Disclaimer: I do not own anything Transformer related nor am I making any profit from this story. Any original characters and/or settings belong to me and permission is needed from me before using any OC's/plot that I am currently writing as I have worked hard on the creation of this tale. Any similarities to other works of fan fiction are purely unintentional.

Pairings: MB/R (Mikaela/ Ratchet), SW/BB (Sam/Bumblebee), MM/SS (Maggie/Sunstreaker), OC/Barricade and possibly others.

Warning: Disturbing content in this story. You have been warned.

Trials of Hell

Chapter One

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"Huh? Wassit?" A muffled voice sounded from underneath a pile of bedcovers.

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Clumsily, an arm stretched out and groped for the source of the racket.

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"'Ello?"

"Sammy? Is that you?" A clear voice rang out from the phone causing the young man to wince at the volume.

"Who is this?" The young man yawned widely as he managed to wrestle himself to a sitting position blinking his eyes blearily. He glanced over at his alarm clock and noticed the glaring red numbers that marked the time as 7:15PM.

Wow. His nap lasted longer than he expected. He had a nagging feeling that he was late for something but couldn't quite figure out what it was in his befuddled state.

"Oh, you know, just the person you were supposed to pick up from the airport an hour ago!"

"Frag it!!" The eighteen year old teen spat as he attempted to leap out of bed only to have his covers tangle around his legs causing him to fall to the floor heavily.

"What? I didn't catch that Sam. It sounded like you just stubbed your toe or something. Are you okay?"

Now that he was fully awake he recognized the lilting accent in his cousin's voice.

Ahhh…Fuck! Mom was going to KILL him!

"Oh god! I am so sorry Ace!! I fell asleep and my nap lasted a bit longer than I had planned." He babbled as he untangled himself from his sheets and frantically rushed around making sure he was dressed and presentable.

A soft laugh cut him off. "Relax kid. I'll be here waiting. Just try to show up soon will you?"

"Hey! I'm not a kid!" He protested petulantly grabbing his wallet and keys.

"O' course ya are! I am older after all."

Yeah, by six weeks, he mentally protested.

"Ace, stop talking. I am on my way now."

A deep sigh sounded through the earpiece. "Fine little cousin. I will see you soon."

A click was heard as his cousin Aislinn Chase hung up the phone. Wasting no time, he raced out of the house before stopping dead in his tracks.

His car was not in the driveway.

"Frag it!!" He shouted in frustration, unknowingly using the Cybertronian curse. He was so going to kill Bumblebee when he saw him next. Yanking a silver phone from his pocket, he took a deep breath before hitting his speed dial. He listened as the phone rang on the other end before a gruff voice answered.

"What?!"

"Errr...uh.. Hi Ironhide. I was trying to locate Bee and must've hit the wrong button. I don't suppose he's there?"

An aggravated huff sounded out. "No. He's not."

"Oh...umm…that's okay then. I'll hang up and try him."

"You won't get him human. He's out doing recon for Optimus."

The string of curses that exploded from the brunette teen's mouth made even the battle hardened Ironhide flinch.

"Is there a problem?" the large mech asked point blank.

"Yes...No...YES!! I have to get to the airport to pick up my cousin and my car is gone!"

"Cannot Mikaela take you?"

"No. She's out with Ratchet doing sweeps. And I don't want to interrupt them for something like this. Would you?"

Even though the young man couldn't see it, he could sense Ironhide shudder through the phone. It was not wise for one to get on the medic's bad side, and interrupting him during his patrol time, unless it was an extreme emergency, constituted just that.

"Bumblebee will be back in what is equivalent to two of your Earth hours. You can wait until then." The Weapon's Specialist said firmly.

Once again his auditory senses were treated to the Sam Witwicky's tirade of negative words. The large mech sighed, dreading what his processor had deemed a logical solution. Sam calmed down a bit.

"Look Ironhide. I know how much you hate being used as a taxi service, but I really have to get to the airport and pick up my cousin Aislinn. I am already an hour late and Mon and Dad had planned to go to this premier for months and I promised them that I would pick her up. She flew in all the way from Ireland and I just can't leave her at the airport for another couple of hours!!"

Ah, Frag it! The desperation in the young Witwicky's voice has touched the tough mech's spark. He blamed it on Will. Being around the Lennox family so much had softened the battle hardened warrior. Heaving a sigh, the large black Cybertronian sighed.

"Fine. I am on my way to your house now. Ironhide out."

Sam stared in disbelief at the now silenced phone. Did Ironhide just agree to be his chauffer?! Unbelievable. He pinched his arm sharply.

Huh. Imagine that.

So deep in his surprise, young Samuel Witwicky never noticed the flare of headlights and an engine roar as a lone vehicle sped down the street.

An unoccupied vehicle.

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Mikaela Banes sighed as she leaned against the passenger window of the yellow Search and Rescue Hummer 2. She eyed the driver seat speculatively. Seeing the profile of an older man, somewhere in his very early thirties, she marveled at how detailed the Hologram was. She could see the laugh lines around his eyes and the fine hairs upon his exposed arm. Her eyes drifted upwards in a wholly appreciative manner, skimming over his masculine lips, his narrow nose, his soft blue eyes, to his light brown hair.

She sighed again. It had been almost two years since the Mission City battle with Megatron and the Decepticon forces, and she still sometimes had to remember her life wasn't straight out of a Science Fiction story.

Or an old 80's cartoon.

She smiled wryly at the Sam voice that popped into her head. 80's cartoon indeed.

She missed her best friend, and it had only been a day since she saw him. The beautiful brunette knew that Sam Witwicky already had a best friend, one which she had no chance in hell of competing with, but if she was honest with herself, she would admit that she also already had another best friend. She looked over at the human image of the Autobot driving.

Okay, so he was a mechanical best friend, but he was still a confidante none the less. Much like Bumblebee was to Sam. Maybe she should stick with Sam and her being the best of human friends. After all, both she and Sam managed to save the world and that naturally would result in a bond. Like a typical cliché they had dated for a while, both high on the victory from Mission City, but that had eventually fizzled and died. Over a year now in fact.

Mikaela wasn't a stupid person. In fact, she was rather astute. She could see the writing on the wall when it came to Sam and Bumblebee. And she was certain she wasn't the only one. But she had gotten used to the stigma attached to her. Most of society apparently didn't believe that beauty could go hand-in-hand with brains. She could understand the bias heaped on her given that she was deemed a "Hottie". Make no mistake; it was not with pride that she easily agreed to this assessment. Or rather, as the twins so handily pointed out, with fact.

Ahhhh…..the twins. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker.

The two robotical brothers who seemed to live for giving Ratchet, her best friend, havoc.

Poor Ratchet.

She softly snorted at the thought of the rather large, and handsome her inner voice taunted cruelly, mech becoming so irate that he gladly volunteered for this nightly civic duty.

"Is everything satisfactory with you Mikaela Banes?"

"Everything is fine. And how many time do I need to tell you it is only Mikaela?!"

"I apologize young one. I did not mean to offend you."

Amazingly, the beautiful brunette managed to hide her anger at being called a young one. She may be young by Cybertronian standards, but she was fully legal where it counted.

What the fraggin' hell was this? Where it counted? What was that supposed to mean?

"It's okay Ratchet. You did not purposefully offend me. I'm tougher than I look, you know." She finished slyly.

A bark of laughter escaped him surrounding the interior of the vehicle, filling her with warmth. "Forgive me Mikaela. I do sometimes forget that the femmes of your species seem to truly dominate most of the males of your kind."

Well now that sucked. She didn't want to be seen as an overbearing, no nonsense type of woman. She wanted to be seen as a woman.

A desirable one at that.

That acknowledgement alone had her mentally scrabbling. Desirable? To a robot? She successfully reigned in that particular thought.

No sense drudging up pain from what could never be.

She had learned to live with pain though. Over the course of her life she had been forced into situations where her loyalty and obligatory love was pitted against what was right and just. For a long time before the incident with the Autobots and Sam she had weighed her options in life. She was sick of doing and pretending to be something she was not, something expected of her. So when she graduated from High School she jumped at the chance to apprentice at a garage almost a year ago.

There she had managed to find her true calling.

She tensed suddenly as she sighted a car wreck ahead. Already knowing that Ratchet would have seen it, she readied herself, pulling her Tranquility Rescue ball cap lower to hide more of her features. She watched listlessly as the swirl of the Autobot's lights flashed.

Another night claims another victim.

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Maggie Madsen twitched in aggravation as her longtime friend Glen Whitman bit his knuckles in glee. How had she been maneuvered into the nearest arcade by her friend, she did not know. But she vowed it would not happen again. She was considering homicide. Literally.

She glanced at her watch and let out a huff. "Come on Glen! We've been here for fifteen minutes already! We have an agenda we need to stick to!" The beautiful Australian said with impatience.

"C'mon Mags! You can't deny me my jam! Lookit! I have the second highest score and I am so close to putting Scottie29 down!"

She watched with a grimace as her rather healthy friend twirled with surprising grace to the new dance video game put out for Nintendo Wii. She looked at her watch again hoping that it in fact had broken and therefore would show her that they were not stuck in the LAX terminal and needed to find a hotel for the next couple of days until the hurricane wreaking havoc on the east coast passed out to sea.

Although she loved being here, she was eager to return home to Washington, D.C. There was a claw foot tub waiting for her back in her condo with her name on it. Sighing she closed her eyes briefly and rubbed her temples in an attempt to ward off her oncoming headache. She was tense and exhausted after hours of political talks between Secretary of Defense John Kelly and Optimus Prime. The bi-weekly trips were becoming exhausting and not for the first time she wondered why she didn't just move out here. Glen and she were part of a very select few who knew of the existence of the Cybertronians and as such were also part of a diplomatic council to mediate between one of the world's most powerful countries and a race of mechs who now found themselves calling Earth home. Unfortunately, she didn't get to spend much time lately with the Autobots as her contact was primarily contained to Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet and on occasion Bumblebee.

She smiled fondly as she stepped away from the arcade and into the streaming mass of people towards the Starbucks. As much as she had been frightened during the Hoover Dam catastrophe, in no time she had found herself accepting the facts and growing close to the aforementioned mechs. As a computer analyst she was simply fascinated with the complexities of their genetic makeup, and as a young woman she found herself in awe of the large, and in their own strange way, handsome mechs. While true that her contact was limited to only a few of the Autobots, she had been able to glimpse others, newcomers over the past couple of years. Granted, she probably hadn't met them all, but the ones she had were absolutely amazing! It boggled her mind at the differences and yet how similar the two races actually were.

Standing in the queue that waited for their much desired dose of caffeine, Maggie absently heard the conversation of the woman in front of her and the tell tale frustration that radiated from her petite frame. Apparently her absentminded cousin had forgotten to pick her up from the airport. The hazel-eyed Australian only wished her own dilemma was so simple. The playoffs between the Lakers and the Celtics were going on and as such there was a sudden scarcity of available hotel rooms and she absolutely refused to stay in one of those rent by the hour dives.

The petite raven haired woman stepped up to place her order and the beautiful blond detected the hint of an Irish lilt in her voice. Raised voices from behind her distracted her and she found herself looking over her shoulder at two aggravated men standing toe to toe right behind her.

"Excuse me..." She started to say before she was jostled by an ill timed shove from the taller of the two men who had lost his temper with the slightly smaller man.

"Hey! Watch it!" She said indignantly and immediately stepped back at the look of fury that was cast her way from the seemingly more violent one.

"Watch your own self bitch!" He said before shoving the other man more violently.

Of course that succeeded in the receiver of the hard shove to smack into Maggie who in turn flailed her arms in a futile gesture to keep herself steady. She felt herself fall heavily into the woman in front of her who had just turned around and in the encompassing seconds the now angry Australian found a very hot coffee splashed all over her which her three inch heels decided to slip in resulting in her landing hard on her backside. Her momentum carried the other woman with her and soon both were flushing scarlet in embarrassment and anger as the gathered crowd gawked at their tangled limbs.

Mortified the blond tried to wriggle her way out from the other woman fully aware at the expanse of her legs that showed from where her skirt had ridden up to her backside. A wolf whistle pierced the air and she felt herself flushing even more as she realized her emerald green thong was showing. Finally managing to get to her feet as swiftly and as gracefully as she could, she helped the other woman up before turning eyes of fire to the man responsible for her dishabille and pain from the burning coffee.

The bastard was laughing his ass off.

Temper snapping, the feisty Australian's hand curled into a fist that she let fly. Gasps sounded from the crowd as she stood in satisfaction as the jerk responsible for this whole debacle now stood clutching his left eye.

"My move now bitch!" And before anyone could stop him his hands were around her throat in a vice like grip. Attempting to free herself the analyst tried to knee her attacker in the groin only to be blocked and the pressure increased.

"Not smart cunt. Maybe I should return the favor."

Lightheaded and struggling to breathe she faintly heard her name being shouted. She had no time to figure out her assailant's meaning before he let go with one hand and delivered a hard punch to her cheek. Feeling her skin spilt as his ring cut open her smooth skin she desperately stomped her heel on his foot grinding it.

"Get off her punk!"

She almost cried as she heard Glen's voice. Her vision was going spotty but she saw a blur out of the corner of her eye as a loud Thunk was heard.

"Dinna mess with an angry woman! Ya ken?!"

Coughing for breath as she was suddenly released and saw her savior in the form of an angry petite Irish woman holding a jug of what looked like mocha coffee. Sinking to her knees the battered blond, concentrated on regaining her normal breathing pattern as Glen stood over her protectively shouting at the watching crowd.

"You see something interesting? What, a woman getting choked and beat on doesn't do it for you? I saw that none of you inbred assholes helped!"

Sadly, he had a point. Too many Americans were too embroiled in there own existence to truly care what happened to others and not enough to help someone in need. A cool hand placed an ice pack on her throbbing cheek and split lip.

"I got ye. Dinna worry. My name is Aislinn and I presume from your angry friend over there that yours is Maggie. Right?"

"Yes." She managed to croak out painfully. God Damn, her throat hurt! Pride rearing its ugly head the hazel-eyed woman struggled to stand. Once upright she shot a lethal look over to her downed assailant. Something in her snapped.

"I wish I had a gun…" Before she could finish saying that she would blow his knee caps off she felt her arms being seized behind her wrists cuffed and slammed face down into the floor.

"Wha..." She began bewildered before pressure on the back of her head increased muffling any protest she had.

"TSA. You are all being detained for violent acts that can be construed as terrorism and for having an illegal weapon."

Terroism? Weapon? What?

"I don't have a weapon!" She managed to spit out hoarsely.

"No, but your friend does."

Wide eyed, she craned her neck to look at a bewildered Glen who had been holding his faux switchblade comb out toward the asshole who attacked her in the attempt to look threatening right before he was tackled to the ground. An irate accented voice from her right caused her to try to move her head to see who was busy cursing. A cold barrel of a gun halted her movements.

"Do not move Australian or I will shoot you!"

As her attacker, his original victim, Glen, the Irish woman and herself were hauled to their feet and led away; her one coherent thought in all of this mess was that the Secretary of Defense was just going to kill her.

So much for keeping a low profile.

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A/N: So the first chapter is up. I plan for this to be multi chaptered approaching epic length. There will be romance between humans and mechs so if that isn't your cup of tea than don't read. Please don't flame me for portraying the TSA as more ruthless than they are. It was for the sake of the story plot and the beginning friendship between characters. This story is an AU from both cartoon and the movie, but I am basing it on the 2007 movie with characters from both universes. Drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading everyone!

F.L.