REVISED
Hey guys! I got really far ahead in my writings on this story, so here's another chapter update! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own transformers, I DO own Project Seven
To answer a question that may have come up, I am using this story and following the movie version, so it's set during that time, I just took a different ending ;D
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Back at the base where, officially named, Seven had escaped, many agents and guards gathered around a cell that was even more secluded than the rest of the projects and experiments. The cell was made of several layers of bullet-proof glass and titanium. The door was thick steel, with only one, small hole to look into.
In front of the door, the guards and agents all gathered.
"Are you sure that this should be done? This project is the most unstable one yet!" A lab technician held the key to the door anxiously. The man was sweating, and his hands were shaking. It was obvious that he had experience trying to deal with this other project. "This woman cannot be trusted! She's the most deeply disturbed project yet and-"
"You have your orders... This "project" is the only way to find Seven..." An agent ordered.
"You don't understand! We haven't found a way to stabilize this one! She won't follow orders, and she's a danger to anyone near her! We were planning on destroying her but-"
"I've heard enough! The orders have been made, and we have to follow them! I assure you, that we will have every man needed to keep this out of the public eye, but this is our only shot to capture Seven! Now do as you're told before I do it for you!" The agent interrupted the technician and made his demands.
"I... uh... Yes sir..." The technician turned slowly to the cell and carefully input a code into a numeral pad next to the door.
The code was accepted, and a key slot revealed itself in the door. The tech was so nervous putting the key in the door that his hand shivered and he missed the slot the first and second attempt. Finally getting the key in the door, he slowly turned it, and the locking mechanisms gave a loud "CLANG" as they had been undone. The technician opened the door and the guards and agents raised their weapons towards the open pathway. Some of the guards entered the room just before an agent entered and noticed the woman who they had come to see. She had been sitting in a corner with her knees against her chest. She was wearing a straight jacket and had her head lowered.
"Number Eight I presume?" The agent asked.
There was no answer from the girl, her messy brunette hair covering her face.
"Number Eight, you will answer, or we will take action against this -"
"I heard you..." a low growl rumbled from the woman.
The agent was practically shaking in his boots, as they say. Just the idea of being in the same room with this creature was frightening. He could actually feel a haze of the murderous cloud that hung over the woman.
"We... We require your assistance," the officers voice was shaky, at best.
A low hum of the girl's voice practically shook the man's spine as she spoke, "I have already explained my position to your superiors... How many incidents must there be before the rest of you listen to me?"
"My superiors are the ones that believe this is a task you may take on..." he replied.
"I'll do nothing to aid you. Take that back to them and leave me alone..." the girl did not make a single movement.
"Allow me to explain what we're going to be asking of you," the man insisted on continuing, even though his insticts were warning him otherwise, "One of our projects has escaped."
A small hitch in the girl's body movement told the officer that this had brought her to full attention.
"...Which one?" she asked.
"Erm.." the officer had been briefed on project Eight's past, and felt a bit uncomfortable at the idea of releasing too much information to her.
"I asked you a question..." Eight became enraged.
The officer sighed and replied, "It was Project Seven... She escaped, we think, with the aid of one of our scientists. We have no proof of it at the moment, but our first priority is to remove Seven from the public. And we believe the only way to do that is to have someone with even more training and experience than her to track her down."
"...So she escaped? She's finally free, and I'm still here?" Eight gritted her teeth, as well as becoming more tense.
"Does this mean we have an agreement?" the officer asked.
"What makes you think that I'll turn in one of my own?" the woman asked, keeping her head held low.
"We understand that the project identity that you are under has been deemed unstable, unreliable, and has been condemned. If you help us, we will reverse this, and maybe meet to some of your demands as well..." The agent explained.
The woman slowly lifted her head, and the guards reacted by raising their weapons to her and putting their fingers on the triggers of the guns, ready for anything.
Opening her eyes, the agent saw that her looks were nearly the same as Seven, except for the differences of the bright, yellow, cat-like eyes.
"Well then... We might have a deal after all..." the woman said in her low rumble.
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"So how the hell did you do that anyway?" Sam asked, intensely curious about what the girl had done to save them.
"Do what?" Seven was lost.
"You..." Sam looked to Bumblebee and Mikaela for help with the words, "You did that thing... And a huge wall just appeared out of nowhere... How did you do that?"
"Oh that... Well one of the training exercises that was taught to, only me, was Alchemy. I just used it to raise the concrete to separate you guys from those agents," Seven explained.
"Alchemy?" Mikaela asked.
"You're kidding? Alchemy... Like the "turn lead into gold" Alchemy?" Sam was stunned.
Seven scoffed and said, "You might not believe how untrue that is, actually."
"Still! Alchemy! I thought that it was just a myth!" Sam was nearly bursting out of his skin he had gotten so excited.
"It's no myth, as you may have noticed. It's just a greatly unappreciated science," Seven added.
"Alchemy..." Optimus looked to the other Autobots and then back to Seven, "We did not find this on our search of the "World Wide Web". What is it?"
"It's a science. Being able to turn one object into another using chemical properties," Seven replied.
The Autobots looked to one another, assumingly transmitting some sort of frequency to each other.
"I'm afraid we still don't understand..." Optimus looked back to Seven.
The girl, then, took her overcoat and gloves off to reveal her robotic arm. She placed her left hand over it and, in one swift movement, ran her hand down her arm, revealing that her arm was now, a long, double-edged blade.
"Amazing! You can transform just as we can!" Ratchet announced.
"No, not transform, "Seven replied holding her bladed arm up so that the early morning sunlight could gleam off of it, "Transmuted. To use the chemical properties of an object and cause a reaction to change it into another."
Sam leaned over to Mikaela and whispered, "Remind me never to piss her off..." the girl nodded in reply as she and Sam stared at the blade, which was once the girl's arm.
Seven transmuted the blade back into her arm, and threw back on her overcoat and gloves. As soon as she did this, she heard an awful growl, only to look at Sam and Mikaela and saw their faces turn red.
"You wouldn't happen to be able to turn dirt into food would you?" Mikaela asked.
"Uhh, no," Seven shrugged, "It's kind of a rule of Alchemy. Like not being able to turn lead into gold..." she explained her stomach beginning to growl as well.
"Great... We've lost contact with everyone from home... The feds have our families... And we're in the middle of the desert with no way to buy any food..." Sam yelled in frustration as he sat in the dry dirt.
"We can't go back to Los Angelas, Sam... They've probably got a lot of people looking for us..." Mikaela reasoned with the boy.
Seven rolled her eyes. Her instincts were telling her that she didn't want to stay long, but she couldn't help but feel like Lillian meant for her to behave, and be helpful to those who had helped her. She sighed, deciding that she should have, at least paid back the debt that was owed for the group rescuing her from the situation of being close to capture. Though she had the feeling that things would have worked out differently for them, had she not intervened.
"Well... I don't have food, but I have this, " Seven said as she pulled the small black plastic bag out of a pants pocket and pulled out the wad of cash.
"Whoa! Where the hell did you get that?" Sam asked.
"The woman who took me away from the hell I was in gave this to me... She said something about making sure I stretch my "food" dollar. If you guys are hungry, then I suppose I should help out a little," Seven replied.
"Perhaps you have the means to buy food for yourselves, but it's still too dangerous to go anywhere near a lot of people..." Optimus reminded the humans.
"Well... Maybe you guys might be seen, but I'm sure that no one will know who I am!" Seven replied.
"You are probably being sought after as well, little one. If you're what you say you are, then there's someone looking for you for sure," Optimus tried to reason.
"Maybe government agents know me, but I'm sure they haven't released any information about me. They wouldn't want anyone in the public to know anything about me. If I'm in an area where there are a lot of other humans, I'll probably be hidden better that way," Seven replied.
"She might have a point, Optimus, "Sam agreed, "If the government doesn't want anyone to know anything, they'll cover things up pretty well."
"Even so, I would rather know that you don't go alone," Optimus replied.
"I can take care of myself! I'm trained for recon missions, this shouldn't be any different," Seven said as she stood from where she had sat down.
"I'll take her, Prime, " Ironhide volunteered.
"I said I can take care of myself!" Seven wasn't sure why they insisted on keeping around her.
"Go with her, Ironhide," Optimus and the others ignored the girls' demands.
"...Fine... But in the mean time, I suggest all of you keep moving around. If the government is after you, then they'll be covering all their bases before too long," Seven suggested.
"Yes, we've thought of that as well, "Optimus agreed.
Ironhide transformed into the muscle pickup truck that he had been earlier and opened the driver's side door for Seven. She, reluctantly jumped in and they were off.
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And just to add a little something to the end of each chapter, here's a Chapter Teaser for next time!
The girl walked to a sidestreet where Ironhide was parked. She walked over to him and the driver's side door opened, Seven quickly got in and slammed the door.
"Where's the fuel?" he asked.
"You wouldn't happen to know what it is that they wanted to eat do you?" Seven asked in a low growl.
"You're human aren't you? Don't you know what they would like?" he asked, unsure why the girl was having so much trouble figuring out what to get. Fuel was fuel wasn't it?!
"If you remember correctly, I was locked up my entire life. I've never eaten any of these kinds of foods before!" she said angrily.
"Well... I suppose I could use my long range communications and ask.. Hang on a second..." Ironhide replied, making a lot of "whirring" noises in his motor.
Waiting for the information to come back, Seven noticed something strange. She saw, what appeared to be, several men in black suits walking up the sidewalk from behind her, seemingly not paying any attention to her.
"Whoa!" Seven said as she jumped down below the view of the windows.
The men in the suits walked by and Ironhide had just finished his conversation when he noticed what the girl was doing.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"Shh!" the girl motioned for him to stay quiet as she lifted her head up to see the men continue on their journey past them.
"T-They're here... They're looking for me... Damn!" Seven pointed out.