You should never be alone
Chapter 2
Later on that evening Smokescreen was driving around through Jasper on patrol, his mind going over what had happened that day. He had had a little fun with Jack when they were heading back to base although when they showed the others particularly Arcee he could tell they weren't very impressed. Of course he didn't disobey any rules so they couldn't scowl him. However he had messed up by taking Jack along to scope out Decepticon activity, it seemed like a good idea at the time especially when Ratchet said that he couldn't go alone. He supposed that it wasn't as bad until he decided to mangle with the gladiator himself.
Even so they still had managed to obtain the star sabre and had managed to make Megatron scared of the power they now had. But what really got Smokescreen standing on edge was the information Optimus had obtained from Alpha Trion. He didn't quite understand how it was possible.
Flashback
Optimus groaned as he was knelt on the floor, the power of the message he received made him feel tired slightly but something like that could never hold him back. Ratchet, as the autobots medic, quickly went to him in concern as the autobot leader had seemed to be in a trans for a while. "Easy Optimus" he tried to reassure him.
The Prime steadily stood himself up the star sabre still in his grasp. Smokescreen then brought himself forward to talk to his leader. "So did Alpha Trion ask about me?" He was cocky as he was curious as was everyone else in the room of what had just occurred. Bulkhead brought his hand onto Smokescreens shoulder and yanked him back so that he could step forward "what was the message?"
They all waited patiently for him to tell them what he had experienced. Optimus's face never faltered as he stared back at the relic. "It is paramount that we recover the final four iacon relics...the omega keys"
"Keys?" Arcee listened closely, it was odd that four keys were some kind of relic
"To what?" Ratchet questioned
"To the regeneration of our home planet"
They all stood in shock at what they heard. Were they really given a second chance to live on their planet? Optimus had then placed the relic down and immediately when to the monitor to begin decrypting the remaining four coordinates. While Ratchet had gone to working on something for Optimus and the star sabre. The others however quickly went to randomly standing around thinking about their home. "Pack your gear coz we're going back to Cybertron" Bulkhead sounded like he was ready to party for they had truly been rewarded for their efforts during the war. Bumblebee then gave energetic whirls and beeps to which Ratchet began laughing with joy.
"Well believe it now bumblebee. Civilisation at last" Smokescreen on the other hand leaned against the catwalk meant for the humans that weren't present. "But I just got here" and he didn't want to leave, not just yet any way. There was so much to see on this planet, so much to do and discover. He hadn't even had a chance to get to know the humans as much and see them around. Which reminded him of Isabella that he had seen earlier that day.
"Remember oil baths?" Arcee began stroking her arms as the memory played over and over in her mind "first this I'm going to do is soak for an entire solar cycle" she raised her arms as she seemed to relax at the thought.
Bulkhead then began laughing with joy at the news. "I can't wait to tell Miko" and then the atmosphere of the room changed. "And...Jack" Bee also became sad as they thought of their human's friends that they had come to love. Of course Smokescreen became uncomfortable at the thought of having to leave family behind especially seeing as he had no human partner like the others did. The young bot then went over to Optimus not expecting him to turn around as he was quite busy with his important task. "Er Optimus...keys open doors. Can they really revive an entire planet?" He felt it right to question how these omega keys were going to restore their home planet.
Optimus did turn around to give the young bot his full attention as he had asked a valid question. "While I am unfamiliar with the law of these omega keys, Alpha Trion knew many secrets and the ancients possessed technology that was long been lost to what we consider modern science" he stopped as he waited for the attention of all of the autobots. "Whatever they're function this much is certain; we cannot restore Cybertron without all four omega keys in our possession"
"Which means we can't afford to lose a single one to Megatron" Arcee thought she like to point that out just to put the pressure on.
"Four sets of coordinates from Alpha Trion remain encrypted" Optimus turned back to the screen as he spoke "it is logical to conclude that each corresponds to one of the omega keys. I must not waver until I decode them all, the future of our home world depends on it"
Of course the autobot leader would take it on himself to make sure that they resurrected Cybertron and not the decepticons. It wasn't long before Optimus went back to decoding the database and the others huddled by the side talking amongst themselves.
"I feel funny saying this but I'm not sure I wanna go back"
"Who knew we'd ever get used to our knew home" the atmosphere now draped as they thought about the Jack, Miko and Raf. Although for Smokescreen he still cared for the children but he didn't have that special bond that Jack spoke of so he didn't quite understand how they were feeling at the moment. Bumblebee buzzed and whirled as he spoke to the others. "Yeah, I don't think I'd ever want to leave Miko"
"We've made friends here...family"
It was then that Ratchet joined in their conversation from afar "we can always...text them" they weren't quite sure if it was his idea of a joke or not. But he returned to his own work afterwards.
"Besides I've been fighting for so long I don't know if I can do any bring else" Bullhead tried to make his point across that it would be hard to change. But once again Ratchet joined in "you can go back into construction. The power of the ancients may breathe life back into Cybertrons core but our war ravished cities will surely require rebuilding"
"I wouldn't make any travel plans just yet, we still have to locate these omega keys and secure them before the cons do" it made them all homesick to think about Cybertron, and how they might be able to return and revive it but there was no sense on talking about the future if hadn't secured it yet, not while the decepticons posed a threat. "Yeah like that'll be a problem. Optimus has the star sabre now, Megatrons end is in sight" Smokescreen was smug as he spoke. He was sure that the war lord wouldn't dare challenge them now that the autobots possessed a great power. Although he was ignorant to how powerful Optimus Prime was on his own without the iacon relic.
End flashback
It was still sinking in that they were still able to regenerate their home planet, they would be able live on it again once they had finished with the decepticons. The sun was setting pretty quickly in Nevada and even though the main source of heat was going the temperature remained hot out. Smokescreen had noticed that there was very few people out at this time which meant that it was a likely time for decepticons to come out and play. Even though it was quiet out he still remembered to follow the traffic laws that they had on this planet. He found it quite peaceful driving around by himself but he still envied having someone around that he could talk to whenever he wanted, someone that he tell anything but then he saw how stupid he was being.
The opportunity had arisen to go home so it would be silly to make a new friend to only leave them not long after and it would mean disobeying Optimus by revealing himself to another human and Ratchet made it very clear back at base that three humans was enough to which everyone was quite surprised at his statement.
"Where are the people that accused me?
The ones who beat me down and bruised me
They hide just out of sight
Can't face me in the light
They'll return but I'll be stronger
God, I want to dream again
Take me where I've never been
I want to go there
This time I'm not scared
Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable
No one can touch me
Nothing can stop me"
Smokescreen heard it again. The silence was broken and the beautiful voice filled the air he heard it coming from up ahead of him next to what looked like an old industrial estate. It looked abandoned because it was run down and old so there was going to be no one around. He slowly drove towards the singing that he heard again. Out of everything what was the chance that he would hear her again an abandoned area and be able to see her again. Her voice was so bold he was sure that it could be heard from afar, its distinct pitch of the different notes made the listener get hypnotised by it. Like it had gotten his attention and entranced him in.
He was slow as he rolled forward to her, her figure curled up on a bench facing the outskirts of the town with a large pad and a pencil in hand. Her head shifted up and down as she looked at the sunset every minute and then back down at her pad. Smokescreen didn't quite understand what she was doing as she sat there apart from the singing.
"Sometimes it's hard to just keep going
But faith is moving without knowing
Can I trust what I can't see?
To reach my destiny
I want to take control but I know better
God, I want to dream again
Take me where I've never been
I want to go there
This time I'm not scared
Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable
No one can touch me
Nothing can stop me"
His thoughts were entirely focused on her voice as she sang such a powerful song and she wasn't afraid or embarrassed to sing a loud and let her voice be known.
"Forget the fear it's just a crutch
That tries to hold you back
And turn your dreams to dust
All you need to do is just trust
God, I want to dream again
Take me where I've never been
I want to go there
This time I'm not scared
Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable
No one can touch me
Nothing can stop me
God, I want to dream again
Take me where I've never been
I want to go there
This time I'm not scared
Now I am unbreakable, it's unmistakable
No one can touch me
Nothing can stop me"
Her voice stopped as the song ended and Smokescreen was a bit puzzled as to what to do now, he was embarrassed that he had been hypnotised by such a noise. He didn't want to leave but he thought that it would be a bit awkward if he was discovered here watching her especially if she believed that he was Jacks car.
However before he could even try to sneak away, her head turned to him which made his spark thrum loud. She directed her smile at him that warmed him up. But then he remembered that she didn't know about him. "I knew Jack was lying, he's got the motorcycle and June wouldn't allow him to have a race car"
He didn't know if he should say something to her or not, he wanted to but couldn't find the words. He wondered if he should activate his holoform, none of the autobots knew he had one mostly because the technology was lost but he never really had a reason to finally use it. As she turned back to her pad Smokescreen couldn't help but notice that she looked lonely as she sat there.
He thought for moment and zoomed into action as he did what he did best. Smokescreen accelerated past her and began drifting around. She began laughing as she put her pad and pencil down. Isabella could tell he was trying to impress her with his showing off by drifting around and revving his engine. As she was distracted by the cars movements she brought out her camera from her bag that was situated by her side.
She began taking pictures of him as she watched Smokescreen run donuts around a single spot but then he jerked as he stopped and remained still. She brought the camera down and her smile dissipated as he stopped and she heard a loud engine noise approaching in the distance, it sounded like a large jet but that didn't make any sense especially around that area. But she was right about it being something flying as she saw lights in the sky heading their way quickly which made the hairs on the back of her head stand. No aircraft flew that low or around the town like that, the fact that the driver in Indy 500 saw it too and stopped what he was doing set shivers down her spine. She watched it as the aircraft pulled up not too far from her and then change.
Isabella couldn't believe what she was seeing as the metal of the plane shifted and folded into different positions. Her eyes began to hurt as they couldn't grow any bigger than they already had at the sight of a giant robot landing on the ground. He was a dark shade of purple and black and had a red arrow shaped visor, his shape gave her the unfriendly vibe. Her breathing slowed as his large feet walked towards her.
He lifted his arm that shifted into a strange triangle shape with a red light that got brighter. Isabella didn't need to know what was going on to know what that was, immediately she grabbed her equipment and dove behind the bench she was sitting on for cover. She proved herself fit as the hostile robot began firing his gun at the Indy 500 sports car which swerved out of the way and into an alley way. Isabella put her pad, pencil and camera back into her bag and swung it on her shoulder. Her heart pounded as she looked over the bench and saw that the robot had taken notice of her he jerked his weapon at as he stood over her. She trembled as she looked up at the gun pointing at her, she wanted to move but couldn't it was as if her feet were glued to the ground.
She heard the sound of the weapon powering up and she was sure that her heart had stopped when she heard the sound of the sports car revving. And then a voice that came from nowhere "leave her out of this decepticon".
Isabella followed the voice to the sports car as it swerved out of the alley and sped straight towards the robot, whose attention was now on the moving vehicle. Just before the sleek car smashed into the robot it too shifted and changed its form into another robot. It forward rolled and jumped into the hostile one ramming into him and knocking him down. She couldn't quite fathom what was going on at that precise moment as the ground began to shake slightly from the impact of the two large robots fighting. Isabella took the opportunity to run into the nearest alley.
She didn't stop once she got her cover she ran straight through until she got to a metal fence that blocked her path. The rumbling behind her continued which made her begin to club over the fence out of panic,she struggled at first but then managed to find her footing. She knew that there would be no one around at the present time due to it being night but she also knew that there couldn't anyone around in the area because it was an old industrial estate that had been long since abandoned. Just as she was about to exit the small alleyway her pathway was blocked by the two robots as the battlefield had escalated into the large estate.
She felt isolated and alone as she watched them get further away from her. The white robot that she had been taking photos of punched the other in the stomach and then kicked him on the face bunt just as he was about to finally take the hostile one down another roar of an engine sounded and another car came zooming in, it's colour scheme the same as the other which tipped her off that they were both evil. The car crashed into the white robot and changed form again. They both seemed to be overpowering the other one that didn't seem to have any back up. Isabella frowned at the unfair fight that was going on in front of here, if there was one thing she knew then that was honour.
The white robot was thrown to the floor and couldn't get back up as the two decepticons stood over him, both of them had their weapons pointed at him and were powering them up. At that moment Isabella's feet carried her away from her hiding spot and into their viewing, she ran right up to them not even sure what she would do. Everything was happening so fast that she couldn't even think.
"Hey creeps" immediately the two vehicon drones jerked their heads up to look at her along with Smokescreen "learn to fight honourably and not like cowards". She waited for them to do something knowing that they wouldn't allow for a human to talk them like that, the stared at one another for a moment before nodding. It was obvious that they had silently agreed her fate as the one closet to her withdrew how weapon. Isabella watched as his appendage shifted back and it reached out for her as he walked towards her. The thought of turning tail and running was good at that moment. She had managed to distract one for the White robot which was what she had meant to do.
Before she could even lift one foot she watched as the one that was coming for her threw sparks from his neck and his visor blackened. She looked back down to the other two to see the white one holding out his own weapon as it gave off smoke from when if had blasted the drone in the head. She stumbled back as the lifeless metal fell forward in front of her. At once the two began fighting again but Isabella didn't stick around long enough to watch was going on as she began running back to the main road.
Smokescreen couldn't believe it himself when Isabella had just randomly ran in to distract the decepticon drones for him. The distraction worked perfectly as he was able to take out one and the other was now chasing after him as he had transformed. Although in his vehicular form he knew that he could easily outrun the vehicon and the vehicon knew that too especially when he didn't even bother to transform as well. The decepticon drone slowed drown knowing fully that he had no chance in catching this autobot but he did know what would get his attention.
Smokescreen saw how the drone was slowing down and began running away in his rear view mirror. He couldn't quite believe how easily the con had given up on chasing him. Surely his master wouldn't allow him to return a failure. Immediately he knew what the decepticon was doing, where he was going. "Oh no you don't" the sports car put on the brakes and U turned to follow after the runaway mech that was heading back into town.
He was forced to transform back to bot mode to find his way through all the alley ways that Jasper Nevada had. He didn't let his search down as he lost the con in this maze of buildings. He was quite surprised that the human had run this far in such short time although she probably knew this town best so knew where to hide from the decepticon that was hunting her. He was sure that he was going the wrong way as he was going further into town, which made him feel a bit on edge as he knew from past experiences that he can't be seen.
Smokescreens suspicions were confirmed when he heard a scream coming back from the industrial estate again. "She led him a big circle" he quickly turned tail and ran back to the abandoned factory. Once there his optics scanned the entire area but couldn't find them although a big hole in the wall of the factory building gave a clue. He crept up to it and peered in to see the con pointing his triangular blaster at her as she looks as though she had fallen to the floor. Her breathing was heavy and her eyes were squinted as the blaster charged. He didn't have to think to act as he ran at the unsuspecting decepticon and pushed him away from Isabella, engaging him in battle.
The entire time they both fought one another Smokescreen kept one optic on Isabella making sure that she was always behind him and that the con didn't get a clean shot at her. The drone tried to punch Smokescreen and then kick him down but he quickly jumped out of the way and evaded the attack. Transforming his right hand into a blaster and shoving it into the drone's chest. In one single moment the blaster charged and fired taking out his spark chamber. The autobot let the lifeless husk of the former decepticon drone fall to the ground. His visor had turned a faded grey colour.
Smokescreen shifted his blaster back into his hand and turned his attention back to the hyperventilating woman lying on the floor. Her eyes were fixed on him as he moved closer to her. He was honestly waiting for her to to scramble away from him in fear but she didn't instead she was still. Her chest heaved as it rose and fell, he knew that she must be scared which was the cause but of her hyperventilating but she didn't stop even after he gave her a minute. He worked out that with she wouldn't be able to keep up her breathing, she might even pass out and then what would he do with her? Her skin began to turn red slightly alerting him that she was hot. He was starting to panic slightly, he wasn't medic. Ratchet was the doc bot. Then it clicked in his mind when he remembered what Jack had told him about her. 'Isabella suffers from panic attacks'. Perhaps this is what a panic attack was, it made sense considering what she just witnessed. Smokescreen slowly bent down in front of her letting his arms rest over his knee joints. "It's okay" he spoke calmly to her hoping to slow her breathing which his soft voice. "I'm not going to hurt you, my names Smokescreen" he held his hands up to show that he was no threat to her but he could see that his efforts were useless she was still silent apart from her heavy breathing. If anything she looked dazed and was slowly slipping into unconsciousness.
"Isabella you need to slow your breathing down, listen to me. Try to breath in...and out. In...and out" the bot lifted his hands and lowered them every time he repeated himself. Smokescreen continued until she was calm, her skin no longer red although she did look as though she had just woken up from stasis. He noticed her green optics scanned him up and down and feared that she would just panic again. "I'm not going to harm you, I'm an autobot" he placed his hand over his chest but before he could continue his comm link beeped. It was obvious that someone was going to scold him for not returning to base after his patrol, which had finished 10 minutes ago.
Smokescreen stood up tall and took a few steps away from the woman on the ground. "Smokescreen here" a minute passed as he listened to what was being said to him.
"I'm on my way Ratchet" the comm beeped again to signal that the transmission ended. Isabella watched as the giant robot body shifted. It moved with great precision. Her eyes gazed at him as he had transformed from a robot to an Indy 500 race car, the exact same one that she had admired earlier that day when she spoke to Jack. Before she knew it the car sped past her and left her behind without another word said. She wasn't quite sure what going on as she had witnessed him talking to himself for a moment before leaving but now she was all alone in the dark of the night. Her eyes filled with tears as she realised what had just happened.
She had been left, deserted in the shadow of the night in an abandoned industrial estate merely seconds after having a panic attack. The worst time to be alone was right after an attack mostly because she was left vulnerable and dazed. But now not only did she just have an attack but she had just witnessed giant robots fighting right in front of her and the only one that seemed to care about her well-being just upped and left her.
Taking in a deep breath she picked herself up knowing that she couldn't stay there and the best thing for her would be to get home as quickly as possible. She was now weak and still out of focus which made it hard for her to walk at a steady pace. She took a last glance to the area looking into an alley way on the far side, she sainted her eyes thinking that she saw something hiding there in the dark. At first she thought it was a car like the ones the robots that wanted to kill her turned into but she dismissed it knowing that her mind was just playing with her and instead made her way home going straight to the safety of her bed for comfort. Though her guard was up the entire time. Every couple of minutes she would turn around believing that she heard the rumble of an engine close by.