Author's Note: the poll is going good, guys... even though a couple of you actually voted. I'm going to keep it going for maybe a couple more days before I pick a name myself and post the next poll for her enemy, so there may be a slight lull in the updates to come.
I've received another guest review regarding Riley and her potential Autobot name, telling me I should keep her human name. The only reason I'm doing a name change for her is she's trying to come to terms with what's happening to her and fitting in among the Autobots.
Chapter Ten: Runaway
I watched the ebony headed young man before me as he looked anywhere else but where I stood watching him. Ironhide, I could tell, knows I'm here, but is simply unwilling to acknowledge it. A moment longer was spent observing and weighing my options before I finally worked up the courage to walk toward him, stopping only a few feet away.
"Ironhide? What are you doing here?" I asked, getting his attention as I found myself under the intense alien blue of his eyes. And for the first time, I've noticed they actually look like they're glowing and they quite possibly are.
Ironhide uncrossed his arms and pushed himself off the side of his true form. "It's a nice night, ain't it? I normally come out here to think," he said nonchalantly.
That made me laugh quietly. "That is uncharacteristic of you, 'Hide. Thinking isn't your style: acting first and asking questions later is. I know Prowl wanting to see me was Jazz and Bumblebee's cover story to get me alone with you. Wanna explain why?" I said, getting rewarded with a crooked smile and Ironhide took my hand to lead me to his tailgate. He seemed to hesitate there before I beat him to the punch and lowered it myself to find a wide array of pillows and blankets tossed into it.
"It was Bumblebee's idea," he mumbled and I snickered, climbing onto the tailgate and settled myself among the pillows and blankets that looked like they were haphazardly thrown into the bed. "I think it's a little overboard myself."
"You asked for their help, did you not? You should've known it would involve throw pillows from the rec room and stolen comforters," I giggled, pulling a blanket over my legs and patted the spot beside me in an invitation to join me. "If you play your cards right, I'll spend the night in the bed of your truck."
Ironhide smirked, climbing in as well, settling himself beside me. We sat in silence for some time, me looking heavenward to observe the stars with Ironhide watching me. The entire time I amused myself with trying to find constellations, I kept my companion in my peripheral vision, observing his face carefully.
"Mind me turning the radio on?"
"Mmm?" I hummed, looking back to him. "Go ahead. I'm not stopping you."
Not a moment passed before a slow song began drifting from the speakers in the unmistakable tune of Big and Rich's "Lost in the Moment". I blushed. "Ironhide, who picked out the song? Was that your pick?" I asked, trying to calm down my racing heart as the chorus played again.
He nodded, leaning backwards to brace himself against the tool bench. "Yeah."
"This song is about a wedding," I said softly, still blushing at the apparent meaning to the lyrics. "You know, a human mating ceremony."
His eyes widened and the song shut off. "Damn it! I'm not trying to give you the wrong impression or anything, but Jazz said it was a better choice than Tears for Fears," he nearly shouted, clearly flustered and inadvertently switched on his radio to let the lyrics lost in the moment with you drift over the speakers before shutting it off again.
I laughed. "I know what you're getting at, Ironhide. He's caught up in his happiness marrying the woman of his dreams. The one his heart has been waiting for his whole life. Try it again," I said, amused at the rare sight of a flustered Ironhide. "I'm sure they gave you more tracks to play than just that one."
He seemed to stare into space for a moment, possibly looking through the selected songs Jazz hand-picked for him before another song drifted through the air, the entire song skipping to the chorus. I nearly died laughing at the look on his face as the heavy Southern accented voice of Randy Travis' "Deeper Than The Holler" filled the air. "I didn't know you liked Randy!" I giggled, becoming more and more amused at the flustered state of the weapons specialist.
We sat there for the next thirty minutes listening to snippets of love songs from every kind of artist Jazz and Bumblebee could think of until it seemed Ironhide had enough of me being amused at the musical onslaught. "If you keep laughing, I'm just going to stop. They said these were good choices."
I giggled a few moments longer before composing myself and said, "Okay. I'm done. No more laughing. I'll be supportive of the next song, Ironhide. Promise."
"Well, they gave me one to use if you decided the others weren't good enough, so..." I didn't even have time to ask him what that would entail before an all new song filtered through the speakers. Justin Timberlake's "Mirrors" coming from Ironhide's speakers seemed just as uncharacteristic as the other lovey-dovey songs as the chorus played seemingly on a loop.
I blushed, twisting around in my seat to watch him. "Ironhide... please tell me you understand what this song's meaning is," I said, hoping I didn't sound too desperate.
His unwavering blue eyes didn't show anything to tell me he had no idea what it meant. "I know."
All in one moment, I gathered up what courage I had and scooted closer. Ironhide responded to my movement and pulled me closer to him, settling me down on his lap and wrapping his arms around me protectively. Leaning into his chest, I let out a contented sigh, closing my eyes in bliss of the moment. We stayed this way for what felt like eternity, though it may have only been thirty seconds until Ironhide shifted, gently taking hold of my chin and guided my face to his. Ironhide leaned in closer until there was only an inch of empty air between us and I allowed my eyes to close, holding my breath as I dared to close the gap, taking pleasure at the contact.
"WHOOO! LOOK AT IRONHIDE AND HIS GIRLFRIEND!" a voice crowed, followed by a flash of light.
We both jumped and separated on instinct, the both of us rather embarrassed at being caught.
Blinking rapidly, I found the intruder was Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and a human they possibly coaxed into spying on us with them. I scowled, shaking off my embarrassment with irritation as I jumped out of Ironhide's truck bed and ran at them.
"Uh oh. Run!" Sideswipe shouted, transforming and driving away with Sunstreaker and their human companion hot on his heels.
"I'm going to dismantle you two and sell your parts on eBay!" I shrieked, bringing a gun to bear and opened fire on my fleeing targets as I continued chasing after them.
That morning brought even more embarrassment for me and Ironhide.
I had woken up to find a blown up picture of me and Ironhide kissing taped to the ceiling. I stared at the image long and hard for a few minutes, my half awakened mind still processing it before I blushed and quickly got dressed and ran down the hallway in search of Ironhide. The run seemed to take forever since soldiers would start catcalling and whistling as I went by, finding every available inch on wall was taken up with that picture of me and Ironhide.
Turning a corner, I bumped Optimus standing there observing that infernal picture.
"I see your trouble with Ironhide has been resolved," he said finally.
"It was Sunstreaker and Sideswipe! Get them to take those damn pictures down!" I begged him, blushing as another soldier wolf whistled at me and exclaimed, "You go, girl!"
Shaking my head in my rising anger, I shouted, "Those two are behind this! If I find them again, I'm using them for target practice!" Seeing that tired look in his optics at the complaints about the twins, I groaned in frustration and stormed off. I didn't stop until I was clear of the base and on the nearby island I had taken to wandering off to for privacy.
The person I found there was what surprised me.
XxXxX(Ocean Heights)XxXxX
"Ugh!" Sunny growled, winding her hands in her hair and slammed her head against the table in frustration. "What does it mean?!"
The young woman's parents watched her from the doorway to her room, worried about what has become their daughter's newest obsession in deciphering the decidedly alien symbols in her friend's sketchbooks.
"Sweetie, why don't you stop for the night?" her mother asked, moving to stand beside her daughter. "You've been working on this all day. You need to stop and rest."
Sunny snapped to attention, raising her head to look at her mother with a slightly offended look. "I need to know what this is! Riley drew it all over herself and all over her drawings! She even went so far as painting these symbols all over her room and in that crawlspace!" she cried, frustration evident in her voice.
For a while, there was silence before her father stepped in, asking, "Why do you not ask Riley?"
"She and her family dropped off the face of the Earth last month! All that's left to prove they were here at all is the broken picture frames holding family photos and their half destroyed house!"
Before her father could answer, Darren burst into the room and slammed the book he was carrying onto the desk. "You told me to come get you if I found anything. Well, I found something. And you're not gonna believe this."
XxXxX(Diego Garcia)XxXxX
Chief sat there on the ground, sitting cross legged like I would do when I would sit in in his driver's seat. The rust on his chassis is gone, replaced by a brand new paintjob and any dents and scratches on his body repaired. His optics were darkened and a sort of smile tugged at the edges of his mouth in contentment.
"Chief? What are you doing here?"
The mech responded to my presence and moved, tilting his head to the side, but didn't make a move to do anything more, powering up his optics to look at me. "Hmm?"
"Am I bothering you? I can come back later," I said, amused at the Autobot's lack of his stoic disposition.
"You're alright to stay, kid. You ain't botherin' anything," he rumbled, his optics shining in amusement and scooped me into his hands before depositing me on his shoulder. "I could do with some company."
XxXxX(Ocean Heights)XxXxX
The group gathered around the desk, gaping at what they were seeing. What had gotten them so interested was the picture Darren was pointing to on the page.
It was an expertly sketched picture that took up two pages that portrayed a battle in a city. Buildings were destroyed and the ground littered with cracks in the asphalt. Soldiers would appear in the action here and there alongside even larger figures that seemed to take up most of the page and another stood in the background and partially hiding behind a destroyed building as though hiding from enemy fire.
"That's not the weirdest part about this picture. What got my attention were the figures in the background," Darren said, fishing a magnifying glass out of his pocket and held it over the nearly invisible figure in the background. "Doesn't she look familiar to you?"
Sunny shook her head in disbelief. "That's... Riley."
He nodded. "And looke who's with her."
"Isaiah."
"And remember the dude with the tattoos you said was following her around? He's there with her," Darren said, moving the glass upwards to show a grim faced Ironhide.
Sunny frowned, scrutinizing the picture a moment, before asking, "Think you can scan that into the computer, Darren? Maybe if we zoom in that way we can tell for sure."
The young man nodded, picking the book up and set to work, within minutes pulling the picture un on the desktop. Darren pressed a few more buttons before a zoomed in image of Riley, Isaiah, and Ironhide's holoform dominated the screen. "Who is that guy? He's almost in every picture of Riley's that has a battle in it."
"I overheard her talking to the guy. I think she called him Cleatus," Sunny shrugged. "Who knows? It could've been the other cowboy I saw her with for all we know."
"We're just scratching the surface," Darren said, pulling out a pile of loose papers and scanned each one into the computer. Sunny and her parents watched as the young man worked for a good few minutes until all the pages were scanned. "Give me another few minutes or so. I need to zoom the images out and arrange them just so... we have another image."
Sunny and her parents gaped. The picture taking over the screen was of that same mech Sunny and Darren had found painted on the wall in Riley's home with a simple phrase scribbled beneath it. "'Do not obey'," Sunny read. "That's the image she painted on the wall in her crawlspace. But why did she go through so much trouble hiding this?"
Darren shrugged. "I don't know, but I've managed to decipher some of these weird symbols. As it turns out, some of them aren't even those weird ones you've been trying to figure out. They're letters disguised as those weird glyphs. See them? It took me some time, but Riley really went the extra mile to hide this. So far, I've uncovered a couple simple phrases: 'peace, justice, freedom' and 'a war is coming— choose your side'."
"It sounds like Riley is trying to tell us something."
"What's funny is, when I turn some of them upside down and backwards, we get another face and another message: 'trust the Prime'," Darren said, frowning. "She really went the extra mile hiding these. I found them in a pocket in the back of one of the sketchbooks I took to investigate. I didn't notice it was there until they fell out."
Silence reigned in the room for what seemed like an eternity before Sunny spoke up and asked, "What do you think about it, Darren? Riley has always had a sixth sense for this kind of stuff. She showed that the day Lennox's great granddaughter almost drowned, saying she felt like something bad was about to happen. Remember that?"
Her mother nodded. "I remember that. I was there when Riley came running down the beach and dove right in, coming back with Daniella."
"Maybe this is Riley's messed up way of telling us there's something big coming. She knows it. If she were here, I'd ask her, but I'd more than likely get a cryptic answer and she'll disappear until it happens."
XxXxX(Diego Garcia)XxXxX
I sighed, leaning against the side of Chief's helm, focusing my gaze above the palm trees surrounding the island to the sky above. "Chief? If you were in my position, what would you do? I could really use some advice right now," I said, breaking the silence.
Chief moved his head toward me a little, frowning and narrowing his optics as he contemplated his answer. The unmistakable gleam of polished metal caught my attention as I turned my attention from the forest green Autobot to my arm.
My arm no longer looked like a human girl's arm, instead featuring small spine like protrusions along my forearm and elbow. The skin there looked about ready to rip off revealing highly polished blue tinted white armor beneath. Curious, I tapped my finger against it and got rewarded with a soft tapping sound of metal against metal and nearly jumped out of my skin. Transferring my gaze to my other hand, I found it was starting to look more like what an Autobot's hand looks like encased in a thin sheet of skin, the light catching off it to make my hand appear as though it were made of silver. Everything seemed to fade away as I took myself in, the more I looked, the more I saw how much my body had changed since we arrived at Diego Garcia nearly a month ago. I had grown another three feet to place me at ten feet two inches as Ratchet predicted I would and that only served to make me worry more about how much more I will change before it would be over.
"—ley? Riley? Are you even listening to me?" Chief's voice asked me, snapping me back from the place my mind wandered to.
Looking up sharply, I met the Autobot's inquisitive gaze before shaking my head. "I don't know, Chief. I think I'm about ready to have a mental breakdown. Sorry I wasn't paying attention, but I gotta go," I said quickly, jumping off his shoulder and onto his knee before racing away, quickly initiating a partial transformation to allow for the tiny wing struts I received from trans-scanning Silverbolt and activated the thrusters to get me off the ground and into the air. A quick glance back showed Chief had climbed to his feet and chased me to the edge of the water as I flew out if his reach, ignoring him as he called after me to come back.
XxXxX(New York City)XxXxX
"You're serious?" He stared at the picture lying on the tabletop before him, unconvinced. "This is what you had to come find me about?"
The man's companion scowled, pushing his wire framed glasses higher up the bridge of his nose. "Oh, yes. This young woman was infused with the very thing your people at the former Sector Seven base was working with, Seymour. The President wants the sliver that's embedded in her to be delivered to him."
Seymour frowned. "Let me get this straight: you want me and a team you picked out that hates our big friends helping out our military to chase down a girl in a training bra just to be given a job working with them again? That's cute. Last I checked, you wanted to have them expelled from our planet, Galloway."
The other man's scowl deepened. "I don't care what method you use, just get the job done!"
Seymour put his hands up in defeat. "Fine. Alright. I'll get the girl, but when our big friends come after her, I'm pointing them in your direction," he said, getting up to leave.
XxXxX(Diego Garcia)XxXxX
"Optimus! Sir! We got a problem," Chief shouted, making his way toward the considerably taller red and blue mech. "Riley's gone."
Optimus turned away from the catwalk he had been facing to converse with Isaiah on his level with a frown. "What do you mean Riley is gone?"
"Exactly what I'm saying, sir. Something spooked her and she took off. She unknowingly turned off her comlink, but we can still track her."
XxXxX(Ocean Heights)XxXxX
Coming in to land on the sandy ground nearby my old home, I retracted my mask and started making my way to the house, occasionally pausing to admire the clear night sky as I walked. "Home sweet home," I mused, stopping to observe the nearly completely destroyed house before stepping inside and headed downstairs.
I took my time looking around my room, immediately noticing my art supplies had been dumped onto my desk and every one of my sketchbooks were gone. This made me frown, but I left it alone for now, yanking the comforter off the bed and gave it a firm shakedown to clear it of the bits of ceiling and dust that accumulated on it since me and my family had to abandon the house the night we would head for Diego Garcia. Pulling the comforter back on the bed, I took the pillows off next and took the cases off, pleased to find dust hadn't managed to get on them. Stifling a yawn, I crawled under the covers and pulled them up to my chin, taking in the familiarity of my room.
"It's as I told you."
I screamed, sitting up to find a man watching me at the foot of the bed. "Who are you?!" I demanded, watching the older man suspiciously.
"I am Zeta Prime. I am one of many that gives you the information you write during your 'overloads'," he said patiently, making no move to come closer as I scooted away from him on the bed. "I am one of the many voices you hear when you are brought to that point."
"What did you mean you told me so?" I demanded.
"You may not have understood me, but I had said your human friends would find the drawing of Megatron you have in the crawlspace and the hidden pocket in your sketchbook. Do you remember drawing them, Riley?"
For a moment, I sat there thinking, trying to recall such drawings before nodding.
"Do you remember the dream you had about being kidnapped? And the battle that left you wounded and running to hide? Those were a foretelling of what is to happen to you and your family. They are coming to kidnap you now, Riley." I blinked and Zeta Prime was gone, leaving me confused.
Before I finally fell asleep, I pulled the portable Energon pump out of the small subspace compartment I found in my arm and hooked myself to it, allowing myself to feel the glowing substance coursing through the tube and into my Autobot body beneath. Idly waiting for the Energon to finish pumping the entire gallon into me, I held my hands up in front of me, the dim moonlight catching off the metal just barely hidden beneath my skin. I made note of the fact I looked exactly like a female Ironhide by the make of the armor showing up on my arms and, now that I've noticed, legs. Craning my neck downward, I placed a hand on my stomach and began tapping it, feeling what I think is a miniature version of the grill of my truck beneath my skin. My skin now looks bright blue in most places, appearing a deep midnight in the dark while the rest looked white and silver.
"Ratchet wasn't kidding," I sighed to myself. "It was bound to happen sooner or later. If Zeta Prime is right, I'll be expecting unwanted guests in the future. The only question is when they will come for me."
XxXxX(one week later— Diego Garcia)XxXxX
"Optimus, have they been able to find Riley yet?" Riley's mother asked, walking up to the mech as he listened to Hound talk about his lack of being able to find the wayward teen. "Has there at least been any progress?"
Hound beat Optimus to the punch as he shook his head. "I'm afraid I haven't had much luck in tracking her. It seems not only has Riley managed to either figure out or unknowingly turn off her comlink but she's also completely hiding the Allspark radiation she knows for certain we can track," he said, watching the distraught humans make distressed noises at the lack of finding their wayward family member. "Please don't give up on us finding her yet. It might be easier to find her if we could figure where she would most likely go if she truly did run away."
Isaiah's face lit up slightly as an idea hit him. "I know where she went."
"Where do you suppose she went then, Isaiah?" Optimus prodded him.
"She went home."
Hound and Optimus exchanged glances before the tracker asked, "How can you be certain?"
"Simple. I'm her sibling: I know her as well as our own parents know her. Plus Ocean Heights is the only place she knows she will feel safe, surrounded by people she's grown up around and known her whole life. If someone were to make a move against her, they'll be doing it on her own turf and she knows the layout of the land better than anybody I know. If she's going to run away, she'll go to the only place she feels welcome. And that's home in Ocean Heights."
"Very well," Optimus sighed, turning to face Hound again, saying, "I want full surveillance of Ocean Heights. Keep your scanners trained on the Ashton-Bishops homestead and the surrounding area within a one hundred yard radius for any disturbances. She will need sustenance from the establishment nearby, so make sure to monitor there as well. Riley will not be hard to spot on the surveillance footage unless she copied Mirage's ability to bend light around her. Ever since the twins had dyed her hair blue, it will be extremely hard to miss if she arrives within range of the scanners."
"Optimus, remember that Riley carries the power of the Allspark. The Allspark can actually tell her what is to happen much like the humans' oracles. When Samuel's great grandfather came into contact with Megatron, he had seen a glimpse of Mission City and for that, it cost him spending the rest of his life in an institution for the mentally ill," Prowl stated, moving to stand alongside Prime and Hound. "She may very well know we're looking for her."
Optimus shook his head. "Jetfire has spoken with me about the night he helped her try to reign in her abilities before she overloaded. She had written coordinates of planets our race hasn't contacted for centuries. The only times she has ever displayed her ability to foresee anything is when she is recharging. After a very enlightening conversation with Isaiah, Riley would have two distinctly realistic dreams, one in which she is kidnapped and held against her will only to be saved by a group of yet to be identified people, even though it is safe to say it's us who saves her. The second is the one that worries me as Megatron plays a very large role in it, following her through the streets in the middle of a war. She had dreams of meeting us before her dream of a kidnapping. She has met us, now it's only a matter of time before somebody makes a move on her. We must find Riley before they do."
XxXxX(Ocean Heights)XxXxX
"Damn." I scowled, looking down at myself to appraise the changes to my body. My skin was almost see through now and I had grown nearly five feet in the past week, serving nothing but to distress me even more. My body now looked more mechanical, favoring the features of Ironhide but smaller, most of the bulkiness that would've been distributed all over my body folded into smaller parts of armor connecting together on my upper back that branched off the larger parts to the smaller ones that I've started calling my angel wings. The 'wings' are at the moment pressed against my spine beneath the skin, folded against each other to pile up into two different bulges on my shoulder blades. They had broken the skin once before early this morning, behaving much the same way as the Aerialbots' wing struts but extremely flexible. I'd even be willing to bet my Cybertronian self is integrating parts of my flight capabilities in with my truck. The only places that held the remainder of the bulky armor that didn't fold into itself on my back were my legs from the knee down, my hips, forearms, and chest, showing off a Cybertronian female's womanly curves that would make any mech that saw me glitch.
My clothes no longer fit, but fortunately the blue and white armor that would soon completely encase my body kept all my private parts covered, having already broken the skin. Earlier that morning, I had moved out to walk along the beach, using the water as a mirror of sorts. Everything except my hands, upper arms, feet, and abdomen remained free of metal, though soon I know it won't be like this. Kneeling down at the water's edge, I watched the twin glowing blue pinpoints that now are my eyes, observing my face carefully as it still retained its humanlike appearance but held some Cybertronian features as some small places are already showing through.
"Did you hear that?"
I jumped, looking up and around for the owner of the all too familiar voice. My first initial instinct was to hide myself and I did, climbing into the trees surrounding the area and settled myself in just as my childhood friends walked into the small section of the beach we played in as children.
"What's up, Sunny?" Darren asked, following her further into the clearing to stand beside her, looking around for what had caught her attention.
The young woman shook her head in disbelief. "I swear I just heard Riley. I distinctly heard her say 'damn'. I know I did!" she cried out, eagerly looking around the area for me.
I watched from overhead, interested in the conversation being held in my midst. At least they're concerned about me. If only you knew what really happened that night, I thought, shaking my head before looking up sharply in the direction the duo came from to watch a group of guys walk out to join them. Almost immediately, alarms went off in my head and scanned them, glaring behind the mask hiding my face when Decepticon insignias began dancing around in my field of vision alongside the targets if my scans.
As if sensing my thoughts, Sunny turned around to regard the newcomers. Before she and Darren could do anything, the group surrounded them and the leader grabbed ahold of Sunny's neck shouting, "Where is she?!"
"I don't know who you're talking about!" she choked, trying in vain to remove the man's hands from her neck.
"Don't play dumbass with me, femme!" he roared. "The one that controls the Allspark! Where is she?!"
Just watching the group doing this to them made my blood boil, quietly slipping out of my place in the tree. "Looking for me?"
The leader of the group's head snapped up in my direction, his eyes narrowing dangerously upon catching sight of me. "You. You're the one!" He let go of Sunny and pushed her aside.
"Let the humans go and I'll allow you to walk away from this unscathed," I threatened, somehow keeping my voice level as I regarded the Decepticons in disguise. "If not, I'll be making trophies out of your heads."
"I take orders from nobody! Especially not from the likes of you!" he snarled and attacked, hitting me with enough force to make me stumble backwards but not enough to knock me off my feet.
"Is that all you got, you little glitch?! You hit like a femme! My great grandmother can hit harder than you and she's dead!" I taunted, delivering a punch across the face that literally made my adversary's head spin. The momentary stun it brought gave time for even more of them to attack, getting in multiple hits before I retaliated, gathering what energy I could of the Allspark's power in a spilt second, allowing it to build up in my hands before pushing it outward, sending them flying.
"What's happening?!" Sunny's voice screamed, clearly frozen in place as she watched the scuffle escalate.
Quickly recovering from my momentary scare, I brought a weapon to bear and opened fire, taking the group out easily. "What are you waiting for? An invitation? Get a move on!" I barked, putting my gun away and charged at them and grabbed the duo's wrists and dragged them behind me. "Move your asses! We ain't getting anywhere at this rate!"
We ran for some time until we reached the junkyard before I finally let go of them, settling myself on the hood of a rusted out car. Sunny and Darren didn't make a move to do anything, choosing instead to stand there staring at me as though I fell out of the sky.
"What are you?!" Sunny finally shrieked, the expression on her face reminding me of those times when I would toss bugs at her to scare her.
"I'm not a what. I'm a person. You know who I am: don't look at me like that," I scowled, allowing my mask to slide away to show the rest of my face, receiving stunned looks from my companions.
"Riley? What happened to you?!"
I sighed, seeing as I can't hide what I've been hiding since the Transformers found me. The whole story of what happened the night my family disappeared emerged, even going so far as to explain the evens prior to that. It took a good few hours to just explain it all.
"That is the most insane thing I've ever heard in all my life!" Darren exclaimed, unconvinced.
In retaliation, I narrowed my eyes stood. "If it's so impossible, explain what's happening to my body. Explain how I can do this!" I demanded, allowing the pieces of metal beneath my skin to show through completely, getting rewarded with surprised shouts. "This is only scratching the surface of what's happening to me. There's more to come."
"How is that happening right now?!" Darren shouted, utter disbelief written all over his face.
"I was infused with an alien artifact and I suppose it's been affecting me since then. I also know they're looking for me and I need to go back to them. They already have me giving up human food for theirs to sustain me and I've been out of the stuff for a few days now. I'm already feeling the effects of not consuming it," I sighed, folding the metal back underneath my skin and sat down, propping my elbow on my knee and rested my chin in my hand. "Freaky, huh?"
Sunny continued staring, for the longest time simply watching me before hugging me as best she could. "I thought you died!"
"Well, I'm not. I need to return to them sooner or later since I'm not eating their food at the moment. But let me ask you this: did you look in the crawlspace?" I said, watching as the brunette pulled away with a stunned look.
"How did you even know that?"
I smirked. "The alien artifact I'm infused with created the people I've been drawing and sometimes, I get glimpses of what's to come. I had nightmares of my house being destroyed and a repeat of Mission City," I answered, "Did you find what you were looking for in my sketchbooks? Or better yet, did you find the photos hidden in the back of my larger book?"
Darren nodded. "What did you mean by 'trust the Prime' in that hidden picture?"
"He will become a very close ally in the future and you will get you meet him soon enough. When the time comes," I said, offering a cryptic smile and stood. "I need to get out of here. I'll be back."
"Riley, wait!"
I didn't stick around to listen, rearranging the metal plating of my 'angel wings' into the familiar wing struts of a jet and launched myself off the ground. For a brief moment there was a small beep in my ear before Ironhide's voice reverberated through my head.
::I don't know if you've figured out how to reactivate your comlink or not— slag, I ain't sure if you're even receiving this transmission– but if you are getting this, you must return to Diego Garcia immediately. Hound's been intercepting transmissions containing plans by government officials to capture and detain you.::
::I hear you loud and clear. Hell, I don't know what I did to turn this thing back on, but it's on. I'm already coming back.:: I replied, smirking as I allowed for my mask to drop and cover my face from the wind.
::Riley, it's Ratchet. I want you to meet me in the Med Bay the moment you return. Do you understand? There are things we must go over.:: the medic's voice chimed in.
::Well, why not talk to me now? If you're going to ask about what changed about me, I grew another five feet, so that makes me, what, fifteen feet tall? I've been out of Energon for a week now, but I'll make it back.::
::What in Primus' name made you think running away from us would be a smart idea?:: Ironhide's voice barked, making me flinch at the anger behind those words.
::I wasn't thinking. Seeing the metal shining beneath spooked me and I ran. Place yourself I'm my position, Ironhide. I'm a teenage girl turning into a freaking giant robot with even more giant freaking robots trying to control me. In case you haven't noticed, it's overwhelming for me:: I snapped, feeling my ire rising at being reprimanded like a child. ::You don't control me. You don't own me. You definitely don't tell me what and what not to do. Got it? I control my life and nobody else.:: With that, I terminated the connection, fuming.
XxXxX(several hours later— Diego Garcia)XxXxX
Touching down on the tarmac, I couldn't help feeling a little woozy as I wandered into the Autobot's hangar, getting the attention of everybody there.
"Riley! Are you alright?" was Ratchet's shocked way of greeting me as he rushed over to where I stood propping myself against the entrance to the structure.
"I feel sick," I moaned out before almost falling on my ass but was caught by another Autobot from behind that I didn't even realize was there. Allowing my head to lazily fall backward to look up at the new arrival now identified as Ironhide. "Thanks for that," I sighed, leaning onto him more as I slumped further to the floor before Ratchet took my other arm and hoisted me to my feet.
"Stupid femme. You're so low on Energon, your systems are threatening emergency stasis lock," Ratchet chastised, maneuvering me into a position to pick me up to carry me. I hardly heard a word he said, already feeling the stasis lock Ratchet spoke of taking hold of me and dragging me into unconsciousness.
Author's Note: Yay for a little fluffiness between Riley and Ironhide! :D But seriously, please vote on the poll for Riley's Autobot name! Only three of you did and that's kind of a bummer. :/
But anyways, what do you guys think of Riley's current appearance? I thought it's be cool if she had that sort of aerodynamic build Arcee has but standing around Ironhide's height and most of the bulky armor folded away into extensions modeled after Laserbeak's cool looking wings mixed with her human body before she completely transforms.
Next chapter will have a bit more excitement and maybe what you've all been waiting for: Riley's final transformation. As you can see, Simmons and Galloway will make an appearance in the next installment and I don't know their personalities well enough to write them, so who knows them well enough to offer me advice on how to write for these guys? It will be very much appreciated. :)
