Hey guys! How goes it? As you may know from reading my profile I'm busily trying to keep up with this but it never works, excuse excuse excuse blah blah blah, as long as you check back to my profile every now and again, you'll probably see a new update for one thing or another. My deviant art profile has been somewhat neglected too, so I'm treating all of my internet children with the same love and respect =D .... Sorry....
FORD B : Thank you! I hope your expectations for this chapter are as good as you hoped it would be.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, I own Cat.
I hope you're all going to see the new movie on the 24th! I know I - ... I'll watch it at some point, really I will... You know it's actually kinda funny. When I saw the first TF movie I was on paid leave after, just a few days before, having surgery, and now it's coming out while I'm on vacation. Nice.
Quick question tho... Why Wednesday?
--
"No... It can't be you... Megatron killed you..." he bellowed.
"A lot of things happened, that day..." Cat walked towards him menacingly, "It doesn't mean everything worked out the way we think it did..." She walked slowly, her form totally slunk and relaxed. There was nothing, either in her heart or her head, stopping her from pushing forward.
The high intensity magnetic field took on it's blue-ish hue around Cat, slowly growing. Barricade stumbled as he stepped backwards, tripping over the leftover debris that he, himself, caused.
"It's time to tie up loose ends, and repair past blunders..." Cat stopped and frowned.
"What are you doing?!" Barricade growled, feeling foolish for having such a fear that this human could possibly do him any damage.
The surge shot out to Barricade, causing the Decepticon to be completely tossed through the air and down to the other end of the street. The sounds of metal scraping could probably be heard from the other side of town as his body landed and skidded to a stop. Barricade laid there, unmoving. Cat's body gave out and she fell, hitting the ground, breathing heavily.
"Did I do that?...Or was it her..." she coughed.
A loud, roaring engine was suddenly heard from behind her as she turned over onto her stomach and lifted her head to look up. She could make out bright headlights from far away. They shined on her and Evan brightly as the vehicle approached. Cat pulled herself between Evan and the approaching vehicle, readying herself for a possible second battle. She was ready for anything that could happen. If she were to use what little energy she had left against just one more Decepticon, it would be well worth it. She pulled herself up, sitting on her knees when she recognized the vehicle. It stopped just a few feet away from them, and Cat smiled once more. It was Christine.
Josh jumped out of the drivers side door and ran over to them, "What the hell happened?!"
Cat sighed in relief. Now all she had to do was wait for the guys to show up and-
A rumble was felt within the ground. Cat's face went from relieved to 'uh oh' in a split second. She looked over to Josh, who was at his friends' side. Josh stopped what he was doing and looked down the street. His eyes suddenly grew in terror. Cat turned to look behind her and saw that Barricade had regained himself, and was on his feet, looking down their way. She watched as he tested both of his arms... They seemed to be fully functional...
Cat gasped, her own eyes widened, "No way... No... How?!"
Cat was sure that she didn't have the strength to create another surge, and even if she did, it may not have done anything to him anyway. She could stand, sure, maybe even have the strength to aid Josh in picking up Evan and making an escape in Christine. But defending against Barricade was going to be impossible. She could only watch as the Decepticon began to turn to hunt down his intended targets...
--
Optimus used the Global Positioning Sensor on Cat's arm to close in on her position. The whole crew was behind him as they made their way through the small town, careful to steer around the debris and particles left behind of an obvious battle.
"And Cat's here?" Mikaela asked, a hint of fear in her voice.
"It's Cat... She's all right," Sam assured, although not feeling quite as confident as he sounded.
"If this is the result of Barricade and Cat battling, then I would hate to know which one withstood the other," Prowl commented through the communications.
Mikaela's eyes widened in horror, warm tears beginning to form within them.
"Thanks a lot, Prowl," Sam put an arm around Mikaela to comfort her.
"It's my fault..." Mikaela suddenly spoke.
"What are you talking about?" Sam asked quietly, the others listening intently as well. Why would Mikaela blame herself for this encounter?
Through a sniff and some tears, Mikaela began to explain, "Cat called me earlier today and she told me that she'd seen the boy from the night that she'd seen Barricade for the first time..."
"What?" Sam was stunned.
"She said that she was following him, and I guess this is where she followed him to..." Mikaela looked up to Sam, "She said she was just going to find out something about him and come right back to the Dam..."
"What would she need to know?" Sam asked.
"She said the reason why she left before the paramedics could reach him was because he called her "Seven"." Mikaela weeped.
"Yeah, that sounds like something Cat wouldn't tell us," Ironhide commented.
"I told her that she should have told you guys, but she thought he didn't mean her any harm..."
"Then why didn't she just-" Sam began before receiving the look from Mikaela that told him 'you know why'.
"I just wish I'd spoken up before now... Maybe she'd be all right..." Mikaela felt guilt run through her body like a virus.
"Don't blame yourself, Mikaela, " Bumblebee encouraged, "When we find Cat, everything will be all right..."
"Makes sense, "Jazz commented, "The kid that answered Cat's cell called her 'Seven'. Means it may not be Secta Eleven afta all."
"We can only hope," Optimus agreed, "How close are we to the locator, Wheeljack?"
"We're closing in on the tracking device," the scientist replied, bringing everyone to attention of their surroundings.
Where was Cat? Was she all right? Every one of them couldn't help but think that this could have been it for the girl who had fought to stay alive since the beginning of her life...
--
"We gotta go!" Josh grabbed at Cat, pulling her up and helping her stand, "We gotta get Evan and go! Those friends of yours are on their way here!"
"Shh, wait..." Cat watched as Barricade looked around from side to side, turning around in a full circle.
"He... Can't find us... But how?" Cat used her left eye to try and find out what was making Barricade so confused. He looked in every direction, annoyance written on his faceplates. Cat's left eye picked up a field of some sort of particles that stood between Barricade and the group of humans. It was some sort of interference but... How did it get there?
The rain finally began to let up, the black, churning clouds beginning to fade away slowly, revealing the light of a full moon. Cat suddenly noticed a shadow which crept across the concrete street like a flow of water. Josh noticed it as well and the two looked across the street to behind a building, where the form of another robot rose from behind it.
"Oh my god! It's another killer robot!" Josh screamed.
"Shut up!" Cat scolded as she continued to stare at the figure, who's bright, blue optics stared back, "It's all right... He's one of ours..." She smirked. There probably wasn't a time that she had felt such relief, but her stomach settled and her heart slowed. It was as if a sudden blanket of safety had covered her body.
The sounds of several roaring engines and sirens could be heard in the not-so-far-off distance. Cat looked down the street at Barricade as he transformed into his mustang and drove out of sight, disappearing into the small town. She looked up to see that the other figure had jumped over the building, destroying the concrete street as he landed in front of them. She noticed that the armor on this one was the same sleek silver that the others were before they had scanned their new alternate modes. Was this one new?
"Did you help us?" Cat asked, unsure if this new Autobot was responsible for their safety.
The tall, slender figure nodded. Cat smiled up at the mech as he bent down to get a better look at the three humans. Josh ran back to Christine and hid behind it, watching from afar like a cat watching it's prey.
"You can call me Mirage," the smooth, deep voice of the newcomer revealed.
"Mirage," Cat aknowledged, "So did you do that? The particle field, I mean."
Mirage nodded, "How did you notice it? Even Megatron, himself, couldn't detect it during the battles that I had encountered him in," he sat down, gently, to talk with the humans.
Cat pointed to her left eye, "I have an optic that's pretty close to what you have. I can pick up heat signatures, energy signatures, and even trace amounts of anti-matter and high intensity particle fields. It's come in handy."
"I can imagine so," Mirage scanned over the three humans for informational use, "You wouldn't happen to be Catherine, would you?"
"Call me Cat, " she nodded with a smile, "You received Optimus' report didn't you?"
"No. Actually I landed several miles outside of this town and I found the communications that the Autobots stationed on Earth had created. When I contacted them, they were adament about me checking on things here. They feared that you and other humans were in danger," Mirage explained.
Cat turned back to see that Evan was still unconscious. She went over to him, pulling his chin up towards the sky and checking to make sure he was still breathing, "Yeah, I'm sure that I'll be getting another lecture... And I'm sure that this'll be the last time I'm allowed outside for the rest of my life..." she gently lifted Evans head up to check for any contusions, "Looks like he'll be okay."
"That power that you created," Mirage asked, "I couldn't even evaluate it's level. It was off my sensors scales! What was it?"
Cat sighed. How was she supposed to explain it?
"It's hard to explain. That was the first time that I've used it when it was necessary..." Cat answered, her eyes searching around as if the answer were in a puddle on the ground.
Mirage looked up and saw that the third human was still ducking behind the other vehicle, "You can come out. I won't harm you."
Josh looked back and forth from Cat to Mirage and replied, "....I'm cool...."
Cat smirked, "You'll have to excuse him. There's only a small percentage of humans who know anything about you guys. This is pretty much the reaction that you'll get from anyone who's new to the whole Cybertronian thing."
"Was this your reaction as well?" Mirage asked.
Cat laughed and rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, "No. My first assumption was that the guys were part of some sort of government experiment like I was. I didn't trust anyone because I had no reason to. It was my first encounter with anyone outside of the lab that I lived in."
"Lab? Like Wheeljack's lab?" Mirage was confused.
Cat shook her head and lowered it to the ground, "No, nothing like that. I'm pretty sure Wheeljack's never experimented on his own kind before... This was run by humans..." she looked up to the, still confused, look on the mech's silver plated face, "It's a long story..."
Mirage only nodded, taking in all of this new information. Humans were going to be a new concept that would take time to understand, however if any of them could do what he had witnessed Cat do, he would enjoy the new learning experience.
Cat and Mirage turned towards the end of the street, seeing the darkened roads lit up by flashing red and blue lights. The sirens had gone silent a moment ago, and now the form of Optimus, followed by the rest of the Autobots were now turning onto the street, fast approaching them.
"Here comes the crew," Cat sighed, wiping some of the drying blood from her face.
Josh ran past Cat and Mirage, waving to the semi truck and other vehicles as they pulled up and came to a stop, "Hey! Help! Giant robot!"
"I've got news for you kid," Josh turned at the sound of Cat's voice as she smirked and crossed her arms, "You're preaching to the choir."
Optimus began his transformation process, as did the rest of the line of cars and trucks, causing Josh to stand where he was, stunned.
Cat chuckled, watching as the young man ran back to Christine, his metaphorical tail between his legs.
Optimus was the first to finish his transformation, taking in the sight in front of him. Mirage stood up quickly, putting a hand to the soluting position.
"At ease, friend," Optimus made a nod towards the new mech, "Did you have any problems?"
Mirage shook his head, "Actually, Catherine made it easy to separate Barricade from herself and the other humans. All I had to do was use a particle field to make them disappear."
Optimus looked down to Cat, who was standing next to an unconscious human male. He noticed the amount of red that covered her face and bent down to her, "Are you all right?"
Cat nodded, "Yeah, just a few scratches and scrapes."
Optimus looked behind her and saw that the third human was ducking behind Cat's new vehicle as if he were too afraid to approach them. He looked back to the young fighter and frowned, "You've got a lot of explaining to do..."
"Optimus, I-" Cat started.
"Not before I get a chance to overlook the situation," Ratchet stepped in, followed by Prowl.
"This area is desolate of human activity, but I'm not sure that staying here much longer would not be a good idea. It may cause an uproar," Prowl noted.
"Let's clear this up quickly, then," Ironhide added, taking a look around the area.
Ratchet's hologram appeared, taking Cat by the chin and examining her closely. When he was done with that, he took her right arm and lifted the sleeve, taking a look at her false appendage. It was scuffed and dented badly, "Barricade did quite a number on you."
"You should see what I did to him," For a moment the twisted smile reappeared on Cats face.
Ratchet's hologram looked to her in order to make a clever response, but was suddenly frozen in place. He was unable to move but focused carefully on her narrowed, devilish eyes. They way they stared into nothing but looked as though the thoughts behind them were merciless and blood-thirsty. Her smile was wide and thin, but just as quickly as this appeared, Cats eyes instantly flashed back to their usual sweet and child-like mannerisms. Her mouth moved, however the medic didn't pay attention to a word of it. His processor straining to analyze what he had just seen.
"Ratch?" Cat looked up at the tan-ish face of the older male figure, her charasmatic looks studying him carefully with a worried glance, "Something wrong?"
"Er- no," Ratchet shook himself out of the image that he had just witnessed.
"I said Frenzy did some of this too," Cat repeated, Ratchet only hearing this for the first time, "Apparently they've found one another..."
Ratchet nodded, "I suppose they had to join back up sooner or later," he turned to Optimus, "It's all aesthetic. She just needs to be cleaned." But of course, he couldn't just leave it completely alone. The medic's hologram turned back to Cat, "Just one more thing."
"What's that?" Cat asked, just before receiving a whack to the back of her head, "Hey! What the hell was that for?!" she asked, both hands rubbing over the back of her head.
"Just checking..." The hologram muttered in a whisper.
"What?!" Cat griped.
Ratchet raised an eyebrow, "You know what it's for..." He went back to his work, going to Evan and beginning to check him over.
"No more NCIS for you..." Cat growled.
"Cat?!" the girls head looked up to see Mikaela and Sam running towards her, followed by Bumblebee, "Oh my god, are you okay?!" Mikaela hugged the drenched Cat quickly, pulling away to notice what was all over her friend.
"You're bleeding!" Mikaela looked Cat over like a mother hen, checking all of her scratches and cuts.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Cat reassured, "It's all right, there's nothing to worry about."
Sam was nearly right behind Mikaela, "Where's Barricade?"
"He took off when he heard you guys from far away," Cat replied, "Mirage had him all confused."
Optimus turned to Bluestreak and the twins, "Take a quick look around to make sure that Barricade is no longer in the area."
The three nodded, "Yes sir," they replied as they transformed and made their way through the streets.
"Which one of these boys is the one that you followed?" Ratchet asked.
Cat looked surprised at the medic and asked, "How did you-" she stopped and looked to Mikaela, "You told them?!"
"She should have told us sooner, from what we know so far!" Prowl commented in his usual monotonous vocalizer.
Cat shook her head and sighed, looking down to Evan and pointing to him, "That's the kid that I saw on Christmas Eve..."
"And why is it that he's calling you "Seven"?" Optimus asked.
Cat looked up to the leader with a surprised glance, "You... You know?"
Mikaela sighed, "I'm sorry Cat... You were in trouble so I thought that saying something would help them understand what was going on..." Cat could clearly make out the guilt that was written all over Mikaela's face. Although she was hoping that she never had to tell anyone else about her little secret, she didn't want her friend to feel as if she were a part of the ring of lies.
Cat shook her head, "No it's all right. I knew they were going to find out sooner or later. I just wasn't expecting it to be tonight... Barricade kind of made it necessary..." she smiled slightly in order to comfort her distraught friend.
Mikaela gave a small smile in return as she nodded in agreement.
"Is there going to be a week where we won't have to worry about the trouble you're getting into?" Sam smirked.
Cat smiled, "I'll see if I can pencil something in next month. This month, I'm all booked up."
The teens smiled and gave a light chuckle, helping them to be comforted after fearing that they were going to be scraping their friend up from the sidewalks.
"We're going to need to be updated on everything that you know up to this point," Prowl commented.
"And as much as I'd like to sit here and tell you all about what happened tonight, I'm exhausted. I'd like to go home."
"I suppose we can wait to get back to the Dam to have all of this straightened out," Optimus thought aloud, "But just be sure to tell us everything this time. If you believe that something is amiss, no matter what it is, we need to know as well."
Cat nodded, her eyes straying to the ground, "I know... I think everything's basically out now, though..."
"Except for this," little to Josh's knowledge, Bumblebee was able to sneak up behind him and grab the poor boy, sending him into hysterics.
"LET GO OF ME MAN! I KNOW TAE KWON DO!" Josh struggled against the hold that Bee had on the back of his shirt as he twisted and turned with every punch and kick he threw.
"Who is this?" Optimus asked.
"It's all right, "Cat tried to calm the situation, "He's a friend of the other kid, and I'm afraid that he got caught up in all of this..."
"He must be the one who answered yo cell," Jazz realized.
"Ah," Cat suddenly understood how all of this came together so well, "So they got to the phone in time, huh?"
"No," Optimus replied, "Just him. He had lost you and the other boy by the time we were in contact with him."
"So you left him behind and ran off like a scared little girl?" Cat asked Josh.
"No!" Josh replied indignantly, "Evan told me to take the keys and go find the car! It was sort of a touch-and-go moment so I did what he said to do!"
"Okay," Sam tried to understand what had happened, "So why didn't Barricade nab you before you could get away?"
"Sounds like he was after Evan for some specific purpose," Mikaela added.
Everyone, holograms and humans alike, turned to look at Cat, staring as if waiting for some kind of answer.
"What?!" Cat asked, "Oh, like I know!"
"You really don't know? Or you know but you don't want to say anything because you think it might incriminate you?" Bumblebee asked.
"I really don't know!" Cat spat. The group, reluctantly, believed her. She could tell that getting any of them to believe what she said would be more difficult from now on.
"Perhaps it lies with Cat, herself," Optimus hypothesized.
"What do you mean?" Jazz asked.
"Barricade caused his accident on the night that she went to visit the Witwicky's on a holiday, and once more appeared when she met him tonight. He did not attack the boy when he was by himself," the leader explained.
"No way," Cat shook her head, "Barricade had no idea that I was coming his way when he attacked the kid. He ran away from me when I revealed myself, remember?"
"But he's right, " Sam interjected, "Barricade's probably had a million chances to kill him, right? Why did he wait until you were nearby until he did it?"
Cat's eyes strayed and she shrugged, "I don't know..."
"Perhaps we can get more information from their dwelling. Maybe something the boy kept has made him a target," Prowl suggested.
"Where do you live?" Optimus asked Josh.
"Uh-er.. Well we live in the crummiest apartment in town down on -" Josh began.
"Ah-hem," Cat stopped him, "Uh, 'crummy' would probably be the best way to describe it..."
"Why, what's wrong?" Mikaela feared the worst.
"Barricade sort of... Destroyed it..." It wasn't really so much that Cat felt bad that their place had been destroyed, she was more worried for the fact that if there was no other place to go, they'd have to -
"I suppose they should come back with us, then," Optimus vented a sigh.
"Wait, I don't remember the complex being leveled, when did that happen?" Josh asked.
"You mean you don't recognize your block?" Cat pointed to the end of the street where, sure enough, the remains of a large building were in crumbles.
"Oh my- Oh GOD!" Josh ran to the remains, screaming, "My stuff! My furniture! It's all gone!"
"Shouldn't we leave and let him mourn in peace?" Cat whined.
"Cat!" Mikaela hissed.
"Sorry..."
"It's settled, then," Optimus declared, "Cat, these two will be bunking with you until we can find something for them."
Cat had been giggling and smirking to herself as she watched Josh pour over losing his lawn chairs when she suddenly turned towards the blue Autobot, "I'm sorry, what was that?"
"You heard him," Ratchet smirked himself.
"Uh, no... No, no no no, that's not going to work - Optimus! This just isn't right! I mean," she watched the poor boy for a moment more and then turned back and said, "I'd kill them!"
"Sorry, Cat," Jazz almost couldn't hold back his contented laughter, "But you kinda brought this on to yo-self."
"Wait a second," Sam spoke up, "Mikaela and I are bunking at her apartment tonight, where are we supposed to go now?"
Cat's eyes glittered with excitement, "Yeah!"
"I'll call back to the base and have the medical staff prepare some beds for these two boys. It looks as though this one will need some medical care anyway," Ratchet offered.
"Thanks..." Cat drooped, knowing that once the kids needed to go back to Tranquility, she'd be stuck with the other two.
"Cat, you can take your vehicle and give 'Josh' a ride back to the Dam. Bumblebee can take the children back as well, and I think it would be best if Jazz and Ironhide escorted you, just in case Barricade or any other Decepticon decides to reappear," Optimus ordered.
"Fine.." Cat grumbled as she started towards her Plymouth.
"And Cat?" Optimus added.
"Yeah?" Cat looked to the leader with hope. Maybe he would say that it was all a joke, that he would have the Dam provide some other accomodations for the two boys and that she wouldn't have to worry about a thing.
"We're going to need to talk with you more tomorrow," he made sure to burst that last little balloon of hope with a smirk.
"...Okay..." Oh god, this was going to be hell...
-
No Chapter Teaser this time either! Sorry folks, it'll be back soon! I promise!