A/N: Sorry, I was going to post sooner but last minute school work got in the way *Cough* Hamlet essay*Cough* But here it is. Hope you like.
I don't own transformers, or any of the gods/mythological creatures mentioned.
God did I hate waiting. Whether it was for a movie I wanted to see, a criminal I was watching, a traffic jam I needed to get through, or the ghost of an alien robot that was supposed to give me directions. I really, really hated waiting. Patience was no virtue of mine.
It had been a day since Cliffjumper left to track down the Nemesis. We'd packed everything we'd thought we'd need into my gray 1970 Plymouth hemi Barracuda (that we'd named Barri for lack of creativity). I gave my landlord the month's rent in advance. We cleaned out the fridge of anything perishable. Heck, we even vacuumed and dusted the whole apartment. But still no Cliffjumper.
Good news was that I was able to catch a few good hours of snooze time.
Bad news was I was dying a slow and painfully death of boredom and gnawing anticipation.
Of course, if it was that bad for me, it was ten times worse for Zig-zag and Lola. At least I would know when Cliffjumper arrived. They had to rely on me to get the message across. The two followed me around constantly. If I made a sudden movement they'd jump up and start bombarding me with questions. Needless to say, tensions were starting to run high between the three of us.
We were currently slouched around the kitchen table, aimlessly munching on a bag of chips.
"When is he going to get here already?" Ziggy whined for the thirty-seventh time. I knew it was the thirty-seventh because I'd been keeping count.
"When you stop complaining like a four year-old." I snapped.
"Well it's not like I can see him or maybe summon him." Ziggy bit back.
"I told you," I sighed. "If I summon him while he's searching then there wouldn't be any point in summoning him at all because he still wouldn't know where Orion was. Plus, it would probably piss him off."
"Cool it, both of you." Lola said. "Look, we should've known it was going to take some time to hear back from Cliffjumper. This isn't like the movies where its action, action, action. There's going to be some wait time in between and we just need to deal with it."
Her words made sense, but that didn't mean I had to like them. I groaned and banged my head on the table. "I hate waiting!"
"Me too." It was Cliffjumper.
"Oh thank God, or Primus, or whoever!" I said as I turned to face him. I froze for a moment, staring at him. Then I started to crackup. Cliffjumper's image was cut in half; his legs and lower abdomen stood in front of me, everything above that disappeared through the ceiling into the apartment above.
"It's not funny," Cliffjumper grumped as he sunk into a crouch so I could see his face. "Your housing units are way too small."
I still laughed, partly because of the image, and partly from the sheer relief of seeing him. Hopefully he had some good news to go on.
"I'm guessing from the sudden change in attitude that our Spooky Scout has returned?" Lola asked.
"It's about time." Ziggy harrumphed. "What the hell took him so long? Can't he, like, apparate to and from the ship or something?"
I rolled my eyes. "Zig-zag, he's a spirit, not Harry Potter."
"And I'll have you know it was a pain in the aft trying to locate exactly where over your planet the Nemesis was lurking." Cliffjumper retorted.
He waited for Ziggy's response, but Ziggy just kept staring in Cliffjumper's general direction, waiting for me to relay the message.
"He can't see me can he?" Cliffjumper asked.
I shook my head. "Neither of them can."
"Or hear me, I reckon."
"Nope."
"Scrap."
"So uh, how did the searching go?" I asked.
"I found the ship easy enough."
"Well that's good."
"What's good?" Lola asked.
"He said it was easy for him to find the ship." I said.
"Then why did it take him so long to get back?" Ziggy demanded.
"Sorry," Cliffjumper said sarcastically. "But I figured you'd want to know when and where the ship was going to be close enough to the ground for you to actually sneak aboard. Unless you have a space craft of your own to get to your planet's upper atmosphere."
I grimaced. "Didn't think about that." Yeah, even if we knew where the ship was, it wouldn't help if it was several miles above the earth. And I didn't think my powers included flight.
"I figured. But you happen to be in luck. While I was snooping about the Nemesis I learned that they found another energon deposit. It's a big one, so they can't use the ground bridge; the ship's going to be grounded for at least a day or two while they mine."
"Where is it?"
"I don't know geographically where it is, but I caught a glimpse of the coordinates."
I turned to Ziggy. "Zig-zag can you look up these coordinates?"
Ziggy took out his laptop and booted it up.
I nodded to Cliffjumper.
"It's in the general area of 42.861873,"
"42.861873," I repeated.
"And -110.758667." Cliffjumper stated.
"-110.758667."
We held our breath as Ziggy typed in the numbers. Well, Lola and I did, I don't think Cliffjumper needed to breath.
"Alright," Ziggy squinted at the screen. "That puts us in Bridger National Forest, Wyoming. It's right near the Idaho-Wyoming border in the Rocky Mountains."
"When are they getting there?" I asked.
"The course the 'Cons are on right now should get them there in about a day and a half." Cliffjumper said.
It was currently 11:13 a.m. on a Friday. The Decepticons would be arriving sometime late Sunday afternoon.
"Ziggy what's the fastest way from here to Wyoming?"
"Way ahead of you, Val." Ziggy said typing away.
"Well if you don't need me for anything else, I think I'll go back to haunting the Nemesis for awhile; figure out some of its weak points that you could sneak in through. I'll meet you at the landing site." Cliffjumper started to fade.
"Thank you." I said.
"Don't mention it." And he was gone again.
We sat in silence for a minute.
I looked at Lola and Zig-Zag. "Alright, if either of you want to back out, this is your last chance, unless you want to hitchhike back from Wyoming."
Lola calmly stood, pushed in her chair, grabbed her bag, and walked out the apartment door, smacking me on the back of the head along the way. Ziggy shut off his computer, slid it back in its bag, and followed Lola, shutting the door behind him. I smiled, grabbing my own bag and running after them.
Let's do this!
"I. Friggin'. Hate. Traffic!" I almost screamed as I stared out at the miles of gridlock in front of me. There was nothing but brake lights. I felt like banging my head against the steering wheel.
We had been making great time, until we got just outside of Yakima. Then all travel came to a standstill.
"I told you we should've taken I-90 East instead of I-84 East to US 30." Zig-zag grumbled from the backseat.
"You said I-84 had the shortest travel time." Lola snapped.
"Yeah, but if we would've taken I-90 we could've avoided this jam. The directions said that this was a high traffic area." Ziggy retorted sinking lower into the seat.
"You know what? You can take those directions and shove them up your skinny albino ass!"
"Enough!" I snarled. Why did it sometimes feel like I was the babysitter of two terrible toddlers?
Silence lasted for about ten minutes.
Lola squirmed in her seat. "Are we close to a rest stop? I need to pee."
"And I'm hungry." Ziggy chimed in.
I groaned and banged my head against the wheel.
Toddlers!
I was currently sitting out in front of our motel room, clutching a cup of coffee like it was a life preserver.
After we'd managed to escape the traffic nightmare, we drove almost nonstop to Wyoming. We'd arrived at this tiny motel a little after midnight Saturday. I woke up around seven, hence the jumbo cappuccino. Ziggy and Lola were still out like a light. So far the game plan was to summon Cliffjumper, and scout the area. Hopefully we'd be able to figure where the Decepticons would be landing and use the terrain to our advantage.
As I sat outside watching the sun rise, I had to admit this place had a spectacular view. There were mountains every which way I looked. The sky overhead was a bright blue, but the early morning fog had yet to be completely dissolved by the sun; it laced the tops of the pines like a spider's web.
I sighed and lifted the coffee cup to my lips.
"Sure is peaceful out here."
"Ack!" I jumped up, spilling hot coffee all over me.
I turned to glare at a grinning Cliffjumper. "That's it! I'm getting some sort of spirit alarm system. You just enjoy disappearing and reappearing at a moment's notice way too much."
"It's one of the few pleasures in death."
I sighed. "So what do you have to report? Honestly, I wasn't planning on summoning you until later."
"I just thought you'd like to know that I found the energon source. And I've come up with a plan for getting you guys on the Nemesis."
"Really? Wow, talk about making me feel obsolete."
Cliffjumper grinned. "I didn't expect you to have any sort of battle plan yet."
"Hey," I huffed indignantly. "I have a plan."
"Alright let's hear it."
Minutes passed as I thought. Cliffjumper's grin got wider and wider. "It's uh…um…well…aw shut up!"
"Didn't say anything."
"Ok fine, I don't have a plan. If you haven't noticed, I'm not the best at making them. Right now I'm running on your help and dumb luck. And I know sooner or later I'm going run out of one or both." I hung my head.
"Ok, don't have an emotional breakdown on me here. I'm a soldier not a therapist."
I rubbed my hands over my face. "Sorry, sorry. It's just a little overwhelming." I took in a deep breath. "Alright, breakdown over, what's the plan?"
"Sure you don't want to come up with a strategy of your own?" Cliffjumper asked with false sweetness.
"Nope, just going to take what you got and see where it goes from there."
"I'm not sure if you'll like my idea."
"Why?" I asked.
"Well there are two particular variables to it."
"Which are?"
"The first depends on how fast your techie friend can build a remote control system."
I snorted. "For Ziggy it'll only be an hour or so. What's the second variable?"
Cliffjumper glanced at where Barri the Barracuda was parked. I got a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.
"How fond are you of your car?" he asked.
"Uh-oh."
"Need a shower, need a shower, need a shower, need a shower." Ziggy ran past me into the bathroom. Zig-zag was a tech guru, an avid outdoorsman he was not. And the over twelve hours we spent in the park were killer for him. It didn't help that we had to walk back to the motel.
We were all feeling a bit battered. There were leaves in our hair; scratches covered our hands, arms, and legs; calluses were beginning to form on our hands and feet. But we felt triumphant, sort of. We'd managed to follow Cliffjumper's plan to the letter. Everything was prepped and ready. We just hoped that no park ranger or camper would stumble upon it.
After we'd gotten cleaned up and grabbed a bite to eat there was nothing left to do but wait until morning. Once again the restless anticipation made us all edgy. There was no way we'd be catching any sleep tonight, even though sleep was what we needed the most.
Zig-zag flipped aimlessly through the TV channels, never settling on one show for more than a few minutes. Lola kept packing, unpacking, and then repacking her bag. Each time she zipped it shut she'd mutter to herself, shake her head, unzip the bag, and take everything out and start again. I was leaning up against the motel room's window, forehead against the cool glass. I watched as each breath I exhaled fogged up the window pane a little more. Oh what fun.
Something white flashed through the trees just beyond the motel.
I rubbed the mist off the window and squinted into the night.
Nothing.
No, there was another flash of white streaking through the trees. It looked kind of like fur.
"I'm going outside for a bit." I said. I might as well have been talking to a wall, so lost in their own little worlds were Lola and Ziggy.
I walked into the parking lot and stared at the forest, my breath visible in the cool late April air.
Silence and darkness.
Then slowly from the forest, came a pristine white wolf. It walked just to the edge of the parking lot, coming to a stop where the grass met pavement. It was only a few yards from me.
Now most people would run screaming back into the hotel, lock the doors and windows, and call animal control.
I decided to have a staring contest with the wolf.
After a moment the wolf turned and started walking back to the forest. It paused, looked back at me, and huffed. As if to say: "Are you coming or not? I haven't got all damn night you know."
Well, why the hell not. I followed the wolf. Of course there was a small portion of my brain that still held some common sense, and it was screaming at me to turn around, go back into the motel, and lay down because I was clearly starting to lose it.
Good thing it was only a small part of my brain.
I walked behind the wolf as it made its way through the trees. The silence was only broken by the occasional owl hoot and the snap of a twig; I didn't really feel like trying to start up a conversation with a two-hundred pound carnivore with razor sharp teeth and claws. I guess I was just antisocial that way.
We came to a small clearing, a woman stood in its center. The wolf trotted over to her and laid down at her feet, tail wagging and ears perked like a puppy expecting a dog biscuit. I stopped just at the edge of the clear, squinting into the darkness to get a good look at the mystery wolf-woman.
"Come closer Valerie Darby. We have much to discuss and not enough time to discuss it." The woman raised her hand and beckoned.
Suddenly I jerked forward, like an invisible hook was around my waist, yanking me towards the center of the clearing. I skidded to a stop just a few feet in front of the woman. That's when I got a good look at this chick and realized she wasn't your average tree-hugger.
Everything about her was constantly shifting colors. Her skin went from snow white to dirt brown to storm-cloud gray and any color in between. Her hair shifted from green, to autumn-leaf orange, to tree-bark brown, to spring-bloom pink and back again to green. The dress she wore looked like it had been made from plant leaves and flowers, and it looked like it was actually growing. Definitely not the type of woman someone would find sipping a latte in Starbucks.
"It is wonderful to finally meet you in person Valerie. I only wish it were under better circumstances." her voice reminded me of waves crashing on a beach, wind whipping through tall grass, and rain pouring down from the heavens.
She had an aura of power around her that made me think that I wasn't dealing with just any spirit.
I was talking to a god.
She smiled. "Can you not guess who I am?"
"Maybe, but I wouldn't want to offend you and get turned into a ferret if I guessed wrong."
The woman laughed. "The ancient Greeks called me Gaea. Terra was my Roman name. The Egyptians knew me as Geb. I am known to many Native American tribes as Earth Mother. In modern times, I am now referred to as Mother Nature or Mother Earth."
Oh, crap was I in it now.
"And what exactly do you want with me?"
"I have come to give aid on your quest to defeat Unicron."
Jeez, did she have to say quest? It made it sound like I was supposed to be Arthur in search of the Grail.
I felt like Monty Python running around with two halves of a coconut.
"Hang on a second, I was told that the Earth is actually Unicron, so how do I know you're not some form of his consciousness trying to trick me."
"Do not relate me to the destroyer!" Gaea yelled, lightning and thunder now in her voice. "His body may be what makes up the core of this planet, but I am what gives it life! If it were not for me Unicron would have destroyed this planet in a matter of minutes when he first awoke!"
I'm ashamed to say I cowered a little. "Ok, ok sorry. Please don't smite me with lightning or turn me into a ferret."
She calmed down. "No, you are right to be on your guard. I just hate being affiliated with that monster."
"Ok," I said wearily. "So why are you helping me?"
"Partly because your ancestors and I have history together and partly because I wish for the young Prime to regain his memories. I owe him a debt. After all, if he hadn't acted when he did and released the Matrix, all life on this planet would've been obliterated, myself included."
"And you need me to get rid of Unicron so you can have the planet to yourself." I pointed out.
"I was not going to phrase it like that, but yes that is another reason why I'm helping you." She said.
"Why can't you destroy him yourself?" I asked.
"I don't have enough power. And at the moment, I'm channeling most of that power into slowing Unicron down." She grimaced as she said this, clutching her stomach as if she'd been hit. "But even with combining my strength with that of the Matrix is not enough to halt him entirely."
"But if you can't stop him, and you're a goddess, how am I supposed to be able to?"
Gaea smiled at me. "You have far greater power than you can imagine. Fate drew your path eons ago."
"Gee, now I'm not feeling any pressure."
"Have faith in yourself. I have faith in you."
"But what exactly am I supposed to do to get rid of Unicron?"
"How does any Spiritus Potens get rid of an unwanted ghost?" she asked.
I thought back to what Dad had said about my kind. "Uh, Expulsion? At least I think that's what it's called. Some call it purging a spirit or exorcism."
"Hmm, your training has been vague at best, but you are correct. You will perform an Expulsion on Unicron."
"But I've never done an Expulsion!"
"Then it's time for a quick lesson" Gaea waved her hand and a big-ass scorpion appeared in front of me.
"What?"
I yelped and took off across the field with the scorpion in pursuit. Man that sucker could move! Several times I had to turn sharply to avoid its pincers and poisonous tail.
"Come now, it's only a spirit. You can banish it easily." Gaea called calmly.
"AHHH!" was my only reply.
Banish it? I was a little too busy running for my life!
The scorpion was gaining on me.
On second thought, maybe banishing was a good idea.
Alright, if I used mental imagery to summon a spirit, maybe I could use it to get rid of one.
I pictured the scorpion being shoved away.
I glanced behind me. Nope still there.
I pictured the scorpion falling off a cliff.
That didn't work either.
I pictured the scorpion getting catapulted into the air and then blown up by rockets.
Nada.
Now I was getting pissed. I imagined myself holding a metal baseball bat. I spun around and swung at that creepy-crawly. The imaginary bat made contact and the scorpion went flying through the air, dissolving into dust with a shriek.
I collapsed onto the ground, panting heavily.
"Well done." Gaea appeared at my side. "It took you a bit, but you managed well. And don't worry; you'll have more time to practice later."
I just stared at her, too out of breath to say something snarky.
"I don't have much time left. Stand up quickly, I have something to give to you."
I rose with a groan.
"What do you know about Contracts?" Gaea asked.
"It is an agreement between a Spiritus Potens and a spirit that allows the Spiritus Potens to use the spirits power in the physical world."
"Very good."
"But Dad said to never enter into a Contract because the spirit can sometimes overpower the user."
Gaea waved her hand. "That's only if the user does not have enough power to control the spirit. And believe me; you have more than enough power."
"So you want me to form a Contract with a spirit."
"No, I want you to form Contracts with several spirits."
"Several?"
Gaea nodded. "A few of whom are gods."
"Gods? Are you nuts? I'm not forming a Contract with a god." This was really starting to be just a little too much.
She ignored my protests. "For agility and fast reflexes, Bast I summon thee. Place your mark upon this girl."
My left leg burned like someone had pressed a hot iron to it. I lifted my pant leg and saw a cat tattooed just above my ankle.
"A trickster is always useful to have on your side. So, Anansi come to this girl's aid."
Now my right hip burned. I yanked up my shirt and saw the image of a spider perched in a web.
"For matters of healing, Asclepius ally yourself to this young one." She touched my left bicep; a staff with a single snake entwined to it seared itself into my skin.
Gaea circled around behind me and placed her hands between my shoulder blades.
"When you need to take to the air, use the power of the Valkyrie." Heat seared up and down my back. I collapsed onto the ground.
"No more." I gasped. The ground swayed beneath me. In the back of my mind I could feel the consciousness of several beings. It was terrifying to know I wasn't completely alone, even in my own head.
Gaea knelt beside me. "I know it's overwhelming, but they will help you. Now you must know: you can access their powers at any time, or you can summon them to corporal form. But summoning them will drain your energy more quickly than if you use their abilities. So do so with caution. There is one more Contract I must give you. But you may only use it once, so choose wisely."
She pointed her finger at my collar bone, a mark burned there but I was too tired to look.
"What is it?" I asked.
"The dragon."
"Wonderful." When was it, exactly, that my life became a script for a sci-fi movie?
"Now I must return to my post. Good luck Val."
"Uh-huh." Bye-bye goddess. Leave ol' Valerie alone.
I closed my eyes and sunk sideways onto the grass. Yeah, this was a little too much.
When I opened them, it was morning. I was in my bed in the motel. Lola was sleeping in the bed next to mine and Ziggy was passed out on the pull out couch. The clock read 9:34 a.m.
Was it all a dream?
It would've been nice if it were.
Slowly I lifted up my shirt and looked down at my right hip.
There was the tattoo of the spider.
I groaned and buried my head in a pillow.
If I survived this, I was going to commit myself to the nearest insane asylum, complete with padded walls, strait jackets, and a cartful of meds.
Yeah, that seemed like a great idea.
But it would have to wait.
It was time for us to sneak onto an alien warship.
And hopefully not get blasted into a bazillion pieces in the process.
To save you the trip to google.
Bast: Egyptian cat goddess, also goes by the name Baset
Anansi: Trickster from African folklore, most often seen as a spider
Asclepius: Greek god of medicine and healing, son of Apollo, his symbol is a staff intertwined with a single snake
Valkyrie: Winged warrior women of Norse mythology
Dragon: A totally awesome fire-breathing creature with wings, 'nuff said
I think that's everyone. Please review.
