Chapter 1

A Very Normal Kid 

Hi, I am Max Raniolo and I'm very normal.You might say, I bet he’s not that normal. Well, I am, at least in comparison to everyone else in my neighborhood. At recess, all the boys gather in the restroom just to make jokes about Ohio, or something. My younger brother, Mason, is no different. He eats an average of two Jumbo Gummy Bears a day.

One day, I was at school when James came to me. "I'm just realizing, you are probably the most normal kid in this school," he said. "Will you ever change?" "Probably not," I said. And I was wrong.

After school, my family were going to my grandma’s house. Mason was super excited, because grandma always gave us treats, like Chocolate Hershey Bars and Nerds. As I’d turn to chapter four in my graphic novel the sound of heavy rain hitting the top of the car woke up Mason.

As I’d turn to chapter four in my graphic novel the sound of heavy rain hitting the top of the car woke up Noah. “Are we there yet?” Mason muttered. “Not yet, honey,” replied Mom. “Can you turn on The Beatles Radio?” asked Mason. “Sure,” Mom answered. The song playing is Yellow Submarine, but the rain was so loud I could barely hear the chorus, and it didn’t help that the sound of thunder crackled every twenty seconds. 

When we arrived at grandma’s, it was still pouring, and we had to run to the house, and quickly knock on the door, because grandma doesn’t even have a doorbell. Once we got inside, grandma took our coats and hats, and hung them up. “Can I have candy?” Mason asked. “Not until you finish your Dinner”, grandma said. “You can go play upstairs with some of your father’s old toys”, Grandma Insisted. “Ok”, Mason said, as he ran up the stairs eager to pass time. “I’ll join him,” I said.

 I followed Mason up the stairs, and Mason had asked if I wanted to play with him, but I said no. I went to the bedroom to read a book. “Hey kids, I think you need some entertainment,” grandma had suggested as she leveled up the stairs. “What about a story?” “Stories are boring,” Mason whined. “I’ll listen,” I said. “I guess I’ll listen, too,” Mason said.

 “Once Upon a Time, there was a General, the Bravest General of all time, Max Da Great! He fought vicious Germanic Barbarians in the Battle of Lightning!” grandma explained. The word Lightning sent shivers up my spine. I wasn’t scared of a lot of things, but lightning was my breaking point. “He fought with his mighty dagger, but it was never recovered after the Battle of Lightning,” grandma continued. “After the battle, he retired and wrote an autobiography, and I have one of the only copies ever made”! “Can I read it?” I asked. “Sure,” said grandma. “Now I’ll go help your mom cook, before she burns down the house.”

As I entered my bedroom, I went to go read on the top bunk bed where my cousins usually sleep. After getting comfortable, I read a few more chapters of my graphic novel when, KABOOM! Lightning struck. I panicked, so I tried getting down using the ladder, but it was so old that when I put my foot on it, it had fallen to the ground. I had one last option, to jump. I got ready and ran to the other side of the bed for momentum and jumped, but I hit my head on the ceiling. My eyes were blurry. My vision spiraled then everything went black.

Chapter 2

Our story begins.

I woke up in a tent, wearing ancient armor. “What the?” I spoke. I was just getting onto my feet when someone ran right through the cloth entrance. “General Max da Great, Sir,” the person said. “Who are you?” I asked. “I am General Niko Sonic, but you can call me Niko. The kids back in Rome call me that because I never lost a race,” answered Niko. “Wait, Rome?! What year is it?” I panicked. “900 C.E., you must have been having your nightmares again, come on let’s go,” said Niko. “Yeah, let’s go I guess,” I said. I’m now in 900 C.E. and I’m a general. We stopped at a man saluting me. “Who are you?” I asked. “Why he’s your top Captain, Captain William,” Niko Introduced. It was hard to understand what they were saying, since the Romans spoke a foreign language called “Latin.” Luckily, I got an A+ on my language test at school.

William spoke to his army then we started marching. After about six minutes, I had the feeling we were marching towards something. “Where are we going?” I asked. “Towards a tribe called the Mutig. They’re enemies of the Germanic Barbarians who we are currently at war with,” Niko explained. “What!?” I yelled. I couldn’t fight, let alone be at war! I was only 11 years old! “Come on, you got this, especially with that awesome knife you got there,” he said. Suddenly, the crack of lightning made me jump. I was so happy that the storm was towards the forest. “If we keep walking for 20 minutes, we should get there by dinner,” said William, but I didn’t want to keep going, especially with the lightning. “We should stop and take camp here,” I suggested.

“Why?” William asked. “Because the trail will get muddy,” I explained. “Ok,” William said. “We will stop and take camp.”

We ate pork around a campfire. “Now who wants to hear the story of The Man Who Fought the Lightning!?” Niko asked. “I do,” said a soldier. “Ok, one day a Punic man was finished selling fish in a port in Carthage, when a storm raged,” Niko began. “Rain was coming down like swooping hawks and the waves were as tall a 6-foot wall and then lightning! ‘No lightning can destroy me!’ he yelled angrily, so he fought the lightning. It took him four days when the lightning finally gave in. That man was known as The Man Who Fought the Lightning.” That was an interesting story, I thought. After the story we all went to sleep.

Chapter 3

The First Encounter

We started marching the next morning. I was relieved that we did not march through the storm. Suddenly, a bush rustled. I shuddered, maybe it’s a barbarian, I thought. “Who goes there,” asked Niko. “It is just me,” said a man coming out of the bush with a German accent. “Oh, sorry Stu,” apologized Niko. “Stu, meet my comrades. Max Da Great and William.” “Max da Great, this is Stu, leader of the Mutig tribe.” After a moment of explaining the plans to Stu we set out with Stu leading the way. We marched for a while when an arrow hit Niko’s helmet. “What happened?” asked Niko. “There is an arrow on your helmet,” explained Stu. “But it isn’t not a Mutig arrow or a Roman arrow, which means… Barbarians!” William yelled.

“Stu, Max Da Great, hide behind those trees with me!” ordered Niko. “Aim arrows, and release!” William commanded to his men. Arrows were going left and right, and I couldn’t see who was winning. “Bear swords and charge!” William yelled. All of William soldiers were charging into the woods to go fight the barbarians. “I’ll join them,” said Stu as he pulled out two tomahawks from his belt and ran into the trees.

About four minutes later William, Stu, and the rest of the army returned. “Status,” ordered Niko. “Twelve wounded, sir,” William reported. “That little skirmish was about four and a half minutes, so we should make it by, uh, 22 hundred hours,” said Stu. 

When we got to the rest of the tribe, we set up camp, because all the soldiers were tired. On the way there I noticed that I’ve been carrying a book. Apparently, it was the autobiography I had written.

I started reading it, and it said that I got “my” name, because I was born outside the town of Great, Sicily. 

Even though I was born Roman I had Carthaginian or Punic genes in me, so Romans didn’t like me at first, but when I won my first victory as a general at the Battle of Gaul, they said I was a great general because I was from Great and in Italian “Da” means “from”. So, from then on, I was known as Max da Great.

The next day we met at Stu’s home to discuss battle plans. “How much men do you have, Stu?” Niko asked. “200, you?” answered Stu. “450,” Niko replied. “Our spies have said that the barbarian base is at Rango 17,” I said as I pointed to the location on the map. “We’ve also heard that they have a force 1,000.” “That’s way more than our force!” Stu exclaimed. “Plus, the attack date of September 17 might be a thunderstorm!”

“Sir a scout wants to talk to you,” said a guard. “Bring him in,” Niko said. “Sir, we have gotten information that Roman prisoners will be executed tomorrow at 2:00 pm,” said the scout. “When is the attack date?” I spoke. “Tomorrow,” said Stu. “You mean the thunderstorm day?” I asked quietly. “Yes,” said Niko. 

“Listen maybe we can attack the day after tomorrow,” I said. “But our men will be gone by then!” Niko exclaimed. “Why do you avoid storms so much?” asked Niko.

"Well.."

"Why?"

"Uh..."

"Why?"

"Because.."

"Because what?!"

“Because I’m scared of lightning okay,” I spit out. “Oh, well why didn’t you tell me earlier,” said Niko. “Because I was scared, but now I see, that I can’t just be scared anymore,” I said. “I can’t let our own men die, because I was to chicken to go through a little storm! Tomorrow, we’ll put on a full-scale invasion to save our boys.”

Chapter 5

On The Hill

I woke up to the smell of humid air. Every step William and his soldiers took, made a squishing sound in the mud. Halfway there, it started to drizzle, then rain, then pour. All my armor was soaked, and it was even worse with Stu’s soldiers, because they barely had any fur to cover their chest. It was about to get even worse. 

Two minutes later, we came across a giant, muddy, and steep hill. “Oh my gosh,” Niko said. First Stu’s troops marched up but struggled. Then came the catapults and horses. “So, then I said, “Niko was telling me a story but then froze in fear. I looked at the hill and one of the catapults was sliding down the hill! “Get out of the way!” Niko yelled. I got my horse to back up right before the catapult fell off the hill and landed with loud, muddy, splash. 

“This isn’t going to be easy, “I said.

 While we were marching up the hill, my horse’s hooves sunk into the mud with every step and the soldiers got mud up to their ankle. When we finally got to the top, I saw a large and thick forest. “There base should be about there,” Niko said as he pointed to certain point in the forest. “Get ready to use your knife, because I’ve fought these guys before I was with you, and they’re dangerous.”

Getting down the hill was even worse, I had to get off my horse and do an awkward sideways walking motion. I was halfway down when I saw two soldiers hiding in the trees. “Hey William, are those your guys,” I asked. “No, those aren’t mine… wait a minute,” William said. 

“Barbarians! You two, Jean and Joseph, go seize them and then bring them here.” The two soldiers ran down the hill and then chased the barbarians into the woods. After a while a loud crack echoed and then a tree fell. “What the heck are they doing down there?” Niko asked William. “I genuinely have no idea,” William answered. 

Ten minutes later, the two soldiers came back with only one barbarian. “What happened to the other one,” I asked. “The tree fell on him, we don’t think he survived,” said one of the two. “What is your name?” William asked the barbarian. "Was zum Teufel hast du gesagt?!” the Barbarian said. “What did he say?” William asked Niko. “I don’t know, but I know someone who might,” Niko said.

Niko brought over Stu as a translator. “German is my native language you know,” Stu said. “Wie heissen sie?” After a long conversation, Stu told us what he was saying. “His name is Han, he is 13, and he was drafted into his service and was forced to be a spy,” Stu said. “Oh, ask him if would like to join our side, he might have some valuable information,” I said. “Möchten Sie sich uns anschließen?” Stu asked. “Ja,” said Han. “He said yes,” Stu translated. “Ok, let’s do this,” I said. 

Chapter 6

The Battle of Lightning

The stage was set, 650 soldiers ready to attack 1,000 barbarians in the Battle of Lightning! I got off my horse and stepped in front of the army. “Today, us Romans and Mutigians are gathered here to join me, General Max da Great, General Niko Sonic, Captain William, and Chief Stu to fight off the evil Germanic Barbarians,” I spoke. “And we might succeed, and we might not, but if there is one thing is certain. We will try our best to kick these barbarians, out of here!” Both Roman and Mutigian soldiers clapped their hands in applaud.

At 1:00 pm I gave William the signal to charge. “Charge!” William commanded. “Vorwärts!” ordered Stu. I pulled out my knife and followed behind William. When they got to the base, I took in a big gulp. It had tall wooden walls. “Eindringlinge, schießt!” a barbarian officer said when he saw the army. 

Arrows started to rain down on us. “Take cover!” Niko ordered. I hid behind a tree, which was the wrong decision. I hid behind the tree for my life, but I think it was about to end it. A strike of lightning struck the tree I was hiding behind. It fell right in the direction I was standing. I tried to run, but I was too late I was stuck. I couldn’t get out from under it no matter how hard I tried; it was just too heavy. While I was struggling a barbarian came out of the fortress to finish me. “Oh dear,” I said. As the barbarian came closer and closer, I tried harder and harder. When the barbarian got to me, I thought it was the end.

Then, out of nowhere Niko came to the rescue and pounced on the barbarian. Niko pulled out his sword and swung. He missed, and he kept missing until the barbarian kicked onto a tree. Then Stu and Han came to help him. “You guys help Max, I’ll take care of this son of a sword,” said Niko