She stared up at the colossus, it's dark metal almost translucent in the poring rain, while thunder crashed around them. Inky silhouettes of the surrounding woods danced and jerked about her periphery, flashes of lightening flickering like wild fireflies between them to cast eerie shutters of chaos and horror. But she was unafraid. Here, standing sentry in an abandoned farm field was their salvation. She had heard the stories, from her parents, her school friends, even her teachers, of the mysterious mechanical giants who had once--long ago--faced the hoard and saved humanity. They had not fallen from the sky, nor had risen from the ground below. No, they had assembled themselves, one by one, unseen in abandoned warehouses--spontaneous creation in the absence of a creator--she had once heard it described. No one knew why. The magnificent creatures of circuitry and mechanical engineering never spoke--at least not to them. It was said they did