Starting the Fire
Hound leaned heavily on the opening to the mineshaft that held their base, he had just done a double patrol and was exhausted. Decepticons were overrunning this planet, and the autobots were a very small minority now of the transformers here. And more were still coming. He put in his security code and the doors opened. He walked slowly down the empty corridors, his footsteps echoing loudly in the silence. Things had not been going well at base. The decepticons they were neighboring were up to something, and they utterly isolated themselves to keep from fighting. Bluestreak was still in the med bay from their last 'disagreement'.
"Optimus to Hound, report to the control room."
"Affirmative, on my way." He had not seen the two girls since Alex had been taken by Blitzwing, though she claimed she wasn't harmed, it made all the autobots nervous, and the girls were now confined to their rooms and had to be escorted if they were going to the med bay or the control room. As far as he heard, they were not happy. Everyone stayed lighthearted around them, trying to mask the aura of dread that was slowly seeping through their ranks. They were outnumbered, and these decepticons played by no rules. Megatron might have exercised caution to keep hidden from the humans, but Starscream couldn't care less. This was his triumph, and that was all he was concerned about. So they were unaware of the true danger of their missions, after all, they shouldn't be there at all. None of them should have been here, it wasn't their world and they have no right to bring their war here. If the war continued Earth would end up exactly the same as Cybertron, he knew it.
He felt bad enough that none of the children would ever have a normal life again. Sam and Mikaela were out of the action now, and had time to cope with what they had seen and done. Though he knew from what he had heard from the others that their fear of the decepticons ran deep. Charlie fit in and Alex was getting there too, but he feared for those two. Alex had now been captured twice and he feared she would not be lucky enough to survive a third time. She had no warning or introduction to their race, her first encounter with their kind had been kidnapping and torture. He shook his head. He knew mechs whose servos were forever glitched because they were tortured at the hands of decepticons, but Alex survived and recovered, and that alone was a credit to her race. Still, according to Charlie a part of her seems to have died, and she's hiding a darkness in her now that you can sometimes see in her eyes.
And the infamous twins had become their guardians. Hound had feared at first that they would not be careful around them and accidentally hurt them. Unfortunately it was a job they were unused to and the girls were captured, and luckily, survived. They had taken their jobs more seriously after that. Charlie and Sideswipe hit it off right away, but Sunstreaker still had not earned Alex's trust, and he could see it was starting to wear on him. He wanted her to trust him now, but she would not be swayed. Optimus had told them it was a good sign, that he was becoming a well-rounded individual, learning to take care of someone else and care about them like he did Sideswipe. They were often at odds with each other, and he wasn't the only one that noticed. Mirage in particular was irate at him, believing he did not care enough about the femme to guard her. Hound smiled. Mirage too, had learned to care for another. He never showed his normal haughty self around her, he seemed only to care for her safety. He was glad his friend had learned to care for a human, they were a very fascinating race, and the green transformer liked them very much. Maybe, if they survived this, he could explore this planet more, and learn more about its inhabitants.
He looked up at the thin vent in the ceiling and thought he could hear the breeze through it. Soon, it wouldn't be long now.
Blackfire paced around the room in the autobot base he'd taken as an office. He was getting anxious for something to happen, Soundwave would attack soon he knew it, after all he did kill one of his children and if that look on his face told him anything it was that Soundwave wanted his head on a platter. He paused from his thoughts when he heard a loud noise, and he opened the door to see his troops fighting in the hallway.
"What the hell are you slaggers fighting about?" He glared at them, demanding their attention, and Blitzwing let go of Onslaught and stood up straight. "Well?"
"I was just teaching these punks a lesson boss."
"At least we're not the ones with a squishy fetish."
"Shut your yap before I shut it for you!" He watched as Blitzwing argued with Onslaught, Vortex and Blastoff, he was sick of this.
"Enough!" They were silenced immediately. "Blitzwing, I will not have you starting fights over humans or anything else, none of you are any good to me if you are injured." Onslaught, Blastoff and Vortex snickered at Blitzwing. "And you three," He shot a glare at them. "You may not have been in my command long enough to understand that the only reason we have this current alliance with the autobots is because of those two humans. Because we never harmed them, Optimus Prime and the autobots trusted us enough to let us into the sanctuary of their base. And look at all the information we have gained about them." The decepticons looked at each other. So, not killing the humans had been part of his plan anyway. Nobody said anything but they were secretly relieved. They had been afraid their boss was a human sympathizer.
"Fine, fine. We're gonna go get us some energon." Vortex, Onslaught, and Blastoff left the room and Blitzwing clenched his fists. Blackfire put a hand on his shoulder.
"Calm down. It won't do any good to fight them." The purple and tan decepticon turned toward him.
"Yeah? Well I think someone oughta put them in their place." Blackfire shook his head. He understood where he was coming from.
"No, leave them be. Alex is safe with the autobots." Blitzwing jerked in surprise.
"What? I-----" But Blackfire interrupted him.
"Never mind. Get back to your duties." He watched him leave and went back to his control panel. It was only a matter of time.
Charlie was lying on her bed staring up at the ceiling, everyone was getting ready for when the decepticons attacked, and she wasn't too sure what was going to happen. Alex kept on saying there was no way the autobots would take them into a battle and she had to agree. Going into battle with them probably wasn't going to happen. But she didn't know what was going to happen if the battle happened here, and even if it didn't what if one of her friends was injured or worse, killed? She didn't want to think about that.
"Hey, you still out there?" She heard some shuffling and Alex opened her door. She was wearing jeans and a black t-shirt. Her hair was up and her face was pale, her green eyes illuminated by the gold eye shadow she was wearing. She looked nervous.
"Yeah?" Charlie waved her hand. She yawned and Alex leaned against the doorframe. Charlie rolled over and pulled down her jeans and adjusted her blue Doors t-shirt.
"Nothing, I was just wondering what you were doing."
"Oh, just thinking." She nodded.
"Yeah, me too." They were both quiet.
"It's the calm before the storm."
"I know, something bad is going to happen." They both turned when they heard footsteps out in the corridor. They didn't stop, and they turned away. It wasn't the twins.
"I don't want to wait while they go fight, but we'd just get in the way." Alex sighed and blew at her bangs.
"Yeah I know. They'd just get hurt trying to protect us." Alex turned around and left the room, she couldn't stay still. All day she had been pacing, trying to keep her energy down. If she stopped moving, she would probably explode and run all over the place, she had to keep herself under control. She hated being helpless more than anything, and she hated this entire situation. Charlie sighed and decided to leave her to her thoughts.
"I'm leaving, don't lock me out." She headed towards the door, leaving Alex sitting on the couch, she didn't want to stay in their room any more maybe she could find one of the autobots and learn what exactly was happening.
"Yeah sure." Alex answered distractedly; she had to think of something she could do.
Charlie made her way around the base, looking for Sideswipe or anyone of that nature, she passed by Wheeljack's lab and looked inside he was sitting at his desk hunched over what looked like blue prints. She heard Ironhide grumbling in the distance and stepped into Wheeljack's lab, if Ironhide found her he'd barricade her in her room.
"Hey Wheeljack." He turned around, surprised.
"Charlie! What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be out of your room, something bad could've happened to you."
"Yeah I know Jack, but I've been sitting in my room for too long. I wanted to get out, besides nothing's going to happen to me with you around." Wheeljack seemed flustered for a moment, before regaining control of himself.
"Well." He coughed, Charlie didn't know that they could cough. "I'm glad you came anyway, I made something for you." Oh crap she panicked.
"Um that's okay Wheeljack you didn't need to do that, you always get me stuff and I never get you anything, so it's okay, you don't need to give me anything in fact I insist you don't." Wheeljack stared at Charlie as she frantically shook her head and waved her arms trying to get him to take back his gift.
"It's not going to explode."
"I never said that, I just meant that it wasn't fair that I never get you anything and you should really stop giving me things or else I'll get the wrong impression." Suddenly Wheeljack's holoform appeared in front of her. He brushed the hair that had fallen out of her pony tail out of her face. She just stood there stunned as he whispered to her.
"It won't explode Charlie, I promise." She just nodded, and he kept going. "I made it to keep you safe." She stared at him partly entranced, partly confused. Was Sam right? Did he really like like her? He seemed slightly nervous and she wondered why.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know much about this kind of thing, I'm mean, I've researched it and everything, but I've never actually tried it and----" Realization dawned on Charlie and she smiled slightly. Why not? The earth might be ending any day now…
"Here, I'll help you." She grabbed the front of his coat and pulled his taller form toward her. His blue eyes were captivated with her own as she pulled his face down to meet hers………
Alex was trying to keep herself occupied, she already beaten solitaire on her computer ten times, baked a tray of cookies and was now attempting to walk all the way around the room on her hands. She had made it half way when Charlie walked into the room, she kicked her legs down and turned to face her. She was carrying two guns and had a odd look on her face.
"Hey what's up with the guns?" She didn't say anything at first. "Charlie!"
"Hey Alex what's up?" Alex sighed, Charlie must've hit her head again. "Is something wrong you look like your head's in the clouds."
"Nope I'm great! Oh look what Wheeljack made us!"
"Guns? He made us guns?"
"Yeah, well not really but yes he kind of did."
"Huh?"
"They're apparently null ray guns, they won't kill anyone. I think Jack was afraid we'd accidentally shoot an autobot, but they will temporarily shut down anything mechanical, meaning we can knock out any d-cons that come our way." Alex took the weapon eagerly, examining it enthusiastically. Finally, something useful.
"Awesome, any safety device?" Charlie nodded and pointed to a little switch on the side. Alex winced when she saw it wasn't on, it would be just like Charlie to accidentally shoot herself. She put both weapon's safeties on and strapped on the holster Charlie gave her. She sighed.
"I feel so much better now. At least I can do something if someone attacks us or the autobots." She beamed and Charlie stared.
"Wow, you really do feel better. Remind me to give you a gun whenever you're feeling blue." Alex put on a zip up hoodie over her shirt and holster and went back on her computer, looking up combat techniques. Charlie sighed. She was single-minded. If there was going to be a fight she was going to be in it, end of story. Of course, with their luck, they'd end up in the middle of it anyway, that's just the way it was. Soon after, the twins came in. They heard them before they saw them, and the two handsome autobots appeared in their holoforms just inside the room. They noticed the girls' new additions immediately. Sunstreaker walked up to Alex and reached over to pull her null ray from her holster. He examined it curiously.
"Wheeljack?" She nodded and crossed her arms. He put his hands up. "Alright, sorry." He stuck it back in her holster and stretched, pulling her toward the couch. She followed him reluctantly. "I could really use a recharge but being in this new low-power state that Wheeljack configured works too." He saw the girl's confused looks and elaborated. "We can use our holoforms to put our normal bodies into a low-power state to conserve energy, since, you know, being human doesn't use up much." Alex just shrugged indifferently and Sideswipe sat down with Charlie at the table.
"Okay Sides I'm gonna teach you an important part of earth society….one two three four I declare a thumb war." Charlie and Sideswipe continued to battle it out as Sunstreaker slept and Alex researched ways to take out a robot. Suddenly an alarm sounded throughout the base. The twins jerked up and looked at each other, silently communicating with each other. Alex stood up calmly.
"Alright it's go time, Charlie get your gun." Charlie shrugged on a jacket before strapping on her null ray.
"We have to get you two out of here." The twins' holoforms disappeared and the girls went out to meet them. They transformed into their alt forms and the girl's waited for them. Before they got in their respective guardians the girls bumped fists and nodded to each other. Alex opened the yellow Lamborghini's door and put on her seat belt.
"Alright let's do this thing."
"Everyone to their stations! Soundwave has been sighted!" Optimus Prime stood tensely in front of the control panel, the screen was showing Soundwave and the constructicons flying through the sky heading towards their base.
"Are the girls secure?"
"Yes sir the twins have evacuated them."
"Good. Is Blackfire's group ready?"
"They're on their way." Optimus nodded and was about to give Jazz an order when all the lights in the base went off. Optimus rushed to the computer and tried punching in commands, nothing happened and he tried to reach the others over the autobot radio frequency and was met by the sound of static. He slammed his fist on the control panel.
"Slag it nothing's working!" Jazz stood still for a second.
"He's shut down the computers, radios, everything. He's trying to blind us."
"He can try." Optimus strode out of the room. "But he won't succeed. Head out to the entrance we have to be there to greet our guests." He and Jazz transformed and were followed outside by Ironhide, Bluestreak, Hound, and Wheeljack. Mirage was their ace and was keeping an invisible surveillance, while Ratchet and Bumblebee secured and hid all autobot secrets that would be fatal if the decepticons gained knowledge of them. A couple of Wheeljack's more ambitious experiments and all information about the secure channels that still had important information regarding autobots still possibly alive among them. Things they couldn't let Soundwave get a hold of.
"Prime." Blackfire, Blitzwing, Astrotrain, Drag strip, and Dead End met them outside. The other decepticons waited for Blackfire's signal, they were serving as emergency backup. They stood in a clearing near the entrance of the base. They could see him now, and he was coming fast. Optimus could sense his fury, and oddly enough, felt a stab of pity. He was avenging his creation, his casseticons were like his children to him. Would he not do the same? No, there was no time for thoughts like these, no matter his loss, he would feel no such pity for them for if he could he would kill them all. They could not show him any mercy, for he would show them none. He looked at his fellow autobots and his unlikely allies and closed his optics. This was it, to the death. He could feel it. This would be resolved once and for all.
"Autobots, transform!"
"Sideswipe…do you think everything is going to be okay?" Charlie shifted in her seat and double checked her gun. She had a bad feeling about this entire thing.
"Course it'll be, just you wait Jazz will probably have a party organized by the time we come back."
"…Yeah." Sideswipe could sense her unease.
"It will be fine kid just you wait." She nodded and looked out Sideswipe's back window to see Sunstreaker and Alex right behind them. She pushed a button on Sideswipe's console and radioed Alex.
"Hey, you guys okay?"
"Yeah, I guess." She could sense Alex's nervousness and frowned.
"What's wrong?" Sunstreaker's voice was heard over Alex's.
"Nothing, she's just being paranoid, don't pay attention to her." Charlie glanced at Sideswipe's console in suspicion.
"Paranoid of what?"
"Oh, she thinks this is a bad idea, but I keep telling her that nothing will happen when I, the most amazing, beautiful autobot in the universe, am here protecting her." Charlie could hear Alex's exasperation.
"Something's wrong!"
"No it's not! Just relax and enjoy the ride." Charlie shook her head and turned it off.
"Hey, what do you think? I'm kinda freaked out too." Sideswipe sighed.
"War is unpredictable. Optimus sent us with you as a precaution, and he wouldn't have done it unless something was going down." Charlie was quiet for a moment.
"I'm sorry you have to be watching us. You two would rather be fighting. I can tell, so can Alex." She shifted and moved her null ray gun so that it didn't poke her leg. She tightened her hair band and looked at the radio where she heard his voice.
"Sunny and I are fighters, but our job is to protect you and we will. Don't worry about us." She pushed the link button again and heard muffled talking.
"Alex? You and Sunny still fighting?"
"No, how much longer?"
"ETA to the base is forty five earth minutes." Sunstreaker's voice came over the radio. Optimus had optioned to have the twins take them to a nearby air force base for protection, where they would guard them and send out Raptors if needed. But they weren't safe until they got there. Charlie rung her hands together in nervousness, no matter what everyone kept on saying she knew everything wouldn't be okay everything would be different after today.
"Sides turn up the heat I'm cold." She always got cold when she was scared. "Sides?" No response. "Sideswipe what's wrong?"
"Something's coming up on our side and fast." Charlie barely had time to look out the window and see a police cruiser barreling towards them.
"It's Barricade!" Sideswipe spun his wheel as fast as he could and pulled a 270 right as Barricade was about to T-bone him, neither he nor Sunstreaker would be able to transform and fight him, not with the girls in them. He had to just keep moving and try to out run him. If he made it to the air force base then the military would slag Barricade for sure. He didn't like the plan, in fact he hated the idea of running from a decepticon, he would rather stay and fight, but Charlie's safety came first.
"Sunstreaker I need backup!" Sunstreaker sped up and tried to catch up with Sideswipe and cut off Barricade, trying to out run him and get to his brother. Alex tugged on her seat belt and kept one hand on her null ray gun. The twins wouldn't be able to fire on Barricade, but that didn't mean she couldn't. Suddenly she felt the ground rumbling beneath Sunstreaker, that wasn't good.
"Sunstreaker what was that? You felt it right?" He didn't get a chance to respond before the ground started shaking more violently and she was jostled around and hit her head on the driver's side window.
"Ow." She held her head and looking up, saw the ground split open in front of them. A huge shape leapt from the massive hole, blocking out the moonlight. She caught a glimpse of red optics before it flipped around, and a huge tail smashed the ground in front of them, sending Sunstreaker onto his side wheels. Alex gasped as Sunstreaker righted himself and spun around, ramping over a massive piece of uprooted asphalt.
"What is that thing?!" Sunstreaker swerved off the road and Charlie and Sideswipe were lost from sight.
"It's Scorponok, but I thought he was dead!"
"Does he look dead to you?" Alex pushed the link button and heard Charlie yelling.
"Charlie, where are you guys?" Sunstreaker was dodging pine trees and Alex hit her head on the dash. "I—ow!"
"We're on the road, Barricade's on our trail! You----" And there was static. Alex pressed the button and yelled when Sunstreaker almost hit a tree, Scorponok was right behind them, knocking down trees as he went.
"We lost them, I can't make radio contact!"
"We're on our own, when I tell you go, tuck and roll, got it?" Alex nodded and held her gun tight to her body, she knew what was about to happen, she needed to jump out of Sunstreaker and fast. If he slowed down or stopped Scorponok would catch them.
"GO!" She dove out of Sunstreaker and rolled about fifteen feet, when she stopped she looked up and saw Sunstreaker diving at Scorponok head first. She pushed herself off the ground, panting. Her jeans were smeared with grass stains, and she grabbed her gun and stood up. Sunstreaker had Scorponok's head under his arm, but his tail kept making stabs at him and he couldn't keep him there. His tail hit him upside the head and he flew backward through a tree. Alex aimed and shot Scorponok's left flank, he paused before turning toward her. He zeroed in on her and she screamed. Sunstreaker leapt up and grabbed his tail, swinging him around before sending him flying.
"Take cover, run!" He ran over to her and she shook her head.
"And go where? There's nothing around here!"
"Figure something out!"
"Oh great that's what I'll do, maybe I'll just build myself a little fort and blockade myself in there while you fight a giant scorpion! Yeah that'll be great." Before he could respond Scorponok made another lunge at Alex.
"No you don't!" He tackled him to the ground and tried to hold him there.
"Run!" Alex didn't, instead she grabbed her gun tried to take aim at Scorponok, Sunstreaker was fed up. "Slag it Alex for once in your life listen to me and get to safety I don't know what I would do if you got hurt!" She was stunned, did he actually care, really care? She lowered her gun and cursed. She ran through the nearest trees and hid behind the largest one. Her hoodie snagged on a branch and ripped, her jeans had holes in them, and her hair was everywhere. She heard Sunstreaker firing and hoped he took that damn scorpion out. She redid her hair and peeked behind the tree. She glimpsed yellow armor and ran back into the clearing. He was standing still. She ran over and touched his leg. He had some dents and quite a lot of dirt on him. He started when he felt her hand.
"Hey, no, don't come back!" Alex whipped her head around.
"But he's gone! Did he run away?" She walked a little ways away and looked around, her gun in her hand.
"No, he's not! Now lea---" And he froze. Alex felt the ground rumble and looked down at her feet; she looked up just as she heard Sunstreaker yell. She didn't move. She couldn't. But she knew what happened. He was behind her.
Sunstreaker leapt at her and shoved her out of the way. She went flying and rolled when she hit the ground, landing next to one of the trees he had taken down. She stood up shakily and screamed. Scorponok had burst from the ground behind her, but instead of stabbing her, he got Sunstreaker right through the chest. Both of them stood still, the giant scorpion's tail going right through her guardian. He looked shocked.
Everything slowed down, Alex thought she was going to be sick, she heard someone screaming and vaguely recognized it as her own voice. She felt something wet on her face and realized they were tears, she stopped thinking and ran. She ran as fast as she could towards Sunstreaker, she didn't care if she was running to her death, she didn't care that Scorponok would probably kill her before she reached him, all she cared about was Sunstreaker and he was hurt and possibly dying all because of her. She didn't listen and now he was going to die. No, this wasn't happening, this couldn't be happening, not to Sunstreaker, not when she finally figured it out, this wasn't fair he was trying to protect her! She finally reached his side and collapsed on her knees next to him.
"No, no, no damn it Sunny! Why did you do that? You didn't need to do that! Why? Why? Now you're gonna…now you're going to…Sunstreaker why? I was awful to you, I was awful and nasty and cruel to you and you just saved me."
"Shut up, your tears are going to tarnish my finish." Alex stopped crying.
"Sunstreaker?"
"The one and only." She almost laughed in relief, but it was short lived. Scorponok was coming to finish the job. He scuttled toward them, triumphant, his red optics gleaming, when a blast from nowhere caught his side. He shrieked and whipped around, and Alex did the same. Who had come to their rescue?
"Get down." Sunstreaker shakily pulled her down on the other side of him, so she was safe from the blasts. She rubbed her eyes and sniffled. Even if he wasn't dead, he was still hurt because of her. A final laser blast sent Scorponok screaming back under ground. He was gone. They heard footsteps and Mirage's white and blue form appeared in the clearing, his gun smoking. He stood still for a second, then turned and walked over to them. Alex stood up but kept a hand on Sunstreaker. Tears were still flowing unchecked down her face. What was Mirage doing here? How did he know they were in trouble?
"Mirage?" Mirage looked down at her, scanning for injuries. Sunstreaker coughed up energon when he started talking.
"Get her out of here." Alex gasped, she couldn't leave he was hurt, she wouldn't leave. Mirage was hesitant.
"You're injured." Sunstreaker coughed up more energon and his optics dimmed slightly.
"Get her out of here, he could still come back, she's in danger."
"NO! I'm not leaving Sunny you're hurt we'll call Ratchet, he'll come here and fix you up, but I'm not leaving." He didn't pay any attention to her, he just looked at Mirage and said something in a high pitched tone with clicks and beeps, it reminded her of metal grating on itself and wondered if this was their native language.
"You're right." Mirage picked her up and started walking away.
"What are you doing?! He's hurt! He's your comrade! Put me down, I'm not leaving Sunstreaker! NO!" She was sobbing loudly and trying to get out of Mirage's grasp. "PUT ME DOWN!! NO! SUNSTREAKER!!!!! DAMN IT MIRAGE WHY!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS!!!?" She was sobbing so hard now that neither bot could make out her words, she continued fighting Mirage as he activated his holoform and placed her in his vehicle mode. She tried opening the door and jumping out, but Mirage stopped her again. Why was he just leaving him? They were friends right, comrades at least. You don't leave someone behind in war. Why was Mirage doing this, what did Sunstreaker say to him?
Mirage tried to block out the cries of the hysterical girl riding with him, it wasn't like this. He'd never seen her cry before, and it was breaking his spark, but she didn't understand. Sunstreaker's words kept playing in his head 'Get her to safety, I know you need her.' Mirage was confused, but the more he thought about the more he realized Sunstreaker was right, he cared about very few people other then himself and Alex was one of them.
"He's on your left Sides!" Sideswipe lived up to his name and slammed into Barricade, tearing up both of their sides. Barricade spun out of control and Sideswipe took the opportunity to speed up and try to get away. He was worried about Sunstreaker, he was nowhere to be seen, and he couldn't get him over the radio. Sunny could handle Scorponok, but they always fought together, this was different and it felt wrong to him. He was shaken out of his thoughts by Charlie.
"He's coming back, and fast!" Charlie watched as the police cruiser rushed after them, he was just as fast as Sideswipe, if not faster, and she was scared. She saw whatever it was attack Alex and Sunstreaker and almost flip him, and now this decepticon was trying to prevent them from getting to the air force base and sending reinforcements. She knew if he caught up he would kill them, she knew getting involved with the autobots might get her killed, but even now when she could see her killer she still couldn't wrap her mind around it. This wasn't good, no this was really, really bad, and she was scared. She closed her eyes and took and shaky breath, she opened her eyes and saw the stars in the sky. She didn't even think about it, if Sideswipe was willing to risk his life for her, then she would risk her life for him. She rolled down the window and pulled her gun out of its holster.
"No sudden movements okay?" Half of her body was out the window by now.
"What are you doing? Get back in!"
"Shut up Sides." She took aim and fired, hitting Barricades tires and stopping the front axels in mid movement, his back tires still spinning, causing him to flip upside down.
"Great shot kid! Nice aim!" She pulled back into Sideswipe and rubbed the back of her head.
"Actually I was aiming for his engine." Sideswipe started laughing, and Charlie joined him, the cop was stopped and now she and Sideswipe would be able to tell the air force to send in the raptors.
"Let's go kid we've got stuff to do!" She could hear the smile in his voice, suddenly everything changed and there was a tangible shift in the atmosphere.
"Sideswipe?"
"SUNNY!"
"Sideswipe what's wrong what's going on?" He cranked his steering wheel and turned, going in the direction they came from, driving as fast as he could, he barely heard Charlie's cries.
"Sideswipe!"
"He's hurt! Sunstreaker's hurt!" She knew he wasn't talking to her, he was just speaking out loud trying to grasp what had just happened, Sunstreaker was hurt and judging by Sideswipe's actions it was bad. She knew humans twins could often tell when the other was hurt or in trouble, but transformer twins seemed to have that ability one hundred fold, it seemed like Sideswipe himself was the one in pain. She froze, if Sunstreaker was hurt, what about Alex?
"Hurry!"
"Jazz, report!" Jazz ran to Optimus's position behind a large rock face, where the snipers were firing. Bluestreak was right next to him, focusing on the casseticons.
"It ain't good man, Soundwave's crazy! He's got Bonecrusher and Long Haul focusing on Ironhide, they want him out, and he ain't doing so hot. Everyone's holding their own, but barely. I've never seen him like this before. And Optimus, Mirage still isn't reporting, I can't find him." Optimus sighed, Wheeljack had been caught by surprise by Ravage and Ratbat, and he had ordered Mirage to cover him….only to have nothing happen. He had disappeared.
"Fine. Get Hound over here, tell Blackfire to move left, I'm going in."
"Affirmative." Jazz raced off, dodging blaster fire, and Optimus turned to nod at Bluestreak.
"Cover Ironhide, then go with Ratchet. I need someone covering him." Bluestreak nodded and shot a well aimed round at Hook, who snarled, allowing Dead End and Drag Strip to get him on the ground. Optimus focused his optics through the trees and located Blackfire, who was fighting off Mixmaster and dodging fire from Laserbeak. It looked like Soundwave wanted to take out the troops before focusing on his revenge, weaken him, then finish him off. Optimus charged in that direction. Though they may be on opposing sides, in this battle, they were allies. And Optimus never let his troops down.
"Mirage?" Alex's sobs had subsided and now she wanted answers. "What were you doing there? Weren't you supposed to be at the battle? How did you know we were in trouble? Sunstreaker didn't send a distress signal. Where are we going? Mirage talk to me!"
"I'm getting you to safety."
"There's no place that's safe anymore. Have you contacted Ratchet? Tell him Sunny's down, why aren't you contacting him? You left him the least you can do is get Ratchet to him! You abandoned him!"
"I have to make sure you're safe."
"Why? Why do you care? WHY ARE YOU LETTING SUNSTREAKER DIE!" She kicked his dash board in desperation, why didn't he help Sunstreaker? "YOU SON OF A BITCH!" The tears started falling again. He sighed and was silent. She watched as he shifted and went into cruise control. A light on the dash turned on and she blinked. It said 'auto'. It was at that moment a man appeared in the seat next to her. He had blazing blue eyes and an angular face with long blonde hair held back at the nape of his neck. He was wearing a tight gray sweater that showed off his built form and when he looked in her eyes she shivered. He was beautiful.
"I----" But he held a finger to her lips and she stopped. He wiped her tears away and she looked ahead. They were still weaving in and out of traffic on the highway, and yet, if she was right, Mirage was sitting right next to her.
"I have the set the coordinates in my navigation system with my radar set to avoid other vehicles. I'm still in control." She sniffled again and her eyes widened when he pulled her over to him. "I failed you one time Alex, and I swear to Primus that I will never fail you again." He wiped the tears from her face and smiled at her, she looked up at him and he pulled her into the crook of his neck and placed his head on top of hers, rubbing her back and trying to calm her down. He was warm and she leaned into him. She didn't know how long they stayed like that, but for the first time all day she felt safe.
"Mirage." She reluctantly pulled away and looked at him, he didn't say anything, just looked into her green eyes and started leaning in, her breath quickened and she could feel the blood rushing to her face. Their lips were almost touching when he slammed on the brakes. His holoform disappeared and she gasped. A blue jeep had stopped right in front of them and honked its horn.
"Hey!! Mirage, I---Alex, is that you?" A boy had opened the passenger door of the jeep and had jumped out and ran over to them. It was Sam. Alex unbuckled her seatbelt and opened the door and jumped out. Sam stopped.
"Whoa, you look terrible! What happened, where is everybody?" He looked panicked and a girl with long brown hair jumped out of the driver's seat and came up to them.
"Are you okay? Where's Optimus?" Sam grabbed her and Alex realized this must be the famous Mikaela. She swallowed.
"Umm, hey, we haven't met yet, I'm Alex and I think I wore your clothes awhile. Then they got blown up." Mikaela looked at her oddly.
"Ummm, that's okay. What's going on?" Alex turned to Mirage and his voice was heard over the radio.
"Soundwave has attacked the base. Her guardian is down and I am getting her to safety." They both gasped.
"Sunstreaker? What happened, where's Bumblebee?" Sam was freaking out, he obviously cared for Bumblebee a lot. She shook her head.
"He stayed at the base, we got cut off. Well, me and Sunny did." She looked at the ground and willed herself not to cry. Now wasn't the time. Mirage spoke for her.
"They were attacked by Scorponok, who managed to regenerate his tail. He was injured and ordered me as her guardian to get her to safety." She could feel Sam and Mikaela staring at her. She was thankful he didn't tell them it was her fault. She just couldn't take that right now.
"Is he alright?" She didn't say anything, she couldn't, Sam knew what her silence meant and decided to change the subject. "What about Charlie?"
"I don't know where she is, Sideswipe and her were being chased by a decepticon police cruiser when we were attacked."
"Barricade." Mikaela spat, and Alex suddenly wondered why they were here. Mirage looked at the teenagers and decided Alex would be safe with them, Sam and Mikaela had been in battle before.
"I am returning to the battle, I'm needed." He looked directly at Alex as he spoke, she remembered their earlier moment and touched his door.
"Thank you." Mirage regarded her one more time before rolling out. She watched him leave until she could no longer see him, then turned to Sam and Mikaela.
"Why are you two here?"
"Bee left us when he was called up here-" Mikaela took over.
"We wouldn't be left beh-"
"So we took Mikaela's car and drove up here to help out." Alex smirked.
"Well you came just in time." She shifted her gun. "We've got some autobots to help." Sam and Mikaela nodded and climbed into the jeep. Mikaela started the engine and they shot off into the night
.