A.N- Ohhhhhh woooowwwww. I'm so sorry for leaving you all hanging! I beg forgiveness! Home has been so hectic lately and then there was Hurricane Sandy, boy that was terrible! But I'm back now and sadly this chapter is a shortie but I'm working on the next, never fear! I would call this a filler chapter to get caught up to the events I want, if anything.
Again, so sorry and if you're reading virtual cookie for you!
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Mikaela shivered from the sheer freezing air biting into her skin.
She glanced to her left, Will still knocked out cold from the force of the air bag deploying, a small gash leaking crimson blood over the bag's white cover. As the minutes go by she watches as the sickly red dries to a dark auburn, then finally a deep brown only to be resurfaced with fresh red liquid.
She hugged her thin jacket to her chest, trying desperately to keep warm in the cold air of the mid Troposphere. The jeep and swayed and she hurried to clasp her seat belt to her body as the vehicle lurches left from its tether.
All she could hear was the gentle flow of flowing air pierced by the shrieking whine of the Decepticon's engines spinning overhead. It had to be a Decepticon, Mikaela just knew it. Although she had yet to see the insignia anywhere on the ship's vast hull, her mind portraying it everywhere it would be logical to place a large, devil-like logo.
Mikaela stopped to think for a moment. 'What do they want? We haven't done anything wrong-'. She paused and looked over to Will's military uniform and the crest stitched proudly on the shoulder. 'Well, I haven't done anything wrong...have I?'
'What's going to happen to us?'
A groan pulled her from her from her worrying. She gasped and leaned over to gently touch the Major's arm. "Will? Are you alright? Will?" Brown eyes blinked swiftly only to be scrunched tightly shut against the onslaught of sunset light. He slowly, weakly, brought his hand up to his face and leaned back into the padded driver's seat.
He moaned in pain as he felt along the clean slice tearing from his right ear to just above the temple, drawing it back to stare at the shining colour staining his hand. Surprisingly, he didn't panic. Or scream. Or have any reaction at all, really.
He just sat there, still as a marble statue.
Mikaela pushed forward, applying a bit more pressure to his arm, trying to draw his gaze. "Will? It's me Mikaela! Can you hear me?" He looked around for a moment, trying to locate the unclear noise and lands on her hand touching his arm.
Old battle training forced him to flinch back, only to relax once his eyes trailed up to a recognizable face.
"Mmmmnnnn... 'kaela? Where-"He paused, staring through the broken window on Mikaela's side into the darkening expanse of the dusk sky. He turned to look out his window, quickly moving back once eying the solid ground thousands of feet below.
"I-I feel..." He couldn't finish his sentence before drawing a large, thin breath of air into his straining lungs. He coughed roughly, body rattling from the force of his heaves. All the while Mikaela rubbed his back to sooth the pain, not knowing how to help.
When the bout of choking subsided, Will again raised his head and stared out the shattered windshield. Or what was left of it.
The scenery changed, fading from green, to light brown and finally aquamarine as the ground below was replaced with water.
"Mikaela, where are we? What's going on?" he asked, confused to the point of speeding his heart rate up a considerable amount.
Mikaela shook her head. She couldn't answer that. She didn't know what was real and what was her imagination. The collision had tossed her unconscious too, she just happened to wake up first.
"Quiet fleshbags. Be silent." They jumped, startled by a loud, deep and clearly aggravated growl.
"Where-?" Lennox started.
"I said QUIET! Or are you organic minds to inferior to understand a basic demand?"
They both fell silent, not wanting to anger the only thing preventing them from becoming no more than a debris riding the waves far below.
"Besides-"the voice continued with venom lacing his tone "we're here. Lucky you." Astrotrain chuckled evilly at the expressions of confusion, surprise and more than a little fear marring their scratched faces. He banked hard, harder than necessary and cackled as the terrified humans tussled about in their metal confinement.
Sending a signal to the reception tower protruding from the waters below, Astrotrain's flaps extended and he slowed for an approach.
A second, shorter tower rose from the waters. Peering into the darkly tinted glass at the top of the observation tower, the two humans strained to see the silhouette of a transformer standing amongst display screens and computers. The mech on duty in the tower glanced outside and looked the monitor in front of him. Symbols scrolled across the screen before he nodded to himself and pulled a large lever protruding from the wall beside his station.
A deep sound, like the horn from a battleship, resonated from speakers on the tower. Waves flowed against the current and began to curdle at the bases of the twin towers, bringing air down into the water and pushing large white waves outward.
The noise repeats and Mikaela stared in utter shock as an immense dark shape rose from the depths of the ocean. The exterior shell of the ship was interlocked and insect-like, no doubt stronger than any human made aircraft in existence. Water streams from the smooth, black hull in rivers and around the muzzles of missile launchers and the largest cannons Major Lennox had ever seen in his life.
As the belly of the ship breached the waters, tentacles writhed and coiled in the cool air like snakes with minds of their own.
Mikaela and Will were tossed violently backward when Astrotrain advanced forward into the ship through an open panel in the side plating. All around, strange mechs with red optics were mulling around, moving in and out of the landing bay. None looked up to greet the shuttle-former, but instead moved out of his way to avoid being pushed off a ledge and into the unforgiving ocean.
"Welcome insects, to the Nemesis." The cable released.
Zosimo laughed heartily at the look of shock streaming across the Prime's uncovered optics. Zosimo had hoped that in his surprise the larger mech would snap back his battle mask and let the black Decepticon see his full reaction. It was disappointing when Optimus did not, but that didn't take away from the cruel satisfaction Zosimo saw when he announced the Prime's name, a closely guarded and private secret.
The humans soldiers at their feet looked at each other in confusion, never having heard of an Autobot named Orion. Ironhide only growled in reaction, and directed a sharp "Shut up" in Zosimo's direction.
Zosimo chuckled and eyed Optimus up and down, sizing up the newcomer. He giggled to himself, the humans giving him looks questioning insanity.
"Why Orion, you seem... shorter than the last time I saw you. Have you lost weight?"
Optimus narrowed his icy optics and dug his blade harder against the infiltrator's neck cables. The others tensed when Zosimo let out a thin pained hiss, wincing. He then regained his smirk.
"What's wrong Prime? Ravage got your glossa?"
In a movement faster than Zosimo anticipated Optimus shot his free servo out and closed it around his bleeding neck. The enraged prime then shifted his weight to slam and hold the wriggling Panamera to the wall, but let up the pressure a bit when he felt a biting point pressed against an energon line in his side.
The two were in a stalemate. If Optimus squeezed, he could crush the neural cables of his captive but not fast enough to prevent the criminal from slicing vital cables and tubes with the military dagger in his grip. And if Zosimo was to cut, the humans and Autobot weapons specialist would shoot him down faster than he could shutter his optics and wonder where all the energon came from.
"Well," Zosimo started "make your choice. What will it be, cut out your tubing or crush my sensors? Make your choice before I make mine, if you please. I'm sure you'll like yours much better."
Optimus hadn't said a word during the whole exchange, and wasn't about to start speaking then. Instead he looked back to where Jazz had his servos pressed desperately to the flowing wound on Prowl's neck, and Ironhide guarding over them with his large cannons pointed at the black mech's spark chamber.
He was drawn back to his captive by the sound and feel of him clearing his intake. Optimus scowled at the playful glint in ruby optics that by all rights should not be there. "Well?"
Optimus felt along the other's neck until he felt a wire and pinched it between his fingertips. Zosimo shuddered at the touch and stiffened when the flame painted truck tugged on a neural wire. Optimus leaned a bit closer and Zosimo responded by leaning back into the wall, as if expecting it to swallow him whole.
Optimus drew his mask back from his face and the smaller mech whined when he tugged harder on the wire in his grip.
"I choose neither." Zosimo felt the wire disconnect with a sharp yank and his world was plunged into darkness, feeling something from within roar with rage before he was engulfed by silence.
