As they walked into the house, the aroma of grilled meat and spices filled the air. The living room was cosy, with family photos adorning the walls and a large window overlooking a well-maintained garden. Daniel, the tall, big guy with a friendly smile on his face, greeted them with a hearty laugh.
Daniel had the build of a bodybuilder, a head of auburn colored hair, above average looks and a welcoming personality to boot.
"Adrien! Sarah! Welcome! Make yourselves at home," he said, flipping burgers and meat on the grill. "We've got quite the feast planned for tonight. And happy sixteenth Adrien, you're a young man now" Daniel gave him a cheeky grin as he said the last part. "Are you bringing in any hot babes at the penthouse, I bet you have never heard a straight no from them chicks, seeing as you are the most eligible bachelor in the world now, ahahahahaha!!!!"
"Daniel! Language please?" The big guy immediately went silent "Alex! come look who's here!"
"Coming!" Footsteps echoed from the second floor and a 5'4" figure appeared on the stairway seconds later. Dressed in a dark blue one-piece dress, Alex slowly walked down the stairs to the lounge, she pulled back her auburn locks from her beautiful oval face to behind her right ear.
Her hair was waist length, and it did well to accentuate the color of her dress. The dress clung tightly to her graceful figure and did little to hide her seductive curves from the imagination. She was neither too well nor too little endowed.
Her ample, average size bosom was like icing to the cake. A light blush colored her cheeks, the dim, warm lighting in the room hitting her face at just the right angle to highlight her gentle facial features. The room and the sounds outside went quiet for a moment as time seemed to stop. Alex was no doubt a world toppling beauty, straight 10.
Alex's footsteps were the only sound to be heard as they all looked at her descend. She looked up, her blue eyes met Adrien's icy, amethyst gaze which she could feel instantly warming up at the sight of her. Her blush deepened and she went back to looking downwards.
Mel helped her walk down the last couple stairs with her arm. "You look mesmerising as always my girl. "
"Thank you, mom." Alex nodded her head, and walked towards the pair who had just arrived, "Aunt Sarah..." Alex gave Sarah a gentle hug and a wide smile and proceeded to do the same to Adrien who was beside her, "Adrien, it's been a while, and happy birthday." She said, closing her eyes to take in the moment.
Adrien returned the hug, and they held the gesture for a few more seconds before they had to be interrupted by Mel clearing her throat. "Okay how about we get this party started."
The small family went on to settle on the patio in the backyard, soft music playing in the background.
Sarah and Adrien settled into the comfortable chairs on the patio, enjoying the warm evening breeze. Mel brought out a tray of drinks and snacks, and they all began to catch up on each other's lives.
"So, Adrien," Mel began, "what have you been up to lately? Any exciting new projects?"
"Nothing new, just the usual."
"Is that so? I guess I asked the wrong person, I should have asked Sarah, of course you'd consider anything you make yourself ordinary."
Sarah, Daniel and Alex chuckled wryly. They all knew that because Adrien spent most of his time alone cooped up in his lab, his definition of normal was rather skewed. They were used to it, well for the most part, but there was really no getting used to the things he came up with year after year.
"How is the company Sarah, I hope it isn't giving you too much trouble?"
"Nothing I'm not used to already" Sarah took a sip of the wine in her glass as she spoke...
Time flew by, and it was 9pm.The group had cleared out the food and cake, so they had now settled on giving small talk and taking drinks. Adrien was now old enough to drink but he stuck to his usual fruit juice.
Everyone else seemed to prefer taking alcohol, including Alex.
"By the way Adrien, Alex here says she wants to major in physics," Mel spoke, giving Alex the side eye as she did so. Alex's eyes widened; she choked on her wine and hurried to grab a towel from the table.
She started to fidget with her fingers, her gaze locked downwards but her eyes darting ever so slightly towards Adrien.
"Is that so" Adrien asked as a matter of fact. "I think she would make a wonderful physicist."
"I keep telling her a college degree is useless nowadays, the experience is what is most important, I mean look at you, did you attend a college, No."
"I guess not"
"Honey, let the girl do what she wants" Daniel chimed in.
"Oh please! we all know the only reason she's even considering physics is to assist a certain someone, that aside, I agree with letting her do what she wants. What I don't understand is why take the roundabout route, she can just join the team straight away without having to go through the whole college drama."
"I think It's getting late; we should get going. We can continue this some other day. Thank you for the food." Sarah finished up the last drops in her glass as she spoke.
"Of course, you two are welcome to stop by anytime, this is your home too. Daniel?"
"Hmm, of course we will walk you out" Daniel stood up first, "I'll grab the gifts we got for Adrien; you can open them later when you get home."
Afterwards, the family of five walked to the porch and began saying their goodbyes, a couple of wrapped boxes were loaded into the truck of the car.
Mel took the initiative and gave Adrien a gentle pat on the head, " drive safe guys, be on the lookout for the paparazzi, there are people out there who are obsessed with you, we wouldn't want another incident like the one two years ago."
"Yes, we will keep that in mind Aunty Mel"
"Take care guys..." Alex and Adrien shared a light hug.
Just as Adrien and Sarah were preparing to get into the car, they all felt a sudden, unexplainable shift in the air around them. It felt like someone just muted the world around them.
The noisy hum in the atmosphere went silent, time seemed to stop and the sky above them darkened, in a matter of milliseconds, the skies were pitch black.
All around the world people felt it, even in places where it was nighttime, this darkness seemed to permeate the night sky, it was oppressive. The air stilled, an invisible, but very much present change was occurring globally at the moment.
"Do you guys feel that..." Alex asked and before anyone could answer,
A massive, gaping hollow in space appeared in the sky. Its presence in the boundless, pitch-black sky gave an eerie sort of feeling that something otherworldly was making its way toward them
An oppressive, all-encompassing, ethereal female voice echoed soon after.
[Conditions Met! Initiating the Convergence sequence]
Rumble!!!
[Congratulations to the inhabitants of Planet 20 480 in sector 12 for activating their world seed, the next steps depend solely on your survival, good luck, you will need it].
After saying words no one understood the meaning of, the suffocating presence vanished as it was never there in the first place.
Thinking that it was just one of those pranks someone was playing on them, people ignored the voice they heard before and got ready to go back to going about their daily lives.
What came after though was anything but peaceful.
Rumble!!!
The earthquake recurred once more but with tenfold intensity.
Every person on earth at that moment felt their hearts stop momentarily, the shaking effect felt as if it was not only affecting the environment around them but extended all the way to the very core of their hearts.
The earth shook. A tremor radiating from the centre of the earth ravaged the whole planet. A second later, the tremors stopped.
Sarah was the first to ask the question in everyone's minds.
"What was that voice just now, and that tremor?"
"I have no ide.." Boom! before Adrien could say anything, another loud bang echoed, and chaos ensued. A fissure appeared right beneath them, starting off from a small crack in the earth before expanding rapidly.
Ahhhhhh!
Alex's high-pitched scream awoke the rest of them from their stupor. She was standing directly beneath the fissure.
"Alex," Dan rushed pull her towards him before the fissure grew any bigger. "Stay together guys, let's get back in the house".
They all ran back to safety into the house, trying to keep their calm and assess the situation amid the chaos.
Boom! boom! boom!
Continuous explosive tremors assaulted the ears of every living being on earth and the earthquake intensified. The buildings, made to withstand the pressure held on under the continuous assault.
However, as the intensity of the shaking continued to slowly increase, low, creaking sounds were soon heard in the cities.
They started off as minor irritating sound before one building in a particularly busy district in Metropolis let out a loud groaning creak before it visibly gave way.
The sight of a kilometres high building tearing up at its seam was a sight most present would never forget from that day.
Back at Mel's place, the scenes they saw from the window when they got into the house did not help their case.
They all gaped their mouths in horror, Sarah, Mel and Alex all let out audible, shaking gasps, tears visibly forming on the edges of their eyes "Oh my god... what has become of this world."
From the window, they all saw a harrowing sight in the city, the gigantic buildings were visibly tipping over, little by little. The tremors never stopped, but for some reason the fissures made in the earth were quickly closed off by more ground appearing from below.
The walls of the house continuously shook but they held strong.
But the effect of the earth splitting and supposedly repairing itself was causing the buildings to stretch and collapse.
The air above the buildings slowly gained a red hue as fires started spreading all around the city.
The sky went from a dark, pitch-black color to crimson red.
Frightened voices and loud screams accompanied the cacophonic booms that were spreading out in a radius like a domino effect.
The fear in the air was palpable. Millions of people were dying every second
"What the hell is going on!?" one man asked, a look of horror colored his features as he witnessed the start of an unexpected apocalypse.
"I don't know what is happening and why, but one thing is for sure, the world as we know it, is ending." Another frightened civilian answered him.
All this had happened in a space of five minutes and the situation looked dire. People soon saw the large appearance of large government issued emergency hover mobiles, sirens wailing as they weaved their way through the chaotic skies.
This at least gave them a sense of relief and hope. But the situation gave them no moment of respite.
Debris and flames mixed as the situation only grew worse. People were crushed underneath boulders, the rescue teams rushed to evacuate as many people as they could.
Similar scenes were happening all around the word.
...
Meanwhile, in outer space, if one were to look at the earth from here, they would be able to see that the spherical planet was getting bigger every second, even if slightly. But the longer you looked, the bigger it got.
That's right! The Planet earth was expanding and growing in size!!!