Well, I'm back :3 I'm a horrible updater, I know. I know I told you guys that I was going to update after my surgery last September, but then I didn't. Right now, I'm recovering from an abrupt emergency surgery in order to get my appendix out. Turns out, it was swelling and fusing with the organs around it, and if I hadn't gotten it removed right then, it would have burst and I would have died.
So now I'm, going out of my mind in boredom, so I figured I would finish this chapter since I had a strong burst of inspiration. I hope you enjoy this chapter. :D
6 – Darkness Falling Part 5 – 6
"How dare you!" Elita One snarled, dropping her accent in her anger. She practically stomped forward, but a warning growl from the red Dodge Challenger made her pause.
"I don't know what the slag is going on around here, but I want some answers!" Cliffjumper demanded, never taking his sight off the femme holding me. Fear was constantly threatening to consume me, drown me. Tears welled up in my eyes as my emotional barrier finally broke down. I hated looking so weak in front of strangers, but I couldn't hold it in anymore. I was terrified that I was going to die at any moment, and I didn't want to die. I saw Cliffjumper look down at me before saying, "And I would like you to let go of the girl." When he saw her hesitate, he growled, "Give her to me!"
Elita One revved her engine in defiance. "Fine!" she spat. "You can have her!" And with that, she lobbed me at Cliffjumper!
Everything seemed to slow down. I watched as Elita's throw caused me to spin out of control in slow-motion. I screamed as loud as I could as I flailed. Time seemed to slowly resume the farther I flew from the evil Autobot. I was going to die!
But suddenly, a strong servo caught me, and stopped me from falling to my death. The sudden deceleration knocked the wind out of me, and gave me a nasty cut on the forehead, but at least I wasn't dead. The servo curled around me protectively as I gasped for breath. "Thank you," there was a smirk in Cliffjumper's tone.
Merely seconds after that, everything seemed to explode. Taking advantage of Cliffjumper's momentary distraction, Elita open-fired on him and he was forced to fall back. He deposited me back on the catwalk before he turned to the evil-Autobot and transformed the servo that had been holding me into another triple-barrel blaster.
I was frozen in place, unable to look away as the red good-Autobot rushed Elita. Shots were exchanged, but he managed to get to her with only a hit to the right shoulder. "Usually I don't hit girls," he remarked as he swung at her. "But right now? I'll make an exception."
Elita managed to dodge, and kicked him harshly in the abdomen. Cliffjumper stumbled back a few steps and bent forward slightly. That must have hurt, if the disgruntled look on his faceplates was any indication. In retaliation, he lunged and grabbed her upper arm before swinging her around and throwing her roughly down the hall. She cried out as she slammed out of control into the floor several meters away. I held my breath as she lay there, still, wondering if she was going to get back up.
Her head whipped up and she snarled at Cliffjumper, red optics bright. "You will pay for that!" she growled, quickly scrambling to her pedes.
Cliffjumper held up a blaster and quickly jerked it back towards himself in a 'come-and-get-some' gesture, his grin, which must have irritated her greatly, never leaving his faceplates. Elita switched her blasters for her servos and brought out her wristblades. The red Autobot readied himself for her as she charged him and began to slice at him. She was quick about it, and when she went for his neck, I felt my heart jump to my throat.
He blocked her attack by raising his forearms, and by using her momentum against her, he threw her off of him in such a way that it made it look like she just bounced off of him. She hit the ground hard, but was back on her pedes in less time than it took to blink. She slashed at him and managed to carve a deep gash in his chest plates, and that tore a cry of pain free from his voicebox.
Almost out of instinct, his knee jerked up and got her in the abdomen, launching her into the air once more. She hit the floor heavily with an oval-shaped dent in her upper abdomen plating, which began sparking. She glared up at Cliffjumper from her position on the floor, panting. Energon was running quickly from the wound on Cliffjumper's chest, and though he was struggling for 'breath', he glared daggers down at her—before doing something completely unexpected. He quickly stomped down on her helm before she could get up and keep fighting.
The action was so abrupt and morbid that I shrieked. My hands flew up to my mouth and I looked at Cliffjumper shock- and horror-filled eyes stretched wide. I couldn't bear to look down at the now-prone form lying on the deck. It was several moments before I could muster up the courage to speak. "I…is she dead?" I breathed.
Cliffjumper shook his helm. "No…only in stasis." He came over to the catwalk and held his servo open, the back of it resting on the surface of the catwalk, as if waiting for me to step onto it. My heart was still hammering from the battle. I thought the battles on Transformers: Prime were thrilling, filled with life-or-death situations, heart-wrenching catastrophes, and the like. When I first started watching the show, I didn't know the bots. I was practically a brand new Transformers fan. I had watched the TF1 movie, and that was it. So when I began to watch the show, I knew no one, so to speak.
Every bot was a stranger on that screen. I didn't have any previous fore-knowledge of any of the characters, so I was still confused when Starscream killed Cliffjumper. It hurt, yes, that someone had died so early in the series, and in such a horrible way, but I didn't know him. I did like his original voice actor, though.
It wasn't until the end of the first season, which, by then, I had come to know the characters quite well, that it began to hurt. So much death had happened, and yet the Autobots still persevered. I was a hardcore fan by then, and I was seeing how much loss the good guys had to endure. It kinda hurt that Cliffjumper didn't get any more screen-time outside of flashbacks after the first episode.
But now he was here, alive, and with his 'Dwayne Johnson' voice. How cool was that? But the battle…
Getting back to an earlier point, the battle I just witnessed was unlike anything I had ever seen. It wasn't like the battles I saw on the TV or on my computer screen. The one that just happened between Cliffjumper and evil Elita One was real, reality shattering. It was loud, scary. It was too real. My fight of flight response was still racing through me in high gear, and I was finding it hard to move with how my joints seemed to have taken to locking up. The battles on the screen were not as cool as they looked.
This was when I realized how morbid my fascination of the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons had become. War wasn't fun, it wasn't cool. I had turned into some sort of real-life (albeit calmer) version of Miko when it came to battle and action and giant robot smack-downs.
With a sad sigh, I stepped onto the waiting servo and sat down before the red Autobot began to move. I was quiet as Cliffjumper quickly began to jog down the hall. He raced for a door at the far-end of the hall, picking more and more speed as he went. It wasn't long before he reached the door and it opened automatically.
"I know a place where we can hide out," I piped up.
"Where?" he grunted.
"In the medbay," I said, pointing ahead as I tried to keep myself from being thrown about in his servo. "There is a row of human-sized rooms along one wall in there where I'll be safe from the evil-Autobots." I craned my neck in order to look up at his face. "Will you be able to hold your own against Knock Out and Breakdown when they return to the medbay and find you there? Without killing them? Because it'll take a while for me to get their attention and to get them to stop flipping out." I paused for a second. "You are a good Autobot from another universe, right?"
Cliffjumper slid to a stop and looked down at her. "…How did you know that?" he gave her a questioning, and overall suspicious, look.
A long, drawn-out sigh escaped me as my shoulders slumped. Now was not the time to be asking questions needing long answers, Cliffjumper, I thought urgently. Instead of voicing that, I said, "J-just get to the medbay first. If we can get there safely, th-then I'll tell you."
Cliff nodded in what I hoped was agreement before he took off down the hall again. It wasn't long before the familiar doors of the medbay swished open and Cliffjumper carried me safely into what I believed was the safest places on the ship.
"W-what?!" a Knock Out's voice suddenly exclaimed. "You! Unhand the human!"
I let out a scream of surprise as Cliffjumper nearly leapt out of his armour. He turned to look in the blue Aston Martin's direction in time to see the medic point his signature prod in our direction. The Autobot threw up his free hand and cried, "Whoa! Whoa!"
I actually had the courage to scream, "Stop, Knock Out! He's a good guy!" I had to admit, I was quite proud of how strong my voice was right then. "He saved me!"
Knock Out didn't seem to hear and I found myself being roughly snatched from Cliffjumper's servo. I cried out in pain as the medic's sharp digit-tips nearly pierced my sides.
I was deposited on a counter, and Knock Out stood between me and Cliffjumper. My heart raced as I stared wide-eyed at the Autobot and Decepticon. "Don't do it, Knock Out! Please—he's a good guy! He saved me from Elita One—she was going to take me to the Autobot leader, but he battled her so he could save me from her!" I pleaded.
Knock Out sneered at the good Autobot, though I could tell that I was starting to get through to him.
"And this is not this universe's Cliffjumper," I continued. "I'm from another universe, so I know! This Cliffjumper is from the mirror universe of this one, where the Autobots are good and have the same morals as the Decepticons here. And look! His armour is red and this optics are blue! I'm pretty sure that if this was this universe's Cliffjumper, his optics would at least be red." I paused to take a breath and rest my vocal cords for a moment. I hadn't yelled like that for a while, and I hoped I wouldn't have to so again for a long time to come.
Cliffjumper wisely kept quiet, thankfully. I was pretty sure that if he had spoken, it would have just made the situation worse.
"Autobots are lying, conniving scoundrels. You cannot trust them!" Knock Out insisted.
"Then why would Cliffjumper save me from his own team?" I retorted angrily. "If I guess correctly," I stepped forward, "in this universe" step "Autobots" step "despise" step "humanity." With every step, I added more emphasis to my words. "Why would an Autobot save me from another Autobot if he despised human kind?"
I knew I had won when I saw the uncertainty in Knock Out's optics. I watched as he glanced between me and Cliffjumper in uncertainty. I didn't let the firm look leave my face, feeling surprisingly bold in the presence of the Cybertronians.
"Yeah…" Cliffjumper said slowly. "What she said. And why would I hurt her, I'm on Earth to protect humanity—the last thing I remember before I woke up surrounded by evil clones of the people I call comrades was nearly being blown to bits by Vehicons…or in this universe—Vehibots."
It took a while to fully convince Knock Out that Cliffjumper was a friend and that killing him was a bad idea.
The Autobots had somehow snuck onto the Nemesis undetected and had tried to commandeer it so that they could access the Decepticons' Space Bridge, which orbited the moon and was the last connection the 'Cons had to their planet, Cybertron. Megatron engaged Optimus Prime in battle, which somehow ended with Optimus being destroyed when the 'Bridge exploded.
But I knew Optimus wasn't dead. If he had fused his spark with Dark Energon like Megatron did in the show…then he was still alive and just in a coma.
Optimus was going to come back, there was no doubt about that.
HeartsGuardianSol: Indeed XD I've always wanted to see what Knock Out would do to revamp my wardrobe, lol.
Smokescreen14: Thanks a bunch! I will keep a writing :)
SunnySides: Sorta, I am getting ideas from the comics, but I'm not going all that deep into the comics. I'm glad you're enjoying it so much, and I'm sorry it took so long to update, my muse kinda flew out the window.
Lydia the tygeropean: I'm glad you're liking it! ^^
Spacelady2012: It is! It's Prime Cliffjumper! He's in for a heap of trouble though.
Benthino: Thanks *blushes* I hope I continue to deliver an enjoyable story and that I don't disappoint.
igeegeei: Indeed XD
entercleverpennamehere: I hope the story continues to be interesting ^^
KeepingThemAtBay: And there was a fight, I hope it was satisfactory. :)
Dragon of Yin and Yang: I will!
BridgeBetweenReality: I'm glad you do! *hugs*
Steel autobot: Yep! I think I scared myself with how I wrote her, lol.
Valkyrie 497: Hmm…I must have missed something in my edit, then. I'm always trying to improve how I write. Thanks :3
Autobot StarRacer: Thanks a bunch! I hope I can begin to update faster now on.
Dreaming Star Traveler: This Cliffjumper is definitely Prime and not Shattered. Glad you're enjoying the story.
Kittycat0521: I have, and I will try to do so in the future.
Stella Shootingstar: I'm glad you are liking this story so much. There is definitely going to be more Sir Soundwave in the future. I'm doing much better, thanks. ^^
animalsingerdancerlover: There will be more! lol
Guest: Aw, thanks! *blushes* I'm glad you're liking it so much! I think Breakdown is going to be a favourite too, but KO is still my favourite. I try to be creative, and sometimes it results in something hilarious.
hest: It's a perfectly reasonable critique, I don't mind. I've never been to Nevada, so I have no idea what it's like down there. Thanks for telling me what it's like there, now I will be able to be more accurate. Thanks :3