Chapter 1
It was a warm night, in the city of Beachcliff, California, June 3 1991. The sky was clear and the night sky stars shone brightly from above. The waves of Beachcliff rolled light against the beech not far from the round cliff that rose more then 200ft high and 300ft wide in size. The cliffs were known as "Death Cliffs" for their rough edges and dangerous sides where one could fall to their death. With caves as dark as hell itself, the Death Cliffs were well known for uncertainty. Out of the sky, a flaming star fell to the water…

It wasn’t until morning that things began to become active. A girl came to the surface of the water, gasping for air and trying to get to the shore. The girl was a brunette with deep blue-green eyes. She was about 11, standing at five-foot-six. At the moment, she was drenched, so she did not look happy. The girl yanked the backpack off and fell to her knees, still panting and passed out on the sand.
~
Over 15 miles away, five huge robots rose out of the waves and began to take refuge under a cliff sticking out over the ocean. The largest began to speak. “Is everyone OK?
“You could say that.” said the shortest.
“Where are we?” asked a silvery one
“Lemme check.” said one about the size of the biggest one.
These robots were at least 80 to 100 feet tall and were much more high tech then anything. On their chest was a symbol that looked a lot like a star.
The biggest was Braxatron, a one hundred and one feet tall black-blue color and the leader of the group. Brax was seventeen tons with a masculine body. And he had wings. His wingspan was about one hundred and fifty feet and each wing looked like an air-plane wing bent in about 2 places. He also had two bat-ears.
The second biggest was Metalhood, a ninety three foot tall buff black robot with weapons strapped to his back and legs. He was also built like Braxatron, but instead of bat-ears, his head had what looked like WWII helmet on. He also sounded like a twenty year-old.
The third robot was Wrench, a ninety foot medium sized robot that was red and white. On his kneecaps and elbows was an upside down cone-shaped thick but flat piece of armor. He also had the same thing over his ears.
The fourth was Sunstreak, an eighty-five foot yellow witty and energetic robot with an attitude. On his head was a build-on chunk of spiky metal, which made him look like Sonic the Hedgehog.
The fifth was Stormtire, an eighty-seven foot silver robot. He had a large upper body with long but large limbs. Starting at the bridge of his nose, he also had a flat piece of metal that made him look like he a rhino horn. He also had what looked like shark fins on his shoulders.
Stormtire who kept looking around, then finally asked, “Where’s Cybre?” The other robots head spun towards him, and then they began to look around.
“He’s right.” said Wrench “Where is she?”
“I got her! She is at least 15 miles south, in a group of cliffs.”
~
The girl was sitting on the beach when the five robots suddenly came around the corner of the cliff. The girl spoke, “Hello boys, where were you?”
“Hey Cybre,” said Metalhood. “It looks like we had to avoid something, and didn’t reform fast enough.”
“Can you still Change?” asked Wrench.
“No, when I hit the water, I blacked out.” Cybre said.
“Did you, you know, when you hit the water?” asked Stormtire.
“Thankfully no I didn't. But it felt like I hit a truck. No offense, Metalhood.”
“None taken.” He laughed. “There is a town about a mile away.”
“OK then, I’ll head over to it because I need food or I’ll never make it to tomorrow. I’ll try to be back by sunset.” She slung the backpack on, pulled her cap over her head, and began to huff herself up the cliff. Then, she pulled herself over and was gone.
~

Chapter 2
When Cybre had finished buying stuff she decided to check out the town. As Cybre began to walk about a block, she saw a blue empty house with a box in the yard that had “4 Free” on it. She walked over and looked in. There was broken bulbs, a ripped up photo album, and some books. But what drew her attentions was a skateboard. She pulled it out and seeing it had no bad wheels, began to ride. Cybre traveled the streets one by one. There were ten streets, each having 100 houses on them, 50 on each side. When she reached 5th street, she stopped in front of 436. It was a red two story house with a garage. The house sat in the middle of 1 ½ acres.

There was a moving van titled “U-haul” on it. Two men where unloading a couch while another was trying to unload a TV. Cybre realized it was excessively heavy for him and rushed over to help him. “Here, lemme help you with that.” She grunted. A woman was standing over near boxes, looking in them then separating them from each other, and talking to her young boy at the same time. “Mom,” whined the young boy, “Why did we move here?” The boy had blond hair, green eyes, a green-and-black striped shirt, black pants, and was standing next to a retriever type of dog. “I’ve told you a hundred times. Your dad got a better job and had to move here. Now go find your stuff, Calvin, and put it over there.”
OK.” he scowled, “Come on, Jake, help me.” Cybre and the man set down the TV.

“Thanks. You’re pretty strong.”
“You're welcome and thank you.”
“What’s your name?”
“Cybre, what’s yours?”
“Lee, Luke Lee. That’s my wife, Lucy, and my son, Calvin.” He pointed to them. Lucy replied in a “Hi” and went back to work. Calvin mumbled.
“Well, nice to meet you. I gotta go.”
“Good bye!”
“See ya!”

Cybre started of again, but slowed down as she past the house right next to the Lee’s, house 438.There was a boy sitting in the yard. The boy had black hair and light blue eyes. His face was blank at the moment, and he had a small acne attack. Cybre guessed he was 11. He was sitting in the yard of a blue two story house with a garage. It was on the same size property of the Lee’s, but the house was a bit smaller.

“Hi!” she called. The boy jumped a bit, and then stood up. He was about five foot seven.
“Oh! Hi!"
“Just moved here too?”
“Nah, I moved in two weeks ago. I haven't seen a soul my age since then.” He looked sad, and then smiled. “Actually, I rephrase that. I haven’t seen a boy my age since I’ve moved here.”
“Ha-ha. See you later then.”
“Wait. What’s your name?”
“Cybre, what’s yours?”
“Mark.” he said.
Well, then Mark, I’ll hopefully see you later.”
“See ya, Cybre” he called. Cybre waved and began full speed back towards the cliffs.

~

When Cybre got back, Braxatron, Stormtire, and Metalhood were at the top of the cliffs, looking around. Stormtire was standing a distance from the other two. She guessed he was looking for a way up and down, or had already found one. She walked over to him.

“Hey. Find something?”
“I found a way to get up and down.”
“For all of us, or just you guys?"
“All except you, Shorty.” He said a smirk on his face. She huffed.
“I’d whap that smirk off your face if I could change. Since I can’t, though, I’ll find a way later.” His smirk grew to a smile.
They stood there for a moment. Then Cybre asked, “Do you miss her?”
“A little, she would have come, but she decided to stay. She makes bigger decisions than I could ever make.”
“She gave up a lot.”
“She sure did.”
“OK then, see you down there.”

Cybre got to the bottom of the cliffs and walked over to the cave. Before she got in, she pulled her backpack off and began to pull things out. When she had finished with the bigger part of the backpack, opened the front part and began to pull things out. She stopped, and her eyes widened as she launched herself backward, letting out a curse. She stomped back to the bag, she yelled “Darn you, Lionel! You scared me half to death! I thought I told you specifically NOT to come.”

The bag was shaking and a small voice was howling in laughter until Cybre reached in. It then began a rave of protest as she pulled out a one and three-quarters foot tall robot that was silver and had yellow cat eyes. This was obviously Lionel. Cybre dropped him on his face in the sand. He stood up, spit, brushed himself off, and then looked up at her, yelling, “You deserved that after almost drowning me!
“That’s why I didn’t want you to come! You’re like me, unable to breath underwater. I’m glad you made it at least.”
“Yeah, well, you could a told me why you didn’t want me coming. At least you didn’t almost die.”
“I’ve gone through worst than dying and I’ve died before, ya know.”
“But you have the gift from Formatron of 13 lives! I’ve got one.”
“Well I’m sorry, OK. I should have told you.”
“It’s OK. I forgive you.” He walked off.

Cybre grabbed some food and was putting it in the cave when she had a flashback. A dark room with a light over a bed, just like the ones at a dentist, except this one had cuffs. There was a table that had a syringe full of a blue liquid and a very long needle, a masked face, pain, then a scream. Cybre shudder hard and grabbed her left shoulder. I’m glad it’s over. On Cybre’s left biceps, a little on the shoulder, was a five-letter brand on her arms .Under that on the right arm were tattoos that looked like the brand, but smaller and different symbols.

Under all those was cut- like scars, visible and almost invisible, and circular scars that only a needle could make if the hole was reopened. They ranged in different sizes. Some where smaller then a period and others were the exact size of the lowercase letter o. The other scars ranged in sizes, the smallest shorter than a centimeter. The biggest were on her shoulder where it looked like a bullet went though and on her ribcage in the front that look like a sword was stuck there. Right where the spine and skull connected was a rectangular dark piece of skin that had black veins running away from it in every direction, disappearing about an inch away. On her chest, a little above her right breast, as a tattoo just like the robots had and a bold R. Cybre had finished putting the food away, she ate something, and, seeing the time was late, went to sleep.














~
Cybre awoke in hideous pain. The Anti-age shot. It’s refusing to work anymore. She gripped her stomach hard. Oh God, this hurts. For a moment, while she stumbled outside, she couldn’t breathe, and then her gut brought up. As she coughed, she felt a shock like she touched someone after dragging her feet on a furry carpet, only stronger. Finally, she thought.
“Are you OK?” she turned around, wiping her mouth. Stormtire was standing there, a disgusted look.
“Yeah, the shot has stopped working.”

“Hey! That’s cool.” said Sunstreak, walking over. “Now will you grow up both ways?”
Cybre glared hard, Stormtire sighed.
“I can Change now, so I’d watch my mouth, Smarty Pants.”
“Are you challenging me?”
“Yeah, I am.” Cybre called back, a snarl on her face.
“Cybre…” began Stormtire; too late. Cybre had already begun to glow. A moment later, after the glow was gone, Cybre no longer stood there, but another robot stood there about as big as Metalhood.
The robot was eight-seven feet tall with a white-sky blue color. It also had large metallic sky-blue wings that resembled angel or bird wings. The wingspan easily reached one hundred and ninety feet. It had long legs and arm, and its shoulders pointed up a bit. Its head was shaped like an oval with two short rabbit-like ears. The expression on its face was not happy. And on its chest were a star and a bold R.
~

Chapter 3
“Bring it on, Cybre.” called Sunstreak to the new robot. Suddenly, Cybre, now the giant robot, launch herself right into his chest. They struggled for a moment, the broke away. “You guys, this is ridiculous!” yelled Stormtire. His yells were useless. Cybre circled, and then tackled Sunstreak again. When he tried to trip her, she slapped him upside the head with her wing, knocking him backwards. Cybre was on top of him already. She punched him in the face, not hard so she would hurt him, but hard enough to teach him something. Sunstreak took his legs and wrapped them around her, flipping them over so he was on top. WHACK! She received a hard punch and decided she wouldn’t go easy on him when she got up.

When Sunstreak went to punch her again, Cybre head-butted him before he could get her. She yanked herself from under him and launched herself off, causing them to both roll back wards. She sprung up and pulled her gun. He had pulled his too, causing them to both stop. “Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop right there!” yelled Braxatron, stepping between them. Cybre lowered her gun, but Sunstreak was a bit hesitant until Braxatron gave him a glare and he lowered it. Cybre now realize everyone was watching. Stormtire was shaking his head , Metalhood had a smirk on his face even thought he was shaking his head too, Wench was rolling his eyes at her, and Lionel looked bummed, probably because the fight was over. Stupid Computer, she thought.

Braxatron had a look of steel on his face as he glared at them both. “What the heck is going on here?”
“Just an argument that went too far, Braxatron.” she said.
“Way too far, more like it. I thought I told you two to knock it off. The last fight you two got in resulted into a sword-fight, and you,” he pointed at her, “almost cut his throat.”
“I’m sorry, OK? I just hate it when he gets...evil.” Braxatron shook his head. He turned to Sunstreak.
“Look, Trouble, next time you do something like this, think about it. If a Tradicon was close by, we’d be given away already. And if that happens, I’ll have that piece of metal on your head remove my way.”
“Sorry.”
~
Cybre sat down to eat with an ice bag on her face. As she finish and was putting things away, she watched the Trudacons climb the wall. When Sunstreak was half way to the top, she ran over to the wall and began to book it up. As soon as she reached the top, she was just in time to see a 1969 Stingray Corvette, a “LAFD” Firetruck, a 1978 Mustang King Cobra, and a 1989 Ford f250 drive away while at the same time; an Grumman F-14 Tomcat sped off the top of the cliff. These were the Trudacons. The plane was Braxatron. The Ford was Metalhood. The fire truck was Wrench. The Mustang was Sunstreak, a golden car with white streaks that shone on him when the sun hit. Metalhood had always joked that they should send him out first so that he could blind the enemy. Sunstreak didn’t find it funny. And the Corvette, a silver car with tires a race car driver would covet, was Stormtire. Cybre watched them go then skateboarded to town.
~
As Cybre began to drive though Main Street, she saw a bunch of kids standing in front of the grocery store. There was a girl and five boys. As she got closer, she overheard them.
“I’m bored. Should we go to the skate park?”
“Maybe, but it’s boring there.”
“But it’s all we have close.”
“You call ¼ mile close?”
“It's closer than the movie theater and the arcade.”
“OK then... hey, check out this kid.” Cybre immediately realized they were talking about her now.

“Who are you?” asked the girl.
“I'm a new kid.” Cybre replied.
“We can see that if you’re not riding with a group.” said the tallest boy as the group made a half circle around her and her back was against the wall. Cybre realized she might have to fight her way out.
“Yeah, so, I’m different. What's wrong with that?”
“There is another group around here that doesn’t care too much for new kids.” said one of the shorter boys in the group.
Why don’t you join us?” asked the tall boy. Everyone looked at the tall boy, bewilder.
“What are you doing?” asked one of the boys who was an African-American.
“I'm inviting her into our group. If Chris finds her, well, you know what he did to that last boy.”
“You’re right.”
“Excuse me, but” said Cybre, “what are you talking about?”
“We're just talking about another gang. So you in?” said the tall boy.
“Sure. But, could you let me outta this circle?” they stepped back.


“My name’s Tom.” said the tall boy. Tom had black hair, black eyes, and was five-foot-eight.
“Liz,” said the girl. Liz was blonde, blue eyed, five-foot-seven girl who looked like she had a fighting spirit.
“Bill Larry, but everyone calls me Harry.” Harry was blonde, but had pink eyes and was Cybre’s height.
“I’m Rick or Double R as most kids call me.” Double R was the African-American, had curly black hair, green eyes, and as tall as Tom.
“I’m Jim Ethan, but you can call me Jimmy.”
“Oh please,” said Liz as she rolled her eyes. Cybre didn't know what lineage Jimmy had, so she classified him as a “Redneck’s Kid”. He had mud colored hair, mud colored eyes, and was five-foot-eight.
“I’m Cybre.” She said.
“Welcome to the group, Cybre.”
~

A giant robot walked down a long hall of steel and strange vines. The robot was a silver-white color, just about ninety feet tall, and had a symbol on its chest that looked like a meteor entering the atmosphere. The robot was well built with what looked like the most strength was in his arms, and had three laid-back spikes on his head that started at his forehead and ended near the back-point, looking like brushed-back hair. He also had wings. They resembled dragon wings, with a wingspan of some a hundred and sixty to eighty feet. The robot reached the end of the hall; opening two big doors so that it could fit in. As it peered into the darkness, two red glowing eyes appeared out of nowhere.

“Well?” asked a deep but a bit scratchy voice that would send chills down anybody’s spine.
“Um,” it started, “We lost her.” A series of profanities erupted from the voice in the dark.
“We got close, but when we were about to find out where she landed, a virus attacked us, driving our systems to go haywire. We’re rebooting now.”
“Find her! And when you get the simplest clue, tell me.” An eruption of coughs came from the dark.
“Yes Cronaton.” The robot turned to leave, and then stopped when the voice said “Skystreak.”
What now? He thought
“Don’t fail me. You failed to kill her last time which resulted in this. Find her and don’t fail me this time. Then maybe I will redeem you.” The eyes shrank back and disappeared. Skystreak shut the door and began to walk. You don’t own me, Cronaton. As he walked down the hall with many doors and more halls, he saw a male orange-red robot, about eight feet tall. He was skinny, and had the face of a teenager. Where hair would be, there was streaked piece of metal that came forward and almost hung out over his eyes, looking like brushed forward hair. Dirtrust. They looked at each other for a moment before Dirtrust huffed, broke the stare, and walked away. Skystreak sighed.
~
Cybre was sitting on the beach, arms wrapped around her legs, head resting on her knees, watching the sun set. I wonder what’s happening up there. She thought as she looked at the stars appearing. A war, a planet exploding, and so on. Whatever happens up there isn’t usually good. Cybre then pulled a medallion, about the size of plum, from her back pocket. She pressed the middle and it slowly opened. On the inside was this inscription. “I will love you forever. Even if we are a lifetime apart, I am yours, and you are mine. We need each other.” She sighed so deeply it was like she breathed her last. I wish it could be like that. She put the medallion back in her pocket and went to the cave to sleep.
~
While Cybre slept, nightmares raged in her head. In her dream, she was in an ever-so-familiar room, her wrist chained together and pulled so her hands were just above her head. She was also bloody and weak. Some Tora’ru men laughed as they let her drop to the floor. The men left, then a few moments later, the door opened again, but it wasn’t the men. It was a girl, about Cybre's height, blonde hair, blue eyes, and had some water in a wood cup.

“Oh Cybre…” started the girl. She rushed over to let Cybre drink.
“The pain, oh why won’t they let us go? Let me go? I’m not a threat anymore. When I try to escape, I have to take others with me. I wish…” Cybre had no more words.
“I’m trying, Cybre, but you are The Free Spirit Leader, and Jakop, Ginger, Kitty, and Kody helped you. I beg everyday that they would let us go, and even yesterday I sent the higher leaders at the Arena a message. But, the record you have…” the girl quieted, Cybre sighed.

“Please keep trying, Mille. I’m glad you choose to not follow us and aren’t going through this too.”
“When I see the Free Spirits, I wish I was them. They stopped hurting some of the others long ago, but they kept you and ruined you Cybre. All they care about is money.” Mille stopped and listened, and then her eyes widened.
“I have to go, Cybre. If I am found here with you, well, the bosses know, but not those brutes...” Mille ran to the door. Before she left, she cast a pitiful glance that said “I wish I could end this now.” The room was dark, and then light flooded it as the men entered. Cybre crawled to the end of the chain, eyes widening. The men had whips, with metal ends. The dark returned and so did the pain.

Cybre woke up in a sweat, and then realized she was in the cave. The wind whispered softly and the waves backed the wind with a refreshing crash on the shore. Shhh, they murmured like a mother to her whimpering child. Shhh, Hush, Shhh, It’s OK. As she fell back to sleep, she whispered back, but not just to the wind and sea, but also to a far away friend. “Thank You, Millie. After all those weeks of fighting, you won. We were free after all. You are a true free spirit.”
~
Cybre was skateboarding down Main Street when she saw Mark again. He was walking by himself down towards the grocery store. “Hey!” she called. He looked around, saw her, stopped, then smiled and began to walk towards her.
“Hey! Haven’t seen you for a while Cy, Ce, uh…” He looked upset that he was confused. Cybre giggled.
“It's Cybre. Don’t feel bad, everyone gets it wrong. What ya up to?”
“I got to get some butter, milk, and flour for my mom. Man, you’re smart to bring your board!”
“You board?”
“Yeah, my friends and I were the pros.
“Awesome. So, do ya want help with carrying the food?’
“If you’ve got the time to help.”
“I can be late.”
~
Mark wasn’t really friendly when it came to making new friends, but something about this girl, Cybre, made him feel happy again. He felt the same happiness like when he was with his biological father. He hated that feeling that swept over him when he got the news about his father's death. As they walked towards his house, they talked.
“You wanna hang out again?” Mark asked.
“Sure. Hey, what were your friends like?”
“Oh, they were a bunch of nutcases. I was too, but they were worse. We would get into fights and then go boarding. I lived in San Francisco. Where did you live and what were your friends like?”
“I lived in San Francisco too; in the south end of the city. My friends are as bad as yours, and one doesn’t know when to shut his mouth.”

A while later, Cybre and Mark entered his driveway. “Here, give me my groceries. I’ll give them to my mom.” When he came back out, Mark saw Cybre looking at the family next door who had moved in a while ago. The boy was in the yard with the dog when to father came out, picked up the boy and began to tickle him. He laughed while the dad carried him over to the door. The mom was standing there, and, when the boy was set down, she learned over, caught his collar, and kissed the boy. The boy ran in then the two parents looked into each others eyes and kissed, then walked inside. Cybre looked very sad. “Is something wrong?” he asked. Her head whipped up and she turned to look at him. “Oh. Sorry, no. I was just remembering a family I knew.”
~
When Cybre saw the Lee’s, memories flooded her. They’re so happy together. I just wish it was the same again. She thought, sighing. She looked at Calvin. He acts a lot like him. “Is something wrong?” Mark’s question snapped her out of her thoughts. She spoke back, but was barely with him.
“Do you wanna have Ice Cream at the Ice Cream Shop Friday?” asked Mark
“Where is it?” responded Cybre.
“It's on Main Street. But if you come to my house, we can walk there together.”
“Mark, are you asking me out?” Cybre said, and Mark blushed. Cybre laughed.
“2 o’clock. That's when I can escape from my Alcatraz.”
“OK then, see ya!” He said, smiling as he went into the house.

Chapter 4
Sir, we found something.” A man said that was five-foot-nine feet tall, brown hair on only the side and back of his head, geeky glasses, and brown eyes. Also, he was single. Someone who didn’t even know him could tell he was single by the way he dressed: Un-ironed shirt, stained pants, muddy shoes… the signs of a typical single-man, or a slob. Across the room, another man stood up from behind his oak wood desk. The man was six foot-three, jay blue eyes, black-brown hair, and looked like Tommy Lee Jones, only a bit skinnier and with a long nasty scar down his left cheek and over his left eye. As the two men walked out of the office and walked down an aisle of cubicles, the short man inmorphed the taller one.

“3 days ago, about a mile away from the residents of Beach Cliff, this is about an hour and 42 minutes north-west from here, something big happened. Something crashed down into the ocean.” As the short man spoke, he typed on a keyboard. The keyboard was attached to a very large screen. An image came up. It was of the coast along Lompoc, Beachcliff, and Sacramento, California. In the ocean was a blinking red dot on top of a circle of waves that looked like the type of waves that a rock would make when thrown into the water; except the waves were much, much bigger.

“About 15 minutes later… Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Five more of these things land about 15 miles north of the first.” The image zoomed out and there were 5 yellow blinking dots.
“Do you know what these are?” asked the taller man.
“No, but they might be the same things that...” the short man stopped. There was silence for a moment, and then the short man spoke.
“So… What do you want to do, Mr. Korranah?”
“Are you working on anything besides this?” asked Mr. Korranah
“No.”
“Then focus everything on this and find out what they are and where they are. Can you handle that, Monkey?”
“Uh...Yes sir.”
“Give me a report the moment you find something.”
“Yes sir.” As Korranah walked away, he reached up and touched the ugly scar. I have you now! You will pay for the blood you spilled. Even if these weren’t you, I will destroy your kind so no one else can get hurt like we did.
~
“That was tasty,” said Cybre as they walked out of the Ice cream shop. “I haven’t had ice cream in a long time.”
“My step dad took me here last Friday.”
“Are your parents, well…?”
“Divorced? No, my real dad… he died.” Mark looked down. Cybre pitied him.
“I’ve lost someone too.”
“So you wanna hang out again?”
“Sure.” Just then, a bright yellow car pulled up.
Sunstreak, what are you doing here? Cybre thought.
I'm picking you up, you Buffoon, Sunstreak told her. Cybre gave a glare to the car that would make a wall crumble. “Who’s that?” asked Mark.
“It's my dad. He came to pick me up.” YOU’RE DAD?!?! Seriously, Cybre...
Shut up!!!!! She yelled into his head.
“I guess I’ll see you later then.”
“OK then, see ya!” Cybre climbed into the car.

“You’re in love.” Sunstreak teased and he began to pull away. Cybre punch the dash. “Ow! Watch the plastic!” Sunstreak whined.
“You are such a jerk!”
“What?!?! Braxatron got worried and sent me to pick you up.”
“Not that! The teasing is what drives me crazy. You can be such an airhead sometimes. Anyway, what do you know of love?”
“Not much, but enough to know that you’re...” Cybre pulled her arm back. “NO! OK, OK. I’ll skip it.”
“Good,” said Cybre as she slumped back into the seat.
“For now.”
~
Sunstreak enjoyed teasing Cybre and saw this as an opportunity. After arguing and watching her stalk off, he felt better. He loved to tease and torment her about things, and, in return, he was called a series of names, such as “as bad as a little brother”, or much worst. When he was done with her, he walked over to Braxatron.
~
When Braxatron saw him, shook his head, “You’re going to get into another fight, and this time, I’ll let her bet the Amndoy out of you and maybe even let her shoot you.”
“C’mon! We’re like siblings.”
“But you’re not sibling, Sunstreak. You have to understand that. I know you miss Firetracks, but she’s not him.”
“She acts like a boy.”
“That because where she came from, she had to. Otherwise, she would die.”
“OK, OK, I get the lecture. But something else is on your mind.”
“Yes, the Tradicons.”
“Dad, we covered our tracks, and I even installed a virus behind it. It would take a year to get even a 20 mile radius.”
“I know, but...”
“You can’t protect us all.” Sunstreak looked him in the eyes. Braxatron wrapped his arm around him and squeezed. “I understand, son, I just wish I could.”
~
It was the next morning, and Cybre had just caught up with the group of kids. “I’m here.”
“Is everyone here?” Liz asked.
“Everyone but Harry,” replied Tom.
“Is he coming?” asked Cybre.
“He lives a block away from the skate park; he’ll meet up with us on his street.”
“Let’s roll.”
As they boarded down streets and alleys, Cybre had a brief flash back.
~
“Is everyone here?” asked Cybre as she stood on a concrete ledge. She stood in front of about thirty other kids. Fourteen, not include her, were girls. The rest were boys. The kids range from 10-15 years. Cybre was 11, but didn’t have as many scars. Everyone had tattered jeans. The girls wore sport bras, all of different colors. The boys had bandanas, also all in different colors. On the guys right biceps and a little on their shoulders was brands with many shapes. The same were on the girls, including Cybre, but it was on their left shoulder. The brands looked similar to Cybre's, but with different shapes. None of them had star tattoos on their chest. One of the boys stood up next to her and spoke.

“They better have, because this is our last chance for escaping for the next three months. But if we don’t make it out, those who couldn’t make it tonight will have a chance when we’re to be shipped out to the Arena.”
“I hope everyone is here and we don’t get caught this time. You know what happened last time…” Cybre trailed off, sending a shiver clawing everyone’s spine.
“I know,” he said, giving the small crowd a pitiful glance. “Let’s head out.”

The kids began to creep forward. After racing between shadows for a while, the boy who had stood next to Cybre signaled them to stop. He did some hand motions, and everyone knew what that meant. Escape point in 100 yards. Rendezvous point 200 yards from the wall. Also, there are 4 guards. Cybre signaled back. Let’s take ‘em out. She did some signs to two boys and a girl behind her. They snuck forward into the closest shadow, with her leading.

As the guard got close to the shadow, four arms reached out and grabbed him. There was a struggle, a yelp, and then a soft thud as the guard slid to the ground. The other guards heard the yelp and moved towards the shadow. As the guards moved forward, their flashlight silhouetted on one of the boys holding a dripping knife made from scrap metal and cloth. As they went to attack, Cybre and the other two kids launched themselves forward. After a brief struggle, Cybre was holding the last guard alive. Her arms twisted, and there was a sharp crack. The guard slide to the ground, lifeless.

Slowly, one by one, the kids walked over to the wall. On the wall, there was a tiny latter all the way to the top. Beyond that wall in 600 feet was freedom. When they still had a quarter ways left to climb on the wall, a girl slipped. She let out a yell while she fell, but the boy under her grabbed her as she fell, yanking her back towards the latter. Flood lights began to whir. “Drat! Move it!” yelled Cybre. As she began to climb, she called to the boy who was the last left.

“Jakop, let's go!”
“No.”
“What?”
“I’m not coming.”
“No, you’re coming! You help me plan this.”
“I goanna try to free more kids at the shipping. Now go!”
“But what about…”
“GO!” Jakop shoved her higher.

Cybre began to climb fast. When she was about half way up the wall, a floodlight showered on her. “There, stop!” She climbed even faster.
Suddenly, a gun shot went off. A bullet entered the back of her left shoulder, going through a bone, and exploding out the front, creating a large two-inch hole in her shoulder. She screamed, falling. “NO!!” she heard Jakop yell. She was caught by someone at the bottom, only to receive a sharp hit in the face with the butt of a gun to knock her out cold.
~
“We’re here.” Cybre snapped out of her thought, and realized that her shoulder throbbed as her hand grasped it tightly. She looked around. It was a bowl-like skate park with many jumps. They all began to board, except Cybre. Her brain was calculating the ramps and jumps so that she could pull off moves without falling, like last time.

“C’mon. Cybre! Let’s board.” Said Liz, “Or are you chicken?”
“Nah, I just thinking how armature you guys are.” Cybre couldn’t believe she said that. You idiot! That what got you in trouble before! Her mind told her.
“Excuse me?” asked Jack
“Yeah, compared to this guy back where I came from, you’re a bunch off kids.” You’re digging your grave deeper, Cybre…
“Did he show you stuff?”
"Heck yah! I was top-of-the-class!”
How ‘bout you just climb in your grave now while you BURY YOURSELF!!!! Her consciences screamed along with her mind. “OK then, show us some of your ‘top of the class’ moves.” Liz taunted. Cybre went to the edge of the ramp, took a deep breath, and launched.

Chapter 5
“You did what?” Braxatron said, half-angry, half-shocked. Cybre was standing in front of him, looking down at her shoes. He had suspected something was up, and then asked her what she had done. She told him she had gone skateboarding…the way she learned.
“I can’t believe you! I asked you not to do things like that! Do you want Cronaton here before we can defend ourselves?”
“OK, OK.” Cybre said, beginning to get upset. “I opened my mouth too wide, and then I got too deep to get out of it. I didn’t mean too.” Braxatron sighed. Cybre looked back down.
“I’m sorry. I’m just worried. He’s going to want revenge and the way you acted while you did that to him…I don’t want it to happen again.”
“Hopefully,” she said, shivering a bit, “it won’t.”
~
Cybre boarded as fast as she could towards Mark’s house. When she did, she looked down at the watch she had. “10:35 A.M.” It had been a while since she had been to his house. She walked up to the front door and knocked. A slim woman with black hair and green eyes answered. She had on an apron and was holding a soapy mixing bowl. The house smelt of oatmeal cookies.
“Hello. How may I help you?”
“My name’s Cybre. I’m one of Mark’s friends.” Cybre said, a bit nervous.
“Oh, well hello! My name is Tammy. Mark was telling me about you. Nice name you have. Is it African?”
“I’m not really sure.”
“I’ll get Mark. Here, have a cookie.” She handed her a large cookie.
“Thanks.”
Tammy walked over to the bottom of the stairs and called, “Mark, your friend is here.” Cybre then heard a chair fall over backwards, someone hopping on one foot, then come running down the stairs. It was Mark. 8th step from the bottom, he missed the stairs. He premorphed a front flip and landed flat on his bum, letting out an Offf! He looked stunned. Cybre was shocked but smiled. What an entrance.
~
Mark was typing on his computer when he heard his mom call. He jumped up so fast that his chair fell backwards. As he put it back up, he tried to put his socks on and skip towards the stairs. As he got to the top of the stairs he saw his friend. Is that Cybre? As he looked, he missed a step and permorphed a prefect front flip. I hate that step.
“Hello Mark. You OK?” Cybre asked, and he could tell she was trying to stifle a laugh.
“Yeah, I'm fine.” Mark replied, very embarrassed. Tammy came in. “I heard a bang, what happened?”
“I tried to be an acrobat.” He said. Cybre giggled.
“You missed the 8th step, huh? Your father did the same. I told you boys to watch it. Here’s a cookie.” Tammy handed him a cookie.
“Thanks Mom.”
As they left Mark asked where they were going. “I want you,” Cybre said, “to meet some of my friends.” This worried Mark. He wasn’t sure why this did, but he felt very protective of her. As she hopped on her board, she called “C’mon!” and they were off.

They raced down the street then turned on Inkleton. About three blocks later, they turn into an alley. Out of nowhere, two boys stepped out. “Stop.” they stopped.
“Cool it. It’s me.” Cybre said, and Mark began to step forward in case of something.
“Who is he?” asked the bigger of the two.
“My name is Mark, I’m a friend.” Mark said, deciding to speak.
“Send him away, Cybre.” The smaller said.
“No, he can board good. Anyway, you don’t want ‘Chris’ to find him.” There was a pause, then the taller spoke.
“Fine, but if he is a spy, I’ll beat the…” he stopped when the smaller grabbed him.
“Watch the language, man,” said the smaller. The taller snorted. Then, they started walking down the alley.

When they got to the end of the alley, Mark was surprised that such a little city would have a big skate park. The taller boy spoke. “OK everyone. Gather round.” About 4 other kids gathered. A blonde girl spoke.
“Who’s this? Is this boy who taught you all your stuff, Cybre?” The girl asked, smirking. Cybre glared a glare that would make a brick wall crumble. Yikes.
“No, Liz. This is Mark.”
“Can he board, Cy?” asked the shorter boy. Cybre looked at him.
“Yes he can, Jimmy. And don’t call me that.” Mark could tell there was tension between them. Jimmy put his hands up. “OK, OK.”
~
Cybre was glad that, after a while, Mark hit it off with the gang .As she watched him board, she had to smile. He was in-shape, tall, friendly… He would have been a great Formation.
“Hey Cybre,” Double R called. “Show us some of your awesome tricks!” The rest of the gang agreed.
“I’d rather not.” The gang “aw man”ed her.
“C’mon. Why not?” asked Liz.
“It's because she wants to show someone more important her tricks,” said a voice. Cybre froze for a second. Please not a Tradicon. She spun to see a group of older teen boys.
“Chris!” said some of the kids.

Chris was a big kid. Cybre guessed he was going into 7th grade. He was five-foot-eleven, had blonde haired, green eyes, was a bit heavy, and looked tough.
“Chris, get lost! Your week hasn’t come yet! It’s our gang’s turn. Anyway, this is none of your business.” Tom said, apparently angry.
“Really? Recco says otherwise.” A Mexican boy about the same age stepped forward.
“I saw what that girl can do.” He said in his thick Spanish accent. “She can win the championship next month and beat those 10th grade punks.” He said, spitting.
“We need her,” said Chris. “You just got a replacement, so you’ll be fine.”
“She isn’t going anywhere with you.” Mark said, stepping up next to Cybre.
“Really? Who is going to stop me?”
“Me,” said Cybre, glaring him in the eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Chris must have not got the message because he reached forward. Idiot, thought Cybre as pulled back and punched him in the face. Chris toppled backward, cursing.
“Whoa!” yelled Double R. Chris ran at her to grab her. Cybre ducked and tripped him, making him land flat on his face. Recco ran towards her and threw a punch, hitting her in the same eye Sunstreak had. She fell back, cursing, blinded in that eye for a moment. During that moment, Chris grabbed her. ‘NO! Don’t let her be taken! She’ll b…” Harry was cut short from Cybre hearing he rest, because all she heard was a SMACK and Chris spit, letting her go. “Take that!” Mark yelled.

Cybre now realized more kids had arrived. Tom was fighting Recco, Double R had a boy pinned and was slapping his around, Jimmy had planted a fist into a taller boy, Harry was helping Liz with two girls, and Mark was facing off Chris.

Cybre turned to help Mark, and then watched Chris punch Mark over the edge. That made her snap. She felt metal in her hand rush to create a harder fist. As she pulled back, she spun Chris around by calling him a series of profanities. WHACK! Chris fell back, right next to Mark. Cybre leaped down, planting her feet right next to his ears. Chris looked up, his eye screwed shut and his nose bleeding.
“Leave, or I’ll give you a broken jaw too.” Chris glared, but got up and climbed out. Mark was already out, and he had a fist clenched at Chris. Cybre jumped up, watching Chris go.

Before he disappeared completely, he turned and called. “You’ll regret this!”
“Your nose is bleeding.” Mark said after a minute. Cybre reached up and found that a steady stream of blood was coming out of her nose. That’s goanna be a problem. Cybre looked at Mark. “Your eye is black.” Mark reached up, then winched as he touched it.
“Well, we showed them,” said Jimmy, looking down the alley.
‘They’ll be back.” Cybre said.
~
“Cybre, what happened?” asked Stormtire, stopping her short in her sneaking to the cave. He had seen her nose. “Some idiot teens tried to kidnap me while I was with my friends, so we put up a fight. They won’t try it again.” Cybre said a bit too loud. Braxatron turned, looked, and then took a double take, staring.
“Busted,” whispered Sunstreak. Cybre glared at him.
“Cybre!” said Braxatron.
“What! I was protecting myself! They were going to hurt me and my marks could have been shown! Then, our cover would have been blown!!!” Braxatron just shook his head.
“You can’t keep doing this Cybre!”
“I am trying not to, Braxatron, but…”
Braxatron stood there; hand on his hips and trying to keep his cool. “Why did they try to take you, Cybre?” He asked. Cybre was silent, knowing what was coming next.
“They…saw me...skateboarding.” Cybre said silently, looking down. Braxatron blew his top.
“SEE? I told you not to do that stupid stuff, and look what happened! I told you to lay low!”
“You don’t have to blow up at me!” Cybre yelled, getting angry. “I make mistakes! I made mistakes in the Lab & Arena, I made mistakes on Formatron, and I was bound to make mistakes here!”
“And that’s what wrong with people, especially you and your idiotic friends back in the Lab!” He yelled, and then stopped. Cybre’s jaw dropped. She couldn’t believe what he just said.

“No…” she said, her eyes tearing.
“Cybre, I didn’t mean…”Braxatron said, his eyes wide.
“NO! You did mean it!” Cybre yelled in a bit of a sobbing voice. She glowed, and then was in her Rohubot state. “What you don’t understand is that half of the Free Spirits died for their so-called ‘mistakes’, and you spit in their faces! You’ll never experience what we all went though!” With that, she leaped into the air, morphed into an F-16 Fighting Falcon, and zoomed off.
“Cybre!” called Braxatron, but it was too late. She was already gone.

Chapter 6
Braxatron watched her fly off, then walked over to a large boulder and plopped down. I am such a stupid idiot! Wrench walked over and sat down next to him.

“Did I really just say all those things?” he asked.
“Unfortunately, yes.” Wrench said. Braxatron put his head in his hands and moaned.
“Look,” Wrench said, putting his hand in Braxatron’s shoulder, “we have all made mistakes. I’m sure we’ve have made worst mistakes than she has when we were her age…”
“It has been mostly you making the mistakes, Wrench.” Braxatron said, casting a twinkling eye on Wrench. He glared.
“Nobody’s prefect, that’s what my old man uses to say.”
“But I blew up, Wrench! And the worst of it is that I blew up at Cybre! I try to be a friend and a parent model like how I am a father to Sunstreak.”
“You blew up just like that in front of her yelling at Sunstreak when Fireeye, Firetracks, and he dare each other to jump off the Needle Towers. That’s the day Firetracks & Fireeye broke their legs, Sunstreak broke an arm, and Cybre broke five ribs when Sunstreak landed on her. I think that’s the day he became a worse enemy than Cronaton to Cybre.” He said, smiling. Braxatron chuckled, and then sighed deeply.
“I know, but I never meant to blow up and spit at the people who brought her to us.”
“You’re just getting older, my friend.”
“Very funny, Wrench.”
“I learned this whenever I would get mad at Fireeye: ‘Do I want a bit tongue or bit foot?’” Wrench told him. Braxatron looked at him with a “Ha-ha, very funny” look.
“Take my advice. It might help you in the future.”
~
As Cybre flew, she just couldn’t believe Braxatron would say that. While she looked at the crisp, blue ocean; she thought of all those who were her best friends. Crater, Jakop, Millie, Nilk… He didn’t mean it, did he?
No, said a sweet voice. He just can get mad sometimes
But he spit right in their faces! No. That I can’t take.
He was just trying to protect you. He lost his love Heartfire, his daughter Lightpath, and me, his sister… He just doesn’t want to lose someone again. You’re like a daughter to him.
I understand, Meleah. It’s just…
We all make mistake, whispered Meleah.
Thanks.
You’re welcome. We’re all here to help in the Place Of Those Who Pass.
With that, Cybre turned around and went back to the cliffs.

When Cybre landed, morphing into her robot form, Braxatron walked over.
“Cybre, I wanted to say that I am sorry.”
“It’s OK. Really, it was my fault. I should have listened and not have started skateboarding in the first place.”
“No, you can still board, but just try …”
“Try not to do anything Sunstreak would do?” Cybre cut Braxatron short.
“I heard that!” yelled Sunstreak from across the beach.
“That’s not what I was thinking to say, but that will work.” Braxatron said, laughing.
“I understand.” Cybre said, smiling.
~
“What!?!?” yelled Cronaton at Skystreak, who reached up and plugged his right ear to try to stop the loud ringing which now sounded.
“That’s as far as we could get. All we know is that she is somewhere between the state line of Oregon and Nevada, the city of San Francisco, and 15 miles of ocean!”
“Can’t you narrow it down more?”
“No. This is the farthest we have got for the last 72 hours. The last area we had was the states of California, Nevada, Oregon, and a fourth of Mexico!” said Skystreak in his tone of frustration and defiance. Cronaton began to speak in the tone when he was about to kill someone. Since he was injured and Skystreak was his first prime, he couldn’t hurt him.

“Find her, or I will have someone else do it, like Blastfire.” He said in a challenging tone. Skystreak first was shocked, then let out a hateful snort and shut the door, letting out a stream of profanities towards Cronaton. Why didn’t I kill him myself earlier? He thought, spitting.





~
“Anything?” asked Korranah. Monkey rubbed his eyes and looked at the map.
“Uh, no. We are being attacked by this anti-tracking virus whenever we get close to finding something. I have never seen anything like it. It crashed every bit of hard-drive, but didn’t ruin any documents.”
“What do you have so far?”
“We have an area that has the state line of Oregon and Nevada, the city of San Francisco, and 15 miles of ocean,” said Monkey while bringing up a screen on the computer.
“Can you get any closer?” said Korranah with a whistle.
“Watch,” Monkey typed on a few keys.

After a minute, they had the same area. But as soon as the tracker tried to get closer, unearthly letters flash across the screen. Suddenly, the power to the building went out. The only thing that was still on was the computer. On the computer screen blinked a message, first in the unearthly symbols, then in English. “TOP SECRECT! TRUDACION ACESS ONLY! DE-CODER PASSWORD REQUIRED TO ACESS.” The screen blinked this a few more times before the power came back on.

“Well,” said Monkey, “That’s never happened before.”
“So I guess we need a de-coder password. Can you try to hack it?” ask Korranah
“I can try.”
“First, get a good night’s sleep. And Monkey?”
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”
“Anytime, sir.”
~
“Hi,” said Cybre. It was a few days after the fight with Chris’ gang, and everyone had an injury. Everyone had black eyes, and Double R had a broken nose.
“Nice eye. What your parents think?” said Mark.
“They weren’t there. How did your parent’s act? Your mom got really upset when you did a front flip down the stairs.” Cybre asked Mark. Liz laughed aloud while the boys tried to stifle their howls.
“My mom absolutely freaked.” Mark said, ignoring the gang. “My dad loved it. He said ‘You’re becoming a man, Mark. I’m just sorry that you couldn’t break his nose.’” He said, making his voice deep, puffing out his chest, and putting his hand on his hips. Cybre exploded in laughter. “What?!?!”
“It’s nothing. You just reminded me of a close friend that I knew.” She said, still laughing.

“Where did you move from, anyway?” asked Liz.
“I came from Formato.” Cybre said, then her eyes widen. You idiot! What were you thinking?!
“I never heard of that place,” replied Liz, looking confused.
“It is in the state of...South Carolina. It’s a remote and small town. I moved to San Francisco after that, and then came here.”
“Oh, I see,” said Liz, and Cybre’s mind critiqued her again. You are such a dork, Cybre.
“OK, enough of the small talk, let’s skateboard. Cybre, are you up to it?” asked Mark
“I sure am!”
“Then let’s board!”



~
After a few hours, everyone began to go home. At about 6, Cybre and Mark were the last two to leave. As they walked down the street, Cybre began to smell smoke. Not a burning smoke, like what you would smell when something was on fire, but like a cigarette smoke. “I wanted to tell you that my birthdays in a few days and I was goanna invite the group for Ice Cream. You goanna come?” asked Mark as he began to go.
“Hopefully, I will. See ya Mark!”
“See ya!” he yelled as he pushed off.

As he left, Cybre followed the smell. She came to a fenced junkyard with the door pried open. When she looked inside, she stared. Chris and his gang were smoking and drinking. Just by the smell of the smoke Cybre could tell it was not a normal cigarette that Chris was smoking. Suddenly, someone spotted her.

“Hey, you!” Cybre spun in her spot by the gate and began to run, but due to the ground having loose gravel and trash, she slipped after about five steps. The gravel dug into her palms when she landed, and some of the rocked were red. The gang was on her like a pack of starving wolves on a deer. Two of the boys grabbed her before she could take a step. They held her as she thrashed the get loose, kicking and punching. They turned her around to face Chris.

“Well, well, well. Look who we have here. Hello, Cybre. Are you here to finish me?” Chris asked, and Cybre spat in his face, being as mad as a caged tiger.
“You are sure goanna get it for that eye!” he said, pulling back and hitting her in the ribs. Cybre gasped for breath as she dropped to the ground, flashing back and seeing a large black snarling Formation. Chris pulled back, shaking his hand and cussing. Cybre then jumped up and tackled Chris to the ground, giving him a few descent punches on the face. He flipped her over and pulled back again, aiming for the face. As Cybre closed her eyes, ready for impacted, she heard a car. She opened her eyes as everyone stopped and stared. Stormtire! Help!

“HONK! HONK!” Stormtire drove at full speed down the ally, and then hit the brakes, but only late enough that he would slide into Chris to knock him off Cybre. As Chris and his gang scrambled the get up and running, she ran and hopped in the car, still trying to get her breath. “Go!” she panted. Stormtire hit the gas and tore out of the ally.

“You OK?” Stormtire asked as they drove towards the cliffs.
“He got me in the ribs. I think he popped one of them.” Cybre said, feeling her ribs, groaning and gasping, every once and a while seeing that face.
“They are probably just sore. If he hit you in the ribs though, he probably broke his hand.” He said.
“How did you find me?”
“I got bored of taking orders from Brax, so I decided to check out the town some more so I could get a mental picture. I saw you and began to follow at a distance. I turned the corner just in time to see you being turned over by that boy. Who was that?”
“It was Chris. Chris is the kid who rules the gang that we fought.”
“How did you find him?” There was a long pause.

“Cybre?” Stormtire asked.
“I smelt cigarette smoke.” Cybre said, then looked down
“What? But I...”
“I did, but I’ve been in a lot of pain & stress. My body is still trying to get most of The Shot out of my system, I’ve been having headaches....”Cybre stopped, and then sighed.
“You miss him still, huh?” he asked.
“I do. I wish things were different.”
“I’m sorry that you have to go though this pain Cybre, but that doesn’t mean you should go back to you habits that you had in the Lab.”
“I know. Thanks for the support, Stormtire.”
“You welcome.”
~
As Chris turned to corner, he looked back long enough to see the girl called “Cybre” jump into the car. Sonofa... He thought. As they stopped about a block away, Recco was panicking
. “Man,” he said “We are so screwed when she tells the police. We’ll be sent to juvey, and my dad said he isn’t bailing us again!”
“I know, but I think we can get out of it.”
“Really? How?”
“Remember how my old man could smell a smoke from a mile away?”
“Yeah, but what’s that got to do with it?”
“I bet that’s how she found us.”
~
“You saw Chris, smoking?!” Jimmy said, wide eyed.
“Yeah. I saw him and some of his friends. They got me good. They almost cracked my rib.” Cybre said, reaching up to touch her ribs.
“We should tell the police,” said Mark.
“But it was just her who saw them. I thought you needed two witnesses, especially since we always fight each other, they will just think we were trying to put ‘em in jail to get rid of them,” said Liz.
“She’s right.” Said Tom, jumping of the rail he was sitting on. “We have to be in groups if we wanna catch these guys. We’ll walk in groups of two, and can walk one another home.”
“Wait a minute.” Said Cybre, begin to panic. They can’t know about us! We’ll be toast! “I live on the very outskirts of town, and everyone else lives in town. I can be walked to the end of town. I doubt Chris would go out were I live, considering it’s a mile or so outta town.”
“Good point,” said Liz.
“OK we’ll do that.” Tom said.

As Cybre listened to Tom assign groups, she heard someone. Nice move. Cybre looked around, and then saw Stormtire parked about a block or so away. Thanks, but will you stop following me? They might start thinking I am being stalked if they see you. Then we will be in REALLY big trouble.
OK then, Stormtire thought to her, starting up his engine and backing away. I’ll see you back at the cliffs.
~
After Cybre had said bye to Mark, she began pushing herself toward the cliff. There was about a 100 yards of pavement, then dirt road ‘till the cliff. As she was about 50 yards down the street, a string came up off the ground, knocking her off her board. She hit the ground, rolled, then hopped to her feet at the end of the roll. There was Chris’ gang beginning to circle her. Not again!

“Hello,” mocked Chris. Recco grabbed Cybre’s left arm, touching the bullet hole. Cybre almost screamed, but bit her lip and pulled away.
“Leave me alone.” She said, but Recco grabbed her arm again, this time lower. She glared at him in the eyes.
“We have a deal for you.”
“I don’t wanna hear it.”
“Really?” Chris asked, and then held up a cigarette. Cybre looked at it, then straight into Chris’ eyes. “Shut up about us, and we’ll give you three packs for free.” Cybre looked at the cigarette, fighting her old ways. She won. “No.”
“What?” Chris asked, almost choking at her words.
“You heard me.” She said, ripping her arm out of Recco’s grip. She picked up her board, and then began to walk away. Before she went, Chris yelled “I know you won’t leave a deal like this hanging. You’ll come crawling to us after two days.”
Cybre stopped, turned around, and then yelled “Don’t count on it. I quit a long time ago.”
As the gang left, Cybre watched them go, remembering how hard it was to stop her smoking. She thought about how life is a slow fade when you give yourself away. She sighed.
“I’m proud of you.” Cybre spun on her heels to see Braxatron standing there, smiling.
“Why do you guys always do that?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air.
“It’s our way. At least I’m not coming out of the sky.”
“Did I tell you that you son still isn’t off the hook?”
“I think he’s had quite enough already.”
“Well, when he breaks one of his ribs, he’ll be off.” Cybre said a twinkle in her eyes.
“Let’s head to the cliffs.” Braxatron said.

While Braxatron began to walk away, Cybre began to glow and change into her Formanto form. She then leaped forward and tackled him. Even thought Cybre was only twelve tons and Braxatron was seventeen tons, she still knocked him flat. As she began to get up to run, Braxatron pulled her back down by her wings and began to give her a knuckle sandwich & tickled her. “I caught a Tradicon, and now let’s make it suffer!” he said as Cybre laughed and struggled free. “OK! OK! Truce!” she said.
“Agreed, truce.” He said, laughing as she helped him up. As they continued their walk to the cliff, Cybre spoke. “I know, maybe I’ll jump off the top of the cliff onto him. Then we’ll be even.” She said with a twinkle in her eyes. Braxatron laughed.

Chapter 7
“Did you find anything, Monkey?” asked Mr. Korranah, walking up to Monkey as he rubbed the back of his neck and yawned. “Uh, well, two days ago, I got this sent in. Due to the computers reloading, I didn’t get to it ‘till today.” A satellite map came up, showing a blinking dot about a mile away from the coast of San Francisco.
“
Another crash-landing?”
“
No, a sighting.”
“
What?!”
“
Here, take a look.” As he spoke, Monkey zoomed in on the picture to show an F-16 flying across the pacific. “How do you know this isn’t the air forces'?”
“
Well, that’s what I thought, until I got the next photo up,” said Monkey, changing the picture to 2 other pictures that showed the side& the bottom of the plane as it seemed to be turning around. On the bottom left wing, there was a black outline of a star. On the left side was strange writing and English.



TR-C1
“We have a lead.” said Korranah, smiling.
~
“Where did it take off from?” asked Cronaton, clearly interested.
“I don’t yet. We have the same area we had 12 hours ago, save half of San Francisco.” said Skystreak. “I got this information thought an OBOT satellite. Those things are so easy to hack.” He puffed out his chest a little. OBOT?!?! Thought Cronaton, angry. They cannot get in my way, not now. They attacked me last time and killed...No, they will not success.
“Try to get images of possible take off points.”
“I tried that. If I even move any satellites a few inches, it begins automatic tracking and shut down.”
“Try a Russian satellite. The Americans have had too many wars to have their satellites not protected.”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh yes, and try to blow up a few OBOT satellites. They can not get to Cybre first.”
~
“Cybre, can I talk to you privately?” asked Harry, walking towards the ally. Cybre could see desperation in his eyes.
“Sure, what’s a matter?” she asked, leaning against the wall.
“Did you see a boy with brown-blonde hair, purple-blue eyes, and about five-foot-ten?”
“Yea, why?” she asked, and Harry moaned. “Harry?”
“It’s my brother. He said he’s gone straight.”
“I’m sorry.” She said, putting her hand on his shoulder. He looked into her eyes.
“It’s OK.”

As she turned to leave, Harry said, “You don’t have to lie.” Cybre stopped short
“What do you mean?” she asked, tensed
“I can tell you’ve smoked before. That’s the only way you’d know the smell.”
“I quit a long time ago.” Said Cybre, sighing. “Please don’t tell anyone.”
“I won’t, as long as you don’t tell anyone about my brother”
“I hold many secrets.” she said.
“C’mon.” he said as he began to go back towards the park. “I wanna see Jimmy try to pull off the same tricks you did!”
~
“You asked for me?” said Skystreak.
“What did you find?” said Cronaton in impatient tone. Hold your jets! You’re so darn impatient! Thought Skystreak
“Two possible launch point within the area. All around the area, dozens of launch points.”
“Where?”
“In the area: San Francisco Airport and a few private strips. Outside the area: San Diego Air force and Airport with more private strips.”
“I want you to deploy men in groups of four into all the cities with possible launch points. They are not allowed to take action if they see the Rohubot or the Trudacons. They must get clearance.” Said Cronaton, then he erupted into a series of coughs.
“What happens if they are seen first?” asked Skystreak, suddenly worried.
“Then we must take immediate action to get the girl, and kill her.” He said. If there was hair on the back of Skystreak’s neck, it stood up straight.
“She can’t die forever. She does have the gift of multiple lives like leaders and Rohubots do.”
“But there is one way to take all of them at once, I learned it long ago, and I plan to use what I learned.” He said in an irritated tone. “Organize the groups. As soon as we get her, we are both going down there to end this once and for all.”
~
“Happy Birthday, Mark! How old are you turning?” asked Cybre as she met up with the gang as they were going to the Ice cream store.
“Twelve.” He said. “My parent’s are already down there. They are goanna buy the group Ice Cream.”
“So I finally get to meet your step dad.” She said.
“So he can make sure you’re suitable?” asked Tom. Everyone but Mark & Cybre laughed, and Tom suddenly found his skateboard kicked out from under him by Cybre.
“Nice,” said Mark as he let her and Liz into the store.

Mark’s step father was about six-foot-five, blonde, green eyed, and handsome. He looked kinda like Mel Gibson. “Hello,” said Cybre.
“Why hi, you must be Cybre.” He said
“I am.” She said a bit nervous.
“My name is Tomas Macentak. Mark has told me about how you can fight. Where’d you learn?”
“I was required to learn how to defend myself were I lived. I really don’t remember were it was though.”
“I see.” He said. “Well, who want Ice Cream?”
~
“Huckleberry heaven is way better than vanilla!” said Cybre as she stepped outside with Mark.
“I know. Hey, when is your birthday?” he asked. Cybre stopped and sat down at a table. “August 20th. So, if today is July 15th, then I was born a little over 1 month from when you were born.”
“Wow.” He said, smiling. “I didn’t know you were that young.”
“Not funny!” she said as he laughed and the rest of the group came and sat down.
~
As the group began leave to go home, they gave Mark gifts before leaving. Some of the gifts were action figures, a movie, things for skateboarding, and a couple of dollars. As Cybre was about to give Mark his gift & leave to walk home, Tom walked up.

“It was nice meeting you, Cybre. You really made an impact on my step-son.”
“It sounds like you’ve done the same, Tom.” She said, and Tom’s eyes lit up.
“Really?”
“Yes sir. Well, I have to go or my dad’s goanna get mad.” She said, and then reached out to shake his hand. As she shook his hand, Cybre suddenly got a jolt as she was thrown into a series of memories as she felt as if she was hit very hard and thrown into a wall. She saw the face of a Formanto with a Tradicon symbol growling over her before she was dragged back to reality. She gasped. Tom looked pale.

“Tom? Are you OK?’ asked Tammy, a worried look.
“I’m...OK.” he said, shaky. Cybre suddenly noticed a large scar on his hand. He’s been attacked by a Tradicon! Cybre realized.
“I have to go home.” Cybre said, a little in a rush.
“You leaving?” asked Mark.
“Yeah, I gotta go. But not before I give you this.” Cybre said as she handed him a small rectangular box. He opened it, and smiled. Inside were twin switch blades that were reinforced the Trudacon way by Metalhood. If in the hands of a Trudacon or a Rohubot, they would glow if around a Tradicon.

“Awesome!” Mark said, and Tom came over, a little color back in his face.
“Wow! These are nice.” He said as he took one and hit the button. The blade came out the top “Wow. I can’t wait to learn how to use these.” He said, and began to fight a pretend enemy use both the knives. He looked hilarious

“Maybe you wanna get a book on blade fighting Mark.” Cybre said as she laugh and began to leave.
“Need a ride?” asked Tom.
“No, I’m good.” She said as she hopped on her board, a little nervous.
“Are you sure? I would really like to meet you’re dad.”
“He’s working the shift tonight. He won’t be home ‘till about one.”
“Oh, I see. Is you’re mom home?” asked Tammy. Cybre stopped and bit her lip.
“I don’t have a mom.” She said quietly, and then began to push her way towards the cliffs. “See you tomorrow Mark.”

As she was about a block away, she heard his car pull up behind her. She moved to the side to let it pass, and then realized that they had pulled up next to her. Mark rolled down the window. “You wanna stay at our house ‘till your dad get’s home?” Cybre was panicking now. I need to get to the cliffs, or Braxatron is goanna kill me if I’m not there by dark!
“No really, I’m good. I have to call him as soon as I get home. He really wants me at my house before dark.” Cybre looked at the sun setting
“You can call your dad at our house.” Mark said. Cybre cocked her head a little then sighed. Please don’t kill me, Braxatron.
“OK, I don’t see that it would hurt to go to your house. But, if he wants me home, I have to go.”
“Alright, seems fine,” said Tom, “Then we’ll drive you home if he does.”

When they got to Mark’s house, Cybre had already told Stormtire what happened via thought transfer. He told her to only hit six numbers on the telephone and to fake a conversation, and then to contact him as soon as she had finished. Cybre stepped inside the door when Tom opened it.

As soon as she came into the door, there was a staircase on the wall right next to the door. Under the stairs was a closet and a door that lead to the stairs to the basement. Straight ahead was the kitchen, and then to the right of the front door was the door to the living room. When she walked into the kitchen, there was another doorway on the right that lead to the dining room & a door on the left that lead to the garage.

As soon as Cybre saw a telephone, she walked over and picked it up, dialing any 6 digits she could think of. She waited a minute, and then began to talk.
“Hi dad, this is Cybre...I’m calling from a friends house. I'm at Mark’s place. They wanted me to come...his parents, dad. As I was saying, they wanted me to come to their house until you could come and pick me up.” Cybre looked at Mark and shook her head. Mark frowned. “They live on 5th street, house number 438. OK, see you in ten minutes. I didn’t know you got off early tonight. Maybe you could meet...oh, I see. OK, bye dad.” Cybre put down the phone. I'm finished. Please come and get me. She thought to Stormtire.
OK, be there in 10.

“So what’s up?” asked Tammy, having thought she heard Cybre’s end of the conversation.
“Well, he got off early tonight because he has to be there about five in the morning. He won’t be able to stop and say hi because he’s got to get home to get to sleep.” Cybre said.
“What does your dad do for a living?” asked Tom.
“I really don’t know, but I know it has to do with fighting and protecting his country or something like that.” She said, being half truthful. “I wanted to ask you a question, Mr....eh...”
“Mr. Macentak. But you can call me Tom or Tomas.” He said, and Cybre caught Mark rolling his eyes a little. “And yes, you can ask me a question. I hope I can answer it.”
“I was wondering were you got that scar from. I noticed that when I shook your hand, you had a scar that ran up your arm, and that you turn very pale when I touched it.” There was silence for a moment, and then he sighed a little.

“When I was a child, two of my friends and I were attacked by some...” he hesitated, looking away for a brief moment. Tell the truth, you know I saw something. Cybre thought to herself. “...gang or something like that. We had seen them doing something, and then we were attacked from the rear. One of my friends died. Another seem to go mad, swearing that he find the men that did this and kill them.”

“Cybre, I believe your dad is here,” said Tammy, looking out a window. “I thought he had a mustang, not a corvette.”
“That’s probably my dad’s work car. He has quite a few cars he drives around. Unless he sent one of his coworkers to pick me up and take me home.” She said as she grabbed her jacket. “I’ll try to come over tomorrow to teach Mark how to use those knives. Is that OK?”
“That’s fine with me. How ‘bout it mom and dad?” said Mark, looking at Tom.
“That’s fine.”
“OK then. I'll see you later.”

As Cybre waved goodbye and got into the passenger seat, she immediately could tell that Stormtire was a bit aggravated. It was quite for about 10 seconds, and then Stormtire spoke. “Braxatron isn’t too happy that you went over to Mark’s house, and neither am I.”
“Would you rather have me going there or them driving me to a place called ‘home’?”
“You could have said no.” he said, an angry tone.
“The mom basic dragged me into the car, insisting that it was too dark for a girl to be going home alone and that I should get a ride or come to their house.” Cybre said, chuckling a bit, and then getting serious. “But I’m glad I went.”
“Why’s that?”
You’re not gonna believe it. I think that a Tradicon has been here before.”
~

Chapter 8
When Cybre & Stormtire got to the cliffs, the rest of the group was crowd around a map that was project from Metalhood’s wrist, debating something. “What’s going on?’ asked Cybre. Stormtire had morphed into his Formato shape. He looked and shrugged. Cybre also morphed into her Formato shape, and then jumped off the edge of the cliff, landing on the ground with a boom, making everyone on the beach jump and spin, weapons drawn. Cybre had landed perfectly on her feet, and was in the crouch position, wings outstretched, one hand on the ground and the other pointed outwards. She stood up slowly, realizing that they were spooked, or that the group was in trouble. Stormtire landed next to her and looked completely confused when he saw the rest of the group with their weapons drawn.

“What’s wrong?” asked Cybre as they put there weapons away.
“We just got news from our base in Formatron. They got some news from our inside source.” said Braxatron. Cybre looked sideways at Stormtire, a bit worried. Braxatron continued. “Cronaton is going to send out three groups of four men into San Francisco in order to look for you. Then, they’re going to move upwards.” He demonstrated on the map.
“When are they deploying?” asked Cybre.
“They are going to land off of San Francisco Bay at Midnight the night of August 20th. Since we have a twelve hours difference, they will deploy at noon of that day.”
“That's my birthday,” whispered Cybre to herself. Stormtire looked at her for a brief moment, and then looked back at the map.

“Guys, I wanted to ask you something,” said Cybre. “I was wondering if… you guys should go back to Formatron and I should stay here.” Everyone stopped and looked at her like she was crazy. She continued. “You guys only have this place where you can be…you, without being found. And anyway, if I have a problem, I just contact you with a polshaone.” They still stared. “The point is I wanna stay as long as I can. I know that if I stay, I’m goanna have to go to school and stuff like that.”
“Cybre, haven’t you been listening? They are coming,” said Wrench.
“I’ve noticed that. But don’t you think it’s a little less obvious of who I am when it’s just me instead of there being five Formatos hanging out less than a mile away. They probably won’t get here for a long time anyway because of the amount of surrounding cities near San Francisco. You kinda getting what I’m saying?”
“That you don’t need us anymore?” said Sunstreak, Cybre glared.

“No, I get what you mean.” Metalhood said, turning the map off. “If they have radiation tracers, which is most likely, then our signature would show up right away if they were within fifteen miles of us. If we leave sometime soon, then there will only be her trace here and maybe a little of our trace too, but it wouldn’t be picked up unless they had the beacon pointed straight at this place and they are less than a fourth of a mile away from the beach here that we are standing on.”
“You’re right,” said Braxatron, looking at Cybre. “We should leave. It would give you better chance of not being found.”

“We’ll I’m staying,” said Stormtire. Cybre looked at him. “You can call me crazy, and yes I miss my family, but I made a promise. And if Cybre is caught and isn’t able to make contact, then I gotta be there to help her.”
“I understand that entirely Stormtire. You can stay,” said Braxatron. “I’ll tell your family and hope Smalltire won't be angry and blow up at you when you get back.”

“Or worst.” Said Sunstreak, then he and Metalhood laughed. Stormtire’s jaw dropped. He leaped forward and grabbed Sunstreak, giving him a knuckle sandwich. “Smalltire is not that mean!!!” he said, holding him by the neck. Metalhood had jumped back, but he was now laughing at Sunstreak instead of with him. What he couldn’t see is Cybre right behind him sneaking up.

Suddenly, she leaped up, took her two forefingers and caught the lymph node on the side of Metalhood’s neck. He fell to the ground as she pulled on it, and then gave him a knuckle sandwich. “He who hangs with the fool suffers harm! You laughed, you suffer!” she said as he struggled to get loose. Meanwhile Braxatron and Wrench laughed almost to the point of crying. Finally, Cybre & Stormtire let the other two up, and both were very dizzy and embarrassed. Metalhood cursed under his breath
~
It was almost dawn when the four Trudacons were leaving. It had taken a couple of days for Braxatron to get the clear to come back, but he had gotten it. They had set up the portal sticks and programmed it for their Trudacon gate. Cybre spoke with Braxatron.

“When do you think you’ll be able to come to Formatron?” he asked.
“I'll be back between the last few weeks of this year and the first few weeks of the next year. We’ll contact you when and if we have to come sooner or later.”
“Ok, here, a polshaone. I also gave one to Stormtire. You know the word, don’t you?
“Elphatcha? Yes, I do.” She said, then smiled
“Kell Tam, Cybre.” He said. Cybre replied in the same manner, then he spoke to Stormtire and stepped though the portal. Cybre and Stormtire watched them step though one at a time, first Braxatron, who kept his arm still on this side of the portal, then gave the thumbs up and pulled his arm though. Then the rest went though. It closed with a flash, and then a small rainbow showed in its place.
~
Stormtire watched Cybre as she went over to the edge of the cliff, sitting down and letting her legs hang over the side, watching the sun rise. He walked over and sat down next to her, looking over the expanse of ocean towards the rising sun. She continued to stare, not taking her eyes off the sun, but Stormtire could tell that she was bothered by something.

“What’s wrong?” Stormtire asked, Cybre stopped staring to look at him, almost as if that was the first time he had asked her that.
“What do you mean? Nothing’s wrong.” She said, a bit ruffled, but her eyes had a glassy look.
“Cybre, I can tell when you lie about your feelings. Your eyes show it all. Something must really be bothering you if your eyes are that glassy.” Cybre sighed.
“I just wish that I could stop having to do the same routine. Fight, then Flight. Flight, then Fight, and on and on… I just wanna stop that and settle down, not being all paranoid that I could be killed if I turn my back for five seconds. ”
“You did have a difference in that routine for a while. You could turn your back for a little while.”
“That’s what I want it to be like almost all the time.”
“Cybre, you know that when you made the choice to become a Rohubot, you made the choice to become Cronaton’s worst enemy.”
“You know, sometimes I wish I hadn’t made that choice.” Cybre said, and Stormtire could immediately tell she was getting angry by the way her eyes burned and how she half-opened and closed her wings.

“You don’t mean that, Cybre.” He said. She stood up, and so did he, looking right into her eyes.
“What if I did mean that? What if I wished that it never happened?” she said, getting angry.
“Think how many lives it could affect if you didn’t become a Rohubot, or didn’t come to Formato, or if you weren’t even a Taken? All those children wouldn’t have made it out, Kataka would still be alone, I and countless others would be dead or alive, and so many hearts may not have been moved.” He said, trying to keep his cool. “Think of the bigger picture, Cybre.”
“Someone else would probably take my place, besides; I didn’t change many hearts at all.”
“You helped Braxatron’s heart move on when you came, you moved my heart from my former state of so called ‘stubbornness’, and you moved his heart to love you, and even to stick with you during bad points in time.”

Cybre looked at him, then looked away, but not fast enough for him not to see a tear rolling down her cheek. He suddenly realized what was bothering her. “What happened, Cybre?”
“We had a fight before I left for earth, and… I broke his heart.” She said as another tear rolled down her cheek.
“Oh Cybre, I didn’t know.” He said, shocked.
“I didn’t mean to, but he just didn’t get that we couldn't be together anymore & that I had a different destiny. I didn’t want to end our relationship this way. I mean, I still love him, but I don’t know what he feels.”
“You two were very passionate, I’m sure his feelings haven’t changed.” Stormtire watched as another tear rolled down her cheek, than reached forward and held her.
“I just hope you’re right.” She said, letting him wipe away a tear. You poor thing, He thought. I’m sure before this is all over that you’ll experience more heartbreaks that just this.
~
As Braxatron stepped though the portal, he looked around. At first, he didn’t see anyone, and then he saw shapes began to move. “Crosslink, is that you?”
“I’m here,” said a voice. Into the light stepped a grey-black Trudacon that was about hundred feet tall. He had a metallic beard and some-what pointed ears. Braxatron reached his arm back though the portal and did thumb up, then pulled his arm back to his side. A few second later the rest of the group stepped though.

“Who else is here?” ask Braxatron. About three other figures stepped out too. There was Firetracks, Smalltire, & Firstshot. “We are,” said Firetracks, smiling. As Sunstreak & Metalhood began to chat with Firetracks& Firstshot, Crosslink was interested to hear why they came back, so was Smalltire, but mostly why they came back without Stormtire.

“Why are you guys come back early?” ask Crosslink.
“We received your message about the search parties, and Cybre wanted to stay. She said that she had a better chance of her not being found if we weren’t there.”
“Well,” said Smalltire, “Why didn’t Stormtire come back with you?”

Smalltire was a very famine Formato. She was pure white and had the body of a woman, but a very modest one. She had thin wire-metal that resembled long hair with bangs, and flicked her head upwards whenever she was irritating, making her bangs go wild. Braxatron replied t her question, “He said that if Cybre was caught and wasn’t able to contact us, that he should be there to help her and try to make contact with us. Also, he said he made a promise.”
Smalltire smiled crossly, muttering udder her breath. “Him and his darn promises. But what do I expect from him? At least it keeps him busy. If he’s not here come next year, he’s goanna get his butt kicked.” Braxatron laughed. His son is just like him too, Smalltire.
“You two are so different. I’m surprised that you can even be in the same room without quarreling!” He said as she walked away.

“The council does want to talk to you, Braxatron,” said Crosslink. “Beestrick & Jayrune want to know why you came back.”
“Do they always forget that we’re Council too? I mean jeeps…” said Wrench, irritated. “I’m goanna get a good-night’s sleep first.”
~
“In two weeks,” said Skystreak to the group of twelve Tradicons, both men and women, “You will be embarking on a very important mission. The Rohubot, Cybre, has retreated to earth, and you have been given the mission to find, watch, & capture her. You will be sent in groups of four, each group will have a radiation scanner set to a specific signature in order to find her. When you find her, you must stay out of her sight and, after checking to see if her signature matches, contact base to report finding her.”

“What if she spots us?” ask a red female Tradicon who morphed into a motorcycle.
“You are to take immediate action to capture her, without killing her. Do you understand that, all you trigger-happy hotheads?” A few muttered, “Cronaton wants her alive, not dead.”

“What if she or the Trudacons open-fire on us?” asked the orange male, Dirtrust, from the hall.
“Try to bring her down wounded and kill the rest. But, if you must kill her…” said Skystreak, looking over at a black-colored male, “…let it be your last option.”
~
The days seem to go by quickly for Cybre, then, suddenly, it was August 20th. She awoke that morning to Lionel looking her in the eyes. She stared at him for a moment.
“May I help you?” she asked, eyes at the half there-half not position.
“Happy Birthday,” He said, “How old are you turning?”
“I'm turning twelve, why? And how…” Before she could finish, Lionel threw something into the air. She suddenly saw it was firecrackers, all lit. “OH SHH…” Before she could finish that, she leapt out of bed, throwing Lionel into the cave wall, as 12 firecrackers went off, and Stormtire laughed so hard that the cave shook.

When Cybre got to the park, she was riding a bike. She pulled down the alley, and she saw that no one was there. When she got closer, she saw stuff in the bottom of the park. “SURPRISE!!!” Cybre flew off her bike, rolled, then jumped back up. There was the gang & the Macentaks, laughing and clapping. When the gang saw her bike, they circled it a bit. It was a blue beach cruiser. “Nice!” said Mark. “Who gave it to you?”
“My dad gave it to me. He gave it to me last night. He had to take off and said he wouldn’t be home for my birthday.”
“Awesome!” said Liz.

As Cybre looked around, there were a few balloons attached to the chain link, and gifts at the bottom of the park. Cybre looked at the gifts, then yelled “Look out, coming through!” As she dove onto her board and launched her self down the ramps side. Cybre past the gifts; went up the side, then zoomed back down, grabbing a gift. She did this over and over ‘till she had all the gifts, doing a few tricks here and there. When she opened them, she had gotten quit a few things. Brass Knuckles, Money, some weird Candy, a Helmet, and some really cool wheels for her skateboard. The Macentaks said they were going to take the gang out for Ice cream as their gift. But the gift Mark gave her was memorable. He gave a necklace that had a small heart made of wood on it. Cybre smiled as she put the necklace on. On it was engraved “Cybre”.

“Mark, it’s beautiful.”
“I made it with those knifes that you gave me.” He said, and Cybre laughed, and then turned to everyone.
“Thank You for this. As my gift to you, a want you to come to Death cliffs around midnight tonight to watch some meteors fall. Are you up for that?” The group cheered.
~
That night, about 2 minutes until midnight, Cybre and the group sat on the edge of the cliff. Stormtire and Lionel had retreated about a mile away on another set of cliffs so they wouldn’t be spotted. As the group watched, 12 huge balls of fire streaked across the sky at about 500 miles an hour. They looked like softballs from were they were sitting, but Cybre knew that the balls of flame were about 40-70 feet in diameter, depending on the size of the Tradicon. She watched as they began to descend.
“Hey, why are they getting bigger?” asked Jim. As they watched, the balls of flames fade over the horizon. Suddenly, a large boom sounded.
“What the heck?” ask Liz.
They landed, Stormtire.
Yep, he thought to Cybre, they landed about a mile or two away from the shore of San Francisco Bay. The search will start in one week.
They wouldn’t be up here for about 6 months, huh?
I’d say 8, but who knows? They could have picked up our signatures while they were coming down.
Let’s hope they didn’t, thought Cybre.
~
As Cybre walked into the Macentak’s house, Mark called her to the kitchen. “You’ll wanna see this.” As Cybre sat down, Mark turned up the television. The News Man was talking about the so called meteors falling last night.
“…Last night around Midnight, 12 large objects crashed into the water. It sent of such a noise that people clear up in Oregon heard it. Off the shores of S. F. Bay, this video was taken.” The Newscaster turned and the screen showed the balls of fire coming down.
“Man” said the person recording this, “This is awesome. They are going to crash down into the ocean. I mean… WHOA!!!!” A loud bleep sounded. The Tradicons crashed into the water, sending of a sonic boom so loud that the camera and man went flying. A few seconds later, the man picked the camera back up, rotating at a 360 degree angle to show building windows gone, and a huge wave coming in as boats over turned. The screen went back to the camera man.

“San Francisco Bay had a huge tsunami last night one half hour after these meteors landed. The wall of water was almost 15 to 20 feet high. A government group known as OBOT, full name is unknown, are investigating. We're now turning to Newscaster Hammy Linn who is on the scene. Hammy, this is John, are you there?”
“This is Hammy.”
“What’s going on down there?”

“Well, Agent Korranah has granted us to interview him. Mr. Korranah, what’s going on?”
“We have been deployed in order to examine and determine what these things are.”
“Do these crash-landings have anything to do with the landings on June 3rd earlier this year?”
“They might.”
“Why is the OBOT so interested in these meteors?”
“Well, just like the same ones that fell on June 3rd, they slowed down before entering our atmosphere. That’s all the questions I will take for now. I will update you when we have more news.”

The camera came back to John. “These Meteors have caused quite an uproar in San Francisco and the surrounding areas. People are claiming that the ‘end of the world’ has come. But the OBOT are convinced that it was nothing, but are investigating just to make sure. Now to you, Shelly…”

Cybre had sat quietly through the entire thing, worried and mad. Korranah had a large scar down his face. Why does that seem familiar? She thought. And where have I heard the OBOT before? Mark hopped up, and turned the TV down. “Well, do you wanna go to the Arcade with me and the gang?”
“Sure” said Cybre, but she wasn’t there.
~

Chapter 9
“Welcome to Beachcliff Middle School. I am your Math teacher, Mr. Jingo. This is your language arts teacher, Mrs. Hildo, and these are you History and Science teachers, Mr. Loon & Mrs. Fimm. We are pleased to have you in our class this year,” said Mr. Jingo. He excused the other teachers, and then began. “We have a lot to do today, but first, all your names.” Cybre froze for a minute. Does he want my last name too? As he went around the class, Cybre realize that the only people she knew in class were the gang. As the teacher went around the room, Cybre saw she was next. “Your name is?” Said Mr. Jingo
“Umm…”
“Umm? What type of name is that?” He said, and the class laughed. Cybre’s lip twitched. Please don’t kill me Stormtire.
“Cybre Tire. Only people who aren’t able to pronounce my name call Umm Tire,” she said as the class laughed harder. The teacher smirked.

As he continued going around the room, Cybre remembered all the names. There were 20 children including her. There was Ginger, Jim, Tom, Liz, Harry, Double R, Jack, Sam, Samantha, Alvin, Chuck, Kim, Jill, Mary Ann, Mary, Foxy, Bob, Durango, and Nemo. Little did she know that these kids could affect her life forever.
~
After 2 and one-half months of school, Cybre had no problems. Things were going good, but she knew that problems would come, and they did. One day, Cybre was walking down the hall to leave when she saw some kids picking on Nemo, Ginger, and Durango. Those three had been trouble since they had started middle school. They cheated, stole, smoked, and disturbed class. Cybre seemed fine to let them be picked on, but when she saw who was picking on them, she froze. It was Chris and his gang. He pushed Durango up against the locker. “Where’s my money, punk? You owe me for those smokes.”
“But I don’t have the money!” he said. Chris cursed, and then pulled his fist back. Cybre knew she had to intervene.

“Hey!” she yelled. Everyone stopped and looked up. When Chris saw Cybre, he cursed. “Let ‘em go.”
“This is none of your business. Get lost!”
“Beating up kids because they don’t have money? I mean, c’mon! That’s pathetic.”
Chris let Durango go, and then cracked his knuckles. The group surrounded her. Slowly, other kids began to drift in. Cybre looked into Chris’ eyes.

“I’m giving you one chance to back outta this, Cybre,” said Chris. Cybre laughed.
“Me back out? You think I'm going to do that? You’re just worried about me breaking your nose again.” Some kids laughed. Cybre saw the gang in the crowd. She winked. Even though Chris was a lot bigger, she could bring him down.
Chris leapt forward, just missing Cybre. She kicked him in the face on the way by; feeling pain tear though her foot. The crowd began to chant. “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Chris cursed, and then grabbed at Cybre. She ducked, kicking at his feet. He knew that was coming and jumped. He came back down as Cybre was coming up and punched her in the face. Her nose and eye burned in pain, making her angry. Cybre spat. She looked back at Chris, then at the locker behind her.

Cybre turned and ran towards the locker. As Chris followed, Cybre ran up the locker and flipped backwards, landed on her feet, and kicked Chris into the lockers. He cursed and Cybre snarled. “Pick on someone your own size next time!” The crowd cheered. Suddenly, some teachers came running. “What happened here?” They looked at Cybre, who was crouched in the launch position, nose bleeding, then at Chris, who was against the lockers, his left eye black. Mark spoke up.

“Chris and his gang were beating up some of our classmates, and Cybre told them to stop. Well, Chris didn’t listen and attacked Cybre. So, Cybre defend herself.”
“Who was Chris beating up, Cybre?” asked Mr. Jingo. Cybre stood, wiping her face off with the back of her hand.
“It was Durango, Ginger, and Nemo.” She said, and looked at them. “I not sure why though, but they looked pretty scared.”
“Chris and Durango: principle, now.” Chris snarled, and Durango turned pale. Some of the kids laughed and one yelled, “You deserve it Chris!” Cybre smirked. As she turned to leave, Mr. Jingo called out. “Cybre,” Cybre turned slowly.
“Yes?”
“One more fight, and you’ll go with them.”
“Yes sir.” Cybre said, sighing a little.
~
“What the heck happened to your nose?!” asked Stormtire. Cybre stopped.
“What wrong with my nose?” said Cybre, reaching up to touch it. The burn was gone now, but there was a cut across it.
“Oh, yeah! I got in a fight.”
“What?! Cybre, how…” he asked, then stopped. “Was it Chris?”
“Yes.” Before Stormtire could say anything, she said “Don’t yell at me!”
“I’m not goanna yell at you,” he said as she went into her Rohubot state, “but I am going to do this!” Stormtire jumped forward and grabbed her, tickling her.
Cybre squirmed, yelling for him to let her go. Even though she had enough strength to fight off Chris, Stormtire knew her weak spots. He just laughed and held her there. Finally, Cybre went limp, gasping for breath. Stormtire let her go, and then she flipped over and tackled him. They rolled around for a second, and then she was giving him a knuckle sandwich. He whapped her in the side of the face, and Cybre let go. She blinked and Stormtire laughed.

“You know better!” he said as she went back to human form and cracked her neck.
“I know, it’s just... you know about how I feel why someone is hurting someone smaller than them.” Cybre shivered, and then spat at the ground. Stormtire saw that it bubbled. Acid. I hate when she does that.
“You don’t have to be angry at them anymore. They can't do anything to you.”
“Well, it’s what they did that makes me angry. Whenever I get in a fight, I picture my opponent as them. It’s the only way I can get myself to not flee.”
“I understand that, but…” Suddenly, alarms went off in his head. He froze, looking up at the ledge, eyes widening. What the?
“Cybre, you better get to the top of the cliffs right now because someone is coming our way.”
~
Mark knew Cybre always went down Death Cliff Road to get home, but where was home really? When he looked at the maps, Death Cliff Road ended at a little place known as Death Cliffs. But the map was made in the early 80’s. Where is her… Suddenly, something jumped out at him from the low brush, grabbing him by the waist.

Mark rolled with the figure now holding him. When they stopped rolling he tried to stay on top, but the figure was almost as strong as him. He finally got on top and pulled his fist back. Then he realized who it was.

“Cybre?” He asked and she laughed. “What the heck were you thinking? I almost beat the cheetos outta you.”
“I like to do that. You know how to fight.” Cybre said, then Mark felt his legs being twisted and then he was on bottom. “But you don’t know how to always win.”
“How’d you do that?” He asked, shocked. She smiled.
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.”
~
Cybre helped Mark up. She had loved the look on his face when she had grabbed him. Even though she had fun, she had to keep him away from Death Cliffs.
“So, what’s up?” Cybre asked as he brushed himself off.
“Well, my mom wanted to invite you and your dad to our house for Thanksgiving Day. I didn’t get to talk to you at school, so I thought I just go the way you get home, but my map is so old, I don’t know how to find your house.”
“Oh, well, Death Cliff Road has two roads off of it: Hillbilly and Claire. I think we live on Claire, but it about 3 miles from here. You know, I’m glad you asked that because my dad told me he wouldn’t be here for Thanksgiving and asked if I had any plans.”
“Oh, well that’s great! So, I’ll tell my mom we have one more place at the table. Thanks Cybre. I’ll see you in a few days then.”
“See ya!”

When Cybre got back down, she looked around for Stormtire. At first, she didn’t see him, and then she saw him parked in the cave. “He’s gone,” she yelled at him. Stormtire pulled out and morphed into a robot as Cybre did the same.
“What was that all about?”
“He invited me to Thanksgiving dinner.”
~

Chapter 10
Cybre walked up to the Macentak’s door in a long blue dress and holding a pie in hand. Stormtire had dropped her off and told her he’d be driving around to look for Cronaton’s groups. Cybre had suggested him going to Formato, but he refused.
“I have to keep my eyes open.” He had told her as they were driving towards the Macentak’s house. Cybre sighed as she knocked on the front door. Mark opened it.
“Hi! Glad you could make it!” He said, and smiled.
“I brought pie. I hope you like blueberry.” Cybre said as she stepped in. Mark was wearing a blue plaid shirt and dark blue pants. “Wow, you look great!”
“The same too you, Cybre.”
“So, who’s coming?”
“Well, my Aunt Lily and Uncle Freddy are coming. Then my Stepdad’s sister, Della; and her three kids: Chess, Hope, & Junior are coming too. Chess and Hope are twins, both thirteen, and kinda little brats, but Junior is eleven and is great. Also, my dad’s old friend is coming because he doesn’t have a place to celebrate this year.”

As Cybre stepped into the kitchen, she smelt Turkey. Tammy was in a green dress and Tom was in a green plaid shirt with a light pair of pants. They were looking over a recipe book, discuss something. Tammy looked up when she heard Cybre set the pie on the counter.

“Well, Cybre! I’m glad you could make it! Everyone else should be her between now and a half hour. My, you look pretty! Where did you get that dress?
“I got it at Ross,” said Cybre and blushed a little.
“You gotta love those stores. Well, don’t tell my sister Lily, she picks on everyone who doesn’t buy at Macy's or any other designer store.” Cybre laughed, and then heard a car pull up.
“Someone’s here.” Mark went to the window.
“It’s Della and her kids.” He said, then looked at Cybre and made a face. She giggled.

As Della came in, Cybre could tell she’d like this woman. She was cheery, almost six foot, blonde, green eyed, and in a pinkish dress. She hugged everyone, and then stopped when she came to Cybre. “Hi there! Who might you be?”
“I’m Cybre, one of Mark’s friends.”
“Cybre, is it? I love your name! I’m Della,” she said as she hugged Cybre. When Della had walked away, Chess sneered at her.
“What type of name is Cybre?” Hope snickered. Cybre was shocked, Mark looked at Chess.
“What type of name is Blanchester?” he said, and Cybre had to bite her lip to keep from laughing. Junior giggled. Chess turn beet red, and then stormed off to the kitchen. Hope turned as she was disappearing and lipped a profanity towards Mark. Cybre’s eyebrow rose.

As Della and Tammy started up meals, they asked that the kids get out of the house and go play. As they went outback, Cybre looked at Della’s kids. Chess had on a black and white plaid shirt and dark blue pants, Green-black eyes, Blonde hair, and about five-foot-eight. Holly was in a blue and black plaid dress, five-foot-seven, and had the same eyes and hair as Chess. Junior was in a plain red shirt with blue pants, but had a completely different complexion than his siblings. Chess was bulky and Hope was skinny, but Junior was a cross between, he had brown hair, light blue eyes, and was five-foot-four.

Chess grabbed a football off the shelf in the garage and ran into the backyard. Holly looked at Cybre, smirking a little, and said, “Bet that football would break something if you even picked it up.” Cybre looked at her.
“I’m surprised that you don’t blow away in the wind.”
Hope turned red a little, then yelled at Chess. Chess smiled and said it was him and Hope against Mark, Cybre, and Junior. Mark smirked. “Flag football?” asked Cybre and Mark nodded.

As Chess called the hike, Mark ran straight towards the ball. Chess, being mad at Mark, charged straight forward, hitting Mark in the chest. He gasped and fell to the ground. Chess laughed and Hope yelled, “Get up, you wuss!” Cybre felt her blood boil as she walked over and helped Mark up.
“You ok?” she asked as Mark gasped and nodded. “Let me take Chess on.” Mark looked at her.
“Ok them, but don’t break anything.”
“I won’t.”
“No, I mean don’t break anything of his.”

As Chess called the hike, he charged forward. Cybre ran straight towards him. She felt the metal in her bones go to the outside and thicken. The metal in her muscles pulsed and harden. In the last second, Cybre closed her eyes and put her right shoulder down. She hit Chess hard, knocking him flat as he gasped. She had rammed him in the stomach. Cybre also fell back a little, feeling pain ripple though her body and shook herself like a wet dog. Hope ran over.

“I’m sorry Chess, I didn’t mean…” started Cybre.
“Yes, you did, you little…” Before Hope let out the rest, she looked over and stopped. Cybre turned. Standing on the back porch was Della, Tom, and another man. Tom spoke. “My gosh, Cybre, you looked like a professional football player there. Where did you learn that?”
“I learned from my cousin. He played college football before he got a job as an engineer or something like that,” she said, and Della called out.
“Chess, are you ok, baby cheeks?” Cybre mouth dropped. Baby Cheeks? Chess got up and cursed under his breath.
“I fell like I’ve been hit by a truck.” He said as he got to the porch. The man laughed. He was six-foot-two, had black brushed-back greased hair, grey eyes, and was dressed in a tuxedo. He looked like Keanu Reeves, but older and with a mustache.

“You must be Freddy,” said Cybre. Freddy smiled and took her hand and kissed it. Cybre blushed.
“Yes I am, ma’am. My full name is Fredderson John Schmitt. You may be?
“Tyre, Cybre Sky Tire.” Cybre said as she randomly thought up a middle name. She curtsied. Tammy stuck her head out the door.

“Tom! Your friend is here! Could you get the door? Everyone else, wash up!” As the group went inside, Cybre saw Lily. Lily was about five-eleven, black hair, blue eyes and was in a red dress. When Lily saw Mark, she did a little squeal. Mark saw her and ran to hug her. “Hi Aunt Lil’!”
“Mark, my how you’ve grown! What have you been feeding him?” Lil’ said, and then saw Cybre. “Who might this be?” Fred spoke.
“This is Ms. Cybre Tire, Lily. Cybre, this is Lillian Gee Schmitt.” Cybre curtsied a bit and Lil’ did the same, and then Lil’ hugged Cybre. “Call me Lil’.”

As Cybre came back from the bathroom, she stopped in the doorway to the dinning room. Standing next to Tom and Mark was a tall man, about six-foot-three, jay blue eyes, black-brown hair, and a long nasty scar down his left cheek and over his left eye. Cybre heart froze as he turned to look at her. Mr. Korranah?!?!

Cybre gulped when Korranah looked at her. Tom smiled. “George, this is Cybre. Cybre, this is...”
“George Korranah, Agent of OBOT, otherwise know as the Outer Being Observations and Testing Agency. I'm pleased to meet you, Sir.” Cybre stuck out her hand to the shocked Mr. Korranah. He then stuck out his hand too and shook it. Immediately, Cybre was thrown into the same series of memories she had encountered when she shook Tom’s hand. When she let go, Korranah looked a little pale.
“How did you know that?”
“My uncle Jim use to work there. I met him a couple of times before he died. He was actually my mother’s 3rd cousin twice removed or her 2nd cousin three times removed. Anyhow, he died 3 years ago. He never told us his last name though.” Cybre said and Mark laughed. Thankfully, Tammy called everyone to the table before Korranah could ask her more.

At the table, there was more food then Cybre could ever imagine. There was turkey, potatoes, corn, peas, yams with marshmallows, pies, salad, and so much more. Cybre decide to have a little of everything. While they were eating, Cybre listened as the adults talked about the stock market, cars, traveling, religion, superstition, and then parents. When they began to speak of what their parents did for a living, someone asked her what Cybre’s dad did for a living. Cybre stopped eating to think.

“I really don’t know. All I know is that he’s almost on call 15 hours of the day and he has to drive to the outskirt of Sacramento to get to work. He’s working today so that we can go up to South Carolina to visit my Father’s family on winter break.”
“What about your mother?” asked Della, and Cybre bit her lip a bit.
“She’s dead.” Everyone was quiet for a moment.
“So, where in South Carolina do they live in?” asked Freddy.
“They live in the outskirts of Summerville. That’s where a lot of my family on both sides lived.”
From there, the conversation went to where they use to live, genealogy, and recipes as Tammy passed out the pies.

After Cybre had helped the ladies clear the table and put food in Tupper-wares, Korranah came up to her. “So, how did you know my name?”
“I knew it from television. I wanted to ask you what you thought of those balls of flames falling on June 3rd and August 20th. I got to see both of them fall. Do you really think that they might be aliens in them?” Cybre asked.
“No, do you?”
“Well, yes, I do. A long time ago, 5 robot-like aliens attacked three children. One of the children died. Before that happened, though, a group of agents caught 6 of the robot- like aliens. They studied them, and one of them died, creating the others to explode in fury and destroy the base and kill agents.”
“How did you know…” asked Korranah.
“My uncle told me. So tell me, is it true?”
“Yes. Those same agents believe that the balls of flames are the same things that they captured, and so do I.” Cybre was about to ask him something else when his phone went off.

Suddenly, Tom head came around the corner. “George, I thought I asked that there be no phones!”
“I know, but I be fired if I don’t answer this phone,” he called back. He picked up the phone “This is Korranah.” Cybre went into his head.
“Sir, we have a lead! There one of these thing driving around Sacramento, “said a man n the other end, “It's a silver corvette. I have agents pursuing it now. They want you there.”
Stormtire! Cybre thought as she exited Korranah’s head. Korranah looked at her. “Did you say something?”
“No.” Cybre said, but she half there trying to get a hold of Stormtire to warn him. He didn’t answer .Darn it. Gotta go. Cybre looked at the wall clock. 9:36 P.M. Thank You!

“Good grief! I gotta go!” Cybre said to Mark. Mark looked at her.
“You’re goanna walk home?” he asked. Tammy and Della looked up.
“No, I have my bike at the end of the driveway.”
“I can drive you home, Cybre,” said Tammy.
“No, I’m good. I gotta go.” Cybre said as she pulled on her tennis shoes. “Bye!”
“Bye!”

As she stepped outside, Mark stepped outside with her. “Do you really have to go?” he asked. Cybre looked him in the eyes.
“Yes Mark, sorry I couldn’t hang out any longer.”
“It’s ok. My family is goanna be here till Sunday, so you can visit again, right?”
“I hope so.” Unless I’m caught, I won't.

As Cybre got on her bike, Korranah began to get in his car. “Cybre,” he said, and Cybre froze. “You sure you don’t need a drive home?”
“Yeah,” she looked back at him, now seeing him as an enemy instead of a friend. If you even scratch Stormtire, you’re dead. Cybre thought as he drove away. I need to get to the cliffs.

Chapter 11
As Stormtire drove towards San Francisco, he thought of what he would do if he ran into a Tradicon party. Should I kill them or should I leave ‘em? While he drove around, he kept his eyes peeled. Suddenly, he saw something suspicious. A police car had been parked in the alley and now had pulled back a little. Drat . He focused on it enough to see that there was a fat man sitting in the driver’s seat, stuffing his face with a doughnut. Stormtire let himself relax, but still drove at a slow pace in case it was a hologram.

As he drove around, he suddenly noticed a black car following him. Quickly, he turned left. The car followed. He used his scanners to see what it was. Stormtire’s heart almost stopped when his scanners told him what was behind him. It wasn’t a Tradicon; it was two men, with a radiation scanner. OBOT!!! Stormtire tore off towards the side streets. The car also sped up, and he saw red lights flash on the top of the cab.

As he ripped around corners and tore tough alleys, more black cars joined the chase. He knew that he was in big trouble if he didn’t lose them. Suddenly, his left side was blocked off from turning. He turned right, and then saw to his horror that it was an alley, with a dead end more than 600 yards away. Stormtire morphed into his robot form and ran for the wall. He jumped into the air and began to climb, but the wall was steep. He slipped and fell.
~
Cybre flew as fast as she could, turning on every bit of radar looking for Stormtire’s radiation signature. When she was five second away from Sacramento, she got what she was looking for. She found him; speeding as fast as he could away from a half dozen black cars. Ten seconds away. Cybre hit the throttle, and then to her horror saw Stormtire in the distance with a helicopter flying over him.

As she watched, he jumped, started to climb the wall, and fell. As she got closer, she turned into the chopper’s radio.
“Ready the net.” NO!!!!! As she got close enough, she screamed.
“STORMTIRE!!!” He looked up.
“Fire!” The chopper let the net go.
~
As Stormtire hit the ground, he saw the chopper hovering around him. People began to shout. He noticed that the chopper was preparing a gun to shot at him. Then, he heard a scream, someone calling his name. He looked up. CYBRE! As he watched, Cybre morphed into her robot form and drove forward. Right then, the gun went off.

Almost in slow motion, Cybre spun and sliced the net in half with her sword. She flipped over and landed on the ground between him and the OBOT. Letting out a war cry, she hit the ground with her fist. The car’s windows exploded into smithereens. Stormtire grabbed her around the waist. “Go! Go!” Cybre spread her wings out, knocking down cans, and with on powerful sweep, took off.
~
As Cybre hit the ground, she targeted all the windows on the cars. She let out a high pitched cry, and hit the ground hard. A sound wave hit the windows, shattering them. Before she took off, she looked into the eyes of Korranah. Not today. She told him, and then flew into the air.

As she flew, she morphed into a plane and told Stormtire that he shouldn’t have gone. Stormtire just hung on to her, being a bit spooked.
“I was looking for Tradicons. You can’t blame me. Anyhow, how did you know I was in trouble?”
“One of the agents was at Mark’s house. I heard his phone conversation and knew you were in trouble.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure I could have got out of it.”
“Oh yeah… OHH HITSOY!” Cybre swerved as bullet whizzed by. “We have company!”
Behind Cybre were two F-16 Fighting Falcons, shooting at her.
~
Pilots Taffy Kicks and Mike Mats had been torn away from their time with their families due to an emergency call. When they got into the air, they were told that an enemy country plane was flying north. As Taffy came in closer, she saw something on the back of the plane. “Is that a robot?” asked Mike, the pilot flying in the other F-16. The intercom came on. “What do you see, Jay… hey...This is Agent Korranah of the OBOT, and I am ordering you to shot down that plane!”
“Who?” said Taffy, dumb founded.
“Just do it!”
Mike fired of the first shots. As she watched, the plane swerved and the thing on the back almost fell off. “Did you hit it, Jay 1?” asked the mysterious Mr. Korranah on the other end.
“I don’t know, but one thing’s for sure, it’s diving towards the ground,” said Mike.
~
“Stormtire, I have to put you down,” said Cybre as she began to dive. “I try to get their attention and you drive towards the cliffs. I’ll meet you there.”
“Ok, got it.” Stormtire said. When Cybre was about 300 feet from the ground, she yelled to Stormtire to jump. He did, hit the ground, skidded, morphed into a car, and sped off.

Cybre flew back upwards, avoiding bullets and missiles. As she round around, she morphed into her robot form. The two planes swerved away, just barley avoiding her, then turned back around, and shot at her. She pulled her sword and blocked the ammo using her sword and wings. Suddenly, one of the missiles bounced of her wing and hit one of the wings of one of the planes.
~
When Tammy saw the plane form into a robot, she almost lost control of her plane. “What the hell was that?” she asked. Mike cursed over the line.

“Shoot it! Shoot it!” yelled Korranah. As Tammy turned around, she let the last of her missiles out. The robot pulled a sword of some type and began to hit the missiles back, making them explode. Suddenly, one of the missiles hit her plane wing. “Mayday! Mayday! Plane has been hit by rebounding missiles! Mayday! Mayday! I’m going down!” As she tried to pull the eject level, it jammed. “NO NO NO! My eject lever is jammed!”

As Taffy’s plane approached the ground, she closed her eyes. Suddenly, there was a jolt and she opened her eyes, she was fifty feet away from ground, suspended. As she looked, she saw the robot holding Taffy’s plane by its remaining wing. Please just leave me alone, said a voice in her head. What in the world? She thought looking at the robot.
~
Cybre had seen the plane begin to fall. Eject! Eject! Over the plane intercom, she heard the pilot. It was a female voice. Her eject seat was jammed. Cybre knew this was her fault, and she had to fix it. With all her might, she dove and grabbed the plane’s wing, trying to stop it in mid-air. Finally, it stopped about fifty feet from the ground. The pilot looked up at her. Please just leave me alone. Cybre thought to the pilot.

Right then, she felt a boiling pain in her right leg. She screamed and dropped to the ground, also dropping the plane. Bullets from the remaining plane had hit her. The pain was almost unbearable. As she squirmed and bled on the ground, holding her leg in pain, she heard voices over the intercom.
“I hit it! I repeat I have hit the target,” said the pilots of the still-flying F-16. “Target down. Taffy, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
“Jay 1,” said Korranah “Is the target down?”
“Yes, but it’s trying to get up. I shot it in the leg.”
“Shoot its other leg.”
“No, stop! Don’t shoot!” said Taffy, the female pilot “I repeat, don’t shoot! You hurt her enough.”
~
Taffy unlatched her mask and climbed out of the cockpit. She walked toward the robot cautiously. The robot was trying to get up. It was huge. Taffy guessed it had to be at least eighty feet tall and had two large wing that when stretched out could cover two of her own planes. She cursed to herself, and then froze when she saw Taffy. As Taffy moved closer, she could see the fear in her eyes. “Thanks for saving my life,” said Taffy. “Maybe what I do here will count as a get outta dodge move. You don’t have much time. Now, get up.”
~
As Cybre listened to her, she slowly began to try to get up. She slid and moaned, but kept trying. The whole time, Taffy helped her vocally, down hands motions and jumping back every once and a while to avoid Cybre’s wings. “C’mon! Get up! You can do it! C’mon.” Finally, Cybre was on her feet.

“Now, go. You don’t have much time.” Taffy pulled the mask to her face. “Mike, let her go.”
Korranah began to yell over the intercom. “No, don’t let it get away! I repeat, do not! Agents are almost there.”
“I don’t take orders from you!” said Taffy.
“Taffy, I hope you know what you’re doing. Ok, I’ll let her go,” said Mike.
“Thanks Buddy.,” she said, and pulled the mask off. “Why are you still here, you need go.”
“I just wanted to say,” said Cybre, and she could see the shock on Taffy’s face, “Keldoree, Thank You.” With that, Cybre leapt up, morphed into a plane, and flew away.
~
Taffy had been shocked when the robot had spoken to her. As she watched it fly away, black cars pulled up. “Where did it go?” asked a man.
“She made like a banana and split,” said Taffy, and the man grunted. The men and women in the cars began to fan out, looking around. One woman came up to her to check her for any wounds; also to ask her were the robot went. Taffy just replied “Yes.” and “No.”, deciding that she wouldn’t dig herself a deeper hole.

When she got to the base, a man with a long scar on his face was standing next to her general. The general looked over, and rolled his eyes when the man with the scar looked away. Taffy grunted a bit. It must be the Korranah dude. The man walked up.
“You must be Korranah,” said Taffy, looking him right in the eyes. He didn’t look happy.
“Pilot, did you know what you just did on that field?” asked Mr. Korranah.
“I was chasing a so called ‘enemy country plane’ and I got hit by one of my own missiles and the robot like plane like saved my butt?”
“You just let a threat get away.”
“A "threat" get away? Sir, it was trying to defend itself and whoever else it was carrying. That ‘threat’ came down and grabbed my plane so it wouldn’t crash and blow me away. That ‘threat’ was just as scared as me when I was falling though the air. I’d rephrase what I’d call her, sir.”

“Her?” said Mike, whose was listening to the entire thing.
“Uh-huh. It was a ‘her’. She spoke to me, twice.” Korranah’s ears picked up.
“What did she say?”
“Well, the first time she spoke she was holding my plane up. Her lips didn’t move, but it was like she was right behind me. She said, ‘Please just leave me alone’. The second time she said, ‘Keldoree, Thanks.’, but she actually spoke with lips that time.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah, why, did you hear something too?”
“No, but you are in a lot of trouble, pilot, for not following orders.” Korranah walked away, and Taffy spit on the ground.
“Next time I see him, I hope that robot shoots him in the leg.”
~
Cybre tried to fly as fast as she could towards the cliffs, but she was blacking out. About 2 miles away from the cliffs, she saw Stormtire, driving mock speed. Cybre! He thought to her. Before she could responded, she lost control and stared going down. She fought herself to stay up, but she crashed right into the water near the cliffs were she hid.

Cybre morphed back into robot form crawled towards the beach, wings and right leg and then laid there for a few minutes. She heard someone calling for her. “Cybre, Where are you? Cybre!” she looked up a little.
Stormtire... she thought to him, he looked over, then saw her.
“Cybre!” He ran over and skidded, kneeling by her to look at her. “Are you OK?”
“I’ve been shot in the leg.” Cybre said weakly.
“Cybre, you’re goanna be fine. Cybre, can you hear...” Stormtire said, but Cybre blacked out before she could say another thing.
~
When Cybre woke up, she was lying in the cave, in human form. She looked down at her leg. It wrapped slightly. She unwrapped her leg a little, and didn’t see any blood, just scars. She looked more. Same all the way down. He must have used the Sacred Water. She tried to get up, but her leg still had a little pain in it. Slowly, she got up and hobbled outside.
~
Stormtire was sitting outside talking with Lionel when he saw Cybre hobble out. She looked a bit groggy.
“Hello sleepyhead.” He said
“Did you use the Sacred Water to fix me?” Well good morning to you too. thought Stormtire.
“Yes. You were bleeding badly. Had to pry the bullets outta you leg. I didn’t have the proper equipment to stitch you up, though. So Lionel dug though your stuff and found the Water. I had to use quiet a lot to heal your wounds.”
“That’s all you did? Are you sure?”
“Well, we also gave you a little to drink. You were going in and out a lot, so we gave you some to stop and relax. You’ve been out for a while.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“Well, it’s eleven.”
“That’s not bad.”
“And it’s Saturday.”
“Oh. Well, thanks.”
“You’re welcome.”

He watched as Cybre hobbled back into the cave, then came back out about ten minutes later in jeans and a long sleeved shirt. “Where are you off to?”
“I'm off to Mark’s. I promised I’d come by while his relatives were still here. He said his cousin drive him insane.”
“I know how that feels.” Stormtire said, and Cybre laughed as she tried to climb the cliff wall. Stormtire watched in amazement as she balanced herself along the cut in steps on the wall, finally pulling herself up. She reached into the bush at the top and pulled out her bike. “See you later.” He called. She said something back, probably bye and thanks about the leg, and left.
~
As Cybre approached Mark’s house, she could see him and his cousins out in the lawn, arguing... Uh-oh
As Cybre got closer, she began to hear what the feud was about. Mark had a skateboard in his hand and was insisting he had to go. Chess had one is his hand, saying he wanted to go too. Mark wasn’t going to let him. As Cybre got closer, Chess got on his skateboard and pushed off...right into Cybre’s way. “Look Out!!!!” she yelled. Chess turned, but too late.

Cybre crashed right into Chess, knocking him flat on his back. Cybre then fell over his skateboard, resulting in her flying forward. Cybre stretched herself out to where her hands hit the ground, did a front-flip, and landed one her feet. She turned around to access the situation.

Mark was shaking his head, Hope was absolutely freaked out, Chess was white, and Junior was laughing. Cybre stood up and walked over to Chess. He had landed butt first, but he had still had hit the ground hard. When Cybre had to protect herself, she became the weight of a small car, and that’s when she was in human form. She looked at him. “I said look out.” She said as she bent down to check him for broken bones. He had none.

While Cybre was checking Chess for injuries, she noticed he had started to get his color back, and was becoming beet red. “You’re alright. C’mon, let me help you.” Cybre held out her hand, and Chess grabbed in. She yanked him up, and she could tell he was a bit surprised.

“Sorry about that.” Cybre said, and Chess exploded.
“No you’re not! You did that on purpose!”
“Uh, no she didn’t. You pulled out right in front of her. Neither of you saw it coming. So, it’s no ones fault, no one did it on ‘purpose’,” said Mark. Chess turned towards him
“Shut up, stupid. This is all you’re fault. Anyway, I sure Cybre has her own mouth that she can use to try to talk herself outta being punched in the face.” He turned back to the now infuriated Cybre. “Are you goanna talk yourself outta this, Cybre Sky Tire? I mean, what type of idiot parent would name their kid ‘Cybre’? And 'Sky'? I mean, C...”

Before Chess could get another word out of his mouth, Cybre reeled back and punched him in the face. Her hand burned but it was a satisfying burn. Chess fell back, nose bleeding. “One thing you need to know about me.” Cybre said as she spat at Chess, “Is that you never insult my name. You think you can dish it out, but you can’t take it. Hey Mark.”
“Yeah?” said Mark, apparently please someone showed Chess a lesson.
“Were you headed?”
“Off to the skate park. The gang called and they wanna hang out. My dad said it was fine I go.”
“OK then, let’s go.”

As they pushed off, Hope called after them. “Wait, you guys gotta take us with you!”
“Uh, no we don’t.” said Mark, “Our parents didn’t say we had to, just to be back by four. See ya!”
~
When they got back to Mark’s house, Tom was waiting for them. “Mark, Cybre, we need to talk to you.” Mark became ghostly white for a second, but then saw how calm Cybre was. When they stepped in, everyone was sitting on the couches. Chess had an ice bag to his face. I must have broken his nose. Thought Cybre as she walked into the room, everyone was tense. “Could we talk to you first, Cybre, in the kitchen?” asked Della.
“Sure.”

When Cybre went into the kitchen everyone except the other kids and Lil’ were there. “Cybre, how did Chess break his nose?” asked Della.
“I broke his nose? Ouch. Well, it all started when I was coming down the road. Chess pulled out on his skateboard in front of me and I crashed into him, knocking him flat. Well, I said I was sorry and helped him up, but he blew up. Mark said it was no one’s fault that I crashed into Chess, and Chess said some pretty rude stuff to him. Then when he turned back around to talk to me, he started to insult my name. Well, I don’t take kindly to people insulting my name, and I was already mad at him for blowing up and talking like he did to Mark, so I punched him in the face, told him to straighten up, and me and Mark left.’
“It happened just like that?” asked Freddy. Freddy must be a lawyer.
“Yep, just like that.”
‘Thanks Cybre. You can go and sit down in the living room and ask Mark to come here.”

After another hour or so of everyone telling there story, the entire family sat down. Freddy spoke. “Well, it sounds like some of you have been lying to us. Three of the five people who witnessed the nose-breaking have the same story and that would be Junior, Cybre, and Mark. They all said that Cybre punched Chess in the face after he insulted her name.” Hope’s jaw dropped, but Chess sat silently like a mass murderer just sentenced to death row. “Is that true, Chess?” asked Della. Chess nodded.

“Chess, now what I’m goanna do is goanna hurt your pride more than a spank or a month of dishes.” Della said, and Chess looked at her. “I want you to say you’re sorry to Cybre about insulting her.” For a brief moment, Chess had a look on his face as if he was just sentenced to death row twice. But he decided it might be better that that.

“I’m sorry Cybre, for insulting your name that is.”
“Very good Chess; Cybre, you may go now if you want.”
“Thanks, I have to get home for dinner. But I did want to tell Chess I’m sorry that I broke his nose. But be glad that I hit you when I did. Because one day, you could have done the same thing that you did to me to someone else, and they could have broken more that just your nose. I know, I’ve done it and I’ve had it happen. That’s why I don’t put up with people who do it to me. Goodbye. See ya Monday, Mark.”
“Goodbye,” said almost everyone.
~

Chapter 12

“I’m already Christmases out, and it’s not even Christmas yet!” said Liz as she looked at the shops filled with Christmas gifts and decorations. It was a week before Christmas and the temperature was already very cold. Everyone at school was in a buzz about Christmas gifts, relatives, travels, and spirit. Cybre didn’t really care about it, until she heard rumor of a Christmas Party going on at school.

At first, Cybre thought it as a myth, but one day, a flier went up on the school tack board. Everyone was crowded around the board when Cybre got to school. Some of the kids were hooting, while others sulked. She walked up to the gang.

“What’s up?” she asked.
“The school is having a Christmas party the night before Christmas Break!” said Mark, smiling a bit. “There’s goanna be food, drink, and dancing, for those who want to come. Also, the girl’s have dance cards.”
“Yeah, some of the guys from higher grades were telling us it’s great and that’s how they actually met some girlfriends they have now.” Said Jimmy, then he looked over at Cybre. Cybre saw him wink.
“No, No, NO Jimmy!’ She said, turning red as some of the boys in the gang laughed. “I wouldn’t date you if you paid me. I’d dance, but not date.”
“Ouch, that hurt. Thanks for breaking my heart.” said Jimmy, doing an injured puppy face. Cybre rolled her eyes
“What heart? You have a heart of coal.” said Harry. Jimmy punched Harry as the group laughed.
~
As the dance approached, the girls in the school seemed to go mad over what to wear, who’s taking them, Etc. Cybre just couldn’t wait ‘till it was over. About two days before the dance, she had almost twenty boys already ask her if they could escort her to the dance that night. Each one Cybre told no thank you, but she’d put there name in their dance card.

After turning down another boy; Mary Ann and Liz came over. “My Lord Cybre, you seem to have almost all the boys in school ask if they could escort you. You must be popular in their eyes.” Said Mary Ann. Mary Ann was carrot haired, blue eyed, and five-foot-six, which was tall for her age.
“I think you’re making a fool out of yourself,” said a voice behind Cybre. Foxy, Thought Cybre as she turned, and her minions. Foxy, a blonde haired, dark blue eyed, & five-foot-five girl. Next to her stood her minions; Ginger, Samantha, and Kim, giggling. What a bunch of brats.

“How am I being a fool?” asked Cybre, which made Foxy’s minions laugh harder.
“The boys are just asking you to see how you goanna react, and you making yourself a fool by turning them down. Try to be social and let on.”
“Thanks for your advice Foxy, but I’ve had luck with boys before without using someone’s advice.”
“What type have you had luck with? The nerds?” asked Kim, a 5’5” brunette with purplish eyes.
“No, the ones that think brats waste there time.” Said Cybre and Foxy fumed.
“You think you’re so cute with those cheeky remarks, but you’re not,” said Foxy. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ve gotta run. I have a date to catch.”

With a quick spin, Foxy and her group of fuming chickens stormed off to catch their grasshopper know as a “date”. Cybre smirked, but inside she was boiling. I so wish they were boys. When she turned, Liz and Mary Ann looked surprised and happy. “I love how you just took on those brats!” said Liz. Mary Ann looked a bit worried. “But be warned.” said Mary Ann, “They’re goanna try to ruin any future relationships that you are going to have.”
Cybre looked at M.A. “I’ve had people try to kill me because of a relationship I was in. Do you think I be worried about them?”

Finally, the day came. So many kids were worried about the dance that night that even some of the A+ students got A- or B’s on their semester tests after they had been studying for weeks. Cybre was the only one who scored low who wasn’t excited about the dance. Cybre couldn’t wait ‘till she could go to Formato again. It’s only been 6 months, but it felt like an eternity! She thought as she closed her locker. She was about to leave when she heard someone calling her. She turned and saw Mark.
~
Mark ran up to Cybre, hoping to catch her before she left. Please don’t let her dance card be full… “Can I help you, Mark?”
“Yeah, I uh… want to know if…uh.” He said, stumbling over his words. Come on, spit it out.
“You wanted to know if my dance card was full, huh?” said Cybre, smirking. Mark blushed and nodded. “No, my card actually still has one more space on it. You’ll need to write small thought.” Mark beamed. Yes, yes, yes! He thought, and then couldn’t believe he had thought that. As she took off, Mark had on a smile from ear to ear. The gang walked up.

“Hey Mark, you goanna head to the park with us, we’re… Mark?” asked Tom, and then he waved his hand in front of his face. Wake up, fool!
“Huh? What? Oh. Sure.” He said stupidly. Liz looked at him, and then smirked.
“You’re love struck, Mark!” she said. Mark blushed and the boys looked at him.
“No, I’m not!”
“Yes you are! You’re face gives you away. Look at him! You’re love struck from Cybre.” she continued and the boys laughed. Double R slapped him on the back.
“My man, let me tell you something abut women.”
“What can you tell him about women? You’ve never dared get near a woman beside me.”
“Yeah, but that’s beside the point. This is what my dad told me. He said that once you’ve got a woman that you love, don’t let her go, otherwise a guy can come and take her from you, like Jimmy.”
Mark laughed and Jimmy punched Double R, calling him something that he didn’t pick up.
~
That night, Cybre stepped out onto the curve in beautiful silk blue dress and matching blue shoes & comb-clip. Cybre had been surprised when Tammy gave it to her, telling her that Aunt Lil’ had sent the outfit, wishing her a Merry Christmas and to keep it. It was a bit big, but it would be prefect if another dance sprung up without warning. While she walked into the school, she felt the stares of boys and glares of some girls. As she walked into the gym, she was amazed at the decoration that the school staff had put up in 4 hours.

The room had missile toe, poinsettias, wreaths of holly, and other Christmassy decorations. She looked around the room. In front of the stage there were two long tables with snacks and beverages. Along the walls were chairs about two feet apart from each other, but some couples had moved them closer when they wanted to sit near each other. Other seats were filled with kids who didn’t have dates or those who had been forced to come by their parents. In the middle of the gym was a craze of kids dancing. Every once and a while, you’d see camera men snap a photo of a couple or and unsuspecting kid.

As Cybre took a seat, she noticed a group of boys talking and they kept looking over at her. She realized that some of them were the boys whose names she had put in her dance card. She looked down at her card. Yikes. She looked back up at the boys and smiled. Some of them blushed while others giggled and one puffed out his chest. Suddenly, she heard Liz. “Cybre?” she turned. Standing there was Liz in a linen red dress and Mary Ann in a velvet green dress. At first she didn’t notice them.
“Liz! M.A.! You two look gorgeous!” she said as she hugged them.
“We didn’t even recognize you till you looked down at your card. So, how many on the waiting list?”
“I have a lot.” Cybre said as she looked down and sighed. “I actually don’t know who to start with.”

“How ‘bout I help with that?” said a male voice. The trio looked up. Standing there was a boy with black hair and a black tuxedo. Cybre cocked her head.
“Mark?!?!” she asked, and Mark laughed. “Oh my goodness, I didn’t even recognize you!”
“I can do that sometimes.” He said, then leaned over and took her hand, bowing. “May I have this dance?” Before she could responded, a camera man ran over, took about five pictures within those 2 seconds, and zoomed off. Cybre laughed.
“You may!” Cybre said as she stood up, curtsied, and then pulled him onto the dance floor.
~
By the time the dance was almost over, Cybre had danced with everyone on her dance list and even danced with a few that had girls. Cybre walked over to the tables and grabbed some punch and some snacks. After plopping into a chair, she looked out along the dance floor. Even though she had had lots of fun, Cybre felt sad deep inside. After she finished her snack, she noted a couple of to the side dancing. Cybre felt a deep twang in the bottom of her heart. I wish…

The young man twirled the girl, and she lost her balance. As she fell, the boy caught her. She smiled, then grabbed his face and kissed him. Then she leapt away and giggled at the surprised boy. Cybre smiled, and could feel the same feelings that both boy and girl were feeling. Young love. It's exciting but foolish. Cybre looked down at her watch. 9: 43 P.M.
Gotta go. As she was leaving, she cast on long look back to the couple, feeling a tear in her eye. What Cybre didn’t notice is that Mark saw the look, and so did a camera.

After she called Stormtire, Cybre sat on the bench, letting silvery tears crawl down her cheek. Why? Why? Why!!! She thought as she bit her lip, letting another tear crawl down her face. Slowly, she pulled the medallion out and opened it. I want to see you again, but I opened my mouth and was mean. Now, it’s over, and we’ll never be a “we” again.

“Cybre?” The voice startled her so much that she almost fell of the bench. She spun and saw Mark, stepping down the steps.
“Oh, it’s you! You startled me.” She said as she slipped the medallion back away.
“Oh. Sorry about that. Are you leaving?”
“Yeah, I’m actually going to my relatives’ house tomorrow. We’ve been packing all week. Did I tell you?”
“No, but I could tell something was on your mind. You wrote ‘HOME’ on your desk a few days ago.”
“Oh.” Cybre said as she blushed. Duh.
“Well, before you go, I wanted to give you this.” He handed her a little box. When she opened it, she gasped. Inside the box was a model of a bird flying made of a black stone.
“It’s Obsidian stone. If you put it to the light, the statue looks really cool. It changes color or something like that. I thought you’d like it.”
“Oh Mark, I…I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s OK; I don’t expect you to say anything.” He said, and Stormtire pulled up, doing a little honk.
“I have to go. I’ll be back the day before school starts back up.”
“Bye!” he called as she waved, slid into the car, and Stormtire drove off.
~
Cybre was so glad to see the portal open. It was dawn of the first day of Christmas break, and both she and Stormtire couldn’t wait to get back to Formato. Neither slept much, for they knew that it would be night when they got to there. As she stepped though, she felt a strong pull, a shock, and saw a bright light. Then, she stepped out. On the other side were Braxatron, Metalhood, Wrench, Sunstreak, Firetracks, and Smalltire. She smiled and hugged Smalltire. Right behind her was Stormtire.

“Hi Cybre! How’s Earth?” asked Smalltire, apparently very happy to have her good friend Cybre and her husband back.
“Great. I didn’t even remember it. School’s a pain, thought.”
“Made friends?”
“Actually, I’ve made quite a few. Some of them are annoying, like Sunstreak, while other are awesome.” She said and Smalltire laughed.
“Well, it’s good to have you back. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some thing to settle with he whom I united.” She said, and it was Cybre’s turn to laugh.

Cybre looked over and saw Stormtire fake punching at Sunstreak while Firetracks laughed. Cybre turned a bit red, knowing that he was probably telling Firetracks about the fight that had occurred two days after they landed on earth. Smalltire walked over, and before she could say a word, Stormtire grabbed her, picked her up, and kissed her. Cybre just had to laugh while the two boys made disgusted face. “Yuck!”

Metalhood had to agree with him, but Braxatron and Wrench laughed. So did Cybre. Suddenly, she heard someone. She turned with sword drawn, but when she saw who it was, she jumped in delight. “Millie!”

Cybre was so happy to see Millie. She had not seen Millie for over a year. As they walked down the path, they talked about what had been happening over time. Finally, they came to the north gate of Julipa, translated as “Taste of Heaven”. Two guards stood at the top of the wall. When they saw who it was approaching, they called for the gatekeeper to open the gate. As the gate opened, Cybre couldn’t help saying “Home.”

Chapter 13


Julipa was a beautiful place in Cybre’s eyes. If someone tried to ask Cybre to explain it, all she could say is “A taste of heaven”. The place was made of metal, but high tech. It looked like Zion from The Matrix, but way better. Cybre looked up to see needle towers, shining as bright as they always had. Cybre smiled. As the group began to walk to the bunkers, quite a few Trudacon looked up, and many of them said, “Welcome back, Cybre.”

Cybre was glad to get to the bunkers. Sleep. She thought as they took the elevator up. Cybre, Millie, Stormtire, and Smalltire were the last to get off. As Cybre entered her bunk, Millie came in with her. Cybre took on her human form, and then hugged Millie. “I am so glad you made it.” She said. Millie smiled.
“I’m glad I came too. So, what’s been happening down on earth? I want to go there and see if I can find my family, but I don’t have the money yet.”
~
Cybre and Millie stayed up until about 10 o’clock talking about what had happened during the time Cybre was on earth. Millie could tell that Mark must have a crush on her. As she listened to Cybre talk about the dance, she laughed about her dance card. When Cybre came to the part about the gift, Millie’s ears perked. He gave her a gift? He must really like her. But why isn’t she opening her eyes to it?
“So,” said Millie, “He took you out to ice cream more than once, gave you a handcrafted necklace for your birthday, did other countless thing, including giving you a beautiful model of a bird, and you still haven’t admitted that you kinda like him?”
“I do like him, as a friend. I mean, I just think me and him are tight, but not romantic.” Cybre said, looking out the window. “I’m not ready for love and heartbreak, again. I have to get to bed. Tomorrow, I’ve got a lot to catch up on.”
“Good night Cybre.” Said Millie, a bit shocked.
“G’night.”
~
The next morning, Cybre heard a knock on her door. She looked up at her clock. 6:30 A.M. Cybre blew the hair outta her eyes as whoever it was knocked again. Julipa life starts early. “OK! OK! I get it! Give me five!”
“Cybre?” asked a voice on the other side of the door. Her head shot up. Is that?
She shot out of bed in her jeans and bra, went to Formato form, and yanked open the door. “BOO!” said a voice as someone jumped from around the corner. She ducked, and then knocked whoever it was to the ground. When she looked, it was Sunstreak, eyes wide. Then Cybre heard laughing. She looked up. “Juniper!”

Juniper hugged Cybre. Juniper was a black eighty foot female robot who was about a month younger than Sunstreak. Juniper, also known as Juni, had pieces of spiked metal that stoke out the on the side and back of her head, giving the impression of short choppy hair. She also had a small pair of wing, not big enough to fly with, but big enough to be the size of car doors.
Juniper hung with Sunstreak, Cybre, Firetracks, and Fireeye when he was still alive, but mostly, she hung out with Sunstreak. Even though they wouldn’t admit it, they were closer than just “friends”. At least Sunstreak acted a bit more mature around her.

Cybre was so glad to see Juniper. Beside Millie, she was one of Cybre’s close friends. As they chated, Millie yelled, “What the heck fell? It felt like a stinking earthquake.”
“Ah, it was just graceful here.” Said Cybre, and she heard Millie laugh.
“We wanted to come up to see if you wanted to come down to the mess hall with us. They finally stopped burning the food.” Juniper said, and Sunstreak looked at her.
“I'd take burned food over Wrench or Stormtire’s cooking. Tasted like rubber. At least you know how to cook, Cybre. That I have to hand to you.”

Suddenly, Stormtire walked by on his way to the elevators. “It called La Tire Sup Aroma! Respect ancient cuisine! Cybre, Braxatron wants to see you in Mess Hall.”
“Oh the Joy.” said Cybre sarcastically and Stormtire had to smile. As he stepped into the elevator, Sunstreak grunted and said “La Tire Sup Aroma taste like a darn tire. See you at MH.”
~
Cybre pulled the lever on the so called “food” dispenser. It came out kind of greenish purple. Cybre looked at the food and bit her bottom lip. Sludge made of oils, minerals, vitamins, and metal grains. Oh yum. She sighed and sat down next to The Blades, a group which contained everyone she was friends with. It was her, Metalhood, Firetracks, Juniper, Sunstreak, & Firstshot, another female robot who was eighty-three feet tall greenish colored robot.
Firstshot had metal-strand-like hair that was pulled back into a pony tail and had pointy shoulders and collarbone. She wasn’t skinny like Smalltire and Juni, but had large muscular body. Firetracks was almost as tall as Stormtire, but he was grayish-black. He had metal that stuck out on his checks, giving the impressions of muttonchops, and metal that liked like cups above his ears. He looked kinda like Wolverine.
When Cybre looked at Firetracks, he reminded her of his father. He had his father complexion: tall, strong, confident, but his mother attitude of being kind, good sense of humor, and playing hard to get with more girls than Cybre could remember.

As Cybre listened to the group chat, she realized that so much had changed within the six months of her being gone and the four months of not being with the whole group. Cronaton had not been raiding very often; one of the high leaders had died, putting a younger person in his place, which almost everyone thought was a bad move, etc.
As they talked, Cybre noticed that not only the world around the Blades had changed, but the Blades had changed too. Metalhood and Firstshot seemed to be getting more serious, and so did Sunstreak and Juniper. Firetracks was also hinting he was meeting with a girl, but, as usual, didn’t reveal who she was. My God, thought Cybre as she looked at the group. They’re become adults. Soon enough, The Blades will be no more.

While they began to get into the topic of weapons and new warriors, Cybre felt someone tapping on her shoulder. She turned and saw Braxatron. Cybre did the “one sec” signal and excused herself, finishing the last bit of the sludge. As she walked up to Braxatron, he didn’t look to happy. She stopped a little when she saw he was talking to Crosslink. Crosslink was about as old as Braxatron and the bearer of bad news to almost anyone. Cybre gulp. The council wants to talk to me, I bet. Oh boy. Crosslink saw her coming up to them.

“Welcome back Cybre, it’s good to have you.”
“Thanks. You wanted to see me?”
“Yes,” said Braxatron. “Stormtire was telling us of an event that happened the 26th of November. He said that you two ran into trouble that night, and you were shot in the leg. May we ask by whom?”
As Cybre told them the story of the run in with Korranah and the OBOT, Crosslink’s eyes narrowed a little bit more ever second ‘till they were almost closed.

“So, you went to this boy’s house and that’s how the whole thing started?”
“Yeah, you see, I kind of dropped into Korranah’s…”
“Wait, did you just say Korranah?” asked Crosslink, eyes widening to almost the size of tire wells.
“Yes, he’s an agent of the OBOT, and he’s also one of the two surviving kids who were attacked by Cronaton, and Mark’s step father is the other kid.”
“But he works for the OBOT now?”
“Yeah, he’s one of their top agents.”

“Cybre, I want to warn you, Korranah is very dangerous. He’s captured warrior from both sides. Last time he captured a Formato, it was one of Cronaton’s top men, and that was only two years ago. I want you to try to lay low, and even though you did what you thought was right by saving Stormtire, you shouldn't have. We can’t lose you to some amndoyed testing facility for trying to be a hero.” said Crosslink.
“You’re telling me I should have let my best friend go thought what I went though almost 7 years ago?” said Cybre, getting mad. Braxatron butted in.
“No, that’s not what he means, he taking about when you saved the pilot.”
“Oh what, and make me look more dangerous than who I am? No, I’ve killed enough people with the mistakes I made.”
“What you did was even more stupid than letting the pilot die!” said Crosslink, and Cybre’s eyes narrowed. She felt the metallic feathers do an irritated wiggle.
“You might call me stupid, but what I did saved a life and put me as not very dangerous in more people eyes than you could ever do. Now excuse me, but I’d like to finish my food.”
~
Cybre got to her bunker, angrier than the devil on a rampage. Crosslink had almost driven her to the limit. Jerk. She sprawled across the bed, warding away the plug that tried to plug itself into her spinal column. Formato beds were nothing like human beds. They were made of one long, thick, but soft cord. One end was plugged into the ground for power and the other end had a plug that stuck into a jack-like thing where the skull and spine connect on Formatos. While she lay there, she had this sudden urge to reach over and open the draw next to her.

Cybre reached her hand in, she felt around. She pulled out what looked like and oversized polshaone. As she flipped it open, she was surprised to see it said that she had a message. It was from a private sender. She sat up slowly, not believing her eyes. She looked at the date it was sent: August 20th. She opened the message.

I’m not sure if you have this thing anymore, but it’s worth a shot to send you a message. Tonight, Cronaton sends out his minions. You should be able to see them. Any who, I just wanted to tell you that I understand what you told me. We both have separate paths. I hope that you find you’re while I find mine. I love you, Happy Birthday. Or should I say, Happy 6th anniversary of being free. 

As Cybre read the message, she felt a tear roll down her cheek. Slowly, she pulled out the medallion and opened it. She read it, and then read the message that had been sent to her. She closed the medallion and clutched it to her chest, letting another tear roll down her cheek. Don’t cry, it’s OK, don’t cry. She thought to herself, trying to make herself stop. She lay back down, wrapping her wings around her, and looked at the pager-like thing. Slowly, she hit the keys that made a message.

I wanted to thank you for the message. I didn’t have the pager, but I have come back for a while. By the time you get this, I’ll be gone again. I’m glad you’ve thought about what I said; heck, I’ve even had to think about it. I just hope that our paths will connect again. Happy New Year, Cy. ;)

Cybre set the date for the message to be sent out at exactly 12 A.M., Jan 1st. She hit the button to confirm it, and then lay back down slowly. Oh, how I wish I could say thanks in person.
~
Time seemed to fly while she was in Julipa. Suddenly, it was the 3rd. Cybre had to depart the morning of the 4th in order to be on earth the last day of Winter Break. While Cybre was packing, Millie knocked on her door. “Come in!” As Millie stepped in, Cybre saw she had something in her hand. She turned and looked at her. “What’s this?”

“Merry Late Christmas!” she said, and Cybre opened the box. Inside was a bracelet made of Kinake. Cybre gasped. Kinake changed colors when it hit the sun, so another name for it was Rainbow Rock.
“Oh Millie, it’s… beautiful. Thank you”
“You’re welcome,” said Millie as she helped Cybre put on the bracelet. As she looked at it, she suddenly remembered what she had for Millie.
“I have something for you too.” Cybre reached in her bag a pulled out a box a bit smaller than the one Millie had given her. Millie opened it and gasped. Inside was a necklace made of glass that looked like an angel flying off. Millie couldn’t say a word.

“I thought you’d like it. You’re welcome.” Cybre said, and Millie looked at her.
“The Angel Flight is the symbol of the Free Spirits…”
“Exactly. Millie, you were more of a Free Spirit then I ever was.” Cybre said, and Millie hugged her tightly.
“Thank you.”
“No, Millie, Thank You. You earned that.”
~
As Cybre shook and hugged goodbye, she felt her heart being tugged to stay, but she knew she had to go back. She had friends down there too. As Stormtire step though, he stuck his hand back though and did the thumbs up. Cybre turned and smiled. “See you all this summer!”
“See ya! Goodbye! Don’t get killed first!” The only thing Cybre didn’t notice was a pair of eyes watching her from a distance.
~

Chapter 14

Beachcliff Middle school held more surprises than even Sunstreak did. While sitting in class, think how to get back at Lionel after he had stuck seaweed in her bed, the teacher bought out a large box labeled “BMS MAILBOX”. Everyone on class began to whisper. Mrs. Hildo began to speak.

“As you all know, Valentine’s Day is next Friday. We don’t do a valentine dance, we used the money for the Christmas Dance, The valentines dance isn’t for kids until they hit 9th grade.” A couple of kids booed, while other sighed in relief. Cybre was one of them who sighed. “This mailbox is for Valentine’s letters. You’ll take the letters home this and next Friday. The box will be on a table near the front doors when you come in and when you leave.”

When school was over, Cybre was standing at her locker getting her books when she heard Foxy and her Minions giggling and clucking like a bunch of darn chickens. Cybre closed her locker and began to look around. Then, there they were, standing next to Ginger’s locker. As Mark walked by, Foxy called out to him in her most girlish tone, fluttering her eyelashes. “Hi Mark.” Cybre felt something inside her boil and then wonder why. Mark looked at Foxy and replied in a simple hi without stopping or shooting a double take. Foxy jaw dropped a little, and her minions clucked nervously.

Mark walked up to Cybre, clearing wanting to ask her something. “Hi.”
“Hi.”
“What up?”
“Not much. I’m goanna go home and try to get homework done. I really hate Mondays.”
Mark laughed. “Hey, um…do you think you could help me with a little test?” he asked, and Cybre looked into his eyes. You’re eyes fool you, that’s not what you wanted to ask.
“Sure. As long as you help me with one of mine, I'll help you. What test is it?”
“It's grammar, how about you?"
“Math.” she said, and made a “just kill me now” face. Even though Cybre had been zapped with the answer to almost everything and was half robot, Math was her worse subject. Mark smiled.

“Also, I wanted to ask you something else.” Mark said.
“What’s that?” She asked turning to him, he opened his mouth, closed it, and then opened it again, blushing. C’mon! Spit it out!
“Want to go get Ice Cream with me next Friday night?”
“On Valentine’s Day?” Cybre asked. Usually any place were young couples could go in Valentine’s Day was packed.
“Uh-huh. Can you do it?”
“Ok, sure, why not. I don’t have anything planned.”

“Ok, great! Oh yeah, have you seen the newspapers?” said Mark, rummaging though his backpack.
“No, why?” asked Cybre, becoming concerned.
“Take a look. This is the San Francisco News. It covers San Francisco, Sacramento, and a couple of middle sized to small towns, we’re included. ” Mark showed her the newspaper clip.

There were pictures of the Beachcliff Middle School Christmas Dance. They had been put in some type of contest for that school. There was a picture of a couple while they kissed. That had been marked as first place photo with the caption of “Aren’t they cute? Special Thanks: Kaden Hills and Summer Song.”. Jimmy had gotten a picture of him with spilled punch all over himself and had cupcake in his face. That photo had been marked as second with the caption “Well, she didn’t take it well. Special Thanks: Jimmy Ethan.” But the third place photo was the one that made Cybre almost drop dead. It was a photo of her looking back over her shoulder just before she left with a tear lightly on her cheek. It was captioned “Cinderella must miss her Prince Charming, but has to leave before 10. Special thanks: Cybre Tire.”

While Cybre looked over the other photos, she saw several photos with her in them. “This is not laying low.” She imagined Braxatron saying.
“When did this come out?” she asked
“Last Friday.” Said Mark
“Does it have our school name?”
“No, they decide just to put our names. The school asked for privacy.” Cybre sighed in relief.
“Mind if I take this home?”
“Yeah sure, we get two copies. But don’t you get it at your house?”
“We couldn’t pay for the membership.”
“Ah, so, still up for next Friday?”
“Sure! See you tomorrow.”
“Asta La Vista, Cybre!”
~
That Friday, Cybre went to her locker to find it filled with letters. She looked at them, flabbergasted. I must be popular. She thought as she shoved them in backpack and slammed her locked shut. Better get to work. When she got outside, she dug into a nearby bush looking for her skateboard. Where is it? As she kept digging, she didn’t notice the large figure approaching her. Finally! Cybre stood up, skateboard in hand, and then noticed a presence. She turned to see Chris, looking angrily at her.

“Hello, Cybre.” He said. Chris breath coated heavily in alcohol. Great, now I gotta deal with a drunk. “We’re goanna have a party tonight, and I wanted you to come.” He said, and Cybre looked at him.
“You’re asking someone who’s broke your nose twice to come and party with you? What drugs are you taking?” Chris smiled a little, and then Cybre heard a click of a switchblade. Crud.
“I insist. It will be great.” He said, right hand a bit behind his back.
“No thanks, I have another party to attend to.” Just as Cybre predicted, Chris grabbed her and brought the knife to her throat, pulling her around the corner of the school. She struggled, and then heard Chris hiss. “Scream and you die.”

“Then kill me!” Cybre screamed, grabbed Chris’ wrist, but not fast enough to where he didn’t give her a good gash. She turned and kicked him between the legs, brought his head to her knee, and kicked his legs out. He fell to the ground. As she leaned against the wall, seeing spots and feeling hot blood run down her throat, she thought to Stormtire.

Mark and the gang rounded the corner then stopped when they saw Cybre. Jimmy began to freak out.
“Oh My...” Liz and Mark launched themselves forward, Mark taking his shirt off and putting it to Cybre’s throat. Liz screamed at Double R and Mary Ann to get help and the rest of them to hold Chris down so if he woke up, he wouldn’t get away.

“Ha. He won’t wake up for hours. I knocked him out cold,” said Cybre, hands shaking a bit. “Where did he cut me?”
“He got you right across the air tube and you’re neck muscles. You’re bleeding badly, but he didn’t cut any arteries.”
“I’ll live,” said Cybre. Mark pushed the shirt tighter. “Mark, are you trying to kill me too? Lighten up.”
“Sorry. Hey Liz, how’d you know what to do?”
“I was goanna ask you the same.” said Liz, asking Tom if he saw Double R of MA yet. He said he didn't.
“I took First Aid Training about two years ago.”
“I took mine last year.”

“Well, your training sucks because you’re trying to kill me at the same time.” Cybre said, butting in.
“Sorry. Don’t talk.” Mark said, lighting his pressure.
“Guys, I’m fine. Let me up,” said Cybre and Liz looked at her as if she had just asked her to finish her off.
“What?” said Tom, looking at Cybre, “Cybre, are you OK? Do you even know what you’re saying?”
“Yeah, I know what I’m saying, just help me up. I’ll get the hospital.”

Suddenly, a man came running towards them. Cybre looked at the man. It's about time, Lionel.
Sorry! I couldn’t get the hologram to work.
“Cybre, Are you OK?”
“I’m fine, Mr. Lionel.”
“I need to get you to a hospital! Your father asked me to come early today, and I’m glad I did.”
“Wait, who are you?” asked Mark as Lionel’s hologram helped Cybre up.
“I’m Mr. Lionel Lion. I work for Storm.”
"Storm's my father,” said Cybre when Mark gave Lionel a funny look. “I’ll be fine. Lionel’s helped me in a lot of things.”
“Come on, let’s get you to the hospital.” said Lionel as he helped Cybre into the passenger side of Stormtire. Quickly, he jumped and told Stormtire to hit it.
~
When Cybre sat in the seat, Stormtire couldn’t believe what he saw. “Get outta here!” yelled Lionel as his hologram pulled the door shut and it disappeared. Stormtire ripped out of the parking lot. Cybre leaned back and cursed. Lionel grabbed the Sacred Water and opened the bottle, pouring a little on Cybre’s wound. She gasped as the wound glowed and healed, leaving a temporary scar and then grabbed the bottle and drank some, coughing and spitting a little when she had finished.

“OK, what the heck happened back there?” asked Stormtire as Cybre examined her neck in the mirror.
“Chris was as drunk as a slug and tried to invite me to a party. When I refused, he put the knife to my throat and pulled me around the corner. He told me not to scream, but I did. When I went to grab his wrist and pull it away, he had already given me a good wound. Well, I knocked him out, and then the gang came around the corner and saw me before I had a chance to escape.”
“You almost got taken to a hospital Cybre. Why didn’t you call me sooner?”
“I called you a soon as I felt the knife hit my throat! I didn’t know it would incline to that!”
“Hey, hey, it’s OK, alright? I didn’t mean it that way. I was just worried.”
“It’s OK.”
~
That Monday, Cybre wore a scarf around her neck. The gang had freaked out a little since her sudden departure, but when they saw she was alright, they were back to normal. Finally, Thursday came and she could get rid of the scarf. When she pulled it off, she was surprised to see that the scar was gone. When Liz asked her, Cybre just said that she had thing in her blood that help her heal fast.

When Friday came, Cybre found that her mail call had almost doubled. She had gotten seven last weeks, and fourteen was a lot. But that was only from boys. From both boys and girls, she had almost forty cards. When she came to one card, Cybre had to look at it closely to decipher it. She soon realized that all she needed was a mirror. In it was a message.

Cybre,
Usually on Valentine’s Day, you’ll be told “I love you” because of your looks. I don’t believe that outer appearances should affect how someone loves you, I believe inner appearances should. I like you for who you are inside. Is that the same for me?
From a friend,
Mark.

Cybre felt butterflies in her stomach as she read the card. When she looked up, she saw Mark watching her from a distance. She smiled at him, and he blushed a bit. As she walked out of the school, she felt an urge to go back and talk to him, but she resisted. I’ll talk to him tonight at the parlor.

That night, the parlor was a bit packed, but somehow Mark had managed to pay Joey the ice cream man in advance to hold some Ice Cream for them. As they sat outside on a bench, they watched couples of all ages come in and out. Mark yawned, stretched his arms in the air, and laid one on Cybre’s shoulder.

“Thanks for the card.” Said Cybre and Mark smiled.
“You liked it?”
“Very, you know, I usually get those words because of my looks.”
“I do too.” Mark said and Cybre smiled, leaning a little on Mark.

Mark looked at Cybre, and her eyes met his. Slowly, he leaned forward, and her lips met his. Suddenly, Cybre had a flashback. She pulled her head back, and Mark was shocked.
“Cybre, are you OK?” he asked, as Cybre began to stand up.
“Nothing, just… I got to go home.”
“Wait, don’t go. I did it, didn’t I? Cybre, I’m sorry…I just…”
“Mark, just leave me alone, please.” Cybre said, spinning to face him. She was mad, but she felt tears in her eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“I know, just…I don’t want to break someone else heart because of who I am. I have a different path, and I can let distraction get in the way.” Cybre could see she had hurt Mark feeling, but she couldn't get into a relationship again. “Just…I have to go. I’m sorry, but I can’t do this.” Cybre then turned around and ran back towards the cliff, letting tears fall down her cheeks.
~
Mark didn’t mean to try to kiss Cybre on the lips; he just wanted to kiss her cheek. But something was puling him he kiss her lips. When he had just barely touched her, she shot back, eyes wide. When he tried to apologize, she had gotten mad. But there was something in her eyes that told him she wasn’t mad, just protecting something. What was it he saw in her eyes? Was it…pain of loss?
~
As Cybre ran, she thought of all of her past. I can’t let him get involved. He’s too much of a friend for me to ruin his life, or end it. As she kept running, she felt her anger burn away, but something else filled where the angry was. When she got to the cliff, she ran all the way to the edge and let the breeze cool her. After a few seconds, she fell to her knees and cried. From a distance, Stormtire was watching her. Little did she know he had watched the whole thing, and knew that Cybre needed someone to hold on to so she wouldn’t slip away from all feeling.
~
The next Monday, Cybre feared to go to school. She didn’t want to see Mark, but Stormtire told her to go. Almost the entire school day, Mark and she didn’t talk. It hurt Cybre, and she knew it must have been hurting Mark too. Finally, she swallowed her pride and went up to him.

“Mark?” Cybre asked Mark as he stood at his locker. He turned to look at her.
“Hi.”
“I wanted to say…I’m sorry, about Friday. I’m just a little overprotective of myself.”
“It’s OK. I wanted to apologize too.”
“You’re forgiven.” Cybre said before Mark could say any more. He smiled then leaned forward, kissing the top of her head before he walked away. Cybre sighed and knew that their friendship was mended.
~

Dirtpitch spat as he pulled into an old abandon building. “Disgusting humans,” said Groundcrack, speaking Dirtpitch’s thoughts. Blastfire went into his Formato form, and then gave the signal that the rest should also. The red female who had spoken up at the meeting before they were shipped out went over toward a stack of old newspapers. She looked jus like a person, but taller and had a metal-bun. It almost April and the fog had been very annoying. They had almost finished the large cities.
Dirtpitch was an eighty foot silver Tradicon who would form into a Commodores. He had the look of Tom Cruse. Groundcrack was a one-hundred foot tall Tradicon who morphed yellow and black bulldozer, and he had tusk that were about ten feet long. Blastfire was an eight-seven feet tall black Tradicon who would form to a Vietnamese war tank. He was bald, but had a large lower jaw and powerful legs.

Coralline, the 15’robot who was a red motorbike, seem engulfed in the newspapers, flipping though them like a machine. But, of course, she was. Finally, she stopped and looked between two pages.
“Guys, you might want to see this.” She called, and they moved closer to see. Dirtpitch’s jaw dropped open, exposing large canine teeth. There, on the page in Coralline’s left hand had a picture of a girl in a blue dress walking out of a school. On the page in her right hand was an article about a girl being attacked by a drunken boy. Both the picture and the article had one word that the Tradicon were looking for.
“Cybre!!!” said Blastfire, clenching his teeth.
~
It was almost mid-May when Skystreak got an incoming message from one of the search parties. When he read the message, all the metallic hairs on his body stood. It read:
Target acquired. Location: Beachcliff, CA. Closest area for portal: San Francisco Bay. Only one Trudacon sighted. Require orders.

When Skystreak brought the message to Cronaton, he hissed. “Tell them to set the portal up. Expect us in two weeks. Grab the girl the night of arrival, and kill anyone who gets in the way.”
~

Chapter 15

Mark wasn’t sure how to approach Cybre on this. He wanted to invite her to the school dance on Friday. It was the end of the year dance, and already a lot of boys and girls were coupling up. He knew she didn’t want to get in a relationship, but what hurt could a dance do? Anyhow, they had gotten a bit closer over the past few months. He sighed and walked up to her, determined to accomplish.
~
Cybre stood at her locker, digging though it, frustrated. Where did I put it? She was looking for her journal. Mrs. Hildo had given the 6th graders the task of having a journal for the entire summer or longer and come back next year with a funny story from it and tell it to the class. Cybre had thought it was a bit silly, but what the heck. Mark came up.

“Hiya.” Mark said, reaching in his backpack. “What are you looking for?”
“I'm looking for my journal.”
“Is your journal the book with the weird shapes?” Cybre froze.
“Yeah…” Mark pulled his hand from his backpack, revealing a blue book with Cybre’s name on it.
“How did you?”
“You left it on your desk.” Cybre tried to swipe it, but he held it in the air.
“What do you say?” he teased, and Cybre made a fist.
“Give it back before I break your nose.”
“That works.” Mark tossed her the book and Cybre dropped it in her pack. Thank God he can’t read it.
~
It's now or never. “Do you want to come to the school dance with me?” asked Mark. Cybre jumped and looked at Mark. The she smiled.
“Sure. What time do you wanna meet at the door?”
“How bout 7 P.M.?” he said, felling victory wash over him.
“That’ll work.”

As Cybre walked away, Mark leapt into the air, pumping his fist and sticking out his chest. He walked down the hall with a grin on his face. Liz saw him, and then yelled
“You’d better not put your chin in the air unless you want to run into a bully, Mark.”
Mark cast a menacing look at Liz and Tom laughed from his potion next to MA.
~
When Cybre got to the cliffs, she was smiled a bit too. Stormtire noticed her happiness.
“What wrong with you? You haven’t even put up an argument with Lionel or me.”
“Nothing's wrong with me.” Cybre said looking at Stormtire. Bad move.
“Your eyes deceive you.” He said, and Cybre looked away, blushing. “Did someone ask you out to the dance, like Mark?”
“How did you…” Cybre stopped, and then realized why her backpack was so heavy. Angrily, she reached in the large part of the bag and pulled out a laptop. “Lionel! You jerk.” Lionel and Stormtire laughed so hard that Cybre thought they might pass out. If they did, they’d find themselves tied up with seaweed.
~
“Let’s just check her one more time, up close.” said Blastfire, giving Dirtpitch the radiation scanner. It was Wednesday and school had just got out. He morphed into his car form and drove out slowly into the lane where the car picked up kids. Cybre was just coming out of school. As she went to cross the road, Dirtpitch launched forward, then hit the brakes just soon enough to where the kids saw him. He stopped right in front of Cybre. She didn’t notice him.

“Hey, watch where you’re going!” said a boy with carrot hair. Dirtpitch turned on the scanner, and then turned on a hologram, making it lean out the window.
“Sorry man didn’t see you. Hey, you know were there’s a Wal-Mart around here?
“The closest one is in San Francisco,” said a blonde girl.
“OK, thanks.” The radiation scanner beeped. He rolled up the window and turned the hologram off, looking at the scanner. Match positive. Dirtpitch smiled.
~
Friday night, a girl in a silk blue dress and a boy in a tuxedo walked into the gym. The couple was Mark and Cybre. The gym was set up like it was on Christmas, but instead there weren’t all the Christmassy things. Above the stage hung a banner that read “Celebration-of-End-of-Year-’91-’92-Class”.
~
Cybre had almost forgotten how well Mark could dance. It was so funny to watch how intent he got on some dances. “How did you learn to dance like this?” she asked.
“I learned though my Aunt Sabrina,” said Mark. “I had to stay at her house one summer when I was 8, and she made me take dance lesson. I guess all that torture paid off.” Cybre laughed. Mark continued, smirking. “You’re pretty good at it too. Mean, for a girl like you, I wouldn’t expect you be good at dancing.”
“Look who’s talking, ballet boy,” Cybre said sarcasm in her voice. That got him laughing.

After a while, dancing got boring and Mark went to the locker room to change. Cybre wished she had done the same as Mark and brought a change of clothes. They watched people dance, fall, eat, then when that became boring, went outside to look at the stars. The consultations were beautiful near the end of May.
~
As Mark and Cybre sat out on a bench, connect stars, Mark had an idea. “Can I teach you the Trash Mash?”
“The what what?” asked Cybre.
“Trash Mash is a dance that our dancing teacher learned from her dancing teacher.”
“Ok, show me.”
“Come here.”

Mark tried to show Cybre how to do dance the dance. She would mess up, go “Oh,” and laugh, but she was quick. Suddenly, she tripped over a soda can. A look of fear washed over her face as she began to fall, but Mark yanked her up; find him face to face with her.
Then, as if qued, it began to rain. Cybre and Mark looked up, and then she smiled and kissed him. It was only for a few seconds, but it felt like a forever. Then Cybre grabbed Marks hand and they ran to the school patio.

“Mark?” said Cybre looking at Mark. “I wanted to tell you something.”
“What would that be?” He asked.
“I wanted to tell you that…” Cybre stopped and looked into the darkness, eyes widening.
“We need to get in the school, now.”
“What is…?”
“NOW!!!” she demanded, getting up. As he looked where she was looking, he saw a silver commodore with a word on the grill: “Dirtpitch”
“Amndoy! They’re here.”
“Who's here?”
“The Tradicons are here.”
“What?”
“RUN NOW!!!!” They ran. When Mark looked back over his shoulder, the car had begin to…MORPH!?
~
Cybre pulled her sword. “Move it!” As she ran, she felt, cold metallic finger wrapping around her waist. She screamed, swing the sword. The Tradicon bot laughed. “Dirtpitch!” she yelled.
“Hello Cybre.” He said in a mix of English and Formato. “Why, you human are worthless! If Cronaton didn’t want you alive, I’d kill you now, you pathetic little….YEOW!!!!” Dirtpitch dropped Cybre after she sliced his wrist with her sword.
“Not today, you…” Uh-oh. Cybre was over fifteen feet in the air when she fell.

When she hit the ground, her sword spun away. Her legs and spine burned with pain as she felt to her knees and her chest hit the pavement, knocking the wind out of her. As she blacked out, she grabbed the polshaone from her dress pocket, said the words, and saw Stormtire. Save…the…boy…He’s…the…one… She thought to him, and was out.
~
Mark heard a scream and spun. “Cybre!” A massive robot was kneeling over her, holding her about fifteen feet away from the ground. The robot said something, yelled, and dropped Cybre. As Cybre hit the ground, her sword spun to Mark feet. He picked it up, and it was surprising light. It glowed. When he looked up, he saw the robot going for Cybre again. He leapt between them. “NO!” he sliced the air and part of the robots hand. It cursed and knocked him sideways. He crashed into a rectangular trash bin. As he coughed, feeling like he had broke something. The bot came over and point a large gun at him. He closed his eyes.

“Dirtpitch!” yelled a male voice. Mark opened his eyes to see another robot there, a silver one, with a trash bin. The robot known as Dirtpitch spun to be hit in the face with the bin. It sprawled backwards. “Run Mark!” yelled the other robot. It had the same voice as…Cybre father? He had thought he had talked to him two months ago over the phone.
“Stormtire?” asked Mark. In his head, he heard a voice in his head.
Yes, I am. You need to get Cybre and get out of here! Mark obeyed. As he ran towards Cybre, he spotted another massive form.

“STORMTIRE! LOOK OUT!” But it was too late. The other figure which was another robot attacked him. They wrestled, and Mark knew he wouldn’t make it. Get out of here while you still can, said the voice. He ran over to Cybre and tried to pick her up. Surprisingly, she weighted almost nothing. As he began to run, he heard another robot coming after him. “HO SHH!” he said.
“Come here boy!” The thing was in front of him, knocking him flat. He skidded, landing on the grass on his butt. As he tried to get up, the thing held him down, and knocked him out by kicking him in the face.
~
When Mark awoke, it was still night, but he was on a beach. He leaned forward, shaking his head to ward off the massive headache, and saw five massive robot standing about one hundred feet away. He leapt to his feet, alerting one of them. He heard it say something as he grabbed Cybre’s sword and held it in front of him. “Stay away! I know how to use this.” Then he saw Stormtire.
“Chill, Mark, its ok.” He said, bending over. He smiled. “Quite a spirit you’ve got there. Can you help us? Cybre said you were good at decoding things.”
“I'll help, as long as they don’t hurt me. Where is Cybre?”
“She is in the clutches of the Tradicons,” said a big black one. “That’s why we need your help.”


As Mark stepped forward, he saw a jumble of word on the screen of a weird computer thing. As he looked at it, it was highly encoded. He looked closely, they hit some keys. “Hey, go easy!” yelled the computer. Mark jumped back.
“Lionel?” asked Mark.
“Uh-Huh. What about it?” The computer said “Can you hurry up with the code. I’m losing the signal.
“Sorry.” Mark hit a few more keys, and then a destination popped up. “SFB, DOCK 132. Arrives: 12 A.M.,” said Lionel.

“What’s that?” asked a yellowish one.
“It San Francisco Bay, and dock number 132.”
“We have a destination and Cronaton lands at midnight. Now, let’s get there.” The biggest one said, and then Mark watched in amazement as the thing morphed into an F-14 and took off. The yellow one snorted. “There he goes again, flying off and making us take the long way.”
“Well, let’s go,” said a red and white one.

As the robots began to climb the cliff wall, Stormtire reached down. “C’mon Mark. There’s only one way outta here, and that’s by me. Get on.” Mark obeyed and sat on Stormtire hand. Stormtire then put Mark on his shoulder, told him to hang on to the fin-like thing, and began to climb. Once to the top, he let Mark down and morphed into a corvette. Mark mouth dropped. “You’re the…I mean…”
Yes I know. He said, and the passenger door came open. You want to see Cybre again or not?
“Stormtire, what are you doing?’ asked the black one.
“Bring him along. Cybre asked me to protect him.”
“Protect him by bringing him to the jaws of danger?” Stormtire must had thought something to the black one because it shut up and morphed into a truck, taking off.
“I suggest you get sleep, Mark. It goanna be a while till we get to SFB.”
~
When Cybre awoke, she was cuffed to the handle above the passenger side door. She yanked, and then realized a pain in her neck. They gave me the drug. Dirtpitch spoke.
“Good evening, Cybre,” she froze and realized she was riding in Dirtpitch. He tightened the seatbelt that was around her waist, making her cringe.
“We’re almost there. You’ve slept for quite a while. Good.” He said in his menacing voice. Cybre made a mental note that when she could change again, she’d cut him down first.

When she looked out the window, she saw they were in SFB, near the docks. In front of Dirtpitch were Groundcrack and a motorbike she didn’t know, and behind was Blastfire. Cybre felt herself sweat a bit when she realized he was behind her. Blastfire was rebellious, and would do anything to kill Cybre to become higher ranked.

Suddenly, they all stopped. Dirtpitch opened the door and the handle opened, making Cybre roll out onto the ground. The Tradicon morphed into their robot form, and Blastfire reached down to pick up Cybre. She darted away, right into the hands of Groundcrack. “Nice try.”

As Mark looked out the window, he saw the dock signs. “119,120, 121… Whoa crud there they are!” said Stormtire, hitting the brakes. About 500-700 feet away from them were 4 Tradicons, and one had Cybre. Mark fumed. Suddenly, a portal opened, and two more robots stepped out of it. Stormtire shivered. “It’s Cronaton.”
~

Cybre was set down, and then push to her knees. She looked up definably towards Cronaton. Cronaton was about one-hundred-and ten feet tall, grayish-white, and was menacing. He had horns that grew out on his temples and went backwards like a goat’s horns, and had wings that looked like a hawks. The wingspan easily reached some one-sixty to one-eighty feet. He also had a large body mass, not fat, but large. He smirked at Cybre.

“Cronaton, we have brought you the girl,” said Blastfire, pushing her forward. Cybre tried to balance herself, and did just in time before she fell over. Skystreak reached out and grabbed her, putting her at attention. She looked at the ground. Cronaton bent over.

“You really thought you could hide from me? You are a fool. You, the Trudacons, and the human race. Your own creations can bring you down. But I am not here to lecture you; I am here to end this.” He smiled, and then reached out and brushed her hair behind her ear while with his sharp forefinger. He dug it deep enough to cut her, sliding his finger down her cheek and to her chin, making her look up. The slice burn, but not as much as the cruel jab of words. She glared into his eyes, jaws clenched. “Pity that such a pretty thing should go to waste. Tie her to the anchor.”

Skystreak picked Cybre up and wall back towards the portal. A large anchor sat next to where the portal was. He set her back down, and then pushed her toward the anchor. Coralline came up and then tied her to it. “You can just end my life. It doesn’t work that way,” said Cybre and Cronaton stared into her eyes.
“But it does. You drowned me in my blood. There, on the ground, is where I realized that humans can’t breathe underwater. So, life after life, you’ll drown.”
~

Chapter 16
Cronaton was a huge robot. He made Cybre look like a mouse. As the other robot that had come though the portal picked up Cybre, Mark felt his fist clench. The rest of Stormtire’s friends had joined them, and Braxatron was almost there. He had to land almost 5 miles away. They were all hiding behind the crates, out of bad-guy site.

Quickly, Mark darted toward the crates that were closer to the dock were Cybre was. He moved closer and closer, darting from crate t crate like a cat. What are you doing? asked Stormtire. He looked over and lipped.
“I'm saving her life.” As he got closer, he decided to go to the dock right nest to dock 132. He made eye contact with Cybre and saw fear in her face. Mark, get out of here. Suddenly, the anchor dropped. “No!”
~
When Cybre went under, she had tried to hold her breathe for the longest time. She had heard Mark yell, the she saw lights go off in continuing gunfire. Then she saw Mark jump into the ocean. That was all she saw before she gasped and took in water, giving up one of her lives.
~
Mark started to run down dock 133. One of the other robots opened fired at him, but shot right where he was a second ago. Right when the robot almost got its target, its gun jammed. “The boy is going after Cybre!”
“He’ll be too late.” Just before Mark dove, he saw Stormtire and his gang open up on Cronaton’s group.

As Mark dove, he swam straight down to where Cybre had been dropped. Finally, he found her. He took the sword and began to hack at the chain. His lungs burn, but he was determined to get her out. It broke. Quickly, he grabbed Cybre and swam towards the top. He came up on the opposite side of dock 133. Quickly, he dragged her to shore with all the might he had left.
“Cybre, Wake up!” She had no pulse.

There was a flash of light from the portal, and then the other robots stepped though and where gone. Mark was about to bring back Cybre though CPR when Stormtire rushed over and stopped him. “Wait and watch.” He said. Suddenly, Cybre began to glow, and Cybre eyes opened as she spat out water, coughing and gasping for air.

“Cybre, you're awake” Cybre looked at Mark, and then hugged him. “I thought you were gone forever.”
“13 lives, baby! I just got to use them correctly.” Mark squeezed. The biggest robot came over.
“Welcome back Cybre.”
“Thanks. Mark, I want you to meet some people…err…robots. That’s Braxatron, he’s our group leader.” Braxatron nodded, and Mark nodded back. He was the jet.
“That Wrench, our ground Medic.” She pointed at the red and white robot that had turned to a fire truck.
“That’s Metalhood, our weapons master.” The black one who was a truck pulled a gun and spun it on his finger.
“How bout a game of Russian roulettes, with one bullet in a two round chamber," he said, and Mark smiled a bit. Cybre didn’t find it amusing.
“That’s Sunstreak. He's our decoder.”
“The decoder? He couldn’t decode the message that we got. Why is he the decoder?”

Sunstreak gave Mark a menacing look, and then asked. “Can you fence, punk?” Cybre stepped in between them. “Sunstreak, don’t make me.” Sunstreak snorted and Stormtire laughed.
“And you already know Stormtire. He’s a good friend and knows how to do a lot of things.”
“So, is he really your dad?”
“What?!?!” asked Sunstreak, and Stormtire did an awkward smile. Cybre blushed. “No,” then she leaned over and whispered, “But I wish he was.”

“So, what do your real parents think of this?” asked Mark, and Cybre bit her lip.
“I need to talk to you, Mark, alone.” She looked up at Braxatron; he nodded, and then asked the group to help him secure the portal.
“Mark, they are the only thing I really know,” said Cybre and Mark looked at her. Cybre looked down then into Mark’s eyes. “I’m one of them. Before that, I was human, but that was five years ago. I’m still human, but more like a superhuman, or a robot.”
“I don’t understand.” He said looking at her. She walked over to the side of the dock and sat down.
“Along time ago, about one-hundred years, a prophecy was uttered. ‘ In a time when the Trudacons is failing, the Tradicons seem to rule, two humans will save you. First, a girl, who knows none of her past and life we must save. Then, she will go find a boy, who is of the “Strong People” and he will find affection for the girl. They will come together to save their planet and ours, and continue the Race of the Rohubots.’ See, I was the first part of the prophecy, the girl. I believe that the second part came true earlier. Mark, I believe you’re the boy.”
“What? Cybre, I don’t... I mean…what are the Rohubots anyway?” Cybre sighed, and then stared hard at her arm. The skin peeled back to revile bone and metal. Mark jumped back.
“You look like a terminator!”
Cybre looked at him, serious. “That’s not all, close your eyes.”

As Mark went to ask her why, she began to glow. He covered his eyes, but when he opened them, the Cybre he knew was no longer there. Instead, there was an eighty-five tall sky blue robot with huge wings. It bent down, and then in Cybre’s voice said, “This is what else I can do.”
“Can they do that too?” asked Mark.
“No, they aren’t human, they’re Formato. All robot, but I’m half and half. I was gifted with these 5 years ago when I was hurt.”
“Whoa whoa whoa, wait, you were hurt, kinda like what just happened here?” asked Mark, and Cybre glowed again. He closed then opened his eyes, and there was the human Cybre, eyes still glowing a bit.
“No, I was stabbed just for sport by a Tradicon. That’s what Cronaton and his thugs were. What my Formato friends are, are Trudacons.” Mark nodded.

“But, back to the point. Mark, I asked Stormtire to do something, and he did. He asked you if you wanted to come. That was a test, and you passed. When you dived in the water, that was another test, and you passed.”
“So, that was all just a game?”
“No, I didn’t test you with that. The one who tested you was your heart.” Cybre took his hand. “Mark, I want to finish saying what I was saying at the patio.”
“And what’s that.”
“I love you. Not for your looks or your popularity, but for who you are.”
“I wanted to say the same. And I want to tell you that I will go to the end of the world for you, even if I have to face of some…whatever that guy was.”

Cybre laughed, and then Mark leaned over and kissed Cybre on the lips. At first, she was surprised, but then leaned into it. When he pulled away, she said “Will you help me?”
“How?”
“Will you become a Rohubot and help save the two worlds?”
“I can try.” He said, then leaned back over and held her. “And I’ll try to be even more than that.”
~
The end…for now.




Pronunciations
Cybre (Sfi-bree)
Trudacon (True-dah-con)
Tradicon (Trad-eh-con)
Rohubot (Row-hew-bot)
Maleicon (Mal-eh- con)
Lizapana (Liz-a-pan-ah)
Braxatron (Bru-axe-a-tron)
Formatron (Form-ah-tron)
Korranah (Core-ran-ah)
Cronaton (Cron-ah-ton)
Amndoy (Amm-do-why)
Rendezvous (Ron-day-voo)
Jakop (Jay-cop)
Formation (form-ah-ton)
Recco (Ree-co)
Formato (For-ma-toe)
Meleah (Ma-lee-ah)
Macentak (Mac-en-talk)
Polshaone (ful-sha-own)
Elphatcha (Ill-fat-Cha)
Kell Tam (Kill-tam)
Keldoree (Kill-door-reen)
Julipa (Ju-lip-e-ah)
Coralline (core-o-line)

Join me in the sequel: Others
Now that Mark has agreed to be a Rohubot, the prophecy has almost been fulfilled. Mark just has to survive training. Even though this is great, others wish to have Cybre in there hands, such as Korranah or Cronaton. There are also more problems as Cybre tries to find a real family before the school finds out and turns her over to foster care, which could be a disaster to the Trudacons. Enjoy a sneak peek!


Others…
Just as Mark was about to ask Cybre something, light suddenly streamed form nowhere. As he looked around, he saw it was coming from the cave. “It’s time, Mark. Go on.” said Cybre.
“Are you coming?” he asked, suddenly scared.
“No. It’s OK to be scared, I was more scared then anything when I went in there, but nothings going to hurt. Go on.”

Mark gulped and stepped into the cave. As he walked, the door closed slowly behind d him. Follow the Light said a deep but soft voice in his head. Mark listened and kept going forward. After walking not a long ways, he gasped and fell back. In front of him were a great gap and a small footbridge. “I can’t do this…” he said warily. Don’t be afraid! You can do it! Cybre is counting on it. She needs you more then the Trudacons and earth does combined. Mark took a deep breathe, and then stepped onto the bridge.
~
Cybre knew what Mark had to go though. She had done it herself. She pitied him, but knew it was his decision if he’d do it or not. One thing for sure, Mark would be reminded of everything that happened in his life, even that that hurt him most.
~
As soon as Mark finished crossing the bridge, he finally let out his breath. When he looked up, there was another tunnel. I hope there will be no more bridges. He thought. As he began to walk, he heard a laughing, his laughing. He kept walking, and then gasped. He began to see his life, almost as if he was reliving it. The first time he hit a ball, when he broke his dad’s camera, his first birthday party that he kissed a girl at, everything, even the death of his father. Mark felt tears in his eyes. “No more.” He whispered, but everything continued. “Please, no more. No more. No more!!!” he screamed, the room filled with light. “Hello, Mark.”