The dam wasn't anything extraordinary. It was just a normal sized dam, that for some reason, required the extra touches of my famous computer programmer mother.
I bit my lip, watching all the nerds fawn around Mom. (Real ones! One was even wearing suspenders, for goodness' sake.) She was, I admitted, still pretty good-looking, for all the facts that she had married and had kids. I didn't want men flocking around her, but there was nothing I could do about it. Like how I could do anything useful here.
Sighing, I sat down on the concrete floor and took out one of my sketchbooks. Doodling is my forte, I thought to myself. I was a far better drawer than computer geek. I was just putting finishing touches on my picture of nerdy owl (which may or may have not been based on one of the people following Mom around), when alarms blared. Before I knew what was going on, my Mom was over here next to me, tugging on my arm to make me get up. "Kendra! We have to leave now." There was a look of panic in eyes. I did a double-take. Mom was scared? Mom's never scared, never.
"Mrs. Ashby, maybe you should-" The worried nerd was cut off. "No! I'm not leaving my daughter to them!" The entire time I was just sitting there, in a mixture of disbelief and shock. What was going on here? My Mom pulled me to my feet and started to drag me to the exit. I went along with it, trying to keep up with her stride, but then I realized something. I had left my sketchbook behind!
"Noo!" Shaking my hand free of Mom's grip, I dived for the sketchbook. Mom tried to go back for me, but was stopped by the combined might of the other workers running in the same direction. Before long, I was alone in the dam side building (I know how you'll read that, but it was!). Picking up the sketchbook, I turned just in time to witness a side wall get blown to pieces.
Before long, things that appeared to be giant robots stepped through. Robots with a strange purple symbol on their chest. My eyes widened. Decepticons!
Jazz was in midst playing a prank. But this time, upon the master pranksters themselves. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. He carefully, carefully made his way up into the rafters with his load of paint-filled balloons. Sooner or later, the twins would walk through that door and they were going to get a nasty surprise when they did.
Well, Sunstreaker would try to kill him after it all but it would be worth it. He heard the door open and peeked over to see who it was. Jazz sighed, seeing it wasn't either of his targets and settled down to wait. The alarm suddenly went off. "BLARR! BLARR! DECEPTICON ALERT! BLARR! BLARR!" For the first time in his career, the master spy lost his balance. He fell, arms still full of paint balloons.
Right on top of Prowl. Splat.
When Ironhide opened the door a few seconds later, he saw Jazz lying on top of Prowl, both mechs covered in bright purple and neon green splatters. "Get up, lovebirds!" The older mech barked. Prowl, already on edge of collapse thanks to the unexpected (and illogical) arrival of Jazz, glitched. Jazz groaned. His processor was going to ache for weeks...he hoped the Decepticons would be easy to handle this time.
Skywarp was confused. It wasn't really a new state for him to be in, but he had a real reason to be this time. Because, really, what the logical response to an alien robot? To run and scream in fear. But this human had done something different. Instead of running, it merely curled up on the floor, talking to itself. Strange.
"Skywarp, what are you doing?" Thundercracker sighed, turning towards his trine-mate. SKywarp pointed at the organic. "Watching the fleshy." "What!?" Thundercracker's optics narrowed, looking down towards the human. "That's weird..."
Seeing his trine-mates standing around doing nothing, Starscream made his way over, only to confronted with the same confusing sight. He stood there for a moment, before commanding, "Just kill the glitching thing already."
"This isn't happening..." I chanted to myself. "Not happening." There was something moving closer to me, I could feel the vibrations through the floor. "Not happening." Rumbling...someone was talking. "Not happening." More vibrations, more robots? "Not happening." I only caught the last part of their conversation. "Just kill the glitching thing already." They were going to kill me...I was dead. For much for it not happening.
I pressed my body closer to the ground, eyes closed, preparing for the end. My face felt vibrations through the concrete, just like before. Only this time, the vibrations were more intense and closer together. What?
"Autobots!" One of robots near me, the screechy one that said to kill me, speaks. "I told you, Lord Megatron. We should have left with the energon we already had!" The answer to that challenge (even I could tell that was a challenge) came fast enough. "Shut up Starscream and fight!"
It sounded like gunfire. I looked up briefly, long enough to see the two robots that had been staring at me transform into jets, lasers flying past them. My head went back down and I shut my eyes, waiting for a stray laser to hit me. What I didn't expect, was suddenly being picked by something. I finally opened my eyes. Looking up, I saw a dinosaur holding me in its claws. Well, in one of them. The other was balancing itself on the ground.
My scream was drowned out by the sounds of battle.
But not entirely. The huge freakin' metal dinosaur's eyes studied me with an air of curiosity. "Don't scream." It talked. "Swoop help you." It talked. I guess, in retrospect, I shouldn't have been so surprised. It was a robot dinosaur, not a regular dead extinct one. Before I worried about anything else, my attention was caught by my book, still on the floor. "Um, excuse me, dinosaur?" "Name Swoop." Was its reply, still watching me. "Ok, uh Swoop, can I please get that book down there? Please?"
"Swoop help." It reached its head down toward the same red cover. "No, wait! Stop!" Too late. Its 'beak' sniped the sketchbook in half. "Oops. Sorry human." I should have been angry or scared. I wasn't. Instead I felt...sorry for the huge metal monster that somehow looked so pitiful. Swoop, I corrected myself. "It's ok, I'll just get a new one." Pity, though. I had a few sketches that looked pretty good.
"Ok? Swoop ok?" It just looked so happy from that remark. So happy that I said it was ok. "Yeah, you're...ok. For a big metal dinosaur." "Swoop not dinosaur. Swoop Dinobot." "Dinobot. Got it. Could you please put me down?" To my disappointment, Swoop shook its head. "No, too dangerous for human right now." It explained, looking regretful. "I can get that."
I just sat there in a claw of a dinosaur. Oops, sorry Dinobot. While there was all this fighting around me, I somehow felt safe. Was it because Swoop hadn't announced any plans to maim or kill me? No, I decided, there was more than that. A look in its eyes seemed to scream "I'm a big softie!" It seemed like a guy...he reminded me of my brother. I miss you so much, Alec.
Swoop looked down at the little human shivering in his claw. He knew he should be helping to fight back the Decepticons, but didn't this human girl need his help even more than his fellow Autobots did? She was nice and had said he was ok. No one else ever said he was ok. He liked being ok. It was better than being a dumb Dinobot.
He felt a strange wetness on his claw. Startled, he saw that the human had something leaking from her optics. Tears, Swoop thought they were called. "You ok, human?" She didn't answer. He asked again. "Human, you ok?" The girl finally answered. "I'm missing my brother," She confessed. "I want to see him again. Not die." "Swoop make sure you not die. Promise." "Really?" For the first time, the Dinobot beheld the human's face directly, as it turned up towards his, tear stains on her cheeks.
Her optics were the color of dirt here on Earth. Not blue or red like other Cybertronians. The tendrils on her head (a quick recall of interactions with Spike informed him it was called hair) were colored black like Earth skies at night.
His thoughts on her appearance were interrupted by the girl herself. "I shouldn't trust you cuz you're a big robot and everything and could kill me. But somehow I...do." She seemed vaguely confused by this thought.
At that moment Swoop came to a decision. He wanted his teammates to meet this nice human.