Scrambling behind the tall bookshelves in the library, Mikaela shot Sam an accusing glare.
"I can tell you really missed me a lot, Sam!" she hissed.
"Look, it's not my fault, okay?" Sam retorted in a strained whisper.
"It's not your fault?"
"Listen, listen! I am a victim, here!"
Sophie watched the two argue warily, but was also quite concerned about the library being blasted away around them. Leo was still trying to recover from being borderline dragged down the hallway.
"Oh my god, oh my god, I can't believe I almost had sex with her in a dream!" he cried.
Sophie stared at Leo for a few split seconds, then turned her attention back to Sam and Mikaela, who were still arguing angrily.
"You were a victim? A victim of what?" Mikaela snapped. "A little eighty pound girl?"
"It was like getting humped in the throat by a mountain ox!" Sam answered angrily.
Sophie felt her stomach lurch and she gagged slightly. It didn't help when Leo started trying to get Sam to vomit up the "alien babies" that Alice had undoubtedly placed inside Sam's stomach.
"The aliens...they want me because of my site!" Leo muttered.
"Oh that is the biggest crock of-"
Sophie's retort was cut off when another blast ripped through the library.
"Whoa, whoa!" Sam yelled. "Run!"
They sprinted through the library, pages and pieces of book covers flying through the air as Alice, now looking like some sort of maniacal, mechanical mannequin, tore through the library.
"I knew she was way too strong to be some sort of little bleach blonde bimbo!" Sophie shrieked, ducking as two encyclopedias flew over her head.
"You can't give hair advice to anybody!" Mikaela snapped back, jumping over a broken chair.
"Keep running!" Sam yelled.
They finally escaped the library.
"We've got to get that box!" Mikaela shouted, snatching up the giant metal box she had hurled at Alice. She then turned to Sophie. "Get me a car!"
Looking over her shoulder, Sophie spotted a minivan. She grabbed the driver by the shoulders and practically threw him away from the vehicle.
"I need this!" she yelled at the driver. "Hope you have insurance!"
Mikaela jumped into the driver's seat, with Sam quickly climbing into the passenger's seat. Leo and Sophie leapt into the back, both watching as Mikaela fought to hot-wire the car.
"You know how to hot-wire a car?" Leo asked incredulously. "That is so hot..."
"Dude, seriously! It's called a blow up doll! Get one and get over yourself," Sophie grumbled.
Leo shot Sophie a glare, but was cut short when Alice jumped onto the hood of the car and began to punch through the windshield.
"Shit! Drive, drive, drive!" Sophie screamed, quickly beating the back of the driver's seat.
Backing the minivan up quickly, Mikaela then changed gears and the vehicle tore down the street, swerving as Mikaela desperately tried to knock Alice off the front of the minivan. Alice, however, tenaciously stayed on the hood of the minivan, smashing her fists against the hood and the windshield.
"Whoa! Tongue!" Sam yelled, ducking down as Alice's tongue extension broke through the glass.
"Kiss this, bitch!" Mikaela snarled, slamming the car and Alice into a light pole. The impact snapped Alice in half in a spray of sparks, and Mikaela quickly backed the minivan up and began driving down the street.
Sophie was clinging to the armrest on the door of the minivan and it took her a few minutes to realize that Leo was tightly clinging to her. Rolling her eyes and snorting angrily, Sophie shoved Leo away.
"Get off me, pervert!" she hissed.
"Sorry, I just...you know...I get nervous when I see my life flash before my eyes," Leo replied quickly.
"Well then you ought to be pants-pissingly terrified now!" Sophie threatened. She could hear Sam trying to catch Mikaela up on what was going on, and she was more concerned about possibly punching Leo's face in.
Suddenly, with an ear-splittingly loud explosion, the glass of the windows shattered as a hook punched through the side of the minivan and hoisted the van up into the air rapidly. Sophie was slammed against Leo, and the passenger door, already weak from Alice beating on the minivan, ripped free. With a horrified yell, Sam grabbed the seat and the armrest of the seat, trying to keep himself from hurtling to the ground below.
"Sam!" Mikaela shrieked.
"Pull me up! Pull me up!" Sam cried in panic, clawing at the armrest.
Mikaela frantically tried to get a hold of Sam, while Leo and Sophie struggled to reach Sam. Leo yelped as Sophie's right elbow dug into his ribs, but he still reached for Sam, grabbing Sam's shirt. Sophie managed to snag Sam's belt, holding on as tightly as she could. They were so fixated on trying to rescue Sam from falling that they didn't pay much heed to the helicopter that had speared the minivan and was flying them high over the city. The dull roar of the chopper blades drown out most of their screaming and yelling, but they managed to haul Sam back into the relative safety of the minivan.
"I don't want to die!" Leo screamed, clinging to Sophie once again.
This time, Sophie didn't really care.
A groan of metal and a sudden feeling of being weightless quickly got their attention, however, and Sophie looked around wildly in terror.
"Guys!" Sophie shrieked. "Guys! We're going down!"
"Shit!" Mikaela cried, keeping her tight grip on Sam and the steering wheel.
"Oh no, oh no, oh no!" Sam yelled quickly.
The four of them screamed in unison as the minivan was dropped the rest of the way into an abandoned warehouse. The impact jarred all of them violently, barbs of pain hitting them, and Sam and Mikaela were both smacked in the face as the airbags exploded from the dashboard. As the minivan came to a rest, Sophie and Leo, Sophie still inadvertently pinning Leo to the door of the minivan, winced and coughed, while Sam and Mikaela struggled to push the airbags out of their faces.
"Oh god..."
Sam's whisper of horror made Sophie look up, and she felt her insides turn to icewater. Staring at them was something that Sophie could only describe as a living nightmare. Malevolent, red optics glared at them, a mouth full of razor teeth that was pulled into a slight, terrifying grin, and a hulking, monstrous metal frame.
"Megatron," Mikaela rasped.
"Come here, boy," the mechanical nightmare ordered.
"Okay, okay," Sam said, slowly climbing out of the minivan.
"Closer."
"Okay."
"You remember me, don't you?" Megatron rumbled viciously.
"Look, I did what you said," Sam replied nervously, holding his hands up. "Just don't hurt us."
With a snarl, Megatron knocked Sam off the ledge that the minivan had crashed onto and to the floor below. There was a dull crack as Sam hit the floor, two of the bolts punching against his back. Sam gasped and wheezed, groaning in agony as he fought to regain his breath.
Off to the right, another one of the metal monsters slinked forward. He was nowhere near as big or hulking as Megatron, and his color scheme seemed to be more tan and sand colored than black, but he still had the same, malevolent expression, and seemed all too happy to have four little humans cornered.
"Sam!" Mikaela cried.
"Leave him alone, asshole!" Sophie shrieked.
Megatron looked up, scowling at Sophie. The other robot snickered hoarsely, and the sound reminded Sophie of the back of a hammer being dragged across sheet metal. Megatron's scowl made Sophie freeze, her heart stopping for a few moments. For a few minutes, Megatron said nothing, then he slammed his fist against the concrete ledge, sending rocks and bits of concrete into the air.
"Silence, you pathetic fleshling!" He then looked at the other robot with the same scowl. "If you do not silence your pathetic sniggering, Starscream, I will rip your voice modulator out myself."
Sophie yelped and cringed back. She felt like a total coward, and there was a small voice yelling at her and berating her for not doing more, but she had no idea what to do. What was she going to do? Charge the giant metal nightmare from Hell? Throw rocks at him? At this point, her idea of saying disparaging remarks about this monster's mother seemed nothing short of ludicrous.
Megatron had already turned his attention back to Sam, and was now crushing Sam's arms with his claws.
"It feels good to grab your flesh! I am going to kill you slowly, painfully...but first, we have delicate business to attend to." Megatron laughed demonically, then he regarded Sam with something that could only be described as smoldering hatred. "I could snap your limbs so easily... Doctor, examine the specimen."
A small, rather maniacal looking robot skittered forward and began inspecting Sam as though he was some sort of science experiment on a tray. He was muttering to himself, making slightly disgusted noises as he pulled on Sam's eyelids. Sam, on the other hand, was trying not to get pulled apart piece by little piece by the tiny robot.
"I'm the doctor! The odd job. Information!" the small robot chattered. Even the small ones sounded nothing short of hellacious.
The small robot produced a slimy, revolting looking little mechanical creature that quickly slid into Sam's nose. Mikaela, Leo, and Sophie had about the same expression, their faces scrunched up. Leo gagged a little while Mikaela watched on in helpless concern. They didn't notice Sophie swallowing hard, but picking up two small pieces of the concrete that had been knocked free by Megatron's fist.
"There they are..."
"That's what I'm seeing in my head," Sam exclaimed quietly as the mechanical creature that had been through his thoughts began to project symbols that it had combed from Sam's mind.
"Those symbols will lead us right to the Energon source."
A small piece of concrete sailed through the air and harmlessly pinged off of the side of Megatron's head. Though the piece of concrete itself was no bigger than a baseball, the sound it made seemed louder than a rampaging bull in a china shop. Everybody paused, even Megatron and Starscream. This time, Starscream didn't laugh. All eyes and optics were on Sophie, who was still holding another piece of concrete. Leo scooted away from her slightly, his eyes the size of dinner plates.
Megatron, who had been hunched over and watching the "doctor" and Sam, slowly turned to Sophie, keeping Sam pinned to the floor. Sophie stood up as tall as she possibly could. If she was going to get squished, she might as well try to make it look as epic as possible.
"Uh...guys?" Sam called. "What's going on?"
There was no answer until Megatron began to chuckle dryly. He was the only one laughing, although Starscream attempted to join in with his own, nervous chuckle.
"Starscream," Megatron ordered. "I want the doctor to examine this little...fleshling next. There may be use for somebody so foolhardy."
Never mind he was bigger than most yachts that Sophie had seen, Starscream moved quickly, snatching Sophie up. Sophie shrieked and futilely punched against Starscream's bone crushing grip. She only hurt herself in the process, and in her frustration hurled the other piece of concrete at Starscream. This one actually dinged just below his left optic, and Starscream cried out as though he had been blinded.
"This human almost hit my eye!" he yelled at Megatron.
"Quit your whining before I remove both your eyes!" Megatron snapped back furiously. "Do with that human what you will, but keep her alive."
The order only made Sophie panic more, and this time she struggled with renewed vigor.
Leo and Mikaela watched on helplessly. The only thing they could have done Sophie had already proven was a very bad idea.
"Hey! Hey!" Sam yelled, trying to fight against Megatron's claws pinning him down. "Leave her alone! I'm doing what you asked."
"I do not seem to recall being pelted with annoying rocks to be part of the deal," Megatron hissed.
Starscream, meanwhile, seemed to be taking great delight in tossing Sophie around. While he was careful not to drop her, lest he get unwanted optical surgery from Megatron, Starscream had to admit there was a bit of fun to be had in watching Sophie struggle to get back on her feet each time she landed in his palm, and her whimpering and yelping was nothing short of music to Starscream.
"We must have his brain on the table!" the tiny robot declared loudly, producing a whizzing saw blade. "Chop, chop!"
"My brain?" Sam asked nervously. At the sight of the saw blade, he immediately began to try and shrink back as much as possible. "What does he mean by my brain?"
"Well, you have something on your mind. Something I need."
"Hold on. I know you're pissed. I know you're pissed because I tried to kill you and it's completely understandable. If somebody tried to kill me, I'd be upset, too," Sam reasoned quickly, scrunching his face slightly as the whirring saw blade drew even closer. "I think that we have an opportunity here to start anew and develop our relationship and see where it leads us, okay? So you just call Doctor Inspector off and let's just talk for five seconds!" The saw blade began to nick at his forehead. "Wait, wait, wait!"
One of the walls of the building suddenly gave way and crumbled as Optimus Prime charged through, gun already at the ready. Bumblebee crashed through an adjacent wall, cannon humming with charged energy.
The cavalry had arrived.