Chapter 1
Somewhere near Mt. St. Hilary,
Justin took a deep breath of the clean, crisp, mountain air and smiled contently to himself. This would help him: he needed some time alone, away from everyone else, to compose this thoughts. He wouldn't be that far away from the city in any case, should something come up. Climbing down the other side of Mt. St. Hilary, he noticed the green of the forest and the crystal blue of the lake bellow. He would set up camp on the bank of that lake, he decided. The forest in the valley below the mountain was paradise. While it was quiet from all human activity, it buzzed with the sound of animal life and smelled clean and fresh.
Justin set up the tent and put the backpack inside. The lake glistened, reflecting the light from the sun. It looked so inviting and Justin was tiered. He stripped to waist, deciding that a swim would do him a world of good. Justin dove in and immediately felt better as the cool water splashed over his body. After swimming for about 45 minutes, he got out and dried himself off. Sitting on the bank, he looked across the lake at people on the other side. They looked like a group of kids, probably from the local summer camp. Justin sighed and shook his head smiling. Those kids didn't have a care in the world, unlike him. He greatly envied them.
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"Hey, Jamie, come on let's win this round," yelled a fellow camper. Jamie almost didn't hear him. His ice-blue eyes narrowed as he studied the goal carefully. This was the final shot to break the tie between the two teams. Finally ready, he charged at the ball at incredible speed. When his foot made contact with it, the ball went flying through the air at the net. The goalie ran to block the shot, but it was too late. The ball flew into the goal and ripped though the net leaving a hole with tiny flames around the edges.
"That's great," shouted another boy from the team. "Now let's catch a break. I'm dying for a swim."
As the team dispersed, Jamie sat alone on the bank, throwing in stones, his thoughts a million miles away. They went all the way across the galaxy to the small planet of Cybertron. He wondered what it was like there now. They've been gone for two decades, but sometimes it felt like a lifetime away. Well, it was. To Jamie it just felt like a dream that seemed to slip away. As he looked across, he noticed someone on the other side of the lake. As he focused his eyes on it, he saw the face.
"Justin?!" Jamie was very surprised to find the older boy there, especially alone. What was going on?
He didn't have much time to think, because something in the sky caught his attention. A cloud of thick, black smoke rose from behind the trees a mile away from the lake. Ten seconds later there was a loud blast from the same direction.
"What was that?" asked a young girl in a blue dress, standing up.
"Sounded like something exploded," said someone else.
"Let's go check it out," suggested another camper.
"Alright everyone, back to camp," came the voice of the counselor. "No one is checking out anything. You don't know what that was."
The campers filed behind the counselor and followed him back to the cabins. Jamie dangled in the back of the line and then slipped away from the group. He waited in the bushes until the other campers were out of sight, then ran in the direction the explosion came from. Jamie guessed the Justin also heard it and would be there, too. That was rather convenient, because he had a few questions for the older boy, including why was he here and what happened to the others.
