Field Trip (Open)

A humid breeze washed the moonlit forest, rattling leaves and making several small animals stir. A crescent moon hung in the sky in a lop-sided manner, like a toothy smile. It was framed by several rain clouds. Of course, they were always there. It was a rainforest, wasn't it? And the Amazon at that. It was always hot and wet here. It was perfectly calm and serene... The river rushing softly and the wild animals' howls as they prowled and hunted in the night.

A sudden disturbance sent some toucans and other small birds scattering away. There, in the forest, was a loud "Woof". A medium-sized dog sat patiently in a clearing, his dark brown gaze peering protectively around him. At his side was a young girl, wearing a red tanktop and jeans with a denim jacket. Better hurry. Thomas's parent's will be home in a few hours.

Thomas walked beside Ren, holding her hand along the way. The rainforest was dense, full of animals he didn't know, insects, paracites, things he couldn't comprehend. He watched her dog, which, to his delight, brough with her every time she babysat, as he ran around with excitement. Soon enough his attention was turned to the trees, the canopy, and the floor below. He was here because Ren was helping him. He had homework on listing five animals that live in a rainforest. He had no idea what was in a rainforest, and his sister was hogging the internet, not like he'd use it right anyways, at least, that what she said. THey were here now, none-the-less.

He watched as the birds flew away, frightened. He could hear their words in their squaks and caws, frantic, angry. Some words caught, other words that sounded just as it would to any other, a squak or caw. Simple words. He got those, the other ones, he didn't know.

All in all, this place, the rainforest, was cool, as he would describe it. And awesome place. There was nothing bad here! It was all perfectly alright!

I.Q. or Akago was not in a good mood right now. He growled to himself as he sat in a baby carriage in the South American streets. His quest for an ally in this crazy world had led him to the S of A. Where two, very special children would be. His units had been spying on them for weeks now, and when they had caught the two of them performing a strange power, their direction had been traced, and led Akago to his current state, pretending to be a rather harmless, defenseless and whiny little baby. With no mother in sight, that was the only strange thing about him right now. Akago frowned, this was just plain embarrassing, sitting his little stroller, wearing only a diaper. His flabby tan flesh... Exposed. The worst part of this. he was supposed to look harmless! He was a genius! He couldn't be harmless, it was in his genes. He had to be wickedly evil! But he ignored the primal call to kill someone, he had a mission to perform, and the arrival of the boy Thomas and girl Ren set it in emotion.

Even though he was in the middle of a beautiful country, the sights and smells, and curiosity of it all was lost on him. He wiggled in his stroller, jerking forward to set the stroller in motion. Akago clicked a button on his stroller and morphed it into the shape of a spider. It's artificial and once cuddly skin broke apart, morphing into a robotic spider shaped body. Akago was situated inside of a reddish bubble at the top of the spider. It's robotic movements set for two bulbous reddish, orange figures in the distance. Thomas and Ren. For all the robotics needed to make it function it was surprisingly quiet, as he crept up on the pair, it's nimble spider-like legs were amazingly efficient, missing every twig by an inch, and squeezing in between thick trees.

Ren smiled and looked down at Thomas. "What do you see that you want to put in your project?" she asked, unyielding patience in her voice. She'd been babysitting the seven-year-old for about a month now. This was her first actual job, so she was trying to do good at it. Plus she actually kinda liked this kid. He wasn't overly annoying like most of the kids she'd encountered. Plus he most likely wouldn't tell his mom/dad/sister about their little excursion to South America. And Raimaru liked him.

She was completely oblivious to the spider-thing coming towards them, instead keeping her eye out for jaguars and other jungle predators. She reached down and petted Raimaru's head. "Now just bark if anything is wrong," she told him. His eyes sparkled with intelligence, almost like he understood.

Thomas thought about the question. What did he want to put in his project. He saw a couple animals. Some he knew the names of, others he wouldn't. Maybe he could draw a picture, they accepted pictures. "Those," he said with a wide grin, pointing at the last of the tucan as it began to disappear over the trees and away. He looked around in the trees, trying to see if he could spot an animal before they ran off. He saw none. Maybe they were too loud or something. His mom said that animals won't stay around if you're really loud because it scares them. But it wasn't like they were yelling or anything. Maybe they just didn't live in this area.

The spider pod stopped behind the teen girl who was bending down and talking to some strange animal. In silence, the spider pod glared down at her, where was that boy... Akago pushed down a button and a large siren blared. It reached for miles and miles sending birds fleeing into the skies and most likely, actually hopefully alerting the young boy Thomas and the girl, Ren to his presence. He knew it would be rather strange for them to see a mechanical instrument such as this in broad daylight, but they should adjust, they did in fact have superpowers. Akago detached his seatbelt and stood up, almost instantly mechanical arms applied his clothing to his body. It was so simple, and in a matter of seconds he was dressed from head to toe in impressive tight fitting uniform. A rather fashionable one he might add. He would be the king of all babies with this on. If only he actually knew some babies he could talk too.

A loud siren blared in Ren's ears and she jumped, surprised. "What the heck?" she hissed, pulling Thomas behind her instead of putting her hands to her ears like her instincts told her to. She reached down with her free hand and grabbed her Beretta from the holster on her hip, which was hidden with the edge of her shirt from any nosy adults. She pointed the gun straight at the Spider-Pod, ready to fire. "Thomas stay behind me!" she ordered, having to yell over the loud racket the siren was making.

Raimaru yelped as his acute hearing was ruptured by the siren. But instead of fleeing like all other animals in the area, he jumped to his paws and turned to face the spider creature, a low growl in his throat. He stepped in between his owner and the contraption, his teeth bared. He had to protect Ren and Thomas.

Thomas cringed at the impossibly loud siren. It pounded at his ears, dizzying him, his confusion was only increased when he was pulled behind Ren. What was going on? He felt like his ears would start to bleed at the nose, but they didn't, to his surprise. Then he was going to go deaf then! But, that also, was not true. He could still hear the noise. He could hear it forever, and he wanted it to stop. His hands clasped to his ears, trying to block the sound, but it came in just as loud as it had without his feeble shield.He couldn't even hear what Ren had said, only staying behind her because of his own fear of whatever was making the noise.

Ren growled under her breath. "Rai, stay," she commanded over the loud blaring. She narrowed her eyes and turned to the Spider-Pod, aiming her gun again. And just in case that didn't work.... She'd downloaded some powers she'd thought might come in handy. Like, if this thing tried to attack them, she'd zap them to some other place in the jungle. Or back at Thomas's house. Either one was fine with her.

At this point, he wanted to run, run and hide; dig himself under the ground, away from the noise. Wait... He could do that right now, he could totally ditch. Right now, and he'd be gone. He almost did too, but then he thought about Ren. She'd be mighty angry if he left. If he left now, she would find him, and then he'd have him grounded for the rest of his life, and she'd tell his parents, and then they'd ground him more. And.. she wouldn't let him see Rai anymore, he'd bet.

He opened his eyes, the whole, "if you can't see it, it's not there thing" wasn't actually working. He looked from behind Ren and saw the big, mechine thing. He could tell it was spider-like... it was a weird looking spider though. It was also pretty cool looking, if it weren't so loud, he'd be able to appreciate it a lot more, but right now, it was something that sounded like it would start doing some buck-wild movements.

"What is that!?" Thomas tried to yell over the noise.

She faintly heard Thomas's voice. "I don't know!" she yelled, casting a quick glance behind her to make sure he was still there. His parents would kill her if he got hurt... Plus she'd feel guilty. Not like robbing a bank didn't make her feel guilty, but you know. Eh. Ren had to shout again over the noise, "Just stay behind me! Whenever I tell you, run!"

The pod glistened in the light, it's sleek eggshell white surface reflected the little bit of sunlight that escaped the canopy of trees. "Do not be alarmed." spouted a strangely robotic voice, seemingly from nowhere. But it in reality, Akago was tapping in the verbal commands with his keyboard. "I mean you no harm, mortal and Prime."

The ringing was gone, but now, there was a voice instead. What it said? Thomas was not sure, the odd ringing that sounded in his ears was blocking it mostly. He got a sort of mumble. He barely picked up anything. The only word he got was arm, but he didn't know what that had to do with anything. Maybe it was going to cut off their arms? Now that made him afraid, but he didn't think it did, because if it had, wouldn't it have attacked them already, they did on the horror movies (his sister made him watch them when she snuck one from their parents room), so they did it in real life, right? That made sense to him, perfect sense. Then what had he said? It might have been important. Well, whatever it was, Ren would tell him, right? But, would he hear her with this in his head.

"What?" He asked, really confused. His own voice speaking with that odd mumblish sound.

"Don't move," Ren growled, her voice like steel. This wasn't time to be the nice baby-sitter that let everyone get vaporized. Or whatever. But this thing said it wouldn't hurt them. But it addressed one of them as a 'Prime'. That wasn't right. She was a Down Loader. Not a Prime. And Thomas couldn't be a Prime. Or could he?

She shook her head. This wasn't the time for ample thoughts! "What do you want?" she asked the machine in a steady voice. It was like the calm before the storm, but if one listened carefully you could hear the anger seething beneath her cold tone. Anything now could tip her over the edge. Then she wouldn't be so serene, would she? She didn't lower her Beretta, which was fully-loaded. She peered around the edge of the gun to get a better shot if the thing moved forwards and could clearly see that the safety trigger was red. It was her philosophy. 'Green means Safe. Red means Kill.' Something her dad had taught her while he was teaching her how to wield a gun. You know. Before she'd run off.

I'm just glad that siren stopped... It was really annoying. Ren looked down slightly to look for Rai. She saw her dog standing beside her in a fighting stance. She knew if this thing came after her, then he would fight with it to keep it away. Even if it killed him.