Out of the Blue: Part 2
The next few weeks past much the same and the new teacher got to know the kids in her class. The more she got to know them however, the more Frankie began to realize that these kids in her class were up to something.
Truth told she probably shouldn't have snooped into what they were doing that afternoon; it was their business after all. Still it seemed strange to her that every single afternoon they took off into the hills and didn't come back, or rather, weren't seen until class the next day. All of them seemed pretty normal for the most part so there was no real reason for them to be doing this.
Still it was very odd, and the new teacher had promised her self that she wasn't going to be the kind of teacher that let kids stay in trouble if they were. Neither how ever did she want to be the kind that ran screaming to their parents if she caught them daydreaming in her class. So she thought that it would be best if she looked in to the problem her self.
This had meant waiting until fall break, so that both she and the kids would have time off. That accomplished she had found one of the trails into the hills and perched there waiting for them to show up. She wasn't disappointed.
The whole heard of them came up there and headed further into the outcroppings.
She gave them a few seconds to make sure they were ahead of her and then followed them, up there. She rounded the corner and saw all of them disappear into what looked like a normal cave. Again she gave them a few seconds and followed again. Again truth told she was starting to feel a bit silly. There was, ten times to one, nothing more sinister up here than a club house that they had set up. They were going to make a big deal about her finding out their secret and swear her to silence and then do the typical, don't trust the adults' thing. Regardless of all of these feelings of utter foolishness, she still felt compelled to do this. Some thing in her mind told her that what ever the kids had up there was something she should see. So no matter how dumb she felt she kept on following them.
That is Frankie kept on following them until they disappeared on her. She rounded the last corner in the place that she had seen them round and then they were gone. Nothing, no trace of them any where remained. Now it was official getting weird.
"Okay," She told her self, "Five kids just don't vanish into thin air."
She started feeling around the walls of the cave looking for some thing that might tell her where they'd gone.
"Oh don't be ridiculous, this is real life not an Indiana Jones…"
She trailed off as her hand found a recession in the rock. "Okay ...Why do I have the feeling I'm going to regret this?"
She felt around a bit more and found some thing, one pull later she was standing inside some thing that she would have never believed existed let alone that she would be wondering around in.
It looked like some thing straight out of a science fiction movie, a long dim metal lined hallway that led to a brighter area at the end.
"What in the world those kids DOING up here?"
A few seconds later some one round the corner and proceeded to demand to know that same thing of her. Only this was in a much harsher, much louder and slightly mechanical sounding voice.
"HEY! Who are you and what are you doing in here?"
Frankie had thought shed find kinds just hanging out in a cave some where being kids. What she would have never in a million years expected to see when she turned around to yell at the voice was some thing huge in the shadows with a pair of glowing red eyes glaring down in her general direction.
That was all she wrote. It was very much like her worst nightmare come to life. The teacher stood in the entry way of the autobot base for a few moments and stared up at this shadow. Ten seconds later in the command center every ear and audio in the place was split by such a blood curdling shriek that every one there thought some kind of invasion had began.
"What was that?" Optimus demanded.
That was when it clicked with Alexis. "OH NO!"
"Oh no what?" Rad looked at her, "Is there something you didn't tell the rest of us Alexis."
The girl got a sheepish look on her face, "Well about a week ago Miss. B. asked me where we took off to every afternoon. I told her that we just went to hang out up here in the hills because we like the scenery. She must have followed us up here and seen the door."
Alexis looked up at Optimus, "I'm so sorry; I didn't ever think that she'd actually follow us!"
"That's alright Alexis," A strange look crossed what features could be seen, "Still I think we'd better go and find her and explain a few things before someone scares her more than she already has been."
Meanwhile, the aforementioned teacher had taken off about three seconds after the scream had ended. This left a very bewildered Starscream staring after her wondering what her problem was. Granted seeing him or any transformer might be shocking to some one that didn't know. But he'd never known one to have that kind of reaction, even to a decepticon. That much utter terror shocked him so badly that he took off after the woman trying to get hold of her to at the very least calm her down some an explain.
Frankie by now was half way into the base and running for her life. Red eyes chasing her down a strange corridor. Every single rational thought that she possessed was gone, all she wanted at this point was to be as far away from what she had seen as possible. So she was running, full tilt through the corridors of the autobot base. This was a disaster just waiting to happen. And happen it did. She rounded the corner and ran full force into the foot of a certain autobot commander. Proceeded to bounce off the foot fly back a few feet and smack her head on the floor.
"Well," Rad stated, "I think we found Miss. B."
It was a good fifteen minutes before they were able to get the poor woman calmed down and get her back to the command center. To say that she was amazed at what she found was more than an understatement.
"So, you're telling me that, you're from outer space?" She looked at all the transformers who were now in the room along with the kids.
"Yes," Optimus admitted, "I'm terribly sorry if some one scared you. Really I suppose when we first noticed you we should have come out and admitted what was going on."
Now that statement shocked most of the people that were there. It had been one of the commanding officers standing orders to keep away from humans as much as possible. Yet here he was saying that he should have told them.
"Its okay really he," The teacher motioned to Starscream, "Just kind of caught me off guard that's all. I mean it's not every day you find a space ship and find a big guy like him in it."
The teacher continued to talk to the rest of them, but something else now had the jet's attention. He managed to catch Alexis and had her follow him until they were out of ear shot.
"What?" She asked.
"That woman, you said she's your teacher?"
Alexis nodded, "That's right, Social studies to be exact."
"She seems to have caught the attention of Optimus rather thoroughly. If I didn't know better Id…" The jet trailed off.
"You'd what?" Alexis blinked up at him innocently.
"No its nothing, really," Starscream shook his head; "I suppose we'd better get back."
They headed back to the command center, and eventually everything was settled. Frankie agreed to keep the autobots a secret and do what she could to try and help them. All of them thanked her and then the kids showed her the way back to her car. Once Optimus was alone in the command center, someone pounced on him and demanded an explanation
"So?" The jet asked walking up behind him.
"So what Starscream?" The leader replied.
"So I want to know why you're interested in this human." He paused, "She's not like the kids, and we can't trust her to keep her mouth shut. Yet you come right out and told her 90 of what all's going on here. Now I want to know why prime."
"She came looking for us; I felt that she deserved an answer." Optimus told him simply.
"Is that really the reason Prime?" The look on the jet's face softened a bit. "Or is it because she looks like…"
"You're on thin ice Starscream, if you keep going in that direction you're going to fall through." He growled not looking at him, "I suggest you change your path right now."
"I thought so." The former decepticon shook his head and started to walk off, "She's not who you think, don't endanger us because of …"
"Shut up Starscream."
He stood and looked at the Leader's back for another second or so and then turned to take off into the base shaking his head.
On Cybertron:
In the depths of the planet something long thought lost stirs. An old evil opens his eyes for the first time in millennia and smiles. What he wanted once long ago has reappeared. This time with no memory and no concept of what once was, or what once happened. A great flash of darkness surrounds the being and moves, flowing through space toward a small blue planet.