“You are Xelsis 4 from the Outer Universe, are you not?”
“Yes,” replied the girl standing to face the ten hooded figures seated on the throne-like chairs.
“We are the Keepers, the Supreme Council of the Universe, and we have a task for you.”
The girl Xelsis directed her eyes towards the Keepers. A powerful ray was sent between them.

“Yes, Xelsis 4, you must go to the planet Earth. It is a small planet in the old universe. It is in danger of being destroyed by an Asteroid Hail which is unknown to Earth people. We have our reasons for keeping the planet Earth and it is your task to save it.”
“But I don’t look like an Earth person,” said Xelsis 4.
“But you will,” replied the largest hooded figure. “We are giving you one Earth week to remodel yourself and study the ways of Earth people, then you will set off to achieve your task.”

The Chief Keeper pressed a button and a large screen was projected on to the wall. It showed an Earth girl about fifteen Earth years old.
“This is what you will become.”Xelsis 4 looked at the picture. It showed a strange creature with only one small head - what a small brain it must have! It had two arms and two legs and a very strange-shaped body. And the face! It had only two eyes, a very small mouth and something in the centre of its face which made it look very ugly.

The Keeper looked at Xelsis 4. "Yes, they look strange don't they? This is called a nose. Earth people need them for breathing and smelling."
The second Keeper addressed Xelsis 4.
"Do not despair. You will look like an Earth girl but you will be allowed to keep your own powers to help you in your task. But you must only use your powers for this and for no other reason."
"I understand," replied the girl.
"You will take the Earth name 'Elly' and you will assimilate into a school for other young Earthlings. This is your mission Xelsis 4 - do not fail us!"One week later…

"Hello, you're new here, aren't you?" said an Earth boy to Elly.
"Yes," said Elly. "It all feels so strange."
"Don't worry, you'll soon get used to it. We all do! I'm Sandeep by the way."
A shrill bell rang and Elly had to cover her ears.
"Come on or we'll be late for maths and Mr Pearson will have a fit!"

They walked along an endless white corridor. It was filled with the strange Earth boys and girls that Elly had studied before she arrived on Earth. How uncivilised they were! They were all shouting and shoving each other. None of her friends did that at home. And how weird they looked with their noses in the middle of their faces. And they all had hair on their heads! Red, brown, yellow, black - lots of different hair. Their eyes too - they weren't purple like hers. And now Elly looked like them - brown eyes and brown hair.

As they walked further along the school corridor Elly studied them all closely. They had funny legs too, she decided. Their legs were in two parts joined together by joints called 'knees' and each leg ended in a foot with five things on called 'toes'. Well, there was no accounting for some of the strange creatures living in the universe. And now here she was in their world about to go into a lesson called 'maths'.Elly and Sandeep went into a large room with big windows. There were about twenty-five other Earthlings there. She sat down at a table near the front of the class. A large, red man came in and stood at the front. Elly stared. He was just so red! His face was red, his hair was red and his two large ears were red.

"That's Mr Pearson," whispered Sandeep, "the maths teacher."
"Ah," he said loudly, "you must be the new girl. What's your name?'
"Elly," she replied.
"Well, Elly, today the class is having a test so let's see what you know about maths."

The students in the class fell silent as the teacher handed out the test papers. They sat and worked at their papers, with puzzled looks on their faces and chewing their pencils. Elly wrote her Earth name for the first time. What a strange way of communicating she thought. Why don't they just look into your mind? But then she remembered that Earth people couldn't do that.

Elly laughed when she saw the questions. What baby stuff they learnt here! She wrote all the answers in three minutes and put her pencil down on the table. The red-faced teacher looked at her.
"Ha! No good at maths, hey?"
He walked over to her desk and picked up the test paper. He couldn't believe his eyes. He walked back to his own desk muttering.
"She must be cheating. It's impossible…only fifteen."Elly sat there for the rest of the lesson and then the shrill bell rang again. The students got up and rushed out of the door into the moving mass in the corridor. All except Sandeep.

"Come on, it's break now," he said. "I'll show you where to go!"
They went outside into the school yard. Again the young Earthlings were jumping around and shouting.

A group of Earth boys watched her.
"Ah, look at Sandeep getting all friendly with Miss Weirdo Swotty!" said Brian Nelson.
"Look at her pointy ears! What a weirdo!" said Lee Baxter.
"Leave her alone!" said Sandeep.
"Ooo, trying to protect Miss Smarty Pants are we?" said Brian.
Elly held up her arm in front of Sandeep and pushed him back. She faced the two boys.
"Ha, ha! She thinks she's brave too!" said Lee.

Elly held out her two arms in front of her. Her powers flowed through her arms, her wrists and her fingertips, and she sent a blast towards the two boys. They flew up into the air and came down 'thud' against a brick wall. They both collapsed into a heap. Elly walked away with Sandeep.

Wow, Elly, how did you do that? They are the school's two biggest bullies!"
"Well, they won't be any more," she replied.
Inside her head Elly heard a voice. 'No powers Elly… only for your mission.'Elly spent the rest of the morning in strange lessons like 'technology' (she thought this was studying antiques), geography which was studying different bits of the earth, and music when the young Earthlings made horrible noises called 'singing'. She was glad when the lessons were over.

The shrill bell rang again and Sandeep took her to the school canteen for lunch. All the food was very odd. She ate a triangle of something bizarre called 'pizza' and drank a horrible drink which they called 'cola'. They sat at a table in the canteen. In the corner the television was on. The news came on but Elly didn't understand much of it, then the weather forecast. She watched it intensely. The weather man was reporting strange stormy activity over all the continents of the world, from Africa to Asia.

A voice in her head said, 'Elly, this is the time.'
She stood up and went outside the school building. She walked out into the large green open space away from the buildings and the trees. She stood in the centre of the field, waiting.Elly looked up into the sky. It was darkening at the edges. It was very still and quiet. And then she heard a rumbling noise and saw a flash of light. The first one came quite suddenly out of the darkness. Elly raised her arms and focused her eyes and directed her forces against it. Silver flashes filled the sky and the asteroid exploded. Then she saw the hail - a whole cloud of asteroids of all sizes approaching.

She concentrated fully with her mind, her eyes, her Earth body and her own powers given by her people in the outer reaches of the universe. One by one asteroids forming the hail flashed silver light and then exploded into smithereens and floated harmlessly down to Earth.

Elly sat down. She was exhausted but her mission was accomplished. The Earth was safe and life here would continue. She stood up and turned around. Sandeep stood there staring at her with his mouth open.
"Goodbye, Earth friend!" she called and then concentrated her mind for her journey back through space.

Sandeep watched as she dissolved into a shimmer of coloured light. Then the field was empty.
"Wow!' he said,' Wondergirl saves the world!.. but where is she now?"