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I don't own any of this stuff except for Sarah, all the OOC-ness and whatever isn't already claimed by somebody else.

Synopsis: A woman finds a strange metal shard after the final battle, and what happens after will affect more than her life.

A SERIES OF IMPOSSIBILITIES

It started when Sarah Hornsby found the Shard lying amid the wreckage on the Mission City street. The Shard didn’t look like much of anything, let alone anything special, just a hunk of dark, glossy metal the size of a small hairbrush. It was amazing she’d even seen it, as it had blended in with the pulverized dirt and charred remnants of unrecognizable things, but somehow… Something in the back of her mind had made her attention fix upon that spot. Now that same something was telling her that this… thing she had found was either important somehow or it had been once, that that she looked not upon a shard but a Shard. “Such a small thing…” It seemed to have been the corner of something, something heavy and ornately decorated, for she could see delicate traceries that must have once made up loops and spirals. “Such a small and innocuous thing…” The day’s heat had baked it so it was warm in her hand, though with dusk falling it would soon cool. A bit of brushing with gentle fingertips restored its sheen. A static charge ran through her as she touched the now-clean metal, making her skin prickle. That was a little odd, but it couldn’t be much different from shuffling across a shag carpet and then touching a doorknob. Sticking her find in her pocket, she brushed her hands off on her already-dirty jeans, letting the grime smear. It wasn’t as if her jeans could get any dirtier, after all. Shaking her head, her midriff-length mousy brown hair falling over her blue eyes, she suddenly felt herself become very aware of how utterly filthy she was. Her first order of business upon getting back to her apartment would be a shower, followed by sack time.

The bedside lamp glowed with a warm, tawny light as Sarah sat in her bed, turning the Shard over and over in her hands. It was still warm. “That’s odd…” There was something about it, this Shard she held. “What are you?” Ever since it had zapped her, she’d felt odd… She could feel some sort of energy coursing inside her, unnamed and unnamable. “I feel more alive than I have ever felt before!” Whatever energy was associated with being alive… That was what she felt flowing within her. It was pleasant, to say the least. Holding the Shard to her chest, she relaxed and just let herself slide away into sleep.

Sarah dreamed, and in her dreams she flew through space, passing star after star to alight on an unknown planet somewhere beyond all human knowledge. To say that it was alien to her would be an understatement. Structures and objects of unknown origin and function towered all around her, and everywhere she could spy the glint of metal. Was this whole planet metal? It was all alien to her, but the tableau of carnage and destruction was all too familiar. “War,” she whispered to herself. Fantastical forms of great size fought, killed and died all around her. “Are they machines too?” Listening to their shouts and war cries, the language unfamiliar but the intent all too clear, she began to make out differences between the two groups. “These ones have blue eyes…” She looked across the battlefield. “…And those ones have red eyes.” She was a ghost, no, less than a ghost, as the carnage raged all around her, shots and fighting forms passing right through her as she wandered. Across the way she could see a great many of the blue-eyed ones clustered together. All of them looked to one, and she marveled at the sight of him. An aura of nobility and wisdom seemed to pour forth from him, and the sound of his deep, rich voice only served to heighten that sense. “These are the good guys,” she realized. Everything swirled around her and she found herself now standing near a cluster of the red-eyed ones. As before, all of them looked to one, but this one was the polar opposite of the first. Covered all over with spiky silver armor, with spidery claws for fingers at the end of powerful arms, eyes seeming almost to burn with unholy flames, terrifying fangs showing as he barked out his orders in a low, rumbling voice… He was as terrible as the other had been great, radiating immense anger and hatred. These ones followed out of fear. “The enemy,” she whispered. The demonic one stopped in mid-sentence, as if something had startled him. “Oh no…” He was turning to face her. Surely he couldn’t see her, she was a ghost… Fiery eyes focused on her. “He does see me!” An evil grin slowly took shape on that terrifying face. The face of the Devil, she thought. One of those terrible hands reached out…

“No!” She abruptly found herself sitting up in bed, tangled in the sweat-drenched sheets with the Shard clutched tight enough to actually hurt. It took a few minutes of deep breathing to calm down from the state of utter hysteria she’d woken up in. “Just a dream,” she said to herself. Still, it had felt so real… Like it had actually happened at some point. She decided to think no more of it and went out to start her day.

That was how it began, and how her life began to change. By night she walked on alien battlefields, always seeing the same faces and fleeing in terror from the demonic one, who at first pursued her without fail. By day she experienced the strangest things… Lights turned on as she walked past, computers rebooted and flipped through files when she was near… And she felt something strange deep inside her, some sort of… connection to the demon of her dreams. It was as if her soul was falling as rain upon a parched land, or as if she was giving an indefinable something to the figment of her imagination. What could only be described as an excess of life energy was pouring out of her like water flowing through a pipe. She got the sense that whatever lay at the other side of that connection was relying on her for support, as if her strange power was the only thing standing between that indefinable presence and certain extinction.

As days passed, she began to hear voices. Broken machines cried out in her mind, weeping as if in pain, telling her what was wrong and asking for her help. It was quiet at first, just a vague whisper in the back of her mind, but each passing day saw it growing louder and stronger. The connection in her mind was becoming firmer, more definable, and what seemed to her to be her own growing strength increased the flow of energy leaving her, giving more and more to whatever lay at the other end… Her dreams were changing, too. Always she would find herself standing before that silver monstrosity, but its reaction to her was no longer quite as fierce, showing less evil intent and more desperation. It wanted to reach her, needed to, but it always failed to do anything more than scare her. Still, she was growing stronger, and so was whoever or whatever was linked to her. That was all, growing strength, an affinity for machines, demon-haunted dreams and a strange link to something she knew nothing about, but it didn’t stay that way for long…

If you want more, leave a review, dammit. ...Please?

Chapter 2: Jets and memories

It seemed as though she alone could see the lone jet limping slowly through the sky, trailing thick clots of greasy black smoke behind it. She could tell from the wavering, erratic course that it was barely able to fly. Even from this distance she could tell that it was badly damaged. An entire half a wing seemed to be missing, and part of the aircraft’s fuselage had a chunk taken out of it. Damaged or not, it didn’t look like any aircraft she knew of. The sun came out from behind a cloud and shone upon the jet, silver sparkling like the play of sunbeams on rippling water, and the Shard in her pocket blazed red hot for a moment. And she knew. “It’s him,” she said. She knew no name to give him, save what she saw him as… The Silver Devil. He haunted her dreams every night, him and the other one, the leader of the blue-eyed ones. She named him in the same way, by what she saw him as… The Noble Lord. Certain faces had stood out as well among the hordes, and she had named them as well. They weren’t so much real names as what her mind labeled them as, the defining aspects that made them recognizable to her.

Among the red-eyed ones who served the Silver Devil there was Rains Death From Above, who decimated battlefields from the sky, Likes To Yell and his spastic partner, Moves Swiftly. Destroys Everything was always on the front lines, laying down devastation with the biggest cannon she had ever seen, as was Tosses Enemies who merely threw things around. Rains Death From Above was sometimes accompanied by Shoots Blue Fire, who also flew but preferred to walk.

The Noble Lord also had teammates who drew her attention. There was Heals Others, who helped the wounded, Says Nothing who never spoke, Always Ready who had big guns and was always willing to use them, and last of all there was Shows Off, who did just about everything with a dramatic flair that always made her giggle.

Wasting no more time, she ran down the street, following the smoke trail in the sky, hoping she could intercept him before he could do any damage as he had in her dreams. And through it all she still felt that call in her mind, the one she had learned to recognize as the voice of a damaged or broken machine crying out for her aid. The aliveness inside her, the power she had gained, sheer life force, allowed her to sprint like a marathon runner down city street after city street, block after block, out of the city. Her run took her down to a reservoir just in time to see the plume of smoke arc downward and explode into a huge gush of water that sprayed into the air, high enough to clear the forty-foot-high embankment. She paused, uncertain. The call was still there, loud and clear, but the thought of its source gave her pause. This was the Silver Devil, after all. She’d seen his deeds in her dreams, how many lives he’d taken and how many more he’d ruined. Still, something else deep inside her, separate from the power she felt, urged her on. She chuckled. She never had been able to resist the urge to help someone in need, human or animal. “Looks like I’ll have to extend that to mechanical,” she said to herself as she began to climb the embankment, taking it slowly, step by step.

I'd really like some reviews or at least a reply to this!

I'm not adding any more until I get some replies, dammit. At least tell me whether or not anybody's actually READING this. I'm not putting any more up if no one's reading; that'd be wasting space. So if you want more, SAY SO!

I always love to read other people's work, and I have read all of this. I am intrigued as to where it's going, so please, don't stop when you're just about to get things moving.

Whatever you were expecting to happen, I'll bet it wasn't THIS...

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Chapter 3: She wasn't expecting it either

The first thing she noticed was the sounds. Grunts and growls of effort mixed with the occasion heavy impact and the sound of something being dragged. Reaching the top, she looked down. The Silver Devil of her dreams lay sprawled on the ground before her, having just finished laboriously dragging himself out of the reservoir. His right leg was completely absent from mid-thigh downward, terminating in a charred mess of melted metal. The same was the case with his left arm right below the shoulder joint. The rest of him didn’t look much better. He looked as if he’d been caught in a rockslide, then stepped on three or four times. A groan escaped him. She hadn’t thought that mechanical beings could feel pain, but now all doubts were gone. It took everything she had to resist the urge to work her special magic. It was then that she heard the voice that haunted her dreams. The Silver Devil seemed to be semiconscious or at least very weak as he muttered to himself about how he had to find his brother and apologize for his deeds because his brush with death had shown him how stupid he had been and now he wanted to reconcile and end the madness he had started by keeping the others he’d led from pursuing the goal he now knew had been foolish… She only then realized that he’d been gathering his strength, for he began to move, reaching out with his remaining arm to drag himself forward.

All of a sudden she found herself darting to the side with a frightened squeal as those spidery claws she’d come to fear in her dreams blindly reached out and almost crushed her like a bug. All movement stopped the instant she cried out. A moment later she found herself staring him in the face. Terror filled her as memories of her nightmares piled in on her, the dreams he had haunted almost nightly… “It’s you…” The menacing thunder was gone from his voice, replaced with… astonishment? That realization, coupled with what he had just said, made her feel the same. “You… you know me?” There was no malice in those fiery eyes now, diabolic flames fading into a warm glow. “Before I regained consciousness, I was lost in my memories, reliving my past deeds. No matter the memory, I always saw you in the background somewhere. I would try to reach you, thinking you the key to escaping the confines of my own mind, but you would always retreat, fading away before I could say anything.” He relaxed again, no longer able to hold his head up to meet her gaze. She could tell he was in a world of pain and hurt, and not just the physical kind. “You know me… you know what I have done. You feared me… yet you are here. I don’t understand…” Neither did she, really. She could have just as easily disregarded the sight of that alien jet in the sky, or turned away at any point during her sprint to this place. “…I don’t either,” she eventually concluded. He gave what sounded like a sigh. “…It doesn’t matter. I managed to make it here, but I don’t think I’ll be going much farther. At least I was able to fly… one last time…” Her eyes widened. Was he dying?

Trying and failing to raise his head and look at her again, he spoke the only name he knew to give her. “Battle Angel…” She froze, confused yet somehow understanding that he meant her. It was like the labels her mind had given him and his cohorts in her dreams. As she had labeled him in her mind, so he had labeled her. “If you can, find my brother. You’ll know him when you see him, and he’ll know you. If you were in my memory-dreams, I’ll lay good odds on you being in his. Tell him I’m sorry for what I did. All the lives I took… All the destruction I caused…” That broke her out of her confusion. “I’ll go you one better on that. Just give me a moment here and we’ll see what happens.”

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My grandpa used to be a really mean and scary guy... until he got sick and nearly died. After that he wasn't mean anymore. He said that almost dying made him rethink things. It changed him.

Ooh, that didn't really appease my desire to get some grasp of what's going on. But you're certainly keeping my interest, I will look forward to the next part. =)

Chapter 4: A display of power

She immediately walked closer to that great hand that had almost crushed her mere moments ago, sat down and laid one hand upon the back of his. For a moment she noted how he dwarfed her. One twitch of those fearsome claws could take her head clean off her shoulders, yet no fear filled her. She knew without a doubt that he would do no such thing. Her free hand reached into her pocket and her fingertips just barely brushed up against the Shard. She found herself doing that less and less with each use of her ability. She’d also noticed how the Shard’s sheen had progressively dulled as she had grown stronger. Soon it would be wholly lusterless and the power would rest solely in her.

Those thoughts immediately vanished from her mind as the power took over and she was thrust into what could only be described as a trance state. In an instant her mind and soul raced through the Silver Devil’s body, along every neural cable and through every circuit, becoming one with them all. The damaged areas cried out in her mind and she lent her strength. The metal knew the way it was supposed to go, the way it wanted to be, and she let that guide her. The stumps of the missing limbs cried out for the parts they lacked and she let that guide her as well, raw energy becoming matter in seconds, metal flowing like liquid mercury and cables twining like yarn in the hands of an expert weaver.

He gasped as renewed strength flowed through him. He knew this feeling, so like the clarion call that had driven him for so long… But it couldn’t be! The All Spark had been destroyed, he had seen it, had almost died from it… A presence arced through his mind like lightning, not stopping to interact but merely passing through on some unknown task. It paused. Just for a brief moment, but it paused. It almost seemed as though he knew that presence, but its momentary pause was far too short for him to identify it.

He was up in a low crouch before he even realized that he had been made whole somehow. Disbelief filled him as he flexed his fingers, looking himself over with no small amount of shock. Everything was in perfect order, as if the damage he’d had previously had been no more than a passing dream. Then he felt it. It was like the call he had felt before, the All Spark inciting him to madness, but now it wasn’t so much a call as a presence in his mind that said ‘here I am; come find me’. “The All Spark… It still exists?”

Calming his turbulent thoughts as he had done uncountable times before during his bloody quest, he tried to sense the location of the All Spark. Very close… Almost on top of him… A little to his right… He looked to the exact spot he’d sensed and saw the human female he had come to call the Battle Angel. That was odd… He bent down closer to her for a better look, but backed off slightly as she recoiled. “Your dreams… Did you see a cube? A metal cube with markings on it?” She nodded. “Well… yes!” His voice took on an urgent tone. “What did it do? What did you see?” She scratched her head, wondering why it meant so much to him. “In my dreams it explodes into fragments that go flying all over, but then the explosion reverses itself and all the fragments shoot into me. Then there’s this… this light, and… That’s usually when I switch to dreaming about battles.” Realizing that there was quite a bit of explaining to do, he settled down. “Battle Angel…” She shook her head. “Sarah,” she said with a gentle smile, beginning to feel less and less afraid in his presence. “My name is Sarah.” He repeated her name to himself softly as if testing it, a smile taking shape on his face to echo hers. “And I am Megatron.”

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Well, WE knew it was him...

And so it all comes together. It will be good to see how you develop Megatron from this point. Assuming you are continuing of course. Keep it up. ^_^

Oh, there's a hell of a lot more to this story than just that bit.

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Chapter 5: What I am, what I've done

“You see, it all began when I found this…” Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the Shard. “I found it in a pile of wreckage on a street in Mission City when they finally let us back in after whatever happened there.” He looked a little embarrassed. “…I happened.” His tone of voice made her decide to speak no more of it. Holding out the Shard for him to see, she noted that it had become entirely black, like a piece of coal or charred firewood. “…It’s strange. This thing used to be all shiny and stuff. Every time I use my power I get stronger, and this shines less and less. It’s… I don’t know. It’s like whatever power it held is in me now.” Once again stilling his mind, he tried to sense exactly where the All Spark’s power hummed strongest. “It is. The Shard you hold is empty of whatever power it held. It’s all in you now. For all intents and purposes, you have become the All Spark.” Something deep inside her recognized the name. “This is… terribly familiar…”

Giving a sigh, she stared at her hands for a long moment. “It didn’t take long for me to start hearing the voices… The internet server crashed at the office I work in a few days after I first found the Shard. I could hear it… It was crying… Restore me, it called out. Let me go back to being as I was; let me do what I was meant to do. They fixed it after a couple hours of work, but I couldn’t get over the feeling that I could have done so with a mere touch. It was so confusing, yet so familiar… Like something I’d done a thousand times before. When dreaming, I’m taken to another world, time and time again. A whole planet cries out for my touch…” She sighed. “Whenever I see that planet in my dreams, a voice inside my heart calls out… This is where I’m meant to be, or to go. But I… What I did, there were people who wanted that, who wanted me…” She shook her head, voice rising as dream-memories surfaced. “Oh God, I… I think I caused a war!”

He didn’t know what to say, or if to say anything at all. The All Spark had bonded with her; indeed, she was the All Spark. What right did he have to speak words of comfort after what he had done? “You,” she said abruptly, startling him. “It was you. All of it… The war… You started it, didn’t you?” He looked away in shame. “…Yes.” Human history popped into her mind as well as the phantom memories of the alien war. “As long as power exists, so will those who seek to claim it. That’s something this planet knows all too well.” That thought brought on a realization that made her gasp. “When the world at large finds out about me, everybody and their proverbial grandmother will try to get me! Every nation on the face of the Earth will want to own me! It’ll start again… The war will start again and another world will die!” He looked down at her, noting how small and weak she looked, the All Spark’s power locked in a human form. So small and fragile, yet so powerful! Here, perhaps, could be his redemption… “Then I will protect you.”

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What better way is there to seek redemption than to prevent others from doing the same things you did?

Excellent again. I can tell I'm going to enjoy this.

Well, you KNEW it couldn't stay quiet for long...

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Chapter 6: Peace shattered

Both of them were completely surprised when the first few tanks cleared the embankment. Sarah screamed. Megatron practically jumped to his feet. “Get behind me!” His tone of voice silenced her objections before she could voice them, and so she merely darted behind his right leg as he got ready for a fight. The air was torn to fluttering shreds as a swarm of helicopters entered the area, at which point he opened fire with a cannon cleverly hidden within his right forearm. The helicopters scattered like a seven-ten bowling split as one launched what had to be a harpoon, the large and formidable spearhead cleaving the air to strike true and bite deep, impaling Megatron’s right wrist and disabling the cannon momentarily. A low growl escaped him and he pulled on the line hard enough to throw the offending helicopter out of the air, what looked like a chain-whip taking shape in his left hand. A single lash of that deadly whip sent two helicopters plummeting from the sky in balls of flames, and the All Spark within Sarah could hear their cries. Several shots took out several tanks, aimed straight and true by an expert marksman. Backing off a bit, the tanks fired back. The projectiles they fired weren’t designed to pierce or to explode; rather they were oversized pellets of liquid nitrogen. Bringing his right arm up to block, he winced as the shells impacted, liquid nitrogen going just about everywhere save behind him, and for that he was glad. He drew his whip back for the mightiest swing yet… and started in surprise as not one but three harpoons lanced his left wrist. He tried to pull free, but the combined might of three helicopters was enough to disable his whip and pin his arm there. A snarl erupted from his throat as he shifted his attention to using his right hand to rip the lines out of him… only to have three more harpoons strike his right wrist. Shock froze him in his place momentarily, just long enough for the tanks to fire another round. Now he was sure of it. They wanted to freeze him again, to take him back to where he had been before. “…N…no!” The liquid nitrogen was coating him, covering him, his external and internal temperature falling rapidly, just as it had the day he arrived on the planet… Just like before, his mind was blurring. The shots just kept coming, more and more ice forming, restricting his movements, trapping him… He was dimly aware that the human he had vowed to protect mere minutes before was charging out from behind him, dashing out into the open and entering the danger zone even as the assault brought him to his knees. It occurred to him that she was trying to intercede on his behalf.

Sarah stepped between Megatron and the Army as a whole with her arms flung wide. “Stop it! Stop hurting him!” She couldn’t take it anymore, couldn’t just hang back and watch someone fight for their life… “He wasn’t doing anything!” The helicopters had joined in the barrage of liquid nitrogen and no one heard her. “Leave him alone!” Tears of profound rage clouded her vision just as much as the turbulence whipping her hair in her face. She could almost feel something building inside her, something called forth by her desperate anger, and had she bothered to notice she would have seen blue lightning crawling across her skin. “Stop it! Just…” With every ounce of strength in her body, her mind and her very soul, she tilted her head back and screamed. “…STOP!”

A storm of blue lightning erupted from her now shining body, licking tendrils reaching out to each helicopter, each tank… and in its wake, everything stopped. The tanks sat like lumps and the helicopters just hovered where they were. Behind her, dimly aware that things had stopped, Megatron opened blurry eyes to behold her shine. His sense of the All Spark’s location was going crazy, but he didn’t need it to know the origin and nature of the power being unleashed right in front of him. Sarah still shone like a star, and her voice, when she spoke, was more powerful and commanding than even his. “Stand down weapons.” His sensitive hearing picked up the confused and irate cries of soldiers as the weapons systems in each and every tank and helicopter powered down. She looked up at the helicopters. “Disengage harpoons.” Each and every helicopter that had participated in the attempt to tether him summarily cut their towlines. It was then that he understood that the All Spark could do more than give life and repair damage… What it offered was nothing less than total control over all things mechanical. “Return to base.” More yells came from the Army vehicles as each and every one of them turned and left quietly.

With the barrage ended, Megatron’s core temperature was returning to normal, his mental faculties sharpening once again. “Sarah?” She fell to her knees as the light began to die away to reveal her, and to reveal that she had… changed. The intricate designs that had once adorned the All Spark now covered her skin, delicate traceries seemingly made of solid blue fire. “What happened to me?” His armor clattered lightly as the last of the liquid nitrogen dissipated, but he stayed down on his knees. “You used a facet of the All Spark’s power that no one ever dreamed existed… And it appears to have marked you.” Looking herself over, she eventually giggled. “I always wondered what I would look like if I got a tattoo… Now I know!” What he didn’t know, or couldn’t tell, was that her giggle was completely forced. In reality, she was more terrified than she had ever been before. Her life just seemed to be going down the tubes. Perhaps she was losing her mind. Perhaps this was all just a figment of her imagination. Yes, maybe it was all in her head…

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She thinks she's going nuts!

God, I hate having to post twice in a row...

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Chapter 7: Oh slag

“We can’t stay here.” Megatron’s voice startled her out of her reverie. “They’ll come back, and I’m willing to bet that any Decepticon within five hundred miles of here felt you do that.” The influx of data from the All Spark that word triggered would have stopped her in her tracks had he not snapped her out of it. “Come on, Sarah. Take a few steps back and I’ll get us out of here.” She did so and watched in awe as his body flexed in ways she had deemed impossible, metal flowing like liquid mercury, until that same silver jet sat on the grass before her. The cockpit canopy opened of its own accord. “Get in.” Stepping backward, she balked, uncertain about the idea of flying in a living jet and equally uncertain about where exactly his voice was coming from. “But I…” His voice roared at her, unwilling to allow her to waste time on such foolish things. “I said get in!” An instant later she was in the seat and the canopy was closing over her.

Megatron knew he had to find his brother. There was no way he could do this alone, not with the humans after him and the other Decepticons after the girl. Much as the thought worried him, he knew there was no other way… He had to find the Autobots. It wasn’t finding them that caused him the most concern, but what would come next. How would they react to him? He had been their greatest enemy for so long, and he was also supposed to be dead. This would be no warm welcome, to say the least. Would they even give him time to explain, or would they just shoot him out of the sky on sight? Driving the doubt from his mind to be dealt with later, he set his scanners to their highest sensitivity and longest range and took off. Sensing his uncertainty, Sarah immediately began giving him advice. “You’ll want to avoid going too high. The higher altitudes are reserved for cargo planes and civilian transports. Air traffic is heavily regulated and any intrusion will be met with force. Conversely, going too low is also not too good. People tend to be frightened by low-flying aircraft, and attracting unwanted attention is probably a bad thing for us. …Are you detectable on radar or other human instrumentation?” His reply came quickly. “No. Your people’s technology is far too primitive to detect me. I am invisible to everything your species has save their eyes.” She detected a hint of smugness in his voice, but paid it no mind. “Then the middle should be the way to go… below the commercial air traffic but sufficiently high up as to avoid being seen or heard.” No reply came, but he ascended to the specified altitude and they traveled in silence for a long while.

“I’ve found them,” he said to her eventually, beginning to descend. “Hang on in there. Hopefully they’ll let me…!” His voice trailed off into a wordless cry as a powerful laser blast streaked by, close enough to singe his wing. Several unintelligible curses echoed in the cockpit as he took evasive action, swerving sideways as more blasts streaked by. Tapping into every communication frequency available in the world and a few that humans hadn’t discovered yet, he spoke to his assailant rather than fire back. “Hold your fire! I have a passenger! I have a…!” His words dissolved into a piercing scream of agony as a laser blast aimed straight and true blew his right wing clean off at the base. Sarah screamed as well, but hers was a cry of terror. Her immediate reaction was to try to tap into the power of the All Spark to repair him, but the terror she felt thwarted her every effort. His thrusters were working overtime as he struggled to stay aloft. “Sarah, you have to eject!” His voice was filled with the strain of fighting the laws of aerodynamics that would have him spinning to a fatal crash. He couldn’t keep this up much longer, and both of them knew it. “And leave you to face plant yourself behind enemy lines? No way!” They were falling fast, way too fast to make anything remotely resembling a safe landing. “That wasn’t a request, Sarah!” Since she wouldn’t do it herself, he did it for her. No small amount of satisfaction filled him as he heard his cockpit canopy shatter and her seat’s rocket boosters sounding off exactly as they should, even as the ground came up to meet him. A sudden blast of mind-bending agony raced through his body and drew a pain-filled shriek from him, but darkness closed in before he could utter it.

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Hoo boy, THAT ain't good.

Sorry, I thought if I continued to comment after every post it may start to grate on your nerves. But I will put in a buffer after every post if you want.

It's a new concept for me, for Megatron to be doing something good, or seeking help from the Autobots unless he absolutely has to. I'm not entirely comfortable with it but I'm hoping you will change that. Contrary to the popular opinion that human interaction with the Transformers is bad, it's something I like. I also support the idea of making the Decepticons a little more grey rather than pure black. Keep it up.

Looking forward to the next part. But I'm going to sleep now. X.X

Mark my words, this is still the Megatron we know and love (or in some cases love to hate). He does not ask, he commands, and he'll stop at nothing to get things the way he wants them.

Okay, here's the next bit. Ironhide's a bit of a jerk in this.

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Chapter 8: It IS a pretty scary thought

The crippled aircraft carved a sizeable gouge in the grassy earth as it slammed into the ground and skidded, then came to rest, smoke billowing from the missing wing. Ironhide smirked. He’d known better than to fall for a trick like that. Bumblebee came racing up beside him in car mode, and Ironhide was surprised to hear him blaring angry music as he swerved around the larger Autobot before transforming and glaring up at him. “Uh, Ironhide? You do realize that Megatron really was carrying somebody with him, right?” The weapons specialist was aghast. Bumblebee nodded. “We all saw him eject something right before he hit. He had a passenger, all right. Nice one, Ironhide.”

Both of them froze in mid-sentence as the crashed jet transformed. Megatron was down on hands and knees, head down, wavering as if simply holding himself up was taking every ounce of strength he had left. Still, a moment later he was able to force himself to his feet, revealing the extent of the damage he’d taken. His entire right side was a total mess, not just from the shot he’d taken in jet mode but from the crash as well. His right arm was badly mangled and almost completely severed, to the point where it hung dead at his side, and his right leg was little better. Also completely mangled, it looked as though it would fracture at any moment. Still, he was standing, glaring at the two of them in silent fury. Wavering slightly, he began to limp closer, his whip taking shape in his left hand. He had come in peace and been refused. Perhaps a show of force would convince them to listen… Bumblebee stood back as Ironhide charged both his cannons. “That shot was meant to disable. The next one will kill. Back down or I will fire!”

“Hold it!” That rough, raw-sounding feminine voice echoed in the comparative silence and all four of them turned to behold a girl patterned in blue running in at an absurd speed. Blue electricity crackled across her skin, the corona growing brighter with each loping stride, and as she took up a position in the middle of what seemed to be about to become a battlefield, a single tendril of blue fire arced out to brush up against Ironhide, a move that startled him more than anything else. She stood before the two with arms spread wide, using herself as a living shield, her corona blazing like a small star. “Don’t you dare. Don’t. You. Dare.” An emergency vehicle and a flame-painted big rig pulled in and transformed as Ratchet and Optimus arrived on the scene, just in time to see what happened next. Standing tall and proud, her demeanor as regal as any queen as her electricity spread out to play around them all, she spoke only three words. “Stand down weapons.” Ironhide swore over and over in a variety of human and nonhuman languages as his cannons powered down of their own accord. All the others experienced the same, save for Optimus, who had his sword. This was downright astonishing to all of them, but not as astonishing as the girl herself. All of them, each and every one, recognized her. She walked in their minds whenever they went dormant to recharge, wandering through memories of war and carnage, untouched in the eye of the storm. “There doesn’t have to be any more fighting. The war is over, isn’t it? The last Decepticon came to you in peace and you shot him down. Who’s the aggressor now, huh?” Uncertain but seeing her point, they hesitantly lowered their useless weapons. In response, her blue corona almost seemed to power down, the electricity returning to its emergence point… the swirling blue lines that ran across her whole body. As it dissipated, she staggered slightly.

Behind her, Megatron fell to his knees, his whip retracting as the damage he’d taken now took its toll. “Megatron!” Shouting his name, the girl was kneeling by his side in an instant, trying to summon forth that blue corona again. She failed, in that only the greatest effort on her part produced anything, and that was only a weak crackle. The Autobots watched in awe, every scanner they had going utterly haywire, as the damage Megatron had taken began to slowly… oh so slowly… reverse itself. “It can’t be,” Optimus said finally, after quite a bit of staring. “The All Spark was destroyed. I saw it myself.” Ratchet ran a systems check to make sure his scanners weren’t malfunctioning and gave a shudder when he realized they weren’t. This didn’t go over well with the others, since the medic rarely let anything get to him. It was only then that the full ramifications hit them all. If what they were seeing and what their scanners were showing was correct, then what they had feared more than anything had come to pass. Megatron had obtained the All Spark.

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...I have to admit I'd be scared too.

For what it's worth, you've got at least two readers now.

I find your take on Megatron most intriguing.

In case anybody was wondering... Megatron has Sarah. Sarah pretty much IS the All Spark, since it merged with her and she has its power. So since Megatron has Sarah, he also has the All Spark.

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Chapter 9: Nobody expected THAT

The worst of the damage was gone. The rest could conceivably wait, although fighting would have to be out of the question. He looked down at her and she smiled up at him as if to say ‘It’s okay, I don’t mind helping out’. For a moment, he found himself smiling back at her… Only to start in shock as she abruptly collapsed. Moving swiftly, he was able to catch her before she hit the dirt. Handling her as if she were a sculpture crafted of the finest spun glass rather than a living being, he picked her up. “…Sarah? Sarah?” She wasn’t waking up. What could he do? One wrong move and his claws could tear her to shreds. “Sarah, you shouldn’t have tried to do that…” He marveled at the soft tone in his voice. When was the last time he had been gentle? When was the last time he had actually cared about somebody other than himself? She was his shot at redemption, sure, but did it really stop there? She had walked through his dreams so many times that he felt as if she were an old friend now, even though they had only really met mere hours ago…

It was only then that he noticed the Autobots staring at him. Uncertain, he hesitantly stood up, holding Sarah cupped in his hands, and slowly walked closer. Her passing out had negated whatever she had done to their guns, so Ironhide and Bumblebee both charged their cannons and took aim. Optimus wondered how to get the human away from Megatron. Ratchet, for his part, just stared. The damaged Decepticon held his precious cargo out to the Autobot leader. “Here… Take her.” This confused the lot of them. If this small human did indeed possess the power of the All Spark, then why would Megatron willingly give her up? Putting aside his questions and doubts, Optimus gently took the unconscious human. At that point, Ironhide and Bumblebee closed ranks before him, between him and the Decepticon, cannons aimed at Megatron’s chest. A shot at that range would result in an instant fatality, and the lot of them knew it. Ratchet stepped forward, toward Optimus and his cargo. “Lay her on the ground so I can scan her.” The Autobot leader did just that, laying her on her back, arms by her sides. His shadow fell over her still form, and both of them noticed something. The blue marks that adorned her were glowing with their own light. “Odd…” In seconds the beams of Ratchet’s scanners played over her still form, laying muscle and bone bare for all to see… “She seems to be a typical human… or to have been one at one point. Her body is… changing. Her bones are now made of the same alloy as any one of us, and her heart…” Ratchet paused. “Well, she doesn’t have one anymore. She has a spark, and a spark chamber to house it. The patterns on her skin appear to be pure energy. It’s muted right now, probably from overtaxing a system unused to handling energy in this way, but… our scanners are right, Optimus. This human… is the All Spark.” The Autobot leader was downright shocked. “How is that possible?” A deep voice cut in on their conversation. “She found a fragment of the original All Spark,” Megatron said, restlessly jockeying to see past the two Autobots holding him at gunpoint.

Optimus turned to his brother. “Megatron… how are you alive?” The Decepticon grinned. “You should know me by now, Brother. I don’t die easily. I came close, but she saved me.” A realization dawned. “So when the humans dumped your remains in the ocean, you were… the whole time?” Megatron nodded, his grin fading as he looked down in shame. “I had a lot of time to think down there… And to remember. I can’t believe how stupid I was! The things I did… How did I rationalize such mass destruction? How did I lose sight of my duty as Lord High Protector? Thinking back on it all, it just seems so… so…” He abruptly turned away. “It would have been better if I had died down there…” Optimus had no idea how to react. After millennia of growing up and then working side by side, he could read his brother like an open book. There was no deceit here, no attempt to lie. The words, and the emotions behind them, were genuine. The Autobot leader stepped forward. A glance toward Ironhide, then toward Bumblebee, and the two backed down without a word. Not a word was spoken as Optimus walked over to where his brother now sat.

He’d never seen Megatron look so… forlorn before. It made sense, though. To bear the guilt of such monstrous deeds… These were the thoughts passing through Optimus’s mind as he sat down next to his brother. Not a word was spoken for a long moment. A bitter chuckle broke the silence. “It’s ironic,” Megatron said. “I spent millennia searching the whole galaxy for the All Spark, fought, betrayed and killed for it… All of it for nothing. Yet the moment I decide to cease my hunt…” He gestured toward where the girl lay. “There it lies, right in front of me, ready and wide open for the taking.” Optimus tried to look him in the eyes, but he refused to meet his brother’s gaze. “What now, Megatron? You live, you have changed your ways, and Fate has handed you the All Spark in the form of a living being…” Megatron cut him off. “Sarah.” The sharpness of his voice surprised them both. “…Her name is Sarah.” Optimus started over. “You live, the All Spark exists once more, in the form of Sarah… What now?” There was no pause. “I’m going to protect her,” he said in a determined voice, curling his hands into fists. “I won’t let the other Decepticons continue to follow my former ways, and I won’t let them have her. I won’t let the humans have her either. They’d want the same thing. I’d like to bring her home, to regenerate our world, but not until the other Decepticons go down.” He paused. “The strange part is, I’m more worried about dealing with the humans. They don’t just want her, they want me too. They attacked the both of us right before I flew over here and they tried to freeze me again, to take me back to that bunker to study me.” He spat that word as if it were the vilest curse imaginable. “Sarah saved me with the power of the All Spark. Optimus, the All Spark has powers we never dreamed existed… It can give life, it can regenerate… But it gives Sarah complete control over all things mechanical. That was how she saved me. She took control of the humans’ war machines.” He chuckled. “It was the darnedest thing, Optimus. A few words from her and they all just turned around and went home, quiet as can be.” The Autobot had a question. “Was it anything like what she just did to our weapons?” Megatron nodded. “Exactly like that.”

There was a long pause, during which he finally met his brother’s gaze. “I know I have no right to ask this of you or your colleagues, but… for her sake… help me. I can’t fight all of them alone. I mean, if it was just the Decepticons, or just the humans…” There was a sharp clang as metal hand met metal faceplate. “…Who am I kidding? I shouldn’t even have come here. I wanted to seek redemption, but I doubt your colleagues would believe that, much less accept it, so I guess there’s only one way for me to fulfill my promise to her.” He paused. “I will leave her here, with you…” This clinched it in Optimus’s mind. In essence, Megatron was giving him the All Spark. “As for me, I’ll lead the humans on a merry chase for as long as I can… get them as far away from you as possible.” It seemed to take quite a bit of effort for Megatron to just stand, but stand he did. “I don’t belong here anyway… not after what I did. I’ll… I’ll just go.” Also standing up, Optimus watched his brother slowly limp away, but only for a moment. Megatron actually flinched slightly at the sensation of a gentle hand coming to rest on his shoulder. “…Optimus?” The Autobot leader’s voice, when he spoke, was rather quiet. “We need you here. The All Spark girl… Sarah you called her… is still out. But we’ll need your help once she wakes up. Judging by how she was acting earlier, you’re probably the only one she trusts.” Megatron chuckled again. “That’s odd, especially considering that she knows about all of my deeds.” Optimus froze. “Wait a minute, she knows about the war? Before we even came to this planet?” The Decepticon nodded. “It’s like your medic said. She is the All Spark. And surely the fact that she was in my dreams means something…” The proverbial bomb dropped. “She’s been in all our dreams, Megatron. Mine… Yours… Ratchet’s… Ironhide’s… Bumblebee’s…” He paused. “Megatron, the long and short of it is that we need you here when she wakes up. If you’re not here, she’ll probably panic, and since she has the All Spark’s power, her panicking could do some major damage.”

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Heheh, confusion all around!

Just started today and read the whole way through. Very nice. I was just thinking that there was a lack of fanfic postings recently.

Please keep up the good work.

Chapter 10: The All Spark's power

The first thing Sarah noticed was that she had to be lying on the ground. Not bothering to open her eyes quite yet, she listened to what was going on around her. The sound of metal on metal, metal on other things, maddeningly familiar voices… Wait, voices? Opening her eyes, she immediately beheld the distinguished visage of Ratchet. The scream he had been expecting didn’t come. What came instead surprised him. “It’s you…” Sitting up, she looked around and amended her previous statement. “…All of you.” Not too sure about the strange human, unwilling to just buy into all the crazy talk of her being the All Spark, Bumblebee took a hesitant step closer. “Uh… Who are you and how did you get in my dreams?” Her reaction to his words absolutely floored him. “You can talk now?” Words were long in forming. “How did you…” But she had already moved on. Her gaze drifted across them all, lingering in a momentary glare at Ironhide followed by a smile at Megatron, then settling upon Optimus. Speaking not a word, she quietly walked closer until she stood right in front of him. What she did next surprised all of them. Straightening up tall, she saluted him, military style. “Uh… Sarah Hornsby reporting for duty… I think…” Somehow she had recognized him as the leader. He knelt down before her, bringing himself down to her level. “Hello… Sarah. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Over here is Ratchet, our resident medic.” Ratchet nodded. “…This is Bumblebee, covert tactics specialist.” Bumblebee had only one thing to say. “Hey, you never answered my question.” Once again he was ignored. “…And I believe you’ve already met Ironhide, weapons specialist.” Sarah and Ironhide engaged in a death glare.

Then she asked a question that once again proved her connection to their dreams, and to the All Spark. “Where is the other one, the one who shows off? Where is he?” She didn’t have to see their faces to sense the pain in the air. “…Oh.” Ironhide snarled at her, angry at being reminded of his comrade’s death. “Your Decepticon ‘friend’ over there killed him.” There was a pause. “You’re a fool to trust him. He’ll betray you, just like he betrayed everyone else.” The Decepticon in question gave an irate shout. “Hey!” His cry was ignored. “You really think he won’t? I wouldn’t be surprised if he did. What’s one little life to him? He’s taken billions of lives without a care, so what’s one more?” Walking over, Ratchet swatted him. “Quit scaring the human, Ironhide.” Turning to Sarah, he then said, “Jazz is dead and, yes, Megatron killed him. I’m fixing up his body as best I can, so we can lay him to rest in a fitting manner.” Sarah had only one response. “Show me.”

The barn looked perfectly ordinary, but the inside had been renovated and then some. Now it looked like some kind of space-age cross between a hospital and a mechanic’s workshop. Tools lay scattered about the room. Sarah couldn’t discern their function. None of the things she saw made too much sense, save the workbench and the lifeless body positioned upon it. “Jazz,” she whispered. Both Ratchet and she herself were confused at how it seemed almost like all of them were old friends, even despite the fact that Sarah hadn’t met any of them before that day. Still, the sight of him lying dead on the table brought tears to her eyes. Climbing up the table like a little monkey, she sat on her haunches next to the lifeless body and cried. Reaching out, she laid her hand upon his spark chamber, not sure why she felt as though that was the right thing to do in this case.

“…I wanted so badly to meet you…” The strangest feeling came over her. She could sense his presence, feel him, as if he were right there before her, alive and well. His soul, his life seemed to hang in the air around her. “H-he’s here…” What came next felt absurdly natural, as if she were experiencing a taste of things to come, a glimpse of what her powers were meant for. Hey there, little lady… His soul whispered in her mind as it passed through, funneling through her body, channeled by the All Spark’s power. A shudder ran through her as she felt the energy surge along her arm, toward her hand where it rested on Jazz’s spark chamber. “Your friends want you back,” she said out loud, confusing the absolute heck out of Ratchet. “Would you like me to…” The reply swirled around her like a warm breeze. Sure would, if you don’t mind. She giggled. “Then I will!”

For an instant the blue fire consumed her very being and in that moment she wasn’t Sarah at all. There was nothing save the power filling her and the objective at hand. It was her duty, her function to repair and renew, to breathe life into worthy forms. “Repository of souls…” The living sought her out, the dead flocked to her, for she was the focal point for both. “Life giver…” She was nothing less than the boundary between life and death, the gateway to the spirit world, and hers was the power to cross that boundary as she saw fit. “I am the All Spark…” She had never really thought about what that meant, hadn’t realized just how powerful she truly was. This was why so many wanted her. The tide was rising within her, pushing her higher, making her pulse rate soar and her body shiver; she never dreamed it was possible to feel like this as power and life surged through her, pouring forth from her in a waterfall of pure energy…

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Why am I doing this, you ask? Well, when the time comes, they're going to need all the help they can get!

Another reader signing up. Good stuff

Given the response my one-shot got (none at all), I'm happy that people are actually reading this.

G1 Jazz's personality here. I'm more familiar with this version.

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Chapter 11: He means it

As soon as it had begun, it was over. The power fled from her drained body and she would have fallen clean off the workbench, were it not for the giant hand that reached out to catch her. Recovering her wits, she looked up into the smiling face of Jazz just in time for both of them to look over and see Ratchet fall over like a ton of bricks. “I think we broke him,” Jazz quipped to her. She just smiled. “I’m… very happy to see you.” A moment later she turned to look at where Ratchet had fallen. “Should I see about helping him?” He shook his head. “He’ll be fine, little lady. Just a little surprised, is all. How ‘bout we go say hello to the others?” Sarah nodded as he began to exit the barn. “I need to warn you, though, about who brought me here. It was…” Jazz stepped out of the barn to the utterly flabbergasted stares of everyone who stood there, including the one Ironhide and Bumblebee guarded. “…Megatron…” Sarah spoke the Decepticon’s name in a squeak as Jazz’s demeanor reversed itself completely. An instant later she had been thrust onto his shoulder like a parrot from one of those old-time pirate movies, and he had his own cannon out and was charging it to blow his erstwhile murderer away. “Just hang on tight, little lady. This shouldn’t take more than a second or two.” His comrades’ reactions made no sense in that they were attempting to defend Megatron, but it didn’t matter since he had a job to do and there was no way they could get to him before he let off his shot…

Blue fire surged around him, through him, filling him with the power of the All Spark, that unmistakable power… “Stand down weapons.” The girl’s voice was so different in that moment that the only thing that tipped him off to it being hers was that it came from his shoulder. His cannon powered down of its own accord as Sarah hopped down and walked in front of him. “Jazz, please let me explain. Megatron has changed. The mere fact that he brought me here is enough proof for Optimus… I think, since there hasn’t been a fight yet. As to why the fact that he handed me over is important… I am the All Spark.” He’d realized that before, what she was, but its significance only then hit him. Megatron had obtained what he had killed so many for… only to hand it over to his greatest enemy. That realization made him lower his cannon, at which point Sarah released her control over his weapons. “You reacted just the same as everyone else,” she said in a disappointed tone. “I thought you would be different, but you’re not.” Saying no more, she turned away and walked past the Autobots, brushing by both Ironhide and Bumblebee without a word, to stand beside Megatron, who was downright shocked by her actions. Still she spoke not a word as she summoned forth her blue corona to repair the damage he had taken from being shot down. Completing her self-appointed task, she smiled up at him sweetly. “I’ve made my choice… I stay with you.” Completely floored, the repentant Decepticon shot Optimus a look that spoke volumes about how utterly unexpected Sarah’s actions had been. Megatron was at a loss as to what to do next. His original plan had been to turn her over to the Autobots and leave. He’d thought that she would be glad to join them, to get away from him. She knew what he had done, what atrocities he had committed in his quest for the power she now held… and yet she wanted to stay with him?

What Megatron did next proved his sincerity to literally everyone. He knelt beside her, an action that seemed absurd coming from a Decepticon, seeing as Decepticons normally never deigned to deal with ‘lesser creatures’ on their level. “Sarah,” he said in a voice that held a slight hint of urgency, “You have to stay here. They can protect you far better than I can.” No reply came forth from her, but her silence said it all. “…Fine,” he concluded, standing back up. Looking to his brother, an idea came to him. “I want you under Autobot protection, Sarah. If this is the only way to do that, then so be it.” Not wasting so much as a moment, Megatron marched up to his brother and did the one thing none of them had ever dreamed he would consider… Holding his arms out before him, both his weapons laid bare before his brother, he looked Optimus dead in the eyes and spoke two simple words. “I surrender.” All the Autobots were completely floored by that, but not nearly as much as Sarah. “Megatron… You’d do this for…” Glaring over his shoulder, his voice was low and sharp as he interrupted her. “If you know what’s good for you, you will not finish that sentence.” Sarah promptly shut up.

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Did that floor ya? If the answer is yes, that's good, because you're feeling exactly how the characters are feeling.

Yay, classic Jazz.

keep it coming.

Chapter 12: Cop cars can be hazardous to your health

“Now, I’m sure you most likely have some personal items to get from your home before we leave the Mission City area,” Optimus said to Sarah. “Would you be willing for either Jazz or Bumblebee to escort you?” She shook her head. “In all likelihood, a Decepticon would probably recognize any one of you on sight. Traveling with one of your friends would most likely only serve to attract attention. I see where you’re coming from with this, attempting to protect me, but I think I had best do this alone. After all, do I really look that much different from a normal human?” All of them looked her over. Aside from the blue marks, she looked perfectly normal. “I can pass these off as tattoos. I’ve seen a couple people with this sort of style, actually…” Optimus nodded, seeing her point. “All the same, you’d best hurry.” Stretching slightly, she grinned up at him. “I don’t get tired anymore. I can run as far as I wish, as fast as I wish, for as long as I wish. Just watch me.” With that, she was off, taking care to keep her speed low enough to pass for a jogger’s pace, easy, loping strides covering much ground and carrying her out of sight.

The trip into the city was very quiet. Sure she got a couple odd looks from the occasional passer-by, but no one got in her way. Entering her apartment, she grabbed a backpack and crammed in several changes of clothes, and grabbed all her money, every cent. A quick phone call let the landlord know that she would be gone for a while, and to hold on to her mail while she was out. So far, so good. Packing a few more personal items, she took great care to deadbolt her door before exiting the building to return to her new friends. She was actually fairly anxious to leave Mission City as far behind her as she could, at least long enough to deal with the Decepticons and her new-found powers. If they were really that hot to get her, then they would surely decimate the whole city to get her.

Halfway through the city, she became aware of the cop car shadowing her. It was running silently, no sirens or anything, staying a good distance away, but she just got a bad feeling about it. “He’s watching me,” she said to herself. This wasn’t an ordinary cop car. Somehow she could just tell. Almost as if sensing her thoughts, it began to close the distance between them; still no sirens or lights. “I have to get off the street! If this is who I think it is, then surely he won’t blow his cover and pursue me…” Looking around she spotted a likely escape route… an electronics store. If she made her way out via their loading bay… Spinning on her heel, she took all her forward momentum into a full-speed sprint towards the store’s entrance, flinging the door open and hitting the floor like a baseball player sliding into home base even as a huge dark shape reared up behind her and followed. The display window shattered into a veil of sparkling glass rain as what had once been the cop car glared down at her with malevolent red eyes. A name came to her, a name she should not know, information given by the All Spark… “Barricade!” The newly revealed Decepticon paused. “You know me?” An evil grin took shape. “You betray yourself, little human. Had you kept silent, I might have not recognized you for what you are and let you run free a little longer!” Crouching down low, completely disregarding the panic taking shape in the streets behind him, he entered the store to claim his prize.

Panicked beyond all belief, Sarah sort of crab-crawled backward, not too picky about where she ended up as long as it was away from the Decepticon. Her terror only increased when she felt her back bump up against a counter. Was there nowhere left to retreat to? Fumbling sideways, trying to feel for the counter’s side since she didn’t dare take her eyes off Barricade, she accidentally grabbed a power cord and pulled it. An embarrassing yelp escaped her as something heavy fell off the counter, bounced off her head and landed in her lap. A disconnected part of her mind noted that the sleek cherry red boom box she now held was pretty cool looking. That thought left her mind as she saw Barricade’s hand reaching out to grab her. She wished she’d agreed to Optimus’s offer of an escort, since at least there would have been someone to help her. If only there was someone, anyone would do… Something pulsed through her, an indefinable sensation that reminded her of how it had felt reviving Jazz. This was different, though; not quite the same but close.

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Three guesses what’s coming…

Blaster? lol

Yay, Barricade is awesome as always.