Instead, she noticed how he looked on with curiosity at what she was doing. His Antennae moving about in conjunction with how he was feeling or whatever it was he was thinking. Not unlike her own ears.
"Hey Bee!" I waved "Wanna see?"
.:"Sure!":. Bee perked up.
I put down the pencil, got up with the sketchbook, and walked closer to the railing to show Bumblebee my drawing.
"It's still a work in progress, so...what do you think so far?" I asked.
.:"It looks familiar...":. Bee squinted his optics and cocked his helm as he looked at the drawing.
"Yeah, it's the forest we were at." I rubbed my arm. "I'm still coming to grips with what happened..."
Bee's antennae's drooped. He whirred a bit worryingly. I noticed it and tried cheering him up though;
"But it's really nothing, I'm just trying to remember the positives, like; it's a very beautiful forest!" I tried explaining. "Like, have you ever noticed how many different shades of the same color can be found in there?"
Bee shook his head. .:"No.":.
"So many different shades of green!" I showed him a wide gesture with my arms. "But, I can't show you that now, cause I don't have coloring pencils..."I put my arms back down. "We'll have to settle with sketches and our imaginations." I added sheepishly.
.:"It still looks great though, almost like you took a picture of the place with a camera.":. Bumblebee pointed out.
"Oh, c'mon Bumblebee; I'm not that good." I shrugged.
"Hey Bee!" It was Raf. "Nurse Darby picked us up early today!"
.:"Hi, Raf!":. Bumblebee carefully lifted the boy up to his face, and Raf gave him a hug.
.:"Did you see what Zucky made? It looks like a real picture!":. Bumblebee excitedly beeped and lowered Rafael back onto the platform.
"Hi Zucky, had a good night?" Raf asked.
"I slept like a log, from the moment you guys left all the way into this morning." I said while rubbing the back of my neck.
"Wow, you really were tired, then." The boy's eyes were wide with surprise. "What's this?"
"The reason Bumblebee's so excited this morning." I chuckled. "He says I made it look like I took a picture taken with a camera, but I'm not that good, am I?"
"Are you kidding?!" Raf lifted the sketchbook and showed me the drawing. "I still draw like a kid!"
One of my ears fell limp in thought."You...still are..." I squinted my eyes in confusion at what he said.
"Yeah, I know; but I mean I'm terrible at drawing. I'm way better at technology, than I am at well...this." He emphasized his point with the sketchbook.
"It's okay Raf, I wasn't this good at your age either...Plus, I'm pretty sure I'm caveman level-smart at Science-Technology stuff, compared to you, but that's just fine. We can't all be super good at everything, otherwise; what are we even doing here, you know what I mean?" I explained, and I looked up at Bee as I meant to direct the question at both of them.
Bee thought about it; agreed and nodded.
"I guess you're right. But can you blame Bee for thinking it's awesome?" Raf asked as he looked at Bumblebee who went to greet the others.
"I guess not." I chuckled. "But here's the thing; it's just a work in progress...it's not done yet." I whispered.
Raf's jaw fell open, and I carefully pushed it back closed. "Flies don't taste nice." I joked.
"Boo!" Miko jumped on us from behind.
"AAAH!" Me and Raf screamed.
Poor Raf jumped out of his seat, which caused his glasses to fly off his face, and I poofed out of existence again.
"Don't do that, Miko!" Raf growled at her as he tried to put his glasses back on.
"Fat chance, your faces were priceless!" She laughed. "And Zucky, she just went Poof! How cool is that?!"
"What?! Where...where did she go?" Raf only now noticed zucky was missing.
Miko shrugged. "I dunno, but she'll come back in a minute, right?" She remembered the footage that Agent Fowler showed them and the discussion the Autobots had with him that day.
"Miko..." Bulkhead asked in a grim tone. "What did you do...again?"
"I was just playing! Can't anyone appreciate a joke anymore?" Miko pouted. "Besides, I didn't know she was going to do that."
*poof!* Hearing the sudden sound above their heads, everyone in the room looked up, to see that I appeared again way above their heads, close to the ceiling and when I felt I was about to freefall, I started flapping my wings frantically, trying to hover but still losing altitude.
I was better at gliding from a higher point to lower one, than I was at hovering, and taking off from the ground. I always panicked and ended up exhausting myself, and this meant I was well acquainted with the ground, given how much I tend to fall out of the sky.
"Help me!" I yelped.
"I got ya!" Bulkhead caught the dragon before she fell and hurt herself.
"What happened? Are your wings broken too?" He asked.
"No...I still don't have full control over my teleportation. Though I'm getting better, I could have ended up on the other side of town or something." I explained.
The kids look at eachother.
"My wings are just fine, but I'm a terrible flier." My ears drooped.
"At least you're not hurt." Raf said after he was able to breathe easy.
"That was pretty cool though, to be able to get out of the way of danger in the nick of time!" Jack said. "And fast travel from place to place, in just seconds..."he added.
"Yeah, it is pretty cool, but it's not easy." I nervously chuckled. "It takes quite the amount of focus to get it right; Clear mind, good memory of the places you wanna go, not to mention the in-between buffer dimension you have to hop through to get to your destination. Those inexperienced are left so dizzy, they end up emptying their stomachs shortly after." I explained.
"Ewww..." Miko commented.
"It's also linked with my flight instincts, which explains why I 'ported' this time, and not last time. Last time I was still in a fighting mood." I concluded as I rubbed my arm as I remembered what I did.
"What happened last time then?" Jack asked.
Miko answered for me; "She kicked Optimus in the dashboard." The girl snickered.
"That's not funny, it could have been you." I was serious.
"Look, I don't know where these powers came from, I barely know how to control them and I'm afraid I might badly hurt someone...even if it's by accident." I explained.
"Wait...so you're NOT a dragon?" Miko asked.
"No...not from birth at least, believe it or not; I'm actually human...or used to be, until this happened." I gestured to myself.
"What? You mean to tell me you're some kind of superhero or something?" She continued.
I scoff. "Me?! A Superhero? I can't even keep myself out of trouble, let alone trying to save other people." I trail off... "Superhero...yeah, right. Humans are scared of me... What makes you think they're gonna trust me with their lives?"
The room was silent.
"That's why I was running in the first place, that's why I always have been on the run." I trailed off.
As if on cue, Agent Fowler showed up.
"Morning everyone. Sorry I didn't call before I showed up, but I didn't want to waste any more time; In case our little winged friend decided it was a good time to make an instant exit." The man in the suit and striped tie said.
"Agent Fowler, I believe we were as 'Clear as Crystal', as you humans say; when I assured you that she meant you no harm." Optimus was stern.
The atmosphere between the Autobot leader and the government agent was so thick, you could cut right through it with a knife or in my case; a claw.
"Optimus is right, Mr." I decided to say something before they melt a hole through each other's skulls. (Or in Optimus' case his helm)
"Special Agent William Fowler" The man showed me his badge and introduced himself to me with a scowl on his face. "...I work for the government." He was still on the other side of the room, but I could still tell he's on the edge, about me no doubt. Still, he slowly made his way to the platform me and the other humans were on.
"Look; Fowler, I know I appeared out of nowhere, and on 'authorized personnel-only' grounds, but it wasn't on purpose, and I never was going to hurt anyone, I swear!" I tried explaining as the man was making his way closer to where I was.
"A few of my boys ended up with bullet wounds..." He began.
"I never shot a gun before in my life, sir... and you can't possibly expect someone; anyone, to just stand still and take a faceful of lead. Can you?" I cut him off.
He was silent for a moment, but not for long.
"Listen, Miss..." He began, being mindful of what Optimus and Bulkhead told him last time. "I'm the one who asks the questions, and you're the one who answers them."
"Okay...Ask away..." I simply said.
Agent Fowler: "First question; what planet are you from?"
Zucky: "Earth..."
Agent Fowler: "Earth? You look nothing like anything indigenous to our planet, young lady."
Zucky: "Yeah, I noticed..."
Agent Fowler: "Look, I saw you teleport into that army base with my own naked eyes, you must have come from somewhere else."
Zucky: "Yes...yes, I did. And I'm pretty sure wherever that was, they referred to that place, as earth as well."
Agent Fowler: "Wait...do you mean to tell me that you might have traveled here from a totally different dimension?"
Zucky: "I'm mean, sure; that may very well be a possibility."
Agent Fowler: "You're not even sure yourself, are you?"
Zucky: "Took ya long enough..."
Agent Fowler: *Pinches the bridge of his nose *sigh... "Okay, look...We may have started off on the wrong foot here, so...Let's start over, Okay?"
Zucky: "Okay."
Agent Fowler: "My name is William Fowler, what's your name?"
Zucky: "You can call me Zucky."
Agent Fowler: "So, you have a different name?"
Zucky: "Yes, Zucky's not my Birth Name, but it wouldn't be fair to the people I Love, if I shared my real name with you."
The Secret agent's eyebrows raised high up his forehead.
Agent Fowler: "Are you a fugitive of some kind?"
Zucky: *sigh..."Yeah, I guess you could call me that."
Zucky suddenly found her own feet to be very interesting.
Agent Fowler: "What did you do?"
The dragon looked up at the Government agent's face and locked gazes with him for a few seconds before answering.
Zucky: *shrugged "Exist..."
Agent Fowler: "Exist?"
Zucky: "I didn't ask for this, okay? It just happened...and now I have to live with it for the rest of my existence."
Agent Fowler: "Wait...hold the phone; You mean to tell me...?"
Zucky: "Yes, I'm human...Or at least as far as 'normal' humans are concerned; I used to be human. Now, I'm whatever the heck they feel like calling me."
Agent Fowler: "So that makes you a...?"
Zucky: "No, I'm NOT a superhero either."
Miko: "Yeah, I already asked that..."
Agent Fowler: "Okay...So...Let's just start from the beginning; How did you get here?"
Zucky: "I escaped from a Lab where I was being kept and experimented on, they were trying to study my abilities and how they worked. Then one day they decided it was a good idea to try and draw out some of my blood for 'research purposes' but I know what they were really after."
Agent Fowler: "And what do you believe that was?"
Zucky: "Well, duh, they would have probably tried to replicate it somehow with a few creative tweaks of their own, and inject it into some innocent human lab rats."
The Autobots listened closely to the conversation and were disgusted with that last part. How can humans be like that to one another? They're starting to seem even worse than the Decepticons themselves.
Zucky: "It would most likely either make these poor people sick, especially if their body rejects it, or it would mutate them alright, into Monsters!"
Arcee was reminded of what the Decepticons did to Cliffjumper, How he was killed, brought back to 'life' as a mindless Terrorcon and turned against his own teammates.
Zucky: "Oh, and let's not forget...If the experiment happens to be a success, they'll probably make more of it, so they can create an entire army of Super powered soldiers, meant to give them the upper hand in warfare, right? Isn't that what it's always about?"
Agent Fowler: "Hold on..."
Zucky: "I'm not done yet... Remember when I said STABLE? Guess what happens to the unstable specimens..."
Agent Fowler: "..."
Zucky: "Just sweep 'em under the rug, right? What about their Families? That's easy! Just call 'em up on the phone and tell them that they're loved ones were diagnosed with a terminal illness and didn't want to be a burden to their families."
The air was so cold in the room that even the bots shivered when those words made it to their audials.
Agent Fowler: "How can you possibly know that's what they were after? For all you know, maybe they were just trying to find a cure for whatever it is that made you this way in the first place?!"
Zucky stood up as tall as she could and looked the secret agent dead in the eyes.
Zucky: "What makes think they were trying to help me? Huh? Were you there to witness them torturing other people like me? How they starved them, how they tased them? Just to get them to do what they wanted! We may look different, or have extraordinary powers, but that's not the way to treat other people, Mister!"
Agent Fowler: "..."
Zucky: "That's why I escaped. "
Agent Fowler: "You're a fugitive now, then...?"
Zucky: "I always have been...ever since this happened, I've been on the run. Humans are scared of things they don't understand...and fear makes humans unpredictable."
The dragon then sat down and hung her head back down. An old, but still very relevant and painful sadness bubbling up inside her.
Arcee noticed this and thought about the events that lead up to their encounter...indeed, even though it was sort of on purpose, she was only just acting on instinct. She mistook the Autobots for Decepticons, and that led to her previous behaviour towards them.
Had she known the difference, if she were able to understand in time that she wasn't in any harm...Things would have been different.
It was hard for her to admit it, but she had some apologizing to do...besides, Zucky did say she was sorry.
["Not now though, some other time..."] Arcee thought.
Zucky: "I had to leave my entire life behind; I can't attend school, I can't work, I can't even go for a swim or take a leisurely stroll through the park, for Goodness sakes! I live alone; I never stay in one place out of fear of being discovered and...I can never return...I might as well say that I don't have a family!"
She tried her hardest to suppress how much she felt like howling bloody murder from the pain and anguish she keeps to herself on a daily basis.
Noticing this Miko and Nurse Darby put a hand on her back and carefully hugged her, keeping in mind her shoulder.
This topic hits the Bots quite close to home as well, considering what happened to Cybertron, their home.
During the war, they've lost quite a bunch of allies, friends...Those so near and dear to them respectively, that they even referred to them as brothers and sisters. Each one dealt with this pain in their own way. She was right, appearances aside, they're all alike in some way or another...in this case they're all sentient beings, and no such creatures deserve this.
Agent Fowler: "Is that why you refuse to disclose your real identity?"
Zucky looked up at him after a minute or two of composing herself.
Zucky: "They would be jailed, or worse; for harbouring a fugitive. You work for the government, you should know that. I surrendered myself initially to the Lab they were keeping me in, but then I escaped."
Agent Fowler: "I have never heard of people like you before, so definitely you're from some other earth-like place...meaning you traveled across dimensions to get here...How did you manage to do that?"
Zucky then began explaining how she was chased down an alley, how she suddenly teleported and ended up on the army base, her encounter with the Decepticons, how she escaped the Nemesis leading up to when she met the Autobots all before she collapsed from exhaustion in Optimus' Cabin.
With the help of the Humans and the Autobots alike, everyone was soon up to speed on the whole situation.
Agent Fowler was left with quite the report for his superiors, a meeting he wasn't particularly looking forward to, but he didn't have a choice.
After a cup of Coffee from Nurse Darby, he was on his way, leaving everyone to process the information themselves.