Xanum

Chapter Two

I kept screaming as the pain got worse, and slowly, strange runes began to shimmer all along my seemingly melting skin. I could feel the runes much more intensely than all the skin around it. It was as if the only things actually burning were the runes themselves. All the way up to my elbow was covered in them. Then, in an instant, the searing pain stopped. The runes underneath my skin pulsed a weak, dull glow. It was strangely rhythmic, and I noticed that every time my heart pumped, the runes glowed. It was like it was connected to me in a strange unsettling way. Brightest at first, but over time, they got dimmer and dimmer until it was barely visible. I panted and looked over at Tony. He was standing up and looking at his own right arm, stunned at what just happened. I stood up and turned around. People were staring at us, gasping and expressing their surprise. "I'm putting this on my Instagram." somebody said. Multiple people already had their phones out, and by the time I could react, they had already taken pictures. That was so not good. I shook my head in amazement. What had just happened? What caused this, and why did this huge hunk of metal just tattoo my arm? I didn't know, but before I could form any ill-informed theories, we heard police sirens rushing toward us.

I turned to leave and crawled up the side of the hole. When I turned to see if Tony was following me, I saw that he was still standing in the pit. He seemed to still be shocked at what had just happened. Then I realized that he wasn't shocked, he was looking at the meteorite. I jumped back down into the pit and walked up to the spot where he was standing. "Dude we gotta go, the police are coming." I said as I grabbed his arm.

"Shut up Jax. I see something." he replied, shoving my arm away. He reached into a misshapen hole in its surface to grab an object. His face lit up. "There's something in there." he said, excitedly. About five seconds later, he yanked his hand out of the space debris and in his palm was what looked like a small ball. It was a dark shade of blue, and the dim glow of the runes on Tony's arm gave it an eerie reflection. It had many different panels with strange inscriptions on each and it was fashioned to be spherical in shape. We both stared at it in awe for a few, long seconds, before I remembered the wails of the sirens. They were getting closer. Fuck. I punched him in the shoulder and reminded him of the police. He hit me back and put the device into his pocket. We both scrambled out of the crater and sprinted back to his pickup through the still-growing traffic.

The police were about a hundred feet from us when we got into his truck. Tony fumbled with the keys and cursed when the truck didn't start. Anxiety bubbled up in my chest as the engine gave it's long whine again. He tried again and the truck rumbled for a second before starting. He reversed the car onto the highway, narrowly avoiding the cars that were now finally leaving the scene. I sighed in relief as we sped towards his house, ignoring the speed limit. I would have paid money to watch the police catch us in all the traffic. Most of the time, we drove off the road because the traffic was insane. Curse words and rap music could be heard from every direction. After several minutes, we got to the edge of town and the streets were crawling with people, which made it difficult to get back into town. After an hour of waiting in the traffic, we arrived at Tony's house. Tony hopped out of the car and sprinted into his house. I opened the car door slowly and closed it before walking back into his home. I treaded lightly to avoid detection by his parents, and snuck into his room. A sliver of light came through the crack in his doorway. I saw him in there, holding the ball and staring at it. "So what do you think that thing can do?" I asked. He looked up and smirked.

"Hell, if I knew, I'd be pushing the buttons right now. But I don't wanna suddenly destroy the planet with... I dunno, a black hole that I may or may not create to satisfy your curiosity, Jax." he said as he tossed it to me. "Why don't you press something?" he said mockingly. I decided against it. I threw it back to him. "Fine. Wuss." he said mockingly. He pressed a panel, and the panel he pressed shot out a ball of light. It floated in the air for a few seconds, then disappeared.

"Fine. If we're going to mess with a piece of alien whatever the fuck, we may as well diagram it. Don't take your finger off that tile. I'm gonna go find a piece of paper to write this stuff down." I said. I exited the room and retrieved a piece of blank paper as well as a pencil from Tony's nearby backpack. I walked back into his room and saw another ball of light suspended above my friend. It disappeared shortly, and a moment later, Tony handed me the ball. I kept my index finger on the button he had pressed and drew the insignia on the sheet. I wrote "creates a ball of light" underneath it. I pressed the button next to it and a small burst of flame shot out of the ball. "Whoa!" I shouted.

"Shut up, idiot. You're gonna wake up my parents. And if they find out we took something from that thing, we won't hear the end of it." Tony hissed. "Oh, and be careful. I like my room too much to let you burn it down." I scribbled down the symbol and took the sphere outside, in case of fire, instant death, or rips in space and time. "Shoots fire out of nowhere" I wrote. I walked over to a bench in Tony's backyard. I pressed the tile next to the one I had previously pressed. Something bright green shot from the ball. It didn't travel far, and it landed in the grass in front of me. It stank and appeared to be burning the grass where it had landed. I grabbed a stick from nearby and touched the liquid-like, semi-solid object, whatever it was. The stick began to dissolve. It gave off a stench of what I could only describe as melting children and burning human flesh. Acid. At this time, Tony walked out of the house and sat down next to me carefully. He took the ball from my open hand and pressed several buttons at once.

Nothing happened at first, and I was extremely relieved. But then something within the sphere started to crackle, then vibrate violently. I knocked the sphere out of Tony's hand and watched as it flew to the ground. As the vibrations got more rapid and less controlled, the object rose from the ground and started humming. I backed away in fear, and from somewhere behind me, I heard Tony curse under his breath. The sphere disappeared for less than a second, then appeared about three feet away from where it was a moment before. It kept doing this for about a minute. It made a pattern when teleporting around, it had a designated path, it was going in a tight circle.

"Tony! Get away from that thing!" I yelled. When he refused to move, I grabbed him and yanked him away from the piece of alien technology. As soon as he was away from it, he shuddered and gasped. As if a spell had been removed from him, he was able to move again. He grabbed a branch from the nearby tree and snapped it off, then stomped back up to the orb and slammed it into the ground with the branch. As it hit the ground, it stopped vibrating and sat still.