MISSION CITY

1976

Twelve-year-old Mac and fourteen-year-old Bozer, best friends and the bane of Coach Wilson from Mission City High's existence, climbed up the rope into their treehouse-lab, both processing the bizarre encounter they'd just had.

They slumped onto the floor, leaning against opposite walls, still processing. Bozer spoke first, blinking a couple of times.

'Bro, was that…did we dream that? Or is this some super-realistic prank you cooked up? You know, Frankensteining him into existence…somehow?'

Mac shook his head.

'It was real, Boze.' There really was an octopus-like alien living in the woods. They really had communicated with him, and Bozer really had dubbed him 'Creech'. Mac shook his head, a touch disbelieving. 'It's statistically impossible for extra-terrestrial life not to exist.' The universe as they knew it was so large, and humans were constantly discovering new corners of the universe and new stars. Many of them were planets. Ergo, there had to be life other than that on Earth, even if it was very different from life as they knew it. 'I just didn't think that any of them have ever visited Earth, or would in my lifetime.'

There was more silence for a moment, as more of the shock passed, before Bozer spoke up again.

'How're we gonna help him, Mac? No-one's gonna believe us, and we don't even know who we can trust!'

Creech was stranded. He was, apparently, a kid, and his parents had been kidnapped by shady government agents.

(It was like they were in a movie, a voice in Bozer's head pointed out excitedly.)

The blonde boy thought for a moment, before his I-have-an-idea face appeared, and he made to climb down the rope again.

He didn't, however, share what his idea was.

Bozer sighed and shook his head with long-suffering, fond exasperation, before climbing down after Mac and calling out to his best friend as the blonde started to jog off.

'Where are we going, bro?'

Mac called back as he ran. Since he'd started his growth spurt, he'd become a little faster than Bozer.

'To talk to Jack Dalton!'

Bozer pulled up at that, and hearing that Bozer had stopped, Mac stopped too.

'Crazy Jack Dalton?'

The Vietnam War vet turned town mechanic was also the town conspiracy theorist. He was widely agreed upon to be the town nutcase, too.

'There are no other Jack Daltons in Mission City.' Bozer shot Mac a look. Mac just shrugged a touch sheepishly. 'He believes in aliens, Boze. He'll believe us. And despite what everyone says…he's a good man.'

Mac's grandfather thought so. Mr Ericson thought so. Al Pena, the college boy who worked for Jack during his breaks, and acted as a sort of mentor to Mac ever since they'd been introduced by Mr Ericson, thought so too.

Mac was very much inclined to trust their judgement, even if he had no personal experience with the man.

After a moment, Bozer nodded. He trusted Mac absolutely.

Still, he raised one last point, a touch hesitantly.

'People say he didn't come back right…should we make sure he's having a good day or something first?'

Bozer raised that point as tactfully as he (who didn't have a lot of tact) could.

Mac's dad had gone to 'Nam. He hadn't come back right, and he'd had some very bad days.

In fact, just a few months after he'd returned, he'd just upped and left Mac, taking basically nothing with him.

He hadn't even left a note.

Mac swallowed, and Bozer could see that hurt and anger and bitterness cross his best friend's face. It was a wound that might never heal. It was, however, gone in a mere second.

Mac was really good at compartmentalizing. Bozer supposed you had to be to keep functioning the way Mac did when your mom had died when you were five and your dad had gone off to war and hadn't come back right and then abandoned you just days before your tenth birthday.

The blonde looked over at his best friend.

'Creech doesn't have the time.'

He started jogging off in the direction of Jack Dalton's house again, and Bozer followed, like he always did.

Mac was right. He usually was.

(He'd even been right the time he'd made lightning in the Gym, as furious as Coach Wilson had been.)

Besides, Bozer would follow his best friend through anything. He was his best friend.

(Mac was a crazy-weird-mad-scientist-genius-puppy, but he was Bozer's crazy-weird-mad-scientist-genius-puppy. Also, he had little sense of self-preservation and wasn't quite so good at taking care of himself. He needed Bozer.)

The two boys ran up to Jack Dalton's front step.

There was a lot of shouting going on inside, but only one voice. Mac also heard the clang of metal striking metal, a sound very familiar to him.

Apparently, it wasn't a good day.

He and Bozer exchanged a glance. Bozer looked scared, but straightened his shoulders anyway. Creech didn't have time. Mac did the same, took a deep breath, and raised his hand and knocked.

AN: Again, with thanks to I'mcalledZorro. Don't ask me why I decided to kinda swap the time periods for the X-Men: First Class AU and the Monster Trucks AU. It just happened, I swear!