Blake leaned up against the fence they were all waiting at, contenting himself to wait on the end of it that didn’t consist of the “trouble a mile away” club. His dad’s policy really backfired this time around. There was nothing to do! Conversation seemed to be stretched thin and he hadn’t brought anything to kill time with. Most kids his age had smart phones by now, but their household could only afford one at the time cell phone upgrades came up. At the time, Blake thought he wouldn’t need one and let it go to Albert. Now though, he deeply regretted that decision at times like these. He didn’t even have a music player he could use instead, he lost it last month cleaning out his room.

When he heard Mick speak up (and subsequently repeat himself?) it was like a godsend. ”I’m pretty sure it’s just picking up garbage…” Blake idly scratched the back of his head, ”I hope we’re not out here too long. Having to pick up trash all night’s gonna be a major pain.” Going at this all night was probably a stretch considering it was still only a Thursday, but he was willing to bet Om would stretch it out as long as he could.

Speak of the devil! Just as Blake started over for Richard to back him up, Om quickly cut his way in. He was quite relieved by the authority he carried here, actually. Blake was willing to stick up for the little man no matter the odds, but even he didn’t like trying to break up a whole gang of people. With everyone in line now, Blake raised his hand and asked, “We’re only picking up trash here, right? Shouldn’t we have brought, like, tools or something for that?”

Thursday March 21, 2016

Om smirked at Blakes question. "Tools would make things too easy, and this is supposed to be a punishment for all of you, so you'll just have to wait and see. Now," he crooked a finger in their general direction, indicating for them all to follow. "come with me and we'll get you guys started.

He turned and walked away, sure that they would al fall in line behind him. And they did. Richard sighed and followed along with Largent loping along behind. Carter, Cassidy, and Hall all fell into step, if reluctantly, leaving the rest to bring up the rear of the group. Alden and Mina walked side by side While Micky and Blake sort of meandered around near the rear of the group. Sophia was still nowhere to be seen but there was little doubt in anyones mind that the strange girl was somewhere in the area.

"You have got to be shitting me," Richar muttered when they crested a small hill and looked down into the center of the park. The exact middle of the grassed space was a giant open field. There was a baseball diamond at one end and enough space in between the diamond and the end of the grass for a regulation soccer field to be set up. At the end of the rectangular space closest to where they stood where five large trash dumpsters.

Five empty trash dumpsters.

The ground in front of them was strewn from one side of the field to the other with loose paper, bags, boxes, scrap metal, springs, an entire sofa, what looked like part of a volkswagen bug, and a set of wooden bunk beds.

"There's nothing disgusting out there," Om said, waving a hand in the direction of the mess that covered several hundred sure feet of ground. "No food trash or liquids, nothing like that. This trash was acquired from stationary stores and hardware stores and thrift stores. It's all relatively clean, as trash goes, but I will be supplying you al with gloves. Other than that, no tools. You may all leave when all of that trash," he pointed at the mess. "Is in those dumpsters," he said and jerked his thumb in the direction of the dumpsters."

Richard stared at the field of debris, noting idly that Sophia was already walking amongst the mess, picking things up at random. She had already constructed a little doll, using various mechanical parts to construct the body and some yarn that she was in the process of tying to the things 'head' as hair. If hair came in hot pink, neon blue, and baby puke yellow.

"Do I want to know how she go over there so fast?" Om asked Richard in a lowered tone and Richard could only shake his head.

"Probably not, Sir."

"Call me Om," he said, absently. After a moment he seemed to shake himself awake and clapped his hands together once. "Alright, who wants gloves? The long this takes you the longer it'll be before you get home, and don't forget, tomorrow is a school day."

----------

"I can't believe we're actually picking up all this junk," Largent growled, glaring at the mess around them. They were maybe a quarter of the way through the chaos, but with every passing minute Largent became more and more aggravated about the entire situation. "This is such bullshit." He pulled out his last cigarette and tossed the pack over his shoulder, tucking the butt between his lips.

"Hey!" Largent turned to face the voice, tip of his cigarette glowing angrily as he tucked his lighter into his pocket.

“Watch where you're throwing things, Dude,” Cassidy snapped and threw the empty pack back at Largent.

“Hey, just cause you're a chick, don't think I wont knock your ass out,” he snarled and she stepped forward, almost chest to chest with him before she reached up and shoved him. Largent stumbled back, crashing into Hall, who shoved him again, spun and swung wildly at thin air.

It was about at that point when things completely fell apart. Everyone started yelling. Some jumped into the fray, attempting to pull Largent and Hall apart after the two started laying into each other. Alden and Mina kept to the outskirts of the argument while Sophia attempted to get close enough to drop Largent again, but everyone else kept getting in her way. And through it all, Om, was nowhere to be seen, having left them to their cleaning more than half an hour previously.

Richard found himself dragged into the mess, literally, by Largent grabbing the front of his jacket and yanking him forward.

“Somehow,” Largent growled. “I'm not sure how, but somehow, I'm positive this is all your fault somehow you little shit!” he snapped. Richard panicked and leaned as far back as he could, partly to try to simply put distance between himself and Largent, who looked to be in a complete rage, and partly to try to avoid the stink of his cigarette breath. In doing so, leaning back, jacket digging into his armpits as he sunk down in the garment, he was afforded a unique viewpoint that no one else present had.

“What the hell is that?”

When Richard spoke, it wasn't exceptionally loud. He didn't yell, or raise his voice particularly. But the words cut through the group like a knife, instantly silencing the argument and everyone turned to stare at Richard and Largent. Richard was staring up into the sky, his eyes wide and mouth hanging open in complete shock.

“What the hell is that?” Cassidy echoed, at which point Largent dropped Richard on his ass and turned to look up, along with everyone else.

IT, was a shape. A triangular shape. One might even have called it a ship, except for the fact that there were no visible engines. No propellers, no props, no anything to indicate how the craft, easily 150 feet in length from tip to end, was remaining in the air. There were no lights. Apparently no windows. And it was silent.

Completely, and utterly silent, floating impossibly across the sky. They stood and watched as it floated past the baseball field, over the stand of trees separating the field from the rest of the park, and it slowly dropped behind the evergreens and out of sight.

There was a moment, just a moment, where everyone stood, motionless, staring at the trees and the ship that they knew lay just behind them.
Then they were moving. Largent started to move but Ricard reached out and grabbed his ankle, tripping the larger boy as he leapt to his feet and broke into a sprint.

'What the hell am I doing?' he thought as his shoes pounded across the grass. 'I'm running toward a space ship, possibly alien, probably alien, when I should be running away. I should be calling the police, or the media, or the frickin' FBI! But no, I'm running AT the damn space ship.' He shook his head, pushed the thoughts aside and simply ran, rushing across the baseball field with everyone else in hot pursuit.

He wanted to be the first one to see the ship.

Blake managed to untangle himself from the frenzy as everyone’s attention drew upwards. He couldn’t believe the sight. That was a UFO! That was unmistakably some kind of UFO! All his years of over-indulging on superhero media almost immediately drew him to this conclusion, and it’s also why he was the second person who dashed off after Richard. Should he have called the authorities? Should he have given this some more thought?

…Nah.

The idea of something terrible lurking on that ship hadn’t crossed Blake’s mind. Instead, there was just an old memory ringing right through his head. Something he really hoped would be the case here.

Blake Reyes: The Origin!

Something inside Hal screamed at him, screamed like nothing he'd ever felt before:

ADVENTURE!

Hal scrambled after the strange ship, trying to vault over any of the oddly-placed and illogical obstacles that he was supposed to be cleaning up along the way. He could feel it, deep in his bones. Somehow..... he was meant to follow it. Not that he needed encouragement anyway; he figured the first thing he was gonna do when he got there, was touch it. Then, then he would climb on it! He was willing to bet it would make Om or his mother very angry.

Hal liked to think it made them feel alive.

Thursday March 21, 2016

"Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Om looked up, handful of popcorn halfway to his mouth. "Al, we agreed this was a good decision. We need to see what happens, we're going to need allies, you know that." He tossed the popcorn into his mouth and crunched noisily.

They were sitting on top of the baseball field fence, completely unobserved as the kids continued their mad scramble across the grass and dirt, pushing and pulling at each other in their bid to be the first to reach the ship.

"But not all of them are going to be allies. Cassidy, Carter, Largent? You really think they'll be on the side of the angels? And don't get me started on Hall, that kid gives ME the creeps."

Om shrugged. "No, they're probably not all going to be on the good side of things, but the others will need someone to practice against, and that'll be good for them."

"You think they'll actually manage to form a team? Work together for the betterment of all? Did we do that when it happened to us?"

"It didn't happen to me, Al," Om said quietly, never taking his eyes off the rapidly fleeing children. "It happened to you."

"We don't know that for sure-"

"Shut up," Om cut Al off. "They're just reaching the ship..."

----------

Richard slid to a stop, his shoes skidding across the grass for several feet before slowing him enough and he stood there, staring at the ship.

Up close it was even more enormous than it had seemed in the air. A light gray metal with intricate patterns all across the hull. As it landed, three ski like landing skids extended from the belly and toward the point, what Richard assumed was the front, a ramp had lowered.

Up the ramp they could see into the interior of the vessel. Nothing but blackness, wirh somewhere a pulsating yellow light glowing deep within the heart of the ship.

All thoughts of pranks had deserted her once the fight started up. At first she stayed at the outskirts, keeping an eye on Lardo in case he went after Ricky again. Unfortunately, Cassidy seemed to have other ideas. Both girls were on the track team, and it was no secret in the school that she intensely disliked Sophia, but tonight it seemed that she wanted to settle things off the track, and saw the fight as a good excuse as any. It ended up turning into a short game of keep-away, with Cassidy becoming increasingly infuriated as Sophia kept slipping out of her reach. "Rrrgh, get back here, you little freak!"

Sophia simply blew a breath and rolled her eyes, using Carter's back as a launchpad. Sheesh, what’s HER problem? I know there was the tabasco sauce thing, but come on, she didn’t even eat it. I think she’s got a knot in her panties that’s tied too tight.

While Cassidy was then occupied with trying to get away from Carter (he really DID have a nasty temper), Sophia had spied Lardo making a break for Ricky. Apparently he hadn't learned his lesson from last time. Navigating the tangle of bodies and flailing limbs in time was, unfortunately, a less simple task.

She was less than a foot away from planting hers right in Lardo's crotch (again), when she caught Ricky's exclamation and looked up. Huh?

For the second time that day, Sophia's jaw dropped. The ship, plane, whatever it was, was absolutely giant. Big enough that the entire field was plunged into darkness as it briefly passed over the moon. The way it moved without any sound at all was really unnerving, and she knew silence.

As it passed into the distance, only one thought passed through Sophia's mind. That. Is. AWESOME! She wanted to see it, she wanted it badly. Things like this just didn't happen in dopey little towns like hers! Movement caught her eye, and she turned her head to see Lardo face down in the dirt and Ricky running in the direction that the ship had gone.

That did it. A feral, toothy smile formed on Sophia's face, and she bent low. Ricky should have known better than to throw down a gauntlet like that. NOBODY could beat Sophia Callahan in a race, and she was going to remind him of that. In an instant, she was off, slipping into a smooth, almost loping gait, her breaths coming short and fast as her eyes zeroed in on Ricky's back, hair trailing behind her. The distance between the two rapidly closed, until she was so near that if she got any closer she would be literally breathing down Ricky's neck.

There she stayed, easily keeping just behind him and in the corner of his vision, chasing and hounding him the entire way, unless somebody else managed to pull in front. Then she would have new prey. She could hear the mad scramble behind her, but it was nothing more than background noise to her.

Her focus broke only for a second when the ship finally came into view. Any normal person would have stopped and stared in awe of the monolithic machine. But, anyone who knew Sophia recognized that the word “normal” was not only inapplicable, but a completely foreign concept, especially once she was “on the hunt”. In that moment, Sophia didn’t see the ship as a ship. To her, all it was was the finish line.

Wait for it… wait for it… waaaiiit fooor iiit… NOW!

So when Richard came to a stop, Sophia’s feral smile grew extra-large, and she put on a sudden burst of speed, tearing straight past him and straight onto the ship itself. If she heard the shout of concern and warning behind her, she paid no attention to it before she was swallowed up by the darkness of the ship’s interior.

When she finally came to a stop (and just in time to avoid smashing face-first into a wall), she remained standing for a moment, bent over with her hands braced on her knees, gulping down air. Heh… heh… hehehehe… BEAT YA! HOPE YOU’RE AN ASS MAN, RICKY! Straightening, she threw her head back and howled in victory, the sounding echoing around her.

Staring up at the ceiling, she remained there, giggling for a moment. Hehe… well, that was fun. Now, she looked around her curiously, where the hell am I?

Despite the initial burst he had placing him ahead of the others, Blake was easily eclipsed when pit against somebody who actually practiced running. Yeah he kept himself in shape, but Sophia easily outpaced him in no time. He wasn’t one to be set back by this, though. His origin story was on the line here! He managed to run fast enough to keep a short distance behind the two in the lead.

When the ship finally came into view Blake was absolutely awestruck. His pace started to slow down so he could get a better look, but once he saw Sofia just charge right into the ship that idea went sailing out the window. Now that he could actually see the vessel, he was honestly just about ready to stop and see what everyone else had to say about it. Since someone already jumped the gun on it, though, like hell would he let himself be one of the first to arrive and not get on board.

So instead of stopping, Blake went full steam ahead after Sofia and ran right up the ramp and into the ship. He had a bit less presence of mind than her, unfortunately, and smacked straight into the wall she managed to avoid instead. There was an audible thunk that Blake’s head made and an even more audible ”OW!!!” that could be heard, followed by one more thunk as he stumbled back onto the floor.

”Oooooooow… That friggin’ hurt…” Blake groaned as he nursed his head and caught his breath down below.

Thursday March 21, 2016

Mina sighed. Why did these people have to fight all the time? They just had to ignore one thing, and the fight wouldn't have happened in the first place.

When everyone started running towards the ship, Mina sighed again. They were making her run again. She decided to stay where she was until someone came back to fetch her if she was needed. After a few seconds, she felt a slight pull. It was as if the ship was trying to suck her in. Fine. I'll walk slowly.

When the people in front of her vanished out of her sight, her mind went crazy. What if they're all gone? What if they're all dead? She started to sprint towards the ship. As soon as she saw that they were all okay, she calmed down. Wait, what happened? Is the ship now controlling my body, too?

---

---

It has been less than 5 minutes and there was already a fight going on. It is to be expected, Alden honestly didn't know what Om was thinking, nor was he actually thinking. Putting these people togethere is a bad chemical reaction. Before he could jump in however, a blinding light caused Alden to place his hands infront of the light.

Soon after a mad scramble went towards the light, however Alden was more weary than anything. I mean, who would make a mad dash towards some unknown, foreign object. That's not to say his curiousity was piqued however. He furrowed his eyebrows ever so slightly as he tried to make sense of whatever that was. He didn't notice that he himself was also walking slowly towards the odd ship.

It seems as if everyone tried to sprint towards the ship, even Mina. It was to be expected, and after a troubling, deep sigh, Alden began his steady and unhurried ascent on the metal ramp upwards. With each step there was an odd sound produced, as if the metal wasn't off this world, each producing a notable 'thwang'.

As he entered, Blake ran headfirst into a wall. Donning his normal, habitual smile he offered out a hand towards the downed boy,
"You alright?" he asked, "Need a hand?"

Thursday March 21, 2016

Richard blinked, surprised as everyone else brushed and rushed past him and onto the ship with it's mysterious pulsating yellow light somewhere deep within. He grunted and stumbled as Largent pushed by, slamming his shoulder hard into Richard as he went. Cassidy, Hall, and Carter followed the rest of them onto the ship, with Alden following along at the back of the pack, a disdainful expression on his face that Richard thought probably had more to do with the fact that they had been cleaning up garbage than it had to do with the ship in front of them.

Finally, the first to arrive but last to board, Richard followed along behind everyone else. One foot in front of the other, each step slowly eating up the ground between him and the inevitable. maybe he was waiting, hoping an adult would happen by and stop him? Was that why he was delaying? He wasn't sure, but he didn't like the implications, so he finally ducked his head and married forward, stalking his way up the ramp.

The gray metal beneath his shoes seemed to give, like rubber, but was undeniably strong and firm as steel. It was a dizzying feeling, knowing that the ground under him appeared completely solid, but it felt as if it was sagging beneath his weight.

When he reached the top of the ramp he took two more steps into the ship and lifted his head, getting his first look of the inside of a real space ship.

----------

"Think they're going to be disappointed?" Om asked, tossing a handful of popcorn into his mouth.

"Wasn't I?" Al countered. "At least at first. It did look kinda boring at first. Didn't start getting interesting until a few minutes later."

Om nodded, a wicked grin playing around his lips. "Oh, look. It's closing up." Al turned his head just in time to see the light wink out of existence as the ramp closed silently behind Richard, the last of them to enter the ship.

"I hope you know what you're doing," he muttered.

"We all agreed, Al," Om snapped irritably. "You and Be would handle the... wild contacts... so to speak, and I would handle something like this. And in the last twenty odd years this has been the first situation like this we've ever encountered. So if you don't fucking mind, I have more than earned the right to conduct these tests as I see fit."

"And how many of them are going to go off the deep end? You don't even have the slightest clue what they'll end up with. Some of them could kill people, Om, and if they do that'll be your fault."

Om glared at Al, his gaze steady and filled with anger. "I am well aware of the risks, and more than willing to accept the consequences. A basic risk assessment is enough to tell me that the potential benefits rather far outweighs the potential risks."

Al threw his hands up in the air, making a disgusted sound at the back of his throat. "I give up. Some men just want to watch the world burn."

They fell into silence for a few minutes, Om still munching away on his popcorn.

Finally. "Did you just quote The Dark Knight, at me?"

"Shut up."

----------

Ship

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

The ship was empty. Richard blinked and rubbed at his eyes with his fists for a moment, unsure if he was actually seeing what he thought he was. When he opened his eyes again, nothing had changed in the slightest. The inside of the huge triangular ship was completely and utterly empty.

No chairs, no equipment, consoles, controls or embellishments of any kind. The floors, wall and ceiling were all a smooth grey tinted metal with swirling patterns and designs etched into its surface. Sophia was walking around the perimeter of the room, poking the walls at random points with the tip of one finger. Largent and his new cronies stood in the center of the empty space, staring around them with a mixture of awe, shock, and anger written across their faces. Hall just looked amused, which freaked Richard out more than usual.

"What the hell is going on?" Richard asked, taking a few more steps forward and craning his head from side to side, looking for anything at all out of place. He couldn't even tell where the yellow light was coming from. It appeared to pulsate in the air around them with no discernible source that he could find.

"Weird right?" Carter asked, chuckling strangely. "There's nothing in here to indicate this vessel was ever manned or operated by anything living. I'm guessing it's an unmanned vehicle, possibly remotely operated from a larger control ship."

Richard arched an eyebrow in his direction. "A mothership? Really?"

"Look around, Stupid," Carter snapped, spreading his arms to indicate the cavernous empty that surrounded them. "There's absolutely no way this ship traveled interstellar distances on it's own. It's too small. It has to have been part of a larger vessel and was sent down here for some reason."

"What reason could there possibly be to send a completely empty ship to land in a park in the middle of nowhere U.S.A?" Richard snapped back and Carter shrugged.

"No idea, but you're assuming the thing is empty."

Richard blinked again and looked around him slowly at the vast empty space. "This isn't empty?"

"You never know. Look at the distance from the floor to the ceiling." Carter pointed at the ceiling above their heads. "I'm five foot three and I could probably touch that ceiling if I jumped."

"So?"

"So? From the outside this ship is easily fifty feet thick top to bottom. Now, if the outer hull is five feet thick all the way around that's ten feet off, top and bottom. Seven feet in here, allowing for the possibility of error in my estimate of the height of the ceiling. That's fifty feet minus seventeen, we're look at a good 33 feet of unused space. Some of that's gotta be engines, life support, etc, but I' be willing to bet there are other systems, other operations that are hidden within the walls and such like on a submarine. Space is at a premium so everything has to stow away nice and neat in order to make it all fit properly and still have room for people to live for months on end."

Richard felt as if his head was spinning. Huh, never knew Carter was such a sci-fi fan, he thought idly and wandered over toward the ramp. He got two steps when he came to a stop, staring at the smooth, unbroken floor in front of him when before there had been a ramp leading outside the ship.

"Um... guys?" he asked, nervously. "Where's the ramp?"

----------

Trapped

They were trapped.

People started to panic pretty quickly after that. Not surprising, really.

“This is all your fault, Midget.” Largent snapped, glaring angrily at Richard.

“My fault? Did I make you run onto the alien spaceship? Think before you speak, you stupid neanderthal.” Richard growled at the taller boy.

“Did anyone hear anything or see anything?” Carter.

“How do we get out of here?” Cassidy.

“Everyone, just shut up!” Richard suddenly bellowed.

While everyone had continued arguing Richard fought down his own rising sense of panic, just enough to realize that there was a new sound. Something below the level of their raised voices.

Everyone fell silent. Even Largent, who just glared at me, his lips pressed into a thin line.

“Listen,” Richard said and stepped closer to one of the smooth walls. I reached out and gingerly pressed my fingers against the metal. There was a low buzzing, a vibration running through the ship. “Somethings happening you guys. You can feel it in the walls.” The rest of them followed suit and touched the walls, except for Largent and his cronies.

They stood sullenly in the center of the room like a bunch of toddlers that had just been put on time out. Richard almost laughed out loud at the mental image of Largent and his buddies in a preschool time out chair with Dunce caps on their heads, but he was just able to control myself.

“So?” Largent snarled. “Somethings happening. Big whoop. How the hell are we supposed to get out of here?” he grunted.

“What makes you think I know?” Richard sighed, tired of fighting with the irrational Largent.

Richard glanced over at Sophia when she walked up and suddenly put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention, and found that she was looking almost straight up at the ceiling above them. Richard really wasn’t sure that he wanted to know but his gaze followed hers, almost against his voluntary will until he finally noticed the same thing the rest of them were now looking at.

There were a series of structures growing down from the ceiling, a ceiling that before had been only a few feet above their heads but was now easily twenty feet high and rising. And Richard didn’t think the structures were growing like in the mechanical way. Like Transformers where metal parts move and shift and grow into new shapes. No, this was like the ceiling was melting and dripping down toward them and as each drop solidified at the tip it created a slowly growing steel grey spike until the ceiling looked like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. A set of spikes pointing down toward us.

The end of each individual spike began to glow as everyone inside the ship, started very much, to freak out.

A voice started speaking over some sort of P.A system, cycling through languages so fast none of them could even begin to guess what they might have been. Finally, it settled on English.

“Eleven biological targets for modification. Mutagenic Radiation Array will fire in four… three… two… one…

There was a brilliant blast of light, brighter than anything Richard could remember ever seeing before in his life. His eyes burned. For a moment, he was sure that he would be permanently blinded. Fire raced across his body and through his body. Acid flowed through his veins while lightning traveled across his nerve endings. And just when he opened his mouth to scream in agony everything went blessedly dark.

----------

Saturday March 23rd, 2016

"What the-" Richard started, setting bolt upright, head swiveling left and right, eyes wide in terror as he took in his surroundings. He was lying in bed, in his room at home, in his pajamas.

"What the hell happened?" A quick glance at his phone where it was plugged in on the nightstand next to him told him it was 9:34 on Saturday morning. "What the hell happened to Friday?" he muttered. He scrambled out of bed and went clattering down the stairs to find his mother in the kitchen.

"Um... mom?"

"Hey, baby. How're you feeling?" she asked and stood from the table. Coffee in one hand she walked over to him and pressed the back of her hand against his forehead. "No fever, you look and sound a lot better too. Feeling alright?"

Richard blinked, his confusion growing with every passing minute. "Um... I feel fine. What happened? Did I sleep through Friday?"

"Oh jeez, baby," she sighed and pulled him into a hug. "That fever was really bad if you don't even remmember. Hungry?" He nodded dumbly as she pulled away and went over to the oven to pull out a plate covered by foil. He sat down, she placed the plate in front of him and he tucked into eggs, bacon, sausage, hash browns, and waffles while she talked. "Your teacher, Mr. Thorne? He dropped you off Thursday night, said you guys had a productive evening cleaning up trash in the park."

"I remember the park," Richard muttered, nodding absently. "And I remember cleaning in the park. But I don't remember leaving the park or coming home from the park," he said and she frowned.

"I'm going to call your school on Monday and complain about that teacher. There was no reason to have you kids out so late on a school night."

"No, mom," Richard interrupted. "It's fine, just what happened next?"

She sighed and leaned back in her chair. "You had a fever yesterday morning so we kept you home from school and you slept all damn day. You've been out basically since about ten thirty Friday night."

"A day and a half?" Richard was shocked. A solid 36 hours, easily, were missing from his life. He jumped up and ran upstairs into his room. In minutes his pajamas were thrown on the floor and he was dressed in boots, jeans, and a t-shirt with the Disturbed Demon grinning broadly on the front.

He ran downstairs, past his startled mother and out the front door. Without missing a beat his leaped the three steps that led from his porch to the ground and ran across the grass toward Sophias house. Maybe she would remember something from the other night that he couldn't.

It was when he made to slow down as he approached the front door that he realized something had gone terribly awry. He didn't slow down. He couldn't feel the ground beneath his boots. He didn't have time to-

THUD

"Ow!" he yelped and fell onto his back as he crashed into the wooden door leading into his friends house at full speed. He winced, waiting for the painful landing that he knew was going to happen.

It didn't happen.

"What the?"

Richard opened his eyes as he heard the sound of footsteps approaching from somewhere inside the house and glanced down. It was obviously fairly quickly why he hadn't been able to stop when he approached the house. He had been trying to use his feet, friction against the ground that would bring him to stop. The problem was, he hadn't been using his feet to run in the first place.

It all came crashing down, just as the door to the house opened. Richard was floating a solid three feet off the ground!

Thursday March 21, 2016

As soon as Mina stepped into the ship, she felt uneasy. Extremely uneasy, actually. It was like that feeling she had right before she got a call from Max about her mom's death.

While Richard and the group of people were having a talk by themselves, Mina leaned against the wall. She had suddenly gotten light-headed, and didn't want to hit her head on the ground if she ever fainted. Not that she ever has, but she didn't want to take any chances.

When Richard announced that the ramp was gone, Mina's heart began to race. Would she be able to return to her brother? Would she be able to utter one word to him ever again? She tried to keep her face calm so no one would ask her about it. She was sure that she would break out crying if she even said one word. I can't leave Max. He already lost so much...

Mina was so worried about her brother that she only heard the last word of the announcement. As soon as one tear rolled down her cheek, a blinding light reached her eyes. She felt a little bit of pain, which surprised her. She was so used to blocking out pain that it took a lot for her to actually feel it. Mina let the pain take her body as she crumpled to the ground.

________________________________________________________________

Saturday March 23rd, 2016

Mina woke up to Max hovering over her.

"Max!" she cried out, reaching for a hug.

"Whoa there, buddy. Did you have a nightmare or something?"

"No, I'm just so happy you're here!" Mina said into his shoulder, tears rolling down her cheeks.

"Hey, hey, are you okay?" Max asked, pulling back from the embrace, "It was just yesterday you wouldn't wake up."

"Wake up?" she asked, confused.

"Yeah. You had a terrible fever when you got back from detention. You totally passed out for the whole day yesterday!"

"Oh, really? I don't remember anything..," Mina trailed off.

"Well, you're awake now, and that's all that matters. Let's get you some breakfast. I'll be in the kitchen when you're ready."

Mina rolled off her bed and walked to the mirror. She checked out what she looked like. She did look pale, but it seemed like nothing had changed. Hmm... I guess sleeping for an entire day doesn't really do anything to your body. Mina stepped away from the mirror to make her bed. After she was done, she turned around and saw another girl standing in front of the mirror.

"Hey...you. Why are you here, and how did you get in?" Mina asked the girl.

The girl turned around. Mina fell to the ground, shocked. The girl was an exact version of herself. A clone, if you will.

I must be going crazy. This isn't possible. This is all a dream!

Sophia came to the conclusion that she must have done something very, very mean in a previous life. Or somebody really hated her guts. When her thoughts finally surfaced from murky, dreamless sleep, she found herself both in the room that she shared with her mother and with her head feeling like it was about to implode. Or explode, whichever came first. A low keening noise came from her throat as she sat up, hands pressed against her forehead in a futile attempt to ward off the pain. Ugh, this is worse than the time Ricky and I drank a bottle of Uncle's scotch.

Rolling off of the mattress, she blindly stumbled towards the door and made her way upstairs, not noticing the note taped to the door. She immediately decided that the light coming in through the windows was too bright, and secluded herself in the bathroom to find some painkillers. Of course, they hadn't kicked in yet when the impact at the door made her wince. That's it. Whoever you are, you are a dead person, she grumbled to herself. I will crush your head in the door, chop you up into little pieces with Uncle's buzzsaw, pile you into a garbage bag and drag it to the-

She paused when she opened the door, blinking in the sunlight. For a moment she simply stood there, then rubbed her eyes, squinted, then rubbed her eyes again. She could almost swear that she was looking along Ricky, instead of at him.

Slowly, she bent over to the side, until she was looking under him and sweeping her arm through the open air. Nothing blocked her way. Okay. I must still be asleep. And dreaming. Straightening, she reached out and grabbed Ricky by the foot, ignoring his splutterings. It feels very real for a dream. She slowly lifted him by the foot, still ignoring his protests as his entire body moved around as if there was no gravity. Weird. She swung down, catching him by the shoulders as he spun around, then reached out and slapped him. Hard. Looking at her reddening hand, she blearly squinted. Okay, so this isn't a dream.

Turning her head up, she noticed one of their neighbors, old Mrs. Abney, staring at them with her mouth open, garden hose held limply in her hand. Sophia blinked at her, looked at Ricky, down at herself, then sighed and grabbed him by the shirt, dragging him inside.

Apparently it was going to be one of those days.

Saturday March 23rd, 2016

“Wh-wha-what the hell are you doing?” Richard sputtered when Sophia appeared, butt naked in the doorway. His eyes flittered everywhere but at her even though he'd gotten a good enough look when she first came out. Then she grabbed him by the foot and started swinging his body around like he was a golf club.

“Hey, would you cut that out?” he snapped when she suddenly spun him around and her hand flashed out, slapping him hard across the face. “OW! Dammit Sophia would you cut that out?” he cried. It was about the same time that she noticed when Richard realized that their neighbor was staring at them. Sophia grabbed him and started dragging him into the house, “Bye, Mrs. Abney,” he called out, just before the door swung shut.

With a foot planted against his shoulder, Sophia gave Richard a kick and he started floating through the air toward the living room. He kicked and flailed, arms swinging wildly like a swimmer trying to get traction in the water. Since he wasn't in water, and wasn't much of a swimmer either, this really didn't do him much good at all and just caused him to start slowly rotating on the horizontal. When before he had been lying on his back, floating in the air, he was now starting to turn so he was staring down at the hard wood floor beneath him.

“What the hell is going on Soph, and could you please put some clothes on already?” While your average fifteen year old male might have a different reaction when confronted with a nude girl, Richard had been friends with Sophia for far too long to get tripped up by the sight for more than a few minutes. His panic had pushed him far past normal teenage boy reactions and into full blown freak-out mode as well, so he was able to shelve the fact that she was naked and focus more on the fact that he couldn't get down.

“Why the hell am I floating?” he muttered irritably, choosing to ignore his naked friend. “I can't move.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, focusing on the idea of moving through the air. Side to side, up and down, anything but just floating on his stomach staring at a dust bunny.

Nothing.

No reaction of any kind.

“Grrrr....” he growled and started flailing ineffectually again. “How the hell do I get down-”

It was at that precise moment, that whatever effect had been holding him aloft suddenly cut out, and he fell, landing hard on the wooden floor he had wanted so desperately to be in solid contact with just moments before.

“Ok,” he groaned, face still pressed against the polished boards. “Someone is fucking with me. Or maybe I was a tyrant in another life and this is someones idea of punishment?”

Ow. Pain. Ow more pain. Blake’s pain train let up long enough for him to register that someone was giving him a hand up. Oh! It was, uh… Well, that one snooty guy, he thinks. Alden? Yes, Alden, it’s been long enough into the semester that he’s been capable of remembering names. Blake reached up and helped himself back onto his feet, still nursing his bruised forehead. ”I’ll be fine, thanks.”

Now that he was done seeing stars he took a look proper around the ship. The… The featureless… Smaller on the inside… Ship.

This was incredibly underwhelming to him.

He scratched his head, puzzled by where exactly every other part of the ship was. It was way too big to just be this single room- which, Carter just as quickly explained away. Well, in a far more convoluted way than he would’ve have put it.

What happened next got him swept away in all the panic. And as everything finally came down…

---

Blake woke up in bed with a pair of heavy eyes and a pounding headache. He rubbed his temples to nurse his headache and thought to himself, ”This is must be a bad sleep-in headache…” With a groan, he turned his gaze over to his wall clock.

…It was too dark to read. The morning sun was just barely starting to creep in through the blinds, so he figured he was just off to a bad day. ”Maybe I should just sleep this off…” He laid his head back down and shut his eyes, but the drumming in his head just wouldn’t let him get any relief from it. ”Ibuprofen… Then back to bed…” With another groan, he untangled himself from his sheets and rolled out of bed.

He turned his head up at his wall clock again, noting that it seemed to be brighter. Or rather, the room itself seemed to be brighter. Huh. Had the sun rose that quick already? It looked to be… 5:48. He usually couldn’t tell the time very well with the blinds shut until 6.

”Oh whatever, he rolled his eyes, ”Dooooon't care right now.” He got up to his feet and stumbled his way through the quiet hall and into the bathroom first. He braced himself for the inevitable flash of light in his groggy eyes, but when he flicked the switch on the lights were… Oddly slow to turn on? Blake could only blearily blink at the puzzling development. He was grateful his eyes could get adjusted smoothly, but he was pretty sure his dad just replaced the light bulbs. He scratched his side and just shook his head. ”I’ll tell him later…”

After taking care of his morning business, he made his way through to the kitchen and into the medicine cabinet. The same light quirk happened after he flicked the lights on, leaving him even more puzzled. Were they experiencing some sort of power issues? ”God I hope not,” He thought out loud. After popping two pills of Ibuprofen and a whole glass of water, Blake opted to just crash down on the long couch in the living room while the medicine worked its wonders. He’d continue with his typical morning once he felt better.

”…Hey, speaking of… It’s almost 6. Mom or dad are usually up by now aren’t they? Maybe they’re just sleeping in…” Blake wasn’t sure why his parents would feel like sleeping in, though- they were rather punctual people after all! They usually didn’t sleep in unless they got sick or it was the weekend. And they looked just fine last night, so… ”Is it the weekend???”

Blake popped his eyes open again, reached for the remote, and turned the TV on. After that, he switched the cable guide menu on and— ”Huh???” He scrunched his face up at the date confusingly. "When’d it get to Saturday??? What’d I even do yesterday?!” Flummoxed, he tried to recall the events of the last couple days.

”Okay let’s see… Wednesday. Class as normal."

Pause.

…No, got a detention. Stupid sub gave me one. Picked up trash in the park and then…” Blake’s eyes widened as it all came back to his throbbing head.

”The UFO!” Blake beat his first into his hand. ”Something happened on it and— No way… He sat up and looked at his hands curiously. ”Okay… The ship definitely happened. Very sure that happened. I mean…” His hand moved up to his forehead, wincing at the lingering pain. ”Yeah how else was I gonna get this?! So… Something happened. The thing that came at the end did something, but what’d it do???

Ah. His head started to throb again. Alright that was too much brain work to figure that out right now it seemed. But like hell he was going back to sleep now, he was getting answers! …Alright, it’s still too early for any kind of answers, but he was at least going to try flipping to the early morning news. ”It’s already been two days, but maybe they’ll have something on it??? Hopefully??? I don’t wanna hop on the computer with this headache…

(Collab between myself and @pockets

As funny as it was to see her friend literally faceplant into the floor, her killer headache meant that Sophia wasn't in the laughing mood. Instead, she simply helped him to his feet, and then promptly buried her face into his neck, hugging him from behind. If you were a tyrant, then I was your torture master, she signed. My head hurts, and today is weird. Why were you floating?

He did his best, he really did. Richard tried his absolute hardest to ignore the fact that his best friend, an attractive girl by any measure, had her nude body pressed against him. She was always an affectionate sort and he had largely gotten used to that over the years. This was a new level though and he wasn't entirely sure how to react.

“I have no idea why I was floating,” he blurted out. He made to step away from her but then decided that not seeing her naked any more than he already had was probably for the best. He could learn to ignore the feeling of breasts pressed into his back… right?

“Do you remember anything from Thursday? I don't remember anything at all after we started picking up the trash at the park.” Floating mysteries could wait, one question at a time was the best way to go about it.

For a moment, Sophia didn’t move at all. Then, she moved her head so that she looking up at him. I remember… we were at the park yesterday. Then… we saw… something cool? She frowned, resting on his shoulder. There was a room, I think. We were all in it… and there was a bright light… and then I woke up in bed and wanted to die.

Richard frowned, his brow coming together in a deep furrow that belonged in a much older person. “I don't remember any of that,” he muttered. “A room, a bright light, none of it's familiar. What kind of room? Can you describe it?”

Her frown deepened, and she tried to think of anything else from that night. Finally, she shook her head. No. It hurts too much to think. Please kill me.

“I could never kill you,” he said, a small smirk playing around the corners of his mouth. “It’s still illegal in all fifty states.”

Sophia pouted. You would if you loved me.

Richard lightly smacked her hand but said nothing else. He sighed a moment later and crossed his arms over his chest, head down in thought. “Obviously something happened to us last night. Something that… changed us? I mean I was floating, right? I didn't imagine that?”

Sophia shook her head.

He sighed again, starting to feel like a character out of a bad young adult novel with all the sighing, but he did it anyway and pinched the bridge of his nose between a thumb and forefinger.

“Okay, let's figure this out. Something happened to me and I slept through Friday. If something happened to me it must have happened to you too, right? Aside from feeling like something death brought with him in his suitcase have you noticed anything unusual today?” He glanced around the house and saw a note sitting on the nearby coffee table.

“Did you check for messages?” he asked as he stepped over and picked up the slip of paper.

Squinting, Sophia glanced at the note.

-Sophia, if you’re reading this, then you either missed the note I left on your door, or you ignored it. Either way, GET BACK IN BED YOUNG LADY! YOU ARE SICK! We’ll be home soon. Love, Aunty.-

Oops. Actually, bed sounds really good right now. Half-sighing, half-groaning, she grabbed Ricky’s wrist and tugged him in the direction of the stairs.

Richard let Sophia pull him along by the wrist, not really paying attention to what she was doing or where they were going as he continued trying to rationalize recent events. As they walked he attempted to recreate the sensation of floating that he’d experienced when he crashed into her front door but it was to no avail. No matter what he tried or thought of nothing seemed to work.

Pulling him down the stair and into the room she shared with her mother, Sophia swung him and around and practically threw him onto her bed. Before he had a chance to react, she was climbing under the sheets beside him and cuddling against his chest, head tucked down.

Richard remained oblivious to her intent until he suddenly found himself pitching onto a mattress and Sophia crawled into the bed with him. In his distracted state while trying to puzzle out what happened he had successfully blocked out the fact that she was still naked. The eyeful he got when she climbed into the bed, however, reminded him and his blood pressure suddenly shot through the roof. The fact that she pulled the sheet over them both did little to help him even though she was technically covered up.

“Sophia!” he yelped, his voice cracking as it shot up several octaves and the adrenaline surge of a fight-or-flight response kicked in.

The air rippled around him, a wavering distortion in the air for the span of a single heart beat and suddenly Richard found himself falling until he slammed into a hard surface and all the air rushed from his lungs.

“Oh, fuck me sideways,” he groaned and rolled over onto his back, arms wrapped tightly around his chest as he struggled to pull much needed oxygen back into his lungs. He opened his eyes after nearly a minute to find Sophia, still completely naked, staring up at him from her position lying on her back in the bed.

He closed his eyes again, not before he got a very good look at her, and groaned. “I'm on the ceiling, aren't I? And would you please put some clothes on?”

Point in fact, Sophia did NOT put some clothes on. Instead, she simply held her arms up like she wanted a hug, and gave Richard The Look. It was the saddest, most heart-wrenching look an adorable girl could ever muster, perfected and passed down the Callahan line for generations. No one, ever, in the history of the world, past, present, or future, could resist The Look.

Richard cracked an eye open a minute later to see her giving him her patented Look, arms stretched toward him, which did nothing but draw attention to her breasts.

“Nope,” he said and shook his head. “Not falling for it this time. That's your “You Feel So Incredibly Guilty Because You Just Kicked A Kitten” Look. Not falling for it this time.” His words were far more confident than his tone implied, but he was trying.

Minutes passed with no movement between either of them. Occasionally Richard would squint one eye open to see if she'd gotten dressed but invariably she was in exactly the same position, ratcheting up The Look each time. Each time he found it working just a little better than the time before.

Finally he let out an explosive sigh of exasperation and opened his eyes again, attempting an admonishing glare. He opened his mouth to speak when the air suddenly rippled again.

“You really need to- gah!” he yelped as whatever force held him to the ceiling abruptly vanished again and he fell back toward the bed, and right into Sophia's open arms. He barely caught himself with his hands on the mattress to avoid crushing her but still landed heavily atop her, head pillowed nicely against her breasts.

Ricky dropping from the ceiling was definitely surprising, and she gasped as all the air shot from her lungs. So, naturally, she did the only reasonable thing to do in such a situation. She wrapped her arms and legs around him, pulling him tightly against her, and purred happily once she had her breath back.

At least until a thought suddenly occurred to her, causing her eyes to shoot open. Immediately she pushed him up (though her legs were still locked around his waist). Wait, what do you mean you slept through Friday? Today is Friday!

Richard grunted, the air around them both rippling and subsiding as he struggled to escape. “No, it's Saturday. Would you please let go? We were sick all through Fri- stop that! Friday, and it is now Saturday.” While he fought they rose into the air and fell over and over, rotating slowly as they did until finally, they landed on the mattress again, Richard on his back with Sophia straddling him.

A second later the sheet, still planted firmly against the ceiling fell and draped itself across them.

Richard sighed in defeat. “I give up.”

Now in a more comfortable position without Ricky’s heavy weight on top of her, Sophia sat up, her face adorned with utter devastation. You mean I missed two whole runs? She leaned down on him with her hands pressed against his chest, Inadvertently giving him an even more impressive view than he had before.

Richard closed his eyes again, determined to keep them that way until he remembered he wouldn't be able to communicate with her if he couldn't see her signing.

“Good chocolate Christ on a cracker,” he muttered and glared up at her, focusing on her face and ignoring all else. “Yes you missed two runs. But you were sick so no one will hold it against you. I think the fact that I've been ping-ponging through the air like a party balloon should be of slightly greater concern at the moment don't you?”

She seemed to consider his words for a moment, then shrugged. Hurts too much to think about. With that, she laid back down, nuzzled her head under his chin, closed her eyes, and purred again. Whatever weird things that were going on, it could all wait until her head stopped feeling like it had an axe buried in it.

Richard groaned and rubbed at his eyes. They were burning and itching, like he hasn't gotten enough sleep. With Sophia comfortable he decided to make the most of things and wrapped his arms loosely around her, keeping carefully to safe areas.

“If something happened to me, it must have happened to you too,” he repeated his earlier comment. “And it likely happened to some of the others as well, if not all of them. But what happened? I'm floating, at the least, but why? And how? Am I doing it? Is it some kind of ability or a symptom of something?”

He kept his eyes closed, the itching getting worse as time went on.

Sophia groaned, and reached up to plant her hand over Ricky’s mouth. Her request couldn’t have been more obvious if she had used duct tape. Settling down, she sighed, and purred again.

Richard would have glared at her but she wouldn't have noticed and it wouldn't have done any good. For a moment he considered licking her hand, but that wouldn't have yielded any positive results either.

So finally, he simply shook his head a few times to get her hand off his mouth and settled in to wait. In minutes he was sound asleep.

---

Feeling much better as she drifted back into consciousness, Sophia pushed herself up and stretched, moaning softly as she felt the pull in her muscles. She glanced down to find that Ricky was still asleep beneath her, and smiled, leaning down to gently peck his forehead. She knew very well how awkward he could get around her, and it was honestly too much fun teasing him about it. Not that she would ever apologize for it, of course. It was simply her way of saying that he was important to her.

Sliding over so that she was laying beside him, instead of straddling on top, she started to tap his forehead, grinning like a loon.

Richard flinched in his sleep when something tapped against his forehead and he groaned, shaking his head irritably. A second later it came again and he jerked again, harder. It came a third time and he jerked so hard he startled himself awake. His head came up, eyes opened, and he bit back a strangled groan, hands flying to his face to cover his eyes.

“Argle farther,” he said, or something remarkably similar to it. A cold sweat broke out over his skin as the itching and burning sensation he’d felt before falling asleep exploded into full blown agony. Red hot pokers, needles, knives, images of Justin Bieber, whatever analogy most fit, that’s what he felt and he curled in on himself, groaning piteously.

Instantly, all humour vanished from Sophia’s mind, and she leaned over him, cupping his cheek, brow furrowed in concern. Ricky?

Richard was unaware that Sophia was attempting to speak to him as he resisted the urge to claw at his own eyes. He had just enough sense to realize that it wouldn’t help and would only hurt him in the long run. For what felt like hours but was probably only the span of minutes Richard shook and groaned as the pain ratcheted up and up and up in intensity until finally, like a bubble bursting, it was simply, and suddenly, gone.

He sat up slowly, hardly daring to open his eyes, but eventually he did. Eyes open he looked around the room, absently wiping a sheen of sweat from his forehead with the back of one arm until his gaze landed on Sophia, staring at him with naked concern written across her face.

“I’m all right,” he muttered. “I have absolutely no idea what that was, but I’m all right.”

Unconvinced, Sophia pushed him back down onto the mattress. You. Stay. Put. She stood up, looking down at him with a surprisingly severe look. I mean it. With that, she turned around and left the room.

Richard stared after her, confused by her reaction, and he took a moment to take stock of himself. Despite the searing agony he’d been in just minutes before he felt perfectly fine. No stiffness or soreness in his joints or muscles, and his eyes didn’t hurt in the slightest. They felt strange, heavy was the only word he could think of to describe it, but they didn’t hurt at all and his vision seemed to be just as it was before.

“Seriously, Soph,” he called as he stood up and started for the door. “I’m fine. I’m gonna head home and try to track down phone numbers. I’ll call that Blake kid, and Mina, or Alden, see if they had a similar experience.”

Right as he opened the door, Sophia was waiting for him. In an instant she planted her hand on his face, pushed him all the way back onto the bed, and gave him The Look. This was not The Look that she had given him previously. This was the devastating, and rarely used You Are An Idiot And You Will Do As I Tell You Look, passed down the Callahan line for generations. It would brook no arguments, accepted no alternative, and could cause even the bravest soul to tremble.

Richard quailed, predictably so, under The Look, but attempted to rally. “But I have to get home,” he protested. “Come on, I live next door, my mom’s gonna be wondering where I went, I kinda ran out of there without giving her a heads up.”

The Look did not budge.

Richard stared her down for several seconds, longer than he’d ever managed, in fact. But in the end, it was not to be. He sighed and threw his hands into the air. “Fine,” he muttered. “But you’re gonna have to explain to my mom why I’m not coming home without letting on about any floating or other weird shit going on.” He settled back on the bed and crossed his arms over his chest, actively sulking.

“And put some clothes on before you talk to her,” he called after her.

Smiling sweetly, Sophia kissed his forehead, pushed him back down, and tucked him into the covers. Good boy. I expect you to at least be down to your boxers when I get back, because you’re not leaving that bed, and you’ll overheat if you keep those clothes on. Before he could protest, she gave him The Look again, and he meekly fell silent. Rising, she grabbed her running clothes and left the room.

Upstairs, she paused when she noticed her mother and aunt sitting in the living room, both of whom fell silent when she appeared.

“Sophia, you’re awake. How are you feeling, honey?” Kailey asked.

Sophia blinked, then smiled. Much better, Aunty. I was just going over to tell Ricky’s mom that he would be staying here over the weekend.

Both adult women shared a look, and Michelle smiled brightly. A little too brightly. “Oh, Ricky’s here? I didn’t know that.”

Slowly, Sophia’s eyes slid between her mother and aunt. They were being very calm. Very familial. It was suspicious. She padded into the living room, until she stood face to face with her mother, who looked back at her innocently. Mother.

“Daughter.”

Show me the pictures.

Michelle glanced at her sister-in-law, who simply shrugged, grinning broadly. “I told you.” Rolling her eyes, she pulled the camera from beneath one of the couch pillows and handed it to her daughter. “I have to put these in the scrapbook. You two look adorable together.”

Flicking through the pictures, Sophia smiled fondly, ending on a close-up of the two teens slumbering together. It was quite apparently that Sophia wasn’t wearing anything under the bedsheet. Send me this one. And make sure there’s room for more, Ricky looks good without a shirt.

With that, she handed the camera back to her delighted mother and aunt, donned her running shorts and tank-top, and departed to explain to Ms. Calhoun the numerous ways in which her son was an idiot.

Thursday March 21st, 2016

Hal followed everyone aboard the strange ship, and ignored what everyone else had to say, as he instead focused on trying to find buttons to push. A weird spaceship has to have fun buttons to push, right? He was so thoroughly engrossed in finding said buttons, he failed to notice the extending apparatus above him, and was caught completely off-guard when it switched on. The last thing he could remember before blacking out was a single thought.

Well, shit.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Saturday March 23rd, 2016

Hal woke up Saturday morning to the sound of his alarm. His arm felt heavy as he reached to shut it off-

and his eyes snapped open at the sound of crunching wood.

He stared in shock, and not quite horror, as he stared down at his hand, encased in a heavy, golden gauntlet. Where the hell had this come from? After a few seconds, he could place its familiarity; he'd drawn a gauntlet just like it before he left...

Wait just a second. The last thing he remembered was the inside of that strange sky-machine. How in the world was he in his bed? Hal got up, and changed into some fresh clothes. He glanced at his phone as he went downstairs;

"Saturday. It's Saturday. How is it Saturday? I must've passed out for longer than I thought." He went in search of his father, hoping maybe he could shed some light on things. He threw on a sweatshirt, pulling the sleeve up over the gauntlet. He slowly opened the door to his father's "office", finding him passed out over his newest piece. That figures, Hal thought. All right, Plan B. That directory had to be around here somewhere...

Hal starting quietly rifling through his father's drawer, raising the school directory triumphantly. He went through it, looking for familiar names. Finally, he found one. "Richard Calhoun. He's the one Largent beat up, right?" He copied down the address, and set out. It wasn't too far away. The gauntlet was starting to become very annoying, and slightly worrying. If strange things started happening to him, then surely the others would be affected too...

Saturday March 23, 2016

"Wake the fuck up you lazy little shit!" Largent was startled from a deep sleep by a blow to the face. A moment later he experienced a sense of vertigo as the ground beneath him shifted, tilting had to his left and he rolled along until he crashed hard into another surface. Oh right. The ground hadn't shifted, his bed had. He blearily opened his eyes to find that his dad had lived the side of his bed, tilting him out of it and onto the worn and scuffed hardwood floor of his bedroom.

If Largent was the tallest person in his grade, his dad was one of the tallest people in town. Close to seven feet tall and almost equally as rotund, Gareth was not a pleasant man. He and his wife had married young when she'd ended up pregnant with Largent, an accident they hadn't wanted or planned for and they made sure to let him know it.

"We don't pay to send you to school so you can laze around all the damned time, you slept all day yesterday so get up and get some fucking work done!" Gareth roared and Largent cringed despite himself. The anger built up in his chest again. The same anger that always resided there like a cold knot of iron just behind his heart that he could never get rid of no matter how many people he took his anger out on.

He went to stand, too stunned from his fall and bleary from whatever happened to him to realize his mistake before it was too late. One thing he'd learned early on in life was that, when Gareth knocked you down, you didn't get back up until he left. Not if you wanted to keep all of your teeth. He lifted his head just in time to catch the crushing fist to his face. The blow lifted him bodily off the ground and tossed him across the room where he crashed into the wall and slumped to the floor again, taking a nearby desk lamp with him.

There was a crashing sound as the lamp hit the floor and the bulb shattered. Largest hand landed a scant inch from the broken bulb and he cried out in surprise when tiny tendrils of bright blue electricity arced from the lamp toward his hand. What in the fucking hell? he thought. five tiny bolts of lightning connect his hand to the bulb and instead of the pain he expected a growing warmth spread through his body. The cobwebs were swept away from his mind and strength flooded his limbs. The pain in his cheek and jaw slowly receded as well until they vanished entirely.

The whole time Gareth kept screaming, ranting at Largent over one imagined slight or another, but Largent wasn't hearing him. He held his hand out to the empty wall socket beneath where they lamp was plugged in. He could feel it. Humming through the floors and walls. Flowing, sighing, moving from one place to another. There was a beauty to it, a sense of order among the chaos.

"Mine," he growled and a thick bolt of electricity snapped from the wall to his hand with a loud hissing, crackling sound. The air began to smell of burnt ozone and hair as all the hair on his knuckles flash fried into nothing. He gasped and spasmed, his muscles clenching and convulsing throughout his entire body as he pulled the energy into his body.

"What the fuck are you doing? You stupid fuck, I hope you plan on paying the electric bill this month," Gareth snapped angrily. Largent still didn't hear him, and even if he had, he wouldn't have likely responded to the ridiculous statement.

The electricity suddenly vanished and Largent rose to his feet. Small tendrils of lightning crackled around his hands and when he raised his head and locked gazes with his father, the old man could see bits of lightning flashing in his gaze.

"You," Largent hissed. "Are never going to hit me again."

Outside, if anyone had been nearby to care, a loud crackling noise could be heard, accompanied by frenzied screams of terror. The screams went on for some time before they finally fell silent, and no one left the house again for several days.

----------

Richard

It hadn't taken long for him to get ahold of the right people. Took a little creative searching, but he managed it and by noon he had made contact with Mina and Alden. Hal, he hadn't been able to reach. But the others were on their way over to Sophias house. The door opened and Richard glanced up just as he was putting his phone down.

"I got ahold of a couple of people, they should be on their way- GAH! Why are you still naked?" he asked, hand coming up to cover his eyes.

Sophia looked down at herself and frowned before signing, I'm not naked, stupid. I'm wearing jeans.

"But no shirt, or bra."

She glared at him, not The Look, but still effective nonetheless and he sank back on the bed. "Anyway, some people are on their way so you might want to consider getting dressed. It seems like they've been experiencing some weird stuff too, so it looks like we'll have more to talk about than I think we ever have with some of them."

…Nothing. The news had nothing for him. Well, it’s not like he had any high hopes going into that venture at least. He shut off the TV for now and just laid back down on the couch to let his head cool down. ”What the heck did the ship do…” Blake thought to himself as he raised one of his hands up.

”If it’s not, like, anal probing-” a grimace wandered its way onto his face as he worriedly slid his hand under his ass to check, ”And god forbid I HOPE it’s not that,” he clenched his raised hand and scowled, ”Then what the heck was it?!” He tried to will something to happen… Anything! Thankfully for him it barely took five seconds for what he was looking for to happen.

Blake’s hand suddenly flashed! Well, more like there was a ball of light suddenly engulfing his hand. It involved an incredibly bright light bursting out to his dark-adjusted eyes so it blinded him all the same. ”ACK!” he cried out and covered his eyes. ”Wha- What was that?!” Blake sputtered out. ”Light?! I… Wait. Wait is that my thing? Did that ship give me—“ He blinked his blinded eyes open and looked at both of his hands again.

”That light came from me… Did I do the thing with the lights too?” He wondered out loud.

“What thing with the lights?”

Blake flinched and clammed up as he looked up to find his dad at the entrance to the living room, squinty-eyed and groggy. “Ahhh, I bet you still have a fever, hah!” he chided with a heavy Filipino accent, “Go back to bed now, I don’t want you getting sicker. Don’t go on that computer either!” The older man shook his head and started heading back to bed himself, “Bad for your eyes, bad for your head for too long, I keep telling you kids…”

Blake heaved a sigh of relief as he heard his dad’s voice trail off. Well, he’s busted. His dad’s word was pretty much law in the house, and he didn’t want to risk freaking his family out if they caught him messing with his newfound powers, so he decided to just retire to his room again. He may have slept for a whole day, apparently with a fever too, but he could go for a few more hours. The others would probably be up by then, so they could probably figure this all out together too!

…

The others. The… other people.

Who Blake isn’t well acquainted with.

…

---

It was a little hard convincing his parents he was completely okay to be moving around, but Blake managed it after he finished up some homework he had to catch up on. It took him until noon to do it, so he had some hustling to do if he was going to meet up with anyone. He may not have known the others well enough to know their phone numbers or where he lived, but that wasn't going to stop him from trying!4

He took his bike out (much to his surprise, he thought it was left behind given the story his parents gave him about coming home) and started pedaling out towards school. From there, he just made a giant guess on where the others lived. Sometimes he’d see people like Richard leave a certain direction from school, and so he just assumed he lived in that vague, general area.

…With a clue like that, sleuthing was going to be harder than he thought. Well, he’s already here, may as well try and check it out for himself anyway. He biked out from the school and headed in the direction of Richard’s neighborhood, hoping that he’d be able to recognize anyone from school on the way there.

Hal put up his hood as he left the house, sneaking over to Richard's house, the gauntlet sticking out oddly from his sleeve in places. He knocked on the Calhoun's door, hoping Richard would answer, but to no avail. Instead, Mrs. Calhoun opened the door.

"Hello, can I help you?"

It took Hal a moment to recover. "Um, yeah, is Richard home? I need to talk to him."

"May I ask why?"

"Uhh..... school project, and I forgot to ask for his phone number?"

"All right then... He's just across the street, at the Callahan's." His mother shut the door as Hal turned and started walking.

Callahan, Hal thought. That's Sophia, right? The one who kicked Largent's large end to the curb? All the better. He jogged across the street, and knocked at the Callahan's door. When someone opened the door, Hal paused for a moment.

"Surprisingly not the weirdest thing I've seen today. Is Richard here?"

In the basement, Sophia stuck out her tongue and plopped down beside Ricky, snuggling into his side. They can cope. It's Saturday, I'd be comfy if it wasn't for stupid Lardo, and today's been weird. Satisfied that she once again had her cuddle buddy, she hummed in her throat and closed her eyes. Oh, and your mother says you're a moron, and to stay right here next to me.

---

Kailey Callahan had just placed her towel on the couch and was about to curl up with her latest book, when she heard knocking at the door. Of course. With an annoyed sigh, she made her way towards the door, not bothering to grab her robe. If it was one of those JW's again, then they could just deal with her being naked; she worked hard to have the weekends off and she was determined to enjoy it.

"How many times have I told you, we're not interested in looking for Jesus. Keep track of him yourse - oh!" She looked at the young man standing on the front step in mild surprise. Looks a little young to be a JW. And he's certainly not dressed for the part. JW's never wore hoodies. "Can I... help you, young man?"

The boy looked her up and down for a moment, then shrugged. "Surprisingly, not the weirdest thing I've seen today. Is Richard here?"

Kailey blinked. A friend of Sophia and Richard? "Um... yes, he is, downstairs with Sophia. Apparently they both came down with something the other day. Did you... need to see them about something?" Over his shoulder, she spied Mrs. Abney looking at her, one hand clapped over her mouth. "Oh, stop staring Gail! People will think you're a voyeur!" Sighing to herself, she turned and grabbed a robe out of the closet. "Honestly, it's like the woman's never looked at herself in the mirror." She gestured to the boy in front of her. "Well, come in. Stairs are just around the corner."

With that, she headed down to her bedroom, grumbling to herself and ignoring her sister-in-law smirking at her from the living room.

@TychosFullmeta@pockets