Joe looked around the forest and smiled. Despite the beautiful trees, flowers, and animals he was paying much more attention the the woman next to him. Joe's heart skipped a beat as he looked at Francoise. Though she wasn't as curvy as some girls, in Joe's mind she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her blond hair and green eyes were so much more beautiful than any Japanese girl he would ever meet. On top of that, recently, she was all he could think about. Joe reached his hand over and held Francoise's slender hand. He hoped she didn't notice his hand shake, or his heart beating fast. He swallowed and looked at her.
"Francoise, are you happy?" The French cyborg looked at the half-Japanese cyborg and smiled.
"Of course I am. Black Ghost is gone, we're together, and we have no problems. What could be better?" Joe blushed at the we're together part. Only weeks after defeating Black Ghost, Joe had finally had the courage to ask Francoise to be his girlfriend. However even though that took even more courage than fighting a God, Joe now had trouble telling Francoise those three words he wanted to say so badly.
"I'm glad." Joe wrapped one arm around Francoise and kissed her lightly. She smiled at him as there lips parted.
"Francoise, I-" Joe was suddenly cut off by screams. The two looked over towards the direction.
"What was that?" Joe looked at Francoise.
"Someone's chasing a child." Francoise grabbed his hand and began to run towards the screams.
"Sweety, I'll run ahead of you!" Joe clicked the switch in his back molar and disappeared, heading towards the screams. He soon found a man in a coat attacking a small boy.
"Let me go!" The boy screamed, clearly exhausted and pale.
"Hey!" Joe yelled, getting the man's attention. Joe punched the man, caught off guard as the man's head completely turned around. Before he could react Joe grabbed the kid, handing him his blaster gun.
"Stay behind me." Joe ordered the kid and ran towards the robot. The robot fixed his head and picked up and threw Joe as he went to attack. Joe skidded to a stop and ran back to the man, body slamming him and pinning him to the ground.
"Who are you?!" Joe demanded the robot, who just smirked. The man once again threw Joe off of him and ran towards the boy. The boy panicked when suddenly the robot dropped dead.
"Joe, are you ok?" Francoise walked over to the boy and smiled, putting away her gun.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Joe walked over to the two of them. "Are you ok?"
"Y-yes...I..." The child fell over.
"Did he pass out?" Joe looked worried.
"I think he fell asleep." Francoise said, looking at the child. "Joe?"
"Yes?" Joe went to pick up the boy.
"He's a cyborg." Francoise pointed at the boy, causing Joe's eyes to widen.
A few days later the team was once again together for the first time in six months. The boy had little to say, either out of fear or simply lack of energy. The team however was anxious.
"Are you sure it was a robot?" Jet had asked for likely the tenth time.
"He deffinately was, though I don't know why one showed up after everything that's happened. Not to mention Francoise saying that kids a cyborg." Joe repeated. Soon the professor, Francoise and the child walked into the room.
"Hey, are you feeling better?" Albert smiled at the child warmly, ignoring Jet scoffing. The boy shyed away hiding more behind Francoise and looking at Joe. Chang came in from the kitchen offering the boy more food. Several peices of fish, rice, and bread were soon gone as the boy ate it quickly.
"Thank you." The boy said softly and smiled.
"I know you've been through alot recently, but can you tell us what happened?" Albert asked the boy who shivered a bit.
"Jeez." Jet scoffed once more. "We're just trying to help you, y'know." The boy shivered more due to Jet's harsh tone.
"Ignore Jet. He tries to act tough but he's acctually a nice guy." Joe smiled, ignoring Jet's glares. The child looked at the team and swallowed.
"I-I was running." He started, "From some lab, with really scary people." Joe looked at the team, having a bad feeling about the 'really scary people'.
"I know this is hard kiddo, but we need to know as much as we can so we can help you." Albert said kneeling in front of the kid. The boy looked at them.
"My name is Mikolaj. I'm from Poland." Albert nodded as the team listened to Mikolaj. "After my brother dissapeared, some men from the state came to get me and take me to a new home." Joe felt his heart sink, knowing all to well what that meant. Francoise rested her hand gently on Joe's shoulder. "I fell asleep and when I woke up I was in a lab. They did all these tests, and I always failed. So they..." The boy trailed off, not finishing as tears filled his eyes. Albert Held the boys shoulder with his left hand, not wanting to use his right hand out of fear of scaring him. "They tried to get rid of me." Mikolaj looked at them and wiped his eyes.
"Get rid of you?" Francoise sounded worried, expressing the same worry as the rest of the team.
"They tried to scrap me." Albert's eyes widened, getting Francoise's attention.
"Who did this to you?" Albert looked at him sternly.
"A big company. Black...serpant? No" The boy thought. "Black...ghoul?"
"Black Ghost?" Jet said irritated.
"That was it!" Mikolaj looked at them as the team's expressions all changed from worry to fear. "What's wrong?"