The hallway was silent. Too silent. I knew they were out there. My sixth sense had awakened me. I peered down the short hallway. Nothing.

I turned and crouched below the windowsill, pressed between the nightstand and the bed. I reached out with my mind and located them. I could hear their heartbeats. I knew, I knew when I looked out the window, they would be there, crouched and ready to attack.

I slowly raised my head so my eyes peered out the small, clear window. Yep, they were there. I gazed upon a large pack of giant Rottweiler-like monsters, complete with size, sharp claws, the ability to think like a human, and most of all, an unknown hatred for me.

The largest monster at the head of the pack stood up on its hind legs, bared its fangs, and pointed at my eyes peering out the window. Another monster lit a fuse on a small black box, and tossed it towards the cabin. The whole pack smiled.

My eyes trained on the box. My sixth sense analyzed it. A small timed explosive, equal to about a half-stick of dynamite. Typical Death Machine thinking. They obviously forgot who they were dealing with. I caught it in mid-air with my mind and rocketed it back towards the pack. The look in their eyes turned from hatred to fear, and they scattered.

Red light and a massive boom filled my sensitive ears. The earth shook. Death Machines flew this way and that. While they were stunned, I unleashed a punch that broke straight through the wall. Yeah, I punched through a wall. No biggie. As the remaining Death Machines regrouped, I launched myself through the wall and into battle.

The leading Death Machine, who had unfortunately survived the explosion, let out a quick, sharp growl, and all of the remaining monsters snapped out of their shocked state, turned towards me, and pounced.

I shot up into the air as two Death Machines collided head-to-head below me. They whimpered in pain as their skulls pounded together. I landed on their necks and heard two sharp cracks, and they went limp.

I tried to get away, as hordes of monsters piled on top of me, their claws raking at my skin. One claw sunk deep into my thigh, and I let out an anguished scream. My mind pulsated, and Death Machines scattered off of me as I let out one sharp mind-blast. The energy that left my body almost exhausted me. But if I lost consciousness, I was as good as dead.

I stumbled as I tried to regain my balance. My vision was clouded and my thigh screamed in agony. My sight cleared as I focused on the one monster I wanted and needed to kill most: their leader.

The leader felt my hard gaze upon him. He turned on his heels and ran. In my human state, as powerful as I was, I couldn’t catch a Death Machine. I tried to reach out with my mind and kill it, but my split second of analyzing had allowed it to escape the range of my mind powers. However, there’s always a way to accomplish things if you want them enough.

I sprinted after it, my feet turning to paws and my teeth turning to fangs. I pushed aside the throbbing pain in my leg and focused on the mission in front of me. A Death Machine may be able to outrun Erik the human, but they couldn’t outrun Erik the lion.

The night wind howled in my ears and whistled through my magnificent mane. Every one of my steps covered more ground as I gained speed. It was a glorious feeling.

I made up for my missing ground quickly. I caught the Death Machine in one mighty leap as it reached the foot of the highway that lead into Santa Fe. I unsheathed my claws and sunk them into its back, and it let out a squeal that only mutant dogs (or mutant dog like things) can make.

It quickly rolled over, flattening me with its massive body. You’d think that a regular Rottweiler or other attack dog would stand no chance against the king of the jungle, but we were evenly matched in size. When they stood on their hind legs and walked like a human, which I found especially disturbing, they stood eight to ten feet tall. Kinda creepy, right?

Too bad I couldn’t use my mind powers while in non-human form, because this would all be over. My brain was too busy keeping me in my lion form to concentrate on other matters. I really needed them now, because it had the advantage over me at the moment. It looked down from on top of me and slowly dragged a wickedly sharp claw across my fur-covered forehead. Pain erupted through my whole body. A warm line of blood trickled down my muscular neck and into my mane. It growled something unintelligible, although I clearly heard my name, and then it raised its claw for the final blow.

My mutated mind quickly assessed the situation. I had an idea, but I had to time it right. My sixth sense tracked its claw from a line down from its shoulder down towards my neck. Time seemed to slow down. It always does that when I rely on my sixth sense.

Now! My brain sent signals out to the rest of my body. I felt my body change while its claw was inches away from my neck. I slipped out of its grasp as I shrunk and shrunk. My antennae brushed its leg as I scurried around frantically. It howled in frustration as it clawed thin air where my big, furry face had just been. I’m sure you would be frustrated too, if you were trying to punch a lion when it suddenly turned into an ant.

I reached its back and morphed myself back into a human. It swung its head around wildly, obviously confused. I looked away and reached out with my mind as I delivered the death blow. It was over.

I breathed deeply, in and out, then turned back and looked at the small cabin where I had stayed without an attack for a few short weeks. Now there was just a big pile of rubble, evidence of the battle that I had won. I had not escaped unscathed, though. My leg throbbed and the gash on my forehead pounded, and various scratches all over my body gave me the feeling that I was on fire. I had survived, though. I had established early on that my survival was all that mattered. Death Machines, people, and places were expendable. I was not.

I head a buzzing noise in the distance off to my left. I turned and saw a helicopter rapidly approaching me from above the horizon. Sirens wailed in the city. I turned to my right and saw two police cars roaring towards me. An officer leaned out a window, and yelled, “Hey, you, kid! Stay there and don’t move!”

That was my cue to leave. I morphed into a falcon and took off.
X
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As you may have noticed, I’m not your average thirteen-year-old. I used to be, until it happened about a year ago. This is going to be hard to explain, so prepare yourself.

There’s this part in your brain that most of the time just sits there; a useless, dormant, lump. This is the part of your brain that enables you to do supernatural things, such as shapeshift, move things with your mind, et cetera. It also enhances your physical abilities, all five of your senses, and the way you think. I call this my “sixth sense.”

Like I said, this is usually just a small lump in your brain that scientists have always wondered about, pondering if it has any use other than to take up space. What I’m trying to say is, all humans know how to do these things, they just don’t know that they know and don’t know how to know how to do super-natural things. Get it? Good.

Now, when you’re about to die, all parts of your brain become active. Ever hear the saying, “My life flashed before my eyes?” That’s what happens to your brain, just on a much larger scale. So when your brain becomes active, so does that part that is usually dormant. The thing is, this is right before you’re about to die, and most (actually, virtually all) people die. This happens to everyone once in their lives, before they’re about to pass. But if you survive, that part of your brain stays active. I didn’t die. For me, it was being struck by lightning. I still have a huge scar that runs all the way across my chest.

The only thing, though, is that when you return back to your normal life, you don’t realize you’re different. I had always wondered why my parents freaked out when I played with my toy soldiers by moving them with my mind. Actually, I think it was the whole talking-poodle transformation that tipped them off. Then they signed me up to receive foster care, and I ran away. It’s funny how parents love you until you become a mutant freak.

I’ve only met one other person like me. His name was Kale. His name used to be Kyle, but he said he was starting a new life, so why not change his name? He was the one who persuaded me to change my name form Eric to Erik. He’s also the one who told me about how my brain works and the reason I became this way.

Anyways, Kale had it worse than me. He was shot in the stomach after a gang fight broke out while he was standing on a nearby corner. He was in the hospital for a few weeks. He made a lucky full recovery, then he went home. He was thought to be normal by his parents until he lifted weights with his father. He benched all of his father’s weights, over five hundred pounds, over and over for a half-hour. His father stood by gaping until Kale decided he’d had enough.

Unfortunately for Kale, his father was a biologist who specialized in the mutations of cells and of human DNA. From that point on, he was treated like an experiment, pushed to his limits and beyond with his physical and mental abilities.

He decided he wanted to run away, but before he ran away, he broke into his father’s laboratory and read all of the gathered data on how our mutated brains work. That’s how he knew all of the stuff he told me.

When I found him (or he found me) I was under my first attack from the Death Machines, just a few days after I left my family. I hardly knew what to do with my powers and I probably would have died if this bull hadn’t charged in there and destroyed the Smilers. And by bull, I mean Kale in animal form. And Smilers was Kale’s nickname for the Death Machines. He said that he’d rather dream about Smilers and Death Machines. Also, for some creepy reason they always smile right before they’re about to attack. Kind of like how a rattlesnake rattles. Except creepier.

After the battle, Kale took me under his wing, even though he was twenty and I was twelve. He helped me discover new abilities, like my immunity to fire and how I could turn invisible.

Kale died a few months back in a Smiler attack. A Smiler knocked him out, and I could’ve saved Kale but probably would’ve gotten myself killed, and I chose my survival. I kind of miss him, but I survived, and that’s all that matters.

Now, as I stood at the base of Santa Fe, I looked up into the starry sky and wondered what I should do. I decided I would stay in Santa Fe and blend in. Kale and I always resided in the empty deserts of the southwest. We had never actually tried staying in a city for a prolonged amount of time. Smilers wouldn’t attack us with innocent people around. Or would they?

Instead of sleeping in a park, where I was vulnerable not only to Smilers, but also thieves and killers, I decided to fly up to a rooftop and settle there for the night.

I morphed into a pigeon so I would blend in with the city birds and flew to the top of the tallest building in the city. Even though the summer days get extremely hot in New Mexico, the nights get really, really cold. I huddled into a ball and tried to conserve body heat. It was going to be a long night.

As I lay on the cold, hard concrete, a few questions kept popping into my mind that had bothering me for a long time. I tried to ask Kale these questions, but he was as clueless as me. Why, where, when, and how were the Death Machines created. And more, why did they want to kill me? These questions buzzed around my mind as I fell into a cold, fitful, and dark sleep.
X
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I stretched my sore muscles as I yawned. As you can imagine, concrete is no Tempur-Pedic. I blinked open my eyes and daylight flooded into my pupils, blinding me. As I became accustomed to the light, I realized it. They were all around me.

A few started to move towards me, but one of the Death Machines lifted a paw. It looked like the leader I had killed had a replacement.

The new leader spoke in a low, monotone growl, “The Grey Skull has a warrant for your arrest, dead or alive. Either submit yourself to us, and you will be unharmed and transferred to the Grey Skull’s compound, or fight back, in which you face imminent death and you will be dissected at the laboratory. This would not be an honorable death, I assure you.” It bared its fangs, and the other Death Machines smiled.

In the midst of the situation, questions flooded into my mind. The Grey Skull? Who were they? Dissect me? Is this what they did to Kale? Only then did I realize I had never seen Kale’s body after he died. I had always assumed he was found by some kind soul and buried. The Smilers must have taken his body back to The Grey Skull, whoever they were. The one thing I knew for sure, though, is that I was never going to hand myself over to these beasts.

I stared back at the group of smiling Smilers and formulated a plan in my head. I reached out with my mind and killed the leader, then morphed into an eagle and shot into the sky, my wings pumping furiously as my body was lifted higher and higher into the sky with each powerful stroke.

I know you have a question: why did I not just kill the whole pack with my mind? Just imagine this: snapping a bear’s neck with your bare hands. Now imagine all of that energy being used by all of your muscles and transferring all of that energy into just your mind. It would completely and utterly exhaust me if I did something with my mind I couldn’t do with my hands. Just killing one Smiler makes me pretty tired. The huge mind-blast I did back at the cabin in the desert almost killed me.

I looked down upon the buzzing pack of Smilers on the rooftop below. I was so high I could look down upon the whole city. I could just make out the details of them slinging sticks over their shoulders and getting into formation…

A chorus of loud bangs ripped through the morning air. My left wing jerked back in two places, and pain exploded in my wing. I let out a screech of pain and frustration as I began losing altitude and plummeting towards the ground. The Smilers had…guns? My life had just got a whole lot more miserable.

I faced certain death. I only had a couple of seconds before I would explode on the ground below. My body was in so much pain I could hardly think straight. My mind raced, but I seemed to have lost all of my common sense and all of my knowledge about how my powers worked. The best thing I could come up with is a cat, and I morphed into one. My tail balanced my body as I stuck my paws out and prepared for impact.
The instant I landed, pain exploded in my legs and radiated throughout my whole body. My bullet wound screamed with the most intense pain I had ever felt in my life. Red and yellow blobs filled my vision. The pain was too much…I couldn’t take it anymore. My body morphed back into human form as I submitted myself to the dark reaches of death. The world turned black. The last thing I heard was a low growl.
X
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X
I woke up secured to a table by metal straps in a room that smelled like rubbing alcohol. I couldn’t believe it. I was alive. Any normal person (or cat) would have been crushed by the speed of their body hitting the ground. But I had done it. I had survived.
It looked like I was in a laboratory. To my left was several monitors, most of which I couldn’t read, but I did recognize one showing my heartbeat. Scientists buzzed around me, taking notes on my behavior and on what the monitors displayed. IVs were stuck in my arms, legs, and neck. My body felt good, despite the predicament I had worked myself into. My legs, which should have been snapped (along with every other bone in my body) felt good. My left arm also felt very good, except for a dull throb near where the two bullets had entered. My gash on my leg and the cut on my forehead from the battle near the cabin in the desert felt great. However, my mind felt clouded, as if I had forgotten something.
Suddenly, all of the scientists stopped whatever they were doing and the shuffled out the door. The door closed, and I was left alone for what I judged to be about a half hour.
As I lay on my table silently, the door opened, and a man in a three-piece suit walked in. The look in his eyes was shady, but also wild as if he were a madman. He sat down in a metal chair in front of my table.

He cleared his throat and spoke in a high, clear voice, “You’re an extraordinary being, Erik. You’re just designed differently. I’ve been watching you in your battles with my R2s.You’ve come a long way,” he said. “But how you survived that fall, I have no idea. Like I said, you’re designed differently.” He cleared his throat again and continued. “Welcome to The Grey Skull. The Grey Skull’s purpose is to research mutations and genetic engineering to help rid the world of regular people with no purpose and replace them with new, enhanced versions of human beings. This will make the world a better place, with more interesting lifestyles and easier jobs. I, as the head of The Grey Skull, assure you that if you do not resist my scientists and their experiments, you will not be harmed and you will be treated as a friend. If you do resist, however, you may be treated in more,” he paused “unfriendly ways.” He grinned. “I’m sure you wouldn’t like that, little Erik.

As I comprehended what he said, my mind began to spin. There was no mistaking it. He had the same blue eyes, jet black hair, and the high, harmonious tone to his voice. This was Kale’s father.

“You,” I spat. I couldn’t even begin to fathom the crimes this man had committed. He treated his son like a lab rat. He had been responsible for the Death Machines (I assumed), which had killed his own son. And, worst of all, he had me strapped to a table like I was the psychotic one. This was the most evil, disgusting man on the planet. “You,” I gasped again “are a murderer. You killed your own son. Kale loved you. But you killed him,” I said with the most hatred I could muster. “You deserve to die,” I growled.

He raised an eyebrow nonchalantly, as if he had expected me to say something of the sort. “The R2s had reported to me of my son traveling with a young boy,” he said calmly “but I never expected it to be you.” He walked over to a sink and pulled open a drawer and grabbed a plastic cup. He filled it up, took a sip, sat down, and continued. “Kyle was not essential. There are hundreds like him. One missing will not affect the results of our experiments,” he said with a sly grin. “I’m sure two missing wouldn’t hurt anything either. Think about that,” he said as he stood up and walked out the door.
X
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X

I had just come in contact with the most evil person on the planet. And I hated him. And I wanted to do something about it.

I reached into my mind to find the energy to release my bonds. Then I realized it: that’s what was clouded in my mind. They must have give me drugs to make me forget how to use my powers.

I didn’t think it would be permanent, especially if they planned to do experiments on me. I had to be patient. And patience, let me tell you, is not one of my strong suits.
X
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X

I awoke from my forced, tired sleep as the door opened. A short, pretty middle-aged woman walked in, carrying a backpack. Unlike Kale’s father, the look in her eyes was not mad or evil, or blank like the scientists’. Her eyes looked warm and kind. I could tell she was not one of them. She set the backpack down on a nearby table and sat down in the same chair Kale’s father had sat in.

I started to speak, but she put a finger to her lips. Then she started to talk, “My name is Dr. Connors. We don’t have much time. Dr. K (I assumed this was Kale’s father) has scheduled the first experiment on you in a half-hour.

“I have worked with Dr. K since before he formed The Grey Skull. We were friends all through college, even though I studied computers and he studied science. We had gone almost twenty-five years with no contact in the years after we graduated, unexpectedly, he called me and asked him to come to his house and help him with his experiment.

“I took off a day from my job at the University of Phoenix in Denver to come assess his problem. When I arrived at his house, instead of greeting me warmly, had held me at gunpoint and forced me to work for him. I met his demands to save my life, but after he drove me up to his lab and I witnessed the horrors he was bringing upon his son, I regretted it. I told my family I had been promoted to a better place, and quit my job at the university and began to encode and hack computers for him.
“Eventually, after a few years, Dr. K. had learned to trust me and gave me access to things he shouldn’t have, like the ability to see you,” she smiled, the first break in her story. “Also, The Grey Skull has a very…extensive weapon vault.” She opened her backpack and pulled out two sleek, silenced submachine guns and a small black box.
I pointed at the box, a little confused. She smiled warmly and explained, “This is technology discovered by The Grey Skull. It’s a nonnuclear remote-controlled bomb, but it has the power of ten-thousand sticks of dynamite.” As I saw where she was going with this, I liked this lady. I smiled.
I became comfortable and began to talk. “I have a few questions. Where are we?” I asked.

“In a hollowed-out mountain in the Rocky Mountains.”

“Mmm. How did Dr. K get the money to build this place?”


“Dr. K is the son of James Kalinger, an oil-tycoon multibillionaire. As the only child, he received all of the inheritance.” I thought about this for a moment. Kale must have been living the good life, before he left.


“I have one more question,” I stated. “What’s with the Death Machines?” She raised an eyebrow. I explained, “The giant Rottweiler humanoid things.”


She laughed. “Those are the R2’s, or you can call them by their full name, Rottweiler 2.0.


“Those were one of Dr. K’s first experiments. He wanted to create the ultimate assassin using animal DNA The R2’s were the result. He liked them so much he decided to mass produce them after the specific experiment was over. Now he uses them to do his dirty work.”


When she was done talking, she opened a drawer on the side of the table and pulled out a remote. She found a specific button on it and pressed it. My restraints were released. I flexed my incredibly sore muscles. “Thanks.”


Afterwards, she pulled a syringe filled with blue liquid out from a side pocket on her backpack and jabbed it into my arm. A small pinch shot up my arm. Almost immediately, my mind was cleared. I focused in on a clipboard across the room and it levitated, then rocketed towards a wall and shattered into splinters. I laughed. It felt good to be Erik again.


Dr. Connors repositioned her body and looked me straight in the eye. She said in a low, serious voice, “I want to undermine Dr. Kalinger. I’m going to need some help. What do you say?”


I smiled and picked up one of the submachine guns. “Let’s do this.”
X
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X

My cell was at the base of the mountain, so we just left the bomb in my cell. The tricky part, however, was going to be escaping unnoticed. Dr. Connors said to me before we left, “The one and only exit is on the thirty-sixth floor. We need to get there in order to escape.” We both decided that she should take both of the guns and fire them one-handed, since I had no trouble defending myself, and Dr. Connors said that she had had experience with guns at The Grey Skull, where as I had hardly any.

We escaped silently down the hallway. The elevator was just down the short corridor. Dr. Connors scanned her ID card while I held the guns. We got in, and Dr. Connors selected the thirty-sixth floor, and we were on our way.

The elevator silently started to move upwards towards our destination. We hoped that there would be no stops at different floors on the way up. The numbers in the screen on the top left-hand corner climbed. Ten, twenty, thirty, and finally, thirty-six.

I talked to her as the door slid open, “Wow, this was ea—“ I was stopped mid-sentence as I walked out of the elevator. I had almost walked into a pistol. Held by Dr. Kalinger. Surrounded by Death Machines. With guns.
X
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X

“Faith Connors,” he said in his voice that sounded so much like Kale’s it was scary. “You covered this up well. Except you forgot that there are cameras in the elevators.” Dr. Connors muttered something under her breath. “And Erik,” he continued “I told you we would treat you like a friend, and this is what you do to me,” he spat. “What a shame.”

I wanted to strangle him. I wanted to rip the life out of him. I tried to reach out with my mind, but I seemed to hit an invisible wall. I tried again, with no success.

“Confused, Erik?” he asked mockingly. “We recorded the frequency your brain emits when you think. So, I have every worker here, including my servants,” he motioned to the Smilers “a serum that blocks your frequency.”

I growled. This move was smart. I had to try to find a way to take the advantage back.

Dr. Kalinger spoke again, “After much deliberation, I have decided that we could still use Erik. But Faith,” He pointed at Dr. Connors and smiled “your work here is done.” He pointed the pistol at her and fired.

I closed my eyes, than slowly reopened them. Instead of the bullet slamming into her, and her falling backwards, nothing happened. The dull echo of the pistol reverberated throughout the lobby. But as I looked again, I realized the bullet was suspended in midair, floating. Then it dropped to the ground.

“You may have blocked Erik’s frequency,” Dr. Connors said “but you haven’t blocked mine.” Dr. Kalinger was too stunned to move, speak, or run. Faith furrowed her brow and concentrated, and then Dr. K’s head was bent at a strange angle, and he fell in a heap onto the floor. It was over.

At least, it was over until all of the R2s smiled and then pounced from all fours. They never reached their target. Half was dragged down one hallway, half down another. The path to the door was clear.

I stared at Faith in amazement as she stared straight forward. Not only was she like me, but she stopped a bullet and dragged away hundreds of monstrous beasts with her mind! I could only dream of doing these things!

“How did you…?” I asked in amazement.

She stopped me. “They’ll have reinforcements coming soon. Let’s get out of here.”

I shrugged. “Fair enough.”

We opened the doors and soared into the sky as mighty birds of prey. We landed on the side of a nearby mountain. She pulled out the remote from her pocket and said, “Would you like to do the honors?”

I smiled but shook my head. “It’s all yours.”

She breathed in and out, then pressed the button and the mountain exploded into a ball of flame. If you’ve never seen a mountain on fire, I suggest you see one sometime. It’s an awesome sight.

We sat and watched the mountain burn. I broke the silence, “Uh…Faith? How did you do that?”

She laughed. “Erik, given time and practice, let’s just say you’re a lot stronger than you think you are.”

We sat together in peace as the sun set over the Rocky Mountains. I smiled. Everything was perfect, for the first time since I mutated. Faith was safe. The world was safe. And, most important, I was safe.

But this was just one battle won. And there are more dangerous battles to fight.
THE END