Twenty-five-year-old Ranford Tremble walked out of the glass doors of PARTICLE Labs, where he worked as a biologist. He trudged down the marble steps and glanced at the setting sun, which was casting shadows everywhere and draping the landscape in gold. Ranford briskly passed a large tank in front of the facility, made a turn, and marched toward the parking lot.

His place of work never failed to surprise, entertain, and occasionally injure a person. It was a place filled with advanced technological wonders. Only the best scientists could enter it. Nanobots and artificial intelligence were common sights there.

Ranford sighed, got into his white Toyota, and pulled out of the driveway in a tired manner.

Here, we must take a break from the events of the present, and I must give you a brief recap of Ranford’s life so that you will better understand the story. His childhood had been quite harsh. His mother died of cancer back when he was twelve, leaving him to live with his father and grandparents. He was always a very bright student in science class and performed brilliantly in physical education as well.

Ranford was twenty when he joined the army. He was quickly promoted for his wits and combat skills. But two years later, his buddy Rupert, who was also in the army, died in an accident. Believing that the army would be too much of a reminder of the tragic events, he decided to make a bizarre change in jobs. Eventually, he became a biologist. He thrived in this field, and the income was good.

Now, he found himself on the familiar driveway leading to his humble home: a small house near his workplace. He parked in the garage, walked up the concrete steps and into his house, yawned, stretched his legs, and plopped down on his bed. He glanced at his calendar. Tomorrow was Sunday. That was a relief. Maybe he would sleep in, go out for a walk, or play some soccer. He yawned again and got up after a few minutes to take a quick shower. Then he went to bed.

Ranford’s alarm clock pestered him at seven the next morning. He finally decided to get up for the day at nine. He stepped into the bathroom and yawned. Then he stared at his tired brown eyes in the mirror and combed his slightly messy golden-brown hair. The instant he finished breakfast, he received a text from his buddy Daniel inviting him to play soccer.

“Sure,” he texted. “See you there.”

Ten minutes later, he hummed as he stepped off the bus and headed toward a soccer field situated beside a wood.

◆ ◆ ◆

High above the trees and concealed in the clouds, a large hovercraft stared down at everything. A HUD (heads-up display) was scanning everyone below it, checking for something.

“No matches, sir,” announced James, the hovercraft’s pilot.

“Keep scanning,” ordered the master. He glared at the screen that was monitoring the HUD scans. It kept flashing “No Match” in big red letters and deleting the profiles of rejected subjects.

“You know, it really shouldn’t come as a surprise, sir, if we don’t find anyone,” James rambled on. “I mean, we’ve checked Buffalo, Harrisburg, Pittsburgh, Erie, Allentown, Scranton, and Gettysburg before this and found no results. And we even checked New Jersey before that, and New York, and Maine, and Vermont, and—”

“Shut up!” roared the master. He was very impatient to execute the next phase of his master plan and couldn’t do so until they found someone with the gene.

Suddenly, the screen flashed once, “100% Match.” He stared at the screen, and the corners of his mouth rose ever so slightly. That was really saying something, for the rather infamous Jacen Lee rarely smiled.

“What’s his name?” demanded Jacen. “Tell me everything about him.”

“Running facial recognition, sir,” declared James, surprised at his master’s unusually good mood. After a moment, he squinted at the results on the screen and said, “His name is Ranford Tremble, sir. Twenty-five years old. Lives by himself in a house down the street. He works at PARTICLE Labs.”

“Follow him. Where is the closest Terraleone breach?”

“In the woods, sir, which seems to be—right where he’s going.”

“Good. That just makes the job much easier. Send in the troops.”

“Should we activate the cloaking process, sir? If you don’t want interference from John and his little gang—”

“There’s no need for cloaking.”

James stared at him in surprise. “You want interference from John, sir?”

“Yes,” said Jacen. “Though they don’t know it, they are part of my plan.”

“But-but I don’t understand, sir.” James was quite bewildered. “They are our enemies. Plus, we could kill them all so easily.”

“I will slaughter them all when the time is right,” replied Jacen in a threatening and dangerous voice. “Now…is…not…the…time…yet. If I kill them, the rest of my plan will be useless. Now, initiate procedure before I rip your head off.” 

“Er, yes, sir,” said James, who was slightly afraid now. He had seen Jacen Lee murder countless people with ease and knew how easily Jacen could dispose of him too.

James flipped a switch above him. “Head to clearing 52P,” he muttered into a small microphone. “Initiate Procedure Terraform. Subject will come into clearing. Upload Prototype 65. Release Test Subject C21A.”

“Yes, sir,” came the reply of a robotic voice.

◆ ◆ ◆

Ranford walked into the soccer field and found that his friends were already there.

“What’s up, guys?” he said, grinning.

They played for a bit. Ranford was a good athlete. His team’s scores surpassed the others’. Then someone from the opposing team accidentally kicked the ball too high, and it soared out of bounds.

“Don’t worry,” said Ranford as the ball rolled into the woods. “I’ll go get it.”

As he pursued the ball through the dark woods, it showed no sign of slowing down. The escaping ball simply continued rolling as if free from friction. Ranford frowned slightly and tried to deduce the reason for it. He decided that it was probably the wind, for the breeze was always strong around that area. 

Then he suddenly came out of the brush. In front of him, there was a small clearing with lush green grass. The soccer ball sat in the very middle of the field. He marched over and was about to pick it up when he noticed the odd predicament he was in.

Seven human-like droids stood in front of him. They each looked identical, from their glowing, purple eyes to their mechanical feet. They were a shiny silver color. Glass tanks had been installed in the middle of their chests. Blue liquid sloshed in those transparent ports, and the letter X was branded in big black print on the tanks. The robots had deformed mouths and lines of glowing purple spikes fastened along their limbs, giving them a sinister appearance.

Above the droids was a hovercraft, which was slightly bigger than a bus. Four torpedo-like engines were on the sleek black vehicle—one on each corner. A light-blue, fiery aura surrounded each of the engines.

Before Ranford could react to this bizarre sight, one of the droids hurled a bola at him. It entangled his legs, and he fell to the ground. Through his blurry vision, he could see the bottom of the hovercraft sliding open. To his horror, a lion the size of a rhino stepped out of the hovercraft. Scars covered its body, enhancing its feral and wild appearance. One of the droids hit it with a metallic whip, causing it to roar in pain and rush toward Ranford.

Unable to move his legs, Ranford could only shout in horror and attempt to crawl away frantically like an escaping lizard. The lion effortlessly caught him and slashed the side of his stomach with its claws, causing him to flip around like an omelet. Nobody else was around to hear Ranford’s cry of pain.

The lion struck him a second time. This time, it slammed its paw onto his back and pinned him face down to the ground. There was a fresh cut on the side of the lion’s body, which had been inflicted upon it by the droids. A drop of blood oozed out of it and fell into the wound on Ranford’s back.

Then the droids pulled the lion back and forced it into the hovercraft. Ranford could barely move. He could not see anything apart from the ground. Something was now jabbing at his back, but he could not see what it was. There were no responses to his feeble cries of help.

Pain began to spread through every inch of Ranford’s body. It seared through his bones, nerves, muscles, and neurons, boiled in his bloodstream, and gradually spread to all his parts. At first, he felt as if he were being guillotined over and over again, and then as if all one hundred and two floors of the Empire State Building were crashing down upon him. After that, the pain was like being branded by a cowboy with sizzling hot metal, stampeded by a hoard of angry wildebeests, or made to sit through two hours of math class (believe me, it is very painful).

After two minutes or so, everything suddenly reversed. Instead of pain, Ranford now felt⁠…nothing. It was an empty void deprived of senses or feeling. He was completely numb.

Following that, a series of strange reactions occurred within his torso. They were peculiar ticklish sensations. Something was changing. Something was bending. Something was twisting right inside Ranford’s body, and he could feel it. It was as if every single cell was being flipped inside out. At last, a golden flash of light erupted upon the horizon, and Ranford blacked out.

“Ranford?”

Ranford opened his eyes. A ceiling light shone above him. It took some time for his eyes to adapt to the brightness. As his vision cleared, the room came into focus. From the marble floor to the plain white walls, and then the bright bedsheets, everything had perfect symmetry.

Then he realized there was a face staring at him, several feet away. The person looked serious, with black hair parted down the middle, green eyes, and smooth skin. The man seemed to be only a few years older than Ranford.

Ranford jumped violently.

He quickly regretted his intense reaction. The person frowned and said, “I’m glad that you came to, Mr. Tremble. I was just about to check on you. Breathing normal, heartbeat normal…I knew you were about to wake up.”

He murmured something else to himself as he scribbled busily on a clipboard.

Ranford was still slightly bewildered.

“Where am I?”

That was a stupid question. He was in a hospital, no doubt.

“You are in Markus Memorial Hospital, Mr. Tremble,” replied the man who was inferred to be a doctor. “It is near the border of Philadelphia.”

Only then did Ranford realize there were other patients on the beds around him. A tan man with an IV drip was lying on a bed to his left. Another bandaged person was opposite him. On the right side were two people who looked like twins. One had a cast, and the other was healing from stiches.

His thoughts were still unclear and hazy. Ranford tried to focus, struggling to recall the events of the past few days. Suddenly, everything came tumbling back: the droids, the lion, the hovercraft, and all the bizarre images. He sat up in horror as he remembered, but the doctor protested.

“It was a pretty bad fall, Mr. Tremble. Are you sure you can get up?” 

“A fall?”

The doctor frowned. “Yes. Don’t you remember?”

Now it was Ranford’s turn to frown. “No.”

“Ah, that might be due to the side effects. Hallucinations, amnesia, et cetera are common in such severe cases. Apparently a few days ago in the woods, you lost your balance on some slippery moss and fell headfirst into a waterfall and down to a lake. You banged your head on a rock and became unconscious. A nearby hunter discovered you in some jimmyweed bushes, which might be the cause of your bizarre illusions.”

“Wait. A few days ago? Does that mean I’ve been here for more than a day?” 

“Yes,” confirmed the doctor. “Two, in fact.”

Ranford lay back down on his pillow. This, he thought, is way too much to digest. How could he fall into a waterfall but not receive any scars? Perhaps it was because of the water. This story, if being fabricated, was possibly convincing enough. However, the memories about the clearing seemed real. They seemed true. Most importantly, they did not seem like anything his horrible imagination could conjure up. His mind was in a state of confusion.

Suddenly, a frowning nurse with wavy blonde hair and blue eyes entered the room. She looked unhappy from her expression, almost angry. It was the expression you’d have if you got hit by a French baguette.

“The other patients need your help,” she told the doctor. “I would appreciate it if you would stop chatting with our new patient.”

“Sorry,” muttered the doctor. “I’m new.”

As soon as he left the room, the nurse pulled him into another room and slammed the door.

“I don’t think this is the right way.”

“What am I supposed to do, Mariana?” he said, annoyed. “Tell him we belong to an agency that targets nationwide threats? Or maybe I should tell him top secret information that has been classified for years.”

“Well, yeah! Wasn’t that what Harold did to Abby and Alex?”

“That was different. They discovered their abilities before being recruited, and that, Mariana, is something you can’t cover up.”

“How is this case different with—”

But Mariana’s retort was cut short due to a holographic projection appearing next to them. It was from two people who were locked in the next room.

“Can we come out now?” one of them asked.

“No!” shouted John and Mariana together.

John the false doctor shut off the hologram and said, “Look, he has a family. He’s not like us. He’s not the heroic type, either. Not sure if he’d even have the nerve. I will try, of course. But I have to send him home first so that his father won’t worry. I’ll get him back here as soon as possible. It won’t be easy to persuade him.”

As soon as Mariana reluctantly agreed, John stepped back into the room where Ranford was.

“Well, it’s time to get you out of here,” said John. “Come on. I’ve got a cab waiting for you outside.”

He and Mariana watched Ranford leave the “hospital.” As soon as he left, the “hospital” transformed into an odd structure, which was floating on the ocean hundreds of miles away from the coast of the United States.

“We’re lucky the holographic projections all functioned properly,” muttered John. “Ranford didn’t seem to see any flaws in this hospital.”

He snapped his fingers twice, and the building slowly sank downward, submerging itself underneath the ocean. John sighed and walked back to the pretend hospital room where the other “patients” were groaning and ripping their IV drips and bandages off themselves.

“Why couldn’t Paul have taken my place instead?” grumbled the person covered with bandages, which he was tearing off one by one. “I hate these stupid things.”

John sighed. “Whatever. Good job acting, guys.”

“I made the interior of the ship resemble a taxi and installed devices that will prevent him from feeling the rocking of the waves,” informed Mariana as she and John walked down the hallway to free the two captives. “Oh, I also installed holographic projections on the windows to simulate a car trip, and I disguised BOB the friendly android as the driver,” she said when they stopped in front of a room.

“Excellent,” said John. Then he swiped a card through a slot and the door popped open. Immediately, the two prisoners, Alexander Screech and Abigail Finns (a.k.a. Shark Man and Impulse) came out.

“What took you so long?” questioned Alex. “Next time, I’ll slice you in half!”

“Well then, I’ll fry you with my lightning bolts,” retorted John as he pointed his hand at Alex on the way back up the hallway. Bolts of electricity flashed threateningly between his fingers.

“Still, we were in there for hours!” said Abby.

“Hours? You were only in there for twenty minutes,” corrected John.

“I’ve told you before, you don’t make good impressions on people,” snapped Mariana at Alex. “Abby was just there to make sure you didn’t break out.”

“What?” protested Alex. “Dude, no, I—”

“Don’t waste your breath,” said Abby. “We all know you probably would have blown our cover.”

“All right, change of subject,” muttered Alex, knowing when he was defeated. He turned to John. “You seriously think that guy’s going to believe the lame excuses you told him?”

“What do you mean?” said John.

“Are you kidding me? Falling into a waterfall and ending up in some jimmyweed bushes? All the wounds on his stomach and back have healed. There’s not a single scratch on his body. I’ve seen people who have tripped over the curb suffering worse fates.”

“Well, I had no other choice,” said John. “If we kept him here too long, his family would start looking for him.”

Meanwhile, Ranford was sitting on the ship that was disguised as a taxi, wondering what on earth had just happened. Everything in his recent past was so unbelievable. Again, he wondered how he could have fallen into a waterfall and not have suffered any major injuries. And the memories of the giant lion, the hovercraft, and the robots…were they real? Or were they just hallucinations? How come he had never heard of Markus Memorial Hospital before? He was usually familiar with the things around Philadelphia.

He looked out the window and found himself on a road he had never seen before. He searched for a road sign and found one. It said, “Baker Street.” He wondered if it was a new street. Nothing fit together. He knew something was wrong. He just didn’t know what that was.

He found that thinking about these events made the trip a lot faster. He was soon at his house, answering several worried calls from his father.

Two days later, everything was back to normal. He had researched Markus Memorial Hospital on the internet, but to no avail. He was extremely suspicious. He had even gone as far as driving out of town and asking about the hospital. Of course, he didn’t tell anyone about what he had seen or experienced. No one would have believed him.

However, there was something else going on. In the past two days, Ranford had begun to notice something odd. When he peered at himself in the mirror after work, he felt that he looked taller. After measuring his height, he was shocked to find that he was two inches taller than before. It was as if he had hit a second growth spurt, but this time, it was more extreme. Ranford now stood at a height of six feet five inches. He was definitely tall. Apart from that, he had somehow developed more prominent muscles and abs.

Slowly, more changes appeared.

Ranford’s golden-brown hair began to change color slightly. It became a little more golden, although it was not a shocking difference. His hair grew down the back of his neck and became wild, not in a completely messy way but with its own style. His canines grew a little bit longer, and his voice deepened. All these changes were gradual, but over time, they became noticeable.

He tried to suppress his dark thoughts but was not always successful. Eventually, he accepted the theory that strange hormone changes were causing this. His mind hadn’t completely given up on finding an answer, but since everything he had tried so far was a dead end, he would put it aside for now.

A week later after work, Ranford was walking down a corridor to the parking lot when he collided with a lady carrying some books. Suddenly, he experienced a searing pain in his stomach. He clutched it, apologized, and helped to pick up the books.

After the lady left, he pulled up his shirt and gasped at what he saw. There was a scar. Four lines ran from the top to the bottom of his stomach. They were the exact kind that one would have if struck by a lion’s paw. That wasn’t the weirdest part. The scar was glowing gold.

This wasn’t here yesterday! he thought in shock. It’s proof that what I had seen earlier wasn’t a hallucination. But then, what was the doctor hiding?

He ran his fingers over the scar and felt a tingling sensation. Soon he felt like something was rising inside him and he was about to vomit. His stomach did a flip-flop, and he fell on the floor. His face turned red. Quickly, he guessed that he might be having a severe food allergy.

But the scar, he thought. This could very well have something to do with that.

Ranford wasn’t about to drive all the way to the hospital because of a simple stomachache and a weird scar. He shrugged it off, clutched his stomach, and strode swiftly to the parking lot. When he got there, it became apparent that he was in no condition to drive. The stomachache gave way to nausea and dizziness. Ranford decided to trudge down to the bus stop. He would call an ambulance later if it got any worse.

However, he could not find the right bus stop, and coupled with nausea, he took a wrong turn and got lost. Ranford accidentally reached the darker, less known, and more desolate part of the town.

He was in a deserted alleyway when he fell again. A very unpleasant feeling was creeping slowly up his throat, as if he was about to vomit; only it felt more peculiar. At this moment, a man with one hand in his pocket advanced toward Ranford from the opposite direction. Ranford barely noticed him.

The man saw that Ranford was not going to escape and that nobody else was going to wander into that road, so he stepped forward suddenly and twisted the hand in his pocket toward Ranford.

“Give me your wallet, or you’ll never see your family again,” he demanded in a deep voice. “I have a gun.”

Ranford wanted to run, but he was too weak. In pain, he nodded and reached for his wallet. Just when he was about to hand over the wallet, that unpleasant feeling burst out of his throat like fireworks. The pain eased immediately. Sonic waves rippled out of his throat, slammed into the mugger, and sent him flying toward a nearby building. The man ended up in a dumpster. Then the sonic waves stopped. Ranford was totally stunned by what he had done.

He leaned on a wall to catch his breath. After a while, he glanced up and found a note between the cracks of the brick wall. He yanked the note out and found that it was addressed to him. Ranford ripped it open and read it with some hesitation.

It said,

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Mr. Tremble,

Meet us at the gym at exactly eleven o'clock tonight if you want to know the truth. Destroy this letter immediately.

Your friends.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

He was feeling better now, so he retraced his steps to the parking lot and drove home. After getting home, Ranford spent exactly three hours pondering whether he should go to the gym. It was very tempting to know more about the doctor, the weird hospital, and his strange scar. But it was also very risky. What if the people were crime lords or something?

Maybe if I go, they could fix me, thought Ranford. There’s something wrong with me. I just don’t know what. All I know is that these people have something to do with it.

He hoped that he would fall asleep and wake up in the real world again, without the memories of the past few days. He wanted to get on with his normal life.

The indecisive man did drift asleep, but when he woke up, he still had memories of the past week. He got up, stretched, and realized it was 10:30 p.m. Ranford shot straight out of bed and reached for the doorknob. Then he hesitated, worrying about what conspiracy he would be involved in.

What if this is a trap? he wondered.

I need to know more, one part of his mind urged.

No, it’s too dangerous! argued the other part furiously.

Well, if they are crime lords, they could just break into my house and throw me into a sack. I would be defenseless. If they controlled those robots back in the clearing, there’s no way I can escape them. Why not just face it? Plus, who knows what they’re going to do anyway.

This part of his brain made a very good point. However, Ranford did not want to get kidnapped of any sort, so he considered his options for a moment, contemplating.

Then he came up with an idea. He ran upstairs and returned with a revolver that belonged to his dad. It was kind of old, and he wasn’t sure if it would be of any use in a fight against these people. But still he figured that if anything went wrong, he could fire it and make a quick escape.

So Ranford headed out the door for the deserted gym, but not before he shredded the letter and burned it in the fireplace. When he reached the front door of the gym, he realized that it was wide open.

That’s weird, he thought. The door was usually locked at this time.

He walked in and headed for the elevator. A note was taped next to the elevator buttons. “Level 3,” it said. Ranford walked into the elevator and pressed the button for Level 3. As his right hand drummed anxiously on the handle of the revolver, he noticed his fingers were shaking. Finally, the elevator bell dinged, and Ranford walked out.