Hello all!
yes yes yes, I am back! I will let you know I've got a good bit of writing for this story stock piled, about 3 chapters (that may not seem like a lot but considering it's me... that's a tonne.) but in order for me to post them I need to catch up on my other 3 stories, I really hope to see what you think of this!
Your Mom: Yes I understand I may have rushed their relationship a bit, but I do have a plan to add some turbulence to this relationship, also I'm glad you like the platonic angle I've taken, I never understood why the two biggest themes in this series is either the bots becoming human... or babies/sparklings, or the humans turning cybertronian.
anyway, on with the story!
Chapter 4- "Restrained."
I woke up a good while later to find Shockwave not actually at his computer.
Instead I could barely see a large pink purple robot at the far end of the underground garage.
I leaned forward to get up and go to him but found something restraining my chest.
I looked down and found I'd been strapped to the bed by cargo straps.
"Shockwave!" I yelled at him.
There was quite a lot of laughing coming from all the soldiers who heard me.
Shockwave stood up after being addressed and turned to come to me.
"My apologies." he stated as he approached.
He reached over and unstrapped the restraints and I leapt out of the bed and landed on the tabletop beside it.
"You must be more cautious, you could have misjudged which side of the bed you were on and plummeted to the floor." he reprimanded.
"You're here, you would have caught me." I shrugged.
"You put a surprising amount of faith in me." Shockwave commented.
"Have you necessarily given me any reason not to?" I looked up at him.
"Most adolescents would usually see similar actions as an injustice," he answered.
"Did you just liken me to be a teenage daughter?" I realized after a moment.
"I said no such thing." he answered stiffly.
"Oh and believe me, I am upset about the straps, I may or may not mess with you if I ever find myself in the same situation." I threatened.
"Duly noted, however your wording leaves the opportunity only for me to enforce my regulations in a different way." he answered.
"You better not." I grumbled.
Shockwave then held out a hand and I hopped onto it as he marched back over to his project.
I saw two large humanoid shapes beginning to take form.
The one on the left was definitely thinner than the one on the right, both were slightly different sizes compared with shockwave, one slightly thicker and one slightly thinner.
"What are they?" I asked.
"These are my protoforms." Shockwave answered.
"You mentioned those before, what does that mean?" I asked
"It merely refers to what I look like before taking on my vehicle form, beneath the armor."
"So, essentially what we would be like without clothes?" one of the MECH agents asked.
"Affirmative,"
"I will forever call them birthday suits." one soldier told the other.
I snickered a little in Shockwaves palm.
"I have begun to design Predacons, these are they're forms beneath the scales."
"So their birthday suits?" the same soldier asked.
Shockwave didn't answer
"I have designed them in such a way so that one will balance the other. One is light and lithe, the other is heavy and armored. I have spliced the genes of all the predacons to create these two ultima…" Shockwave started.
"Hmm… I can not introduce these two in the same way I did Predaking…" he muttered.
"These two will be the perfect Predacons, hunters of both Autobots and Decepticons alike." he concluded.
"Do they have names?" I asked somewhat out of the blue.
Everyone looked at me.
"If you're asking if they have designations… no." Shockwave answered.
"Do you have an idea of what they'd look like when they're completed, I could come up with names based on that?" I offered.
Shockwave turned and carried me over to the desk, he set me on his shoulder as he began to pull up two files. One was titled simply 01 and the other was 02.
I looked at 01 first, which was clearly the smaller of the two. It bore two wings which were separated and bladed, I would be surprised if it could actually fly. It also had a very slim and slender design, but it wasn't too similar to a snake, it was certainly a dragon, it just seemed it would be able to move and jump very quickly. It also seemed like something out of nightmares, with the separated segmented wings with bladed tips on each… bone that supported the non-existent membrane, it also had similar spikes on the back of its head, along its tail and all over its front and rear limbs all of varying sizes.
I shuddered to think dear old Shockwave could conceive of such a nightmarish design. So I turned to the second one. This one was certainly the larger of the two and had much more realistic wings, they almost resembled angel wings, feathers and all, only… roboticised.
It's wings were it's most noticeable feature, for both of them actually. Your eyes were almost immediately drawn to its wings, in the case of '01' it's wings looked tiny but certainly looked efficient, in killing if not flying. On the opposite side, '02's wings looked like they could lift himself, Shockwave and 01 if he wanted to. It looked strong and sturdy whereas 01 looked deadly and intimidating.
"Did you have any colors in mind?" I asked.
"None in particular." he answered.
"Well, what kind of theme were you going for these two?" I asked as I gestured at the two files.
"I originally intended for them to be opposites, however they may not turn out how I'd hoped," he explained.
"Well… what could be more opposite than black and white?" I suggested.
"I hope you are not so monochromatic as to realize that my paint scheme includes grey and black and not just the purple which you constantly mistake for pink."
"Who's to say I'm the one that's colorblind and it's not your red eye's glow that makes you think you're purple whenever you look at your pink paint scheme." I rebutted
Shockwave turned to leer at me on his shoulder.
"You are insufferable." he sighed.
"You know you love it." I teased as I sat cross legged on his shoulder.
"You know love is an emotion."
"Yep."
"Which I have deleted."
"Which you claim to have deleted." I corrected.
"What proof do you need to be convinced that I have deleted my emotions?" he sighed.
"None."
"So then you trust my words are true when I tell you, my emotions are deleted."
"Nope."
"Explain, please."
"Actions speak louder than words."
"Elaborate."
"Just now, you sighed, showing you've grown weary and exhausted of this debate. When we first met you tried to spy on me, showing curiosity. When we first met MECH you also suddenly went silent, an indication of fear. Need I go on?" I listed off on my fingers.
"No"
"No to not needing to go on? or no, you're going to continue to deny the obvious?"
"No to your logic."
"And back to logic we go." I exclaimed, mimicking being annoyed.
"Everything circles back to logic." He answered with finality in his tone.
"Except when there's nothing either logical nor illogical whether or not you're pink or purple." I retorted.
"I am… no, we're getting distracted," he realized.
"What secondary and possible tertiary color should the two predacon protoforms have?" he circled back to the original topic.
I opened my mouth to continue the debate before a glare from Shockwave and realizing he was right made me close it.
"Well… we could add purple highlights to the black one, and yellow to the white one, both are opposite colors to each other and compliment black and white respectively." I suggested
"Are you certain it's not pink this time, I would not have you teasing my projects."projects."
"Pink would look good as well." I teased.
"So we agree that 01 will be black and purple, and 02 will be white and yellow." he stated, ignoring my jab.
I nodded, to which he then added the information to the files.
Suddenly a large dark blue vehicle drove in, it caught my attention as MECH's trucks looked quite a bit different.
This one resembles some kind of armored personnel carrier with it's extended truck like design with 4 sets of wheels. Two sets in the back and two in the front separated by a thin sliver of armor between it's rear looked like it had a truck bed but something was in it, what exactly that was I couldn't tell. It's front was curved and heavily armored. It didn't even have a window.
I turned to see if Shockwave had realized, which he hadn't. I looked at what currently held his attention to find he was guiding 01 into one of the tanks as it was held above by a small crane.
The mangled form was lowered into the yellow fluid before the top was sealed by Shockwave pressing a button on his computer.
I gently tapped what was essentially his collarbone to get his attention and pointed at the new truck.
I could see Shockwave's eye constrict to focus on the new truck. Shockwave then began to march over to the truck ignoring the MECH technicians who were asking about 02.
"State your business." he demanded of the vehicle, I'm unsure if he was addressing the driver or if he believed it to be one of his kind.
A MECH soldier climbed out of a hatch at the back, on top of the thing that sat in the truck bed.
Shockwave just kind of looked down at the truck and the man who climbed out of it.
Finally after an intense staring session between Shockwave and the truck he reached his arm up and brought me down to the ground.
"Greet this man for me." he stated in a monotone, though his tone held a cautious inflection.
"Hello, I'm Sloane, that's Shockwave." I said.
"I know, I was your driver." he sighed.
"Shake hands." Shockwave commanded.
"Ah… you guys are all the same." I laughed awkwardly at both Shockwave's demand and my own blunder in not even recognizing him.
"We really aren't but whatever." he sighed as he held his hand out.
I reached out and took it.
"Happy?" he sighed as he looked up at the red eyed cyclops.
"Happy is an emotion, I am now content." Shockwave answered… or corrected I honestly can't tell half the time.
"Good, now I brought the truck because I don't want to have to drive her everywhere she wants to go, and I noticed that your current vehicle is very eye-catching, this is less eye-catching but still retains its military functionality. I thought it'd be a good fit and brought it here."
"You, being considerate? Last I remember you scoffed at the thought of driving me 10 minutes so I could be with Shockwave."
"Actually, it was a little closer to 30, and yes, this way I won't have to drive you around everywhere, Shockwave can do that." He replied, then he turned and walked away.
Shockwave seemed to scrutinize the truck. After a moment a pale green beam lanced out of his eye, I leapt away from both the vehicle and the lazer as I believed he was destroying it. However when the light faded the truck remained intact. I looked even closer, even going over and touching it expecting to feel an extremely thin cut and the truck would fall apart in pieces in a comedic fashion in 3...2...1… and nothing happened, I tentatively touched it again expecting to feel the metal be extremely hot and it would melt or turn into dust at just a touch. Except my expectations went unfulfilled yet again. I turned around intent on asking what Shockwave had done to the truck only to see Shockwave's parts shifting and changing.
I watched as Shockwave's chest window remained it's usual deep black, but everything else changed; his eye changed to a deep dark blue. The treads which once made up his back formed into two sets of wheels, one set was planted on his back, and the other set formed part of his shoulder. Two more wheels appeared in his feet and another pair formed his calves. His right arm seemed to form whatever was in the truck bed and his left hand formed something that I couldn't tell.
"Wait, you don't have to take yourself apart to change your form?!" I realized loudly.
"As I'd mentioned before, I am able to take on a new form simply by viewing one of a suitable mass and type." he answered only a tab bit condescending.
"I didn't think you meant you literally would shoot lasers from your eye and turn into it?"
"Optic." he stated.
"Pardon?" I inquired.
"They are called optics," he answered vaguely.
I thought back to exactly what I'd said to try and figure out what 'they' were.
"You call lasers optics? That's odd."
"No, we refer to visual sensors as optics as opposed to the human term; 'eyes'" he corrected.
"Ah, I misunderstood."
"Indeed."
Finally one of the MECH scientists had gotten Shockwave's attention.
"Sir… is subject 02 prepared to be placed in the growing chamber?" he asked.
Shockwave turned and looked at the scientist then at the protoform in question.
"Affirmative." he answered before he began to walk over to assist in raising the larger form.
I walked over to hopefully help in some way.
Instead I was told to 'go play somewhere and stay out of the way of the big boy's work.'
"Hey Shockwave, how can I help?" I asked, ignoring the rude scientist.
"As I've mentioned before, you must tend to your own health prior to assisting myself." Shockwave answered after looking at me.
"What? I slept great!" I exclaimed in defense.
"Your personal hygiene is somewhat lacking, and so is your body's vitamin-D count," he replied.
"Yeah, science is supposed to be a clean thing, y'know if even a single milligram of iron in that sweaty mop of yours were to find its way into the Cyber Nucleic acid in those tanks, it would have disastrous consequences upon all the work we've put into this project."
I didn't bother wasting my breath on another rude MECH employee today, so I turned and walked away without a word. I made my way to the far end of the garage and went up the elevator.
I stepped out into the bright light and had to shelter my eyes for a few minutes as they adjusted to the light.
"You're gonna be like me one day if you don't take care of your eyes, y'know…" an elderly voice rasped beside me.
I jumped and turned and there was the older lady.
"I apologize for startling you." she apologized as she stroked a fairly plump cat cradled in her arms.
"I… umm… it's ok." I answered.
"So, what are you out here for?" she asked as she stared off into the sun in the distance. I know she's already blind but I still doubt that's good for your eyes.
"What do you mean 'out here'?" I asked.
"First, why'd you come all the way out here, to this little community. I may be blind and old, and my mind may begin to sprout legs and run, but I know what goes on here. But you, you are the only thing I can't figure out?"
"And second, why aren't you in school? There's a nice highschool not too far from here, I'm sure your friend could drive you there easily."
"Hmm… well… I came here to help someone." I answered half truthfully.
"And, I guess I should be going to school."
"Also he's not my friend." I answered assuming she meant the MECH agent that had driven me around a bit.
"No? That's unfortunate, he seems very ostracised here, almost as if he were some kind of alien resident. Like from another state or country, possibly even beyond." she murmured.
I had stooped down to pick up another one of her cats, a dark black cat with greeny yellow eyes. But the massage I'd been giving it stopped abruptly at hearing 'alien'.
"Well, either way, I'm certain you'll find some way to get where you want to go." she concluded, she then began to hobble off without any heed for the fright she'd given me that she might actually know 'things'
I stood there contemplating the conversation I'd just had; does she know about Shockwave, is she going to betray Iago and the rest of MECH? Does she know about 01 and 02? Does she know where the Harbinger is, or how to get to Darkmount?
No, that's illogical, there's no way she could know half of that stuff.
I shook my head at my own silliness and walked to the edge of the community.
I hopped up and climbed onto the red brick wall. I then curled my legs into myself so I sat cross legged, leaning back against the light pole. I looked off in the distance, watching the sun and clouds casting shadows across the landscape.
I'm not sure how long I sat there staring off at the main town of Jasper when my eyes caught and locked onto a car driving out of Jasper and off onto the back roads.
The reason it caught my eye was it was black with yellow stripes, a similar paint job to Bumblebee the black and yellow robot that confronted us in the Harbinger.
I shook my head, I must be going insane; first I wondered if the old lady knew about Shockwave, the Harbinger and Darkmount, then I believe I'm seeing Bumblebee driving out of a highly populated area into the empty desert, for all I know that could be the Vehicle Bumblebee had taken, and not actually him. My mind rambled tangent after tangent wondering at the possibilities of it being him, eventually I found myself lost in numbers.
"I've located you." Shockwave stated.
I turned and realized I could barely see him in the darkness. I looked up and saw so many stars.
"Wha…?" I asked quietly.
"My assumption is that you'd fallen asleep without your knowing." Shockwave suggested.
"Oh… I planned on having a shower." I groaned.
"It is not too late for you to do so, especially since you just slept you will probably experience a temporary case of insomnia."
"True."
"Does MECH have somewhere where I could wash up?"
"Presumably their chambers in the structures around us. However I've done enough research into your species to have adequate reason to distrust those who may take advantage of you."
"I may be able to modify the hose used to fill the tanks." Shockwave supplied.
"And what, I'd take a shower in a giant class petri dish filled with bacterial liquid with an alien dragon skeleton in a giant underground commonly frequented garage? I feel like I'm more likely to be ogled or abused there than in a private bathroom." I remarked.
"I would find a suitable location for you." he assured in response.
"Where?" I asked with my hands on my hips and looking up at him expectantly.
And that's how I ended up breaking into a school late on a Friday night and using their showers, all with a giant cycloptic alien robot wandering around the school grounds on patrol.
I washed up and stepped out of the shower, got dressed and grabbed everything and snuck out of the school.
I slowly closed the main door behind me when I caught a glance of a black sports car with yellow stripes. I leapt back behind the stairs leading up to the main door and peeked out to see when the car would move on so I could go find Shockwave and get out of here.
I peeked around the stairs and was confronted with my reflection. I jumped backwards and sat with my back to the wall staring at 'me' reflected in the shiny hubcap of the car that pulled into the parking lot, the Urbana logo on the cap had me locked in place. I heard the car's door close before hearing two voices
"Do you really think she'd be here?" A young boyish voice asked.
"I mean, she stormed out of the base, and she hates her host parents, she can't exactly go back to Japan… so I think she'd come here, specifically to act out where she can't be caught." An older boy's voice answered.
Then I heard the door to the school close.
I continued to hide from the black Urbana not 5 feet away from me.
And then suddenly, it wasn't. As I expected (and feared) the black and yellow muscle car shattered and reformed as a giant robot.
Except this time, I heard the transformation sound twice.
"'You really think Magnus upset her that much?" A feminine voice said.
A few short beeps confirmed that Urbana was indeed Bumblebee.
That realization made me jump and open the bag on my back. I quickly pulled out a small headphone which had extra parts cobbled together on it.
"Sloane. Stay in the building, the Autobots have arrived." Shockwave was repeating into the comm.
"Sorry, it's a bit late for that now." I interrupted.
"Go back inside. We will wait until they depart." Shockwave commanded.
"Again, that's not a good idea."
"...explain."
"Bumblebee and another transformer dropped two kids off at the school, the kids went inside and the transformers are standing near me."
"How near?" He inquired after a moment.
"Like a few feet. A meter or two." I guessed.
"Have they seen you?"
"No."
"Are you in any immediate danger?"
"No."
"Are you in a situation where your discovery is imminent?"
"No."
"Are you able to discern any features of the Autobot accompanying Bumblebee?"
"Other than a femine voice, no."
"So then odds are the second Autobot is Arcee, the two wheeler."
"I don't know who that is."
"That's to be expected. Due to your proximity, are you able to overhear their conversation?"
"Ummm…" I tuned back into their conversation.
"I must admit Magnus went a bit too far." The feminine voice admitted.
Bumblebee seemed to agree judging from his beeps.
"So, the kids and Autobots are looking for someone, judging by how they refer to them as she, I assume they're searching for a girl, and seeing as they're in the school, they're probably referring to another human."
"The Autobots human pets, I am unsure how to proceed…"
"Are you at least hidden?"
"Indeed, I've concealed myself."
"You're worried the Decepticons got her?" The female or Arcee as Shockwave guessed asked Bumblebee.
"Shockwave... of all the Decepticons to try and kidnap the children like that he's the one I'd least expect." She answered after Bumblebee had beeped a few times.
"Why do you think Shockwave? Starscream is certainly the conniving one, Knockout would do just about anything to save his paint, Megatron would use them as bargaining chips as he had before and Soundwave would do whatever Megatron told him. I understand Shockwave is nearly as loyal… but why Shockwave of all cons, wouldn't Megatron send someone much more… suited, as morbid as that sounds?" Arcee inquired.
Bumblee beeped, a lot, I guessed he was recounting his story where he saw us at the Harbinger.
"Bee, just because those clones had T-cogs while Starscream didn't doesn't mean that'd transfer into voice boxes. You know I'd love to hear you talk again, but do be more cautious, what if Shockwave… what if he had really killed you, and not simply thought you were dead. I can't lose another partner, my spark couldn't take it."
The two seemed to fall into silence, so I took that moment to relay the conversation to Shockwave.
"Interesting, the scout was envious of the clone's ability to speak." He pointed out.
"Who's Starscream?" I asked.
"A traitorous former associate of mine, the very one who'd led to my seeming demise, on two seperate occasions in fact."
"Wait, so Starscream is the boss you're so mad at?"
"No, Starscream was merely the one who actually wanted me offline, Megatron failed to even attempt to save me. Or punish Starscream for his insolence for that matter."
"So… Starscream was basically a sibling that was being bad to you and Megatron is a parent that failed to correct the bad behavior."
"An odd but accurate illustration." Shockwave answered.
I snuck away from the stairs and the Autobots standing guard near it. And snuck around the school.
"I've managed to evade the Autobots and am making my way to the gymnasium." I told him.
"Understood, I will be waiting in the parking lot parallel to the open field."
"So… the soccer field?" I asked myself.
I just shook my head and continued on my way to the gymnasium. My plan was to cross through the gym door and then make my way through the school to the doors that opened onto the field. However when I got to the gym I heard… music. Of all things… music?
I gingerly opened the door, hoping it wouldn't squeak and alert whoever was listening to my presence, however as soon as the door opened those fears were instantly naught. Rock music blasted my ears as the door was only partially opened, I was actually concerned for whoever was in there. Or at the very least, concerned for their sense of hearing.
I tiptoed in through the door and began to skirt the edge of the massive dark room. I could make out the faint outline of a girl with pigtails bobbing her head like mad which, judging by the conversation I'd eavesdropped on before, that was the case. Just before I reached the door leading into the hall that would take me to the field, the main door opened wide. I leapt backwards to hide in the ever shrinking darkness. I watched as I assumed the two boys from earlier had come in. The two boys stared at the messy, no-longer-pigtail haired girl with an electric guitar slung across her chest and an amplifier behind her. The sound died down as she stopped strumming and stared back at the two.
"Miko, come on, it's late and we should be heading back."
"Ok." Miko answered nonchalantly.
The boys began to walk back out the door they'd come before noticing Miko wasn't actually following.
"Are you coming?" The noticeably older boy turned and asked.
"Is Magnus still going to be a stick in the mud?"
"I can't guarantee that." The older one sighed.
"He's always talking about how they need more... everything! So they can trash the Decepticons; bots, weapons, ships, energon, computers. And then when I step in to be the world's first human transformer, he scoffs and tosses me aside!" She exclaimed.
'Second' I thought to myself remembering what Shockwave had told me.
"To be fair, Magnus is protecting you." The younger boy added.
"I don't need his protection, I have the armor." Miko retorted hotly.
The older boy seemed to sigh in exasperation.
"Miko, we should go back, explain to Magnus or even Optimus why you should be allowed to fight." The older of the two boys suggested.
"Magnus is going to say no." She harrumphed
"Magnus doesn't have the final say." The older boy answered, I only saw now that he wasn't much of a boy, he was obviously closer to a teenager.
"Miko, just come back, please, everyone's worried, even Ratchet is out looking for you!" The younger boy pleaded.
"And Fowler is pulling strings to get the government to consider the armor an ancient treasure found by you." The teen added
"And what's that mean?" She asked like she half cared.
'It means finders keepers.' I thought to myself.
"It means… that because you were the one to retrieve it… you get the rights to do what you want... with it." The teenager struggled to explain
"Within reason." The younger one added.
"So… basically finders keepers?" Miko summarized.
"Yeah… we'll go with that." The teen answered.
"Except that means that it's Starscream's." Miko realized a bit dejectedly.
"Starscream also isn't acknowledged by nearly every level of the government." The teenager sighed.
"So that means it's mine?"
"If Fowler can convince the Government." The young one answered.
"Ok, i'll come then." Miko decided.
Then the three of them left and headed outside. I snuck out the side door as soon as I could. I ran out the side door not bothering to look before crossing the road that divided the school and the field. Suddenly the night was lit up brighter than the day and then my feet were no longer on the ground and my head was no longer above my feet. I tumbled like a ragdoll across the road before coming to a stop. I rolled over and looked up at Shockwave.
He was glaring at the two vehicles behind me, judging from the colored blobs in my blurry vision, one was a black car and the other was a blue motorcycle.
My body rang and my ears shook as I watched the three metal titans clash… or considering they all just looked like colored blobs and my mind was too heavy to think, I guess they were just bits of playdough being thrown at each other.
I heard voices but my mind was too battered to make out any interpretation. The only thing I could think of was how nice it'd be to go to sleep after a nice hot shower…
I later woke up to a lot of distressed voices. I groggily waved my arms over my head to ward away the loud voices.
Suddenly all the voices went silent.
But the glaring light beyond my eyelids persisted, I slowly opened my eyes to the harsh lights, above me was a large curved ceiling, I sat up and found I was inside some kind of hanger. However the drastic change in scenery wasn't what I was focused on. It was instead on the Transformers who surrounded me. Transformers. Plural.
I looked around at them all, only one of which I recognized.
I saw a large green one who looked pretty sheepish, next to him was a white one who looked bored, after that was a blue and yellow one who looked too excited for his own good, then an orange and white one who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else, after that was a really tall and bulky blue, red and grey one, then a small blue one who was definitely the most feminine of the bunch, then I saw the only one that instead of reading it's expression, it read mine.
I glared angrily at Bumblebee as he just stared at me in shock.
"Please explain the events leading up to her being brought here." The largest rumbled.
The blue female and Bumblebee both turned to answer him.
"I ran off." A girl's voice started, everyone including me turned to see Miko and her two friends leaning on the railing of a catwalk. Beside them were two other humans, one African American male and the other, a lady with a strong resemblance to the teenager standing beside her.
"We went out to try and find her, me, Raf, Arcee and Bee." The teenager continued.
"We checked the school." The one who I assume was Raf added.
"Needless to say we found her and were on our way out to come back when she jumped out of the school and into me." The blue female finished. I instantly recognized her voice to be the same one who accompanied Bumblebee to the school, the one Shockwave presumed to be Arcee.
Then Bumblebee began beeping like mad, everyone kept looking from him, to me, to the kids, to Arcee, back to me and finally to the tallest one, at which point I realized he was the leader.
He was silent for a long moment before leaning down to me.
"You were already aware of our existence." He noted.
"I've seen Bumblebee once or twice." I answered.
"The camera sure loves Bee." Arcee quipped.
"Not even. I saw him at the school and once on the Harbinger."
"You know the name of the ship?" The white and orange robot pointed out.
"Mhm." I nodded.
"What else do you know?" The leader asked.
"I know you are Autobots, which are transformers, which are an alien species from Cybertron."
The white robot gave a low whistle upon hearing that.
"It seems we aren't as much of a secret as we presumed." The leader rumbled.
Bumblebee began to beep at everyone frantically as the African American walked up to me.
"I'm agent William Fowler. Now I have to ask you a very serious question. Does anyone else know?"
"Just me and my dad, before he died." I lied.
"I'm sorry for your loss, and for being so blunt, but what of your mother?" He replied.
"A woman I never knew." I answered honestly.
"I see." He murmured.
"You were with Shockwave?" The white and orange one exclaimed after listening to Bumblebee's beeping.
Both me and Bill looked up at the bot.
"Did Shockwave harm you in any way?" The leader asked.
"Of course he did, he probably experimented on her. He's Shockwave!" Arcee interrupted.
"Actually the only harm that one of your kind caused me was being hit by these two last night." I clarified gesturing at Arcee and Bumblebee. Then the woman, the one that stood beside the teenager came down and started examining me while I sat upright in the hospital gurney I'd woken up in.
"Considering you've been in the clutches of the decepticons for who knows how long now, you're actually in a fairly ok condition." She surmised.
"Does no one listen?" I asked.
Ironically Raf and Miko being two of the furthest people from me were the only ones who looked at me when I said that, everyone else was looking at the blue and yellow bot in confusion.
"No I mean, think about it, she survived being hit by Bumblebee, and Shockwave's experiments, what if she isn't even human?" He spluttered.
"Honey, what's your name?" The lady asked after rolling her eyes at the excited robot. Though her eyes held some worry hidden deep inside them.
"I'm not telling you mine until I know all of yours, I know she's Arcee, I know Bumblebee, I know Miko, Fowler, Raf, one of you is Ratchet and I assume you're Magnus, the stick in the mud?" I asked, pointing at the leader.
Miko coughed but other than that no one else made a sound and just stared at me.
"I'm nurse June Darby," the woman next to me introduced after a moment.
"Ratchet is right there." She pointed towards the white and orange robot.
"Jack." The teenager said with a single hand raised.
"I'm Smokescreen, they call me that beca…" the blue and yellow one greeted before being interrupted by the white one.
"I'll spare you his blabbering, name's Wheeljack."
He said as he leaned down to me.
"Oh and this lug head is Bulkhead." He added as he slapped the big green one on the back.
Then the largest one cleared his throat
And I am Optimus Prime, Ultra Magnus is my brother."
"Speaking of, where is he?" Miko asked.
All eyes… or optics turned to look at her.
"Magnus went out to scout out an energon mine." Ratchet answered her.
"Believe me Miko, Agent Fowler is doing his best, however his efforts may… diminish some since he'll be doing damage control for this situation." June explained to her.
"What's going to happen?" Raf asked worriedly.
"Well… first, we need to find the girl's parents… err guardian so Fowler can create a cover story. Then… we'll convince her to not reveal anything and then let her go back to her normal life." June struggled to calmly explain.
"You have no idea what my life's like." I snapped.
"I understand you've endured many things, things a girl your age should never have to endure." Optimus assured.
"Yeah, I've endured being run over by those two, then kidnapped, and then stolen away from my place of comfort!" I bit back.
The one introduced as Bulkhead eyed me with a questioning look, everyone else was more shocked by my outburst.
"School is your place of comfort?" A baffled Miko asked, breaking the silence.
"I would like to go to school…" I answered
"But that's not what you were referring to." Bulkhead guessed.
I could only nod.
"You've seen Bumblebee a number of times… however he was not the first of our kind that you witnessed." Optimus Prime realized.
I nodded again.
"Shockwave…" Wheeljack realized.
"You got to see Cyclops face to face! Or… eyes to eye!?" Miko exclaimed excitedly
"I honestly find myself curious, what's he like?" Jack asked.
"Yeah, how's the Logic Doc?" Smokescreen laughed.
"He's ruthless and cold, and you'd have gleaned that if you'd been paying attention, see she's scared and nervous!" Arcee snapped at him.
Don't you dare speak for me! And for that matter, don't you dare speak about him like that!" I raged.
Everyone stared at me until Ratchet broke the silence.
"Classic case of Stockholm syndrome."
Shockwave's log #3
Sloane stopped tumbling when she impacted my servo. I should have grabbed her right in that moment. But no, I'd been blinded by rage at seeing how both of these two Autobots had now put both me and Sloane in peril. So I quarreled with them instead of escaping with Sloane. Instead, the Autobots had let me escape, while they themselves had escaped with Sloane.
I had paced my lab several times now and had nearly stepped on several MECH agents now. Something Sloane would have pestered me about. The absence of her demands that I apologize only worsened my mood.
Oh how I wished Predaking was still among my arsenal.
I stopped stomping across the lab and looked at the two growing tubes
I turned to a MECH scientist beside me and looked down at him.
"I require Aurum and Argenti." I demanded of him.
He looked confused and nervous, especially considering my mood.
"Gold and silver." I explained with an exasperated sigh.
He jumped and ran to one of the trucks.
"Iago, I require a chemical infuser."
"When?"
"Now."
"On it." he replied.
I turned to look at the growing tubes and realized all my preparations to prepare them for release were all prioritizing subject 02, while subject 01 seemed to have been neglected. Upon realizing this I turned to another scientist.
"I require magma."
He then scurried off to get it without any hesitation.
I turned and peered into the glass chambers.
"Exercise extreme… patience, Sloane."