A vital sign monitor beeped over and over again. Nobody in the room including the doctor said a word. The air was so tense and the room was so silent you could hear even the most minuscule sounds.

Mark's mother clenched her chest as her husband rubbed her shoulder reassuringly. "Doctor. May I ask how he is?"

The doctor scratched his head and sighed. "He's doing fine for the moment being. When the paramedics found him lying there in that park we didn't know or could figure out what happened to him. Perhaps a panic attack? Although that wouldn't explain the bruises on his body or his head injury. I won't lie to you Mrs. Thompson I'm stumped."

She stood up in a huff. "Are you saying you don't even know how my baby boy got this way? At least find out we're his parents we should know! This whole thing is insane! My son has  been like this for 3 days with no sign of getting better and you say he's fine!" She tried to catch her breath as she wiped her eyes.

"Shh. Maya. Maya baby it's okay just take a seat." Her husband guided her back to her seat as he went to talk to the doctor. "I'm sorry we're both just worried about this whole situation. During that Meteor shower that explosion went off and the whole city went into a state of chaos. People were rioting and everything and the police say "strange" things have been happening but won't tell us what. Everyone, not just me and my wife are worried and afraid, even more so when our 13-year-old son is in a state like this."

The doctor nodded his head in agreement. "Trust me Mr. Thompson I know these past few days have been crazy and I know you're worried about your son. "All we can do right now is wait and see if he wakes up." 

Mark's father sat down, put his glasses in his pocket and put his hands on his face, and sighed. 

"Look Mr. and Mrs. Thompson it's getting late and visiting hours are almost over. I'm sorry, if his condition gets better you'll be the first to know."

Mark's father put his glasses back on and helped his wife out of her seat. He shook the doctor's hand and so did his wife as she continued to sob a little bit.

The doctor made a face of worry while he glanced back at Mark whose arms, legs, and head had bandages covering them. The doctor began to walk out of the room and flicked the light off as Mark continued to lie there.

Four entire days passed since that encounter. Mark showed no sign of waking up. Despite this, his parents visited him every day and asked the doctor the same questions every time.

While Mark was in this state various things were happening in the outside world.  The crime rate in the state of California where Mark and his family lived increased drastically.

Not just there but the states surrounding California had an increased crime rate as well. It seems every since a week ago during the meteor shower strange anomalies and weird sightings have been occurring. Meanwhile, the police have been taking precautions to hide them from the public.

The TV in the hospital was playing as Mark's mother came earlier alone to visit her son. She tried to point at the TV hoping her son would respond and wake up.

“It seems these strange happenings in the residential areas are not stopping. People who seem to be on some sort of drug that increases their physical capabilities have been in circulation. Although the police have been keeping a tight lip on the whole situation. Are they telling us everything we know or not?”

Mark’s mother gasped. “I’ve seen stuff about strange happenings but the news says it's a new drug that's terrible. Sweetie, if you see people taking something unfamiliar to you and trying to give it to you, don't take it!” She scolded her son even though he wasn't even conscious.

Her upset face left as she could do nothing but sigh. “Baby please wake up mommy's worried about you. Please. Please…please wake up.” She held Mark's hand and began to tear up as her teardrops splattered onto his hand.

Mark’s mother continued to cry and sniffle as Mark's hand twitched a bit. His mother stopped in her tracks and wiped her eyes and looked at Mark. Mark's hand twitched once more and his eyes began to open for the first time in a week. 

Mark looked over slowly to his mother and said in a tired voice. “Mom, why are you crying? What's wrong?” 

“Baby!” She began to cry even more than before and hugged Mark as he was still delirious from just waking up. “Doctor! Doctor! He's up! Come right now!”

Mark was currently eating some disgusting hospital food that he found to be delicious since he hasn't eaten in so long. His doctor, mother, and father stood over him and were glad that he was at least acting normal after waking up. Mark sighed and patted his stomach signifying that he was full.

“It seems to me that his recovery is going pretty well despite him only waking up a few hours ago.” The doctor said jokingly.

“I'm just glad my baby is up and well!” Mark's mom said as she hugged him so hard she could snap his spine.

“Mom, come on mom stop I'm not a baby anymore.”

“Well you may not be but you’re my baby! Kisses” She said as she kissed Mark on the cheek.

“Well now that you’re up we need to run a few things by everyone else and you should most likely be discharged within a few hours. That is if the decision is made for you to get discharged.” The doctor said,

“That's the perfect doctor, thank you once again, but I still have one more question.”

“Hm? What is Mr. Thompson?”

“Actually it's for my son. Son, I was wondering what happened before you blacked out.”

“I’ve been wondering, too, baby, can you tell us what happened?”

“Hm. That is a fair point. We couldn't even figure out the source of his injuries so if you remember please tell us, Mark.” The doctor said curiously.

“Umm.” Mark began to sweat as he gulped. “Well…”

Even though Mark could faintly remember what happened after he left his house on his bike he didn’t want to say what occurred with the mysterious rock in the park.

One reason was that he thought his parents would scold him for doing something so dangerous. While the second reason was that even if he did say it nobody would believe him, so he did the second-best thing.

“I'm sorry but I can’t remember.” He lied.

“Well, it seems even you don’t know what happened that night. Nonetheless, your son is awake and his injuries seem to be less severe than before. Mark, can you walk?"

“Yeah, I can.”

“That's a relief, it just seems like your head took the worst of it from the incident. Other than that we’ll get back to you in a few hours and you should be able to leave. For now, you should shower up Mark.”

“Alright.” Mark said as he removed the cover from the bed and walked to the bathroom.

“Honey, I'm gonna go get Mark another change of clothes from home. I’d appreciate it if you stay here with him until I get back.”

“Sure thing honey.” He pecked his wife on the lips as she walked out of the room. “Son, I'll be here when you’re done. Your moms driving back home to get you a change of clothes.”

“Alright dad, tell her I said thanks!” He said loudly as he began to run the shower water.

Mark scratched his arms and legs as the bandages were making him itchy. He thought to himself that the hospital staff wouldn’t mind since he was going home anyway. He took the bandages off his arms and legs after fiddling around for a couple of minutes.

“I can take this one off my head too,” Mark said as he unwrapped the bandages from his head and felt a strange piece of hair droop down onto his forehead.

Mark looked into the mirror and tilted his head wondering what it was. He shrugged and unwrapped all the bandages on his head. He looked into the mirror now that all his bandages were off to see if he had any cuts or bruises on him.

AAAAAAAAAH!

Mark's father jumped out of his seat for a moment and knocked on the bathroom door. “Son, are you okay?”

“Yeah, dad! I'm fine, the water was just really hot! Haha!” Mark stared at himself in the mirror in shock as he clearly wasn't fine.

Mark's once nappy hair was spiked as he had two bangs hanging down from his hairline. Mark dipped his head into the sink and ran some water to see if he was dreaming.

He looked back up into the mirror and rubbed his hand through his hair. He pulled at it to see if it was real but he only ended up hurting himself.

“Ow. That hurt. What the heck happened to my hair? I look like an anime character!” He said as he looked at his new hair still in disbelief. “This has to be because of the rock. What the heck was that thing anyway?”

Mark shook his head and tried not to think about it as he hopped in the shower.

After trying to explain to his parents and the doctor that his new hairstyle was simply just bad hair from not being awake for a week Mark was discharged from the hospital.

 On the car ride home even after being unconscious for a week, Mark was still tired. He glanced outside the window and saw a bunch of stores and places shut down with yellow police tape surrounding them. Mark tried not to worry about it as he tried to focus on just making it home.

Mark and his mom and dad walked into the house and he instantly took off his shoes. His mom told him to make sure he picks them up off the floor.

Mark walked upstairs to his room and sat on the bed and sighed with bliss. He was glad to be back home as he relaxed in his bed.

Despite being in the hospital for a week and his new unexplained hairstyle he did miss a week of school, homework, and tests. To Mark, everything was going well and he thought maybe his luck could start turning around.

“Oh yeah, Lucas!” He said as he snapped his fingers in realization. “I should probably apologize to him when I see him in history class. Mom and dad didn't mention going back to school yet so I don't know when that'll be. Still, I do wanna apologize.”

Mark sighed once more and closed his eyes. He opened his eyes as he tried to close his mouth as a blue liquid substance was flowing out his mouth. He flailed his arms around and got out of his bed as the liquid dripped onto the floor as slipped on it and fell down.

“MMsath!” He couldn’t speak as the substance kept pouring out as he slapped the side of his face as a bolt of purple lightning shot out of his fingertips barely coming up short enough to not hit his bedroom ceiling.

“MMMHHH!” He tried to scream but nothing came out as he ran around his room as the weird liquid stopped pouring out of his mouth. “What the heck is going on.” He held his chest and put his other hand on his dresser as it started to get harder than before.

His dresser turned into solid stone as he backed up and fell on his butt. His dresser began to become unstable as it tumbled down heading towards him.

He put his hands in front of him and closed his eyes as he heard a strange sound. He opened his eyes back up and saw that the dresser was being held back by a strange flame coming out of his hands.

“Holy.” Mark rolled out his way as his dresser fell onto the ground. “Crap. What is going on!” Mark paused and thought to himself about everything that happened. “The glowing rock I touched, my body turning into a horror show, and this weird hair. I think I stuck my nose somewhere it doesn't belong when I touched that rock that night.”

Mark was trying to process everything as the same things started to happen again. He jumped into his closet and tried to find something to help.

He put on a bandanna to cover his mouth so nothing would come up, and put on thick gloves so that nothing shot out his fingertips or palms.

Mark began to open the door to his room and stopped. He thought about how he couldn’t explain this one to his parents as he opened his window and climbed down the fire escape.

“I feel. Stronger? Somehow.” He put his hands on his head and sighed loudly. “I don't know what the heck is going on!”

BOOM

Mark heard a loud explosion come from down the street followed by people screaming. Mark began to sweat as his eyes glowed a bright green.

He held his chest as his heart started to beat faster and faster as if he was having a panic attack. He shook his head quickly as his eyes reverted back to their normal color.

“Something is telling me to go over there, but it's not out of curiosity like the day during the meteor shower. It's like I'm getting called there.” Before Mark could even notice it his legs were moving and he was running down the street. Once again he was sticking his nose somewhere it doesn't belong.

Mark arrived at the scene of the explosion rather quickly. During gym class, he's usually the last or second last to cross the finish but something was different.

Mark saw that a group of cops was pinned down behind their cars as he noticed two men. A tall lanky African American man and a short chubby white man with a beard could be seen. They didn't have any weapons on them yet it seemed that the left side of the bank was completely destroyed.

“Hehe! Yeah, you pigs take this!” The tall lanky man said as he flung his hand out and fired a strange energy beam.

“Have some of this why don't ya!” The short man picked up a huge boulder without any effort and launched it onto a police car as the cops scattered.

“Call for backup! Physically enhanced criminals are on the loose! I repeat physically enhanced criminals on the loose”

Mark thought to himself “Physically enhanced?” He remembered the doctor told him and his parents to be on the lookout for people on a certain physically enhancing drug. Although Mark clearly realized this wasn't the work of a drug.

“Im guessing whatever is doing this to me is doing the same to those two guys,” Mark said as his eyes flashed green momentarily as his hands began to tingle. “Something is happening with my body again....”

A cop continued to take cover and fire at the men but to no avail. “What the hell! Hey, you over there! Kid get out of here right now this isn't a game!”

Mark was staring into space for a second standing completely still as the short man flung a large rock towards the cop that told Mark to run away.

The cop screamed as the boulder stopped in its path, he looked up as Mark had caught the boulder and set it down on the ground with a thump.

“You’re one of them, aren't you kid? Hey, answer me, kid!”

Mark's heart was pounding again as his eyes were bright green once again. Mark thought that no one could see the other half of his face with the bandanna covering it.

He began to walk forward slowly and clenched his fists as his body moved on its own. 

“I’m not one of them or whatever. I'm here to help. I don't know what's been going on with me for the entire day and I don't even feel like I'm supposed to be here, but something called me here. That same something is telling me I can't leave you all here even though I'm just a kid.”

“What in the world are you talking about kid get out of here!” The cop yelled.

“Hey, Luis that kid just caught one of your boulders.” 

“I saw it Mike now we gotta deal with the kid! Hey, kid what the hell are you doing here anyway."

Mark continued walking towards the two men slowly as his eyes were once again bright green.

“I'm here to stop you guys."