Nick ran as fast as he could up the stairs he had just came down. He looked back and saw that Maya had gotten out of the room but there were people behind her and gaining on her. He was running significantly faster than all of them so he figured he would help Maya when she got out of the stairway. When he got to the top of the stairs and there were three big and buff men who looked like they worked out a lot but with a naturally thick build and wore dark sunglasses. Nick tried to run in between the men but they quickly close the gap.

Nick realized he could not get out of this without force, so he started winding up for a punch and punching the man square in the face breaking his glasses in the process. The man staggered and it was enough to allow Nick to get through the crack he had put in between the men and hide behind a dumpster further into the alley way. He watched as Maya emerged from the solid wall and he saw the men grab her, and put her in a sack. He decided it was now or never so he emerged from behind the dumpster and charged at the men, the men heard his feet hit the ground hard as he ran towards them.

“Hey its that kid again, kill him we can’t have him in our lab again and share our secrets.” The man with the broken glasses said as Nick came charging at him.

Nick jumped as high as he could and kneed the man with broken glasses in the face, which knocked him out. In the same jump he whirled around and kicked another man. The man fell to the ground holding his rib where Nick had just kicked him. When Nick landed he turned and punched the third man in the abdomen utilizing his momentum to strengthen his punch he was able to make the man gag and he started breathing heavily as if the wind was knocked out of him. Nick went over to the bag he had just seen the men stuff Maya in, when he opened it he saw Maya bracing herself and she soon after looked and smiled up at him,

“Are we safe.” Maya said sounding unsure.

“Yeah, Somehow I had enough strength to knock them down, but we better get going.” Nick said looking at the men lying on the ground unsure when they would get up.

“Ok.” Maya said.

Maya and Nick were running in a full sprint but having to stop and look behind them for anyone following. Once they were at Maya’s house she turned and said good bye, he did likewise and started running but not as fast as he had when they were running before. Before long he was able to make it home, he went up to the house and tried the door, but it was locked. He went to the mailbox and lifted it up to get the key to the house. He looked there for a while surprised to see there was nothing there. He went up to the house and knocked thinking someone else in the family used it and did not put it back yet, but no answer came. He rang the doorbell multiple times and still no answer. He looked out at the street and saw his mom driving up into the driveway.

He started towards the car, she stopped and rolled down the window,

“Are you lost honey.” She asked in a sweet tone.

“Mom are you feeling ok.” Nick said.

“What are you talking about I’m not your mom.” She said confused.

“Mom what’s wrong, you’re acting weird.” Nick said worried.

“Do you need me to call the hospital.” Nick’s mom said.

“No.” Nick said giving up on the topic.

He figured he could spend some more time with Maya till all this blew over.

“Bye.” Nick said.

Nick’s mom rolled up the window and drove into the garage. He started walking back to Maya’s house when he realized that there were kids outside on the property of the Dunkin’s, and he got closer to ask them why they were playing on someones elses yard. As he got closer he saw that they were the Dunkins. He wondered why they were outside, because they always were inside on technology. They also hated sports and they were playing football. Nick chose to ignore it not wanting to get into an awkward conversation like he did with his mom. He started running to Maya’s house not wanting to see other weird things, when he got there Maya was sitting on the porch reading a book.

“Maya.” Nick said while panting from the running

Maya looked at him weirdly wondering why he was there and why he was panting.

“Did you see the men again.” Maya asked cautiously looking around for the men in the suits.

“No,” taking a deep breath to settle down his panting “My mom doesn’t know me... and the Dunkins are playing football... outside. I think something... is going on here.” he said not panting as much any more.

“Yeah I was noticing weird things too, My mom and dad are usually here by now, so is my brother.” Maya said wondering.

“Why do you think all this is happening, this is weird.” Nick said looking at the Dunkins playing down the street.”

“I don’t know.” Maya said looking down the street the other way at the oncoming camaro.

They watched the car pass them, heading down the street fast towards the Dunkins, they watched as one of the brothers runs out in front of the car to retrieve the football his brother had just thrown. They saw immediately what was going to happen and started running to his protection. They ran at full speed to try and get the driver's attention but they could not and he was picking up pace moving rapidly toward the Dunkin boy. They tried to run faster but they could not and watched as the Dunkin boy was hit by the camaro dead in the center of the car, the car bumped up as if going off of a speed bump and didn’t stop, in fact it sped up. Nick was the first to the boy on the ground then Maya came soon later.

“Are you ok.” Nick said worried, No answer came. They looked for injuries, they turned the boy over and say he had a giant opening in his side but no blood was coming out and inside there were wires and pipes. His brother sat on the edge of the street yelling at him to come back as if he had no idea that it happened.

“What’s going on here.” Nick said confused.

“I don’t know.” Maya said.

They stood up and looked around, they saw what looked like a normal neighborhood.

“We should try and get to that lab again and figure out what’s going on.” Nick said with urgentness in his voice.

They ran as fast as they could back to school, they did not see much but when they got within a mile of the school people started appearing and giving them looks, then after they past the people, the people would follow Nick and Maya as if they had an idea of where they were going and what they were going to do there and they didn’t like it. They made it in sight of the school when the people started to enclose on them.

“You should not be here.” one man said.

“Then why are you here.” Nick said.

“To stop you from getting in trouble.” the man said. “Now we can all leave if you just turn around and go live your life, or we can get messy and force you back to your normal living.” He finished

“How about the third option, we just go to our school and then live out our lives.” Maya said

“Force it is then.” He said. “CHARGE!”

All the people started to charge at them Nick, being brave yelled,

“GET BEHIND ME MAYA!”

Maya ran behind Nick while Nick started charging at the people the people winded up and simultaneously punched Nick in the gut. Nick was sent fifty feet away from the battle They all started running at Maya starting to wind up of the punch. One of them was fast enough and beat the others to it and got the full punch in, Maya fell to the ground feeling immense pain. “That’s it.” Nick said getting up and wiping himself of. “YOU’RE GOING TO GET IT NOW!” Nick said with anger and determination rising in his voice. He ran at the people who were ganging up on Maya.

“YOU CAN MESS WITH ME BUT NEVER MESS WITH THE PEOPLE I LOVE!” NICK yelled at the top of his lungs. Maya looked at him passionately as he ran at full speed towards the people. She wondered, if he really loved her, or they insulted his family some how. Nick was now running at full speed and he could feel his body filling with power, power he had never felt. His hands and feet started tingling, he realized he was running exceptionally faster than he had just been running. His hands and feet stopped tingling he was running almost five times the speed he had originally been running. Maya gasped at something pointing to his feet and hands, but he did not have time to look because he was approaching fast to the enemy. He winded up and punched with all his might.

“I WILL PROTECT THOSE WHO I CARE FOR!” Nick yelled.

His fist made contact and all of the people in front of him went flying into the air and past the school to the point where Nick and Maya could not see them.

Nick looked down at his feet and hands on his feet were golden boots with a red trim and black vines climbing up the sides; On his hands were gauntlets, also golden, red trim and black vines.

“What are these?” Nick said

“I don’t know but maybe we can figure it out if we get to the lab.” Maya said.

“Yeah, maybe.” Nick said only half listening while admiring the looks of the gauntlets.