Standart City was ordinary, without anything special in the year 2981; as such, some other cities around it didn't pay much attention to its minor developments and changes.
Like every other family in Standart, the family with the overgrown, unmowed grass did their usual things.
A little boy, who looked like a five-year-old despite actually being one year old, lay on his back on his favorite baseball-team bedcovers, called the Wilders. His parents gave it to him for his birthday.
Baseball was probably his favorite sport in the world, and probably the only thing he could do well. In fact, he decided that when he grew up, he would become the greatest baseball star the world has ever known.
A baseball was in the air, with only a few seconds to grab it; he zipped from one corner to the other side and caught the ball with the old mitt. If he had let the ball bounce into his priceless card collection, he would definitely be distraught. Sam sighed in relief when he caught the ball within seconds of making contact.
The boy was also afraid that the ball would knock down his baseball star action figures. A person should definitely not mess with a great baseball player in the whole world.
"My little future baseball star! It's time for dinner, so clean up your toys in your room and let's get going!"
The little boy puffed up his cheeks as he wanted to play with his toys some more. He scrunched up his nose in wholesome fury at his mom telling him what to do.
"But I wanna keep playing here in my room...!" he pouted, looking toward the other side of the door.
"Sam Craigell Davis, you better get your butt down here or else no dessert for you, young man! Plus, I'll put more veggies on your plate each minute you're not at the table!"
Startled by his mom's threat, Sam raced across the hall. "Okay, Mommy!"
He got up from his bed and went to the dining table, where a yummy meal would fill his hungry belly.
Finally reaching the table that was set with glazed meatballs, mashed potatoes, diced up artichokes, mushroom steak with gravy on top, and a pitcher of freshly squeezed lemonade on the side.
"YAY!" Sam cheered at the top of his lungs. "I love these meatballs! They're my favorite in the whole wide world!" He rhythmically tapped his spoon and fork as he waited in anticipation of the arrival of the plate of food.
"I know, dear, I know..." Mom then placed a multicolored bowl filled with vegetable stir-fry next to the meatballs. "You need at least a spoonful of this for you to grow big and healthy and strong. Though, you're already big compared to other one-year-olds."
"Yucky," the boy declared as he saw the contents of the bowl, "it's the bad kind of veggies, the one that makes me throw up a lot."
Then there was the unlocking of a mechanism from outside the room Sam and his mom were in, coming from near the foyer where the front entrance door was.
The door opened and revealed the person behind it.
"Sam! Annie! Just in time for dinner, I hope!"
It was Sam's father, Derrick Davis, the greatest man in the whole world.
Sam's eyes sparkled with glee, and he ran towards his father, his arms open wide for a hugging embrace.
"Daddy! You're finally here! You're finally back!"
"Hey, sport, finally back from being in the baseball game. Just another Tuesday for me."
Sam's mom came up and gave a little peck on her husband's cheek.
"Derrick, you're just in time for dinner. Clean up yourself and then come down; I'll even have your special dessert ready for you..."
Sam's dad blinked. "Um... what do you mean—"
"Mommy!" Sam squealed. "Let's eat the food on the table before Daddy eats everything like last time."
The little boy hurried away and immediately placed himself on the chair, where his mom and dad soon followed.
His father eyed the food platter on the table as he calmed down his rumbling stomach that could be heard from far away.
"Whoa, this is better than the food that my baseball team pals usually get after a big game."
All three of the Davis family were now eating in a way so that they would have a good night's sleep with a full stomach.
After chowing down through the main course, they finally went to their sole dessert, homemade ice cream sundae with hot fudge.
Sam devoured the ice cream as his mom firmly asked him to properly eat his food while his dad laughed heavily at the mess covering the white tablecloth.
"Hahaha, let him go at his ice cream," his father said. "It's not every night that Sam gets to eat something so delicious."
Sam's mom wiped her lips.
"Still, though, I don't want ants nibbling on the floor if we spill enough sugary food and drinks. I still have nightmares about the infestation from last year, stacking up the bills just for an extermination service."
"I guess that means our little boy is growing up so fast. Literally, like Sam is bigger than the other kids," Sam's father mentioned.
"The doctors did tell us that right now, Sam looks like a five-year-old at the age of one. It was shocking when we first learned about this," Sam's mother mentioned. "There was a bit of teasing from the other kids that were playing with him, commenting about his unnatural height and weight."
Sam scooped up the last bit of ice cream on his plate and wiped up the stains on the corner of his mouth with his shirt.
"Hey, Mom, after I'm done eating, I'm gonna go play in my room with all my baseball cards and action figures. Then I'm gonna sleep early so that I can play more baseball with Dad tomorrow."
Sam's mom sighed upon hearing this.
"Sam, you're an active ball of energy bouncing around and around, with no time to spare."
"But to be fair, he's got some potential to be a better baseball player than I was on my high school baseball team. You know, I was a prodigy back then," Sam's father remarked.
"Darn you, Derrick. Let our son focus on his studies first, while you focus on your electrician career."
After a few moments of bonding and chatting around the table, Sam left the dining table and went straight to his room. He was then greeted with his baseball cards and action figures on the floor.
Sam plopped himself on the ground as he played through his cards, making sure they were not creased or anything like that.
"Hehe, I'm gonna get some more ice cream after Mom and Dad are asleep, so that I can have more of the yummiest flavors. I'll sneak into the kitchen and reach into the fridge, but I have to be sneaky about it first, so I won't get caught."
He looked over to the bed and yawned, drowsy tears escaping the corner of his eyes.
"But... maybe after tomorrow, I'm a bit too tired to do all of this..."
Sam walked over to his toys and turned off the lights illuminating the walls of his room. Then he went over to his bed and snuggled under the covers.
But before he could slumber away, he made sure that his baseball nightlight was activated. After all, Sam's mom said it was a deterrent against any scary shadow monster that might abduct him in his sleep.
After also making sure that nothing was under his bed, he lay down within the comfortable covers and snoozed away, eyes closed and everything.
Then it was just silence, the whirling of the pipes inside the walls echoing through the bedroom, and the chorus of chirping insects outside his window was heard too.
It was the perfect moment to really sleep.
Sam drifted away from being awake, but something disturbed his sleepy rhythm. His eyes opened up in response.
And then there it was, a low rumbling from beneath the ground, followed by a bright flash of green light coming from outside through his window.
Sam hopped off of his bed as he tried to escape his bedroom and rush into his parents' bedroom.
"Mommy! Daddy! Something's wrong! Something scary is going on outside!"
He tried to reach for the door, but the shelf next to him tumbled down and blocked him from exiting his room. No matter how much strength he had, far exceeding what a normally grown one-year-old child could do, Sam couldn't pry open his exit from his own bedroom. The shelf was too heavy.
Then a deafening roar came from nowhere as dirt clumps broke through the window, scattering broken glass everywhere. The pressure of air was immense.
Sam dropped to his knees on the floor as the room swayed, and green light enveloped his vision, to the point where it was the only thing that he saw.
"Aaaaahh! Help me! I can't see! Noooooooooooo!"
That was the last of the words out of his mouth, as the room turned from inside to outside. Sam's mind twisted and turned in fear from having such a chaotic event happen to him.
However...
He suddenly found himself raising his head in a new area. Sam's head ached from feeling the heavy air he was experiencing before.
Sam woke up. His breathing was heavy, and cold sweat dripped from his forehead and chin.
He looked around the room and saw that there wasn't anything destroyed. It was different since there were now rolled-up posters in a corner, and the walls and carpet floors were in a different, dulled-out color.
Sam turned on the lights and looked through the mirror, seeing that he was now an older teenager and not a child who was only a year old.
"So, it was a dream then? A scary nightmare."
The dream when he was young, spending time with his family. His mom was much cheerier, and his father was still alive.
All of it was peaceful and ordinary, until a certain event happened that shocked everyone in Standart City.
The Green Catastrophe.
Raining meteors of green material devastated the nearby neighborhoods, and it was a miracle that Sam and his mom got out of there alive with minor injuries.
His old house was destroyed by that frightful event.
He looked at the alarm clock, and it was past the middle of the night. It was crucial for him to get the proper amount of hours of sleep so he could be ready for tomorrow and make up time for how he was missing Quad Four's hanging out.
But he also looked at the year on his alarm clock. The numbers glowed green as they hit his face.
It said 2996. That was definitely the year that he was in, and not some weird detail in a dream he was still in.
Now that he was wide awake, Sam couldn't try to sleep peacefully once more because he was drenched in cold sweat, so he tried to hastily pace around the room, hoping that it would tire himself out.
As he was walking around in his room in circles, he thought about what had happened yesterday at Standart High.
He had just arrived in time to see a group of Fadens attacking innocent people in the school.
Thanks to Sam, he was able to save his friends, the Quad Four, and all the other people present who were still present after school hours.
But it was weird how all the people in the school besides Quad Four somehow forgot that there were monsters literally invading the school, with some of them even going on about their day.
It was scary stuff to think about. Sam and the others decided to go back to their respective homes in case any more monsters were prowling around them, so that the Fadens wouldn't target the defenseless students.
And that was that.
As for tomorrow, it was the weekend. Free time to spend with his friends, probably to understand what was going on while he was gone and to know the details of their exact power.
Also, for Sam to deeply apologize to Quad Four, especially to Cloey, after all they had been through. She must have held the glued each of the members together for the whole group, and he had to be missing during her need for help.
They must understand that Sam had to exercise so much somewhere in Vivid Forest to understand and train his powered strength more; somewhere like the fitness gym wouldn't be safe for all the other people there.
He definitely missed Tyler Johnsen, a capable bro who supported people.
In the end, Sam went quickly, pacing his steps around the room more, with his exhaustion vanishing more and more.
He couldn't stop being so active after hearing his own voice saying that he was guilty about abandoning his friends.
"Don't worry, you guys, I'll make sure to protect you guys from the Fadens next time."
Sam smiled into the night sky from behind the window.
"Hey, Dad. Looks like I'm gonna be even stronger, both as a fighter and a baseball player."