Bonding. Organisms can bond together. Family. Friends. It goes further than that. You’ll see...

Hi, I’m Ellanora PondFolk. From what I could tell, I was just your average, run of the mill female teen. I guess not. One Saturday, after my horseback riding lesson, I came home to my stepmom arguing with my brother. Typical. Father gone angry stepmom. Dad was always away on some “secret project” for the gov. I changed out of my dirty clothes and took a shower, only to come out in new clothes, to a CIA agent at our door. My stepmom answered the door, and he held up his badge. I was at the top of our staircase, looking down.

“My name is Neill Perkins, I’m with the CIA, we’re here about your daughter. We need to speak with her privately.” He told her. She stared up at me in serious disgust.

“Get down here, Ella, whatever you’ve done, it’s time to pay up now,” she said. I finished coming downstairs and walked outside with the agent. Neill, was it? As soon as I stepped out the door, I had at least 5 guns trained on me. What did I do? Was it my secret lab? Or maybe the blades I had placed in my limbs that I could extend and contract? They weren’t metal. I was ready to use them.

Neill walked in between me and the other men, “you can be very dangerous, this we know. You are… special. Only 7 people like you exist in America. You have special brains. You can understand things most of us can’t. We need your help. All we’re asking for is for you to come take a look. If you say no after you take a shot, your memories of this encounter and the site will be erased. If you say no now, nobody will even know we came here. Or, you could help us and save humanity,” he said.

“I’ll take a look, I will make no other obligation right now,” I replied, looking down.

“Then follow me,” he said with a smile. I followed him. We went on a long ride with me blindfolded to keep the route secret. After what I guessed was about an hour, the car rolled to a stop. My blindfold was removed. Neill led me out of the car. It was a warehouse with people all carrying pieces of metal… wait… that wasn’t metal… those were organisms. They looked like parts, but they weren’t. Every piece I looked at, I could tell what it was. I started to feel nauseous. If only I could close my eyes. I couldn’t, it was just too incredible. It was too much for my brain. I couldn’t take any more analyzing, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away. I felt like I was going to pass out. A hand shot out in front of my eyes.

“Don’t process too much at once. It could be harmful to you,” said Neill. My thoughts were still racing, filing everything I saw away to be found later. I now found that Iwas breathing hard and shaking.

“Only 7 people in the U.S. can even come close to understanding this stuff. You are the strongest. For all the others, not even a millisecond passed before they fell unconscious. You lasted two minutes before I started to worry,” he informed me, “so if you join us, you will be the leader of team A. We want you and the others to build things out of these parts. Robots capable of fighting alien threats to earth. Nobody else can either build or pilot these things other than you and the others. We should probably get you a checkup because too much staring can give you physical issues.”

He turned away, and I followed on shaky legs. He brought me to a white room with a person that looked like a doctor. By that time, I had to use the wall for support. He was working with another young girl, showing her one part at a time. Seeing them made my head hurt. When he saw Neill and I, he dropped the part he was holding and rushed over.

“I’ll get her a checkup right away, looks like she really needs it,” he said, talking quickly. I wasn’t aware of how terrible I looked. I actually thought I looked fine.

“A newbie is still conscious after seeing the warehouse?” asked the girl.

“She lasted two minutes before she turned into this,” Neill stated as the doctor carried me away. I didn’t hear any further conversation, but it may have only been because I was behind a closed door.

“How many fingers am I holding up?” asked the doctor, waving five hands in my face.

“Fifteen? No, three,” I replied. It was hard, but if I saw fifteen fingers on five blurry hands, then it was three. I was now aware of my exhaustion. I was swaying from left to right. I had no way of knowing if I would stay awake, though I highly doubted it. I was in so much pain. Maybe I would be taking a dirt nap after all. If I woke up ever again, I would help them. From the intelligence I could gather on the parts, they had only ever been used to help protect organisms from aliens, they fell apart when their job was done. They were alive. They could tell that there was another job coming for them. They were ready for whatever came...

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I woke up feeling better than ever. I felt energetic and well-rested. Then I remembered where I was. The bed I was in was very comfortable, and I was in a white room. I had to squint as my eyes adjusted to the new light. Around me were several girls seemingly taking tests, including the one from before. I felt so good just sitting here, better than ever. Unfortunately, one of the adults ended my moment when she walked up to my bedside.

“You weren’t out for long,” she frowned, “how are you awake?”

“Um, well I woke up…” I said, ``I didn’t know what to say to that question.”

“Hmm… well, we should get you some medical tests to keep you healthy,” she walked away, leaving me alone again.

A couple minutes later, the doctor from before came back. My bed moved so that I was in a sitting position. “Well, you really are up! What a surprise! Before you get up and move again, we want to make sure you don't need any more… repairs,” he said, looking uncomfortable.

“Any more repairs?” I asked.

“Well your entire left arm had stopped functioning for a while there, and your toes almost got gangrene,” he said, looking away, “a-also, your heart is producing some fluid now and pumping it through your body, but we don’t know what it is… or what it does. We’re constantly monitoring your vitals in case something goes wrong.”

“Interesting,” was my only reply. For about the next hour, the doctor did a medical checkup on me. It was pretty standard, except it also included close examination of my muscle groups and some X-rays.

“Well, it seems that you are fine, however, your muscles seem to have grown, your brain is reconfiguring, and a couple other things too that shouldn’t matter too much, just be careful,” he said.

“O...okay,” I replied. Like I was supposed to know what any of this meant.

“Agent Levi wants to talk to you about your final decision,” he informed me, “however, before that, I want to make sure you know what you’re getting into. This job will be like hell for you, but you will save many lives. You will be able to protect those you care about, though you will sacrifice your happiness and well-being. That’s all I have to say.” he left the room. I wasn’t expecting that. I thought that he was supposed to convince me to join.

A man in black came into the room. Probably agent Levi. He walked in front of all of us, the patients, and smiled. The room went silent.

“We have chosen assignments, however, we are waiting to see if the newbie will join. If she does, she will lead team A,” the room went silent. Everyone stared at me with anticipation in their gazes.

“I-i’ll do whatever I can,” I said. I really did want to help as much as I could.

“Good. We need it.”