Power (Book 1 in SRMTHFG Series)

2 - Robots?

I crash in a concrete street, skidding on the pavement. My bike lands right beside me. Pain shoots through my body from the scrapes. I force myself to stand up and look around, ignoring the pain.

I admit what happened with the slimey monsters a second ago was out of sadness and fear. I would never think suicidal; I'm not insane. I don't know how to fight; I can't remember being a fighter.

People in strange clothes stare at me. The buildings are different, too. There are hovering vehicles, and a man with black hair, buck teeth, and glasses is cuddling a huge squeaky toy.

"Aw, Mr. Jeepers , it'll be alright!" he says, looking at me.

I recognize this place from somewhere. I can't remember where, though, and I can't remember the name.

Suddenly, two older boys sneer and walk up to me. One is tall and skinny with crazy red hair, freckles, and buck teeth. The other is shorter and plump with brown hair.

"Hey, look!" the tall one snickers. "Looks like the garbage hover forgot some trash!"

"Yeah," the short one laughs. "Let's put the squirt and that puny little lump 'a metal where they go!" One grabs my arms, the other drags my bike. They start taking me towards a hovering dumpster.

"Could this day get worse?" I complain. "Or any weirder?"

"Hey!" a voice growls. The boys stop dead in their tracks.

"Oh, look! It's the monkey boy!" the tall kid says.

"Hey, watch a gonna do? Call some metal apes on us?" the short one says.

"Let her go!'" the voice yells.

"Oh yeah?" the tall one says. He grabs my hair and yanks me up. "This? Why dontcha come and get her?" He's knocked back and hits the ground, dragging me behind him. I squeeze my eyes shut and curl up. Make it go away, make this craziness go away. I here more fighting and the sound of my bike hitting the ground before I hear two pairs of feet running away.

I hear footsteps come towards me. I feel a shadow hover over me. What now?

"You gonna get up or not?" the voice says. I open my eyes. A black-haired, blue-eyes boy in blue jeans and a red-and-white, private school style short is standing over me, holding out a hand.

I turn over and lay on my back, groaning. "Great. First a robot monkey shoves me through some magical circle and now a private school kid beats up a couple of bullies in Futuretown." I freeze in realization, eyes growing wide. I shoot up straight and look around.

"Shuggazoom?!"

I look at the boy. I know I look like a madman now; chest heaving, eyes wide, covered in dirt. I crawl back on my arms and legs. This is cool, but creepy.

"You-you're that- but how... I thought-" I stop and take a deep breath, but I still stutter. "Y-you're Chiro!"

He blinks, surprised a little. "You're remembering already?" A look of dreaminess and confusion clouds his face. "But Gibson and Antauri said..." He closes his eyes and shakes his head.

"Never mind. We need to get you to the Super Robot. Right now." He holds his hand back out and I hesitantly take it. He yanks me up onto my feet and grabs my bike. Chiro examines it for a moment.

"Nah, nothing Otto can't fix." He walks away. I just follow behind. A lot of people give me weird looks before turning away.

We come to a huge robot in the center of the city. It's huge and blocky, but cool at the same time. I stare at the motionless eyes for a moment. It feels like they're staring back at me. I turn away, confused. This can't be real... can it?

Chiro stops in front of a foot and steps aside. He motions to it.

"Um..." I say, not sure what to do. I walk up to the foot and look back. He holds up a fist. I'm supposed to punch it?

"Oh!" I say. I knock. The front slides open into a doorway. We go inside to a strange elevator. Chiro pushes a few buttons and the door closes, taking us up. It's not like a regular elevator; it goes a little faster, so much that I fall down from the force. Chiro stays standing, the bike in his grasp. He looks at me with a blank look, but I can tell he wants to laugh. I crawl to the wall and pull myself up.

"It's not everyday I'm in a supersonic elevator inside of a robot, you know," I snap.

"I didn't say anything."

"You were thinking."

He shrugs. "Fine."

The elevator stops to a halt, shoving me back to the ground with a scream. I make myself stand as the doors slide open, revealing a large computer room. In the middle stand five robot monkeys.