They said it was a meteor. Just another celestial rock hurtling through space, set to be locked away at NASA's Ames Research Center for "study."
They were wrong.
The room where it happened on the 11th of November— Lab C-23 — had been sealed off. The meteorite table remained exactly where it was, surrounded now by reinforced glass and biometric locks.
The surveillance footage of that moment had been scrubbed from public archives, replaced with a bland excuse of "technical difficulties."
But those who worked in the facility whispered.
They remembered the young man who had touched something that wasn't from here — from anywhere.
They remembered how he vanished into thin air, swallowed by a light so blinding it turned shadows inside out. They remembered the noise — or lack of it.
Not a bang. Not even a hum. Just absence.
One scientist, Dr. Levra, Director and chief at NASA Ames, hadn't slept more than four hours a night since.
She watched the security tapes over and over, replaying that single frame where Mirus's body twisted just before the flash — like it was being pulled from all directions, distorted by something beyond comprehension. And the meteorite… it had disappeared with him.
No residue. No particles. No energy signature. Just gone.
And now — on a quiet Monday morning six months later— something changed.
It was subtle at first. A single sensor in Lab C-23 pinged to life. Then two. Then all of them. There were reports of earthquakes all over California stretching all the way to Washington reading as high 6.0 on the Ricther scale all morning.
Dark clouds began to brew and a storm wailed and poured heavily all over California. There were even reports of massive solar flares that happened to affect and disrupt satellites and even affecting the productivity of some systems on earth. It was as if something was coming and kicking up a massive stir. This went on a for a while all morning.
Until–The lights flickered. The temperature dropped sharply and a major alert popped up on the mainframe of the main Ames Laboratory:
MASS RE-ENTRY EVENT DETECTED. MASS RE-ENTRY EVENT DETECTED.
And then he was just… there.
Collapsed in front of the display.
Naked. Pale. His body steamed gently, as if he had taken a hot shower on a cold morning.
His skin shimmered with iridescent pulses that moved beneath the surface like liquid constellations. His hair had turned silver-black, like comet dust, and his eyes — though closed — twitched as if dreaming of burning stars in REM sleep.
A low humming filled the room. Not mechanical. Not even sound. More like the memory of a frequency that didn't belong in this reality.
The door slammed open as alarms blared and a woman ran in.
Dr. Levra stood frozen in the doorway, face pale.
"It's him," she whispered.
Security scrambled. Medical staff arrived. A full lockdown was initiated. They covered Mirus's body in a containment blanket and loaded him into a containment pod — but no one could ignore the way the lights dimmed around him, how screens glitched, or how every compass on the base twitched violently in his presence.
No one said it out loud, but they all felt it: he hadn't just come back.
Something about him was off.
The first thing he whispered as he sat despondently in a trance and opened his eyes was,
"Where…was I?"
"That's what we would like to know Mirus, just where were you?"
A voice called out to him.
They know my name? He thought to himself.
"Where did you go?"
"…"
No response…
"That was an expensive and important space rock you happened to hijack from the United States Government."
"The President would like it back."
"…"
A tall muscular white man in a black suit and black glasses spoke from the other side of the glass. He was definitely some type of government official. He was standing next to Dr.Levra as they examined him from what they thought was a safe distance.
"Hellooooooo?!"
"…"
No response…
"Give him some time Vice President Kulkin, he's just waking up and he's still disoriented and recovering from whatever has happened to him. You wont get any answers this way."
Dr.Levra was trying to reassure the man next to her, he was someone you didn't want to wrong.
He was the right hand man to the President of the United States, the Vice President.
A man of such high authority was not to be trifled with.
Ahem.
She cleared her throat nervously.
"We should have ran a litany of tests on him already, the results should be coming back soon enough."
Kulkin Scoffed.
"Dr.Levra was it?"
He lowered himself to her level and looked at her as if she were stupid.
"Listen sweetheart, I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation at hand here. The President—needs that rock. And If he can't have that rock then he needs to know exactly what happened to that rock. It is imperative to ascertain as much as we can about that rock, or the President will have both of his feet, in both of our asses."
He sighed and looked down, then abruptly looked at her.
"I don't think you want that."
Mirus sat strapped and watched from behind the glass.
He could vaguely remember what happened to him, but it felt as if he just woken up after being asleep for a stupendously long time, feeling as if he became self aware again for the first time and started existentially questioning everything he had ever done.
Just how did he find himself in this situation? Why was he even alive? For some reason he felt incredibly small at the moment and became filled with dread.
Ugh. I feel like my head was shoved into pot boiling water. I keep seeing stars.
Mirus sat there listening to the discussion the two in front of him were having, oddly enough he could hear them through the glass.
"The estimated value of that space rock was estimated to be valued at over a DECILLION dollars!" The man shouted.
The woman flinched at his words, he was yelling at her harshly. His veins bulging from his forehead and neck when he spoke. Mirus couldn't blame her for being intimidated by the big man.
"Why was the rock not secure in the first place?!"
"We only wanted to observe it more effic—FUCK THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD DR, I SAID THIS ROCK WAS WORTH A DECILLION DOLLARS GOD DAMMNIT!"
"Sir I—DO YOU EVEN GIVE A FUCK?!"
The Vice President cut her off angrily shouting at the top of his lungs, he was clearly a military man.
This was all very jarring for Mirus.
He found himself in a very confusing and precarious situation but had no recollection as to how he got here.
Rock? Decillion dollars? Scientific method? The President? What the fuck is going on? Why aren't I home in bed?
I'm in a cold, windowless room. Strapped down like some kind of alien freak.
He had been listlessly looking forward the entire time without focus, only now he decided to take in his surroundings and look around.
Craning his neck back and forth, slowly examining his surroundings, it was obvious this was some sort of government facility.
Government facility… Government?
That's right! He was at NASA and… then what?
He began to trace his steps in earnest while the yelling persisted in the background.
6 months Prior…
A group of college students, clad in casual jeans, oversized sweatshirts, and college freshman enthusiasm, stepped off a bus onto the grounds of NASA's Ames Research Center.
The California sun shimmered over the low-slung buildings and towering wind tunnels as they filed in, wide-eyed and buzzing with excitement.
Inside, a sleek, modern auditorium glows with dim blue lighting, like the inside of a spaceship. A tall woman in a navy NASA jacket stands at the front, gesturing to a massive curved screen behind her. The screen shows a swirling galaxy slowly rotating — hypnotic, endless.
"This is the Whirlpool Galaxy," she begins, voice confident and calm. "Over 23 million light-years away, yet we can see its structure… almost like a fingerprint of the universe itself."
Gasps echo as the screen shifts to the famous image of the Pillars of Creation — towering clouds of interstellar dust and gas, backlit by a sea of stars.
"What you're seeing isn't just beautiful," she continues, "it's where stars are born. You're looking at stellar nurseries — creation itself, frozen in time."
Phones are raised. Notes are scribbled down. One student, a quiet astronomy major with green eyes and a sketchbook, scribbles a detailed drawing of the pillars, his pencil moving fast.
Then they're led down a hallway lined with glass displays and soft white lighting. Inside one case: a meteorite, no larger than a loaf of bread, but pocked with strange, shimmering crystals that seem to catch the light in unnatural ways.
"This one landed in Alaska two weeks ago, we still dont have a name for it yet," says another guide, a younger scientist in her early 30s. She leans in like she's telling a secret.
"Inside it, we found isotopes that have never been observed before — not even in the lab. We're talking about potential catalysts for energy conversion that could change everything — propulsion, medicine, even agriculture."
A hush falls over the group. One of the engineering students leans in, eyes flickering with wonder.
"You mean… this rock could power a ship?"
"Or grow a city," the scientist says, with a small, knowing smile.
The tour ended as the group arrived at a sealed lab visible through reinforced glass.
Inside, robotic arms gently manipulate another chunk of meteorite, glowing faintly under ultraviolet light. The group watched in silent awe as possibilities unfold in their imaginations — stardust, knowledge, and futures unknown, all within reach.
Mirus stood near the back of the tour group, his thoughts occupied by the meteorite behind the glass. The others had begun to shuffle toward the exit, still chatting about galaxies, propulsion theories, and career plans.
But for Mirus, the universe wasn't just a career path — it was everything.
Since he was a kid, he'd been obsessed with astral bodies — quasars, nebulae, rogue planets. The unknown wasn't something to fear; it was something to chase.
That's why he was on this trip.
"Hey, uh—I think I left my sketchbook by the exhibits," Mirus said quickly to the guide. She barely looked up from her clipboard, distracted, and gave a nod.
"Five minutes," she said. "We're heading to the bus."
He nodded and mischievously slipped away, back into the hall where the meteorites were held. The corridor was quieter now, just the hum of fluorescent lights and the distant echo of footsteps.
Then he saw it. Something out of this world.
One meteorite fragment hadn't yet been placed in its case — it rested under a spotlight, atop a high-tech table surrounded by sensor arrays and hovering monitors.
It glowed faintly, pulsing like a heartbeat. It wasn't just luminous — it shimmered with color spectrums he couldn't name, like light from another dimension folding in on itself.
Mirus felt his pulse rise.
His gut screamed at him to leave it alone, but curiosity had already taken the wheel. He stepped closer, hands trembling. His breath caught as he reached out and—
A scientist across the lab shouted, "Wait! Don't—!"
Touched it.
The second his fingertips grazed the stone, something shifted. Reality cracked.
But he was already gone.
In a flash of white-hot light, Mirus vanished, the rock disintegrating into glittering particles as if being absorbed into him. There was no sound, no scream—only absence as if he were never there.
And then—motion.
Mirus was flung into the infinite — not through space, but through existence.
His body shot like a comet through the void, tearing through cosmic filaments, collapsing wormholes, and oceans of mana older than creation itself.
Suns exploded around him and through him. Black holes swallowed him and spit him back out.
He tumbled through the Pillars of Creation, atomized and resurrected, his mortal shell dissolving over and over until there was nothing left but a soul screaming in the raw language of the stars.
He died. And he died. And died again. And again.
Each time, he was reborn — stronger, brighter, forged anew.
His bones were crystallized stardust. His blood shimmered with galactic energy.
Every pass through a black hole rewrote his DNA, every collision with dark matter thickened his form with power never meant for mortals.
If one could track his journey across spacetime, they'd see the symbol of infinity traced in glowing fire.
How long did it last?
An hour? A thousand years? Eternity?
There was no time. Only becoming.
Then—silence.
Suddenly, as if the universe had exhaled and regurgitated everything that happened, Mirus reappeared.
One breath, and he was slammed back to Earth, back in the NASA facility.
THUD.
He hit the floor hard, naked, steaming, unconscious.
The meteorite he had touched? Gone. Only an empty table remained, with security alarms screaming around him.
Scientists rushed in. Security officers shouted, guns half-raised, but hesitant.
Someone called in higher-ups. Phones buzzed. Orders were given.
"Get him contained."
"He's not normal."
"Vital signs—wait, what the hell?!"
…
Ah, I understand now.
Damn.
This is fucked up isn't It?
"SIR!"
Dr.Levra finally found the courage to shout back at the VP in an attempt to shut him up.
Immediately, he was shocked and appalled. A woman, half his size and with not nearly enough merit decided to talk back to him?
"HEY! YOU DO NOT! CATCH AN ATTI—
"MR.VICE PRESIDENT! He is finally responsive!"
She ANGRILY cut him off, finally getting him to shut up and focus his ire elsewhere.
She then sighed, this man's temper was currently too much for her to handle.
He huffed and stopped shouting then turned to face the glass with a raised eyebrow.
All the other scientists and assistants in the lab began to gather around the containment pod that held Mirus.
"Hey kid! I'm starting to get really impatient here."
Mirus finally looked up and locked eyes with the man named Kulkin. For some reason he looked extremely familiar.
Why did he recognize this man? Why was this man so annoying? What did I do to him? Why are they holding me here?
"I want to go home." Mirus said meekly.
"Heh." The VP scoffed again and shook his head. He walked up to the glass and slammed his fist on it.
Mirus wasn't startled but it did get his full attention.
"Six months ago, you came to this NASA station and touched a meteorite you never supposed to touch, let alone see— He briefly turned to his right and glared daggers at the good DR— and now it's gone. Where did it go? Where did you go? Who do you work for? I need answers. Or you are never going home."
Mirus looked at this man ruefully. Why was he being such a dick?
"I don't know, I went back to check out the meteorite because I thought it was cool but my curiosity got the best of me and I touched it. Next thing I know I'm—I'm—BWUUUAAAGGHHH!"
Mirus threw up all over the place.
There wasn't even anything in him, just white stomach acid.
The thought of space and sensation of everything he had seen and felt was too much for him still and immediately overloading his senses when he thought about it.
Gross.
"For the love of fucking god! Can one of you white coat motherfuckers make sure he's not fucking falling apart in there!"
"And sterilize the fucking room!"
Other scientists and security stepped inside the pod, to clean everything up.
When that was done they proceeded.
Ahem.
The VP cleared his throat and sighed.
This was very frustrating for him. He was used to things proceeding very smoothly in an orderly and timely fashion given his status and rank. Mirus was clearly out of his control at this moment.
Mirus once again locked eyes with the VP, he felt better after throwing up. His situation still wasn't any better though.
He didn't see himself getting out of this anytime soon.
Why am I being treated like a criminal? Did I do something?
Hmmm.
That's right! That dammed rock.
What did it to me? I feel…different...
I touched it.
I wasn't supposed to.
A blinding white flash happened. Then nothing.
When I opened my eyes, I was floating in a void. Stars were collapsing. Time felt like it folded in on itself. My skin—no, my entire body—felt like it was being rewritten.
He could feel and sense everything around him.
The electricity, the air, he could feel everything within what seemed to be a hundred mile radius, the people, animals and their pulses…
now that he thought about it, he had been hearing everything the two behind the glass have been saying since he came to. This was odd… it all felt extremely alien to him.
What were all these sensations? It's like his senses were being pulled in a thousand different directions.
Wasn't a room like this supposed to be soundproof? I should only hear things when the microphone is on…
"Earth to Mirus! Kid!!! I am talking to you!"
Mirus has been engaged in eye contact with the VP but he wasn't necessarily looking at him, he was dissociating, completely lost in thought.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
He pounded his fist against the window again. Mirus finally snapped out of it. He even felt a bit agitated by his constant pestering.
He was trying to get himself together and differentiate left from right but he was having a hard concentration due to the man yelling at him.
Mirus' eyes widened as if something dawned on him.
Am I even in the position to be agitated right now?
Once the government got their hands on you like this, your life was forfeit. Ive seen this scene in movies plenty of times, and it never ends well.
A few things became clear to Mirus at that moment.
He was in way too deep.
Vice President? Ive been gone for six months? Imprisoned in a government laboratory? Dragged like a rag droll through oblivion by a space rock? Im radioactive?
Just how did he happen to find himself in this insane situation?
Now that I think about it.
It's strange—I'm lighter, as if I could just drift away at any moment. But at the same time, I feel heavier too. Not weighed down exactly… more like I've expanded.
Broader. Denser. Like I take up more space than before.
He for sure felt it, his whole being was different, what constituted and made him a human being was different.
He couldn't necessarily see it, but he knew.
Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck Fuck!
I'm about to get experimented on!!!
Hell. No.
No. No. No. No. No.
This is one of my top five worst what if scenarios come true! How could this happen!
I don't know what the fuck is wrong with me but I refuse to be experimented upon and imprinsoned in some Government lab.
I'm fucking freaking out!
Why did this have to happen to me?
A female scientist in a hazmat suit ran up to Dr.Levra and the VP with urgency.
"We are now ready to move forward with the preliminary set of tests for the subject DR.Levra."
Upon hearing the word test Mirus shuddered at the thought of what was about to happen.
The VP turned around as if someone had spit on his neck and just insulted him.
"I thought you said the test were completed and results were on their way!" He had an angry look on his face as he yelled at Dr.Levra and the other scientist.
"Vice President Kulkin, with all due respect sir, this is a field center not a hospital. We had to wait for medical doctors and their equipment to arrive. Luckily, we did not have to wait too long." The scientist replied quickly and curtly.
She couldn't stand to watch her boss be talked down upon. Especially by some man.
Dr.Levra was soft spoken, and timid but she was tenacious. If anything her science spoke for her. For that, she had earned the respect of those she worked with.
"God Damnit woman, do you know who you're talking to? What's your name?"
"Dr.Michelle Roznik, Dr.Levras right hand. I handle all laboratory operations here at NASA Ames making sure everything is running smoothly so Dr.Levra can do her research."
She reached out and shook his hand with pride. His grip was harsh and made her flinch inwardly, yet she showed no signs of weakness on her face.
She tried to pull her hand back but the VP didn't let her hand go and pulled her a bit closer and looked her in the eyes.
With an Impolite smile, "Well Ms.MichelleRoznik in my humble opinion, you're doing a shitty job." He said and let her hand go.
"Asshole." She couldn't believe her ears, this was the Vice President?
"Hmph." She turned around with an attitude and walked away from the two higher up's mumbling curses under her breath and headed for the pod to conduct the tests.
She and a team of doctors quickly entered the pod and began prepping their equipment.
The VP walked up to the glass and hit the mic, "I do not want these tests to get in the way of my questioning damnit, I swear to god if another fucking thing goes wrong..." Then he stopped, just shook his head and sighed.
He realized temper was getting the best of him today-"Doctors, please. Just do your best." Then stepped away from the mic.
Almost Immediately they began hooking wires and sensors up to Mirus. Holding up thermometers and scintillation detectors up to him. Spraying him with chemicals and decontaminating him.
He began to eye everyone in the room nervously, he didn't like this.
He'd been to the doctors before but he'd never been probed like this. They hadn't even stuck needles in him yet and their actions already felt so invasive.
The room was sterile so it was supposed to be cold but all of sudden the temperature in the room increased, not in a major way but enough for those in the pod to notice.
One of the scientists in the room walked up the thermostat and read it aloud, "the room is supposed to be no more than 68 degrees fahrenheit, it's currently reading 85."
This minor detail gave everyone pause but it was nothing to fret over.
It could've been just a central cooling issue with room soon to pass. It wasn't the norm, but they didn't have time to worry about it right now.
The VP hit the MIC again, "Mirus, I'm going to ask you again, where did you go with that rock? How did you just disappear into thin air? Last I checked, humans just don't blink in and out of existence."
"I don't know. I don't know what happened. One second I was here, the next second… I was here. Only naked and afraid. What did you guys do to me?" Mirus responded with fatigue and distress.
The scientist with scintillation detectors and thermometers all gasped at the readings they were seeing on their machines.
Immediately, they began to announced their readings.
"Dr.Leyva the subject's temperature body temp readings are abnormally high with an body temperature of 50 degrees celsius and rising. This Human is hot!"
"DR! DR!—A second scientist shouted, "The subject is radioactive! With a reading of 150 million counts per minute! It's not safe in here for us Dr, I'm afraid we all might have been contaminated."
The VP frowned and leaned in towards the glass getting a better look at Mirus, "Nothing Mirus, we're just as naked and afraid as you are here. Completely in the dark actually. I need some fucking answers god damnit."
Dr.Levra immediately ran up to the glass with a distraught look on her face and quickly hit the microphone, "What do you mean all of you have been contaminated? Dr.Roznik explain?"
Roznik and the other scientist began to confer and almost immediately she had an answer.
"It's as Dr.Carchenko says, the subject is emitting huge amounts of Neutron radiation, Gamma radiation, Alpha emitters and high energy heavy ions… We are all as good as dead."
The doctor and the VP gasped at the bomb that was just dropped, everyone's face visibly darkened in the pod, they all knew the effects of interstellar radiation at close range.
"Impossible…"
Dr.Levra couldn't believe it.
"He was in deep space?"
Neither could the VP, their was a degree of shock even on his face, how was that even possible?
Immediately the entire laboratory went into an uproar.
How could such a thing be? A human? In deep space? Riddled with radiation? Still alive? How could the laws of physics be broken in such a manner? How could this even possibly be explained?
If Mirus wasn't completely uncomfortable before, he definitely had serious anxiety now.
Fuck is what they're saying true? I feel hotter than usual…
Ahhhh this is all too crazy. I'm starting to feel claustrophobic…I can't breathe…
Again, the temperature in the room began to rise.
The doctors and scientists in the room began to sweat.
They all looked toward the thermostat. It read 110 degrees. It couldn't be mere coincidence anymore, the subject had to be causing this.
"I want blood samples, tissue samples, hair samples, urine samples, the whole fucking nine yards. Quickly now, with some urgency! Let's go! Lets go! You guys clearly don't have all day!"
VP Kulkin scoffed, "You guys might not even have the hour. Fuck now I got the heebeejeebies—he laughed and shook his head—"I don't get paid enough for this bullshit!"
He began to look around for something or someone, "Virginia!" His secretary immediately appeared right by his side.
She was a redheaded white woman, wearing a black blazer and skirt, along with cat eye glasses and some heels. "Yes boss!"
"Get me a Hazmat suit doll, it's starting to look like Chernobyl before the meltdown in here and get yourself one as well. It's not safe here god damnit."
When he spoke to Virginia everyone in the room was slightly shocked. He wasn't on the verge of popping a blood vessel when he spoke? A woman? He also had an inside voice? Who knew!
"Right away Sir!" She left and immediately came with two suits and they changed. As did everyone else in the lab.
Although these suits didn't really offer much protection if they were all being honest.
One doctor approached Mirus from the left with a needle, another with a scalpel from the right, and another from behind aiming to pluck one of the hairs on his head with tongs.
Fuck Fuck Fuck what the fuck! Oh shit!
"Hey! HEY! Drawing blood makes me lightheaded!"
That's a huge fucking needle, where the fuck are they going to stick that?!
Mirus' eyes began to dart back and forth and up and down, looking for ways out this situation.
I have to keep my cool, I have to remain calm... I can't make this situation any worse. Ugh.
Just breathe. Just breathe.
They slowly descended upon his body with their tools.
"HEY! I said I'm not good with need—Then he fainted.
No one noticed it but the temperature in the room slowly began to decrease as soon as this happened.
This was their chance to get things done while the subject wasnt paranoid and on edge.
The scientists and doctors in the pod jumped into action and began to collect samples from Mirus while he was unconscious, only they realized…they couldn't?
His skin was impenetrable, they couldn't pierce nor cut it. The hair on his head, they couldn't pluck it nor cut it. His fingernails, unbreakable.
Out of the test they needed to perform, the ones that mattered the most were not possible.
So far they were only able to get saliva samples, take his vitals and confirm he was radioactive.
The VP pressed the mic.
"What's going on in there? Why aren't I seeing any blood samples?"
Dr.Roznik responded from the other side, "Sir, it's amazing. It's nothing like I've ever seen…his entire body is impervious to metal! Or At least the equipment we have here, but all of our equipment should be top of the line…"
Kulkins eyes widened and then narrowed in surprise, he then pressed the mic again.
"What do you mean Dr.Roznik? Impervious to metal? Explain."
"Yes sir."
She walked over to the now slumped over subject, and demonstrated what she meant.
She unsheathed a nearby scalpel and attempted to make a cut again on his shoulder but as soon as she applied pressure to the shoulder the tip of the scalpel broke in half.
Kulkin further furrowed his brow trying to make sense of what he was looking at.
Dr.Roznik then grabbed a syringe and prepared to extract blood from his forearm, but when she did the result was the same. The needle broke in half.
She then looked up to see the reaction of the higher up's.
VP Kulkin was absolutely baffled by what he just saw and Dr.Levra was completely amazed, this… this is everything she had worked for.
A chance, a chance to discover something more and she had!
Her mind immediately began to race about the what if's and probabilities and outcomes of everything this situation could foster and what it already has. The possibilities were infinite.
This was the turning point. The beginning of a new era. Humanity will now and forever never be the same. And this change was happening right before her very eyes.
"Well I'll be damned, looks like we got ourselves a Superhuman." Vice President Kulkin couldn't believe it.