Metallic Chapter One

They did it… They were off the train! MT dropped to her hands and knees feeling the grass for the first time. Real grass. Not some fake alternate reality grass. Or whatever place the train came from. Or whatever the train was. MT pushed her thoughts elsewhere, it was time to roll in some grass.

A small laugh escaped her as she flopped fully onto the grass. Another escaped her lips, and another and another until she was laughing brilliantly in the revelation that she was free. She was here.

She was real.

Jesse's laughter joined hers as he dropped to the grass. The sounds of their combined laughter encompassing the little lakeside area the train had decided to spit them out to. Slowly, they calmed down until their laughter stopped. MT picked herself up from the ground and looked towards Jesse, whose face was lit up in utter glee as he watched her very first experience with the real world. Not some temporary reflection, but the real world that they had finally made it back to.

"So, what do you think?" Jesse asked.

MT looked down at the grass, towards the lake, towards the houses and the town, before looking back to Jesse, "I think I'm going to like it here."

Jesse launched himself at MT, trapping her in a fierce hug as he started to laugh again. MT returned the embrace, tears beginning to leak from her eyes.

Jesse pulled back slightly, "As happy as I am to be off that train, I'm way happier that you're here too, MT."

"JESSE!"

The shout startled the two apart as Jesse's little brother, Nate ran up to them and crashed into his older brother, gripping his shirt tightly with both hands.

"Hey, Nate," Jesse said as he ruffled Nate's hair, "Miss me since last time?"

"Never leave again, Jesse…" Nate said with a whimper.

"I promise I won't ever leave like that again." Jesse lifts his brother's head and points over towards MT who was standing there awkwardly trying to look indifferent to the very sentimental display in front of her. "She's why I had to go back, I had to get her off the train too. I just couldn't leave her there." He smiled gleefully.

Nate left his brother and approached MT, "Woah… you're actually metal!" MT tensed a little, expecting something negative. "That's so cool!"

MT looked at Nate more than a little surprised, "You think it's cool?"

"Yeah! You're so shiny!"

"Of course I'm shiny you little dolt, I'm metal!" MT said with a smirk as she gave Nate a tiny flick on the forehead. Jesse had long since recognized that the flick was her display of affection and got used to it… even if it hurt.

"So what's your name?" Nate's curiosity reached its peak. In front of him was a metal lady from a magical train that had kidnapped his brother almost three weeks ago. "I've been calling you Ms. Metal in my head till now."

MT ignored Jesse's bark of laughter at the silly nickname. Nate brought up a good point… who wasshe? She definitely wasn't Tulip, and she definitely wasn't just Tulip's reflection. She wasn't a clear Tulip, a red Tulip, or even a metal Tulip.

She was her own person.

She looked towards her reflection. Her first glimpse of herself outside of the train. Her first glimpse of herself without the fear that came along with it. The fear of Flecks, the fear of torture, the fear of death. She looked in the lake and saw herself.

"I'm… Lake," Jesse looked a little surprised but more than happy, "My name is Lake."

"Cool name," Jesse said with a happy smile on his face, "But we should probably get going now, my parents are probably still worried sick about me."

Lake couldn't help the disappointment that flashed across her face, "Right, right, you need to see your parents," she cleared her throat, "So uhh, I guess I'll see you later?" She turned so that Jesse wouldn't see the tears that started to form. Of course. What did she think would happen? That she would go with Jesse and continue to stay with him? Of course that wouldn't happen! She's made of metal, she's not normal and she never will be. How would his parents let her stay with them?

Swallowing the tightness of her throat and ignoring the stinging in her eyes, Lake started to walk away. A tan hand landed on her shoulder before she could even take a step.

"Lake… you know you're coming with us, right?"

She spun around and latched onto Jesse ignoring the small shout of surprise. What was she thinking, of course Jesse wouldn't leave her. He was too much of a dork to do that.

Willing the tears away Lake gave Jesse another flick to the forehead, "Of course I knew that you dolt. You couldn't stand to be without me for a second."

"Of course not! We're travel buddies afterall!" Jesse said happily and Lake decided to ignore the faint blush that showed on her cheeks.

…

"So is this what flirting is?" Nate said innocently.

"NATE!/WHY YOU LITTLE-" The two teenagers in question screamed.

Metallic

Walking up to Cosay's family home was more than a little nerve wracking for the both of them. For Jesse, neither of his parents had seen him in weeks thanks to the train's shenanigans so their reactions were a little in question right now. For Lake, it was because she was a living breathing chunk of metal that used to be somebody else's reflection and she had no idea how Jesse's parents would react. But hopefully, since they're Jesse's parents, they will be as kind and accepting as Jesse had been, even with her hard exterior.

Nate ran ahead of them, his excitement getting the best of him as he ran inside the house, leaving the two teenagers outside to await the inevitable confrontation.

"So," Lake began, "how should we make our case?"

"Make our case?" Jesse responds.

"You know, the whole thing where we explain why you were gone, why I'm made of metal, and neither of us are crazy?" Lake snarks.

"Well, I can't lie, and my parents know that, so they should know I'm not making it up, and we have you as proof." That was always Jesse's policy. Honesty was best, through and through.

Lake looked away from him, "Yeah, I guess, but how do we want to say what happened, and should we leave out how we… you know… killed a fleck?"

Jesse smiled at her, "Well I think we should come clean about it, since that was very traumatic and it would be best if we have them there to help us through it."

Lake grimaced. Jesse didn't know yet. "Yeah, I guess that's a-"

"JESSE!" Two shouts came from his parents as the front door burst open. Jesse's mother was a slim, short, and tan woman with long auburn hair that reached her back while Jesse's father was a tall, slightly pudgy, white man with stubble littering his face and deep eyebags set in. They latched on to Jesse, his mother whispering thanks to… something while his father apologized to Jesse for something they apparently did to make him run away.

After a good minute of a reunion hug, Jesse wormed his way out of the embrace and cleared his throat, looking uncomfortable the entire time.

"As happy as I am to be back, I never ran away. I'll explain what happened inside. But before that, this," Jesse points to Lake, "is Lake. She's the only reason I was able to come back and has saved my life on multiple occasions." Lake is stunned by the bold declaration, as true as it was.

Mr. and Mrs. Cosay turn to look at Lake, seemingly just now noticing her.

Mrs. Cosay takes hold of Lake's hands, "Lake, thank you. Thank you so much for helping him get home."

Lake pulls back her hands, slightly uncomfortable with the whole situation, "Y-yeah, it was nothing. If anything, this dolt saved me just as much as I did for him."

Jesse wipes the frown at the interaction between them from his face before grabbing his mom's hands and leading her inside, "C'mon, we have a lot of explaining to do, and a pretty crazy story to tell."

The family plus one walks into the house and Lake takes a look at the home decor. In the front entrance is a closet for shoes and coats, a small table for keys and other items, and a large mirror. Lake jumped back at the sight of it, bumping into Mr. Cosay.

"You alright?" He asks, worry evident in his voice.

Lake forced herself to calm down. She was off the train. They couldn't get her here. Not anymore. "Yeah, sorry about that."

Mr. Cosay looked like he didn't want to drop the subject but allowed it for the time being because his son who was missing for three weeks has just returned home.

They enter the kitchen and the family sits down while Lake leans against a post, "Oh, Lake, why don't you sit down with us?" Mrs. Cosay invites.

"I don't think your chair would survive me," Lake plainly states, drawing some questioning looks from both parents in the room, "We'll explain in the story."

After everyone had settled down, Jesse began. He spoke of the man test and of the strange train that picked him up shortly after. He spoke of the different things he saw on the strange train. He spoke of the strange number that had appeared on his hand. He spoke of the puzzles he had to solve to progress. Until he finally spoke of how he met Lake.

"I had gone through so many cars, I was starting to lose count," Jesse talks before taking a drink of water. He had been talking for about ten minutes, so a dry throat is understandable. "Then I walked into a weird car that was super leafy and I saw a crazy deer that shot lasers from its eyes!" Lake shifts to attention, finally getting to her part of the story, "Turns out, Lake had been hanging with this deer for a whole two days before I got there and we might have got into a little argument."

"He wanted to name the deer Dracula, and it wasn't his choice to make," Lake explains when the family looks to her for an explanation.

"After we got out of the tree car, we just stuck together for a while, her trying to help me lower my number because she knew how the train worked. She wasn't lying either, before I met with her, my number hadn't gone down at all, but the same day I met her my number went from 31 to 24!" Lake smirked slightly at his bragging of her. "Then we got to a weird car where we had to kick a toad to get through and… I found some stuff out that Lake should probably tell you," Lake's smirk disappeared.

Having the family's attention was a little nerve-wracking, especially considering her… unique appearance, "So, my name is Lake, but I wasn't always Lake. Originally, I wasn't even my own person. I was the reflection of a girl named Tulip Olsen. When she boarded the train some number of months before Jesse did, she ended up freeing me from the mirror world and we split paths. And yes, I am a reflection, if you want proof, take anything metal and hit my skin."

Nate excitedly ran and grabbed a meat tenderizer from the kitchen before giving Lake a little tap, her skin not giving way even the slightest as a bang sounded from the interaction. Mr. and Mrs. Cosay looked at her in clear shock. While they would trust their son, the story had sounded so ridiculously crazy they were worried their son had taken drugs and hallucinated the whole thing. But now? Having a living metal person who used to be someone's reflection in your kitchen? That right there is an eye opener.

"It's against mirror law to abandon your position as a reflection so the flecks-our version of cops-started chasing me down, trying to capture me, and when that failed, kill me." Lake stated numbly, while Mrs. Cosay drew a breath while Lake shrugged in response. She had long since come to terms with her situation. "I ran for a long time. I'm not sure how long exactly, but eventually I found a deer with superpowers and the next day, an annoying jock who wanted to tell the deer who he was." Jesse smiled at the memory, "So I chewed him out and then we stuck together for a bit."

"We went through some crazy cars," Jesse picked the story back up, "until we eventually got my number to zero," Lake flinched at the memory while Jesse grimaced.

"What happens when your number gets to zero?" Nate asked.

"I got off the train," Jesse said.

"Shouldn't that be a good thing? You got off the train so why do you look so sad?" Mrs. Cosay was confused and in a little bit of shock. When you get told of an alternate dimension where a therapy train helps people with their problems by exposing them to trauma, you're allowed to go into a little bit of shock.

"That's the thing. I got off the train… Lake didn't."

"So how did you get her here?" Mrs. Cosay asked.

"I went back."

"You did WHAT?!" Mr. Cosay screams.

"I had to!" Jesse screams back.

"You got back after three weeks of being missing and the first thing you do is LEAVE?!" Mrs. Cosay was trying to calm down her husband, while Jesse glared angrily at his father.

"Lake was alone on that hell train with the flecks right behind her, ready to kill her! I had no idea if my best friend was even alive when I got back Dad!" Jesse was crying. "Every second I spent here was another second Lake could be in the Flecks hands! I couldn't trust that not to happen, even with how incredible Lake is, the flecks were right there! A single swipe and she would be dead!"

"That doesn't matter, Jesse! You guys said it yourself, she wasn't supposed to get off the train! She isn't supposed to be here with us! She isn't one of us! For god's sake Jesse, she's metallic! Why would you risk your life for something like that!" Mr. Cosay screams.

Metallic

Lake left the room, she didn't want to hear the rest. Walking outside and back to the lakeside, she sat down and looked at her reflection, initially flinching. Her skin shined in the light of the sun and she watched as it slowly fell.

Lake didn't know how long she sat there before a hand fell on her shoulder. She spared a glance to see that it was Jesse's hand that now lay on her shoulder. While she was happy to have the familiar sight in such an unfamiliar place, she didn't want to be reminded of the disaster that was their explanation.

"C'mon Lake, it's getting late. I calmed my Dad down and my Mom wants to apologize to you." Jesse stated, "That and you need a place to sleep." He threw in a small smirk to lighten the tension.

While she really didn't want to meet face to face with his parents again, she did need someplace to stay that would preferably lead to her not getting questioned by passersby. Following Jesse back to his home, Lake got the chance to actually look around his neighborhood. It seemed like a nice place. Each house had a good amount of space and it looked like everyone was relatively well off. White suburban homes littered their immediate area and towards the end of the street, Lake could see a basketball hoop standing in a driveway.

They reached Jesse's house soon enough and entered where Lake once again came face to face with the mirror, but this time the mirror was turned around, it's reflective surface facing the wall.

They went through the house until they reached what Jesse introduced as the guest room. It was really plain, pretty much just having a twin sized bed and a dresser next to it, but that was okay. It was going to be the best thing she would sleep on in more than a couple months. Lake never saw Jesse's dad anywhere so she assumed he was either out of the house to cool down or he was in his room with his wife so they didn't have to see each other face to face again.

"There are a pair of my old pajamas in the dresser, they're probably still big for you but it's probably better than sleeping in the same clothes you ran around in on the train and… y'know." He trailed off, unsure of how to continue.

"Thanks Jesse," Lake responded, "I appreciate the thought."

Jesse turned to leave before he stopped in the doorway and looked back at her, "Hey Lake… I'm really sorry about what my Dad said before, he didn't mean it but he never should have said it. Things will be better in the morning, I promise."

Lake said nothing but turned and gave him a small sad smile.

"Goodnight Lake."

"Night Jesse."

Jesse left the room, giving her the rest of the night to sort out her thoughts. She didn't need to sleep. She only did it because it was actually very relaxing and a huge destresser for her. She didn't really need most of the things humans do, but it's still nice to enjoy some food now and again.

Lake dressed in the much too large pajamas and laid in bed, listening to the frame squeal in agony under her weight. Meeting Jesse's parents had certainly been an eye opener for her. People wouldn't just see her and shrug it off. They wouldn't understand what she was, they wouldn't understand who she was, and they definitely won't let her be because they would be scared of her. So as the hours passed and lake laid in bed, she accepted that she would just have to get used to it. People wouldn't accept her, nor would the world. Afterall, she wasn't a person.

She was metallic.

Author's Note:

Just saw Infinity Train Book Two and I love Lake so much as a character. It just frustrates me so much that we never see what the consequences of a person with no reflection or a literal metal person being in the real world is and I NEED TO KNOW.

When I heard that each book would be on a new passenger I was a little disappointed mostly because I wanted to see how Tulip's story continued, but I am more than happy with book two because goddamn it they outdid themselves.

If anyone knows of a good infinity train fan story or comic that explores what happens after, please let me know!

- RandomA99