Disclaimer: Nope, not mine.

Author Notes: This story is set back in 1986 so don't expect to see any of the modern amenities that we are so use to today. Like cellphones, high speed internet, and apps.

Because there is certainly no app for this…

Possible disturbing imagery in this chapter (?), but don't worry. What is eluded to never happen, everything will be explained later in the story


Secret Identity

Chapter One


She opened her eyes.

For a second she just stared straight ahead, trying to make out exactly what she was seeing. The ground was rough and uneven before her, hillocks and small mounds of dirt causing the landscape to raise and fall as far as the dim light was letting her see. Tall grass rose like spires from the ground, swaying back and forth slightly. Bewildered, she turned her head as much as she could, still seeing only grass swaying in a nightly breeze. She was laying on her side and twisted her head as far as it would go to one side, seeing a bright starlit night framed with the tops of swaying grass above her.

She sat up, moving stiffly as muscles protested the odd position they had been forced to stay in for too long. She grimaced as some of her joints cracked and popped back into place as she glanced around. Even sitting up she couldn't see over the grasses that surrounded and protected her. With a huff she rolled herself up of the ground and stood up, finally rising above the walls of plant life.

She was in a sea of tall grasses come up almost to her waist. She turned in a slow circle looking for anything around her other than grass but she didn't see anything in the moonlight. A gentle breeze blew up, causing the grass around her to dance while her hair shifted restlessly against her. "Where am I?" she asked the breeze for no particular reason. She glanced around real quick again, just standing still this time as her head snapped back and forth. "How did I get here?" she asked no one again.

As she stood there alone in the field she came to a horrid realization. She didn't know who she was, how she got to this field in the middle of nowhere, or what had happened to her. Shivering, but not from the slight chill in the breeze, she wrapped her arms around herself in a loose hug. She was terrified. Amnesia wasn't something that just developed. Something bad had happened to her, bad enough that her mind had blanked itself out to protect her. She took a shaky breath and forced herself to not panic. Panicking wasn't going to help her right now.

It was then that she realized she wasn't wearing anything.

A whimpering sob escaped her as she covered her mouth with one hand while still holding her other arm around her stomach. She sunk to her knees taking shuddering breaths and swallowing back bile that kept rising up in her throat. The panic came back full force as hundreds of scenarios as to what had happened to her came rushing back. She couldn't do anything except try to breath, cry and not throw up all at once. Despite the chill in the air she began to sweat and her face began to feel unnaturally hot.

She eventually lost the battle and ended up retching on the ground, dry heaving as her stomach tried to expel all the bad thoughts and realizations of what could have possible happened to her. Trembling, she wiped the back of her hand across her mouth when she was done. Her stomach was still turning and flopping about uneasily but for the moment it didn't feel like she was going to throw up right away again.

She shuffled back away from what little she managed to expel and sat back on her ankles with both arms wrapped about her waist protectively. The wind stirred the surrounding grass and her hair again as she continued to stare off into space, trembling badly, for what seemed like several hours. Her mind continued to loop back in on itself as she tried to come to terms with what had happened to her.

Noise and light suddenly snapped her out of the haze she had become lost in and she dropped down more behind the protective cover of grass around her. Her trembling reached an all new level as she watched the headlights speed past, the drone of the car's engine began to fade away as she knelt there behind the protective wall of grass. It was just a car, it was just a car driving by, she repeated to herself over and over again trying to calm down. She forced herself to breath in and out slowly. There was something about the roar of that engine that was both familiar and terrifying. She could tell that it was a sports car just by the way the high performance engine sounded and, for whatever reason- that terrified her.

Whatever had happened to her it had involved a sports car.

The realization gave her a moment of clarity and she searched about for her clothes. She had to get away from there before they came back. Not seeing anything she began moving about in the grass, staying low to try and make it difficult to notice her, and searched about the surrounding area. Still, even moving in even widening circles from where she woke up, there were no signs of any discarded garments or even signs of anyone moving to or from where she had woken up.

"Weird," she whispered to herself as she sat up and looked over the grass. Where she had moved through the grass it had bent down and stayed down, clearly marking her path. If she had been brought down from the road and left there, surely there would be a path leaving to the spot, right? She stood up again and looked out over the sea of grass trying to discern any kind of path leading to her spot. Nothing, if she used her paths as an example, it would be quite obvious if someone had brought her down there. Even if she had been thrown from a vehicle -which was highly doubtful considering how far from the road she was- there would have been some kind of path in the grass leading to her. It was like she had just appeared in the middle of the field.

There was something about this entire situation that was highly disconcerting for her and she suddenly had an urge to run and get as far away from her current location as possible. She didn't know who they were but she did know that they would soon come looking for her. She couldn't let them catch her, she had to get moving.

With one last glance about her, she jumped to her feet and started running through the grass staying parallel to the road. She didn't know where she was going but she knew she had to move. Her hair whipped about her as she ran and her feet impacted the ground with a constant dull thump each time they touched down. Her breath became labored as she ran but no matter how far or hard she ran all she could see was grass and darkness, even the stars were barely noticeable in the night sky.

Suddenly the ground gave out from beneath her and she fell into open space with a cry. She tumbled down into the gully that had been hidden by the tall grass, coming to a stop as she flopped into the muddy water lining the water. A sound of disgust escaped her as she lifted her face out of the mud and she ineffectively tried to wipe it clean with an equally muddy hand. Somehow she had gotten mud in her mouth and she spit off to the side trying to get the taste out of her mouth.

"Primus be slagged," she gripped to herself as she started to pick herself up. She struggled to her feet, trying to wipe the mud off her as she tried to keep her balance in the muddy water that came up to her ankles. "This is disgusting," She spit off to the side after her declaration, still trying to get the mud out of her mouth.

She spent a few more minutes trying to wipe the mud off herself before climbing up the other side of the gully, grumbling under her breath the entire time. When she reached the top she looked around, suddenly feeling tired as she looked over the sea of grass. It seemed to never end. With a sigh she started jogging in the same direction she had been running before she had fallen, though this time she kept a careful eye on the grass in front of her. She didn't want to take another tumble.

As she jogged along she started to realize just how cold she was and the mud still sticking to her was only making it more obvious. She shivered and rubbed at her arms, generating some heat but it was quickly whisked away as the wind picked up again. She slowed to a stop and then fell to her knees trying to use the grass as a rather ineffective wind block. She continued to rub at her arms and glared up in the direction of the wind as if that would make it stop.

"I need a plan," she said, the sound of her voice comforted her somehow. "I need to figure out what to do. This is getting me nowhere." Putting distance between her and her attackers was the largest priority but she also had other needs to attend to. She needed clothes -and to get the mud off her-as well as food and water eventually. How was she going to get those when she was in the middle of nowhere with literally nothing on her?

After sitting there for a few more minutes trying to decide what she was going to do, she finally sighed, got up and started moving again. She still had no real direction on where she was going or how she was going to get anything but she could at least keep moving. It was almost like there was a counter in her mind, slowly ticking down, reminding her that she was running out of time. She was just going to have to hope that some grand idea would come to her.

It turned out that it wasn't an idea, just a stroke of luck. She was stumbling along, half walking and half jogging, when she noticed off in the distance something sitting up on the side of the road. As she got closer she could make out the silhouette of a small compact car sitting on the road side. As soon as she realized that it wasn't a sports car she let out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding in.

Still, even though it wasn't a sports car, she approached it cautiously. She felt a little silly stalking the car through the grass but it wasn't nearly as bad as when she stopped on the opposite side of the guard rail from the car, still hidden in the grass, and said, "You're not going to attack me, right?"

After a few seconds of silence she shook her head at her own silliness and approached the car which appeared to be an old battered Honda sedan of an indiscernible color under all the rust. There was a good chance that it had either broken down or run out of gas but at that point she was more interested in what may be on the inside. Keeping an ear out for any approaching engines, she crept up to the side of the car and peered into the windows.

There was no sign of anyone in the car but there was a pile of objects scattered about its interior. She tried the handle, unsurprised to find it locked. She tried the passenger side door with the same result and snuck around the car to try the other two doors. The driver's side door popped open easily and the door squeaked loudly as she opened it. She winced at the loud noise but, since the road was still empty, she reached around and popped the lock on the back door before opening it to explore the odd collection scattered across the back seat and down onto the floor.

She dug through the junk scattered on the floor, seat and even up onto the back ledge under the rear window but only pulled out a handful of useful objects. All the articles of clothing she could find were immediately put on. A black tank top along with a silvery white jacket that had some kind of logo across the back of the shoulders were slipped on and a rather small red backpack that seemed to have more straps on it than was really necessary was clutched tightly in one hand as she continued to dig around in the backseat. She found a pair of socks that smelled as if they had been used in the gym more than once and maybe never even washed. She decided to leave those where they lay. She didn't need them that bad.

She also grabbed a handful of non-wearable items. Whoever actually owned the car seemed to be into a number of outdoor activities, including camping. She shoved a coil of rope into the bag along with a handful of granola bars that had been scattered randomly about the backseat. Random change and a few bills were also laying about and those were all tucked into one of the side pockets for her to count out later. She also found a rather large hunting knife that was in a sheath and could be fit on a belt but she could find a belt. Or pants. With the backseat cannibalize of all essential things she could find, she closed the back door and reached into the front seat long enough to pop the trunk.

In the trunk was where she hit pay dirt. A heavy pair of olive green canvas pants and a pair of rather beat up black shoes, that were a tad bit to large but still serviceable with the lacing tightened down. There was a black belt that she put on gratefully because the pants were about two sizes too big. After finishing getting dressed, she continued to dig about in the trunk, finding a few more dollars and some more change along few a heavy black hoodie that had its sleeve cuffs torn up. A red baseball cap, pair of heavy duty gloves, a lighter, a can of hairspray, and a heavy black flashlight were also thrown into the red bag.

Closing the trunk she headed back to the front seat and slipped into the driver's seat to go over the collections of stuff in the front seat. There she hit pay dirt again, finding a ten and five dollar bill in the collection of random junk. In the glove compartment she found a wrench, a screwdriver and a pair of needle nose pliers which were all added to the other small side pocket. The last thing she grabbed from the car before leaving were a pair of black aviator sunglasses tucked up in the visor that she tucked away in the bag.

She took the time to wipe the mud off her face with a rag she found in the front seat before closing the door and she walked around to the front of the car. She took the time to memorize the license plate number before she started walking down the road. If it was at all possible, she was going to make sure that the owner of the vehicle got back everything she had borrowed from him or her.

She slid the backpack on and debated whether or not she should head back into the field. While the grass would make it easier to follow her in, the road was too open for her liking. Anyone could see her walking on the side of the road. With that thought she stopped and looked all around herself, even glancing up at the sky, looking for what she wasn't sure but she knew -whatever it was- it was out to get her. She shook her head as she started walking again. She was beginning to sound like Red A-

High performance engines were coming up fast from behind her and broke her train of thought. They were much more powerful than the car engine that had flown past her before and there was something about them that was both familiar and causing her stomach to flip in on itself in fear again.

It was them.

She was moving before she even realized she had started to get off the road. Vaulting over the guard rail and doing a mad stumbling run down the bank. There was some kind of bush halfway down that she jumped into, mentally cursing to herself as the thorns on the bush caught at her borrowed clothes and hair. She was able to twist herself around so that she could see the road, already awash with the head lights of the two cars moving much too fast for any normal car.

They roared past her hiding spot, the ground all but shaking from their engines. They were there and gone again in seconds, flying up the road at a speed way above the posted limit. They were gone from view as soon as they had appeared, only the sound of their engines still echoing in the night air. She didn't bother looking after them, too fixated on the image of the two cars that had just flown by. A yellow formula one race car and a gray Ferrari with deep red windows. Her fingers dug into the earth as she hissed out a single word in pure contempt and anger.

"Stunticons."

She crouched in the thorny bush for a moment longer, gritting her teeth as she continued to stare at the road where the two cars had just raced past. Memories swirled about in her mind as mumbled, "Frag." Those mechs were dangerous and a menace to everyone they came across. If she hadn't gotten off the road they probably would have hit her just because she was walking on the side of the road. "Frag!" She was in no position to fight them and, knowing them, they had something to do with her situation. "Fraggit!"

She was up then, ignoring the thorns that torn at her as she ran for the woods on the far side of the field. If Drag Strip and Wildrider had just drove past, there was a good chance that Dead End and Breakdown were right behind them. Or Motormaster. She seethed as she ran. She couldn't believe that she was running from them, she should have been after them, stopping them, before they hurt someone. There was little she could do against them however, not when she was stuck like this.

Stuck like this? She had reached the forest by then, still running full tilt through the trees as she pondered what she had thought. Stuck? What on earth had she meant by that? She was just a human who happened to wake up alone, with amnesia, naked, in the middle of a field with no one sign of how she got there. She dodged around a tree, how could she have stopped the Stunticons before she was 'stuck' like this? What had she forgotten? Who really was she?

That was when the ground chose to vanish from underneath her again.

A startled gasp escaped her as she fell and tumbled down the steep slope. She managed to twist herself around so that she was sliding down the slope instead of rolling uncontrollably. Branches and roots tore at her and her clothing as she slid. She could only hope that her backpack wouldn't be torn off. In a cascade of dead leaves and dirt, she came to a halt at the base of the steep incline. Limbs spread in awkward directions she let her head just thump back against the earth in relief. She closed her eyes for a moment to try and get her heart to stop hammering in her chest.

She didn't expect to drift off to sleep.

-Break-

Clouds.

It was hard to believe that all they were small droplets of water forming around dust or some other small particle suspended in the atmosphere. The only reason that they appeared as the white masses seen from earth was because of the rays of sunlight being reflected through the water drops. Flying through it felt like the fine mist that came from a hose. Pity there wasn't a rainbow to go with it.

It was so calm and peaceful up among the clouds. Skimming over them without a care in the world, just feeling the small, barely there drops hitting and then sliding away was enough to make the tension in the day flit away. It was cleansing. It was like a mental sigh of relief as the day spun off into the non-important and drifted into a sigh of contentment.

:Incoming!:

It was unfortunate that all good things had to come to an end.

Wing flaps tilted in opposite directions, one all the way up and the other all the way down, and an extra pulse from the thrusters was all it took. Spinning off to the side, the heat from the missiles' small engines felt along the underside of the fuselage, the danger was averted for the moment. The wing flaps angled again, stopping the barrel roll before causing him to dip down into the clouds. The coolness that was normally calming was now just a veil to hide from the threat in the skies. All too soon the clouds were gone, showing chaos filling the skies below them.

Moving at speeds that easily exceeded that of Mach two, jets fought each other in vicious dogfights below the calm tranquility above them. Even further below on the ground, weapons were blasting away at each other but were studiously ignored as the sounds of another jet was barring down from behind. For now the war of the sky was more important than the fighting on the ground. Whoever gained the upper hand in the air would then wreak havoc on the ones fighting for the opposite side on the ground.

Both sets of wing flips tilted all the way up, causing the world to shift away and the clouds to come back into view. For a brief moment the calmness seemed to push away everything else but the F-15 fighter jet barreling through the clouds was enough to ruin the feeling completely. Unable to stop fast enough, the jet zipped under and in front as the loop was completed and the F-15 now in front.

Light particles were excited, charged to the point of being a high powered laser, and released in rapid fired bursts peppering the sky around the F-15 with weapon fire. The seemingly pale yellow beams looked beautiful to those who had never seen them before but the devastation they possessed was huge. Black smoke began to trail from the F-15 wings shortly after one pulse hit. While the damage wasn't extensive, the jet's ability to maneuver was almost completely gone. If it was lucky it might be able to turn around in the next twenty miles to reenter the fight. It posed no more of a threat than the clouds did so, with a hard bank to the left, the fight twisted back around into view. With an extra burst of speed, the fight was suddenly that much closer and more deadly.

Laser pulses and missiles streamed about as the jets seemed to dance around each other in the sky. Minuet changes in the tail flaps and quick variations in speed was spinning the world this way and that. Sometimes the earth filled the view and other times it was the endless expanse of white clouds above but it was constantly plagued with laser bursts, missiles and jets flying close together. The power from their engines were renting the air, causing it the scream as they blew through it, intent on blowing the enemy jets out of the sky.

:Slag!:

The voice echoed throughout his frame as the radio crackled to life. An F-4 Phantom II jet was trailing smoke from one of its wings. The red and white aircraft had merely been grazed but the hit had been enough of a distraction that the flyer seemed unaware of the other jet, this one maroon with white highlights, on its six with deadly intent. Engines revved as the battle suddenly flew so much closer and the smaller flyer was almost right there but still too far away for too help. The engines gave a frustrated whine as the other jet bared down, energy glowing as it prepared to release a shot at the distracted jet.

:Fireflight! On your six!:

An F-15 Eagle accelerated on the maroon jet with its laser pulses flashing all around it. The jet tried to bank away from the furious jet but the Eagle stayed on it, moving up alongside. In a fit of acrobatic grace, the Eagle spun in a barrel roll edging just a slight bit closer and hitting the other jet on the tip of his wing. Unready for the sudden forced adjustment to its flight pattern the jet spun away, wing flaps and thrust working hard to realign itself and bring it out into a level flight again. Yellow particles charged after it, driving it further away from the Phantom.

:You alright, 'Flight?:

:I'm fine, I've hit mountains harder than that,: The jet seemed to have a point, already the smoke trailing from its left wing was gone. :But thanks for the save, Air Raid.:

:Yeah, yeah. Happy, happy, joy, joy, and all that slag. Come on you two, focus! Where in the middle of a dogfight here!: A harrier jet swooped into view, seeming to suddenly pause in midflight as its engines realigned themselves. The F-15 chasing it swerved sharply to the left to avoid the collision with the floating jet. The harrier's engines shifted again and the slower jet opened fire on the other jet. :We can hold hands and be all emotional later!:

:So your actually going to join us this time without us dragging you out of your room?: Came a cheeky response as the Eagle wagged its wings and banked away from the F-4 who was already reentering combat. :I'm holding you too that!:

The reply was lost as energy crackled across a wing. The light pink energy didn't seem to be destructive; instead it seemed to burrow into his systems and power down some of the higher functions within, temporary disabling them. The engine on that side sputtered and the world stopped flying by as fast as it was. A warning came over the radio but the feeling of something colliding with him took his attention away from the message.

Hands gripped into a seam in the armored fuselage, pain flaring along the wires as they were cruelly pulled. Sensors weren't needed as the heat began to build, signaling a weapon was about to discharge. Knowing that there was only one way to get free from the other mech holding onto his back, a subroutine was activated and less than a nanosecond later armor and plating was shifting as wires realigned themselves along the struts underneath. It was much slower than normal but still quick enough to catch the mech perched on his back off guard. With the engines no longer propelling them forward, the two former jets dropped out of the sky.

"Are you slagging nuts!" came the cry of the mech hanging off him. The painful grip left as the other tried to pull away. A quick burst with his partially functioning thrusters turned his perception around. The other mech who had barely pulled away looked startled just as his large servos grabbed the red and blue mech, dragging him down too. The black helmet on his attacker's shoulders snapped back and forth as the other mech tried to free himself. "You're going to get us both killed!" came an un-Primus like screech from the mech thrashing around violently.

"No, we're just going to get slagged," he tried to stay calm as the ground started to rush towards them. He knew that the drop wouldn't kill either of them but both of them would be out of action for a while with the damages they were about to sustain. It's not like he had a way to prevent the fall, the Null Ray had taken most of his systems off line to begin with and it was a miracle that he could still transform at all. At least this way he was ensuring that there would be one less enemy aircraft in the sky to shoot down his brothers.

Seconds before he hit, he turned off his optics and his HUD display, surrendering to his fate as his fear of heights came back at the moment and he squeezed the other mech hard as he struggled to control his rising panic. The mech he held captive lived up to his name, screaming some form of obscenity at him, but the pitch was so high he wasn't sure what was being said. They were spinning out of control. A terrified voice was suddenly screaming at him over his comm. link.

:SILVERBOLT!:

Then he hit.