My Big Sister the Spider
An AU-TF:A Fic, starring Sari, BlackArachnia and the Decepticons
Summery: Sari's life is not what it could have been. Her father has died and the company has collapsed due to bad management, leaving Sari with nothing but a life on the streets. Can anything save Sari from a cold lonely death on the streets, and help her discover what she really is?
A/N: Once again, thanks to those that have reviewed this fic, and have given constructive advice and compliments. I would like to reward those who had been so kind as to do so with Chapter three of the Fic, pulled out earlier from the archives where I planned to keep it for a few days before posting it. Please enjoy. But after this there shall be a lull while I work on the next chapters.
Chapter Three: Wake up calls and the start of a battle.
The Docks – Nighttime
Sari watched from a distance through the darkness of the night as the massive insect tore through the police force, the fact that it had just been blown up not even slowing it down. The thing had just pulled itself back together and started attacking everything again. At first she had been sorry that she had unleashed this monster, since it had to be her. It had only appeared after she had used the key and brought the factory online.
Not that she felt sorry for long.
These people were part of the reason she had to live like she did, since they did not have room in their lives for a girl that did not 'Exist' as they had so politely put it. Instead, when her father died they had taken everything from her, thrown her on the streets to rot, forgotten about her like trash and taken over her father's company.
She soon found herself cheering for the insect, hoping that it ripped these people a new one, what ever that meant. Living on the streets had done much for her vocabulary, even if she did not know what half of what was said meant.
Her cheering had intensified after she had seen a very familiar yellow Bug with black racing stripes and the ever-noticeable bulk of Captain Fanzone. The big blowhard and Mr. Powell had been the ones to throw her out of the tower and her home along with the Board of Directors.
"Ya! Go bug go! Show 'em who's boss!"
Sari cheered and pranced from her perch on a nearby building like she was watching some sort of sport, taking guilty pleasure that the over-grown bug she had inadvertently created was walloping the police forces. The happiness turned to anger, however, as someone new arrived on the scene.
LINEBREAK/Scene Change
Near the docks – Nighttime
"Driver, how long till we reach the docks and the crisis?"
The nervous young driver looked down to the left as the small viewscreen leading to the back of the limo tuned in to a cloud of heavy cigar smoke and an obscured face, the only defining feature being a set of rosy pink sunglasses that caught the light from the built-in comm. system. Trying not to stutter the young man quickly answered, knowing that the man in the back had been temperamental recently and would fire him without a thought for keeping him waiting.
"We are almost there now Mr. Powell sir. We have just received word that the Captain is already on the scene trying to contain the problem. As soon as we round the next turn we will be able to see it."
"And Masterson?"
The nameless driver gulped at the name of the company's head robot designer, remembering the horrible times he spent shuttling the crazy scientist around the city for the most obscure of things.
"He reported in and said that he would not be able to deploy the unit, citing difficulties in the control systems, sir."
A quite grunt and the fire of a lighter filled the screen as the man in the back lit a new cigar, and shoved the remains of the last in an ashtray.
"Fine. That will be all driver. And before we finish, I don't want to see you as my driver again. Clear your locker out tonight and find yourself somewhere else to work, PoTech Industries does not have room for people who do not show proper respect for their betters."
The driver almost broke down then and there. This job had been all that stood between him and total poverty. In a city all but run by Potech Industries and every job requirement easily filled with a robot, a job was hard to come by. Trying to keep the choked edge from his voice he promptly answered.
"Yes sir, I will do that sir… We have arrived at the docks sir."
Powell rolled down the tinted window and looked into the night, and could clearly see the massive insect that was decimating the police force. The massive amounts of spotlights that were trained on it and its bulk easily made it visibly even on this moonless night.
He signaled for the driver to open the door and stepped out, dusting his immaculate white suit for any ashes and walked right through the police cordon and right up to the hefty police captain.
"Captain Fanzone, I presume you have the situation in hand? Do you have any idea where this thing came from?"
The Captain looked back and saw one of the most hated men he knew. The ever annoying Mr. Powell, CEO and founder of Potech Industries - the company that had taken the place of Sumdac Systems after the company's collapse - and one of the most powerful men in the city. Trying to refrain from the urge to reduce that smug face to a pulp each time he saw it, he kept his voice trimmed and his response as short as possible.
"No, we don't have the situation in hand. This thing just pulls itself back together each time we do any damage to it, and it keeps eating anything metal that gets too close. As far as we can tell, it came from an old Sumdac Systems research and development lab here on the docks. Best as the eggheads can figure, it was exposed to something inside that caused it to mutate. Now get outta here Powell, last thing I need is a lawsuit when this thing scuffs those nice Italian shoes of yours."
Powell was as close to exploding as a man could be, and what made it worse was that he could not even do anything. The Captain was one of the few men in the city that had the clout to say whatever they wanted to his face and could escape untouched. Turning on his heel, Powell entered his limo and ordered the driver back to company HQ.
LINEBREAK/Scene Change
Dockside – Nighttime
Sari watched from her rooftop as the most hated man she could ever know exited the limo and walked up to Fanzone, her hands locked around the railing of the roof hard enough that her knuckles were turning white. That was the man that was responsible for everything after her father's death, if he had not done what he did she would still be her father's daughter and her father's company would still be around. After his death, Isaac had left a will, saying that everything was to go to he daughter Sari in the case of his death.
But Powell had come forth, and calmly stated that since there was no records of her anywhere, not even a single birth or medical record, that she could not claim anything that her father's will entitled her too since she did not technically exist and was therefore not entitled to what was legally hers.
After that, Powell had used legal loophole after loophole to seize Sumdac Systems and make himself the owner and CEO of the company. When Sari had tried to resist, he had simple had her thrown out of the tower by the good captain. Adoption or the orphanage was not an option, since by law she did not exist and therefore was outside the system. Not long after that the company had collapsed, as Powell deliberately tore it down from the inside with bad management, and in its place created PoTech.
She kept her eyes on Powell and the Captain, as they talked about - most likely - the monster that had been unleashed. After a few minutes, the two ceased their conversation and Powell went back to his limo and left. Gripping the key as the man drove away, she swore that if the key could bring the factory to life and somehow create that monster, then it could help her. Help her get back at Powell for wreaking her life.
Casting a look down at the monster and the police force, her thoughts elevated to a happier status at the thought of the Captain getting his due for helping Powell. Settling down on a ledge, Sari sat back and watched the show as the captain ordered a retreat.
As the police force fell back Sari noticed something strange; in the fact that there was a group of vehicles - which she had not noticed arrive - that were not among the retreating police. A SWAT armored car, a fire truck, a police pursuit bike, and lastly and most strangely an almost exact duplicate of the Captain's yellow Bug, right down to the racing stripes but missing the rust spots.
Standing up and leaning as far as the rail would let her, Sari tried to get a better look at what was happening.
LINEBREAK/Scene Change
Dockside – Nighttime
"Fall back! All units fall back! We will engage with unmanned units only! I repeat! All units fall back!"
It was around this time that the Captain noticed that there was a select group of vehicles that were not falling back.
"Who the hell do those cowboy clowns think they are?!"
Shouting orders into the radio or the bullhorn did nothing to get the drivers of the vehicles attention and did wonders on raising Fanzone's blood pressure. That was when he noticed two things. One, being that there were no drivers. Two, being that his car was among the vehicles being chased around by the monster.
"What the hell is my car doing driving itself?!?!"
LINEBREAK/Scene Change
Dockside – Nighttime
"Prime, we could use a plan here. Or better yet, could we not be fighting a giant
monster that is trying to EAT US?!"
"Calm down Bumblebee, Ratchet is working on a solution as we speak."
This is was most active solar cycle his team had faced since their battle with Megatron and coming to this strange new world. It had also been the worst. They had been woken from stasis only to find the cargo hold flooded and the AllSpark gone, and now they were fighting some sort of mutant organic.
"Uh, Prime? I could kinda use a hand getting my hand back."
Prime looked over and saw that indeed Bulkhead needed a hand, in getting back his hand - which had been sucked inside the monster - and ran to help.
LINEBREAK/Scene Change
Dockside – Nighttime
Sari watched as the cars became giant robots, and proceeded to trash the insect she had been cheering for just moments ago. She watched as the joke of a police force just stood there slack-jawed and the robots went on to save the day. It was simply incredible to watch. But something seemed off about them.
The robots seemed to be arguing among each other at times, even if the large red one seemed to be the one in charge. The black-and-gold one seemed to want to work alone, using what appeared to be ninja fighting moves and throwing stars, and the green one just seemed to be trying not to get grabbed and eaten by the monster while fighting it with the wreaking balls its hands turned into. She kinda liked the yellow one, which had been the duplicate of the Captain's car. Even if it did not seem to be doing a lot of damage with the lasers in its hands, the yellow one seemed to be trying the hardest.
The bots pummeled and chopped and sliced and zapped the insect, but it just regenerated itself afterwards. Sari was absolutely riveted as the loner got sucked inside the insect when it tried to attack, and she could swear she heard the bots yelling out to the unfortunate black-and-gold bot.
After that the action picked up, with the insect capturing all but the little yellow bot. Now that Sari really paid attention, the yellow one kinda reminded her of a bee. The yellow paint job and the black stripes, coupled with the agility of the bot, definitely reminded her of a bee.
She held her breath as the bot leapt from the top of a nearby building and right into the monster's mouth, seemingly to its doom. Both Sari and the police force watched as the insect seemed to freeze for some reason, before bursting into a cloud of ash and smoke.
By time Sari could see through the smoke from where she was, there was nothing besides a pile of ash. The bots had disappeared, and the police seemed to be trying to find where they had gone. Spotting a few police coming towards the building she was hiding on, Sari had no choice but to leave it to another time and head back to the factory. Besides, she wanted to find out what else the key could do.
LINEBREAK/Scene Change
Dockside – Nighttime
"So is he alright Ratchet?"
Prime and his crew stood in the medical bay of their ship, surrounding their teammate Prowl, who had taken damage in the fight. A large part of his chest plate had been torn away and exposed his inner workings to the outside world. Ratchet was currently hunched over the mech, trying to see the extent of the damage.
"Ya, he'll be alright. He's just going to need some work here in the medbay. But there is something I think you need to see Prime; something that Teletran-1 picked up before, during and after the fight."
Before Ratchet could continue, the bot in question groaned as he came out of recharge. Looking around, he asked the most obvious of questions.
"Wha… what happened?"
"Simple Prowl," Prime responded, "these bots saved your circuitry. Now rest, we will talk about your rash nature later. Right now Ratchet has something important to show us."
Prime nodded and signaled that it was okay to continue, and Bumblebee and Bulkhead quickly fell in line as Ratchet brought up the video of the fight. Prowl was able to watch from the table.
"Alright Ratchet, show me what you've got."
Ratchet nodded and started up the recording, and started explaining what was wrong with the picture in front of them.
"Now, before Teletran-1 woke us up outta sleep mode, it deployed a SkySpy to get a basic idea of what was going on up there. Now, at first glance this is nothing but a recording of the organics that are the apparent dominant life forms of this planet trying to fight off that beast. But look up here in this quadrant, on top of this building. There is something very strange up there."
Ratchet pointed out the building and zoomed the recording in. And soon enough they could clearly see a small form that was watching the fight and seemed to be cheering on the monster.
"Whoever this is up here, they seem to be actively encouraging the beast. Now it might just be me, but I think that the beast was not a random thing. It was created. When I examined the sample that invaded out ship, the readings confirmed that it had only been active for a short time."
Prime knew where this was going.
"So this was not a random attack, but a planned one?"
Ratchet nodded, and Bumblebee and Bulkhead started getting visions of other such creatures running around.
"Yes, I think so Prime. Someone planned for that thing to attack, and they planned for those armed forces to try and stop it. By watching the video, I can confirm that, if this was a planned attack, who ever is up on the building has at least two targets. Just watch the vid and you will see. That is, if you young-bots can pay enough attention."
The vid moved on, to another scene just after they had arrived and blended in with the locals. Ratchet pointed out the hidden watcher again on the screen, while the screen split to show the gathering of armed forces that were trying to fight, and then pointed out an organic that stood out. A large, hefty organic in dark covering who was waving some sort of device around.
"Now watch the reaction of the watcher when this hefty one here starts acting up."
The crew watched as the figure on the roof suddenly tensed, and focused on the pointed out organic. They could literally see the anger in the tiny figure even if they could not see the facial details. Bumblebee was the first to speak up.
"Whoa, whatever is going on between these two is serious. Whoever was watching looks like they're going to blow a crank case, or whatever it is organics do when they get mad."
Prowl, on the other hand, was more interested in watching the vid than listening to Bumblebee.
"Quite Bumblebee, Ratchet said there were two targets, and that was only one."
BB was reduced to grumbling, while Ratchet and Prime moved on with the vid.
"Now watch this you Bots, if you think that last one was being mad then it's got nothing on this. Whoever this is, is in a lot of danger if whoever it was that was watching did create that thing and decides to do it again."
The crew watched as a large black vehicle pulled up to the rear of the fight, and a plump round figure stepped out and into the open. With the zoom on the SkySpy they were able to make out the features of the organic. Lightly colored strands with what looked like a pink visor on a rounded face. But it was not the features of the organic that caught their attention; it was the reaction it garnered from the one who was watching.
The figure looked ready to jump off the roof and strangle the man. It had its servos - or whatever they were called here - wrapped tightly on the railing, to the point the soft covering on them had turned almost white.
Bumblebee, once again, was the first to speak up.
"Why are you even showing us this Ratchet? Why should we worry that one organic wants to slag another? It's not our problem is it?"
Before Prime or Ratchet could answer, Bulkhead did. And he explained it rather well.
"Well little buddy, it kinda is. The ship is trashed and the AllSpark is lost somewhere on this planet, and without them we are not going anywhere. We need materials to fix the ship, and to do that we would have to bargain with the natives. And they could even help us find the AllSpark maybe."
"Bulkhead is right," Prime said, "We need to repair the ship, and find the AllSpark. The best way to do that is to get to know the locals and try to establish a relation with them. So starting now, we are going to use the local DataNet to learn what we can, understood?"
The team, for the exception of the still incapacitated Prowl, all gave their half-sparked agreements, before they went to find a terminal they could access the DataNet from. Turning to Ratchet, Prime asked him a few last minute questions.
"Ratchet, is there anything else we should know?"
The elderly bot shook his head.
"No, nothing else. I just got a bad feeling about this in my fuel tanks Prime - something about this is not right. Just not right at all."
AN: Might not be the best, but I started to lose my edge as it wore on. But I tried right? Anyways, lots of stuff this chapter. Sari learns a little about her key, and starts off on a dark path. The Autobots do not have anyone to guide them this time around, so now they have to try and figure out themselves what to do. Sari is noticed, but not discovered by the Autobots. What will happen next chapter? And will I finally get a Beta that can help me do a basic fight scene and can help me write good dialogue? Lets find out next time!
