Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers; just the Efforts, Transport City, and the story.
Chapter 6: Ambush
The top of the Global Autobot Headquarters was nearly fifty stories about sea level. Its very top most point had a cup cake-shaped penthouse with large, bomb-proof glass windows and spacious furniture with in. It was a place meant for guests of honors, like political world leaders and Breaker Laboratory agents. The penthouse was large enough to house a couple Transformers and multiple humans. Around it was a wide expanse of flat roof. To the west the roof dropped down to look at the ground park that the GAHQ circled around. To the north and south the roof dropped down shortly onto the roofs of the north and south wings and was round-cornered to dip down into the roof. The eastern edge of the roof simply dropped off all the way to the entrance yard on the front of the headquarters. The entire roof space was around forty feet by forty feet.
Now Max continuously slid on the roof edge of the cupcake glass penthouse on Grind. Anne and Jess sat on the southern edge of the roof, having got there by climbing out of the pent house's windows, Benjamin and Josh were in the pent house, and Becky and Michelangelo watched Max. Jack was in the pent house sitting on the living room couch was he fiddled with a hand-held computer, trying to do something to it.
"Um, Jack?" Josh told the younger boy. "If that thing blows up in here, you realize that you'll have to explain to Mr. Prime why the Prime Minister of England has to stay in a hotel next month, right?"
Jack grunted as he flipped the black hand-held computer over and began to unscrew the back of it.
"Josh? May I have a word with you?" Benjamin asked Josh quietly.
Josh nodded and followed Benjamin over to one of the windows. They looked up as a crunching sound of wood on metal slid by over head and they heard a small whoop as Max slid by on yet another complete circle of the penthouse roof.
"He has good balance," Benjamin commented.
"Yeah, that he does," Josh agreed. "He managed to circle this thing thirty-six times last week. I think he's trying to break the record."
"Impressive," Benjamin stated. "It's strange that he hasn't broken his skateboard yet."
"You defiantly can't see the graphic on it any more."
Benjamin hummed in agreement and, after a moment, he turned and looked at Josh.
"How has Max been lately?" he asked.
"Worse," Josh replied. "He's grounded for sliding down curved side of the French Embassy this morning and Bumblebee almost took Grind away. He keeps doing dumber and dumber stunts and I'm worried that he's going to loose his balance one of these days and fall off a roof on accident or something."
"Hmm, I was hoping he'd out grow this mode of attention grabbing, but that's not going to happen any time soon, is he?"
"No, he's not," Josh sighed. "Well, on the bright side…"
Max jumped up and spun around during his grinding ring over head, whooping as he did a complete 360 and continued to wear down the edges of the penthouse roof.
"He's got very good balance," Josh said with a dumb smile, repeating what had been said earlier.
Outside, Anne glanced over her shoulder at Max, then at Jess. Jess saw her looking, then looked at Max before looking back at Anne. She rolled her eyes as her shoulders slumped in agitation.
"Oh come on, Ann!" she groaned.
"Everyone knows that he's had a crush on you ever sense you were three," Anne said. "Come on! He's upset about the whole Decepticon thing ruining his chance of running away with Ben. Talk to him, chill him out."
"Fine, but you owe me, Anne," Jess warned, standing up.
"Just remind me of that next time I want to rip your arm off for using Pointblank on an unsuspecting victim again," Anne chuckled.
"Oye, Max!" Jess called out. "Get down here! I wanna talk to you."
Max leaped from the penthouse roof and landed on the roof beside Jess, spinning around on Grind before stopping. He stepped off of the skateboard and stomped down on its end, flipping it up into his hand before he slid it back into its harness on his back, doing it all in one swift, professional motion.
"What's up, Jess?" he asked, slightly out of breath.
"What is with you lately?" Jess asked, smacking him upside his head. "You keep doing dumb tricks off of high, dangerous places, not to mention it looks like you want to round off the sharp edges of the penthouse's roof."
"I'm making it child-friendly?" Max said, shrugging cheerfully.
"Yeah, right, come on, Max, what's going on?"
"Well, duh, the Decepticons are back and Benjamin's being a military man again and is gonna waste his life away waiting to command troops no one will give him."
Jess stared at him for a long time and he shrugged and defended, "What? Can you blame a brother for worrying about his friend wasting his childhood away?"
"You know what your problem is, Max?" Jess asked. She pushed down on his head, making him shrink some what. "You're a little guy…" She took her hands off and raised them in show. "With a big attitude…" She punched him in the shoulder, "And an even bigger exaggerator!"
"Hey!" Max laughed as he swatted at her.
"Oh, look," Josh commented as he and Benjamin watched from with in the penthouse, "It looks like Jess has calmed Max down."
"Thank Primus," Benjamin said with a small smile. "I would hate to see that bee sting if someone didn't talk him down."
But Josh didn't hear him. He was suddenly aware of some sort of hum or whistle in the air beyond human hearing. It was like the silent noise a TV gives off when it's on. Benjamin heard it, too, and looked around. Outside, Max's and Jess's play-fight ended as they, too, heard the weird noise. Everyone except MJ and Jack seemed to notice it.
Then they were ambushed.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
A small poof noise sounded out and a large black puff of smoke appeared over Becky's head. From it jumped a tall, thin-limbed young man with silky lavender hair bound up in a small pony tail wearing jeans and a white long-sleeved shirt under a brown vest and wearing dark sunglasses. One of his booted feet struck Becky in the back and they went down in a tangle of limbs. Becky cursed loudly, kicking the young man off of her and jumping to her feet, fists clenched and ready to fight. She spun around and swung a leg up, kicking her attacker in the face, but he ducked back and they fought.
"Becky!" Michelangelo yelled, jumping into the fight.
Before Becky or MJ could act, the lavender-haired boy spun around and used the same move Becky had just tried on him to kick MJ in the head, knocking him on his side and onto the roof top, unconscious. Becky turned back to the attacker, looking him up and down for weaknesses as she circled him, trying to find an opening in his superb fighting techniques.
Even as Becky and her attacker began to fight, another black puff of smoke appeared over Max and Jess and a boy, younger than them by a year or two, fell down on them, knocking them both out with a skillful knee to the back of their heads. He landed in a crouching position before standing up. He was pale and dressed in dark blue jeans, blue sneakers, and a tight-sleeved navy blue jacket with silver patches on the elbows and knees and lining the hems of the sleeves and the zipper down the front. He wore a dark blue turtleneck sweater under the jacket and had the turtleneck pulled up around his nose and covering the lower half of his face while a red visor hid his eyes. He turned his blue-haired head and swung around to face Anne, who, by this time, had managed to get to her feet and was staring in shock at the growing fight.
Anne's face twisted up in an angry snarl and from her new belt of tools, she drew a wrench.
"Oh you are so going to the critical condition ward!" she snarled.
The boy raised one of his gloved hands and twitched his fingers towards himself in a mute "come" gesture. Anne came.
She soon wished she hadn't.
She had darted towards him, hoping to send his head out for a homerun hit with her wrench, but he ducked down, placing his hands on her abdomen, and flipped her high over his head with amazing strength. Anne landed hard on her back, loosing her wind with a thump.
"Oh, this is gonna suck," she coughed.
In the penthouse, Benjamin, Josh, and Jack all watched with dropped jaws. This attack was completely random and out of left field for them. Who were these kids? How were they getting here? Who taught them how to fight, and, above all, why were they attacking them?
A poof sounded behind them and they turned to see black smoke bleeding into the air. Standing in the middle of the living room was a young man dressed in a silvery grey over coat with a matching fedora. The young man's face was hidden in the shadows of the fedora, but Benjamin could feel his eyes on him.
"Josh, go out and help Becky and Anne. Jack, go get help," Benjamin ordered. "I'll handle this whack job."
Josh and Jack obeyed; Josh slid open one of the living room's large windows and jumped out. Jack followed, turning on his hand-held computer. Benjamin and the other boy stared at each other for several seconds. When they began to move, they did so at the same time to circle each other. Suddenly, Benjamin jumped forward and swung a left fist at his opponent. The other young man easily dodged it as swift and fluidly as a snake. He knew what he was doing.
"Who are you?" Benjamin asked as they continued circling each other. "Why are you attacking my friends?"
The other man didn't reply. He had his back to the couch when he moved. Kneeling and coming forward, the other boy seized the back of Benjamin's left leg and the other hand snaked under his foot. The man shoved up as he stood, expressing amazing strength as he flipped the 120-pounds-of-muscle Benjamin over his head. Benjamin flipped through the air before landing on his back upside down on the couch. Before Benjamin could recover, the other boy jumped up and landed with his elbow in Benjamin's gut, removing the wind from him.
"Distract opponent with blows and tackle them…" Benjamin coughed as he punched the other boy twice in the face before shoving him off and pouncing on him. The other young man didn't seem to notice the blows.
"You mutter while you fight, do you realize that?" the opponent asked. "That's not very good when you don't want you opponent to realize what your next move is."
The other person rolled over and leaped to his feet, barely avoiding Benjamin. While Benjamin was still on his fours on the floor, the other boy kicked at Benjamin. Benjamin leaned back, avoiding the booted foot, and seized it, pulling on it so that the boy lost his footing and spun around in the air before landing hard on his stomach. Benjamin kept a hold on the foot while his own foot reached back and pushed itself against his opponent's neck. Now they were facing opposite directions with Benjamin having a boot on the opponent's neck and holding a leg up and the opponent was on his belly.
"You've been trained well," the opponent stated, "In spite of your talking to yourself."
"Who are you?" Benjamin asked.
That was when the silvery grey overcoat boy slid out from under Benjamin, getting into a handstand before slamming his feet back down on Benjamin. The boots knocked hard against Benjamin's head and he fell forward, smacking his forehead on the coffee table and scrapping some skin open. The opponent sprung up from his hands, landed on his feet, and turned to Benjamin, hands clenched.
"My orders are simple," the person stated. "My team and I are to insure that the Autobots know who is coming. My name is Mextron, Autobot Effort Benjamin, and I want you to make sure that the Autobots know that the Decepticons are back."
Benjamin turned over and his eyes widened in shock when he saw a pair of red eyes glowing out at him from the shadowy face of his attacker.
"I hope that your Efforts and mine may meet each other under less unpleasant circumstances on a later date. Until then," The person saluted. "I wish you luck."
A puff of black smoke appeared behind Mextron, enveloped him, and disappeared.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
When Josh and Jack had jumped out of the living room window onto the roof, Josh had run towards Becky and her opponent.
"Call the Autobots!" he told Jack.
"Trying, but something's bugging my computer," Jack muttered. Sure enough, his computer's small screen was flickering with static.
"Then go talk to them directly!!" Josh yelled at him.
"Wait, you mean, walking?" Jack exclaimed dumbly.
Jack was forced to turn his attention away from where Becky and Josh were gaining on the lavender-haired boy when the blue-haired boy snatched Jack's computer from his hand.
"Hey!" Jack yelled pathetically. "That's mine!"
Jack failed to notice the blue-haired boy slip the computer up one sleeve and take one identical to it out of the other as he turned his attention back to Anne. Anne had a hand on her slightly aching ribs and was glaring at the boy with murder. Jack himself flinched away when he saw the hate and anger in her eyes. Apparently, it got to the blue-haired boy, too, as he shrugged apologetically.
"Oh get over here and take it like a man, jock," Anne snarled. She drew a hand-held electric buzz saw from her tool belt. When she could use an electric buzz saw in her line or work was undetermined; probably a joke between her and Ratchet about removing limbs.
The blue-haired boy tilted his head to the side and the buzz saw spat some sparks before starting up in Anne's hand without her bidding. It jerked in her hand and she cried out in surprise as it yanked itself from her hand and hovered in the air in front of her. The boy tilted his head forward and the buzz saw shot forward to hover with mere inches between Anne's forehead and the spinning, glistening blade. A cold sweat broke out on Anne's face as she backed away slowly from the possessed tool. Her wrench fell from her limp hand as she backed away, almost all the way to the roof. If the buzz saw didn't open her up like a victim in a teenager gore-and-guts film, she would fall off the roof and become a raspberry-colored pancake.
That was when a loud, low boom sounded out and the blue-haired boy was knocked off his feet by a gun blast to the side. Jess was sitting up, Pointblank drawn and aimed at the blue boy. The blue haired boy sat up and he and Jess made eye contact. The blue boy seemed to freeze, hypnotized by what he saw. Jess kept her eyes fixed on him, ready to squeeze off another shot if he made another move. Max turned over onto his back and put his hands to his head as he woke up.
"Ugh, did Anne go psycho finally and hit me?" he groaned.
Then the pause between the blue haired attacker and Jess was broken as Jack Turbine crept over, pick up Anne's wrench….
And hit him on the back of the head.
The blue haired boy's head didn't even jerk to signify that it recognized the impact. He slowly turned his head towards Jack and Jack felt daggers coming from the eyes behind the visor. Jack felt his intestines cling to his stomach and realized that he had just did something very bad.
The blue-based boy stood up and turned to Jack, the stiffness in his shoulders revealing exactly how serious he was. Was he mad? Jack hoped so; it would be better than an emotionless homicidal rampage.
"Hey, blue jerk! Over here!" Jess yelled, jumping to her feet and aiming Pointblank at the boy. She pulled off a trigger and the blue haired boy stumbled slightly. Jess smirked in triumph for a moment, but her eyes widened in surprise as the blue haired boy turned around and faced her, unharmed.
"H-Hey," she said weakly, "You-you're not bleeding. I-I shot you!"
The blue-haired boy spread his arms in a sweeping gesture similar to "ta-daa".
Anne raised her arms and gasped as she looked down at her belt. From her belt all her tools flew from their loops, turning on drills and mini welders and spinning scalpels in the air as they flew through the air towards Jack. The buzz saw threatening her life followed the cloud.
"Aw crap!" Jack screamed, dropping the wrench and running. The wrench floated up to join the cloud of blood-thirsting tools before it even hit the roof.
Jess got over her shock and began to shoot wildly at the blue-haired boy and at the cloud of homicidal tools following Jack all over the roof. Anne walked over to join Jess, her fists slowly clenching in her almost trademark sign of terror-creating-anger to be. As she passed Max, she bent over and yanked Grind from his back harness in one smooth gesture. She stopped, though, when Max grabbed her ankle before leaping to his feet and taking back Grind.
"Woha, woha, woha, no taking the skateboard, girl!" he exclaimed. "You don't know how to use it. Here; allow me to show you."
Running up to the penthouse, Max threw Grind on the ground and shoved his foot off the ground to gain momentum. Then he jumped up onto the penthouse wall, scratching bomb-proof glass windows as he went by them and wall rode to the roof. From there he ground on the edge of the roof before jumping off just as he came upon the fight between the lavender-haired boy, Becky, and Josh. Becky and Josh saw him coming and ducked.
Max landed squarely on top of the lavender-haired boy's head, knocking him onto his back with a blow that would have cracked the skull of any regular person but only seemed to daze him. As it were, as Max sped back around the roof to Jack, the lavender-haired boy sat up, rubbing the side of his head as he glared after Max.
"Smartmouth," he said to no one in particular. "Take care of the wall rider, will you?"
Max skidded to a halt in front of Jack. As Jack ran by, Max flipped over into a one-hand hand stand while the other held Grind to his feet. As the small cloud of homicidal floating tools zipped by him, he swung his feet and Grind in a way that swatted all the tools out of the air, sending them clattering to the roof, against the pent house wall, and even off the edge of the roof. Jack skidded to a halt, watching the spectacle over his shoulder.
"Wow!" he exclaimed. "Nice moves, Max!"
"Who says a wall rider can't fight?" Max laughed, flipping back over to his feet and tilting his chin up proudly.
Back with the lavender-haired boy, he was back on his feet and fighting Josh and Becky, easily dodging blows as he continued speaking to himself.
"What do you mean you're too busy looking for Moriguchi?" He said to no one in particular. "Get over here and help out a little!"
"Who's he talking to?" Becky asked Josh.
"I have no idea," Josh admitted, kicking at the shin of their opponent. "But what would this 'Smartmouth' want with the good doctor?"
Their opponent easily jumped over Josh's kick and actually came down on Josh, pinning him to the ground as he landed on top of him.
"Smartmouth would like you to know that if you honestly think that Moriguchi is a 'good doctor'," the lavender-haired young man informed, "then you are sorely mistaken."
He sat up and looked skyward, as if hearing something they couldn't. He ducked one of Becky's feet as she attempted to knock his head off of his shoulders with it.
"Shadowleap!" he yelled. "Time's up; we gotta scram!"
A puff of black smoke appeared and enveloped him. When the smoke cleared, he had disappeared.
Across the pent house, the blue-haired boy stopped dodging shots from Jess and thrown punches from Anne, dropping the replaced hand-held computer as the same black puff of smoke enveloped him.
A moment later, the bruised and panting kids stood on the roof with no sign of their attackers.
"Well," Anne panted. "That sucked."
AN: Tell me what ya think! :D