The First Hand

RECOGNITION

Chapter 1

'I don't understand...five thousandth century, year of who's reign..?' he asked with an opened jaw.

The pot-bellied man made a disgusting facial expressions. He reached over his shoulder and pressed a button and said, 'Alliance Yellow, we have mental situation down in fort.'

He could not close his jaw due to different emotions bursting out from him. Shock, surprise, confusion, disbelieve, name it. 'Wait.. I am not a psycho! My name is Michael!'

'The crazy man say what..?'

'What..?'

'Haa! It works everytime!'

'Quite playing around man!'

The pot-bellied man's face drastically changed to that anger, 'Look here, you're the who is nuts.'

Out of exasperation, Michael asked, 'Where is the twentieth century?'

'What..?'

'Where is it?'

'You think the twentieth century is a thing you could meet. It's gone. The past. You really are mad mate.'

Michael backed the pot-bellied man hovering in midair. He vigorously assailed his hair in search for an answer. Suddenly he noticed something. His hair was longer than he remembered.

'Aargh!' he screamed. 'What's going on..?'

The pot-bellied man tilted his head and yanked up an eyebrow. 'This guy really has lost it.'

Back at Michael, he pulled a strand of his hair to measure the length. Upon his discovery again, he found out the hair strand was grey in colour. He quickly turned around, 'What colour is my hair?'

The pot-bellied man sighed, 'You don't even know the colour of your hair. Such a pity. I haven't seen this sort of problem for a long time now.'

Michael pleaded for the man to tell him, 'Please sir, can you tell me.'

'Grey.'

'Grey..?'

'What?'

'Grey..!'

'Yes..Grey!'

Michael lost the strength to pull up his jaw. This time he covered his face with both his hands, 'Oh...no, no, no...' he murmured. 'This can't be happening. I need to go back!'

The pot-bellied man took his head back as he asked, 'To where?'

'Earth! I need to go home!'

'This is Earth! Urgh.. I think I might be the one going insane..'

Michael was burning with annoyance. First the man told him they were in the five thousandth century, now he told him they were still on planet earth. Still on planet earth in the five thousandth century. What sort of expensive joke was this?

'Look here mate, I've called for help. You'll be taken away and treated nicely. The open world is not for people like you. There are lots of potential threats lurking in every corner.'

Michael was dumbfounded as he listened to the man's speech. He yelled and pointed his index finger to the man. 'I'm not crazy. You're the one who's deluded... I think you've rode on that stupid hover board for a long time now you've completely lost track of time!'

'What..?! How there you speak to me that way..?!'

'How there you tell me such...such... Nonsense?!'

'What..?!'

'Yes! You heard me.'

'You're a mad man..! And I'm taking you in for impudence and momentarily verbal assault!' The pot-bellied man retorted.

'Are you some kind of cop..?' Michael furrowed his brows as he asked.

'Oh yeah...a bad one in fact.' the man let out a wicked smile as he answered.

Contrary to the man's expectations, Michael was rather calm after he learnt the man was a police officer. The man operated his scooter to gradually descend towards Michael so he could introduce a ball like object to Michael. He held this object by the short chain attached to it and said, 'Now stay still while I cuff you.'

'Wait, with what...? That...?'

'You don't know what this is?'

'No.'

'It's a handlock. Imma use it to confiscate you.'

'What happened to handcuffs?'

'What..? Are we in the like fortieth century?'

Michael cursed inwardly, 'That's even far compared to where am from.'

'Don't worry, compared to where your going, it's a lot closer.' the man mocked as he released the chain from the ball.

'I wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for that weird old man.' Michael continued to curse inwardly.

'Haa! Do you mean uncle granpa..?!'

'Uncle...granpa...do you...you think this is some kind of child's play. I'm serious, one man with a weird name.'

'Is it hocus..?'

'No...!'

'Pocus..?'

'No...!'

'Hocus Pocus..?'

'Hell...No..!'

'Hahaa...hocus pocus...never gets old.' the man chuckled as he wiped off a tear drop from his eyelids.

'It begins with a T... I think Taurus... Opti–'

'–Optimus!'

'Yeah that's it.'

Unexpectedly for Michael, the man's aura of mockery suddenly varnished and only that of fear and anger remained as he shouted, 'FREEZE!!'

'What..?!'

'I said freeze and shut up!! You have the right to remain silent! Whatever you say will be used against you!' the man recited this never forgettable line. He immediately threw his arm forward and the gadget on his wrist automatically reconstructed itself to a pistol-like object, while he used his other hand to control this pistol.

Michael was short of words, he slowly tried to reach the back of his head using his two hands before the pot-bellied man yelled at him again.

'I said frreeezze!!'

'I am trying to...!'

'Don't move! Put your hands at your back! Right now!!'

'What?! How am I supposed to do that..?!'

'I said shut uuup!!'

'What's your deal dude..?!'

Piiuu!

Out of agitation, the man opened fire at Michael, releasing a light blue ray of light to his chest region.

Michael was blown backwards in seconds as he flew away. Immediately the man started calling for backup as he ran to meet Michael who was lost in the forest. This beam launched at Michael was not ordinary at all. He levelled almost all the tree trunks in his path, clearing one part of the forest in seconds.

On the brighter side, instead of Michael to loose balance and crash hard on the last tree trunk, he spun clockwise in mid-air, slamming his hand hard on the ground to great friction while driving the soles of his feet on the ground.

It was a splendid crash-landing.

Soon after, he realised he was being protected by a metal on his torso that fended off the attack. How this breastplate appeared on his chest was what he couldn't understand. It was like it reacted to the situation on its own. Automatically turning on if the owner was in imminent threat.

Michael rubbed the breastplate with his hands, 'The..hell..?'

YOU!!

He became suddenly alarmed when he heard the cry of the police officer. After driving his head up, series of never ending light blue lasers flew at him, shattering the surrounding area. He had to turn around and get away as far as possible from the man. The man didn't relent in the pursuit of this universal terrorist. He kept chasing him while destroying his immediate surroundings with the laser.

After a while, Michael approach an open field where only 0.5 metre of grasses were present. He ran in zigzag position to make way for the incoming bomb blast the laser delivered non-stop to his side.

'Stoop!! Alliance Yellow I need support. I repeat, I need back-up!!' the police officer cried as he chased after Michael.

Michael was slowing down due to fatigue kicking in. Just within this few minutes he had ran almost a kilometre. Was that even possible? After coming to a tentative conclusion, he was about to turn around and surrender when suddenly he noticed a ripple high up in the sky.

The sun ray attacked his sight, so getting a clear picture of the object in the clouds was nearly impossible. Squinting his eye and making a canopy over his eyebrows as he ran, he darted above him quickly.

It didn't take long for an object moving at almost light speed to come crashing directly to the ground. This sudden crash created an enormous crater and a heavy gale that flung Michael about ten metres back.

After the first object, others followed too. The second, third, fourth and fifth, created massive craters on the field.

When Michael managed to stand on his feet, he gently looked up to know what caused the explosion.

It was robots. Approximately six metres tall and they were five of them, blocking his way. Inside this machines it was obvious they were being controlled from the inside.

'TAURUS OPTIMUS! YOU ARE WANTED FOR THE ATTEMPT TO MURDER LORD SOLOMON. YOU ARE ALSO WANTED FOR COMMITTING TREASON ON SEVERAL CONTINENTS.' the robot to make an entrance first recited his lines. Like he was practising it beforehand.

'WE RECON YOU SHOW YOUR TRUE FORM!' another robot spoke.

'What..the..hell..?'

'TAURUS OPTIMUS, PREPARED TO BE SENTENCED TO DEATH!!'

As the robot finished its statement, they all simultaneously positioned their firearms towards Michael. Without further ado, they fired each and every missile launcher behind their backs at him.