Chapter 5

Half way across the state in KS university, Ivy Tetteh stayed behind her dorm room doors with two others . Oscar Saltmond her boyfriend , and Gwen Eastwood her roommate/ best friend.

" This can't go on , if we continue to stay here , well die " Ivy said as she paced worriedly.

" But what else can we do? I called in some of my military friends, and even they can't extend a hand because they are also under attack. This is a universal attack." Oscar said as he grabbed her from behind and spooned her.

Ivy's tension eased a bit but not by much .

" We don't even know if there is a safe place out there. This is all just insane. I'd think that an apocalypse would at least collapse social institutions , this goes further than that , humanity may be exterminated within the week " Gwen gave her characteristic pessimism .

" Don't say that ! I won't tolerate your pessimism today . I need something upbeat " Ivy commanded .

" At least you have each other, Tim is back in Georgia, I'm all alone here" Gwen tried but failed.

" Girl , be quiet, I'm only getting more depressed." Ivy said , only for the next second to become light headed and collapse.

" IVY!" Gwen and Oscar yelled out of worry in unison.

"WHA___" Gwen's sentence just begun before she too had her eyes roll to the back of her head and collapse.

Oscar was dumbfounded, and scared . What was happening!.

Suddenly a sharp pain assaulted him from his back . It was so painful he would have collapsed out of shock had it not been for his thorough pain resistance training back in military Academy.

"AAAAAAAH! Uaaaaaah! Graaaaaah ! Asdfghjkgfrkkkjh! " He even begun foaming at the mouth. He was in so much Agony , he couldn't spare those collapsed onto the ground a thought. He tried but couldn't. His whole self went towards mitigating the pain . But his suffering proved meaningless because shortly after he too collapsed and fainted .

From an outside perspective one could visually see the bodies of the three begin a morphing process , as muscle ,blood vessels and bone frame wriggled and contorted into vaguely humanoid forms , yet not entirely human .

And two hours into this transformation a phone call rung and from there Ivy woke up . It didn't take her long to realize what had happened to her . Her clothes were ruined and her skin turned scarlet . It has smooth soft scales with bright luster that made her glow . Her ears grew longer and pointed outward, giving her further sound coverage. Her eyes could see things she couldn't see before although she knew nothing about it.

Her nails grew claws, sharp and pointy at the ends , and she felt stronger overall, a lot stronger in fact . And stop her head were horns short horns that barely poked through her braided hair

Gwen and Oscar both regained consciousness shortly after her .

Gwen unlike her was now blue . Or violet . It fully depended on which part you looked at her from . Though her skin was tough it didn't have smooth soft scales like Ivy her ears also seemed to have disappeared changed with two holes on each side kind of like Majin but from dragon ball . And a tail grew from the human dormat tail bone connected to the pelvis . Gwen felt stronger too but most of all her perception of time developed until everything seemed too slow.

Oscar though immediately felt the existence of a new pair of limbs upon awakening . The sensations of it were strange , yet familiar, like it had always been there but he knew for a fact they weren't.

A pair of silver wings spread out measuring 3 meters in length. Soft beautiful feathers as though ment for decoration . And at the first angle was a bone hook on each side .

He became the dipiction of angelic stature, meanwhile his girlfriend ended up looking like the dipiction of devilish stature .

Just looking back at each other , they knew they were meant to be . Were they not soul mates ?! .

" H-H-HOW!!!!??? MY FACE " Gwen run to the mirror to look at herself .

Even after loosing her ears she was still a top notch beauty , just blue/ violet. Her Caucasian facial features stayed , though it was a wonder if she still belonged to the human race to begin with .

Ivy also came to look at herself in the mirror.

She had more inhuman features. Her eyes where black , and the pupils yellow, while the irises orange . Just looking at herself was intense speak less of others. Her teeth transformed from the four variations of incisors, canines, premolars and molars to a set of pure canines that sloted into each other perfectly to form a white strip.

" How did this happen." Ivy seemed composed , but Oscar and Gwen knowing her knew she was not. They themselves were not .

" Do you think this is the universes way of giving us a chance at survival?" Oscar asked . He wasn't religious,but 'spiritual' as he liked to call it .

" Why are you spouting bullshit! This is serious!" Gwen yelled at him . She was as Athiest as they came .

" Then what do you think happened to us then? "

" Obviously we must not make assumptions. We investigate the cause and deal with the effects. Simple, not some higher power something ."

" Haha , what has happened to my dark skin, red is soo not my colour" Ivy said touching her face , inspecting her teeth , and flicking her ears.

" I turned into an freaking Alien ."

" You are not asking the questions , how long have we been passed out . ?" Gwen asked. Oscar picked up his phone

" It's been two hours , hmmm, I was called "

"Who was it? Katie ? Zack? " Ivy asked . At this point they tried to pull their mindsfrom themselves. They were too shocked to process it as a reality . Unlike Daniel Jay and Eric their case was a physical mutation.

" It's from the military"

-----

Daniel walked amongst the rubble from the face off between man ruler of earth and alien bug extraterrestrial invader. It was devastating. In fact as a now genius , Daniel unintentionally reenacted the events that lead to this devastation, and the more he pieces together the events the paler he got , that's if he could get pale . Movies never prepared you for this , not at all . The affair was more brutal than Daniels wildest imagination.

He felt the pain and anguish , the disparation and heart wrenching loss. The indomitable will of all those involved . But unlike Movies there wasn't a clear winner , just pure mutual destruction. Their extraterrestrial enemies might seem brainless and randomly attacking, but their coordination was suspicious.

It felt like a colonization of land , or how humans killed off local fauna and flora to make the location into one that suited their habitation.

Individually they seemed dumb , but together he could deduce the formation of higher intelligence. It was intriguing, but he didn't have the heart to find it intriguing . Humanity's superiority was under attack .

He still has naivety from novels on what a pure rational main character should do to further himself. And he still agreed . But one also has a societal obligation to ones species. Not only ones close family and friends.

He finally understood what he must do in today's climate. His plan just had some minor tweaking done .

" First lieutenant Madison. " Daniel saluted when the officer of higher rank came toward him .

As of now the state has not been dissolved . And in a case of a large scale invasion attack, all men and women above 18 and below 40 are to be forcefully enlisted.

Daniel was 17 so it shouldn't apply to him in normal situations, but this was not a normal situation. He willingly put himself under military command . They had the infrastructure, and the authority to do something about the declining situation.

" At ease. I want to ask questions about your friends. Are you willing? "

" If that's what the fist lieutenant needs "

Daniels words were subservient, but his demeanor oozed perfect confidence and control over the situation, it was unnerving, but that's not what first lieutenant Madison was paying attention to. At least for now.

" They have awoken abilities, do you know what they are?"

So she was interested in them for their abilities.

" Fist Lieutenant I believe it will be wise to ask them personally. I might witness their power. But I neither understand their principles or conditions to activate.

Unlike the two , his manifestation of power was passively active he couldn't control it , it just formed part of him .

Maybe this was also the case for them , but he might be unaware.

" I will , I just need to know what you who has been with them since the start have witnessed."

" Jay has some kind of energy shielding . It is durable, and can withstand multiple successive attacks from bugs without collapsing . But he can cause damage too , though I don't understand how."

A lie by now he had fully dissected their abilities at present, and multiple future progressions they could develop in .

But would he share? Yes . But not now . At least when he had the authority to get things done.

" I see ,how big is his energy shield ? "

" It depends, sometimes it's bigger , other times smaller , but it always surrounded him like a dome."

" Has his power ever failed?"

" By that what do you mean first lieutenant?"

" I mean has it ever jammed or failed to activate?"

Daniel feigned being in thought.

" Not as far as I've seen, but it's only been a day, I couldn't know .you'd have to ask him , I never got too close to the fights ."

" Alright, and the other one?"

" I'm assuming his his the telekinesis from lore . Within range he can move an object in three dimensions."

The explanation was short. Not because Daniel was trying to conceal anything, but what else could be said ? Almost all humans knew how telekinesis worked.

" Do you know how far his range of control is?"

" No , I don't know how to determine that ." A lie.

" How about the weight limit? " I don't know that either" A truth .

" Can he lift living things?"

" He hasn't done that so I'm not sure" A lie

He can , but it seemed objects with a will had resistance to that effect.

" Can he fly "

" I'm also not sure, it has only been a day first Lieutenant " also a lie his ability was Omni presence, but there must be an anchor. Maybe he could move himself through the air by controlling an object around or beneath him, but natural flight was a no

" I see , hmm interesting."

" Fist lieutenant?"

" Yes ?"

" I came all this way to look for my parents, I heard they came over to this underground shelter . "

" ..... Son , this might be difficult to hear, but till we arrived (the military) the civilians here had been gruesomely killed by these monsters. Some superhumans were in their midst , but not only were they new to their abilities, and were also not trained soilders.

The hideous appearances of the monsters probably froze many in their tracks or caused them to flee. No coordination, no training, new and barely understand abilities. This was the cause for this shelters downfall."

" WHERE WERE YOU WHEN CIVILIANS NEEDED YOU !. DON'T YOU DARE BLAME OTHER CONDITIONS, IT WAS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY! " Daniel lost it . He prided himself on being a purely rational being. But maybe he had been lying to himself.

" HOW COULD YOU LET THIS HAPPEN! DO WE NOT PAY TAXES FOR YOU TO PROTECT US?! TELL ME , WHY DID THIS HAPPEN !! "throughout his yelling Daniel felt the dissonance between his mind and his heart .

He knew perfectly well that no one could have forseen this incident. Not only that but every human animal and plant was being targeted even the military as an institution was run by humans , they weren't bots.

They also felt fear , sorrow and pain .

His brain gave the logics of the matter. But his heart couldn't accept that his parents had possibly died.

He might not have said something irreversible to his parents and stormed off this morning. But if he knew that it might be the last he saw of them he would never leave.

His mother may scold him , his father mayignore him , but he loved them .

Even in his yelling the tears run down like rivers.

He didn't know it was possible to cry . He never experienced pain on this level before. On a normal day he liked to imagine the deaths of everyone he knew , and how badly it would affect him. But when it came to his parents his heart always felt clogged , then he snapped out of it and prayed a prayer to the Christian deity even though he wasn't religious. He just felt he had to do something to insure their safety , even if it ment going against his beliefs in principle.

First lieutenant Madison stayed silent throughout his outburst .

"AHHHHHHH!!!!"

Daniel kneeled on the bug corpse beneath him and begun punching away , venting all his frustrations,he always had terrible luck , or at least not very good luck. If there Was a 40% chance of something unfavorable happening , 3/5 times he'd find himself in such a situation.

Pow Pow Pow

He punched in again and again till the shell broke open , and his knuckles turned bloody.

Pow Pow Pow.

He punched it more till the disgusting yellow blood splattered across his face and hands , and his bleeding knuckes

Hurt like hell , like a million needles were stabbing into them , and his eyes turned bloodshot .

And when his stamina was consumed he collapsed, fainted and lost consciousness. But one look at him , and you knew even in his dreams he was being tormented by loss.