re:TUNED

Chapter 1

The moment I woke up, I knew it was going to be a rough day. My eyes simply refused to open, and when they did, they had a hard time staying that way. They burned in that way your eyes do when you stay up too late studying for an exam. I groaned and shut my eyes again as the sun began to leak into my room and onto my face. Mornings like this weren't all that uncommon anymore. Didn't change the fact that it still sucked every time I had to wake up.

I slowly sat up, grateful that school still wouldn't start for a couple more weeks, meaning I could still take a quick nap after breakfast. As much as I would have loved to fall back to sleep, if I didn't head down now, I wouldn't get any cinnamon rolls. They were pretty much the only reason I didn't just sleep through the morning and hole myself up in my room all day. I dropped my legs over the side of the bed and slipped my feet into my slippers, yawning as I stood up and stumbled to the door. I looked over to the side of the room opposite my bed, toward the empty, matching bed that resided there. Jacob was already up, of course. He had probably beaten the sun and woke up early to go play his video games. It was how he dealt with everything going on.

I opened our bedroom door as quietly as I could and started to walk down the hallway, passing about four other rooms before I reached the stairs. The group home we were living in was slightly bigger than others, holding ten kids instead of the average six (according to the Wikipedia article I read before we got there.) We had been here for about three months as we waited for a foster family to come take care of us. Most of the younger kids were able to move in and out fairly quickly. I and my brother weren't having as much luck, though I suppose it made sense. If I've learned anything from movies and books, older kids had a hard time being fostered or adopted. And a sixteen and thirteen years old definitely counted as older.

I stepped into the kitchen as was greeted by the smell of warm bread and cinnamon. I smiled a bit as my eyes slowly closed. The smell was intoxicating. Sometimes, nothing made me happier than that little sweet burst in the morning. I drifted past the main table, large enough to hold all of us in the home, towards the door separating us from the cooking area.

Most kids weren't allowed in the kitchen. As the oldest in the house, I was the one exception. I knew my way around a kitchen, so our caretaker appreciated the help. As I stepped through the door, the smell of the cinnamon rolls grew even stronger, making my mouth water. Along with it, I heard the soft humming of the woman in charge.

"Ms. Hannigan?" I called out. Our caretaker's blonde head poked around a corner and smiled.

"Right on time Josh!" The young woman replied, stepping completely into view and wiping her hands on an old, creme colored apron. She would never tell us her age, but I had to guess she was in her late 20s to early 30s. She was tall and lean, a very attractive woman, which made it all the more surprising that she hasn't been able to find a man to be with. Despite her ironic name, Ms. Hannigan was one of the kindest people I knew, dedicating her life to helping kids like us who have nothing. Having lost her parents herself, she knew the pain and struggles we all faced, and also knew the happiness that could come from finding a new home. She fought tooth and nail to find every child a home they would be happy in. I and Jacob had been a bit of a challenge for her since we arrived about three months ago.

"What do you need me to do?" I asked, jumping right into my duties for the day. She knew better than to tell me I didn't need to do anything. The first couple of days, I insisted on helping, needing to do something, and refusing to take no for an answer. It's now become part coping mechanism, part habit.

"Icing." Ms. Hannigan pointed to a large, steel mixing bowl as well as a few ingredients laying about. "Add and mix quick, I think the first batch is almost done." I nodded and immediately got to work, measuring and mixing as fast as I could while still being accurate. I had quite a bit of practice, I almost fell into a trance as I methodically poured ingredient after ingredient, mixing wet and dry, whisking as quickly as I could until a syrupy, white liquid emerged. I carried the bowl back towards the oven just as Ms. Hannigan pulled out a sheet of large, golden brown cinnamon rolls. The smell was almost overpowering, I had to stop for a moment and appreciate the scent, warming me up from head to toe.

"I love cinnamon roll Thursday…" I muttered, my eyes fluttering closed as I continued to take in the scent.

"Icing please Josh!" Ms. Hannigan reminded, scurrying out of the room and into the dining area. I snapped out of my trance and scuttled behind her, carefully carrying the bowl, trying not to spill. She set the sheet down and took the icing from me. I watched entranced as she tipped the bowl, the white icing cascading down onto the large, fluffy rolls, seeping into the small crevices, covering the rolls in a white sheen. I almost didn't notice the small tugging at my pajama shirt.

"Are the skinnamin rolls almost ready?" A small voice asked me. I snapped out of my trance and looked down, smiling.

"Morning Rosa!" I replied, crouching down to the young girl's level. The girl smiled back, showing off the cute gap in her teeth from having lost one just a few days ago. "It's cinnamon, and they're almost done."

The young girl clapped happily, obviously just as excited as I felt. Her brown eyes twinkled and her brown pigtails bobbed up and down as she jumped for joy. I chuckled as I watched her. The young girl, no more than 5, lost her parents in a plane crash. Her mother and father were visiting their homeland of Guatemala, when one of the engines failed, sending the plane careening into the ocean. She was old enough to understand what happened but young enough that, after about a month of staying here, she was more or less over it. She took a nearly instant shining to me and Jacob, and she became a rather special friend for us.

"But you have to wait outside." I continued. "You know the rules, you can't be back here." Rosa nodded and quickly exited. I could hear the chatter of the other excited children, getting in line in front of the currently shuttered window.

"Roll 'er up!" I heard Ms. Hannigan call out, followed by the muffled sound of cheering from just beyond. I pressed a button to the side of the window and the old, metal contraption creaked to life, slowly rolling up the window to reveal 8 young smiling faces and 1 tired looking one near the back of the line. I looked back at my younger brother. We found that we were able to communicate somewhat with each other simply by looking at each other. Nothing complicated like twins, but we could get our message across fairly well. I gave him a small smile.

Are you ok?

His mouth went a bit crooked.

I guess.

I sighed a bit. He was taking it as well as you could ask, but I always got the feeling there was more going on underneath that he liked to admit. He tried to act tough around me, perhaps because I was the more sensitive one. I was prone to emotional outburst, while Jacob knew how to hold himself together. It was sometimes him that would drag me out of bed the first couple of weeks. I blamed myself for his unwillingness to break down around me. I knew it was at least, in part, my fault.

"Go get in line Josh," Ms. Hannigan said, gently touching my shoulder. "I can take it from here." As much as I would have like to have stayed and helped, I knew that being in the kitchen in front of the other kids did set a bad example. We didn't want Ms. Hannigan to be accused of picking favorites. I obediently slipped out of the kitchen and retreated to the back of the line, joining my brother. I give him a little shake and another small smile.

I'm here for you.

He smiled back.

I know.

I quickly slipped out of my pajamas and into some simple clothes, jeans and a t-shirt. I studied myself in a mirror hanging next to the closet my brother and I shared. I brushed my hand lightly across my hair a few times, getting the spike in the front to stand up again. I looked over at Jacob, who staring intently at something on one of the closet shelves. I stood behind him, peering in to see.

"You really like to ogle that thing, don't you." I teased, motioning to the object in question.

"Yeah, it's cool!" Jacob replied. "It looks like a Chaos Emerald!"

Jacob loved his video games, and he loved none of them more than he loved Sonic the Hedgehog. At home, you would find him playing whatever was the newest release whenever he had time. Here, it became more of a release, a way to destress, forget what was going on. I couldn't blame him, I found myself sitting next to him more and more, watching the screen intently, sometimes wondering what it was like in Sonic's world. Jacob didn't have many things as far as collectibles went, preferring to save for the games, but he did buy one thing: A replica Chaos Emerald. We didn't think it was officially licensed by Sega, we bought it from a Chinese thrift store that sold the gems by the dozen for about $10 each, but Jacob thought it was the most mind-blowing thing. He finally settled on a green one, saying how it "called out" to him or something. Either way, he always kept it in a special place, where he and only he would usually see it.

"You should just invest in a real one, you can tell this is just a fake!" I replied, ruffling his short, fuzzy hair.

"The real ones cost a ton!" Jacob whined as he closed the closet door. "And this looks totally real!"

"Sure." I snickered, smoothing out my shirt a bit more. "You keep telling yourself-" I stopped as a shiver passed through my body. I felt my heart pump just a bit faster. My palms began to sweat a bit. Jacob noticed the change in me and looked serious.

"Where?" He asked, walking to me.

"The window," I replied. Both of us immediately walked towards the window in our room and opened it, peering outside. We scanned the front yard and the street.

"...False alarm?" I guessed.

"When was the last time that happened?" Jacob said, his eyes still scanning. "Your creepy senses are never wrong."

My "creepy senses," as my brother started calling them, are almost like a warning signal. I wouldn't call them powers or psychic ability because it doesn't always work. But whenever I feel like how I did at that moment, it usually means something's wrong. The trick is figuring out what.

"I still don't see anything…" I finally said, after what felt like hours looking outside.

"There's got to be something," Jacob muttered. I was about to contest when we soon got our answer. We felt it before we heard it. A low rumbling. The glass in the window started to shake.

"An earthquake?" I asked, looking at Jacob. Jacob shrugged before we started to hear a low, deep, whirring noise, like the propeller to a jet or a helicopter. Except, this sounded like dozens of them, and they had to be huge. Jacob and I immediately stuck our heads out the window and looked up, only to find blue skies and white clouds. I ran out the door into one of the opposite bedrooms, Rosa and her roommate's room. They already had their noses pressed against the glass, listening and looking.

"See anything?" I asked as I opened the window.

"Uh uh!" Rosa replied, shaking her head, making her pigtails flop around. I looked up at the sky. Nothing.

"It's scary!" Her roommate cried, the young girl frowning.

"I'm not scared!" Rosa said proudly, placing her hands on her hips. I closed the window back up.

"Stay in your room girls." I called as I hurried out the door and down the stairs to the living room. Ms. Hannigan already had the television turned on, a phone pressed against her ear. Jacob was already with her, holding the TV remote, flipping through channels.

"I can't believe it either!" She exclaimed. "It's on every station! None of them know what's going on!" I entered the room further to look at the TV. Different news anchors flashed on and off the screen as Jacob flicked through.

"Everyone is saying the sound is coming from right above us!" Jacob exclaimed, motioning to the TV with the remote. "It's like those YouTube videos with that sound everyone around the world heard."

"Those are a thing?" I asked, sounding a bit unimpressed.

"People think the noises are caused by aliens!"

"You think we're experiencing alien activity right now?"

"You got a better theory?"

"No. But come on, aliens from a different planet, that's ridiculous! Besides, what would they want from us?" I continued to stare at the TV screen, which became nearly impossible to hear over the now roaring sound of the… well, the whatever it was.

"We've found the Chaos Emerald sir!" A robot called from the control deck. Eggman cackled.

"Excellent." He crooned, rubbing his hands together. "Send ground troops to storm the building."

"But sir, that's an orphanage." A voice to his right said. Eggman looked over to the robot next to him. Orbot was pointing to a camera view of the place. The red and black robot with the round head retracted his hand. "There'll be children in there, young children." Eggman examined the display carefully and harumphed.

"Well… send in some big robots to stop around the front door, we'll scare them into giving it to us." Eggman sneered, putting his hands together again.

"But I thought we didn't want to attract attention!" A much more irritating voice yelled. Eggman glared at Cubot, the yellow and black, cube headed counterpart to Orbot. "You said that yourself!"

"We seem to be doing a poor job of that," Orbot replied, pointing to another camera feed showing dozens of news reporters standing around the city. "They're talking about us!"

"Think they can see us?!" Cubot shrieked excitedly as he rushed to a window, waving.

"No, we have the Egg-Camo up, there's no way-"

"SHUT UP!" Eggman roared, slamming his fists on his chair. All the robots in the room immediately stopped working, looking up at their boss. "We're just going to send down a couple of ground troops, knock on their door, and demand the Chaos Emerald, everyone happy?"

"A great idea boss!" Orbot chimed. "I'll go get the soldiers ready!" And with that, the robot floated away into another sector of the ship. Eggman crossed his arms and grumbled to himself angrily. He watched for a moment as Cubot continued to wave out various windows, trying to catch someone's attention. The Doctor rolled his eyes and rested his head on his fist.

"Honestly, I built these things? I could have done so much better!"