Title: Transformers III The Day That Never Comes
Genre: Action/Drama/Romance
Rating: T for mild language, some strong violence, some crude and sexual humor.
Summary: With a chaotic end approaching, choices must be made that may end one war and will start a new one. Problem is, how will Earth be able to accept their possible fate?
~Chapter Seven ~
Finding Answers
It had been only about a week, almost two weeks since the confrontation with the relatives. Things were going a lot better than everyone thought they would. Almost all of the families spent some time at the Autobot-NEST Base and got to know the Autobots. They found that most of the Autobots were great to be around but not many had a great inspective of some of them; Quick Change, Cheetor and Wheeljack for one.
Quick Change, due to the face that he had a major temper problem. His quick mood changes did not help on his case whenever someone said something that he didn't like. He was just too speedy for his own good. He was constantly getting into trouble for speeding around the base, and trying to be the fastest at everything.
Cheetor's little problem was the fact that he was too cocky. He was constantly doing what Quick Change did, running around the base and constantly getting on Ratchet's or Ultra Magnus' nerves.
As for Wheeljack, well, he was still as accident prone as ever. He was constantly blowing himself or his inventions up and none of the families seemed to be impressed with that. And he wondered why they didn't want their kids to be near him while he was working.
Other than the media mess and the issues with the families, everything was as normal as could be.
"SLAGGING PIECES OF SCRAP METAL!"
Sort of.
While overlooking on some of the work that Hound was doing with Maggie, Glenn, Anya and even Leo Spitz, who finally found out how he could be useful now that he was getting to know the Autobots, Optimus grimaced when he heard Ratchet's voice. He didn't blame the four humans and his Autobot IT for jumping when they heard the Chief Medical Officer ranting and raving as he came into the Intelligence and Communications Lab.
And of course, everyone had to stop what they were doing when they saw that Ratchet was covered in sticky goop and hundreds of colorful feathers.
"Optimus Prime! You have got to do something about those trouble making, Pitspawning pair of twins!" Ratchet roared as he was doing his best to pull of handfuls of feathers, only to have them stick to his palm. He began cursing violently in Cybertronian as he began waving his hand in the air, trying to un-stick all of the feathers. But he failed miserably. "Those two are getting out of control with all of their pranks! And Hot Rod, Quick Change, Cheetor, Jazz and Cliffjumper are not helping! You have got to do something!"
Optimus sighed heavily as he reached up and pinched the bridge of his metallic nose and shook his head. He was starting to realize that the boredom that all of the Autobots were suffering was starting to get out of control. It was because of the entire world looking for them, wanting to see them and they being confined to the Base did the twins start looking for some excitement by playing pranks on everyone.
(ooc: best example of the pranks would be to read Tensh Of Light21's Autobot Pranks, those had me roaring for days!)
"Ratchet," the Autobot Leader sighed, looking over at him. "They are just bored. They haven't been able to leave the base because of the human media. Secretary Keller and the UN feel like it would be a mistake if they went out…"
Ratchet gave him a steely look as he continued to trying to pull the feathers off of his body, pausing to glare viciously at Hound and the humans as they started to snicker; which they quickly stopped. He turned the glare back onto Optimus, shaking his head. "This is getting ridiculous, Optimus! You've got to talk to them or talk to Keller about the situation! I know it's out of the question but everyone needs to get out of the base and do something! The only one that is out there is Jetfire and it's because he's patrolling the globe for the Decepticons until Hound can fix Teletraan!" He ground out, highly irritated. "Optimus, if everyone does get out and get some fresh air soon, things are going to go insane! I'm already going insane with being the target of all of the twins' pranks!"
Again, Optimus side as he reached up and rubbed his nose again. He knew that Ratchet had a point. Things were getting pretty bad. With the entire world looking for the Autobots in the public, the UN wanted them to stay indoors. But everyone was starting to go nuts. Ironhide and Chromia were getting trigger happy, constantly in the armory and shooting range and blowing things up because they were bored. The twins teamed up with some of the other Autobots and even some of the humans to pull pranks on Ratchet, Prowl and unfortunately, Ultra Magnus. They all learned very quickly that he may have softened up a little because of Rex, but he still didn't have much of a sense of humor.
Even Optimus Prime and Elita One were starting to become insane with nothing to do.
Things with the world were crazy and there was still no sign of any of the Decepticons and that was driving everyone even crazier. Most of the Autobots were practically begging Optimus to leave the base to hunt down the 'Cons, just so they would have something to do.
"I will contact Secretary Keller and find out if we can get a break." Optimus finally said as he looked at Ratchet, who was still cursing as he was pulling feathers off of himself. "But there are no promises. With the world knowing who we are now, they will be looking for us. If we want to fit in with Earth, we will have to interact with the humans."
Ratchet sighed as he gave Optimus an impatient look but he nodded. He knew that Optimus could only do so much with the UN. "Fine. But do something about those twins! I've got maple syrup in the deepest creases of my armor! It's going to take forever to get out!" He ground out before leaving.
Optimus just sighed and followed him out, muttering about how he was going to have to find some form of punishment to put the twins under.
"Aye Caramba." Leo said, watching the Autobot Chief Medical Officer leave before raising an eyebrow at Maggie. "I didn't know those two nutballs was that bad."
Maggie just gave him a look as if he was a bug squashed under her shoe before going back to looking at the large screen and working harder to find more info on Leo's memory stick about the Department. A lot of it was encrypted and only Teletraan could seem to sort it out. But it was still malfunctioning due to the virus that Scourge had put in it more than a year ago. It was proving to be quite the handful as they still found traces of it in the Autobot Computer System.
But Glenn snorted as he gave Leo a side glance. "You ain't seen nu'thing yet, man. Wait till you see them get really, really bored. You're just lucky that they haven't picked on you yet." He warned the so called Master of Hackers.
Leo just made a face before he rolled his eyes and moved over to Maggie. "All right, all right. This is getting us nowhere, chica. You've been trying to break the code on my flash drive for a week and it's not working. Why don't you just let me help?" He asked.
Again, Maggie gave him an icy look. "You, Spitz, are the reason we're in this mess. I don't need your help." She said coolly.
"Yeah? Well, I'm getting tired of listening to you grind your teeth. Now move over." Leo said.
"I DO NOT GRIND MY TEETH!" Maggie snarled at him as she smacked his hands away.
Leo gave her an annoyed look before he folded his arms across his chest and faced her. "Look, chica." He began impatiently. "You won't find the encryption code for it. And I'm not just going to tell it to you. Why don't you just let me put it in?" He asked. "Unless you want to be doing this forever. 'Cause it's an Eternity code."
Giving him a very annoyed look, Maggie just stood there, almost stubbornly. She didn't want this idiot's help. She couldn't stand it that someone like him seemed to be better at computers than she was. She had raged hacker battles with him for a long time so she saw him as a rival. But to think that she needed help from an idiotic rival like Leo Spitz, it was very, very insulting. However, she knew he had a point. She had identified the encryption code on the flash drive as an Eternity code, the hardest firewall to get past. She knew it would be almost impossible to break it without the creator. And seeing that Leo was the creator, she didn't have a choice.
Grinding her teeth, and then biting her lip until it nearly bled when she realized that she was grinding her teeth, Maggie threw her hands up into the air and stepped back. "FINE!" She nearly shouted. "Put in the bloody password!"
Leo smirked in satisfaction before he approached the additional keyboard for the large computer and typed in the secret password to his flash drive.
Unfortunately, he didn't seem to realize that Hound was watching carefully and he made a face. "Your password is; spank me?" The Autobot IT finally spoke up.
Eyes snapping wide, Leo whirled around and gave the Autobot a look. "DUDE! Passwords are secret! Why are you looking, man?" He demanded.
"Spank me?" Glenn snorted before he burst out laughing. "No wonder Maggie couldn't figure out the password! No one would ever think of 'spank me' as a password!"
Maggie and Anya just eyed Leo dryly, even as his face flushed as he angrily hit the Enter key and the entire screen lit up with tons of files. All eyes lit up as they saw images, video clips and everything came up. They were surprised on what they saw. There were graphs, maps, tons and tons of pictures saved on the flash drive. Most of it was information on the Cybertronians. So many news reports and web clips about alien robots that Maggie and Glenn had spent the entire time trying to take right off the web before the Autobots had been exposed.
But one file caught Maggie's attention and she was already moving forward, lightly pushing past a still somewhat blushing Leo. He didn't seem to argue this time as he stepped back and watched her as she clicked on the file called Project Machination.
"Oh, that. That's one of the files that I stole off of that secret base that the Rex kid was trying to break into last year. There's not a whole lot that makes sense in that file, but it seems kind of complex." Leo remarked.
Maggie just frowned as she clicked on the file and it opened up. Pictures and information popped up that had her eyes growing wider and wider by the moment. Especially when a very old picture that must have been taken in the early 1900's popped up. It was a black and white grainy looking picture of a group of men standing before what looked like a pile of metal. But it only took a moment to realize that it wasn't just a pile of metal.
It was a Cybertronian. And it was torn up badly.
Then other things seemed to pop up. There was another file in the Project Machination file and when Maggie clicked on it, she found that there was information on several people. She tried to look at some of them but all of the names in the files were blacked out. There was a lot of information missing from it. But one caught her eyes and her jaw fell.
And so did Glenn's, Anya's and Hound's.
"Oh, my…Primus! We found her!" The Autobot IT gasped.
It was not long after that did Hound call Optimus back in, as well as several others. He called for Secretary Keller, Simmons, Banachek and most of the American Soldiers in. He even had Ultra Magnus and Rex come in to help with the identification.
And when they arrived, Hound immediately had Maggie pull up the file she had found.
Rex's eyes snapped wide open when he saw Her picture and his jaw fell. He recognized the woman that everyone was staring at. "Hey! It's Agent Cole!" He blurted out.
Of course, everyone else had not exactly noticed that Secretary Keller's eyes bugged and his jaw fell as well when he saw the woman in the picture. He also recognized her. And when he felt peering eyes on him, he glanced side wards to see that Reno Banes had his arms folded and he was watching him.
"According to the information that Leo Spitz managed to get, her name is Agent Cole. She doesn't have a lot of history in her background." Maggie stated as she looked up at the extremely gorgeous red haired woman in the file. "But it does state her status while she was in the Department. It says that she was one of the best Agents the Department had. She had a third degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, she's studied kick-boxing. She's an expert in hand to hand combat. But it also says that she knows almost every gun or weapon there is." She looked around as she let Teletraan slowly roll the file down to the bottom. "And it also says that her full name is Colette Jane Keller."
All eyes seemed to move all at the same time as they drifted right onto Secretary Keller, who was gazing up at the beautiful red haired woman with almost a grave but guilty look. There was much sadness but surprise in his eyes. It was like he couldn't seem to figure out what the real story was.
"Any relations, sir?" Lennox asked, frowning as he watched his superior officer.
There was a very long silence before Keller sighed and let his head fall. He stayed that way for a moment before he turned and looked around at everyone. "I should have guessed that this Agent Cole was the same as my daughter. Or my supposedly deceased daughter." He finally told them.
There was a lot of surprised blinks as everyone stared at him.
"Deceased daughter?" Epps asked, his face twisted in confusion just like everyone's. "What do you mean? She's dead?"
"But that can't be. That's who helped me." Rex said, as he shared a glance with Elita One and Ultra Magnus. "That's Agent Cole. She's alive and everything."
Keller just glanced over at him before shaking his head as he pursed his lips. "That is my daughter, Colette. Actually she never liked her full name. She shortened her name to Cole, so I should have realized it. She was said to have been killed in Afghanistan. She was a Special Ops field Agent, well trained. She even served as a body guard because of the skills she put herself through. Are you sure it was her who helped you, Rex?" He asked, frowning.
Rex nodded as he shared a glance with Ultra Magnus and Elita One who both nodded. "Yeah. That's her. But how can she be dead? She was alive when I last saw her. And that was just a little over a year ago." He stated.
"When did she supposedly die, Secretary Keller?" Optimus asked, frowning.
Keller shook his head as he looked back at the picture of Agent Cole. "Well, over five years ago, while the war was still going on in Iraq. She was there in the Middle East, serving a few dangerous missions. I never approved of her being in such danger. But in truth, we never got along, her and I. She hated me for what happened to her twin sister. Colleena." And with that said, he looked directly at Reno Banes.
Reno sighed as he turned his eyes towards the ceiling and shook his head. He was fully aware of all of the stunned looks that was passing between himself and Secretary Keller. "Oh, here we go." He muttered.
"Colleena?" Sam was the one to ask as he entered the room with Mikaela, Dawn, Trent, Bumblebee, Arcee, Hot Rod and the twins.
"You mean, Aunt Colleena? Your Colleena, Uncle Reno?" Mikaela asked in astonishment.
Sighing again, Reno dropped his head before he nodded and shared a look with the Secretary of Defense. "Yup. Colleena Keller. The daughter of Secretary John Keller. Well," He paused, twisting his lips into a faint smile. "Way before he became the Secretary of the Department of Defense."
"Whoa! Whoa!" Epps exclaimed, waving his hands in the air before looking wildly between Keller and Reno. He was sharing the same look with everyone else. They all looked bewildered to have heard that. None of them knew anything about Keller having a daughter. Especially with the fact that Reno had been dating Keller's other daughter. "Wait a minute! Does that mean you two actually knew each other before all of this started?" Epps finished.
Keller and Reno glanced almost forlornly at one another before they both nodded. "I know we never really acknowledged each other in front of all of you. But in truth, Reno Banes and I don't really see eye to eye with each other. It was best if no one knew about our history together." He said almost gravely.
"Uh," Reno muttered dryly as he folded his arms and raised an eyebrow at Keller. "We didn't see eye to eye? John, you punched me in the goddamned face when Colleena committed suicide. You blamed me for what she did to herself. It wasn't my fault that she died."
Quite a few wide eyed looks were trained on Keller and Reno when that was said. They couldn't believe that for one second. But by the look on the Secretary's face, it was true. He was shaking his head, looking exasperated. "Reno, my baby girl had just died then. I was very emotional. I did not mean to take it out on you. But if I remember right, one single punch in the face was simple to what Cole had done to you." He remarked.
Reno rolled his eyes before he rubbed his chin as if he was remembering what happened back then. "Oh, yeah. I remember that. Cole tracked me down right after our little incident and kicked the living hell out of me." He widened his eyes for only one moment before sighing. "She cracked two ribs after beating me up. And sent me to the hospital." He received a lot of wide eyed looks again after saying that.
"I don't understand. You said that your offspring was dead? So how is it that Agent Cole is your same Cole?" It was Prowl who asked, his head only starting to smoke a little but he was fighting himself from glitching out.
Keller looked at the black, white and purple Autobot Security Officer. "I don't understand it myself, Prowl. Five years ago, I received news that the entire Special Ops team that Cole served with had been killed in the war. They had been ambushed and all were dead. It's true that they never found Cole's body. But she was gone. No one ever seen her again. I, and several others, believed that she was blown to pieces from a road side bomb. So I don't understand how she is alive now and why she faked her death." He told him.
Frowning, Maggie and Leo were busy looking through the files and pulling up info before they looked around. "I think I do, sir." The pretty Aussie remarked, catching everyone's attention. She was pulling up pictures of all of the men and women on the flash drive that had no information on them. "As far as I can tell, there are no information on these men and women in the files. But pulling up identification matches with Teletraan's help, I believe I've located some shed of light. But what I can tell, every single one of these people are supposed to be dead. There are some Obituaries on each one of them. If I'm right, all of these people faked their deaths to be in the Department." She turned and looked directly at Keller. "Including your daughter. It must be some kind of secrecy thing for the Department. And it does make sense. No one in the US Government knew of the Department's existence until Rex and Ultra Magnus found them out. So no one knows about who runs it or works in the Department. They won't want any connections with anyone in the world. No families are to know what they are doing. So it makes sense that the Department would have agents who are supposed to be dead to all friends and family. They are a secret organization, after all."
Everyone just frowned as they took in her words before nodding. It did make some sense. They could understand the whole secrecy thing. It was the best way of keeping a deep, dark secret. To have no one know of its existence to was to have no one know who worked for the organization. At least, no one who was alive and well known by friends and family.
"So, Cole faked her death and joined the Department. Why would she do that?" Sam asked, frowning at Keller. "Why does she hate you?"
Keller just shook his head as he looked almost ashamed but deeply saddened. "Like I said, Cole never forgave me for what happened to Colleena. She never liked Reno. She hated him throughout high school. She never approved of him, like I didn't. But when Reno left her sister, she began to worry about her. Colleena was extremely depressed. She started to get sick from crying all of the time just because I wouldn't let her marry Reno. And when she took her own life, Cole kind of snapped. She realized that it was my fault that she was so depressed. I wouldn't let her twin sister be with the one man she was deeply in love with." He said, gravely.
Reno nodded as he looked around at everyone. "She hated me because I ran away from it all. I wouldn't let Colleena give up her family for me. I think she blamed us both." He said, looking right at Keller. "That's why she had no problem sending me to the hospital after being the living tar out of me."
"But you didn't turn her in." Keller said, making it sound more like a question. "She broke your ribs and beat every inch of your life. She could have easily killed you but you didn't turn her in or press charges."
Shaking his head, Reno faintly smiled. "Nope. Cole and I never got a long but there's no way I would turn in Leena's sister. Even if she nearly killed me. I didn't even defend myself against her. I felt like she had the right to beat me up. It was her twin sister that died because I didn't fight for her. Cole had a lot of anger issues back then. And she probably still has 'em. I remember how she used to get into a lot of fights with guys while in High School. She couldn't stand bullies and there was a lot of them back then. She always stood up for girls, never guys. She hated the male population. I never really knew why."
"Is she as lezbo then?" Leo asked, crinkling his nose as he looked at him. Everyone frowned at him almost bewildered or annoyed by his question but he shook his head and threw a hand towards Cole's picture. "Hey! She's hot, okay! I like beauties like her! Besides, you just said she hates guys! So what else am I suppose to think?"
"If you ever meet Cole, don't ever tell her that, kid." Reno said, dryly. "She hates being called beautiful, that she's hot, a babe, or anything. Keep your little pet names to yourself. Don't ever call her 'Chica' or 'hottie' or she will kick your ass. She never cared for her looks, even though she is beautiful. I made the mistake of call her beautiful when I was in the 11th grade, while I was just beginning to see her twin sister, who is identical to her. She kicked my butt back then too. She doesn't care of looks. And no, she's not gay. She's as straight as a needle and just as sharp. She just doesn't tolerate men. She thinks we don't think with our brains but with our di…...well, you get the idea." He said, making a face.
Keller nodded as he cupped his hand around his mouth. "Yes. I remember how much trouble she used to get into. Only a few times did she ever get into fights did I have to bail her out of jail or send her to boot camp. But I think she actually enjoyed getting sent to Detention centers. Cole always was a tough one. She loved challenges. She liked action. She was not soft hearted at all."
Rex just frowned as he looked at Keller. "She was kind of mean to me at first, now that I think about it. But she didn't seem to want me getting hurt. She defended me from several Department Agents. She risked her life to protect me. Her and Sean."
"And she would." Keller said, looking at him. "She might have not liked the male population but she never tolerated child abuse or any violence against kids. I recall her being apart of the Fight Against Child Abuse organization in High School. I know for a fact that she would have fought tooth and nail for your life, Rex."
"Question is, how did she even get mixed up in the Department and where can we find her?" Lennox asked as he looked up at Cole's picture. "If she's not with the Department any more, we are going to need her help finding out more stuff about them. Her and this Agent Sean guy. We'll need them both to track down information about the Department. We need to find them."
Optimus nodded in agreement before looking at Hound. "Hound, can Teletraan locate Cole Keller and Agent Sean's position?" He asked.
Hound glanced at the Autobot Leader before he shook his head as he looked at the large computer. "Teletraan's still malfunctioning when it comes to location searches, Optimus Prime, sir. It'll be more than likely we'll be sent on a wild goose chase just like what happened when we were looking for the Decepticons before they went quiet. We'll be 'playing ring around the rosies' for days. And I honestly don't think we have that much time. With the latest Department sighting, I'm not going to put it past that lot for attacking our human allies again." He stated.
Everyone nodded. They knew that the Department might have been trying to expose them to the world. But now that they were exposed, it would be more than likely they would continue to attack their humans to get at them. Whether the world accepted the Autobots or not.
Again, Optimus nodded as he looked around before meeting Keller's eyes. "I believe that Hound is right. We will need to add protection to all of the humans. But I also agree with Will. We will need your daughter's help trying to shed some light on the Department. Is there any way you can think of that might help us locate her?" He asked.
Keller made a face as he thought for a very long moment. He didn't seem to like the options that was coming up in his head. He didn't look happy for one second. "Well, there is only one person that I can think of. But I doubt she'll know anything about Cole. But I think it's the only idea we have right now." He sighed as he reached up and began massaging his temples. "But I can guarantee you, she won't be happy to see me again."
"Who are you referring to?" Optimus asked, frowning along with everyone.
Almost stonily, Keller looked around very slowly at every single Autobot and human in the entire room. He didn't look too comfortable with telling anyone but he knew it was best if he did. "My Ex-wife, Martha Keller. Cole and Colleena's mother." He simply stated.
And everyone wasn't so sure about this idea, especially when they saw Reno cringing at the very words of Keller's ex-wife. "Oh, slag. Anyone but her." He murmured but Keller just nodded.
All Autobots and all humans had a very bad feeling about this.
