Disclaimer: I no own, you no sue. Except in the case of my ocs. Touch those and it'll be my turn to sue. Just kidding. I can't afford a lawyer.

A/N: Um... wow? Awesome response from you guys! I am honored, flattered and very very happy! If I get another response like that, you can rest assured that there will be a RAPID update. I need to apologize for not getting around to replying to the reviews for chapter 12, but I figured you'd rather I updated than replied to old reviews so... yeah. Enjoy!

Warnings: Brief, somewhat intense violence

Chapter Fourteen: Of Icy Receptions and Booms in the Night

When Mirage finally returned Astrid to the campus they were both confronted with a peeved-looking Jenna waiting impatiently in the parking lot. Judging by the staccato beat of her tapping toe, Astrid guessed that they weren't likely to get off easy. Years of friendship had taught her the warning signs of Jenna's explosive temper. Her eyes zeroed in on Astrid the second she stepped out of the car, and they snapped to Mirage when his holoform closed the door a little harder than was probably needed. Astrid shot him a look, but he remained oblivious to her warning. By then he was only a mere yard away from his charge's roommate, however, and it would've been too late even if he had picked up on Astrid's cautioning.

Without warning, Jenna's finger was jabbed into Mirage's face, and the hologram actually reeled back a few steps in alarmed surprise.

"You," she growled. "Where have you taken my friend all afternoon? Why wasn't she in class? If I find out..."

"Cool it, Jen," said Astrid, coming to the rescue of her ill-prepared guardian. "He took me for a ride through the countryside. I was having a really, really bad day. That was all. So get your knickers out of the twist they're in and be nice to him, will you?"

Jenna's attention whipped back to Astrid and her lecture went into the defensive. "What? Can I not be a responsible roommate now? Am I not allowed to show concern for the well-being of my best friend and make sure..."

"Easy, girl," Astrid replied. Her palms rose up to shoulder height in the classic 'I surrender' pose and she offered the worried roomie the calmest smile she could manage. "Nothing happened, no one got hurt, and I'm gonna take you back to the room now so we can have some hot chocolate. Then I'll explain everything. Now come on, love, I'm freezin' to the sidewalk."

"Wait just a minute," Jenna ordered as she intercepted Astrid with one long arm. "Do you swear under solemn oath that you will tell me the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth?"

"Don't I always?"

"No," Jenna said. "If you did I wouldn't have to ask. But I want to know everything about this little fiasco or so help me you won't be going anywhere with this Victorian snowball again until you're both old, ugly and I'm lying on a hospital bed in a catatonic state. Savvy?"

"Yeah, savvy, can we go in now, please?"

Jenna eyed her critically one last time and then nodded sternly. "Alright. We'll go inside, but you are so not off the hook yet, young lady. And you!" Mirage found himself once again at the end of a very angry finger, but he managed to hold his ground this time. "Don't even dream that I'm finished with you yet, buddy. I'll be back, now or later, but I will be back."

By that time Astrid was halfway to the dorms and called back wearily, "Enough with the theatrics, Jenna! Heat! Now! Put some hustle in that bustle!"

With one final glare at the poor, confused Autobot, Jenna swung around and marched quickly after her friend, managing to slide only once on a downhill icy patch.

.O.O.O.

In the end, Astrid got Jenna to back down from her state of red alert. Once she was calm, she took the opportunity to explain her horrible, no good, very bad day in careful detail. By the end she'd turned her best friend from a homicide-threatening protector to a dithering mother hen. She was buried beneath the soft security of no fewer than six blankets in under two minutes and had a variety of food and drink at her disposal. There was of course hot chocolate, along with tea, water, pop, diet pop, chips, carrots, chocolate, cookies, popcorn and Skittles.

When Jenna was worried, she went all out. The trick was to keep her from worrying about things that might turn on the 'I'm gonna get a shotgun and blow your head off' sort of worried.

They spent more time than was really needed to go over the notes Jenna had taken in the classes Astrid had skipped and by the time they were finished it wasn't technically nighttime anymore. Neither felt like getting ready for bed or even cleaning up the mess Jenna had made making her friend comfortable, so they just flopped down on Astrid's bed, which wasn't covered with notebooks, wrappers and bottles and dropped off into a deep and heavy sleep. A sonic boom couldn't have woken them up at that point, but a few hours later a very different sound roused Astrid.

For a minute she couldn't figure out what it was, blurry-minded with sleep as she was. It sounded like a cricket had gotten in their room. That wouldn't be too surprising, actually; one had made it into Jenna's closet during their first month of college. But this was too regular for a cricket, and there was a funny feeling on her right hip...

Then it dawned on her. Her cell phone. Someone was trying to call her. In the middle... well, really late at night. Or really early in the morning, depending on how one looked at it. Her first thought was to just smash the stupid thing and yell at Jeremy or the twins -whichever had possessed the audacity to call her at such an hour- later. Still, though, nearly having the guts squashed out of you by an angry metal alien was enough to make one take a second look at suspicious calls, especially ones made at ungodly hours. Thus, it was her final decision to pull out the offending device and glare blearily at the caller id. It was Mirage.

She answered the phone.

There was a text waiting for her. It read

I have been attacked, am en route back to you. Get out. My long range communications have been sabotaged, and I am unable to call reinforcements. They are coming to your school. Call Optimus. Send for reinforcements. Get away from the university. Take as many with you as you can, but get out NOW.

By the end of the message, Astrid's breath was hitched up into pants, and for a precious few seconds she was completely frozen. Oh, crap. Then, with a jerk, she came back to herself, and her eyes danced rapidly around her dorm room, looking for potential weapons. The most threatening article in her possession, however, turned out to be her Swiss Army Knife, and she seriously doubted that the puny weapon would be a discouragement to any Decepticons that planned on making her a pancake. Fried or otherwise.

Her first action after that was to press the button on the side of her phone she'd hoped to never use. The screen blinked red, and she knew that the signal had been transmitted. Several Autobot names popped up over the flashing red background, and she was sorely tempted to just select one and listen to the comforting rumble of their voice until help arrived.

Her time was limited, however, and she began her quest to save her friends by smacking Jenna awake.

"Up! Get up! Jenna, move it! We've gotta get out of here. Right now. C'mon, get up!"

"Jeez, woman, I'm awake already," she said. "What's your problem?"

"Look, I don't have time to explain, but we need to get ourselves, and everybody else, out of this dorm right now," Astrid said fervently, praying harder than she'd ever prayed for anything in her life that her friend would listen to her just this once.

For a minute Jenna just stared at her, and for a horrible moment Astrid was sure that she would be forced to flee by herself. If her best friend didn't believe her, who would? Then Jenna nodded, and Astrid released an auditory sigh of relief.

"What do you need me to do?" she asked.

"Wake up everyone," Astrid said. "Try and get to the other dorms if you can, but just try to get everyone out of here first. I... I think this building is in the greatest danger of being attacked."

"Attacked?"

"Jenna, I swear on my honor that I will explain later but right now every second we waste is another life lost," Astrid pleaded as she held the door open.

"Alright, but you so owe me for this."

"Believe me, I know."

They split up in the hall, running down opposite sides in an attempt to cover as much ground as possible. Unfortunately, everyone else was just as skeptical as Jenna had been, and they did not have the faith in Astrid that her roommate possessed. Several doors were slammed in the girls' faces, and even more were never opened in the first place. Astrid highly suspected that the ones they'd actually succeeded in waking forgot the encounter seconds later when their heads hit their pillows. So far, the evacuation was going nowhere fast.

Then an idea dawned on her.

She raced down to the end of the hall where a certain red box with a handle that had the words 'Pull in case of emergency' printed on it was located. As she curled her fingers around the bar she muttered under her breath, "May the fire marshals and mothers across America forgive me," and jerked the trigger down. Instantly, the halls were filled with screaming alarms, flashing strobes and - a few seconds later - confused and panicky students all trying to flee down the stairs at the same time in their nightwear. Jenna managed to surf through the throng to Astrid's side and gave her a very amused glare.

"I'm not sure whether to declare you brilliant or in need of some serious finger-wagging," she said. "Pulling the fire alarm. Honestly. What are you? Five?"

"Well it worked, didn't it," said Astrid.

"I have to concede that point. It most certainly did work. And I think it woke up about half of the rest of campus. But what do you say to you and me blowing this joint now? Wasn't there something earlier about eminent attack or something...?"

"Yes. I couldn't agree more," Astrid said. "Let's move."

Outside the dorm, the entire campus was in a state of pandemonium. People were running everywhere in various states of dress and undress, girls were screaming for no apparent reason and a few wise guys were catching it all on their camera phones. It took Astrid a moment to realize that not all of the frantic students were running in the right direction. Instead of hightailing it away from the building where the fire alarm was blaring like it was the Blitz, there were quite a few running the opposite way... away from the funny flashes of light and muted booms that could barely be discerned from the chaos surrounding the evacuated dorm.

Before she registered what she was doing, her fingers were around Jenna's arm and she was sprinting desperately for the tree line. If her estimates were right about how fast Decepticons moved and how far away those flashes looked, they would be on top of them in under a minute, maybe more if they were distracted by blowing up everything and everyone in sight. But her attempt to save the lives of her classmates was now a lost cause. If they were smart they'd run too. If they weren't... she hoped they had the record straight with God, because they probably wouldn't get another chance.

Jenna was shouting something impossible to hear in her ear, but Astrid didn't even try to pick out her words over the roar of the approaching devastation. Something heavy was shaking the ground beneath them, and the trees were still much too far away to offer any sort of protection. At least a few of the other students had gotten wise and were heading to safety. If back-up didn't come soon, though, it wouldn't matter all that much. Astrid suspected that 'cons had just as many scanners as the 'bots did, and it wouldn't be hard for them to root the squishies out from the trees if they were given enough time.

At least she could possibly buy them some time...

She whirled on Jenna and gave her a rough shove in a slightly different direction than the rest of the would-be survivors.

"Get out of here!" she yelled over the massive booms ripping through the air.

"What? And leave you? Are you crazy?" Jenna shouted.

"Jenna, please go!" Astrid said. "You can't help. You'll just get killed. Grab as many people as you can and find a secluded place with lots of escape routes to hide in."

Without giving her friend a chance to argue further, Astrid wheeled around and took off at an angle to her comrade's path. No need to focus attention in that direction... Maybe Jenna at least would get a few of their other friends together and successfully avoid the Decepticons until the Autobots came to save the day. It was all she could hope for at the moment.

As she ran, the tremors shaking the frozen ground beneath her grew stronger, and soon the screams of those around her alerted Astrid to the fact that the transformers were now in visual range. She knew it was a lost cause after that, so she spun around to at least see which one was going to get her before she became a red smear on the snow. What she saw stopped her in her tracks.

Mirage had arrived. But so had the Decepticons, and there were way too many of them for the spy to take on by himself. It looked like the first attack had damaged him badly enough to knock out his invisibility powers and he was now flailing around in the grip of three tremendously huge 'cons as two others pummeled him. His Cybertronian groans and curses tore at Astrid as she stood there in the cold and dark, watching as his fuel and coolant lines leaked glowing fluids onto the hands of his captors. Her compassionate nature got the upper hand on her survival instincts for a minute and she rushed straight for the mechs that were undoubtedly hunting for her blood. As she ran, she crouched down and scooped up a large stone and hurled it straight at the nearest monster as she straightened.

It roared something - probably an explicative - and swivelled its head around to glare at the organic that dared to assault it. Then its optics grew a shade brighter.

"Hey, isn't that the organic we came to this rat hole to catch?" it asked.

Astrid froze.

Another one, possibly the biggest of them all, turned around and focused harsh red optics on the wide-eyed college student.

"Designation: Astrid Fenner - confirmed," it droned. "Mission: retrieve."

Astrid didn't hang around to hear if it said anything else, because at that moment Mirage strained his face up from the snow. Over the groaning gears that revealed the effort put into the words, he growled out, "Run, Astrid."

And she complied.

There were still other people trying to fly the scene around her, but now it was too late for some of them. One of the Decepticons tried to blow Astrid's path out from around her, hedging her in with craters, but his canon was not powerful enough to pull off the stunt, and Astrid was quick on her feet. Unfortunately, many of those running beside her were not so lucky. One boy whom she knew to be a senior majoring in biology became a lesson in anatomy as an energy burst collided with his fragile organic body. He managed to scream before his lungs were burned away. The next unfortunate victim ended in a spray of blood and body parts that showered Astrid as she dashed past.

A scream was building up inside of her as her fellows were blown to pieces in every direction and the ominous footsteps of several nearing Decepticons made the ground dance a jig beneath her feet. The only Autobot in that part of the country was currently being reduced to spare parts, her college campus was turning into an inferno around her and there was a homicidal maniac that was bigger than a trailer home coming in for the kill. As her emotions stirred themselves into a raging boil, her remaining logic was stuck repeating 'not good' over, and over, and over, and over...

Then, it suddenly seemed like it was the Fourth of July... even though it was the middle of January.

Bright explosions of light and color came soaring from the woods in front of her, and as the blasts sailed overhead Astrid had a moment to see the ruins of her campus in total clarity. Although the snow and the pale bodies were turned blue, green or yellow by the lights, there could be no mistaking the carnage surrounding her. Faces of dead colleagues and acquaintances stared up from the snow; wounded friends limped or crawled through the ice with wide, shell-shocked eyes. Painted over the light background of winter precipitation were artistic smears and splatters of a darker color, and no matter what effect the flying lights had on the scene, the blotches could be mistaken for nothing other than what they were.

As the first salvo of illumination vanished, Astrid became aware of the fact that the monster that had been chasing her was no longer shaking the ground. She turned, feeling like she was trapped in one of those dreams where she was stuck in slow motion while the rest of the world ran at regular speed. The Decepticon was standing over her, its red eyes trained on its target, but its hands were clutched to its chest, which smoked and fizzled. Then its ruby eyes sputtered out, and it began sinking towards the ground, swaying so that Astrid was sure she'd be crushed. Although she tried to move out of the falling body's path, the laws of gravity and gross tonage were against her and she knew she wasn't moving fast enough as her death came closer... and closer...

Just when she could see the tiny Cybertronian symbols etched in the Decepticon's armor, Astrid became aware of something hard and warm grabbing her. And then she was clear.

Her head swam for a few seconds as her brain caught up with the rest of the world, but the sight of a friendly pair of blue optics set in a familiar, visored face was all she needed to come back to herself.

"Jazz!"

"Fancy meetin' you here, little lady," he said happily, despite the battle that had just commenced around them. "Good thing ol' Jazz was here. Can't 'Rage keep ya out of trouble for a few months?"

"Mirage! Jazz, he was..."

"Don't ya worry none, little lady," Jazz said. "We've got Ironhide blowin' a hole through the other team to get him as we speak. What we need is to get you out of here before..."

"Autobot scum!"

The world tilted alarmingly as one of the larger 'cons smashed into Astrid's rescuer, and she screamed as she felt the slick metal fingers lose their grip on her. It was all for nothing though, she discovered a second later as she dropped safely into the snow. Sick of playing the damsel in distress for the evening, she looked around to figure out where she'd gotten and where she was supposed to go.

It appeared that most of the Autobots had turned out for the fight, and Astrid decided to worry about how they'd gotten there so fast at a later date. At the moment there were still other students floundering about in harm's way, and now, with the Decepticons busy fighting somebody their own size, she had a chance to help.

A/N: So, in case you haven't figured it out, this fic is going to get a bit more serious/dark in the upcoming chapters. Hope you keep on reading it!

Replies to those without accounts:

Sammy J: Thank you very much! I like writing the scenes between those two, so I'm very glad you like reading them! Thank you and thank you again!

Alihag: Thank you oodles and boodles! What would the twins have had to do if they lost? Put daisy hubcaps on their wheels for a month. Thanks again!

GodisGod!andIamnot...: Thank you! Well, she isn't usually THAT clumsy, but when one's college campus is coated in ice it isn't hard. It's also a saying at school that EVERYONE has an accident involving their tray in the caffeteria at some point. But, yeah, now that you mention it, it does have a resemblence. Yikes! Thanks for the review, hope to hear from you again!

Sienna: Thank you very much! Yeah, getting along for ONCE... thanks again, and I hope to hear from you again soon!