Hello everyone! As always, thank you for your gracious commenting! Here's the next installment! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, or any other trademarked product or name that is used in this story. I DO own Project Seven!!
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"So basically, this is the run down... Seven escaped three days ago, we still can't find her..." A man in a black suit faced the same table of men and women who had been in charge of all of the "projects" in the facility.
"Yes sir..." the man in the middle of the other five nodded cowardly.
"We sent Eight out to find her under the supervision of our own people, and she nearly killed every one of them, also leaving our grasp..." the man paced the other direction.
The members on the board all nodded without saying a word.
"And, now, one of our own board members is missing, presumably in order to find Five, whom she helped set free..."
The other board members nodded once again in agreement.
"And to top it all off, the aliens escaped with Sam Witwicky and his little girlfriend?!" The man turned to the board members, a few of the lab technicians also present.
"I'm afraid so, sir..." one of the board members replied.
The man started to pace the room once again. He was quiet up until he turned back to them and yelled, "None of you leave! You're all going to be questioned! This entire facility is under lockdown until further notice, or until we find all three of our escapee's! Is that understood?!" The man asked gruffly.
"But Agent Simmons! We already know that Lillian was the only one involved in Seven's escape and-"
"THAT'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH!" The man shouted back.
"Until all of these mistakes are fixed, NO ONE is leaving! My men and I are going to be hot on their trails until they are all found, and all of you will be interrogated until we find some answers!" Simmons demanded.
"Now tell me... How was it that we lost track of the board member, Lillian Andrews?" Simmons asked in a quiet tone.
"We had followed her until a few miles outside of Los Angeles... Most of our vehicles were disabled at a rest stop. Somehow, the engine blocks were all cracked except for one, which was stolen... No one saw anything because the cameras in all three of the other vehicles shorted out at the same time... We can't imagine who did something like that..." one of the board members spoke up.
Simmons turned to the woman who had spoken and asked, "You... You don't have any idea?! Isn't it obvious?! Project Eight caught up with them, somehow, and got away! Got away with government property!"
Agent Simmons sighed and said, "Section Seven has terminated the partner in the projects, Section Eleven. We have disbanded them completely, and as soon as all of this is settled... Well let's just hope that there are no federal charges brought upon any of you. If you're lucky enough for that to not happen, then you should start looking for other jobs! Section Seven is terminating the projects, and as soon as they're both returned, they will be destroyed! Is that clear?!"
"...Of course... sir..." a male board member spoke as they all lowered their heads in shame.
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Cat found herself back in the elevator at the facility where she had escaped from. She turned, and saw that the doors were opened. She looked around outside of the elevator and saw that the lights were dimmed. Looking down at her hands, she saw the same wooden shackles on her wrists.
"W-What? What's going on here? I escaped from here!" she said aloud as she turned and saw the two guards and lab technicians, holding their knees in pain.
She looked to her hands again and saw two small pistols, and felt a rifle strap over her shoulder. She reached in and pushed the buttons for the top floor, still wondering how it was that she was back in the facility. The elevator doors closed and she heard the machine make it's way up to the top floor.
"You abandoned me..." a woman's voice could be heard clearly as if it were right next to her.
Cat turned around and around, but did not see anything nearby. That was until she turned towards one end of the corridor. She saw, bright, yellow eyes, staring back at her.
"Who... Who are you?" Cat asked, wondering why she couldn't pick up any sound or smells from the area.
"I know who I'm not... And I know who you are... Come now, Seven, surely you remember my voice?" the woman asked in a low growl.
"I-I don't know who you are! Why don't you just reveal yourself to me?!" Cat asked, giving the woman her own dangerous growl to return the threat.
The eyes began to glow brighter as footsteps could be heard echoing the hallways.
"I'll give you a hint... I made everyone believe that it was a bright idea to save you... And when it came down to it, you betrayed us! I thought I could trust you, Seven... I treated you as if you were family... And you betrayed me, as well as the other three!" the voices' rage grew in intensity.
Cat gasped as she looked into the narrowing yellow eyes.
"...No... No it can't be... Y-You died... A long time ago!" Cat shouted at the figure.
The voice rattled off a horrid laugh.
"You forgot to mention about your betrayal... You're the reason that none of us escaped in the first place!" The voice yelled.
"...no... I didn't betray you! I-I was so young... I didn't... I didn't know what to do..." Cat's voice started to turn into a younger girl's voice, as she felt herself shrink into the form of her younger self.
"It's time that you faced your FEAR!" The voice shouted as the eyes seemed to pass through her.
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Cat sat up quickly, bumping her head on the roof of Ratchet's cabin. Her mind suddenly couldn't think of what it was she had dreamt, so her body began to relax as she calmed down. She looked to her legs and saw that they had both been repaired. Looking outside, Cat could see that instead of the hot desert, they were nestled behind a scrap yard. The day had already turned into night, as she noticed Sam and Mikaela's sleeping forms within Bumblebee's Camaro cabin. She looked into the front seat of the Hummer and saw that none of the dials or lights were lit up.
"They must be in recharge right now..." Cat thought to herself.
Before deciding to settle back into sleep, Cat caught an unusual scent. Unusual, but... pleasant...
She looked around the cab of the Hummer but could not find the source of the smell from within it. No, this was outside.
"If I'm quiet enough, I won't wake them!" Cat thought to herself as she pulled, gently, on the door handle.
The door opened silently, and she stepped outside, feeling the pain in her ribs, suddenly. She winced, but did not make a sound. As she stepped out onto the grounds of the scrap yard, she could feel how new the joints and mechanisms in her legs were.
"This feels... pretty good! There isn't anymore pain from just walking!" she turned to Ratchet's alternate form and in her mind gave him a great bit of appreciation.
Before getting too far into the appreciation, the wonderful scent caught her nose again and she walked away from the group, of course, not bothering to close the door. Her new legs carried her off in direction of the sweet-smelling scent.
The girl had walked for a few minutes, wondering if she should turn back until she came upon a garden. The greens were behind a chain-length fence, that seemed to be attached to a small building. She walked to the front of it and read the sign.
"Farmer's Market?" The girl questioned it for only a moment before her stomach gave a most gruesome growl.
She walked back behind the building and looked to the top of the fence. It was perfectly short enough for her to make a jump with her new legs.
"Time to test these babies out!" Cat gave a sarcastic scoff to herself as she bent at the knees and jumped.
Cat expected to jump rather high, but she managed to clear a good fifty feet above the top of the, already twenty foot tall, fencing. She was quite excited by this and readied herself for a landing that would surely bend up her new knee-joints. With a hard landing, Cat had closed her eyes. She waited a moment before re-opening them, noticing that the landing was much better than she had expected it to be.
"I wonder if he could make me some spares..." She laughed to herself as she continued through the gardens.
Walking around rows and rows of colorful flowers, Cat found herself at a row, with which an overhead sign read "Fruits and Veggies". She looked down at one table and saw a bushel of apples, green apples to be precise. She carefully picked one up and smelled it. It's sweet scent buzzed around in her nasal cavities like nothing she had ever smelled before.
Looking around, Cat took a bite of the apple, her teeth sinking into it's cool skin. Her mouth watered with every bit of the apple that she chewed up.
"This is fantastic! I've read about all of these things, but have never actually tasted it!" Cat exclaimed to herself happily.
"I should take some of this back to Sam and Mikaela! This is way better than any "Big Mac"!" Cat told herself as she gathered up several apples in her arm, the first one she had placed in her teeth to hold onto.
"Hello... Seven..." a familiar voice spoke suddenly and Cat turned to see who it was.
Bright, yellow eyes stared the girl down from just a few feet away. She let go the apple in her teeth drop to the ground, as well as a few of the apples that she had been carrying in her only available appendage.
"Oh? Don't stop enjoying yourself on my own account... You must have been starving..." The sarcastic voice trailed off, Cat never took her eyes off of the woman walking towards her.
"What's with that stupid look on your face? You're not surprised are you?" The eyes shifted from Cats' own blue eyes onto the girl's right side, looking at the mangled remains of her arm.
"You've been training, I see... Then you shouldn't have any problem defending yourself!" The figure's voice grew in intensity as she lashed forward at Cat.
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Chapter Teaser!
"Sam? What is it?" she asked in a tired, strained voice.
Sam wasn't sure what to do at first, he just pointed towards the sleeping form of Ratchet. Mikaela looked over to where he was pointing and noticed that the medic's door was wide open. She shot up into sitting as well and the two humans bolted out of Bumblebee, apparently not waking him, and ran over to Ratchet.
"Damn it! She's gone!" Mikaela shouted.