A/N: I do not own Transformers. I also do not own the song in this chapter
ZephyrStar: I'm sorry about all the jumping around in this story. I just really want to get my point across without over loading my laptop. If you have any questions please feel free to
e-mail me and I'll explain as best as I can. I also plan to do a couple fillers for this story once it is done so that the story is a little easier to understand.
chapter two
"I can't believe that it's been a month already." said Zephyr as she laid back on the hard concrete and stared at the ceiling of the garage "The Johnson's will be returning next week
and now I have three alien robots to hide from them."
"It's not all that bad Zephy girl." said Switchblade as he stared at the newly repainted Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution "You've got some friends who'll watch yer back no matter what."
Zephyr nodded and glanced at her handy work. She had rebuilt the damaged car and reproduce it's original paint scheme and now it looked brand new. Sparkplug liked the car a lot
and had helped out as did Surfer after he had finished repairing Sparkplug's cpu. During the month he had been staying with them, Sparkplug had told them about Cybertron and
the war for the All Spark, the Autobots, peace loving bots who fought for freedom, and the Decepticons, bots who sought to enslave the universe. The three of them had agreed to
help Sparkplug find his Autobot companions and they had been working on the car ever since, so that the small Autobot could use it to upgrade back up to his original form. Now
that it was done, the four of them were taking a moment to relax until Sparkplug's scanner went off, indicating that someone was approaching. The three bots quickly transformed,
Switchblade into a Kawasaki Ninja, Slicksurfer into a laptop, and Sparkplug into a PDA. Zephyr sat up and looked out the open garage doors. Sam's Camero had pulled into the
driveway followed by a silver Pontiac Solstice with a paint job that looked like it had been through hell and back. Standing up, Zephyr walked up to the now parked cars as Mikaela
got out of the Solstice.
"You guys are here early." she said as she looked at the Pontiac "Damn, Mikaela, when you said you had a car that needed a new paint job, you didn't tell me it was this bad! I'm
gonna have to sand it down and redo the whole thing. I can get it done by tonight, so came back first thing tomorrow morning to pick it up."
"Okay, see ya tomorrow Zeph." said Mikaela as she handed Zephyr the keys before getting into Sam's Camero. Zephyr waved as they backed out of the drive way, unaware of the
communication going on between the Camero and the Solstice.
'Why are you guys leavin' me here? I don't want to be left here with some human femme to get my paint job redone!'
'Don't worry lieutenant, your in good hands. If you're lucky, Miss Zephyr might wash you and besides, Prime wants you to look into some strange signals that were coming from the larger building on the property.'
'Frag it all, why did I get volunteered for this job?'
'Because you just happened to be the lucky bot who needed some cosmetic work.' With that said, the Camero cut the line, leaving the Solstice to his silence.
'Slag, this is going to be a long sixteen hours.'
Zephyr took a moment to appreciate the awesomeness of the Pontiac Solstice before she opened the driver side door and got in.
"Let's rock and roll." she said before sticking the keys in the ignition and turning the car on "Man, I would love to have a Solstice of my own. Listen to that engine go. Damn, I
really need a life." She put the car into drive and carefully steered it into the garage and then into the room set up for painting vehicles. Turning the car off, she got out and looked
over to where her three transformer friends were. Switchblade had transformed and was leaning against the Lancer Evo as he blasted music from a set of unseen stereos while
Surfer and Sparkplug were sleeping on the hood of the Lancer.
"Switch, turn up the tunes please." called Zephyr as she got ready to sand the paint off of the Solstice "I'd like to here my music that you swiped from Surf while I work."
"Sure thin' Zephy girl." said Switchblade as he cranked up the tunes which happened to be Linkin Park. Zephyr just rolled her eyes and pulled on her mask and goggles before
picking up the sander and walking over to the Solstice.
The Solstice barely registered the girl picking up the sander because he had his entire attention on the Kawasaki Ninja mech that was leaning against the yellow Lancer Evo.
Immediately, the Solstice commed his leader.
'Hey Prime, ya read me?'
'Loud and clear Jazz.'
'I found the source of the signal ya pick up on.'
'Where is it?'
'In the garage you so graciously sent me to for the femme to fix me up. There's three of them here. One feels like an Autobot, the other's a neutral, and the other I can't quite
make out because it's original designation has been wiped out and then someone attempted to repair it, but it feels neutral yet a bit familiar.'
'Keep on eye on them Jazz. We don't need the Deceptions capturing or destroying them.'
'Understood, Jazz out.'
Jazz turned off his comm. and immediately he realized that all his paint was gone and shuddered slightly before the girl began to redo his paint job.
Switchblade was bobbing his head slightly as he listened to the music blasting from his stereos as he leaned against the finished Mitsubishi Lancer but he couldn't help but glance
over at the Pontiac Solstice that Zephyr was working on repainting. There was something off about it, just like something was off about that yellow Camero that belonged to
Zephyr's friend. They both gave off a vibe similar to Sparkplug and that made him wonder if they were Autobots. He also felt something playing at the edge of his scanners but he
couldn't make out exactly what it was. Time to pull out his back up. Standing up, the blue mech turned and to face the sleeping laptop. He poked Surfer but the small silver mech
just mumbled and turned over. An unamused look crossed Switchblade's faceplates before he began rubbing his thumb and pointer finger together. After thirty seconds, he poked
Surfer again, sending a small joint of electricity through the
smaller mech. Slicksurfer jolted awake and sat up before glaring darkly at Switchblade.
"Hey Surf," said Switchblade "Sorry for the rude awakening but I need you to transform for a minute, then you can go back into recharge."
"Fine." said Surfer before transforming. Switchblade opened the laptop before hooking up a wire from his arm to the smaller bot.
"Alright Surfer," said Switchblade as he gently typed "I need ya to check these scans for me and do ya think you could upgrade my scanners while yer at it?"
'I will Switchblade but you will need to be patient, something I know you're not good at.'
"Don't worry, I can handle it." said Switchblade "Just as long as ya got a couple games on that hard drive of yers." Surfers only reply was to bring up a window that displayed the
time remaining until the analysis and upgrades were complete.
'Ravage, report.'
'There's two Autobots here but one's really small and the other hasn't noticed me yet.'
'Good. Orders: Wait until I arrive then begin to attack. Until then, observe and prepare.'
'Understood, Ravage out.'
-several hour later-
Zephyr let out a yawn as she sat down on the ground and admired her handy work. The Solstice gleamed like new under the harsh lights of the garage. Checking her watch, the
tired girl saw that it was almost one in the morning before yawning again.
"Damn, time flies when you're having fun." she said as she stood up again "I really should get some sleep before I pass out from exhaustion." Letting out another yawn, she began
to walk towards the entrance of the garage until Switchblade picked her up and carried her over to the couch that was on the far side of the garage and laid her down on it.
"I'll close up shop." he said. Zephyr nodded sleepily and curled up on her side before falling asleep. Switchblade turned off the lights before he went over to the doors and had begun
to close them when a driverless media van pulled into the drive way. That set off warning bells in his cpu along with the purple symbol on the hood of the van. Suddenly, Sparkplug
appeared next to him.
"It's Soundwave." said Sparkplug "Ravage isn't with him though. Neither is Rumble. This is bad, really bad. We should wake up the Autobot Zeph repainted." Switchblade nodded.
"You go do that." he replied "Wake Surf as well. I've gotta check on Zephyr." Sparkplug nodded and shot off to where the Pontiac Solstice was parked while Switchblade ran back to
where he left Zephyr.
Jazz was brought out of recharge by something knocking on his windows. He was a bit groggy but his scanner suddenly going off snapped him out of that.
"Slag." was all he said before radioing the Autobot base. Prowl was the one who answered.
'What is it Jazz?'
'Soundwave's decided to show up at the shop I'm at. Not sure if it's because of me or the signals
we detected. What do you want me to do? There's a human here and I don't want ta scare her.'
'You are to do nothing unless Soundwave makes the first move, am I clear?'
'Clear as crystal, Prowl.'
'Are there any other decepticons in the area?'
'Not sure. I'm not picking anything up but they could be out of scanner range.'
'Alright. I''m sending someone to back you up. Don't do anything stupid until they get there.'
'Roger, Jazz out.'
Turning off his comm. Jazz turned to the small bot that he detected next to him.
"Little bot, you got a name?" he asked quietly.
"Sparkplug." the bot replied "I crash landed on this planet about two years ago and because my injuries were so severe, I had to down grade. Zephyr fixed me up."
"It's good ta see ya again Sparky." said Jazz "So what do you know about the other two bots here?"
"Slicksurfer, just came into being about a year ago." said Sparkplug "I'm not so sure about Switchblade though. Basically his entire memory was wiped when Zephyr found him and
he had suffered serious injuries. Zephyr fixed him up while Slicksurfer tried to salvage his memory but all that could be saved were bit of his personality and some fighting skills.
Right now they're both neutrals and Switchblade has appointed himself to be Zephyr's guardian since she saved him." Jazz pondered what Sparkplug had said for a few moments
and then he went to say something but a scream cut him off.
Even though she was exhausted, Zephyr found herself waking just a few minutes after she closed her eyes. Sitting up, she couldn't help but get the feeling that something
malicious was watching her. That was when she saw the glowing eyes watching her from the darkness. Her eyes widened and she jumped out of the way as a metal jaguar crashed
into the couched she had just been sitting on. She let out a loud, ear piercing scream as the jaguar crouched, which caused it to flinch and back off as if it were in pain, giving her
the chance to jump to her feet and run. As she was running, a metal arm wrapped around her waist and a hand covered her mouth.
"It's just me." said Switchblade's voice in her ear before she could start struggling "Don't worry, we'll get outta here alright." Zephyr nodded and Switchblade picked her up and
held her close as he ran over towards the light switches. Once they got to the light switches, Switchblade set Zephyr down and turned with his wrist blades flicking out as
something came charging at them.
"Zephy turn the lights on now!" said Switchblade as he struck out at something. Zephyr did just that and they lights came on just as Switchblade sent the metal jaguar flying
through the air with four long gashes on its torso. The jaguar struggled to its feet before bolting out the door.
"Switch, what was that?" asked Zephyr in a semi terrified voice. Switchblade retracted his wrist blades and turned to face her but just as he was about to answer, an engine
revving cut him off. The Solstice that Zephyr had been repainting, backed out of the painting booth and whipped around before zooming out of the garage. The sound of shifting
gears was heard followed by the sound of clashing metal. Switchblade gently grabbed Zephyr's wrist and dragged her over to the Lancer Evo where Sparkplug and Slicksurfer were
hard at work. Sparkplug disappeared into the car while Surfer ran over to them and jumped into Zephyr's arms as the yellow Lancer Evo started up on its own before driving out of
the garage. Going over to the door, the three of them watched as the Evo transformed into a thirteen foot tall robot and attacked a second bot with police themed armor and
malicious red optics while a silver bot that faintly resembled the Pontiac Solstice attack a red optic, media van mech. Zephyr felt herself trembling as she watched the fight,
memories of Mission City replaying in her mind. Switchblade noticed this and gently hugged her, attempting to comfort the terrified female while Slicksurfer did the same.
Eventually, the two red optic bots took off when a second cop car and a GMC TopKick came driving up and eventually skidded to a stop as they transformed. The silver bot went
over to the cop bot and the black bot while Sparkplug went over to where Switchblade and Surfer had somewhat calmed Zephyr down.
"Is she alright?" asked Sparkplug as he kneeled down in front of them.
"I'm fine, Sparkplug." said Zephyr "I just had a scare that's all."
"Alright." said Sparkplug as the other three bots approached them "Let me introduce you to some of my comrades. Prowl the Autobot SIC," The cop bot stepped forward and
nodded his head in greeting "Jazz the TIC,"
"Yo." said Jazz before Sparkplug continued, "And this is Ironhide, the weapons specialist."
"Ya feelin' lucky punks?" said Ironhide as he pointed his cannons at them. Zephyr's eyes widened when she saw the cannons and Switchblade glared at the larger mech.
"Ironhide," scolded Prowl "Put those cannons away before you scare her."
"Sorry." grunted Ironhide as he put his cannons away.
"This is Zephyr Umbra, Switchblade, and Slicksurfer." said Sparkplug as he introduced his three friends to his comrades.
"Miss Umbra," said Prowl "I think it would be best if you return to base with us. We don't want the decepticons returning after we leave and harming you."
"I understand." said Zephyr "Just let me grab somethings from my room."
"Just hurry." replied Prowl. Zephyr nodded and ran to the house with Switchblade and Slicksurfer. Once in her room, she packed both her messenger bag and a duffle bag. Several
changes of clothes, undergarments, socks, jackets, and hygienic supplies went into the duffle bag while her sketch pads, colored pencils, regular pencils, her phone charger, and
some framed photos went into her messenger bag. Then she shoved her cell phone and wallet into her pocket before she turned to her transformer friends. Switchblade had a
duffle bag filled with who knows what, probably her entire collection of cds and magna, which he seemed to have taken a liking too. Slicksurfer had a backpack filled with a random
bits of electronic equipment and probably her small collection of dvds.
"Okay, everyone ready to go?" she asked. The two mechs nodded and the three of them went outside where the four mechs sat waiting in their alt. modes. Sparkplug was the
closest to them and he opened his passenger side doors.
"You and Surfer will be riding with me, Zephyr." said the yellow mech as Zephyr and the two smaller mechs put the bags into his back seat "Switchblade, you'll be riding in
Ironhide's trunk in your vehicle mode." Switchblade looked a bit disgruntled at the news but none the less went over to the black truck and jumped into the bed of the truck,
earning a few curses from the weapons specialist, which he ignored as he transformed into his Kawasaki Ninja alt. mode. Zephyr just shook her head at Switchblade's display and
slid into the driver seat while Slicksurfer sat down in the passenger seat. Sparkplug closed the doors and followed Prowl out of the drive way with Ironhide and Jazz following behind
them. As they drove, Zephyr felt her exhaustion finally catch up with her and soon she fell into the world of dreams.
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When Zephyr woke up, she panicked a bit because she didn't recognize the room she was in but she instantly calmed down when saw Switchblade sprawled out on a couch, deep in
recharge, and Slicksurfer was sitting on a desk in his laptop form. Everything that had happened last night came back to her and she guessed that they were in the Autobot base
since they weren't dead or in cages. Sliding off the very comfortable bed she had been in, she walked over to where she had seen her duffle bag and she grabbed it before looking
around for a bathroom, which she quickly found and went in. Once inside, she closed and locked the door before taking a hot shower. While she was showering, Zephyr couldn't
help but wonder what was going to happen to her now. Last night, everything she had been trying to forget for the last year had come back with a vengeance and it scared her.
What had really scared her was that two of the Autobots she had seen last night had been at Mission City a year ago, the silver one named Jazz and the black one called Ironhide.
Hot tears began running down her face as the trauma of almost being killed by that large helicopter transformer came back to her after being hidden for so long. Her tough facade
crumbled as she fell to her knees and sobbed, the cursed tears falling harder than before as she cried her heart out until all her tears had been spent and she sat there sniffling.
Then she wiped her eyes and nose before standing up and hiccuping slightly. Recomposing herself, she washed her hair before scrubbing her skin until every bit of dried paint, oil,
and other car fluids was gone. Once she was done, she turned off the water and squeezed the excess liquid from her hair before getting out and drying herself. After wrapping a
towel around herself, she wiped the steam from the mirror and looked at herself carefully before grabbing a pair of hair trimming scissors from her bag. Taking her waist length hair
into her hand, she slowly began to cut it until it reached just her jaw and hung their messily. Putting the scissors away, she threw away the hair before pulling out an outfit and
getting dressed. She put on a navy blue halter top and a pair of black spandex shorts that went down to her knees before putting on a pair of sandals. Zipping up the bag, she took
a moment to examine the tattoos on her arms and legs. Four chinese dragons were wrapped around her limbs and they were the only reminder she had of her parents. On her
right arm was a Shenlong dragon that she had gotten when her father had been diagnosed with lung cancer. On her lower right leg was a Yinglong dragon that she had gotten
when her father had died from cancer. On her left arm was a Funcanglong dragon that she had gotten when her mother had also been diagnosed with lung cancer. On her lower
left leg was a Dilong dragon that she had gotten when her mother had died from cancer. She had lost both of her parents in less than two years and just as she had thought that
she had recovered, the Mission City fiasco happened. A few days after getting out of the hospital, she had gotten a large Tianlong dragon tattooed on her back as a promise to
herself that she wouldn't allow herself to be weak again. Zephyr sigh softly before picking up her bag and going back into the room. Both Switchblade and Slicksurfer were awake
and waiting for her when she walked into the room.
"Zephy girl?" said Switchblade with a bit of confusion in his voice. He knew Zephyr never showed off her tattoos except when she was training.
"It's time for a new beginning Switch." she replied as she dropped the bag onto her new bed "I can't keep hiding anymore. I can't keep running anymore. I just want to be myself
and not who I've painted myself to be." Switchblade nodded in understanding. His charge had been a bit distant lately and he really wanted her to be happy all the time instead of
just around certain people. Zephyr smiled at him before picking up her i-pod and putting it into her pocket and hung her headphones around her neck after hooking them up to the
slim device.
"Shall we venture forth to find our breakfast, my friends?" said Zephyr with a smile on her face.
"Ya bet we will," said Switchblade "And I know were we're suppose ta go. So follow me!" Zephyr and Surfer chuckled before Surfer jumped into Zephyr's arms as she followed the
motorcycle mech out of the room. The hallways were huge and there was quite a few people walking the halls but no Autobots. The people gave them curious looks as they passed
them but no one said a word.
"So what's on the agenda for today?" asked Zephyr.
"Well," said Switchblade "After we get energized for the day, we're suppose ta go see the Boss bot, Optimus Prime and we'll find out what we need ta find out and go from there."
"Okay." said Zephyr with a nod "Will we meet anyone where ever we're going Switch?"
"Definitely, Zephy girl." said Switchblade "Everyone gathers in the rec. room for breakfast. The Autobots fer their energon and the humans find whatever they want to eat in the
kitchen. So we're bound ta meet someone. Hopefully, Sparky's there, he'll help out a lot." Zephyr shook her head and looked around at her surroundings. Everything was shiny and
clean and metal and huge. It made her feel small and insignificant for a moment but she quickly shook that thought away and continued to walk next to Switchblade. They
eventually made it to the rec. room and there were quite a few bots and humans there but most importantly Sam and Mikaela were there with an Autobot that looked suspiciously
like Sam's Camero. The two teens saw her and waved her over, so she and Slicksurfer joined them while Switchblade went off somewhere.
"Hey Zephyr!" said Mikaela as Zephyr sat down at the table with them and Surfer sat down on her lap.
"Good morning Sam, Mikaela," said Zephyr before looking up at the yellow bot "Good morning to you too, even though I don't know your name."
"I'm Bumblebee." said the yellow mech as he lowered his finger for her to shake.
"Nice to meet you Bumblebee." said Zephyr with a smile "I'm Zephyr Umbra and this little bot is my friend Slicksurfer but he goes by Surfer or Surf. Switchblade was just with us a
moment ago but he disappeared, so I guess you'll meet him eventually."
"Are you feeling well?" asked Bumblebee.
"Yeah, why?" asked Zephyr.
"Well, there are strange markings on your limbs and I know that it isn't normal." said Bumblebee. Sam and Mikaela started laughing at the confusion on Bumblebee's face, making
the bot even more confused.
"They're called tattoos Bumblebee." said Zephyr as she tried to keep a straight face "They're not dangerous to my health."
"Then what are they for?" asked Bumblebee as the mechs in the room listened in on their conversation, wondering what tattoos were.
"Tattoos are a type of art that humans put onto their bodies." said Zephyr as a smile twitched at the corners of her mouth "Its permanent so that means that it doesn't come off
and it hurts like hell to get one."
"Then why do humans get them?" asked Bumblebee as he wondered why humans would put themselves through pain to get images put on their bodies.
"There's a lot of reasons." said Zephyr "People get them for decoration, religious and spiritual reasons, tradition, as memorials, and for lots of other reasons."
"Why did you get yours?" asked Bumblebee.
"The ones on my arms I got when my parents were diagnosed with cancer." said Zephyr sadly "The ones on my legs I got after they died and the one on my back I got after I
almost got killed in Mission City a year ago by a crazy helicopter."
"Wait a minute." said Sam "You were in Mission City during the battle?"
"Yep." said Zephyr "Not a fun experience. Especially the almost dying part and the being stuck in the hospital for almost a month. I lost my really expensive motorcycle too, good
thing my insurance recouped me."
"You almost died and all you could worry about was losing your motorcycle!" said Sam.
"It was a brand new model of the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 right from the factory!" said Zephyr "I saved every penny I made for five years to buy that bike!"
"She's got you there Sam." said Mikaela with a giggle as Zephyr smirked.
"What'd I miss?" asked Switchblade as he returned with energon for himself and Surfer.
"Nothin' much." said Zephyr before swiping a piece of toast off of Sam's plate.
"Hey!" said Sam.
"Be grateful it was me taking your toast and not your coffee Sam." said Zephyr before shoving the toast into her mouth. Sam opened his mouth to say something but Switchblade
cut him off.
"Don't say anything kid." said the motorcycle mech "Zephy girl is very unpredictable in the morning and it's best to stay on her good side or else you'll be a target for her misplaced
aggression all day." Then, all of a sudden, a sandal collided with the side of his head and he glanced over at Zephyr, who was sitting there with her arms crossed and her eye
twitching slightly.
"I heard that Switchblade." she said as she glared at him "I swear if you keep saying things about me, I'll turn you into a femme before reformatting you into a toaster, ya hear
me?"
"Yep." said Switchblade as he peeked out from his hiding spot behind Bumblebee.
"Good." said Zephyr as she grabbed her sandal and shoved it back on before walking into the kitchen. Once she was gone, Switchblade came out from his hiding place and sat back
down.
"She's kinda scary when she's in a mood." said Switchblade.
"Not really," said Surfer "You just manage to tick her off every morning. You're lucky that you've lasted this long."
"Yeah," said Mikaela "Zeph has a temper but she rarely show it unless someone says something to her that she takes offensively and even then, it all depends on what you say. I
should know, I've known her since I was five, so about twelve years. Zeph is like my big sister. A very over protective big sister."
"Yeah, she interrogated me for an hour before saying that I was good enough to date Mikaela." said Sam with a shudder "That was not fun."
"Well she knock Trent out when she first met him." said Mikaela "It was the funniest thing I've ever seen. Ever since then, if you even mentioned her name to him, he'd shudder
and change the subject really fast. She's even got quite a reputation at our school."
"Really?" asked Switchblade.
"She's known as Dragonfang at our school." said Sam "Everyone, even the teachers called her that. She was the best student the school ever had, she was also in the more fights
from the time she was sixteen until the time she graduated than any other student in school history. She even took out the entire football team and those guys are no push
overs."
"Why do they call her Dragonfang?" asked Bumblebee.
"Dragon because of her tattoos," said Mikaela "And Fang because they say she can hit hard enough to make it feel like you've been bitten by an animal. Zeph's no push over, like
she acts. She could really kill someone if she wanted to, the thing is that she hates killing. She almost killed someone once before because he insulted her family and she went to
jail for two years. Ever since she got released, Zeph's been more withdraw even if she doesn't act it. I've known her long enough to be able to notice it but no one else really can."
"Someone talkin' about me?" asked Zephyr as she walked out of the kitchen with an energy drink.
"Yeah," said Mikaela "Just talking about your rep. at our school."
"I've still got a rep. there?" said Zephyr as she plopped down in an empty chair "I would've thought it would be gone by now."
"Nope." said Sam "You are officially the best and the worst student in school history. You even got a plaque on the wall of history."
"That really sucks." said Zephyr as she finished off her energy drink before putting on her headphones and turning on her i-pod. Mikaela reached over and removed a headphone
from her ear.
"Why don't you sing Zeph?" she asked "It'd bee a nice change instead of listening to the radio all the time."
"Later Mikky." said Zephyr as she put the headphone back into it's place "I'm not in the mood to sing right now." Mikaela shrugged and went back to her breakfast. Zephyr looked
up as a two men approached the table with Sparkplug.
"Hey Sparky!" said Zephyr as she pulled her headphones down around her neck. Music was heard coming from them because she didn't turn them off.
"Good morning Zephyr, Switchblade, Slicksurfer." said Sparkplug before turning to greet Sam, Mikaela, and Bumblebee, who he had met earlier, before sitting down next to
Bumblebee, who was his younger brother. While the two yellow Autobots talked, Sam and Mikaela introduced Zephyr, Switchblade, and Surfer to Captain Will Lennox and Sergeant
Robert Epps.
"Is that Bon Jovi you're listening to?" asked Will when he noticed that Zephyr's headphones were blaring music.
"Yep." said Zephyr "One of my top six fav. bands."
"Their one of my favorites too." said Will "Sarah doesn't like it when I play my music when Annabelle's sleeping though. She's also more of a country person."
"How old is your daughter?" asked Zephyr.
"Almost a year old." said Will.
"Well good luck with her." said Zephyr.
"Thanks." said Will. Zephyr smiled and put her headphones back on just as her on of her favorite songs came one. Her smile grew slightly as she began to sing along with the song
and her voice carried through the whole room and everyone quieted to listen to her strong yet beautiful voice.
This ain't a song for the brokenhearted
No silent prayer for the faith departed
And I ain't gonna be just a face in the crowd
You're gonna hear my voice when I shout it out loud
It's my life
It's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life
A few Autobots and humans who had been walking by the rec. room stopped and came into the room to listen to the auburn haired girl sing. The Autobots that were there were sending images and audio to their friends that weren't there and others were recording it to watch again later.
This is for the ones who stood their ground
For Tommy and Gina who never backed down
Tomorrow's getting harder, make no mistake
Luck ain't even lucky, gotta make your own breaks
It's my life
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life
Optimus Prime, who had been walking down the hall with Prowl stopped to see why everyone was gathered in the rec. room. Once they got to the front of the crowd, they were surprised to see an auburn haired girl standing on top of a table and singing her heart out to the crowd that had gathered.
You better stand tall
When they're calling you out
Don't bend, don't break
Baby, don't back down
It's my life
It's now or never
'Cause I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
And it's now or never
I ain't gonna live forever
I just wanna live while I'm alive
(It's my life)
My heart is like an open highway
Like Frankie said, "I did it my way"
I just wanna live while I'm alive
'Cause it's my life!
When she had finished the people in the room broke into applause and cheering. Zephyr blushed lightly as she pulled her headphones down around her neck before bowing to the
crowd. Then she jumped off of the table and turned her i-pod off before giving a cheesy smile to her friends as the crowd began to dissipate. For some reason, singing that song
seemed to give her back some sense of normalcy that she had lost after Mission City. As she was thinking, MIkaela glomped her.
"Zeph that was amazing!" said the seventeen year old as she pulled away "I don't get why you don't go professional with that voice of yours."
"Three reasons Mikky." said Zephyr "One, I have a track record, Two, I hate paparazzi, they are pure evil, and Three, I'd rather earn my money the old fashion way with a hard
day's work."
"That's right," said Mikaela "You prefer to do everything the hard way."
"Yep," said Zephyr "It is better to get the job done right the first time than getting it done fast and having it come back later to bite you in the ass." That earned her laughs from
Sam, Mikaela, Will, and Epps. Then a deep chuckle caught their attention and that was when they noticed Optimus and Prowl standing there.
"Hello Optimus." said Sam with a wave.
"Good morning sir." said Sparkplug and Bumblebee.
"Good morning everyone." said Optimus before kneeling down in front of Zephyr "You must be Zephyr Umbra. I want to thank you for helping Sparkplug."
"It was nothing" said Zephyr "I don't mind helping others out. It's something I enjoy doing."
"Very well." said Optimus "Would you mind if I speak to you in private? I need to tell you something important." Zephyr glanced at everyone else before nodding and stepping onto
Optimus's hand. She held onto his thumb as he stood up. Then the Autobot leader looked at Switchblade and Slicksurfer.
"Prowl will be assigning you your duties today." he said "So you will be with him for the time being." The two small bots nodded before waving to Zephyr as she left. Zephyr waved
back after sitting down on Optimus's palm. There was silence between the two of them as Optimus walked through the hallways with Zephyr in his hand. They eventually entered
Optimus's office and the tall red and blue bot set her down on his desk gently before sitting down in the chair behind the desk. Zephyr sat indian style on the desk as Optimus
rested his arms on the desk.
"Miss Umbra." said Optimus but Zephyr cut him off.
"Please don't call me miss Umbra," said Zephyr "It makes me feel old."
"Very well." said Optimus "Zephyr there are some things I need to discuss with you. As you know, you were attacked by decepticons last night, more specifically a feline called
Ravage." Zephyr nodded and he continued "Ravage wasn't alone, there were two other decepticons there as well. The first was Barricade and the second was the decepticons'
Communications Officer, Soundwave. You were very lucky to have had Jazz, Sparkplug, and Switchblade there but that brings us to another subject. Why exactly Soundwave was
there. Ratchet scanned your two friends, Switchblade and Slicksurfer and he found something interesting. I'm sure you know that Switchblade's memory was destroyed, correct?"
"Yeah." said Zephyr "Surfer tried to fix it but he could only recover a small bit of it. Switch also merged with my ruined motorcycle to upgrade."
"Yes, about that." said Optimus "While Ratchet was examining his original form, he discovered that Switchblade was originally one of Soundwave's cassettes. His name was
Rumble. That was why Soundwave was there last night, he wanted Rumble back but because of the destruction of Rumble's memory and his subsequent stay with you, he has
changed. He is no longer Rumble but Switchblade as you have named him and he is now a separate entity from Soundwave due to the loss of the telepathic bond Soundwave has
with all his cassettes."
"Let me wager a guess and say Soundwave really doesn't like me now." said Zephyr.
"Correct." said Optimus "Soundwave is very protective of his cassettes and because of what happened, he most likely will try to kill you. I believe it would be best if you lived here
for the time being, at least until Soundwave is no longer a threat to you."
"Alright," said Zephyr "But I'm going to need something to keep me busy and can I take Sparkplug and go get the rest of my stuff?"
"Mikaela mentioned that you were a good mechanic," said Optimus "So Ratchet might let you help him out in the med bay. As for your second request, I'll allow you to go as long
as you take Sparkplug and Bumblebee with you and you're back by sunset."
"Thank you Optimus." said Zephyr with a smile on her face. Noticing the ladder attached the desk, she walked over to it before turning and smiling at Optimus.
"Bye." she said before sliding down the ladder and running out the door. Optimus chuckled before turning to the stack of data pads on his desk and getting to work.
The song is 'It's My Life' by Bon Jovi.
