Binary: Rough Draft Edition (Sword Dancers, Book 1)

Chapter 7: Tyree

"Listen, Tyree, I know you're still skeptical, but this is really happening. The Sparks are like you humans. We have different genders, different races, and ideologies. I know you all think of us as robots since we are techno-organic, but we are more than that. On our planet, we exist by ourselves."

"No livestock?" Tyree asked. 

"Yes, we have techno-organic creatures that we eat for energy. Again, we're no different from you. Except that in order to survive outside of Pluto, we need a host. One part of that is for feeding. The other part is, well, survival. You see on Pluto every being has a duty."

"Like a machine," Colin said.

"Like a machine. For instance, you may of notice that we all have a different color stripe. That stripe tells you what race of Spark we are."

"Wait a minute, like how we have blacks, Asians, and Hispanics?" He asked. That was interesting. Robots have their own races.

"Yes. You see Razor has a red stripe which means he's from metal-crafting. Crush is from earth crafting,  and Haze is a water crafter. Flair is a fire crafter. There is also wood crafting, which is the group I'm from and air crafters which Megatron is from. Each group has its own laws, but the law that unifies us all is the Thunderbolt. The symbol of our species and source of our power."

"Power?" Olivia asked. "Oh, I get it." 

"Get what?" Tyree asked, but then Crush filled him in. "Oh, so when you are on your own you have natural abilities.."

"But when we are bonded to a host, we enhanced their best skill and with proper resonance, we can summon a power unique to the binary process."

Tyree started feeling guilty again. He knew that Olivia was faking now. There is no way any sane person takes all of this in stride. Olivia was adventurous, not like Colin, but she was also very goal driven. She wanted to help others, but he knew that this wasn't what she had in mind. She didn't really care all that much about his military career.

She stood up. 

"How do we use these powers and skills?"

"When you let us take over the body, we manage that. Think of yourselves as pilots and us your vehicles."

"I think it's more like we are the batteries and you are a device," Tyree said. Crush laughed at the snarkiness of the comment and agreed with the analogy. 

"In either case, your enhanced skilled is something we called promotion. The power we call checkmate."

Tyree stopped yawning. "Chess references?"

"This is getting better and better. I love chess." Colin and Razor said in unison. 

"You can use these abilities at any time, but they have...cool-off periods. They take a massive amount of energy that weakens you and in turn weakens us. "

Tyree and the others just stared.

"It didn't hurt when I used our ability. I've never run so fast in my life. Was that our checkmate or our promotion?"

Crush told me it was our promotion. Then out loud he said. "With Tyree, I'm able to promote his athleticism. He now has enhanced strength, speed, agility. Our checkmate is creating kinetic energy. Both will come in handy with my expertise as the weapons sergeant along with his natural ability for weapons and fighting."

"I promoted Colin's electronic skill so now he's a walking power plant of sorts. He can hack into electronic devices, computers, phones,  Our power is teleportation which I believe helps with our hacking abilities." Razor said.

"I promoted Olivia's medical skills now she can heal others by touch or find their weaknesses to exploit. Our power is a force field. Being a water crafter I specialize in cold environments, but on this team, we are the medical sergeant."

Colin stood up now and crossed his arms over his chest. Tyree followed, unsure of how to feel anymore. Crush was telling him just go with it, but he didn't' want too. The guilt was growing more and more. As the guilt grew, so did his anger. With Colin and the Sparks.  Why did Megatron have to crash land in this area?

"I can't believe this. I mean I know it's happening, but I can't believe it." Olivia said.

"What's not to believe?" Haze said. "For instance, Tyree is bleeding from biting his nails."

Olivia looked over at him. He tried to hide his fingernails in embarrassment, but it was too late. Olivia walked over and took his hand. 

"We can fix that." Haze said. Olivia didn't look up at him. 

"What do I do?" 

"Relax and let me start the process." Haze said. With that Olivia's hand glowed with yellow energy and that energy flowed into his hands. The bleeding stopped. His nails actually started growing again to a healthy size. 

"There are many bacteria that could damage your system, even with Crush as your partner." Haze said. " I would advise not biting them anymore."

"It's a bad habit," he said. He rubbed his fingers and looked at Olivia. She was facing him now.  HEr eyes communicating something to him. 

"I tried. I can't do this,"  she said.

Tyree knew it was coming.

"You don't have to do this."  he tried to hold her hands, but she pulled away. She looked at the others.

"I need some time." she went out her own door leaving the three men in the apartment. Colin looked at Tyree with an apologetic face.

"Dude, I"m sorry."

Tyree heard him but wasn't' really paying attention. All he could think of was that he had hurt Olivia again. When they broke up she wanted time away before they could consider being friends.  Now he was here and had inadvertently made her a soldier in a war.

"I know Colin. I want to forgive you, but I can't right now. I know you're just trying to do the right thing. This right now isn't your fault thought. This is all me. I have to fix it. I"m going to go talk to her.  For right now though, I forgive you and I mean it. I won't' let you do this by yourself."