Chapter 2
When I woke up, it was dark. That was the first thing I noticed. Which was weird since it had been sunrise when we reached the village.
The second thing I noticed was that my injured shoulder had been healed.
The third thing I noticed was that I was in Optimus' arms.
I blinked as my eyes became accustomed to the dark. We were in my bedroom. Optimus was lying on his back on my bed with me on top of him. His left arm was round my waist and he was running his right hand through my hair.
So he was awake.
Great. Now I couldn't even eject him.
See, I made it a rule not to let any boys in my room, as my dad bloody well knows. So it was weird when I moved to the Autobot base and had to share a room with Optimus. Especially since there was so little space.
I had blatantly refused to share a room with Starscream for the five years that I'd been living with him.
I felt Optimus shift his position beneath me and quickly shut my eyes, pretending to be asleep until I sorted out the mess of thoughts in my head. The green light that my eyes gave off would have given me away straight away. He'd probably noticed already, but it was worth a-
"I know you're awake, Clara." He murmured quietly.
-try.
I squirmed around in his arms so that I could hug him.
"Are you okay?" I asked him quietly.
"Yeah." Optimus, if he was still in pain, certainly didn't sound like it. He just sounded tired. That was understandable. I'd slept all day and I still felt tired.
"Is there any word on the others?" I asked him, resting my hand on his chest.
"No. Not yet."
"So we're gonna spend the whole of tomorrow looking for them?"
"Probably." I felt Optimus shift his position beneath me. "Your armour's so cold…"
Okay, it was true. I was freezing. Which was weird since I don't normally get cold
Optimus was the only source of warmth I could feel, and I was snuggled up to him almost desperately.
Optimus was silent and unmoving for so long I thought he'd fallen asleep. He hadn't.
I yelped as he rolled us both over carefully so that he was on top of me, trapping in any warmth.
It worked.
I was suddenly a lot warmer.
Lying there, cradled in my teacher's arms, I fell asleep again all too quickly.
I woke up to a loud knocking on the door.
It was morning. Optimus was asleep next to me, his arms wrapped around me tightly and his head resting gently on mine. I yawned and rolled carefully onto my side so I could snuggle up to him without disturbing him.
The person knocked on the door again, so hard that it rattled under the blows. Optimus woke with a start.
"Clara!" my dad yelled from the other side of the door. "Wake up and get downstairs!"
Optimus and I listened as his footsteps retreated from the door.
"It's not that freak from the forest you know." Optimus murmured to me affectionately once he was gone, pulling me against him tightly.
"I know."
"So why are you so scared of opening the door?"
"I'm not. I'm too tired to open the door. Don't wanna move." I complained, not bothering to open my eyes as I just lay there in his arms.
I sensed Optimus smile, but I didn't move.
My dad did eventually manage to evict Optimus and me from my room. We headed towards the outskirts of the Rogue village, in the hope of leaving and searching for the others.
We didn't get 5 metres away from the house.
"Team Ninja!"
The cry from behind made Optimus come to a dead halt and turn around to see who had spoken just out of pure shock. I smiled and rolled my eyes. Of course.
This was probably the only thing I'd missed about Rogue turf since I'd left to live with Starscream five years ago.
The only thing that had kept me going after Luke and Tessa died.
My closest friends.
I turned and raised my arm in greeting as they ran over.
Shouri reached us first. She was the shortest out of the four of us, but what she lacked in height, she more than made up for in speed.
But Kodi wasn't long in catching up.
"Were you seriously gonna leave without saying 'goodbye'?" Kodi asked as soon as she got to us.
"Or 'hello' for that matter." Shouri added.
"Dad said you were out scouting." I told them apologetically.
"Just got back." Shouri confirmed, nodding.
Optimus was eyeing the two girls warily. Noticing this, Kodi turned to him.
"And I hope you're keeping our Clara safe." She said, stepping towards him with playful attitude. She laughed as he took a surprised step backwards.
Shouri looked my teacher up and down and turned to me.
"Er…who is he?"
I smiled.
"Optimus, this is Kodi and Shouri. Team Ninja, Optimus Prime."
Shouri looked from me to Optimus and back again.
"Is this about the territory again?" she asked doubtfully.
I shook my head.
"So who are you exactly?" Optimus asked uncertainly.
"Team Ninja." Kodi replied instantly in her famous 'isn't it obvious?' voice.
Optimus stared at her blankly.
"'Team Ninja'?" he repeated weakly.
"Yep."
Optimus waited a moment.
"Could you please expand on that?"
"We're the best scouting group in the village." Shouri said proudly.
"So you're good at finding people?"
"The best at finding people." she confirmed, nodding.
"Can you help us?" Optimus asked, his teeth clenched like he couldn't believe the words were coming out of his mouth.
I smiled and found myself shaking with silent laughter. He offered me a glare and turned to Team Ninja.
"Sure we can." Kodi said happily. "Who are you looking for?"
"A small group of Autobots."
"And where were they last seen?"
Optimus glanced at me.
"A planet a couple of hundred light-years away. We lost them because of teleport trouble."
"Teleport trouble?" Shouri asked, turning to me. "With one of yours?"
"Jazz started button mashing." I replied defensively.
"Jazz?"
I sighed and peered at the two of them.
"Where's Shannon?" I asked curiously.
"She's still out scouting." Kodi replied distractedly. She thought for a moment and shuddered. "Near the Old Mansion."
Shouri shuddered as well.
"What is it with you two and the Old Mansion?" I demanded.
"It's haunted. You know that." Kodi replied, shuddering again.
"Haunted?" Optimus asked sceptically, looking at me.
"It's not." I replied, shaking my head. "It's just a story told around the village to stop kids going in there."
"No it's not." Shouri rebuked.
"It is." I snapped back. "I've been in there, remember. It's a death trap, which is why they want everyone staying out, but it's definitely not haunted."
Shouri and Kodi gave me looks that said clearly that they weren't convinced. Optimus was starting to look bored. I sighed again.
"So can you two help us or not?"
"Yeah we can help you." Kodi replied, suddenly back to her usual happy self.
"Thankyou."
After a while we were FINALLY leaving the village.
We decided to stick together for a while, since Kodi and Shouri weren't really the best fighters in the world, and Optimus looked like he'd die if he was left alone with one of them for even a few minutes.
We'd decided it was best to find Shannon before we started looking for anyone else, so it was the direction of the Old Mansion that we headed in.
The Old Mansion was this…well, really old mansion.
The whole place is condemned. It sags like it can hardly keep itself up anymore, which it can't, and the whole thing smells of age. Apart from that, it does actually have the look of a haunted house. It's surrounded by forest on most sides, which towers over it completely, so it never gets any sun on it.
There was a fence that had been put around it, to keep people out, since my dad really couldn't be bothered to get the place demolished.
The gate had a large, intimidating locked gate at the front of it to keep people away.
The fence had only been put up when I went in there.
I'd never really believed that it was haunted, so it really annoyed me that Team Ninja were always going on about how haunted they thought it was. I'd
gone in there to prove that it wasn't haunted. It didn't work. Obviously, they were still going on about how haunted they thought it was.
So, yeah. After a while we came to the Old Mansion.
It was dark and dreary. Big surprise.
The gates were shut and locked, like they'd been ever since they'd been put up.
The place gave me an uneasy feeling. Not like I was scared, just like there was something really important in there that I was missing.
We carried on past.
"Was Shannon wearing her radio?" I asked after a while.
"No." Kodi replied glumly. "The enemies we were tracking had the technology to track radios. It was too dangerous to take any radios with us."
I sighed but nodded. It wasn't something we could do anything about now.
I was starting to feel rather faint and tired, even though I'd spent most of the past two days asleep. For some reason, my optics were blurry from lack of recharge. I could've been about to walk into a wall and I wouldn't even-
Wall.
Ow.
I stopped walking and shook my head in an attempt to clear it. I was only vaguely aware of Shouri and Kodi muttering, and Optimus asking me if I was okay. I had a hand on my head, like that would somehow help. My vision was even blurrier than before, and it was fading. Then the world was tilting and the ground was rushing up to meet me and everything was black.