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Ghost of the Dawn
Author of 15 Stories |
Small Problems
By: Ghost of the Dawn
Day Two: Destined to Meet
From his temporary underground base beneath New York City, Megatron was getting impatient. It had been the previous afternoon since his ultimate weapon had gone awry and it had shrunk six Autobots instead of draining the energy from their sparks. Needless to say, it had thrown the Decepticons off for a moment went it happened. However, Megatron was quick to recover. The Autobots were too small now for any of them to chase. They were smaller than even those disgusting human creatures. Megatron instantly ordered Soundwave to eject all his cassettes which were a more appropriate size and send them out to search.
It was now near dawn the next morning. None of the cassettes--not a single Decepticon had found anything. Megatron's patience was waning. He got up and started pacing in agitation around the room. Skywarp and Thundercracker watched him in guarded silence. One wrong move and a robot body just may find himself at the receiving end of their leader's wrath.
There was a commotion further down the tunnels as Frenzy and Rumble approached. Both of them were in some kind of heated argument and both were talking so fast at the same time, neither's argument was understandable with the other drowning them out. But both fell silent as Megatron's looming form came into view.
"Rumble! Frenzy! Report!" Megatron barked.
Both stayed quiet for a while, fearing the repercussions. But then, they also knew staying silent wouldn't keep them from getting slagged either.
"We can't find them!" Rumble blurted. "Those slaggin' mini bots have taken off and hidden somewhere like the cowards they are! They're scared of me 'n Frenzy! They won't come out and fight!"
Storm clouds seemed to materialize in front of Megatron's face as he continued pacing.
"This does not make me happy," he growled. "I should have had Optimus Prime's lifeless body at my feet by sundown yesterday. My ultimate weapon was not meant to do this. This is not acceptable."
"But Megatron," Fenzy put in. "We still beat the Autobots. They're tiny now; harmless. You still have a shrinking ray. If you managed to shrink all the Autobots--"
"FOOLS!"
On instinct, Skywarp and Thundercracker ducked seconds before there was a gaping, smoking hole in the wall behind them, courtesy of Megatron's arm cannon.
"I don't want a weapon thatshrinks Autobots! I want a weapon that KILLS Autobots!" He kicked at a pile of scrap for emphasis of his malcontent. "I don't care the size, I want Optimus Prime's head for my wall! No matter what! SOUNDWAVE!"
"Yes, Megatron." Soundwave's dark blue form seemed to materialize out of the shadows as he was summoned.
"Soundwave, you built this faulty device, fix it!"
"As you command, Megatron." Soundwave turned smartly away and marched off to fulfill the task given him.
"The rest of you," Megatron announced. "Continue searching the area. I mean everyone! The Autobots will NOT leave this city, no matter their size! Is that understood?"
His team looked dubious, but all nodded.
“Crys,” she would always say. “Don’t fight the change, rise to meet it. There are greater powers at work here. Every place we go, everything that happens, is all for a reason. We all have a greater purpose. To find it, we must go where destiny takes us and keep our eyes open.”
"Hey, hey. Wake up. Open your eyes!"
Crystal groaned as the insistent voice prodded her out of sleep. She groggily opened her eyes to see a white number in front of her face.
"Four?"
She looked higher to see a grinning mouth and a bright blue band of light.
"Hi!" Jazz greeted her. The little Autobot was sitting on her mid section, looking quite pleased with the job he had done.
"What?" Crystal mumbled. "What is it?"
"It's time to wake up," Jazz informed her. "Come on."
She did not reflect his good mood as she dragged herself out of bed and followed Jazz into the living room. Slowly, the previous night all came back to her.
Mom, Not everything happens for a reason. I don't believe I was meant to have three robots in my apartment. Scratch that. Four robots, if that radio on the counter ever decided to do anything.
Crystal looked at the clock on the wall and her jaw dropped.
"It's freaking 6 am!" she squawked.
"Prowl said humans can run on five to six hours of sleep," Jazz defended.
Crystal shot a crusty look towards the black and white Autobot who was sitting on her couch with a book in his lap. "I wanted more," she grouched.
Prowl gave a look that insinuated he hadn't considered that possibility.
Crystals eyes then fell upon a pile of white cotton on the other side of the couch. It took a moment for the full horror to seep in.
"MISTER FLOPSY!!" Crystal cried, throwing herself on the couch and handling all the pieces of the torn up plush bunny. She shot daggers at Grimlock who still had some cotton hanging from his mouth.
"Oh, were we not supposed to let him do that?" Jazz asked innocently.
"Bad dino! Very bad!" Crystal shook her finger at Grimlock as if he were a dog.
"Me Grimlock no bad dino! Me king of all Dinobots!" Grimlock insisted, spitting out the cotton.
Crystal's face twisted back into a pout as she gathered what remained of the rabbit in her arms. "It's too early for this..." she whimpered and curled back up on the couch amidst the cotton and torn material.
"Hey, don't go back to sleep," Jazz urged as he climbed onto the couch and then onto Crystal's back. "You have to tell us where the slag we are in this city. We're flying blind right now."
"Jazz," Prowl hissed. "Stop crawling all over her."
"Aw, she doesn't mind," Jazz insisted. He swatted at the girl's cheek. "Hey! Look alive! We need answers!"
Crystal reached up an arm and snatched Jazz, pulling him down to lay next to her. She snuggled closer as if he were a teddy bear.
"Another hour.." she mumbled.
"Ack! Prowl! Pst! Prowl! Help me out here!" Jazz floundered his free arm, trying to get Prowl's attention.
In turn, Prowl just shook his head.
"You're warm," Crystal mumbled, pulling Jazz closer and resting her head on his shoulder.
At this time, Grimlock wandered over. He transformed into robot mode so he could climb on the couch and then back into dinosaur mode where he also climbed over the now sleeping human and wheedled himself between her and the couch, resting his head on her neck. Jazz had already resolved himself to his fate and the three of them remained silent. Prowl went back to reading his book.
Roughly an hour later, Prowl reached out and grabbed Crystal's foot, shaking it a little.
"It's seven o'clock now. You wanted to get up at this time."
Only a tired moan from Crystal's side of the couch.
"Hey!" Grimlock demanded from where he was tangled in her long, red hair. "Prowl say time to get up!" He tapped at her skull with one of his dinosaur fore claws. "Me Grimlock say is not good idea to no listen. Him know stuff!"
Crystal thrust an elbow at him to shut him up and grabbed a pillow to cover her face--also part of Jazz's who was still in her arms.
A bit irritated, Grimlock kicked into stage two. He ripped the pillow from her with his jaws and then grabbed the skin of her cheek, pulling on it.
"Me Grimlock say get up or me Grimlock set your face on fire." Grimlock informed her. "It never happen to me Grimlock, but me guessing it no feel good."
With a groan, Crystal tiredly heaved herself from the couch, taking Jazz with her. He hung there limply like a doll; giving Prowl a "why me?" look as he was carried off down the hall.
Crystal shuffled into the bathroom and set Jazz on the counter. Then she looked in the mirror and made a face at the pathetic looking person blinking back at her. She made an "ugh.." sound at her reflection and then set about trying to brush out her wild mane of hair. The fact that Grimlock had previously made a nest of it didn't help at all.
"So?" Jazz prodded as he watched them both in the mirror. "How about an address, Sleeping Beauty? Where are we?"
Crystal pulled up her hair and sighed.
"Give me a few more minutes, kay?" she ground out of her hoarse throat. Jazz watched in fascination as she slipped in a pair of contact lenses and shuffled off into her bedroom, shutting the door.
Ten minutes later, Crystal emerged again, dressed smartly in a pressed, black skirt and looking fresher.
Prowl followed her around expectantly into the kitchen where she poured herself a bowl of cold cereal and sat on the couch to eat.
"We need to start looking for the other Autobots," Prowl informed her. "You have to tell me where in the city we are and where we need to go."
"I told you, I can't help you this morning, Shorty," Crystal replied, mouth still half full. She quickly swallowed before continuing. "I have to go to work. We can do all of that when I get back."
Prowl's doors seemed to sag. "How long will that be?"
"About eight hours. I work full time."
"That's too long. We need to get out there now."
"And do what?" Crystal argued. "You going to fight those guys again? You were running as scared as the rest of us last night. I guarantee you those Decepticons are still out there combing that area, maybe even further now. If your friends are out there, they're probably laying low still. They'll be impossible to find. Not to mention you'll get both you and them killed if you call them out in the open at the wrong time. I say you wait a while longer until I can help you guys out. Then we'll come up with a plan."
Plan's were Prowl's weakness and Jazz knew it. He took his turn to jump in.
"It's probably a good idea," he agreed. "We definitely can't go in there with our servos crossed just hoping to find them. We need to wait until we know what we're doing. Preferably also when the Cons aren't combing the place for us. There's got to be something else we can do in the meantime to prepare."
"Little Four has a point," Crystal agreed as she finished up her cereal. "And you're more than welcome to at least get familiar with this neck of the woods. I can leave you a spare key and you can have a look around."
Jazz and Crystal looked at Prowl hopefully. The police car took a moment to think.
"It might be a good idea," Prowl admitted. "To be familiar with the local surroundings, should anything happen."
Crystal didn't like the insinuation that the Decepticons may be led to her place. But it was too late to back out now.
"Right," Crystal nodded. "I'll make sure I get you the key before I leave."
She got up to deposit her bowl in the sink and then disappeared in the back of the apartment again.
Jazz grinned over at Prowl's grim expression.
"I don't like this," Prowl informed him. "We shouldn't be waiting around here all day just for her to get home. And we DEFINITELY shouldn't be involving humans at all. This is dangerous and it's not her fight. It's irresponsible to stay here."
"In an ideal world, perhaps," Jazz offered. "But we've got no choice. We need a safe place to operate. And we need her because she knows this city better than we do. We have to stay, at least for a while."
"Me Grimlock like it here," Grimlock said without invitation. He was lounging around in the soft remains of Mr. Flopsy. "It quiet here. No Dinobots touching me Grimlock's stuff. No Optimus Prime bug me Grimlock to save him and Autobots. No Wheeljack make me Grimlock run stupid tests. No Sideswipe use me Grimlock like spring board. Me Grimlock could get used to this."
Jazz gave Prowl another grin. "Two against one, Prowlie-Boy."
Prowl turned and trudged off, surrendering to his fate.
Next, Prowl had the three of them all split up and take a look outside the apartment complex. He gave specific instructions not to be seen by any other humans. So the three of them lurked around under cars and in the shadows as they spread out and took note of the area. Prowl wanted everything. How many buildings in the complex, where they were in the complex, what street they were on, and everything that was around them.
The whole exercise filled up most of their day. Though it had to be cut short mid afternoon when Grimlock ran into someone's Pekinese and they all fled for cover back to the apartment. However, they had managed to gather enough information to make some fairly accurate maps over their surroundings and Prowl was quite satisfied with them.
The last few hours were spent with Jazz watching day time court tv on the couch while Grimlock nosed around under it. Prowl took note Grimlock hardly transformed out of his dinosaur mode the entire time they had been in this place. He usually wandered around in root mode when he was at the Autobot base. Maybe, Prowl theorized, it made Grimlock feel safer to stay in dinosaur mode here. Even he had to admit, being this size with enemies so large, in a city so unfamiliar and with a guardian so frail; it was all a bit intimidating even to him. Prowl freverently hoped it would all be over soon.
"I'm getting so bored!" Jazz exclaimed as he jumped off the couch and ran over to her and tugged on her skirt hem. "Judge Judy is over. Let's go do something before I blow a fuse!"
"Calm down, Four," she responded. "We will. And I brought you guys some stuff." She reached into her bag. "First, for Sir Chomps-A-Lot..." Crystal pulled out a grotesquely cartoonish animal of some kind made of plastic and tossed it in Grimlock's direction. It bumped into the Dinobot's rear flank and he snapped at it. The thing squeaked as it was bitten and Grimlock instantly let it go, jumping to his feet and circling it curiously.
“And I kept thinking about your radio friend, and how he can’t talk,” Crystal continued as she pulled out a blank cassette tape. “I have a crazy idea, but it just might work.”
Jazz and Prowl gathered around her as she sat with Blaster on the floor, put in the blank cassette and pushed record. She then encouraged Jazz and Prowl to talk to him to see if he could record some kind of response to them. After a minute or so, Crystal stopped the tape and rewound it. The three of them listened anxiously as the tape was played back.
They were disappointed to find all they got was an odd static sound. But nothing resembling words.
“Man, poor Blaster. He’s really busted,” Jazz lamented.
“And I’m out of ideas,” Crystal said. “I’m not sure if it would be a good idea to try and take him anywhere to get fixed. Who knows how other people would react to know they had a robot on their hands.” She put Blaster back on the counter. “He’s just going to have to wait until I can get you back home.”
“Are you able to show us the city now?” Prowl asked, trying not to sound too insistent.
“Yes,” Crystal informed him. “Let me just get out of this skirt and these heels and I’ll show you around.”
A few minutes later, she was in a pair of torn jeans and back in the living room, pulling a big map from her bag and laying it out on the floor. Prowl's optics lit up and he was instantly at her side, taking note of everything.
"I have to work tomorrow, too, so I’m still not much help I’m afraid. But maybe if I can show you where you’re going, you could find your way there yourselves if you wanted. Now let see.." She reached into her bag and pulled out a red marker.
"This is the best map of Central New York I could find. We're located here." She circled her neighborhood. "This is the route we took on the bus..." she lightly put small x's on the roads they took. Then she leaned in closer to get a better look at the different blocks. "I think I found Grimlock about here and Jazz and Prowl... maybe around here." She lifted her head and looked at Prowl. "That's about the extent of what I know from last night."
Prowl took over, lightly kneeling on the vast map to get a better look. He wished he dared tap into the GPS satellite to help him better recall exactly where in the city it had all happened. But he would have to rely on his memory banks and hope it was good enough.
"We need to verify the location and then search it," he informed the others in the room. "Maybe we'll find some clues as to where the others have gone."
"Dude, Prowl, that's a bad idea," Jazz offered. "Decepticons are going to be swarming that place. Not to mention Prime and the others would be out of their programing to leave any evidence out there of where they are."
"We need to go there," Prowl insisted. "It's the first place we should look."
"And I'm telling you, Prowl, Decepticons are going to be watching out for us there. We need to know where THEY are before we go looking for the others."
"The Decepticons are not going to be there," Prowl continued to insist. "By now they would have searched the whole area. Now they are spreading out to further locations. Or they may have left altogether."
"Then what's the point of going there, Prowl?"
"Maybe they missed something, JAZZ. AND we need to know where we've been before we can map out where we're going."
The two broke out in a simultaneous argument, each talking at the same time and hardly making a lick of sense to the other. They both finished at the same time and then glared at each other.
Crystal busted up laughing.
"Aww... you two are friends, aren't you?" she grinned.
Prowl and Jazz looked at each other guiltily.
"I still say there's no point in searching the site." Jazz insisted.
"Well I think--"
"Okay then!" Crystal announced cheerfully as she picked both of the surprised robots up in her arms. "Let's go have a look-see." She carried Jazz and Prowl over and, with a bit of maneuvering, managed to get the door open. "Bring the map, Grim! We're heading out!"
"Me Grimlock bring map!" Grimlock announced as he turned to robot mode, picked up the map, and ran out the door after them.
Crystal sat between them, Ipod on and keeping an eye on Grimlock who was on Prowl's other side. She insisted the Dinobot leader pick a form and stay in it the entire ride. Right now, he was in his robot mode, legs swinging off the seat. But he was looking restless and Crystal didn't want more attention on them than she already had.
"Hey," Jazz tugged on her arm. "What are you listening to?"
Crystal popped out one of her ear buds and gave it to him. Jazz curiously held it up to his audio, listened a moment, and then frowned.
"This music is.. kind of old," he complained.
"You're old!" Crystal shot back. She made a move to retrieve her ear bud, but Jazz held out his hand, signaling he wanted to continue listening anyway. Crystal let him.
The bus dropped the small group off a few blocks away where Prowl guessed the altercation of the day before took place.
"There's a lot of construction going on over here," Crystal said as she pointed up the street. "That's probably where it happened."
"Then we need to be extremely careful in this area," Prowl said. "Just because it's day time and there are people around doesn't mean the Decepticons are laying low. They don't always care if there are people there to see them."
"In that case, they probably wouldn't notice any humans wandering around the place," Crystal pointed out. "Mini Autobots, however..."
"Point taken," Prowl nodded, consulting his map. "At any rate, we would definitely do better to split up and stay out of sight as much as possible."
"Okay, you guys just want to meet back here around 8 o'clock? Does that sound like a plan?"
"That will be fine," Prowl nodded. "Jazz, I want you to stick with Crystal. Grimlock will come with me." He angled his map towards Jazz's gaze. "We are going to cover this area up here." He pointed to the area opposite of the construction site where he and Jazz had fled. "Since Crystal can probably get closer without being noticed, you two can explore the site directly. Just be careful and watch out for her, Jazz."
Jazz saluted with a grin. "Can do, Cap'n!"
"Me Grimlock looking for other Autobots?" Grimlock asked, not sounding too happy at the chore. "Last time me Grimlock need find Autobots, me Grimlock send her. She find them first." He pointed to Crystal.
Prowl simply nodded. "Yes, but this time we are helping."
"Guesso.." Grimlock relented.
The group split according to Prowl's orders. He and Grimlock disappeared into the back alleys of the city as to not attract any human attention. Jazz and Crystal started up the sidewalk to the construction district. They continued slowly with Crystal scanning ahead and Jazz carefully following in her shadow. There were several sections under construction in this area. All with the same materials piling around and machines parked every which way. They passed site after unfamiliar site without any luck of finding anything of interest. But then, Jazz saw it.
It wasn't hard to forget it. That site with the brick wall and the boxed in building foundation. The skeletal structure jutting out of the ground. It was the perfect place for an ambush. And they had stupidly rushed right into it. Now he was less than three feet high and stranded in an over crowded city with no idea how to contact his missing team mates, his base, or how he was going to get back to his normal size.
Jazz was still frowning at the site as Crystal wandered into it and began to look around. Scorch marks peppered on a brick wall and the scattered rouble; tell tale signs there had been a battle here. It sent a chill up her spine despite the warm, summer air. Maliciousness had gone on in this area; the intent to kill. It still hung heavy here.
"They don’t seem to be around here," Jazz spoke.
Crystal didn't seem to hear him. He approached and reached up to grab her hand. Only on contact did the human woman look down at him.
"Come on," Jazz coaxed. "Prowl wants us to look up ahead this way."
He tugged on her hand and Crystal allowed herself to be led away from the battle scene. She gazed with wide eyes at a section of brick building that had been smashed through by a giant robot body colliding with it. But Jazz kept pulling her forward.
They wandered off to further sites and searched soundlessly, each not really sure how would be the best way to go about looking. There was still a strange wind in the air; a feeling of danger. Neither one of them dared even call out a name. And with radio communications out of the question, Jazz was a bit frustrated.
"We're not going to find them," he grumbled, mostly to himself. "This is stupid. They could even be close by, but there's no way we dare let them know--" A heavy shove to his back cut off his sentence and Jazz found himself forced off his feet and flung into a pile of debris in a shadowed alley way.
He was about to let Crystal know he didn't appreciate being treated that way, but then he saw something that made his vocal processor freeze.
Crystal had seen it first and her first reaction was to not save herself, but to shove the little robot with her out of view. A robot. Her inner thoughts laughed at her, not for the first time. She was risking her life for robots. Pieces of machinery. What was wrong with her?
All the same, she had reacted. And now, she was standing out in the open with a giant red, white, and blue Decepticon looming over her. She had no idea how something that size had gotten so close without her noticing. That mistake just may have cost her life. Again, her life for a robot. What was she doing?
So far, it didn't seem that the towering robot had noticed her. Crystal tried to back away slowly, praying she didn't catch its attention. However, with her wide eyes glued on the frightening site, she wasn't watching where she was going and tripped on a pipe. There was a small clang as she gasped soundlessly and stumbled backward, catching herself as quietly as she could.
Crystal landed on her backside, palms painfully catching most of her; breath held in her throat. She hadn't made that much noise. Maybe it still hadn't noticed her.
She glanced up and her blood froze. Two sharp, blood red optics were trained right on her. The darkened face plate was frozen in an emotionless frown. For a moment neither Crystal nor the metal monstrosity moved. Then, the Decepticon raised its arm and Crystal saw a weapon of some sort attached to it, aimed right at her. Her body felt heavy with fear.
'It's going to shoot me. Oh God, it's going to KILL me!'
Far more frightening than even the weapon was the look of complete indifference that was on the robot's face. To this behemoth, Crystal was no more than a bug, nothing worth even a first thought, let alone a second one.
She could hear the whine of the weapon powering up, but then the Decepticon's face suddenly shot in another direction as if someone were talking in its ear.
"I'm still out looking," Starscream grated out in a high, irritated voice. "Stop bothering me! I'll report in when I find something."
He ended the radio connection before Megatron could yell at him for being impertinent and turned his attention back to the insect he was about to exterminate. But the human was gone. Starscream glanced down a shadowed alley way bordered half way with a fence. There was a small hole and out the light on the other side he saw the flicker of the human's retreat as it took off around the corner.
As much as a fly that had buzzed off to some place else, Starscream gave the human little mind. He had other things to worry about and he moved off.
Crystal ran and ran and ran. Through crowds and deserted places alike. All she could do was run. She ran until her body had nothing else left to propel her and she nearly collapsed on hands and knees outside a small park, panting heavily and wanting to throw up. Her limbs were on fire and trembling, her vision was swimming. She was far away now, but still terrified. She had never felt so afraid-- never been so close to death.
As she panted and shivered, she felt a hand lightly touch her shoulder.
"Hey, you going to be okay?" Jazz asked softly.
Crystal was still breathing too hard to reply. Her mouth was dry and sore from sucking in air. She sat back, leaning against the wall as she tried to swallow, weakly nodding. No matter what she was afraid might have happened, she would be fine as soon as her heart slowed down.
"That robot... was huge," she managed to pant.
"Tell me about it," Jazz said with a lopsided grin. He still kept a concerned hand on her shoulder. "I never thought I'd find old Starscream that menacing. My fuel pump just about stopped. You saved my aft back there by shoving me out of the way. He would have cooked me for sure."
"Cooked us both," Crystal corrected, resting her elbows on her upturned knees. She let out a heavy breath as her respiratory system was slowly going back to normal.
She leaned her head against the wall and let out another breath as she watched the clouds pass by above her. It was good to be alive. She looked over at Jazz.
"If you get back to your normal size, will you be that big?"
Jazz chuckled. "I'm not as tall as Starscream, but I could still take him out."
"I suppose that's all I could ask," Crystal chuckled back weakly.
She held out her hands in front of her face, clenching and unclenching her fingers. They were still trembling.
Jazz's two black hands reached out and sandwiched one of hers in his. "You're shaking," he said pragmatically.
"Adrenaline rush," Crystal informed him. "I'll be fine. Just give me a few minutes."
Jazz nodded and knelt himself next to her, her hand still in his, as he watched her.
Crystal was still getting over her initial shock. It took her a while to realize he was still there watching out for her.
Jazz's obvious concern made her stop and think for a while. Despite how easily she interacted with them, Crystal still had a hard time looking at them as more than machines. As pets at the very least, not people. Certainly not human--not with humanity. Not with feelings such as she had. And yet, despite his single optic band, it did little to hide the obvious emotion this small robot showed on a continuous basis. How did something made of metal and wires feel like she did? How was it alive like she was?
Crystal smiled down at the little Autobot.
"You're very sweet, you know that?" she told him.
"I know it," Jazz grinned back broadly. He stood up and leaned on his knees to look her closely in the face. "What say we go back an' wait for Prowl now? I think we've seen enough for today."
"Yes please," Crystal said gratefully.
She slowly got to her feet. Her legs still felt a bit shaky from all that running, but she tried to hide it and started walking. The two meandered around for a bit as Crystal tried to get her bearings on exactly where she was in the city and which was the best way to get back--preferably a route that didn't involve running into giant Decepticons in empty construction sites.
This time, Crystal stuck with heavily trafficked areas. Jazz could hardly blame her, but it made it quite difficult for a bot his size to keep up with her. The New York populace not only didn't seem to care they had a robot in their midst, they also didn't seem to notice. More than once Jazz nearly lost his human companion in the crowd. Luckily, she was fairly tall and she had a distinct hair color and he would quickly worm his way through to catch up with her again.
But finally, as Jazz feared, he lost her completely. All around him were towering humans; not a single one was familiar. There were so many of them, he couldn't even see where to go or what was around him. Nothing but a shuffling sea of bodies bombarded him every direction he turned. For a moment, panic filled him. If he got lost, what was he supposed to do? How would he ever find his way back again?
"There you are," Crystal announced as she appeared from the crowd.
The look on Jazz's face must have been of complete relief. Crystal reached out and grabbed his hand to keep him with her. "Don't worry, I'm not going to leave you behind, Jazz. We're in this together."
She had said that last line in an odd way. But Jazz was too relieved at being found to notice at the moment. Usually a talker, Jazz uncharacteristically stayed quiet as they made their way to the meeting point. He was out of his element in this giant city with towering building and humans every which way he looked. It was uncomfortable and he was looking forward to getting back to the sanctity of the smaller, enclosed apartment and also, to see his own kind again.
Crystal led them back to the bus stop and the pair waited for Prowl and Grimlock to show up. Hopefully, with much better findings than they had. There was a small park near by where Crystal leaned her elbows against the rail and looked over at the green grass and the small, murky pond where a few ducks were floating about. Jazz didn't enjoy the same scene; hardly able to see above the tall weeds growing up the metal rail. And he didn't care. His biggest concern was making sure he was next to Crystal at all times. More than anything else, he was dead set on the idea that she was going to take him home with her. Primus himself couldn't make him stay alone in this city over night. It was all he could do to not simply grab onto her shin and hold there until she carried him to the bus. Instead, he would have to settle for leaning against the rail and watching her hair blow in the wind.
Hair was an odd thing for Jazz. Being a robot, he didn’t see the point though humans and all Earth mammals had it. Then again, he never got a close look at it before. This Earth woman had extremely long hair that fell past her waist. It was an odd pale rusty color and was thin and light and waved almost hypnotically in the breeze. Jazz didn’t even realize he was reaching out to grab it until she said something to him.
"Hey Jazzy," Crystal spoke up. "Do you ever have dreams?"
Jazz immediately pulled his hand back, hoping she didn’t notice.
"Nope. I don't sleep, remember?"
"Do you know what they are?"
Jazz shrugged. "Kind of. You see things with your eyes closed, like replaying data in your head or something. It kinda freaks me out."
Crystal laughed. "It's not something freaky, I promise." She returned her gaze back to the pond.
"Why'd you ask?" Jazz then said.
"Oh," Crystal responded as she was reminded of it. "I just had a dream last night. It was about my mom. It just reminded me of something she used to tell me whenever... odd changes came up in our lives."
Crystal looked down at the robot stretching his neck to look up at her. As an after thought, she reached down and picked him up to sit on the railing so they were almost eye to eye. Jazz finally got his view of the pond while Crystal settled back into her memories.
"We used to move around a lot when I was a kid," Crystal continued. "I hated it. But my mother never had a problem with it. She had this weird faith in fate. She always told me things happened for a reason. That nothing in this world was coincidental.
“When I was little, I believed her without question. But now..." she sighed a little. "It seems like such an exhausting way to live, to constantly have faith in powers you cannot see. Knowing that everything that's coming will happen whether you want them to or not. That's there's nothing you can do about it. It seems a bit frightening unless you believe it's all meant to turn out for the best in the end. And that, I'm not sure I believe in either.
"But to also think to believe that there is no greater purpose out there is even less disconcerting. To think we are all coincidentally here and that nothing is in store for us seems like a big joke. So I'm left with my first option that fate has something planned for us all. But if that's true then..." She looked over at Jazz. "It means that millions of years ago, you were shot out of space and you were meant to land here, sleep here. And you were meant to wake up in this time some twenty years ago. And yesterday, your Decepticon leader was meant to have a gun that shrinks Autobots and I was destined to find you. What do you think of that?"
Jazz just gave her a blank look and shrugged. Philosophical thinking like that made a throbbing in his logic circuits.
“Couldn’t really tell you,” he admitted. “In all honesty, we don’t really think about that much. Fate is a human idea. Your lives are so short and ours can go on forever. For those of us who have lived millions of years already, fate seems very... irrelevant.”
Crystal looked thoughtfully at the pond. “I suppose that could be true in your case. But I’m going to do a little experiment. Your friends are now on a time limit, Four. We will see if I can find them all before I am able to leave this city I will accept that fate is trying to tell me something. And if not, well... maybe not everything in the world is directed by fate. Maybe there are some coincidences out there as well.”
Jazz looked at her oddly for a moment, not really understanding it all. He was about to ask her about it when Crystal turned her attention from him as she pulled her cell phone from her pocket to check the time.
"It's getting late. They should have been here by now," she said worriedly. "I wish there was some way to call them or something. I hope they didn't get lost."
"Nah, Prowl's got his map. He never gets lost," Jazz assured her. "Let me see that." He held out his hand for the cell phone to which Crystal complied.
Jazz looked the small appliance over from every angle. Then he got still as if deep in thought. Crystal was wondering what he was doing, but then Jazz came to life again and handed her back the phone.
"Here you go," he said as if he had just given her a brand new gift.
Crystal was about to ask what he was doing when her phone rang, singing a part of "Take On Me" before she flipped it open and answered it.
"Hello?"
"How's that sound?" Jazz said as his voice echoed over her cell phone.
"Wicked!" Crystal exclaimed in approval. "So you can call me on my cell phone now?"
"Yup," Jazz beamed. "It only works one way, but if we get separated, I can always get in contact with you."
"That's fantastic!" She grinned over at him. "You're amazing."
Once more, Jazz beamed. "I know it," he confirmed yet again.
Something lightly grabbed and tugged on Crystal's hand and she looked down.
"Prowl, Grim! Oh, you guys are okay!" She looked happy to see them, then her face fell at Prowl's dour expression. "No luck, huh?"
"No sign," Prowl replied. Even his usual stoic voice seemed to betray an undertone of disappointment. "If the others have completely fled this area, I don't know where we would look for them."
"Well," Crystal responded, trying to sound positive. "We'll just look somewhere else tomorrow and hope we find them. Maybe we can--"
She was cut off as Prowl got a stern look on his face and grabbed her hand, pulling her down to his level. When the two were almost eye to eye, Prowl went to her arm and frowned at the scratches he saw there. Crystal hadn’t even noticed them. She must have gotten them when she scrambled through the fence to escape from Starscream. They weren’t bad, but still deep enough to have dried blood gathered where the skin was broken.
Prowl gave an unapproving glare to Jazz who slumped guiltily.
Crystal gave Prowl a pat on the head. "Don't worry about it, it's fine. I just want to go home."
Jazz jumped off the rail and followed as Crystal walked towards the bus stop.
"We'll have a talk later," Prowl informed him quietly.
Grimlock ran in front of Crystal and then turned into his dinosaur mode. "Me Grimlock sick of walking. Carry me," he ordered her.
Crystal scooped him up without a thought even before Jazz or Prowl could get after him for treating her that way. The timing was perfect and the bus pulled up right then. Crystal tromped into the bus and sat down with Grimlock in her lap. Jazz and Prowl climbed onto the seat next to her and the bus was off again.
"Ugh, I am so hungry. I can't wait to get back home," Crystal complained. She glanced over at the two Autobot officers. "Are you sure I can't fix you guys something to eat?"
Jazz grinned crookedly at her. "You could, but we wouldn't be able to do anything with it."
Crystal sighed as she rested her chin on the top of Grimlock's head. "Another dinner for one, then."
As she reached her bedroom door, Crystal noticed two glowing blue eyes about knee height in the door way. Prowl's pale silhouette could also be seen as she approached; clutching a book to his chest. He looked up at her in a way that reminded her of a cat she had as a child who would sit there when you opened the door and looked at you expectantly as you tried to figure out what it wanted.
"How about it, Shorty?" she said to him. "You want in or out?"
Prowl glanced at the dark bedroom within and then decided to go in himself. Crystal followed, closing the door behind her and flopping tiredly back in bed. She didn't even want to know what time it was.
As she settled in, she could feel Prowl's lighter form crawling up on the bed and sitting on her pillow, back against the wall. Crystal rolled over to rest her forehead against his leg.
"What are you reading?" she asked as she pulled the covers closer around her.
"Alice in Wonderland," came the calm response.
"Really?" Crystal asked, opening one eye to look to see if he was joking. It hardly seemed like the preferred selection for a serious robot.
"I've read everything else," Prowl informed her.
"I see."
"This is the second time I'm reading this," Prowl continued. "I don't get it."
"Really," Crystal wondered. "Though I suppose you could relate to it a bit. You are kind of down a rabbit hole right now, aren't you?"
Prowl quietly thought about it.
Crystal snuggled up closer to him. "Read it to me."
Prowl looked at the top of her head dubiously and then opened the book, starting from the beginning.
"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?' "
Crystal settled into a quiet breathing rhythm as the calm, lulling voice made her drift off. Idly, her last thoughts were of the robots in her home. She was having a harder time thinking of them as robots as she got to know them. Though made of metal, they acted human and their skin was warm, almost alive to the touch. She wanted to protect them. She wasn’t sure why, but she had an undeniable urge to get them back to their home. Maybe they were destined to meet after all.
Prowl stopped reading out loud when his sensors told him the human body had slipped into its sleep mode. In the darkness, he watched her shoulders slowly rise and fall. He had always respected the human species, but never let himself get involved with them like some of his fellow Autobots had. He liked living by boundaries and right now, it felt like he had crossed them and there was nothing he could do about it.
Unfortunately, Jazz had been right and in their current predicament, they needed this human’s help. But Prowl was determined to keep her out of their fight as much as possible. And when it was all over, they would sever the ties. This girl didn’t need the danger in her life and Prowl wasn’t willing to risk it just for him.
It worried Ratchet.
According to Teletran One, the Decepticon activity was still high in New York. Why were they still there? It was far from their base. Had the Autobots lost? What had happened to them? If they had lost, they why hadn’t Megatron done anything else but hide away in that city? And if the Autobots were still active, then where were they and why weren’t any of them reporting in?
Ratchet wasn’t sure what was worse, not knowing what was going on or being completely helpless to do anything about it. He should have gone. Prowl would have been better to run the base. He wouldn’t have gotten this antsy being left alone. He would have handled it better. And Ratchet would have done better out on the field helping them with... whatever it was that had happened to them.
But it couldn’t be helped now. Ratch had to deal with the card given to him and try to get his fellow Autobots back to the base so he could organize a second party to go after the first one. That, in itself, was a chore.
Autobots were scattered all about the globe due to world-wide Decepticon activity. To which the Decepticons, most of which were high powered jets, could travel about the planet faster than the land based Autobots. All they had at the moment was Jetfire–who had been shot down and was still waiting for rescue himself. Cosmos was in space, as was Powerglide with him. And the entire team of Arielbots had been transferred to Cybertron. Now, in hindsight, a horribly thought out move on their part.
But once again, there was nothing Ratchet could do about that now. The only thing he could do was wait for all the radioed parties to slowly drive back to base.
At that thought, Ratchet was pleasantly surprised to hear the doors to the control room hiss open and heavy metallic feet stomp in.
Flooded with relief at the early arrival, Ratchet turned around with elation. His face dropped just as quickly when he saw who was standing there.
“Oh,” he said flatly. “It’s just you.”
Author’s Note: Thanks so much for reading so far and thanks also for the comments. I’m sorry I can’t get to them all or I don’t have anything to say in response, but they are much appreciated so thanks everyone for feeling this fic was worth your time to read and comment on. I’m having a lot of fun with it. See you in part 3.
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