I'm going to place this novel shortly before David, expect a big twist here. I'm not sure if Rachel and Tobias had fallen totally in love by this time but I'm waving my poetic license wand and proof it's done.

45 miles outside of Raleigh

My family was well off. They held patents to a few items and both worked at NC State University, as such we owned a lot of land, we owned some land outside of the suburbs of Raleigh. My father and I used to go hunting all the time out there… I did it alone now, I always felt like my father was there in spirit though.

I moved into my tree stand, it gave some altitude to see approaching deer better. This was only the second season that I was trying bow hunting, normally I carried a rifle with me. I sat down in the stand and watched the woods. I had placed my stand in a tree that gave me a view of a meadow. In the past year a hawk had moved into the meadow, I felt a kinship with the bird. Both of us were hunters.

"Speak of the devil" I chuckled. The hawk flew into a tree where I think he made his home there he visited that tree a lot. The hawk seemed to have had a bad hunting trip he had nothing in his talons. Poor guy, that mean he'd go hungry for the night. Then I saw something else, a girl walking to the tree.

I recognized her, Rachel Bernson a gymnast from my high school she was a year below me and most of my friends, myself among them, had a crush on her. For the past year or so I had noticed that she was changing, she had a nasty attitude with a good amount of people and hated Vice Principle Chapman worse than many of the students, which is saying something.

I guess she was here with her hippie friend. Cassie Moore was a nice girl, but her love for animals bordered on activism, and she had given me trouble in the past about my hunting near her land. Even went so far as to accuse me of trespassing when I went to get a deer I killed from her property.

I tried to be understanding with her, she was allowed her opinion but dammit the meadow was on my property (I had inherited it from my parents). I climbed down the stand, I was going to just ask Rachel if Cassie was around, and if she was I was going to politely ask her not to come around during hunting season because it spooked the game.

When I waked out in to the edge of the woods I could see that, unless Cassie and Rachel were playing hide-and-seek, Cassie wasn't around. That was odd, Rachel never struck me as an outdoorsy type. She walked over to the tree where the hawk was. Not a smart move, hawks tended to be solitary but if you threatened them they could hurt you.

The hawk flew from the tree and landed in front of her. As if that wasn't shocking enough the hawk began to grow. I rubbed my eyes but it was still happening. Human features began to appear on his face and the rest of his body. I stepped into the meadow my voice was not my own it sounded a bit high pitched.

"That's a nice trick you got there Rachel, now tell me how you did it?" They both started and the hawk (now in the form of Tobias a boy I had known briefly a few years ago, the general consensus on what happened to him was that he ran away from that prick uncle of his.) said something.

"Who the hell are you?" Rachel whispered into his ear she didn't know that my hearing aids were very strong so I could normally hear a whisper.

"That's Erik" Rachel said . "Owns the meadow technically he's the one with the parent's who made those implants, remember, the ones we couldn't find when we searched his house."

"Wait just a moment, what the hell were you doing in my house? Did you burn it down, did that hippie girl living back there think it was some kind of retribution for my hunting…" Rachel walked up to me. I couldn't help but feel a slight rush, she was a pretty girl.

"Thanks for insulting my friend that makes this easier." She clubbed me on the side of my head, I sank into blackness.

"Come on Rachel we have to let him go…"

"He saw us morph."

"You should have been more careful, now…"

"Wait a miunte, min-eett minnnnn-etttt , perhaps there is a better solution to this problem."

"Wadaya mean ax-man?"

"well think about it he knows knnnnnnnnnnnnows knowsssss about us, maybe we keep him hear for three days make sure he's not one of them and we bring him aboard."

"That's not a bad idea, we could use some help, hey I think he's coming around." My eyes opened and I immediately knew I was tied up, tightly. I saw a lot of faces around me. Cassie, Rachel, Tobias, Jake (Rachel's cousin), and their foreign cousin. Marco Rodriguez, one of my on-again off-again friends who attended Mass with me, and no one else.

"Hey guys, if it's not too much I'd like for you to untie me, because I don't want to be late for dinner." I hid my fear with humor, how late was it, Anna would be worried, God knows she's lost too much already. Jake spoke up.

"Welcome back, Erik, glad to see you survived Rachel's attack."

"Dispense with the greetings Bernson," I tried acting tough, hoping to intimidate him. "what the hell are you doing?"

"First mind your tone, second, I guess I'll tell you the story." So Jake told me about the Yerks, it seemed like a tabloid story, I didn't believe it, then Ax demorphed in front of me, and I panicked tying to get free.

"Oh Holy Marry, Saint Joseph protect me," I yelled trying a little Catholic speak, Ax looked a lot like a demon. "Get thee from this place thou unclean…"

"Erik cut it out, Ax here is not a demon." Marco said. Ax explained to me about morphing and then Jake dropped the bomb shell.

"We would like you to join us."

"Let me get this straight," I said. "you guys want me to fight a bunch of psychotic aliens with nothing but tooth and claw, are you guys nuts I…"

"Before you answer I need to tell you this," Jake said. "the Yerks killed your parents…"

Another short one I am cruel aren't I, but hang one I'll have more soon enough. Please leave a review, I need reviews I am seriously considering retiring if I don't get reviews soon. Ok that's a lie if I stopped writing I'd go insane but I still think you should review.