Research and Study

JumpStart:

"Testing, testing," I say, "Wait. Justice, what does testing mean again?"

"It's a fancy word," Ms. Justice answers. Her voice sounds very clear as she talks through the long-frequency communicator. "It means 'checking'. JumpStart. Can you hear me? Testing, testing. One, two, three. One, two, three."

"I can hear you just fine," I answer. "Weird. It's working fine now, but back at IronWall, I kept hearing a weird, cracking sound.

"You mean static."

"What?"

"That sound you described. It's called static. I'm no expert, but static usually means there's something wrong with the walkie-talkies. I think most of the time, it's some sort of interference. I know, like something is messing with the signal."

"Hmm. That could be true. But---"

Before I can finish, QuickShot stomps into my room. The sound of her boot stops me, and I look at her.

"Okay, seriously," QuickShot says with crossed arms. "You and Justice have to stop."

"Stop," Justice repeats. "Why? We're just testing JumpStart's new walkie-talkie."

"We already know they work. Why are you still testing them? No, wait. Let me rephrase that. Why are you still testing them when you two are so close together?"

QuickShot turns her head.

"Justice. I'm sure you can hear me just fine without the walkie-talkie."

"Yeah, I can," Justice says from her room.

"Liste,n JumpStart. We have a bigger issue. Remember? Dr. Cho, an old enemy of ours, just broke out of IronWall? We need to find her. Now! Get back to the computer."

I shake my head and sigh.

"I've already checked," I say. "Everything. Whether it was Silent or someone else, I don't know. The cameras were all covered by the black sand. I couldn't see anything."

I place my communicator down and reach over to grab the bag of sand.

"I think our best clue to learning who broke Dr. Cho out of IronWall is this. I mean, it was everywhere at the prison. It somehow moved on its own. It even attacked us. And then it stopped moving all of a sudden. This is unlike anything I have ever seen before. Of course, there are a lot of things here I have never seen before."

I look around my room and see a bunch of gears and half-built gadgets, none of which could be found back in my village.

"Anyway," I say, facing QuickShot, "If you insist so badly, please hand me that thing over there."

QuickShot looks behind her and sees the thing used to study very small things.

"What? This? JumpStart. This is called a microscope."

QuickShot takes my micro-something and hands it to me.

"Thank you," I say. Preparing the thing, I pour a bit of the black sand onto the mini-table at the end. Closing the bag, I start looking through the thing.

"Hmm," I start, adjusting the things so I could see better. "Interesting. That's interesting."

Ms. Justice:

Walking into JumpStart's room, I'm a little surprised to see QuickShot there. Clearing my throat and calming myself down, I walk up to her.

"Hey," I say, shooting a wave at QuickShot.

"Hey," QuickShot says, smiling and waving back.

"What's going on," I ask. "Why is JumpStart using his microscope?"

"He's studying that strange black sand," QuickShot answers. "He thinks it may be a clue as to who broke Dr. Cho out of IronWall."

"Even if it isn't, it would still be helpful to know what exactly it is. I mean, this black sand stuff is already uncommon. Throw in being able to move by itself and take shape, and we have one bizarre mystery."

"That is very interesting," JumpStart says.

"Okay, that's enough," QuickShot says. She grabs JumpStart's shoulder and turns him around so he faces her. "JumpStart. What did you learn! What is so 'interesting' about the black sand?"

Clearing his throat, JumpStart puts up a finger.

"I have discovered something interesting about the black sand," JumpStart starts. Lowering his finger, JumpStart then pushes himself away. "See for yourself."

QuickShot and I look at each other before looking through JumpStart's microscope. QuickShot went first before I did. When looking closely at the sand, I see tiny sparks in the sand grains.

"What the heck," I think. I check again, just to be sure I'm not seeing things, and again, I see tiny sparks. Hundred, thousand, millions of little sparks, all jumping from sand grain to sand grain.

"Did you two see it," JumpStart asks with a smile.

"Yeah," I answer, pulling back. "There are sparks jumping everywhere."

"What are those," QuickShot asks.

"Yeah, I have no idea."

"Ahh," QuickShot cries out.

Pulling back, JumpStart raises his hands.

"Hey, hey, hey, I just looked at this for a little. I'm going to need some more time to study it properly. Mainly, how it can take shape. No doubt all that power had something to do with it, but what exactly?"

JumpStart's long black elf ears wiggle as he rubs his chin. He pushes himself back and looks at the sand through the microscope again.

"A better question is why it stopped all of a sudden," I say. "I mean, as far as I can tell, none of our attacks were doing anything. So why did it stop moving?"

"We probably damaged it enough that it stopped," QuickShot answers, turning and walking away. "Call me when you find something."

Watching until QuickShot is out of the room, I turn back to JumpStart.

"So I guess we're done testing these," I say, holding up JumpStart's walkie-talkie.

"Yeah," JumpStart answers. He pulls back from his microscope and reaches over to grab his walkie-talkie. Waving at me to take a few steps back, JumpStart then pushes the button on top.

"Hello, hello," JumpStart says, his voice coming through the radio as clear as day. "One, two, three. One, two, three. Can you hear me?"

"I can hear you just fine," I answer, holding the button down. "Of course, I'm right here. This works better when I am in my room."

Seeing that JumpStart is busy, I pocket the walkie-talkie and walk back to my room.

"See ya," I say, shooting JumpStart a quick wave.

"See ya," JumpStart replies, shooting me a similar wave.

Robert:

Looking around, I ensure the whole place is abandoned and forgotten about. I see rusted pipelines, absolutely no power, and cobwebs everywhere.

"This place will do," I tell myself. Setting down Dr. Cho's containment cell on the ground, I then focus. I close my eyes and concentrate my thoughts.

When I open my eyes again, I see myself in a see-through plastic bag. I'm lying on the elf's desk, as he looks at more of me through a microscope.

For some reason, I am not getting any more interference.

"This is my chance!"

Carefully crawling away, as not to draw attention to myself in the bag, I crawl to the ledge of the desk and fall off. Landing on the floor, I cut myself out of the bag and quickly run into hiding.

It seems the elf is too busy to notice me disappearing. While he is busy, I run along the floor and hide underneath the elf's hammock.

"I need metal to grow."

Very luckily for me, I see plenty of scrap metal littered all over the elf's room. There is even some beneath the hammock with me. I start devouring the scrap metals, turning them into more of me. Very soon, I'll grow again, and this time, the OutCasts will not stop me.