Chapter 1 - Unknown Skies, Far From Home

What makes one think of home as "Home?" Is it the people we love? The comfort we find in a place we've lived in for so long? Or is it something else? I never really knew how much I longed for home until I lost it. When it was snatched away from me and other like me, all I had was myself. At first, there must have been a dozen of us. Everyone was scared, confused, and wanted to go home. We found ourselves deep beneath the earth, in a prison of steel and wires. There was barely enough light to see the way forward, let alone the faces of those beside us. Nevertheless, we walked, for if we did not, we knew only death awaited us.

"So, um, maybe we should introduce ourselves?" One of the others said. She was an older woman based on her figure and tone. "I'm Shelly. What about you guys?"

The silence had been overwhelming. The only other thing in abundance was the strange buzzing in the back of my mind. It pressed against my head as if telling me to scream. I honestly didn't blame her for wanting to stir up a conversation, especially if she was feeling the same way. Had we been drugged, I wondered? Whatever the case, It didn't take long for someone to bite. Soon, we were all sharing names and stories. Tim was from Australia and the last thing he remembered was going to the shower. Jane was driving to work before darkness consumed her. Me? I had been trying to get some sleep after a long week of exhausting work. There wasn't anything in common between all of us. Still, in this isolated place, we were together, for good or bad.

Our journey through tight, dimly lit corridors eventually lead us to an open room. Unlike where we'd been before, this pace was bright. We could finally see ourselves. Unfortunately, the momentary hope we gained was quashed as metal slammed down from the way we entered. The path back was blocked and the walls began to open.

"W-What the hell are those?!" One of our numbers shouted. The old, out of shape cars-salesman pointed at the approaching automata. Vaguely humanoid in shape, their bodies towered over us and sent tremors through the floor. Each step they took carried a grating bang as metal stuck against meta. Robots? Was this some sort of a joke? A prank show? Where the hell were we?

Unfortunately, those were answers we would not get. One of the robots charged, fist crashing into the old man. It all happened in an instant. He was there, and the next moment, only a bloody smear on the ground was left.

Screams filled the small room. Hell broke loose and amidst the chaos, some of us awakened. The buzzing and pounding at my head grew louder, and as one of the monsters charged me, I threw the gates open, allowing the buzzing to flow inside.

It was so easy. I raised my hand and pushed with my mind. The robot rocketed backwards at lightning speeds, smashing against the room's metal walls. I didn't know why or how I could do this, but I didn't care. I pulled mentally and started riping the metallic monstrosity apart. One limb at a time, I dismantled it.

"Lee!" One of the others shouted. To late. I had been so preoccupied that I missed another of the robots charging at me. Its fist smashed into my face. My life flashed before my eyes, yet I did not die. My vision swam as I crashed into the walls. Much like the strange buzzing in my head, my body was tingling. I was fine, though a bit shaken.

Thankfully, I wasn't the only one to unlock this strange power. Those around me started to develop similar or different abilities. We lost a few more, but as the last robot fell, we were six strong.

What the hell was going on?

-----------

After a bit of heaving and throwing up, those of us that could walk moved forward. Wherever we were, it was obvious that it wasn't safe. We were going to die if we stayed and perhaps these new powers would help us survive. Sadly, not everyone saw it like that. Two people stayed behind. One was a young girl. She couldn't stop crying and calling for her mother. The other was a young boy who had chosen to stay behind to keep her company. He was a braver man than I.

Four strong, we kept walking and found ourselves in yet another room. Like before, we were locked in and robots flooded the place. This time, they looked more human and wielded similar powers to our own. They were weaker, but ten of them could match a single one of us. There were forty standing in front of us.

The first casualty was one of our own. The old man was overwhelmed by the bastards and had his head popped like a balloon. The strange barrier we all seemed to have was ruptured by the might of all forty of the robots. We lashed back with our own apparent psychic might. I crushed about a dozen of them with my own powers. The other boy in our group rushed forward, snatching up one of the robot's broken limbs and used it as a weapon. He weaved through them, smashing their heads and bodies apart with supernatural strength. When one got the drop on him, panic and fear flashed through his eyes. A moment later, a blurry, ethereal figure appeared in front of him and kicked the robot in half.

The last person in our little group was the older woman, Shelly. Like the boy, she rushed into battle, crushing the enemy with just her fists.

The three of us fought hard and fast, bursting through the enemy formation. Eventually, not a single one was left.

Was it just going to be like this? Were we going to keep entering rooms filled with robots trying to kill us?

...

Why? Why was this happening? I just wanted to go home.

-------------

How many rooms had we cleared now? Five? Six? It was hard to keep count. All of us were exhausted, but we kept going.

"I-I think this is the last room?" the other boy said through ragged breath. "L-Look, It says e-exit."

What was his name again? Hans? Yeah, that was it.

Hope filled our hearts, and for the first time, we ascended. The stairs were many and it took just about every drop of our energy to reach the top. Alas, waiting for us was one last room.

"So only three made it."

Standing at its centre was yet another robot. The difference was that this one looked almost human. Were it not for the metallic sheen and steel joints, one might mistake it for a normal person.

"W-Who are you?!" Shelly asked. "Why are you doing this?!"

She was our leader, sort of. Maybe it was because she was the only adult, but she kept the two of us calm. In response, the robot raised a hand and sent a powerful wave of telekinetic force at use. He would not say another word.

So we answered in kind.

We fought, we fought, and we fought!

The more we traded blows, the more the buzzing at the back of my head began to grow. Soon, I was seeing his blows before they came. I got better at dodging. Those around me also found it easier to call on their power. And so, in a glorious display of teamwork, we charged the monster from all sides.

I ripped strips of metal from the ground, launching them at it with all my might. Hans summoned crimson blades of pure energy and barraged its form with dozens of blows. And Shelly? Shelly punched it real good.

And so, the three of us stood over its battered body, questions still unanswered. The final door opened and we could see the light. We were free.

At least, that's what we thought. Hans and I were the first to step through the door. We wanted to make sure it wasn't yet another trap. Poor Shelly was tired and had twisted her ankle in the fight, so she wanted to rest for a bit.

That was the last time we saw her. The instant we stepped into the light, we found ourselves outside. It looked like a normal city, and behind us was an old, abandoned warehouse. We tried going back, but the only thing waiting for us was dirty, dusty floors. There was no underground complex, no army of dismantled robots. It was just us and this strange world. How? Why?

I had no idea. However, there was one clue. Resting by the warehouse's exit was a single phone. It took a bit of guessing, but the password was my name. Inside was a bank account and it had quite a large sum of money. I wanted to throw the phone as hard as I could against the ground. What kind of sick fuck was doing this?

I didn't, though. Neither Hans nor I knew where the hell we were, and as angry as I felt, I knew money would definitely be an asset. The only other thing on the phone was an address.

=======[Break]=======

This place wasn't home. Somehow, I'd gone from my bed to the other side of the planet.

"Japan..." Hans mumbled. He kept his gaze glued to the large billboard. It definitely wasn't English, and just like me, he came to the same conclusion.

All it took was walking up to a stranger and asking if they knew where we were. At first, they gave us odd looks before a smile wormed its way onto their face.

"American? Sorry, no English!"

Definitely not home.

"Alright, don't panic," Hans said with a shaky breath. It was a bit hard taking him seriously when he sounded like he was about to panic. But, to be fair, so was I. This was like the worst kind of being lost. Far from home with nothing and no one to help us. The only thing we did have was the weird phone I found and the bank account linked to it.

"Maybe we can call someone?" I asked hesitantly. "Does Japan still have payphones?"

I had no fucking clue. Those things were already starting to slowly disappear, but it was worth a shot, right?

"No clue," Hans answered with a sigh. "Let's go look for those, I guess." The more the two of us talked, the less stressed the guy looked. Maybe having someone else to take comfort in his predicament was helping him? It definitely was helping me. It felt like I'd fall over at any moment with how much my heart was pounding against my chest.

Everything was going to be fine. 

It would be.

-----------

Surprisingly, the two of us did find a payphone. What was more surprising was that they were weirdly advanced and tacky at the same time. I could tap my phone to pay, but they also looked like something one might find in the early two-thousands. It was definitely a weird stylistic choice.

"So, uhh... do you happen to have a number memorized?" Call me lazy, but the only number I knew by heart was my house phone, and, well, I lived alone.

"Yeah," Hans said nervously. "Let me give it a shot."

He stepped into the booth and dialled some numbers. It rang for a few moments before being cut off.

"The number you are trying to reach is not in service, please try again."

The words seemed to drain the colour from his face. He gulped and tried a different number.

"The number you are trying to reach is not in service, please try again."

This time, it wasn't fear on his features, but anger. He tried one last number, and when it gave him the same answer, he practically snapped the receiver in half. As it smashed into the bulkier part of the phone, he kicked the booth and walked out. He said no words, only half mumbled whines and gasps.

This was someone that was just as alone as I. I didn't know what to do in a situation like this, but the least that I could do was try and show him that we didn't need to be alone.

"Look, It's ok," I said softly. "Maybe you can't use payphones for long-distance calls? Or maybe something's happened?"

"S-Something?" He snapped his head around in an instant. "Like what?!"

Ok, maybe that wasn't the best thing to say.

"I... I don't know..."

His terrified, angry gaze softened.

"I'm sorry," he said and took a breath. "You're only trying to help, so let's try and figure out what we can do now."

I was just as scared as him and that was before the weird superpowers and kidnapping came into play.

"Yeah."

The first thing to do, then, was to figure out If we were in Japan because this clearly wasn't the U.S. Then? Then maybe we could check out the address on the phone.

I just hoped things didn't get worse.

----------

After a bit of probing and asking around, the two of us eventually did find someone that could speak English. To be fair, they were clearly not Asian, so it was kind of easy to spot them.

"Yeah, you guys are in Japan. That's a weird question, by the way." The guy was from Australia and was a bit odd, but he seemed friendly enough.

"You're actually in Tokyo or Shinto Teito as the locals call it, or, at least I think that's what they say."

Admittedly, he was only here to visit and didn't know much about the actual area, so he didn't have that much information. Still, he gave weight to our suspicions, and for that, he got our thanks.

"How did we even get here..." Hans mumbled as we slowly walked through the streets. We were getting real close to the address on my phone. Thankfully, it seemed to have a GPS function.

"How do we have powers?" I countered. Seriously, I had thought all of that was a dream for a bit. But, no, I could still pick things up with my mind as easily as I could before. Hans, likewise, could make weird, glowing energy constructs. Curiously enough, after he described how to do that, I managed to do the same. Though, that's where that sort of thing stopped. He said he could slow down how fast things moved around him, but I had no idea what he meant. Maybe his mind just worked faster? And, of course, there was that weird spirit thing he could summon. I had no idea how the hell to do that.

"I guess that's probably the strangest part," he said with a sigh. "I... I just hope Shelly's fine."

I winced. The older woman had been very kind and supportive. Without her, the two of us probably wouldn't have made it out of that place. We didn't mean to leave her there, but neither of us expected to find outsells in Japan after crossing the light. Hopefully, she stood up a few minutes later and left. Maybe she's not here with us, but she's probably somewhere else, right?

"I'm sure she is," I said slowly. Anything else I wanted to say was cut off as my phone blared to life.

"Turn left in ten meters." A soft, feminine voice rolled out of its speakers.

We were here.

-----------------

The "house" was more of a mansion. It had a gate and one of those speaker systems where you could contact the people inside. Yet, all it took to gain access was flashing my phone near the gates. They opened and the two of us slowly moved inside. Normally, that's something I would never do. Security guards were usually built big enough to snap me in half. But, now I had power.

After a minute of walking up a paved hill, we made it to the actual mansion. the doors were unlocked and inside were the keys along with a spot to put our shoes.

Our names were there.

Slowly, but surely, we checked the whole place out. There was no one here. Two of the dozen or so rooms in the house also had our names etched into the doors. Clearly, whoever set this up was expecting us.

I wanted to turn around and burn this place to the ground, but Hans made a good point.

"Why bother? If they wanted to find or trap us, then why do they need to trick us?"

Whoever did this could teleport us across the world and give us powers. They had robots. It was stupid to throw the phone and this mansion away. Maybe I'd do it later, but now we needed stability. These things could be useful and only a fool would throw them away.

We would stay here and try to figure out what the hell was going on. That was our choice, and as night began to fall, we picked our rooms and started to settle in. Hans looted the house and moved a computer into his room.

"I hate boredom and while phones failed, maybe I can just email my parents?"

I think he just really liked computers and games. The first thing he did after sending those emails was look for Steam. The computers didn't have google, so I didn't get to see what came of that. Instead, I went for a walk to clear my head.