Pretty Lady
…
Aria woke up later that day. Deciding it was time to eat, she made her way to the kitchen before anything else.
Tonight's supper looked like a mix of over boiled peas, carrots, and pork. It was nice to know that they were at least trying to encourage healthy eating. Unfortunately, the quality of the food didn't do it any justice.
It turned out swallowing was quite painful for her sore ribs. If they had hurt earlier that day, they killed now. The cracked one felt especially pleasant. She popped a pain pill and downed some orange juice.
After she finished eating she made her way to the bathroom. Inside was Mikaela. She must have just finished having a shower judging by her wet hair and towel wrapped tan body. Aria had tried to tan once, just last week as a matter of fact, but hers looked terrible compared to Mikaela's.
"Fancy meeting you here," Aria teased.
Mikaela raised her eyebrows cynically "Ha ha. You're funny."
Aria returned the look. "Why thank you."
She turned, heading to the showers picking up a random towel off the floor as she did. Mikaela must have watched her trying to reach it without moving her back since she heard a laugh before she came over and picked it up for her.
"So I heard you fell off the boat," she started. "And then Optimus jumped in to save you, how sweet." At the last part she batted her long eyelashes and made one of those mock cutie faces. They laughed.
Aria recovered first. "Yeah I honestly had no idea robots could swim," she said while she took off her clothes and got into the shower Mikaela had left the shampoo in.
Mikaela raised her voice over the running water. "Neither did I."
"Though, he wasn't happy about doing it."
Mikaela chuckled. "I could see why. Sam's dog peed on Ironhide's foot a few years ago and he's still not over it. Brings it up once a week."
Their conversation went from angry wet robots, to Aria's cracked rib, and then somehow to what they were doing when they got home. Turned out they were both going to head straight back to work as soon as they did. Apparently, Mikaela was a body shop mechanic from South Gate California. That explained the amazing tan and car knowledge.
They left the bathroom together after they finished and sauntered back to their bunks where they discovered Leo and Sam yapping away about trivial male things. Aria managed to interrupt and asked if they ever see the Transformers during their day to day lives.
"Well," Sam piped up, "I hear that the NEST base in Diego is shut down at least for now. Lennox was talking about moving base to Washington, but I don't know if that's what's actually going to happen."
So there was a possibility these alien robots were going to live in her city? That meant if the Decepticons decided to attack, she was screwed. But at the same time, it made the possibility of seeing them that much more.
Maybe the base needed a janitor. Even if it was embarrassing, she would do it if it meant seeing the Autobots more often.
Sure they were big and scary looking, and fifty percent of their bodies were weapons of some sort, but they were absolutely fascinating.
She would find Lennox today and ask what she had to do to become a part of their lives. But she hadn't seen him for days. Perhaps he was in the upper parts of the bridge where she wasn't allowed, typical.
"So do you know if the base in Washington would be permanent?" Aria tried, but couldn't keep the excitement out of her voice.
Sam shrugged. "I have no clue."
Mikaela looked thoughtful while Leo looked perplexed as per usual.
"I hear we're going to be home by tomorrow afternoon," Aria stated, changing the subject.
"Yeah, finally!" Mikaela sounded relieved. Leo and Sam agreed with her nodding.
The four of them talked for a while longer before saying their goodnights and climbing into their bunks. Mikaela and Sam decided to share one tonight complaining that it was too cold. What a terrible excuse, Couldn't they come up with something more clever? Like one of the mattresses springs broke, or... Never mind.
…
Aria's eyes shot open. This was it, the day she got to go home. She practically jumped out of bed, unfortunately her back injury inhibited ninety percent of the action.
It must have been early because the three other teenagers where still blissfully sleeping away.
Aria reached under Mikaela's empty mattress to retrieve the brush they shared. She took it with her to the bathroom along with a few other vanity items they had gathered. Once there, she got ready as per usual.
In the bathroom, she put on her tattered sundress and the t-shirt on top. It made a slightly cuter outfit than the cargo pants.
Aria hummed while she checked herself out in the mirror from different angles, fixing her hair for the umpteenth time, even if her refection was blurred thanks to her poor vision. Leaving the boat was a big event.
Perhaps she could see the Autobots one last time. Sure, they were scary as hell, but who knows if she'd ever see them again.
The hanger was illuminated by its usual florescent lights when Aria arrived. There were a few crew members here and there, tending to the planes. A few of them nodded at Aria as she made her way past them towards the back of the deck. Sure enough, there was a row of vehicles ranging from a Beat to a Peterbilt. She approached them slowly. Were they sleeping?
The silver Corvette to her left spring to life revving its engine. It spun its tires on the asphalt before doing a tight drift and stopping sideways right in front of where she would have been seconds ago, if she hadn't scrambled out of the way. For good guys, they sure did enjoy being mean.
"Hey pretty lady, want to go for a ride?" asked the car's radio suggestively.
Aria froze. It talked? Wait, it was the robot who was speaking to her through the radio.
"Err, why?"
"I just thought attractive human females liked attractive cars."
It was odd talking to a car; none the less one that called her an attractive female. "Well yeah…uh, sure," she stuttered out.
Aria got up and hesitantly touched the car door. She didn't know if she was allowed to touch it…him, whatever. Plus it was a really expensive looking car.
"Well come on," the radio teased, engine purring.
Aria felt the door move under her hand, opening further. Taking a breath, she got in as fast as she could, which was still pretty slow because of her awkward movements so she wouldn't strain her throbbing back.
"Looks like someone's hurting," came the radio's smooth voice.
"You got that right," Aria responded through clenched teeth. How long was this pain going to last?
The door shut silkily beside her with a satisfying click. The car then became animate with an unnecessarily loud roar of the engine that echoed through the massive metal room. Aria was sure the car was going at least sixty up and down the hanger swerving to avoid aircrafts and humans alike. It was the smoothest car she had ever been in. It was kind of fun actually. Men in the hanger cheered as they drove by.
The Corvette stopped as it neared the others of its kind. Sideswipe had even opened the door all the way to let her out.
Though they had no conversation during the ride, she already felt more at ease near him. He just happened to be a show off that found someone to show off to.
When Aria exited the silver car, all of the Cybertonians transformed at once. As they all stood side by side, their height differences became obvious. The Prime was the tallest by far, not to mention he had a superior stature compared to the rest. Next was the medic, Ratchet, followed by Ironhide, Jolt, Sideswipe, Bumblebee, then the twins, Mudflap and…uh, Skids. Aria had asked Sam and Mikaela multiple times to clarify who's who of the giant metal aliens.
"You can't help but make a spectacle of yourself can you, Sideswipe?" Came a gruff metallic voice.
Aria turned to see Sideswipe behind her looking rather arrogantly towards the black armored robot. "At least I'm nice enough to talk to the female."
Ironhide glared back at him, "I've talked to the girl before."
Oh good, they were competitive.
"Scaring her doesn't count," Sideswipe remarked.
The sturdy robot growled in response. "Why you little punk!"
They both turned to face each other directly, getting ready to pounce.
"Enough you two," another deep voice commanded.
Aria looked back at the Prime, he sounded much like he did the day before when he lectured her. Ironhide and Sideswipe obeyed without a word and resorted back to glaring daggers at one and other.
"You guys got so told," piped up the red twin, Mudflap. The Prime only had to glance at him before he put his metal hands in the air and backed away from the others.
It was Ratchet who finally addressed Aria. "How is your back?" He inquired, bending down and scanning her again.
Aria squinted when the light passed over her face. "It's still pretty sore."
The towering red and blue robot bent down on one knee as well to better look at the girl. "You are still injured?"
She nodded but it was Ratchet who answered the Prime. "She damaged one of the bones that make up her chest cavity."
The Primes glowing optic eyes flickered back to her. They looked teal in the yellow tinted light.
Unlike all the other robots, he brought his face close to hers to get a better look at her while he spoke. "Is it a curable condition?" He turned his gaze back to Ratchet.
"Yes, it should take about two weeks to heal completely. Under the circumstances that she does not do any strenuous activity," he gave her a scrutinizing look.
"Yeah, yeah!" Aria exclaimed, exasperated.
"Good," the medic replied tersely.
Aria sighed, it was now or never. "So are you staying in Washington from now on?" Her voice sounded innocent enough.
The prime nodded. "As far as we understand, Washington DC is our new home."
"I see," Aria tried not to sound too happy about it.
The Transformers were going to live in her city! She knew there where perks to living in the capital of the United States, but who would ever imagine this! Well, other than avid comic book readers.
"It is to my knowledge that you also reside there," said the Prime.
How could he possibly know that? Unless he put two and two together when she told Ratchet she worked at the museum while he was behind her.
"Yes. It's a nice city." Good job, Aria. Way to sound like an idiot.
The Prime merely nodded. "We will arrive there soon"
Aria smiled. "Yeah, I think you guys will like it there."
The small green robot looked up. "Anything cool to check out there?"
"Well it's the capitol of the United States, so I would assume so. Well at least for people. I don't know what you do in your spare time though…" What did they do? They often talked to the soldiers and each other, but other than that they seemed to always be in their car forms.
"We race," Sideswipe stated like she was crazy for not knowing.
Ironhide growled. "No, we do not. We do what we are told."
"Just because you old timers have nothing to do doesn't mean us youthful bots have to sit and do nothing with you all day."
Was the silver robot trying to pick another fight?
"Sideswipe," the Prime stood to his full height facing him. "It is not a wise idea to start a fight with Ironhide simply because you have too much energy. We will resume training soon enough."
Ratchet spoke up. "And the humans would not appreciate you destroying their ship."
Ironhide and Sideswipes glowing eyes never left each other. "I assure you," the taller black robot snarled, "that the fight would be over long before this punk ass could even raise a cannon."
Aria covered her mouth trying to stifle a laugh, he was funnier than Jetfire.
"What are you snickering at, punk?"
She laughed off his threatening tone. He seemed harmless despite his threats.
Ironhide gave her one last glare before transforming back into a Truck. He drove away rather loudly, much like the first time she met him.
"You taught him well, Optimus," it was Ratchet. "Usually he'd try to terminate the human."
That shut Aria up. Maybe he wasn't so harmless.
"No," the Prime corrected. "He would only threaten to terminate the girl."
…
It was just past noon when a loud horn sounded throughout the ship. Aria, along with the other three teenagers, jumped at the sudden loud noise. The lounge they were currently sitting in burst to life seconds later. The crew and soldiers nearly skipped out of the room chattering as if it was the end of the day bell at school. Aria didn't blame them, she felt the same way. They were finally, finally home.
"Come on!" Mikaela urged, already getting up to leave.
Aria awkwardly stood up after the two boys had already joined the younger girl. The three of them waited impatiently for Aria.
"Yeah yeah, I'm coming!" She exclaimed.
Upon reaching the flight deck, the four of them found the entire crew of the ship along with countless soldiers. They covered most of the deck while many still crowded the narrow walkways on the bridge. They were all waving to the people on the dock only meters to the ships right. Most of the civilians were women and children who were cheering and waving back.
There was a small jolt as the massive aircraft carrier came to a halt. The engines then shut off, putting a stop to the hum and small vibrations in the floor that seemed unnoticeable the instant before.
Aria yelped at the sudden contact of Leo's arms embracing her. "Oh my god Leo! That hurts, let go!" she hollered at him over the cheering of the crowd.
He quickly let go, "Sorry, sorry! I forgot, okay? Don't hate me, I'm just happy to finally get off this ship!" His voice went from apologetic to excited in a heartbeat. Aria didn't blame him.
They both looked to see Sam and Mikaela kissing off to the side.
"Oh la la," Leo cooed.
Aria gagged a little. Kissing was gross.
It was about an hour before the entire plethora of men had crossed the dock onto land. Lennox had spotted them in the mean time and told them to stay behind until everyone had left the area. They might as well get comfortable because the crowd wasn't getting any smaller any time soon.
Sure enough they were back in the lounge area two hours later. Apparently, they were leaving with the transformers that night. Aria however, had no more patience with the situation.
"Okay, that's it!" she said shortly gaining the other three's attention. "I'm going to find Lennox and tell him I have animals to take care of. I literally can't afford to sit her when there's a perfectly fine taxi twenty meters away!"
Aria stormed off as dramatically as she could, which ended up making her look like an old lady holding her hunched over back in pain. Since the last of her medication wore off, she was more crippled then ever.
Aria climbed up the stairway slowly and made a loud sigh of relief when she reached the hanger. She spotted the usually silent blue robot conversing with the NEST captain.
"Hey!" she called to the blurry man. He turned to face her, however, she couldn't make out his face.
"Aria? What's up?" The man sounded genuinely concerned, it was the colonel.
"Can I go soon? I really need to get back to my starving animals."
He sighed. "No, people will want to know why there are civilians limping off the dock."
"Come on! No one will even notice me. They're all too busy visiting to even care."
"No," the soldier repeated firmly. "There's no way I'm letting you-"
"I'll take the girl."
Both the man and Aria turned to look at the tall blue robot, mouths a gape for different reasons. Aria took a breath to say something. When no words would form, she exhaled defeated. This robot barely acknowledged her existence before; and now he was offering her a ride home.
"Don't encourage her…" Lennox glared up at him.
This time the Prime himself stepped in. "It would be less obvious to the humans if a car left the ship as opposed to a young female."
"And I am aware that animals taken in as pets are highly dependent on their owners." Ratchet joined them as well.
Lennox raised his voice at them. "No we don't need any more attention that necessary!"
"Come on man, let 'er go," came the small green robot's voice.
The colonel opened his mouth to protest once again, but was interrupted by the Prime. "Then it is decided," his voice was authoritative like none other.
"What!" Lennox said, baffled.
"Jolt will take the girl, and return here once she is home safely," he nodded curtly at the shorter blue robot.
The humans exchanged bewildered looks as Jolt transformed beside them. Aria brushed her hair out of her face and turned to get into the blue vehicle.
"Don't you get into that car…" Lennox warned.
Aria shot him an innocent smile and waved before she leapt inside. The car sped off instantly, leaving the angry Captain behind. Aria had to resist hollering at the pain in her back. At this rate, she was never going to heal. But at least she was finally going home, the strange rusty orb wrapped in cargo pants under her arm.
…