Disclaimer: Everything that doesn't have an owner, belongs to me.
Author's Note: Thank you for reviewing this fic!!! You're awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Note:
-everything playing through Bee's speakers-
"Talk"
Thinking
Nonverbal communication (comm. link, phone, radio, etc…)
Tell me what you think. Now, on with the story… enjoy! ;)
4- Back with a vengeance
*One of Saturn's moon, crashed Nemesis*
"Starscream, I'm home." The Decepticon leader called, as he landed on the remains of the once glorious Decepticon ship, the Nemesis. His thrusters hissed when they touched the metal floor, sending an earth-shaking wave throughout the ship.
"Lord Megatron! I'm so tickled to see you. I was so relieved when I heard of your resurrection. You look great by the way." Starscream greeted, trying his best to hide the fact that he was unconcerned with reviving his leader.
I'm not tickled to hear your sucking up, Megatron thought as he glared at the Seeker.
Megatron didn't like Starscream's attempt to welcome him with open arms, and just pummelled his second-in-command, snarling at him. "You left me to die on that wretched, pathetic planet!"
"Only to help spawn our new army! The Fallen decrees it!" Starscream tried to defend himself, then smirked as he knew what he was going to say would hit a nerve. "After all, in your absence… someone had to take command."
Growling at the acting commander, Megatron slammed Starscream against a wall, protoform sacks shook under the force of the impact. "So disappointing…" the tyrant's voice sneered, hissing lowly.
"Hatchlings… careful… fragile…" Starscream managed to choke out, desperately gasping for air, and praying his leader not to worsen the plight of the hatchlings.
His plea fell on deaf audio receptors, as Megatron ignored his whimpering, stating that even in death, the only command was his. He let go of his second-in-command, when he saw a small protoform falling from the sack containing it. Megatron growled and left, as Starscream slumped on the ground, grasping his throat with his claws, glaring both at his resurrected commander, and at the dead creature laying beside him.
Rounding a corner, Megatron came face to face with his old master, The Fallen, who had many life support cables attached to himself. He felt ashamed to return to his master empty-handed and defeated by two insignificant insects.
"My master, I have failed you on Earth." He bowed down, expecting The Fallen's wrath to be let loose on him, as he reported the destruction of the All Spark, and how their race was helpless without it.
"Oh, you have much to learn, my disciple." The raspy, breathy voice of the ancient Decepticon chuckled. "The Cube was merely a vessel. Its power, its knowledge can never be destroyed. It can only transform."
"How is that possible?" Megatron raised his head to look quizzically at him.
The Fallen smirked. "It has been absorbed by the humans. There is another source of Energon on that filthy planet, and the key to it lies within those children."
"Well, then, let me strip the very flesh from their bodies." Megatron begged, clenching one of his clawed hand in anticipation.
"You will, my apprentice." His master conceded. Then he revealed his own dream of revenge, and his desire to return to the wretched planet, where he was turned on by the Primes he once called brothers. "Only a Prime can defeat me, and now…" The Fallen locked his malicious optics on his apprentice's. "Only one remains."
"Optimus…" Megatron let the name roll off his lip components, savouring in advance the pleasure of destroying his enemy. "He protects the girls." He suddenly snapped his head, shrugging off those thoughts.
"Then the girls will lead us to him, and revenge will be ours." The Fallen declared, and Megatron smirked widely, eagerly agreeing with his master.
"The girls will not escape us! We have them in our sights!" Starscream assured, appearing with a dead protoform in his arms, and pointing out their immediate need of Energon.
Megatron took a moment to stare at the lifeless being that was unceremoniously thrown at his feet, then transformed, taking Starscream with him, both returning to Earth with a vengeance.
Sam timidly walked into her first astronomy class of the year. It was all so exciting that she could be here, in a college class, with other normal people around her. Sam took a look around, then spotted Leo waving at her. Smiling, but sighing internally, she headed to where her new friend was, and took a seat next to him.
She was ready for Professor Colan's lesson, with her book, her notebook, her sharpened pencils, and the thought that she was about to hear a true, normal, college lesson.
Well, normal… Sam had heard that Professor Colan's classes were always popular… especially with the ladies. And she had just realized why, glancing at the 'heavenly bodies' that had besieged the front row. Sam shook her head, clearing her mind from those thoughts, as Leo was talking with his other friends.
Just then, Professor Colan made his great entrance in the room, greeting his students (looking at the group of pretty girls sitting in the front of the class for a bit too long) and climbing up to the chalkboard to start his lesson.
Kim banged her head on the table in front of her. Galloway called her, and now she was having a video conference with the NEST.
The director was so caught up in his ranting on how Optimus had treated him, that he didn't notice the hacker practically ramming her head on the table.
Kim sighed. She was feeling a headache coming full force. Or was it Galloway? That man was annoying. He had tried for an hour or so to convince Kim to make the Autobots cooperate… or something like that. He had lost her after "Good morning, Miss Witwicky.".
Kim's head raised slightly to look at Galloway. She groaned internally. The guy was still talking! How the hell was that possible!? He talked non-stop for a freaking hour!
Just as he was making a fuss about how the Autobots didn't share fully their technology with the humans, Kim thought she saw something flash before her eyes, but shook that thought away, and interrupted the director.
"Uh, look, Mr. Galloway," she started, drawing the attention on her. "I can understand the human desire to know and learn more, but we all know where that would bring us. I mean, we know the 'little incident' with the apple, or how it ended for Dante's Ulysses, right?"
Galloway narrowed his eyes at her. "We are not talking metaphorically. I want you to talk to the Autobots, an-"
"What?" Kim groaned, interrupting him. "Their weapons? You heard the Big Guy. The transmissions? Do you know how many people use their cell phone to send unnecessary messages? At least the Autobots' are useful!"
"Useful?!" he repeated, indignantly. "Perhaps you don't know what they did in Shanghai."
Kim was slowly losing her patience, but she managed to keep her composure. "I covered up that mess." She stated, rubbing her aching head, as she looked at Will and Epps.
Lennox smiled sympathetically at her, while it looked like Epps was about to simply throttle the new annoying director.
"Miss Witwicky," Galloway continued with the same superiority of someone who knew something you didn't. "You are Autobots' official representative, and you are responsible for them. But that position means that you also have to do our interests."
"I am doing our interests!" Kim replied, forcefully. "And trust me: if the Decepticons are really here for something different from the Autobots, which I'm sure they are, you wouldn't want to face them alone."
"Please," Galloway scoffed. "Mankind is fully capable of taking care of itself."
"No, we're not!" Kim protested exasperated, while at the same time, Epps exclaimed the same thing, stating that the politician wasn't there when they had to face the Decepticons in Mission City, and therefore he didn't know what he was talking about. Will had to restrain the Sergeant from injuring physically the director.
Kim just hold her head. Now it seemed that it was throbbing badly, like a part of it was going to explode. As the three men continued to argue, strange symbols started to appear before Kim's eyes. When they looked at the new director arguing with the soldiers, she didn't know how, but something resembling a computer graphic popped up, showing her everything the man bought with his credit card.
If Kim had been in her right mind, she would have closed the connection, and called Optimus Prime straight away. But right now, she felt like being possessed by a strange, if not odd force.
A small chuckle left her lips, and she sighed exasperated. "Mr. Galloway, did anyone ever tell you that you are an asshole?"
Her question was enough to stop the arguing men. The director turned to her with wide eyes. Maybe he misheard her… "Excuse me?"
"Oh, you have much to atone for." She nodded.
"Kim…" Lennox warned her.
"This is… intolerable!" he blurted.
"You know what's really intolerable?" she asked, raising her voice a knot. "Well, first off, your tie. It's horrendous. You hope no one would notice that it's fake, but your credit card does the talking. You bought it three days ago, and got it real cheap." She stated, then continued, not giving Galloway the possibility of a reply. "And your last name? Since the first moment I heard of it, I thought about 'The galway girl'! Seriously! Oh, and your name. Theodore. C'mon!" she chuckled, and giggled like a fool.
"That is enough! I don't tolerate-" but she continued, ignoring him.
"How frustrating would that be for you. What a small, little bureaucrat, who knows nothing of the Autobots, but wants to be the know-it-all hot shot guy who's gonna straight this place OUT!"
"KIM!!" Lennox had to scream to make her stop.
"Miss Witwicky, I don't tolerate your rudeness."
"You won't have to tolerate it any longer. I resign!" she spat, and reached for the switch, closing the connection.
Kim was panting heavily. She watched the blackened screen before her, the force who seemed to have possessed her suddenly gone.
"Huh…" she gawked at it, suddenly remembering what happened, and not believing it at all.
She stood from the chair she was sitting in, and headed straight for the bathroom, to throw some cold water on her face. Maybe I'm just stressed, she tried to reassure herself, but deep down she knew something was wrong. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she felt a strange sensation, and darted out of the room, and straight in the garage.
What she didn't know was that her sister too was seeing the same strange symbols.
As the professor continued talking, something flashed across Sam's vision.
What? She thought confused, looking around to see if the others had seen something. No one was moving, as the professor continued talking.
Must be my imagination, Sam thought. The mysterious something flashed across her vision again.
What is going on?? Sam's mind demanded, as more and more of the strange things flashed across her vision.
Odd, definitely not earthling symbols started to pass before Sam's eyes, that widened in shock.
"Sam?" Leo asked from beside her. "You okay?"
"Yes!" Sam lied, as her right eye started to tic in a rather nasty way.
She opened up her textbook, hoping to dispel the visions that way. One page after the other, reading and reading and reading, and she found herself at the end of the book.
An astonished Leo watched her read the entire volume in less than 6 seconds. His mouth hung open, as Sam seemed possessed, and raised her hand to interrupt her professor, gaining few incredulous looks from her classmates as well.
"Now is not the time for questions!" Colan snapped in mid-presentation.
Not caring what the professor told her, Sam stood, and started to babble. "You know, I don't like being the one to correct someone every time they're wrong, but I feel the need to say that Einstein's wrong."
Even Colan was now watching her stunned and dumbfounded. Was this girl asserting what he heard her saying in front of about three hundred students and himself!?
Apparently she was, considering that the girl didn't listen to him, as she rushed the podium and usurped his chalkboard.
She started to draw the same symbols she was seeing, all the way stating that the first four dimensions were unfairly in the spotlight, and nobody cared about the other thirteen. This went on for a little while, before Colan grew frustrated of her bluntness.
"Miss!" Colan angrily replied, and Sam stopped abruptly. "That would be enough." he gestured to the door, and she stomped angrily towards it.
"We'll see what the Vok will say about you!" she spat back, before shutting the door loudly.
A moment later, Sam snapped out of her trance. She blinked once, then twice. Did she really do what she thought she did? She did. Damn! Growling internally, she rushed out of the hall with all her books and notes, desperately fumbling around her bag for her cell-phone.
Beep, beep, beep… Click.
Hello? Kim's voice came as a relief for Sam.
"Kim, I need your help!" Sam said exasperated, as she walked down the college's garden to reach her room.
What did you do this time? Kim sighed. She had enough problems with the Autobots and all.
"I just had a full-blown mental meltdown in the middle of my class!"
Oh? I resigned, and could be in the White House's black list right now.
"Look, I'm seeing-" Sam paused, "What??"
Yeah, you know that Galloway person? He provoked me, and I kinda told him to shove it… her sister trailed off. Funny thing is that I told him he was a perfect loser searching the web to have proofs.
"You always do that," Sam pointed out.
Yeah, but this time I saw everything I wanted to know about him by simply looking at him!
Sam started to climb down the stairs, but hit some people, and stopped to pick up her notes, freaking out anyone who wanted to help her. "Anyway – DON'T TOUCH THAT!!"
Touch what?
"Not you!" Sam growled. "Look, remember our great, great grandfather?"
Yeah, Archibald Witwicky. What about him?
"Remember when dad told us he got insane, and died drawing strange symbols?" her voice took a high pitched tone, as if she was afraid that the same thing would happen to her. Sam didn't even wait for a reply. "It's happening!!" she whimpered. "I see strange symbols!!"
Strange symbols? Kim repeated. Were they the same she saw? When did this start?
Unbeknownst to the brunette hacker, a remote-controlled monster truck toy observed her interested, while she talked to her sister.
"This morning, when I started my lesson. But I think I saw them before… when I-" Sam stopped dead in her track, like she'd been hit by a lighting.
Sam? Kim called, realisation slowly creeping upon her.
"When I touched the All Spark shard." She realized.
You did it, didn't you? Kim groaned.
"Never mind. Are Jazz or Bumblebee there?" Sam asked. Hopefully one of the Autobots would be able to help them.
No. Optimus called both of them. They left yesterday evening.
A groan left Sam's lips. "Ok, do you have the fragment?"
As it heard this question, the pick-up toy rolled towards the boxes piled up in the Witwicky's garage, and started to unfold itself, taking the shape of a small robot with burning red optics.
"Of course I have it." Kim assured her sister. "It's right here in the safe."
Upon hearing this, the small Decepticon chuckled. "You're a goddess in cyberspace, but reality ain't your thing!" he said, while still keeping an optic on Kim, and silently approaching the safe only few feet in front of him. Silently being the keyword.
Snap!
"OWW! Damn it! Son of a trap!" Wheeler muttered as silently as he could, as one of his wheeled foot got trapped in a mousetrap. He watched if the human acknowledged his presence, and sighed in relief when he saw she didn't.
Kim was still talking at the phone. "Yeah, it's safe in there. And don't worry: I put several mousetraps in front of it!" she smiled, trying to reassure her sister that the shard was well protected.
And couldn't you say that before? Wheeler thought, letting out a huge intake from his systems, and looked at the safe, inches from him. Swallowing back his pain, trap still fixed to his foot, he took another step forward…
…Only to get his other foot trapped too!
His left foot jammed down onto something sticky. He looked down to find a black pad of some kind attached to him. "This place is a freakin' House of Horrors!" he hissed, as he managed to stand on both trapped feet.
Although Kim was still oblivious to the little thief, his whimpers got the attention of two small organic creatures that stopped the mating ritual they were performing on the rag, and approached him. With the pain radiating from his feet, Wheeler was in no mood to be challenged.
"What are you looking at, small slobber pusses?" he demanded.
The dogs stared at each others, then decided to ignore him, and went back to their spot on the rag. Luckily for him, Kim was still engrossed in her conversation with Sam to notice the fuss.
Wheeler smirked, and attempted to reach the safe and unlock it, as quietly as he could. As soon as he reached the safe, he pressed his metallic head to the door, and began turning the combination lock. He heard the right kind of clicking inside, and realized he'd figured out the first number. Gingerly, he turned it in the reverse direction, then slowed down. He immediately heard another click. He turned the wheel in the other direction, and heard the lock open. As he opened the heavy safe door, he was greeted by the All Spark shard, laying, almost waiting for him, in a clear plastic box.
Okay, okay, I got it. Sam replied. Whatever you do don't touch it!!
"I know. I told you that!" Kim started, then turned her head when she heard movement near the safe, and saw that her dogs had stopped trying to 'dominate' one another, and had gone over to investigate. "I'll come to you as soon as I can." She said then hung up.
The past few minutes Wheeler had to whimper as silently as he could, as he tried to avoid the various dangerous objects on the floor, as well as retrieve the shard, and now… Now he was resisting the urge to crackle gleefully, as he was finally holding his prize in his little servo.
Suddenly, the box near the safe was removed, revealing his whole frame. The noise he made must have alerted Kim to his presence, and the girl was now looming over the diminutive Deception.
For a moment, both stared stunned at each other.
The small Decepticon let out a girl-like scream, as he backed away from the safe, dropping the All Spark shard in the process.
Fortunately for her, their garage had many tools scattered all over the place. The Decepticon's escape failed miserably. Kim snatched up a pair of tongs, pinning him firmly on the wall before he could transform.
"Is that the best you got, huh? Is that best you can do?" Wheeler tried the tough guy act, though he knew he had bit off more than he could chew. And, this time, he could end up being the one chewed on!
"What are you doing here, you little freak?!" she demanded, baring her teeth to look intimidating.
"You wouldn't want to know!" the robot smugly replied.
Her eyes narrowed at his answer. "Try me!" she said, as she grabbed a nearby blowtorch, and burnt out his left optic.
Wheeler cried out in pain as the fire discoloured, and liquefied his optic. "That's my optic, you crazy bitch!"
"What did you just call me?!" Kim increased the pressure on his small chassis with the tongs.
"Ow, ow! Okay! I seek the knowledge of the Cube!"
"You're after the piece of the AllSpark, then."
Her captive started getting hyper. "You got the shard, gimme the shard, I need it, gimme the shard, they're gonna whack me, if I don't bring them the shard!"
"Whoever they are, they won't have that chance, 'cause I'll be the one whacking your sorry aft!" Kim growled.
She felt bad already for burning his optic, just like she felt bad for hacking Frenzy away two years ago. She couldn't bring herself to torture the little Decepticon for more than a couple of seconds — but as long as her charade worked…
"Easy, Goddess of Cyberspace, I'm just a little salvage scrap drone." Wheeler said in a mellower tone.
"If you don't want to be only scrap, you'd better spill your guts!" she replied.
"I'm no rat!" he spat back, and immediately tried to scramble away.
"Wrong answer." Was all he heard, before the girl shoved him in a box, despite his protests, and slammed the lid down tight, locking him inside.
"Hey! Lemme out of here!" Wheeler shrieked.
"Shut up." Kim said.
Her head and shoulders slumped. Had she really tortured a small Decepticon? The thought of Frenzy made her ponder. Usually, small Decepticon spies, such as a Cassetticon, or this big mouth, need a bigger mech to work with. Kim reached the window of the garage, and her chocolate eyes spotted a police cruiser sitting 'innocently' not far from her house.
She gasped, and backed away from the window. "Then he's back!"
It was true. Barricade was back. Bumblebee and Jazz weren't there. Optimus was worried about them. What the Hell was going on??
Kim shook her head, and took out her PDA. She needed to find Sam, and bring her the shard. But at the same time, she couldn't let Barricade follow her.
Smirking to herself, she started to formulate a plan.
Barricade was tired of this.
It was becoming a problem. Just sitting along the road, and waiting for that fleshling to do something was boring. The only bright spot was that he didn't have to stand that annoying little scrap drone any longer.
After the humans slagged Frenzy, Soundwave had kept him on various sentinel duty, as well as forcing him to drive Wheeler around, and keep an optic on the Autobots' pet humans, Sam and Kim Witwicky. The same weak, fragile, insignificant humans that killed their leader.
Megatron.
Two simple meat bags killed the most powerful tyrant ever created. Makes you think, doesn't it?
And Barricade thought about it every day. Every, slagging day he was ordered to stalk the two girls. But then again, having plenty of time to spend just watching and waiting had its advantages.
The black and white interceptor found himself often wondering on the two girls, on their reasons to fight. In the last battle, they both fought like any mech he knew, even more so. They both risked their lives in a war that was not theirs, with no assurance to be one of the survivors. They just had the courage to try anyway; because they somehow knew that what they fought for was worth it.
Barricade pondered that thought for a nanosecond. Was the Decepticons' cause worth it? Was he truly willing to die for his cause? True, he fought for the cause in the past. Ferociously… but that was not the point.
Since when he escaped the battle in Mission City, he found himself wondering about his alliance. Was he really willing to sacrifice his life for the Decepticons' goals?
At least he was positive about one thing: he would never be an Autobot. Period.
He couldn't be. He didn't feel the urge to protect life, and didn't stand the humans. It just wasn't his thing, like the humans say. But then again, there were at least two humans that he could stand.
The Witwicky sisters.
They were extremely… intriguing. So different from each other, despite them being twins. They both shared the same determination, the same will to fight for their friends, being them earthlings, or Cybertronians.
In the past few months it has been almost fun to watch them deal with the aftermath. Their house was often visited by the Autobots, and Barricade had to be stealth personified, not to get caught.
Then the visits ceased. And one of the siblings decided to leave… and he had to stay. To stay with the one who didn't like his paintjob! At least the other liked his form.
Barricade didn't like where his thoughts always brought him. They always made him shudder, as his processor indulged in fantasies of the curly-haired girl removing some of the boredom from his observation duties with a sponge and a spray of water.
He'd contemplated the notion of the female washing and waxing him, attentively caressing his hood, and stroking other sensitive nodes all over his frame. That was oddly attractive.
He'd examine the mental oddity later, for right now, a cab drove near the Witwicky's residence, and parked along the street.
The fleshling exited the house when the cab arrived, then loaded few bags, and said something to the driver. She rushed inside the house, and back again. After few minutes, the cab moved, and drove off. Barricade followed them suit.
Half a hour of stalking the cab later, Barricade had had enough. His sirens flared to life as he pulled over the cab on a less travelled road. His hologram got off his alt-mode, and walked over to the cab, resisting the urge to just crush it under his feet.
"Is there a problem, officer?" the driver asked.
He ignored the question, and opened the door of the back of the car, where Kim was. The girl in the cab turned slightly her head, as she flickered a bit, like his hologram did sometimes.
She smirked, and picked up her middle finger. "See ya, Cadie!" she said in a bitchy tone, winking at him, then disappeared, leaving only a silver PDA on the seat.
Barricade paused for a moment, realizing he had been played like a car horn. Shaking with anger, he turned to the driver. "Where is the girl?" he shouted.
"So, Miss Witwicky, right?" a man asked as he examined Kim's documents so that she could board the plane that would take her to Princeton University.
"Yes," Kim smiled.
"Your carry-on item is work-related?" he asked, as he examined the small, white, metallic toolbox.
"Yes," Kim smiled again.
"Yes, it's a boooomb!" the toolbox exclaimed, and the man eyed it oddly.
Kim put a heeled boot on the box, temporarily silencing it. She put on her best, innocent, and flirting smile, stating, "I'm ventriloquist."
It seemed to work, for the man just gave her back her papers, and sent her to Gate 18, although still glancing at her quite awkwardly.
"Told ya I'm a goddess!" she smirked, and the toolbox seemed to snort. Her smirk just widened as she boarded the plane. It was time to see Sam.
What a naughty Cadie!!! Hope you liked it!!!
Next chapter will be waaaayyyyy more interesting, and there will be much more action!!!! So what can I say? Don't miss the next chappie!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Until next time… see ya!!!!;-)