More than meets the eye (17/7/2007)
Author's note
Made a few amendments to Chapter 6. Somebody mentioned it wouldn't make sense or be wise of Kasumi to drug her entire family, so I'm going to have her drug the only two persons who might sell the information to the highest bidder: Nabiki and Genma.
Many thanks to Isumo for proofreading this chapter.
Chapter 7: A Hidden War
After shaking hands with Optimus, or rather Optimus' finger, the huge Autobot leader proceeded to introduce the rest of his comrades.
"You already know Bumblebee, one of the most valiant soldiers I've ever had the honour of commanding. He has been on your planet for sometime so believe me when I say that for him to trust and befriend you is a very special occasion as he has not befriended anyone since his arrival. And from now on, he will be your guardian," Optimus said, gesturing to the yellow robot who smiled and started moving his legs and punching his fists like a boxer.
"I kind of guessed he was here for a long time since he transforms into such an old model. If I may ask, why was he sent here to Earth? Actually, may I know why all of you are here?" she asked politely.
"Patience Kasumi. As the strangers here, it would be more polite to introduce ourselves before coming to our true purposes."
Kasumi nodded and looked to the grizzled warrior with the massive guns next to Bumblebee.
"My security officer and assault specialist, Ironhide," Kasumi was about to say her greetings when the Autobot's arms suddenly transformed to reveal the massive guns forming on top of his elbows. Both of them were pointed at Kasumi.
"You like what you see, little lady?" he gruffly asked, obviously referring to his guns. This prompted Bumblebee to smack him on the head to stop him from aiming at Kasumi. "Oww, what was that for?"
"That's ….. no way….. to treat…. a lady…… Chromia …… nearly turned … you to ….. scrap…… metal when….. you did….. that …to her… on …. your….. first date….. or don't ….. you remember …. me rescuing ….. your …… circuits …… from …… her?" despite his croaking voice, it did not lessen the yellow robot's annoyance.
Ironhide harrumphed and holstered his guns. "Women, they never appreciate the good things in life,"this prompted another glare from Bumblebee.
"Easy Ironhide, Bumblebee," Optimus interjected. He then grinned at Kasumi. "Don't mind him, he never was a …. What's the human expression? Ah yes, a ladies man," Optimus actually chuckled and Kasumi joined him even though she was rather surprised at the notion that they were actually talking about female robots. Being the polite girl that she was, she stored this away as a question later.
"My intergalactic diplomatic officer and scout, codename designation Hound," he gestured at the robot that had transformed from a Hummer. Like Optimus, he also got down on one knee and extended his hand. As he was a great deal smaller than Optimus, he actually got three fingers together to shake Kasumi's hand.
"It is a great pleasure to meet you ma'am. Earth's culture is extremely fascinating indeed, I hope this will become a mutually beneficial learning experience for both of us," he was almost excited to actually talk to Kasumi, leading her to believe that she was the first human he had actually spoken to since coming to Earth.
"The pleasure is all mine Hound. It isn't everyday a girl gets to have company from not one but seven Autobots," she replied. Hound smiled widely and then to Kasumi's surprise and delight, a yellow rose suddenly sprung from one of his fingers. The simple gesture of friendship warmed Kasumi's heart as she took the rose and gave Hound and even brighter smile if it was possible, causing Hound's silver face to actually darken to mocha silver, almost as though he was blushing.
The next to be introduced was the police car. "This is Prowl, my first lieutenant and military strategist," Optimus said. Seeing the dour and unsmiling Autobot not moving or acknowledging Optimus introduction, she nevertheless immediately gave a deep Japanese bow that Prowl responded with a curt nod of his head. Kasumi sensed something troubling the Autobot deep in its heart so decided not to press for conversation apart from a friendly smile after the bow.
"And he is ….."the Autobot leadernever finished his sentence because as soon as Kasumi shifted her eyes away from Prowl, she found her hand had been taken by the robot Mazda RX-7, who was also on his knees and now had some sort of visor covering his eyes, almost like sunglasses.
"Ah bonjour, mademoiselle. Tu es tres jolie. Je t'aime," the Autobot said in a husky voice and then proceeded to plant a metallic kiss on the back of her hand.
This time, Kasumi really did look blank, because she didn't understand a word of what the Autobot was saying.
The Autobot's jaw dropped when he noticed Kasumi's blank look. "No way man, why ain't she responding? That is supposed to be the language of loooooovvvvee… The Earth chicks are all supposed to dig this," the Autobot cried.
Bumblebee walked next to the Autobot. "………… Jazz?"
"What, can't you see I'm busy?" Jazz was too distracted with figuring out Kasumi's blank look and so failed to notice Bumblebee lifting his right arm up in the air.
CRASH! Kasumi winced as the yellow Autobot brought his hand down and crashed it unto Jazz's head, knocking him face flat on the ground unconscious.
Optimus merely sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Kasumi, I present to you the Autobot's version of a hentai, Jazz. Otherwise he is one of my best warriors and leader of special operations."
Prowl snorted. "When he isn't busy flirting with females of every species in the galaxy," the senior Autobot said disdainfully.
"Uhm OK," Kasumi wasn't quite sure what to say. Despite the previous night's incident, Jazz's flirtation struck her more as strange rather than perverted or even humorous.
"And last of all, our medical officer Ratchet, who along with Bumblebee, has been on your planet for a number of years now learning of your species biology," the medical Autobot was staring at Kasumi intently.
"Kasumi dear, would you please step forward?" he instructed. Kasumi was confused and somewhat scared at what the medical officer would find. "May I have your consent to examine your physical being?"
Kasumi blushed, thinking of the intimate medical examination she had endured earlier in the police station. "Could we do it somewhere private… Doctor Ratchet."
The Autobot laughed. "Oh not that kind of examination my dear Kasumi. Basically I'll just look at you right here and determine exactly what's wrong with you. Now hold still for awhile, this will only take a second. Oh and just call me Ratchet, the doctor suffix is unnecessary," he said. His eyes suddenly glowed and a beam of light shot out of his eyes and enveloped Kasumi. When the light shut off, he used his left arm to gently take Kasumi's elbow.
"Kasumi, did you have any injections lately?"
She suddenly remembered the injection that Happosai had given to her but the medical examination had shown nothing wrong with her blood stream. She whispered to Ratchet, "Yes, last night Happosai injected something into me. I don't know what it is though and police doctors don't know as well."
"Come to see me afterwards and I'll sort you out. Don't worry, it's nothing I can't fix," Ratchet smiled at Kasumi.
Optimus then said, "Well Kasumi, now you know all of us. Now I expect that you have some questions."
Kasumi turned back to face the leader of the Autobots. "First of all, may I know what you are? You seem to be highly advance robots to me but you also seem to have personalities that are, well, too human to be just robots programmed with advanced Artificial Intelligence."
"We are not robots in the sense that you understand. For you, a robot is a construct that fulfils a certain task and has a certain degree of autonomy in doing it. We are Autonomous Robotic Lifeforms, creations given life by the Matrix. We do not reproduce in the same manner as you do but suffice to say, we Autobots regard ourselves as living organisms like yourself. We hail from the planet Cybertron, a planet far away from Earth, thousands of light-years away," Optimus said.
Kasumi slowly absorbed the information. "Then may I ask now, why are you here?"
"We come looking for an artefact which belongs to us. As well as prevent Megatron and the Decepticons from finding it," Optimus said.
The eldest Tendo sister felt cold when she heard the name Megatron. "What is this artefact you seek? Why is it so important to you? Who or what is Megatron and the Decepticons?" Kasumi asked.
Optimus' eyes suddenly glowed brighter than usual and then shot out twin beams of light that went straight into Kasumi's eyes. The girl's eyes widened in shock then went into a trance.
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Kasumi was floating in outer space. She found that she could still breathe and looked around her. And then she saw the planet below her.
The voice of Optimus Prime sounded in the void, "Long ago when your planet was still young, our race built a mighty empire. In the beginning there was peace as our race learnt to travel the stars, building mighty works in all of our colonies and worlds, though none were as illustrious as our home planet of Cybertron. United, we were the most advanced race in the cosmos and the peace of our civilisation extended to all of our dominions." Kasumi suddenly found herself transported to the world, standing atop a tower overlooking a massive city that covered the landscape as far as the eye can see. She looked down and saw numerous Autobots going about their daily lives, almost like the citizens of Tokyo. She saw Autobot males and females, which were more or less Autobots with feminine human features on their faces happily going through their lives while other Autobots constructed mighty buildings and towers, beautiful and designed for the various functions of the Cybertronian city. It was almost a picture perfect scenery of a peaceful race of robots.
"Life for our race, as well as our powers of transformation comes from the Autobot Matrix of Leadership," Optimus suddenly appeared sitting beside her, his feet dangling off the edge of the tower. He then turned to Kasumi and then she saw his chest open to reveal a glowing object in his chest. "In Earth terms, this is our Holy Cross, the closest thing we have to a religious artefact, only we do not worship it but acknowledge it as the source of our life. From whence it came nobody knows but from it came the first Autobot. And with it, our race became strong and arose as the greatest civilisation the galaxy had ever seen."
The light of the day suddenly darkened into night. "But like all things good, it must come to an end."
She suddenly saw massive explosions throughout the city. Buildings and monuments as tall as Mount Everest collapsed in burning infernos spreading death and destruction to thousands of square kilometres around them. The screams deafened her and she wept as she saw the thousands perish in the destruction. She then watched in horror as she saw armies of thousands of Autobots emerge from the destruction and promptly started killing all the other Autobots.
An unholy roar filled the air and Kasumi realised it was coming from right behind her on the tower where she was standing. She turned around and saw a vision from hell. Standing thirty feet tall, was the most evil and demonic looking Autobot she had ever seen. It was silver and had claw like hands and legs, sharp features that looked like anything it touched would be cut. Its right arm had a huge flail attached to it which he twirled around and round, all the while laughing maniacally while his left hand, to her horror held the head of an unknown Autobot. The expression on the Autobot's face was one of abject terror. She looked at the evil Autobot before her, noting the demonic face with red eyes and sharp teeth partially concealed and protected by a silver helmet. And upon that helmet was an emblem that was unlike that of Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots standing before her now.
"Yes Kasumi, you are now looking at the traitor of our race. Megatron desired the power of the Matrix for the purpose of conquest whereas before, our race protected our dominions from hostile aliens. He seeks to conquer the rest of the galaxy and subjugate all other sentient beings as his slaves. To this end, he tore our race in two and created the new faction known as the Decepticons, like minded Autobots who betrayed the noble principles of our once mighty empire and became obsessed with conquest."
Kasumi continued to watch as the planetary war escalated to catastrophic proportions until the smoke from the perpetual destruction darkened the atmosphere permanently. Everywhere there were pits of fire spewing magma all over the place and instead of beautiful cities now stood charred and blackened desolation, broken only by groups of Autobots and Decepticons fighting one another. The image of Megatron in front of Kasumi gave another roar and jumped off the tower into the midst of a battle, slaughtering the Autobots in droves as none dared to face him and retreated screaming even as he cut them down.
"In the end, our war consumed our planet and drove our race to near extinction. Until today, fewer than fifty Decepticons and Autobots remain. Our beloved planet is now a dead planet, devoid of life, techno or organic," he whispered.
Kasumi was in tears as she bore witness to the destruction of the Autobot civilisation. "But what has this to do with our world? Why don't you use the Matrix to create new Autobots and revitalise your society?" she asked Optimus who was still beside her.
Optimus sighed. "It is what I would do and in truth, that is exactly what Megatron wants. Unfortunately he wants the Matrix to create Decepticons in his image, cruel, savage and subservient to his will instead of the free sparks which is the natural creation of the Matrix. But though the Matrix bears the sparks of our creation, including the sparks of Autobots long dead to which they return to the Matrix, as well as new sparks to be born as new Autobots, it can be manipulated by a Key. We call this artefact the Key to Vector Sigma. It is the key that is used to activate the Matrix to give new life to Autobots. And Megatron seeks this key to bend the Matrix of Creation to his twisted view of what an Autobot should be, in other words he wishes to not only use it and the Matrix to create new Decepticons, but to commit the greatest blasphemy of all: reprogramming all free Autobots to his will."
Kasumi gasped at the implication of the noble Optimus Prime being turned into a maniacal bloodthirsty robot, along with Bumblebee and the rest of the Autobots she had just met.
"As we continued to lose Autobots to Decepticon victories, I eventually came to a decision that Megatron could not obtain either the Matrix nor the Key to Vector Sigma. To this end, I committed the safekeeping of the Matrix to myself and the Key to my greatest warrior at the time, Skyfire. I scattered the Autobots and ordered Skyfire to escape far away into the reaches of the galaxy beyond Megatron's reach. I had hoped that Megatron would assume that both the Key and Matrix were with me and would pursue me rather than Skyfire. But this turned out to be my greatest mistake. Skyfire was pursued instead and killed, but not before launching the key into the far reaches of space, beyond the range and knowledge of our race. Megatron was furious and searched the galaxy for the key for countless millennia. Eventually, he found it on your planet, Earth."
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The scene before Kasumi's eyes blurred and all of a sudden she found herself back in the steel factory, sitting on the floor with tears coursing through her face. The other Autobots she saw also looked extremely sad, with Jazz somehow being the most melancholic of them and actually appeared to be crying through his covered face. Prowl looked even more grim than possible and Bumblebee was making a wailing sound with his damaged voice box.
Kasumi looked at Optimus and the sorrow in his eyes made it almost unbearable to gaze into his eye but Kasumi held her gaze.
"I know that there is nothing I can say that can remotely describe your sorrow but for what it's worth, I am so sorry for your loss Optimus Prime," she whispered.
The Autobot leader shook his head. "There is nothing for you to be sorry about Kasumi. Our own arrogance and pride brought this end to our race."
Silence reigned for awhile and Kasumi finally continued her question. "But if Megatron came to Earth and found the Key to Vector Sigma, why hasn't he attacked you yet? Or why hasn't he started to conquer Earth yet?"
Optimus sighed. "That part of the history is why the rest of us have come here to discover."
Ratchet then spoke, "You probably think that Bumblebee and I have only been in Japan for the past forty years of your time. This is wrong; we have travelled to the four corners of your planet trying to find both Megatron and the Key to Vector Sigma. Until a few days ago, we found nothing. Japan was our last place to search and then, Bumblebee made two important discoveries."
Kasumi looked at Bumblebee. "Did you find the Key to Vector Sigma?" she asked.
"In a fashion. He managed to access your government's network and uncovered clues that if interpreted correctly, suggests that the Key to Vector Sigma is located here in Japan. But he found something more disturbing. He discovered the Decepticons on Earth."
To say that she was horrified was an understatement. "The Decepticons are here now?"
"Yes Kasumi. And that is why we've come. If we have uncovered clues that the Key to Vector Sigma is located here, the Decepticons know as well. But for the Decepticons to actually come here, it means that Megatron is somewhere on this planet as well, hiding or imprisoned by powers beyond even our comprehension," Optimus said.
"But I thought you said that you needed both the Matrix and the Key to create new Autobots or Decepticons," she stated.
"The two used together would create a live Autobot or Decepticon. But the Key to Vector Sigma also has other terrible powers: one is to turn organic lifeforms into technological constructs. The second is creating robotic constructs out of your existing technology, only without the sparks that makes us sentient and alive," Ratchet answered.
"But even if he creates robots with no personalities ……" Kasumi slowly thought out aloud.
"….. those robots can still be reprogrammed as drones. They would not be privy to a true Autobot's abilities nor will they be able to think beyond their programming but Megatron and the Decepticons would still be able to create a new army for themselves,"Optimus finished Kasumi's line of thought. "And with such an army he would be able to take over your country and move on to the next, wiping out all organic life to create his mechanical army and eventually cover your entire world with mindless automatons. And with this, he will be able to expand his army to the galaxy and enslave all life."
Kasumi was truly afraid that such terrible beings were now not only on her world but also in the same country, or even in Nerima itself.
"If the Decepticons are here, why haven't they started conquering the planet?" Kasumi asked.
Optimus smiled. "You underestimate your planet's technology level. Why do we disguise ourselves as Earth vehicles? It is because a full military strike against such a small number of us will most likely defeat us, Autobot or Decepticon. We are not invulnerable Kasumi. Remember that somewhere on this world, Megatron lies imprisoned. The United States of America in particular, has much developed a respectable amount of weaponry that even Megatron cannot withstand should they attack him. This is why we, and the Decepticons as well, disguise ourselves as your vehicles to prevent detection from your military."
Kasumi breathed a sigh of relief that the Autobots were somewhat confident in Earth's ability to defend itself from the Decepticons. But she realised it meant that the Autobots could be killed by her own people as well.
She looked at Optimus. "So what will you do now that you are here Optimus?" she asked.
"For now, we search for the Key. And we make sure that you and Mrs. Ono remain safe as the two of you are the only ones who have borne witness to our existence. From tomorrow onwards, the Autobots will roll out throughout Japan to search for the Key."
Kasumi frowned. "But Happosai has also seen Bumblebee," she cried.
"That is a troubling factor but nothing we can do about now. Besides, even if we are discovered, we have first contact protocols. But at all cost, we must recover the Key before the Decepticons do. And if possible, find out about the fate of Megatron as well."
Optimus Prime then turned to Kasumi. "I am so sorry Kasumi, that our war has spilled over into your world. For what it's worth, I and the Autobots, swear to protect the human race from Megatron and the Decepticons. We will do everything in our power to stop the Decepticons from destroying your race and expel them from your world. I would die first before seeing your world pay for the mistakes of my race and our war. But we cannot do this alone. Will you help us, Kasumi in our quest to recover the Key and defeat the Decepticons on your world?"
The prospect of herself becoming embroiled in a war that could very well engulf her world intimidated Kasumi. After all, she was just a housewife who had just nearly been raped and was in charge of a household full of miscreants. But she remembered her promise to Bumblebee, that she would no longer cower behind fear and ignorance, that she would do the right thing and take a stand no matter the cost. She caught Bumblebee looking at her, almost pleading with her and her resolve was strengthened.
"Yes Optimus Prime, I will help you save my world. For the sake of my loved ones, my family and my world, I will help you in your fight to end this war on my world." She then saw sun rays penetrate the glass windows of the factory and realised in shock that she had been gone the entire night again. The fatigue of not sleeping for two days finally caught up with her and she swooned. Before she could hit the floor, she found herself enveloped by the warm hand of Optimus Prime. Instantly she fell asleep.
Bumblebee walked to Optimus and gazed at the sleeping beauty in Optimus's hand. Optimus Prime sighed. "The poor girl has had a lot to take in tonight. It amazes me that her mind can take so much and not be driven insane. She is so sweet and gentle, yet strong as steel. You know Bumblebee, she reminds me of Elita"
Bumblebee chuckled. "As …… strange as ……. it may sound……. after all she ……..has seen ……..in her …….own home …….giant …….transforming robots coming …….. out of the ……sky may actually ……..seem …….quite mild compared …….to what …….she's used to …….seeing.
Optimus shook his head. "This world is indeed full of surprises. If the war against the Decepticons doesn't take up all of our time, this may be a good place to rejuvenate our sparks. I pray that we can before all hell breaks loose on us."
To be continued.
Author's notes
Just to translate what Jazz was saying to Kasumi.
Greetings fair lady, You are very pretty, I like you.