---

---

It took about thirty seconds for Felix to start to relax. Between Rick's less than confrontational attitude and the broom in his hands it was pretty clear that he wasn't here to cause trouble or steal anything. As best he could tell, Prof. Luna had taken on a new TA or something, but regardless, it really wasn't any of his business. And with Rick's interest at his mention of the celestial phenomena, Felix went into full info-dump mode.


"...and then I noticed that this thing's starting to move. It was barely noticeable at first, but it's steadily grown more and more obvious with each night. The position in the sky it's appearing at is changing, potentially at an exponential rate..." Felix trailed off, mostly finishing his thought as he sighted the darn thing in on Luna's telescope. Taking one more second to ensure he had it properly in view, the lanky young man stepped back and waved Rick forward with a grin. "Here, you wanna take a look? Be my guest."

When Rick stepped up and looked into the telescope, Felix turned away to organize his notes and got ready to chart the latest deviation from his "original" sighting. It was only a sharp gasp from the Professor that yanked his attention back early. Whirling around, Felix froze as he took in Rick's appearance. The other young man was oddly stuck in place, his electric blue hair slightly standing on end. "...What the fu?-" Felix never finished his sentence as Rick started to... glitch.

Spellbound in confusion and a little horror, Felix watched as Rick's arm touching the telescope vibrated, twitching millimeters side to side at a rapid pace, enough to make Felix see afterimages. Then, as suddenly as it began, it stopped. There was a sharp popping noise and the sudden smell of ozone as Rick jolted backwards, tumbling to the floor. Rushing forward to help, Felix paused, uncertain if it was safe to do so. It was only when Rick began to pant and look around, clearly back from whatever had just happened that Felix leaned down to offer him a hand.

"-What the F#$% was that!?"

"I feel like that's what I should be asking you. You looked like videogame character that'd gotten stuck on a piece of geometry there for a second." He offered with wry grin, trying to lighten the situation.

To Sully's surprise and satisfaction, Zeta House wasn't a disappointment. Nate was alright for a Resident Advisor. The green-haired boy seemed like the type of chill guy who wouldn't freak out if he bent the rules a little. Finn had some banter and of course, was an in man with the ladies. And Jet had one sweet looking gaming set-up. Hopefully, he had some split-screen games that they could compete in. Sully could already see himself beating the other boy on that crisp, 4k HD monitor of his. Eventually, Nate excused himself to do that something in town he mentioned earlier. Sully took the chance to bounce as well, bidding farewell to his new crib for the moment. He glanced at his watch, noting that he had a good amount of time to kill. He smiled at his fortune. Lovely. He could already hear the asphalt calling his name.

...

When the night struck Dyna City, the whole place underwent a metamorphosis. Blue skies were replaced with a starry night, and everything in sight unanimously agreed to kick the neon into overdrive. There was a good chance you'd be able to pinpoint Dyna City from orbit with how everything shimmered and glowed. Every street corner, building entrance and overhead stoplight had their colors enhanced. And if traversing the area on foot was an amazing experience, imagine how everything looked when riding at high speeds. Sully was back on his bike, zipping through the streets without a care in the world. The bright city lights blended and blurred together, as if he was riding through a kaleidoscope. Cars honked in complaint as the young man danced around them atop his smaller vehicle, squeezing between cars and refusing to pick a singular lane to stay in. The city was his playground, it just didn't know it yet.

Skirting to a stop in front of a stoplight, Sully's turned his helmet-covered head towards a source of noise to his left. A particularly grumpy driver had opened his window, furious words spewing from his mouth. Unbothered, Sully gave the man a two finger salute before cutting him off from anymore of his attention. Then, a familiar jazz ringtone reverberated in his helmet. Nestled in a holder between the handlebars of Sully's motorbike was his phone, which was displaying an image of his mother, along with a green and red button. Reluctantly, Sully reached for the phone and hit the green button, briefly closing his eyes while bracing himself for impact.

"Solomon Rawaya Price, I have been trying to reach you for the past two hours! Where have you been?!" Nicole Price demanded, her emotionally charged voice bouncing around in his helmet. This was one of the few days he regretted having a helmet with Bluetooth.

"Mommy!" Sully began with a cheerful voice. If she was calling him by his full name, that meant she had to be fuming something fierce. Which is where calling her 'mommy' came in, it helped to temper her anger. "Heyyy, so sorry! I was in a meeting with my Resident Advisor! Boy, does that guy love to gab!"

"Does it really take that long to get settled into a dorm?" She countered, refusing believe his ploy. At the very least, she wasn't yelling anymore. "You were supposed to be here by now, your father is home. We were going to have dinner together."

Sully pursed his lips, fully aware of the plan his mom had set. But there were certain elements he wanted to avoid back home. Namely, his father.

"I grabbed a bite at Wok n' Roll after the meeting and completely forgot about dinner at home. My bad,"Sully offered flatly. That should cover that.

"I know you didn't forget about dinner, because you don't play around when it comes to food. Especially since I told you we were getting Indian!"

Or not. A sigh came from the other end. "I know you two have been on the outs, dear. But you need to talk it out and come to an understanding. It's what men do."

The stoplight went from red to green and Sully pressed on with the quickness. "Right, yeah. Is he still home?"

His mom's voice rose just a little in hopeful enthusiasm. "He is, but he has practice early in the morning tomorrow, so please hurry back home."

The road spread out around him like a sea of gray with white lines. No traffic in sight. "I'll try my best, but I'm not gonna lie mom, traffic is picking up. Everyone's starting to come home from work."

"Understandable. Just do your best, alright?"

"Right. See you soon," Sully chose as his farewell before ending the call. Yeah, right. He may not be seeing eye to eye with the old man, but there would be zero backing down on his end. Locking back onto his joyride, Sully picked up speed as he entered the commercial district of Dyna City. Breezing past plazas and mini-malls, he began to enter a phenomenon he liked to call 'The Zone'. 100% confidence in every move, every twitch, gracefully lane-splitting and dodging obstacles. It felt like nothing could go wrong.

Until it did.

From out of nowhere, a bolt of electricity dropped down from the violet-colored heavens and hit the car in front of him. It took fast hands and quite a bit of steadiness to slow down and avoid hitting the skittering sedan in front of him. Thankfully, he was so far ahead of the nearest car behind him that he could make an emergency stop in the middle of the road without immediate danger. One leg out to hold the bike steady, Sully's panicked eyes darted to the sky above as a large, bright object soared above him. Additional bolts of lightning indicated that it was the source of the problem ahead of him. But even more shocking, it looked like the unidentified flying object was trailing things behind it. Wait, is that another car up there?! Oh hell no, time to distance myself from all this sh--. In a total juxtaposition from the usual devil may care daredevil's persona, his heart skipped a beat as he began to feel the front of his bike lift off the ground. Leaning forwards and putting all of his weight on his arms, Sully managed to ground the front wheel once more and hit the gas, accelerating once more and past the now airborne electroshocked vehicle. Before he could make a wide u-turn and get away from the flying object, he quickly learned that even pressing down on the motorbike was no longer enough in the face of anti-gravity. The bike lifted off the ground, Sully's hands and thighs clamping onto the motorbike for dear life. This was crazy, the whole thing was surreal, and it would have been exhilarating, if it was in his control. But Sully was ascending higher and higher, desperately wished he would wake up from this nightmare. Then, a flying garbage container arrived to do the exact opposite, swooping in and knocking the young man out cold.

...

Sully emerged from his trauma-induced slumber with a loud gasp. He was laid up on the ground and rose up until he was at least leaning on his shoulders. His vision was obscured by his helmet, which was no longer tinting the world black. Trembling hands grabbed at the sides and yanked it off his head. To his immediate anger, the glass had been shattered and part of the helmet itself caved in. With a growl, he tossed the damaged gear to the side and put a hand to his forehead. The boy stumbled to his feet and looked around his surroundings. He was in a field, far away from the city he called home. And right beside him, a large, metallic...ship? What the what was going on here?!

It had been a pretty decent time, all things considered.

He was out with the cheer squad, Colleen doing her best not to roll her eyes out of her skull Rio does whatever shenanigans that Rio does, and Finn happily inhaling curly fries.

Then Colleen screamed, and dropped her boba. Then, That was when things got weird.

Finn’s head snapped up to the sky just as the rest of the DuckBurger crowd did the same. A fireball was streaking across the sky, way too close for comfort. At first, he thought it was an asteroid. But asteroids didn’t crackle with what looked like raw electricity. They didn’t shoot off bolts like that either. “What the heck?” Finn muttered.

Things only got weirder from there. Lights warping. Air bending. Gravity… glitching?

The others were already running.

Finn took one step back, and then was yanked straight into the sky.

“WaitwaitWAIT—!”

He was spinning, flailing, a scream caught somewhere between panic and “is this a cheer stunt??” And then… WHAM! Something wrapped around him. Not tight, but enough to slow the impact.

And then everything went black.

⸻

When Finn came to, he was… upside down.

And swinging.

He blinked blearily, vision full of leaves, sky, and what he eventually realized was a giant octopus mascot printed across the banner that had wrapped him like a gift basket. He groaned. “Ugh. Is this what dying feels like?”

The banner read, in bright bubble letters:
“The Best OctoBalls in Dyna City!”

Finn blinked again. It was then that he realized he was upside down. “Cool, love that for me!” He said cheerfully, but you could still detect the sarcasm.

He twisted a little, catching movement below. Someone stumbling into view… Nate? “Nate? Hey! Hey, RA guy! Little help?”

Rick blinked a couple times at the offered hand, but took it, standing as he responded. "No kidding? I feel like I stepped on 'the third rail'!" He ran a hand through his hair, than glanced at it before shaking his arms and shoulders, "Prof, uh, any ideas? Do you... Think that's going to happen again?" He glanced at the telescope, like an animal handler keeping an eye on a subject prone to mischief.

---

---

Laughing at Rick's comments, Felix missed the first tiny spark of electricity that passed between them as he helped the other man up. He did not miss the second. The jolt of energy that shot through Felix's hand and up his arm was enough to stagger the lanky young man, his grip spasming tight around Rick's. Eyes going wide, he shot Rick a worried look. "Ahh... I don't think we're out of the woods yet."

Sure enough, a third and forth bolt of electricity sparked forth from where their hands met, running up Felix's arm, clearly visible now. The smell of ozone filled the air and Felix felt his stomach do a flip as goosebumps ran down his body. "Oh, that's not good." More and more bolts of energy crackled out from between his hand and Rick's, these ones reaching out into empty air rather than grounding themselves into anything. "Really, really not good..." He muttered eyes darting to and fro before letting out a surprised yelp as he felt his feet start to leave the ground.

"Oh, Fuuu!-"

At that point everything really went to hell. Gravity seemed to stop working entirely. Felix, Rick, the Professor, all of Felix's notes, the desks, filing cabinets and literally anything not nailed to the floor or wall began to drift upwards. Where the lightning bolts hit empty air, little tears and rifts briefly formed, like staticky spots of empty black void. "God damnit, when I thought it might be aliens, I was fucking joking!" Felix swore.

As they floated there, the bolts of energy coalesced into a single direction and a single massive tear formed before them. Any further snark from Felix was cut off as he blinked, not entirely sure what he was looking at. Through the warbling rift two bright golden eyes burned, almost as if staring into his soul. Then a taloned hand punched through the image and grabbed hold of the edge of the rift. "Nope! Nope, no-" A second clawed hand rent it's way through the ether and grabbed hold of the other side of the rift.

With a reality wrenching *pop* the... thing pulled itself through into the lab. An unnatural mix of matted fur and glimmering bug-like carapace, it floated there for a second before gravity returned with the crash of tables and cabinets. Clambering to it's feet, the monster sucked in a sharp breath, and screamed; rage, pain and an all devouring hunger reverberating through the room. Glittering beady black eyes stared down at the boys as it reared back to it's full height of an imposing seven feet and flexed it's claws; obsidian-black sickles, each a good six inches from tip to base.

"Fuck." Felix muttered under his breath as he scrabbled backwards across the floor, shoes struggling to find purchase.

Dyna City was awash in chaos.

The streaking comet through downtown and it's subsequent destructive waves caused numerous emergencies, and both police and emergency vehicles were in full meltdown and action. The rush of traffic and panic was causing a real congestion of the city's population. Luckily, in the hours after, the good news would be that there were no fatalities only mostly scratches, bruises, and at the very worst some broken bones.

The real danger however was not in the downtown metro area, where the streaking bolt of fire had chartered it's dangerous course through the buildings and streets. The real danger was descending just outside the city. But not all at once. Instead, it slowly spread it's toxins through the veins of the populace slowly, the true terror of what this new world was going to have to face perhaps only biding it's time. It started however, truly, in an open field.

---

Sully had made his way over to what looked like a downed craft. Almost an advanced speeder that wouldn't be too out of place at the Grand Pris. Except this one was slightly larger, and clearly capable of flight. Sully could see where the craft had crashed and slid across the field, it's long track of dirt and debris pulled up from the ground where it finally came to a skidding halt. Sully didn't hesitate to approach.

While Nate was busy freeing the flamboyant Finn from his current predicament, they both saw out of the tree line and over to where Sully was now approaching. A remarkable sight to be sure, they began to make their way over.

Finn wasn't sure if he was concussed, but he thought he could see a strange shimmer on the horizon. Almost like some sort of reflection like a bubble on the surface of water. He pointed it out to Nate, who pointed out something that he was more immediately concerned with: a seeming self-propelled lightning bolt, or an energy signature of some kind, was illuminating a few yards from where Sully was. The two boys broke out into a sprint, as they saw that the world in front of them was somehow being wrenched open - and instead of a strange energy orb, the world opened like a rift, out of which stepped 6 hulking monsters. Not unlike the creature that had appeared at the lab with two other young students.

---

At the site of the downed ship, Sully could see that there was a cockpit still in tact. Without knowing how to operate the craft, he began trying to pry a door open. With a *wshhhhhhh* the cockpit opened upward, nearly sending Sully sprawling backward. In the pilot seat, clearly wounded, was what looked like a person. They were wearing a red flight suit - what almost looked like armor, and their helmet was of a gorgeous red sheen. The visor however looked cracked, and Sully could see what looked like a dark liquid spilling from it. Blood?



The red armored pilot stood up, wobbled on his feet before collapsing towards Sully.

"Wher..where is this?" a voice came out beneath the helmet.

---

Miles away - DANGER.

Felix watched as Rick bravely gets between him and the vicious looking creature that spawned from the rift. Without a second thought, Rick swung what looked like a mace - but what was actually a microscope he had grabbed from a nearby lab station, an improvised weapon - and cracked the creature across it's brow.

The two boys were stunned however as the creature seemed to barely register the attack, and it's clawed hand reached out with a flash, grabbed Rick by his shoulder and screamed - a mouth full of sharp teeth in a head with no eyes screamed at the boy. Felix could see what looked like hot saliva spill from the creatures mouth.

Behind them, the rift began to open again. And this time a humanoid shape stepped out. They were completely grey from head to toe, and they held a small device out in front of them that looked like almost like an old Satellite phone. This second person paid no mind to the two boys.



The creature meanwhile hurled Rick over a desk, where several instruments clashed and shattered on the floor. It locked its gaze (if a head with no eyes can gaze) upon Felix and reared up to dive at him. It's grey ally held a finger up and the creature stopped short. Felix was surprised that he could understand the language of the strange new visitor.

"Don't waste your time. Kill them if you want to, but it seems the others have already locked onto our quarry."