Prologue

I absentmindedly twirl the stylus between my fingers, eyeing the sketch on my Galaxy Note cellphone.

No, no, no…that head's definitely messed up, I think to myself, nibbling on my lower lip, preparing to undo my recent pen strokes.

"Stop doing that," my brother Eric chimes in, cutting through my train of thought. I blink, startled after being brought back to reality. Mildly annoyed at the intrusion, I respond, "Doing what?" Eric merely rolls his eyes and lifts his head from his own cellphone, "Biting your lips. They're going to be as chapped as all hell by the time we get to Uncle Frederick's house." I exchange my own eye roll with my brother and sigh.

"I have chapstick; it's all good. And besides, who cares if I have dry lips? I ain't getting any smooches, thank you very much." Eric shuffles his feet, leaning onto the back of the bench, arms arched above his head in a stretch.

Nonchalantly, he replies, "Because you only bite your lip when you're nervous." I pause, pondering his observation. Next, it is my turn to shuffle my feet. I sigh, insert my stylus back into its slot in my cellphone, then turn off the screen As I am setting the device back into my gray backpack, Eric's voice pierces the silence again, "I know you're nervous. It's okay, you know. Mom's just concerned about you." I send him a half-hearted glare, "So concerned that she sends me to Detroit? To stay with our eccentric uncle? Don't get me wrong, Eric, I love Uncle Frederick, but the man's batshit crazy. And now you've got to come along with me because I'm twenty-one and she thinks I'll be causing trouble. Poor us, huh?"

"Oh, shut up. You know Mom doesn't believe you'll cause trouble. It's the potential of you falling into trouble! Like, you know…getting abducted or some shit? Someone spiking your drink at a bar? All of the stereotypical big city dangers." I lessen my glare, knowing Eric is right, "Detroit is supposed to be some technological boomtown, right? How dangerous do you think it'll be?" Eric stares at his sneakers, eyebrows furrowed, "I don't know, honestly. We come from somewhere where the danger isn't as great, though, I can tell you that."

"No kidding. Farms to the north and west, then small towns to the south and east. I'm not a wild child, Eric," he suddenly bursts out with laughter and I frown.

"You went to major in computer engineering! A wild child, you most certainly are not."

I stiffen, stung by this reminder.

"And that didn't work out, did it?" I mutter, leaning backwards into the cold bench, flipping my hood up on my sweatshirt, shielding my face from my brother. Eric noticed my change in demeanor and instantly began to backpedal, "Hey now, you didn't drop out for bad grades or anything. You're fine. Those two professors even gave you recommendation letters!"

"I know, I know," I whisper, voice faltering. I rest my head against the cement wall behind the bench, tucking my hands into my sweatshirt's pockets, "You didn't see his face when I told them, though, Eric. He wasn't even that disappointed; he knows that I've always struggled with formal education. He just looked…so sad. Probably sad that his little girl wouldn't be the first kid on his side of the family to have a college degree." The air grew tense between us and Eric hung his head, vision glued on his sneakers once more.

"Yeah, I know. I could only imagine Dad's face. I know that look all too well. I followed in his footsteps as a carpenter, so that lessened the blow, but…but you are the smart one." I nodded in agreement, fingering the frays on the edges of my sleeves, "That's why it hit hard I bet. I can get all of the IT certifications I want and make all the money in the world, but I will never forget that face."

"Yeah," Eric says, voice lightening, "but they both love us, you know that." I smile lopsidedly, sitting up straight, "Family's family. And the Williams family always sticks together. Now where the hell is Uncle Frederick?"

Eric chuckles, pulling out his cellphone, "I'll call him." I huff, crossing my legs, "Tell him to make it quick. The sun's going down in like twenty minutes or whatever. Temperature's going to drop like a rock. It's almost winter in Detroit."

"Will do!" Eric cheerily responds, lifting the cellphone to his head, the ringtone faintly audible from my position.

"And how was your trip?" Uncle Frederick asks in his raspy voice, lifting my brother's monitor box from the U-Haul. I shift my own box, supporting its bottom to the best of my ability, "Uh, yeah…it was…ugh, it was pretty boring in all honesty. I've never seen so many wheat fields in my life." Eric cocks an eyebrow at my inability to lift the box full of notes and desk items. Fortunately for me, he fails to comment.

"Ah, it is a rather boring drive," our uncle agrees, bumping the front door open with his hip so that I could enter his house with relative ease, "but the wait at Burger Bot wasn't so bad, was it?"

For a brief explanation, our uncle is strange through and through. He is the kind of man who, in this day and age, would still chase after Big Foot, insist aliens have abducted humans, and refute that the original moon landing ever took place. A lunatic, if you will.

Well, the alien part is not too terribly far off nowadays, given the relatively recent news regarding Detroit's new superheroes: the Autobots, who are members of a cybernetic alien race. Naturally, however, cybernetic alien villains arrived not too long after the Autobots. My heart nearly skips a beat as I set down the cardboard box in my new bedroom.

"Decepticons," I mutter aloud, testing the name on my tongue. For whatever reason, my mother did not seem too concerned that these giant alien robots with highly advanced weaponry and questionable motives would affect Eric and I in our journeys. Of course, my brother and I discussed what might happen in the absurd event we encountered these aliens. Eric, being a genius, brought up alien probing taking place in UFOs, then being beamed back down. I was not amused, but I should have known better than to discuss such matters with my brother.

I adjust my desk lamp, which doubled its use as a desk organizer. Next, I neatly stacked my binders and folders of information I deemed helpful on the upper shelf of the old wooden desk. I grumble, dreading the fact my monitor and custom built desktop still needed to come upstairs. I love my computer and all, but that damn thing is too heavy.

"Come on, Holly! You still have shit in the U-Haul!" Eric hollers from what I assume is the bottom of the staircase. I push the boxes currently in the bedroom up against the wall to make room and shout, "Coming!"

This is going to be a long evening.

daniGirl - 12/16/2109 - 10:53PM

Hey dude, u awake?

I stare at the private message that had awoken me for a moment before registering who it was. I smile with glee and begin to type into the Discord chat.

Hollister - 12/16/2109 - 10:54PM

yep, i'm up. how are you?

daniGirl - 12/16/2109 - 10:54PM

P good I can't lie. The real question is: how r u?

My smile twitches before fading.

Hollister - 12/16/2109 - 10:54PM

i'm ok for now. i already miss you guys, though. it's cold af up here and eric is
annoying, though we already knew that lol

daniGirl - 12/16/2109 - 10:55PM

Just be OK up there aight? I don't need to hear that u have had like 5 mental
breakdowns or whatever. There's big ass robots prowling around dude. That's
fucked up. Hella fucked up.

Hollister - 12/16/2109 - 10:56PM

god, don't remind me. eric doesn't care about them, but i can't help but worry.
knowing my luck, i'll be the first human abducted by those bad guy robots

daniGirl - 12/16/2109 - 10:56PM

UM DON't?! Pls? Those fuckin decepticon thingies r creepy. Didn't u see the news?

Hollister - 12/16/2109 - 10:57PM

i did.

"They're creepy alright, Daniella," I murmur to myself, waiting for her to respond. Daniella, a longtime friend of mine, never failed to express her worries. She was essentially the mother of our friend group, providing insightful direction to the four of us.

I'm going to miss them, I think, flicking my brightness bar back and forth on my cellphone. I had practically grown up with my little crew. Leaving for Detroit has hurt me inexplicably, though my mom had insisted it was for the best. It was for a good "soul searching" opportunity, she had said. Bullshit, I had thought to myself in the heat of the moment. Complete and utter bullshit, I had thought while driving away from my childhood home, taking the first driving shift off my brother's hands. Such thoughts I would never voice.

daniGirl - 12/16/2109 - 10:59PM

Just get some sleep dude, OK?

Hollister - 12/16/2109 - 11:00PM

you got it. and touche; don't stay up worrying about me.

I closed the chat, set an alarm for 6:30AM, then rolled over, trying to get comfortable in this unfamiliar bedroom.

I sighed.

This sucked.

Author's Note

So, uhh, that was a six year hiatus. How are y'all?

Anyways, this is the third time I'm redoing this story. I have always had the ending figured out, but the beginning? Not so much. I found the outline on my old desktop and just couldn't help myself now that I have more time. Considering my knack for being over-descriptive in the original layout (not to mention the fact that I absolutely could not choose between present and past tense), I have decided to take a more loose approach while rewriting this story. I want it to be more personal.

This prologue is short, but I wanted it to serve as a brief insight to Holly's situation and give you tidbits of her personality. For starters, she entered university with the hopes of graduating with a degree in computer engineering. This didn't work out. Expecting a college education to not follow the norms of a standard high school education, she was originally eager to attend. When she realized that formal education is simply formal education, she decided to abandon the degree (not because of grades, however) and pursue a more hands on career in IT. While Holly is decidedly content with this turn of events, her parents were concerned. Her mother decided that she spend an extended winter break with her uncle in Detroit, Michigan, where the story takes place. As a precaution, Eric, her brother, has come with her. This is supposedly a safeguard for her as she enters the "big city." Holly misses her friends, naturally, and quietly resents the fact that her mother has sent her to Detroit. Physical descriptors can come later. Also, I decided the year is 2109 because all I know is that TFA is centralized sometime in the 22nd Century. If someone has a more likely date, feel free to share it!

As is obvious, this will still be a Shockwave x OC kind of deal, because that poor sucker deserves more love.

But, most importantly...THANK YOU TO EVERYONE WHO HAS SENT ME MESSAGES OF ENCOURAGEMENT IN THE PAST! I love you! And no, I most certainly did not forget about you!

Thank you for reading!