Tuesday, August 9, 2005

   Chapter 2
That morning, in a city not far from Area 92, a music alarm clock went off. A sleepy eyed fourteen year old stirred in his bed. As the teenager groped for the snooze button, somebody yelled from bellow.
“LUKE! YOU TURN OFF THAT MUSIC RIGHT NOW!” the shock of hearing his mother’s screech startled him so much that he fell out of his bed waking him thoroughly.
“ALRIGHT! I’M TURNING IT OFF RIGHT NOW!” He yelled back as he turned off the alarm clock. As he put on some clothes and rubbed his eyes, he tried to remember why he had set his alarm clock for such an early time. Then it all came back in a flash, It was his first day of high school, and Luke Johnson didn’t want to be late for the bus. He thought it strange that school was still going on even though the aliens had invaded two years ago, though they had stopped attacking since summer began. Luke had been secretly hoping that they’d start attacking again when school started, but so far no luck. Luke had just turned fourteen and summer had just finished, and he had a massive head ache from partying last night with his friends.
Trying to sneak downstairs without waking up his mother again proved to be of some difficulty since his parents room was right next to the kitchen. After pouring himself some cereal and tip-toeing back to his room, Luke enjoyed his breakfast while watching some TV. While watching TV he remembered something that almost made him choke on his spoon…Bijou! He had almost forgotten about her. At the thought of his crush made him let out a deep sigh. He remembered how cute she looked. She had been at the party last night, and he had worked up the courage to walk over and talk with her.
There was something different about her that night, she didn’t seem to want to be there, like she was anxious to leave...but why? When she asked if he could get her some punch, he happily obliged, but when he came back, she was gone. As if things weren’t weird enough between them.
As if suddenly pulled back to earth, he checked the time. 7:13am. He had seven minutes to get to the bus stop. After sneaking down-stairs and putting his cereal bowl in the dishwasher, he packed his lunch, grabbed his back pack, and headed out the door.
The day soon went from bad to worse. Almost everything went wrong. Missing the bus, being late to his classes, feeling totally lost in the hallways, pushed and shoved by everybody he saw, and forgetting to do his summer homework. He even fell on his face at lunch looking like an idiot in front of Bijou, who just blushed and walked away. After school finally finished, he missed the returning bus and had to walk home.
“This is the worst day of my life…” he thought as he kicked a can down the street


Mean while, not far from Luke, Canti was resting in a dark alley way. It was dark and dank, a perfect place to be undisturbed. Hiding behind a dumpster, he waited. He had worked his new muscles to the limit and they were over heated. While he was letting his systems cool down, he wondered if he needed to sleep. “I suppose I might have to re-charge…” he thought, “I wonder how I do that.” There was a sudden clang as a can came into view in the opening of the alley. Canti froze. A human silhouette appeared at the entrance and stopped. Canti didn’t move, hoping that the human would go away.


Luke stared into the alleyway, he could’ve sworn he saw something move in there. He slowly walked down the alley staring at the spot that moved. As he came closer, he saw a metal foot coming from the other side of the dumpster. No sooner had he seen it then it moved out of view.
“W-W-Who’s t-there?” he stuttered. He frantically looked around for any type of weapon he could use if things turned ugly. Seizing a lead pipe from the top of the dumpster and holding it out in front of him, Luke slowly rotated around to the other side of the dumpster. With a sudden jump around the corner, he let out a sigh of relief.
“I must be seeing things…” he said as he examined the metal robot, “it’s just one of those helper robots. Huh? Why is it here? This thing looks brand new…who’d throw this away?” He positioned the robot so he could access it’s mother board in the back. Even though Luke was failing most of his classes, he was a wiz when it came to robotics. All his life he had built robots and remote cars. He was so into creating robots, that his entire room was covered in metal parts and wires, it was a wonder that he could move around.


Canti played possum as the human kept coming closer and closer, until it propped him up and opened something in his back. “What is this thing doing?” As the human kept messing with Canti’s wires, Canti felt something change in his body. “What was that?” he thought. Suddenly his entire body moved on it’s own. His left arm jerked to life so suddenly, that Canti let out a gasp. The human jumped back in fear.
“Holy crap!” the human yelled, backing up against the wall.
Before Canti could stop himself, his whole body jerked to life, slowly standing up. As if perplexed by this sudden movement, the human took a step closer, reaching out a hand to touch Canti. Before he could stop himself, Canti grabbed the humans hand.
“Hey! Let go!” Yelled the human
“I-I can’t!” said Canti.


As the robot’s grip tightened on his arm, Luke began to frantically try to pry it off. “I said let go!” he yelled as the robot’s second arm grabbed his left hand.
“Beginning Fusion” said the robot
“Beginning what?” Luke said with a confused look on his face. The robot started to vibrate, it started from a slow shaking and increased rapidly. “T-T-h-a-t h-h-h-u-r-r-t-s-s-s” Luke said while his body shook wildly. The robot was shaking so fast, it began to glow. It was an eerie green glow, as if the robot was giving of a green aura. At this point Luke stopped trying to get the robot let go, he was too perplexed by what happened next. As the robot glowed brighter and brighter, it’s armor started to come off. Nuts, bolts, sheets of metal, it all started to pull apart. As the parts came off, they slowly started to spin in a circle around what was left of the body. When the arm disintegrated, Luke pulled back to get a better look at what was going on.
When the final pieces broke apart and joined the spinning circle, the circle started to spin faster. When it all became a whizzing blur, the pieces stopped, still suspended in the air, and lunged at Luke. Luke could only scream in terror as the pieces bombarded him, pushing him against the wall, covering him in a massive ball of metal. As all the pieces circled him, they began to put themselves together around him, forming arms, legs, a torso, and a head.
As the pieces formed around his body, Luke felt the sharp edges of what felt like needles penetrating his limbs. What felt like millions of needles stabbed and connected with his muscles, pulling the pieces tight against his body. Bit by bit, the pieces drew closer, sealing Luke inside his newly acquired shell, until Luke was encased in complete nothingness.

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