I just realized I can't write at college. I looked back at the last two chaps, and wow do they need some work... But I wrote this one at my parent's house, so maybe it's better ;) Thanks for all the reviews!
I woke up curled against Hot Rod's chest plate, my upper body cradled in the joint between his chest and shoulder. His hand was warm over me, not quite touching me, and his eyes were dim. I slowly raised my body on the power of my left arm, my right dully throbbing. He didn't seem to feel it, so I whispered his name.
His eyes brightened immediately and he tucked his chin to look at me. "Everything ok?"
"Yeah. I just want to get up and walk around."
He obliged, giving me a hand to the floor, eight feet below. I started to the door and he slid off of his metal bed behind me. The heavy door slid open and we went out into the vast, empty halls.
We wandered for a while, Hot Rod humoring my desire to get around. At some point I got tired of walking and he picked me up. This time he set me on his shoulder, supposedly because I was off the drugs enough to hang on to him reliably.
While we aimlessly wandered the maze of featureless halls, it occurred to me that Bumblebee's friend Sam was supposed to be coming by today.
"What time is it?"
"A little after eight in the morning."
"Any idea when Sam and Bee are going to bring that food? I'm kind of hungry for something other than old dingdongs."
He stared off without answering for a moment or two, so I watched him, unbothered by the silence. This close I could make out the details of his complicated blue eyes and the subtleties of his face. It wasn't especially attractive up close, but friendly all the same.
Despite being something like robots, none of the transformers had quite the same face, I had noticed. Hot Rod did in indeed have an expressive, mobile mouth, but it wasn't typical to a human's; it was full of bright electrical lines, like Optimus Prime's, and the shape was off. His nose wasn't very pronounced, but the lines were smooth and symmetrical. I had briefly seen him wearing a kind of faceplate, battle armor, I guessed, when he and Bumblebee had arrived at the log cabin.
Finally, he answered. "Bee estimates another couple of hours, he and Sam just left home."
"Oh. He lives kind of far away, huh?"
"Yeah. We were lucky that he was visiting the City when I found you, or it would have taken a lot longer to set up the rescue mission."
"Did you know Bee before Earth?"
"Yeah, but we weren't ever really close. Bee did most of his growing up surrounded by military personnel, so he was always a little on the stuffy side for me. It was amazing I got him to help me without having Optimus give the all clear."
"I owe you guys."
"Nah, we only did what was right. Nobody deserves to be held against their will." He considered me thoughtfully, finally asking, "How did you end up being held by the Decepticons anyway?"
I explained the incident with the three men leading up to the discovery of Skywarp, all the way up to my dream about the murderer, Barricade. Hot Rod's expression was impossible to read, but he didn't seem particularly happy, especially when I told him about being kept as a 'pet.'
When I wound down, my story up to date, he reached up and held a finger out to me, which I gripped like an infant. " As Autobots, our principles include respect for intelligent races. Optimus is always saying, 'Freedom is the right of all sentient beings,' and every one of us is willing to die for freedom."
"Optimus seems like a cool guy."
Hot Rod chuckled. "You don't even know the half of it, my friend."
At this point my arm began to ache insistently and I had to ask to be taken to the kitchen for some more pain pills. I ate the last dingdongs with a glass of water and my drugs and Hot Rod took me back to his quarters, anticipating my lethargy. Of course, I was quickly sleeping deeply, and so I missed Bee and Sam's arrival.
I woke up alone on the cot. I shot upright in a panic and my arm groaned in protest, but I could see, finally. Hot Rod had left some light strips near the floor on, so I could make out the room vaguely.
I got up and went to the door. I was puzzled as to how to open it, finally settling for jamming my good fingers in the thin crack and pulling. After some sweating and straining the mechanism took pity on me and let me out. The brightness of the halls forced me to stop and adjust, I started off to the right as soon as I could. I didn't know my way around, of course. Most of my exploration in the featureless place had been on drugs.
I wandered a while, growing more and more discouraged when I not only didn't find the kitchen or Hot Rod, but even the human-sized doors and the other Autobots were missing. I sat down against the wall and buried my head in my hands to try and get my resolve back, but taking away the mechanical distraction of walking left my brain time to think about other things, like finding my old life. I knew some of it already.
It suddenly occurred to me, as I thought of Frenzy preventing my search, that his eyes had been blue, much like the Autobots. The other two Decepticons had red eyes and I was contemplating that when a light from above shown down on me.
It wasn't an angel, but close. Ratchet, the Autobot I met during my arrival, was looking down at me with his eyes and with a bright light, which crawled up and down my body.
"Bravura, isn't it? You seem to be healthy apart from your arm. What's wrong?"
I looked up at him in relief and got to my feet. "I'm lost. I don't know where anything is in here."
He nodded knowingly. "I've been speaking to Optimus about adding some visual landmarks to the halls. You humans don't have internal maps to follow." He leaned down and offered me his hand, much larger than Hot Rod's, and picked me up, then set me gently on his shoulder and started off.
"I have a question, Ratchet."
"Go ahead," he said, sounding pleased.
"Was Frenzy always a Decepticon?"
His friendly face hardened for just a moment, and then he put up a clinically sterilized expression. "Why do you ask that?"
"Well, I haven't met many Decepticons, but the two I have had red eyes. Frenzy's are blue, and the three Autobots I've met had blue, so… just wondering if it's a coincidence."
He was silent except for the sounds of his body moving and his feet rhythmically hitting the floor.
"I mean, it's ok if I'm not supposed to know, I was just wondering."
He looked at me appraisingly. "I'm not going to say you aren't allowed the information, but it might be best if you spoke to Optimus about it before anyone else."
I accepted his decision and tried to make myself comfortable. "So you're like the doctor?"
"I am the chief, rather, only medical officer on Earth. I am responsible for repair and maintenance."
"That's cool. My mom was a doctor too."
The instant the words came out I froze, and Ratchet noticed. "What's wrong?"
"I just remembered it." I explained my memory problem, and Ratchet listened with a powerful interest.
"If you were an Autobot, I would say some energon lines were damaged in your memory banks, or maybe your core had been jostled out of its connection hub, but the human brain isn't something I'm familiar with. I'll study up on it and see if there's anything to be done."
Smiling was difficult, but I managed it. "Thanks Ratchet."
"And here we are," he said amiably. He offered his hand and then set me down on the floor by the kitchen door. "Hot Rod, Bumblebee and Sam are inside."
The news excited me and I went into the sparse kitchen with high hopes.
The smell immediately destroyed my dreams of food and company. Smoke was billowing from a pan, dwarfed by Hot Rod, who was hunched over it. A dark haired teenager, near my own age, maybe a little younger, was yelling at him and wildly gesticulating, grabbing handfuls of hair until he dramatically gave up , stomping over to Bee. Bee was watching and laughing, but Hot Rod looked pretty put out as he dumped the charred mess in the pan into the trash.
He saw me and his expression lightened into one of sheepish surprise. "Oh, Bravura… I was…"
Bee and the dark haired guy, presumably Sam, smiled. "He was trying to surprise you with some coal for lunch."
Hot Rod looked indignant. "It was supposed to be grilled cheese, not coal."
"Whatever it was, it was awful, big guy," Sam said jokingly.
I went to Hot Rod, flattered that he'd try to fix me something to eat. He looked completely put out now. "It's ok, Hot Rod, grilled cheese is a tough one. It's the thought that counts."
His whole attitude brightened and he smiled. "Oh! Bravura, this is Sam," he said, gesturing to the guy, who came over and held out his hand. I started to lift up my cast arm but thought better of it and held out my left instead. He laughed at my hopelessness and we shared a lefty handshake.
Hot Rod looked around, and then at Sam. "Wasn't a girl named Mikaela going to come too?"
Sam shook his head. "No, she and her mom are on vacation in Hawaii. She'll be back in a couple of weeks."
"Oh, that's too bad." He sounded crestfallen.
Sam smiled at me and I could see a spark of goofiness in his personality. Then he looked back to Hot Rod. "She'll be back soon, it's only two weeks. She said she'd bring back souvenirs for everyone too."
"Can you make sure there are no magnets?" Bumblebee said plaintively.
"Don't worry, buddy, she said she'd bring you a coconut bra."
"A what?" Hot Rod asked innocently.
I giggled at the mental image and went to the fridge, popping it open to find eggs, milk and lunchmeat, among other things. In a pile on a nearby white counter were cookies, bread, some canned vegetables, and a box of dingdongs. I groaned inwardly and went about making myself a sandwich while Hot Rod daintily tried to clean the cooked on mess in the frying pan.
As I bit into my sandwich pickle juice dripped onto my shirt and it occurred to me that I didn't have any other clothes. My possessions totaled what I was wearing, and the fake cards in my pocket. I would need to clean up soon, and I could use some clothes. I brought it up to Hot Rod.
"Hmm. Well, I have orders to leave with Ironhide soon to check out the log cabin we found you in for signs of Decepticon activity, but I think Bee's free. Maybe they could give you a ride?" He made it into a question directed at Sam and Bee.
The pair exchanged looks, then turned back smiling. "Sure, we'll get you where you need to be, Bravura!" Bee said excitedly.
"Thanks." I went to a table and sat, contemplating my lunch, and Sam came to sit across from me. Hot Rod was talking to Bee in their robot language.
"You've had a pretty tough few days, huh?"
I looked up at Sam and smiled. "It's in the past. Everything has taken a complete 180."
Sam nodded, his body language agreeing completely. "That same feeling is what got me and Mikaela together, at first. We were the only ones who understood each other, after what happened at Mission City… That was, what, over a year ago?" This news startled me.
"A year?" My parents had died a year ago?
"Yeah, I know. It doesn't seem that long… But it was long enough for the novelty to wear off, and we ended up breaking up, but we're still best friends, mostly because of Bee. He's the glue. You've gotta love these guys."
"Yeah," I murmured. The revelation of how much time had passed was a shock. Bumblebee and Hot Rod were watching, and at this point they both came over and Hot Rod scooped me up, setting me on his shoulder.
"I have to go now, but I'll be back soon. Bee and Sam will look out for you ok? Couldn't have a better couple of guys." It sounded like he was reassuring himself. I hugged as much of his head as I could, then he set me back down and with a small nod to Bee and Sam. He left the kitchen with a confidence I envied.
I looked back at Sam, who was trying to stuff three dingdongs into his mouth at once. I exchanged a look with Bee, who shrugged helplessly.
Edited March 13th, 2010