Author's Note: I apologize for the delay, but, as I said before, it's exam time in college. I still have one exam to go before I'm all done. Thank you for your patience.
Disclaimer: If you don't know by now, you're hopeless.
Metal and Neon
Chapter 6: Going Public
Gil Grissom sat on the huge briefing table with his team, his mind nearly on overload, staring at the creatures science and theory said simply could not exist. And yet they did. In that one place nearly a dozen had gathered, and they were just the command staff. The entire army numbered in the hundreds. He was still struggling to comprehend how such beings could have come into existence and survived for millions of years before humans had even been a tiny speck in the eye of Creation. He didn't know what to make of them.
His gaze fell on the tall robot seated at the head of the table. The first time he'd seen Ultra Rodimus the Autobot had been human. Despite what Spike had told them in the interrogation room Grissom had still doubted the existence of an alien race. Then he and his team had followed Ultra Rodimus and Spike back to their temporary base and had witnessed Ultra Rodimus's shift from six foot six inch human male to seventy-plus-foot sentient mech. His brain was still trying to refuse to believe what he had seen. But the proof was right there in front of him.
Ultra Rodimus was larger than the other Autobots seated around the table, making what Spike called "normal-sized" Autobots look small. He was more humanoid in build, instead of blocky or built in weird angles. Some of the others sported bright and sometimes clashing colors in strange patterns. Ultra Rodimus's dominant color was a silver-grey or smoke-grey, with tiger stripes in red and blue running down his spine, arms, and legs. His chestplate, a smooth, almost flat plate of metal, bore only the red insignia of the Autobots. He was quite slender and moved with the grace of a dancer. There was an aura of authority around him, encouraging even the most sceptical people to listen to him.
"You okay?" Nick asked quietly, startling him.
"Yeah," Grissom responded. "Just thinking. Trying to get my thoughts in order."
The other CSI nodded slightly. "You're not the only one who's having some trouble accepting the fact that there really is life out there."
Grissom nodded and returned his attention to the Autobots.
Currently there was an argument going on between three or four Autobots at the far end of the table. They were speaking in a strange, tonal language, clearly their own language. It was one more bit of proof that they were from another planet. The others around the table poked in a word or two every now and then, but the argument wasn't stopping.
Ultra Rodimus slammed a fist down on the table, putting a huge dent in it and making the humans jump. "SILENCE!"
All of a sudden it was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. All of the Autobots turned to look at their leader, startled. He glared at them.
"Will you stop your bickering?" he snapped. "We are preparing for a war, not chattering about past skirmishes!"
There was some embarrassed muttering from the far end of the table, then silence.
"What are those humans doing here?" someone else asked. "They shouldn't be here!"
Catherine straightened, eyes flashing. "For your information, metalhead, this is our city, not yours. We know more about Las Vegas than you do. If you intend on doing anything in or around the city, we're in on it."
The Autobot stared at the human, actually cringing a bit, then glanced at his leader, who wasn't even trying to hide the grin on his face. The massive red and blue Autobot beside Ultra Rodimus snorted his amusement.
"Her I like," he commented.
Finally, after almost an hour, the details of the plan were hammered out. Then the talk turned to how to get curious natives and idiotic tourists out of the way.
"You have to go public," Grissom pointed out. "We might be able to help with that."
Warrick snorted. "Gris, you and the press mix like oil and water."
"I didn't say I'd do the talking," Grissom pointed out.
Ultra Rodimus rose from his chair. "Then we'd better get going."
Jazz was about to follow when Ultra Rodimus's comm beeped. It was Rewind, filling in for Blaster so that the communications specialist could be at the briefing.
"Steeljaw just called in to say that he found animal tracks," Rewind reported. "From a rhino."
"Headstrong!" someone hissed.
Ultra Rodimus swore, scooped up the CSIs, and hurried out of the ship.
"Headstrong?" Sara repeated.
"Predicon," the Autobot Prime answered, transforming into his tractor trailer mode and letting them climb into his cab. "Another Decepticon team. Where one is the rest can't be very far behind."
Driving as fast as he felt he could get away with, Ultra Rodimus headed back into the city. The sun was already up, the night shift over, when the CSIs finally returned to Las Vegas. Grissom pointed Ultra Rodimus toward where Chief Mobley was giving a press conference.
Ultra Rodimus parked out of sight and let them out. The humans headed toward the chief.
"Where the hell have you been?" Mobley demanded.
"Long story. But we need you to get all the tourists out of the city."
"Why?" The chief's eyes narrowed.
"Those reports of giant creatures are true. There's going to be trouble. We need to get as many people as we can out of the city."
Chief Mobley was about to scoff at him when the screaming began.
A massive red and orange bull, black horns lowered, steam blowing from its nose, was charging directly at them. Its metal hide glinted in the sun. Chunks of pavement tore up with every step. Its eyes glowed murderously.
"What the hell...!"
The bull was mere meters away when something blotted out the sun, lunging out of a side street with an ear-hurting roar. Humans scrambled backward, eyes bulging, staring up at the huge dinosaur as its immense bulk erupted out of a space that should have been far too small for it. Its huge head came down like a bolt of lightning, snatching the charging bull right off its hooves and heaving it into the air. A bluish liquid flowed down its sides from where the dinosaur's teeth had punctured its skin.
Legs sawing wildly at the air, the bull bellowed in pain and rage. The dinosaur, an allosaur, shook its head like a terrier shaking a rat, then whipped its head around and flung the bull four blocks away. The bull crashed heavily and suddenly turned into something else.
The bull had become a robotic creature. Its body was a mixture of red and black, with dots of yellow here and there. Its head was crested by the bull's horns. Snarling furiously, the creature climbed to its feet, pulling out a sword.
The allosaur changed shape, becoming a very humanoid but still very robotic creature, clearly male. He carried a huge battleaxe. Green eyes narrow and burning with internal fire, he watched the other robot.
The orange robot lunged.
There was a deafening clash of metal on metal as the huge axe flicked out to block the sword, then shoved the other back. Sparks flew. The silver robot expertly pulled his axe loose and brought it down in a stroke that cut deep into the orange robot's shoulder. The orange robot screamed and fired electricity. The silver robot leaped backward to avoid it.
"So you wanna play with lightning, do you?"
The axe vanished. Ultra Rodimus transformed to his bird mode.
His huge wings spanned more than 170 feet from tip to tip. Metal feathers covered his back and shoulders. Long, strangely flexible metal tailfeathers trailed out behind him. His long legs ended in long, sharp, deeply curved claws. He had the head and beak of an eagle, broader across the braincase, and more than a few new tricks up his wing.
Hovering above the buildings, he activated one of those new tricks and began pulling natural electric charge out of the air, concentrating it inside himself. His feathers crackled with it. Once he'd built up as much charge as he could without shorting himself out, he released it.
He exploded with lightning.
An immense, crackling bolt of raw electricity carrying almost a million volts speared down and hit the orange robot like a sledgehammer. The orange robot's limbs jerked wildly as the immense shock surged through its body. It was blown off the ground and hurled out of sight.
The electric storm dissipated. Ultra Rodimus returned to his robot form and landed gracefully. Turning, he looked down at the stunned crowd, optics fixing on Chief Mobley.
"They are telling the truth," he commented, pinning the human with his stare. "You are about to be caught in the middle of a very ancient war. If you want to limit casualties, get as many people out as you can. Once the fighting starts we'll be too busy to chaperone humans. So do us a favor and get out of here while you still can."
With that, he transformed to bird and rose into the air, wings creating a powerful gust of wind. Humans shielded their eyes from blowing dirt and sand. When they could see again, the giant robot was gone.
To be continued...
There. It took me two days to type this one. I'm finally finished exams, but there's no guarantee I'll be able to type more often.
New Dye: Thanks for the compliments. I hope you get the chance to read all of my more recent stories; the first ones I posted are kinda stupid. I look forward to hearing from you!
Simply Crisis: Their first encounter with alien life? They're questioning more than their sanity. Read on!
Quillian: Nope. Decepticon attacks beat gambling hands-down. Here's the next chapter!
Jesus-freak: Long story short, the Transformers are a race of giant sentient robots from a planet called Cybertron. There are 2 factions: Autobots and Decepticons. The Decepticons want to conquer and enslave. The Autobots want peace, but they still fight. They have to. They're on the verge of extinction. They protect other races from the Decepticons. You'll catch on. Eventually.
Gromia: Looks that way. I hope you're completely awake when you read this chapter!
You know the drill: if you want more chapters you have to send me reviews. Send nice reviews and I'll update as soon as I can!