10. The Battle in the Night
"Hey Rumble! Why don't you hang out with me instead?!" Recognition cut through Allison's stunned and disoriented mental state as she managed to roll over, surprised through her fearful haze to see the darkened form of Bumblebee standing over her—he was cracking jokes?! The Autobot had the Decepticon he called Rumble pinned against the ruined wall of her building, arm locked at a distance so that his quarry thrashed around uselessly in his grip; just hanging there…
The action of Allison stumbling to her feet, made Bumblebee finally glance at her, his expression indecipherable. "H-hey… you should probably run—" Whatever motion Bumblebee was doing with his free arm went unnoticed, as Allison caught sight of something massive moving towards him fast. It was clearly angry. Maybe her sudden, horrified expression gave it away, but she pointed behind him, screaming.
"Look out!"
Perhaps Bumblebee had actually sensed it before Allison's organic brain could process what she was seeing, because the second the words left her lips the Autobot reacted. His expression widened in alarm, then half a second later he swung around in the opposite direction, bodily throwing the Decepticon in his grip at the oncoming monstrosity that exploded from the ground to tower above him. Whatever it was, it was immediately obvious it wasn't friendly, barely flinching as it caught the living projectile that was thrown at it. Bumblebee stepped in front of her to take a defensive position, making it incredibly obvious that his earlier statement was not so much a suggestion, but a necessity.
Before she turned to run, Allison only had the faintest impression of Rumble disengaging from the new arrival who bore a striking resemblance to the smaller Decepticon she was already familiar with. She could barely make out the flashes of blue and silver in the lights of the streetlamps, the very obvious red visor over its eyes glaring with a searing hatred directed squarely on Bumblebee. She was terrified for him, but knew she could do nothing to help against this assailant who was nearly double his size.
Something ejected from the larger Decepticon's chest that Allison couldn't see as she turned to flee, but she heard Bumblebee yell what sounded like run over the explosion of commotion. She didn't have time to think about what she saw, realizing that exact moment that she'd lost track of where Rumble had gone, but there wasn't time to care. She was running deeper into the alley, where it opened up into a construction site behind her building. There was a lot of confusing, violent noise happening behind her, and in a blind panic she threw her body behind a stack of wooden pallets to catch her breath. She couldn't run forever…
To her dismay, Allison realized that the clashing brawl had nearly matched her pace, entering the space of the construction site right behind her. It was clear that Bumblebee's size gave him a number of advantages over the massive Decepticon, because he was fast, effortlessly using the larger size of his opponent against them. Allison still had not really adjusted to the sheer scale of these beings, even with her exposure to them in a safe environment back at the Autobots' home. Seeing them fight now was otherworldly. The way their arms swept through the air and smashed into each other, the frightening size of their gait as their feet moved over the limited terrain while Bumblebee tried to hold the larger robot back. And this was just two of them. All it did was bring to focus just how terrifyingly out of place they were, and Allison feared for how much destruction more of them could wreak on Earth.
Bumblebee was clearly taking more of a defensive stance, though Allison couldn't really understand why. It was almost like he was stalling for time, dodging the Decepticon's blows and maneuvering around him with a quickness that should have been improbable for something of his size. The Decepticon in turn was eerily devoid of expression, having a similar mask-like covering on their face that Wheeljack did. Their chest where she'd earlier seen unusual movement was square-like and rimmed in yellow, the same symbol in the center that she stupidly hadn't recognized earlier for what it was; how could she have known?
If Allison stayed any longer, she was going to get crushed, but now she feared if she revealed her position she would draw the Decepticon's attention. Luckily they seemed more focused on attacking Bumblebee, who was doing an impressive job landing quick hits and dodging the return swings. She watched in frozen horror, too fearful to move and invite death. They'd seemed so kind and unthreatening, but now watching the skilled, practiced movements of the yellow Autobot confirmed what she should have already known: they were warriors.
Somehow the Decepticon managed to finally land a sharp, brutal kick on Bumblebee's leg, causing him to buckle with a sharp yell. This gave them the needed opening to swing around him, trapping him in a chokehold with a massive arm. Allison feared she was about to watch Bumblebee lose his head, his eyes quickly glancing in her direction instantly as if to check where she was—at some point his face had become mostly obscured by what was clearly his own protective mask, but his eyes were clear and frightened. She had to do something that was monumentally stupid, because she loathed the fact that he was more worried about her than his own life.
Her eyes darted around, eventually landing on a large dolly covered in what looked like metal piping across the pathway. Instinctively, she looked them over quickly to see if she could use them to her advantage. The details of how weren't there, just this blur of an idea, but it was all she had in that moment as she ran towards it.
Bumblebee was fighting with the Decepticon to break free, a brief moment of confusion on his face as he saw Allison rush out from hiding, passing behind the two larger bodies with an immense sense of urgency. She reached for the dolly handle and pulled it with all of her weight, her grip nearly failing as her hand slipped on the wet metal. She was dismayed to find that it didn't want to budge as fast as she needed it to. It was much heavier than she anticipated, and she knew time was not on her side as she tried to position it in the right place, shoes gripping into the wet concrete with each backward step. She kept glancing sideways at the massive towering form above her, uncomfortably close enough that she could feel the radiating heat. She could almost reach out and touch them…
Somehow, it must have been obvious what she was doing, because as soon as she was clear of the Decepticon's path Bumblebee snapped his wing panels upwards violently. With legs more powerful than she could comprehend, he kicked off the ground forcing both bodies backwards. The rendering shriek of metal slicing through metal preceded the startled release of the much larger robot letting go. They emitted a strangely electronic garbled roar that sounded full of static, gripping a torn space on their front that looked like it was now leaking. Energon… Allison thought through a dim haze of panic, realizing she was watching this robot bleed. Stumbling backwards with heavy, thudding steps, they knocked over the dolly, pipes spilling around their feet with a deafening clatter that echoed across the construction site. They lost their footing and began to fall, Allison's gambit somehow paying off. Bumblebee used the opportunity to break further away and whip around, and in one shockingly fast motion raised a transformed arm and shot at the Decepticon with a sudden burst of focused light. The overwhelming crack of the weapon caused Allison to collapse in a shocked heap behind the pallet, covering her ears far too late as her eardrums wailed in agony. A lingering burn of electrically charged air stung her skin from the close proximity; like a stinger, Allison thought stupidly in her battle-shocked brain, and she could have laughed if not for the fact that it possibly could have killed her if she were any closer. Water was an excellent conductor of electricity.
These were their weapons? Planet Earth was screwed.
The tremendously powerful crunch that followed signaled the fall of something massive hitting the ground next to her. Now was probably the most opportune time to run. The ringing in her ears was painful. She had barely a second's breath to come to terms with the idea that Bumblebee had shot someone with his arm, and that she had somehow felt some sort of rebound effect even some distance away.
Unfortunately as she stumbled out from behind her hiding spot, she noticed the Decepticon was staring directly at her from their prone position on the ground. The feeling of being marked was immediate, and if she had frozen any longer she would have been caught by their hand as they lashed out to pluck her off the ground. The rush of air passed over her as she ducked out of reach and further into the construction site, nearly slipping on a muddy puddle as she tried to gain purchase off the ground. She didn't want to look behind her to see Bumblebee die, so she ran, blindly, hearing what sounded like the returning shots of a powerful weapon behind her.
The construction site merged with the backside of an urban mall—Allison was familiar with it, because she'd visited it many times, but was aware that it was currently closed for large-scale renovations. She wasn't really conscious of where her feet were taking her, but an impulse pulled her towards the back end of the building. It was open to the elements, blocked off from intruders with only locked gates and tarp. It seemed wildly unprotected, but Allison didn't care. She needed to get lost somewhere and catch her breath. After nearly being strangled, thrown around, and chased, she was losing energy fast so hiding seemed like the reasonable option.
Unless, they could sense her, making her ability to hide moot anyway. That posed a number of problems, but what she needed was time to hopefully recover. She had doubts she was going to make it out alive anyway.
Cutting through the first row of barriers, Allison ducked under the tarp and considered her methods for getting around the locked wire gate. There was no way she was going to get the padlock open, so she decided climbing was the best option. There was enough of a gap between the top of the wire fence and the concrete ceiling that she would be able to slip through. There wasn't really time to think about security cameras or getting caught. Getting up was easy enough, but hoisting her body over to the other side was another matter considering how much her body hurt. She barely managed to dangle her feet over the other side when her strength finally gave out, her arms turning to putty as she lost her grip and plunged to the ground like a weighted sack. As she lay there on her side in a tragic heap, she briefly considered sobbing. She was worn out, soaking wet, terrified and bruised and she just wanted it to end.
It was maybe only moments Allison laid there, listening to the thumping of her heart in her chest while her legs burned. She half-wondered if she was going to be able to stand again, because she almost couldn't feel her feet. The skin on her neck prickled with a sharp pain from where Rumble had his hand around her, and her whole body was chilled straight through to the bone. Eventually Allison's heart rate slowed to an anxious throb, pulse an overbearing presence on her awareness as she silently wished for losing consciousness. That way, she could be unaware of her death when the time came.
Finally, she reluctantly pushed her body into an upright position, her arms trembling like jello as she used the gate to try and pull herself to her feet. Her ears had stopped ringing, so that was a plus, but she could no longer hear the sounds of the fight outside. It was eerily quiet underneath the hammering sound of the rain, and remembering what it felt like just before she'd been attacked, Allison was struck with the urgent compulsion to move.
It was slightly warmer the further she got into the darkened mall, making Allison shudder against the searing cold of her soaked clothing. Her jacket felt heavy with water, and it was seeping into her shirt underneath, causing it to stick to her skin. Wiping wet hair out of her eyes, she looked around, searching for any signs of movement, human or otherwise. She would have almost welcomed human hostility, because that was at least predictable at this point.
The innards of the mall were locked down tight, more secure than the outside entrance. Each storefront was like a mini Fort Knox, completely shuttered and padlocked, with merchandise completely pulled from visible lines of sight. There weren't any signs of human activity at all, save for more construction supplies and equipment strewn about in piles. The vague sense of post-apocalyptic abandonment was still omnipresent and it made Allison feel very alone. Looking behind her, the wide promenade was empty, meaning nothing had followed her from that way.
It was too much to hope that she hadn't been seen, and Allison knew that vain optimism would not be on her side that night. Her only plan was to leave through the front, potentially putting a large building between her and the dangerous fighting back the way she'd come . Maybe she could get lost in the confusing grid of streets and tall buildings to make her way home, but that assumed home was even safe. Trying for something like a police station seemed out of the question. What the hell were they going to do against large robotic attackers? Would they even believe her? She barely believed any of this was happening herself.
As soon as Allison turned back to travel deeper into the mall towards the front doors, something above her exploded in a sharp cascade, and what she initially thought was rain falling around her was quickly revealed to be shards of glass. She fell forward onto her knees, immediately bringing her arms up to protect her head from the cutting assault, hearing the tremendously heavy smash of something landing behind her. She didn't need to look to know what it was, as she could recall the oppressive energy of her intimately acquainted assailant from earlier. Rumble had found her.
"Stop running," Rumble muttered. His voice sounded strangely detached, like he was not quite in control of himself. With the way he'd almost seemed overcome with the need to pummel her earlier, the depersonalization of his nature was a special kind of horror. Like a desperate need for violence was overriding any other critical functioning. Allison had no intention of heeding such a request of course, so she forced herself to her feet and practically threw her body into the large double-doors of an employee accessway. She didn't want to think what he was going to do to her if he got his hands on her again.
The Decepticon watched her coolly, unmoving like a statue save for what looked like a steady rise and fall of his shoulders. Allison wasn't sure what to make of his behavior now, almost like he was waiting for something she wasn't aware of but she didn't want to stick around and find out. The employee doors weren't locked, so she yanked one open to throw herself inside—
—Only to be met with what was one of the most viscerally unfortunate things she had ever seen. There was another one, almost identical to the one that had been chasing her, but this time he was red and black, moving quickly down the hallway with an even more wildly predatory grin on his face.
"No!" Allison wailed audibly, forcing the door closed almost as quickly as she'd opened it. In that brief space of time Rumble had moved to nearly be on top of her. Yelping, Allison tried to duck past him, cringing as she brushed against solid, hot metal in her bid for freedom. She was not equipped for this. They were flanking her; a strategic move fit for a battlefield, a place she had no business being in. She was outclassed and outmatched in every way.
That wasn't going to stop her from trying to stay alive, even if she knew in her gut she was doomed. Allison got lucky before, because Rumble was hindered by the cramped accommodations. Not to mention the fact that her timely rescue by Bumblebee was too much of a coincidence to be pure luck. She hadn't really had a second to give it much thought outside of the obvious answer that he'd been watching her, but for how long?
As she ran, she only had the faintest memory of Wheeljack edge its way into her brain. Where was he at that moment, and was he aware of what was going on? Was he aware that he and Ratchet had been wrong about the energon? It didn't really matter anymore.
A crash somewhere behind her caused Allison to risk a glance over her shoulder as she ran. The fact that she suddenly couldn't see Rumble anymore was alarming. He had disappeared somewhere through the mangled security shutters of a store, which explained the crash. Even worse, the newcomer red twin had emerged from the employee corridor, only to launch off the ground in a single bound, attaching himself to the higher margins of the wall like some kind of freak insect. Something had impaled the wall—his arm, now some kind of long, cone-like appendage like a massive drill. Allison thought that things couldn't have been any worse, but she'd obviously been wrong about that.
She was so focused on watching the Decepticon somehow attached to the wall, that she'd lost complete track of where Rumble had gone. She was concentrating on not getting completely impaled when the red one launched off his perch, propelled by what was clearly a massive amount of strength as he sailed towards her. Now, Allison could hear the terrifying whirr of the drill as he brought it down into the ground, tearing through tile and concrete just mere inches from her feet as she stumbled sideways to get out of the way.
Allison still had no earthly idea why they were after her. She didn't matter in the grand scheme of things, so why so much effort for one stupid human? Whatever was going on with the energon in her body clearly being back couldn't have been that important to them, surely.
Throwing her off balance had clearly been the goal, as she was starting to get the unsettling idea that they wanted her alive. That didn't mean they weren't going to do a lot of damage in the process, possibly not even really aware of how fragile she comparatively was. When Allison lost her footing, she was barely able to regain her balance before Rumble once again burst out of the metal shutter of the store behind her. Before she could straighten to pivot out of the way, he swooped forward, scooping her off the ground by fisting the back of her clothing.
Not being hung by her throat was a small blessing, but Allison didn't find it all that more comfortable being yanked off her feet like a misbehaving kitten. Her clothing was cutting into her armpits, and she couldn't really lift her arms to try and relieve some of the pressure. She was past the point of exhaustion with no strength to fight back. If she disassociated and just let it happen, maybe it would hurt less and be over soon…
"Reeks of Autobot…" Barely noticing that the red one had stepped into her space to haunt her sensory range, she tried not to make eye contact as the words bit at her understanding. The voice was different from Rumble's despite their visual similarities; more reedy with a barely perceptible crackle around the edges, almost like the threads of sanity were fraying. She didn't understand what he said, but it dawned on her that maybe just simple retribution was why they were so intent on chasing her. Did she really somehow smell like them? That was a disquieting thought… "Let me gut it." Having the sharp end of a drill hovering precariously close to her stomach was less than ideal.
"Soundwave wants the ape alive, Frenzy," Rumble groused from behind her, almost like an older sibling talking to an unruly younger child. Were they… related somehow? "Can't figure out why…" Were they referring to the larger Decepticon that attacked Bumblebee?
Allison had almost successfully depersonalized her way into a foggy haze of acceptance of her fate, until she was brutally dropped back into the present when she suddenly found herself airborne. The oxygen was forced from her lungs in a strangled yelp as she was tossed like a sandbag, rolling in a disjointed heap several feet away in the middle of the main plaza where the mall branched. She landed facing directly in front of the double doors that would lead outside, and they were almost taunting her. It was getting harder to pick herself back up every time she fell, the weight of her body becoming too much. She only managed to partially lift herself on her forearms, peering outside the doors looking for something she wasn't sure of.
"He didn't specify what condition though…" The snickering voice behind her bounced around the empty center court of the mall, almost like the violence inherent in the words alone weren't enough for maximum damage. It had to consume her. "Let's play with it…" Allison couldn't tell which of them were speaking anymore, but it hardly mattered. She was hallucinating light coming towards the doors fast, almost thinking it was death coming for her at a blistering pace until she realized what she was seeing were headlights. It was a car, and it wasn't going to stop.
The doors exploded as the car barreled through, moving impossibly too fast to be driven by a human. Allison barely had time to try and drag her body out of its path, but seemingly with perfect awareness of its surroundings it skidded around her, sliding on its back wheels in a cherry red blur as it sideswiped the two stunned Decepticons who had no chance to move out of the way. Nearly simultaneously, the car began to change shape, unfolding and increasing in size in a way that had become familiar to her because she'd seen it in the opposite direction. The momentum and speed carried the transforming shape some distance away where they finally stopped in a partial crouch, the two Decepticons being knocked clear through the other side of the building.
Allison had a moment of hesitation when she locked eyes with this unfamiliar savior, trying in vain to scoot in the opposite direction with the little strength she had left. Their eyes were blue which made her hesitate due to the recognition of a pattern. The outward astonishment on this newcomer's face when they saw her meant they had not expected to see her, but there was something else; it was almost like they looked amazed.
"You're… her!" They exclaimed with a lit up smile, the tone of excitement wildly off putting in the circumstances, but Allison immediately recognized that he shared the same Autobot symbol just at the cuff of his neck, or rather, the upper edge of the large plating on his chest on a black panel. "I KNEW IT—"
Before he could clarify what the hell he meant, the two Decepticons he had literally swatted away leapt up from behind him, one of them grappling with his black-plated head and the other latching onto his armored white arm. The sudden change in expression was startling, the open, almost achingly pleasant nature from before replaced with fierce revulsion. She didn't want to stick around to see what would happen next, fearing she would get caught in the middle of yet another robotic battle. There was no point in squandering the opportunity born from her timely save, so mustering up the dregs of strength she had left she picked herself off the ground and limped to the mangled front entrance.
Allison's hope for safety hung as loosely as the vestiges of the door. The Autobot that saved her stood between her and her assailants, but she couldn't spare him a thought. Her entire focus was on putting one foot before the other, the gaping wound in the side of the building looming larger and larger as she grew closer. Light from an outside lamp, flickering as it too struggled to stay alive, cast shadows over the steps. She kept her gaze on the light, as if it were an anchor, her ultimate goal. She reached the steps that lead up, and she struggled to find the energy to climb them, but she had no choice. Behind her, the sounds of fighting were a faint buzzing in her ear. She raised her knee, took another step, followed by another. And then, when she was midway, almost close enough to reach out and touch the doors, her stomach gave way as a new shape filled the hole, large enough to block out the dying light, and casting shadows on her already grim hope for survival.
"Ravage. Eject."
Whatever drive for survival Allison had left was short-lived. It was like she was stuck in some kind of nightmare; no matter how far she ran, they were always right behind her traveling at an identical pace. She heard the voice, almost auto-tuned and mechanical, then saw the red and instantly she knew that it was the one that had been fighting Bumblebee; the one they had called Soundwave.
Fearing that this meant Bumblebee was dead somewhere, Allison felt the true weight of impending doom as she knew defeat was imminent. She was out of places to run. The mechanical whirring and noise from above preceded movement, then in a sudden blast the large figure of Soundwave suddenly lunged through what remained of the mall's front entryway. She almost missed the flash of yellow latched onto his back as his body literally sailed over her, and that's when Allison realized he'd actually been shoved with strength she couldn't comprehend.
Glass crunched to her right, and Allison snapped out of her daze long enough to see a large quadrupedal shadow slip through the shadows towards her. Turning to see Bumblebee—alive —kneeling on the collapsed form of Soundwave and trying to pin him down gave her a sudden surge of adrenaline that she didn't know was possible. She would have continued out the doors, until she saw the previously glimpsed shadow suddenly blocking her escape. It was… a goddamned panther?!
Nothing was making any sense anymore. With a static-ridden snarl, the robot beast lunged. Allison was able to duck under the railing before leaping off the steps in a single bound. She didn't know how she managed to stay upright, or where she got the sudden energy to leap over the counter of a coffee shop to flee through the back room. The rapid, thumping steps behind her were different than when she was being chased by the others. This one was fast, and catching up quickly as she ran through the back service hallways blindly. This was pure auto-pilot now; no thought or planning for where she was going, just away.
For a second Allison was convinced the Exit she was quickly approaching was going to give her trouble; instinct gripping her through the fear, but thankfully it flew open embarrassingly easy as her entire weight crashed against it. She stumbled out into a loading dock, the cold hitting her like a blast for the second time that night as she was finally outside. She passed through a security gate just before hitting the concrete of the dock, and shoving it closed behind her, it took barely a second for the heavy form of the robotic creature to stand on its back legs and knock both her, and the gate back with graceful ease. Allison's body twisted as she fell, landing hard on her stomach with a crack as her elbow took the brunt of the fall. Immediately the attacking feline—whatever it was—was pinning her down. There was no evil mockery or waxing poetic about her downfall. Whatever this Decepticon was, it was brutal and efficient, and driven by a singular purpose. No sooner did Allison feel its weight on her, did she feel massive, powerful jaws clamp over her shoulder, sharp metal teeth piercing through clothing and skin.
The pain didn't come immediately. Perhaps Allison was too stunned with what was happening to register the fact that it had bit her. Her body was cold as ice, almost numbing the sensation at first, until the pain became sudden and real, and that's when she screamed. Her haggard cry almost drowned out the voice that shouted "Ravage!" before the heat of an energy blast zipped impossibly close to her skin.
Suddenly the weight was gone, The closed jaws around her shoulder let go as the body they were attached to was knocked clean off and back through the way she'd come. Allison collapsed momentarily, disoriented enough that she couldn't quite see the yellow shape crouched in front of her in the rain. At first she thought it was Bumblebee, but it couldn't have been. They were larger, their face barely in view underneath the overhang of the loading bay, blue eyes pale and watching her. Weakly hanging onto consciousness, Allison could see that they looked frightened as they regarded the state of her, arm still holding up what looked like a weapon that was cooling in wisps as raindrops evaporated into steam.
They stared at each other for maybe seconds, the figure's mouth opened and words came out, but Allison couldn't understand them. All she heard was noise against noise, but it was faint, as if it were slipping away from her. The robot—they were obviously an Autobot— stood upright suddenly, and with a bound they were gone. Allison was left with nothing but the numb sensation of the last remnants of her energy leaving her body. She could barely lift her head off the ground now, but she could feel something warm and wet pooling under her cheek. Without being able to really look she knew she was bleeding. There was a moment of dislocation as the world started to spin before she was pulled into darkness.
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