He could hear Dustin, as he walked around the kitchen and took an inventory of the food, spices, and ingredients which he found in the cupboards, in the refrigerator, and in the freezer. He could see what he was doing, what he was thinking, and where he was going.

Nate turned his head slightly to the right and picked up the voices of Ryan and Ty. He smiled when he heard Ryan’s voice. He set his backpack on the ground and unzipped the top, revealing a new video game cartridge. The game was not supposed to come out for another year, but he knew that it would be a perfect gift for the giant muscle boy, who loved to play video games all the time. Nate had to buy the game at an old collector’s place in his own time. That way, he knew for sure that it would work on Ryan’s game console. He also grabbed his blue cap out of the pack and placed it over his short, red hair. The cap had the big, white letters “TF” on it. “TF” stood for “transformation”.

As the boy walked up to the front door, he concentrated on Ryan. His power caused Ryan to have the desire to go outside for awhile. Just as Ryan was about to reach the door, the doorbell rang.

“I’ll get it!” Ryan said, as he unlocked the door and opened it. He suddenly found himself staring down at a little boy wearing blue, baggy clothes and a blue cap.

“Hi! I’m Nate. I guess you must be Ryan?” the boy asked the muscle giant.

“Yeah… I’m Ryan! You’re who?” Ryan asked, since he had never seen the boy before.

“I’m visiting from out of town. I’m a relative of yours, and I got a small gift for you. May I come in?” Nate asked the ebony titan.

“Sure, come in. Let’s go to my room” Ryan said, closing the door behind Nate and immediately running up the wide, reinforced staircase to his giant bedroom. Nate ran right behind him, and was amazed when he walked into the large room.

“Wow, your room is humongous!” Nate said, as he looked around. The large bed was 35 feet long and 20 feet wide. The ceiling must have been at a height of fifty feet, and the room must have been over a hundred feet wide and over two-hundred feet long.

“I like it! It’s a big room for a big guy, like me!” Ryan chuckled, as he closed his bedroom door. Of course his door alone was 40 feet tall and 15 feet wide and was custom made for the large kid. Nate sat on Ryan’s bed while Ryan grabbed his steel chair. The boy was so big and heavy, that he had to have his furniture especially made to fit his large body and his massive weight.

As Nate grabbed his backpack, Ryan noticed a gold colored name tag that was tied to one of the straps with a plastic wire. Ryan grabbed the tag and read the name on the tag out loud.

“This bag belongs to Nathaniel Karlowski.” Immediately Ryan gasped when he read the last name, and looked the boy straight in the eye.

“Your last name is Karlowski? Isn’t that Peter’s last name? Are you Peter’s nephew or something?” Ryan wondered out loud.

For a few seconds Nate just smiled at Ryan while he pondered how to reveal his true identity to the muscle boy.

“No. I’m his son” Nate replied calmly, while showing a big smile on his face. Ryan’s jaw dropped wide open as Nate revealed who he really was, not knowing how to react. He couldn’t believe it. How could Peter have a son if he was only sixteen years old?

“You must be joking! Peter’s only sixteen years old! How old are you? Ten? Eleven? There’s no way you can be his son!” Ryan responded, while thinking out loud. Nate realized that Ryan was becoming a little angry with him, and didn’t believe him at first.

“That’s because I’m from thirty years in the future! I’m only ten years old. You’re my uncle and I can prove it to you! I know everything about you and Peter. Go ahead, ask me anything!” Nate replied, with a very confident expression on his face.

“Okay,” Ryan began, “Where did I meet Peter for the first time?”

“You met my dad on the basketball court which is at the park. The park is about three blocks down the street or ten minutes walking from here” Nate replied. Ryan immediately noticed that Nate knew the correct answer down to the smallest detail.

“How did I get so big and muscular?” Ryan asked him next, still not fully convinced of who Nate was.

“My dad and Ty teamed up, held hands, and directed their transformation powers at you so that together they could come up with enough power to grow you into the muscular giant you are now. Your transformation is also irreversible because of that!” Nate replied confidently. Ryan’s jaw dropped wide open again.

“Okay. Everybody thinks I’m fifteen or sixteen years old because I’m so big. How old am I really?” Ryan decided to ask. Only Peter would know his real age! Ryan decided that he would only trust Nate if he could provide the correct answer.

“Considering the year that we are currently living in, I can calculate that you are exactly nine years, seven months, sixteen days, five hours, twenty-one minutes, and thirteen seconds old as of right now!” Nate responded calmly. Ryan was absolutely astonished as he stared at the short, red haired boy with his big eyes open wide.

“Any more questions? I know everything about you. You can ask me anything. Not only that, but I know your thoughts and your feelings too!” Nate replied with a grin on his face.

“Huh? My thoughts? Only Peter and Ty can do that…” Ryan responded, but he immediately began to realize that this kid was telling the truth. Nate removed his cap from his head and revealed his short, red, spiky hair. Ryan looked him in his big blue eyes and he suddenly noticed something very familiar about him. It struck him that he was looking at a younger version of Peter!

“You’re so excited about Christmas this year because this will be your first year celebrating the holiday with my dad and Ty. You used to live with foster parents, but since they were alcoholics and drug addicts, they never cared about you or got you any gifts. You’ve never really had a real Christmas tree before, let alone presents. You love to eat turkey and chicken, and you work out in this gym every afternoon with my father. But you would love nothing more than to grow bigger and stronger, and I can help you with that too!” Nate replied, having successfully read Ryan’s mind.

“Holy smoke! You’re just like Peter! Do you have the same powers as Peter and Ty?” Ryan wondered.

“Why don’t you stand up and you’ll find out!” Nate said with a grin on his face. Ryan quietly and slowly got up from the chair and stood right in front of Nate, who was sitting on his bed with his legs hanging from the edge. Nate just stared at Ryan with his big, blue eyes and gave Ryan the kind of look showing that, what he was about to do to Ryan, was in fact a very easy task for him.

Ryan gasped and looked down at his own muscular body as he felt and invisible force wrap itself around his body. The feeling was the same as before, when Peter made him grow for the very first time. Ryan felt his legs grow an inch longer as he found himself suddenly standing an inch taller than he was before. He was amazed that this little kid was so easily able to grow him bigger, while it took both Ty and Peter to make him grow that big in the beginning.

“Oh my goodness… You’re telling the truth! You really are Peter’s son!” Ryan whispered, while placing his right hand over his mouth while he stared at the little boy in complete shock and awe.

“Oh, that was easy. I can grow your muscles a lot bigger than that!” Nate said excitedly.

“Wow! Does he know you’re here? He’s at swimming practice right now. Do Ty and Dustin know this already?” Ryan asked, while lowering his hand from covering his mouth.

“No, you’re the first to know, so please don’t tell anyone. I would like to wait for my daddy to get home before I tell the rest who I am. Just tell Dustin and Ty that I’m a friend of yours and that I’m visiting from out of town.” Nate replied.

“Okay, I won’t tell anyone. Oh boy is Peter going to be surprised!” Ryan wondered out loud.

“Before I forget, let me give you your gift. Here is a cool video game that is not supposed to come out for another year. I found it in a video game collectors’ shop in my time. I hope you’ll like it!” Nate said, as he grabbed the cartridge out of his backpack and handed it to Ryan.

“Holy smoke! This game isn’t supposed to be out till next year! You really are from the future!” Ryan exclaimed, for he was now thoroughly convinced that Nate was Peter’s son from the future.

“Of course! I’m not going to lie to my uncle! Now, could I please get something to drink? I’m getting thirsty from talking so much…” Nate asked his host.

“Well, Dustin is really busy preparing a big dinner for tomorrow night, which is Christmas Eve. I need to take a shower pretty soon, but before that I had promised Dustin I was going to wash his car!” Ryan replied.

“I can help both you and Dustin do all those things before my dad gets home!” Nate replied, much to Ryan’s delight. Ryan smiled, as he really began to like Nate a lot. He was thrilled to meet Peter’s son from the future in person and he felt honored to be the very first person in the house to know who Nate really was. Since Nate was only a year older than Ryan, it made perfect sense that Ryan would be the first person for him to reach out to.

Ryan and Nate ran down the stairs and dashed towards the front door, when Dustin walked in carrying some grocery bags. He had just left the house for a few minutes in order to go to the store, when Dustin saw Nate for the first time.

“Whoa! No running in the house, Ryan! Hey, who’s you friend?” Dustin asked, while holding the front door open with one hand, while carrying a bag in the other.

“Hello, I’m Nate. I’m a friend of Ryan.” Nate replied. Nate knew exactly who Dustin was, but he didn’t want to reveal his secret yet, so he acted like he had just met Dustin for the first time.

“Hi Nate, I’m Dustin. Hey Ryan, are you still going to wash my car? You had better hurry; it’s going to get dark soon!” Dustin instructed the muscle boy, who was waiting for Nate outside. Dustin has seen Ryan come over with friends before, so he didn’t mind Nate being there.

“Yes, we’re going to do that right now!” Ryan shouted, as he uncoiled the garden hose that was lying in the grass in front of the yard.

Ryan made sure that all windows on Dustin’s car were rolled up. Then, he sprayed water all over Dustin’s little sedan while Nate watched from a distance.

“Look at his tires and his rims! They look very dirty… I hate washing those because I have to bend down too far to wash them – I could easily lift this car with one arm but Dustin would get mad at me because the last time I did that I squished his car like a plastic toy!” Ryan blushed and looked at Nate – “Can you help me out?” Ryan asked the little boy.

“Sure, I got an idea! I’ll flip Dustin’s car upside down!” Nate replied. “Stand back, Ryan! Watch this!”

Nate extended his right hand in front of him and pointed to Dustin’s car. When Nate raised his finger up higher, the car suddenly began to levitate on its own, slowly floating about six feet from the paved driveway. Then Nate made a circular motion with his hand, and immediately the vehicle rotated upward, with the front bumper rising up higher and higher. At one point the car was floating in midair, with the front bumper pointing straight up and the entire vehicle maintaining a straight, vertical position.

Ryan’s jaw one again dropped wide open, not only be the incredible display of psychic power that was demonstrated by his new, little friend, but also by the incredible ease at which Nate was able to lift the entire car. He didn’t seem to strain or to concentrate hard at all! As a matter of fact, Nate was very relaxed!

Dustin’s car continued to tip over, where all four wheels were pointing straight up and the vehicle was now floating completely in the upside down position, with the car’s roof on the bottom. Then Nate slowly lowered his hand, silently commanding the 6,000 pound vehicle to gently come to rest on the paved driveway.

“Holy cow, Nate! You got some awesome power for a little kid! That’s incredible!” Ryan shouted, as he continued to feel impressed by this unusual, little kid.

Ryan grabbed a sponge and scrubbed all four tires, which was now an easy job to do. When he was done, Ryan left the garden hose running on the bottom of the car, which was now on top. He walked towards the faucet to turn the water off, when he heard Dustin’s voice.

“Ryan! Ryan!” Dustin shouted from the side window of the house. Luckily, Dustin couldn’t see his car from where he was standing.

“Hey Dustin, I hear you!” Ryan shouted back.

“Come inside and take a shower, because it’s getting late. And make sure you tell your friend that he needs to go home, because it’s getting dark!” Dustin shouted.

“Let’s go inside. Are you going to stay with us?” Ryan asked Nate, as both boys started to walk towards the front door.

“I hope so! I’m waiting for my dad to come home. I really don’t have any other place to stay. My house in the future hasn’t even been built yet, so I wouldn’t know where else to go…” Nate replied.

“Well, you had better tell Dustin that you’re Peter’s son, or else he’s going to get really annoyed if he sees you here so late! And when that happens, then I get in trouble!” Ryan replied.

Ryan led Nate into the bathroom, where he turned on the hot water. Then he grabbed a bottle of bubble soap, but he became disappointed when the bath soap had run out.

“I like to leave the water running for a minute so that it gets nice and hot. I usually have some bath soap that I pour in the tub, because I love the bubbles. Unfortunately it just ran out…” Ryan said sadly, as he held the bottle upside down.

Ryan and Nate closed the bathroom door so that he could let the water run for a minute. Unknown to Ryan, Nate turned around and made a silent wish. He wished for half the tub to be filled with bath soap! While Ryan and Nate were running back down the stairs to the kitchen, the tub magically filled up with soap. With the water already running, an amazing wall of bubbles and foam began to grow in the abandoned bathroom.

Ryan looked around in the kitchen and saw that the coast was clear, while Nate was still standing in the staircase.

“Alright, Nate. Dustin isn’t here! Come into the kitchen!” Ryan whispered, just loud enough for Nate to hear.

“What do you like to eat, Ryan?” Nate asked his big, muscular uncle.

“I’ll eat anything. But I’m actually in the mood for some chicken and some popcorn. We could make a fruit shake to drink using the blender, if you want!” Ryan replied, while checking the chicken in the oven.

Ryan grabbed a banana from the cupboard and peeled the skin off. Then he chopped the banana in small pieces, before tossing them in the blender. He then added a spoonful of sugar and a large cup of milk, before putting a lid on the blender and turning it on.

“Darn, we’re almost out of bananas too! I’m not sure there are enough to make shakes for all of us, though…” Ryan wondered out loud. “And we only got one chicken in the oven! Gosh, I can eat that in three seconds! I’m so hungry, I feel like I could eat twenty chickens right now!”

“That can be arranged!” Nate replied, while Ryan was busy looking in the refrigerator.

“Hey, Nate, I want to show you something!” Ryan said, as he closed the refrigerator door and headed towards the stairs which led to the basement. While walking down the stairs, the boys smelled the aroma of fresh home made chocolate chip cookies. Dustin was busy baking cookies in the oven, and the boys began to get hungry! Unfortunately, they forgot about the running water outside and in the bathroom.

“Well Ryan, I wish Dustin would have twenty chickens, unlimited popcorn, enough cookies for the whole neighborhood and unlimited fruit shakes for us to enjoy tonight!” Nate said out loud.

Without really giving it much thought, Nate began to walk down the stairs while the kitchen area was suddenly filled with twenty live chickens that were walking around the floor. The popcorn popper kept on getting filled up with popcorn kernels and continued to pop more popcorn, filling the bowl to the edge. When the bowl filled up, the popcorn began to pour out on the kitchen floor. The cookie dough in the oven kept on increasing, until the oven was filled up to capacity. But more dough kept on accumulating, slowly pushing the over door open, spilling the dough all over the floor! Within minutes, the kitchen was transformed into a messy hall, and the chickens, dough and popcorn began to creep over the floor to the other rooms. Not only that, but the blender kept on making more and more shakes, and the amount of thick, sweet liquid coming out of the blender kept on increasing steadily.

While Ryan and Nate weren’t expecting anything bad to happen in the kitchen, Ryan took Nate to the basement where Dustin had a small home gym. There was a light weight bench and an electric treadmill, with a few dumbbells, some free weights and some plates.

“Have you ever tried running on a treadmill before?” Ryan asked Nate. Ryan wanted to see how strong Nate really was, since he still seemed like a skinny, little kid to him. Ryan bent down and plugged Dustin’s treadmill into the outlet on the wall. Then he walked back to the machine and flipped a switch on the handlebar, turning the machine on and making it ready for usage.

“Sure! I may seem like a skinny, little kid. But in reality, I’m really big, strong and muscular! I just don’t want to change yet until my dad has seen me for the first time. I don’t want to show up at your doorstep looking like a giant muscle kid, you know what I mean?” Nate replied, as he stepped on the treadmill.

“Alright, Nate! Show me what you got and run as fast as you can!” Ryan said, challenging the little boy to show off a little.

Nate began to walk, just to get used to the machine. He grabbed hold of the handlebars in front of him so that he wouldn’t slip or fall off the treadmill while it was running. Then he stepped up the power, and started to go on a slow jog. He was just going a few miles per hour, but he maintained a constant pace and he began to feel more comfortable on the machine.

“Go for a run, Nate!” Ryan shouted, encouraging his friend to increase the speed a little more. Nate was now running faster, and the machine was letting out a louder humming noise than before. Wheels were spinning as gears were shifting rapidly, while the small panel on the front of the machine promptly displayed the current speed. Nate was going at 12 miles per hour!

“Give it all you got!” Ryan shouted out loud!

“Okay, cause I got a lot! Here goes! I hope you don’t mind me using my powers!” Nate said, as he grinded his teeth in preparation for a really intense run on the treadmill.

“I wish my legs were strong enough to allow me to run fifty miles per hour!” Nate whispered. Immediately his skinny, short legs became much thicker. His quads and his calves were suddenly twice as thick, making his legs seem massive on the little boy!

The boy miraculously began much faster than before, with the tread racing under his feet while the gears and the engine on the machine were screaming! Obviously, the machine wasn’t made to handle this kind of intensity, and a few sparks began to fly from the back of the machine, where the rubber was going around the rollers.

“Now I want to be able to run seventy miles per hour!” Nate whispered once more. His legs become more muscular once again, and the boy was running much faster, much to Ryan’s surprised!

Sparks were flying everywhere, setting the carpet on fire. But the boys didn’t notice it, for the power in the house went out when a circuit breaker got tripped, leaving the two boys in a pitch dark basement.

Nate quickly let go of the handles and jumped off the treadmill.

“Darn it! You blew a fuse! We need to go to a garage and get some candles” Ryan said. Ryan led Nate to the door, and the boys quietly walked up the stairs. Since there was no power, they could not see what was going on in the kitchen.

In the meantime, Ty was busy painting his room. He was already done, but the strong odor of paint in his room made him leave the house for awhile. Ty’s bedroom window looked out over the garage down below, where Nate and Ryan had gone in order to get some candles.

When they got into the garage, Ryan found a candle on a shelf. He couldn’t find a lighter, though.

“I found the candles but I don’t have a lighter. Let me think… How would Peter… How would you dad do this? Oh, I know! Do you know how to use your heat vision?” Ryan asked Nate. “I think there are a bunch of candles over there in the corner. Can you light them with your eyes?”

“Of course!” Nathan said. Right away, his blue eyes became bright red, and two laser beams came from Nate’s eyes, striking the strings on a pile where Ryan said the candles were.

Unfortunately those weren’t candles but a stack of fireworks, which Dustin had placed in the garage during his last big clean up! Firecrackers started igniting all over the place, and they lit up the whole garage.

“Aaahhh!! Get out the garage!!” Ryan screamed, while he tried to protect Nate from being struck by one of the fire crackers. Ryan grabbed Nate and held him against his huge chest, as he ran out of the garage and made it out to the driveway.

Ty just happened to be walking back from the neighbor’s house, when he saw that the garage had caught fire. Within seconds, the entire garage was in flames. Not only that, the fire had spread to Ty’s room and was immediately ignited due to the fresh paint. One of the neighbors had noticed what had happened and had called the fire department.

“Thanks for getting me out of there, Ryan!” Nate said out loud. But Ryan wasn’t happy at all.

“Oh brother, I’m going to be in major trouble now!” Ryan said, while rolling his eyes. Suddenly he remembered that there were several things he had forgotten to do that evening. “Did we turn off the water in the bathroom?” he wondered.

Dustin had just taken a shower in the bathroom which was adjacent to his own bedroom. He had only dressed a shirt and shorts, when he walked out of his bedroom. There was a very strange smell in the house. Was something burning in the kitchen?

As he walked towards the kitchen he heard the sounds of animals. As soon as he got in the kitchen, he was astonished. There were twenty live chickens walking around, flying around and flapping their wings as they tried to get around the big, gooey mess on the kitchen floor. The power was cut off in the house. But there was cookie dough mixed in with fruit shake and pop corn all over the kitchen floor! The over was wide open, the cupboards were covered in sticky shake, and pop corn was even sticking to the walls!

“HOLY SMOKE!!! AAAAHHHHHH!!!!” Dustin screamed, as he witnessed the disaster in the kitchen. To make matters worse, he smelled something burning upstairs!

“Ty!! Ryan? Are you guys home?” Dustin shouted. When there was no answer, he ran up the stairs and opened the door to Ty’s newly painted room. Huge flames were covering the walls and almost everything was on fire!

Dustin immediately ran towards Ryan’s room, and he was relieved that nobody was in the room. But suddenly he heard the sound of water running in the bathroom. As soon as he opened the door, a huge 6 foot wall of soap, bubbles and water came crashing down over him!

“AAAUUWWWWUUUAAAA” Dustin screamed, as he was literally washed down the staircase by the bubbles and the soapy water. Dustin came sliding down the staircase and crashed on his bottom on to the sticky kitchen floor. He crashed right into a pack of chickens, which immediately started pecking at his arms, head, and back.

“YEEEEEOOOOAAAUUWWW” he screamed, as it seemed that he was being attacked by every single chicken that was around! Dustin desperately tried to get up, but since soap had covered the entire kitchen and living room area, he couldn’t possible get back up on his own two feet without falling back down due to the very slippery floor.

Every time he came crashing on the floor, he got attacked by a few chickens. When he finally made it to the entrance where the Christmas tree stood, some of the fireworks began to shoot into the house, shooting flames everywhere. One rocket blew up the Christmas tree, and the whole thing burned up!

The sparks in the basement also grew into a blaze, and Dustin managed to get out of the burning house right in time. As soon as he made it out to the drive way, he gasped when he saw his car, parked upside down, with water coming out of the cracked windows.

“AAARGHHHHH!!!! MY CAR!!!” he screamed. For one moment he thought that a hurricane had struck his house!

The loud sirens of the fire truck caused Dustin to look away. As soon as the truck stopped, the firemen got out, pulling a large hose from the back of the large, red truck. Firemen ran to the house and ensured that there were no people in the house. They were joined by police and ambulance. In addition, all the neighbors from across the street came out to see what was going on.

The firemen put out the fire and they chased the chickens out! The garage had a large hole in the roof, one half of the house had burned down, the other half was flooded with soapy water, fruit shake, cookie dough and pop corn, and his car sat upside down in the drive way, with the cabin completely flooded with water and all four windows shattered!

Ryan and Nate saw Dustin standing in the middle of the lawn, observing the disaster. They decided to quietly walk up to him from behind. They had both noticed that Dustin began to cry out loud.

“What is this? Who did this? What happened?” Dustin quietly mumbled to himself, when he noticed Ryan and Nate standing behind him.

When Dustin turned around and saw the two boys, he became very indignant. •