;;; Hehe, I changed my idea, so the last preview is actually inaccurate! But the next one is true! I swear it! Happy readings!
I went to the one place I was sure Joseph would be able to contact me; the graveyard. I crept up the gentle sloping hill to the back section, where people all the way from the 1800's were buried. This part of the graveyard was darker and falling apart. The ground was covered with weeds in some spots and totally bare in others. The black metal fence was falling apart and the black paint was peeling. I paused at the fence just long enough to wiggle away one of the rails. I slipped through and replaced the rail, then looked around the cemetery. This was actually the lower part. A little ways away a second hill began to rise up towards the heavens; the newer part of the cemetery. Just barely along the edge I could see the white lilies that had been placed on my mom's grave only a few days ago. The petals had begun to fade away and the stems had turned brown. I sighed; why did the universe hate me?
Shrugging off my self-pity, I walked over to an old, crumbling stone bench that was held together only by thick strands of moss. I sat down on the soft carpet of green and looked at the stones around me. Joseph had made a valid point; dad had been getting closer and closer to killing me lately when he hit me. And when he had been in the car and turned the wheels towards me…
I shuddered, realizing how close I had been to the killer of my mother the entire time. He deserved whatever punishment the judge sentenced him, even if it was death. I would most certainly agree if it was death.
Frowning, I rubbed my head. No. No I wouldn't; nobody deserved the death sentence. Nobody. Life was too precious. I sighed once more and looked down at my hands. When had my life gotten so complicated?
Nearby, a shot of lightning split the sky, which had been growing dark ever since I had left. A loud rumbling of thunder followed, as though a great lion that lived in the sky had been disturbed out of his sleep. The newer part of the cemetery turned dark as the clouds gathered over top of it and began to drift towards the older part. I watched it calmly; lightning storms were calm and soothing to me, as long as I didn't get hit, at least. I watched as another finger of light stroked the statue that was set up at the top of the hill. It was a marble angel standing on top of a huge book. There were often time rumors about there being a passageway beneath the angel that led to a secret silver cavern. I had always thought it was nonsense. Now that I had time to kill, however, I began to wonder if it would be worth investigating.
"Oh don't be stupid," I chided myself, "Nothing is under that statue!" A second thing of lightening hit the angel, and again my interest was piqued. "Just a little look couldn't hurt, though." I stood and brushed myself off before I could change my mind. Carefully, I headed for the other end of the old cemetery, carefully moving around the crumbling tombstones and plaques. I reached the other side quickly and somehow managed to force open the stubborn waist-high black gate. Wincing as it squeaked loudly in protest, I stepped onto the gentle slope of the new cemetery.
A violet laser lit the ground in front of me, incinerating every blade of grass that had once stood there. I jumped back with a shout of surprise and slammed into the black gate, forcing it back into its place. My eyes followed the path of the laser straight up to the robot form of Cyclonus, who was hovering several yards above the ground, thanks to the blades on his back.
"Well, if it isn't my favorite squishy!" He crowed in delight. "Where've you been hiding?"
I didn't answer; if I had opened my mouth, I was afraid I'd say something I would come to regret. "Stunned to see me squishy?" He asked mockingly as another torch of lightning lit the air.
"Stunned to the point of being sick." I muttered.
"What was that?" Cyclonus asked, landing a few feet away. I pressed myself against the gate, which normally opened both ways. Now, however, it was wedged in between the two posts that held it up. "Aw, trying to leave so soon squishy?" He taunted with a cruel laugh. "Hehehehehe, Megatron will be glad to see you!"
Yeah, glad to see me squished flat against the sole of his foot, I thought acidly, kicking the gate stubbornly with my heel.
"Aw, do you not want to see Megatron again? But he misses you soooo much!" Cyclonus howled, though it didn't sound as though he really cared all that much about Megatron. "He doesn't want to see me come back empty-handed, and you are much more valuable then some rebelling Minicon! You'd never rebel, not after Megatron gave you those great lessons! Hehe, he'll reward me good for finding you!" He punched his fist up into the air…and got struck by lightning.
I would have laughed, had the situation not been so serious. Cyclonus collapsed, twitching the same way he had when Scavenger had shot him with the undiluted energon gun, or whatever it had been. He fell to the side, leaving the way to the angel statue clear. I sprinted past him, not wanting to be around when his over-loaded circuits repaired themselves. I charged up the hill, though I'm not really sure why I did that. I should have jumped the fence and run back into the woods. At least there I could've hid.
I slipped and slid up the grass slope as rain began to pour down from the heavens above; a perfect setting for a horror movie. I stumbled slightly on a tombstone, but kept my balance. Forcing myself up the hill, I soon reached the statue. The angel was looking sadly down at the book, with cracks running down her face like tears. She was one of the oldest statues in the cemetery, having been moved from the old section to the new.
"SQUISHY!" Cyclonus roared from behind as several shots were fired into the cloudy sky. I jumped and spun around, pressing my heels up against the edge of the book. Cyclonus was storming up the hill, eyes livid, smoking curling up from his shoulders. I swallowed hard; if ever there was a time I needed Scavenger or Joseph, it was now. "You did that! I don't know how, but you did!" He ranted, his feet leaving huge holes in the wet hillside. I could just imagine what the landscaping committee would have to do to cover those up. I stepped up onto the book, watched Cyclonus in fright. He was twice as insane as he had been a month ago. A violet light gathered at the end of his arm-mounted cannon and he raised it, pointing at me. Fortunately, when he was angry, he didn't have very good aim.
The shot ripped through the grass, singing it as it flew past up the hill. It collided with the base of the statue, which was the books cover. There was a huge flash of light as the stone beneath my feet shook. Dust swirled up into the air, echoing Cyclonus's insane laugh. The ground dropped out from under me, and I found myself falling once more into nothingness.
At lease, that's what I thought until five feet later, when I landed on a smooth, curved piece of stone. I covered my head as smaller bits of stone rained down on my head. I coughed as the dust swirled and settled around me. Shaking my head and dislodging some pebbles at the same time, I looked up at the hole I had just fallen through. Cyclonus was leering at me.
"Have fun in your tomb." He cackled as he grabbed the angel statue and crushed it in his fist, sending much larger stones raining down on top of me. I scrambled forward, away from the hole, as the angels large wings crashed into the hole, blocking out all the light. I heard Cyclonus's insane laugh fade away as he left.
"Great, now I've gotta share my tomb with some other dead guy." I muttered angrily, slamming my fist into the nearby wall. I winced and shook my hand, then began to feel around. I was in what felt like a tube cut in half. The stone was nice and smooth; maybe water had run this way once-upon a time?
I scooted forward carefully, wondering how long this half-tube went. Pretty soon, it began to slope a little. Me being me, I bent over to see if there was anything at the bottom I could identify in the gray darkness. Slowly, the stone began to slide away beneath me. Five seconds later I was going down the stone slide on my back at what felt like a breakneck speed.
The slide slipped by, turning right, then left, then right again, tossing me around like a marble on a track. I would have screamed (here, nobody would have heard me) but the wind pressed against my jaw and kept my mouth shut. Soon, the slide straightened out, and its slope began to decrease. Before I slowed down to much, however, I ran out of slide. I was flung forward into the air for a few seconds before falling down onto a rough stone floor covered in dust.
I gasped, trying to get a reasonable amount air back into my lungs. As soon as my head stopped spinning, I pushed myself up and sat back on my heels. I was in a large chamber with a ceiling so high I could barely see it. A few light panels were set into the wall across the room, but they were flickering and dim. There was enough light for me to see that half of the room was metal, which faded away into the rocks to form a strange type of cave. There was a door in between the two long light panels. It was open, and led into a rock tunnel. Standing in the door was a large white, red and gold robot, who's optics were set squarely on me.
I fell backwards off of my heels and onto the ground. I stared back into the robots orangish-gold optics, heart racing. Standing beside his foot was a minicon, which looked more curious than anything else. We stayed like that for a moment, neither of us moving. The dim lights flickered, and then went out entirely.
I dove for the nearest rock formation, thankful for the sudden distraction. The rocks jutted high above my head, forming a protective wall between me and the Transformer. I heard him mutter something beneath his breath, and then the lights flickered back on. I crouched down, trembling, my back pressed up against the rocks. Being trapped in a pit with a Transformer blocking the exit, a transformer that could be on either side of their bloody war, was not my idea of a good time.
I saw a pebble by my foot tremble as the transformer took a step into the room. I swallowed hard, my last encounter with Cyclonus still fresh in my mind. The ground shook once more as he took a second cautious step, and then it hit me. He was moving away from the door! I carefully crab-crawled to the side of the rocks that was near the wall. The Mech was moving towards the other rock outcropping, which had actually been closer than the one I was behind now. His Minicon had disappeared; probably to go tell the others that they had an intruder to deal with. I waited until he had taken three more steps and was right beside the outcropping to make a break for it. I sprinted across the room towards the door. I heard the Mech shout, but didn't understand what he had said. The ground gave a sudden, violent tremble, and I slammed straight into a large, white hand. Being made of flesh and not metal, I bounced onto my back and found myself looking up at the large transformers face and, more importantly, the two upside-down red Autobot symbol on his shoulders.
"You're a fast runner." He commented as I rolled over onto my stomach and pushed myself up onto my knees. Right then I was so relieved that I had found one of the good guys I could of started crying right then and there. Instead, however, I simply watched him with wide eyes. One of his optics widened slightly, giving you the impression that he was attempting to raise an eyebrow. His minicon popped up beside him, still looking at me curiously. "I'm Jetfire," the Autobot said after a moment of silence, "and this is Commettor, my partner." He nodded to the minicon, who beeped in acknowledgement. "So, do you have a name?"
It took a moment for me to realize he had asked me a question. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, it's Raven." I said, tripping over my words. Jetfire laughed.
"Still a little shocked? You don't have to worry; I won't hurt you." He said gently.
"Of course you won't; you're an Autobot!" The look I received from that statement told me quite plainly that I had said something stupid again.
"How do you know that?" He asked after another moment's silence.
"You, um, have the Autobot symbol on your shoulders." I pointed out the two red faces. "At least, I hope they're Autobot symbols..." I cringed, remembering Cyclonus once more.
"I meant, how do you know about the Autobots?" He asked again. Deep in his voice, I could hear a note of suspicion.
"I, uh, had a run-in with 'em a while ago..." I explained, hoping he wouldn't ask for details.
"Really?" Jetfire asked, leaning back and sitting down all the way in front of me. He moved his hands away, so the exit was in plain sight. For some reason, however, I didn't even think of running. "How exactly did you run into them?"
"Well I was hiking and it started to rain, so I went into a cave to keep from getting wet and ran into that yellow Autobot." I explained hastily.
"Hot Shot." Jetfire supplied.
"Uh, yeah, Hot Shot," I corrected. "Anyway, he kinda spooked me so I ran off, straight into a Decepticons leg..." I thought back to that day two months ago; that had been when I first met Scavenger.
"You ran into a Decepticon?" Jetfire prodded, snapping me back into reality.
"Uh, yeah, I did. Hot Shot saved me and later explained that he was an Autobot, a good guy, and all that other stuff about your war." I lied. "I didn't want any part in it so I left. I guess now I've been sucked back in..."
"How did you end up down here? You sorta appeared out of nowhere." Jetfire asked, changing the subject.
"I was up in the graveyard and Cyclonus found me." I said sourly. "I dropped into a passageway below a statue and he collapsed it on top of me. Turns out it led down here."
"Does Cyclonus know about it?" Jetfire asked, suddenly looking very serious. I liked him better when he smiled.
"No. He thought he had trapped me in a tomb." I said hastily, not enjoying the look he was giving me.
Jetfire nodded. "Not exactly the brightest in the bunch." He chuckled, and the smile returned. "Well, seeing how you know all about us, do you want to go to the main part of the base and dry off?"
I looked down at myself; the rain had waterlogged my clothes completely. Bits of dirt and dust had stuck to the wet fabric, making me look like a walking mud monster. "The kids have some extra clothes here incase they get dirty. I'm sure they wouldn't mind if you borrowed some." I flashed him a thankful smile.
"That would be wonderful." I said with a longing sigh. He chuckled.
"Alright, well lets head on over and—" He was cut off as the familiar sound of comlink static broke the caves organic silence. "Uh, hold on a second." Jetfire said, sounding as though he was blushing. He stood up and turned around, raising his arm up to his mouth. While he was busy with that, I stood and dusted myself off.
"Good luck, sir. Oh, uh, Optimus?"
"What is it, Jetfire?"
My head perked up as Jetfire's voice dropped dramatically in volume. I had to strain my ears to hear him.
"A human found her way into the base. She claims to have met Hot Shot before."
"Really? Well, I wasn't aware that Hot Shot had a previous encounter with humans, unless...?"
"Sir?" Jetfire asked.
"Did she give you her name?"
"Yeah, it's Raven. Why?"
"She's telling the truth. Go ahead and bring her into the base. We'll be there soon. Optimus out."
He remembered me. I don't know how or why, but he did. Jetfire stood there for a moment more, scratching his head, while I tried to decide what to do. If I stayed and let him 'escort' me to the base, then I might get to see Scavenger again. If I did go, however, that would mean having to answer a lot of questions, including why I was in the cemetery at night. If I ran, there was a very good chance I would get lost, and Jetfire would presumably know the layout better than me. That and his Minicon was standing right by the door.
"Joy to the world." I muttered sourly to myself as Jetfire turned back around. He clapped his hands and looked down at me.
"Ready to go?" He asked, an enthusiastic tone in his voice now that he knew I had been telling the truth. How comforting. He paused when he noted my less-than-happy look. "Something wrong?"
I shook my head and forced a smile. "No, I'm fine. Shall we go?" I motioned to the doorway. He nodded; obviously a newbie to Earth.
"Alright!" He stooped down and laid his hand in front of me. I jumped back, just staring at his palm. "Hop on! This'll be faster than walking."
"I'd rather not." I said quietly, remembering how much I hated to be held by the Decepticons.
Jetfire withdrew his hand. "Ah...well, then we'd better start walking!" He flashed me a diluted smile as he straightened back up to his original height and began to walk towards the door. I followed, noting that he looked as though he was trying to take smaller steps so I could keep up. I lengthened my stride slightly and he sped up a bit more. I broke into a slow jog, noting a slight spark in Jetfire's optics. I turned my head upwards and gave him a half grin, before breaking into a flat-out sprint. "Hey! Wait up!"
I heard Jetfire's heavy footsteps follow me at a similar pace as both of us ran for the exit, leaving Commettor behind. For a moment, I felt as though all of my troubles were gone, left behind in the wind that streamed past my face. These thoughts left as soon as Jetfire shouted for me to stop. I came back down to reality and realized that I was five feet away from a wall and running at top speed.
"AGH!" I stumbled and fell in an attempt to stop myself, landing parallel to the wall, which I slid into. Jetfire and Commettor ran up, looking worried.
"Are you alright?" The Autobot asked as I attempted to massage the waves of dizziness out of my head.
"Yeah, great." I muttered sourly.
"You're a fast runner." He complimented as Commettor helped me to my feet.
"I like to run now and again." I shrugged, dusting myself off.
"You and Hot Shot would make good friends. He likes to go fast too." Comlink static once more interrupted our conversation.
"Jetfire, I need to see you in the control room."
"Back already, Optimus?"
"Yes. You need to get over here right away."
"What about the girl, Raven?"
"Have Commettor take her to the kid's room. She'll be safe there."
I stiffened. She'll be safe there? That meant something bad was going to happen.
"Right. Jetfire out." Jetfire flicked off his comlink and looked down at us. "Commettor, take Raven to the kid's quarters, now. Whatever's going on is serious." I gave a timid nod and Jetfire flashed me a smile. "Don't worry, kid. Everything's gonna turn out okay. Then we can get you home."
Home. Right. I doubted home was very homey anymore. Commettor took my arm in his iron grip (no pun intended) and pulled me down the hall. Jetfire ran in the other direction at top speed and soon disappeared behind a bend. I watched after him; something was really wrong. Commettor tugged a little on my arm, motioning for me to follow him. I did so, chewing on my bottom lip. For the past few days I had been acting more like a machine than a person. I did most of the things people told me too (I had to make few exceptions), and never really thought about it anymore. I was stressed.
These thoughts came at a bad time. Commettor stopped me as we reached a four-way intersection in the hall. Several different footsteps reached my ears. I looked down the hall to our left; someone was coming. I looked to the right; the same story. Meanwhile, in front of us, a third bot was coming. I took a step back, but Commettor kept a firm grip on my arm. The lights lining the top of the halls flickered, and then went out.
"A power failure!" Commettor beeped, still unaware that I could understand him. He released my arm and I was suddenly standing alone in the darkness of an alien base. My heart beat quickened, but began to slow as Commettor's armor lit up a little. "There we go." He looked to me, and the suddenly looked past me, optics wide. I whirled around before I could see him relax. Three large bots, with amazing stillness, had appeared and were looking down at us. They were barely even silhouettes. Except for their optics. I could see their optics glowing in the darkness. I stumbled backwards, eyes wide, meeting theirs. Commettor's arm snapped out and grabbed mine tightly, taking me by complete surprise. I screamed and twisted around to face him. Darkness was suddenly overtaking me, and I sunk to the floor, unaware of the panicked voices of the watchers.
Suspense keeps readers coming back for more!
Scavenger: It also makes them head to the sheds for the torches and pitch forks...
Shut up Scavey...
Scavenger: I told you not to call me that!
TOO BAD!
Jetfire: While those two proceed to kill themselves, here's the next preview:
Scavenger gently picked me up and carried me over to his desk. "I've got something for you." He said, setting her down beside the keyboard. I wiped my eyes with the back of my hands and gave a small sniff.
"Yeah?"
"Yes." Scavenger pulled open the top drawer and pulled out something I never thought I would see again.
Dun dun dun! What is it? Why is it so cherished? What will happen to Raven next? What of her brother and father?
Review and you will find out!
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