Alien, Chapter 2
Title: Alien
Author: Dreaming of Everything, dreams_of_all
Series: Transformers (2007 movie)
Characters/Pairings: None but mentions of Sam/Mikaela, because it's canon.
Rating/Warnings: K+/PG to a low T/PG-13 for minor sexual references and the potential for mild language. Nothing more than that. Potential SPOILER WARNINGS for anything from the movie.
Summary: Defeating Megatron and defending Earth from the Decepticons is all well and good, and everyone’s enjoying the chance to relax a little. (Except maybe Ironhide.) It would all be perfect, maybe even idyllic, if only that was all that was out there…
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Mikaela couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t just that the night was too hot-though there was that-it was that she was worried.
The meteorites were just too similar to what had happened last time. Not the arrival of the rest of the Autobots-that had been something of a Godsend-but the whole general idea that phenomenally powerful alien beings could fall to earth with nobody ever knowing.
The Decepticons had done that.
And so the meteorites were just-reminding her of that again.
It was mixed feelings. On one hand, Bee was great (and the catalyst for getting her and Sam together) and the rest of the Autobots were nice enough, even if they could be a little intimidating and a lot embarrassing, but on the other hand there was, well, the Decepticons.
Basically, it had been a big, dramatic, dangerous, in-your-face reminder that they-humans as a whole-did not, in fact, know much about anything. And that, sometimes, they were defenseless, incapable of protecting themselves-even if they knew what to protect themselves from.
oOo
The troops were sweating nervously as they trained their guns on the captive robot. Even the entrance of the Secretary of Defense wasn’t enough to distract them.
“The NBE has been detained, sir,” said the soldier in charge, standing to attention.
“It’s got the Autobot marking on it…” he muttered as he looked it over: not the largest they had seen, maybe a large-sized (but still in the range of normal) car when it was transformed; its paintjob was in good condition, although the colors were uninspired-beige and a dark, blackish-colored metal-and it lacked the obvious weapons of some of the robots they had seen, not that that meant much. The Camaro had pulled his out of nowhere.
The robot glowered from where it sat, entangled in strong steel cables being held fast by the helicopters circling overhead. The cables, actually, were a recent advance in technological capabilities, designed entirely for just this eventuality: they were superchilled, cold enough to keep a possible Decepticon somewhat contained without forcing a potential Autobot into a comatose state-which would make it even harder for the creature to distinguish between a potential enemy or a potential ally, as the Camaro had proved when it had been released-before it had been talked out of it by the Witwicky boy, anyways.
Still. Just because it was labeled as an Autobot didn’t mean it was. Releasing it was currently a risk they couldn’t afford.
“What’s your alliance?” It was a good place to start. Neutral and useless.
“Not going to talk to you,” said the creature, voice moody.
“Why not?”
“Why should I? And anyways, you haven’t given me any reason to trust you.”
“You landed on U.S.-controlled land, in a government test facility, causing a considerable amount of damage to irreplaceable, largely untested, technology, then headed towards a civilian residential area. What would you rather we have done?
It was impressive how sulky the robot managed to look. “Not going to talk to anyone but Optimus Prime,” he muttered.
American Secretary of Defense John Keller sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Feel free to cooperate at any time,” he said, then left.
Once they were outside of the holding facility, his aide spoke up. “Mr. Secretary, if I may, have you ever dealt with a 15-year-old boy? I have a recommendation…”
oOo
“Hey Mom, Dad, I’m ho-” Sam yelled as he walked into the house, his words cutting off as he was with his mother and father looking annoyed and nervous, their living room filled with officious men in dark suits and ties.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
“Ah. Sam. You were privately commended for your actions concerning recent events. A real hero, and at your age.”
A glance out the window showed Bumblebee, fully transformed, crouched so he could see in to the room, glaring at the occupants. A few of the government suits were trying to pretend they weren’t intimidated.
“What is going on? I haven’t done a thing, I haven’t done anything illegal, I’ve kept silent about the Transformers, what do you want from me?”
“The Secretary of Defense has a request for you, Mr. Witwicky.”
“Mr.?’ muttered Sam incredulously to himself.
A (very official) cell phone was handed over. “Hello?” he said. This was ridiculous, and he knew his voice was revealing the fact that he thought that.
“Sam,” the voice on the other end of the line responded. “You probably remember me. Secretary of Defense John Keller.”
“Uh…”
“Are you still in contact with the NBE?”
“Bumblebee? Yeeeaah. Seriously, though, Mr. Keller-sir-Bee hasn’t been a problem at all, in fact I think-”
“I’m not calling about that, so stop talking before you convince me it’s an issue. I have a message I need your car to relay for me.”
“…okay?”
oOo
The stars had come out of the night sky and scratched a scar a mile long through the thick jungle.
It had been a Saint’s Day, so everyone in the village had found a spot in a boat, and they’d gone up the river and hiked for two miles so they could see where it had finally come to rest.
The star had been a piece of rock maybe a foot thick and two feet long. It had cracked in half when it had landed, splitting into two nearly equal pieces, and the townspeople had only been able to recognize it from any other rock by the crater it had torn in the ground.
Already, the plants were beginning to fill in the gap. They knew seeds were stirring beneath their feet, and a tree had fallen over the empty bowl caused by the impact; already, the vines that had draped the tree were reaching for the fresh ground.
Soon, it would be impossible to find.
oOo
The girl never noticed the strange, insistent twitch of the vine beneath her feet as she turned and left the crater with her family.
oOo
“Huh. They need Optimus in Nevada. We should go,” Mikaela said.
“I’m way ahead of you,” replied Bumblebee.
“Anyways, it wouldn’t hurt to give him some back-up,” said Sam.
The three of them had retreated to an area that was empty enough that Bumblebee could switch to his bipedal form; they needed to talk.
“He was in Florida, so we don’t need to worry about time,” added Mikaela.
“I’ll tell him we’re coming and arrange a rendezvous point,” said Bumblebee.
“Which just leaves me to figure out what to tell my parents that will convince them to let me go, and what to tell the government so they let us in the front doors,” said Sam with a sigh.
“We could sneak in?” said Bumblebee, looking a little too interested in the idea.
“No.” Sam’s voice was thick with flat refusal.
“Awww, you’re no fun,” said Mikaela, a smile playing on her lips.
“What are you telling your mom?”
“That we’re going on a road trip.”
oOo
It was three days after the meteorites had touched down, and dawn was close enough that the eastern horizon of Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest was beginning to lighten, that it happened.
She was in her mother’s arms and out the door before she was even fully awake-and as they ran, she realized that their house was gone; there was only a tangle of greenery-or what she thought was plants, at least. They were moving, though. Her father was trying to fight his way out of the tangle.
It was dark, and there were people running everywhere-some for the forest, some for the roads, some for the river, but mostly just trying to run away; there was screaming, and she wanted to scream back. She didn’t, though.
“Where are the boats?” said her mama with a gasp as they reached the river. Again, there was only that snarl of greenery, this one stiller than the one that had been their house had.
A beam of light cut through the charcoal darkness, and burned at her eyes; she covered them, and when she opened them again, on of the airplanes that delivered supplies up and down the river had landed-a biplane.
“Get in!” called the pilot, over the noise of the engine and the noise from the town.
“My husband-!” gasped her mama.
“There’s only room for the two,” said the pilot, his voice softer and sadder than his face made him look-his expression was strangely wooden.
Her mama’s face hardened, and she pushed her into the plane, then climbed in after her, whispering her rosary under her breath, fingers moving where the beads would have been, but it was still back in the house.
Then the plane was moving, and she held back a gasp-she had never been up in the air like this before, above the trees. She moved further away from the window, against her mama. She hugged her.
The plane dipped low to circle over the village, but she couldn’t see it. It just looked the forest, only less varied. It looked like just one sort of tree, but she couldn’t tell which kind from here, not with how fast they were moving.
As they circled over it, lower and lower, a branch suddenly shot out of it, aiming for the plane-it swerved to miss it, making her breath catch and making her mama shriek, but it missed. The pilot muttered what sounded like a curse, and Mama covered her ears, then stopped to hug her.
She curled her face in close to her mama, so she couldn’t see outside while the plane spun and dodged the forest canopy reaching out to them.
“I don’t think there’s anyone left,” said the pilot grimly, and her mama started to cry.
“My little Maria,” she whispered. “You’re all that I have.”
Author: Dreaming of Everything, dreams_of_all
Series: Transformers (2007 movie)
Characters/Pairings: None but mentions of Sam/Mikaela, because it's canon.
Rating/Warnings: K+/PG to a low T/PG-13 for minor sexual references and the potential for mild language. Nothing more than that. Potential SPOILER WARNINGS for anything from the movie.
Summary: Defeating Megatron and defending Earth from the Decepticons is all well and good, and everyone’s enjoying the chance to relax a little. (Except maybe Ironhide.) It would all be perfect, maybe even idyllic, if only that was all that was out there…
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Mikaela couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t just that the night was too hot-though there was that-it was that she was worried.
The meteorites were just too similar to what had happened last time. Not the arrival of the rest of the Autobots-that had been something of a Godsend-but the whole general idea that phenomenally powerful alien beings could fall to earth with nobody ever knowing.
The Decepticons had done that.
And so the meteorites were just-reminding her of that again.
It was mixed feelings. On one hand, Bee was great (and the catalyst for getting her and Sam together) and the rest of the Autobots were nice enough, even if they could be a little intimidating and a lot embarrassing, but on the other hand there was, well, the Decepticons.
Basically, it had been a big, dramatic, dangerous, in-your-face reminder that they-humans as a whole-did not, in fact, know much about anything. And that, sometimes, they were defenseless, incapable of protecting themselves-even if they knew what to protect themselves from.
oOo
The troops were sweating nervously as they trained their guns on the captive robot. Even the entrance of the Secretary of Defense wasn’t enough to distract them.
“The NBE has been detained, sir,” said the soldier in charge, standing to attention.
“It’s got the Autobot marking on it…” he muttered as he looked it over: not the largest they had seen, maybe a large-sized (but still in the range of normal) car when it was transformed; its paintjob was in good condition, although the colors were uninspired-beige and a dark, blackish-colored metal-and it lacked the obvious weapons of some of the robots they had seen, not that that meant much. The Camaro had pulled his out of nowhere.
The robot glowered from where it sat, entangled in strong steel cables being held fast by the helicopters circling overhead. The cables, actually, were a recent advance in technological capabilities, designed entirely for just this eventuality: they were superchilled, cold enough to keep a possible Decepticon somewhat contained without forcing a potential Autobot into a comatose state-which would make it even harder for the creature to distinguish between a potential enemy or a potential ally, as the Camaro had proved when it had been released-before it had been talked out of it by the Witwicky boy, anyways.
Still. Just because it was labeled as an Autobot didn’t mean it was. Releasing it was currently a risk they couldn’t afford.
“What’s your alliance?” It was a good place to start. Neutral and useless.
“Not going to talk to you,” said the creature, voice moody.
“Why not?”
“Why should I? And anyways, you haven’t given me any reason to trust you.”
“You landed on U.S.-controlled land, in a government test facility, causing a considerable amount of damage to irreplaceable, largely untested, technology, then headed towards a civilian residential area. What would you rather we have done?
It was impressive how sulky the robot managed to look. “Not going to talk to anyone but Optimus Prime,” he muttered.
American Secretary of Defense John Keller sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. “Feel free to cooperate at any time,” he said, then left.
Once they were outside of the holding facility, his aide spoke up. “Mr. Secretary, if I may, have you ever dealt with a 15-year-old boy? I have a recommendation…”
oOo
“Hey Mom, Dad, I’m ho-” Sam yelled as he walked into the house, his words cutting off as he was with his mother and father looking annoyed and nervous, their living room filled with officious men in dark suits and ties.
“What’s going on?” he demanded.
“Ah. Sam. You were privately commended for your actions concerning recent events. A real hero, and at your age.”
A glance out the window showed Bumblebee, fully transformed, crouched so he could see in to the room, glaring at the occupants. A few of the government suits were trying to pretend they weren’t intimidated.
“What is going on? I haven’t done a thing, I haven’t done anything illegal, I’ve kept silent about the Transformers, what do you want from me?”
“The Secretary of Defense has a request for you, Mr. Witwicky.”
“Mr.?’ muttered Sam incredulously to himself.
A (very official) cell phone was handed over. “Hello?” he said. This was ridiculous, and he knew his voice was revealing the fact that he thought that.
“Sam,” the voice on the other end of the line responded. “You probably remember me. Secretary of Defense John Keller.”
“Uh…”
“Are you still in contact with the NBE?”
“Bumblebee? Yeeeaah. Seriously, though, Mr. Keller-sir-Bee hasn’t been a problem at all, in fact I think-”
“I’m not calling about that, so stop talking before you convince me it’s an issue. I have a message I need your car to relay for me.”
“…okay?”
oOo
The stars had come out of the night sky and scratched a scar a mile long through the thick jungle.
It had been a Saint’s Day, so everyone in the village had found a spot in a boat, and they’d gone up the river and hiked for two miles so they could see where it had finally come to rest.
The star had been a piece of rock maybe a foot thick and two feet long. It had cracked in half when it had landed, splitting into two nearly equal pieces, and the townspeople had only been able to recognize it from any other rock by the crater it had torn in the ground.
Already, the plants were beginning to fill in the gap. They knew seeds were stirring beneath their feet, and a tree had fallen over the empty bowl caused by the impact; already, the vines that had draped the tree were reaching for the fresh ground.
Soon, it would be impossible to find.
oOo
The girl never noticed the strange, insistent twitch of the vine beneath her feet as she turned and left the crater with her family.
oOo
“Huh. They need Optimus in Nevada. We should go,” Mikaela said.
“I’m way ahead of you,” replied Bumblebee.
“Anyways, it wouldn’t hurt to give him some back-up,” said Sam.
The three of them had retreated to an area that was empty enough that Bumblebee could switch to his bipedal form; they needed to talk.
“He was in Florida, so we don’t need to worry about time,” added Mikaela.
“I’ll tell him we’re coming and arrange a rendezvous point,” said Bumblebee.
“Which just leaves me to figure out what to tell my parents that will convince them to let me go, and what to tell the government so they let us in the front doors,” said Sam with a sigh.
“We could sneak in?” said Bumblebee, looking a little too interested in the idea.
“No.” Sam’s voice was thick with flat refusal.
“Awww, you’re no fun,” said Mikaela, a smile playing on her lips.
“What are you telling your mom?”
“That we’re going on a road trip.”
oOo
It was three days after the meteorites had touched down, and dawn was close enough that the eastern horizon of Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest was beginning to lighten, that it happened.
She was in her mother’s arms and out the door before she was even fully awake-and as they ran, she realized that their house was gone; there was only a tangle of greenery-or what she thought was plants, at least. They were moving, though. Her father was trying to fight his way out of the tangle.
It was dark, and there were people running everywhere-some for the forest, some for the roads, some for the river, but mostly just trying to run away; there was screaming, and she wanted to scream back. She didn’t, though.
“Where are the boats?” said her mama with a gasp as they reached the river. Again, there was only that snarl of greenery, this one stiller than the one that had been their house had.
A beam of light cut through the charcoal darkness, and burned at her eyes; she covered them, and when she opened them again, on of the airplanes that delivered supplies up and down the river had landed-a biplane.
“Get in!” called the pilot, over the noise of the engine and the noise from the town.
“My husband-!” gasped her mama.
“There’s only room for the two,” said the pilot, his voice softer and sadder than his face made him look-his expression was strangely wooden.
Her mama’s face hardened, and she pushed her into the plane, then climbed in after her, whispering her rosary under her breath, fingers moving where the beads would have been, but it was still back in the house.
Then the plane was moving, and she held back a gasp-she had never been up in the air like this before, above the trees. She moved further away from the window, against her mama. She hugged her.
The plane dipped low to circle over the village, but she couldn’t see it. It just looked the forest, only less varied. It looked like just one sort of tree, but she couldn’t tell which kind from here, not with how fast they were moving.
As they circled over it, lower and lower, a branch suddenly shot out of it, aiming for the plane-it swerved to miss it, making her breath catch and making her mama shriek, but it missed. The pilot muttered what sounded like a curse, and Mama covered her ears, then stopped to hug her.
She curled her face in close to her mama, so she couldn’t see outside while the plane spun and dodged the forest canopy reaching out to them.
“I don’t think there’s anyone left,” said the pilot grimly, and her mama started to cry.
“My little Maria,” she whispered. “You’re all that I have.”