Reborn in steel

A look in the past

Everything goes back to dark but not soon after I hear screams, gunshots and feel a sense of rage and anger. I finally come to and see bodies on their floor with a rifle in my hands. “Jax you alright?” I look over and see my old friend James. It all feels familiar and all feels real, but at the same time it doesn’t. “Yea I’m Fine, I just spaced out that’s all. Come on, let’s keep moving, the rest of our boys have to be down there.” We walked down the hall and head down some stairs. We came across a door, hearing a bit of commotion. “What’s the play, captain?” “We bust in.” I kick the door down and before the enemy could grab his weapon a shot him with no second thought. Terror soon took me over. I’ll I saw was our troops brutalized and tortured limbs on the table, teeth pulled out and all blood covered. We were too late. I have never felt weaker than I have now. “J-Jax… James” One of our troops were by some miracle still alive, but their condition was too severe they didn’t have long. “Private! You’ll be fine okay, we will get back to base, and get you patched alright?” “Jax… I can’t hold much on longer, I Barely have the strength to move. Tell my wife and son I love them. And give this to my boy.” With the last bit of strength he had, he reached into his pocket and gave me his dog tag. “T-tell him to hold on to that for as long as possible. Please make it back, Jax…please.” His eyes close and his body goes limp. It all felt eerily similar from that rusted robot when I escaped, could that have been…after that I soon go from grief to rage I knock over the table and shoot the dead enemy solider 10 times like a maniac. James quickly swooped in and stopped me. “Hey! Don’t waste your ammo on this already dead fool! Look, I know How you feel I’m pissed too but wasting ammo and throwing a tantrum isn’t going to help them!” When he said that all I did was blackout, I have never felt more enraged. I grab him by the neck and pin him to the wall. “You don’t know how I feel. Those men over there had families that they will never get to see again. Why? Because of me. I failed them. I failed their families. The promises of them coming back are gone. You will never know how that feels. Just seeing them like this eats me in inside. I am supposed to lead you all into battle and into victory, yet all I’ve done was just get you all killed. If I would never have told them to scout the other night, they would still be alive. He should be the one giving his son the dog tag, not me.” I step away and give myself a minute. “Look, I’m sorry if I got under your skin, Jax, but we can’t stand around and think they can get away with stuff like this.” I let out a sigh and pull myself together. “You’re right. Let’s go give some payback to these bastards.”

We head outside, and enemy troops were already coming our way, I cock my gun ready for a bloodbath. “Are you ready, James?” “For our troops? Of course, I am!” We get behind some barriers and aim. “Alright, let’s light em up FIRE!” One by one, every enemy troop was shot, dropping like flies. Some try to fight back, but none get a good lick on us. Not even a scratch to the helmet. But then Things just start going left real fast. “Hey, I’m out of ammo! You got any on you?” “I got some in my pocket, reach for it if you can!” James tried to leap over carefully with bullets flying in the air. One of them got a good hit and James hit the ground. “James!” I pull him behind the barrier and try to tend to his wound. “James you alright? Talk to me!” “I’m fine, just hit in the belly, that’s all!” “Keep pressure on it while take care, these suckers!” I shoot the last few troops, the road was as clear as day, “Are we clear?” James asked me. “Yea come on I got you brother.” I try to carry James back to base, it was gonna be a long way. “Keep the pressure on your wound, I don’t need you passing out on the way there.” “I’ll be fine, I don’t go down that easy.” As we walk, something hits our feet. “What is that?” James says. “GRENADE GO GO GO!” Before me and James could move out of the way, the blast sends us both flying. My ears ring for what felt like an eternity with smoke everywhere I could barely see. Then I see a shadow come out of the smoke, it was an enemy troop. He sets his foot on my chest and puts his gun to my head. “Any lasts word American?” I panic not knowing what I could do, I look over and see my pistol on the ground, but it’s too far for me to reach quickly and shoot. This is where it all ends for me. I close my eyes and accept my fate. “How about this for last words.” I open my eyes and see James with my gun, and he quickly shoots the troop, but as the troop falls he pulls the trigger and I take a hit. “Jax!” “James your face!” When James comes over to me, half his face was blown off, with some of his skull showing. He collapsed to the floor on his last breath. “Go without me, Jax, I’m just dead weight. See you on the other side, partner.” “No, no, NO JAMES NO!” I never felt more weak. More of disappointment. Or more grief. With every bit of strength I had, I salute all my fellow troops and walk all the way back to the bunker. I wrapped my wound as best as I could, but I was slowly losing blood. It wasn’t until night once I got there, the other remaining troops were standing outside looking for me. “He’s alive!” “But he’s wounded badly, we got to get him patched up quick!” my troops says. My vision start to blur, everything slowly gets quieter and my head feels lighter. “Get on the table, boys, I’ll take it from here.” Suddenly, I finally could connect that eerie voice to a face. “Don’t worry, Jax, soon you will be feeling a lot better. He says with a conniving grin.

***

Present day

I wake up, and I’m finally back from that treacherous nightmare. Back in my robot body. I feel both relief and rage. “Well, look who’s in the land of the living.” I look up and see that it’s Andre, I’ve never felt happier to see him.

“Andre, it’s really you?” “Of course I’m the one and only. Well, not really the one and only, but you get what I mean.” “How long was I out for?” “You were out for the whole day, you had me worried sick. I tried everything I can to get you reactivated, but you wouldn’t budge, Maurice just told me to wait it out.” “Jeez, where is the little pain in the butt anyway?” “Oh, he’s getting some stuff prepared for us, we’re going to a convention. And now since you’re up, you wanna come?” “Uh no I was just thinking of doing so exploring seeing the sights and the canyons and what not.” I had to come up with some excuse because I still need to see Giovanni, and now more urgently. “But it’s a Giovanni convention, they say he’s gonna be there and reveal the next generation of Giobots!” He says to me. “Is he now? Well, in that case, I will go.”