Hey everyone thank you so much for reading! I will try to upload new chapters when I can but of course reviews always help. Don't forget to comment, I take criticism as well.
This story takes place a few years before the movies, as all the information is in regards to the movies, not the TV series. Enjoy!
HockeyKid6622
"Hi, Daddy!" Sergeant Kevin Hawke smiled as he looked into the face of his young daughter, Tanner Hawke, but of course it wasn't his daughter's real face, it was her face over Skype. It was too dangerous in the Afghanistan wastelands for the young ten year old.
"Hey, kiddo! How's it going?" He smiled with pride, Tanner was everything he could ever want in a child and so much more. With being the second hand for her mom and keeping up to date with her father's platoon and skyping him every moment she had.
"Good, very good; Mom's working right now but she's doing really well. How are you doing?" Tanner was vibrating with energy as she smiled brightly. Kevin smiled at his daughter's enthusiasm; when he came home she did everything she could to make her dad's visit a good one.
"It's going we have only one more mission then I can come home but I'll have to work at a lab," he answered.
"Dad, what are you doing? What are you researching in Afghanistan?" Tanner asked suddenly serious. Kevin's smile melted as he shook his head.
"Tanner, that's not for you to know okay? No one must know I-"
"Sergeant!" His best friend yelled. "Roll out!"
"Sweetie, I have to go but we will discuss this later okay? I love you." Then he logged out. Once Tanner's face disappeared Hawke allowed himself to sigh as he turned to his commander and his very good friend.
"I hate lying to her," he admitted shaking his head and grabbing his gun.
"It's for her own good," his friend's low, gravelly voice sounded as Hawke nodded.
"But this risks her life, she's only ten! They will go after her and her mother and you both know it!"
The commander, Commander Jake Sully, nodded and placed a strong hand on Hawke's shoulder saying, "Well then you'll be there to protect her, once we get this then you can go home. You want that don't you? To hold your wife and child?" Hawke nodded smiling; he wanted that so bad.
"What if they're safer if I left?"
"You know that would never be true; leaving them will make the vulnerable, at least with you there they have someone that can protect them," his friend encouraged, "Besides I will be close behind and watch over them too."
Hawke smiled and put a hand on his friend's hood. "Thank you, my friend." He stared into his friend's glowing blue eyes and smiled.
"Alright! Team Alpha, roll out!" Sully shouted and they began their trek into the heart of the lion.
Tanner sat on the couch and watched the news smiling in knowing that her father was safe. It had been a week since she had talked to him but something inside her told her that he was okay.
DING! DONG!
She sighed and reluctantly left the couch as she approached the door. Out of habit she grabbed the hand gun her father kept there in case something should happen. Standing on her tip toes Tanner looked through the peep hole and gapped, almost dropping the gun.
The door bell sounded again and Tanner opened the door as she tried to keep her excitement down. She knew what he said but she never believed it; he'd said that before.
Tanner swung the door open and there in the door way stood…
"Daddy!" Tanner couldn't help herself and jumped into her father's arms and held him tight. "Dad, you're home!" Kevin let out a laugh as he entered his home and closed the door.
Home. The word had a nice ring to it. He smiled as he let the homely presence embrace him. Shannon, his wife, had kept the home exactly as he left but she had updated the pictures.
"Hey, sweetie, it's good to see you." He held his daughter and smiled; he'd dreamed of this day for years but… He tightened his grip on the briefcase in his hands; his eyes scanned the house for anything that would prove to be an enemy. Regret welled in his heart as he knew that his homecoming had endangered Tanner and Shannon's lives. He closed his eyes as tears were brought to his eyes.
Hold it together for Tanner, she needs you. And that's what he did for the sake of his child.
"Daddy, when do you have to go back?" Hawke tilted his head; he knew Tanner had held back for some reason and now he knew why. She didn't want to believe he was back only to have him leave one month later.
"Never," he answered as the words hit him. Never again would he have to carry a gun to protect his country, never would he have to venture into hostile environments praying that he would live another day to see his family. Never…
"I'm here to stay, I promise. Of course I'll have to go to the base some times a week but I'll never see another battlefield in my life again." He could hear Tanner give a sigh of relief as she held him tighter.
"Good, you promise? Never again?" Hawke placed the child down and looked deep into her intelligent, young eyes. She didn't hold the innocence most kids her age held but this was necessary. Hawke knew that if they chased after him he would bring a battle, worse than anyone had ever seen before, right into his backyard where his daughter played in the sand. He closed his eyes as he prepared himself to possibly lie to his kid.
"Yes, I promise no more battles for me." The words tasted like acid off his tongue as they burned his taste buds. Tanner stared into his eyes but accepted the possible lie.
"Okay, Daddy, can I make you anything to eat as you watch TV?" She asked already walking to kitchen where Hawke knew Shannon had given her full permission to use anything, except the big, motor knives that cut through bone like a hot knife through butter. Hawke smiled and sat down on the couch smiling at his home, his daughter and where his wife would show.
"Yes, one of your award winning grilled cheese sandwiches would do very nicely please," Hawke requested as Tanner nodded and went to make the order and making sure it was her best.
Please let me have not risked my daughter's life. Let me have made the right decision by coming home, I could've faked my death but I couldn't put my girls through that… He turned away from Sports where they were talking about the Vancouver Canucks shutting out the Edmonton Oilers 6-0, and turned to the setting sun and at the tree which Tanner had climbed so many times.
Please, watch over my family and keep them safe. Please, my friend, come home soon and keep my loved ones safe. Keep the safe…
Hawke gripped the briefcase where he knew ancient papers awaited him with the secrets older than Earth herself, where the knowledge awaited and where danger lay ahead.
Tanner gave a laugh as she jumped out of Cameron's red car and onto the hard cement. She waved goodbye and began her walk towards her home where her father and mother awaited her.
It had been four years since her dad came home and he kept to his promise; he had never gone back to the battlefields but instead went to the base for Intel and research but… But it seemed that he had gotten depressed, he spent more and more time at the base, the more time he spent locked away in his study reading and researching some forgotten artifacts. Each time Tanner saw him he looked older and had more gray.
Would he be better off in Afghanistan? Tanner shook the thought out of her head, here he had family, here he was safe from bullets and from the hate of another nation.
Safe…
Tanner paused at her front porch as she noticed that the lights were off.
"Strange," she whispered to herself, "Dad and Mom should both be home. Oh well, maybe they went out for a date." Tanner pulled out her phone and checked for any messages from her parents about their whereabouts. Nothing. Oh well they were adults and could take care of themselves but Tanner couldn't shake away the shiver that ran down her spine.
Tanner stepped inside the dark house and grabbed the gun at the door and tucked into her waistband, her father had taught her how to use one the day after he returned.
"I've made some enemies and they might come to hurt you…" Was all he said with a haunted expression.
Tanner continued into the house and placed her phone onto the table and looked around keeping the lights off.
"Hello? Mom? Dad? Where are you?" Tanner's voice echoed off the cream walls and into the eerie shadows. Nothing. Tanner felt the shiver grow into an instinct. She pulled her gun out and grabbed a flashlight piercing the darkness her eyes searching for anything out of place.
"" Tanner saw the clicks and squeaks as symbols, symbols unlike anything she'd ever seen before. Then the symbols in her mind changed as a metallic, nasty voice filled her head and filled the house.
"I am Bonecrusher!" Fear crept into Tanner as if somewhere, deep in her mind she knew what this thing- what this Bonecrusher was.
"Tanner, down!" Tanner turned to her father's voice as a brilliant blue flash filled the room. Hawke knocked his daughter to the ground as the flash turned to fire, igniting the furniture into a bon fire of pure heat.
"Dad, what was that?" Tanner shouted over the crackling of burning wood as Hawke pushed her behind a wall and shushed her.
"I'll explain later, just be quiet, quiet," Hawke whispered as his heart hammered. He knew this day would come from the moment he stepped inside the house he knew. Fear raced through his veins as Bonecrusher searched the house.
"" Again the metallic voice filled their minds and the symbols and nonsense words became understandable.
"Frenzy, find the humans!"
Frenzy. Tanner could picture a little skeleton-like machine ripping through drawers looking for something. It was about her height with blue eyes, as blue and brilliant as the mini explosion that filled the house.
Soon a sound of metal against the wood flooring filled the silent house. It was coming closer and it knew it.
"Tanner, take this," Hawke ordered as he shoved an old briefcase into her hands. "Keep it safe but don't read it or you will be cursed as I have. Go to the base and they'll know what to do." Hawke had tears falling from his eyes as he looked at his little girl.
"I'm so sorry you have to go through this. I love you so so much." Hawke kissed the top of her head. "Now go hide, take the bike- you remember how to drive it right?" Tanner nodded; Hawke had made sure his daughter could escape if she had to. "Take the bike and go as fast as you can okay? Go when I say so now go to your hiding place and wait." Tanner gave a fearful nod and went to the place her father had showed her a month before, inside a bin but she peeked watching and waiting as she pulled the briefcase close and smelled the old leather.
Hawke watched his daughter hide as fear, relief and adrenaline filled his muscles. Then came the rage. He would fight to the end to protect his child and keep her unharmed. His eyes turned into a burning inferno as he turned and looked right into Frenzy's eyes.
"Are you Sergeant Kevin Hawke, research command of the mission in Afghanistan four years ago?" Bonecrusher asked pounding at the siding.
"Yes," Hawke answered glaring into Bonecrusher's eyes and if looks could kill…
"Where is the item you retrieved and brought into Canadian territory?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hawke hissed. Bonecrusher raised a hand and hit him making him fly across the house and through a wall. Tanner bit her tongue to stop herself from crying out. She squinted to see through the dust that flew through the air.
"Don't lie! Where is that item?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Hawke moaned as he weakly lifted his head from the plaster. His face was now covered in blood and forming bruises. "I was there on an Intel mission, I don't do recovery missions." Hawke coughed. Bonecrusher shook his head and hit Hawke again. Hawke again flew through the air smashing through more walls and landed on the TV.
"Fine," Bonecrusher hissed. "Now you will tell me." Tanner could hear wailing from her hiding place and she knew that voice.
Mom!
Peeking again she could see the monstrous machine holding up her mother as her dad struggled to stand as the glass cut him even more.
"Tell me or I kill her," Bonecrusher threatened. Hawke looked up at his wife; he'd wondered why she hadn't come home yet. His heart trembled; they had found his Achilles' heel. Shannon screamed as her mascara ran down her face.
"Kevin, don't give them what they want! They'll kill me anyways! Don't do it!" Shannon screamed. Hawke let the tears spill as his heart broke.
"Don't hurt her," he uttered, "I'll give it to you." Hawke turned and pulled another briefcase out of a locked bin. He held it in hands as if deciding if he should hand it over.
"Now!" Bonecrusher yelled as his arm transformed into a giant gun then he pointed it at Shannon's head. Hawke nodded and placed the briefcase into Frenzy's hands and took a few steps back.
Bonecrusher let out a laugh and put Shannon down beside Hawke as he sent a message through his radio. Hawke wrapped his wife into a tight, loving embrace as tears fell from their eyes.
"Where's Tanner?" Shannon whispered almost too quiet for Hawke to hear her.
"Safe, she'll be fine," Hawke assured praying that he was right. "I'm sorry I brought this down upon us, it's all my fault." Shannon shook her head and kissed his cheek.
"No, it isn't! This was meant to be, Kevin, you are faultless," Shannon encouraged and smiled at him. She glanced up at Bonecrusher who gave them a cruel yet pleasurable smile. "He's going to kill us, isn't he?" Hawke gave a small nod.
"Yes he is." No sooner had Hawke said the words Bonecrusher turned his arm into a gun once again and prepared to fire. "But not until Tanner gets out of here." Then Hawke jumped towards the door, ignoring the round of bullets Frenzy shot at him. He jumped and grabbed a gun from behind the boot rack. Bonecrusher and Frenzy both took a step back.
Hawke had invented the gun in his years in Afghanistan to keep Bonecrusher's kind away. It had as much power as an F-22 Raptor's bullets but was more compact and more focal. He gave a smile as the machines stepped away.
"So you remember?" he asked taking glee in knowing that he could frighten the machines. This machine had taken out Wipeout, one of Bonecrusher's high commanders.
"I'm not alone," Bonecrusher hissed as the ground behind Hawke trembled as more of Bonecrusher's kind walked to his door. Then Hawke heard a voice that made his blood stop, a voice that haunted his nightmares every night. A voice that he thought- that he prayed- to never hear again. And what it said made matters all the worse.
"Decepticons attack!" Then parts of the house exploded in walls of blue flame. A round of bullets pierced through the houses walls and struck Shannon.
"Shannon!"
"Mommy!" Shannon fell where she stood as her heart stopped beating and where she stopped breathing. Tanner had to look away as the bullets tore her mother up making her look not human as her guts stuck out everywhere and pieces of her flesh covered the once friendly walls.
Rage and desperation filled Hawke as he stared at his wife's dead body staring up at the ceiling, her mouth slack. All of his precious memories shared with Shannon filled Hawke as new rage filled his eyes. He lifted the gun and loaded it up.
"Tanner! Go! Now!" Hawke yelled and began shooting. Tanner jumped out of the bin and took off as quick as a rabbit. She jumped onto the bike and zoomed away leaving the burning house, the monster, and the most important people in her life behind her. Tears blurred her vision as she exited the neighborhood but a voice sounded.
"No survivors! Decepticons, get the human!" That was the voice that called the attack on her home, on her father and mother. Tanner looked behind her to see a rally of the monsters destroying her house then-
BOOM!
Tanner's entire house was a burst of flame. The flames reached out as if trying to grab her. The fire roared with the rage- the monster called Decepticons- held deep in their hearts and Tanner knew that her father was dead. A pile of ashes within a pile of ashes.
"Get the human!" The Deception ordered. Tanner faced forward and drove faster as an F-15 Eagle flew up beside her but the plane had no pilot! She looked behind her to see that all the monster- Decepticons were transforming into cars, trucks, police cars and airplanes.
The transformation triggered something deep inside Tanner's memory.
"These machines are called Decepticons, they have two forms, their primary form is a machine-like form. Their alt-form can be anything from a car to an airplanes or satellite. They have mini ones too called Minicons. Their current leader- while Megatron is gone- is a Decepticons called Soundbarrier. Soundbarrier is by far the toughest Decepticons and the most cunning. Their name- Decepticon- comes from the deception they did on their planet. They are tough and will do anything to obtain their objective, normal weapons won't hurt them. They are almost impossible for humans to destroy alone," Hawke instructed. Tanner sat at the stairs to her father's underground study where he held a meeting in regards to the incident in Afghanistan.
"Then how do we kill them? Are we defenseless against these super machines?" General McCarter asked. McCarter had been killed the very next day in a car accident but Tanner didn't' think it was an 'accident'.
"No, there are machines just like the Decepticons but are on our side. They have less numbers but are far more courageous and better fighters. They are called Autobots, they right now are searching for an energy source that could save and repopulate their race. Many of them are on our planet right now searching or that source. They are led by the fearless Optimus Prime who is currently not on our planet but their weapons specialist is and he is aware of our situation and…" Hawke's voice faded. "Tanner, what are you doing?"
Tanner jumped up, she had been caught.
"Dad, Mom says dinner's ready," she mumbled searching the tables and looking at the pictures of the Decepticons and Autobots. Then she looked into her father's eye.
"I'll be up there in a minute, now go."…
The memory faded as realization told hold of Tanner's situation. She had about ten Decepticons on her trail with no Autobots and only a hand gun. Then a frustrated cry filled the night sky.
"Hawke gave us a fake! The human has the real data! GET HER!" It was Soundbarrier. Tanner remembered his picture and shuddered as she drove faster. The Decepticons would be on her tail now.
BOOM!
The road behind her turned to fire as the F-15 Eagle -Starscream her mind screamed at her- fired at her.
"Ah!" She gained control of the motorbike and drove faster than she ever had before.
"Give me the briefcase, human, and you shall live," Starscream hissed as he continued to fire at her knowing that if he hit her the contents of the case would burn.
"Over my dead body!" She yelled back over the wind and the blasting of the cement road.
"Oh," Starscream hissed, "So unwise!" Instead of fear Tanner felt cocky and proud that she was fighting this horrible evil.
Just like Dad did…
"Well I'm not the smartest out there!" She countered back and smiled despite having killing machines after her.
"Then you shall die!"
"Give it your best shot," she shouted back. Starscream let out a sound of anger, frustration and annoyance then shot the road in front of Tanner.
"Oh shit!" Tanner hit the brakes and fell off the bike, holding the briefcase close as the cement pulled her skin off and cut her back, destroying her clothes.
Starscream transformed into his primary form and stopped Tanner where she skidded and smiled. Tanner almost retched as she smelled the gasoline scent that coated him.
"Where's all that spunk now?" He laughed. Tanner felt rage build up in her stomach and she spat onto Starscream's face, spitting right in his eye. "You worm! You scum! You dead worm!" Starscream screeched as he tried to clear the saliva from his eye. He pointed a gun in her face- well her body, it was way too big for just her face- and gave a smile.
"Starscream!" Another voice just as deep and metallic as the Decepticons voice sounded but Tanner recognized this voice. "Pick on someone your own size!"
"Sergeant! Roll out!" It was the voice from the Skype, her dad's best friend. Who?
Tanner and Starscream both looked behind them to see a machine like the Decepticons but this one looked heroic and held valor in his eyes. Tanner's lips turned into a smile as she recognized him from the photos Tanner looked at- without her father knowing of course.
"Ironhide," Starscream hissed and stood up leaving Tanner alone. It was Ironhide, the weapon's specialist for the Autobots. "You're a little too late, Hawke is already dead," Starscream crackled. Ironhide looked at the ground sadly as his eyes blazed.
"Soon so will you." Without another word Ironhide began shooting Starscream. Starscream was no match for Ironhide and he transformed into his alt-form.
"We will meet again soon, Tanner, but next time I will get that briefcase," Starscream vowed then flew away. Tanner stood up and stared at her dad's best friend.
"Hurry, Tanner, he will be back, get in!" Then Ironhide transformed into a GMC Topkick… Her dad's truck. Tanner wondered what happened to it.
The Decepticons let out a horrid bellow and with that Tanner jumped inside the truck and it drove away.
Tanner looked behind her at the flaming pile of wood that was once her beloved home then she looked down at her scrapes and bruises that seemed to be everywhere.
"Where are we going?" She asked timidly.
"To the base where we can protect that briefcase and keep you safe. I'm Ironhide your father's guardian. Well, his old guardian. And you are Tanner Hawke his only child, fourteen years of age, am I correct?" Tanner said yes as a dozen question rose in her mind.
"What's in the case? Why weren't you protecting my dad? Pretty crappy guardian if you ask me," Tanner huffed crossing her arms feeling the aftershock of her ordeal.
"We shall discuss this at the base where we cannot be followed or listened to," Ironhide answered and Tanner looked off into space as tears rolled off her cheek and onto the seat. "Get some sleep, young Hawke, you'll need it." And with that Tanner slept with her parent's death and the Decepticons ruling her dreams.
"It's my fault." Tanner awoke to the deep, gravelly voice of Ironhide, her father's old guardian. Tanner found herself on a park bench with two Autobots beside her. Curious, she kept her eyes closed and listened.
"It was not your fault, Ironhide, you did what you could," the other Autobot assured. This Autobot's voice was confident and sure, like a leader's.
"I could have stayed with him!"
"You thought you could lure the Decepticons away and you did for about four years! Because of you Hawke had four years of peace with his family," the Autobot responded. Tanner could hear the creaking of metal as Ironhide looked away.
"And now he's gone," Ironhide paused taking a deep breath. "He was my responsibility! My sole responsibility was to keep him breathing, him and his family and now they're all dead but his precious daughter."
"If it weren't for you Tanner would be dead too and they would have the briefcase."
"You don't understand!" Ironhide roared then gave a big, defeated sigh. "He was my friend; we spilled sweat, blood and metal together, I've saved him so many times and he saved me just as many times. He was my best friend, nothing will ever change that and I shall mourn his passing every day and take on the responsibility of protecting his daughter until the end."
"The end of what?" The Autobot asked, "The end of this war or the end of your life?" There was an uncomfortable pause as Ironhide pondered the question. Then he looked at Tanner with such an intensity, such emotion, that Tanner felt it burn through her clothes.
"Till the end of time."
