Chapter two - A bumpy pod ride

The portable lab swiftly flew in the sky. There was one Hispanic man who was driving the vehicle while the other was a teenage boy sitting with both hands behind his head with a somewhat sleepy face.

"It was nice of you to come with me Rex but I thought you were going to some party with your friends." the Hispanic man said.

"Oh I'm going but it'll start in another couple of days so I still have time to wast- uh spent with you." Rex said awkwardly and gave a big yawn.

"I don't know little brother. I might take a while to finish some business at this place I'm going to." Caesar says and turns the ship a bit.

"White already told me. It's about that mist and video right? How hard can finding the cause be? I bet they already know how to stop it but needs someone like me." Rex said with his usual confidence or arrogance.

"Actually mijo, that mist is programmed nanites with harvesting capabilities. I scanned the area again earlier this morning. They're very dangerous to living organism."

"Meaning..."

"Just imagine something like putting your hand in a pond infested by starving piranhas."

"Mrrah," Rex pulled a face. The image of white skeleton bone of his hand was as clear as day in his head.

The craft shook a bit which threw Rex off his chair.

"What was that?" the boy said as he grips the head rest in an attempt to repositioned himself.

"Turbulence," Caesar replied as a matter of fact.

The view outside looked normal when static and a voice in Spanish buzzed through the speakers. "Bzzzt...land your ship...bzzzt...you're going in the red zone...bzzzt...it's too dangerous beyond this border...bzzzt."

It was hard to make out what the voice was saying with all that interference. Caesar pressed a button on the dashboard and said in fluent Spanish, "This is Caesar Salazar. I'm here for a personal research. I'm highly aware of the dangers ahead but don't worry, we'll be fine." he switch off the intercom and look at Rex "as long as we don't have immediate contact with the nanites in the mist," he said in English and gave a small chuckle.

Rex gave his brother an odd look when suddenly the ship shook violently again and he avert his eyes to the screen. The view on the screen suddenly changes from a clear day to nothing but hazy white mist. Then a few minutes after they entered the misty like atmosphere all power in the ship stop working one at a time and they start to fall slowly.

"Oh-uh," Caesar said and Rex yelled "I don't like the sound of that,"

"the nanites must've caused it. Re-routing back up power to the main engine," Caesar said mostly to himself as Rex seems to pre occupied with the seat-belt.

"It's not working. The signal is being jam too."

"What do you need a signal for?"

"To scan whatever is in front of us."

The craft lurched downwards and up as it struggles between losing power completely and attaining what little sorry excuse of power it has.

"Because we're crash landing and it would be nice to know that we're not going straight into a building... or the side of a hill." Caesar said as a matter of fact. He gripped the handle and pulled up hard. The last of the power fail and they plummet to the ground gradually.

The lab broke through the mist at a dangerous speed. Yet, somehow it managed to crash into the town square with nothing more than just a bump and a screaming sound of metal and ground. Of course it did a couple of flips too but miraculously stops the right way up. People approached it slowly expecting the lab to come back to life and pounced on the nearest man. "What sort of contraption is this?" they would utter and muttered among themselves until one particular man would break away from the group.

The said man ran in the opposite direction and out of town. He kept going till he reached the forest. He stops to catch his breath as some people nearby, who saw him running madly, came by to ask what has happened.

"A ship... Fell from within the mist..." he says hastily in between gasp for air. "Tell Oso quick!... Help has come!"

The man collapses from fatigue. A few men ran away to the Providence's building while a few others tend to the ailing messenger.

Atlas the message arrived to the ears of one man who have been waiting patiently, providence agent, Oso.