*guilty of ASSSLOW updates* I'm so so so sorry! Between school and soccer, I've had NO spare time. T.T

Transformers... Iron Man... Not mine.

Enjoy =)

~*~


Chapter Six

Val absent-mindedly kicked a stray rock into one of the base's steel walls, a hollow clank echoing throughout the corridor. The speckled gray pebble bounced off the wall and skidded forward a few more feet before coming to a slow stop. It could have blended in to the floor if it were just a few shades darker.

The teen sighed and glanced over her shoulder. Her guardian was staring back at her with curious blue optics.

"Are you going to—"

"I will, I will," interrupted Val. She had been standing outside of the rec room for about fifteen minutes, stalling and trying to gather enough courage to enter and confront Tony about her past. Bumblebee had tried to usher her inside, but she chickened out at the last possible moment every time. He gave up on that tactic and settled on just trying to encourage the teen with words.

Bumblebee sighed and placed his golden helm in his right hand. "You do want to know why he adopted you, correct?" he questioned. Val huffed and leaned against the wall, crossing her arms. "Yeah, but he's probably just going to give me a load of bull shit," she hissed. The golden yellow Autobot's vents whirred again as he replied, "Maybe, but you will never know if you don't go in there and ask."

After a few moments of contemplation and pure stubbornness, the teen finally resigned and pushed herself off of the metal wall. "Fine," she muttered, heading towards the gargantuan door. She paused about one foot away and took a deep breath. The giant metal slab began to slide open, releasing a quiet hiss. There was no going back now.

Iron Man was sitting on a couch, appearing to be deep in thought. The man's helmet was in his right hand, his elbow resting on the arm of the sofa. Val sharply exhaled and approached him cautiously.

"Why did you adopt me?"

The question seemed innocent enough, but it still caught the man off guard. He hesitated, trying to produce a viable answer, but couldn't come up with a simple or witty comeback. Val stared at him expectantly, waiting for Tony's response. Eventually, the man sighed and patted the microfiber cushion beside him. "Take a seat," he said, "It's story time."

The teen slowly walked around the charcoal-colored couch and sat on the very edge of the cushion, making it quite apparent that she didn't want to be anywhere near Iron Man at the moment. "I'm listening," she murmured.

Tony brushed off the minor insult and cleared his throat before beginning. "Right after the big battle in Mission City, which I assume you found out about from Bumblebee, the Autobots came across my name and requested that I help them. They were really interested in my arc reactor technology for some reason. When I asked why, they told me that the tech was very close to a key part of their anatomy," he explained, pausing for dramatic effect, "Their sparks. Optimus Prime was the one to tell me about Jazz and his… demise. He straight out said that he was the main reason why they had approached me. The Autobots wanted to see if the arc reactor could bring Jazz back to life. The first time we toyed with it, the arc reactor just had the power to keep his systems functioning, but it couldn't get the personality part, which pretty much made Jazz a soulless drone. I've been tweaking with the thing ever since."

Val coughed, a discreet way to interrupt her foster father. "You haven't answered my question," she simply stated. Irritation was barely evident in her small voice. Tony frowned behind his mask. "I'm getting there," he insisted. "Now behave or you'll never know."

The teen slightly scowled, but otherwise didn't react. Tony took that as his cue to continue.

"So I visited the base pretty often, bringing in new versions of the arc reactor and going over them with Ratchet. Sam and Mikaela were usually here, too, visiting with Bee or whatever. I ran into the couple a lot and we had a bunch of small chats with each other. You came up in most of the conversations. The two would always talk about how sweet and innocent you were, how they felt so bad for you, and blah, blah, blah," he trailed off making a yapping hand gesture. The man lowered his hand and sighed, taking on a serious edge. "When I heard about their deaths, I was pretty shocked… and devastated; especially when I found out about Ron and Judy. I felt so… horrified about it. The Witwicky kid even had a scholarship to Princeton. But anyways, the officials were about ready to ship you off to some random orphanage in some God-forsaken place when I stepped in. I volunteered to adopt you, and that was that. You became my daughter, and I became your father."

At Val's stunned silence, he added, "Does that answer your question?"

She slowly nodded, a semi-dazed look on her face as she let all that newfound information sink in. In truth, Val didn't know how to react. She felt the need to be angry, to be furious that he'd withheld all that precious data from her for a whole four years, but she couldn't bring herself to yell or glare or curse. So she stayed silent, quietly mulling over the information and painstakingly piecing it together in her head.

A distant explosion sounded and shook the floor, effectively halting Val's thoughts and sending her into a panic. The teen gasped and dug her fingers into the couch's black surface. Alarms began to sound, blaring throughout the base at an extremely loud decibel. Bumblebee rushed into the room, his battle mask down and his energy cannon charged. The mech held out his free hand for Val. "Decepticons are attacking. I need to get you to safety," he stated in a voice that belonged to a well-trained and seasoned soldier.

Val looked from the mechanical appendage to her guardian's intricate and metallic face. "W-What?" she stammered, brown eyes wide. She shrieked as she felt herself being lifted into the Autobot's palm. The teen looked over her shoulder and into the mask of Iron Man.

"Stay with Bumblebee. He'll keep you safe," he murmured, depositing the brunette in Bumblebee's awaiting hand. Tony gave Val one last sad glance before flying out the door, heading towards the explosions and shouts.

Bumblebee curled his fingers around Val's form and held her protectively to his chest as he began to run out another exit. "Wait. Where's Dad going?" asked Val, trying to peek through her guardian's metal digits. The scout dove into another more secluded corridor, holding out his pulse cannon and scanning for any Decepticons.

"He's going to help the others," replied the golden yellow Autobot. His electric blue optics flickered around, keeping watch for any movement in the dark shadows of the hall. "He's gonna fight the Decepticons?!" exclaimed Val. Tony was going to die if he even attempted to fight those monsters! Bumblebee immediately shushed her and whispered, "Yes. Now please be quiet."

The teen noticed the hint of beseeching in the Autobot's static-laden voice and obeyed her guardian, staying silent in his grasp. She glanced through an opening between his fingers and saw that they were approaching another room. The doorway was glowing eerily with a reddish-pink hue.

"What is this place?" she asked, her voice very low.

Bumblebee cautiously peeked inside. "The energon storage room," he whispered back. "It's—"

The Autobot's optics widened as he saw a familiar and hostile figure lurking around the room. He immediately withdrew from the doorway and switched all his systems other than his battle-mode onto low power, effectively lowering the humming sound that was reverberating from within the bot. Val swallowed back a shriek and held on tightly to her guardian's hand, her knuckles turning white from the strain and stress. Her breaths began to hitch as she heard mechanical thumps come closer and closer, the steady rhythm treacherous and intimidating. The teen's bottom lip began to tremble as the sound continued to grow in volume. Bumblebee remained deathly still, his engine completely silent.

The footfalls paused.

After about a minute of long and excruciatingly tense silence, Val quietly let out the breath she had been unconsciously holding.

A clawed hand suddenly reached around the door frame and latched on to Bumblebee's cannon, ripping and damaging key circuitry as it continued to dig its claws into the weapon. The Autobot screamed out in pain as the being dragged him inside the room. Val let out a strangled scream as she felt Bumblebee be brutally thrown into the back wall. The bot landed on his side, but kept Val concealed with his left hand.

Those dangerous footsteps began to approach once more, slowly and heavily this time. Victoriously. Viciously.

Clicks and electronic squeals filled the room. A short pause stretched on after the dial-up sound, then in whiny, scratchy English: "Where is the human?"

Val clamped a hand over her mouth, the extremity trembling greatly against the soft skin of her face. 'Oh God,' she thought. 'It's gonna kill me. It's gonna friggen kill me.'

Bumblebee gave the creature a cold, hard stare, his blue optics burning with hatred. He retorted in a higher pitched mix of screeches and snaps, the tone making it sound malicious. The Autobot received a harsh chuckle in return from the unknown being. "Just give me the fleshling and I may spare your pitiful spark, Autobot," spat the other, impatience evident in his tone. Val's golden guardian remained silent, his grip on the teen ever so slightly tightening.

Val quietly shifted to the side, peering through a small crack in-between Bumblebee's metal fingers. A sharp and jagged creature, Cybertronian by the looks of it, was standing before them, a disgusted sneer on his facial plates. He had jet wings spurting from his sides, giving his torso a somewhat comical, triangular shape. The mech's legs were very bird-like, alien just like the rest of his body. He had the same searing crimson eyes as Sideways.

A triumphant grin formed on the being's face as he looked right at Val. The teen gasped and stumbled away from the opening, hiding behind her guardian's digits. 'Maybe it didn't see me. Maybe it just happened to glance over—'

"Open your left servo, youngling," snapped the Cybertronian. A faint whine began to hum in the distance. "I have nothing, Starscream. Just leave," growled the ever persistent scout. Harsh laughter sounded in response once more. Starscream aimed his Vulcan cannon at the young scout's torso, a malicious smirk on his facial plates. "Well then, you won't mind if I open fire as a nice departure gift, now would you?" he jeered.

Bumblebee froze, as well as Val. The teen felt terrified tears begin to stream down her cheeks as she realized her only two options; either she was going to be shot to death or put through some kind of torture by that Starscream figure.

A rush of air escaped Bumblebee's vent as he lowered his hand to the ground. "As I've said before," began the scout, his voice and expression cool as liquid nitrogen, "I have—" He interrupted himself by suddenly launching forward, tackling Starscream's midsection and effectively knocking the much bigger Cybertronian over. "—Nothing you'll ever get!"

The Seeker screeched with surprise as his legs were swept from beneath him, his helm making contact with the unforgiving metal floor. He snarled and struggled to get up off of his flat, triangular back. Cybertronian curses flew out of his vocal processors at rapid speeds.

Bumblebee spared a glance towards the general direction of where he'd left Val on the ground. "Run!" he shouted, right before receiving a hard left hook from a furious Starscream.

Val hesitated for a moment, giving Bumblebee a pained look before sprinting away, behind the vats of energon, behind foreign and alien machines she had never before seen or imagined, behind whatever cover she could find. She did her best to ignore the twinge of pain surging through her knee as she ran.

'Wait… Starscream...' Val internally snarled. That was the bastard who'd killed her parents.

Crashes sounded, successfully interrupting her hate-filled thoughts. The teen felt guilty and horrible for leaving her guardian behind with that monster, but he'd told her to run… A loud scream of agony filled her ears and she paused in her escape. That sounded like Bumblebee...

Despite her better judgment and primitive instinct to run, Val crept back to the closest energon vat and peeked out around it. Bumblebee was receiving a thrashing from Starscream. The Decepticon was holding him by his leg, throwing the scout around before finally releasing him into a wall. Val winced and inched closer. She felt compelled to help her golden guardian, but what could a puny human do against that giant robot?

The teen was torn between joy and horror as she realized the answer: She could serve as a distraction. Val resisted the urge to groan. Of course Fate was going to be a bitch and make that the only way. She couldn't believe she was actually going to do this…

'For Mom and Dad.'

Taking a deep breath, Val stepped out from her hiding spot and slipped off her right shoe, a size five, plain white Lo Pro Vans brand sneaker. She stepped forward and hurled the white textile and rubber accessory at Starscream, making sure to put all her strength into the throw. She yelped as a sharp pain jolted through her dislodged shoulder.

The shoe harmlessly bounced off the Decepticon's leg armor, not even leaving a scuff mark. Regardless of the pathetic amount of power put behind the throw, he whirled around, fiery red optics searching for the being who dared to even touch him with that filthy piece of organic apparel.

Crimson oculars zeroed in on the young and tanned femme human that had cried out, a youngling by the looks of it, with chestnut-colored eyes and mahogany tinted hair. She was slightly trembling while holding her indifferent façade as well as her apparently injured shoulder. Contrasting her calm expression, Starscream's scans confirmed that the human's heart rate had elevated rapidly, signaling the release of adrenaline into her blood; the fight or flight instinct kicking in. According to the picture in his internal memory banks, this was not the specified human they were looking for.

An evil grin plastered itself on the Decepticon's face as he charged up his Vulcan cannon. That meant he could kill it. This pathetic fleshling was not going to live after an idiotic stunt like that…

Bumblebee staggered up, using the wall for support as he stood. His hydraulics squealed in protest, but neither Starscream nor Val seemed to notice his movement.

"Ever wonder what death might be like, human?" asked Starscream in a taunting tone. Val stood her ground and took a deep, hitched breath, carefully watching the goliath metal creature's movements. "N-No, and I don't plan on dying anytime soon," she stated in a loud but shaky voice. The Decepticon laughed and aimed his cannon at the teen. "So bold yet so weak; Fleshlings really are feeble and worthless creatures," he said, still grinning victoriously, "And not to mention completely witless."

An electronic snarl sounded from behind Starscream as Bumblebee pounced forward, gripping the Seeker's left wing. His weight began to contort the metal, bending it and causing Starscream to live up to his designated English name. Val covered her ears as an incredibly loud burst of noise escaped the Decepticon's vocal processor, rendering her ears in a constant ringing sensation. "Fuckin' A," she hissed, her teeth grinding in her mouth. That thing was loud.

Starscream whirled around, flinging the golden scout off of his wing. It seemed as if he was about to retaliate against the Autobot, but he paused for a moment, gaining a distant expression, before that poisonous smile overtook his facial plates again.

Heavy footfalls sounded in the hallway, the voice shouting, "Bumblebee! I'm coming!"

The Decepticon sneered before meeting optics with Bumblebee. "I'll finish you later," he simply stated before taking off through the doorway, transforming as he past the threshold. Shots were fired off after the F-22 from cannons of massive size, curses following soon afterward. Bumblebee saw Ironhide run past the doorway, his Gatling lasers shooting off missiles at a rapid pace.

The scout forced himself up and limped over to Val, carefully picking her up in his cleaner hand as he scanned over the teen for injuries. "Are you alright?" he asked, vocal processor strained. Val inclined her head to nod, but froze, brown eyes widening with horror. The teen pointed out at something behind Bumblebee, ready to scream.

Her shriek never came. An explosion sounded instead.


All I can say is I'M SORRY!