The New Age - And The Cradle Will Rock

[Nina]

 DAY ONE

Impact+24Hrs

 

Without thinking, Sara dropped to the ground and rolled under the nearby truck, covering her head with her arms. Prayer was not something she typically believed in, but in that moment, she found herself pleading for safety.

 

The meteor debris from the exploding planetoid had caused chaos on earth, with only a few hundred pieces of any real size making it through the Gravity Barrier at reduced speeds. Still, they managed to cause massive destruction over two-thirds of North America. Only a handful were large enough to survive their journey through the atmosphere and impact on the ground. Most were too small and burned up high in the sky, while others exploded upon reaching close to the surface due to the intense heat of reentry. These smaller rocks were responsible for most of the widespread damage. And unfortunately, one of them was headed straight for Sara's farm.

 

The rock was almost directly overhead at an altitude of of 1257feet when it exploded in a brilliant display of light and sound. The blast Hammered the truck , all four tires bust and the frame was pushed down onto Sara pressing her into the dirt. She shielded her eyes from the blinding burst, feeling the shockwave reverberate through the air around her and the ground below. Debris rained down, peppering the fields with smoking remnants of the fallen meteor.

 

The piercing blast tore through Sara's eardrums, leaving her disoriented and dizzy. With trembling limbs, she clawed her way out from under the almost flattened truck, her heart thrashing against her ribcage like a captured prey. The searing heat engulfed her, scorching her skin as if she had been thrown into an inferno. Her body throbbed with pain, bruised and battered like it had endured a brutal beating. Each agonizing step felt like a never-ending journey as she emerged into the chaotic aftermath of devastation and pandemonium.

 

Surveying the damage, Sara's eyes widened in disbelief. The impact site was a shallow smoldering crater, the truck at the the center of it surrounded by scorched earth and billowing clouds of dust. Pieces of rock and debris littered the ground, some still glowing with residual heat. In the distance the farmhouse stood untouched on the edge of the destruction, a lone island amidst the chaos.

 

Sara's hands trembled as she took in the scene before her. The farm she had worked so hard to maintain now lay in ruins, a stark reminder of the fragility of life and the unpredictability of fate. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about all that she had lost in an instant. The memories of her father, the solace of the farm, and the sense of peace she had finally found shattered by the impact of the meteor. But amidst the devastation, a flicker of determination ignited within her.

 

With gritted teeth and a steely resolve, Sara refused to let despair consume her. She staggered towards what remained of her truck, salvaging a few tools that had miraculously survived the blast. The familiar weight of the wrench in her hand grounded her, reminding her of the strength and resilience she had cultivated over the years.

 

As she made her way towards the farmhouse, navigating through the debris and destruction, a sense of purpose blossomed within her battered heart. The once tranquil landscape was now a battlefield of chaos, but Sara refused to be defeated.

 

From a distance, the farmhouse appeared relatively unscathed. However, upon closer inspection, that was proven to be only an illusion. Every single window was shattered, revealing the chaos and destruction within. The sides of the house that had been exposed to the blast were mangled and dented, with chunks of wood missing or hanging precariously. The roof was in shambles, with most of the shingles swept away by the force of the explosion. Yet, despite all this damage, the fact that the farmhouse was still standing provided some glimmer of hope amidst the devastation. It stood like a lone sentinel, battered and worn but refusing to succumb to the forces that had ravaged it.

 

Sara stumbled onto the porch, her body trembling with exhaustion and fear. With a ragged sob, she pushed open the door to find chaos and destruction inside. She couldn't even spare a moment to register it all as her mind felt sluggish and muddled. Struggling to stay upright, she made her way up the creaky stairs to the second floor and down the dark hallway to the bathroom. Only a small window provided any light as she leaned over the bathtub, desperately turning on the faucet. The water finally flowed, cold and unforgiving, as she quickly plugged the drain with a rubber stopper. In a trance-like state, she stripped off her clothes, feeling like her skin was still on fire and her muscles were burning from adrenaline. With no hesitation, she lowered herself into the frigid water and immediately lost all sense of consciousness in its icy embrace.

 

Spoiler

your next post should mirror Sara's and tell your version of the Impact. in your posts your characters should be if not in an impact, at the least exposed to the immediate aftermath of an impact. if you have any questions please ask.

 

[Shameless]

Abel lay in the back of his truck watching the clear Montana sky.  He was out on his property, on the other side of the area of woods where he had one of his deer blinds set overlooking the plains.   
 

Even as Abel watched he meteor descending he didn't think it was going to hit close by.   Then it exploded in the sky, and debris rained down.  It was an awesome spectacle to see, even as he hoped no one was around wherever the debris was going to land, concern furrowing his brow.   It was then that he heard a sound like a roaring freight train or jet engine.  While he'd been focused the one meteor, he'd missed another, and unfortunately for him, this was headed much closer to him.
 

It roared overhead, Louder than any roaring jet engine, a brilliant ball of flame and stone, before impacting in the ground at unthinkable speeds, with the force a massive bomb.   The blastwave hit the truck with enough force to flip it end over end, and Abel could only scream as the heat seared him.  A large part of the woodland was flattened, only the younger trees being flexible enough to not outright splinter and shatter.    
 

Despite the heat, the Truck didn't explode, but all the windows were shattered, and the tires burst.  
 

Trapped in the dark bed of the truck Abel regained consciousness, the coppery smell of blood in the air, and he could tasted it as well.  He was able to move his hands and feet, though his whole body ached.   He could feel shards of glass in his right side and shoulder, and he could feel the tailgate at his feet.  He couldn't hear anything but a persistent ringing in his ears.  
 

He knew just because his truck hadn't exploded, didn't mean there wasn't a chance it still couldn't.  He had to get out of there.   He marshalled all his strength, and kicked hard against the tailgate.  There was no budge.   It took five kicks before he was able to actually kick the tailgate open, silently grateful that he hadn't yet fixed the particular problem of it not always closing right.   of course it didn't stay open, and it was only with effort and no small amount of pain that he extricated himself from the remains of his truck.
 

As  he crawled away, he could only see hints of the devastation, the downed trees, and the rising dustcloud that was likely where the meteor had made impact.   He tried to rise, making it to one knee, before his whole body seemed to scream in pain, and vertigo took him, as he crashed forward into a heap.   His last thought before darkness claimed him again was for his family.   "I hope they're all okay."    Then his blue eyes closed, and  the only sound in the aftermath of the devastation was the steady rise and fall of his breathing.

[Asarasa]

Sean's gaze swiveled South to North and back, watching the fall of thick clusters of meteors, streaks of red, orange, white, and even baleful blue raking the sky. A trembling hand reached for his phone on the patio table, his heart hammering in his chest not so hard since he'd put a rope around his neck. He aimed his phone up and started filming. He mostly streamed and made videos about video games and the industry of making them, but this was an event when the world would completely change.

 

"The sky is falling..." he whispered, his high, clear, and rich voice providing a hushed narration to the terrible film.

 

It seemed the world was holding its breath. The air turned still but taut with tension, the Salish Sea became a sheet of glass. It was utterly silent save for his own soft gasps.

 

The tip of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands blocked his view of Vancouver City from  his home on the South coast of Victoria. Seattle was too far to see directly, but on a clear night, he could see the glow of the light pollution it emitted. But he knew exactly where both were. He took the ferry to them frequently. His good friend Thor had his home and headquarters for his indy game company DigitalPrivateers in Seattle. Sean visited Vancouver often enough for voice work, video collabs, small film and TV roles, and other business that he'd bought an apartment there, despite the outrageous cost. The girl he was currently seeing lived and worked in the city.

 

The largest meteors he could see were heading straight for the pair of cities if he was calculating their trajectories correctly. He tried calling Sam, but the call didn't go through, either the cell towers being overloaded with others trying to do the same, or the X and C waves were interfering, he didn't know. He tried to call Thor, but no better result. Before he could try someone else, the ground... rippled, and Sean lost his footing, landing on his ass on the hardwood of the deck, the patio table skittering towards the railing.

 

Sound exploded in his ears, so focused on the biggest clusters of meteors heading towards the bigger cities that he had blocked out the cacophony going on closer to home. He climbed back to his feet, staggering as another distant, but way closer than comfortable, impact struck, and he looked North-West. A rain of sparser, smaller, meteors was falling across Vancouver Island and Victoria. He could screams now, meteors hitting the ground or exploding in air bursts above the skyline. He could smell smoke and fire, and the dust thrown up in the air by destroyed buildings.

 

He turned South again just at the biggest meteor he'd seen in the sky made touchdown. He didn't actually see it hit ground, but he could literally see the shockwave ripple the air. The water was anything but still now, choppy waves rising. He could taste the salt from the sea on his lips, then the shockwave rolled over him and he was knocked clean off his feet despite the attenuation of the shockwave over the distance.

 

He missed the patio doors and the big triple-paned glass window and hit stone-faced wall. That hurt, but his scream of pain was barely heard over the rising roar of the wind. He didn't have time to recover before the shockwave of the meteor cluster that he assumed devastated Vancouver hit him. It sent him through the railing of the raised deck with a crack and the audible pop of his right arm being dislocated, then scraping across the stone patio surrounding the pool, and finally rolling to a stop on the grass.

 

"Ow..." he moaned. Miraculously, he still held his phone.

 

He must've been in shock. His right arm was only a dull throb. His scrapes burned and itched like a bitch though. The wind was getting even stronger, making him waver as he climbed back to his feet, his short, vivid red hair whipping in the fierce breeze. Even the water in his pool was rippling into waves now. He looked South.

 

"Oh. Fuck."

 

Another tremendous wave was heading for him. Not of air, or pressure, no, this one was of water. His slender shoulders slumped. No time to get away, to get to higher ground. What was even the point? His nose scrunched up and his eyes tightened as he forced the tears back. He hadn't cried since he was a kid. It had been hard enough being a boy who looked like a girl. He wouldn't let his bullies feast on his tears as well. He hadn't been this defeated since that night after his fourteenth birthday in the converted barn of the Cassidy residence.

 

"Fuck that!" he shouted in defiance, even though the wind tore his words away. He'd given up once, he was going to do it again. He had started his life over once, he could do it again.

 

A tiny meteor fell out into the Salish Sea, throwing out a great cloud of steam, he could feel the heat as he determinedly hobbled his was towards his one-story, modern ranch-style home. He didn't have to worry about earthquakes in Victoria. And he hadn't had to worry about hurricanes either. But he'd seen a couple of houses survive hurricanes relatively unscathed in Florida, and with climate change being what it was and having excess disposable income, he'd looked into hurricane-resistant housing when building his home.

 

There wasn't much he could do about a meteor strike. Who the hell knows what was going to happen with insurance. He wasn't sure about a tsunami. But it was low-slung, build with reinforced concrete faced with stone and impact windows, octagonal on the seaward side, and had a reinforced roof. Most importantly, it was what he had. 

 

He staggered into his house, slamming the patio doors closed behind him and flipping the latch. The wind suddenly dulled to a muted whistle outside the well sealed home. He didn't have time to get away, especially considering who knew how bad the roads might be after the smaller, closer meteor strikes and the inevitable panic, but he did have a bit more time to prepare than he had at first thought. Waves did not travel as fast as wind, and close as it was, Seattle was still 75 miles away as the crow flies.

 

First, he went downstairs to his home studio and office. He shoved his best laptop and a couple of critical hard drives and any power banks he could see into the protective case he had used when working for the DoE. He had backups of course, but as good as his business continuity plans had been, they didn't account for what was at minimum, a continent wide meteor shower. Then he hustled back upstairs. Passing through the kitchen, he slid the case into the pantry then grabbed several garbage bags from under the island and continued into his bedroom. No time to be picky, he emptied his bra drawer into one bag, then just grabbed a random assortment of clothing and stuffed them into another bag. Several pairs of shoes and his very modest chest of rings and other jewelry went into another. He barely took the time to shove his feet into a pair of waterproof hikers before heading back to the kitchen.

 

He had big tits and small feet, if worse came to worse, finding underwear and footwear that fit properly wouldn't be easy.

 

Back to the kitchen, slumped into the pantry, cursing he didn't keep bottled water, or even have a Brita filter, instead having a filter straight in the tap. Hastily, he began clearing the panty of anything that wasn't drinkable or immediately edible, so there were less potential missiles . With only one working arm, everything was going slower than he'd like, his phone annoying as it bounced around in the mesh pocket of his swim trunks, not even having the time to get dressed or put a bra on.

 

He'd just gone back to the kitchen to fill whatever jugs he could find with water when the power went out.

 

"Perfect."

 

He wasn't about to go to the garage to start up the emergency generator. There was a constant, subliminal rumble now, and Sean guessed the tidal wave was close to hitting.  He finished filling one jug of water then ducked into the pantry. He closed the door and stuffed the bottom with towels to  seal out of much water as possible - assuming his home didn't collapse on top of him and crush him - and tucked himself into a corner in the dark, knees tight against his breasts and arms wrapped around his shins, screaming in fury as the waves smashed into Victoria.

 

When he survived this - he would survive this! - he was going to go see the family he had been too ashamed to face for so long.

Edited August 25 by Asarasa

[SalmonMax]

The first thing Rochelle felt was...warm. There was a smell. It was the smell of...basement? No just dirt. Dust. She coughed, and immediately was aware of another feeling.

 

Oh yeah, that was pain. It flared along her abdomen, hot and bright, right about where her ribcage ended. And yeah, that warmth? That was really more...pressure. And the dirt? Well there was definitely smoke mixed in with it.

 

She opened an eye, and saw clouds covering the stars. Weirdly shaped clouds. Long and thin and kind of angled like they were coming down from the sky towards her. At the sides of her vision there were jagged edges, dark shadows of something. Rochelle tried to move her arms and with some effort managed to verify they ached and were numb, but were still moveable. Trying sent another stab through her belly though. The dust smell was starting to get weaker...or maybe the smoke smell was getting stronger.

 

A few more details filtered in as she pulled her arms and legs free. Fortunately she wasn't buried in rubble. Some chunks had landed around her and over her, but fairly small ones. Roach was no doctor, but after a bad minute or two, she decided her rib was probably not broken...it hurt, but she was breathing okay other than some pain when she inhaled deeply. And she had other incentives not to breathe too hard.

 

It was the gymnasium. The wall behind the big scorecard on the long north side of the building had buckled and caved partway in. That in turn had made a big chunk of the ceiling and roof collapse. Oh hey, that must have been the part SHE was on! Fortunately the entire roof hadn't continued to collapse, or she probably would have been buried. But there was a fire licking through the partly-broken wall, and the shattered windows around by the doors.

 

Her head hurt. It felt like someone had stuffed cotton into it. Her ears were ringing too much to easily make out the crackle of flames, but she assumed it must be there. When Roach tried saying anything, she could hear it muffled through her skull...but her ears were still very much traumatized by what had happened.  What HAD happened? It looked like a bomb had gone off!

 

She escaped out the locker rooms on the south side of the building, which seemed flame free.

 

Out of the frying pan, into the fire.

 

The school was ablaze. The student union was an inferno, and the two long class buildings near it weren't much better. The smaller 'temporary' buildings that had been moved in last year to help with student volume were off their foundations entirely, piled up against the cafeteria. Looked like school really was out forever.

 

Still struggling to keep up with current events, Roach's brain suddenly latched onto something. The asteroid! The Visitor! It had missed, then come apart! The chunks, tumbling through the night sky in her binoculars... There had been a sudden blaze of light, and then a sound louder than loud. Like a thunderclap experienced from inside the lightning.

 

Looking at the columns of smoke though, the distant orange glow cast against rising plumes, there were other places that had it worse. The school must have been a little ways from the impact site. It would have hit...to the north.

 

Rochelle's heart stopped. North of the school. Oh. Oh shit.

 

She jammed a hand into her pants pocket and fished her phone out, but the screen was cracked and lifeless. From the shockwave or the fall or something that had fallen on her...she didn't know. It didn't matter. And looking around, Roach could see there was no power anywhere in eyeshot. No streetlights, no houselights, no headlights. Adding insult to injury, her bike was gone too. She should have brought it inside! Or...would chaining it have mattered? Probably wasn't rated to survive meteor impacts...damnit...

 

Unsteadily at first, but slowly getting her legs and feet back under her, Rochelle made her way out towards the bike racks. Past that would be the track and the field...then she could jump the fence, if anything was left of it, and try to get home on foot. Her mom might be okay. She could have gone into the basement. Or...or the bathroom; that was safer right?

 

Her lungs burned from the smoke in the air, rising from the new suburban hell in front of her. Her bruised ribs throbbed and stabbed her. But Rochelle broke into a run anyway; the only one trying to get IN to the Spokane Impact Zone as the city awoke, the sirens started blaring, and the fires climbed ever higher.

[Nina]

IMPACT  T +60

Northern Montana

 

Sara floated in the frigid water, her body had been exposed to the deadly particles and radiation released by the explosion of the Visitor. The alien substances from the visitor had invaded her system, activating dormant genes that were unknown to science.

 

The Visitors' extraterrestrial properties combined with rare genetic makeup found in only one in ten million individuals. As their DNA intertwined and reshaped itself, Sara's body underwent incredible adaptations that would have astonished even the most advanced scientists on Earth. Cells fused together, creating new structures and abilities beyond human comprehension

 

Time became meaningless as Sara lay suspended in the bathtub, caught between consciousness and unconsciousness. The water around her glowed with an otherworldly light, casting eerie shadows on the walls of the bathroom. Even in her semi-conscious state, she could feel strange sensations coursing through her body, as if every cell was being infused with a potent elixir from an unknown source.

 

Suddenly, a blinding light erupted from Sara's body, a mixture of blue and red hues that seemed separate yet intertwined. The light radiated not from the tub, but from within Sara herself.

 

Sara awoke with a start, her body still submerged in the cold water of the bathtub. For a moment, she couldn't remember where she was or what had happened. But then the memories came rushing back, and she sat up with a gasp.

 

She looked down at her hands, expecting to see burns or radiation poisoning from her exposure to the alien substances. But instead, she saw something miraculous.

 

The skin on her hands, once weathered and calloused from years of farm work, was now smooth and unblemished. She ran her fingers through her hair and felt its softness and fullness. Her entire body felt rejuvenated, as if she had been given a second chance at life.

 

But it wasn't just her physical appearance that had changed. As she stood up from the tub, Sara could feel an energy coursing through her veins that she had never experienced before. It was like the alien substances had awakened something inside of her that had been dormant for all these years.

 

She stumbled out of the bathroom, naked, her bare skin slick and glistening with water droplets. The room was left in disarray, the cold dirty water still in the tub. But Sara's mind was consumed by what had just happened, and she paid no attention to her nakedness or modesty. As she cautiously descended the creaky wooden staircase, there was a sudden groan from the steps and they collapsed beneath her weight.

 

Sara's body should have tumbled into a chaotic jumble of broken wood and dust, but instead she found herself suspended in mid-air. A strange and powerful force seemed to hold her up, defying all laws of gravity and physics. She could feel the weightlessness in her bones, an otherworldly sensation that both terrified and exhilarated her. Gazing down at the wreckage of the stairwell below, with shattered beams and splintered steps, Sara couldn't believe that she was floating without any visible means of support.

 

With a bewildered sense of wonder, Sara began to glide towards the floor in front of the front door. It was as if she had tapped into some unknown power, one that defied all logic and reason. Her movements were smooth and graceful, like a ballerina dancing on air. As she reached the ground, her feet touched down gently on the cold tile floor. Taking a deep breath, she tried to make sense of this inexplicable phenomenon. It was as if she had been granted some incredible ability beyond human comprehension.

 

For a moment, Sara stood there in the dimly lit hallway, her mind racing with a million questions and possibilities. Was she dreaming? Had the explosion somehow altered her in ways she couldn't understand? Or was this some strange side effect of the alien substances that had invaded her body?

 

The weight of what she had just experienced crashed down on her, threatening to overwhelm her with fear and uncertainty. But as she stood there, feeling the strange energy pulsating within her, a sense of determination began to blossom in her heart.

 

She couldn't dwell on the unknown or let fear paralyze her. Whatever had happened, whatever new abilities she had gained, Sara knew one thing for certain - she had a chance to make a difference. To protect and help others in need.

 

With newfound resolve, Sara stepped out of the farmhouse into the cool night air, her body still tingling with the remnants of the mysterious energy that now flowed through her veins. It was dark not from night but from dust and smoke in the air.

 

Sara's eyes widened in shock as she surveyed the destruction around her. The once pristine landscape was now marred by a giant crater, her beloved truck smashed and small fires scattered across her land. She took a step towards her truck, determined to assess the damage. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind and she willed herself to float. To her surprise, she rose several feet off the ground and began to glide swiftly towards her crushed vehicle.

 

As she approached the crater, Sara could feel the intense heat radiating from it, but strangely enough, she felt no discomfort. The dust that filled the air did not bother her either. With a mixture of awe and determination, she looked over her truck and with a simple whim, stooped down and grasped it by the frame. A surge of power coursed through her body, originating from deep within. She lifted the heavy truck effortlessly above her head and with another step, gracefully floated out of the crater with it held securely in her grasp.

 

Sara set the truck down and gazed at her hands and then around at what had once been a farm. She needed to see how far the devastation stretched and again willed herself into the air. She rose ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred feet and more. Sara hovered and slowly turned gazing into the distance, from this height she could see a very long way.

 

As Sara surveyed the damage from above, she could feel her heart sink. The explosion had not only destroyed her farm and home, but it seemed to have affected the surrounding area as well. She could see several other farms in the distance, all with varying degrees of destruction. Smoke billowed up from some and others were completely engulfed in flames.

 

Tears pricked at Sara's eyes as she thought about the farmers and families who had lost everything. And then her mind turned to the source of this devastation - the alien visitor which had done more than just threaten her world.

 

Leading up to this moment, NASA had boasted in the news about their plan to eliminate the danger looming over the world. But now it was clear that their efforts had failed miserably. And yet, this failure had bestowed upon her powers akin to those from one of "Tits" Cassidy's games back in high school. The thought of Cassidy flooded Sara's mind, bringing back memories she hadn't recalled in years.

 

These newfound abilities were ones she could use for good. She focused her gaze on the nearest farms, her vision blurring and then sharpening as she zoomed in on each location with incredible clarity. It was as if she were standing right there.

 

At the third farm, she saw a group of men and women frantically passing buckets along a line to combat a raging fire that had engulfed the farmhouse. And in the upper floor, trapped children cried out for help. Without hesitation, Sara took flight towards the distant farmhouse at lightning speed, breaking through the sound barrier with a resounding crack.

 

Her body cut through the air like a bullet, the rush of wind roaring in her ears as the farmhouse loomed closer and closer. The ground beneath her blurred into a mosaic of colors as she flew past forests and fields, determination blazing in her heart.

 

As Sara neared the blazing farmhouse, she could see the flames licking at the windows and smoke billowing out of the roof. The trapped children's cries grew louder, echoing in her ears. Without breaking her speed, Sara dove towards the burning building, feeling the intense heat wash over her as she approached.

 

With a mighty burst of energy, Sara crashed through a window on the upper floor, shards of glass shimmering around her like diamonds. She landed amidst the flames, but instead of feeling their scorching touch, she felt only a cool breeze caressing her skin.

 

The children huddled in a corner, their faces streaked with soot and tears. Their eyes widened in awe and fear as they beheld Sara standing before them unharmed by the inferno.

 

With a low, guttural rumble, Sara felt the alien energy coursing through her veins like hot lava. Her hands trembled with its power, and she raised them up, ready to unleash her abilities and save the innocent children trapped in the blazing inferno.

 

As the flames surged towards her, she braced herself for the searing heat, but instead felt a strange warmth enveloping her. With fierce determination, she focused her energy and directed it towards the fire, causing it to bend and twist around her like a living entity. The orange and red flames lapped at her skin, but she remained unscathed as she absorbed their fiery energy.

 

The intensity of the fire gradually intensified as it roared from every corner of the farmhouse towards Sara. But instead of being consumed by it, she began to glow with an otherworldly radiance as she channeled the flames into herself, using their power to fuel her own. Her body became a beacon of light amidst the chaos, a symbol of hope and strength in the face of danger.

 

In a matter of seconds, the blazing fire was extinguished, seemingly absorbed by Sara. She stood tall and proud, a glowing figure surrounded by an aura of vibrant red and shimmering blue energy. In that moment, she could feel the power coursing through her veins, filling her with immense strength and potential.

 

With a gentle touch, she gathered up the frightened children and carried them out to their grateful parents, who stared in astonishment at the radiant woman from the sky. Her presence was both comforting and otherworldly, as if she possessed powers beyond their understanding. The air around her crackled with electricity, hinting at the limitless possibilities that lay within her newly acquired abilities.

 

Spoiler

Sara is my Standard  Captain Marvel/Binary   I will post stats tonight I don't have access to those files at work.  I will also post the Altered CC in a few

 

[Asarasa]

IMPACT T+180

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

 

Sean screamed himself hoarse as the tidal wave washed over the Southern tip of Vancouver island, splitting apart is it fell inland. The crash and rush of water burst through his house, taking all in its wake. One more meteor impact, frightfully close, bounced him from his corner, slamming his dislocated shoulder into the shelves. Pain exploded across his delicate body and he blacked out.

 

The nightmares came with unconsciousness. It started as one of the usual one, but quickly grew strange. The noose about his neck was joined by nooses securing his wrists and ankles. From the barn, he was pulled down and down, through dirt and rock, until he broke through into the unfathomable depths of the sea, and was restrained on his back against an ancient stone altar, engraved with eldritch runes. Nude and vulnerable, he struggled and cursed, despite the frigid water and incredible pressure that should have been acting upon him.

 

He had played too many RPGs, read too many fantasy novels, watched too much anime as a teen and an adult.

 

Alien currents swirled around him, a perverse caress. Then, through the utter darkness of the deepest sea that he shouldn't have been able to see through, he could just make out the vague form of a giant, nebulous chthonian creature. Huge tentacles that should have dwarfed him reached out to him with delicate tips and joined the alien currents in a wanton embrace. Distant drums pounded a thunderous cadence with the beat of his heart, the tempo rising, as those tentacles slid across the hills and valleys of his pale body... and then plunged into any orifice they could find or make, the greatest invasion, his slim back arcing in spasmodic-

 

-Consciousness returned as simply as a flipped light switch.

 

The Visitor had irrevocably changed the world, and in some manner, it had changed him just as much. He had... expanded, in every conceivable way. He knew it with a self-awareness and intuition that should have been terrifying, but instead felt completely natural. 

 

It was like he had undergone a complete system reinstall, with a familiar operating system, only several iterations improved, on hardware that was at least a full generation advanced. If before, he'd been the best home PC you could get - with several inherent bugs his couldn't get rid of - now he was a quantum supercomputer, bug free, looking at the diagnostic run to understand the brand new system he was in control of.

 

His abrasions and dislocated arm were a distant memory, fleshed renewed, and arm back in place, better than before, but that was just the littlest of things. He continued to look inward. His hormonal imbalance was stabilized, and in fact, seemed to be overflowing with new hormones that he didn't recognize the structure of, or fully understand the purpose of. Yet. His chromosomes were XY, but he'd been intersexed, with a combination of De la Chapelle and Aromatase Excess Syndromes causing pubertal chaos he had been still dealing with. 

 

Done with. Without reaching down, he could tell he was completely female, even if his male identity remained intact. But he was so much more than just female. His mitochondria burst with an overabundance of energy, his cells were gorging on new sustenance and strange radiation, multiplying, changing, evolving. Muscle fibers, taut and multiplied, vibrated through his body like cello strings while blood too rich in nutrients and new cell types sang in his veins like a symphony. 

 

He could have stood with eyes closed to bask in the mesmerizing display for hours. It had been less than a nanosecond. 

 

Sean opened his eyes, and looked down from a much higher vantage that only felt right. He was standing in the doorway to the pantry. His feet were wet, cabinet doors had been ripped off, but the kitchen was more intact than he had expected. Glass crunched underfoot, but didn't hurt. Every single morsel of food was gone, packages ripped open and scattered, what he had stored in the pantry and what hadn't been washed away by the flood. Fridge and freezer doors were open, and what they had contained had been consumed as well. Consumed by him, every iota converted into mass and energy to fuel his incredible transformation.

 

He had to deal with intermittent sleepwalking, using various tricks and techniques, but had never sleepate until now.

 

He strode through his house, surveying the damage while delving into his marvellous changes. With no power, and dust and smoke high in the air, it should have been dark, but it wasn't to his eyes, far from it. He distinguish at least ten times the hues he once could have seen, easily into the ultraviolent range, and down to infrared as well. Human tetrachromacy, and more. Everything was sharper, contrasts crisper.

 

He'd always had a good memory, but now it was as near perfect as he could tell. A grandiose library of a Mind Palace, with every memory a book bound in lush leather and clearly labelled. Every memory he had of working with his dad as a kid, of him talking about his general contracting jobs when he'd lost interest in favour of computers came back to him. Main back and front impact windows had burst from the weight of water, but had rushed through. Furniture would need to be replaced, he'd lost countless collectibles, but the tile and hardwood were mostly intact, and the bones of his home sound. It would be expensive, but it could be repaired. He recalled the conversations with the architect and details of the blueprints and now, could see definite improvements that could be made.

 

Passing by the stairs to the basement, there was water more than halfway up. Nearly everything down there had to be considered a loss. He cocked his head, considered the inner workings of his ear, and dedicated more metabolic resources to them. He could hear the faint gurgle-thump of the sump bump working, and nodded. He fished his phone from the mesh pocket of the burst asunder swimming trunks that were hanging on only by the straining waist band, and placed it on the granite countertop in the kitchen.

 

Then taking a deep breath, deeper than he'd ever taken before, he walked down into the flooded basement. The water was cold, but it didn't bother him. If he stood on tip toes and tilted his head up, he could barely keep his face out of the water, but didn't bother. He shoved his way through the water, idly calculating the force he was exerting to do it so easily and he worked his way to the laundry room in the dark to turn off the water main and power supply, just in case.

 

It wasn't just his memory that had improved, letting him recall nearly everything he had ever been exposed to - good or bad - with crystal clarity, but his ability to collate and extrapolate and interpolate concepts and ideas together. They fed upon each other and he see the connections he hadn't noticed before, understanding expanding at an exponential rate. Able to sense his own physiology in minute detail, he knowledge of biochemistry and biomechanics was growing, and applying mathematics, he could see how those patterns and concepts could apply to certain facets of engineering, which... He could go on, and he did, thoughts following a thousand tangents to discover ever more new and wondrous things, that seemed so simple and obvious to him now.

 

He'd always been a smart kid, but reflecting back on that kid from where he now stood, he felt pity for him, how he hadn't seen what limited amount of math he'd known could be applied to so much else.

 

He climbed back out of the basement and water, pausing to wring out the water from his long hair, then made it the master bathroom, and what he'd been looking for.  The en suite was mostly unscathed, due to its positioning in the house adjacent to the master bedroom. The door had been slammed open, but the full length mirror on the back was intact, save for a single long crack that didn't disrupt what he saw.

 

Sean knew he had changed, he even knew in astonishingly detail in which ways he had changed. But seeing it was something else.

 

He stared in wonder, a thumb plucking at the waistband of his destroyed swim trunks, ripping them off and tossing them aside. He'd lost his bikini-top with his chrysalis, he'd noticed, but it hadn't seemed important, and was hardly an impediment. Planting his hands on his hips, he stared at himself in all his naked glory.

 

He laughed. He laughed and laughed, his laughter so rich and resonate and melodious he almost climaxed as the sound of his own voice.

 

Once, he'd been a man who looked like a particularly beautiful and curvaceous young woman with a cock between her legs and no balls. He'd been ashamed of his appearance for a long time, and even after accepting it, and coming to appreciate his looks enough to wear clothing that flattered instead of downplayed his figure, he still had issues, not the least being finding compatible romantic partners.

 

Now, he was an Amazonian Goddess, and he'd never be ashamed or hide his looks again. He raised his arms and flexed in a double-bicep pose.

 

He'd given up on ever being tall well before leaving Shelly, resigned to being modest height, even for a girl, at 5'4''. And with his hormone issues, building muscle had been nearly impossible, regardless of effort or time he put in. He ran and swam to keep active, but any weight or resistance training never seemed to show any dividends and he hated it. And girls and women had been jealous of his hourglass figure since he was thirteen, his waist tiny, his ass an eye-catching heart shape, and his breasts truly spectacular, large, but remarkably well shaped and perky despite their size, all wasted on someone who thought of himself as a guy and had hated it until he had learned - and was still learning - to embrace it. Boys and men who had known what he was tended to be both enthralled and repulsed by him, confused by his looks and their own feelings about them.

 

Genes, long dormant - or never activated - were now alive, taking his basest building blocks and designing the greatest individual possible from them. He now stood 6'4'' and 3/8ths of an inch tall. As tall as his younger sister Laurie. And he had packed on muscle, hard and sleek, a long finger tracing his defined abs, an educated estimate suggesting he had doubled his mass, to within plus or minus two ounces. He cocked a hip, and the toned thigh of one of his incredibly long, strong, and shapely legs flexed enticingly. The muscles of broadened shoulders rippled as he flexed his other arm again. His older sister Teagan had always been a jock, and had become a dedicated crossfit athlete after joining the army. He now had a similar amount of muscle - if harder and more efficient by an order of magnitude - but on a frame half a foot taller, and being much more curvaceous, the obvious power of his new body only served to make him even more feminine and alluring.

 

The curves and beauty that Sean had embarrassingly brought to the Cassidy children hadn't escaped enhancement either. His breasts, always large, had swelled further, if not as much as the rest of him, and grown even firmer. They were actually more proportional to the rest of him now, and truly epic. He waist, always small, was now tight with smooth, taut muscle. He ass would bring men to their knees. And his face...

 

When he had moved to California, everything had been more expensive than he had thought. He was just trying to get up and running, subsisting on ramen. Times were tough, and he had almost ended up living in his Grand Cherokee. He'd gotten more than a few compliments on his looks and voice. To make ends meet, he'd almost started an Only Fans account. He refrained, barely, but had lowered himself to competing in the occasional wet t-shirt contest, so he could pay rent and eat real food. With his big tits and a baby face that was more gorgeous than cute, he won more often than not.

 

Almost 28, he still got carded every time he went to a bar, the liquor store, or the cannabis shop, even in Canada were the legal age was only 19. Gone was the baby face, his fine, delicate features refined with a sharper edge and majestic countenance, matured into the phenomenal, gorgeous beauty of a woman in her mid twenties. His turquoise eyes were more vivid, intense and penetrating with ever climbing intelligence and confidence. His complexion, ivory pale, had deepened into a fair, healthy golden-bronze tan. His hair had been a rare, though natural, shade of red with golden undertones. With his new eyes, it shone with a million hues of ruby and gold, glowing with an unnatural luster, turning his hair into a mane of fire. And it hung all the way to the small of his back.

 

If Jessica Rabbit had had more realistic proportions and was a dedicated gym rat, she might look something like him. Brains, Beauty, and Brawn, he was the total package, and then some...

 

A hand reached between his strong thighs, hesitated for a moment so brief very few would recognize, then slipped a finger into the pinks folds he found down there. The first finger was followed by a second as he explored his new sex. A shudder and a sigh rolled through him as he found a most sensitive spot and pleasure rolled through him. He continued his explorations as he focused on his inner awareness.

 

Being intersexed, Sean couldn't sire children. He honestly hadn't given it much thought, but family had been on his mind before the Visitor came, and a part of it was on it afterward. Now, he was fully female. He knew it. He could have children. If and went he wanted. Controlling his reproductive cycle was a trivial thing for him. And it wasn't the only thing he could control.

 

He withdrew his fingers and tensed... it wasn't a muscle, precisely, or an organ, at least to start. His clitoris began to grow, lengthen, his vulva sealing up from below, internal systems shifting, not as much as one would expect. He smirked in self-satisfaction as in less than a minute, he had a cock again, now as well-endowed a male as he was a female. He could be father or mother, the choice was entirely up to him.

 

He had never been attracted to men. There was one he had decided he might try being with, just out of curiosity, who had been almost obnoxiously persistent in chasing after his affections, but in the end, Sean hadn't gone through with it - Logan had been chasing a doll, not a person. But now, knowing could have the right equipment when he wanted, the curiosity of what it would be like fucking a man returned a hundred times stronger. Look at me, I can play for any team now and have my choice of women and men...

 

An amused frown flickered across his luscious lips. He didn't care for the long hair though. He had never worn even close to his shoulders, though he had worn longer wigs for certain Halloween costumes. He wouldn't need them now. With another discrete tense and a demand to his metabolic energies, the waist long hair began to retract, until it was back to his usual pixie-ish undercut, shaved on the sides and back, longer on the top. He modulated the shape of the follicles, and left the hair in front a little longer, almost to his chin, a more feminine than unisex style, with a bit of wave to frame the strong, elegant lines of his face.

 

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

 

Sean recited the quote by Lazarus Long, smiling at the sound of his voice. Before, he had been a high, clear soprano, encouraged to join choir. Now, he was a marvellous and mellifluous mezzo-soprano, rich and resonant and fluid, and he was sure, able to easily cover the range of any soprano or contralto.

 

"I can do any of those things. Heinlein's wet dream. The ultimate redhead, stronger, faster, smarter and more competent than any man. But enough about me. I've been too self-indulgent. I've taken stock of myself, now to take stock of the city. And the world."

 

Sean dug scrounged through the remains of his bedroom and what he had gathered in the pantry for something to wear. Saving some of his shoes and bras had been a waste after all, since neither remotely fit him now. He was glad he had learned to sew, because even big and tall stores would have trouble finding him a proper fit. He managed to find a top he could stretch over his chest, the shirt strained taut serving as a crop top that barely reached the bottom of his breasts, the design of two twenty-side dice showing twenty obviously placed and the slogan 'They're natural' stretched to near illegibility. Thor had gotten him the shirt, he'd always gotten him shirts that poked fun at his curves. He found a stretchy pair of shorts that he had used to bum around the house that fit well enough as a pair of very short, very tight, biking shorts. No shoes, but he was far from the delicately and sensitively skinned man he'd been. 

 

It was good enough for now. And it wasn't like he had anything to be modest about.

 

He stepped through the remains of the patio door and dropped the six feet to the ground with an instinctive grace. The deck was gone, washed up and over the house. He garage was gone, torn from its mounting and so was his electric Mustang. A meteor had struck close, clipping the edge of the island beyond his row of houses. Patio stones had shifted, and there was a crack in the pool, water leaking South. Sod had all been torn up and washed away, leaving mud and clay in its wake.

 

Sean strode closer to the edge of his yard, unconcerned with the possible danger of collapse, and looked back. The tidal wave had dampened and dispersed the dust for at least a mile inland. But there was still smoke and dust in the air beyond and well above, the sun a sickly yellow-orange behind the suspended particles. All things considered, his house had fared reasonably well. He couldn't say the same for his neighbors on either side though, both multi-story affairs now barely qualifying for one.

 

The Hills weren't home, having gone to visit Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, to watch the passing Visitor from the expansive Dark-Sky Preserve. He hoped they didn't regret it. They were friendly enough, having each other over for BBQs during summer and collecting the mail if either were away for an extended length of time. Ben was definitely a boob-man, though, to his wife's chagrin, even if said boobs were attached to someone identifying as a guy.

 

On Sean's other side lived Joe Lund, who definitely didn't care for an intersexed freak living next to him. Especially for one who had the temerity to wear only a bikini top or sportsbra to cover his immodestly large breasts in the privacy of his own yard. Joe Lund was a widower, a bigot, with family who never visited. Sean couldn't imagine why. He was assuredly alone, but Sean couldn't at least give the rubble a look.

 

Subconsciously, he calculated the force needed to send his two-hundred-and-twenty-four pounds sailing through air for sixty feet with a casual jump and a graceful landing. He could sense all the muscles and tendons and electrical impulses working together in a symphony of motion, a more than perfectly designed machine. With only a little more effort, he was sure he could have doubled the distance.

 

He stepped up to the edge of the rubble and listened, but didn't hear anything. He could extend his hearing significantly, but even still, there was the remains of a three story house brought down here, and Lund could be unconscious, barely breathing, hard for even him to make out. He began digging, barely paying attention that he was moving hundreds of pounds with ease, estimating his muscle strength at eighteen to twenty times of it once was. Before, he could barely do a pullup on a good day. Now, he would be able to do one-handed pullups ad infinitum.

 

Being careful to maneuver so more didn't collapse, Sean considered what else he had to do. Find clothing that actually fit, more for comfort than actual need. Check on his friends, the few he had in Victoria, Sam and a few colleagues in Vancouver, Thor and his wife in Seattle. Then it was Montana. His family. Teagan had moved back. He wasn't sure if Laurie was back to visit from Indiana, or was playing in Europe for the off-season. His parents.

 

He didn't feel guilt, exactly, for the fracturing and fall of the Visitor. He'd only been a small part of a colossal effort involving tens of thousands world wide. He hadn't made an error. He simply hadn't had known as much as he did now. Off the top of his head, he could see seventeen definite improvements he could have made to his programs to manipulate draws on the electrical grids to power the Tesla towers, twelve other possible ideas to strengthen the grids themselves, if they had had the time, ways too make the tools and machines to make those improvements...

 

They would never know if those contributions would have made the difference. He wasn't the same now as he had been back then. And it was done.

 

Now it was time to pick up the pieces. Not guilt, but a sense of duty to his friends to help them in their need. And if it was too late for them, to help their families as much as he could, as well his own.

 

To tell them he was sorry. Nor for the Visitor, but what had come before.

 

He would also needed to see what he could do about getting power back on, here and elsewhere. People and first responders would need power for survival and recovery. Too many were dead and dying already. He had worked for the DoE for a time, he knew where most of the power plants were, he believed he had the capabilities to get them running again, provided they hadn't been destroyed beyond repair. He could probably swim to the mainland, but a boat would be better.  Vancouver first, to check on Sam, though he didn't have high hopes, her small apartment was on a high floor in a tower overlooking Stanley Park. From there, travel South to Seattle, better chance there. Thor was further South, almost in Tacoma, and-

 

"Help..."

 

Sean just made out the weak voice. He blinked. He had cleared a swath halfway through the rubble. He didn't feel a trace of exhaustion.

 

"Help, please, please, can you hear me?" Followed by wet coughing. Possibly a punctured lung.

"Hold on, Lund, I'll get you out," Sean called back, voice strong and sure, pitched to penetrate.
 

He braced himself and reached down, grasping the edge of a fallen, load-bearing wall. Even for him, it was heavy, but he managed to get it up with a fierce snarl, got his shoulder under it, and with a grunt, shoved, flipping it over and revealing the stairs to the basement, flush with the ground floor. Lund's basement hadn't flooded as much as his had, and he had though to take cover down stairs where it was heavily braced in the archway at the bottom of the stairs. Good idea, but bad luck had struck, the metal support had been knocked out by a 4x4 stud sailing straight down the stairs, making the archway fall down on top of Lund. He was pinned, and the water was still rising, getting close to his face on the stairs.

 

Standing at the top of the stairs, Sean watched his eyes go to his tits, his face, back to his tits, then widen even more when they traveled down to the conspicuous bulge in his shorts. Sean's lips widened in a grin as he read all the micro-expressions in Lund's face, the outrage and shame at the idea of being saved by an intersexed Amazon.

 

"Need a hand, Lund?" Sean offered brightly.

 

Lund grunted, having trouble breathing, and tried to keep stoic as the water reached his chin. "What happened to you, you freak?"

 

"I've decided I have enough off of keeping myself down around people who have a problem with me, Joe Lund," Sean declared in a tone that made Lund flinch, as he carefully worked himself down the stairs. "Took me long enough to accept myself. Now, I'm going to embrace it, regardless of people like you."

Sean studied Lund's predicament. He would have to move the crossbeam off Lund, then pull him up quick before the rest collapsed. Lund probably had more injuries than he could see, but there was little help for it. Lund had been down there for a while, and while not in danger yet, his body temperature was getting low.

 

"Here's what you are going to do, Lund. I need you to duck down for a second so I can get the space and leverage to get the crossbeam off you, then I'll pick you up and get you up here. Got it?"

 

"I'll drown!" Lund protested. "And your just a soft bodied titboy-"

 

"Titman," Sean corrected with a sharp smirk. "And while you are short and fat, I'm tall and strong. Do. It!"

 

The firm command seemed to strike Lund right in the hypothalamus and he reached on instinct. He ducked down, completely submerging himself. The crossbeam shifted, but Sean was there, catching it with his hands. He strained and lifted, forcing the crossbeam up, then moved so he was standing over Lund and got the crossbeam on his shoulders. Lund surfaced, gasping and Sean reached down catching him by the armpits. Lund weighed almost as much as he did, but now stood most of a foot shorter. He felt like a doll in his hands, his bulk rather than his weight making things awkward. Sean finally got him with arms  around his knees and back, holding him tightly to his chest like a baby, not helped with Lund's face pressed again his breasts.

 

"Here we go!"

 

Sean shrugged the crossbeam off his shoulders and jumped, completely clearing the stairs and the ground floor by another fifteen feet, landing in the area of Lund's backyard that he had already cleared.

 

"There, not so bad," Sean declared, setting Lund down with a tender gentleness the asshole didn't deserve.

 

Laying on his back, Lund groaned. His right leg and arm were broken. Looked like clean breaks. The reward for good deeds, the need for more good deeds. "Don't move, Lund, I'll be right back."

 

Sean went back into the ruins of the house. Found a bent kitchen stool and some curtains. They would suffice. He returned. Lund was watching him in disgusted caution. Sean stared back as he tore the metal stool apart as easily as though it had been string cheese, collecting two of the straight legs. Then the curtains were torn into strips just as easily.

 

Nearly next to Lund, Sean checked his limbs with strong but surprisingly gentle hands. Lund didn't know where to look with the impossible woman next to him and looked away. Sean was fine with that. Soon, he had Lund's arm and leg splinted. He had a good chance to fully recover. Sean straightened up and brushed off his hands on his shorts.

 

"Why?" Lund finally asked.

Sean looked down at him. Lund looked... small from 6'4'', but it wasn't because of his new height. "Because you and people like you can't hurt me anymore. I'll find you some water and a blanket or something, and then someone to take care of you, so I can look for and save people I actually like."

Sean strode away, his nearly naked body limned by the strange light of the dust and smoke shrouded sun. Lund swallowed. The strange big-titted boy had somehow turned into an even more strange Amazonian Goddess with terrifying turquoise eyes that were too confident and knowing by tenfold, and he/she/it scared him more than ever the fallen Visitor had.

 

 

Edited August 31 by Asarasa

[Shameless]

The world was Dark.   Abel felt himself floating, or at least something similar.  He remembered the meteor hitting the ground, flipping his truck, kicking his way out, and then falling over.   He remembered it with such clarity he knew it had happened.  
 

Having said that, he remembered the pain, and he didn't feel any, anymore.  He frowned, "Shit am I dead?"   
 

As he thought that, he began to feel a tingle.   It began at his extremities, and it moved up his arms and legs.  It almost felt like electricity, he'd used a Tens unit before and this was like that, just a tiny trickle of power, before it moved into his body.   He felt the trickle reach his heart, and the massive thump.     
 

It was as if he'd started the engine of his truck, the Beating of his heart seeming to be the revving of an engine, and the electrical current began to build, circulating and building.  He could feel the current running through his body, higher and higher, his whole body, every nerve, felt as if it was on fire, as if he were going to explode.
 

Just as his heartbeat and the current reached their crescendo, he actually opened his eyes.  It took him a few moments to realize where he was, high above his land and home, his body pulsing with electricity.  He'd been rising into the sky, but now that he was awake he began to descend.   
 

As he regained his senses, he quickly realized he had no clothes on.  Whatever it had happened, destroyed his clothing.   It was a minor miracle he didn't freak out, but he maintained control, and descended.  What he did notice was that There were no lights on, anywhere around, and the only spots of light he did see were caused by fires.  Immediately, he recalled the words of his father.   "No one has the power to defend the whole world.  Sometimes, it's all you can do to defend your own small piece of it."  Those words gave him his mission.  He needed to check on his parents and sister.
 

As he touched down just outside his door, he made his way into his home, quickly getting dressed, grabbing a backpack and stuffing it with supplies.  
 

Without a truck, it was going to take awhile to reach his parents' home, or at least that's what he thought.   He set out on foot, a hike of at least twenty minutes, but There were yet more surprises for Abel.   As he stepped off, he found that he had covered almost a football field's distance in a moment.  He paused for a moment, and then smiled.  "Awesome." 
 

With that, he stepped off again, quickly doubling his speed, and then doubling it again.   A long hike was done in under a minute, even allowing for him to slow down so no one saw him approaching. 
 

It wasn't so much that he he expected looting, but he couldn't absolutely rule it out.  He went up to the door and knocked  "Mom, Dad, Shannon, It's Abel, Open the door!"  Then as if an afterthought, he added "Munchkin."
 

There was no answer at first, and that gave Abel a moment to realize he'd just cracked the wood by the door frame when he knocked, not something he had ever done before.
 

After about twenty seconds, he could hear the door being unlocked, and found his sister, a baseball bat in her right hand, as she opened the door.  She dropped the bat and hugged him.  "Abel!  You're okay!"  
 

Abel embraced his sister, a Senior in Highschool this year, and nodded.  "Yeah, i'm fine.   Where's mom and dad?"
 

"Mom was still at the hospital, she was supposed to be getting off, and dad went to go pick her up since her car's in the shop.  Abel what the hell's happening?"  The panic tinging her voice was evident, event to him.
 

He released her, and nodded. "Things will be okay Shannon."
 

"How do you know that Abel?"  She asked.  
 

"Because we're still here."  He said quietly, and Shannon found strength in his words.  They calmed her down, and he nodded.
 

"You're going to go find mom and dad."  It wasn't a question.

 

 

"Where's your truck Abel?"
 

"Flipped over and definitely not drivable."  
 

"How'd you get here?"  
 

"I ran."  
 

"That's a long way, aren't you tired?"
 

"It is, and No, I'm not." 
 

She just looked at him.  "You'll explain later?"  she asked him softly.
 

He nodded.  "As much as I can.  Now go back inside, and don't unlock it until we come back."
 

"Codeword?"  it was an old safety system their parents developed to keep the kids safe when they were home alone, and Abel nodded. "Switch to secondary."

She nodded, and made to go back inside, but not before hugging him again.  "I'm glad you're okay."  After that, she closed the door, and Abel smiled.  At least one person he cared about was still alive, and his family home was evidently okay.  
 

After a taking his bearings, he set off again, albeit much slower than he'd been outside of town and several blocks away he heard someone scream.
 

He turned from his task out of reflex, and quickly came upon a woman being accosted by two men.  At least they looked mostly like men.   Their arms were longer, and their flesh looked nasty and rotten.   Their eyes shone with an eerie light, and He frowned.  "GENTLEMEN!  I don't believe she wants to go with you!" He called out, his voice almost booming.  They turned, and his stomach sank, He'd have called them zombies in another time, but the woman was forgotten, as they charged him.   Falling back on his limited self defense knowledge, he prepared to receive them.   
 

He dodged their reckless charge, their hands grasping only air even as he sunk his left fist into the first one.  He could literally feel his fist impact organs, what remained, and even the spine, which shattered under the assault, the "man" crumpling to the ground after this.  
 

The second turned to try to grab him again, and Abel once again sank his fist into the torso of the "man" leaving him crumpled on the ground near the other one.   "Ma'am are you alright?"
 

She was on the edge of being in shock, and could only point behind him.  When he turned around, he saw the two crumpled piles of flesh,  still moving, trying to reorient their torsos towards him and the woman.  
 

He didn't know what had happened to them, but they'd attacked her, he could see where her clothing was torn, and come at him.  He couldn't leave them here if there was a chance they'd recover and attack someone else.  "I'm going to shoot them ma'am."
 

She nodded, and flinched visibly as he shot them both calmly in the head.   The light faded from their eyes, and the crumpled again, not to rise again.
 

He looked at her.  "We're still several blocks out from the Hospital, where i'm headed.  "I'll escort you there, The doctors can take a look at you.  Here you may want this."  

Her clothing was torn, giving him a view very close to being improper, and he offered her his jacket, which she took and wrapped around herself.  he put his backpack back on.
 

"Thank you.. For saving me."   

 

Abel nodded. "You're welcome, ma'am."
 

"No more Ma'am.  My name's Katherine,  Katherine Moss.  Please just call me Katherine."
 

"I'm Abel Cross.  Call me Abel."  He smiled.

He helped her to his feet, and she walked beside him as he set out for the Hospital.  He didn't know what the hell he'd just dealt with, but he hoped that would be the end of it.

[SalmonMax]

Rochelle didn't make it home before something gave out. She felt dizzy, lightheaded, and the world was spinning around her. Concussion maybe, she thought feebly. Inner ear? Sounds did seem kind of muted. She caught herself when she fell but finally lowered herself to the rough asphalt of the street. The smell was awful; choking fumes from a neighborhood full of synthetics and plastics burning. Smoke inhalation? Shit.

 

Despite all that, she didn't pass out. Not quite. There in the street, on her belly, trying to get her balance, the world bled into nonsense. Colors smeared around her, warbling and chirping. Roach unraveled, like a ball of yarn being pulled at. The world around her, the very thoughts and memories in her mind, unspooled and spaghettified and were pulled into a churning singularity between consciousness and unconsciousness.

 

Memory was the first thing to knit back together. Memory of blurred vision, of inchoate sounds. Of warmth. Of smells. The first memory of a newborn child, crystallizing. It went on from there; Rochelle re-living herself. Knitting herself back into existence. Each moment was bright and fresh and clear, and she gradually found context for these early experiences as her infant senses became more able to make sense of her environment. The irony wasn't lost on her, when she reclaimed the capacity for irony. Once, seventeen years ago, she'd had to learn how to assemble a cacophony of random light and noise into images and sounds that had meaning.

 

Now she was doing that again, only more.

 

It was a mess though, a riot. Every sense screamed into her brain. On some level she knew this wasn't normal, she wasn't normal, nothing was normal. Roach wasn't lying on pavement, illuminated by firelight and moonlight. She was adrift on a vast ocean of energy, constantly oscillating between rest states. Quadrillions of electrons screamed at each other, stopping her from just falling to the center of the Earth through the surface. Radiation from across the spectrum beat a savage timpani on her back. Infrared, microwave, radio...and just a smidge of red and orange and yellow.

 

Deprived of the shield of feeble human senses in the face of reality with its mask ripped off, Rochelle should have been scoured away to nothing. The dance of a million billion trillion quantum states in their wild bundles of entangled madness was too much for anyone, anything, to take in. Shutting it out, ignoring it, slamming the mask back down was the only way forward. But she didn't do that; she didn't know how. Instead she swallowed it. That bright ball of pulsing awareness was pushed back to the back of her head where it sat like the sun in the sky. Too much to look at directly, but illuminating everything else. And somehow, her subconscious managed to contain those overlapping infinities rather than being shredded by them.

 

Roach opened her eyes. The world was blurry through her tears, like it had been when she was newborn. She propped herself up on one arm and used the other to wipe across her face, bringing everything into focus.

 

The street, the neighborhood, was a disaster. Trees lay strewn about like matchsticks, most of them burned or even still on fire. Houses were in tatters; those that still stood at all. That first glance told her everything she needed to know. There was noise in the signal, but the way the trees lay, the direction that the houses had been scattered in as they broke... Rochelle looked up at the sky. There. The incoming space rock had exploded there in midair. Too close to the ground...much too close. There'd be a crater dug by the explosive force of it further in, but she wouldn't have to go that far to get home.

 

She got to her feet somehow, despite feeling like she weighed five times more than she did. Roach already knew what she'd find. Two blocks closer to the blast center. More exposure, more energy reaching the ground. Her home was gone, pulverized as if by a hammer from on high. Her mother...probably not even recognizable as having been human in the ash and rubble. All of that streamed through her brain as she surveyed the scene for just a few seconds, but she moved forward anyway. Whatever had changed in her, whatever was different, she was still a frightened young human, and every instinct pushed her to try to find someone she trusted to face this with.

 

=-=-=-=-=-=

 

It was over an hour before emergency vehicles reached the place Rochelle was sitting in front of the remains of her mother's house. Firefighters were shocked to find a 'survivor,' and she had to explain she'd come from further out and found all this. From there it was an ambulance that did not take her directly to a hospital since the paramedic didn't find any immediate medical issues with her other than some bruises and other minor injuries that they treated then and there. The hospitals were already overflowing with people in much worse condition.

 

She was taken to one of the temporary housing facilities being set up around the perimeter of the Impact Zone, assigned a cot and a lockbox, and...that was it. With only the clothes she was wearing, and the contents of her pockets, Roach was left on her own in the middle of a sports arena in Spokane, as the city struggled to cope with the magnitude of the disaster that had befallen it.

 

Growing up, Roach had always been the kind of person who valued solitude. She'd always thought she just wanted to be left alone. Sitting there on a cot, in dirty sooty clothes with no one left in the world who knew where she was...and no one where she was that knew who she was...she realized that she'd never really known what being alone meant.

 

Her phone was broken. She couldn't call her dad. Sooner or later someone would get around to her and ask if she had someone to stay with, but for now they'd found it easier and faster just to assume not.

 

Rochelle took her phone out and looked it over. Yep. Still broken.

 

Except...

 

a sports arena would have certain supplies, cleaning supplies, janitor's closet; there were chemical reactions (snapshots of classrooms; formula on chalkboards, paragraphs from textbooks) that could make a sort of epoxy-glue type mixture; the cellphone screen can be removed, immersed on one side in the epoxy, cured...a temporary fix but it would let it function again if the actual screen elements weren't too damaged; and she didn't need the screen to work, just the keypad and internals...and all she needed was a screwdriver to get the case open, check the battery connections; those were the most likely to fail because of the impact from falling at the school, temporary repairs could be made with the same epoxy and a bit of spare copper; rip out wiring from a small electrical appliance if needed...

 

Fortunately, no one really had time to keep an eye on her as she padded out of the makeshift barracks-style sleeping area and searched out a janitor's closet. Always one to take a locked door as a personal challenge, Roach had been picking locks since she'd been inspired to start learning to at twelve. She even had some improvised picks she'd made. The result wouldn't have made her much of a cat burglar, but a janitor closet wasn't exactly a sealed vault in a bank. And Roach herself was...different now. Focusing in, she could clearly make out the tiny scraping of metal on metal, visualize how that translated into tumblers moving. The door opened easily and quickly, and she found everything she needed inside. Even protective gear.

 

Half an hour later, her phone worked. The device was half-mummified in duct tape, and the screen was still cracked, even if now glued together; the images that came up on it were a little blurred now and always would be...but none of that mattered. She could call her dad.

 

For a second her hand trembled, and a memory of her mother's face surfaced. Tired, frustrated...that was how she looked when Roach had left to go to the school to wait for destruction. It would always be the final view she had of her. Black spots rose up in her eyes, and for that second all the emotions she'd stuffed away threatened to burst their pen and wash over her. Slamming that door felt bad...like she was slamming the door on a puppy who just wanted to play in the yard.

 

Not now. In a few minutes. Dad first.

 

Surely Shelly was all right. The odds it had been hit were tiny. A little town like that? Surely he was fine. Even so, it took a lot more effort than it should have to move her thumb to 'Call' and tap the repaired screen.

[Nina]

The World after the Visitor

 

Although the world was severely damaged, it had not been completely destroyed. In some US and Canadian cities, power was quickly restored after the disaster by simply flipping breakers. However, in areas where destruction was more widespread, it would take days or even weeks to restore power. In major cities like New York City, Seattle, and Chicago, the devastation was beyond repair. The once-thriving hearts of these bustling metropolises were now nothing but  craters with surrounding ruins buried under piles of debris and ash.  The death toll was in the millions.

 

As the dust settled and the fires slowly burned out, survivors emerged from their shelters to assess the damage around them. Families searched desperately for loved ones among the wreckage, their faces filled with sorrow and disbelief at the immense loss they had suffered. The once-vibrant cities now stood as somber reminders of what once was, their eerie stillness and emptiness haunting.

 

Once the skies cleared, the US Government relocated to Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado for safety and stability. This Cold War fortress was equipped to withstand disasters with its multiple nuclear reactors providing power to the underground complex and nearby cities. Martial law was declared for the duration of the emergency, and relief efforts were organized for the hardest-hit areas.

 

While many areas around the world were spared from the widespread destruction seen in North America, they were not completely unaffected. Debris fell as the earth continued to rotate, causing small impacts across all seven continents. Power grids collapsed in several regions due to the disruption of the Tesla Towers, and repairs were slow especially in poorer nations.

 

The Middle East became a hotbed of conflict as Iran capitalized on their newfound balance of power. They launched a destructive strike against Israel, who had lost support from their satellite networks and main ally, America. Tensions also escalated between India and Pakistan, with several clashes over disputed territories occurring in the region.

 

 

The aftermath of the devastating event brought out the worst in humanity. As resources dwindled and societies fell into chaos, people turned against each other in desperation.

 

In Europe, economic instability and food shortages led to riots and looting. The continent was divided as countries closed their borders and hunkered down to protect their own citizens. In some areas, extremist groups took advantage of the chaos to spread their ideologies, causing even more violence and turmoil.

 

Africa, already plagued by poverty and political unrest, was hit hard by the loss of power and communication. Aid organizations struggled to provide assistance to those in need, while warlords and rebel groups took advantage of the situation to further their own agendas.

 

Asia also faced its share of challenges as nations fought for control over limited resources. China, Russia, and Japan emerged as superpowers in this new world order, with conflicts erupting between them over territory and resources.

 

Australia was relatively unscathed by the initial disaster but soon found itself facing a new threat – massive wildfires caused by sparks from malfunctioning Tesla Towers. These fires ravaged the already drought-stricken continent, leaving entire cities in ruins.

 

In South America, governments collapsed as they were unable to provide basic services to their citizens. Crime rates skyrocketed as people resorted to violence in order to survive.

 

Even the remote Arctic regions were not immune to the effects of the disaster. As temperatures rose due to climate change exacerbated by the event, ice caps melted at an alarming rate, leading to flooding in coastal areas around the world.

 

In this new world order where survival was the top priority, international cooperation became almost non-existent. Nations looked after their own interests first, leading to increased tensions between countries and further deterioration of global stability.

 

But amid all this chaos and destruction, there were glimmers of hope. Small communities banded together for support and protection against outside threats. Scientists worked tirelessly to find solutions for renewable energy and to rebuild communication networks. And in a few places, leaders emerged who were determined to unite their people and work towards a better future for all.

 

In the midst of the chaos and destruction, a new group emerged – the Altered. These were people and animals who had been exposed to the strange energies of the Visitor and had been given extraordinary abilities.

 

Some were able to manipulate elements such as fire, water, and air with their minds. Others possessed superhuman strength, speed, or durability. And there were even those who could control technology or communicate telepathically.

 

As word of these individuals spread, fear and suspicion surrounded them. Many viewed them as a threat and tried to hunt them down or exploit their powers for their own gain.

 

But despite the dangers, some Altered banded together to protect themselves and others like them. They formed communities and used their powers for good, helping those in need and trying to restore order in the chaotic world.

 

However, not all Altered used their powers for good. Some saw their abilities as a means to dominate and control others. These rogue Altered formed gangs and terrorized those who were unable to defend themselves.

 

The existence of the Altered also caught the attention of world governments. Some saw them as potential weapons in their struggle for power while others saw them as threats that needed to be contained.

 

As tensions rose between humans and Altered, it became clear that these two groups would have to find a way to coexist if there was any hope for rebuilding society.

 

But this task would prove difficult as both sides struggled with fear, mistrust, and conflicting ideologies. The future of humanity hung in the balance as they grappled with this new reality – a world where ordinary people now had extraordinary powers.

 

It really began in a small town in northern Montana called Shelly…

 

Spoiler

This story thread is over. I will begin the next one later today or tomorrow which will put the characters in Shelly. You will still be able to tell more of your immediate after effect stories as flashback type things. if anyone ahs any questions feel free to hit me up. Everyone gets 3cp for this thread.