Chapter 11 – resound

Home
By Three Days Grace

I'll be coming home,
Just to be alone.
Cuz I know you're not there,
And I know that you don't care.

Altair's POV

The year 2058

The organization known as Stop Sector Seven had succeeded in shutting us down 30 years ago. I have never been back to Australia in that whole time and I am very homesick. It's like I left my heart back there. We had started a new organization known as Area Eight. Because of the Allspark, which had been mostly destroyed and was now inaccessible to us, I was eternally18 years old, or at least I appeared that way.

I was eternally terrified of the Allspark.

I knew it wasn't totally gone.

It was a normal day for me. I was studying a small fragment of N.B.E 0.5's armour. He was called that because he was discovered before Ice Man AKA Megatron and was not all non biological. There were patches on his body which were those of a human being – liver, heart, lungs, parts of a brain, eyeball, and small intestine. His left thigh, right shoulder, right foot, left lower arm, all human.

Well... he did have those human parts before November 17th, 1997... it's a long story. Anyway, before that day, they had taken samples of the flesh and preserved it. They found that his DNA was not of any human on Earth, but was closest to the DNA of my sister, Spectre.

Weird, eh? It's a small world.

So get this, I was studying this bit of armour – today I was trying to figure out similarities between the material of the armour and metals on Earth – when all of a sudden, the speaker says, "N.B.E. 0.5 is melting. We're losing him."

I looked up from my work, looking at 0.5 and I saw his right hand twitch. I was in a lab above him which had a good view of him.

"0.5 is waking up," I said to the guy next to me, Bill (grandson of a friend who knew a friend who knew a friend who knew Agent Johnson. Like I said, it's a small world). He was one of the few guys here who wasn't an asshole.

"Say goodbye to the most secret thing we got," he replied, "like the Ice Man, we're not going to be able to stop this guy. Were you there last time it happened?" yeah, it's common knowledge that I've been around for 68 years and haven't aged a day.

"Yep, I was there," I replied, "everyone was freaking. At the time it was scary as hell, but when you look back, it's funny as."

He nodded, "what do you reckon this one will do?"

I shrugged, "most likely make a break for it. Most of them do that, unless there's something here they want. My guess is that he'll just go; he came before anything else, so we probably won't have anything he wants."

Both of 0.5's hands curled into fists.

"Yeah, we lost him," I announced, "everyone should get out of there as fast as they can."

"Should we go?" Bill asked.

"You run for your life," I said casually, "seriously, run as far and fast as you can, this is most likely to get ugly. I want to stick around and enjoy the show. Who knows, maybe he'll kill me," I smiled at the thought of the last sentence. I wanted my life to be over. Never wish for immortality, it sucks and blows big time.

He nodded in understanding, "Alright, see ya Altair." He started running.

"Bye," I called after him, turning back to 0.5 and opening the window of the lab for a better show. I leaned out dangerously.

0.5 started twisting his body and shaking off all the ancient ice which had covered him for as long as I had known him. He had been discovered at the bottom of the sea and they had covered him in ice. In less than a minute, he was free.

Unlike other N.B.E.s had done before him, he didn't instantly make a break for it. Instead he stood there for a moment, bringing his hand up to his face and examining it. He held it a few meters away from his face and growled, as if in frustration.

The people who had tried to re-freeze him had done the smart thing and run. I was the only one left.

There was a noise I hadn't heard in a long time: computers talking to each other, that noise you hear when you're starting up the dial-up for the web.

He looked at me. Well, I couldn't actually tell because of the visor, but he turned and faced me square on. He took a few steps forward until his face was a few meters away from mine.

He greeted me, "Hi there... um... Earth creature. Where am I?" he had a voice which sounded younger than my own, but older than Earth itself at the same time.

I replied like I was talking to a friend rather than a giant alien robot, "Area Eight's base, in the Bermuda Triangle, on the planet Earth... yeah, it's a long story."

He nodded, "Cool. I'm Echo."

"I'm Altair Hailstrom."

He smiled, "Awesome. Anyway, I have to go now and check out Earth. Which way is the exit?"

I pointed to the right hand side of the room, towards a huge exit, "Over that way. Go straight until you have to go either left or right. Go right. Turn at the second left. Keep going until you come to a fork in the road. Go left. Keep going straight until you come to a pair of massive metal doors, go through those and you're out." I knew I would get into massive trouble for this, but I didn't care.

He nodded again, taking it in, "Thanks, Altair. See ya." He turned and walked out of the room.

Guys began to chase him, armed with guns, yelling after him. I coolly walked towards the exit, going by a shortcut which 0.5... Echo wouldn't be able to fit through: vents. I knew this entire place like the back of my hand. I crawled through them until I got outside, right where Echo would come out.

I dropped down and waited behind a clump of bushes. It didn't take long before the doors swung open and Echo stepped out. Guys who were trying to get him rushed out and tried shooting him. Echo was smart. Now he made a break for it.

I heard more sounds which I hadn't heard in a long time: transformation. His body started twisting, parts sliding over parts, folding over himself, changing, until in his place was a B-2 Spirit, or at least something extremely similar. He hadn't scanned anything and had come long before humans were around, so surely his was his alien alt form. Why was it so similar to a stealth bomber from so long ago?

He took off, flying dangerously low to the water, only 15 meters above the waves. Any lower than 30 meters is dangerous, because of how high the waves can get, especially in a stealth bomber.

I climbed back up to the vents using the uneven wall to my advantage. I crawled as quickly through the vents as I could to the helicopter hanger. I had to see what Echo was doing and where he was going.

I pushed off the grill when I came to the hanger and let myself fall out. I stood up, ran over to a chopper someone was about to use, shoved him out of the way, got in, started it up and took off. Because it was about to be used, the ceiling was open so I could just take off and not have to stop.

I flew after Echo as fast as the chopper would go, going at the safe height. He was fast, and I lost sight of him after a while, but I didn't turn back. The other S7 guys would definitely know which chopper I was flying, but when Bill contacted me, he said,

"Get 'im, Altair."

I laughed, "Copy that. You'll probably never see him or me again."

"Why? Got a suicide planned?" he was being totally serious. They understood my wish to die and they respected it.

"No. Just a gut feeling, y'know? Tell everyone I said later, will you?"

"I'll do that. See ya later, Altair."

"Bye, Bill."

He knew I was for real.

I turned off the radio and continued pursuing Echo. I saw a white dot on the horizon directly ahead and knew that it was him. I pushed the chopper faster.

There was a strip of hazy black on the horizon and I knew we had almost reached land. I followed him as he slowed down, probably checking the place out, and stayed back far enough so he wouldn't notice me. He flew over the countryside four hours until he finally came to a huge lake and city, Lake Erie and Detroit.

He transformed and landed near an old warehouse and I landed on the roof of another large building close by and turned it off. He cautiously entered and I lost sight of him.

I climbed out of the chopper and took the stairs to the ground floor. Making sure he didn't see me, I crept in after him. I couldn't believe what I saw. It was the dream of any A8 worker.

Grim's POV

I had to tell them who I was. I couldn't pretend that I was Deadwind forever. And all my friends were dead, except for Armageddon, so what was the point faking anymore?

I called all the 'Bots into the living room. I was a bit uncomfortable at first, "Um guys... there's something really important I need to tell you... I'm... I'm not actually Deadwind."

"What do you mean?" Bulkhead asked.

"I-I'm actually... Grim Reaper."

"T-That's impossible! How did this happen!?" Bumblebee exclaimed.

That's exactly what Jazz said, I thought, then replied, "Well... I lied to you. The Gizmo Glasses didn't work right, Ratchet, I talked to Armageddon and she said there was something wrong. I went through agony and she didn't. So I pretended to die and came back, saying that I had crash landed and watched Grim die. I hoped that you would improve them so my friends didn't die." I forced a small smile, "I don't think they did."

There was a sad silence. Then a new voice spoke up,

"I'm sorry."

We turned and saw a tall snow white mech with a blue visor covering his optics. When I say tall, I mean excessively tall, over four times Optimus' height, who's two storeys high. This guy is eight storeys tall. That's just plain scary. He had strangely shaped wings. I wonder what he transformed into.

"Who are you?" Optimus growled, looking ready to rip this guy's throat out if he wanted to, although, the guy would probably rip Optimus' throat out first if he was attacked. It was obviously unwise to mess with this guy.

"Echo," the mech replied, "and you?"

"Optimus Prime," he answered.

The mech raised an optic ridge, "What are you trying to pull? You're not the King of Cybertron."

We were all confused. What was this Echo guy going on about?

"Prime means that you're the King," Echo explained, "I know who the King is, and you're not him. No wait, I've been in stasis lock a long time, I'm not sure how long, maybe things changed while I was gone." He shrugged, "I don't know. Stuff changes fast anyway. Don't worry about it. You don't look stupid enough to pretend to be the King."

"So... what the slag are you doing here?" Bumblebee asked, earning a whack on the back of the head from Ratchet.

"OW! What was that for?"

"Yeah, what the fuck was that for, Hatchet?" I demanded, swearing like a gangster with a word they didn't know, "I mean, I fucking swear all the fucking time, but you don't fucking whack me on the head. Seriously, what the fuck?"

He just looked at me like I was a retard, I grinned, but looked back at Echo when he said, "Where else am I supposed to go?"

"What do you mean by that?" Prowl asked.

He sighed, looking away, a pained look flashing across his face, "If you don't know, then it should stay that way."

There was a silence, then I suggested, "Well... why don't you stay with us? There's room enough for you."

He beamed at me and I returned it.

We had a new member.

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