Above all, be the heroine of your life, not the victim - Nora Ephron
Chapter One
The local star rose above the metallic landscape, bathing it in beams of yellow and orange, revealing a sprawling city beginning to stir. Atop one massive building sat a young femme. The warm colors of the sun danced across her jet black frame, blending with the gold and red accents, creating a start contrast with her dark blue optics. She enjoyed the tranquility of the city just before it sprung to life. She continued to watch as the light bounced off of the silver and gray structures, letting the warmth relax her circuits, until the sound of her lessor screaming up at her pierced the silence.
"Katana! If I have to tell you to stop climbing up to the roof when it's dark one more time, I'll double your rent! I mean it this time!"
The corner of her mouth curled up in annoyance as she went down the stairs to her room. She made it two steps through the door before he began to go on and on about what it would do to his business if one of his previous renters ended up in a million pieces.
"I'd be ruined, ya know," he said. "Who'd want to live in a place where the previous resident hit the ground going 77 meters per second?"
"Aw, are you sure you wouldn't just miss me?" Katana teased.
"Ha! Like a scraplet in my rear!", he responded. "Get to work so I can get paid. 1500 credits, and it better not be late this time!"
He stormed out the door, grumbling about anything and everything. Katana rolled her optics at the cranky lessor. He loved to yell, but he never made good on his threats. After quickly fueling up, she descended to the ground floor and headed off to the Argentum City police headquarters.
Katana's job was simple. She worked worked with a team of elite criminal profilers to develop a profile of a wanted felon. Once they were finished, it was her job to use that information to go find them and bring them in to custody. The worse the criminal, the more she and the rest of her team got paid. At the time, they were analyzing a mentally unstable mech who'd committed vicious and seemingly random assaults on passer-by's. Recently, her job had become a lot more dangerous; many of the criminals they were looking for joined the Decepticons, and breaking into Megatron's base to haul away his soldiers wasn't exactly a good idea. Looking for a psychotic individual with no clear motivation was a much needed break. Katana walked into HQ and entered the room designated for her team. Standing around the table was the terse and methodical Requiem, a red, slender mech, the quiet and amiable Ares, a pink and gray femme, and the charismatic Turbine, a stocky purple mech. Turbine flashed Katana a rather goofy grin and beckoned her over.
"Primus, femme, it took you long enough!"
Katana mock glared at Turbine and punched him in the arm.
"Sorry, guys. I was stuck behind oafs like Turbine who can't drive if their lives depended on it. So, what have we gotten so far?"
"Case number 108-343 has been unstable for most of his existence," Requiem stated as he looked up from his data pad. "A family friend stated that he used to go to an old park on the outskirts of Kaon when he felt angry or threatened. Decepticon presence there has likely driven him away, as he's never looked for a fight he can't win."
Katana quickly began to give out instructions.
"Ares, Turbine, look into his history."
"Already on it."
"You got it!"
"Requiem, help me look into neighboring cities that he might take refuge in."
The team continued working into the afternoon, when Cruiser, one of the many officers, brought in another case.
"This is an interesting one. A femme by the name of Arachnid is wanted for twenty abduction charges, espionage, twenty five assault charges, and thirty murder charges. By the looks of it, she's still at it, and –"
"And she's a higher ranking member of the Decepticons. A torture specialist, at that.", Katana interjected. "I thought we went through this, if they're part of the War, leave them to the Autobots. Now, if you don't have any more idiotic missions, I think you should get back to your work."
Cruiser stood there, stunned for a moment, then slammed the door while calling her quite a few obscene names. The room was silent for a while, until Turbine decided to comment.
"Rawr! Sassy today, aren't we?"
Everyone in the room burst into hysterical laughter. Everyone except for Katana.
"I wasn't being sassier than usual, he's just an aft and a moron. Don't you remember all of the times he tried to sabotage me at the Academy?"
"Didn't you threaten to drop kick his little brother out of a window?" Turbine asked, attempting to wipe the lubricant tears out of his optics.
"Well… yeah. But we were kids, and it's not like I – hold on how did you know about that? That happened well before you enrolled."
"You and I both know that Hypernova loves to talk."
She paused, then agreed that it made sense.
Requiem looked at them oddly.
"Hypernova?"
"She was my bunk mate at the Academy. She's rather prissy and whiney, but she's nice enough, and she loved gossip." Ares, who was quiet up until that point, addressed both Katana and Turbine.
"You both went to a prestigious military academy, yet you haven't joined the War. Why, if you don't mind me asking?"
"Well, in case you haven't noticed," Turbine put his arms in the air and turned. "I'm not very intimidating, or coordinated. I would get thrown out pretty quickly."
Katana, without looking away from her data pad, responded,
"I don't see the point. I'm going to go get my aft shot at and kill mechs I've never seen, for what? If I see a really good reason to join the fight against the Decepticons, then by all means sign me up. Until then, I'm perfectly happy with bringing in criminals and getting paid."
Ares nodded in understanding, continuing her research.
The sun was beginning to sink in the sky, signaling the end of the first shift. The offices began to empty as officers began to pack up and head home. The team was debating on whether or not they wanted to work a second shift and take off the next day, when the sound of jets flying over head got everyone's attention. Murmurs of confusion filled HQ. Air patrols were a rarity in Argentum, as there was no militia stationed within the city. Everyone was cut off when an explosion went off, shaking the ground and knocking equipment to the floor, followed by another, and another.
Turbine steadied himself on the table, shielding Ares from falling debris.
"What the frag was that!? There's nothing here to attack, why would soldiers be here? What could they- Katana! Katana where are you going!?"
Turbine tried to stop Katana, but she bolted out of the building and on to the streets. When the rest of them got outside, she was staring off to the Eastern area of the city, where a giant column of smoke was forming. Turbine and the others stood with her.
"What are they aiming for? The only thing there is…"
Katana finished Requiems sentence.
"The hospital. A few Autobot commanders transferred there to see a burn specialist. The Decepticons must have found out somehow. Those fraggers are bombing the hospital." Without another word, she transformed and raced off towards the explosions, completely ignoring her teammates telling her to wait.
"She dove into a problem without thinking. Again." Ares said. "Now what?"
Turbine looked back at the team, shrugged his shoulders, and transformed.
"Follow her.", he said before driving off.
Ares and Requiem shared a look of annoyance, then followed Turbine.
Katana pulled up to the smoldering wreck that was a hospital. Patients and doctors alike were fleeing from the building that looked ready to collapse at any moment. Decepticons kept coming, dropping bombs on the already crippled hospital and firing at civilians trying to flee. Once Turbine and the rest pulled up, she looked back and told them she was going in. She was met with "are you crazy!?"and "you'll get killed!" from all three of them.
"I'm going in whether you like it or not. If you don't want to help, then stay here. I can do this on my own."
Turbine went to stop her, but she was too fast.
"What in the name of the Allspark is wrong with that femme!?"
A/N: I read over the original and didn't like the way it was written, at all. The plot will be the same, but told differently.