Author Notes: This is my first piece of writing. I don't know much about the Transformers universe, so I decided to start a story of original characters. I have another story I'm starting and it's about OCs and more known characters (like Optimus and Ratchet and all them). Another note on uploading is I might not upload for a few weeks. No there's nothing going on right now, I just suck at keeping myself interested in things.
I know that the title is the name of an awesome Linkin Park song, and no offense to LP, but this wasn't something I planned beforehand. It's not a songfic, whatever that is. I just like the title. It seems to fit my characters.
Okay, please read and review this story. If this looks familiar, it's because I previously put this up a few days ago, but I wasn't pleased with it, so I redid it. Please, please, please... I want critiques on my grammar and writing style, as well as the normal reviews everyone writes. I just really want to know if I should try my hand at this or give up in a fiery downfall of disgrace.
I don't own Transformers. I just own my characters. And I'm the mayor of the imaginary city of Hale, NV.
Transformers No Roads Left
Awakening
Above Hale, Nevada was what could only be described as the stars falling from the heavens. Three meteors were hurtling towards Earth at an incredible speed. The horizon grew darker as the fiery projectiles flew at an angle. They lit up the small city as they headed for the hills outside of town. The closer the meteors came to crashing, the brighter they became. You almost couldn't look at them without suffering from their awesome might. The objects fell through patches of clouds and night, the billows of grey wreathing the meteors momentarily before they shot out of the veil and rocketed ever closer to the Earth.
Finally the three rushing objects plunged into the dry desert ground, forming large trails that ended with deep, smoking craters. Dirt clouds rose from the impacts, choking the area with dust, making it impossible to breathe easily. Cascading embers rained down on the surrounding plants, the air so dry that they caught fire quickly. A desert tree went up in flames and a few bushes caught and quickly became a pile of cinders. After a few minutes passed, the wind blew away the majority of the flames from one meteor to reveal a hulking mass climbing out of the crater with a limp. It shook itself and peered around. Its twin blue optics flashed as it looked at what happened.
When the glow from the full moon shone upon the body, you could see the shape was humanoid in appearance, but it reflected light as if it was metallic, and you could hear the stamp, drag, click of its injured legs as it fled for cover. It shuffled passed what used to be a running muscle car, but now the hood sits open with an empty engines housing and its frame is up on cinder blocks. The being climbed over the hillside, leaving rivulets of pebbles and chunks of rock crumbling down to the flat ground, and it slid down the embankment on the other side, out of view of the dark city. Not that anyone was awake to see it at 2:30 A.M.
At the site of another crash, a being rose out of the crater and glanced at its surroundings with a trio of crimson optics, burning the night like pits of fire in a cave. The trees that had caught on fire were now just skeletal remains. The ground was cracked from the dry air pulling the moisture out, and the trail from the thing's shell formed a small hollow where rain water would pool soon enough. It climbed out of the hole with a sickening metallic screech as its foot claw stabbed into a dusty, faded green pickup truck. It ripped the vehicle off its appendage, tossing the truck a little ways until it crashed, landing on its fuel tank. As the vehicle blew up with an explosion, it stepped toward the hills wincing with chagrin.
Before it could leave though, the last meteor began stirring. The other being rose then, and it made a mechanical grinding, almost like a cough as it sucked in a large amount of dust from the craters, as well as smoke from the truck fire. After its coughing subsided, it turned toward the city, glancing at what they had crashed next to, and, changing its hand into some kind of flickering red weapon, started for the buildings. Ruthlessness was shining in the deep ruby, twin optics as they focused on the first target. The other form, anticipating the actions of the bigger being, grabbed the shoulder of the creature and pulled it away.
After a few seconds of its own pulling the other way, and a few clicks and whirs that sounded a lot like computers talking to each other, it began trudging off on it's own, muttering as it followed the smaller being. They soon disappeared behind the hills to hide from the natural inhabitants, and as they climbed, debris and stones tumbled down the hillside. As smaller rocks and stones puddled at the bottom of the hills, the larger rocks caught the lips of the impact trails and rolled slowly down the engraved dirt path. Stopping in the craters formed by the meteors, it would look like the craters were formed by a landslide. No one was awake though, as it was still some time before 3 A.M., so people had nothing to worry about.
Yet...
The white curtain was pulled to the side and tied to the hook by a string, revealing a short, thin blonde girl, her head tilted up to face the rays of light that shone on her face, lighting up her slight smile. The girl stared at the window with an unwavering gaze, probably burning her retinas in the process, trying to determine the best method to get the grey, plaster like splotches off their window. She finally decided on using multiple window cleaners, a paint scraper, and an industrial strength solvent, as well as calling the fire department and using their fire hose to blast the dried toilet paper and egg yolks from last Halloween away.
She turned around and, with a wide smile on her face, grabbed the pink spray bottle they use to water the potted flowers on the balcony, and proceeded to walk over to the couch. As her feet crossed the pale grey carpet that probably had more stains than clean floor left, she stood next to the faded pink couch with the bundle of sheets on top, vaguely resembling a human shape. The spray bottle poised directly over the part of the lump lying on a pillow, she giggled slightly as she remembered how angry this made the lump. "Don't you dare Olivia." A tired, feminine voice warned, as the owner of the voice pulled the sheets down over her face, her shoulder length, straight, blonde hair framing her cheeks. "Well I wouldn't have to if you woke up on time like a normal human." Olivia said, putting the spray bottle down and, walking over to the small coffee table in front of the couch, she grabbed the plate sitting on top, a half eaten sandwich and a few carrot sticks still making a valiant, but futile attempt to not get noticed.
"Honestly, do you know how gross you are?" She said as she carried the plate to the sink and, opening the cabinet under the sink, threw the food in the garbage. Placing the plate in the sink, she pattered back into the living room and sat down on the edge of the coffee table. "What time is it?" The girl still on the couch asked, although now she was sitting right side up with the sheets pulled up to her neck. "What? No 'good morning' or 'how do you do?' Just straight to 'what time is it?'" Olivia stated, imitating the other girl's tired voice. "I mean we used to quote movie lines that fit our mood. And we used to stay up for hours and talk about boys, movies, boys, music, and did I forget to mention boys? Yeah, no. Now I can't get a stupid 'good morning'. Honestly Hannah, if you weren't my best friend, I don't see how I could put up with you." The short blonde girl said in a breathless rush, and taking a long, shuddering breath, she settled down with a grin on her lips.
"Okay. Good morning Olivia. What time is it?" Hannah asked, her face slipping on a mask of cheerfulness before she resumed her natural bored, tired face. "See. That wasn't so hard was it? You should've just started with that, and then you wouldn't have wasted a minute. Have you heard you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar? I have, but I don't know why you would want to catch flies. They're disgusting, and they're bugs for fuc-" Olivia spouted, but then Hannah interrupted her ramblings. "Have you seen my favorite purple T-shirt?" She asked, not feeling really comfortable sitting in front of her best friend, in only her underwear. "Oh, uh, I think I used it to get a date. It's probably in my room, don't move." Olivia answered, before she got up and sped to her room. "No! I thought I would prance around and sing 'YMCA'." Hannah yelled, blushing at the thought of her actually doing that.
Olivia was already dressed in her professional, white; button up, long sleeve shirt and her black capri pants that exposed her shins and the small white socks and white sneakers. This was her usual job attire, along with the apron that said 'Hot Cuts'. It was a beauty salon that gave pretty good service. Olivia worked there in the day and looked online the rest of the day to find a night job. While Olivia was gone, Hannah leaned forward, making sure to keep the sheets wrapped around her body, and grabbed the small, silver, and diamond shaped earrings off the edge of the coffee table, avoiding the splintered edge where the two girls bumped the table against the stairwell when they were bringing it up. Putting the jewelry in her earlobes, Olivia came back in the living room. Empty handed.
"Where is my shirt? Who took it? Whoever it was, they will pay." Hannah said fury in her voice as she tried staring into the wall hard enough to melt new holes next to the ones caused from previous tenant's fists. "I'm sorry." Olivia blurted out, actually too terrified to speak more than two words. "What did you do? Where's my shirt?" Hannah asked, repeating the question while trying to make her friend spontaneously combust. "I-I spilt cola on it and I threw it in the hamper. The good news is it's at the dry cleaners as we speak, the bad news is we have no more cola left." Olivia apologized, her voice rising and her hands flying in front of her face.
"What are you doing?" Hannah asked, her voice filled with amusement and a little anger. "I'm protecting myself from the awesome fury you obviously can't control." Olivia said, smiling and dropping her hands back down when she noticed Hannah wasn't moving. "Well, seeing as I'm in my underwear, I don't plan on dishing out 'awesome fury' anytime soon, until I get clothes on." She said, a little angrily. "Can you get me a bra and a tank top please?" Hannah asked, as she leaned forward and reached for her blue jeans. She watched Olivia walk to the door to the apartment coat closet, but because her staying there, they call it Hannah's closet.
"Okay. What do I have to do today?" Hannah said, pulling the jeans up her legs. "I have to get to the yard. Then get back here and get ready for real work and then leave. When I get back I'll head to that dry cleaner on the way and grab our stuff." She started listing things, her fingers popping up to count them off. "Wait! There was something else I had to do." She said, sitting up to pull the jeans tight, her sheet still wrapped around her torso, and grabbed her blue brush off the floor. Pulling the brush through her blonde, shoulder length hair, she couldn't remember what else she had to do.
"What do I have to do today?" Hannah screamed, tilting her face up towards the ceiling. "I don't know, but I didn't know you were religious. Maybe you joined in your sleep? Whatever it is, I don't think He answers you unless you've been His for like, a year or something." Olivia said, giggling slightly while she walked over with a White bra and a white tank top in her hands, as well as a black purse and a red drawstring backpack slung over her shoulder. "I'm not religious, I just can't think of my errands today. Whatever, I'll think of it later and do it then." Hannah said, pulling the clothes over her head and onto her back.
As Hannah finished getting dressed, Olivia went to the window again. Looking out at the apartment parking lot, she watched as a short, bald man walked in a small circle, glancing at bits of glass scattered on the ground. He kept muttering as he ran around and then he would stop and look to the spot again. With anger in his eyes and incredulousness in his voice, he would yell at the spot of glass over and over, saying "I left it right here! I left it right here!" It got to be so bad that people started coming over when they left for work, just to see what was up. He would turn on them with venom in his eyes and hate in his voice and accuse them of stealing it. They would say otherwise and nervously tell him it was fine, that it was probably insured, but he would just yell at them even more.
"Hey Hannah come here, Mr. Kenny's car got broken into and stolen." Olivia said, her grin wiping away any sincerity she might have felt for the man. Hannah got up and joined her best friend at the window. They laughed as they watched the grown man throwing a temper tantrum as if he was three years old and he wanted to go to the carnival. He kept yelling and screaming "It was right here!", while he glared at the people that were slowly backing up, like that would bring it back. Olivia dropped her purse and Hannah's backpack on the floor and walked over to the counter and grabbed her strawberry pop tart that she had heated up ten minutes ago. Breaking it in half, she handed the other piece to Hannah, and they began eating.
"Thanks. I really should wake up earlier huh?" Hannah said, knowing she always relied on her best friend and roommate to do what she herself should do to get ready. "Yeah, definitely! I can't be here forever to wake you up. I might grow old and move to Florida." Olivia said, making both girls laugh and almost choke on the food. "Yeah, no. I'll get it together by then, I promise." Hannah said, taking another bite and giggling as she watched Mr. Kenny hop up and down in front of a heavy set red haired woman. "I wonder who did it." She said as she stared at the twinkling bits of glass on the ground down below. "Probably some drug addicted pathetic man. Why are you asking anyway?" Olivia asked, glancing at her friend's face. "No reason, it's just interesting I guess. I thought he might be hot!" She replied, laughing at her friend's face scrunched up in disgust. Hannah was actually asking because she had her own secrets that would probably line up perfectly with the thief's life.
Ever since Hannah's mom left Hale, Nevada and Hannah's life for some guy, Hannah had to drop out of school to look for a job to pay the house payments. When she realized she couldn't pay it off even with the job she got, she sold the house for next to nothing to the bank and moved in with Olivia. After Olivia graduated at 18, she moved here and it's where she's been for almost a year. With Olivia's parents paying the low rent every other month, Olivia and Hannah can afford food and utilities with their paychecks. Olivia works at 'Hot Cuts' fulltime and Hannah works at a 24 hour video rental store fulltime. The older couple who own and run the store can't operate the automated DVD box that lets you rent for only one night, so Hannah has to operate that for them, along with normal work duties like restocking and sweeping. They pay her a generous wage because they care deeply about a 16 year old whose mother skipped out and left her to fend for herself.
It's Hannah's other 'job' that she hates, but needs to do it for her friends. It's not a real job, but she works at a chop shop, where she helps steal cars off the street and brings them in to find out whether they can sell it or chop it up for parts. She joined so she could help her friend and keep him safe, but now if she quits and walks away, the boss will find her and make her come back, or worse. So she heads over to the auto junkyard everyday and works there for a while until it's time to come home and change to get to the video store. After that she only gets about seven hours of sleep before it all starts over.
Now at 8:40 A.M., she had to start heading there to meet up with Jerome on the way. "Olivia, hurry up. We need to leave now." Hannah yelled at her best friend, even though they were two feet from each other. "Ow! Why? I thought we were friends and you come and blow apart my ear drums like you need to break the sound barrier. Just, why?" Olivia asked, her bottom lip jutting out and quivering before she screwed up her face in recognition as she saw the white clock on the wall. "Oh you're right. Come on. You should've said something earlier." Olivia remarked turning and walking to the fridge. "We just had breakfast you moron." Hannah said, her eyes peeking past her knee as she bent over to tie the black and white tennis shoes she had pulled on.
"I know that, but you get to come back home in five hours. I have to stay at the salon for 9 hours to make up for missing an hour on Monday. Remember I had the doctors' appointment for that thing." Olivia said, holding her hand up to her mouth as she tried to whisper, but it just came out a little less loud. That thing was just a beauty mark on the left side of her neck and it wasn't even dangerous. "I need to grab some food for lunch and then we can go. Can you grab my MP3 player and my work pins please?" She said as she bent at the knees and somehow fit her small frame completely in front of the fridge.
Hannah walked over to the small, light colored table by the T.V. and opened a drawer to reveal an assortment of clothes pins with a circle of metal that said inspirational things on them. She grabbed a few and closed the drawer back up, and grabbed the black MP3 sitting on the corner. Walking over, Hannah noticed the red light on the answering machine was blinking and she started walking over to play the message, but then she noticed the digital time readout on the little window of the machine. "Hurry up Olivia. It's 8:43 already! I'll be so late that Anthony will fire me." She begged her face pleading as she stared at her friend.
"I thought you said this was for lunch? You have a piece of lettuce in your mouth." She said, her voice accusing and speculating. "I'm just making a sandwich and I didn't need a whole hear of lettuce now did I? Plus I like the taste. It really wakes me up and invigorates me." Olivia said, dropping the lettuce on a paper plate on the counter, along with everything else she grabbed from the fridge. She unwound the bread bag and pulled two slices out, and wrapping the tie around it again, she laid it next to the other items. "Besides, your boss won't care if you're five minutes late. He hardly pays you enough anyway. You could probably walk out ten minutes later and he'll still expect you to come in the next day. I mean if I had a boss that lenient, I wouldn't hesitate to go to the movies, or go find myself a nice boy to hang out with." Olivia said, not noticing the grimace on Hannah's face as they discussed her 'boss'.
As Hannah stared at the assorted sandwich makings, her mind still echoing with the words from her friend, she was forced to think about her other 'job'. Olivia had no idea that Hannah worked at a chop shop, just that she does something at the junkyard. Ever since Hannah first moved in to her best friend's apartment, she has put herself on thin ice. She won't let Olivia find out what Hannah does at the yard for three reasons. One was because it would ruin their friendship and mess everything up. The second reason for not telling her friend was because Hannah had gotten arrested for grand theft auto a while back, right after she started working for Anthony Hughes.
She had just picked a nice Mercedes Benz and started driving to the yard with it, when the red and blue roof lights of a police issue Dodge Charger lit up behind her. She was taken downtown and put in the jail. She was there for three days until Jerome came by with the bail money and fake guardianship forms since she was only 16 years old. She was still on parole though, so she had to be careful. The last reason to not tell Olivia was because she has no where else to go and she's afraid of ruining that. "Yeah, no. He would probably forget me for the day and I could go to the salon and hang with you." She said, glancing at Olivia and silently praying that Olivia was too absorbed in making the sandwich that she wouldn't notice the long pause. When she looked back down, Olivia was just putting the top piece of bread on the sandwich.
"Okay, here. Put this stuff away while I use the bathroom. Oh give me my MP3 and pins." Olivia said, stuffing the sandwich into a Ziploc sandwich bag. Hannah handed the things to the shorter girl and turned to start putting food away. She noticed that when she put the food away, there was a half eaten plum in a sandwich bag. There was also a banana, a can of grape soda, and a few slices of pepperoni pizza from last nights leftovers. They only had the rest of this food and the few cans in the cupboard until next week when they both got paid. They could make this last, right?
She put everything away and made a mental note to write a list next time. Whenever they go to the store, they end up not getting necessities, like milk for cereal and butter for toast, but they just grab cereal and cola. She closed the door and glanced at the sink, full of plates and bowls. She wrote a reminder to wash those when she got home from the yard, and then she stuck it to the door of the cupboard for next time she went to grab a bowl. She checked her self in the mirror above the sink and noticed the bags under her eyes, not really too dark yet, but she knew she should get some things settled soon.
Hannah never thought of herself as overly pretty, but she knew that some guys liked her and would stare at her, what with her cute button nose and her blue eyes. She has shoulder length, straight blonde hair and her skin is lighter than most girls around, even though she's lived in Nevada for almost ten years. She weighs about average for a 16 year old girl with a height of 5 and half feet. She has a slightly muscular body that helped her out when she was on the track team. She never thought of herself as the most beautiful girl though. Yeah, no. Olivia has her beat in that department. The girl was walking clothes commercial. She always knew just what to wear and she never seemed clumsy like Hannah was sometimes.
Noticing Olivia leaving the bathroom, Hannah took in the features that made guys drool over her and trip over their own feet when she was around. She had long, wavy blonde hair and the beautiful tan skin to help her blend into the crowd here. She didn't especially have any muscle, but she was a short, thin 18 year old girl that measured just north of 5 feet and weighed a little less than average. She often didn't notice that guys would fawn over her, but when she did, she made sure they worked for it. She could probably make a guy pay for water from a water fountain if she wanted to. Hannah never told Olivia that she was a little insecure about her own body compared to Olivia's, but she has never really wanted to. And now with things in Hannah's life going nowhere quickly, she didn't need more pity from her best friend just because she didn't think she could measure up.
Hannah knew Olivia would never make her feel that way on purpose, but sometimes she just felt that way and she couldn't shake it for a while. It was almost like she knew that things weren't going right, but everyone was saying it would, even though she knew otherwise. Seeing Hannah staring at her, Olivia asked her "What? Do I have too much makeup on or what?" "No, I was just thinking about things." Hannah said, shaking her head and she read the pins that Olivia had pinned to her apron. One said 'What's goin' on?' The other ones were just as random, but one did actually have to do with her job. 'I'm hair for you!' it said, and Hannah giggled at it. "Yeah it's pretty funny." Olivia said as she walked over and grabbed her purse and Hannah's bag. "You can start downstairs while I get my wallet and keys." Olivia said, tossing the red drawstring bag to Hannah. "Okay." Hannah said, turning and leaving the apartment.
Olivia put the MP3 headphones in her ears and turned on a loud pop song and went to her room. Suddenly the phone started ringing and Olivia came into the living room and went to the side table. She was singing the chorus to the song as she reached her hand out to the bowl of peppermints and plucked one and put it in her mouth. She was completely deaf to the world as the phone kept ringing. Finally the answering machine played the message as Olivia opened the front door and left, closing it behind her.
"Hey, you've reached Hannah Parker and... hey, you want to come do this Olivia?" Hannah's recorded voice asked. "No, I think you're doing great. Now just take it from the last line and wait for the academy award to come in the mail." Olivia's recorded voice said and then she laughed. "Uh-huh, yeah, and Olivia Terrence. Just do what you do. Bye." The machine played and then the low tone buzzed. "Hi miss Hannah Parker. This is Officer Mark Louis. I just wanted to remind you to come to the station to confirm you're still in the city and that you're not violating parole. We need you to get here before 5 o'clock tonight or else you will officially be violating the law. This is the third time we have had to reschedule, so we can't hold off this meeting anymore. Bye, and have a pleasant day." The officer said with a stern, but kind tone, and with a final beep, the machine shut off.
Lying on the floor hooked to the wall was Hannah's silver flip phone. The cell phone suddenly vibrated on its silent setting and the little screen read HPD and a picture of a doughnut lit up the display. One minute later, the phone stopped shaking and the light slowly faded until it was just a dot of radiance in the tiny apartment corner. Finally it blinked out of existence with a flicker that, if you didn't know any better, looked like a blue eye burning closed for the last time. And sometimes, when you least expect it, there's more than meets the eye.
Author Notes: I hope I hear from many of you and I hope you guys enjoyed this. Actual Transformers will show up in the next chapter, but not with humans. I want to show my character's personalities, as well as their own problems, before I freak them out with Cybertronians.
I hope you guys review. It's really important to know if this is worth any praise.
Alright, now I have to start on the next chapter, but it won't be up for at least a week.
Bye, Simple Confusion, Simple, or just Con.