Transformers does not belong to me.

This is just a dabble I wrote for a friend, (who is also a Mirage fan), on deviantART who needed a cheering up.

(And yes I do realize bases are NOT set up this way. )

The corridor was dimly lit. The in and out flux of the lights overhead showed the telltale signs of a bulb or two needing to be replaced. I shuddered slightly and pulled my jacket tighter as the chilly indoor air seeped through the fabric.

Stupid Naval bases and their big, cold, airy hallways. I groused mentally as I continued walking back to my shared bunk.

Technically it was my fault for staying out so late. You can only get so many chances to find a place to sit down, relax, and actually read on a military base filled with distractions. Wait no, I take that back. It's mainly only two: the hulking security guards that like to trail me around everywhere I go which still annoys the living hell out of me.
Apparently, when a friend enlisted in the military invites you to stay with her, it's a no-no to the higher ups until they verify that you're not, and I do mean it when I say this, a terrorist. Really? They think I'm some kind of terrorist? Psh riiiiiiiiiight I look so threatening I scare the living beejezus out of kittens.

Sarcasm.

Long story short, my good friend, Michelle (or "TK" as she likes to be known at times) invited me to stay with her over Spring Break since we were both bored and out of college temporarily with hardly anything to do. Soon as I could I got on a plane and headed out to (Apparently Not-So-) Sunny California. So far it's been nothing more than binge watching Pacific Rim and hammering it out on Assassin's Creed. Not that I'm complaining since it's a bunch of sexy accents…

Anyway, I was situated in one of the numerous sheds that bordered the line shack, hiding from the goons while getting so involved with the book I brought with me, that I wasn't really paying attention. I checked the time to find to my horror that it was now about 10:30 PM.

Sheesh, I'm surprised no one's looking for me.

I hastily packed away my book and iPod into the bag and bustled out the door, turning off the lights and locking the door as I went, making it seem like I had never been there. Since its peak two days ago, the moon was beginning to wane. Fortunately it was still bright enough for me to walk without the fear of hitting anything, mainly those pesky objects called fighter jet wings which are conveniently placed at head level.

I scurried across the runway towards the main building. The hangar doors were unusually, but thankfully, left unlocked after hours. Maybe they open them to get a breeze to blow out the stink or perhaps to cool off the hangar when it got hot I don't know…

As I entered the main hangar, it was strangely quiet and empty, a complete and utter opposite from the hustle and bustle of the day. The only sounds I heard were my padded footfalls and the slight jangle of my bag.

Liking the silence, I just shrugged it off and walked through the main doors that lead to the living quarters.

Pretty soon, the hallways were mending with each other and I was cursing the government official who thought if funny to give me and TK a room halfway across the base.
"The one time I need a tour guide..." I mumbled moodily as I kept my hand on the wall to help me along.

The silence was getting to me finally, so I started to hum a little tune to keep my thoughts at bay. Huh go figure. It was Imagine Dragons. Big surprise. My humming stopped as I heard a slight shuffle behind me. I whirled around expecting to find a guard coming through on his patrol, only to discover... Nothing.

I heard a fluttering above and looked up. In the dark rafters roosting, I could see several small rock dove shapes. That hasn't changed, I thought smirking. Even a Top Secret military base has to deal with the local pests, mainly pigeons. I was told the local workers would always cheer on the redtails as they brought down those cursed birds, only to start grumbling as the carcasses rained down on top of their heads.

Relieved, I resumed walking with my hands in my pockets. Damn birds.

After about five minutes, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up as I started to get the prickly paranoid feeling of being watched.
"I feel it in my bones…" I sung quietly to myself as to lighten the mood. I kept walking, albeit a little faster and ignored the sensation. A couple of turns later and I still couldn't shake the sensation of getting watched. Worse, I was getting the feeling of being followed. I swore I could hear shuffling and every time I looked back, it was the same exact scenery as before.

If this is what a target feels like in Assassin's Creed… I reflected. Oh god, NOT helping! I thought afterwards horrified.

"I swear, if this is some kind of a joke I am not laughing!" I declared loudly broadening my shoulders as I walked on hurriedly. Now I was just trying to distill the silence with my own voice and was going to look like a lunatic for it…. Nice.

Distracted by my thoughts and growing paranoia, I didn't realize that I had missed my turn until I encountered an intersection I wasn't familiar with... Or at least I think I missed my turn. Huh I don't remember that being there…

I stood there for a while looking back and forth between the hallways. Growling in frustration I threw my hands in the air. "Great this is what I get for staying up later than usual! I get paranoid over freaking stupid birds and I get lost on the side! Kicker won't let me hear the end of it if she heard about this…"
Angry at myself, I turned around and stomped back in the direction I came from. I was still muttering darkly and reprimanding myself for my idiotic paranoia when my foot suddenly came into contact with something solid. With a surprised yelp, I pitched forward into a nosedive. Funny I didn't see anythi-.. CLANG!

I saw stars as my head and the bridge of my nose slammed into something hard. You know whenever you see those Avatar, (and I mean the Last Airbender, Avatar), characters run into something? With their arms outstretched and everything? Yeah that's exactly the position I was in right now. Groaning, I shifted my weight to get my now bruised face away from the offensive obstacle that intercepted it. I sniffed slightly, testing the air and was relieved at the fact that no, it was not broken. But still it hurt.

It's always the nose! I mentally whimpered. Everytime!
I groggily opened my eyes, fighting the urge of tears. The pain throbbed, but I overruled it because I just had to figure something out:

What did I trip over? The blurriness faded away and I was glad I could see again. But… I blinked a couple of times at what I saw.

What the-?

Usually when you trip over something, it's something seen right? Well this wasn't the case. Either I'm seeing things or I just literally tripped over air. ..which wouldn't be surprising actually since I am pretty clumsy… But still, why you ask? Because I still see the dark hallway, the overhead lights, and the creepy shadows just fine without any visible objects blocking the view.

But my hands were touching something even if it did look like they were just hanging in midair.

"That's… disorienting to say the least." I muttered. Hell just to make sure, I even hit the surface of whatever it was: Clang! Clang!
Oh that's definitely real, alright. My mind reeled at the thought.

Well whatever this thing is…. I'm getting off. I thought numbly putting a foot back. But before I even touched solid concrete, the object decided to shift from underneath me. Instead of going forward I shot backward landing luckily on my bag. Oh, only me can trip both forward and backwards!

I silently cursed as I sat up. Okay… it can move. I raised my head to look up when I saw something that made me freeze. Why does the air seem to be flickering?

You know that saying: "don't blink"? If you do, that's all great, fine, and dandy. But if you don't, there's a very legitimate reason behind that saying.
Why am I bringing this up? Simple, I did exactly what I just said not to do. Now I know why the saying is well… said. The reason why you should never blink in a stressed situation, no matter what that situation is, is because you may just miss something of importance. For not only did I blink, I blinked twice. All I have to say is, dang did I miss a lot.

Originally I had a limited view of a drab, narrow military base-style hallway with dim lights overhead that seemed to be literally flickering,. However after I blinked, that view lessened even more due to the presence of two pillar-like shapes blocking the light.
… Those are legs. I realized in horror, scrambling backwards just as said legs shifted backwards with heavy thumps.

How the hell did I not even hear that the first time?!

Despite my mind telling them not to, my eyes slowly followed where the legs lead up to. First there was the waist, then the gunmetal grey area that would be the approximate abs (least on a human), the torso which were then covered by two thick crimson and black colored arms as they were crossed, then finally, finally, I got up to the head.

Honestly I was glad I was already on my butt for else if I was standing, my legs would probably have turned to Jell-O at the fact that I was looking into the very bright eyes of a metal human-like face that looked somewhat… peeved.

All that ran through my mind was a jumbled mess. Something on the lines of, 'Oh my god what is that!? Why was it following me?! Is it going to squish me!? Ahhhhhhhhh!'
"Take a picture, it will last longer."

I jumped at the voice. I had been staring? Stupidly I started stuttering something half way coherent in response. "I ah… uh… What?"
Then it hit me after…Wait- it talked?

I watched as the glowing orbs that made up its eyes did a roll before it looked at me again with a stern gaze. "You heard me." No I wasn't hearing things. The… thing in front of me was talking. Definitely male… In, a surprising heavy Italian accent that almost sounded like a particular assassin.

"I-I'm sorry I didn't realize I was staring…" I replied nervously averting my eyes.

There was a dry humorless chuckle. "Of course." Before I realized what was going on, it, no sorry I guess I should call it a 'he', walked past.

All I could do was stare in awe. I just… contacted something that shouldn't be even real. Then something in the back of my mind went 'crap I'm still lost…'

And before I could stop myself and second guess what I was about to do, I scrambled to my feet facing the direction the robot thing went. "Wait."
He continued walking. Not a reaction I wanted… I started hurrying his direction. "Wait!"

That time he stopped in response and turned around to face me with an annoyed expression.

"What do you want?" He rumbled not looking too pleased.

Suddenly being confronted I braked immediately. "Uh… I… well you wouldn't happen to know where my room is would you? I kind of got lost and the officials didn't give me a map…" I started to ramble nervously twiddling my thumbs.

He furrowed the approximate robot version of eyebrows before sighing and pointed a large finger over my head back the direction I was going before I ran into… well his leg."Go back the way you came from and take a left before going all the way to the end. Take another left and it is the fifth door on the right. "

I repeated the directions in my head looking the way he was pointing. After reciting it several times I nodded, and turned back to look at my… ahem 'savior'. "Thank-." But I trailed off when I was looking at only empty space. "-you?"

In a daze I started heading the actual way to the room I shared with TK, mulling over what just happened.

That had been weird.

So weird that if it weren't for my smarting nose I would have thought my mind had been making it all up.

Following the directions I was given, I ended up getting into some familiar territory and before I realized it I was standing in front of the door. I heard the shower running on the other side so I didn't bother knocking. Instead I reached into my jacket pocket for my keys. Then my other pocket…Then the next.
Okay seriously where are my keys? I started panicking while patting everything on my person. Even ripped off my backpack and tore through it to find them. They weren't there either.

Great… First I got lost, ran into a robot, now I lost my keys. Could this day get any worse?

I was just about to pound on the door when I heard a jangle above my head. Frowning I looked up to find something silver dropping into my hands. In confusion I looked down to find- my keys.

"You dropped those." A familiar Italian accented voice remarked. I turned around to find to my surprise a tall, olive-skinned man with black hair tied in a ponytail and dark blue eyes that were part way amused by my expression. He was wearing a black leather jacket with red underneath. "You should take better care of what is in your pockets."

Of course my reaction was dropping my jaw in surprise. "You're…"
"Handsome? Sexy? Attractive?" The man chuckled in surprise. Oh god he read my mind…

"…human." I said flatly trying not to blush.

He looked surprised at that, before laughing faintly. "Ah of course… This is just a projection to help interact with your race better. I apologize for the inconvenience and… frankly, awkwardness, the presence of my true form may have given you."

"And physical pain." I pointed at my swollen nose slightly irritated.

"That too." He had the decency to look apologetic. "You surprised me by turning too fast for me to back up."

I blinked. "But… why were you following me in the first place?"

A ghost of a smile appeared on his lips. "Your friend, Michelle asked me to. She was worried."

He then tilted his head frowning before sighing quietly. "I apologize, but I must leave. My commander requests my presence." The man made a half bow. "Farewell, Brittani."

"You know my name?" I asked stunned as he started to leave.

"Oh yes Michelle talks quite fondly about you." He threw over his shoulder.

"…you wouldn't happen to have a name yourself would you?" I blurted out.

He stopped and turned around with a faint smirk. "I am called Mirage."

The man then disappeared leaving me stunned.

Thanks for reading!

-TK