FINALLY
This chapter took me forever to figure out!
But it's done…
Transformers © to Disney and Square Enix!
OCs © to me!
Chapter 4: Gegaderian
"Congratulations graduates!"
The students all threw their caps in the air. Aalis threw hers only a short distance, so she could find it easily. Picking up the black cap, she dusted it off.
Her eyes roamed the stadium stands. She covered her eyes, protecting her face from the glare; outside events were such a pain.
"Hey Miss Valedictorian!" Hannah Innes clapped her friend on the back. "You ready for the real world?"
Amber nodded. "Yeah, you've already got enough college credits for a full year!"
"I'm taking summer classes and 21 hours right off the bat." Aalis sighed. She looked down at the ground, kicking some of the dirt with her nice pair of boots.
"You're insane."
"I'm aware."
The girl looked around her again, scouring the many parents in the bleachers. The parents of her friends came down, scooping up their children in warm, proud hugs.
No one came to Aalis.
She slipped through the crowd, clutching her diploma as she tore off her cap. She walked back home.
The sun dimmed as clouds covered it, darkening. The sky rumbled as drops of water began to fall from the sky. Stupid bipolar weather.
By the time she reached home, water streamed from her red hair and her black graduation gown. Thankfully she didn't wear makeup, or it would have been smeared all over her face.
"Mom! Dad! I'm home!" The door to the Kruezer house swung open, Aalis wrung out her hair on the front rug. "Where were you!? I didn't see…"
Her eyes landed on a note.
Not a phone call.
Not a text.
Just a note. After the fact.
Dear Aalis,
We had to leave right away. We were requested at Oxford for a conference. I know your graduation was today, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity!
Congratulations on graduating! You were Valedictorian right? Well, congratulations on that too!
There's a present for you in the garage. We got you a car! Inside is $400. Go have fun with your friends. Our treat.
Love you,
Mom and Dad
A car, huh?
Aalis grabbed the note, scrunching it up in her hands as tears decorated the corners of her eyes. This happened all the time… why did it still hurt?
It's not like they'd missed her last 3 birthdays or anything.
Thank goodness her college was so far away. Maybe she could escape this…
Well, might as well check out the new car.
The little silver car sat in the garage. Aalis stared at it. Her mom and dad just left her a gift. Not a word. They could've given her the present the day before! They knew about this conference and chose not to tell her.
Aalis tore off her graduation robe and snatched up the keys.
Driving off into the rain, the girl fled, water flowing down her face. Driving until she pulled into a park. She just sat and cried.
She was all alone.
Alone.
Suddenly, her radio turned on. Did she hit the radio by accident? Her Disney CD was in and the upbeat tune of "Everybody Wants to Be a Cat" jumped out from the speakers, making the girl laugh.
She sang along until the song changed to "Brazzle Dazzle Day". Then she just sat, staring out at the rain.
"Everything will be alright…"
(4 Earth years later)
"Run!"
"I'm trying!"
"Ahhh!"
Aalis leaned back in her chair as her friend took out the last enemy. "I hate this game, but I love it."
"Same."
"Ugh, I don't know why I play this game with you guys. It practically gives me an anxiety attack."
"Girl, same."
"But it's fun."
Amber sighed on the other side of the mic. "So, Aalis, how is life?"
"It kinda sucks." The girl admitted. "This wonderful, anxiety-producing game is actually relaxing."
"But," Hannah number 1 asked, still catching her breath from the near anxiety attack, "you're already done with school, and have a job."
Aalis glanced over at her two framed degrees. Sure, she was able to complete her bachelors and masters degrees in four years, but that wasn't making her too happy.
Cramming her life with schoolwork for four years…
Here she was, twenty-two with her masters in Medieval Literature. Hired immediately by a university halfway across the country. She left behind everything. Friends. Family.
Well, everything but the reputation of her esteemed parents.
Her teaching position was great. A small private college in the mountains. But…
Every professor expected her to be just like her parents. Not the silly, nerdy girl that she was. Sure she could teach. Sure she knew the material. But she wasn't professional enough for some of their liking.
And the students.
She was younger than some of her students. A twenty-two year old teaching students around her age. Aalis tried so hard to make friends with her students. She wanted to hang out with them.
They didn't want to hang out with her.
These online games with her friends were all she had. That and her long drives through the mountains.
"Actually, I have some grading to do. So I've gotta go."
"Oh. Ok."
"Bye Al."
"Later Aalis!"
"Later guys…"
Disconnecting from the chat Aalis stepped away from her desk. Her feet brushed against the smooth hardwood floors of her office. She lived completely alone. Her parents had a house built to her exact specifications in a location in the mountains, about twenty minutes from the school.
The outside looked like a log cabin, blending in with the tall pine trees around. A garden of rocks and tall shrubs allowed it to blend in even more. In fact, if it wasn't for the windows, no one would know there was even a house there.
The inside was cosy. Paneling covered the outside logs, with murals of sunsets on some of the walls. Lights that looked like old lanterns hung in every room.
All in all, it was a warm house; a hideaway in the mountains.
Grabbing her paperwork, Aalis curled up in front of her massive fireplace. Nothing like a night with midterm papers to grade.
That's it!
She couldn't read one more sentence about Medieval poetry!
The clock behind her rang out, striking the one o'clock hour.
Throwing off her blanket, Aalis grabbed her keys and went out to her car. She couldn't sleep after all that grading and after 4 cups of coffee.
Her silver Honda Fit was her other escape. She would drive around the dark roads, talking to herself, and to the car.
She was kinda lonely.
The wind whipped around, pushing the small vehicle around slightly, but Aalis wasn't worried. This car served her all through college. Her parents bought it for her as a graduation present. She almost saw it as a friend.
Those long eight hour drives to college… she would just talk. It sometimes felt like the car was listening, so she would talk to the car.
What a weirdo she was.
Her eyes on the road, she took a sharp curve around a hillside. Two eyes lit up in her headlights.
A deer.
Aalis swerved. The wind caught the small car at just the right moment, sending her skidding out of control. The girl screamed as the car toppled off the road, cascading down the hill to the dark trees below.
One in the morning.
In the middle of the mountains.
No one to hear the crash.
No one to find her.
The girl barely had time to process this as she closed her eyes, waiting for the sickening crunch.
Metal.
Metal scraping against metal, gears shifting and whirling.
Suddenly the moonlight became brighter as the roof of the car seemed to vanish. Did a tree take it off? Then the moonlight vanished as something dark closed in around Aalis.
"Hold on!"
In the darkness, Aalis couldn't see the speaker or anything else. She felt the jostling and heard crunching, as well as a few feminine grunts.
Smash!
Finally, the jostling stopped.
"Ow…" came the strange voice again. "That fragging hurt…" The moonlight appeared as the darkness retracted.
Aalis looked up.
Two shining, or was that four, lights. Two lower than the others, and much brighter. Those shut off and the girl found herself looking into the face of a robot with shining blue eyes.
"Oh Primus." The robot sighed. "I kinda hoped you were knocked out… you'd think this was a dream. Primus…"
Aalis blinked. Maybe she was dreaming. Was there something in her coffee?
"I'm sleep deprived… that's it. On my way to a burnout from sleep deprivation and work… that's it." Her head began to spin as consciousness left her.
"WHAT!?" Aalis leapt up at the sound of booming timpani drums: the start of Sephiroth's theme(1), AKA the ringtone for her boss. She glances around.
She was in her car.
She must have fallen asleep… no wait…
Picking up her cell phone, she answered. "H-hello Dr. Nelson."
"Aalis! You're alright! We've been trying to get in touch with you!" The girl glanced at the car's clock… Almost noon. Oh no. She'd missed three classes. "What happened? This isn't like you."
"I-I got in a car accident last night. I'm ok, but I think I just kinda slept when I got back home to deal with the trauma. My bad…"
"You sure you're alright?"
"Y-yes… but… I won't be coming in for the rest of the day. I'll email my students and tell them that class is cancelled."
"No, I'll do it. You get some rest." Her boss sighed. "We're just glad you're alright. See you tomorrow."
"Yeah… tomorrow." Her boss hung up the phone.
Aalis immediately stepped out of her car, staring at the vehicle. It didn't move.
"Was… was that a dream?" Tapping the front tire with her foot, she tried to recall the events of the night before.
She remembered the crash, and the robot. The four lights, two of which were headlights. Her car was a robot.
"Come on out! I know you're in there!"
No response.
"Come on! I just want to know I'm not crazy! Come out!" She drew back her foot to kick the car, but it shifted. The metal began to retract and move. The shock caused the girl to stumble back into the garage wall.
She looked up to see the robot from the night before.
In the light, she could see it was a silver robot with more feminine features. It… her eyes glowed a soft blue, and she looked a little… shy. "Happy now?"
"Who… what?"
"I was hoping you'd forget." The robot sat back on her hands, sighing. "Great… just great. I broke rule number one."
Aalis took a step closer to the robot. "Hello… I-I'm Aalis Kreuzer."
"I know that. I've been your car for four earth years. My designation is Remix." Remix smiled shyly. "It's nice to properly meet you."
The girl looked at Remix, cocking her head to the side curiously. "How…? How did you become my car?"
"I've been your car since you first got it."
"Where did you come from?"
Remix turned her face toward the window. "Space… yes, I'm an 'alien'. An autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron. I'm a refugee here on earth. I was supposed to keep cover and not let any humans know but…"
"But…"
"I've been sitting in silence for four years, listening to you talk and rant for the entire time." The bot smiled. "And, I kinda grew attached. So, I could just let you die last night. I-I mean it's against the rules, and I could be taken from earth for this, but I wanted to be your friend."
Aalis stared at the robot. She thought back to every time she'd gone for a drive to rant or cry… she'd always felt like someone was listening to her.
Someone was.
"I could use a friend," the human sighed, "all of mine are so far away."
"I don't have any." Remix looked down at the human.
"Then let's be friends."
The human sat down beside the robot. "Tell me what your home is like and then I'll tell you about me."
"Well, I know all about you, since I've heard all your rants for years." Remix giggled. "But I'll explain everything."
The bot began to talk, explaining her childhood on Cybertron and in the youngling center on Neutronia.
"Then, I ended up on that refugee ship. They figured I was just some youngling blinded by Autobot ideals and just wanted to join them, so they didn't take my Autobot emblem seriously. And I can't blame them… I never officially joined… Then, we came to earth…"
"Alright, mechs and femmes, this planet will be your home for a while. It's far away from any of the war." A mech named Lugnutz stood on a platform in front of the group of Cybertronian refugees. "This is a mellow organic planet called earth. Now, there are some rules. These organics don't know of us, or even of any other beings outside of their world. Because of this, you are to choose an alt form and hide in plain sight."
Remix looked around at all the bots, listening to their grumbling. She too wasn't happy. "We've been stuck on a ship for forever… and now we have to hide."
"I know, you don't like it… but it's the rules. We can't freak out the populous of this world. We will transmit energon drops every so often for you to get. If we find out that you revealed yourselves, we will pull you from the planet, and since this is the safest place for all of you, I wouldn't do that."
Remix vented, annoyed. But she couldn't do anything. Following the others, they went into a room. Those in charge of the refugee program gave each of them a small supply of energon and sent them down in small groups to the planet. Each transport ship landed in an area away from the organic species known as humans, and it was in the middle of the night.
Remix followed the other bots to where they could see something that the leaders called a "used car sales lot". Each of them took turns scanning a vehicle for their alt form.
The little femme looked around from a distance, noticing a small silver car. It looked to be about her size. It wasn't too bulky. Scanning it, she felt her form change a little.
The other bots got their forms and fled.
All but Remix. Where would she go?
She watched from the cover of trees as the sun rose and humans began to arrive at the lot. Humans came to the lot, buying cars. The idea of being "bought" didn't sit well with Remix, but being bored and alone seemed worse. And she could leave and scan something else if she hated it.
Waiting until no one was watching, she transformed and drove into a spot beside another used car.
There she waited until a couple came by and picked her out…
"Then they drove me to your house and parked me in the garage. I waited until you showed up after graduation."
Aalis huffed. "Seriously… my parents have a ton of money, and they went to a used car lot." She coughed. "I mean, I'm really happy they ended up picking you, but still…"
"It seems like they don't care as much."
"Yeah…" The girl sighed. "But, at least I'm not alone anymore."
"Neither of us are."
Both of them smiled.
And the two main characters have met!
And I'm gonna say this up front… There will probably not be any ships either at all or for a long time.
Please review!
Footnotes:
(1) The villain from Final Fantasy 7
VAs:
Dr. Nelson- Corey Burton (Yen Sid, Ludwig Von Drake, Alpha Trion, Brainiac)
Lugnutz- Michael Adamthwaite (Lugnutz, Kyoji Kasshu, Captain Razzak, Jay)