It All Started Out Normal
    "Our top story this morning is that the International League of Super-Transbeings has been called in to deal with the rouge hurricane," said the holographic female TV anchor. "This is the third such rouge hurricane this month. The leader of the ILOST Delta Team, Ace Journeyman, stated that they are looking into the cause of this strange phenomenon." The reporter paused as the camera angle changed to a two-shot.
    "Whew," said the male anchor, "that looks like a tough one. Glad I'm a reporter and not a superhero. But at least we have some good news today."
    "That's right, Jason," said the female. "This Friday is the five year anniversary of the Dark Matter Event. I've been looking forward to this."
    "So have I," said Jason. "Five years ago this Friday, the Earth was invaded by the Xacians [Zac-z-ans]. They plotted to mine all the Dark Matter in the universe. Now I'm no cosmic scientist, but according to Dr. Wilber Wells, Dark Matter is what keeps our universe together. The more the Xacians mined, the more unstable our universe became. Luckily we had Dogboy, right Janet?"
    "Yes, Dogboy, or as we now know him—Joe Rover. He sacrificed his powers and almost his life in stopping the crisis. Unfortunately, Mr. Rover was unavailable for an interview..."
    My phone began to ring. I gave the voice command for the Omni-Cuff to pause the holographic video and answer the phone.
    "How're you dealing?" came the sweet sound of Sally's voice. I grunted a "fine." "I know how hard this time of year is...especially with it being the fifth anniversary." She paused for a moment. "Any flashbacks?"
    Even though I'd lost my powers five years ago, I still wasn't use to how...human my voice sounded. "No," I lied. It was the same every year, the closer it got to the anniversary the more flashbacks I would have. It was as if my subconscious was trying to tell me something, but everyone just said it was part of the healing process.
I heard Sally sigh. "Joel Tobias Rover, I know when you're lying to me. We are dating, you know."
    "I've got to go, Sally. I don't want to be late for class."
    I took one last look in the mirror and headed out.

    (I know I'm no artist, but the rules of time travel state that if I show you the real me or anything "unfiltered" from the future, it'll cause a paradox...and I'd rather not destroy the universe. So get over it.)
***
    I could just plug into the virtual net and take my college classes that way, but it was time for my required offline time. Since just about everything can be done online now, we are required by law to take a certain amount of time offline in order to keep fit and healthy. This law came to pass because of our alien friends the Grays.
    The Grays once looked human but after spending all their time online, they'd became the stereotypical alien. They became very slender and short because they didn't exercise and all their food was delivered through needles in their VR Pods. Their skin became gray because they didn't get any sunlight. Their fingers had become long and slender so that they could use their touchscreens without "fat fingers." Their heads grew because of all the knowledge; their eyes became huge so that they could see their screens better, and their mouths, ears, and noses became smaller because they talked online and their oxygen was feed into them by their pods.
    The Grays have been visiting Earth for a long time. They've been abducting people to learn more about us so that they could be prepared for when they finally revealed themselves; they didn't want any misunderstandings (and they wanted to make sure we were friendly). Now, they weren't being mean or evil by abducting people, they just didn't have any social skills since all their interactions were online.
    And they aren't the only aliens. In fact...
    "Hey, what's up, Joe?" said a guy with purple skin, four arms, and antenna. He gave me a high-five.
    "Not much Blerg," I said. "On my way to class."
    He said I should message him later for a meet up in the virtual world. I gave him a nod then passed some firefighters trying to get an alien pet cat out of a tree. The cat's sonic screech ended up knocking the firefighters and ladder over sending them all crashing to the ground. The cat laughed a hissing-meow and jumped down landing on a firefighter. It laughed again and took off.
    "Man, I hate Flexian cats," the firefighter said.
    As I waited at the bus stop for my hover bus, I overheard a couple teenagers.
    "I hear they've got an earthquake scheduled for ten today in Paris," one said. "Remember when we were kids and we'd dare each other to see who could stay in the epicenter the longest?"
    Even though we'd developed the technology to end hunger, disease, and natural disasters, we still schedule them in thanks to a warning from the Blobaton [Blob-ah-ton] race. The Blobatonians [Blob-ah-tone-knee-ons] had been human too, but once they eliminated all disease, stress, and other strife from life, they'd evolved into blobs. No resistance/stress, no muscle. No pain, no gain. And all those other clichés.
    "Those were the days," the other said with a longing sigh.
    "How about we play hooky and hop the next warp portal to Paris? I bet you can't last two minutes."
    "That's childish...I bet you five credits that a piece falls off the Eiffel Tower."
    "Are you crazy? They reinforce landmarks, stupid. But it's a bet anyway."
    The bus pulled up; its ion engine making a slight whirling noise. The driver grunted as I placed my hand on the scanner. The signal traveled through my arm and into the Omni-Cuff placed next to my ear. It got the information it needed for the transaction and travelled back to the scanner. A holographic green checkmark appeared. The driver grunted again. "Stay behind the yellow energy shield."

Megaton University...
    Since classes were online, the university was about the size of a medium sized house. It probably had two classrooms and an office.
    Some of my classmates were talking about the upcoming Awesome Comics superhero movie. It was the story of the Dark Matter War. The "characters" would be played by actors, of course, but the actors would be transbeings. No special effects required. All the fire, flight, and fighting would be real. It'd have some of the biggest names in acting. Tickets were selling fast.
    Normally class would be quick. The lesson would be downloaded straight into your brain via the Omni-Cuff. Once you needed the information, the Cuff would simulate the area of the brain and you'd remember. But since we were in offline time, we had to do the class the old fashioned way: reading, writing, taking notes, and listening to lectures.
The door opened and our instructor, a fairy transbeing, entered. She was a little shorter than most people with pointed ears and wings. She, or her ancestors had just been another failed experiment done by the Xacians.
    "Open your textbooks to chapter 3," she said and class began.
***

    After class I headed to the headquarters of the Paranormal and Weirdness Specialists, or PAWS. The building was designed to be distorted to baffle any intruder.
    After making my way through the security checks and various tricks and traps, I found Brain's lab.
Brain helped me to navigate the world of superheroes, back when I was a superhero. He provided me with gadgets and trained me in strategy. Once PAWS learned that he was the brain behind Dogboy's technology, he was hired on the spot.     In just five years, Brain had advanced PAWS and the world at large in ways we didn't think possible. He perfected the 3D fabricators, invented the magnetic-ion drives, and created the Omni-Cuffs, and much more.
Brain was at the holographic whiteboard muttering to himself. On the screen was some kind of formula that probably not even a room full of geniuses could figure out.
    "Take a seat, Joe," he said without turning.
    "How did you know it was me?"
    "It is Monday at 3:15. You always visit me at 3:15 on Mondays. Also, the squeak of your shoes could only be made by your size. You are also the only person who waits at the door for a moment before completely entering. And finally, security told me." I sighed as I sat down. "Let me guess, you are thinking about the upcoming anniversary."
    "How?..."
    "You always get a little down at this time of year. It does not take a genius to figure that out."
    I rubbed my face. "I don't know. I guess I just find it...annoying that they are having a parade and a movie about the Dark Matter War."
    "Event," said Brain. "No one likes to call it a war."
    "Whatever," I huffed. I looked at my hands. "It feels like they are making light of it."
    "Joe...they need to. All of us need to. It is how we heal. People need to celebrate, tell stories, and make fun of what happened or we would go insane. But I have a suspicion that is not the entire reason you are feeling a sense of depression."
    I exhaled some air sounding slightly like a horse. "I think part of me misses it. Being Dogboy, I mean. The adventure, the mystery, the feeling of purpose. Not the 3 am training sessions, those I can live without."
    "Understandable." Brain turned to the whiteboard. "I miss it too. Why do you think I agreed to my current occupation?" He turned back. "But is that the only reason? There is not...something else." He gave me that knowing looking of his: a raised eyebrow and a smirk.
    "Sally called you, didn't she?"
    He seemed a little agitated. "Of course she did. She is your girlfriend. We are all worried about you. Every year, like clockwork, you start having flashbacks of that day." I looked at my feet. "It is nothing to be ashamed of. You were 16 at the time. Anyone would be terrified. And though technically you are alive, a large part of you died that day." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Joe, that is what they are: flashbacks. They are not a vision of something to come."
    I suddenly stood. "What?! Where did you hear that?!"
    "Danny told us." I was steamed. "He is worried just like the rest of us. You will never heal if you do not accept the fact that your gifts are gone. If you keep holding on to some notion that they are returning, you will never overcome this."
    "I don't believe this! I told Danny that in confidence for this very reason. I knew you'd try to analyze it. How do you know that they won't come back?!"
    "Because I tested you. You are 100 percent human. There is no trace of Sirian DNA in you."
    "When did you do that?!"
    "When you were still fighting for your life. I had to. You were dying. I needed to find out what was wrong."
    I waved him off. "I'm outta here. I need...space." I stormed over to the door. "Later," I said, softly. I then slammed the door.
    Dust fell from the ceiling and on to Brain. Some cracks had also formed around the door. "Hmm?" said Brain glancing at the ceiling.

It Gets Weird

    My mag-cycle whirled under me. The magnetic energy kept the vehicle hovering while the ion engine propelled it. The ion engine allowed it to reach incredible speeds, but I kept it somewhat slow.
    The soft whoom, whoom, whoom of the engine made my thoughts drift.
2022...
    "This is madness!" I shouted at the leader of the Xacian army, Joey. Joey was actually a clone of me but implanted with the conscious of the Xacian leader who'd been killed. "Harvesting the Dark Matter is disrupting the fabric of the universe."
    Joey, aka Jackal, stood before the crack in space with his hands out stretched. "Nonsense! The Xacian Empire will have the Dark Matter. We will once again rule the galaxy." He turned to look at me. It was kind of like looking in a distorted mirror. His face looked like mine but he had black hair and yellow eyes instead of my blonde hair and blue eyes. He was also more muscular and a few inches taller. "Those weak alien races thought they could hide here, but they will see no one escapes the Xacians."
    The world around us sounded like paper tearing. The crack was getting bigger. Pieces of ground were beginning to float into the air.
    "Dark Matter is the glue that keeps the universe together," I said. "Without it the cosmos is coming apart. Look around you."
    "No! You look around! This is all your doing!"
    I looked around. I saw the other members of the Delta Team of the International League of Super-Transbeings. Sportsgirl tried to fight off a Xacian warbot with her plasma baseball bat, but it was too much for her. She had been fighting for a while now and was exhausted; she finally fell to the ground, unconscious.
    Turbo, the Xacian experiment to fuse parts from different beings to create the ultimate weapon, fell to his knees as his power source began to fail. The witch, Daphne, and the gremlin, CyberCypher, had also fallen. CyberCypher had managed to take down a warship before he was beaten.
    La-Zar, the alien marksmen/bounty hunter, was still standing. He (at least we think it's a he—it's hard to tell with that mask on) blasted a couple soldiers with his duel ion pistols and then slashed a warbot with his plasma swords. He planted a fusion grenade on a downed warbot and kicked it back at a group of soldiers. The explosion caused the crowd to go flying but a warbot shot him in the back and he was out too.
    Glop, the swamp monster, had sprayed the ground with some acid. When the tanks ran over the spot, they fell in. Glop then got hit by some kind of heat ray and fell to the ground. He tried to crawl to some water to heal, but he passed out before getting there.
    Ace Journeyman had been put in some kind of stasis field that prevented him from falling asleep thus making it so he couldn't travel to the Astral Plane and help us. Agent Zee, a zombie (not a mindless one), had been knocked apart and was trying to get his pieces back together but one soldier was sitting on his chest. And Quintessa, an elemental, had passed out from exhaustion. She had tried to use her powers to seal the crack but it was beyond her capabilities.
    The giant, Zero, and Brood, the vampire, were the only ones remaining. Zero was about 50 feet tall and swatting at fighter ships like they were flies. Brood dashed through the horde of soldiers shifting from human to bat and back as needed. He threw one soldier and smashed his fist through one warbot. But it wouldn't be long before they couldn't fight.
    "This," said Jackal waving his hand across the battlefield, "is all because of you. If you would have left well enough alone and let us rule this world, we would not have to harvest more Dark Matter." His claws then came out. In one fluid motion, he slashed at my face and then kicked me to the curb. "And now you can die with this world." He held his hand above me ready to strike.
    CRASH!!
    The sound woke me from my flashback. A vehicle had spun out and was now stuck on the tracks for the magnet train. The crossing signal warned us of an oncoming train. There was no way that the driver could escape in time. I had to help him.
    I got off my cycle and started towards the accident. I then stopped realizing something: my powers were gone.
Still...I had to do something.
    I charged forward towards the vehicle and began pulling at the door. It wouldn't budge. The driver was still half unconscious. I kept pulling at the door. The train was getting closer by the second. Stupid rocket trains, I thought. Come on, come on.
    Something then began to happen. My hands started to glow with a golden aura. The aura then spread into the door. If I remember correctly, Brain said that I was somehow quantum entangling my hands with the door. What I did, the door had to follow. I pulled back and the door had no choice but to brake free. I pulled the man out but the train would get here before we could get away.
    I picked up the man, took a couple steps, and vanished in a burst of sparkle-like dust. I then reappeared by my mag-cycle.
    "Whew," I said laying the man down. I then realized that if the train hit the vehicle, the train would most likely derail. I ran at the vehicle and vanished again. I reappeared; my speed plus my strength rammed into the vehicle. The vehicle skidded away with an ear-splitting screeeech. In the process I stumbled into the path of the train.
    "Uh-oh," I said.
    WHAM!!
    The train hit me and then ran over me. Of course it had to have 20 cars to it too.
    "Ow," I said when the train was finally gone and I was flat on my back. As I sat up, I could see the golden retriever fur vanish back to...wherever it goes. The fur had protected me like armor. I stood up and cracked my back. The fur had mostly protected me.
    I glanced over at the man, who started to wake. I looked back at my hands; my nails were longer and sharper than normal. My knuckles were also hairier.
    "Whoa," I said. My powers were back.
***
    I stumbled into my apartment. My powers were coming back and they were coming back with a vengeance. My vision pulsed as my head throbbed. I was thankful that it waited until I got home before causing this pain.
The world turned to various shades of gray and became blurry. There was still some color but not a lot. I could feel and hear my bones as they transformed. My body began to itch like crazy as the fur began to sprout. Why it had not hurt earlier I don't know.
    I could hear the squishy noise as my tail began to grow. I could hear the crack as my ears and teeth became sharper. I caught my reflection as my face morphed into that of a golden retriever. I felt as if my blood was boiling.
Sounds and smells came to me in an instant, but not as you'd normally think of sounds and smells. I could sense the traffic. I could "smell" the hot dog vendors. I could "hear" children laughing. Busses rumbled. I could hear the hum of the Internet as people logged on and off, on and off. Water running. Cats meowing. Alarms. Traffic. More cats meowing. I could smell things in the wind. Perfume. Wood burning. And the unpleasant odor of cats. The smell of the ion engines like lightning. People. I could smell their confidence, their fear, their hunger.
    Finally it was too much and I collapsed.

    Continued in Dogboy Reborn (Rebirth, #1) available to buy at Amazon.com.