Project Mockingbird

Chapter 1: The Two B.B.s.

-Story Start-

*Three years previous, set a few days before the first movie opens.*

It was dark, sometime past midnight perhaps, not that the girl running through the network of alleys and side streets really cared one way or the other except in the passing hope that the deeper shadows would better hide her form from the man chasing her down. She was pissed, scared but pissed, it was ridiculous as far as she was concerned, her other form could squish the man following her with no difficulties at all but nooo, that body was several miles away and she was stuck with her pathetic weakling body.

Not that her body was really weak per say but it was rather slight, and she did have several years of Jujitsu under her belt so it wasn't like she was defenseless or anything but the man had quite a few pounds on her, most of it seemed to be muscle, and, if the initial attempt at grabbing her was any indication, at least some training in hand-to-hand combat. The reading level on her pissed-off-'o-meter, as her coworkers so kindly put it, was slowly rising past the 'Eff this' alert, at which point she would stop running and likely try to bludgeon the fool to death, hopefully with something other than her fists, as she really disliked having to deal with swollen hands. Luckily, before she reached that level, she turned a corner and found an alley with several doors opening out into it, she paused for only a moment to stare incredulously at the, while obviously old still totally hot, yellow Camaro that was just sitting pretty in the middle of everything before she came back to herself with a lurch and began trying every door in sight.

"Well shit." That was the only thing that came to mind when she came to the realization that every damn door available was locked. It would be okay, or… well at least not that bad, if it weren't for the fact that this particular alleyway was a dead end and the time she'd spent on checking the doors had allowed her pursuer to close the extensive gap she'd managed to make, those extra pounds made a difference, even if they were muscle, and she could tell by the sound of his footsteps that he would be on her in what felt like a matter of seconds. Her eyes raked the surrounding area, searching for somewhere, anywhere, to hide, they caught on the Camaro and she practically dove for the passenger door muttering a, 'Please be unlocked, in the names of all the deities, please be unlocked.' It was.

She pulled the door shut after her as quickly and quietly as possible, locking it behind her then ducked onto the floor board, tucking her curled body as far underneath the dash as she could, thankful, for what would probably the first and last time, for her small build. She forced her body into stillness, or as close as she could get anyways, there was no stopping the occasional tremor from her abused legs and she winced at the thought of the cramps she would have tomorrow from the lactic acid build-up from pushing herself to outrun the Brainless Behemoth. A sudden angry growl had her whole body tensing, taut as a drawn bowstring, breath caught and eyes widened, her ears strained for even the slightest sound.

She heard several things, her own rapid and erratic heartbeat, a strangely pleasant buzzing hum from the car, the heaving breaths of Sir Brainless Behemoth, and his heavy, slightly faltering she noted with a cruel pleasure, footsteps as he checked the doors as she had done. He let out another growl and what sounded like a low curse in a language that sounded suspiciously like Italian as the car suddenly rocked slightly and she realized he was sitting on the Camaro's hood, grumbling. He stopped suddenly, releasing a low chuckle, and she heard his footsteps again, circling around to the car's driver's side and she felt her face pale with the realization that she had not thought to lock the car's other door. There was a sudden motion as the man yanked on the door handle and she winced in sympathy for the whine-like sound the car seemed to emit at his action, he circled the car and repeated the action on the other door letting out what was definitely a curse when he found this door locked as well. He went back to sitting on the hood and she recognized the muted taps of a cell phone having its buttons pushed with extra viciousness.

There was a pause and then his voice filled the air, he was speaking that language that she was pretty sure was Italian at this point and then there was another pause and, to her surprise, she found that he was suddenly speaking English. "She got away, not much I could do, short of shooting her anyways, and I know better than to do that, no damaging the merchandise." Her blood ran cold at that casual statement, not even the indignation of being 'merchandise' could overcome the cold terror caused by the realization that this person was armed and, consequently, could have killed her at any time, still could kill her. "Look, the brat got away; can you just come get me? Girl ran like a greyhound and I'm practically on the other side of the city now. I still don't see why we didn't just grab her at her home; it would have been much easier if you ask me… Yeah, I know you didn't but you're also not the one she ran into the damn ground… Just come get me."

All the energy in her body evaporated, gone like smoke but without the lingering smell. They knew where she lived? Why were they after her to begin with? And that ever panicky thought, 'He could have killed me!'

She listened with what felt like every atom in her body, heard as he shuffled impatiently from the Camaro's hood, heard as a car pulled up with the squeaky-screech of a vehicle in need of a brake pad change, heard as he got in with an exchange of unpleasant words and they left. And suddenly she was crying, sobbing so hard her body trembled and she had to gasp in each strangled breath until slowly, and quite without her noticing, the world faded from her view and she fell into an exhausted slumber.

A/N: If you couldn't tell, the two B.B.s were Bumblebee and the Brainless Behemoth, but I figure you could tell that already, anywho, hope you liked it. Review please. Reviews are love, I needs de love.