Hey guys! I know this chapter is a little short, but I knew that you would want a little preview of the baddies... Yes I said "baddies"... Anywho, thank you for the reviews so far, I hope to see more and more! You guys are really what keeps my stories going!
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, however I own soul custody of Cat(Project Seven)!!
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"Our current projects aren't much of anything at the moment, sir. We haven't seen any improvements in the DNA structure. Every time they reach the fifth stage their cell structure breaks down. We haven't managed to keep that from happening but we're steadily working on it," a man set a report down on another man's desk.
There was a long pause before the man sitting at his desk sighed and stood up. He paced for a moment before settling at a window, his back to the other man, who stood in waiting for some sort of response.
"So there was no way for you to get back into the base to retrieve our old information?"
"No sir, not yet. We have someone who is currently closer to getting in than the others could have but-"
Just then someone burst through the door, startling the two men who were speaking.
"Sir!" yet another unknown figure ran up to the other two unknown figures.
"What is it?! Who is this?!" the man at the desk demanded.
"I'm sorry sir, this is our operative who has been trying to access the dam for just under a month now," he turned to this newer figure, "What is it?" he asked with clenched teeth.
The newest figure was panting, obviously he had been in a rush to get there to inform them of something rather important.
"It's… It's her, sir!" he said suddenly.
"Her, who?!" the figure head asked.
"It's Project Seven, sir! She's alive!" he managed to blurt out.
The other two men stood in near shock.
"What are you talking about?! Project Seven was terminated in Mission City along with Project Eight!"
"No sir! I have the proof here!" he handed over a stack of reports.
"She was found! It doesn't give the specifics as to how she survived her illness, but it states that Project Eight was destroyed, and Project Seven was found alive! She was taken to Mission City Memorial hospital, then released to the care of Ronald and Judith Witwicky of Tranquility, California!" he showed them the reports page by page with all of the important names.
"Witwicky? Why does that name sound so familiar?" The figure-head wondered aloud.
The second man responded quickly, "The government was looking for a Samuel Witwicky a few days before the attacks on Mission City."
"Yes, but there's more!" the third man said excitably.
"Well?! What else is there?!" the man at the desk asked.
"She's living at the Dam!" he had been holding another folder to which he opened it, pulling out several photos.
The two men took the photos from the other and stared at them in complete, and utter shock.
They were pictures of a woman standing amongst some rocks, overlooking the dam. And other photos of her riding over the dam on her motorcycle. One photo, specifically, made the two men's hearts nearly stop beating. It was an amazing telephoto shot of her eyes. One, sky blue, the other electric yellow.
"And you're sure that this is her?" the first man who was standing in front of the other's desk asked.
"Of course it is," the head figure standing behind the desk replied, the other two looking back to him.
"Those are the eyes of our little Seven all right…" he picked up a photo frame from his desk and sighed.
It was a picture of a young woman who looked like… Well it could only be best described as our young friend, Cat. Except she had the brown-eyed feature instead of the blue eyes. She was laughing and had an arm wrapped around a younger version of the man who was holding the frame.
He sat down at the desk, putting the frame down and looking back at the photos of Cat.
"We designed these projects after her… All of them looked so much like her… Except for Seven. She had every feature except for her eyes…"
The other two men looked back at each other and then to the figure-head.
"She was the only one born with blue eyes… And this yellow eye here… When we redesigned project Five into project Eight we gave her special lenses that allowed her to see every spectrum of light and dark, as well as heat signatures and biorhythms. They were both the only two projects who could ever use Alchemy correctly… Something happened to Five, and I bet that Seven used her body to correct the malfunction with her immune system…" he looked up to the two men in the room.
"What else do you know about her?" he asked.
"Well, she has been given a new identity, and full citizenship. She has a birth certificate and everything," the third man explained.
"And what's her new identity?"
"Sir?" he was confused.
"A name, you moron… What did she decide to call herself?"
The third man picked up some of the report papers until he came upon one certain page.
"Andrews, sir. Catherine Lillian Andrews. It states that she decided to name herself after her surrogate, who died in some of the accidents at the Dam, the same day as the Mission City incident," he explained.
Another long silence.
"What do you want us to do, sir?" the second man asked, feeling hopeful for this new bit of information.
The first man turned in his chair with the back to the other two.
"S-sir?" the third man asked, wanting to know what his next task should be.
The man turned back around in his chair and looked to his men.
"Let's kill two birds with one stone, eh? We'll try and convince Catherine to come and visit first… If we're lucky, perhaps she'd be willing to aid us in our problems with the new projects."
"And if she refuses?" the second man asked.
"Then we'll make her an offer she can't refuse… No matter what offer it has to be…" he looked to the paper that had the Witwicky's names on it," If what I think is correct, Seven, being a part of the original seven functional projects will have the blood we need to bring these other projects to life…"
"Why do we need the other projects sir?" the second man asked.
The head figure looked up to this man and with an indignant response said, "What are you talking about, fool?"
"If we can capture Project Seven, then we can use her! We can resume our testing and training with her!"
The figure-head scoffed and looked away.
"No, really! Think about it! Half the battle has already been fought with her! We could skip through the whole nonsense of raising an infant and get on with the real grunt work! She's already been through several thousand tests in her lifetime, it would be nothing more than what she is already used to!" he went on.
The figure-head looked to his second in command.
"Let's just start out with my plan first…" he decided, "I need to get to know this woman better before I resume any testing… Granted in time, I will do as I wish with her powers, but for now, I wish only to understand her new life a little better…"
The second in command seemed somewhat disappointed, but bowed his head and said, "As you wish, Mr, Elric…"
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Cat was standing on a ledge of rock, which overlooked the Hoover Dam under the glow of the full moon. She hadn't been able to sleep that night. Something in her gut instincts told her that there was reason to worry.
"Cat?" the familiar voice of a certain Autobot leader approached.
Optimus had seen Cat leave the Dam in a bit of a rush, and decided that he had better follow to ensure that there wasn't a problem.
The girl turned to see a large semi transform into the bipedal form of Optimus. She was somewhat glad that someone she trusted was there with her because at the moment she felt quite unsafe. As if the security of her new life was somehow in danger, as well as her friends.
"Cat, are you all right? You left the Dam in a rush, and didn't even bother taking your motorcycle with you," Optimus asked. Surely, he thought, there was something very wrong if she hadn't even bothered with her prized possession.
"I'm sorry I left in such a hurry, Optimus… It's just that… Something feels wrong… I don't know how to explain it but… I had a sick feeling in my stomach and I needed to think on it," she didn't even smile.
Even Optimus, who knew Cat, but didn't spend quite as much time with her as some of the others did, knew that she would at least wear her fake smile if it wasn't serious.
"What is it? Should I call for Ratchet?" he asked.
Cat had been holding a piece of paper in her hand, and the paper wrinkled and tore as she balled up her hands into fists.
"No, it's not that kind of sick… But something is wrong… Very, very wrong…"
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Chapter Teaser!
Ratchet chuckled quietly to himself and turned back towards what he was doing before the girl had interrupted him.
"So what's on today's agenda?" she asked as she sat on the edge of the large examination table, dangling her legs over the side.
"You've been very quick to learn how to repair Cybertronian systems, Catherine. However, today we're expecting some new arrivals, and they'll be coming here for an examination shortly," he explained.