"You wanna piece of me?!"
"No... I want two!"
Everything seemed to stop for him... then he fell. Much further than was easily survival by most sentient beings
The pavement crumbled as he smashed into it, a spiderweb of cracks appearing as he tumbled and crushed a parked car with the weight of his body. Jazz knew he was in a bad way. He had hardly even felt himself hit the ground, and that was never a good sign.
He vented violently as energon sprayed the asphalt around him. The edges of his vision was starting to darken, and he could feel that he was not long for the world. He had regrets. He wasn't afraid to admit that to himself. But one stood out among them. A single face. Her beauty beyond anything he could attempt to compare it to... Oh Primus he had regrets.
"Jazz!" The voice was loud as a pair of servos grabbed his armor. He turned his head and focused his optics on the blurry figure above him, a hint of yellow... "R-ratchet...?"
He vented roughly again as the figure above him began to frantically move it's arms, doing something outside of his view.
"Yes, yes, it's me Jazz. Now stay with me, and don't you dare offline on me." He said gruffly as Jazz let his head fell back on to the ground.
"I-i need..."
"Don't speak Jazz. Save your strength." The medic barked these last words as an order, and he was surprised when Jazz reached for him with a servos.
"Ratchet... find my s-son... J-J-Jason... tell him I'm... S-s-sorry..." At these last words, his optics flickered, then faded to black.
Over a thousand miles away, there lay a small building with peeling green paint. It was tucked away among the other worn buildings lining the barren street. The windows were dark, and many of the shutters were closed, except for a small few. In the darkness of one, the pale outline of a small child's face was illuminated by the light of the moon.
He sat crossed legged on the worn brown carpet floor. His head rested on his hands as he stared out at the moonlit sky. A dark bruising ran from his eye down his cheek, stopping just under his nose, evidence of the older kids rough behavior with him only a few hours earlier.
The boy felt sad. Not for any reason he knew. The feeling of overwhelming depression had slowly built up in him over the last hour, his eyes only now began to well up with tears. It was as if a terrible tragedy had just occurred, and he could feel the ache of loss deep in his chest. Not that he truly knew the feeling. He had not owned much in the way of possessions, just the clothes on his back and little else.
He breathed in a deep, shuddering breath as he wiped the tears away, then jumped slightly as a voice whispered behind him.
"You're still up J?" The owner of the voice sat down next to him.
"I couldn't sleep... " J muttered as he glanced over at his friend. "Why are you up, Toby?"
He shrugged. "I didn't feel like sleeping." He rubbed his side which no doubt had a similar bruise on it. They were both used to the rough treatment delivered by the older boys. And the lack of attention from the adults didn't help either.
The two boys stared out of the window for a couple minutes before Toby spoke up again. "We could run you know. Just leave all of this behind and fend for ourselves." He paused as he looked at his friend.
"It would be better than here."
"But where would we go?" The boy asked, staring out at the full moon. "This is all we know..."
2 years later
He dropped to the dirt and froze as he glanced around, keeping an eye out for any movement. The junkyard was eerily quiet, but quiet was good. Quiet meant he would hear any approaching footsteps. Quiet meant no dogs. And quiet meant no idling vehicles.
He rose and moved forward into the towering piles of discarded treasures and only once he had disappeared into the trove did he pull out a small penlight and shine it on the piles. Using one hand to guard the light from unwanted observers, he clambered over the broken husks of rusted cars and around refrigerators with missing doors, pausing for a moment as the light fell on a teddy bear without it's glass eyes. Kneeling, he picked it up and held it in his hand for a moment, then shrugging the strap off of his shoulder, he put the bear gently into the worn black backpack that had been resting on his shoulders.
It was just a brief moment, and J was already on the move again as he grabbed a couple old laptops and worn cables from the piles.
It was incredible the things people threw away. Things that would cost a couple dollars to fix, or if you knew what you were doing, a couple minutes. One persons' junk was another's' treasure.
He stumbled as his foot caught on something, and as he caught himself on a shattered wardrobe the sound of a guitar broke the silence. He froze and snapped the light off as he listened closely for any noises. The notes slowly died into nothingness, and when no other noises emerged, he allowed himself to breath again.
Switching the light back on, he looked at what had caused the disturbance. It was an old worn down acoustic guitar. Cautiously, he picked it up, careful not to strum the strings as he inspected it. A couple of strings were missing, but other than that, it was in workable condition. Talk about a lucky find.
"This is not your rule! The Fallen shall rise again!"
The words reverberated through Optimus Prime as he sat motionless in his alternate form, the only movement caused by the rumbling of the plane he sat in.
The operation in Shanghai had been messy, and too many had met their demise due to Demolishors' actions. His sparked ached for them, but his processor was running at a higher than normal capacity in an attempt to find a reference to this 'Fallen'.
But the name also brought back memories of his fallen brethren. Too many to name. But among them, his late second in command. Ratchet had informed him of Jazz's' final words sometime after the battle of Mission City. The initial shock had been that Jazz had a sparkling. The who, what, and when of that itself had been puzzling. But the realization of his name being so abnormally human had nearly caused a glitch in their systems.
The plane shuddered and Optimus was brought out of his processes. They had landed.
"More circuit boards? What are you even going to make with this stuff J?"
J had returned only minutes before and was now sitting on his makeshift bed, the collection of items strewn about him as he worked on taking one of the more damaged laptops apart.
They had left the orphanage only a month after Toby had suggested it. The place had begun to get more and more crowded, and when the time had come, the population of the home had reached a breaking point, and the quality of living an all time low.
They had escaped in the dead of night with a couple of other kids they had grown up with, and one younger kid that was such a subject for torment by the older kids that they had elected to bring him, probably saving his life in the process.
They had managed to hike out of state and ended up finding an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Detroit.
They had made their home there after scouting the area and finding that there were, in fact, a number of places from which they could easily scavenge food. This mostly involved the trash bins behind restaurants. Other materials necessary for living, like blankets, clothing, and other bedding had been acquired rather easily through dumpster diving and a couple visits to the junkyard.
By now their worries mostly consisted of avoiding the police and obtaining clean water, allowing J to dedicate time to working on his newfound hobby.
"I'm thinking... " He said as he pulled a connection out of one of the damaged laptops. "...that if I can run a cable to that cafe down the street..." He put the device to the side as he turned to a television that had it's back panel removed, revealing a mess of wires inside. "I can get us some cable."
Toby sighed as he watched his friend work. "Where did you even learn to do this?" He asked.
J shrugged. "I dunno, I just kinda worked it out." He shoved his hands deep in the mess of cables and began to adjust things. "By the way, check out what I found at the yard." He nodded at the guitar.
"Woah. That's like still intact and everything!"
"Yeah, it's just missing a string or two."
Toby picked up the instrument and looked it over, before shaking his head in disappointment. "Man... people..."
"People." J agreed.
After fiddling with the innards of the television for a little while, J got to his feet and began walking across the warehouse floor, a small box in hand. Halfway across, the younger boy, Ace appeared beside him.
"What're ya doin'?" He asked quietly.
J glanced sideways at him. "You want to help?"
The boy nodded. "Okay then, just stick with me."
The other side of the warehouse floor had been dedicated to the casual tossing, or as Toby put it, the collection of unused junk. Basically anything they didn't know how to use, they tossed it there.
J dug through it until he found a very long length of coiled cable. He handed it to the younger boy. "You see this?" He asked, indicating the box. The boy nodded. "This thing emits a wifi signal, which means if I can get it connected to a modem, we'll be able to establish a signal with it in the warehouse."
"But where're we gonna get that?"
J patted his shoulder as he straightened up. "Just follow me. I'll show you."
J led the boy out of the warehouse and into the dim light of early morning. The sidewalk and streets were mostly deserted, which suited the boys just fine as they headed down the street towards a dark cafe.
"This shop up here has wifi, but it has a password." Ace started to speak, but J held his hand up to silence him. "That's where the cable comes in. If you plug directly into the modem you can bypass the password safeguard and access the system directly."
The boy paused to think for a moment. "I guess?" He said after a moment. J sighed. "Basically, the plan is to plug this..." He held up the end of the cord. "...into a box inside of that cafe. Which means we'll have to break in."
The front door would be locked, of course, but there was almost always a window unlocked, and lo and behold, around the side of the building, a window had it's latch undone. With Ace keeping watch, J slipped into the building.
It was dark inside, and he had to flick on his penlight to avoid knocking anything over. Keeping the light low to prevent any passersby from seeing it, he quickly found his objective.
It took him only a moment to plug it in with a satisfying click, which was soon followed by the much louder sound of a key being inserted into a lock. J's heart stopped for half a moment before, with hardly a thought in his mind, he ducked around the corner as the front door opened.
Ace's eyes were darting around the alley, making sure no one snuck up on the duo and their break in attempt. It was all very exciting really. He had never helped with a break in before, as the others didn't want a little kid slowing them down on runs. But J had decided to bring him along this time. And he wasn't going to let him down.
"So... Nice job keeping watch Ace." A voice said from above him. He jumped, startled as he turned and J dropped from the roof, the coil of wire in hand.
"Wha-?"
"The owner came back. I only just made it out through the trapdoor in the roof."
Aces' head dropped as he looked at the ground ashamedly. He'd messed up, big time. Especially on his first run.
"Let's go. It's almost sunup."
It was light by the time they got back, and J immediately headed over to his equipment to begin the setup. Ace on the other hand, headed over to his corner to be by himself. He was still disappointed in himself for messing up on watch. This had been his big chance, and he, of course, had screwed up. He knew better now though, and next time he wouldn't mess up.
If there was a next time.
A week later.
"I know we didn't really get T.V. at the orphanage before. But now that we have, I can definitely say that it's completely lame."
Toby was staring at the screen with a bored and almost glazed look on his face. A crime drama was playing on the screen and it had at least a couple of the kids attached to it.
"Why are you still watching it then?" J asked from his bed, guitar positioned across his body. He had found some spare strings in a dumpster around the corner and had quickly learned to string them using their connection to the web as a guide. He had stuck to it for the past few days and while his fingers still hurt, they were improving, even if it was only a little.
"It's fun to laugh at."
Made sense.
"E, A, G, and C. Damn, what did C look like again?" He muttered to himself as he stared down at the fret board of the guitar. 3, 1, 0, 1? He strummed experimentally. It sounded too sad for the chord. He moved his middle finger up a fret and tried again. The chord sounded better this time.
"Hey. What's happening to the T.V?"
J looked up to see the screen go fuzzy. He sighed as he put the guitar down and got to his feet. "What did you guys do..." He said as he approached the couch.
"We didn' do nothin' man!"
"Citizens of the human hive, your leaders have withheld the truth. You are not alone in the universe. We have lived among you, hidden, but no more."
J stopped as he looked at the screen. The image of well... something metallic had appeared on the screen.
He could only guess that it might be a face.
"As you've seen, we destroy your cities at will, unless you turn over this boy."
A guys picture appeared on the screen. He looked young. About 18-20.
"If you resist, we will destroy the world as you know it."
No one spoke for a moment as the face disappeared and the crime drama appeared on the screen again. Then finally, Toby turned to J.
"So... did we just get pranked or something?"
J looked at the screen again, then, "Us or the whole world. Either way, someone out there's probably freaking out."
The incident had almost passed from J's mind when the sun dipped below the horizon. He had found a song, well more like had heard a song on the T.V, and had quickly looked it up to perhaps learn it.
It was not easy, and it was definitely sounding less than pleasant whenever he attempted to strum a chord. Finally, feeling a little put out, he put the guitar aside and fell back onto the padding of his bed. He was tired. It had been a very long day, and he had some modifications to make to the base, starting tomorrow.
"Optimus, it is by my order as your medic that you stay under observation! The last thing that we need is for you to offline due to a mechanical issue obtained while you were gone!"
The Autobot leader stopped in his act of rising to his pedes as the agitated medic waved a wrench at him. He had a point admittedly, but something was gnawing at the bot, and he very much so wished to satiate his curiosity.
"I apologize old friend. There's just been an issue on my processor ever since I... returned."
The medic paused. "The sparkling?"
Optimus nodded.
"I may have had an encounter..."
The only light he could see illuminated what looked like the horizon, but when he walked towards it it seemed to never grow any closer or larger. Everything that wasn't in the direction of the light was just dark. An inky blackness that threatened to swallow you up if you stared too long. So he kept walking towards the light.
Optimus had never known what to expect of the Well. What it looked like, what to expect... he even wondered if this could possibly be The Pit. He quickly tried to dismiss the idea, but it lingered. Lurking in the recesses of his processer like an ugly growth attempting to take root.
As he walked he began to become aware of faint figures around him, all traveling in the same direction. He would try to discern their features, perhaps uncover their identities if they existed, but most were too faint, too muddled, to see. There were a few that he could see with distinguishing markings, but he did not recognize any until he came upon a figure that he couldn't help to recognize, for it was a comrade he had lost only recently.
"Jazz!" He called out. His voice sounded muddled, as if he were speaking through a layer of water.
The figure didn't respond at first, but when he called out his name again, the figure jerked and looked up in surprise. "Optimus? S'no way in The Pit tha's real ya!"
Optimus nodded gravely. "As real as this place is..." He glanced around. "Speaking of which..." He cocked an eyebrow at Jazz. They had begun walking towards the horizon light again, though when that had started he couldn't remember.
"Ah couldn' tell ya Optimus. 'though it doesn' seem quite like th' Well, or th' Pit for tha' matta. We jus' walk towards th' light."
"Indeed..." He rumbled, and they lapsed into silence as they continued their endless trek. It was a few klicks, or perhaps even a cycle, before one of the two spoke again.
It was Optimus who broke the silence.
"Jazz, before you passed... you said something to Ratchet..."
He was silent for a moment, then...
"I did..." He grew somber. "I would ask if you found him... but it may be better if you didn't..."
"Why do you feel that way? If he is out there alone, he would be safer with our people."
Jazz just shook his head. "He's safer where he is then he could ever be with us. If the 'cons ever learned about him he would become an expirment for them, and a prize for Megatron."
"An experiment? What do you mean?"
Jazz sighed. "When we all got ta Earth, it wasn't ta first time ah 'ad been there. Maybe twelve stellar-cycles before, ah landed in search of ta Allspark. Didn' find it. But ah found mah sparkmate... She was beautiful. She was everythin' ah coulda asked for and more... but she was human."
The shock from Optimus was palpable. Finding ones sparkmate wasn't easy, but he'd never expected a Cybertronian to bond with a human. There were just so many differences.
"Then how did the two of you create a sparkling?"
Jazz vented, perhaps a little awkwardly. "Les just say... Nature foun' da way."
They went silent again. Optimus, lost in his processes, and Jazz, with his eyes ahead.
"It was only soon after that I was revived by Samuel Witwicky." Optimus mused.
"Incredible... so we have a Cybertronian Human hybrid somewhere on this planet?"
"We can only presume... but perhaps Jazz was right. It may be safer for the sparkling if it stays hidden."
"But Optimus...!" Ratchet exclaimed, aghast. "A sparkling. On Earth!"
"That is final Ratchet." He said in a low, commanding tone. "This does not leave this room. And we shall not make any attempt to search for it. Understood?"
Ratchet was silent for a moment, his face caught in a mixture of emotions. "Understood..."
Three years later
Toby stood on the catwalk watching the group of people go about their selective businesses below. Some were stockpiling food. Others weapons. A slightly larger group was stockpiling assorted building materials and other assorted miscellaneous items.
Their small band of few had grown, slowly at first, then much more rapidly as the last couple of years had passed. At first it wasn't for sure whether they could handle the load, but they had managed it somehow. They had avoided detection by authorities and created a thriving community. And somehow, he, Toby, had been made leader. He wasn't sure why, but according to others he had a tendency to cause others to listen to him, along with a presence of leadership that he apparently had. He hadn't wanted it, but he had accepted the position when no one else had stepped up.
And now they had a pretty steady operation. Some scavenged for food to eat, while others scavenged for materials to create items they could sell for some money. They didn't gather much in terms of currency, except for what J made.
He swore that that kid was a mechanical genius. It didn't matter the device, he always made it work, and a hundred times better at that. He had seen him turn a hunk of scrap into a working computer that worked better than most that were available.
When he had asked where he had learned to do all that, J had merely replied, "I dunno, it just kinda comes to me."
Computers weren't the only things he had made though. He had also designed a fully operational security system with a lockdown mode and eye scanners. Bloody eye scanners. Call him paranoid, but Toby was pretty sure that most government buildings didn't have those.
J was currently at a corner of the room working on something he called a Ground-to-Space Internet Relay. Several others were around him following his every order, and stumbling whenever he yelled at them for something. He was practically a slave driver at this point, but until someone got hurt, he'd let it slide.
"The scavenge party is back, sir."
Toby turned to look at the messenger. "Good. I'll be right down." He paused. "...and Kevin?"
"Yes sir?" The messenger asked.
"Don't ever call me sir."
The scavenge party hadn't found much in the way, but one of the members, an up and comer called Alice, had found a collection of seeds. Judging by the looks and a few off handed comments by some members of the group, which held people ranging from 14 to 19, they had thought that grabbing the seeds had been a waste of manpower.
But then Alice had presented her idea. "We could build a garden out back, where the fence blocks anyone from seeing it or us. It would provide a whole source of fresh food for us." She had explained.
Toby had allowed her and a couple volunteers to engage in the project, but only if they could provide results without a net loss to their overall supplies.
She replied that she would have fresh food within a few weeks.
The GSIR was finished later that day, and Toby found himself looking for J as the sun dipped below the horizon. He found him behind the giant contraption, with a laptop perched on his leg.
"Whatcha doin'?" Toby asked as he casually leaned against the structure.
"I'm building the software for the GSIR." He said without looking up.
"But I thought it was finished?"
J sighed as he leaned back from the computer.
"Only the hardware. I have to write coding for the hardware so it can perform the tasks I need."
"Which are...?" Toby ventured as he took a glance at the screen, which just looked confusing. It may as well have been alien writing.
"Direct connectivity to the satellites orbiting the planet, priority connection for our bandwidth over others, and shielding for our connection so others can't detect or hack it, among other things." He rubbed his eyes wearily.
"That sounds complicated, and tiring... you should get some sleep before you start any big projects like that." Toby said with a raised eyebrow.
J shook his head. "No, I want to get this stuff up as soon as possible."
"J." Toby said as he crouched and put his hand on the youngers' shoulder.
"You shed blood and sweat, and lost days of sleep over this project. It can wait one night. Go get some sleep."
He paused, then added. "That's an order."
J stopped and looked at him with surprise. "You're really embracing this leadership role, aren't you?"
"I'm just looking out for my friends' wellbeing." Toby replied with a slight grin. "And you've been obsessing over this project for a while now. It's about time you took a breather."
J sighed. "Fine..." He closed the screen of the laptop a leaned back against the GSIR. "I never really thought about it until now, but if you had asked me 5 years ago where I saw myself now, this wouldn't be it."
Toby couldn't help but chuckle lightly at that. "Me neither. I probably would've guessed prison or something."
"Prison?" He asked, looking over at him.
"Yeah. Either that or the army. They would've kicked me out as soon as possible. I know that from the looks some of them gave me."
J winced. "Or hits."
Toby nodded, his expression turning more somber. "Those too."
A few moments of silence were broken by Toby rising to hos feet once more.
"Now get to bed. The internet can wait a day."
The next day.
Ace vaulted over the fence and stumbled when his feet failed to catch a solid grip on the ground.
Twin impacts sounded against the plywood only moments after he cleared it, followed by some very loud and aggressive barking.
Ace wiped the sweat from his brow as he looked around for a way out of the small cul-de-sac in the midst of the scrapyard. To the right was a small rundown building, most of its window cracked if not broken, and to the left was a gap in the debris, which was quickly filled by a man wearing grease-stained overalls. "Now would be a good time to stop running. The dogs are more likely to take a chunk out of you than I am!"
Ace ignored the man and jumped through an open window and into the building, wincing as he cut his hand on the windowsill.
"Come on boys! Sick 'im!"
Dodging into one of the rooms, he spotted a crawlspace and slid into it, putting his hand over his mouth to quiet his breathing.
Two dogs sprinted into the room, barking and growling like rabid beasts at his hiding spot.
"Good boys. Come out sunny. Before the mutts drag you out."
The man from before stepped into the room, a shotgun in hand and . Ace swallowed as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face, then slowly pulled himself out of the crawlspace and stood up slowly, his eyes never leaving the gun.
The man walked forward and grabbed him by the back of his shirt.
"Alright you little bastard. We're going to go back to my office, then I'm going to call the police." He began pulling him towards the door. "They can deal with you then."
Ace stumbled as the dogs followed then outside. The mans' grip was strong. And there was little chance he'd would be able to escape even if he broke it.
"You kids are a nuisance if you ask me. Always breaking in here to play your stupid games… but no more. I'm going to get better security. And next tim-"
Thump.
They both stopped.
Thump.
The dogs began to whine, tails tucked between their legs as their ears laid back on their head.
Thump.
The mans' grip on Ace slackened as they both turned around. Ace's jaw dropped and the man went bug-eyed as their gazes fell upon the giant robot that had appeared behind them.
It stood about 18 feet tall with jet black armor, but its' most distinguishing factor stood out as its' piercing red eyes that immediately locked on them.
And then it spoke.
"Hmph." It scoffed, raising an appendage and aiming it in their direction. "Vermin."
Ace had no warning, just a feeling, but he still barely managed throw himself out of the way as a bolt of energy slammed into the area he had been just moments before. Dust filled the air as he scrambled behind a pile of junk and made himself as small as possible in attempt to stay undetected, in hopes that the giant robot believed he had been caught in the blast.
A dark chuckle filled the air as Ace looked to the side. There was no trace of the dogs or their owner. It was as if they had been vaporized, which was highly likely considering the crater left from the blast.
"Maggots..."
Ace's eyes widened as the earth-trembling footsteps started again and drew nearer to him. He didn't dare look, but he could see from a quick glance to his left that there was nowhere that he could go. He tried to make himself as small as possible, then stopped breathing when a large, metal foot landed not three feet to his right.
He didn't move. Not even a pinky as the robot seemed to pause right over him... then continue on through the junkyard.
The moment it had drawn what he considered a safe minimum distance, Ace slowly and quietly rose to his feet, then began to creep away as quietly as possible in the opposite direction.
As the distance between the two increased, Ace's speed increased until he was in a full on sprint out of the junkyard.
He didn't stop until he had run halfway back to base, at which point he found himself in an alleyway, leaning against a wall and puking his guts out into a pile of trashed fast food meals and rotten vegetables. When he finally finished his purging, he just wiped his mouth off and stared at the ground.
His hands were shaking. Ace looked at them, then started giggling uncontrollably. He didn't what was so funny. It was probably shock. Not that he knew what that was.
Turning around, he fell against the wall, slid down it, and was still sitting amongst the alleyway garbage a few minutes later as the last of the giggles brought on from the near death experience left him.
It was well past noon. He needed to get back and tell the others... He got to his feet and brushed himself off, then with quick look up and down the street just in case, he began jogging back home.
Something seemed wrong. He began to get the feeling when he began to notice an increased amount of people on the normally quiet streets. He tried to ignore them as he jogged past the whispering people. It wasn't long before he got the nagging feeling that he should turn around, because it seemed that they were all definitely looking at something, and it was behind him.
He finally stopped at a street corner and turned to see what it was.
He almost wished he hadn't.
A gigantic circle hung in the sky, or more appropriately filled it. The edges looked like an out of control fire that was slowly eating away at at the sky around it, spreading the dark metallic circle further and further across the sky until it hung, an enormous foreboding moon, eclipsing the sun in a more permanent way then could ever occur otherwise.
The deafening silence was shattered when a scream filled the air. Then everyone began to panic. Ace found himself shoved sideways into a light pole by a woman whose eyes were wide with terror. She sprinted out into the street, and before Ace could call out to her in warning, got sideswiped by an SUV, it's horn blaring as it threw the woman's body into the air before it slammed into the road, broken and unmoving. The car didn't even slow down as it continued it's course down the street and disappeared into the distance.
He felt sick as he stared at the woman's unmoving body. No one was helping her. Looking up and down the street carefully, he moved over to her body and checked her pulse. Nothing.
He felt queasy as he stumbled away from the body and hit the wall of a building. He needed to get out of the open. Back to base. He was liable to get trampled by the crowds if he stayed too long. He took a step away along the wall, glanced at the body one last time, then tore his eyes away as he sprinted down the sidewalk, dodging people and trashcans as he headed back towards base.
The base was eerily dark when he arrived back at its' front door. It almost made him hesitate as he approached the hidden panel to the right of the door and opened it.
When J had built the security system, he had put several identification modules for anyone who wanted to gain entrance. The procedure involved a fingerprint scanner, a code word or phrase known by the owner of the hand, and an iris scanner. Everyone thought he was incredibly paranoid, but they all agreed he was a genius.
The hand scanner glowed blue as he put his hand on it. "Flying High." He said as he glanced to the side. The iris scanner unveiled itself and Ace put his eye up to it.
There was a whirring noise, and a click, then the lock on the door disengaged.
Everyones heads turned as the door clicked open.
"Who is it?" Toby asked one of the kids on watch.
"Just Ace." The boy replied as the door opened and the teenager in question stepped in, stopping as he saw everyone looking at him. "Hey..." He muttered, a little uncomfortable with everyone looking at him.
"Back to work everyone... Ace. Where have you been?" Toby asked as he eyed the younger boy with a piercing stare.
Ace looked down at the ground. "I... got caught at the junkyard by the man and his dogs..."
Toby raised an eyebrow. "How did you escape?"
The haunted look Ace gave him nearly froze his heart.
"W-when he was taking me back to his office a... giant robot... I don't even... It shot at us..." He ran a hand through his hair as he took a shuddering breath. "I was lucky... The man and the dogs...there was just a crater... I barely made it out of there alive..."
"Do you think the robot..."
He left the next part unsaid, but they all knew what he implied. Did it happen to have anything to do with the giant planet in the sky? It was all too likely. The distant sound of an explosion reached their ears and all movement inside of the warehouse slowed, then stopped as another series of explosions rang out in the distance.
"Shit..." One of the kids whispered, his voice carrying though the silence.
"These walls can't stop much more than a person..." J spoke up from behind the two. "Artillery would tear through them like tin foil..."
Toby looked at J, then at the multitude of scared teenagers and kids in the warehouse. "Then... it may be best if we leave..."
The warehouse became quietly chaotic immediately as people made preparations and began grabbing things they would need. They lived this life, so it was almost routine for them. The stakes were just much higher.
Toby sent a couple scouts out to determine the safest route for evacuation. They would take perch on the surrounding buildings to scan the area. They returned with some bad news.
"It looks like the whole city is on fire, and the area to the west doesn't look much better. South would probably be our best bet."
And that settled that.
J looked up at the GSIR with a mixture of annoyance and disappointment. He had been very close to finishing it. But he knew it wouldn't really matter anymore anyways. Chances were that the satellites would get knocked out of the air by the alien forces anyways. He sighed and flipped a switch on the device. Nothing happened. The indicator light continued to glare an angry red at him.
"J! You ready?" He jumped as he was brought out of his thoughts by the familiar voice.
"Yeah Toby..." He said, patting the worn guitar by his side. "I was just saying goodbye." He nodded at the GSIR.
"It's a shame you didn't get to finish it. But you can just build another, eh?" Toby said, looking up at the device. "Maybe. If we find the time."
Toby put a friendly hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry. We will. Now come on. We gotta go." He released his shoulder and headed back towards the warehouse door. J took one final look at the GSIR, then followed after Toby.
"Alright everyone!" The warehouse quieted as they gave Toby the floor. "It's not safe outside. From what we can see and hear, it's practically a warzone." He paused as he looked around at everyone. "So what we're going to do is split up in seven equal teams. Every team will be approximately the same size, and heading in the same direction, but the key to safety will be to not get noticed." Kids were nodding to his plan in agreement, some determined, and some scared. "We will use speed and our proven ability to survive to get out of this. If you get separated from your group or get lost, just keep heading south. That's the plan. We'll try and meet up at the Michigan border near Toledo." He paused. "...and avoid major cities. Chances are they'll be big targets for whatever this is. Any questions?" No one moved. "Alright. Let's go!"
Everyone organized into squads relatively quickly. Toby and J were both leading separate teams, more due to experience than anything. Toby had been a little unwilling to part with his childhood friend, but they both knew that it was strategically safer for each group. The plan was that each group would head out of the door separately so they didn't get bunched up on the way out.
And it was the last kid that walked out the door that paused to take one last look at the place that she had called home. Her eyes glanced over ever detail, the beds they slept in, the corner resembling a workshop, the GSIR with its single green light twinkling in the darkness. It was with effort that she pulled herself away from her home and became the very last human to step foot in that place for a very long time.