Gateway Future

The Furry of Silence

Kicker could tell just by looking at her that she was enjoying the fresh city air. They enjoyed ice-cream cones together, watched the latest action adventure movie together, and even got in the middle of a water gun fight. By the end of the three hours they were aloud out on the town away from Autobot supervision, Erin's black tank top and white jeans had dulled to an almost grey color, though the red sash on her right forearm and the silver almost string-width headband around her forehead seemed as bright as when their city-bound adventure started.

"Isn't this great, Erin?" Kicker laughed. Erin giggled again, her eyes bright with happiness. "Hey, it's getting late. Prime'll get ticked if we don't start heading back home soon."

Erin nodded in agreement, and the two slowly began to walk home. It was about noon, the sky was clear and the seaside path they took reflected the sunlight against their skin with the harshness of a gentle kiss. It was only then that Kicker remembered the gem bracelet he had found on the balcony earlier that morning.

"I think this is yours," Kicker blushed, extending his wrist. Erin giggled, nodding her head no.

Thousands of feet above them, a black top hat with a silver brim was drifting down from the folds of space on the warm tropical currents. The warmth of these currents turned icy the moment the hat came in contact with them.

"It's not mine. You should keep it, Kicker. It looks nice on you." Erin blushed. Kicker gulped, blushing as well.

"Y-Yah really think so...?" Erin nodded her head in a laughing yes.

The top at floated down across the wind, landing a few feet away from the talking children. Kicker blinked, being the first to notice it.

"Hey, how'd that get there?" Kicker blinked, pointing to the top hat. Erin looked at it and froze.

A shadow suddenly grew out of the top hat, pulling upwards to revile an emotionless man in a pressed black business suite carrying a silver briefcase. The case snapped open, folding out to revile a Tommy-gun.

"Get down!"

Kicker had no choice, for at the exact moment the gun opened fire, Erin had pushed him down. She rolled away from Kicker, landing in a crouched position several feet away from him. With an almost suicidal grace, she charged their attacker. Without even moving, it grabbed her by the foot and discarded her a few feet down the road. It turned on Kicker, its gun trained on his head. Kicker was obviously his target. The gun opened fire.

"Kicker!!"

At that exact same moment, thousands of top hats were landing on the newly repaired bridge to Ocean City and resulting in the birth of thousands of emotionless briefcase machine gun carrying men. Demolisher was at a loss, as was the rest of the base. Should they open fire or run the risk of waiting to see if they were friendly?

"What in Primus' name is going on?!" Jet Fire cursed.

To add chaos to an already chaotic matter an explosion in the sky foretold of thousands of small winged top hat and black suite wearing men descending from the heavens. As they passed the base and yelled out their destructive cries, the carnage began. The suitcase machineguns opened fire.

"Demolisher!" Ironhide gasped. Before the Decepticon could be damaged, the younger Autobot had kicked him over the edge of the bridge. Seeing as he was now in the line of fire, the youth back flipped with a surprising grace over the opposite edge of the bridge. The bullets from the guns were like miniature missiles, blasting holes in the door with ease.

"Jet Fire, watch out!"

The warning came too late. One of the fliers had decided to kamikaze attack the flying warrior. Seeing as he had no where to run, he did the only thing he could – cover his head with his arms and pray the blast wasn't lethal.

"Kicker!"

Kicker was frozen to his spot with his head being blocked by his hands and arms. He heard the bullets whizzing around him and pictured what he'd look like as a human block of Swiss cheese. The gun fire ended as abruptly as it had begun, making Kicker blink. When he dared to open his eyes again, there was a gaping black hole that looked almost like a two ringed target with the center ring being the largest and the outer ring appearing only like a thread in comparison in the middle of the assassin's chest. It gasped for air, moving in random motions as it was slowly killed. The target suddenly expanded, ending its meaningless struggles for life. The target vanished, reviling Erin to be its source.

"...E-Erin...? What...?!" Kicker paused mid sentence. He was surrounded in a dome of energy that was the same color as his now glowing ash-grey bracelet. That was what had protected him from the gun shots. "Did...Did you do this...?"

"...Yes..." Erin sighed, lowering her head in shame. "...I'm...not..." An explosion from behind them stopped their chatter.

Both children held wide eyes of horror when their gaze turned upon a burning ocean.

"Oh no! Ocean City is under attack!" Kicker gasped. He grabbed Erin by the wrist and began dragging her towards the burning city. "You can explain why you're able to blow creatures up later; right now our friends are in danger!"

Erin reluctantly followed him for a few moments, her mind lost in thought. Her eyes hardened into a determined glare. With one fluid motion, her wrist was free of Kicker's grasp and she was racing ahead of him.

"I'll go on ahead to clear a path! Take the back route and suite up! We'll meet at the medical center when this is all over!" she shouted, not once looking back at him. Kicker stared after her, at the small tear that flew past her streaming black and white hair, and understood for the first time why she was so afraid that the attack on Plan City was her fault.

Jet Fire was speechless. Instead of being burnt to a roasted crisp, only the room he had occupied moments ago was demolished. Looking down at the crystal bracelet, he understood why he hadn't been harmed. Whoever had left this for him had wanted to protect him. That thought rose curious questions about his mysterious new patron. They'd have to wait.

"Alright, it's obvious they're not friendly. Time to take 'em down!" Jet Fire roared. His engines and blasters set the sky aflame with the demolition of the strange attackers.

Ground enemies were a different story. Red Alert was lucky to have survived as long as he had, but he knew his time was running thin. He was almost out of energy and the enemy seemed endless. For ever one he destroyed, three more seemed to take the fallen monster's place. One had snuck behind him and at the last second, he had whirled around to face it. Too late; he raised his arms to shield his face and was greeted with the sounds of laser fire. The creature roared in pain as it was evaporated into dust.

"Red, you alright?" Kicker demanded.

"Kicker! Where's Erin?" Red Alert demanded. Kicker pointed his hand out towards what seemed almost like a nuclear explosion near the bridge.

"Lending a hand,"

Surrounded with no way out. Erin had to fight back a snicker at the familiarity of the setting. With her open fan she waved away the attacking forces by summoning a white gate and black gate for each monster that raised a gun to her. The black gates closest to her sent out a blast of black energy that disintegrated the monster where as the white gates neutralized the blast before anymore structural damage to the bridge could occur. The familiar roar of a space shuttle's engine brought her view to the sky. One of the remaining thousands thought they could get her while she was distracted. He was sorely mistaken. Erin raised her hand to the sky, forming another white discus. She closed her eyes and let it all melt away.

"Jet Fire, normal weapons won't work against Invaders. Please land and let me help clear the land and sky of this filth."

Jet Fire transformed mid flight, partially out of shock and partially because his forward cannons needed a rest. He looked down towards Erin and blinked, not noticing the glowing crystal on his wrist.

"Erin?"

"It's a long story, Jet Fire, sir, but I promise I'll explain everything." Erin whispered. Jet Fire stared at the glowing white discus Erin was holding above her head for a few more moments, nonchalantly blowing a few more of the Invaders, or so she had called them, out of the sky. She looked at him with eyes that seemed to be pleading. "Please..."

Jet Fire landed for a split second, collected the girl, and was airborne again just in time to avoid being shot down. Erin was suspended in his grip so that she could see both earth and sky. Her hands weaved too and fro like an artist at their easel, and wherever her hands pointed, black gates opened. Wherever the black gates appeared, white ones also accompanied them, overlapping each other and forming Ying-Yang symbols in the air. The Invaders' numbers were more than halved within seconds.

Somewhere from the top pillars of the still burning Ocean City, a scream of retreat was herald to the attacking units. Just in time, too, because once the last ground unit had been retrieved by the aerial units, Erin blacked out in Jet Fire's grip. He instantly landed in alarm.

"Erin!" Jet Fire jumped. His call was echoed by Red Alert, a soaking wet Ironhide, and a halfway limping Kicker.

"Is she alright?" Kicker demanded.

"Don't know. She blacked out once that retreat call was sounded." Jet Fire explained. He gently passed the unconscious girl to Red Alert who mealy hummed. Taking her in his arms, he walked her quickly to the only section of Ocean City that had received little to no damage – the medical wing.

"Jet Fire, report!" Optimus boomed from a good five feet away.

"Battle won and casualties are minimum, sir, thanks to Erin." Jet Fire answered. His answer left a perplexed expression on Optimus' face.

"Erin? How so?"

"I'm not a hundred percent sure, sir, but it was defiantly Erin that made the difference."

"Yeah. We got attacked by one of those things on our way here, and she used some kind of black gate to destroy it right through the gut." Kicker answered. His hands formed a circle over his own gut before expanding outwards to mimic the fate of the first attacker.

"You were attacked?" Optimus blinked. The situation was becoming more and more confusing as the moments progressed. "Where's Erin now?"

"She blacked out after the retreat call for those things was sounded, sir." Jet Fire paused for a moment before adding, "She called them Invaders, sir."

"Invaders?"

"Yes sir,"

Optimus sighed, shutting down his optics for a moment in an effort to straighten out his thoughts. When he reactivated them he ordered, "Take the wounded to the medical center at once. I want to be informed the moment Erin wakes up."

"Where're yah going, Prime?" Kicker demanded.

"To start cleaning up this mess and put out these fires." Kicker let out an embarrassed oh, blushing lightly out of embarrassment.

Red Alert released a long sigh as he was finally allowed a break. Every last wound that required his attention had been seen to, Erin's condition had been stabilized, and according to his scans the heroin of the hour would be awakening in a few moments. He'd put out the call to Prime, but had yet to hear a response. His thoughts were taken from Optimus and put back on the topic at hand – Erin had rolled over in her sleep and was now staring wide-eyed at him.

"Good morning," Red Alert smiled, bending down so as to more easily face her. "How do you feel?" Erin sat up, looking up at him with wide eyes. "Do we really have to go through this again?"

Erin giggled lightly at that, covering her mouth with the fan that had yet again materialized out of no where. Red Alert ignored the sudden appearance of her kimono fan and simply smiled.

"I suppose I owe you a dept of gratitude for taking out all of those monsters." Red smiled, standing up again. "Optimus said he'd be down here in a few moments, so if you want to rest or put back on your kimono I promise I won't watch. Your kimono's in the top...drawer?"

When Red Alert had turned back to face the now awake Erin, he found himself speaking to an empty room.