Thump! Thump!

The sound of footfalls echoed loudly through the hallway of the old "haunted" mansion as four teenagers raced through the rickety walls of the creaky old house. They didn't even slow down when turns or three split hallways came up, reason being, they were running from a giant robot, seemingly out of a video game.

"Hey! Is everyone still together back there?" Yelled a pale skinned boy from the front of the group to his friends behind him.

This boy's name was Jerikai. He had spiky black hair with one strand of blond that hung down in front of his brown almond eyes all the time. He usually wore an open black leather jacket, which was now flapping behind him as he ran, with a red shirt underneath it along with dark blue jeans with a thick chain dangling from the belt loops, black boots, and a black bracelet with a skull charm hanging from it which he always wore.

"Yeah, we're all here Jerikai." A freckle faced boy called back, the bangs of his fairly long hair just out of his bright blue eyes.

His name? Leroy. At this moment he was wearing a short sleeved shirt, swim shorts, and flip flops which were wet from their time at the beach, causing Leroy to keep slipping and falling. It was surprising that he was even keeping up.

"Although," He replied with a hint of concern and an english accent in his voice. "Marina seems to be falling behind."

Marina was one of their classmates who had followed them because of her huge crush on Jerikai, not knowing the danger she was getting herself into.

Marina had a bob cut that made her somewhat look like Dora and she always had her bangs clipped up to keep them from covering her wide oval-like eyes with an unusual purple-pink gradient. She wore a pink, sleeveless turtleneck over her bikini and open toed high heels.

"I think I'm okay," Marina said, glancing over her shoulder. " I mean, I don't see anything following us anymore." She wheezed. "It's just a little difficult to run in high heels."

"Well, if they're so hard to run in then why don't you just take them off!?" The girl in front of her called back to her.

This one was called Ratio. (No, that was not her actual name, it's just what everyone called her, even at school) She wore a strange sleeveless mahogany hoodie in which the hood looked as though it had a tail and animal ears with a gray short sleeve shirt under it as well as khaki shorts slip-on shoes. Her hair was long and black with blond bangs covering her left eye leaving her with just one big green eye for the rest of the world to enjoy along with the cross shaped scars she had under both. Although, you wouldn't really be able to tell she had long hair considering how it went into her hood, coming out the other end making it look like there was fur at the end.

"What!? No way! I'll get splinters in my feet from this old wood!" Marina shouted back.

"Actually, this soft wood would probably just squish under your feet." Leroy replied matter a factly.

"Ew! That's even worse!"

"Whatever. How did you end up here anyway?" Asked Ratio suspiciously.

All of the sudden Marina's face got all red. I can't tell them I was following them! She thought in distress. "Well... umm...ya see... I...was...um...I was...uh...t-trrying toooo find theee rrrreestroom." Yeah, that's it. "I was trying to find the restroom and I got lost when I saw you guys and I was going to ask you knew where it was." She said in a flustered manner, hastily attempting to find an excuse for following them other than the truth.

"I don't know, that story doesn't seem very believable..." Ratio said, eyeing Marina suspiciously. "I mean, weren't there restrooms back at camp and near the beach too? They even showed us where they were." She said, thinking aloud to herself, indicating there was some other reason Marina was there.

"Come on, Ratio. Give her a break, maybe she wasn't listening." Leroy replied, defending his classmate.

"Fiiiine." She sighed. "But I still don't trust her."

"You say that about everybody." Jerikai said, rolling his eyes.

"Where were you guys going anyway?" Marina asked, attempting to change the topic. "Ya know, like before the giant robot came after you."

Slowing down, Jerikai said, "Well, we were planning on going home early, but..."

"But mister goodie two shoes over here came out and said 'But we'll get in trouble'. Psst, like I care." Said Ratio, interrupting Jerikai and jabbing a finger at Leroy.

"Oh, yeah? Well imagine what Tempist would say?" Leroy retorted.

"Yeah, well Tempist isn't here anymore!" Ratio yelled back. They had all come to a stop by then, the fear of their previous adversary completely gone now. Her eyes widened as she covered her mouth, just fully comprehending what she had just said. "I-I'm sorry..." She muttered painfully.

"Yeah... It's okay." Jerikai said, looking at her with somber eyes and a sarcastic smile "It's fine."  He waved his hand dismissivly. There was a moment of silence and the only thing that could be heard was their heavy breathing.

"Who's Tempest?" Marina asked, completely oblivious to what the source of their sadness was. "I've heard you guys talking about them a lot. Is it Nico Tempist? You know, the kid with the black and red that goes up and a always wears goggles in our class?" She asked, using her hands to indicate his outlandish hair that always stood on end.

Leroy looked at Marina and shook his head. "Tempist was a friend of ours who disappeared without a trace a little over half a year ago. We never knew her real name though, she had amnesia. We decided decided to call her Tempist because of her wild emotions and Jerikai said she reminded him a lot of a girl he met along time ago who had the Tempist. She said she liked it so we went with it. She spelled it kind of strangely though, even though she knew you normally spell tempest with an 'E', she insisted that we spell it with an 'I' replacing the last 'E'."

"Yeah, I could have sworn she looked exactly like her, and..." But Jerikai was interrupted by a loud cracking sound coming from the followed by a large, old school-looking robot emerging from the wall leaving a strangely shaped hole in the wall.

The robot then turned it's glowing red eyes toward the small group. "TARGET LOCKED, PREPARING DESTRUCTION OF TARGET NOW." It said in a strange robotic tone as rocket launchers and machine guns suddenly appeared on it's shoulders and arms. They stared at in shock as it locked it's laser pointers onto them. The robot was actually surprisingly well equipped considering how it looked like a bunch of trash cans mashed together.

When they overcame their shock there were a lot of strange reactions, or at least strange to Marina, the strangest being Leroy.

"Cool!" Leroy exclaimed in awe. "I soooo want one." Everyone stared at him for a moment, even the robot seemed to stare.

Jerikai broke the silence. "Dude, now is not the time to be geeking out."

"Whoops! Sorry, I kind'a caught up in the moment." He said with an embarrassed smile.

" 'S okay, man. Anyway, Lizzie, think you can make a portal for us to get out of this cramped space?"

"Sorry, Jerikai! Brain's a little busy right now!" Ratio said while dodging a laser the bot had shot.

"Well, in that case..." Jerikai said, pulling out a silver and blue, pistol-like gun from the inside of his jacket. "Everyone move out of the way!" Then he pointed the gun at the wall and pulled the trigger, sending an extremely bright blast of white light flying towards the hallway wall. With the impact of the light hitting the wall, there came an even brighter light, blinding everyone except Jerikai, who had closed his eyes, and Ratio, who took the liberty of putting on sunglasses right after she saw the gun. Granted, there were still black dots in her eyes.

"Come on!" Jerikai shouted running out of the building. The others following his voice and footsteps the best they could. Looking back when their vision finally cleared, they saw the giant hole in the wall the shot left as well as some lingering light inside the old mansion. The robot, being mechanical, had no ears, and apparently some really bad audio sensors, so it had to wait for the light to go away for it to follow their little group. It didn't watch patiently though. It started shooting all kinds of things in random directions leaving the place riddled with holes and different shades of paint. Because, yes, it had a paint gun.

They made their way toward the dock, hurrying into a warehouse and looking through a crack in the wall just in time to see the robot emerging from inside the old building they had just been in. Thoroughly confused, the robot scanned the surroundings for its "targets". Then, out of nowhere, it started shooting in random directions again.

They all burst into a fit of giggles. All except Marina, who whispered nervously to the others. "Why are you laughing?"

"I'm sorry it's just that..." Ratio said, pausing to laugh again. "that... that..." She snickered. "It's acting like a three year old who got it's favorite toy taken away!" She finished, bursting into laughter again. Jerikai whispered something into Ratio's ear, a big grin spread across her face. Her smile was so big that the star shaped scars on her cheeks were nearly invisible.

"This is going to be so awesome." She said getting up and sprinting to the door. "Be prepared for anything!" She exclaimed giddily, popping a candy in her mouth as she exited the building. She came out of the warehouse and turned to see the robot doing it's three year old hissy fit. Smiling, she went over to a pile of building supplies and picked up a thick metal pole. She started shouting, "Hey, ya big bucket a bolts! Over here!" The robot whipped its head around just in time to be hit by the short pole Ratio was holding about thirty or forty feet away. She had swung the pole into one of two glowing holes that had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, the other right next to the robot's head making it get the receiving end of the blow.

Marina stood there awe struck, staring through the crack in the wall as the robot started fuming with anger as a muffled child's voice shouted, "Cheater" from what sounded like inside the robot. Meanwhile the boys laughed like hyenas as they videoed the giant mechanical chasing Ratio around shouting something about cheaters, meanies, and a ripped off game while cussing her out in about twelve different languages, to include English.

Once the three kids had had their fill, a young male voice rang through their heads saying, "Okay, now let's bring it over to the warehouse."

"Got'cha. Everyone prepare for a six year old rampage!" A young echoing female voice answered while Ratio led the robot to the warehouse.

Marina turned around franticly, trying to find the source of the voices. "Hey, did you guys hear that?" She asked nervously as they moved away from the walls and closer to the center.

"What?" Leroy asked, confused for a moment, "Oh, you mean the voices you just heard in your head?"

Marina nodded.

"Oh, that was just Jerikai and Ratio talking via telepathy." Leroy said casually, waving his hand dismissively.

"Telepathy? Wait, does that mean that they're aliens or something!?"

Jerikai's face became a red cherry, glowing with embarrassment and anger. "I, am NOT an alien!" He shouted, crossing his arms and looking the other way with a pout. Leroy snorted at this childish action.

The trio was now the closest you can get to the center of a rectangular warehouse cluttered with boxes and crates. Pretty soon Ratio came in with the robot trailing behind her.

Marina watched from behind a crate, where she had been asked to hide, as crates bursted open and military weaponry started flying through the air, shooting the robot from all different directions with no one to man them. Just flying at it after they ran out of ammo, leaving the robot, already badly constructed before, looking like a crushed water bottle. But, of course, it didn't just stand there like a target dummy. It retaliated, shooting every which way, trying to take down whatever was shooting at it.

One of it's projectiles shot directly at Marina. She jumped back shrieking. "What the hell!? Why in the world is there military stuff in this warehouse!? This is like a convenience store for the Army!"

"Huh? I thought you already knew that this beach as well as the city we live in is really close to a military facility. Guess not though." Jerikai shrugged before dashing up a wall of crates to avoid being squashed by their advisories robofist. "Dang, this thing is just not giving up is it?" He said to no one in particular, flipping off the wall, grabbing a gun and shooting the robot in the back of the head. It whirled around and shot everything it had at him.

"Ratio, portals! Now!" Leroy shouted.

"On it!" She replied. Suddenly there were two glowing disks in the air again, one in front of Jerikai and another behind the robot. Everything it had just thrown at Jerikai came hurdling through the portals to hit it in the back. "Happy birthday, bucket head!" Ratio shouted as it received the blow, falling backwards towards Marina.