I do not own Sym-Bionic Titan or any of the characters.

Joining

Jet sighed as he sat on the bench. He'd finally found a town, but he'd had to steal a new outfit from a store to fit in. Go figure, but his tattered, dirty clothes didn't exactly blend in outside of a battlefield. He'd chosen a black shirt that was snug but not tight, a pair of what the natives of the planet called jeans, and the closest thing he could find to the kind of boots he usually wore for his uniform, which he kept his pantlegs over, after having been laughed at for tucking the pantlegs in. He'd also used a bathroom sink and hand soap to wash himself, so he felt pathetic, but he was clean, wearing clean clothes, and no longer in a desert.

"I want to play the Titan this time!" a child complained from off to the side suddenly, Jet frowning and looking over at them.

"No way!" a larger, possibly older boy said. "You have to be the fire monster, because the fire monster loses, and there's no way the Titan would be as short as you."

The smaller boy pouted, and Jet's frown deepened before he stood, walking over to someone reading a book made of very large, folded paper.

"Excuse me," Jet said. "What's the Titan?"

"What!?" the man gasped. "You haven't heard!? He's been all over the news!"

"I...uh...don't watch a lot of news," Jet said.

The man flipped through his papers before turning it toward him. Jet stared at the giant depicted on it, recognizing Galalunian metal and design even in the black-and-white photograph.

"It's this giant alien robot that just appeared and beat this giant fire monster when it crashed down in Illinois and started wrecking things," the man said.

"Illinois?" Jet asked, humming thoughtfully. "Where, exactly? What city?"

"Sherman," the man said. "It's a suburb right outside of Chicago."

Jet nodded. "I don't suppose you know how far that is?"

The man snorted. "What, you want to go see the Titan?"

"Yeah," Jet nodded, shrugging. "Seems like something you could brag about."

"Fair enough," the man said. "Well, it's several states away, so you'd have to either fly or hitchhike."

Jet nodded. "Thanks."

As he walked away, he frowned. "Could the natives of this planet fly? And what did hitchhike mean? This planet was weird. He looked up to think and stopped, staring at a white line, like a linear cloud, slowly inching its way across the sky.

"Oh," he breathed, nodding to himself. "Fly. Right. They have shuttles."

He looked around, then shrugged, walking over to where someone was climbing out of a yellow car with a sign reading "TAXI" on top. They handed him several pieces of the odd green paper that served as money on this planet before walking away.

"So, quick question," Jet said, leaning on the window. "How much would I owe you to get me to Chicago, Illinois, specifically the suburb, Sherman, and how fast can we get there?"

The man stared at him blankly before raising the small rectangular device Jet had seen everyone carrying with them. He tapped it repeatedly for a moment before looking at Jet again.

"I can take you to the train station for twenty bucks," the man said. "Trust me, that's your best option. It'll take you about a day and a half."

"Okay," Jet nodded.

He pulled out the paper money he'd pick-pocketed throughout the day, once he'd realized what it was, and found one with a twenty on it. He was glad the planet used the same numerals as Galaluna. He climbed in, paying the man, and about half an hour later, he climbed out at the train station. He thanked the man and walked to the ticket desk, once again using the money to buy a ticket, then following their directions to the right train. As the train left the station a while later, he watched the scenery roll past the window. This world was nice. It was peaceful, when they weren't bringing Mutraddi to it. He sighed, leaning against the window and let his eyes drift closed, passing out in moments, his exhaustion both left over from his last few weeks on Galaluna and also from walking through the desert quickly catching up to him.

The creature's roar echoed through the city deafeningly. He sighed heavily as he watched the Titan strike again and again with its spear. The creature was a massive, blocky formation of stone with six arms, but even though its number of arms gave it an edge over the humanoid Titan, the Titan was able to stay out of its reach with its spear. And within a few more seconds, the fight was decided when the Titan hurled its spear through the creature, which promptly exploded a few seconds later. Jet nodded to himself. Lance. Through and through. Excellent choice for guardian, even with his insubordinate nature. The Titan stood motionless for a moment before flashing and vanishing from sight. Jet hummed thoughtfully, then headed for Sherman. He knew that if Lance and Ilana wanted to hide in plain sight, they'd need someplace with enough people to hide them but not enough to be a risk. Lance wasn't stupid, so they wouldn't live in the middle of the city. Sherman was the closest thing to perfect he could find. However, he'd need to wait and find them first. And after two days, he finally did. He spotted them in one of the primitive internal combustion transports the people on this planet used, driving along the road. He followed as best he could, and was able to narrow it down to one of three houses. After fifteen minutes of snooping, he'd found them. He knocked on the front door, then again, louder, when no one answered. Finally, the door opened and Princess Ilana stared up at him from the other side.

"Hello," she smiled. "How can I help you?"

"I'm glad I finally found you, Princess Ilana," Jet said inclining his head in place of a bow.

Ilana gasped, and within seconds, Lance had rounded the corner and thrown a punch. Jet stepped forward, knocking it to the side and slamming a kick into him, throwing him backward.

"Hello Lance," Jet said. "Recognize me?"

"How could I not?" Lance asked. "Isabella's teacher's pet. How'd you get here?"

"I slipped through a gate at the same time as some insect-like ship that I'm assuming you already destroyed," Jet said. "I crashed in something called Arizona, though. I think it's a province?"

"It's actually called a state," a fat, balding man with a mustache said, stepping into view before flashing and transforming into a round robot with three metal objects like fins sticking off of the ball, then cords extending outward to hard-light projectors, the hardlight formed into a roughly humanoid silhouette, though without a head, as the robot ball was about where a heart should be and the yellow light on its front seemed to serve as an eye.

"What are you?" Jet asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I am called Octus," the robot said. "I was sent to assist Lance in protecting Ilana. I am glad you are here though. But where is your Manus armor?"

"I was never given any," Jet said. "We were told Isabella was too young to justify giving her unit Manus."

"I've never heard that rule," Lance said. "Octus, any chance you can make him one?"

"Yes," Octus said. "I can have it done by tomorrow, but you will have to train him to use it."

Lance nodded. "Where is Isabella?"

"Hold on!" Ilana said. "Why do you trust him? You don't trust anyone!"

"He's the second best fighter on Galaluna behind his commander, Isabella," Lance said. "He'll be a huge help."

"Octus, can I get my Manus Armor in black?" Jet asked. "I prefer it in black, plus I don't want my first Manus getting mixed up with Lance's."

"No problem," Octus said.

"As for your question, Lance..." Jet's gaze fell to his feet. "She had to stay behind when I left. She delayed the Mutraddi for me."

Lance stared at him for a moment before nodding. "I'm sorry."

Jet nodded, then stared at Octus. "So...what exactly...are you?"

"I am the mind and shell for the Sym-Bionic Titan, a defensive system the King added before sending me here. I am also acting as Lance and Ilana's father, as they are posing as brother and sister to blend in."

"Prince Lance?" Jet grinned. "Forgive me, sire, I had no idea."

"Stop it," Lance grumbled. "Neither of us is royalty here, and I'm not royalty anyway."

"You might as well be," Jet said. "Your father invented everything Galaluna uses, from the Manus, to the Rift Gate, to my watch and ring, and even Isabella's bracelets."

"Yeah, and then he tested the Rift Gate himself and disappeared," Lance said. "He's dead."

"I'm sorry," Jet said. "That was callous of me."

"It's fine," Lance sighed. "I very recently was forced to deal with it."

Jet nodded. "So, can you guys fill me in on this planet? I can't exactly introduce myself as a former soldier of the planet Galaluna."

"I can help with that," Octus said. "Come with me."

Jet nodded and followed Octus into the house and up to the second floor where Octus had dozens of floating, blue spheres spread out, all connected by cords. Once there, he rested a hand against one of them and it projected a holographic screen.

"Teenagers of this world attend something called high school," Octus said. "I have compiled a general rundown of it using sensor data and memories I have gathered while attending it as Lance and Ilana's friend, Newton."

Jet tapped on his new cellphone. He had to admit, this device, and the apparent data caches around the world forming some kind of virtual spiderweb or something, far exceeded anything he'd had on Galaluna. However, he felt like being able to find any information with a few buttons, or likewise send people messages on it instead of meeting them face to face would make it harder to feel connected to people. He shook his head. That wasn't his problem. He continued to search through the spiderweb, no internet was what Octus had called it, for anything and everything about life on Earth. He frowned as he found a very oddly named video. Once it had begun to play, his frown turned to disgusted bewilderment.

"What the..." he paused the video. "People actually watch videos of others doing this for fun?" He shook his head. "Earth people are weird." He left the video and searched a few more minutes before pausing at an image of a two-wheeled internal combustion vehicle that reminded him of the speeders his unit had used to cross vast differences faster, as they weren't allowed to fly a Manus. "That could work."

He downloaded the image onto the phone, then hummed thoughtfully before beginning to search the types of weaponry used on Earth. It was exclusively firearms and missiles for warfare now, but there was a surprising number of pictures and videos of bladed weapons people had made for fun, as well as various sporting competitions for such weapons, as well as bare-handed martial arts. He switched to looking up videos of the competitions, as well as different images of various weapons he liked the looks of, downloading any he liked well enough to memorize for his ring, and a couple of firearms for his watch, though he'd be making them energy weapons, rather than the primitive projectile weapons of Earth. After hours of searching, his alarm clock suddenly went off beside him and he grimaced. He hadn't meant to be up all night. He shut it off, showered, got dressed in the new clothes Octus had made for him using his fabricators, which Jet would argue was his most helpful ability behind Titan, since he could make any non-organic item they needed, including money. Once Jet was dressed, he headed downstairs, climbing in the back of the SUV they used for travel. Lance also got in back, and a few minutes later, they were on their way.

"So, did you come up with a cover name?" Lance asked. "Or are you going to be another Lunis?"

"I'll be Jet Black," Jet said.

"You want your name to be a joke?" Lance asked.

Jet shrugged. "I don't really care what they think. They can say whatever they want about my name. We're only here until we find a way to beat Modula."

"Modula!?" Lance gaped, staring at him.

"Oh, right," Jet said. "I never told you that, did I? Modula was the one behind the coup. He somehow learned to control Mutraddi beasts, and used them as his force during the invasion, along with a few traitors."

"Yeah, I had to fight my Commander," Lance said.

"I had to fight a handful of grunts from our own military, including a few from my unit," Jet said. "I think it's down to just Modula, now, but that's why the resistance is struggling. Because Modula knows all of our tactics, bunkers, and training. Hell, he invented most of them."

Lance nodded. "We'll need reinforcements."

"And the ability to use our Manus," Jet said. "The Mutraddi are projecting an electrical field that prevents Manus from being used."

"That explains a lot," Ilana nodded. "If they could use those, they could at least mount a decent resistance."

"With the exception of the Mega Beasts," Jet said. "We're going to need more than one Titan for that, too."

The others nodded just as Octus parked outside the school.

"We're here," Octus said. "Also, I was able to analyze the electrical field you mentioned before leaving Galaluna, so I made your Manus immune to it. There's a chance that Modula may send a Mutraddi capable of disabling Lance and Ilana's armor, making it impossible to use Titan, so you'd have to fight it alone."

He handed Jet a black watch and Jet focused, transforming the watch that could turn into firearms into a bracelet made of something resembling a very strong type of cloth cord called Paracord. He clipped the bracelet to his right wrist instead, and put his new watch on his left. Then, they all headed into the school together, and after a few minutes, Jet was standing in front of their first class.

"Good morning, class," the teacher said. "We have another new student. Mr. Black, would you care to tell the class anything about yourself?"

"My name's Jet Black, stupid jokes welcome," Jet said. "I just moved here from very far away, so please excuse any odd behavior while I adjust to your customs."

"So hot!" a female voice whispered.

"Foreign exchange student," another whispered.

"Smear the queer," a larger, strong-looking boy at the back of the room whispered to a friend sitting next to him before they tapped their fists together, something he was pretty sure was similar to a handshake on Earth, both students grinning at Jet.

He sat down at the desk beside Ilana's and sighed. He was going to have to hurt those two. Sure enough, on the way to the next class, one headed for him from the front, and the other from behind.

"Smear the queer!" one of them shouted, both charging.

Jet ducked and spun, slipping out from between them just before their shoulders collided, causing both to go airborne and spin before crashing back to the ground. Jest squatted over one of them. "Good try, cupcake. Better luck next time. But next time, I hit back." He patted the student on the cheek before walking away, multiple students around them laughing.

After school, he and the other two Galalunians gathered in their back yard for training.

"So, Octus tells me the Titan works off of cooperation, so we're going to help you two learn to function as one," Jet said.

"How?" Lance asked.

"I'm glad you asked," Jet said. "Stand to Ilana's left, please, and wrap your left arm around her, Ilana, your right around him."

Both complied, though hesitantly, and Jet nodded to Octus, who was holding duct tape. Octus shot forward and circled them in a blur, and a moment later, their torsos and the arm wrapped around each other were bound firmly together, and their inner legs were taped to each other's at the thigh and shin.

"Hey!" Lance said. "What gives!"

"Now run laps," Jet said. "We'll start with ten."

Lance and Ilana both groaned before beginning to run.

"You know this isn't actually how the Titan works, right?" Octus asked.

"Yes, but I needed them occupied for a bit," Jet said. "Can you get messages to or from Galaluna?"

"I could send a message, but it would take years to reach it," Octus said. "Receiving messages from there is impossible."

Jet sighed, nodding. "Can you fabricate an entire vehicle?"

"No," Octus said. "However, I can restore a vehicle in one day, along with upgrades."

"Upgrades like not needing to fuel an internal combustion engine?"

"Among other things, yes," Octus nodded. "Is that why you asked me to teach you the rules of the road?"

"Yeah," Jet nodded. "I found a type of vehicle that reminds me of the speeders my unit used on Galaluna. Think you can make me one of these?" He held up the picture of the vehicle, something called a motorcycle, he was pretty sure.

"It is considerably smaller than the car I made for Lance," Octus nodded. "I can have it finished in a few hours. Would you like it in black?"

"Yes please," Jet nodded.

Otto nodded and sped off. Jet focused on helping Lance and Ilana on their makeshift Titan training, switching them to pushups after their run, then giving Ilana's free arm a trashcan lid for a shield and Lance's an aluminum baseball bat for a sword before picking up his own baseball bat. Then, they sparred. Lance and Ilana were clumsy at first, but after about fifteen minutes they'd fallen into sink with each other and were able to fend Jet off. Finally, he called it a day and formed his ring into a dagger, cutting them free.

"You did really well, Ilana," Lance said. "Even in the military, most people wouldn't be able to block more than maybe three strikes from him, even with him holding back."

"Thanks," Ilana smiled. "You were great, too."

"Thanks," Lance smiled, pulling the last of the tape off of himself before picking his bat back up. "Now, shall we get this over with, Jet?"

Jet chuckled, turning diagonal to Lance and holding his bat in front of himself vertically, his left arm behind his back. "I was wondering if you'd want to try your hand."

"More like I want to see if Isabella's training is as effective as everyone says, or if she's only a prodigy because of her weapon," Lance said.

"That's fair," Jet nodded. "But I promise you, she'd mop up the floor with you."

Lance shrugged and lunged, swiping rapidly, and their bats rang and shrieked as their match began, both moving around and around their back yard as they fought. Jet had to admit, Lance was good. he deserved his status as a prodigy. However, Jet wasn't about to let Isabella's good name as his master be dragged through the mud. As such, after about five minutes of them clashing, he moved in for the kill. Lance was ready, however, and countered, sending Jet's bat sailing away before stabbing at him with his own. Jet spun, evading the strike before catching Lance's hand and spinning, slamming him to the ground as he took the bat before pressing the tip into lance's back.

"Damn," Lance smirked. "I guess she taught you pretty well after all."

"Damn right," Jet nodded. "Now, is there somewhere you can teach me to use my Manus?"

"Absolutely," Lance nodded. "We'll need to go for a ride first, though."

Jet nodded and they headed to the garage, taking Lance's car away from the city to the fields around it before activating their armor. For three hours, Jet learned the absolute basics, like making the Manus function like it wasn't drunk or like he didn't have Tourette Syndrome. Then, once he was able to move the Manus around decently and operate its other functions like its weapon fabricators, he and Lance began to spar. Here, Lance absolutely demolished him with any weapon they used or bare-handed. After fifteen losses in a row, they took a break, then began again.

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