The explosion was massive. Yet it was contained in the small cave and no further. Smoke billowed upward through the openning at the top. The remaining Decepticons had retreated knowing they might get caught if they were to linger any longer. The Autobots recovered and left the cave at once. All that was left was rubble and debris. They were just lucky to be alive. There was only one thing missing. Something that was going to change their life. Something important.
"Oh, Sari," Mr. Sumdac whispered, "I should have done more to save you."
It all happened so fast. So quickly that the moment would have been missed if you just even blinked. Sari slowly opened her eyes as she lied on the ground motionlessly. She raised her hand to her head. It was spinning and her insides were a mess. Sari wondered to herself if this is what clothes tumbling in a dryer felt. Still, the young girl tried to do her best to see if she could at least remember what had happened to her. First, she recalled her friends, the Autobots, helping her save her father from the Decepticons. Then, a large Autobot named Omega Supreme attempted to save everyone from a malfunctioning Space Bridge. Next thing she could think of was falling into the Space Bridge by accident. After that, there was nothing. Nothing but a horrible experience that pretty much exhausted all of her senses. Which would explain the head ache she was having.
Sari eased herself up slowly. Her yellow dress was covered in dust and her hair was all frazzled and a mess. It was still tied up like pig tails, so there was that. Lastly, she felt around her neck. Her key was still there. That was probably the best news she could get for the moment. If she was in a strange situation, her key was probably her best chance at survival for now.
Brushing herself down, she began to glance around her surroundings. Sari hoped she could gain help from a stranger, or even spy a town of some sort. The sight however was not pretty at all. All around her was a large stretch of plains. Nothing but dirt, dust, and dried up weeds. Not even a cactus seemed to be growing anywhere. This made her concerned. She glared real hard, placing her hand on her brow, looking for any form of intellegant life. Nothing. Which lead her to another conclusion. If she couldn't see anything, maybe someone could hear her.
"HELLO!" she yelled, "IS THERE ANYONE OUT HERE!"
Sari listened for a reply. Nothing. She kept on hollering to see if no one heard her the first time. Perhaps the people here were hard of hearing. No one called out. She was alone. In the middle of no where. With nothing but the screeches of birds and the creaks of metal to keep her . . . wait, creaks of metal. Coming from behind. She never noticed it until now. Was something behind her? She swiftly turned around only to find the last thing she expected, or at least wanted to see.
There in front of her was a large metal head. Not human like though. Sure it had a mouth and eyes. The thing about it was the head was a deep shade of purple. The chin was long and on top of it's head was a helmet. The helmet had a crystal attached at the forehead. Wait, she recognized it. It was a shard of the All Spark. This was no ordinary Cybertronian head. It was Starscream. One of the first Decepticons she had ever met. Horrible memories of him resurfaced and she stepped back a bit.
However, it was the very thing behind him that increased her fears even more. Sari would not have noticed it if she had not stepped back. Yet there it was. Dead in her sight. A large, gray and scarlet robot lied on the ground perfectly still. The color scheme seemed to be eerily similar to . . . Megatron. This was Megatron. The ruler of the Decepticons. She didn't think it was possible for her luck to be worse. She flinched the minute she recognized them, and considered running. However, that train of thought stopped in place upon further investigation. One thing was for sure, they had not moved or even reacted while she stood in front of them. They were out of commission. Knocked out by the trip through the Space Bridge. This was good for a human like Sari. She could take this chance to gain some distance from them before they could wake up. Though, the chance she had vanished.
Starscream's All Spark shard began to glow, giving off an engine humming sound. Within a few minutes, his red optics glowed with life once again. His ventilation system opened up, letting out a gust of air. He takes in his own surroundings by looking around. The first thing he spies is Sari, whom was doing her best to stay very still. Her hands were clutching close to her chest. Her knees were buckled together. This organic was all alone. He grins as he makes eyes contact with the organic.
"Well, well, well," he said, his voice chilling and calm, "look whose all alone without a single Autobot to aid them."
Sari was perplexed at first. It wasn't until she put two and two together that she realized what his line of thinking was. "Um, I don't think there's much to be happy about," she commented, "considering your current condition."
"What are you – " he stopped mid thought, suddenly catching on. He hadn't initially noticed his head was severed from his body. Not until he tried to lift himself from the ground. It was a weird feeling for Starscream. For a moment there he swore he could have felt his servos moving around. Only to be tricked by his slow receiving processor. His gasps turned into groans and growls as he glared down at the human child. "Of course. As soon as fate smiles on me, it's at the most inconvenient moment of my life."
The two then stopped in their tracks as the ground shook. Sari looked behind the Decepticon head and realized that she had ran out of time to escape. Megatron was waking up. As his upper torso rose up, his shadow loomed over the two. The child did her best to think of a solution, but came short. So much was happening all at once. She had little advantage and could only do so much. Now she was terrified.
"Human," says Starscream, "tell me who's behind me. Otherwise I might have to resort to – something." He had to think about it for a second. How could a head be threatening to anyone without any limbs?
Only a single, deep voice replied to his threat. "And what would that be, Starscream."
Sari ran close to the Decepticon head and tried to hide. She clutched her hands close to the surface of his face, keeping her as invisible as she could. This was not boding well with Starscream as he tried to use his chin to shoo her away. The last thing he wanted was to die with the stench of an organic staining his corpse. What was left of it at least. Though with all things considered, his current state wasn't that much dignified at all. Still, he had some standards left. But to his surprise, nothing happened. Starscream was expecting a brutal death by his former leader. However, there was nothing. What was he waiting for?
"Don't think you can hide from me, human child," said Megatron.
Sari leaned closer to the head, slowing down her breath to at least calm down. If she was frantic, she would be spotted. Even if the giant gray Decepticon knew she was there, she didn't at least want to be in the line of fire if he could use his weapons. Whether her friends were nearby or not, she was a sitting duck. All she had left to do to survive was hide. Which again, not all that helpful to the situation.
Especially when Megatron pushed Starscream's head away from her. Sari froze in place, not sure of what to do. Looking up at the intimidating figure she had no clue as to how she was going to react. Begging for her life was definitely out of the question. Perhaps she could convince him to leave her be. Only problem was she had little negotiation skills to even work that kind of miracle. Then she suddenly noticed it. His hands were in stasis cuffs. Bumblebee told her all about how they worked. Those giant Cybertronian cuffs were made for placing bots in stasis lock. Which meant he was limited in his movement. Giving her an advantage. Finally pulling herself together, she began to converse with him.
"Well," she spoke confidently, "guess I should be glad Prime was a quick thinker."
"Don't test your luck, child," Megatron replied, "not many live to tell their tale with such an ego. Starscream can vouch for that."
"Hey! Leave me out of this," he interjected, still placed aside of the group.
Sari looked at him with a confident smile and continued. "So what. It's not like any of your other Decepticons are around to help you."
Megatron leaned down towards her, "Neither are any of your Autobot companions. So it would seem we both are at an impasse."
Sari glared at him, trying to hold down a frightened look. He had a point. Where they were at, it seemed like there was no sign of civilization for miles. Meaning she might not even be able to find anyone for a long time. Even her location was far too random and too far out for anyone to accidentally find her. The Autobots would possibly have the same luck as any other human being. If they were here. However, none of that changed the fact that she had to keep her distance from the enemy. And keep hoping.
"Well, someone's going to come," she replied, "after all, who wouldn't miss the giant robot in the middle of nowhere."
The warlord raised an eyebrow. "Is that your plan then? To wait for a rescue?"
"Yep."
With that, Sari walked right back over to Starscream and hid behind him once more. Which for him, was at least less dangerous than being closer to Megatron. That didn't mean though that he was on the human's side on this discussion. Even still, they sat and began to wait. Wait and wait for someone to stumble upon them.
Five hours had passed, and still no sign of anyone. Sari tried her best to stay determined, but it only got more hopeless the longer she waited. Once in a while, she peeked around Starscream to make sure that her "beacon" was still there. Not that he could move anywhere while the stasis cuffs were still on. She still had a small concern for the fact that the cuffs looked worn down a bit. Her best guess was that when they traveled through the Space Bridge, it got damaged. Which could be bad for her if he got free when she wasn't looking.
Megatron looked over at the girl still hiding behind the head. He was sure that no one was coming anytime soon. Considering the way things were going, the state of the situation was not going to change. Even he got tired of sitting around doing nothing. If only the cuffs weren't holding him down. Then a thought came to mind.
"Your still going to remain hiding behind there," he asked, knowing what her answer would be.
"Someone should be coming pretty soon," she replied, "and then I am going to make sure that your going to rot in a cell until I get my friends to bring you back to Cybertron to – "
"Enough," Megatron said, trying to hold himself back from shouting at the girl. The rest of that explanation could pretty much be guessed from here on out. "This foolishness will get you no where."
Sari was tempted to look back, but kept her eye sight forward. "What are you talking about?"
"Your nonsense plan on hiding from me."
She curled up not wanting to make it harder for her to make eye contact. She did think this was getting ridiculous as she hid behind a head and was waiting for no one to come. Her chances were slim and there was nothing to sustain her. If she didn't find food, she might as well starve to death with her enemies.
"I can honestly say that I will not be able to harm you in this state," he said, lifting his hands, "As you can see, I am defenseless. And my weapons are too far for me to reach."
The child looked to the far right and noticed a pair of large swords were across the plains. There was no way that he could even get up and reach them with the cuffs crippling his movement. But what was he getting at? He seemed to be setting things up for a negotiation in her perspective, but for what. Nothing at this point was making any sense.
"If you are smarter than you appear to be, then you should know our next step is to call a truce."
Sari blinked in surprise. The mighty Megatron was asking for a truce? With a human no less? This had to be a trap. Nothing else could explain this sudden peace treaty. But what else could she do. She was cornered. Pinned in place behind a giant robot head. Not to mention there was no sense in running away from them without knowing if there were any allies near by. Still, this was the leader of the Decepticons she was dealing with. Who knew what she could expect from him. So she decided to approach this monster cautiously.
"What do you mean by 'truce'," she asked, remaining behind Starscream's head.
"I would have figured it to be in your vocabulary," Megatron replied, humoring the fleshling, "It appears I would be wrong."
Sari wasn't going to let him belittle her like this, not at least without getting a taste of his own medicine. "And I thought you would have known for me to not fall for such an obvious trick. Look who's the smart one now."
"Perhaps you are unaware how severe the circumstances are as of now. We're in unknown territory, none of us have any allies within a hundred miles from here. Not to mention we have no resources to help nourish our bodies to survive. We might as well die out here if we do not find ourselves a middle ground and work together."
Sari thought for a moment about the situation.
"He's got a point," said Starscream.
"Seriously," Sari exclaimed, "first you want to kill him. Now you want to side with him?"
Starscream growled a bit. "Look, I'm the one who's got no legs here. At this point I might as well rust here if I'm as stubborn as you are right now."
Sari then slowly, but firmly stepped out into the open. She figured that she could at least have this conversation face to face with the enemy. The minute he was in sight, she began to doubt her courage. Megatron was much taller than the Autobots. Heck, he might even be as tall as Lugnut. And it wasn't even just his size that was intimidating. It was when her eyes met with his that got to her. Those piercing, cold red eyes. Like staring at the devil himself. None the less, she stood strong.
"How do I know your not going to just blast me as soon as I free you," she asked.
Megatron smirked at her comment as if he was waiting for such a question. "Oh, you are much more valuable to me alive than you are dead." Such a comment sent chills down Sari's back. "Then again, all you have is my word. So really, what do you have to lose?"
With a moment to think about it, Sari held her key closed in her palm. This was all she had left. A small key with the power of the All Spark. Looking back up at the warlord she then made up her mind. In order to survive, she needed this criminals help. Whether she liked it or not. The little girl walked over to him and held out her key to the Decepticon's cuffs.
"Just so you know," she added, "if you back out on this truce, I'll make sure you'll regret it."
"Can't wait to see you try that," commented Starsrceam, still waiting for them to be done bantering.
As Megatron held his cuffs close to the tiny human child, the key changed its shape to fit the keyhole that had formed in the center cuff link. Once it slipped in, the cuffs clicked open and fell to the ground. Sari reacted quickly to retract the key against her chest, afraid of what the Decepticon would do next. The giant then slowly got up and rubbed his wrists. His eyes focused on his swords which were still planted into the ground. He walked over towards his weapons, then drew them out of the ground. The organic flinched in fear as the twin blades' shadows loomed over her. Without another word, he placed them on his back and retrieved his arm gun. Finally all geared up, he walked towards the head and the human.
First, he picked up Starscream, who grimaced at the warlord. The feeling was mutual. Then he focused on the human child. Sari felt nervous as they locked eye contact. The war lord scooped up the human and transformed into his helicopter mode. In a matter of minutes, they were heading East. Hoping to find some sort of clue to where they were.
Not too far away, a Cybertronian stood in front of a monitor, typing away with no need for a break. His fingers were slim like his body. Arms like steel paper and legs built like a steed's. His face was merely a blank screen that reflected the monitor's images. The bot's focus was on the documents displayed on the screen, in which was being translated from its original text to a more readable format. Nothing was more important than the document, until something interrupted his progress. The screen switched to a map with a small blip flashing at a specific location. It was moving, and fast. The blip was an energy signature of unknown origin. It wasn't a spot of energon, otherwise it would be sitting in place. It had to be a living Cybertronian. However, nothing seemed to showed if it was friend or foe. The bot's first instinct was to alert his leader, whom was just nearby to hear this happen.
His leader was taller than him. His silver body was more thick and fit. Spikes curved from his shoulders. His red eyes glanced at the map and instantly knew the situation. He turned to the bot with a confident smile.
"Send Knockout to investigate," the leader ordered, "before the Autobots get to it first."
A small project I found. Never saw a better use for it then collecting dust in my computer. I will post more later on, just know I only can post so much. Until then, this is TFFanatic rolling out and rising up.I DO NOT OWN TRANSFORMERS! THIS STORY IS MY OWN CREATION!