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

Chapter 4: Colin

"I can't believe you would drag your ex and my crush into this" Colin said as they pulled up to the local Barnes & Noble in his truck. He unbuckled himself and opened the door. The night sky was calm and clear. After finding out that their friend and Tyree's ex would be recruited, they decided the next course of action was to trace Megatron. They located his ship at this Barnes & Noble. However, the drive here was silent which made it longer than normal. Colin tried to calm himself, but he couldn't believe how weak minded Tyree was. 

"I said sorry and I couldn't' help it. Besides they weren't the only two I thought off." He looked at the store. "They close in a half hour."

"Well, I guess we should investigate. The ship is around here somewhere."

"Do you think," Tyree paused. "Do you think they'll be mad? Never mind, of course, they will be. I was mad.  I don't understand why they were picked from other engineers and medics I knew."

"You must have felt more strongly about them if Crush chose them." Razor bleep with happiness and amazement. 

"He did. They were the first to jump to his mind. I would assume that also means that they are the most capable of all the other recruits they had in mind."

"No, I was just thinking, I mean, I'm sure they're capable, but the strong emotion is love." 

"Well, in any event, Haze and Flair will be joining us soon. Let us find Megatron ship and then find him." Crush said.

Colin and Tyree walked into the store. The store was almost empty. Two couples in the cafe having coffee. A few customers browsing the aisles. The store was cold as if the heat wasn't working. They followed Razor's digital map that only they could see thanks to the secured connection between Razor and Crush. The map led them to the storage room.

"looks like it's behind the store."

"We have to go back outside."

They left the store and went to the back. By the dumpster was a canister similar to Razor's ship.  The ship 's container was smaller than theirs. Colin picked it up. It looked very similar to a metal water bottle. A blue bottle with a black label in place of a paper label. The label was actually the hatch of the ship.

"It's so tiny," Colin said.

"it's a one person ship," Razor said. "He must have found a host."

"That means he could be anyone," Tyree commented. He folded his arms and lowered his head. 

"Great. Another human to deal with." Crush said. 

"Will you stop with the human slander. If we're going to be working together I rather us get along." Tyree said to Crush.

Crush responded, "If you stop thinking of us as robots, then I'll stop with the slander.  Maybe."

"What do we do now?" Tyree asked Colin. Colin gave the bottle ship to Tyree. Looking around he shook his head. 

"I don't know." 

"Do you think those camera's work?" Tyree asked looking at it. 

"Maybe, why?"

"Maybe whoever the host is was caught on video." 

"Good point," Colin said. "We would have to get their permission to find out."

"And of course they will say no."

"Maybe we don't' need to ask. If I can get in, we can sneak in and view it ourselves."

"Colin, what's gotten into you, first accepting aliens, now breaking and entering? I don't know man seems dangerous.

Colin and Tyree continue to debate about viewing the video. Colin points out that they need the video, while Tyree was tried to convince Colin going to the authorities is still the best play.

"They'll just take the Sparks and conduct experiments on them."

"Maybe, but that's not our call, Colin."  Tyree said. "I'm starting to have second thoughts."

"We could always hack into it," suggested Razor. 

"We can do that?" Colin responded. "Tyree and Crush too?"

"No. just us. I can enhance your computer skills. Our fusion allows me to take your skill and digitally replicate it as a holographic object. Just like I did with the map."

"Okay let's do it." Colin looked at Tyree for approval. 

Tyree raises his hands in a nonconfrontational way. "Hey, I don't see anything wrong with that. So long as we're not exposing ourselves. There's no way they will know it was you two right?"

"No." Colin and Razor both said in unison. Colin's eyes started turning red as he and Razor hacked into the store's computer and video footage. For about two minutes Colin shifted through the information Razor downloaded into his brain. Together, they viewed the last 24 hours. They saw when Megatron's ship crashed, but then he ejected from the ship.

"That's not good," Colin said.

"What?" Tyree said. 

"Megatron ejected from his ship. We have no way of tracking him."

"So he literally could have found anybody to host him by now." 

"Appears that way. Is there any other way to track him?" Colin asked Razor. 

"No, unfortunately. We just have to do things the hard way."

"He's way too excited about not having a solid lead," Tyree said to Colin. Colin nodded in agreement.

"He's always like that, that's why I hate him."  Crush said.

Colin and Tyree started to walk back to the front of the store. The lights started flickering. A man approached them from the corridor. He was a homeless man and the smell of urine hit Colin's nose like a punch. The man was old with a long beard. he walked with a limp and had tattered cowboy clothes. 

"Please, spare a dollar." the man's voice deep, but scratchy. 

"Sorry, man, I don't have any cash on me," Colin said.

"Me either," Tyree said.

"Please," the man said. "if you don't have money, then you can give me your lives."

The man looked to the sky, palms upward, his eyes glowing red. The sky itself turn from a dark blue to a purple-red. Then the rain started to flow. The drops of water exploded into flame raining down onto Colin and Tyree. Without thinking, both of them transformed. Razor covered Colin in a red knight. Crush covered Tyree in blue knight armor. 

The fire rained on them, but the armor protected them.

"Your armor's won't last forever. My rain will melt them!" The man laughed. Colin watched as Tyree and Crush bounded around away from the collected rain clouds. That was before Colin and Razor teleported out of range and behind the man.

"No!' 

"A blue bolt in the shape of a ball hit the man in his face. The blast came from Tyree and Crush. Colin noticed that he was no longer physically in control. Razor took out a sword and placed it around the man's neck. 

"Who are you?"

"I'm no one."