Collision II

Janet wrung her hands as the coffee maker slowly dripped its elixir into the cup below. It was silent as Lennox sat at her kitchen table, now cleared of her things. The only other sounds came from outside of from her Laptop that now was in the living room but up and running nonetheless.

"So…" Janet began slowly as she sat down with a cup of coffee, "You wanted to speak with me."

"Err, yes," Lennox nodded, "How long until your daughter is out of recovery?" he asked.

Janet's face turned grim, "I do not know. It was a pretty nasty crash; she suffered several broken bones among other things." The mother answered and pursed her lips. "I don't understand how the government is involved though."

"Mrs. Tucker-." William began.

"Ms. Tucker," Janet corrected purely out of instinct, "Sorry…habit."

"It's alright," Will cleared his throat, "It's not government entirely. It's military primarily that needs to interrogate your daughter."

Apparently the word interrogate didn't sit well with Janet.

"INTERROGATE?!" Janet thundered bitterly, "I don't need some god forsaken military man screaming at my child," she spat and stood up to pace around the kitchen, "We can barely cover house payments ever since Carter died! I'm not letting a property damages take away whatever future my baby has left." Janet ended with a venomous glare.

At that Lennox stood, "Mrs. Tucker-."

"Ms. Tucker."

William rolled his eyes, "Ms. Tucker," he sighed, "I assure you; property damages aren't what I came here for." He began.

"Why else would you be here?" Janet asked suspiciously.

The man sighed. Weariness evident in his tone, "Ms. Tucker," he paused, " he paused, "dent in his tone, "t in his tone/. Do you remember the Terrorist Attack on Mission City."

"Yes, quite clearly." Janet raised an eyebrow.

"Well, the best way to put this would be…it wasn't a terrorist attack. But a war was brought to our planet." Lennox told her.

Janet laughed out loud, "Brought to our planet?" she repeated, "Like an alien war messed up Mission City?" She shook her head.

"Yes, I work with these aliens. They are called Cybertronians. And we are to believe that your daughter encountered one after they collided."

"This is insane. You're insane." Janet breathed as she collapsed into a chair. "An alien's car did not hit my daughter."

"The car was the alien ma'am," Lennox corrected uncomfortably.

"Of course," Janet smirked, "Of course."

Lennox sighed and folded his hands together. "Alright fine," Lennox muttered and stood up, "Wait here."

The man left the room, leaving Janet to sit back in her chair, cross her arms, and wait. "I won't believe this." She mumbled to herself.

Her daughter had always raved on and on about how aliens existed and that they were the ones to mess up Chicago. Janet never believed it. She believed them to be some sort of government issued cover-up or invention.

Or maybe it was just the shock that her husband had been in Chicago during the attack and had died…leaving Janet to deal with his sudden departure and close herself away.

Lennox returned with an old plastic flip phone. Nearly identical to her old blackberry flip that had wound up shoved in the very back of her drawer on the nightstand.

"This is what I was talking about miss." Lennox sighed and tapped on the 'ancient' device.

Janet was on her feet in an instant as the phone began to rattle and violently shake. It flipped onto its back and exploded into a flurry of shifting parts. They rearranged into the strangest little robot the woman had ever seen. It resembled a small scorpion/centipede mash up gone strangely right. The little thing emitted a clicking sound and skittered about almost curiously.

"This is Byte." Lennox said calmly, "He doesn't talk yet as he's still downloading Earth's language."

"In all my life," Janet gulped and Lennox went silent, "I thought I could deny it."

Blinking back tears Janet hesitantly reached out towards the creature. Byte cautiously poked the woman's fingers with his own much smaller hand.

It seemed to have a negative effect on the woman…

Or maybe the solid touch of proof was the last thing needed to get through to the woman.

Either way, Janet promptly burst into tears.