Wily-Mind: This is an edited and slightly revision of chapter one. The characters have not changed and the whole plot will remain the same with slight tweaking. I know I have kept you all waiting and revision chapters aren't exactly what you all have been waiting and I apologize for these reasons. Again, I had lacked in research on getting the science-aspect of my story accurately. I'm a full-time student but I'll be more adamant about updating newer chapters. Thanks everyone for your patience and a shout out to all my story's reviewers and followers!

.o.

During the summertime, the football field was in its prime. The grass was cut short, the white lines that bordered the field could be seen, and the goal post was in mildly-good condition. But it was the children who brought spirit to the field. Kids who practiced for teams at school could easily use this field. It was when the first snowfall impacted Crown City is when the kids knew it was time to call it quits for the field for football. There would be no more spiking and tossing the ball to one another or teams for performing defense and offense. Football season was over and the kids were at peace with that. Instead of falling and eating dirt and grass, they had fun enduring falling face-first into piles of snow after sledding down the hills in the park.

A large group of youths gathered to Creek Jungle Park, just south of the field, with their sleds prepared to journey down the slopes. A girl with ginger hair down to her shoulders faced toward the grayish-blue horizon as she stood atop the white hill. Behind her were seven other kids around the same ages of eleven and thirteen. They were all on their sleds as they awaited her direction to wave her gloved hand for them to go.

"I want a clean race!" the girl said flatly, "No shoving other races off of their sleds, no snowballs to the face, and—"

She waited a moment to catch her breath. Finally, she yelled to the racers, "—You crash and burn, you're out!"

After slicing the crisp air with her hand, the sled-riders bolted from the flat ground and down the sloping hill. Particles of snow kicked up from all side of the sleds as the kids dug their hands into the snow at a rapid pace to pick up speed. A boy with blonde curly hair passed through five of the racers to come in a tying line with a boy with ruffled, brunette hair. Blonde bared his teeth into a toothy grin at the other boy. With a swipe of his fist, Blonde struck the other boy in the face with a harsh snowball.

The snowball victim flinched for a split second. He managed to regain control of his steering and stopped his sled for the moment. He rubbed the remaining powdered white stuff off his face and narrowed his eyes onto the racer who tried to sabotage him. A sudden feeling of added weight on the back of his sled caused him to jolt. The brunette boy turned his head around to see a girl grinning down at him. The falling snow made her tawny shoulder-length hair start to twinkle.

"Hurry, Rusty!" she said with high determination, "Aaron's gonna win!"

Rusty, or "Russell", shot an ambitious smile at his friend, and the two racers tore off in one sled. Russell's friend, Hank, was awesome and not just because she was a girl who wasn't afraid to play football. She was awesome because she had genuine support for all her friends, and especially those she saw potential in. Russell knew from going back to when he first met Hank that she had a wild and brave nature to her. Her pride for her ambitiousness sometimes influenced Russell at times like this.

Blonde's, or Aaron Skinner's, spirits rose when he was nearing the finish line at the bottom of the hill. The one word that sung in his mind was "winner." Aaron's mental one-word-song ended when a tidal wave of snow smacked into his side. The boy lost control of his sled and started to sway uncontrollably. He flipped head-over-heels from his sled and ate a pile of fresh snow. His face boiling red face could have melted the snow off.

Kids cheered wildly as arms flailed in the air and hands clapped as the one sled carrying the two passengers crossed the finish line. "Russell! Hank! Russell! Hank!" they sung.

Aaron pushed himself up from the snow with both his hands and got up. He spitefully gazed down at his two new enemies, Russell and Hank, probably more so on Russell. Russell sat in the front while Hank stood in the back of the lone sled that won the race. The audience of kids crowded around the two racers and continued their cheering. Aaron didn't even bother to scrub the snow from his reddened face and he marched the rest of his way down the hill.

"Good job guys!" a boy named Butch gave a thumbs up to Russell and Hank.

"I have to admit, that was a good trick getting on Russell's sled right after he stopped," a girl named Sabrina flashed a smile at Hank.

"Yeah!" Aaron busted through the crowd, "A trick!"

Russell turned to face Aaron and each boy stared the other down like rival predators ready to mangle the other apart for a carcass. Russell got up from the sled, but at the same time kept his distance from Aaron. The teenager towered five inches over Russell and already had developed premature muscles. Hank immediately approached Russell's side when Aaron began closing in.

"You broke the rules, Aaron, about no sabotaging. You knew the race would be fair game once you cheated at that point," she finished flatly.

A heated silence trembled through the crowd as Aaron, one of the oldest in the group, refused to respond back to Hank's words. Instead, his piercing golden eyes scanned from Russell to Hank, and back again. Russell nervously licked his lips as he followed Hank's cue and clutched his fists that were stationed at his sides just in case. Then, Aaron loudly sniffed the air, turned his head the other way, and spat.

"Like I've got time to play on this rinky-dink hill. I'm going to the other place," he sneered. He picked up his heavy, black navy boots and started to tread toward the exit of the park.

The held-up tension inside Russell and the other kids fled their systems when they saw that Aaron was leaving. His systems nearly cooled until he noticed something of Hank. Her brows narrowed and her lips spread slightly apart as if she were about to say something. Oh, God. Going back to her wild and brave nature, Russell knew that twinkling ambiguity in Hank's eyes.

"What place?" Hank asked

As if a performer on stage responding to his cue to speak, Aaron snapped his neck to look back at the "toddlers" and smiled broadly. "Why, it's the best and most thrilling slope there is in Crown City!" he paused for a long five seconds, "But it's a PG-13 rating."

Hank's shined in curiosity as she approached Aaron closer, the snow crunching beneath her L.L. Bean boots. Was it curiosity? Russell thought to himself about that. After a semester of getting to know Hank, Russell knew that it was her accepting yet another on of their foe's challenge. Russell's frown grew lower. He prayed he Hank wouldn't encourage Aaron to go on and naively follow the older teen to this "PG-13 rated hill." Making a daring, probably suicidal, decision, Russell intervened to try and burn out a spark before it exploded.

"Whatever it is," he managed to speak up for the first time, "I'm sure it's not worth our time." Russell tried to sound as bravado as he could to make his stand against Aaron's goading to get the preteens to come with him.

Hank gave Russell a light punch to the arm and the boy replied by giving her a pouting look. "Don't be like that!" she snapped at him. Crossing her arms over her chest with pride, she turned her back to Aaron to boast "We'll take you up on your offer!"

Aaron's smile was so broad that it could have snapped his face in half. "So be it," he said with a hint of joy. He raised his hand into the air like the girl who had flagged the sledding competition prior. "Listen up you toddlers!" he called, "I'm going to need big plastic bags that can be worn as shirts. Y' hear me? Plastic bags that can be worn as shirts! Second, I'm gonna need some greasing oil."

After an hour of hunting down the bizarre combination of supplies, the kids returned to the park. Seeing that his supply list was brought, Aaron agreed to have the younger ones know where the "PG-13 rating slope" was located.

"High Rise Golf Course?" yelled Russell in disbelief. It was true that the hills in the golf course could rise at least thirty to forty feet at height. There was a humungous lake that stretched a quarter-mile across the course. Russell had remembered from his dad, Denny Clay, who frequently played there when not at his junkyard. His father one time told him that so many golf balls were lost in that lake. Not even the scuba diving staff could find all the balls in the murky depths. Also, Russell knew that the property was prohibited from people who weren't golfers or spectators. However, Russell would see people breaking the rules by sneaking into the course to walk their dogs.

Russell looked to Hank who shared the same concern on her face. She looked up to Aaron who stood only a few feet away from them. Ever so quietly, she confessed what both Russell had been thinking about. "But it's not open to the public," she whispered.

Aaron placed his hands on his hips, rolled back his neck, and gave a full hardy laugh. "I knew you babies wouldn't be up to the challenge!" he coughed a little as he cackled. Aaron began to coo in a tiny voice, "Aww, wittle Rusty and Hankie are too scared for t' slopes? I can see you two wiping the snot and tears from your faces, you're both so scared!"

Russell and Hank scrunched their faces at him and his snide tone. It was either they go along with Aaron or they would never hear the end of his tormenting voice and insults. In complete unison and steady voices, Russell and Hank both said, "We'll go!"

.o.

Only five kids, Russell, Hank, Butch, Oak, and Justin dared to follow Aaron. The older boy shepherd the twelve-year-olds along the outside fence that cut High Rise Golf Course off from the public area. Aaron knew of a hole in the fence that was big enough even for him to slip through. One-by-one, each followed pursuit until they were inside the field.

They moved as fast as they could through the depth of sixteen-inches of snow. One kid stumbled and Aaron rolled his eyes in annoyance. The three kids who would be watching the race were carrying the supplies needed for this new "challenge." Russell started to lag behind a little to come next to Hank. He needed to ask her something that would be out of Aaron's hearing range.

"Why's Aaron hanging out with us anyways?" Russell asked in a hushed tone, "Isn't he like, older, or something?

Hank whispered, "He's fifteen." Russell's bewildered expression made her look back to Aaron in a worrisome expression of her own. "My older sister goes to high school with him. She says he doesn't really have any friends. He even asked her out a date one time."

Russell's brows rose. Hank saw this, stuck out her tongue in disgust, and shook her head. She started to whisper again, "Of course she didn't accept. But that's not the creepiest part." The brunette closed her eyes, trying to remember what her sister had described Aaron's reaction as. "She told me Aaron looked like a small child who couldn't get his favorite toy in the store." That eerie description of Aaron sent a cold chill down Hank's spine. She nearly stumbled in the deep snow before Russell caught her and held her steady. Hank flashed him a smile and Russell returned it.

That was what Bumblebee had always taught Russell. To always aid a friend and ally. But there was another word of advice from Bee that Russell knew he was ignoring: never do something you're not comfortable with or know that's wrong. But Russell was unsure as to why he was ignoring that advice right now.

The five preteens and official lone teen came to the top of a steep hill that overlooked the entire course. Russell's eyes scanned the forest of dark-green pine trees below. His blue eyes glowed in horror when his eyes fell on the lake that was rumored to be bottomless. The cold weather had given it a clean icy surface.

"Behold toddlers!" Aaron waved his hand across the scenescape for his small party to see. "The best and most thrilling slope in all of Crown City!"

"Oh-kay," one skeptical kid, Justin spoke up. He carried the heavy-duty garbage bag. "But why didn't we bring our sleds? How are we supposed to get down this damn thing?"

Russell looked to his friend like he was crazy for not even considering the frozen lake at the bottom of the steep hill. He opened his mouth to mention the body of water but Aaron beat him to Justin's question.

"Are you deaf? Are you stupid?" Aaron bared his teeth at the younger boy who's elbows now started to tremble. Justin flinched when the older teen reached for him. The kids were expecting Aaron to strike their friend. Instead, Aaron eerily and simply snatched up the box of heavy-duty garbage bags from the sweating boy. "Yeah, that's what I thought, stupid." Aaron ripped open the lid and stared at the open box for a moment.

Russell took his eyes off Aaron to focus on Justin to make sure his friend was still standing from the antagonizing teen's sudden gesture. It was a mistake on Russell's part as he was snatched by Aaron by his front collar and pulled tightly toward his taller figure.

"Let him go!" Hank blurted out. She ran to pull one of Aaron's arms off Russell but was knocked aside by the fifteen-year-old's powerful arm she had tried to grab. Hank fell into the snow with an inglorious plop and watched as Aaron subdued the squirming Russell. Oak, Justin, and even Butch who was the first one to pick fights, stood frozen in pure intimidation.

Aaron seized and pulled both Russell's hands and arms through the two corners of the black bag until they broke through the plastic's surface. Abruptly, he released Russell, and stood back to reveal to the other twelve year olds what he meant by the bags being a necessity. There, Russell stood with a humongous, black garbage bag for a shirt. His arms poked through each corner of the bag and it was awkward to move in. Hank would've laughed if the creepy aura from Aaron's intense body wasn't still bothering her.

Russell felt helpless as Aaron turned toward Butch and grabbed the greasing oil. The older boy opened the can and ungloved his hand. He dipped his hand into the loose substance until he had a handful of running, greasy oil in his palm. He began to slather Russell's bagged shirt with the stuff. Russell, joined by the others except for Aaron, stuck out their tongues in disgust.

"Put that tongue back in your mouth before I slather this goop on it!" Aaron scowled at him. Not wanting to test Aaron's warning, Russell quickly pulled his tongue back in.

Aaron stepped aside and did another wave motion with his hand over Russell. "This! Is what we needed the supplies for."

"It looks stupid if you ask me," Oak wrinkled her nose. She crossed her arms tightly over her chest at the sight of Aaron's horrid fashion makeover on Russell.

"No," Aaron pointed at Justin and noted a hint back to what he labeled the boy. "That's stupid right there. Now toddlers, this is where the rules take place." Aaron faced the scenery again and pointed down the slope. His finger pointed to the direction in whence he spoke. "The garbage bag shirt is the surface and the greasing oil is the accelerator for the chest area when sliding down the hill."

Russell's baby-blue eyes widened in terror as they stared into the hot and piercing golden ones of Aaron's. "You mean…," Russell was cut off by Aaron nodding at him.

"That's right, loser," Aaron snatched the boy by the arm and dropped him belly-first onto the snow. Aaron leaned down and whispered ever so quietly into Russell's left ear, "you're the sled." After Aaron finished, Russell was shoved from the surface of the forty-foot tall slope and down toward the ground that only lay feet away from the lake.

Aaron cupped his hands around his mouth and hollered down, "Extend one arm out to stop the sliding! Remember, if you don't go over the ice-covered lake, you lose!"

"You creep! He can die!" Hank flailed her fists at Aaron only to be pushed away again. Aaron then got an idea that brought a wicked smile to his face. He turned toward Hank who was trying to steady herself back up. She yelped when Aaron grabbed her by the scruff and shook her.

"Not if he extends his arm out he won't," he snarled. The assaulting bully pulled up a bag toward Hank, "I'm guessing you'd like to go next, right? Oh, I wish your sister, Connie, were here to see you win this challenge you wanted so badly to beat."

.o.

Russell let out a primal scream. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" he cursed himself for falling for such a stupid trick this was. Normally, the only time when Russell ever heard forbidden language were from his dad. It was when Denny was fixing up ornaments that got demolished in the crashes caused by the Autobots that made the adult man go into a fowl wording rage. Russell opened his eyes and estimated he was only twenty-five feet away from the lake now.

A surge of painful pleading and praying filled Russell's mind. He wanted to scream for Dad, Bumblebee, and the others to come and save him. Even his mom who was working in Seattle at the time crossed his mind. Russell wanted nothing more than to call out for his loved ones now. Low ground was nearing and the grease from the bottom of his bagged shirt accelerated his speed. Thirteen feet away now.

"Oh my, God!" a voice Russell heard from on top the hill, "Here's really not stopping!" Russell vaguely made out that the voice was Aaron's; "Russell Clay! Are you crazy? Stop yourself!"

The twelve-year-old extended his arm like Aaron instructed him. He prayed it would work but he doubted it since there was such short distance between him and the bottom of the slope. He was now seven feet away.

The extension of Russell's arm was enough to break his speed for a split second. He switched directions and spun on his stomach like a dreidel. The spinning broke into him toppling over and rolling the rest of the way on the snowy ground. The world around him was spinning, and thus causing the boy to become whiplashed. He wanted to hurl but somehow wasn't able to. He kept spinning until he came to a slippery end on the ice-covered lake.

In pure fright, Russell laid there in his place on the icy and cold surface. He was still stunned as his heartbeat raced faster than his belly-sliding did. He kept thinking of Dad and Team Bee. They would come! They would come and get him out of this mess. He'd soon be embraced in his dad's huge arms for a comforting hug. Russell's eyes were shut wanting nothing but for this horrifying experience to go away. It took a chorus of voices yelling to get him to open his eyes from their dark abyss.

"Russell!" the kids came, more of tumbling down, the opposite side of the hill that was less steep than the one Russell took.

"Russell, oh my, God, man!" cried Aaron, "I'm so sorry!" If Russell had looked up, he would have seen tears streaming down the bully's face. There sounded a pang of regret and anger toward oneself in Aaron's voice

Russell heard a sharp smacking sound followed by an "ow!" The punch was most likely caused by Hank who planted it upon Aaron's arm trying to get him to shut up. The young boy's face was still frozen downward. He looked beyond the icy wall that separated him from sinking and straight down into the endless murky depths of the lake. How many unfortunate, deceased souls of youths were down there? Russell was afraid he'd be next.

"There's no time to start crying like a wuss!" Hank snapped at Aaron. Lucky for her, she was unharmed by him. Aaron had forgotten in trying to get a bagged-shirt over her by the time they saw Russell's state. "You got Russell into this mess, you find a way to get him out. Now!"

The ferocious girl gave another punch onto Aaron's receiving end. Aaron remained in a stationary posture, with his boots glued to the snow, as his gaze long and hard at the chaos he had rained down on these youths. Like an odd switch, he snapped his neck toward Hank and screamed, "What am I supposed to do?"

Justin, the former who was afraid of Aaron's rage in the beginning, was shaking his head. "Aaron's not going to help. He's scared!"

"It's a good thing we sent Oak to go get help from the recreation station," Butch added.

"Why, both of you little—" Aaron was cut off when Hank immediately separated both parties.

"Stop it!" she ordered, "We just need to keep Russell talking to us until help gets here." Butch and Justin bit their bottom lips and looked away. They were internally angry at themselves for forgetting about their friend's current situation. Even Hank was beside herself in disappointment of her own actions leading up to this. It was originally her fault that they were all here and Russell out on the lake. It was her fault, wasn't it?

"Hey Rusty," Hank managed a small smile as she bent down into the snow. When Russell failed to talk back, Hank continued speaking with him who was a good twenty feet out on the ice. "You were the champ today in the race," she spoke softly, "We really did a great job."

"Yeah!" Butch chimed in, "You really broke through the race and…"

"Butch, stop it. You're making the situation worse. Rusty, why don't you try crawling over to us?"

Russell, still frozen in his spot, merely shook his head ever so slightly. Aaron hung back, fidgeting like a toddler as he watched those younger than him trying to coax his victim out from hell's lake.

"You can do it Rusty," Hank spoke fully confident of Russell's abilities, "We're all here for you, okay? Butch, Justin, me, and Oak as soon as she comes back with help, okay? Can you be brave enough to crawl across the lake for us?"

Russell blinked and tensed up. He pondered over Hank's words like they were his sole savior. He loosened his fetal position to be sprawled onto his belly. He nodded in a silent response.

Hank's heart fluttered and she smiled happily at her friend, silently mouthing the word "good." Russell slowly made his way back to the edge of the lake. He relaxed himself to the best of his ability as he made one gentle and forwarding motion at a time. One wrong move of his body that was forceful enough to break the ice would have him engulfed by the water. He felt like one of those newly born seal pups on the Antarctic glaciers on the nature channel.

It was coming to the point where Russell felt comfortable with trying to hoist himself up a bit. Maybe it would even get him to solid ground faster. The boy spread his gloved hands closer together and slightly lifted his chest off of the iced surface. There was a crick in the ice. Before anyone could process the situation, Russell's left hand broke through the ice, then his knees, and eventually all of him.

The voices of his friends were replaced with water rushing into his ears. His head pounded underneath the water like a drummer banging drumsticks against an instrument. Russell fought through the dropping temperature and flapped his arms like they had taken air. He resurfaced and gulped fresh oxygen. He barely made out what his friends and Aaron were screaming Hank was crying while Aaron slowly backup and fled from Russell's vision. Hank yelled something to Russell but he couldn't decipher it.

Sounds of what Russell thought to have been barking came into ear point. However, there was no time to be curious about the new sounds. The boy clung his freezing fingers to the edge of a piece of broken ice to climb onto. It worked against him as the broken land piece flipped over on top of him. He was back underwater.

Russell was slowly sinking to the eternal bottom of the endless lake. The bagged-shirt Aaron forced him into slipped off his body and re-floated to the surface, blackening out the sunlight pouring into the icy depth. His entire body was numb and eventually his appendages failed to perform the least amount of twitching motions. Dad. Mom. He thought they would never find him or his body. The last thing he remembered was a shadow above the ice bursting into the freezing water and paddling straight down toward him. Russell would have smiled if he could at that moment, but instead he fell into a stilled sleep that easily overtook him.

.o.

The female German shepherd sneezed as she re-submerged from the chilled, murky water. She held the unconscious preteen by his jacket's hood in its teeth. The dog paddled her paws heavily through the harsh terrain to keep both aloft. The protector dog refused to let this boy go until commanded. This was the dog's mission right now. This was her training, not to let go until commanded.

A man blowing a whistle got the dog's attention. With a turn of her head, the dog started to paddle forward toward her owner. The man was dressed in a black coat with jeans. Four kids watched in suspense at the chaos slowly being brought under control.

"Bear!" the dog's owner ordered, "Bring! Bring here, Bear, bring!"

The dog paddled with more force after hearing her name called, and in just that moment, the adult had poked a net into the water. Like regular training practices, Bear made her way toward the noose attached the pole. Meanwhile, Bear still held onto the boy in her powerful jowls. The dog sneezed one last time before having her neck wrapped around by the net.

Quickly pulling, but still gently, the man reeled in both the dog and boy. The man told his working dog the keyword "release," and like that, Bear dispensed the boy onto the ground. The dog vigorously shook the water off her coat and stared at her owner, the boy, and the other four little humans. Bear proceeded to stand next to the sleeping boy that her owner held in his lap. The boy was blue in the face and the dog began to lick his hand to awaken him out of his stiff and glossy-eyed stare up at nothing in the cloudy sky. When it didn't work, the dog sat and whined.

"Good dog," the owner praised his dog, "Good girl. Good partner."

The man now shoved his partner, Bear, back. He laid the boy, which he came to identify from the boy's friends as Russell Clay, down on a large comforter he had prepared, and started giving CPR. He placed one flat palm over the other on top of Russell's chest. He pumped the boy's chest at a steady pace every other second. After ten seconds, he removed his hands, and pinched the boy's nose to breath air into the youth's mouth. He repeated this process for the next twelve minutes until lake water erupted from the boy's throat.

"Atta boy!" the man cheered. Ungracefully, the boy vomited extra water until he finally broke into a weak coughing fit, "don't worry, I'm a state trooper." The dark-toned adult then looked toward Russell's friends along with Oak who had originally alerted the officer about the situation. "You all were very lucky that I was driving by when your friend called me over," the adult heavily gasped as he was still trying to recover from the long process of CPR he had given.

Russell's eyes were still stiff and wide opened along with his pupils dilating. Before his rescuer could tell the other children to stay back, Russell's friends had swarmed him.

"Is he awake?"

"Is he okay?"

"Is he breathing?"

"Will he live?"

Shooing the kids away, the man began to swaddle Russell in the large blanket. He scooped the boy up and began to proceed to his car with Bear at his side. The concerned children followed without having to be asked. Once at his silver four-wheeled drive, the man opened the car door, and gently placed Russell in the backseat. Once he closed the door, he turned around to be greeted by the faces of Russell's four bewildered friends. They were all antsy as they fidgeted and tried to get a look inside his car through the windows.

The man had enough and pointed to all four, "Enough, go home. Now." The one known as "Hank" looked like she was ready to protest until the man put his hands on her shoulders. It wasn't in an authoritative manner but a comforting one. "Look, Hank, I know you're all worried. But I must get your friend to the nearest hospital for treatment asap. He's in critical condition because of his near drowning experience."

"I want you to take evidence and to know something before you leave," Hank urgently stated.

The state trooper's expression stiffened to a stern and assuming look. "Where's the perp who did this to your friend?" he bluntly demanded.

Nodding in response, Hank turned her back to the officer, and rushed back over to the cracked, opened body of water. The officer yelled an order for her to cease her impulsive motion but stopped when he saw her drag something huge and baggy out of the lake. She returned to his side and deposited a soggy, black garbage bag into his open arms. The adult furrowed a suspicious brow when he saw fingerprints still visible on the grease stains that covered the plastic.

"Aaron Skinner," Hank inhaled and exhaled heavily, trying to catch her breath from hauling over the plastic bag that was weighed down by water. "He's the one who did this to my friend, Russell! He ran away before you got here. He lives near the convenient store on Yearling Street. I want to be the first to know when he's arrested!"

Astounded by the young girl's prestigious information, the officer smiled and nodded, "Will do. I'll call in a unit to investigate this."

"…What should I do now?"

"Do you know Russell's parents' phone numbers? Where they live?"

The girl nodded.

"Good, call his parents. Let them know I'll be taking Russell to Crown City Children's Hospital."

At the conversations end, the man got into his vehicle along with his dog. The engine roared to a start, and the vehicle, with Russell in tow, drove up the street where it disappeared into the direction of the hospital. Heart-fallen, Russell's rescuer looked in the back of his rearview mirror to stare at the four dumbfounded children who stood helplessly in their spot.

In all of Shepherd Fowler's years as a state trooper, he never once had a rescue mission such as this. Fowler looked back into the backseat where the blanketed boy lay motionlessly. "Hang on Russell Clay," he murmured as he revved his truck's engine and began to move forward.

All in the same minute, he picked up his cell phone that connected to the police station and ordered a swat over to Aaron Skinner's residence immediately. He then dialed the emergency room to alert them to be prepared for Russell's arrival. Once fulfilling his promise and job, Shepherd made high speed toward the children's hospital. All the meantime, Shepherd kept rethinking of the upstanding quick-thinking and devotion that Russell's friends had for him and the hellish situation.

This emotional and stressful job was usual family working business. His grandmother, June Darby, worked in an emergency room back in Jasper Nevada and his grandfather, William Fowler, worked as a US Army Ranger, and then switched to being a special agent with Unit E. Even his now deceased Uncle Jack Darby worked for the agency at one point. Unit E was and still currently the most private federal agencies on American soil. Shepherd knew little about what special operations his grandfather was involved with over at Unit E. However, he was told bedtime stories by his father, Eric Fowler, that Unit E made a death-sealed secret with knowing and working alongside "living titans from the stars." In past and future, Shepherd would keep on remembering those words told to him by his father that described the cryptic legend.

Either nurse, US Army Ranger, and or law enforcer, Fowlers and Darbies were hardcore soldiers in the eye of crisis and calling. From working in his emotional and risk-taking job and seeing injuries and mortalities that could've been prevented with one phone call, Shepherd was grateful that at least these young kids proved themselves today as they did.

.o.

Wily-Mind: This fanfic will revolve a lot around Russell Clay, his recovery, and his relationship with his parents. As for Aaron Skinner's character, I wanted to build an antagonist for this chapter that wasn't a Decepticon but a human character instead. Aaron is vengeful and just a plain "strange kid." I feel his motive to torture Hank than Russell was more in his plan. As for Shepherd Fowler, future chapters will reveal his family history.