Chapter 2: The Machine
When everyone was taken into the Whale King they were meted by Alteil himself and lead to a large room with what looked to be prison cells and a strange machine. That machine took up most of the middle of the room. It had a consul and a door to it. Probably to put something in… or someone. "Well this is my Ager Machine."
"Pager?" Bit asked unsure.
"No AGER!!!!!!! As in your AGE!!!!" Alteil was losing patience he was obviously not in a good mood today.
"Oh. Why didn't you just say so?" Bit was trying to be brave although he was truly very nervous.
"Perhaps you would like to be the first to try it?" Alteil asked impatiently.
"No! I will." Leon said fiercely. He didn't want Bit to get hurt, whatever the machine was supposed to do. He assumed bad.
Alteil smirked. "Well why not we have a few of you try it." He motioned for his guards to pick out the few who would test it; Leon, Bit, and the twins Kelly and Chris. They were all shoved into one small room, which had hardly enough room for two grown people. Bit was cramped very badly up against Leon who was crushed on either side by the twins. On the outside they could hear shouts of protest, but they were muffled and hard to hear. Then what sounded like orders and they all began to feel rather strange.
"Let them out of there right this instant!" the Doc yelled.
Alteil however just ignored him and watched in pleasure as the four shouted in what sounded like pain. Bit was in the most pain of all it seemed like. After a few minutes Alteil motioned to his guard and he opened the door some smoke cleared out and all that could be seen were small lumps on the floor. One of them at up… he had brownish hair and purple eyes his clothes were Leon's but much too big for him. Two more sat up, two girls, they looked exactly the same. Then the last one who sat up he was smaller than the other two and he seemed weaker. He had blond hair and green eyes. These toddlers were Bit, Leon and the Twins Kelly and Chris.
"What have you done?" the Doc asked amazed.
"Why I just de-aged them by fourteen years." Alteil said evilly. Suddenly there was a jolt and the group was free. The guards lost their balance and fell leaving the group practically unattended. They ran for the toddlers Doc grabbed Leon, Naomi and Brad each grabbed the twins and Jack took up Bit, who just flopped in his arms, obviously tired out from the incident. When they had the toddlers secure they jolted out the door. They found that the Whale King was falling out of the sky. Alarms and lights were going off that it frightened the toddlers; some cried other hid in their carrier's arms. They braced themselves for impact. When the Whale King was securely on the ground everyone jolted out of it into a nearby forest. When they were sure they were free they sat down and rested. They looked the children over to make sure they weren't hurt. The twins seemed fine… and very stubborn. They were about four years old. Leon was all right just a little shaken up although he tried to be tough. He was also about four. Bit however was scared out of his mind. He held on tight to Jack and refused to let go. He shook like a leaf in an earthquake. Bit was about two years old. The only thing they all had on was just a shirt since they were too small to fit into anything they wore before.
"Seems we'll have to go baby shopping." Jamie said almost jokingly.
"MY LEENA!!!!!!" Everyone heard in the distance.
"Harry?' Leena asked unsure of this.
And what do you know… there came Harry leaving a trail of dust and smoke as he made his way to his true love. "Yes it is I, your King! I couldn't let those bad Backdraft goons take you away! I had to save you baby!" Harry said taking Leena's hands.
"Uh, yeah." Leena said not caring. Then Harry's robots came along, Sebastian and Benjamin.
These two caught Bit's attention. He loosened his grip on Jack and got down from his lap. He slowly and cautiously walked over to the mechanical beings and held out his hand to try to touch them. Benjamin noticed him first and leaned down at eye level with him to look at him. This startled Bit; he jumped and ran behind Jack's legs.
Harry now realizing that four of the group was missing and four kids had been replaced by them asked. "What happened? Are they…are they…?"
"Yeah Harry they're Bit, Leon, and the Tasker Twins." Brad said pulling on of the twins back from running off. She seemed to have gotten over her fright. In fact all of them did.
"We should probably get them back to the base." Jamie suggested, trying to get the other twin off the tree.
"You're right Jamie." The Doc said picking up Leon who was just staring at Bit the whole time with icy eyes.
Then everyone followed Harry to his Whale King and headed home. Without their Zoids they had no where else to go.