New chapter at the ready! Got to say, this one is a little difficult. Been wanting this chapter to focus solely on the straight up action and mystery. A lot of text in it though, but I had to use it to make the chapter sound interesting. I also had something else to add in this chapter, but soon realized that it won't fit this chapter. Thinking about saving it for the next cause it would take long. Whatever the case, this chapter will be something people will talk about. Checking on the last chapter, it seems like it was a good one. Four quick reviews and around 120 hits. Pretty fair in my estimation. Let's see if this little chapter can make a huge impact. On this chapter of Transformers Infinite, Booker and the Skystrikers made it to Monument Island to get the girl. But on the way, they would encounter a threat bigger then they would anticipated. Will they be able to get this girl out of the statue and out of Columbia?

Chapter Notes

Now this is where I would bring the Songbird into the chapter. I'm certain all of you know of Songbird in the Bioshock Infinite game. He's sort of a protector of Elizabeth just like a Big Daddy with its Little Sister. Of course, the two are very familiar if you saw and play Burial at Sea: Episode 2. Don't want to spoil too much due to a variety of reasons. Anyways, he was suppose to be a threat to Booker when it comes to getting the girl back to Comstock. However, due to a number of tweeks and arrangements, he's just some plot device for the game's pogression. Thought it be nice to fix that little issue and give the bird a proper fight scene with Miko. And trust me, due to FictionFan and my idea for Miko, it was quite a strong combination. Not to mention that I had to add two extra Voxophone messages regarding the mystery of the Autobots and Decepticons in the Columbia demnsion. Don't want to spoil too much, but it will build up for the big reveal.

Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or Bioshock Infinite.


Chapter Seven: Elizabeth

Booker DeWitt's POV

And now we've met Comstock, the self proclaimed prophet of Columbia. Got to say, he does know how to make an entrance. The fact that he makes his presense known is such a grand performance. Personality wise, he has none.

Of course he doesn't call himself a Prophet for nothing. He seems to know a lot about me and my past, from the 7th to the Pinkertons. He even knows about Anna... How I don't have the slightest idea. On the other hand, he talked to the Skystrikers about their pasts. Pasts that I don't have the slightest clue. At least I'm not the only one that is shady in anyway.

Still, just because we met with this Prophet doesn't mean he's the peaceful kind. His men follow him like a bunch of obedient dogs and he was using this airship of his to blow us off this sky city. Hell, even when we got a hold of it, he still wouldn't give up as this pilot, which was a female nun, tried to burn us and take the ship down with her. After all of that, I know for a fact that Comstock really wants us dead. Thankfully, Raf managed to take control of the gondola that was at the station and we escaped, barely. But after what we've been through, I'm a little concerned about what other surprises await us when we enter Monument Island.

The girl is at my reach. I cannot have any more obstacles blocking my way. Yet even if I get her, I still need to find a way of letting her come with me. I'll think about it while I find a way to her. I just hope the Skystrikers don't get too suspicious. Comstock knows of the debt. Can't have them asking questions.


In the sky, the gondola Booker and the Skystrikers were on was sailing through the clouds. They looked on as they saw the bronze statue of an angel with wings opening her arms wide. They knew that this was Monument Island as the robotic captain explained about it.

"Welcome to Monument Island! Opened on April 4th of 1893, this precious Monument was part of Columbia's Goodwill Tour during the 1983 Chicago's World Fair. Once an entry point for pilgrims entering Columbia, this structure was built by the architects under the leadership of Zachary Hale Comstock and was inspired by the legendary Statue of Liberty in New York City. Today, it's a holy sanctuary for the Seed of the Prophet and is protected by-"

Miko was listening to him babble on about the statue and was getting bored out of her mind on his lecture. Turning to the metal robot, she interrupted him and said, "Hey Tin Man. We appreciate you taking us to this place and all, but if I wanted to listen to some boring history lesson, I would rather sit in class and sleep through it. So why don't you do me a simple favor and SHUT UP!"

The mechanical captain remained silent as Miko was showing signs of rage as her mouth was warming up a little. Knowing her request, he followed it and said, "Happy to be of service." before turning back to the front and kept steering.

The Predacon Hybrid relaxed a little and said, "Finally! Some peace and quiet."

Booker looked to this girl and turned to Jack, saying, "Complicated girl, ain't she?"

Jack shrugged it off and answered, "You have no idea…"

The detective then turned to see the captain of the Skystrikers looking at the huge statue getting closer and decided to join her. Once they were together, Sari broke the silence and said, "Kind of strange…"

Booker looked to her and asked, "What's strange?"

"That this girl you're trying to get is in a statue of all places." Sari explained, "Kind of a peculiar place to put someone like her. What's with all the secrecy?"

Booker wondered about that and said, "Don't know. I've been thinking about that as well when I saw this statue for the first time. I usually ignore stuff like this and kept on with my assignments. But this, this is something a whole lot different. Guessing my client likes to be dramatic on his presentations."

Sari peered her eyes to him and was curious about this client, "This client of yours is a strange one, is he?"

Booker turned to her and argued, "My client told me to bring this girl to him, no ifs, ands, or buts. He didn't tell me anything about something of this scale. But it's still a job, and someone's got to do it."

The two remained quiet and were watching as they were nearing their location, just then, a docking station was appearing through the clouds as the Gondola lowered to it. "There's the docks." Booker said as they were getting closer to their goal. As they were waiting, Sari asked something else.

"Back there…" she started, "What Comstock said to you-"

Booker though wanted to drop the subject and said, "Let's not talk about it."

"No, no, I'm curious." she kept forcing the question to him, "What type of sins that you've done that brought you here?"

Booker then had it as he got to her face and said straight forward, "Listen! What happened to me was in the past, okay? I just want to forget about what I've done and look forward at what I'm going to do. Besides, you are one to talk. I heard Comstock talked about the sins and your team suffered through. Care to explain what happened to the four of you that got you in a loop?"

Sari remained silent as she turned her head away and said, "Let's just say it's something we wished to forget as well. But it's those mistakes we learn from and it make us stronger. In the Skystrikers, we don't show weakness."

"And that works?" he asked in curiosity.

"In a way, yes." she answered, "You should try it sometimes."

Booker simply grunted and said, "Sorry, but the things I done won't make things better for me."

Sari looked to him strangely and decided to leave it at that. The Gondola just made it to the entrance to Monument Island and docked at the station. "Thank you for riding with us. Please come again soon." Once they docked, they noticed that it was quiet as no one was around. Everyone kept their ground as they were expecting a surprise attack, but nothing happened. Miko peered her yellow optics back and forth and was confused. "Shouldn't someone be here to kill us by now?" she asked.

Sari looked to the eerie quietness and was wondering about that too. "Don't know…" she said to her, "but I suppose we got a free pass."

"Don't be too sure about it." Booker said, "There's always a calm before the storm." Once he jumped off the Gondola and onto the brick floor, he looked to the others and said, "I'm going to go on ahead to get the girl. You four wait here until I come back."

The captain approached him and said, "Maybe we should come with you. After what we've experienced in getting here, there could be more surprises awaiting for us ahead."

Booker looked to her and said, "Thanks for the assist, but I can do this by myself. Besides, you got your own mission to get to, remember? Once I get her, I'll help you in finding your friends. That was the deal. Now wait here until I come back."

Sari still wasn't giving up as she decided to give him another option. "At least let one of us come with you." she offered, "It's best you need a little help if things get bad."

Booker was about to argue back, but decided to keep her advice. After surviving that mess, he thought a partner would help him out on things. "Very well…" he said, "Just as long as one of them doesn't get into trouble."

Nodding, Sari turned to the team and wondered who to go with DeWitt. Jack is a great student and she taught him well, but he's still in training and she needs to be with him at all times. Miko was too rambunctious and after what she did at the Raffle, could ultimately lead to more trouble coming to them. Even if she wants to assist him, she needs to keep close watch on the team, especially the Predacon Hybrid. So looking into her options, she came up with the wisest of choice and turned to the super soldier.

"Raf," she told him, "Go with Booker. Aid him in whatever he needs. We'll be around the Island keeping watch of any military personnel. Once you two get this girl, contact us. We'll rendezvous back here for pick up."

Rafael listened to the captain followed the orders very clearly. "Yes ma'am. I'll let you know when we're leaving with the girl."

To that end, Raf jumped off the gondola and joined with Booker. Once the two were off, Sari turned to the animatronic captain and told him, "We're leaving Monument Island, but don't return to the station. Go around the Island in a perimeter and stand by until it's time to return."

The mechanical robot turned to her and said, "Righteo, leaving Monument Island." Soon enough, the Gondola took off and was making a quick turn to get out. As it was doing that, Sari approached the two and said, "Remember, contact us when you have the girl. We'll be keeping guard in case Comstock sent in more soldiers after us. Don't take too long!"

Raf nodded and said, "We won't."

The moment the gondola was turning around, it flew out of the docking area and left the Island. As soon as it disappeared in view, Raf turned to the private investigator and said, "So, how are going to get the girl? Where do we begin?"

Booker turned to the super soldier and answered, "Let's first get into the building and see what we're up against, then we'll worry about the girl."

Knowing the plan, the two headed to the end of the dock and walked up a flight of steps to the right. Heading up the stairs, they passed a police barricade and headed to the doors between the two vending machines that were turned off. Nearing the door, Booker got his machine gun out and told him, "Get ready, we don't know who we're facing behind this door."

Raf nodded and got his machine gun out. Waiting for the right moment, Booker got up front and kicked the door down. Quickly, the two hoisted their weapons and were ready for a fight. But by the time they got out, they noticed that it was quiet. Walking down the trodden path, they walked around a non-functioning fountain and saw the statue, high up into the air. Below the statue was a building with the lighted sign that said, 'Monument Island' with a few lights shorted out. Booker lowered his rifle and was relieved that he had finally made it.

"There it is," he said, "Monument Island. Now all we got to do is find this girl and get out of here."

Raf looked to the building too and peered down to what was right in front of them. There appeared to be a security gate blocking their way with blinking red lights and two small watch towers for people to keep watch. Strangely enough, there was no security of any kind at the gate. "Odd..." he said rubbing the back of his head, "For a place that's heavily guarded, you would think there could be some men keeping watch. Where are they?"

Booker though shrugged it off and said, "Who cares. If no one's around, it gives us the chance coming in without trouble." He looked around and noticed that there was no way in to the place with the gates closed off. Looking up, he saw a hook dangling from the watchtower on the right and found a way over it. Backing up, he got his skyhook out and ran straight to the blocked path. Jumping up, he reached his arm hook out and let the skyhook magnetized to the crane. Once he was over the gate, he jumped off and landed on the other side. Raf watched him do that and decided to go over it as well. Getting his jetpack ready, he took off to perform a boost jump and went over the gate. Somersaulting, he landed to the other side on his feet and got his footing together. Booker look to him and said, "Remind me to get one of those when this is over."

Raf turned to him and said with a grin, "Not going to be easy trying to find one these days."

Returning to the task at hand, they started to walk up the curved set of steps to enter the building, passing through the overgrown and untreated bushes and flowers. Upon reaching it, Raf stopped and noticed a statue of a woman holding an opened scroll with something written on it. Skimming through the words, he read out loud, "The Seed of the Prophet shall sit the throne, and drown in flames the mountains of man. Wonder what that means?"

Booker looked to that scroll as well and told him, "No clue... But I've seen this a couple of times when I came to Columbia. Must be some kind of prophecy Comstock babbles about."

"And what type of prophecy is that?" Raf asked him.

"Let's not wait around to find out." was Booker's answer as they went up the top of the steps and headed straight to another set of doors.

Getting to them, they got their weapons just in case Comstock's men was waiting for them. Slowly opening the door, they made their way into the indoor entryway where they were greeted by a miniature version of the statue on the outside. So far, they still haven't found any trouble coming in, but once inside, it's a completely different atmosphere. There were lockers that had old fashioned hazmat suits, dividers with the title, 'Columbia Science Authority' in a few places, and at another set of doors was a red painted line on the floor and warning signs. One of the signs said that there was a 12 hour quarantine by order of the Science Authority while all others were warning messages with the word 'Specimen' written on each of them. This uneasy quietness got them feeling a little unsure as they haven't run into any of Comstock's men yet.

Confused, Raf contacted Sari and told her of the situation while Booker looked at the lockers to find something useful. "Captain, we're in Monument Island's building right now. Something though, just doesn't feel right. We haven't encountered any military personnel and the place looks abandoned, almost like they just got up and left."

"Keep me posted.", she said back, "We can't leave here until you have the girl."

Raf nodded and said, "Understood. Stand by."

Turning off his comm., Booker approached him and said, "Let's keep going. The girl has to be around here somewhere."

Raf turned to him and said, "Maybe she's further into the building. Let's investigate."

The two then headed to the next set of doors and walked past the red line, opening it to reach the next room. When they did, they entered a long hallway that had some old control consoles on the walls. One of them was sparking as the heat created black splotches on the carpet. The two slowly walked to the end of the hall, where they were greeted by a drawing board of some kind that shows what appears to be an age chart. Booker looked to the chart and was a bit confused. "What's this?" he asked the super soldier.

Raf took and closer look at the board and said, "Looks like a progression chart showing off the years of the person. By the look of the outline, it would seem that this individual is female. You think this is the girl you're looking for?"

Booker shook his head and said, "No, my client needs a live person, not a drawing. Let's keep going."

The two then went to the right to go around the wall, being the left is blocked off by a divider. Upon reaching the other side, they encountered more machinery as a few were sparking or was billowing smoke and another red painted line with one of the signs that has a 72 hour quarantine by order of Lutece. But entering the main hall, they spotted something that caught their complete and utter attention. In the middle of the room is a big machine that had electrical nods on the top and three tubes that was filled with a strange blue glowing liquid. In front of them had three separate levers and static electricity shot out of the two transceivers on both ends and hit the nods on the top. The two approached the structure as Raf looked up to the sign above it that says...

"Siphon Passive?" Raf asked, "What does that mean?"

Booker read the sign too and hadn't had the slightest of clue. He looked to the lever in the middle and check to see what it does. Pulling the lever down, a light was shown on the inside of the machine and it showed a book in the container with a sign on it and says,'Age 8: Poetry'. Looking at it, he wondered what the lever did. That soon answered his question as a small lightning bolt hit the book and it starts to shake and distort. In a matter of seconds the lightning stopped and the book was now a different color and texture, almost like it was something completely different. Seeing this, he was intrigued by the experiment and said, "Hmm... Don't know what , but it does look impressive."

Raf saw this too and decided to try one of them as well. Approaching the lever on the left, he pulled it and the machine showed another display. A teddy bear in a glass container with the sign, 'Age 3: Companion'. Lightning hit the bear as it distorted as well, changing into a different teddy bear of a newer brand. Scratching the back of his head, he said to the detective, "Whatever this is, it's certainly advance at its time. I don't know if this has something to do with her though."

DeWitt shook his head and said, "Hope not. I just don't think she has anything to do with it."

Deciding to leave the display for later, they walked around the device and headed to another set of doors. Opening them up, they entered a short hallway with large cables connecting through the walls and between the machinery that were at and into some other room. In this hall, there were three separate passages that go to different rooms. Booker looked to them and told the super soldier, "I'll check the two rooms to the left. You take the right. There's got to be someone around here that has answers about this place."

Raf turned to him and said, "Got it."

So the two split as Booker checked the metal door leading to someplace. Raf though headed to the end of the room and entered the passage on the right. Getting his machine gun out, he came in and scanned the area. Lucky, no one was around as he relaxed a little. But entering the room, he could tell that it was some old fashioned media room with an old film projector in the middle and a screen at the end. It looks like that it had seen better days with chairs scattered about and unkept. Looking around, he spotted something else on one of the chairs. some sort of recording device that can be played back with a speakers on both ends and a playback feature and volume control in the middle. The one thing that stands out of the device is that it had an old record sticking out of the halfway on the top and a needle on it that goes to the right side. That object is a Voxaphone, Columbia's personal recording device that let people talk about anything, whether it's public or private.

Approaching it, he picked it up and further inspect it. Then turning back to the film projector he decided to check what it has on and flipped the switch to begin the movie. At the same time, he hit play on the Voxophone as the record started to spin. Watching the movie, he could see a young woman doing many things, even if the picture was a blurry. One scene was of her trying to lockpick a vault of some kind and failing, another scene is where she deciphering codes, the next was her painting a picture of what appears to be the Eiffel Tower, then her singing in her room, and then finally her dancing by herself, pretending to be with someone else. As he was watching each scene, he could hear a female voice coming out of the recording device that sounded strangely familiar.

"The Siphon is complete. Took a while in getting the gist of it, but we managed to get it up and running. Comstock believes that the girl's ability is getting stronger as the years progress. He fears that if she reaches her peak, she might open all the doors and venture through many worlds beyond ours, looking for answers. Which is why he asked to create a machine that would drain her of this ability, to prevent her from escaping. Though I got to say, she is curious as to where she came from. Looking at her, I'm starting to feel sorry for what we did to her. I understand that the Prophet needs her to fulfil this promise of his, but the way we did it sort of made me feel guilty on those types of actions. Regardless, there are more pressing matters to attend to than the past. When we were completing the Siphon I overheard Comstock and Fink discussing of something. Couldn't make out the words, but I heard Fink say that the Siphon and Monument Island would be used as a heart to complete some type of secret project he's been working on in his factory of his. I'm a woman of science, I'm the one that is held responsible of making Columbia float. Any additional project that's being done, should be addressed to me first before approval. What is this Fink planning? Need to investigate it further."

As soon as the record and film stops, Raf got curious. This woman on the recorder sounded like the woman they encountered at the Blue Ribbon restaurant with the male by her side. Could she be a scientist of some kind? And what is she talking about? What is this special project? Nothing make any sense. As he was thinking about it, he heard a voice in the distance.

"Found something?"

He turned to that direction and saw Booker standing there at the entry way. Raf shrugged it off and said, "Nothing useful. Just a movie of this girl's exploits and a record player talking about someone's babbling. What about you? What did you find?"

Booker then approached him and showed him some pictures he found in one of the rooms. "A few things, look at this." he said to him as he handed the pictures to him. "One of the rooms was some type of operating room, almost like she was experimented on. Another room is a red room for pictures, showing her in any angle. Even if it's private, they took it."

Raf looked at each photo and was disturbed by each picture. Few of them were a bit up close, but others showed her getting herself dressed or in the bath. Looking at each picture, he said in shock, "They've been watching her. Do these people have a sense in privacy these days?"

"Well when you're destined to rule Columbia, you would have a lot of onlookers." he said in his own opinion "Let's keep walking, I'm hoping this girl is close by."

Nodding, Raf dropped the pictures and the two hurried to the next room close by. Opening the door, they entered what appears to be the grand ballroom of some kind, but it was modified to hold some strange device. And strange is an understatement when they come into the room. It was a huge contraption with two separate nodes sticking out in the middle, smaller nodes at the bottom, and a bigger one on the top. Speakers were dotted all across the room, on the corners, ceiling, and floor. And to top it off, a huge glass container, bigger than the ones on the passive was on the machine, filled with the same glowing blue substance. The speakers started to vibrate as a voice of a woman came out, humming a tune of some kind. When she was singing, the nodes spark to life and electricity danced around it. The top nod sparked more powerful as the same liquid poured out of the nod and into the container. The process gets interrupted from time to time as the process repeats itself. The two looked at the huge structure and had no words to describe it.

"Whoa…" Raf said in awe, "Now that's something. Wonder if this is a Siphon I heard about?"

Booker looked to the device too and could tell that it was something important. But he still has a mission to accomplish and told the super soldier, "Let's worry about that some other time. Right now, we got a girl to find."

The group slowly entered the room as they check to see where to start. Heading to a desk, they noticed a chalkboard over with another type of chart. Looking to the blackboard, Raf noticed a scribbled message in the end that said, 'Facility Unsafe' and put two and two together. "Guess we now know why the place is empty." he said to the detective, "It would seem as though they evacuated the place due to whatever they were working on."

Booker looked to the blackboard too and said to him, "That makes a lot of sense." He looked down at the desk and noticed another Voxophone sitting there, collecting dust. Looking down the steps, he told Raf, "Check downstairs. See if there's anyway to continue." Raf turned to the Private Investigator and nodded in agreement. As he was walking down the steps, Booker picked up the device and hit play, wondering what this would say. Turns out, it was the voice of Comstock as he sounded a little weary of his future.

"It is one thing to imagine one's future, and another to see it. I have seen the seeds of fire that will prepare the Sodom Below for the coming of the Lord. But Elizabeth shall sow those seeds, not I."

As he was looking into that, Raf went to the lower level to find some other way in. So far, he saw two doors on both left and right leading to different areas with cables connected from the machine to the walls. At first, he decided to check the doors to see where they lead to, but then he noticed something behind one of the speakers. Curious, he approached the area and noticed an open elevator door with a red painted line near it and two warning signs, one of which states a one hundred and sixty-eight hour quarantine by order of the Prophet. Figuring that they have a way in, Raf was about to head back to DeWitt to give him the news. However, on the way back, he noticed a third Voxopone sitting there on the warning sign. Out of curiosity, he picked it up and press play on it, only to hear Fink's voice discussing about something.

"Now I'm no scientist, but I can smell opportunity when I see it. This Siphon the Luteces made shows a lot of promise. Extracting the energy of this girl Comstock has locked up and into the machine is quite a fascinating find. With the limitless amount of energy, it will be the opportunistic time to make the Siphon the heart of this 'special' project' I've been working on in the factory. Been speaking to the Prophet about this matter and he was intrigued of my proposal in making some modifications to the Siphon. However, there are some people that might think differently about it. Rosalind for example. She's been nosing in on my business. I can't let her see what I've been doing to her city for the past couple of years. I should let my associates keep a close eye on her. If she finds out, well you know the old saying… Hell haf no fury then the wrath of a woman's scorn."

As the playback stopped, Raf was getting more curious about this. This Lutece said that Fink and Comstock was talking about a special project in the works while in this audio, Fink said that he was modifying the Siphon and working on the city for something special. This doesn't add up. What would this special project be and what does it have to do with both the city and the Siphon? As he was thinking about all of that, he heard Booker from behind.

"There you are." he said to him, "I've been looking everywhere for you. Did you find our way through?"

Raf turned around to see the detective standing there, waiting for an answer. Putting the Voxophone away, he cleared his throat and said, "In a way yes. There are two doors in between this room that goes to different sections of the building. But there appears to be an elevator here that can take us up. No doubt that the girl could be up there."

Booker listened to him and understood what he was trying to say. "Very well." he said, "Let's check upstairs."

To that, the two entered the elevator as Booker hit on the button to make them go up. The moment the doors closed and the elevator made it's ascend to the top, Raf had a thought. "You know, there's something that just doesn't feel right."

Booker turned to him and asked, "What is?"

Raf turned to him and answered, "They turn this place into some kind of laboratory with the most advance technologies and then abandon in for quite a while. Yet for some strange reason, they kept the girl here. Why's that?"

Booker shrugged his shoulders and said, "Don't know… But judging of what they did to her, this isn't anything from the Prophet's words."

"Still, it doesn't make any sense as to why she's still here while everyone else isn't." Raf said in his own statement.

"Hey, if it means we get to take a breather, I have nothing to complain about." Booker stated in his own manner, "Let's see if this girl is upstairs. I didn't come all this way for nothing."

The elevator soon made a stop, indicating that they are on the top floor. As soon as the doors opened, they entered what appears to be a small metal room with two garage door like windows and a sign above that says, 'Specimen Present'. Looking around, they had no clue where they are. Raf then notice a lever in front of him and pulled it down. As he did that, the doors opened up in front of them to reveal two completely different rooms. One room showed the bedroom with a microphone and old record player at the corner of two posters and a variety of instruments strewn on the counter near Booker and Raf. In another room is some type of study room with a blackboard of cracked codes and opened up locks and lock picks on another counter. Raf looked to one of the windows and scratched his head in confusion.

"Okay" he started to ask, "Where are we this time?"

Booker looked at the bedroom view and came up with a good answer. "My guess, this is some type of observation room. And judging by the looks of it, this must be where the girl is located. Question is, where is she?"

The two then headed to the open door to the left and noticed a sign with many rooms on it. Raf rubbed his chin and said, "This looks like a directory of some kind. Maybe the girl is in one of the rooms."

Curious himself, he pressed the button on the side and one of the sections lit up, indicating where the girl is at. "Dressing room…" he said, "That's where we need to go."

"Then let's get going." Raf said as they went to another open door on the left and started to walk on a wooden catwalk near the inside of the statue. As they were walking, Raf kept thinking and said, "Kind of strange that for a girl that is so important to Columbia that there is no security around here. Was kind of hoping for heavily armed man shooting at us the moment we came through or something very dangerous waiting for us. You kind of find this strange?"

Booker listened in and said, "Well you did say that they all left in a hurry. It's obvious that whatever happened here seemed to have spook everyone. As long as we have a clear path, it saves up the bullets."

"Still, abandoning her like this just doesn't feel right." Raf gave his reasons, "Why not take her someplace else if this place is unstable?"

"At least she's here and nowhere else to be." Booker said back, "Better to get her in here then at some other random location."

As they walked to the end of the catwalk, they turned to the right and a metal door opened for them. As soon as that door closed behind them, another door opened and took them to another observation room with a chair and photo camera in place. But they also saw the sign above the window door that represents the person is inside that room. Approaching the lever, Dewitt pulled it and the door opened up. That's when they saw her.

It was a young girl in her twenties preening herself in the mirror, which was a two-way mirror for the two to look at her and she's looking at them when she isn't. She had long dark brown hair that is done up with a small ponytail with a little blue ribbon tying it, bright blue eyes, and a fair and beautiful complexion. Her build was lean for a woman her age and is wearing a white short sleeve blouse that goes to her elbows with a blue and yellow folds around her neckline and a dark blue ribbon tied around it, a blue skirt that goes down to her knees, and a pair of long heel boots with beige stockings in them. The one thing that stood out the most is that she had a small little thimble on her right pinkie, indicating that she was using it or she's hiding something.

She finished looking at herself and took a small postcard of what appears to be the Eiffel Tower and looked delighted for some reason. Booker looked to the girl and knew from the photo he got that she's the one he was looking for. "There she is." he said in seer accomplishment, "That's our girl."

Raf looked to her too and could tell that she's the one Booker need, yet he still doesn't know why this girl is important to the detective. Yet staring at her, something in his body had occurred. He doesn't know what, but it almost felt like he had some form of affection to her. Could be a side effect from the experimental growth he had to go through a few years ago. Still, it seem he has some type of crush on her the first glance. Placing his hand on the smooth reflective surface, he looked on in awe as this girl looked to the fimble on her finger, wondering if it wouldn't get too much attention. Feeling pleased with her look, she grabbed her postcard and felt giddy with excitement. Booker turned to Raf and could tell that he's in a daze. Deciding to snap him out of it, he said, "Hey pal, you all right?"

Raf turned to Booker and shook off the awkward crush on her. "Huh?" he said all confused and downright strange, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why you ask?"

"Because it looks like you were blushing over the girl." he said, "Remember that we're here to get her, not go on a date with her."

Raf nodded and decided to follow his advice. "Sure," he said back, "Whatever you say."

The girl then ran off out of the dressing room while the doors closed to seal it up. Knowing that she's gone, the detective told him, "Let's see where she run off too next."

The two then left the room and approached another linear hall, seeing another directory in front of them. Raf then approached it and pushed the button on the side, seeing the light indicating her next destination. "Says here that she's now in the dining room." he said to DeWitt.

"Then let's catch up to her before she leaves again." Booker responded.

The metal door to the left opened next to them as the two headed out into another wooden catwalk, where they could hear the girl singing by herself out of the hollow halls. As they were reaching the next door, Raf gave this some more thought and asked, "Don't you think it's weird that she's the only one in this tower?"

"Maybe…" was Booker's answer, "Why ask such a question?"

Raf started to put the pieces together and answered, "It's just that this girl seems pretty harmless and cute. Yet these people locked her up in this place like a caged animal and left her here to die. It's almost like they are afraid of her. What do you think?"

"Look, I don't have the answers to everything about what these people do." Booker responded, "I'm just doing what my client wants me to do and I'm going to follow it to the letter. As long as we get her out and into my client's hands, then we're in business." When they were nearing the next metal door to the right, DeWitt turned back to him and said unexpectedly, "Did you just call her cute?"

Raf blinked his eyes and realized he made a slip off his tongue and tries to cover up. "Me?" he asked in a lying manner "Don't be ridiculous! I never say anything like that."

"But I heard you say that she's harmless and cute" The detective continued, "That seems a little obvious if you ask me."

"Come on," Raf kept making excuses, "That's nothing. Sure she's the most beautiful woman I ever lay eyes on but that doesn't mean that I'm falling head over heels for her."

"Now you said that she's the most beautiful woman," Booker interrupted him, "It's strongly obvious that you're really falling in love with her."

The super soldier was red in embarrassment as he decided to end this talk. "Can we not talk about this? We still got to get her out of here and out of Columbia."

Booker gave out a chuckle and smirked to him, saying, "Whatever you say Romeo."

The two then went through the opened door as they steam cleaned them before going in. When the next metal door opened up, they were in another observation room, only it's much more wider than the previous ones with another 'Specimen Present' light shining from above. Booker pulled the lever and waited for the metal doors to open in opposite directions. Once they got a clear view, they saw the dining room looking more like an arts and craft area with stands to hold portraits, empty canvases, little drawings posted on the wall of a dark and mysterious bird with yellow eyes, books and art supplies on the table, and the one portrait of the Eiffel Tower Raf saw the in the film. And then they spotted the young woman, still holding the postcard and taking a deep breath, ready to do something.

"There's out girl." Booker said as he and Esquivel watched to see what she's planning to do. Dropping the postcard on the table, she adjust her blue hankerchief tie and peered at the painting. Turning back to the portrait, she did something strange as she had her elbows sticking out and was grunting, like she was pulling something out of thin air. Raf slowly approached the glass wall and raised an eyebrow at her. "What is she…" was all that he could saw until the impossible happened.

Stretching her arms out, something opened up replacing the picture as supplies and stands scattered all over the room and the glass shattered at the corners. That got the two unguard as they either backed up or dropped to the floor. Recovering from that, they watched on and was in a state of shock. What they saw was some type of opening showing off the real Eiffel Tower in Paris, only the time era looks very different. There was music in the background playing a Tears for Fears song, "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" and a neon litted theater marque that had a title in French that said "Retour du Jedi". The two stared in disbelief as Booker said a few words, "Whoa! What is…?" The girl looked to what she done and was pleased with what she did. But as she marveled at the sights, she heard the sounds of sirens from the distance. Looking down the street, she and the other two saw a huge firetruck heading straight for her. Panicing, she clampsed her hands down and the portal closed up instantly, just seconds before the truck could hit her and small clouds came out of what's left. She turned her head away and had her hands up, waiting for the truck to hit her. After a few seconds, she didn't feel anything and was relieved she got out of that tight spot. But when she looked to the wall, she realized she made a mistake in closing the portal. Feeling defeated, she sulked a little and ran away, letting the doors closed in the process.

The two kept staring at the scene the whole time and didn't know what to think. But Raf immediately broke the silence and told the detective, "Uh, DeWitt... She got away again..."

Booker just stood where he was and responded, "Yeah... I notice... Let's search for her..."

They then walked down another door on the left and walked to a small hallway with two doors in the split, with one opened on the left. By the time that they enter another empty catwalk that was ascending upwards, it was all eerily quiet as Raf started to speak about what they just witness.

"Did... Did we just..."

Booker interrupted him by saying, "Yeah..."

"And did she just..."

"Yeah..."

"Then how the hell did she do that?"

Booker was a bit speechless by that and said, "I don't know, but whatever that was, it has nothing to do with the job at hand. This job's getting worse every time."

"Guess we now know why everyone left in a hurry." Raf then made his deductions, "It's because of something like that. It looks like she just open a portal to another world in another time. Saw something like that before."

The private investigator turned to him with a strange look and asked him, "Really? And where did you see that?"

Raf shut his mouth and realized he almost told him about the incident with Elisia's lab. Deciding not to reveal too much, he said to him, "It's complicated."

Turning right to the next door, they started to ascend the steps and into the next observation room. It was another huge door and the light was shining overhead. They then heard his women humming a tune to ease her troubled mind. Booker pulled the lever and the door opened to reveal another room. It was a two story library, filled with so many books and walled painting of bright blue sky. But in front of them was the girl in the distance looking at the wide window showing the city and clouds. Looking at her, Raf knew that she was all alone and wanted to be out there instead of being cooped up in there. "Poor girl..." he said with a sorry look on his face, "She wants to be outside. Who knows how long she was in there for."

Booker look to the image as well and came up with a really good guess, "I say too long."

He looked down to the chair next to him and saw another one of those Voxophones placed there for an undisclosed period. Picking it up, he pushed play and checked to see what it says, hearing the voice of the British woman Raf heard.

"What makes the girl different? I suspect it has less to do with what she is, and rather more with what she is not. A small part of her remains from where she came. It would seem the universe does not like its peas mixed with its porridge."

Hearing this, he scratched his head and wonder what all that meant. During that time, Raf heard static from his comm. and the voice of his captain on the other end.

"Raf, this is Sari." she said, "What is your status."

Raf turned his comm. on his earpiece and responded, "Raf here. We found the girl, but we need to find a way in getting to her before getting out. This place though is a little strange."

"How strange?" she asked him.

"Where do I begin?" he started, "It seems as though they turned a simple attraction into a laboratory with the strangest of devices I've never seen in my life. But it would seem that everyone left the place and didn't want to come back. Could have something with the girl's ability."

Sari was quiet over this and started to ask him, "What abilities?"

The super soldier turned back to Booker as he didn't want to reveal too much. "It's best I tell you about it later on, it's not easy to describe it in words. When we get this girl out of here, I'll discuss everything in detail."

Booker looked around and spotted a door to their left. He turned to Raf and said, "There's a way out through here. Let's see if we could get to where she is before she storms off again."

Raf turned to him and nodded in agreement before turning back to Sari on the comm. and finish the talk. "I'll let you know when we get to her."


Outside of Monument Island, the rest of the Skystrikers were on the gondola waiting for their friend and Booker to come back with this girl. Sari was at the bow of the gondola, speaking to Raf on the other end. "Booker found a passage in this bizarre place. Stand by." Raf finished.

Sari gave a simple nod as she finished by saying, "Acknowledged. Contact us when you have her. Out."

As soon as she turned off her comm., Jack approached his teacher and asked, "Well Sensei, any word yet."

Sari turned to her student and said, "Well the good news is that they managed to find the girl. Bad news is they're trying to get to her. Raf said that the whole place had turned into a lab of some kind and it was abandoned for quite a while. He also said that the girl has some kind of ability. Whatever that means."

Miko approached the two and was confused about that.

"The girl has abilities?" she asked herself, "Who does she think she is. Skye from Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D.?"

Sari gave it some deep thought and said, "Don't know… But he'll explain it to us when they come back. But then there's that other thing that worries me."

"And what's that?" Jack asked her.

Sari turned to the two and asked them, "Did you know what Comstock said to Booker?"

The two turned to each other before looking back to her as Miko answered, "Uh… No. Sorry, I didn't feel like paying attention to what he says. Maybe if you haven't forgotten, but we were a little preoccupied with trying to not get blown to bits!"

Sari glared at the Predacon hybrid and decided to tell them about it anyways. "Well, he said to him why he came to his city. Saying something about bringing a girl to wipe away some sort of debt."

Jack scratched his head and realized she was right. "That's right! I remember him saying something like that. But I thought it was simple mind tricks to get him off guard."

Sari turned to her Gakusei and said, "That's exactly what I thought too. But then I noticed Booker showing some form of symptoms to what we've been through when we first came to Columbia. I don't know what's going on around here, but I can tell DeWitt seemed to have come here the same way we did."

There was a bit of silence when the captain said that. Miko though scratched the back of her head and said, "Um… Hate to break up the theories captain, but last time I checked, the four of us went through that tear. Booker wasn't with us, at all."

"I know." she said to her teammate, "But he showed signs of going through one. We have to keep close watch on him at all times. If there is a chance that he did go through something similar just like us, we need to see if the signs progress further."

They listened in and decided to follow her advice. Given what they had to go through when they arrived in this city, they need to see if Booker was in the same boat as them. Just as the conversation went one, Miko felt something in her alert mod. She doesn't know what, but it felt like something was coming, something big and dangerous. Heading up to the direction of where she felt it, she told the others, "Guys? Something is coming this way."

The two turned to their friends and was getting an uneasy feeling. "Who?" Sari asked her, "Comstock's men?"

The Japanese girl shook her head and answered, "No… It's something much worse."

The two looked to each other and was confused about what she just said. Curious, they approached her said and stared into the sky to see what she was looking at. The moment they looked to the sky, they spotted something coming their way. It was a huge creature, flapping it's wings and was getting closer. It looked like it was made of metal and leather as a hose was connected to its inhuman beak to breath. But the one thing that caught their attention was the glowing yellow eyes, making it all too creepy. This bird like creature flew overhead them as the three were pushed a little bit from the wind like force of the creature's velocity. Turning back, they saw it leaving and were speechless by the looks of it.

Jack was the first to break the silence as he said, "What the frag was that?!"

Before anyone could come up with an answer, a metallic voice came from behind.

"That is the Songbird."

The three turned to the front of the ship to see the animatronic captain turning to them to give them the answer they needed. Sari approached him and asked, "Do you know about that thing?"

The robot nodded and said, "Everyone in Columbia knows of the Songbird. He is Columbia's protector against those that stood in the way. Created to protect the skies, he is the guardian of the Lamb and protects the Island from any foe that would take her away from this fair city."

The three listened in as the captain realized what he meant.

"That's why no one is in or around Monument Island." she said as she put the pieces together, "Because this Songbird guards it." She then turned back to the statue and saw the creature flying towards it. "And it looks like he's coming straight to Booker and Raf."

Miko was completely irate about it and turned to the metal captain, saying, "What the Hell, you bucket of bolts! Why didn't you warn us of something that!"

The captain looked down to her and said, "I was going to finish discussing about the history of Monument Island. But previously you have asked me to, and I quote, 'shut up'. So I have successfully followed that order to the letter."

They hybrid blinked her yellow eyes and realized that she made a derp like move in saying that. Face palming herself, she was a little bummed and decided to make things right. Turning to Monument Island, she tightened her fist and was prepared to go after the creature. Sari though stopped her and asked about what she's planning to do.

"And where do you think you're going missy?" she asked in a motherly tone.

Miko turned to her captain and said, "You heard what that tin man said. That creature is heading straight to Monument Island and Book and Raf don't know he's coming to them. Someone has to stall that thing while the others have time in escaping."

The captain didn't like the plan and said to her, "And cause more problems for us like what you did at the Raffle? Miko, we are now wanted individuals in the eyes of these people. If you're thinking of going to your other form, then you're going to cause more of a panic!"

Miko turned back to her and spat out, "So then what? We stand idly by while our friends get killed?! Someone needs to save their sorry afts from getting owned!"

The girl backed up a little and got into position in jumping. The leader could tell she was going to do it and said, "Miko, don't do anything stupid!"

Miko smirked and told her captain, "Never do."

Quickly, she ran to the end of the gondola's side and jumped off it as Sari said, "Wait!" But that came to deaf ears as she's off the gondola and fall through the clouds. Both Jack and Sari rushed to the edge of the floating ship and looked down to see what happens. That's when they saw a yellow glow coming from the clouds as something big was approaching the clouds. In a matter of seconds, another huge figure came out of the clouds and up past the gondola, nearly pushing the two back. The two looked up high in the air to see this new form of Miko flying straight to the Island and was pursuing the Songbird.

Jack stared at his friend leaving before turning to his Sensei and said, "I hate it when she does that."

Sari turned to him and asked, "Does what, my Gakusei? The fact that she fails to follow orders? How she likes to do things her way? The lack of safety of others?"

Jack shook his head and answered, "No. Pretty much all of the above."

The captain sighed and said, "Miko is going to make our situation far worse than it already is. We have to get there and stop her before Booker and Raf could get hurt." She quickly turned to the animatronic captain and said, "Take us back to Monument Island! Post haste!"

The robot looked to her and said, "Apology, all gondolas cannot go to the Island with the Songbird present. Anything that heads to those sacred ground-"

"That's a direct order!" she said as she deployed her energy hammer on him, "Or do I have to pound some sense into you?"

The metal captain was silent until he said in a cheerful tone, "Right you are! Heading to Monument Island!"

He then turned to the front and piloted the ship straight to the statue where Miko and Songbird were heading.


Back to Monument Island, Booker and Raf were trying to reach the girl as they were taking the only path through. Unfortunately, it led them to the outside where they were holding on to the thin path with chain rails dangling and the wind blowing heavily. They made their slow walk up to the side of the head where a door is present and was holding their ground to make sure the wind didn't knock them off. Covering his face, Raf looked to Booker and asked, "Are we there yet?"

The detective turned to him and said, "Just about! Once we turn the corner and walk up the steps, we'll be back in before you know it."

"You know, I thought that we were suppose to find a path that can safely get us to this girl you're after." Raf stated, "I wasn't expecting being outside with a ledge short enough to trip and fall. Let alone guard rails that don't have the safety standards."

"It's the only path to get to her." Booker explained, "We need to reach her before she leaves again."

Turning the corner, they climbed up the stairs to the left and approached the bronze like door at the side of the statue's cheek. Arriving, Booker pushed the door opened and the two made it back inside. Approaching the metal door inside, another one closed from behind and vented out any contaminates on the outside. As the door opened in the front, they noticed a metal wall of some kind with golden trimmings. Turning to the left, they headed to the dead end and turned to see an opening with a door on the other end. The room though was a bit strange, nothing but a bronze floor with chains it together. Raf looked to the structure and could tell that the chains are holding the floor together. Turning to DeWitt, he said, "Careful, the floor here could be unstable."

He turned to the super soldier and said, "Got it."

Cautiously, they stepped on the floor as it creaked a little bit. Looking around, they could tell that the room his huge. Raf looked high above and could tell that there was no ceiling in sight, just the long chains that are connected to something. "What do you think this room is for?" Raf asked Booker.

DeWitt looked to the room himself and was curious as well. "I have no idea." he said, "But judging by the size of this place, the extended height, my guess is that it's some sort of cage."

"A cage?" he asked him, "For what I wonder. This girl has a penthouse in this place. Why does she really need a cage?"

"Who knows." Booker answered back, "We can't get anywhere without getting the girl out. Let's hope this door gets us in-"

Before he could finish, they heard a loud creaking sound just as they were nearing the next metal door. Stopping where they are, they looked around and wonder what that noise was. "What was that?" Booker asked as he was alert.

Raf looked around the place and wanted to know about that too. Just then, he could hear the sound of snapping from one of the chains and turned to the right to see one of them broke from the pressure. Turning to Booker he told him, "Scrap! We got too much weight on the floor! They are about to-"

Immediately, the other chain broke as the floor started to collapse on them. The two braced themselves as they fall right into the library where the girl is located. Raf immediately got the ledge of one of the bookcases and used his hand to grab a hold of it while he heard a loud thud from behind. Turning back, he saw Booker laying on the carpeted floor, groaning in pain as he hurt his back temporarily.

"Booker!" Raf called out, "You okay?"

Booker struggled to get up but he was still bruising from the fall. "Yeah." he said back, "I'm fine. Been through worse drops then this."

Nodding, Raf decided to get himself up and climbed up to what seems to be the upper level of the room. Getting his other hand to the other end of the case, he used all his strength to get back up. But as he pushed himself up, he saw something that made him stop. Staring right at him was the girl the two were getting two, mouth a little agape and was holding one of the many books. The two stared at each other awkwardly as neither of them didn't know how to respond. Raf though broke the silence as he decided to speak first.

"Uh… Hi?"

The girl's response though was a bit unexpected, an ear piercing shriek from the strangers that came through the ceiling. Raf wasn't prepared for that as he let go of the bookshelf and fell to the floor too. Luckily, Booker comfort his fall, but it made the detective cringe as more weight was put on him. And if that wasn't bad enough, this woman started to go on the offensive and was throwing books at them. Not the way to introduce themselves. The two were trying to cover themselves as she kept throwing, descending down the steps to reach their level. The two immediately untangled themselves from the drop as they told the girl to stop.

"Hey!" Booker said as he was trying to calm the girl, "OW! Knock it off! UHG!"

"AH!" Raf said as well, "That hurt! ARGH! Stop throwing books at us!"

The girl made it to the lower level and kept her ground, picking up another book to rush to the two, ready to hit one of them. Booker quickly raised his hand and said, "Will you stop it? WILL YOU STOP IT? We're not here to hurt you."

"That's right!" Raf joined in, "We're not intruders! We're here to help."

The girl stopped with just a few inches to them and decided to get some answers, quick.

"Who are you two?" she started asking, "What do you want from me? How did you get into my home?"

Now that she stop, the two got up as Booker started to introduce themselves.

"My name is DeWitt, this is Esquivel. We're friends. We've come to get you out of here."

He place his hand on her shoulder to ease her, but she brushed it off and told him, "Get away." She then started to swing his book to hit him. Thankfully, Raf came in front of him and blocked the hit with his hand, stopping her from hurting the Investigator.

"Whoa, whoa!" he said in a calming manner, "Easy there. We're not going to anything to you. We're here to help you. Just breath in. Breath…" The woman stopped her aggressive offense and followed the super soldier, taking a few deep breaths before finally relaxing again. Looking to the two, she reached out to Raf with her thimble pinkie sticking out and said, "...Are you real?"

Raf smirked and said to her, "We're real enough…"

She gave out a sigh of relief and placed her book down. She then looked to the two and said, "I'm sorry about being a little hostile. It's just that, I never had guests in my house since… Well for as long as I can remember." She then present her hand to the super soldier and introduced herself. "I'm Elizabeth by the way."

Raf looked to the hand and was a little curious about the thimble that was on her finger. But he decided to brush it aside and shook her hand. "Elizabeth, huh?" he asked her, "That's a lovely name. Who gave it to you?"

The girl named Elizabeth turned her head down and said, "I don't know... It was given to me since I was born, but no one gave it to me. It was on a few pieces of paper from when I was young and that's all I know."

The super soldier raised an eyebrow and asked her, "How long have you been in here?"

"Long enough." was all that she answered.

Booker looked to the conversation and decided to end it quick. "Okay..." he started, "Now that we're done with the introductions, can you contact your team and let them know that we got her. I want to be out of this place as soon as they get here."

Raf turned to him and decided to follow his orders. "Got it." Placing his fingers on his earpiece, he contacted Sari. "Captain, we got the girl. We're on our way back to the entrance to Monument Island. Get the gondola to the docking area when we get there."

He waited for a response from her as she responded, but it was something completely different. "That would be a negative, Raf." she said on the other end, "We got a situation in our hands."

Raf blinked as he walked away from the girl so she won't listen. "What's the matter?" he asked her, "Is the military at your position?"

"No, it's something far worse than that." Sari started to explain, "There's a creature of some kind heading to your position even as we speak. Miko is pursuing it, but she cannot reach it. You have to get out of there now before it gets here."

Raf listened in and was a bit concerned about his words. "What are you talking about?" he asked her, "What's coming our way? What are we up against?"

Before there could be any answer, all three of them could hear a whistling tune from close by. They turned to that direction as they saw a golden statue of Comstock standing with flags tucked in the back with steam blowing through each hole in the back and yellow eyes blinking on and off. Raf and Booker looked to that statue and was confused about that.

"What the hell was that?" DeWitt asked.

Elizabeth, on the other hand, knew of that sound and was acting a little frantic about it. "He's coming..." she said in a bit of a panic. Turning to Booker, she pushed him away and told him to go. "You- You gotta go and hide. If he finds you here-"

Booker was more bewildered about her behavior and tried to calm her down. "Whoa! Calm down! Why? What's going on?"

Elizabeth looked to him with worried eyes and said, "You don't want to be here when he gets here!"

Raf approached the two and wanted answers as he said, "Who's coming? Who are you talking about?"

Elizabeth turned to him and utter the one word she fears the most.

"Songbird..."


Up at the sky, the huge creature continued to soar through the air as it was getting near to Monument Island. That creature is of course Songbird as he reaching the girl. He made his ascent to the top of the statue and was getting closer to his goal. Landing on its head, the door opened on the top and it made some kind of friendly shriek.


Back inside, the three could hear it and Elizabeth got a little jumpy. Quickly looking up at the hole, she said out loud so the creature could hear it, "SONGBIRD, YOU'RE HERE EARLY!" They could hear Songbird making some noises here and there to not make any sense. Yet the girl responded as if she was having a conversation with him. "WHAT? OH NO, THE CHAINS ON YOUR CAGE JUST GOT A LITTLE LOOSE AND CAUSED THE FLOOR TO DROP PARTLY. NO, NO! I'M FINE. I WASN'T NEAR IT WHEN IT STARTED TO FALL. NO WORRIES."

Raf heard this conversation and was amazed about her conversation with this creature. It was almost like his talks with Bee a long time ago when he lost his voice box and had to talk with beeps and whirls. Regardless, this Songbird was a threat and he had to stop him. Taking his Beretta M9 out, he aimed it at the open hole and waited for a chance to strike. Elizabeth saw this and approached him, forcing him to lower his side arm.

"No, no, no, no!" she said in a quiet tone so the Songbird won't hear it, "What are you doing?"

Raf looked to her and said, "Protecting you. Whoever this Songbird is, he needs to be stopped."

"No you can't!" the woman said with desperation, "That gun you have will only make him agressive. I should know, he's very protective of me." They can hear more friendly squeals and shrieks above as she looked up to the opening and said in a white lie, "JUST A MINUTE. I'M GETTING DRESSED!"

Booker looked up and could tell whatever's up there is loosing his cool. Looking down to the frantic girl he said, "Then let's get you out of here. Sounds like this Songbird is getting a little antsy."

Elizabeth looked around for a place to hide the two and couldn't find anything. "There's no way out. Trust me, I looked."

"Impossible." Raf said, "There's got to be an exit around here somewhere in this place."

She turned to him and pointed to the metal locked door that was near. "The only exit is that vault over there and no matter how hard I try, I could never get it to open." The Songbird was starting to loose his patient as it was asking what's going on down there with his series of sounds and whistles. She quickly turned back and yelled to him, "STOP IT! YOU'RE TOO IMPATIENT. THAT'S ENOUGH!"

Booker listened in and looked to the vault that can get us out. Observing its mechanics, it would seem that it couldn't be opened without an actual key. A key… That's right. He had a key that could be used for something. Digging it out of his pocket, he showed it to Elizabeth and asked, "W-What about this?"

She turned to him and asked back, "What about it?"

"This is the way out, isn't it?" DeWitt said to her.

Elizabeth was now getting nervous as she could hear the Songbird moving around out there. Asking her all these questions, she looked to him and wanted to know what he wants. "W-What are you…?" Before she can say something, her eyes peeked to the key and gasped in delight, snatching it from his hand. "Give it to me!" She closely inspected the key and could tell that it was a little fancy, with a picture of a black bird on one end and a black cage on the other. Curious, she looked to the safe and quickly rushed to it.

Raf saw the key himself and turned to Booker, asking, "Where did you get that?"

The private investigator said to him, "My client. He has given me a few trinkets to help get by. No clue as to what the key was used for, but I had my suspicions when I saw that vault."

The two when went after the girl as they stopped to the vault she was looking at. Wondering if this is going to work. she put the key into the key socket and turned it. In a matter of seconds, the mechanics inside started to work and the two exposed gears spin rather quickly. Just like that, the metal bars locking the door slid out and the vault opened slightly. Elizabeth stepped back when that happened and was amazed by it.

"It's a way out!" she said as she peeked to the door to see blue tiles.

"Indeed, ." Booker said back, "Let's get moving before this thing knows we're already gone."

By the time he said that, the room was bathed in a red light that was blinking on and off and a siren was ringing all over the Island. Preferably a security measure for when the vault is opened on the inside. Soon after, the Songbird heard and shrieked very angrily. The three turned to the open hole and found out that it was too late. "Something tells me he already knows we're leaving." Raf said with a bit of worry.

Suddenly, they could feel a hit of some kind as they wobbled a little bit while some books fell off the shelves and the furniture was turned over. Booker could tell that this new enemy was just about ready to get in as he told them to, "Go. Go! GO!"

Elizabeth panicked as she pushed the door opened with all her might to squeeze through. Once she was in, Raf got the vault and opened it fully with his sheer strength. Soon enough, the two got out of the library as the foundation shook and more books fell to the floor.


Outside, the Songbird of living as he was attacking the head of the statue, trying to get into the Tower. Hearing the sound of footsteps coming down and had to do something in preventing the girl from leaving. He wound his fist back and was ready to pound a hole into the statue's neck. But as he was going to do that, he was hit by a huge fireball on the back and was seething in pain. Looking back, the creature saw something he never thought was possible. Flying overhead is a another monster with a female build, but it was made of purple and pink armor with pink wings flapping to keep her up, a spiked tail swinging back and forth, and a muzzle with sharp teeth and smoke billowing out of her mouth. It was obvious that this creature is in fact Miko as she was in her other form, her full Predacon form.

Looking down to the Songbird with glowing yellow optics, she said to the creature in a taunt, "You know, there's a line you should be saying to me. Something like... I taut I taw a Puedaton."

The creature stared at her and reacted with a shriek in anger as his yellow cautious light changed to a dangerous red color. He then took off to flew straight to the dragon like monster. Miko could see him charging and spat out multiple fireballs right at him. Songbird quickly uses his quick agility to fly in a spiral, dodging by shot with ease. She saw him avoid her projectiles and was prepared to fight hand to hand, or in Miko's case, claws-to-claws. The two then collided and engaged in close combat fighting.

It was a clash of the Titans, as Miko made the first hit, slamming Songbird with her head. She knocked the creature right in its middle. Songbird recovered quickly, grabbing Miko's head and swinging it around, deflecting the force. Miko landed on the ground, but caught herself.

Songbird came at her from above. Miko's furnace glowed yellow. "Have some of this!" And let loose a blazing hot torrent of fire up into the air. Songbird dodged it, but the Predacon girl kept it up, until hitting her mark. The creature fell to the ground, singed. It got up, anger in its eyes.

"You're pretty tough," said Miko.

Finding an opening, Songbird lunged and grabbed Miko's leg, flinging her down to the base of the statue.

Miko was hit hard in the back and groaned in pain from the hit. Shaking some sense back into her, she looked up to see him diving down with his clawed knuckle right to her face. Her optics snapped open as she rolled to the right side, letting the Songbird miss her and piercing the statue to the side. He was getting aggravated as he freed himself and tried to pierce her again. She then rolled again and he missed again, piecing more of the bronze skin of the statue. Knowing she needs to make an escape as she flapped her wings and flew away quickly. Songbird then took off and went after her.

As they flew, she was getting tired as her wings were getting heavy. Songbird saw that and charged in for the kill. Just as he was about to do that, Miko tricked him and turned to him, delivering a sucker punch to his face. The creature was caught off guard and flew back down to the statue, hitting on the mid section. Songbird tried to make an escape, but Miko rushed in and pinned him completely. "Stand down, Tweety!" she said as she delivered multiple punches to the thing's head, causing a violent reaction to the statue itself.


Inside the statue, Booker, Raf, and Elizabeth went down the steps and were back to the observation room, backtracking to the elevator. As they were running, they could feel the impacts of each hit as debris and tiles were falling everywhere. The three nearly lost their footing as the foundation kept shaking while more debris fell. Even in the background, they could see girders that was suppose to hold the statue broke off and fall to the ground. Once they regained that stand, Raf said to the others, "Whoever this Songbird is, really doesn't want us to leave. Certainly giving this place a workout."

Elizabeth turned to the super soldier and said, "Can you blame him? It's his job to keep me locked up in here!"

Booker decided in taking his machine gun out and said, "We'll see about that! Come on Raf, Let's make an escape!"

Raf turned to Booker and nodded, taking his own machine gun out. "Got it!" he said.

Elizabeth decided to go ahead and ran into the next room. "This way, come on!" she yelled to them as the two made a mad dash after her. At the same time, more impacts came from the outside and more debris started to fall on them.


Outside of the structure, Miko pinned Songbird and used her fists to pound him over and over. After a couple of punches, she could tell that she did enough as the creature felt a little woozy. Winding her clawed fist back, she smirked in a sharp grin and said, "Nighty night, Tweety."

She then pushed her fist forward and was ready to deliver the final blow. Just as she was about to pound his face, Songbird blocked it off with the palm of his hand and held it tightly, leaving the Predacon in quite a shock. Songbird stared her down with his one glowing red eye and delivered a punch of his own. That said punch knocked her down as she released her hold on him, spiraling down to the garden behind the statue. As she landed, she made a deep impact in the middle as plants, flowers, and statues were crushed by her might. Slowly, she started to regain consciousness as she got dizzy from both the punch and the fall. But opening her optics, she could see the bird-like beast coming down to her and was going to kill her. Snapping out of the dizziness, she quickly rolled out of the way and succeeded in avoiding the deadly blow as Songbird landed on the crater she made. Once she got back up, she got into her Wrecker stance and was ready for a fight. Songbird looked to her and had a stance of his own, wanting to fight it out.

"So Tweety turned into Big Bird, huh?" she asked him, "All right then, let's fight!"

The creature screeched as he charged right to the Predacon. Miko was ready for that as she kept her stand and waited for him to come.

It came swinging with its talons, attacking the Predacon girl, but they had little effect on her armor. Miko on her part would return the attack with her sharp claws, but they barely scratched the surface of his metallic skin. "Fine, we both have sharp claws; even match. How's this?" And she used a Wrecker technique, laying up and giving Songbird a right hook to the head. The blow connected, sending the beast reeling back. "Didn't expect that one, did ya?" But he recovered, and slammed his head into Miko's midsection. "Ooof!" She replied, "Score one for you, Tweety."

So far, the fight was even as the two delivered heavy blows with each other. Miko backed away for a little bit and had to come up with a different strategy in disposing of this monster. Looking down she could see some little statues of the creators of Columbia along with some plants and came up with a really good idea. Songbird then charged in and was ready to tackle her to the ground. Turning back to her target, she smiled and said, "Think fast!"

With one swipe of her tail, she knocked the statues and overgrown plants right at the enemy. Songbird covered himself from the attack as the statues and plants hit him in any direction. With Songbird protecting himself, it gave the Predacon the opening she needed. Spreading her wings, she flew up and grabbed the protector by the shoulders with her feet talons. Once she got a hold of him, she lift him up by a few feet and threw him to the other side of garden that had the most trees and plants. Knowing the plants around him, she took a deep breath and fired a stream of fire around it, engulfing the entire area in flames. Flying up out of the garden, she looked down at the fire she made and was happy about her accomplishment.

"Hot enough for you?" she said with excitement.

She was about to leave to see if the others are all right. But just as she was going to do that, she heard an angry shreak from down below and looked to see what it was. Turns out, she saw the Songbird coming out of the flames, completely sheathing about what had occurred. Seeing this, she sighed and said, "Oh frag it…"

She was going to react to it until she was speared in full force by the creature and had little to no time to avoid it. She then got hit hard on the statue's mid section and was now in the same pinning predicament. Looking right at him, the bird like creature raised its hand high and tightened it, working a fist to show off the three sharp knuckle spikes. Miko looked on in horror and knew this was bad. Getting her head to the side, she was able to avoid the strike as sharp weapons pierced the bronze skin of the statue and scraped to a diagonal degree.


Returning to Booker, Raf, and Elizabeth, they were nearing the elevator as they were retracing the steps. Feeling the reaction of the hit, they were jumbled as the sign in front of them toppled over followed by an old camera. Turning to the right, they were just about there to their goal. Suddenly, there was a heavy hit coming from outside and all of them fell to the wooden floor. Booker and Raf looked up to see what happened while the girl got up and dusted herself. That's then they saw three spikes pierced through the metal skin and made a huge scrap diagonally, letting light in.

Booker and Raf looked on and was shocked by that. "What the…?" Raf said in a bit of confusion.

Elizabeth though was very fearful as she ran as fast as her legs can carry her. "Hurry!" she screamed as she was running for her life.

The two quickly got up and ran after her, with Booker saying, "Wait!"


Back outside, Miko dodged the attack and had to free herself. Opening up her jaws, she clamped down on Songbird's arm and squeezed it tightly. The creature could feel it very badly as he let the Predacon go and flew away to quickly recover. She saw him leaving and decided to follow. "And where do you think you're going?" she asked as she flew after him. She was close enough to attack him in the back, but he managed to fly high above as she missed her target and clawed through the metal skin of the statue.


Right around that time, Booker and Raf were trying to catch up with Elizabeth as she was running towards the end of the catwalk. Just then, they felt a heavy impact coming from the outside as the three got a little rocked. They also saw another set of scratch marks pierced through the wall. Just then, more debris came down as a metal girder fell and snapped the wooden catwalk, nearly crushing Elizabeth in the process. Raf looked to her and said, "Elizabeth! You're okay?"

The girl looked to the super soldier and said, "I'm fine! So far…"

She quickly recovered and entered the room as the two catch up to her. "Call the elevator!" Booker said as he told Elizabeth to get the elevator working.


Returning to the outside, Miko flew high to get to the Songbird and finish him off. "Stop flying away!" she yelled as she was getting closer. Deciding to apply the brakes on him, she started to spit out multiple shots of fire balls to hit him. After a few failed attempts, she managed to get a direct hit on him as he reacted to it violently. Turning back to her, Songbird was now pissed and dove down to deliver the fight. Miko looked to this and wasn't impressed. "Taking me on in the air?" she asked, "Big mistake!"

It was WWE WrestleMania in the air, as the two mechanical titans locked arms. Miko grabbed Songbird's head with her right claw and squeezed the tips of her digits into its skull, thereby applying five different points of pressure. "You like this one Tweety? It's called the 'Iron Claw', a professional wrestling technique courtesy of the Von Erich wrestling family!" Songbird screamed in pain, until it broke free from her grip. He grabbed her arm and pushed her away, "Where you going?" She flew at him, but he turned and flew a fist into her chest. She grunted from the fierce blow, but was unharmed. "Nice, hit, but no dice, jerk!" she sneered. Songbird seemed surprised at Miko's reaction, and hesitated briefly.

Miko took advantage of this and flew rapidly up and behind Songbird. She landed on his back and wrapping a leg around his right arm, grabbed his head with her claws. Before he could react, she pulled back tightly. "Crossface!" She yelled. "You gotta watch more pro wrestling, Tweety!"

Unfortunately for Miko, the hold was not as disabling for Songbird as it would be for a human, and he managed to free himself by flying backwards to the statue and slamming himself hard on the back, hurting the Predacon hybrid. "Ow!" she yelled in pain, letting go.

The fight still an even stalemate as one tried to beat the other. Songbird grappled the Predacon and was winning the bout. Miko didn't think that this creature could surpass her and was running out of options. When she looked for an opening, she spotted one and decided to act. With her tail, she wrapped it around his leg and squeezed it tightly. Songbird was in pain as he let go and she was free. This gave her the chance of getting rid of him once and for all. Spinning in a circle, she brought Songbird along for the ride as he was getting dizzy. Knowing it was the right time, she loosened the tail and let him go, sending him flying to a random location. Unfortunately that random location was at the lower base of the statue as he collided into it and went through it. Miko witnessed that and realized her mistake. "That can't be good." she said as she flew back to the statue, but deciding to take the top part to be on the safe side. Reaching it, she started to use her claws to tear the metal skin up, making an opening to get through.


At the bottom, Songbird was in what appeared to be an elevator shaft, trying to regain his consciousness and wanted to get his revenge on the Predacon. But as he was about to get back out for some payback, he could hear the sound of an elevator descending downwards. Looking up to the lift coming down, he soon realized one thing, the girl was escaping. Reacting to that, he shrieked and clawed his way up the shaft, trying to reach the girl.


Returning to the three, Booker and Raf made it back to the elevator as they entered the first observation room they went into. "Press the button!" DeWitt told Elizabeth as she was pushing the down button feverishly. Booker looked back at the way they left and was nervous about what was trying to attack them. "That Hell is that thing?!" he said as he pointed his machine gun at the opened door.

Raf gripped his own weapon in one hand as he was wondering the same thing. "Don't know…" he answered, "But whoever, whatever, this thing is, we seem to be pissing it off. Let's hope that it doesn't come in."

"What is all this?"

They heard Elizabeth's voice from behind and turned around to see what she was saying. What they saw was her looking at her own bedroom on the others side of the glass where random objects were strewn on the floor and hanged posters were tilting during the attack. She was shocked by all of this as she said to herself, "They were watching me? All this time..."

The two looked to each other and didn't know how to approach this. Thinking of something, Raf approached her and said, "Yeah, pretty much. Turns out, they were observing your every movement for who knows how long. No place is safe for you, not the bathroom."

Elizabeth turned to him and asked, "But why? Why did they put me in here? What am I? WHAT AM I?!"

She started to walk away with her arms crossed and approached the elevator door waiting for it to come. Booker decided to tell her straight away to ease her troubled mind. "You're the girl who's getting out of this tower." he said to her as the two got behind the girl and waited for the lift to come. The door did open, but not the way they wanted. A huge fist with three sharp knuckles burst through the two doors as the three started to backed away. When they looked back, they saw a head of some sort with a glowing red eye and a hose attached to the metal beak. That was in fact the Songbird as he pound his head to break through the wall. Elizabeth backed away and screamed for her life as Book and Raf got their machine guns out and fired loads of bullets at him. But it had proven to be of little effect as the creature kept pushing through as the wall started to crack from the pressure.


High above, multiple claw marks started to pierce through the metal plating as another creature burst through it to see where the Songbird was located. it was of course Miko as she was finding Songbird. As she was looking around, she heard a female scream from below and looked down to see the creature in the middle of a shaft and was trying to get into one of the floors. She could even hear gun shots down there and knew what it meant. Booker and Raf were holding their own. "Scrap!" she said, "That damn creature already got to them. I have to save them!"

Looking around, she spotted a cable that is connected to the main elevator. Giving how heavy it is, she came up with a plan and extended her clawed digit. With one quick swipe, the cable snapped and the elevator started to make its immediate descent. As it was going down, she started to breath deeply and shoot out streams of flames to finish the job.


Returning to the observation floor, the two kept on firing as the girl was scared for her life. Yet no matter what, they couldn't bring the creature down as he was nearly in and was about to reach the girl, getting his hand on the left side of the frame to push himself through. Suddenly, there was a ding from above as the elevator came from above and was going to crush Songbird. He immediately reacted by grabbing the bottom with both hands and tried to hold it up. But more debris went on top of the elevator and added some extra weight to it. In a matter of seconds, the creature lost the battle and he got pushed down to the bottom with more debris coming down after. Both Booker and Raf looked on in surprise as they approached the edge and looked down to see what just happened.

"What was that thing?" Booker said with complete disbelief.

Elizabeth patted her chest and was trying to keep her bearings together. "That was Songbird..." she said to them, "and it looks like you have angered him further."

"So that's what he is?" he asked, still shocked, "I huge giant bird? Does Comstock ever heard of a guard dog?"

Raf looked down and was surprised that there was a giant bird that is protecting Monument Island. just then, he felt something warming up on the top of his head. Peeking back up, his eyes were wide as he saw something that could be fatal. Turning back to Booker, he grabbed him by the collar and said out loud, "LOOK OUT!"

Both he and Booker bend back out of the way as flames came from above and bathed the entire lift in hot light. Both scurried back as the girl was completely startled by it. As soon as the flames dissipate, the lift was a little cooked as small pieces of fire was strewn across the girders and pillars of wood. Elizabeth took a deep breather and was shocked by what happened after. "What was that?!"

Raf looked up to the opened shaft and knew what it was. "My guess, Miko's fighting that thing."

Booker turned to him and was surprised. "Miko? You mean one of your teammates?" he asked him, "I don't see how she would be fighting that thing by herself. Even we can't stop him."

Raf turned to him and asked, "Remember what Jack said that she had her other form? Well that was her form."

"What?" he asked a little confused.

"I'll explain later," the super soldier said, "Right now, we have to get out of here before the two destroy this statue."

"Elevator's now out!" Elizabeth said as she approached the two, "How are we suppose to leave?"

Booker looked back at the empty shaft and spotted an emergency stairway on the other side that can only take them upwards. Seeing this, he said to them, "Looks like we're going up. This way!"

He immediately jumped off the edge and landed on the other side of the lift. Raf soon followed after him and then Elzabeth and she made a daring jump and landed on the other end safely. The three soon ran up the stairs one floor at a time, reaching the top.


Back up to Miko, she was successful with her plan and got out of the statue's inside, flying away from the statue and pleased with her doings. "Well, it's been fun," the Predacon said as she was about to leave, "but I have friends to find."

As she was going to leave, she could hear a loud shriek coming from inside the statue. Stopping her mid flight, she turned around to see where that came from. Looking around, she could see only nothing. Just then, she saw a bent being formed at the base of the statue and it was getting bigger. Looking on, she knew what it means and sighed deeply. "Does this bastard ever give up?" she said as she positioned herself to another fight.

As soon as she was ready, Songbird burst out of statue and soared straight to her with a look to kill. Seeing that, Miko soared down to him and was ready for the next round. Both had their fists tighten as they collided into each other with their fists banging on each other. That impact caused a shockwave around the perimeter as the glass on the buildings around them shattered and the statue started to sway back and forth.


Heading to the three, they were running up higher and higher as they were trying to reach whatever exit they can find. They then felt the shockwave as they lost their balance on the steps with the lights swaying and pieces of debris falling. The group managed to get up and kept on running as Elizabeth said, "We have to keep moving! Whoever your friend is, they're tearing the building apart!"

She turned to Raf, wondering what type of friend would do that. The super soldier shrugged it off and said to her, "That's Miko. She's a professional Wrecker."

The three made it up to the top as they encountered another airlock door. The girl quickly got to it as she was trying open it. But giving her physical condition, she wasn't strong enough to open it. Booker though got to the door as well and said to her, "Out of the way, let me try." Turning the wheel, he unlock it and pulled it open to let them all out. But they were officially outside as they could see two huge figures duking it out in the air, flying around and colliding to each other. Booker watched the fight and was now getting concerned about it. "What the hell are these two?"

Elizabeth looked at one of them and pointed it out. "The Songbird!" she said, "I know that shape well." she then spotted another creature she had never seen before and said, "But I have never seen something like that!"

Raf saw the other creature and knew what it was. "That's because she's part of my team. Her name is Miko."

Booker turned to him with a bit of shock and said, "You're kidding, right? That's Miko?! Last time I check, she wasn't that big! How…"

Raf turned to him and said, "I'll explain as soon as we get to safety."

To that, the three rushed up the bronze ramp as they were getting to the top. "Be careful Elizabeth!" Booker said as she was trying not to loose her balance.

When they made it to the top, Raf contacted Sari and said, "Captain, we're at the top of the statute and are ready for pickup. How soon can you be there?"

He waited for a response as he got and answer. "Very soon!" she said, "Standby for a few seconds. We'll be there shortly."

The three waited for the rest of the team to come. Soon enough, both Booker and Raf looked up to see a red wide gondola coming close to their position. Seeing that, Booker pointed up and said, "There's our ticket out of here!"


Back to the Miko, she was doing everything she can to put the bird down. With the many dives and impacts, it was starting to get very frustrating for her. She had to bring him down now while she still can. Flying high in the air, she dove straight down and was ready for another go. But then she wanted to attack with a different tactic. Bending her wings in, she flew down like a torpedo and speared Songbird like heavy duty train. The creature was shocked by this as Miko was going to plow him through the nearest buildings. The Songbird though made an escape by headbutting the girl many times until he was free from her. He then took the advantage and turned the tables by grabbing her by the waist and used her as a shield to cushion the blow. In a matter of seconds, the two smashed through a warehouse and the building imploded on itself, sending debris and dust everywhere. Thankfully, no one was around or inside of the building, but as the dust cleared, Songbird pinned a semi conscious Predacon on the remains of the warehouse and extended his arm up to finish her off.

As he was about to end her, he craned his head and notice something something in the distance. On the top of Monument Island's statute, a gondola was flying close by and was nearing the statue. Upon closer examination, he could see two people and Elizabeth standing there, waiting for the gondola to come. Realizing that she's about to make an escape, he let go of the Predacon and flew up to them, stopping them from taking the girl. Miko managed to recover from the hit and was confused by his sudden departure.

"Hey!" she said in a bit of annoyance, "Don't leave! We're just getting started!" When she looked up to him leaving, she noticed that he was heading straight to Monument Island, where the rest of the team is going to load up the woman. Seeing this, she said, "Oh no you don't." as she spread her wings and flew right after the bird as fast as she could.


Up on the top, the three were waiting as the Gondola was nearing their position. As they were standing by, Booker said, "All right, once they come by, we'll make a jump to that gondola and get out of here. I don't want to be get by that thing's temper."

Elizabeth quickly turned to him and told him, "And what, we make an escape? Songbird is my protector. He won't rest until he gets me back here safely."

Raf looked to her quizzically and said, "He's your protector? He certainly doesn't like you going out and about that's for sure."

"Protector or not," Booker finished as he reloaded his machine gun, "he's not going to get to you. I can assure you of that."

As soon as he said that, he heard a voice from a distance. "Hey there!" They all turned to see Sari and Jack on the Gondola with the techno organic teen waving to them. "Hang in there! We'll be with you soon!"

Booker nodded as he told to others, "Get ready to make a jump as soon as they're close."

Just as soon as he said that, they heard a shriek from below. Elizabeth heard it and backed away, mumbling, "No, no, no… He's coming back… He's coming back…"

Both Booker and Raf looked down to see the creature. That's when they saw Songbird flying right up to them, ready to kill them all in one swipe. Fearing the worse, he looked to the two on the ship and said, "Better hurry! This thing's already getting here!"

Sari nodded as she turned to the metal pilot and said, "Get us as close as you can!"

The captain turned to the girl and said to her, "I'm afraid I can't. The structure is unstable. Going near it would harm the patrons if it starts to fall apart."

Sari simply stared him down and said to him, "The only patrons here are us and our friends are on the top of the statue waiting for us. Get us a close as you can or we're going to loose some of those patrons over there!"

The captain turned his metal body two see three individuals that were stranded on the top. Looking on, he made his decision and said, "Understood. Preparing to dock."

The gondola moved forward as it was getting near to them. But it would be too late as the threat from below was getting nearer.


Songbird was flying high as he was just about to get to the top and take out the gondola to prevent the escape. What he didn't know was that Miko was flying after him and she was close to him. Looking on, she could tell that he was reaching for the gondola, where Jack and Sari were standing. Noticing this, she reacted and flew to him faster. Once she was close to him, she extended her clawed hand and grabbed him by the foot. The creature felt that and looked down to see the Predacon, struggling to break free. Miko smirked with her muzzle and asked him, "Going somewhere buddy?"

The creature shrieked at her and wanted to end her now. Miko just yawned and decided to finish this fight completely. Using her strength, she twisted her body around and brought the Songbird for a ride. After a quick spin, she let go of him and threw him right to the base of the statue. He got impacted hard by it and groaned a little. He was about to recover and got back to the fight, the Predacon came straight down and was going to get a final blow of her own. "Nighty night!" she said as she tightened her fist and gave the creature a heavy blow. Unfortunately, that blow cracked the metal alloy around the bird as it spread all over the statue, reaching the top.


The gondola was nearing the top of the statue's head as the three were about ready to board. Booker turned to the two and said, "All right, we're just about ready to leave. When the gondola is in position, we'll jump on three." The two nodded as they waited for their ride to get close.

The ship got near as Sari told them, "All right! This is as close as get. The captain here is a little worried about the unsustainability of the statue."

As they made a stop, the detective said, "Okay, on three. One. Two."

Before Booker could finish with three, the structure started to shake violently. All three of them tumbled down to the floor and were a little off. Sari saw this and was getting scared. "Guys!" she screamed as the statue started to break apart. Sensing this, the gondola captain said, "Changing course." and turned to fly away. The three tried to get up, but gravity took hold as they flew off the statue and were falling through the sky. Sari saw them falling and screamed out loud, "NO!"


Back on the ground floor, Miko finished with her fight and watched Songbird go through the metal skin and was out completely. Flying away, she laughed it off and said, "Nice playing with you."

"NO!"

Miko could hear Sari's voice scream out loud. Looking up, she could see three little dots coming off the statue's head and knew they were her friends and the girl. Knowing they need help, she flew up to them and come to their rescue.

Up in the sky, Raf, Booker, and Elizabeth were falling after they got off the statue unexpectedly. Elizabeth was screaming as Booker calmed her, grabbing her by the hand. "Hang on!" he said as he was looking for a nearby Skyline to get them to safety. Raf was also falling, but he was about to use his jetpack to fly. But as they were trying to get out of this predicament, something big swooshed by and they disappeared from the sky. Everyone closed their eyes and thought they hit something. Slowly opening their eyes, they noticed that they were on top of something moving. Something big… The three looked down and noticed that it was a purple and pink metal armor thing with pink wings.

Elizabeth looked to this and was confused. "What are we sitting on?" she asked in a confused tone.

As soon as she asked it, they heard a voice from close by. "Welcome to Air Predacon." said the voice, "Please fasten your seatbelts and put your seats back and tray tables in the upright position."

Raf heard that voice and could tell who it is. "Miko?" he asked, "Is that you? You're a breath of fresh air."

Booker got up and was surprised by this sudden arrival. "So, this is your other form." he told her, "Should've warn me of something like that."

Miko laughed it off and said, "You know me Book, I tend to come with many surprises."

The Private Investigator was seething by that nickname. "It's BOOKER! Boo-ker. Not Book. Got it?"

But Miko started to like calling him that and said, "Whatever makes you happy, Book."

The detective groaned about it and was starting to give up. Just then, Elizabeth started to looked at something from the distance and was shocked to see it. "My home…" she said in shock. Both DeWitt and Raf turned to her and wondered what she was looking at. What they saw surprised them the most. They could see Monument Island in the distance now, but it was damaged beyond repair. That last impact, caused the entire statue to crack all over the place as it broke apart in the middle and a bit of it started to detach, starting with the head. The head itself fell to a nearby bridge and smashed through part of it before falling to the ground below. The three watched on as the statue was breaking apart from the attack between Miko and the Songbird.

Raf watched on and thought of one thing. "And now our situation gets much worse." was all he said. He then heard the voice of his captain on his ear piece as it sounded like it was in a panic.

"Raf? Raf?! Do you read? Is everything okay?"

Knowing that his leader was getting nervous, he contacted her.

"We're fine, captain. Miko managed to get to us before we fell to the ground. Though I was planning on using my jetpack, I'm glad she came to save us. How about you? Did you manage to get out of there before the place falls?"

"Yes Raf, we've managed to get out of there before the statue crumbled. Of course the pilot here did warn that we have to evacuate. But at least everyone managed to get out of there in time. What about that Songbird? Is that thing long gone?"

Raf nodded and said to her, "Miko did take him out. No way he would survive his onslaught."

Suddenly, they could hear an incredibly loud shriek from within the statue as everyone looked on to see what it was. Just then, Songbird popped out of the hole of a still deteriorating statue and was high enough to block the sun and spread his wings wide, almost like that of a bat signal. Everyone watched on in shock as Raf recorrected himself. "Though I could be wrong on that." he said to his superior.

Miko looked back with her one glowing optic and saw the creature swooping down and going after the Predacon. "You've got to be fragging kidding me! I put him out of his misery and he's still breathing. What type of bastard is he?"

Booker looked on and came up with his own answer, "The kind that won't get away. Raf and I will slow it down. Think you can loose him?"

The hybrid looked to the detective and said, "Do you know who you're talking to, Book? I'm a natural in escapes."

DeWitt then turned to Elizabeth and said to her, "Keep your head down. This is going to get a little ugly."

To that, the girl bend down and her head to her chest, holding on to one of the Predacon's scales. Both Booker and Raf then were side by side as they loaded up with machine guns for battle. "All right, get ready." DeWitt said to him, "It's not going to be a cakewalk."

The super soldier nodded as he took aim and the two were ready to fire. Bullets started to spew at the bird, but it was of little use as he was unharmed by the projectiles. As they are firing, Miko was using her technique to keep Songbird away from her. She came around two floating buildings with a gap wide enough to go through and told everyone to, "Hang on!" To that, she twisted her body to a 180 angle and slid through the buildings with ease as the others held tightly on her back. Songbird did the same as he slipped through the buildings and went back to the assault. Miko then came across a bridge and flew through the middle with the creature soon following. Then she flew low and over a street of pedestrians as they saw the Predacon and ran for their lives in a panicked state. Yet no matter what she did, it wasn't much as Songbird was still in pursuit. Getting aggravated, she had to come up with a different method. Looking at the bottoms of the floating buildings, she could see the contraptions filled with propellers, balloons, and rockets keeping the establishments afloat. Seeing this, she had an idea and told the others, "I'm going to do something very stupid. I need you all to trust me."

Booker looked back to her after refreshing a new clip. "And exactly what are you going to doooooooooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO?!" His question was interrupted abruptly as Miko dived down and was underneath one of the buildings with Songbrid still on her tail. With her quick maneuvers, she flew past the propellers, balloons, and rockets, hoping that the enemy would stop her. But it was of no use as he too avoided the obstacles with his unique styles of twists and turns. Miko looked back while flying away and was getting annoyed by his pursuit. Getting out of the bottom section, she decided to fly up and gain the advantage in the air. "Going up!" she said as she glided upwards and her body was near the building. Booker, Raf, and Elizabeth held on to the spiky spine and was feeling the strong velocity of her moves. Songbird saw her go up and did the same, flying upwards and nearly missing the building by inches. Once they were up in the air, Booker and Raf stood up and went back to shooting at the creature with their weapons. Still it had little effect as it did nothing but leave a few dents.

Elizabeth looked at this didn't like where this was going. Turning to the two, she said to them, "That's only making him angry!"

"He's already angry!" Booker said without looking at the girl.

As the chase was going on, Raf received a call coming from his earpiece.

"Raf, this is Sari!" the captain stated, "What's the situation?"

Raf heard that and responded about the mission. "Very dire, captain. We can't shake Songbird and we hit him with everything we got. We have to leave while we have a chance. Tell me you're close by."

"We're pretty much over you even as we speak." she said back, "Have Miko drop you off so she can stall the creature longer."

Raf heard that and looked down, noticing the gondola Sari and Jack are on is beneath the Predacon. Turns out, they saw them leaving and went after them as well, with a little persuasion from the metal captain piloting the craft. Knowing that they got their ride, he turned to Miko and said, "The gondola is beneath us! Think you can get us on there while you slow that thing down?"

Miko peered her optics down to see the gondola he was referring to and came up with a great idea. "I got this one." she said, "But if I'm going to drop you off, I'm going to have to do it my way."

Raf raised an eyebrow and was curious as to what she was planning. "And what are you planning on- Whoa!"

Miko turned on a dime and was upside down while the others weren't prepared for that. They were immediately dangling until they lost their holding and fell on top of the gondola. Feeling a little dazed, they looked up to see the Miko twisting to her proper place and flew straight to the Songbird. Booker dusted himself off and and looked to the hybrid, screaming, "Give us a little warning next time!"


Miko then soared straight to the creature and was ready for another attack. Almost immediately, she tackled him and flew with him in the air before rocketing back down to one of the floating town squares. Heading to the middle, she slammed him at the center as civilians started to scramble from them, ready to finish him off. Songbird though quickly made an instant recovery and grabbed her wrist to twist her body and threw her to one of the buildings. She hit the building on impact as shattered glass and bricks rained down on her while the occupants living there got a little rocked. Landing on one knee, she looked up to him and was seething. "That hurt…" she said as she sharpened her claws on the building she collided with and flexed them to show off how razor cut they are. "Let me return the favor!"

Songbird noticed her do that and sharpened his own knuckle spikes to even the playing field. The two walked around the square, laying eyes on each other, as they soon charged in and fought once more.


On the gondola, Elizabeth slowly recovered and looked around to see where she was this time. Turns out, she was on a floating vessel with Booker, Raf, and two unknown individuals. One is a male with black and gray armor from head to toe, the other a female with yellow and baige armor and a helmet with strange triangles on the top of her head. Both of which had their masks covering their faces and have glowing blue eyes.

Booker approached her and asked, "You're all right?"

The girl rubbed the back of her head and said in a confusing manner, "Yes, I'm fine. That thing of yours certainly know how to drop us off. Now can you please explain to me what's going on? Where we're going?" She then turned to the two strangers and asked about them. "And who are these two?"

Sari then approached the girl and said to her, "Let's just say that we're here to help you leave the city." She then turned to DeWitt and said to him, "I assume this is the girl you're talking about, right Booker?"

The detective turned to her and answered, "Indeed she is. And you can imagine what happened in that building and what we have to go through."

Jack though approached the two and said, "Great! Now that we have her, can we get out of here before that huge bird comes back?"

Sari turned to her student and responded. "Of course, my Gekusei. Let's make our leave." She then rushed to the metal captain piloting the Gondola and said to it, "Get us out of Columbia! Now!"

The animatronic though turned to her and said, "Sorry, but all gondolas are to remain within the city limits. Only airships are permitted to leave the city. It is not allowed to fly more than a mile beyond Columbia. If this vessel violates any of these rules, it will commence an emergency shut down, leaving it temporarily out of commission."

Sari listened in and was upset about this sudden development. "Great…" she said to herself, "So much for getting out of here. Now what do we do?"

Booker heard that too and didn't like this at all. With Songbird on their tails, it's not going to be easy. So he came up with a contingency plan. "We make an emergency landing somewhere and lay low until he can't find us." he stated his plan, "Then we have to find an alternate transportation in this city."

Jack looked around and spotted something in the distance. "What about that over there?" he said pointing to it.

The group turned to his direction and spotted what looks like a floating beach like island with one of the signs on it that says, 'Battleship Bay'. Satisfied, Sari nodded and said, "That looks like the perfect landing spot." She then turned to the captain and demanded, "Take us to Battleship Bay."

The metal pilot nodded and said, "Roger that. Next stop, Battleship Bay." he then turned and changed course to the beach close by.


Back to Miko, she was holding her own as she and the Songbird were duking it out at the town square while people were standing back, fearful with the bout.

Pound for pound, they clashed as their sharp claws struck each other, but none didn't make a serious mark. Because of this, they were pretty much an even stalemate. Both of them jump back after they hit at the same time and were holding their own as Miko was seething with smoke coming out of her muzzle.

"I. HAVE. HAD IT. WITH YOU!" She yelled. Her furnace glowed white-hot with rage, and opening her jaws, she breathed flames point-blank onto his face. With little time to avoid, Songbird took the full force of the blast by using one of his wings to protect him like a sheild. He let loose with an ear - piercing scream once the blast hit him and fell to his knees with wings folded.

The leathery texture of Songbird's wing was a little burned as the metal mechanism that operates the wing was melted, making the wing temporarily immobile. Bits of flames did hit his face, however, as hot beads of shining amalgam dripped around his his right eye. He opened up his wings and stared at her, half in fear, half in hate. But that was a mistake as the Predacon rushed right to him

"'Night, Tweety," she said, and winding up, swung and planted a fist into the charred part of his face. It cratered, and Songbird collapsed with the glass of his already damaged eye cracking on the side.

With the battle over, Miko approached the downed bird and was about ready to end this once and for all. Placing her clawed foot on the bird's neck, she flexed her hand and said, "Gotta say, it's been nice fighting with you." She raised her claw and was ready to behead the creature. Before she could get a chance in ending it all, she felt a few bullet shots on her back and looked down to see shot shot her. What she saw were a few cops holding their ground with their pistols out. Knowing what they did, she let go of the bird and bent her neck down to get into eye level with them. "Really? You think those little peashooters can stop me? You guys really don't know what you're up against."

The cops got a little hesitant and soon realized that they anger her a bit. That is when Miko took a deep breath and roared right at them, giving them and threatening warning. With no other option left, they're next course of action is to run away and scattered, screaming, "Monster! Monster!"

Miko looked at them leaving and gave out quite a chuckle out of it. "Yeah, you better run!" she said as she got back to where she started. What she didn't know was that little distraction gave a certain bird time to recover. For when she turned about, she was introduced by a headbut of the Songbird, leaving her in a daze. Seeing her woozy, the Songbird flew up and grabbed the her by the shoulders, flying her high up and away from the civilians. Once high enough, he was looking for something to punish her. That's when he spotted a building that was under construction and it looked abandoned due to Columbia's holiday. Finding something useful, he turned to that direction and rocketed down to the building like a torpedo while holding on to Miko. As soon as he approached the building, he smashed through it, causing bricks, girders, and concrete scattering about and creating a plume of smoke. Once the smoke cleared, Songbird stood proud and shrieked in victory while the Predacon was buried under all that rubble.

Soon as that victory was over, he looked around to find where the girl was located. That was when he spotted the very gondola that was near the statue and it had the girl on it along with the intruders that took her. Shrieking at them, he spread his wings and flew right to his next targets with the team oblivious of him coming.


Back to the team, they were nearing the Battleship Bay area. As they were reaching their goal, they all heard a screech as Elizabeth knew what it was. "Oh no…" she said with a bit of worry, "Songbird is coming back!"

The others looked to her and looked to the sky to find this threat. That's when they saw the creature flying towards them and was moving fast. Booker looked to this and said, "Shit! Seems like your friend didn't succeed in taking this thing down. We have to leave right now!"

Sari nodded as she approached the pilot and demanded, "Drop us off!"

The captain though shook his head and said, "Sorry, but I need to guide this gondola to a nearby station. All other landing sites are restricted."

"We got a huge metal bird approaching us!" the Skystriker captain yelled to him, "We need to get off this gondola right now!"

"Please wait and don't leave the transport until we reach a gondola station." the pilot instructed, "Your safety is our prime concern."

Booker looked back to the animatronic and said outloud, "Our prime concern? Hate to break it to you, but we have a huge bird trying to kill us! How is that safe?!"

"The Songbird is the protector of Columbia. He would not harm any-"

Before he could finish with what he's saying, he got bombarded with bullets in the head from Booker's machine gun. The others were taken back by that and was shocked by it all.

Raf was the first was surprised by it and said, "Are you crazy! We need him to get us around Columbia!"

Booker looked to the super soldier and said to him, "Option is out of the window, pal. If we are to get out of this, we have to survive of our own. Arm up and prepare for battle! Get behind the girl and protect her!"

Knowing that there's no other choice, the entire team got behind the girl and got their weapons and blasters out and pointed to the bird that was getting closer. Once everyone is battle ready, Booker got his machine gun out and said to them, "Ready? Fire!"

Immediately, the group started to fire at the creature as blasters and bullet fire reached him. And with some of the projectiles connecting, he wasn't harmed in anyway possible as he was getting closer to the gondola.


Back at the ruin remains of the construction site, it was very quiet as there wasn't any movement. Just then, a glowing flash came from beneath the rubble and a lone figure came of mess. That person was in fact Miko as she changed back to her Predacon/human hybrid mode, rubbing the back of her spiked helm and was in a bit of pain.

"Ow… My head…" she said feeling the throbbiness in her processor, "Note to self, never turn your back on a dangerous creature like him. Who would've thought Tweety can pack a wallop."

Getting her senses back, she looked around to see where the Songbird got too. That's when she saw him flying far from her. But that's not the worse part. What's worse is that the creature was heading straight to the gondola her team was on. Seeing this, she yelled, "Oh no!" before spreading her wings and took off, flying as fast as she could.


The group kept shooting at the Songbird with all at their disposal, but nothing seem to work. The bullets and energy projectiles deflected on the creature's body armor as he kept flying straight towards them and avoiding some of the projectiles in the process. As they were protecting girl, Jack looked on and said, "It's not working! We hit him with everything we got and it's still heading towards us! Where's Miko when you need her the most?"

Booker just ignored him and told him to keep firing. "Continue shooting! We have to by long enough time until we come up with an alternate plan."

As he said that, Raf thought of something and turned to Elizabeth and ask for a favor. "You know Songbird more than any of us." he said to her, "Can you tell him to stop fighting us and say that we're friends?"

The girl look to him and said honestly, "Wish I could, but I can't. Songbird is sort of my protector. Even if I say your my friends, he still think you're a threat."

Booker turned to her and didn't like the sound of it. "Well, that's just perfect!" he said in despair as he kept on firing at the creature.

The Songbird kept on avoiding the projectiles left and right and was waiting for the right moment to strike. Seeing as though now is the time to finish this, he flew high in the air and made an immediate shriek. The others looked on and was confused by what he was doing.

"Is he retreating?" asked Jack.

As soon as he said that question, the Songbird flew high enough that he was blocking the sun and then closed his wings together to make a heavy dive right at the group. Sari looked to this and said immediately, "No my Gekusei, he's preparing to deliver the final blow. Everybody jump!"

As soon as she said that, everyone ran to the edge in different directions and jumped off the gondola, in slow motion, the Songbird came crashing through the gondola as pieces were scattered all over the place, Once the team got off, Jack and Sari deployed their rocket boosters on their feet to fly in the air, Raf grabbed Elizabeth by the hand and activated his jetpack to fly to safety, and Booker got his Skyhook to try and latch onto a crane or a skyline. But before he could even do that, one of the metal debris hit him hard on the back of the head and knocked him out, causing him to fall limply to the ground. Sari saw this and yelled, "BOOKER!" before he kept falling.

DeWitt soon realized that he was knocked out and was falling to wherever gravity is taking him. Thankfully, his blurred vision saw a vast ocean below him and he made a huge splash. Underwater, his body twisted by itself and looked up to the surface. Just as he thought he was in the clear, something bigger splashed in and grabbed him with a huge hand. That was in fact Songbird as he looked at him with red eyes and was ready to end him. But before he could kill him, something went wrong as Songbird cringed in pain while a black like substance seeped out of him. He let go of Booker to hold onto his sides, but tried to reach him again, only to feel the pain worsening. He swam down to him quickly and made an immediate grab at him, Booker could see his own reflection on the glass eye that Miko punched as it started to crack right in front of him. Feeling the unbearable pain, Songbird decided to abort immediately as he closed his eyes in pain and let him go once again, flying out of the water. As soon as he left, the last thing the detective saw before losing consciousness is a yellow glow and someone with pigtail hair diving into the water to reach him. And then everything went dark…


That ends another exciting chapter. Don't worry, Booker isn't dead. Have the keep to the game with the Skystrikers mixed in. Got to say, I think FictionFan and I did a really good job in making Songbird more intimidating then what they did to him in the game. Makes you feel like he wants to protect Elizabeth by any means necessary. I'll have to think of more Songbird fight scenes as the story progresses, until then, there's more chapters ahead. Including the next one where the team has to commandeer a private airship to leave the city, only with multiple obstacles in their way. And a special surprise that no one would see coming. Stay tune to see what I mean. Please Review.