A/N: I am a fail. I am such an epic fail. I'm not even gonna give an excuse. I'm just gonna post these chapters (two for the price of one) and hope you'll forgive me.
Chapter 2
Thnks fr th Mmrs
"Thanks for the memories, even though they're not so sweet"
"Remind me again, why am I here?"
Gabriel grinned over at his companion. Wren stood beside him, glass of wine in hand and a slight sneer on her face. They both knew exactly why she was there, but she was learning to hate these kinds of functions quickly and he couldn't blame her. "I needed a ride, duh. And you came in because you can't stand being away from my charms for long." That got him a none-too-gentle slap on the back of his head.
"Better question; why are we dressed like this?" her voice was annoyed as she gestured to his tux and her dress. She looked good, she knew she did, but that didn't stop the memories of the so-called parties her parents would drag her and her sister to in the Towers and her attire only heightened the feeling. She looked down at the silky, floor length black dress and sneered again. She had created it herself using templates she had found online to create something that mostly covered her scars and Wren thought it had come out rather well. Her fingers twitched and she barely stopped them from tracing the newest scar along the right side of her face and neck. Her dark skin helped hide the older ones but the serious and deep ones like the one on her face and a few on her lower back stood out no matter what. There was a reason she preferred boys' clothes and long sleeves over dresses and shorts.
"Because it's a charity benefit, Sam," said an unfamiliar female voice behind Wren. Gabe smiled and nodded at the woman as if to say, 'that's why.' Wren just turned to see a brunette woman facing a teen with curly hair of the same light brown and green eyes. The boy, Sam, groaned and said, "But Ma, it's nothing but hair."
The woman huffed and walked away, saying she was going to find Sam's father and mumbling about blond hair and needing wine. The boy sighed and turned to the other teenager that had showed up beside him when his mother left. Sam said, "See, Bee, I told you she wouldn't like the hair." The other boy, Bee she guessed, reached up to run his hand through his hair and shrugged; it was as short and curly as his friend's but light blond with black streaks throughout. It was distracting and Wren could see why the older woman hadn't been happy about it, though the blond obviously wasn't related to them with his height and striking blue eyes, familiar eyes.
Wren shouldn't have been listening, she knew, but she was bored. This 'party' was about as interesting as watching paint dry and she needed some entertainment. She looked over to Gabe to find that his attention had been drawn to Thomas O'Malley, the man who owned the gallery he hung his artwork in. She shook her head and grinned; they so had a thing for each other. Wren turned to place her empty glass on the table she had been leaning on and dropped it as someone bumped into her. The glass harmlessly bounced onto the table and hands reached out to steady her.
"Oh god, I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Well, I wasn't looking, more like, I guess. I'm sorry, I didn't mean…" Sam's babbling stopped as Wren turned to him and waved her hand. "It's alright, no harm done," she said.
Sam blushed and held his hand out. "Well, uh, I'm Sam and this is my friend, Bee." The blond boy smiled and waved, seemingly disinclined to speak. He had dimples.
Wren smiled and shook his hand, saying, "Wren." An arm wrapped itself around her shoulders and a voice from behind her added, "And Gabe." Wren did nothing but shake the arm off, she didn't particularly enjoy being touched, and elbowed him in the stomach lightly. He doubled over, coughing, and she smirked and said to Sam, "And my idiot friend Gabe."
Sam waved at the man Wren had introduced as Gabe; he looked to still be in pain from that shot to the gut, and turned back to the woman he had bumped into. She was nearly his height, but that didn't mean much; he was short, coming in at just under six foot. She had a long scar that went from her face to her neck and markings on her arm that he couldn't quite get a good look at. Markings that looked way too familiar. More than that, though, there was this odd sort of wary intelligence about her, as if she expected the world to shift and this momentary peace to be a lie. It was the same sort of wariness he noticed around the Autobots and soldiers on base. It was a soldier's wariness and this girl was obviously a soldier.
He was about to say something else when her bright blue eyes, the same color as Bee's and he really hadn't thought that that color could possibly natural until now, and maybe it still wasn't because there was something about this woman that wasn't quite human, widened and he felt Bumblebee stiffen behind him right before the lights went off and people started to scream.
Bee shoved Sam at the door at the same moment that Wren shoved at Gabe. Both stumbled forward and both turned back, only to find their companions gone. Sam turned into the chaos, knowing what was happening and needing to get his parents out and Gabe turned for the doors, looking for Wren. He ran outside, pushing through frantic and panicking people as the sound of groaning metal was heard. He searched through the parking lot, and it really hadn't seemed quite so huge before, nearly got himself run over by a yellow Camaro with black racing stripes and still saw hide nor hair of Wren and couldn't find her car. He stood in the place the car had been, cursing his luck before Wren's voice, sounding metallic and tinny, called out, "Gabriel, move!" right before Sam slammed into him, shoving out of the way of two huge wrestling robots.
Seriously. Giant robots. He wasn't sure if he had drank too much wine or was still asleep but either way, it was freaking epic.
Sam dragged the other man back, he was stronger than he looked, and hid them both in the trees. He knew a Con had attacked the place and he could figure that they had wanted him, but what he couldn't figure out was how they had found him. The cloaking device Ratchet had created should have kept the Cons from tracking that strange energy he was giving off. But the more pressing matter to him was the Cybertronian going head to head with Barricade. It- she, his mind whispered, femme- she was tall, taller than Bee at least, streamlined and completely black apart from a single white stripe going down her chassis. And her optics were Autobot blue, though he couldn't spot an insignia of any kind on her.
Sam knew he should be moving, getting the civilian to safety (he was beginning to think like the soldiers now) and that he most definitely should not be standing still and watching this unknown femme fight. He couldn't help it though. He had seen they others fight many times before, he had been in the middle of a few battles, and he knew that they battled with raw strength, but this was something else completely. This femme moved with a grace and agility nothing that large should ever have. She moved like a dancer. The only other mech he had seen move like that was Optimus Prime in battle with Megatron. This femme was all warrior and maybe just slightly familiar, like he had met her before. Actually, she reminded him of-
The sound of jet engines and dropping missiles had everyone, Even the Decepticon, pausing for a moment. Strikezone growled when she saw the blue F-22 that was making the friendly skies not-so-friendly tonight. Thundercracker. He swung around to try again, aiming for the building this time, and she only paused long enough to assure herself that Bumblebee could take care of Barricade. The Con Shock Trooper was on all fours after a particularly heavy kick to the abdominal plating from her so she used his back as a springboard and transformed as she jumped. Her aerial form was still a standard Cybertronian flyer's tetra-jet, sleeker and smaller than Megatron's war-altered one, and modified to be a bit faster than most. She caught up to Thundercracker and opened fire on his unprotected back. Striker managed to shoot out both thrusters and if she had been biped she would have grinned more than a bit sadistically as he went careening into the bit of woods beside the gallery the party had been held at.
She followed him in and transformed, looking for any sign of him and keeping her sensors on high. "Come out, Dcepticon, and face me like a mech!" she yelled. He was at a disadvantage here on the ground and she planned to use that fact. Thundercracker was a prideful mech, not stupid, but she knew if she riled him up enough he'd come out. "Running and hiding is for sparklings, TC. I thought you were a full grown, elite, Vosian flyer, but I guess not." Striker tilted her head as a branch cracked behind her and smiled. She knew that nickname would get to him. She waited another moment, listening to his almost silent footsteps, before she spun on him and transformed her arm into a modified ion blaster. The smug glitch just smirked in the blue light of her ion blaster and said, "You're just an Autobot, and on top of that, a femme, we both know you can't do anything to me. You're just too weak. And the weak never survive."
She smiled grimly. "Survival of the fittest? You're on the wrong side of the blaster to champion that, Decepticon. I may not be able to offline you, but I can most certainly ground you," and with that, she transformed both hands into swords and slashed at either wing before Thundercracker could even think about what she had said. He screamed in pain and rage, the thrusters and wings were two of the most sensitive places on a Seeker and she had just mangled both. He was grounded. It was all Strikezone could do to get up in the air before he opened fire on her. She was banged up enough; she didn't need to add laser fire burns to the list.
She landed in the destroyed parking lot, dropping to one knee as she did because those field repairs she and Sunny had done weren't great and were starting to give after a few centuries. A questioning whir had her head snapping toward the sound, she knew that sound. It sounded like- "Bumblebee?!"
The little black and yellow bot slowly dropped his arms, powered down his cannons, and transformed them back into hands. His optics wide as they contracted and dilated, the equivalent of human blinking. He whirred again before a soft, rusty voice asked, "Strikezone?" She nodded and stood, faulty patches forgotten, and hugged him tight. She had dearly missed her adoptive little brother.
"Wren?!" yelled out a panicked male voiced from below them. Gabriel had escaped the tight grip Sam had on him and was now standing at the femme's feet. She chuckled nervously. She had never expected him to know her secret, but now, she supposed, the truth was better than lies so, "Uh, hi Gabe. How's your night going?"
Gabriel simply stood there, mouth hanging open and brown eyes wide, before he blinked slowly, smiled and promptly passed out. Sam caught the other man before he could hit the ground and looked up to Bumblebee for assistance and an explanation. His partner shrugged and static issued from his speakers before, "I'm dazed and confused... It's been a while since I could say I… know where you are, truth be told I miss you."
"Yeah, Bee, I missed you too." She pulled back from him and straightened up before transforming back into a Charger and pulling up her holo form. "Alright, let's get him home. I'll watch over him tonight and then tomorrow I want to meet you two, properly. Can you guys meet at the lookout tomorrow afternoon?" She put Gabe in the passenger seat with the help of Sam after they had agreed and drove off.
Strikezone was ecstatic. Seeing Bumblebee meant the rest of her family was near. It also meant seeing Ori-Optimus. She may have been happy but that didn't mean she was quite so eager to get her spark ripped through again. She would see her family and be as happy as possible.
What else can you do when the threat is your own spark?
Songs used: Dazed and Confused, It's been a While by Staind, Gives You Hell by All American Rejects
The 'survival of the fittest' line was from the Make Prime Speak contest for the first movie.
