CHAPTER ONE
THE FIREGEM
"Ah, welcome, Aurora! Welcome, Aurora the Barbaric!"
Aurora stood tall in front of the tall mech named Lord Eltron before her. Get on with it..., she thought rather stubbornly. She wasn't in the formal mood. Aurora was never in the formal mood. As an assassin, she wanted to know what she had to do, a.s.a.p, and then go get the job done, no matter how dangerous or dirty it was. She was trained well by her previous mentors and now she was in her last year of training. She was nearly a full-fledged assassinate now.
"I come to answer the call of the High Hall, my lord," Aurora replied solemnly. "I have to come to prove my worth and loyalty to the Rebel cause."
The High Council all responded much the same: smiles of satisfaction. The elder femme, Lady Vicon, spoken up:
"Ah, Aurora the Barbaric, I knew we could count on you. You have never failed to impress us."
"What Vicon says is true, Aurora the Barbaric," said Lord Felvox. "The truth is, you have already proven your worth to us. We just need you to prove yourself to the uncertain trainees under you and the rest of the public who doubt you. We believe you to become the next Alpha of our council. We believe that someday, you will become Lady Aurora, and continue the work of Lord Eltron and his forefathers. But we need for you to first prove yourself to the Rebel population. They still think of you as a mere sparkling."
"I, Aurora the Barbaric, am no sparkling!" Aurora huffed. She stared at the High Council before her, her red optics blazing.
"Then prove that to them, young assassinate!" Lady Texor declared. "Prove them your worth with this important operation..."
"This mission, Aurora the Barbaric, is highly important...We can not stress its importance enough," Lord Eltron spoken up, silencing the other Council members. "If you fail, we may never be able to leave this underground place. Aurora, if you accept this operation, you must see to it that you...and your partner...will fulfill it at all cost."
Aurora felt a surge of anger in her spark. "I am quite capable of completing missions on my own," she said tightly. Aurora was up for going out, leaving her abode and whatever to kill somebody for the sake of her Rebel comrades. But the last several times she went with a partner, it always went disastrous, and sometimes even tragic. One partner obviously wasn't trained enough. He was supposed to be a spy, but he was spotted by the Decepticon force. But thats not what killed him. He used a gas tank- of all objects there- to shield himself from the rain of lasers that shot at them. The poor mech was blown to bits. With that gas tank, he didn't stand a chance. But Aurora fled without a scratch- and she completed her operation. She killed Skyquake, Commander Dreadwing's brother. That had been Operation: Commander's Brother*.
"We know you can, Aurora the Barbaric," sighed Lord Quvton. "But the public isn't so sure about that. They'll want to see what you can do when you work with others."
Aurora glared at the High Council. "I'm not going with anybody inexperienced," she declared hotly.
"You're not going with anybody inexperienced, my dear friend," Lord Eltron smiled. "You nor any other Rebel knows of this...Cybertronian. Her name is Firegem."
"What kind of a name is that?" Aurora asked sourly.
Eltron smiled hollowly. "You will soon know why she has the name. She said much the same about your own name, Aurora. And she finds it amusing that you have such a title."
Aurora stood up tall. "I earned it, Lord Eltron," she said. "Where is this Firegem?"
"Right above your head," Lady Texor grinned.
For a moment, Aurora thought they were joking. But seeing them all smiling brightly up above towards the black ceiling, Aurora heaved a sigh. They weren't joking. But Aurora refused to gaze up. That would show them how weak she was. She failed at that during her first year of the Class of Assassination, and gotten beat for it too. She wasn't an amature, not any more!
"Tell her to come out in the light where I can see her," Aurora said stubbornly.
Much to her surprise, Aurora heard a smooth and deep, "huh, huh, huh," which actually didn't sound familiar at all. It didn't come from any of the High Council members; It came from above. Lord Eltron smiled and said:
"Aurora the Barbaric, for many years we have hidden our most secret weapon. The weapon that would one day become the partner of our most skilled assassinate, which would be you, Aurora the Barbaric," Lord Eltron gazed up towards the ceiling, his blood-red optics glittering with satisfaction. "And the signal has come! We are ready, now that the Decepticons have done precisely what we wanted them to do."
"Which would be..." Aurora prompted impatiently.
"Impatient one, she be," said a rather smooth voice.
"Aye that, Firegem," smiled Lady Ascor. "And you are much the same way."
"True," Firegem said in a low, satisfied hum.
"Won't you come out of hiding now?" Aurora questioned tactfully. "I won't bite, you know. Besides, it seems like you're going to be my partner for a few days."
"A few days?" Firegem's smooth voice was laced with uncertainty. "Do you not know that the objective of this operation maybe not a few Earth days...?"
Aurora sensed something heavy land behind of her. As if something huge had just jumped right behind of her. "When I'm referring to time lengths, I never refer to that of Earth's," Aurora said, turning to face Firegem.
Oh, Firegem...
Firegem was huge. She was probably four- no, no five times her own size. Firegem could pick up Aurora and easily splat her on the wall. Firegem, Aurora could see, wasn't no ordinary Cybertronian either. She was a predacon and the legendary beast were like trying to find a pen out in the middle of space. Firegem was a female, Aurora knew that from the moment she first heard that smooth voice. The predacon was sort of reddish but she had dark pink-and-violet accents here and there. Especially her face, which was long and angular like. Her eyes were slanted like that of the descendants of the original 13 Primes.** Firegem had long black claws and and long white fangs that came and curved under her snout. She also had transparent-red horns that curved over the her head but stuck out on her head and trailed down her back, where they disappeared one her back but reappeared at the base of her long, whip-like tail. But there, they were just tiny, sharp stubs. But the base of her tail was equivalent to a spiked mace.
Firegem blinked slowly at Aurora, her eyes making a soft click sound. "Well, you may as well start doing so," she said. "That is where the operation will take place...It could be there for who knows when. It could, as you said, be for a few days. Maybe, it'll be for a few weeks. Or months. Even years. We don't know."
Aurora looked at Firegem expressionlessly. She turned to Lord Eltron, her gaze demanding an explanation. Lord Eltron and the rest of the High Council seemed unsteadied by her suddenly unreadable expression, but they held her with their usual formality.
"Aurora the Barbaric," sighed Lord Eltron, "that is one of the many sacrifices of this operation. We really don't know how long it will be before the list of individuals you pursue will have been ceased to exist."
Firegem licked her white fangs. "Ooh, a list, you say?" she cooed. "As much as we talked of this operation, you never said list. Now things get interesting. I think this operation will be much fun."
Indeed, that fact did attract Aurora's attention. So long as she wouldn't be board at the organic planet she was going to, she'd be fine. Aurora smiled, suppressing a giggle, and said, "Allow me see this list, please."
"Huh, huh, huh," huffed Firegem and Aurora wondered if those words was just a Predacon thing and they had to say it. "Let me see too."
"Not yet, I'm afraid," Lady Texor replied.
"Am I allowed to ask why?" Firegem asked smoothly. "I'd like to know my prey so I'll know what to expect."
Lady Texor stared at Firegem. "That is on a need to know basis, my friend," she said simply. "And right now, you don't need to know."
Firegem gave a snort, a plume of bluish, energonic smoke puffing from her nostrils. She met Aurora's red gaze and said, "Touchy, she be."
Aurora's gaze flashed at Lord Eltron. "When do we get to know?"
Lord Eltron remained unmoved, not a single emotion was spotted on his face. "As soon as you depart."
"When do we depart? When do we prepare?" Aurora demanded, her impatience returning to her.
"Shouldn't we train and learn about Earth and its inhabitants first?" Firegem asked, her long, red tongue whipping out over her fangs again.
Lord Dux, who was the quietest member in the High Council, spoken up for the first time. "As far as training and learning of the planet Earth, you are on your own."
The words were plain and simple enough. Aurora and Firegem would have to learn how to fight and hunt together on their own. Aurora gave a solid nod of her head and Firegem only dipped her head in an imitation of a nod. Aurora met Firegem's violet-red eyes and she could see that her new partner put the information together almost as instantly as she herself did.
"You still haven't answered my question," Aurora prompted breathlessly after a long pause. She still couldn't quite believe that they were leaving Cybertron and that she'd probably would never see her home for maybe a several years.
Lord Eltron gazed at her expectantly. "The sooner you and Firegem depart, the better your chances at completing Operation: Take-Out***."
* Instead of saying "missions" so frequently, the Rebels often refer to them as Operations.
**The original 13 Primes were the only Cybertronians who had slanted optics and were considered to be the divine beauty. Every now and then, in present times, you'd run into a Cybertronian with slanted eyes. They're not so rare anymore. The Rebels have plenty of slanted-opticed warriors. Aurora's very own optics were slanted and so were the optics of Lord Eltron.
***Operation: Take-Out is the mission Firegem and Aurora will embark.
