Both boys were born around the same time and are of the same generation, and they came from the same families. One was born in the United States; the other was born in Canada. They both discovered their powers on the morning of their fifteenth birthday. Although these boys did not know each other, it is this same power that signaled Peter, the Canadian boy who was the older of the two, to seek out and get to know Tyler, his American cousin.

Although either boy knew why or how they got their powers, it is this power that would eventually unite them. Ty was placed with foster parents and grew up knowing only them and their son, Dustin. Ty quickly learned that he could not only transform himself into virtually anything or anyone he wanted, but he could transform others as well. He would transform himself, his friends, his foster parents, and his foster brother Dustin and he would make them older or younger, bigger or smaller, shorter or taller, and weaker or stronger. Ty would reward those who are loyal to him and he would punish those who deserved it. He would add muscle to the weak and he would shrink the bodies of the strong. In summary, Ty was a nice young man who loved to show off what he could do, although Dustin and his foster parents weren’t very pleased with his abilities.

So let’s switch gears for a minute and turn our focus away from the wild adventures of Ty and Dustin as we travel to a suburb of Toronto, Canada. For now is the time to introduce Ty’s cousin who is from the north, for he will make a significant impact on both Ty and Dustin.

It was a lazy midsummer Saturday afternoon. The teenage boy stood in front of the entrance to a big, white building. “Old City Museum” it read on the sign, just above the boy’s head. The boy was tall and skinny, just over 15, with black hair and brown eyes. Wearing a button shirt and a pair of shorts that looked like an old cut-up pair of jeans, he opened the top flap of his backpack and lowered it to the floor for the little squirrel that stood in front of him.

“Alright, Peter” he said, “Get inside of the backpack before anyone sees you!”

The little hairy squirrel hopped inside, turned around and briefly peered through the opening before the boy grabbed the top of his backpack and set it straight up, knocking the squirrel on its back against the bottom of the pack. The boy covered the opening with the flap as he got up on his two feet.

He swung the backpack around his shoulder, opened a wide, glass door and walked into the museum, straight towards the gift shop which was located right in front of him. Once inside, he looked for the rack with all the postcards and picked one with a matching envelope. He walked up to the counter and was greeted with an old lady who had a very serious look on her face.

“Well, it’s good seeing you again, Daniel. Will that be all? Just one postcard?” she said to the teen.

“Yes Mrs. Woodard, that’ll be all for today!” was his answer, as he gave her a few Canadian Dollars.

“Can I buy one stamp with that? I need to mail this to the United States today.” Daniel added.

“You know, I haven’t seen much of either of you lately, you and that other boy from school. What is his name?” she responded while she put the card and a stamp in a paper bag.

‘You mean Peter?” Daniel answered.

“Yes, the two of you always seem to get into some kind of trouble every time you two are together when you’re at school! I’m rather surprised that Peter is not here with you!” she answered, feeling annoyed just even thinking about these two boys who always caused her trouble when she was teaching during school hours.

Suddenly, the squirrel managed to climb out of the backpack using its sharp claws, jumped on Daniel’s right shoulder, sat up straight, pointed its right paw at Mrs. Woodard and started laughing with a series of high squeaks!

The poor old lady had never seen a squirrel do that before and the look of the awful little creature laughing at her made her completely lose her mind as she screamed at the top of her lungs!

“Get that thing OUT of here this instant!!! Aaaaahhhh!!!” she screamed at Daniel, who just stood there and grinned.

Not only was the old lady, who was known at school to be very stiff and strict as she took on the role of Vice Principal of the High School, screaming out of complete panic and fear, but she started jumping up and down like a little girl as well!

The security guard finally walked in from the hall, after having heard the commotion.

“Alright kid, get out! You’re not supposed to bring any pets into the museum!” he said sternly, as he directed Daniel to the main entrance.

Daniel calmly walked out the door with his pet squirrel on his shoulder, laughing the whole way. As Daniel left the building, the security guard went back to the gift shop to find Mrs. Woodard, sitting down on a chair behind the counter, completely terrified and exhausted.

When he got outside, the squirrel ran down his shirt and his jeans and jumped on to the sidewalk, standing right in front of Daniel.

“Alright Peter, do your stuff.” Daniel replied, obviously instructing his squirrel that the coast was clear.

Immediately the squirrel’s furry, short legs began to expand as the feet got bigger and wider. The legs grew taller and straight, as the fur disappeared from the torso, legs and head. The fur turned into flesh as the whole body grew to over five-and-a-half feet tall and immediately took on the form of a human being. In an instant, the human was clothed with a basketball jersey, shorts and high tops. Where the squirrel once stood was now another teenage boy, with short, brown hair that was spiked upwards in the front. He had big blue eyes and a friendly smile on his face. He was muscular and tanned and looked just like he would fit in as a member of a swim team, a basketball team, or a gymnastics team. He immediately started laughing out loud, as he looked at his friend.

“Did you see the look on her face? That was hilarious!” Peter laughed, as both boys started walking down the sidewalk.

“I bet old Woodard won’t forget this for a long time!” Daniel said with a chuckle.

“Yeah! Did you see how she started to jump around all of the sudden?” Peter asked him.

“Why yes! That was the BEST! Did you make her do that?” Daniel asked his powerful buddy.

“Oh yes, who else can make an old lady jump like that? Hey, let me see the postcard!” Peter ordered his buddy.

“Here it is! You owe me two Dollars, dude!” Daniel said, as he handed Peter the postcard.

“Oh come on! Next time you got to play basketball, I’ll make sure you’ll play just like Shaq! In fact, I’ll make you just as big, okay?” Peter replied, as he was looking over the card Daniel had just bought for him.

“So who’s the card for?” Daniel wondered out loud.

“It’s for my Cousin Tyler! I found out on the Internet that I have a cousin who is living in the United States. He’s fifteen, just like me, and I’ve never seen him before, but I got some money saved up so I’m going to go on a bus ride over there next week!” Peter explained excitedly.

“Wow! That is so cool! You’re going to meet a cousin you’ve never met before!” was Daniel’s reply.

“Yes, I got the name and address of his foster parents, for his own parents have passed away. He has no other relatives, and I’m sure he’ll love to know that he has a cousin from Canada!” Peter responded.

“But Peter, are you going to tell him your secret?” Daniel wondered, with a curious look on his face.

“Well of course, we’re family! Why shouldn’t I tell him?”

“You may freak him out! I mean, not everybody gets a visit from a relative who can easily change himself, and others, into anything he wants, you know?” Daniel responded, feeling a little worried about the idea of Peter going to visit Cousin Tyler. Ever since Peter had turned fifteen years old, Daniel noticed that his best friend had developed these magical powers to change or transform just about anything and anyone he wanted. He knew that Peter was not at all shy about using his powers and he had faithfully made use of them every single day!

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell my cousin that on the first day when I’m there! I’m so excited that I’m finally going to meet him! It’ll be great!” Peter grinned, trying to put Daniel’s worries to rest.

As the boys were about to cross the street, they heard a female voice shout out loud, “Whooohooo… Oh Daniel!”

The boys looked over and saw this skinny, tall blonde walking towards them from the other direction.

“Oh, no! It’s Michelle from school!!” Daniel whispered to Peter.

“Oh great, I don’t want to talk to her!” Peter groaned, as he rolled his eyes upwards.

“Okay Daniel, I’m gone! Get rid of her! I HATE that girl! She talks too much!” Peter said in panic, frantically looking around for a place to hide. They were standing on the street corner of a busy intersection. They were several feet away from the nearest buildings and there was no place other object near them. It had rained a few minutes earlier and there were puddles of water on the sidewalk. This gave Peter an idea.

“Get rid of her, okay? I’ll be right under you!” Peter said to him.

“Where are you going?” Daniel said, as he turned around to face his buddy as the girl was fast approaching him from the other side.

Peter vanished before Daniel’s eyes, as his body suddenly changed into water! All the water drops immediately splashed down on the sidewalk, forming a small puddle right behind Daniel. Michele finally got there before Daniel could say even anything.

“Hi Daniel!” she began, “How’s going, guy? Where’s Peter? Wasn’t he here with you just now?”

“Umm well…” Daniel stuttered, as he turned behind him and looked at the pool of water on the sidewalk. In it he saw his face being reflected. The image of his face suddenly turned into Peter’s face, which was looking up to him from the ground with a big grin! Daniel got angry and stuck his tongue out at Peter, who was the puddle on the ground.

“No matter! Daniel, when you see Peter, tell him that he’s invited to a party at my house this upcoming weekend, okay? I don’t understand why, but it seems like he always manages to disappear whenever I am around!” Michelle explained.

“Sure Michelle, no problem” the poor boy answered, really not knowing what else to say.

“And you’re also invited”, she continued, “but comes dressed nice okay? This party is going to be very classy! All the ‘cool’ people from school will be there. You will also need to bring some money and wear a tie or something, alright? You look so handsome when you’re all dressed up!”

Daniel rolled his eyes. He was already bored with the whole conversation, as he continued to wonder why this girl kept on inviting them to these classy parties at her house.

“And tell Peter he needs to wear his suit and tie and those really neat black shoes he wore to the dance last month, and what else… hmm… Oh my, oh my…” she said.

“Will you excuse me for a minute, dear Daniel? A feeling has just come over me. My body has suddenly hinted that it needed to make an urgent stop to the ladies room. Ta da cutie!” she said, as she quickly walked her way towards one of the office buildings behind them.

Daniel breathed a sigh of relief then the annoying girl finally left. Would she ever stop talking so much? He then turned around and looked at the small pool of water that was on the sidewalk in front of him.

Suddenly, several puddles and surrounding drops of water flowed towards the large pool in the middle. A column of water started to rise up from the center of the pool! As the column grew taller, the size of the pool got smaller as the water was gradually being pulled into the column. When the pillar of water stood almost six feet tall, it began to form the silhouette of a human being. Legs and arms formed out of the column’s sides, and the drops of water slowly changed back into human flesh. While water turned into skin, eyes, hair and teeth, Daniel could not help but stand in awe of his best friend’s abilities.

“Boy do I feel like taking a shower right now, after having done a transformation like that!” Peter blurted, just when the transformation had completed.

“That is incredible! I have never seen you do that one before! It seems like you’re getting better at this by the day!” Daniel said out loud, completely amazed!

“Well I figured out a way to get rid of Michelle!” Peter grinned, as the two walked across the street.

“Oh, YOU made her go to the bathroom?” Daniel asked his buddy.

“Of course I did! I got tired of lying on the sidewalk like a pool of water!”

“Every time that girl comes up to you, you find some way to disappear, leaving me behind! And I have to listen to her every single time! You’re such a wimp, Peter!” Daniel complained.

“Daniel, “Peter said sternly, “Next time you call me a wimp, you’ll spend a weekend talking to Johnny, my goldfish!”

“Oh, great! I’ve done that before. And Johnny really doesn’t have much to say, either!” Daniel protested.

“You know something? I’ve always wanted a pet iguana!” Peter sneered back at his buddy, who only returned the remark with his tongue sticking out.

“Why is it that you always get whatever you want, even though you never have any money? And why do I always have to cover for you, when Michelle is in the area? It’s not fair!” Daniel shouted, thinking he had nothing to lose but to now be changed into a mouse by his best friend.

“Because I’m smart”, Peter responded, “and because I’ve got the power!”

Daniel felt relieved he was still a human for he thought Peter would have changed him into a skunk by now. Then he realized that Peter was in a good mood, because he was about to go visit his cousin in the States.

“I’ll make you a promise!” Peter whispered, “You’ll be dunking baskets in the gym while I’m gone and everybody will think you’re the coolest basketball player in town! Is that a deal?”

“Yeah, that sounds cool to me!” Daniel said, relieved.

When the boys finally made it to the other side of the street, they sat down on the bench at the bus stop, where Peter grabbed a pen and wrote his short note to his cousin Ty on the postcard. Then he stuck the stamp on to the card and threw it in the slot in the mailbox which was located next to the bus stop.

“There, the card is in the mail. It’s official now; I’m finally going to meet my cousin!” Peter cheered excitedly!

“Who says they would like to meet you? Who says your cousin is still alive? And what are they going to say when you do some kind of transformation? You’ll scare them to death!” Daniel teased his buddy.

“No, I have a feeling that it won’t be that bad” Peter replied, “I think they’ll be happy to see me! I just hope the postcard will get there on time. I need to go home and pack my bag!”

“Are you going to ride the bus all the way down there?” Daniel asked Peter.

“No” he answered, “I’m going to fly or run down to the border, and I’ll just ride a bus the rest of the way. It’ll be great!”

“Do you want me to take care of Johnny while you’re gone?” Daniel asked his best friend.

“Please do! I don’t want to come back home and find my fish floating dead in the water!” Peter answered, as both boys laughed while they walked home.

Peter realized he was taking a big chance by going on this trip! He had never met his cousin or his foster parents before, and he didn’t even know whether they would welcome him or not. He had over four hundred dollars saved up, so he knew he had enough money with him. But he wasn’t worried. Nobody could hurt him, he knew his powers well and he knew that he had become very strong at using them. Besides, he still had several weeks left in his summer vacation, and a trip down south would have allowed for him to go out and to do some traveling. He wanted to have fun, see the world, go to the beach, and make some new friends along the way.

He would look like a perfectly normal teenager, ready to see the world. Nobody would even know or realize that he had the power to change their lives. Who would expect a teenage boy to have that ability? And how would his cousin Tyler react? Peter was not yet aware of the fact that he would have more in common with Cousin Ty than he imagined.

It was a quiet Saturday morning at Tyler and Dustin’s house. Since it was their summer vacation from school, both boys decided to sleep in late. Dustin got a job at the local supermarket at had to work the late shift, so he had the morning to sleep in and run some errands. Ty usually got up later than Dustin, but he was faster at taking a shower and getting dressed. Often, he would come out of the shower, and he would wish for his body to be dried off and then to be dressed in an instant!

Dustin finally got up and poured some water in the kettle. He wanted to get some hot water so he could make some coffee, and Ty usually liked to drink some tea in the morning. Dustin has grown and matured somewhat, as he learned to be the man in the house and at the same time try to get a handle on his younger, foster brother Tyler. He used to be a real jerk towards his little brother, but ever since Ty had gotten his powers and made Mark and June disappear, he quickly learned that by just being nice to Ty, he could go about his life as normal as possible. Of course, living with a fifteen year old brother who had awesome powers to transform or change anything or anybody he wanted to, was anything but normal! But Dustin learned to live with Ty’s power, and as long as he was nice towards Ty, he’d leave him alone.

It was a long, boring summer, and Dustin was kind of hoping for summer to be over. He would have liked to go on a trip somewhere, since he was tired of the daily grind of working for little money at the grocery store. He knew he was going to turn seventeen soon and had only a year or so left in high school before going to college, which meant that he really needed to concentrate on school and study extra hard in order to be accepted at a decent college. This was probably a good time to go on a trip, but his problem was that he didn’t have enough money right now and he had no place to go. So what was he going to do?

Dustin walked outside to pick up the newspaper, which was lying flat, in a plastic bag, on the driveway leading to the garage. While holding the paper in his hand, he realized that he had forgotten to get the previous day’s mail. In the mailbox were a postcard and a letter.

He walked inside and sat down at the dinner table. As if a prayer had been answered, he smiled as he read the return address on the envelope. It was addressed to him; it was a letter from Aunt Jenny in Michigan! He had not heard from any of his relatives in ages, and he was just overly excited to hear something from his family.

He opened the envelope and read the letter, which was typed on plain white letter paper in black ink. It seemed that a long, lost uncle had passed away recently and left Dustin with a check for ten thousand Dollars! He looked in the envelope and indeed, there was a check, written out to Dustin for the whole amount. He was ecstatic, as he planned right away to go to the bank to deposit the check using the teller machine. He quickly endorsed it on the back and folded the check in three, putting it in his black wallet. Although his uncle had hoped that Dustin would use the money towards paying for college, he thought that this was exactly what he needed in order to afford going on a small trip. He ran up the stairs to Ty’s room and quietly opened the door, but when he realized that Ty was still asleep, he quietly closed it and walked down the stairs again, back to the kitchen.

He was so excited about his inheritance that he had completely forgotten to look at the postcard that also came in the mail that day. On the front was a photo of a large museum in Toronto, Canada. Canada? Dustin thought about it, because he didn’t have any friends or relatives in Canada! Then he looked on the other side and read to his surprise that the postcard was addressed to Tyler, and it was from his cousin whose name was Peter Kowalski. Since it was a simple postcard, Dustin decided to read it anyway. It said,

Dear Tyler, Hi there cousin! My name is Peter Kowalski; I live just outside of Toronto, Canada. You may not know me, but I’m your cousin on your mother’s side of the family. I got your name and address from Uncle Rudy, who lives in Minnesota. I will be visiting in your area for about a week or two over the summer and I was hoping that I could maybe stay with you since I just turned fifteen. Uncle Rudy told me that we’re the same age! Anyway, I’ll be arriving there on the seventh in the afternoon, since I’ll be traveling by bus. I’m really looking forward to finally meeting you in person. Be ready for me, for I have a surprise for you! Be ready for some big changes in your life! Best regards, Peter Kowalski

Dustin couldn’t believe it; he read the handwriting on the postcard twice. He wasn’t sure if he was ready for another fifteen-year-old kid in the house, Tyler was already a handful as it is! And he really didn’t like that last line at all: Be ready for some big changes in your life! What did he mean by that? It almost sounded like something Ty would say, before changing Dustin using his magical powers. Then he looked at the calendar, which was hanging in the kitchen right next to the refrigerator. Today was the seventh! This kid, Peter, was due to arrive that afternoon!

Just as Dustin walked into the kitchen, the water in the kettle started to boil and the spout on the end of the kettle started to whistle out loud, with hot steam coming out of the little hole. Afraid that the sound might wake up his little brother, he quickly turned the heat off and poured some hot water in a coffee mug. He added a spoonful of coffee to the water and stirred it, as he suddenly heard Tyler’s bedroom door open upstairs.

After about a minute or so Tyler came running down the stairs in a t-shirt and shorts.

“Hey!” Ty said to Dustin as he reached the last step.

“Good morning Ty! Or should I say, good afternoon? It’s almost noon, you sleepyhead!” Dustin answered with a chuckle. “I boiled some water so you could have some tea. I’m sorry if it woke you up. Oh I got a letter and you got a postcard in the mail today.”

Ty walked into the kitchen, grabbed a mug and a tea bag. He poured some sugar in the mug and then poured some hot water in it while dangling the tea bag in the water.

Then Ty sat at the kitchen table and started to read the postcard.

“Hey Ty, do you want a sandwich?” Dustin asked while he was getting bread out of the refrigerator. He was about to make himself a sandwich and wanted to know if he needed to make one for his little brother as well.

“Thanks, Dustin. If you can make me one, then that would be great!” Ty answered. Dustin had learned over the past few months that as long as he stayed calm and polite, he would stay on Tyler’s good side and he wouldn’t easily provoke him into using his powers to change him into a mouse. Dustin has become more caring, responsible and patient with Ty. He had learned to live with Ty the hard way, for Ty was not shy about using his powers on him! But Dustin realized that there was nothing to be gained from being mean to Ty, and decided to be nice to his little brother. He was, after all, still the oldest in the house and felt a sense of responsibility. Not only that, but he learned that Ty would use his powers and make Dustin big and tall every time he went out to play basketball. To him it was actually becoming fun, having a brother with these incredible powers. As long as he stayed nice to Ty, he really didn’t have to fear Ty’s powers like he used to.

“Hey Dustin, my cousin Peter is coming over this afternoon! He’s coming all the way from Toronto, Canada! Can he stay with us?” Ty asked his older brother.

Dustin was actually surprised that Ty even asked in the first place, and he really didn’t have a reason to object to his cousin staying over.

“It’s alright I guess, will you let him sleep in your room?” Dustin asked him.

“Yes, although I only have one bed, I can make it wider or I’ll wish for another bed altogether. It’s only going to be for a few days, and I’m kind of excited to finally meet this cousin of mine! He’s my age, too!” Ty said excitedly.

“Well just be nice to him and don’t change him into a frog or something, okay? You don’t want to freak him out on the first day!” Dustin advised his little brother.

“He should arrive here any time now! Are you going to be home this afternoon?” Ty asked Dustin, as he walked up to the table with sandwiches for both of them.

“I need to go to the grocery store at three o’clock this afternoon. But guess what?” Dustin said.

“What?” Ty responded.

“I got a check in the mail from an uncle of mine who had just passed away. It’s was made out to me for the amount of ten thousand Dollars!” was his reply.

“Wow! That’s so cool! What are you planning to do with that money?”

“Well, Ty, I was thinking. How about we go on a road trip? We can go the beach or to an amusement park or something?” Dustin wondered out loud.

Ty’s eyes completely lit up, as he showed a big smile on his face. “Hey Dustin, maybe my cousin Peter can come with us? Can we go to Walt Disney World or something?”

“Would you like to do that?” Dustin asked.

“Yes! I’ve never been to an amusement park before! I would love to go!” Ty responded with even more excitement.

“Well how about we wait for Peter to arrive here first and then we’ll decide what we’ll do or where we’ll go, okay? But please don’t change me into anything weird okay?” Dustin added, just to be safe.

“You got yourself a deal!” Ty answered, as he shook Dustin’s hand. •