Chapter 2

The sound of loud techno music throbbed in the background, beating continuously as Kyle frowned, scrolling his fingers on his phone. He tapped a few times, looking through several online forum threads or news articles:

--Random hallucinations Megathread - Three waves so far!--

--Sweeping headaches strike the nation - Scientists left clueless!--

--Potential brain plague on the loose? BREAKING! Click for more info--

All of the threads and posts were posted this day, indicating to Kyle that what he felt wasn't just a mere illusion. At the least, hundreds of thousands of other people had suffered from a similar occurrence.

He sighed, shutting his phone off. There was no point worrying about this now. He had managed to schedule a doctor's appointment for an MRI scan of his brain next week, he would have to just wait till then.

He looked around the ongoing party, shaking his head with a smile.

They were currently off in some random neighborhood, where a large scale block party was ongoing. The Annual October Spook Bash, one of the big traditions at Winston College, was a massive party put on by all the fraternities on campus. It was open to any and all students, and usually thousands of people attended.

Kyle was in one of the houses that were opened up for the party, a large two-story home. He was currently standing in the living room of the house, where a large tv played in the background, alongside nearly twenty five other students crowded in, talking and hanging out. Most the furniture in the house had been moved to various unused rooms to make room for the party, and Kyle was left standing.

"I have returned! With beautiful company, no less!" Kyle heard a familiar voice catch his attention. He turned to watch as a swaggering Luke walked through the front door, grinning at him obnoxiously. He had his arms hooked around a pair of pretty blonde girls, leading them forward.

Kyle rolled his eyes.

"Bout time you arrived, Luke." He nodded at Luke, and then turned to face the girls. They were both petite, with long blonde hair and pretty smiles. Kyle recognized the girl on the left, her brown eyes glued to Luke. She was Lauren, Luke's "Sort-of-girlfriend," in his own words.

"You've met Lauren before!" Luke smiled as he continued, talking over the music.

"This is April! She's a friend of Lauren's!" He introduced Luke to the girl on his right. She was around the same height as Lauren, around five foot 2, with a cute button nose, and warm brown eyes. She smiled as Kyle shook her hand.

"Nice to meet you." Her voice was quiet, and a little nervous. Kyle gave her a friendly smile and responded,

"Ah, you too."

As they spoke, they moved out of the living room towards the back of the house. The home opened up into a large deck and backyard complete with a large pool, where nearly a hundred students were milling about. A small dance floor was set up on the deck, and several couples were currently dancing. The smell of alcohol melded with the October air, the very picture of a college party.

"So what took y'all so long?" Kyle had arrived here nearly twenty minutes earlier. The party began quite early, at 6 pm. He'd shown up at around 730, when they originally agreed to meet. It was just turning 750 when he checked his phone.

Luke shrugged, looking apologetic, and said,

"There was a bunch of traffic on the way here. Several large wrecks, it was a bit odd."

"We also saw a couple of people fighting at one of the accidents. It was crazy!" Lauren spoke up, her voice at a high pitch. "I've never actually seen anyone fighting except for on TV!"

Luke pretended to look hurt,

"Only because you haven't been to any of my practice matches. Didn't I tell you I'm a verifiable sword expert?"

"You're something, that's for sure." Kyle remarked drily, rolling his eyes again. He did that a lot when it came to Luke.

Luke threw his hands up in the air, miming about as if the world was against him.

Lauren and the other girl giggled.

"Anyway, though, something strange is going on, ain't it, Kyle? You hear about the headache plague that hit all over?" Luke added, looking more serious.

"Yeah. I actually got hit by it earlier." Kyle nodded, rubbing his chin. According to the news reports, the strange headaches were estimated to have affected 1 in 20 people. Additionally, the headaches seemed to have spread in similarly timed waves. In the past six hours, there were three reported waves of these headaches. It was incredibly odd.

It absolutely had to be something unnatural. Some type of manmade interference in radio waves or radiation or something of that nature was his current best guess. He noted down to focus on research concerning this puzzling incident. He had some experience doing official research, having worked as an intern for one of the high powered labs at his university. He had a few connections he could use if he needed top of the line equipment for something like this.

Before that, though, he would need to figure out a direction to work in. He was still clueless as to how these strange headaches were spreading, or why they were even occurring. They didn't seem to have any large-scale negative effects, at least.

"So did I. Freaking crazy man. Must be aliens. Or maybe Canada. Somethin'." Luke waved his hands in the air again.

At that moment, the music playing over changed from a hard techno beat to a mix of pop and country. Luke's eyes lit up as he heard it. A lot of the music he danced to was similar to this, largely because Winston College was located in Texas in America, a place where country dancing was huge.

"Time to shine buddy! Remember the footwork I showed you! Dancing time!" He dragged Kyle forward off to the dance floor. Lauren and April tagged along as they made their way through the deck.

Luke grinned as he split off with Lauren, practically throwing Kyle at April. Kyle rolled his eyes at Luke again, but smiled as he took April's hand.

The music beat onward like an unceasing river, and they began to dance. It was a simple dance, stepping forward one way twice, then another. Kyle threw in a spin every once in a while, feeling the rhythm of the music.

Anything that gained his interest was something he had to be good at. Dancing was no exception. While he had just started learning, he had already spent hours behind the scenes practicing.

It was a bit different than other things he'd practiced or studied before, however. A lot of the movements had to be learned by experience and practice, not just brute study. Still, he at least wasn't at the level of a beginner.

"So you're in one of our school's dance clubs with Luke?" Kyle spoke as he finished a turn, nodding at April.

The girl smiled back timidly.

"Yeah, he's such a good dancer!" She followed all of Kyle's movements well, showing her experience.

After she responded, she stayed quiet, not offering anything else. Internally, Kyle frowned. He didn't hate talking to people, but carrying the entire conversation was always a bit boring.

A few seconds passed as the music beat on. Kyle returned to focusing on dancing.

It was just as the song was nearing its end when it happened. The start of the moment where Kyle's life would change forever.

A fight broke out.

A few meters away from the dance floor, a muscular red headed student wearing a white tank top was pushing away a black haired student wearing a blue shirt. Both of the students looked somewhat inebriated, but the rage in the red headed student's face was quite real.

"The fuck you mea' I can't?!" The red head's words slurred as he yelled, throwing a punch at the other dude. The black haired student stumbled backwards, tripping as he fell onto the floor. Blood gushed out of his nose as he stared up at the red headed student, intimidated.

The other dancers stopped, moving off the floor and backwards, none wanting to get caught up in the fight. Kyle stopped as well, watching with a bored expression. All around the backyard and deck, people began to turn at the commotion.

Luke, on the other hand, frowned and stepped forward, holding his hands in a calming motion. Lauren stood off to his side, her face pensive.

"Hey guys, let's try to keep it friendly, aight?" Luke said, sharing a warm smile.

"How many of you… are going to keep… FUCKING WITH ME!" The red headed student's eyes went red.

And then, something incredibly strange happened.

As the red headed student clenched his fists, his hands began to shiver. An extremely odd sight took place as this happened.

Long, white spikes began to form at the end of his fists, reminding Kyle vaguely of the Superhero Wolverine. They had a metallic sheen to them, forming several inches in length. Sharp, deadly pointed ends gleamed as the student shook his fists again, and lobbed another punch, not noticing the new growth.

"What the hell?!" Luke noticed the spikes, his eyes opening wide in disbelief. All around, partygoer's eyes latched on to the sight, many in shock or surprise.

However, his martial training took over him as he saw the incoming attack and stumbled backwards, dodging out of the path of the spiked fist by falling to the ground.

"HIYAAH!" As the red headed student's fist punched forward, the white spikes on it abruptly began to vibrate. Just as his punch reached the peak of its trajectory, the spikes suddenly exploded forward, blasting off of his fist.

Thanks to his instinctual duck, they missed Luke.

Lauren, unfortunately, was not so lucky.

"Aaaah!" Lauren's high pitched voice screamed out in pain as she stared at her chest, where four long, white metal spikes had pierced completely through her.

For a split second, everyone in the backyard froze, staring at the scene. The beating music was at odds with the unmoving scene. The soft glow of the artificial lights cast pallid shadows on everyone there, a network of silent faces.

Then chaos began to break out.

"OH MY GOD!"

"What the fuck?!"

"Someone call an ambulance!"

"Is this a joke?!"

"LAUREN!!"

A plethora of voices mixed together as people started moving. Several of the students began backing away from the scene of the fight.

The red headed student, meanwhile, came to his senses even while drunk, staring at his hands and then at Lauren in shock and fear. The black haired student took this opportunity to run off, blood dripping down his face.

Luke leapt off the ground and ran towards Lauren. Blood began bubbling from Lauren's lips as she looked around for a second before her eyes rolled up in her head, and collapsed to the ground. Luke managed to catch her just before she fell.

In the background, gunshots began to ring out, from an area that wasn't too close but also not far. A multitude of screams could be heard, echoing over the sounds of music.

The shockwave from a large explosion shook the air, causing the house and deck near Kyle to tremble.

"What the hell is going on?!" Kyle muttered, staring at the dying figure of Lauren in horror.