Being Human
Disclaimer: I own Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Barricade and Jazz – okay, Maple, yes I share him with you but I claimed him first 0:)
Other transformers are claimed by other members of the RRA, but I can't remember how many and by whom XD
Summary: The Decepticons have taken over England and are after 19-year-old orphan, Liz Norton. Thanks to them she discovers who and what she is and is determined to stop their plans from happening, but she's dying, and will have to seek help from 2 other girls, and some unorthodox allies, for help. In return for her life, she must give the transformers some important lessons in being human.
…
"Liz! Liz!"
"Jack what is it?" the blonde asked, sticking her head out of the office where she'd been brutally dismembering the computer.
"They're coming," Mr Norton, Jack to us, is in charge of St Bertram's orphanage. Liz didn't need to ask what "they" meant; she'd come across decepticons before, and they were still after children.
She nodded and hid all the other kids in the old world war 2 bunker in the back garden, where all of our supplies are stored; it's capable of withstanding a meteor crashing onto the top of it, so a pile of scrap landing on it wouldn't damage it in the least.
"Liz, what's going on?" Will, another inmate only a year younger than her, helped to bustle the kids inside.
"We're being visited by the scraps again," was her response, "You and Zo keep an eye on the young ones; Jack'll handle it.
"What about you?"
The corners of Liz's mouth twitched upwards, "Not one to leave a project half finished," She ran back to the office and began reassembling the computer as fast as she could. She'd just finished when the now-familiar splintering sound as the door was kicked in reverberated through the house.
"Where are they?" the mechanical voice demanded; Starscream, Megatron's second in command.
Liz never understood why she knew his name or the names of all the other decepticons – she'd never met any of them but they all seemed strangely familiar.
"Not here," Jack replied, "You've taken enough,"
"None of them are compatible."
Compatible for what? Liz stayed perfectly still, waiting for him to leave.
"What do you do with the ones who aren't "compatible"?"
"They are sent to join the workforce"
Liz had had enough. She scrambled to my feet and opened the office door.
"You can't send kids to work," She told him, "It'd kill them."
"When we find the compatible child the others will be released."
"Why don't you just release them now and have done with it?" Liz challenged, "They're not compatible for whatever sick, sordid little scheme you have, so return them to their families or orphanages or whatever."
"We take no orders from human scum!" Starscream shrieked, lunging at the human girl.
Liz sidestepped and kicked the switch that booted up the computer.
A bright blue arc leapt from the monitor and hit the decepticon in the face.
"Run!" She yelled; Jack didn't need telling twice.
They hit the road just as Starscream came out the orphanage, intent on their destruction.
Any method of transport with engines had been confiscated – presumably to make them a new army – but one advantage of living in London from the day she was found, barely a week old, on the orphanage doorstep was that Liz knew all the alleyways and backstreets by heart. She split off from Jack in order to distract the decepticon with two targets.
It didn't work – he headed straight for me.
Unfortunately, she'd underestimated the reach of his arm – he grabbed her and rocketed off towards his leader.
The others being safe was the only consolation for her stupidity.
…
"Master," Starscream bowed before Megatron (the only Decepticon everyone did know the name of) and threw Liz at his feet, "I have located the sparkling child,"
"What the bloody hell are you on about?" the girl demanded, "I'm a 19-year-old human from Greenwich. Not one of your weird little metal things."
Megatron raised his optic ridges.
"For once you do not fail me, Starscream," he smirked.
Liz was now even more clueless than she had been in the first place.
"What do you mean 'you do not fail me'? He DID fail – he brought you a human. Again."
"If you were fully human," Megatron sneered, "You would not be able to understand what it is we are saying."
"Why?"
"We are speaking the language of our people," Megatron replied, "Cybertronian."
"How many times can I say 'bullshit'?" Liz retorted, "If I can understand you then you're obviously talking in English – I don't speak any other language fluently."
"And yet you are capable of understanding everything we say," another decepticon – Liz recognised him to be Soundwave – pointed out, a sly smile creeping across his ugly metal face.
"Can it, satellite rapist," Liz snapped; the other Decepticons in the room sniggered.
"I do not –"
"Well what's with the creepy tentacles then?" She countered.
"SILENCE!" Megatron roared.
"Slag off you fragging glitch!" Liz retorted; the decepticons were stunned.
"HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME IN SUCH A WAY!" Megatron roared.
"You owe me an explanation, moron," Liz replied, "I won't answer your questions unless you answer mine."
Megatron glared at her.
"I do not make bargains," he replied.
"You've been testing all the children in the entire country to try and find me," Liz countered, "So that means you need me for something. I'm not going to do anything you tell me to unless you answer my questions first."
Another glare.
"Ask," he conceded waspishly.
"What the Frag is a sparkling child?"
"The Sparkling child," Megatron corrected, "Is a human child with a Cybertronian heart."
"Which is?"
"A spark," Megatron scowled, "in a metal casing,"
"So I'm half robot?"
"No,"
"Huh?"
"You are mostly human, but with a Cybertronian core," the leader of the Decepticons seemed not to like having to answer my questions, "When your spark is fully grown, it will be removed and placed into a decepticon shell. Your consciousness will be transferred within the spark."
"And what happens to me?" Liz asked, scowling back at him now, "I'm just another dead human, right? I don't mean anything,"
"Correct,"
"Sorry gents," Liz breezed towards the door, "being cut open and having my heart ripped out isn't exactly my idea of fun –"
The Seeker trine barred the door.
"You will not leave," Megatron ordered.
…
Maple was one of the lucky ones.
She'd been listed to help with building the strange machine with another girl under the watchful eye of the doctor.
"Ze calibration must be perfect!" he was ranting at Paula, "Ve cannot haf a perfect calibration if ze fusion cannon is not fixed properly! Dumkopf!"
Megatron, after effectively kidnapping an extremely pissed off girl, carried her to the workshop.
"This is where your shell is being made," he informed her.
"No," the girl snarled, "This is where the vehicles you've stolen get turned into another pile of scrap,"
Maple snorted, struggling to remain serious as she took in the girl's appearance.
An orphan, she guessed, about nineteen years of age, and judging by the hand-me-down clothes she wore from a rather poor orphanage, even by the standards set by the new era of tyranny, where everyone was poor. Her hair, a dark blonde, was tied back in a high ponytail and she scowled through deep-set brown eyes at her captor.
"You will be transferred when the spark is ready," Megatron growled, "your puny human form will not survive harbouring a fully mature spark."
"Well it'll have to," the girl snapped, "I'm not having anything to do with you and your satellite rapist organisation."
"Perhaps you would like to talk with the people making it," Megatron ignored the girl's irritated remark, turned to the pretender guard and said, "Make sure she doesn't escape," before walking off, presumably to kill some innocent humans.
The girl stood there, scowling at the pretender guards.
"No! No! NO!" the doctor ranted at Paula, "You cannot attach ze fulcrum to se axle! You vill ruin ze whole sing!" he produced what looked like a little chainsaw and started towards a terrified Paula.
"HEY!" the doctor was knocked flying by a well-thrown tyre, "Leave them alone!"
Maple whistled appreciatively at the new girl, "Well-thrown,"
"Thanks," the girl replied, unsmiling, "I've had practice," she picked up the doctor and welded him to a metal plate on the wall, "Leave them alone," she repeated.
"How dare you speak to me like zat!" the doctor yelled, "Do you know who I am?"
"Oh Primus," the girl muttered, "Another piece of scrap who doesn't know who he is. I don't care who or what you are, you leave them the hell alone or I'll tear your spark out and lodge it in the wall. Clear?"
The doctor nodded, evidently terrified; Maple got the feeling that this girl may be a pretender like the guards.
"Good," the girl growled, turning towards the other two girls and dropping the harsh attitude, "You okay?"
They nodded, confused.
"Good," she picked up the fusion canon and aimed it at one of the guards, "Let us out or I blow your head off,"
The pretender sneered.
"You don't even know how to activate it," he laughed.
"Oh no?"
Within seconds the both pretenders were smoking piles of scrap on the floor.
"Let's move," the girl suggested, throwing the canon away as if it had shocked her, "We don't have much time before megatwat figures out we've done a runner,"
…
"So who are you?"
"Name's Liz Norton,"
"Norton?" Paula raised her eyebrows.
"I was abandoned by my real parents at the front of the Greenwich orphanage when I was a baby," Liz explained, shrugging, "Jack Norton, the guy who runs the joint, named me Elizabeth Norton, but I prefer Liz,"
"You were abandoned?"
"Yup,"
"You don't sound too cut up about it," Maple accused.
"Liz shrugged again, "I never knew 'em," she replied.
They crept through the underbrush in an uncomfortable silence.
There'd been a car that hadn't been gutted at the headquarters – they checked it for any traces of being a Decepticon before they stole it – but it had run out of petrol as they approached Newcastle – a mere 50 miles away from the Decepticon base. They'd been fighting their way through thick forests ever since.
"Where're we headed?" Maple asked.
"Scotland," Liz replied, "They haven't managed to take over there just yet,"
"How did they get control anyway?" Paula asked.
"The snobs voted conservative," Liz replied, "They didn't realise that they were letting alien robots take over at the time –" she suddenly hissed and clutched at her heart.
"You okay, Liz?" Paula asked.
"It's nothing," Liz replied through gritted teeth, "Just a heartburn,"
"Maybe we should have a rest –" Maple suggested.
"We need to keep moving," Liz straightened up, wincing slightly, "We can't risk them finding us,"
They failed to persuade her otherwise and set off again.
"So what about you lot?" Liz asked, "You must have families,"
"I came here to visit a friend," Paula explained, "and then they wouldn't let anyone leave, so I ended up stuck here."
"Where're you from?"
"Scotland,"
"Ah," Liz smiled, "They're doing pretty well against the Decepticons; they got some scientist guy who made a force field to obstruct the RNA,"
"RNA?" Paula was confused.
"I guess it's their version of DNA," Maple suggested; Liz nodded.
"What's it do?" Paula asked
"If I remember rightly," Liz frowned, "It creates an energy field that repels pure RNA organisms," she shrugged, "I didn't read to the end of the article because I got a headache,"
They struggled on, determined to reach the town by nightfall.
…
Newcastle was deserted; everyone up North had fled to Scotland, most to keep their children safe. Cars littered the roads and driveways as if they'd been abandoned there – some with the keys still in the ignition.
The girls broke into the inn and camped there overnight.
The next morning, they borrowed a car – a sleek black Porsche with the keys still attached – and made their way up to Scotland, sticking to back roads in order to keep their location as secret as possible.
"What'll we do when we get to Scotland?" Paula asked from the wheel – Liz had had another heartburn moment that morning so Paula insisted on driving.
"You guys can stay there if you want," Liz replied from where she was dozing in the back seat (she'd spent the night awake keeping an eye out for the decepticons), "But I'm heading to the US – They've got an organisation there that might be able to help us out,"
"Always wanted to go to America," Maple grinned, "I'll come with you,"
Paula grinned from the wheel, "You don't expect me to stay behind do you?" they crossed the border and a fitful scream reverberated through the car.
They were all pulled from the Porsche and interrogated as Liz lay shaking on the ground, being fussed over by medics.
"She has RNA in her," one of them concluded, "That's why she reacted the way she did,"
"What about you lot?" the army officer, an American Major, demanded, "How do you know about the decepticons? What is your friend?"
"We were forced to work for them," Maple explained, "And Liz is human,"
"Then why did she flag up our scanners?" the American countered.
"Major!" the medic yelled, "We need to get this girl to a hospital. Now."
The Major nodded, "Looks like you'll be coming with us for a while,"
Maple and Paula were sat in the back of another black car while Liz was lead away on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.
…
Dun, dun, DUUUUUUN! Woo! Chapter one finished! XD I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it! Many thank-yous to Maple, who helped me sort out the plot for the story! :D Review to tell me what you think!