Chapter 2

Asher makes his way into the downtown part of Chicago, where there are hundreds of zever robots patrolling the streets. Asher looked on at the still standing buildings that loomed over him, including the Willis Tower. There was debris from the smaller fallen buildings that had fallen into each other like dominoes.

"Dang, the entire city is in ruins," Asher said to himself. He sees two robots marching toward him. He hides behind the wall of an old brick building, waiting silently for the robots to pass. They do and he begins to explore the wasted city. "Wow," Asher said with surprise. "I never thought I would see this city so dead, so empty and lifeless." 

Asher puts down an electrical discharger on the ground. "This should keep me safe." He continues through the barren city without a clear goal in sight. He remembers the city when it was full of life. He remembers the days when his dad would take him to the city. There would always be that street vendor selling cheesy popcorn on summer evenings. Asher would always cry for some as a kid. He remembers looking through the glass boxes atop Willis Tower, seeing the entire city below as the sun set over the western horizon, the cotton candy clouds sitting overhead. 

Chicago 2056

"Hey Dad, where are we going?" asked a then four-year-old Asher. "It better not be one of those meetings. They are soooooo boring. All I get to do is sit in the lobby with Mrs. Judy."

"No, don't worry," Asher's dad said with a laugh. "We aren't going to one of those boring meetings. We are going somewhere I think you will enjoy."

"OOOOOOOO! Is it the ice cream shop!" Asher asked.

"Not this time, but we can get some on our way back home," Asher's dad said with a smile.

"YAAAAAAY!" Asher said aloud. "So where ARE we going?"

"You'll see soon enough," replied Asher's dad. They both soon reached a large building in downtown Chicago.

"WOOOOOOOOOW! THE SPACE MUSEUM!?" Asher yelled out. "YAAAAAAY!"

"Come on, let's go, Asher," said Asher's dad. "We should go inside before it closes." The two went inside the museum. "Two tickets to the museum please." Asher's dad said to the booth lady.

"Sure here you go," said the lady. "children need to put on these wristbands."

"Okay," said Asher's dad. "Give her your hand Asher." Asher put on the wristband. The two began exploring the museum. Asher was running through the entire museum. Asher and his dad eventually get to an exhibit about the moon. Asher jumps around like a rubber ball. He and his dad look at a model of the moon colony.

"If I ever get transferred to help with the moon colony, you will be the first one to come with me," said Asher's dad.

"YAY, DAD!" Asher exclaimed. "The moon is soooooo cool! I wanna go up there someday.

Present Day…

All of that was now a distant dream. The moon colony was now past multiple fleets and armies of zevers and their robots. It was a fantasy that wasn't exactly on Asher's priority. Asher came to the city not to dream about what could have been, but to find something. He is spotted by a drone flying overhead. "Crap," Asher said under his breath as the drone began to fire upon him. Several robots came from the surrounding streets. Asher now had no choice but to fight.

"You want some of this!?" He said loudly as he sent shots of his dark red fire at a few of the robots. The flames melted all the snow around him. Vapor filled the air around the streets. The robots kept shooting at Asher but missed by a few centimeters each time. Asher then appeared behind two robots. "SURPRISE!" he said as he slammed the two together with his fist in flames. The robots' heads were blasted with flames bursting from the other side. Flames engulfed the streets, catching more of the robots' attention. More blaster fire was fired upon Asher but only hit the air. Asher leaps onto a robot's head and uses it as a platform, igniting his feet to create thrust. He then punches right through the body of another robot and sends it flying into an alleyway dumpster. Asher then climbs atop a light post. The remaining six robots begin to fire upon Asher. "This is gonna hurt," He said as he jumped through a window and into the third story of an apartment building.

"You two stay and guard the exit," A robot said. The four then pursued Asher into the building. The robots entered the apartment building. The robots stormed the apartment, looking for Asher. All four went up the stairs silently, as if they were children going downstairs for a midnight snack. The robots sense a heat signature from one of the rooms and go to investigate. A coat rack, on fire, stood in the center of the room. Asher then comes from above the door and kicks the robot in the back.

"Eat this tin heads!" he yelled as he engulfed the other three robots in a plume of dark cherry-red flames. The robots' circuits were fried, causing them to collapse. "That was close," Asher said sarcastically. 

Outside the apartment building, the two robots lay silent, waiting for either Asher or their comrades, but neither showed up. They readied themselves to go into the building.

ZAAAAPPPP!!

Both robots fell to the ground, motionless. A man in a hood then walks past, with electricity coming off his arms. He enters the building and sees the damaged robots on the stairs. He then sees a door open. The man enters the room. The man scavenges the room, looks around, and then leaves. 

"Who was that?" Asher whispers from the ceiling. He crawls on the exposed pipes in the room behind the man. They both continue up the stairs. The man eventually gets to the final apartment but finds nothing again. Asher then drops down loudly beind the man.

"Who are you?" Asher asked in a loud and aggressive tone. His fists begin to glow and then ignite into flames.

"Don't worry, I'm a friend," the man said. He lifts his hood to reveal his face. "My name is Zack. I am part of the interior security force for the Republic of North America." Asher scans the man quickly, seeing a faded Repiblic of North America military uniform underneath the man's robe.

"Why are you here?" Asher asked, confused. "And what's with the uniform?"

"I was told to go find Colonel Johnson's son," Zack said. "What's it to you?"

"That would be me. Wait, are you part of the forty-second brigade?" Asher asked.

"Indeed I am," Zack responded. "I am the lieutenant colonel of the forty-second brigade."

"That's. So. COOOOOOL!" Asher yelled. "I can't believe I ran into one of my dad's friends here! This is GREAT! So where is the rest of the brigade?"

"I… do not know," Zack said with a sigh. "I left after I was given the order, and then got here. My entire battalion was captured and sent to the alien base in Indianapolis. I was hoping to find more people here to help me take out the base in Indianapolis, but I didn't expect the aliens to have gathered up every human in Chicago already."

"Well, do you know of any other bases nearby that we could take on with just two people?" Asher asked.

"Hmm. Let me check," Zack said. He pulled out his phone and inserted a flash drive on the top. "Looks like there's a base in Urbana, Illinois. It's small and mainly uses the college campus for fortifications. The courtyard is underneath a tarp."

"Could we take it on?" Asher asked. "I could find some of my friends there, assuming the zevers are using human labor."

"Zevers?" Zack asked.

"That's the common name of the alien species that came to our planet," Asher confirmed.

"What I'd expect from the son of Colonel Johnson," Zack replied.

"Let's go then!" Asher said. "They could transfer the people to Chicago any day now. We have to help them."

"I agree," Zack responded. "If we go now, we could get some more people to help us, but the walk is long and littered with zevers."

"Don't worry, I have a bike that can fit two people just a few streets away," Asher said confidently. "We just need to get past the several patrols of zevers. It's gonna be fun!"

"Just what I would expect from the colonel's son." Zack sighed. "All right, let's go!" The two went down the stairs and out the door.

"This way," Asher whispered. The two walked through the city, making sure not to encounter any zever robots. 

"Wait!" Zack whispered. The two boys went behind an old bus. "There are too many to sneak past."

"Then we fight," Asher replied. He then jumped up and over the bus. "Hi there zevers!" The robots began shooting at Asher, but he blasted a plume of fire below, igniting the blasts of the robots like fireworks on the fourth of July. Asher then jumps through the flames, with his fists on fire. He starts hand-to-hand combat with the robots, with his punches permanently denting the exterior of the robots and destroying their circuits.

"I guess I'll join too!" Zack exclaimed. He electrifies his arms and charges into the fight. Electricity follows his fingers as if they were ribbons on a bicycle. "Take THIS!" His arms flash in colors of blue and yellow as he sends a chain of lightning through many of the robots, crippling them.

"THAT'S SO COOL!" Asher yelled. "I've never seen someone with that amount of power and control with lightning!" 

"Thanks," Zack said. "Your dad is the one who trained me." He then zaps some more of the robots.

"Well he taught me some things too, like this!" Asher then sets his legs on fire, burning the bottom of his pants off. He then jumps up with his flames alone and spirals up. His body then begins to fall as his legs stay ignited and he spirals into the robots below. He lands on the robot below him with a slam powerful enough to create a small impact creator. 

The resulting impact makes a bomb sound echo throughout the city. More robots appear from the alleyways. "I think I may have overdone it…" Asher said slowly.

"YA THINK!?" Zack explodes. "Oh well, we can take on these tinnies. Zack then grabs a light post and electrifies it. "This should be fun," he said excitedly. Zack then smacks 4 robots into the river.

"Nice one!" Asher exclaimed. "Let me try!" Asher jumps into the bus through one of the windows. He sees two poles inside that were broken from the seats. "Perfect," he said while picking them up. He then heats the poles until they begin to glow a bright red color. "Great, let's go!" He said as he burst through the window of the bus. He then clocks a robot in the face with one of the poles while driving the other right through the head of another. He then spins around to smack two more while throwing the other robots off the red-hot poles.

"Hey, how far is your bike?" Zack asked while pummeling a robot's head into the ground.

"Uhhhhhh, five blocks away I believe," Asher answered. "But judging by all these robots, it will take us a little while to get there." Asher then smacks two more robots away with the poles. Asher 

"So why are you fighting the aliens? You don't even look old enough to drive" Zack asked curiously.

"I'm 17! I can drive!" Asher said. "What about you? You don't look much older than me!"

"I'm 20!" Zack said in a joking tone.

"That's just 3 years older!" Asher yelled. "We could have gone to high school together!"

"The commander was right, you are funny." Zack retorted. "You're just like him in so many ways and yet kinda different too."

"Yeah thanks," Asher said sarcastically. 

Zack then giggled a little. "So you still haven't answered my first question. Why are you fighting instead of hiding away?"

"There's no point in hiding away in a shed while others have to suffer in the hands of the zevers," Asher said. "I was lucky to be spared, so now I gotta use this opportunity to help others. There's also no fun in hiding and cowering. The real excitement in an alien invasion is when you are fighting the aliens even though they have the advantage."

"Having the will to go on despite impossible odds," Zack said. "Good on you. I know the rest of the battalion would think the same way."

"So what about you?" Asher asked. "Are you honor-bound to help others?"

"Helping people is my job. It doesn't matter if I have to fight other people or aliens from a faraway planet, this planet is my home."

"I'm glad you feel that way about this fight," Asher said. "Now it's time to end this!" Asher pulls out a detonator from his pocket and sets it off. All the electrical dischargers Asher had placed began to explode. Each blast was accompanied by an electric shock that destroyed the power grid in the area. This caused a blackout in the entire district. Every electrical device shut down one at a time. The robots that were left lost power and collapsed like dominoes. The drones above began to hail down along with the snow.

"You couldn't have done that before?" Zack asked sarcastically.

"Well, the dischargers needed time to charge," Asher said. "I saw they were done charging and decided to let them blow."

"Well, at least we now have a window to escape," Zack said. "How long are the robots going to stay down?"

"I would say ten to fifteen minutes," Asher replied. "Let's get outta here." The two boys dash to the bike.

"Why did you park it so far away?" asked Zack.

"I honestly don't know. I rarely plan things out," Asher said confidently. "And it all worked out in the end. See? We wouldn't have met otherwise."

"I guess that's one way to see it," Zack replied. "Is that it?"

"YEAH! It is!" Asher replied. "Now quickly let's…" A giant creature then rose from above the buildings. It blocked the already dim moonlight almost completely. It then flew down and landed right in front of the bike. 

"What the HECK IS THAT?" Asher blurred out.

"Oh humans," said a voice. "How wonderful." A figure then dropped from the creature, landing right in front of the two boys. The figure had an indigo body and a reptilian-like solid tail. The figure had a strong-looking jaw, with the flesh around the mouth being made of a harder material. The eyes were slightly smaller than that of humans, and there was no nose-like feature. The entire thing looked otherworldly, yet familiar.

"Wha- What are you?" Zack said, with lightning at the ready. 

"Oh, do you mean you have never seen a living zever in the flesh?" The figure asked.

"Wait you're a zever?" Asher asked.

"Yeah, I believe that's what I just said," the figure retorted. "You aren't very bright are you, human?"

"How do you know how to speak our language?" Zack asked.

"Yeah, you have never interacted with our species!" Asher yelled. "And the likelihood of our species having the same vocal cords is slim to none!"

"Do you seriously think we came unprepared to invade your pathetic planet?" The Zever blurted. "We have spent many of your earth weeks preparing for your planet. We know your language, your culture, and even the fact that you humans have some sort of ability that is beyond science."

"So what do you want?" Asher asked.

"I want you two to go to one of the work camps in the base and keep the humans there working." The zever responded. "If you refuse, I will kill you both right where you two stand. If you want to live, you should come with me."

Asher set his fist on fire. "I don't think so!" He blasted the Zever in front of him. The plume of cherry red flames began to give out as Asher was losing his breath. The flames dissipated. The zever and the monster were nowhere to be found. Asher and Zack look up to see the creature flying away with the Zever on its back.

"Consider my offer, or else your heads may not remain on your bodies for much longer," The Zever yelled. It then laughed off into the Chicago base. 

"Hey look!" Asher said. "Looks like some sort of device." Asher goes to grab it. The device turns on with the option yes or no. Asher then sees the robots begin to rise and aim at them.

"Why aren't they shooting at us?" Zack asked. "Is it because of the device the zever left?"

"Probably," Asher answered. "I'm guessing they'll shoot if we say no or don't take it. We should probably use this chance to leave." The guys get on the bike and leave, looking back at the robots standing motionless. Asher rides the motorcycle into a tunnel that leads to the outskirts of the city.