Back at the shop, a goggled Rachel is welding pieces of metal together when she’s interrupted by a worried Maximus and Zed bursting through the garage door, Maximus holding the child discovered in the wasteland in his arms. “Whoa! I thought you guys were just going for a drive! What’s all this Max!?” exclaimed Rachel lifting up her goggles.

“We found him in the wasteland,” said Maximus. “Can you help him Rach?” Rachel walks up to the boy and gets a closer look at him. Though flustered the boy had pale white skin and short black hair. One of his bangs was just long enough to cover half his face. He appeared to be around Zed’s age and height. He wore baggy grey clothing and no shoes. Rachel placed her hand on his forehead and closed her eyes.

“I don’t know”, responded Rachel. “But I sure can try. Bring him upstairs into the bathroom. We need to get him into a cold bath to bring his temperature down.” Maximus complies and starts walking upstairs, followed closely by Zed and his mother. The boy was brought to the bathroom and is placed in the tub by Max. “Out boys. I’ll take it from here.” Max and Zed worriedly leave the bathroom, and Rachel shuts the door behind them. An hour goes by as Maximus paces in front of the door and Zed sits on the floor, his back against the wall next to the bathroom door. The bathroom door creaked open slowly. Rachel poked her head out. “You may come in. But gently! His temperature’s down but hasn’t woke yet.” The boys quietly enter the bathroom to find the pale, naked child in the filled tub breathing normally. The boy’s eyes begin to open. He sits up in the water and looks up at the concerned family. His expression remained very neutral.

“Hey there kid”, said Maximus. “You feeling any better?” The boy looks at him but doesn’t respond. “We found you out in the middle of nowhere. Where’s your family?” Still no response came from the child. Maximus looks at his wife. “Not much of a talker is he?”

“Could be in shock”, responded Rachel. “He was near death after all.” Zed then approached the boy in the tub.

“Hi, my name’s Zed Shima. What’s yours?” asked Zed. The boy looked at Zed, but still did not respond.

“What do we do with him?” Maximus asked his wife.

“We can’t just put him out in the streets”, said Rachel.

“We can keep him.” Zed jumped in. Maximus and Rachel look at Zed, then each other.

“Zed, we don’t know anything about this chil-“ Rachel is interrupted by Zed.

“But he needs our help!” shouts Zed. Maximus and Rachel grow concern on their faces. Suddenly the child speaks.

“Psy”, the single word leaves the boy’s lips.

“What was that, kid?” asked Maximus.

“My name”, the boy responded. “My name is Psy”. Zed smiled and looked up at his parents. His parents looked down at Zed, then Psy, then back at Zed, then at each other again. They both sigh, smile, and turn to the boys.

“Well you better make that Psy Shima!” said Maximus as he lets out a hearty laugh. Zed shouts with joy as he jumps into the tub to hug his new brother, splashing his parents with the cold water. The now soaked Shima family all laugh together, except for Psy who hides his face in Zed’s arms, with the tiniest of smiles on his face.

A year goes by in the town of Gears Work. The very quiet Psy showed little emotion, but it was clear he and his new brother Zed had grown a strong bond together. Wherever Zed went, Psy was sure to be following behind. The technical family cared for the boy as though he were their own. Interestingly whenever Rachel or Maximus tried to teach young Psy to work with machines, at the touch of Psy’s hand the machines would suddenly stop working or fall apart. Perplexed at the apparent bad luck Psy possessed, the Shima family learned to love the reserved boy none the less.

On a partly cloudy day the two boys were playing just outside of town. Zed had brought his scrap toys with him and was playing a fighting game with Psy. “Behold the great hero!” exclaimed Zed, holding up the same toy fixed by the peculiar customer the year prior. Psy looks up at him from the ground where he sat with little reaction. “Come on Psy. Pick up a toy and let’s fight!” Psy looks at the toys and reaches over to pick one up. As he held the makeshift toy, it crumbled apart in his hand. Psy’s eyebrows tensed, he felt sad that he had broken his brother’s toy. Zed looked at him and laughed. “Don’t sweat it bro. They’re all made from junk. Whatever breaks can just be rebuilt! That’s what most fun about these toys anyways!” Zed hands the toy in his hand to Psy.

Psy smiles nervously, while taking the toy from Zed. He winces, preparing for Zed’s favorite toy to fall apart in his hand. But it does not and remains intact. Zed smiles while putting his hands on his waist. “Well would you look at that”, said Zed. “Something that stays in one piece when you touch it.” Psy’s gaze shifts from Zed to the toy in surprise. Zed picks up another toy from his pile. “Come on let’s play!” Psy smiles as the two begin to bring their toys together. Suddenly a flash and an explosion come from the direction of Gears Work. “What was that?!”

Zed and Psy run back to town and are shocked by what they find. Gears Work was up in flames and ruin. Once standing buildings and busy streets were now crumbling and empty. Zed drops his toy, and tears begin to form in his eyes. Psy looks at him with concern, and Zed turns towards him. “We have to see if the shop is okay!” shouted Zed. Psy nods in agreement and the boys run through the danger ridden streets. The boys are able to make it to the shop to find it aflame. Zed looks in disbelief and drops to the ground. His once joyous home was being destroyed before his very eyes. In shock, Zed is frozen to the ground as tears stream down his face.

As the environment around them only worsens, Psy tugs at Zed’s arm. “We have to go!” Psy tells Zed. But Zed remains frozen in place. Psy continues to try and push Zed from his spot, but Zed does not budge. As Psy struggles to aid his brother, from a fiery next door building a shadowed adult sized figure slowly exits through the burning doorway. Psy and Zed’s gaze shift toward the figure as it approaches them. The boys can see the fire’s shine glisten its metallic service. A pair of cold, red eyes stared at them. Mechanical sounds could be heard whirring and grinding with every step the figure took. Zed stood up, his face looking toward the ground.

“It was you wasn’t it?” said Zed. Psy tears his gaze away from the figure and looks at Zed with fear and worry. “It was you wasn’t!?” yelled Zed. His head shoots upward to look at the enclosing figure. His face now full of tears and rage. “You’ve destroyed my home!” he yelled. The figure doesn’t respond and continues approaching the boys. Zed angered by the figure’s lack of reaction, runs at the figure with his right fist in the air ready to strike.

“Zed!” yelled Psy as he helplessly reaches for his brother. Zed yelled as he ran at the figure to try and land a punch, but the figure quickly swings its arm at him. He is thrown backward toward a scared and shocked Psy, Psy’s one visible eye transfixed to his brother’s right side. Zed opened his eyes and as the adrenaline wore off, he felt immense pain on the right side of his body. He clutches at his right side with his left hand only to feel no right arm. Zed’s right arm had been sliced clean off. Zed looked in terror at his missing appendage but could not even muster the strength to yell at the shear amount of pain he was feeling. Blood rushed out of his body from the wound as Zed could feel his consciousness fading. As his eyes begin to shut, he looks up at his worried brother who looks back at him. Psy’s expression changes from fear to neutral as he slowly turned toward the figure. The last image Zed saw is Psy slowly walking toward their dangerous adversary before blacking out.

Zed awoke atop a hill outside of the burning town of Gears Work. He sits up and remembering what had happened quickly clenches his right side to be met with bloody, wrapped bandages around his body. Zed’s face looks at where his right arm should be with sadness, and then back at his crumbling town. He looks to his left to find a Psy next to him in the fetal position. He puts his hand on his brother. “I don’t know what happened here, but we’ll be ok”, said Zed as he rubs his brother’s back. “We’ll find out who did this, and we’ll set them straight. For Mom and Dad”. Psy sits up and sticks close to his brother as the twos’ tears fall from their faces, and their hometown becomes ruins.

Twelve years have passed since that tragic day, and the boys had learned to live on their own in their ruined hometown. A now teenage Psy is found sitting in the broken-down shop’s counter. He was about five foot and eight inches tall. His hair and clothes still sporting the same look from when he was younger being grey hoodie and sweat pants.

“Well bro it’s ready”. Psy looks up and sees his older brother in the doorway looking back at him. Zed was slightly taller than his younger brother at five foot ten inches. Same short, black hair from his youth, and almost same clothes as well with the exception of red and black long horizontally striped sleeves. Atop his head was the same striped hat given to him so many years ago. “Let’s get going”. Zed turns revealing his ripped right sleeve. In place of his arm was a new robotic one. The top of the robotic arm was black on the inside, and yellow on the other. The yellow part was separated into three segments. The foreman was black with three horizontal red stripes. Zed gestured with his black robotic hand to Psy to come outside.

Psy follows his brother outside to find a rebuilt hover car. “Not quite up to par as our old man’s, but it will do”, said Zed. Psy shrugged in response and Zed laughed. The boys hop into the shaky, rusty car. Zed sat in the driver’s side, and Psy sat in the passenger’s side. Zed grips the steering and looks down at his right hand. “We’re going to find the guy that did this to our home and take him down. For our parents”. Zed turned to Psy, and Psy to Zed. The two bump fists and face forward. Zed steps down on the accelerator and a blue energy surges from the bottom of the vehicle, lifting it up into the air. The boys drive off to parts unknown.