Mikaela POV
I struggled against my cuffs, trying to free myself as I watched a soldier hit my cousin with his gun. Kat slumped, and I began to struggle harder even as I felt the skin of my wrists begin to bleed. I bit my lip as I looked around. The yellow autobot, Bumblebee was thrashing again, screaming as he tried to escape his bonds. Sam was being stuffed in the closest SUV, squirming and shouting as he tried to return to Bumblebee.
"Stop hurting him!" I yelled, struggling against tmy cuffs. "He's not fighting back! Stop hurting him!" Tears began to drip down my cheeks and I tried to escape again and help the bot, but I was swiftly restrained. The agents dragged me away, only to be stopped by Simmons, who now wore a Kevlar vest over his underclothes.
"Happy to see me again?" Simmons mocked with a sneer. "Put her in the car with her little boyfriend." I glared and spat at him as I was shoved past. I was pushed into the car with Sam, and my cousin was roughly tossed in with us. She slumped against me, her head lolling. I could already see a bruise forming on her head where the man had hit her. I heard Simmons yelling orders and the car started. The driver slowly followed the other black SUV's, the entourage heading towards an unknown destination once more.
Kat POV
I groaned and shifted in my seat. 'Ow… My head...' I opened my eyes, looking around myself. I was leaning on Mikaela who was asleep, drooling on Sam's shoulder. I slowly sat up noticing the two agents upfront, and looked out the window. We were pulling into a mostly empty strip of asphalt surrounded by trees. Two helicopters sat on the helicopter pad, their blades spinning slowly. I sat up, and elbowed my cousin.
"Get up," I hissed. I reached over her to shake Sam awake. "Come on. Get up!" They groaned, and blinked themselves awake. The car stopped, and we were quickly ushered out. Agents uncuffed us and escorted us to the helicopters. We were quickly clipped in and headsets were given to us. I think Mikaela might have said something, but I couldn't hear anything over the helicopter's blades whirling above our heads. Another SUV pulled in next to the one we had travelled in. It parked and two people were escorted to our helicopter. A small blonde woman and an overweight black man. They were handed headsets as well, and we were off. The first helicopter took off, taking the lead, and ours followed. I looked out the side, watching the sunrise. Our small group sat in a awkward silence for several minutes, before Sam gathered the courage to break it.
"So…" he trailed off, looking at the two across from us.
"What'd they get you for?" The woman called back curiously. Sam shrugged nervously.
"I- um.. I bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot..." The man's eyes widened and he gaped at Sam. He turned to me and mouthed the word 'wow'. "Who knew?" Sam snarked.
"What's your names?" I spoke up from the side. The blonde turned to me, gesturing to herself then to the man beside her.
"I'm Maggie. This is Glen."
"Pleasure," I smiled at her. "I'm Kat, this is my cousin Mikaela, and her friend Sam." Sam shot me a hurt look when I declared him Mikaela's friend. I smirked, and turned my attention back to the scenery below us. I watched as we flew over trees, cars, and buildings. It felt like an eternity, but we finally touched down on another helipad. We were quickly ushered into more SUVs and then we were off again. We drove for hours, Sam and Mikaela sleeping for most of it. We finally came to a stop on a bridge. I got out of the car, looking around at the people taking pictures before I looked over the side of the bridge. "This isn't a bridge…. It's a dam!' I accidentally knocked a pebble over the edge, and watched as it skittered down. I felt my stomach drop as I quickly drew back from the edge. I made my way back to Sam and my cousin, walking with them as we were guided forward. We were met by Agent Simmons, who was once again wearing clothes. Behind him, a squad of tired looking soldiers were saluting to an older man.
"Hey kid," Simmons greeted Sam, disregarding us. "I think we got off to a bad start. Huh? You must be hungry. You want a latte? HoHo? Double-venti Macchiato?" He reached out to clasp Sam's shoulder.
"Where's my car." Sam stared him in the eye.
"Son," another agent interrupted. "I need you to listen to me very carefully, ok? People can die here. We need to know everything you know, and we need to know it NOW."
"Okay," Sam nodded. "But first I'll take my car, my parents,- maybe you should write this down. Oh and her juvie record? That's gotta be gone. Like, forever." He and I turned to look at Sam incredulously. Irritation flashed across the agent's face for s split second.
"Come with me," the agent ordered. "We'll talk about your car."
"Thank you." Mikaela whispered to Sam as we followed the agent.
"Man's an extortionist…" Simmons grumbled as we passed him. We passed the soldiers who fell into step behind us. Maggie and Glen walked next to us. Our entourage made its way down stairs and to the bottom of the dam. At some point, Simmons had ended up in front with a handful of soldiers.
"Alright here's the situation. You've all had direct contact with the NBEs," Simmons began.
"NBEs?" a soldier next to him questioned.
"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. Try to keep up with the acronyms" Simmons snapped. "What you're about to see is totally classified." he continued, leading us into the dam. We walked through series of caverns, entering an enormous cavern filled with machines and workers. At one end, an enormous bot was propped upright by a pair of massive cranes. It was completely frozen, but I could almost see life in the dull red eyes.
"Dear God...What is this?" the older gentleman breathed. I stared at the behemoth in horror. 'Is that…. Megatron?' Simmons moved closer to the monstrosity.
"We think, when he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934." Simmons explained. "We call him, NBE1." Sam stared up at the frozen bot, before turning to Simmons.
"Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know," Sam crossed his arms. "But, that's Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons," he continued.
"Think of him as Space Hitler. Except worse, and add a dash of unhinged serial killer," I intergected. I could see horror slip across the older man's face, as well as the soldiers'.
"He's been in cryostasis since 1935." the agent gestured to Megatron, gazing at Sam. "Your great-great-grandfather? Made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind."
"Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age," Simmons continued confidently. "The microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars? All reverse-engineered, by studying him. NBE1. That's what we call it." He hissed at Sam.
"And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?" the elderly man demanded incredulously. He must have seen the confusion on my face, because a soldier leaned over to whisper in my ear.
"That's the Defense Secretary John Keller. The man he's talking to is Tom Banachek. Apparently, he's in charge of this facility. Or so he claims." I nodded, and shot him a thankful look. The name tag on his uniform read Lennox, so I made an educated guess on his last name.
"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security," Banachek calmly told him.
"Well you got one now," Keller sassed, turning away.
"So why Earth?" Lennox called, raking his eyes over Megatron's frozen form
"It's the AllSpark." Sam called out. Keller turned to him questioningly.
"AllSpark? What is that?"
"Well yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube looking thing," Sam had a fervent expression as he answered Keller's question. "Anyway Mr. NBE one here, AKA Megatron," Sam directed his next comment to Simmons. "That's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the cube, to transform human technology to take over the universe." He shifted unhappily, crossing his arms over his chest. "That's their plan."
"And you're sure about that?" Simmons mocked, sneering.
"Yeah," I spoke up. Mikaela nodded empathetically next to me. Sam stared at the agent as a lightbulb went off in his head.
"You guys know where it is, don't you?" Sam scoffed, his lips twitching into a sardonic smile.
The agent peered at us but nodded slowly. "Follow me," He gestured.
"You're about to see, our crown jewel," Simmons bragged as we walked into another massive tunnel. We emerged into a cavern far larger than the last. In the center of it, a gargantuan cube. 'The AllSpark…' I stared at the sacred relic in awe. Despite what Optimus had told and showed us, nothing could prepare me for the sheer magnitude, both physically and spiritually. Behind me a soldier, whose uniform designated him Figuera, gasped and muttered fervently in Spanish.
"Carbon dating puts the cube here around 10,000 BC," the agent announced, turning like a tour guide. "The first seven didn't find it until 1913, they knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE One. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete, a perfect way to hide its' energy from being detected by anyone, or any alien species on the outside." He summarized blandly.
"Wait, wait, backup," Maggie interrupted imploringly, "You said the dam hides the Cube's energy. What kind of energy, exactly?"
"Good question," the agent turned, motioning us to follow him. "Follow me please." Our unconventional group changed direction, and we were herded into a small room.
We went through another door.
"Please step inside. They have to lock us in." The agent warned. The doors shut with an ominous thud. We circled around a well lit glass box in the middle of the room as the workers in the room handed out some type of goggles. My attention was drawn to the corner when Glen let out a soft exclamation. The soldier in front of where we were looking, slowly turned around. His eyes raked up and down the shredded metal of the wall.
"Whassat?" He breathed, just loud enough for me to hear. "Freddy Krueger done been up in here or somethin'?" Glen crept nearer to the soldier and the ravaged wall.
"Oh, no, man." Glen waved at the deep scores in the metal. "Freddy Krueger have four blades, man. That's only three." He grinned, making motions with his hands, laughing nervously. "That's Wolverine! Right? That's Wolverine!" I smirked at the reference, but the soldier shot him a strange look as Simmons jeered from his corner.
"That's very funny. Anybody have any mechanical devices? BlackBerry, key alarm, cell phone?"
"I got a phone," Glen sheepishly tossed it to Simmons. The man examined the small device, then carefully placed it in the glass box.
"Oh, Nokias' are real nasty. You've gotta respect the Japanese, they know the way of the samurai." He sealed the opening and stepped back saying something to the scientists in the room. I stared at him, incredulous.
"Nokia's from Finland…." Maggie whispered to Keller, voicing my thoughts.
"Yes...but he's, you know, a little strange," He muttered back before placing a finger to his lips. "He's a little strange."
"We're able to take the Cube's radiation and funnel it into that box." Simmons boasted loudly as machinery whirred to life. There was a bright flash of light and everybody flinched back in surprise. At first nothing happened, but then the phone began to violently shake. Suddenly, it shattered into a million pieces then reformed into a miniscule bot. The thing was so tiny it could fit into my hands, easily. It whipped around, muttering as it glared at us. Weapons began to appear on its body, and it fired peppering the glass. It bounced around erratically, chirping and squeaking angrily.
"Mean little sucker, huh?" Simmons snarked.
"That thing is freaky!" Maggie yelled as it slammed into the glass inches from her face.
"Kind of like the itty-bitty Energizer bunny from hell, huh?" The agent continued. The bot went on thrashing and throwing itself around, as the glass began to crack under the assault. Simmons scowled, snatching a trigger from one of the workers.
"He's breaking the box," He went to push the button, but something came over me and I suddenly understood.
"NO!" Simmons froze at my howl, as did the rest of the rooms occupants. "If you push that button, so help me God, I will end you." I growled at him. I leaned closer to the box and the tiny bot, who cowered away from me. Thinking, I followed my instincts and let out a shrill whistle. The note pierced the air in the silent room, and the bot shifted slightly before it let out a low keen. I whistled a few more pitches to it, and rested my finger against the glass. The small bot tentatively skittered forward, and reached out. On the other side of the glass, it placed it's tiny hand where my finger lay. I could vaguely hear other people gasped, but I ignored it. I carefully reached around and unlatched the box.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!" Several people yelled, and out of the corner of my eye I saw a soldier reach out to me. I shot the group a piercing glare.
"I'm letting it out. Because it. Is. A. Child." I enunciated each word slowly. Turning back to the bot, I gently eased the door open, and placed my hand in the opening. It scuttled back, clearly scared, but I whistled a gentle tune. It crept forward until it was almost to my hand. The room collectively held its breath as it carefully crawled into my grasp. I pulled my hand away, and cradled the small being to my chest. It looked up at me with wide eyes, but snuggled close to my chest and clutched my shirt.
"Ma'm I'm gonna need you to put that thing back in the box," Lennox cautiously ordered me.
"It is a child," I said. "And no, I won't."
"That is a violent monster," Simmons growled at me.
"It is SENTIENT!" I retorted loudly. "It is a fully functioning Cybertronian child!"
"How do you know?" Simmons sneered at me, and I turned to him angrily, spitting my words.
"Because I've MET them! TALKED with them! JOKED with them! They may be Autonomous Robotic Organisms from space, but they are a people," I paused to catch my breath, and continued in a softer tone. "In fact, I was safer when I was with them than when I was with you. You people keep talking bad about them, but when I was with them, not once did they try to hurt me. On the other hand, you people abducted me in the middle of the night, threatened me, attacked me, and even knocked me out! I have no reason to trust you, but the Autobots have given me hundreds of reasons to trust them." There was only silence after I finished my short speech. Sam and Mikaela were gaping at me, as was the rest of the room. Lennox snapped out of it first, snarling in Simmons face.
"YOU PEOPLE HURT AND KIDNAPPED TEENAGERS!?"
"I-" Simmons squeak was cut off by deep rumble and the sound of screeching metal.
