Wow. I sure spit this one out in a hurry, huh? I guess I'm just as excited to focus on writing TH&BA as I'm sure you guys are to read it. And now, with Convoy finished, I can focus all my TFP attention of it! Whoo-hoo!
Alice—Yes, and I know a lot of what you're planning too. ;) As long as you keep your mouth shut I'll keep mine shut too. XDD
WolfAssassin369—I'll never tell. ;P And "Convoy" has always been one of my top favorites episodes of TFP too. I have no idea why, but I love the scene where Optimus gets smashed in the head with the log and gets knocked out. I also love the scene where he finally starts to come too again, and I love the scene where he stops the train SINGLE-HANDEDLY. So epic!
AllSpark Princess—Unfortunately, I won't always update so quickly. So enjoy it while it lasts. XD
I do not own Transformers or anything in relation. I only own Hunter, the Hybrid race, and any other character that you may not recognize.
Brian Tyler; The Cons are Back
9
Ω A Future Uncertain Ω
MECH Headquarters;
"We had her!" Silas raged, flipping over a table. "We had them both—the DNGS and the girl! They were right at our fingertips! And now they're gone!" The burly man seized hold of a chair and threw it against the wall with a roar, splintering it.
"Well if you had taken her onto the helicopter while you had a hold on her," the woman, still in her body suit but unmasked, snapped back, "instead of just standing there, holding and staring at her you would have at least one of them right now instead of neither!"
Face red with anger, Silas whipped around and pointed rigidly at her. "I blame you!" he barked.
"Excuse me?!"
"This is your fault! You promised both of them to me and you couldn't hold it up!"
"How is that my fault?!"
"You should have given us far more warning than you did. As it was, you barely gave us any heads up at all!"
"What you needed to know beforehand I told you."
"Oh, and the fact that the vehicles making up the convoy were living machines wasn't something we needed to know beforehand? The fact that the second weapon was a girl who was a more powerful version of this same technology wasn't something we needed to know beforehand? The fact that the girl was competent in battle wasn't something we needed to know beforehand?!"
The woman gave the man a harsh look. How dare her question her?! "I assumed that the vehicles being sentient wasn't relevant enough to burden you with. After all, we didn't want them. And as for the girl… well… I wasn't aware that she'd advanced so far in her capabilities."
"Both big mistakes on your part," Silas snarled. "But, perhaps, not entirely unforgivable." As he said that a group of soldiers stepped out of the shadows and ringed around the woman, hemming her in. They had stun guns at the ready.
Gasping, the woman took a step back and turned, taking in each soldier and gun into her shocked gaze. She turned back to Silas, eyes narrowing dangerously. "What is the meaning of this?!" she fumed.
"You promised us a weapon," the man replied calmly, hands folded behind his back, "and that's just what you're going to give us. You see, I've been wondering for a while now how you could know anything about this girl; what she is, the thing she can do. After witnessing your powers today and after seeing the medallion on the girl's necklaces matches the one on yours, I now know. You and the girl—you're of the same species. And seeing as how we can't have the girl as our weapon, we'll be more than happy to have you take her place in our arsenal.
"Fool!" the woman spat. "You actually believe that you humans and your pathetic little toys can actually defeat and contain me?!"
"No," Silas answered with a smirk. "But we can always try."
With that, the soldiers powered up their guns so that they were sparking. Their fingers rested on the trigger, waiting for the signal.
The woman glanced around her before glowering back at Silas. "You haven't seen the last of me, Bishop," she hissed. "Not by a long shot!" With that she disappeared.
"Do you want us to go after her sir?" one of the soldiers asked, as they all powered down and lowered their guns.
"No," Silas responded. "She's long gone by now; we wouldn't be able to find her. We'll see her again, and when we do, we will be ready for her." Turning away, Silas examined the damage he had done in his fit of rage with a straight, unmoving face. Something caught his eyes. Stepping forward and kneeling down, the man picked up the object that had snagged his attention and stood, holding it close as he examined it. It was a piece of the girl's sweater that he had torn off when she'd kicked him away. On the small black cloth was a crest that matched the insignia of both the teen at the woman. Embroidered around the crest in fancy lettering were the words 'Olympus High'. "And something tells me," Silas murmured as he clutched the scrap in his fist, "that we will being seeing you again as well, girl."
A Secluded Cabin somewhere in the Wilderness;
"NOOOOOOOO!" she screamed in absolute fury, flinging, tearing, and smashing things as she trashed the room. "I was so close! She was almost out of my hair for good, and then… rrrraaaaaahhhhhh!" Picking up her sofa and hoisting it over her head, she sent the furniture flying through the wall of the cabin and then collapsed to her knees, emotionally exhausted. Tears of rage and pain reddened her eyes and marked her cheeks. Her nails bit into the wooden floor as she clung to it, enraged sob and enraged sob tearing away at her throat as he body wracked with them. For long moments she stayed in that position until finally she had mostly cried herself out. When that had happened, she looked up and around at the damaged she had inflicted. Controlling her anger was something she had never been good at. She always made everything too personal, and when she did that she became mad very quickly and tore things up. Her brother on the other hand…. As the thought of her brother came to her mind, the woman looked up at the mantle shelf above the fireplace where his picture was. Sniffling, she stood up on shaky legs and stumbled her way to the fireplace. She reached up and took the picture in quivering hands then brought it down. She held it lovingly.
Her brother…. It was true that they hadn't exactly been the best of friends growing up—in fact they'd rarely gotten along—but he had still be family. All the family she'd had. After their parents had died they'd only had each other to rely on. Oh, yes, they'd had their uncle and aunt who had taken them in and they were nice enough… but they hadn't been family. At least, not really. Until their parents had passed on, they'd hardly ever even met their aunt and uncle, so the atmosphere in the house had, needless to say, been very awkward. Besides, their aunt and uncle hadn't really cared for them but pitied them instead, and that's why they'd even taken them in. Or at least that's what her brother had said. She'd questioned that accusation, but when he'd convinced her to run away with him just to see if their aunt and uncle would come after them and they hadn't… she'd known he was right.
A smile quivering onto her lips, the woman tenderly stroked the picture, tracing over the contours of her brother's face with delicate fingertips. Just like their parents, he was gone now too. She had no one now. And that little redheaded, creator-fragging, Primus-damned glitch was the one responsible for it! "Don't you worry, Brother," the woman whispered, "I won't let your death go unavenged." She clenched her fist over the picture and hatred dripped like poison from her voice as she hissed, "The Fuser took your spark, and now I will take hers. I will have my revenge!"
With the Convoy;
It was dark outside as the team drove on. Seeing as how the train tracks were blown out and the DNGS still needed to be transported to its destination, they'd decided they might as well carry out the rest of the mission. Besides they were halfway to the destination point anyway, and it wasn't as if they had to drive all the way back, not a ground-bridge at their disposal. So after sending Jack and a reluctant Miko back to base and retrieving Optimus' trailer (it had miraculously survived the bombardment of the 'cons missiles) the convoy pushed on.
Bulkhead driving behind him, Bumblebee out in front, and Arcee once again riding in the trailer with the DNGS, Optimus rumbled down the road at the center of the pack. He was now in the presence of only one passenger. Fowler had decided to ride with Bulkhead (much to the ex-Wrecker's dismay), leaving Hunter the sole occupant of the cab. The mech couldn't be happier. As it was, his holoform was currently activated and taking up residence in the driver's seat, though it wasn't driving. Instead it was cradling the aforementioned passenger in its arms.
Gazing down at his spark-daughter's beautiful face through holoform eyes, Optimus smiled adoringly. He gently rocked her, humming softly along with the radio in her ear. The Prime decided it right then and there. It didn't matter if she was sixteen-years-old or six, so long as she allowed him to hold and cuddle her like this he would. And he would cherish every moment of it.
Half asleep in her spark-father's strong, cozy embrace, Hunter smiled and snuggled closer, smiling even more as his arms tightened around her in response. Purring, she nuzzled into his chest. By Primus, if this wasn't the absolute best place in the world to be, then the teen didn't know what was. Without warning she yawned.
Optimus' chest rumbled beneath her head in a warm chuckle. "It would appear that it's time for someone to go into stasis," he murmured, brushing a lock of hair out of her face.
The teen's eyes opened to half-mast as she gazed up at him and giggled. "Now that you mention it," she replied with another yawn, "I am feeling rather sleepy. Can't imagine why." She smirked.
Her father smirked back. "Hmm," he hummed, striking his chin as though he were deep in thought. "Might it have something to do with the fact that you waged battle against another Hybrid on a train today?" he suggested.
Hunter snickered. "Maybe."
The Prime chuckled and rubbed her back. "You performed admirably today, Hunter," he praised her, pride and adoration in his gaze. "I am very proud of you."
The redhead blushed and averted her eyes, smiling sheepishly. She pulled at the chain around his holoform neck so that his necklace came out from beneath his shirt and began to fiddle with it as though she were a small child. Pulling her own necklace out from beneath her blouse, the girl took the wolf head trinkets on both of the silver chains between her thumbs and forefingers and held them up beside each other so that they made a heart—the heart that was the tangible symbolization of their love and devotion to each other. "All I ever wanna do is make you proud, Dad," she confessed, not looking away from the heart.
Optimus closed one massive hand around both of her significantly smaller ones, successfully drawing her attention up to him once again. "I know," he told her, voice warm and full of love. Bowing his head, he Eskimo kissed her. "And you do make me proud; prouder than you could possibly imagine."
Giggling, Hunter Eskimo kissed him back.
Another revelation then came over the Prime's mind and he became suddenly grave, lifting his head and gazing out the windshield. "However," he began, "something still troubles me." Looking back at his daughter he raised an optic ridge. "Who was this Hybrid, and why was she working alongside MECH?"
Hunter shrugged. "You're guess is as good as mine," she answered. "I've never met her before in my life. I mean, I couldn't see her face and all, but I didn't recognize her voice at all. But whoever she was, she was a crazy good fighter. She knew about pressure points, Dad! Knew exactly where to hit me to turn my arms into noodles! And she had enough skill and power to incapacitate me with that for longer than I normally should have been." The Hybrid shook her head. "I don't know who she is, Dad, but I'm positive that I don't ever want to meet up with her again. At least not until I'm better at fighting."
Optimus nodded, understanding completely. "Do you have any idea why she was after you?"
"She kept mentioning how I took someone from her and how she was gonna get revenge because of it. Slag if I know what that means."
Optimus hummed thoughtfully again.
"Do you… think we'll see them again?" Hunter gulped, hoping the answer was 'no' but knowing better.
"I cannot say for certain, my little one," Optimus answered. "But if there is one thing I know about those seeking retribution, they will stop at nothing until they have it."
"And now both that femme and MECH have a score to settle with us," his daughter concluded.
The mech nodded. "Yes," he agreed. "Unfortunately, Hunter, I fear that this may only be the beginning."
"Dun, dun, dun!"
Optimus laughed at his daughter's overly dramatic sound-effect. Leave it to Hunter to find a way to make light of an ominous situation. Smiling down at her once more, the holoform kissed her forehead. "In the meantime," he whispered, resuming his rocking her, "why don't you try and obtain some rest? You deserve it."
Suddenly remembering how tired she was, Hunter yawned and snuggled closer. "All right," she conceded, nuzzling into his chest. "But only if you sing to me."
Her spark-father scoffed playfully. "Again?"
"Yes, again." Hunter smirked up at him. "Just because we're on the road and not at home doesn't mean that you can get away with not singing to me. It's not like Fowler's here to hear you and the comm-link is closed, so you can sing to me. You can and you will." With that, the teen closed her eyes and snuggled closer, listening to the spark-beat like hum that the holoform gave off.
Optimus chuckled and shook his head. Hard to reason with that logic. Kissing this daughter's forehead once more, he rested his head atop hers and softly began to sing her lullaby.
"Hush, my little one, no need to weep,
I am right here, guarding your sleep.
Close your eyes, sweet-spark, in my arms I will rock…
You, beautiful sweet-spark, you I will rock.
"No need to cry, little one of mine.
No need to fear.
My love will be with you.
My love will be near.
I'll be near.
"Sleep now, my dear one, all will be well
I will protect you, and protect you I shall.
Slip away, small one, slip off to dream
Tomorrow is far closer at hand than it seems…
Than it seems.
"No need to cry, little one of mine
No need to fear.
My love will be with you.
My love will be near.
I'll be near.
"Dream peaceful things, dream only good
And I will keep out the nightmares, as my love only could.
Dream of the sun, and of peaceful rains falling
Rise to the sun's calling.
"No need to cry…
No need to fear…
My love will be near…
I'll… be… near.
"I'll always love you, my little one
And will do so, till my passing's come.
I love you more than Cybertron.
Drift off, my child, drift off and dream
Worry not of tomorrow or the dark.
I will guide you and not leave 'til morning light…."
The Prime watched on as his little girl slept peacefully in the security of his embrace. He smiled. Even with the uncertainty of the future that lay ahead of them, there were two things that he would always be sure of. One was the absolute, undying love that he felt for Hunter and that she felt for him in return. The other was that they would face whatever challenges the future held for them in the same way they always faced everything else: together. Optimus could ask for no greater comfort than that.
Um… I'm actually kind of out of questions here. Hmm…. Oh, I got one! And it's perfect for the last question! Okay, how were you first introduced to Transformers Prime; The Hybrid Theory/why did you first start reading it? Were you bored and it just looked interesting? Did a fellow reader point you to it? What's your story? Also, what can I do to make my stories better/keep you interested in them? Besides proof-reading. I already know I have to get better at that. -_- I usually write stories for myself because I can never seem to find a fanfiction that can scratch me right where I itch, but I'm always open to suggestions that can help improve my writing and make the experience of reading it as rich as possible for you too.