Hostile Territory

Written by: Okami

Chapter 12- Mysteries

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Up all night long
And there's something very wrong
And I know it must be late
Been gone since yesterday
I'm not like you guys
I'm not like you

Lyrics: Aliens Exist_Blink 182

~

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

******

Alana slowly opened her eyelids then shot into a sitting position, forgetting where she was for the moment. She sighed and laid her head back down on the makeshift pillow, her head beginning to pound from the sudden movement.

"Hey, you're awake," a young voice said cheerfully.

The teenage female lifted up her head and noticed a boy standing in the doorway, his hair unusually spiky.

"Who are you?" she asked, lifting herself into a sitting position with her legs crossed before her.

"I'm Koji Onishi. You're name's Alana, right? X-Brawn was talking about you earlier," Koji rambled. He continued talking about what was said about her until a muffled sound caught his attention soon after mentioning Sideburn's reaction to her.

"What?" he asked innocently, clearly not knowing what he had just said.

"You're cute," she replied simply, smiling sweetly at him.

Koji grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, a faint flushness spreading across his cheeks. The smile broadened as he grabbed Alana's good wrist and pulled her out of her room.

"Where are we going?" Alana gasped as she was being dragged down a very large and long corridor. She marveled at the sheer size of the hall and took great interest in the fact that metal took the place of wood or plaster.

"Optimus wants to meet you," Koji answered, turning a corner.

"Who's Opt…" Alana began but trailed off as a group of robots appeared in her view. "Oh…my…god," she whispered to herself. She made no protest as Koji tugged her ever closer to the towering metal robots.

"Hey guys, what's goin' on?" Koji asked, walking between robot feet towards the middle of the Autobot circle. He released his grip on Alana's wrist before entering the maze of robotic feet, interested in finding out the source of all the commotion.

Alana gawked at all of the large transformers before her; all of who were oblivious to her presence at the moment. Three of the robots huddled together were visibly taller than the rest; seven others were clustered in a group; and then she noticed X-Brawn flanked by the white robot from earlier and a similar blue one.

"Are you feeling better?" a high-pitched voice asked from the teenager's right.

"WHAA!" Alana screeched, tripping over her own feet. She landed hard on her butt, gaining unwanted attention from all of the Autobots in the room.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to frighten you," Tai apologized, bending down slightly. "I'm Tai, nice to meet you."

Alana stared up at the girl hovering in front of her. "I'm Alana," she introduced meekly. "You're see-through…and…and you can fly," she added mystified.

"Tai is a hologram of our central computer Teletran 1," a slightly deep, but kind voice explained from above.

X-Brawn stepped away from his fellow bots and approached the human. "Howdy," he greeted. "Feelin' better?"

Alana nodded her head. "Yup. I'm doin' just fine," she said, rubbing her sore rear. Looking past X-Brawn's large metal legs, she noticed a strange item with several other bots still around it. "What's that?" she added, cocking her head to the side.

"That would be a stasis pod," the familiar deep but kind voice responded.

Alana brought her gaze from the pod and turned her attention to the source of the voice. Since she was still sitting on the floor, the human had to strain her neck in order to see the large robot's face.

"Who are you?" she asked, her mouth forming an impressed 'O'.

"My name is Optimus Prime. I'm the leader of the Autobots," the large transformer greeted, a smile glinting in his golden optics. He knelt down so he was not so intimidating and stretched out his hand. "Nice to meet you Alana. I want to thank you personally for saving a member of my team."

"No problem," she replied meekly, placing her tiny hand in Prime's large metal one. "By the way, what's a stasis pod?" she asked, cocking her head to see the strange object once more.

Optimus Prime chuckled at the human's curious nature and the face she made when asking the question. "A stasis pod is a protective shell for a protoform from Cybertron, our home planet. Once the protoform chooses a vehicle or animal form, then they no longer need the pod," he answered, standing up to his full height. As he glanced back towards the stasis pod, a faint flicker of sadness shown in his golden optics.

"What's wrong?" Alana asked softly, staring up at the Autobot leader.

Instead of Prime answering, however, one of the tall transformers replied. Two blue pieces of metal hung off the robot's shoulders and his ruby optics sparkled with kindness.

"Glad to see you're feeling better," RailSpike greeted. "This particular pod seems to not be responding to anything we do, so we're kinda at a loss."

"Oh," Alana replied. Removing her hand from Optimus', she walked over to the pod. Standing before it with wide eyes, the human gazed at it for awhile with pity shinning in her ice-purple irises.

"What's going to happen to it?" she asked softly, turning her head towards the Autobot leader.

"I'm actually not sure. I guess we'll try to repair any damages but there's nothing we really can do," Prime replied.

"Poor thing," Alana whispered as she placed her hand against the cold metal. A single tear trickled down her cheek and dripped onto the floor.

The stasis pod began making strange sounds, as if power was trying to flow through its system. Light trickled from the clear window on its front as a panel extended from the side of the pod.

Win dain a lotica

En vai tu ri

Si lo ta

All Autobots stared at the stasis pod, surprise clearly showing in their faces. The soft soprano voice continued with the song after a moment's pause, sending chills through everyone's frame.

Fin dein a loluca

En dragu a sei lain

Va fa-ra les shutai am

En riga lint

"What was that?" Sideburn asked cautiously, glancing around the room before returning his gaze to the pod.

"Good question," Prowl muttered.

"You were the first dragon, my beloved. I've been watching you from atop the fairy stump. How beautifully did the water touch those lips. How you shone at the spearhead of battle," Alana whispered faintly, her voice sounding strangely like the one singing. She retracted her hand from the stasis pod and backed away a few steps, all the while keeping her eyes pinned to the protoform inside.

Once the human's hand was removed form the pod, all activity ceased and the small panel retreated back into its secret hiding place.

"How did you do that?" RapidRun asked, gawking at the teenager. As the human's ice-purple eyes locked with his green optics, an unexpected chill ran down his frame. Something had changed in her eyes; they were sharper and held a deadly beauty to them.

Alana shook her head and her eyes returned to their normal innocent appearance. She cocked her head to the side at RapidRun's question.

"How did I do what?" she asked. Looking around at the other Autobot, she noticed they were staring at her strangely. "What?"

"How did you activate the stasis pod?" Sideburn gaped, speaking up since everyone else seemed too stunned to talk.

Alana stared at him as if he'd just grown another head. "I don't know what you're talking about. All I did was touch it, that's all."

"Then, how did you know what the song meant?" Koji asked, standing beside the teenager.

The human ran a hand through her long, forest green locks in frustration. "What song?"

"The song that everyone in this room heard," Prowl stated, beginning to think the human was deliberately messing with their heads.

Alana gazed at everyone in turn before answering a bit nervously. "I really have no clue what you're talking about."