Breakable

Chapter 2: Mellow

Breakable

Chapter 2

Mellow

Beck loved the sound of his feet crunching in the snow. He could tell that Waren did too. He looked around at the boy as he hopped a few times before looking up at Beck. Heil leaned over kissing the boy's cheek and handed him a bright green lunch box.

"Have a good day at school." He called out as they started to walk toward the end of the street where two other kids stood waiting with their parents.

The other two kids were a lot older than he was, but they didn't tend to make a lot of noise. Both seemed to be too tired to converse much. Not much of an early riser like Waren was. Beck looked around at the house as he watched Cryptor pull out of the driveway in the old red Buick he had purchased after the events with Waren's uncle. A thing they never spoke of for fear of dredging up old memories for Waren.

Waren seemed to forget a lot of what happened, or at least chose not to talk about it. Although they did take him to a therapist every so often, they even said he didn't want to talk about it. It had only been three months since it happened, and the therapist said it could take years for him to be ready to say anything. Beck didn't want to push and Heil agreed. He would talk when he thought he was ready to.

The bus pulled around the corner and Beck leaned down pulling Waren into his arms and hugged him tightly.

"You have your lunch box, your pack, your chromebook, a kiss from dad, a hug from papa...what else do you need?" Beck tapped his chin. Waren pointed to something and bounced on his toes.

"My key!" He giggled. Beck pulled it out of his pocket.

"OH how did that get in there." Beck chuckled as he held out the electronic key that would let him into the underground if he needed to.

The first time Waren went into the underground was scary, but he realized that every single one of the nindroids down in that basement were his family and every single one of them had their own personality and they knew all about him. They were all...touch starved and would rub his hair, tap his shoulder, bump him, and there was one that would carry him on his shoulders so he was the tallest one there. Every single one liked him, and every single one played with him if he were lonely. Each one he called Aunts, or Uncles.

Well all except one. One seemed to be a bit of a loner and kept to himself. Preferred the company of computers. Ether was what they called him. If Waren found himself in that one company he seemed to steer clear of being too close. He sat there for two hours waiting for Beck to return, Ether was not a fun mech to be around. He ignored him a lot.

"Waren...Waren." Beck tapped the boy's nose. "Come on...up the steps." He motioned to the bus. Waren snapped out of his memory and climbed up the steps.

The bus was full as usual by this time since the school wasn't too far from home. He sat down in his usual assigned seat and smiled.

He looked around realizing something was slightly off about the bus. There was a new student. She turned a little shyly looking around at the other people. She didn't look like she was used to being around so many people. Perhaps the first time on a bus? The second thing he noticed about her were the eyes. They were neon green like his were neon blue. He smiled. Someone was just like him. She noticed his smile when he noticed her eyes. She gave him a soft wave before turning back around and jumped when she saw another person looking at her.

She looked back down at the floor. She was effectively the shyest person Waren had ever seen. He looked around at the others on the bus before he stood up.

The bus hit the brakes which caused Waren to fall forward onto his front. He slowly stood up rubbing his forehead looking at the black vans in front of them. A sizable man with what looked like augmented arms walked around and grabbed the school bus door and tore it from the henge.

A second guy walked around him and stepped up onto the first stair. His smile was just as greasy as his hair. His mustache looked like it was painted onto his lip. The sunglasses on the bridge of his nose looked like it came out of a magazine. It still had the tag on the side.

The old bus driver looked so scared.

"Alright old bird..." The man had an odd accent. One that Waren couldn't recognize. "We're lookin for a kid with neon colored eyes. Probably about the size of a five year old." He smiled as kindly as a killer could. The larger guy with the augmentations looked more like a bear.

"I don't...don't know who you're talking about." The woman cringed when the guy walked up the stairs and looked into the crowd of kids. Some screamed, others flinched away from the man not sure about what was going on.

"You can't...can't come on h..." The large man grabbed the old woman by the arm and pulled her from her seat. She hit the ground pretty hard.

"Alright kids...we're gonna play a little game. You're gonna tell your uncle Rufus and big Monty what where the kids with the glowing eyes are. Can you do that?" The guy asked. The tall kid pointed toward the back of the bus.

"They went out that way." Rufus looked a little taken aback by this information.

"Out?" He realized the fire escape hatch was opened.

"When did that happen?" He eyed the boy. He got within a few inches of the boy's face. His teeth weren't as straight as he wished they were.

"When you told the old hag that you were looking for them the first time." Rufus walked back down the steps hearing the sirens coming their way.

"Come on boys...they aren't too far."