WHEE! Chapter 4! Only took me ALL DAY to write! Banzai! 21 reviews and growing strong! Thank youto everyone who had reveiwed, it really keeps me going to have all the positive support!
Disclaimer: i still don't own tranformers/Beast Wars
ALL THAT JAZZ PART 4
The once beautiful Tudor-style house as now Tudor-style ash; The upper floors had collapsed onto the main floor, creating a great big pile of debris for Amy, Jazz, and Trigger to dig through. Amy ran around the side of the house to the back yard, and into the shed that "can stand up to anything", or so the salesman at Home Depot had said. Luckily, he was right, and it now lay on its back in the back yard of the people who live behind Amy's late house.
"Crapshoot." Amy climbed through the remains of the fence separating the two yards, and trotted over to the shed. She touched the silver metal to test it, and pulled her hand away cursing in incomplete words. "Fck, fck, fck." She hopped a little, holding her hand against her lap. "I just had an ankle replaced, I am not replacing a hand, too!" She said through clenched teeth.
"What's the hold-up, we gotta find the key!" Jazz exclaimed.
Amy held her hand. "I am not digging trough 40 feet of wood, and crap without gloves.
Jazz glowered. Amy ignored it.
Amy wished she had sleeves on to try and open the door with. "I'm never gonna get this open." She looked down at her tight, hip-hugging jeans, and t-shirt. "Probably shouldn't go digging around in the house in this, either." She frowned.
Jazz reached down, and pulled the door off of the shed with a resounding, metal pop that echoed to neighborhoods nearby.
Amy jumped, and turned to Jazz. "Stop it!" She hissed.
"Get your gloves, and let's get to it!" Jazz snapped his fingers twice, and walked away.
Amy fumed. She turned, and climbed into the shed, careful to keep her hands on the wooden skeleton of the shed, but didn't see her mom's working gloves in its depths. Amy took a moment to quell the tears that started when she thought about her mom smiling, and working in her garden that was now its own small pile of ash.
"C'mon, girl!" Jazz snapped.
"Be QUIET!" Amy shouted.
Jazz was crouched over a pile of debris as Trigger buried itself in the ashen beams, and disappeared in seconds. "Who you think you're talkin' to?" He growled.
"A robot!" Amy shouted. "A giant robot who only wants to find that blue sticky thing so he can take it back to fearless leader, and destroy it along with Trigger!" Amy shouted.
"Keep your voice down." Jazz frowned, and turned on two lights at his shoulders. They lit the area Trigger was digging in.
"DOWN? For what? The people who are now DEAD in their homes from the explosion? For the count-" Amy stopped talking, and looked in the direction of a cracking noise coming from what was once the kitchen. The cracking sounded again, like footsteps. "Jazz. I want to go now." Amy grabbed the Autobot's arm, and hid behind it.
Jazz scanned the area the sound was coming from, and gasped slightly.
"Is it the scorpion?" Amy murmured. "Is it really here?"
"No." Jazz moved an already breaking piece of wall, and it fell down to join the rest of the debris.
A little silver robot shorter than Amy, and stick-like, had been standing behind the wall for cover.
"That thing is freaky! What is it?" Amy shrieked.
The little silver robot muttered, and vibrated, looking very much like a person on speed, and let out an electronic howl.
"Shit! We gotta book!" Jazz picked up Amy just as Trigger popped out of the debris triumphantly holding something up. Amy grabbed Trigger just as Jazz lifted her up, and started away.
The little silver robot followed, chattering, and trying to keep up with the large silver robot.
A police car slid around the corner in response to the howl, and transformed into a Deceptacon named Barricade.
"Oh my GOD!" Amy gasped. "What is that?"
"It's Barricade!" Jazz put Amy on the ground. "Get outta here, and take tiny with you!"
"What about you?" Amy exclaimed.
Jazz looked down at Amy. He could see it in her little human eyes that she was concerned about him, and was about to say something when Frenzy jumped on the girl, grappling for the little eyeball robot hiding in her shirt.
"AAA! GET OFF ME!" Amy shouted, and kicked Frenzy away to no avail.
Barricade rushed Jazz, and tackled him into the street, swinging at him with a buzz-saw like weapon on his right arm.
"JAZZ!" Amy screamed. "Get off me, you freaky little insect!" Amy shouted.
Trigger maneuvered out of Amy's shirt, and fluttered its head flaps until it was up out of Frenzy's reach. Frenzy jumped around on the pavement, climbing on upturned cars trying to get to Trigger.
Barricade swiped at Jazz with the buzz saw. Jazz flipped back onto his hands, and as Barricade advanced, Jazz kicked Barricade with both feet to its lower chassis. Barricade stumbled backward.
"Leave Trigger alone!" Amy grabbed one of Frenzy's feet, and pulled it down. The spastic decepticon yelped in surprise then kicked Amy in the head, sending her to the ground, and resumed trying to get at the little robot, but it was far up out of reach.
Jazz rushed the larger Decepticon, and tackled him to the ground in his surprise. The Decepticon quickly recoiled, and grabbed Jazz by the foot, swingin him around.
"You want a piece o' me?!" Jazz shouted, shooting plasma rounds from his shield weapon.
"No, I want two!" Megatraon roared, tearing Jazz in half.
"NO!" Jazz screamed in terror. "NOT AGAIN!"
"I-i-its esca-pi-pi-ping!" Frenzy shouted in Cybertronian like a broken record set to play way too fast.
Trigger fluttered away, its prize stowed away as it frantically tried to get too high for even Barricade to reach.
Barricade threw Jazz at a house, the silver Autobot crushing what was left of the already destroyed dwelling, and looked at where its tiny, twitchy partner was hopping madly on top of a human transportation vehicle to get to a small round robot slowly climbing in height above it. He roared something humanly impossible, and started toward the small helpless robot.
Jazz pulled out his shield weapon, and fired plasma rounds at Barricade's back. The Decepticon's back sizzled from the impact, and he was sent to his knees.
Trigger sputtered, and fell, having wasted all its energy reserves trying to escape. It sputtered, and plummeted, landing in a familiar black hand.
Ironhide looked down at Trigger then at Jazz, and finally glared at Barricade. "I'm gonna count to three." Ironhide growled, aiming a cannon at the Decepticon.
"I will have that key! Glory to the Decepticons!" Barricade roared, and transformed into a police car. Frenzy jumped into the transformation, and the police car sped away.
Ironhide looked down, and saw Amy on the ground unconscious. He crouched down, and set Trigger next to her. "Watch the kid, pipsqueak."
Trigger saluted with one of its wiry arms, and marched around with a stick like a rifle, guarding Amy's head.
Ironhide lumbered over to jazz, stowing his cannons. "Are you damaged?" He asked.
Jazz stared at the ground, and nodded slowly.
"C'mon, kid." Ironhide held out a hand.
Jazz swiped it away gently, and stood. He walked past the black munitions specialist, and over to where Trigger was marching back and forth, guarding Amy.
Is that what I looked like? Jazz wondered. Was I that peaceful?
"Hey." Ironhide leaned over, and clapped a hand onto the autobot half his size. "What's got your sensors in a twist?" he asked.
Jazz looked up at the sky. "Nothin'." He murmured.
Ironhide squeezed the lieutenant's shoulder. "Glad to have you back." He said. "I really thought we lost ya there in Mission City."
Jazz nodded slowly. "Yeh...me too." He thought about the hellish abyss of black his spark had been in for almost six months. "Me too, big guy." He folded his arms.
"Do you need assistant escorting the little lady back to base?" Ironhide asked.
"Nah." Jazz looked back down at Amy. Her eyes were open a little, and she was giggling at Trigger. "I'm coo'."
Amy looked up at Jazz, smiling. "Are you guys talking about me?" She raised an eyebrow.
Jazz didn't say anything that Amy could understand. "Actually, gimme a few. Help 'er out, okay?" Jazz transformed, and sped away.
"HEY!" Amy shouted. "YOU STUPID GOOD-FOR-NOTHING!" She screamed.
Ironhide stamped a foot.
The whole neighborhood shook, and then some. Amy looked up at Ironhide with wide eyes, and gulped.
"Lieutenant Jazz is many things, but good-for-nothing, is not one of them. Stupid, maybe, but not good for nothing."
Amy snorted. She looked over at her house, and saw the lower left window was broken out, but mostly undamaged. "Hey!" She exclaimed. "My room!" She ran over to the house.
Ironhide tried to grab her, but she slipped between his fingers. The black Autobot frowned. "You are very persistent."
"Yeah!" Amy waved behind her. She dove into the window, and landed on her bed. "Wow." Amy looked up at the spiderweb of cracks in the ceiling.
"This structure is unstable, come out of there at once!" Ironhide shouted. The response was a pair of Sesame street panties hitting him in the face. He raised one cannon, and aimed it at the window. "Do not throw small human undergarments at me." A Kingdom Hearts T-shirt hit him in the face that time followed by other clothes, and a pillow in the shaped of Menchi's head.
A hello kitty suitcase came out of the window next to Ironhide followed by more clothes, and a silver prom dress that had been tailored into an everyday dress with a big black ribbon as a belt. Amy climbed out of the window, and brushed ash off of herself.
Ironhide stared at her, frowning.
"What? I had to get as much of my clothes as I could. The rest is ash." She sighed.
Ironhide pointed his cannon at Amy.
"Okay, sorry for throwing my panties at you, chalk it up to bad aim." She shrugged.
Ironhide was not amused.
"Humans need clean clothes, and underwear. I'll have to buy shampoo, and deoderant." She counted on her fingers the things she would need to buy. "Hairbrush, toothbrush, toothpaste." She rolled her eyes. "And groceries! I'm glad I have money in my bank account." Amy sighed then gasped. "Omigod! Work! I'm gonna get so fired! I still have to go to work tomorrow!" She turned, and scanned the interior of the dark bedroom. "I didn't see my uniform." She sighed. "That's another forty dollars." She whined.
"Be silent!" Ironhide exclaimed. "Or explain to me what toothpaste is." He stowed his cannon.
"Toothpaste? It's gets human teeth clean. You brush it on with a toothbrush, and after a couple minutes of scrubbing your teeth are clean," she looked thoughtful, and folded her arms. "At least that's what dentists tell us. Anyway, humans don't brush their teeth, they get bad dragon breath, and I get nauseous if I don't do it, but anyway." She took a couple deep breaths. "That was intense." She said, thinking about the day's events. She opened the hello kitty suitcase, and started stuffing clothes into it. Trigger helped her fold, and put the clothes into the suitcase. After the suitcase was packed, and all of the clothes nestled safely inside, Ironhide gave Amy a ride to the grocery store where she bought toiletries, and some food for the next few days.
As Ironhide got onto the freeway as per the GPS on his dashboard, Amy started thinking about having to ride 8 more hours in a car, and the thought struck her as unwanted. She managed to convince Ironhide to take her to a motel in Mission City
Amy got all of her groceries out of the back of the truck. Trigger carried four bags, fluttering alongside Amy much to the surprise of the patrons in the motel. Amy gave a little wave to Ironhide, and the black truck sat at the entrance a moment longer then pulled away reluctantly.
"Wel-AA!" The desk clerk started at the sight of a black eyeball robot holding four bags of miscellaneous groceries, and things, inspecting a rubber tree plant. "Welcome to Mission City Motel. Can I help you?" she asked Amy, still looking at Trigger.
"It's a robot." Amy said tiredly.
Not that the robot wasn't enough to be surprised about, but the woman had to give the weary, dirty teenager a once over.
"Traveling alone?" the clerk asked.
Amy set her debit card on the desk. "I need a room. Indefinitely."
The woman nodded. She really wanted to ask why Amy was so messed up, and tired, not to mention what the little robot was, but decided she would sleep happier, and more peaceful without the knowledge.
"We offer monthly rates for our long term guests." The woman's voice cracked.
"Whatever it takes, I need to sleep." Amy said monotonously. She could feel her body starting to shut down from the day's events. Being chased by a jet, shot at, spun around, vomiting, losing her mother, breaking her ankle, dealing with a positively irritating- She paused, and thought about Jazz. Where had he gone? She wasn't really angry, but she was a little worried about his silence. He had ignored her in a way, and it did piss her off a little...
"Miss?" the clerk tapped the counter with a pen. "Your signature, please, and we'll need a 75 dollar payment for you pet."
"I don't have a pet, I have a robot. He sleeps, shrieks, and does my hair." Amy's glare pierced the woman. "But I'll give you the 75 dollars just because I'm tired as any one person can be, and I really don't want to argue about this."
The woman took Amy's debit card, and in minutes handed her a card key for her room.
"Thank you so much." Amy gave a poisonous all-teeth smile, took the key, and her card, and walked to the elevator trailing her suitcase, and carrying a bag of groceries, and her Menchi pillow in the other hand. Trigger hovered behind Amy carrying the remaining four bags of groceries.
Amy tried the call button, but nothing happened. She pushed it again, and again, and it still didn't push.
Trigger hovered low to examine the button and after a moment, slammed its body into the button.
The elevator pinged, and the doors opened.
Amy snickered tiredly. "That's one way to do it." She spied a sign pointing to a laundry room, and made note of it.
The room was cool, the AC humming softly under the window. Amy dropped her bags on the bed, and walked over to the window.
Trigger set the grocery bags on the dresser under a large mirror, and watched Amy sadly. It turned, and looked at the mirror, yelping, and falling at the sight of another little robot.
Amy stared out the window at the parking lot, and city beyond it. "Y'know, it's just a mirror." She sighed.
Trigger sat up, shook itself then leaned closer to the mirror. It tapped it with one chord, the end frayed, and forked like a hand. It chirped happily then busied itself stuffing the perishable food, along with anything else it could muster into the tiny fridge under the sink outside the bathroom.
Amy walked back to her suitcase, and opened it. The clothes were all nearly matte black with ash, and that meant no clean clothes. She picked up the whole suitcase, and headed down to the lobby to find the laundry room.
The laundry room was full of the maids folding sheets, and towels.
"Hi, can I help you?" A chinese woman asked.
"Sorry, I just need to wash my clothes." Amy sighed.
"Coin laundry down the stairs." She pointed vaguely, and went back to folding.
Amy followed the stairs down to another carpeted floor, and into a room marked "Guest laundry".
There was a stout woman with two toddlers and a ten-year-old folding her laundry, and singing a song about a worm who ate his family.
"Look, mommy! A robot!" The ten-year-old pointed at Trigger giddily.
Amy smiled slightly, and entered with her suitcase. She walked to an empty washing machine as Trigger rolled by clinging to a laundry basket on wheels, and whooping giddily.
"I'm glad somebody's enjoying itself." Amy glanced at Trigger out of the corner of her eye.
"Where'd you get it?"
"Is it fwendly?"
"Can I hab it?"
Amy smiled.
"Sorry about them, dear, but boys will be boys." The woman smiled warmly.
Amy nodded. "It's fine." She stuffed her clothes into the washing machine, and set the empty, sooty suitcase on the far end of the wooden table for folding clothes.
The woman looked at the suitcase, and gave a thin-lipped smile. "My goodness, you must have really been through something. Y'know I heard there was an explosion today in a nearby neighborhood."
Amy shoved a few quarters she had gotten from the grocery store into the machine, and looked around for laundry soap.
"Here, you can use some of mine." The woman slid her a box of tide.
"Thanks." Amy scooped some of the soap into the machine, and sighed.
The woman nodded. "You weren't...in that explosion," The room was silent for a moment. Amy kept her eyes fixed on the washing machine. "Were you?"
Amy turned slowly, and looked at the woman.
Trigger slid down the pole on the side of the basket, and stared at Amy. Even the three boys seemed to sense something heavy in the air surrounding their mother's question about the explosion.
The woman finished her laundry, and left with her boys without receiving a response from Amy about the explosion. Amy sat on the table, swinging her legs idly as she watched the washing machine spin slowly. After her laundry finished, she and Trigger folded the shirts, socks, underwear, a couple of skirts, a corderoy jacket, a leather jacket, and put it all into a white laundry bag.
"We'll scrub out the suitcase later." Amy mumbled as Trigger head-butted the elevator call button.
Ironhide arrived back at the base, and saw Jazz getting minor repairs from Ratchet. He walked over, and stood by the door.
"Where's the kid?" Jazz asked.
"I deposited the girl and robot at a temporary residence." Ironhide said simply.
"Those were not your orders." Ratchet sighed, sautering a couple of wires in Jazz's arm together.
"That is where the girl insisted I take her." Ironhide folded his arms.
"What I meant to say is that Amy is under the protection of lieutenant Jazz, and it falls on his shoulders to do whatever it takes to fulfill his mission." Ratchet said, not looking at Ironhide.
"she was...very upset." Ironhide added.
Jazz looked at Ironhide. "Upset?"
Irohide nodded, and left the infirmary.
Ratchet stowed his equipment. "Reapaired again, lieutenant."
Jazz hopped off the table, and tested his arm by doing a flip.
"I suggest you speak with the girl." Ratchet glanced at Jazz over his shoulder.
"Hey doc, do you have the codes for a level 3 holographic projection program?" Jazz asked.
Ratchet thought for a moment. "Yes, I do." He transmitted the code to Jazz. Ratchet turned.
Jazz jogged out of the infirmary, and was out of the base in minutes. He drove through the night, stopped at a carwash in the morning, and was tracking Trigger's signature by lunchtime the next day.
Amy sat at a Burger King picking at a chicken sandwich as Trigger built a fort out of the two large orders of French fries Amy had ordered.
"You're gonna get greasy." Amy muttered, watching the little robot with increasing amusement.
Mikaela exited the burger king with a few of her friends, and saw Amy sitting alone in a back corner table. "Be right back, guys." She walked over to Amy.
Trigger wailed, and dove into its fort of French fries, staring out through a small space at the new human that had walked up.
"Hey Amy." Mikaela sat down on the seat next to Amy. "I'm Mikaela, remember?"
Amy raised an eyebrow. "From the base." She said simply.
"Yeah." Mikaela smiled. "So where's the little-"
Trigger's fort collapsed as it burst out wailing.
"Eyeball!" Mikaela jumped up from her seat.
"You're greasy, and I'm not putting you in my purse until you're clean." Amy reprimanded the bot.
Trigger whimpered, and looked around for something to clean itself off with. It spied a leaky faucet on the outside of the building, and jumped down off of the table to inspect it.
"Greasy?" Mikaela panted slightly.
Amy looked up at the startled girl. "From the French fries," Amy pointed to the fries strewn on the table. She shook her head. "It built a fort, and I have no idea what it hoped to accomplish." She said.
Mikaela chuckled nervously, and sat down cautiously. "Yeah, heh heh, so where's Jazz?" she asked.
Amy huffed. "How should I know? Stupid drove off without me! He just gets all indignant about something, and doesn't say more than two words to me all night. I finally got into a hotel at like five this morning, and god bless Ironhide; if he hadn't been there I woulda been walkin' to the grocery store."
"Grocery store?" Mikaela asked, not sure if she really wanted to know.
"Yeah, I had to get basically all of my amenities last night before going to the motel. I just washed my clothes this morning 'cause they were all sooty, and I have to clean out my suitcase when I get home because it's all full of soot."
Mikaela sighed. "why is your suitcase full of soot?"
"Because, Mikaela, my house was blown up by Starscream, and everything is ashen, which results in soot," She leaned toward Mikaela. "Lots, and lots, of soot." She sat back, and wrapped up her chicken sandwich."
Mikaela nodded. "Well, I gotta go, but can I have your cell phone number?"
Amy took her cell phone out of her purse. They exchanged numbers, and Mikaela left with her friends. She didn't know what to think about Amy; she chalked her snappy nature up to how much stress she'd been under in the past twenty four hours.
Trigger waddled back toward Amy dripping wet, and considerably less greasy.
Amy smiled, and shook her head. "de-greased, are we?"
Trigger bobbed its little nod.
"Nice car!" Someone called out.
Amy looked over at the street, and saw a silver Pontiac solstice parked at the sidewalk.
Trigger trotted over. The passenger side door opened, and Trigger jumped in. Amy walked over, and got into the car.
"What's crackin' little bitch?" A wide-faced, dark-skinned man winked at Amy over a pair of dark glasses.
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O.O gasp some dark and handsome stranger is inside the Solstice! OMGAWD! WATCH OUT-for chapter 5