Hello everyone! I wanted to have this chapter ready to go for yesterday to say goodbye to 2017, but one of my goldfish who's at least seventeen has suddenly bellied up, he's still alive but we were all in a bit of a panic yesterday and I clean forgot about posting.
Also we think one of our other fish is gonna pop his second eye out, i'm not making that up, he's developed cataracts in both and he ejected the first over a year ago and we're just waiting to see if he can live happily fully blind.
And on top of that, the youngest has a tumor growing on his side larger than the top of my thumb, so yeah, our fish have had a few interesting days and led me to be a little bit stressed cause I love those guys.
Enough about the fish, I should also apologise for not posting much, Uni is a ton of fun but it's also draining and the accommodation feels more like a prison with how it works so I struggle to find the right mood for writing.
But, as you can see, I preserver. Somehow. Any Stealth readers here, do not fret, I will hopefully post another chapter for that story soon, hit a writers block on it that lasted a few months.
Anyway, I've yammered on enough, hope you all enjoy!
Air Force 1
High heels were muffled against the well used carpet as one of the hostesses passed down the plane between officials, their gaze flicking about, spotting the form that seemed to go unseen by all others.
When you don't know what you're looking for, you're blind to it existing.
An old quote from her mother, but oh so fitting to the current situation that it was almost chilling.
But it only brought a smirk to her face, all the more space to walk about without drawing questions.
After all, who'd think that the redhead who'd just finished serving some drinks was nothing but an illusion? A solid projection made by the advanced technology she had access to.
Technology which was currently clutching to the underside of the massive airborne vehicle, talons large enough to pop a head like a blueberry, stabbed clean through the hull as massive metallic wings wrapped tight around the fuselage, metallic feathers leaving the faintest of paint scratches, helm craned to stare ahead and enjoy the feel of wind against their metal features.
Strutting up to the door at the end of the corridor, she reached out, and twisted the nob, regarding the President beyond as he lay strewn out on the bed. "You called sir?" Her tone was accented flawlessly, the epitome of a Sweet Southern Belle.
"Yeah, go get me a couple ding dongs, okay darlin'?"
"Borche sir?"
"That's it. Thanks doll."
She shut the door, stepped into the elevator, and turned her gaze down, her lips twitching up at the sight of the stereo system in the corner, she reached down and plucked it, him, up by the handle.
When she reached the level below, she placed the stereo down on one of the raised tables and pressed her custom revolver right against the center of the disk lid. "Gigs up Con." Her native accent came back as she pulled the handle back with her thumb. "Ah assure yah, play any funny shi' and ah'll put more holes in yah than tha' base yah buddy attacked over in Qatar." She hissed, baring her pearly whites in a grin that left no doubt of her seriousness.
There was a moment of silence before the stereo began to transform.
The gun remained pressed up against the metal, she almost laughed at the fact that when the transformation ended, the muzzle was pressed right into the Cons tiny crotch, oh what good aim she had.
She did smirk and lean up into Frenzy's personal space. "Scarred ah'll blow whatever yah've go' there tah bits? Good. Cause one wron' move an' ah'll more than happily unload the whole god damn magazine inta yah crotch."
The minicon quickly nodded his spiky little head, his processor suddenly rolling over what had just happened.
A moment later, something stabbed into his servos mechanism, causing him to hiss at the woman who'd just stabbed what looked like a human syringe into his circuitry.
He locked up though at the increased pressure of the muzzle on his hipplates.
"Good li'l minicon. I knew yah'd try to go for the POTUS main frame. Know tha' yah wan' information, well, yah gonna want to be a smart li'l mech and leave well damn alone, unless yah wan' tah be mah next victim like you're buddy… Blackou'." The designation was practically purred out, her eyes shining with malice.
He locked up just that bit, the revelation somehow making sense.
It also made this human even more of a danger.
Then, his servo began to shake and rattle, the one that still had the little syringe stabbed in, two of the fingers were pulling back the plunger, his energon trickling up, filling the glass tube.
Then it was pulled out, the single hand easily capping it and placing it into the deep pocket of her hostess uniform.
"Now if yah try tah hack tha Government, tha' little gift from meh to yah, will activate. Ever heard of locked in syndrome? I suggest yah don't look it up, because it's quite a nasty fate. One ah'm certain tha humans will more than happily take advantage of… how do dissection tables sound tah yah?" The smirk on the woman's lips was stuck somewhere between playful and downright sadistic.
The minicon nodded slowly.
Then the handgun was removed from its threatening position. "Good." It was holstered under her skirt as her other hand raised and made a becoming motion to something behind him. "Here girl."
Clanking metal on metal caused him to spin on his spot atop the high table.
Just as a large metal bird head came level with his own form, for a brief moment he thought it was Laserbeak, but everything from the bright blue optics focused dead set on his own, to the fact it's entire frame seemed to be covered in the mass of metallic brownish red, and white with black speckled feathers, dashed that perceived notion as the giant creature's helm tilted to the side, razor sharp beak clacking a short distance from his faceplates.
"Here girl. Got somethin' for yah." The human called, pulling the syringe back out and waving it in the air.
The creature's helm swung around and it stepped over, its entire body swaying from side to side as it opened its beak.
The syringe was placed within, the beak shutting once the human's' hand was clear.
The human patted the large creatures head. "See yah outside pumpkin."
Then it was walking back off, round a corner, out of sight.
Then the human turned back to Frenzy with a renewed smirk.
Then, within the shutter of his optics, the revolver was re-drawn and being fired into the ceiling, six shots, each ringing out as they buried into the reinforced metal.
Shouts quickly followed causing his helm to snap round as he let off a hiss, arming himself with his weapon.
One shot towards the woman and she was gone, just before the round hit, the form vanishing in a flurry of pixels.
A holoform, that meant that there was another Cybertronian here, the creature?
His musing was cut short by harmless rounds rattling off his armour, causing him to snap back to present and begin his attack.
Then, the alarms began to scream over them.
The air pressure shifted, and it was all the warning those within the lower bay had, before they were suddenly sucked out, the humans screaming as they were ripped out of the plane by the sudden decompression.
Frenzy was also sucked out, his metallic form tumbling through the air.
When he righted himself, he spotted something coming towards him, the creature, it's talons out ready to snatch him out of the sky.
He leveled his weapon and fired again, if it went in, he couldn't tell, the howling wind drowning out even the sound of the weapon firing.
Then those talons closed around him, and he was practically snatched out of his fall and swept away.
They were passing over a body of cloud a moment later, under the massive aircraft he'd just been within.
He spotted the fuselage, and the massive tears in the under side, the talons which grasped him were far too small to of caused them.
A high pitched screech came not a moment after as a far larger form slid out of the clouds, massive wings beating and easily keeping pace with the far smaller one, each beat causing the clouds to flurry and thrash around them.
The smaller creature, a minicon like himself, screeched back, then spun, and let go.
He was airborne again for a brief moment, before he was once again snatched out of the air, and left to dangle beneath the far larger bird.
He was shooting off obscenities now in his native dialect, but once again, the howling wind drowned him out.
Then, the two bird like creatures were diving through the clouds, wings folded to their sides as they shot downwards.
They broke through, over some sort of woodlands, they leveled out, the air currents the larger ones wings were creating forcing the tops of the trees to bend and rock in their wake.
Then, he was let go, the birds already disappearing over a ridge of foliage before he even dropped below the tree line, leaving him to careen and crash through the branches painfully slowing his fall until he hit the pine needle covered ground.
The minicon lay there for a few minutes, trying to reach out on the com-links to try and connect with the others, no luck, those damned… things, had dumped him in one of the remote places in the damned country the humans called 'America'.
Turning his gaze to his servo, he scowled, running a diagnostic, and finding something that only cemented that things threat. A virus, already nestled deep within his coding, his own defenses having barely lasted a moment against whatever onslaught had been unleashed upon his systems.
In his moment of pause, the tiny minicon did not see a form materialise out of the shadows of the trees, a snarl on the only part of the faceplates not hidden by a thick pane of black glass.
The smashing of a rotted log under massive talons jolted the minicon to spin and draw his small weapon.
He didn't even get a chance to fire, something massive slammed into his side, sending him crashing into a nearby tree.
Dazed his optics and helm drifted upwards, locking on the murderous snarl of a mech who's stature left him likely to even tower over Starscream.
The mech was hunched over, massive sweeping limbs stretched out and curled in slightly to create a feeling of being trapped within as he tried to regain his boundaries.
"Pet, hold it down."
Not a moment later, talons smashed into the wood around him, trapping the minicon even further as his blue optics finally managed to get themselves working again.
His tiny spark dropped.
It was another of those bird creatures, it's helm white and the majority of its body brown, murky yellow pedes and black talons holding him in place.
The mechanical bird that pinned him blinked it's wide gold optics at him, but at the snarl of the massive mech, it ducked, trying to shift out of the way with one leg stuck in a tree to give the mech room to get down on all fours and lean into the personal space of the minicon.
"I know you." The mech hissed, tilting his helm to the side, stange flaps on the sides of his helm flaring out, making his helm seem even wider than it already was.
Frenzy just stared, his processor having just simply given up trying to understand the situation he was suddenly in.
"You're one of those freaky alien things." The mech chuckled, a low rumbling sound that held an ominous ring that, despite the vorns he'd spent within close proximity of mechs such as Megatron, cause a shudder to go through his main strut.
"Oh, this just made the last few years so much more worth it… Wait a minute…" The mech somehow got closer, Frenzy finally took in the mech's colour scheme, surprised to find it the same as the one still pinning him.
Then, the mech sniffed him, one long deep pull before a moment of silence, and a twisted smirk replacing the mechs snarl.
"There's only one bitch I know who has access to that mix of drinks, heh, guess that stupid anarchist is here too… good… good… and where one Harpy is, that dual freak is quick to follow, if not lead the way, and of course, my disgrace of a sister at their side…" The mech was rambling to himself, not even paying attention to Frenzy, at least until the mechs helm snapped back to regard the minicon once again.
"Let me guess… you just got flung out of a plane by a redheaded psycho who's more than a little trigger happy?"
Frenzy nodded slowly, a mounting sense of dread filling him as he regarded this mech, there was something wrong with this mech, something was missing from his helm, and it was a vital component.
The smirk grew larger.
"Oh, this is just getting better and better, alright bird beak, drop the alien freak, we're paying the Harpy's a visit, and if I know my sister, I know exactly where they'll be…" The mech rose as the bird creature ripped it's talons back out of the tree, letting the minicon drop to the ground dazed.
Raising his helm slowly, Frenzy was left to stare at the mech now towering over him.
Nothing about this mech was normal, to the point that Frenzy was beginning to seriously doubt this mech was even remotely Cybertronian, despite the metalic structure.
No Cybertronian would ever trade their arms for wings...
No Cybertronian would view his own kind as 'alien freaks'...
Apparently though, in those few moments of contemplation, the mech had changed his processor on something.
"Alright freak, change of plans, you're gonna take me to your fucking leader."
What?
Pentagon
Jamerson sighed, what was he even doing here?
Watching over the signal analysts trying to crack the code that was used to hack into the Qatar base. That's what.
They were to report to him if they had anything, and then he'd be the ferry boy going off to tell the higher ups.
A desk jockey.
Damnit he needed a smoke.
It had been two years since his incident in the Amazon, yet still they kept him on desk work.
It was startling to drive him mad.
What was his four hours of exercise worth every night if he couldn't use it for anything other than to run around between Generals and other higher ups?
A murmur from one of the closer groups of analysts drew his attention, he didn't catch the words the blonde was saying.
But he did catch her hiding a memory card in her compact mirror.
He was about to start moving to confront the analyst about what she was about to pull when someone called his name from the other side of the room, one of the other Analyst teams.
Glancing at the blonde quickly, he decided she'd still be there after he checked with the group, so he turned and walked over to the group that had called him.
"What have you found?" He enquired, leaning over the one who'd called him.
"Well, after much consideration, we think it could be China, the coding language is completely alien, but the symbols could be a older version of their dialect not globally known they're using to hide their coding in?" The statement came out more like a question.
Sighing, he answered, knowing they were trying. "Honestly your guess is as good as mine on this, but I'll let the Brass know." He finished his statement with a pat on the shoulder. "Keep working on it, you might be onto something for all we know." With that he pushed himself back upright, turning his attention towards the group the blonde was in.
Only to find her already gone.
"Shit." He cursed, quickly breaking into a fast paced walk, not wanting to raise alarm as he aimed to find his superior to alert him to the situation.
Las Vegas, Cosmopolitan a few hours later
Bumblebee's engine cut as he parked himself into a reserved spot that a elderly Valet had pointed him to.
A second convoy had surrounded him just out of Vegas and led him here.
The Valet stepped up to his driver side door, he'd changed his alt mode on the way here, replacing the old battered frame with a sleek modern Camaro that felt far more comfortable and clean than the form he'd had to take to be valued within his previous charges purchasing range.
His Holoform was up, his tinted windows would not help if the man went to open his door, he could lock it… but something told him that whoever had gone through all the trouble of leading him here, likely wanted to at least talk, if they weren't a con trying to offline him at least. Then again, when did a con have the patience let alone subtlety to set a trap this long winded? Certainly none he knew of...
The Valet did indeed reach out, 0pening his door. "Sir, the Orichiono's await your presence in the main entertainment hall." The man announced, stepping out of the holoforms way as the blonde and black tip haired teen stepped out, shooting the blank face Valet an odd look.
Orichiono, he quickly made a scan of the World Wide Web.
What he found surprised him, an up and coming billionaire within the global market, who was gaining notoriety for her ability to tell which businesses would prosper and produce the greatest returns within the stock's industry, they hadn't made a single loss since appearing on the international radar. Something unheard of.
A heavy investor whom seemed to have their hand in every pocket in the world, especially such industries such as the hotel industry, shipping firms and renewable energy, having acquired ownership of some of the most desired places, and companies on the planet, including the hotel he now stood in.
Clearly this woman had money to burn and expanding her monetary value at a rate of speed which was boggling the minds of those who'd caught notice.
But, she was also beyond illusive, not a single image or video, or even audio recording of this woman seemed to exist. That alone had apparently caused the conspiracy nuts to go wild.
His best bet, she knew about him, how he didn't know, and he had every intention of getting to the bottom of it.
Alas, his holoform was just as vocally impaired as his actual form, and he doubted spewing radio clippings from 'human' lips would do him any favours.
So when the valet regarded him curiously, he just nodded, shut the door, and walked in the direction the man was now gesturing, up the flight of stairs which led from the underground parking lot and up into the main resort.
After a few minutes of following signs, he found himself in quite a long que, filled with humans far more well dressed than himself in yellow and black dyed leather jacket, black shirt and ripped jeans.
Apparently however, that meant he was swiftly spotted by one of the staff.
"Sir? Private seating is upstairs, this way." A young woman called to him, wearing what looked like a traditional receptionist uniform, her voice was a bit on the timid side and she kept her head bowed. "The ladies told us to look out for someone wearing your attire." One of her closed fists opened up, flashing piece of metal with an insignia on it that he hadn't seen in Vorns, Neutral.
Neutrals were here, on Earth, this was a major revelation he'd have to inform Optimus as soon as possible.
And given what he'd just learnt about his 'host', their elusive nature suddenly made a lot more sense.
A neutral on a planet which he himself knew Decepticons resided, the best course of action to them was to blend in, and make a life for themselves in this world masquerading as humans.
Being a potentially centuries old Alien being likely aided in some areas that he couldn't think of as present.
The woman was still waiting for a response, so he nodded, gesturing for her to lead the way.
Three flights of stairs and good few odd looks later, he was being ushered into a private booth, which provided a clear view of the large stage below and the horde of adult humans flocking to fill the seats in the rows and levels below.
A shuffling sound caused him to swing around, finding Mikaela Barnes sitting on one of the plush sofas which lined the booth.
"H-hey…"
He gave a wave back which could only be described as equally awkward, gesturing to the sofa she was sitting on.
"Oh! Sure! You can sit! Sorry… I wasn't told you'd… have a form like this…" She responded, timid smile forming as she shuffled to the furthest side of the sofa as possible, giving him enough room to easily lie down if he so wished.
Was she not aware of 'Orichiono's' true form? Whatever that was? Had the Neutral only interacted with this teen under the guise of a human?
Given her actions however, he chose to follow her lead and sit against the other arm rest, his holoforms bright blue eyes flicking between the empty stage below and the teen in his peripheral.
They sat there in an awkward silence before the scout remembered why he'd driven so far, turning to sit cross legged on the sofa he waved his arm to try and get her attention, humans vision was motion based right? Or was it that giant scary as all frag lizards vision which was motion based?
Thankfully he didn't need to windmill his arms for long to get her tentative attention.
He promptly looked up the hand gesture for glasses, and quickly made it himself, even if he suddenly felt like a complete fool having most of his holoform hands blocking his face, pointer and thumbs connected and pressed over his eyes upside down like a mask with his free fingers wiggling in the air.
She stared at him, dropped jawed, for. a moment he froze, fearing he'd accidentally insulted the human teen, had the World Wide Web been wrong?
Then she burst out into peals of laughter, slapping the arm rest mercilessly.
So, not an insult?
He was way too confused, humans were weird… this entire situation was weird.
He knew that her loud laughter was drawing attention from the humans below, thankfully the balcony hid them from the prying eyes of those disturbed from their own enjoyment.
An equal blessing was that her laughter was quick to die down into muffled snorts behind her hand as her cheeks went red.
Tilting his head to the side he removed his hands from his face, hoping that that would help somehow, he was still adjusting to human behaviour.
He'd rarely dealt with such peculiar species like this since the exodus of his dying homeworld.
The thought caused his features to sour, and the human quickly shrank into herself, likely misinterpreting the expression. "Oh god, sorry, I… it's just… the glasses right? That's what you were trying to say?"
Thankful for the change in topic, he nodded, opening his hand out, hopefully she'd just hand them over.
She fidgeted. "I… I don't have them anymore… I gave them to Aria and Wren when I got here, then they sent me here telling me to enjoy the show…" She admitted.
He deflated, dropping his hand back to the sofa, maybe he could write to better communicate… Who were Aria and Wren? Orichiono's assistants? Minicons? Other? He needed answers...
As if reading his thoughts, she ruffled around in her bag, pulling out a notepad and pen. "Here… I don't want to insult you by making assumptions… but if you're still learning our verbal language…"
He quickly grabbed them, popping the cap off without much care of where it went and quickly doing his best to scribble down a response, scanning the World Wide Web to make sure his script didn't end up looking like a hybrid of his own and their language.
'Then why are you still here?' He spun the notepad so she could see.
She shrugged. "No idea, Kia led me up here, then vanished, she told me to stay put so I did… then you show up…"
'Kia?'
"Yeah… one of Aria and Wren's friends, it was her employees that were sent to pick me up from the Lake."
'Aria and Wren?'
"They're the ones who brought me here yesterday and told me to get the glasses from Sam… they're… unusual…" So she had yet to interact with 'Orichiono'?
'How so?' He didn't want to seem like he was trying to pry all information as possible out of her, but as a scout, it was kinda his job.
"They… They're… down there…" She was pointing towards the stage.
A woman now stood center stage, their hair and clothing looking like they'd just come out of a chessboard, the skin tight dress clung to their lithe form, one hand holding the brim of an equally black and white top hat, a ribbon wrapped around the base alternating from blue to red, blue on the white side, red on the black.
Tilting his head to the side, he gestured to them and then looked back to the teen who'd moved to sit on the plethora of cushions that sat at the front of the booth, the low front wall making it easy for her to rest her head on her elbows.
"Yeah… that's Aria and Wren… that's what I meant by unusual, two people, one body, they seem to get along pretty well though… looks like contrasting colours is their thing." She responded with a shrug.
He followed her example of sitting on the cushions, placing the notepad and pen on the lip of the booth wall for a moment before picking up the pen and scribbling another question.
So Orichiono's assistants/minicons, were… a permanently linked duo? Did that mean they were inseparable? A rare case of split sparks? Did they become one weapon? Or two? Did they even become a weapon? Something else? Where they just humans working for Orichiono?
'Is that normal?'
"No, no it's not… shh, they're about to start I think." Mikaela responded.
He raised a blonde eyebrow at her, surely she'd caught onto his muteness.
"I meant no more writing, I wanna focus… Where the hell did that mic come from?"
The rhetorical question drew his attention back to the women rising the mic to her lips, or was the correct word 'they'?
"Ladies and Gentlemen! We are glad to welcome you to this night's activities! Here at the world famous Cosmopolitan Hotel and Resort!" The chirpy voice came over the speakers above as Arien performed a quick twirl into a pose on stage, the bottom half of her dress flaring out as straps of fabrics attached at their hip flurried out.
"That's Aria, she's the more friendly of the two." Mikaela narrated.
He decided not to comment on the fact that she was being a hypocrite.
"Normally we wouldn't be the ones to open up the show ourselves, but, we have managed to squeeze in this little performance for you, our guests, into our very busy schedule, consider yourselves lucky." The mic had been handed to the other, right hand this time, the voice that came over the speakers being significantly colder and lower.
Left arm reached up and snatched the microphone away. "Oh sister! Always soooooo welcoming to our paying guests! I must apologise! Wren here has a nasty habit of being as welcoming as sandpaper right out of the freezer!"
A few members of the crowd laughed at that. Recurring guests?
The microphone was snatched back. "Says the one who can't help but toss ourselves at anything with a damn pulse, I still haven't forgiven you for the time you had us hug that porcupine!"
"But he looked lonely! And we only got a few quills stuck in us!"
"A few?! A few my asscheek! We looked like the victims of a trainee acupuncturist!"
There was a long moment of silence on the stage as the woman's expression shifted, whilst the audience laughed along to the image, before one of them rolled their eyes. "Alright, you go off and sulk, I'll go entertain our guests… Sisters am I right? Can't live with them, and in our case, certainly can't live without them! Now then, we've held you all up long enough, we have an amazing show for you tonight, and I at least, hope you all enjoy! Now then, let's get this show on the road!" With an over exaggerated flourish and bow, the women strut behind the curtains, which began being pulled back a moment later.
The show was a spectacle to say the least, the scout had certainly never seen anything like it, the acrobatic displays were especially thrilling to the mech.
It was an experience in colour, sound and wonder that he'd begun transmitting to his unit, they'd made a few comments to begin with chastising him for wasting his time, but they too soon fell victim to the shows addictive thrills.
The music especially seemed to enthral Jazz, initially slow heavy bass beats caused vibrations to run through his very holoform, it honestly felt like war drums were being used with such vigor that they were calling upon all to rally into a frenzy as the tempo quickly grew faster and faster, matching a racing heartbeat, if he had a heartbeat like the humans around him, he could imagine the feeling of the soundwaves reverberating within him, but, alas, the holoform did not react the same way an organic body would to such sound.
The spectacle quickly rose in tempo too, human formations coming together with the help of launch pads and seesaws as the formations moved and swayed with erratic beats.
He nearly fell from the balcony at one point had Mikaela not acted fast enough to grab the back of his jacket, and with a bit of effort pulled the bashful scout back.
Then the temperature in the room spiked, as if the heat of mid day had suddenly rushed into the venue.
The area, having gone dark to illuminate the vibrant neon colours of the performers, suddenly burst back into bright light and colour with an finalising clamour of sound, the entire stage and the audience seating, even their own booth, suddenly looked straight out of the jungle, the walls and even the cushions they sat upon wrapped in thick vines decorated with flowers of every colour and tone. For a moment he wondered how this was possible, surely this was an advanced use for a holoform, he could feel the energy pulsing through the physical projections that now filled the hall.
It certainly had Ratchet ranting and raving on the other side of the comm-link.
Arien stood center stage once more, their attire changed, the form hugging dress long gone, replaced by a two piece gown, made of layers of black and white fabric, the black sparkled like the night sky, the white like a canvas decorated with a flurry of black spots , a plume of feathers trailing out behind them to the ground, black and white in a zigzag pattern. The upper half of the dress was made of sweeping fabric fastened tight around their body.
Their twin toned hair traveled down their back, unbidden and free to sway along with the rest of their body, as if they were a Cobra being charmed with a melody only they could hear.
Suddenly everything went silent, like an instinctual notion to not even twitch as the left arm slowly raised up, bringing with it a veil of grey translucent fabric held in place by a band on their wrist.
Then the right followed, they came together, and, in one swift clap, the silence of the stage was destroyed by clamorous calls and an explosion of energy as all those on the stage burst into action.
The lights suddenly flickered violently, some of the audience let off surprised cries and shouts, but all was drowned out.
The music reached a thunderous crescendo within moments, as if the lull of silence was the eye of a powerful storm they were once again thrown into, the war drums now visible on some of the upper levels of the stage which had been brought in earlier in the performance, their players hammering upon them with padded clubs in a frenzied yet well planned out fervour.
Then an echoing, avian screech, an explosion of smoke, and flashing lights came together with the music like a thunderstorm bearing down upon them with full force.
Bumblebee had to hand it to the humans, they new how to put on a spectacular show…
Then the smoke cleared, and where one once stood, was now two.
The entire hall let off a collected gasp at the two women now standing shoulder to shoulder, one arm raised each, the veils no longer grey, one white, one black.
Bumblebee wasn't sure how to describe what he was seeing, nor could his unit as they fell deathly quiet over the com-link.
The one on the left was white in their colouration, where black had been on the attire was now grey, and upon the black one, where the white had been, was now grey.
As if they'd simply halved themselves, each taking a body, and yet still showing where the other should be.
Mikaela muttered something under her breath that he didn't catch, to focused on the new music which was beginning to play, it was synthetic, controlled by electronic instruments on opposite sides of the stage, a steady beat rolling over the crowd, the previous music still played, almost like a backdrop matching the jungle like environment that now surrounded them.
But the main beat was something different entirely, a heavy slow beat that somehow reverberated even lower on the spectrum, even the jungle like holoform around him seemed to shudder.
Even from this distance, he could see the wide smirk that each woman had as they raised the mics to their lips.
"Sweet dreams are made of this
Who am I to disagree?
I travel the world and the seven seas
Everybody's looking for something"
For a long moment, Bumblebee felt himself consumed by the ethereal sounds that made up those lyrics, the duet beautiful yet hauntingly so, the unison of voices smoother than the finest oil.
But in that beauty, there was an edge, a radiation of the power these two had over the crowd, whom were giving their undivided attention to the two temptresses on stage, their bodies moving with the music in slow motions, mirrored perfectly by one another.
This was surprising, he hadn't expected this to be the direction the show went in. Speculation had become fact, these two were holoforms, no question.
Which raised the question of, why couldn't he pick up any other Cybertronian life anywhere within his scanning range? Which was far further than a holoform could be projected.
"Some of them want to use you
Some of them want to get used by you
Some of them want to abuse you
Some of them want to be abused"
Before he could react, someone had him by the shoulder, had yanked his holoform up, and dragged him, as well as Mikaela out of the booth, the doors shutting on their own and dampening the sound coming from beyond.
"Alrigh', that's enough for tonigh', yah accommodations, ah ready."
He spun to the voice along with Mikaela, finding the completely disinterested expression of a red haired woman wearing an ensemble of clothing that clashed even more than his own with the high class surroundings.
Her red hair was mostly covered by a white beanie, a torn jean jacket over a top with a lit bomb and two skulls against a reddish orange background, lower down on the ensemble was a pair of ripped jean short shorts over a pair of striped red and gold leggings.
A popping sound drew his attention to the gum she was apparently chewing as her right hand played with the red and gold hanging earrings in her right ear.
Mikaela spoke first. "Who are you?"
The woman snorted and gestured for them to follow as she turned on the spot and began almost speed walking down the corridor that led further into the luxurious resort.
The two exchanged a look and quickly went to follow, keeping a few paces behind and sharing the odd confused look.
They came to a stop in front of an elevator, which the woman pressed her thumb against the call button, he could just make out a line of light running over the button, a thumb scan? To call an elevator?
The door slid open a moment later, and the woman stepped in, gesturing for them to follow. The chatter from his unit had begun again, but he wasn't honestly paying much attention to what they were saying.
They stepped in, and the woman reached over, placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Imma gonna have tah as' yah tah cu' the filmin'."
He stared at her blankly, how in the name of Primus had she known? There was equal confusion from the rest of his unit as he stared at her, surprised upon realising that the blue in her iris's was glowing, another holoform? Another Neutral? How many were here? How were they hiding from his…
Everything went numb, he'd been so distracted by his internal questions he'd not felt the sudden rush of another presence in his frame, until they were forcefully shutting down everything via the wireless connection to his alt.
Fear gripped his spark as everything except his vitals and the holoform generator shut down, even the motion of said holoform.
Everything stopped working, he was numb, and was quickly being forced into stasis, the call with his unit cut off abruptly by this femme.
He felt her catch him just before everything went dark.
Mikaela watched in shock as Bumblebee's form slumped under the woman's touch, she stepped back, pressing herself into the corner of the elevator as the woman easily hefted Bumblebee up into a fireman's carry.
It was so sudden, his shoulder had just lit up around where she had placed her hand, thin wires of orange light burying into him.
Then he'd collapsed, and now she was being stared down by the woman who'd brought them to this elevator, which she felt descending without a single button being pressed.
She wanted to run, but there was nowhere to run to, if she could do that, to an alien, what would she be able to do to her?
"Relax lassie, I ain' gonna hur' either of yah. Jus' needed him playin' with the fairies so he didn' ruin the surprise we go' in store for his buddies." The red head announced before sticking her hand out. "Ira, Ira Halloran." The accent was undeniably Irish, a thick one at that.
Ira, this was the last member of the twins small group of friends.
Slowly she reached back out, but hesitated from accepting the offered hand, eyes darting to the blonde and blackette currently slung over the woman's shoulders, how could she even carry him like that so easily?
"Now listen here lassie, I can' knock yah out with ah touch, works on tech only. I'd need tah deck yah tah punch yah ligh's ou'." Ira announced, leaning further over and grabbing her hand in a firm shake before pulling away just as the elevator doors pinged and opened, revealing a corridor far less done up than the rest of the resort, a staff only corridor?
Ira stepped out, walking down the corridor the elevator opened up to and towards what looked like a large open space up ahead.
"Ah'd move yah ass lassie, tha door'll be shuttin' and yah need a scan to come back down again." Ira called over her currently full shoulders.
Deciding she'd come this far, Mikaela quickly made her way out, the doors beginning to slide shut not a moment after she was clear.
The sound of the elevator going on it's merry way was akin to a door being shut behind her, for all she knew, she was walking right into a lion's den.
Ira was at the end of the corridor when she looked back, winked and then sucked in a breath…
"WE'RE HOME!"
"YOU DON'T HAVE TO FUCKING SHOUT!" She heard someone else shout back, Kia, it sounded like Kia, but… also not… it sounded… deeper? Why did it sound like something big and metal was moving about just out of view….
"HYPOCRITE!" Ira shouted back before breaking out into a laugh that was borderline maniacal, followed by an elated chuckle as a massive, metal, dark rouge…. Bird foot... came down in front of the exit... of the corridor...
Mikaela stopped walking, jaw dropping as the massive talons then shifted out again moving back to make room for whatever else was about to come into view.
When it did, and massive beady gold eyes locked on her, she sucked in her own breath, and screamed.
When her lungs were all but out of air, she felt the world go dark, and just managed to see the ground rushing up to meet her…
Ahhh Ira, always one for creating the drama of life
More about the mystery mech later.
Well, hope you all enjoyed! Until next time!
