AH I FIXED IT! THANX'S FOR LETTING ME KNOW!
Okay, if you want to get to the story right now, skip right ahead down. Skip all the bolded & italicized script up here and get started. I won't mind if you do. I've just got some things I need to get off my chest.
…
You're still here?
Alright then. I guess I should explain why this chapter took so long. Well, you may not know this, but I just graduated. As of now, I never have to return to high school. Woohoo! Well, it wasn't so 'woohoo' at first. Stress at the end of the year was really getting to me, and it brought out some…some issues that I may not have been addressing before.
At youth group I broke down one night. Couldn't move, couldn't talk, just cried. Many girls came to pray for me and eventually so did my youth group leader. I told him I'd been having some issues with being…happy. Little things that shouldn't upset me would bring me into a mood all day. I didn't have any ambition to get my school work done, and my outlook on the future was bleak, even though I was so close to the finish line. It wasn't a new development either, starting when the stress started. And it wasn't triggered by anything; I have a fantastic life with nothing to bring me down. I'd been dealing with it all year, just shoving it away, telling myself I was faking it for attention. That was the worst part; the things I'd say to myself. Put downs, slurs, condemnations, everything. Always in my head, telling me I wasn't worth it. That I should just give up.
He got me to talk to my parents. They were very supportive, but very sad for me. Then they got me to a doctor, and now…
I'm on pills for depression. There. I said it. Apparently it's genetic on both sides of the family, both diagnosed and non.
So… I guess I don't know why I told you all that. Maybe to make up an excuse for why this took so long, I don't know.
It's been better recently. No more high school, FOREVER, and I'll be attending college in the fall to study a major I'm really interested in and have classes I really enjoy. I'm being helped out with tuition and my future looks bright. I have a new job now that I really enjoy: better hours, better pay, better boss, & not nearly so stressful. Now that all the grad parties have ended, I have a lot more time to enjoy the things I love.
… The thoughts linger though. They make it hard to have the ambition to do anything sometimes. Thankfully, I have plenty of supportive friends and family, including some who are currently struggling and have already overcome. That, and I've recently reached a spiritual breakthrough, which is extremely encouraging.
*Sigh* now that I've emptied my soul out to you, I'm done whining. Writing this chapter certainly did help, and I hope to update more often in the future. Enjoy.
"You're about to see our crown jewel," Simmons informed us as we entered a small observational deck carved right out of the rock. The Allspark itself sat in the center of the crudely cut, brightly lit cavern. Maintenance platforms webbed around it geometrically on various levels and little men in hard hats walked all along it.
Even though I knew what to expect, nothing could have prepared me for the view. You've all seen it I know, since you've seen the movie. But let me tell you, high definition didn't even begin to do it justice.
I crossed my arms on the window sill and leaned my chin on them, ignoring Banacheck's long, scientifical explanation about the artifact and how they hid it under four-football-fields of concrete. I knew it all anyway. Besides, the Cube was too beautiful to give anything else my attention.
"Wait," Maggie spoke up. "Back up. You, you said the dam hides the cube's energy… What kind, exactly?"
"Good question." Banacheck replied. "I could give you a thick file to read through. There are more equations than words. Come, I'll show you."
The next place we went was barred by a thick steel door and guarded by a scientist in a blue vest and hard hat. Inside was a hodgepodge of a laboratory, from equipment so old it must have been used when Megatron had first been delivered here, to state-of-the-art tech that wouldn't be on the market for years. Desks and boxes were shoved carelessly to the sides, and remnants of experiments passed lined the walls in forms of cables, wires, and control boxes. But far more interesting than any of that was a box in the center of the room. It was raised to about the height of a grown man's chest on a steel pillar, and connected to the network of wires on the celling by cables. The box itself seemed to be made of glass, but must have been something stronger, and was lit from the inside by harsh, blue lights. Inside, what looked like a small drill protruded downwards from the top of the box, only it lacked the actual drill-bit.
"Please step inside, they have to lock us in." Banacheck instructed as everyone filed into the room.
Figueroa didn't seem pleased. "Why do they have to lock us in?" he inquired.
"Bit of tricky science they do in here." Simmons replied with a humorless grin. "You never know how things might develop. Could turn out to be a bad day."
Not long after, the huge door swung slowly shut and was bolted from the outside with a heavy creak.
"Oh. Wow." Glen breathed as he looked around the room.
Donnelly noticed a series of deep cashes in the steel wall, including a panel that had been torn open, out of which stuck a bush of shredded metal and wires. "Who did they have in here?" he asked in his Bostonian accent. "Freddy Krueger?"
"Oh no man. Freddy Krueger had four blades man, that's only three. That's Wolverine." Glen made a slashing motion and noise with his hand, laughing. Not seeing the soldier's unamused glare, the hacker looked over his shoulder at his fellow hacker, who looked down in shame. "Right? That was Wolverine!"
"That's very funny." Simmons replied, sounding serious but clearly sarcastic. He pointed to a sign on the wall that read 'We have worked 322 safe days', then back to the gashes. "Those happened three hundred and twenty-three days ago. That was a real bad day." He nodded to one of the men in hardhats working nearby. "Charlie was a good man." The man nodded back, and Glen gulped.
"Anybody have any advanced electromechanical devices?" Simmons continued. "Blackberry, key alarms, flash drive, cellphone?"
When no one responded, Banacheck walked up to Glen and confiscated his phone. "For essential demonstrational purposes." He explained.
The programmer was not so eager to let go of his last electronic. "Demonstration purposes my ***!" he exclaimed. "Anything happens to that, I want every song that's on it replaced – and I've got a list!" Glen was interrupted by a worker handing him a pair of heavy-duty safety goggles before doing the same with the rest of us. "Hey, what are these for?"
"Oooo, Nokias are reeeal nasty." Simmons muttered as he opened the door to the box. He turned on the phone and placed it carefully in the center of the box before slamming the door shut and sealing it. "You gotta respect the Japanese. They know the way of the samurai." which was so ridiculous that, despite the circumstances, I had to choke back laughter.
"Nokia's from Finland." Maggie said softly to Keller, confused.
"Yes, but he's…um…" Keller tried to reply, but ended up holding a finger to his mouth to shush any further questions of the man's sanity. "He's strange, he's strange."
"Goggles everyone, please?" Banacheck advised, and we all complied. Since they obviously didn't carry child-sized goggles at a top-secret government facility, mine were rather loose fitting and I had to hold them tightly against my face. Once we were all settled, Banacheck and Simmons began flipping switches. The drill thing lowered itself until it lightly touched the center of the phone.
"We're able to take the Cube radiation," Simmons explained as the machine audibly powered up. "And funnel it into that box."
Electric-blue light shot out from the drill, enveloping the phone in arcs of energy. It left bright, burning shapes in my vision even after it faded. The cellphone shook violently, suddenly blaring thrash metal music as it trembled. It emitted a sound that only I recognized and all at once sprang into another shape: a tiny robot, dancing on two widely-placed legs, with red eyes. It growled mechanically and rushed at the box faster than the eye could follow. Energy flashed when contact was made, making the robot stagger backwards before charging another wall.
"Mean little sucker, huh?" Simmons asked, pacing around as the thing continuously rammed the box, yelling as it did so.
"That thing is freaky!" Maggie exclaimed as one of the soldiers tapped the glass.
The S7 man was getting some sort of sick enjoyment out of the experience. "Kinda like the itty bitty Energizer Bunny from hell, huh?"
The once-cellphone stepped back and shook its head. It babbled something that sounded like Cybertronian, but in a more nonsensical way, then released a barrage of tiny bullets into the glass. Nothing made it through to the humans outside, but it continued its assault, firing a minuscule missile which detonated inside as it fired madly at anything that moved. Trembling, jerking, writhing, it threw itself again and again at the barrier, flailing crazily.
I studied the tiny robot carefully, jumping each time it attempted any sort of destruction. I had read many a fanfiction in which someone had saved or tried to save this tiny robot and it turned out to be nothing but a confused baby. I had also seen critiques of the movie wondering why the Allspark could only create evil robots. Watching the creature fling itself about in person, I finally understood something: Yes the Cube had the power to bring technology to life, but the humans were doing it in some raw, wrong way. The robot had no intelligence at all, without anything to guide the energy, and was born nuts. Nuts, bolts, and armored plating, but not in the good way. The life force inside it was powerful but aimless, and the thing was all but tearing itself to pieces in its insanity. It was like a zombie - or better yet, a rabid animal - too far gone to help, created wrong and doomed to destroy itself, but not without taking as many lives as it could along with it.
Simmons groaned. "It's breaking the box." he said to Banacheck, who then caused a lightning-strike of energy to flood the box, blinding us even through the goggles. A horrific, electronic squeal was heard. When the light cleared away, we could see that the cellphone transformer had flipped onto its back. It was smoking and sparking here and there. A distinct hole in the body was steaming and widening, melting away the frame and components of the body.
Despite my revelation, I still felt sad. Maybe not so much at its death, but at its creation. It was a Frankenstein-ish thing; it shouldn't have been made. Creating such a deranged creature with no hope of sentience was cruel. At least it was out of its misery now.
One by one, we all removed our goggles in silence and handed them back to the workers.
"Well whaddya know: sabot rounds work. Even mini sabot rounds." My hands balled into fists as I listened to Simmons. He slapped Lennox on the shoulder. "Nice work."
"Don't touch me." The ranger replied, his tone not outwardly hostile, but no one missed his implication.
Glen suddenly rushed to the bolted door in a panic. "Okay, Grandma needs her insulin. I'm out. You hear me? Find somebody else to help you. Go ahead and shoot me if you want to, but I'm-"
The ground shook. Not enough to knock anyone off their feet, but we were God-knows how deep into the earth and concrete, and we could still feel it. The lights in the laboratory flickered, buzzing as they tried to right themselves.
My blood ran cold in dread. I whispered under my breath, "He's here."
Epps looked upwards. "Those are concussion blasts. Could be terrorists…or something else."
Keller bit his lower lip. "Terrorists could never get this close to the dam. Security is too tight. Has to be something more than that. Bigger than that." He turned the two S7 officials. "Gentlemen, they know the Cube is here.
Banacheck went over to an intercom and slammed the button. "Banacheck. What's going on?
A voice over the radio replied, "The NBE1 chamber has lost power-"
"What?!"
"And the backup generator is just not gonna cut it!"
Lennox rushed over and demanded, "Where is your security armory?"
The vault-door to the room opened. Simmons waved his arm for us to follow before sprinting out, the rest of us not far behind. We ran out of the rooms and onto the main stretch. It was filled with people - security, scientists, agents – all of them yelling and running in the same direction.
Banacheck stopped momentarily at the stairs to yell at the employees. "Get everyone to the NBE 1 chamber NOW!"
That was enough to make me skid to a halt. "NO!" I screamed back. "It's too late! Get them OUTTA THERE!"
Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me along, snapping my vision around so that I could not tell if Banacheck had heard or heeded me.
"Move it move it! Let's go!" Simmons shouted as we ran.
No one seemed to care that there were civilians in the midst - we all ended up in the same armory. Lennox's camouflaged soldiers joined the black-armored ones that were already there, stocking huge artillery weapons loaded on camouflaged jeeps, machine guns thrown over their shoulders, grenades, handguns, and just about anything else you could think of.
"40 millimeter sabot rounds on that table!" Simmons yelled and pointed, directing the newly arrived soldiers as he stocked his own weaponry.
"Nellis Air Base is fifty miles away." Keller said. "They can have air support here in ten minutes."
"Everything's still out." Maggie reminded him, putting down her own phone she'd been trying.
"You wouldn't get a signal down here even if they were working." Glen pointed upwards. "All those football fields' worth of concrete, remember?"
"I thought there might be embedded relays-"
The hackers' discussion of possibilities, along with the soldiers' preparations, was interrupted when the lights flickered again. Everyone stopped and watched as the lights came on again. There was enough silence to hear one round clink to the floor.
No one moved for a moment, then Sam walked up to Simmons as the agent continued loading what looked like a grenade launcher. Mikaela followed him and stood about halfway between them and Maggie, Glen, and I. "You gotta take me to my car." Sam told him. When the man did not respond, the boy pressed on. "You hafta take me to my car; he's gonna know what to do with the Cube."
"Your car? It's confiscated." Simmons glanced up, never stopping, and shook his head.
Something in me snapped. I don't know if the thought of Bumblebee 'confiscated' did it, or the impending sense of doom, or that my guilt was overriding everything I did. Whatever it was, I panicked. I either forgot or ignored that the soldiers would make everything turn out alright and did something really, really stupid.
As Sam and Simmons kept arguing, I broke into a sprint. Mikaela attempted to stop me, but the effort was only half-hearted. In a move that would've gone terribly wrong if attempted without adrenaline coursing through my system, I placed my hands on the table that held Simmons's ammo and pushed myself up and atop. The agent saw me too late, and I slammed down and into him. I held myself up by his collar and screamed in his face, "TAKE US TO BUMBLEBEE NOW!"
Simmons's surprise and my force – small, but backed by momentum and gravity – unbalanced him in my favor. I had caught him off guard and he didn't have the coordination to throw me. The agent swore loudly as my force caused him to turn away from the table, stagger backwards, and fall to the floor.
Knuckles as white as my gritted teeth, I gripped the man's shirt. I was crouched on his chest, his face inches from mine, staring hot-Energon-daggers into his eyes. My face was roasting, probably beet-red. I was angry. Angry at him. Angry at myself for just following the script while my friend suffered. But mostly angry at him.
The man was shocked. Furious too, but not the yelly-type. More like the stoic-type. How dare this kid inconvenience me again, he seemed to think, and glared my daggers right back at me. Simmons had a good poker-face, but as I stared into his eyes I saw them shift a little. Maybe not afraid, but wary, like someone faced with a wild animal.
Click.
That was the sound of a machine gun being aimed at my head.
…
Did you hear that?
That was the sound of me not giving a crap.
Luckily, since I didn't have enough sense to be afraid for myself, that's when Lennox jumped in. The ranger whipped out his own handgun and pointed it at the black-armored man training the weapon at my skull. "Drop it." He ordered.
Donnelly appeared and pointed a gun at the man's head from behind. Epps and Figueroa fought off more S7 men, slamming the butts of their guns into their faces. Glen threw his hands in the air and Banacheck said, "Whoa whoa whoa!"
Simmons and I hadn't moved. "Get off me, little girl." He told me, his voice even but threatening. "There's an alien war goin' on and you're gonna tackle me?"
A low, primitive growl escaped my throat. I started to do something – looking back on it, I don't know what – but was interrupted.
"Iris," Lennox said. I did not move, but I listened. "Why don't you let me handle this?"
Ages ticked by as I sat silently. My lips unfolded their snarl and my eyes unfocused. His words made it through to me. Somehow, my anger began to ebb away, and I could think again.
I was tiny and weak. Lennox was big, strong, and possessed a weapon. And he would handle this.
Oh yes. He would handle this well.
Without so much as a final glare towards the agent, I slipped off his chest to the ground. I crawled away a few paces, to give Lennox some space, and made eye contact with the black-armored man who had his machine gun pointed at me. Only then did I feel a twinge of fear.
Mikaela swept in. She locked her arm around my waist and half-dragged half-carried me out of the fray. Once I was no longer under the web of weaponry, she deposited me over to Sam and spun to face the man with the gun. I could not see her face, but the black-armored soldier was intimidated enough to lower his weapon.
Sam crouched on the ground as he held me, grabbing my shoulders fiercely. "What were you thinking?!" he hissed, his eyes wide with fear.
I did not respond. I turned my head to watch the scene.
Lennox at first knelt down as if to help Simmons to his feet, but he instead grabbed the agent by the collar, yanked him upwards and slammed him into the side of a jeep. All arms sprung up again, the man who had aimed at me now aimed at the ranger, who again returned the favor.
Simmons was thoroughly pissed off at being thrown around so much. "I'm ordering you under S7 executive jurisdiction-"
"S7 don't exist." Epps interrupted, his own weapon pointed now.
"That's right, and we don't take orders from people who don't exist." Lennox added.
"I'm gonna count to five."
"I'm gonna count to three." Lennox took his gun away from the armored soldier and pointed it at the agent's chest. There was sweat dripping down the ranger's face as he held Simmons down. "Hm?"
"Simmons," Keller called out from the side. No one had their gun pointed at him.
The S7 man turned his head at the defense secretary. "Yessir?"
Keller didn't seem perturbed about the Mexican standoff at all. "I'd do what he says. Losing's really not an option for these guys."
"If the children are wrong," Banacheck began slowly. "We could be unleashing hell."
Donnelly let out a short, scornful laugh. "We've already been in hell."
Simmons was silent, glancing back and forth between his superiors and the man with the gun at his chest. After a second, he gave a tiny nod. "Alright." He said. "Okay. Hey, you wanna lay the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro? That's cool."
Lennox jerked his gun away. Everyone lowered their weapons.
I jumped to my feet and snapped my head around at Banacheck. He would know where to go. My eyes were wide with urgency, and my body was tensed in preparation. "Hurry." I told the government man, my voice cracking.
Banacheck still looked hesitant, but he seemed to understand what he had to do. "Let's go!" he ordered, pivoting and waving his arm for the rest of us to follow as he started back down the hallway.
I charged after him, new adrenaline pumping through my system as I and the rest of the group ran. Hope made my feet lighter. Hang on, Bumblebee, I thought as my throat tried to constrict. We're coming.
Groans of misery reached my ears long before the source reached my eyes. Through the thick steel doors I could hear him, and it drove me mad. He was suffering. He was suffering because of me.
I overtook Banacheck as those doors opened, blowing past the guards at top speed. There he was, in the center of the room, frozen immobile by that evil gas. It was coming from a dozen or so black-armored soldiers' back-mounted tanks. I could see them as no more than insects, attacking my friend and causing him pain. I threw myself at one of the men with the sprays. He was more surprised than anything and faltered his spray, but there were so many I didn't know what to do. Sam, Banacheck, and Mikaela were rushing around trying to get them to stop too.
"Stop stop stop stop! Let him go let him go!
"It's okay, release it. My authority."
"He's not an 'it'!"
But it wasn't happening fast enough!
"STOP IT!" I yelled. "YOU'RE HURTING HIM!"
My hearing focused, funneling out the sounds of the ceasing of experiments. I could only hear one thing: a great hulk of shifting of metal behind me.
I froze. A single breath rattled out of my lungs. I felt like the victim in a horror movie, scared stiff to turn around but knowing I had to. So, working at a snail's pace, I pivoted my body around towards the noise.
Bright blue optics locked with mine.
On reflex, I leapt back and gasped. Immediately my gaze fled from his eyes, quickly searched the rest of him, and retreated to the floor.
He had turned towards the sound of my voice. The dissipating mist had revealed numerous scorch marks all over his body. They seemed to collect around the chest area, where his spark would be. They had threatened the very essence of his being.
Your fault.
The things they had done to him. The pain they had caused him. You could have stopped it all. You could have warned someone, or gotten him to leave, or…orsomething! He had been terrified and unable to fight back, frozen immobile, strapped down, helpless to their gasses and shocks. Tested. Tortured. How awful that must have been!
A fist of sadness tightened around my throat, squeezing moisture out of my eyes. I closed them and swallowed against it. Then shakes of fear shuddered out from my lungs to the rest of my body, claiming every muscle. My heart thudded erratically, and my face burned.
What would he do to me?
You deserve to die.
I had to run, but to him, or from him? My soul felt like it was tearing itself out of my body to go to him, but my instincts told me that this was my absolute worst option. You don't deserve either. You deserve what's coming. You are a low life who could have done something but did nothing. Pain, fear, and suffering happened because of you. I had hurt my friend.
Go meet your fate.
I staggered forward, grief pressing me into the ground like a physical thing.
Run! My body screamed, to the point where every inch of my skin was crawling in the opposite direction. Run!
You don't deserve escape, my mind hissed.
"Bumblebee," I choked out, and I thought, maybe, I could try to meet his eyes again. I opened my own, only to have my sight blurred out by tears of terror and heartache. So I shut them again. I'd rather not see what's coming.
As I reached the edge of the platform, fear crumpled my legs and I fell into a defensive position as a last resort. Face to the floor, arms over my head, I screamed:
"I'M SORRY!"
Silence. Whether the lack of sound was real or imagined, I could only hear my sobbing. I pressed my forehead into the floor as my whole body shook. "I could have done something." I rasped through my jerky breaths. "This didn't need to happen. I could have gotten you to run. We could have gotten away. You-" I gulped. "You didn't have to get hurt. But you did, and it's all my fault, and…" I hid my face in the floor and tried to disappear from the world. "I'm so sorry."
I dreaded his response. I deserved everything that was coming. I waited.
Slowly, I heard the sound of shifting metal again. It came closer, closer –
I flinched as I was touched. Lungs sucked air in, muscles tightened, waiting for a… squish.
The appendage withdrew at my cringe, jerking away like a reflex. There was a period of hesitation, then it came again, gripping firmly around my middle. I could feel the coolness of the metal through my clothes, but it wasn't as bad as before; he was getting warmer by the second.
Then up! – My eyes flew open for a brief moment as the ground disappeared from under me, then clamped shut even tighter. I could feel the appendage lift me, rotate me upright, and bring me closer.
I had to know what was happening. I forced my eyes open and through the blur I saw his huge head right in front of me. I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes and forcefully wiped the tears away, using my hands to hide my heated face. But curiosity compelled me, for nothing was happening, and I peered through my fingers.
He looked tired, but that was quickly fading. The gas was gone now, and he was recovering before my eyes. Groggy pain made way for urgency. His bright blue optics darted over me, back and forth, again and again. Their gaze came dangerously close to my face and I covered my eyes again.
A metal thumb wedged its way between my elbow and my body, pushing it upwards and outwards, bringing my arm away from my face.
I gave up. I brought my hands down and rested them on the fingers around my middle, unconsciously trying to push myself away. My eyes watched his flit from my hands and chest, my own diving downwards every time his came back to my face. What was he doing?
"You're hurt."
I startled at the sudden sound of a voice preceded by static. Surprise fell directly into denial. "It's nothing." I squeaked, picking at the bandages on my hands.
"No," was the firm reply. "You got hurt *kzzt* trying to free me."
"Fat lot of good it did."
"But you tried."
"Not hard enough. I should've-"
"Hush."
My eyes flew upwards at the gentle tone he'd picked, and I was shocked to see that gentleness reflected in his eyes.
"You did what you could *kzzt* No sense worrying about it now *kzzt* I'm just glad you're okay."
...
He…
I…
… Warmth started in my chest. It worked its way through my nervous system, warming my body to the tips of my fingers and toes, like the first sip of hot cocoa after playing outside in the snow. My cheeks twitched, aching with my effort to keep them from moving. But… I didn't want to. So… I didn't, and my face gave way to... a smile.
My ears roared as my eyes filled with tears of a new kind. I didn't even realize they were there until I tasted their salty trail on my lips.
Bumblebee's head tilted a bit. Curiosity and concern. What's wrong with your eyes? he asked.
"Nothing," I replied, wiping away my tears with my arm. "I'm fine."
We then both became very aware of the situation. I looked around and found that my little soap opera had quite the audience. The S7 men had lowered their gas nozzles, but the soldiers were armed and ready. Good God, they were all staring. My face started burning again.
"You okay?" Sam asked Bumblebee from below. "They didn't hurt you, right?"
Bumblebee looked back at the boy as his battle bask slid down over his face. What was left of his voice ground out four harsh words: "Yes. They. Hurt. Me." The hand that held me drew quickly in to the opposite shoulder and opened. I took my cue and scrambled aboard. I was quite comfortable up there, and even found an outthrust spike of armor to wedge my lap under, almost like the bars in a rollercoaster car.
This came in handy when Bee thrust himself up on to one arm and activated his cannon on the other, the one I sat above. A noise that sounded dangerously like a snarl came from the Autobot's gears. He twisted around, pointing his whirring cannon in every direction.
The humans were all frozen, and for good reason. Giant alien robot with extremely powerful weapons that you tortured and was now angry; I'd be pissing myself too.
"Listen to me." Sam tried to grab back the Autobot's attention. "The Cube is here and the Decepticons are coming."
It worked. Bee sat up on his berth. He continued pointing his cannon around, specifically at the armed soldiers.
"No no, don't worry about them." Sam put his hand out behind them to the soldiers. "They're okay. Right?"
Up on his feet now, I clung on as Bumblebee still aimed his firepower every which-way.
The boy kept coaxing. "They're not gonna hurt you." He turned to the people behind him. "Just back up a little bit. He's friendly, he's fine.
I felt like I wasn't helping enough, so I said softly enough for only the Autobot to hear: "You can trust the ones in cammo."
Still hesitant, Bee's mask went back up. He was beginning to calm down. I couldn't blame his anxiousness. I don't know if I'd be able to say I wouldn't have shot the S7 people if I was in his place.
"Put the guns away, they're not gonna hurt you." Same beckoned forward. "Now come with me, we're gonna take you to the Allspark."
Bee was off like a rocket, charging towards the exit door. Me? Hanging on for dear life.
Sector 7 was beginning to fall apart. Plaster and paneling were falling, supports were crumbling, and lights were fusing out. At first I thought it was the force of Bee's feet hitting the ground that was causing it. No, that can't be it. It seemed to be coming from above… Those were fresh shocks. Coming from the outside.
While I could grasp the severity of the situation, I wasn't quite as worried as I maybe should have been. I was riding on an Autobot's shoulder after all. I'd only dreamt about such things up until recently, and even after I switched worlds I wouldn't have expected it to become reality. But this was the second time I'd been placed on a giant alien robot's shoulder. And I didn't have to be up there. Bee could have put me down to run with the other humans, but he didn't. He kept me there. Why? I didn't know. But I wasn't about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Not where I was. Far off the ground below, wind rushing past my face, and with just enough danger to get my heart pumping… This was fun!
I looked down over my, over his shoulder, at the humans below. There was a growing crowd of them, all struggling to keep up. I picked out Mikaela from the crowd. She was one of the humans at the front of the pack. Her attention was trained on us, so I caught her eyes easily. And when I did, I smiled. I can't believe I'm doing this!
Mikaela seemed to receive my message; she smiled right back.
Wow, they weren't really leading him, were they? I turned back around. "Bee!" I called just loud enough to be heard over his thundering footsteps. "How do you know where it is?"
"My Spidey-senses are tingling!" was his answer.
I threw back my head and laughed.
Getting the humans into the Cube chamber was easy. Getting the alien in there with it was the hard part. Nobody wanted to give up the huge, powerful-thingy to the other huge, powerful-thingy. There was also a squabble over whether or not I should be where I was. Keller, the teens, the soldiers, the hackers; they all wanted me to come down. Thought it was too dangerous to be so close to the Cube.
Surprisingly enough, it was Simmons who voiced the defense. "The Cube has never had an effect on anything organic." He explained. "It ignores anything and everything native to this carbon-based planet. Let the kid stay up there, I say." He looked up at me. "I certainly wouldn't protest to seeing it from that perspective."
To say I was shocked would be an understatement. But Simmons' claim was backed by all the other scientists, many who claimed studying the Cube as their life's work. And the consensus was that I could stay.
Boom! Another explosion shook the chamber. Rocks and dust crumbled from the more-raw Allspark room. "Do you alien thing fast, hombre grande," Figueroa shouted up to Bee as we approached the Cube. "I don't like enclosed spaces. Remind me too much of coffins."
When Bee reached the Allspark, for a moment he just stopped and stared. Both of us actually, but it meant more to someone who had been created by it than a simple bystander. What was it like for him? Like a human approaching God, or a sentient laptop being offered a battery that would never run down? I didn't ask. But to me, it looked something like this:
The Cube was the size of a building, and it sat imperfectly on its corner, still imbedded in the rock a bit. The glyphs covering it were all so different that each could have been a different language. One glyph here looked like Chinese calligraphy, another there resembled a circular star chart. Patterns that could have been scratches or spotted stains overlapped each other, and one strait line sliced off a corner like a single turnable edge on an abstract Rubik's cube. It wasn't completely steel-gray in color, like it often looked in the movie. Rather, it was wreathed in natural streams of rust reds, copper greens, and bruise purples - rimming the glyphs like a watercolor painting. But it didn't look rusty, like an old nail. More like an agate, interlaid with colors that wove around without rhyme or reason, giving something strictly mechanic an organic lacing.
Hi, I thought…towards the Cube? I don't really know how to explain it. Just sort of projecting my thoughts forward. I'm Iris. I'm not from here, just like you. But I come from a place that knows what will happen here. Memories of what was to come rushed through my head. All-out war in the streets. People are going to die. Not just humans, Cybertronians too. Autobots. I remembered an impending death. Jazz. I don't want him to die. I was silent for a moment. I looked down at the Autobot insignia around my neck. But…do you see this? I grabbed the symbol and held it slightly outwards. I'm with the Autobots too. I don't want Jazz, or anyone, to die. I know I can't do much, but… I let the necklace drop, thudding against my chest. I'll do everything I can to make it right.
As Bumblebee began to reach out for the Cube, the hair on the back of my neck stood up. I knew this scene by heart, but some part of me still wondered: What's going to happen?
Light.
Pain.
Nothing.
HOLD YOUR FIRE! IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!
I'm not going to explain that statement any further.
Btw, this is a mOMENTOUS day isn't it?! If you're an American like me, at least. Homosexual marriage has been declared legal by congress in all 50 states! What a reason to celebrate! I'm so happy for the people all over the country who now can (or will soon be able to) marry in peace. What a time to be alive. I'll be telling my children and my grandchildren about today.
Well that's all I've got for now. Sorry for the cliffhanger ending, AGAIN, but I hope you liked it. I have a new laptop now, so hopefully I'll be able to update more often (never heard that one before.) Be ready; Iris has quite the storm coming.
Wish us luck, guys.