"Jason! Jace, come quick, look what I've found!" A bubbly, young Hazel called out to her brother. With a roll of his eyes, thirteen year old Jason stalked over to his sisters side, glaring at her slightly. She didn't take notice of it though, instead pointing at something she had found.
"Look how pretty it is, Jace. We should pick it for Mommy," Hazel exclaimed and Jason immediately shook his head.
"That's a weed, Hazel. Mom won't care about a stupid weed. Now leave me alone, I'm talking to my friends," Jason spat, before kicking the weed and storming away. Hazel stared at her brother dejectedly for a moment, before pulling her knees to her chest and starting to cry.
Jason froze at the sound of his sister's heartbroken sobs. He bristled, turning around to look at her. Taking in her broken form, guilt pierced through him like a knife. He turned back to his computer, quickly muttering a simple bye before walking over to his sister. He sat next to her for a moment, before hugging her shaking shoulders.
"I'm sorry," He whispered, "Mom would love a pretty flower. Come on, I'll help ya find one."
With a slight sniffle and a nod of her head, Hazel stood up, before following her brother further into the forest.
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
"I've never seen a weapons system like this. The thermal shows this weird aura around the exoskeleton, almost like it's cloaking it," Epps stated, fear clear within his tone. Will didn't react, he simply stared forward, surveying the desert stretched out before them. They had escaped the Qatar base a few days ago, and there weren't many people left. Lennox surveyed the small group of survivors that were left behind. There were a few men that Lennox had only seen a few times around base, as well as Mahfouz, Figueroa, Donnelly, Epps and himself. But there was one person missing.
The bile rose within his throat as he pictured her, the young, raven haired, green eyed eighteen year old who had been found wandering around the desert by herself. She had been on the verge of death, completely dehydrated, starving and suffering from a bad bout of sunstroke, yet, she had managed to keep herself in high spirits. Cracking jokes the entire journey back to base.
The two of them had clicked instantly, and when she met Epps, the three of them had become fast friends.
And now, Ashley was gone. He had seen her go down. The explosion had gone off right next to her and that thing, causing a giant piece of burning metal to cover half of her body. Guilt racked through him as he recounted the nights events, because Will knew that he had had a chance to save her. If he had just ran over there, pulled her from the metal and made a run for it, he would've saved her. But he hadn't been thinking straight. Instead of saving her, he ran, the last sound that filled his ears being the sound of her agonised screams.
"How about you use those magic voodoo powers of yours to get us the hell outta here, huh?" Donnelly suddenly snapped, causing Will's head to whip up to him. Donnelly was glaring at Figueroa who merely shrugged, casting his eyes down sheepishly.
"When I took that picture, I think it saw me. It look right at me," Epps muttered, before casting a worried look in Will's direction. Will tried to give his friend a smile of encouragement, but he knew that it came out more like a grimace. Epps flinched.
"All right, we got to get this thing to the Pentagon right away, they're gonna wanna know what we're dealing with here," Will stated, earning nods of agreement in return.
"My radios fried, I've got no connection with aerial," Epps frowned, glaring at the radio in his hand. Will walked up to him and patted his shoulder gently.
"Hey, Mahfouz. You know, how far do you live from here?" Will asked.
"Not far, just up that mountain," He responded, somewhat distractedly.
"Do they have a phone?" Will barked.
"Yes." Mahfouz nodded, and Will made up his mind.
"All right, let's hit it," Will ordered, as they began to trudge onwards. The bitter feeling of hope began to rise within will once more, but he forced it down, cursing softly.
A couple of hours later, the group were finally in sight of the town.
"Let's hope this telephone line works," Will muttered to himself softly, glancing around at his group. They all looked exhausted, and many were beginning to feel the effects of the heat. Epps walked towards a pot of water that was seated on the wall, before promptly picking it up and dumping it over his head. He smiled for a moment, and Will shook his head, chuckling softly.
That was when all hell broke lose.
A large cloud of dust erupted from behind them, causing the soldiers to instantly flee.
"Heads up!"
"Heads up, hey!"
"Heads up, whoa!" Multiple soldiers screamed as the thing crashed into the sign, causing it to begin to fall.
They froze, watching the sound carefully with calculating eyes. But, as soon as it had been there, the scorpion thing had gone.
"What the heck was that?" Donnelly wandered aloud, causing Figueroa to shrug his shoulders in reply. He says something in spanish, causing the rest of the soldiers to quirk their eyebrows at him.
"English, dude, english," Donnelly muttered, scowling slightly.
Will smirked to himself softly, rolling his eyes as he turned his attention back onto the town before him. He thought he heard the sound of metal being sheathed, but he didn't dwell on it. That was until Epps turned to face him and started screaming.
"WOAH!" Epps screamed, causing Will to turn, coming face to face with the tip of the scorpions tail. Without hesitation, he threw himself forward, blindly grabbing at his rifle and firing. The rest of the soldiers joined in, causing bullets to be fired in every possible direction.
The scorpion leapt from the sand suddenly, causing Will to push himself backwards, trying to get as far away from the thing that he could. Continuing to fire, the scorpion quickly became hidden in a cloud of dust, causing fear to rise in the back of Will's throat. It was silent for a moment, before the thing leapt again, stabbing Donnelly threw the chest and throwing him. His body landed in the sand with a soft thud, and Will's eyes widened. The soldiers bolted, scaling the hill as fast as their legs could carry them. Screaming the entire way down, Will tried his best to remain close to Epps and Mahfouz, determined not to lose either of them.
They leapt over the towns barriers, watching as everybody became a mass of panic and terrified screams.
Mahfouz and Will continued to run, dodging the scorpions' fire as they did so.
"Papa, Papa!" Mahfouz screamed, causing a man to turn around and face them.
"Mahfouz!" He cried, running forward and taking his son in his arms.
Will gestured to the telephone wildly, the man understanding instantly. Tossing the phone into Will's arms, the man grabbed Mahfouz and they ran to the other end of the house.
Annoyance flitted through Will's features as the operator continued to sweet talk him, not helping his case at all. "I'm in the middle of a freaking war!" Will screamed into the mic, but the operator didn't seemed to care.
Will bolted over to Epps. "Epps, I need a credit card! Where's your wallet?"
Epps glanced over to him, "Back pocket! Back pocket, left cheek! Left cheek!" He screamed, and Will quickly grabbed the wallet.
After finally connecting to the pentagon, Will chucked the phone to Epps before taking off suddenly. He bolted around to Mahfouz, grabbing a gun and firing at the thing blindly whilst he was at it. Will glanced up seeing air support coming in, followed by what looked to be a black ops helicopter. Will sighed in relief, until he noticed the orange smoke now surrounding he and Epps both.
"There aiming for this smoke! Fuck, run!" Will screamed, bolting back towards the village. Epps ran to his side, and together they bolted, jumping behind some sandbags as the missiles struck the scorpion full force. Will covered his ears as he cocooned himself into a ball. Finally, when the firing stopped, he looked up, counting all of his men aside from one.
"Where's Fig?" He asked, before hearing a familiar scream.
They found him seriously injured, and in pain, yet stable. Epps nodded at Will before running to wave down the helicopter, which quickly landed beside them. All of the men jumped off the chopper, making a beeline for Will and Fig. Whilst the rest of the team ran for the helicopter, Will turned to a man standing beside him, who looked awfully familiar. Will couldn't place where he'd seen him before though.
"Damn it," The man cursed, causing Will to raise an eyebrow before, "It's the little dude who struck here, aye? The scorpion? The big one's the one you have to look out for man, that dude is crazy!" The man stated, and Will nodded in response.
"Met him. He killed my friend," Will responded, causing the man to nod sadly in response.
"Mine too. He used to be my chopper," The man grinned, causing Will to turn to him in shock.
"It did? 4500X was yours?" Will asked and the man nodded once more in response, thrusting out his hand to shake Will's own. "William Lennox," Will stated, causing the man to grin.
"The name's Jason. Jason Brooks."
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
The first thing I noticed was the sound of beeping machines. Groggily, I shuddered slightly, fluttering my eyes open. I was in a white room. Everything in it was white, the walls, the bed, the floor, heck, even the furniture. I rolled over slightly, ignoring the aggravating burn in my side for a moment, the pain a lot less intense than it had been before. My eyes locked on a figure huddled in one of the small plastic chairs. I couldn't recognise his face from anywhere.
He appeared to be sleeping. His medium length, dark helicopter grey hair resting peacefully over his eyes. His face, narrow and pointy, was arranged in what appeared to be constant smirk. His eyebrows were sharp and angled, giving him a much more menacing look. He was tallish, bordering on the line between average height and tall. He had a slim build, and his face was very pale. He was very good looking, even I couldn't ignore that fact.
Suddenly, he snapped awake. His piercing red eyes connecting with my own. I gasped at the beauty of them. Even if they were cold and unfeeling, his eyes looked exactly like blood red rubies. They looked like Blackout's own. That was when it all clicked.
"Blackout?" I asked, my eyes widening at his figure. He smirked at me, before leaning his face right into my own. His breath fanned my face, causing me to notice the hints of diesel and mint that were contained within it. His fringe seemed to be just touching his eyes as he peered at me from beneath it, I gasped slightly.
"You're smarter than you let on, fleshling," He growled, his deep, familiar baritone comforting me slightly. I nodded in acceptance of the compliment, knowing that it was probably the only compliment I would be receiving from him in a while. I looked around the room. My confusion must've been showing on my face, as Blackout suddenly smirked, causing me to stare.
"We are in what you humans call a 'hospital'. You have second-degree and third-degree burns to your torso. You should stay in here longer for treatment, but we are living immediately," He ordered, picking himself up. I stared at him gobsmacked.
"Why are we leaving so soon? You just said that I should stay here for more treatment!" I snapped at him, and he narrowed his eyes in a cold glare.
"I have all of the supplies you will need, fleshling. You are coming back with me, where we will be discussing something with yourself, Barricade, Brawl, Bonecrusher, Starscream and I. We want to strike a deal, as you would say," He stated, and I jumped slightly, shock coursing through me like a lightning bolt.
"There's more of you? How long have I been out?" I questioned, before he rolled his eyes, picking up a bag of medical supplies.
"Yes. They arrived two days ago. Barricade returned earlier today after getting his aft handed to him by the kid and the Autoscum. Now, they just have to wait for the rest of the Autoscum to land. They'll be here in three orns. That's thirty-nine days for you, fleshling. We have been discussing you in great detail. But you will find out about that later. Now come on, we have an hour long trip ahead of us. I'll catch you up on what happened whilst you were out."
"How long was I out?" I wondered again, and he scowled down at me before saying five days. He stormed from the room as I tried to turn myself of the bed, but my side was all stiff and tight.
"Blackout," I called out desperately, hoping that he would hear me. "Little help here?"
Surprisingly, he walked back in, cursing under his breath in Cybertronian. He lifted me off the bench, carefully avoiding my burns, before turning around and storming from the room once more. Grabbing the soft toy that Barricade had given me before, I quickly ran out after him, not wanting to be left behind.
Seated in the co-pilot seat of Blackout, I turned to face the screen, watching as it turned on. I watched on in interest as it named the survivors of the Qatar base attack. I grinned as I saw that Epps, Will and Fig were among the survivors, but that grin quickly fell when I remembered them leaving me behind. I blanched slightly, tears filling my eyes as I felt the strong burn of betrayal deep within my soul.
"They betrayed you, didn't they," A baritone voice called, and I glanced up to see Blackout's human form sitting in the cockpit, his red eyes sparkling. I nodded grimly, before glancing down at my hands. He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck somewhat awkwardly, before saying "Forget about them then." He clicked the TV, and it opened to my brothers folder. He selected a video, before pressing play.
"Lieutenant Brooks," The man from the other video stated calmly, causing my brother to turn and look at him. My brother nodded his head once, before looking up at him expectantly.
"We are disappointed that you do not wish to join Sector Seven, however that is your choice. We are unable to let you be released yet though. You will be put into the hands of the military until then. But, you will remain as a liaison between us and the military. Do you understand?" The man asked, and Jason nodded grimly, glaring at the man with hate. The man nodded once, before turning it leave.
The second he was through the door, Jason ripped his hat from his head and rubbed a hand through his freshly cut hair with a resounding sigh. I noticed that he had been stripped of his air marshall ranks, which surprised me greatly. He would never had allowed that at all.
Jason looked up to the camera before nodding once.
"One of these days, I'm going to kill them all." He said, before the recording fizzled out. I stared at the video in shock. My brother was double crossing the military? How stuffed was this. Running a hand down the side of my face, I turned to Blackout.
"So, what deal are we talking about when we get to base?" I asked, and the seat beneath me stiffened. I glanced over at the human Blackout, and noticed he was the clenching the wheel with white knuckles. After a fraction of hesitation, Blackout turned to me.
"We're discussing whether you live, or die."