Hey, sorry for the long wait but I suck at writing action scenes so this was just a bitch to write. Also, my engineering internship has kept me to worn out to even think about writing. Anyway, I don't own anything. Sincerely, madlibs44.
Chapter 7:
"Optimus, there is no way I'm allowing you to surrender yourself to MECH."
Ratchet planted himself firmly between Optimus Prime and the yet-to-be-opened groundbridge. The Autobot leader sighed at the stubbornness of the old medic. MECH had given explicit instruction that Optimus alone would be allowed to arrive at the MECH base. They had provided rendezvous coordinates, from which a MECH escort would bring him the rest of the way to the base. If and only if Optimus Prime surrendered to MECH at their base, Michelle would be released. However, Arcee and Jack had both voiced their doubts on the possibility of MECH actually releasing their hostage.
Optimus looked solemnly down at Ratchet and responded gravely, "If Michelle is to have any chance of survival, I must follow MECH's instructions. As she is my charge, this is my responsibility."
"But boss," Bulkhead started, "why can't we just all go in and bust her out of there? There's no way MECH can stand a chance against all of us."
Miko jumped up, "Yea, haven't you seen any movies? The bad guys never hold up there end of the deal!"
Jack shook his head but silently agreed with Miko's logic. He glanced back at Nick, who had been extremely silent since MECH had called. He hesitantly placed a hand on the older man's shoulder, "What do you think?"
Nick considered for a moment. He looked at Jack before turning his dark eyes to Optimus. "I agree that Optimus should be the only bot to go."
"What? Why?" Ratchet nearly yelled in frustration, throwing his hand in the air. Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee exchanged nervous glances.
"But," Nick continued, throwing a glance to Ratchet, "I'm going with him."
Arcee raised an optic ridge at the human, "How does that make the situation any better?"
"It doesn't," Ratchet countered. He crossed his arms and narrowed his optics at the college boy. "It will simply force Optimus to worry about yet another human and will ultimately cause more problems in this rescue mission."
"Dude!" Miko jumped up in Nick's defense. She smiled confidently and made sword play motions. "He's gotta save his girl!"
Optimus turned to the boyfriend of his charge. "Are you certain that you wish to join me, Nicholas? After all, your actions may jeopardize Michelle's safety."
Nick looked up at the large mech and nodded. "I love her. I would do anything to make sure she's safe."
The two stared intensely at each other for several moments before Optimus commanded, "Ratchet, open the groundbridge to the provided coordinates."
Silas snarled at the frustratingly tight-lipped woman before him. She now sported an impressive black eye, several broken ribs, three broken fingers, and many dark bruises but she still refused to say a word. The only assurance that the pain was affecting her was the fact that she screamed and cried at every punch, kick, etc. The MECH leader hadn't thought that he would need any sort of torture devices, high tech or otherwise, in order to make this girl crack. But now he was seriously considering it.
He roughly kicked at her broken ankle, which she had injured in a failed escape attempt. She screamed in pain again but he didn't even smirk in satisfaction. This woman was beginning to seriously get on his nerves. He paused mid-kick as the door opened behind him and a soldier poked his head in.
"Sir, Optimus Prime has arrived at the rendezvous point. The escort team is leading him here now."
"Finally," Silas growled, abandoning his prisoner to follow the soldier into the command center. After the door closed, he turned to the guard standing outside the room. "Once we have Prime secured, you have my permission to terminate her."
Silas barely waited for the guard to nod in confirmation before walking swiftly towards the command center. From there, he would monitor Optimus' arrival before going to meet the Autobot leader in the main hangar bay. He was disappointed that he wouldn't have the opportunity to presently storm the Autobot base, but he knew that that opportunity would come again in time. His soldiers saluted him as he passed, a custom he had continued in MECH from his former days in the U.S. military.
Nick sat silently in Optimus Prime's passenger seat, the tinted windows hiding him from the MECH soldiers escorting them. The two had discovered with little surprise that upon arriving at the rendezvous point their communicators (phone and comlink) had stopped working. Optimus drove silently and smoothly between the escort vehicles, seeming to be quite calm despite the gravity of the situation. Nick had to admire the Autobot leader as he had to grip his hands to simply control his anger. As the group rounded a bend, the young man saw what, for all intents and purposes, appeared to be an abandoned grain elevator facility.
A concealed door opened silently as the convoy approached and Optimus slowed to a very cautious crawl. He stopped just before the opening, only continuing inward after a commanding honk from one of the rear guard vehicles. As the large truck rolled in, Nick couldn't help but snarl at the smirk on the only unmasked man's face.
"Silas," Optimus gravely greeted the man. Both the bot and the man hiding in his cab watched the MECH soldiers around them intently.
"Optimus Prime," Silas nodded. The man's eyes briefly flickered to look behind the semi. In response, the soldiers at the door moved to close it. "Why not transform? I'm sure you're quite eager to stretch your legs before we remove them."
"MECH will be doing no such thing this day," the last Prime announced before transforming. The surrounding soldiers tensed and immediately aimed their weapons at the transforming robot. In the chaos, Nick slipped out of Optimus' cab and quickly disappeared from sight. Optimus avoided watching the young man's departure so as to not alert Silas and his men to his stowaway. The Autobot leader gave his full attention to the MECH leader once Nick had slipped out of the room. "Now, release your hostage."
"Miss White is being released as we speak," Silas lied with a fake smirk up at the mech. He gritted his teeth at the thought of the stubborn woman. He discreetly pressed a button on his radio, sending a signal to his soldier guarding that particular prisoner. He knew Optimus would only continue to cooperate if he actually saw the woman released but he was certain that he would be able to detain the robot without the use of his hostage. "But you shouldn't be concerned about her."
With that vocal signal, the MECH soldiers in the room aimed and charged their weapons. Tiny laser dots covered Optimus Prime's form and the mech narrowed his optics as he fell into a defensive stance.
Nick pressed himself to the wall as several MECH soldiers patrolled around the corner. He had managed to sneak by several patrols, only barely it should be noted, but he had yet to find Michelle. The young man had hoped to overhear anything that might point him in the right direction but the soldiers were unnervingly silent. They were certainly well disciplined, Nick realized with a grimace.
As the soldiers rounded another corner and out of sight, Nick darted out into the hallway and jogged silently in the other direction. He came upon another hallway junction and had to grab a door handle to stop himself from skidding out into the view of another soldier in the adjoining hallway. He silently cursed at the amount of the skilled men that Silas was able to recruit to his cause. He was about to turn back but stiffened at the sound of a gun charging. Then, a door opened and clicked shut.
Without care of being seen, Nick ran around the corner and quickly opened the nearest door. A soldier shouted at him from the hall but he simply dove into the room, tackling the man pointing a gun at his girlfriend to the ground. Nick kicked himself for not bringing any sort of weapon with him as he grappled on the floor with the soldier.
"Let go!" Nick yelled, as he elbowed the man in the face while yanking the gun from the man's hands and kicking him away. The soldier rolled away and held his hands up in a sign of surrender. Nick held up the bulky gun awkwardly, obviously not used to holding this odd rifle's shape. The college boy slowly backed up towards his girlfriend. He took a moment to steal a glance at her. She was unconscious and in horrible condition. He hoped her injuries weren't actually as bad as they looked.
"Silas, the hostage has been compromised."
Nick's head shot back to look at the soldier who was holding a small radio in his hand. On instinct, his finger squeezed the trigger of the gun. With a loud bang, the gun fired and the young man fell backwards from the sudden and unexpectedly high force.
Silas and Optimus Prime stared at each other intensely, each waiting for the other to make a move. Optimus had refused to stand down until he saw that Michelle had been released. The Autobot leader had known from the beginning that Silas would never release his hostage but also knew that he had to buy time for Nick to locate the girl. His optics flickered around at the soldiers surrounding him and his processor calculated a strategy should a fight inevitably break out. He paused as static emitted from the radio at Silas' hip.
"Silas, the hostage has been compromised."
The terrorist leader visibly stiffened and swore. Optimus took this chance to pull out his blaster and blow apart the exterior wall, effectively obscuring the room with dust and debris. The Cybertronian used his heat vision to seek out all of the human soldiers, disable their weapons, and swiftly incapacitate them. With a flick of his servo, three MECH soldiers slammed into a nearby wall and fell to the ground unconscious. Optimus despised harming humans but, as with the Decepticons, there were some situations where force was absolutely necessary.
As the dust finally began to settle and he switched his optics back to light sensory mode, he realized that Silas was no longer in the room.
Nick tried not to look at the dead MECH soldier as he pulled the body to one corner of the room. The strange gun had burnt his right shoulder, neck, and mask, revealing one side of the man's face. With a grimace, Nick pulled back the rest of the mask and closed the dead man's eyes. He felt as though he was about to vomit as he stood up. He could hear MECH soldiers pounding on the locked door but he ignored them, walking slowly over to Michelle.
Leaning down, he gently cupped her face in his hands and urgently tried to wake her. "Michelle. Come on, sweetie. I need you to wake up."
At first she didn't respond and the young man began to worry that something was seriously wrong. But after a few moments her eyes fluttered open and he frowned as her eyes very slowly focused on him. She blinked several times at him and he gently touched his forehead to hers, trying to smile.
"N… Nick?"
"Yes, it's me," Nick responded quickly, running a hand through her hair. Moving behind her to untie her hands he continued, "I'm going to get you out of here."
"Oh, really? And who might you be?" The question was quickly followed by the obvious sound of a charging rifle and Nick froze. He felt Michelle's arms stiffen as he knelt behind her chair. "Come out and introduce yourself. Now."
Slowly and cautiously, Nick rose from behind the chair, his hands raised in surrender. He glanced down at his girlfriend and noted with anger that she seemed to be absolutely terrified of the scarred man before them. Silas stood in the open doorway with a large high-tech rifle in his hands and an angry frown on his face. Nick chose not to answer the man.
This only seemed to anger Silas even further and he leveled the rifle at the young man's chest. "I think you'll find that being silent will work as well for you as it did for that woman behind you."
The MECH leader took aim at the college boy's chest and moved to pull the trigger. Michelle screamed.
Silas was knocked over, landing at Nick's feet as the wall behind him exploded. The ceiling shook dangerously before being lifted away from the room by two large metal servos to reveal the towering form of Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader stood among the ruins of the MECH base and he glowered down at the terrorist leader. Nick took the chance to swipe a knife off of the stunned man's belt and slice apart Michelle's bonds. As the dust began to settle, the young man picked up his girlfriend and gently placed her in Optimus' waiting servo. Before climbing up, Nick took a moment to turn back to the recovering Silas.
"I'm her boyfriend, you asshole."
And with that, Nick delivered a firm kick to the man's head.
Ratchet's fingers twitched over the groundbridge controls in anticipation. June Darby paced the floor just in front of the groundbridge, a stretcher ready and waiting nearby. The three human children waited, tensely seated on the couch after a stern command from the nurse. Arcee's digits twitched with each small sound as they all waited for any news from Prime. After Optimus and Nicholas had left, those remaining in the base had been left to wait in an intense silence that was only broken by the arrival of Jack's mom. The waiting was becoming so unbearable that Arcee was nearly tempted to open up the groundbridge herself and jump into what would be an imminent battle with MECH.
The entire base population jumped to their feet or pedes as Optimus' voice over the comlink finally broke the silence. "Ratchet, open the groundbridge at my current coordinates. Then, contact Nurse Darby. Michelle is in need of medical attention."
"I'm already here, Optimus," June responded as Ratchet quickly fumbled to open the groundbridge, despite having been poised to open it for hours. The three kids and their corresponding Bot guardians ran over to the groundbridge as it opened and stared into the vortex expectantly.
The leader of the Autobots stepped through the groundbridge, Nick and Michelle in hand. Stepping up to an expectant June, Optimus knelt down and allowed Nick to climb off his servo. June motioned for Jack to come over and together he and Nick gently transferred Michelle from Optimus' hand to the stretcher. As soon as the young woman was safely on the stretcher, the nurse quickly wheeled her into the medbay, followed quickly by Ratchet. Nick moved to follow them as well but he was stopped by one of Optimus' gentle digits on his shoulder.
The Prime smiled wearily down at the young man, "She is in fine hands. You should get some rest yourself."
The college student seemed about to argue but decided otherwise after seeing Jack knowingly shake his head at him. Nick realized just how exhausted he was as he climbed the presently very long stairs to the human loft, his adrenaline rush now spent. With a groan, he flopped down on the couch and closed his eyes, though he would spend the next several hours awake waiting for news from the medbay.
Bonus Interlude: I Must Be Dreaming
((This is set before Michelle's kidnapping by MECH.))
Ratchet walked into the main hangar, data pad in hand. His optics scanned over the status reports quickly, frowning slightly at Bulkhead's normal-for-him yet immense energon consumption rate. He stopped at the monitors and happened to briefly focus his optics on the human loft. The medic stared in confusion at the human currently still on the couch, long after the other humans had left. As it was currently 3AM in her time zone, Michelle was lying in a rather awkward position, fast asleep on the couch. A notebook resting open on her chest rose and fell as she breathed slowly. Several other notebooks and papers were strewn about on the floor and couch surrounding the sleeping young woman.
Ratchet sighed and set down his data pad. He had thought the humans had left hours ago. Why was she still here? He was about the comm Optimus, who was supposed to be her ride home, when he heard a soft voice. He looked down at the human, who was now staring up at him with half-lidded eyes.
"Why did you… why did…" she stumbled over her words, seeming to be quite confused about something that he had apparently done. The medic raised an optic ridge at her. After several more slurred attempts to form a sentence, Michelle finally spoke coherently. "Why did you turn the fan off?"
"I beg your pardon?"
The young woman before him continued to grumble about how he had apparently turned the fan off and that she was still hot. Quickly, he used his scanners to read her core temperature but it was at a normal level. In fact, his sensors could detect nothing physically wrong with her. Quietly, Ratchet commed for Optimus but received no answer, causing the medic to growl in frustration. Optimus should have taken her home hours ago! The other Autobots were in recharge, leaving him to be the only one to deal with the human's strange behavior.
There was a soft thud as the notebook fell off of the girl's chest when she moved to sit up. Slowly, she blinked down at the offending notebook for several minutes and Ratchet began to wonder if she had spontanteously become mentally handicapped, as the humans called it. But a quick search through the human internet told him that such a condition was developed at birth and thus, could not be a possible answer to her condition now. Finally, the college student leaned over, reaching down to retrieve the notebook.
A louder thud sounded through the main hangar as the human quickly lost her balance and fell off of the couch. Ratchet winced and moved closer to inspect her for injuries. But he stopped as she slowly pulled herself back onto the couch, eyes now closed. Curling up into a ball and facing into the couch, the human left the notebook abandoned on the floor and seemingly fell back to sleep.
So that's chapter 7 plus a bonus interlude since I made you wait. Anyway, I was wondering if anybody who is good at drawing would want to draw something out of this fanfic. Not necessarily my OCs Nick and Michelle, but I'd like to see a "scene" illustrated. If anyone's interested, let me know. Bye!
