Reboot: A New Guardian (ON HOLD)

Fires & Faces

Three sandwiches each sat on separate paper plates, with napkins underneath, all on one side of the rectangular marble table. Each sandwich had different contents and fillings, matching what we like. I went to the sandwich with ham and cheese and pulled up a stool to sit in. Austin plopped himself in front of the PB & J sandwich right next to me, and Jane hopped on a stool before taking a bite out of her grilled cheese.

"So what did you kids do today in the garage?" Judy asked as she grabbed three glasses from the dishwasher.

"Oh!" Austin jumped to the opportunity. "I went snowboarding at Source Adventures! And nearly boarded off a cliff!"

"But you couldn't' since it was virtual reality," his sister butted in, taking another bite out of her sandwich. He glared at her and she just shrugged it off. I smiled to myself at her witty remarks. Even rude, I still think she's awesome.

All of a sudden, Jane blinked really hard and inhaled sharply. A pint of blood left her face and her hazel eyes seemed to flash gold for a second. Strange...

As her mom placed a glass of ice cold water next to each of our plates, she slipped off her seat. "Austin, I'm going back to the garage. I think I forgot to plug something in," she said, reaching up to the back of her neck suspiciously.

Before Austin in could reply, I asked, "Isn't your dad in there work-"

"Which is why he wouldn't have noticed something unplugged," my best friend interrupted quickly. He turned back to his sister. "You may wanna hurry before it runs out of power." Jane nodded before dashing out the door. "I'll be right back."

I chose to ignore their suspicious behavior and took a swig of water, feeling its chill slide down my throat. Austin told Judy about what happened in school the other day, like when the student council announced there would now be 'Tech-Tuesdays', and how his father might be the surprise guest. I practically zoned out; no Jane here meant no one to crack another one of my crappy jokes just to see her make that cute little giggle. I know it's weird to be thinking of such a thing at the age of twelve but according to science and polls online, we're one of the few kids who mature a little quicker than normal-

"AAAHHH!"

My eyes widened. As soon as the scream was launched, I leapt out of my seat and ran out the back door. I heard Austin scramble to follow me but I didn't care. Faint smoke smells entered my lungs and I pulled to a stop to start coughing a little. I looked up, only to find the garage engulfed in flames, surrounding it entirely.

I hurried to the front of the burning garage, my best friend close behind me. Weirdly enough, the only place that wasn't on fire was the front door. Austin - being the stronger one of us two - grabbed the door handle tightly and pulled on it with all of his might, but no avail. Jane continued to scream her lungs out for help.

From the corner of my eye, I noticed something roll on the ground out of the garage. My gaze fell on the small object, not so much larger than a bottle cap. I immediately recognized it as Jane's ring from her birthday and plucked it up from the ground. Before Austin could notice what I was doing, I slipped it onto one of my fingers and tried to find a way to open the door.

Conveniently, a crowbar was laying right there in the open. I grabbed it and brought the tool over to Austin. He wedged it in between the doors and began to push. I held onto the crowbar as well and used whatever strength was in my little body. We just continued pushing, and pushing, and pushing...

... until one of the doors crashed inwards, and caused the whole garage to collapse.

I felt Austin use his arm to push me back, along with him. I watched as the roof fell and the flames rose higher into the sky.

The urgent shouts from Jane disappeared with the smoke in the sky. The only thing we heard were the firetrucks' sirens blaring and the fires crackling. I felt someone pull me back, and when I looked up, I met the sad, tear filled eyes of Judy Carter. I gazed at the boy next to me, who also looked like he was about to collapse at the moment and cry.

But for me, I had no idea what to do. I was a flood of emotions; shock, anger, sadness.

For on August 18th, 2014, at 2:35 p.m., I had lost my best friend and the love of my life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My gaze fell onto my electric green smart watch. My eyes widened at the time.

I turned around in my swivel chair, grabbing my backpack. "Guys, second period's gonna start in a minute," I warned my friends as I stood up and tossed my backpack on my back.

Tamra stood up as well. "Yeah, I have an coding test to pass," she responded, slinging her bag over her shoulders and walking out the room.

"I promised I'd help the Code Breakers to practice their 'skills'," Trey chuckled before following Tamra upstairs. I smiled as well; we all knew that our school's basketball team aren't the best at basketball. They only win at games because of their super star, Trey.

Austin came up to my side. "V.E.R.A. has a free period, so she's staying down here. We have class to get to." (A/N Sorry if high schools don't have free period on second period. I've never been to high school, yet.)

The two of us walked upstairs and held a mini-conversation about random stuff. When we got up to the main floor, no one else was in the halls, so I figured all of the other students were already in class. Practically everyone in Alan Turing High loves to be early to class-

A figure from outside caught my eye, and apparently Austin's as well. We both swiveled our heads to see what was outside. The figure wasn't just standing right in the middle of the field or anything, but she seemed to analyzing our school in fascination. I could tell she was a girl due to her small-ish frame, her magenta flowing shirt, and high-heeled boots. Her dark blonde hair was tied loosely in a ponytail, some sort of black masquerade mask glistening in the little sunlight the clouds let in. Weirdly, I wasn't able to see her eyes, not the color nor the shape. In her leather-gloved hand, she slung some sort of shoe over her shoulder. Unlike those 'analyzers' from video games or movies, she didn't appear to have any high-tech devices on her.

"Who is that girl?" I wondered aloud, not able to tear away my eyes from this suspicious stranger.

"I don't know," my best friend replied cluelessly. "But what I wanna know, is why is she staring at our school?"

Out of no where, the girl did a spin in her spot and she was no longer holding anything in her hands. Upon her feet, she wore a pair of black-and-white rollerblades, but something inside me told me that they weren't normal ones.

Her head turned towards us and she supposedly stared right at us.

"Who are you?" I couldn't help but ask through the doors.

A smile played upon her pale pink lips. "Call me 'Bionic Blade'," she sang. Right before she vanished into thin air, right before our eyes.