In the city's heart, the Nexus Tower gleamed brilliance, serving as a beacon for many. This evening was not just the usual meetings or seminars; it was a gathering of people from different dimensions, animals, other robots, and a group of sentient locomotives, including Thomas.
"Alright," the fighter jet plane robot spoke as the chatter died, glancing over at him as he stood before a blank screen. "Everyone might wonder why I called everyone here in the Nexus Tower."
"Yeah, why?" One of the strangers nodded, speaking up from the crowd. "Did the Renegades kidnap someone again?"
"No," said the fighter jet robot. "It happened during one of Thomas' incidents. My group and I and the Rescue Bots attended it when this happened, and we recovered from one of Chase's dashcams to show."
"That I didn't even know that I had," the police officer robot named 'Chase' softly added, whispering to the helicopter robot.
"All vehicles have it, Chase," said the elderly police officer with a soft, understanding tone. "I'll explain more about it once we find this child."
Chase nodded silently as the fighter jet robot pressed a button on a remote, and the large screen behind the fighter jet robot flickered to life, showing a video of Chase swiftly and efficiently getting the Troublesome Trucks back onto the rails.
The video suddenly turned, showing a bright, rainbow-like light that captured everyone's undivided attention. In that light, a figure dropped into some bushes after it had disappeared, causing everyone to lean in a little. A human child and a small kitten emerged from the bushes a short while later.
The room collectively gasped after seeing the human child appear. Others noticed something off about the child, seeing the unusually long hair, grime, dirt, and even scars they did not notice because of the child's panic.
And it was unusual for a real human to have blue hair unless it could have been dyed, and those azure blue eyes looked too beautiful to be a normal human eye color. Before the video continued, Chase paused and turned towards the audience.
"Attention to all present," Chase said, speaking calmly in an almost robotic voice but with a normal tone. "The following footage contains scenes that some might find distressing. For those sensitive to rapid motion or intense situations, I advise you to avert your eyes or momentarily disengage. The purpose of this presentation is to inform, not to distress. Your understanding is appreciated."
Once he finished advising, Chase resumed the video, and chaos on the screen ensued. The child, overwhelmed and terrified, darted around like a scared cat, evading the robots' grasp, sometimes causing them to collide.
Everyone watched the chaos; some people's eyes spun around comedically, while others grew dizzy, shaking their heads before returning to watching the video as Chase thought, 'I kept forgetting they are cartoon characters.'
When the child approached the railroad tracks, there was a speeding express train, causing everyone to lean in more worriedly while others were chewing their fingernails rapidly. Thankfully, the disaster was averted thanks to the timely intervention of the fighter jet robot, which reached over and grabbed the child.
However, the end of the video showed the child running into the ominous Dark Forest after being placed on the ground and picked up by the fighter jet robot. The mood in the Nexus Tower was tense; everyone worried about the child entering the Dark Forest as Chase turned off the screen.
"We need to activate a search party to search for this human child before anyone else or anything harms her," the fighter jet robot explained to the group of people as they perked up after he told them.
Everyone nodded after the fighter jet robot explained, slowly starting to pick up a little as one of them asked, "But how is the question? The Dark Forest is thicker than pea soup, and we can all get lost easily."
"True," Chase nodded. "But those who can fly and have heat signatures can help with our search. As others said before, 'the Dark Forest is dangerous to everyone in Multi-City.'"
"Even to a young child," nodded another person. "We've got to find him!"
"We don't know the gender," one of the people said from the crowd.
"Oh, whoever they are!" the person sighed. "Let's go find them!"
So off everyone went, exiting the Nexus Tower and heading towards the Dark Forest, where the child was hiding, along with the dangers that lurked within.
The search was underway within the gloomy expanse of the Dark Forest, as they were wearing rain jackets and umbrellas to keep themselves dry from the pouring rain. Robots, humans, and animals combed through, calling out and looking into every possible hideout.
"See anything?" the fighter jet robot asked, glancing at his friends as he spoke through the radio, contacting them.
"No, Leader-1," the scooter robot responded. "Nothing on the radar yet."
"We have to keep searching," the fighter jet robot named 'Leader-1' sighed as a few others followed him. "We can't let anyone or any creature get to them before we can."
"And at the rate of this weather," another voice pointed out, looking up at the sky. "It'll be dangerous for the child too."
"Wait, what do you mean by that?" a voice asked through the coms.
"By the rate of this rain and the—" She paused when the thunder struck and shrieked, causing a few bots to scatter from the lightning bolt shooting through the air. "Lightning. They could be in danger! They would be either struck by lightning or wander into a flood."
"Then let's search faster before another lightning storm rains down on us, or we're toast!" another voice exclaimed in a flying saucer. "Do you see anything, Fred?"
Within the Dark Forest, a group of people continued to look at the ground while a man with short jet-black hair, fair skin, and black eyes held a futuristic device in his hand. He wore a sleeveless orange fur shirt with black spots and a turquoise fur tie, and he was barefoot and pantless.
The caveman was shaking from head to toe in the cold and rain as he shook the device in his hand, trying to make it work. He was with others, some cavemen, as the leader sniffed the air.
"Wh-Why won't th-this blas-blasted thing wor-work?" He stuttered as he shook the device.
"Here," a man dressed in a blue uniform offered. "Let me help."
He took the device from him and showed it, pressing the first button on the side and activating it. The caveman watched silently as he was shivering from head to toe, his arms wrapped over his chest and his teeth chattering.
"Fred, can you hear me?" The same voice spoke through it as the person who helped him handed the walkie-talkie back to the caveman, addressed as 'Fred.'
"Yeah, I-I can hear you-you, Ge-George," The caveman named 'Fred' nodded through his chattering teeth as the other cavemen and cavewoman were looking around, one of them an elderly grandmother using her cane to part the leaves. "Anyth-thin' up the-there?"
He stopped talking, and nothing happened as the man in a blue uniform crossed his arms over his chest while Fred asked with irritation, "Did I break it ag-again?"
Meanwhile, in the saucer, a man with short red-orange hair, fair skin, and black eyes wearing a white, futuristic shirt, blue pants, and white shoes facepalmed after hearing Fred ask.
"Maybe you shouldn't have given him that walkie-talkie of yours, George," another voice responded through the radio.
"No, I shouldn't, Turbo," the man sighed, named 'George.' "But I'm still tryin' to teach him how to use our devices if he comes to our house. He's like a close friend of mine."
"Well, sometimes close friends know when to be careful when introducing things to others," another voice added. "You don't know if Fred will break something important to you or your family, George."
"That you're right, honey," George nodded before giving a huff with a roll of his eyes. "But I'm still annoyed that he broke all eight electric grills I saved up for a massive BBQ the last time he came over."
"I hea-heard th-that, George!" Fred exclaimed through the radio as George perked up. "And I-I finally got-got this stu-stupid thing wor-workin'!"
"Without breaking it?" a voice asked with a tone of sarcasm.
"Y-Yes, ha, ha, ha," Fred sarcastically responded, and George giggled at the response, which was unheard of because he did not press the button. "It's v-very co-cold out her-here! I sho-should've bro-brought pants or some-somethin' warm wit-with me!"
"I thought you could handle the cold, Fred," someone remarked. "You barely shivered whenever it was snowing outside."
"We-well, yes," Fred nodded. "But not-not when it i-is raining an-and fre-freez-zing cold at th-the same ti-ime!"
'And that is why I got my AC runnin',' George thought as he smirked, feeling glad that he had something that could fly in the air and keep him warm all the time.
But he returned his eyes towards the forest, still searching for any signs of the child, having the image of her imprinted in his mind of how she looked. In the meantime, a young boy was leading a group of tech-suited puppies, actively searching for clues and following scents within the Dark Forest.
The young kid with fair skin, spiky dark brown hair, and brown eyes wore a red, white, yellow, and blue vest with a paw-shaped logo and a white long-sleeved shirt underneath. He also wears blue jeans and has blue and white shoes.
One of the puppies was a German Shepherd with brown fur covering his body, lighter brown or tan fur on his face, and paws with a long beaver-like tail. While wearing his outfit, he has a blue police hat with yellow trim and a black bill.
His vest and pack are blue, with three yellow chevrons on each side, usually the rank of a police sergeant. The German Shepard puppy continued to sniff around with a few others until he sniffed a rock.
After two whiffs, the German Shepard puppy perked up and instantly backed away, his ears pinned slightly against his skull and his tail between his legs.
"Uh, Ryder?" the German Shepard puppy spoke, causing the boy to glance over.
"What is it, Chase?" the young boy asked, named 'Ryder.'
When Ryder came over, he paused when he saw a strange, very dark blue ooze on the rock before Chase, the German Shepard puppy. But the faint smell of copper made Ryder perk up after smelling a little of the scent.
"Is that what I think it is?" Chase asked nervously.
Ryder nodded, responding to Chase's question without explanation, "Yes, it is."
He pressed a button on his walkie-talkie and said, "Everyone? We just found out that the child is bleeding."
"What?! Bleeding?!" exclaimed a worried voice familiar to George's, and Ryder winced at the loud voice, moving the walkie-talkie away as George panicked. "When?! How?! Who?!"
"She just scratched something across this rock," Ryder explained as he gently ran his fingers across it, noting the sharpness after removing his fingers, but they were not bleeding. "It's sharp enough to cut through the skin."
"She must've gone closer to the mountains," nodded Leader-1. "Can Chase or your friends try to pick up that scent? She might still be bleeding without mending her injury."
"That's what I'm worried about," nodded another puppy, an English bulldog, staring at something along the rocky trail. "Look!"
They looked and saw a trail of dark blue blood along the rocks as they slowly melted away from the rain.
"Alright, pups," Ryder assured them. "The trail is still fresh, and we can still find her. So let's go follow it before it disappears!"
The pups nodded and ran ahead down the trail as Ryder ran behind, still following the leftover scent lingering in the air. In the air, George had slightly drifted off from the rescue mission and was thinking about what he could do once the rescue mission ended, feeling he knew he had to do some chores around the house.
But George returned to what he was doing after being reminded of the child, his mind racking over the fact that the child was bleeding—every parent's worst nightmare. Worse, a monster would track down the blood and find where the child is.
He looked through his 360° windshield at the ground through the thick trees, searching for any signs of life. As much as he was right with animals since Bambi and a few woodland animals came through the city, he was curious if a human would live in the forest with them.
George continued to look through the dense forest from above as he followed the group, not minding that he was behind the group as he continued looking. Suddenly, something blue flashed in the corner of his eye, and George perked up, glancing to the side as he saw a young child running towards a small cave.
He instantly pulled his saucer back and screeched to a halt, watching as the young child disappeared into the small cave. Without a second thought or warning others that he had found the young child, George dove headfirst towards where the young child was, landing with a gentle thud without crashing through the treetops or into branches.
Years of flying to work and other places and racing out of guilty pleasures paid off with his talent for driving his saucer. Opening his windshield, George scrambled out of his warm saucer, closed it, and went outside in the cold as the air hit him, barely noticing the rain as he went to the cave where the young child had entered.
He knelt on one knee and looked inside, slightly squinting as it was faintly dark inside, but he could not see the child as the color blue blended somewhat in, but there was a trail of dark blue ooze leading inside that had that copper smell.
"Drat," George mumbled as he glanced away from looking into the cave. "Did I bring a light with me?"
He ran back to his saucer and opened the windshield, entering inside as the windshield closed and scrambling through his stuff as it was tossed upward, pulling off his 'cartoon' gimmick as the rain continued falling.
"Where is it? Where is it? Where is it?" George fumbled through the items, comically throwing objects over his shoulder like shoes, socks, clothes, pencils, pens, and others before pausing and mumbling, "Why did I bring that in here?"
Then he switched to the other side and continued to scramble around before exclaiming, "Ah! Here it is!"
A clonk happened as he accidentally banged his head underneath the saucer's dashboard, and he winced, lifting his head up while holding the back with one hand and the other holding an orb.
"That's going to leave a mark." George winced before picking up a handheld device from the glove compartment. After gathering the two items, George opened the saucer's windshield and stepped outside as it closed, running back over to the cave.
He pressed a button on top of the orb after kneeling and pointed the orb's light down the cave, watching as a hand lifted to block the light. In the far back of the small cave was the child with a kitten in her arm close to her chest, both soaked wet, shaking from head to toe, and with an injury down the side of her leg, bleeding the same dark blue blood.
Besides the strange blood, this scene of the poor young child in such a situation instantly made George's parental instincts go wild.
"Sweetheart," George instantly said, startling the young child as she jolted from hearing his voice. "What are you doing back there? Come forward so I can help you out of there."
The young child fearfully looked at him from the back of the cave while holding the kitten in her hands and shaking her head quickly, obviously scared of him. But… why the question?
George shook his head from all the rambling thoughts echoing through his mind, asking as he slightly crawled into the narrow cave tunnel, "Come on, sweetie. I won't bite ya, I promise."
Nothing as she shook her head, looking like she was on the verge of crying while holding the kitten to her chest and looking away from George.
"Well, that didn't work," George sighed as he crawled out of the tunnel, feeling age come to him as his back arched slightly, causing him to wince slightly. "What to do next?"
Suddenly, something started sniffing his bottom, and he froze, asking, "Who's sniffing my butt?"
"Oops, sorry!" George looked over his shoulder to see a sheepish Dalmatian puppy. "Wrong greeting."
Soon, Ryder arrived with the rescue party puppies, and George stood up, ignoring his slightly aching back but placing one hand on his lower spine.
"Oh, good!" George sighed as he turned the orb off to keep the battery from draining as the rain-soaked his body and clothes. "You're here just in time. I found the human in that cave."
He pointed to the cave as the Dalmatian puppy looked inside, sniffing a few times and noticing a trail of dark blue blood, causing the puppy to gag from the smell and move back as Ryder peered inside, seeing the faint movement coming from the child.
"That's not all," George continued, forgetting that his 'parental mode' was still flickering on. "She's bleeding from the leg and-"
"We figured out the bleeding part, Mr. Jetson," Ryder assured. "We already called a medic to help her mend the injury. The medic is waiting for us at the Multi-City Hospital."
"Not that Medic, right?" George asked, cocking an eyebrow.
"What medic?" Ryder asked in confusion.
"Never mind," George sighed. "But which one will crawl through that space? It's too narrow for me to fit through."
"Me either," Ryder nodded before looking at the pups. Then, an idea popped into his head, and he asked, "Chase? Can you fit through that small space?"
"Sure I can!" Chase nodded before attempting to enter, only to get slightly stuck and exit in confusion.
"You need to take your pup pack off," George pointed out.
Chase exits the cave after George points it out, takes his backpack off, and tries again, successfully fitting through the cave tunnel's narrow space and squeezing through as George, Ryder, and the others watch.
The smell of copper was faint in Chase's nose as he felt confused, remembering that the scent on the rock was enough to prove it was blood. But how can blood change from its original red to a dark blue with a familiar copper smell?
Chase soon reaches the child and stops as the child whimpers, curling close to the cave wall and clutching a kitten to her chest as it hisses at him. He ignored the kitten and assured the child, "Hey, it's going to be okay."
The child flinched after Chase assured her and perked as she scrambled further to the wall, saying, "It's okay, it's okay! No one will hurt you. I'm only a puppy."
She did not respond to Chase after he assured her and looked away briefly as her kitten hissed at him but did not scratch him.
"Mr. Jetson and Ryder will not hurt you either," Chase pointed out. "Neither do the others if they come here."
"Oh, crap!" exclaimed George from outside as his voice echoed through the cave. "I forgot about the others!"
"Why didn't you let them know?" Ryder asked.
"You know, I'm a family man!" George exclaimed. "And when I saw her, my mind instantly went into autopilot mode!"
The child inched slightly away from the cave's wall after George exclaimed, still confused about everything, but stopped when her leg ached. Chase glanced back after hearing the child wince, seeing the injury as bleeding.
"Oh, that injury looks bad," Chase winced. "And I don't have my pup pack to help mend that. Can you follow me outside?"
The child hesitated after Chase asked and glanced over at him, looking out as it continued to rain, then nodded her head.
"Okay." Chase carefully turned around and felt something grab the back of his coat, causing him to jolt with a short dog-like yelp. "Be careful of grabbing someone like that! You'll give someone a heart attack."
The child dipped her head slightly as a silent apology and followed Chase while holding the back of his jacket, wincing the entire time as she used her left leg. The kitten's growling was visible here and there, but there was no scratching as Chase led the child out of the cave.
Luckily, it ended as Chase exited the cave with the child behind, holding her kitten against her chest, standing up to her bare feet, slightly hunched in fear, surrounded by puppies and two people but wincing faintly in pain from her injured leg.
"Are you alright?" George asks, moving some of her hair away from her face as she stiffens as her pet kitten hisses at him. "You're not too badly hurt, are you?"
The child only stayed silent and shook from head to toe as George could see how miserable she looked, staring at him with those wide, azure blue eyes as the kitten growled softly at him while against the child's flat chest.
As he looked at her for other injuries, Ryder retrieved his bandages and mended her leg as she stayed still. He snipped off the pants leg to help him cover the bandages without fabric in the way, seeing that her legs were covered in scars.
Ryder instantly placed a note about the strange scars and took out a handheld cloth, pouring a little hydrogen peroxide on it. Then he wiped the blood off the wound and stained her leg, and the child barely noticed any pain but winced slightly from the stinging feeling.
Ryder finished wiping the blood off, unrolled the pads, and began to patch her leg with them, covering the long injury. Once the pads were on, Ryder tightly wrapped cloth bandages from the medic bag around her leg to keep them from undoing before tying them.
"Oh dear," George softly murmured after Ryder mended her leg, removed his hand from her hair, and looked at her body.
She was skinny and messy, and her hair was greasy and not cut for long. She even had stains of mud and dirt covering her bare feet, which had nicks and scratches from climbing across rocks and mud.
How long had she been through the woods ever since the morning when she-realization hit George that this young child was surviving in the wilderness for over a whole day without an adult.
This kid is brave enough to walk through the woods or has sheer dumb luck at making it out without a scratch on her body other than the one on her leg. Then he picked the child up in a bridal style after her leg had been mended, as the child stiffened for a minute before relaxing slightly.
"Let's call the others and tell them we found you." George gently soothed her, as the child looked confused while her kitten was still hissing at him.
He turned to Ryder while holding the cold kid against his chest, telling him, "I'm taking her to the doctor instead of waiting for the ambulance. This forest is too thick for any vehicle or Transformer to travel through. Which doctor did you call earlier?"
"I called Mrs. Flood," Ryder answered as George ran over to his saucer.
"Great!" George nodded and rushed over to his saucer, opening the lid.
He closed the lid after stepping inside and mumbled, under his breath, as the child was on his lap, "Better than Dr. Ludwig."
Once they were both in the saucer, George started it up and went back into the air through the stormy night, moving to the side when a lightning bolt went through the air. Another lightning bolt went through the air after the first one, cutting his curse short in the beginning as he finished, "-me backwards!"
Luckily, the young child did not hear his curse since the lightning bolt was too close to the saucer. The young child was shivering as she sat in George's lap, huddling close to his body for warmth as the kitten curled close.
George looked down at his passenger and touched her arm, noting how cold she was from staying outside in those clothes.
'I must've forgotten how cold she is,' George thought as he glanced up briefly to see where he was going.
To be considerate to his passenger, George gently turned the heat up on his AC in his saucer, just enough to warm her up from being cold.
"There you go, sweetheart," George assured her as he gently patted her shoulder with his hand. "That'll warm you up."
But he paused when she did not move or acknowledge him and became worried.
"Kid?" He switched to autopilot from being on manual and moved her hair from her face, sighing when he saw that she was asleep with the kitten in her hands, who was giving small growls towards him.
"She must've fallen asleep from all that happening to her," George mumbled after checking her. "I would've too, from all this."
He ran a hand through his wet hair, reminding himself that once he got home after all this fiasco ended, he would have a cup of warm coffee while lying on his comfortable bed. George glanced back down at the child and readjusted a little, reminding himself that she looked almost like his child.
Well, two of them, since George is a busy man trying to juggle between family and work, quite literally. But George perked up after noticing something underneath the sweater's collar that looked silver.
"What's that?" George mumbled in confusion.
He reached for the chain and lifted it from her dress, seeing that it was a pendant with a rainbow gemstone in the center. George's eyes widened a little after seeing the gemstone, and he placed it in his hand after adjusting the child to face his chest, holding the pendant.
"I have to be seeing things!" George softly exclaimed. "An actual rainbow gemstone?"
George had seen them wear 'gemstones' since the kids sometimes got them from coin-operated machines, but this was an actual gemstone. He had occasionally seen rich people wear diamonds, emeralds, and pearls before, but not a poor person.
…Unless they get themselves really lucky. Surrounding the gemstone were multiple symbols. One-half of the symbols looked like zodiac signs as George looked at them in the palm of his hand while the child was zonked out in his lap.
George fiddled with the pendant around the young child's neck, looking at the lines and etching to see if a name was etched. But no matter where he looked, George could not find a name anywhere, not even on the chain.
"Weird," George mumbled as he stopped looking around the necklace and stared at the gemstone. "Where have I seen this before?"
George eventually stopped looking at the necklace when the hospital started to appear, placing the pendant back where it was and switching from 'autopilot' to 'manual.' With one arm around the kid and another steering, George watched as a small group of people led him to land his saucer carefully.
Once he had landed the saucer on the platform, George opened the windscreen and lifted the kid with both hands to the group, and they took the kid without pausing after seeing the difference.
"Is she your kid?" one of the doctors asked after George entered, as the group quickly rushed her into the emergency room with the kitten in tow.
"Nope," George answered, shaking his head. "She's a complete stranger."
"I understand," The doctor nodded. "Since she is," he paused to think with an 'err' and added, "Entirely human, we'll ask Doctor Strange or any other doctor or nurse who knows how to mend them properly since they are immune to anyone's abilities."
George nodded after the doctor explained, although he did not fully understand what he had explained. So George just went with what he had said.
"Do you mind if I pay all the medical bills?" George politely asked as he sat on the chair next to the emergency room despite being soaking wet.
"But you are not a family member of that thing," a nurse pointed out as George perked after hearing 'thing' from her lips. "Besides, it's-"
"Human," George interrupted as he frowned, clenching his knee with a mighty grip to keep himself from launching from the chair. "She's a human. Not it or a thing."
"Fine," the nurse rolled her eyes and sarcastically finished, "Her family might be in a different country or universe. But I wouldn't be surprised if they abandoned it because they were disgusted by its appearance."
George's string of patience snapped halfway after hearing her words, leaving him feeling like he was on the verge of making her a lump of pounded meat on the ground. But the doctor luckily asked, knowing they would both start a fight, "Excuse me? Aren't you supposed to attend to one of your patients?"
"Oh, right," the nurse said, rolling her eyes. "Excuse me."
As the nurse was walking away, George stuck his tongue out at the nurse as the doctor asked, as he turned his attention to him, withdrawing his tongue, "Mr. Jetson? Are you willing to pay her medical bills even though we don't know who the family is?"
"Yes, I am certain." George nodded. "It's an act of kindness."
The doctor nodded after George gently pointed it out, saying, "And that is a good thing to do, even if you are a family man."
George softly smiled after the doctor agreed and entered the emergency room as George waited patiently outside.