Hold on to your hats and grab a beverage of your choice as this is going to be my biggest story yet! Filled with comedy, hijinks, adventures, twists, and romance!

This is an OC X (OC) harem story and follows my own universe and story, however there are some close ties to other series such as DLWMG, Transformers Prime, Unbreakable machine doll, a few monster series, and a bunch more robot/mech series… Crossovers and other intergalactic adventures will ensure later on, involving all kinds of other universes and franchises.

I will be constantly working on any grammatical and spelling errors you come across, so don't bother overly commenting on such things as it's already on my to-do list.

The archival database will attempt to censor and eliminate any swearing that may appear, however, due to the age of the operating system some bugs might be present, rated T for occasional swearing, sexual references… and a metric ton of fluff.

Enjoy

"OH, Come on, pick up, PICK UP!…I can't believe it, the ONE time I need to get a hold of him, her happens to be busy. He's normally pretty good at responding, trust me." A man in his mid-thirties impatiently spoke out loud to his coworkers as he stood with his back turned and a phone held up to his ear.

After hearing tone dull tone of an answering machine he hung up, clearly agitated.

Turning to his concerned coworkers he took a deep breath and began reassuring them. "Don't worry, Zack is a good friend, from my time when I worked with him in mechanical engineering, he's just a little preoccupied at the moment… he'll come and help us out with our problem… in due time." He finished by sending a text to the person in question then pocketing the device.

"Until he contacts me, we'll just run constant surveillance on it." He spoke again walking over to a messy metal table. Grabbing a clipboard he began reading the latest updated notes.

"But will he really be able to help us? This is unlike that's ever happened on Earth before." A blonde female in a long white lab coat asked as she started cleaning off their workspace from clutter.

"Yes I know, but our situation has worsened recently, as you all know… I want to bring Zack aboard this team because if there's anyone I trust to help us, it's him." He answered back.

"Alright, we can try… but if he's just a deadweight were kicking him to the curb." The blonde responded.

"Uh Robbie, it's really active now." A dark haired blue eyed woman with large glasses spoke as she looked up from her monitor a few meters away from where the two were standing.

"What's happening now? Is there anything that you can think of anything that would have triggered it?" He asked while looking over at her.

"It started a few minutes ago, right after you made that phone call actually... and ever since then, it's been clawing at the containment cells concrete walls, as well as actively destroying any cameras that are nearby… Thermal tracking is also useless as its heat signature just keeps disappearing." She answered quickly looking up from her computer with worry present in her eyes.

"Do what we can and only hope that my friend gets my message and that the cell holds," Robbie spoke with apparent fear in his voice as the group looked through the large viewing window, made of 8-inch thick bulletproof glass.

"But we can't rely solely on your friend, we should be ab-." A faint primal scream sounded from inside the cell, interrupting the blonde and causing heavy vibrations to rumble everything around the group. They all looked at each other knowing full well their safety precautions would not be enough if the creature got to the opening.

Robbie looked at the riveted edges of the viewing screen wondering if this facility was even going to survive such a creature. Truly it was never built with use in mind.

It was an old military laboratory that was decommissioned, when this creature came crashing to Earth it was brought here to be studied. The old hangar was turned into a massive containment cell, with its own independently functioning ecosystem. The living area, however, looked something like out of a fallout bunker, with everything being designed for optimal use and functionality in mind, but left everything looking dull and boring, with the main colours being chrome, concrete, or dull greens… luckily total ownership was given to Robbie and his small research team, and they were able to splurge on a few paintings.

A second primal scream sounded from within the containment cell, this one being much louder, and higher pitched than the previous one causing everyone's blood to run cold as ice upon hearing it.

"It's getting closer." The one at the monitor spoke up in her attempted not terrified voice.

"Let's just hope that if your friend gets your message, we'll still be alive to receive his help." The blonde girl spoke up.

"Yeah…. Me too." Robbie said while swallowing nervously.

o0o

Beep: you have 5 new messages

"Hey Zack, remember me, Robbie? Of course, you do… I'm calling cause, umm I need a favour… with something… urgent… call me as soon as you can."

Beep:

"Heyy, Robbie again… Alright so if you were concerned with that last message, don't be, we have gotten things under control…Mostly, bad news is that we will need you to come by sometime today… the coordinates are 152-"

Beep:

"Alright my…... co-worker has just informed me that I cannot share our coordinates, I am sending someone to get you at, let's say for 10:00 am… be ready."

Beep:

"Heyy good morning big brother, just wanted to call, catch up…and also to tell you to make them STOP CALLING ME! I have received endless calls from this guy named Robbie asking for you, I mean how did he even get my number? Whatever do your sis a big favour wake up, AND MAKE THEM STOP CALLING ME… bye luv ya."

Beep:

"Alright my 'assistant' Veronica will be on her way to pick you up… she'll be the blonde driving the Xtrek, I believe… you worked on its designs, right? One rugged machine I tell you, one of my favourites… OH, also pack a bag, because this will probably take a few days."

Beep: you have 0 new messages

"Robbie?... It's been awhile since I've last seen him, close to a year I believe… Clearly, it's been too long if he thinks flattery will work on me." I groggily spoke along lying face up in my mess of a bed.

"It must be something pretty urgent if he actually called to admit he needed my help… Whatever it is I'm sure I can fix it, plus it's probably nothing that life-altering, and I have nothing going on now so sure, why not?" I reasoned to myself as I lazily rolled over to look at my clock.

Seeing it being 9:30 I rolled out of bed and went to the bathroom for a quick shower.

After getting out I did my hair which involved me lazily tussling it with one hand before it fell into its normal position, I then threw on my usual outdoorsy clothing, and finally packed a backpack with everything that I would need for a few days.

Heading to my kitchen I made myself a quick omelet for breakfast and ate while checking my phone for any new notifications and emails.

I have only recently become quite the chef, it all started when my sister got sick of knowing that I was eating fast food for pretty much every meal, she made it her mission to teach me how to cook and thus came over every day for about a month and rigorously taught me to cook, I learned rather quickly, and within that short month I picked up on pretty much all her tricks and secrets.

As I was washing up I got a text telling me that they were outside. Grabbing my bag, I did a quick walk throughout my place to make sure all the lights were off, after that, I walked out my front door, locked it then walked over to the X-trek.

Note: The X-trek was an expedition vehicle I helped design, it was based on the design of the ripsaw and was built for the worst of conditions. It's interior is modular and can be changed depending on what it's used for.

Walking up to the vehicles passenger door I tugged on the metal handle but the door didn't not open, peering up to the very high window I saw a blonde woman shake her head in amusement then point over her shoulder to the back seats. Shrugging, I obliged and got into the back.

Just so you know I'm not short, I'm 6 ft, the vehicle is just that freaking tall.

Upon opening the door I saw that Robbie was sitting on the bench and that the seats were arranged to face each other like in a restaurant, but with no table.

"Hey Robbie, you didn't tell me you would be coming, I wouldn't have worn such nice clothes for you." I joked while getting in and closing the door.

"You haven't changed one bit… how's everything? It's been a little while." He asked as we shook hands.

"Everything's good, recently learned how to cook, so no more fast food… and works been a drag recently," I answered, sitting on the bench with my bag between my legs.

"What can I say, work is work… and I assume it was your sister who taught you? She is quite the cook." He said with an arch of his eyebrow.

"Yeah well, she was tired of knowing that fast food was all that I was eating, especially because everyone else in my family are like… aspiring cooks," I explained while settling into my seat.

"Makes sense… oh right, this is Veronica." He introduced quickly like he forgot she existed.

"Hey, I heard your quite the… problem solver, I hope you can help us." She said with a little finger wave not looking back.

"You haven't even told me what's happening, or what you even need help with." I asked while turning back to Robbie.

"You'll find out soon enough." He cryptically answered.

"You know I hate that kind of answer, right?" I retorted.

"Oh yes I know, it's one of the few things I can do to really piss you off."

"I hate to interrupt but I really like your house, it's like anything I have ever seen." She politely interrupted as she drove slowly around my place.

"Thank you, my friend and I designed it, I went for a modern look, with lots of 90-degree angles, white concrete, glass and oak wood finishes… the whole place is really spacious and with really high ceilings." I told her the specs like the nerd that I am.

"It's beautiful, I would love to have a house like that, do you live by yourself in that massive place?"

"Yes and no, my sister stays over quite often… we're pretty close." I replied completely missing the subtext of that question.

"Interesting." She said as if deep in thought.

"Anyway, let's get a move on… shall we?" Robbie asked interrupting her deep in thought.

"Of course... professor." She answered and the large tracked expedition vehicle accelerated, with a faint whine of its electric fusion motors.

"Professor? Please don't tell me you make her call you that." I said with a smile. He just leaned back and shrugged his shoulders with a smile in response.

"So spill it 'professor' what is this issue you need me for?" I asked sarcastically.

"Well, about a month ago an object crashed to Earth, a pod as you will… our research team got permission to use an old decommissioned military research base that was upgraded to suit our needs. We began tests on the pod and found that there appeared to be a creature inside it, we tried everything to get it open with no avail."

"Then one day it just opened, all on its own and the creature awoke… luckily where we were doing our attempts on opening it the pod was in the cell, a large hangar converted into a self-sustaining ecosystem. It's closed off from the rest of the base… and the world. We would like your help in understanding and researching this new creature." He explained crossing his legs and bringing his fingertips together.

"Why on Earth would you think I would be able to help you with this? I thought you had an issue with your computer or hell your car!"

"We were instructed to keep this on the down low, out of the public eye at least for now. And my team is only so big, as it involves only people I can trust… at least just try to help, plus you worked at an animal shelter for a year, right?"

"That's REALLY different Robbie those were animals, this sounds like a creature from space… but you have peaked my interest so, I'll give it a shot." I responded shocked. "Why wouldn't the government handle this?" I asked back.

"They have other issues to handle, as far as they care this is just a meteor that crashed to Earth, and were just a bunch of nut jobs that are after its 'secrets', that's also what the public's been told." He responded with air quotes when he said secret.

"You would think this would be on there radar, I mean it's like… HEY, AN ALIEN HAS CRASHED TO Earth! YOU GONNA CHECK IT OUT? NAH I'M GOOD, I SAW ONE YESTERDAY." I joked sarcastically, as both Robbie and Veronica snickered slightly.

"I don't know why, it's just not… however, there is a small section in the government that we will be reporting to, there the ones who gave us the base."

"Okay… how do you want me to help?" I asked curiously.

"Anyway that you think you can, we want to find out if this creature is hostile or not, and so far I think it might be… BUT we're not jumping to any conclusions just yet." He explained.

"Sounds easy enough, can you identify its species, or if it resembles anything familiar?"

"What we were able to find out is that it seems to be made of metal or some non organic material." Robbie answered.

"Oh, that sounds cool, and otherworldly… what else do you know? And what would you do if it was peaceful?" I asked.

"Not much else I'm afraid, it's deep in the cell and all surveillance equipment that's of use to us has already been taken out by it, and to answer your question if it were to be peaceful, then we would run tests on it… and if all goes well we would consider releasing it into the real world… possibly." He answered.

"What kind of tests? We don't want to kill it, especially if it's peaceful."

"Correct, especially if it's peaceful, we would run tests on its behaviour, skin, and mental abilities, things like that." He answered knowing what it meant to me.

"Sounds good to me… when can I start?" I asked now hyped up.

"As soon as we get there." He answered like a parent on a road trip.

"How long until then?"

"About... 4 hours." Veronica answered from the driver's seat, looking back through the rearview mirror.

"4 HOURS? You mean to tell me that this is a 4 HOUR drive? WHY on Earth did you tell all the juicy stuff in like the first 8 minutes? now we will have nothing to talk about and it'll get awkward… Fast." I said with a groan as I flopped my head back.

"Nonsense, that's not true, we can talk about…. your work, for instance." Robbie

"This is exactly what I meant by awkward conversation," I said as I heard Veronica laugh.

"Well, try to make it less awkward…" She said with annoyance and humour in her voice.

"Fine… tell me more… about this creature I mean." I submitted with a sigh.

"Alright then… We learned that it seems to…..." Robbie began with a hand clap and a smile.

And for the next 4 hours, Robbie and Veronica caught me up to speed with my new assignment, and any details worth knowing… but in reality there wasn't much to be filled in on as they mostly told me things about the area and the base, they also refused to answer a bunch of my questions with both of them saying. "You'll find out soon enough."

So it was mostly 4 hours of pointless small talk and the occasional terrible dad joke cracked from Robbie.

We finally arrived at their 'base'. The entrance was a large hatch located on a small hill in the middle of a clearing in a forest, it was also fairly close to a rocky cliff side of a mountain, so my assumption was that the rest of it was somehow built into the mountain.

A small long dirt road that was of another road in the middle of nowhere was the only possible way to get to this location. The forest was to thick to get through with any sort of vehicle and aircraft couldn't land because of there being a whole slew of anti-aircraft defences hidden amongst the trees and mountains.

Parking the vehicle along the tree line, we all got out and walked over to the large bulkhead door lying on the side of the hill.

"It would take at least 40 tons of raw pulling force to break this bad boy open," Robbie said full of pride looking at the hatch.

"I'm guessing you designed it?" I asked taking a glance at the hatch.

"I did, I wanted this place to me as hard as possible to access." He said all giddy.

"Alright, but you might have wanted to put in something better than Home Depot pet door hinges."

"Oh yeah, well…." Robbie stuttered.

"Alright that's enough, let's just open the bulkhead," Veronica said motioning for Robbie to open the door, which he promptly started doing.

"How on Earth did you ever work with him? But I guess with what I just witnessed you have gotten used to shutting him down." Veronica spoke turning my and looking at me.

"Yeah, you'd think… but he always comes up with ways to surprise you." I answered with a shrug my shoulders.

"Oh, believe me, I know." She responded looking down at him with a smile.

"I'm still here you know." He voiced as sat on his knees opening the door.

"Oh hush you, I hope you end up staying because there's only so much of Robbie's solo act that we all can take," Veronica said lightly while kicking Robbie's rear with her high heeled boots.

"We'll see how difficult this creature turns out to be, it might be a quick thing or you could be stuck with me for quite a while," I answered as the doors large bulkhead opened with a loud clunk sound.

"What took you so long?" Veronica asked in annoyance.

"Yeah, to be honest, I was mainly eavesdropping." He admitted standing up and rubbing the back of his head.

"Something's never change." she said with a sigh of annoyance, then promptly threw the door open in one fluid motion and motioned me to enter first. "Shall we?"

Nodding I climbed through the opening and started descending, the stairs were made of concrete, with little pieces of yellow cross-hatched grippy tape stuck to the top of each step.

The steps were relatively steep and they went down seemingly forever into a large pitch black room.

The door closed with a slow creek, then a heavy slam cutting off all light that was present, luckily at that time I was at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey Robbie, your generator seems to be shot probably due to your lack of maintenance, want me to take a look at it?" I asked loudly testing if this was a joke or rouse, and if he was in on it. Why else would Veronica wanted me to go first if Robbie was present on the stairs he was doing a damn good job keeping himself quite.

"Veronica, where are the lights? Or was you decommissioned base never fully recommissioned." I said out loud, then listened carefully for a reaction of some kind… Nothing.

"If this is a joke it's funny but an ultimate waste of my time, if this is a power failure then I'm gonna work on getting some lights on." Again In response, I got nothing.

Reaching for my phone, I took turned on the flashlight and began searching around for any sign of life or a breaker box.

Along the side of the nearest wall, I found a metal box protruding out a few inches, it also had a number of large electrical cables running inside the box… breaker box located.

Opening it I made extra sure as to not touch anything that could potentially fry me. Shining the light to the rocker switches I found they were all on, odd that either means the bulbs are blown or they're manually switched off.

Closing the door to the box which made a high pitched squeak in the process followed by a loud click that echoed through the room of undetermined size, I readied myself to move on but froze solid when I felt a hand of sorts lightly touch my shoulder.

The hand was cold and smooth, like it's made out of metal, exactly like how Robbie explained the skin of the creature was like, odd I don't remember walking into the cell as he called it… maybe the creature got out, and that's why this place looks… Abandoned.

Busy with my thoughts I barely noticed it's slow advances up my shoulder and around my neck, wondering if it was the creature I decided to wait as I wouldn't want to do anything rash.

The grip tightened a little around my neck, but in doing so I felt a pulse… albeit a weak one but still.

Also, the hand felt malleable to much be full metal, so maybe... a glove? I debated internally and finally drew out my decision when I felt a seam.

Quickly I spun around and threw a punch at presumably would be the stomach of whatever had its hand on me, immediately I felt the grip loosen and the hand fall limply off me.

Thud

"OWW, what the hell was that for mate?" I heard a man yell as I heard a meaty thud sound.

Meaty/fleshy sounding was a good sign as it meant I didn't just punch a cosmic metal being of undetermined strength, intelligence or aggression… but if it wasn't a creature of metal then who'd just hit?

BOOF

The sound of powerful floodlights turning on sounded and instantly the room was illuminated and my sight fell upon a tall, slightly pudgy tanned man, with brown curly hair.

"JONAS! Oh my gawd are you alright?" A girl with straight dark hair screamed in horror as she ran into the room and immediately drop to her knees, checking on him.

"Yeah, I think I'm ok," Jonas said attempting to sit up but fell back to the ground with a painful groan.

"Try not to move." The black haired girl said laying his head back down gently.

"You had it coming, what did you think was going to happen if you turned off the lights and messed with me? Honestly, it's like you didn't even think it through past turning off the lights." I asked looking around the room, then back at the person on the ground.

"I told you, man, it was a just a joke… a prank." Jonas said, holding his stomach in pain as the black haired girl helped him over to a chair. "Thanks, Ana." He added quietly.

"I didn't even punch you that hard, get up and stop being a baby," I said in my defence.

"I know it was dark, and you might not have been thinking straight but did you have to punch as hard as you could?" I had Ana sternly asked as she walked over to me, looking down a foot at a cross woman that upon closer inspection was slightly Asian.

"First off, I was thinking straight, and second I can punch way harder," I responded with little compassion.

"Did you get him? I can't recall if he was ever scared of the dark or not." Robbie spoke walking down the steps followed by Veronica. "Oh, guess not then." He ended with when he saw Jonas groaning in a chair, being tended to by the one called Ana.

Veronica gasped on instinct when she saw her co-worker in such a state, and quickly walked over to assist.

"Look if it makes you feel better, I'm sorry for punching your boyfriend… and also I'll give you this, it should help with the bruising." I said kneeling down at grabbing a small medical tube out of my pack and tossing it to him.

"Uh, thanks… I guess?" He said looking at the tube in confusion/interest while Ana lifted his shirt inspecting his pudgy stomach, spying a tennis ball sized bruise starting to form, she put his shirt down.

"Umm, you better… not do something like that again." She spoke with a blush then promptly turning away from me, she grabbed Jonas by the hand and pulled him into a nearby bedroom.

"What the hell was that? A prank? I swear if you dragged me here just to be part of some prank so help me god." I said turning to Robbie and pointing a finger at him.

"No, of course, it's not the reason you're here, it's just that we all have had a stressful couple of weeks here… and we thought that it would be good for the team if we did something that wasn't about our work, I guess it wasn't planned as well as we thought." He quickly admitted putting his hands up in the air.

"You think?" I said turning away from him and looking at the open bedroom door.

"I'm going to go check on Jonas and do us a favour and try not to punch anybody else while your here," Veronica spoke with venom in her voice as she walked off into the bedroom where Jonas and Ana were.

"This wasn't your fault man… we were tired when we thought this up, no one could have predicted what was going to happen… I'll go talk to them, you in the meantime can go get yourself familiar with the living quarters and then you can get settled into your room." Robbie said as he walked by me patting me on the shoulder in the process.

"Wait, tell Jonas I'm sorry… I acted on impulse. By the way is this your whole team?" I spoke making Robbie stop, turn, and look at me.

"Yes, and no… we have another group that brings us supplies, but those guys really just drop stuff off… there are a few others that work with us, but they're homesick and have been sent home for the time being… they'll let me know when they're ready to come back." He explained as started walking again to the room.

"Oh, one last thing before you go, does this facilitate networks out for miles?" I asked looking around the main room.

"Of course not, the rooms you see are really the only rooms here… consisting of bedrooms and storage rooms…what do you think we are, Aperture Science?" He said with a smirk before joining the others for there own little team meeting.

"That game came out like 30 years ago, move on," I said as he shrugged with a smile then walked off into the bedroom to have there private team meeting, of sorts.

Taking one last look around the main area which had a small area off to the side with a tv, coffee table and a series of chairs and couches. There were two large metal tables with a set of metal chairs in the middle and against a large glass viewing window in which one could see leaves and foliage through it. In another corner, I spied a door that lead to a kitchen, and a very nice one if that.

Walking up to the glass viewing window I saw what looked like a rainforest, and immediately on the other side of the glass was a large section of flat concrete on it were many tools of different sizes and pushed off to the side was a large and empty space pod.

Intrigued, I had the urge to explore the large indoor forest immediately, but knowing that this place would be my new home for the next little bit I decided to wait… also running into a place with an unknown creature with no knowledge of it was not high on my list of to-dos.

Reluctantly, I went to my room and put the stuff I brought into an empty drawer located in the nightstand.

Almost immediately after I finished putting my clothing away, I heard a knock on the door.

Opening it I saw my new team all standing before me.

"Hey, we kind of need to talk." I heard Veronica say.

"Don't, I shouldn't have punched Jonas I acted on impulse, and I know that if I pull that kind of thing when with that mystery creature it'll end up way worse then one of us getting bruised in the stomach." I rambled on.

"Um, that is not what we came here about… Can we?..." She said correcting herself and gesturing towards my room.

"Oh, yeah sure." I spoke while moving out of the way.

The team of 4 came in, while I moved and sat on the bed.

"I… we thank you for your apology and yes we shouldn't be beating each other, but if we actually thought our little stunt through and considered the consequences then nothing would have happened… we should be the ones apologizing we asked you here for your help and the first thing we do is try and spook you." Veronica admitted.

"Hey it's no problem," I responded.

"Really?" Veronica and Ana asked in unison… however, Jonas just glared at me with dislike in his eyes.

"Yeah, other than it making me wonder about the state of this places electrical systems and Jonas getting punched in the stomach, no harm done," I replied immediately with no hesitation.

"Don't do it again." Ana sternly said pointing a finger at me stepping forward a bit.

"Message received, your boyfriend is off limits," I responded with a smirk causing her blush, then scramble to hide behind Jonas.

"Well I know we just got back but we're wasting daylight, so to speak, so we should get working while things are in our favour," Robbie said walking to the door and holding it open.

"Try to keep the teasing to a minimum, towards Anastasia, she's a genius with computers but can be a little… Sensitive." Veronica whispered at me as she bent down while Jonas walked out with Ana right behind him, glued to his back.

"Are they?..."

"Dating? Yes." Veronica answered looking over at them.

"Cute," I muttered.

"What was that?" Veronica asked quickly, directing her attention back to

"They seem cute, I think it's because of the height difference… Ana is much shorter than Jonas." I clarified.

"Yes they are cute in a sense, try not to pick on them too much though, they are both a little sensitive on the subject." Veronica admitted standing up fully and taking a step toward the door.

"Wait, are you and Robbie?" I asked standing up and walking toward the door. Veronica smiled coyly and winked at me then walked off.

"Well alright then, off to work then," I said out loud to myself as I walked out of my room, closing the door behind me and going into the main room.

"Robbie, are you and Veronica?... you know, together?" I asked as I walked over to Robbie who was putting together a folder.

"I suppose…" He responded in a non-Robbie like way.

"Alright, cryptic… what's this?" I asked as he handed me a folder mid-sentence.

"That is everything we know so far about the creature, this facility, the pod… everything, read it over then tomorrow we'll try a confrontation." He said directing his attention to another folder at the end.

"I thought we already went over this during the trip here?" I asked looking blankly at the thick folder.

"I told you everything that I could recall off the top of my head, this will make you aware of everything… go, study."

He said pointing at the living room with a tv, chairs, and couches.

"Fi~iine, but I'm not going to be happy about this," I said throwing up my arms in defeat and walking away.

"Attaboy," Robbie responded going back to his usual demeanour turning back to his desk in the process.

Walking over to the living room area where I saw Ana and Jonas sitting together on the couch watching a rom-com. I passed Veronica who was on the main terminal computer updating a log spreadsheet.

They paused it when they saw me walk into view, and then proceeded to sit and watch me like a hawk. I took a seat on a nearby upholstered chair that matched the couch, table, and rug.

"I know my aura of awesomeness puts any rom-com to shame but I do need to study per Robbie's orders… try to forget that I'm here I'll return the favour." I spoke looking down on my lap at the thick folder.

The two became rather embarrassed for a second looking around randomly and uttering incoherent gibberish before they finally gained a little bit of composure and went back to watching their show.

I can't lie, as bad as it was to read pages and pages of research papers, the rom-com in the background made it even worse, after 10 or 20 minutes of listening to bad jokes followed by that god awful laugh track I had to get a pair of headphones, getting up I walked off to my room in search of a pair.

Walking back to my chair now dawned with a pair of large over-ear studio headphones and a big fluffy hoodie two sizes too big for me, I took a seat and resumed my studying.

Jonas and Ana were now super self-conscious of themselves as they kept the volume really low, as well as they were attempting to be as small and unnoticeable as possible as they snuggled on the couch. Even though they guaranteed saw that I had headphones and was now immune to their shows audio.

Eventually, it became apparent to everyone what was going, to the point that Veronica got up, came over and started talking to them after she left they visibly relaxed and they put the volume back up to their level of comfort.

I estimated that each one of their episodes were about 30 min long and at this point, they had gone through at 4 or so… also by this time I had reached the halfway point of the research papers assigned to me… SOOO, using my raw untainted genius I figured that I was reading for about 2h.

That's too long...

"I'm done, it's too much… After school I vowed to never read another research paper again, this almost pushed me to insanity." I said out loud to Robbie while standing up and walking over to him, passing the two confused lovebirds who had no idea who I was talking to.

"Alright Robbie, I think I studied enough, can we do something now?" I said walking up to him playing on his phone.

"Did you read all of it?" He asked glancing up from his phone with an arched eyebrow.

"Pshh, No, of course not… you know me, but I did skim through most of it so I'm all prepared." I spoke with pride while tossing the folder on to the table.

"I expected as much from you, well just relax and think about what you just learned, we go into the cage in the morning." He said turning back to his phone.

"What's there to ponder on? So far I've learned how to open the door to the cage, what the ecosystem is like and how the whole thing works… that's it, there was absolutely nothing on this mystery creature… I'm also starting to think that this creature was just made it up." I said with annoyance in my voice.

"Alright, Zack… The truth is we made it all up, the two of us drove 8 hours to get you and we brought you here to dissect you… OR it's because we have nothing on this creature other than it's physical attributes which we got from a faint glimpse at a small section of its skin… the only reason we're not going right now is that we're still compiling all movement and heat readings within the cage to best pinpoint the location of the creature so we're not wandering around aimlessly inside the 4 square kilometre enclosure." Robbie said raising his voice and standing up, clearer agitated.

"Then could we work on compiling to get it done faster?" I asked staring him straight in the eye.

"No, it's an automated system, courtesy of Ana and it's as efficient as it could be… There is no way to speed it up, but if you think your greater the rest of us are we're all just slowing you down then why don't you go in there yourself, and if you find it I'll give you credit, but if we have to bail you out or you come back with nothing, then you have to follow my rules, and you can't complain." Robbie spoke loudly staring right back at me, leaning in and closing the space between us… fast.

Our conversation as getting loud, so much so that the rest of the group had stopped what they were doing, and were now turned and listening intently to what we're ttalking about.

"Well, I think that's the smartest thing you've said so far… challenge accepted." I said holding out my hand.

Robbie in return grabbed my hand and shook it firmly, "Now that's the man I wanted to be brought upon my team… BUT although you might be a bright lad, with an abundance of enthusiasm I can almost guarantee that you will not find anything." He said letting go of my hand, then with a smile, I hopped off to my room to grab my bag.

"Why would you let him do something like that?" Veronica asked as she walked up to Robbie.

"Zack works in ways different from the rest of us, he doesn't learn unless it's through experience… he'll most likely come back with nothing, or on the odd chance he'll hit a genius moment and pretty much solve everything… although I highly doubt the second will happen." Robbie said putting his arm around Veronica who in turn leaned into his hug.

"I think he'll find it alright, then hopefully get eaten." Jonas piped up, leaning over the back of the couch.

"I don't like him that much on account to him hitting you, but even I think that's a little cruel." Ana added looking over at the two standing up, who was currently lying under Jonas' arm and a large blanket that showed nothing but her head,large round glasses and some black hair.

"Let's just hope you didn't jump the gun, because if he gets hurt you're going to regret it," Veronica said pulling away from Robbie grasp and walking away.

Robbie did nothing but gulp quite audibly as that woman's threat promised that if things didn't go well he would have much more than just a rough night tonight.

"If he gets hurt, I'm going to be really upset with you as well." Ana said turning to Jonas.

"WHAA?...Me?...Why me?" He stuttered as he looked down to see his girlfriend in a blanket bundle glaring at him.

"You wished misfortune upon him and if it does become true, then you'll be the one to take the blame from me." She answered him in a cute threatening voice then promptly got up and walked over to Veronica who was getting some sort of communication gear set up.

"What just happened, why have they turned against us?" Robbie asked Jonas as he looked over at him.

"I don't know, but I do that we'll be in for some rough nights if things don't know go well," Jonas said, glancing over at Ana, then bringing his attention back to Robbie.

"Let's just hope he knows what he's doing, for the good of the both of us," Jonas added, and all Robbie could do was nod in agreement.

"Alright, before I go off to my doom I have but one question." I spoke as I walked up to Veronica and Ana who were standing by the table of infinite clutter, Ana visibly tensing up when I said 'doom'.

"Depends." They both said in unison.

"How long has this been going on? The things between the 4 of you… as far as I'm concerned it's pretty rare that couples are assigned to work together, leaving the only reasonable option that you guys got together while working together." I said fixing my backpack squarely on my back.

"Fine, saw right through all of us I guess." Veronica said putting down a piece of gear, which Ana picked up immediately mainly just to have something in her hand.

"We started working here about a month or two ago, and at the time we were working to get that space pod open, and over that time we started drifting together." Veronica answered, standing up fully and looking right at me, showing me that she wasn't lying.

"Jonas and I worked on the more technical side with analytics, testing and logging and we naturally grew closer," Ana said gripping the small device with all her strength.

"And Robbie and I were more hands-on, working on the pod first hand… to be fair we were already pretty close before we started working here, it's the reason I'm here, to begin with… and since then we've only gotten closer."

"Right, he said this team was of people knew and trusted… so I'm guessing it was you and Robbie that brought Ana and Jonas onboard." I said gesturing to Veronica first then Ana.

"Correct, why the sudden interest in our relationships? It is only your first day here, your very perceptive." Veronica asked.

"Well, I knew something was up because you all suck at hiding your affections… and to be honest I was just curious." I finished with Ana handing me a communications device followed then both Robbie and Jonas walking over to us.

We all just stood there for a few awkward seconds, with no one saying anything or moving.

"Well, now it just seems like I'm 5th wheeling...man this is gonna be awkward being the only single person here." Upon saying this they all relaxed and loosened there body postures.

"Alright I'm going in, if I die I want none of you at my funeral." I said suddenly ending the silence then walking toward the large door leading into the cage.

"Don't say something like that, you're not going to die." Ana whined making me turn around to see here pressed up against Jonas back… the height difference between those two is truly spectacular there's like a full 1ft height difference.

"But if I don't I'll have to stay here in with two couples being the only single person here… honestly, death seems pretty good to the alternative." I said in a fake hurt way as I walked up to the large bulkhead door.

Getting nothing in response I said, "I'm kidding, I promise I'll come back safe and sound."

"Alright, I'll see you guys later," I said opening the large door and stepping through into the cage's interior.

Giving them one last glance I closed the door and heard a low sounding rumble of the bulkheads just as the door became flush with the wall and I knew that the door was again locked and that I was not getting back in under my own power.

Turning and putting the door behind me I saw the work area, it was a large slab of flat concrete, with a number of large cutters and torches laying around the large pod.

The pod was sitting by the wall, leaning ever so slightly into it. It's design looked space age with all of its colours being whites, greys, blacks with a few blue detailing stripes here and there.

The lines of the pod were elegant and flowing, never ending in any sort of angle. Giving the whole pod the illusion of being a liquid.

Walking around until I found the door, I found it was wide open showing the internal workings to me. The door did not have a viewing window but it did a screen on the inside that was showing some statistics of the pods status… It was all in a different language, with every status symbol flashing red...however, something about it all looked very familiar.

The interior of the pod was just a large opening, nothing really special to see there.

Moving my head outside of the pod I really got a sense of the size of it up close. It was around 10 ft tall, reaching out I touched the outer hill and it wasn't like anything that I've ever felt.

It was like a smooth polymer, that had no imperfections in it, the seams didn't exist as if it was one piece of material, not multiple. it even had a soft malleable feel to it, but given that this was my first time touching something from another world it must have been all in my head.

Looking at the pod I saw no physical damage to any part of it, not from those tools or from atmospheric re-entry. The pod was in pristine condition.

Backing up a step, I looked back through the clear viewing window and saw the team looking at me with interest.

Smiling to them I turned and took off into a light jog into the lightly forested area.

The actual artificial environment wasn't as thick as one would see from inside the living/work quarters. After a few meters, it thinned out nicely.

The floor was a nice mix of fine dirt and softwood fragments, giving it a nice squishy comfortable feel when walking. There were also a handful of large boulders scattered here and there with a few peeking up from the ground. A variety of trees were spread out leaving the floor nice and spacious, but still close enough so that there were always a number of trees in view at any given time.

After examining the surroundings for a few minutes I continued walking, noting that there were some bugs present as well as the serene songs of a few birds that were scattered in here.

Catching glimpses of a tall rock area through the treetops I changed my course slightly to explore that newly discovered location.

Upon getting closer to that large stone mountain I began to hear the sound of running water getting louder and louder.

When I got to the base I saw that the rock mountain was actually a water volcano, with streams of fresh water flowing down the rocky sides.

Kneeling down and taking a sip of the small pool of accumulated water I found it was quite refreshing, cool to the touch and tasted very similar to groundwater.

After I finished my drink I attempted to stand back up, however, my awkward kneeling position mixed with my backpacks extra weight caused me to become unbalanced thus ending with me tripping over my own feet and landing on my hands and knees.

I took a second to catch my breath, when I stood back up I noticed I had fallen into a sort of mini ravine, it looked like water had been flowing causing the dirt to be pushed away into a sort of path, but now there was no water to be seen in that section.

Looking at it closer it had a natural serpentine wave to it, almost as if a snake had passed through here… A snake that's 1 ft in diameter in fact, you would have thought that if there were massive snakes in here Robbie would have told me.

That when I realized that I had the communications device Ana gave me.

Turning it on I held down the side button. "Is anyone there?" I asked speaking into the small box with an antenna.

"Hello? Yes we copy, are you alright?" I heard a staticky voice of undetermined gender answer.

"Yes, of course… I haven't seen any hint of there being any sort of creature here, except this large snake trail, you didn't tell me you had massive snakes in here." I spoke back to them.

"What? There are a few snakes in there but they're all small, how big is the trail?" The voice spoke again.

"Umm, about 1 ft in diameter…" I hesitantly responded.

"There are no snakes in that large, maybe it was the water?" They reasoned with me.

"I thought that too, as it's right beside the stream and the water pool… But the signs show it's not water, has to much of a serpentine shape to it." I responded to there question.

"Maybe it's the creature? Watch your back it might eat you." I heard a male voice say with what I thought sounded like a mocking tone.

"Don't say stuff like that." I heard a higher pitched female voice say in the background.

"Just ignore them, if you want to explore the trail you can, if not come back. We have whatever cameras that are available focused on you." I heard a more mature female voice come over the com.

"Alright, copy that," I said signing off then putting the radio into my pocket I began following the trail that serpentined like it had a mind of its own.

It went on for a few hundred feet, sometimes disappearing for small sections then reappearing, like a rope being dragged along the ground and occasionally be whipped so it would jump off the ground for small intervals.

The trail finally led right into a large thick tree, on the tree trunk were large tennis ball sized chunks missing like someone took a large ice cream scooper and started going ham removing balls from the trunk.

While I was studying the odd tree marks trying It figure out what caused this because as much as the shapes didn't look natural the wood looked like the tree grew that way, maybe it happened a long time ago and the tree healed the gnashes to the best of its ability.

Suddenly it dawned on me that this might have been the work of the creature, albeit a long time ago but it's the only logical explanation to these weird occurrences.

Even if it was, what were the odds that these were fresh marks, and the creature was still in th-

CRUNCH

The sound of a very large piece of wood being shattered into wood shavings followed by all of its remains raining down on to my head made my blood run cold, not daring to move a muscle I waited a few seconds for my heart rate to go back to healthy levels, allowing myself to regain my composure in the process.

Taking an ominously slow step back from the tree I slowly looked up, causing any wood fragments that were still on my hair to fall to the ground in a soundless fashion.

My eyes naturally followed the trunk as I looked upward, the tree was tall… really tall in fact for a fleeting second I had the hope that whatever exploded was from the result of some simulated thunderbolt.

But that delusion was short lived as when I got to where the tree branches started sprouting and the leaves grew thick I caught a glimpse of it.

Shiny grey skin stood out from everything around it, two bright red glowing eyes, and a long grey tail… what is this thing?...it's beautiful…...it's… magnificent… it's… GETTING CLOSER!

THUD

My internal thought process went something like that as I stared up at the creature with interest, marvelling at its beauty, then suddenly the creature let go of the tree branch it was holding on to with its tail and dropped into a free fall aiming right at me.

I was barely able to put my arms up, let alone move out of the way. The last thing I remembered seeing was two outstretched arms with sharp claws pointing right at me, two bright red eyes staring right into me with malicious intent and a mouth full of large spiked metal teeth, soon to have the blood of its next victim stained on them… then...

BLACK

"What happened, where's the feed?" Robbie asked Ana as he nervously looked over her shoulder at the monitor.

"I don't know, we had it a second ago then when something shiny dropped from the tree and we lost the video," Ana answered looking around frantically at all of her computers cords and connections for any faults.

"NO… No, Oh dear god, not again… I swore I wouldn't let this happen again, why did I let him go in?... why?" Veronica worryingly rambled out loud as she looked out the observation window into the thick bush.

"Do you think?..." Robbie vaguely asked Veronica with a nervous look on his face.

"What not again? what's going on?" Jonas asked in confusion looking at the two on sporadically.

"No time explain, I need you two to go get the electromagnets, the 2 terawatt ones…if we don't go now, he will die." Veronica ordered as Robbie hustled off to go get the two magnets for her.

"You're going to have to explain once this is all over," Jonas said standing there refusing to move.

"Yes, alright I'll tell everything but right now you need to go get that magnet." Veronica impatiently answered.

"I'm holding you to it," Jonas replied pointing a finger at her as he jogged off to the storage room.

"Ana I'm going to need you to be on the cameras and radio, see if you can contact him using the radio if not keep us posted if you find anything using the cameras." Veronica ordered Ana who nodded in agreement, she then walked away and grabbed a large bolt action hunting rifle.

With the group now dawned with weapons against the metallic creature they opened the bulkhead door and headed

"I just hope we're not too late." Veronica grimly spoke as the three of them ran head first into the thick bush.

A/N: Chapter one is done!

I hope you all enjoyed this first instalment to this series, if you did be sure to like and love this story, it takes nothing for you to do so and it means a lot to me.

Until next time...