22 Years Ago
Pounder and Captain Pierce rolled down the track, heading in the direction of the distress call. They reached their destination and saw that one of the buildings had become unstable. Captain Pierce turned toward a nearby Kei'zatsu.
"What happened?" He demanded.
"There was an explosion in the east wing. The whole building could collapse at any moment." The Kei'zatsu replied.
"Then get this area evacuated!"
The Kei'zatsu ran off to follow the order.
"C'mon, Pounder." Captain Pierce said, "We need to get these bots to safety."
Captain Pierce and Pounder rolled off to direct the crowd out of the danger zone. They worked as fast as they could, not knowing how long the building would remain standing.
"Is everyone clear?" Pounder asked his Captain.
"I think so." He replied, "Let's double check the area to make sure."
"Look!" Several gasps came from the crowd as they stared in the direction a femmbot was pointing. Captain Pierce and Pounder looked to a third floor balcony that had lost its rail. A bottot sat at the edge, crying as he looked down at the crowd.
"I thought you cleared that floor?" Captain Pierce yelled to one of his officers.
"I did." He replied, with a panicked tone.
"Well, obviously, you missed one!"
As Captain Pierce began yelling orders, Pounder noticed a femmbot carrying a wire and running toward the base of the building, right beneath the bottot. As Pounder approached her, she threw the rope, which had some sort of knife on the end, up towards the tot. It flew over a remaining piece of the rail and fell back to the ground, the middle of the rope hooked to the rail.
"What are you doing?" Pounder asked her. She spun around and glanced at his forearms; at his Kei'zatsu symbol. She looked away from it and said "We have to get him down."
Pounder thought for a moment, then grabbed the end of the rope with the knife and tied it into a loop.
"Here." He said, handing her the loop and taking her end of the rope, "Put your foot through it and I'll lift you up."
She nodded and obeyed. Pounder pulled the rope and, once she reached the top, the femmbot took the bottot into her arms. Pounder then lowered them to safety. The mother of the bottot ran up to them and the femmbot handed the child to her.
"Thank you! Oh, thank you." She told them, and went off to join her husband.
"Good work." Pounder told the femmbot, "What's your name?"
The femmbot looked at Pounder, as if confused by his question. "You don't want to know who I am."
Pounder frowned in confusion. "What do you mean?"
She pointed to a symbol on her forearm, one Pounder had never seen before. It was a light blue circle with an upside down, Dark blue V and a smaller orange circle in the center.
"Ask your boss about the Ninuja clan." She told him before running off.
"Hey, wait!" Pounder called after her, but before he could follow, Captain Pierce came up behind him.
"Pounder, good work rescuing that bottot. Now let's get back to the safty zone." Captain Pierce ushered the rookie away from the building.
"Sir?" Pounder asked, once they were at a safe distance, "Who are the Ninuja?"
Captain Pierce froze and glared at Pounder.
"Trouble." Captain Pierce said after a moment and left it at that.