Chapter One

Fern Gold had no idea how she ended up in a lab. Just that one moment she was in her apartment and the next she was in the lab. It's because of this that sudden appearance that the scientist decided she'd be a worthy specimen to experiment on.

They were dumbasses. Then again they were also stupid enough to speak in English when they were around her. Which was how she was able to find out that they were not a legal lab. And that she was in the Middle East. Where in the Middle East she did not know. Also, it was 2007 again. She did not enlighten them to the fact that she was from thirteen years into the future.

There was also the fact that they were called Sector Seven. She hoped that was just a coincidence.

They had forced her into a white tank top, loose pants, and no shoes before shoving her into a white room without so much as a by-your-leave.

And between experiments that was where she stayed. She was rather glad that she was observant and cautious. She hadn't put up much of a fuss throughout the whole thing, besides when she first got here and she had panicked.

Which meant sooner or later they would become lax with her security detail. And then she could strike. Meanwhile, she would bear with the experiments. Who knows, she might just get something cool out of it.

Damn, she was a Gen Z if she was thinking of the positives of being experimented on. Or maybe she was just trying to stay sane.

Oh, who was she kidding? She was already not right in the head, considering she felt nothing at the thought of snapping necks. So being excited at the prospect of being experimented on and obtaining something cool out of it was not surprising. (Or so she tells herself)

Well, so long as it wasn't immortality, that would suck.

Honestly, she couldn't believe herself sometimes.

Fern groaned. It had been a hard day of testing. And her security detail had increased once it was discovered she could teleport. Granted it was only about 250 ft but still. That set her plans back.

She wasn't sure if it was the whole 'appearing randomly' thing that caused it or the scientist who caused it. It could also possibly be a combination of the two. It had been during a particularly harsh experiment that she had teleported to the other side of the room.

But it seemed the gods were finally granting her mercy, for with a crack of thunder so loud it shook the foundations of the Lab and the lights flickered.

Fern knew immediately this was her chance. She made her way to the door and stood beside it. She could have just teleported, but she didn't want to risk it. She needed a visual or knew an area well to do it safely.

While she knew the way to 'her' lab and back, they've never taken her anywhere else and 'her' lab was a dead end. She couldn't use a ventilation shaft, because this wasn't a movie and there was no way that ventilation shafts were big enough to hold a human, even one her size. That would be a waste of space.

First, she needed a weapon, then she'd make her way to the lab, she'd download anything they had on her onto a flash drive if she could find one, if not she'd just take the hard drive from the computer. She should do that instead, it would be easier than waiting for the stuff to download onto a flash drive. She'd also use that computer to get a map. She had no doubts that they had a backup room, she'd blow it up if possible. She'd need to get out before then.

As Fern suspected, her guards came bursting through the door, likely to put her in a more secure area. But before they could react, she lashed out, punching the closest guard's neck and he bent over coughing and hacking. Fern snagged a handgun from his waist and, after checking and then flicking the safety off, she put a bullet through his head, repeating it with the other guard before he could regain his composure.

She retrieved three clips from their bodies and stuffed them in her bra, for once thankful that it was just that little bit too tight.

She also grabbed one of their ID cards and took off into the hallways, teleporting to get her to the lab quicker. She had to take out three other guards before she finally reached the room. She scanned the guard's ID card and the door slid open. Fern didn't hesitate in shooting the sole three scientists in the room. She wondered briefly why they didn't have any guards before guessing that it was probably because they assumed she would make a break for freedom as opposed to taking a detour.

She made her way to the computers and snagged one of the scientist cards. She doubted the guard's ID would get her into the computer. She scanned the card and the computer unlocked.

It was just as the door slid open that the alarms began blaring and a voice came over the intercom about her having escaped.

They really should have better security besides just security cards. Honesty. It didn't take long to find the map she needed, but the lights flickered again as another loud boom echoed throughout the place. She had to reboot and then open the map and print it out. She discovered that there was another experiment that was also being tested. And that there was also a shard of something called, 'The Cube.'

Fern groaned. Guess that the name wasn't just a coincidence, then. But she guessed not. She'd retrieve the other experiment and then the shard.

According to the file, the experiment was a feline (it didn't list what kind) that they had managed to give human-like intelligence, genius-level intelligence to be exact, through the Shard's power.

She took the hard drives from the three computer towers in the room and opened them quickly to see if they had a tracker in them. They were clear as far she could tell. She nabbed one of the Scientist's bags and dumped out the contents before stuffing the hard drives, the clips into it, and then clipping both IDs onto the bag before throwing the strap over her head. She took a moment to look at the map and orientate herself before taking off once more, keeping the gun in hand.

So killing did have an effect on her. Not much of one, but enough that she knew she would probably be having a small breakdown after she felt she was safe enough.

She stood outside of a door labeled as '001,' the Shards number for it had been the first experiment at this base. She swiped the scientist's ID card and rushed through the door once it was opened.

The shard was held on a small wire stand under a glass cube on a pedestal. She shot at it, only to wince when it didn't go through. Bulletproof then.

So she went the next route and kicked the pedestal, sending it crashing down. It seemed while the glass was unbreakable, the pedal stool wasn't. Honestly. Idiots.

She snagged the Shard and stuffed it under her bandages on her stomach. After making sure it wouldn't fall and that it was snug, she took off again, checking the map to make sure she was heading in the right direction.

She froze when an entire group of guards was waiting for her in a line. She didn't wait for them to talk or shoot at her. She managed to shoot three of them and teleported behind them and shot the last four before they could react. She quickly replaced the clip with a new one and took off again.

Some of the guards she'd taken down as she was running had gotten a few lucky shots at her and so she had a bullet lodged in her shoulder and thigh. She'd slowed down briefly to wrap them in bandages from one of the many First Aid kits scattered throughout the base. So those were throbbing, but the adrenaline was thankfully dulling the pain, so she didn't have to worry about it.

The other experiment was thankfully only a few turns away, so she came to a stop outside the door. She swiped the card and entered the room. There, sitting in a cage in the middle of the room, was a large white and grey Maine Coon cat. She rushed forward, briefly disregarding the cat's strangely intent stare.

It held a basic combination lock. She looked up at the cat, "Move back, I don't want to accidentally hit you." The cat's eyes widened and it scrambled back to the other side of the cage.

Fern aimed and shot the lock off, opening the cage, "Come on, I got one more thing to do, and then we're busting out of this place." The cat meowed and launched themselves out of the cage and past Fern, pausing to look back at her.

"Right, we're heading to the armory for explosives and then the back up hard drives and generators. I'm blowing this place sky high." She explained.

The cat let out a fierce growl and had a vengeful glint in their eye. Fern laughed a little and took off.

Fern pushed open the hatch and crawled out, grunting at the weight of the cat on her back and the sand blowing in her face. She'd snagged a jacket and boots from one of the guards she'd down to help shield her skin from the sun.

She dropped the cat and they took off away from the lab. They had two minutes to get away and put as much distance between themselves and the lab as possible.

And what an explosion that was. They had just barely made it out of the blast zone, but the aftershock it caused threw them both onto the ground and rain sand down on them.

"Oh shit!" Fern's head snapped up to see a group of soldiers on the ground not far from her and the cat. And they were soldiers, for they had the US flag on their shoulder and full out military gear on.

"Were you the one who did that?" One of them asked her. She blinked at him.

"Yes, yes I did." She agreed, nodding as she stood up.

"Why would you randomly blow up something? And why are you dressed like that?" A familiar face asked. She looked at his name tag and twitched slightly. It was Lennox.

"It wasn't random. It was a lab that was doing illegal experiments. Myself and the cat being one of them. The storm allowed us to get some payback." She replied with a shrug.

The group of soldiers just looked at her. "That was blunt." one of the unknown soldiers said.

"Eh, you asked." She pointed out.

"Would you be willing to come back with us to our base?" Lennox asked.

Fern popped her tongue but nodded. "Yeah, I need medical attention anyway. I got shot twice while escaping."

"We never got your name!" Epps directed at Fern.

"Fern Gold! The cats… uh… Salem?" She looked at the cat held tightly in her arms for approval of the name. The cat tilted his (for she found the cat was male) head before looking up at her with a nod.

"The cat is Salem!" She finished.

And then the others all introduced themselves.

"Nice to meet you all! Wish it was under better circumstances!"

It was silent on the plane for several minutes before Figg spoke up, "Oh, God, five months of this. I can't wait to get a little taste of home. A plate of mama's alligator's etouffee... Mmm…"

Fern almost groaned aloud. She recognized that line. Hopefully, she would get those bullets out of her and wrapped up before shit hit the fan.

"You've been talking about barbecued 'gators and crickets for the last two weeks. I'm never going to your mama's house, Fig. I promise." Epps groaned in mock annoyance.

"But Bobby, Bobby-"

"I'm never going to your mama's house," Epps said resolutely.

Fern giggles a little, though she knew what would be happening within the next few hours, she decided that she would relax while she could. She probably won't be able to relax for the next while.

"Bobby, 'gators are known to have the most succulent meat," Figg responded with a dreamy sigh. Fern laughed again.

"I understand."

Figg proceeds to speak in Spanish and Epps mimics him, "English, please, English."

"I don't- I mean, how many times have we- we don't speak Spanish. I told you that." Lennox popped in.

"Why you gotta ruin it for me, man? That's my heritage." Figg then continues in Spanish.

"Fine, go with the Spanish. Whatever." Lennox said with exasperation.

Donnelly spoke up before the 'argument' could devolve further, "Hey, you guys remember weekends? Huh? The Sox at Fenway. Cold hotdog and a flat beer."

"Perfect day." Epps agreed with a nod.

"What about you, Captain? You got a perfect day?" Figg asked.

"Nah, I just can't wait to hold my baby girl for the first time." Lennox sighed, dropping his head back.

A collective 'aww' went through the band of soldiers. While she was sure most were mocking, hers was genuine. She had always thought that was cute.

"He's adorable."

"That's too-"

Lennox cut Epps off with a, "Shut up."

Lennox turned to her, probably hoping to throw her under the metaphorical bus, "What about you? Got any plans?"

"At the moment? I just want to get my hands on a computer to find out what they did to Salem and I. And maybe gorge myself on sweets. Gods, it's been too long. All those asses gave me were some weird super healthy porridge. And maybe get Salem some fish and meat. He'd been with them since he was a kitten and all he's ever had was kibble." Fern replied before mentally adding 'And maybe have a breakdown when it's just Salem and I.'

An awkward silence fell over the crew of soldiers and Fern rolled her eyes. Salem broke it by yawning loudly and obnoxiously. Fern laughed and ran her fingers through his fur.

"Thanks to the blood sample you gave us, we were able to find a pain medication that would work, since you refuse to allow us to sedate you. So you're lucky. Whatever they injected into you should be killing you, for it's acidic but it's not, and none of us can guess why." The base doctor gave her a Look, but Fern just stared right back. She was not giving those hard drives to anyone she didn't trust.

She might give them to Ratchet if she survived the night. If anyone could make heads or tails as to what was up with her, it would be him.

She probably shouldn't if she wanted to keep her freedom. He'd probably tie her down to a bed and never let her leave. She'd heard rumors after all.

Granted they were from fanfictions usually, but still.

Thankfully, the bullets were soon removed and the rest of her wounds were checked, cleaned, and then rebandaged.

After giving her a pain pill, the doctors sent her on her way and she set out to find Lennox. The Doctors couldn't do anything for Salem, for none had the training to know if something was wrong with him.

So she'd have to wait until she got back to the states.

"Lennox! Salem!" She called when she saw the two sitting at a table, the soldier was running his hand through the feline's fur as the cat ate some canned tuna a soldier had from a care package.

Both looked up at her and Lennox paused in his petting, causing Salem to hiss at him. Fern laughed, not even free a day and he was already getting spoiled. Not that she blames him, after growing up in a lab, this was probably luxury.

"You get your wounds checked out?" Lennox asked as Fern slid onto the bench across from him. "Yeah. The shot my shoulder took went through but they had to dig the thigh bullet out though. Even with the pain meds, it still hurt."

Lennox motioned to a Tupperware and water bottle on the table and said, "Here's some food. It's just some veggie stew, but it's food. Waters in the bottle."

Fern grinned at him and thanked him, digging in immediately after dragging it to herself.

Fern and Salem were thrown to the ground from the bed they were napping on when an explosion rocked the base. "Shit! Time to go, Salem!" She lunged for her bag as she stood, throwing the strap over her head.

She ran out of the tent, Salem hot on her heels. Fern froze at the sight of Blackout. "Oh." He was so much bigger in person than on screen. "Come on, we gotta find Lennox."

Salem yowled and launched himself ahead of her, and she followed him, trusting that he scented the captain and was leading them that way.

Blackout was aiming for the kid and Lennox wasn't close enough to pull him away. She zapped forward, grabbed the kid, then zapped to Lennox plopped the kid down then retrieved Salem.

"Woah." Lennox rushed out, looking at Fern in shock and wonder.

"Later, Lennox. We need to go." Fern scolded him lightly.

"Right, move! Here, over here!" Lennox was quick to call his team over to a tank, keeping a grip on the boy's soldier.

"Oh, my god Okay, okay." Figg was muttering to himself, freaked.

"Oh shit!" Fern snapped her head to the started yell to see Epps at the feet of Blackout. Shit, She'd forgotten about that.

She lunged forward and ported to him and ported them backward, just as he got his photo of the Transformer.

"Woah, that felt fuzzy." Epps shuddered, shaking his head to clear it. Fern shrugged. Zapping took some getting used to.

"Let's get out of here."

"Can't you just teleport us to the village?" Figg asked, looking at Fern.

She scoffed, "No, I need to be familiar with a place or have it in my line of sight to do so. Also, zapping solo I can only zap 250 ft away. With the average-sized adult, I can port 50 less than that. In other words, the more people, or the bigger the person, I zap with the shorter the distance." She shrugged.

"Oh. Pity."

Epps sighed, looking through the binoculars that held the Decepticons picture, "I've never seen a weapons system like. this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton like it's cloaked by some kind of invisible force field."

"That's impossible. There's no such thing as invisible force fields except in, like, comic book stuff, right?" Donnelly asked, hesitant. Fern let out a cough, and the soldier's eyes snapped to her, "Oh, right."

"Man, I don't know." Figg sighed, fidgeting with his dog tags.

"What is that?" Lennox asked, eyes briefly flickering to him.

"My mama, she had the gift, you know? She saw things. I got the gene, too, you know. And that thing that attacked us? I got a feeling it ain't over." Figg said, swallowing and looking around nervously.

"How about you use those magic Voodoo powers and get us the hell out of here, huh?"

"Hey! Don't go joking about Voodoo. That stuff is dangerous if you don't know what you're doing. And there is a difference between being a Voodoo practitioner and a Psychic." Fern snapped.

All the soldiers gave her weird looks and she shrugged. She'd gone through a witch phase back when she was in her late teens and had studied different kinds of crafts to find one that fits. She never really grew out of the phase, but she wasn't as religiously practicing it as she did back then. She had never dabbled in Voodoo though. Like the Fae, Voodoo just freaked her out. Mostly because she didn't like dealing with spirits.

Epps took that moment to break the silence that had fallen over them, "When I took that picture, I think it saw me. It looked right at me before Fern got me out of there."

"All right, we gotta get this thing back to the Pentagon right away. They got to know what we're dealing with here." Lennox said, pointing at the binoculars in Epps hands.

Epps sighed in disappointment after checking his radio, "My radio's fried. I got no communication with the aerial."

Lennox turned to the kid, "Hey, Mahfouz. You know, how far do you live from here?" Oh, so that was his name.

"Not far. Just up that mountain." The kid replied as he pointed in that direction.

"Do they have a phone?"

"Yes."

"All right, let's hit it."

"Let's hope the telephone line works." Lennox said, picking it up.

A rumbling was heard and sand was thrown up as Scorponok swam through the sands, knocking over the tower.

"Woah!" "Oh shit!" "Move!"

Everyone scattered to avoid being crushed by it as it fell. Donnelly jumped, and turned to look back, "The hell was that?"

Figg replies in Spanish and Donnelly rolls his eyes, "English, dude. English."

It was deathly quiet, everyone tense. Fern kept an eye on both Lennox and Donnelly, preparing herself to zap over to Donnelly. She was not letting the guy die when she could do something about it.

Suddenly, the metal scorpion's tail emerged from the sands from behind Lennox. Fern called out before Epps had a chance to, "Woah! Move, Lennox!" And the Captain jerked around, caught sight of the tail, and jerked himself out of the way, the tail stabbing empty sand.

The soldiers began to shoot at Scorponok before the Decepticon took cover in the sands once more. Lennox was quick to call a cease-fire and Fern turned to Salem, who was crouching in the sand, ears twitching this way and that. She was rather surprised the cat hadn't suffered from heat exhaustion with how thick his fur was.

Suddenly the Maine Coon shot up and headed straight for Donnelly. He launched himself up and slammed into the soldier, "Salem!" Both cat and soldier fell to the ground seconds before Scorponok's tail could impale the soldier.

Fern watched the scene with wide eyes. That happened much faster than it did in the movie. She snapped out of it when Lennox began to yell, "Move! Move! Move!"

Donnelly scrambled up as Salem jumped off. The group began running what little distance they were from the kid's village.

The soldiers began to yell at the villagers to find cover, Lennox going with the boy to his father's house to retrieve a phone. Donnelly shoved one of his weapons in Ferns, "Aim and shoot!" he snapped.

Fern groaned, but threw the weapons strap over her head and found cover, aiming at the red-eyed scorpion. She paused when it didn't fire after pulling the trigger. She rolled her eyes and clicked the safety off before shooting. It took a few moments to get used to the gun's rapid kick.

Salem was tensed at her feet, crouched in a ready-to-run way.

Soon, enough they did have to run. She ended up close to Epps. "You good?" He yelled over the sound of gunfire. "Fine!" She shouted back.

Suddenly, Lennox came barreling out towards them, "Epps, I need a credit card. Epps! Where's your wallet?"

"Pocket!"

Lennox patted down Epps legs, "Which pocket?"

"My back pocket!"

"You've got ten back pockets!"

"Left cheek! Left cheek! Left cheek! All right, keep shooting! Keep shooting!"

Lennox threw himself beside Fern behind the wall. "It's a visa!"

Fern didn't pay too much attention to him, keeping her focus on the Transformer.

She did, however, notice when a missile was aiming for Figgs area. She zapped to him and back to her former position literal moments before it hit.

"Eight-man team north of orange smoke!" Epps yelled, throwing the smoke canister. Fern couldn't help but grin, Aw, he counted me.

"Thanks, señorita!" Figg called out as he moved to another position.

"Attack direction west! You're clear and hot!" Epps yelled over the phone.

"Lennox! The heat's coming!" he warned.

Lennox pushed a laser into Fern's hand and pointed to the spot he wanted her to go, "Laze the target! We got a beam-rider incoming! Laze target!"

She grabbed Salem and zapped to the location, barely taking a moment to turn the laser on and point it at Scorponok.

As a plane flew overhead it released a torrent of bullets.

Epps must have called for the 105s, as the planes came careening back, shooting at the transformer. Finally, the scorpion retreated into the sand, a piece of its tail breaking loose as it did.

Fern sighed, and dropped the gun, allowing it to dangle from her body before she remembered to click the safety back on.

"Fern!" She turned to see Lennox waving at her. She groaned at the thought of walking over there, but now that the chaos was over she didn't want to risk any civilians seeing her teleport.

She made her way over to the Captain with Salem on her heels.

"You okay?" He asked, looking at her. She grimaced, "Yeah. Wounds are throbbing though. Nothing I can't handle. My period cramps are worse than this. Sometimes."

Figg, who had overheard her, let out a false gag, "Didn't need to know that!" and Fern laughed.

Thankfully, their ride to the states didn't take long to get here and they were soon climbing aboard the chopper.

Salem and Fern were placed in the middle of the chopper seats because she had to hold onto Salem and the risk of accidentally letting the cat go was high if she sat at the edges.