Bystander
Today was a day like any other. I drove my car to work and, like the day before, expected to be bored out of my mind since I'm a nurse in training in one of the biggest hospitals in the city and my boss insists that nurses in training don't need hands on experience since their not really nurses. So I hate both my boss and his paperwork assignments.
But today I wasn't bored. No I wasn't bored at all. Because today, hell came to Mission City.
I was running an errand for my boss, picking up a cup of coffee for him when the bombs started exploding. Giant robots suddenly attacked, fighting with each other and fighting with, what I thought was, the United States army. The street I was standing on was destroyed in minutes. I was knocked to the ground in one of the many blasts and found myself pinned to the ground by a piece of debris from a building.
It was easy to hear the fighting robots from where I lay trapped. The two main ones, who seemed to be the leaders, were yelling at each other constantly and their voices carried over a long distance.
"Humans don't deserve to live." Growled the large red-eyed robot as he pinned the red and blue painted robot to the ground.
"They deserve to chose for themselves." Responded the blue-eyed one without hesitation and my heart immediately went out to him and I hoped that whoever he was he would win this battle.
"Then you will die with them!" yelled the red-eyed robot and, turning, he threw the blue and red painted robot into the air. "Join them in extinction!" a large gun formed in his hands and he attacked again.
But the red and blue robot refused to give up and drew his own gun from his back. He fired on the red-eyed robot once before being hit with a gun blast that sent him sailing through the air and straight into a skyscraper. Stunned, he lay there for a moment and the red-eyed robot turned away from him and attacked two of the other robots who were protecting a teenage boy who was running towards a building near me with a small box in his arms.
The boy disappeared into the old building and the red-eyed robot followed him.
"Hang on Sam!" yelled the red and blue robot a few minutes later as he leapt from building to building trying to reach the boy before the red-eyed robot.
I heard a loud explosion followed by a loud yell before I saw both robots land only a little ways away from me.
The red-eyed one sat up first, looking at the humans lying unconscious or knocked over around it, he said, "Disgusting." And flicked a man who had been trying to stand up into the side of a building.
I let out a small sigh of relief when I saw the red and blue robot holding the boy safely to his chest.
"Sam." Said the red and blue robot bringing both the boy's and my attention to him. "You risked your life to protect the cube."
"No sacrifice, no victory." Said the boy as if he had been told the words all his life, but had only just realized what they meant.
"If I cannot defeat Megatron, you must push the cube into my chest. I will sacrifice myself to destroy it." Said the red and blue robot without any hesitation and I could tell that he meant every word of it. He was totally prepared to sacrifice himself to stop this 'cube' thing from falling into Megatron's hands. From the way the fighting had been going, I was pretty sure that the red-eyed robot was Megatron. "Get behind me." ordered the robot and the boy scrambled to obey. "It's you and me Megatron."
"No, it's just me Prime!" yelled Megatron as the two robots clashed together once again.
"At the end of this day one shall stand. One shall fall." Said the red and blue robot, who I guess is named Prime.
"You still fight for the weak, that is why you lose."
Even though I know nothing of fighting, I could still tell that Megatron was stronger. He was throwing Prime into buildings and vehicles and landing hits, while Prime himself was only able to get a few hits in. It hurt my heart to see the red and blue robot being thrown around as if he was trash.
Suddenly, without any warning, the fight between the two robots was interrupted as missiles bombarded Megatron. He flames erupted around him and he stumbled as he fought to remain standing against the onslaught. With a cry of animalistic rage he lunged towards where the boy was hiding, only a couple of feet from where I was pinned.
"Give me my all-spark!" roared Megatron once his face was only a few feet away from the boy's.
"Sam! Put the cube in my chest! Now!" ordered Prime hurriedly. I could see that he was injured. He was lying to the side where Megatron had last thrown him, still working on regaining the energy necessary to stand again. He was unable to do anything to help the boy other then to sacrifice himself. "Sam!" he yelled. I could hear the desperation in his voice when he yelled that single word and I know that the boy could as well, because it seemed to spur him into action.
Without hesitation he ran forward, away from Prime. He ran towards Megatron, the red-eyed robot who had tried to kill him. Standing straight he lifted the strange box, which I realized must be the strange 'All-spark' thing that Megatron mentioned, and pushed it into the red-eyed robots chest.
"No Sam!" yelled Prime and I could hear a strange pain in his voice.
The cube dissolved into Megatron's chest and I could see that whatever the 'All-spark' was it was killing him. He seemed to gasp and choke as he clawed at his chest and fell onto his back.
The boy backed away from the fallen robot as if afraid of what he had done till he tripped over a piece of debris and landed on his butt, where he simply sat in a state of shock. Unresponsive to the world around him, but then again, he had just killed a creature that was obviously sentient even if he did kill it out of self-defense. It was only natural for his mind to have trouble with handling his body's natural actions.
Prime, finally able to stand, approached the fallen fighter till he was standing right above him.
It was then that I noticed exactly how close I was. So close that I could hear their gears whir when they moved. So close that I could hear their voices when they whispered their final words to each other.
"You left me…no choice…brother." Whispered Prime haltingly. I could hear the pain and loss in his voice and it tore my heart in two. I felt a tear travel down the side of my cheek as I realized just how much this robot Prime was willing to sacrifice for a species that wasn't even his own. I wept freely as I thought of the pain he must have suffered through with having to fight his own brother to the death.
My weeping must have alerted the robots some how, because a yellow one soon found me and quickly freed me from my prison.
"Are you injured?" he asked gruffly.
"No." I said as I sniffled and wiped my red eyes. "Just a little bruised and traumatized." I gave the robot a small smile.
He tilted his head at me in a questioning way, "Why are you smiling when your eyes indicate that you are in a period of mourning?"
My eyes watered again, but I refused to let the tears fall. "I use humor to keep myself from breaking down into a sobbing mass. You don't know much about humans do you?" As I spoke the robot began to walk back to where the others had gathered and motioned for me to follow him.
"No. I only arrived here a few days ago. Though, I suppose we shall learn all about you now that we will be living here."
"What's your name? And, I hope you don't mind me asking, but what exactly are you?" I asked.
"My designation is Ratchet and I am an autobot." Said Ratchet. "Optimus," He said turning to the robot I had heard Megatron call Prime, "I found this human uninjured. Who should debrief her?"
"The army is debriefing all humans in the immediate area." Said Prime/Optimus.
Looking up at him I saw that he was holding another dead robot in his arms. From the way he held the remains to his chest I could tell that it was the remains of a fallen comrade. Again I felt my heart go out to him. In the last hour he had been forced to fight his brother to the death and he had lost that brother and another friend to death.
Without hesitating I walked away from Ratchet till I was standing directly in front of the robot I had heard Megatron call Prime. He looked down at me and I could see the confusion in his face. It was amazing how much expression his face conveyed despite the fact that he was made of metal.
As I continued to stare up at him, I found myself unable to keep the tears back any longer. I let them fall from my eyes and stream down my cheeks unchecked. I could feel every eye on me, both the human and the robot ones. But I couldn't bring myself to care.
I used to be a shy and submissive person, but I know that something is different about me now. I was able to stand in front of those eyes as if they were not there. The only eyes that mattered were the blue ones that I was staring into.
"Yes?" he asked, the confusion on his face leaking into his voice.
"What is your name?" I asked, my voice surprisingly steady.
"Optimus Prime." He looked like he might have said more, but I think he saw the understanding dawn on my face as I realized why the two robots called him different things, and the confusion on his face became even more pronounced. "Who are you?" he asked.
"I'm just a bystander who got stuck close to the action." As I spoke Ratchet took the fallen robot from Optimus Prime's arms and Prime lowered himself to his knees so that he could be closer to my eye level.
"You are lucky to be alive." He said gravely.
I nodded and was silent a moment before stepping up to him and, gently placing my hand against the arm he was bracing himself up with, said, "Thank you."
He only nodded and said with a slight weariness, "Freedom is the right of every sentient being."
I nodded once but, as the tears began to fall harder, said, "I am sorry." My tears had turned into full-blown sobs now and my entire body shock with each breath I took. And every shaky breath made me think of the two robots that had died and the fact that Optimus Prime had lost people special to him. I held the metal arm my hand rested on in a vice like grip and used it to hold myself upright as I cried for the robot in front of me.
I cried for him and he didn't know it. But that was all right. The tears had more meaning when they weren't cried for spectators.
"Why do you mourn?" he asked in a whisper. The question was so quiet I barely heard it and I knew that when I answered only the other robots would be able to hear me.
"Because no one should have to fight their brother." I said simply and I could see the understanding flash in his eyes.
I watched those bright blue eyes shutter close for a moment and I think, in way, it was their version of crying. "Thank you." He whispered. And when he reopened his eyes they seemed brighter then before and when he spoke his voice sounded less pained.
"For what?"
"For understanding." He said and he gave me a small smile as he stood up.
As soon as he walked away from me I as ushered away by a group of soldiers and herded with a bunch of other civilians. We were made to wait for hours till some high up official told us that we were never allowed to speak about what we had seen and then we were forced to sif some document. I refused to sign and was held back while everyone else was released.
"Why did you refuse to sign?" asked one of the guards in the room. I recognized as one of the soldiers from the fight with the robots. I thought it was odd that a soldier who had just been in such a big battle would be stuck guarding a civilian who refused to sign a non-disclosure act instead of in a hospital either getting treatment himself or waiting for his injured friends.
"The document said that we would have no further contact with the robots, or as they called them – the NBEs -, and I for one refuse to do that."
"You want to have more contact with them?" he asked wonderingly.
I gave him a nod.
"Really?" He gave a low whistle before continuing, "They said you were brave, but I didn't really believe them. And you were pinned down how close to the final fight between Megatron and Optimus?"
"What do you mean them?" I asked slightly suspicious now.
"I am here to offer you a job as a liaison between the NBEs and the government. You were only to be offered this job if you seemed interested and if you gave a good reason for not signing that non-disclosure act." He handed her a large folder filled with multiple files about the different robots.
"Who is offering this job?" I asked, not even glancing at the folder that I now held in my hand.
He smiled widely at me as he said, "Why, the 'NBEs' of course."
I smiled back at him as I said, "I'll take it."
"You're not even going to look through the information to see what kinds of creatures they are?" he asked incredulously.
"I already know what kinds of people they are. Why should I care what kind of creature they are? I'll learn everything in this folder and more from them personally." I handed the folder back to him as my smile grew.
He shook his head in what appeared to be a mixture of exasperation and wonder. "Well he said, I guess we'll be seeing a lot of each other since I'll be having the same job. Come on they're waiting for us." He led me out of the building to the parking lot where the robots were sitting in a circle comfortably waiting for us.
The boy from before was there as well along with a teenage girl. From the way the two were standing close together I could tell that they were going out. Ratchet was reattaching the legs of one of the robots who was talking quietly to the boy and girl.
Standing, Optimus Prime said, "Now that we are all here we'll have everyone introduce themselves." Turning to the humans present he added, "After that I will tell you which autobot you are to assist." I must have looked slightly confused because he explained, "We are not accustomed to living on your planet and we need your help to blend in effectively till your world is ready to accept us." I nodded my understanding and the introductions began.
"As you all know I am Optimus Prime leader of the Autobots." Said Optimus Prime.
"I'm Ironhide, weapon's specialist." Said the black robot with huge canons mounted in his arms.
"I am Ratchet, Medic." Said Ratchet simply and he went back to work on the other yellow robots legs.
"I'm Bumblebee, scout and guardian." Said the yellow legless robot Ratchet was working on.
"I'm Sam Witwicky." Said the boy.
"I'm Mikaela." Said the teenage girl.
"My name is Captain Lennox." Said the soldier who had led me out.
"My name is Hanaharu," I said quietly, "but you may call me Hana."
"As Bumblebee has requested he will stay with Sam." Said Optimus and I could see both the boy's and the robot's faces light up with happiness at the news. "Ironhide will go with Captain Lennox." I saw the two nod at each other before I redirected my attention back to Prime. "Hana, would you be willing to come with Ratchet to live ob our vase instead of him going to live and work with you, because we might need him on hand in an emergency since he is our medic."
"Nice to know I'm appreciated." Mumbled Ratchet as he finished reattaching Bumblebee's legs. "You're going to have to ride on that tow truck back to the base though so I can do some fine tuning. He warned and Bumblebee saluted to show he understood.
"That would be fine." I said. There was nothing for me in Mission City but a boring job any way. I might as well start over doing something interesting.
"Alright, if that's settled, lets roll out!" he yelled and immediately all of the robots but Bumblebee transformed into vehicles. Ratchet drove up to me as a rescue vehicle and swung open his door as his voice said through the speakers, "You shall be riding with me so that we can become better acquainted." I gave him a nod and hopped in.
The door slammed shut behind me and we were off. My old life was behind me and before me was something new. I was someone different now. I'd seen things I'd only ever imagined and I could tell it was going to change me for life. I let myself smile as we sped along the highway, away from the life I used to know. Away from the place where I came very close to dieing, where I saw a creature much more powerful then myself die, and as I closed my eyes I took a deep breath. Held it for a moment…and then released it. And with it I released the frustration. And with a growing smile on my face I looked to the future.
I would be a bystander no more.