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The Hardyman
by Susannah Breslin
2007
By the time darkness had fallen on his eleventh birthday, Jack Xavier Jingle Jr. was in bed and falling asleep. At his side lay two new Transformer toys, Optimus Prime and Megatron. Since zeroing in on the gift-wrapped boxes earlier in the day and tearing them open with a joy that had made his father suck scornfully in on his teeth, Jack had devoted all of his energies to engaging the Leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime, and the Ruler of the Decepticons, Megatron, in a bloody civil war battle that had raged violently across every one of the family home's wall-to-wall carpeted rooms. Jack's mother had sat anxiously above him in her armchair, praying for his salvation. Now, Jack was finally surrendering himself to sleep.
As the first of his dreams began unfolding itself inside his drifting mind, Jack found he was trekking through a metallic landscape. Instantly, he knew this was Cybertron, where Transformers had first spawned, a place where future progress had dictated green mountains be supplanted with graying skyscrapers and flowing rivers be replaced by concrete highways. The rival Autobot and Decepticon factions had begun their never-ending intergalactic battle for robot supremacy here--that is, before bringing their struggle to Earth. Immediately, Jack knew his mission was to save Planet Earth--and himself--from becoming mere collateral damage in this war of the machines.
Yet Jack could feel doubt, like a shadow, creeping up alongside him. After all, there was no way he alone could bring an end to such a stellar struggle. He would fail to negotiate a strategic peace capable of preventing his world's destruction. His body wo