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 . . .

CHAPTER FIVE

Familiar

Hello, hello remember me?

I'm everything you can't control,

Somewhere beyond the pain,

There must be a way to believe we can break through . . .

— Evanescence

"You're just full of surprises tonight, aren't ya?" Sari commented, watching with some awe as Emma keyed in EMA, which took the number one place on the hi-score board of a remake of an old unicycle racing game, moving BEE down to second place.

"Ooh, he's not gonna like this." Bulkhead added, but he couldn't help but grin. He secretly couldn't wait to see Bumblebee's reaction to having one of his precious hi-scores beaten.

Well, Emma had said that she liked video games. Sari hadn't been sure whether or not to believe the grown-up, but this was proof enough for her.

So was what she heard as she left to the room to use the bathroom.

"The company that made the original game of this got sued by a movie company for copyright." Emma was telling Bulkhead, who had asked her why she was so surprised to see a remake of the game that they were playing, which is when she had said that only three hundred thousand of the games were released, and apparently a lawsuit filed against the developers was the reason.

"What happened to them?" He wanted to know.

"They went on to become a different company, and made controversial games about gunslinging, being a vigilante, stealing cars, and straight-up killing people." Emma replied, and Sari could almost hear her nanny shrugging.

"Yup, that sounds pretty controversial, alright." Bulkhead agreed. "How do you go from making a game about this," (Sari pictured him gesturing to the TV). "To making a game about stealing cars?!"

"Ugh, it's primitive, it's barbaric! There oughta be a law against it!" Ratchet declared.

"It's ... just an auto-supply store, Ratchet." Optimus pointed out.

"You mean they actually sell spare parts on the open market?" Ratchet couldn't believe it. They were standing out the front of Maramba Brothers Auto Supply, which had just closed up shop for the night, and Ratchet couldn't get over it. "What kind of malfunction would be crass enough to buy this stuff?"

The answer was soon revealed in the form of Bumblebee, who came around the corner in his alt. mode.

"Come back soon, Mr. Bumblebee!" The voice of one of the sales assistants from the auto supply shop could be heard calling.

"I will, Irineo!" Bumblebee called back, before coming to a stop in front of Optimus and Ratchet. "Hey guys, check out my new horn!" He demonstrated it for them - it matched Sari's ringtone perfectly. "This place has the greatest stuff!" He went on, as he transformed, and that's when they could see that he hadn't just gotten a new horn. "Fuzzy cube thingies," he held up a pair of white dice. "Miniature human female replica," he held up a little wobbling brown-haired doll wearing a purple top and matching skirt, before returning them to the interior part of his alt. mode, and holding up the last item, which was a little cutout of a bright pink fir tree on a piece of looped string. "And I don't know what this thing is — "

He was cut off by Ratchet coming over and smacking him upside the head - which the doc-bot did partially to remove the Maramba Brothers Auto Supply sticker from the back of Bumblebee's head, and partially to get his point across.

"Knock it off, kid!" He said gruffly, crumpling up the sticker that was nothing more than shameless self-promoting, in his opinion. "We're heading home, now!" He added.

He was in a bad enough mood as it was, and Bumblebee's following quip about Ratchet's age didn't really help things.

And, to make matters worse, Optimus seemed to be in agreement that Ratchet needed to 'get out more'.

"Just ... got a funny feeling, is all." Ratchet said quietly, and his hand came up to the scar on his left forearm, the way that it usually did when he wasn't particularly happy about something. "Old war wound's acting up again. Usually means trouble." He either didn't realise that what he'd just said was a perfect example of Bumblebee's analysis of his age or, if he did realise it, then, he just didn't care.

"You must've seen some pretty serious action," Optimus began, and Ratchet glanced at him. "Back in the Great Wars."

"YesI did, and no, I still don't wanna talk about it!" Ratchet snapped.

"That's what I'm saying!" Bumblebee agreed. "Forget about the past! Loosen up!" He held up his hands. "Enjoy the bright lights and big city!"

It was at this point that every single one of those bright lights in said big city flickered and then died.

"Okay," Bumblebee was not to be deterred. "Enjoy the big city!" He suddenly looked to his right, as a red light was cast upon him.

Optimus and Ratchet looked too, as the sound of a car revving could be heard - and then it accelerated.

On instinct, all three of them leapt out of the way of the … very scary and very familiar-looking car.

"Hey!" Bumblebee was the first to realise it. "That's him! The same guy who nearly hit Emma! He is not gonna win any safety awards!"

For a couple of reasons, Optimus made the decision to act. "Bumblebee, lights and sirens! We're taking that driver down!"

Bumblebee complied. In most police chases, the use of stingers meant something entirely different to what Bumblebee now did - however, the scary-looking muscle car seemed to dodge the electricity only too easily, and sped off down another street.

Optimus and Ratchet had predicted this, and came around from the other side … only to see two people walk out onto a crosswalk, and the muscle car was showing no signs of slowing down!

Optimus, who didn't see the man and woman who were dressed in business suits being able to do what Emma had somehow done, was quick to act - he transformed and used his battle axe, thrown in a sweeping arc, to cut down a nearby billboard advertising Willard's new Squid Burger (whatever that was), which he then grabbed and held against his back as he stood over the terrified man and woman.

He felt it when the muscle car simply used the billboard as a ramp, and knew that it hadn't slowed down in the slightest.

"Next time," he told the man and woman, who were both now stunned. "You might wanna look both ways before you cross."

"Or," the woman suggested shakily. "Take some martial arts lessons like that lady on the news!"

"Either way." Optimus replied.

"Okay, you got it!" The man agreed, as he and the woman hurried off.

Optimus then straightened up, set the billboard aside, caught his battle axe as it came back to him, and turned to see that Ratchet was now the one frozen in place, as the muscle car was heading right towards him!

Luckily, Bumblebee was suddenly there, and he pushed Ratchet out of the way - just in time. They landed in a tangled heap, as the muscle car sped off into the night.

"You two okay?" Optimus asked them.

Ratchet groaned, slightly. Without so much as a thank you towards Bumblebee, who he simply shoved off of him, the medic sat up and said: "We're fine!" Even as he rubbed the back of his head.

"You call that fine?!" Bumblebee said in disbelief. "You froze up like a crankcase in December!"

"I did not freeze up!" Ratchet responded. "Must've been a glitch in my systems . . . "

"Speaking of glitches," Bumblebee said suddenly, turning in the direction that the scary-looking car had taken. "What was up with

the dude in the muscle car? He nearly took out three people in one night, not to mention us!"

Ratchet's hand was clasped tighter around the scars on his left forearm now, as he listened to Bumblebee contact Prowl to let him know what had happened, at the same time that Optimus contacted Bulkhead to get him to make sure that Sari was in bed and (preferably) asleep by the time that they got back to the base.

Emma came back into the TV room after checking on Sari (the little girl was well and truly asleep, curled up in her sleeping bag in a small room down the hall), to find Ratchet performing his fifth self-diagnostic on the scar on his arm for that night, and the other Autobots watching an old media report that Prowl had found about the spiky muscle car that seemed to bring a blackout with it wherever it went.

Emma hung back, and thought about the truth behind the matter - that the car itself was, in fact, the Decepticon bounty hunter, Lockdown. A dangerous mech, one who took the weapons of his victims as trophies, like all those people that Emma would see on those crime shows that she and her mum would watch on the ID channel.

But, Emma thought. Lockdown is decidedly way more dangerous than some of those murderers and everything … I mean, it was nice of him to slam on the breaks and stop instead of hitting me … probably only because he didn't want to draw too much attention to himself … like a shark, he's okay … as long as he's not hunting . . .

She knew that Ratchet alone had had an interaction with Lockdown in the past, which had led to the tragic situation with the intelligence officer, Arcee.

But . . .

Emma closed her eyes briefly.

Ratchet wasn't the only one there whose life had been changed forever because of Lockdown.

She was suddenly so sure that the pasts of Ratchet and Prowl had played out exactly as they had in the cartoon.

So … how was any of that fair? Why did it have to happen? Why was Ratchet forced to have Arcee's fate weighing on his mind, and why did Prowl have to live with what had happened to Master Yoketron?

Emma was so busy thinking about this, that she almost missed when the Autobots left.

"Huh?" She opened her eyes.

"Ratchet," Optimus was saying. He was in his alt. mode, and ready to go. "You can monitor us from here if you're not up to it."

"I'm fine!" Ratchet snapped.

"B-be careful, Ratchet!" Emma suddenly said, as her hand flew to her throat because she was, in that instance, nervous about having to speak up louder than what she normally would have. Aurgh! I should have said something else with that, because that just sounded weird by itself, didn't it?!

Ratchet glanced at her with an unreadable expression, but held her gaze for perhaps a few seconds longer than was necessary, before he transformed without a word.

Optimus, however, said: "Emma, stay here with Sari."

"Don't worry, Prime," Bumblebee spoke up. "Em's nearly been taken out by that muscle car already tonight! She's not about to try again!"

And, Emma could only nod in agreement.

Later on that night, Emma was starting to feel slightly sleepy, but not enough that she was about to go to bed before the Autobots returned. She had already had a go at five more video games, and beaten Bumblebee's best scores at three of them. She had made herself an instant coffee with the supplies that she and Sari had brought with them. She had gently guided Sari back to bed, after the little girl had had a strange dream about death metal Bollywood dancers.

She had debated whether or not to call one of the Autobots, just to find out what was happening, but had decided against it, because what if she called right in the middle of a situation that needed to not be interrupted, and then changed the outcome of it?

She checked her phone and, after answering a text message from Isaac (Sari is fine, she's sound asleep.), she then got up to go to the bathroom.

It was on the way back when it happened.

There was a dull blue glow coming from one of the rooms down the hallway when Emma came out of the bathroom.

Normally, she would have thought that it was Sari's key … except that the room Sari was in was down the other end of the hall.

Curious, Emma crept down the hallway towards the light, and peered into the room.

What she saw almost made her drop her phone (which she had taken with her to the bathroom just in case).

"Th-the All-Spark?!" She gasped, instantly recognising the orange container and the blue light that was almost leaking out of it. "But … what's it doing here?! Isn't it … isn't it supposed to be on the ship?" She hadn't realised that she had started to edge closer to the All-Spark as she was speaking to herself, but she was suddenly close enough to the ancient power source to touch it.

The struggle was real.

To touch the ancient power source or not to touch the ancient power source? That was the question.

What would happen if she did touch it? She had no idea.

But … she and Sari had kept on saying that the All-Spark was what brought her here. So, what if it had some clue as to why it had done so?

Emma had no idea how long she stood there in front of the All-Spark, with her hand outstretched, and her palm just centimetres from the orange container.

She wasn't even sure why she made the decision that she did. But, she withdrew her hand and turned to go, holding up her phone to check for anymore messages as she did so.

Looking back on the situation, Emma wondered if, had the All-Spark had a voice, said ancient power source would have exclaimed: 'Oh, HELL no!' Or, something like that, before it unleashed a small beam of blue light.

At the time, all that Emma was really aware of was that the blue light that she could see reflected on her phone's screen was what hit her. She wasn't even sure enveloped by this blue light, and then she knew no more . . .

Later on, in the very early hours of the morning, the Autobots were back, and were mainly just nursing their wounds after their encounter with the Decepticon bounty hunter, Lockdown.

It had been unexpected, and intense, but they had all made it back in one piece - Ratchet had even got a piece of himself back, in a way, in the form of the EMP Generator that Lockdown had stolen from him back in The Great War.

Optimus and Ratchet, especially, had a lot to think about with all that had happened, and looked set to have a good talk about what those days had been like for Ratchet.

However . . .

Bumblebee had gone to check on Sari and Emma and, upon discovering that only one of the two females was there, he and Sari - who had actually been playing games on her phone under the covers for about an hour and a half - went in search of Emma.

And, when they found her, their identical shouts of: "Guys! Come here!" Brought Optimus, Ratchet, Prowl, and Bulkhead running.

"Down there!" Prowl said, pointing down the hall towards the room where the All-Spark was.

"I told you we should have moved the All-Spark sooner!" Ratchet complained, as he, Optimus, Bulkhead, and Prowl came to a stop outside of the room.

Bumblebee was standing in the doorway, looking stunned. Sari was peering out from behind his leg, looking both stunned and curious.

Fearing the worst, the other four looked into the room.

Emma was standing there, practically in the dead centre, with the All-Spark to her right and both hands held out in front of her.

Her mouth was hanging open and her hazel eyes were very wide - they reflected the blue light of the All-Spark, even as it settled down once again … but, what remained was the soft blue glow from the creature before her.

Suspended in mid-air by some unknown force, it was an odd-looking creature, to say the very least.

It was a similar kind of blue to the light of the All-Spark, and its optics were what Sari dubbed 'Autobot Blue'. It was about the size of a Beagle. It had two ears that were a long hexagon shape, short legs and a tail, and - most noticeable of all - a short nose trunk.

And Bulkhead, who seemed to have an eye for certain things, realised something. "Hey, Sari?" He whispered. "Isn't that like the thing Em drew on her phone?"

Sari's eyes widened, and she looked back, just as Emma suddenly seemed to be able to move again.

The red-haired woman looked swiftly down at the ground, seeming panicked all of a sudden, and that's when a voice came from the creature in front of her.

Emma thought that he - for, this strange creature that she had only ever imagined would be real in a drawing was certainly a he - sounded a bit like the Digimon character Terriermon.

How he sounded wasn't what was at the forefront of her mind, however. It was what he said.

"I stored your mobile phone in my personal subspace storage pocket." And, the little robotic creature used his trunk to open up a drawer-like compartment in his stomach, from which he took Emma's phone and levitated it over to her.

She took it, with shaking hands. She was very pale, but she managed to say: "Wh-who are you. . . ?"

"My name's Capi." He replied, as he closed up the drawer to his subspace. "And," he went on, now gazing around at the others. "I've been watching you all for a very long time."

"From inside of the All-Spark?" Bumblebee gasped.

Capi nodded. "Mmhmm. But, before you ask, no, I don't know how I got in there … or out, for that matter … I just know that I was, but now I'm not." He seemed to shrug, and that was when he noticed that Emma was now staring down at the Autobot pendant that was around her neck, on display for all to see, except now she had a perfectly reasonable explanation for why she had it.

Although . . .

Emma glanced up again, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say.

Capi seemed to understand her unspoken question. "The eyes are a nice Autobot blue. It gives it a nice touch." He added, and that was when Emma knew for certain that this little tapir-like creature knew exactly where she came from.

She also knew, somehow, that he wasn't going to tell anybody about that.

Before she could respond, however, Sari exclaimed: "Aside from the eyes it matches the ones that you guys," she indicated to Bumblebee, Prowl, and Bulkhead. "Have when you're in your holoforms! No fair! I want one!"

"Sari," Emma said, sounding somewhat perplexed. "You have a key that can interact with electronic devices and literally save lives. What more do you want?"

"Oh, I dunno, how about a little bit of status recognition?" Sari suggested, crossing her arms. "Something to tie me in but also make me stand out and stand tall?"

"Yeah, because you definitely need some help with that." Bumblebee remarked.

"At least I'm not the shortest one here anymore!" Sari retorted.

"You're still the shortest human!" Bumblebee pointed out, and Sari looked outraged, not only because Bumblebee was right but also because, with Capi around, Bumblebee was no longer the shortest robot.

"Don't worry, Sari," Emma said quietly, and the little girl stopped glaring at Bumblebee to look at her. "Primus only makes things grow until they're perfect." She told her.

"Some of us just took longer than others." Capi added, and Sari immediately smiled.

Ratchet turned to Optimus then, and muttered: "We've gotta move the All-Spark before this gets out of hand. Like, now?" He suggested.

Optimus nodded. "Now." He agreed.