Gateway Future
The Dragon, Dragon
Swords sat completely still on the table overlooking the sleeping Sideswipe. The wound that had threatened his life was sealed by more than one layer of emergency bandages. Adding to his list of injures besides something called 'spark exposure' was that his left hand had nearly been ripped off, his own gun had been used against him, his legs seemed non-responsive as if the neural connectors had been fried, and his whole body had been exposed to over a thousand watts of various lethal radiation waves. In short; the boy should count himself lucky that Erin had found him first and was so well versed in the Ying Gate's powers. The soft hum of the child Transformer's optics slowly powering up after days of inactivity made Swords open his eyes slowly.
"Move and I won't be held liable for the consequences." Swords warned the robot. Sideswipe looked over at the Keeper of the Gate of Blades and blinked in confusion.
"W-What...happened...?"
"You were nearly killed in a sneak attack, Sideswipe. Stay still and don't move." Red Alert ordered. Sideswipe looked weakly over at the elder medic hidden halfway behind a control console and whispered,
"Where's...bro...?"
"His wounds are being treated to even as we speak." Red Alert answered promptly. He had a small laser syringe in his hand that was active. He simply touched it to Sideswipe's armor and the energy found within it was gone. "Just rest. That's all you need right now is rest." Sideswipe nodded lightly. His optics were black in a matter of seconds.
"Bro? You mean he and that other robot are related?" Blaze questioned stiffly from the door. Red Alert turned to face him with a light chuckle in the air.
"In an emotional way, yes, I suppose you could say they are related. I guess since you're here that Hot Shot's awake?"
"And asking questions. Prime wants you in his room now." Red Alert nodded thanks to the message and quickly left the room. Blaze joined Swords in overlooking the sleeping giant. "...So is it worth it...?"
"Well," Swords hummed, covering his eyes with the wide brim of his hat, "You did say you love explosive situations, and what's happening with that observatory couldn't be any hotter." Blaze rolled his eyes behind his shades in a joking manor.
"Yes, but wasn't it you that said we should play it safe for a while?" Swords looked down at him and smirked,
"Safe? What place on earth could be safer than in a battle outpost full of giant lethal robots?"
"I could think of a thousand places," was the counter remark. Swords gave no answer. Blaze released another laughing huff, pushing his hands deep into the black depths of his suite pockets. The both of them exchanged a look when their stomachs echoed off the same empty complaint.
"I'll go get some to-go lo-main..." Blaze volunteered. He waved one hand in the air nonchalantly to show he didn't care and turned to exit the room. He could have sworn he heard the unconscious Sideswipe chuckle at his stomach rumble.
It was a calm ocean day with the sea breeze light and the morning full of peaceful bliss. The doors to Ocean City slowly opened, admitting Hot Shot, Sideswipe, and Ironhide along with three humans – Kicker, Erin, and Blaze – out onto the bridge. Demolisher simply nodded to their arrival. With an emotionless gesture, he pointed over towards the far end of the land side of the bridge. Coming towards the rebuilt underwater city was a black unmarked car with two small Autobot-Earth alliance flags mounted on its hood.
The car came to a complete stop on the outskirts of the city gates. The passenger side back door opened slowly, almost as if the person inside was fearful of getting out of the car before the giants. There was a soft scream of shock and the clapping of light purple heals against the hard concrete as a woman was shoved out of the car, just barely managing to land upon her feet without tearing her short light purple business skirt suite. Her short unevenly cut brown hair intertwined with the dangling light purple earrings on her ears and her eyes burned with anger as she swirled to face the second occupant of the car. With a voice that did more than simply spell her anger, she shouted out a single name in a rather annoyed voice.
"Rick!!"
"What?" a different adolescent male voice countered cockily. "This is my first time here and you're taking way to long to get your butt out of the car."
The women swooped down into the car, grabbed the owner of the voice by the wrist, and drug him so quickly from the car that when she released the blue, black, and, blond blur of a teen, he was sent falling over the guard rails into the ocean. With an indifferent humph, the woman crossed her arms over her chest and slammed her heel down.
"Don't look so stunned. We all know he deserved it."
The boy apparently had not fallen over into the ocean. Instead he had managed to grab a hold of the guard rail at the last second and was now holding on as if for dear life. Erin was the fist over to him. He was a strapping young biker teen wearing black leather boots, black jeans, a black biker jacket over a blue tank top, with black fingerless biker gloves to complete his outfit. His hair showed that it was naturally brown due to the streaks of brown the appeared beneath the layer of bright blond that extended down to the middle of his back. The teen's brown eyes looked up at Erin, primarily at the fact her kimono made her look as if she had wings, and gulped.
"I'm not dead yet, right?" the boy questioned blankly. Erin could only giggle in answer. When the boy found himself floating on a white discus, he added, "Everybody's sure that I'm not dead yet?"
Once he was grounded, Erin pinched him on the arm. He jumped instantly.
"No, idiot, you're not dead yet." Blaze mocked from the shadows. The boy looked at him blankly for a few minutes between massaging his arm.
"Who's that Goth?"
"I'm not Goth!!" The sudden promptness in which Blaze countered the accusation caused a group blink to fall upon him. He gulped and added, "...One too many people called me a Goth when I first joined up..." Erin yet again hid an innocent giggle behind her fan.
"You must be Blaze." the all but forgotten woman smiled. "My name's Alexis. I'm the active Earth ambassador for the Autobots." She then turned to Erin and smiled, "And you must be the 'Magic Erin' I've heard so much about."
Erin blinked in confusion. "You've heard about me? From whom?"
"Ah, there's this kid in the car that wouldn't say a thing on the drive over. Minute she saw how big those four were," the boy thumbed over at Demolisher and the others, "She got spooked. Probably won't budge for all the chocolate on the east coast, too."
He was quickly countered by the fact Alexis had bent back down into the car and was now coaxing someone out. A rather small human hopped down from the car, its feet being hidden by the folds of a long kimono ribbon and skirt. A small bell like the kind one would put around a cat's collar rang out lightly as the small child walked around out from behind the door. She was young, no older than nine or ten years of age, with rose-blond hair pulled up high in one long braid centered near the top of her head that streamed down to meet the middle bow of her kimono sash. She was dressed in a pure white kimono outlined in gold and black patterns around the sleeves and sash. Her bright sapphire eyes darted around the scene like those of a wild rabbit's and she clutched a small baby dragon plush toy cautiously in her arms as if it alone would protect her from the giants that might bring her harm. Once her eyes settled on Erin, she released a gasping squeak of shock. With one fast run, she broke free of Alexis's weak grip on her hand. In another two or three seconds she was floating up to Erin's grip on a white Gate.
"Elexandria!" Erin laughed. The young girl Elexandria wrapped her arms tight around Erin's neck, holding the dragon dangerously by one clawed hand. Erin pulled her back for a moment and questioned, "What are you doing here? Where're your mother and father?" Elexandria was about to reply when the soft shuffle of Hot Shot shifting weight to his opposite foot distracted her. She looked up at the towering flame painted robot and gulped in fear. Erin followed Elexandria's worry stair up to Hot Shot, who waved his index finger down at them.
"Hi," he said with an embarrassed edge to his voice. Erin rolled her eyes in laughter.
"Don't worry about them, El. I bet you had a long trip here." Elexandria nodded her head. She pulled the dragon around so that it was nearly in Erin's face and had it nod its head as well. "And I bet you're hungry, too?" Another nod from the dragon and girl. "How about we go and see if a friend of mine is free and go get lunch at the food court? And then after that I'll give you a guided tour. Is that a deal?" Elexandria nodded her and her dragon's head furiously in agreement.
"Hey, what about me?" the boy from earlier exclaimed. Kicker wrapped his arm around the boy's neck in a friendly grab and laughed,
"Well you are one of my best friend's, Rick! Who do you think is going to show you around?"
"I'd rather the hot gal did..." Rick muttered. Kicker resisted the urge to punch him solidly in the jaw.
Blaze almost laughed at the scene. "You two are twins," he suddenly stated. Both boys looked over at him and stated in unison,
"How'd you know that?"
"I was trained since I was five to be a Shinobi. It's my job to know everything about you before you know anything about me." was the sly reply.
"You've got a twin, Kicker?" Ironhide blinked.
"Yep! Rick, this is the guy Optimus tagged me with. Ironhide, this is my twin brother Rick." Kicker introduced.
"Older twin," Rick corrected.
"Yeah, by half a second!"
"That still makes me older than you!"
"Yeah right, on a technicality maybe!"
"Oh boy," Ironhide sighed to himself, "Two Kickers...? Optimus is going to love this..."
Elexandria had resolved to walk calmly hand in hand with Erin as the older of the two well dressed girls lead the way down the maze of giant hallways and corridors. Every now and then the two would stop and take a look out the beautiful glass domes at the scenery outside. Whenever an Autobot or Omnicon would pass the duo Elexandria would push tighter against Erin. The passing giant would wave cheerfully down at her and make a comment like,
"Cute kid," or "Great, now there's another Erin around." At the second Erin would laugh and wave the giant down the hall.
It was only when they passed the open door to what looked like a medical facility did one of the giant's call them out.
"Hello," a teasing giant voice echoed from the room at a whisper, "Since when were there two Erins walking around base?" Erin paused, making Elexandria stop and blink. She smiled down at the child and quickly bent down to her height.
"Let's go see what my friend Jet Fire's doing and ask him to lunch?" Elexandria merely nodded, though her attitude held an air of fear about her. Erin gently released her hand and, as expected, Elexandria hid behind the taller as she walked innocently into the room they had passed before. A red one eyed giant was sitting on a cold metal table while another silver one eyed giant used his left hand, which was what looked like a laser, to send sparks flying on his knee. The silver wiped a bead of purple from his brow with his normal right hand and released a sigh before standing up.
"There, you're all done Jet Fire."
"Thanks Red; feels a whole lot better." Jet Fire laughed, flexing the knee to prove his point. With a huff, he turned to face the girls. "So what's with the mini-you hiding behind your back, Erin?"
Erin laughed, "You'll have to excuse Elexandria, Jet Fire. She just got here with Miss. Alexis and Kicker's friend, Rick." At the name Rick, Red and Jet Fire exchanged a look.
"Aw great, Kicker's twin..."
"Just when we didn't need a second Kicker around..." Red added on to the moan. Erin blinked at that.
"He's Kicker's twin?"
"Yep," Jet Fire sighed, hopping gently down off the table, "And he's always bragging that he's older than Kicker by half a second."
"Although that shouldn't make much of a difference," Red sighed. Elexandria poked her head out slightly to get a better look at the giant silver robot, blinking several times almost as if in confusion. Red blinked behind his kind red optic and looked down at her. She instantly jumped and hid again behind Erin. "Hello,"
Erin pushed the shy girl ahead of her, nudging her in the back to emphasize that it was alright to talk to them. Elexandria gulped out a hello while clutching her dragon tight against her heart. Red seemed to see the fear in the child's eye and slowly bent down to her height.
"My name is Red Alert. And who might you be?"
"M-My name is...El...Elexandria..." she finally gulped. As soon as she had worked up the courage to introduce herself, her stomach let out a mild roar in protest of hunger. Red Alert looked blankly at the girl for a moment, where as Jet Fire blinked in confusion, before the two giants laughed lightly at the embarrassed blush rising on Elexandria's cheeks.
"I suppose you two were heading to the food court?" Red Alert questioned, looking now at Erin.
"That was the general plan,"
"Mind if we old geezers tag along? I'm starving myself. Combat training was a pain this morning." Jet Fire mock moaned, flexing his arm to emphasize his point.
"That was also part of the general plan, and you're not old geezers." Erin laughed.
"By your standers we are. I'm over thirty millennia old, and Red Alert's older than me." Jet Fire countered. Elexandria's eyes opened wide in shock.
"Have you ever seen any dragons?" she whispered in question. Surely someone that old might have run across her favorite fairytale creatures? Her answer at first was a few blank stairs from the two giants.
"A...Dragon? What's a dragon?" Elexandria felt her jaw slip in shock.
"I guess you'll have to tell them over lunch. Like it or not, you two are comin' now." Erin laughed. She turned on her heel lightly in a gesture that showed she knew what was coming and they didn't.
Elexandria rested her head on the guard rail with her pet dragon held limply in one hand and her chin resting softly on the back of the other. She lazily looked up at the stars and sighed. So none of the ancient robots she had asked had seen a dragon... Jet Fire had suggested that she ask the Omnicons if they had run across one in their travels but Erin was not available to take her down to the Omnicons' shops on the lower below sea levels of the city. She was still very skittish around these new strange metallic giants. Her little mind was full of so many piercing questions about why she had been taken from her home to Miss. Alexis by a hooded woman and what had happened to her parents when the strange men that dressed like the silent Mr. Blaze had come to town?
At the same time Elexandria had pulled her head off the guard rail and leaned back to sigh, another more metallic sounding sigh echoed directly besides her. She audibly blinked while a second voice hummed in confusion. At the same time she turned to see who had joined her on the small ledge without her knowledge, a giant green head with one large purple optic and another much larger more mask-like optic turned to face her. The both of them jumped back at the same time and exclaimed gasps of shock. The giant was the first to recover.
"Ma'am, you aren't supposed to be out here!"
"I-I'm sorry...I was just stargazing..." Elexandria gulped. The giant released another sigh before plastering a false but realistic smile on its lips and smiling at the girl.
"It's alright, ma'am. I was under the impression that you were in your quarters, so I wasn't expecting anyone out here. I'm sorry if I startled you." Elexandria stared at the giant for a while, at the false but realistic smile he had put on for her, and through her own innocents and life relieved of pain she could see his own. Without knowing what ailed the giant, she asked softly,
"Do....Do you mind if I stay out here a while longer?"
"Not at all, ma'am; in fact I'd enjoy the company." Elexandria released a small giggle at that, making the giant blink. "Uh...What's so funny?"
"My name's not ma'am, it's Elexandria." she giggled in explanation. The giant blinked in confusion for a few moments, before smiling and laughing lightly in understanding.
"My name's Demolisher, Miss. Elexandria." He did an impromptu bow for the child, making her laugh even more.
The remainder of the night passed in silence and speckled with idle conversations about dragons and sorcerers and, at Elexandria's prompting, and explanation of why Demolisher was all alone at the front gate of Ocean City. Elexandria had the slightest nagging that for some reason her newfound friend was avoiding the key points of her question, and though curiosity edged her to delve deeper into the matter, she let herself stand with the fact mean Decepticons, the kind of robot Demolisher was, with mean giant pet wolves and giant pet falcons had a bad habit of trying to come in when they weren't welcome.
The child finally said her goodbyes and goodnights when the first crimson strings of dawn were crossing over the horizon.
There was an odd black entity sitting calmly in a small chamber of his master's heart now that watched him with a keen eye and judge stair. With sword outstretched and oath repeated, he awaited his new orders. This time he did not receive permission to rise.
"I'm going to grant you a new skill, my servant, that should aid you in your next mission." his master echoed, "You are to take the Invader secondary fleet to the Plutonian Energon Observatory and rob it dry."
"As you command, my master," There was a light snicker from the spectator, then everything went dark.
"I will have my men begin the upgrade at once." the stranger laughed. He rose from his seat and as simply as if he were taking a morning stroll he walked off the ledge and down to the black collapsed form of Unicron's favorite henchman. "Oh yes," he snickered darkly, "He's perfect for the upgrade."
A black hole appeared beneath the silver sword wielder, absorbing him into the blackness and banishing him from his master's hall.