Disclaimer : I don't own Transformers and if you haven't figured that out by now, that's kind of sad. Arad, Kate, and the other OCs of which there are too many to list, own themselves.
Reviews :
Dark Predator Dragon - Eventually, Starscream will find out just how hazardous Arad can be to his health. Not this chapter, but sometime down the road. Yes, the SGC does have one of the Allspark Replicas. They don't know what the hell it is, but its there.
StarLightSeraph - It's alright, no need to apologize. The song used last chapter was 'She's a Rebel' by Greenday, and I find the songs by listening to my Allspark Cube, which is the name I have given to my Digiblok MP3 player. I also use google to find lyrics.
Kiseki no Tenshi - Thankyou. Hope this one gets the same reception.
Fire From Above - The goat is evil and will more than likely have another cameo in the future, yes. I find myself in agreement with you about Starscream and Arad being able to take over the universe. Such a team up would be awesome and reminisce of 'Pinky and the Brain' due to spasticness. I think I'll write it as a side-story.
Some Really Random Person - Blitz is in this chapter, and he'll have a larger role later on in the story. Arad's marbles, once plentiful and shiny, are now lost to the far corners of the dimensional black hole known as her bedroom closet. There they shall stay until the end of time.
Fae Child19 - Randomness is my middle name. Starscream is slowly regaining his position as my most favorite 'Con.
blood shifter - And now we find out what happens, although admittedly I'm not happy with how things turned out in this chapter.
Notes : As mentioned before, I am not too fond of this chapter, it's kind of forced due to the need to have something here for chapter ten. I kind of wanted to make the fight scene longer, but it would have been horribly redundant due to a lack of adjectives to describe Starscream's capabilities. I hate the fact that they left him out of the Movie Guide Book, it leaves me with a hole in my heart. Oh yeah, and in this chapter we have the added addition of the Cybertronian language, which is identifyable by being bolded and italicized for your reading pleasure.
The Dark Side of the Sun
Chapter Ten
The following occurs somewhere outside of San Antonio at eight twenty-three in the evening.
Tires screeched as Tank braked to a stop under the incessant shouted commands of Kate in the driver's seat. He rolled down the window as per her instructions and she leaned out to look back at Bumblebee.
"Did you hear a scream?" she called back, as Sam leaned out the window of the Camaro to hear what she was saying. "Bloodcurdling or otherwise?"
"No."
There was an abrupt shriek through the darkness off to their left, long, loud, and echoing. It caused the night to go silent and Sam to stare wide-eyed in the direction of clump of pine trees.
"I stand corrected."
"And we go that away," Kate said, sitting back in the seat of the pick-up. "Step on it, Tank."
"Step on what?"
"JUST GO, DAMMIT!!"
In the half second it took for Starscream to power up his rifle and take aim, the skinny human had managed to do the same, except her weapon looked far clunkier and possibly too heavy for her to be carrying around. The fact that it was almost too big for her to hold upright created more confusion in his processors, especially seeing as there was no place on her person for her to have hidden the cannon. She appeared to be aiming at his head, although it was difficult to discern exactly where the barrel of the device was actually pointing or located for that matter. It looked like collection of entangled pipes and insulation, with wires wrapped in what humans referred to as 'duct tape' around the outside.
Curiosity got the better of him.
"What is that?"
"It's a matter disruptor," she replied evenly, using one hand to adjust a small gage on what could only be a scope. "Bit messy sometimes, but it works."
"A matter disruptor?" Starscream echoed, optics narrowing. "You lie."
"Nope."
"Your race is too primitive to have created something so complex."
"Keep telling yourself that."
Keeping the barrel of his rifle trained on the girl, Starscream took a few seconds to think things through. On the one hand, he was almost a hundred percent certain that it was impossible for humans, let alone a single puny female, to have created such a destructive device as a matter disruptor. Even if they had managed to reverse engineer nearly all of their technology from Megatron, the late Decepticon leader had not possessed such a weapon.
On the other hand, if she wasn't lying, then the current situation was definitely not favorable. There was also the small matter of where the damn contraption had come from, when all she had were those stupid cloth coverings. He took a moment to review the previous scene in his mind, rewinding his internal recordings until he found the exact few seconds in which the device had first appeared in her hands.
It had not been sub-spaced like his own rifle.
It had been pulled from the confines of the tiny black bag handing on her shoulder.
"Exactly how did you pull something of that mass from that container?" Starscream inquired, gesturing with his rifle towards the backpack in question. "Its special dimensions do not match up."
"Size matters not."
"My reflexes are significantly faster than yours," Starscream pointed out, tapping his fingers against the barrel of his rifle. The girl seemed to consider this, still fiddling with the knobs on her own weapon, causing the seeker some irritation. "I don't have all night, human, so answer the question!"
"Actually, I think you do have all night, possibly tomorrow, and the day after as well, judging by the scorch marks on your shoulder. I'd offer my repair skills, but seeing as we seem to be in a bit of a Mexican stand-off..."
She trailed off, tilting her head to the side as if listening for something.
"Do you hear an ominous rumbling sound?"
"No."
"Ah, must just be my stomach then," she muttered, approximately two seconds before the trees to the left exploded outwards as a rather pissed off red pick-up crashed into the clearing. Starscream took advantage of the distraction to shoot at the girl, but missed as she had been forced to dodge out of the way of the truck. The blast hit the Silverado's tailgate, sending it into a spin, tires causing dirt to go flying everywhere. Someone inside the cab was screaming rather shrilly for the pick-up to stop as it went crashing through the trees on the opposite side of the clearing.
The blonde human promptly re-leveled her weapon in Starscream's direction. Her bright green eyes were narrowed in annoyance.
"That was just plain rude."
The Silverado must have ceased in momentum after hitting the far side trees, for its occupant stumbled into sight looking rather dizzy human girl. Pigtails askew, she ambled uncertainly for a moment before finally focusing on the cannon-like contraption in her friend's hand.
"Arad, what the hell have you done now!?"
"Turn around, Kate."
Kate did so, spotted Starscream and abruptly lost her balance as the motion had disrupted her already unstable motion centers. She hit the grass face first with a muffled thud, groaning at the sudden headache now pounding against her skull.
"I think I'm going to puke," she muttered, spitting out a dead leaf as she sat up again. "I really hope you don't need my DMK right now, because I am definitely going to puke."
"Nah, I got this covered."
"COVERED?" Starscream snapped, glaring at her. "I could kill you right now!!"
"Uh huh, sure," Arad responded, rolling her eyes. She twitched the barrel of her current weapon of choice to remind him of its presence. "Matter disruptor."
"I thought that was chalk gun," said a gruff and recognizable voice from the trees behind her. Starscream glanced up to see that the red truck was, as he had suspected upon its initial appearance, one of the Autobots. More importantly, and he counted himself lucky in this, it was one of the less intelligent ones.
"It's a matter disruptor, Tank."
"No, I'm pretty sure that's the chalk gun," the mech responded, his own cannon out and ready. "I saw you testing it this afternoon."
On cue, Starscream lifted his rifle and sent a blast aimed straight at the red bot's chest, only to miss when the clunky mech was pushed out of the way by a gleaming yellow blur. Cursing, he took aim again only to be struck by return fire and the sound of shrieking in his optics as the two humans girls attempted to avoid getting stepped on.
Tank, having managed to roll back onto his feet after getting knocked aside by Bumblebee, decided to charge straight ahead. This, unfortunately, took him over the space where Arad and Kate were currently scurrying around. The two of them dove out of the way, but distracted the mech so that he stumbled and fell into his target with far less momentum than originally intended.
Starscream shoved him aside, turning the barrel of his rifle to finish him off only to get blasted by Bumblebee's cannon in his already injured shoulder. He was then promptly kicked in the knee joint by Tank. Having gotten the seeker's return attention, he sent a plasma blast straight at the larger mech's head. True to Starscream's earlier statement, his reaction time was strikingly fast but not fast enough to avoid the blow in its entirety.
Left audio receiver burning, he staggered backwards, firing wildly. Several shots burned holes in the ground, others hit the tree line, igniting the foliage and sending a third human running from the edge of the battlefield with a startled cry. In retaliation, Bumblebee sent a missile flying in Starscream's direction, missing as the seeker jumped into the air, shifting in mid-leap to his chosen alt mode.
With a shriek, his engines flared and he took off into the sky, trailing smoke from his right wing.
"DAMMIT TANK!! IF I SAY IT'S A MATTER DISRUPTOR, IT DAMN WELL IS A MATTER DISRUPTER, YOU STUPID OVERGROWN EASY BAKE OVEN!!"
Blitz wasn't certain how Starscream had managed to find him when he was still being cautious after escaping both Barricade and Tank. All he knew was that the Decepticon second-in-command looked, to utilize a human expression, 'like hell'.
"Bad day?"
"Scythe trained you in medical procedures, did he not?" Starscream inquired, choosing at this time to ignore the orange mech's comment. The Charger nodded somewhat reluctantly, the metal flaps on the side of his face clicking together several times in a worried fashion. "Then fix my shoulder."
"Uh…"
"Are you deaf?"
"I have none of the proper equipment needed," Blitz protested, avoiding the seeker's gaze. "And I have orders…"
"Orders?"
"Standing orders, actually."
"To what?"
"To not fix you."
Starscream stared at him, annoyance growing by the second.
"WHAT!?"
"Orders are orders."
"I am the leader of the Decepticons!!" Starscream shouted angrily, activating his rifle for the third time in less than a joor. "You will do as I say!"
"Nope, sorry, can't help you."
For the second time that day, he dodged a strike from the seeker, speeding off in his alt form and disappearing into the distance.
"You tried to convince Starscream that your chalk gun was a matter disruptor?" Ratchet inquired of Arad as the girl attempted to clean the grass out of her hair. She nodded, sending Tank an 'I-am-so-going-to-kill-you' type glare. They had returned to her house, although Bumblebee and Sam had been forced to return to the other side of the county in order to keep his mother from murdering him. Now Arad was sitting on the porch railing, with the Autobots milling about on the grass listening to the exchange. "And you are saying he would have fallen for it if not for…"
He trailed off, turning his attention back to the vermillion Silverado and the damage the blow to Tank's tailgate had caused. It was mostly superficial but there was some wiring that had gotten fused together that would need to be replaced.
"Somehow, I highly doubt it. Starscream used to be a scientist, he would have known that it wasn't what you said it was."
"Well, that explains why he was so curious about my book bag."
"What?"
Sighing, Kate walked over and picked up her friend's little black backpack, holding it up for all to see.
"Behold, the patented black hole backpack," she announced, waving a hand through the air like a professional infomercial host. "For reasons unknown to you, me, and possibly the rest of the universe, this thing can hold an infinite number of items no matter the size."
"That is impossible," Wrench scoffed. "To attach such a manipulation of spacial properties, one would need—"
"An allocation of compressed quantum energy inside a stable trans-dimensional field generator so as to create a non-corroded alternate dimension to hold the objects in question for an indefinite amount of time," Arad finished, taking off her glasses. She used her shirt to wipe them off before sticking them back on her face. When she looked back up, all of the mechs present were staring at her. "What?"
"How in pit could you have possibly understood the mathematical equations needed to even calculate the existence of such a device?" Ratchet asked, optics wide. "It may not be my field of study, but I know that such calculations and even the construction of it would be extremely difficult, not to mention dangerous."
"Did we not already discuss the fact that I'm a genius?"
"So what are you guys going to do now?" Kate asked, intervening before a remark could be made questioning her friend's already fragile grip on reality. "Go after that signal in Colorado?"
"Yes," Optimus answered with a sigh. "As it is more than likely the reason that Scythe is here on Earth, therefore we will attempt to reach it before he does."
"We should leave now," Ironhide suggested, jerking his head towards the road. "Sam and Bumblebee can catch up with us later."
"Oh goody," Arad muttered, hopping down from the porch rail. "I've always wanted to go on a road trip."
"What?"
"Just let me grab some stuff, kay?"
"You are not coming."
"Why not!?"
"You are—You just aren't!!" Ironhide insisted, glancing at Optimus for help. "They aren't coming with us, are they?"
"No," the Autobot leader said. "I agree with Ironhide, you cannot accompany us."
"Aw, come on."
"Why not?" Kate asked, looking put off. "We helped out."
"And we appreciate your assistance, however, it would be irresponsible of us to place you in any more danger than what has already been brought upon you."
"I'm not afraid."
"Neither am I," Arad added, nodding in an overly-exaggerated fashion. "I'll bring some of my more effective weaponry than the chalk gun this time."
"This is not up for argument."
"Of course it is, everything's up for argument."
"You are not coming with us."
Arad stuck out her bottom lip and sucked in a deep breath.
"I DID NOT CRAWL DOWN A DRAINAGE PIPE, GET DUMPED ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD, OR SHOT AT TO BE LEFT BEHIND WHEN THINGS JUST START GETTING COOL!!"
"Ow," Kate muttered, massaging her ears. "Watch the decibels, will you?"
"Sorry Kate."
Optimus stared down at the fuming blonde girl, then turned to Ironhide.
"I do not think they will drop this issue without a fight," he murmured in Cybertronian. "I know that humans are naturally stubborn, but these two appear to define the word."
"I have a suggestion," Wrench volunteered, with a sideways glance at the girls. "Just let them think they're coming with us."
"That is a dishonest tactic."
"Idon't think we're going to get rid of them any other way."
Optimus sighed again and turned back to regard Kate and Arad.
"Very well, you may come," he told them, then nodded at the house. "Go ahead and gather what you need to bring."
Grinning, the two of them scrambled into the house, leaving the Autobots alone in the front yard. Exchanging glances, they shifted swiftly into their respective vehicle modes and headed down the driveway. However, Tank hung back a moment, as if hesitating or rethinking the plan.
"Are you coming or not!?" Ironhide barked at him.
"Just a moment!" the red mech called, before speeding ahead to catch up. He was sitting smug on his chassis as they pulled out onto Springlake highway.
"What were you doing?"
"I believe the human term for it would be 'insurance policy'," Tank replied with an almost cheery air. "Yes, that definition fits nicely."
Five minutes later, the girls came back outside to find the front yard utterly empty save for a few fresh tire treads in the muck.
"What the hell," Kate remarked, dropping her duffel bag at her feet. "What jerks!!"
"Relax, we've got the Cavvy," Arad assured her, pulling her car keys out of her back pack. She turned towards the vehicle in question, moving to unlock the driver's side door only to stop short upon seeing the front tire.
It was in shreds.
Warily, she moved around the front end to check the passenger side, but it too was completely and utterly useless. Without needing to look, she knew the back ones were more than likely torn up as well.
"TANK I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!"