You may be disappointed by the infrequency and irregularity of my submissions. Here's the thing: in truth, I'm always writing. Sometimes smut, sometimes not (in this case not, at least not yet). So I've decided to start posting my unfinished stories again even if I'm having current writer's block for the next chapter. If the story receives interest, maybe I'll try a little harder on it. Hopefully this leads to more frequent submissions.

"...while scientists are left scratching their heads," the anchor reported, "Fanatics fear it could be a sign of an alien invasion, but NASA believes the blackout is more likely to be the result of unexplained solar activity. Here's what astrophysicist at Cal Tech Dr. Calvin Burns had to say-"

Cody then watched the segment cut away to a middle-aged man at a podium speaking before a restless crowd that wouldn't stop photographing him. All he had to say was an unenlightening, "We are doing everything we can to uncover the source of our blindness. Unfortunately, we've lost contact with all of our satellites and rovers beyond Mars, but I assure you the red planet and all the others are still there, even if we can't see them. A planet doesn't just disappear, you know!" The boy wasn't impressed.

Perhaps calling Cody a boy wasn't quite right. He was 19, so legally he was an adult in the good old USA even though his brain wasn't fully developed at that age. He was also a freshman in college, which means it was also about time to make the critical decision of what he'd study that would determine what kind of career he could possibly have (again, without a fully developed brain). In fact, he wasn't even watching the news at home; he was between classes and peering at his phone watching a Yahoo news clip. You could find him in the comments section of just about any story.

When he heard a beep over the intercom, he looked up and held an earbud out in order to listen better. "Attention students and faculty: due to inclement weather, a tornado warning has been issued. Please calmly assume severe weather positions and await further instructions."

Cody smelled bullshit immediately. Tornado? There wasn't supposed to be a cloud in the sky today! What's this shit? he thought. But nonetheless he obeyed. As other classes all filed out of their respective rooms, Cody faced the concrete wall, knelt down, lay his head on the floor, and covered his head with his hands just like everyone else. Of course, that would never save his life from a tornado; he was on the fourth floor, after all. But he knew that if he tried to go down he'd probably just cause a scene and maybe even be physically stopped. It was just the school protocol... Stupid as it was.

He almost wanted to make the run for it, though, because all the chittering around him was making him anxious, more anxious than the tornado threat did. The place was supposed to be stone silent, yet nobody but him could quit whispering. Maybe it helped that he didn't have any acquaintances with whom to gossip there, though. At least they only kept going for twenty minutes.

Unfortunately, after those twenty minutes the reason they shut up was because the sound of a runaway freight train began to encroach. Cody's parents always told him that such a sound signified an approaching tornado, so it looked like his building was definitely in its path. He froze. Not regarding motion, that is; he froze internally. He stopped thinking to put all his energy into sensing. He also froze temperature-wise; it wasn't really cold, but he felt very cold, cold enough to shiver a little.

The train seemed to be charging right at the building, but Cody didn't get it! He could look between his legs and see out the window, and while the wind was clearly picking up a little bit there was only one small cloud in the sky. It couldn't possibly be tornado weather. But each second it seemed to get darker and darker outside even though nothing was blocking the sun. Cody could see it clear as day!

As the wind began bending trees and the noise reached pollution levels, Cody thought he could see some kind of black dust blowing past the window. He asked himself, "Hmm?" Before finally getting curious enough to stand up and look out the window closely. Something definitely didn't seem right in his gut.

"What are you doing? Get down!" Cody heard some staff member yell at him, but it was only barely heard because the wind was so loud.

Cody ignored the woman and kept watching, stepping closer to the window to watch the development: the dust could slowly circling the building sped up faster and faster, and while it started looking thin like a light breeze blowing around sand in a desert, the cloud was thickening and thickening rapidly until the boy couldn't even see out the window anymore - not even the sun. It was completely blocked by the cloud!

"What the hell is that?" Cody screamed just as all the windows in the hallway shattered simultaneously. It gave Cody a start, but his reflexes were very fast; he ducked and covered his head, protecting him from the shrapnel that flew inward and leaving him unscratched. But when he uncovered his head his eyes went wide and his heart doubled in rate; apparently what had burst through the windows were spiders.

These were no ordinary spiders, however. Had they been, they wouldn't have bothered Cody at all. For starters, these spiders were bigger - much bigger. At least six feet tall, in fact, with legs that were all at least as long as he himself was tall. The creatures were mostly black but seemed to have some stripes of rusty orange running down all over them. Cody also noticed they had tails and long, thin abdomens that almost made them look like scorpions if they had had less legs.

The screams were so loud that they could almost drown out the noise of the swirling vortex in which the school was ensnared. Cody wasn't stupid enough to stand around and try to figure out what was going on. He knew enough to conclude that he was somewhere he shouldn't be. He cared enough about others to command, "Run!" but he stayed put no longer and made a hasty break for the hallway's end toward the stairs.

Unfortunately, there had been one window between him and the end of the hall, which means there was one creature between him and the end of the hall. Cody put on the brakes quick when he noticed he couldn't safely continue, and the scorpion creature stood its ground, hissing, like it knew its prey was trapped. And it was. So Cody had to find some way past the creature, and he has to do it fast.

Cody didn't even have a second before he recognized that the scorpion's legs were bending far and coming close to its body in preparation to lunge. Before the boy could even begin to think, it pounced! The hallway was far too narrow for the scorpion's wide legs to miss him if he dodged left or right, but Cody's instinctual response was a lucky one: he fell on his back flat and hoped the big creature would over jump and fly right over him.

It almost did miss, but the rear half looked like it would fall on top of Cody. His good observation and fast reflexes served him well yet again, though, by giving him the ability to use his arms and legs to push the creature up a bit and push it in the direction it was already going over him, forcing it to fly further and land farther behind him. "Yes!" he let himself cheer before flipping on his stomach and throwing his legs beneath him to get up and run.

He managed to get his right leg under him; his right was grabbed by the scorpion, which turned around just fast enough to get its two front limbs to clamp down on Cody's right leg. The creature's body was too smooth to create much friction for grip, though, so Cody used his strength alone to yank the leg free. The creature took his shoe in the process, but he was free. He even managed to grab the shoe from the weak grip, but he didn't stick around to put it on. He was free and intended to stay that way, so with his path now clear he held his shoe tight and ran for the stairway.

When he cleared the hallway he swung right, threw the stairwell door open, and burst through it. Looking over his shoulder, he apparently was the only person fleeing. Oh, well. "Jesus, what are these things?" Cody asked himself between pants as he descended two or three steps at a time. Halfway down to the third floor with a bend at which the stairs turned around 180 degrees in front of him when he noticed another window before him. "Aww, shit!" He jumped over the last step so that he could end up right against the wall with the window and duck beneath it as another of the green scorpions blew right through it, over his head, and behind him. Another close call.

Cody kept on running then, only now he was being pursued by a scuttling faceless scorpion creature. He made it to the third floor but didn't mean to stop there. Unfortunately, the creature behind him screeched and, with the advantage of being a few stairs higher, managed to lunge and close all the distance between them. Without even looking Cody knew he had to make a sudden move and possibly a risky one. So, a quarter of the way down the next story (halfway until the next one-eighty bend), Cody frantically vaulted over the railing and fell down ten feet back on the stairs.

In the short-term, it worked. As a long-term solution, it didn't. Cody didn't land in a stable enough way to keep his balance, so his feet slid forward down and made him fall backwards while simultaneously sliding forwards down five or six stairs until settling on the flat of the second floor. Well, he was halfway down, but before Cody could get mobile again, the giant scorpion, from a position perched on the above rail made the same jump Cody just had. Its was more successful than the boy, though, and managed to land right over and on top of the frightened human, hissing and screeching in apparent frustration.

Cody punched the creature in the blank spot where its face should have been twice. Not only did it not react, its "face" didn't even move in response to the push of Cody's fist. It stayed as solidly in place as a concrete wall, so naturally the human recoiled and flapped his hand in pain. "Ah, fuck... Are you fucking kidding me?" He swore out loud. And right then another scorpion was climbing up the stairs from the bottom floor to meet with its buddy. "Shhhhhhhhit...!"

And then the beast on top of Cody was lifted off of him and thrown out the window. How and by whom were things Cody didn't see because it happened so fast that he pissed part of it while blinking. Was it sucked back out by the wind outside? he thought. It seemed plausible; those winds were really strong, and it showed in Cody's blown clothes and auburn hair.

Glad as he was for the removal of one threat, he couldn't even move the other of the creepy-crawlies was on top of him, stinger raised to strike. Cody's luck held out yet again, though, and he was rescued. The door of the stairwell beside where he was pinned burst open, and through it charged... something. It was too fast to get what exactly it was in the instant, but it wasn't the same being that was currently trying to kill him. All he could make of the charging blur was that it was some red-orange in color instead of green and black. At first it terrified Cody, but its target seemed to be the scorpion instead; the newcomer ran right into it and kept on running another two steps, which slammed the scorpion right into the concrete wall - and in he wall formed a small crater as proof of the impact.

The crash forced the creature to stop moving, so Cody could finally identify some of its features: it reminded him of a lion then, save for being the height of a Clydesdale, red-orange all over, and apparently being decked out in some kind of armor. It wore plates on its chest, shoulders, and hips as well as some kind of anklets that zigzagged up and down the length of the ankle like crowns with sharp, jagged edges. The shoulder and hip plates also all had great spikes that extended out from them, hips' longer than the shoulders', that almost resembled wings. Additionally there was a horn that rose from the top of its head and then bent back at a ninety-degree angle - a horn that was presently embedded in the thorax of the spider-scorpion.

It would have looked like quite the noble creature if it weren't growling threateningly with its deadly teeth bared all while turning its eyes in its sockets to make eye contact with Cody while the body of the scorpion disintegrated into dust and got sucked back out by the raging whirlwind. It faced Cody directly then, and he feared he was about to be lion chow. The hell is going on here? He mentally demanded as he rose to run again.

Cody could hear the metallic clink and dull thuds of the lion chasing after him as soon as he was moving again. He was afraid there would be no way to outrun the new threat with an ankle he was now learning he twisted during his daring jump. Nevertheless, though it pained him, he hobbled fast as he could down the stairs to the ground floor. He was sure the feline could have caught him, but right then it seemed more interested in just keeping up and stalking him. Over his shoulder he could see that it was constantly in a stance prepared to pounce at any moment. Cody feared it was probably just playing with its food before it ate him like felines were wont to do, and it wouldn't take its eyes off of him.

Nevertheless he made it to the ground floor safely and left the stairwell, and, boy, he couldn't possibly have been happier about it - except maybe without the vicious armored lion dogging in his footsteps. Between Cody and the front door was another narrow hallway, at the opposite end of which he and the lion emerged, and a slightly wider foyer/atrium type room in which was the door. He was almost out. But besides the aforementioned obstacles, there was one more: an apparent army of the creepy crawlers from earlier.

The crawlers lined the floor, walls, and ceiling, and each one began to chitter excitedly when he left the stairs and entered the hall. There was nothing behind him but a wall, though, and back in the stairs were more giant scorpions trying to beat down the door into the hall. There was no avoiding danger, it seemed. Cody would just have to hope he could run through and not be buried under the creatures... so he prepared to run as the lion started to get pissed and snarl some more.

Before Cody could take off running, the muzzle of the lion pokes past him and tilted into his belly, pushing back on him slightly. He was scared it was about to rip into his belly and spill his stomach in front of his eyes, but really all it did was push him. The boy took a step back because he was caught off guard, but the lion kept pushing him further and further back with his muzzle until the boy was nearly against the wall. Well it was clear what the lion wanted, and Cody hoped obedience would be good for his health, so he reluctantly complied.

It looked like the door behind him was about to give anyway, so Cody started throwing his weight back against it. But what was the lion up to?

Cody thought it was intending to fight the cyclone or scorpion creatures. It was crouched and hissing and growling at the army in front of it, now not seeming to pay Cody any attention at all. But how was it going to fight every one of those angry bugs at once? Well, Cody watched the wing-like spikes of the lion's shoulders and hips change the angle at which they stuck out so that instead of going up and a bit forward they were lowered to point straight forward like a jouster's lance. "No way..." Cody thought out loud.

En masse, the cyclone began to scurry toward the pair, but the jouster stood firm. It even pawed the ground a little like a horse before roaring and charging at the hoard with no fear. Some lept on the wall or ceiling to avoid the charge, but almost the whole force was eliminated and turned to dust by the one run! Unfortunately, three or four remained, and now the lion was separated from Cody by the length of a hallway. He wasn't sure if that was entirely a bad thing, but now the lion was a hallway length away from defending him from any more crawlies, and a few had their sights on him. "Ugh, this just won't end!"

Cody peered through the window of the stairwell door to desperately to judge if he thought he might make it, and... surprisingly, he could have. It was totally clear. The scorpions who had been beating down the door before weren't even there, and though the boy had had his weight on it to block it the whole time he never noticed. Where did they go? It didn't seem to matter much when Cody heard glass shatter again, and it wasn't from the stairs. It sounded like it might have been one of the classrooms in his hall, and he feared reinforcements.

Cody froze. Dare he go back up? It did seem like he'd only corner himself again. But he may also have bought time for the lion to finish off the other things. Of course, he had no idea what it would do after that.

While Cody was thinking that he was immobile, and while he was immobile the crawlies kept on crawling toward him. But before they reached him, another classroom door burst open, and out from it shot some kind of tendril. It was very long and thin and red and color. That's all Cody could see of it because in under a second its tip lightly grazed one of the crawlies. Apparently it was attached, because the tendril instantly pulled back to wherever it came from and yanked the scorpion with it. The creature screeched in defiance, but it got pulled into the classroom fast as lightning. From there Cody didn't know its fate, but it stopped screaming and never emerged from that room.

However, that left one more of the giant bugs that wasn't occupied by the lion. It was only left momentarily, though. As soon as the first was dispatched, the snaking tendril latched onto that one and did the exact same thing. Simultaneously, that cleared his view to watch the feline mop up all the remaining crawlies, turning them to dust. The hall was clear.

Cody wanted to know what the heck that tentacle thing was that saved his life, so he crept along the wall and peered through the doorway while trying to reveal as little of himself as he could. At first he only saw an empty classroom, so he peeked a bit further in to see more. Nevertheless the room was still empty. But by leaning in a bit he could also look out the window, and while outside it wasn't the source of the tentacle, something equally shocking was out there: blue skies and sunlight. No chirping birds, but that vortex seemed to be completely gone.

Incredulously, Cody forgot caution and approached the broken window for a better look outside, panning his eyes all around. There seemed to be no sign of any disaster at all except for a couple of fallen trees. When did it stop? One last hiss startled the boy, and he identified it as being above him. Against the gray brick building, he didn't see its source at first, but he caught blinking eyes belonging to a body of some sort that was the same color as the building. Each eye was the size of Cody's fist. The new creature then completely changed its color, an appropriate move because it was revealed to be a chameleonesque creature, only like every other crazy thing he saw today it was giant.

Without warning, it grabbed him in its long tongue around the waist, making Cody scream and struggle. Nevertheless it pulled him straight out the window, dangling him over the ground. Cody thought he heard someone call out toward him, "Gentle! Gentle!" but before he could look over his shoulder the lizard dropped him. It was only two-foot drop, though, and Cody was able to land on his good ankle first. "That was not gentle," the now obviously male voice scolded.

Now that Cody was free to look back, he did, and he was real glad to see another human greeting him, walking up casually to Cody and the chameleon sticking to wall like he didn't see the latter. The chameleon dropped next to Cody on the ground then, which is when Cody discovered it was bipedal, standing upright... and it was over a foot taller than him, probably seven feet from the ground to the top of its head. Mostly it was blue all over, but it's claws and the top of its head were green along with two more green stripes that ran down ran the back of its body from the shoulders to the knees that uncomfortably reminded him of the scorpions.

The approaching young man, though, wasn't scared of the chameleon at all. He was really out of breath, though, like Cody himself. Sweaty, too, with shorter black hair than himself but no less dishevelled. The weirdest thing about him, though, was his attire. He was wearing very flowy black pants of a material he couldn't place and a very thick black jacket that also seemed to have padded white gloves and bracers attached to the white sleeves. The early 20-something wore white boots, too, that rose halfway up his shins and almost looked armored from the distance away he was. Cody couldn't have discerned what the gear was all for, but it was definitely meant to take an impact.

"Hapaxion, I gave you one job. Where's Leo, and why did you two break off from the rest?"

Rest, huh? Cody wondered, Is this the guy in charge of that army somehow? "Yo. Are these weirdos your friends? Because I don't think I like them very much!" he defiantly challenged.

It seemed the other human didn't have much patience. "You little mailo!" he declared as he launched a punch straight for Cody's jaw. Getting hit by that glove looked like it was going to hurt a lot, but it didn't land; the chameleon behind Cody used one of its hands to catch the punch! The young man threw another with the other hand, but the chameleon just stopped it, too. "What is this, Hapaxion?" he snarled, "What's with your attitude?"

Cody checked the two out, and they were both glaring at each other viciously. He thought he'd better get out of the line of fire, so he slowly ducked under the arms of the two and got out from between them. "It sounds like you two have a lot to talk about, and I fully support that; it's a sign of a healthy relationship and all that. But before you do, I'd like to address the matter of what the fucking fuck is going on here!"

The young man pushed the chameleon, apparently named Hapaxion, away far enough that his hands weren't trapped anymore. "It was a Krawl attack. I just wiped out all the Greeps for you. You're welcome."

"What the hell is a Greep? What the hell is a Krawl?" Cody continued to demand.

The young man looked dumbstruck. "What do you mean, 'what's a Krawl?' What did you think was swallowing Sols Four through Nine?"

"...what?"

"Your planets, jenshi!"

"You mean Pluto through Mars? We don't actually consider a Pluto a planet, and - jenshi?"

"Person of low intellect?" The stranger asked condescendingly.

Cody grimaced a bit and furrowed his brows suspiciously. "What are you, an alien? You talk like it's your first day as a person." He then glanced back at Hapaxion. "Nevermind. Actually that would explain a lot. Honestly, so far I'm liking this one better. He's a lot friendlier than you." Cody advanced with his arms extended to each side then. "Back on topic, then: who, what, when, where, why, and how?" Hapaxion grunted then, and it seemed to be in agreement with Cody. "Yeah, what he said."

Cody didn't really expect anything from the stranger, honestly. It looked like his expectations would be fulfilled, too. But the lion that defended him earlier showed up again and ran right for Cody instead of whom Cody presumed to be its master. This time it wasn't snarling, though it did still look very intense and alert. He hoped that was just its natural face, though, like his own cat. It seemed that way, because it slowed to a walk when it got close for the last couple of steps and gently sniffed Cody a couple of times before it rubbed it's snout and the side of its face on the back of his head. Well, at least it was definitely on his side, too, and didn't want to eat him. I guess he likes me, Cody observed, relieved.

Only then did the stranger finally relent. "Fine. Follow me." He reached inside his jacket then, and although Cody didn't see what he did he saw the result: two metal rods with thrusters at each end extended out from the jacket's shoulder blades, and Cody needed no time to figure out their function.

"No way-!" was all he had time to exclaim before the jet pack took off and brought the stranger with him... leaving Cody stuck alone with his pets. "Uh..." He awkwardly mumbled, "...I don't have one of those. Whoa!" That last part was the nose of the armored lion slipped between Cody's legs and jerked upward, sending him rolling back one time over, after which he grabbed the base of the lion's neck to stop himself from going further. The boy figured out its intention quickly. "Hey, easy! I've never ridden a-" he shut up when the lion took off in a sprint, needing to concentrate on riding, else he'd fall right off.