Never Gonna Stop
Spitfire took a hit to her stomach. It figured that she got caught taking a shortcut to her house through another gangs territory . . . at least Midnight was in her room, he didn't need to see this.
"Let that be a lesson to you, bitch. We catch you on our turf again, we're gonna kill you." The two girls that had beaten her laughed as they walked away. The laughs rang in her ears. It sarted to rain as she stumbled towards her house.
"You'd think her mother and father would teach her a lesson on being such a loose girl at that age." An older woman and a slightly younger one walked past. "Shameful, such a disgrace."
"Don't look at her." A mother and her children walked past.
"White trash." The words rang in her head, she heard them before. She alway heard them.
You all couldn't survive my life, cowards! Don't judge me on your high and mighty terms, you bleed red just like I do! Spitfire stumbled. I wish you all would die! I don't need any of you!
"Lookie here, a lost little girl-" Spitfire could barely see the person that hit her.
"The bitch that took our territory . . . let's teach her a lesson." A female voice. A knife cut her side, stabbing would be too quick.
"Probably just a trophy for her leader, we'll fix that." Someone extinguised a cigarette on her arm. Anger and frustration came out, and she grabbed a crowbar, hearing the crunch of bone as she swung. She forced herself to run.
Sideswipe had been driving around town, thinking about the explanation Red Alert and Rad had agreed on as why they hadn't found the minicon come online. He also was wondering why the children had been against going up to the girl and talking to her about the minicon. He stopped on a dime as he saw a group of Kids, they couldn't be that much older than Rad and the group, beat up a girl. The girl snapped a bit, and beat them back, before running. She's hurt, really bad . . . Sideswipe followed her. Shocked at how people just glanced at her, then away, as if she wasn't worth any form of effort. How can they do this to a Youngling of their own kind! How can they ignore the fact she bleeding?! For the first time in Sideswipe's life, he saw red. It wasn't enough to hurt anyone, but Even the decepticons have some for of honour that won't have them ignore younglings, at least the lower level ones do, Megatron and his officers would be doubtful. But still- He watched her enter a neighborhood, stumbling almost falling, but forcing herself to move.
I don't need anyone . . . no one needs me . . . She stumbled past the first few houses, she glanced up at one of the nicer ones. She could see a blonde little girl and her parents eating, happy, warm, safe. She hated them. Don't cut off your nose to smite your face, bullshit. She hated her life, hated being alone . . . I should die . . . I'm just a waste of air . . . She'd heard that too. She stumbled to her front door, weakly opening it.
"What are you doing here?" Her father struck her. "No good piece of- I ought to teach you to listen to me." Spitfire couldn't even stand as he beat her to the ground, there never was an actual reason behind the violence, he just hit her.
"Dad!" No, you idiot, don't call him that! He doesn't deserve that title!! Spitfire grit her teeth Eventually he went back to drinking, leaving her in the hall.
She's hurt enough, you glitchhead!! Sideswipe had only been able to watch as the man beat the girl. I hope-, oh Primus that was her creator- What sort of planet is this?! The cry had shocked him as the door closed, Sideswipe couldn't do anything out of shock. The man was the girl's creator, so how could he harm his own child?
/Sideswipe, Blurr, come back to base, we have to keep working on the ship/ Red Alert's voice came over the comm link, so Sideswipe memorized the address, then turned and left. If I get half a chance, I have to help her. No one deserved that treatment, no one.
-Spitfire!You're hurt!- She'd weakly crawled up the stairs and to her room. Midnight tried to help her, he was able to close her door, She got herself to sit against her bed. -Spitfire . . .-
"I'll be fine Midnight . . . I can take this." I don't have a reason to live . . . so why do I? Almost mechanically, she was able to pull a first aid kit out from under her bed. Midnight helped her bandage herself.
-Midnight thinks you're lying.-
"Yeah, probably am." I always lie . . . I don't have a reason to tell the truth. "I can't feel it anymore . . . the pain and self pity . . . it's just pure hate . . ."
-Spitfire?- She past out, exhausted. Midnight leaned his head against her chest, hearing a dull heartbeat. He loved the sound.
"There you are Sideswipe- What's wrong?" Optimus saw a faintly stunned look on Sideswipe's face, like he was trying to recover from a shock.
"Sideswipe, you okay, man?" Carlos looked up at the robot.
"Carlos, do you know any reason why humans would not help a kid, your age?"
"Mm, not really, why?" Sideswipe told him what he'd seen, even projected an image of the girl and Carlos' mouth opened in an 'O', Optimus looked like he was shocked too. "Oh man . . . that girl you saw, she's part of a gang . . . gangs are groups of kids and adults that have set areas of territory that they keep . . . She must've been cutting through another gangs area, and they beat her for trespassing-"
"How do you know that?"
"At school, you'll hear stories, it's a neutral ground for gangs, but they'll tell stories about how they beat another gang or a member of one, and generally why, to scare off other kids . . ."
"Then why would her 'dad' beat her?"
"Well, not all parents are exactly suited to care for a child . . . " Carlos took a breath. "As for why he would hurt her, I don't know, it varies from case to case, but we can't do anythin about it, right now-"
"Why not? it can't be good for her to be trapped in this enviroment!" Optimus watched Sideswipe, silent.
"Because, how would a car know to call the authorities, and there's no way for me to report it, because I don't live in that neighbor hood, none of us do." Carlos was a bit relieved when Optimus picked him up. "Besides, there are more like her, that no one finds . . ."
"So you do nothing?"
"If she hasn't called for help herself, then there's probably no way to help her, she's old enough to know how to call for help." Carlos noted the look Sideswipe had. "Sideswipe, the reason no one helps them is because they're scared, gang members have reputations of violence, A gang actually killed some people for no other reason than they could a year ago."
"You don't care, do you?"
"If I saw one lying injured in the street, I'd probably alert the police, but it's dangerous to get involved . . . some gangs are kinda like the human version of Decepticons."
"Carlos is right, as kids, we can't actually do anything to help them . . . especially since they don't want our help." Rad and Highwire entered the room, "Who are we talking about, anyway?"
"Who doesn't want help?" Jetfire enetered the room confused. He got the abreviated version. Sideswipe projected the image again. Highwire beeped in excitement.
"Hey, That's the girl who has the minicon, whatshername . . ."
"Susan. Though her gang friends call her Spitfire." Alexis and Sureshock came in, "Red Alert wants to know what's keeping you."
" . . ." Optimus thought for a moment. "Sideswipe, keep an eye on the girl, I don't want to run the risk of the decepticons finding her and us not being near enough to help- but do not interact with her, understand?"
"Alright Optimus." Sideswipe left pretty quick.
"You sure that's a good idea?" Jetfire started towards the shuttle.
"He'll be fine . . ." Optimus put Carlos down. Sideswipe's optics when Carlos started to explain had actually flash red for a nanosecond. "He won't disobey a direct order." I hope.
"Damn it . . . " The next day, it was raining again, and she was stiff as a board. She hadn't made it to her bed at all. "Sunday . . ." She'd dreamed about going to church with her mom and dad before, she'd been forced to wear some pink little dress. She'd thought she had been adorable. "I gotta get ready for work . . ." The faint memory of what had been disapeared.
-Work? you're injured!- Midnight onlined his optics at the sound of her voice.
"Yeah, but it'll be fine." Spitfire got up and looked at her reflection in the bathrrom mirror. bruises on her face, some skin broken on her neck . . . she could cover it up. Thankfully, it was cold out. A longsleeved black turtleneck, black jeans and make up later the bruises were all but gone. Except for that black eye she had. She mad sure her hair would cover hat eye bbefore she turned to midnight. "Let's go." Midnight transformed and she attached him to her belt. Now to think of a better cover story than 'I fell down the stairs'.
"Oy, Susan, you're late!" The kitchen staff ignored Spifire as she grabbed her stuff. Well, except the head chef, who owned the joint. "You- What happened to your eye?"
"I walked into a glass door." She tied the red waist apron on. "Sorry I'm late."
"Hurry up then." The chef wasn't that big of an idiot, he knew Susan was lying. But there wasn't anything he was going to do about it. Hae knew Susan Lyndh was getting abused. She was good at hiding the bruises, good at lying too, so he just followed a majority of people in thinking that eventually she'd come to him. That would be like expecting a stray cat to come when called.
"Hello, my name is susan, what would you like to drink?" A fake smile and a few blonde ditz that decided to make life hell for her later, She was taking a break.
"Here." The chef held out an ice pack. "For the swelling." Spitfire took the ice pack and put it on her eye. As she did, she noticed a car. It was empty and parked in the parking lot, but that wasn't what bothered her. It was the same sort of feeling she got from Midnight, times ten. "You okay?"
"Fine. I'll be fine." Once more, she retreated from the easy way out. I'm so pathetic. All she'd ever have to do to get out of the cycle, was cry for help, call the police, tell a teacher or someone where she worked- she knew that. But it was either some form of pride or fear of being saved from this hell and then be put into an even worse one. better the evil you know, than the evil you don't. "Time for me to get back to work."
"Miranda, I'll be home soon, I promise, we've just stopped to eat, and then I'll be home. The conference was excellent. Tell Kicker I've got a surpirse for him." Susan waited for the man to get of the phone before she got his drink order, the men were talking about some sort of almost accident with the last spaceshuttle. Returning with the drinks, she passed them out.
"I disagree, Phil, a wormhole wouldn't appear and then disapear-" One of them men almost hit her, he was gesticulating wildly.
"It could have been some solar enery reacting with particles, then."
"But then explain why the men saw a second shuttle!"
"Wormholes are awfully hard to explain-"
"Isn't it a hole in space/time that sort of collapses distances?" Spitfire hadn't meant to interrupt, but she couldn't help it.
"Yes, in a nutshell, Ms.-" The one that had been on the cell phone looked apologetic.
"Susan."
"Ah, yes, should've just read your nametag, I'm Dr. Jones." He smiled polietly at her. "You see-" Susan listened intently to what they said anytime she was nearby, she sometimes would ask questions, and they'd respond. She couldn't stop litsening because it was such a different world. A less dark one, on that note.
"Get left behind?" Dr.Jones was the last one left at the table when she came to clean up.
"No, I wanted to give you this." He handed her a card with his name and address. "You're a very bright young lady, I would like to continue our talk some other time." She took it, surprised. "Or even if you need any sort of help."
"Thank you, sir . . ."
"No problem at all." Dr. Jones left, getting into his car. He was a brilliant enough mind to see that the blackeye the girl had was probably from a punch, and that the girl's eyes had a weary look about them, and his internal father had almost started yelling when he'd seen bruises on her arm when her sleeve had pulled back a bit. Through the small talk he learned when her shift was, and whether or not Miranda would like it, he was taking the family out to eat at that resturant, almost every week.
-You've got a call- Midnight beeped at her as she stepped out side, her shift overwith. Reluctantly, she connected.
"Where the hell are you, Spitfire?"
"On my way to the base, I had work today."
"Hurry the hell up, we've got a target!" Omega slammed his phone down on the other end, leaving spitfire sighing.
"And the party never stops . . ." She headed to their base. The card was put into her pocket, she doubted she'd ever use it.
Sideswipe wanted to grab the girl and take her somewhere safe. She was meeting up with a group of other human boys, none of them looking safe, exactly. Particularly the one playing with a large knife. Does she have a death wish?
/Sideswipe, how's the girl?/ Red Alert had been alarmed when he was told about the living conditions of the human girl holding the minicon, he'd been in agreement with Sideswipe that she should get pulled out of that situation. Probably one of the few times they would ever agree on an action.
/So far, fine, but I don't like the group she's with . . . / 'Fine, being established as 'standing and moving'.
/That must be the gang of hers then./ Red Alert's voice sounded tired. /Keep an eye on her . . . /
"So, we're raiding another gang's base, due to the ammunition they have?" Spitfire had a bad feeling about this.
"Yep. We're also going to kill them." Bad feeling justified. Spitfire knew her life was going in a steady downwards circle, she'd refrained from drugs (palming the pills, the smoking part was easier to refuse) and alcohol (she'd only ever had one drink at a time) because she wanted to have some form of control over her actions, thought both would probably deaden the pain she felt, but it was a line she'd barely touched. Killing would be a different line altogether, one not so easily faked. If she crossed it, there would be a change . . . Though why she bothered keeping herself from falling was beyond her, really. What did she have to lose? A pain filled life with constant jeers and lies was it, if she ever did cross the line.
That's not true . . . you have midnight. As Omega wnt over his plan, Spitfire's hand strayed to her phone. He needs you. You have to stay upright for him, he's a child, a lonely scared child.
I don't care, I was too, and no one saved me!
But you can be better than the ones that ignored you. You just have to take care of him, and anyother Minicons you run into.
Why- am I arguing with myself?
"Spitfire." She was jerked out of her thoughts, and looked at Omega. "Are you in or out?"
"In." It was an automatic reply. "Think I'm going to let you boys have all the fun?" She really didn't feel the sadistic girl like she acted right then, the show of moving to show off her figure, or lack of one, and winking at omega, was purely mechanical. Here we go, a night in hell.
Well, Sideswipe might be a bit OOC . . . And so might the kids . . . I'm sorry, next chapter I'm not to pleased with either, but I'm trying to get this story moving. Any suggestions? and in case you didn't notice, yeah, she's going to go with the autobots. (If she was going to go with the decepticons, Wheeljack would've been the one to find her) And I'm seriously considering that after I finish this story I also post the Decepticon version (Just so I can get it off my computer) There was also another version I had batted around for a bit, where Spitfire actually went with Sideways and joined with unicron, but Autobots won out. See you next chapter!
