Welcome to Hoover Dam where the sun is shining, the air is clear, and alien robots are frozen in cryogenic stasis
::...:: comm link
" - radio - "
Cybertronian
Chapter 10 : Follow You or Follow Me
The debriefing was short and to the point, all manner of government personnel running about and shouting readings. Will barely managed to grab hold of a runner to get the team some proper uniforms (their old ones worn from the battle in Qatar) before one of the onsite personnel pulled him aside to a meeting.
Not long after, the lights in the hanger flickered, communications breaking down one by one until every messaging system on the planet had blacked out. Long range, anyway; short wave radios would probably still work. And Morse code.
Their team were already dressed in their 'new' uniforms and preparing to leave when Will came barreling back into the room, pocketing a few rounds of ammo. A laminated ID hung from his neck. "We're heading out. New assignment, high profile." Here, he paused, locking eyes with the youngest member of the group. "And, Fritz? Try not to irritate these guys. We got 10 minutes."
Rolling his eyes, Fred shrugged on the Sabot round launcher he managed to convinced one of the resident weapon holders to part with. No way was he going to wander around with just the dinky little hand guns they were given. Will led them outside of the base onto tarmac, pace quick and posture straight as he flashed his 'VIP' pass at the surrounding suits. Fig took up the march beside him, still limping a bit despite the generous amount pain medication in his system. The Spaniard nodded his head at the unmarked, guarded helicopter settled on the landing pad, a smirk on his lips.
"Your alien theory is looking more and more realistic."
The flight was long and consisted of whispered strategies and blank looks from the MIB wannabes who wouldn't tell them just where the hell they were going in first place. All they knew was that Keller asked for them and that what they were about to see was to be held in the strictest confidence. It would've been more dignified if they had just come out with a bad italian accent and threatened to sink them in a river.
Hours later, they landed. Mountains on all sides and a large river below the biggest dam he had ever seen. Fred shook his head. It figured one the biggest construction projects in last hundred years was done to hide something. Question was, why did it need to be so big?
Lined up, they saluted as Keller and a small group of civilians passed, two of which were teenagers who looked as though they hadn't showered in a few days. Neither of them were relaxed either, despite having such a large escort around them. They didn't feel safe with the military.
Two men, one obviously the leader of this base and the other seeming a rather unstable type who kept glaring at the teenagers, waved them down a flight of stairs to the open area at the bottom of the dam. The wormy looking MIB finally spoke up, voice giddy.
"All right, here's the situation. You've all had direct contact with the NBEs."
"NBE's?"
"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials." Epps rolled his eyes at him as Worm glanced back with a smirk.
"Very good. Keeping up with the acronyms. Now, what you're about to see is totally classified. You can never mention it outside of these walls." If this man's eyes opened any wider, they'll end up on the floor.
The group walked into one of the large pipes leading inside the dam. Only taking a few turns, the standard, dungeon-like hall suddenly opened up into an area full of scientists, hazmat suits and all. At the back of the room, on display, was a humanoid robotic creature, similar to what they had seen at SOCCENT except much, much bigger. There were scaffolds surrounding the robot and twisting pipes pumping out cold wafting smoke. Nitrogen. They needed to keep it frozen. That meant it wasn't dead. Fuck.
"Dear God. What is this?" And that was the Secretary of Defense, which meant this was never told to the important people. An independent, unregulated group of scientists with the power to call in high profile government officials was their only lead on an alien attack/ invasion.
Worm's stance was proud, eye manic with glee as he looked at the 35+ foot behemoth, but it was the leader, Banacheck, who answered.
"We think that when he made his approach over the north pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry. He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934. We call him NBE One."
A boy, one of the teenagers from outside, stepped forward, glaring sideways at Worm.
"Well, sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know, but that guy? That's Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons."
Worm's eye were just as cold as he moved in front of the boy. "He's been in cryostasis since 1935. Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind. Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age, the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reverse-engineered by studying him. NBE One. That's what we call it."
Fred felt himself go slack. They just said that everyone here had contact with these mechs and yet they are ignoring the one person who had apparently found a friendly one? What?
"And you didn't think the United States military might need to know that you're keeping a hostile alien robot frozen in the basement?" Keller's voice barely registered as he stared at the imposing form of 'Megatron.' Leader of a... faction of some sort. If there's a faction, that means they have a goal and a counter faction. That implies sentience. Humans were keeping the leader of an alien race locked up and very possibly in pain as being frozen from the inside out is probably not the most pleasant experience.
"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security."
He stepped up beside Will, sending him an incredulous look. What the hell?
Keller looked just as confused. "No - ? Well, guess what? Now you've got one! What are they even doing here?"
"They want the Allspark." Again, the teen was standing straight, barely flinching at the fierce glare Worm kept sending him. Seeing the obvious hostility, Fred moved, standing between the two with his back to Worm.
"First off, what is that? Secondly, why do they want it and what is it doing here?" Surprised green eyes - earth green - blinked, before focusing again, determined.
"It, uh, the Allspark is a cube thing. It's, like, how they create - it creates life. Their life. But NBE aka Megatron, the harbinger of death, wanted it to make a bigger army or something, so the Autobots - the good guys - sent it away and it landed here. And now they're looking for it. The decepticons are looking for it." Fred wondered at the emphasis on 'good guys' and nodded.
"You're sure about that?" The head man, Banachek, shared a meaningful glance with Worm.
Something dawned on the kid. "You know where it is, don't you?"
Again, the group was led through dark tunnels until they reached an office-like room, a glass window looking out into a domed chamber where a giant, metal cube with complex hieroglyphs - language - written across its surface. Worm's monologue swept past him. The 'bad guys' goal was within walking distance of their leader's prison. How did they not think of this as a security risk? Did they have fail-safes? Back up generators? Emergency escape routes?
"Wait, back up. You said the dam hides the Cube's energy. What kind exactly?" Energy? The kid said it created life. But if it created life... then...
Before his thoughts could catch up, the small group of soldiers and civilians were locked in a metal cell, a small glass casing in the center. Worm handed out black, welding-esque goggles and stood next to a large flip switch, unsettling sneer sent toward the box.
"Anybody have any mechanical devices? BlackBerry? Key alarm? Cell phone?" A college age guy in a jersey tossed over a small nokia phone, exchanging a look with the blonde haired girl who had asked about the energy. Worm cackled at the phone, mumbling to himself as he placed it inside the box. Fred felt a twisting in his stomach, the word 'life' echoing over and over...
"We're able to take the Cube's radiation..." Worm held out a remote toward the box. "...and funnel it into that box. Watch this."
The system of cables above them flashed with electricity, traveling into the container and shocking the phone. A moment passed as the metal vibrated before bursting outward and folding into a vaguely humanoid looking... being. Small enough to fit in the palm of his hand. Purple optics rapidly took them in, the sight of giant, unfamiliar beings surrounding it and watching it while trapped inside a small box. Purple bleeded into red and small, pea-shooter type guns began barraging the glass, incomprehensible language sputtering out of its mouth.
It took a moment to understand, but when he realized the guns could break the glass given a few more seconds and saw Worm's hand still gripping the button to the box, Fred cursed and did something so incredibly stupid that George would no doubt congratulate him on it.
He opened the lid.
Ignoring the simultaneous jumps back and shouts of the surrounding humans, the little metal humanoid paused in its rampage to stare at the fleshy hands splayed palm up and no weapons in sight. Red flickered to purple again and the little thing flung itself out the latch and onto Fred's shirt, chittering rapidly up at him. He nodded to it, covering its form with a hand before glancing upwards.
He only had a moment to assess the looks given to him - anger, shock, awe, confusion - when the ground shook, the sound of shrieking metal and sparks echoing from outside the enclosed room.
"Decepticons."
The little nokia-turned-robot was quickly dismissed in favor finding an arms room, Fig managing to give him an exasperated eye roll as they set about loading weapons and pouring over a map of the area to plan out an escape route. The kid was hounding on Worm, all traces of meekness forgotten as he shouted.
"I need you to let Bee go! I need you to let him out! He's gonna know what to do with the cube!"
"You mean your car? It's confiscated."
Fred stopped, head whipping to the argument. The kid and the other teen, a girl, were surrounding the agent, glaring.
"Then unconfiscate it!"
"We don't know what'll happen if we let that thing out - "
"No, you don't know! I do! Get him out here!"
Catching Will's eye, he nodded to his chest pocket where the little bot had made a home in, optics peeking out suspiciously.
Will was across the room with a gun on the agent before he could blink. "Get the kid his car."
As the other Suits moved, their team of nine went on defense, knocking them down, guns out. Worm was shouting at them to stop, eyes wide and hands held out. When the room quieted, Will repeated his 'request.' Worm let out a breathy laugh.
"Hey, now, d-drop your weapon, soldier. There's an alien war going on - are you really gonna shoot me?" Will and Epps shared a look.
"Well, we ain't your soldiers and we didn't exactly ask to be here."
"I'm ordering you under S-Seven executive jurisdiction - "
Epps smirked. "S-7 don't exist."
"Right. And we don't take orders from people that don't exist." Worm's eyes were switching from both men, a forced smile plastered on his face.
"I-I'm going to count to five, now - "
"And I'm gonna count to three."
Keller moved forward, giving the agent a decidedly unfriendly look.
"Simmons, I'd do what they say. Losing isn't really an option for these guys."
Paling, Simmons gave a short nod, back straightening in an attempt to save face. It didn't work. "Fine. You wanna place the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro, be my guest."
As soon as the brief directions were said, The kid and his girlfriend were off at a dead run. Giving a nod to Will, Fred ran after them, easily dodging the dam's frantic personnel. Not a minute later, he began to hear distant warbling shrieks, causing the little bot in his pocket to quiver. He could hear the kid screaming, too.
"Nonono - STOP! Stop! No! Please, stop! Get away!"
Fred's eyes widen at the scene. There was a large metal slab near the back of the chamber, and on top of it, chained down, was a 15 foot, bright yellow bot, blue optics trained on the kids, seemingly trying to move toward them. Quickly cocking his automatic, he set forward, pushing past and throwing down personnel still attempting to subdue the shrieking - screaming bot.
"Let him go! Get the chains off - now! Get 'em off! Move it!" Seeing one of the agents trying to pull the kid back, he knocked the butt of the gun into his head. He whirled around, taking aim. "Anyone else?!" Personnel froze, hands held high. Fred jerked his head to the side. "No? Good. Let him go. Now."
Once the chains were loosened, the bot sprang up, a mask of some sort falling over his face. A large hand carefully pulled the two kids to him as an arm reconfigured into a humming cannon of some sort, sweeping full-circle at the surrounding agents. A group of footsteps abruptly stopped somewhere behind him, signifying his team's arrival.
"Bee, Bee! It's alright. Are you alright? You hurt?" The bot briefly looked down before snapping back up when Banachek tried to step forward. "No, no, don't worry about them!" Kid caught his eyes, asking. Fred nodded, waving at the other people to back up. "They're with us, they're gonna help us. The Allspark's here, but so is Megatron. I'll take you to it. We need to get it out, right? To Optimus?"
Cautiously, the bot stood, cannon changing back into a hand as he stared hard at Fred, the closest human to him aside from the teens.
"I swear on my life, I won't hurt you or your kids here." With a high whistle, the nokia bot popped out of his shirt, staring up at the larger, wide optic-ed bot and chittering excitedly. "It'd be a bit hypocritical if I did, don't you think?"
Sam felt so relieved at seeing Bee standing and walking around that he didn't even protest when the bot scooped both him and Mikaela up off the ground and carried them to where the cube was. And it was just his positioning that made it look like he was hugging the bot's front. Really.
Looking down at the odd troop of soldiers positioned around them like armed guards, he let his eyes rest on the red-haired guy, not much older than him, that had dove in to this world of aliens without hesitating. Sam had met the Autobots in person and hadn't even thought about just what they meant by the Allspark 'bringing life' to earth's machines. Seeing the freaky, red eyed robot shooting at the glass, he thought it was a monster. But as soon as the Flame haired man opened the door, inviting the thing out, its eyes had changed color and clung to him like Sam used to do when he hadn't seen his father for a few days. It was a kid. Megatron wanted to make an army of kids?
Bumblebee seemed just as surprised as him when the little phone bot popped out of the man's shirt and started chittering - talking to him. Whatever it said must have been important because that was when Bee scooped him and Mikaela up to get the Allspark.
And Sam could see why the dam had to be built around the cube. It was too big for even Optimus to lift! Finding himself on the ground again, he shuffled over to the redhead and watched as Bee cooed at the cube before touching it, sending sparking arcs of blue light across its surface. Suddenly, with the same familiar sliding sounds as the Autobots' transformations, the cube shrunk like a movie in reverse until Bee could hold it with just two fingers.
Blue eyes turned to him, placing the small metal life-bringer into his hands. It was surprisingly warm, almost like it was excited.
" - Message from Starfleet, Captain - time to regroup - "
Another of the soldiers stepped forward, placing a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "He's right. We stay here and we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar. There's a city 22 miles east, evacuated because of a factory explosion or something. We can sneak the cube there and hide until we get hold of Air force to help bring the decepticons down." As the man, probably a general with how he ordered everyone around, gave everyone a task to do, Bumblebee transformed into his camaro form, door opening for him.
The ride through the dam was quick, and when they finally made it out into the sunlight, Sam could feel himself tense as the damage done to the dam became more obvious: whole chunks of columns and mountains fallen to rubble. Just as they turned onto the road, there was a quick knock on the door.
The redhaired man was crouched outside the window, dangerous looking gun in hand. "Mission city is down that road, go straight and take the third exit to your left. There shouldn't be much traffic, if at all, but you'll be in a straightaway - no cover - so drive fast and keep your eyes peeled. We'll be right behind you, Kid."
The man stood to leave. "My name's Sam! Witwicky. An-and this is Mikaela - and Bumblebee, my guardian." The man smiled a bit, blue eyes - almost as blue as Bee's - flickering up to the sky and back.
"Fred Weasley. We'll introduce ourselves properly after all this is over, alright Sam?" And he left.
The battle was starting.
Author's Note
I like my little nokia bot. Don't ask to name it, Fred already has and he won't be changing it.
I wrote this chapter in one day due to procrastinating on an important essay due... tonight. My motivation, people.
Also, I changed a bit about Mission City. It's kind of weird, isn't it? There is a battle going on for an important alien artifact and the soldiers' first idea is to hide it in a heavily populated city? I do the like the city fighting, though, so made what I hope was a reasonable excuse for them going there.