Chapter 2 – debate
Disclaimer: see chapter one
Thanks for the reviews! I feel special now! ^^
Anyway, here's chapter two!
…
A silver Chevrolet stingray concept trundled alongside the black car transporting Maple and Paula.
"Nice car," Maple whistled, staring at it, "It's awesome"
"That's Sideswipe," the American Major explained, "he's an autobot,"
"Auto-what?" Paula asked, frowning.
"Autobot," the Major explained, "They're the enemies of the Decepticons – the good guys,"
"There're good guys?" Maple was incredulous.
"Of course there are," the Major chuckled, "did you guys think it was man vs. machine?"
"You try living under Decepticon rule for three years," Paula grumbled.
The Major nodded, "We've heard the horror stories,"
"Will Liz be okay?" Maple asked.
"Sure she will," the Major shrugged, "Ratchet'll look after her, she'll be fine,"
"Who?"
"The autobot medic,"
"Oh," Paula looked out the window for a few moments before asking, "Who the hell are you and why are you in Scotland anyhow?"
"Major Lennox," the major replied, "We're here to help the escapees from England,"
"There're a lot of us then?" Maple asked.
"More from the north than the south," Lennox shrugged, "But they're flooding in daily, we're taking most of them to the US, those of them who can travel, at least,"
"What happens there?"
"They're given homes in U.S cities," Lennox replied, "and looked after until the mess in England gets cleared up,"
"Aren't you worried about resentment building up?" Maple pointed out, "with the British taking your jobs and all the rest of it."
"We'll deal with it," Lennox replied, "We've dealt with much worse before,"
"Oh really?" Paula raised her eyebrows, "You don't know humans very well, then,"
"What do you mean?"
"We've seen riots," Maple replied, "riots between the idiots who supported the Decepticons at first and the ones who never supported them; most people didn't make it to the next morning, the rest were forced into service,"
Lennox raised his eyebrows, "You're not exaggerating," it wasn't a question.
"Believe me," Paula replied, "compared to Black Sabbath at Christmas last year that was a tea party,"
On that awkward note they pulled up outside the military air base.
"Your friend's in the sick bay," Lennox informed the girls as they got out the car, "But I don't think she'll be conscious,"
Maple and Paula ignored his comment and ran straight to the sickbay, the silver car following closely.
…
Liz was sat up and reading a weapons blueprint when they arrived.
"Hullo!" she grinned cheerily as if her little episode at the border hadn't happened at all, "How's life for the healthy people?"
"Life is good," Maple replied, flopping into a visitor chair next to Paula, "How's the invalid?"
"No idea," Liz grinned, "the medic's insane; kept throwing wrenches at this mech called Sunstreaker for disturbing him."
Maple snorted.
A grumbling red-and-yellow transformer strode into the room.
"Are you going to rest now?" he asked Liz, "or am I going to need a sedative?"
He glowered at the two girls visiting.
"Relax, nurse," Liz chuckled, "These two are my friends. Maple, Paula; this is Ratchet. Ratch, this is Paula and Maple," she pointed at the two girls.
"Pleased to meet you both," Ratchet replied, "But your friend needs to rest; I'm afraid I must ask you to leave,"
"Aw, don't be such an old stick, Ratch," Liz chuckled, "I'll be fine, it was just an odd – OW!" she hissed and clutched at her heart.
"Liz?" Paula and Maple were picked up and placed on the other side of the room as Ratchet performed various scans on their friend.
"What is it?" Maple asked.
"What's going on?" Paula asked at the same time.
"I… I don't know…" Ratchet frowned at the scan results, "I've never seen this before," the scanner peeped and he blinked at it again, "She's completely stabilised in 6 seconds," he tapped the screen, "How is that possible? One minute she's dying and the next –" his optics widened, "Oh,"
"Oh what?"
"Ratch!" a silver mech poked his head through the door, "We've got a Decepticon in the base,"
"Sideswipe," Ratchet stated coldly, "For the fifth time; we don't get decepticons in Scotland."
"There's a Decepticon in the base!" Sideswipe insisted, "and it's right –" he stared incredulously at the once again unconscious Liz, "It's her, she's a Decepticon,"
"Don't be ridiculous," Paula snorted, "She welded their little doctor thing to a wall and blew up two Decepticon pretenders. How can she be a Decepticon?"
"Her energy signature," Ratchet stared at the scanner again, "The reaction at the border, the equipment that scrambled – she's half cybertronian,"
"What?" everyone yelped shocked by Ratchet's conclusion.
"She has a spark," Ratchet explained, "instead of a heart. She was created by the decepticons; that explains the signature. But the spark's becoming too powerful to survive inside a human, whether they have RNA or not. When did this start?"
"A few weeks ago," Maple replied, "shortly after we'd left the Decepticon base,"
"I swear it started at Newcastle," Paula commented.
"Remember when we were running and she had to stop because of heartburn?"
Paula paused; "Yeah…"
"What if it wasn't heartburn?" Maple suggested, "She's been getting heartburn a lot lately if it is, so what if it's this spark thing?"
"What's so special about heartburn anyway?" Paula asked Ratchet.
"The spark," Ratchet explained, "is killing her slowly."
"She must've known she'd been dying," Maple realised, "right from the beginning; she knew but she never told us."
"Is there any way to stop it?" Paula asked.
"Not unless we transfer the spark into a transformer shell," Ratchet replied.
"She'd kill you for that," Maple commented, "And where're you going to find one anyway?"
"We've got machines," Ratchet replied, "We could build a body from them,"
"Isn't there another way that doesn't involve turning her into a robot?" Paula asked, knowing just how much Liz would hate it.
Liz screamed and, unconscious, started clawing at her chest.
"It's the only plan we've got," Ratchet replied, "And we only have a few more days before… well…"
They knew exactly what he meant; a few more days before the spark killed Liz, a few more days to make a shell powerful enough to hold her consciousness.
A few more days to save her life.
"How exactly are we going to persuade her that it's a good idea?" Maple asked, "She tried to kill the decepticons who wanted her to become one of them when they mentioned the same idea, although theirs wasn't to save her life,"
"Maybe if we can get her to realise that it's the only way she can stay alive long enough to help force the Decepticons out of England," Ratchet mused, "do you think she would consent to that?"
"Maybe," Paula replied, frowning, "but Liz can be a little unpredictable and we've only known her for a few weeks; it's difficult to predict her choices for her,"
"All the same," Ratchet turned to Sideswipe, "Find Jolt and Ironhide, tell them we need as many parts as we can find to create a femme shell, and hurry,"
"What if she turns Decepticon on us?" Sideswipe challenged.
"Look, Sideswipe," Maple informed him, sounding more than slightly irritated by his insistence on mistrust, "Liz is our friend, she got us out of England safely right under the noses of the decepticons – do you really think she'd start working for them if she became one of you guys? Use some common sense!"
"She's right," Paula added, "We haven't known her all that long but we've known her for long enough to know that whatever she happens to be, she grew up as a human, and sees the Decepticons from our point of view. She wouldn't turn her back on the people she grew up with no matter what happened to her,"
"Sideswipe," Ratchet growled, "Now,"
Sideswipe grumbled and left to find Jolt and Ironhide.
"So what now?" Maple asked in the awkward silence.
Liz groaned and sat up.
"Bloody, buggering heartburn," she grumbled, "What did I miss?"
Everyone stared at her.
She blinked, "What?"
"Your eyes…" Paula began, stunned.
"They're brown," Liz replied, "They've always been brown,"
"No," Maple replied, "They're blue."
"No," Liz insisted, "They're brown,"
"Who here has a mirror?" Paula asked, hunting around the sickbay for a few minutes before coming back with a compact mirror a nurse had lent her, "See for yourself,"
She brandished the mirror in front of Liz.
Liz blinked.
"What the frag is going on?" she demanded, "They look –" she stared at Ratchet before returning her gaze to the mirror.
Maple and Paula also stared at Ratchet.
"Do all autobots have blue optics?" Maple asked conversationally.
"Yes,"
"That shade of blue?" Paula added.
"Yes," Ratchet was puzzled, "Why do you ask?"
"They're the exact same shade of blue," Maple explained, "As Liz's eyes have just turned,"
There was a moment of stunned silence.
"Shit," Liz said.
…
They had been arguing for two hours.
Liz knew she would only survive if she was transplanted into a transformer shell, Ratchet had told her, but she still hated the idea of becoming what the decepticons had designed her to be, even if there were a few modifications.
"You want to help the autobots drive the decepticons out of England, right?" Lennox was saying.
"Yes…" Liz replied, "But I don't want to be a robot,"
"Alien robot," Maple corrected, "And totally kick-ass, if I may say so myself," she was perched on Sideswipe's shoulder in order to create more space for the autobots in the small space. Paula was perched on the shoulder of a blue autobot called Jolt, who seemed better disposed toward Liz than Sideswipe had been.
"The only way you'll survive long enough to help," the autobot leader, Optimus Prime, explained, "Is by becoming a transformer,"
"And then I'll go all psycho and start killing people," Liz argued, "I'm sorry but I'm not prepared to risk that."
"See?" Sideswipe exclaimed, "Even she doesn't want to risk it!"
"Shut up, Sideswipe," Ratchet ordered.
"But –"
"I said," Ratchet interrupted, "Shut. Up."
Sideswipe sulked in his corner, causing Maple to giggle at his childishness.
"You lot are worse than human boys!" she grinned.
"They live longer," Liz grinned, "So they take more time to stop acting like 2-year-olds,"
"Oi!" Sideswipe grumbled, "I resent that!"
"It's true!" Liz grinned, "Everyone knows that girls mature faster than boys," she winced slightly as she adjusted some of the pillows behind her, "Bloody spark thing,"
"You should consider your options carefully before making any snap decisions," Optimus advised, "I can predict what Ratchet is going to say; you need to rest. Let us know when you have reached a decision, after," he added before Liz could say anything, "You have thought through all of your options."
Liz scowled for a few minutes before failing to suppress a yawn.
Ratchet immediately ordered everyone out after making sure Liz was asleep.
Nobody noticed the slight dip in Liz's life signs
…
"C'mon, Sides," Maple insisted from the autobot's shoulder, "It's not like she's going to do anything when she's asleep in the sick bay,"
"I know," Sideswipe was still tense, "But we can't be so sure about the aft-cracks who created her," he shook his head, "I don't know why they did it but it's sick,"
"You think I don't know that?" Maple replied, "Do you think she wants decepticon genes? I think what's worse is that they're from Megatwat himself –"
"WHAT?" Sideswipe was stunned.
"Yeah," Maple nodded, "She told us so – he extracted human DNA from a criminal database and mixed it with his RNA and grew her in a birthing tube apparently,"
"That is just wrong," Sideswipe shuddered, "That's just not normal."
"That's Liz Norton," Paula replied as she approached, "I'm slightly worried by Ironhide and Jolt – they're building a shell already,"
"Just a precaution," Sideswipe explained, "In case she goes into major shutdown without explicitly saying she doesn't want to be a transformer."
"I think that's taken as red, Sides," Maple informed him, "You saw what she was like when they tried to convince her to do the transplant-ey thing."
"Ratchet's like a typical doctor," Sideswipe explained, "He wants to save life whenever he can."
"Sounds reasonable," Paula nodded, "But not practical; Liz would rather die than become a decepticon."
"She won't be a decepticon," Sideswipe argued, "Not unless she chooses to be,"
"She won't see it that way," Maple countered, "You know she won't,"
"We'll just have to find a way of persuading her that it's a good idea," Paula replied, "If we can somehow convince her that she's not the decepticon type then maybe she won't be so scared about it,"
"Ratchet to Sideswipe,"
"Ratch?" Sideswipe asked, "What's up?"
"Bring Maple and Paula," Ratchet replied, "It's Liz"
…
Liz was lying stiff as a board on the hospital bed, twitching as if she were being electrocuted.
"What's happening to her?" Maple asked.
"Febrile fit," Ratchet explained, "Her core is overheating and she's suffering from convulsions as a result."
"Why's her core over-heating?" Paula frowned.
Ratchet hesitated before answering, "I don't know," he admitted, "The spark hasn't fully matured yet."
"How did it happen?" Sideswipe asked.
"How the Frag should I know?" Ratchet snapped irritably, "One minute she's completely stable and the next her life signs have reached critical."
"How long do we have before…?" Maple asked.
"Less than 6 hours," Ratchet replied before turning to the comm.
"How long until the shell is completed?" he asked.
"Ten minutes," Jolt replied, "Why?"
"Make it five," he ordered, "We have to operate."
…
Uh-oh… will Liz survive the operation? Will she try to kill them for turning her into a transformer? Wait and see XD
I have a lot of time on my hands right now because I've finished all my exams and stuff, so hopefully I'll be writing more :D
Review to tell me what you think! XD