Disclaimer: Don't own it, never will.

Chp. 3-Unnatural Process

The last bit of light from the sun landed on Tommy, who was now almost dead asleep. Tommy gave out a loud groan when the sun got in his eyes and sat up in his bed. When he sat up, he felt a headache and began to rub his temples forcefully. He had a very strange dream. He dreamed that he and his friends got ambushed by five goons and got killed, but the dream didn't bother him too much. He sat on the side of his bed and stretched, finally noticing he was still wearing his clothes from Friday. He also realized he didn't remember the party from that night also. As he stood up, he looked at his cell phone and noticed that there was a message. Tommy flipped it open and began to listen to the message.

Tommy was met by Eric's voice "Hey Tom, its Eric. I just wanted to see how you were keeping up. You and your pals had a major hangover last night so me and some other guys brought y'all home, just in case you confused. Oh, and about the meeting," Eric's voice became slightly menacing, "you're off the hook for now, but the boss says that if you miss another one, you'll have to deal with the consequences. Later." With that, the message ended.

At the end of the message, Tommy swore out loud. He forgot about the meeting! Tommy growled at this, blaming whatever he drank that night. He looked at the clock, which read around half past five and decided that he should probably take a shower since he was asleep for nearly an entire day and didn't get a chance to shower. He picked out a white shirt and a pair of torn blue jeans off the floor and went into the bathroom. When he was about to take his shirt off, he thought he noticed something on his arm and took a closer look.

He could barely make out a small dot, probably the size of a small freckle on his arm in the inner elbow region. The one thing that made the mark odd was that it was too round and too dark to be a freckle. Tommy blinked, then shook it off and got ready for a shower. After about ten minutes, Tommy got back out, dried off, and got some clothes back on along with his necklace. He then started to dry his hair off as best as he could with a towel and briefly brushed it out. Noticing that his headache was still bothering him, Tommy went out into the kitchen to see if there was any ibuprofen in the cupboards.

Walking into the kitchen, he noticed that the home phone had a message as well. Tommy went over and pushed the button to listen to the message and got out some medicine for his headache. As the message started to play, he went over to the fridge and began to drink straight out of the milk carton to wash the medicine down, something his mom hated, but he still did anyway. Tommy then realized that the voice on the message was his mom.

"Hi honey, this is mom. I was just calling to let you know I'll be home at around six tonight. The conference got out early so there was enough time for me to come home. I'll see you in a bit! Bye!"

Tommy then went over to the phone and erased the message. His eyes then ran over a picture next to the phone. In the picture was his carrot-topped mom, a small, somewhat plump, yet kind woman, his dad, Theo, a tall redheaded man who was almost an exact replica of Tommy, and a small redhead boy that was being held by his dad and hugging the man around the neck. The small boy was Tommy when he was seven years old. The picture was taken when his family went to the beach over in Miami and was the same day that Tom's dad made him his shark tooth necklace.

Tommy shook his head at this. "C'mon…don't do this to yourself!" he scolded himself. He hated it when he would think about his dad. The past was the past and there was nothing he could do about it he told himself. Tommy gave out a frustrated sigh and leaned against the back door. He heard a scratching at the door and realized that his Australian shepherd, J.J., was still outside. Tommy opened the door to let a very hyper and friendly dog inside. The dog started to stand on his two legs and began to scratch at Tommy's chest.

Tommy began to scratch J.J.'s head vigorously. "Hey there boy!" Tommy said happily. "Did want to play with someone?"

J.J. barked in agreement and Tommy slipped some old sneakers on and headed outside. In his backyard was an old basketball hoop with most of the netting almost torn to shreds nailed against the side of the house. There was also a large slab of concrete the Tommy used to dribble the ball. Farther out from his house was a large forest that encircled the entire town, a place he used to play a lot as a kid.

Tommy grabbed his basketball that he kept just outside of the back door and walked on to the concrete. When he started to dribble the ball, J.J. started to become very excited and would try and knock the ball out from Tommy with his snout. Tommy liked this because it helped him when it came to defense during a game. When J.J. began to charge at Tommy, the redhead spun around J.J., jumped up, and slam-dunked the ball with one hand and hung briefly off the rim. He continued to hang like that until J.J. started to bark at him and Tommy landed on the ground with a proud smirk. Tommy then began to scratch the dog around his neck with both hands.

"You almost got me there, tough dog! But you just barely missed my moves!" Tommy said triumphantly.

J.J. gave out a 'humph' and the two continued this for about fifteen minutes doing the same routine; dog attacks, Tommy dodges, he shots and then all over again. It was only until Tommy noticed something odd that he stopped.

He felt a sudden pain in his stomach and dropped the ball. Tommy wrapped his arms around his stomach and ran into the forest and didn't stop until he found a decent bush to deliver a present to. Even after doing this, the pain didn't stop. As a matter of fact, it just seemed to spread.

Tommy doubled-over in pain and he collapsed on his back, tightening his hands into fists as he writhed in pain. As soon as Tommy hit the ground, an acidic green glow seemed to come from the boy's veins, which was something Tommy wasn't even taking note off. He was trying his best not to scream, but it felt like someone had injected magma into his bloodstream. But the worst pain he felt was in his head, which made his headache from earlier seem like a paper cut. When he first felt the pain in his head, Tommy grabbed his head with both hands and let out a yell loud enough to hear probably from miles around.

It felt as though something went into his head and began to rip it apart, only to put it back together in a way it was never intended to be. Even with the pain racking him, it also felt as if he was getting stronger as well. But as the pain began to subside, Tommy was weak from what had happened to him and saw the world going black. Before all his lights went out, Tommy heard an ominous howl as if it came from a dying wolf. The only thing that disturbed him was that he couldn't discern from where it came from.

Miles away from where Tommy lay, on the top of a mountain overlooking the city was a strange looking man. The black-haired man, who height and slimness made him look like a stick figure, had on a black business suit with a white shirt underneath. What added to his mysterious appearance was a dark pair of sunglasses and a near-emotionless expression on his face.

That unnatural process had just passed and the man stood there, waiting for instructions. About five minutes ago, he was able to hear a loud ear-splitting scream. He knew that scream anywhere and, even though he never showed it, it pained him whenever he heard it. From those years in the organization, there was one thing he learned from each experiment; no one, regardless of who they were and what they did, deserved this fate. He and the others wanted to ensure that would become reality. He gave out a sigh as he looked over the city's numerous lights.

He felt a walkie-talkie crackle from his side. "Come in watchman, this is alpha. Over." A man said from the other line.

The man brought it up to his mouth. "This is watchman. What is it?"

"We've confirmed the fifth one. Do you have the sixth?"

"Got the sixth. What do you want from here?" The man asked.

"Find out where they'll meet and notify us of their location. Mole will get the equipment ready for research."

"Got it. And don't forget," the man said seriously. "Don't try and follow them. I know you're tempted, but don't get any ideas."

There was a slight pause. "I'm aware of that." The voice said, making it known that the man on the radio was losing his temper. "I'll promise not to meet them. I am aware of those instructions. Over and out."

"You better. Over and out."

Static replaced the man's voice and the sunglasses man placed it back in its holder. He took out a flashlight to help him navigate through the woods. While walking down the slope, the man noted that this was certainly going to be an interesting meeting.