Chapter 1 to the power of 10

Three minutes. Three minutes to go until I'm outta here. Rey thought to himself as his amber eyes were fixed on the clock hanging off the wall in the classroom lit only by fluorescent lights and whatever sunlight could crawl through the thin blinds. At age twelve he had brown fluffy hair, fair skin and a two tone hoodie, the top being dark navy and the bottom half being grey. His jeans were muted cyan-ish and also wore black sneakers that had a blue strap. Every second felt like a century in this class; it was as if the school had some magical bubble that made everyone's perception of time slower than it actually is, especially as it rapidly approached the weekend. As the history teacher waffled on, Rey turned to his classmate; he was an african-american boy who had dark brown eyes, ebony brown skin and brown hair styled into a flat top with a fade. He wore a grey and black letterman jacket, navy-blue jeans and red and black sneakers. Said classmate had his face glued to his phone, sneakily hidden behind a textbook; why listen to a history teacher yap on about the renaissance with some boring presentations when you can find out about it much easier via Youtube? He thought to himself cheekily. Meanwhile, Rey was mere moments away from falling asleep; he could feel his eyes lower, his body relaxing as he began to cast himself away, drowning out the teacher…until…

RIIIIINNGGGGGG!

The hometime bell screeched throughout the corridors, hailing the end of the school day. Before the teacher could even utter a breath, the stampede of students shot right through the door and out of the front entrance like a herd of gazelle, desperate to escape their natural predators, homework despairus. Under a bright blue sky and with the wind rushing past them, Rey and Neil stepped out of the entrance.

"Told ya I'd never get caught." Neil laughed.

"Don't count your luck though" Rey said. "At some point you're gonna get caught and they are going to send you to hell, especially her."

"Relax dude." Neil assured Rey. "Been doing this since elementary and they never suspected a thing." He smirked.

"Still, I'd keep my eyes open."

Just then, a girl approached them. A vietnamese-canadian, she had jet black hair with dark and unusually purple eyes. Her attire consisted of a black t-shirt with grey sleeves, blue overalls as well as long black and white boots.

"Hey guys!" She greeted the two as she approached them smiling.

"'Sup Silvia!" Rey waved. "How was' last lesson?"

"Actually pretty good, funnily enough." Silvia responded. "Learned about the history of the periodic table and also learned about reactions."

"I'm so jealous." Neil groaned. "Instead of learning about some crass from I don't even know what century, we coulda been learning something like that which is something I actually wanna use later in life."

"True that." Rey agreed. "Why do I gotta learn about what some dude in the 17th century thought. If it's someone like Newton or Galileo then sure but Robert Hooke? I'm not that into microbiology."

"Fair enough, by the way what lesson have you got tomorrow?" Silvia asked.

"Engineering." Rey answered whilst he looked at his time table. "Hopefully we do practical stuff, could be fun."

"Can we swap lessons, I got Math." Silvia groaned whilst she rolled her eyes. "I really DON'T wanna deal with Mr Devins."

"Yikes, dude will just about give people detention for any frickin' reason." Rey scowled. "I got him tomorrow afternoon which really sucks."

"Can't be that bad though." Neil smiled, trying to reassure the two. "I mean, we only have three months left of this semester and we won't have to deal with him anymore."

"But that's three months of dealing with that guy's crap." Rey groaned as he briefly hunched over before getting up. "Plus, that's easy for you to say since you never had to deal with him."

"True that." Neil nodded. "But still, we got spring break coming up next week though."

"Other than that, do you guys have any plans for the weekend?" Rey asked.

"Well, we were about to say, Neil and I are planning to go on a late night walk in the forest just a few miles from here and I was asking if you'd like to come with us." Silvia offered excitedly whilst she showed the location of where she and Neil were planning to go; it was a large patch of forest just 5 miles east of Davidson intermediate school named "Edwinson forest". It looked pretty big compared to most forests in the area, around two miles or so across with a small campsite nestled in the middle and some clear patches sprinkled around.

Rey thought for a moment. "Hmmm, sure why not!" He accepted the offer whilst smiling lightly. "Could be fun."
"Hell yeah!" Cindy beamed whilst she giggled excitedly. "You think you can get there by tonight?"

"Maybe." Rey responded, unsure before he turned to face Neil. "You?"

"Hopefully, we'll see if my Dad is ok with it." Neil said as he looked on his phone before his eyes widened. "Crap, he's gonna be here soon, see ya later!" Neil waved as he ran towards the car park.

"Latuh!" Silvia waved whilst she smiled.

"See ya in a bit" Rey bode Neil farewell as he looked towards the school's front gate, watching a cherry-red sudan park inside of it. "Looks like my mom's here!" He waved to Silvia as he headed for the car park. "See ya tonight..hopefully!"

"Likewise!" Silvia waved as she walked off towards the bus stop.


"Hey sweetie, how was school?" Rey's mother asked whilst he stepped into the passenger seat. A 35 year old brunette, she had hazel-brown hair with fair skin. She had heterochromia; an emerald green right eye and a chocolate brown left eye. Rocking a peach coloured button up coat, she had navy blue jeans, not unlike her son, with hazel brown boots. "What did you learn today?" She also spoke with an Irish accent.

"Things." Rey replied whilst he put on his seatbelt.

"What things?" Rey's mother inquired further. "Surely, there was more to it."

Rey rolled his eyes. "Random crap about Robert Hooke, I'm not a microbiologist so why the hell should I care about him?" He scoffed whilst he looked out the window. The bright shining sun was peeking through the leaves of the trees that blazed past him at breakneck speeds whilst the clouds crawled across the deep blue sky and houses whizzed past as they drove; it was quite a warm day for early March, especially in the Pacific Northwest; twenty degrees celsius on a Friday afternoon.

Rey's mother briefly turned to face him, before she swung back to face the wheel. "First of all, he invented the microscope and secondly, he was still a major figure in science, y'know."

"I get it, but like, microbiology isn't really my thing." Rey replied, his gaze fixed outside the window.

"Fair enough." Rey's mother said. "Anything else that you have learnt today?"

"Not really, we did maybe look at Romeo and Juliet in English class but like, I genuinely do not care for Shakespeare, I'm more so into modern fiction y'know." Rey elaborated.

"Knew we raised you right!" Rey's father laughed. "My god, I can't even begin to describe the amount of times me and my friends nearly fell asleep in English class. I swear, the only Shakespeare stories I actually like were something like Macbeth. Meanwhile, actually good stories like 2001 get glossed over and I hate seeing how barely anything changed these days, though then again this is British Columbia in Canada not Georgia in America so things may be different."

"I've been meaning to watch 2001." Rey said. "I've seen clips of it and even the spacecraft in the movie, but I've never actually sat down and watched the whole thing."

Rey's father grinned as he turned to face him. "Oh boy, you and I need to watch that movie some time. How about this; in a few days, you and I sit down, with some Mcdonalds and we watch 2001?" He suggested.

"Sure I'd be down" Rey agreed. "Though, I think Wendy's is better."

"Maybe, but Wendy's is far away." Rey's father said. "So that's not happening."

Rey sank into his seat and groaned, rolling his eyes. "Awh c'mon!"

"Hey, we're having Mcdonalds, take it or leave it." Rey's father's eyebrows lowered alongside the tone of his voice.

"I'll take it." Rey accepted begrudgingly. McDonalds is mid as hell. But hey, 2001 seems pretty neat. He thought to himself whilst he stared at the window, paying little attention as the trees, clouds and buildings whizzed past him in the window. Any insect, bug, bird appeared nothing more than a blur.


Rey jolted out his daze as the car pulled to a halt in front of the Hansen family home. It was a beige coloured two story house with a large garage to its western side. The ebony front door faced north, joined by a wide living room window on the first floor followed by Rey and his parent's rooms on the top floor, all had the same chocolate-brown trim as the door. Swinging open the car door, Rey dragged himself out of the car seat, followed his parents through the front door and trotted upstairs.
"You're not hungry Rey?" Rey's mother asked from downstairs.

"Nah, I'm good." Rey replied, his voice teetering on the edge of mumble. Pushing his bedroom door open, he kicked off his shoes, placed his bag on his door hook before collapsing onto his bed, pulling out his phone. Truth be told, Rey could barely muster the energy to get out of bed, let alone go on his computer, his eyes had faint bags under them, he could barely hold his eyelids open and worst of all, every muscle fibre in his body just screamed. No, I want to sleep, let's sleep. Half of him didn't want to go on this walk just because of the fact he doesn't want to move a muscle; his friends certainly won't mind if he were to tell him that he couldn't come with them today. Just as he was about to DM them however, he received a notification from Silvia.

"We're gonna do it tomorrow, Mom said no :" Silvia DMed Rey.

"Awh, that sucks :" Rey DMed back.

Rey was partially disappointed for his friends that the trip had to be postponed, but relieved that they didn't have to deal with what amounts to a quarter-awake zombie shambling near them. Plus, if it wasn't cancelled and he arrived in this state, he'd probably walk face first into a tree, a rock, a ditch or something else. Either way, he was glad that it's not happening today. Shutting off his phone and placing it on his desk, Rey tossed and turned himself asleep as his mind shifted focus away from reality.


With a long and harsh groan, Rey woke up to pins and needles hammering his leg like a war was taking place underneath his skin, his throat felt like the Sahara desert whilst his arms were criss-crossed with imprints of folds and his hoodie cuffs. His hair was as ruffled and messy as his sheets with his vision slightly blurred, albeit gradually readjusting itself as the rest of his mind woke up. Rey took a moment to briefly look at the night sky. Despite Reevesville being a suburban area, it was dark enough to allow the stars to shine brightly, scattering themselves over the night sky, flickering, shining and staring right back at Earth from trillions and trillions and trillions of miles away. The Moon looked directly back at Rey, its silver-grey disc pierced the night sky like a weak mirror reflecting whatever streetlight that came into its view. As Rey looked at the sky, he thought to himself.

I'm like ninety-nine percent sure there is something or someone staring right back at me. Whoever or whatever they are, I wonder if they're thinking the same thing as I am.

He instinctively grabbed his phone and quickly turned it on. The glow from his phone blinded him like a flashbang before his eyes finally adjusted enough to read the time displayed on his phone. 8:15PM it read. A pleasant surprise; usually, Rey would nap right up until the crack of dawn or wake up in the middle of the night, but not here. He lifted himself out of bed, relieved that the pins and needles that raged in his legs finally died off. Navigating his dimly lit room, he stumbled out of his bedroom door and looked downstairs, illuminated only by the blue glow of the television screen. Slowly, but surely, Rey climbed downstairs, stepping out of his stumble into his normal walk once his legs finally woke up.

"Oh, you're up." Rey's mother said, immediately turning to face Rey upon hearing his footsteps, snapping out of her gaze at the TV. The same could be said for Rey's father; he too was surprised that Rey got up at this time.

"Yep, I am." Rey laughed with a weak smile. "Soooo is dinner in the fridge?" He asked, pointing at the kitchen?

"Mhm, it was your favourite too." Rey's mother answered. "Only if someone woke you up, then you'd be able to have it fresh." She looked at her husband, raising an eyebrow and lowering her lips.

"What? You don't like me waking you up from your nap." Rey's father defended himself. "So why would Rey be any different?"

"Well Rey is not thirty-three years old for one." Rey's mother retorted. "And secondly, this was steak night!"

"Steak night?!" Rey's ears perked up. "What cut?"

"Ribeye, prime grade." Rey's mother responded.

"Mo-Why didn't any of you wake me up?!" Rey asked, his eyes widened and eyebrows raised. "You know I love that stuff."

"Sorry kiddo, thought you'd like some extra shut eye." Rey's father laughed nervously, much to a slight glare from his wife.

"David." Rey's mother said curtly.

"What? Just trying to lighten things up?" Rey's father defended himself.

"Look, I'll just make myself a steak sandwich, don't worry about it." Rey said whilst he walked towards the kitchen.

"Alright." Rey's mother said.

Carrying his sandwich, Rey climbed back upstairs before turning to his bedroom door, stepping inside and switching on the light. It was an average sized bedroom measuring roughly four metres long and four metres wide, or twelve square metres. His walls were adorned with posters of rockets, spacecraft, video games and anime. Rows upon rows of shelves were stacked with models and figures of spacecraft, rockets, video game characters and anime characters. To the right of the door sat his gaming setup with dual monitors. Finally, in the corner of his room, sat his bed and, opposite the window, was his closet. He sat on his chair and turned on his computer; he wasn't planning on playing anything like Fortnite or Team Fortress 2, especially not at this hour. Even if it wasn't late, he was just far, far too tired. Instead, he loaded up Youtube, found a video essay and watched, eating his sandwich periodically. As he watched, he sometimes thought about the walk scheduled to take place tomorrow; he never went to the forest much before, the last time being when he was 10 years old and it wasn't anything too special, after all it's just a forest so there'd be nothing too out of the ordinary. Right?


The rain. For the first half of March 26th, 2019, the entirety of Vancouver island was under a barrage of rain coming from Seattle on the previous day. Yesterday's tranquillity was washed away by a torrential downpour. The previously clear blue sky was painted over by a mat of grey, gloomy, clouds. Amidst all of this, Rey and Silvia considered calling off the trip, but then, Neil gave them news over Discord.

"I mean, weather reports aren't accurate half the time but I'll take it." Rey replied.

"Yeah, the weather does seem to be getting better though." Silvia added. "But it only really clears around like 8 o' clock."

"That's not too late though." Neil reassured the two. "Besides, are your parents cool with you going out late?"

"Well, we are going in a group so I think my mom and dad would be fine." Silvia answered. "What about you Rey?"

"What Silvia said." Rey said. "I'm down."

"Hell yeah, I'll see you guys at 8." Neil confirmed.

Following the Discord conversation, Rey went downstairs to ask his parents; his father was upstairs playing Kerbal Space Program and thus his mother was available, he found her reading on the couch quietly.

"Mom, is it ok if I go to the forest at 8 o'clock today?" Rey asked his mother, who turned to face him. "I'll be going with Neil and Silvia so I won't be on my own."

Rey's mother paused briefly, then responded. "Go for it, though it depends on if your dad is ok with it."

Rey's face lit up whilst he smiled. "Hell yeah!" He exclaimed.

"So, what are you going to be doing in this forest?" Rey's father asked, only him and Rey driving to the forest. It was around 7:48pm, the sky was a deep, dark blue whilst the clouds were little more than thin wispy streaks across the heavens. The stars and Mars illuminated the night sky, flickering and shining like fairy lights above a cradle. However, one point in particular was brighter, brighter than Mars, brighter than the stars and moving across the sky slowly, but surely. Without the Moon, the road was gloomy, only lit up by the headlights of other cars trotting along.

"Just walking, taking some photos, chatting, looking up at the sky, you know the usual stuff." Rey answered whilst at the front seat of the SUV.

Rey's father nodded his head slowly. "I see, how long are you going to spend there?" He inquired further.

"Around 30 minutes to an hour, not that long." Rey replied.

"Hm, ok. I'll pick you up after 45 minutes, how does that sound?" Rey's father offered.

"Hmm." Rey paused. "Sure, that seems good."


After another ten minutes of driving, the SUV parked in front of the Forest's entrance, marked by a sign that was faded and weathered, only legible in the dark via the SUV's headlights. Everything beyond that was shrouded in complete darkness, the only light being from distant stars and the faint arc of the Milky Way towering over the sky. Just behind the sign was Neil and Silvia chatting to each other. Neil was wearing black gloves whilst Silvia had a white scarf, her hair fluttering slightly in the wind.

"Sup guys." Rey greeted the two as he stepped out of the car.

The duo smiled upon seeing Rey whilst they ran up to him.

"Glad to see you here homie." Neil said as he fist bumped Rey.

"Are you doing alright?" Silvia patted Rey on the back whilst she laughed slightly.

"Heh, I'm doing better than yesterday, that's for sure." Rey replied.

"Alright, you have fun, I'll be back to pick up in 45 minutes. Call me if anything goes wrong, got it?" Rey's father said, calling out from the SUV.

"Got it!" Rey yelled, raising a thumbs up. "Love ya!"

"Love ya too Rey!" Rey's father bid Rey farewell as he drove off.

"Righto, so we are all ready to do this?" Silvia asked, pulling out her flashlight.

"Hell yeah!" Neil pumped his fist with a wide grin.

"Yeppers!" Rey said smiling.

"Alright, let'sa go." Silvia said in a mock Italian accent whilst she led Rey and Neil into the forest.

Bro thinks she's Mario. Rey cheekily thought to himself.


As the trio walked through the forest, Rey felt an impending sense of unease. The damp smell of wet foliage and dead leaves wafted into his nose as his eyes swung back and forth and his fists clenched. His heart raced like an F1 car and his jaw tensed; he didn't want to admit to either of his friends that he felt this way, but the feeling existed regardless, it wasn't paralysing, but it was..uneasy.

"This lowkey rocks." Silvia said, using her flashlight to peer into the darkness. All that was visible outside of the flashlight's cone of illumination was pitch black, only identifiable by their silhouettes.

"Fo' sure, I don't know why but the vibe of late night walks just goes hard." Neil noted. "I guess it's just the mystique of it or somethin'? I'on know the correct word."

"I guess so." Rey replied coyly. "Kinda gives me the creeps but, eh whatever."

"If you want, you can leave." Neil offered whilst smiling. "That's perfectly fine if you want to."

"Yeah we're not going to judge you for it." Silvia reassured Rey whilst patting him on the back.

"No no it's cool." Rey laughed awkwardly. "Let's just, keep going."

As the group kept walking, Rey's unease only just began to crawl further and further on his back, his neck-hairs raised as his breathing tightened, it was like an icy hand gripped his throat and was slowly suffocating him, similar to Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat just without the grizzly-ness. Suddenly
WAAAUOOWHH!

"Gah!" Rey jolted at the sudden screech echoing from amongst the trees, much to the giggling of Neil and Silvia.

"Ahem I knew it was a Fox!" Rey coughed. "I was just…caught off guard." He tried to play it off nonchalantly much to the smirks of Neil and Silvia.

"Sure homie." Neil laughed.

"Hmph." Rey huffed, he then noticed a clear, treeless area with some rocks and logs scattered about, likely meant as a hang out spot. "Hey, why don't we stop here for a bit?" He suggested, pointing at the clear area.

"Sure why not." Silvia agreed, approaching the area and sitting down on a rock.

"Alrighty." Neil followed suit, laying against a log whilst Rey kneeled against a slightly smaller rock. The group then turned the sky and smiled whilst they looked at the heavens. The Milky Way arched across the sky, sprinkled in with countless stars and the faint fuzz of the Andromeda galaxy looking silently back at the trio, illuminating the sky with their otherworldly glow. However, one particular point in the sky looked odd…

"Yo, is that supposed to be a satellite?" Neil asked.

"I think, though, why is it getting brighter?" Silvia pondered.

"It's probably re-entering the atmosphere yet it doesn't seem to be moving all that much, though I can see a trail." Rey explained, then the trio's eyes widened when they noticed the object began to light up the surrounding area as it got larger and larger, brighter and brighter.

"Holy crap!" Rey exclaimed, giving the rest of the trio the cue to join him and try to get away. "RUN!"

The trio immediately picked themselves up and sprinted away from the object as it screeched and hissed its way through the atmosphere, piercing the sky, before it punched the Earth like a bullet in the sand. The shockwave was so hard, the rumble so great, it knocked the trio off their feet like bowling pins. Surrounding trees were torn from their roots and blown over. Birds, Foxes, Hedgehogs and other animals scattered as the object borrowed its way into the Earth.

"Everyone alright?" Rey asked, brushing off dust from his hoodie.

"I'm fine, just a lil' scratched up is all." Neil said, getting up on his feet.

"My hair is a little messed up but I'm fine." Silvia said, following Rey and Neil as they approached to inspect the crash site. The crater was roughly ten metres in diameter and two metres deep. Surrounding the crater was a ring of trees knocked over from their foundations like a giant plucked them out of the ground. Rocks and dirt were scattered across the area, some still warm to the touch, whilst the object itself sat neatly at the centre. It was a grey sphere with dark grey circuitry patterns wrapped across the bottom. The top looked like it was a hatch of sorts, but what for?

"Is that like a satellite or something?" Silvia asked.

"Satellites aren't usually designed to survive re-entry, this could be a military re-entry capsule you feel me?" Neil corrected whilst Rey climbed into the crater to take a further look.

"Doesn't look like any re-entry capsule I've seen, this could be classif-woah!" Rey was cut off as the object opened itself up with a hiss, revealing…a watch. The watch was large and grey with a black band that ran through it. A pair of white tubes wrapped around the watch and ending at the faceplate. The faceplate was dark grey with a green hourglass and a ring around the faceplate. The ring had 4 smaller buttons whilst a larger button was to the side of it.

"Is that a watch?!" Rey exclaimed in confusion.

"Looks like it." Neil agreed.

"Why would a watch be in space?" Silvia queried.

"Yeah.." Rey then smirked lighty, rolled up his right sleeve and reached out to grab it. Suddenly.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!"

The watch jumped at Rey and wrapped itself around his right wrist.

"GET THIS THING OFF ME, GET THIS THING OFF ME!" Rey shrieked and shook his fist as his eyes widened whilst he desperately tried to pry the watch off his wrist. He slammed it against the ground as hard as he could, no matter how much he winced in pain. Rey climbed out of the crater, hyperventilating before Neil and Silvia rushed in to help.

"Look, homie, it's gonna be ok" Neil assured Rey, his hand on his shoulder whilst he smiled a reassuring smile

"Yeah, we're gonna help you get through this." Silvia comforted Rey by placing her hand on his other shoulder. Rey's breathing slowed down whilst he smiled a weak smile.

"Alright, thanks." He said before he held up the watch towards Neil and Silvia.

"There has to be something we have to get this thing off." Neil said.

"I'm sure we have something." Neil said as he pulled a stick from the ground. "Can't be that hard right?"


"Ok, maybe we have a problem." Silvia looked at the broken house key in defeat. "Mom's gonna kill me."

"So we're back to square one then." Rey sighed. Then, he noticed the button on the side of the watch. "Hm, you think this could be some lo-Woah!" He alongside Neil and Silvia were taken when the watch beeped and the faceplate popped up, revealing a black core with green circuitry. The hourglass on the faceplate shrank into a rhombus and appeared a black silhouette of a strange man. The silhouette had four fingers, two toes and what looked like fire for a head.

"Holy-This is…interesting." Rey noted, his eyes still wide. He turned to face Neil, then Silvia, both nodding in confirmation. Given the greenlight, Rey pressed down on the
faceplate, enveloping the area in a green light.


As time slowed down for Rey, he could only gasp in horror as red magma began to grow from the watch and up his arm. But not just that, it began to envelop his entire body like a volcanic beast. Cracks full of fire began to branch and criss-cross around his body, now red and slightly more muscular with, like a web, ending at his wrists and ankles whilst his clothes dematerialised and his head burst into flames, leaving nothing but his face visible, resembling a bat mask with a large collar. His ring and index fused whilst his hands were an inferno that blazed bright and yellow. His toes fused into just two whilst a spike formed at his heel. The watch was now just its faceplate, sitting on his
chest, lacking the buttons and the green turned white.


For Neil and Silvia, it was just a green flash before Rey morphed into this…thing. The two were speechless at the creature that stood before them, their jaws dropped and eyes widened.
"I'm on fire but..I feel no pain? What the hell is this?" Rey questioned if what is happening is even real. Was this some kind of dream? Drugs? What even is this?

"I have absolutely no clue." Silvia replied, her face still in complete shock.

"Neither." Neil shook his head.

"Hm, guess you could say…I'm the hottest kid in school." Rey giggled.

The two burst into laughter whilst Rey pointed finger guns, their laughter was cut short though when Rey accidentally fired two fireballs at a tree, slicing it in half like butter. All three were speechless.

"Holy crap." Rey spoke after a few seconds, staring at what was left of the tree.

Neil and Silvia's shock turned into a smile and then laughter.

"Holy crap you have like, genuine super powers!" Neil exclaimed, his voice almost cracking due to the excitement in his body.

"You can do that again, right?" Silvia asked, her excitement spilling over to the point it might as well be overflowing.

With a sly smirk, Rey put his hands together and just as quickly, a basketball-sized fireball manifested in between them. A few seconds later, Rey stretched his arm back and flung the fireball like he was a baseball pitcher. It screeched through the air like a dragon coming to life before slicing through several trees, dissipating a few seconds afterwards.

"Oh yeah!" Rey pumped his fist. "What else do you think I can do?"

"Hmmm." Neil thought for a moment. "Try writing your name in the sky or something?"

Without a moment's hesitation, Rey thrusted his hands forwards towards the heavens, however, instead of writing "Rey" or anything even remotely legible, it was just a bunch of fireworks.

"That..might need a little bit of work." Rey sighed.

Suddenly, Silvia's face lit up and her eyes widened. "Heyo, I got an idea." she said. "Give me a few minutes."


"Alright, it is done." Silvia sighed whilst she laid down the final log. With the help of Neil, Silvia placed down roughly 23 logs at varying distances and in different directions, criss-crossing across the area. With a smirk, thumbs up and a nod from Neil, Rey put his hands together, manifested a fireball and swung it at the targets. It screamed through the air at breakneck speeds before slicing through the logs like a hot knife to butter, hitting just 15 of the 23 targets, before splattering into a rock, hissing like a death rattle.

"Hmmm, looks like you gotta work on your aim, but not bad." Silvia nodded whilst smiling lightly with her hand on her chin. "There is a good shooting range in Vancouver, I'm
going there next week with my dad, hopefully he'll be down to take you with him." Her face then morphed into a frown. "Assuming you can find a way to turn back."

Rey's eyes widened when the realisation dawned on him. "I-I never thought about that." His breathing began to speed up as quickly as his voice began to fall. "I won't be able to eat anything without torching it. What kind of games could I play if I'll just melt anything I use-"

"Calm down, we'll find a way to get ya back." Neil reassured Rey. Suddenly.

BEEP, BEEP BEEP, BEEP!

The trio's eyes swung to the symbol on Rey's chest as the white hourglass began to flash red, the pitch of its beep growing lower and lower, slower and slower. Neil and Silvia stepped back before a red flash enveloped the area. And out of that red flash... was Rey.

Rey looked at himself as a smile began to form on his face. "Ayyy, I'm back to normal!" He said, laughing a little.

Neil and Silvia sighed a sigh of relief. "Man I thought you were gonna go ka-boom or something." Neil exhaled, holding his hand over his chest.

"Seconded." Silvia said. "You think you could try and do it again?" She asked excitedly.

Rey looked down at the watch on his wrist, the green on the hourglass and the buttons were now a deep red, he then looked back at Silvia before he shook his head. "No can do, looks like this has some kind of cooldown." He grunted and groaned as he tried to pull the watch off his wrist. "And it's still not coming off."

"So…what now?" Silvia asked. "One minute we were just walking in the forest and now Rey's got this alien…changeawatch stuck to his wrist."

A wide grin began to form on Neil's face. "We're gonna have to train ya, if you finna be turning into the human torch, we at least gotta help you control your powers."

Smiling and nodding, Rey accepted Neil's proposition. "Yeah, that sounds cool. Though, how exactly am I gonna do that? Like build a training..thing or something?"

"If that's what we have to do then so be it!" Neil smiled slyly. "First we're going to have to find the stuff we need."

Silvia looked at her phone and opened Google Maps, she typed in the location of Steph's hardware and pressed on the walking button before showing it to Neil and Rey.

"The hardware store is a three mile walk and takes nearly an hour to get there via walking. I'm not paying for an Uber either because I want to save up for when I go to the shooting range tomorrow."

"Plus, shouldn't you be 18 to use an Uber?" Rey pointed out.

Silvia deadpanned at Rey. "You use Discord and you're 12 years old, your point? Plus, don't I pass for someone older?" She grinned.

Rey and Neil looked at each other, then looked at Silvia.

"Imma be real with you, you pass for someone who is 16 at most, and this is coming from someone who looks 12 despite being the oldest here." Neil smiled awkwardly whilst he explained to Silvia, much to her chagrin.

"Right." Silvia sighed. "Let's..just find a good spot to chill, maybe the watch will recharge by then."

"That sounds good." Rey agreed as he grabbed his bag, swinging it onto his back.

"Yeah I'm down with that." Neil followed suit as he pulled his backpack off the ground and swung it onto his back.

The trio then continued their walk into the deep dark forest, unaware of the smaller shooting stars in the distance.


As the wind brushed against the trio and forced the leaves on the trees into a dance, the trio kept walking through the forest, the aroma of damp, decaying leaves wafted into the air whilst the trio was now on high alert, now that an alien watch just stuck itself to Rey's wrist, they now had to anticipate that quite literally anything can happen to them; Silvia had her fists clenched whilst her breath rate increased, Neil's eyes kept swinging back and forth, just to see anything, anything, that he may miss by the corner of his eye, Rey however…he felt less fear than the two of his friends, if anything, he had his hands away from his chest and fists open, he was close, so close to smirking at times, if anything came at him or his friends, he can just turn into…Fire Rey? Pyrofight? Heatblast? Whatever this version of himself is called, he can just turn into that and scare any wild animals or whatever away. Suddenly, a loud thud echoed throughout the forest, causing a spike of air to flow into their lungs, emitting a loud gasp.

"What was that?" Neil asked as if an icy hand gripped his throat?

"Probably just some tree falling." Rey suggested whilst he shrugged meekly, letting out a nervous laugh.

"Are you sure?" Silvia asked whilst she looked around nervously. "I don't think trees are usually this loud when they fall."

"I mean, they could be. Anyway, let's chill over here for a bit."" Rey suggested, trying to ease off the tension. The area itself was similar to the last, aside from some benches and tables alongside a long extinguished fire pit.

"Yeah this looks nice." Silvia said as she and Neil followed Rey onto the bench, sighing as they sat down. "So, you guys got any ideas for how this training thing would work?" She asked. "We could find an abandoned play area if that helps."

"Or we could just do it here." Neil suggested. "The trees would be good training dummies or something like that."

"Yeah, I agree. How does that sound Rey?" Silvia nodded as she turned to Rey.

Rey paused for a moment and placed his hand on his chin before he nodded slowly. "That could work." Rey said before he then looked at his watch. "Hold on, if I turn the dial then I could turn into other forms." He said as he tried to activate it and sure enough, when he pressed the button, the faceplate popped up, revealing the core once more.

"Oh hey look it works!" Rey exclaimed excitedly as he turned the dial slowly until he landed on the silhouette of a sleek and streamlined figure that had a velociraptor-esque
physique with a long tail. "Ayo this guy looks awesome." He smiled as he presented the watch to both Neil and Silvia. "Should I give this one a shot?"

"Hell yeah!" Neil nodded whilst grinning.

"Go for it!" Silvia put her thumbs up whilst nodding excitedly.

Given the greenlight, Rey smirked before he slammed down the watch's faceplate, enveloping him in a green light.


As time slowed down for Rey, he looked at the muscle mass that began to grow out of the watch. His hands retracted into his arm, forming nubs as his fingers fused into three long, black claws. The hair on his face and head ossified into a pseudo-helmet with a retractable visor as lines formed starting from his eyes and going down to his mouth, then his chin. His body slowly took on a velociraptor-like physique as his torso slimmed whilst his heels and elbows protruded like spines. His skin turned dark blue whilst a black and white tail began to slowly grow out of his tailbone to around three feet long. His hoodie and jeans morphed into a black uniform with a navy blue stripe going down his chest whilst toes fused into just two as balls made of keratin formed under his feet. His sclera disappeared as finally, the watch's faceplate manifested onto his breastbone.


For Neil and Silvia, it was less than a microsecond before their jaws dropped upon witnessing Rey transform into this new form as their eyes scanned what stood before them.

"Hm, waddya reckon this guy could do?" Rey asked as he analysed his new form. He blurted out that sentence rather quickly, much to the intrigue of Silvia.

"Definitely not the human torch that's for sure.' Neil said whilst he placed his hand on his chin. "Wait, try running back and forth."

"On it!" Rey blurted out as his blue visor slid down before he instantly blasted away from the benches and towards the nearby trees so fast, so instant, that he was nothing but a blue and black blur in the eyes of Neil and Silvia; he completed the 190 metre distance..in less than two seconds. Even still, the leaves were still dancing their way downwards after being kicked up by Rey whilst a cloud of dust continued to expand and dissipate.

"Holy crap." Silvia stood there wide-eyed. "That's…that was quick!."

"Yyep." Neil said, struggling to speak. "How fast could you even go?!" His jaw was still stuck open as much as his eyes were wide. "Reckon you could run to the hardware store and back?!" He asked, still trying to piece together everything that has happened in the last half hour.

"Possibly." Rey said. "I'll have to get the directions there though, might scare some people in the process haha. Wait, you think I could probably run to Vancouver and back in only a few minutes?"

"I mean, I think but like you said, you might scare some people who'd catch a glimpse of you." Silvia said. "Or worse, end up making global headlines.

"True, but as long as I don't tell anyone, that means people know it's me." Rey tapped his 'helmet' with his claw.

"Fair enough." Silvia nodded. "Like, people see you as well, you and not some fireguy or a fast black and blue dude or whatever else that watch can turn you into. Plus, it'd be pretty nifty to have all those super-powers such as if you're late to somewhere or if it's too cold or-wait are you two ok and..what is that sound?" She asked whilst an other-wordly humming sound filled the air.

Rey and Neil's faces were frozen as much as their eyes were wide; Neil's hand shook rapidly as he lifted his hand and pointed it, shaking rapidly.
"B-behind you." His voice quivered.

Silvia's face dropped as she slowly turned around and gasped at what was floating before her. Several rust coloured, drones floated before them; their piercing red eye jutted in a cylinder from their center whilst the bottom had a similar cylinder, this time with metallic spindly arms peering out alongside a pair of RPG-sized turrets. Turrets that were pointed straight at them.

"Crap." Silvia deadpanned.

"HOP ON!" Rey grabbed Neil and Silvia before he darted out of there as fast as a bullet train, from the perspective of the drones, it was less than a microsecond before the trio instantly turned into a blur that disappeared into the trees. How foolish. The drones immediately made a beeline for where the trio went, their whirr warning anything that stood in their path.

"HOW MUCH FARTHER?!" Neil screamed as he held onto for dear life.

"LET'S HOPE NOT MUCH, WE MIGHT BE LOSING THEM!" Rey yelled back.

"OR NOT!" Silvia alerted the trio to see that the drones were still on their trail. "WHAT THE HELL DO THEY WANT?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Neil bellowed. "THEY WON'T LET UP!"

"Welp, no point running." Rey resigned before he placed Neil and Silvia behind a bush.

"Wait, what are you doing?!" Silvia asked, her voice almost breaking as she panted rapidly.

Rey smiled meekly. "Something extremely stupid."

"And deadly!" Neil exclaimed.

"Yep." Rey nodded. "Stay here, I'll take these clowns on." He said before he dashed from behind the bush and came face to face with these otherworldly bots.

"Wanna pick on someone? try ME!" He taunted as he stood in front of the bots, his claw wagging as his tail swayed in the wind.

The drones whirred and hummed as their sensors locked onto the watch's emblem. The instant that the turrets began to light up, Rey just zipped to the side, causing the drone to instead blast the tree, reducing it to a smouldering stump.

"Missed." Rey laughed as the drone fired another blast, this time striking a rock as Rey stepped out of the way and disappeared into a blurr. He disappeared so quickly, almost-instantaneously, that the remaining two drones had little clue as to Rey's whereabouts. It deployed a small scanner to try and hone in on the watch's signal..well, it tried…until…

"'SUP BRO!"

Rey, out of seemingly thin air, slammed right into one of the drones so hard that he sliced it in half, its mechanical components spewed across the damp muddy floor. Quickly, he swung his head to see another drone preparing a blast, an eerie red glow began to grow brighter and brighter, its alien eye glared right at Rey, ready to take out this shapeshifting menace once and for all.

"Yea, no." Rey smirked before he launched himself up and bicycle kicked the drone in the face to the point where his legs and feet were nothing but a smear…and the drone's eye reduced to nothing but shattered material and components flying across the area before he shot his hand right into the drone's core and then throwing it into a tree, slicing it in half.

"Ha! Skill issue-uh oh." Just as one more drone appeared, the watch's emblem began to beep and flash red. "Not now-" Rey was cut off by a red flash, reverting him back to human. "You're taking the piss." He deadpanned as he looked up at the remaining drone, a weak smile forming on his face. "So uh, can we call a truce?" he laughed lightly.

The drone just hovered, unmoved and unphased by this human's pathetic attempt at humour, locking its sensors onto the watch as the growl of its turret began to grow and whirr, taking aim at Rey and prepared to fire. Until..

"AYYAH!" Neil grabbed a large rock and swung it directly at the drone, piercing its metallic skin like a pin through paper as the metal screeched and moaned. Suddenly, Silva leaped up and stabbed a large stick right through its eye like a vampire-hunter striking a stake through their target's heart.

"EAT THIS YA SPACE-FREAK!" She screamed as the stick pierced the machine. The combined forces of both the rock and stick caused the robot to let out one last creak before it collapsed, its death groan echoing throughout the forest before it impacted the forest floor.

"Thanks guys, I thought I was cooked back there." Rey said. "I hope that's the last of them." The trio looked around in silence, allowing the events of the past 40 minutes to wash over them.

"So…" Neil tried to figure out what to say. "That's..that was….yeah." His eyes were wide whilst he placed his hands on his hips.

"Basically." Silvia nodded. "I don't even know where to go from here."

"You-GUYS, I'M THE ONE WITH AN ALIEN WATCH STRAPPED TO HIS WRIST!" Rey held his wrist up, showing the watch, its hourglass and buttons now red, whilst pointing at
it.

"True." Neil responded. "Part of me is convinced this is just some wack dream you feel me homie?"

"Yeah, same." Silvia said. "Like, I kinda believe in ghosts 'n stuff so I was expecting maybe something weird but not this." She ran her fingers through her hair as it waved in the wind. "So judging by the way you were using it, there's more aliens in that thing right?"

"Yeah, there were like two others on the dial before I turned into that fast guy." Rey answered as he looked down at the watch, despite him pressing the button to activate the selection interface, if you could call it that, it did nothing given that it was recharging. "Though I won't know exactly how many more until this thing recharges." He then pulled out his phone from his backpack to check the time. "8:39PM, my dad is gonna be here soon." He said before began walking off but not before waving to both Neil and Silvia.
"I'll catch you guys later." He waved as he bid both Neil and Silvia farewell.

"Later homie!" Neil yelled back.

"Catch ya soon!" Silvia exclaimed to Rey as she and Neil began walking off towards where their parents will be picking them up.


"So how was your night out eh?" Rey's father asked from the driver's seat. The outdoors was pitch black with the only discernible shapes being the trees standing against distant stars. The cars headlights pierced the void whilst the hum of the car and rustle of leaves echoed throughout

"It was pretty cool, some…" Rey could not reveal the watch to his father, not yet anyway, and especially not what transpired earlier. "...unexpected things happened." He smiled awkwardly from the passenger seat.

"Oh really? Such as?" He inquired further. "Like running into a wild animal or finding something cool?"

"Uh-yes, yes of course. We ran into a fox, she let us pet her for a bit but ran off before we could take any photos though, Silvia forgot to turn the flash off." He grinned meekly, hoping that she wouldn't mind being thrown under the bus.

"Oh that's a shame." Rey's father said. "You saw the meteor right? Heard they're sending some people out to investigate in a few days or so."
Rey froze but quickly cleared his throat. "Oh yea, I saw and heard it. Wanted to go near the crash site but we never really figured out where it was." Rey had to come up with a cover story. "We might go back there in a few but, like you said, people will probably gather most of the bits and pieces."

"Gotcha gotcha." Rey's father said. "Y'know, it's nice that you're actually going out of the house, I remember back when I was your age; I simply stayed home and played on my Playstation, which just came out by the way. Then, friends asked if I wanted to join them in Florida to watch a rocket launch, specifically Columbia. Knowing the space buff I was, and still am, I had to practically beg my mom for us to go; usually she wouldn't really do that kind of stuff, especially if it meant going across state lines. But since this was the first I asked for something that wasn't video game or movie related, she accepted and holy crap was it louder than I thought; like even though we were a few miles way, it was like we were standing right next to the damn thing, especially when those two boosters ignited." He sighed as he reminisced over his youth. "Say, we could take you to see a rocket launch someday?"

"Yeah!" Rey nodded. "My friend from Florida went to see the Perseverance shuttle launch the other day, it was carrying some geosynchronous satellite so nothing too special but still pretty cool."

"Great, but not now though." Rey's father responded, his eyes still focused on the road.

20 minutes later, the SUV pulled up in front of the Hansen household before Rey and his father disembarked, swinging the car door shut as they made their way towards the front door and opened it.

"Melissa we're home!" Rey's father called out. "Drive was pretty calm too!"

"That's great, did you have fun in the forest Rey?" Rey's mother called from the living room.

"Yeah, I sure did." Rey answered whilst smiling awkwardly. "Did a bunch of cool stuff such as pet a and look at the meteors." He kicked off his shoes before making his way upstairs. "I'm not hungry by the way, I already ate."

"Fair enough." Rey's mother said.


As Rey swung his door shut and placed his backpack onto the door, he inhaled sharply, still processing the events of the previous night as he laid on his bed. The Watch. The transformations. The robots. All in the span of less than an hour. He rolled his sleeve up and looked at the watch, it was now fully recharged but Rey didn't feel like activating it. He didn't feel like transforming and definitely did not feel like himself, or at least the Rey of yesterday and days prior; he felt odd. He felt different. He felt…otherworldly. Sure he was still technically a human. Sure, he physically hasn't changed after using the watch twice, but regardless, a stabbing pit began to form in his stomach whilst an ice cold sweat crawled down his face as a waterfall of questions began to cascade throughout his mind, said questions only began to plough through harder as he looked up at the sky. The events of today confirmed that humanity was not alone in the cosmos but that still left countless questions unanswered. The stars sat there, observing the Earth from quadrillions of miles away as they shimmered, sparkled and shined above as they have always been for eons. Mars sat there watching his neighbour from its perch 140 million miles away, staring right back at Rey. Closing his window, Rey got into his sleepwear, a simple black onesie with stars, planets and moons, laid on his bed and threw himself to sleep. Or at least tried to. He tossed. He turned. He twisted. He bent. But questions kept flooding his mind, especially two important questions; who sent the watch down? Who made it? Why was it sent to Earth in the first place? And, most importantly..who, or what, sent those drones after him?


410 million miles away from Earth, just shy of the asteroid belt, a damaged brown and red spacecraft was floating ominously in the void, illuminated only by the sun and the hum of its deep, dark red lights. Jutting out were cables piercing the hull of a dark blue carrier ship. The deafening silence on the outside in the vacuum of space was a stark contrast to the humming, hissing and whirring of the interior. Rows upon rows of robots patrolled the area, maintaining the craft's systems throughout its array of gloomy halls that were lined with wiring and pipes, lit by an eerie shade of orange. The only things keeping any of the robots nailed to the floor were magnets far more powerful and sophisticated than anything humanity could ever conjure with loose pieces of debris floating in microgravity. At the center of the craft was the flight deck, a small control panel sat in front of dozens of screens and holograms each showcasing various maps, sensors and other systems, from maps of Planets to maps of nearby solar systems. Where the pilot's seat would usually be is a life support chamber containing a figure resembling a badly wounded, almost decomposing corpse of a creature that resembled a human with limbs missing and bones jutting out, their organs almost floating out, and they had what amounts to a squid for a head with piercing red eyes. Surrounding him were nanobots slowly using whatever proboscis they are armed with to try and repair his body.

"We have recently lost contact with the dispatched drones." One of the robotic servants. "Loss of signal occurred shortly after the loss of the Omnitrix's signal."

"It seems this planet is more resilient than I thought." The figure radioed from his life support chamber, venom lacing his voice. "But they must be very audacious if they think they can interfere with my destiny. The Omnitrix will be mine. THE UNIVERSE WILL BE MINE!" He bellowed from his life support chamber. "Dispatch more drones, I require that we fully assess this being's capabilities… before they pay the ultimate price." His eyes narrowed at the screen showcasing Earth. "You. Can't Hide."