Sorry this is a day late, I had a chemistry exam this morning and was alternating last night between sleeping and studying. But, have no fear, the next chapter is here! Since this one is about double the normal size and I haven't made as much progress as I'd like in future chapters, I'm going to wait two weeks between uploads again. I will put a reminder on my phone, though!
So anyway, without further ado, hope you enjoy!
Kay stared excitedly forward. She and Sam may have been wanted federal criminals, but the sight of New York City looming ahead was enough to chase away her constant fear for a few moments. She sat in Bee's passenger seat, listening to Leo explain his plan.
"This guy, Robo-Warrior, everything about anything alien, he's supposed to know. One time we revenge hacked his site and maybe I saw some of your alien drawings or whatever." Bee sped up, carefully weaving through New York City traffic. The twins were keeping up pretty well, utilizing their small size to sneak between gaps.
Bee pulled up to a small corner store deli, somehow finding three parking spots right in front. They all piled out, a baseball cap covering Sam and Kay's faces and sweaters covering the rest of their skin.
"This is it. Yep," Leo said, spinning in a circle to check out the area. "Deli. Good front," he murmured. He quickly turned to Sam, Mikaela, and Kay. "All right, wait here. I'll give you the go/no-go, alright?" Sam nodded, watching as Leo disappeared into the deli. Kay walked over to a nearby newspaper stand, grabbing an edition to skim quickly. There sat pictures of her and Sam, right on the front page.
"Hey." Kay snapped her head to Sam, seeing him motion to the store. She nodded, setting the newspaper back down and following after Sam as he pushed in.
"It's him!" Leo shouted, pointing to a butcher behind the counter. "It's him! That's the guy right there." Sam and Kay froze, making eye contact with the butcher.
"No," Simmons muttered, pure disappointment in his tone of voice. Sam pushed his hood off of his hat, feeling himself slacken.
"You've got to be kidding me." Kay let out a forced laugh, trying her hardest to make herself stop believing in the situation in front of her eyes.
"All right, meat store's closed!" Simmons shouted, bashing a small bell. "Everybody out! Out, right now!" He marched around the counter, carefully pushing a smaller woman towards the door. "That means you, too, lady."
"Wait a minute, you know this guy?" Leo questioned.
"We're old friends," Sam responded. Kay burst into hysterical laughter, clutching at her stomach.
"Oh, man," she breathed, wiping away a fake tear. "That's a good one, Sam."
"Old friends!" Simmons scoffed, stepping in front of Sam. "You're the case that shut down Sector Seven! Got the kibosh disbanded, no more security clearance, no retirement, no nothing. All because of you, your mature little criminal girlfriend, and that glitch of a friend." Kay scowled deeply, flashing her eyes to Simmons. He didn't blink, staring her down.
"Moron, where's the white fish?" an older lady suddenly said loudly, disrupting the group.
"Hey! Don't touch me with the pig!" The man yelling seemed slightly unstable, slamming a meat tenderizer down on the slab of venison in front of him.
"Yakov!" Simmons shouted.
"What?"
"You don't get Christmas bonuses standing around! You want those new teeth you saw on SkyMall?" Kay would agree, he did need new teeth.
"It's my dream," the man lisped with another slam of the tenderizer.
"Help her out!"
"You live with your mama?" Mikaela questioned, voice full of non-amusement.
"No, my mama lives with me, big difference," Simmons snarked. "They got your faces all over the news, alien kids," he said, pointing to the TV mounted in the corner behind him.
"Yeah, we know," Sam muttered.
"And NBE One's still kicking, huh? How did that happen?" Sam opened his mouth but was immediately cut off. "Don't answer. I don't know what you're hiding but I don't want anything to do with it." Simmons began off, obviously done with the conversation. "So, goodbye! You never saw me, I got bagels to schmear. Vanish." Sam went after him.
"Look, hold on, can you give me five seconds? I need your help." Simmons spun around, sarcastic shock all over his features.
"Really, you need my help!"
"I need- look." Sam ripped his hat off. "I am slowly losing my mind! Okay, I had a little crab bot plunge a device deep into the soft tissues of my brain and it started projecting little alien symbols like a freaking home movie!" Sam held two fingers to Simmons' head, remaking the sensation as his eyes were popped wide. "And on top of that I'm a wanted fugitive!" he continued, pulling his hand back. "So you think you've got it rough?" Sam demanded. Kay was smirking, proud of the guts Sam was showing.
"You said it projected images off your brain?" Simmons asked quietly. Sam nodded quickly.
"Right." There was a slight pause as Simmons weighed the pros and cons of his next decision.
"Meat locker. Now!" The group followed Simmons to the back of the store into a freezer, carefully snaking through a maze of hanging pig carcasses. Leo and Mikaela both made disgusted comments as Simmons grabbed for a trap door.
"What you're about to see is Top Secret," he stated. He then switched to looking all of the new adults straight in the eyes. "Do not tell my mother." He heaved upwards, revealing a hidden room under the heavy metal door. The group climbed down one at a time, Kay staring in awe as Simmons ran about explaining a few things and mumbling to himself. She watched as Leo reached for Frenzy's deactivated head, Simmons smacking the hand with a group of papers in his hand.
"Hey, still radioactive. Hands off." Leo was still wide-eyed, looking between Frenzy and Simmons. Kay picked up a paper scattered across the table, a specific word jumping out to her.
Glitch.
Simmons appeared immediately after she read the word, ripping the paper out of her hands. He was right in front of her, so close that she could smell the various dead meats and types of animal blood radiating off of his clothes. She glanced up, staring him straight in the eyes.
"Trust me," he said simply, quiet enough so no one else heard. "You don't want to read that." Kay frowned but stepped back, feeling the sincerity in Simmons' voice. He wasn't hiding something, he was protecting her from something.
Simmons walked around, tossing the papers off to the side to get devoured by another stack of dead trees, then stopped in front of Sam with the file he smacked Leo's hand with the files in his hand.
"Okay, Cube brain." He snapped the file open, Sam's eyes widening. "Any of these look like the symbols you saw?" Sam reached forward, grabbing the file incredibly carefully. Kay quickly ran around the table, pressing up against Sam to get a look at the picture in his hand. Sure enough, there sat the symbols that had been plaguing her mind and causing severe headaches, one of which started up now. She stepped back, pressing her fingers into her temples as Simmons began climbing a very dangerous looking pile of files while explaining how he obtained everything in the room.
"I poached S-7's crown jewel," he was saying, hauling himself upwards onto a file cabinet before digging in the middle of an incredibly tall stack of files for a box. "Over 75 years of alien research, which all points to one inescapable fact." He waved the box. "The Transformers? They've been here a long, long time." He leapt from the stack as the teens all absorbed that information, silent as he opened the box and pulled out multiple photographs. "How do I know? Archeologists found these unexplained markings in ancient ruins all over the world. China." He threw down a photo. "Egypt." Another. "Greece." A third. All were pictures of archaeologists smiling with their finds, Cybertronian symbols engraved onto the stone door frames they stood in front of. The headache pulsed. Simmons slapped a tape reel into an old projector, hitting play. The reel crackled to life, showing footage of Middle Eastern diggers, standing in front of the doorway of a major temple. Cybertronian was etched into the stone.
"Shot in 1932. These the symbols you two're seeing in your heads?"
"Yeah," Sam breathed. Kay could only nod.
"Same ones over here, right? So, tell me, how did they end up drawing all the same things?" He prodded, raising his eyebrows. "Aliens. And I think some of them stayed. Check this out." He scooped up a large, fat file, tapping it against the table. "Project Black Knife. Robots in disguise, hiding here all along." He pulled up a new picture every three syllables, many of the vehicles from anywhere from the 1800s to the 1900s. "We detected radioactive signatures all across the country. I pleaded on my knees with S-7 to investigate it, but they said the readings were infinitesimal. That I. Was. Obsessed. Me? Can you imagine that?" Kay couldn't control the snort that escaped, quickly turning out of the way to hide it from Simmons.
"Look, Megatron said that there was another energon source, here, on Earth," Sam said.
"On Earth? Another source?"
"On Earth. Okay? And that these symbols, maps in my head, would lead him there." Kay frowned. Her symbols were definitely not maps. She couldn't remember or understand much of what flew through her head, but from what she could gather, it was history. History and culture, definitely not maps.
"You talk to your Autobot friends about this?"
"No, no, no, the source is before them," Sam brushed off. "Whatever the energon source is, it predates them. It's before them."
"So it comes before them."
"Correct."
"Well, then we're porked, unless we can talk to a Decepticon. And, I mean, I'm not on speaking terms with them," Simmons laughed.
"Actually, I am," Mikaela piped in. The group all turned to her, eyes wide. She began towards the ladder, Sam quickly following after her. Kay, Leo, and Simmons all exchanged glances, waiting. Mikaela appeared a few minutes later, a rattling metal box with a simple chain keeping it shut.
"Lemme out!" came the faint shout from the box. Kay rose an eyebrow, looking towards Mikaela in shock.
"This is going to be a little sad," Mikaela warned, carefully gathering a chain in her hands as she messed with the lock.
"Open it," Sam encouraged. Mikaela obliged and out from the metal box burst a small Cybertronian with glowing red eyes, clawing outwards towards Sam and Leo with small, half-hearted attempts at roars. At least, they sounded half-hearted to Kay.
"Behave!" Mikaela suddenly commanded, pulling on the chain and raising a pocket blow torch towards the Decepticon. He flinched backward, pulling on the chain lightly.
"He's a Decepticon?" Sam demanded.
"Yeah."
"And you're training him?"
"Trying to," Mikaela answered, lowering the torch and loosening the chain.
"I spent my whole adult life combing the earth for aliens and you're carrying one around in your purse like a Chihuahua," Simmons said in utter disbelief. Kay watched, equally as shocked, as the Decepticon bit at the chain lightly before turning towards Simmons.
"Do you want to throw down you pubic 'fro-head?" he spat, glaring. Mikaela apologized over his eye in a sing-song voice, speaking to the Decepticon as if it were some dog being taught not to crap on the living room floor. And he was agreeing.
"Just, tell me what these symbols are," Mikaela finished, pointing to the photographs. "Please?" The Decepticon looked downwards, nodding almost instantly.
"I know that, that's the language of the Primes!" the Decepticon exclaimed, sounding surprised even with himself. "I don't read it but, these guys," he turned now to the images of possible Cybertronians, "where the frick did you find photos of these guys?"
"Is this them?" Sam asked, holding the pictures upwards. Kay was leaning in once more, listening closely while forcing the pain from the headache to the back of her mind.
"Yeah, Seekers, pal! Oldest of the old. They've been here thousands of years, looking for something. I don't know what. Nobody tells me nothing, but they'll translate those symbols for you. And I know where to find 'em."
He cracked his mechanical knuckles with a smirk while Simmons said, "show us." The Decepticon turned, green lasers landing on a map conveniently placed.
"Closest one's in Washington," Simmons pointed out as Sam stepped forward.
"We need to go there, now." Everyone burst into action, Kay helping Mikaela carefully wrangle the Decepticon back into his box while Leo and Sam went up the ladder. Simmons ran into a separate room and reappeared moments later, butcher's outfit now replaced with a simple sweater and a 'Hello. My name is' shirt. Kay followed Mikaela up the ladder, Simmons close behind.
"It's gonna be tight," Sam said from beside Bee as they all walked outside, Leo already seated in the back with a poorly concealed excited smile on his face. Kay entered first to sit beside him and Mikaela joined as soon as she placed the Decepticon in the trunk, a few clangs and choice expletives coming from it. Finally, Sam and Simmons hopped in, Sam taking the driver's seat.
Leo stayed quiet for a while. Whenever he tried to strike up a conversation with the ladies beside him, Kay would talk for as long as deemed kind before steering it to an end. Everyone was mainly quiet, most of them falling asleep after the first hour of driving passed.
Kay's seatbelt tightened slightly, something poking at her from within the seat. She cracked her eyes open, just catching a road sign for Maryland.
"How long has it been?" she asked Bee with a yawn.
~Two hours. We're thirty minutes away,~ he responded through the scout dialect. Kay nodded, absently knocking Leo over the head with her hand.
"Huh, what, I didn't do anything!" he shouted, jerking awake. The loud noise awakened everyone harshly from their sleep, Simmons grumbling out a few curses towards Leo.
"What time is it?" Sam mumbled, rubbing at his face.
"Thirty minutes away," Kay answered, now entranced by the surroundings. Miles of fields slowly melded into small communities of houses, then a gas station here and there, then a few stores, and very suddenly a large city was looming in the distance, shining from the sun high in the sky. Bee maneuvered throughout the streets, pulling into the Smithsonian Museum's parking lot and slowing to a final stop. Simmons and Sam exited, Kay barreling out behind Sam in a desperate need to stretch her legs and get fresh air. She gave Bee's tire a kick when his laughter reached her ears, sticking her tongue out towards the Bot. Kay looked up at the sound of something ripping, her jaw dropping.
"What is that?" Sam whined, voicing every thought that struggled to come to fruition within Kay's shock riddled mind.
"Hm?" Simmons asked innocently, glancing towards Sam. "I wear them when I'm in a funk. So does Giambi, Jeter. It's a baseball thing." Kay finally forced her eyes away, rubbing roughly at her face.
"I could've gone my whole life without seeing that but you had to ruin it, Simmons," she groaned. Simmons brushed it off, changing into some type of janitor jumpsuit. "What is this, Ghostbusters?" Kay questioned. Simmons pointed at her roughly while Mikaela begrudgingly placed some type of patch on the suit.
"Don't get snippy with me, Glitch." Kay simply flashed the man smirk. "Alright, watches synchronized, sharp mind, and empty bladder. You get caught, demand an attorney and don't ever say my name." Simmons punctuated his point with a sharp movement of his zipper, staring straight at Sam. He tossed him a simple pill bottle, the label old and sun-worn to a point beyond recognition. "Take one of these pills. Slip it under your tongue. It's the high-concentrate polymer they put in Oreo cookies. Tricks the polygraph every time." Sam handed one to Kay before passing the bottle off to Mikaela, the other woman clearly not amused by this situation. Kay gave her a sympathetic look, both rolling their eyes in unison. "Okay. Now, let's get this show on the road." Simmons tested a taser twice, the bolt of electricity clear between the two prongs.
"No, listen, I can't do this!" Leo suddenly exclaimed, staring wide-eyed at the device. "I'm not some alien bounty hunter, guys. I'm not gonna do this. Guards have guns, I don't want to die." Simmons stepped forward, chest bumping Leo back into Skids.
"You compromise this mission, you are dead to me," he threatened, voice full of the nonchalant tone he used as a way of threatening violence. If he sounded like he didn't care then it made it all the more believable that he was going to carry out the threat. At least, if you didn't know him as long as Kay and didn't take advantage of every possible opportunity to annoy the living daylights out of him.
His temper tantrums were hilarious.
"Now, look into my eyes and tighten up that sphincter." Kay couldn't help a snort of laughter, quickly avoiding Simmons' look.
Twenty minutes later Kay had herself in the rafters of the main museum, staring down at the dwindling numbers of patrons. Her teleportation ability was growing stronger as she was able to snap to the location after ten seconds of focus, but she still knew her limits. She either had to be incredibly comfortable with the area or staring straight at it.
A little kid gasped in awe somewhere below her, pointing towards a large and old jet.
"Look, sissy, a Blackbird!" The little boy's older sister carefully shushed him but still paid careful attention to the little facts he knew, smiling wide. Kay let out a small sigh.
"I wish life were still that normal," she muttered, glancing towards the mounds of dust piled before her. With a swish of her finger, her power manifested as a little tendril, flew through one mound, knocking it to the ground. She entertained herself with the simple, yet useful, exercise until the PA system snapped on, alerting patrons to the closing time while almost startling Kay out of her perch. She held on, however, turning towards the entrance at a sharp whistle and slam of a door.
"Yo, baba! Bad news, bro. Ran out of toilet paper, you got any out here?" Leo shouted, gaining the attention of all the guards. Kay's hand instinctively hit her face, embarrassment over knowing she was associated with the dude hitting her in fierce waves.
"Sir, you are a grown, naked man around children. Pull your pants up and exit the building," a guard practically growled at him. Leo managed to get one inside the bathroom, Kay preparing herself while for the soon coming teleport. She picked her spot and focused, her uncovered skin beginning to glow in small, yellow-but-faintly-green pulses. Sam and Mikaela exited their chosen hiding spot and that's when Kay acted, releasing the pent-up energy. Instantly she was on the ground again, her ears popping and legs shaking from the sudden weight on them. Sam and Mikaela ran past her, straight for a pair of guards. Within seconds they were on the ground, twitching and groaning from residual electricity.
"Time to shine, Glitch," Simmons announced, dropping his bag to the ground.
"Dude, can I watch?" Leo, still twitching, asked. Kay let out a small sigh.
"Yeah, but come on." She ran down the halls, Leo close behind, and found a locked conference room, perfect for what she needed. She rose her right wrist, bracelet spitting out a simple screened device. Kay opened her camera on her phone and shoved it in Leo's hands.
"Stay here, point it at the room, and wait." With that she turned and ran back, allowing a far stronger rush of her power to fill her. Her eyes looked to the screen, focusing on the conference room, every detail, and her power responded, stretching within her like a rubber band ready to fling itself forward. Every guard she passed she let a small amount fly, and soon enough the conference room had every guard in the museum within it, either twitching or unconscious. She was definitely out of breath, though.
"That was frickin' amazing!" Leo exclaimed as he ran up behind her, absently handing her phone back. "I can't believe you can just teleport things!"
"It's not my strong suit," Kay responded, starting at a run again towards where she saw Sam, Mikaela, Simmons, and the little Decepticon bunching up. "It took a bit out of me, I can feel it." Kay also felt a sudden wave of energy, snapping her head forward to see the AllSpark shard having embedded itself against the Blackbird jet from earlier. Mikaela and Sam were under it, looking over something, then suddenly jumped backward.
"It's a Decepticon!"
"A Decepticon?" Simmons breathed, Leo and Kay now beside him. "Behind the MiG, now!" Everyone ran as the Blackbird began to transform, a loud, screeching, clanky process. Kay couldn't help but pause, watching in shock as a few pieces of armor fell to the floor and the Decepticon let out choice grumbles. At one point he even had to force part of the cockpit upwards to see.
"What sort of hideous mausoleum is this? Answer me, pawns and knaves!" He smashed his way through the exhibits as he needed. "Show yourselves or face my infinite wrath! You little spinal cord based organisms. Bugger it!" The group carefully exited from under one of the planes, Sam instinctively raising his hands. The Decepticon pushed forward more, punching a landing pod for one of the Apollo rockets out of the way. Sam carefully sidestepped it. "Behold, the eternal glory of Jetfire! Prepare for remote systems override!" He pointed to the far hangar doors, haphazardly making his way.
"I tell you, this guy did not age well," the smaller Decepticon commented, pointing a thumb at the still creaking jet.
"I don't think he's gonna hurt us," Mikaela added.
"I command these doors to open!" Jetfire shouted at the sheets of metal comprising the hangar doors. "Fire! I said, fire!" At the second command, he punched the doors, missiles bursting out of his hands and firing backward. In pure instinct Kay shot her hands up, the missiles hitting a shield of her power and exploding within a confining bubble, preventing any damage.
"You can stop missiles, too?" Leo demanded, awe in his eyes. Kay smacked him lightly with a tendril, running after Jetfire who had resorted to shouldering his way out of the museum.
"Wait a second!" Sam tried to call after him.
Jetfire paid no heed, instead complaining of, "itchy, wretched rust in my arse!" with a strong scratch at the area.
"The museum is going to be very angry," Simmons said, glancing at the most likely millions of dollars of damage taking place. "Very angry! We gotta catch that plane." Bee and the twins raced up behind us, screeching to a halt near where Jetfire had paused.
"Right, I'm on a mission," Jetfire stated to himself with a hard tap to a C17 wing and a spin of his cane that took out an elevator of another. Everyone was shouting at him to stop, trying to get his attention while Kay began to prepare her power to hopefully stop anymore damage from happening.
"What do you want?" Jetfire demanded of the group, not bothering to turn.
"We just want to talk," Sam tried.
"I've no time to talk, I'm on a mission! I'm a mercenary doom bringer!" Now he turned, looking at Sam. "What planet am I on?"
"Earth."
"Earth? Terrible name for a planet might as well call it 'Dirt,'" Jetfire said, crouching lower. "Planet 'Dirt.' Tell me, is that robot civil war still going on? Who's winning?" Kay's mind very suddenly provided Cybertronian symbols bright in her vision but forgot the translations, instead leaving a small, buzzing headache.
"The Decepticons," Sam responded to the question of the war. Jetfire spat in disgust.
"Well, I changed sides to the Autobots."
"What do you mean, changed sides?" Sam demanded.
"It's a choice," Jetfire responded matter-of-factly. "It's an intensely personal decision. So much negativity. Who wants to live a life filled with hate?"
"You mean you don't have to work for those miserable, freaking Decepticons?" the small Decepticon questioned.
"If Decepticons had their way, they'd destroy the whole universe." The small Decepticon suddenly spun on his wheels, dropping to his knees and crawling up to Mikaela's foot. Kay's eyes, still glowing yellow behind her barely dirtied glasses, widened in shock before turning to slight disgust as it began humping her.
"I'm changing sides, I'm changing sides, too, warrior goddess. Who's your little Autobot?" Mikaela cooed lightly.
"You're cute."
"Name's Wheelie. Yeah. Say my name, say my name!" At this point, he was humping and Kay was struggling not to simply send him wherever she had sent Barricade.
"What are you allowing to happen to your foot just now?" Sam questioned.
"At least he's faithful, Sam," Mikaela shot back.
"Great, I missed something, didn't I?" Kay breathed towards Leo. She received a strongly affirming nod.
"Yeah, well, he's faithful and he's nude and h's perverted. Can you just- can you stop?" Sam's foot went out and kicked against Wheelie lightly, the new Autobot scowling as he fell. "What were you saying?" he called to Jetfire.
"I told you my name was Jetfire, so stop judging me!" the Autobot shouted, lubricants flying from his mouth in his vehemence while he punched the ground. Everyone fell back to the ground from the force of the punch, Kay throwing up a field to stop his cane from hitting Leo just in time. "I have issues of my own. And it started with my mother! My ancestors have been here for centuries," Jetfire began to rant. "My father, he was a wheel, the first wheel! Do you know what he transformed into?" Simmons shook his head. "Nothing! And he did so with honor, dignity, damn it!" A rumbling filled the air quickly followed by a fart escaping Jetfire, a neon orange parachute bursting outwards in the wind and dragging the old Bot backwards. He fell to the ground with a large thump, everyone but Kay jumping upwards in shock and running towards him.
"Why aren't you doing anything?" she demanded, turning towards Bee.
~I'm trying to decide whether I should be laughing or in shock,~ he simply replied. Kay shrugged lightly, finally standing upwards and joining the group as Sam was drawing in the ground with a knife. Cybertronian symbols quickly came to life in the ground, a headache hitting Kay with everyone she looked at. Bee and the twins carefully crept closer, Bee's holoform very suddenly appearing beside Kay. She reached down and grabbed his hand, forcing herself to relax. She felt her power fade into the background once more.
"It comes in waves, these vivid symbols," Sam began to explain as he finished. "They're symbols but they're in my mind, okay, our minds. You see, all this is in our heads," he spoke to Jetfire, the ancient Bot watching carefully. "Megatron wants what's in my mind. Him and someone called the Fallen."
"The Fallen? I know him," Jetfire said. "He left me here to rust. The original Decepticon. He's terrible to work for. It's always apocalypse, chaos, crisis." He crouched to the ground again, pointing at the symbols. "These transcriptions, they were part of my mission, the Fallen's search. I remember now! For the Dagger's Tip, and the key!" He was getting more manic, his old processor racing through memories.
"Slow down," Sam commanded. "The Dagger's Tip? The key? What are you talking about?"
"No time to explain. Hold on, everybody!" His hands began to spark, encircling all of us humans. Bee's holoform very suddenly disappeared, while whatever was coming from Jetfire's hands was affecting Kay's power. It was rushing forward, pushing against barriers, and the blue tint was getting stronger by the second, turning everything green. Sam was instinctively holding Kay tight, Leo grabbing to her other arm with a grimace as wind appeared and blew dirt and debris in their faces. "Stay still or you'll die!" The power reached a sudden climax. One second Kay was standing on grass, holding tight to Sam, the next she was flying through a fountain of sand and into the air with a scream.
Kay's power acted before she could, cushioning her rather rough landing and leaving her sore but not bruised. She stood up just as more forms burst from a rock formation. First came the twins and Simmons, flying farther through the air than Kay thought possible. She shot her hands out, watching in shock as the idea actually worked and each fall was cushioned, no metallic ringing from metal or rock or shout of pain from Simmons. Next came Bee and Sam. Kay caught Sam with a small grunt then focused everything on cushioning Bee, feeling the impact through her power. Finally came Jetfire, Leo, Mikaela, and Wheelie. With a strong surge, Kay sent her power outwards, watching sand billow into the air as the energy rushed past it. Jetfire made nary a sound as he landed on a large rock formation and Mikaela actually landed on her feet. Leo wasn't hurt but still tripped, face planting into the sand, and Wheelie simply bounced off of Jetfire's face.
"Sam!" Mikaela suddenly shouted. Kay turned towards her, shuffling forwards.
"Where are we?" Sam shouted back. "Kay? Simmons?" Simmons responded with an excited shout, beginning towards the group. Kay ran towards Sam.
The entire chain of events was not Kay's smartest idea. Her muscles felt instantly sore, her body drained of every ounce of energy. Running towards where everyone was was taking a lot out of her. Whatever energy she had gained from Jetfire's hands was gone, along with all of her own.
"Are you okay?" Sam demanded, hugging Mikaela close. Leo was sputtering something about Vegas while Kay was panting heavily. She dropped to the ground, laying out on the sand even if she hated every second of it. It was so warm. "Kay, was that you? Did you catch all of us?"
"Uh-huh," she managed to mumble. The sand was incredibly warm.
"Since when have you been strong enough for that?" Simmons asked as he joined the group.
"I've been training with Alpha," Kay supplied simply. She knew in reality that it was something to do with whatever power Jetfire had used to teleport the group but she was not about to say that to her former jailor.
Bee walked up and carefully bent over, scooping Kay from the sand. The woman smiled and cuddled into his chest as he held her close, keeping her eyes shut. Everyone carefully gathered on the lowest level of the rock formation Jetfire had landed on, watching as the old Bot maneuvered himself downwards. Simmons was ready for him.
"That really, really hurt. You're just lucky Kaytlen was here to catch us all!" He gestured towards where Kay was still snuggled in Bee's grip, struggling to keep her eyes open. "People could have gotten killed, okay?"
"Shut up," Jetfire cut him off, "I told you I was opening a space bridge. It's the fastest way to travel to Egypt."
"When did- when did you tell us? You didn't tell us anything!" Sam shouted, not okay with any part of the situation. "Why are we in Egypt?"
"Don't you get snippy with me, fleshling! You were duly informed!" Jetfire shouted back with a clanking of his old body as he sat down.
"Can you just stop for a second? Can you focus?" Sam corralled. "Can you tell us why we're in Egypt so we can all have a little bit of semblance of peace of mind?"
"This planet was visited by our race once before, by our earliest ancestors, millennia ago," Jetfire began. "They were on an exploratory mission to harvest energon, the lifeblood of our race. Without it, we'll all perish, oxidize and rust, like my wretched self! Do you have any idea what it's like to slowly fall apart and die?" He had descended into slight maniac-y there, more spit flying from his mouth. He had stood up at some point in his ranting, pacing over the small area.
"Let's not get episodic, okay, old-timer?" Simmons interjected. "Beginning, middle, end. Facts. Details. Condense. Plot. Tell it."
"Somewhere buried in this desert, our ancestors built a great machine. It harvests energon by destroying suns."
"Destroy suns?" Sam questioned, quickly followed by Leo with a, "you mean blow them up?"
"Yes. You see, in the beginning, there were seven Primes, our original leaders." Kay was suddenly very awake, a fresh headache blossoming to life with accompanying pictures of what Jetfire was speaking of. Seven large Cybertronians, their forms far more skeletal than even any of the Bots that didn't have alt forms. Kay fiercely rubbed at her temples, the image luckily disappearing after two seconds. "And they set out into the universe, seeking distant suns to harvest. The Primes set out with one rule: never destroy a planet with life. One of them tried to defy this rule, and his name forevermore was the Fallen." Jetfire began a projection, showing the memories he spoke of. The Fallen was a scowling Cybertronian with red optics. "He despised the human race and he wanted to kill you all by turning on that machine. The only way to activate it is with a legendary ket called the Matrix of Leadership." The image changed to a silver double square pyramid object with a glowing blue center, incredibly intricate and floating over the hands of the Prime that held it. The Matrix of Leadership. "A great battle took place over possession of the Matrix. The Fallen was stronger than his brothers, so they had no choice but to steal and hide it from him. In the ultimate sacrifice, they gave their lives to seal the Matrix away in a tomb made of their very own bodies, a tomb we cannot find. Somewhere, buried in this desert, that deadly machine remains. The Fallen knows where it is, and if he finds the tomb of the Primes, your world will be no more." Everyone had listened to the story with enraptured silence, even the twins not making a sound.
"Okay, so how do we stop him?" Mikaela finally asked as he finished. The projected image quickly disappeared.
"Only a Prime can defeat the Fallen," Jetfire stated matter-of-factly.
"Optimus Prime?" Sam supplied. Kay felt her heart clench lightly at the thought of Optimus' dead body, Bee himself shifting at the mention of his name. Kay carefully set her small hand on Bee's, him still holding her, and craned her neck, giving him a small smile.
"So you've met a Prime?" Jetfire demanded. "Why, you must have met a great descendant. Is he alive, here, on this planet?"
"He sacrificed himself to save me." The old Bot straightened slightly, his body moaning a low, sad tone.
"So he's dead. Without a Prime, it's impossible. No one else could stop the Fallen."
"So, wait," Sam suddenly exclaimed, an idea glowing in his eyes, "the same energy that's gonna be used to reactivated the machine, could that energy somehow be used to reactivate Optimus and bring him back to life?"
"It was never designed for that purpose, but it's an energy like no other."
"So then how do you get us to the Matrix before the Decepticons get to me?"
"Follow your mind, your map, your symbols!" Jetfire exclaimed with a tap to his helm. "What you carved in the sand, it's your clue. When dawn alights the Dagger's Tip, Three Kings will reveal the doorway. Find the doorway! Go now, go!" He shooed at the four on the rocks with his hand, them quickly turning to obey. Bee stepped back and transformed around Kay, placing her carefully in the back. She was too tired to yell at him for that, instead quickly snuggling herself back into the leather seats. Mikaela quickly jumped in and sat beside her, then Leo, and finally Sam and Simmons in the front. As soon as Sam shut his door Bee took off through the desert, in the general direction Jetfire had pointed.
"What's this Dagger's Tip?" Sam asked, turning towards Simmons. "Any idea?"
"Not a clue," Simmons responded, pulling out his phone. "I have an idea who will, though." As he hastily made a few calls Mikaela turned towards Kay, grabbing her hand.
"How are you feeling?" she asked. Kay smiled towards her, eyes still struggling to shut.
"Absolutely exhausted, but otherwise okay for the situation."
"What all can you do?" Leo asked. "Like, seriously? 'Cause you just keep doing things with no explanation, here." Kay chuckled, pulling her glasses off of her face for the first time in a while. It felt good to rub at her entire face but she could also feel sand, and not only was it on her face but it was in her hair.
"So, the main part of this power is I can teleport myself and other people or things to different dimensions. There's an Autobot with that same power."
"One of the aliens can do all this, too?" Leo interjected. Kay gave him a quick look with a raised eyebrow, saying, 'you're really going to interrupt me?' without uttering a single word. Leo closed his mouth tightly.
"Yes, there's a Cybertronian who can do that, too. With me, as I mentioned earlier, I'm also good at manipulating time. I can teleport, but it's difficult. And then, I can kind of mess with things physically. It's a rather new skill that I've developed with the Cybertronian." Leo looked ready to explode, waiting a few seconds to make sure Kay was done before taking in a careful breath.
"That's. So. Effing. Cool."
"Also highly classified," Simmons suddenly stated, planting his own look on Leo while still on the phone. "Not a word on your site." Leo nodded, sputtering out promises and assurances while Simmons continued his conversation. Mikaela and Kay kept their hands intertwined, the action very calming to Kay.
"Okay, here's what my CIA contact says," Simmons announced. "Ancient Sumerians used to call the Gulf of Aqaba the 'Dagger's Tip.' It's part of the Red Sea. It divides Egypt and Jordan and the tip of a blade. 29.5 degrees north, 35 east. Here it is." Kay sat forward, looking over Simmons' shoulder to the point on a map.
"First thing we've gotta do is get Optimus to the Dagger's Tip," Sam stated.
"How are you going to get him halfway around the world? Have Kay teleport him?" Leo asked. Kay let out a snort.
"Not in this state I'm not."
"No, actually," Sam replied to Leo. "I'm going to make a call."
"Great. Where's the nearest phone?" Sam let out a small sigh while Kay smiled to herself, loving every second of pointing out flaws to Sam.
"Here's the nearest city," Simmons supplied, pointing on his phone. "Twenty minutes away." Kay let out a small sigh, settling back into her seat.
"Wake me when we get there."