So here! Chapter 7! School's starting to get more stressful, so I may take a break from updating and writing, just to catch up and focus, but I promise I'll be back for you all because I love you all! My apologies for the lack of responses to reviews lately, like I said school's getting very stressful, so I'm trying to balance my time between the barn, school, and sadly you guys get left in the dust :/
However, I hope you enjoy this chapter, and please don't forget to review :) Have a good day!
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
We look hot.
Laceburner had to agree; the black paint looked good. She wasn't entirely sure whether or not it would, but she looked almost as good as she did in those nightmares. Sunstreaker had gotten his black paint early, so he offered to do it earlier, and when he was finished, she had to say she was impressed with how good he was.
Oh please, he's not that good.
Laceburner didn't know what the voice had against the twins though. Everytime she asked, it never really elaborated on the subject. Just told her to be careful and would insult them a lot. Only them two, never anybot else. It didn't mind the rest of the mechs on the base, it preferred the femmes, but didn't mind when she was around Mirage, or any other mechs. It was wary of Optimus Prime, but only because of his size and power, in both his physical stature and his title as Prime. Laceburner didn't know what that meant, since she assumed that Optimus Prime was just his name, but the voice told her that the Prime part of his name was his title, not his designation. She had to cut the conversation off there before she got too confused. And of course, it loved the dinobots for a reason unknown to her. But Sideswipe and Sunstreaker? No. It detested them with a passion. It had gotten so bad that the voice seemed to completely disappear when she was around them. It was bittersweet, because that meant there was a lot of silence. But at the same time, it meant that the voice wasn't there to help her, and always seemed to bother her about it once they were away from them.
But she was starting to really notice the upsides to the voice; it helped with training a lot, especially with the more physical stuff like sharpshooting, which - with the help of Arcee - she'd gotten better at. It was like the theoretical second set of eyes on the back of her head.
"Hey Lacey."
She looked over at the door of the private rec room, which she went to more often than the actual rec room, to see Mirage and Hot Rod walking in.
"Hi." she smiled tightly, taking her legs off the coffee table so that Hot Rod could sit on the couch, before placing them back on the table, with Mirage plopping on the large recliner.
"What're we watching?" Hot Rod asked, placing his arms on the back of the couch.
"Some h-horror movie."
Hot Rod nodded, placing his feet up on the table. One of the characters in the movie screamed and something came up behind her, slicing her head off with a blade. The rest of the characters screamed and ran out of the room.
"Stupid humans." Mirage mumbled.
"What about us?" a small voice asked, and they looked over to see a group of humans walking in.
What are they doing here?
The voice always got a little uneasy around the humans, more because neither it nor Laceburner really knew.. what they were capable of, or what they were here for. And the lack of knowledge seemed to bother the voice to no end; it had to be informed in order to be comfortable.
"You humans are stupid in these movies." Mirage explained.
The human that had walked in laughed as he sat on a couch that was in front of the coffee table designated for the humans.
"You got that right." one of the other ones he was with laughed as he sat on the couch too. The other two humans walked up. One of them sat on the couch and one sat on the floor.
"Humans in horror movies are idiots. Like, if you hear a noise in the closet, don't fucking open the closet." the black haired one laughed.
Laceburner shifted, turning her torso and felt her back pop as the pressure released. She sighed and let herself slump back into the couch, feeling better.
"How the Pit did that feel good? Like, at all?" Mirage asked.
She blushed, looking down and a little embarrassed.
"I do it too." Hot Rod commented before he did the same thing, and heard the pressure in his spinal struts release in a pop.
Mirage shuddered with an 'ugh', but pushed the recliner back.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
*(* Laceburner to the main hangar now, Laceburner to the main hangar now. *)*
Laceburner groaned, not leaving her bed, and shaking her head in an attempt to not hear Prowl's voice ring through the public communications link. To her dismay, Prowl spoke back up again, before she was bombarded with messages and private comm links for her.
There was a knock on the door. "Laceburner! Get up and opened this Pit damned door or I will! Now!".
"One."
She groaned; she just fell asleep, like thirty minutes ago.
"Two!"
"No." she mumbled.
"Three!"
Nothing happened for a split second, then there was a loud, massive crack. Something grabbed her shoulders roughly.
She screamed, trying to push herself back and away from whatever grabbed her.
Move!
"Laceburner, it's me! Ironhide!"
With a gasp, she attempted to push herself away, but stopped when she locked optics with his from behind her visor. They stayed silent for a moment.
"Better?" he asked.
She gasped, nodding. She felt his grip tighten as he pulled her out of the bed and into a standing position.
Idiot, I told you to fragging move!
She took a shaky breath in, attempting to calm down.
"We need your help. Come." he said. She took a shaky breath in, noticing the reflection of the color blue in his armor which meant her visor glitched.
She followed him out of the room, and into the main hangar. Optimus Prime stood in the middle of the room, speaking with Prowl while the rest of the team stood around, fidgeting and seeming stressed.
"Prime!" Ironhide yelled, and the multi colored bot looked up.
"Laceburner! Thank you, Ironhide. Laceburner, are you aware of the dinobots whereabouts?" he asked.
She furrowed her brow and checked her internal chronometer. Almost three in the afternoon; they'd be having their nap around now.
She nodded.
"Can you please take us to them?" Optimus asked.
"U-Um..." she trailed off, but nodded.
Be careful. They might have them locked up and are leading you out to kill you.
She gulped, transforming down and landing on her four wheels. She heard one of the humans go "Oh, awesome." before her door was opened. The human designated 'USAF Chief Master Sergeant Robert Epps' slipped into her front seat.
"Oh my God, you have one hot ass alt mode." he mumbled.
He wiggled in his seat and if Laceburner had been standing she would've shown her disgust on her face - that felt so weird.
*(* Lead the way Laceburner. *)* she heard Ratchet's voice over the public comm link.
She revved her engine one last time, rolling her windows down and the human.. inside of her whooped as she suddenly took off quickly, her tires screaming from the friction and leaving the burn marks on the ground and the smell of rubber in the air before she bolted out of the base, slowing down almost immediately once she got out of the base so the others could catch up.
Prowl was right behind her, with Ratchet and Optimus Prime towards the back. The rest didn't follow, which she expected. She did know that Optimus had another three humans in his cabin though.
Watch the human. He messes something up and suddenly you can't move.
She watched him, checking to make sure he wasn't doing anything he shouldn't, which he didn't, until Laceburner pulled up to their napping place. A cave-like hole in the hill that separated one side of the island from the other. The first time they brought her here, she almost overheated from being outside all day so they brought her here around their nap time and all slept together. The human climbed out and she transformed up.
She heard doors being closed behind her before the three bots behind her stood up as well. She walked over, placing her hand on the stone wall and look inside.
"Grimmy?" she called.
There was a grunt and a snarl before a screech came from inside and suddenly Swoop flew out, his back legs grabbing her shoulders and pulling her into the air.
"Whoa!" she yelled, then laughed as he placed her on the ground in front of Optimus Prime, landing in front of her with a coo.
She giggled. "I missed you too. Haven't seen you guys in a few days." she said, petting his face before wrapping her arms around his neck.
Another roar came from the hole as Slug came charging out and jumped into the little pond in front of their little secret area. The water was so low that it barely past his ankles, but he still seemed to love it the most. He slid his tusks under the water before throwing his head back up and bringing all the water with him.
She watched the rest of them pile out before a roaring-like grunt came and Grimlock walked out. He stretched lightly, looking down at her. He opened his mouth in a yawn before roaring and she watched a little spit of fire escape into the air, disappearing quickly. He leaned down once he was finished, and she let go of Swoop - who took off into the air, messing up the humans' hair - to place her hands on his nose.
"Morning handsome." she smiled, and he huffed again with a rather long blink.
She let him go, turning to look at Optimus Prime, who had the slightest of slight smiles on his face.
"I did not realize how close you were to them." he answered her unasked question.
She shrugged. "T-They.. It's..." she trailed off, unable to answer his unasked question - why was she so comfortable around them?
"Do not worry, I understand. You feel safe around them; you feel understood. While everybot back at base is busy trying to figure out your origins and the mysteries surrounding your appearance, they do not. They do not ask you questions that you can not answer. All Grimlock cares for is that you do not hurt his mechs, and you go beyond that. As well, nobot really has an explanation their appearance here on Earth. The last contact we had with any of them was eons among eons ago, back when we all lived peacefully on our own planet, and how they came here is a mystery as well." Optimus Prime finished his sentence and just as he did Grimlock lifted his top lip and rubbed the side of his face against her body.
She giggled, wrapping her arms around his nose. "I-I-I guess." she answered with a smile. "Is everything okay with them?"
Optimus Prime nodded, but looked at Grimlock. "Ratchet would like to run his semiannual scan on you and your mechs to make sure everything remains alright with your systems."
Grimlock grunted, and lifted his lips again, this time letting a snarl loose. Obviously, none of them likes Ratchet's scans.
"Come on Grim. It'll make sure that your efforts to keep everybody healthy is paying off. And it won't hurt." Laceburner tried to convince him.
Grimlock snarled again, standing up at full height before transforming, parts and pieces folding until he stood in his bipedal mode. Then he started speaking a language she didn't understand. At first she thought it was gibberish but then Optimus Prime responded.
It's Cybertronian, dumbaft. the voice explained.
Oh. she thought, listening. It sounded so.. weird but it didn't sound foreign to her. It did spark the slightest of memories - sitting on a kitchen barstool, drinking Energon as she listened to bot behind her arguing in that language - but as soon as she started really thinking of the memory, it disappeared.
Suddenly, Grimlock huffed, standing up at full height and putting his hands on his hips with a grunt.
"We thank you for your co-operation." Optimus Prime said with a nod.
With a grunt, Grimlock looked down at her, then turned and walked off. She heard another screech as Slash ran up to her, his fingers twitching. He opened his mouth in a gurgle, lowering his head so she could kiss his cheek. There was a yell from Scorn and Laceburner looked over to see the spikey-backed bot calling for Slash to follow the whole herd. Slash made a coo, then blinked at her before turning and following the rest of them.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Laceburner stood at a red light in the city her engine revving as she sat on the white line in her alt mode. The only thing was she wasn't dreaming this time. She knew she wasn't dreaming; she could tell she wasn't. How did she get here?
She heard static from the communication links, but when she tried to access them it was almost like a block in the way; as if the comm links were a tunnel, and a massive pile of boulder collapsed in the middle of the tunnel, cutting both sides of from each. Just enough for static to make it through, but nothing more.
The light turned green, and the car behind her honked it's horn when she didn't move.
Go. We'll figure it out on the way. the voice instructed in a calm tone, stopping Laceburner before she could have the nervous breakdown that was inevitably going to happen without it's help.
She jolted forward accidently, her engine revving dangerously.
Calm down. We'll figure it out. Just drive normally, like you do when you and the red twin go for a drive.
She accelerated slowly.
Take the next turn, then follow the red car onto the highway that way we can try and figure this out.
The mini map appeared in the bottom right corner, and the red car the voice told her to follow was marked. She turned, quickly catching sight of the red car and following it as it took an off ramp onto the highway.
Accelerate. Speed limit here is seventy miles per hour.
She sped up until she reached seventy three miles per hour.
Set your cruise control.
Cruise control? she asked.
Yeah. Normally the type of alt mode you have wouldn't have cruise control but all Cybertronians have their own cruise control. Set it.
Laceburner searched around her HUD until she found the cruise control option, and set it.
Good. Follow the red car even if it gets off the highway.
Laceburner would've furrowed her brow if she weren't in alt mode; why the red car.
Why? she asked.
Just trust me.
Laceburner followed the red car for about an hour and a half before it turned onto the off ramp and into town.
Turn left. it said suddenly.
She would've furrowed her brow. But the red car is turning right.
Trust me. Left. And activate your holoform.
My what?
The voice went silent for a second before a screen popped up and she activated it. In her driver's seat, a women formed. She had bright, silvery blue eyes, and long, straight, blonde hair that cascaded down her back and over her shoulders and stopped beyond her tailbone. She wore a black baseball hat with the Autobot insignia, but it was turned backwards. She wore a white wife beater tank top and a pair of tight black jeans alongside tight boots. She had what looked like two lumps on her chest that were rather large compared to her size, and a silver chain around her neck, with an Autobot insignia on the end of the chain, but it was hiding in between the lumps, under her tank top.
Who is that?!
It's you, idiot. Your holoform. Change your view.
She furrowed her brow, but blinked and all of the sudden she was looking through the point of the view of the human - her holoform. She reached up, grabbing the wheel.
This is weird.
No shit. Turn right. Follow it down until you reach the humans.
She did as she was told, although it was confusedly until she reached the group of humans. Like, a massive group of humans. Females, males, and tons of other cars. And they were all looking at her.
Get out of your alt mode with the holoform.
She did as she was instructed, not knowing what else to do. Besides, the voice seemed to know a fair amount more than she did.
She closed her door behind her, the and all of her senses were focused into the holoform. A bald man wearing a white tank top, with a fairly thick black moustache and olive colored skin walked up to her. "We've been expecting you." he winked before holding out his hand. She stared down at it.
"Come on baby, you gonna do this or not?" he asked with a smirk.
Right pocket in your pants. It's money - give it to him.
Laceburner reached down, pulling a large roll of green and white colored bills out of her pocket and place it in his hand.
"You must be pretty damn confident, chica. Good luck." he smirked, handing her a little black thing with a screen that showed a map.
Get back in your alt mode.
With a nod, she turned and opened her alt mode door, closing it behind her.
Download the map to your GPS.
How?
Scan it.
She did as she was told, and the mini map in the corner of her HUD disappeared, instead being replaced with the one from the little black thing.
Line up where the other three are.
She looked ahead to see three other colored cars - red, black and white - lined up, their engines revving loudly.
What is this? she thought.
A street race. You need just a little more practice before you'll be able to out-maneuver everyone back on that base, and this will be it. Let go of your holoform and keep the windows rolled up and tinted. It'll be easier for you to concentrate.
Hold on, I'm racing these people?! she asked as the holoform disappeared from her front seat.
Yep. Gotta go, you need to focus and be able to do this without me. Focus! it yelled before it was gone and she couldn't feel it anymore.
What? The? Hell?
A female human wearing a small strip of plaid over her legs and a white tank top that was two sizes too small for her walked out in front of them, alongside then same male from before.
Okay, focus Laceburner! Focus! she chanted in her head.
The female reach inside her shirt and pulled out a piece of fabric. Laceburner wasn't sure what it was, but the other cars revved their engines and a bunch of males whooped.
"The course will show up on your GPS. Good luck and may the fastest car win." the male said, before leaving the female's side.
"One." she heard the female say.
The red and white car revved their engines loudly.
"Two." she smiled.
Laceburner could hear all the hooting and hollering around them as the black car joined in on the revving to.
"Three."
The female dropped the piece of fabric and Laceburner, along with the other three cars, shot off their spot in the line. Laceburner took the lead. Behind her, about four feet away, was the black car. The other two were farther behind.
Laceburner shifted gears, pushing the pedal down more - enough to go faster but still keep control, pushing her further ahead. She took a corner quickly, letting her back wheels lock up and swish around the corner so that she was straight on the road before they kicked back in, pushing her forward, leaving the sounds of the screaming on lookers behind her.
Oh yeah, she'd definitely gotten better with her alt mode; she loved the feeling of the wind whipping over her hood and the sound of her tires screeching over the cement. She weaved through the cars that were stopped at a red light, and through a red light, hearing the sound of horns honking, but thankfully nobody got him. She turned down a back road, and around a curve then looked back at her minimap - she was on track.
The sound of engines behind her were distancing as she picked up speed, leaving the slowest car about three quarters of a mile behind her.
She spun her driving wheel around quickly, sliding around another corner, through a red light and onto another main road, weaving around and through the traffic as people honked and yelled out cuss words at her.
A very insistent human driving some kind of regular looking car slammed on his horn, and the echo of the sound resonated for multiple seconds. She took another turn, this one sharper than the others, and heard her wheels screeching, the smell of burnt rubber invading her senses. She drove down an alleyway and out the other side, driving against the traffic and weaving through the different cars. Horn honked like crazy, and she sped through two lights, then turned right and moved with the traffic.
By now, her radar wasn't picking up any of her opponents anymore, except for the black car that had been close to her at the beginning of the race, who was so far back that he was close to not being on her radar at all. She laughed, only allowed the sound to emit throughout the inside of her car - this was so much fun. All the streetlight blending together against the near pitch black night sky.
The finish line was coming up quickly, and when she extended her hearing she could hear the chatter of people waiting to see who the winner was.
She pushed her gas pedal down just a little more, and cut a car off turning down a different road, who cussed and honked at her.
She sped down the road, listening to the sound of her engine running, before speeding through a parking lot, through another road horizontally and another parking lot.
As she turned onto the last road - a dead end road with nothing more than a parking lot to an old warehouse at the end -, she could hear the people at the end whooping, screaming and cheering as she passed the barriers of the parking lot - the finish line -, slamming her brakes on. She drifted a little, stopping about a meter from the same man who had taken her money.
Activating her holoform, she grabbed the little GPS thing, disconnecting her minimap from it and getting out of the car.
The man smiled at her, holding his hand out. In a bag, her radar scan picked up copious amount of money, including the money she had given him. She handed him the GPS, taking the bag with her other hand.
"Congrats, baby. How about we share the cash and get out of here, huh?" he asked with a wink just as the black car - the one who had been in second place - slid to a stop past the finish line.
Before she could think it through, Laceburner let out a laugh. She turned around and back towards her alt mode. She opened the door with her human form, slipping inside the front seat just as the white car, who came in third, pulled in, followed by the red car.
She closed the door behind herself, and placed the bag of money in her passenger seat. She backed out, turning around and speeding out of the parking lot, down the road, and slowed onto the main road at a legal speed.
She let the holoform go for a while, driving down the road until she found a four story parking garage. She pulled in quickly, driving in the circular motion that the ramp moved in there until she reached the roof parking of the building, and pulled to a stop in the middle of the roof, listening to the buzz of the lights that illuminated her way, besides her bright LED headlights.
You there?
It was silent in her head for a moment.
I'm here. Good job.
The holoform reappeared in the driver's seat, and she looked down at the bag of money.
"What do we do with it?" she asked aloud, knowing the voice could "hear" her.
What do you mean?
"I mean exactly what I said. What do I do with it? It's useless to me at base, isn't it?" she asked.
It stayed quiet, obviously not having an answer to that.
"Well?"
I don't know. Maybe you can hide it in your subspace until you know what to do with it.
O-Okay.
Laceburner left the bag there and her holoform looked out the windshield to see something white land on the perfectly clean glass. It was cold, small and melted into a liquid quickly, before others followed behind that one quickly.
She opened the door by herself, before the holoform climbed out, looking up at the sky.
One of the white things landed on her shoulder, then her nose. She crossed her eyes, then watched another one.
What is it?
Snow. Snowflakes.
She watched as the crisp, cold flakes of snow fell down quickly from the sky.
It's pretty.
The voice stayed silent, and she basked in the silence, closing her eyes for a long time. It was peaceful, the quiet, beautiful kind of peaceful that she had only experienced once since waking up on that stupid forest floor. This was the kind of peaceful she wished her life was filled with.
No voice, no amnesia or memory loss. No fear of other bots, or actions that she did by habit to which she couldn't explain. She just wanted simple. As simple as this; sitting on a rooftop, watching and feeling the crisp, light snowflakes fall from the sky. Harmless snowflakes that couldn't do anything to her.
Instead she was stuck with everything she didn't want. She had a voice in her head - whether or not it was beneficial was an opinion. Back at base she had bots who seemed scared of her. Of her! What could they possibly be scared of if she couldn't remember anything about anything? She had few real friends, and no close friends that she and the voice agreed on. Sure, there was Grimlock, and he was nice and all. However, he was more often than not in his dino form, incapable of speaking to her, and acting more beastly than bot-ly. Then there was the twins. Something about them just managed to pull Laceburner in. It was hard to explain for her: something about them made her want to be near them all the time. The way they carried themselves, their mannerisms and habits, their attitudes and personalities - so different from one another yet so alike. Like a paradox that she couldn't make sense of, but wanted so badly to understand.
The nightmares too. They made her life difficult. She was having the nearly every night, some bigger than others. Most of the time they were just minute, little details; small things that she remembered for the first few hours of the day, then she forgot. But at least once a week she had a nightmare that stuck with her. One that looked like her at a different place, sometimes alone, and doing something. Sometimes it was just minutes and minutes of watching herself sitting on a couch. Every once in a while, she was just staring at a black screen, but hearing everything that was going on. During those nightmares, she'd wake up and feel the sensations that she would've during the night mare - pain, happiness, loneliness.
All she wanted was to be able to know her past and not have her life being a giant question.
Instead, she was stuck with the unwavering fact that she obviously had a past, but she knew none of it.
How are we supposed to get back?
Don't worry. Let me take over, I'll get us back home.
You gonna hurt anybody?
The voice snorted in her head. I promise the only thing I'll do is get us back to base.
Laceburner let go of the holoform, closed her door and mentally nodded.
Okay. Don't hurt anyone.
The voice chuckled like an older, over protective sister.
I promise I won't.
Laceburner let a sigh go, but allowed herself to close her eyes and everything went black.
So I've never actually seen a street race, so it was difficult for me to describe one XD I tried my best, but it wasn't that great. I hope you enjoyed anyways, don't forget to review, vote on my poll and favourite! Byyyyyyeeee!