Mech-man: The Mission of Fate

Chapter 14

Max and Lucas arrived at the platform with an hour to spare. The platform was different from others, first of all the platform was visibly smaller but better decorated. A gigantic map immediately caught Max's eyes as he walked through the double electric glass doors. The map showed a picture of the Mech planet with labels showing the different areas. From the map, Max learned that the planet was mostly made of water, islands of different size were littered around the map dots. The islands which were training grounds were all labelled dark red. The dark red islands almost spread across half of the planet, the training grounds would soon become the place where Max and Lucas spent most of their time in.

The map was only one of the many decorations. The walls where painted dark blue with cartoon star and planet images printed on them. On one face of the wall there was a silver mechanic fist, a background behind it showed a image of a galaxy. It was the icon of a Protectors, since every single one of them was a Mech-man. But not all Mech-man could become a Protectors, only the best trained and the strongest ones of them could become a Protector.

"This platform is so different from other!" Lucas gasped as he entered the platform after Max. He was quickly amazed by how delicate the wall paintings were. Visually, you could see that the platform wasn't an average platform.

The platform was almost deserted except a few lonely passengers sitting on the wooden benches beside the platform. There were no kids just adults.

"I thought only Mech-mans can go to the planet." Max muttered seeing all the people.

"No, Mr Brown had said only half of the planet is training grounds. The other half is open for settlers and tourists." Lucas started to recall what Mr Brown had briefly mentioned on the car to the train station.

"Oh, but it still kind of cool to have half the planet yourself." Max nodded and replied.

"You still have to remember that there is other Mech-man at the training grounds." Lucas said washing away Max's unrealistic hopes.

"How many people do you think there would be?" Max asked curiously, after all, having potential of becoming a Protector was as rare as one in millions.

"Not much, at most ten students joining every year?" Lucas estimated.

Max nodded in agreement, there won't be many people. He looked around and found a bench at the edge of the platform. "Lucas, let's go there." He suggested pointing at the empty bench, "I'm tired already." The two hours watching the movie has left Max without much energy, he would give anything to have a nice and comfortable sleep.

Max closed his eyes and drifted into sleep on the bench. In his dreams, he saw his parents again. He was dreaming again. The horrible events began to replay in his mind, but only with one more section.

As the house collapsed, he saw what was behind the murder. A man entered the room, checking for any survivors. He was a tall and thin man, aged around thirty. His face curled into a cruel smile; his nose was crooked. He had a dark blue hat covering his hair and he wore a black shirt. What Max thought was interesting was a tattoo on his arm. It showed one of the world's deadliest predators, a crocodile. The crocodile in the tattoo opened its mouth wide as if to swallow and kill its prey. Before Max could see more, his nightmare faded when he heard a distant call and sound of a train coming into a stop.

"Come on, wake up or else we are going to miss the train!" Lucas' voice pulled Max back in the reality. He quickly opened his eyes and sat up straight, he felt so weak that his whole body might collapse. He weakly rubbed his eyes and saw a bullet shaped train parked in front of him. It was highly similar to the last Time Train he was on.

"Come on!" He felt Lucas' pull and got up and went into the train after Lucas. Unlike the other train he was on. This one was significantly smaller, but its features stayed the same. The same blade in the head of the train, the same colour...

Although the outside was the same, but the inside layout and decoration was different. Paintings of monuments were hung up on the bare walls. The premium seats were the same size but not as comfortable as the time spent on board isn't that long. They were again treated with high respect as Max and Lucas showed their tickets and was immediately led to their seats beside each other. Max noticed that except for them, the whole premium are with six seats were empty.

"No more annoying people behind me." Max mumbled to Lucas as he sat down. Lucas smiled, he too was happy that they were alone and had the whole area to themselves.

"Come on, lets see if the seats have more powers." Lucas suggested in joking tone. Max smiled, one and a half hours later, he would arrive at the planet.

"Did Mr Brown mention what do we do when we arrive?" Lucas suddenly asked.

"I think he said that someone will pick us up once we arrive at the station." Max replied thinking very hard, he wasn't the type of person that would remember a lot of things.

"Do you think it would change anything if we're one day late?" Lucas then asked, the only reply Max gave him was a shrug. Max didn't want to worry about things he can't change.

"We'll see." He finally said calmly, "Now let's just enjoy this one and half hours."