~ So just close your eyes
Oh, honey here comes a lullaby
Your very own lullaby
Oh, honey here comes a lullaby
Your very own lullaby ~

- Nickelback, Lullaby.

I. Rockwell, before dawn…

There was a scratch at the window. Taylor awoke instantly and popped his head up. A cat silhouette stood with pointed ears looking out at the front yard. The little boy remembered seeing Pygmy turn from a giant robot into a robot kitty two days earlier; his mom and dad had been too busy yelling and demanding that someone get Jean down to notice the event.

"Pygmy?" The child asked.

Uncle Garth lay with his head bobbed back, snoring loudly.

" 'Scuse me." Taylor said as he slipped off the sleeping man.

"Oof!" He grunted briefly.

Pygmy was completely occupied with whatever was outside.

"What's a matter, girl? You wanna go outside?"

Mittens had been that way… before Dad had taken her to the pound.

" 'I'm running a firm here, guys. Not a zoo. You want a kitty? Go get a job.' "

Taylor innocently wandered up to the door and stood on his tiptoes to unlatch the lock.

"There ya go," he said. "You're free now."

Pygmy pawed up to the entrance and gave him a long look. The little brown-haired boy stopped being so cheery at the emotion in the robot's yellow eyes. There was something she had to do and it looked as though she didn't want to do it alone. Maybe, Taylor had the sudden thought, she did not even know what it was. The boy made a quick decision.

"Hold on." He went over to grab the big blanket from the sofa, pull it around himself, then slip his shoes on and head for the robot cat. "I'll come with you." Pygmy didn't protest, it seemed she was genuinely happy to have the boy accompany her. They both left together.

"Taylor?" Jean walked into the living room rubbing his eyes. "Is that you? Mom said we-,"

There was no one there.

"Taylor?" He looked around, saw one of his brother's socks lying on top of the couch and saw the door hanging open. "Oh God." The eleven-year-old rushed to take a peek outside.

He watched as a yellow light filled the area like it had on Saturday. Pygmy was back.

She had his brother in her hand.

"Oh my God… MOM'S GONNA KILL ME!"

Hogarth jolted awake as the door slapped shut.

"Huh? What?" He looked up at the sight of Jean running across the porch.

The family was going early.

"Huh!" Hogarth rolled his eyes. "Good riddance." he went back to sleep.

Work wasn't for three more hours.

…

A figure lingered down by the rocky shore, waiting. This was what Ivan Grant was meant to do, he had to save his mother by traveling to the future. The car crash, Nurse Linda's words rang in his head. She'll lose her memory.The thirty-five-year-old man recounted everything he had ever heard. Every doctor his mother had taken him to for his 'disease'.

'Mom refused to call it that. She said I was just born old.'

The stomps of the one his mother had talked about signaled his wait's end.

"Pygmy." Ivan turned to the droid he was bonded to at birth. The purple-paneled female automaton journeyed down the cliff toward him. "You received my thoughts. I called to you." he eyed the young boy riding in her hand. "Is he with you? He may come with us."

"Who are you?" Jean arrived to find his brother, Pygmy and another boy beside the sea.

This "boy" was unlike any child the preteen had ever seen. Wrinkles edged along his eyes and cheeks. His medium brown hair was short and looked almost as if it were fashioned as a buzz cut. The clothing he wore looked as though it were made for an old man; a tannish cream corduroy suit, a pink shirt and white slip-on suede shoes. He also had a silver cane.

"You look like an old man."

Taylor giggled at his brother's bluntness.

"I am. Recently I was called to action to complete my function, this in turn caused my age to reflect that of a child's as I was born old. You must know my father, Hogarth Hughes?"

" 'Hughes?' Well, my uncle's name is John Garth Rice. Don't know a Hogarth though."

"Mommy was talking to a man about John Rice, Jean. Someone named Jane Smith too."

"That is my mother, her real name is Taylor Evans. She is in desperate need of my help."

"Wow," the oldest brother came closer. "I know if that was our mom I'd be wrecked."

"We gotta help'im Jean. Please?"

"Pygmy?" He looked up at his older acquaintance.

She nodded with a smile in her eyes.

"Okay, I'm in. So where are we going?" He turned to his newest one.

"To the future." Ivan held his cane out in front of him and the inscription on it lit blue.

"Uh… I don't think Mom would like that!"

"Yay! The future!" Taylor exclaimed joyfully.

The four dissolved into a haze of azure before dispelling into the jagged line of purple in the sky where the cane had hit it. A motorcycle swerved to a stop at a line of trees right beside the road. Dean McCoppin pulled his helmet off as his great-grandsons left 2000.

"Not again," he said.

II. – Back at Julianne's house, morning…

A woman screamed. Hogarth immediately bolted out from under… nothing. He saw then that he was completely exposed. His flesh was hanging out from between the flaps of his shirt and the blanket he had covered Taylor with was gone. In fact, both boys were gone.

Their mother was there, however.

"Where are they!.?" And so was their father.

"You lost your own kids!" Hogarth stood up to face the younger man.

"Look at you." Joe Renton gave him the once over. "You're butt naked!"

"Oh, it's buck naked you idiot. And listen here-,"

"Where's my sons!.?" Donna-Lee screamed at the top of her lungs again.

"Donna, please." Joe placed his hand on her shoulder, she quivered in her black stilettos.

"What is going on out here?" Julianne rolled herself into the living room.

"My sons are gone…" her daughter whined as tears pooled in her eyes. "My little boys!"

"You better start explaining pal." Joe pressed forward.

"Hogarth, what on earth is going on? Where are my grandchildren?"

"I want my sons…"

"Bubbie, tell me. Where are they?"

"My little boys!"

Hogarth looked back and forth.

"Well don't just stand there, say something!" His sister started to raise her voice.

"My little pumpkins!"

"I want some answers." Joe thumped his uncle-in-law in the shoulders.

"Look there," Donna-Lee pointed to a Scooby-Doo sock. "I bet he kidnapped them!"

"ENOUGH!" Hogarth hollered at all of them.

Donna-Lee retreated behind her husband and Julianne merely stared up at him in shock.

"Please tell me they weren't right about you." She spoke.

The moment Julie said that Hogarth knew what she meant; the townspeople. While good ol' IG still stood as a symbol of heroic folklore amidst the older citizens and a mysterious force of untold fable for the younger generations, Hogarth was long gone. So was Garth.

"I-," He stared down at himself and saw who he was, or at least, what he had turned into.

He was old, he was overweight… he was a has been.

Julianne seemed to realize this too. "Bubbie."

"Get out of here you old pervert! You-you monster! Get out before we call the cops!"

After this final outburst Donna-Lee was out of words and full of tears.

As Joe turned to comfort his wife, Hogarth turned with a silent plea to his sister.

"It's probably best you go," she said in a soft voice.

Now Hogarth was stunned.

"Wh-what did you say?"

Julianne met her daughter's eyes, they were wet and resolute.

"It's best you go, Hogarth." This time she wouldn't look at anyone.

"I-I see." He didn't know what else to say. The man collected his laptop, made sure the bump of his keys stuck out in his pocket and headed for the door slowly. "G'bye Sissy."

"Damn pervert," Donna-Lee continued to sob. "No wonder his shirt's open! Look at the belts, that… that green sex toy thing." Hogarth froze at the door. "He probably slept with my boys." Mortification rolled over him in waves. No one stopped her. "Get out of here."

"Donna-Lee…" Joe suddenly tried reasoning with her.

"Pedophile!"

Hogarth slapped the door shut.

…

His eyes stung. Thrice these last two days Hogarth had been on the verge of crying. How long had it been since the last time that had happened? When he and his goddaughter had been forcibly ripped apart from Taylor and Ivan. This thought led to another: The Giant.

At the city limits of Rockwell Hogarth stopped short. He felt the heaviness of leaving his friend weigh down on him. The Giant and Gold had opened their home and hearts to him. They had invited him back even after he had screwed up and ruined the reunion. That was more then could be said for the rest of his family. Hogarth covered his face and breathed.

"I'm not leavin' my buddy behind," he decided. The man then looked back and reversed the rental car he had gotten in Ashmore. "Pygmy, we're gonna ask your pop and Gold to come with us. What do you think about that?" his hand reached out to touch the bump he knew was Pygmy under his jacket. But it wasn't. The object was his pop's antique helmet.

"Good God." Hogarth yanked the material back. "Pygmy? Sweetie?"

The one thing he couldn't live without was gone.

Rattled, the man threw the door of his '96 Sunfire open and stumbled out backwards. He was done. He couldn't take it anymore. Hogarth grasped his head as tears trickled from his eyes before he lunged back to scream at the sky. A towering presence instantly came.

"Hogarth." Gold said calmly.

It was too calm.

"You did this!" He pointed out in accusation.

The droid was blank-eyed as she stood solid bronze and copper between the trees.

"You took Pygmy, didn't you? And my little nephews. Holy hell, when I get done with you you're going to be the one screaming in agony." She started to back away from him.

"Hogarth, please." Worry now shone in her eyes.

"Please? Please WHAT? Go easy on you? YOU STOLE MY BEST FRIEND!"

Gold stopped.

Hogarth glanced over to the left of the trees.

The Giant stood with his mouth agape.

To be continued…

~ Lavenderpaw ~