Lost, injured and hopelessly unequipped for surviving the treacherous Amazon, a lost human male finds himself in the reluctant care of beings that defy logic, and have their own, personal reasons for not killing him on the spot. (This is gonna be interesting.)
December 7th 2005 Somewhere in the heart of the Amazon rainforest
The clamour of the Amazon during the peak of the night was almost a deafening din in the ears of a man as he scrabbled across the forest floor, eyes blown wide and barely spotting the difference between tree and the path he was on.
The sounds of the predator which had tried to attack him had long since petered away, the ambush failed.
But the man didn't stop, didn't realise that the blood pounding in his ears was not the sounds of a Predator moments from feasting upon his flesh.
His sleeping clothes seemed to get stuck on everything, his scarf already long gone on some tree that had tried to choke him.
Before he had time to react, he ran full pelt into a boulder which seemed to materialise in front of him, it was only waist high, but it was more than enough to send him tumbling to the ground, winded and drained.
For a brief moment, he lay there, panting from exertion, far above, beyond the canopy, hundreds of thousands of stars stared down upon him and the rest of this seemingly endless Rainforest, like silent vigils watching over all, seeing all, yet, never able to do a thing.
He snorted, cursing his exhausted mind.
He tried to rise, using the boulder as a prop.
Only to barely hold in a shout of pain as his right leg collapsed under him, broke, the impact with the boulder.
Pain came flooding back, his body covered in scrapes, bruises, and now, a wrecked leg.
There was no way in hell he was gonna make it back to the camp… if he even knew in which direction it was… he'd bobbed, weaved, changed direction so many times… trying to get back ran the high risk of him getting even more lost.
He was going to die here, without his body ever likely being found.
Another predator would find him.
As if his thoughts had beckoned fate, a piercing cry reached him, and the sound of heavy, beating wings.
His brown eyes traveled up, spotting the white, grey, black… the talons out, descending towards him as the wings caught the rays of moonlight, illuminating the form which would take his life.
Spotted the sea green, glowing orbs that were trained upon him.
Spotted the sheen of metal.
Felt the cold steel talons as they surrounded his middle, his left arm, and the loss of contact with the ground, as he was swept off, into the air, dangling below the unnatural, massive creature as it's wings caused the world around him to rustle and lean away from the heavy wing beats.
His mind gave up, unable to crack the code of what had him.
Oblivion over took his fatigued figure moments after the creature carried him beyond the canopy.
Some time later
A pained groan left the man as consciousness returned to him. His body ached, most prominently his right leg, and for the middle of the night, it was surprisingly bright beyond his tightly closed eyelids.
"Oh good! You're awake!" A chirpy, strange, feminine voice called from somewhere to his left.
Why was the ground suddenly so soft and squishy?
Letting off another groan, he willed his eyes open, only to find his gaze locking on what seemed to be the ceiling of a cave, one covered in crystals which seemed to glow a brilliant blue, they must've been what was illuminating the cave…
How'd he even get into a cave? Who was that voice?
Turning his head down, he found himself staring at a hodge podge of different large leaves, all being wrapped tight around different parts of his body in crude bandages.
Looking further down, he found his leg splinted between two sticks, held together by a vine wrapped around the two pieces like the loving embrace of a python.
Turning his head, he found his view blocked by a pile of mismatched sticks, plants, vines and moss, all stuffed together in what honestly looked like the side of a giant bird's nest.
Dotted with strange metallic feathers.
"Who… who's there?"
"Oh, just us. You know, you really had us worried when you were found, all banged up, you really shouldn't off been out there at that time of night without anything to guide your way." The upbeat voice called, then the ground started shaking with sudden, loud impacts, slower than a normal humans walk, dragging almost for every other, the screech of metal and a muttered curse.
It was enough to get him startled into full awakeness and trying to sit up to see the cause of the noise, only to hiss at a sharp pain from jostling his leg.
A chirring sound quickly followed, and something cold was pushing him back down into the strange nest.
"Don't move, you'll aggravate your injuries." A cold, stoic voice, also feminine spoke this time.
Now, all the man could do, was stare at the massive face hovering over him, lips formed in a slight frown, the upper half of the face hidden by a visor of black glass.
What surrounded, was a mass of metal plates two different tones of grey, one light, one dark.
On either side of the massive head, three attachments, the longest at the top, black, the middle, the light grey, and the bottom and shortest ones a stark white, all flared out, a display of some sort, blocking a good deal of the ceiling from his already limited view.
His jaw fell, more in shock than in terror.
His eyes then shot to the blanket of metal feathers that were pushing him down by his chest, all of them leading towards a black main support, which was unfurled out towards him from where the… thing... knelt at enough distance so that the position of what he could only say was a wing, wasn't going to be uncomfortable for the rest of the metal body attached.
"Tell me your name."
Snapping back to reality he looked towards that black visor. "Huh?"
A sigh left the metal creature as she put her head to the side of the nest. "You're name, I need to know your name you stupid fool ."
A slight prang of indignity hit him, but he answered none the less. "Jamerson, Jamerson Grant."
A snort seemed to leave the creature as she returned her head to it's previous position. "Knew it, naughty, naughty, carrying a fake identification like that. Hmm, let's see… Jamerson… Jamerson Grant…" There was a brief moment of pause from the creature then, but it was akin to an eternity for Jamerson, his heart racing.
She must of gone through what was on him.
Why hadn't he used his cover name like he was told?!
The reason was obvious, a giant metal bird woman existing before him had fried his brain.
"Hmmmm…. Interesting… C...I...A… Oh, I have ways of getting info outta boys like you… but, not now, you need to heal first. You stupid boy." Her tone was now taunting, a hummed ring highlighting the British accent she held, if he didn't know better he'd swear he'd heard a pleased purr come from this strange creature.
With that, she rose, revealing the rest of the towering monochrome form, currently left with a dusty blue tint due to the glow from the surrounding crystals.
He was stumped though. How had she even?
"Oh, and, seeing as you asked, I'm…"
"ARRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNN! THA' HUMAN FUCKING UP YET!?" The sudden blaring shout was quickly followed by what he realised was a crude door made of lashed together logs being shoved open my a brownish red wing, as a white, orange and grey form appeared attached to the wing.
"Yeah Ira! He just woke up! Come take a look! He's CIA!" Her voice was suddenly chirpy, expression bright and inviting from what the visor didn't hide, unlike the stoic glare he assumed he had been under.
Evidently this 'Ira' one, seemed to catch onto his confusion. "Tha's Aria and Wren for yah, yah'll get used tah it… now where tha fucks dinner?!" She suddenly snapped, but the playful smirk on what wasn't hidden by the visor she to wore, gave away her joking intentions.
Aria… Wren… rose, striding over with wings slightly out and bouncing with the shrug of her shoulders, but with every other step, the dragging sound continued, her frame shifting to compensate for something which quickly drew a concerned albeit brief glance from the new one. "I don't know, you ask me? Who's been the one stuck trying to bandage up this stupid fool for the last four hours? Surely it's not such a complicated task that the 'tech prodigy' couldn't figure out how to cut a piece of crystal without a written instruction manual?" There was the cold tone again, tipped with a mocking edge as they drew closer, and the sudden size difference became blatantly apparent.
The Monochrome one was easily twice the size of this new one in all parameters, having to actually hunch and weave between the larger crystals to prevent any significant head injury.
Ira huffed, unfolding her own wings and managing to rest the second joints onto her hips, the metal plating there was dotted here and there with strategically placed spikes, as was the rest of her form it seemed.
"Ok then, yah tell me how ahm supposed tah keep Kia from turning it inta another of her suicidal competitions?!"
"Oh! That's simple! You send her out to find a very rare species of something to add to the mix! Plant or animal doesn't matter! Then, pray you're done before she get's back!" The chipper one again.
Jamerson carefully pushed himself up into a seating position, watching on as the two drastically different metal bird… lady… things, became more and more animated in their jovial argument, the monochrome seeming to switch between personalities every time then went to respond.
"Ok then! Second problem! Yah tha only one here who knows how tah cook anything beyond ah microwave dinner!"
"And who's fault is that?! Mrs, rely on your roommates for your every whim and need?"
Ira instead of verbally responding, tucked the second joints of her wings up against the underside of her head, and pouted.
"Pwwwweeeeeaaaassseeee?"
The monochrome one caved, letting off an exasperated sigh as she slumped, before regarding the other with a warm smile. "Oh fine! Stop giving us that look! But you have to watch the human! His names Jamerson!"
With that she was ducking to get through the doorway towards another area.
He tried to push himself further back into the nest as this new one, Ira, approached, a wide, dangerous almost smile, more predatory grin blossoming on her features as her wings stretched out, blocking the rest of the cave from view, showing off the cream, brown and black metal flight feathers.
"My… my… yah ah cutie… but, not mah type." She announced, actually stepping into the nest now, revealing the massive metal talons which adorned her feet, each one easily able to smash clean through his skull as they shifted to adapt to the equally shifting surface of the nest as branches and other matter was simply crushed under the metal beings weight.
Then, she was settling down, it was an unnatural motion for the human male to see, her legs tucking up under herself, being hidden away by her wings as they folded in. It left her head hovering at most a foot away from him.
His jaw was still hanging down.
She scoffed at this, wing unfurling slightly and offered the second join to him. "Ira, Ira Halloran, pleasure to make you acquaintance, fun fact, las' name means 'Stranger from across the sea'"
He tentatively reached out and grasped the brownish orange metal there. "Jamerson… Jamerson Grant. What… what are you?"
She smirked. "Oh… ahm many thin's… but most recently ah added 'Giant metal Harpy' tah tha list… used tah be ah human like yah, yah know." She had a twang he noticed, Irish, he should of guessed from her surname.
That was a bit of a surprise. "How… how did this happen to you?"
Ira shrugged. "Don' know, one minute ahm catchin' tha keys tah one of mah cars in mah Penthouse apartmen' in Italy tha' my friend tossed at me, next thin' ah know, ahm in some forest in Germany in this body with ah splittin' headache." She responded, pulling her wing back to her side, tilting her head to the side. "Now, yah turn, wha' tha high hell is ah CIA agent doing smack dab in tha middle of tha Amazon?"
Jamerson gulped, could he really trust these… women? With his reasoning for being here?
She apparently deemed it unworthy for her time with a shrug, rising again with a mumbled curse. "Ehh, ain't mah job tah interroga'e. Look, how abou' this? When yah all healed and we boot yah out back to yah camp, yah don't say anythin' about us being here, and we won' tell tha world wha' yah were doing here, and trust me, we can oh, oh so easily do that." The way she acted so nonchalant about that whole statement put the man further on edge.
She noticed, he half imagined her raising an eyebrow, or whatever she had as an equivalent behind that visor of hers as a smug smirk formed on her metal lips.
"You gonna say anything? If not, I'm leavin' yah here."
"I'm… I'm struggling to get my head around all of this." He responded, reaching up to rub at his temples and wincing as he discovered a very tender wound there which had a leaf stuck to it, probably with his own blood knowing his string of bad luck.
She puffed herself up with a roll of her wings. "Fine, ah'll leave yah tah your own devices then, don' move, Arien'll have mah helm if she see's yah moving around."
With that, she was out of the room, making her way swiftly into the main area of the sprawling, energon rich cave they had made their own.
She spotted Arien by the little… preparation station they set up, they were currently trying to dice up a few pieces of the energon they'd discovered growing in this massive cave system.
Already, the cut out which they used as a table was piled high of fruits, plant matter, and a healthy amount of carcasses.
Heavy beating quickly drew both the Harpies attention to their final member, as Kia came careening down from the crack in the earth that the cave had slowly become, down along the water fall which left a river running through their makeshift home.
Clasped in each talon, a dead howler monkey.
"Got more!" The dark, light brown and cream femme shouted, redish pink faceplates spread wide as her equally bright talons hit the ground.
Arien's helm tilted to the side, examining the newest kills. "That's enough monkeys Kia, I would rather not have you wiping out the local population." Wren spoke, turning back to her work as her right wing swept out, easily lifting up the now dropped corpses.
With a practiced flick, the two monkey's bodies landed on the table, atop the already large pile.
Kia nodded, straightening up and approaching the two Harpies. "So, how long? All this flyin' around's got me famished."
Arien gestured with her wing to what she was doing.
Attached to her front, was Hera, the young Harpy Eagle had, along with Keeley and Nibbler, joined their caretaker's in the realm of metal, dare they say Cybertronian bodies.
It had been a few weeks ago the group of seven had discovered something.
Their beloved birds acted akin to Minicons, attaching to their frames, be it back or front, with the latter having the advantage of their bodies effectively becoming arms which, after a good deal of practice from all parties, could be used to a similar degree to the three femmes former organic limbs, before their own became very limited in their functionality.
"'Bout twenty minutes… and we should be ready…" Aria announced, a frown on her lipplates as Hera carefully continued to slice one of the fruits with a knife Nibbler had pilfered from somewhere they didn't care to look into.
Kia nodded whilst Ira let off an irritated sound, moving over to sit on one of the boulders which they'd left there as makeshift seating. [So, what tha hell we suppos' tah do with tha little twerp?] Ira questioned, switching to Gaelic just in case the human found a way to clamber out of Arien's nest and try and listen into their conversation.
{No fucking clue, Arien? What do you propose?} Kia enquired, following suit by switching to Spanish.
Arien just shrugged. (I don't know, take him back to his camp at the dead of night at some point over the next few days…? It's too bright now, his group would spot us easily.) Wren responded, easily switching to French.
The three Harpies all exchanged a look of agreement.
[So… how much do we tell him?]
(Very little, not that we know much ourselves, but anything beyond our names must be kept hidden, it's obvious the Triage doesn't exist here… again proving we're on an alternative Earth.) Wren then announced, glancing over their shoulder plates at Ira and Kia.
Kia hummed, shifting to lean against the wall of the cutting Airen had turned into their kitchen. {You mentioned CIA, what else did yah get from him? If he's dangerous, say the word and I'll get rid of him.} She announced, wing flicking out, the momentum revealing the sharp scythe like blades hidden within the metallic feathers there, all whilst an almost gleeful grin formed on her lipplates. Arien and Ira knew better though, knew there was a pot of aggression within their close friend which was close to boiling over at the mere notion of such a human being within such close proximity. {They'll never find the body amigo.}
Arien shook her helm. (No need, he's a rookie, it's his first mission, he'd be more useful to us alive than as a corpse Kia… blades away.) Wren stated firmly.
Kia was quick but reluctant to oblige, tucking the serrated edges away back under her feathers. {By that I'm guessing you want to… gain influence here?} There was no real point even asking really, they knew each other too well to genuinely need to question it.
Of course Arien wanting to regain control of her domain, just as Kia was already itching to regain control of hers and the same with Ira.
However, they had found themselves stuck, they had no idea of how to return to their own world, to their thirds of the Triage.
Arien snorted. (If I can use him to gain access to the CIA, then I'm going to use him, all I need is to get ahold of all those juicy secrets…) The unmistakable sound of a low purr echoed from the femme then, Hera even bringing down the knife of one of the monkey's necks with a definitive strike to emphasise the point, cleaving the head from the shoulders in one strike.
Ira chuckled. [Then it's settled… little Jamerson's gonna be our first stepping stone, back tah power...]
Once the hodge podge meal was ready, Ira was sent to go and collect their new human, hopefully temporary, companion from his place laying bored to the point of blowing spit bubbles like a child in Arien's nest.
She came back out, with Keeley attached to her own front, and one of the talon tipped wing/arm things their bird companions became, had Jamerson hanging by his undamaged ankle.
"He sai' he didn' want tah eat ah monkey."
Kia snorted from where she was already visor deep in her own wooden bowl, making a mess of herself just to spite Nibbler who was trying to steal some of her food.
Arien was having no such problem with Hera, and so, leveled what the human could only imagine as a odd mix of irritation and something else he couldn't place with just her lips visible.
"Once again! Our beloved Ira proves why she is not allowed within twenty metres of any human below the age of sixteen!" The largest of the group announced, wing flaring out slightly to gesture towards the smallest, whom was quick to respond.
"Hey! It ain' mah damn faul' they're all heathens!"
Kia completely ignored the two.
"Yes but Jamerson here is clearly not a screaming infant, so you can carry him with dignity… or at least whatever is left of his… So give him here." Wren ordered, wing stretching out and feathers curling to direct where she wanted Ira to place the man.
With a huff, the smaller redish orange femme obliged, dropping him into the other Harpies grasp where he was quickly whisked away from her reach and deposited onto the monochrome femmes lap.
In return, Ira's bowl was half passed, half tossed at her, resulting in some of the contents ending up on the cave floor.
"Hey! Wha's tha big idea?!"
Arien popped a chunk of Capuchin into her mouth, now completely ignoring the fuming femme.
Jamerson just switched his attention between the three, trying to understand anything to do with the current situation. "Can I get an explanation of some sort about all this?"
Kia lifted her head up from her bowl, one wing blocking Nibbler from it and the other still holding the bowl to her mouth, which was likely a skill brought forth by multiple previous attempts, but the scowl on her features was directed solely at him. "Can't help yah there, we ain't got no fucking clue what's going on either." There was an irritated ring in her voice, a hispanic accent easily made out.
He turned his gaze up to Arien just as she craned hers down, making him feel a little bit uncomfortable at how much longer her neck was in proportion to a normal human.
Not that they were anything close to human.
"We woke up here, Kia found herself in Zimbabwe, and Ira over there woke up in a forest in northern Germany. We were humans before that, we each experienced a flash of light, a burning sensation, and then us and our birds were here… and we were metal birds." Aria stated, before having Hera reach into her own bowl and pick out a few pieces of sliced fruit to give to the human.
He gratefully took the pieces, having not eaten since the night before, and quickly shoveled them in, akin to what Kia had returned to doing.
"Oh terrific, now we've got two fools trying to choke themselves on their meals." Wren muttered, left wing snapping out and getting Kia hard in the back just as something began going down the wrong way. "Breathe you imbeciles, myself and Ira are not performing mouth to fucking mouth." She growled.
Kia completely ignored the warning outside a thankful nod, Jamerson took the warning to heed.
Ira apparently noticed, a bowl half raised to her mouth with Keeley's help. "Bloody heck, at leas' one ah them has ah functioning brain when it comes tah food." She half whispered, before pulling the bowl to her lips and slurping down the liquid cocktail of organic and mammalian juices which had pooled at the bottom before biting at the side of the bowl to pull as much of the contents into her own waiting mouth.
Kia shot a glare at Ira, saying something likely as a retort, but about as understandable as someone gargling gravel due to the amount currently in the dark brown femmes mouth.
Instead, a wing was flicked up,then something strange happened, the majority of the feathers curled, making a bowl like shape, whilst the middle of the large array remained upright.
Aria chuckled then. "A bird giving the bird, I've seen fucking everything."
Kia, by her nature of trying to inhale her food, finished first, finally leaving the scraps stuck to the bowl to Nibbler, much to the smaller Bateleur's delight and irritation at having failed to garner more spoils from the larger former human.
Completely ignoring Nibbler, Kia strode over to Arien, lowering herself down at the hips to get her first good look at the human. "What the hell you doing this far from the US. Don't you fucking try and cover up anything either, I can spot a lying piece of trash in Texas from Florida." She hissed.
Was it not for the fact the Planet's circumference was against her, he would of believed the exaggeration. Not that he didn't fully understand the underlying threat, the talons on her red feet could easily crush his skull like a hydraulic press could crush a watermelon.
He was probably going to be fired if his superiors ever found out about this, but he'd rather be alive and jobless than just outright dead. "We're looking for a suspected cocaine factory… to try and decrease the amount getting into the USA."
Ira let off a muffled curse, attention off her food and focused on the human the the Bateleur femme.
Hera's talons gripped onto the human, pulling him back closer to Arien's mid section.
The reason soon became all too clear, in all of half a second, Kia's lower faceplates had morphed into a vicious snarl. "You gotta be fucking kiddin' me Amigo. Well ain't yah fuckin' wastin' yah time here! There's a thousand slagging things your stupid government could be doin' that ain't gotta do with that pansy of a wild goose chase tha's only ever gonna make tha whole fuckin' problem worse! Healthcare! Decent educations! Ending the fuckin' Iraq war! Stopping the housi-"
"KIA!" Wren shouted, the sudden cry echoing throughout the glowing blue cave, cutting off the Bateluer's rant. "Two thousand and five ." She pressed, especially stressing the last number with a strained bow and tilt of her helm.
Kia paused to let the year sink in before letting off an understanding sound. "Ah… right… forget that last one." But then her irritation came back full force. "It's Culero's like you that give me such a fuckin' headache, all you sunglass wearin', egotistical, law bashin' sons of… no, I'm not gonna give even one ah yah the satisfaction of seein' me pissed, Arien, I want this ass outta our home by tomorrow night! Screw injuries, I ain't havin' no MIB, in unifrom or not, anywhere fuckin' near me!" She snarled, before stormed away and taking to the air, flying up through one of the crags further along the cave.
Nothing was said for a good minute before Aria let of a distressed sigh, wing lifting up to rub at her face. "Ah hell… there's no way she's gonna listen to reason until you're gone now… fuck."
Ira snorted, Keeley popped another chunk of meat into her mouth. "Don't go star' beatin' yahself up over it. Yah didn't know how she was gonna react."
Arien just growled lower, Wren snapping back a retort. "We are fully allowed to berate ourselves for failing to connect such obvious fucking dots." She hissed back.
Hera grabbed up the man in Arien's lap, and the femme stormed back to their room, the limp still there, still that dragging noise he'd yet to locate beyond the fact it had to do with their right leg, kicking the log door shut behind them with a harsh kick and a hissed growl.
They must of switched over however, because Jamerson was then gently placed down into the expansive nest, and a blanket from the heavens knew where, was pulled out from between some of the sticks and offered to him.
"It get's cold here at night." He was right, Aria.
But he didn't lie down like the wave of surprisingly soft, fibrous metal feathers told him to, suggesting he rest.
He was too awake for that.
Kia's outburst had left him with even more questions.
Arien stepped away from the nest then, moving to perch instead on a bolder they'd sliced the top off to make a flat surface.
"You're not from the present are you?" It was a notion which had only come to his mind at Wren's interruption of Kia's rant.
A jubilant chuckle was his answer. "Guess we weren't quick enough to cover up that little slip?"
"No, when are you from then? How far in the future?"
"Pfft, only twelve years, nothing to write home about. We're stuck here, and unless some unknown higher power changes their mind, something tells me... that ain't gonna change."
"A lot can happen in twelve years." Jamerson responded, trying to move so that he could pull himself up the side of the nest without aggravating something, they must of put something on his leg to numb the pain, but what, and a whole load of other similar questions were set aside for now.
Evidently, they heard his struggle, and came to the conclusion the man wasn't going to settle to aid in the recovery of his injuries. He'd managed to pull his torso upright when their wing stretched out, the metal feathers easily coaxing him away from the wall and up into the air.
Then, Arien returned to their spot on the boulder, right wing hooked to create an almost hammock like structure before he was slid back to his previous position against their midsection, and the strange, lanky appendages which he'd realised where the Harpies companions… only, in an alternate form, wrapped around him instead as the Harpies wings all but went limp, the weight of them pushing the limbs out, covering a good deal of the floor, at somepoint passing over a few random clusters of those glowing blue crystals.
He'd seen them in the three Harpies bowls, seem them eat them. "What are those crystals? Some weird type of Quartz?"
The sound of grinding gears and an half swallowed laugh followed, he guessed it was Aria, but she sounded more like a dying engine than either of them.
Wren answered, cutting off the odd sound. "No, they're… they're a crystalised form of energy… we have them in our Universe too, called Energon."
(Wren… really?)
(Oh hush, he'd only have more questions if we made it seem like it only exists here.)
(You said Universe, not time period, you've closed one branch of questions and opened another in the process.)
(Shit.)
"Universe?" Jamerson called up, proving the persona's point.
(Told ya.)
"Universe? Ah! Sorry, my heads always stuck in Sci-fi, I meant country… how my side of my head translated that to the entirety of existence… I don't know! Now, off to bed with you! Rest much and don't toss around too much!" Wren then rambled, trying to force a smile on their faceplates to try and convince him whilst quickly putting him back in the nest, pulling the blanket back over him before settling down on the boulder again.
(Now if only we had a pillow for yah to scream into.)
(Better, I can do it in here.)
(Fuck...)
Back in the main cavern
Ira huffed, Keeley swinging the bowl around on one of her talons by it's lip.
Heavy beating broke the near silence as Kia returned.
Ira watched the Bateleur land, rattling her armour with a shake and a stretch of each leg. "Needed that." Kia muttered, rolling her shoulders as she strode back over to their little seating area.
Ira raised an eye-ridge behind her visor, twitching only slightly as the top right piece on her helm bounced along with the motion before settling back down.
They were all still trying to get used to that. "Wha' poor plant life got mauled this time?"
Kia paused for a moment, having been reaching down for the bowl she'd tossed aside during her rant. "Couple of bushes, nothing major."
Ira just hummed, craning her helm out towards the larger, primarily dark brown femme. "How many."
"Four."
"Ah ain' talkin' 'bout no bushes."
"I know… seven… Boulders…"
Ira huffed and returned to her previous position, before deciding against it, pushing off, and walking further into the cave towards the area she'd made her own. "Just don't murder tha guy in his sleep, ok? We ain' in our universe anymore, these ain' tha same CIA we got. Besides, we need him, we've only been able to do so much from here. Once Arien gets inta tha US secure data banks, we'll know for certain if their hindin' tha Allspark or not."
Kia easily picked up on the extra spring in Ira's step that came at the notion as it played around in the smallest femmes helm.
All of them had been hoping for it, their new bodies matched the Bayverse style, though the blue energon crystals had made them question if they were instead in the Primeverse.
Honestly, they weren't gonna complain if it was one and not the other.
They had all decided not to get their hopes too high though, after much insistence by Wren, they were in 2005, for all they knew they they were in the Animatedverse, seeing what the Autobots and Decepticons looked like in the body style they themselves found themselves in would be entertaining if not jarring. Though if that was the case, they had to wait a good fifty years minimum to see if that was the case.
There were really just too many questions flying around at present, so, ignoring them until they had more information seemed like their best bet.
Kia let the reminder soothe what remained of her mostly spent temper, yes she had a deep seated… dislike… for the CIA and other such organisations, but, at present this little rookie Hera had chanced upon, was more useful to them alive than dead.
Nibbler's irritated call from his perch a little way down into the cave system drew Kia from her musings. "Alright, alright, I'm coming yah overgrown feather duster."
A faux bite from the Bateleurs hooked beak near the side of her helm was his response when she allowed him to hop up onto her shoulder plating.
"Why didn't I just go for that damn Golden Eagle…"
She knew why, her brother had called dibs on the thing before she'd even made it back home from a meeting with a few of her primary underlings.
The damned spoiled rat had stolen the bird away to his room before anyone could stop him.
She'd been beyond irate at the time, but had grown used to the Snake Killer she named Nibbler, after her favourite little alien from Futurama.
Given the fact the bird had an apparent passion for stealing all of her food, or trying to eat anything he saw move.
Which is why Kia knew to lean away from Nibbler when he suddenly lunged off her shoulder and pounced on something darting through the dark further down in the cave close to Ira's area.
A faint pained squeak and Nibbler was already digging into his meal.
Continuing on, Kia listened out for when Nibbler started to follow after her, his metal talons clanging and scraping along the uneven stone much like her own far larger ones were as she moved to pull her own makeshift log door open by wedging her right wing in the gap between it and the cave wall and yanking.
"Alright Nibbler, tomorrow, we begin our journey back to the top."
An excited call came right back as Nibbler flapped past her, aiming for his perch just to the left of her nest.
One thing she certainly was happy about with this change, was how much brighter their birds were now, they'd managed to get a lot more done around the cave with their companions actually understanding in detail what needed to be done.
It was how Hera found Jamerson in the first place, out hunting for 'anything useful'.
With that thought, she settled down, content to rest after all the flying she'd performed the last few hours.
And there we go! If you want to see what these lovely ladies look like now, pop over to my Deviantart account Moonlightdeer739, you'll find them there.
Looks like this lots back up to their old tricks as well, the balls gonna get rolling soon enough, and these ladies aren't about to stop it.
Well, hope you all enjoyed, until the next chapter is ready to go, bye!
Moon
