Resemble (Random)

9:00 in the morning, why the hell did she ask for me to come out here? I'm still shaken up from yesterday and she wants to talk.  She's late too.  Not even a message saying "I'll be there soon".

"Did you wait long?" I turned around, she stood there with a distraught look on her face.  I shouldn't be mad at her.  I should've known, somehow.  Resembles look like the real thing, feel like the real thing.

"N-no, just a few minutes" I said.  She diverted her eyes, her glance directed mine towards her now fixed Resemble.  I still saw a ragged mess of wire and metal that was left of her arm from just yesterday

"Can I sit down?" I was taking up most of the bench, I moved over and she sat next to me.  Her Resemble side away from me.

"What did you want to talk about" I said, gambling that she wouldn't get upset with me.  She didn't look at me, instead she rested her head on my shoulder.  I rested my arm on the back of the park bench, best if I didn't touch her on that side.

"Take a guess"

"You have Resemble" I said.

"Is that a bad thing?"

"I heard on the news"

"I don't care what the news says, I asked for your opinion" she got tense.

"I... don't know for certain" I said, unsure of what to say.

"Is it so bad that we make ourselves this way? Should we be looked down on for our decision?" She looked up at me, I could tell now.  Resemble was in her eyes as well, twisting and focusing on me like two little cameras.

"Without this I would be different, very different.  Like laying lifeless in my room, thinking of how that accident destroyed my life kind of different.  We would've never met if it wasn't for Resemble" She said, the end emphasized and her Resemble hand held to me.

"So you could never have lived again if it weren't for this?" I said.

"Does that make me a weak person then? That I have to lean on science to make living worthwhile?  If I didn't have this yesterday, I would be dead right now.  I would have died saving you" Her voice got loud and she leaned away from me.

"Say I didn't have Resemble, I would have either been dead or been given Resemble to save my life.  I could lie on the ground where I landed, bleeding to death.  Or a hospital bed dying.  How would you feel if that were the case? So what I have Resemble, is it that big a deal?" She put her hand over mine looking me dead in the eyes.

People with Resemble have it because they want to look normal again, to feel normal again..They don't want to walk down the street having people look at them.  Watch them live from wheelchairs or with missing limbs or eye patches or even speech impediments.  Resemble fixes all that.  If I had met her without them would I feel the same way about her? I hadn't said anything, her eyes started to well up with tears.

"Well!?" she said, pressing the question.

"How would you feel knowing that I put myself in harms way to protect you, knowing you could've been be hurt or killed?" She clenched my hand tight, trembling.

"It should have been me!  To think that you would do something like that for me, of all people.  I'm not worth your time or effort for saving" My voice cracked just a little "I thought you were dead on impact, I heard your body crumble and your arm spiral away" My chest collapsed, It felt like metric tons were weighing on my shoulders.  I trembled along with her.

"I started thinking of why I asked you out, who was I to take that opportunity away from someone better suited for you.  If I had kept my mouth shut you would still be in one piece right now, with someone better than me.  I'm such a selfish fuck!" My breathing became short and rapid, face was hot and my palms drenched in sweat, thousands of thoughts and feelings had broken through me like a blown out river dam.

"You're such a thoughtless asshole!" she said "Didn't ever cross your mind why I might do something like that for you because I wanted to?" I couldn't be possible.  Someone like her feeling that way about me? Nobody has ever felt that way about me, and I'm supposed to just believe it now? She still held my hand, though instead of being tight and assertive.  It was kind, gentle.  Appealing even.

I've never felt this before in my entire life.  What do I do? Will she say what I think she's gonna say? Is that even possible? As far as I was concerned the possibility of this moment ever happening died in me a long time ago.  What about me?  Do I even have it in me to think about someone else like that? asking her out in the first place was an accident, I didn't even think she would accept like she did.  Surprised and excited.  Is the ability to feel like that even in my DNA?  This can't be real, this can't be real, this can't.

Be real.

Combat academy Part 1 (*Random)

Combining robots, I wish something like that were possible. A collection of various vehicles forming around a single robot to create an even bigger robot.  The unfortunate truth of the matter is that its just not practical.  Weight/balance/mobility are key to a machines assets. I would know, as a pilot in training that these elements can make a difference between victory and defeat.

What, am I reciting stuff for an exam or something? I'm already late to class, Its my first day even. Not so much for a first impression, unless my impression is 'fashionably late' which its not.  At least the academy is in view now.

I park my truck and shuffle down the white and silver hallway to my first class 'close quarters combat' I open the door and like a tidal wave every head in class is staring at me.

"You're late, Mr..." The teacher said, somewhat upset.

"Wheeler, Marcus. I'm sorry for being tardy sir"

"Just shut it and take a seat" he said.  I found an empty chair close to the window, the girl next to me had the same blue and red BDU on as I did, which meant she was in the armored division.  She had long black hair with a green tint to it tied into a low ponytail. I also couldn't help but notice her whole left arm was wrapped in bandages, not a single bit of skin was showing.  Whatever, I need to focus.

Class ended soon after I sat down, the girl next to me looked at me like I had done something impressive.

"You've got guts walking into his class lake like that, he likes to douche on everyone who disrupts class" She said.

"Its not like I did it on purpose, didn't get into town till four last night.  Doesn't leave much time for sleep" I said, rubbing the back of my neck.

"So where were you shipped in from? Desert, Forrest?" We in the combat don't like to name names so we keep things simple.

"Tundra actually" I said.

"Is that so? how's the heat and humidity getting to you here?" She pulled at her uniform, the humid air made everything a little damp.

"Honestly, I'm liking it" It wasn't a complete truth but I couldn't go back on it now.

"Can't say the feeling is mutual. I'm Vela by the way, Vela Maxwell" She gestured to the girl in front of her, she was wearing a tan and black BDU, Ninja division.

"This is my friend **Whisper, ND" Whisper waved at me. She had dark brown hair and red eyes, though to be fair, everyone in ND had red eyes, and none of them went by their real names. Whisper didn't come off as a ninja, she was rather small and seemed like she would have a better chance of being in the Communications division.

"So what's your next class Marcus? Field testing?" It was in fact, I would feel better if she had that class too. "I do actually" I said. "Then we'll go together" While she was nice it seemed strange, almost a little too nice. Our division, while peaceful among'st ourselves we often get heated in the field, A little more than 'friendly competition' and I still don't know what the deal is with her arm.  I keep my guard up while we walk and Whisper disappears some point while we're chatting.

We get outside and I find I don't like the humidity all that much, while better than 60 below 0 its still very uncomfortable, at least I stayed dry in the Tundra.  We enter the abnormal vehicle hangar.  If things went as they should've my mech should be here.  We approach a desk where terminals are placed. I enter my student ID.

"Hangar 35" I said, thinking out loud."

"I'm in 30" Vela said. We hop in a shuttle and move down the aisles. While most of the doors were shut, I did get a glimpse of a few of the abnormal vehicles.  Not too many mechs from what I could see, the ones I did get a look at weren't much too impressive. Vela stops in front of her hangar, the doors closed.

"See you on the playing field" she said, leaving the shuttle. I watch her until she out of sight. I see her reach for her bandaged arm before she's gone.  I stop in front of 35 and enter.  I'm relieved to find my GGX13 waiting for me. I had it repainted before it arrived, its signature dark green and black. I liked to call him The Highwayman.  It sounds better than the model name.  While not too much too look at on the outside, its innards are what makes it stand out.

*While random now, it might become a new series. Just saying.
**Name subject to change (If I deem necessary)
BDU (Battle dress uniform) color determines division

Character work

I can't bring myself to write a story at the moment so I'll do the next best thing, I'll talk a little about a character.

Name: Boomstick (possible name)
The name is still in development phase until I find something more meaningful in my own mind.  Something that expresses the character a little more.

Talent: Explosives/Pyrotechnitian
In the story the act of arson/explosives/pyrotech and the like are taken as a very serious taboo.  Arsonists and explosives experts often become obsessed in their 'art' and work tirelessly to make masterpiece after another.  If not controlled properly they can eventually destroy themselves in their own work by getting closer and closer to the 'beauty of it'.  Which is what eventually happens to my character.  Though her demise hasn't been specifically created for the main plot (though I do have ideas)

Weapons: Double barrel grenade launcher, various kinds of things that go boom.
Much like a watchmaker she is spiritually involved in her work, to the very last intimate detail.  Making various forms of explosives for each situation she comes across.  Ranging from explosive darts, coins, jewelry, perfume. To ammunition for various firearms (usually when requested).  Her weapon for frontline combat is a double barreled grenade launcher designed from scratch by her fellow partner Ratchet, who made the gun from spare Grinder parts (A Grinder is a piloted robot). While durable and fully capable the weapon is somewhat heavier than its production counterparts.  But she appreciates the extra weight, as if she's bearing a punishment for the path she's taken in life. Though that's just speculation.  Pyrolagnia is etched into the side.

Features: In the 5 foot range.  Gunmetal grey hair, long and silky that falls to her lower back.  Orange eyes that reflect her affection for fire.  Striking figure (though usually lost due to her height being the attention hog so most of her shoes have height inserts to make her seem taller).  Red glasses with missing lenses, loupe magnifying lenses are attached instead.  She wears an armored grey apron for working and combat, hidden behind it is many of her explosives.  Her normal attire sports a more casual apron

Personality:
Along with being obsessive compulsive over her work, she is ignorant, stubborn, selfish, and intolerant.  Her passion is her work and a very few things can match up to what she does.  The only people she can bond with is Ratchet, Kata the group leader is a far second only because she is the one who gives her art an audience (whether they appreciate it or not doesn't matter to her) as long as she has an objective she'll see it through to the end, after that she's back to her work.  Since she is usually busy with crafting art, she rarely leaves the Carrier her and the crew live on.  Somebody usually has to take her food to her and watch her eat it or she'll forget and it'll spoil.

Other:
Like any good bomb maker she's been involved in her fair share of accidental explosions.  Some fingers on her right hand are cybernetic while her whole left hand up to her mid forearm is a complete replacement.  Honestly the replacement made her a more proficient crafter, and therefore only served to dig her deeper into her passion (obsession is more like it).  She also bears a jagged scar from her jaw past her ear, though it has been cleaned up and is less noticeable from far away.  By the way, 'pyrophilia' think about that for a moment.

That's everything I've scrounged together for this character at this point, I'm always working on improving her.  Even though she's not relevant to the main timeline she's still needs to be put together to make her more acceptable.

Monotony

Alright.  So I have school starting up again.  Going into my next part of Psychology and honestly, this has been the thing I've been looking most forward to since december.  I got out of my first Psych class and felt pretty good about it, I wanted to take the next class. I held it off cause my teacher wasn't teaching it till late this year, so I passed the time with my imaginative writing class.  Which took a dump on me, out of all the classes I wanted, it was one of the worst.

At this point though, other than taking the class to better myself I'm taking classes to keep the monotony of my life from destroying me. Since my last class got out I've done pretty much the same thing every week.

Monday: work
Tuesday: time with friends
Wednesday: work
Thursday: day off (do a few chores and errands, but usually do nothing)
Friday: work
Saturday: work
Sunday: Skip classes at church and do nothing

I need school to break this up a little. Cause if there is one thing I refuse to let happen, its to care about work and its cache of issues.

When you work at a job where the customers who come in don't want to be there, and we later ask then how there visit was, they're going to dump all their crap on us.  We get rated every week for performance and the past few reports have tanked, I refuse to let this be my priority in life, to try and fix this problem (among others) cause in the long run... it means almost nothing.  Giving upset people an audience never fares well.

I'm not saying we're bad at our jobs. I'm out there in the midst of it and I know for a fact we're doing our jobs just fine.

sorry about the rant.

I'm just saying that I can't keep going like this having nothing to do all the time.  School is important to me and if I could swing it I would go full-time school part-time work, cause work is so stressful a kind of stressful that's unhealthy.  I would rather stress about school cause that leads somewhere eventually.

Some of you might say I should go on dates and the like.  At this point in my life, I don't want to.  My honest opinion of people and society in general right now is pretty low, and to think of seeking these people out for dates and such seems counter productive.  I don't find things of that nature very intriguing at the moment.  All the positive things are out weighed by the negative.

The primary focus of my life right now is to continue school and to continue writing.  To work towards a tomorrow that actually looks exciting. If things happen to change later on I'll deal with it as it comes but as of now I'm not expecting anything.

Brainstorming

I was just sitting at home watching movies when I started brainstorming.

I was watching Terminator Salvation and started thinking of transformers.  I'm just leaving what I came up with here. That's all

Decepticon
Name: Madness

Decepticon
Name: Tragedy

Decepticon

Name: Spikestrip

The present (Transformers Fan-fiction)

Cybertron, how long has it been since I last sped along your highways? Since I last had a good drink at Sprockets? nowadays its damn near impossible to keep our hands on energon at all.  At least I know we're not suffering alone.  All the Autobots on this planet are having a hard time.  Things here are circuit boards more complicated than necessary, us being here has done nothing but add fuel to the fire.

These freeways are less than sub-par, not that I can complain.  At least I can move about as I wish.  Stretch has to stay in that airplane boneyard where nobody can find him.  Having a form he can't hide with on this planet anymore is killing him.  All me and Sunder can do is keep him company.  Lucky for me the freeways out here are deserted most of the time, allowing me to drive as I want, or a more appropriate statement, 'need'

Flashing lights? Authorities, pesky earth cops.  He won't stand a chance of keeping up with me, I've mastered these roads.

{Highspool, can you hear me?} Sunder said by transmission.

"What is it Sundre?" I was less than happy to be interrupted by her.

{Atmospheric radiation has been detected in our region, keep your optics open for suspicious activity} its about time things got more active around here, its been months since we last saw Atocine.  I still owe him a good Lagann impact to the chest, the bastard came close to ripping my head off.  I'll make sure to rip his optics out when I'm through.

This cop is keeping up with me, I should've lost him by now.

"Sure, I'll keep watch of the freeway for any signs of an attack" It was more sarcastic than necessary.

{You don't have to be an ass, Sundre out} she worked hard to keep things running smooth, and all I do is bash her with my sharkticon shit.  I shouldn't be so hard on her.

That cop is right on top of me now, who is this guy? This is no earth cop, they've never acted like this before. The body of the car transformed.  Weapons exposed themselves, the shape of the car became more sinister.  A new Decepticon has made itself present.

Reapers Revolt

"Which hand is your dominant hand?" He asked me. "My right" I said, holding it out to him.  He took my left hand and placed a revolver in it.

"From here on out, we'll be training you to fire from your left hand.  Your dominant hand will be busy with other things during combat so we'll optimize your off hand by training you to shoot with it" I did as he said but my thoughts were less on target practice and more on my -or should I say, our current situation.  I thought about Kaitlyn and how she must feel right now, still unable to talk.  Still very much unhappy to be with me.  About a month ago we lost contact with Scott and Mercedes, its doubtful they're together at this point.  And I've had my hands full just trying to keep K with me, though I'm sure she knows things would be worse for her if she didn't stay with me.  Alone and unable to talk.  Though being with me she's still alone, regardless of how I may treat her.

"Jane, you need to learn to aim while using just your left arm, stretch it out and take down the targets" I took aim, and dropped the targets with little effort.

"I used to be a Ranger, my marksmanship is very good" I said, reloading the weapon.

"That might be the case, but you're about a tenth of what you used to be.  Strength, dexterity, agility are all reduced, so you must learn the way your body works at this point.  Try taking down the targets while they're moving" He flipped a switch and the targets moved around at astonishing speed.

"Red target" He said, I spotted the target and fired.  My first few shots missed but I managed to put the last two through it, not pretty hits but hits nonetheless.

"Reload and fire at the green and blue targets" He said.  I opened the cylinder and dumped the empty shells.  I had to put each individual round in, which cut into my speed.

"Faster, if those were the Holy Order you'd be dead by now!" The pressure was building.  I managed to finish and took down the targets with more sloppy hits.  He turned me around and went to slug me in the cheek.  I managed to overtake him, but he came around with a gut shot.  It had been awhile since I'd felt pain like that, I was winded.

"If this was combat you and your useless friend there would be dead, those around you would likely follow suit too due to your shitty abilities.  You need to learn that you're not that powerful anymore.  The opposite in fact.  We're more vulnerable to the Holy Order now than ever before, and look at us.  We're dealing more damage now than before" I struggled to breath, the pain was still overwhelming to me.  I looked at K, she wasn't interested in what was happening.  She just sat there, lost in thought.

"This revolver is screwing me up, I can't use it"

"Flexibility in combat is necessary, that revolver may be all you have left, if you can't use it your done for" He kicked the gun out of my hand and hiked it up to his own.  He opened the cylinder and slid in six rounds before I could blink.

"Your her bodyguard, act like it!" he pulled the trigger.

<->

I woke in a cold sweat, my sight darted around the room.  A room occupied by nothing but dark mahogany dressers and white light shining through open curtains.  It was morning, and I was safe.  Well, safer than most. I removed the sheets, my clothes were drenched in sweat.  I hopped in the shower.  As I tied my hair back into its regular ponytail I noticed a particular scent in the air.  Someone was cooking what smelled like breakfast.  I couldn't be K, she wouldn't be caught dead cooking, unless 'He' asked her to.  Pestilence would rather starve than cook so she was ruled out too.  Someone was in the house.

I thew a robe on and tightened it down, grabbed my revolver off the bed and made way to the kitchen with extreme caution.  The sound of shuffling cookery and a stronger smell of real food made my stomach creak in hunger.

"If you plug me full of lead you wont get any breakfast" a smooth voice called, I rounded the corner with my gun at the ready, my aim deflected by a kitchen knife.

"Looks like someone's not hungry" Famine said as he flipped a pancake.

"Famine! what are you doing here?" I said.

"I've been ordered to deliver a message to the three of you" Light footsteps came from the upstairs hallway.

"Hey, Blueberry, are you cooking something?" I hated that nickname.  Pestilence came downstairs wiping the sleep from her eyes.  Pest has been with us for about a month now making her way back to Death just as we've been.

"Huh? Famine is that you?" she said, somewhat un-surprised.

"Yes, now would you like some eggs and pancakes?" he gave his sinister grin while holding up a fresh batch of eggs.  Pestilence leaped to the table, almost drooling.

"Why don't you go wake up the Princess Jane, she'll want to be here" Kaitlyn was still in bed, not like she had much reason to get out every morning.  She hadn't seen Death in over a year, her reason for living was so far away.

"And put some clothes on while your at it" Famine said.  I had forgotten I was pretty much naked except for my robe.  I threw on a dress shirt and some shorts from the closet before going to K's room.

"K? you awake yet?" I heard faint coughing, I opened her door and knew she was having a coughing fit like she always did if she said anything.  I saw her hit the bathroom floor, some blood met the tile where she lie.

"K! you alright?" It was clear she wasn't, but what else could I say? I went to help her up and she shoved me away.  She was in control of her fit now, she wiped her face and looked at me as if to say "what do you want?"

"You need to come downstairs, Famine is here" her eyes lit up, she rushed past me, and I followed.  Famine had the table all set with everything a breakfast could ever include.  Eggs, sausage, bacon, pancakes in a few varieties.  Milk, OJ and toast.

"Enjoy, I'm sure the three of you haven't had something this good in a while" Famine said.  The three of us, while curious as to why he was here were more interested in eating at the moment.  K though, wanted to hear the news.  Famine insisted she eat some first, she groaned, and scooped some eggs to her plate.