A/N : I must say, I love confrontation (and changing POVs apparently). I can't write for beans, but it's fun to play the scenarios through my head and just laugh evily. I'm going to hide for a while, cause I know some people are going to be mad at me. Kudos to those who foresaw what the signal was, and to those who may or may not like the idea, read on. This isn't a very happy chapter.
The signal was back, taking the majority of my attention off of the battle around me and the tiny human on my arm. I stared in the direction I felt it coming from, and I made a decision once more. I fired three more shots from my Null Rays, downing more of the enemy and equaling the fight between our forces, then I lightly tossed the human on my arm, high enough she wouldn't fall before she was supposed too, and as she was suspended in the air, I shifted to my F-22 alt. mode.
The tiny thing landed in the seat as softly as I could manage, but she still let out a strange sound upon impact. As soon as she landed, I closed the canopy and shot forward, igniting my afterburners. The signal was getting closer, and I felt eager to see another Cybertronian. Autobot Neutral or Decepticon, it didn't matter at this point. Nick's claim was haunting my processor. I needed to see another and know... know that he lied to me... so I can squish him.
There was still distress in the signal, despite it's apparent flight (and it was flying... It was moving to fast to be a ground-pounder) across the Canadian country.
"Where are you going?? You're just abandoning them!" the femme shouted, obviously realizing we were leaving the battle. "They need you and you're just leaving?? What are you thinking??"
"I have evened the playing field human," I said, feeling her shift in the seat. "They are able to hold their own in their own... turf. I have something I must check. My own personal mission I suppose you could label it. You unfortunately, must come along for the ride as I was unable to set you down without killing you or exposing you to more danger. Feel fortunate squishy, that I am in the mindset to keep you alive and not simply eject you."
That got her to close her mouth and she was staring at the console in front of her in horror. A dual twinge of pride and... guilt filled me at seeing it and I barrel rolled to get my mind off of it, hearing her scream in fear.
The scenery meshed as I flew and I knew the human soon fell unconscious. I thought about setting her down, as it's dangerous to humans to pass out in flight, but I felt I didn't have the time, and she wasn't as... important... to me as Nick was. So I kept my pace.
I flew low to the ground, as my intended target was low to the ground as well according to my sensors, but I grumbled about the trees and various land formations. Dodging a random cliff or tree was much harder than it seems.
The flight passed much quicker than I anticipated. I had to pull a hard corkscrew to avoid being T-Boned mid air by a very large, white craft. There were other jets as well, flying in formation and I couldn't tell if they were flying after the craft or if they were maintaining formation around it.
But the moment the craft registered in my processor, I felt my spark freeze. It was definitely Cybertronian, a form I couldn't forget if I deleted my entire memory cortex. How he was alive, much less flying in front of me, baffled me. Last I'd seen him, he'd gone down on some planet covered in ice. Had he been found? Had they sent a search party after all? Why hadn't I been informed...?
Or had I?
This memory issue of mine was really starting to aggravate me.
"Skyfire?" I asked in Cybertronian on the comm link we had once shared. It was active, for the first time in what felt like vorns... "Skyfire, is that you?" The giant shuttle type flier banked and... nearly rammed me again. I pulled up with a twist, feeling a rush of air as he flew just under the tips of my left wing. He looked just as he always had... as if he hadn't changed at all. I knew I looked different... my own white and red color scheme having been replaced by dull silver long ago on Cybertron... a bad incident had made it necessary to change my primary colors...
Perhaps he didn't recognize me then?
"Skyfire, this is Starscream," I bit out, dodging his tackle like move once more. "I felt your distress signal... why are you attacking me?" He spun as I swooped below him and I let out a hiss as his wing connected with the glass of my canopy, leaving a visible scratch across it. It stung. But I forced myself to spin upward, barely remembering to keep the cabin pressurized (I didn't want the human to... leave a mess) as I did so. Skyfire followed me, and I was reminded of those little scuffles we had on our journey.
We would get annoyed with each other, and because I have that temper of "must throw things", some of the time the two of us would grapple. I never used my Null Ray on him, though I often wished too... and as he never had weapons of his own, he, fairly playfully (as if he were humoring me) would tumble and scrape at me with his wings... tackle me or just grab me and hold me still. Being as large as he is in mech form, it wasn't very hard for him to hold me still...
But this seemed different. There was more of an edge to his assault, and it almost frightened me. He was truly angry... But there was more. His movements were jerky and clumsy. Almost like he wasn't truly the one piloting. And in that moment, I scanned him.
His spark was barely resonating. That fact nearly made me tumble from the sky. My friend was barely alive, and the human heart I felt among his plating was forcing him to fly. A dangerous thing to do... The energy needed to stay airborne was immense, much more than most would think, and if Skyfire was injured, his spark could become unstable.
Problem was, how was I going to get the squishy thing out of my friend without harming him or ejecting my passenger? Another problem I hadn't truly focused on... There were enemy fighters surrounding us... each keeping their distance, but they were circling us, keeping us boxed in together. They were forcing a confrontation.
"Land your fighter" was all I heard over the comms. I twirled cautiously, observing Skyfire a bit longer, trying to make it register that he was even alive much less in front of me needing help... he didn't respond to me at all. I had to wonder if he was even conscious. "Land now or we will fire on you."
"I dare you human," I bit back. I knew it was a bad idea to antagonize, but my personality wouldn't allow anything else. I didn't take well to being threatened, and this whole situation was making my processor swirl in anger, relief and disbelief.
All at once, the thirty jets flew toward me. I barely spared them a second thought as I pulled a U-Turn and rocketed out of there. The human piloting Skyfire was tailing me, but my speed was far greater than his, and when I got to be of able distance, I banked again and fired my Null Ray.
The shot hit true and Skyfire began to fall like a rock. He was fairly close to the ground, so I wasn't too worried about his fate. Even as weakened as he was he'd be able to survive the crash, so I moved my attention to the other fighters. I disengaged my Null Rays (which are positioned on top of my wings) and brought my fusion cannon (located on my underside) online.
I could almost feel the enemy's confusion at my decision to shoot Skyfire. Perhaps they had learned we were friends from Skyfire? I doubt the humans were so informed on our race as to know our language and minds, but... I've underestimated them before.
They circled me once more as I passed over the area Skyfire went down in, making sure I didn't bolt from them. Skyfire stayed exactly where he fell, cementing the idea he wasn't in control of himself, and I scanned for the human within him. It seemed alive and well, as its heart was pounding loud within its chest and I could almost hear the tiny, ragged breaths...
The thing deserved to be punished.
I skimmed under an enemy jet, close enough that my tail fins scraped along the undercarriage, the turbulence causing them too lose control. I twisted around to do the same to another and angled upward to shoot at the others in the area. It was like a signal had shot off. As I turned to the offensive, the squishies began to fire their weapons. I felt ice hit my wing and a warning popped up in my HUD, and I felt a sense of... what did humans call it? De je vous. It hit me like a tidal wave when my other wing iced up seemingly of its own accord and I began to haphazardly glide through the air, attempting to fire at them.
I realized a bit late that this was how they had brought me down the first time. And the warning was telling me I needed a medic or more damage would be done to my memory cortex. I cursed in my native language. The humans knew how to bring me down, but I had been too confident to realize my past mistake would be re-made.
How... utterly careless of me.
I popped the canopy open and ejected the tiny femme from my form before I made a split second decision to change to mech form to keep her from damaging too severely. I caught her quick enough, but I ended up over rotating and landed on my back. I hissed, knowing it should hurt... but wings were numb. It was a very odd sensation.
I felt, rather than saw, the enemy (now numbering at about 20) swing around for another fly by. I aimed wildly, sending shots scattering across the sky as I attempted to stand. Ice was making it harder to think and process the world around me, but I kept shooting.
When I finally got my pedes underneath me, I jumped upward, slicing a set of wings as they flew over me. I continued that several times, leaping like a feline for a bird. More jets went down and just when I thought I wouldn't be able to keep it up for much longer, I heard the rumbling human engines quiet into nothing. It was about that time I realized my optics weren't functioning and I'd been using radar to pinpoint my enemies. That knowledge forced me to also realize my systems were on the verge of stasis lock.
The ice had affected most of my primary systems, and I could feel the sluggish sensation at last. My last thought was, ironically, about the human and where she'd ended up in all of that slag...
I jolted upward. Everything was blurry, but I could see the outline of someone bending over me. I screamed.
Not the brightest idea I've ever had. My ribs hurt like hell and my head was pounding. "Ow..." I groaned, trying to move my hand to my temple. A hand stopped me however and my eyes snapped open once more to glare at the person in front of me.
"You fell quite a ways. It's not a good idea to move. You may have a spinal injury," the voice was... female. It shocked me more than it should have. She sounded like a first rate bitch too... probably a doctor of some kind. "I have some water and a few provisions, but it's not much. We're going to be "roughing" it until we get rescued."
She had an accent. Australian by the sound of it. I wondered briefly where we were... flying... fire fight... I had been a passenger in the alien robot thing those pilots had called Starscream! I could feel grass under me, and I was looking up into a purple and red sky, meaning it was either morning or sunset...
"You're lucky," she continued, "That thing dropped you, yes, but it dropped you into a pond. I fished you out as quick as I could, but your uniform saved your life. It acted like a life vest. You probably would have drowned had it not had a few air pockets from God knows what... and that thing lured the fight away from you I think."
"Where is he?" my words were so slurred, I wasn't sure if they were intelligible. The outline of the woman shifted slightly and I got the impression she was looking behind her.
" "He" collapsed some time ago. It's about a five minute walk behind me. I haven't seen it move since my guys left us here to fetch reinforcements."
"You're Canadian then?" I asked, thanking the fact my voice seemed clearer this time around.
"In a way. I work for them. I hail from Australia. I was given a test pilot job and I've been flying ever since. This has been one of the stranger test flights I've ever been on for sure. You're American then?" there was no hesitation in her voice as she spoke. I realized my first impression of her was wrong. She seemed rather nice.
"Not... entirely. I'm Canadian..." I said, blinking to clear my vision. She had blonde hair and hazel eyes from what I could see, and her smile was kind.
"Hmm," she intoned, looking off to her left. "My bird isn't very far, and it's going to be dark soon. I'm going to have to move you."
"I'm fine," I stated, moving my arms slightly. "Everything feels normal. I can move myself."
She laughed, "Alright, alright. I was just trying to be cautious. I don't have medical training, and you were out like a light for a few hours. But if you feel fine enough, come on, I'll help you up." And she did. She took my hand and pulled me up with hardly any exertion on her part.
I had to lean on her shoulder as we walked, but we ended up in front of the strangest looking craft I'd seen in a very long time. It was mostly white with a smattering of red trim here and there. The shape was very sharp edged and agile, and it looked about the size of a commercial type passenger plane. It was impressive really.
"Cool huh?" my escort asked with a wink. "I don't know what half of the stuff in here does, but it's pretty fun to fly. Odd control system though... whoever designed it didn't give it an ignition sequence key or anything. You basically have to hot wire it to get it to start up."
"How odd," I commented. I wasn't truly listening to her. I was more interested in the craft itself. The inside wasn't much different than the outside. The white metal gleamed with the slightest light, and was warm to touch... A memory of curling close to the warm metal surface of the robot hit me and I jumped away from the wall with wide eyes. The Australian girl blinked at me in confusion and I scrambled back out of the alien craft.
"What is it?" she asked, coming to the ramp as I sat down on the grass. "What's wrong?"
"You were hotwiring an alien robot!" I shouted. She gave me an odd glance in response. "You don't even know do you? That thing is alive!"
"You must have hit your head harder than I thought..." I heard her mumble and I growled.
"You know that robot thing that apparently dropped me? Yeah, that "bird" of yours is like that!" at those words I saw her own eyes widen and she jumped out of the strange ship to join me. We stared at it for a moment longer before she turned to me.
"How do you know it's a robot?"
"Because the metal plating is warm... Like Starscream's..."
"Starscream?" she looked rather flabbergasted as I nodded. "That's that other one's... name?"
"I think that's what the pilots called it," I said with a sigh. "I wasn't really paying them much attention... we were flying through the air, seated on the thing's hand, and it didn't really seem very stable at the time..." It had been the subject of experimentation after all, and I was under the impression it had been injured before hand as well. "And I've only seen it the one time until it happened to pick me up mid battle..."
The woman was watching me curiously, obviously wanting to know more information, but I instead moved forward toward the white monster and touched the external plating. It wasn't as warm on the outside as it was inside, and it was no where near the temperature Starscream's external plating had been in my memory...
"What are you doing?"
"I'm checking to see if... he's ok," I replied, running a hand under the large wing. I had no idea what I was looking for, but I figured I'd find something if I kept searching.
"Is... are they good guys then?" she was beside me before I could blink and she moved to tap the under carriage. To my amazement, it shifted slightly, seeming to "open" at her unspoken command. There seemed to be a strange casing there, blue in color, almost glowing with its own light.
"Uh, well, Starscream hasn't killed me yet... I don't think there is a good or bad side in all of this..." the casing was hot, but soft. I shuddered. I was touching an alien's insides... gross.
"I was wondering why this thing was acting up on me," her voice was soft and I turned to glance at her. She glanced back with a shrug. "I've been flying it for a month now, and this was the combat "test". This was also the first time I've ever had trouble controlling it. I figured it was just bad turbulence. But now, I have to wonder. You think that Starscream and this guy know each other?"
"Probably. If they're both aliens it makes sense they would..." I gasped, earning another look of confusion. "You said he collapsed... what happened?"
Her words had finally hit me. Starscream must have been injured. He wasn't exactly nice, but he hadn't killed me outright... If he collapsed, he could be in trouble.
"Nitro-bombs," she said, understanding written over her expression. "That's what the boys were shooting at him. Bombs filled with liquid nitrogen. They were also shooting sabot rounds... He went down after they retreated..."
Both of us screamed when the white ship's panneling suddenly shifted back into its original position. "It's never... done that before..."
"If it's sentient, be prepared for that happening a lot..." I sighed, quirking a brow at the ship. "Where did you say Starscream was?"
"The ravine about five minutes that way," she replied, pointing behind me. "It hasn't moved at all last I checked. I can bring it up on the radar screen..." she trailed off, having obviously connected the same dots I did. She shuddered as well. "Probably better to just get the exercise... I don't want to fiddle around with alien guts any more than I apparently already have..."
I nodded, turning in the direction she pointed and I patted the side paneling... and I froze. The metal wasn't warm any more. In fact, it felt suddenly very cold, and the white exterior seemed almost gray now.
S/N : So, I have another random female character. She came out of nowhere, just as Alexis did. So, this wasn't as bad as I initially thought it was going to end up. I foresaw that chapter being much darker than this. I like it though, mostly. Let me know what you think. We're not much further from the end now.