1I take this story's plot from the comics, but the characterizations are of my own creation.

ShadowStriker's mine too.

Sorry for those of you who are heart-set on the comics, but I tend to bend the plot to my own whims.

REVIEW PLEASE! OR NO MORE STORY!

"Look commander, I can explain..." said ShadowStriker, stepping forward. Optimus

sidestepped around him to see what he was attempting to conceal behind his body.

"Explain wh-" He stopped mid thought as he caught sight of the comatose girl. In a flash, he latched on to the smaller bot's armor and dragged him out into the hall and out of ear shot of First Aid.

"What is a human doing in the medical ward? I assume you had something to do with it."

"Uh, yes sir. I found her out on patrol; she had fallen unconscious in the snow. With the blizzard coming, I thought it would be the best choice to bring her here."

Optimus sighed inwardly and relaxed his grip on the black mech. It wasn't that big of a deal, really. He had just overloaded his circuits recently trying to push the treaty with the UN to establish a permanent Transformer presence on earth. None of the human leaders could seem to agree with each other on anything!

"It's alright, ShadowStriker. A few months ago I would have done the same thing. But we can't afford to have another paparazzi fiasco right now; that set back our efforts to sign a treaty with the world leaders by far too long."

The black mech stared downcast at the floor.

"I- apologize. I know it was an unauthorized action, but I just felt..."

"Helpless?" Optimus supplied. ShadowStriker lifter his gaze to see his leader's optics turn a golden amber in deep thought.

"I know the feeling. We could do so much to help the humans, but they seem insistent on fighting us every step of the way."

The commanding autobot's optics returned to their normal light yellow color, and he turned his inward reflection back to the problem at hand.

"When she wakes up, get her last name and have Jazz contact her parents to let them know where she is. I have a feeling no one is going to be going anywhere for a few days with the snow pile up outside."ShadowStriker shifted his weight from foot to foot, looking uncomfortable.

"Sir, are the atmospheric conditions- weather I mean (what a strange concept!)- on this planet always so extreme?"

His leaders optics flared white with internal laughter.

"Only in Oregon, ShadowStriker. Only in Oregon."

She felt strange. It was as though she was being extricated from a wonderfully warm and contented dream, being pulled away to a world of bright light, loud sounds and cold metal.

Metal? That was strange... Where was she?

Suddenly in a terrifying flash of memory she remembered coming onto her street on her bike to the acrid smell of burning plastic. Everything was in ruins; no buildings were left standing. The dead and dying were strewn across the ground. Some looked up at her with charred, empty eye sockets, some pleaded to her for help, leaving smears of crimson blood behind them, and still others were nothing more than pieces. And towering over it all was the devil incarnate himself- Optimus prime- locked in a death match with Megatron over his Ion cannon.

The thing- that robot- turned its eyes on to her; looked at her with the face that held so much power, the end to... everything. Her everything. Her life. Her soul. His face was burned into her memory as the last thing she would ever see.

In the last moment her soul cried out to God as it lowered its cannon at her, not in a prayer or even a word, but in sheer raw terror and despair. Somehow in that instant before it pulled the trigger her whole life flashed before her eyes, as well as everything she hadn't gotten to do yet, in a wordless, final cry of desperation.

Then, it fired. Again. And again. And Again. And somehow it wasn't her that was hit, but her town, her family. Again and again and again, over and over in her mind. She waited to her Jesus' voice, saying 'Come', but everything was silent. Suddenly she realized that she wasn't seeing what had happened to her, but what her mind imagined must have happened to her family.

With that realization she was floating again, wondering where she should be. Someplace snowy...

The alley! That was it. The last thing she remembered was that someone had found her.

One of them.

Her eyes flickered open, fighting the feeling of weight that seemed to hold them closed. The light she had felt before was right above her, bright and artificial. Slowly her hearing came back to her, and she realized that there were voices talking around her, people who were out of her line of vision.

She tried to move her head, but something kept her from doing so, and she realized that there was something holding it in place. Ice flooded the pit of her stomach, and she lifted an arm to bat away whatever it was, only it didn't move, but remained clamped to her forehead.

"Whoa, hold on there. Let me get that." Came a voice from somewhere behind her. The thing, whatever it was, was carefully lifted away from her head, and newly free from her imprisonment, she tried to twist around to see who was behind her, but collapsed from the initial effort.

"You're certainly very energetic. You must be a handful for your parents." The voice was gentle and soothing, but the words only made her feel a sharp pang on sadness. She wanted to say that her parents were dead, but her mouth seemed to be full of cotton, smothering the words. To say it made it too final, too irreversible. A part of her heart still held out hope that her family would somehow magically reappear.

Suddenly a face came into view. A metal face.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty!" The voice that came from it was different from the one before, but somehow she knew that they were both robots.

"Ngg mu gaah nu..." She muttered incoherently (though it was a rather insulting obscenity in her own ears) and made a valiant effort to get up. A large hand spoiled her efforts though when in gently pushed her back down with only two fingers.

"Take it easy now; you just came out of stasis, and it may take a few moments for the world to realign itself." The first voice came into view, this one a large red and white robot with the shape of a red cross on its chest.

After a few false starts, she managed to find her tongue.

"Let me go..." She said weakly, not sure that they would even be able to hear her. But their sensitive audios did.

"Come again, Miss?" Said the black and white robot with a visor covering its eyes. Slowly she worked up the energy for a burst of speech, and managed to choke out in barely above a whisper:

"Release me, Murderer!"

The two robots looked thoroughly confused, and glanced at each other before the red and white one opened its mouth to say something.

Suddenly a massive explosion rocked the room, chocking off whatever it was about to say. They both wheeled around to face the door, weapons springing into their hands from sub-space pockets, readying themselves for what they thought was a Decepticon invasion.

She never saw it coming. A second explosion rattled her teeth, freezing her and leaving her completely unable to move as suddenly the ceiling above her gave way.