Hey guys! This is a REALLY big post this time around, so it'll be a few days before I post again. Just tryin' to stay ahead in my writings ;) And for some strange reason, I keep coming across the problem of Italics. If I have them in the document that I upload for some reason it either erases the italics themselves, or some of the paragraphs after them. Like I've stated in my profile, I'm still pretty new to the fanfiction site itself, even though I've written two fics. So if anyone could shed some light onto this little problem I'd greatly appreciate it!
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, or any other trademarked name in this fic. However I DO own Project Seven.
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"So do you guys think that she's really just dreaming about this "Five" person?" Mikaela asked.
The Autobots looked to one another.
"There could be no other possible explanation. If she says that the woman died, then it's obvious that she's having vivid nightmares about the whole incident," Ratchet shook his head, trying to understand why the girl was so adamant.
"When your dead, your dead. That's all there is to it!" Ironhide added.
As if right on cue, something hit Ironhide, smack-dab in his head. He stood up and fired up his canons, looking around to see what it was that hit him.
"What was THAT?!" he growled.
Sam and Mikaela looked to the ground where the object landed right in front of them. Mikaela picked the item up and looked to Sam with a question mark for a facial expression.
"A green apple? But-" Sam began.
"I meant to bring some of these back! Take a taste of these!" Cat reproached the group, with a few of the fruits, and threw another apple to Sam.
The two looked to each other before looking to the food and biting into them, devouring them quickly.
"I could smell these all the way from here at that Farmer's Market. They smelled better than that slop that you guys ate yesterday..." Cat explained, taking a bite out of another apple herself.
Between mouthfuls of apple, Sam asked, "Slop?!... That wasn't slop!...Haven't you ever... had one of those?"
Cat made a disgusted face and replied, "No! And by the smell of them I never will! These smelled fresh, so that's what I went for."
"You just don't know what's good yet!" Sam laughed.
"I don't know Sam, she seems like she's got the right idea to me," Mikaela disagreed happily as she bit into the juicy apple once again.
Cat looked up to the Autobots and said, "I didn't know what you guys eat, but you're welcome to these."
"We do not require organic foods, as you do, Catherine. But thank you," Optimus replied.
"Suit yourselves," Cat shrugged and continued eating her food.
"Now all I need is a change of clothes and a clean, shower and I'll feel much better," Mikaela mentioned.
"Well that'll be a bit tricky..." Sam replied sarcastically.
"Where are we anyway?" Cat asked.
"A place called Bullhead City. Well, right outside of there anyway. It's a couple hundred miles away from where we were," Sam replied, grabbing a piece of fruit from the pile that Cat had brought back.
"A couple hundred miles?! How long was I asleep?!" Cat was shocked to learned that they had traveled so far.
"Well, you passed out around eleven in the morning, and it's, what time now Sam?" Mikaela looked to Sam.
The boy looked to his watch and said, "Just a little past midnight."
After finishing up her own piece of food, Cat yawned rather large and stretched a little. This also caused Sam and Mikaela to yawn as well.
"Perhaps your recharge cycle has yet to be complete?" Optimus asked the three.
"Yeah, I think we need to get some rest before tomorrow," Sam replied with a tired smile as he and Mikaela stood up.
Their robotic friends transformed into their alternate, car, forms and Bumblebee obliged the two teens by opening the doors and allowing them to snuggle into his seats. Cat had decided just to sit on the ground with her back to the scrap yard fence, putting on her black overcoat. She closed her eyes and listened.
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"Gentlemen, I'm pleased to introduce you to Secretary Keller," Agent Simmons announced to a group of Section Seven agents.
"No pleasantries, if you please. I'd just like to know why I was called here; and to know what you're doing to control this matter of someone managing to break through the governments defense grid, besides what it is that my own men are already doing?" Keller asked.
"Ah yes. Which brings me to the question of the person who discovered the intrusion into the networks. Would they be available for questioning?" Simmons asked.
"As I am aware, they are in our own interrogations as we speak," Keller replied.
"Oh, yes. That's right. The woman who you placed the hands of the American people in tried to divulge the information that she was given to someone who was not allowed the same access. Am I correct?" Simmons mocked.
Secretary Keller glared at the agent and replied, "Yes, well the matter is being taken care of."
"Which is why I have ordered the two to be brought here for real questioning. The matter has been brought to the attention of Section Seven and-"
"Why have you brought me here, if not to insult my position regarding national security, which by the way is my job?" Keller seethed.
Simmons chuckled lightly and replied, "Yes, well. There are certain issues which need to be brought to your attention."
"And those issues would be, what, exactly?" Keller was becoming more and more annoyed with just the sound of the other mans voice.
"Come with me, sir. I'll explain on our way through our base..."
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"I think that's it... They're all asleep!" Cat's eyes shot open and she smiled, smartly, to herself as she stood.
"I need to get a good look around here, and they'd never let me go by myself. I need to do this alone if I'm to get t he best view on things." Cat thought to herself as she quietly left the area.
She had waited about an hour to make sure that the Autobots were clueless in recharge, and Sam and Mikaela were to be fully asleep. If any of them were to wake and see that she was gone, she would surely be sought after. She had used her sensitive hearing to listen to the noises of the Autobots slowly shut off, and the teens' breathing slow. As soon as she had thought that they were quiet in sleep, she knew it was the best time to look around.
She had not forgotten about Mikaela's interest in finding a place to clean up, so she figured that while she was out she would find just that place. Not just for Sam and Mikaela, of course. Even though she had her robotic appendages, Cat needed to clean up as much as the other two did. Especially with her new scratches, they needed to be cleaned of dirt and grime.
Cat ran off in a southerly direction, keeping sure that she remembered how to get back to the group. After running for just a few minutes at her cheetah speed, Cat came upon several blocks of residential homes. She made sure to stay within the confines in the darkness, and not to enter within the lighted areas of streetlights. By doing this, she managed to swiftly jump from rooftop to rooftop. Precision landing enabled her from keeping to make too much noise to the people below her.
"This is great! I can really accomplish more with these new joints and hinges!" Cat gloated happily to herself, forgetting the mission at hand, and just merrily going about her hopping.
"Seven..."
Cat stopped, hearing a voice suddenly from out of nowhere. Standing on the rooftop of a small residential home, she couldn't help but feel a sudden icy chill up her spine. Her head spun around, looking frantically to see if there was someone following her.
"No... I'm just being stupid... Ratchet was right, it was all in my head..." She gave herself a good scolding and shrugged the noise off as soft chatter from the back of her own mind.
Suddenly remembering what it was that she had come out there to do, Cat began to jump from rooftop to rooftop again, looking around for any sign of what it was she was in need for. Before too long, she heard the sound of a small truck pulling up into a driveway a few houses from where she was at. She jumped from rooftop to rooftop until she came to be one rooftop away from the house with the truck parked in the driveway. The nearest streetlight was several houses away, so Cat knew that it was dark enough to stay hidden, even when she was so close.
Waiting for just a few seconds, she saw three humans exiting the house. As well as the driver of the truck turning off the ignition and setting foot outside the truck.
"Will we have enough room for everything?" One of the male humans who had exited the house asked the other male from the truck.
"Should. I didn't pack that much myself. We're not going to be gone for long, so I'm not too worried," the driver replied.
The three who had exited the house were dragging large bags behind them, and the driver took notice.
"Good lord! It's a three day trip! Not a month-long excursion!" he shouted at a high whisper.
The two others who had exited the house appeared to be female, and one of them replied, "You should just be glad that this is all we've packed for a three day trip..."
The driver opened up what seemed to be a hard-top tonnaeu cover. He unlocked the cover and pushed it up, the hydraulic lifters kicking in and keeping the cover from crashing back down. Then unlocking the tailgate of the truck, the driver picked up the luggage bags one by one, and threw them in the back, closing the truck's tailgate first, then shoved down the tonnaeu cover back down over the bed.
"So what about Muffin?" The driver asked, this question totally throwing off Cat's perception of things.
"I've got my mom coming by in two days to make sure she's got food and water, but she should be fine. Cat's don't need the same looking-after as dogs you know," The second female replied.
"Yeah, okay. Let's get going already! We've got a lot of ground to cover!" The driver said sourly as he motioned for everyone in their group to climb in.
Cat ducked behind the roof a little so that the headlights of the truck wouldn't spot her as they backed out of the driveway and drove off. She looked down at the house and looked around. It was still very early in the morning so she knew that there would be hardly anyone around as she jumped to the ground behind the, now vacant, house. She looked into the back window to see that a light had been left on in the living room, probably to deter people from believing that it was empty.
Cat scoffed as she laughed to herself thinking
"I suppose that I should look around a little more for a bit before I go back. They're probably still asleep anyway," Cat thought to herself as she began roof-hopping once more.
As she neared the end of the block, another icy chill went up her spine.
"Seven..." She could clearly hear from all directions.
Cat laughed nervously to herself and said aloud, "Come on now, you're going to have to stop this at some point. You don't want anyone to think you've gone and lost your mind do you?!"
Cat continued her hopping until she jumped from a roof and before she made her precision landing she heard, "DON'T YOU DARE IGNORE ME!"
The voice startled her so much that her landing turned from precision to painful as she slipped down the steep tiles, and rolled off the two-story house, hitting the ground on her, already pained, ribs. Shooting up to a sitting position, Cat could have cared less about the fall.
"W-Who are you?!" she shouted, looking around every direction, seeing nothing but houses and darkness beyond them.
A low laugh sent Cat's body into near convulsions before lights on a garage just behind her flicked on and the sound of a door opening caught her attention.
"Who's there?! Jamie! Grab the gun!" A man's voice shouted.
Lights inside the house also flashed on quickly as Cat barely managed to get herself to stand, stumbling over herself as she tried to run. Before she made it out to the street, she came face to face with bright headlights, which were nearly blinding they were so bright. The lights belonged to a large SUV truck from what she could tell just standing in front of the lights.
"Kid! Kid come on! Get in!" a familiar voice shouted.
Cat heard the sounds of footsteps and saw figures running down the driveway from behind the house that she had fallen from.
"What are you waiting for?!" The voice from the SUV yelled once again.
Cat didn't need anymore coaxing, she rushed to the driver's side backseat and the door opened. She threw herself on the seats and the door closed, the truck's squealing tires burning some major rubber in it's wake. Cat was still, somewhat in a daze, but she slowly started to calm down as she began to understand the scolding remarks from Ironhide.
"-and if the others knew you were out this far they'd have your hide too!" his voice boomed from the radio.
Cat didn't, couldn't say anything. Her mind was still replaying what had just happened before she fell from the roof. However, It didn't take long for her to realize that she wasn't going to be able to ignore him any longer.
"-even hear me?! I know you're awake!"
"H-How'd you find me?" she asked.
Ironhide sighed and replied, "I saw you leave. Figured you'd left to expel lubricants or whatever you humans do. When you didn't come back for nearly an Earth hour, I figured something was up."
"Oh great... So the others are probably awake too aren't they?" Cat asked, sure she was going to hear it from the group this time for disappearing two times in a night.
"No, I didn't wake them. I didn't see the need to," he replied, slowing down a little after making their escape.
Cat sighed with relief and laid back down on the comfy seats, "Good..."
Ironhide recognized that the girl seemed distressed about something and he gave her a minute to settle before finally asking, "What were you doing this far out anyway?"
Cat knew that she at least had to explain why the poor Autobot had to make, yet another, rescue for the girl.
"I..uh... Well, I think I found a place for me and the other two to clean up..."
"Is that the only reason you came all this way?" Ironhide was confused, humans were just too complicated.
"Well... I suppose that I that I wanted to think about things..." she said quietly.
"Don't you realize that the Decepticons are after you now?!" he asked, angered.
"I can take care of myself, thanks," Cat snapped back.
Ironhide growled and mumbled as they arrived back at the scrap yard, the other's still asleep to Cat's relief. As she was about to exit the truck, she pulled on the handle and realized that the doors were locked.
"What's the deal?" she asked.
"The last two times we've let our guard down you left. So just sit and wait until morning," it was obvious that he was annoyed with the girl running off.
Cat gave the truck a narrow-eyed expression and said, "You do realize that I could just kick your windows out don't you?"
"You do realize that I could just wake everyone up now and tell them where you've been don't you?" Ironhide seethed.
Cat glared to the radio, then sighed and laid back in the seat saying, "Touché..."
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Chapter Teaser!
"Damn! Just when I thought I had her! She's somewhere else! Damn it!" The yellow eyes of the figure set on the fire.
"P-Please... Why do you...h-have to do that?" Lillian asked.
The bright eyes moved from the fire and narrowed at Lillian.
"That's none of your business!" The figure yelled back in a growling woman's voice.
Lillian covered her face, fearing for her life. She heard a deep sigh and then some footsteps. Hearing the woman get closer to her, she felt the ground shake just a little as she heard something drop to the ground.