UPDATED: 06-28-09

Author's note: And here is the next part of who knows how many. Things ought to move a little faster from here on out, as far as the pace of the story goes. That first chapter establishing everything is always kind of slow, with me anyway. And yeah, I know this kind of thing has been done to death but I'm trying to throw a degree of reality in here and make it a little different. Oh, and 98 percent of the characters are property of Hasbro and others. You know which ones aren't.

Come Around
By: Quetzal

Chapter 2
Sometimes it IS what you know…

To say that Erica hurt was a grand understatement. Every part of her either ached, was sore or felt like it was maybe broken. Her face was bruised and swollen on one side from crashing into the door, and the rest of her was covered with various cuts, scrapes and more bruises. She wasn't sure what was going on or where, but as awareness returned, it became obvious that she was facedown on a hard surface of some kind. The first thing heard was Starscream at a distance:

"See? Nothing to worry about," he said.

That bastard. There wasn't time to get too angry before another voice made itself known. It was much, much closer and far scarier.

"No thanks to you," it grated.

The voice was deep, gravelly, angry and so very near. Erica tried to push herself up into a sitting position and slipped as the surface beneath her tilted hard to one side and she rolled/fell down to another, coming to rest on her back. Oh shit, this just kept getting worse! Once again she was in the hands of a giant mech, only this one looked supremely pissed. Its face was sharp featured and very severe looking. The downward angle and shape of the eyes suggested a far nastier personality than anything she had encountered so far. Her breath caught as it looked directly at her.

"Well, well. So you do still function," it said, sounding pleased in a way that oddly contrasted with the cross expression.

"I..I guess I'm ok. Just k-kind of beat up," Erica said, scooting back as far away as she could get. Enormous fingers curled upward behind her, keeping her from falling. She could hear the low whir of servos as they moved. It seemed wise to be very cooperative with this one. She noticed her remark caused a look to be directed at Starscream. Good. Maybe this guy would kick his ass.

"Time is short so I will get to the point. I am Megatron, leader of the Decepticon Empire. You have been brought here because you have skills we require." And then after shifting his gaze to Starscream and what she guessed were the other two jets that had joined them on the way to wherever she was now, he added: "Or should I say, you'd better have the skills we require." Even if the threat was not directed at her it still scared her more than she had ever been in her life.

"Right, one of you is injured or something?" Erica said, trying to sound like she did this kind of thing all the time. It would have been more convincing if she could have gotten the shaky sound out of her voice. Be co-operative and act like you have some sense. Stay on his good side, she thought. They needed her so maybe she was safe for now, relatively speaking. And she recalled a common sentiment heard on the job whenever there was a problem that was exceedingly difficult to solve: You gotta be smarter than the machine.

"Correct, and we do not have time to spare on discussion."

"Let's go. Starscream has my equipment," she said simply. Megatron was rather surprised at this response. There was no refusal or terrified babbling or attempts at bargaining for some petty thing humans were always desiring. He had no way of knowing that she would actually have paid him for the chance to see the inner workings of any one of them. Once it seemed a fairly sure thing that no one was going to kill her, her curiosity and amazement started to override terror. Given her line of work, it wasn't shocking. A group of sentient machines! They made the stuff she worked with look like Legos. She mistook his surprise for disapproval and reminded herself to be careful to mind her manners.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I meant Lord Starscream." The mech's face changed from merely somber to angry and Erica thought her heart was going to stop.

"Lord Starscream?" Megatron repeated with sarcasm. Yes, she had definitely said something that he didn't like, but she was slightly relieved to see that he wasn't looking at her any more.

Everyone in the room was staring at the Air Commander who suddenly appeared uncomfortable. The human noticed that the other two jet guys were having some interesting reactions. The blue one shook his head slightly as though disgusted and baffled by this turn of events and the really dark gray one was grinning insolently.

"I can't help what assumptions these primitive organics come to," Starscream said, defensively.

"Yes. I'm sure you did nothing to further the incorrect assumption that you are anyone of consequence," Megatron said, agreeing while simultaneously insulting the seeker. Starscream said nothing further. "Now that we have corrected this misunderstanding, let us attend to the business at hand."

Erica was taken to what looked like a repair bay and deposited on the bench next to Laserbeak.

"Wow, he's really torn up."

"Don't belabor the obvious, just repair him," Megatron said.

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After having Laserbeak moved to the floor so as not to worry about Erica falling off the bench and losing more time or possibly injuring herself to the point of incapacitation, the real work began. Rumble was assigned to assist her and to identify and explain the parts she didn't recognize or understand (and there were plenty) or to look them up in the various schematics and diagrams stored in a computer. Soundwave was also nearby to terminate the human should she get any ideas about sabotage. The others left, realizing that standing over her the whole time was going to intimidate her to distraction, but that didn't stop them from watching developments via a view screen in another room.

Erica was amazed at the intricacy of the smaller mech (and he had an interesting name too, though she didn't see any evidence of a laser anywhere around his beak.) There were so many moving parts and circuitry, conduits and wires. The computer components seemed to be ok, it was more his mechanical systems that were the problem. The conduits for energon transfer were severed in many places. She did not really know what energon was beyond some kind of fuel, but it didn't cause any reaction on the Geiger counter she had brought along as an afterthought. In fact, it was sort of pretty, but she didn't like getting it on her hands. It made them feel like they were going to sleep.

There were gears and cogs that had slipped their grooves, hydraulic lines blown out and a mass of some sort of wires or something that had been fused together.

"What happened to him?" Erica asked, not looking up from the snared and melted wad, and expecting to be told to shut up and keep working.

"The Autobots got 'im," said Rumble.

"Autobots?"

"Yeah, they hate us."

"Why? And who are they?"

"Get back to work," Soundwave said in his weirdly modulated, inflectionless voice.

He had not been merely watching. He had easily read the human's thoughts as it worked. There was no detectable hint of treachery yet. Mostly what he was getting was fascination along with pain caused by whatever had occurred during her abduction, a desire for something called a "snack" and also a growing need to take something called "a pee." This pee thing was coming to the forefront of the human's thoughts more and more often. Pretty soon it would be a distraction.

It wasn't long before he had what this was explained to him as politely as possible after the human asked about restrooms. How disgusting! And of course they had no such facilities. It was decided that the best thing would be to utilize a part of the ship, which had been rendered useless to them when it drove itself into the ocean floor. Ravage had the dubious privilege of escorting the prisoner to the area and back, actually giving it a modicum of privacy. This appalling business was not anything he had any desire to know about. Erica was jumpy the entire way back to the repair bay. Ravage had an unpleasant habit of growling all the time and insisted on walking behind her. When she would look over her shoulder to see what he was doing, metal teeth snapped at her as though to hurry her along. She didn't try to speak to him and wasn't sure if he was a dog or some kind of cat.

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Laserbeak returned to the land of consciousness from stasis lock two hours later. As his optics activated and flickered on, the first thing he saw was a human. Oh slag! He remembered being shot now. He must have crashed and now he was going to be picked apart by the revolting meat beings. The human was standing right in front of him looking rather pleased. But then, it was joined by Rumble and Soundwave (the latter giving him a gentle pat on the head.) Laserbeak could see parts of himself scattered around and understood that he was not yet fully repaired.

"How are you?" The human asked, extending a hand toward his head. Laserbeak snapped at the hand and squawked. The human snatched the offending appendage away and jumped back several feet. "Ingrate," it muttered.

Soundwave gathered the remaining parts of the bird and put them back on the bench as Megatron entered, followed by Thundercracker, Starscream and Skywarp.

"What is the status?" Megatron asked.

"Internal systems repaired. Initiating structural restoration."

"Are the internal repairs correct?"

"Satisfactory," replied Soundwave, sounding neither pleased nor displeased.

Erica was very much relieved. She never would have gotten it without help, but still…not too shabby. Her satisfaction was short lived as she noticed the other three 'bots observing her while their leader was occupied. The looks she received varied from disgust (Starscream) to curiosity (Skywarp) to disinterest (Thundercracker.)

And then Megatron turned and regarded her with that malevolent gaze of his, eyes glowing bright red. The slight smile made it even worse. Erica suddenly felt even smaller and more vulnerable.

"Nicely done, flesh creature."

"Thank you," she said, bowing forward slightly.

"Unfortunately for you, your services are no longer required." And then she was looking up and into the barrel of the cannon on his right arm.

"But I did what you asked."

"Yes, your co-operation is most appreciated."

"Why can't you just let me go?"

"You have seen far too much. It would be dangerous for that information to make it back to your scientists."

"I guess promising not to tell wouldn't help?"

"I'm afraid not."

Good lord, but that cannon was huge! There wouldn't be enough of her left to put in an aspirin bottle. Shit, think of something! Erica's mind was racing incoherently and then seized upon a desperate suggestion.

"Why couldn't I just stay here?"

"For what purpose? We don't need a pet," said Starscream, haughtily.

"Oh, get bent you son of a bitch!" Erica said, and then slapped a hand over her mouth. That wasn't what she meant to say at all. She was tired, cold, hungry and scared and it just came out. It might have been the smartest thing she'd done all night, because Megatron was actually laughing. Emotionally wrecked as she was, Erica did not fail to note that even his laugh was disturbing. Who would build such a thing?

Starscream actually knew the meaning of the insult that time and was apoplectic.

"How dare you, you insolent earth germ!?" He screeched at her and then pointed the laser he had used earlier at the Terradyne labs. Megatron smacked the arm wielding the laser down. He had gotten himself under control. That was the funniest thing he'd seen in a while.

"What did you have in mind?" He asked, suddenly indulgent.

Erica suspected that the mood might not last long so she'd better make it good.

"Okay, I fixed Laserbeak right? Why couldn't I do the same for the rest of you?"

"That was a special case. He had parts that were too small for any of us to repair and we did not have the proper equipment for him, a situation that will be rectified immediately."

"Yes, but for the rest of you there's probably stuff I could do faster than you could."

"Such as?"

"Well say you go out and get all shot up by these, what did you call them? The guys that hate you?" She said, turning toward Rumble.

"Autobots?"

"Yeah, right. So these Autobots shoot you and you're all messed up. Because I'm small I could get to the damage with less invasiveness because I can work around something rather than having to pull it out first to get to the injury. Also that would save time in an ordinary case and could mean the difference between life and death when it's more serious.

"Our technology is far more advanced than yours. There is much you know nothing about."

"True, but I can learn. What else would I have around here except time to study?"

Megatron stood silently eyeing the small human. It made a good argument. There were possibilities in this idea. It would certainly enable them to strike sooner at the Autobots or sources of energy if they weren't always taking so long for repairs and recovery. And the Autobots had humans assisting them, which had made the Decepticon's objectives more difficult to obtain at times. This might merit further investigation. However, he'd have to be on the verge of death before he'd allow some flesh creature to poke around at HIS internal systems.

"Think about it. The functioning you prolong might be your own," she added, trying to sway his decision.

"Very well." And then he suddenly bent over her as his hand swept around and snatched her off the floor. He wasn't quite as rough as Starscream but she still wished they would stop doing that. Again she found herself enclosed in a slowly tightening grip. She was close enough to those scorching red eyes she would have sworn she could feel heat coming off them if she wasn't so busy being afraid her innards were about to be squeezed out like toothpaste.

"But be warned, if I so much as suspect you of anything deceitful I will crush you, and it will not be quick." Megatron said in a low, deliberate voice, squeezing harder and harder, stopping just at the point where he could avoid breaking something. The human was terrified. Its green eyes were huge and its heart was going a mile a minute. But, despite the terror, it was able to reply with another unexpected answer.

"So be it."

Megatron crouched and put Erica back on the floor. He'd had his fun. Better to stop now before he scared it to death. She stumbled a little and then sat down hard, gasping for breath. Too much had happened and she was so tired. Maybe it would have been better if he'd shot her. That would have been fast, anyway. But at least she had maintained her self-control. Barely. She was beginning to think it wasn't something he saw too often.

"Ravage will show you to your quarters." And she was forced to get up and jog/stumble after the snarling…whatever he was. Ravage led her to a part of the ship that looked to be mostly unused but in better shape than the part she had seen earlier. Erica was still oblivious to the fact that she was deep undersea in a crashed alien spacecraft. The door slid up and she stepped into a room that was big enough to serve as a hanger for several medium sized earth planes. It was actually a closet. There were some giant (to her) metal boxes and then she saw a pile of what looked like padding used for moving, only huge. She crawled onto it and pulled the edge of one piece over her like a blanket. It was stiff and scratchy but better than nothing. She would live to see at least one more day. For now it was enough. There were so many questions she hadn't got to ask. She tried to think about the deal she'd just made with what might be, no, probably WAS, a mechanical devil but a sleep that was almost unconsciousness overtook her instantly.