At the Autobot base the air was thick with a tenseness that had everyone on edge. There had been recorded Decepticon activity in the area and it was not looking good. All the Autobots were prepared to attack and defend the base at a moment's notice, but truly, they were out-powered and out manned. Though the base was busy, it was eerily silent; words were only spoken when they were needed.
William was at the end of his tether. He just did not know what to do anymore. They had no way of positively knowing what the Decepticons were planning. He walked past the posted guards into his small office, locking the door behind him to try and get a few minutes of peace.
The office was drab and grey. There was a desk, a chair and a computer, but not much else. There was a filing cabinet in the one corner with one extra chair for whoever needed to see him. He dropped into the chair, slouching. He closed his eyes.
It has been eight months since he had last seen Arabella. He wondered how the boys were doing and realised that he missed her; his one close friend.
He sighed deeply, the bags underneath his eyes dark. They needed Arabella and those boys. They needed intel. they could provide and they needed it bad. He had no idea how long they would be able to hold out now and the hunter's efforts just weren't cutting it anymore. He rubbed his temples, trying to relieve the tension.
"Arabella, I need your help."
He sighed deeply and noticed there was a bright yellow post-it note stuck to the screen of the monitor.
Kathlyn Lake. Pier 7. See you there. ;)
His brow furrowed in confusion. He sat, contemplating the note for a while, before finally making up his mind. He punched the bright red button of the mike of the private intercom system.
"Prime, get ready to move out. We've got to go and meet a few friends…"
xxxxxPCxxxxx
"Four organic signatures detected. Orders?"
"Investigate. Do not make contact until the identities have been confirmed. Proceed with caution, over."
"Roger."
There were silenced footsteps in the forest as the small group of soldiers crept forward with agonizing slowness. The edge of the forest met with a stony beach that finally led to the cool water. The sun was high and it was pretty warm for the mid-Autumn day. There were the bubbly sounds of laughter and splashing water. Looking at the source, there were a few colourful camping chairs set up underneath a large beach umbrella. There was a faded red cooler-box in the shade of the umbrella, next to one of the chairs. There were a few empty beer bottles here and there, with what looked to be a packed picnic lunch.
Over to the side Red, the large truck, stood tall and proud and laden with supplies. There were cool-boxes, and tool boxes, and bags and boxes and barrels of fuel and water. There were also a couple of tents pitched up close-by under the shade of the trees, with mattresses and sleeping bags rolled out neatly with an extra blanket on the side. Behind the tents was the beat up, rusty old trailer that they had used to haul everything cross country.
Over by the edge of the water, Arabella and Kyle stood ankle deep in the water, with their pants rolled up to their knees, skipping smooth stones over the surface of the water. Timothy was sitting in the shade of the umbrella, reading a book Arabella had given him a while back, while Andrew was lying shirtless on a towel, with shorts and large sunglasses, trying to 'tan', as Arabella had called it. He wasn't achieving much in the Autumn sun. He was sitting partially upright, watching the stone skipping competition, adding his own two cents along with his cheers.
"…five, six, SEVEN! I count seven hops!"
"No way, that was only six!"
"Nu uh! Andy! Tell him I'm right."
"Sorry Kyle, that was seven skips."
"Hah! I win! Hey, Timo! Come join us!"
"No thanks. Quite comfy right here."
"Aw, you spoilsport." She looked past him and into the forest. "Hey! Badly hidden soldiers! Care to join us for a beer?" Suddenly the forest was alive with voices.
"What?! She knew we were here?!"
"I DO NOW!" She shouted back. She laughed as a loud curse was heard, as well as a loud slap, followed with several other statements.
"Beer?! Did she say BEER?!"
"How did she know?"
"Who cares. BEER!"
"The commander said we are to stay here until further orders. Commander Lennox? Um… Commander Lennox?"
Said Commander was already out of the forest and walking slowly across the beach, slack jawed and speechless, except for the weird blubbing noises he was making.
"Bu… Wha… Ho… Decepticons?" He finally regained clarity. "ARE YOU CRAZY?! There are Decepticons out here!" Arabella frowned, looking at her small crew.
"What? Here? I don't see any. Do you see any, Andy?"
Andrew was lying leisurely on his blanket. "Nope. No Decepticons here. Isn't he maybe referring to all those sensors we rigged?" The group let out a collective snort of giggles.
"Now that, was fun; made sneaking into base so much more worthwhile. Hey Tim, how many times did you get in and out?"
"Pfft. Three."
"Also three." Kyle piped up, taking a swig from the bottle.
"Five times here, b*****. OW!" Andrew curled over, hands on his stomach.
"Alright, you know the drill. 20 push-ups for swearing." Andrew groaned. "MOVE IT!" In the background Kyle scoffed as Andrew rolled over, enthusiastically pumping himself off the ground.
"Only 20? Hey, man, you goin' soft on us o' som'thin'?" His smirk was wiped off his face by the dark glare he received from Arabella.
"Disrespect for a superior. 50 push-ups." Kyle blanched, but when he saw Arabella's stiff posture, he sprinted to a good spot and dropped, determined to finish as quickly as possible.
"Tsk. You'd think they'd learn from the first 40 times they did that." Timothy shook his head as Andrew stood up, dusting the dirt from his hands. "Say, boss, how many times did you get in?"
"Seven times." Andrew and Timothy whistled loudly and Andy gave her a high-five. Kyle stopped and turned his head.
"Nicely done, boss!"
"Oi! I only counted 10 push-ups, missy. Get moving!" Kyle continued with renewed vigour.
Will was nearly on the edge of fainting.
"You… You snuck in… and out… of the Autobot base… with extra security, SEVEN TIMES!?"
Arabella shrugged.
"Well, technically, if you add it all up, it's 18 times, but yeah, whatever floats your boat. Hey Tim, toss me another beer." Without his gaze leaving the book, he reached over the side of the chair, firmly grasped the neck of a bottle and tossed it to her.
She caught it, and promptly threw it back. He caught the bottle without even looking at it.
"I said a beer, not an empty beer bottle, Mister Smartypants."
Timothy finally made eye contact with her and stuck his tongue out.
"Where did you get the beer?" Will finally managed.
"Stole it from my Dad." Arabella took a deep swig from the bottle she had swiped from Kyle, earning an indignant 'hey!' from the African American man, who promptly crossed his arms with a pout.
"YOU DID WHAT?!" A certain Mister Clarkson finally emerged from the shadows, outraged.
"Oh, hey, Daddyo. I thought it was unfair of you to make these in secret and not to share. Oh, yeah, right. That was the other part of the assignment. To show that these guys have completed their training, they were to infiltrate your base, borrow a few items and make it out undetected. Worked brilliantly, doncha think?"
Simon was fuming in silence. William finally did a headcount of the people present.
"Wait, where's James?"
Arabella coughed a little mid swallow. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Uh, who?"
"James? James Nollsworth?" A little light bulb flickered on above her head.
"Oooh, THAT James. Yeah, he wasn't physically fit to continue the training." The three young men burst out laughing.
"You could say his performance, 'fell to pieces'." Andrew giggled.
"Naw man, he just couldn't handle tha' 'impact' of her, 'explosive' training." The giggles turned into laugher.
"Or, or, he just couldn't, 'keep himself together'." The guys were howling with laughter. The tears were running down their faces. Will was not sure he wanted to know what they were implying. Arabella recovered quickly.
"Well, what do you expect? Pretender versus shotgun. Shotgun wins."
"SHOTGUN TO THE HEART!" Timothy sang out and promptly fell out of his chair. Right about now, the group was not even able to breathe anymore. The tears were streaming down their faces, their stomachs were aching and they were just twitching on the ground, making these absurd little gasping sounds whenever they inhaled.
Will was white as a sheet. All the soldiers hidden among the trees were frozen and Simon looked like he was apart to have an aneurism. His fury finally reared its ugly head.
"YOU MEAN TO TELL ME THAT YOU SHOT AND KILLED A SOLDIER FROM MY BASE?!" Arabella's laughter died down and the smile on her face turned to a smirk.
"You're asking me whether or not I killed one of your soldiers? So, you are admitting to the fact that, not only did you know James was a Decepticon Pretender, but that you are also in league with the Decepticons, thus knowingly and willingly endangered not only your soldiers, but also the civilians you were in charge of protecting?" She turned, arms wide. "Well, will you lookit' that, boys. My dad really is a pit spawned devil."
Simon was blanched, but wore a dark scowl. He remained silent, but his nostrils were flared and his hands were in tight fists.
"See? No denial means confirmation!" Her smile disappeared. "Will, do as you wish."
The ex-commander was cuffed in seconds, gagged and blindfolded. Four soldiers escorted him away to be interrogated. The rest stood in awe of what had just occurred.
"Well, good riddance to bad rubbish. Oi! Frozen statues!" The soldiers' heads turned to her as one. "Get a fire started! We have some celebrating to do! Andrew! Timothy! You're in charge of getting three fires going! Kyle! You're with me. Lennox! Get your men in gear. We have a feast to get going. Let's move it, ladies!"
xxxxxPCxxxxx
They had six moose carcasses they had to barbeque on a spit. They had been well seasoned with local and wild herbs and the roasting meat was making the men's mouths water. When the first three were taken off the fire, they were immediately taken to the base, along with a huge pot of vegetable stew that they had managed to cook up. They were back a short while later for the other two and most of the last one, while the rest remained there for the soldiers that had come to feast on.
There were jokes and laughter, with beers going around and stories told. Every now and then they would strike up a song to which everyone would be dancing.
"'Bella, how did you pull this off?"
"Me? I didn't do anything. This was all those three boys over there. I put them through hell, but they did great." She took another swig from the bottle of water she was now drinking. Will sat next to her, also with a bottle of water.
"If I remember correctly, Andrew had a stutter."
"He did. He had a nervous stutter. I taught him to have self-confidence and self-esteem; he learnt to use it and BAM! Stutter gone."
"Wow, that's amazing." He sat in silence for a moment, staring at the bright stars that had come to shine above them. "So, what now?"
"Well, now we enjoy the evening, get the really drunk people home safe…" Will face palmed beside her.
"No, I meant, in the long run?"
"What I thought was going to happen now is that you can use those three on your missions to get all that intelligence that you need. I'll stick around, working with the women in the mornings. Then I can alternate the afternoons between training another elite team and training your hunters, who, if I might say, have been doing a DISMAL job as of late."
Will couldn't help but wince in agreement. Arabella took a swig of water from the bottle.
"I'd just need to clear the training with the top dogs, but I don't think it will be denied." He was quiet for a moment. "Say, you said that you guys had to steal…"
"Borrow."
"Steal, items from the base." Arabella glared at him. "So, what did you take?"
Arabella was silent, but had large sly smirk on her face, her eyes twinkling. Will was immediately worried.
"Arabella? Bella?!" She jumped up and bellowed as loudly as she could.
"HEY EVERYBODY! GUESS HOW COMMANDER LENNOX DOES 'IT'?!" Everyone stared at her as Will blanched.
"No, Arabella, noooooo!" She whipped a particular item out of her pocket and held it high in the air, laughing as she dodged Will who was trying to get it back. The remaining soldiers whooped loudly as they recognized the scandalous toy. When the remaining bots finally figured out what they item was for, most of them shifted awkwardly while Optimus Prime mentally thumbed up the item.
"Tim! Catch!" She tossed the item over the fire to the quiet man, who laughed.
"So fluffy!" He tossed it over to Kyle, who twirled it around his finger a few times and adopted a girly shriek.
"SO PINK!" He whipped it over Andy, who struck a sexy pose.
"So kinky!" The soldiers were canning themselves as Will blushed bright red. Andrew tossed it back to Arabella, who handed it back to Will. He took it, stuffing it into his pants pocket.
"Hey man, we really didn't need to know that, but hey, if that's what turns you on…"
"Shut up, Epps." Will bit at him, hands in his pockets as he walked back to get his bottle of water. Epps was determined to have the last word.
"Whatever you say, Officer." The soldiers let out whoops of laughter again as Will continued to stomp away. Arabella was just close enough to hear him mumble something along the lines of:
'So that's where it went.'
Arabella chuckled as she looked at the group of soldiers. Her chuckle simmered down to a lingering smile as she looked around her. She slowly turned, gazing out over the lake, staring at the reflection of the bright moon on the shimmery surface. She heard the footsteps of a tall individual behind her, but didn't turn to acknowledge the man.
"Penny for your thoughts?"
"I need to see Ratchet in the morning."
Optimus paused. He had not expected that reply, but he simply shrugged, coming to stand next to her. He also gazed out over the waters, but finally tilted his head up to look at the stars.
"You have a beautiful planet." He whispered softly. Arabella was silent for a long time, listening to everything around her.
"It is." She finally conceded. "And to think that back in the day, few actually thought that."
Optimus was silent. He remembered when the children were so focused on staying inside and playing on the computers, when everyone was 'too busy.' He sighed.
"I'm sor…"
"Don't."
Optimus was staggered. "But…"
"Just don't, ok?" He opened his mouth again, but was swiftly cut off as she turned to face him. "I don't want to hear it! The only reason, the only reason I'm here is because I'm helping to clean up your mistakes. Got it?"
Optimus stood frozen at the amount of ice and contempt that had been in those words; his processors reeling at the statements, leaving him gaping like a fish.
She glared at him a few moments longer before abruptly turning and walking away, grumbling under her breathe, leaving one confused mech that was trying to make sense of the strange woman.
Hey guys! New chappie! It might seen a little of here at the end, but there is reason for it. :3 there will be a few time jumps happening in the future, (coz I'm lazy like that) and I may or may not end the story soon. I haven't decided yet.
Katrina466- Thanks! I try to write something that I would like to read, or something different. I must admit, I am slightly tired of the movie rewrites, no offense to the people who do. :3 Glad you like it :D
KillStrikePrime-PhoenixNova - :D Well, I gladly oblige with this new chapter! :) Glad you like it! :D
Sweetea1 - I know, right? I originally thought of making her Dad the pretender, but then it didn't really work out nicely. :P Glad you still like my story! :)
Please review! I like it when you do! :3 3