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Do you remember that whole debacle about The War of the Worlds in 1938?

No?

Well…it pretty much was a huge misunderstanding coupled with human gullibility.

There was a radio drama series in 1938, and The War of the Worlds was one of the episodes. Most of the radio show was simulated news broadcasts that described an alien invasion. It was all a part of the radio drama show, as everyone who had been a long time listener knew.

Of course, for new listeners, they thought it was very scary. And very real.

People went into hysteria. Panic filled the people and therefore, they filled the streets. People ran from their homed to find their loved ones or ran to the local churches to pray for the end to come swiftly or for their souls to be saved. People began walking around with home-made gas masks and weapons. Women miscarried and went into early labor. Deaths and suicides were reported.

All because of a radio show.

People were pissed when they found out it wasn't real. I'd be pretty pissed off too. So color me surprised when several decades later…almost the same happenings of that radio broadcast were actually occurring.

Captain said he remembers that broadcast. After all, it was broadcast eight years before he was turned into an icicle, give or take a few years.

I couldn't fathom why I could remember that broadcast that I'd learned about in school with such detail. It seemed almost laughable now, thanks to the situation at hand. Smirking, I couldn't do much but shake my head and get ready to start throwing some alien ass around town.

"Twin set number 25-D are ready." An emotionless baritone droned over the clinic's loud speaker. The clinic's hallways were all white: the tiles, the wallpaper, the cheap ceiling panels, but they all had begun to yellow with age.

Nurses and doctors slowly migrated from one observation room to another. Crying and screaming came from every room they left; the high pitched noises had become common to the medical personnel. They didn't seem to acknowledge the ear piercing screams as they all entered one of the last doors on the left side of the hall. Inside the small room was a group of doctors and nurses, observing a pair of one-year-old babies. One of the nurses turned on a small recorder and began to speak into the device, her tired eyes reading a manila file.

"Doctor Robbins, testing twin set number 25-D. Fraternal twins. Irish and German in decent. Eldest sibling is male, youngest is female." The nurse grumbled into the small recorder, clearly exhausted.

A man in a white coat picked up the baby swathed in green, who let out a cry. The other twin, a baby wrapped in blue, cried at the loss of his sister. The doctor held the baby girl to his chest and left the room.

"Doctor Robbins is separating twin 25-D1 from 25-D2. D-2 will be receiving the injections to see if D-1 will respond to them as well. Proof of twin telepathy, or any kind of connection which would make the two share any sort of physical or emotional symptoms, has not been proven by any of the other twin studies." The nurse said softly, turning off the recorder.

The nurse who spoke on the recording sighed as the last of the other nurses left the 25-D observation room. Cautiously, the nurse hovered over the baby boy, looking for any kind of distress. The doctor said he would be injecting into 25-D2's left arm, so she should look for D1 showing any discomfort in his left arm.

"I'm so sorry about this." The nurse murmured, feeling light headed as she watched the baby. "What Doctor Robbins' is doing. It's not right."

The baby boy seemed to understand the nurse and let out a small whimper. The nurse grimaced. She threw down her clip board onto the counter and picked the small bundle up. Cradling the crying baby in her arms, the nurse pressed a kiss to his forehead.

"Doctor Robbins has cancelled Project 295: Twin Studies. No proof of hypothesis was found and none of the goals were met. The twins will be returned to their prospective parents and or guardians." The nurse murmured dejectedly into the recorder.

Doctor Robbins' twin studies had finally ended after two years. The twenty five sets of twins showed no signs of one twin seeming in pain or distress that the other twin was feeling when they were separated. Many of the nurses were relieved that the testing had stopped. They had seen these babies grow up and they were becoming concerned that Doctor Robbins was inching close to malpractice. The nurses had noticed some strange marks appearing on a few of the children. Bruises, small cuts, or rashes appeared on the children selected to experience the stimuli first hand, but the babies had not had those marks the night before when the nurses left to go home.

Slowly, the nurses realized that these bruises showed up the morning after when Doctor Robbins' would stay late and be the last one to close the clinic before the night nurses came to watch over the babies. The nurses began to stay later and later with the babies and Doctor Robbins seemed to realize that his own nurses were wary of him.

Frustrated, Doctor Robbins ended his twin project.

8 Years Later. (Age 10): Kate's POV.

"Kate, just try and catch the ball!" Max, my twin brother, whined. I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest. I didn't feel like playing catch! I just wanted to swing on the swing set.

"Max, I don't wanna!" I said, pouting at my slightly older brother. Max frowned and furrowed his brow.

"Just a few times! Please!" Max begged, stomping his foot.

"Go ask Daddy!" I sighed, not wanting to get off my swing.

"Dad's busy! It's Tuesday, you know he goes out bowling with his friends." Max whined, holding the flimsy looking wiffle ball in his hands. I sighed, throwing my hands up and slowing down the swing. Max began to cheer as he noticed my toes scraping the ground to try and decrease momentum. He ran to the other side of the yard where there was a pile of wiffle balls and some cheap rubber bases.

"Max, can you help me?" I asked, feeling the swing begin to wobble. The play set was rather old and rusty and I was now beginning to grow nervous about the creaking metal. Max groaned, tossing down the rubber bases and wiped his dirty hands off on his jeans. Suddenly, a large snap rang through the air. Looking up, I noticed the swing set's largest main bar had snapped and was about to come crashing down onto my head.

"RUN!" Max shouted, running over to me as fast as he could. Letting out a quick yelp, I shoved myself off the quaking set. I felt the wind swoosh around me as I sprung from the swing seat. I heard Max shout as I felt myself loose balance mid-air and I was sent smashing to the ground.

"Kate! Oh my god! How did you do that!?" Max cried as he rushed over to me and fell to his knees. Gasping, I rolled onto my back and sat up. My head spun and I felt something warm dribbling down my temple.

"Do w-what?" I winced, closing my eyes to try and make the world stop spinning. Max looked at my forehead and winced, his eyes wide in wonder.

"That was so wicked! Don't freak out…" He whispered, leaning closer to get a look at my forehead.

"About what?" I asked, growing worried and annoyed. Was I hurt that bad?

"You jumped." Max said, putting his hands on my shoulders. His hands were shaking, but he didn't look cold or scared. He looked amazed.

"Well…I couldn't really run off the swing, Max." I said, looking at my older brother worriedly. Max slowly leaned away from me and turned towards the pile of swing set. The rickety pile of metal was at least forty feet away from us.

"You…jumped this far." Max said in awe, his teal eyes wide in wonder.

"I-It was 'cause I was swinging so high." I said, trying to make sense of how far I had jumped. Max shook his head, his blonde hair flying around.

"No…y-you didn't just jump! It was fast! Like…cheetah fast! One second you were on the swing, then all the sudden you're in the air!" Max said, a huge grin crossing his face. His grin faltered to a confused look as he prodded at my slightly throbbing temple with a rather dirty finger.

"Ya' got bone or something sticking out of your head." He noted dully, poking at…something. I felt pressure at my head, about an inch above the tips of my ears, but it didn't feel. It felt like when someone would touch my nails, but…lighter. More like when someone touches the hat on top of your head: you can feel it, but it doesn't hurt.

"It looks like…a horn." Max said, still prodding at my head.

"I have a horn!?" I cried, feeling tears well up in my eyes. Max jumped and began waving his hands in front of my face, his fall back plan when he tries to make me stop crying.

"N-no! C'mon, let's go inside and clean up! 'Kay?" He asked, picking me up underneath my arms and hauling me to my feet. I shakily followed my older brother into the house, sneaking past our sleeping mother into the bathroom and locking the door behind us. I sat down on the cool floor as Max opened the small closet door and began rooting around inside. I turned towards the floor length mirror I was leaning up against and stared at myself.

I felt more tears welling up as I stared at what looked like a small…twig sticking out of my head. A little brown nub was sticking out of my head, a few inches behind my hairline. About an inch above the tip of my ear was where it sat, blood tricking from the skin around the extrusion. I brought a quaking hand up to the horn and ran my fingers over it. It was kind of…soft, like velvet.

"Don't tug on it. I think it's…attached." Max said, still digging through the closet. Nervously, I gently tugged at the little brown nub. I felt the same strange sensation I felt when Max was poking at me. Slightly relieved that it wasn't a stick that I had fallen and impaled myself on, I let myself take a deep breath. I closed my eyes and took another deep breath after I felt better after the first deep breath.

When I opened my eyes, I was astounded to see that the little brown horn was gone. The blood was still there, drying on my temple. I brought my hand up to where the horn used to be and ran my hand through my hair. There was nothing there, not even a hole.

"Max…it's gone." I whispered, leaning closer to the mirror. Max closed the closet door, hands filled with cotton balls, alcohol, Neosporin, and a box of bandages. Confused, he dropped to his knees on the floor beside me. Gently, he ran both of his hands through my hair, prodding at my scalp.

"You made it…vanish. Can you make it come back?" Max asked, pushing my hair away from my face.

"I just…took a deep breath." I mumbled, feeling a little lightheaded.

"What were you thinking about?" Max asked, soaking one of the cotton balls with the rubbing alcohol. He ran it across the palms of my hands, which had been scraped during my fall.

"I...I don't know?" I questioned myself, trying to ignore the throbbing in my palms. "Calming down? Maybe I was thinking about...the horn going away."

Max frowned, rubbing his chin in thought. He pursed his lips and scratched his chin. That was one thing that my brother and I share in common: we're always twitching or moving. Max haunched back onto his feet and ran his fingers through his light auburn-blonde hair.

"Close your eyes and imagine them back!" Max said after a few moments of hard thought. I narrowed my eyes and shot my twin a dirty look.

"You're kidding me, Maxie." I huffed, crossing my arms over my chest. Max rolled his eyes and let out a similar huff.

"Just do it! Maybe you could go to that school for freaks!" Max said, but not in a mean way. His eyes were shining and a happy-go-lucky grin was on his face. Growling, I kept my arms crossed over my chest, but I closed my eyes. I tried to imagine my image in the mirror and tried to see the horn coming out of my head. I then imagined a second one, coming out of my skull. I felt a tingle above both my ears, but no pain. I imagined the two horns growing and growing...eventually branching out like-

"Antlers! Kate! You have antlers!"

Max's crow made my eyes snap open. I looked into the mirror's reflection and my eyes grew wider. Two little three-inch deer antlers were sprouting out of my head, just like they had in my imagination. They weren't that impressive, they looked more like Bambi the deer's baby antlers.

"They're kinda…strange." I said, moving my head from side to side. They didn't feel too heavy, but they had some weight to them. I swayed my head, feeling the small antlers out. Max laughed, reaching out to touch the little antlers.

"Very strange! Hey, you might grow up to be a ten point buck one day!" Max giggled, jabbing at my antlers.

"Bucks are males." I grouched, tapping my antlers against the mirror. They made rather loud clunks as they hit the glass, but they didn't shatter it. I sighed, shrugging my shoulders. Nervously, I closed my eyes once more and imagined that the antlers slowly sinking back into my head. I felt a strange sensation that was different than what I felt when I imagined that the antlers appeared. It was kind of like a…sucking sensation. Like when you stick your palm flat on the suction hose of the vacuum.

"Gone?" I whispered nervously, too afraid to open my eyes.

"They're gone." Max said sullenly, making me sigh. Opening my eyes, I was relieved to see that the antlers were truly gone. Max ran his hand through my hair, double checking for antlers. I sighed and leaned into his hand. What the hell was wrong with me?

"Do you think I'm a freak?" I whispered, scooting closer to my brother and burrowing myself into his arms. Max smiled and shook his head, squeezing me tightly.

"No! Look at the bright side: you've got super powers! You can run jump high and you've got effen' antlers! Your superhero name can be…" Max said, biting his lip. I groaned, shaking my head.

"I don't want a name!" I laughed, shoving his shoulder with my forehead.

"Misses Moose…or She-Elk!" Max said, thrusting his chin up in the air with pride.

"Misses Moose….She-Elk?" I repeated, looking at my brother like he was the dumbest creature on the planet.

"And I'll be your sidekick: Bambi Boy! Or…He-Deer!" He crowed, striking a heroic pose.

"You…you just…when did someone drop you on your head?" I sighed, running my hand down my face. Max cackled, hunching over into a villainous pose and began to rub his hands together as if he was plotting.

"This is…perfect!" Max giggled evilly, rubbing his palms together. Great, the lunatic had a heroic idea and now he's got an evil one. Sometimes I wonder if Max's got that multiple personality disorder I heard about on the TV show, Criminal Minds.

"What's perfect? That I'm some kind of…." I trailed off, unable to finish my train of thought. What am I? Am I an alien? A mutant? Maybe I was one of those animorphs that I read about! Was I a human that turns into a deer, or a deer that can turn into a human?

"Coat hanger head!" I groaned, leaning my back against the glass and hitting the back of my head against it in exasperation. Max cackled wildly at my put down, his eyes closing in laughter.

"C-coat hanger! No! You'll be my security dog!" Max said, jumping to his feet. He gave me the hand signal for 'stay' and raced out of the bathroom. I huffed at the sign, but I stayed put in the bathroom, hearing my brother running upstairs to his bedroom. Nursing my sore palms, I puckered my lips in annoyance.

"Look!" Max cheered, entering the bathroom and locking the door behind him once more. He had a large rolled up piece of brown paper in his hand. He unrolled it across the tile floor and a detailed drawing of a store appeared. It looked small and fairly simple, but there were detailed notes and numbers surrounding the drawing.

"A cafe?" I asked, slowly reading the handwriting scrawled around the drawing of the actual building. There was a start of a menu on one side and everything was a desert. Max shrugged, looking down at the unrolled paper. The paper looked beaten and a lot of places looked like something had been erased and rewritten multiple times.

"A bakery." He grumbled, as if I had somehow insulted him. "In New York City. I've been planning this since…like, forever."

"I think it's great, Maxie." I smiled, patting his shoulder. He smiled softly, his eyes far off in some day dream.

"Good. You're coming with me." He sounded resolute, nodding his head.

"You can't just choose for me!" I yelped, taking my hand off his shoulder to smack his arm. "What if I don't want to help you?"

Max snorted, rolling his eyes. He smiled and looked back down at his notes. I couldn't help but smile as I watched him.

"We gotta stick together, Kate. You know that." He said, completely sure of himself. "Besides, you'll get to bake with me, push our employees around, and guard the place!"

I groaned, pressing my forehead into my palms. Sometimes Max didn't know how frustrating he could be. I love my brother, love him so much, but he's so energetic. He's like a monkey. Always chattering, always moving, always optimistic.

"And what makes you think I want that?" I asked, my voice muffled by my hands. Max threw his head back and laughed, so free and uncaring.

"'Cause you don't have a choice!"

"Grreeaaat." I groaned, shaking my head.

13 Years Later: Present Day: Age 23.

"Are you two sure…?" An older woman asked, helping her husband and two children load up her daughter's Ford Fiesta with boxes. Her son snorted, rolling his blue-grey eyes and took the large box out of his mother's arms.

"Ma', don't worry about it! The shop's all set up, we've hired a few bakers already, and all we've got to do is put up some last minute decorations and bring in some of our supplies." Max snorted, placing the big box in the trunk of the hatchback.

"Yeah, we'll be fine." Kate, now a young woman with the same shade of light auburn hair, said softly, twirling her green lanyard, causing her keys to jingling loudly. Kate snorted, seeing her father shuffling down the front steps, wearing the world's ugliest sweater.

'Hey, Da'.' Kate signed, her key lanyard wrapped around her wrist. Max and Kate's adoptive father, Phil, had been deaf since birth. As soon as he and his wife, Tinsley, adopted the twins, he had taught his children how to sign.

'Hey, K.' Her father signed, smiling softly. 'You two ready? Long trip to New York City.' He asked, his fingers moving in a flurry of signs.

'As ready as we can.' Kate signed, rolling her eyes while making an over exaggerated look of irritation. A lot of sign language was actually in the facial expressions you made when you sign, to show the level of emotion. If one signed 'I'm unhappy', with a neutral face, would they really seem unhappy?

'Take care of each other.' Phil signed, his brows furrowed in worry. Max laughed, slapping his arm around his old man's shoulders.

'Da', don't worry about us! Old antler head is guarding the shop!' Max signed, earning a swat from his mother.

"Don't mention that! Especially not when you're in a place like the City." Tinsley snapped, slapping her son on the shoulder. The whole family had known of Kate's…specialness since she was about twelve. Max and Kate had kept her abilities between them for a few years before the cat…-er deer was out of the bag.

FLASHBACK: AGE: 12.

Max had been messing around in the woods out behind their property, just like Tinsley always told the twins not to. Kate had been content with sitting on the back porch swing, her sensitive hearing picking up on everything her brother was doing. Her socked feet brushed against the old wood with every sway of the swing, the December wind harsh against her small body.

Kate's ears twitched as she caught the sound of something in the woods. Sticking her pointed nose into the air, she took a few quick sniffs, earning a worried look from her father, who was sitting in the wicker rocking chair beside her. Kate stiffened, her ultra-sensitive nose picking up on a scent much different than her twin.

Cougar

"Cougar! Max and Cougar!" Kate screamed, her father reading her lips. Phil jerked off his chair, about to rush inside to get his gun when he froze in his tracks. Right before his eyes, large antlers began to grow out of his daughter's head. The fifteen inch weapons grew from her head in a matter of seconds. Kate's teal eyes widened in sheer horror and she was suddenly dashing off into the woods.

Kate was breathing heavily as she thundered into the woods. Her nose was picking up the scents of her twin and the large cat, the two scents were coming too close together for her liking.

"MAX!" Kate howled as her socked feet softly against the snow. The icy wind was beating at her face as she sped, sharp branches nicking at her as she ran. Her plaid long sleeved button up was sliced and she began to be soaked by the snow. Kate's breaths formed in big clouds of fog, but the sounds and smells of the predator only made her run faster.

She came upon her brother in the nick of time. Max was crouched down, one leg bloody and tucked underneath him while the other was out, wildly kicking at the cougar who was prowling around him. Furiously rushing towards them, Kate let out a loud bellow. The large cat let out a screech, baring its long fangs.

"KATE!" Max screamed, trying to wriggle further away from the cougar. Kate shouted in anger, charging towards the large cat. When she was about ten yards away, she bent herself in half and tucked her chin against her chest, her antlers poised and lethal.

Kate slammed into the cougar with such viciousness that some of her antler points actually punctured into the cat's thick fur and skin. Her neck muscles bulging, Kate reared her head back up, the cougar still impaled on her antlers. The cat howled in pain as the mutant straightened her head and began to viciously shake her head back and forth. Her sharpened points began to rip and tear into the cougar's flesh, causing blood to run in rivulets down her antlers and face.

"Little shit!" Kate screamed as she flung her head in a down ward arc. The cougar was sent flying off her spikes and landed with a wet thump into the snow a few yards away. Kate huffed, a steam of air puffing out her mouth, the cougar's blood covering her shaking form. The cat shakily pushed itself up with its front paws, its back legs clearly paralyzed. Kate and the cougar stared each other down, equal viciousness in their eyes.

BANG.

The cougar slouched back to the snowy ground, its head nothing more than a bloody mess. Phil came from behind some thick brush, his double barrel shot gun still smoking. He nudged the cougar's dead body with his boot, earning an amused scoff from his daughter.

'It doesn't have much of a head anymore, Da'.' Max signed, his fingers covered in his own blood. Phil smirked, rolling his eyes at his children and letting out a relieved sigh. Sure, his daughter had giant deer antlers coming out of her head and his son's leg got mauled by a cougar, but everything was alright.

'Home.' Phil signed, nodding to his daughter, who smiled sheepishly. 'and well talk about those antlers.'

PRESENT DAY:

"We'll be safe." Kate snorted, rolling her eyes. Tinsley sneered, rolling her eyes at her adoptive daughter. Even though Phil had an amazing relationship with the twins, Tinsley only ever had any love for Max. Kate knew it, Max knew it, Phil knew it…but it was never touched much upon.

"We better get going." Kate said, jingling her car keys nervously. Max had left his Fiat back in New York City, since they would have enough room in Kate's Fiesta for this final trip. The twins hugged their father, Max hugged Tinsley, Kate and Tinsley had a very awkward verbal goodbye, and then the twins were on the road.

"You ready for this…finally?" Kate asked Max, her teal eyes trained on the road. Max snorted, nervously sorting through their traveling CD's.

"Just a little nervous." Max shrugged, rolling his shoulders. "Do you think…this is gonna be good?"

"Maxamillion Patrick McGuiness!" Kate snapped, her blue painted nails clicking on the steering wheel. "You have been planning this bakery since you were nine years old! You've had my help planning since we were thirteen! We've got a better shot than most people out there!"

"Thanks Kate…thanks." Max said softly, leaning his head back against the soft seat as Disney songs began to softly play through the car speakers. Kate smiled, watching her taller twin's eyes flicker until they shut and soft snores began to slowly ring through the car.