Author's Note: I would like to apologize for any spelling mistakes or incorrect formatting, it seems the program I use doesn't translate well to , and some snippets get flat out deleted when they're present in the original document.
An example of which would be when Brad said "probably some built" in the previous chapter. In reality it was "probably something Dr. Wakeman built". I take grammar quality and formatting VERY seriously with my writing. I will be using a .PDF document type from now on and hopefully that will fix these formatting issues.

Chapter 2- A Hero's Dilemma

Within mere seconds of Lightspeed spotting the hovering starship, its crew immediately proved his initial doubts about them having a lack of hostile intent correct by indiscriminately bombarding the ground to the ship's left and right with laser fire.

The once peaceful and serene silence of the forest around him is immediately overcome with not only the deafening "roar" of the ship's afterburners but the vulgar mechanical "screeches" of the ship's armaments' internal components functioning in rapid succession.

After just a few seconds of maddeningly piercing "screeches" and quite the light show of laser weaponry in action, the bombardment stops, much to the relief of Lightspeed who had been wincing and grinding his teeth against one another for the entirety of the bombardment's duration, seems the armor's ability to muffle sound wasn't as effective as he had hoped.

For as long as he could remember, exposure to any high frequency audio sources caused Lightspeed an incredible amount of pain and discomfort, the auditory byproduct of this starship's armaments performing their functions were no exception.

Without warning or provocation, the starship kills it's afterburners, and begins to hover in place for a few seconds before opening multiple hatches on both of it's broadsides, within milliseconds a horrifyingly dense volume of giant mechanical insects emerge from the hatches in a swarm thick enough to blot out the Sun… had it not been covered by the clouds and rain, of course.

The swarm of automatons dive-bomb towards the ground, dissappearing behind the cover of the trees and out of Lightspeed's line of sight.

Despite the loss of visual contact with the automatons, Lightspeed could've sworn he heard the sound of what appeared to be wings of some kind, fluttering rapidly.

Witnessing the fantasmagorical aerial display of the automatons leaving their starship had set off a "domino effect" in Lightspeed's mind, replacing his initial iron-clad resolve to remain vehement on his stance in remaining out of sight and FAR away from anything in the strange place he found himself in with an overwhelming and insatiable curiosity, the likes of which he hadn't felt in years.

Within seconds, this "domino effect" was reaching a nearly uncontrollable crescendo in the form of a metaphorical storm of neurons in his mind firing in rapid succession that left the pain in his ribs and his feeling of exhaustion a distant (albeit temporary) memory, allowing him to stand on both of his feet without the aid of his right arm on the stump to support himself.

With this newfound and nearly uncontrollable impulse of curiosity metaphorically gnawing away at his gray matter like a rabid wolverine, Lightspeed began thinking of excuses to justify, not breakingbut bending, the rules he had just made for himself, as if his mind was a computer trying to solve a logic error.

"After all, why not?" lightspeed thought.

"No harm can come from simply being a spectator, a simple unseen observer… right?" lightspeed thought to himself.

"Right." lightspeed thought, as if attempting to reassure himself that this was ok to do.

Finally succumbing to his impulses, Lightspeed takes off in a full sprint in the direction the two boys went (and more importantly) where those automatons most likely landed, not so subtly breaking the sound barrier while doing so, producing an audible "crack".

Despite an initial feeling of terror over the stupid mistake he had just made, because he had been overzealous in satiating his curiosity, the feeling of terror was quickly replaced with a cautious optimism.

Lightspeed wasn't too worried about the sonic boom that just gave his position away, simply because he'd be far away from it's point of origin by the time the sound waves had reached anything or anyone that would go looking for it.

The forest in front of him immediately disappeared in what most would see as a blur of sights, colors, and sounds, but this was not the case for Lightspeed. Unlike the Tiger Beetle that often outstripped the biological processing power of it's eyes and brain with the incredible speed at which it could run, Lightspeed (as his hero alias already heavily suggested) was capable of seeing and even reacting to stimuli whilst traveling at supersonic and even hypersonic speeds.
After a rather uneventful few seconds of weaving and maneuvering between tree trunks and and hopping over obstacles to ensure he didn't trip, with the rapid "splishing and splashing" of the muddy terrain and rainwater underfoot, Lightspeed comes within view of his target, a clearing with a certain Brad and Tuck he had just "met", surrounded by the automatons that had piqued his curiosity.

After a solid 20 seconds of digging his heels into the saturated ground and over 100 feet of ground used just to slow down, Lightspeed comes to a rather clumsy "stop" with a distinct lack of grace that was rather common for him.

A hollow tree trunk with a slight crack in the side facing the clearing that's about 10 feet from the clearing itself immediately catches Lightspeed's attention.

With the subtlety and nuance of an artillery barrage from the Red Army, Lightspeed darts from the cover of one tree to another, miraculously avoiding the line of sight of a single beetle-like laser rifle wielding automaton that he assumed was keeping watch for potential interlopers that were clearly not welcome.

Upon reaching his target, Lightspeed vaults over one edge of the tree trunk and disappears out of sight into its hollow center, using the crack facing the opening as a peephole.

The light "thud" of Lightspeed's sabatons coming into contact with the newly wet and rotting floor of the stump's hollow center briefly catches the attention of the automaton, but after a few seconds of gazing at the log itself, completely oblivious to Lightspeed's presence, diverts it's attention elsewhere.

From what Lightspeed could see, the Automatons had landed in a circle around Brad and Tuck, and were slowly closing in on the two who were at the circle's center, with Tuck seemingly frozen in place and Brad nervously fidgeting in place, with his eyes darting around wildly, as if looking for an opportunity or opening to make an escape.

For a brief moment, Lightspeed could feel an urge to spring into action, rising up within himself, but only for a moment before the feeling began to fade.

No matter how much the impending grisly fate of the two boys would pull at his heartstrings, he would have to steel his heart, and simply observe.

He would not interfere, he could not interfere, for if he were to do so, it might bring about the doom of himself and this entire dimension.

The Automatons looked as numb and emotionless to the act they were about to commit as one might expect of machines, their metallic and insect-like feet rhythmically pounding against the wet and muddy ground as they advanced on the two defenseless boys like marching soldiers advancing on a surrounded enemy.

Oddly enough, these red and green automatons weren't armed with any kind of long range weapon, unlike the individual "guard" automaton that was standing uncomfortably close to Lightspeed's hiding spot.

Upon the circle of automatons getting within 10 feet of the two boys, Brad seemingly snaps out of his "flight" response induced frenzy long enough to form a coherent thought before gazing up at the sky.

"JENNY!" brad screamed into the sky.

"Who is this, Jenny that he keeps mentioning?" lightspeed silently thought to himself.

The automatons freeze in their tracks, briefly gazing up at the sky as if expecting something or someone to answer Brad's cry for help.

A few brief seconds of silence follow before the automatons divert their attention back to the two boys.

"As long as it's raining, XJ-9 won't be coming, on behalf of the Cluster Empire, you're coming with us." one of the automatons hissed with a distinctly hostile tone in it's mechanical voice.

Brad immediately turns his attention to the automaton that just spoke, his quivering hands slowly steadying, as if he was finding the courage within himself to do something defiant in the face of what looked like would be his demise.

Ignoring the now re-started march and advance of the automatons towards himself and his brother, Brad quickly bends over and picks up a rock from the mud at his feet that fits rather snugly in his palm before standing up and searching around for a target to use his new "weapon" on for a few seconds.

Brad finally seems to make up his mind and sets his sights on an automaton that's slightly closer to him than it's peers.

With the finesse and technique of an amateur baseball pitcher, Brad chucks the rock as hard as he can at his target, where it glides through the air and makes a direct hit against and shatters what Lightspeed could only assume to the be the creature's right optic casing or "right eye", before disappearing into the automaton's insect-like head.

A violent flurry of blue sparks and oil shoot from the newly formed hole in the automaton's now non existent right "eye", before it slumps over and falls onto the muddy ground backfirst, inert and motionless.

In unison, the remaining automatons divert their attention to their newly fallen comrade and stop dead in their tracks, with some even backing up.

"Yeah, that's right, you better stay back if you know what's good for you!" brad said whilst trying to sound intimidating, and failing miserably in his attempt to do so.

"Are they actually afraid now?" lightspeed silently thought to himself, as if in bewilderment at what he was seeing.

Before Lightspeed could dwell on that thought any longer, a MUCH larger barrel chested automaton with a single long and black side facing antenna coming from its head hits the muddy ground within arm's reach of Brad and Tuck.

The barrel chested automaton pays Brad and Tuck no attention, and looks around at what Lightspeed could only assume to be his allies, glaring at them with a stern look of disapproval and disgust.

"You have the AUDACITY to call yourselves Cluster Amphibious Assault Marines?" the barrel chest automaton bellowed.

"Commander Smytus, we…" one of the lesser automatons whined before being cut off mid sentence by Smytus:

"Silence S-782!" smytus barked.

"Yes sir." the automaton replied feebly.

"You are the best of the best, the most elite amphibious drone force that Cluster prime has to offer, there is no excuse for cold feet over a single fatality caused by some…fluke!" smytus bellowed, before turning around to face Brad.

Smytus effortlessly picks Brad off the ground by the front of his shirt with his right hand, and holds him there.

Any semblance of courage and bravery remaining in Brad seems to drain from him the instant his feet leave the ground, as he doesn't even struggle against Smytus' grip.

Lightspeed could feel his steeled heart and resolve to not interfere crumbling, rapidly giving way to an explosive righteous fury that was getting ever closer to violently erupting.

"You… I'd grind you into fleshy pink-pulp under my foot for what you did to S-792 if Queen Vexus would let me!`` smytus spat whilst rather roughly shaking Brad.

A few seconds of silence pass before Smytus continues:

"But for a bargaining chip to have leverage, it has to be alive and intact." smytus hissed.

"Cluster Prime awaits." smytus said before hoisting Brad over his shoulder, and pinning him down by the back with his right hand.

Smytus rather haphazardly scoops Tuck up with his left hand and hoists him off the ground, causing Tuck to metaphorically thaw out of his terror induced "freeze" and scream.

Tuck's helpless scream was enough to push Lightspeed's already simmering righteous fury over the edge and transform it into an uncontrollable boil which began to rapidly take control of him.

Every single primal part of Lightspeed's brain was once again rapidly taking the reins and over-powering every single logical part of his brain.

Every single synapse of which was firing like a machine gun, as if metaphorically screaming in a hive minded-esque unity of purpose, saying "Protect", "Protect", "PROTECT!"

Who was he to allow such an injustice to happen?

He was a Hero in his dimension, how could he allow himself to become something as loathsome as a bystander who could have acted but chose not to?

How could he allow the helpless to fall prey to the strong?

With the speed of a lightning bolt, Lightspeed jumps out of his hiding place and sends the armed cluster automaton sprawling to the muddy ground with a hard right hook to it's insect-like torso, it's weapon falling out of it's hands and clattering to the ground behind it's head.

Within milliseconds, the attention of everything and everyone near Lightspeed, from the automatons to the two boys was on the newly arrived and armored interloper in their midst.

Lightspeed knew that there was no going back from this, the dreaded "contact scenario" was about to occur, and whatever malignant effects it might bring, he would have to deal with, he was committed now.

The time toworryhad ended, and the time to fight had begun.