A/N: Thank you for all the reviews, keep 'em coming!!!!!
Captured
"Come on girls please open the door." Hound was banging on the door to the girls' room. They had been in there since yesterday and had not come out for anyone. The only answer Hound received was the music the girls were listening too became louder. Hound sighed. Ratchet and Jazz came up behind him.
"Still not coming out?" Hound sighed again. He returned from patrol yesterday and Jazz explained everything that had happened, from Thundercracker's attack, to the arrival of the twins, to Sunstreaker's and Alex's fight and to the girls learning they had been lied to. He had been trying to get the girls to come out of their room. Jazz, Ratchet, and Wheeljack had all been trying to do the same thing to no avail.
"I don't think they'll be coming out anytime soon." Hound shook his head.
"I wish I had been here. Maybe I could've done something." Ratchet put his hand on his shoulder.
"I doubt it; they didn't want to speak to anyone. They feel betrayed, and I am especially worried about Alex. She didn't trust us before, and I can't imagine what she's feeling now. And Charlie was fitting in so well." He shook his head. But Hound looked outraged.
"You talk like they're not ever going to trust us!" Ratchet and Jazz shrugged.
"Charlie maybe. But Alex is looking like a lost cause." He shook his head.
"No, I refuse to believe that. We're their friends!" Jazz and Ratchet looked at each other.
"We'll see. I need to get back to work." Ratchet went back to the med bay, and Jazz waved.
"I got patrol Hound, tell me if they come out." Hound sighed.
"Right." He stayed there, trying to convince the girls to come out for another hour, before he had to leave. He looked at their door sadly and left. As soon as his thunderous footsteps were heard going in the other direction, the girl's turned down their music.
"Finally. I thought they were never going to leave us alone."
"I would feel bad about making them worry if I wasn't so f-ing pissed at them."
"Hm maybe. Are you done with that magazine?"
"Yeah." Alex sat down next to Charlie and picked up a magazine and started reading. Both girls were still extremely angry at the bots and were planning on staying as far away from them as possible. Suddenly Alex threw her magazine across the room.
"I'm sick of this shit!" Charlie looked over at her friend. "We gotta get the hell out of here. I'm not going to live with these trash cans anymore!" Charlie knew she was right. They couldn't stay here anymore.
"Yeah what's the point of staying here anymore? But they'll stop us if we try and leave."
"We'll have to sneak out." Charlie nodded.
"You're right, we're tiny, we could sneak out and go back home."
"Yeah, but we are really far out, how will we get to town?" Alex snapped her fingers.
"I got it, we'll walk till we've got cell phone service again, and I'll call my brother, he'll come and get us!" Charlie jumped up.
"Yes! But they know where we live; they'll probably come after us."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it. We'll have to go when it gets dark, then they'll be recharging." Charlie nodded and adjusted her red t-shirt.
"Yeah, let's bring our backpacks. We'll have to leave some stuff." They both looked around.
"Yeah, let's pack the stuff we want, and put everything else in the cupboards." They began cleaning up and put their backpacks by the door. Charlie paused from picking up a pair of socks off the floor.
"Hey, Mirage can turn invisible, we might have trouble getting past him, he seems to be rather attached to you." Alex shrugged and pulled nervously on her shorts she was wearing with her green tank top.
"Yeah maybe, I don't know why he's like that; we've barely seen each other since I've been here." Charlie looked at her shrewdly.
"You sure you guys haven't had any alone time together?" Alex froze.
"And just what would that insinuate? The only time we've been alone is that night we were both in the med bay." Charlie stood up.
"Ah ha! You had a touching moment!" Alex ran a hand through her hair.
"Not really, no."
"You can't hide your touching moments from me Alex I can see them in your eyes!"
"Be quiet Charlie we didn't have a touching moment. I don't know why he defended me."
"Is it because he wants to have sex with you?"
"WHAT?! What the hell Charlie! Are you stupid? We couldn't even do that!"
"So you've thought about the mechanics of it then? I'm sure you could work through it."
"I'm not having sex with him!"
"Why not, he's your type." Charlie could barely speak she was laughing so hard.
"NO! Not happening shut your mouth! He doesn't think of me that way and I don't think of him that way!" Charlie opened her mouth to retort, but Alex cut her off.
"No. Now shut up and pack. I don't think it'll be too hard to get past them. They won't be expecting us to leave." Charlie nodded her head in agreement and went back to packing all the things she wanted to keep with her. She heard a knock on the door and looked up.
"Sounds like someone's trying to make us leave our room again." The knocking continued and the girls ignored it until they heard someone yelling at them.
"Girls! It's Sideswipe, Sunstreaker's here and he'd like to apologize for what he said yesterday. Isn't that right Sunny?" There was a pause and then the girls heard a loud thump.
"Yes that's right…. I'm…sorry."
"Yup he really is. So why don't you two come out and we can all get acquainted. You're our charges now. We should try to get along." Alex and Charlie didn't respond to Sideswipe's pleas and just continued packing.
"Hey you two!" Sunstreaker sounded mad. "We're trying to be nice and make up! So open your door!" Charlie and Alex just kept on ignoring them. Sunstreaker started yelling at them telling them to come out. By that time Alex walked over to their stereo and turned the music on as high as it would go. She didn't want to put up with that jerk right now, and she certainly didn't want him to be her guardian.
"HEY! YOU'RE STUCK WITH US SO COME OUT HERE AND DEAL!" Sideswipe was yelling over the music and Alex hissed and clapped her hands over her ears. She looked pleadingly over at Charlie, who looked like she was just about ready to start screaming. Those twins were really irritating. She went over and turned off the stereo and stomped over to the door and yanked it halfway open.
"WHAT???" They both jumped back in surprise, she stood in the doorway looking pissed. Sideswipe cleared his throat and peered around her to try and get a glimpse of Alex, who was ignoring the commotion and fixing the pillows on the couch.
"Look, we're really sorry. Optimus told us what happened, with that Sam kid killing Megatron and you guys….and we're sorry." Charlie glowered.
"So?" Sunstreaker gaped.
"So? So now you're supposed to come out and get over yourselves that's so!" Charlie crossed her arms.
"Well we don't need guardians, especially not you guys. So you can just clear out and tell everyone to leave us alone."
"Yes you do! It's our duty to protect you two now. So come out and let us protect you!"
"Okay no. First off you're an ass hole. Second off what would you need to protect us from in the base? It's not like some D-con is going to come in and grab us. So you can bugger off. We don't feel like dealing with you two. Well Sideswipe isn't so bad. But you!" She pointed at Sunstreaker. "Are a jerk!" She slammed the door on them and went to go sit on the couch. Her leg was hurting, but there was no way she was going to go to the med bay. She'll just take some advil.
"Did they go away?"
"Don't know don't care." The girls started watching TV, waiting for it to get dark so that they could leave.
Later that night….
"Got everything?"
"Yup let's get the hell out of here." Alex grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. Charlie picked up her crutches and made her way over to Alex. Alex looked out the door and gave the signal that it was safe for them to move. They zipped up their hoodies and began sneaking along the walls. There was no sign of anyone, but really, they'd hear them before they'd see them. Alex helped Charlie and she tried to keep her crutches as quiet as possible. They were extra careful crossing by the control room, as Optimus had a tendency to stay up late, but no one stopped them.
"Hey, the doors might be kind of loud, what if they hear?" Charlie winced as her crutch clanged on the ground. She whispered.
"Yeah but I don't think there's any other way out. We'll have to chance it." They got to the large door which was the front of the mine and frowned.
"How do we open it? Usually they just drove at it and it opened." Charlie hobbled toward the wall and felt around.
"Ah ha, Wheeljack always has a failsafe." She opened a little door and pushed the green button. The door opened and they both looked around wildly, convinced all the autobots we're going to come out of nowhere, but they didn't. They sighed in relief and headed outside. The door closed behind them and they breathed in the crisp air. The moon was bright and the skies were clear. There wasn't any wind, and they could smell the pine trees littering the area.
"Okay, do you have your cell phone?" Alex held it up.
"Yup, let's find some higher ground, come on." They turned to the left and walked through the trees, waving Alex's cell phone around and waiting for some bars to appear. They walked further away from the base, and kept checking Alex's cell phone. Suddenly they heard a large explosion. They looked in the direction they came from and saw black smoke coming from the base.
"Shit! What do you think that was?" Before Alex could answer the girls were distracted by the sound of laser fire. The girls looked at each other. They didn't know what they should do. Charlie couldn't move very quickly due to her leg but they couldn't stay were they were. It was getting difficult to see because of all the smoke in the air.
"Come on, we need to hide or something, it might be decepticons!" She grabbed Charlie and helped her hobble, but to their horror, the blasting seemed to get closer. Suddenly, an explosion hit a few trees away from them and they screamed. Smoke covered the area and they couldn't see a thing.
"Charlie are you alright?" Alex struggled to get up and her tank top got caught on a branch, ripping.
"It's okay, I fell on my good leg, what do we do?" She found her and helped her back up.
"I lost my crutches!" Charlie's jeans were ripped and they were panting.
"I'll help you, let's get out of here." They stumbled and kept going, the smoke got a bit clearer and they found themselves farther down the gravel road, unfortunately, they heard loud steps coming toward them. They looked in the direction of the noise and saw a large shape in the smoke. They heard it say something, but couldn't make out what it was saying because of the sound of the battle raging around the base. The shape started coming closer to them.
"Shit! Move it!" Alex and Charlie started hobbling away from the shape. It started following them, moving faster. Suddenly a laser blast came out of nowhere and knocked the shape down. The girls took their chance and hid behind a large boulder.
"What are we going to do? We can't get away from them!" The girls were starting to panic when they noticed head lights off in the distance.
"What's that?"
"Headlights. It's a semi! Come on it's gotta be Optimus!" Alex looked between Optimus and the two mechs fighting in the smoke. Between the two options she'd take Optimus.
"Okay let's go." The girls ran as well as they could over to the semi.
"Optimus! Optimus!" The semi came to a screeching stop in front of them and revved its engine. Its headlights were so bright they couldn't see anything else.
"I think he wants us to get in, come on!" Alex helped Charlie over to the passenger door and they both slid inside. The semi was covered in dirt, he must've been battling before he found them. They both sighed when they closed the door and the sounds of the battle disappeared.
"Thank goodness. We're sorry Optimus, we still don't forgive you, but thanks." The semi stayed quiet. Neither of them had ever traveled in Optimus before, but he usually would have answered them by now. They looked uncertainly at each other.
"Optimus?" But instead of hearing his voice, hysterical laughter roared from the radio and both girls looked at each other in horror. Alex grabbed the door handle, but it locked and the seatbelts suddenly buckled themselves on the girls. They frantically tried to get them off but they wouldn't budge.
"NO!!" They screamed as the semi gunned it and sped off, both of them banging on the windows.
----------------
"Jazz, damage report."
"Heavy damage was sustained in the armory, the security systems have been knocked off line and the entrance has been blown to the pit. The entire base has been damaged in some way and reports estimate it will take at least three orns to repair it all. Sideswipe, Hound, and Ironhide have all been wounded."
"How bad?"
"Minor." Optimus nodded. They had been caught off guard by this decepticon attack. A large blast had gone off in the front of the base and when he had gone to investigate he was met with enemy forces. The rest of the autobots had come to investigate and the ensuing battle ripped the base apart.
"I don't understand how they found our base Prime."
"Neither do I Jazz. Has Sunstreaker returned from securing the humans' safety?" When the battle broke out he had sent the twins to make sure Charlie and Alex were safe. He hadn't heard anything from either the twins or the girls. He was starting to feel uneasy.
"I'm right here." Optimus turned and faced Sunstreaker. He wasn't looking him in the optic.
"Well? Are the girls secure?" Mirage and Jazz looked at him expectantly. Sunstreaker looked to the side and mumbled something. Optimus frowned, he had a bad feeling.
"You'll have to speak up." Sunstreaker turned to him and they could see his optics dim.
"No." All three autobots rounded on him. Mirage hissed.
"What do you mean, no?" Sunstreaker straightened and looked Optimus in the eye.
"No, I was unable to secure the humans' safety sir." They all yelled.
"What do you mean?"
"They're not---" But Mirage had grabbed Sunstreaker and snarled.
"They're not what? Unharmed? Alive? Are they dead because of you Sunstreaker? They're not what?"
"THEY"RE NOT HERE ALRIGHT! I couldn't find them. When Sideswipe and I went to locate them they were gone." Jazz looked to the ground and Optimus stared. But Mirage was furious.
"You son of a glitch, you were given a simple assignment, to guard two defenseless femmes, you ought to be slagged for scrap!" He held Sunstreaker up by his neck and pointed his gun at him.
"NO, stop it, it wasn't his fault!" They turned and watched as Sideswipe ran over to them, there was a dent in his chestplate and some wires were sparking along his left arm. He grabbed Mirage's gun.
"It was my fault, I found them, but---" He trailed off and looked guiltily at the ground. Mirage lowered Sunstreaker and looked at Sideswipe.
"But what?" He turned to Optimus.
"They ran away from me, and before I could catch up to them I was attacked by Deadend and I lost them." He hung his head. "They were afraid of me." The autobots turned and looked at Optimus, who was looking at the sky.
"I have failed them then."
Charlie and Alex didn't know where they were going; they didn't know how long they had been in the decepticon they mistook for Optimus. It seemed like hours, they only knew that for the moment they were going to live. The decepticon they were in, whose name they found out was Motormaster, had contacted someone and stated he had the two femmes that were with the autobots and wanted to know if he could kill them. The voice over the radio stated that the girls were not to be harmed too severely, and that they would be used as hostages.
"It wasn't the same voice." Charlie looked over to Alex, she was whispering and had her eyes closed.
"What?"
"It wasn't the same voice as the one that captured me, none of them are." Charlie shook her head.
"They said there were three factions. You must have been with one, and now we're with a different one." Alex sighed.
"And as a hostage. Again." Charlie looked at her with sympathy, and looked outside.
"Yeah." They both jumped when Motormaster lurched, then came to a stop. They looked out the windows; they were in a clearing off the gravel road they had just been on. Suddenly they began moving downward, they looked at the ground to see that it was lowering like an elevator. They blinked as the scenery changed and as soon as the 'elevator' stopped, Motormaster took off down a long corridor. They had built their base directly below the ground. He slid into a large control room, much larger than the one at the autobot base. Their seatbelts unbuckled and the doors opened. Neither of them moved.
"If you don't get out of me right now, I'll transform and just take what's left of you." They looked at each other and jumped out and backed away against the wall. In the light they could see the dust-covered semi was actually black. It transformed and in its place stood a large black decepticon.
"Oh crap we're really screwed aren't we?"
"Yup." Motormaster grabbed Alex and Charlie and carried them firmly in his hands. His grip wasn't enough to crush them, but it was making it harder to breathe.
"Where are you taking us?" Motormaster squeezed Charlie and she decided it was okay to panic at the moment. Motormaster took them into a large room with computers and monitors everywhere. Charlie looked at them and saw that whoever this was seemed to have every city in the area heavily monitored. Motormaster tossed them to the ground, and they landed with a loud thump. Charlie landed on her leg and let out a gasp of pain. She was starting to think that they should have just stayed at the base and stuck it out with the autobots.
Motormaster looked down at them and decided to have a little fun with them. He wondered how much pressure it would take to completely break one of them. He raised his foot and put it over Charlie intending to see how hard he had to step on her before she broke. He was about to see, when someone drove into the room. Charlie looked away from Motormaster's foot and stared.
"Alex, Alex look it's…"
"Nelly." Both girls finished at the same time. Motormaster paused and waited until the black Honda skidded to a stop….and transformed. The girls paled as Charlie's car they had been cruising around in for years stood up. Its red optics gleamed and they both shivered. It had two cannons on its shoulders and was tall, but not quite as tall as black semi in the room. But its presence was….disturbing. Motormaster grinned.
"Hey boss, wanna help me in a little experiment?" He turned back to Charlie and was about to step on her when he was suddenly struck with a large mace. He toppled to the ground and Alex rushed over and helped Charlie up. They both looked uneasily at the decepticon, who was staring at Motormaster.
"I said they were not to be harmed." The black semi stood up and shook his head.
"Hey that hurt! I was just having a little fun..." The mace disappeared and Charlie took a hesitant step forward.
"Nelly?" Alex stood next to her and the decepticon turned toward them.
"My name is Blackfire."