FYI: Chapters 2-4 will be based on 3Below episode, "Moving Day."

~ Chapter Two ~

Strange Encounters

"Goooood Evening, Arcadia Oaks! It's been two weeks since that night. You know the one. The one we never talk about, but I'm talking about it now? Yeah…"

"Huh, you don't say," a truck driver, by the name of Barry, grunted to himself as he listened to the local radio station host talk over his truck stereo.

Barry often took his trusty box truck through Arcadia, a small, central Californian town, and had never seen anything like what he witnessed two weeks ago.

At first, he felt the strong Earthquakes, which weren't foreign to California. Then, he saw a massive fireball spitting out blackness into the sky, like a volcano or nuclear bomb in the middle of the canals, and a sudden solar eclipse. Then, giant rock monsters began attacking the poor citizens of Arcadia, and he thought the world was coming to an end.

Driving through the winding mountainous roads leading into Arcadia, Barry sipped loudly on his Diet Coke through the straw and turned the radio host up. He wanted to hear more about what the locals in this town thought about that terrifying attack.

"Everyone has been working hard to finish repairs on our little town. Good job, everybody! Didn't I say that Arcadia wouldn't be the same after the Battle of the Bands? Ha! Gene, dude, you owe me ten bucks, man!" The radio host chuckled. "I'm just kidding. But seriously, am I? Ten bucks, Gene. Please, seriously."

Barry nearly spit his drink out laughing. "Ha! Pay up, Gene!"

Of course, he didn't know the radio show host, nor this 'Gene' he was asking to pay up in a bet. Still, the radio host was thoroughly entertaining him while on his long drive through Arcadia towards the nearby city of Pasadena.

It was close to ten o'clock at night, and he had another hour's drive before he could clock in for a sleeping break. After driving for eight hours already, he was ready to drop off his smaller load at the worksite and call it a night.

Barry hummed a nameless tune to himself and tapped his hands on his steering wheel as the radio host continued his energetic evening speech through his truck's poor speakers.

"Hopefully, that's the last of the weirdness here in Arcadia. Just remember, folks, what really happened that night is our town's little secret. Shhh!"

Barry chortled again and turned his radio off when it went to a commercial.

"Yeah, right, buddy," he drawled to himself amusingly. "It has already been all over the news, and people think this is a town of psychos! Your sleepy little town isn't as sleepy as you'd-"

CRASH!

Something huge suddenly smashed into Barry's front bumper, making him scream out and struggle to control his load. His steering wheel fought against him as he skidded across the road, but he'd luckily been driving trucks for long enough that he was prepared for sudden issues.

Barry let off the gas pedal, letting his truck naturally brake before he finally got hold of it. He skidded across the deserted road as he slammed on his breaks- then finally- his truck came to a stop.

"HOLY-" he yelled, breathing heavily. "What in the world was that?"

Looking around the deserted road, he couldn't see what he hit. But, whatever it was, it was big and heavy.

Groaning, he placed his truck into park and flicked out his wet hands. His Diet Coke had spilled all over him, soaking his shirt and the front of his jeans.

"Oh, perfect! Just what I needed," he grumbled to himself, taking his seatbelt off and grabbing his large emergency flashlight out from behind his seat.

Barry climbed out of his truck to assess the damage to his front bumper. The front bumper had a huge circular dent in it. When he looked at it, he swore loudly.

"Great!" Fuming, Barry slapped a hand to his forehead, gazed up at the starry night, and began pacing back and forth. He was too tired to deal with this. Racking his brain, however, he didn't see anything on the road, and therefore, didn't know what he'd hit.

"That's just great! Now, I have to write up an incident report for this bumper!" He clicked on his large flashlight and began looking around. "Whatever it was, I hope I did more damage to it than it did to my truck!" He sighed heavily and cursed again. His boss was going to have his head for this.

Arcadia Oaks was surrounded by forest, and over his ten years of employment with his trucking company, he'd hit or nearly hit his fair share of deer or other rodents, but never had they done any damage to his truck quite like this. Whatever he'd hit was even more substantial than a deer and was made of something much heavier than flesh.

Barry silently searched all around the road, under his truck's frame, and even ventured towards the nearby forest bank- and saw nothing.

There was no deer carcass, blood, or indication that he had hit anything. Which meant the thing he'd hit was either unconscious or dead.

He gulped nervously. "I didn't hit a person, did I?"

Wanting to make sure, he walked quickly down the road, shining his ray of light in every direction. Sweat beaded his forehead, and his lungs were on fire. Like most truckers, he wasn't in pristine physical shape and didn't get much exercise in his job.

Huffing and puffing, Barry walked a small distance from the back of his truck, shining his flashlight in every direction. He stopped when he saw the skid marks his tires made on the road, then looked around at either side of the forest bank. There was a hill on his right that was higher elevation than the road, and to his left, the mountain sloped deeper into the forest canyon.

Panting, Barry crossed to his left to glance in the bushes. "Hello?" He called out loudly. "Hello? Is anyone out there?"

Still, nothing.

"Huh," he grunted to himself, looking back at his parked truck, "that's weird."

Beyond the skid marks his tires made and the large divot on his bumper, there was no sign that anything had happened, which wasn't a great excuse to put on his incident report for his damaged vehicle.

"Ugh, what a mess," Barry groaned, turning to leave, but stopped when he heard rustling from the bushes where he'd looked and turned his light back.

"Hello?" He called out again, his heart pounding. "Is anyone there?"

The flashlight shook as his hand trembled in fear. Something felt amiss- and he didn't like it. More rustling sounded from the same bushes, but this time, the sound of snapping twigs pierced through the night.

"Hello?" Barry tried again, thinking he was going to see a deer or another larger wild animal. But, since he was a reasonable distance from his truck and alone in the dark, he didn't want to be caught by something larger than him, especially if it were a bear or something equivalent in size.

Barry backed away towards his truck when suddenly something enormous jumped out from behind the thick bushes and slammed onto the graveled road.

"YOU DARE INTERFERE WITH THE MIGHTY MAGMA-TRON?"

Yelping out in fright, Barry stumbled backward in surprise and slammed roughly onto his backside, losing his flashlight from his grip, but he didn't need one to see what was before him. Whatever it was, it was made of metal and had bright orange fire-like veins coursing through its hands and legs, as if lava was its blood source.

Magnets seemed to hold its limbs together, and its voice was deeply mechanical and bellowing. Its metal body was massive in size and towered over him, being almost ten feet tall.

Barry's eyes widened at the terrifying sight and his breath caught in his throat. No. This thing wasn't a bear or animal. It wasn't any living thing at all; but was a giant, metal monster. A robot of sorts, just like in the famous movie, 'Earth Invaders.' But that wasn't real. This was real life.

"Oh… my…!" Barry gasped, crawling backward away from it, but the robot suddenly slammed its metal hands down on either side of his body, indenting the gravel. Barry screamed and protected his head in his arms.

"WHERE ARE THE ROYAL AKIRIDION CHILDREN FROM HOUSE TARRON?"

"The… who?" Barry cried out desperately, but the robot roared out deafeningly and slammed a metal, double-sided hammer down next to his face.

"THE AKIRIDION PRINCE AND PRINCESS! WHERE ARE THEY?"

Screaming, Barry shot out from under the robot and took off running towards his truck, faster than he thought was possible.

Whatever this thing was, it wasn't there to calmly discuss anything with him but was going to kill him faster than he could say, 'killer-robot.'

"RUNNING WILL ONLY MAKE YOUR DEATH MORE ENJOYABLE, YOU FAT FLESHLING!"

Fat fleshling?

Barry knew he was a larger man, but dang, this robot was being savage. The robot roared, and Barry heard a heavy swooshing of his hammer being thrown through the air. Diving to his driver-side door, he screamed as the hammer slammed into the side of his truck's box, moving it a few feet away from him.

"Holy shit! This thing is going to kill me!"

Scrambling to his feet, Barry launched himself into the truck and slammed the gas pedal down to the floor. He didn't want to die.

Getting his truck back under control, Barry shot through the windy, side-mountain road and barreled towards Arcadia.

Help, he needed help. Police or even the military, he didn't know. All he knew was that the giant robot was chasing after him, and every step was sending tremors through the gravel under his truck like a constant earthquake.

"Come on," he urged his groaning truck, which had barely gotten to sixty miles-per-hour, but the robot was gaining on him. "Come on, Bessie girl, don't let me down now! Come on! GO!"

"RUN, RUN, RUN AS FAST AS YOU CAN!" The giant robot bellowed from behind him, mocking him. "YOU CAN'T STOP ME, FOR I'M THE MIGHTY MAGMA-TRON! WHEN I CATCH YOU, I'M GOING TO TURN YOUR SKIN INSIDE OUT!"

Barry continued to floor his box truck through the winding roads, dodging the constant attacks from the robot's hammer, which were getting closer and closer with every passing second.

"Dear, God, I'm sorry for never talking to you until now," Barry pleaded out loud in vocal prayer. "But, please, don't take me now. Not like this! Not like- AHHHH!"
The robot's hammer suddenly slammed into the side of his truck, and Barry struggled to control his load from rolling.

"OH MY GOD!"

"RUNNING IS FUTILE!" The robot continued to bellow from behind him. "YOU'VE INCURRED THE WRATH OF MAGMA-TRON! THEREFORE, YOU WILL DIE!"

"I don't wanna die!" Barry half-sobbed, willing his truck to go even faster as he approached the edge of town. "I don't wanna die!"

His truck barrelled through the small town's roads, going triple over the posted speed limit, but he didn't care. If he didn't escape, somehow, the robot was going to rip him apart.

Up ahead, Barry saw the lights of a massive construction company, who were working on the bridge over the canals, and made a quick detour. He would take side-roads towards the interstate to avoid people, all while trying to throw the murderous robot off his trail and survive to see another day.

For the most part, the town of Arcadia was mainly deserted from civilians, as most of them were home in their suburban houses for the night. However, he heard a few night-goers screaming at him to slow down from the sidewalk as he shot past them, driving erratically.

Barry turned down some of the sides, main roads, hoping to shake the robot now that buildings gave him some cover to hide, but the trash-talking robot kept throwing its hammer at him.

Making a quick decision, he turned in a skid down another street, heading towards the town's center. He prayed no one would be out, but his prayers turned into a curse when a bunch of kids suddenly stepped out in the street in front of him.

Screaming, Barry slammed his foot on the brakes and forced his truck to come to a complete stop. It was close- so, very close, but he luckily stopped in time.

Gasping, panting, and crying, Barry looked up and saw five teenagers all staring at him, eyes wide with shock and fear. He almost shouted at them to run and get out of his way or to even reprimand them for not watching where they were going when the sight of two of them made his heart nearly stop from shock.

Standing next to three normal-looking teenage boys were two blue-skinned glowing beings. A male and female. Their eyes looked like two circular blue lasers, and instead of having two arms, they had four.

"What in the… ?" Barry whimpered, feeling like he was about to pass out.

First, scary rock beings emerging from the ground? To fire in the sky? To killer metal robots? And now blue-skinned, glowing… aliens?

Too much. This was too much.

Just then, Barry heard the familiar bellowing of the killer robot behind him and nearly fainted from fright.

"AH-HA! FINALLY! THE AKIRIDION BRATS! YOU'RE MINE TO DESTROY!"

Screaming out of control, Barry shot past the teenagers and drove his truck through a small park to get away from the terrifying robot. Fear had taken over all logic.

Behind him, he heard the robot bellowing, "HAND OVER THE ROYAL CORES BEFORE I BREAK YOUR BONES!" But Barry didn't stop to see who the robot was talking to.

Swerving through the park and taking the first main road he could get to, Barry continued to speed at full-maximum speed through the streets. He had to get to the interstate highway and away from this cursed town as quickly as he could.

Taking another quick turn down another road, Barry glanced in his rear-view and side mirrors to see if the terrifying metal monster was following him when he suddenly came head-to-head with another problem.

He'd entered a busier part of town, without realizing it, and at a crosswalk, a woman dressed in medical scrubs, with glasses and pulled up auburn-red hair, was crossing the street right in front of him.

Barry let out another scream and slammed on his breaks. But, it was too late. The woman was too close, and he was going much too fast to stop in time.

Barry watched in slow-motion horror as the woman turned to face his bright headlights with shock. She opened her mouth in a scream as the lights whited out her face, and she raised her hands in a defensive pose.

By instinct, he turned his wheel to slam into the center median, but she was directly in the way and was going to get run over by him, no matter what he did. All he could do was shut his eyes, scream, and pray to God that she'd live as he slammed into her and the light pole in front of him at high speed.

At impact, the truck crunched loudly, the airbags deployed, and having not put on his seatbelt, Barry slammed into the windshield. When his head hit the glass, his world went dark, but he didn't lose consciousness.

Barry groaned. His entire body hurt, his chest felt heavy, and something like blood was oozing down his neck. But none of that mattered to him. His heart sank at the sounds he heard from the witnesses on the street. To his horror, people were screaming, crying, and panicking for the woman he'd hit.