Alice
"I'm a horribible- horble- habrle- bad mother! I drove my baby out into the dark dangurous- daggerous- bad world!" Lisa slurred waving her drink around, making some of it spill out of the glass.
She was reclining on a couch in her office. Fiona one of her bodyguards, was sitting on Lisa's desk, long legs dangling off the edge. Fiona's brother Owen, Lisa's other bodyguard, was leaning against the wall.
"Well you could have let her out of the house more." Fiona told Lisa. This brought on a new wave of tears.
"Fiona! Be nice. You're supposed to console her in her time of need." Owen reprimanded.
"I don't get paid for that." Fiona replied. Owen sighed.
"Well you don't have to make it worse." He stated.
"But there isn't anything else to do until she sobers up and starts running her business like she's supposed to. With her three sheets to the wind and Vince still recovering there's no one to come up with market strategies, making investments, or telling us who to kill." His sister complained.
"I'm right here you know." Leo stated from where he was seated behind Lisa's desk.
"Be quiet Leo, adults are talking." Fiona replied.
"You're brother and are the same age." Leo responds as he sifted through paperwork.
"So has Vince picked someone to replace Otto yet?" Owen asked, desperately wanting to change the subject before a fight broke out.
"He considering Otto's niece." Leo replied.
"You mean Bree's old babysitter?" Fiona asked. "I thought she wanted to be a teacher."
"As a muggleborn she's finding it very hard to get a job, considering the times." Leo replied.
"Because of the Death Eaters you mean." Owed stated.
"Actually I meant the economy but the Death Eaters aren't helping much there either. Spreading fear with their attacks and sadness with their dementors makes people relucktent to leave their homes, let alone buy anything." Leo sighed.
"So is this girl actually qualified? Vince isn't just hiring her because of her connection to Otto, is he?" Fiona inquired.
"Of course not." Leo replied. "Chloe has been trained in marksmanship by her grandfather and learned Krav Maga at her Mother's insistence once she moved out."
"Wasn't her grandfather one of our best sharpshooters?" Owen asked.
"Yes." Leo answered.
"I'm going to have so much fun corrupting her!" Fiona exclaimed.
Down the Hall from Lisa's office was Vince's office. Vince pretending to be looking through personnel files of potential replacements for Otto. He had actually gone for "considering" to "decided" but hadn't yet told anyone other than Ben. The papers he was looking through weren't personnel files, they were reports disguised as personnel files.
"Sir, you know I am loyal to you." Ben stated.
"I know Ben." Vince replied, not looking up from the reports.
"And I would normally never question your judgment." Ben continued.
"I know Ben." Vince repeated.
"But I have to ask, why haven't you told your wife were Alice is?" Ben inquired. Vince sighed and finally looked up.
"If I told Lisa where Alice is Lisa would attempt to drag Alice back. If she did that they would fight and make each other miserable. This way, Lisa will be able to focus on other things once she's done with her fit and I'll know that Alice is safe and that there are people who will interfere on her behalf should she need help but Alice doesn't know that they're there so she'll get the freedom she wanted and the opportunity to grow." Vince explained.
"It sounds an awful lot like you're paying people to stalk your daughter." Ben responded.
"I've ordered them to as indirect as possible, but that is essentially what I'm doing." Vince answered.
"That's a little creepy sir." Ben stated.
"I know Ben." Vince replied.
I know you're asking yourselves, why wouldn't Vince arrange the same thing for Bree as he has for Alice? There are a number of reasons. Bree is traveling the globe which would make it impractical and a drain on resources better spent elsewhere, any bodyguard assigned to Bree would defiantly be put in the line of fire while with Alice it's only a maybe, and Bree has more extensive combat training than Alice, essentially learning to keep herself alive after she started making powerful enemies. Alice wasn't given any such preparation because very few people relevant to the plot even know she exists.
Bree
As it turned out, the supports that hold up the roof of an SUV are not meant to hold the weight of the SUV as it dangles by the roof, something the occupants of aforementioned when the roof tore away like the lid of aluminum can. The SUV landed with a heavy thunk. The agents in the veilcle stared up at Optimus. Michalea stared at Bree.
"You knew this would happen." She stated while at the same moment Sam, rather sarcastically, introduced the agents to Optimus.
"I inferred it, given what I did know." Bree told Michaela.
"Taking the children was a bad move." The Autobot leader growled. "Autobots, relieve them of their weapons."
Jazz used some sort of magnet to do just that.
"Hey, hey big guy!" Bree exclaimed, getting the Prime's attention. "Legal adult here. Not a child!" she shouted as she worked the handcuffs off of her wrists. Optimus acknowledged her with a nod before addressing the agents again.
"You don't seem afraid. Are you not surprised to see us?" he asked.
"Look, there are S-Seven protocols, okay?" Simmions replied. "I'm not authorized to communicate with you except to tell you I can't communicate with you."
"You're eighteen?" Sam asked Bree, completely ignoring the exchange between agent and robot happening within arms reach.
"That's not what I said. I said that legally I'm adult. Have been since my seventeenth birthday, which was July." Bree answered.
"What about your parents?" Sam inquired. Bree's eyes darkened.
"Doesn't matter." She replied, twirling the handcuffs on one finger. Ben wouldn't be happy it had taken her that long, but it wasn't a skill she had practiced much. Michaela on the other hand was out before Bree was.
"You're good with handcuffs, too, now, huh?" Sam asked when Michaela started working on his cuffs.
"It's a good skill to have." Bree stated. She noticed that she being stared at by agents and aliens. With the agents it was understandable, they now had just that much more information but the aliens… Was that sympathy on their faces? Or was it pity? Hard to tell with aliens. Maybe she shouldn't have been so open ended and vague.
"Okay, enough with the staring. Agents, out of the car." Bree ordered.
"Just because your friends are here doesn't mean you can order me around." Simmons growled.
"Today I was supposed to go to Mission City." Bree began calmly. "It was supposed to be a normal day for me. Instead I get caught up with cybertronians and the day gets pushed into the top fifteen worst days of my life. You have pushed it into the top ten. Now get out of the car before I kick you between the legs until you pass out from the pain and then I'll keep kicking you until you bleed!" she ended with a shout. The agents scrambled to get out of the car.
Sam and Michaela gaped at Bree.
"Today has not been a good day for me." She told them.
"How is it not your number one?" Sam asked.
"Well, no one's dead, I haven't had to run for my life, haven't been tortured, and I haven't been kidnapped by accident because some psychopath was after one of my classmates. This day makes the list just because of how irritating it is." Bree replied. People were staring again.
"My life is screwed up. I realize this, I accept this, I've gotten used to it. The sooner you all do, the better it will be for your sanity." She told them. "Now line up so I can handcuff you all to this convenient pole."
Bree was rather creative when she handcuffed the agents. Simmons got handcuffed to the pole and the next agent got his hand cuffed to Simmons ankle and so on down the line until she ran out of agents.
Michaela had suggested taking Simmons pants since the man had threatened her father. Bree told the other teen that she didn't really want to see the guy in his underwear so Simmons got to keep his pants.
"You know what you're doing is all kinds of illegal." Simmons told Bree as she fished his badge out of his pocket.
"Only to people to exist and Sector Seven doesn't exist therefore S-Seven agents don't exist, ergo, you don't exist." Bree replied. She held up his badge to Sam and Michaela. "What do you think? Great souvenir of an incident that never happened, right?"
Sam stepped forward.
"Where are my parents?" he demanded.
"I am not at liberty to discuss it." Simmons replied.
"We really don't have time for this." Bree complained. "They'll probably have reinforcements head this way any moment."
Speak of the devil and he shall appear, with lights flashing, sirens blaring, and helicopters as back up.
And once again Bree found herself captured by the S-Seven agents. She could have escaped. There had been a perfect opportunity for her to get away while the agents were distracted capturing Bumblebee. The guilt, had she left him there, would have been too much. If she had used magic maybe she would have succeeded, but there were too many witnesses. Government agent witnesses. She was sympathetic, not stupid.
And now, after being held in a room for a few hours, she was in a helicopter along with Sam, Michaela, an overweight black guy, and some Australian blond that had introduced themselves as Glen and Maggie.
"So... What'd they get you for?" Glen asked.
"Bought a car. Turned out to be an alien robot." Sam replied.
"I should have just let him get murdered by the ghost car, but no, being a stupid hero is apparently infectious. I should punch Harry the next time I see him." Bree muttered so that only she could hear. Her eyes were squeezed shut and she had a white knuckled grip on the seat.
"Are you okay?" Maggie asked.
"No. I'm in a helicopter and I should have just let Sam get murdered by his damn ghost car!" Bree shouted.
"He's an alien." Sam replied.
"I didn't know that! I thought you were being chased by freaking Christine!" Bree yelled.
"Just calm down. Flying is the safest way to travel, right?" Michaela said.
"That only applies to planes!"
Needless to say, it was a long flight.
The Hoover Dam provided an excellent opportunity to escape. Bree would just have to jump over the wall into the lake and use the bubblehead charm to stay underwater until she put some distance between herself and the agents. Then she could contact UNIT somehow and tell them how badly Sector Seven was screwing things up. The agents wouldn't expect it either.
She would have done it too if she hadn't spotted something at a crucial moment. A Death Eater. A Death Eater who was highly unlikely to try anything as long as there were government agents around. For now, Sector Seven, even if it was leading her into the complete unknown, was the safer option. But she could only stay safe for so long.
They got a brief introduction to the Secretary of Defense, John Keller, and the head of Sector Seven, Tom Banachek. There were men from the military there as well, Captain Lennox and Sargent Epps.
"Alright, here's the situation: you've all had direct contact with the NBEs." Simmons stated as he and Banacheck lead the group through the dam.
"NBEs?" Epps questioned.
"Non-Biological Extraterrestrials. Try and keep up with the acronyms." Simmons replied.
"They're called Cybertronians." Bree interjected.
"They told you that?" Banacheck asked. Bree rolled her eyes.
"It's pretty common knowledge if you're in the loop which you aren't otherwise you wouldn't be treating friendlies as hostiles." She replied. "You're in the running with Torchwood One for "World's Stupidest Secret Government Organization." But do lead on."
"What you're about to see is beyond classified." Banacheck stated.
A vault-like door was opened revealing a long dim tunnel. The two agents led the group down the tunnel.
"Dear god, what is this?" Keller asked in shock. Bree felt similar sentiments, though for different reasons.
"We think, when he made his approach over the North Pole, our gravitational pull screwed up his telemetry," Banachek explained as he and Simmons led them further into the cold hangar, "He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago. We shipped him here to this facility in 1934."
"We call him NBE-1," Simmons supplied.
"First off, his name is Megatron. Second, this is a little bit like finding out your neighbor has an elder god chained in his basement." Bree interjected. "I can't decide if I should run away in terror or scream at you for not thinking of what will happen to the dam when this guy gets loose."
"That won't happen. We have security protocols in place." Simmons replied. "Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age, the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars- all reverse-engineered from studying him. NBE-1. That's what we call it."
"You really need to do some fact checking there Simmons. First self-propelled vehicle was made in the late seventeen hundreds and technological innovations come from all over the globe and Sector Seven doesn't seem to be into shareing. You sir are lying, exaggerating, or just plain wrong." Bree responded. Simmons looked angry.
"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 demanded before Simmons could say anything more.
"You mean you didn't know about this?" Bree asked incredulously. "Queen Victoria founded Torchwood and since then the Monarch has always had a hand in it."
"Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security, so there was no reason for the president to know." Banacheck answered.
"Not even as a heads up, "Hey we have this thing here, there might be more of them somewhere." No wonder you haven't made contact with any other species, they're all too busy laughing their collective asses off." Bree replied.
"Other species?" Keller questioned.
"Later." Bree answered. "Right now you need to be asking yourself, why are the Cybertronians interested in earth?"
"It's the All Spark." Sam told everyone.
"All Spark? What is that?" Keller inquired.
"Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube-looking thing." Sam began. "Anyway, Mr. NBE One here, AKA Megatron, that's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the Cube to transform human technology to take over the universe. That's his plan."
"And you're sure about that?" Simmions asked.
"Yeah." Sam replied.
Simmons and Banacheck exchanged a looked.
"You know where it is." Bree stated grinning darkly.
"Follow me." Said Banacheck.
The two agents had led the group to another part of the dam until they reached a door.
"You're about to see our crown jewel." Simmons bragged as he opened the door and ushered them into an observation room.
"Carbon dating puts the cube here around 10,000 B.C.E. The first seven didn't find it until 1913," Banachek explained as everyone took in the sight beyond the large window.
The All Spark was a metal cube roughly the size of a house and was covered in cybertronian glyphs. At least Bree assumed they were cybertronian. The goblin made translation key didn't translate alien language as well as the TARDIS's universal translator did and the effects of that particular device had worn off the moment the TARDIS taken off without her.
"They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE-1. President Hoover had the dam built around it. Four football fields thick of concrete; a perfect way of hiding its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside." Banacheck continued.
"Yeah, except that the energy it was putting out before can still be tracked. Radiation lingers and you know, someone could have been on their way before the dam was built and considering recent events, it seems like they've finally arrived. Not to mention that you're storing it in the same facility where you have robot-alien Hitler on ice… in a desert. Couldn't you have built a facility up in the frozen north where he could stay on ice naturally?" Bree ranted.
"The cube was here." Simmons replied. Bree stared blankly at him for a moment.
"I… I've stumbled in to some strange alternate universe were the government is, and always has been, run by morons. Any one of the many young children I am forced to watch over at every family could figure this out, I mean come on!" she began, her voice rising until she was almost shouting. "You are allowed to have more than one government research facility! You'd think the government would want to keep it citizens safe and would leave the potential threat in the frozen wasteland where no one lives so that if it ever escaped there would be fewer casualties!"
"She has a point." Keller stated. There was an awkward silence as Bree breathed deeply and rubbed her temples in an effort to calm herself down.
"Calm down, calm down. It's still not as bad as Torchwood One. Not as bad as Torchwood One." She muttered.
"When this is all over you'll have to tell me about this Torchwood One." Keller told her.
"Well that depends entirely on whether we're both still here when this is over." She replied. No one seemed to want to say anything for a moment.
"So um," Maggie began awkwardly, "Back up. You said the dam hides the cube's energy. What kind exactly?" she asked Banacheck.
The agents led them to yet another room. This one was made out of metal and had a door that would fit right in at a bank vault with a steel and glass box in the center.
"Please step inside. They have to lock us in." Banachek instructed. That wasn't really something anyone had wanted to hear, especially with the claw marks on the metal wall.
"So, has anyone died in here?" Bree asked. "'Cause if they have then I'd really like to be on the other side of the door right now."
"No deaths." Simmons replied. "Just a maiming or two, but we've improved safety measures since then."
"Right. I feel so comforted right now." Bree deadpanned as she moved as far away from the glass box as she could.
"Anyone have any mechanical devices? Blackberry? Key alarm? Cellphone?" Simmons questioned. Bree crossed her arms. She had a cellphone and a perception filter and she wasn't giving either up.
"I got a phone." Glen stated, handing over his Nokia.
"Ooh, Nokias are real nasty," Simmons said eagerly as Banachek passed out safety goggles, "You got to respect the Japanese. They know the way of the samurai."
"Nokia's Finnish, so you're thinking Vikings." Bree commented. Simmons scowled at her. She only smirked in response. She was starting to enjoy constantly correcting the man, if only because it upset him.
"We're able to take the cube radiation and funnel it into that box." Simmons stated after the cellphone had been placed in said box.
There was a flash of what could only be described as "blue lightning" inside the box, then the cellphone unfolded into a tiny cybertronian. It immediately began lashing out at its glass prison.
"Mean little sucker, huh?" Simmons commented.
"That thing is freaky!" Michaela exclaimed.
"Kind of like the itty-bitty. Energizer Bunny from hell, huh?" Simmons replied. The glass box began to crack.
"He's breaking the box." Simmons said needlessly. The "improved security measures" activated and electrocuted the tiny being within the box until it was reduced to smoldering remains.
"You didn't have to kill it." Bree stated as she took her goggles off."
"That thing was a monster-" Simmons began. Bree cut him off.
"A mistake, it had to be destroyed?" She glared as him. "You're worse than Cleaves."
Any questions that might have been coming were cut off by the distant sound of explosions followed by the lights flickering around them.
"They're here." Bree announced.
Banachek went to an intercom on the wall.
"Banachek. What's going on?" he asked.
"The NBE-1 hangar has lost power-" a static filled voice replied.
"What?!" Banachek exclaimed.
"-And the back-up generator is just not going to cut it…" the voice continued.
"Well this day just keeps moving up the list." Bree muttered.
"Do you have an arms room?" Lennox asked.
As the soldiers rushed around the arms room Bree quickly ran through her options. She could offer up her own supply of weapons and ammo. Of course her weapons weren't military grade and wouldn't be of much use against Cybertronians. She could run down to where Megatron was an try to refreeze him. But that would most likely end with her dead. She frowned.
"Forty millimeter sabot rounds on that table!" Simmons shouted.
"That's good. Get all the ammo you got. Everything you can carry. Bring it." Lennox ordered.
Pack mule. Should could do that, but first she would have to empty her inventory. All movement in the room stopped when everything Bree had been carrying in her inventory suddenly appeared out of thin air. Everyone stared.
"Space within space. Question it later. I can carry up to fifty without the weight bothering me at all. Prioritize." Bree explained quickly. Lennox glanced over what had materialized.
"Take all the medical supplies back." He ordered. "What's this stuff?" he asked. Bree looked where he was pointing as people began handing her things.
"Uh, Shimmer, Lockpick, and some odds and ends I was going to try and build a sonic screwdriver with. All alien. None of it useful right now." Bree replied.
"You got to take me to my car. You have to take me to my car. He's gonna know what to do with the Cube." Sam said to Simmons.
"Your car? It's confiscated." Simmons replied.
"Then un-confiscate it." Sam answered.
"We do not know what will happen if we let it near this thing!" the agent exclaimed.
"You don't know." Sam corrected.
"Maybe you know, but I don't know." Simmons responded.
"You just wanna sit here and wait and see what happens?" Sam argued.
"I have people's lives at stake here, young man." Simmons growled.
"Take him to his car!" Lennox shouted.
There was a brief struggle and Simmons ended up with a gun pointed at his chest.
"Drop your weapon, soldier. There's an alien war going on and you're going to shoot me?" Simmons asked.
"You know, we didn't ask to be here." Lennox replied.
I'm ordering you under S-Seven executive jurisdiction." Simmons said.
"S-Seven don't exist." Epps stated.
"Right. And we don't take orders from people that don't exist." Lennox continued.
"I'm going to count to five. Okay." Simmons stated.
"Well, I'm going to count to three." Lennoox responded.
"Simmons." Keller interject.
"Yes sir?" Simmons replied.
"I'd do what he says. Losing's really not an option for these guys." Keller continued.
"All right. Okay. Hey, you want to lay the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro? That's cool." Simmons said.
As they left Bree managed to grab some of her stuff and put it put in her mostly full inventory.
Line line line
The hallway echoed with a sound that seemed to be a cross between a dial up internet connection and pained screeching echoing from the bowls of hell. The worst part was discovering that the sound was coming from Bumblebee.
The yellow Autobot was restrained against a large metal slab and was being hosed down with either Freon or liquid nitrogen.
"No, no! Stop! You got to stop! Stop! Stop! Stop!" Sam pleaded.
"No, no, stop, stop, stop!" Banacheck echoed. "Let him go! Let him go!"
Everyone stopped what they were doing and backed away. Bumblebee got up and pointed his weapons at them.
"Are you okay?" Sam asked. Indistinct whirrs and clicks were the only reply.
"Listen to me. The Cube is here and the Decepticons are coming." Sam told Bumblebee. The Camaro was still waving his guns around.
"No, no, don't worry about them. They're okay. Right? They're not gonna hurt you." Sam assured Bumblebee before turning toward the S-seven scientists and agents.
"Just back up a little bit. He's friendly. He's fine." He said. He turned back to Bumblebee.
"Okay, come on. Put the guns down. They're not gonna hurt you. Here, come with me. I'm gonna take you to the All Spark." He said.
Sam led Bumblebee to the Allspark. The cybertronian somehow interacted with the cube and got it to collapse in on itself until it could fit in one hand. One cybertronian hand that is, a human would have to grip it with both hands.
"Message from Starfleet, Captain…Let's get to it." The mish-mash of audio clips came out of Bumblebee's speakers.
"He's right. We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar. Mission City is 22 miles away. We're going to sneak that Cube out of here and we're going hide it somewhere in the city." Lennox stated.
"And get a bunch of innocent people killed." Bree added. "Brilliant plan."
"You got a better plan?" Epps asked.
"Go shoot Megatron in the face before he finishes defrosting." Bree suggested. "Or destroy the cube."
Bumblebee made a distressed noise.
"You can't do that! They need it to rebuild their civilization!" Sam exclaimed.
"I'm a little more worried about protecting ours." Bree growled.
"They could react violently if we destroyed it." Lennox pointed out, effectively shooting down Bree's idea. "As for your other idea, we don't know how much time we have until that thing is able to shoot back."
"Fine, whatever. We'll go with your plan." Bree muttered.
"Good." Lennox replied. "But we can't make a stand without the air force."
"This place must have some kind of radio link!" Keller exclaimed.
"Yes." Simmons replied.
"Shortwave, CB?" Keller asked.
"Right, Yes." Simmons answered.
"Sir, you got to figure out some way to get word out to them. Let's move!" Lennox declared.
It must have been the strangest convoy anyone had seen, made even stranger when they met up with the other Autobots on the way and they fell in line. Shiny civilian cars and a Semi mixed in with military vehicles. Bree was right where she didn't want to be, crammed Bumblebee's back seat.
"Hey, uh, Felicity," Sam began.
"What?" Bree asked crossly.
"Well I was wondering if you could put the Allspark in that, uh, "space within space" you have?" Sam questioned. "You know, to keep the Decepticons from finding it until we find a better place to put it."
Bree glared at him for a moment.
"Hand it over and I'll see what I can do." She muttered.
Sam handed the cube to her. Bree regretted it the moment the Allspark was in her hands. It felt like energy surging up her arms, shoving her magic out of the way and heading straight for her reserves. She tossed it back to Sam.
"Not going to work." She muttered as Sam fumbled with the cube.
"Why not?" Michaela asked.
"That thing is concentrated energy." Bree replied.
"So?" Michaela asked.
Bree frowned, trying to think of a way to explain without giving away too much. That was when the Decepticons attacked.
Optimus broke off to engage while the rest of the convoy kept going.
People gawked when the strange convoy pulled into the city. They stopped and Lennox went and raided a nearby electronics store for some shortwave radios.
"Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?" Epps asked when Lennox shoved the radios into his hands.
"Well, use them! It's all we got!" Lennox exclaimed.
"This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man." Epps complained. "I'm only gonna get twenty or thirty miles out of these things."
"Are there any aircraft circling the city?" Lennox asked. The distinctive roar of a jet engine cut through the air.
"F-22 at 12:00!" Epps exclaimed.
"All right, I want planes for air cover and get Black Hawks on station to extract that Cube. You got it?" Lennox told him.
"Air Force has arrived! Pop smoke!" Lennox shouted everyone else. Green smoke filled the air as the order was followed.
"Raptor, Raptor, do you copy? We have you visual. Green smoke is the mark. Provide air cover and vector Black Hawks for extraction!" Epps yelled into the radio.
Ironhide transformed. "It's Starscream!" he shouted. That wasn't good.
"Please tell me you copy." Epps begged the radio.
"Get down! Get down! Get down!" Bree shouted, grabbing Sam and Michaela and ducking behind one of the military vehicles.
Ironhide and Bumblebee lifted up a trailer to provide cover for the humans. The trailer exploded and for a brief moment it seemed like everything else had exploded as well. There was smoke and flames and debris. Being so close to an explosion, Bree was naturally a bit dazed. She slowly sat up and shook her head to clear the ringing from her ears. It didn't help.
Looking around she saw that everyone was okay, more or less. Bumblebee's legs from the knee down were gone, but Bree figured that probably wasn't as big of an issue for a Cybertronian as it would be for a human, replaceable parts and all that. Sam didn't seem to share her sentiment and was panicking and calling for Ratchet.
Bree realized that her hat was falling off and adjusted it.
"What the hell was that!" Lennox exclaimed.
"The enemy can transform into any vehicle!" Bree shouted at him. The "you moron" wasn't said, but it was implied by her glare.
"So they're impersonating us now?" Lennox asked. Bree shrugged.
"Military vehicles are badass." She replied just as a tank started rumbling down the street.
It was chaos. Explosions, gunfire, people screaming and running. It was war. Bree had no idea what to do. She was trained to survive and every instinct screamed at her to run. Indecision had practically paralyzed her.
"It's Megatron! Retreat! Move! Fall back!" Jazz shouted, snapping Bree out of it.
"Fall back." Lennox echoed. While everyone was moving away from the Decepticon leader Jazz moved forward to provide a distraction.
Once a somewhat safe distance away Bree turned and looked back. Jazz and Megatron were on top of a building. Bree had no idea what either alien was saying but it looked as if Jazz was taunting Megatron. The Decepticon leader didn't take kindly to this and picked the smaller Cybertronian up and moved to tear him in half. Bree wanted to look away, she really did, but then a column of water shot up from street level and slammed into Megatron, freezing when it made contact.
Megatron roared in outrage and dropped Jazz. The Autobot plummeted several stories and hit the ground. Bree stared in disbelief. It barely registered when someone shoved a piece of paper and ran off. She blinked and looked at the paper. There were two words next to a crudely drawn picture of an hourglass in a circle. The two words were: One turn.
Something clicked for Bree and she dropped the note. She dumped everything she was carrying for the soldiers near one of their vehicles and ducked into an alley and pulled out her time turner. She put it around her neck and turned it one time. Everything ran backward, like a high speed rewind. When it stopped there were no signs of the Autobots or Decepticons. Everything was peaceful, normal. And it would stay that way for about an hour… now what?
Bree pulled out the list of people who owed and honed in on the address of the debtor that lived in mission city. His place a business was closer. Bree ran back to the electronics shop Lennox had gotten the radios from, or where he would get them anyway. The shop specialized in vintage electronics and mostly catered to collectors. At least it did in the front.
"Jimmy!" Bree exclaimed when she burst into the shop. The man behind the counter started. He was thin and nerdy looking with freckled skin and thick glasses.
"That's not my name. It's-" Jimmy began to protest.
"Don't care." Bree interjected as she flipped the open sign to closed. "Back room. Now."
"What! Why!" Jimmy exclaimed.
"Short version. You owe Lisa Smith. I collect debts for Lisa Smith. Therefore, you owe me." Bree explained quickly.
"Do you have any proof?" Jimmy asked.
"I have a list of people who owe and a gun." Bree replied, showing off both items. "If I can't convince you I will shoot you."
"Okay, okay. I believe you." Jimmy said. Under his breathe he added "Only Lisa would hire someone this crazy."
"What was that?" Bree snapped.
"Nothing!" Jimmy answered quickly.
"Good." Bree responded, surveying the cases. She spotted the radios she remembered Lennox grabbing.
"Take those out and set them on the counter." She ordered.
"Why?" Jimmy questioned.
"Just do it!" Bree growled. Jimmy complied, grumbling the whole time.
"Now what?" he questioned once the radios were on the counter.
"Back room." Bree replied. Jimmy unlocked the door to the back. Bree immediately rushed in and began picking through objects.
"Useless, useless, fake, useless, have one of those, don't know what that is, needs fixing." She muttered.
"Be careful!" Jimmy protested.
"This whole place is going to be a warzone in less than an hour, there's no time for careful." Bree snapped.
"What are you talking about?" Jimmy questioned.
"Aliens." Bree replied. "Get me a piece of paper and a pen." Jimmy just stood there.
"Now!" Bree snapped. Jimmy rushed back to the front room.
"Psychic paper! That'll help, eventually." Bree exclaimed tucking the paper away. Jimmy came back.
"How did you get a batarang?" Bree asked as she wrote.
"Batman leaves those things everywhere." Jimmy replied.
"Okay! Jimmy grab something valuable and easy to carry because I'm not sure if you're shop will survive what's coming, and if it does it will probably be looted. Then go down three blocks that way, wait for the geyser to hit the robot, give this note to me and run." Bree instructed. She handed the note to Jimmy and went back to sorting through objects.
"Why?" Jimmy asked.
"All of reality depends on you doing this Jimmy. You need to go wait for the geyser. You need to wait, give me the note, then run. No matter what happens before the geyser you can't run, you'll be fine, but you need to wait." Bree answered.
"Okay." Jimmy said.
"Go Jimmy, we have less than an hour!" Bree shouted. Jimmy ran.
"Doesn't this guy have any weapons!" Bree exclaimed as she continued her search. "I might be able to build a couple of sonic devices hold them against each other and hope the feedback is enough to knock out a Decepticon… if I hand a month, didn't need to sleep, and could live off an I.V. of Mountain Dew!"
She took some parts to tinker with anyway. She really wanted to make her own sonic screwdriver. After a few minutes she gave up and left the shop and headed for the building Megatron and Jazz would end up on. Along the way she activated her perception filter and arrived at a fire hydrant across the street from the building just as the convoy drove by.
She waited for events to play out until the moment she was needed. When Megatron grabbed Jazz she blasted the hydrant, sending water straight up. She directed the water towards Megatron and froze it once it hit. She quickly froze the geyser to cap off the water pressure as Megatron turned to face whatever had attacked him. He snarled when he couldn't find anything and moved on go after the Allspark.
Bree moved toward Jazz. The silver Autobot was damaged rather extensively from the fall and from Megatron begging to tear him in two. Bree deactivated her perception filter.
"Jazz?" she said as she got close to the downed Autobot.
"Felicity?" he questioned weakly. Bree hesitated for a moment.
"Bree." She said finally.
"What?" Jazz asked.
"My name. It's Bree." She replied.
"I thought I told you to retreat." Jazz murmured.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't about to allow you to commit suicide by Megatron." Bree replied.
Jazz chuckled weakly before groaning in pain.
"I'll go find Rachet." Bree stated before running off, she didn't get very far before intense pain coursed through her body. She screamed.
"Bree!" Jazz called out while trying and failing to sit up. He couldn't even see what was happened.
The pain stopped and Bree realized what had happened. She had completely forgotten about the Death Eaters. She only had a moment to berate herself before she was knocked out.