Chapter One: What the Heck Just Happened?

WARNING! ALL CHARACTERS ARE PURELY FICTIONAL. ANY RELATION TO REAL LIFE BEINGS IS COMPLETELY COINCIDENTAL.

A single, bold underlined word like this signals a link (which I hope works) to some music that is completely optional to listen to. A regular underlined word like this is where the music should be stopped. Hopefully links actually work here. If they don't, I put the exact titles of the music in the stories to listen to on YouTube. Timing may or may not be exact.

Location: Denver, Colorado. Time: August 12th 2016. 2:00 A.M.

Two things were going through Jason's mind at the moment. One: Yesterday was one of the best birthdays he ever had. Two: What was that noise that woke him up from his peaceful slumber?

Jason Moore had just turned 18 the day before and had decided to celebrate with his friends in a few games of laser tag. He wanted to spend as much time with his two friends, Luke and Zane, as possible before they all headed off to college in the upcoming weeks.

"Maybe you guys would've won more games if you had skills."

"Well maybe we would've if you had joined our team instead of the color you wanted Zane."

"But blue is the best Luke! They explode everything."

"Only in Team Fortress 2, Zane. Plus red kills robots and that's cool. Luke, does it really matter if we won? I had a great time and from the look you had on your face, you did too."

"Yeah...I guess you're right."

The team he had chosen, which was the red team, lost most of the games, especially since Zane decided to be on the blue team. Zane has an uncanny knack for all forms of weaponry, his favorite being blades of all sizes. Luke had been on the red team with Jason, but cared not for those skills. Luke was a very creative individual that led to him developing excellent strategies that allowed the red team to win a couple of times. Jason didn't care though. He had had too much fun to care. With his energy depleted from the day's activities, once he got home he went to bed early.

Upon waking, he was hit with pain in his stomach. He turned over and started climbing down the ladder that led to his loft bed. During this process, he was careful not to wake the family cat that loved to sleep on his bed. The traditional Siamese cat did not stir as he made the first steps down the ladder. The female feline's name was Chainot or "Chai" for short; named after the Chainot province in Thailand. The cat was fast asleep on her side, revealing a white-furred belly amongst the sea of black that covered the rest of her body. The seal-pointed cat had bonded to Jason when they bought it from the local Petsmart 7 years ago. Since then, it always bothered him for attention in a unique way. Unlike other cats, this particular one meows in a squeak-like fashion, and that is what Jason loved the most about his cat.

He groaned as he made his way down the rest of the ladder. He felt terrible. He had foolishly eaten the pizza that Zane bought from a nearby Little Caesar's before laser tag, but he just couldn't help himself. If there's one food Jason would be content eating for the rest of his life, it would be any type of pizza available to him. Eating it though, had been a mistake. His stomach felt like he had eaten rocks. Made of steel. Jason had a gluten intolerance so he stayed away from wheat filled products, lest he feel like the way he did at that time.

"Nothing I can do about it now..." Jason thought to himself. "I really should stay away from pizza, even though I LOVE pizza....Great, now I'm hungry."

(Insert 1AM (Extended) - Animal Crossing: New Leaf Music here)

As he got to the floor of his room, he looked up at the shelves of Legos and coffee mugs, which he could barely make out. He noticed through the window that allowed him to view the street that the sky was darkened. "Must be overcast" he thought. He then looked at his younger brother's Legos on some other shelves, for he shared a room with his brother, 13 year old David. As he looked at the sleeping form of his youngest sibling, he was reminded of his younger days. Even though Jason loved his brother, David always found a way to push his older brothers buttons. When they were both younger, they acted like a personal war went on between them every day. They argued over the smallest of things, such as who would get to play video games first or what to watch. As they matured, their attitudes improved and they got along really well for the most part. This period of his past led Jason to develop a great deal of patience towards his brother and life in general, even more than his parents. He would miss spending time with his family once college classes started, of that he was sure. He looked up at the walls of the room, lined with posters of various fandoms. Jason and David were proudly self-proclaimed nerds; the kind that watched and talked about something over and over because they enjoyed it immensely. Jason put on his dark brown slippers, exited the room and walked through the hallway past his sisters room. He then went inside the bathroom that was next to his parents' room at the end of the hall.

He slowly closed the door and turned on the lights to look at himself in the mirror. He splashed a bit of water from the sink on his face to wake up a little more, then dried his face off with a towel. He looked at his face and there were a couple of pimples, one on his chin and one on the left side of his forehead.

"Great...just fantastic" he mumbled to himself with more than a hint of sarcasm. "I'll deal with that later, I want to know exactly what woke me up in the first place." With that thought, he left the bathroom, turned the lights off and slowly went back through the hall towards the stairs. As he was walking, he looked at the wall and could make out the silhouettes of the figures in the framed pictures hanging there. From memory, Jason knew the details of each and every one of the faces in those pictures. There was one he especially knew by heart. It was a picture taken 6 years ago and was of his family the last time they had gone to Disney World, which was a special treat for all of them.

As he passed the photo, he visualized the faces in it. Jason knew that on the the left side, their was himself. To his left was his younger sister, Amelia. Currently 15 years old, she had pale skin, blue eyes and strawberry-blonde hair. Her physique was thin with slender arms and legs. She was the peacekeeper of the house, for she always tried to resolve the arguments that popped up. She was also the only one who had a sense of fashion in the family. Her wardrobe was always organized and ready for any occasion. Though she had a kind heart, she always berated the others in a loving way on their clothing choice. To Amelia's left was his brother David. At 13, David had just started shaving even though his facial hair was only visible to those who looked for it. He had inherited their mother's blond hair along with their father's short temper. David was the athlete of the family. He had a stocky build, yet was light on his feet. He was naturally muscular and loved to participate in physical labor, especially when it helped someone he cared for. The old saying "If you can't take it, don't dish it out" meant nothing to David as he would tease his friends and family but could only take so much before he would storm off. Behind the trio of siblings were their parents. Jason's mother was quickly becoming the shortest of their family as David grew in height. Her blond hair and green eyes accentuated her warm-hearted smile. His father stood next to her and remained the tallest of the bunch. Jason looked forward to the day he would finally become taller than his dad. His black hair and beard was starting to show his age as grey hairs showed themselves. His blue eyes looked teal through the glasses he had to wear.

After dwelling at the photo for a couple of minutes, Jason crept slowly down the stairs so as not to make any loud noises. At the bottom of the stairs, he had to take a larger than normal step to get over the Golden Retriever sleeping there. The 8 year old golden dog named Chester was moving his back leg and making incredibly soft barking sounds. "Must be chasing Chai" he thought as he landed softly on the hardwood floor next to the front door. He then tiptoed his way through the dining room to the kitchen.

Going through the kitchen, Jason reached the fridge. "Gosh, how can I be so hungry right now? Maybe I'll just…" His stomach churned at the thought. "On second thought...nah. Not with the way my stomach feels right now."

Remembering the rock-like feeling in his gut, he continued through the kitchen, going past the refrigerator, to the back door. He turned on the back porch light and opened the door. As his eyes adjusted to the mix of darkness and light, was shocked at what he saw.

In the middle of the lawn, in front of the garden at the back, was a big crater about what Jason guessed to be 10 feet in diameter. There was smoke coming from inside the crater. Jason, thinking there might not be someone out here at this time of night but wanting to check, said out loud to himself, "Did a meteorite crash here or something? I don't recall hearing anything about a meteor shower, otherwise I would've stayed up to watch." He looked around, expecting to see or hear someone other than himself be disturbed by the loud noise.

"How come nobody else heard it?" Jason thought as he cautiously stepped towards the crater and looked inside. What he saw perplexed him. There was a black orb at the bottom of the crater. Staying out of the crater, he examined the orb with confusion. "Well...that's unexpected" he said as a mixture of curiosity and excitement filled him. He then lightly jumped into the crater, which was still warm from the impact of the black orb. "How is it even still intact?" He wondered to himself. He went up to the orb and slowly put his hand on the object. The orb was about the width of his outstretched hand, and was completely spherical. "Not even a scratch on it..." he said. Jason marveled at how the orb hadn't suffered in any way from its entry into the atmosphere. "It's not even warm...but, how?" He picked the orb up. It wasn't heavy. At all. Not in the slightest.

"Curiouser and curiouser..." he said, quoting Alice in Wonderland. "David would have laughed at that, what a stupid thing to say. Isn't there something else I could've said?" He laughed at himself a little, put the orb back where it was, and started to walk out of the crater. He looked back at the orb, and with a yawn, thought "It seems to be doing no harm. I'll go back to bed and deal with it in the morning. I wonder what it is exactly...maybe it-" His thoughts were interrupted by a sound that was somewhat familiar, yet completely out of the ordinary. A sort of beeping, whooshing sound seemed to pop out of nowhere. He looked around for the source of the noise until his gaze settled on the orb in his hand. It was coming from the orb.

The orb started turning from black to white; slowly cycling through all colors as the air around it started moving. Jason wasn't afraid though, he was actually quite fascinated at this turn of events. He had seen and read a lot of sci-fi movies, tv and books. He wanted to know what would happen. As Jason moved closer to the strange sphere, the air started moving faster until the orb turned completely white. All the gears in Jason's mind didn't slow down, nor did any warning flags pop up as he slowly reached for the round object. The moment he touched it, everything stopped as the orb turned black again and the air slowed down. Jason then proceeded to pick up the orb a second time. "Well that was anticlimactic..." said Jason as his heart stopped racing from the anticipation of what might have happened. As he turned to go back inside the house, he jumped a good inch at what he saw.

He was surprised to see what might have been described as a hole. "Ummm…" was the only thing he could say and think as he gazed upon it. The hole appeared to be floating on its side in the air, as if someone drew a circle on a piece of paper, cut it out and taped it to a wall. Jason, seeing no imminent danger, moved towards the hole. He ventured behind it...and saw nothing.

"What..." he said, not thinking of anything else to say. He went back in front of the hole and looked closely at it. The inside of the hole was navy blue, with white bolts of lightning striking the rim of the hole. The perimeter of the hole was a perfect circle. Anyone who knows the basics of geometry knows that a perfect circle doesn't exist, yet here he was. Standing in front of one.

"Where did this come from?" he asked himself. He looked down at the object in his hand. "Did you do this?" he asked the orb. "Silly me, you can't talk, you're just an orb. Or are you?" Jason scrutinized the sphere he held, squinting at it while he rotated it. He viewed every facet of the object but couldn't detect anything different about it. As he looked back at the portal, he didn't notice the orb starting to glow green. (Insert Catastrophe - Super Mario Galaxy here) The hole started to pull Jason towards it. "What the heck?" he said as his mind processed the situation. "What's happening?!" he said, starting to panic. He kept thinking to himself "Stay calm, Jason. Stay calm" as he tried digging his feet into the ground to hold himself in place. The grass had other plans, because it was slick with morning dew. He stopped trying when he almost slipped. Jason managed to stay standing as the hole pulled him in closer. He looked around for anything to grab onto, then he realized he was still holding the orb, now glowing green. "What are you?!" he shouted at the orb. He yelled out as the hole sucked him in, then disappeared as if it was never there.