Addmittedly running away had been a stupid idea, but she hadn't really been thinking at the time. After Bree had left ALice hadn't been allowed to go back to the Insitute because of the safety risk. At least that what's her mother said. But what risk was there? Even if she had all the information Bree had, Voldemort had no idea that Alice even existed. Personally, Alice thought that Lisa was overcompenstating for sending Bree out alone.
It had been a logical choice. Bree was being targeted by Voldemort. Voldemort was based in England so sending Bree away would cause some of the his weaker followers after her while the strongest stayed with the Dark Lord as he tried to take over the whole of England, muggle and magical. That gave Bree a degree of safety as long as Lisa was able to confine Voldemort to the British Isles. But it was also a heartbreaking choice. Bree was no longer under Lisa's protection and would have to rely on herself.
Keeping Alice in England had been an emotional choice, fueled by guilt. Alice would have been safer in America.
And then Ben died. And then Ben should have died, but the killing curse aimed at him by one a Voldemort's lackeys rebounded and killed the Death Eater instead. Similar incidents happened to others. Attacks that should have hit but didn't, either being deflected or missing their target for one reason or another. But this protection only applied to attacks from anyone or anything working for Voldemort and only to certain people. It didn't take long to figure what those people had in common. They were all people that Bree cared about. Bree had done something to protect her loved ones back home. They could only hope the price she had paid wasn't too great, because things always came with a price.
Lisa would still not relent. They fought daily. Alice fought a lot like Bree did and one day Lisa made the mistake of calling Alice by the wrong name. Alice couldn't take it anymore. She packed up her things and headed for America. Not back to the Insitute, no matter hw much she might have liked to, instead she stuck to the east coast since she was pretty sure Bree was on the west coast because of the news report coming from there. She didn't want to run into Bree. Not with the way she was feeling.
Bree wasn't on the coast anymore, though she was in the west. Wes had taken her to a cousin's house in Nevada. Bree stayed for three days and on the fourth she left a note and walked out. The cousin had offered to drive her to the bus station that evening but Bree had found someone on the list in Mission City. She left trying to looking as boring as possible since she didn't want to start a commotion in a residential neighborhood. Brown hair and matching eyes, blue t-shirt, grey hoodie, her favorite boots hidden by a pair of boot-cut jeans and her cadet cap frimly in place to cover her stiches. She had put away the translation key since she was in a primarily english speaking nation but still had her perception fliter tucked under her sleeve.
As she was walking through the suburb a teenage boy rode by on a bicycle, screaming and being chased by a driverless Camaro... Bree ran after the boy. It was early in the morning, she figured she had enough time to get rid of a ghost car.
It hadn't been a ghost car. It had been a giant alien robot. A cybertronian. An Autobot. She figured that out the moment a cop car turned into a Decepticon and tried to kill the boy she had been following. Bree and another girl who had been curious had gotten caught it in the excitement. The Camaro had rescued the three teens and taken them to a power plant before fighting the Decepticon, leaving the teens to deal with a smaller cybertronian. Bree hadn't had to do much because the other girl had found a saw and cut the things head off, which was a relief because she hadn't had to reveal her magic but was at the same time kind of terrifying.
And now the Camaro was standing on a hill looking down at them.
"What is it?" the other girl asked.
"It's a robot." the boy answered. "But like a... Like a different...You know, like a super-advanced robot. It's probably Japanese. Yeah, it's definitely Japanese."
"Wrong." Bree told him as she walked toward the yellow Autobot. "It's cybertronian."
"What are you doing!" the girl exclaimed in panic.
"What do you mean cybertroy-whatever?" the boy questioned.
"Alien. It's an alien." Bree replied.
"Why are you walking toward it!" the girl shouted.
"Because it's an alien that turns into a car and I don't want to walk back into town." Bree answered, stopping about ten feet away from the Camaro.
"How do you know that it's safe?" the girl questioned. "I mean it just had like a giant droid death match."
"If it wanted to kill us, we'd be dead." Bree responded flatly.
"I think they want something from me." the boy stated, walking forward.
"What?" the girl said as Bree stared incredulously.
"The other one was asking about my e-bay account." the boy stated. Bree turned to the Autobot.
"Okay, we really need to know what's going on here, can you speak english?" she asked.
"XM Satellite Radio-Digital cable brings you-Columbia Broadcasting System." Came the response from the Autobot's speakers.
"So you talk through the radio?" the boy questioned.
"Thank you, you're beautiful. You're wonderful, you're wonderful." the Camaro responded.
"So, what was that last night?" the boy asked. "What was that?"
"Message from Starfleet, Captain-Throughout the inanimate vastness of space-Angels will rain down like visitors from heaven! Hallelujah!" The Autobot replied.
"Wait, wait, wait. Slow down." Bree requested. "You sent a message out and, and are you're allies coming?" The autobot nodded that then transformed.
John Wayne's voice came out from the speakers. "Any more questions you want to ask?"
"He wants us to get in the car." the boy stated.
"And go where?" the girl asked as Bree claimbed into the back seat.
"Fifty years from now, when you're looking back at your life, don't you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?" the boy asked.
"Well?" Bree called out once she was settled.
"So..." The boy began awkwardly. He and the girl were both in the passenger seat because they found it odd to be behind the wheel to a self driving car and there was not enough room for two people to sit comfortably in the back.
"We should probably introduce ourselves since we went through a robot battle together and all." the boy continued. "I'm Sam and this is Mikaela."
"You can call me Felicity, because I've been having some kind of luck lately." Bree replied.
"But it's not your real name, is it." Mikaela asked.
"No. I don't give my real name out to people." Bree replied.
"Why not?" Sam asked. Bree frowned. There were a lot of answers Bree could have given, but she decided to go with the simplest one since the others would take a long time to explain.
"Because I can't trust anyone." she said.
"That's kind of a sucky way to live." Sam replied.
"Yeah, because haveing your life ruined because you trusted someone with your name is so much better." Bree responded sarcastically.
"What like identity theft?" Mikaela questioned. Bree didn't reply.
There was a long and akward silence until Mikaela spoke again.
"You know what I don't understand?" she asked.
"What?" Bree sighed.
"Why, if he's supposed to be, like, this super-advanced robot, does he transform back into this piece-of-crap Camaro?"
The Camaro in question took great offense. The tires squealed as the it slammed on the brakes. The passenger door swug opened and the seats moved, tossing the three teenagers onto the side of the road. The door slammed shut and the car drove off.
"What," Bree began, readjusting her hat. "What the hell just happened?"
"Great, now... See? Fantastic. Now you pissed him off. That car is sensitive. I mean, $4000 just drove off." Sam told Mikaela.
It didn't take long for the Camaro to come back, now looking fresh out the factory.
"Talk about a makeover." Bree muttered as the teens climbed back in.
There was a brief stop to watch four meteors fall from the sky, though Bree felt that they were most likely the cybertronians that the Camaro had contacted. Almost as soon as the last one had hit the ground they were off again.
This time they stopped in a darkened alleyway. Bree stretched as soon as she got out, her back popping a couple of times. Once all three teens were standing in the alley the Camaro transformed.
"That was uncomfortable." she muttered as a blue Peterbuilt decorated with red flames, a rescue hummer, a black GMC Topkick, and a sliver Pontiac Solstice pulled up.
The Peterbuilt began transforming first, and the other three followed suit. Sam and Mikaela stared while Bree just sighed and thought about where she was going to stay that night since the sun had gone down.
The semi crouched down in front of Sam, obviously trying to look less intimidating. It didn't really work since the cybertronian was still many times larger than Sam.
"Are you Samuel James Witwicky, descendent of Archibald Witwicky?" it asked.
"Yeah." Sam answered.
"My name is Optimus Prime." said the Peterbuilt. "We are autonomous robotic organismsfrom the planet Cybertron."
"But you can call us autobots." thee Hummer stated.
"Autobots." Sam repeated.
"What's cracking, little bitches?" The Solstise said.
"My first lieutenant. Designation, Jazz." Optimus introduced.
"This looks like a cool place to kick it." Jazz announced, performing a break dance move and landing on an abandoned car and using it like a lounge chair.
"How did he learn to talk like that?" Sam asked.
"We've learned Earth's languages through the World Wide Web." Optimus explained before continuing with the introductions. "My weapons specialist, Ironhide."
"You feeling lucky, punk?" the Topkick asked, showing off two arm mounted cannons.
"Easy, Ironhide." Optimus said.
"Just kidding. I just wanted to show him my cannons." Ironhide grumbled.
"Our medical officer, Ratchet." Optimus said.
"The boy's pheromone level suggests he wants to mate with one of the females." Ratchet reported after sniffing the air.
"And I'll be over there." Bree stated as she went to stand by Jazz.
"You already know your guardian, Bumblebee." Optimus continued.
Sam looked up at Bumblebee.
"So you're my guardian, huh?" Sam asked.
"His vocal processors were damaged in battle. I'm still working on them." Ratchet stated.
"Wait a minute." Mikaela said, turning to Bree. "You knew what these guys were before they told you."
"What's your point?" Bree asked.
"How did you know about them?" Mikaela pressed.
Bree shrugged. "The knowledge isn't exactly uncommon. You just have to look in the right place." she replied.
"A where's that?" Mikaela questioned. Bree smirked.
"Don't ask questions that will get you killed." she chided. "Anyway, what you need to be asking is, what does a super-advanced want with earth?"
"We are here looking for the All Spark, and we must find it before Megatron." Optimus answered. He began projecting a hologram. It looked as if pieces of the ground were cracking and falling away, revealing lava flows. Spiked metal spires sprouted out of the ground. Sam stumbled back into Mikaela as a spire rose close to them.
"Our planet was once a powerful empire, peaceful and just," Optimus began. "Until we were betrayed by Megatron, leader of the Decepticons. All who defied them were destroyed and finally our war consumed the planet and the All Spark was lost to the stars. Megatron followed it to Earth, where Captain Witwicky found him."
"My grandfather." Sam said numbly.
"It was an accident that intertwined our fates. Megatron crash-landed before he could retrieve the Cube. He accidentally activated
his navigation system. The coordinates to the Cube's location on Earth were imprinted on Captain Witwicky's glasses." Optimus continued.
"How'd you know about his glasses?" Sam asked.
"E-bay." Optimus replied.
"E-bay. Sam repeated.
"If the Decepticons find the All Spark, they will use its power to transform Earth's machines and build a new army." Rachet explained.
"And the human race will be extinguished. Sam Witwicky, you hold the key to Earth's survival." Optimus declared gravely.
"Please tell me that you have those glasses." Mikaela pleaded.
Sam hadn't had the glasses, but he knew where they were. At his house.
Bree had blatently refused ride with Bumblebee again. Her back couldn't take it. It almost started a fight with Mikaela until Jazz pointed out that ther was more than one 'bot willing to give somebody a lift. So that's where Bree was. With Jazz.
"So, if you could just drop me off at the nearest Motel 6 or something that would be great." Bree said, adressing the radio since that's where Jazz's voice was coming from.
"Aw, don't cha wanna go on an adventure?" Jazz questioned.
"Is that what you call it?" Bree replied dryly. Jazz snickered.
"Seriously though, you don't live around here?" he asked.
"I don't live anywhere these days. It's not safe for me to stay put." Bree answered.
The autobot's voice gained a hard edge. "Why's that?" he inquired. Bree didn't answer and looked away.
"Does it have anything to do with what you said to Mikaela and why you're not using you're real name?" Jazz pushed. Bree's head whipped back towards the radio.
"How do you know that?" she demanded. "I never said anything like that when you were around."
"Calm down." Jazz said soothingly. "We 'bots have our own way of communicating with each other securely." Bree was placated by this, but didn't completely relax.
"I have enemies. I know too much. If I were to tell people too much it wouldn't be safe. Not for me and not for them, that's why I don't tell people. Not unless I know that their either protected or can take care of themselves, and that's only if I think they'll believe me." she explained.
"Well," Jazz began. "I can take care of myself, and what could you say to an alien that wouldn't be believed?"
"You'd be surprised." Bree stated. "You guy's aren't the first aliens I've ever met. Lots of other species have visited earth before you. Some are hostile, some are friendly, most just want to make a quick profit. That's how I knew about your species before I even met one of you. Scraps of your technology, just bits and pieces salvaged from battlefields, are some of sought after pieces on the market, and people get killed over it."
"So then, you're being targeted by gangsters?" Jazz inquired..
Bree sighed. "No." she answered. "Can we talk about something else please?"
Jazz was quiet for a moment. "Seen any good movies lately?" he asked.
They stopped in an unlit side street near Sam's house.
"I need you to stay here, all right?" Sam told Bree and Mikaela. "You got to stay here and you're gonna watch them."
"Whatever." Bree muttered.
"All of them." Sam said. "Do you hear what I'm saying?"
""Yeah, okay." Mikaela said.
"Five minutes, all right?" Sam said before running into his backyard where he was confronted by his father. Bree considered just sneaking off then and there, but it turned out that Autobots can be extremely impatient and probably a bit paranoid about Decepticons. They transformed and stepped into the back yard after Sam's father went back into the house. Sam began freaking out.
"No, watch the path! Watch the path! Watch the... Please, please, please. No, no, wait. No, no, no! Oh, no!" Optimus stepped on something that made a distinctive crunching sound.
"Sorry. My bad." he apologized.
"Oh, I... You couldn't... You couldn't wait for five minutes? I told you to just stay! Just stay! God!" Sam said before turning to Mikaela and Bree.
"I told you to watch them. I told you." he complained.
"I am watching them." Bree replied. "I'm watching them destroy your yard."
"That is not funny." Sam stated as he turned away. He spotted a chihuahua peeing on Ironhide's foot.
"Oh, this is bad." He groaned. "No! Mojo, Mojo! Off the robot! God!"
Ironide got out his cannons. "You have a rodent infestation." he growled. "Shall I terminate?"
"No, no, no, no. He's not a rodent, he's a Chihuahua. This is my... This is my Chihuahua" Sam explained, picked up the dog. "We love Chihuahuas! Don't we?" He sent a pleading look toward Bree and Mikaela.
"Not really." Bree replied.
"You're not helping!" Sam hissed.
"He's leaked lubricants all over my foot." Ironhide complained.
"He peed on you? Bad Mojo. Bad Mojo!" Sam reprimanded, shaking the dog a little.
"Bad Mojo." Ironhide grumbled.
"You should probably go get the glasses now." Bree told Sam.
"Right, right." Sam responded. He put the dog down and ran inside. Less than a minute had passed before Bree and Mikaela found themselves being picked up by the Autobot leader and placed in Sam's bedroom vis the window.
"Don't do that!" Bree snapped as she scarmbled away the room Optimus.
"Time is short." he replied.
"What is going on?" Sam asked.
"We're here to help look for the glasses. Apparently." Bree replied.
"Yeah, no, no. It's definitely gone." Sam replied.
"What do you mean?" Mikaela asked.
"My glasses were in the bag." Sam explained. "They were in the backpack and now the backpack isn't here."
"Well, they're gonna be pissed, so what do you wanna do?" Mikaela asked.
"So what I think you should do is you should...You should check this whole section here. Felicity should check over there and I'll get the corner here." Sam said. He panicked when Mikaela went to open a box and snatched it from her.
"Yeah, no, no, no. Not there. That's my... That's my private..." he trailed off. "Sorry. That's nothing."
"It's porn isn't it?" Bree asked.
"No!" Sam exclaimed. "No, I don't look at that, well, just forget it, okay?" He glanced out the window.
"No. No, no. No, no, no. This isn't hiding. This isn't hiding. This is my backyard, not a truck stop." He told the Autobot who had transformed into their vehicle forms in the middle of Sam's backyard. He moved away from the window and went back to searching.
"Sam? He's back." Mikaela said a minute later. Optimus was by the window again. With everyone distracted, Bree quickly cast "point me." Her wand spunnon her hand for a moment before pointing down. The backpack wasn't on the floor which meant-
"Sam, could the backpack be in another room?" Bree asked quickly, interrupting Sam's minor freak-out.
"Uh, maybe?" Sam answered, sounding unsure. There was a crash outside and Ratchet's sirens went off as the power went out. The three teens looked out the window. Ratchet had gotten tangled in the powerlines somehow, causeing a blackout for the entire block. Bree shielded her eyes when one of the Autobot's decided it would be helpful in they shined their headlights into the room.
"Listen, we got a major issue in here." Sam told Optimus. "What's with the light? You gotta stop the light. What's going on? Turn it off. You gotta tell him to shut it off. Shut it off."
"Sam, are you in there?" Sam's father called from the other side of the door. "How come the door's locked? You know the rules. No doors locked in my house!"
"You know he'll start counting if you don't open the door!" Sam's mother added.
"And I'll be going now." Bree stated as she moved to jump out the window as Sam's dad started counting down from five. Sam grabbed her.
"No, no, no. I'll handle it. Just go hide." Sam told her. Bree did so grudgingly.
Sam opened his door just as his father got ready to bust down the door.
"What's up? What's with the bat?" Sam asked.
"Who were you talking to?" his father questioned.
"I'm talking to you." Sam replied.
"Why are you so sweaty and filthy?" his mother questioned.
"I'm a child. You know, I'm a teenager." Sam stated.
"We heard voices and noises and we thought maybe you were-" his Mother began, but was cut off.
"It doesn't matter what we thought." Sam's dad said quickly. "What was that light?"
"No, what light? What? There's no light, Dad! There's no light! You got two lights in your hand! That's what it is." Sam declared.
"There was light under the door." his dad stated.
"Maybe it bounced." Sam deflected. "Look, you can't... You can't just bounce into my room like that. You got to knock. You got to communicate."
"We knocked for five minutes." his dad said.
"I'm a teenager." Sam stated.
"We knocked!" his mother exclaimed.
"You didn't knock." Sam replied. "You were screaming at me, okay? This is repression, what you're doing here. You're ruining my youth, okay?"
"Oh, for Pete's sakes! You are so defensive!" his mother shouted. "Were you... masturbating?"
That was the last straw. Bree left her hiding place. "Hi there." she greeted Sam's parents. "Call me Felicity. Over ther we have Mikaela. And I just want you all to know that this day is now in the top fifteen "worst day's of my entire life." Just-just because."
Mikaela waved sheepishly.
"Oh, son, oh wow." Sam's father was at a loss for words.
"Oh gosh. Aren't they the prettiest girls?" his mother said.
"They can hear you." Sam pointed out.
"Yeah, top fifteen." Bree muttered.
"Mom have you seen my backpack?" Sam questioned.
"It's in the kitchen." his mother answered.
Bree downed a second glass of water as she leaned against the kitchen counter. She hadn't really relized how thirsty she was until Sam's mom, Judy, had offered her the first.
"Your mom's so nice." Mikaela commented.
"I want you to distract my parents while I slip out and get these glasses to them, okay?" Sam said as Bree started on a third glass. There was a commotion in the front room.
"What is this?" Sam questioned when the three teens went to investigate. There was a older man in a suit confronting his father and more men in black were outside, tearing up the yard.
"How you doing, son? Is your name Sam?" the man asked.
"Yeah." Sam replied.
"Well, I need you to come with us." the man said.
"Whoa, way out of line." Ron, Sam's father, stated.
"Sir, I am asking politely. Back off." the man demanded.
"You're not taking my son." Ron declared.
"Really? You gonna try to get rough with us?" The man questioned.
"No, but I'm gonna call the cops because there's something fishy going on around here." Ron replied.
"Yeah," the man began "There's something a little fishy about you, your son, your little Taco Bell dog and this whole operation you got going on here."
"What operation?" Ron questioned.
"That is what we are gonna find out." the man said.
"I think direct contact." another guy in a suit stated.
"Son? Step forward, please." the man requested.
"Just stand?" Sam questioned. The other guy scaned Sam with some sore of device.
"Fourteen rads." he anounced.
"Bingo! Tag them and bag them!" the man exclaimed.
The man claimed to be an agent from a secret government organization called Sector Seven and had everyone in the house handcuffed and packed into black SUVs. Bree stared resolutely at the roof, refusing to respond to anyone.
"So, LadiesMan217." The agent began. "That is your eBay username, right?"
"Yeah, but, you know, it was a typo and I ran with it." Sam answered.
"What do you make of this?" the agent questioned, holding up a cellphone and playing an audio file.
"My name is Sam Witwicky, okay. And my-"
"Is that you?" the agent asked.
"Yeah, that sounds like LadiesMan." Mikaela replied.
"Last night at the station, you told the officer your car transformed. Enlighten me." the agent demanded.
"Well, here's what I said, okay? 'Cause this is a total misunderstanding. What I said was that my car had been stolen-" Sam explaimed.
"Really?" The agent interjected.
"From me, from my home," Sam clarified. "but it's fine now because it's back! It came back!"
"Well, not by itself." Mikaela injected.
"Well, no." Sam agreed.
"Because cars don't do that because that would be crazy." Mikaela stated.
"That's funny. That is so funny. So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?" the agent questioned.
"Which species?" Bree asked, not looking away from the roof.
"What?" the agent said. Bree sighed and looked him in the eye.
"Which. Species." She repeated. "Racnoss, Daleks, Adipose, Weeping Angels, Carrionites, Plasmavore, Slitheen, Toclafane, Sontarons, Saternyne, Auton, Gelth, Sycorax, Vashta Nerada, Weevils, Judoon, Zocci, Vinvocci, Atraxi, Pyroviles, Vespiforms, and that's not even a complete list of the ones that have visited! So tell me agent, which species do you want to know about?"
"There's no way that many have landed. We'd know." the agent replied.
"Yeah, because it's not as if they aren't technology superior to you." Bree replied flatly. "Except that they are. Oh, but it's not as if there are more compentant agencies oversea's covering up any hostile alien activity. Except that there are. Well, Torchwood one wasn't that competant, but they're dead now. Canary Warf? Not a terrorist attack, completely Torchwood one's fault. Torchwood two and three are a competant. Well, at least three is. I haven't met anyone from two yet, but they haven't unleashed an alien menace hell-bent on destroying the human race so that already put's them ahead of one."
"You're lying." The agent insisted. "We'd know."
"Of course. Just like you know about the alien technology I have on me right now. Except that you obivously don't, otherwise you would have taken it by now." Bree responded.
The agent got irritated. "You see this?" he said, holding up his badge. "This is an I-can-do-whatever-I-want and-get-away-with-it badge. I'm gonna lock you up forever if you don't stop messing around right now." Bree read the name one the badge. Now she had a name. Simmons.
"Oh, God. You know what?" Mikaela began. "Don't listen to him. He's just pissy 'cause he's got to get back to guarding the mall."
"You, in the training bra, do not test me." Simmons snapped. "Especially with your daddy's parole coming up."
"What? Parole?" Sam questioned.
"It's nothing." Mikaela replied.
"Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?" Simmond questioned.
"Well compared to shooting a guy and leaving him on the side of the road..." Bree trailed off. Eveyone stared.
"You've shot a guy?" Sam questioned.
"Well it's not like I'm trying to distract everyone by saying things." Bree stated. Suddenly the SUV was spinning out and then being lifted into the air by a pair of giant metal hands.
"Except that I totally am." Bree finished once everyone had stopped screaming.
