Mark was sleeping peacefully in his bed on a Saturday morning. He had been training with Tom and Luna for about a week, unknown to their true intentions. To make matters worse, he hasn’t made a lick of progress. If he were awake at this moment, there's no doubt that Tom’s words of calling him “Mr. 25%” would ring in his mind all day.

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP

Mark sprung up with drool going down his mouth as he looked at the clock on his dresser as it wasn’t going off. He rolled over and opened his drawer, dug inside it and pulled out a black wristband which is where the noise came from. Mark cleared his throat and tried to put on a “I’ve been awake for several hours" voice.

“Hello..?” He said while holding the wristband to his ear as he heard Tom’s voice come out of it. “Ugh..It's barely 11:30, and you want me to come in for training..Ugh seriously. Fine, I’ll be there for like 30 minutes. Yeah. Yeah I’ll be there.” Mark hung up the call with Tom and tossed the wristband behind the dresser. “He gave me that and said only for emergencies training on a weekend isn’t an emergency.”

Mark rolled over in his sleep as his wristband beeped again immediately after as he simply ignored it. Mark yawned as he drifted back to sleep and began yawning like a wildebeest.

“He’s not coming in 30 minutes, is he?” Luna said while eating a candy bar.

“No it doesn’t seem like it. With the amount of progress he's making, if things do go sideways, we’ll have no failsafe.” Tom sighed and sat down. “I’ve never met a more incompetent person that possesses G.E in my life before. Come on, Luna, let's go see what the others are doing for the meantime.”

“Alright.” She stood up and began to walk with her brother to the next room over. 

“You know you’re gonna get fat if you keep eating like that, Lulu.” Tom said, mocking her.

“I AM NOT GOING TO GET FAT!” Luna yelled as her face was bright red. “Jerk. Now come on, let's go.”

“Haha. I'm just teasing.” Tom said as he and Luna walked into the room.

It was now 9 PM, as Mark had seemingly slept through the entire day. He woke up with a dry throat as he walked out his room and down the stairs. Mark opened his fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, and drank it in less than a few seconds. He scratched his head and looked around, calling out for his parents. Mark guessed that they were asleep as he started to walk back up the stairs, as his eyes went green.

“Hm? It’s happening again. I gotta get that fixed.” He shook his head as he turned around towards the door. “This, whatever it's called, eyesight always leads me to the worst places.” He gently opened his door and closed it behind it. “It’s like Spiderman's spidey sense, like he can sense danger. I guess it works the same way. I should ask Tom about it when I see him.”

Mark kept muttering to himself as he was walking down the streets in his pajamas and socks as he stopped suddenly. His eyes were still glowing green as he felt that whatever he was supposed to be finding was right under his nose. Literally. Mark stared down as he was standing over a manhole cover as he kneeled and touched it feeling a strange warmth.

Mark turned his head around fast to see if anyone was looking at him as he dug his fingers into the concrete. “HMPH! NGHH!” He clenched his teeth and lifted the manhole cover off like a top to a pickle jar. “Phew. Alright. Sewer journey tonight. I guess..” Mark began to climb down the ladder of the entrance to the manhole.

He saw running water underneath him as he leaped to the side, avoiding the water. He covered his nose and gagged as he wondered what he was really looking for down here. 

“It smells rancid down here. I’m gonna hurl. Wait, if it's night, did I sleep through the whole day- Nevermind that, Mark, there’s other issues at hand right now.” He looked around to see which way he should go as he inched to the left and felt that strange warmth he had felt before.

Mark shrugged and started walking left down the sewer system. Surprisingly this wasn’t even in the top 10 of stupid decisions he's made in his life before. Mark continued walking down the sewer system as the warmth peaked.

"It's even warmer right here.” His eyes began to blink green at a rapid pace as he turned towards the wall and placed his hand on it as he felt a strong warmth. “I'm guessing  whatever I’m supposed to find is right.” He braced himself as he slammed through the wall with his shoulder. “Here.”

Mark's eyes stopped glowing green as he was in an entirely new section of the sewer as he looked around. He heard quick footsteps as his head went on a swivel. He began to focus as his eyes flashed green, trying to hone in on the power signature. 

“I’m not alone here. I can’t get a good read on the energy. Is this thing busted?” He said, slapping the side of his eyes as blinked from green to black. “Wait. I feel it. Right. THERE.” He quickly turned and saw a flash of red light as he shielded his eyes from the glow.

The light started to dim down a little bit as Mark looked in front of him and saw a humanoid figure that was covered in flames. Mark jumped back in shock as the being made of flames slowly approached him and asked him who he was in a demonic voice. Mark gulped as he was too scared to say anything as the flaming figure shot a blast of fire at him.

“WOAH!” Mark jumped to the side evading the attack as the flaming figure slowly turned to him. “They’re able to use Galaxy Energy to control fire like me but the heat and amount of fire is even better than mine. I gotta get out of here. I’ll try this!” Mark ran towards the flaming figure as the figure swung at him quickly decking him in the face.

Mark was stunned for a bit as he grappled onto what seemed to be the figure's arm and tried to make the fire die out with his ice abilities. Mark put all of his force and concentration into the attack but to no avail as the ice kept melting the moment, Mark generated it. The figure opened its mouth, blasting Mark with a wave of fire as he was pushed onto the ground.

“If I was a normal person I’d be burnt to a crisp right now. This thing is tough compared to Luna, it's way stronger. To make things worse, my fire and ice attacks don't work because it's literally a flaming ball of fire. Guess I have to do this.”

HEY LOOK OVER THERE!

Mark pointed to the wall as the flaming figure turned to where he pointed only for Mark to be gone a second later. Mark jumped through the wall that he busted through originally as he ran back down towards the exit.

“That wasn’t the most heroic thing ever but even heroes have to run away sometimes. I don't think it got on yet eith-'' He felt a sense of warmth come from behind him as he saw a flaming blast head towards him. “OH GOD!” Mark jumped up accidentally hitting his head on the ceiling like an idiot as continued to run. “HEY, THE FIGHTS OVER I GIVE UP!” Mark made an uncool look as he thought to himself this wasn’t heroic.

“LEAVE THIS PLACE.” The flaming figure said in a demonic voice as it opened its mouth firing repeated blasts at Mark.

Mark continued to evade all the attacks while running as he was yelping out in horror. “Almost there. Man, I hope this is the right way!” He saw a light as he quickly jumped onto the ladder and climbed up.

Mark made his way back to ground level as he put the manhole cover back on and reinforced it with rock. He held the manhole cover as he felt an impact hit it as he guessed that was the beings last attack telling him to go away.

“Huff..Huff..” He laid his back on the manhole cover and held his chest. “That might’ve been the weirdest thing I’ve seen all month. I gotta tell Luna and Tom about this when I see them. Gotta head back home first.” He ran back to his house still trying to figure out what happened.

It was the next morning as Mark walked down the stairs as he saw his mom making breakfast like usual as his dad was talking to his mother. His mother turned around and looked at him as he said good morning to her.

“Oh hey baby. I thought you weren’t going to wake up for a couple days, you were like a bear in hibernation. You do know you slept through the entire day right?”

“We honestly thought about calling someone son. I told your mother maybe an exorcist because we thought you’d been possessed.”

Mark's parents giggled and snickered to themselves as Mark grumbled to himself in embarrassment. “Yeah I know I slept through the whole day but  why didn’t you guys try to wake me up!”

“You looked so peaceful. In your own special way baby I wouldn’t dare.”

“Plus it was funnier to make the exorcism joke.” His father said.

“It was a good one, baby your father is a bit of a comedian.” Mark's mother smiled. “Now come on baby sit down breakfast is almost done.”

He was tying his shoes as he slowly hopped on one leg to the front door. “Uh, I would love to have breakfast mom but I have to go meet with some friends from school-” His mother somehow got in front of him as he yelped. “How’d you do that…”

“Nuh uh young man while you’re in this house you eat breakfast first to start off your day and have your father and I met these friends before! Plus it's way too early in the day to be going out of the house! Have you even made your bed young man!” His mother continued to go on and on as Mark chuckled awkwardly and looked over to his father for help.

Mark's father cleared his throat and put his hand on his wife's shoulder. “Honey, come on, Marks still so young. It's a good idea for him to make friends and hang out with them at this age. Plus if he's out of the house we can finally watch that romcom movie you wanted to watch for so long.”

“Really?” Her eyes sparkled as she got excited and held hands with her husband. “You’re so good to me honey. Mark sweetie you can go play with your friends just make sure you’re back before it gets dark and keep your cellphone on.”

Mark visibly gagged and said under his breath. “I can’t stand when they do this lovey dovey stuff, but mom is a sucker for it.” He coughed and talked at normal volume. “Yeah mom I will thank you! Bye love you guys.” He turned around while his father gave him a thumbs up as he thought to himself. “Thanks dad I’ll make it up for you later.”

Mark hurried out the door as his mother snapped out of it for a second and looked at her husband. “Do you think Marks has been acting strange lately?”

“What do you mean?”

“He's been really tired, he spends extra hours with his club friends after school, and now he's going out with some new friends.” Mark's mother said with a sense of curiosity. 

“Oh honey it's nothing, he's just going through puberty. When I was his age I had a little rebellious phase too.”

“Rebellious phase! That's exactly what I’m worried about: what if my baby turns into a delinquent! What if he gets tied in with gangs and criminals! Soon enough he’ll be head to toe with tattoos and change his name to Chuck or something! Oh god I’m getting weak just thinking about it.” She fanned herself with her hand as her husband chuckled and put his hands on her shoulders.

“Honey everything is fine, our boy is just growing up. He's bound to make mistakes along the way and stumble a bit down the path but it's our job as parents to uplift him and help him make it to the end of the path.”

Mark's mother took a deep breath and smiled. “Yeah you’re right I don't know why I was worried. You’ve always kept me level-headed ever since we were young.”

“That's what I’m here for honey.” He said with a smile.

“Now that’s out of the way, can we watch the movie!”

“Oh right.” His smile faded as he quickly made a fake one and thought to himself. “Pray for me son.”

Mark flew down from the sky with his bandanna around his face to make sure no one knew who he was. He landed in front of the abandoned warehouse that Tom and Luna have been training him in, still unaware of their secret motives. He gently opened the door as Tom and Luna stood there seemingly knowing he’d show up.

“So, where you been, BUD.” Tom said with an aggravated look on his face.

“Hehe. Listen I know I didn’t show up yesterday, but I can make it up to you guys!”

“You think he’s gonna say something stupid?” Luna said to Tom.

“Most likely but I’ll let him. Okay Meteor Boy shoot.”

“Okay last night I went down into the sewers. Don’t ask why. I went down a bit and smashed through a wall.”

“As one does yeah.” Luna said sarcastically.

“Yeah, so I saw this thing that was completely made out of fire and could even blast fire at me! I fought it for a little bit and I even thought it was using Galaxy Energy too!” Mark said while making movements with his hands to add further emotion to the situation.

“So you went into the sewers at night.” Luna said.

“Mhm.” Mark nodded.

“Fought a flaming monster in said sewers,” Luna said while rubbing her chin.

“Yeah.” Mark nodded once again.

“And said flaming monster could use Galaxy Energy.” Luna said.

“Yeah!” Mark said with a dumb smile on his face.

“God I knew it was gonna be dumb.” Luna said to Tom.

“HEY!” Mark yelled.

“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming and then woke up and came here right after the dream?” Luna said with a blank face.

“NO I WASN’T DREAMING I SWEAR I CAN TAKE YOU GUYS TO WHERE I FOUGHT IT AT!”

“I'M NOT GOING IN A SEWER YOU MORON!” Luna said with an angry look on her face.

“I'M TELLING THE TRUTH!” Mark yelled.

“I believe you.” Tom said with a smirk.

“Seriously?” Both Mark and Luna said with a look of disbelief. 

“Come on Lulu we’re from another planet nothing that far fetched. Well the way he described it was stupid so you get 1 point but I believe him. We’ll go to the sewer with you. Call it a sort of training exercise.”

“HEHE ALRIGHT THANKS MAN!” Mark gloated in the background with a smile on his face.

“Are you serious right now bro.” Luna said, whispering to Tom.

“I mean I don’t think he's smart enough to even form a lie in his head.” Tom whispered back. “And think of it this way, if that flame creature is real we’ll have him fight it longer this time and test his abilities. If we’re lucky he’ll get stronger and the plan will accelerate in speed.” 

“I guess you have a point.” Luna whispered back to Tom. “Alright, Meteor Boy show us where this sewer is. I can't believe I'm actually going inside a sewer, this is how I spend my day.”

“Hehe. Alright we’re probably gonna have to wait till night time tho so nobody sees us and I think the creature only appears at night! Like in the movies.”

“That’s stupid.” Luna said.

“It's true! It happens in movies all the time!” Mark said.

“Whatever.” Luna said as she turned around and walked to the couch. “It's gonna be a while till nightfall so we’re gonna have to pass the time.”

“Heh. You know what that means.” Tom snapped his fingers as the attack drones for before hovered around him. “Training.”

Mark gulped as he chuckled nervously. “Can’t we just play some board games or something?”

“Nope, we’re gonna train, so get ready, Meteor Boy.” He said as the attack drones rushed towards Mark.

“You gotta be kidding me!” He said as an attack drone hit him in the face knocking him into next week. “Oh boy…I sure didn’t miss this.”