The trip to the Pentagon hadn't actually been that bad. Sure, for the first two hours, he sulked and brooded and complained about literally everything. From me, right the way through the the exact curve of his hunched back. It had been the most toxic brooding I had ever come across. He had made me want to wallow in a wall of my own self pity by the time he was done.
Then, once broody Bonecrusher had gone away, this new and curious one had appeared in his place.
He had questioned everything. From why the sky was blue to whom Albert Einstein was. The guy had wanted to know everything about the human existence. It would've been quite adorable if he didn't act like such a dick almost all of the time. After I had explained all that I could, he had then talked about many things regarding Cybertron, his home planet, and their race.
He'd gone on for hours about the AllSpark, spark mates, cybertronian twins, Iacon, sparklings and the works. He'd even gone as far to tell me what jobs they used to have.
He used to be a tactician. Can you believe that? No, neither could I. I mean, this is the robot who had decided using wikipedia as a reliable source for coordinates and information was a good idea.
Sadly, broody Bonecrusher returned the minute we had arrived outside of the Pentagon. He threw me out of his alt mode, rambled on about stupid fleshie fluids, and drove off again, leaving me to fend for myself. *Ass.
"You must be Ashley Benson," A nasally voice pierced the air from behind me. Tearing my gaze away from Bonecrusher's retreating figure, I turned to face the new guy expectantly.
"Yeah, that's me. What's it to you?" I bit back, hardly able to contain myself. *God damn, Barricade's rubbing off on me, majorly. The guy, who I now realised must be important because he is dressed in a really smart suit, looked appalled by my behaviour. I bit my tongue, allowing a sheepish smile to cross my face. "Sorry, it's been a long ride."
The guy looked calculating for a moment before he sighed, grimacing slightly.
"I'd suggest you keep your tongue in check whilst working around here, Miss Benson, otherwise you are going to find yourself in a lot of unwanted trouble," He stated, glaring at me slightly. I quirked an eyebrow at him. His drawn features reminded me a lot of Starscream, only less dorito shaped. *Come on, I was going to have to make a dorito joke one day. I mean, who wouldn't? Starscream actually looks like a dorito. Or a pizza slice, just without the appeal.
"I understand, sir," I replied monotonously. Although inside, I was cackling. I had already offended a somewhat important guy, and I'd only been here all of five minutes. Starscream would be pleased. Suddenly, the man stepped forward and held out a black, stick looking thing. He ran it over my body quickly, and I soon realised that it was a weapon scanner. When it didn't pick up on anything, he looked slightly gutted before thrusting a key card into my hand.
"Welcome to the Pentagon, Miss Benson. You would have hoped that your first experience here would've been a more pleasant one, but right now we are in the middle of a national security crisis. So I do apologise for the...heightened security measures around here," The man grinned, before signalling for me to follow him through the glass doors.
It was then that I noticed how protected the building truly was. I took note of the four snipers that were all strategically positioned around the front gate, all so that they could cover the entire area. I noted where every security was placed also, creating a detailed visual picture in my head so that I could relay it to Blackout later. It could be of use some day.
I followed the man through the building, which really wasn't anything special. It looked more like a fancy hotel then a top secret military building. With it's polished marble floors, detailed white walls and gold doorknobs, it looked more like a Marriott hotel than my brothers old military base. I quickly stopped myself short. Who was I kidding, this was the freaking Pentagon - not some base in the middle of Afghanistan.
We passed through another security check, where I was forced to present my keycard. Then, two steel reinforced doors slid open to reveal what could only be described as a hackers playground.
There were monitors everywhere. All of different sizes and different brands. People seemed to be working in rows upon rows, with each trying to access a different line of code. They all had huge headphones on, and each hacker looked completely and utterly engrossed in their work. They were trying to figure out Blackout's message, I realised. Wow, the fragging idiots had been completely tricked by the Decepticons. Playing right into their ball game. And they had no idea.
"You'll be working with the Australians," The agent suddenly piqued up, causing me to snap out of my thoughts abruptly. I nodded my head as he lead me towards a half empty row. There were only two hackers seated in it, a male and a female. The blonde haired female glanced up from her work as we approached, her eyes lighting up as she caught sight of me.
"Oh thank god, another chick. We need some womanly power to be able to balance out all this testosterone," She joked, her voice showcasing her thick, australian accent. She stood up, forcefully pushing her chair back, causing it to shriek loudly. Several hackers glanced up from their work, before quickly returning to bashing their keyboards. I smiled warmly at her as she thrust out her hand.
"The names Maggie Madsen, I'm a former analyst for the NSA. Keller called me in, because as you can tell - we have no idea what we're dealing with!" She stated loudly, throwing her hands up in the air in the process. Several people turned to glare at her for being so loud, and the room seemed to freeze for a second before the buzz continued, causing Maggie to smirk at me. "I love doing that. It drives them nuts," She chuckled, her eyes glinting mischievously. The guy standing next to me glared, but neither of us paid him any attention.
"Former?" I asked, curiosity bubbling within. She smirked at me, before flicking her hair softly.
"I got fired for correcting my supervisor's comments in his reports, twice. Both times - I was one hundred percent correct," She relented, flicking her bottom lip with her tongue in the process. I grinned at her, nodding my head.
"I'm Ashley Benson, and we are going to get along just fine," I stated, and she turned to grin up at me. Quickly shooing the annoying guy from before away, Maggie dragged me to the computer next to hers. She stuck the headphones on my head, and replayed Blackout's sounds over and over again.
Within the hour, I was bored stupid.
'You sure love to scream, don't you Blackout?' I inwardly smirked. It took him a few seconds to respond.
'Not as loud as you, fleshie.' He bit back, causing me to grin. Who knew an alien robot actually had a sense of humour!
'Do you really wanna put that to the test, Blackout?' I enticed.
'No.'
"Aww, come on it'd be fun. All you gotta do is scream for me.' I had to hold back the giggle that was threatening to explode. Instead I took a sip from the strategically placed water cooler.
'Shut it fleshie. I will not scream for you.' He barked, before there was a pregnant pause. 'Starscream is the screamer, believe me.' I choked, loudly.
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
"So you're telling me that...that thing had been an alien?" Epps repeated for the millionth time. With a sigh, Jason Brooks ran a fatigued hand through his hair. It was covered in sweat caused by the heat in the interrogation room. The two of them had been at this for hours, whilst the other officer, William Lennox had remained strangely quiet throughout. When Jason had walked in, he had noticed that the man looked to be in deep thought. Jason recognised that look well, as often it had been marred upon his features whilst he was thinking of his sister.
*Hazel. His beautiful, charming sister who never stopped laughing. She was childish, and extremely immature, but she was the only family he had left.
Had been, He chastised himself. Had been. She wasn't his sister anymore. As far as he and Sector Seven were concerned, Hazel had no living relatives. That very thought is what gave Jason nightmares.
How was she? Did she cry? Did she mourn him? Did she need help? Did she remember to lock the door every time she left the house? Did she make sure to not overcook the fish fillets?
It was questions like those that destroyed Jason Brooks from the inside out. They were the questions that ate his soul - that caused him much stress. Hazel had not only been his little sister, but also his best friend. He was meant to take care of her, to love her like a sibling was meant to. But no, he failed that miserably. And it was all because of that damn alien robot.
"Jesus Epps! It was an alien, move on! We aren't alone in this universe anymore - deal with it. But for the last time, deal with it silently!" Lennox finally snapped. Jason took note of the absolute exhaustion that was etched on the poor soldiers face. The past few months had been living hell for the soldier. He'd lost most of his men and his entire air base, and after that, had been ripped from his family because of Sector Seven. The dude needed to be cut a little slack.
"But-" Epps began, but Lennox cut him off.
"But no, Robert. We lost many people. We lost Ashley. She was still a baby. Her whole life was ahead of her and it was ripped from her grasp. So no, Robert. No more questions. Just silence. Let the Air Marshall speak," Lennox chastised, his voice heavy and solemn. Almost immediately, Epps cast his eyes to the floor, not daring to glance up.
"Ashley?" Jason found himself questioning, much to his and the soldiers' surprise. Lennox's shock quickly faded, and instead he nodded.
"Yeah, she was just a kid. Caught in the wrong place at the wrong time," Lennox replied, before turning his gaze towards the window. There was a buzz from the smartphone Jason had left on the table. He glanced over the message, before motioning to the soldiers that they were free to leave.
"Yeah, poor kid," Jason muttered under his breath. His thoughts turned to his own baby sister once more.
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
*Several Hours Later
Air Force One
It was night time on Air Force One, the early hours in the morning to be exact. However, the cabin was still abuzz with activity.
"Thank you," A passenger stated as a Steward passed him his drinks. He sent her a flirty smile, which she rolled her eyes to, seemingly used to his antics.
"You're welcome," She smiled as she passed him. Neither of them noticed the rather out of place boombox that was hidden under his seat. Frenzy clicked in annoyance at the humans' antics. He didn't understand the fleshies at all. They were just a primitive race, just like Barricade had told him. Well, aside from one.
Fleshie-con. She was different. She was naive, and so willing to betray her fellow humans. Frenzy thought the whole thing was ridiculous. But, he did like Fleshie-con. She seemed pretty alright.
"Apparently, there were very few survivors," One of the announcers spoke in a hushed voice. Frenzy resisted the urge to transform and tear out her throat. It had been months since the Qatar attacks, yet the squishies were speaking of it as if it had taken place yesterday. And it drove Frenzy insane.
"Yes Mr President?" Tracy, the President's secretary, asked. Frenzy zeroed in on her, knowing that she was his target. She had access to the cargo hold of the plane, meaning that she had access to the supercomputer that contained all of America's hidden secrets.
"Yeah, can you wrangle me up some Ding Dongs, darling?" The President asked, and Tracy nodded, a strained smile plastered on her face. Immediately after she turned away from him, the smile slipped away. She passed Frenzy on her way to the cargo hold, Frenzy quickly transforming to follow her.
"I joined the Air Force to bring the man Ding Dong's," She whispered under her breath, but Frenzy's sensitive audio receptors caught up on it. "I'll be in storage," She spoke louder now, addressing one of the female flight attendants who regarded her with a smile.
Tracy entered the cargo hold softly, and upon her entrance, knocked the cookie from her hand.
"Oh shoot," She whispered before turning around. Frenzy quickly hid from her view as a beatbox. "Oh, gross."
The second her back was turned, Frenzy smirked before plunging his claws into the computer mainframe.
MEANWHILE IN THE PENTAGON
I had to admit, I never knew analysing to be such a boring job.
After countless hours of listen to Blackout's screaming, I resigned myself to using his vocals to make some stupid ass looped song. In basic terms, I autotuned him, and it was hilarious. But that could only be fun for so long.
Once again, I was stuck in a haze of boredom, watching as the hacke- analysts, tapped away at their keyboards incessantly. It blew me away how these people had managed to do this job not just for hours, but for months. Ever since I had joined the decepticon ranks, from what I've heard from Maggie.
Are these people insane?
"Do you hear that? Are you getting that?' She suddenly asked me, causing me to flick my screen back to monitoring the networks. Sure enough, I heard a sound that was similar to the one Blackout had emitted. *Frenzy, I realised. "I think they're hacking the network again," Maggie suddenly exclaimed and I quickly nodded.
"They're hacking the network again!" I confirmed, softly. I watched as everyone continued to tap at their keys, still oblivious to what was unfolding.
"Uh, oh," The male analyst working at out row breathed out.
"Oh god, this is a direct match to the signal in Qatar. Are you running a diagnostic?" She asked the male analyst.
"Should I be?" He asked back, causing both Maggie and I to glare at him. "So I should."
"Somebody! They're hacking into Air Force One! I need a senior analyst, I think they're planting a virus," Maggie called, and suddenly people came at us in a rush.
"A virus?" An officer with large spectacles asked, and we both nodded.
"It's streaming right now. They are planting a virus and stealing a whole lot of data from your system at the same time," I added, and the man looked panicked.
"Get Air Force One on the line, immediately!" He yelled, and we were quickly patched through to the hijacked plane.
"Code Red! We have a breach. Someone on board has breached the military network," The officer barked, and the man on the screen suddenly went as white as a sheet. He nodded numbly before beckoning to some flight crew behind him.
"I'm in the cargo hold! Clear. Clear." An agent called. Damn that was quick.
"You've got to cut the hardlines. Whatever they want, they're getting it!" Maggie warned.
"Sir, permission to take down the Defense Network?" A guy called, but by now, I was hardly focusing.
'Frenzy's got something. Good work, Fleshie-con. Your government's disorganisation has been of assistance, for once.' Blackout's smooth voice infiltrated my thoughts. I snorted internally. He was right of course.
'Maggie is good, Blackout. She knows what she's doing.' I warned, knowing that he would hear my response. He didn't reply.
"Shots fired in the underdeck! I repeat, shots fired in the underdeck. Crew, prepare for emergency descent." The guy from the screen suddenly screamed, and Maggie glanced to me in fear. I pretended to look scared as I stared back at her, but inside, I felt both guilty and excited at the same time. We were winning, but people were dead.
"I want our President in that bunker. And I don't want to discuss a damn thing other 'till that becomes reality. That;s our first priority, that's our only priority right now." The Secretary of Defense called from the background. My throat clenched. The big boys were starting to get involved now.
A few seconds later, a man called out that Air Force One was on the ground. Everyone relaxed, but I still held my breath anxiously.
'Calm yourself, fleshling. Frenzy found more information on this Sector Seven, and he's got some approximate locations of Megatron. Barricade is going to have another crack at LadiesMan217.' Blackout explained. I let out my anxious breath and relaxed into my shoulders.
'Mission success.' I grinned. Blackout nodded in agreement. That wasn't actually so bad.