Everyone was blown back by the force of the explosion. Chris was only able to pull his arms up in time to shield his face. The concussion making him remember certain things in his past. Not all bad, but he didn’t want to remember them this way.

  He gets up on one elbow, pushing a sheet of metal off of him slowly. Afraid of what it may have done. The words: slice and dice, come to mind. With the all clear, he sighs. Elle.

  He gets up quick. The others are coming to as well. He scans the area, dirt and pieces of the building lie everywhere and on everyone. Doesn’t look like anyone escaped the battle clean.

  “Man, can I kick his ass for what he just did. Whether he’s conscious or not?” Jerry moans.

  He manages a ugh and spots Elle underneath a piece of sheet metal. He runs over, she’s covered in dirt and debris. She’s moving and moaning, a good sign. He kneels down next to her.

  “Elle, you okay?” He helps clear some of the rubble.

  “C-Chris?” She says weakly.

  He didn’t like the way she said his name, and starts clearing away the rubble, quicker.

  He stops when he gets to her. A single shard of metal points up out of her lower back. He freezes in pce.

  “C-Chris. I can’t feel…my legs.” She was starting to cry now.

  “Dad.” He says weakly at first. “Dad! Help!” He finally yells.

  His dad runs over with Simon. Larry tells them to stay put. He runs off saying he’s gonna go call Ariel and Melissa at the hospital.

  “What do we do?” Chris was starting to cry himself.

  Jackson and Jerry just stand over them. Worry and confusion written on their faces.

  “I can’t feel my legs.” Elle bawls. “Daddy.”

  “Hold on sweetheart, Larry’s going to get help right now.”

  Chris gets down next to her and takes her hand. “It’ll be okay, Elle. I’m here. Just stay still, okay.” He says, trying his best to comfort her, through his own tears. He wasn’t sure what to say. But she smiles and squeezes his hand.

  “As long…as you’re here. I’ll be, okay.”

  Nothing meant as much to him as that.

  A few moments ter, Larry was back with Seth’s stretcher. “Well, luckily they only drove a bit down the street. Ariel and Melissa had moved him to the couch.”

  They move her to the stretcher ever so carefully, keeping her face down and keeping the shard of metal in. Elle screamed through clenched teeth. Simon said pulling it out might cause more damage. Once they slowly move her to the limo, they were off. Chris right by her side the whole way.

  Larry tells them to say she was pying at a friends house when she fell through the tool shed. The story was good enough for them. Nobody disagreed.

  At the hospital, the emergency room crew bring out there stretchers and load Seth up and transfer Elle to new gurneys. Seth is moved to a room while Elle is rushed to the ER. Chris goes with her as far as he can with her. He is stopped outside the emergency room doors. When they shut he remains standing there till his mother comes and walks him back to the waiting room.

  She sits down with him and pulls him close. Running her hand slowly up and down his arm.

  He just stares down at the floor, listening to the mumbled voices of the rest. Larry and Simon were talking about the data they found. Jackson and Jerry were sitting were being cajoled by their mother.

  Rexation hits him hard. Or was it exhaustion. The voices of his friends and family begin to fade. As he drifts off he hears his dad, mentioning a way to fix her up. Good, tell me tomorrow, dad.

  * * * * *

  ...But Not Out

  Tetra had managed to crawl to the hole where he jumped out of and fall down. He uses a bit of remaining power to cushion his fall as much as he could, but the nding still hurt. Now he struggles more to crawl back to his room. He lost. His mother was gonna be mad. The cut on his face hurt and made it hard to see.

  “Tetra?”

  He hears her call his name and tries to crawl faster toward her voice.

  “Tetra, sweetie?”

  He crawls past the man who helped make him what he is. He lie on his back, his face a mangled mess. What he could make out of it, his face was in shock and it would stay like that. Tetra didn’t care if he was not moving anymore. He wasn’t his real daddy. Just that girls daddy. Stupid girl.

  “There you are.” Tetra’s mommy limps over, stepping over the guards burnt bodies. Their wires and artificial parts sticking out, still smoking. Her face was like his too. Cut from the gss from earlier.

  He sees her limp toward him from around the corner. He reaches out for her, needing her.

  “There, there, sweetie.” She kneels down and picks him up gently into her arms. “You ready to go home, hmm?” Her voice was so soothing.

  He nods his head slowly then rests it against her shoulder closing his eyes.

  “Good, so am I.” She gets up and starts walking. “When we get back, and get you fixed up. How about a nice big bowl of ice cream?”

  Tetra opens his good eye and smiles. He nods.

  “Me too. Then we can go to see your daddy.” She says cheerfully.

  He smiles and rest his head back on her chest. He was happy, he was going to his daddy’s world.