Pretender Chronicles

A War for Cybertron/Fall of Cybertron/Transformers Prime Fan Fiction

By daywalker03

Chapter 3: Beds are Burning, Part 1

(Takes place during Chapters 14 and 15 Foxbear's Blood and Energon)

The cellphone started chiming and Mae reached down to pick it up from where it lay beside her on the blanket. She answered it, "Mae speaking," and was only mildly surprised to hear Agent Johnson on the other end.

"Afternoon Mae; got a bit of unpleasant news for you. There's been an altercation in British Columbia and your brothers were involved," Agent Johnson said. "Zech is okay, but Sal looks like something tried to use him as a pin cushion. There was another driver involved that insisted on taking him whenever Zech wanted to go, so he's headed back home."

Mae had sat upright, and was shaking; she managed to control it long enough to ask, "Who was the driver that he was with, and what color was the truck this driver was operating?" While waiting for the answer, she stood and grabbed the blanket she had been laying on and stalked over to where she had parked Teal. She draped the blanket over the seat and leaned against Teal.

"The driver was a Private Smith and he was driving a heavily modified Peterbuilt. Color was red with blue flames," Johnson said.

"And you're leaving something out; something big," Mae said curtly.

"Yes; I saw Red Warrior, or whatever his name really is," Johnson said.

/* Great, */ Mae thought while she said, "And you blew a chance to get in his good graces?"

"Worse than that, I'm afraid; I said something that may have turned Sal against Red Warrior's kind," Johnson admitted.

"Don't bet on that; if I know Salcha, he'll be beating himself up over a blown opportunity when the initial shock wears off. He's done it before, you know," she said with a grin. "Thanks for letting ; I guess this means I get to go home and check up on my little brothers."

After she hung up, Mae pulled her hot pants on and laced up her boots, then put on her vest and helmet. She tucked the phone into a vest pocket and swung a leg over Teal's seat. /* Mae to Ratchet; I'm on my way in and I'll need a ground bridge when I arrive, */ she said over the encrypted channel. /* I'll provide coordinates when I arrive. */

-Autobot Base Omega One-

Ratchet was mulling over the possible causes of interference that were preventing him from being able to locate Optimus and Jack when Mae pulled in on Teal. She turned Teal around and faced the ground bridge portal and gave him the coordinates she wanted to be transported to and he groaned. "Mae, I'm not sure I can send you there; some kind of energy field is blocking our sensors and I can't see what's there at the moment," he said to her and she shook her head.

"Those coordinates are safe, trust me; if it's 'Cons you're worried about, something tells me they are going to have as much trouble as you are, so quit whining and open the bridge for me," she replied.

"I'll get you as close as I can," Ratchet growled and began searching for a location close to where she wanted to go that he could send her to.

While she was waiting, Miko came in from a different part if the base and asked," Can I come with?"

Mae sighed and said," Not this time, Miko; one of my brothers got hurt and he needs his big sister. Maybe another time; and please don't try to follow." Miko whined a bit, and Bulkhead reached down and picked her up to make sure she didn't follow. Ratchet opened the ground bridge and Mae revved up Teal's engine and took off slowly through the portal. When she came out on the other side, she stopped briefly to see where exactly she was. She pulled off the road at the nearby rest area and looked around to see who was watching, then checked with her extra senses to determine how much farther she had to go to reach the house.

(Several hours later)

Mae and Teal followed the road, noticing where chunks of metal had fallen off of a truck along the side, then slowed as they saw Amarok pulling a young moose in the general direction of the Franklin property. She called out, "Do you want me to help, or can your get that yourself, Amarok?"

The wolf looked up from where he had stopped and walked over to sniff at her, wagged his tail briefly, then sat on his haunches and said, "If you wish to assist me, that is fine; I was bringing it to your brother, since he was hurt and needs something substantial to heal properly." She grinned and helped him drag it over to where Teal was, and strapped it over the back. "I will meet you at the garage, which is where Red Warrior dropped him off," Amarok said, then ran off into the woods. Mae got back on Teal and drove on to the homestead; while riding, Teal spoke /* Who is this Red Warrior that Amarok spoke of? */

Mae replied softly, /* Who do you think, Teal? Optimus and Jack were heading to a military base in Alaska to pick up some supplies, and were to briefly pass through Canadian territory before returning to the base. Then Johnson called to tell me that Sal and Zech had been in an altercation of some sort. My guess is that the Decepticons somehow found Optimus and attacked, and Sal was trying to help when he got hurt. And then some of the Others have gotten involved to protect Jack, which is why Ratchet can't detect anything in this area. */

Teal was quiet for the rest of the trip, and Mae was able to pull up next to the garage door and unload the moose carcass for Amarok to drag inside. She waited in the shadows until she saw Zech exit the garage, then she walked slowly up behind him and said, "How are you feeling, little brother?" Zech spun around and then shook his head. "I will never, ever get used to you doing that, will I?"

She smiled and put her arms on his shoulders, "That's not an answer to my question, and you know it." He sighed then said, "Nothing's broken, thanks to Amarok; Salcha, on the other hand, was not so lucky. The other driver, Smith, is fine, though he does seem a little young to have been given the responsibility of driving a rig like he had. Ma is in the garage with Sal now, so maybe we should go in the house and talk there.

"Sure, and I suspect that Amarok is keeping an eye on our younger siblings for Ma, so we will be able to talk about what happened," Mae said as they walk towards the house; Mae smelled the food cooking and knew one of the aunts was busy in the kitchen so she steered Zech toward the bathroom after allowing him to get some clean clothes from his room. She waited by the window in Zech's room, looking out over the parking lot and toward the garage where Sal was, wondering what had actually transpired that day. When Zech came back in, he saw her and sighed, which got her attention.

"You had your first encounter with Voidwalkers," she said without turning around.

"Yes, and it's got me wondering about what we've been taught about them, to be honest," he replied cautiously. "I honestly see them as not so different from us in so many ways; the few differences must be due to differences between their homeworld and ours."

She turned around and said, "It's a sign of incomplete information about them, among other things, dear brother. It's understandable, though; as few humans as survived the Cataclysm that the Voidwalkers indirectly caused, it's a wonder anything was learned about them at all."

"Red Warrior is a noble being; it was he that recommended that I go with Smith to a safe place. That's where Amarok found and protected us. The ones that attacked him were cowards, even the one that seemed above the petty behavior of his companion. Then, after the battle, Johnson had to come along and ruin the moment by pointing out what Red Warrior was," Zech said sadly.

"He realized he did something stupid afterwards; I'm not sure exactly when, but it was before he called me to let me know about the incident. I half suspect it was a show of dominance, though; he's pretty territorial when it comes to what we know and if any outsiders are around, he comes off as a hardcase," Mae pointed out.

"Yeah, now that you mention it, there was a guy there there in a suit that seemed to be in charge of handling Red Warrior or something. And I got the feeling that he wasn't a heck of a lot different in personality than Johnson before he even spoke," Zech said.

"The Eagle and the Penguin," Mae said with a giggle. "I've had to deal with Red Warrior's "handler" recently, and yes, it's like dealing with an African-American version of Johnson."

"But why did you call him an Eagle; the Penguin I can understand for Johnson, but not the other," Zech said slowly.

"Agent Fowler, Red Warrior's "handler" is retired Air Force, and Special Forces on top of that, so Eagle is the most appropriate choice, though he wouldn't appreciate hearing it any more than Johnson would hearing us call him a Penguin," Mae said, and Zech found himself agreeing with her.

A light knock on the door caused Mae to turn as Ma Franklin peeked in and said, "Mae, glad to see you're here; Salcha seems to be better now, but you've got some experience with the things he's seen, I presume, so maybe you ought to go talk to him about them.

Mae smiled and said, "I'll go talk to him shortly, unless you want to grill Zech now."

"No, he's been through enough today, so I'll leave him in your capable hands until tomorrow," Ma said with a wink, and Zech blushed.

Mae laughed and said, "Get some sleep, brother dear; you need it. I'll go talk to Salcha while you do." She kissed him lightly on the cheek and walked over to the door as he swatted at her playfully. She followed Ma Franklin down the hall to the entrance of the home and paused at the door.

Ma looked over at her and said, "Got the equivalent of butterflies in the stomach, daughter of mine?" As Mae nodded reluctantly, she said thoughtfully, "Salcha doesn't bite, usually. He can be a little abrasive, but that's part of whatever kind of being he is, just like you have abilities that most of us can't fathom living with. Besides, you're a lot older that he is, and you have that life experience to draw on to help him understand them better."

Mae giggled and said, "Sal can be difficult to talk to at times, but hopefully this won't be one of them." She hugged Ma and walked out to the garage and carefully opened the door.

She stepped inside and looked at the dimly lit repair bay where Sal was sitting. Even though she had seen the metal from his truck body on the drive in, the damage she saw made her gasp in astonishment. She saw his twitching tentacles stop briefly and heard him say, "Who's there?"

She stepped carefully into the light and said softly, "It's Mae, Salcha. I was told you were hurt and came to see you." She walked up next to the frame and leaned over, then pulled on the heavy gloves that were laying there and started carefully pulling out metal splinters like Zech had been doing earlier in the day.

Sal reached out with several tentacles and gripped her arms gently, and said in a shaky voice, "I saw a Voidwalker, and he saw me for what I am and wasn't afraid of me. He," and the voice trailed off.

"He what, Sal?" Mae asked gently as she leaned in closer to him. She felt Sal trembling and risked a scan of his life signs to see if she could see if there was a physical reason for his shakiness.

"He let me drink his life blood," Sal finally admitted. "He was leaking it and I asked so that it wasn't wasted, and he said I could." Mae smiled as she stroked his tentacles; he responded by reaching out with yet another tentacle to stroke her cheek. "You smell of them," he said absently, "does your work bring you in contact with them?"

Mae smiled and said softly, "Yes, and I've met the one you traveled with; he's very noble, wouldn't you say?"

"Far more noble than those that attacked us because they could track his life's blood," Sal said with a growl; Mae felt the subsonics from it, but didn't flinch. Sal continued, either not noticing her lack of reaction, or simply not commenting on it, and said, "Do you think he would want to be my friend, even though we've been taught his kind did bad things to our world?"

Authors Note:

I'm splitting this into at least two chapters because there are a lot of things I want to focus on related to the Franklin family and specifically the way the eldest of the children interact, though Butch isn't directly involved.

The chapter title is from the song by the Australian group Midnight Oil, and will make more sense once I post the next chapter.

"How can we dance when our earth is turning?

How do we sleep while our beds are burning?"