The golden morning sun rose gently through the sky, casting the city upon this massive island into a new warmth. The light reached its way across the entire city, as befitting its name of Horizon, it allowed it to bask in warmth and hope, illuminating the secrets that would have hidden in the dark the night before. And yet, this did not always mean the secrets that occurred would be solved within this morning light, as darkness was a fickle and stubborn thing.

  At least, that was what Detective Hunter Reed believed. Although it was only the early morning, he was still wearing sunglasses all the same, and he was not dressed in some suit or other stuffy looking clothes, but rather he was dressed in a comfy and casual windbreaker, a black collared shirt, some jeans, and some nice sturdy walking boots. His long hair reached his shoulders, a brilliant chocolate brown. His skin had slightly tanned from all the time he spent outside, he gazed upon the scene with a bit of interest and curiosity.

  Alongside him was someone who was dressed in just a black vest, a white short sleeve shirt, cargo pants, and sneakers. His dark skin making Hunter Reed look like snow in comparison, his black hair very short. It was his partner, Gregor Sandis.

  A uniformed police officer came up to them, a look of confusion on his face.

  "Sir, we have not found any signs of any crime having been committed here. At most we just found some impressions of children's shoes, and that is it. Should we withdraw?"

  "I see, is that all you see, officer?"

  "Sir?"

  Hunter Reed took a closer look at the Starlit Well, which now in full daytime did not seem anywhere near as mysterious or mystical. Zazie and the others were also nowhere in sight.

  "The impressions head towards the well, but not away from it. You made sure there was nothing inside the well right?"

  "Nothing was inside of it".

  "Then something absolutely happened here. Something that they wanted cleaned up or covered up. Whoever heard of a wishing well like this without any coins in it?"

  The officer seemed surprised.

  "You are right, that is odd".

  "So either a bunch of kids came to make wishes under a full moon's night and were interrupted, or they finished and someone else took the coins. Either way, something happened to these kids. And given the tracks, at least one of them is in a wheelchair".

  Gregor Sands nodded along.

  "The question is, even if it was late at night, how did no one notice these kids being carried away...and why are there no signs of a fight?" he spoke, watching the scene with amusement. Indeed, there was not a trace of blood at the scene, despite the events of the previous night. "It almost appears as they just vanished into thin air. I feel like this is an increasingly common occurrence we keep finding, isn't it?"

  Detective Reed nodded. This was not the first time they encountered evidence that people just disappeared into thin air. Every city had cases like that, people just disappearing, and even evidence that seems to point nowhere. Even Horizon had quite the history of this happening. However, lately it felt like it was happening far more often than usual. As if something had changed. Or was changing.

  "How did you even know to come here in the first place though?" the officer asked.

  "We got a call on the tipline" Reed said. "Although, I must admit that makes me even more curious. If there was a witness, why haven't they come forward yet?"

  It was a truly curious crime scene and situation they found themselves with.

  "We better hurry up, before she gets herself involved" Reed mentioned to his partner, who then nodded with him.

  "Agreed".

  And so, the two detectives got to work.

  The next thing that Zazie knew, he woke up suddenly. He had half expected to wake up to the sky above, but instead he woke up to a familiar ceiling. Or rather, it was his ceiling, in his house. In his room for that matter, and specifically in his own bed.

  "Was that...a dream?" he asked, but then as he got up, he noticed several odd things. Leaving aside the fact he was undressed now and under the covers, the clothes he wore last night were nearly folded and left on his nightstand. There wasn't any blood on them, but there was traces of blood on him, although it looked like someone did a decent job cleaning him up while he was asleep. Furthermore, the clothes on his nightstand had no signs of damage or injury. He had been stabbed repeatedly by that thing's spikes, and yet for some reason not just his body but his clothes were completely immaculate.

  To be honest, he was grateful for this. The fact he did not sleep in bloody damaged clothes and covered in blood was nice, even if he understood that meant someone cleaned him up and put him in this bed while he slept. Not sleeping in blood? Always preferable.

  He quickly got up to look at himself in the mirror, to see signs of any injury from last night, but there were no normal injuries. Yes, no normal ones.

  His left eye however was a bit strange. For a brief moment, he thought he saw it glowing, with a symbol within it. A mark, one might say, but that didn't make any sense to him. Furthermore, it disappeared almost instantly, returning to a normal eye, but it looked almost like a giant broken up triangle surrounded by three partial triangles. He tried to draw it as best as he could.

  It wasn't his best drawing ever...but it wasn't his worst either. It was a bit uneven and he got the spaces a bit wrong, but that was essentially what he saw within his own eye. It was gone now, already disappeared, but he was at least able to put it down on paper. He tried to take a picture of it on his phone as well, but the camera seemed to have issues with coming into focus at the moment, so he had to give up on it for now. Instead, he opened a drawing program and drew the design again on it, although this one was even cruder. He found it harder to draw using a program then using his hand, after all.

  Either way, he remembered how he felt last night. He felt...lighter. Lighter and stronger too perhaps. However when he looked in the mirror, he was the same scrappy, small, and slim self. There were no noticeable or bulging muscles, there was no signs he suddenly had a six pack or abs of steel, his legs looked the same as always. Now granted, he did already have good physical abilities for someone his age, but he was hardly the best in class. Still, given the way he had felt last night, and perhaps from having read a bit too much fiction, he had wondered that if it was real, and if so had he suddenly gotten muscular.

  The answer was no, he did not.

  "Perhaps this is for the best though. I might not be able to sneak around as much and spy on crime scenes as easily if I suddenly got taller and muscular. Maybe that was all a dream...maybe..."

  He looked back at the symbol he drew.

  "...yeah no, that felt far more real than any dream I ever had. Still, I do wonder..."

  He started to do some stretches in front of the mirror, not even getting dressed yet. He wanted to see if there were any changes with his body, something not easily seen or required himself to exert himself to find. Nothing seemed strange or out of place at first, from his legs to his arms to his butt to everything else. However, as he continued...

  "Was I always this flexible?" Zazie wondered to himself as he realized his morning stretches didn't feel anywhere near as taxing as usual. Its not like they were designed to wear him out, they were just stretches. But he didn't even feel any issues at all when he touched his toes, put his arms behind his back, or even twisted himself up quite a bit. Well, that last one still pushed him a little, but nowhere near as much as it would have before.

  Seeing as how he was totally fine so far, he decided to push it a bit further. He did a jumping jack, giving his all into it...and hit his head on the ceiling of his room. And his room did not have a low ceiling. It didn't have a high one either, but it wasn't low. So the fact he hit it while doing a jumping jack was absolutely abnormal.

  It still hurt quite a bit though.

  "Owwwwww...."

  At that point, despite there being no physical changes in his appearance, other then that weird left eye thing that appeared for a moment, it appeared he had gained new physical abilities in quite a drastic way. However, he couldn't get that palm blast thing to work again. He wasn't sure he wanted to inside of his own room anyways, but he was a bit worried that it might fire off randomly if he didn't learn how to control it. It was at that moment he suddenly heard a knock at the front door, followed by a familiar voice.

  "Zazie! Zazie its Leo! Open up quick! It's an emergency!"

  "Hold on, let me..." he started to call out through the window, but then he saw Leo down below and immediately switched gears. Still completely naked, he raced through his door and then down the stairs, moving much faster than he used to be able to. It took him mere moments to reach his front door and swing it wide open, upon which there was a Leo, as naked as he was, standing in front of his door.

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  He quickly pulled Leo in and closed the door behind him, before anyone saw Leo, or himself for that matter, outside on a public street in that state. In truth, there was no such law on the islands that required them to wear clothes, but that didn't make it any less embarrassing.

  With both of them inside, there was a lot Zazie and Leo wanted to say, but Zazie was too busy staring at Leo. One might assume he was staring at his body, and while technically true, it was the fact Leo was standing that alarmed him.

  "You can walk again?"

  "Actually about that, can I get a chair?"

  "Right, uhh...here, the living room. Let's use the couch".

  The two boys moved over to the couch, and Leo practically collapsed into it the moment they reached it. It almost looked like a bit of static was released from the legs the moment Leo collapsed, and he let out a breath of relief.

  "Ahhhh....ahhh, that was...a bit too much stimulation at once. Owww, everything hurts now".

  Zazie meanwhile was still focused on the legs.

  "I take it this wasn't the new medicine? Also, how did you..."

  "When I woke up this morning, I remembered all the strangeness that happened last night. I was actually still conscious the whole time, unlike the other two who had passed out. Arc from the initial burst, and Runio when that thing attacked him".

  "I see...so you were conscious too then".

  "Yeah. But when I saw that thing run away, I got filled with relief...and then passed out from exhaustion. I had been trying to crawl to get help".

  His wheelchair had been knocked over, and he hadn't been thinking straight enough to try and fix it anyways.

  "When I got up, I was so surprised that all my wounds had healed and from what I saw last night that I instinctively seemed to activate...something...and jumped out of bed. And that was when I noticed that, something had activated and seemed to let me use my legs".

  "Activated?"

  "Yeah. Thats how it feels. Right now they feel the same as before, but if I trigger it again..."

  Suddenly, Leo's legs began to move a bit and he wiggled his toes a lot. He did that for a bit before letting it go again.

  "I got so excited I started to race around my room, to the window...and I overshot myself".

  "...you ran out of your window?"

  "...yes. I was too excited to be thinking clearly. I mean, I could walk again. I could run again. So I just kept running...and ended up running around. But then my brain caught up to the adrenaline, and I realized..."

  "You were butt naked and hadn't gotten dressed yet".

  "You were the closest from where I was of everyone that was there, so I ran here. I didn't want to risk being seen climbing into my own house butt naked. Could I borrow some clothes to go home in?"

  It made sense honestly. Leo hadn't been able to run or walk like that for so long, so the moment he could, he got caught up in the moment. Leo used to love running and walking. He would run everywhere, he was among the fastest of them all. Then his condition started to develop, and soon after he became bound to a wheelchair. The others had tried their best to cheer Leo up and keep him involved, and it had worked to a good degree, but they had always been worried. The fact he could walk again, it was something Zazie and the others were just as invested in.

  Zazie still remembered how devastated and depressed Leo had been initially. He was a boy who loved to run, jump, climb, and so on everywhere and all over the place. He was the most active of them all, and then one day after an incident and his diagnosis, it was as if the world had turned bleak and grey. That said apparently his condition might be capable of being treated, giving him a sliver of hope, but while they had rekindled his hope and joy a bit, that sliver of hope had eroded as time went on and more treatments failed.

  So no, the fact that Leo had done such an embarrassing thing did not surprise Zazie. Even if it was something he couldn't maintain all the time, even if it was for a few moments a day, Leo had the ability to do what he loved again. It was amazing he actually returned to his senses so quickly.

  Zazie couldn't help but check to see if anything felt different himself.

  "I don't feel any changes or new muscles".

  Leo retaliated by doing the same to Zazie.

  "Me neither".

  The two of them ended up laughing a bit at their weird responses, before putting serious faces back on.

  "This is a good effect, but...I have no idea how this happened".

  "Same. It's very weird. It's like magic".

  "Leo, you understand right? You have to come to school in the wheelchair?"

  "Yeah, I know" Leo said, a bit somberly. "I can't keep this active state up forever anyways, but also it would invite a lot of weird looks and we might be abducted by evil organizations and experimented on. Plus, everyone would call us weird and treat us like freaks".

  "...I'm not sure about the evil organizations but everything else, including the chance of abduction, is absolutely a threat. Anyways, lets get you dressed before your parents realize you are gone. Besides, I need to get dressed myself and deal with Runio".

  "Ah, yes. Runio. I wouldn't be surprised if he made the same mistake as me if he developed superpowers as well. He loves superhero comics and stories after all" Leo admitted with a half hearted chuckle. Zazie needed to check up on Runio. Arc was fine, he was shy and decent with his grades, but Runio was an idiot. He could be a clever idiot who was surprisingly sharp and quick witted, but he was also still an idiot. He didn't always think things through and could get swept up in the moment.

  Right at the moment they were about to get dressed, Zazie heard another knock at the door.

  "Zazie! I need help!"

  It was Runio. This was going to be a long morning.

  They separated with Leo who rushed back home to get dressed, while Zazie and Runio stopped by Runio's house so he could get his own school uniform. They were now both in their school uniforms, which right now consisted of light grey shorts, red bowties, white shortsleeve collared shirts, white socks, and a light grey vest. Although it had been refurbished, the school had been built during when this island had been in Japan's sphere of influence, so it featured shoelockers and inside shoes, as such whatever shoes they wore didn't matter too much anyways. Although it had been renovated and redesigned a bit when America sort of took it over during World War 2, they hadn't done much to interfere culturally and they had more focused on utilities and strengthening of structures after what happened at Pearl Harbor.

  In any case, they planned to meet up more in-between and after classes to talk about it, although there was one person Zazie did need to find. As he and Runio were walking to school, it was a very major topic.

  "Ezra was definitely there. And he seemed to know something would happen".

  "But then he just disappeared right?"

  "Yeah. But noticeably, I checked the news on my phone and noticed there are no reports of any damage at the Starlit Well, nor any witness accounts of anything odd. It might be isolated, but nothing at all? That thing was massive, and there was a huge beam of light that shot out of the well. I somehow doubt that no one was able to see that".

  "Oh oh! Maybe it was like, an isolated domain and instanced space like you see on TV or games or other media?"

  "If you had said that yesterday I would have been highly skeptical, but clearly, supernatural stuff does exist".

  "I mean yeah, Leo can walk now. His legs didn't feel any different though, but now he can use them, at least if he uses his powers. I wonder what our powers will be like? No way its just enhanced abilities right?"

  "I think Leo is faster then us, given the distance he covered while on an adrenaline high. You live closer to me after all. However, he also used to do a lot of track and running, so that might be partly from experience".

  Leo had always beaten them in races before he developed his condition, so the fact that Leo was that fast came as no surprise to any of them if he got his legs back. Speaking of which...

  "Ah, I managed to catch up!" Leo said as he rolled up behind them. "Any signs of Arc yet?"

  "No, but he wouldn't do that stupid thing you both did, so...ah damnit".

  Zazie just realized his mistake.

  "Arc...might not come to school today".

  "Ahhh, he might be too startled and hide in his closet?"

  "Or under his bed?"

  "I mean, he isn't that...well, he isn't normally that timid, but after last night that might actually be a healthy normal reaction".

  "Oi oi, Leo, I feel like we just got indirectly insulted".

  "I understand Runio being an idiot, but I had legitimate reasons for being carried away. My reaction was normal!"

  "Oi!"

  "Alright that's fair, Leo had a perfectly normal reaction. Not sure what your excuse is though Runio, for running around like that".

  "...I mean, I got superpowers! It was really cool and I got caught up in the moment!"

  "Anyways, I guess I will need to see Arc after school. For now, I need to talk to Ezra. He is probably the one who took us home last night".

  "All of us though?"

  "Yeah, that's why I need to confirm it. Because if so, we aren't the only ones to develop abilities".

  Leo and Runio both understood what Zazie was saying, and nodded.

  "Yeah that makes sense. And it would explain why he knew something would happen".

  "So Ezra knew that would happen? But why did he never tell us?"

  "...to be fair, I doubt I would have believed him even if it was Ezra saying it".

  Ezra was their friend, although he wasn't actually in their grade. He was a year older than them, making him in his second year of middle school. He was a part of the library club as well, often doing research of some sorts. Zazie often went to him for advice or information since Ezra knew way more about various subjects then even Zazie, and sometimes that information could help solve mysteries Zazie was investigating.

  Why not the internet, you ask? Simply put, there were too many AI generated answers and fake pages these days. Also, cell reception and wireless internet outside of a house could get spotty and weird. Supposedly, it was related to issues involving the space program infrastructure that was built up all around the place. While checking the news and other things was certainly possible, the library was still the best place to get the facts clearly and precisely. And from Ezra, who spent a lot of time there.

  That, and Zazie didn't want to get in trouble for anything in his search history or risk getting any weird results turning up from them. His parents might be gone a lot lately, but that didn't mean they didn't check in or show up sometimes or that he couldn't get in trouble. Plus there were some people who didn't like his meddling.

  As they arrived at school, they headed off to their homeroom classes. Zazie and Runio had the same homeroom, but Leo was in a different one with Arc. They all split up, but made plans to check with Ezra in the library at their first break. Still, the moment they stepped onto school grounds, Zazie felt a slight chill run up his spine. He looked around briefly, but didn't see anything.

  Classes went on as normal, as if nothing had happened on the previous day. Homeroom went by as normal, and then they had math first thing in the morning. Zazie was fine with it, but Runio looked like his head might explode. He looked back at Zazie with a pleading expression.

  Yes yes I will help you with your homework this time, I understand you can't be expected to focus well on one of your worst subjects, stop giving me those puppy dog eyes.

  Zazie normally tried to get Runio to do his own homework, but given what happened last night, he could hardly blame Runio for being unable to focus on class. In truth, he was having difficulty himself. He felt lighter, stronger, and faster...but what he didn't know too much about yet was by how much. That meant he didn't know if he might start crushing things if he wasn't careful. Runio was the same. He was desperately trying to be really careful with his pencils, out of fear of accidentally crushing them. And he was also trying to avoid accidentally damaging his desk at all from frustration.

  Zazie however still felt like something was off. Ever since they stepped on school, he could feel it, and Runio seemed to feel the same way. It felt almost like they were being watched, or were not welcome. Something akin to that basically.

  Granted they were in their warm weather uniforms, however the weather itself was quite warm right now. They were in the middle of spring, so while yet it could still get chilly sometimes, the island often had weird weather. And it wasn't that type of chill anyways.

  Zazie was not sure what yet, but it felt like a foreboding presence was closing in on them.

  Or perhaps, hunting them.