Over Cross

Chapter 1

One

"It's 5am..come on..6am baby. We can do this..."

His pager beeped, signaling an incoming message. He scratched his messy, brown hair. "Ugh, open message." The pager stopped beeping and flashed a holographic image of her mom.

"Good morning, Toby sweetie."

Toby stood up. "Mom. Hello. Morning. What brings you here?"

"Well, just wanted to see if you're busy or not."

"I'm playing a game, other than that, I'm not that busy."

Her mom gave him a warm smile. "Good. Because your father and I wanted to see you. So, we both decided to bring you to our lab."

Toby tried to smile. "How soon? Tomorrow?"

Her mom chuckled. "Now, actually. I already plotted the coordinates on your tube-portation. All you have to do is climb in and press go. See you later sweetie." She blew him a kiss and the holograph closed.

Toby sighed in exasperation.

**********

"Are you Toby, sir?" an android asked him as soon as he stepped out of the tube-portation.

"Uhm, yes." Toby reluctantly replied. The android nodded. "Right, this way sir."

The android led him to a series of hallways. Toby almost couldn't keep up because of the large stream of people flowing everywhere. Back and forth, some talks into their phones, others rushing paperwork, People still use papers? Toby wondered.

The android came to a stop. He pressed buttons that were placed on the side of the door. Whoosh! The door opened and the android stepped back. "Sir," Toby stepped in and felt his jaw drop to what he saw.

To his left, there were chemists performing experiments all at the same time, causing massive explosions that strangely leave them unscathed; to his right, there were robots of all shapes and sizes, some activated and are tested around the room; others are still being fixed by the scientists. The room sure has a busy atmosphere. Toby gave a low whistle.

A huge screen towered in the middle of the room. Someone was busy typing away to what seemed formulas, research pieces and a blueprint of a product. The android approached the woman next to the man and whispered in her ear. She turned around and locked eyes with him. "Toby!" she skipped towards him and gave him a big hug. "Oh, it's so good to see you! I've missed my boy so much!" She held him by the shoulders. They have the same hazel brown eyes and smile. "You've grown a lot!"

"Thanks mom," Toby replied, scratching his head. "Uhm, you looked better."

Her mom scoffed. "Hah, this is what 3 days of non-stop sleep does to me. Come, let's go to your dad." They approached the man typing in the big screen. "Honey! Look who's here!" The man looked up from his work and looked at him, and it always reminded Toby how pointy their noses are. His face aged a lot when they last saw each other, and there were grey streaks across his jet-black hair,."Son," He gave him an awkward hug. "How you've been?"

"I'm fine dad, thanks for asking. You?" Toby smiled at him.

His dad cleared his throat. "Everyone, can I have your attention, please? This is my son, Toby. It's his first time here, so I want you all to be nice to him, alright? Show him your work when he's around." Murmurs started to rise. Toby's dad shook his hand off. "Now, now, don't worry; this kid's a good noodle. I know, I made him! " Laughter echoed across the room. "Alright, that's all. Back to work! I've heard today's lunch is Pepperoni Pizza and Mac n' Cheese. Get to it!" Everyone went back to their usual routine.