The Asteroid Boys

Chapter Three

It was all a dream. Last night. This morning. Everything. The asteroid never struck Ft. Lauderdale, and Nick and his Nill relatives did not achieve superhuman powers. Thank god. Nick turns in his pleasant sleep, wanting the sun to sink back down. What an idea...

"Dude, you have to stop fainting all the time!" yells Jesse, slapping him awake.

Jesse looms over Nick. Using his growing strength, Nick pushes him out of sight. He rises slowly and glances around. Danny stares at the television, flipping through news channels. AJ chews on a cream cheese bagel on a cart of other breakfast . Lucas types a web address on his laptop in the far corner of the room. It was a normal picture, for the Nill family anyways. But something is wrong.

"Nothing," Danny says. He throws the remote on the bed. "There is nothing about it. Like the asteroid didn't exist!"

"Same here," Lucas sighs. "But I really don't care. Tommy is gone, and none of you don't seem to care." Lucas closes his laptop

"We're doing the best we can!" Jesse exclaims. "We don't have any more leads!"

AJ grabbed a glass of orange juice.

"Well now YOU'RE awake," Danny announces, turning on Nick. "Allow me to fill you in on what just happened before you pass out again. There's this asteroid, as you know from READING MY MIND. We woke up, Tommy's gone, I fell through a wall, Jesse can teleported, and AJ looks like this!"

Nick is forced to rotate his head to AJ, who literally shimmered in the afternoon light. His fair, pasty skin was replaced by clear, thick glass, fitting every divet in his body. "I can't help it sometimes!" he complains, setting down the orange juice, thus returning back to normal.

"We've searched, but there is not one thing that says an asteroid can give you super powers over night." Lucas speaks, his hand resting on the cart full of room service.

"DON'T!"

Too late. Every breakfast platter froze solid in a single "whoosh!" Lucas quickly crosses his arms and stalks away from the tray as if nothing happened.

"Let me get this straight," Nick finally says, now grasping the concept as though it hit him in the face. "Everyone gets their own talent just by touching this...asteroid."

"The point is, all of us didn't touch it. Only you did. It must've sent a wave that hit us all!" says Danny.

"And we have no way of controlling these powers," adds Nick.

"Not that I can think of. Can you?" Jesse says with an edge of sarcasm.

"And if something happens in public," Nick continues, "we'd all be in trouble, right?"

"Is that a rhetorical question?"

"Rest right now," orders Nick. "At ten o'clock, we're going out."

...........................................................................................................

"I can't believe you just did that!" Danny hisses.

Nick could not believe it either. On their way to the beach, known as the "crime scene," Nick's mother interfered.

"Where do you think you're going!?" She hollered. "You're not taking them out, and where is--"

Nick courageously interrupted her. "Let us go. Tommy is with us. Don't tell anyone."

As though Nick flipped a switch in his mother's brain, his mother stalked away in less of a second. The others may not have their powers under control, but he sure does.

The five relatives walk across the street to the beach. It was completely deserted like the first night. They decide to walk along the stretch so there can be no witnesses to watch this magnificent show of freaks.

"This is stupid," whispers Danny. "We should be looking for Tommy, not do this!"

"Don't be such a buzzkill," Jesse says. "This is going to be fun."

Jesse was the first to release his energy. Though he had no idea what he was doing, he improvised so well every move looked simple. He would jump and disappear, only to reappear in an instant yards away, After practicing teleporting for a good few minutes, Jesse's light-headedness increased and he plopped on the ground, thoroughly tired. His brothers and cousins laughed. "Let's see you do it, Danny!"

He tried to convince the others his power is not worth showing, they pushed him on. Danny exhaled, and broke off into a full sprint. and then he disappeared. But his invisibility was nothing like Jesse's. Jesse than became visible eventually, however Danny was actually unable to be seen. Finally, Danny was seen, climbing a pole from a parasail ship Tommy and Lucas attempted to do but failed. However, Danny could climb it as though he had done it a million times, and then, he catapulted off. Suddenly, Danny sank into the sand, though not feeling any impact.

"Cool powers for such a loser of a boy," Jesse teases.

"My turn!" AJ shouts.

AJ digs his knuckles in the sand below him, and he is suddenly coated in sand. AJ's still swell shape whirls around until all of the sand flies in every direction, and AJ is gone. And then grains of sand return to fill the shape of AJ. His skin returns to normal in a blink of an eye. "Let's see yours, Lucas!"

Lucas was silent during the other's exhibitions. Now it's his turn. "It's not that much," Lucas informs them. He walks to the ocean and dips only one hand in the saltwater. Immediately, the surface of the ocean is covered in a sheet of ice, The thin floor stretches to the buoye. The others applaud.

"How about you, Nick?" Lucas suggests.

The others agree. Overwhelmed with doing better than all, Nick tries to think of a way to outdo the rest of his family,

Jesse, Danny, Lucas, and AJ, who drove his encouragement, ceased abruptly. The four drop dead, staring blankly behind Nick. Ever so slowly, Nick turns around.

There are four of them. All wearing black suits and aiming plastic guns. A red lazer targets Nick's chest.

In the moonlight, Nick can see them pull the trigger in unison.

Darkness.