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Chapter 12

Leah's eyes slowly opened, easily adjusting to the dim light. Tasha was lying next to her, still unconscious. Leah jumped up, but her legs were too weak to hold her. Ok, that was stupid.

She rolled up and crawled to Tasha's side. "Tasha! Tasha, wake up!"

There was a groan. "Noooo! I don't want to go to school, mommy." Leah shook her head as the older woman clutched her arm. "I want to stay home and make cookies with you."

"Tasha, there is a spider on your head!"

She was instantly awake, clinging to Leah and whimpering. "Getitoff, getitoffbeforeiteatsme!"

Leah pushed her off. "Tasha, we have bigger problems."

Tasha was looking around, whispering. "It's here somewhere, I know it."

"Tasha, listen to me. I don't know what happened, but—look around! We're in some sort of jail cell!"

Tasha noticed the glowing bars and grinned. "Pretty . . ."

Leah looked at her friend in confusion. "Tasha?"

She shook her head and let out a sigh. "I never thought that I would be in this sort of situation again . . ."

Now Leah was worried. "Again? When were you in a cell?"

Tasha placed a finger on Leah's lips and held her close. "Not now, my dearest, not now. How do we get out of here?"

Clink clink. Clink. Clinkclinkclinkclink. A small spider-like Decepticon came into the cell through the bars. Its multiple hands held several syringes. "Ooh, lookie here! You're a—"

"AAAAHHHH!!!! SPIDER!! LEAH!! KILLIT!! KILLIT!!" Tasha screeched, throwing a shoe at the tiny Decepticon.

"Vould you—" it had to dodge a flying shoe. "Do you mi—" duck under the other shoe. "Listen, I—" and another shoe.

"Tasha! Don't take my shoes!" Leah protested.

The tiny Decepticon shuddered in anger. "SHUT UP OR I VILL KEEL YOU BOTH!" They fell silent.

Leah stared wide-eyed at the little robot spider, wondering where it got a German accent while trying not to hyperventilate at the sight of it. It was her two worst fears—spiders and needles—in one menacing package. The two girls soon had their backs pressed to the bars, still quiet.

The spider dropped its face into its hands. "'umans! Now zen. I am Doctor 'ook. Stay still and I vill not 'ave to keel you," he said, approaching the girls.

Tasha tensed up. "Leah . . . that's a big fucking spider!"

Doctor Hook let out a growl and threw the needles to the ground. "Ah! 'umans! 'onestly! Vhy must they do ze freak out? "Ohh, look at zat! It iz a giant spider! Ahh!"" his already high voice pitched into an obviously fake terrified falsetto. "No!" He boomed. "I am no spider! I am Doctor 'ook, PROUD Decepticon! And you, my leetle ones," he waggled his claws at them mockingly, "are my test subjects! Ohh! Vhat fun ve are going to 'ave!" he said gleefully.

He suddenly noticed the syringes lying on the floor, broken. "Ahhwaa . . . vhy? Look at vhat you made me do. No more injections. Vait . . . I already did you two. Vell zen! Farevell! I vill see you in tventy-four hours! Do not vorry, death iz a normal side effect," he said, and cheerfully left the cell.

Tasha clung tighter to Leah. "He's scary…"

Leah nodded. Then, the realization hit her. "Wait—did he say death is a normal side-effect?" Leah dove to the ground and tried to figure out what had been in the vials. "He said he injected us with something." Leah looked up at Tasha, who was just about to poke the bars. "TASHA, WHAT DID HE PUT IN US!"

Tasha jumped back when she saw a HUGE robot coming toward the cage. "A chemical made from the cube and Cybertronian DNA. We need a new generation, or we will soon become extinct. By infusing the compound with human tissues, we are able to create hybrids. Unfortunately, most of them have died or failed in one way or another. You are the latest subjects."

Tasha scrambled to Leah. "Li-li . . . it's the one from the parking lot," she whispered. Shadowhawk looked down at the frightened humans, red optics blazing.

Leah stood to block Tasha, whispering, "Stay behind me." She glared up fiercely, barely hiding her fear. "If that is supposed to be comforting, you failed," she said sarcastically.

Tasha whispered harshly. "LEAH! Don't make it mad."

Leah smirked, looking over her shoulder at Tasha. "It's a robot! It doesn't feel anything. If it did," her eyes traveled back to Shadowhawk's optics, "it would never have let this happen."

Shadowhawk resisted the urge to cringe. It's not like I had a choice, Leah, he said to himself. He kept up the fierce and uncaring façade—if his comrades found him going soft, he'd be torn to pieces.

So he grinned. "The only thing I feel for your kind is joy. Joy that our race is continued by yours, and joy from watching your blood spill over the floor when unsuccessful experiments implode."

A chuckle escaped the doctor as he came around the corner again. "Vell, vell, Shadow'awk. Come for checkup, I see? Come, come. Leave my leetle pets alone for avhile," he said, leading Shadowhawk to the med room.

While Tasha was confused, Leah's fierceness had disappeared when she heard Shadowhawk say "implode."


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L.M. Dodger signing off.