8:00. 8:01. 8:02. The alarm had been going off like a squirrel with a chainsaw for the past half hour, Martin was good at keeping to his schedule on most days, but today was different. Sometimes stressed, sometimes anxious, sometimes excited; but never calm. That's how the majority of Martin's sleep had gone the previous night. Martin knew he had a big test today, that he couldn't be sick for it no matter what. But, he couldn't think of a single thing he had learned to help him ace this. What was he going to need a good mark in car engineering for anyways? He just got it because he was curious what the inside of a car looked like, but all the teachers seem to think everyone is going to become the next... next... well that's just it. There aren't any famous car mechanics.

8:03. 8:04. 8:05. Martin's teacher introduced themselves on the first day of school and everybody instantly knew what type of year this was going to be. Students don't consciously put all their teachers into personality categories, but every once in a while you'll start to notice certain patterns. Certain hatreds for modern technology, certain hair styles, certain ways of speaking. Certain people who try too hard, those substitutes that seem entirely uninterested in doing their job, seeing it as below them. Martin had always feared he would get into a job like that. Well, that's exactly how this teacher was; but they weren't a sub. They gave work without explaining, assigned tests in secrecy and played games behind their desk. Their name was Ms. Yamaha.

8:06. 8:07. Suddenly, with a start Martin got up. He had been having a great dream about all of his friends going to a theme park after school ends and convincing all the custodians to give them free tickets for the arcades and free rides on the well, rides! His favourite part was going down the rollercoaster while the rest of his friends were standing on top of it screaming and making in-jokes. Martin knew that he had enough dream reminiscing, so he went to check the time. 8:08. 8:08. 8:08. Ms. Yamaha may have no punishment for him, but the class was still supposed to be at 8:00. He was already 8 minutes late and he had barely even woken up. The party last night had been good, but he tried to leave at a reasonable time, it couldn't have been that which made him sleep in so much. His alarm was blaring so it couldn't have been that either. Whatever it was, Martin knew he had to leave now before he failed College.

Backpack, check. Mittens, check. Coat, check. Lunch, check. Breakfast... NO TIME! Martin burst out the door as if they were a boulder being shot by a cannon. Martin didn't care what else happened all that mattered was that he got to class. He threw his money, halfheartedly into the Proof Of Payment machine at the public transit. There was a smelly man on the bus who kept asking for change. Martin was about to get out his wallet when he heard his station and bolted out of there. Well, at least Martin would tell it that way in the future. His wallet was actually in the other pocket.

"I'M HERE!" Martin shouted, erupting into the class and falling into their seat, you could see the dust awoken from their running. Luckily, Ms. Yamaha ran in the halls too so they had no reason to judge.

"Oh, right I should do attendance. Thanks for reminding me," Ms. Yamaha commented getting up from their red and gold chair they brought from their home to 'feel more comfortable in the classroom'. Martin started talking to his friend Geoffrey about the dream he had with the 2 of them when Marissa started dancing in the middle of class. At the start of the year they had only been talking to their dance friends about what they had been practicing. Then when Ms. Yamaha started to become the ball of laziness they are now; Marissa took it one step further.

3:08. 3:09. 3:09. The school day was finally about to end, Martin knew they didn't do well on the test but at least they got it over with. After car engineering Martin went to their woodshop class. Although, it was really more of a sculpting class that wood was the base mold to put the clay on. That's how the class ended up with a lot of really cool looking wood backings and a lot of really awful clay molds. But, Martin knew that whatever the class was advertised as; the same result would've happened. Clay gets tiring after a while and with some especially tight deadlines in this part of the year, Martin had started getting lazy with their woodshop projects. Looming clocks and laziness can be absolutely tourturess. 3:09. 3:10.

Martin started on their way back home from school and decided to go over and talk with Marissa as their homes are in the same area. It would also give him another excuse to keep his money from the poor.

"Hey, Marissa your dance in first period was really cool. Where did you learn it?" Martin asked feeling intrigued.

"It's just the second dance they teach to everyone in the Dance - Beginners course. If your so interested why don't you join it. The course needs more members," Marissa replied.

"Yeah, I can totally see a job I'll get into combining car mechanics, woodshop and dance. How will that look on my resume. This kid doesn't know what field they want to work in"

BOOM. BOOM. CRASH. Skiddddddddd. The train started speeding down alarmingly fast, to the point where it sent a shudder through Marissa's body. Martin felt uneasy in their stomach but it wasn't from the sudden stop, but the sound. It sounded like 2 explosions going off and then some kind of collision between cars? But, how would they be able to hear that all the way down in the subway?

"What was that?" they both asked to nobody in particular, but it made them feel more sane seeing somebody else acknowledge what just happened. There had been funneled throughout the news about the government creating mech suits and guns for police officers to make them on the level of super heroes. But, all of that was in the years ahead, anywhere from 5-10. No, this was closer to an explosion from a perfume bomb. Speaking of perfume, Martin smelled something absolutely awful on the subway. But, nobody wants to show weakness of the subway. They tried to act like everything was normal, keeping their noses tucked in by their coats and wearing somber expressions.

"We apologize for the inconvenience, we've been ordered by our superiors to momentarily stop this vehicle," a raspy computerized voice sounded. The jolt of noise signaled through the subway to signal that somebody on the intercom was about to talk was much louder than the actual speaker though. Martin could faintly hear everyone's joint sigh as the announcement closed. Everyone thought it would only be a few more minutes until the subway began moving again. That's when a woman in the back with brown hair started screaming in a language nobody on the subway could recognize. Everybody on the subway slowly turned towards the woman as if to signal that turning to look was too much effort for them. That is until they paid closer attention to what was actually happening.

The woman's left shoulder was slowly turning a dark grey, in fact it was slowly turning into stone, specifically a type of granite. Then the man behind her started having their body encompassed by stone along with a pair of black wings which seemed to burn away in the tunnel's wind. Everybody was starting to transform, although it started slow enough; that wasn't for long. Some people grew 2 new arms and light purple skin or spikes on their back, but whatever the transformation was everybody had the same fear present within them. Powers were coming upon these people, the stone people had grown wings and inhuman strength, the people with new arms gained acrobatics from the newfound limbs. But, some were less fortunate. A few people in the front of the car had absolutely nothing change about them, and as they were completely unaffected their fear grew.

A loud beeping sound could be heard echoing all throughout the subway but it was as quiet as a pin dropping to the minds of the newly transformed individuals. After the beep people heard distant gunfire, coming from the announcement system. Then, after the gunfire a sound of somebody or something laughing before the computerized voice sounded once again. But by this time, only Marissa was paying attention.

"Everyone, evacuate the vehicle as soon as possible and walk to the next available station. All subways are stopped until we get further word from our superiors so there's no issue of road traffic," requested the computerized voice. The computerized voice felt comforting to the passengers. This was one of the last signs, messages or glimpses into what the old world was like for some time. Now, the powered individuals had to make a choice. For the gargoyles on the train, that choice was easy to make; burst through the subway walls with their stone claws and fly to the next stop. But for Martin, everything was still welling up inside of him, he felt overwhelmed by it all. It almost made Martin forget to pay attention to what his own transformation was. Almost.

Obsidian rock created shoulder pads and armor for Martin's new form, a volcanic creature with a body of flames. Meanwhile, Marissa was undergoing a mixup of some different transformations other passengers had been experiencing. She got wings of stone, light violet skin and astral purple hair. Marissa's clothing also transformed into a lighter type of armor composed of monster hides strung together to the point of unrecognizability. Martin and Marissa walked out one of the gargoyle shaped holes another person had made and began walking with the rest of the new creatures. They both wanted to scream, get mad at the world for changing so drastically. But, in the end what would it accomplish. That's when a fight began to break out between some of the former humans.

"I can finally win at something with this new power!" a green and purple hydra told a grey octopus looking creature. The hydra threw it's head at the octopus with such ferocity it looked as if gravity was forcing the collision to occur, but the octopus managed to block it. Martin and Marissa tried to walk around the battle but the hydra shot another of it's heads at the group forcing Marissa to try out their new powers. They used their stone wings to fly up and attack the hydra's eyes with their mystical new hair which became sharp as a knife with a simple command. After stunning the hydra with the attack the 2 kids ran away to try and reach the nearby station.

"What just happened?" Martin asked Marissa who had no idea what to say either. For a few moments they simply stood in silence observing the chaos.