"Maggie, this is a bad idea - a really bad idea," I started as I hurriedly tried to chase her. Damn, she was a woman on a mission. Maggie didn't even cast me a glance as she continued to storm down the hallway, causing my irritation with the young blonde to grow.
In the short time that I had been here, I had very quickly caught on to the fact that Maggie was not a woman to be messed with. She was as stubborn as a donkey's ass, and she really didn't care how far she had to go to get someone to listen to her - which was mighty terrifying if you asked me.
And right now, Maggie had an idea. It was spot on, I knew that, but only because I am a decepticon. She was smarter then she looked, she could quite possibly be a major threat to our cause.
'B, I need you to dig up everything on Maggie Madsen.' I muttered to him, he gave me a noise of agreement in response. My my, who shat in his cornflakes this morning. Blackout heard me, and he laughed, a deep throaty chuckle that caused a small smile to quirk its way on to my face.
Suddenly, Maggie halted, causing me to step right into her.
"Maggie, what the he-" I began, before she turned around and shushed me, giving me an icy glare.
'She just shushed me!'
'I wonder why.' Blackout bit back sarcastically.
"Can we stop it?" A familiar voice asked. I recognised it immediately as Keller. The officer speaking to him sighed softly.
"Every time we try an antivirus, it adapts and speeds up. It's not like it's a virus anymore. It's become the system," The officer replied. And I stood on my tip toes in order to crane my neck over Maggie's shoulders. The Secretary of Defence rubbed his head with his hand, as if he was trying to suppress a bludgeoning headache.
"Obviously the first phase of a major attack against the US. The only countries with this kind of capabilities are Russia, North Korea, maybe China," Brigham theorised. I resisted the urge to facepalm. This is what happens when trigger happy idiots are put in positions of power.
"I'm sorry, that's not correct," Maggie interrupted. Frag it Maggie!
"Excuse me, young lady, I didn't see you standing there. You would be who?" Brigham bit out dryly, and I could see Maggie's eyes narrow in her reflection on the door.
"Oh you know, just the analyst that detected the hack," She retorted.
"Wait, hold on, that was you?" Keller muttered unintelligently. I rolled my eyes. Yes, Mr Secretary, I thought we had established that.
"Sir, I'm just trying to say that they hacked your firewalls within ten seconds. Even with a supercomputer, no, a brute force of supercomputers - that would take twenty plus years," She reasoned, so I decided to step in.
"They ate through your firewall three point eight million times faster than any other computer. This, virus? Coded itself. The technology needed to be able to accomplish this feat isn't even possible at the moment. So whoever, or should I say whatever, this hack was - it sure as hell ain't any of them."
"Maybe you two can explain then, why our satellite imagery shows North Korea doubling their naval activity?" Brigham bit back, surely pissed.
"Maybe they're just taking a precaution. Isn't that why we're doing?" Maggie asked.
"The signal pattern is learning, it's evolving on its own," I added softly, trying to explain the gravity of the situation and save Maggie's reputation at the same time.
"There's nothing on earth that complex!" The officer exclaimed. Blackout chuckled darkly, reminding me that he could still hear and see everything as I hadn't shut down the link.
"What about an organism? A living organism - some kind of DNA based computer. And I-I know that sounds crazy but-" Maggie started, but a red faced Keller cut her off.
"That's enough! That is enough. We have six floors of analysts working on this thing. Now, if you can find proof to back up your theory, I'm gonna be happy to listen to you. Until then, keep your damn mouths shut or you'll find yourself of the team!"
And with that, Brigham pushed us out the room and slammed the door in our faces.
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
"There is only one hacker in the world who can break this code."
Do you remember what I was saying earlier about Maggie being as stubborn as a donkey's ass? Yeah, well she's also as crazy as one, too.
You see, she's come up with this great idea to steal some high tech, extremely dangerous decepticon virus, put it on a freaking memory card and giving it to some random dude named Glenn to hack.
She's going to get us killed.
Together, we walked down the hallway, both of us clocking off for our lunch break as we scurried out of the building. I was beginning to feel quite a bit like a female James Bond.
Not only was a spy, but I was thief now too. Maybe I can add that to my resume. Oh, and my list of felonies.
"Maggie, this is crazy!" I hissed at her, but deep down I was glad. I felt really awkward being cramped in a dark room, surrounded by people who I have technically signed death warrants for. It was nice to be able to have a bit of… interesting in my life.
"Well if you don't like it, turn around and walk away. If you want to come, shut it and hurry up!" Maggie hissed, and I grinned at her, which she quickly returned. We made a fabulous team, I say.
We caught a taxi to this old looking house in the middle of a random neighbourhood. Maggie didn't even pay the fare as she leapt from the car, and I grimaced, thrusting a few notes into the cabbie's hand. As he pulled away, I bolted. I got to the door just as it was opened by a young, slightly overweight man.
Maggie didn't even acknowledge him as she forced her way inside.
"Maggie!" The man exclaimed, looking appalled at her behaviour.
"I'm sorry Glenn, but I need your help," Maggie stated slowly, and Glenn threw his hands up, not even casting me a glance.
"No! This is my private area, my place of Zen and peace," The man bit back, and I was forced to stifle a snort. I doubt that would help the situation, in all honesty. Maggie sent him a sharp look, before turning to me as if looking for someone to back her up.
"Look, I'm sorry man, but this is some highly, messed up shit we need your help with," I offered, and Glenn looked at me as if he was just noticing my appearance.
"Who the hell are you?" He asked, and when I didn't answer, he rounded on Maggie. "Who the hell is she?" He exclaimed, but Maggie didn't listen to him either.
"Listen to me-" Maggie started, before a voice from upstairs interrupted her.
"Glenn, who is it?" The voice called. Glenn froze for a fraction of a second before sighing in annoyance.
"SHUT UP GRANDMA!" Glenn roared, causing me to flinch back in shock. Maggie however, was unfazed. She instead stepped forward, "Look, give me a break-"
"Glenn!" The voice called again.
"GRANDMAMA, DRINK YO PRUNE JUICE!" Glenn screamed, before grabbing our arms and yanking us towards what looked like a nerded out office. He pushed open the door, where I noticed another dude dancing on what looked like a dance pad.
"Oh, here come the matrix! Here come the matrix," Glenn suddenly yelled, and he and the other guy continued to cheer each other on as the guy got a perfect score. I giggled softly, as it reminded me of something me and Jason would do. Don't think about him now, Hazel. I chastised softly.
"Glenn, seriously. Don't you wanna see something classified?" Maggie bit out, both stressed and frustrated. That stopped Glenn immediately. He sobered up, pressing pause on the game, much to his friends disgust. His friend quickly left after Glenn promised he would save the game.
"How classified?" Glenn muttered, and I locked eyes with Maggie over the top of his head.
"Like, we will go to jail for the rest of our lives for showing you classified," I whispered, and Glenn's eyes widened.
"Ooh, yes! One quick peek," Glenn muttered, and I rolled my eyes at him. Typical.
He plugged the memory card into his computer before flicking it on. I was met with a big wave of purple and blue lights, not that it meant anything to me.
"Woah, the signal strength is through the roof. Where did you say you got this?" Glenn asked, and Maggie breathed in sharply.
"It hacked the national military air guard frequency in under a minute," Maggie explained.
"No way," He whispered as their eyes connected. I instantly quirked an eyebrow at them. Was something...happening between the two of them? Glenn cast his eyes back to the computer shyly as Maggie breathed out a cool, but flustered, yeah. I grinned at her knowingly as she glanced up at me.
Glenn clicked a button on the computer hurriedly, causing it to zoom in. The signal began to play quietly, and I groaned, the noise already beginning to drive me insane. He zoomed in once more, and I could barely contain my shock as I realised there were symbols hidden within the mass of purple and blue. Cybertronian.
"There's some kind of code embedded in the signal," Glenn muttered as he and Maggie both leaned towards the screen. I smirked once more, extremely tempted to take a picture of them for later use. "Let me work my magic."
Suddenly, the computer narrowed in on one of the many hieroglyphs. It quickly scanned it, before translating it into the words 'Project Iceman'. My blood ran cold.
'Oh, shit.'
'What is it, femme?' Blackout responded instantly.
'Megatron. Sector Seven has Megatron.'
'I realise.' He replied dryly.
'What do we do?' I whispered to him, surprising myself by how afraid my voice sounded.
'They're coming to your position now, you'll meet with them soon enough. Find him, awaken him. And for Primus' sake, stay safe, femme.' And then the connection was cut off.
Two seconds later, it all went to hell. There was a loud bang, and suddenly, Glenn's friend started screaming. "ARGH! COPS!" He shouted before I heard multiple doors slam as the guy started to run.
"FBI! Clear right," Another voice called, and I realised we were being ambushed. I didn't even have a chance to yell as the door burst open, we were both thrown on the floor. My head slammed into the carpet painfully. My vision blurred for a moment as piercing pain invaded all of my senses. I desperately tried to focus on the moving shapes ahead of me.
"Ow! Get off my Grandma's carpet. She don't like nobody on her carpet, especially police!" Glenn yelled as he struggled violently against the man's grip.
'Blackout.' I cried out in fear and pain.
There was nothing but darkness after that.
/ ~ / ~ / ~ /
Blackout couldn't remember the last time that he had felt this angry.
The rage was consuming him, making him unable to think straight. All he wanted to do was smash something. Destroy something. Kill something, or at the very least, hurt somebody very, very badly. It was this all-consuming rage that powered the decepticon forces, Blackout knew that deep down. But at that moment, all he could think about was the femme fleshie.
'Blackout.'
His name. Her last words to him had been his name. Filled with so much fear and pain. The femme had been consumed with blinding pain and fear, and it had destroyed him from the inside.
Because Blackout hadn't told anybody about this yet - but he had a bond with the femme.
He had no idea what it was. Maybe it was a guardian bond. Perhaps it was something more.
Blackout didn't understand it. And Blackout hated things he couldn't understand.
With an enraged growl, Blackout turned around and stalked towards one of the abandoned hangars. Something needed to be destroyed, right now.