Chapter 8 – well… this is new

Put Your Hands Up For Detroit

By Fredde Le Grand

Put your hand up for Detroit,
I love this city.

Armageddon's POV

I screamed. Well, I might've screamed, but it definitely didn't come out. I felt like there was a tight band around my neck and something blocking my throat. I couldn't even chock or cough, as it seemed like my windpipe had just been ripped out of my throat and there was nothing to even breathe through.

My body was being ripped apart, the very fibres fraying and the cells fleeing from each other. I was being sucked down as if there was a gigantic vacuum below me.

There was no stopping it, no escape.

Then the cells started scrambling back together, the fibres repairing themselves, as if they were terrifyed and huddling together for protection, but I still couldn't breathe. My lungs were on fire! But I was unable to black out.

Abruptly, the intense light vanished and I was sent tumbling onto something hard, feeling my skin tear in places, like my hands and knees. I lay there, taking in big gulps of air, my eyes screwed shut. I didn't want to move for a while, nor were my limbs obeying me.

After a minute, I forced my eyes to open and looked around. I was in the middle of a big city, lying on the middle of an empty road, my friends still on the ground beside me, and the TFs just getting up, back to their normal size. There weren't as many trees and the air wasn't nearly as fresh. This city was definitely not Canberra.

We were in Detroit.

"What year is it?" I gasped, getting to my feet.

"2058," Bulkhead replied.

'Yes! Now the show begins!'

What are you going on about, Chatterbox?

'Let's just say that very soon, you're gonna meet me.'

... And they say I'm crazy.

"Holy ca-shizzle," Fyromaniac muttered, as she and all my friends got up.

The 'Cons stood there, staring down the 'Bots, and they stared right back. It was quiet for a while, before the 'Bots transformed and waited for us to hop on, and drove back to their base.

It was pretty cool, I mean, it was a huge abandoned factory. That alone is really cool. That and the fact that the 'Bots had fixed it up pretty nicely made it even cooler.

We chilled there for a while, while mostly Bumblebee and Sari outlined some of the stuff that had been happening. It was an interesting conversation, as I knew exactly what they were talking about. Being the TF Guru ROCKS!

After a while, we decided that since we were 50 years ahead of our original time, we should walk around town and check the place out. We convinced Sari to come along, seeing as this was her city, and she dragged Bumblebee along, who dragged Bulkhead along, and pretty soon all the 'Bots were tagging along.

Damn, we were popular.

While we were just walking around, being stalked by the local celebs, who were stalked by fans, who were stalked by the paparazzi, who were stalked by the press, who were stalked by everyone we passed, who were stalked by coppers, who were stalked by a parade band, who were stalked by a bunch of randoms, who were stalked by a whole parade, who were stalked by more coppers, who were stalked by the military, who were stalked by Green Peace people protesting against fossil fuels, who were stalked by (retro) hippies, who were stalked by even more coppers who were stalked by more people we passed, who were stalked by us because the line was so damn long that we didn't even know were leading it, so we stalked them to see what was going on, I pulled out my phone and showed it to Sari. She thought it was pretty cool. I started to play a few songs from our time, mostly dance ones, Three Days Grace and Linkin Park. When I put on 'Sexyback' by Justin Timberlake and Timberland, Bumblebee was soon dancing along. Optimus and Ratchet didn't seem to get it, but Prowl, Bulkhead, Sari, and me, all our stalkers and my friends sure did.

Like I said, we're popular.

And we're back in black, baby!

We were all doing random little dance moves, Bulkhead's normally involving all of us falling over with the ground shaking so much. Prowl and Fyromaniac (who was shy when it came to being a little crazy. Seriously, she wouldn't do anything when we had parties) didn't dance much, but I could hear them humming along with the song.

I played my best dance songs for several more minutes, getting weird looks from most of the people we passed. Some of them joined in and we laughed with them and exaggerated fake crying when they continued on their way. I even pretended to stab myself with an invisible blade and die in the middle of the street. I was good at playing dead.

Ratchet really didn't get it. He kept on whining about us 'being stupid' and for us to 'turn that fragging racket down'. We told him that he could either shut up or fuck off. He decided to shut up.

Eventually I stopped dead on the sidewalk, my mouth hanging open slightly, my eyes wide and my breath caught in my throat.

Hhhhooooot...

'For once, organic, I agree with you. That thing is SEXY FINE!!!'

I flinched, hey, not so loud, ok?

'Whatever.'

Jumpy whacked me on the back to get me breathing again. I coughed a bit but then went back to staring at what I had seen.

They followed my gaze and saw, parked on a corner, one of the sexiest cars I had seen in a long time; an SC/8T Ultimate. But this one was black, with blood red headlights and dark tinted windows. I think I could faintly see white leather seats inside.

"Is there some sort of car show around here?" I asked Sari, "Like Summernats or something?"

She nodded, "Yeah, but I have no idea what 'Summernats' is. Every year, there's this huge car show just outside Detroit. Heaps of people, who are mad about cars, pimp up old ones, go to that show and flaunt their stuff. Sometimes they bring in old aircraft too, and pimp them up. They have some which they fly, and some which are just for display. The down side is that lots of young guys get drunk."

I smiled, "Yeah, that's just like Summernats, except we don't have the aircraft. That car up there is one of the hottest, fastest cars of 2008. It's a very cool car." I walked up to it, the whole gang following.

Ratchet leaned close to me and whispered something very surprising, "I don't say this very much, and never about things like this, but do you believe in love at first sight?"

"Oh yeah," I grinned, murmuring back, "I got that when I saw you guys for the first time. Even Bulkhead. Especially you, baby. But don't tell anyone." I smiled at him, and I swear I saw him blush.

"I won't," he promised, "I'm getting a case of that right now."

I gave him a thumbs up, "Good to know there's something on God's Earth, and the whole universe, that you actually find attractive."

He glared at me. I smiled back sheepishly, my eyes shifting away from his optics. There was something on display in the optical store right next to us. I knew that from somewhere...

I looked closer at it, saying, "Oi, Hatchet, what's that?" I went inside the store and picked it up. It looked like a pair of sunnies connected to an earpiece.

"I have no idea," he shrugged.

I read something on the side of it, "Gizmo Glasses," I read out loud, suddenly recognizing it, "oh, I know these things! They're really rare. I remember repairing them for a friend, but I never got to see them in action." I walked outside the store, and strangely, the alarm didn't go off. Weird.

Fyromaniac looked over at me and asked, "What do you have there, Armageddon?"

"This thingy is a pair of Gizmo Glasses," I replied, pointing out the name on the side of the device, "See?"

"Cool," she commented.

'Put them on! Put them on now!'

I grinned, slipping the Gizmos on. Fyromaniac laughed and the others turned to look at me. I knew that I probably looked really stupid, so I struck a pose. My finger lingered too long and accidentally pressed a button on the side of the Gizmo.

All light and colour vanished and freezing cold enveloped me.

Was this your intention?

'Completely.'

Well, damn.