Keep Holding On

Chapter 1: Remember
Maria was in the modern-day The Docks, Florida.

It was alot different, it was still the same neighborhood she grew up in, with the predominant white population, but with more non-white moving in.

She knocked on the door and a five-year old Japanese boy opened the door.

Akira looked at her, the girl, who was at least eight, she wore what appeared to be an army uniform with the familiar faction logos of The Transformers on her shoulder and breast pocket, she wore a skirt and saw shorts underneath.

”Is your dad home?” She asked.

”Yes, Daddy!” He replied then called out.

Joseph Wintergreen, now thirty eight, saw the permanently eight year old girl.

Other than the uniform, she still looked the exact same as the lonely little girl he befriended.

”ただいま (I’m home)” She said in that familiar language she spoke.

Joseph felt like he was going to cry, he saw his deceased friend right in front of him.

She stepped inside, she then brought out a familiar thing, her Thundercracker and Prowl figures,

”Here they are.” She said.

Maria sat on the couch.

”Um, I have G1 on DVD, wanna watch that?” He asked.

She nodded.

”Maria, I have been wondering, why did you never cry at death scenes?” He asked.

”I cried at the Toys That Made Us: Transformers, but the reason was because Transformers was about war, people die in war.” She said.

Maria gazed at the Dragon Ball manga and the Dragon Ball Z manga books. She remembered her dear Uncle Yuu introduced her to the manga series, Dragon Ball with the Japanese version of the manga he bought for her. He also bought her the first three volumes of Dragon Ball Z. Sadly, she died before the Japanese version of Dragon Ball Z Saiyan Saga even finished.

A 4-year-old Canadian girl, a 3-year-old Italian boy, a 2-year-old boy from Hong Hong, a pair of 4-year-old Chinese girls, and a pair of 2-year-old South Korean girls came into their room to join their Japanese brother.

"By the way, Joseph," Maria smiled. "Do you still have that Megatron action figure?"

”Yeah, but, never opened it, too much.” He said.

”Fair enough.” She said.

”I couldn’t bare to open it, it reminded me too much.” Joseph said.

He put a disc in.

Akira sat next to Maria.

”Transformers was my favorite thing growing up, It was better than My Little Pony.” She said.

One thing that was noticed is that Maria was gentle with her figures, She didn’t throw them.

”I get free Transformers on my shrine, including G1 reissues and series they think I would have liked, The 2015 Robots in Disguise series, was a little bit too kiddy for my liking, but, I did love Animated, Armada, Prime and err.......Cyberverse, I’ve been watching that on TV with my uncle Seo and aunt Saoirse, I also get Transformers comics too, I like it when Transformers is geared towards older children.” She said.

”Season 1-2 or Season 3-4?” He asked.

”Seasons 1-2.” She said.

”Great choice.” Joseph said as he played an episode.

”Some idiotic fans put porno on my shrine, your sister told them to stop.” Maria said.

”Yeah, I heard, she now lives at the same house you stayed at, She even didn’t allow people to exhume your 5x great grandfather and his son from the family plot due to the controversy.” Joseph said.

”Yeah, My mom still likes JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, You know that series that you thought was never going to see the light of day?” Maria asked.

”Yeah, I remember that.” Joseph said.

”It’s now available in America and the new anime adaptation is one of the best anime of all time, They now released Golden Wind.” She said.