William Lennox, a man that I thought would be a little bit more appreciative of me for bring back Annabelle. Boy was I wrong.
The soldier held stoic expression as he sat in a chair, hand near the pistol on his right hip. A wave of fresh fear rolled off of him, causing the corners of my mouth to curl up. Ha, he was trying to act like the boss of this situation but instead was afraid of little ol' me. But a pang of hurt struck me deep in my heart.
His brown eyes bored straight into my silver ones, him still putting on a tough guy act. "What are you?" he started off with. I rolled my eyes and glared daggers at him, a hint of anger from his words trickling into my blood stream.
"I don't know. Your guess is good as mine, William," I near growled at his name. His brows furrowed as confusion washed over his face.
"What do you mean you 'don't know'? Are you an alien or are you from earth?" Quietly, he added, "I doubt it." Heat rushed to my fingertips, ready to be used on the disrespectful human.
"I'm not an alien, I'm from earth as well. I guess you can call my species 'Draconic' since I resemble a dragon," I responded with the same answer Sunstreaker got. Hmmm, is Sunstreaker here too?
"Alright, good enough answer. Who do you work for? Jasper or the Decepticons?" The pot of anger deep inside of me was nearly boiling over just because of that sentence. I saved both his daughter and the yellow tin can and this is what he gives back. Lovely. Nice to know how he treats those that help him.
"Neither. I work by myself," I scoffed and wanted nothing more to leave without another word. "What's with all these degrading questions? I brought home your daughter and Sunstreaker. I thought you would be a little… more appreciative of me." I lowered myself off of the cot, my hip ached from the movement but that didn't stop me.
Fear ran through William's body as he sprang to his feet, gun pointing right at my head. Danger chimed in my head. Yeah, I can clearly see the gun. Another eye roll for his ridiculous actions. "Don't you move! I swear, I will shoot you."
Those words didn't stop me from standing fully without the help of the cot. My wings furled tightly behind my back, the right one having a little trouble due to the wound. Ah, nearly forgot about that from yesterday. Both seemed a bit more healed for a day sleeping, maybe it was two. "I'm not going to hurt you. I would've done that already if I wanted to. Now, I'm gonna get going."
Ringing of some sort of cell phone filtered into the air. Will tensed at the noise and fumbled for the smart phone, not taking his eyes off of me for a second. The gun's aim slightly shifted to the side as his attention was mostly on the device. He answered it by clicking on the screen and brought it up to his ear. "Ratchet? What do you want?" Ratchet? That name was brought up again.
My advance hearing caught onto what this Ratchet being was saying. "I heard that Annabelle's friend is awake and you are with her. If you could, can you bring her to the Med. Bay so I could check her over?" His voice didn't sound very… human, more like it was robotic; kind of like Sunstreaker's voice. Probably just like him, the name would suggest to that.
The human eyes narrowed on me. "I don't know about that Ratchet. She's dangerous. The best place for her is the brig until we can get more information out of her." One side of me boasted at him calling me dangerous while the other shrunk down timidly, hating that word.
"Sunstreaker has explained what she has done for both him and Annabelle. She may be dangerous but she helped get the two get back. Optimus would disagree with you on putting her in the brig. I suggest talking with him before you go through with that silly idea." Hmm, maybe I'll like this Ratchet being for having my back.
A frustrated growl came from Will as he slid his gun back into its holster. "Fine, we'll see you in ten to twenty minutes." He put the device in his pocket motioned towards the door. "We're going to Ratchet's Med. Bay. Try anything and I'll shoot you right where you stand." As much as he tried, the fear that underlined his words wouldn't disappear.
I shrugged my shoulders nonchalantly to show he wasn't going to get a reaction out of me. This angered him even more and he stomped behind me, borderline acting like a child.
We strolled through the halls of this military hospital. Scents overwhelmed me from the amount of humans in one place. I didn't let this stop me from walking with confidence to show no one could down me. My head held high, shoulders back, and each step I took held no hesitation. Any human that dared to gaze at me immediately looked away, except a couple that had amazement in their eyes. Weird-os.
On the outside of the building, fresh, cold air washed away the hundreds of human odors inside of the building. The sun hung high in the sky, telling the time to be around noon or so.
Massive hangars could be seen over the human sized buildings. How tall are these robots?! Or those could be for planes… Hopefully.
Other normal sized buildings lined a two-lane wide street that also connected the hospital. William didn't let me stop to observe the tiny town. "Come on, it's going to be a long walk to get to the Med. Bay from here," he grumbled.
At this point, my hip was blazing with agony as the two of us continued on with our path. We weren't even halfway there in the first place, this walk was going to be long and horrible. I couldn't fly either due to my wing in the same position and he said he would shoot me if I tried anything. Picking out bullets isn't fun, I should know, it's happened before.
Awkward silence grew between us as we marched on, heading towards the Med. Bay. It seemed he was leading me to the huge hangars on the other side of the human buildings. If Ratchet was like Sunstreaker, including height wise, it would only make sense for him to reside in one of them.
Lennox opened his mouth to say something but snapped it shut a second after. Curiosity killed the cat I must say. "Spit out whatever you're going to say. I've been asked and called worse," I hissed, trickles of pain leaking into my voice. Damn it.
He stumbled over his words, barely making any sense of what he was saying before clearing his throat. "I wanted, I wanted to thank you for bringing home Anna and Sunstreaker."
Really, was his ego too big for him to say that without me forcing him to? Humans. "Just doing my job and finishing a mission."
My words caught his interest. "Job? Mission? But you said you don't work for anyone."
"I don't. I can be self employed, you know. Anyway, ever heard of a team called Aztec? Not the ancient group of humans way back," I questioned and gritted my teeth as pain overflowed from major wound. That was becoming annoying.
Nothing came from his mouth as the gears inside of his head turned. "Uh, yes, once or twice. A Jasper prisoner spilled their name. Who are they?" Uneasiness could be heard in his voice, him unsure of Aztec.
"Don't worry, they aren't bad. Quite the opposite. They fight Jasper, in hopes of bringing them down. I also use to work alongside of them," I answered, feeling a little tension loosen from my shoulders. Maybe he wasn't as bad as his first impression was. Fear can drive someone to do something they never wanted to do.
"What happened?" he pressed and wanted answers from me. I knew how to play this game and knew when to stop before it uncovered any of my dark past.
A sigh escaped my lips as the memory of leaving Aztec's base came to mind. I, just a shadow under the half moon, timidly flying away, tears pouring down my face. "My presence endangers those around me. Jasper has it out for me."
We had finally pushed pass the human buildings and were heading towards the hangars. Less human scents in this direction, surprisingly. "Why does you being around others threaten them? And why does Jasper 'have it out for you'?"
Did the egoistical human not get it? Everyone thinks inside of the box, never looking around or past the walls. "Just think about. What do evil people usually want?" Confusion morphed his expression. "Power." He mouthed 'o' as it made sense to him. "They don't have that power-"
"-So they want someone who does," he interrupted me. Rude I must say and no manners. "I'm guessing you had friends at Aztec, you didn't want your friends to get hurt, so you left to take on Jasper all by yourself. Selfless. Brave. And stupid."
His last words caused me to stop in my tracks. He ran into my back due to my sudden movements. I whipped around with my lips curled up to show off the dangerous canines. "I'm not stupid. You would do the same for your daughter," I grounded out and took a threatening step towards him.
All signs of ease washed away as terror grew on his face. "Yeah." A growl rumbled deep in my chest for him to rephrase his words. "I'm mean for doing the same for Anna. What I heard about Aztec, they are a small but hardy team. You being around them isn't going to endanger them as much as you think."
Oh, but I do know how my presence has killed over hundreds of Zayden's men. With me gone, that number has dropped to barely ten percent of that. "You don't know anythi-"
"Is everything alright here?" a semi familiar voice questioned from behind me. Ratchet's voice to be exact that I knew from the phone call less than twenty minutes ago. I whipped back around to face this Ratchet and gapped at the tall, bright neon yellow robot. He was definitely taller than Sunstreaker by at least five feet.
William stepped to the side from behind me. "Yes, just a… disagreement between us." Smart choice of words. "Midnight, this is Ratchet, the CMO for the Autobots and sometimes humans. Ratchet, this Midnight, Anna and Sunstreaker's savoir."
Ratchet dipped his head in a greeting gesture. "It's nice to meet you. Sunstreaker has spoke quite a bit about you and your abilities. And of how you helped them off the Nemesis."
"The tin can spoke about me? Surprising," I made light of the slightly awkward situation. My hip ached the longer I was forced to stand on it.
"I would watch what you say, fleshie," a familiar brooding voice spoke up. I turned to face the speaker and low n' behold, speaking of the devil was standing there. A red Cybertronian lookalike was besides him, blue eyes locked onto my frame. My own glared up at him in defense to deter him from continuing. Our eyes locked, his being the same hue as Sunstreaker.
The two did look similar in appearances, possibly personalities. Was this 'Sides' his twin/brother? 'Sides' did have other features than Sunstreaker to keep anyone from mixing them up. Besides the obvious red yellow color differences, Sides didn't have the fins on the sides of his head. The metal plates on his front were different. He also had a few more 'scars' compared to his twin.
A smirk appeared on the red bot. "You like what you see?" he teased and stuck out a hip so his hands could rest on it. I scoffed with a roll of my eyes and returned my gaze up to Ratchet.
While standing there, an inner force within me pulled in the direction of the two. All of the muscles in my body tensed from the foreign feeling. I stood up straight and paid more attention to the strange tingling still going on in the middle of my chest.
The sound of snapping fingers drew me back to the real world. I snatch the hand in my face and twisted it painfully. William grunted bent back to lessen pressure on the appendage. "Don't do that again or you'll lose your hand," I threatened, eyes boring into his. The fear he most definitely felt grew.
I released him after getting my point acrossed for a good few seconds. William rubbed at his red wrist and narrowed his eyes at me. "Jeez, you didn't have to do that. I was just trying to get your attention," he mumbled and sounded butt-hurt. I choose not to respond and waited for him another to speak.
Thankfully, the red Cybertronian came to my rescue. "So, Midnight, I heard from my lovely brother that you kicked some Con aft. Which I also saw for myself when we came back," he stated. Nothing he said was necessarily a question and it just seemed like he was trying to get me to talk. I didn't feel like talking to him or his twin and ignored him looking up to Ratchet.
Said robot luckily understood the look on my face. " Midnight, could you come along with me to the Med. Bay? I need to take a blood sample and run some other scans to ensure you are healing fine."
Uneasy of the thought of him taking blood, I decided to pressure him on what he wanted it for. "Why do you need blood? I have physical injuries that don't concern of needing a blood sample." It was a personal thing of not wanting to give up any of the red substance.
"It's just to see the difference from when you first arrived. I took a sample back then and realized the difference between you and a human," he stated and gave off no threats. I guess I could let this pass just until my wing is healed enough to leave.
"Alright, I guess that is fine with me." Off to my eight o'clock position, someone mumbled 'meanie' like a child. William was off to my right and it wasn't Sunstreaker since it would be extremely out of character. Was it Sides? It had to be.
Sunstreaker wacked the bot next to him on the head, a loud metal on metal sound riveting into the air. "Hey! What was that for?!" 'Sides' whined and rubbed at the spot he was hit. The yellow Cybertronian didn't say anything looked ready to tear the other into pieces. "You seem moodier than usual, what's gotten you like this dear brother of mine?" If I was him, I wouldn't be poking the bee's nest.
Ratchet sighed, sounding fed up with their behavior before motioning for me to follow. "Come on. I need you too, Sunstreaker. You miss your appointment yesterday," he ordered and began walking towards one of the big hangars.
This caught 'Sides' attention and he nearly bounced on his wheels as he followed the CMO. "Come along, Sunny!" Those words made it sound like he was up to no good, William seemed to catch on as well. "Now, you can't stop me from talking with her." What did that mean?
"I don't like his change in behavior," William mumbled quietly to himself and shook his head. "Anyway, I'll be back to sort a few things out with you. Good luck, you'll be needing it." With that, he turned and headed in the direction of the other over-sized hangars.
I grumbled a little pissed off and heard the same noise emit from another. My eyes shot up to the yellow humanoid machine off to my left. Our eyes met, his irritation seemed to slowly dissipate. The tingling that idles in my chest sprung to life. I gritted my teeth at the bizarre feeling and marched after Ratchet.
These over-sized hangars seemed even larger on the inside than the outside. This one could house ten Cybertronians with plenty of room to spare. In this one, it was definitely set up as a hospital style for Ratchet to work.
Three semi huge metal tables sat at the back off to the left of the door, all evenly spaced from each other. They reminded me of a small hospital ward. More tables lined the wall to the right, this time they were pressed flush against it; long end up against the wall. Tools were neatly placed on the tables to the right, different than any normal human medical tools.
My eyes scanned for any danger, ready for it to pop its ugly face.
The neon yellow robot picked up a tablet, his size, and paid the device attention. Subconscious, I went to touch the spot where my watch would be and cringed at it not being there. Mia must be throwing a fit, possibly contacting Zayden against my word. My suit was also gone; it had been damaged by Jasper and now a plain blue hospital gown covering my body with thin cloth pants hanging around my waist.
Jacob was never very happy with me when the suit got damage. He would always have extras for me though after the first couple of times.
Ratchet finished with whatever he was reading and approached me. He lowered one of his hands down to the ground in front of me. "Step on. You're wing isn't healed enough for you to fly." Knowing he was correct about that obvious fact, I timidly followed his command. Gently, he carried me over to the table off to the left side and sets me down on one.
"Please hold out your arm, palm facing up." I did what he asked and watched as a tiny needle extended from the tip of his pointer finger. The CMO expertly inserted it into the soft scales at the bend of my arm. Luckily for him, the needle was strong enough to pierce my thick hide.
When I was at Jasper, they always had to use thicker needles to be able to draw blood. Maybe it's made of the metal he was made of.
Once he was satisfied with the amount he received, Ratchet pulled it out and the needle disappeared. "Now, just a scan and you'll be fine until tomorrow." A different kind of tingling ran through my body, like a scan.
Surprise washed over his features before another scan surveyed me. What was he doing? His face morphed to confusion. He looked at the tablet and shook his head as if to dismiss a thought. "Thank you, Midnight. I sent word to William that you are free."
When he finished his sentence, he moved away to deal with Sunstreaker; who had taken a seat at one of the three tables over here.
'Sides' smirked as if his plan was working and slinked over to me. His elbows rested on each side of me as he leaned down with his face close to mine. The same foreign feeling slightly pulled towards him. The smirk on his face washed away and was replaced with bewilderment. I narrowed my eyes at him, ready to lunge if need be. "Ever heard of personal space," I growled irritated, claws flexing at my sides.
He seemed to think about it before standing up to his full height to put space between us. "Can't blame a mech for be curious. You're so small. I can't believe you took down seven Con's and an estimated eighty human soldiers. Tell me your secrets oh great one," he teased and allowed one of the corners of his mouth to tilt up.
"I'll do it again if I have to get you away from me," I threatened and took a step towards him to emphasize my point. He put both of his hands in front of him and motioned for me to calm down.
"No need for you be angry. I just wanted to come over here and introduce myself to you. I'm Sideswipe but you can call me Sides, the more handsome mech of the two of us. I also wanted to thank you for bring home Sunny. He may not seem to appreciate the kind gesture but I sure do." Blood rushed to my cheeks for another thanking me for just doing my job.
I waved him off and scoffed to act like it didn't matter to me. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just fulfilling my mission."
Those words caught his attention and he leaned in slightly closer. "Mission? Sunny said you worked alone, though."
"I do, I can appoint myself my own mission. Can't I?" It's not like you need a formal mission appointer to send you on your way.
"Yeah, yeah, I guess you can… So, what are you? I never heard or seen of your kind before. Which plant did you come from?" Great, that question that everyone seems to need to know. Why can't people just stay to their side of the line and leave it alone.
"Draconic and I'm from Earth. The reason why you have never seen or heard of my kind is because I'm the only one of my kind. First and last to be clear," I answered, voice evident with growing anger.
"Hey, you don't know that. There might be another on Earth that you don't know of." Oh but I do. I rolled my eyes for the fifth time this day and heard footsteps approaching the hangar; both human and non human. Is William bringing another Cybertronian over here? How many are there of these guys?!
Just like clockwork. William and another Cybertronian stepped into the hangar. My mouth dropped at the sheer height of this robot. He looked to double the height of Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. How was that possible? How big can they get?
I unfurled my wings, cringing at the soreness, before gently gliding down to the ground. My right wing nearly giving out due the muscles still damaged in them. William seemed surprised at my moments with an underlining look of fear. That would probably stick with him until I left. "Midnight! You aren't supposed to be flying. What did I say?" Ratchet nearly shouted, anger evident in his voice.
"It was nothing. I just glided down. How else was I suppose to get down anyhow? There aren't stairs a ladder," I gave great counter arguments.
He pointed an accusing finger at me with a scowl on his face. "You ask. I helped you up, you could've asked me to help you down. Or Sid-actually, I wouldn't trust him to do that." I just shrugged my shoulders and strolled over to William and the largest robot of them all. "Next time you go against my medical judgment, you'll be stuck in here until you are healed."
Ha, he acted like I was staying here. "Optimus, this is Midnight. Midnight, this is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots," William introduced the two of us.
What catch my eye first of his body color were the red flame decals spotting his chest. His secondary color a soft navy blue, it fitted well with the red/orange.
"Firstly, I must thank you for bringing home Annabelle and Sunstreaker. It is nice to meet you also." His voice shocked me. It was a deep baritone pitch with a gently tone in it. A gently giant I'm guessing. Yet the tone suited him for his statute. Shoulders back, spine straight, and authority rolling off of him in waves. Another being not fearful of me. None of his kind seemed to be frightened of my appearance; a little more accepting than my own.
"Like I have repeated myself, just doing my job," I responded and rested on my left leg as pain flared through my right side. "And before you ask like everyone else, I appoint myself these missions to go against Jasper."
"Yes, Jasper. We share a common enemy. I heard that you could give us some information about them," he stated with hope in his voice.
"I know a lot about them, a little too much in my opinion. I would be willing to share that information for something in return," I negotiated.
"What would you like?" William fed into the offer.
"You don't tell anyone of my presences here. No alerting your higher ups about me, nothing at all," I stated and laid down the ground rules. If anyone besides him were to learning about me here, I would be whisked off to a secret lab to be poked and prodded at.
A mix of confusion and surprise washed over his features. "What's wrong with that?"
"You humans don't like beings like me. The moment they hear about something… not natural, they'll take me to some place and open me to see how I tick. I'm surprised they haven't done the same to these guys."
"They did try once but it was a miscommunication," Optimus spoke up.
"And you didn't blast them into pieces?" That shocked me. Maybe his race was a bit kinder than I thought and Sunstreaker was just the bad egg.
"Of course not. Like I said, it was only a miscommunication," Optimus sounded the slightest offended of my words. If it was me, whoever was aoccated of doing those acts, they would be six feet under in a heartbeat. No one messes with me and gets away with it. But I guess the two of us were wired different, possibly for a good thing.
"Anyway, that's settled. I won't tell anyone that you're here and you'll give what you know of Jasper to us. With that done, I'll show you to your room. I'm glad I picked the furthest one from everyone," Will picked up where we left off. Did he seriously think I was going to be sleeping where other humans were? Never in any of my years.
"No, I'm good sleeping in the forest." The forest has served me as a home on multiple occasions. There was nothing wrong with use it again for that same reason.
"You aren't leaving this base for security reasons. You don't have enough trust to be even out of sight of any of us that know of you." William crossed his arms to act, again, like he was the boss. "Then state somewhere, on base, of where you want to sleep."
"You can use the Med. Bay if you would like Midnight," Ratchet offered out of the blue. I nearly forget him and the other two were in here with us.
My eyes scanned over the massive hangar, spotting the rafters that would serve a good place to rest. Well, I'll have to wait until my wing was healed enough for that kind of flight. "Sure, if it keeps me away from other humans."
"What's your problem with humans? You act like we are the spawn of Satan."
"Because your kind is nasty, vile, horrible, and downright disgusting to be around. You hurt each other for power and greed; always sticking your nose where it doesn't belong; killing others because it's fun; destroying everything around you, again for greed. That is why I despise humans. None of you are good, evil to the bone."
Everything was silent after that, besides the soft hums other machinery coming from the robots.
Optimus was the first to break the silence by fake coughing into his hand. "William and I are needed someplace else. If you need us for anything, Midnight, just come and find us. I hope your recovery is swift." Wow, he sure does know how to clear the awkwardness after what I just said.
Then the two took their leave. I scoffed with a scowl on my face and turned to face the three behind me. Sideswipe was the only one with his eyes on me. "You got something to say overgrown toaster?" I snapped, annoyed that I was stuck here against my will. At least it better than being at Jasper.
He held up his hands in surrender with that stupid smirk etched into his face. I took roast in the corner closest to the door. My head rested against the cold metal, eyes half shut as exhaustion was eating away at my energy. Healing these two injuries was sapping up what energy I had left, making me feel tired; especially in front of three that I didn't trust. Well one was slightly on the good side, but still attached to the fence.
Hopefully he was doing well, including Annabelle.