Chapter 2 - "Science Fiction"
by Richard O'brien and Patricia Quinn
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I was on autopilot as I pulled onto the patch of dirt where the two cars had just been and tugged the handbrake into position. My mouth gaped open at the sight before me.
There was no way what I was seeing was real.
My brain was racing, trying to catch up with all of the thoughts running rampant within it.
Maybe those drivers actually rammed me off the road and now I'm in a coma?
My breathing was picking up and I could feel my heart rate increasing.
There were three humongous... robots! Duking it out in the stormwater drain. Sparks went flying with each blow, the two bigger ones against a smaller, blue robot. The longer I watched, the further my stomach dropped as I realised that the two larger beings' chests bore striking resemblance to the two black and purple cars from earlier. Just as the blue one started to do backwards handsprings, a powerful engine roared behind me. I whipped my head around only to see the muscle car from earlier speed past me in a yellow blur. It drifted onto the bridge and I sucked in a sharp breath.
Right before my eyes, I saw the car shift: parts moving this way and that in a seamless manner, morphing to form arms, legs and a body with the car doors sticking out of its back imposingly. It landed on top of one of the robots with a resounding clash before sucker punching the other one; the force of the blow caused it to go down hard across the concrete and I hurriedly opened my door to get a better look. When I stood up, however, my blood ran cold at the sight of the teen who passed me on his bike and a young boy standing near the yellow robot.
Shit.
The yellow robot turned to them and I was trying to psych myself into running down there to help when all of a sudden it went flying with a high pitched whirring noise. I gasped at the unexpected motion, too focused on the boys to have noticed one of the other robots getting back up.
"Leave him alone!" came a loud cry and my eyes widened in shock when I realised that it had come from the small kid with spiky hair.
Double shit.
The two of them started to run but one of the black and purple robots followed them, easily closing the distance. I rounded my car. They disappeared; the robot was reaching for them -
Yellow caught my eye and I watched as the muscle car one pushed himself back up and wrenched the other robot away from the boys. I ran my hands over my hair and interlocked my fingers, resting them on my head and taking deep breaths.
My eyes closed involuntarily and I fell back against my car.
The events of the past few minutes were replaying on a loop in my mind, over and over again - trying to process what I had just seen. These... beings were running around fighting each other, causing accidents and doing who knew what else! Granted it seemed that not all of them were bad…
A screeching crash startled me out of my daze and I watched the blue robot - back on its feet once more - help the good, yellow one up. They took a fighting stance. I sat there, transfixed, and just as I thought they were about to go at it again, the blaring of a horn distracted them all. A large, armoured SUV barreled towards them and broke apart like the muscle car had except in its own unique version of the process.
"Who's ready to rumble?!" it shouted and the masculine voice took me off guard. I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't something... so human sounding.
My suspicions from earlier were confirmed when the two "bad" robots folded down into the demon cars from the freeway and sped away. I took a moment to sit and think again, wondering about those boys and if they were okay and where on Earth did all of these robots come from? I moved my hands on to my knees and bowed my head with a shaky breath. My nerves were still jittery from everything that just happened. Trying to steel myself, I looked up but stilled when I saw the three colourful robots staring at me.
I felt like I was in an old Western showdown, waiting to see who would make the first move. As the new robot made a step in my direction, I scrambled off the hood and back to my seat, slamming the door shut behind me. I threw it into reverse and peeled out of there, my body tensed the whole drive home.
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Laughter greeted my ears as soon as I walked into the house. Dad and Lily were sitting on the rug in the lounge room with "Pay Day" spread out on the coffee table between them. Dad was the first to notice me come in and I was vaguely aware of his concerned look.
"Hey kid, everything alright?"
"Huh?" I blinked a few times, having been lost in my thoughts, and did my best to smile. "Yeah, all good." I could tell by the look on his face that he didn't believe me but he let it slide as Lily spoke up.
"Hey Menni, wanna play with us?"
In all honesty, I wanted nothing more than to go to my room and collapse on my bed.
"Depends, are you ready to have your butt whooped?"
But Lily didn't need to know that. Her smile stretched even wider and she laughed.
"You never win!" she teased and I jabbed her side in retaliation. She shrieked and tried to escape but I trapped her in my arms and dragged her to the floor, leaning my weight on her as punishment. "Dad! She's squishing me!"
"'Dad, she's squishing me'"
"Carmen, get off your sister and stop mocking her. Lily, quit antagonising her."
"She started it!"
"No I didn't!"
"Well I'm finishing it. Now, both of you: stop fooling around or we'll never get this finished before dinner."
"Sorry Dad." We both apologised.
I gave Lily a final tousle of her hair and let her go, grinning at her pouting protests. We started a new game, only playing two rounds instead of three so that Dad could get dinner on before it got too late.
It was only once I'd retired for the night that I realised I had nothing to distract me anymore and everything came rushing back to invade my thoughts. Maybe I was in some prolonged form of shock? I mean, witnessing a near car crash, fearing for my life, seeing those robots, fearing for the two boys lives?
Wait.
The two boys.
A plan was coming together in my mind. I'd seen them both around before; the older one was in the year below me - Jake? No, Jack! - and I swear I'd seen the other kid at a few assemblies receiving awards or something. They saw the robots too, they were 10 frickin' feet away from them! Those poor guys... being so close to them and getting chased…
That settled it.
Tomorrow, I was gonna have a little chat with them.