Chapter Text
Sitting on a shelf was a picture of smiling faces in a frame, but the aura it held wasn’t happy. The room of the two parents had long since been empty, dust lay over everything that was left. The room felt like a time capsule, remembering a moment in the past, a day that never finished. It was filled with grief.
A purple slime had crawled through the air vents, drawn in by the negativity. It slithered across the floor, up the wall, and onto the shelf, finding the one object that held most of that pain. It greedily clung to the picture, surrounding and consuming it. It grew, and grew, knocking over the other items on the shelf and alerting the attention of only occupant of the house. By the time she ran into the room, the window was broken, and the nasty purple sludge had covered the floor.
[Into plays, no I don’t know what it looks like yet. So imagine some cool power rangers anime sort of thing.]
Rin was bored. He was trying to stay focused on the lecture, something about space and the star's life cycle, but his mind couldn’t stay focused, always wondering about other things. It was mostly the personal that kept his attention drawn, like his plans after school or what he’d get for lunch, though the occasional thought popped into his head about how that cute drummer guy was doing. Hopefully good?
All thoughts of cute boys and food were abruptly cut short when a device in his pocket buzzed. To anyone else who might have overheard, it would have sounded like a phone going off, but five particular boys in the room knew exactly what it meant. There was a monster attack somewhere in the city.
Five hands raised up nearly simultaneously, getting the curly haired professors’ attention. He sighed and adjusted his glasses.
“Yes, what is it?”
“Sir, can we go to the nurses office? My head is spinning!” Rin exclaimed.
“All this talk about space is making me motion sick...” Haym complained.
“My legs are all wobbly!” Zimelu shouted.
“I’ve got...space...sickness!” Purl-Hew said while holding his stomach.
“And I’m allergic to space dust!” Eloni tacked onto the end of the train of excuses.
The professor sighed. Had it been any other teacher, their themed excuses likely wouldn’t have worked, but Professor Supernova was an ally of the boys and knew what they were up to, knew of its importance. Still, he did have to keep face.
“Alright, go directly to the nurses’ office, but you will be expected to make up any missed work.”
“Yes sir, thank you, sir!” The five boys said in unison before jumping up and running out of the room. Supernova rolled his eyes before getting back to the lecture.
“Anyhow, let's discuss neutron stars-“
Together the boys ran up to the school roof, quickly pulling out their gadgets. They looked like a standard pocket watch, though a bit bulkier. The insignia in the center of the number 10 wasn’t noticeable until they glowed their respective members' color. Rin looked up at everyone, a glint in his eye.
“Alright, ready boys?” He asks and they all nod. “Alright troops!” He declares, raising their gadgets to the sky. Together they shout, in true anime magical boy fashion-
“1010, Boots to the ground!”
[insert transformation sequence, it’s flashy and cool and the boys all turn into tall robot superheros]
“1010 White!”
“1010 Red!”
“1010 Blue”
“1010 Yellow!”
“1010 Green!”
The robotic heroes posed together, but only for a moment.
“Let's bring the heat!” They yelled and punched the air before launching into the skies with their rocket feet. They weren’t among the clouds long before they got a message on their internal systems, connecting like they were using a radio.
“Commander, what’s the report?” 1010 White asked, knowing who was on the other end of the line.
“Alright troops, a ghoul-like monster was spotted in the downtown Metro District. Looks to be an item class. Take it out before it causes any more damage!” Neon barked and pulled up the map, quickly sending directions to the boys.
“Sir, yes sir!” The boys shouted in unison over the wind as the call ended and they blasted away to the section.
It wasn’t long before they spotted the beast, I mean, it wasn’t exactly hard to miss. It had the shape of an almost cartoonish ghoul, but it had the distinct features of a monster corrupted by that strange purple slime, it’s form slightly drippy. The few bright colors that were present were melting like an oil leak.
“Egh, this guy is goopier than usual...” 1010 Blue observed the sludge while adjusting his shades.
“It’s another grief related one right? Hope it didn’t spawn from an urn again.” 1010 Yellow commented, causing 1010 Blue to cringe.
“Don’t...remind me.”
1010 Red pinched a fist into his hand. “Well whatever it is, let’s kick it’s slimy butt!”
“Um...do you think maybe this time we could try to talk it down?” 1010 Green sheepishly offered. White looked at him and shook his head.
“I hear you, Green, but object monsters can’t be talked down. I mean, it can’t exactly hear us without ears. Besides, this one doesn’t seem too sentient!” White wiggled his fingers around his head at the ears comment, trying to reassure Green a little.
Green nodded, now only looking slightly disappointed. Together the boys descended down to the pavement, though ducking behind fallen debris and sliding into alleys, making sure to stay just out of the monster's sight for now.
“Okay, we need to think of a plan-” White was cut off with Red’s battle cry as he charged right into the monster to punch it. Cue facepalm.
“RED, WE CAN’T JUST-”
“SHIT!” Red screamed as he was slapped away and into a wall with a crack that might just be his body. Blue sighed and adjusted his shades.
“Dammit Red-” He reached for a compartment on his back and pulled out a blue colored stick, quickly extending into a full sized staff. “So much for a sneak attack. I’ll draw its attention.The rest of you- try and locate the core!” The remaining boys nodded as 1010 Blue dashed forward into the monsters range. With a few quick swings of his staff, gusts of wind were shot at the monster, causing some of its form to get pulled off. As it turned its attention to the blue robot, more goop melted over the missing spots. 1010 Blue gave a quick ‘come at me’ motion with his free hand and the monster growled, easily keeping all its attention on the robot.
White, Yellow, and Green moved to be out of its line of sight.
“What’s the plan? Can I blow it up?” Yellow asked while grinning eagerly. White looked around, tall buildings, potential civilians trapped, too much wreckage.
“No, no, not yet, there’s too many people around we’d cause more harm than good. But blowing it up could work if we had a smaller, more controlled blast...” White looked over to Green who nodded in understanding.
“I’ll get some mines planted. Yellow can you evacuate anyone nearby?... also maybe check on Red and get him to help, that crack did not sound good. ” Green asked as Yellow gave a salute and blasted off to do just that.
White looked to Green and pulled out a sword that was stashed in his arm.
“I’ll keep it off you while you get to work. Signal when you’ve got everything planted!” and with Green’s sharp salute, White blasted towards the ghoulish slime.
Blue was already doing a good job keeping its attention, but after a lucky hit from the slime, Blue was stuck in place. White screamed out a battle cry and slashed it from behind.
“TAKE THAT, YOU DISCOLORED PILE OF KETCHUP-”
The creature let out a wail, because of either that sick burn or the slicing, probably both, before turning and giving what looked like a glare to White.
Blue tugged his leg out of the sludge that trapped him and zipped over to Whites side.
“I’m assuming you have a plan?”
“Yeah, yeah, follow my lead!” And with a nod to each other, the two robots continued to draw the monster's attention.
Red had finally pulled himself out of the hole in the wall he was slammed into, just in time for Yellow to land next to him.
“Hey man, you good?”
Red gave a thumbs up, so it’s safe to assume nothing got broken!
“Great! We need to evacuate any remaining civilians, you take the left, I’ll take right.”
“Got it.” Red nodded and they both flew off to do just that. Luckily, most people had already run off so the few that remained were civilians stuck under rubble or trapped with no exit. 1010 Red and 1010 Yellow did their part to make sure the area was clear, and once Red was sure everyone was safely out of the area he looked to Yellow.
“All clear!” Yellow gave two thumbs up and looked over to Green.
“You’re all clean, Green!”
1010 Green, when given the signal, nodded in confirmation and put his hands over a compartment on his legs little discs with a green LED on the top popped out. He held them between each of his fingers before tossing them about. They covered the pavement and made a soft beep, signaling they were active. Thanks or maybe not thanks to their dark grey color, it was difficult to spot them on the dark pavement.
“The floor is hot!” Green flew up and signalled to White. The other two took to the skies as well, not wanting to be on the ground when the things went off.
White had rolled out of the way of a strike when the signal came though, he grinned and nodded to Blue before flying back.
“Hey slime breath! Betcha can’t catch me!” White taunted, sticking out his tongue and promptly screamed a little as the sludge roared and charged at him and Blue, scrambling to the side at the last possible second. The monster was unable to stop its momentum, slipping and sliding right into Green’s minefield. What followed were several small explosions that gave off a green colored smoke, loudly drowning out any cry of pain the beast made.
When the smoke cleared, the slime had been almost completely blasted away, leaving only a small bubble that was trying desperately to secrete more of the goo, no doubt to protect itself. It had a marble-like finish that constantly moved. It was the core.
White quickly uncovered his ears and snatched it, calling out to Red
“Red!” He pulled his arm back and threw the orb at him. “Batter up!”
1010 Red smiled, finally getting to wreck something, and whipped out a buzzsaw from his arm, easily slicing the bubble in half when it collided with the weapon.
There was a quiet sound of shattering glass.
The leftover goop of the monster started to evaporate as the members landed, Green stepping up to the remains. He leaned down and picked up what had inside the bubble, scanning it quickly.
It was a broken picture of a family, two fathers and their daughter.
But thanks to Red’s attack, the frame was sliced into two and the picture ripped. Green sighed, guilt starting to bubble up.
“I really wish we didn’t have to break these in order to defeat the monsters...”
Blue put a comforting hand on the green robot’s shoulder, looking away awkwardly. “I’m sure we’ll figure out how later. But for now this...is what we have.”
There was the sound of panicked footsteps off to the side and the boys up from the unfortunate wreckage, a girl. The girl from the photo, no doubt, but all grown up.
“Ah! E-excuse me! That’s mine. That’s my- oh...” She came to a stop when she saw it broken in half, face falling. Green smiled at her apologetically as she slowly took it from his hands.
“I’m very sorry miss, it was the only way to...“
The woman sighed. “It’s...alright, I understand.” She held the two pictures together, looking at the smiling faces. “I-I miss them... but maybe this is a sign I should move on...they wouldn’t be happy with me hanging on so tightly to the past.” She looked over at the battle damaged streets. “And considering it spawned a monster...” She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment before looking up and smiling at the robotic heroes.
“Thank you, 1010.”
The robots gave either a kind smile, an enthusiastic wave, or in Yellow’s case, finger guns as a response. White glanced away at the sounds of vehicles approaching, likely the damage response team showing up, which meant they had to go.
“Well, stay safe, ma’am. A damage response team is coming soon, talk to them about what happened and I’m sure you won’t get into any trouble. And...on behalf of all of us…”
He set a gentle hand on her shoulder, crouching slightly to meet her level.
“We’re...sorry, for your loss. It’s not easy to lose people that close to you. But that just means you’re strong, stronger than you know, for getting through it.”
He straightened up, and realized just how close those cars were, quickly offering her a salute and spinning around.
“1010, let’s head back to base!” And with a sound of affirmation from the team, they all all blasted to the skies.
The girl held her torn photo and genuinely smiled.
Back at the school, the de-transformed boys were sitting at a lunch table. There were a few other students talking about what happened, various conversations about the 1010 heroes defeating a monster!
It took a lot not to look proud in public. The boys were chatting about nothing in particular when two familiar faces approached, well more like one ran over and slammed her hands on the table with enough enthusiasm to dent it.
“Hey-HEY HEY, did you guys hear? 1010 defeated another monster in Metro today! Man I wish I could have seen it! I heard Green used some minefield move, that sounds so cool!!”
It was Mayday, their energetic classmate, exclaimed while bouncing in place, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Zuke strode up next to her, giving the group a small wave which Rin eagerly returned.
“I don’t know May, I think we’re lucky the monster didn’t attack anywhere near the school. It’s less dangerous then…”
“Yeah, I know, but I think it would have been worth it if only to catch a glimpse of them!” Mayday squealed with excitement, and Zuke merely rolled his eyes with a smile, shaking his head at his friend's antics.
“She’s been like this since she heard the news.”
“I mean she’s right though, they are pretty cool-” Haym grinned, nearly avoiding a shove in the arm from Zimelu.
Rin spoke up to cover them- “Well uh, anyway, uh...what are you two up to?”
Mayday, without missing a beat,quickly answered, almost stumbling over her words.
“Oh!! We’re going to practice for a bit! There’s this indie festival coming up and I really want Zuke and I to play there, so we need to be REALLY good!”
“That sounds fun...” Eloni smiled, finding Mayday’s shouting less annoying and more endearing. Zuke had a small smile on his face as he nodded to confirm, deciding then spoke up.
“We need to practice playing for an audience though, you guys wanna watch?” Each boy agreed in their own ways, a nod, or an enthused clap, though Rin’s choice was smacking himself in order to not blush at the offer.
“I-er-YEAH!?”
Soon enough, the group of hooligan teenagers were heading off to the band room, talking and laughing together.
It was a good day today.
[fade to black, and credits roll]
“Next time on 1010 heros: we’ve seen the team, we’ve seen them work together. But how did we get here? And how did they form? Well before 1010 it was just neon j, and that man isn’t one to give up a fight. But what will he do when he can no longer fight alone? Tune in next time to find out on. 1010 heros!”