Hello all! Yes, I know I haven't added any new chapters on this story in a while, but thanks to my recent writer's block release, (and obviously the approach of the 3rd Transformers movie) I've managed to rustle up a new chapter for 2 of my existing stories, not only that, but even a brand-new oneshot Featuring Prowl and Starscream. Please feel free to check those out if you so desire. You know how fanfiction is rarely known or mentioned in the world outside of cyberspace? Well, Nancy (the new temp at my job) caught me writing halfway through this story when she asked me what I was doing, since our job doesn't require us to ever to use Microsoft Word. I told her I was a part-time fanfic writer and she wanted to inquire more. So I let her use the internet on my phone to read the chapters of this story, "Camille Meets the Transformers" and now she's hooked! =) It's nice to hear AND see her tell me that I'm a good writer, in person. You know what else is good? My Beta reader! And she's not just good, she's great! Thanks for the beta read, iratepirate!
The Nightmare
Sam rolled restlessly over in his bed. A nightmare had clearly taken control of his subconscious, causing him to sweat and mumble slightly. He wasn't sure if the place he was at even existed. All that he knew was that Camille was there too, and she was in danger. He couldn't see her, but he knew she was close because he could hear her voice…calling for help.
"I'm over here! Follow my voice!" Sam yelled back.
It was as if she couldn't hear him. Because instead of answering back, she continued to wail for him to come and find her. Why couldn't she come when he replied? Was she injured? The whine in her call made him think that she only had moments. He was certain something was going to happen, but what?
As he searched the enormous, open air, steaming pipe-infested factory for her whereabouts, he could feel the presence of something following his every move mockingly, only to disappear from sight the moment he turned around. A shadow of a mechanical, triangular-shaped bipedal creature flicked in and out of Sam's view. Its evil chuckle reverberated off the mass of hollow pipes, making it echo hauntingly.
Then out of nowhere, a scream. Her scream.
It was guttural and straining, like a banshee having its hair ripped out. When the screaming finally subsided, his eyes shot open like bullets. He was back in his bed, panting furiously. Once he realized he was back, his hand dove for his cell phone next to the bed. His first swat managed to knock it off the nightstand, and his second swipe accidentally flicked it under the bed. Desperately reaching for it, his body unexpectedly somersaulted off his bed, slamming his spine into the hardwood floor. He was worried the sound would wake his parents, so he waited for one of them to ask if he was alright. When the question never came, he hastily started to dial Camille.
The time was about 2:40am, and Camille was up late watching all the girly movies that Sam preferred not to watch with her. As she anticipated the werewolf boy approaching the heroine for a kiss…the phone in the movie and her cell phone both rang at the same time, startling her. She picked up on the first ring and spoke.
"Hello?"
"CAMILLE! ARE YOU OKAY?" Sam blurted out. Camille jumped at his urgency.
"Lower the decibels Sam! I'm fine! What's with the hysterics?"
He instantly calmed down at the sound of her voice. "I just wanted to make sure you were safe."
"Of course I am! Did you forget there's a Blue Corvette parked in front of my house with enough firepower to blast right through a Deception?"
His fatigue started to set in and he could feel sleep calling him back to bed.
"Okay then, I'll uh…see you tomorrow, Camille. G'nite."
"Nite," she replied, and paused a sec before hanging up. "He must have had a bad dream…" she thought to herself, then became engrossed in her movie once more.
The following day, the pair had planned to ride bikes in Sam's neighborhood in the late afternoon. Half his area was clean and residential, while the other half was somewhat run down and industrial. They stuck to familiar boulevards, till some street construction forced them to detour. Soon they were taking roads never traversed by them before.
"Sam? I think we should head back," Camille suggested nervously, as the dangerous-looking neighborhood patrons that were sitting in lawn chairs got up slowly and followed their presence with angry eyes.
Sam agreed. "I concur. It feels like we're in enemy territory. Let's stop for a minute and use your phone's GPS to find our way back."
Once they were a safe distance away, Camille fiddled with her phone's GPS feature. She punched in Sam's address and pressed 'search'. Soon the screen brought up where they were and how far they had strayed. But before she could closely scrutinize their exact location, the screen unexpectedly went blank…but quickly returned.
"What the heck? All the street names disappeared!" Sam noticed while looking over her shoulder.
"Well at least the path and destination arrow are still there," she noted. "Let's follow it."
Soon the two found themselves at the edge of town, just as the last rays of the sun disappeared from the sky. The blue arrow was almost upon their destination when the phone finally spoke.
"You have arrived."
Their destination was not the Witwicky household, but an old, open air factory, still in use. Something about the place brought a feeling of dread to Sam, but he couldn't figure out why.
Camille stared perplexed at the factory. "This is SO not your house, Sam. I think someone's been tampering with my phone."
"You don't know how right you are, fleshling," a metallic voice said from the shadows, followed by a distant, cackling laugh.
Recognizing the voice almost immediately, Camille looked behind her to try and identify the face of their intruder, but when she didn't see him, she pushed through the 'conveniently opened' fenced gate and ran onto the factory's premises.
Sam was looking around too and when his eyes returned to the spot where Camille was standing, all he saw was her abandoned bike and the fence of the factory hanging open, swaying slightly.
"CAMILLE! Come back!" He shouted, dropped his bike then followed in after her.
Once inside, the factory surroundings started to feel familiar to him. It was then that he finally realized it. He was in the same factory that was in his dream! And if his memory served him correctly, he knew exactly what was going to happen next.
Out of the blue, there was a call for help.
It was Camille.
She had been running down an iron flight of stairs when the cuff of her pants snagged a very sharp metal object near its bottom. She tried to remove it herself, and was almost free of it when she saw the object was not part of the staircase but indeed a finger, a sharp, curled claw that belonged to the dreaded Decepticon, Starscream, who was lying on his side, hoping to appear like he was part of the factory and fool her.
A deep robotic growl and a flash of his devilish red optics brought about a fear in Camille that she had only experienced on a few other occasions. To see his crimson eyes upon her once again, without the aid of her Autobot guardian in sight, caused her to scream, a scream identical to the one heard in Sam's dream.
Starscream swiftly wrenched his claws together, gripping her tightly. The metal rubbed painfully against her bones, causing her discomfort. She whined in pain. Her captor could only taunt at his good fortune.
"You are finally mine. I've waited solar cycles for my chance to capture you once more."
"Saaaam!" She screamed, hoping to clue him in on where she was at.
"Your puny fleshling companion is lost amongst the labyrinths of this place; he'll never find you in time."
"I wouldn't bet on that, Decepticreep!"
Sam's voice came from above, causing the two below to look upward. From his vantage point, Sam pushed over a heavy, square-shaped, fire-proof safe that landed heavily on Starscream's head.
The impact was so strong it knocked out the control of his motor functions and he fell to the ground with a deafening crash.
Luckily, Camille wasn't hurt during the fall. She pushed hard on his fingers to loosen his grip on her, but even though they were unmoving, Starscream's appendages were as heavy as could be since they were made of metal.
"Sam! Help me out of here!" She called.
He hurried down to help wrench her from the hand of the temporarily immobilized Second-in-Command of the Decepticons. Once free, he helped her up and they ran hand in hand towards the exit. When they were about halfway, a robotic roar echoed throughout the factory.
"Ah oh. He must've come back to his senses already! That was quick!" Sam deducted.
"Well let's not stick around to find out!" She shouted, now the front runner, pulling him along.
They reached the front doors and sprinted outside, but only ran a few steps before the body of Starscream came crashing down and slammed into the cement in front of them, leaving a deep crater.
Camille gasped and wrapped her arms around Sam for protection. They looked hopelessly into the red optics of their undertaker as his left arm transformed into a missile launcher. He then pointed it at them.
"Farewell, puny flesh creatures." His missile launcher hummed and whirred as it powered up, and the two humans could do nothing but wait for the weapon to fire.
There was a sound of a blast, but it didn't come from Starscream's arsenal, it came from behind him. A laser shot had purposely grazed him on the side of the head, as a warning. He wheeled around and was surprised to see two Autobots standing before him. It was Bumblebee and Tracks…Sam and Camille's guardians. The two of them stood a few feet from each other, both poised with weapons drawn.
"Game's over, Starscream. Give it up." Tracks warned.
Starscream thinned his optics and cursed in Cybertronian. He knew he was outnumbered, and at such close range, a well-placed laser shot would be fatal. He knew a tactical retreat was in order, but he was furious at the fact that he was so close to his goal. But when it came to destroying his prey or being destroyed, his existence easily won that argument.
With lightning speed, he transformed into his jet mode and hurried away, but not before taking a barrage of laser fire up his tailpipe from the two Autobots below.
"Ha! That'll teach that metal menace!" Tracks shouted as Starscream flew out of sight.
"Tracks! Bee! Boy, are we glad to see you guys!" Sam exclaimed as he released Camille, took her hand and walked towards the two Autobots. "I thought we were done for! How did you find us so fast?"
Bumblebee pointed to Camille's cell phone. She pulled it out of her pocket. "You found me with this? How?"
"Actually, I was the one that found out you were in trouble." Tracks corrected.
"You see, I can monitor the distance and height of your phone when it's with you. When your cell phone reached a height higher than 15 ft, that tipped me off that you must've been in an awkward or dangerous situation. I contacted Bumblebee via comlink and shortly afterwards, your height dropped drastically.
"That must've been when Starscream fell while holding me." Camille injected.
"Exactly. So you see, it only took us minutes to get here in car mode. Once here, we stood low and in the shadows so Starscream wouldn't expect us."
"And the rest is history." Sam commented with a smile.
He went to collect his bike, as did Camille, and they loaded the bikes each in the trunk of their respective guardian. Once loaded, Camille walked over to Sam.
"I'm sorry I ran from you, Sam." She said as she rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand. "I should've known better to stick together than to separate from you."
"Naw, don't worry about it." He assured her. "You're safe and that's all that matters."
"Thanks. But something still irks me, the place was literally a maze, how in the world did you find your way around without getting lost? And where did you find that safe to drop on Starscream's head, just in the nick of time?"
Sam recalled the scenes from his nightmare once more, then just smiled and kissed her forehead.
"You know what, Cam? Some things are better left unsaid."
She smiled. They then boarded their guardians, and headed back to the Witwicky household.
