*REWRITTEN: 6/25/22*
Hello, my beautiful readers! It's gonna be a long one, so get comfortable! Not much to say except that I don't own anything but Alestia. Everything that you recognize goes to its proper owners. Again, some language is present in this chapter and adult themes, so prepare yourselves. And now, on we go!
(O-POV)
Optimus had been driving for some time, switching his attention between the road and the femme recharging in his cab. Her head rested on the seat, facing the window. He noted that the only time Alestia had fully allowed herself to relax was when she was sleeping. The whole time she was standing in the alleyway her eyes had roamed the surroundings as if searching for an unseen danger.
When Optimus had introduced Jazz, she had quickly acquired a liking for him. They had talked comfortably, as if they had known each other for vorns. In time, he was sure that they would become great friends. Alestia had also impressed him that night when he was acquainting the humans with Ironhide.
His Weapons Specialist had started his cannons and threatened the humans, and she jumped in front of Sam and Mikaela. They stood protectively behind her back, while the femme dared to challenge the hulking mech.
It reminded him of the femmes he used to call friends. Instead of looking away from his intense stare and submitting, Alestia didn't back down. She now had Optimus' respect for it, as well as the Weapons Specialist's. He also knew that Ironhide had been impressed when she had mumbled on about the cannons he carried. Ironhide had even proclaimed that he admired her. It was rare.
Not only was she an impressive femme, but she was also a surprising one as well.
When Alestia had asked what Cybertron was like during the Golden Age, he hadn't responded right away because he was simply not expecting a question such as that. She obviously thought that he had been offended or troubled by the inquiry when she profusely started to apologize.
Optimus had quickly halted the action.
The most astonishing part was when she had sworn to do everything in her power to help him and support the Autobot cause. Not knowing how to respond, he simply thanked her quietly.
Optimus's attention flickered to the road for a nano-Klik and realized that they were very close to the coordinates of Sam's house. He looked at the recharging Alestia, and the thing humans called hair framed her face. It was curly in shape and brown in color.
There were good humans on this planet. It only made him question further if he was doing the right thing, involving these tiny creatures in a war they knew nothing about.
With a sigh, Optimus decided that it was time to wake the femme.
(A-POV)
I opened my eyes and looked around me. I was in the cab of a truck, and we were in a suburban neighborhood. "Alestia, we have arrived at Sam's house," Optimus murmured, as if he was reluctant to wake me. Blinking a few times, I jumped a little as the memories of the past few hours came rushing back.
Glancing out of the front window, I saw Sam and Mikaela step out of Bumblebee. As I did so, the seatbelt unbuckled from around my body and returned to its original position. I went to open the door but, as I should have expected considering my circumstances, Optimus beat me to it.
"Thank you." I giggled. I still wasn't used to having doors open by themselves. Jumping down from the truck, I noticed that we were in a back alley, seemingly in between the yards of houses that were backed up against each other. The alley and the yards were separated by metal fencing. By the time I was nearing Sam and Mik, I noticed Sam gesturing nervously with his hands, unable to keep them by his sides.
Just another sign of anxiety to note. I was racking up quite a few for him.
"I need you to stay here, okay?" I heard Sam say, right before turning and entering his yard, all while throwing more mumbled words over his shoulder.
"Okay, okay, fine," Mikaela replied. She looked a little flustered, so I decided to step in.
"Where's he going, Mik?"
"He better be going to run in and grab the glasses."
All of a sudden, I heard the mechanical whirring of a Cybertronian transforming, and I spun around. All of the Autobots had transformed and began pivoting towards the house. I gaped and whispered furiously, "What are you doing? We aren't supposed to be doing this! You might get spotted!"
Optimus bent down to my height and said, "We do not have time to wait for Sam. If we do, the Decepticons will find the AllSpark before us." At that, he continued his objective.
"Op- Wait, please, Optimus!"
I went to talk to Bee but saw that he wasn't there. The more I swiveled my head, the more I realized that neither was Ironhide, Ratchet, or Jazz.
"Sam is gonna be so, so pissed," I muttered. "What do we do, Mik?!"
Mikaela only stared, her hands covering her mouth, as Optimus stepped over the garage, brushing a nearby tree as he did so.
"Mikaela!"
She looked around and too noticed we were now completely alone.
"Oh shit shit shit!" She cried. We both proceeded to run out into the yard, where we were met by a fuming Sam. "I told you, I told you!"
"Well they seem to be in a bit of a rush," Mikaela replied indignantly.
"Sam, they need those glasses. They're not gonna stop until you find them." I pointed out.
As I took note of where the Autobots had stationed themselves, I heard a small dog yipping and turned to see that a chihuahua had promptly lifted its leg and peed on Ironhide's foot. I tapped Sam on the shoulder and pointed in the direction of the dog. "Yet another problem, Sammy."
Sam gasped. "Mojo! Off the robot! God..." Ironhide kicked the dog off his foot and lifted it as if he was going to step on the little pip-squeak. "No no no no no!" Sam yelled, running over and picking the dog up in his arms. "Easy, hold on! Woah! This is Mojo." Ironhide aimed his cannon at the dog. "Please, put the gun away. Put it down." The black robot scoffed.
"You have a rodent infestation. Shall I terminate?" His tone held all the seriousness in the world, and I smirked.
"No, this is my chihuahua! We- we love chihuahuas. Don't we?" Sam turned to Mikaela for support, but I knew he wouldn't get any. If only he knew her father had a strong inclination toward larger dogs, and that Mikaela agreed wholeheartedly with her father's opinion. If he did, maybe he wouldn't have looked to her for help.
Or, maybe I would stand corrected. He was one of the most anxious kids I'd ever met, after all.
"He leaked lubricants all over my foot!"
"He peed on you? Bad Mojo."
"Bad Mojo." Ironhide scolded the dog, and I let out a laugh.
"I'm sorry," Sam said quickly. "He's got a male dominance thing. That's all it is."
"My foot's gonna rust." The Weapons Specialist grumbled.
Sam ran towards the screen door. "Okay, okay. Just stay. Shut up and hide!" He threw the door open, still holding his dog, and disappeared inside. "Autobots, recon." I heard Optimus say.
I looked for something to wipe down Ironhide's foot, but found nothing. "How can we fix this, sweetheart?"
Mik thought for a moment. "We're gonna need a clean rag, some soapy water, and a corrosion inhibitor. They should be in the garage."
I jogged over to the garage door, beckoning my friend to help me look for a key to the side door. After searching for a few moments, she held one up triumphantly, opened the door, and grabbed the necessary materials.
We rushed to Ironhide soon after and helped clean him up.
After a few moments, Optimus once again kneeled to my height and set his hand on the ground, palm-up. "Alestia, Mikaela, we are in a hurry. Please aid Sam in retrieving the glasses." He motioned for us to step onto his palm, and I was the first to go. I turned to Mikaela and saw that her eyes had widened, chest rising and falling faster, with her hands bunched at her sides. Even her jaw was clenched. That was a new one. She was terrified.
"Mik," I said. "He's not going to hurt or drop us." I sat down in his palm. "See? You can even sit with me if you like."
"You really trust him 'Lest?" Mikaela whispered.
"With my life."
She waited a minute, and gingerly stepped onto Optimus' hand. Mikaela plopped down next to me and gripped my arm as we were raised high off the ground. Standing up when we reached Sam's bedroom window, I helped my best friend through first. Before leaving his palm, I patted the metal in a silent thanks and followed Mikaela.
The metal was warm. I thought. Well, I wasn't expecting that.
Sam noticed us climbing into his bedroom. "What? What is this?"
"They want those glasses, as I told you earlier," I said. "I thought you'd figure that out by now, especially considering the sad-looking broken fountain in your yard."
"Time is short," Optimus added, glancing in through the window.
"Come on, what are you doing?" Sam grabbed my hand and helped me through.
"We're gonna help you," I said matter-of-factly.
"Please hurry," Prime urged.
Throwing and hurling newspapers and other items across the room, Sam started to panic. "Yeah, no, no. It's definitely gone."
"What do you mean?" Mikaela demanded.
Sam flailed his hands wildly. "My glasses were in the bag. They were in a backpack and now the backpack isn't here."
"Well, they're gonna be pissed, so what do you want to do?"
"So what I think you should do is, you should check this whole," He motioned to one side of his bedroom. "You should check this whole section here. Just give it a clean sweep and I'll get this corner here."
As I was given no instruction, I began searching for the backpack. If it wasn't in his room, the chances of it being downstairs were high. But I couldn't just waltz downstairs, so I began checking the room nonetheless.
Mikaela knelt and started to pull out a black box from under a desk, and Sam immediately rushed over to where she was crouching.
"Yea no, no, no. Not there. That's my... that's my private. Sorry, that's just-" He took the box out of her hands.
"You just... you just told me to look..." Mikaela trailed in an annoyed tone.
"I know, but I didn't mean to look inside of my treasure chest," Sam responded, shoving the box under his mattress. Gross, I thought. "You should be way more specific so that I don't get in trouble in your room." She declared.
I analyzed the room and saw the piles of junk on the shelves, the clothes in heaps in the corner, and small pieces of garbage littering the floor. This kid had more crap in here than my 25-year-old cousin did when I visited him in Italy. I didn't know how we were going to get through the whole room in time. I sat down next to Mik and started helping her, and as I did so, I said, "I don't think it's here. It's probably just downstairs."
She only shook her head and heavily sighed.
Suddenly, Sam looked out the window and muttered, "What now?" Following his gaze, I stifled my giggle as I spotted five gorgeous automobiles parked on the back lawn. "No. No, no. No, no, no. This isn't hiding. This isn't hiding. This is my backyard, not a truck stop." Sam blubbered.
"Sam? Sam, Sam, Sam, Sam. He's back here." Mikaela whispered, as if he was the only person that could hear her.
"I can't deal with this, I can't," Sam muttered, and he looked about ready to faint. He stuck his head out the window and sure enough, Optimus was standing right outside the room... again.
"What? Oh no, no, no! These are my mother's flowers."
"Oops." Optimus verbalized. I couldn't detect a single ounce of true atonement, either. I once again tried to keep a smirk from forming on my face, hearing the non-apologetic tone he used.
"Okay, listen, you gotta listen to me," Sam said apprehensively. "If my parents come out here and see you, they're gonna freak out. My mother's got a temper, okay?"
The Commander emitted a sigh. "We must have the glasses."
"I know you need the glasses. I've been looking everywhere. They're not here, they're definitely not here." And there he goes, blubbering on again and losing control over his emotions. Optimus pinched the bridge of his nose, (a very human thing to do I might add) and let out an exasperated groan. "Keep searching." He whispered irritatedly.
"I need you to be quiet for five minutes. Ten minutes, okay? Please, I'm begging you. You got to, you're making a racket. I can't concentrate. You want me to look and I'm hearing..." Sam chattered away, alarmed.
"Calm down, calm down," Optimus commanded softly.
"You got to do something here. You gotta do something here."
"Autobots, fall back."
Sam let out a heavy breath. "Thank you. Please, five minutes. Good, good? Okay." He turned his attention back to the task at hand and helped Mikaela and me continue to search for the glasses. After that conversation, I saw that Sam was really starting to lose his cool now.
"Sam!" I whispered urgently. "Look at me."
The teen turned to me, his face red and beads of sweat beginning to form on his forehead. "You need to take a deep breath and relax. I know this is stressful, but I don't think your backpack is-" I didn't get to finish the sentence because the ground shook forcefully, accompanied by the blare of Ratchet's sirens. I made out a faint man's voice from downstairs shouting, "Earthquake! Move, move, move. Earthquake!" A woman's voice followed not long after.
Huh, now I knew where Sam got it from.
I sprinted to the window and looked out, making sure the bots were okay. What I saw shocked me. Ratchet was laying on the ground, his headlights still flashing. "Wow, that was tingly," Ratchet exclaimed. Did he just... run into the power lines? "You gotta try that!"
Ironhide snorted. "Yeah, that looks fun." I rolled my eyes, shook my head, and glanced up at the lights as the house lost its electricity.
"Sam?"
"Sammy?" A man and woman's voices called out from the first floor. Footsteps could be heard coming up the stairs, and lights were shone inside the windows thanks to the 'bots.
"What the hell is that?" The man's voice said.
"I don't know..."
"Sam?" The voice was very close this time. It sounded like it was right outside the bedroom door.
"That's weird." The woman's voice stated peculiarly, and a knock rattled the doorframe.
"Ratchet, point the light," Optimus ordered.
"Listen, we got a major issue here," Sam mumbled. "What's with the light? You gotta stop the light. What's going on? Turn it off." He looked wide-eyed at Ironhide. "You gotta tell him to shut it off. Shut it off."
"Sam, are you in there?" The father shouted and knocked again. "How come the door's locked? You know the rules! No doors locked in my house." Fuck. I spun around the room, grabbed Mikaela's arm, and started frantically looking for a place to hide.
"You know he'll start counting if you don't open the doors." Sam's mom called out.
"One more chance." His dad added. "Five..."
"Oh, dear."
"Four. It's coming off the hinges pal."
"He's counting!"
I desperately searched for a hiding spot and found none that would fit both Mikaela and me. As a last resort, I let go of the arm I was still gripping and hid on the far side of Sam's bed. I laid as flat as possible on the carpet, praying that nobody could see me from here. I glanced at Mik and saw that she was cowering behind a desk chair.
"Sam, just open the door." His mother said.
"Three."
"Oh, my."
"Two."
"He's counting."
"Stand back."
I held my breath and closed my eyes, hoping that Sam would open the door before it was mowed down by his father. Just then, I heard the door creak and I opened one eye.
"What's up?" Sam said as casually as possible. "What's with the bat?" The parents have a bat? Okay, now I definitely know where he gets it from.
"Who were you talking to?" His father said in an icy calm tone, and I cringed.
"I'm talking to you," Sam replied.
"Why are you so sweaty and filthy?" His mom added curiously, with a hint of disgust.
The best that Sam could come up with was, "I'm a child. You know, I'm a teenager."
"We heard voices and noises, and we thought maybe you were-"
"It doesn't matter what we thought." The father interrupted and shouldered his way past Sam and into the room. "What was that light?"
"No, what light? What? There's no light dad, there's no light!" Sam said in a panicked tone. "You got two lights in your hand! That's what it is. Maybe it bounced."
"There was light under the door." The man began.
"Look, you can't, you can't just bounce into my room like that. You gotta knock. You got to communicate."
"We knocked for five minutes."
"I'm a teenager!" Sam continued.
"We knocked!" The woman objected, clearly pissed off.
"You didn't knock!" Sam cried. "You were screaming at me, okay?"
"No!" His mother objected.
"This is repression, what you're doing here. You're ruining my youth, okay?" Great job kiddo. I rolled my eyes. Just keep doing what you're doing, and they won't be any more suspicious.
"Oh for Pete's sake!" The mom exclaimed. "You are so defensive. Were you... masturbating?" At that, my jaw hit the floor and I stared at Mik, wishing that I heard incorrectly. She stared right back, a very disturbed look on her face.
"Judy!" His father cut off.
"Was I... No, mom!"
"Zip it, okay?" the man added.
"No, I don't masturbate!"
"That's not something for you to bring up." I agree. "That's a father and son thing, okay?"
"Father and son thing," Sam repeated.
Judy once again brought up the subject we girls did not want to hear about anymore. We were already scarred enough as it was. "I mean, you don't have to call it that word if it makes you uncomfortable. You can call it Sam's happy time or,"
"Happy time?" The father intervened.
"My special alone time..." She continued.
The ongoing bickering was starting to annoy me, and I decided that I was going to stand up. Before I could do that, I quietly caught Optimus' voice, and a "Woah!" come from him. The ground shook once more as a result of the giant footstep, and the father started to shout. "Earthquake! It's another one! Another Earthquake! Get in the doorway! Aftershock, aftershock! God, I hate these..."
From my hiding spot, I saw Sam's dad walk up to the window and look out into the backyard. "Oh, no. Look at the yard. The yard is destroyed. Judy? Better call the city. We got a blown transformer!" I froze at that, hoping and praying that he hadn't spotted Optimus and the rest of the Autobots. "Power pole's sparking all over the place. Oh man, yard's a waste. Trashed. Gone."
From outside I made out Ironhide grumble, "The parents are very irritating. Can I take them out?" I covered my mouth to try and stifle my snort as Optimus stopped that idea before it even started.
"Ironhide, you know we don't harm humans. What is with you?"
"Well, I'm just saying we could. It's an option."
The family started to bicker again, and I stood up, revealing my presence. Mikaela did the same. I cleared my throat and looked at the parents. "Hi there. I'm Alestia."
"And I'm Mikaela." She waved awkwardly. "We're both... friends with Sam."
Judy giggled a little maniacally. "Gosh, you guys are gorgeous. Aren't those the prettiest girls?"
The dad gave Sam a not-so-hidden fist bump. "They can hear you talking, Mom."
"Thank you." Mikaela and I said simultaneously. As if realizing the full meaning of our presence in the room, the mom tried to breeze over the conversation she had with her son.
"Oh my goodness. I'm sorry you had to hear our little family discussion about..."
Mik laughed, pretending it was okay and I followed her lead. I waved off the apology, acting like I hadn't heard anything at all.
"Do you have my backpack?" Sam asked.
"Oh! It's in the kitchen."
We chased Sam down the steps, and as if wanting to add to the boy's embarrassment, Mikaela said, "Your mom is so nice."
At that, I had to laugh. Or else I wouldn't be able to hold anything else in, and that would be bad.
"I want you guys to distract my parents while I slip out and get these glasses to them, okay?" I was just about to agree when the doorbell rang frantically. Sam's dad went to open the door, and a voice floated through the main hall and into the kitchen.
"Ronald Witwickity?" A man asked.
"It's Witwicky. Who are you?"
"We're the government. Sector Seven." I stiffened at the mention of the government. My heart hammered against my chest. Get out of here, my conscience told me. Or else you'll become an experiment, just like Mom and Dad told me. I shoved the feeling down and calmly walked toward the source of the voices.
"Never heard of it."
"Never will. Your son's the great-grandson of Captain Archibald Wickity, is he not?"
"It's Witwicky." Ron corrected.
"May I enter the premises, sir?"
My blood started to boil at the sound of his tone.
"Ron," Judy called. "There's guys all over the front yard."
"What the heck is going on here?" Sam's dad asked.
"Your son filed a stolen car report last night. We think it's involved in a national security matter."
I whipped around and ran to the kitchen, attempting to make the least amount of noise possible. "Sam! Mikaela!" I whispered. "There are government guys here, and I think they know about Bee. Also, why in the hell did you file a stolen car report, Sam?"
They both had worried looks on their faces. "I didn't know that it was an advanced alien robot, okay?" He retorted. "Should we go out?"
I thought for a moment. "Yes." Even though I was terrified of the outcome, I knew that I had to face these men. All three of us walked out of the kitchen, slowly entering the living room. After Sam had seen what was going on, he spoke up. "No, what is this?"
"How ya doing son!" A man with curly salt and pepper hair said. "Is your name Sam?" He smiled crookedly.
"Yeah."
"Well, I need you to come with us." The man replied, stepping forward. Ron walked in front of us, along with Judy.
"Sir, I am asking politely. Back off."
"You're not taking my son." Ron countered, along with Mojo yipping away. My eyes narrowed, and I once again pushed Mikaela protectively behind me. After all, she was the closest thing to a sister I had left.
"Really. You gonna try to get rough with us?"
"No, but I'm gonna call the cops because there's something fishy going on around here."
"There's something a little fishy about you, your son, your little Taco Bell dog, and this whole operation you got going on here." I eyed the man's badge. Seymour Simmons. I had never heard of Sector Seven before. The thought made me uneasy. There were many things I knew that most didn't, even more now with this alien escapade. I wasn't keen on finding out just what these agents specialized in.
"What operation?" Ron asked, sounding offended.
"That is what we are gonna find out." A man stepped next to Simmons and whispered in his ear, "I think, direct contact."
I tried to not let my imagination get the best of me, but I couldn't help but think that he meant direct contact with the Autobots. Simmons took some kind of technology from the guy's hand, and asked, "Son?"
"Yeah?" Sam responded.
"Step forward please."
"Just stand?"
Simmons moved the instrument around Sam's body, and the machine started to beep rapidly. It was a Geiger counter. That meant... somehow, contact with the Autobots resulted in small doses of radiation. I was baffled. Were they fueled by radioactive material? It made a little sense if I thought about it hard enough. But I'd allow myself to consider it at a better time than this.
"Fourteen rads. Bingo! Tag them and bag them."
Hands closed around my wrists and arms, and I started to struggle against their grip. However, I couldn't do anything as the men clipped handcuffs on me, not without giving hints of my identity away. The Witwicky family was dragged out of the house along with Mikaela and me. The group calling themselves Sector Seven stuffed us into a black van. One with Mr. and Mrs. Witwicky, and the other with us three.
The men drove rapidly down the road, and Seymour Simmons finally decided to address the teens in the backseat.
So," He began. "LadiesMan217. That is your eBay username, right?"
Both Mik and I gave Sam a weird look, and he replied "Yeah, but, you know, it was a typo and I ran with it."
"What do you make of this?" Simmons held up a phone and played a recording of Sam's voice. My name is Sam Witwicky, okay? And my... ugh car-
"Is that you?"
Mikaela piped up. "Yea, that sounds like LadiesMan."
Simmons continued. "Last night at the station, you told the officer your car transformed." He looked between us three. "Enlighten me."
"Well, here's what I said, okay?" Sam answered. "Cause this is a total misunderstanding... that my car had been stolen."
"Really?"
"-from me, from my home. But it's fine now because it's back! It came back." He went on. I caught what he allowed to slip out. "Well, not by itself."
"Well, no," Sam added, looking at me with a panicked look in his eye.
"Because cars don't do that because that would be crazy." I started to fake laugh, and everyone joined in. "That's funny! That's really funny!" Simmons grinned. "So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?"
Sam scoffed. "You mean, like a martian? Like what, E.T.? No."
"Ugh, it's an urban legend," Mikaela stated.
"Yeah." Sam agreed.
"You see this?" Simmons pulled out his plastic-looking badge. "This is an I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-get-away-with-it badge. I'm gonna lock you up forever." He started.
"Oh please," I snorted. "You know what? Don't listen to him. He's just pissy because he needs to get back to guarding the mall. Besides, that badge looks like you got it from Toys R Us. Where's the rest of the costume, huh?" Frankly, I had enough of this guy threatening us, and running my mouth was the only option I had. Simmons glared at me.
"You, in the training bra. Do not test me. Besides, Alestia Nichole Barone." He sneered. My muscles tensed at the sound of my full name. "Have you told your little friends who you are?" I clamped down on the retort forming in my mouth, knowing that it was the reaction he wanted. Looked like I was wrong about the whole 'running my mouth' thing.
"It would be a shame if I were to tell them. It is time to talk!" He demanded, not noticing the beeping of the machine in the front. I glimpsed the familiar red and blue paint job and braced myself for impact.
The car lurched to a stop, and a bright light shone into the front window. The men in the car broke out in a frenzy, and they really started to freak out when two giant metal hands crashed through the side windows and grabbed onto the roof. The car lifted off the ground, and Simmons started to yell. With a metallic groan, the roof split from the rest of the car, and we slammed down onto the pavement.
I barely saw Optimus toss the car roof aside with his headlights shining down on us. He turned them off, and Sam spoke.
"You A-holes are in trouble now. Gentlemen, I want to introduce you to my friend, Optimus Prime." I smirked and relaxed, already feeling safer in the Commander's presence.
"Taking the children was a bad move." Optimus rumbled. "Autobots, relieve them of their weapons." The rest of the 'bots emerged, and all of the guns that were pointed in Optimus' direction flew backward into the hands of Jazz. "Freeze!" Ironhide called out.
The Autobot leader knelt on all fours and got closer to Simmons and the driver.
"Hi there," Simmons said anxiously.
Optimus narrowed his eyes. "You don't seem afraid. Are you not surprised to see us?"
"Look, there are S-Seven Protocols, okay? I'm not authorized to communicate with you except to tell you I can't communicate with you." Wrong move bucko.
"Get out of the car," Optimus ordered.
"All right. Me? You want me to get-"
"Now!" He barked. The command didn't scare me, but I was smart enough to know that I wouldn't want to be on his bad side... ever.
"Alright, alright." Simmons stuttered. "Get out, hey. Alright, I'm... I'm getting out. I'm getting out, see? Very nifty that you put us down without really killing us." He muttered irritably.
Sam, Mikaela, and I got out of the vehicle and Mik pulled out the keys to the handcuffs. She unlocked Sam's first, and then started on mine. "So," She began. "Care to tell me what he was talking about?"
"Mik," I sighed. "Don't worry about it. You know the tactics of these guys, they lie through their teeth to get you to crack faster."
"Trust me, I know all about it. That," she pointed towards Simmons, "wasn't a lie. They knew your full name. Agents only know your full name for a reason. For me, it was my dad's arrest. Why do they know your name?"
I knew she was tough, and I loved her for it, but as much as I wished things were different, I couldn't tell her.
"It's not the right time nor the place to explain all of these things. I'm sorry, but it's going to have to wait." I rubbed my face with both hands and regained my composure. "You're just going to have to trust me."
Mik opened her mouth in protest, but I silenced her with a look. "I said, trust me."
As Sam walked up to Simmons, Mikaela brushed past me, and with a sigh, I followed suit.
"What is Sector Seven?" Sam demanded. "Answer me!"
"I'm the one who asks questions around here young man, not you." The agent retorted.
"How'd you know about the aliens?" Mik asked.
"Where did you take my parents?" Sam questioned.
"I am not at liberty to discuss it."
"No?" Sam took the badge out of Simmon's pocket.
"Hey, you touch me and that's a federal offense."
"Do-whatever-you-want-and-get-away-with-it badge, right?" Sam said, holding and waving the badge in the agent's face.
"Yeah, brave now all of a sudden with his big alien friend standing over there."
"Where is Sector Seven!" Sam demanded once more.
"Wouldn't you like to know?" Simmons retorted.
A boing sound suddenly echoed throughout the air, and I glanced up to see the Bumblebee had popped something out of the apex of his legs and let loose a stream of liquid. I gaped after realizing what Bee was doing, and I started to laugh. I clutched my stomach and bent over, out of breath.
"Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man," Optimus said, barely able to contain the amusement in his tone. It made me laugh even harder.
I wiped the tears from my eyes and put on my calm but fiery mask once more. "Good one, Bee," I said under my breath, fully aware that he could hear me. Sam and Mik had proceeded to handcuff all of the agents together, and I approached Simmons with my back straight and head held high. "Alright, tough guy. Take it off."
"What are you talking about?" He looked at me like I had two heads.
"Your clothes, all of it. Off." I ordered.
"For what?"
"Oh, I think you know perfectly why I'm making you do this." I advanced even closer, pointing a finger at his chest and forcing him to step back every time I stepped forward. I leaned closer and whispered with an icy calm, "How do you know my name, and how did you figure out who I was?"
Simmons narrowed his eyes and didn't respond.
"If you don't answer me, I will make sure that I strip everything you love away from you. I'm sure you heard of my reputation, and you should know that you do not want to mess with me." I murmured. "Now, answer my questions and I will make sure you leave unharmed... by me anyway," I smirked wickedly.
Fear flashed across his eyes, and as soon as I had finished, he started to answer. "I don't know who told me, but I received a call from someone on the drive to Sam's house. They told me your name and that you were with them, and that you are a valuable asset to somebody. That's all I know, I swear." I backed off and strode over to where Optimus was standing. I crossed my arms and watched Sam and Mikaela deal with the agents with narrowed eyes.
A voice from behind me pulled me out of my thoughts. "Alestia, are you alright?" Optimus rumbled.
I blinked and looked up at him. I let out a forced and breathy laugh. "Trust me, I've done worse things than interrogate that man. Besides, it was barely even an interrogation. Classic macho man, talks a big game but is always the first to break. You slightly threaten the things they love and they'll spill their guts like there's no tomorrow." I let my shoulders slump slightly, allowing myself this one moment. It wasn't easy. Especially now that Mikaela was suspicious.
Such a shame, too, because I'd done so well to avoid this very moment from happening.
Mechanical whirring filled my ears, and a warm metal finger gently tucked itself under my chin and lifted my head. My eyes met Optimus' glowing blue ones, as I, in a matter of seconds, allowed some of the anguish to show on my face.
"Alestia," He murmured and removed his finger. "What did the agent do to upset you?"
A wall slammed back onto my face, hiding all emotion once again. "He somehow knew my name and what my job is. My job..." I trailed. "Is very complicated, and there should be no way that someone would know my full name-"
The sound of helicopters halted my sentence, and I looked in the sky to see that three helicopters were flying our way. An additional three cars were coming as well.
Well, fuck me.
Thank you for reading this long chapter! I didn't intend for it to be this long, but things happen! As always, please review and tell me what you're thinking. It's very much appreciated! Also, let me know what you thought of the switch in POVs at the beginning of the chapter. It's something new and I'd love to start perfecting it!
