my foot harder against the pavement. This was bad. It started to chase me and pulled alongside to my right. I was going really fast now. It came closer and closer to my side as we sped neck in neck down the road. It hit me and I flew off my board. My face hit first. My body twisted and tumbled as I crashed into the sidewalk. I finally stopped and couldn’t move at all. I was in a daze. All I remembered was a big pair of shiny black boots come closer…and closer…and then everything darkened.
“Wake up you stupid grunt!” I was kicked in the side and it hurt all over. I sat up in a state of pain and agony as my entire body throbbed. I glanced to my left, then my right, as I took in my surroundings. I was in a van (probably the same one that almost killed me). I saw Beau sitting on the floor next to me gagged and tied up. I quickly realized I was too. “Now listen up” The voice overhead spoke again. “You two were the first boys of our S.U.P.R program, or state ultimate progression ritual. We take boys like you and trap them in a hole where we do tests on them and try to give them superpowers. Usually our subjects die, but you two just failed. Your ‘treatments’ didn’t affect you at all. But we can’t have you roaming the streets since you know our plan, so we are taking you to be killed. Thank you, and have a great thirty-two minutes left of your life.” The voice clicked as it went silent.
A phase of severe anger swept over me. They can’t kill us! This is stupid! I started to experience something I’ve never experience before. My sight was transforming. All of the sudden I was analyzing everything, seeing its weaknesses and strengths. I whispered to Beau, “Hey, help me untie these bonds. “He grunted as he twisted around and snapped me free. I did the same. The van came to a stop outside, so we quickly pretended we were still gagged. The doors slid open, and we were pulled out roughly and transported to a small dark cell. The man shut the door and we heard a click as the footsteps died off. “We got to get out of here; they’re going to kill us!” Beau said worryingly. “I think I the tests they did on us worked” I exclaimed. “I can see all your weaknesses and strengths and everything about you, and everything in this room. Do you feel any different?” He nodded his head. “I feel stronger,” he said.  “Well, anyways right now I know the fastest way out of here is to pick at the wall under the door slightly to the left. Beau looked at me dumbfounded. “Hey I’ve apparently got super powers now, and so do you,” I winked at him as we started to dig. Sure enough, the door became uneven and the lock broke. We escaped that place within seconds. We snuck around through twists and turns as we came to what I thought looked like an exit. We slipped through the door.
“Welcome Noah and Beau.” It was the bulky man from before, standing in a small room. “You’re just in time to see our new arrival from the pit whom the testing worked on. “More men quickly grabbed us as he clicked on a TV in the corner. A news reporter appeared with a dire look on her face. “This giant roaming the city is a level ten threat, and we advise everyone to get out as fast as you can!” The TV Turned off. “You see guys, we’re trying to take over the world, and it looks to me right now after your dead, no one will be here to stop us.
“Except we aren’t dead yet!” Beau screamed with rage as he slammed into the bulky figure. His newfound strength sent our pursuer flying. He was no longer a threat due to the fact that he was knocked out and would wake up with a dreadful concussion.
“Beau the van!” I exclaimed with urgency. We drove off like madmen. I knew the fastest escape route and I drove like a pro since my new powers made it so I knew all the tricks advantages and tricks to driving. Our capturers didn’t expect our escape and they had no time to chase us down. Fortunately we knew the way home and all though we were alarmed we were uninjured.
It was 12:00 at night when we arrived home. “We need to talk now!” declared Beau. “Agreed,” It took a lot of convincing but we eventually persuaded Beau’s slightly over worried mom to let him spend the night at my house.
“We have to stop that creature who was obviously created by our captors!” I decided with loads of doubt in my voice. “I know but first things first, we have to make a plan.” We decided that we were going to wake up at 5:00 and track the creature down. The glimpse of the video we saw on the news showed that the creature, apparently known as Nasty Nate, was currently terrorizing people at the Incline.
The next morning, as we ran over to Beau’s house to grab our bikes that we left at his house, I realized I had another super power. I had super speed. “Dude, Noah, how did you do that? When we started to run you just disappeared!” “ I don’t know. I somehow just took off; I was at your house before I knew it.” “You have super speed!”  Beau finally concluded.
We left a note for both of our parents saying that we were going on a bike ride and would be back as soon as possible. And then we began our bike ride through Manitou. Nasty Nate was not hard to miss. He was a towering giant who was standing next to the tallest building in Manitou. It was currently chewing on what used to be an ice cream stand. “Are you sure we know what we’re getting into?” I asked Beau for reassurance. None came. “No way! But we have to try!”
“Well in that case Nasty Nate’s only weak spot is on the back of his neck. We only have to touch its weak spot and it will collapse. The hard part will be reaching Nasty Nate’s neck. Any ideas?” I requested hopefully. “Well I have one but it’s a long shot.” “Continue.” “Well if you could distract Nasty Nate with your super speed for long enough, I could take an elevator to the top of the building Nasty Nate’s standing next to. If I’m lucky I’ll have a shot at slamming into Nasty Nate’s neck.” “Sounds like a plan to me,” I agreed reluctantly.
We decided to ditch our bikes and Beau hopped on my shoulders and before we knew it we were only 200 meters away from the devastating creature. “Are you sure your super power isn’t teleporting?” Beau asked with a grin on his face. “Honestly I’m not sure I replied. This super hero thing is kinda new to me,” I replied returning a grin. “Let’s do this! Are you ready?” “As long as you are,” replied Beau. “Ok, get ready”
As I sped around Nasty Nate Beau was just beginning to start running to the near by building. “Come on! Go faster!” Beau yelled at the seemingly motionless elevator.” Nasty Nate sure was distracted. I ran around it, I ran through its legs, and I ran straight at it. Everything was going well until my shirt got snagged on a low hanging tree branch. Nasty Nate reacted with lightning speed. It was going to step on me and I had nowhere to run. It’s foot kept getting closer and closer and it got so close that I thought I was for sure going to die…
It was at that moment that Beau had busted through the window and crashed into Nasty Nate’s neck. Everything went dark…
I awoke in my bed screaming Beau’s name once again. I thought to myself,  “Was I dead? No I was surely alive. We must have defeated Nasty Nate. But what happened to Beau! Was this all a bad dream?” To this day Beau and I believe that we weren’t dreaming because we both remembered our adventure exactly the same. The few people we told our story to thought we were crazy and had never heard of Nasty Nate, but we still knew that our quest had to be real. There were no further signs of our super powers and we went on living our regular life, but we were both secretly prepared to go on another journey with another to stop evil.