Darmo slowed himself down with skillfull areobraking maneuvers as he entered Earth's atmosphere. He slowly ascended back up, and then gracefully down again, repeating the process many times so as to avoid burning up in Earth's atmosphere. He was not completely invulnerable, just hard to destroy by conventional means.
On the way down, as he hurtled towards the ground at 200 miles per hour, Darmo absorbed most of the heat energy into his power cells. Although he was atomic powered, he could only use so much of that energy source at one time, and had power cells that ran down and needed recharging. Many things could charge him : Heat, electricity, radiation, etc.
He landed safely in a woods near the town of Lincoln, Illinois, population 17,000. It was more like 10,000, as it was a dead, nowhere town that time had seemed to have forgotten. It was a redneck town with a lot of backwards small town attitudes and prejudices.
There was a large cornfield of about 80 acres just beyond the woods that Darmo had landed in. The corn stalks were dry and getting harvested that very day. Darmo used his long range scanners to observe the man in the harvester as the huge machine he drove took the corn, plants and all, and put it all in a huge bin.
Darmo copied the man's shape and form, and altered the appearance somewhat. He did not want to be mistaken for the man, just be able to pass as human. He did not copy the man's overalls, but rather created a black suit jacket, white shirt, red tie, black dress shoes and black dress pants for himself.
He looked at the fuel gage in the watch he wore on his wrist.
He was down to 11 % of a full charge, but had enough to maintain a human form for a while, until he could find an electrical outlet and about an hour's privacy.
This was assuming he did not have to fly or use any of his built in weaponry.
It was about 8 am, Earth local time in the midwest when Darmo walked out of the cornfield. He walk for about 2 miles. He came to where the town was more heavily populated.
He walked past the town grammar school, where he observed several boys in the yard leading to the building who were about 10 or 11 Earth years of age, confronting a lone boy who was about the same age, only shorter and a lot thinner.
"Give us your lunch money, faggot, and we might not beat you up!" One boy said to him. The boy was a bit overweight, and more than a head taller than the thin boy.
"No!" shouted the thin boy, defiantly. He was afraid of being beaten up by bullies, but even more afraid of his father hearing that he had had his lunch money stolen again. He had been warned not to let it happen again, or he would think that whatever the bullies had done to him was a picnic compared to the beating his father would give him.
"Okay, now we're going to have to do this the hard way!" threatened the larger boy.
He was about to hit the boy when Darmo reached over and stopped him by grabbing his arm.
"Oww, let go of my arm, you're hurting me!"
" That would not be acceptable. Apologize to the boy, and tell him you will not bother him again. The strong should not victimize the weak." Darmo warned him.
"Okay okay! I...apologize! I won't ever bother you again!" the big boy said to the smaller boy, hoping the man would just let go of him.
The boy's would - be buddies just stood there and laughed at him while Darmo released the boy.
" You remember your promise.. I would not want to have to make a habit of this." Darmo glared at the boy as he spoke.
The boys all ran into the school after that, convinced that they had just met the Terminator.
" Thank you." said the thin boy, as he, too, ran frightened into the school.
Darmo made a note to stay out of the affairs of Earth children, as his presence only seemed to frighten them.
"Hold it a minute there, Pally!" said an angry, deep male voice behind Darmo.
It was a burly, large man in his early 30's. Darmo scanned his memory banks and identified the man as a law enforcement officer....a Sheriff.
" I saw what you did there, Mister. You can't just go around picking on little kids. Let's see some Id."
Darmo smiled, concentrated for a second, and produced an Id....It identified him as Agent Darmo, of the FBI.
"Oh, okay, sorry, Mr. Darmo, um, you can go about your business!" The sherrif smiled weakly and handed Darmo back his id.
He read the Sherrif's name tag.
"Have a nice day, Sherrif Tyler."
The sherrif got into his car and drove away, hoping he would not hear about this incident from the Mayor.
Darmo was home free..or, rather, he would have been, had he not spotted a blue convertible 1974 Caprice Classic about to run down a woman who was crossing the busy intersection and not watching traffic, as she was preoccupied.
This was at the block known as the center of town. It was home to the hardware store, bank, post office, a Rite Aid, and a McDonald's. The woman had just exited from the bank.
Darmo quickly changed back into his robotic form, and flew into traffic. He grabbed the woman before the car could run over her, and placed her gently back onto the sidewalk.
The woman was a scientist, and by a fortunate coincidence for Darmo, her field was robotics. She lived in Chicago but was in Lincoln visiting her mother. She reached into her purse and gave Darmo her card with her work, home and cell number on it.
"Quick, fly away! Go change yourself again, and contact me. Quickly!" She told him. The woman was about 5'6", thin and beautiful with blue eyes, long blonde hair, and wearing a white blouse with a light grey medium skirt. She wore a pair of black high heels. She had just turned 29.
Darmo flew upwards towards the sky, in full view of the townspeople and the sherrif, and quickly disappeared from view.
He landed in the woods again, and this time changed his appearance to that of a woman who was 5'4" average build with long black hair, green eyes, and a light green blouse and blue jeans and short black boots. The age looked to be about 30.
Darmo used his own communication circuits to call the woman he had rescued. Her name was Carol.
" May I speak to Carol?" He asked when he heard a woman's voice answer the phone.
" Speaking - who is this?" Carol asked.
"It is I..the one who assisted you at the intersection earlier today."
"Can you meet me at McDonald's in one hour?" She asked Darmo.
" That would be acceptable." Darmo said, as he became aware of his vision blurring. His heroics earlier had used up nearly all the power he had absorbed on re-entry. He needed a recharge, and quickly.
