Trekking across the arid region near my city had always been a hobby of mine. It's mostly to air out the thoughts I had in my head. The desert was away from the hustle and bustle of the crowd and the soft, golden silence was what calmed me, even when the temperature was scorching hot. A walk in the desert was the most relaxing thing I can think of doing…

That is until the day I made that discovery.

It started like any other walk. Had writer's block and decided to go for a walk to take in the sights. Most people wonder why I choose such a barren place to walk to, even when it's hours away from the city and that's because of exactly that: it's barren. Nothing was in plain sight. My mind can become as empty as the place I walk on…

So, imagine my surprise when, during my walk, I see a miniature satellite that flew back and forth, all while bleeping out a very audible "EXPLORE! EXPLORE!". Naturally, I became curious and tracked the satellite down. That's when I discovered some sort of orangish-gold plane, maybe even yellow, though it's been a long time since then, embedded right into the side of Mount St. Hilary. A half-hour prior, there was volcanic activity. Not a huge eruption, though, as when I got to the mountain, what remained of its magma had cooled off. The plane had me curious. I thought that it could help inspire a story for me…

Well, it did.

As I stepped into the plane via an opening underneath, I looked and saw just how… new it all looked. It was unlike any plane I had seen before. Tons of screens glowed blue, dozens of keyboards embedded themselves into the walls, and there were more technological devices that made it look like someone tried their hand at making the Millennium Falcon.

Though, what stood out to me were what laid on the floor. Pieces of scrap metal were strewn about the floor, all of them box-shaped and of various warm colors. A few pieces though stood out more, to the point where they were unsettling. These larger pieces of scrap looked… humanoid. A torso here, a waist with legs there, I soon realized those small box-shaped pieces were really arms. At least one of the torsos had what appeared to be a head attached to it. I retched at imagining what this would look like if those humanoid pieces of scrap were actually human beings.

And then I saw it: a large, metallic giant slumped on a large iron throne, as though it was just asleep. As the giant was more complete than the other scraps, I was able to study it more carefully. A large helmet with a mask covered its head and face. Its torso and arms were buff, red blocks of metal, small steel rods attacked to the sides of its shoulders. Its pecs had what appeared to be glass as its stomach had a large grill built onto it. Its waist and thighs were white with yellow detailing, almost akin to headlights. Its boots were metallic blue.

It seemed inactive despite being fully complete. So many thoughts filled my head that day. Most of them were me pondering if I can turn a quick profit of taking the scraps and selling them or even capitalizing on this discovery.

P-PCHEW! P-P-PCHEW!

That sound was what began the nightmare that would come. As I wondered what that noise was, I heard a rumble and soon, an avalanche of rocks that caused the entire plane to rumble. I braced onto one of the walls and resisted the tremors. Though, I saw the giant fall off the throne and rolled down onto where I had stood… Had I been a few seconds too late, I would have been crushed.

As the giant slumped onto the floor, a light activated from what appeared to be a lamp. The light shined over the giant as a claw came out from the bottom of one of the walls. The small satellite I saw before emerged a small UFO-like device attached to one of the tables and unfolded its wings. It bleeped out again, "EXPLORE! EXPLORE!" and flew off through a small hole in the ceiling. I stayed in the plane, both out of a morbid curiosity of what is going on and out of fear of whatever caused that avalanche. I noticed one of screens activate five minutes later. It began to sketch up schematics for a trailer truck. Then I heard the satellite say something new: "REPAIR! REPAIR!"

I looked to the giant as the claw began to fix it up. The giant was sleeping and whatever happened had woke it up, its body now covered in an orange glow. And if it can repair, what might happen to the rest of the scraps? It probably would have went over to repair the rest once it was done with the giant. It didn't seem to recover automatically though, instead it allowed the claw to fold its entire body into what looked to be the cab of a truck. I had no idea why it did that, but in that next moment, I never got that answer. Once the cab was complete and its trailer appeared from what might as well be thin air, the glowing stopped, and I saw the cab begin to unfold in the complete opposite direction that the claw folded it up in.

The giant was coming back to life.

As if that wasn't scary enough, the truck began to make a strange grinding sound. It sounded like an alien crunching gears. What made it worse was that with each grind, the noise grew louder and louder, as though building up the anticipation for the giant's revival. The bottom of the cab began to fold out into the giant's legs while the lower corners creased out into its arms, blue hands sprouted out of the headlights and its front wheels sucked into its waist.

That was all I could see before I ran out screaming. I ran as far as I could from the plane, even when my legs were about to give. Once I felt I was far away from Mount St. Helen, I collapsed onto my knees and immediately drank my bottle to not pass out of exhaustion. I sat behind a large pile of rocks as I began to think about what had transpired. Did the giant notice me? Will it spend its time repairing the others? Why did the plane decide to fold the giant into a cab in the first place? Was it to give it a faster mode of transportation? Fast enough to track me down? I held back my tears. I could have been spotted at any moment. My trip back to Central City would take hours. If the giant was on my trail, I wouldn't have time.

And then… What then? I thought back to the giant becoming a cab and being able to go back to its original form. It seemed like a second nature, as if it was made to transform. I had no idea what the giant was, but I knew that it was more than meets the eye. Would it set its sights on Central City? Most likely. The satellite drone was able to scan a truck from there, so it was within the realm of possibility. With the ability to transform into a truck, it seemed even more likely that its intent was to blend in.

I knew one thing: I wouldn't be going back to Central City anytime soon. Not until I knew for certain what was going on. If that meant staying within distance of the giant and its army, then so be it. I've seen enough alien encounter movies to know that there are two kinds of aliens: benevolent and malevolent. Most times, they're malevolent… I need to see what the giant is. If its benevolent, then I will return to Central City and pretend I never saw it. But… if it was malevolent…

Then I must make it my mission to stop these robots in disguise.