Luke picked up a golden ring with a strange white gem. He placed it on his index finger, then stood in front of his bedroom mirror so that he could watch what would happen along with his three friends. Luke could feel something flowing from the ring through his arm and up into his body, but none of the four could see any visible change happening to Luke. After a few seconds, Luke was prepared to just take the ring off, but Zack made a sound before Luke could reach for it.
"What is it, little bro?" Mark asked.
"First of all, I'm fifteen and you guys are all only three years older than me," Zack replied.
"Why did you make that noise?" Max said.
All that Zack did in response was point at Luke--this meant that Zack had seen something happen to Luke. Luke looked back into the mirror and saw it, too. Growing on his neck--or out of the skin--were green scales. As the boys watched, Luke felt a pain in his right shoulder. The fabric of Luke's shirt tore apart and out of the hole sprouted a dragon-like head, with white horns and fangs, yellow eyes, and a long neck and snout--it was covered in the same green scales, and seemed to be just as confused and curious as Luke. Next, a long scaly tail burst out of Luke's jeans, finishing only when another head burst out of Luke's left shoulder, its red eyes gleaming with fire. Surprised by the added weight, Luke stumbled over onto all fours. His hands became scaly paws with only four digits and short thumbs, and his shirt continued to tear apart as the scale worked their way up his arms to his chest and back. Luke's neck grew out like the other heads, and his head began to transform into one of the others! Luke's jeans tore away as well, and he acquired a reptilian build with new feet--eight prominent toes, two smaller ones where his big toes were, and another claw at the heel. A spike had also sprouted at each elbow. There was now a green hydra in the middle of the bedroom, with three heads that were almost identical. The one with yellow eyes had a horn from each cheek and two growing straight back from his forehead. The other two had similar horns, only the red-eyed ones curved back towards the forehead. The blue-eyed one was the original, and you could tell it from the others due to it being the only head with visible ears.
"Luke, are you okay?" Mark asked his best friend.