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The prologue is just the basic world building, comment if you would want to read the actual story (if you wouldn't, please let me know why!). Prologue: The world. Before I tell you my story, let me tell you a bit about the world where it takes place. The earth I know and the earth you know are not quite the same. The event which made my world so different has occurred almost fifty years ago, many say it was not the only event that changed our world so significantly this way, but it is definitely the biggest one. Around the year 1975, an alien species has invaded our planet. Their technologies were beyond anything we have ever seen before, and their biology was completely stranger to us. The invasion forced all the human nations to work together. While the aliens had the lead in technological advance, the humans had far greater numbers, and centuries of fighting each other made us far better strategists than the aliens. The battle lasted about half a year but in the end we emerged victorious, though it did not come without a price. The casualties of the invasion were estimated to be around 25 million, both soldiers and civilians. The aliens were gone (we call them "the aliens" because we never found out if their species had an actual name) but their ships and their bodies were left for us to study. The human governments salvaged every last bit of their technologies, as well as every alien body that was left somewhat intact. The UN declared that it was a tragedy, so many lives lost in vain. They said we must make the best out of the worst, study the technologies and the biology of the aliens and use it to improve the lives of the survivors as much as possible. Over the next years human governments worked together to study the aliens and made some great discoveries. We never saw them communicating during the invasion, a study of their corpses confirmed the hypothesis which suggested they were connected by a hivemind, we also discovered several genetic modification that their soldiers were put through, our scientists were able to recreate and adjust quite a few of these alterations to the human physiology. Their technologies were complicated, but with time we figured them all out, some of them we understand well enough to mass produce (about fifteen years ago, we gained the ability to mass produce holographic touch screens. Cellphones and computers are now using holograms, and the paper industry is pretty much gone. Books, letters, written tests, everything that required paper is done through 2D holograms nowadays). The biggest change though, was Superheroes. Vigilantes too. I'll simplify it. With the new technology that allows us to modify humans, the UN has opened a superhero academy. Everyone is allowed to sign up at eighteen after finishing highschool, but their screening process is very selective. They don't require athletic abilities or good grades. They want applicants with strategic, rational, and moral thinking. If your highschool bully will sign up, they'll kick him right out. The most important quality they demand from applicants is the ability to control their powers, without abusing them. They say only one of every twenty applicants who get accepted ends up becoming a superhero, the rest mess up or breach the rules and get expelled. After completing three years of superhero academy, the now licensed superheroes will go through a surgery that will increase their physical capabilities and resilience, and receive superhero gear. The superhero gear is a personal armour built with the best technologies we were able to copy from the aliens. It contains a personal jetpack, extendable metal cables, a mask for breathing underwater and in outer space, and about a dozen other gadgets that are all linked directly to the mind of the user through the alien technology the suit contains. The suits can't be mass produced yet, they are being personally made for each graduate of the academy. People who haven't undergone the process can't use them anyway, part of the modification surgery alters the graduate's brain to be able to comprehend the technology of the suits, other people would suffer great brain damage if they tried to use them. The superheroes in my world are not like the ones you read about in comics, they don't have superhero names, they have personal codes. I once encountered a superhero who was referred to as TGS-35, nothing exciting about that name. The superheros all look very similar due to their special suits. The deal superheros get is decent, after finishing the academy they are obligated to thirty years of community services, if they keep a clean record, by the time they retire (with enough money to last their families eighty years) they are not obligated to go through the process of undoing their modifications. Due to their enhanced resilience, superheros almost never get ill, and they age a bit slower. Superheros retire around the age of fifty, though most of them don't even look forty by then, and their average lifespan is about 110 years. It takes long before their bodies weaken enough for decease to finally take over. After retirement, superheroes can still be called back into action if needed for another twenty years, kind of like the army reserve. Superheros mostly focus on saving lives, it's always their top priority, even if it means letting a criminal get away. Their main duties are to handle supervillains without causing damage to the surroundings, saving people from accidents and disasters, and generally keeping the order of this world. Vigilantes are a bit different than heros. Vigilantes don't go through any screening process, nor do they get their powers from the government. Vigilantes are the closest thing to the superheroes we see in comics. They wear costumes and use special names to hide their identity, their powers come from varying sources, which they only rarely share. They are not as common as superheroes, but they are not really rare, I'd say there is one vigilante for every twenty superheros. The governments don't really like the vigilantes, they are unauthorized and self guided, they are not obligated to any supervisor or the likes. Despite not liking them, the governments will never act against the vigilantes for three reasons: 1. The vigilantes are far more popular with the people than superheros. 2. There are far more superheros, and most vigilantes couldn't even take on a single superhero, so they're not a great threat. 3. All the vigilantes so far proved to be nice people, they don't cause harm, so what will you even arrest them for? Of course people appreciate vigilantes more, they are more independent and unique, not to mention that superheros all act kinda monotone. No one knows what they go through upon finishing that academy, but it seems that whenever they put those suits on, they lose a bit of their personality. Naturally, there are many people with powers who don't become vigilantes, but instead try to use those powers to get away with breaking the law. Those people are labelled as supervillains, and the public does not come to their defence. There's surprisingly little grey area in the topic. What am I? I am a vigilante of course, the strongest vigilante there is in fact. Let me tell you about it.

EDIT: I forgot to post the link to the Archived stories. It's not completely complete, but a good start that may give me time to catch up and rewrite everything for one continuous post. Much thanks to ZFerrari for salvaging my old work. So I can't say this was worth the wait or anything, as it's been like, what 20 years lol But I'm wanting to rewrite the entire series and repost it here, as a lot of it got all messed up in the HTML or something and all the "quotations" are now ?quotations? lol But I dunno. If there's still a lot of interest and this sparks some fervor or whatever, it may inspire me to write a lot more. I have a lot of ideas, but don't know how much time in my life I have free to write as much as I'd like to. Anyways, I reworked some behind the scenes stuff lol like "recasted" a few of the characters, and even traded Dirk's for Max and casted a new Dirk--I know, I know! But I didn't realize that I had casted Dirk as a Brown haired guy and was writing he had blond hair the entire time, etc... Sloppy sloppy me lol Anyways, not really something to worry about right now anyways, if at all. But hope it still has continuity and all. I've been away from it for so long, and have just been trying to catch back up with my own creations. Like I said, I hope to do a sorta rewrite and edit later anyways, if I ever have the opportunity. And I don't remember where I left off in terms of parts.... so think of this as a sort of rough draft to a potentially better one...I hope I've included some ENER stats (not the graph--you'll get it as you read below), and they're more just something I like to do for myself, so they might change. But you can see the recast and shuffle. But a bit of a "data book" thing, if you will. I dunno. It's just something I like doing. Anyways, here goes nothin' SEAN What Luther said was the truth. The key wasn’t a physical key to unlock anything physical, but was still a key to unlock something hidden away. Because Hanazins had the ability to manipulate matter, and manipulate thoughts, they could transform and combine the two to form something separate, like the key Sean had retrieved for Dirk. His father had instructed him to revert the key back to its raw matter and raw knowledge. For the first time in a while, Sean was having a lot of trouble. Pulsing veins crossed his forehead, his psychic energy pulling each bit of knowledge encoded in the key. And each time he would succeed, a portion of the key would turn to dust. Sean remembered when he was able to store the entirety of the key within his natural energy, and later reconstruct it perfectly. But taking it apart with a much more meticulous hand took a lot more skill and power than Sean had expected. He had to visualize it all like a house with a bunch of rooms full of things he’d never seen, as it was like removing furniture you never owned from a room you’ve never seen, and passing through doors you didn’t know existed, in a home you’ve never lived. And you’d better time your exit from the front door just right to meet the movers with their tiny truck, or be forced to hold the weight of all the furniture until they arrive. Or drop it all, Sean thought, releasing his hold on the bit of the key he was deconstructing. He’d have to start all over with that segment and have to find the room again among the thousand he had identified, and hope it was in the same location. They tended to move around the house without any regular intervals of time. Sean groaned, slamming a veiny fist into the solid earth beneath him and sending a blast of fragmented rocks a hundred feet into the air. Before, when he had deconstructed the entire key to store within himself, it was much easier. About 100,000 times easier! It was like moving the entire house into a new lot or something. Everything in the house moved with it, as long as it stayed locked. And the house and room analogy helped Sean visualize the goal he needed to achieve. The physical key was designed to unlock the door to the house where each constantly changing location of every room held knowledge that together would be the figurative key to accomplishing whatever it was his father, Dirk, had wanted to accomplish. Or it was the key to the destruction the Hanazin world was so dedicated in trying to prevent. But it’s what his father had meant when he had said he was afraid Sean might miss something. It would have been next to impossible to piece the key back together had Sean prematurely unlocked the door, even with his enhanced Hanazin brain. Now Sean wasn’t feeling all too cocky. Sean’s body responded to the influx of energy he had to pull in to effectively expel the mass of psychic energy he was utilizing in order to pull the knowledge off the key. Thick veins pulsed as if they were arteries, appearing then disappearing underneath his skin, before appearing again to feed his engorging muscles, climbing upward or running downward in networks like tree branches or roots growing on an accelerated time skip. His abs shuddered before collapsing towards his spine, the fat underneath his skin almost nonexistent. Sean’s body was so incredibly lean that every fiber of every muscle, and every striation that built each part of the muscle could be seen moving and building itself bit by bit. Sean was a masterpiece of a man, with no exception given to his fat, dripping cock that bobbed with each steady beat of his heart. His sack heaved underneath his slick pole, always as if breathing, but instead filling his 15-inch shaft with his warm fluid. A network of veins climbed up his shaft, and Sean knew he was ready to blow. The earth rattled around him, and Sean couldn’t hold it in anymore. His massive tool erupted out before him, spraying over the cliff face and raining down into the valley. The key jangled to the ground as, Sean let it go and grabbed his exploding man meat, his hand moving across his slimy shaft at the speed of a jackhammer. All around him the earth violently shook, the birds fleeing from the surrounding trees. But they were too slow to escape Sean’s blast of energy that moved out from his body like a tidal wave, yellow and tinged with red, joy and ecstasy colored with anger. The muscles of his body convulsed as they adjusted to the rapid influx of power, and Sean bellowed deep, veins rapidly birthing and climbing and running over every part of him. His height grew to nine feet, his lats spreading out to an enormous five, his traps climbed his now thickening neck just as its vascular network pulsed and reached out to join the thick vascular cords of his shoulders and chest. His pecs danced in unison as lean fiber upon lean, ripped fiber built upon the last. Sean cock was sputtering and spitting short bursts of cum—like it would back when he was human. Each spurt of his hot fluid felt like an electrical current of his best orgasm, sending tingles of absolute ecstasy from the tips of his toes to the top of his head, where it felt as if it were water flooding over his brain and pouring down through the rest of his now massive body. Sean pulled his entire cock downward by its fat tip, and it sprang back to hit his abs and pecs with a loud thwack! “FUUUUUUUCK!” Sean screamed, and he blasted over the valley once more, the earth shaking so violently, that rubble started falling from the cliff face, before it too cracked under the stress of Sean’s power. Sean threw his arms out to his side and he felt himself levitating upward by the force of his own expelling power. His voice dropped down low as he bellowed. The ecstasy he was feeling was like no other he had felt before. At that moment, he strangely recalled how he and Jason would sit in their dorm room and try their best to come up with a good analogy that would’ve helped their pre-Hanazin, human selves imagine how good a Hanazin climax could be. He remembered Jason had jokingly, but accurately, compared it to when human you really REALLY had to pee, but you held it and held it and held it until you finally found a toilet and let it out. That feeling of relief. That feeling of cool and calm release. It was like that, but 1,000 times better. But what Sean was experiencing at that very moment was 1,000,000 times better than his best Hanazin climax to date. The ecstasy pulsed through him over and over, and starting over and starting over, endlessly looping with no lull in the intensity. “The power,” he said. “The fucking POWER!” He roared once again, leaning back, his face towards the sky, eyes closed, laughing maniacally, before letting his immense power flow out of him and across the canyon around him. Again, Sean’s muscles seemed to be violently convulsing, though it caused him no pain, only pleasure. He wondered if it’d be better to move into his Intermediate power level, if the pleasure of power would increase. And what if he just jumped right into Hyper power level? *** DIRK Dirk grinned happily as he stared over at his son. He was a whole 50 miles away, but Dirk could see Sean with the clarity as if Sean were right there next to him. Sean was forcing himself to remain in Rookie power level, something Dirk himself enjoyed. In that state, you could feel the power, truly feel it move through every pulsing vessel of your body, feeding the engorging tissue, building new massive muscle, fiber by fucking fiber. Dirk was impressed at how lean his boy had managed to become, and even at the far distance, Dirk could see the striated fibers of Sean’s muscles moving about underneath his skin, now covered in the innumerable perusing branches of his vascularity. Veins crawled over even Sean’s forehead and down by one of his ears, and on the other side crawled down his cheek and throat to join with the third cords of his widening neck. Dirk felt his son’s power moving into him, the power link the Stervis bloodline had passed onto he and his son effectively operating to bond their collective powers as one. And because of his gift from his Archer bloodline, Dirk knew his son had the potential to bring them both unfathomable power. The thought made him hard, and Dirk’s slick fuck pole went full mast, trembling with his heartbeat, its tip sputtering pre-cum in short spurts that filled Dirk with incredible pleasure. Pulsating veins flooded over every one of Dirk’s now shuddering and expanding muscles. Just as his quads reshaped into perfect symmetry, another vascular network birthed upward towards his crotch, climbing in a second’s time up through his inner thigh to join the network feeding his heaving sack. And just as the connection was made, Dirk felt himself washed over by the ecstasy of his power. “Fuck YEEEEEEEAAAAAAH!” He roared, his ripped pecs broadening with his shoulders, his 25 inch guns instantly expanding to 30 inches, more and more veins pumping and pulsating and feeding his growing muscles. The earth itself seemed to shift, and the sky turned dark, as the tip of Dirk’s cock exploded with a torrent of his hot man juice. “FUUUUUUUUCK!” He screamed. Lightning flashed over him as he allowed his power to lift him into the sky, and he continued to blast his pearl-white cum over what was left of the surrounding area, creating a thunderstorm of slick, viscous rain. His power had already destroyed much of the mountain plateau, the land and the cliff faces, trees and rivers—all of it just gone, leaving only barren earth. He spotted the key that Sean had dropped, and in a millisecond’s time he had retrieved it and stood underneath his still floating and blasting son. Dirk grinned once more, the edges of his lips slowly creeping more and more upward, until he too was joining in on his son’s maniacal laughing. In the later years of the Academy, students are taught how to measure in numbers the power ratings of their opponents, and because Hanazins had such keen sensory abilities, they could measure the power levels within themselves, and within other Hanazins to an exact numerical point of measure. Records were kept on every student at the Academy, and further through the rest of their lives, updated by passing Constables, Scouts, and Surveyors. Hanazin energy was measured in ENER, or emitting native energy radius, and displayed on an ENER-Graph. And the power flooding over him from Sean’s energy was more than he could’ve expected, approaching a 90,000 ENER reading in each of his 9 measured attributes. 90,000 ENER in just his Rookie power level. He knew his son would soon surpass even him, once gaining the knowledge of the key—a key only one of Archer blood could…well, unlock. Dirk chuckled a little, tossing the key upward and then catching it again. He stared down at its silver exterior, noticing only a fraction of the physical surface gone from Sean’s work. “Still so much to go”, Dirk thought. “So much to go, but so much power already gained.” Dirk could feel it pouring into him through their connection, and watched the thick cords of his forearms pulse and climb over the expanding muscle. Through the Archer power, Dirk knew he would be strong enough to free his son Rex. And after, their cumulative power would be invincible.

Hey! Quite cliche for me to say this, but long time lurker giving it a try at a first story. This ist more of a long burner that takes inspiration from multiple sources of media and things that I like in general. I hope people like it as much as I’ve liked past stories I’ve read here. I’ll take my time setting it up, but be patient enough and I promise the good parts will come! Let me know if you have feedback! ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Chapter 1 I woke up with the sound of credits rolling up. John had been staring at me wide eyed as I opened my eyes and closed my mouth, which at this point was even drooling a bit. “How could you sleep through that movie?” He asked. John was my roommate. A really nice guy, too innocent and always with his head up in the clouds. You see, John was also not bad looking himself and part of me wishes I hadn’t first approached him when we met in college pretending his looks wasn’t what had drawn me to him. Of course I played nice and pretended that was just a convenient seat in class, but eventually we found out we didn’t really connect or it just wasn’t meant to be. We still became good friends regardless. He had a slim frame, short blond hair and a pair of dazzling blue-ish eyes. I almost forgot how his wide smile always killed me whenever he flashed it. John was tall and liked working out during his free time. He wasn’t a gym rat by any means but it was just enough for him to stay healthy and keep his slim frame. He also knew what clothes fit him well despite having a very laid back and relaxed personality. It might not look like it but deep down he was somewhat vain, he just didn’t show it. We had know each other for years now. That meant we knew each other quite well. We even shared an apartment since neither one of us could afford a nice place on our own shortly after graduating and wanting to live downtown somewhere near our jobs. “First of all that movie made absolutely no sense. Also, I wasn’t sleeping, just resting my eyes a bit ” I told him as I shrugged it off and yawned. John just laughed at my very basic attempt to cover up the fact I was completely exhausted from a crazy week at work. “Yeah, right bro.” Even though it was Friday I still felt completely like I was hit by a bus after working long hours throughout the week and barely any sleep. All I wanted was to rest a bit, but I had promised John we’d go out hiking the next morning. “Are you sure we are still going out tomorrow mr. old man?” He questioned me while getting up from the couch and grabbing the now empty popcorn bowl from the coffee table in front of us. I don’t know why I thought it was a good idea to see go on a hike after such a brutal week. “You’d just get lost without me, so yeah, we’re going” I replied. John made his way to the kitchen to drop the bowl in the sink. I’m pretty sure he was just gonna leave it there had I not threatened him with a cold stare over my shoulders. I didn’t like his laziness but at this point I’m pretty sure he just did it to annoy me on purpose. “Ok, calm down. I’m gonna clean it. And you gotta stop with this whole “work is killing me, I’m past my young days, bla bla bla. Where’s the fun, party guy I knew in college?” He said as he turned his back to me and immediately started cleaning the bowl and whatever crap he had used while watching the movie. While he was doing the dishes I got distracted by a brief second. I would always forget what his best asset was, until he put on those sweatpants he’d normally wear when home. His butt looked so round and so bubbly in those pants it was almost unbelievable. “Earth to Peter. Are you even listening or just daydreaming about this peach over here?” He said while slightly shaking his butt. Oh god, I was mortified. I had kept staring at his ass dancing in those sweatpants and he had noticed. My face immediately turned redder than the apple standing by the kitchen counter and I quickly turned to my phone trying to fake a reaction. “Yes we are going hiking, I’ve said it already” I quickly responded pretending I was checking my social networks. John was straight, but he just didn’t mind me being gay and I appreciated this the most about our friendship. He used to tease me me all the time with small stuff like this. At this point I’m pretty sure he just likes his ego being stroked every once in a while. He quickly finished the dishes and came over again, throwing himself on the couch sitting uncomfortably close to me trying to spy on what I was checking on my phone. He kept trying to see the screen and I kept just moving my hands away trying harder and harder for him not to see anything and see through my ruse. “C’mon you were totally checking me out. There’s nothing on your screen” “Get off of me, I wasn’t”. “You really need to go out on more dates” he said. “If only my job wasn’t killing me” I replied annoyed at the situation. “Ok, then I promise we’re gonna have fun tomorrow and then you I’ll stop with this. It’s just sometimes I feel like you always work so hard and don’t stop to look around and enjoy the little things” he said trying to cheer me up and get me hyped for our hike. I tried seeing the bright side of things. If anything I’d at least spend some quality time outdoors. It wouldn’t hurt and it had been forever we last did that. “I’m gonna let you go now and hope you’re ready tomorrow!” He said enthusiastically “Yeah, yeah.” I laughed and forced myself to get up so I could go shower and get changed. “I will see you tomorrow mr. young and free”. ———————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— By the time the first ray of sunlight was up we were already out there. We woke up early in the morning, which meant I hadn’t completely recovered from my week. My morning wood only made it more difficult to leave bed as I really wanted to give it some attention, but we were gonna be late and I could already hear John moving around the apartment. I’m not a big guy by any means, just average, but I’ve never had anyone complain about it. I would say I’m perhaps a bit about average in terms of girth which make my bulge look nice in my underwear, but this morning my hard on made it feel like it was even beyond that. It’s what you get for not giving it the proper attention for more than a week now, but once I heard John knocking at the door that’s when I knew it was gonna be postponed yet another time. I just got up, got ready and packed my stuff so we could leave. John noticed I was feeling a little bit moody so he offered some jokes to lighten up the mood. I was not gonna say no plus I was starting to feel more energetic to be outside. The weather was nice and we were both in just regular outdoor wear with gym shorts and tshirts, our backpacks and some water and food for the hours ahead of us. The rest of the things stayed in the car and we’d return later. By the time we reached the lake that John really wanted to go to the sun was already shining. The sweat in his shirt was visible and it made the fabric cling to his body in a way that only accentuated his features. His slightly developed chest was heaving up and down and every chance I got to look at it I did. It was a pretty uneventful morning up until that point. I never saw someone remove their shirt so quickly to jump into the water. It was September so even though the sun was high up the water wasn’t exactly warm, but John had this careless free spirit I never shared, which I quite admired. He was just in his white trunks which immediately made me think he didn’t think everything through. “Are you really going in with just that?” I asked. “It’s just us here, no one’s gonna mind” Before he had even finished the sentence he was already inside the water. I had barely had time to contest him, but he was right. There was nobody around so I removed my shirt and joined him by the water. When I approached, though, my suspicions were right and the water was super cold. I just had my feet in and John was already diving head in. Fast forward a couple minutes of me literally moving 1 inch per minute trying to enter the cold water while pretending to admire the beautiful landscape and the crystal clear waters and I notice something glowing next to where John was swimming. “Hey, dude, what’s that thing over there? That orange glow.” I asked. He looked at me, puzzled, and then realized it was something underwater. He shrugged his shoulder saying he had no clue but before I could say anything he just took a deep breath and went down to check it. After a couple seconds I could see the glow fading from the surface and John had come up with a tiny pebble in his hand. He was holding it against the sun, mesmerized at it. There was no orange glow at all and we were both asking ourselves if that was something we both hallucinated or something. “Check it out it’s just a weird black rock. It was sitting at the bottom but I’m sure I saw it glowing. That’s what made it so easy to tell it apart from all the other rocks at the bottom of the lake”. It did look like a normal rock at first but upon closer inspection there were three things that were outstanding. First one was that the rock had markings. Not scratches, markings. The markings all looked like barcodes, like they were carved in it. Second thing was that it’s shape was very odd. Even though it seemed like a normal rock all its edges seemed oddly angular. Like it was man made. Something about its shape gave it an alien nature, but I’m not quite sure how to describe it. It’s almost like you could tell that 1000 years wouldn’t have been enough for nature to shape something like that. And the third one was a that right in the middle of it there was a slit. It was almost unnoticeable, but it was there. Maybe that’s where the weird glow came from. The both of us were incredibly intrigued by it, so much that we didn’t even pay attention to our surroundings as we were getting out of the water. John was soaking wet, obviously, and that’s when I looked down at his bulge while he was distracted with the rock. I’ve seen him before in undies, walking around the apartment with only a towel wrapped around his waist but somehow he looked mesmerizing today. The water dripping from his body, the wet undies outlining every one of his smooth curves and bulges. His dick was also clearly visible since he was wearing white trunks. I never put much thought into his size but it definitely looked big considering he had literally just been in the cold water. You could see the shaft pressed against it and the white, almost transparent, fabric moving slowly as he walked. The head looked big and juicy. You could clearly see he was uncut as well. I’d guess maybe 4 or 5 inches soft? When I looked up I realized he was staring at me and that’s the first time I think I ever saw him blushing. He didn’t mind walking around half naked, but I think this was the first time he was this close to being naked around me. “Uhm, sorry” he said half smiling and half trying to hide his dick print with one of his hands. “I’ve seen naked guys before” I joked, trying to ease him up a bit and not make it seem like I was obsessing over him. The sun was starting to hide behind the clouds so we thought it’d be a better idea to just take it back to the cabin we had rented for the weekend and be gone before we got caught in the rain or bad weather. Despite the brief moment of blushing John seemed to have his attention completely snap back to the rock after he finished dressing up again and picking his stuff from the side of the lake where we left our stuff. “Did you notice if that was the thing glowing when you picked it up?” “Well yeah. Or at least I think so. It stopped glowing the moment I touched it. It’s like there was this thin jello membrane around it and once I touched it there was this kind of jolt feeling. But then that was it. The glow ceased, I picked it up and came up for air”. During the walk back we both took turns examining the rock but there really wasn’t anything else that we could make of it. It didn’t take long for us to reach the cabin and John immediately went for a shower as he wanted to get cleaned up and enjoy the rest of the calm afternoon warm and in dry clothes. I, on the other hand, tried to crack the rock open through the small opening in it, flash a light inside it, anything that could bring the glow back. Nothing had worked. Eventually the both of us just gave up and left it aside as we still had to gather some wood to set up a small fire for the marshmallows later that evening. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful as I just read a book while John was gathering some wood and preparing the fire pit. When night fell the fire was already up and we unpacked some food we brought. As we were preparing the food to start cooking it John accidentally cut himself in the finger. “Ouch!” I heard him complain in pain as a drip of blood left his cut. It wasn’t anything deep or serious but he rushed to the restroom to get a bandaid from the first aid kit as he didn’t really like the sight of blood. A couple seconds later when he returned from inside the cabin, where all the lights were off, I swear I could catch a quick glimpse of a small glow around him. It clearly wasn’t as strong as the one we saw that morning in the water but just faint enough that I didn’t know if I was just imagining things when looking at him since the fire pit was standing between me and the path to the cabin from where he was coming from. We finished dinner and prepared to go to bed early as we wanted to continue exploring a little longer on Sunday before we made our way back to the city. Usually I always slept like a rock so it wouldn’t be an issue to fall asleep. Little did I know what was to come.