A new chapter, combining darkness rising pt. 3 and 4. Enjoy ;)
"Hey Bee! You ready?"
I put on my black helmet and push down the glass eye cover.
Um… are you sure you wanna race with me on that bike? Bee beeps uncertainly, sounding unconvinced at my attempt.
"Trust me. I know where I stand." I attach the speed marker onto the bike handle of my freshly-repaired bicycle. "Raf, buckle up."
"I'm ready." He gives me a thumbs-up as he secures the seatbelt round his body after putting aside his video game remote he has been playing with Bee beforehand.
Is that a motorcycle helmet? Why are you wearing a motorcycle helmet… on a bicycle?
I adjust the fingerless black leather gloves on my hands. "Typical traffic protocol. Safety precaution," I reply, but decide that they're safe to be told more. "And a good luck charm."
I zip up the half length black leather jacket and signals Raf. "Anytime, Raf. I'm ready."
"Ready, set… Go!" he shouts, and to my surprise, I'm the one to run off the dirt road which leads to base first.
Bee is slightly left behind my bike and it seems that he doesn't have the intention to get past me. "C'mon, Bee, I'm not going at full speed yet! Don't make me tease you! A muscle car losing to a biker?" I cry back.
At the word 'biker' Bee gains speed suddenly and goes ahead of me almost instantly. Now that's the spirit. I step the pedals even faster, and the speed marker reads 80mph.
Hey Kal! They're all back already! We'll be late! Bee signals me to go back and join the others.
Social activities. Oh well, I hate those the most.
"Bee? Want a challenge?" Still going onwards fast, I manage to find a way to lift my spirits. "If you lose, you'll help fix the bike! Deal?"
In respond to my challenge, he goes by double of his original speed, too apparent of having zero intention of helping me. I step the pedals twice as fast as I start to sweat, yet the speed marker is just reading 90mph.
For times I have reached the trunk and endeavour to bypass him, he makes sure that will never happen and turn to block my way. In the end I give in and stick close to his tail pipes, in hopes of not losing too awfully.
Big mistake.
The big car blocks my vision, as well as my sight to the stop sign a couple of yards in front of the base. It is when we enter the entrance when Bee slows down abruptly, leaving me a bout of shock when I gasp and run into his trunk and flip over with my bike, which is still going at the speed of 90+ mph.
With a loud THUMP I land on top of Bee as we enter the chamber, leaving Arcee, Jack, Miko and Bulkhead shocked, who were just laughing and talking about the activities they just had.
I groan as I kick the bike off the hood that is jammed between my legs. "Kal! You okay?" Raf peeks out of the car window and asks.
"Ow." I sit up, and every single strand of muscle in my entire left body is moaning and complaining about the pain. I rub the joints, which ache a damn lot. "I'm fine, still alive."
I leap down the top as Raf gets out, and dashes my way to check on me as I remove my helmet, managing a light curve of smile on my lips to assure my well status.
"Dude! That's awesome! Can I come with next time? How fast can your bike go? Mind borrowing me your bike tomorrow?" Miko shoots me with her usual loaded round of questions.
Once we're in safe zone for Bee to move, he transforms back into his robot mode. "Remind me to fix the brake. How fast did you just go?" I ask.
That was… 110mph? Bee recalls. Wow. Did your bike really go that fast?
"That's my next target to beat." I beam lightly at him, with my back at the others while swiping the dust on my helmet and hang it on the bike handle, while placing it against the wall.
Suddenly Bulkhead's chest gives a thump and clang of metal. He flips open his chest plate and hands Miko a guitar case.
"Sorry, must've left it in the backseat," she apologizes and gets back her guitar.
Optimus marches forward to our newly joined assembly. "Autobots, prepare to - "
He stops as he gazes down at Arcee and the four humans. "Roll out?" Arcee finishes his line with uncertainty.
"No, remain here. Ratchet, you'll come with me. Arcee we'll be outside communications range for some time, so I'm putting you in charge," Optimus orders.
"Dude! You're the biggest, you should be the boss," Miko complains loudly as she gestures to Bulkhead.
"Oh… he never picks me," Bulkhead replies, with a slight hint of embarrassment I manage to hear.
"Optimus, with all due respect, playing bodyguard is one thing, babysitting's another!" Arcee, who seems to be at no less state of annoyance as Miko complains. "Besides, Ratchet hasn't been in the field since the war!"
"My pistols may be rusty, but my hearing is sharp as ever," Ratchet breaks in sharply.
"For the moment, it's only reconnaissance," Optimus assures her that it'll be just a spell of their upcoming duty.
"Then why do I hear an edge in your voice?" she retorts.
"Arcee, much has changed in the last twenty-four hours, and we all need to adapt," he finalizes the duty arrangement despite her question. "Ratchet, bridge us out." And the pair left through the lighted up green tunnel.
As soon as they have disappeared and the light of the bridge dims Jack speaks up. "Okay, chief, um, so what's on the activities list?"
Arcee doesn't look any way pleased with the arrangement. "I'm going on patrol," she says.
"But Optimus told us to stay!" Bulkhead protests.
"When you're in charge, you can call the shots. Bee, with me," she rearranges the chain of duty.
Gah! Why me… Bee complains in exasperation, but still obeys her orders. "Bulkhead, you're in charge," she commands, and she transforms to her alt form with Bee and leads them out of the entrance.
"So um… what's on the activities list?" Bulkhead asks, when Miko finishes connecting her electronic guitar to a hi-fi set, which gives a screeching loud noise.
"How about… band practice!" she says euphorically.
"But we're not a band!" Raf protests with his hands over his ears.
'Why so anti-social Raf! You play anything?" she walks our way and asks him.
"Um… keyboard?" he suggests and picks up his laptop which he just placed on the hi-fi set a minute ago.
"Laptops have samples! Good!" the maddie finishes in her version of understanding. "Jack?"
"I, eh, sometimes mess around on the harmonica," he says, scratching the back of his head.
"Do I look like I do country?" she steps over and says with an offended tone. "Just cover yourself in fake blood and jump around screaming!"
Then she walks back Raf and my way. "So, Kal, I think you can make a good vocal! Just scream whatever's on your mind as loud as you can!"
I fold my arms in disapproval. "Sorry. I'm the anti-social one." I harden my face and walks away. "You can do whatever you want, Raf; you don't have to listen to her."
I go for the tool box, which is left beside the ground bridge operator, packed and well.
"Whoa. Is she always that mean?" Miko whispers, but can't keep her normally loud volume down for me to hear.
"No, Kal's actually very nice," Raf defends me. I can actually imagine the other's faces at his words. I haven't been playing nice.
"Raf, you can say whatever you think about me but no one's gonna believe you." I turn for the bike left against the wall, still reluctant to look at the so-called band.
"Okay, then… Bulkhead! Percussion! Go for the big industrial sound," Miko continues with her list of duty. "DIY! We're a band! You've just, gotta learn the songs"
I sigh at her surprising self-centeredness as I detach the back wheel. There's no way that she appears as fifteen with her apparently overindulged traits.
"This one's a ballad, 'My fist, your face'," she shouted, appearing as getting too high herself and starts playing a series of loud, unlinked notes with no quality of music. Maybe that's what heavy metal sounds like, but my reservations are for rock, and that sounds nothing like rock.
I drop down everything in my hand in frustration and storm into another corridor in anger just to give my ears a break. I've given all the tolerance to Miko Nakadai.
As far as I have gone out of the nasty sounds' reach, what I see wows me.
Standing at the end of this hallway with storerooms locked on the side is a wall of gigantic guns and blasters, resembling what the 'bots have been using to shoot.
"Whoa," I says in admiration at these guns. They are of strong firing strength, as much as I know, and my hands have been itching to grab hold of one of them. for close observations, yes, but I'm pretty much interested in using them actually.
I climb up the wall and snatch the smallest blaster in sight, which is already roughly the size of Arcee's forearm. It has no handles, only a cuboid for the body of the gun, and it looks exactly like what Arcee's blasters too, as much as I can recall.
However I lost my balance midway climbing downwards with the machine gun. I land hard on my back with the gun in my arms.
Despite the hurting sensation on my back I'm too eager to see for myself with this gun. I drag it out the hallway and yelled, "Hey Bulk, you have any smaller guns?"
Bulkhead appears as overwhelmed, mostly, with shock. So are the four other humans.
Wait. Four.
The dark-skinned plump Agent Fowler is standing on top of the platform, staring at me with the others in his sight, his finger pointing at Bulkhead in a certain accusing way.
"Contact with civilians! Team Prime has really gone off the book this time," he says in a bossy tone. "Wait. Don't tell me you're running a daycare centre."
"Um…" Bulkhead has lost his words, uncertain of what he should reply.
"We're… interns!" Jack begins.
"Student interns!" Raf joins in.
"Erm, earning extra credit in auto-shop."
"Robotics."
Dang. Number one: they're really, really bad at lying. They made up an unconvincing story right from the beginning. Team Prime is supposed to be a secret organization, like a black ops team. There's no way interns are getting in. number two: the organization was awful. If Jack said that himself, there would be less contradiction. I can't help but face palmed myself at the end.
"Okay. Let's move, I'm taking all four of you to federal custody for your own protection." The man walks down the stairs to Jack, Raf and Miko. Bulkhead stomps his massive foot in between the three kids and Fowler.
"We're protecting them," Bulkhead growls.
"Is that so?" Fowler says sarcastically, squinting his eye with disbelief, and marches toward the phone set in the base by the stairs. "Well maybe you can explain that to my superiors at the Pentagon."
"Don't use that phone, it's…" Bulkhead seems to have no idea of preventing him from doing so, but he pokes his vast stubby finger into the keyboard. "… out of order."
"This isn't over, big foot, not by a long shot," he declares angrily and strides back up the stairs into the elevator – and he goes up to the parking apron on top of the base.
"Now look what you've got us into." I dump the gun in my hands down, now that Fowler is gonna have this report documented – we're done! As soon as he tells his superiors in Pentagon as he threatened to do so, we'll be expelled from the base, and I'll lost the last hope of knowing the truth to why I lost everything I once owned when young! "We're doomed."
"Don't blame it all on us, Kal," Miko snaps, clutching her guitar hard. "He saw your bike too."
Bulkhead just sigh. We need a solution to this fiasco.
"Raf, can you hack into Fowler's aircraft GPS?" I ask with my hand under my chin. "Try to jam the satellite and block his GPS – if you can try to reset the auto-pilot systems."
"Are you joking?" Jack questions my orders. "As much as I know Raf's a techie, can he do that?"
"Are you challenging my knowledge to Raf's abilities?" I hiss a retort in his face threateningly.
Without warning the screen lights up and a beeping signal sounds again. But it's different from the proximity sensors' signals.
"My ears!" Raf squeals as the sounds are ostensibly aching his ears.
"It's an SOS," Bulkhead strides towards the controls as he takes a look at the screen. "From Fowler."
He does something with the controls keyboard with his finger hesitantly, and stops the beeping.
"Did you trace him?" Raf asks worriedly.
"Location scanners are incomplete," Bulkhead responds. "Oh well." He strides away without further saying anything.
"Oh well? Seriously?" Jack exclaims.
"Fowler's a jerk!" Bulkhead answers like it's obvious that he doesn't need to do anything.
"Whoa! Whether you like the guy or not, the Decepticons may have him," Jack reasons. Good answer.
"And Agent Fowler knows your location!" Raf chirps in. Then he suddenly realizes what it means. "Our location."
"And did we just not witness how fast Fowler backs down from a 'bot? The cons will totally make him squeal!" Miko adds loudly.
"Besides, agents possess a great deal of knowledge over national issues, if he really let something slips to the cons it won't be just the base, but the whole nation!" I argue.
"But we lost the transmission!" Bulkhead returns. "Fowler could be anywhere!"
"Maybe I can nail it down," Raf suggests, and sits on the floor with his laptop on his lap turned on. "About five years ago the government started microchipping their agents, you know, like the ones they do with pets!"
He starts to enter some codes and activate his hacking systems, when everyone except me cast him strange looks. "What? I saw it on TV! Anyway, if I can hack into the fed's main frame, maybe I can pinpoint Fowler's coordinates."
"You know how to hack? But you're like… two years old!" Miko says in awe and incredulity.
"Two?" I hiss at her face. Can this ignorant Japanese even tell between two and twelve?
"Twelve. And a quarter." Raf manages a smug little smile. He doesn't normally get praised or amazed by people.
"Latitude 39.5, longtitude 116.9," Raf copes with the process and finally gets the location of Fowler after about fifteen minutes of hard work. Bulkhead enters the coordinates and activates the ground bridge. "Okay, wait here," he orders.
"Aww, don't break up the band!" Miko coaxes him.
Bulkhead is already at the opening of the bridge when he turns back. "Ehh, Jack! You're in charge!" and he runs into the tunnel, disappearing in a blinding flash of light.
"Then it's we four have the run of the place… Miko?" Jack says. I look sideways. The spot where Miko should be standing has nothing but air consuming the space. "Miko?"
"Oh, fantastic," I roll my eyes and conclude. "The little bitch just ran with Bulk."
"Then what should we do? Bulkhead might not even realize she has fallen in!" Raf says with a quavering voice.
"Miko hasn't seen the cons in action like we have, she has no idea," Jack murmurs worriedly.
"Frickin' awesome," I grumble, and pick the gun I left on the floor up in my arms. "I'm dragging her back before she stirs up another trouble."
"Those are the coordinates, their destination is still locked in," Raf takes a look at the minute computer screen for human use.
"Stay here, you two, it's more than dangerous," I snap, and stride over to the place where the bridge is at, only not fired up yet.
"Huh! Um, Raf, you're in charge!" Jack says, and runs down the stairs.
"In charge of who? He cried.
Jack walks to my side when the bridge lights up and energized. He nods at me as support and we walk into the bright, blinding flashlight.
To my bafflement, Raf follows us.
"No, Raf – stay in base! I can't afford to see you hurted!" I reason with him.
"And I can't afford losing you!" he protests. "Please, Kal, you're the only thing I can hold onto now."
I stare into his eyes. The horror in his look is true, but the determination is also real.
I grit my teeth and harden my heart. Jack's okay, but he's too young. He won't be able to handle what he might see.
How I wish I can tell him he still has his family. But I can't say the words.
"Stick close," I say through gritted teeth, and he trots over with us.
Travelling through a ground bridge is hard to describe: you feel like walking in a twirl of light as if you weigh nothing for a split moment, and your eyes get blurred with rays of light dancing in your eyes. When we arrive we jump down the tunnel and reappear at a valley, with a gigantic alien ship the size of Jasper, Nevada awaiting for our arrival.
"Why don't these guys hang with their 'bots? It's our one-to-one time," Miko, sanding on Bulkhead's big palm folds her arms and says crossly.
"My bones are vibrating," Raf squeaks faintly beside me, trembling. I grunts and swing the gun onto my right shoulder, and hold his arm still with the other, while we walk over to them.
"Humans!" there comes a distant cry from the massive ship, when figures of the purple robots appear without warning, their arms transformed into guns, aimed at us.
"Scrap," Miko and Bulkhead cursed in unison, as another figure approach us, the con's gun aimed well at the three of us.
A shower of firing focuses on us: we miss all the shots by fortune. "Run, NOW!" I scream and push the boys narrowly away from a hit aimed directly at them. They fall hard on the ground, and Jack covers Raf when Bulkhead, in car form rushes over and opens the door. "Get in, get in!"
Despite their appal they climb onto the car, and I seize my chance as the firing ceases.
"Thanks, Bulkhead," Jack breathes.
" Yeah, thanks!" Raf gasps when I hop onto his seat, forcing him to squeeze space for my presence.
"Wh- what're you doing here!" Bulkhead asks.
"We're worried about Miko. Have you seen her?" Jack arouses as he fastens his seatbelt.
"What's your look like?" the voice of Miko pops behind us. We look back only to see her excited and jolly face, which I find hateful.
Bulkhead makes a sharp turn behind a big piece of rock. He opens the door. "Everyone out, and this time, please wait here."
We hop off as a shot strikes the piece of rock hard, shaking the ground when we land. Then without hesitation Bulkhead charges towards the drifting ship in car form, avoiding the shots, and climbs up to the ship within moves. He takes down the Decepticons in his way when he looks around and suddenly calls, "Where's Miko?"
That's when we realize we're too obsessed with the fight; Miko isn't with us. We look up hopelessly in desperation when suddenly – Bulkhead's chestplate vibrates and a tiny figure appears out of it when he flips the metal plat open: Miko.
Seriously, when will the little troublemaker stop disrupting our lives?
Instantaneously another troop of the identical purple Decepticons appear on the ship out of nowhere as Bulk places Miko on the ground: the two are greatly outnumbered.
Bulkhead snatches Miko up and takes down a couple, but more are marching towards them, and Bulkhead has taken a few shots.
It's my show time.
Although I don't really know how to use the gun in my hands, my instincts with machines has served me well for years. Why not give it another shot?
"Move aside," I snarl as I pull a handle clamped onto the back of the gun. It sounds exactly like what happens when the cons take their aim. Then I swipe my hand over the gun's surfaces, and feel a long rectangular hollow right below the back end of the gun. I dig my finger in the hollow and swipes backward – it feels nothing, but a blast leaves the gun and hits a Decepticon and I am blasted backward along with the gun with the rebounding force.
"Kal! You alright?" Raf and Jack come helps me up, as I grab the heavy gun back.
"I'm fine," I grunt, my hands trembling slightly with the force of the gun. "I think I know how to use it now. Stay close."
I take another down with a careful aim when Raf says, "I think they forgot about us."
He should have touched the wood. A big shadow hoods over us when they turn to see three other purple identical robots advance towards us.
I gasp, but quickly recollect my senses. "RUN!" I bellow, and they obey me, leaving me facing the cons.
They turn to the running boys, but I screamed as I take my multiple shots on them. Within seconds they've fallen, but they boys are out of sight except from two purple cons returning to the ship, and my hands are trembling vigorously as if someone set a faulty motor in my arms.
A roar of engine arrests my attention, and I return to full alert mode. I am almost too relieved to gasp: Bee and Arcee have come to my rescue.
Get on, get on! Where are they? Bee opens his door to me when he beeps. I am pretty much overwhelmed with astound but carried the gun into the car in the end. "I'm – I can't tell, I lost track of the boys, and Miko is on the ship with Bulk!"
"We'll find Miko and Bulkhead first, Jack and Raf might be on board as well," Arcee says to Bee through their comm link. They run onto the ship at top speed and enter the interior areas, which are spookily lit in purplish black lights and has the exact same color scheme for the body paint job.
Two cons appear in our way with at a crossroad, walking to the door on the left, with one of them having both Jack and Raf in his hands. I open the window and set the gun on the window sill and shoot at the twins, and Bee runs into them, knocking them down. Arcee transforms midair and grabs the boys just in time and places them on the floor.
"Bumblebee!" Raf exhales in relief when I hobble off and Bee transforms back to his normal form.
Are you guys okay? Why did you come into the Nemesis! Bee speaks worriedly.
"I appreciate you three clearing the front door for us, but storming the Decepticon warship is not on the activity list!" Arcee says.
"Tell me about it," Jack waves up his hands as he says, but he can't hide the relief on his face.
We dash our way down the corridor, and now the gun seems to weigh less soon as I get used to it.
It is when we go to the end of the corridor when we run into Bulkhead and Miko at another crossroad.
"Brought the humans, huh?" Arcee says in a plain tone. I can't tell whether she's mad or not.
"You tried to get them staying behind!" Bulkhead protests.
"We'll find Fowler, and we'll get these kids out of here," Arcee concludes our mission.
"Um… he's in the break," Jack and Raf say in unison.
The three bots stare at each other, exchanging a silent agreement. Then we follow them storming another enormous room, probably the size of Raf's house, and we're made to stay put when they're off to save Fowler.
As soon as the door closed automatically behind them, Miko is more than excited to share her feelings.
"That was intense!" she squeals as if she's over the moon.
"What?" Raf gasps.
"Well, it's because of you we're stuck in this intensity. What were you thinking, Miko?" Jack says accusingly.
"Did I ask you to follow me?" she says haughtily, as if it's our fault to follow her.
"You wanted us to be a band, doesn't that usually mean we're playing together?" Jack points angrily.
"Well, maybe I decided to go solo," she says indifferently.
"Well, maybe I'm concerned about your safety!"
"Well, maybe I prefer the two of you to be quiet when we're still on enemy grounds!" I separate the two with the long shotgun when they start to have physical accusing. They stare at me furiously. "Shut up while I check the room," I snap.
I leave the trio at their ground while I make my way forward and take a scan around the place. No guards. Safe for the period.
"It's all your fault, we wouldn't have been here," Jack hisses.
"Oh, I'm sorry, is your name Optimus?" Miko sneers sarcastically. "You can leave my protection to Bulkhead, thank you very much!"
"Ugh! Stop it! Both of you!"
Raf shouts, and leaves them both, running to my side. I am shocked: Raf rarely shouts.
I bend down to check on him. Tears of fear are welling in his eyes, ready to fall. But he holds them back.
It has been a hell of a day for him to make through. He's quite fearless as much as I've seen, but he's clearly petrified. After all, he's just twelve…
I hug the kid, and he trembles in my arms. "When can we leave?" he asks on my shoulder with a broken down voice.
"Hey, Raf, it's okay," Jack assures him as he runs our way.
"Yeah, we'll be fine," Miko joins in. I cast her a condemning eye.
"Listen to me, Raf," I hold his shoulders, and he looks at me. "Sit down, and take a break. Don't think about it, I'll make sure you'll be home, alive and safe. I promise."
"Our bots will come back for us," Jack says, as he leads Raf for a break, sitting on a gigantic staircase.
"Yeah, they're gonna take us home!" Miko reassures him.
"How do you know," Raf mumbles with a grave voice.
And that's quite sad. He was quite pessimistic towards our situation: I, however, am not an optimistic person. Can't help, and I can't fool myself into feeding him with false hopes.
"Nothing is certain until it has happened," I tell them. They don't look any cheered up. I'm sorry, but that's me.
I sigh and turn around, suddenly my attention arrested by a vast purplish glass screen, which is ten times larger than Ratchet's and is filled with some kind of unknown language.
But there's something more than unknown language… something I can recognize. Something I've been studying.
"Raf." I wave backwards to get his attention. "You have a flashdrive?"
He looks up at the screen I'm staring at, and immediately realizes its importance as I do. He hops down the stairs to take a closer look beside me.
"What's that?" Jack asks.
"It's important. Real important," Raf answers him. "I've gotta get this to Optimus!"
"How do you know this isn't just a recipe for space nachos," Miko questions him.
"I know math when I see it. That is one serious equation," he analyses what he sees to Miko. But I guess she's too foolish to understand.
"Not just math," I correct him. "It's physics. Plus some engineering and schematics."
"Can you… download it?" Jack shrugs in desperation and asks.
Raf thinks for a while. "I got a flashdrive." He opens his backpack and fishes a USB out.
"But there's no plug-in available for it," I take a close scan across the device.
"There should be…" Raf takes his step forward and check under the keyboard.
That's when heavy footsteps stride into the room.
Another purple typical Decepticon enters the room, fixing his glance on us. We drop our jaws.
Without further hesitation, Jack drags Raf away while Miko leads them away to run for their lives, as I falter. Raf, however, leaves his greatest concern - his backpack behind. He turns back for it midway on the run.
Raf just gets to swing the backpack over his shoulders when the con turns his right arm into the pistol again and aims at him. He gasps at sight of it as I unlock my own oversized gun with a pair of trembling hands.
"Run! I'll cover you!" I shout, and swipe the trigger again. But this time, after all the shooting and carrying the heavy gun, my hands are quavering like mad and I miss the target. The shot hit the little area just a foot away from the con's leg, which can't stop him. My gun falls onto the hard metal ground instead as I collapse backwards with the push-back effect.
He takes his return fire on Raf. He takes multiple shots on the running kid but misses all of them and on the spur of the moment, Jack pushes Raf sideways and keep them out of shooting range.
"Miko, take a picture!" Jack shrieks.
"Great idea!" Miko gives him a thumbs-up as the con draws himself nearer to the two boys, while I push myself slightly backwards. "Hey, You!" Miko yells and gets his attention, snatches out her phone and takes a picture of the con.
"Not of that, of that!" Jack screams and points at the screen we were just planning to download the details.
"Oh," Miko says as she finally gets his intention through her head, and takes another snap.
That's when I finally grab hold onto my colossal gun and force-stopped the twitching arms. I take another shot at the con but hit his arm – giving enough time to confuse and harm him enough for their escape to the door.
That doesn't last long, and he blasts the door open, conveniently providing the three with a means of escaping.
He follows them, and I hasten after as fast as I can manage with the gun tight within my grip.
They make a sharp turn round the corner of the exit. The con is about to shoot them when a car horns – and Bulkhead transforms and bumps the creep bot down and nails him.
Bee and Arcee, both in vehicle form arrives at the three kids' sides. They hop on when Arcee shouts, "I told you to stay put!" and quickly drives them away as soon as I hop onto Bulkhead in his car form.
"You got Fowler?" I ask immediately once I take my seat.
"Right at the back with Bee," Bulk replies, and within moments we are out of the ship.
We arrive back at base when Optimus and Ratchet, who are in a 'less-than-okay' state makes their arrival as well. They patch up the injuries in silence as we get Fowler into a patient's bed until Miko asks, "What happened to you guys anyway?"
"We engaged an army of undead cybertronian warriors," Ratchet replies gravely.
"Zombies? You fought zombies and I missed it?" was Miko's only reply.
I can't help but think, when will she actually grow up?
"Bulkhead, you exercised extremely poor judgement in allowing the humans to accompany you," Optimus lectures.
"It won't happen again, Optimus. I – I promise."
"But it wasn't Bulkhead's fault!" Miko argues.
"Miko – please!" Bulkhead pleads her to stop.
"And check it out. Recon!" she takes out her phone and shows Optimus the photo she's taken.
Optimus bends down for a clearer view at the small image.
"Hmm. Ratchet, have a look. It could be of importance to Megatron."
"Whoa. Megatron's back? That's really bad news, right?" Jack steps forward as he asks.
Just by hearing the name sends me shivers all over, although it isn't obvious to people around. Bad memories wash over me and I can hear an exchange of words in my head I've heard, years ago:
Lord Megatron, the cargo's discovered and is ready for transport…
Excellent! Now, destroy… this will never be a record in human history.
I almost gasp, and the flashback sends me a bout of wooziness and numbness in my limbs. But I quickly hold myself together.
"I… don't understand." Ratchet's words draws me back to reality. Miko withdraws her phone immediately.
"Oops, that's the con who tried to blow Raf away. At least, that's what he looked like before Bulkhead rearranges his grill," she describes enthusiastically, as if the phrase 'blow Raf away' means nothing at all to her. That literally pisses me off, and Raf just manages to grab my wrist before I do any physical harm to Miko the dumbass.
"Miko, Raf was almost killed!" Jack shouts angrily, and the hatred and anger towards Miko boils in my heart. "This isn't a game! When are you going to get that through your tick skull!"
"Um, we were all almost killed, Jack, you, me, Raf and Kal. Even them!" Miko argues.
"That wouldn't have happened if you hadn't followed Bulk at the beginning, Miko!" I raise my voice above its normal volume. "You almost lost me my brother, and you wouldn't be standing here loud and alive if anything happened to him!"
She stares at me in shock, as I pant lightly at my furious words.
I've had enough of Miko Nakadai. She's nothing but trouble.
"Well, if that's just an average day with the Autobots, then I don't want to be a part of it. Not anymore," Jack concludes.
He leaves every one of us in awe. Even I haven't requested for that.
"Jack, putting you in harm's way was never our intent. However it is no longer the safety of you three that is at risk, but the safety of all human kind," Optimus tells him calmly. "We will respect your decision if you wish to leave."
Without any hesitation Ratchet activates the ground bridge at the words. "No point for long goodbyes, here's the door."
"Come on, Raf." Jack turns to us.
Raf just takes a look at Bee, who looks miserably aside. Neither of them wishes to part.
"I'll be okay, Jack. See you at school," Raf says.
Jack grunts. "Kal? You coming?"
As much as the desire of staying away from Miko urges me to follow, my regard for Raf's safety keeps my sanity.
And, my mother's last sentence holds me back.
Someone has to live to tell the tale.
Jack's leaving; yet I have to stay, at least until I've found out the truth to the reason for my early childhood's destruction.
"I'm staying. Someone has to live to tell the tale."
He raises an eyebrow at me, uncertain of the meaning in my words.
"It's your thing," he leaves his last sentence at base to us.
He walks down the stairs when Arcee stands in his way before the activated ground bridge, her arms crossed.
"I know, you don't exist." He waves at her, and walks past the Autobot into the ground bridge.
"Don't make me hunt you down." And Jack disappears into the flash of light as Arcee just finished her word.
Now that Jack's gone, Ratchet closes the ground bridge.
"Optimus, I think we all need time to get over everything today. I'm going back for now," I tell the leader of the bots.
"I want to go home. I'm really tired." Raf stares down at his shoes and rubs his arm.
"Dude! Why leave so early when we haven't finished listening to their story?" Miko gestures at Ratchet and Optimus.
"I've had enough story for today. Raf, let's go." I take Raf's outreached hand and walks off the stage. Bee transforms into his car form and I grab my bike with its scattered components and we enter the car, leaving the base.
The sudden silence sends us a tiring sensation as we speed back to Raf's house, where his mother, once again, is waiting in front of the door.
"So…"
"Nine fifteen. We haven't break curfew." I park Bee into the garage and leave the bike beside him. Raf simply runs upstairs back to his room.
The woman glares at me angrily. I ignore her furious gaze and walk upstairs, and find Raf sitting on the bed in his room, his door half-shut.
I knock lightly. He looks up miserably and nods at me, granting me permission to get in.
I enter the room and shut the door, and sit on the chair right next to his bed.
"So," I begin. "Say whatever you want."
"I'm… I'm really not sure if I want to stay." he buries his face in his knees. "After everything we're through with today… I'm really scared, Kal. I am." I pat his shoulder lightly as reassurance.
"I've stand through many things with you, Raf," I tell him as gently as I can manage. "But this time, I'm staying. No matter what."
He looks up, staring at the wall right opposite. "I don't know," he murmurs. "But you, and Bumblebee…"
"The choice is in your hands," I say firmly. "Don't let my decision alter your choice. As for Bee… he makes a good friend. That's all I can say."
He turns to me, mildly surprised at what I said. Friend. It's not something that appears on my vocabulary list normally.
"Think it through tonight." I give him a tiny smile and stroke his up-shooing hair, and leave his room.
Instead of returning to mine, I go downstairs and give some final amendments to my bike. Then I put on my helmet, adjust my full-time wearing gloves and zip up the jacket again, ready to hit the road.
You want a ride? You can always hop on and I can take you out for a spin, Bee volunteers to take me out.
"Not today. It's too late and we'll wake everyone."
I kick ground and the bike runs out. I ride along the streets silently under the starry sky alone, enjoying the cool breeze blowing onto my face.
Until another young man on his bicycle comes my way. Jack.
I stop the bike mid-road and block his. He's forced to stop before me.
"First Miko, and I can't believe now it's you," he says. "What do you want?"
I nod towards a pub to my right. "A drink."
"Thanks, Kal, but beer's for you, not me."
"You sure you want to leave?" I ask after I few seconds of silence.
"I know what I said." he scratches the back of his head.
"Don't lie."
He stares at me, rather astounded, and looks back down on his wheels.
"About what you said back at base – what does that mean?" he asks after a moment of intense silence.
"It's none of your business," I snap, but soften a little. "I was referring to myself. I'll make sure someone can live to tell the tale. This time, for sure."
He still looks confused, but I understand. I haven't told him or anyone the whole story.
My watch beeps. It just strikes 10pm.
"Curfew. Gotta go now."
I turn the wheel and ride away in silence, alone – leaving no evidence of coming out illegally.
There you go, I'll do whatever I can to update soon.
I've lost a bit of motivation in continuing the story... is it not mature enough to be presented?
Please do feel free to post your feelings on the reviews wall, as long as you don't swear as much as Kal does XD. Your supports to me is appreciated when it comes to writing stories.