Well, it took a few minutes, but we managed to all get on the road to my house. We pulled into the alley next to the house, and Mikaela and I got out. "You've got to stay here and watch them, Kaela," I told her. "Okay, would you do that?"
"Okay, okay," she said to me, looking back over out group.
"I'll be five minutes," I say, then run through the yard.
Ron was at the back door. "Thanks for staying on my path."
"Sorry, Dad, I forgot." I run up and shut the door in front of him. "I didn't want to be late, you know."
"You know," he started, "I buy half your car, then a bail you out of jail and your car out of impound, and then I just decided to do all your chores."
"The chores?" I ask, looking back to see Optimus transforming, then I realize. "The chores, oh, I'm sorry dad. I've been hanging with Mikaela and we were having such a good time. I totally forgot I had those today."
"Yes, yes you did." Ron nodded.
"Tell you what dad, I'll do the trash cans right now."
"No, no." Ron started opening the door. "I won't want you to strain yourself."
"No, don't, I won't strain myself, Dad." I push the door back closed. "It'd hurt my feeling if you do it."
"You sure? I don't mind, I promise."
"No, I'll do it, Dad." I looked back and Optimus was stepping into the yard. "I'll take out the trash, and sweep up the yard and everything, right now."
"Tonight, right now?"
"Yes, yes I will." I opened the door just a bit and hugged him. "I love you, Dad. So much."
Ron hugged me back. "You know, Mom wanted me to ground you. You're three minutes late."
"I know, that's why I was running. And another thing I love about you, Dad." I gave one more squeeze, then stepped out of the hug. He walked back into the house.
I turned around and saw the bots in the yard. "Careful, careful!" I shouted. "Don't crush anything. Optimus, no!" I was too late, Optimus had already stepped on the fountain.
He looked down and stepped off it. "Oh- oops. Sorry. My bad."
I went over to Mikaela as she came in. "They couldn't wait, could they?"
"Well, they seem to be in a bit of a rush," Miakela gestured up to the bots, then I turned and saw Mojo.
"Mojo, no!" I raced over and got Mojo before Ironhide could hit him. "Easy, easy, Ironhide. This is Mojo, he's my pet, my animal that I take care of. Okay."
Ironhide still drew his cannons. "You have a rodent infestation."
"He's not a rodent, he's a Chihuahua. I can see why you'd be confused. But we love Chihuahuas.
"He leaked lubricants all over my foot."
"He peed on you?" I looked down at Mojo and swatted him at the base of his tail. "Bad Mojo." I carried Mojo back to the house, turning to Optimus. "Optimus, hide, okay. We don't need the neighbors freaking out, okay?"
"Just hurry," Optimus said.
I went to the door, then looked at Mikaela. "Hey, you too. We'll find it faster with two people."
Mikaela ran up and we managed to get up to my room without Mom or Dad noticing. I gave a quick glance around, certain I had placed my backpack in my room so I wouldn't have to deal with this shit, but, no, it's gone.
"Shit, shit, shit," I said.
"What?" Mikaela asked.
"I had the glasses in my back pack, but it's not here." I grabbed my hair in frustration.
"Well, they're gonna be pissed, so what are you gonna do?"
"Give the whole room a clean sweep." I pointed to the wall she was by. "Just check that whole area. I'll get over there."
Mikaela nodded and started looking. I did as well, then we heard transformation sounds outside. We rant to the windows and all the bots had gone into vehicle mode.
"What? No! Optimus! This isn't hiding, people don't park cars on lawns." I sighed, then went back to looking.
A few minutes later, Mikaela psst'ed me. When I looked, her jerked her head to the window. "He's back."
I went back and Optimus was standing there. I looked down and he was in Judy's flowers. "Dude, off the flowers!"
Optimus looked down and took a step back. "Oops."
"Yeah, opps." I folded my hands in front of my mouth. "Look, if my parents see you, they're going to freak out. Even more so, cause you ruined the yard. Mom, she has a temper. And a baseball bat, okay?"
"We must have the glasses," Optimus said simply.
"I know you need the glasses." More than you realize. "But if you want Kaela and me to find them, we can't keep stopping to make sure you're out of sight. Just give us five, ten minutes, alright?"
Optimus ran a hand over his face. "Keep searching."
"We will, but you need to be quiet and hide for ten minutes, okay? Just ten minutes. Alright? Thank you." I turned back into the room and started looking again. Mikaela and I heard their footsteps walking away, then the ground shook and the light started flickering. Mikaela raced to the window and looked out. "Ratchet ran into powerlines," she told me, just before all the lights went out. "And I think Ironhide just took them out."
Optimus came up to the window with Ratchet and Ironhide. In the hall, I could hear Ron and Judy making their way towards us. Ratchet shone his headlights into the room, but I ran up to them.
"No, no lights. Mom and Dad are coming. Shut it off!"
Ron tried the door knob. "Alison, are you in there? How come the door's locked? You know the rules. No doors locked in my house!
"He'll start counting if you don't open the door," Judy said.
I gestured for the bots to back up, while Mikaela dived behind my bed. I opened the door just as Ron got to two.
"What's up?" I asked, then saw Judy's bat. "What's with the bat?"
"Who are you talking to?" Ron asked.
"No one, just myself."
"Why are you so sweaty and filthy?" Judy asked.
"It's from me going out earlier. I haven't showered yet."
"We heard voices and noises and we thought maybe you were-"
"Yeah, it doesn't matter what we thought," Ron cut Judy off, coming into my room. "What was that light?"
"What light?" I asked.
"The light! There was a light under the door."
"You have two lights, maybe one bounced." I stood in front of my dresser, pulling their attention to me and hoping the bots would get hidden before they look outside. "Dad, I'm getting ready to shower. I'm a teenager. You can't just walk in."
"We knocked!" Judy insisted.
"You were screaming at me." I looked around, just checking everything. "I'm fine, everything's fine, you didn't need to come up here and check on me, I'm almost an adult."
"You're so defensive," Judy said. "Were you… masturbating?"
Ron and I turned to her, our eyes wide. "Was I mastur- No, Mom!"
"Judy this is our daughter," Ron was saying. "Our little girl here. It's not something you bring up!
"Yeah, not in front of dad. It's a mother-daughter thing."
"Well we don't have to all it that word if it makes you uncomfortable," Judy tried to rectify the statement. "We can call it… Alison's happy time, my special alone time…"
"Mom! Stop!" I put my face in my hands.
"I'm sorry. It's just been a weird night. I've had a bit to drink," Judy said.
Not as weird as my life right now, Mom.
"We saw a light in here," Ron went back to insisting and went to check out my bathroom. "I don't know where it is, but we saw it."
Suddenly the house shook again and Ron started calling "Earthquake!" I facepalmed again, cause I knew just what it was. Once Ron had calmed down, he looked out and saw the wreck of the backyard. "Oh. Oh, no! Look at the yard. The yard is destroyed. Sheesh! Judy? Better call the city. We got a blown transformer! Power pole's sparking all over the place! Aw, man. Yard's a waste. Trashed. Gone. It's a wash. The whole yard."
I sighed as Ron came back in. Judy looked to me again. "We heard you talking to somebody, Alison. We wanna know who."
"Mom, I told y-"
Suddenly, we heard a cough behind us. Mikaela stood up and introduced herself. "Hi. I'm Mikaela. I'm a- I'm a friend of Alison's."
Ron reached over for a fist bump. I took it while Judy said. "Gosh, you're gorgeous. Isn't that the prettiest girl?"
"Mom, she can hear your rambling," I pointed out, but Mikaela just said, "Thank you."
"Oh, my goodness. I'm sorry you had to hear our little family discussion about this-" Judy waved her hand and Mikaela laughed.
"Mom, do you know where my back pack is?" I asked.
"Oh, it's in the kitchen."
"Thank you." I kissed Mom's cheek, reached for Mikaela's hand and pulled her downstairs to the kitchen.
Sure enough, my bag was on the counter. I guess some things just can't be changed. I reached in the pocket and found the glasses.
"Yes!" I double checked them as Mikaela fixed her hair next to me.
"Your mom's so nice," she commented.
"Yeah, I guess she is." I ran to the window. "Optimus!" None of the bots were out back. "Optimus!" I called a little louder, then I saw some guys in suits and lab coats show up. "Shit." I mumbled before running out to the living room, Mikaela behind me.
Simmons was there in front of Judy with the bat, and the other agents were around.
"What's going on?" I asked.
"How you doing?" Simmons asked me. "Is your name Alison?"
"Yeah."
"Well, I need you to come with us." He started toward me, but Ron and Judy got in his way.
"Whoa, way out of line!" Ron said.
"Sir, I am asking politely. Back off."
"You're not taking my daughter."
"Really? You gonna try to get rough with us?"
"No, but I'm gonna call the cops because there is something fishy going on around here."
"Yeah," Simmons said. "There's something a little fishy about you, your son, your little Taco Bell dog and this whole operation you got going on here."
"What operation?" Ron asked.
"That is what we are gonna find out."
Then the Brian Stepanek agent came up and told Simmons something before handing him the radiation detector. Simmons called me forward and held it up to me. The thing started beeping and he got a crazy grin on his face.
"Fourteen rads! Bingo!" He turned to the agents. "Tag them and bag them!"
Well, we were arrested, with Mikaela and I being taken to one car and Ron and Judy to another. We'd gone a ways down the road and Simmons pulled my phone from the evidence bag.
"I think you're supposed to leave it in there so you don't contaminate the crime scene," I remarked dryly. I was trying to wiggle my way out, with no success. Mikaela was probably halfway out already.
"So, LadyLover217. That is your eBay username, right?" Simmons asked as he turned to us.
"Well, IFuckingLoveLadies was taken, so," I shrugged. Mikaela snickered next to me.
"Well, what do you make of this?" Simmons played my last words video from last night for us. "Is that you?"
Mikaela looked at it weird. "It doesn't sound like Alison."
"In the video, you said your car was alive, and you were found in it not ten minutes later by the cops. Enlighten me."
"It was a prank," I said. "I was going to skip school on Monday and make the jerks who stole my car think I was killed. I, heh, kinda forgot that I was going to meet Mikaela this morning and that would ruin it. And then I found my car and I before I could go back home, the cops got me. But it was all cleared up, and my car's back home in my garage after being impounded."
Mikaela looked like she was going to say something, but I gave her a look saying to trust me.
"Mmhm, sure thing," Simmons said. "So what do you kids know about aliens, huh?"
"Aliens? Well, there's some cool ones in a game coming out in a few months, and I can't wait to play it," I said.
"It's an urban legend," Mikaela added.
"Wish they were real though," I added under my breath.
Simmons suddenly pulled out his S7 badge. "You see this? This is my I-can-do-whatever-I-want-and-get-away-with-it badge. I'm gonna lock you up forever."
Mikaela rolled her eyes. "Oh, God. You know what? Don't listen to him. He's just pissy 'cause he's got to get back to guarding the mall."
"You, in the training bra, do not test me," Simmons said. "Especially with your daddy's parole coming up."
"Parole?" I asked.
"It's nothing," Mikaela tried to say.
"Oh, grand theft auto, that ain't nothing?" Simmons said.
"You know those cars my dad used to teach me to fix?" Mikaela asked me. "Well, they- they weren't always his."
"Did you as well?" I asked
"Well, we couldn't always afford a babysitter, so sometimes he had to take me along."
"She's got her own juvie record to prove it! She's a criminal." Simmons gave Mikaela a one over, and I wanted to hit him. Always did. "Criminals are hot! Well, that'd be a real shame if he had to rot in jail the rest of his natural life. It is time to talk!"
Suddenly, we hit something and the car went spinning until it came to a stop with a crash. I couldn't help the grin on my face as Simmons and Stepanek started freaking out.
"It's big, it's big!" Stepanek shouted, just before big black fingers came through the windows to grip the roof of the car and picked up us. Mikaela and I ducked, but when I looked at her, I saw she was smiling a little too.
Finally, the roof gave and we dropped to the ground. We were momentarily blinded by headlights, but they cleared up and we could easily see Optimus standing above us.
I leaned forward towards Simmons and Stepanek. "You assholes are in trouble now. Gentlemen, I want to introduce you to my friend, Optimus Prime."
"Taking the children was a bad move," Optimus said with a growl. As the agents drew their weapons, he ordered "Autobots, relieve them of their weapons."
The other bots rolled in, Ironhide and Coppertone practically sticking their weapons in the agents faces as Jazz used his magnet to pull them from the agent's hands. Optimus knelt down over our car as Simmons stood trying to keep the situation "calm".
"Hi there," he said to Optimus.
"You don't seem afraid," Optimus noted. "Are you not surprised to see us?"
"Look, there are S7... protocols... okay?" Simmons stuttered. "I'm not authorized to communicate with you except to tell you I- can't communicate with you."
Optimus just glared. "Get out of the car. Now!"
We all climbed out. Like I guessed, Mikaela was free, but I hadn't been able to wiggle out. Mikaela started getting me out.
"So, you're good with handcuffs too, huh?" I tried to joke.
"You weren't supposed to hear all that," Mikaela said as she clicked me out.
"I know." I turned around and gave her a hug. "I'm not holding anything against you. So you helped your dad steal some cars. It's in the past."
"It's not that I helped him," Mikaela said. "It's that I didn't turn him in. Though it should be easy not to hold grudges or anything for you. You haven't had to sacrifice anything in your perfect life."
"Don't be so sure," I told her, before going over to Simmons. "Hey, Secret Agent Man, what's Sector 7?
"I'm the one who asks questions around here. Not you, young lady!" Simmons yelled at me.
"How do you know about the aliens?" Mikaela asked, coming up next to me.
"I am not at liberty to discuss-" Simmons started, but I reached forward and snatched his badge from him. "-it. Hey. You touch me, that's a federal offense."
I held the badge out as Mikaela and I walked away from him. "Do-whatever-you-want-and-get-away-with-it badge, right?"
"Yeah. Brave now all of a sudden, with his big alien friend standing over there." Simmons glared at me.
"More the fact I know I can get away clean now," I said, looking over the badge. "Where's Sector 7?"
"Wouldn't you like to know?"
Bumblebee let out a noise at that, and popped a cover on his pelvic plate. I pulled Mikaela back a few more feet as something hit Simmons on the back of the head, just before oil came pouring out onto Simmons's head. I laughed as he yelled and Optimus looked down on Bee.
"Bumblebee, stop lubricating the man," he ordered, and Bee did. As that happened, Mikaela knelt down and picked up a set of handcuffs. I met her eyes and smiled. I loved this woman.
Surprisingly, it didn't take that long to cuff all the agents together. I was just getting Stepanek and another linked up when Mikaela came back from the other end of the line.
"All right, tough guy, take it off," she said to Simmons.
"What are you talking about?" he asked,
"Your clothes, all of it, off."
"For what?"
She gave him a look. "For threatening my dad."
Simmons glared at her, but started undressing. "Little lady, this is the beginning of the end of your life. You're a criminal. Uh huh. Let's face facts. It's in your gene pool."
"Those are nice," Mikaela commented on his Hawaiian boxers. "Now back behind the pole."
Simmons was chained to the light pole, while I took the last set of cuffs and cuffed Stepanek to Simmons. Mikaela and I were walking away when I overheard Simmons.
"We have got to alert- everyone."
"They already know," Stepanek said. "Speaker.
I whipped around and pulled the phone out of his hand. Before anything else though, the bots caught sight of the vans and helicopters coming down the road.
"Optimus! Incoming!" Ironhide said, slamming a transformed fist to the ground and sending a shockwave to slow S7 down.
"Roll out," Optimus ordered, sending the bots out. He knelt down and offered his hand to me and Mikaela. "Up you get."
We climbed into his hand, and he lifted us to his shoulders, where we held on as he ran through the streets to get away from the choppers. I was amazed he didn't step on anyone or anything, but I just called it luck. We hid under the bridge, and Optimus warned us to be careful. Unfortunately, Mikaela still fell, and while I had a better grip on her cause I was expecting it, we were still dangling.
"Oh, God! No! No! No, Alison, don't drop me!"
"Try to stay still!" I shouted to her, trying to extend my leg to her without hitting her in the face.
"I'm slipping! I'm slipping!"
"Grab my leg!" I tell her, but my hand on Optimus slipped and Mikaela and I were falling. Optimus swung down and tried to break our fall with his foot. We bounced, and were about to hit the ground when Bee raced in and caught us.
After skidding along the side of the river, Bumblebee set us down and Mikaela and I caught our breath.
"Bee!" I shouted to him. "Transform! Now!"
He looked at me oddly, then the helicopter showed up.
"No. Stop! Stop! Wait! No!" I shouted, but it was too late. The chopper fired its harpoon and Bee caught. Mikaela and I had to move to avoid being stepped on as he was pulled, then another chopper shot at Bee.
"Noooooo!" I shouted, but it was too late. Bee was caught by all four limbs and S7 showed up with their vans. Bee was screaming and crying out, but before I could run to comfort him, the agents came out and ordered us on the ground. We went down, then I saw the guys with the giant fire extinguishers come out.
"Leave him alone!" I shouted. "He's not fighting back!"
They started dragging Mikaela and I away, but I managed to drop on my guy and hit him in his nuts. I raced to the guys by Bee, pushing one guy aside to I could get to Bee's face. I just managed to drop down and touch him when another agent grabbed me. Bee met my eyes and gave me a look that just screamed how scared he was.
"Bee, I'm sorry!" I told him as I was dragged away. "You'll be okay, Bee! I will not let them hurt you!"
The agents took me back to the cars and Simmons was there, pants back on and a armor vest over his S7 tank. "Happy to see me again?"
I growled and lunged at him, but the agents holding me kept me back. I settled for glaring at him instead.
"Put her in a car with her little criminal friend," he ordered, and I was. In the car, Mikaela and I could only look at each other. I held out my hand to her and she grasped it like a lifeline. We leaned onto each other as the car drove off. One or both of us must have fallen asleep from the exhaustion, because the next thing I know I'm being shaken awake by an agent and hauled into a building.
Surprisingly, they put Mikaela and I in the same room, and they left us Mikaela's purse. There were two cots and the door was locked behind us, so this was obviously where we were going to spend the night.
"I can't believe this," Mikaela suddenly said, sitting down hard on a cot. "24 hours ago, you dropped me off in your junky car, and now we're under government arrest and your car is actually an alien robot trying to save the planet."
"Yeah, pretty much." I sat down on the other cot and gave a sigh, staring at my feet. "And tomorrow will be even crazier."
"How are you doing that?" Mikaela suddenly asked.
I looked at her. "Doing what?"
"You just found out the exact same information I did, plus last night in that video with Bumblebee, yet you're calm about it. Heck, why did you lie and say your car was stolen this morning?"
"Cause I knew Bee would probably be out and about and it's easier to explain that as he was stole than my car broke out of impound by himself. As for how I'm calm…" I took a deep breath and dropped to a whisper. "Would you believe that I know more or less what's going to happen tomorrow, and have known for the past two days?"
"What?" Mikaela looked around, then came and sat next to me. "What are you talking about?" she asked also in a whisper.
"Two days ago, I woke up and I just knew what was going to happen from Thursday afternoon until tomorrow afternoon. I was going to buy a car that was an alien robot, give you a lift home, record that message, go to jail, get chased by the cop car, meet my car's teammates and get captured by a group called S7. It wasn't an exact prophecy, I didn't know I'd have lunch with you, or that Coppertone was going to show up, but it was close enough."
"You knew this would happen? And you didn't say anything?"
I shrugged. "There's a little thing called the Butterfly Effect. One choice or change can affect everything that happens after that. If I said something, maybe it would have been Optimus captured by S7, or someone who needs to do something important won't do it and we'll be royally screwed."
"So basically, we're stuck." Mikaela sighed. "Fuck."
"You can say that again," I muttered, then gave her a hug. "I'm sorry for lying. And for dragging you into all this."
"It's okay." Mikaela hugged me back, then got up and went to her cot. Within a few minutes, she was asleep.
I stayed up. I had to plan. Tomorrow was Mission City. Frenzy was just sitting there in Mikaela's purse and he'd go on and wake up Megatron and we'd have to run with the AllSpark to keep it from him. Jazz would likely be killed, unless Coppertone managed to save him like in my one fic idea. Then we'd either follow the movie path, or Coppertone would tackle Megatron and sacrifice herself to protect the AllSpark. But either path would lead to Megatron and one Autobot dying. And I didn't want that, the Fallen mind control was mainly a fanon thing, but if it was real, maybe something could break it. And what of the sparklings!
I refuse to sacrifice the sparklings. They're not even children, not even babies, they're infants. Fetuses. And these ones didn't have mothers to worry about choice or being forced, these ones all deserved to live.
But I can't just hand over the AllSpark to Megatron, the bots would never forgive me. And excuse me, but I like Optimus and Bee a little too much to let that happen. Plus, they would want to know how I knew of the sparklings, and it would be a little too hard to explain the whole "alternate universe movie" thing.
Ugh! This would be so much easier if I was a pretender like my original draft Abi. Then I could say I was Primus's chosen to fix this. Instead, all I got is a stupid pacemaker and too much knowledge.
Pacemaker. AllSpark turns all electronics into Cybertronians. AllSpark Key. Sari.
An idea flashed into my head. But, could I actually turn myself into a technorganic? Would that work or would I just die? If I did that, the bots and cons would have to listen to me, maybe even the Fallen. But if it didn't work, I'd be the one responsible for killing the hatchlings and dooming Earth to death by sun implosion. That was a big burden.
But… if I could…
I decided I'd at least try it. If worse comes to worse, I'll just take the AllSpark and skip town after Optimus and Megatron start fighting.
Once I made my plan, I decided to go to sleep. I need a lot of rest for tomorrow.
