Cacthing up
" J-J- Jen?" she whispered voice hoarse.
Jen gasped stiffening, this couldn't be…no.
" Hail?!"
Bluestreak and Cliffjumper along with many others made tiny gasps as the woman limped a few steps forward, swaying a little before placing a bloody hand on Jens shoulder, staring at jen, she gave a very small smile.
"It's you…your alive!" she whispered before collapsing on the floor, blood pooling out of her wounds on to the ground.
Jenifer rushed to her side while glancing up and screaming one word…
"RATCHET!"
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Jen stood quietly next to the bloody mass on the med-berth, it has been several days since Hail has shown up on their doorstep. She looked at hails emotionless face, she could make out a scar placed on her right eye and left cheek underneath a dusty blanket. As she gazed lower she began to fully take in her injuries, a Massive, gaping wound in her left shoulder and an even bigger one in her right side, just under her ribcage, multiple scars here and there all over her person, completely wrapped in bandages, her tattoos could just be made out from all the grime and dry blood covering her.
Jen glanced at the corner of thee berth, all Hails weapons and belongings had been placed there, Jens gaze lingered on the massive Broad sword that even a man could have trouble lifting, never mind a female. Jen turned to go; ratchet said she wouldn't wake up until the afternoon at least so she can do other things until then. A glint of something shiny on Hails wrist caught her eye; she turned slowly only to gasp in surprise at what she saw.
Jen knelt down and picked up hails wrist, on it she saw something long forgotten…
Flashback=========
Jen sat on the park bench, gazing into the sunset, beside her she could hear Mahry and Chloe messing around while Hail read a mythology book on her other. 'Now's the time jen! Don't blow it! '
Jen thought as she pulled out a small case, "Hey hail" jen said, shifting to meet hails warm gaze. "Yeah?" Hail replied, eyes trained on the case in Jens hand "what's that?" she asked
Jen smiled and placed it in Hails hand, "for you, I want to thank you for being my best friend."
Hail gasped as she opened it to find a bracelet, it had a gold chain with two charms on it, one was a heart with BFF on it, the other was a key, "jen… thank you so much! You've always been the greatest friend I have ever had!" Jen grinned "look, watch" Hail looked down as jens bracelet came into view, it was the same only it had a lock instead of a key, she took hails key and place it into the lock, twisted it until the front lock flipped open, revealing a picture of the two in primary 7, the last day before starting secondary school .A tiny tune came out, playing softly, "oh my god!, that's soooo cool" Hail gasped, Jen smiled.
"No matter what happens, you'll always be my friend"
"Friends to the end?
"Friends to the end."
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Jen took out her own bracelet and place hail key into the lock once more, the tune began to play, soft and slow…then the tears began to fall. "Hail…I'm sorry I left you all alone, will you ever forgive me?"
Jen crawled up and buried her head into Hails uninjured shoulder, sobbing brokenly, she knew she had to be strong, but it was just one of those moments when you just got to let it out.
Little did she know she was being watched…?
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Bluestreak and Cliffjumper stared at the monitor that feeds through to the med- bay. There on monitor duty this shift and was a good excuse to watch jen and her friend.
Bluestreaks faceplates curled down as she watched jen sob openly with her friend.
"I hate it when she cries" Blue said, Cliffjumper glanced at blue before turning to the screen, "so do I blue, so do I"
"I wonder what happened to her friend" Blue asked, changing the subject. Cliffjumper peered at the screen to take in Hails injuries. "Judging by her appearance, she was in a fight, a battle, bombing raid, attack maybe? Who knows, we need to ask her when she wakes"
Blue cast a sad look to Jens friend. "Maybe she could stay with us, jen would be happier and I doubt she has a home if she was a victim of an air raid."
Cliff gave an irritated look to Bluestreak. "This is a military base, not a refugee camp! But maybe prime will let her stay for a while…"
It was silent for a while until they heard sounds from the monitors, "what's that?" blue asked "it sounds like…" They turned toward the med – bay cam to find that Jen and hail were nowhere in sight, hails belonging were missing with smears of blood leading to the exit of the med-bay, where the frag was ratchet? "Slag!" Cliffjumper cursed, he stood up and ran to the door, he said to blue over his shoulder, "Blue! Alert everyone and check the cameras to see if you can find them!" Blue activated his comm. "on it!" he replied. He hoped they were okay.
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Darkness. Nothing. 'Where am I'?
"Hail…I'm sorry I left you all alone, will you ever forgive me?"
'What? Who was that? That voice…so familiar…'
'But…it's not true! she's dead…with her family and Chloe…. I'm alone, no-one's there…'
A light.
A light that reached towards her…
A voice.
"Time to go, my child…you have much to do"
'What?'
"Grab the light!" someone screamed….
She did….
Then orange walls appeared in her blurry vision…..'Where the Hell is I?'
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"Ugh" Hail moaned opening her eyes wearily, 'what the hell happened?' she thought she then stared up in panic 'where am I?!' then she remembered, the mountain, the ship, the robots and…jen.
No. That was not real. Jen was dead. Her parent's bodies were found….but` hers wasn't. Hmmm…
She then felt a weight on her shoulder she turned and tried not to scream. The supposedly dead
Jenifer was sleeping on her shoulder! Hail slowly eased out front Jens grasp. Eyes wide with shock. She backed away from her, franticly looking around until she spotted her gear, she grabbed them and started to pack swinging her head every now and then to make sure anyone or thing came around.
It took a while due to the painful injuries on her body but eventually she managed. Then she heard a small moan, she froze, she's waking up! 'Getoutgetoutgetout!' hail thought as she slowly stood.
"Huh?" jen moaned as her eyes fluttered open, she looked around before scrambling to her feet to see hail staring wide eyed at her. "Hail…" Jenifer said, overjoyed. "It's good to see you".
Hails shocked expression turned into a disbelieving scowl as she took out a dagger and crouched. Jen stopped in her tracks. "Who the hell are you? You're not real….your dead, I was at your funeral myself!" Hail hissed, eyes narrowing dangerously. Jen looked to her, surprised. "Yeah…that's not true! I was taken to a military base by my brother!" Jen said sheepishly. Hail backed away, not believing "please hail…" Hails eyes flashed over in anger. "Get away from me! I don't know who you think you are, but I'm outta here, so if you would please stay the hell away from me I would be grateful!" she snapped, and with that she hid her dagger in her double belt and back flipped of the table, wincing when her sides burned from the motion but turned and ran.
"Hail! Come back!" Jen shouted, sliding down the table leg and racing after her.
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Optimus stacked the last of the reports and placed them in his filing cabinet. 'That's the last of them…' Suddenly his comma beeped. He pressed his finger to his audio receptors and asked "what's going – "he was greeted with static and faint sound of panic in the distance, jazz answered franticly saying "prime! Jen and the chicks gone! We need to find them man!" Optimus charged towards the door "I'm on my way!" he declared.
Great….this was all he needed, another misunderstanding being, or was she? It could be out of fright due to her injuies….an attack maybe? He didn't know, he had to find them BOTH before trouble occurred.
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Hail ran. And ran and ran.
She kept on going even though her sides and shoulder was screaming in pain.
She had to get away. She had a mission. A quest to fill and by god she will not stray from it.
"Hail! Come back!" She heard Jen shout, was it jen? She didn't know. But does she want to?
She turned a corner of the abnormally large walls.
She then bumped into something, falling onto her backside at the impact.
She looked at the offending object, a metal object, a white metal…foot?
A BIG foot.
She froze looking up to the robots face.
"Oh…my….god…" she whispered.
The giant white robot stared down at her, confusion on its metal face.
"Holy shit! what the fuck is that?" hail panicked as she backed up a few steps.
"Crap! Look at those swords; I'm so dead unless I get out of this fast!"
She scrambled to her feet, whipping round the opposite direction,
Colliding with something warm and soft. She drew her gun aiming at the female called…
.Jen.
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Jen panted, sprinting through the halls, trying to catch up to her best friend.
'Nonononononono! This wasn't meant to happen!' she thought as she passed the second corridor.
She had to find Hail. Fast, if she saw any of the bots….she would probably panic.
A panicked hail was NEVER a good thing. She turned another corner.
She opened her mouth to call her again but impacted with another body, a HUMAN body.
She staggered. And looked up.
The first thing she saw was drift standing there frozen. Face held whispers of shock and confusion.
The second thing was Hails gun, pointed right between her eyes.
Jenifer held her hands up in a peace gesture. Hail didn't bat an eyelid, instead her finger stretching for the trigger.
"Hail…doesn't do this…please, I can explain!"
Jen pleaded, her watery ocean blue eyes gazing straight into hails sharp green-purples.
Hail snarled, face screwing up in blind rage.
"What's there to explain?! I wake up to find myself in an alien robot base with people who are supposed to be dead! WHAT IS THERE TO EXPLAIN?!"
Hail screeched shoving the end of her gun into the woman's skin.
"WHERE AM I?"
Jen winced but glanced to drift, eyes pleading him to leave.
Drift gave a look to her, then to hail, before reluctantly sliding away down the corridor.
Hail, chose to ignore this.
Instead she shoved her pistol into her belt, grabbing Jens throat before shoving forward, slamming Jens back against the metal wall.
Jen choked with pain as the wind was knocked out of her.
Her vision started to blur….but saw Hails Rage blinded eyes right in front of her own.
"I'll say it again."
She whispered voice low and deadly.
"where. Am. I?"
Hail let go of Jens throat, stepping back and crouching slightly, her face still etched with anger.
Jen gasped for air, sobbing when her knees collided with the ground.
She clutched her left knee, wincing from the dislocation. Again.
She glanced up to hail, voice hoarse.
"You a-are in the Autobots base, *cough*, I was s-sent h-here by my bro, k-Keith *cough, cough* to stay safe, I've been here f-for the-three and a-a half years." She coughed violently rubbing her left knee in the process. "You h-have to b-be-believe m-me. I-ill *cough* prove it."
Hail stared over her form, deciding what to do. A long, painful silence came, apart from the blaring alarms thanks to red alert.
Finally she sighed and stepped forward, losing her defence stance.
"Alright, prove to me that you are Jenifer, Prove to me that you are here and not in my mind, prove you're real, prove that you're alive."
Jen gestured Hail to kneel. She stared directly into her eyes, confident and determined to show her friend the truth.
She slowly reached out and grasped hails wrist, Hail flinched but didn't protest, Jenifer smiled as she fondled with her own bracelet, Hails eyes widened in surprise and joy as Jen turned the key…
Hails eyes brimmed with tears as she looked up into Jens face. Jen grinned from ear to ear. "It's really I hail, you see, after mom and dad died, Keith took me to the military camp for a while, after that he took me here…
A year later….he lost his life in an ambush…I thought I was alone, with no-one of my past left for me to turn to. I thought that the Autobots were all I had left…." Tears began to flow from Jens eyes.
"But now, now I see that I'm not alone! You're here, alive, with me! I know I'm rushing but I'm soooo happy to see you hail! And I promise I won't leave you alone again, forgive me?"
Hails face was streaked with tears of joy as she pulled Jenifer in a tight embrace, she smiled and whispered,
"I forgive you jen, I'm so happy that you're not gone aswell as the others…thank-you…."
They stayed that way for a long time, silently taking in comfort that they are not alone in this war, this world.
This life.
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Megatron tapped his fingers on the arm of his throne, his bored gaze resting on star scream as he waited for his pathetic answer to come.
'For prime's sake! Megatron thought as he finally fixed star scream with a cold stare...
"Tell me again star scream" Megatron began, voice filled with Malice.
"What…is the status of THE AUTOBOTS!?" Megatron roared, losing the little patience he had.
Star scream whimpered and shuffled back few steps, his cock-pit was cracked and his wing was half-torn half mauled by the last beating for is so called 'dis-obedience'.
"Lord m-Megatron sir" he started, his voice small "everything is going normally only we have discovered a new arrival at the base. A human. This could be useful to us, you. Lord Megatron sir"
Megatron growled, swatting the seeker away before muttering "hmm…perhaps"
"Sound wave!" He barked, sound wave stepped up and bowed "sir" he said in his deep, monotone voice.
"Give me the information on this human" he commanded, Son wave went still as he processed information. He sent it to a datapads and handed it to Megatron. "Data: required" he stated.
"Hmm…interesting" Megatron murmured as he read through the datapads. "This is the same human femme that managed to blow up our north-American base, correct Sound wave?"
"Correct, Human designated as 'Hail Blackthorn' is known to be an assassin from these planets ancient gypsy tribes" Son wave offered, Megatron acknowledged with a nod of his head.
He turned to star scream and sound wave. "I want you two to keep an eye out for this one and the other human girl. They will be valuable to us for the experimental operation. Dismissed"
The 2IC and 3IC marched out of the throne room as Megatron created a link to Cybertron through the nemesis computer.
"Lord Megatron, my liege" Shockwave acknowledged.
"Shockwave I have two human femmes for your experimental operation. We have not caught them yet but they will be sent to you soon, I suggest you prepare for their arrival."
Shockwave bowed through the screen and replied "as you wish my lord" He turned to cut the link.
"And shockwave" Megatron said as he gave said mech a hard stare. "Do not fail this particular mission"
Shockwave nodded his head. The last human experiment was shut down due to some malfunctions in the insects re-programming….And some interference with Oil slick and a human scientist.
"Do not fear Lord Megatron, this shall be my finest masterpiece and the Decepticons greatest triumph.
"Hmm….well see" Megatron said before cutting the link.
He sat back down heavily and folded his arms across his massive chest…
'Now all that's left to do is wait' he smirked to himself before heading to his quarters.
All the pieces are coming together.
TBC….
