TRANSFORMERS ANIMATED
Re:Animated
Rewrite of 'Grey Matter, Silver Lining'. At the same time as Megatron reawakens, a woman falls to earth and Sari manages to convince her father to let her become her nanny. Emma doesn't talk much, and certainly isn't saying she knows them from a cartoon! But when the All-Spark shatters, it makes her question everything . . .
~Parental Warning~
This chapter contains the following, which may not be suitable for young people:
. Low-level sexual references
. Mild level adult themes
. Low-level fantasy violence
Reader discretion is advised.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
First Blood
Well, baby, I surrender,
To the strawberry ice cream,
Never ever end of all this love,
Well, I didn't mean to do it,
But there's no escaping your love . . .
— Counting Crows
Eight Million Seven Hundred And Fifty Thousand Years Ago . . .
"What the — ?!"
It was a Cybertronian … wasn't it?
No … it was definitely a Transformer, but … there was something different . . .
Ember got the feeling that she must not approach it … she should not go anywhere near this being . . .
The being had different ideas, though.
It leapt up from where it had been laying, and covered the distance between them in a nanoclick.
Ember was frozen … there was a blackness behind the being's optics … and … she couldn't sense what she could sense with every other being that she had ever met . . .
It didn't have a spark?!
Somebody came flying out of nowhere and grabbed her, a split-nanoclick before the sparkless being reached her . . .
"Starscream?!" She recognised him instantly. "What - what is that thing?!"
He held onto her, and didn't answer straight away … they weren't out of danger, yet.
"We need fire power . . . " He suddenly murmured.
"I can generate fire!" Ember reminded him.
"Then we need you! I mean … oh, you know what I mean! Come on!"
Emma stared at her phone the next day, trying not to feel unnerved by the fact that she had drawn both Capi and Pira on the painting app before she'd even gotten here.
When asked about it, she said that she didn't know how, but thought that she might have dreamed about them.
Now, she was certain that she knew them from before, but, she wasn't sure how. She had yet to see them in a memory.
Having seen Starscream in her very first memory was … disconcerting to her.
Really, REALLY disconcerting.
She had started to write about all of her memories on her phone, just so she wouldn't forget them.
She was just finishing writing up the latest one, and starting to feel uneasy because she was fairly certain that she knew what that creature had been, when Sky Dancer, who she was riding with, announced that they were almost there.
Emma liked riding with the Autobot intel. officer. The interior of her alt. mode was like an airplane. It was stylish.
They had arrived to help the Autobots with helping to restore Detroit after everything that had happened.
Well, Sky Dancer was going to help. Emma was going to liaise with Officer Mackenzie about how rebuilding process was going, and then give the information to Optimus.
Sari, meanwhile, was hanging out with Honeybee, Capi, and for some reason Miko on that particular day. They were excited to be going to a skatepark.
Bumblebee had wanted to join them, but Optimus would not let him.
That didn't stop Bumblebee from complaining every five minutes or so.
Emma, meanwhile, was silently freaking out because Officer Mackenzie was not there. Instead, an unfamiliar police officer was overseeing the Autobots that day.
She introduced herself as Police Captain Gertrude, and she seemed to deviate between tsking at the fact that they were allowing alien robots to help rebuild their city, and talking way too much.
At last, Emma had to ask her: "I'm sorry, b-but where is Officer Mackenzie today?"
"Oh, of course, you wouldn't know!" Gertrude snapped, rolling her eyes. "I suppose Australia was spared from it!"
"Spared from what?!" Emma wanted to know.
"There was a spate of killings, smattered over about thirty years," Gertrude told her, and Emma's mouth dropped open. "It was widespread across the .U.S., but Michigan got it the worst!"
Emma just stared at her. She swallowed. "Wh-who?"
"If we knew who then the lot of them would have been executed by now!" Gertrude snapped.
Emma nodded. "O-of course … s-so, then … Officer Mackenzie . . . ?"
"Lost a family member in the exact same way." Gertrude waved her hand carelessly, although there was a sense of bitterness in her voice, and a sadness in her eyes. "Found mutilated and practically drained of their blood."
"Aaaaah!" Emma screamed.
Optimus, Prowl, Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Sky Dancer all stopped what they were doing and looked up at her, standing there on the bridge. The various construction workers that were milling about also looked.
Emma sensed the gazes of the Autobots then, and looked at them quickly, trying to smile reassuringly as she waved them back to their work.
She then turned back to Gertrude and whispered: "That's terrible!" Her face was pale, and her eyes were very bright.
"Yes, it is." Gertrude gazed at her, and then her expression softened. "You and those alien robots have good hearts … or, whatever it is those aliens have. I never thought I'd hear myself saying that." She shook her head, as she handed the report status to Emma. "I suppose that some of us are just edgy around them because we remember what happened."
Emma could only nod.
After Gertrude had left her, she sat on a pile of steel beams and began researching on her phone.
Presently, Bumblebee had had enough.
"Okay," he said, deactivating his face mask as he stopped using his stingers for welding. "I'm officially bored . . . " He raised his voice. "Hey, Boss-Bot! How about a cooling break?!"
"You just had one two cycles ago!" Optimus replied, without even looking at him.
"But I'm thirsty!"
"Look, Bumblebee," Optimus sighed. "The city needs to be rebuilt, and you know as well as I do … it's partly our fault!"
Bumblebee also sighed. "Yeah. I guess." He said, and then something made him look over at Emma.
She had just leapt up, and was now gesturing frantically at something.
Bumblebee followed her gaze, and his optics narrowed. "But it's mostly their fault!" He declared.
Blitzwing and Lugnut were currently stealing construction supplies. Bumblebee jumped at the chance to stop them, although he needed some help from the others. But, the two Decepticons were able to escape as the short battle resulted in the overpass's pylon nearly being destroyed, but Bulkhead and Optimus stopped that from happening.
"Now, no need to panic!" Optimus called to the two stunned construction workers on the overpass. "We'll fix this!"
"Again . . . " Bumblebee groaned.
"Where did Emma go?" Prowl suddenly asked. He glanced at Sky Dancer, who shrugged.
Gertrude suddenly approached them. "She said that she had somewhere to be." She said, folding her arms. "Sounds like she used the cover of what happened to go somewhere without you finding out." She added.
Prowl couldn't help it; he gasped.
"Not to worry." Ratchet suddenly spoke up, listening to a voice mail on his com. link. "She's gone to the library!"
"Why would she wanna go there?!" Bumblebee exclaimed.
"You should probably try it some time, yellow boy!" Gertrude snapped at him. "You might learn something!"
As Emma walked into the large, Hogwarts-style library that wasn't too far from where she'd been (thankfully), she hoped that the Autobots wouldn't be too upset with her for ditching them, and that Ratchet had gotten her message. She could have sent it to Prowl, but … she suddenly felt shy about doing that, and she didn't know why.
She walked up to the doors of the library, and paused, having just had a sudden vision of what was about to happen. She would go in, and ask the librarian (who was about a hundred years old) for the archives and also for books on Vampires and such. The librarian would take her to a really old and dusty corner of the library (or, maybe even the basement) and show her these big, scary old books on darker forces. The books would be a little bit too helpful, and nobody would be able to explain where they'd come from . . .
Actually, what really happened was that the librarian was none other than Henry Masterson, on community service despite all of Powell's protesting.
He and Emma groaned in unison when they saw each other, and the community work officer raised an eyebrow from nearby.
Masterson glanced at him, and then sighed. "How can I … help you . . . ?" He asked Emma grudgingly.
When Emma asked him for the town's records starting from thirty years ago, he said: "Archives are obviously on the third floor, noob . . . "
The officer coughed.
"Let me know if you need a hand," Masterson said, and then added quietly: "Lamo."
"Thanks." Emma said, rolling her eyes. She smiled slightly at the officer out of nervousness, and he nodded to her.
Emma went up the stairs to the first floor, walking past a group of young men who were sitting around a table and chatting.
" — gave me his bag," one of them was saying. "Well, he didn't give me his bag, I stole it and started using it . . . "
She went up another flight of stairs to the second floor, which had a kid's reading group in it.
There seemed to be a lot of talking going on, and hardly any listening. Emma picked up on a few pieces of conversation.
" — and then I told my mum it was the vacuum-bot — " A little girl with long blonde pigtails was saying to her friends.
"Do we have to read this book?" Another little girl called out.
"Or, can't we just read it on the computer or something?!" A little boy whined.
"No!" The young woman reading to the group snapped impatiently. "Now, pay attention!"
" — and so she checked the vacuum-bot's bag and the fountain pen was in there — "
"That means you, Marianne!"
The child with the blonde pigtails gasped, and immediately sat up straighter. "Yes, Miss. Deluca. Sorry." She said.
Emma continued up another staircase to the third floor, and was glad that it was easy to find what she was looking for, and that it was nice and quiet up there.
The only other person who was on that floor (which hardly had any corners that weren't occupied by big armchairs and plants, and was open and light with floor-to-ceiling windows that let in all of the golden sunlight) was a man in a blue hoodie listening to big old-fashioned headphones (he looked like he wouldn't be out of place in Jetset Radio Future), and he kept to himself, so Emma was free to curl up in a large beanbag chair with both traditional newspapers and one of the library's tablets that had at least part of the archive on it. She began to read and take photos of every single thing that she read.
She wished that what she was reading was as nice as the library itself.
Later on that night, the Autobots had finally finished repairing the overpass.
"I mean," Bumblebee was determined to talk about this. "Why would they want to steal construction supplies anyway?! Decepticons don't build stuff - they break stuff!"
"Hopefully they won't break this overpass again." Optimus said, as he transformed. "Let's call it a night, Autobots."
Prowl, Ratchet, and Bumblebee immediately transformed.
"Bulkhead, you coming?" Optimus asked the big green bot.
"Uh … I'll catch up . . . " He said, and watched as the others drove away. He then looked over, and saw Sky Dancer smiling at him.
"Let's get you out of here." She said kindly, and worked about getting him free from situation where he had cemented his feet to the ground. "Un vrai ami est celui qui entre quand le reste du monde sort … not that they would have walked out if they'd known . . . " She added, as an afterthought.
"Umm . . . " He said, sighing. "That's the point . . . "
"Mmm." She nodded. Once it was done, she added: "What do you need, Bulky?"
"I'm feeling kind of embarrassed and I need some space." Bulkhead said numbly.
Sky Dancer nodded, still smiling, and then she paused. "Well, I'm going to go and pick up Ember … Emma . . . ?" She glanced at Bulkhead.
"I don't think she knows how to respond to being called Ember. Calling her Emma is probably the best way to go." Bulkhead said. "Or, even Em."
"I don't think that I'm quite there, yet." Sky Dancer responded honestly. "I'm gonna go and take her home now, though." She added, before she transformed and sped off.
Bulkhead sighed, and then he knocked over the tub of cement. "Aww, nuts . . . " He groaned.
What appeared to be a woman walked into the library where Emma was.
She had short black hair with blue tips, and bright blue eyes. She was wearing a short black dress with black stockings, a blue and black jacket, purple boots that came to just below her knees, black and blue headphones that she kept behind her ears that had three silver earrings each, and … a silver Autobot pendant.
Sky Dancer looked around her as she entered the building.
There was an unknown man asleep at the reception desk.
"Nngnn ... lamo down-under girl ... third-floor is ... Vampires ... sweet . . . " He mumbled.
Sky Dancer barely had time to wonder about this when a human law enforcer came out of a side door, and his eyes flashed angrily.
"Not only has he been spying on that poor woman but he's now asleep on the job?!" The man said. "I'll see that his community service is doubled!"
"Excusez-moi?" Sky Dancer said politely, and the community work officer looked at her. "This woman … is she about a hundred and fifty three centimetres tall, dark red hair, dressed all in black . . . ?"
The man glanced at her, and then noticed the symbol around her neck. He nodded. "Third floor. She's been here for a few hours. Please take her home. Nobody should be that interested in what she's reading about." He added, shaking his head.
Sky Dancer nodded. "Thank you." She said politely, and headed towards the stairs.
From behind her, she heard the officer start yelling. "Wake up you micro-brained ingrate!" He grabbed Henry Masterson by the ear.
Sky Dancer shuddered. That takes me back! She thought, thinking that this human law enforcement officer must have been ex-military, as she climbed the stairs to the third floor.
She found Emma asleep on a big beanbag, with multiple newspapers around her and a tablet on her chest.
Sky Dancer didn't want to wake her, and so she calmly transformed to robot mode, picked her up, and carried her back down the stairs.
The officer barely noticed her, as he had gotten Masterson to drop and give him twenty … one hundred.
"Isn't it … home time?!" Masterson complained, as his arms shook.
"You don't even have a home until you get to at least five hundred!" The officer barked.
Sky Dancer saluted to the officer on the way out, and he returned the salute.
Yup. Definitely ex-military!
Prowl met Sky Dancer and Emma out the front of the base.
"Are you okay?" Prowl asked Emma, automatically reaching for her.
"Y-yes." She stammered, allowing herself to be transferred over to his hold.
I see. Sky Dancer thought calmly.
The three of them went into the base together.
Capi flew up to them quickly.
"Bulkhead brought over his new friends." The tapir said.
"What?" Emma asked flatly, but then her eyes narrowed. She looked into the TV room, and then down at herself. For just a fraction of a second, a spot in the centre of her chest glowed the same blue as the All-Spark. She groaned, and laid down in Prowl's arms.
"Are you okay?" Sky Dancer asked her. "Em … ma? Hey … what were you reading about, by the way?"
Emma's eyes snapped open, and she sat up again. "Nothing. Nothing important, you know. Sorry if that sounds like I'm lying or hiding anything." She was talking very quickly, which was probably more of a giveaway than what she was saying. "I'm just tired, and I have work tomorrow . . . "
"No you don't." Honeybee said, coming up to them. She seemed thoroughly perturbed by something. "Miko said that the restaurant is closed tomorrow but that it's a weird paid holiday thing for the regular workers, including you."
"Thank Primus." Emma said immediately.
"Why didn't Miko just message her about it?" Sky Dancer asked Honeybee.
"She did." Honeybee replied quietly.
They walked into the TV room, to find out what was going on.
"It's exactly like it." Capi whispered in Emma's ear, referring to the the episode Rise Of The Constructicons.
Prowl heard this, but didn't have time to comment on it, because these two friends that Bulkhead had made were … why were they even here, anyway?! It just wasn't the kind of company that Prowl had ever expected Bulkhead to bring home.
As he held Emma in his arms, Prowl leaned towards Ratchet and muttered: "Where did Bulkhead find these two?"
"I got a feeling it wasn't charm school." Ratchet replied, crossing his arms.
Emma was just staring at the two - who they had picked up were called Mix and Scrapper - and then she jumped down from Prowl's arms, just as Sari appeared, rubbing at her eyes. "Wh-what's going on . . . ?"
Emma hurried over to her, and Mix and Scrapper called the two human females a 'pets'.
Capi watched as Emma looked like she was about to go on the defensive, and immediately flew over there.
"Who are these guys?!" Sari demanded to know, as she automatically reached out for Capi, and held on to him like he was a pillow.
"Nobody that you need to be spending any time with." Prowl assured her, as he and Bumblebee also came over to the two girls.
"Go back to sleep." Bumblebee added, glancing over his shoulder. "It's just a dream … a really BAD dream." He added.
"Yeah, no kidding." Honeybee remarked, coming over to stand by her brother, along with Sky Dancer. "Anyway," she added, holding out a tablet with some schematics on it. "Sky Dancer, now that you're back, when you have a nanoclick — "
"Aww, isn't that cute,"Mix spoke up. "The gals think that they can design a room!"
Gals? Emma thought.
Honeybee was seeing red. Her grip on the tablet hardened.
Bumblebee glanced at her, and then he cringed, recognising the telltale signs of his twin sister's temper starting to rise.
Optimus was asking Bulkhead if it was really a good idea to bring strangers here. Bulkhead said that they were his friends.
"Really . . . ?" Sky Dancer wondered, raising an optic ridge.
"What's your problem, babe?" Scrapper called to her.
Sky Dancer faltered.
Babe? Emma thought.
"They're good guys." Bulkhead was protesting. "I know they're not exactly gentle-bots . . . "
"I'll say!" Emma suddenly snapped.
"Lighten up, shorty!" Mix laughed.
Emma raised her head slowly, her eyes flashing.
Mix wasn't paying attention, though. He suddenly threw a flattened oil can at Bulkhead like a discus.
Bulkhead caught it (even as he crashed into a pile of old steel barrels) and threw it back, telling Scrapper to think fast, but the latter was too busy drinking even more oil to pay attention.
Emma gasped, and leapt at Sari and Capi, pushing them out of the way, and the three of them fell to the floor as the discus zoomed over their heads.
As Capi helped Sari to her feet, Emma stood up and turned around.
"Get those two … out of my house … right now!" She cried, looking directly at Optimus. "Please!" She added.
"Aww, the little lady thinks that it's her house!" Mix laughed.
Optimus watched as Emma, Honeybee, Sky Dancer, and Sari all bristled. It was practically visible.
He remembered what trying to handle a volatile Elita-1 had been like.
He made his decision.
"Okay, that - that's enough!" Optimus said firmly. "Party's over!"
"Oh," Scrapper complained. "But we're just getting started — " He then watched as Sky Dancer and Honeybee led Sari (still clutching Capi) out of the room.
"Some construction bots!" Honeybee could be heard saying. "They don't even know what a lady tradie is … wait, has Sari fallen asleep standing up?!"
"It appears so." Sky Dancer replied. "Probably a reaction to those two ennuyeux mechs." She added.
"Aww … she just called us boring . . . " Scrapper realised.
"Forget about it, Scrapper," Mix said pointedly, coming over to Scrapper. "We'll find someplace else. Bulky?" He added, gesturing to Bulkhead who nodded enthusiastically.
"Yo!" Bulkhead said, and began to follow Mix and Scrapper out of the base.
He was forced to stop, though, when Optimus wanted to talk to him, and assured Mix and Scrapper that he'd catch up with them.
As Optimus tried to tell Bulkhead that he didn't think that spending time with Mix and Scrapper was a good idea, Emma was checking her pockets for something.
"Hey, Sky Dancer?" She called down the hallway. "Did you happen to see my phone?"
"No." Sky Dancer called back. "You can't find it?"
Emma paused, and then she realised: "I left it at the library!" Oh no, oh no, oh no!
"Hey, relax, Em." Bumblebee said quickly, as he watched her suddenly go into panic mode. "It's just a cell phone!"
"You don't understand!" Emma exclaimed. "All of my stuff is on there! Photos of my family! Write-ups of the memories that I've been getting from the fragments!"
"We have to go, I have to get my phone, let's go!" She made to move out, but Prowl and Optimus stopped her.
"It's too late at the moment." Optimus said firmly.
"I'm an adult." Emma reminded him.
Optimus cringed. This wasn't the type of conversation that he was ready for. "I - I'm well aware of that." He said carefully.
"Even so ... the library will be closed." Prowl told Emma.
"There's bound to be a security guard." Emma shrugged.
Optimus glanced at Prowl. The cyber-ninja glanced back at him.
"Em, I'm sure your phone will be fine in the library until morning," Bumblebee said, somewhat diplomatically. "After all, nobody can get into it unless they know your passcode or have your face, right?"
"Unless it's a tech genius or a hacker or something . . . " Emma said worriedly, thinking about Masterson.
Ratchet sighed. "You should go to sleep. Nobody's gonna want to try and get into your phone." He added, gruffly, arms still crossed.
Emma didn't look happy, but she glanced up at Prowl when she felt his gaze on her.
"As soon as the library opens, then we'll go." He told her. He held out his pinkie. "Promise."
She wrapped her pinkie around his as best she could, considering that he was in his robot-mode.
She was still worried, though.
Her fears turned out to be justified.
Emma walked into the TV room the next morning after a restless night, to find Optimus and Ratchet standing in front of the TV, shaking their heads.
"They said that all they could do was make sure it didn't spread." Optimus said quietly. "I would have gone if it had gotten any worse."
"Good thing no one was there at that time." Ratchet added, and then he noticed Emma. "Because, sensible beings sleep at sensible times." He added pointedly.
"The police are treating this fire as very suspicious." The news reporter was saying. "It is looking more and more like it was the work of an arson."
"Except the arsonist." Emma said, narrowing her eyes.
"Except the arsonist," Ratchet agreed. "But, that's not exactly the best example of a sensible being, is it?"
"Fair enough — " Emma suddenly broke off, staring at the TV screen. As Optimus and Ratchet watched, the colour drained from her face, and then she yelled: "Prowl! Prowl!" She ran from the room.
"There's a lot of heartache this morning," the news reporter was speaking to a woman (who actually looked like what Emma had envisioned the librarian to be). "At the loss of many of the irreplaceable documents that hadn't yet been digitised and were being kept at the library . . . "
Optimus and Ratchet exchanged a glance, suddenly realising what the issue was.
The smouldering remains of the library were surrounded by law enforcement, forensics, and lollygaggers alike.
Emma and Prowl had no idea how they were going to get close … or, even what they were doing here. Surely, Emma's phone had been destroyed by the fire, going up like a faulty replacement phone onboard a Southwest Airlines plane.
However . . .
" — this is majorly lame!" Henry Masterson was complaining nearby, when Emma and Prowl noticed him. "Those lamos could just let me off this bogus community service . . . " He listened for a second, and then he laughed. "Yeah, actually, you won't believe it but that noob was here yesterday! She fell asleep on the third floor reading about Vampires . . . how should I know? But, she left her cell phone up there! . . . What? No way! I threw it out the window on my way home! . . . Okay, catch ya." He hung up his phone, and turned around to find Emma standing about two feet away from him.
"Where. Is. It?" She asked him through gritted teeth. She forced herself to make eye-contact with this man, no matter how much he he didn't want to. He needed to know how serious she was. He didn't need to know that, in a weird twist, he had potentially prevented a tragedy.
Masterson tried to back up, but couldn't when he found that Prowl was standing there.
"Hold on . . . " Officer Mackenzie said, from where she was standing nearby and talking to Masterson's community work officer.
They two of them started to come over, and reached the situation, just in time to hear Masterson say: "I didn't steal your cell phone!"
"I left it in the library, you picked it up, and then you threw it out your car window!" Emma reminded him.
"Prove it!" Masterson retorted.
"Do you want me to play the recording?" Prowl asked him steadily.
Masterson cringed, and then he shook his head. "Whatever, lamos. I've got nothing to say to some homeless nanny who had nightmares about Vampires because of some old newspaper articles — !"
In an instant, Emma's hand flashed, and then the side of Masterson's face was swiftly turning red where she had slapped him.
Prowl immediately grabbed Emma and pulled her back.
Mackenzie and the community work officer were quick to grab Masterson and pull him away. "Are you lamos gonna charge her with assault?!" Masterson cried.
Prowl's grip tightened on Emma, who seemed to have gone numb.
"I didn't see anything." Mackenzie said shortly.
Masterson looked furious, but there wasn't much he could do, as he was led away from the situation.
Mackenzie came back to where Emma and Prowl were still standing, and said, very quietly: "Please be more careful." To Emma, who couldn't talk because she had tears in her eyes and a lump in her throat.
After Mackenzie had left them, Prowl took Emma over to the other side of the street, and didn't say anything as she just stared up at the sky.
She stayed that way for a very long time.
When she finally looked down, she turned to face him. "It's virtually impossible to cry when you're looking straight up." She explained quietly. "I don't know why. I've had to do it heaps of times." She added.
Prowl could only nod.
"Let's go." Emma sighed, and so Prowl transformed into his alt. mode.
Emma put her helmet back on, and the two of them set off.
Prowl noticed that Emma had to keep on looking up from time to time, and realised that she was still upset by what had happened.
It was on one such occasion, however, when they had stopped at a set of lights, that she noticed something.
"That bird thing's been following us for a little while . . . " She said.
Prowl's sensors followed her gaze, and saw a very strange-looking bird that did indeed seem to be circling. "I have … never seen a bird that looks like that." He realised. "Is it … non-organic?"
"I dunno, but I think he wants us to follow him!" Emma said. "I mean … really!" She added, when the bird thing flew off a little bit, but continued to circle, and then he came back to circle above them.
It sounded strange, but Prowl didn't feel like he should argue with Emma right now.
And, so, they set off, with the bird now clearly trying to lead them on a course to … somewhere.
"Hey . . . " Emma said after awhile. "You know, this is the most direct route back to Sumdac Tower … what if . . . ?" She trailed off, as the bird was now circling lower - they could see that it was black and red, and did indeed appear to be made out of metal.
And, it was circling over what appeared to be a junkyard.
Just like what you'd expect to see in the movies. Complete with rusted old cars, but hopefully without any vicious dogs or something.
Well, as it transpired, Emma had no reason to be worried about vicious dogs, because the junkyard had a … warden, of sorts.
However, Emma and Prowl weren't the only ones visiting the area that day.
Prowl had gone in alone to ensure that the coast was clear, leaving Emma at the side entrance, where she leaned against a pillar that separated the junkyard from a construction site.
I miss my phone. She thought sadly, not liking the lack of music one little bit. I miss my heavy metal and my K-pop and my classical music and my random dubs of anime songs in other languages . . .
Presently, however, she became aware of somebody nearby, who appeared to be humming as they made their way under the overpass.
Emma recognised the tune after a second, and sang a few lines of the song in one of the dubbed languages that she had on her - very sorely missed - phone.
"Ich weiß, du bist mir nachgejagt, aber ich verdiene mehr als das — "
She broke off abruptly, however, as the one who had been humming walked around the pylon.
It was Blitzwing, in his holoform.
He and Emma stared at each other for a moment, with Emma wondering why she hadn't just sung the Japanese version instead.
Just then, Emma looked to her right, as Prowl's voice called to her from the junkyard.
"Em! You can come in! I think I've found a lead for you!"
Just after that, Blitzwing glanced over his shoulder, when Lugnut's voice called to him from the construction site.
"Blitzwing! If you make me do this all on my own, then only one of us is going to make it back in one piece!"
Although Emma and Blitzwing could hear them both perfectly, Prowl and Lugnut could not hear each other.
Emma and Blitzwing looked back at each other.
"Ve vere never here." Icy-Blitzwing suggested.
"Us too." Emma agreed, and the two of them turned and walked quickly away from each other.
She could hear Random-Blitzwing begin humming the song again, though, and she smiled. A little bit.
Emma found Prowl very easily … because of a strange tugging that she was fairly certain was related to the small glowing spot on her chest. It was as if she had Sari's All-Spark key, only the power was actually coming from within her, and led her to where she needed to go.
She found Prowl, in his holoform, talking to an unfamiliar man.
Whoever it was was quite tall, and dressed in orange and grey work clothes. He had black hair, including facial hair that Emma vaguely thought might be called a Van Dyke, or … something.
It was his eyes that clued her in, however - they were as blue as any Autobot's.
But … she checked … no pendant?
She looked back up, and then glanced at Prowl.
"He says that he was here all of last night, and recalls hearing somebody driving past and saying 'later, lamo' . . . " The cyber-ninja said quietly.
"Hmm . . . " Emma said thoughtfully. She glanced at the stranger. "Did you really?"
"Yes, I really did." He nodded.
Emma's eyes widened slightly.
"However," Prowl went on. "We … haven't really been able to establish if he did or didn't see your phone . . . "
Emma was chewing on her fingernail, thinking rapidly. She suddenly said: "Maybe … maybe if you can use your holographic imager to show him a picture of it . . . "
Prowl seemed hesitant.
"Don't worry." Emma took his hand for a second. "I have a good feeling about this." She told him.
A faint blush appeared on the face of the cyber-ninja's holoform. He watched as Emma stepped back, and then he changed back into his Cybertronian form.
As soon as he did that, the man who he had found in the junkyard gasped. "Okay!" He declared, and then he himself stepped back and transformed into a Transformer.
Prowl's mouth dropped open, and he looked quickly at Emma, whose eyes had just lit up.
"It is you!" She declared, staring up at the orange, grey, and red mech who was facing her and Prowl. "Wreck-Gar!"
"It is me!" He agreed with her. "Wreck-Gar!"
Prowl tried not to groan, as he recalled the name. So this was the infamous Wreck-Gar. It seemed that he had survived his encounter with the microbots.
This was Emma's best chance at finding her phone?
Still, when prompted to by Emma, he showed Wreck-Gar a holographic image of Emma's phone.
"This is Emma's cell phone." The cyber-ninja explained.
"Hmm . . . " Wreck-Gar examined the holographic image carefully. "Mmhmm . . . "
"Did you find it after that voice you heard last night?" Emma asked him.
"I … might have!" Wreck-Gar nodded.
"It would really mean a lot to me . . . " Emma added, and then she trailed off. "I really need my mobile phone back . . . "
Wreck-Gar's optics widened. "Alright! Hold on, and let me check!" He began rifling through the trash bin on his back. "Cellophane … no. Nursery mobile … no. Cello … no. Mobility walker … no."
Prowl chanced a glance at Emma, and was surprised to see that she looked completely calm, even as she sat down on an old foam mattress and put her feet up on an old phone book.
Neither one of them noticed the black and red metal bird that was flying overhead.
The bird was not watching them, however. It had its optics trained on a van that read Channel 700 News, that had just pulled up outside of an old abandoned factory on the other side of the road behind the junkyard. The news crew began to pile out, completely oblivious to what was going on in the junkyard and just focusing on the reportings of ghost cuttings in the old abandoned building.
It was a bit of a slow news day.
While all this was going on, Blitzwing and Lugnut had managed to secure some help in hauling their stolen construction materials all of the way back to the Decepticons' base.
Never mind that Mix and Scrapper had actually saved Blitzwing's life. Blitzwing and Lugnut were prepared to use the two random mechs to do the heavy lifting, and then . . .
"Ve owe you two a huge debt." Icy-Blitzwing said to Mix and Scrapper.
"Ah, come on," Mix said casually. "It was nothing."
"Nothing a little forty-weight motor oil couldn't make up for!" Scrapper added, in a good-natured way.
"Oh," Icy-Blitzwing was smiling, but there was nothing sincere about it. "Ve have something much stronger zan zat for you . . . "
Mix and Scrapper didn't see Lugnut standing behind them, readying his devastating punch attack that would offline the two Constructobots (as they had dubbed themselves).
"Wait." Megatron said suddenly.
Lugnut immediately lost his balance, and toppled backwards into the mine, ending up slamming into a wall.
"I'm okay!" He called back.
Megatron probably couldn't have cared any less. Turning back to the others, he stated: "These two might be useful to me."
And, with that, he led them into the Decepticons' base.
Normally, Sari would have been watching Channel 700's coverage of the paranormal activity in the old abandoned building.
However, she and Bumblebee had been banned from watching any channel that went over ninety since she had pirated the illegal street-races and Bumblebee had participated in one, so they were stuck watching some old Japanese horror film about the undead that wasn't all that exciting to them (since Sari didn't speak much Japanese other than what Miko was trying to teach her).
Sari and Bumblebee, in his holoform, were currently involved in a thumb-wrestle.
"One-two-three-four, I declare a thumb war!" Bumblebee chanted, as he and Sari moved their thumbs onto opposite sides of each other's hands (it just seemed to be one of those things that everybody knew about, even if they were from another planet).
"Five-six-seven-eight, try to keep your thumb straight!" Sari added, grinning.
As an ominous-sounding gong came from the TV, Bumblebee and Sari solemnly made their thumbs 'bow' to each other.
Then, they became involved in an all-out thumb war, with neither of them willing to give in until ten minutes had passed, and Sari finally won.
"Yes!" She cheered, rocking back in her seat and throwing her hands up into the air. "I am the champion!"
Bumblebee groaned. "Okay, how about best three out of five?"
"I've got an even better idea!" Sari grinned. "Battle Ships!"
Bumblebee's eyes lit up. "Hey, Honey?!" He called over his shoulder.
"Can we use your room?!" Sari added.
"Just don't mess up my stuff!" Honeybee responded.
"Or mine!" Sky Dancer added.
"Okay!" Sari and Bumblebee said in unison.
"It is completely unreasonable to try and do it that way!" Pira exclaimed.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Clear Air Turbulance didn't sound very sorry. "I forgot that you already succeeded!"
Isaac tried not to groan. Pira and Clear Air Turbulance had been arguing for about forty-five minutes now, and it was starting to get to Isaac, especially because the two female Cybertronians kept on going in and out of the main room, so Isaac couldn't actually get a complete sense on what they were arguing about.
He was almost relieved when Megatron came back in, along with two unknown Transformers.
"At least I haven't forgotten half my life!" Clear Air Turbulance was telling Pira, whose pinkish-red optics flashed angrily.
"How dare you — !" The tapir began.
The two females then both turned, and saw that Megatron was just looking at them; he then calmly pointed them out of the room.
Clear Air Turbulance and Pira both left immediately, turning themselves invisible as they did, because Mix and Scrapper were both looking at them; but, for different reasons - Clear Air Turbulance because she was pretty, and Pira because she looked like that blue thing from last night, didn't she?
Luckily, they were much too distracted by other things to make a comment on it.
SPLASH!
Bumblebee gasped in shock, as a small cannonball was fired over the wall separating him and Sari. It hit the highly-detailed small wooden replica of the Batavia, which capsized and disappeared beneath the shallow pool of water in one of the rooms at the base. "You sunk it!"
"It's capsizing for the second time in its life." Capi commented, from where he was perched by Sky Dancer's computer and peering down at what was going on. "Minus the mutiny."
The room that Honeybee and Sky Dancer were sharing had two levels; Sky Dancer had the top level which was painted dark blue, and Honeybee had the lower level which had an area that could practically be used as a dance floor … or, for a giant game of battleships that Capi had procured from his sub-space at some point. It even had a shallow pool of water.
As Sari cackled maniacally from her side of the wall, Bumblebee got an idea, and grabbed a nearby hat from an old box of dress-up clothes (another mysterious item from Capi's sub-space). He scaled the brick wall, and then jumped onto the top of it, thrusting a pretend sword into the air to go with his pirate captain's hat. "Avast, me hearty, for ye be ... cheating?!" Bumblebee stared at the pair of tall parascope-like binoculars on wheels, peering over the wall. He then looked at Sari.
She peered up innocently at him from beneath her big admiral's hat, and then grinned. "Uh ... sorry?"
"That's it!" Bumblebee jumped down from the wall. "Come here, ye scoundrel!"
"Eek!" Sari shrieked, giggling slightly as jumped onto the stepping stones in the pool. She used her key to activate a small, mechanical dog-shark, which chomped its way towards Bumblebee.
"Oh Primus, it be even worse than the Great White Whale!" Bumblebee cried, dramatically.
Sari was laughing by this stage, as she hopped from stone to stone, using her key to aim the cannonballs at Bumblebee, and he dodged them whilst riding on the back of the mechanical shark.
There were a number of crashes that followed this.
"Was that my computer?!" Sky Dancer called suddenly.
"No!" Sari yelled back.
CRASH!
"What was that?!" Honeybee wanted to know.
"Nothing of yours, sis!" Bumblebee replied.
"WAS THAT MY COMPUTER?!"
"No, Sky Dancer!" Capi told her.
Ratchet and Optimus, both doing some work that required heavy-thinking, exchanged glances. They could hear all of this from all the way at the other end of the base. They exchanged a glance - Optimus looked amused, but Ratchet just groaned and stood up, marching down the hallway to yell at the two best friends.
Optimus sighed, and wondered where Emma and Prowl were. He had a sudden sense of unease . . .
"So . . . " Emma mused. "Do you think he has, like, a sub-space in there?" She gestured to Wreck-Gar.
"Possibly . . . " Prowl nodded slowly. He then sighed. "Em . . . " She glanced at him. "I'm sorry … that this happened. I know the things on your phone are very important to you . . . "
"It's okay, Prowl." She replied. "I mean … I thought about it … if you had let me go back to the library last night, then I might have met the arsonist and that could've been … oh?" She caught something small and silver in her hands that Wreck-Gar had just tossed out of his possible sub-space. "And, besides, then I wouldn't have met Wreck-Gar, and I wouldn't have gotten to spend the whole entire day with you." She added, and then she blushed. "I mean … I took up your whole entire day, but . . . "
"I couldn't think of anything I'd rather do." Prowl told her.
Emma smiled. "Thank you." She replied, just as another object came flying at her. "Oh, an All-Spark fragment." She sounded surprised, but then just let the fragment get absorbed into her chest.
Lucky fragment. Prowl thought, before he could stop himself.
Bulkhead was relieved from Monitor Duty by Optimus, and that was when he remembered the keg of unstable fixative in his holding area. He decided to put it in the closet where they tended to keep things that they didn't know what to do with anymore.
Bulkhead opened the closet, and found Sari and Bumblebee in there, amidst an array of various knickknacks and other useless junk.
Bulkhead stared down at Sari and Bumblebee. The two of them stared back up at the big guy.
"Uh ... what are you two doing in there?" Bulkhead wanted to know.
"Hiding from Ratchet." Sari whispered.
"The Hatchet." Bumblebee added, shuddering.
Bulkhead raised an optic-ridge, and then held out the keg of unstable fixative, which Bumblebee took.
"Thank you." Bulkhead said, closing the door slowly.
"You're welcome." Bumblebee replied, hiding the keg behind a big dummy of Sentinel Prime that they sometimes used for target practice.
"There!" Emma suddenly cried. She made a flying leap, and caught her phone before it hit the ground.
It happened so suddenly - one second she'd been totally absorbed in the memory that she'd just been reliving, and the next she was lying on her stomach on the the ground with her phone in one hand and something else in her other hand.
"Okay!" She got up, as Prowl and Wreck-Gar came over to her. "Oh, hey, there's still some charge left in it! Cool!" She then held out whatever was in her other hand. "Oh, and Wreck-Gar, this is yours!"
"A pendant the same as yours?" Wreck-Gar noticed.
Emma nodded, and they watched as the pendant disappeared when it touched Wreck-Gar's hand. "I imagine that that will … appear again when you go into your holoform … or, something . . . " She then smiled. "Because, remember - you can be whatever you want to be!"
"I am Wreck-Gar, and I dare to dream big!" He declared.
Even Prowl had to smile at that.
Emma then checked the clock that Wreck-Gar had thrown onto the ground nearby, and realised that it was nearly midnight.
"I'm surprised they haven't sent a search party out for us." Emma admitted, as she and Prowl made their way around the other side of the junkyard after saying goodbye to Wreck-Gar.
"Give it time." Replied Prowl, who was in his alt. mode.
Emma smiled beneath her helmet, but then she noticed something that made her pause. "Hey, Prowl … please stop for a second . . . " She said and, when he did, she jumped down and hurried over to what she had noticed before. Her breath hitched in her throat. She grabbed her phone, and tried to turn the light on - with her hands shaking so much, what she actually ended up doing was starting a video recording, but at least it turned the light on.
Prowl had transformed by this stage and was coming over to her … the closer he got, the more unsettled he felt, and that was even before he had identified the pools of liquid on the ground to be blood.
Lots and lots of blood.
"Please be fake, please be fake, please be fake . . . " Emma whispered, and Prowl realised then that her voice was shaking. He imagined that her face must have been very pale beneath her helmet.
He was also a hundred percent certain that they needed to leave. Now.
Before he could suggest this, however, they both heard a sound that made them turn, to a small alleyway that was in between an old abandoned warehouse and the building that was next to it (also abandoned).
Red optics met their gaze. The red was different to the red of the Decepticons' optics - these were scarlet, and were practically on fire.
They were devoid of any life behind them, however.
And, that was when Emma said the last thing Prowl expected her to say.
"Vampire — !" She gasped, in a voice barely above a whisper.
It attacked.
The light from Emma's phone revealed the creature right before it struck her. It was beast-like, with mottled scales and spikes mixed in with its metal.
It would have bitten Emma, had she not been wearing her helmet. It reminded her of when her nephew had been teasing one of their dogs and then leaned on her back - she hadn't been able to bite him because he had his ATV helmet on. Of course, the difference was that Indie was a loveable and loving living creature.
This Vampire was full of nothing but intent to drain whatever it could from her - be it blood or energon.
It didn't even have a spark.
I have to transform! Emma realised, as she managed to stop recording and slide her phone away from her safely. That way … Prowl can then attack it, but . ..
Something large and similar in body-structure to the Vampire suddenly hit it, knocking it away from Emma who was instantly grabbed by Prowl, who had not been able to get near in the ten seconds since the Vampire had attacked Emma.
And, before he could do anything other than that, the black cat-like Transformer that had attacked the Vampire leapt back - and something large and dark blue leapt out of the shadows and grabbed the Vampire.
The mech thrust a hand straight into the creature's skull, piercing through the metal and into the processor. The Vampire screeched in pain, its body enveloped by dark shadows, and then it was no more.
Prowl realised that Emma's heart-rate was still too high for him to put her down, and so he held on to her, as they both looked over at . . .
"Soundwave?" Emma sounded like she couldn't believe it.
Soundwave turned around slowly, nothing on his face giving anything away. He looked a whole lot fancier now. He said, in his monotone: "Affirmative."
Prowl couldn't work out how to ask the question that was burning into him just then.
Why did you save Emma?
He was also feeling something akin to shame that he hadn't been the one to protect her.
He'd had to leave it up to … whatever the cat-like Transformer near Soundwave was. And, Soundwave himself, of course.
Why was it always these other mechs who were saving Emma?
"H-how did you know what to do?" Emma asked quietly. Her expression was hidden by her helmet still, but Prowl could hear the tones of suspicion in her voice all of a sudden. "Those creatures … haven't been seen for a very long time … to know how to take one out like that … you - you must have … knowledge . . . "
"Soundwave received intelligence from external source on techniques to kill the creatures known as Vampires." Soundwave replied blankly. "Soundwave wishes to inform you that his kind are adept at handling Vampires - Autobots are not."
"You mean ... Decepticons other than … I mean, most of them know how to battle and kill Vampires?" Emma asked.
Soundwave nodded. "Affirmative. Further intelligence also reveals that you are sought after by both the Decepticons and the Vampires. Correct?"
Prowl felt the need to speak up again. "You Decepticons will never — " He began, but Soundwave cut him off.
"Soundwave has no intentions of acting on Megatron's behalf." Soundwave replied bluntly. "Soundwave's only objective is revenge on the Vampires and, for that, the keeper of the All-Spark must remain in one piece, regardless of what form she takes."
Prowl froze.
"Why do you want to get revenge on the Vampires?" Emma asked Soundwave. Something wasn't adding up here … there was a missing piece to the puzzle. "What did they do to you?"
"There is at least one thing that Soundwave despises more than most humans." He replied. "The Vampires destroyed something important to Soundwave, now Soundwave will exact his revenge. The Vampires are trying to keep their existence on this planet a secret, but Soundwave is very well aware of their presence." He added.
"The fire at the library . . . " Emma whispered, realising the awful truth, and then she tilted her head to one side. "Wait, you … you were at the library yesterday, on the same floor as me, were't you?" She suddenly realised. "In your holoform . . . "
"Affirmative." Soundwave told her. "Soundwave believes that knowledge in this sense is power. Know thy enemy."
Emma nodded slowly, and then looked over as the cyber jungle cat came over. He had her phone in his mouth, and Prowl only let the other Transformer approach because of what it had taken to get that phone back.
"Thank you." Emma whispered to the cat-like creature, and then both she and Prowl glanced up, and saw the black and red metal bird from before, circling overhead.
Emma then looked back at Soundwave, and said: "And, thank you, Soundwave."
As usual, he showed no emotion, and merely watched as Prowl transformed into his alt. mode and left with Emma.
Only once they were out of earshot, did Soundwave finally speak up again.
"This Vampire had already fed tonight. Next time, cyber-ninja, you might have to move faster. Lest you lose everything."
Emma and Prowl got back to the base, although Emma indicated that she wanted Prowl to stop before they went in … she also wanted him to transform … and then, to change into his holoform . . .
He did all of that, feeling slightly confused … that is, until she took off her helmet, handed it to him … and then she suddenly leaned up and kissed him.
It only lasted for a couple of seconds, but she was smiling when she drew back and simply left him standing there feeling like he was on top of the world all of a sudden.
Emma calmly walked into the base, where the others greeted her like she'd been missing for a year.
Emma woke up early the next morning (well, later on that day) and decided to watch some TV - maybe the news would make her feel sleepy again?
She turned on the TV, imputed the PIN code that would allow access to more than just ninety channels, and turned on Channel 700.
The TV screen was immediately flooded with tributes for Scarlet Garcia - the news reporter had been killed last night in a freak accident when she had stayed behind to do some work on a story that they had been covering about a reported ghost sighting in an old abandoned warehouse behind the junkyard.
Capi saw Emma freeze up, and the little cybernetic tapir immediately went to get Prowl, who sat with Emma in his holoform as they learned that no connections had been made and that police were still following up on some leads.
"We're going out for ice-cream!" Honeybee said at one point during the morning. "Wanna come with?"
Emma just shook her head.
"Yeah, you just stay in your pyjamas all day, then." Sari rolled her eyes.
"Sari, be nice." Capi sighed as he, Honeybee, Sky Dancer, and Sari set out. "Adults have a lot of things that they have to worry about, you know!"
"It's not my fault she's so stressed out!" Sari protested.
However, as it turned out, the Autobots had a more pressing problem . . .
"They went to the Decepticons?!" Optimus exclaimed, referring to Mix and Scrapper.
"Uh-oh." Emma muttered, walking into the room after getting dressed and also putting on a black arm band. She'd almost forgotten about the two Constructicons.
As Bulkhead was trying to explain things, Emma and Prowl were both wondering when a good time to explain their story would be.
Not now, of course, but, maybe later . . .
Just then, Mix and Scrapper showed up, but the problem was that they were working for the Decepticons.
"We went with the 'bots with … the better oil." Mix explained.
Bulkhead's shoulders sagged. "But ... I thought we were friends . . . "
"We are friends, Bulky," Mix told him reassuringly, as Scrapper winked. "That's why we ain't gonna hurt you, okay? So long as you hand over the...uh, the Amber...uh, what did Megatron call that femme again?" Scrapper shrugged, and then Mix pointed at Emma. "Eh, that thing there."
Thing?
As Prowl tensed, Optimus moved to stand in the way. "Over my offline body!" He marched up to Mix and Scrapper.
"Ah, you know what?" Mix was getting riled up quickly. "I have had enough of this dipstick in the mud!" He pushed Optimus backwards.
As Ratchet caught a dazed Optimus, Bumblebee said: "Hey! He's our dipstick!"
"And nobody pushes him around!" Ratchet added angrily. He quickly blasted Mix with some of his electro-magnetic powers, sending the mech flying.
As the battle ensued, Prowl pushed Emma out of the way before leaping into the fray.
She watched, silently hoping that things wouldn't get too out of hand, as she noticed that Bulkhead seemed to have vanished ... where did he go?
Just then, Emma felt a pair of arms grab her from behind, and she let out a yell.
Everybody stopped, to see that Mix and Scrapper were both there, but in their holoforms! They both resembled typical construction workers - Mix was short and stocky with a beard, and Scrapper was tall and lanky and looked kind of like Peeta Mallark from The Hunger Games.
No pendants, although that wasn't what the Autobots were paying attention to right then.
Mix and Scrapper both had a good grip on Emma, and Prowl felt his energon boil.
He couldn't attack them at this point, though, without risking hurting Emma.
Emma suddenly sighed. "I should've realised that they could do that." She said, looking at the floor.
Bulkhead suddenly came back in. "Yeah, me too, but, we didn't." He looked at Mox and Scrapper. "I guess you guys won . . . " He sounded calm.
"No hard feelings?" Mix asked, as he and Scrapper transformed, and Mix held Emma in one hand, silently infuriating Prowl even further.
"Nah ... how 'bout one for the road?" Bulkhead held out the two cans of oil, which Mix and Scrapper gratefully accepted, and drank in one long swig.
Bulkhead managed to catch Emma's eye, and winked slightly. She nodded, looking slightly pale, but not as scared as she would have been had she not known what was about to happen next. Only ... would she be okay with it?
I only got Sentinel to let me go because he was so freaked out about being touched by an organic! I only got Starscream to let me go because he wanted to! But … these two Constructicons … are completely different!
As Mix and Scrapper ran down the road (what, no transforming?), she dared to say: "I don't think you guys are that bad, even though ... you don't know what a lady tradie is … but … half of the things that you say you picked up from the worksite!" She realised suddenly. "You just act like those human fellas at whatever worksite you came from!"
"That's right, shorty!" Mix said proudly, although he seemed a little bit groggy. "You know, Bulky ain't so bad, either . . . " He suddenly groaned, and held onto his stomach, slowing down a bit.
"Can't hold your oil, pal?" Scrapper shook his head. "I'm ashamed of you, pal."
Emma felt a sudden connection coming from somewhere behind her, and sensed that Prowl was on his way, as were the other Autobots. She was panicking by this stage - what would happen when the explosion took place?!
And, she knew then that she must break free, and so she summed up as much strength as she had into one kick, and did just that.
Something cool and calm seemed to come from deep within her just then, forming a shield that contrasted to the searing heat that exploded from all around her when the unstable fixative that Bulkhead had put in the oil suddenly exploded . . .
The Autobots arrived on the scene to find Emma, somehow, still in one piece, and a calming, blue bubble around her. It disappeared and she looked up as the Autobots approached her. "Huh?" She then noticed Prowl, and immediately leapt into his arms.
"H-how — ?!" Optimus seemed stunned.
"I put a little extra something in this oil." Bulkhead stated calmly, holding up the rest of the fixative. "You okay, Ems?"
She nodded. "Y-yeah, I'm okay, thanks . . . " She replied, from safe in Prowl's arms. "H-how did you know . . . ?"
"Well, you broke free from Sentinel Prime and Starscream," he reminded her. "And, Capi mentioned that you had something of an inner-shield protecting you from the fire recently, so . . . "
"Genius." Emma told Bulkhead, whose optics gleamed with pride at her praise.
I just need … to have more faith in myself . . .
Mix and Scrapper came back online, but the explosion had scrambled their memories. Bulkhead attacked them, and they got scared and took off, leaving the Autobots and Emma wondering about them, and about a few other things, as well.
Emma looked up, and saw that black and red bird - Laserbeak? - circling high above them.
What did the Vampires take from Soundwave … to make him hate them so much? And … who told him how to fight them? It's similar to the way … that Starscream and I fought that one so many years ago . . .
Far away, but still decidedly in the same quadrant as Earth, an incident was about to occur onboard the Elite Guard flagship.
Looking back, nobody onboard that ship could ever quite figure out just how Starscream managed to escape - probably least of all Starscream himself.
They had heard something from the brig, followed by the Decepticon suddenly yelling: "Those Autobots have no idea what they're up against!" An explosion then rocked the hull before Starscream, with a silver scarf held tightly in one hand, could be seen flying away, declaring: "And vengeance will still be mine, Megatron!"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
French:
Un vrai ami est celui qui entre quand le reste du monde sort - a true friend is the one who comes in when the rest of the world goes out
Excusez-moi - excuse me
German:
Ich weiß, du bist mir nachgejagt, aber ich verdiene mehr als das! - I know you chased after me, but I deserve more than that!
It's a song called It's Just Love!, from Gundam Wing.