Disclaimer: Transformers are happily owned by Dreamworks and Hasbro, while sadly not owned by me.
A Captured Beast Within a Human Skin
Chapter 4 – Welcome Child
By Uniasus
Sam woke in a similar manner to the previous morning, rough. He did not recall the lights switching off and in fact doubted they had. The only indication that he had even fallen asleep was a violent shaking and seeing a face between him and Lilith. He bolted up right, just missed giving the airman a bloody nose, and rolled off the desk.
"Mother fu-" he trailed off, looking up to see not amused military faces and feeling the result of an uncomfortable bed sneaking up on him. First thing on the agenda once he got out of here, a long day at a secluded spa.
Slowly he stood up, rolling his shoulders to get out the kinks. His gaze focused on Candy, and Helen standing silently behind him. Flicking his eyes toward Lilith he saw no evidence of her moving and swore quietly to himself. Each of the airman was armed and Sam found himself counting his last breaths.
"We've decided we might have given you too big of a task to start out with."
Sam just blinked at him, not quite understanding. Helen stepped forward and reveled something that had been hiding behind Candy's bulk, a black case that looked like it would fit a widescreen laptop. She placed it on the desk between them with a thud, opened the clasps with a snap, and then spun it around to face him. Her face did not show a single twitch and Sam hoped he never went up against her in a poker game.
Inside the case was a tiny silver/white thing. There was a large flattened oval that seemed to be made out of the same stuff as Lilith, complete with a dark LCD screen centered on top. Extending from its rear were five slender sliver appendages that tapered to a point. The entire thing could fit in his palm.
Sam lifted his gaze to the agents in front of him.
"You have a day to make this one move," Candy said, and then him, Helen, and their two airmen guards left to leave him staring at the robot in the case.
Well, at least he was not dead. He wondered what made the agents change their mind, but could only imagine that something came up with Ed that changed their opinion. Sam supposed he should be relieved that he had another day of breathing ahead of him, but he was as lost as the day before. How in the world was he supposed to get this thing to move? Once again he was limited to talk.
Sam had not touched Lilith the day before, she still gave him the creeps and continued to do so staring at him from the other side of the desk. But this little guy was different. He trailed his index finger from the start of a cable to its tip, surprised at how smooth it was since it seemed to be made up of multiple components to enable it to bend in every which way. The coldness of the metal surprised him, as did the feeling of the white band around the screen. It had to be some type of metal; this was a robot after all! But it felt more like the ceramics the color reminded Sam off. He avoided the screen entirely, strangely conscious of the thought to not leave a fingerprint.
Suddenly, he missed Bumblebee even more than he already did. Hopefully by now, no, Sam was pretty sure by now, the Autobot had figured out something had happened to him. Were by now looking for him. Since Egypt, Been and him had rarely spent more than a day apart. They were close friends, roommates, family, and the dead metal underneath his finger did not feel warm with life like the Camaro's.
He jerked his finger back and placed it in his mouth to suck while he glared sulkily at the case's interior. Something had zapped him, but it could not have been the tiny bot since it was still unmoving. (Sam refused to acknowledge the part of him that was giving into the idea of him being able to grant sparks or what ever it was called). Grabbing the case and turning it around to find the culprit, Sam only found a container of yogurt and a plastic spoon. Huh, he had missed that being placed down. Now he really did not want to play poker with Helen, she probably was a good cheat.
Grabbing his breakfast, Sam leaned against the wall and looked at the two robots in front of him. Lilith stared stoically back and the other one just sat there in its comfy little box.
Done eating, Sam placed his trash on the edge of the desk, delicately picked up the room's newest edition, and dropped it into his left hand. He had been wrong about its size, it was actually just slightly larger than his palm. The last quarter of the cables hung down between his fingers.
"Hello there Spidey. I'm Sam," the tiny thing did not move, not that he really expected it to. "That's Lilith," he twisted his wrist so his fingers pointed toward his chest to allow Spidey a view of the humanoid robot. "We're all stuck here."
No response again, and Sam could not think of anything else to say. He had talked a lot to Lilith yesterday, and it seemed odd to repeat everything for Spidey when Lilith was still in the room and would have to hear his monologue yet again. So he contented himself with the man-made little bot, making comments, questions, and speculations out loud to the room.
Sam spent quite a bit of time just wondering what Spidey could be used for. Lilith was kind of obvious, some type of labor. Or since this was the military, most likely a solider that could not be easily killed. She did not have any visible weapons, but he knew from living with Cybertronians nothing was as it seemed. It was quite possible her left knee contained a rocket.
Spidey though was tiny, maybe he was meant to cross enemy lines and cause panic. Cut phone wires, ruin food, run the engines of vehicles, small little things that could hamper the adversary's operations and allow the US to gain the upper hand. Or maybe those people advocating a green America had built him and Spidey's job was to explore caves for mineral deposits. Sam really had no clue; he was still unaware of if he was being forcibly put to work for Candy's FBI sector or the Air Force. He was pretty sure that while their agendas might cross at some point, they were not all together the same.
There was a knock on the door, but Sam did not know why they bothered because the door was opened before he even got a chance to respond to the noise. A female solider came in, carrying a lunch tray. She placed it on the desk, moving Spidey's case out of the way, and grabbed the trash from Sam's breakfast before she was gone again. It had taken an entire five blinks time. He wondered if the soldiers had been told to have as little contact with him as possible.
Sam switched Spidey to his other hand to check the time, it was lunch already? only to remember his watch was mostly likely with his phone who knew where. He vaguely wondered if they became a prize in a game involving gambling.
"Lunch time!" he sang, placing his right hand next to the case and tipping it to slid Spidey off.
It did not work.
Sam felt pressure in the valleys of his knuckles, as if the spider bot was getting a grip and refused to be deposited back in the black case. He frowned, shook his hand, and the robot slid gently off on to the foam lined case.
Still shooting questioning looks toward Spidey, Sam drew the lunch tray toward him and started eating. The mac and cheese was not the best in the world and he purposely avoided the limp broccoli. He would look up from time to time, turning first to Lilith who was still directly in front of him and staring (he really should move her), to Spidey. He was not to sure, but between his first and second look he though the small machine had moved closer to the box's edge, but when nothing else changed he filled that potential information in the same place he stored Ed's first wave in dismissal.
Yeah, and look how that ended up. Ed's alive! Sam snapped his head towards Spidey, but the little robot showed no evidence of moving and so Sam decided that just because he thought his was seeing things one time only to have them come true, did not mean the same thing for every time else he thought he saw something move. It was possible for his minds to play tricks on him, it deprived him of sleep often enough.
Putting down his spork, most likely an effect of military budget cuts, Sam once again picked up Spidey. Grabbing a tip of an appendage Sam moved it up and down, making it look like a wave. He felt a wiggle in between his thumb and forefinger and let go. The waving continued, with higher amplitude and velocity.
Sam dropped the robot with a cry of surprise, jumping backwards slightly. Spidey hit the cement with a small clatter, bounced, and was then still. Sam warily watched him for a couple minutes, but after seeing no movement he poked it with his shoe. Nothing. He bent down to pick Spidey up, but once the little robot was at about knee height it spasmed.
With a yelp Sam flung the thing in the air with an unconscious wrist flick. Spidey soared up into the air, once again still, and then crashed into the desk top.
"Are you watching this Lilith?" Sam asked the other robot, because truthfully, who else was there to talk to? "I think Spidey," his voiced lowered to a conspirator's whisper, "moved".
She gave no inclination she had heard him and Sam half debated about shooting her a 'don't-you-dare-ignore-me' look until he reminded himself that was all she could do.
Kneeling, Sam set himself up so his eyes were on level with the desk offering him a good, close up view of Spidey.
"Hey Spidey, can you hear me?" No answer, so Sam poked a cable. He quickly withdrew his finger when it moved.
"So you can move," Sam expected some type of answer from the little mechanism. Ed had taped out Morse code, the least Spidey could do was wiggle a little. But nothing happened aside from Sam getting frustrated; first at the spider-bot because he was not moving and then at himself because he actually thought the robot had moved.
He sighed, his head hitting the desk with a soft thump that echoed throughout the room. "I'm going crazy," he rolled his head a little on the metal. "Too much All Spark, my brain is all mush." He lifted his head to place his arms underneath his cheek to look at Lilith, she was becoming less and less creepy as time went on.
"Don't you agree?" And that cemented it, only crazy people talked to things that could not talk back. But he had been doing that for years, had he been crazy for a long time then?
After not getting a response from the humanoid, Sam returned his attention to Spidey. And watched. And waited. And watched. And waited. He twisted his arm to get a look at his watch, only once again reminded that he no longer had. Seriously, how was he supposed to tell how much time had passed if he did not have a watch? Maybe he should ask the solider that would bring him his dinner if he could get a clock or something installed.
As it was, Sam estimated a good half hour had been spent in silence just staring at the small robot. His knees where protesting their position and not for the first time Sam regretted throwing that chair into the wall. He should have just kicked it. Maybe he would ask for a chair to match that clock.
As it was, his frustration was still building and the silence was getting stifling. So he poked Spidey, a good long one. Complete with sound effects. "Poke."
The middle cable curled underneath itself and Sam immediately pulled his finger away. The cable stay curled, poised on the tip for a second before collapsing.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking Lilith?" She did not respond, not like he had expected her to anyway. He might have addressed the question to her but his eyes never left the smaller feat of engineering.
Sam shifted his position so he was now no longer on his knees but more in a squatting position on the balls of his feet. Previous All Spark creations had had a nasty motto of 'shoot first' and he wanted to prepare himself to duck if the situation came down to it. He lifted his right hand to his face, looked at it like it had just turned into a rubber chicken, and then placed him finger on Spidey again without removing it.
It took a moment, but eventually the little thing started twitching. Sam did his best to just let his finger rest on the largest part of Spidey and not force him to stay flat. A series of more twitches resulted in the little bot curling his cables and then using them as legs to push himself up.
Oh wow. He could make things come alive.
And it wiggled a whole lot more then Jello.
He watched in a kind of wonder induced stupor and then quickly took his finger off of Spidey to flip his hand over and place in front of the robot spider as a platform for him to walk on to. Spidey managed one step and then collapsed with a high pitched beep.
"No! Spidey! Are you alright?" Using his left hand, Sam placed the bot in his other waiting palm.
The moment of stillness was shorter this time. Quickly Spidey got his legs up underneath him, spreading out on Sam palm so his head was even with the curved 'knees' of the cables. Spidey did not do much else; he just stood there and…fidgeted from time to time. It confused Sam. Ed had shown intelligence and understanding of human speech.
There was one of those quick I'm-only-knocking-so-you-know-I'm-about-to-barge-in knocks and Sam dropped the spider in his hands. Spidey bounced, again, (something to look into later) and gave a halfhearted attempt to stand up again before he off-lined. Dinner time already?
Thankfully, the solider who came in did not seem to notice the little robot move. Spidey was still by the time he was at the desk to swap the lunch tray for the dinner one. Without a word, the airman turned a made his way out of the room again. Remembering his list, Sam called out to the retreating back.
"Can I get another chair and a clock?" The door closed and locked, leaving Sam to wonder if his request had even been heard.
He cast a quick look at the dinner tray (was that supposed to be chicken?) and passed it up for Spidey. Sam picked up the little robot and replaced him in his hand.
"Sorry little buddy, I didn't want them to see you. Are you okay?" Spidey slowly once again gathered his legs underneath him, a little more active this time. He applied pressure with his cable tips into Sam's palm as if testing the surface, but did not do much else.
"I wanna try something. Just bear with me here Spidey." Sam picked up the robot by his head, watched the legs squirm for a moment, and then set him down on the other side of the desk. Trail and error test in progresses, his All Spark riddled brain already began thinking of other tests to perform if this hypothesis did not work.
Not ten seconds later, Spidey was down for the count and it was pretty much solid fact. The robot came alive only when touching Sam. He lifted his hand to his face and turned it this way and that to examine it and then moved it out of his line of sight to look at Lilith's simple clamp that functioned as a hand.
Before he could lose his nerve, Sam took the hand closest to him and waited. After a minute, nothing happened and Sam removed his hand from Lilith's limp grip. Maybe length of contact was important? This was after all, the first time he had touched her while he had been poking and prodding Spidey all day.
Feeling silly, Sam reached across the desk to scoop up Spidey with one hand and returned his other to Lilith's grasp. He sat there for awhile, shifting when he felt his left calf start to go numb, but eventually had to readjust when his stomach growled. He looked down towards it.
"Guess I better eat, huh?" he asked the rooms other occupants. Lilith did not answer, but Spidey gave what could pass for nod.
Letting go of Lilith's hand, Sam shifted Spidey from his palm to his shoulder, and pulled the tray closer. In silence, he cut up the chicken and poked the straw through a milk carton that reminded him of elementary school. He picked up his spork, and then hesitated. He glanced at Lilith's hand again and transferred his fork to left hand so he could hold Lilith's while he ate. Sam was very glad on one was near by to take pictures.
He sat quietly while he ate, switching his attention between his dinner, Lilith's hand, and what he could see of Spidey where he stood on Sam's shoulder. The little robot was slowly growing more active, progressing from just standing on his shoulder to moving around and exploring.
"Spidey!" Sam laughed as the bot scrambled up the side of his head to perch on top of his hair. He put his fork down, he could only stomach so much of the 'chicken' anyway, and reached up to detangle Spidey. The mechanical spider avoided his hand and jumped from head to his other shoulder before scrambling down his arm, making a variety of beeping noises as he traveled. Sam made to pull his hand out of Lilith's to bring Spidey close to his chest.
It did not budge.
So he tried again.
And when it still did not move, he looked at her hand and found that the clamp that formed it had closed, essentially trapping his hand within hers. Well, that was a surprise.
Spidey had given a series of startled beeps when he had tried to jerk his hand out of Lilith's grasp that quickly gave way to questioning ones when he stopped. Sam ignored him.
"Lilith?" He whispered, hunching his shoulders and leaning towards her. She did not move and after a moment he returned to his original position.
At this point, Spidey was not taking kindly to being ignored and bounced on his feet and then scampered around his elbow with a series of high pitched beeps. Sam smiled at the five-legged spider and offered his left hand for Spidey to climb onto. He rubbed his thumb along Spidey's head and the robot leaned into the touch. The screen on his head flickered bright neon blue before going black again.
"Feeling more awake, are we?" A beep-twrip of agreement and another flash.
"What do you do? Feed off my energy or something?"
YES The text appeared on Spidey's head and Sam nearly dropped him in surprise again.
Sam shifted, so that his back was towards the camera in the corner watching everything. The FBI already knew Spidey could move, they did not need to know that he could talk, er text, as well. He brought the small mech close to his mouth to whisper secretively.
"You feed off my energy?" he hissed.
YES
Well, did that not beat all.
"You serious?"
YES
"Wow, oh wow." What did one say to that? 'Make sure you don't take too much'?
"Spidey," he began slowly, "What would happen if you take too much of my energy?" His eyes drifted to Lilith who was still holding his hand captive.
The bot gave a series of beeps but did not give a text response.
"Do you know what would happen if you did?"
NO
Right, that did not make Sam feel better. The consequences could be nothing or fatal. This was starting to look like a catch-22 situation; do not aid the FBI and he gets a bullet in the head, aid them and he gets his life force sucked out of him body while giving life to machines. If push came to shove, he was thinking of taking the bullet. At least that way the government would not have whatever it was they wanted; Sam was pretty sure they were not planning anything for the public good.
Suddenly, he wanted to nothing more than sleep. Climb into the bed in his apartment, pull the covers over his head, and curl in towards the wall. That or a really tall, stiff drink. He wanted to ignore Spidey, but the beeps demanding attention made that hard to do and the cold grip on his right hand was a constant reminder of Lilith and the fact that she was currently feeding off his life energy.
He put the tray of half eaten food on the floor, curled up on his right side, arm still extended, and tried to drift off to sleep. Eyes closed tight, he did his best to not mind Spidey's soft beeps and the feel of him settling on his hip. Instead he thought of summer days spent soaking up the rays and snowball fights with he friends when he was in middle school. Simple things from a much simpler life; one he did not truthfully regret leaving but was surely safer to be a part of. Sometimes he missed it.
A/N: Ahem. Been awhile, ne? So sorry. This chapter has actually been done for awhile, but I put off posting until I had more written in the story. It's truly worthy of it's name, Beast. And after finishing the Veiled Threat (yeah, finally, I know) I had to add character and rearrange motivations and do a lot of medical research. Yes, this is SF and thus some suspension of reality is excepted, but I wanted some truth to this. Let's just say Sam develops...issues. And Prime can be a prat. But I don't think I'll be covering the drama of that interaction. But you can expect to see a Veiled Threat character later on in this story, and it's most likely not who you all think it is.
Also, I updated Dolls earlier this week. We get to meet Sunny and Sides this chapter ^_^
I've had a picture of Spidey up at my dA account for ages, but for those of you who have yet to see it here you go: http:/ uniasus (dot) deviantart (dot) com / gallery / # / d2j7eog Just remember to take out the spaces around the slashes and actually use dots.
Also, to anyone reading this a month or more after this is posted: if there is no 5th chapter, please give me an aft kicking in a review or PM for that extra bit of motivation.