Guardians of the Galaxy meets Minecraft in the second installment of this hilarious sci-fi series. After narrowly escaping death and saving Paragon from destruction, Elara Adele Vaughn is back in action to start her second year at the Seven Systems Academy of Terraforming Arts. But she's done being a hero this time around--Elara just wants to learn how to build new worlds with her best friends Knot, Beezle, Sabik, and her alien-sponge roommate, Clare. But when an evil time-hopping force threatens to take down the galactic order, Elara's "normal" school year might turn into something weird. But what's a little danger for the Academy's most troublemaking student and her oddball crew of friends? Based on the real science behind terraforming, this action-packed story mixes world-building adventures with side-splitting humor, plus a dash of intergalactic madness. Landry Q. Walker has been making stories happen for over twenty years. His work includes Star Wars novellas, a New York Times bestselling collaboration with Dean Koontz called House of Odd , the beloved comic book series Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures in the 8th Grade for DC Comics, the novella Frozen: The Phantoms of Arendelle for Disney, and the celebrated superhero epic Danger Club . With his frequent collaborator Eric Jones he also created the comic book Little Gloomy , which now airs internationally as the animated TV show Scary Larry . Keith Zoo is an illustrator living in Boston, Massachusetts. For the past decade, he's been the Lead Artist at FableVision Studios, working on a full range of things from character design and animation layout, to interactives and design. When he's not doodling monsters, goblins, and other silly things, he's spending time with his wife and baby girl. To check out more of Keith's work, head on over to keithzoo.com “It’s over,” Elara whispered to herself. Clutched in her hand was her first-year graduation plaque—a small treasure symbolizing everything that the young girl had been through since arriving at the most prestigious terraforming school in the galaxy—the Seven Systems School of Terraforming Sciences and Arts. Feeling the weight of the plaque in her hand, Elara looked out from the courtyard across the horizon. All around her first-year students milled about, cheering and laughing. The sun hung overhead and refracted light through the glass towers of the ancient and prestigious school. Despite all the difficulties Elara had endured since she first arrived on the planet Paragon to attend STS—her school’s nickname—she had never grown tired of it. Elara’s train of thought was interrupted by a monstrous roar. “We did it!” shouted the gigantic creature of living rock that was Elara’s friend Knot. Knot swept the much smaller girl up in a huge bear hug. “Gak!” answered Elara, desperate to not get squeezed. “Blarg!” she added as her skin turned purple from lack of oxygen. “Oh,” Knot said in her high-pitched, squeaky voice. “Right! You’re made of super-soft, squishy meat parts! I almost forgot!” With that, she released Elara from the hug of doom. “S’okay . . . ,” Elara gasped. “Good to . . . know you care . . .” “I’m just so sad. Our first year is already over!” Knot snuffled a bit, which sounded like two rocks grinding against each other. “It was all so wonderful! I will miss every second of it!” Elara rubbed the bruises on her arms. “Uh . . . except maybe all those times we almost died?” “Pish!” Knot said with a wave. “On my planet, near-death experiences are celebrated! Why, when we swarm the villages during the height of the red moon—” “We graduated!” a snobby-sounding voice screeched, interrupting whatever Knot was about to reveal of her home world. That was Sabik. He was surprisingly not awful, given that he constantly sounded like he thought he was the very best thing in the world—a byproduct of growing up on the wealthiest planet in the galaxy. Sabik ran up the steps to the graduation platform, holding his own tiny plaque. Beezle was behind him, with the immobile sponge, Clare, strapped awkwardly to her back. “Sabik speaks correctly,” Beezle said in her usual happy-sounding manner. “We have marked the passage of our education with the proper ceremonial tokens. Our parental units will be most proud of the trinkets we have acquired on this day!” Elara jumped up, feeling terribly wistful. “Come here, all of you!” she yelled, pulling out her personal comm system and switching to camera mode. “I need a picture to get me through the summer break!” “Ah!” Beezle exclaimed happily. “Yes, the voices in my head say that we absolutely must record this moment!” Knot wrapped her massive arms around the group—once again, way too tight. But Elara didn’t care. These were the very best friends she had ever had. For a brief moment, though, she felt a pang of regret. There was one more person she was wishing she might see—the strange time-traveling Agent Tobiias Groob. He had helped h