One week after the yellow substance shot on his arm, Alex was sitting on his couch and reading some Law books when he started feeling queasy. Blurred vision, dizziness, nausea, and a huge burden on his arms and legs. He tried to stand up, but fell over the small table in front of him and dropped down all of the other books; his symptoms got worse, and he could barely move now.

He heard his mom coming from the kitchen and yelling his name, but her voice seemed to be very distant from him; when he tried to look up, the duplicate image of his mother was suddenly taken by a black figure, which dragged and locked her up inside a place which seemed to be the pantry. He heard some screams, but the sound was coming back and forward. His mother's female voice turned into his father's male and desperate voice, which was quickly silenced by a weird knock sound. Alex had no idea of what was going on, and he couldn't even scream for help; now his whole body was in pain due to the burden that was not only in his arms and legs anymore.

He felt someone catching him and dragging him out of the house, passing through the garden and throwing him inside what seemed to be a car. A black car. His vision cleared up a little and he could notice two men running toward the car and getting in; there was another one already inside in the car, now holding him in his arms. The three men were wearing black clothes and black masks, showing only their eyes. The last thing he remembers is the moving car leaving the front of his house, a pair of brown eyes looking at him and four fingers gently sliding on his face. Everything got dark after that.

A strong headache didn't allow him to keep his eyes opened for long as soon as he woke up. He felt his head spinning around many times, and all of a sudden, he moved his body to the side of the bed he was lying on and threw up. The headache was gone, although he was still feeling weak. He kept his head down, trying to recover himself, when a familiar voice caught his attention.

— Ew! See what you've just done! No way I'm going to clean it!

He slowly moved his head up to see who was talking to him.

— Randall…? What are you doing here…? Where am I…?

— You are in an old wooden house in a desert beach, very far from New York City.

He tried to sit on the bed, and took a fast look around. Old and dusty furniture, wooden floor and walls, a broken window. Far from NYC.

— Why am I here…? Why are we here…?

— It's a long story, but your old fellow James will explain as soon as you feel good enough to smash his skull. It's his fault, anyway. — Randall left the bedroom and slammed the door, but it was wide open again when Andrew got in.

— Alex! Are you OK? Oh my God, you threw up! — He ran to catch a cloth and clean the floor, and he was doing everything so quick that Alex had to hold his arms to make him stop.

— Andrew! Look at me. What's going on? What are we doing in this old house? In a beach?

— Oh, yeah… You've just waken up. Did Randall say it's a long story?

— Yes. And he also said that I will smash James's skull when he tells me the story.

— Don't do that. He didn't know Dr. Howards's intentions…

— Dr. Howards? What? Tell me what you know right now, Andy!

— Well… Do you remember when we took those substances on our arms, ten days ago?

— Ten days ago? It was one week ago!

— You've been sleeping for three days. I'm sorry, I exaggerated on the hypnosis.

Alex's head started spinning again. He shook it and slapped his face a few times, until Andrew held his wrists.

— Stop, you're gonna hurt yourself! I mean it!

— Andrew… Are you nuts? I only slapped my face weakly and…

— The word "weak" is not in your vocabulary anymore. You can't do anything weakly.

— I didn't hurt myself.

— Sooner or later you will.

Alex was about to test his "new strength" by punching Andrew, but he decided to keep calm and ask again.

— Andrew, what's going on…?

— Dr. Howards injected substances in our veins that were able to change our DNA in a very advanced way. We acquired new skills and abilities above the human capacity.

Alex stared at Andrew for a while, then laughed.

— Jesus Christ, Andrew! What kind of comics have you been reading?

— He is telling the truth, Alex. — James's voice came from the window, where he was leaning on his elbows and watching his friends talking. — We are actually going through mutations right now. And we don't know when they will stop.

Alex tried to rearrange his confused thoughts; too much crazy information in a short period of time. In the day before (or three days before, according to Andrew), he was a New York citizen who worked as a lawyer in an office; now he was a mutant with skills and abilities above the human capacity, sitting on an old bed in an old house in a beach, miles away from NY.

— James… What happened, actually? We were supposed to have brain skills improved, weren't we?

— Yes. But Dr. Howards fooled us all. He is actually a crazy, obsessed and ambitious tyrant who loves playing with genetics and is planning to rule the world by creating super androids with improved DNAs, modified by five different substances that would give special powers to the DNA's owner. He used us as the hosts for the substances.

— So he is… testing the substances effects on… us?

— Exactly. And he wants to take us to his lab in order to do more experiments, collect our modified DNAs and finally create his super androids to put down any authority that goes against him. That's why we had to kidnap you at your home and hide here. By the way, your mother is safe and Randall didn't hurt your father.

Alex remained in silence. That was madness. Chemistry drove James nuts. Andrew was naive enough to believe him, or maybe he was nuts too, because he was talking about hypnosis and three-day long sleeps. Randall was angry because he knew he was nuts and wanted to leave that place as soon as possible. He couldn't have hurt his dad. That couldn't be happening.

He was about to get up from the bed and run away from there when Randall got into the bedroom again, with a cigarette between his lips.

— You don't believe, huh? You think James is nuts, Andrew is naive, and I am the only one who knows it besides you. But you are not going anywhere.

Alex got immediately scared. Did Randall read his thoughts?

— Yes, I read your thoughts. My brain abilities are great, dude! But my favorite is this one. — Randall snapped his fingers and a wide red flame went up, lighting up his cigarette. — Welcome to your new life, my dear Alex.