TRANSFORMERS

Imperial Wings

A girl is given a second chance at life, in exchange for ending the war of Transformers. It's about as easy as it sounds. And, whilst sorting out her own life, she discovers two younglings without mothers, and the reason why their families fight.

CHAPTER THREE

The Autobots Are Surprised?

O~O~O~O~O

Flashback:

"What happened to doing the kitchen, Emma?" Her older sister Sarah had her hands on her hips.

"Sorry, I meant to do it, but I wanted to wait until the end of Master Chef," Emma said. "It's the finale."

"I don't care." Sarah said. "You didn't cook tea, and you've done nothing. The house is a pigsty!"

Emma got defensive. "Hey, I drove that shovel down to you today because you two got bogged whilst messing around with someone else's car! And I did the kitchen last night! You couldn't even be bothered staying home with me on Friday!" Her heart was pounding in her chest the way it always did when she fought with her sister. Because she knew she'd lose. Her sister knew exactly what to say to upset her.

"Don't be so difficult!" Sarah said. "It's no wonder Mum wants to kick you out! Do you argue with her like this?"

Emma felt a lump forming in her throat. Her parents happened to be away on a holiday, and she'd just spent a night alone. She hated that, but it seemed like she was always alone. Her heart was absolutely pounding now. What should she say? What should she do? How should she stand up for herself?

End Of Flashback…

O~O~O~O~O

"We're here." Hound's voice broke Emma out of her reverie, as they drove into the Autobot's base – the Ark.

Emma's eyes widened in surprise as she took in her surroundings, but her worry for Platinum overrode her awe. Still, she noted that everything was bigger than usual, to accommodate for all the giant robots. She had only met three of them so far, and she didn't think Sunstreaker liked her. Oh well.

Hound took her straight to Ratchet, leaving the twins standing in the entrance room.

"Strange day, isn't it brother?" Sideswipe said conversationally.

"If you say so." Sunstreaker frowned. All he wanted now was a hose, and an industrial-sized bottle of turtle wax. Oh, and a medic. Too bad Ratchet was the only one.

"Anyway, things will be a lot more interesting from now on, won't they?" Sideswipe went on.

Sunstreaker just shrugged. He really couldn't care less. "Think Hatchet will patch me up as soon as he's done with that thing?"

Sideswipe rolled his optics (somehow). "That thing was a Pythormer, bro."

Sunstreaker glanced at him. "But…what would a human be doing with a creature of the gods?"

Sideswipe couldn't keep the next thought to himself, and Sunstreaker's optics widened slightly. Could the girl really be that powerful?

O~O~O~O~O

If Ratchet was surprised when Hound came hurrying into the med bay with a strange girl holding a mythical creature, he didn't show it.

What he said, however, was: "I can't operate on the Pythormer when she's this small." Platinum, who was lying on the med table with Emma kneeling beside her (it was a big med table), raised her head and looked at Emma. She was very weak. Emma gulped. Platinum seemed to sigh. Then, she started to grow in size, and become a whole lot bigger. In the end, Emma had moved back, and Platinum was now roughly the length of the entire med table. In other words, she was Transformer-sized now.

"Whoa…" Emma whispered. Then: "Hey, that would have come in a lot more handy out in the desert, Platinum!"

Platinum just flicked the end of her tail.

Ratchet glanced at her, before going over to get out hi medical tools. "I'll need peace and quiet when I'm fixing the Pythormer, so you two had best clear out."

Yikes, Emma thought, as she patted the jewel on Platinum's head one last time before climbing onto Hound's hand and then his shoulder. Everything I read about him was true.

"Come on, Emma," Hound said, smiling reassuringly at her. He was used to Ratchet's behaviour, but he also knew that Platinum couldn't have a better medic. "I'll take you to see Prime."

"Optimus Prime?" Emma gasped, causing Hound to laugh a little.

"Yes, Optimus Prime." The green tracker smiled. "You know about him?"

"Well, yeah, who doesn't?" Emma said, as Hound walked down a long hallway. "Uh…did he send you out to find me?"

"Yup," Hound said cheerfully. "You were actually fairly easy to track – that was some power."

Emma looked down at her hands. "I…have no idea how it happened, or even what it was…" She felt very shy all of a sudden – she was talking to a Transformer, and a guy at that!

"Hmm…" Hound sounded thoughtful, just as a door from down the hall opened, and a very angry-looking blue and white Transformer stormed out. "Mirage…" Hound muttered, jumping back quickly to press himself back against the wall as Mirage stalked past them.

"What's his problem?" Emma whispered, but Hound didn't have an answer for her.

"Mirage, wait!"

Emma turned at the sound of the new voice, and recognized none other than Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. He was tall, red and blue, intimidating and impressive. He was, in a word, awesome.

"I am through with this entire charade, Optimus Prime!" Mirage spoke angrily. "There's nothing for me here!" His smooth voice was marred with the anger.

"How do you intend to return to Cybertron, Mirage?" Optimus wanted to know.

"I'll find a way!" The Autobot vowed, before turning again.

No, he can't leave! Emma thought anxiously, seeing the panicked look on Hound's face. The Autobots need to stick together! "Mirage!" She cried, her voice shimmering. As soon as the word was out of her mouth, the disc on her chest glowed intense blue, a blue which spread quickly all throughout the Ark.

From all around the base, shouts of surprise and shock were heard, as the Autobots within range were affected.

Just as quickly as it had appeared, the blue light vanished.

However, it left something very unexpected in its wake.

O~O~O~O~O

"We…failed to bring back what you asked us to retrieve, Lord Megatron." Starscream said, with all the mock regret he could muster. He was very mindful of Soundwave watching him, and attempted to block his thoughts from the tricky mind-reader. "The Autobots ambushed us, and attacked us with much force, as you can tell from Skywarp's injuries."

"You are an incompetent fool, Starscream," Megatron said shortly, and Starscream grimaced angrily. "Perhaps I should have sent Amberlite out instead of you!"

The Decepticon in question wasn't in the room at the moment, and for this Starscream was glad – this wasn't the first time Megatron had made this example.

"Did you at least see what was out there?" Megatron asked suddenly.

Starscream didn't glance back at his two fellow Seekers as he said: "I don't know what it was, my lord. I didn't get a good look at it." As he said this, he felt a strange jolt run through his body. Something told him Skywarp and Thundercracker felt it too, but Megatron and Soundwave appeared unaffected by it.

"You failed me again, Starscream." Megatron shook his head. I should have replaced him years ago. He thought, and, of course, only one other in the room heard that.

Another on the Decepticon base heard it too, however. Light red optics blinked. Megatron was yelling at Starscream again. There were many on the base who didn't like the second-in-command. He was a back-stabbing whiner who was guilty of trying to kill Megatron. Amberlite hated that part but not Starscream himself. As a youngling, Amberlite didn't really hate anybody. Not even the Autobots, although Megatron planned to change that.

O~O~O~O~O

Platinum was not at all startled when he realised that Ratchet was now a lot smaller than she was. She just returned to her smaller form, and let him continue fixing her. A small smile crossed the Pythormer's face, though. Emma was going to freak out any minute now.

O~O~O~O~O

Emma gasped when she realised that he was now lying in Hound's arms…because he was Hound, but…he was…a human?

Emma was so startled that she just stared. Hound's holoform (if that's what it was) had tanned skin, messy black hair that was covered by a cowboy hat, and a little beard on his chin. He wore a green cowboy-like shirt and blue jeans. His eyes were the same bright blue they had always been, and she was so busy staring at them that she failed to realise what else had happened.

But then, Optimus' voice cut through her awe. "Uh…what just…happened here?" He sounded like he really wanted to know.

Emma snapped her head around to look at him, and got another surprise. Where Optimus Prime had been standing a moment ago, now stood a human, impressive-looking still. He was tall for a human, with blueish-black hair and piercing yet gentle blue eyes. He wore blue jeans, a red and blue jacket and white t-shirt. If she hadn't known he had a spark-mate already, then she would have probably started drooling. But, that wouldn't have been very dignified, right?

Which reminded her…

She turned quickly to look at Mirage, somehow sitting up a little straighter in Hound's arms. Mirage was not facing them – he was still staring down the hallways seemingly at nothing.

He had shoulder-length black hair that looked like it had been washed lovingly, and he wore blue dress pants with a white shirt. She wished she could see his face.

"Mirage?" She asked tentatively, her silvery voice barely above a whisper. "Mirage…don't say there's nothing for you here. There's always something…always a reason why everyone is where they are…even…even if you were to return to Cybertron, that wouldn't change that fact…I know how you must feel, but…"

"How could you possibly know what this feels like?" Mirage was still too angry to pay much attention to what the girl was saying, or how she was saying it. Just who was she, anyway? "What do you know of my suffering?"

"Look, I know what it's like to be away from home," Emma explained quietly, wishing Hound would put her down so she could stand up and put a little bit of feeling into these words. She sensed Mirage's anguish at being on Earth and not Cybertron, but she didn't know what else she could do. Was this the All-Spark helping her to understand what Mirage meant? Was this what Primus had meant about looking into her spark. "You feel out of place, like you don't know what you're doing because everything is different." She sighed. "At least that's how I feel." She took a deep breath. "But…I think that…everyone else here must feel that way too, at least sometimes. You aren't alone, Mirage. Primus puts us all in places where we need to be – you just have to figure out why."

Mirage sighed and, finally, he turned around.

He had one of the most handsome faces Emma had ever seen, and she found herself wondering if all Transformers were this good-looking. No, no stop thinking about that right now! She scolded herself, but then wondered if the Decepticons had holoforms. Aurgh, what is wrong with me today? ! She also thought that the femmes must be very beautiful, and felt a little jealous. Well, at least Optimus and Elita will always be perfect for each other, no matter what form they take…

Mirage had a thoughtful look on his face, as he gazed at the girl in Hound's arms. She was small, with brown hair cut short and gold-platinum-coloured eyes. She was wearing a plain white dress and had on white sandals. A blue disc shining on her chest was a predominant feature of this strange girl…but Mirage found himself looking at her eyes, too. Was it possible…could a human really understand how he felt?

"Mirage," That was Optimus speaking, darn he had to look away from the girl and at his commander now. "Do you think you may reconsider your bid to leave us?" He had no idea what the girl had just done, but it seemed to have calmed Mirage down. Now, if he could just figure out if they could get back to being robots or not…

Mirage glanced back at the girl, and the nodded to Optimus. "I believe I may, sir."

"Good." Optimus also glanced at the girl, who looked a little uncomfortable – probably because Hound hadn't put her down yet. Even though the girl seemed very light, it would have been difficult for any human to have held her for this length of time the way Hound was. Therefore, Optimus could only draw the conclusion that they had retained their strength during this bizarre turn of events. He also wondered if the other residents of the Ark had suffered the same transformation – and why it had only happened the second time a shockwave had hit, and not the first. "I must ask if you are responsible for this."

Emma's eyes widened in panic. "Yes! I mean, I think I was…but…" She looked up at Hound in alarm. "Hound, tell him I didn't do it on purpose! I didn't even know this could happen, even though you're Transformers!"

Mirage smiled slightly. He liked the way she pronounced some of her A's. She didn't say it like in 'ant', it was more like in 'are'. It was a more dignified, even when she was clearly alarmed. He also liked the strange shimmer that was in his voice. He hadn't heard that sort of thing from a human femme before, and robot femmes only had a slight mechanical sound to their voice, so this was something new.

Hound looked up at Optimus, but didn't say anything.

Optimus was regarding the newcomer thoughtfully, and then he said: "I see. What is your name?"

"Umm…Emma…" She said, a little worried still.

"Emma, do you know how to reverse the effects of this transformation?" Optimus asked her gently.

She gulped. "Umm…no…Platinum might, though…" She suggested.

"Platinum?"

"A Pythormer, sir." Hound informed him, and watched his leader's eyes widen ever so slightly. Optimus understood what this might mean.

"Do the Decepticons know about this?" Optimus wanted to know.

Hound nodded. "Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker were already there when I arrived, sir. They were going to take Emma with them."

Optimus closed his eyes briefly, just as running footsteps – human footsteps to be precise – could be heard, and his eyes snapped open.

Emma looked too and, when she saw the six new holoforms of the once Transformers standing there, it was decidedly too much for her to handle, especially when she saw the blood covering one of the man's arms.

Hound realised that she had fainted. "Emma? !" He cried, in somewhat alarm.

"Who's that?" Wheeljack wanted to know. His holoform had wavy golden blonde hair, and he wore a pair of black pants with a white shirt that, somehow, already seemed to be covered with soot and ash. His blue eyes were curious.

"The girl we brought in here earlier…" Sideswipe explained. His holoform had messy black hair with a red streak through it. He wore black jeans, a white top and a red hooded jacket. His blue eyes held a fair degree of mischief in there.

So did his brother's, though the look was slightly dampened by his disdain. "Not terribly brave though, is she?" He gestured with his good arm to the girl's unconscious form. He was annoyed now because his yellow hoodie was stained with red blood. It was going to get on his black shirt and black jeans too, he just knew it. He ran a hand through his blonde hair with the black tips, and wondered if he looked handsome by human standards as well. Probably…

"Probably it's because you have all that blood on your arm, Sunstreaker." Bumblebee said cheerfully. His holoform was the shortest; he had messy light blonde hair with a pair of goggles across the top of his head. He wore black jeans, a pale yellow t-shirt and a yellow jacket. Like Hound, he actually didn't look too upset about being turned into a human.

Sunstreaker sighed. "Thanks for reminding me, shorty. If you ask me, this is all her fault." He glared at the unconscious girl.

"Now, now, Sunstreaker," Optimus said, quietly but firmly. "Emma has stated that none of this was done by design – we also have reason to believe that she may not be from around here, so please be nice to her." There was a slight note of warning in his voice that everyone picked up on.

Prowl stepped forward. "Optimus Prime, sir, if she is not from here, then where is she from?" The Autobot who could turn into a police car had a very befitting holoform. He was tall, with straight black hair that hung down his neck and glasses over his deep blue eyes. He was wearing a police-officer's uniform, and a calm yet wary expression. "And…how was she able to turn us into what we are now?" How I this even possible?

Optimus shook his head. "Those things…I do not know, Prowl. All I know is that, for now, we must keep her safe. The Decepticons were after her, perhaps for this very reason we are faced with now." He glanced at the girl, who looked very peaceful in Hound's arms. That such a young girl could possibly hold the powers of Primus. Why? And why was she brought to us now? He knew that, above all else, he must keep her out of the Decepticons' hands. The blue disc on her chest intrigued him. It burned with a faint and subtle intensity, a small scale spark, perhaps? But how? "Hound?"

"Yes, sir?" Hound adjusted his hold on Emma slightly.

"Take Emma to the room that Spike and Sparkplug set up, just in case they ever had to stay over here. For now, that will serve as our guest's room."

"Yes, sir." Hound nodded, and set off down the hallway with his precious cargo. He was so happy he could've started singing, but he refrained from doing so. He had always wanted to be a human and now, thanks to this strange girl, he had gotten that chance. Even if it was only temporary, Hound was very happy.

In the room, which had a separate washroom, a couch, a TV, a chest-of-drawers and a bed, Hound laid Emma carefully down on said bed, before carefully covering her up with the blanket that was there.

He looked at her for a few moments, before whispering: "Thank you, Emma, whoever you are."

He could've sworn he saw the sleeping girl smile, just a little bit...

O~O~O~O~O

"Prowl, Mirage," Optimus said to the two of them. "Make an announcement over the PA to the rest of the Ark, asking any who have been turned into humans to report to the meeting room."

"Sir." They both nodded, and walked down the hallway in the same direction Hound had gone.

"Bumblebee," Optimus went on. "I need you to contact Spike and Sparkplug. We may require their assistance in dealing with this matter."

"Sure thing, Prime." Bumblebee replied, and walked off in the other direction to where the others had gone.

"Jazz," Optimus turned to the one in question. Jazz's holoform was decidedly cool looking – he was African-American in appearance (which suited him to a T), with dark brown, almost black dreadlocks and sunglasses over his contrasting blue eyes. He wore a black t-shirt with a red and blue design on it. His jacket and dress-pants were white. "I need you to come with me to the med-bay. I would like to see Emma's Pythormer for myself."

"A Pythormer?" Jazz seemed impressed. He nodded, and then glanced at the twins. "You cats'd better come too – might want Ratchet to check out that arm, Sunny."

Sunstreaker just rolled his eyes. It made him look very contemptuous.

"Alright," Optimus nodded. "Let's rol-I mean, uh…"

Sunstreaker and Sideswipe smirked. Truly, despite everything, it was worth it just to see Optimus Prime unable to say his most often used phrase.

Jazz said: "Uh, may I suggest, stroll out, sir?"

Optimus' eyes widened. "Stroll out?" He repeated.
Yes, it had truly been worth it.