It was always nice to have help when you needed it. Especially if you're not used to receiving it and have trouble getting around on your own. But Kevin- as Lilah had learned the blonde's name to be- gave her a vibe that had her tensed up and ready to run for reasons she didn't understand in the slightest.
Yet she couldn't come up with a viable excuse to refuse his help. Not politely, in any case.
And so, when Ben waved goodbye and went his separate way to handle other errands, Lilah found herself walking back to her apartment with Kevin, their arms laden with baskets of clothing.
Luckily, he didn't seem terribly chatty, allowing her to fully focus on walking up to her door. He just watched her, almost unnervingly, as Lilah set to work unlocking her front door.
Once she had swung it open slightly, she gave him a small smile and gestured, signing slowly with one hand,
'I can take it from here. You can just leave the basket there.'
"Alrighty." Kevin set the basket down at his feet with a grunt, "Boy that's kinda heavy." he chuckled.
'A little.' Lilah pushed her door open and set her basket down on the floor inside, before turning and grabbing the one Kevin had been carrying. Once she had also moved that one inside, she straightened to speak with him again.
'Thank you so much for your help. I appreciate it.' Lilah smiled, trying to hide the sudden nervousness that had doused over her like cold water. Something about Kevin was… off.
"No problem." A dark, more sinister smile twisted over his face, "You're going to help me in return anyway." confusion flittered over Lilah's face, but before she could sign a question, Kevin had already lunged.
Lilah couldn't even scream as his large weight crashed into her, one hand clamping over her mouth, as they both fell through her front door.
Safely out of public eye.
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Sideswipe grinned as he passed by yet another human, revealing in the fact that none of them knew his true nature. Holoforms, he found, were endlessly useful and fun. It made playing with the humans so much easier.
It was just too bad Sunstreaker didn't share his fascination.
'Stop prancing around, Sides. I would like to get out of here before I start rusting.' speaking of the grouchy sunshine…
'Oh come on, Sunny!' Sideswipe laughed, 'You should try this. The humans don't even realize the danger they're walking next to!'
'Yes, that sounds like great fun.' Sunstreaker's sarcasm echoed over the com. link with a hint of being snide, 'Let me just walk around in a disgusting, oily, fleshy body among other disgusting, oily, fleshy bodies.'
'Alright, alright.' Sides chuckled, knowing that if he let him, Sunny would continue to rant about it for the rest of the day.
The yellow twin growled and grumbled under his breath before snapping impatiently, 'Have you found her room yet?'
'Chillax, bro, just found it.' Grinning confidently, Sideswipe sashayed up to the door.
Look like you belong, and people will believe you belong.
Sideswipe stopped short, his half a spark stuttering a bit in his chest, as horror descended over him.
'Sunny. Check the surveillance cameras for intruders.' eons of training, instincts, and coding kicked in, and he dropped into a crouch.
'On it. What's wrong?' catching on to his twin's change in tone, and the sudden shift over their bond, Sunstreaker instantly changed gears to follow suit. Sides only sounded that serious when it was something major.
'Doors open. I'm already detecting signs of a struggle.' The red front liner grimaced, and crept up to the wall beside the door. While he wasn't afraid of being attacked or anything, given his holoform couldn't exactly get injured, if someone was holding Lilah hostage, he didn't want to get her shot or stabbed.
Something that was very likely if he didn't tread carefully.
Creeping forward, Sideswipe gently nudged the door open further, taking care to be silent. He wasn't as quiet as Jazz or the other Black Ops, but he had done his fair share of stealth missions. He was no slacker in the sneaking department.
Especially when it came to pranks.
Grimacing, the front liner peaked around the edge of the door frame, trying to get a look at the inside of the room.
'Parts of the camera's feed are missing.' Sunstreaker's growl was irritated, 'Red Alert is not going to be happy about that.'
'When is he ever happy with the security?' the reply was grumbled halfheartedly
'How are things on your end? Have you located the human yet?'
'Lights are off. Stuff knocked over…' Sideswipe trailed off, coming further into the home as his scanners told him no one was present, 'Empty. No one here. No blood, no sign of injury… but a fight did take place here.' his keen, well trained eyes picked up on the knocked over baskets, spilled out clothing, and broken figurines on the floor from the cabinet that had been knocked over.
'Burglar?'
'I don't think so.' Sides shook his head, despite Sunny not being able to see him, 'My bio scanner registers that Lilah was here. Along with a human male. About… three hours ago. No one's been through here since.'
'Abduction, then.' Sunstreaker groaned, 'Dammit.'
'Yeah, seems likely. See if you can pick up a trail outside. I'll see about finding DNA evidence.'
'Yeah, that'll be easy. It's not like humans are constantly driving to and from this parking lot.' Sideswipe could almost see his brother's optics rolling with the sarcasm,
'It's worth a shot. You wanna compile the report for Optimus?'
'I can, yeah. See what you can find.' Sunstreaker clicked off his com., and Sides had to wonder how exactly they were gonna tell Bluestreak about this. It wasn't going to be good, no matter how they spun it. Even the most bolt brained bot- try saying that five times fast- could see that he adored the small human. Pit, he probably even loved her, and if Sideswipe's suspicions were correct, wanted to spark bond to her.
Sides and his brother didn't hate Lilah. He winced at the thought. It wasn't in their nature to really hate, unless the Decepticons were involved.
They were concerned, at first, that she would hurt Bluestreak. Either by accident or on purpose. After realizing they didn't have much to worry about on that front, she became something of a new toy. Something to play with.
The terror twins found her reactions to be amusing and fun to pull out of her.
Sideswipe had to wonder if it was their fucked up way of trying to make friends with Lilah.
Hadn't that originally been his intentions though, when he was first headed to her apartment? Possibly taking her out to eat and inviting her to spend time with him and his brother. His own small way of apologizing to Lilah, much to Sunstreaker's annoyed irritance.
Lilah probably wouldn't have agreed to it anyway.
Flipping on the light switch, Sideswipe attempted to ignore those thoughts. He wasn't the most mentally stable, and it was for the best that he didn't over think things too much.
The apartment was abruptly bathed in light, bringing far more attention to the destroyed cabinet, ruined figurines, and knocked over baskets. Sideswipe stepped around the spilled out clothing and broken porcelain, his eyes and scanners working overtime. His holoform's tools weren't as powerful as the ones in his real body but it would do. It was just enough to look for the DNA he was hoping to find.
Sideswipe wasn't sure if he wanted to find Lilah for her sake… or Bluestreak's. Maybe both.
He grinned as his scanners caught a blip, and dropped into a crouch to retrieve what had been pointed out to him.
"Bingo." He breathed the human word triumphantly as he carefully picked up a singular blonde strand of hair. Last he checked, Lilah bad black hair, and holoforms didn't leave traces behind.
It was too short to even be Maggie's, and his holoform's eyes could easily deduce it wasn't even the right shade of blonde.
Sideswipe was willing to gamble with Smokescreen that he had found the kidnapper. Or at least, a piece of him.
'I've got a lead.' He poked at his brother,
'Thank Primus. Optimus is wanting a full follow up debriefing and I've been over this lot five times looking for evidence that isn't here.' Sunstreaker grouched, 'If the kidnapper did take off with the human, his tracks have long since been erased.'
'I'm heading down with the hair particle. We can drop it off with Ratchet on the way through so he can set something up to help find her.' Sideswipe quirked a small smile.
Sunstreaker hid it well, but Sides knew his brother. He was worried, just as much if not more so then Sideswipe was.
He had no doubts the yellow warrior wanted to get a hold of the kidnapper and do unpleasant things to him.
Sideswipe could only hope they got to Lilah before anything bad happened.
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"What do you mean, 'don't tell Bluestreak'?! He's got a right to know!" Oh, Ratchet wasn't happy. He was the complete opposite of happy.
Sideswipe was just glad it wasn't aimed at him.
Optimus, the true receiver to Ratchet's anger, just look back at him calmly, as if the Hatchet wasn't the one screaming at him.
"Ratchet. You of all people know how dangerous it can be to tell a Cybertronian that the one they love is in danger." The leader rumbled wisely, leaning on his desk's surface heavily with a frown, "Matters of coding and the spark are not to be taken lightly. I will not endanger anyone else." the doctor ground his denta and grumbled low in his throat, but said nothing more on the matter. Though that didn't stop him from sending his Prime a dark look every few moments- not that Optimus seemed to notice.
"Red's reviewin' th'a tapes now, ta' be sure it's not jus' a hiccup in th' system." Jazz piped in from beside the door leading out of Prime's office, his arms crossed over his chest as he frowned at the floor somberly. This was not something he took lightly.
"But the way we found her home- the hair on the floor-"
"I'm analyzing that now to see who it belongs to." Ratchet grunted, "It won't take my scanners long, I assure you." the medic was far from pleased. If it had happened to Lilah- it could happen to Bobbi. It made his spark panic, knowing that Lilah had last been seen with the field medic and his children. Could it have been them taken, had the computer analyst not been there?
His spark snarled in rage at the thought.
"Miss Abernathy could easily be somewhere else on base, Sideswipe." Optimus gently reassured the front liner, "Someone may have just broken into her home and ruined some things before fleeing the scene. Let us do a thorough search before we give in to panic. Once we know for certain, we can launch a full scale search mission."
"With all due respect, Optimus, Lilah might not have that much time." Sunstreaker's soft, unusually quiet voice surprised everyone in the room. He was splayed out on the couch in the Prime's office, staring up at the ceiling with a blank expression. He slowly turned his icy blue optics to his leader.
"She could be dead within the next few hours." This wasn't the first time the golden warrior had encountered a situation like this. He was realistic.
"Unfortunately, the humans will not accept anything less." Optimus sighed, his lips twitching, "Someone must be missing for twenty-four hours before an official missing persons-"
"Wha' if we worked outside the human's rules?" Jazz grinned, "Ah' mean, unofficially. We put up a good show an' all, work wit' 'em. But meanwhile, 'ah take the twins an' go see what we can dig up?"
"That is risky, Jazz." Optimus hesitated, weighing his options,
"As long as these two 're down; ah'm game." The silver minibot's grin widened dangerously. He enjoyed a challenge.
"Sideswipe? Sunstreaker? The decision is yours."
"Don't be daft, sir." The red twin crossed his arms with a scowl,
"That's our human you're talking about."
(AN: I wrote most of this while sitting in the ER today. The doctor was a dick and treated me like shit despite the fact that I was nothing but polite and calm. Maybe he was just having an off day, but that- and the 600 dollar ER bill- got me thinking.
Almost 3 years of being sick, and what do I have to show for it? No college. No job. No nothing. Not even a driver's license.
That's just sad.
So I've made a decision. I'm not gonna be the victim anymore. Pain in my side? Fuck that shit. I'm pushing it to the limit. So, updates are gonna be a bit slow from now on. Because there's a few things I wanna finish- and no, I'm not abandoning the story. Its just gonna slow down.
1. My novel. Project Grapevine WILL be finished.
2. Original works will be made into Audiobooks and posted to YouTube, I'll let you all know when that happens.
3. My driver's license.
I'm staying focused this time, and I'm not gonna let this mysterious illness run my life anymore. Doc says I'm okay? Then I'm okay. Wish me luck.
On another note! :D The twins actually DO like Lilah, just in a kinda... twisted way. c: Sides at least recognizes this. :o oh no, I really do think I'm with Ratchet on this one. Tell Blue! Leave me a review with your opinion, yeah? :D)