A Captured Beast Within a Human Skin

By Uniasus

Chapter 5 – Sky Access

It was a feeling of being weighed down and a soft click, followed by another a few seconds later that woke him. He felt like he had only gotten maybe four hours of sleep, but he knew that he had not gone to sleep too long after he had finished eating dinner.

Opening his eyes, he could not really tell anything apart because of the sleep induced blurriness. So Sam simply closed them again, planning to catch those few hours of sleep his body was shouting at him to get. He had almost succumbed to the blissful dark, despite the lights shining brightly in the room, when he felt something cold brush against his forehead.

The military training he had gotten in college and the responses Bumblebee had made him learn kicked in; assume an unknown situation is dangerous. And if having some stranger pet him while he was a military prisoner was not an potentially harmful, unknown situation he did not know what was.

Sam snapped his eyes open, fully awake all of a sudden, and rolled away from who ever it was had touched him. He ended up completely rolling off the desk, landed painfully on what felt like decently sized rocks and bolted to his feet with out paying the sound of crashing metal much thought.

There was no one there.

He looked around in confusion. His breakfast tray now upside down on the floor and surrounding his feet were seven more robots like Spidey.

"What the hell?" Did Spidey multiply while he slept?

A series of beeps that sounded suspiciously like 'SOS' came from his left hip and Sam was greeted by the sight of Spidey himself hanging upside, one cable curled around his belt loop while the others tried frantically to find a grip after the sudden change in planes he had underwent. Sam pulled him away from his pants, causing the beeping to increase in volume for a beat before the bot realized it was Sam who had him.

MORN his head flashed, not wide enough to display the entire word.

"Good morning to you to Spidey. Where you the one who woke me?"

A beep-click indicated confusion, if the tilt of the robot's head was anything to go by, and then two happy ones followed it.

NO the screen cleared itself with a flash of blue and then, LILI

"Lili?" The name of the solider who had brought him breakfast, perhaps? But the touch Sam had felt was cold and had come after the door had closed.

LILI Spidey texted again in agreement. The spider bot jumped from his hand before Sam could stop him and landed on the desk. It was an awful landing, causing Sam to wince, but that strange bouncing habit Spidey had seemed to save him from injury. Once his legs where under him, the bot made his way towards Lilith; he scrambled up her left arm and then settled on her shoulder.

There was the flash of blue text on Spidey's head and even though Sam was unable to read it he had a good idea what it said.

"Lilith? You awake?"

Stiffly, the hand that had refused to release his the day before rotated with the entire forearm lifted at the elbow before dropping down to the right and returning to its starting position. It reminded Sam of Ed and he wondered how the robot was doing, as well as Tom.

What did the computer programmer think happened, that Sam was at home deathly ill? He had missed two days of work at least, now working on number three. He doubted though the government had planned on allowing him to go back, Tom had most likely been told something a little more drastic. Something along the lines that Sam had died in a car accident or had been selling the satellite plans to another country and had gone on the run. It was most likely the later, that would explain why Ed was gone because Sam was pretty he was in military hands somewhere.

Bee better find him quick, he had no desire to awaken any more robots. What he had already done blew his mind and he needed a friend to reassure him that things will be all right, that the All Spark radiation was not going to make him lose his mind any more than it had already, someone who could just help him and actually respond in more than four letters, and could dismantle the death threats hanging above his heads and finally allow him to go on that vacation.

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his noise. He was an adult, he could deal with this. Had dealt with similar things when he was a teenager, but now knew that normalcy was something he would never have and so he would just have to make the best of his situation, use it to his advantage. To get what he wanted. And what he wanted was to get out of here, to escape, and never look back. But how to do that?

Sam started towards the right corner of the room, planning on a good, well-developed pacing, when his foot came in contact with something and sent it skidding across the floor. He looked down and was reminded and of all the Spidey-like bots that had cropped up over night. Sam toed one, and then looked up at the other two robots. He was suddenly stuck with a strange sense of pride when looking at them, but his attention quickly refocused at the robots at his feet.

"Where'd these guys come from?" Lilith did not react but Spidey gave several animated beeps and Sam could tell he was texting again.

"I can't read you from that far away, you wanna come closer?"

Spidey slid down Lilith's arm and scampered over the desk to Sam's waiting palm. Sam positioned himself so once again the robot could not be seen by the camera. Who ever had brought him breakfast might not had seen what Spidey could do and Sam wanted to keep it that way, his one secret and thus maybe advantage in this situation.

MAN

"Someone brought them in?"

YES

"Good, I was scared you split or something. Never mind," he added at the beeped question Spidey asked. "Do you know why they're here?"

NO Spidey seemed to think for a moment; obviously his sentience was increasing the longer he was exposed to Sam. Or rather the All Spark that Sam seemed to channel to some extent.

LIFE a screen wash and then, ?

"Spidey, what are you supposed to do?"

?

"Um, directive?" Sam asked hopefully.

SPY

"On who?

Spidey lifted his two outside legs, still bent, a few centimeters before returning the cable tips to his hands; a shrug.

"How do you spy?"

The bot spun a circle in his palm, eager to show off. Spidey's screen changed from a solid black to a picture, one of Sam's own face as his voice wafted out from Spidey's head 'How do you spy?'. The recording was crystal clear, and the image was very detailed. Sam could see his chin and sides of his face were covered in so much stubble it could actually be classified as a short beard. The screen flashed that neon blue again, and the image was replaced by a video. It showed Lilith running her hand across his forehead to brush aside a lock of hair that had fallen into his eyes. Sam looked up at the humanoid robot and offered her a small smile.

Sam then turned his attention to the scattering of spider bots at his feet. They were meant to be spies and he could see them being very effective at their job. He did not know how long they had been on top of him, but Sam was still feeling drained and did not feel up to experimenting with what his energy gifting limits were.

In fact, he did not feel like cooperating at all. The spy bots could be used against any one, human or Autobot, and he was giving himself scaring images of one of them getting inside of a Cybertronian body and cutting lines. And more like Lilith could easier be used for war; it would reduce causalities for the United States and increase them for the other side.

He was never a fan of fighting, all the battles he had been in involved using his speed to run away, buy time and provide a distraction, deliver a package. Sure, he could fight, Lennox and Bee had seen to that but it was purely for self-defense. He would protect himself but never instigate something, but it seemed like the military was not on the same page here. So Sam decided to not give them what they wanted. It seemed the one thing he had control over, and if the soldiers came in here to force him to obey he could try and sneak out the door. The chances of success for such a plan, for him, were dismal enough that he did not want to think about it, but it gave him something to focus on. Gave him a goal and helped him see that he had options. Escape and disobedience were something that he wanted to do and that enabled him to keep a clear head and stay steady.

"Stay here," Sam lowered Spidey onto the desk and then walked over to the other side of the room to sit in a corner, back against the wall to stare down a clear path to the other one across the room. He was not going to touch any of them again.

Unfortunately, that plan did not last very long. Sam guessed about two minutes.

Spidey started beeping in a variety of pitches, throwing in a few tweets here and there too. There was the sound of him scuttling on the metal desk, a moment of silence, and then the sound of the little robot landing on the cement floor. Seconds later, the spidery bot was climbing up the side of Sam's body before settling in on top of his shoulder next to Sam's neck, rubbing his tiny head on Sam's skin.

Sam sighed. "Spidey, go back to the desk."

The robot gave a noise of distress and leaped from Sam's shoulder to the top of his drawn up knees. STAY

The human glared at the little piece of glitched circuits before his shoulders slumped in defeat. He could not very well lock Spidey in a drawer to keep him away, there was not any in the room.

"Fine," he said in a mock gruff tone, rubbing a finger along the underside of Spidey's head. "But only cuz I can't make you stay away. You'ld just follow me anyways, right?" The sudden flare of protectiveness and kinship had nothing to do with it. At all.

YES

Sam dropped his head in between his knees with another sigh and Spidey took the opportunity to nestle into the hair on top of Sam's head. He sat like that for maybe another two minutes before something else happened that interrupted his plan.

With a loud clattering sound, Lilith fell.

Sam's head snapped up at the noise, nearly dislodging Spidey. Lilith was laying on her right side and as Sam watched, her left arm seemed to lift over her head, thinning as it extended, in a gesture of reaching towards Sam.

He turned his head into the wall so he could not see her lying there, stretching towards him as a child did its mother. More contact with her would result in greater functionality; a benefit for the military Sam had decided not to give. Spidey was pulling on his hair and making distressed beeps, trying to get Sam to look at the other robot and help her. After awhile, sensing Sam's current and future lack of action, Spidey's pulls became weaker and weaker until the stopped and eventually the beeps became softer and more pitiful before they too disappeared. Spidey took a new position on Sam's shoulder, the one closest to the other robot.

Maybe an hour after retreating to his corner, Sam dared a look towards Lilith. The white robot was still on her side, still reaching. He quickly turned his head away again, but a few minutes later he was once again staring at Lilith. It really was not fair to her, Spidey was with him because he had the mobility to follow. Did just because Lilith didn't have the ability to move her legs entitle him to just leave her? She had proved to already have a function processor; this was just a form of torture, not letting her have what she wanted.

Sam screwed his eyes shut and then stood up. He spent a moment leaning against the wall, letting his blood flow to cramped legs, before he made the first unsteady steps towards her. Seeing his target, Spidey seemed to awaken from the slump he was in on Sam's shoulder and Lilith dropped her arm, retracting it to its original length.

"I'm such a softy," Sam muttered to himself as he made sure that Lilith was once again on the trolley. Once she was set he turned it, and thus her, on its back and then pushed the trolley up right. Lilith almost feel forward onto the ground but Sam wrapped his arm around her neck and pulled her back against the metal frame. Satisfied she was not going to fall off, Sam wheeled her towards his corner, backing her up against the wall so that once he settled back down she would be right next to him on the right.

That done, he leaned against the wall and slid down it, leaving his legs extended so he could stare at his shoes. Not that they were interesting, but black and blue where much preferable over the dull gray of cement.

Spidey crawling across his chest to his other shoulder was the only warning Sam got before a weight settled on to right shoulder. He turned his head to see Lilith's clamp hand surrounding his shoulder, her upper arm extended so she could reach him. Sam thought about brushing her off, but once again he figured he did not have the right to stop someone from doing something they wanted to. Did not Optimus Prime always talk about the right of sentient creatures to choose for themselves, or something to that extent? Plus, he found he rather liked the touch of the two robot/mechs. It was…warm.

Were Lilith and Spidey sentient anyway? Spidey for sure. He was alert and aware of what was going on; able to answer questions and make suggestions. Not to mention decided what he wanted and take actions to get it. In that way, Lilith was too, Sam guessed. Even though she was unable to communicate with Sam it was obvious she had attentiveness of her surroundings. She had known Sam had left her side, and before that had been able to brush that piece of hair out of his face without poking one of his eyes out.

He had to admit, the two of them were alive. And it seemed liked the feelings they had for him were more that just viewing him as food. Sam doubted Spidey could get any more animate and Lilith had seemed, gentle, when he had inadvertently woken him up that morning.

Sam blamed the All Spark, as he did for a number of things, for the connection he felt with the robots. He felt responsible for them, which was understandable considering it was his fault they were alive, but he also felt affection for them which was more than a little strange. He had nothing against befriending robots, Bumblebee was his best friend after all and had been so for years, and it was true that for the past couple of day he had not had anyone else to talk to, but he had only known them for a couple of days!

He knew that once he was out of here, he should not look back, be glad he was no longer stuck in this depressing little room. His first priority should be his own life, but he found himself thinking more and more of how to bring them with him. Spidey could easily fit in his pocket but Lilith was another issue. She only had use of one arm, and so far had not shown any promise in being able to use anything else. A normal (not crazy, like himself) person would most likely just leave her, but Sam was trying to figure out ways to have her leave with him and was already imagining a life where Spidey and Lilith shared his home with himself and Bumblebee. The Autobot would appreciate company while he was at work. If he managed to get another job that is. By the looks of things he might have to go into hiding again, without government help this time.

He missed Ed too, was wondering what had happened to the satellite arm. Was he still working, still alive? Or had the government scientists taken him apart to see what made him work? Sam wondered if the robot was thinking of him, wanting to be with him like Lilith and Spidey so clearly did. If he knew the four fingered robot was on the other of the wall Sam would be attacking it with the broken chair leg.

Not being able to do anything about escapes or rescues at the moment, Sam just sat there and the tiredness that had been at the back of his mind was slowly making itself heard.

"Hey guys, don't take too much of my energy, kay? Don't know what… would do to me…" He trailed off as his eyes closed, somehow knowing that they had heard and more importantly understood. After all, had not Lilith let go of his hand some time during the night? And was she not now letting go of his shoulder and brushing his cheek softly as her arm retracted and Spidey scampered up his sister's arms? He drifted off into a light sleep.

Sam was too fogged by sleep to put up a fight when lunch was delivered; instead of one airman delivery boy it was three plus Candy and instead of a pasta dish lunch was a beating and rope. Lilith had not been able to help and a glare at Spidey had told the little spy to stay still and not draw attention to himself, so he had curled up hidden in Lilith's hand.

When the airmen were done Sam was sporting a split lip, a sprained ankle, and several bruises. Rope burn would most likely be added to his injuries in a few minutes time because as soon as the assailants left he would be doing his best to try to escape their confines. The metal chair he was tied to was cold and the ropes too tight to only be a mild discomfort.

"I don't think you understand Witwicky," Candy said menacingly. "You're going to help us, and if you don't do it willingly we'll force you to do so now that we know how it works. Congrats, you get to live."

Sam glared, unable to talk around the gag in his mouth. Silence was an added benefit; its original purpose was to stop him from biting his tongue and killing himself. A dead body did not give off energy for machines to absorb after all. Or so he assumed, the All Spark have given off radiation and created new bots without having a living body. God, he hoped it did not work like that because then the world was screwed.

The two airmen that had been given the task of collecting up the spider spy bots on the floor came into view and dropped them in his lap. Two fell off the pile and tumbled to the floor. Candy bent to pick them up and placed one on each of his shoulders. With a not so gentle pat on his check the agent straightened. "We'll be back for dinner."

Sam threw his weight forward in a pitiful attempt of a lunge, dislodging all but two of the robots in his lap. The black airman standing behind Candy punched him squarely in the temple, whiting out his vision and leaving him too dazed to do anything while he was once again covered in Spidey-wannabes.

"Don't make us kill you," Candy growled before he left the room, but it was an empty threat and they both knew it. But Sam could look forward to more pain and a couple broken bones if he disobeyed.

The door slammed, leaving Sam still dazed and acutely aware of his empty stomach. He had not eaten breakfast nor been given lunch.

After a few minutes Sam resigned himself to hunger and to the ache he could feel forming. He would get something to eat in a couple of hours and would heal in a matter of days. What needed attention now was all the energy leeches stuck on him.

Sam rocked in the chair, effectively shaking off the two on his shoulders and one from his lap. That would not do, he needed to get rid of them all! He rocked again, harder this time and succeeded in casting off a fourth. Building momentum, Sam continued to totter back and forth until he crashed to floor and just laid there for a moment waiting for the pain to fade away. At least all the spiders were out of his lap, but there were still two of them touching his thigh. Sam tried to move the chair backwards to no avail. He thumped his head on the floor in defeat and closed his eyes.

Beep?

Sam opened them and found himself nose to nose with Spidey and he grinned as well as he could around the gag. Candy had not thought to do anything with Spidey or Lilith, why Sam had no clue, but he was glad. He pulled at the ropes, trying to show the little bot that he wanted them cut. Even if the tiny spy did not have any cutting tools he could wear through the rope eventually.

CUT?

Sam nodded furiously and Spidey beeped in excitement at the chance to once more show off his skills. He redistributed his weight on his four remaining legs as the right most one seemed to open and fold back to turn into a buzz saw the size of Sam's fingernail. Spidey almost skipped around the chair to get to Sam's back. The human squeezed his eyes shut, hoping that the bot knew what he was doing and would not cut him.

It took awhile for Spidey to get through the ropes, but eventually Sam felt the top robe around his chest loosen. Once his hands were free, he quickly brushed the robots next to his thigh away and then ripped the tape off his mouth and spit out the cloth gag, sputtering. Spidey beeped a couple of times at the noise in concern.

"I'm alight, Spidey. Just getting rid of what was in my mouth." He tilted his head up to get a look at Lilith. Somehow, he was not surprised to see she had gained the ability to move her head to look at him. Sam gave her a reassuring smile and then started removing the pieces of cut rope hanging off him. Ten minutes later Sam was on his feet, weight solely on his right leg and rubbing his wrists.

Spidey poked one of his still brothers with a foot and then turned to Sam. MOVE

Sam shook his head, "Sorry Spidey, but no. I'm not making any one else move."

The bot wilted a little, but seemed to accept Sam's authority. He crawled over to Sam's shoes and the human bent down to pick him up.

"We don't need anyone else," Sam rubbed his check against Spidey's head and the spider emitted an electric hum of contentment.

Not wanting Lilith to feel left out, Sam walked across the room to the other robot and took her functioning hand. Her head moved to follow him. "Now, we just need to figure out how to get out of here in one piece. Any ideas?"

Lilith shock her head and Spidey lowered himself and displayed NO.

"Oh well, I'm sure an opportunity will knock soon."

Strangely enough, it snuck in a moment later like ninja. The door opened and in slipped a small bosomed woman in a tight grey suite that matched the walls really well. She pressed herself against the wall, and after noting the fallen chair with pieces of rope and spider bots scattered around it glanced around the room before her eyes landed on Sam.

He was standing facing Lilith, Spidey on her shoulder, and they had been trying to come up with a plan to get them all out of there. Ideally it would have been nice to allow Lilith to absorb more of his energy, but as it stood they did not have the time to do that under Candy and Helen's noses. They had to act soon. Needless to say, the appearance of a ninja-esque woman entering his room made him freeze.

"You're Samual Witwicky?" She asked in an accent that sounded like German but was a little off.

"Um, yes?" By her tone of voice, Sam figured she had already knew who he was and was just double checking.

"Good, you're coming with me." She marched over to him and grabbed his upper arm, heading back towards the door.

Spidey immediately released a protesting string of beeps and launched himself at the strange women, aiming for her eyes. She caught him in mid air and threw him into the wall. Spidey hit it with a crack and slid down it, trying unsuccessfully to get back to his feet.

"Spidey!" Sam made to rush over to the fallen bot but the women twisted his arm painfully behind his arm, forcing him to his knees. Spidey gave a couple of worried beeps and Lilith stared sadly at him. Sam got the idea she was angry she could not help and felt pitiful at the moment.

"I'm fine," he ground out, smiling first at Lilith and then Spidey. The woman jerked his arm upward, forcing him to stand and made him walk in front of him.

"Take care of each other!" Sam instructed over his shoulder, "What ever you do, try not to get hurt, okay? And try to get out of here," He struggled, trying to turn around in the woman's grip but it just tightened. "Try to find the Autobots, they'll help you and would love to know where I am."

He had told them all about the Cybertonians those first two days, if they could just get to the NEST headquarters, or even Bumblebee if the Camaro was still at his house,

Sam would have a chance at a rescue and Spidey and Lilith would have a chance to live. He saw Lilith nod and then his vision went starry eyed as the woman threw him into the wall. Spidey voiced his disapproval. Sam felt blood trickle down into his mouth, quite sure she had broken his nose.

"Quite!" She hissed and with one hand still holding Sam's wrist captive she opened the door and looked both ways.

"If I have to drag your unconscious body, I will. So behave," she told Sam as they entered the hallway and the door closed behind them, trapping Spidey and Lilith on the other side. You'll see them again, Sam told himself, but he only half believed it. Just more causalities because of Sam Witwicky; first Ed, and now Spidey and Lilith. And before that, Optimus Prime himself.

The ninja woman switched her grip, releasing his wrist and leading him by his elbow. They headed down the hallway, hiding in empty rooms from a pairs of solider walking past.

"Where are you taking me?" Sam hissed, his voice was more nasally than normal due to the broken nose.

"I'm getting you off base, didn't you want that?" she hissed back.

Well, no argument there. He followed placidly after that and a half hour later he saw the sky for the first time in ages.

A/N: Well then, we've got some action going now! Sorry for throwing in another OC, this story is rife with them seeing as how Sam is seperated from all those characters we love and adore, but I can promise that you'll see Bumblebee in the next chapter. And as we go along Sam will leave all these dratted nobodies behind.

While I made the announcement on Dolls already, come the 14th I'll be leaving to spend the rest of the year in New Zealand. A full time internship, conducting research, and trying not to stick out like an American will most likely diminish my writing time. Which is sad cuz I was hoping to do NaNoWriMo this year for an original story. But that still needs a lot of research that I will most likely not have the time for and thus it's more likely I'll do something fanfictiony cuz that means a lot less research. Maybe I'll work on this (but is that cheating since most of what I have written from this story is left from last year?) or maybe I'll work on Frozen's sequel (my other major TF story verse). Anything in particular you guys want to see? Let me know.

Reviews are loved! And you guys too, for reading this story of my mine. Can I call dibs on having you all be my lovely valentines come February?