Hostile Territory
Written by: Okami
Chapter 7- Many Questions, Few Answers
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When I see you now I wonder how I could've watched you walk away If I let you down Please forgive me now For that beautiful goodbye
Lyrics: Beautiful Goodbye_Amanda Marshall
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Authors Note: I do not own Robots in Disguise. I do however own Alana and Suzuki, therefore they can not be used anywhere other than this fanfic without my permission.
Helpful Hints:
****** - Means a change in scenery, or from Autobots to Decepticons
~~~ - Means a change in point of view but the same scenery
* * - Indicates a comlink conversation
******
"Okay, let me see if I got this straight," Tai sighed, clearing her throat. "A human girl stood up to Skybyte in order to save X-Brawn, but when questioned why she got annoyed and left."
"Yup. That's about it," Sideburn agreed. "I really don't know what her problem was."
Optimus Prime stood beside Tai and scanned the troops before him, not quite sure how to deal with the situation. The story told to him was a little hard, yet some points might in fact be very truthful. He remembered the first time he and Koji met. The young boy had accused the Autobot of being the same as the Predacons then risked his life distracting Gigatron upon realizing otherwise. Maybe something similar was happening with the female, but then again…
"Did anyone try to talk with her after she left?" Prime asked, uncrossing his arms.
His troops looked nervously at the floor.
"Uh…no, not really," Sideburn replied hesitantly.
"You either did or you didn't," Tai responded, floating closer to the group of Autobots.
"We didn't want to pursue the human because we thought she would take an offensive attitude towards us," Prowl answered, looking up from the floor.
Optimus Prime sighed inwardly. He could not scold his troops for not following, since he himself would not have wanted to, but he really wished to know more about the human and her actions.
"How is X-Brawn?" Prowl asked, turning the attention away from Alana for the moment.
Tai's hologram smiled up at him. "He's recharging as we speak. His circuits and wiring took heavy damage, but they repaired with minor problems; as well as his outer covering." She added as a side thought, "You can visit him in recovery if you like."
Prowl waited patiently to be dismissed but his younger sibling had no such discipline; Sideburn was already burning rubber through headquarters corridors towards the recovery rooms.
******
X-Brawn slowly powered up his optics, careful not to look at the bright lights shining down at him from the ceiling. His entire frame felt like lead, stiff and heavy, yet he still managed to sit up. Swinging his legs over the recharge bed, he rubbed a sore spot on his head.
"Hey bro! How are ya feeling?" Sideburn nearly hollered.
"Gezz! I'm right here, ya don't need ta yell. I can hear ya just fine," X-Brawn groaned, trying to ease his ever-growing headache.
"Oh, sorry dude," Sideburn whispered, covering his mouth component with both hands.
"How are you feeling X-Brawn?" Prowl asked, taking a position next to his younger sibling. He looked down at his older brother's frame and could not help but feel his spark tighten in relief; for a while he had thought X-Brawn was dead.
"I feel like was run over by a herd of stampeding buffalo," the eldest Autobot brother replied truthfully. "But I feel better than I did the other day." As if struck by a sudden thought, he twisted his head around the room, like he was searching for something.
"What's wrong?" Prowl questioned, looking around the room as well.
X-Brawn scratched his head in thought. "Have you guys seen a young lady anywheres?"
Prowl and Sideburn looked at each other for a moment before glancing hesitantly at their older brother.
"Did she have dark green hair and purple eyes?" Sideburn asked, trying to think back to what the human actually looked like.
"Yeah, that's her," X-Brawn nodded.
"She, uh, is back where we found you," Prowl replied after clearing away the sudden lump in his throat.
"You left her alone with the Preds!" the eldest sibling shouted, shooting up into a sitting position.
"No! No, we sent those losers running before we left. She got ticked when we asked her why she protected you then walked off. Really! I swear," Sideburn explained, pushing his older brother gently back down onto the recharge bed.
"I wonder what set her off?" X-Brawn thought out loud.
Prowl and Sideburn shrugged. The three fell into an uneasy silence, one which no one was willing to break.
******
HeavyLoad lugged what felt like a ton of stones away from the new expansion to the SpaceBridge. He dumped the load and returned to his fellow builders, all hard at work to complete their assignment.
"Optimus sure wants a lot of expansions doesn't he," Wedge commented, pushing aside a pile of earth.
"You can say that again," Grimlock agreed, beginning to dig further under ground.
"Do you think he wants us busy with digging so that we won't be able to fight?" Hightower inquired.
"I hope not," Wedge responded. "We're valuable fighters; we can combine into Landfill."
The Build Team fell into a thoughtful silence, each wondering if Hightower was right.
Win dain a lotica
En vai tu ri
Si lo ta
"Please tell me you guys heard that?" Wedge squeaked.
"Uh huh," his comrades replied.
The soft soprano voice echoed through the newly constructed tunnel once more.
Fin dein a loluca
En dragu a sei lain
Va fa-ra les shutai am
En riga lint
"This is getting too weird," HeavyLoad complained, transforming into robot mode.
The rest of Build Team transformed as well, hoping to find the source of the strange voice. To their great dismay, no one but them occupied the underground tunnels.
"All right guys, this has to stop," Wedge said confidently, turning to face his troops.
"And how are we going to do that?" Grimlock asked, after a moment's silence.
Wedge locked optics with his tall, green teammate. "I'm still working on that part," he explained, rubbing the back of his head.
HeavyLoad, Grimlock and Hightower dropped to the floor anime style, with one leg twitching in the air.
