Duster looked around. He walked carefully, with his sword drawn, through the dark, cluttered hallway. He walked carefully around the piles of rubble and broken glass. He stepped quietly, as if not to make a sound. This place was filled with Malum, and he didn’t want to be heard. He looked behind him and could barely make out his friend Roy’s face through the darkness.
“Watch out!” Shouted Cordelia. Her gunshot illuminated the hallway so Duster could see her through the darkness.
“What was that?” He asked.
“Just another tiny Malum,” She said. Duster continued down the hallway and looked beside him to see a girl he had never met before. She had long, flowing black hair that went down past her waist.
“Look!” the girl said, pointing forward. He looked forward to see what she was pointing at. He saw it, a faint light at the end of the hallway. It was very cold, but as the group moved toward the light the hallway got warmer. As they reached the door he stopped them. The light was filtering through a small window. Duster tried to look through to make sure it was safe but it was covered in a thick layer of dust on the other side.
“Is it safe?” Roy asked him.
“I’m not sure, I can’t see in there. But get your weapons ready.” Duster told his team. They took a minute, Roy readied his axe, and Cordelia loaded her rifle with more ammo. The strange dark haired girl pulled out her strange, new weapon he had never even heard of. It was a long staff with an intricate design on the top. At the very center of the staff was a beautiful, light red ruby.
“You ready guys?” Duster asked his team. They all nodded in agreement, and with one mighty kick, the door fell down. The door hit the ground with a thud and a cloud of dust erupted from the ground. It took a few minutes for the dust to clear. The team coughed for a few minutes while the dust cleared. They looked forward and they all saw it. “There it is…” Cordelia said in amazement.
“I can’t believe it. It’s really here, the Spero.” Roy said. Then the dark haired girl finally spoke up.
“I can’t believe it. We’ve worked so hard. Take it Duster. Take it so we can finally end thi...” KKRAAAAASSH!!! “AAAAAAH!”
“NO!!” Duster screamed. He sat up. He looked around but could not see anything. It was pitch black, and it took him a moment to realize that he was in his bedroom. As soon as he got out of his bed the lights flipped on. He looked up to see Uncle Wiley standing in the doorway.
“Are you okay?” he asked. “You were screaming.” His uncle was a tall, round older man with short gray hair and a scruffy beard and mustache. He had only one leg because he lost his other one in his research.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” Duster replied. “Just a bad dream.”
“Oh, okay.” He said in his deep, scratchy voice. “I’m going back to bed, do you need anything?”
“No, I’m okay…” Duster told him.
“Okay, goodnight, Duster.” His uncle flipped the lights off and closed the door.
“Goodnight.” Duster shouted after him. He lay back down in his bed. Where were we? He thought to himself. And who was that dark haired girl? Duster tried to get to sleep but he couldn’t stop thinking about his strange dream. Duster was only seventeen years old, and his research was almost complete. He was the average height for his age, but he had awkwardly large feet. He finally stopped telling himself that he would grow into them. He had very dark, deep blue eyes, and light gray hair. He was born with his gray hair, which is why his parents named him Duster. It has been fourteen years since his parents died in the war against the Malum. He was left to live with his uncle, his only living relative, who didn’t go to fight because of his important research. The war started only a few years before he was born. He was only three when they started pulling people from their homes to fight, which is how is parents died. But the war all started when the Malum came up the Bonum and began attacking. Thousands of years ago, people lived all over our huge planet. But they eventually polluted the planet so much that it was no longer safe to live there. As many people as possible were saved and brought up here to the Bonum, where they set up villages and lived together. The Bonum is basically a gigantic plateau, with a completely flat top. Thousands of years have passed since then. And the small villages turned into large communities. The war started when strange things started happening below the humans. The garbage and pollution began to mutate into giant, evil golems. The people called them the Malum. They soon began to climb up the walls and attack the humans. Weapons were nearly useless against them. Their bodies were too hard. A group of scientists got together to figure out how to solve this problem, and what they came up with was astounding. They created a sword with the power to cut through their bodies like a hot knife through butter. Duster's  uncle was one of the scientists who created this legendary blade. They gave this sword to The Bonum's greatest swordsman, Levi Jenkins. With the power of the Spero, Levi wiped out most of the Malum, and they retreated to what the people of The Bonum call the underworld. But soon after, Levi went crazy. The people had no idea why Levi was acting so strangely, so scientists took experiments to see what was wrong with Levi. They found out that it was the strange power of the Spero. So the Spero was hidden in the underworld by a small group of people who were brave enough to go down there. Now Levi lives in a large house that his home town built for him in his honor, and he rarely leaves. Levi is a hero, and he was an amazing man. But now, because of the Spero, there is almost no Levi Jenkins left. He has gone completely crazy. As long as he could remember, Duster has been researching the Spero, trying to figure out its secrets from Uncle Wily’s old research notes. The People of The Bonum think that the Malum are gone, but Duster and Uncle Wily know very well that they will return, and when they do, Duster will go on his long journey to find and use the Spero. Because of his research, and Uncle Wily’s help, he thinks he will be able to control the Spero. And he thinks he will be able to take out the Malum.
Duster finally fell asleep after thinking for what seemed like hours about his strange dream. Only thirty minutes passed until Uncle Wily woke him up to train with his sword.
“Faster!” uncle Wily shouted at him. “Those Malum are big, but they sure can move fast!” Duster tried to move more swiftly, but he couldn’t stop thinking about his dream. Where could that have been? I’ve never seen anywhere on The Bonum that was so dirty. Duster thought. KRRRAAACK!!!
“OWCH!” Duster shouted as Uncle Wily whacked him hard in the knee.
“Pay attention, this will be important one day!” Uncle Wily shouted.
“Sorry, I guess I’m just… distracted.” Duster told his uncle. “It’s that dream I had, it just seemed so real…”
“Yeah, it’s pretty strange.” His uncle told him. “Maybe you should take the day off; you’re too distracted to train anyway. Why don’t you go see if Roy and Cordelia want to go out for breakfast or something? I’m sure Cordelia could help you out with that dream of yours. Doesn’t she study psychology?”
“Yeah, Okay.” Duster told him. “Thank you, sir.” Uncle Wily nodded at Duster, and he ran out of the training room to get his phone, he was excited to see Roy and Cordelia. It had been a while since they last saw each other, lately Duster has been consumed by research and training. He didn’t have as much time to see his friends now that he is older and his training is more serious. But no matter what happened, Roy and Cordelia have always remained his best friends. He picked up his phone and called Cordelia.
“Hello?” She answered in her sweet, caring voice.
“Hey Cordelia, I was wondering if you and Roy wanted to go hang out, and maybe go out for breakfast.” Duster asked her.
“Yeah, we would love too. It might just be you and me because, well you know, it’s really hard to get Roy out of bed.” She told him. Roy was Cordelia’s brother, and the three of them have been best friends for as long as Duster could remember.
“All right, where do you want to meet?” Duster asked her.
“How about the fountain?” She said.
“Yeah, that sounds great. I’ll see you then.”
“Okay, bye.” She hung up. Duster dashed up the stairs to his bedroom, where he quickly changed out of his training gear. He was so excited to see his friends. They always had so much fun together. He remembered back to when Roy pushed him into the fountain in the middle of town, and Duster grabbed Roy’s arm and pulled him in with him. Then when Cordelia wasn’t paying attention they both reached out and pulled her in. He wished he hadn’t been so consumed by his research. He missed getting to see them so often. At least I still get to see them at all. He thought to himself. He could not wait, after quickly grabbing his shoes and his sword he quickly dashed out of his room and down the stairs. Almost everybody in New Chicago carried a weapon with them at all times. This was because of the dangerous animals that lived outside of the town. Every so often, a really big one would wonder into the town and they would have to work together to kill it. But it was still better than fighting the Malum. The thought of having to fight one frightened Duster. They were so repulsive, so fearsome. A Malum’s war cry is enough to scare even the manliest man. But Duster had other things to worry about, making sure he didn’t make a fool of himself in front of Cordelia. It hasn’t always been like this, but a few years ago, Duster found out that girls were pretty, especially his friend Cordelia. Ever since then he couldn’t help but doing embarrassing things in front of her. Like when they were going for a walk through the nearby forest and he was so distracted by trying to act cool, he ran into a beehive hanging from a low branch. He ran away screaming and got stung multiple times all over the place. Cordelia found this very funny, and it’s really hard to act cool when people keep bringing up embarrassing stuff like that. So Duster stopped trying to act cool, and just being Duster. And this has actually been working out pretty well. The only problem is that he is still super clumsy, but he has learned to laugh at himself. Duster darted through the familiar streets of New Chicago, waving at people he knew from his childhood as he ran past. Eventually he ran out of breath and trudged the rest of the way to the fountain. The fountain was large and round. It was in the very center of the town, and all of the best shops and restaurants were around the fountain. He sat on the bench outside of the best place in town to get breakfast, because he knew they would go here to eat. He sat there for a while waiting for his friends. He knew it would take a while to get Roy out of bed. He eventually got tired of waiting and walked next door to the game dungeon. The game dungeon was a huge arcade where all of the classic arcade games on The Bonum were gathered. Back when it was safe to go down to the underworld, people used to go down and bring back artifacts from Earthling culture, and that's how these games came to be on The Bonum. People from all over came to play this classic collection of games. I was dark, with only black lights and neon signs lighting up the whole arcade. When Duster wasn’t hanging out with his friends or doing research, he was here, so Roy and Cordelia would know to find him here. He was really bad at most of the games except for the one in the back with the short man in red overalls climbing metal scaffolding to het his girlfriend back from the huge ape. Duster had no idea what most of these games were called because the outsides were so scratched up. He ran to the very back and began playing. He watched as the big ape climbed up the ladders and bounced around to make the scaffolding fall down, and then the familiar music started. He recognized the pattern immediately, and beat the first level easily. He must have played for at least fifteen minutes. He bit down hard on his lip as the difficulty grew. He was about to reach a new high score when Roy grabbed him from behind and dragged him to the ground like he always did. He tried to reach for the jump button but it was too late, game over.
“Hey, how are you?” Roy asked as he sat on top of him.
“Ha! I’m fine, get off me! Ow!” Duster shouted.
“Ha-ha! Wow, it has been a while, is your research doing well?” Roy asked him.
“Yeah, it has been going great.” Duster finally got out from under Roy and stood up. Roy stood up and Duster looked up at his taller best friend. He had shorter, messy red hair. He was very tall and muscular due to his training to fight in New Chicago‘s army. He wore green, baggy pocket pants and a black tank top. His large, powerful axe sat on his back.
“It’s great that old man Wily gave you the day off.” He told Duster.
“There you guys are!” they turned to the side and they saw Cordelia walking towards them. “Jeez Roy, I’ve never seen you move so fast.” As she walked towards them her beautiful, dark red hair swayed behind her back. Her dark brown eyes sparkled from the light of the neon signs. He wore white flip flops with a black skirt and an old blue t shirt she has had for the longest time. Her long, powerful rifle was perched on her back.
"Wow, Roy. How did you get so fast...” she was out of breath from chasing her brother through the streets of New Chicago.
"Sorry Cordelia." Roy told his sister. "I was just excited to see Duster."
"Yeah, me too. So how have you been Duster?" she asked him.
"I've been great. How are you guys? Has your training been doing well?"
"Yeah, we've been great." Cordelia said.
"Speak for yourself; my back is all twisted up from all of the general's training drills." Roy told her.
"So where do you guys want to go to eat?" she asked them.
"Do you even need to ask anymore?" Roy asked. They always went to the same place. "Okay, let's go." she told them. They walked out of the arcade and down the street, talking about their training and recalling memories of their childhood. That's when they heard it.
"SCREEEEEEEEAAAWK!!!!" Cordelia screamed at the sight of the giant Malum and its smaller minions circling the town like buzzards. Then the shrill siren started sounding, telling the citizens to get inside.
"Quick guys, lets head back to my house. It’s closest." Roy started running but Cordelia could not move. Just the sight of the Malum scared the humans to death.
"Come on guys!" Roy shouted back at Cordelia and Duster. Duster reached back and grabbed Cordelia's hand and started running. He led her through the alleys, following Roy and trying to avoid people rushing to their homes. Then they started landing. There were about thirty of the smaller ones, but they weren't really small. They were just smaller than the giant one. KRRRRACKK!!! Cordelia and Duster fell down as one landed right behind them and ripped up large chunks of sidewalk. Duster looked up in horror as the Malum reached up into the air to smash Duster into the ground. Just before the giant, meaty fist smashed down on top of Duster, Roy ran back and stopped the giant arm with his mighty axe. Roy almost couldn't take the pressure of the giant fist pushing down harder on his axe, but he eventually knocked the giant beast off balance and it fell into the side of a building.
"Get up, I need help!" Roy shouted at them. Duster and Cordelia got up and pulled their weapons off of their backs. The nine foot tall Malum got up and crawled out of the destroyed flower shop. It rushed toward Cordelia but Duster rolled behind it and attacked it from behind. Their attacks barely did anything to it but it was all they could do. The huge beast fell onto its stomach and Roy delivered a devastating blow to its back. This just made it angrier. And with its long, powerful arm it knocked them all to the ground. It grabbed them all in its one giant hand and held them to the ground. It reached up with its giant arm to crush them.
"I- ugh, I-I'm s-s-sorry." Cordelia croaked. KABOOOOOOOOM!!!! Duster looked up and saw the huge Malum fall back onto the ground. KABOOOOOOOM!!!! The Malum was shot a second time in the head by the huge, military tank.
"GO! RUN!" shouted the soldier driving the huge tank. Duster Roy and Cordelia got up and tried to run back to Duster's house, but Duster tripped and hit his head on the ground. His head went fuzzy and he could barely see. He tried to get back up but he fainted and collapsed on the ground.

"D-.... D-ster....Duster! Wake up!" Duster looked up to see Uncle Wily, Cordelia, Roy, and some girl with long black hair he had never seen before. She wore a white jacket and very short blue shorts. On her back was a strange staff with an intricate design with a light red ruby in the middle. The girl looked very familiar but Duster couldn't figure out where he has seen her before. Duster got up and out of his bed, and everyone backed away to give him some space.
"What happened?" Duster asked.
"Roy ran you here on his back while the army took care of that Malum." Uncle Wily told him.
"Th-the army?" Duster asked. Then he remembered what happened. "Oh yeah, the Malum attacked. Wow. So what does this mean?" Duster asked.
"Oh, Duster, thank you!" Cordelia ran up and tightly hugged him. She was crying. "I don't want to think about what could have happened if you didn't notice that I was scared. I was completely paralyzed with fear, I couldn't move. Thank you Duster." She finally let go of Duster. She had been squeezing him so tightly he couldn't breathe.
"I-uh-um..." Duster mumbled.
"Now is not the time for thanking each other. You have a job to do." Uncle Wily told them.
"He's right. We need to get started with the plan." Roy said.
"Wait, what are you talking about, what plan?" Duster had no idea what they were talking about.
"Duster, it's time to do what you've trained so many years to do." Uncle Wily told him. "You are to sneak down to the underworld and find the Spero."
"Wait, really?" He asked. Duster was starting to get anxious. He has been training for this ever since he went to live with Uncle Wily. He was excited, but anxious at the same time.
"Your friends Cordelia and Roy will accompany you on your quest. Along with Morgan here." He gestured towards the girl with the long black hair. "She came here from New San Francisco. She is to be your guide to find the Spero." he informed Duster.
"Wait, she's from New San Francisco? That's a three day drive. How long was I out?" Duster asked in a panic. "And how does she know where the Spero is?"
"She is the daughter of my friend Louie, who was also one of the scientists who worked on the Spero." He told Duster. "When it was hidden Louie and I decided that I would train someone to use the Spero, and he would train someone to find it. Louie and Morgan have been sneaking down to the underworld for years, and one year ago, they finally found it. Hidden in a destroyed building."
"Okay, so what's the plan?" Duster asked.
"Find the Spero, come back, and use the Spero." Uncle Wily told him.
"We may not come back," Morgan said. "But at least there is hope for the humans as long as we are alive."
"When do we leave?" Duster asked in the bravest, coolest voice he could make.
"Immediately." Uncle Wily told him. Duster could not get over how cool that last bit sounded.

"So how do we get down to the Underworld?" Roy asked. "My feet are killing me!" They had just left New Chicago and had walked for about three miles.
"We are almost there," Morgan told him. "There is an abandoned cargo elevator at the edge of The Bonum in about a mile."
"UUUUUUGG!" Roy moaned. "Why couldn't they put like a moving sidewalk or something?"
"So Morgan," Cordelia said. "How exactly do we get to the Spero?"
"We walk for about an hour to the West until we get to a trashed, old city." Morgan told her. "At the center of the town there is a huge building with the doors blocked off. There is a broken window on the second story that we will have to climb up. But don't worry about that, I have my staff." She gestured to the long staff strapped on her back. "Then we have to make it to the basement and in a hidden door there is a long hallway that takes you to the room holding the Spero."
"You mentioned your staff, what does that thing do?" Duster asked her. He had been very quiet for most of the long walk. He had a lot on his mind. He was still trying to figure out where he had seen Morgan before, because he had never been to New San Francisco. And he was very anxious about using the Spero. He was afraid that he wouldn't be able to control it, and it would make him crazy like Levi Jenkins.
"It's an energy staff. It draws energy from living creatures and allows me to bend it to do my bidding. There it is, just up ahead!" Said Morgan. She pointed towards the old, rusty cargo elevator. "Here, but these masks on. The air is safe to breathe up here on The Bonum, but if you take these off in the underworld, you are as good as dead." Duster put on the strange, ugly mask as he was told and stepped onto the elevator. It creaked under his feet and he swore he saw some old nuts fall out.
"Morgan, are you sure this is safe?" Duster nervously asked.
"Don't worry; I do this all the time. Hold on to something guys." She told them.
"Wait, what?" Roy Duster and Cordelia all said at the same time. Morgan pulled the lever on the elevator and it fell at an alarming speed. They looked down and saw the underworld rising up towards them. As the ground raised closer and closer the elevator slowed down and came to a complete stop at the bottom.
"Ha-ha!" Morgan laughed. "The looks on your faces were hilarious!" The door to the elevator opened up and they stepped out. Duster, Roy, and Cordelia could barely walk because they were so dizzy, but Morgan was fine. "Ha-ha! You guys are just-ha! Wow!" They all started walking to the west like Morgan said, and what they saw was disgusting. There were huge piles of garbage everywhere. And they could only see about one hundred feet in front of them because of the thick brown fog. There were huge lakes, but they were black and thick. It didn't even look like water anymore. They were all completely speechless.
"I know, I never get used to the things I see down here. It's disgusting." Morgan told them. "We need to keep our voices down and walk carefully; this place is crawling with Malum." They walked for a very long time. The masks may have been filtering out the toxins in the air, but they could still smell everything. They did not talk much on the long walk so the Malum would not notice them. Every so often they would hear one screeching, or see one quickly swoop past. After almost an hour of walking they saw the first building, or what was left of it. It had completely fallen over. It left rubble all over the ground near it. After walking around the huge, toppled building, they entered the city. There was an unbelievable amount of malum in the city, and they could not make a sound. They walked even deeper into the city, seeing more and more Malum the farther they walked. They finally made it to the center of the city and looked up at by far the largest building they had passed so far. Morgan let them around the side of the building, where they saw the broken window up above.
"Watch this." Morgan whispered to them. Morgan closed her eyes and concentrated. She grabbed her staff from the strap on her back and with one wave; Roy was floating in mid air. Duster was amazed. He had never seen something so cool before. Morgan gently lifted Roy to the window and let him down inside of the building. She then repeated this with Cordelia and Duster. It felt so weird, being lifted up into the air by something you could not see. It was a very strange feeling. Morgan set them down inside the window, and then she glided herself up and they worked together to pull her in. It was very dark. They could barely see at all.
"Down this hallway is an elevator," Morgan told them. "That elevator can take us down to the basement. Do not make too much noise at all; this place is like a Malum nest. It is mostly just tiny ones the size of your shoe, but they are still very dangerous because they attack in groups." They walked down the dark hallway. Every now and then they could hear the small Malum growling, only to realize that they were growling at another small Malum that was trying to steal its food. The hallway seemed to go on forever because of how frightened they all were, but they eventually made it to the elevator. They all stepped inside and the doors closed behind them. Morgan pushed a button that had the letter "B" on it and the elevator started to move down. When the doors finally opened they could feel the cool air of the dark basement. Morgan led them to a black, brick wall at the very back of the basement.
"Check this out," Morgan said. "We found this trick out from a small note we found in a room on one of the upper floors." Morgan pushed the bricks in a seemingly random order, and to their surprise, the wall parted in the middle and opened up a long, dark hallway. Duster stepped into the hallway, only to find that it was freezing cold in there. Duster looked around. He walked carefully, with his sword drawn, through the dark, cluttered hallway. He walked carefully around the piles of rubble and broken glass. He stepped quietly, as if not to make a sound. This place was filled with Malum, and he didn’t want to be heard. He looked behind him and could barely make out his friend Roy’s face through the darkness.
“Watch out!” Shouted Cordelia. Her gunshot illuminated the hallway so Duster could see her through the darkness.
“What was that?” He asked.
“Just another tiny Malum.” She said. Duster continued down the hallway and looked beside him to see Morgan. This all seemed very familiar, but Duster couldn't figure out where he had seen this before.
“Look!” Morgan said, pointing forward. He looked forward to see what she was pointing at. He saw it, a faint light at the end of the hallway. It was very cold, but as the group moved toward the light the hallway got warmer. As they reached the door he stopped them. The light was filtering through a small window. Duster tried to look through to make sure it was safe but it was covered in a thick layer of dust on the other side.
“Is it safe?” Roy asked him.
“I’m not sure, I can’t see in there. But get your weapons ready.” Duster told his team. They took a minute, Roy readied his axe, and Cordelia loaded her rifle with more ammo. Morgan pulled out her energy staff.
“You ready guys?” Duster asked his team. They all nodded in agreement, and with one mighty kick, the door fell down. The door hit the ground with a thud and a cloud of dust erupted from the ground. It took a few minutes for the dust to clear. The team coughed for a few minutes while the dust cleared. They looked forward and they all saw it.
“There it is…” Cordelia said in amazement.
“I can’t believe it. It’s really here. The Spero.” Roy said. They looked forward at the intricately designed hilt, and the perfect blade. There was a long hole in the middle of the blade, stopping at the tip. This hole was filled with a strange green light. The sword looked as if it was made of gold and silver, and it shone from the light coming from the small lamp hanging from the ceiling. That was when Duster remembered the dream he had.
"NO! LOOK OUT!" Duster shouted. He dived forward and tackled Roy, Cordelia, and Morgan back into the hallway. KRRRAAAASHHH!!!!! They looked back and saw a gigantic Malum standing tall over them. Its arms came into huge, razor sharp spikes. It had six, dark red eyes and jagged, pointed teeth. It had very small legs, so it used its giant, long arms to help support it. It flapped its huge wings and it blew little bits of rubble at them. It let out a loud, ear piercing scream and began its attack. Duster and his friends sprung into action. It swung its large fist low to take out Duster's legs but he jumped over it. He tried to put all of his power behind one, devastating blow, but his sword just bounced off. It had no effect. Duster fell back as the huge, meaty arm took another swing at him and it hit him square in the chest. He fell back, and looked up to see that his friends' weapons had no effect as well. Duster frantically looked around to find the Spero. He thought he saw it glimmering somewhere to  his right, but he got distracted by the giant Malum's second war scream. He looked up as it lifted its powerful arm to impale him. Just before it hit Duster, Morgan used her energy staff to knock its arm off course. It landed in the ground next to him and he rolled to his left and stood up. He lifted his weapon and noticed that the beast had its arm stuck in the ground. Duster took this opportunity to repeatedly slash at it but again it did nothing. He needed the Spero. He dashed around the Malum's hand and ran towards where he thought he saw the Spero glimmering. he saw the handle sticking out of the ground and grabbed it. When Duster grabbed the legendary sword it released a huge flash of light, and Duster felt this wave of power go through him. He pulled the blade out of the rubble and ran back to the Malum's hand that was still stuck in the ground. He jumped on top of its hand and ran up the monster's arm. When he got to the shoulder he turned around, and with one mighty slash, the Malum's entire arm was gone. The beast screamed and tried to shake Duster off. Duster jumped and slid down the Malum's back, slicing off its wings as he fell. He landed just behind the Malum and he whipped around and took out both of its legs. At this point Roy, Cordelia, and Morgan had stopped trying to help and just watched as the gigantic beast fell to the floor, and watched Duster deliver the finishing blow to the Malum's back. Duster looked up and saw the army of smaller Malum running towards him and his friends. He jumped over to Roy, Cordelia, and Morgan and got ready for the long fight ahead. And as him and his friends were slashing away at these smaller Malum, easily killing them, Duster thought to himself, everything is going to be just fine.