I stop the bike on the side of the road, right opposite to the driving take-outs of a fast food shop called KO burgers, and hang my helmet on the handle.
A car comes into the scene, right past the counter window, where a teenage waiter hands the driver two big packs of food. The driver, however, speeds off and leaves without paying the boy, leaving him a bout of shock and helplessness at the window. I can swear I hear him saying, "And I'll have to pay for that!"
I can almost see Vince, the best bully in my school and the biggest jerk in the world sitting in that car, leaving the waiter Jack Darby unpaid, a schoolmate whom I recognize to be a year younger than me.
But I can't see the driver clearly. I may as well as give Vince some warning hits the following day, but he hasn't been messing with my brother or me, and he hasn't made any business deals with me either. So I guess he can be spared.
I stride over to the shop and say, "Two deluxe cheese burgers, a can of beer."
"Um, miss, this is the car takeaway…"
"My bike's right over there and you're telling me you don't do business."
"No, I didn't mean…"
"Two cheese burgers, a can of beer. Now."
Half-astounded, he packs the burgers up when he says, "I don't think you're of age for beer, Kallistrate Malsky."
"Nevada allows teenagers buy beer for family consumption," I reply curtly.
Appearing to be in a dilemma of deciding should he do so, he finally goes to the fridge and shoves a can of beer onto the window-sill. "That's six in total," he sums up.
I shove a bank note from my pocket. "That's ten. No need for changes." I press it onto the window sill and grab my food, as I slap open the can and take a large gulp from it. His jaw drops open.
I return to my bike and speed off the road of Jasper, Nevada – and I don't quite care what Jack Darby wants to do with me next.
I leap off the bicycle as I arrive under a highway, where my younger brother, Raf Esquivel is busy playing a remote-controlled car.
"Six minutes, you've improved a lot." A light curve of smile appears on his face as I approach with our after school snack.
"This beauty still needs improvements." I nod towards the dark blue bike which I made from scratch as I sit beside him, and drink another big gulp of beer, which constantly relieves me of my stress and worries. I feel so much better.
We watch the model car whizzing and speeding around the place, and Raf seems pretty satisfied with this kind of entertainment.
All of a sudden his phone rings. He sighs and picks it up. "Hi, mama. Car racing, um, maybe five more minutes?"
I sigh. His control freak mother is probably forcing him to go home again. I suspect she comes from hell and is one of the furies in Greek Mythology.
"Give me the phone," I mouth, and he hesitates as he hands me the phone with his nightmare of a mother is screaming on the other side of the link.
"Yes, Mrs Esquivel," I say as I grab the phone.
"Kallistrate Malsky, I don't care what excuse you have this time, you bring…"
"We'll not break curfew, and Raf's not drinking, that's all," I finish and cut the link. Simple and fast, that will efficiently shut the woman up without trouble.
"Thanks, Kal," he says as I hand him back his phone, and he resumes with his racing game. "Seriously, I can't keep you with us long if you're so rude to mom."
"She's insufferable, what else can I say?" I reply.
All of a sudden we hear a roar of engine from above head. We look up, only to be astounded when we see a flashy blue sport motorcycle runs off the edge of the highway and lands onto the area in front of us, with a passenger whom I met just a while ago. Jack Darby.
"Wow," Raf says.
"Cool bike," I comment dryly.
"You have no idea," he says with a shaky voice, and gets off the bike. I reckon that landing hurted a damn lot.
We stand up and approach him. That's when I realize he doesn't have a helmet.
And that's when two new intruders join us. Two purple cars, flashing their headlights aggressively runs off the hedge, and to our surprise, they somehow – change forms and land before us as two gigantic robots with a gigantic red 'v' lighted on their faces, as if their eyes.
My legs go jelly-o. This does not normally happen.
No, I'm not scared of these robots. It's my old nightmare that is haunting me again, which started twelve years ago, when I was orphaned.
Transforming robots.
And what's worse, the motorcycle behind us also transforms into a towering form which resembles a woman, although I'm not really sure if these robots have sex. "This ends here, cons!" she says, loud and clear, and dashes towards the car-bots as we quickly make way for her.
They start shooting at her with red blasters transformed on their hands, but clearly they have bad aiming, while the female robot has proved to be a real bad-ass, for although she is much smaller in size, she beats them down easily within moves.
"What are they?" Raf asks with a shaky voice.
"Talking cars that turn into robots, or the other way round…?" Jack replies uncertainly. I shot him a look. Duh, I knew that.
The robots continue fighting, and the girl gives one of them multiple jaw punches, while the other is struggling to get up on the ground. "This – is – for – Cliff!" she shouted as she strikes him with a hard one.
She pauses and he turns his head to his opponent. Then he turned his hand into a gun again and together with his partner, they shoot at the female. With shocking speed she does back handsprings and avoids most hits – until one shot hits her finally. She is blasted backwards and lands hard on the ground.
On the spur of the moment another vehicle runs off the hedge, and this time – a bright yellow muscle car with black racing stripes – also switches form mid-air and lands hard on one of the purple vehicle-man, while giving the other a hard punch in the face.
He takes a step backwards when we hear a crack! He looks down and lifts his right leg, only to find Raf's mini remote car smashed.
Instead of speaking, he makes some kind of beeping and whooping sounds, but to my astonishment I can understand that as, sorry, I hope that's not expensive…
I guess Raf somehow translated that too. "No problem. Really!" he says, when one of the unbeatable purple car-bots regains consciousness and hit him hard in the face, blowing him onto the ground.
"Run. Now! I'll cover you!" I hiss at Raf's ear as I drop the can in my hand and dash for my bike, but he holds his ground.
The other presumably bad purple car-bot strides forward and stomps onto the back of the yellow robot's head. Then the yellow bot turns around as both purple ones turn their hand into guns we've seen earlier. I take a quick glance, and the blue girl robot is still recovering from the blast she received.
"Hey! Leave him alone!" Raf shouts at sight of the guns. The bots immediately turn their sight and guns to the little kid.
"Please?" he squeaks, clearly petrified.
"Bad call," Jack mutters, as one of the purple robots strides towards them.
With a swift move I detached one of the wheels from my bike, which are made of electro-magnetic plates, and throw the disc at the threatening-looking purple robot. It strikes him with an unpleasant CLANK as I scream, "RUN!"
They run for their lives and disappear round the street corner, and the bot in pursuit for them follow. I begin to panic for Raf's safety.
"Hey, you! Wanna eat this?" I shout at the one that is keeping the yellow robot in guard as I detached the second wheel. He look at me and on the spur of the moment I throw the wheel out like a discus – and it hit him right in the v-shaped eyes. He staggers backwards, buying enough time for the yellow robot to break free. He runs towards the corner where the boys disappeared into, and I follow him, as I'm still uncertain of his intentions. I do not trust these robots.
When I enter at the scene the purple robot is judo-flipped by the yellow robot hard onto the ground, with Raf and Jack watching in a drain.
I leap into the drain when the yellow robot bends down to check on us with gigantic blue optics. He beeps again, this time I translate as you guys okay? They won't follow anymore.
"Thank you," Raf calls out, and the yellow robot beeps you're welcome! as he stands up. What followed by is only clashes and smashing sounds of metal.
"Don't look back!" Jack pushes Raf by the shoulder and ushers him to the other end of the drain.
"What did we just see?" Raf says.
"No idea, and I'm not sure if I want to find out," Jack says sternly. I scamper ahead of them and lead us out of the place.
The day passes by as we left the drain and go back to our respective homes, with me following Raf to his own.
Maybe I forgot to mention something. Raf's home is my foster family. If you speak of family, this little boy whom I consider to be a little brother is the only one I can trust and rely on.
I'm not particularly sure of what I just saw, but I'm pretty certain that those robots – they are the same kind of thing that triggers off my old unspoken fear. Something that is responsible for the loss of my family.