Chapter 6 – burns and Samedi

PPR-KUT

By Linkin Park/Cheapshot & Jubacca ft. Rasco & Planet Asia (remixed by Armageddon Rider)

Here we go again,
With the pain I feel,
I find myself in places with names but not faces.
Hundred degrees, my soul,
Now it feels like my backs against the wall,
I'm taking the fall,
Nobody's responding at all.

Continuing with the flashback

I woke up slowly in the middle of the night to something moving against my chest. There were odd weights on certain parts of my body. I opened my eyes and saw the 'Cons resting on my body and remembered yesterday. I didn't realize my gloves had come off during the night.

Starscream shifted again, as if he were restless.

"What's up?" I whispered to him.

"It's cold now," he whined softly, "I want more warmth." He climbed under the covers, but that wasn't enough. He seemed to think that the source of my body heat would be warmer than my clothes. He went exploring, curiosity and hunger for warmth alone driving him. He felt my neck, his arms were black so it didn't hurt me, but wanted as warm as he could get.

He lifted up m collar and crawled inside my shirt. I clamped a hand over my mouth to stifle my scream of agony and started shaking violently.

"What's goin' on?" Megatron mumbled sleepily.

"Armageddon, what's wrong?" Starscream asked.

I reached in and pulled him out, throwing him across the room as a reaction to the pain of touching him.

"What was that for?" he demanded. He sat up and must've seen me crying silently and shaking, then asked, "Why are you shaking? Why is your face wet?"

I couldn't talk. He had severely burned my collar bone, chest, the base of my neck and my right hand. It looked like second and third degree burns. Everywhere he had touched me was red, raw skin, the dead stuff peeling off, with some parts black. I kept one hand over my mouth so I wouldn't scream.

I reached for my mobile and rang Samedi Girl.

"Hey Armageddon," she greeted, "couldn't get to sleep, like me?"

I was silent for a moment until I forced myself to talk in between sobs, "Burned... real bad... ambulance..."

It had taken tonnes of willpower and strength to keep myself conscious. The phone slipped from my hand. Everything turned black and silent before it hit the ground.

There was no feeling, no sight, nothing. That was how it was and how it would always be.

"Still nothing?"

"What do you mean?"

"Any life? Hope? Anything at all?"

"Nope. We're having a contest to hang in there the longest, and I can get VEEEERY competitive, even though I hope she wins."

There are things. Glances of something else, blurs of colour and sounds that vanish as soon as they are glimpsed.

"It's been two weeks now."

"I know that. And I'm going to wait until she wakes up."

"It's a waste."

"Are you asking me to give up?"

"No, just asking you to be realistic."

"I am. She is strong enough to make it."

The things are getting steadily stronger, sharper, and staying longer.

"Don't give up, everyone's playing that game, and we're all hoping you win."

"... You're weird. She can't she you anyway."

"What makes you think that? People hear stuff when they're in comas all the time."

"And you know that from where?"

"... TV... but that doesn't matter. What matters is that she wakes up. Wake up, Armageddon, please."

Armageddon. What is that from? Wait... that's a name, one that identifies me. Whatever a 'me' is.

"I never told you what a great friend you are. Damnit, I should have said it earlier! You're more than a best friend, you're like a sister, you're someone I can trust more than anyone else. You don't know what that means to me."

There is something calling. Something is trying to pull me through to wherever the voices and things are coming from. I reach out, but fall just short. Something tells me to just give up, something is beckoning me to something easy. I wonder if I should just give up.

'You cannot give up.'

Says who? I can give up any time I want.

'No, not you. No-one can. They need you. I need you.'

Chatterbox? How could you need me? You're a voice.

'I am more than what you think I am. Much more. You'll see what I mean soon enough. For now, they need you more than I.'

...You never make any sense.

'Duh. I'm part of you.'

Shut up, asshole.

I reach out across the gap again. I make it.

"Skullzy! Come quick! She's awake!"

The voices hurt my ears. And yet there is a burst of joy to hear them. There is feeling, clear sounds and light behind the blinds of darkness. I open my eyes and close them again right away – the light is blinding. Someone's hand is enclosed around my own and I remember the voice as Grim's.

"'Geddon? Can you hear me? Are you awake?"

"Yeah," I reply, "I'm awake."

oOo

It took a long time for me to fully wake up. Doctors were coming in and out all the time. There were at least one friend or family member by my bed at all times. When I finally came to it was Fyromaniac.

"Yellow," I greeted, opening my eyes and forcing myself to take in the pure white of the hospital.

There were flowers by my bedside table, as well as our charges, who actually weren't fighting.

"Hey," she smiled, "How do you feel?"

"I'm fine. Is it ok to sit up?" I noticed there was something tight on my torso and whole right arm, but not my left, like some of my skin had shrunk, "What's the tight thing on me?"

I lived in permanent pain, which was why I said I felt fine. Anyone else would say they hurt. People have trouble believing my disease, so little kids tend to experiment a lot. At least three times a year, varying in seriousness.

No-one has ever learned from my pain.

They think that it's fake somehow.

"Kevlar body suit. And yeah, you can sit up. You know what they are, right?"

"Yep. Great inventions," she hurried to my side as I struggled to sit up.

I looked over to the charges, "Who's been looking after the 'Cons?"

"Whoever's been in here," she answered, "the first night, Grim tried to take them home, but they wouldn't move. Those guys are kinda like dogs – they just stay with you when you get hurt."

I smiled at them gratefully. Megatron looked away, Random Blitzwing beamed at me and Starscream returned the smile slyly. It was nice to know people like that. They were rare and precious. But why did they do it?

"So... what happened after I called Grim?" I asked, turning back to Fyro.

"She thinks you passed out at that point." She explained, "There was a noise as the phone hit the ground and you weren't responding. She got over to your place as fast as she could, and the ambo was already there, loading you up. She went with them and called all of us. We went there ASAP and sat in the waiting room until you were out of the burns centre and into the ward and we could see you. Then we just waited."

I nodded, "How long was I out?"

"Just over three weeks."

I was shocked. Three weeks... that's a new record.

Then I grinned, "I won the contest."

She raised an eyebrow, "You could hear everything?"

"Nah, just a few things."

"Grim and Starscream will be happy about that. Starzy was about to tear the doctors' eyes out if they told Grim one more time there was no point in talking to you for hours."

"Hours?"

"Yeah, hours and hours. The both of them would just talk till they were blue in the face. It was like they thought they could bring you back with determination alone. I guess it worked."

"So why are you here in the first place?" Starscream cut in smoothly, "What did I do?"

I sighed. I hated disusing this topic; it always made me feel so weak. "I have an intense fear of the colour pink because it can kill me."

"Zat doesn't make sense," Blitzwing disagreed, "pink is only a colour."

I nodded, "Yeah, it is for everyone else. I'm different. If I touch pink directly it burns me." I held up my left hand, which had my first scar. "I got this when I was two. Most of my skin is messed up because of repeated attacks over the years. I learned about it the hard way. Dr McGrath, who's a really nice guy, discovered that I have a new skin disease which he called Pinkitus. There is no possible cure, as time was supposed to heal it but it can't. I can't stand pink."

I studied my right hand. It was still healing. The skin was still raw, but it wasn't scarring, which was a relief.

"Do all humans have this... condition?" Megatron asked.

I shook my head, "No. Like I said, I'm different."

"Freak," Megatron said bluntly.

'I agree with him totally.'

You're both dickheads.

"Oh, thanks guys," I rolled my eyes, my voice dripping with sarcasm, "I'm just so glad to have fantastic guys like you hanging around. I mean, I must be the luckiest person on Earth!"

"Get over it, organic," he snarled, "Primus, you humans are so weak."

I picked him up in one hand and began to crush him, slowly and painfully, shooting one hell of a death glare at him.

"Get over it, Meggzy," I snarled right back, "I'm your only chance of getting back to your own time. The others won't take you. They already have their charges, and they must be having enough trouble already. So you better zip it or I'll just have to rip your head off."

He glared back at me, but he knew I was for real. He didn't reply, so I put him back down on the bedside table.

Random Blitzwing snickered, "Don't mess with ze dumb stubbies, Meggzy."

Megatron whacked Blitz over the head, obviously pissed off.

"Hey!" I barked, freezing everyone, "No fighting! Far out, how do you guys live with each other?"

"We don't," Starscream responded, "or at least, I don't live with Meggzy. And boy am I glad."

Megatron raised his fist, about to bash Starscream, but I growled like an animal and he got the message.

"Far out," Fyro muttered, "is one of you not pissed off with everything in sight?"

"Zat's Meggzy und Starscream for joo," Cold Blitzwing shook his head, "zey are always fighting. Always."

We nodded, "Not wrong."

oOo

I was in the hospital for two weeks before they let me out. My friends and I had arranged for us to have a meeting in the form of a sleepover, at Grim's place. I had brought gloves and light long sleeve shirts as safety measures. I made sure that this pair wasn't old and big like the other ones.

I got dropped off by Mum. I brought in my bag and she came in to say hi to Grim's aunt. Her parents are both dead, so Emoth DJ only has her aunt to look after her, and vice versa. All five of the others were already there.

"Are you ok?" Jumpy asked.

"Yeah, I'm doing alright," I replied, dumping my stuff in the room we would all be sleeping in, Grim's room.

My charges climbed out of the bag, checking out their new surroundings. I noticed that Jazz was perched on Grim's shoulder and Bumblebee on Skullzy's.

"How are you guys going with your charges?" I asked them all, "Starscream and Meggzy keep on fighting, but Blitzwing is better. Although he does like to bash his head into walls and laugh like a loon."

"Sound like anyone we know?" Massacre smirked at me, "the humans are alright. I got them to stay put at my place. It's lucky my parents are on holiday up in Queensland. I had to take the Key off Sari because she kept on stuffing up stuff. I had to bring them here to make sure they didn't run off or something."

"It's all good with my charges," Provider of Samedi reported, "Jazz is cool, I had to take Magnus' hammer 'cuz he thinks he's all high and mighty with it, and Sentinel is a son of a bitch." She grinned evilly down at said 'Bot, "Nothing a little blackmail can't fix." He flinched under her gaze. Whatever she did to him, he deserved it.

Skullzy spoke up, "Bumblebee is even more hyper than I am."

We all gasped, our eyes going wide. Someone being more hyper than Skullzy is as impossible as someone being more retarded than me, or someone being more in love with Edward Cullen than Grim, or a normal-sized ant being bigger than Unicron (and his alt form is a fragging planet!!!)

'That's just scary.'

I agree all the way.

'That's even scarier.'

She nodded, "Yeah, I know. Soundwave is downloading and playing more songs than you could poke a stick at, and his voice is more boring than anything I've ever heard, and Shockwave is always just sitting and thinking. When I ask him what it's about, he goes on about logical and illogical stuff and looses me after five seconds into his rant."

Fyromaniac said, "Prowl keeps on wondering off. Whenever he does I freak out in case someone finds him or something. Every time I find him, he's always outside, either checking out nature or meditating. After a while, I just stopped worrying. Bulkhead is pretty clumsy and keeps on knocking stuff over by accident, but he's still a nice guy. Optimus refuses to chill out, as he's convinced that the 'Cons will attack or something, even though I've told him again and again that they won't."

Jumpy heaved a sigh, "Lugnut rants and raves about how 'glorious' Megatron is all the time. He's head-over-heels for the guy. I've sticky-taped his mouth shut fourteen times this morning. Ratchet likes to find faults in every little thing and has a massive grudge against Lockdown, but he won't tell me what. And Lockdown... he's fucking horny for Hatchet and Nutcase. It's been a really scary couple of weeks."

I shuddered at the thought, considering Lockdown's age and history. You don't want to know. "We really need to get these guys back—"

I got cut off by Megatron and Starscream shouting and trying to kill each other. I sighed and picked Starscream up and placed him on my shoulder, as he had been about to get blasted by Meggzy.

"Are you sure that's safe?" Grim asked.

"Yeah," I replied, "I've had to do it a few times lately. Starcream knows the drill: don't let any pink touch my skin and it'll all be fine."

He had begun to entertain himself by playing with my hair. He seemed to be fascinated by it, especially the smell and texture of it, for some odd reason. He busied himself with styling tiny braids in my hair. He did that a lot.

"How cute," Fyromaniac teased.

I didn't pay attention to the comment and suggested, "Come on, let's go for a walk. It would probably be best if we didn't hang around here all day with our charges or Grimmy's aunt might notice and investigate."

The others nodded. Grim put Jazz down and searched for her aunt to say we were going or a walk and would be back in time for dinner. The rest of us got out smallish bags and loaded up our charges, money, alcohol, and a dangerous amount of Samedi.

When Grim came back we set off on our walk, dragging the other humans along with us. We were going into town. The closest mall was only an hour away. Prowl was the first to wriggle his way out of Fyromaniac's bag. He perched on her shoulder, gazing around with awe at the nature around him. Grim lived on the outskirts of town, so there was plenty of fauna and flora for him to gawk at.

The others soon made their way out of the bags as well. The Seekers flew just ahead, showing off their stuff, while the Groundlings drove on the road, avoiding cars and our feet. Only Prowl, Starscream and Jazz stayed with us, balancing on their respective guardians' shoulders.

Starscream kept on playing with my hair, but I didn't mind. It was actually quite nice. He was good too, each braid was neat and done with care. He didn't even need a band at the end to keep them together.

We drank the alcohol (against Fanzone's advice) and Samedi on our way there, so we were drunk and high at the same time. It was truly an odd sensation. Everyone else was more high than drunk, so they were yelling and running and going crazy. It was incredibly hard to get me high, so the only effect I had was feeling more energized. That or I was more drunk than high.

Just before we got into town, we rounded up the TFs and put them back in our bags, much to their disappointment. By then, Starscream had braided all of my hair, and it looked quite nice as (some of) the others told me. The TFs unzipped the bags a little and peeked out.

Bumblebee whined so much that Skullzy had to let him out so he would shut up. The condition was that he had to stay in his alt form and NOT talk. Of course, he did, he chatted about and at everything he saw.

Then Blitzwing demanded to be let out. I let him out and said that he had to stay in jet form and not kill anyone, or I would kill him. He actually obeyed.

Some random came up and asked, "Hey, is that little yellow car yours?"

"Yeah," I said, "what about it?"

"It keeps on talking," the random replied, "what is it?"

"It's the coolest remote control car ever," I lied, crossing my arms over my chest proudly, "it's so remote controlled, you don't need a remote control." I pointed out my sunnies, "it has a mini camera onboard, so you can control it with these. It's a brand new thing, and we're out here testing it."

"Really?" the random seemed interested, "which company made it?"

I fibbed, "You've never heard of it; they're new. Bye, bye." With that, I walked off, my friends and Sari following me, and the adults a little further behind us.

'You're quite good at lying, Army.'

Why, thank you.

"That was pretty smooth," Massacre complimented, "how'd you come up with that?"

"No idea," I answered. I seriously had no idea.

We continued walking/skipping/jumping/running/hopping/staggering to the mall. Just outside, Samedi Girl told the non-teenagers, in Blurr style, "You Samedi guys just Samedi wonder around, Samedi. Meet back here Samedi in a Samedi hour's Samedi time of the Samedi Samedi-ness and wait Samedi for us Samedi. Have Samedi fun." Yeah, when she gets high off Samedi, practically every third word is Samedi. Samedi!

They nodded slowly, walking away from us. We bounced inside, singing (yelling) the Blood Song and clapping our hands for the beat.

"Well they encourage your complete co-operation,
Send you roses when they think you need to smile.
Do, do.
I can't control myself because I don't know how,
And they love me for it, honestly,
I'll be here for a while.

So give 'em
Blood, blood,
Gallons of the stuff.
Give 'em all that they can drink and it will never be enough.
So give 'em
Blood, blood, bloooooood
Grab a glass because there's gonna be a flood.
Do, do."

Three teenagers, who looked emo and cool, joined in. They must've been My Chemical Romance fans as well.

"A celebrated man amongst the gurney,
They can fix me proper with a bit of luck.
Do, do.
The doctors and the nurses they adore me so,
But it's really quite alarming
'Cuz I'm such an awful fuuuuuuuuuck.

I... gave... you
Blood, blood,
Gallons of the stuff.
I gave you all that you could drink and it has never been enough.
I gave you
Blood, blood, bloooooooooooooooood
I'm that kind of human wreckage that you love.
Do, do."

We laughed at the random outburst of song. The MCR fans said that it was fun.

"Do you guys know the Psycho Song?" Skullzy asked.

They shook their heads.

"It's like the Vegemite Song, but a few words have been changed," I explained, "I also came up with it. Go me. Wanna learn it?"

"Yeah," they nodded.

We taught them how it went and they learned very quickly. When we were ready, we sang, and people walking past kept their distance, thinking we were insane. A few thought it was hilarious and started laughing their heads off.

"We're hyper little psychopaths,
As high as high can be!
We all enjoy our blood and gore,
For breakfast, lunch and tea!
We love our vi-o-lence,
We all adore the horrid deaths,
We put a scar on every cheeeeeeeck!"

We laughed when we finished. One of the three MCR fans said, "Hey guys, we should probably be going; we don't want to be late."

The other two nodded. We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways.

We got some more sugar and began to play a game of dare. Chatterbox's idea, not mine. The first one was for me to stand in Supré for ten minutes or buy something pink and wear it, or else they would kill my charges.

End flashback

Finally we're really getting somewhere. A spot slow, I know dear readers, but we're going to Detroit very soon! Please reveiw, 'cuz that button has your name on it.