Chapter 10
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, they're owned by Hasbro. Any other copyrighted material found in this story is the property of its respected owner.
Lita turns to the direction of the metallic voice and sees a red 2002 Pontiac Firebird accompanied by a blue 2004 Chevrolet Corvette Z06 speeding toward her. A split second later, a powerful shock wave, followed by a loud crunch, forces her to the ground, churning up dirt and pieces of concrete. Looking up, she sees the Decepticon Starscream landed right on top of her, his right foot just a metre away. Lita wants to get up and run, but is too paralyzed with fear. All she can do now is just watch the events unfold around her. The two approaching cars transform into their robot modes and race to the Decepticon weapons drawn.
"HA HA HA!" Starscream laughs out loud, and quickly extends the energon blade. "Double the bots, double the FUN!"
"Split up Tracks! We'll get him on both sides." The red Autobot orders.
Tracks replies. "Got it Hot Rod! Hope my paint job don't get scratched."
Dodging the shots from the Seeker, Hot Rod fires his blaster pistol at the jet, with a couple impacting the ground near Lita, forcing her into a fetal position.
Aided by his engines, Starscream hovers several meters from where he landed and takes aim. The laser cannons let loose a burst of concentrated beams which slam into Hot Rod's path, which the Autobot leaps and dives for cover.
The Autobot Tracks runs through the water and fires. Only a few find their mark, making Starscream land with little grace. Ignoring the pain, he shoots a couple of missiles at his blue attacker which impacts the water in front of the Autobot. Tracks fires a couple of snap shots into the watery plums, but misses.
Covering her head and shivering in fright, Lita feels and hears the battle raging around her, and wishes for it to stop.
Hot Rod gets back up and with haste glances at the humans trying to escape the battle. He fires at the Decepticon. A few hit him in the back and one in a wing, causing Starscream to collapse on one knee, narrowly missing the terrified girl.
He yelps at the incredible pain from his wing, the most sensitive spot on a Seeker's body, and folds them onto his back to prevent anymore damage. Looking up, he sees the approaching blue mech, and raises his arm cannons. Big mistake, he'll soon realise.
Using the momentum, Tracks grabs the Seeker's arms, spins around, and flings him into the water. The red jet impacts with a wet and muffled thud. While looking for his gun, Tracks sees a ball like form.
"Holy crap." The Autobot Corvette realises. "Hot Rod! We have a civilian here. Possibly injured!"
The red Pontiac stands up and runs to his comrade. "I'm contacting D.C. Emergency services!"
A blurred form lands behind the Autobot Corvette, catching him by complete surprise. He crouches slightly and stretches his arms to keep balance. A glowing purple/pink blade slashes in a downward arc, cutting off the Corvette's left arm, and sends Tracks to his knees in agony.
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!" Cries out the blue Autobot.
Hot Rod looks on in shock. "TRACKS! I'M COMING!"
A hand grabs Tracks' shoulder and spins him around. With an upward slash, the glowing blade cuts into the bot's torso and exits the upper chest. With the extreme rush of pain and shock, Tracks' systems shut down. Knocking the disabled Corvette to the side, the blade armed machine focuses its attention to Hot Rod in the distance.
"You're gonna pay for that a—hole!" Hot Rod vows.
"Wanna bet!" Starscream rebuttals.
The jet leaps into the air dodging his enemy's shots, and returns the favor with his own laser cannons. Still in the air, Starscream fires a couple of missiles and dives toward the Autobot. The Autobot jumps from side to side trying to avoid the onslaught, but a couple laser bolts impact him, which only manage to slow down the red bot. He is however knocked over by a missile hit to his chest, and is then flung backward by the concussion of the second missile impacting infront of him.
Disoriented, Hot Rod feels sharp hits to his shoulders from more laser fire. He then senses a sharp, cutting pain to the left leg, and collapses to his knees. A split second afterward, he feels a slash across his back and instinctively arches forward, then falls on his side.
"HA HA HA!" The Seeker laughs. "This thing is amazing. Finally, a weapon that hasn't failed on the first try."
The huddled girl, feeling that the battle has moved away from her location, braves a look. She notices the two combatants in the distance, one standing, the other laying on its side not moving. Scanning around she sees a blue robot, laying on the ground, and heavily damaged. She slowly stands up and begins to gather her things. Luckily, just her laptop, which she grabs and stuffs in the backpack. Sensing vibrations in the ground, Lita cautiously turns around and looks up. Her jaw slightly drops and her eyes open their widest as she finds herself staring into the bright red eyes of the Decepticon, who is staring right back at her.
Sudden high pitched whines break both their concentration. The jet crouches and looks up at the sky, seeing a quartet of jets. It's the Aerialbots.Starscream thinks to himself. He looks down and sees the human girl, who is hunched over and covers her ears. The Seeker grabs her and lifts the human up to his chest. She looks up in terror at him.
"You're my ticket outta here, my dear." Starscream says with delight.
The Decepticon inserts the hostage into his cockpit while transforming, and then takes off. Seeing that, the wounded Hot Rod radios the Aerialbots.
"Hot Rod...to Aer...Aerialbots." He painfully communicates.
The F-16D Falcon answers. "This is Skydive. Go ahead Hot Rod."
"Do not...fire on Star...scream." He struggles. "He has...a hostage. Hold fire."
"Say again Hot Rod. Did you say Starscream took a hostage?" Skydive asks for confirmation.
Hot Rod tries to pull himself along the ground. "Confirm...Starscream has...a hostage."
"Copy that Hot Rod." Skydive relays. "Aerialbots, do not engage."
Each of the Autobot jets send a signal to Skydive, confirming his HOLE FIRE order. They keep their distance, and simply follow the Seeker.
At the battle scarred Reflecting Pool, the wounded Hot Rod reaches Tracks, and puts a compassionate hand on the Corvette's head. The sight of the city's emergency vehicles comes into view, as does the Aerialbot leader; Silverbolt. Relieved, Hot Rod allows himself to shut down.
Inside the main hangar bay, Scrapper directs the movement and organization of the latest shipment. The Stunticons have been brought in to help out when TC and Skywarp ended their shift. Scrapper's attention is then drawn to the opening doors of the docking tower. Next shipment isn't due for another few days. Scrapper ponders. Moving toward the opened doors, the constructicon hears footsteps coming from the darkened space. He slowly reaches for the gun behind his back, but relaxes when the emerging form is recognized.
Scrapper releases a relieved sigh. "Oh it's you, Starscream."
"Who were you expecting?" Comes the pondering response from the Seeker.
The Constructicon leader looks over the Air Commander from head to toe. Covered in dirt and drying mud, burn marks on his body, a hole in one of the wings, and splashes of various liquids. That's gonna be quite the debrief. Scrapper thinks.
"How did the energon blade work?" The front loader queries.
The only answer came as the form of a glance and a smirk. The puzzled Decepticon stares at the passing Seeker until he exits the main hangar bay.
Scrapper then clicks his communicator. "Lord Megatron. This is Scrapper."
"Go ahead Scrapper." Comes the reply.
"Starscream just arrived." The neutral tone says.
The hurt jet makes his way to the command room after hearing Megatron's voice bellowing through his personal communicator. On entering the command room, he sees fellow mechs occupying several computer stations. The monitors show various locations on earth and others show news reports of the latest events happening around the globe; America launching the first batch of satellites for its new missile defence shield, Iranian and Saudi naval and air forces engage in sporadic battles, and Russian oil and natural gas production increases as demand grows. Attention is then drawn to the Seeker's dirty and damaged appearance. Many having questioning looks on their faces, even the Decepticon leader gets the same reaction.
"Well Starscream. How was the test?" Megatron asks.
"I'm fine. Thanks for asking." Comes the sarcastic reply.
"If I cared how you were, I'd ask. Just give me the results." Was Megatron's response to the Seeker's typical sneering.
"I have to say, I'm impressed." Starscream happily says. Extending the blade from its housing, he looks over the weapon with content and gos on. "Finally, a weapon that hasn't failed on it's opening night."
Shockwave steps forward and examines the glowing sword. "How was the weapon's performance during actual combat conditions?"
"It's performance was admirable. Cutting right through the Autobots' armour without hesitation, and I was able to slice off ones arm with relative ease." The Seeker continued his debrief.
With a smile of approval, Megatron congratulates the red Seeker. "Well done Starscream. Looks like you actually succeeded this time." With a smirk, he adds. "A rare occurance."
"Much like you victory record against Prime's kind." Starscream throws back.
Everybody in the room stopped what they were doing, as the tension just spiked up. Starscream's come back wasn't taken well by the Decepticon leader, but yet they never are. Approaching the insulting jet with a clenching fist, Megatron is stopped by the sound of tapping. He hears the sound again and deduces it's coming from Starscream.
He points at the Seeker. "What's that tapping sound coming from you?"
Knowing what Megatron is talking about, the Seeker decides to let it out. At least the discomfort of having it banging around inside will be over.
"It's my ticket to surviving my last encounter." The red jet articulates.
A bodily form flops out of the opening cockpit and is caught by the Seeker's hands. Megatron, Soundwave, and Shockwave, move to the Air Commander and stare at his cupped fists.
Megatron looks up at the Seeker's face. "What...is that?"
"I told you. It's my ticket to surviving..." He tries to explain but is cut off by the silver mech's dismissive gesture.
"I heard you the first time." Megatron says with an annoyed tone. "What is that...thing?"
Starscream un cups his hands to reveal what is inside. The object, curled into a ball, slowly raises its head and glances around. Cautiously, it stands up and is in full view of the trio of mechs.
"A human femme." Says the monotone Soundwave.
With that declaration, the attention of every robot in the room is caught, and much idle chatter starts. Her discomfort increasing, she turns her head only to face another mech staring, and turns it yet again just to be under the red eyes of another.
"Why have you brought that insect here?" Demands Megatron pointing at the girl.
"I needed to keep her with me until I got to the base. The Aerialbots were pursuing me during my entire escape. If I would've let her go early, they would have attacked me. " Explains Starscream.
"You're worried about being attacked by the rookies?" Megatron queries with a hint of annoyance.
"They outnumber me five to one. Even I can't defeat them all myself."
"What, you couldn't of dumped it into the ocean just before you landed?"
"I had to be absolutely sure I was safe. Unlike YOU, I do not leave things to chance."
Strascream puts the girl gently on the nearby table, and then returns to argue with his master. She just stands there, head lowered, and arms tightly wraped around her backpack. Upon hearing some metallic sounding friction, Lita turns around and sees a couple of Decepticons standing before her. These two are much smaller than the rest, pretty close to human size, and are identical. Only their colour scheme differentiates the two.
"Hey fleshy". The blue/purple one points. "Hand over the bag if you know whats good for ya."
Lita holds on to her backpack even tighter and steps back without saying a word.
"What are ya? Deaf or just stupid?" The black/red one says. "My bro, Rumble said hand it over!"
"You said it Frenzy!" Rumble happily agrees.
With no response from the girl after several seconds, the two mini Decepticons decide to take it themselves. Approaching the girl, she backs up until she feels one of her feet on the table ledge. Turning her head quickly, she sees the Decepticon commander and her kidnapper still arguing. No one is paying attention to what is happening on the table, she is all on her own. Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath; They're just the same as the bullies from school. Lita tells herself.
"Last chance fleshy. Gimme!" Demands Frenzy, now just a few feet away.
Opening her eyes, she throws with full force her backpack at Frenzy. The bag smacks him right in the face, catching the mech completely off guard. Quickly ducking she swings out her legs and knocks over the unbalanced Decepticon. Rumble, mouth wide open at the sheer sight of his brother being knocked down, quickly regains his composure and rushes the girl.
"Now you're gonna tumble with RUMBLE!" The decepticon declares.
At the last moment, Lita jumps to the side and kicks Rumble in the back as he passes by, sending him over the table ledge, and crashing onto the floor. The sudden commotion grabs the attention of Soundwave who sees his cassettes in distress. Grabbing the girl, he brings her to his expressionless face.
"Resistance: failed." The digital monotone voice says.
She yelps as Soundwave squeezes his hand around her body. Good thing I got this after leaving Autobot City. Lita thinks to hereslf. She reaches into her coat pocket, pulls out a gun like object, and points it at his visage. Two spike electrodes leap from the item and hits his red visor. Soundwave abruptly cocks his head back as fifty thousand volts course through the wires and shorts his optics. Releasing his grip, the girl drops the short distance to the table top, and comes face to face with an angered Frenzy. Forming his arms into the dreaded pile-drivers, the mini Decepticon aims them right at the girl. However, a black metallic hand whisks away Lita before she gets whats coming to her.
"That's quite enough little fleshy." Megatron declares while bringing her close to his face.
He turns his head abruptly as she spits at him. The Decepticon master turns back with much anger at the human. His eyes glowing bright red at being debased by such an inferior species. Unamused, Megatron faces his Air Commander. "This creature is just as insufferable as YOU!"
"HA HA HA!" Starscream laughs loudly.
"Enough!" Megatron orders.
"Why would I stop? This is hysterical!" The overjoyed Seeker says. "A frightened human femme, gets attacked by both Rumble AND Frenzy, and beats them! Then, mighty Soundwave tries to intimidate her, but instead gets shot by a high voltage taser gun. And they NEVER saw it coming!"
"Since you're so impressed, Starscream." Megatron articulates while pointing at his Air Commander. "YOU take care of it!"
A look of surprise comes to the Seeker's face fom hearing that. "What?!" He bellows with disbelief. "I am NOT a babysitter!"
The chuckling silver mech, loving the reaction of the jet then adds. "No...I say you're more of a daddy." He walks up to the reluctant looking Starscream and drops Lita into his cupped hands. "Congradulations. It's a girl."
Staring down at the human sparkling kneeling in his hands, her bright green eyes fixed on his face, Starscream lets out a breath of disapointment. Crap. He thinks to himself. Maybe I should've dumped it in the ocean like Megatron suggested.
Upon Starscream leaving the room, Megatron brings his attention to the sightless Soundwave and the angered cassette twins. Soundwave's self repair system begins to bring his sight back online, and informs Megatron that no real damage was done, she just got lucky, that's all. Frenzy helps Rumble to his feet, and both want to get back at Lita. The Decepticon Lord walks to Shockwave who is examining the only items worth his attention in the girl's backpack; the laptop, cellphone, and the digital camera.
"Lord Megatron." The purple mech calls. "There is something you need to see."
"Alright. What is it Shockwave?" Megatron asks when approaching his operations commander.
The single eyed Decepticon shows him pictures of various Autobots. With much interest, the silver mech scrolls through more, his attention increasing with every passing pic.
"That is the Autobots' new super computer. Teletraan-two." Megatron says with some shock in his tone. "And these are pictures of...the interior of Autobot City."
"Confirmed Lord Megatron." Shockwave declares. "We were never able to get such detail of the inner workings of their city."
With one hand clutching his chin, and a grin on his face, Megatron revels at this development. "Primus. That girl just gave us the greatest intelligence coup in over twenty years on this planet."