Hello people, me again with another chapter of the re-write.
So, I think I'll continue putting a reminder/apology at the top of every re-written chapter. Currently I am in the process of re-writing this story to bring it up to my new standard of writing, as seen in my most recent story of this series "Reverse Robotics". As such, there will be variances between the earlier chapters and the later ones in writing style, until I eventually get all the way through and update all of them. There will be no change to the plot line! Absolutely none! So every change I am making now will have no effect on the later chapters at all, as all changes are being made more so on a structural level, such as slight modifications in timing.
I will point out right now that this most recent update will clash with the next chapter, as some events have not yet occurred. All reference that is made to a spider will hopefully make sense with the next chapter update.
Chow my lovelies, please enjoy.
Chapter 5: Metal Monsters
Caution was now a brand new word in my vocabulary. Following the events of the day before, I had vowed to never again set foot on that back path. Instead I was sticking to the main road like an old piece of chewing gum, glancing up at the sky so often I tripped almost every three steps.
The waves of voices, I was loathing calling it mind reading, came and went. Even over the space of four hours I had noticed that the voices in my mind weren't as prominent in an area where people were talking out loud. Naturally as I came to that conclusion I planted myself in the middle of areas of high conversation, not necessarily joining in. I was fortunate that the group which I usually sat with during breaks was a very chatty group.
Following Abbie's advice, the beanie was now tucked in my back pack. Her insistence had been that I looked stranger with it on than having my now white hair out for the world to see. And she was right, fewer people were even bothering to look in my direction, let alone do double takes. Of course there had been a few people at school who had approached and asked about the new hair do. My current story was that I went a little crazy with the hair dye, which most people seemed to accept without a problem.
As I walked I looked down at my hands, tapping the nails together idly. Another strange side effect was that my nails, which had previously been chewed and stubby, had fixed themselves so they were smoother and stronger. Odd, but certainly a change I could live with. Of course, I would have much preferred that there was no change at all, but as the day had gone on, I had found myself accepting that this was probably something which was here to stay. At least for the time being.
I was so engrossed in staring up at the sky that I didn't notice the car parked on the driveway until I had body planted into it. Grunting slightly as the wind was knocked from my lungs, I braced my hands against the tinted car windows to stop my face from slamming into the roof.
About to either apologise or snap at the driver for leaving their car there, I craned my neck to look in at the driver window. There was no one there. There were no passengers either. Glancing at the markings, I suddenly realised that it was a police car. Quickly I backed away as if the whole car had suddenly caught fire.
'My bad,' I muttered, although there was no one there to hear me.
Quickly, I slipped around the back of the car, intent on just walking past it when, without warning, it suddenly reversed. There were no lights, no sounds, the car just lurched backwards, knocking me in the side and sending me tumbling to the ground.
'Hey!' I snapped, picking myself up, eyeing the graze on my palm, 'what was that for?'
Of course there was no reply, there was no one in the car. I went to stand, only for the car to jump back again, so the bumper was less than a few inches from my nose, my legs now under the car.
Seeing myself in the shiny black bumper, I could see that my glowing blue eyes were wide with terror. Despite the fact that my heart was racing, I quickly went to scramble to my feet, out from under the car. It didn't move again.
In all honesty, at that point I should have just continued on my way. I should have just walked away from the crazy car. Instead, I turned back to it, back to look in at the drivers window. There was still no one there.
So when the door suddenly swung open, I jumped about three feet in the air and let out a startled squawk, sounding a little like a parakeet. Stupidly, I just stood there, clutching the strap of my bag, staring at the phantom car.
'What the…' I breathed.
I don't know how I ended up in the car. It was as if some giant, cold hand had suddenly gripped me around the waist and forced me forward, dragging me into the drivers seat. The next thing I knew, the seatbelt had constricted around my chest and stomach, pinning me to the seat and the door had slammed shut.
I had no time to scream, swear, exclaim or panic. Because just as the locks went down on the door, a taser like burst of electricity jolted through my body and everything went black.
…
Rousing from what felt kind of like unconsciousness but also like an abnormally deep sleep, I was surprised to find myself being carried. That was odd. What was even odder was the fact that I felt like I was wrapped in a sheet of metal.
My eyes slowly opened, and I frowned when I found myself gazing, upside down, at a passing wall. My head was tilted awkwardly backwards, hair flopping into my face and swinging underneath my head as whoever was carrying me continued to walk.
Whoever they were, they were really tall, I found myself thinking, really, really tall. I was at least fifteen feet off the ground, at a minimum. And whoever they were was walking with really slow, really long steps.
With no small amount of effort, I raised my head so I could see who was carrying me. And almost straight away, I screamed.
I was being carried in a giant metal hand. A metal hand which was connected to the biggest robot I had ever seen. Although considering that the biggest robot I had actually seen in my life was a robotic dog, finding something bigger probably wasn't hard. But the robot which was carrying me was huge.
Hearing me scream, it looked down and I found myself staring into two bright red eyes. The metallic plates of its face shifted into something which I could only describe as a smirk, as if it found my terror amusing.
Abruptly, I was dumped on the floor, by the creatures feet. At once, still breathing heavily and majorly panicking, I scrambled backwards on my butt, eyes never leaving the thing in front of me. It stepped forward and I yelped, not wanting it any closer to me than it already was.
'Get away from me,' I cried, scooting backwards until my back was pressed against a wall.
My breathing became shallower and my heart sped up as the thing bent down in front of me. The mechanisms of it's glowing red eyes whirred and shifted as it seemed to zoom in on my face. It's huge head was only a foot from my body by this stage and I was pressed as far back against the wall as I possible.
Then, it spoke, in a cold voice, which sounded deceptively normal to me, although it did have a slightly mechanical edge to it, 'this is the All Spark?'
From somewhere behind the creature, came another voice, 'the energy signals I picked up were a direct match Commander Starscream.'
I looked around the thing in front of me, so I could see the second monster only a few meters away. It was a little smaller than the first, but still huge. As I looked closer I could see the distinctive markings of a cop car on the metal planes of its arms. I frowned, despite my panic.
The cop car. I had been taken in a cop car. Was that monster the…? I shook the thought away, deeming it impossible.
When the red lights turned back to me, I quickly remembered my panic. For a long moment it seemed to study me, gazing me up and down several times. I stayed stock still, unable to move from both paralysis and the close proximity of the creature.
Eventually, it nodded, 'the energy signatures are the same. Send for Scalpel. See if we can get the All Spark extracted from this worthless life form.'
As it moved away, I somehow found my vocal chords, 'what are you?'
It didn't respond, so I tried again, a little louder, my voice quavering with fear, 'what are you?'
If a robot could laugh, I could have sworn it did, as it turned back to me, shutters over its eyes rapidly closing and opening in something akin to a blink, 'we are the Decepticons, girl. And you now belong to us.'