"This looks like a good spot." Terra pointed to a cave that led into a large hill. After a long day of hiking through a series of rocky mazes, it was time to rest. Lance followed Terra into the cave entrance and then set his knapsack onto the ground to begin unloading his belongings. As Lance took out his sleeping bag he glanced over at Terra who was unloading her own belongings on the other side of the cave. She was also traveling light.

"So, do you camp out a lot?" Lance felt that he might as well get to start getting to know his new traveling companion.

"I'm sort of a drifter," Shrugged Terra. "And you?"

"On the run…" sighed Lance.

"From those robots?" Terra was rolling out her own sleeping bag.

"Yep," Lance rummaged around in his knapsack until he pulled out a small electric lantern.

"What for?" Terra turned herself as Lance placed the lantern between the two of them.

"Don't know…" Lance switched the lantern on, providing light to the darkening surroundings. Lance then paused. "Well, maybe I sort of do," He extended his left arm. "It has something to do with this." Terra peered close at Lance's left wrist.

Terra quirked an eyebrow. "A watch?" At least whatever was on Lance's wrist looked like a watch, but it didn't look like any watch she had seen before. "Where'd you get it?"

"I found it," explained Lance.

"Found it?"

Lance took in a deep breath. This was the first time he had told anyone about this. "It was late one night, and I was out. I was just minding my own business when suddenly BAM! The next thing I know, there's a smoldering crater with something in the middle of it." Terra leaned forward with interest. "When I got closer to the crater, I saw that it was some kind of pod. And when I got even closer the pod opened up…" Terra's eyes widened. "Then, well… I wasn't exactly thinking at the moment, I put my hand out and this thing," Lance motioned to the watch, "Just flew out and latched on to my wrist!" Lance could still remember the shock from that moment. "I tried taking it off, but nothing I tried worked. It was stuck to me!"

Terra looked down at the watch in surprise. "What'd you do?"

"I tried looking at it to see if there was anything that would make it come off," Lance shrugged. "I wound up finding something, it was this button." Lance pointed to a button that was just below the base of the watch's dial. "I pressed it to see if it would do anything and then the watch's dial popped up and—well…" Lance paused for a moment but then decided to stand up. "Here, I'll show you."

"Sh-show me what?" Terra asked keyed up.

Lance pressed the button he had been talking about earlier and the dial popped up as a small cylinder. Lance began rotating the dial around until he seemed to find what he had been looking for. "This." Lance's right hand pressed down onto the dial and a green light filled the cavern. Terra shielded her eyes until the light died down only to gape. Lance was now standing at a height of around ten feet, his body had become bulkier, and crystals had replaced flesh and hair. Terra's eyes stopped at a green hourglass symbol that was on the center of his chest.

"Wait…" It hit Terra like a load of bricks. "Is that why you were a blue dinosaur thing before? Th-the watch turned you into that!"

"Mmhm." Lance's voice had deepened considerably.

"And that!" Terra pointed to Lance's current form.

"Bingo!" chimed Lance.

"Any idea what you are?"

Lance frowned. "Not really, but if I had to guess…I think I might actually be…" what he was about to say next sounded absurd even to him. It had been a theory he had been working on for some. So far it had been the most feasible answer, despite how ridiculous it sounded. "An alien of some kind."

"An alien…" The answer sent Terra's head spinning in bewilderment. "Well, I guess it makes sense, it did come from outer space."

"Along with a few other things…" sighed Lance as he sat down cross-legged. "Right after I found that watch—"

"You ran into a bunch of robots?" guessed Terra.

"Yeah," Lance heaved another sigh. "They came out of nowhere and just started attacking me." Pain spread across Lance's face, despite the hard exterior of the crystals. "I lost everything…" His home, his peace of mind…all gone in an instant.

"Oh…" Terra's eyebrows creased in sorrow. "I'm sorry to hear that…"

"Thanks," appreciatively muttered Lance. "Well," Lance suddenly perked up again, "That's sort of how I wound up out here." He stood up and walked towards the cave entrance. Lance then leaned down and placed a crystal hand on the stone floor. Large crystals grew from Lance's hand and onto the cave floor. The crystals continued to grow until they blocked the entrance. "It's something I do in case like this. To make sure nothing gets in," Lance explained to a wide-eyed Terra.

"Aaaand how do we get out?" Terra asked warily as she fit herself into her sleeping bag.

"We'll bust ourselves out in the morning," Lance said casually, "Relax, I've done this plenty of times and besides you can move rocks, right?" He walked back to where his sleeping bag lay and sat himself down again.

"Aren't you going to change back?" Terra couldn't see how Lance was going to fit into his sleeping bag as a large crystalline humanoid.

"The watch will time out, it always does," Lance gave a shrug, "Get some sleep, I'll still be here in the morning."

"Ok," Terra nestled herself into her sleeping bag, "Night."

"Night, Terra." Lance turned his head towards the crystal wall he had created. As long as he was in a transformed state, he thought he might as well keep watch. To Lance's relief, nothing seemed to be approaching near the cave entrance. However, if Lance had been able to see through the thick crystals, he would have seen something further away from the entrance. Perched upon the top of a high hill was a lean muscular figure, cloaked in the darkness of the night sky. It had two arms folded behind its back as it surveyed the sealed cave entrance.

XXX

The next morning, two yawns reverberated off the cave walls. Lance gave a large stretch before flinching. "What's wrong? Did you sleep well last night?" Terra was already packing her things.

"M-my back's a little stiff, I think I slept on a rock or something…." Lance rubbed his back and gave it an extra stretch. After loosening his taught muscles, Lance proceeded to gather his belongings to prepare for the new day.

"Umm…." Lance turned to see Terra motioning to the crystal barrier that was blocking the entrance.

"Oh, right," Lance gave a small laugh.

XXX

It was quite still outside the sealed cave entrance. The peace soon shattered with the crystal wall. A red ten-foot tall humanoid emerged from the great cloud of dust, whistling and cleaning its four hands. Terra followed in the four-armed creature's wake. "Wow," Her travel partner had been revealing surprises nonstop. Terra surveyed the broken crystals, amazed at the raw physical strength she had just witnessed. "Is there anything else that you can do?"

"Loads!" Lance responded in a scratchy voice that had the roar of an avalanche. He felt good today. It was the start of a new kind of journey. He felt more energized. Even his knapsack felt lighter, though this may have been the fact that Lance was over three hundred pounds of muscle, but what the hey! "Look out world here we come!"

Lance and Terra started on their way, not knowing that from above they were being watched by a number of steel booted assassins…