Aliens Exist

by BoulderPuncher

Summary:

Nicole's life was a living hell.

Everyday she would have to deal with some bullshit from school or some guy trying to getting into her pants. She could endure it however. Everyone in school thinking she's homophobic for abusing the gay girl? Made it even worse, but she could manage.

A robot alien civil war happening in her town however? Now that's some bullshit even drugs can't get her through.

Chapter 1: New Divide

Notes:

Trigger warning for:
Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, mentions of SA, and attempted murder.

Over the course of millions of years…. life developed on a planet known as earth. The dominant species known as humans developed great intelligence and would create settlements, art and monuments. In the current year of 2009, humans have developed incredible technology, but each passing generation becomes far less hopeful for the future. Due to war, corruption, bigotry. This generation has accepted their mundane fate. However, unknown to the general population their world has already made contact with another. This intersection will not just change their perception of the universe, but TRANSFORM its very fate.

 

March 14th, 2009

 

LAKE BRADDOCK HIGH SCHOOL

 

"Our races, united by a history long forgotten and we shall face together. I am Leader-1 and I send this message so that our past will always be remembered. For in those memories, we live on."

 

As the movie ended and the credits appeared, the classroom's lights switched on as the film's audience of three high schoolers and a sweaty middle-aged gym teacher started discussing the nuances of the film they just watched. The first to speak was a young athletic man with short blonde hair. "That was badass as fuck." Kyler showcasing his analytical skills at their finest.

 

"Yeah, that was quite a film, a real patriotic movie that showcased the American military defending itself against foreign invaders and overcoming impossible odds." Coach Colby said with pride for his country while wiping tears from his eyes. "Sorry boys just thinking about my days back in service, the comradery, the action, fighting for your homeland. It really brings out the best in us men."

 

"Wow Coach, I had no idea you were in the military. What war did you fight in? How many of those fucking terrorists did you kill?" Kylar asked as the only things that seemed to interest the lacrosse player were sports, tits, ass and killing marginalised groups.

 

"Well, I didn't really fight in any war, but I did my part in defending Lady Liberty herself." The Coach said before his face darkened. "Until I was falsely accused of Assaulting-" He says while doing air quotes."-A female private who had literally no proof, and the court couldn't even prove it so I don't even know why they discharged me." 

 

"That's messed up coach! I bet that bitch was a fucking whore." Kylar expressed with utter contempt for this victim he has never met.

 

"Yeah but it's all in the past now, with the straight club we have a space where people like us can be free to be who we are and not be judged by the outside world." Colby said, trying to do some form of motivational speech. "Together we can take our place back from those freaks! Am I right boys?" he said to the members of The Straight Club. 

 

"YEAH!" Kylar said in unison with his other members. Jeffery, a 5'3" nerd with black hair and a bowl cut,

 who wore glasses with lenses so thick that they somehow obscured his eyes, adding to his overall creep factor. Braxton, a boy so devoid of anything remarkable, we will describe him as a caucasian male with a buzz cut and move on. 

 

"That's the fire I like to see both on and off the field," the Coach complimented the club. "But I didn't hear our newest member," the coach looked at the newest member of the club in the back; A pale girl with black hair pulled into a loose ponytail, wearing a white t-shirt with a bleeding pink heart, a cyan coloured hoodie, and ripped jeans, the girl seemed to be in a trance, her body begging for sleep but her instincts refusing to let her be unconscious in a room alone with men, so she was left in a state where she wasn't responsive to any of her senses but her eyes wide open "Nicole, what did you think of the movie?" 

 

"Huh-wha,, oh yeah the movie." Nicole becomes aware of her surroundings. "Oh yeah… great movie guys." She does a half-hearted fist bump to the air as she starts to remember the events that led her to this stupid club.

 

Trying out lesbianism before college seemed like a fun idea, you get it out of your system and then remember the fact that literally every guy you will meet is an abuser, rapist or pedo and be miserable for the rest of your life. Ari asked her out, just to let her try it earlier then she thought, and everything was going great. Ari would be pathetic and beg for love and attention, Nicole would say she would give it if Ari bought her something, Ari buys said thing, and then after every fifth item bought, Nicole would give Ari slight attention, and that would sustain her for a few days until the cycle repeats.

 

Nicole had it down to a science, and she was planning on keeping up that routine until graduation, but then that marathon pedo councillor just had to give Ari some advice. The redhead suddenly grew a spine and dumped her because she was being "controlling" and "abusive," which was fine, whatever; she technically was, but Ari was okay with it before, so really Ari was just convinced she wasn't cool with it.

 

Nicole could deal with people thinking she abused Ari, she could deal with every other girl glaring at her, she could deal with it being back to usual with the amount of boys hitting on her. Fuck, she could even deal with everyone thinking she's homophobic. Obama was president now, but all the old bigotry remained. She could deal with literally everything except one thing.

 

Jecka left her.

 

Apparently Nicole crossed some moral line, some action that made Jecka decide to ghost her. Even ignoring the hypocrisy of Jecka's choice, considering all the other schemes Nicole has done, including trying to get a guy to kill himself and selling crack, apparently, this was the event horizon. So Nicole did what she did best and adapted to the situation at hand; they were friends of convenience. Relationships to Nicole are judged by the materialistic gain they provided, Jecka provided cigarettes, a ride, and spare hands when she needed them; all of those were things she could get from anyone else.

 

So why did everything feel so much more miserable?

 

Why did she cry in the shower last week?

 

WHY DID SHE REGRET ABUSING ARI? 

 

WHY DID SHE WANT TO DIE MORE THAN SHE EVER HAS IN HER ENTIRE LIFE!?

 

She had no idea why she was feeling this way, and it confounded her so much that instead of listening to the voice telling her to follow in dear old dad's footsteps, she wanted to figure it out so she could figure out who to blame in her final note. She has attempted so many times before, the main reason she stopped previously was her final notes not being clear enough in her utter contempt for everything in existence. No words put to ink could express how much she hated her family for treating her like shit that they stepped in, how much she hated men who treated her like a walking sex doll while planning out ways to fuck her, how she hated women who stood by and just let that shit happen to themselves and other women. But if she could understand this new unknown feeling, maybe she could finally write it down perfectly, and she could finally make everything stop. Hopefully.

 

To complete this plan, she will have to deal with being alive a little longer, and to do that, she needs drugs, which became a bigger pain in the ass than it used to be because all the sellers in the school became just so conveniently progressive and would never deal with a bigot, or at least at a reasonable price. While Nicole was suffering from the hell known as sobriety and doing a job of convincing her to skip to the end of the plan, a guardian angel appeared to offer salvation. Unfortunately, this angel was far more retarded than Nicole would have liked. 

 

Kylar offered to give her free percs if she came to a special meet-up, a group called "the straight club.” It gives off major hate group vibes, but she was desperate for a high, and Kylar does follow through on his promises. So here she is, watching a shitty movie made by a shitty director for shitty men. Well, watching is a strong word, more so staring but she kept her guard up in case any of the future lynchers tried something. 

 

Trying to convince herself that these last two hours weren't a total waste of her time, Nicole went up to Kylar after everyone had left the classroom. "Hey, you owe me something." Nicole opened her hand, motioning a "Give me" gesture

 

"Huh? Oh right, just give me a sec." Kylar opened his backpack and rummaged through, looking for the medication. As she waited, Nicole thought about how him having seemingly endless percocet makes so much sense with how many head injuries he must get to be this stupid. "How do you even get a head injury in Lacrosse?" another realisation hit her. "Wait, how the fuck do you even play Lacrosse?" 

 

Before she could think about how she had never even seen a lacrosse game played, let alone Kylar playing one, despite never shutting the fuck up about it, the jock pulled out the drugs and handed them to Nicole. "Here's a dozen." He said, pulling out a small plastic bag that only had ten pills. 

 

"That's not- uh, whatever, that should be enough." Nicole took the bag and shoved it in her hoodie's right pocket; she was too tired to deal with this dipshit and too depressed to not take free drugs, hopefully figuring out why she was so miserable would only take a few days, then she could finally ju- 

 

"So you goin to Kelly's party tonight?" Kylar asked, throwing his backpack back on. "I heard shit’s gonna get wild." 

 

"Doesn't shit always happen at Kelly’s party? And you saying that means either a guy in a Spider-Man costume is gonna show up, or you're planning on raping another unconscious girl."

 

"I don't know why people are still so hung up about that?" Kylar asked, genuinely asking. "Look, do you wanna go together or not."

 

Nicole was so baffled, her brain nearly fried from the depression and just how dense Kylar is, she has decided that burning this bridge wouldn't matter once she's dead in a week. "Even ignoring you not understanding why people still don't trust you around passed-out women, we have known each other for over a year, in that time, I have made you jump off a building, got you suspended god knows how many times, tell you to die every other day, never fulfilled a single promise I have ever told you, and in general have never given any indication that I like or even tolerate you. So tell me, why the fuck do you think I would go out with you?"

 

"..."

 

"..."

 

"You're just playing hard to get." 

 

"Holy fucking shit I'm done with this." Nicole marched away, exhausted from the conversation and Kylar in general. Nicole walks down the hall to the front entrance and tries to appreciate the fresh air, but it seems she can't even enjoy that anymore, so instead, she will be grateful for not being in a room filled with men anymore as she sits on the bench to the bus. Isn't that the story of her life though, not having anything good in her life? The closest thing to that was just less terrible shit happening to her. "Never happy, at best a dull silent suffering". The thoughts race through her mind, but something feels off about that statement like her subconscious knows it's wrong, but the conscious mind won't allow the answer to be brought to the surface. "I've never looked forward to anything, nothing besides seeing Jeffery get the shit kicked out of him; maybe that's it, me not hurting people enough is why I'm so-."

 

"I saw that back there." A gruff voice says from behind Nicole, she turns her head to see the coach in all his balding 300 pound sweaty self. "The argument with Kylar back there. You're feisty. I like that about you." The Coach says putting as much suave in his voice as an overweight 50 year old paedophile can muster.

 

"Why are you hitting on me now? Usually, you just undress me with your eyes during gym class. What. is imagining statutory rape not cutting it anymore?" Nicole stood her ground as she still had to wait for the bus.

 

"That's such a cynical way to look at it, I just enjoy the fire young ladies like you have."

"Think you like something else about them." Nicole muttered under her breath. "Look, if you heard the conversation with Kylar, why do you think you have a better chance with me?"

"As an older man I have experience, and know how to show a lady a good time." Coach trying to put the charm back on."

 

"God damn, you really are just as boring as the rest of the boys in high school, bye." Nicole turned away, planning to just ignore him until the bus arrived.

 

"Wait! Hold on, I have money!." The coach dropped any attempt at dignity and was now begging. Now Nicole would normally reject him, but maybe due to how fucked her brain was she couldn't think long-term and the only thing she could think of was "MONEY = DRUGS = NO SOBRIETY = NO THINKING" So, despite every single fiber of her being screaming danger

The next words out of her mouth were,

 

'How much?"

 

 

 

Four hundred million light years away, something approaches.

 

 

 

 

JECKA’S PLACE 

 

 

“Wow, it's so different from last time.” 

 

Karen was looking around the bedroom. Taking mental notes on all the new furniture and decorations in the room. Comparing and contrasting them with her memory. The only thing that hadn’t changed was the makeup mirror on the new desk and the colour scheme of light pink and white. The aesthetic of the room made Karen feel more out of place than she already did. The girl was wearing a long sleeve black shirt and basic jeans, basic but that was the idea.

 

Karen never wanted to stand out. Since elementary she was shy around others, never initiating conversations. Her mom always encouraged her to go out and make friends, to try and get out and not bury herself in fiction. The girl only ever had one real friend. Said  friend the owner of the chambers she was in currently.

 

“Yeah. Things change in five years, not into the same stuff we were as kids.” Jecka commented, resting on her bed while smoking. She was wearing her pink polo shirt and jean shorts combo. “What, is your room still filled with Harry Potter posters and anime pretty boy figurines ?”

 

“Well-uh only a….few.” Karen mumbled while looking down to her feet.

 

“Shit, sorry, being mean again, trying to work on that.” Jecka sat upright on the bed while snubbing her cigarette out on the ashtray atop her night table. “Kind of remembering how normal friends are supposed to treat each other.”

 

“Ummm speaking of, not that I don’t appreciate it, but why are we hanging out?” Karen sat on the bed with Jecka. “Last time we were like this we were thirteen, and you were pretty clear that I wasn’t….” Karen bit her cheek, trying to get out the right words. “...wanted in your life.” 

 

“What? can I not catch up with an old friend?” Jecka said, trying to deflect with an obvious lie.

 

“Jecka, you spent the last four years trying to distance yourself as far as you could from me.” Karen's sight became more intense and focused. “I know you didn’t just magically decide to talk to me again, even if I think you genuinely want to be nice. People don’t just change magically overnight.” Karen wasn’t buying Jecka’s bluff. She was always a bad liar, that was Nicole’s talent. Oh, there it is, she did it again, she thought about Nicole. This time she was able to not think about her for five minutes at least.

 

“Look I just wanted to-” What words could Jecka possibly say that didn’t make her sound so shallow. I’m hanging out with you cause I’m so lonely.

 

I’m hanging out with you because you’re a good person, and I hope being around you magically makes me one too.

 

I have nothing left without Nicole.

 

“I missed you. I don’t know why, I just did, okay.” Jecka says, the most honest answer she can muster. “Graduation is coming soon, and I've been thinking about the past lately.” Jecka shifted herself so she was sitting on the side of the bed. Saying that she scans her room; Karen was right it has changed. She realises how much she’s thrown away, and that’s good right? People change, if you’re the same person you were years ago, that means you fucked up, you didn’t grow at all. However looking at the room she noticed she replaced all her old stuff with……

 

Nothing. There is nothing in this room that she actually likes besides the colour pink, she didn’t like the walls because her mom picked the decorations. She didn’t even like the makeup stand anymore, a reminder of all the times her father called her a whore. Everything in this room made her depressed or didn’t show who she actually was. Does that count as growing? Is becoming more miserable a sign of becoming a healthy adult? Fuck, maybe Karen was right to cling to childhood as much as possible if -

 

“JECKA” Karen raised her voice, snapping Jecka out of her thought process. “You okay? You were makin’ that look you have when you zone out.”

 

“Sorry, getting distracted about other stuff” Jecka put her cheery face back on. “You wanna go to Kelly’s tonight?”

 

“Oh, like the three of us hanging at her place?” Karen seemed confused at what Jecka was asking.

 

“No, she throws a party every other Friday, everyone has gone there at least once.” The second she finished that sentence, she immediately knew she fucked up.

 

“Well I’ve never been invited to one.” Karen pouted, annoyed at Jecka’s lack of awareness of their difference in social status. “And not everyone goes there, just all the popular kids go there.”

 

“Fuck, did it again, god damn it.” Am I just a bitch no matter what? The thought quickly passed through her head, but she immediately dispelled it, continuing the conversation. “Do you wanna go to the party or not?”

 

“I don’t know, I hear all those stories about bad things happening at parties.” Karen looked uncomfortable, Jecka couldn’t blame her, the fact half of the school’s male population should be fucking locked up supported Karen’s fear.”

 

“It will be worth it, trust me, Kelly’s parties are the safest. She is the best host in the school, you only have like a two percant chance of getting raped, compared to the usual fifty percent chance in your average party.” Jecka hoped her words would quell Karen’s fear, but noticed Karen face turned to shock 

 

“TWO PERCENT!?? WHY ON EARTH WOULD I GO!?? AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN FIFTY IS THE AVERAGE???” The words having the opposite effect, and putting the poor nerd in a panic state.

 

‘Jesus, I’m just being honest. Those are good chances, you can’t ask for better numbers.” starting to get annoyed at Karen’s reluctance. She wanted to rekindle their friendship, but she also wanted to get super fucked up. She needed someone to go with to the part

 

“I want ZERO chances of getting raped!” Going into full blown mania, hoping this was some screwed up joke, and that the blonde would say ha gotcha. and then be honest and tell her something far less disturbing. But Jecka’s face was serious, mixed with a little impatience. 

 

“Impossible, I don’t know where you’ve been for the last four years but this is just our lives now. Everywhere you go you have to be watching your back, never letting your drink out of your hand. And never EVER be alone with a man without another girl knowing your location at the very least. Every day you’re going to have to be ready to run or hide, cause that’s the only way to survive.” The preppy girl speech got more passionate as it went, changing from annoyed at the nerd’s ignorance, to anger at having to reveal the cold truth to her. Jecka didn’t have enough energy to reveal the worst of it though. That all the preparation, and all the paranoia won’t mean jack shit in the end. That you could do everything right but you’ll still end up a victim, of rape, abuse, trafficking, or even just straight up murder, it’s all the same fate. It’s a lesson she learned when she was thirteen, it’s a lesson Nicole reinforced. 

 

It IS gonna happen to her, it IS gonna happen to Karen, but hopefully not for a few more years.

 

After a big sigh to cool herself off, Jecka reset herself and pushed this info back into her brain, so as to not burst into tears right then and there. God. She needed to get black out drunk, or she was gonna stab someone. Refocusing on Karen, the nerd was shaking and hyperventilating, her thoughts spiralling into worst case scenarios as she muttered unintelligible words. Jecka wasn’t surprised this is how she reacted, Karen was always easily overwhelmed when they were kids, and as usual it was up to Jecka to bring her back to reality.

 

Jecka put both her hands on Karen’s cheeks, causing a squeak to come from the panicking dork. “Listen, it’s scary out there. If you aren’t careful out there bad things will happen, but you will be fine tonight.” Jecka doing her best to reassure the girl. 

 

“You just said we had a chance of getting-”

 

“Not if we stay together, we watch each other's backs and we’ll be good, okay?” Karen had calmed down so Jecka took her hands off her face. Jecka wiping her hands off of Karen’s sweat on her jean shorts. 

 

“Fine, I’ll go with you-”

 

YES Jecka celebrated in her head.

 

“But You can’t leave my side the whole night.” 

 

“Alright deal.”

 

“ No- “ Karen raised her hand to Jecka’s face, with her fingers curled except her pinkie. “Pinkie promise.”

 

“Come on we are not-”

 

“Pinkie promise or I leave.” Karen gave her an ultimatum. Jecka was stunned by Karen’s overwhelming innocence even after the big speech she gave her, and if the alternative is being alone. Then she would do far deeming things then a childish gesture.

 

‘Alright fine, pinkie promise.” Jecka interlocked their pinkies. When all of a sudden Jecka got a flash of all the times in the past they used to do this as kids. She suddenly understood the real purpose of the promise. It’s a promise to not leave again. To not ditch her again when it becomes convenient for her..

 

“Alright I’ll go.” Karen had finally fully settled down.

 

“Great, trust me we’ll be fine as long as we stick together.” Jecka gave a forced smile to try and put down any fears Karen had left. As she said to Karen, as long as neither are alone with a man tonight they should be fine.

 

 

 

 

Ten million light years away, something approaches.

 

 

 

 

Nicole was alone with Coach Colby

 

Out of all her ideas, this was easily the stupidest thing she’s ever done. She’s sold crack, made a suicide pact with emily, hanged out with a white supremacist teacher. But Being in this busted ass white pick up truck, humouring the literal pedophile for money is Kylar-level stupid.

 

He has been blasting Guns and Roses the whole fucking ride. Colbey looked as giddy as a kid in a candy store. She really shouldn’t be using that simile considering who she was talking about.

 

Originally they were having dinner at a Denny’s. Colbey wouldn’t stop talking about how excited he was, and the thrill of going out together. Nicole the entire time filtered out Colbey and tried to focus on her burger. Right before she was finally about to leave, Colbey had one last proposition. Go to his place and he’ll give her money in his savings. The idea of not having to worry about money in the quadruple digits enticed Nicole too much to pass up.

 

So here they are, pulling up to Colbey’s drive through. His house was a small one-floor building with faded blue paint. She couldn’t see into the house as the windows were blocked by worn out curtains. The front yard’s grass was not cut and Nicole was able to spot the light reflecting off a few beer cans hiding in the law.

 

“Wait up at the front door inside, I need to make myself fashionable.’ Colbey said, as he put down the sun visor mirror, combing through his remaining hair strands with his fingers. Nicole could only guess he was hoping for a miracle and that more hair would suddenly appear.

 

“Sure, whatever man” Nicole got out of the truck and as she walked to the front door, she started thinking of ways to get out of this situation.

 

Alright, I could do a classic scream for help, but that would make the whole night worthless. How about I tell him I will have sex with him IF he kicks Kylar off the team. No-shit-Kylar is too good at Lacrosse; wait, I never figured out how you play Lacrosse. Is it like Baseball? Where you like, take turns? Or is it like football where they just run around and give each other concussions? Has to be because of how many times Kyler has gotten one. I’ve never heard about the other players getting one th- FOCUS. If you can’t think of a plan in two minutes, you're gonna get fucked by the guy who has more fat in him than a Soap factory. 

 

Making it to the door, Nicole started pacing back and forth. “Okay, how about I say that I-I, fuck maybe I could, I don’t know, say my mom called me. Yeah that’s something, my mom called me and I have to leave. I can ask him for the money now, then just say he tried to fuck me at school tomorrow.” As she tried her best to rationalise this plan to herself, Colbey finally came out of the car. Despite his best efforts Colbey looked even worse. His few patches of hair were messier, and highlighted just how thin his hairline was. Sweat was pouring down his face, to the point Nicole would swear she could see her reflection if it was brighter outside. His face is the worst part, it was the happiest Nicole had ever seen the man. His eyes were affixed to hers like a wolf eying a wounded animal. That look made her feel something she hadn’t in a long time

 

Nicole was afraid.

 

She was genuinely afraid.

 

She had learned to deal with creeps, pedophiles and rapists at a young age. Since elementary she had to deal with it, by middle school she knew how to keep herself safe. When she got pretty, every other man regardless of age took their chance with her. It didn’t matter who she told, even her own fucking mother treated her cries of help as pleas for attention. So Nicole built up an immunity to fear, in retrospect that was one of the first emotions she lost, after love and joy of course. With a cool head she could manipulate her would be assaulters, make them do what she wants, make them tools for her pleasure. She thought she had long conquered that feeling of being helpless, but instead, four years of close calls were about to crash onto her like a tidal wave.

 

Colbey walked past her and started rummaging through his pockets for the keys.

 

“Hey, uh, Colbey- um funny story.” All her confidence and composure were leaving her

 

Come on! Just spit it the fuck out.

 

Colbey was able to get the keys out his pocket.

 

“I-I was checking my phone a-a-and I saw that I had some missed calls.”

 

AM I STUTTERING? I’m going to die because I’m acting like fucking Karen?

 

His hands were trembling with excitement so much that he had trouble slotting in the key.

 

“So I’m-I’m really sorry to say, but I think I have to go.”

 

Fuck that didn’t sound believable at all.

 

He was finally able to insert the key and unlock the door. 

 

Colbey lost the smile, his face was completely still as he turned to face Nicole. His pupils were dilated, as he made eye contact with the teenager. Chills ran down her spine as she finally realised she had only one option left. Taking a deep inhale she prepared the biggest scream of her life. “SOME-” Before she got a chance to finish the word. Colbey grabbed her mouth with his gorilla-sized hand, threw her into the door, using her as a battering ram to open it. The back of Nicole’s head hit the hard wooden floor. 

 

 

Laying on her back, Nicole looked up to the silhouette of Colbey blocking the entrance. She scrambled to get back up but Colbey lunged at her throat. Putting all his weight on to her throat, it's miraculous that he didn’t immediately break her neck as he mounted her. His grasp on her neck was tighter then any noose she’s put on. His fingers coated in sweat and grease that made them stick to Nicole’s skin. Whatever resistance Nicole put up was futile, scratching his face didn’t remove his grin, kicking didn’t buckle his knees. She could do nothing but flail around as he squeezed the life out of her. 

 

The Worst part to Nicole was that she was dying like a pussy. She always thought that she would go out with a stone cold expression. Keep the “Bitch who didn’t give a fuck” shtick going but no, she’s gonna die like the women in the cold opening to every shitty detective show.

 

As her thoughts raced, she thought of everyone in her life. Everyone who hurt her. Everyone who betrayed her. Fuck her mother for being abusive, Fuck her brother for being a fat pedo. Fuck her dad for….for blaming her for that. Fuck the school. Fuck Principle Lynn. Fuck the councilor. Fuck Jeffery. Fuck Megan. Fuck Karen. Emily was cool. Fuck Kylar. Fuck Crispin. Fuck Jeffery. Fuck Hunter. Fuck Brad. Fuck Kelly. Fuck Jeffery. Oh and obviously fuck Colbey. You know what? Just fuck literally everyone she has ever interacted with, She has never once since first grade been happy.

 

Amber Eyes

 

Everyone has treated me like dogshit, and somehow I’M the bitch. No one has ever cared about me besides wanting to fuck me. And I guess murder me too now, obviously.

 

Sunflower blonde hair

 

God I should have just killed myself, now my corpse is going to get fucked by Colbey of all people. I at least could have been killed by a cool serial killer, not my god damn gym teacher.

 

That sweet tobacco smell 

 

Oh, fuck Ari too, that box dye dyke. Stole my fucking depression idea, then asked to be lesbians. I wish I abused her more. You know what? That’s my big regret in life, not beating the shit out of Ari. I’m only getting murdered because of HER.

 

Her adorable gigg- GOD SHUT THE FUCK UP! Jesus at least I’m fucking dying so I won’t have to think about her anymore. For weeks it’s been that blonde bimbo running around in my brain non stop. Why is a slut who is gonna flunk university, sleep her way to a decent job, then marry some divorced wall street pedo going to be her final thoughts. She’s not gay, she joined the straight club for fuck’s sake. 

 

Wait, the last thing people will know her for is going to that hate group. SHIT! 

 

It’s all that whore’s fault for making me stay around longer. That bitch was the reason I got out of bed for the past year. Could have just killed myself but noooooooo, had to go out and steal shirts with Ms married at Twenty.

 

After about a minute of fighting, Nicole could start to feel her body give out. The lack of oxygen to her brain caused her thoughts to mesh together, as her mind slowly shut off. Memories melting into gibberish as faces fused into one and names faded away. Even her family's face was forgotten. Everything but that damn preppy chain smoker, every detail about her was still etched into Nicole’s mind, like a parasite latching onto her brain, draining everything else out. No matter what, she couldn’t stop the flashes of them taking a smoke break together, watching mythbusters, or bullying Jeffery.

 

Why? Why won’t she leave me alone. How can one ho affect her this much? Whatever, not like I’ll live long enough to answer that question.

 

Nicole had finally given into her fate. She had stopped fighting back. Both because of her acceptance, and her limbs failing as her cognitive functions faltered. Colbey had a ravenous look in his eyes, saliva drooling from his mouth as he was nearing the end of his task.

 

Nicole gave one last mental “Fuck you” to the world as her vision started to fade into the darkness. As Nicole gave in to the truth of her existence. Just another worthless bitch who no one will care or remember. 

 

Not even Jecka will care, I’m going to die thinking about a girl who doesn’t give a shit about me. How pathetic.

 

“FUCK THIS WORLD” Her final thought as the world went black.

 

 

 

Something arrives on Earth, and the sky cracks open.

 

 

 

Chapter 2: Dead!

Summary:

In the last chapter Nicole seemed to have met a grim fate. While Jecka tried to reconnect with her old friend Kare. Unknown to everyone though, something was quickly heading towards earth. What was hurling towards the planet? Will Nicole Survive Colbey? Will Karen cut loose? Keep reading to find out.

Notes:

Trigger warning: Mentions of homophobia, suicide, domestic abuse, rape and descriptions of violence and gore.

“Um, what exactly do we do now?”

 

“Now, we start getting drunk.” Jecka was already downing her second fireball. The two girls were standing in the corner of Kelly’s living room.

 

“Won’t one of us have to drive later?” Karen was practically camouflaged to the wall. The dim lighting combined with Karen’s black clothing made it so only her face was visible to anyone more than five metres away from them.

 

“We’ll worry about that later.” Jecka said, blankly staring into her nearly finished cup. The blonde wouldn't admit it but she really didn’t know what to do. Her and Nicole (Two minutes since she last thought of her.) would usually just get fucked up, and then talk shit about all the other losers at the party. Karen wasn’t the gossip type, and the past few weeks have been a painful reminder of how she doesn’t really have friends. Her opinions on Kelly flipped on a dime. Emily has been in a coma for two months, and even then they weren’t exactly friends, she was just the school dealer. Megan is a bitch with a stick so far up her ass, it’s a miracle she could walk. And Ari… well….

 

She hadn’t talked to Ari since she left Nicole (that was like fifteen seconds, come on!). She’s only seen her in the halls with Hunter. What was she supposed to say? “Hey, sorry my friend abused you.” Just too awkward, and why should she say sorry anyway? She didn’t even do anything.

 

God this guilt shit sucks ass. Maybe Nicole- FUCK I NEED TO GET MORE DRUNK!

 

Jecka turned to her left and looked at Karen,who was shrinking into the corner more and more.”I’m gonna get another drink. You want some?”

 

“No thank you.” Karen raised her hand in unison, but then put it back down as she changed her mind. “Actually, can you get me some punch please.”

 

“Sure thing, I’ll be right back.” Jacka said, while taking off to get the beverages.

 

Kelly’s house was massive. The dining room alone was the size of Jecka’s kitchen, dining and living room. Jecka was envious of Kelly’s wealth, especially since Kelly was the trashiest ho she knew. Well, besides Emily-but she was like-actually crazy so it looked better on her. She however, wasn’t jealous of the house. As the architecture was going for a minimalist look, reminiscent of an art museum. The walls were mostly barren, besides a few paintings and post-modern decorations that weren’t impressing anyone. Everytime Jecka went there, she was always put off by the building’s design. Even when it’d been filled with drunk teenagers; blaring whatever pop song Kelly was obsessed with at the time.

 

Kelly’s parties were usually quite crowded. Filled with the typical jocks trying to hook up, sluts trying to hook up (while not getting murdered), and twenty-something-year-old college guys who no one knew. At least Colbey wasn’t here this time. Jecka traversed her way through the crowds, turning the corner to the kitchen where the snacks and drinks were displayed. There was a line up of five people so Jecka had to wait a bit. Unfortunately she smelled something distinct from the aroma of alcohol... Something that smelled like-

 

“Oh hey Jecka, crazy seeing you here.” Crispin appeared behind Jecka suddenly, much to her chagrin.

 

“Fuck me.” Jecka said under her breath.

 

“What are you doing here?”

 

“We’ve been going to Kelly’s parties for like three years, why the fuck do you still ask me these dumbass questions?”

 

“I just want to get to know you better, I feel like we’ve never had any real, deep meaningful conversations.” He was scratching the back of his head. A tick of his, whenever he starts talking.

 

“What would I even want to talk to you about?” Jecka wasn’t even facing Crispin, instead watching the people in front slowly move.

 

“Um.. uh...” Crispin seemed to be surprised that he even got this far. His brain is reorienting itself to answer the question. “See any good movies lately?

"

“Wow, how deep and meaningful.”

 

“I just saw the new Go-Bots movie. It was pretty good. It was about ancient Egypt and history.”

 

“What the fuck do robots have to do with history?“ Jecka was only half paying attention. But even filtering him out as much as possible, he still got under her skin.

 

"You see, that’s the crazy part. It turns out the robots were the ones that built the pyramid!”

 

“That’s so fucking stupid, aren’t these movies just about looking at Megan Fox’s tits?” Jecka was finally able to reach the table. She quickly started pouring the fireball into her cup. Desperate to escape, when in the corner of her eye, she saw red hair moving through the crowd. Not just any red hair. Cheap poorly dyed red hair.

 

“Actually the movie has a lot of character to it that’s underappreciated, for example there is this good team of Go-Bots called the guardians. They protect like life and stuff, and then there is the evil Go-Bots called the renegades and-” Jecka stuck a finger in front of his face, cutting him off.

 

“Actually, I got a better idea of what you could be doing now.” Jecka put on her sweet flirting voice. An easy way to make most boys stop talking for once.

 

“Oh yeah? What is it?.” Crispin was looking at her like a puppy waiting for a command. She would almost feel bad if he didn’t play stupid every fucking day. Oh, don’t get it twisted. He’s dumb for real, but he plays it up to get women to pity him. Nicole found out the hard way. When she got a surprise dick pic from him. He plays innocent, but he’s really just another snake. It’s why she’s always hated Crispin the most. The other boys are at least upfront with their shittiness.

 

"How about instead of talking about Go-Bots.” Jecka was swirling her index finger in front of crispin. His eyes tracking it like a charmed snake. “How about you-” She harshly pressed her finger against his chest. “-GO KILL YOURSELF!” Jecka pushed Crispin aside to find her new target, Ari.

 

Maybe it was the alcohol kicking in, or maybe she was just feeling brave. Jecka wanted to just… check in for lack of a better word. She caught up to Ari, who was wandering throughout the party alone. Currently the girl was standing near the back exit of the house, mindlessly staring at the backyard. She was wearing her classic slice T-shirt and jeans. (Does she wear literally anything else?) Putting on her game face, she approached Ari from behind and revealed herself.

 

“Hey, Ari.”

 

“Wha-oh, it’s you.” Jecka tried to ignore the disappointment in her voice.

 

“How have you been? It’s been a minute since, you know?

 

”It has, maybe it should be a few more.” Ari was staring off into the yard. Not even looking at Jecka.

 

“Hey, I just wanna see how you’re doing. I’m not here to start shit or anything.” Jecka raised her arms defensively.

 

“What do you want Jecka?” Ari’s words were laced with detestment. “What are you trying to do here?”

 

“I want to-” Jecka thought about what she actually wanted to do. “-talk?” not entirely confident in her own answer. Ari looked at Jecka and then scanned the area.

 

“You want to talk? Let’s talk somewhere more private.” Ari started to walk into the backyard as Jecka followed.

 

Kelly’s backyard was as vast as the rest of her home. A few other students were hanging outside, but the size was great enough that just walking to the edge got them out of ear shot. Though getting to the end felt like an eternity with tension between the two. It was hard to see Ari’s face in the darkness. As Kelly’s house was the only source of light. However Jecka could still see Ari mean mugging her despite it.

 

“So, what do you wanna talk about?” Ari put her hands on her hips.

 

“Well uh, first of all where’s Hunter? Haven’t seen him at all at the party.”

 

“We… ummm… ended things.” Most of Ari’s confidence seemed to drain away. Going back to her usual unsure demeanour.

 

“Really? Damn, that was quick. Didn’t even last a month. Is Hunter just that unbearable?”

 

“N-no he was nice.” Jecka raised an eyebrow. “Really he was. It was just that I didn’t,” Ari pauses “Feel that way about him. I tried really hard to. I watched as many hallmark movies as I could. I tried getting off to all the guys I used to find hot. Nothing.”

 

“Even Johnny Depp?”

 

“Like the Sahara desert.”

 

“Damn, you really are gay.” 

 

"Yeah, that’s how I got in this situation in the first place. I didn’t want to string Hunter along, not being able to give him what he wanted. So I ended it.” Ari crossed her arms, trying to shrink into herself. Jecka notes how similar her and Karen act. Especially when they talk about sensitive stuff.

 

“Soooooo, are you back to being a lesbian?”

 

“I guess? My parents just kind of assumed I would unstraight myself anyway. But you know there really isn’t anyone to date. So I’m just alone right now. Waiting till graduation.”

 

Alright, so she’s back to being gay. Jecka considered that good enough to not feel guilty anymore. She wanted to end this conversation as quickly as possible and move on with her life. Heart to heart conversations were so awkward, and she already had one with Karen earlier. No need to overdo it. “Well, good luck with that. Glad we caught up.” Jecka turned around, wanting to go back to getting wasted.

 

“Hold the fuck up! Is that really all you have to say to me?” Ari raised her voice, stopping Jecka in her tracks. Jecka turned back and gave a confused look to Ari “Really? nothing else?”

 

“I hope the next girl you date has big boobs? Not exactly sure what you want here.” Jecka was playing dumb. She knew exactly what Ari wanted to talk about. HER. It’s always about HER. The past year and a half of Jecka’s life has been nothing but HER. That sociopath had made her mark not just on the school, but on Jecka as well. She was Nicole’s accomplice in basically everything. Everything until Emily. Nicole and her seemed real fucking close. At least up to both getting put into the hospital. When Nicole came back she was weirdly mellow. Still bitter and angry, but wasn't starting any major commotions. Then all of a sudden she started dating Ari out of nowhere, and that disaster of a relationship is what led to Jecka leaving Nicole. Because of Nicole abusing Ari of course. That’s the reason. The only reason, definitely.

 

“Bitch, you know what I want.” Ari, seemingly reinvigorated by her anger. Closing the gap between the two. This is a side of Ari that Jecka only saw once, back in sex rehab class. Jecka wondered if that meant Ari will start trying to fuck her like she did to Kelly.

 

“I want an apology.”

 

WHAT?

 

“What?” Jecka was completely taken off guard. The statement had knocked the wind out of her. So sure that Ari would have asked about her ex, she had already prepared a response for that. It would have gone something like “What, looking to try it again?” or “You can’t seriously be that desperate.” This response though. This she couldn’t see coming.

 

“It’s pretty simple, I want an apology from you.”

 

“For what? I didn't do anything to you.”

 

“That’s the problem. You didn’t do anything at all when I was getting abused by Nicole.”

 

“Wait, you want an apology for that?” Jecka couldn’t believe this. “What did you want me to do? Step in? Be your shining white knight?”

 

“YES!” As if she was pointing out the most obvious shit to Jecka. “Not the white knight part, but it woulda been good if you tried literally anything.”

 

“She said you were cool with it!” Jecka’s voice raised as she got more defensive.

 

“And you just believed her?! Despite seeing how she treated me?” Ari was exasperated by Jecka clinging to her belief she was innocent.

 

“I don’t know, you seemed fine just letting her do that to you.” After she said that, Jecka realised she spoke before thinking again, and immediately regretted it.

 

“Are you blaming me for getting abused?” Ari was taken aback by Jecka’s excuse. Mouth agape and shocked at the deflection. “You’re seriously doing that.”

 

“Fuck-no-I didn’t mean that. I just-ugh.” A quick exhale. “Fine. You’re right I should have done something. “ Swallowing her pride seemed like the only way out of this. No matter how much she thought Ari was being a total bitch right now. “Ari, I am sorry for not intervening when you were being mistreated.” The words were stiff and mechanical. Lacking the sincerity Ari desired, but it was the best she was gonna get.

 

“Wow, that didn’t sound genuine at all. But sure, I’ll take it.” Ari was willing to accept the apology. No matter how obviously fake it was. Jecka, on the other hand, was annoyed at what she considered Ari’s ungrateful-ass acceptance of said apology.

 

“Why the fuck do you think I was okay with how Nicole treated you?” Jecka needed to understand why all this hostility was aimed at her. And you know? Not Nicole. “I left Nicole after what she did to you-”

 

“OH FUCK OFF!” Ari interrupted . “You really expect me to believe that Jessica Cooper did something altruistic.” Ari pulling out the full name card was a bitch move on its own. But the way she announced it like she was on a theatre stage really ticked Jecka off. Especially with what she was implying.

 

“What the fuck does that mean?” Jecka’s voice lowered, trying her best to sound as intimidating as possible. Now Ari was getting out of line, and Jecka wasn’t going to just stand here and take it.

 

“It means you don’t do the ‘right’ thing. YOU do things to make people give a shit about you or to make yourself feel better. I’ve spent years in school with you, and I just now realised exactly who you are.“Ari inhaled. “You are the most attention starved whore in the entire school. Everything you do is just a way to make people look your way. No matter what it has to be. Any noble action you’ve done is just because you thought it would be convenient for you. You’re willing to do anything if it pumps your ego, no matter how tiny. Shit, you almost became a white nationalist just because a sixty year old man called your skin pretty.”

 

“Hey liste-”

 

“And you know who stopped you from becoming that? Nicole. Fucking Nicole has more moral backbone than you. Because She’s evil and cruel, but she has principles. You on the other hand.” She motions toward Jecka. “Would do anything if it made you feel more special. So no, Jecka, I don’t think you left her because she’s evil. You left because you realised she doesn’t give a shit about anyone, including YOU!”

 

Ari let that hang in the air for a second before continuing. “So what do you have now? Nothing. Because you haven’t realised the most obvious shit in the world.. You aren’t the hot popular girl anymore, you’re just a lonely slut now. No Nicole. No boyfriend. No friends.”

 

“K-Karen came with me here.” Jecka mumbled, barely audible to Ari. The blonde was just looking at her shoes. The guests hanging outside could hear the yelling and had formed a small crowd, watching the drama unfold. Despite being a few inches taller than Ari, Jecka never felt smaller.

 

“OH, Karen. You mean your friend that you ditched for the other preppy hoes. The girl you bullied for years. The girl you gave an ED to! That Karen?!” Ari had gotten right in Jecka’s face. Ranting so aggressively, Ari’s spit was getting on her.

 

“She said she got ove-”

 

“Because she’s desperate for friends! She’s willing to look past everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING, wrong with you. She’s a good person who doesn’t deserve to be dragged around by you to make you feel less alone. Karen’s desperate for friends, but you’re desperate for anyone to give a fuck about you. Well news flash bitch. The only ones who do are Colbey, the counsellor, and every other creep you will sleep with to get anywhere in li-” Ari was interrupted by Jecka’s right hand making direct contact with her nose.

 

It wasn’t a slap, a punch. A good punch. The kind only someone with practice could do. Or in this case, someone who had seen it a lot. Ari was on the floor reeling in pain, her sounds of anguish being drowned out by the bystanders' reactions. A few shouts of “Worldstar!” and “Cat fight!” could be heard. Jecka couldn’t hear it though. She could only hear her heart pumping. Only feel her blood boiling with rage. Only see Ari on the ground, holding her nose as blood dripped through her fingers. Looking completely defenceless. it would be so easy to just keep hitting her and hitting her. Never stopping till her face was puddy.

 

Try getting a girlfriend then bitch, If you even survive this. Jecka took a step to continue her assault. Before another hit was thrown however, Ari put her bloodied hand forward in a desperate plea for Jecka to stop.

 

The girls made eye contact and everything seemed to pause. From Ari’s perspective, Jecka looked as big and as intimidating as Kylar in a roid rage. Her silhouette outlined in the house behind them. Jecka’s face only barely visible, her eyes though? They were filled with more hatred than she ever thought the blonde was capable of.

 

From Jecka’s perspective, Ari looked exactly like what she was. A scared teenage girl, getting the shit kicked out of her for speaking her mind. For standing up for herself. It was familiar to her. She's looked like that so many times. She looks like that everytime she gets home late and drunk. She looked like her when her dad learned she went to a pride parade. She looks like what Jecka sees in the mirror every time she tries to fight back. She wonders if this is what her father feels like when he hits her, The adrenaline, the power, the satisfaction of putting someone back in line. That thought made her stop… whatever she was gonna do to the red head.

 

The two girls just stared at each other. Neither knowing what to do.

 

At that moment though, something strange happened. The power went out at Kelly’s house. The music suddenly stopped, replaced with shouts of disappointment and fear. It soon became quite clear that not just Kelly's house went dark, but the whole block had shut down. The confusion and anger at the party being interrupted, delayed a key observation to be noticed.

 

The power was out, but people could still see as if the lights were still on. It took a few more moments until someone looked up to the sky, and gave a blood curdling scream.

 

“WHAT THE FUCK??!!”

 

“HOLY SHIT!!”

 

“IT’S THE FUCKING APOCALYPSE DUDE!!”

 

Jecka fully snapped out of her internal thoughts. Looked up to the source of the light. And what she saw terrified her.

 

The night sky was filled with bright neon blues and purples. Akin to the Aurora Borealis, but they weren’t in Alaska. They were in Virginia. That was not the only reason to freak out. As her eyes adjusted to the lights, she was able to see what she could only describe as cracks in the sky. Purple lines that zigged and zagged across the haze of blue. It looked as if someone took a hammer and broke the night sky like glass, and these colours were behind the stars the entire time. The longer Jecka looked, the more intense the lights became.

 

Everyone was looking up to the sky. Some were mesmerised by the lights, frozen in place as they could do nothing but gaze at the beauty. Others were screaming at this cosmic display, seeing it as an omen of the end. The hues of blue and purple started to morph, becoming more bright and intense. The colours seeming to become fully opaque.

 

Seeing this supernatural sight, and hearing somebody bring up the rapture. Jecka’s first thought was that this was an act of God. She’s never been religious, but she’s thought about God a lot. Was he watching them? Watching her? Did all her mistakes and fuckups actually mean something in the end? Would she be judged fairly or just sent to hell for fucking before marriage? She still wouldn't call herself a believer, but seeing this event occur, It would be hard to deny it appeared divine. All Jecka could do was watch the lights move around the night as she prayed to anyone listening that this wasn’t the end. She had so much left to do. She never went to college. Never got to meet Ryan Scheckler. Never got to reunite with Nicole. That last regret both confused, and yet explained everything to Jecka.

 

Even after everything she did, I miss her so much. Right now I wish I was at Nicole’s place, getting high, watching the end of the world. I know she doesn’t give a fuck about me, but I would trade anything to be there. I really am pathetic.

 

CRACK!!

 

One more intense flash of light that made Jecka have to close her eyes hit. Followed by the immediate crack of thunder so loud it almost burst her ear drums. The sound brought Jecka down to her knees with a yelp of pain. Her ears ringing, she looked back up to the sky. Only to see that the lights filling the void of space, had gone as quickly as they appeared. Now only the familiar stars remained on the black canvas of the night. Though because of the power outage, they were more visible than before.

 

Jecka looked around, but the intense change of luminosity meant her eyes needed time to adjust. She had to rely on vague outlines, as her ears were still ringing. Still on her knees attempting to rationalise the last thirty seconds in her head. Mumbling “What the fuck” to herself over and over again. She just sat there for a minute as her vision adjusted and her ears could finally function. She heard panicked screams and even crying too, she would have joined along, but her existential crisis just made her ruminative and unreactive to the panic around her. So she just sat and watched as everyone tried to cope with what just happened.

 

That was until Kelly’s screams pierced Jecka’s ears. Not by being louder than everyone, but with what she said.

 

“SOMEONE CALL A HOSPITAL!! KAREN'S HURT!!”

 

 

 

“FUCK THIS WORLD.” Her final thought as the world went black.

 

Like, literally went black.

 

All the lights outside went out, as did the lights Colbey had left on in his house. This unexpected outage had made Colbey slightly eased up on his grip. With just a slight amount of pressure let off Nicole’s neck, Oxygen was able to transfer to her brain. On the precipice of falling unconscious, Nicole regained a slight amount of vigour. Opening her eyes, she saw Colbey distracted. Looking forward instead of down at Nicole. She could feel Colbey shifting his weight off her, freeing her legs just enough that she could push herself off the floor.

 

Without thinking, Nicole slid herself as fast and as far back as she could. Repositioning to give herself proper leg movement. Colbey responded to Nicole’s movement by re-tightening his grip. It was too late however, Nicole got the angle she needed. Mustering all her remaining strength, she kneed Colbey as hard as she could in the balls. The action elicited a gasp from the man. Colbey involuntarily released Nicole from his grasp. Taking advantage of this, Nicole planted her feet on Colbey’s torso, and pushed off him. With a weight difference of nearly two hundred pounds, Colbey was hardly phased by Nicole pressing off him. However the action was successful in repelling Colbey away. Gaining about three feet worth of distance.

 

The girl scrambled to her feet, feeling the wind of Colbey’s swipes behind her, with no idea where to run or go. Her only objective being to get the fuck out of here. Running into the kitchen, stopping for a quarter of a second to find an escape route. However, even only briefly scanning the room. Nicole could tell it was absolutely filthy, like it hadn’t been cleaned in months. Filled with leftover take out and dirty dishes She looked around for possible escape routes. The only way she saw out was a backdoor leading to the yard. Hearing the thunderous steps of Colbey getting closer. Nicole bolted to the back door. She was almost there, when suddenly.

 

BOOM!!!

 

Nicole was pushed down by an invisible force, knocking the wind out of her and sending her ass back to the ground. Accompanying this shockwave was the sound of an explosion so loud, it momentarily deafened the girl. Sitting herself upright, she saw the back door had half of its hinges blown off. Barely hanging to the frame. The windows had shattered in the kitchen, and now there was glass everywhere.

 

While trying to push herself up without cutting herself, she was suddenly grabbed by the ponytail by her assailant, lifting her up by it. Nicole acted quickly, and grabbed one of the bigger shards of glass. Grasping it like an ice pick in her right hand. She could feel it cutting into her skin. Colbey grabbed her shoulder and turned Nicole around. The moment she saw his face, she rammed the glass straight into his eye. Piercing straight through his eyelid as well. The man released Nicole and covered his face. Nicole presumed he was screaming in pain. She was still kind of deaf from the explosion. Nicole took off to the now ruined back door.

 

Running outside she saw the aftermath of… whatever the fuck happend outside. Colbey’s backyard was pretty small. With a small shed in the far right corner, and sports equipment haphazardly lined up against the shabby looking wooden fence. The most obvious thing to spot however, was the giant crater in the middle of the yard.

 

She saw a wide shallow crater that engulfed nearly the whole field. All the grass in it burnt, and the ground slightly pushed down, but only by a few inches. Small fires were lit among the circumference of it. Letting Nicole see what appeared to be random bits of metal lodged into the ground. Near the centre, there were small glowing rocks, emitting a fluorescent blue light. Nicole The rocks were more numerous closer in the middle, Nicole’s eyes were guided by them to the middle, until she saw something unexpected.

 

A gun.

 

Even with the illuminative crystals surrounding it, It was hard to make out specific details of the weapon. However the distinet shiny grey metal of the barrel made it unmistakingly a pistol of some sort. What kind? Nicole had no idea. She’s never been knowledgeable on firearms. Even as a self-proclaimed sociopath, with a sadistic streak. She was always uncomfortable with guns even before the incident with her dad. It always felt gross to her how some men (Including her brother.) touted off about gun trivia. As if they were toys, and not tools designed to kill.

 

An old wound of Nicole suddenly stirred up. Left of her abdomen, the scar from the bullet she took from that nutjob with a gun was burning. She denies it to Jecka, but sometimes when she’s alone, when she has nothing left to do but think. Everything that’s happened to her starts to catch up. It hurts. It hurts in a way no amount of Xanax can fix. For now though, it’s just an annoying sting.

 

The bizarre sight had Nicole perplexed. What the hell was that explosion? Why the hell did the power go out? Why the fuck is a gun just laying there? Finally being able to hear herself think. She realised the ringing in her ears finally started to fade away. She could hear the wind, rustling the trees, the steps she takes on the grass, and…

 

“GET BACK HERE!!”

 

..Colbey still coming for her. The scenery had made Nicole pause, instead of gaining more distance. “Fucking Idiot”. Chastising herself, she started running again. Her current plan was to go straight over the literal scorched earth. There was a gate that led to an open field on the opposite of it. All Nicole had to do was sprint and somebody had to be awake to see her. She was no athlete, even Jeffery outperforms her in gym class. (She threatened to burn all his manga if he kept bragging about it.) But she was sure she could out run Colbey. She just-TRIP

 

Or, she could eat shit on the ground.

 

Her right foot had accidently hit one of the metal shards sticking out of the ground. Causing her to stumble. In conjunction with the uneven terrain, she failed to catch herself, Nicole’s face smashed directly on the ground.

 

“JESUS, My coordination is terrible.”

 

Before Nicole could get up, she felt a hand on her ankle.

 

“Got you! you fucking tease.”

 

Nicole was getting dragged back to the house. She tried to latch onto anything. Her fingers clawing on the ashes and dirt, grabbing at the metal sticking from the ground. She was no match for Colbey’s strength however.

 

“You gave me a good exercise. Worked up quite a sweat. “ Colbey was gloating. Nicole still didn’t give up though. She fought too hard to just die now. She needed to understand what she was feeling.

 

“I think I’m gonna keep you around for a little bit.”

 

She needed to understand what it meant.

 

“For a few days, treat myself to you.”

 

She needed to understand why she was fighting so hard to live.

 

“Doesn’t that sound fun?”

 

Most importantly, she needed to spite this fucking asshole!

 

Scanning the area in front of her, she quickly located her last hope. The handgun from before. She extended her unbloodied left arm as far as she could. Her fingers, just barely getting a hold of the grip. It weighed way more than she thought it would, having never held a gun before though, didn’t really have a comparison. Using both hands she turned to face Colbey.

 

The Coach looked like he came straight from a horror movie. He still had the glass lodged in his eye, causing half his face to be covered in blood. He wore a twisted smile on his face despite it. The under lighting from the small fires added to his intimidation. He truly looked like the monster he was. which made the next part, much easier for Nicole.

 

Nicole pointed the gun at Colbey with shaky hands. She had never used a gun before, no idea if the safety was on, or if it was even loaded. But she had to try. If she wasn’t so cynical, she would probably pray that this works, but God isn’t watching. So it’s just up to luck.

 

Please have ammo, please have ammo, please have ammo-

 

*Click*

 

Nothing happens

 

Of course it didn’t have ammo. What the fuck was I expecti- wait, what’s that sound?

 

A sound interrupted her despair. A sound Nicole could only describe as a jet plane starting up came from the gun. Before she or Colbey could respond. A bright purple flash blinds Nicole, and the thunderous roar of a navy battleship cannon rang in her ears. The gun fired… something? But definitely not a bullet. Nicole couldn’t see the aftermath as the kickback was so intense, she hit herself in the face with the pistol. A millisecond later, she was pushed back by the shockwave of an explosion. Sending her flying a small distance.. Landing just out of the craters ring. As she landed, she felt something hit her. Not heavy enough to hurt her, but she definitely felt it.

 

Nicole was disoriented, temporarily deaf again. A million questions ran through her head. Wondering what the fuck just happend? Did she hit a gas tank? Did another mysterious explosion strike at that exact moment. She picked herself up and saw the carnage for herself.

 

Colbey’s house was not just on fire. It was completely destroyed. Half of the roof had been blown sky high, the only remains of the walls were the support pillars. Debris reached past the fences, chucks of wood and stone hitting the houses next door. The lawn was even more wrecked then before. Nicole could see pieces of the kitchen counter she had seen previously on the ground. Colbey was nowhere to be seen however.

 

When the ringing in her head finally stopped. She took a step to get up, but felt something squishy beneath her foot. Looking down she saw what it was.

 

It was Colbey’s smouldering dismembered leg. It was what hit her when she landed, propelled by the shockwave of the explosion.

 

Nicole was completely speechless. She had no fucking idea how to process the last two minutes of her life. No snarky comment, no one-liner. She was just stunned. She had no feelings on killing Colbey, she didn’t give a fuck. But HOW he died she couldn't understand.

 

She looked down at the cause of the mayhem, the weapon in her hands. The fire from the explosion offered better light to observe it. She noticed key aspects of the gun she didn’t see before. First off, it was the weirdest gun she’s ever seen. Her points of reference were limited, but no hand gun she’s seen looked like this. It had a long black silencer, a stock of the same colour, and a large black sniper scope on the top. Bizarre useless attachments that make no sense put together. The colour must have made them blend in with the dirt. She couldn’t see how they resulted in causing the destruction in front of her though.

 

Second, there was a weird marking of some kind on the side of the gun’s barrel. It was hard to see, but its purple hue contrasted well against the gun’s shiny silver. The marking appeared to be a stylised face, wearing a mask and a sharp crown. It wasn’t a logo she had seen before. Maybe a gang thing? Or a company brand? Either way it told her nothing.

 

Nicole just watched the house burn, standing there with only one thought in her head.

 

WHAT THE FUCK??!!

Notes:

Our first cybertronian has arrived. Appreciate any comment or feed back hope to get the next chapter out this weekend.

Chapter 3: I Turned into a Martian

Summary:

Nicole recovers from her near death experience. While Jecka rushes off to a injured Karen.

Notes:

I'm really sorry for the delay guys, I plan on chapter 4 to come out soon to make up for the gap. No big trigger warnings for this chapter.

CHAPTER THREE: I Turned into a Martian

Jecka ran straight through the house, trying to find Kelly. People were either blabbering about what happened or just in shock. She didn't care, she just needed to find Karen. She wasn’t in the corner she left her at, nor in the dining room. It’s unlikely Kelly’s scream was audible from one of the closed rooms, so the front was the only option left.

 

Arriving at the front lawn, Jecka noticed the crowd huddling over something. Getting close, she peeked over the shoulders and found who she was looking for.

 

Karen was convulsing on the ground with Kelly kneeled down next to her.

 

Jecka pushed the onlookers out of the way. She got down on one knee with Kelly and examined Karen who appeared to be having a seizure. Jecka tried to remember what to do in this scenario but the verbal beatdown from Ari, the sky cracking open, and now this were making her brain lag behind with everything that was happening.

 

“What the fuck happend to her?!” Jecka’s voice was frantic. Hands hovering over Karen as they waited for commands on what to do.

 

“I don’t know! She was just fine and then all those lights appeared and then that sound and I look back and she’s on the ground!” Kelly was equally panicked, rattling off what happened so quickly Jecka barely understood her.

 

Taking a breath, Jekca tried to cool down and take control of the situation. She wanted to be a nurse damn it! She had to know what to do in situations like this. Observing Karen a second time, she couldn’t notice any marks or signs of something hitting her. It appeared she was just having a seizure, albeit an extremely aggressive one. This didn’t add up to Jecka, Karen has never had a history of epilepsy before. The lights were definitely bright didn’t seem intense or rapid enough to cause this. Whatever the reason, Jecka needed to act quickly. Karen was gasping for air, choking on nothing as far as anyone could tell. Jecka moved Karen onto her side, vaguely recalling that’s something one should do if a person is struggling for air.

 

“Is she okay? Is she dying? Tell me what’s happening!?” Kelly grabbed Jecka by her shoulder and started shaking her for answers.

 

“Fuck! I don’t know I just moved her! Calm down.”

 

“Don’t you wanna be a doctor or something!!??”

“I got here like thirty seconds ago! She’s having a seizure or something. Did someone call an ambulance?”

 

“Yeah someone did, I’m just staying here with her.”

 

“Okay, good. That’s good, that’s good. Now we just wait here I think. We shouldn’t pin her down.” Karen’s convulsions had started to slow down. Instead of rapid uncontrolled motions, she had entered a rhythm of twitching every three seconds. There was nothing Jecka could do but just watch and monitor her ex-bestie.

 

Despite her best efforts, Jecka couldn’t stop this feeling of dread crawling up her spine. What if she dies? What if she gets permanent brain damage? Fuck! She said nothing would happen to her. But in her defence, how could anyone have predicted this? Why was she not inside? 

 

“Kelly, why was Karen outside?” 

 

“Oh, when I came down stairs I saw Karen getting harassed by Kylar.”  

 

Fuck. “ Harassing her, how?” Jecka’s earlier frantic voice had been replaced with a thick depression. She knew how Kylar approached women, every moderately pretty girl in school did. Everyone except Karen, who was so socially isolated she didn’t even know what skeet meant. Her awkwardness and gullibility made her an easy target. Jecka would know, she's taken advantage of it multiple times.

 

“Well, he kind of pinned her into the corner. He did that thing where guys plant their arm on the wall so you can’t leave. I knew something was up because Kylar always starts shit, and Karen being here at all is weird.”

 

“Yeah” Jecka’s voice was dry, quiet. If Kelly noticed the change in her mood she didn’t react, she just kept on with her story.

 

“Anyway, when I got their Kylar was saying some shit like “ Yeah you’ll do, if the lights are off at least.” or some shit.  Karen looked like she was about to cry. And I don’t know Karen very well but Kylar’s an asshole so I told him to fuck off.”

 

“What did he do?” 

 

“What do you think? Called me a whore and said Karen is too ugly anyway.”

 

Oh god, Karen couldn’t have taken that well.

 

“Well she started sobbing, and saying she wanted to go home. I think she started having a panic atta- OH RIGHT! She was asking for you.. She didn’t know where you were, so she just started running to the car. I didn’t want to leave her alone so I followed her. When we got outside, BOOM! Next thing I know she’s on the ground.”

 

So It’s my fault she was outside. It’s my fault she’s on the ground knocked out  in pain. Because I didn’t keep my fucking promise! I did the pinkie promise and everything. I shouldn’t have left her for so long, I should have known Kylar would try something. Instead I got distracted with my own bullshit.

 

In the midst of Jecka’s self loathing, a familiar voice started whispering in her ear. One that sounded a lot like a certain brunette. 

 

No, it’s not your fault. You just went off to sort shit out with Ari. She’s almost an adult, she should be able to handle things like this.

 

Jecka wanted to listen to that voice. Ease her own conscience and not have to bear the blame. Until another voice interrupted that thought. One that was shrill like her mother’s but simultaneously intimidating as her father.

 

Listen to yourself, SHE should learn to handle things like this? She just needs to ACCEPT being harassed? What are you, the counsellor? She TRUSTED you and you almost immediately abandoned her to do what?. And now you victim blame Ari as well.

 

That’s not fair! We were gone for a few minutes. Ari just needed to make it a whole thing. We aren’t responsible for Nicole’s abuse. People just keep blaming us for shit we have no control over. Both of them just need to grow up and accept reality.

 

Don’t you see the pattern? How we keep compromising our morals to make ourselves feel better. We didn’t mean to leave Karen, but we did. We would do it again in fact. Ari had to scream it in our face. We’re scum of the earth. 

 

That faggot is a pathetic waste of space who needs to be knocked off her high horse. She is just venting out her own inadequacies, compensating for the fact that even after coming out, she’s gonna die alone.

 

Oh using slurs now!? Did Dad FINALLY beat the homophobia into you. Hit you hard enough till your quite frankly already pathetically weak moral fibre gave in. Really keeping it in the family. Maybe when you get a kid you can slap 'em around too, really excel in male dominated fields.

 

SHUT UP! WE ARE NOT-

 

Let’s not even start with how you made this voice sound like Nicole, your best friend. I know what you're trying to do. Trying to blame it on her again. Cause we’ve had this conversation a million times since we last saw her. You tell me it’s her fault, that she changed you for the worse. Well guess what? You’ve always been a BITCH. Nicole was nice to you. Not manipulative, not cruel, just nice. And you make her the devil on your shoulder. 

 

As the voice berated her, it morphed from sounding like her parents to sounding like Jecka’s own voice.

 

You’re gonna die. You’re gonna die sad and alone. Ari, Karen, fuck even Nicole. They deserve to be happy after all they’ve been through. YOU HOW -

 

WEEEOO-WEEEOOO.

 

Jecka was snapped away from her internal debate by the sounds of sirens. She didn’t realise it but she had just zoned out and had been blankly staring at Karen. Kelly had left some time ago. The crowd that encircled them before had scrammed hearing the sirens. Karen was fully unconscious now with just the occasional twitching. Jecka didn’t know how she had zoned out so hard, and whatever she was thinking about faded into the back of her mind where she would soon forget. 

 

Good, that was getting…. Weird. It usually doesn’t get that intense.

 

Speaking of weird, the ambulance appearing down the street certainly was. She zoned out but there was no way she had been out of it for that long. It had been five minutes at most since the call, unless it was literally right past the corner it couldn’t have shown up. The ambulance itself was odd looking too, with a very retro red and white look to it. Jecka knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, so she decided to chalk it up to just being lucky.

 

At the same time, the power had come back on. The extra lighting had revealed a police hummer trailing behind. The hummer was mostly white with a thick blue vertical stripe in the centre of the vehicle. Jecka would usually have taken off at the first sighting of cops, the instinct was tugging at her but she knew she had to stay. Kelly was currently walking up to the driveway, waving down the ambulance.  Jacka was massaging Karen’s head, telling her and herself that “it’s gonna be okay.” 

 

The ambulance backed into the driveway, the hummer parking on the side of the street. The back doors of the ambulance shot open, and a gruff voice belonging to an old man came from the vehicle.

 

“Bring her here!” The voice Jecka assumed was the driver commanded. Not questioning why she had to bring Karen over. She sat her friend upright first, before lifting her up to her feet. The girl was still unconscious so Jecka put Karen’s arm over her neck, and held Karen up by her back. Jecka had the strength to carry the girl, but the mechanics of lifting and moving Karen made the short journey an awkward stumble. 

 

Making it to the ambulance, a ramp had been extended to offer access to the cabin of the vehicle. Being able to see inside, Jecka saw one lone EMS worker typing away at the computer. The man seemed to be in his early to mid fifties with olive coloured skin. He had quite a beer gut, but even far away he seemed to have significant muscle under the fat. He kind of reminded Jecka of Colbey in his build, if Colbey traded his balding problem for more prominent grey hairs, and in general just looked better and healthier.

 

“What are ya waiting for? Bring her on the stretcher!” The man didn’t even look out at them, still typing away at the monitor. Before Jecka could curse out the man for being a lazy asshole, she felt Karen’s weight lighten and movement on her right. 

 

“I’ll help.” Ari had appeared and taken Karen’s other arm. The red head’s voice was more nasally than before, one quick glance at her and Jecka understood why. The girl's nose was extremely crooked and bleeding. Jecka’s hit from before didn’t just draw blood, but had broken Ari’s nose. She would have thought Ari pissed off Kylar if she hadn’t done it herself, which both gave Jecka a power trip and disturbed her deeply. Seeing the result of her lashing out at Ari gave Jecka pause for a moment, but she refocused on the task at hand.

 

“Thanks.” Giving a simple acknowledgement towards Ari, they started going up the ramp together. 

 

“Put her on the stretcher and buckle her in. I’m currently checking to see if all our equipment is working.” The man still wasn’t looking at them. Which besides it being dangerous to let teenage girls move an unconscious person, is just fucking rude. But fine, whatever gets Karen to the hospital faster. It would be easy with Ari’s help anyway.

 

Setting Karen on the stretcher with a grunt. (She didn’t want to be mean, but Karen really could benefit from losing a few pounds. SHE WAS JUST BEING HONEST!)  Jecka and Ari strapped her in securely. Kelly was outside the module looking concerned, both for Karen and Ari.

 

“Ari what happened to you? Did one of the jocks hit you? Tell me who, and they’re banned for life.” Jecka froze, she hadn’t thought about it but now her reputation would probably go even more to shit. Ari was able to ostracise Nicole socially by spreading around how she was abused. Nicole at least never hit her, Jecka broke her fucking nose. The lesbian could spin it off as a hate crime or something. Ari had moved up in the social ranking after getting abused. People would totally believe her too. Ari was quiet for a moment, which was an eternity for Jecka.

 

“I got too drunk and I fell on a rock.” Ari sheepishly said while looking to the side. Ari was a terrible liar, just look how well she hid being in the closet for proof. That didn't matter though, because someone as oblivious as Kelly wouldn’t pick up on that. The fake blonde was as trusting as they get, it was kind of cute in a sad way. 

 

“Oh jeez… that sucks.” Kelly was satisfied with the answer, Jecka released a breath she didn’t know she was holding. “Well you guys go to the hospital, I’ll stay here and make sure everyone is okay.”

 

“Sounds good.” Jecka replied.

 

“Oh, tell me when you get to the hospital, or I'm gonna worry all night.”

 

“Alright. What are you, my mom?” Jecka tried to lighten the atmosphere with a classic sarcastic remark. The joke didn’t seem to land though, as Kelly put on an annoyed face.

 

“No, Just concerned for my friends.” With a huff, she turned and walked away. Jecka was always off-put by Kelly’s sincerity, she acted like all the preppy bitches in school with mock kindness. Jecka for the longest time thought Kelly just pretended to be weirdly caring for others like everyone else in her life. Though recently she’s starting to discover that it’s not an act, she just genuinely wears her heart on her sleeve. Jecka would have said that as an example of her being a shallow ho, but maybe being a kind gullible girl ain’t all that bad. Didn’t mean she was gonna try and emulate that though. 

 

“Alright, if she’s secure, we’re gonna start heading out.” The man finally took his eyes off the monitor, looking at Karen now fastened to the stretcher. “I’ll do a full check when we get to the hospital. For now we just have to observe any changes in her condition. We can get you looked at too missy.” the man faced Ari 

 

“Alright, thanks” Ari replied for both of them. Jecka was only half paying attention, too busy devoting her eyes away from Ari, more specifically the injury she had given her. She didn’t want to look at Karen either, she felt guilty about her condition as well. So all she had left to do was look at the oddly barren walls of the module and endure the awkward tension. The only sounds being the old man typing away on his keyboard and the sirens of the ambulance.

 

Left alone with her thoughts, thinking about what Ari had said and what she had done to her in response, a certain voice came back to haunt her. It didn’t stay long, only returning to finish its sentence from earlier.

 

You deserve everything that’s going to happen to you.

 

She didn’t know what that meant, she told herself. She didn’t know why all these self-loathing thoughts have been invading her mind recently. They weren’t genuine, that's for sure. Maybe she’s made some mistakes, but she wasn’t a bad person. This is just one of those intrusive thoughts people have, it doesn't mean anything. She kept repeating that to herself in her head over and over again.

 

If she had been paying more attention, she might have noticed the very faint glow of blue emitting off of Karen’s veins near her left wrist.

 

Something else she might have noticed was the ambulance heading in the opposite direction of the hospital. 

Getting home was a pain in the ass for Nicole. It was about an hour walk normally, but she had to avoid the crowds of people who were awoken by the noise, and hide at the faintest sound of a siren. That got even harder than initially thought as every fucking ambulance, fire truck and police car was out. The black out must have affected the whole goddamn town. Having to duck from all that extended the walk by thirty minutes. By the time Nicole finally got home it was almost midnight. Oh, and she forgot to mention that she practically had to limp the entire time. After all the adrenaline of escaping Colbey dissipated, she was way more hurt than she realised. Getting thrown through a door, crushed by nearly three hundred pounds of fat, and being only a few feet away from a explosion really fucks you up. 

 

Arriving at her front steps, the pain was really starting to kick in. She just had to open the door and she would finally be in the clear, at least for now. She didn’t really have a plan. If the cops tried to link Colbey’s death to her, she wouldn’t even know where to begin explaining herself. That piece of shit Colbey was blown to smithereens, no body to even hide. All she could hope for is the police assuming he died because of all that weird shit happening. Whatever, at worse she’ll just say he tried to molest her and she ran, which honestly isn’t too far from the truth. Won’t be able to explain how he died anyway, since she kept the murder weapon.

 

That was another inconvenience, hiding this stupid gun the entire walk. The silencer and stocking made it impossible for Nicole to put the gun in her pockets. She had to hold it the entire time and hide it with her hoodie. Nicole knew it looked suspicious but she didn’t really have any other ideas. Why did she keep the murder weapon you ask? Well first of all, without it no one can explain what happened. Two, it’ll probably sell for a good amount online. 

 

Going inside, she noticed the lights were off. Which meant that her mom was out somewhere giving the most mediocre head to some guy. Beneath the floorboard, she heard the faint sounds of gunfire and explosion. Her pedohile brother must have cranked up the volume of his video games, he usually at least just keeps a headset on. If it meant he wouldn’t notice her arriving she’d take it. Even if she got startled like a little bitch.

 

Heading up the stairs, her aching legs were starting to give out, giving a warning as she reached the top with her left leg briefly losing strength. Nicole just barely caught herself on a handrail before falling. Only a few more steps and then she could finally rest. Dragging herself to her room time seems to slow down, as if reality itself was giving one last trial to overcome. The hallway felt like a mile, every step seemingly not making any progress. She felt like that one guy with the rock, no matter how much effort she put in or how far she travelled, she was still stuck at the starting line. Nicole persisted nonetheless, mostly out of spite for Colbey. On the impossible chance hell is real, Nicole would definitely go there, and if so. she might run into Colbey in the waiting line if she gave up right after killing him. She was going to live at least till June. Probably. Maybe…. We’ll see.

After what felt like an eternity, Nicole found herself in front of her door. She turned the handle to get in but she was so impatient, she used her shoulder to push open the door. She put too much force into it, however, and fell onto the floor with a thud. The gun escaped her grasp, fortunately not firing as it landed. Her room was as messy as always, It’s where she slept and kept her shit. She had moved so often, she never had time to get attached to how she set up her place. Her bitch mom kept hounding her to clean up her room, saying it would make her feel better, and that she would feel more energised. It never worked, she still woke up miserable, the same as always. The room didn’t provide security and warmth, only cold isolation. Which is exactly what she needed. She would never be happy but at least she could be alone here, and that’s the best she was gonna get. So that’s what she did, she laid there and basked in its emptiness and indifference it gave her. No love, no kindness, but simply an uncaring room 

 

This room wouldn’t insult her, abuse her, manipulate her, stalk her, jerk off to her, rape her, or kill her. 

 

It would give her the only thing she could ever ask for. 

 

Nothing.

The atmosphere inside the ambulance was awkward to say the least. Ari and Jecka spent more time inspecting their shoes than Karen. Who was finally breathing regularly, but still out cold. Though, to be fair to them the guy who is supposed to care for Karen wasn’t doing shit. He was still just on that fucking moniter. He hadn’t even checked on Ari at all. What the hell was he even doing? Jecka wanted to be a doctor later in life, and she was pretty sure you don’t just ignore the patients. She was gonna call the man out, when suddenly a young woman’s voice came from the radio in front.

 

“Leader-1, why did you pick up those natives?” 

 

“I’m currently bringing home the strays, if you’re done searching the area return to point alpha. I might need some help.” The man hadn’t even looked away from the monitor. He wasn’t even close to the radio, Jecka had no clue on how he even responded. 

 

“Sir! You’re bringing natives to base!!?? That goes completely against protocol!”

 

“Listen rookie, saving lives is more important than protocol. Now finish up and return to base.”

 

‘“But-” 

 

“And tell Mr Chosen One to return home too. Primus knows we can’t leave him alone for too long.”

 

“I… Yes sir, right away.” The radio turned off and the man looked at the two girls, who were just staring at the man. What the fuck was he talking about? That’s not how medical workers talk? Who was that woman and why did she call them natives? Before they could ask, the man finally stood up. His demeanour changed from far too relaxed, to extremely serious. It worried Jecka, they were two relatively skinny girls, while the man was sIx feet worth of muscle, and she was really starting to suspect this wasn’t an ambulance.

 

“Alright listen up, your friend here has some poisoning, a very rare poisoning.” The man noticed the fear in the girl's eyes spike. He raised his hands in response. “Don’t worry, I can fix her. However, the restoration process will be very… unconventional… so to speak. I just want to warn you ahead of time.”

 

“What the fuck does that mean? What are you gonna use, some “Alternative medicine?”  You didn’t even look at her! How do you know she’s poisoned?” Jecka finally found her nerve, Ari seemed to have used up all of her spin earlier and remained quiet.

 

“I did check her, you just weren’t noticing. I promise you, her medication will be proper and effective. That’s my vow as a doctor.” 

 

“You were on that monitor the whole time. I would have-” Jecka got distracted by the window, as she noticed a rusty sign the ambulance was passing.. 

 

Vintage Salvage Depot for the Discriminating Nostalgist.

 

There was nothing peculiar about the sign, it was as worn out as always, only a few chips of red paint remained. She recognized it so quickly as she used this route whenever she travelled out of town towards the east.  That was the problem

 

The hospital was to the west of town.

 

“WHa-we-FUCK..” Jecka didn’t know what to do or how to respond. They were getting FUCKING KIDNAPPED. No no no no no no NO. This was not fucking happening! She wasn’t going to be fucking trafficked! She was too pretty god damn it! Ari and the man had noticed her panic. The potential captor tried speaking calmly to her.

 

“Miss, are you alright? You seem rattled.” The man took a step forward, Jecka stood up and scrambled to the back. Her hands hands trying to imitate a fighting stance.

 

“Stay the fuck back!” 

 

“Jecka what’s wrong?” Ari was alarmed, but still hadn’t caught on to what was happening. 

 

“We’re at the fucking scrapyard. It’s a fucking trafficking set up!” Jecka was looking for anything to defend herself, the barrenness of the ambulance making far more sense now. It wasn’t a real fucking ambulance at all. FUCK! It was so obvious too, the weird ass vehicles, the man not getting out so people wouldn’t see his face, she just didn’t want to acknowledge it. Ari had gotten up and scrambled to the back after hearing the news. The man was just standing there confused.

 

“Okay, I think there has been a misunderstanding. I’m not here to harm you, I’m here to help.”  The man’s voice sounded so genuine, Jecka didn’t believe him for a second, but she knew better. She knows how good these fuckers can lie. 

 

“Bullshit! You’re here to sell us, or rape us, or fucking take our organs, or all three of those.” The walls felt like they were closing in on Jecka. 

 

“Yeah! You fucking creep!” Ari interjected, trying to sound intimidating but the fear mixed in with how nasally she sounded, it reminded Jecka of Jeffrey and removed any bite her words had.. 

 

“How about we all just calm down and-”

 

“WE WILL NOT CALM DOWN! Let us go or I’ll cut you up like a pig.” Ari pulled out a swiss knife out of nowhere, she pointed it at the imposter worker. 

 

“Where did you get a knife?” Jecka was more surprised than their kidnapper. Ari always threatened to cut people at school, but everyone just assumed the girl scout was lying.

 

“That’s what you’re wondering about right now? And not the fatass trying to sell us?”

 

“I’m just wondering why the fuck you brought a knife to a party?”

 

“You telling me you wouldn’t feel safer with a knife on you around Kylar?”

 

“Fair point.” Getting lost in conversation, both girls almost forgot about their predicament. The man was standing there seeming to be a little offended he was being ignored.

 

“Okay this is getting nowhere. Me being here is clearly alarming you so I’m going to rip this band aid off and hope this doesn't end in a complete disaster.” The man lowered his hands and took a step back. His face went from exhausted to uncannily neutral like a wax figure. Before the man’s odd actions could be responded to in full, something much weirder happened. The man seemed to be….distorting, like the image on your grandpa’s old TV and the signal is shit. His body was then becoming pixelated, and before Jecka could process what the fuck was happening right before her eyes, the man disappeared like a mirage right in front of them. 

 

“WHAT THE FUCK!?” Both girls exclaimed, Ari dropping her knife on the floor out of sheer shock at the reveal of the fucking..,hologram apparently. That shit only exists in movies that losers like jeffery watch, that doesn't exist in real life, at least not ones that were that convincing. Ari was taking a step forward and looked around the cabin, thinking she would find the secret to the trick the man just pulled. The two just stayed there for a moment dumbfounded, until a gruff voice came from all around them.

 

“Listen, this is gonna be a lot to explain so let’s just take this one step at a time. Take your friend…Karen . I think you called her outside. Then I’ll show you how I’m gonna help her.” It was the man’s voice now with a slight metallic twang to it, like he was speaking from a radio. “I’ll give you a bit of time, I can see this is quite overwhelming but I would recommend hurrying up for the sake of your friend.”

 

The girls' brains were still trying to catch up to what was happening. They thought they were getting human trafficked, but now they were getting trafficked by some sci-fi secret government group. This was supposed to be a return to form for Jecka, go to a party, get drunk, fuck the least ugly guy there, not this bullshit. Ari meanwhile, started moving the stretcher out of the ambulance. 

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Moving Karen.”

 

“Wait, you’re not actually going to listen to this fucking guy?”

 

“Well what the fuck else am I going to do? Run? I don’t know what the fuck else we’re supposed to do. So yeah, I’m listening.”

 

“How about we don’t listen to the creepy voice from the goddamn hologram!” She knew Ari was submissive but this was ridiculous.

 

“Jecka, my perception of reality has been shattered twice in less than an hour. I have no idea what the fuck’s going on, if the scary hologram man can help Karen. Then fuck it, sure. Nothing weirder can happen today.”

 

Her survival instincts are worse than Karen’s god damn.

 

Jecka was planning out her next move. She could take advantage of Ari listening to their captors, and bolt while the group of men waiting to grab them. But that would mean leaving Karen, again, Who wouldn’t even be in this situation if it wasn’t for her. What the fuck could Jecka do even if she stayed? Fight 'em off? Ridiculous, staying would be nothing more than a sentimental action that would get her killed. She didn’t owe Karen her life and Ari can go fuck herself, every bitch for herself. 

 

But fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck, girl hormones make her feel bad.  

 

“Fine, we’ll listen to the evil hologram man. Don’t blame me when we get shipped by container.” Accepting her fate, Jecka reluctantly helped push the stretcher with Ari.

 

“Thanks. I don’t think we’re gonna get hurt though.”

 

“Why? They did some fancy shit to nab us but we’re still getting kidnapped. Don’t tell me you actually believe that guy?

 

“I don’t know Jecka, I just-I….” Ari stumbles out words, unable to express her. “I don’t know.”

 

“Why did I even bother?” Jecka scoffed at Ari’s unsatisfying response. The blonde gazed down at her friend, blissfully asleep. When she wakes up, how will Jecka break the news that their life is over? Sorry Karen, we got tricked by the most well-funded pedophiles on the planet, my bad. Karen won’t survive a day, not like she would want to keep living. Looking at Karen’s however, Jecka did notice a blue emitting from Karen's neck. A faint glow but definitely there. This would have freaked Jecka out fifty minutes ago but she had burned through all her “WHAT THE FUCK”S”

The ambulance doors opened automatically with the ramp extending out as well. A wave of cold air hit the girls. As they slowly moved outside Jecka scanned the environment with military precision. They were currently in an old abandoned warehouse presumably inside the scrapyard. The building was gigantic, almost completely empty besides a few scrap piles throughout. The ceiling was about forty feet high, all the windows being open or broken which let the moonlight get in. All the garage doors were open, showing the rest of this weirdly massive scrapyard. The environment was harsh and rusted, but Jecka couldn’t see anyone waiting to attack them. In fact she saw no one, just empty space and trash. She still kept her guard up, she had seen too much NCIS not to know better. Though on second thought, maybe basing her preparation for this exact scenario off a tv show wasn’t the best idea.”

 

“Great. Now I’ve scanned your friend and she’s in rough condition, but nothing I can’t fix. I’ve repaired a human inflicted with energon sickness once before so this shouldn’t be too difficult.” The gruff voice coming from the ambulance gave out his nonsense diagnosis. Jecka was getting annoyed that their captor was still doing this doctor bit, and also that they still hadn’t revealed themselves. 

 

“Alright, how about you step out of the vehicle and actually do your ‘doctoring’ .” Jecka said the last word with air quotes.

 

“Well you see, that’s the tricky part. I can help her but well, I can’t exactly leave the vehicle.” 

 

“The fuck you want us to do about it? Oh you’re gonna need us to motivate you, is that it?” 

 

“No, it’s just that… well… it’s gonna be a lot to take in.”

 

“We’re in the sketchiest warehouse ever and my friend’s blood is growing blue! What the fuck else can happen?”

 

“Can you please just help Karen? We’re tired of this vague bullshit you’ve been speaking.” Ari spoke as she simultaneously examined Karen, just now noticing how on some of Karen’s veins were glowing blue. While Ari was definitely still suspicious of the situation, she was starting to believe that whoever the voice did want to help them. What does she know though, she’s always been a bad judge of character. Jecka meanwhile was completely unconvinced on whatever bullshit act this creep was trying to do. She bet this doctor bit was just a plot to justify touching them to see if they’re healthy or some shit.

 

“Alright I will, just step back and try not to freak out. You probably will, but for my receptors can you try not to?”  The girls didn’t understand why they had to walk back but they did as instructed, taking a couple steps backwards. 

 

This guy’s is gonna be ugly as fuck. Like quasi moto level fucked up. Jecka thought to herself. It's the only explanation for how this guy is acting. A hologram is fucking extreme though, but she supposed ugly men with lots of money can do all the dumb shit they wanted.

 

The two waited a few seconds, there was no movement coming from the ambulance. The anticipation of what this mystery man looks like briefly distracts them from how sketchy this scenario is. The ramp retracted back and the doors closed, yet still no sign of the driver.

A few more seconds pass.

 

CLANG

 

They could hear the sound of something heavy being released from the vehicle, accompanied by the sound of metal clanging against itself. What followed next was something Jecka and Ari couldn’t have possibly imagined. The Ambulance had segments started sticking out and extending, forming what appeared to be giant red hands. Said hands were attached to giant white arms which stretched out and pushed against the ground as the machine started to stand. Legs were becoming visible, with gears and metal plates moving into position to form the joints. Jecka and Ari could only stand there as they witnessnes the machinery transform into a humanoid figure. The giant’s back was turned to them as the last bits and pieces slotted together. A head was rising from the robot's torso which was almost completely white, besides from the robot's crotch area which was the same red as its hands.

 

As the transformation finished, the titan started rotating his neck while emitting several grunts, sounding like a dad who accidentally slept on the couch and awoke with a sore neck. 

 

“Ah, I need to get a lubricant treatment, these parts are getting tangled together.” The man’s voice came from the robot. It brought its right hand to his neck and stretched out its back before turning to face its audience of two. Facing them, they could see that the windshield had become this titan’s upper torso area. On both its blocky shoulders the red cross was printed on. The final key feature was its head. It’s face was eerily similar to a human’s, with a mouth, nose and eyes. Silver metal replaced skin, and  its eyes had no iris or pupils, blue completely filling them. It had no hair and instead had something like a helmet, white like most of its body and two red fins sticking out on its forehead.  The giant stood over twenty feet tall, and had a quite blocky shape to it. It looked down at the girls who were catching flies as they looked up at it. Not with fear in their eyes, just complete disbelief for what they were seeing. 

 

The giant knelt down with a grunt and formally introduced himself. 

 

“My name is Ratchet, and like I told you, I’m here to help.”

The warming downpour of water relaxed Nicole’s body. She always enjoyed the shower, it was hell on the   bill but how the water landed on her skin made Nicole almost feel soothed. Her mind never relaxed, but it was a nice distraction at least. 

 

Getting out of the shower, she went up to the mirror and wiped the fog, getting a good look at herself. God she looked like complete shit. Her face was cut up from the glass exploding right next to her, they were minor enough cuts that she hadn’t even noticed them until now but they were highlighted quite well against her pale skin. Colbey’s grasp on her had left a mark as well, a large bruise covered her neck. Nicole wasn’t even sure that she had enough concealer to hide it. The rest of her body mirrored her face, small cuts decorated her body while Colbey’s weight on her left her abdomen quite purple. Even ignoring her recent injuries she looked even more tired than normal, the usual bags under her eyes had doubled. Her slim figure had gone from ideal to gaunt as she could see her ribcage press against her skin. She knew she was hot, it was the cause of most of her problems after all. She had a sharp face, decent bust size and a well toned ass. 

 

She never liked looking at herself though.

 

No matter how much she examined the woman in the mirror, she never saw anything that came close to being described as beautiful. The only reason she actually believed she was desirable to look at was the constant harassment she received. Even then, most men were desperate and had low standards so they were not reliable. Only three people in her life made her actually feel pretty. One was dead, one in a coma and the other hated her, so not exactly the best lot to mold her self image from.  

 

After drying herself up, she moved to her room and got herself dressed for bed. Some underwear and the MSI shirt her and Jecka stole at the mall. She left it over at Nicole’s house and never bothered to pick it up after their falling out. Jecka’s extra height and size meant Nicole could basically wear it as a nightgown. It was quite comfy and it mixed well with her wardrobe so Nicole decided to keep it instead of throwing it out. That’s the only reason she kept it. The only one.

 

Yep.

 

Anyway, before heading to bed she needed to make sure of a few things. One, if her mom walks in with laundry on the floor she’ll probably get her ass beat, she cared way too much about that. Two, hide the murder weapon in a secure spot. 

 

Maybe those should be flipped in priorities. Eh whatever.

 

As Nicole picked up her old clothes, she noticed something glowing drop from the sweater. One of those small glowing rocks that were in the crater at Colbey’s. It must have gotten into her sweater pocket when she was being dragged. Holding it in between her fingers, she realized a more accurate term would be a pebble, as it only matched her fingernail in size. Besides the glowing it seemed like a normal rock, no heat was emitting from it, in fact it was weirdly cool. Maybe she could sell it?  What else was she gonna do with a fucking rock?

 

“Hope this ain’t radioactive.” Nicole held on to it, as she used her other hand to pick up the gun she let go of earlier.  She had no real theories of where it came from or how the fuck it disintegrated Colbey but she didn’t care about that. What mattered was how much money she could make from this funky-ass gun. Nicole planned on doing research tomorrow of that weird ass symbol on the slider. Hopefully it’s from a gang, maybe she could pretend to be like Emily and threaten people with her MS-13 boyfriend. Use it to get cheaper drugs and get social status back in check. Nicole’s been given a shit hand these past few weeks, but she’s always been able to see opportunity even in the most dire of circumstances.   

 

Nicole decided to hide the gun where she hid most of her shit, under the bed. She also put the weird ass pebble there as well, putting both right next to a spare backpack, her old gameboy, vibrator and an emergency supply of crack. Would she use it to sell or snort for an emergency? She honestly didn’t know, but it was useful to keep nonetheless.

 

With that taken care of, Nicole could finally sleep and forget about all the bullshit of today. One less pedophile in the world is always a good thing, and the cops will have no way to trace it back to her. If they do question her, she’ll just give some sob story of being taken advantage of and running away. In retrospect this day was pretty good ignoring the almost getting raped and murdered part. She killed a pedophile, got a gun for leverage or to sell, got Colbey’s mone- Aw fuck she didn’t get the money. Shit!

Whole goddamn plan was a waste of time. Whatever, at least he’s dead now.

 

Nicole laid down on the bed and closed her eyes, hoping the events of the last few hours didn’t retrigger THAT dream. She was hoping her brain would give her a break, and instead replay that one dream she had with Principal Lynn in her-

 

Clang!

 

“The fuck was that?” A noise came under the bed. It sounded like metal moving and knocking against itself. The sound played for a bit until she felt something knock up against the bed, confirming something was underneath. Nicole remained on the bed but she decided to  move the covers and look under. Viewing the bottom of the bed in the dark and upside down was inconvenient but she was too tired to get up..

 

“Aw fuck, is it a rat? I swear to God if it’s eating my crack I’ll cook it in the microwav-” 

 

Before she could get a clear view at what was scurrying under her bed. Nicole was interrupted by something hitting directly on her left eye. Causing her to tumble forward in pain and fall off the bed.

 

“Fuck! What the hell was that?”  Laying on her back, she turned to see what was thrown at her. The projectile in question was her old vibrator, now rolling to the wall after ricocheting off her eyeball. Nicole wondered how the hell a rat could throw something that hard, when she then heard something rummaging through her shit again under her bed. She rolled over into a prone position and prepared to catch whatever threw that at her. 

 

She waited almost a full minute for this little fucker to reveal himself. The rummaging finally stopped, and Nicole readied herself to pounce like a cat on the culprit. A few more seconds pass, and the intruder finally comes out.

 

But it was no rat.

 

A tiny grey arm emerges from the shade, and grabs on to the frame above and pulls the rest of its body out. Nicole could only describe this… thing as a robot toy of some kind. She had never seen this thing in her entire life, but as the thing stood on its two legs, it seemed familiar. The tiny invader’s body was made up of metal, but still humanoid. The figure’s colour were various shades of grey, the only exception being red on its waist,. elbows and eyes. Oh and the purple logo on its chest. The same purple logo on the gun she took. Nicole’s brain started connecting the pieces, which led to another observation. Attached to its right forearm was a black cylinder, it took a second but Nicole recognized it as the scope attachment. 

 

Despite how insane it sounded, Nicole came to the conclusion this thing WAS the gun. 

 

In hindsight, maybe picking up the mysterious gun that blew up buildings wasn’t the best idea. Now she has some sentient action figure in her house and the fact that was a sentence she has thought sober really shows how fucked this day is. What the hell is this, Toy story!?

 

Nicole was currently trying to process the image in front of her. The mini tin man meanwhile was looking around the environment. Despite the mechanical face, Nicole could tell it was confused where it was. It eventually made eye contact with Nicole with its deep crimson eyes. Its face switched from confusion to anger. It points the scope right at her and speaks in an incredibly raspy voice. 

 

“Where have you taken me HUMAN ?”

Notes:

Ratchet and Megatron make their formal introductions. Kudos to anyone who can figure out who the other Autobots are. As always feedbacks and comments are appreciated.

Chapter 4: Napalm Sticks to Kids

Summary:

Nicole is confronted by a furious shrunk down Megatron. Jecka and Ari make contact with the transformer known as Ratchet.

Notes:

Hey guys, new chapter. I would just like to say please check out this incredible fanart https://x.com/mamamia28825/status/1866879043452186898

I'm so humbled at someone making fanart for my crazy fic idea, and that people seem positive on it so far. I hope you guys will continue
to enjoy this series as we go along

Second, thank you to my editor Alex who helps so much with making this series halfway presentable.

TW for for descriptions of blood and violence.

“Where have you taken me HUMAN!?”

Nicole had no idea how to process the situation she was in. Who would have thought going on a date with her gym teacher would lead to an action figure crawling out of her bed. 

 

“What is this place? Answer me now or I’ll eviscerate you!” The machine’s voice was like an old man who smoked five packs a day, so raspy and shrill. Despite the threat, Nicole just stared at the twelve inch figure. Not knowing what to say or do. The robot meanwhile started examining his own body.

 

“Why am I like this? Why can’t I-” The machine grits his metal teeth and exerts a grunt of effort but nothing changes as far as Nicole could tell. “Why am I confined to this miniscule size? What damage did you do to my mass shifter?”

 

The constant questions deflected off of Nicole’s ears. The girl knew this wasn’t a dream, she was in too much pain for that to be the case. She was stone cold sober and didn’t even have anything hallucinogenic on her, so she couldn't have taken them and just forgotten. Didn’t feel like a bad trip either, she knew how that felt.

 

“Where- where is the Underbase? It was just within my grasp, victory for the Decepticons finally manifested to reality. Where have you hidden it?”

 

Maybe she was dead, and this is just a really roundabout punishment. No, that’s stupid. Nicole was more willing to believe in tiny robots existing than there being an afterlife. Religion was a scam made by pedophiles to steal money and molest children. She wasn’t even going to humor the idea that some god was controlling her fate, though it would explain how fucked up her life was.

 

“Speak, insect, or be silent for eternity!” The Go-bot reject pointed his forearm scope at her. His voice, while ridiculous, could maybe have commanded some attention if he wasn’t so tiny. This whole situation was just so… stupid. A fucking action figure was threatening her? It’s so fantastical, so unrealistic, so moronic. She started to feel something familiar crawl up from her lungs to her throat. She didn’t recognize it initially but as it escaped from her mouth she understood what was happening.

 

She was laughing.

 

Not a disingenuous laugh while flirting to manipulate some guy. Not a sadistic laugh at someone’s suffering. Just a pure cathartic laugh at what was unfolding in front of her. Innocent and unmalicious, adjectives she hasn’t used to describe any of her actions in years. Her life becoming a fucking pixar movie after nearly having her corpse be molested, just made everything seem so inconsequential. The fog in her mind dispersed a little. Letting her enjoy this moment of complete absurdity.

 

“How DARE you mock me! I am MEGATRON!” 

 

“AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH!” The toy taking her laugh as an affront just made her laugh more.  The pain in her eye vanished. The gentle sting of the cuts around her body faded. She heard the toy ranting, but the words were simply gibberish. The only thing that mattered was the bliss that came from reveling in the comedy of it all. 

 

It was a high that no Adderall or Fentanyl could replicate. If Nicole died right then and there, she would die peacefully. 

 

That was until the sound of an engine charging dragged her back to her fucked up reality.  Her eyes opened to see a purple glow come from the scope attached to “Megatron.” The scope that was currently pointed directly at her. Nicole quickly figured out what would follow and would like to retract the comment of dying right then and there. 

 

Just before Nicole would share Colbey’s fate, the power in the weapon seemed to give out. The sound of failing machinery and not one of a canon echoed in the room.

 

“Curses! Low on-” Before finishing that sentence Megatron's face made contact with Nicole’s foot. Flying and being sent directly to bed frame.

 

“Motherfucker! that hurt!” Nicole kicked Megatron as hard as she could. However as Megatron got up with a mechanical growl, it seemed she did more damage to her foot than her target. She stood herself up which brought back all the aches and pain. She still hadn’t recovered from her encounter with Colbey, and she was still so fucking tired. She could barely keep herself up as she and the tin can had a standoff.  Locking eyes and optics, neither made a move as they figured out their next plan of attack. 

 

“Look, whatever-the fuck-you-are, I don’t know where you came from, or what you’re talking about.  But I’m not I’m not gonna just roll over and die, so get the fuck out of here.”  Nicole wasn’t as well versed in the art of threatening violence and potentially having to back it up. She had threatened Megan and Jeffery before, but Megan understood it wasn’t an actual threat, she was just being dramatic. While Jeffery could be intimidated by a fucking bee. She had no idea if she could actually beat mini Johnny-5, but she was not gonna get killed in her own room by a fucking toy. 

 

“Your life could have been spared, you wretched creature. But I will not tolerate your mockery.” 

 

“Yeah? Well I don’t tolerate action figures running their mouths like they aren’t twelve inches tall and within kicking distance.”

 

“I will enjoy grinding your bones to dust.” Megatron’s face titled ever so slightly. Looking past Nicole’s shoulder past something. Nicole couldn’t remember what was behind her besides her wardrobe and closet. Though Nicole would bet that he’s spotted some item he could use against her. 

 

Jesus Christ, I’m having a fight to the death with motherfucking buzz lightyear.

 

Another moment passes until Megatron makes the first move, sprinting directly at Nicole. She tried to pin him down, but his size and speed let him juke her. Nicole missed him by a mile, but at least her outstretched arms helped break her fall. She turned her head to find her opponent climbing up her hanged clothes in the closet. This gave Nicole pause as she tried to figure out why the hell it was ascending her pants. Wait, is the toy robot ALSO a pervert? Seriously, even when they don’t even have hormones or balls, men will still be creeps. 

 

Nicole’s observation was challenged however, as the mechanical menace started rummaging through her grey sweaters pocket. What the fuck, why is he- MY RAZORS! Nicole remembered that she had to hide her razors after her mom found them last time she barged into her room uninvited. She hid them in her clothes because her mom never checks them out of  some slight respect of privacy.  Of course Nicole usually just forgets where she put them, but that wasn’t a pressing concern right now. The machine must have super vision or some shit to have spotted them.

 

Nicole tried getting up again, but her body was at its absolute limit. Just pushing off the ground was taking the breath out of her. Her legs lacked the required strength to straighten up. Fuck. This must be what Jeffery feels like. Double fuck, why did she compare herself to Jeffery in any context.

 

Nicole couldn’t even attempt to push herself up again, when something sharp and cold dug into her left thigh. She grunted in pain, she internally cursed that out of everywhere this fucker could have hit. He chose her bad leg. Examining the wound, as she suspected, a razor was lodged in her inner thigh with half of it sticking out.  She looked ahead to see Megatron holding her razors like playing cards in one hand, while the other was holding on to the sweater. He prepared to throw another and Nicole prepared herself to block it. 

 

Protecting her face with her arms, the next razor cut into her right palm. The stinging agony would usually be manageable, but her body was so fragile at this point that she couldn’t help but give a small yelp of pain. The voice Nicole heard was pathetic, weak, helpless, something belonging to Ari. When the fuck did razor cuts hurt this much? Nicole tried pulling the razor out of her hand, which distracted her just in time for Megatron to make his next move.

 

He started swaying back and forth on the sweater, with each oscillation he gained more momentum. When he reached a sufficient speed, he launched into the air. Nicole barely had time to react, all she could do was block her face with her left forearm, an action rewarded with another razor cutting into her skin, one Megatron had thrown midair. He landed right on Nicole’s collarbone. The bot only weighed about ten pounds but Nicole could swear she heard a crack. 

 

“Now, are you willing to cooperate?” Megatron put his leg on Nicole’s chin and rested his arms on his knee. Nicole could see he had one razor blade left. Ready to slice into her face at any moment. The robot’s face was horrendously cocky, it really pissed her off. But she was too tired to fight back. She lost this fight. So with a sigh, she responded.

 

“Fine, fuck, you win.” Nicole begrudgingly admitted defeat. Much to the satisfaction of the robotic invader.

 

“Good, now tell me why you captured me and I may show mercy.” God why did this tiny prick have to talk like a fucking cartoon. She would have vastly preferred a cold emotionless voice like hal 9000 or some shit.

 

“I didn’t capture you, I just found you on the ground in some crater then brought you to my room.”

 

“That doesn’t explain why you took me though.” 

 

“Well my gym teacher was trying to kill me, and you were right there. I used you to kill him so, thanks, I guess.” Nicole figured that this thing had no interest in snitching on her, especially since he was technically a culprit.

 

“You humans, so helpless, yet you still kill one another. How pitiful.” A smile grew on his face, like she just told him an incredible joke. She supposed she did, in a weird way. “In that crater, was anything else there?”

 

“Some glowing rocks and some scrap metal. Didn’t pay much attention cause I was too busy trying not to die." This answer seemed to upset the machine, as he pressed down harder on Nicole.

 

“Nothing else? No gold microchip?”

 

“No. Nothing else, especially not whatever you’re looking for.” Nicole coughed out in pain

“Damn it, it could be anywhere on this filthy planet.” Megatron mumbled to himself as he stepped off Nicole’s face. Stepping on her bruised neck as he got off which hurt like a fucking bitch. As he put his feet on the carpet, he started wandering around the room, murmuring and plotting his next move.  Nicole sat upright and watched the little man pace back and forth. She still couldn’t believe that she was seriously conversing with a fucking gun. Her previous bout of hysteria at that fact had been snuffed out, now she was just accepting the complete absurd cruelty of this world. Especially with these razors digging into her body. She started pulling them out one by one. The wounds were quite deep but nothing life threatening. 

 

“I was going to interrogate you on my mass displacer, but it’s clear you lack the strength or intelligence to do any significant harm to me.” Megatron didn’t even turn to face her when he hurled that insult at her. 

 

“Well fuck you too, asshole.” She had no idea what a mass displacer was, but she didn’t like the notion she wasn’t capable of beating the shit out of some toy. She was just fucked up before the fight is all. In fact she was formulating a plan on how to turn this encounter around, her dad’s old electric guitar. Her attacker was distracted, she just had to not draw attention to herself. Which shouldn’t be too hard since he was preoccupied with his own thoughts. “ Wait, do Robots have thoughts?” 

 

Megatron was formulating his next course of action. The Underbase was almost his, until that blasted Star Saber got in the way. However this was not the end, merely a delay of complete Decepticon conquest. If he landed on this wretched planet, then likely the Underbase would have as well. His first step should be to contact the Decepticons, however scanning his communication systems he noticed that his long range communicator was damaged. A quick self-diagnostic showed that while his exterior, brain module and spark were unscathed, many of the con’s apparati were malfunctioning. Specifically his lightyear broadcaster and mass shifter. The trip on the unstable space bridge must have damaged the mechanisms involving space warping. He would have to find another transmitter to send a distress signal, which would be easy if his injuries didn’t prevent him from returning to his original size. The situation was far from desirable, but not unwinnable; he would simply have to play his cards right. 

 

Starting with what to do with the organic that brought him to this disgusting chamber. Killing her was the obvious move, simple, efficient, on brand. But perhaps he could keep the creature hostage, threaten its family and make it work for him. Yes, that would be fair, since it dared to use its repulsive fleshy fingers on his alt mode, he shall use it as a tool like it did.  

 

“Now listen here huma-” THWACK

 

Megatron finally snapped out of his own mind after deciding the organic’s fate. He turned back around to confront it, but instead of seeing a bleeding girl laying on the floor, he only saw black and white for a milli-cycle until he was launched to the wall. Megatron’s inner monologue had made him unaware of Nicole sneaking to her guitar stand and using the instrument like a golf club. The tiny Decepticon slammed into a wall, if he had lungs the oxygen would have been knocked out of them. Falling to the ground, his impact slightly cushioned by the carpet below. He didn’t have time to get up however as Nicole proceeded to hit him with the guitar again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again.

 

Time lost all meaning, Nicole only focused on thrashing the robot until it was nothing but scrap metal. She just kept swinging up and down, using all her remaining strength to to put this this fucker down. If she failed or slowed down for even a second she knew she wouldn’t be able to summon this second wind again. So she kept her assault up, never letting the con get back on its feet.

 

THWACK!

 

“How-

 

THWACK!

“I’ll K-”

 

THWACK!

“STOP-”

THWACK!

 

THWACK!

THWACK !

THWACK!

THWACK!

 

THWACK!

THWACK!

THWACK!

“You dead yet!?”

 

Nicole kept swinging until her arms wore out. No idea how long she kept at it, but she took the lack of movement coming from the tiny terror as a sign of victory. Dropping to her knees out of sheer exhaustion and gasping for breath, she had never had to exert herself this much in her entire life. She could feel her limbs starting to go numb and shut down. She looked down at the result of her rampage, which disappointingly was nowhere near as destructive as she hoped. The thing wasn’t even dented in the slightest, the metal hardly scratched. Glancing at her electric guitar, she did more damage to it than her target. The instrument was totally wrecked with the wood splintering off and strings being ripped away. She wasn’t too torn up about it, she mostly used the acoustic guitar anyway. 

 

Even if she failed to do any visible damage, this motherfucker wasn’t moving anymore. Nicole was still cautious he was playing possum, but if he got up again there was nothing she could do about it. She was just completely drained, physically and mentally. She couldn’t even make a snide comment like she usually does when she fucks someone over. All she could do was one last internal What the fuck is that thing, before she fellover and passed out. 

After about two minutes of the girls staring at Ratchet, he was starting to get annoyed, they weren’t screaming thank Primus, but they usually would have done something by this point. Instead they just silently gawked at him. To break the ice, he gave a mock cough and started speaking. 

 

“I told you it would be a lot to take in. Now I know you have many questions, but for now I think you two should divert your intention to saving your friend.”

 

Ari didn’t immediately respond, but they did snap out of their blank stare. The redhead had millions of questions, and she didn’t know where to begin. Everyone always imagines: what if something fantastical happened to me?

 

What if I met aliens? 

 

What if I found Bigfoot?

 

What if I was the chosen one? 

 

It’s fun to daydream and imagine a world where you can break away from the mundane. God knows Ari couldn’t stand it here, it’s why she got so into Harry Potter. The idea of getting to leave her fucked up school and hang out with wizards gave her just enough energy to get through the day. But that was fictional, it wasn’t real. Things like that don’t happen in the real world. In reality you either kill yourself or get so numb to all the bullshit you face that you don’t even remember what emotions feel like. There’s no wizard school that would make you a witch, no hot vampires that want to date you, and definitely no giant robots that disguise themselves as cars. 

 

SO WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GIANT RED AND WHITE TITAN IN FRONT OF HER?

 

Even though it asked to focus on Karen, she couldn’t help but focus on it-no him instead.

 

“Wh-who-what are you?” Ari spoke for both her and Jecka, who still had her jaw on the floor, still as a statue.

 

“Alright, that’s more like it.” He seemed pleased at someone finally speaking up. He stood up and cleared his throat. Wait, does he have a throat? Ari asked herself, but Ratchet started to answer her first question. 

 

“I am Ratchet, I’m a techno-organic organism hailing from the planet Cybertron. My species are called Cybertronians. We have been amongst your people now for a few years, As robots in disguise. “I know hearing that might alarm you, but I assure you, we mean you no harm.”

 

“Techno-organic? So are you like ... robots?” She didn’t know why that idea was what she questioned first, she’s meeting an alien. A robot alien shouldn’t be that much weirder.

 

Holy shit, she’s meeting a robot alien.

 

“In a word, yes, but we are far more complex than what you people have been shown in your movies. We are just as naturally occuring to our world, as you are to yours.” 

 

“Oh-i’m sorry! I didn't mean to offend you.” Ari quickly spat out. Apologetic that she might have offended the twenty ton giant.

 

“None, taken… Ari, right? The complexities of Cybertronian biology would be far too long to go into right now. You can ask more questions as we move your friend. If you two wouldn’t mind.” Ratchet gestured to Karen on the stretcher. “Follow me.”

 

“Al-alright, come on Jecka.” Ari turned to the blonde but she still hadn’t moved or talked, out of character since Jecka is one of the chattiest, loudest, and bitchiest people she knew. Turning her head she was even more weirded out, Jacka’s eyes weren’t even tracking Ratchet as he walked away, instead she was just staring at the empty space where he had initially stood. It was like she was frozen in time. “Jecka? We gotta move Karen. Jecka? JECKA?”

 

Ari extended her hand across the stretcher and snapped her fingers in front of her. Still no response.  

 

“Jeeeeeeeeecka, are you okay?”

 

“This isn’t real.” She finally talked but it was not to Ari or the “Cybertronian.” She just muttered it to herself and kept staring blankly at the ceiling. 

 

“This isn’t real. This isn’t real. This isn’t real.”  

 

“Jecka, snap out of it!” 

 

“This isn’t real! This isn’t real! This isn’t real!” Jecka repeated the words louder to drown out Ari. As if blocking out her the world would make it disappear. Ari noticed Jecka starting to tear up, as she spoke up. 

 

“Is everything all right?” Ratchet checked behind him, after hearing Jecka’s cries. He knew she wasn’t okay, but he wanted her to try and actually confront the reality of what was happening. 

 

“I-I think she’s having a breakdown.” 

 

“Hmmm, not the worst reaction a person can have after learning aliens exist.” Ratchet scanned the girl with his optics for any physical ailments just to be sure. He didn’t find anything concerning except some signs for nasty lung problems in the future. He didn’t know what to do, he was a medical doctor, not a therapist. His healing was purely physical, though he had seen his fair share of shell shock on the table. He never had a graceful solution for how to deal with it besides knocking them out cold. Dealing with human emotions was a whole new ball game. 

 

“Jecka, can you hear us?” Jecka reacted to the automaton’s question, but not with words. Instead she slowly crouched down while repeating the same words even louder. Refusing to look at either of them, she brought her hands to her hands to her head and clutched her hair with an iron grip. Ari was concerned she was gonna start pulling, but she never did. She just held on to golden locks like her life depended on it. This image of Jecka completely shutting down unsettled Ari, Jecka used to be THE pretty girl from middle school and high school. She carried herself like she was an international sensation, unfalteringly confident and absolutely irresistible. Everything Ari wasn’t. 

 

Right now though, she was in a fetal position trying to hide how hard she was crying. Her sobs and sniffles were as loud as the thunder from earlier. She was seeing the blonde at her absolute lowest. Ari still hated Jecka, she was as superficial and heartless as they come. Seeing her like this though, didn’t make her feel better.. 

 

“Jecka please! Karen needs us!” No response, the prep continued to remain in her own little world. Even the reminder of Karen’s status didn’t bear any results. Ari got closer and made a few more attempts at motivating the poor girl, All tries were fruitless however.

 

“Ari, I think we're just gonna have to let her process this at her own pace. We can’t rush her and Karen still needs attention.” 

 

“But-I-maybe… sigh ”, As bad as it made her feel. The alien robot was right. Karen needed the attention more. She turned to face Ratchet “Okay fine, I’ll come with.” and then turned back to Jecka. “We’ll be back soon, okay” As expected, Jecka gave no reaction. 

 

With that promise, Ari grabbed hold of the stretcher and started moving. Ratchet led the way to a wide exit of the warehouse while Ari trailed behind.

 

“Come this way. I have equipment that will help repair your friend.” Ratchet’s voice was cool and professional. Which put Arii at ease despite the insane situation she was currently in. She had no idea what this alien was or what it wanted, but its friendly demeanour somehow grounded Ari. Her expected fear was instead replaced with curiosity. She picked up the place to catch up to Ratchet

 

“Soooo, Ratchet.” Having a name helped humanize the titan. “You said you're from another planet right?”

 

“Yes, Cybertron is a world much like this. However naturally formed metal coats the planet, instead of grass and multicellular organisms.” Ratchet turned his head to answer the girl's question. There was far more to be said about Cybertron, but best not to overwhelm her like the other human. 

 

“And you’re not here to hurt us.”

 

“As stated many times already.” 

 

‘“So why are you here then? And why are you helping us?” That question gave pause to Ratchet. Stopping for a moment to think of an answer. This let Ari catch up as she was now side by side with the Cybertronian. The two had exited the warehouse and now stood below the unobscured stars. Ratchet looked up at the night sky. Ari was no mind reader, but the grim expression on his face and the topic of conversation, she would swear he was looking at his old planet, wherever it was. He turned his body and looked down at the girl and gave his response.

 

“Because I am an Autobot.” He motioned to a particular spot on his torso. Right below the windshield that made up his chest, was the emblem of a bright red face. Ari didn’t exactly understand what the name and symbol was supposed to be however.

 

“I thought you were a Supertonian.”

 

“Cybertronian.” Ratchet corrected. “And I am. My species is Cybertronian, but my allegiance is to the Autobots.”

 

“So it’s like a political party?” 

 

“Sort of! We Autobots are dedicated to defending the lives and freedoms of all sentient beings. To protect and preserve order.” Ratchet started walking again and Ari followed. “Even if sometimes we cause a mess.” the implications of his words took a second to be understood by Ari.

 

“Wait, was that crazy light-show your fault?” Ari’s question was accompanied by an accusatory tone. 

 

“Well, not MY fault per se... but that was connected to us. “ The two were approaching what initially appeared to be a random junk pile to Ari. As they approached however, Ari saw that the metal wasn’t jagged and sharp, but polished and square. “Here we are, my makeshift emergency room.” Ratchet had a slight tinge of pride in his voice. 

 

Said “emergency room” looked more like a mechanics garage to Ari. An old car lift was formatted to be a super-sized operating table. A decommissioned yellow mixer truck had various carbon fiber tubes sticking out of its exit. For a second Ari thought it might be another one of these Cybertronians, but Ratchet grabbing hold of one of the tubes and having no response went against that theory. 

 

“What exactly are you doing?” Ratchet was inspecting the various tubes connected to the mixer, dropping it with a grunt when it didn’t satisfy his requirements for what he was planning. 

 

“You see that “light-show” you saw earlier was a space bridge collapse. To keep it short, a space bridge transports something at far faster than light speeds. The technology involves manipulating dimensions, which I’m sure you can infer is extremely dangerous. If a trip isn’t done properly you could get disastrous results.” The way he was describing this technology to Ari reminded her of her dad explaining how a car works. A cute association but that didn’t help her comprehend the scale of the situation. She was just planning on getting respectfully wasted tonight  and now she’s learning information that breaks all known laws of physics.

 

“Anyway that doesn’t really matter right now. What matters is what was being transported in that space bridge, highly potent raw energon.” Ratchet said the final part of the sentence like she was supposed to know what that means. 

 

“What’s that?”

 

“Energon is the resource that powers all Cybertronians. Think of it like our blood. It fuels and sustains our bodies. Without a recharge, a Cybertronian can only last so long without it. Akin to starving like you humans without nutrients.” 

 

“Well we don’t need more blood than what we’re born with usually, so it’s not really like blood.” Ari didn’t know why she didn’t just shut her mouth instead of correcting him. 

 

“True, I was just trying to make it as simple as possible.” Luckily she found no hint of annoyance in his mechanical voice. 

 

Ratchet finally found a tube that pleased him, it was the smallest both in length and width. Only being the size of a standard hose. As the Doctor pinched the tube with his left hand, he curled his fingers together with his right and a small barrel appeared between his index and middle knuckle. AIming it at the tube, he started spraying a liquid at the tube's end. 

 

“Anyway, Energon is the main source of energy for us. It’s necessary for our survival.  Unfortunately, it appears that energon ended up inside your friend’s circulatory system somehow.”

 

“How the fuck did that happen? I’ve looked at her and she doesn’t even have a wound.” 

 

“Well my current theory is that the space bridge collapse destroyed most of the energon on its arrival. However the energon was so potent that the radiation remained dense enough in the trip to still have some juice. So when it reached your planet, the radiation struck the ground like an invisible lightning bolt. Karen just so happened to be at the precise spot where it hit.”

 

Ari always knew that Karen had it rough,but seriously? How are you so unlucky that you get struck with extra-terrestrial lightning? 

 

“So there’s fucking alien energy inside Karen right now. How are you gonna fix it? Ari’s brain was fried from the information dumped on her. All she understood. is that Karen had fucking irradiated robot blood inside her. Ratchet finished spraying the tube, and squatted to Ari and his patient.

 

“Simple! This mixer right here is a DIY Energon injector I made for an emergency. I’m going to make it do the exact opposite its intended purpose and extract the energon from her blood stream.”  Ari was no doctor, but she saw several red flags in that plan.

 

“How are you gonna get it out without killing her?”

 

“I have a nozzle that will filter out anything that’s not energon. Keeping the blood inside her veins and arteries.” She still didn’t like the sound of it, but she really had no choice but to trust him. 

 

“Okay, fine. Whatever makes her not die. Karen’s like one of the few nice people in my school.” 

 

‘Great, however, I will need your assistance. “ 

 

“With what? I’m not a doctor ” 

 

“I’ll need you to spot me as I insert this in her vein, my hands are steady but it’s a tricky insert and an awkward angle.”  

 

“I-Are you sure? I’m kind of a screw up and this seems like a lot of pressure.” Ari wouldn’t call herself an idiot, but she’s never liked the idea of being responsible for someone’s life, if she fucked up Karen’s death would be on her and… and she doesn’t think she could live with that.  The doctor could sense the self-doubt emitting from the high schooler, and did his best to imitate the autobot leader’s motivational skills.

 

“Come on, you’ve handled meeting an alien for the first time like a champ, what’s measly old assistance work for someone like that?” He might not be the most charismatic, but Ratchet’s inflection again reminded Ari of her dad hyping her up for girl scouts. When she had a bad depressive episode. Still the worst case scenario kept running through her head. Looking down at Karen, the glowing cyan colour was getting more frequent and pronounced. The Energon was coursing through her body and worsening as they spoke. They had to act fast, or the damage would get worse. 

 

“Okay fine, I’ll spot you. Now where’s the nozzle?” Ari looked around but she couldn’t tell the junk from the doctor’s equipment. 

 

“Hold this please, while I get it.” Ratchet held the tube between his middle finger and thumb. Bringing it close enough for Ari to grab. After the exchange, Ratchet got up and walked to a no-wheeled RV nearby. On the roof of the vehicle were Ratchet’s medical tools messily sorted on the table, it took him a second but he located the nozzle and the stand for the tube he required. 

 

From Ari’s point of view, the doctor hadn’t returned with a medical tool but an instrument of war. The nozzle looked like a skinny tank shell. It was about meter long with the very edge coming to a sharp point. Ratchet attached what could only be described as a tripod that was only about a foot long, both the same shade of dark grey. He then applied the same liquid he sprayed the tube with at the very point of the Needle. After all the prep was done he returned to his kneeling position close to the girls. His blue eyes then doubled their brightness, giving a better view of the operation for Ari.

 

“Carbon fibre.” He opened his right hand towards his new assistant.

 

“How the hell are you gonna stick that in her!?” Ari somehow never considered the possibility that an alien robot might not have the best grasp on human biology, which on second thought seemed kind of obvious.

 

“I’m just inserting the very tip of this point into her vein, that’s why we have to be delicate to not cause any further complications.” Ari took that as code word for killing her and that got her heart racing. 

 

“Okay, okay, okay fuck it, let’s do this.” Hyping herself up, she watched Ratchet attach the nozzle to the tube. Ari tapped on Karen’s arm, right below her elbow is where he would insert the tool. 

 

“I’m going to slowly lower the extractor, if I’m off by even a little tell me.” 

 

“Okay,” Ari was sweating like she was in a sanwa. Between the intimidating - what to even call it - utensil? And Karen being one fuck up away from bleeding to death, Ari gripped the stretcher so hard she was worried it would break under the pressure. No wait, she was scared she would break under it. She’ll have to just try and ignore that fear, it was now or never as Ratchet started to descend the device towards her arm.

 

“A little more to the left- fuck my left.” 

 

The needle got closer.

 

“Down a little.”

 

And Closer. 

 

“Keep it steady.”

 

So close.

 

“WAIT! A Little more down.” 

 

A few more micro adjustments.“Am I good now?” Ratchet was holding the nozzle only two centimetres off the skin.

 

Ari gave one last inspection, with everything seeming to align right. She trusted Ratchet and gave the go ahead. ‘You’re clear.”

 

With that, the doctor with a gentleness unfitting for a twenty two-foot tall mechanical life form, slowly inserted the device only a few millimetres deep. He held it there a few moments until the nozzle started flashing green, with that signal Ratchet pressed a button on the stand connected to the tube. The stand extended until it reached the ground, locking in place with four spikes at the bottom. Ratchet slowly took his hands off and gave a thumbs up to Ari, who took it as a signal to breathe finally. 

 

“Thank you for your help, Ari.. I’d say we make quite the team. It appears everything is in order, it should safely be extracting the energon from her system. I’ll keep observing just to make sure it goes smoothly.” Ari took a seat on the hard gravel, finally relieved that Karen was in stable condition.

 

Now she just had to process everything else that fucking happend. But she was gonna celebrate this victory first. She went to wipe the sweat off her face, which was a terrible mistake as she put pressure on her broken nose, which she had completely forgotten about after the alien robot revealed itself. Her grunt of pain brought Ratchet’s attention to her.

“You should probably get that checked out, preferably by a human doctor.” Ari spotted a small smile form on the metal man’s face. She assumed that was funny to him, and maybe it was just dopamine getting to her but it made her smile. A bit of extraterrestrial humor to lighten the mood.

 

Wait a minute she’s trading jokes with a fucking alien. That’s the coolest shit anyone has ever done. It’s also a reminder to keep asking questions. 

 

“Hey Ratchet.” Ari got up on her feet, wiping the dirt off her jeans.

 

“Yes?” The doc was busy on a monitor he flipped out of his left forearm, recording the vitals of Karen and how far along the purification process was.

 

“You mentioned earlier about how those crazy lights were your people’s doing. Why is that? Why were you doing something so dangerous if you’re here to protect us.” As friendly as the machine seemed, his story didn’t add up. Why would a species infiltrate other worlds just to help around. Ratchet’s immediate response was silence, choosing his next words very carefully . 

 

“I suppose it’s fair that you trusted your friend's life to me, that I trust you with the truth.“ Ratchet’s attitude changed completely. He closed his monitor and looked straight down at Ari with a stern expression. The air had shifted in the scrapyard, Ari had the same feeling she had when her parents went to break the news to her that her dog Buster died. The same sense of dread, only this time on a cosmic scale. 

“I did not lie when I said the Autobots fight to protect all life, but I omitted the reason we have come to this planet.”

 

Oh shit, he’s gonna reveal they're here to use humans as batteries or something like that. Me and my big fucking mouth fucking me over again.

 

“I am sorry to tell you this, but your planet has been caught in the crossfire of the longest and most brutal war in the universe. The ones responsible for the space bridge collapse were Cybertronians known as the Decepticons.” Ratchet spoke the last word with so much venom, Ari immediately understood they were bad news. “Millions of years ago on our home Cybertron, a war broke out between two factions. The Autobots, standing for freedom and the other for Tyran-.”

 

“LET ME GO! DON”T KILL ME PLEASE!.”

 

Before Ratchet could give an explanation, Jecka was screaming bloody murder back in the warehouse. Ari was relieved that Jecka wasn’t in trance, but she was also horrified at what was causing her to scream. Especially after learning there was some fucked up evil alien robots. Were they here? Did they follow them? Ari was hesitant to rush, if it’s one of the Decepticons Ratchet mentioned what the hell would she do!?

 

“I’ll apologize later.” Before Ari could register what that meant, she was scooped up by Ratchet’s colossal red hand. With a yelp, Ari was forcibly taken for a ride as Ratchet sprinted back to the warehouse with Ari in hand.  He used his other hand to shield her from the wind, but Ari still suffered from the whiplash of their movement. 

 

“Is it the Decepticons!?” Ari screamed at Ratchet as they approached the entrance of the warehouse. 

 

“No, it’s worse-”  Tuning the corner, Ari saw what caused Jecka to scream. 

 

Two new Cybertronians had appeared in the warehouse. One’s primary colour consisted of red and orange, with the exception of the shins and feet which were a light black. Notable features were the flames on his chest surrounding the Autobot emblem, the tailpipes across his forearm, and big yellow spoiler on his back. Its face was the same silver as Ratchet’s, but the helmet was fully red. Its overall build was much sleeker compared to Ratchet’s blocky build. 

 

The other’s colour scheme was blue, white and black. Their design was much bulkier than the other, with their shoulders being gigantic wheels. Their shins and forearms  appeared well protected with plating that was predominantly white with patches of blue. Despite their heavy build, the robot appeared more feminine to Ari, but that could just be her. As her torso also featured an autobot logo, had an almost hourglass shape and its face while also silver, stood apart with teal lips and her helmet having two vertical fins on both sides and a gold head piece sticking two fins to the sky. Finally two doors pointed upward out her back, mimicking butterfly wings. 

 

Even from this distance and her dizziness from the rush over, Ari could tell they were a few feet smaller than Ratchet. Another thing she could tell was what they were doing. The red one was holding Jecka from the back of her polo shirt, holding her like a cat by the neck. While the blue one was pointing what appeared to be a gun directly at Jecka. Jecka herself was still wiggling and balling her eyes out, trying desperately to escape. The two bots stopped whatever they were doing, and just stared at Ratchet like they were caught stealing from the cookie jar. 

 

Ari was the first to speak besides Jecka’s sounds of futile resistance. 

 

“Are these Deceptcons?” Ari asked again, now not of fear, but of confusion at what was happening. 

 

“No.” Ratchets said with annoyance. “It’s the rookies.” 

Notes:

The final members of the main cast are introduced with Hot Rod and Strongarm. Here are their tfwiki pages for a good look at their designs.

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Hot_Rod_(G1)

https://tfwiki.net/wiki/Strongarm_(RID)

I know this was a exposition heavy chapter but I hope to get the next out before next year and that should be more like the previous chapters in pacing. I enjoyed writing Ari a lot though, especially interacting with Ratchet. Don't worry Jecka fans, she'll be in a lot more of the next chapter.

Chapter 5: Who was in my Room Last Night?

Summary:

In the last chapter Nicole defeated a mini sized Megatron. Meanwhile Ari and Ratchet save Karen's life. During the process the autobot medic revealed the civil war between the Autobots and Decepticons. Before he could elaborate his two young comrades. Hot Rod and Strongarm, met up with Jecka and make a terrible first impression. How will the girls deal with these mechanical invaders, and what is this Underbase Megatron seeks. Find out here.

No Cybertronian talks about how it feels to be depowered. It’s a bizarre ghastly feeling to be between life and death to have all your senses and circuits shut down but to still exist. Unable to perceive time but still every microclick feels like an eternity. Megatron had been in this state countless times.  The fall of Galaxxon ended with him buried and offline under three hundred thousand tons for nearly five Kilo-Cycles. Then there was the encounter with the ancient space knights, he was in stasis stuck in the orbit of the planet Feminia for a whole Ano-Cycle. Usurpers like Straxus and Scorponok had gotten close with cowardly assassination attempts using false energon.

 

Death surrounded Megatron, a constant in his long life. Every single time he came close to its embrace, he escaped from its jaws time and again. No, it didn’t scare him at all. The innumerable corpses of both Decepticons and Autobots that this war has produced will be used to construct his new galactic empire. A universe so perfect the very notion of conflict will be ludicrous, Peace through Tyranny. A utopia so perfect that when any remaining Autobots are executed in this new era, they will die seeing that their pathetic war against fate was not only in vain, but so morally reprehensible for withholding this paradise from their people for so long. This future was not only a possibility to Megatron, but the inevitable end to this war. After millions of years of crushing Cybertronians far stronger than he was, aliens who claimed to be gods, empires that had conquered galaxies. His tale should have ended long ago, a brilliant visionary whose spark was tragically extinguished fighting for a better tomorrow. (Then some passers by would be inspired but would lack the discipline, the drive to make a true Decepticon world) The message would be diluted, homogenized, compromised, a bastardised imposter of Deceptioconism recognizable in name only, all for the sake of the oppressors calling themselves “peacekeepers.”  Instead he has destroyed all those who stood against him. It defied all logic and reason how he was alive, Megatron could only comd\e to one conclusion.

 

That he was Death.

 

With every command he spoke, death followed. Every action he took, death followed. Every cycle he continues to live, death will continue. He’s seen how his name was whispered by the Autobots, or even by his own soldiers. Death and Megatron were uniquely linked in the minds of billions, his face was the image one creates when thinking of the concept. He was sure that he had killed more people than some natural causes by this point. He was no longer just a military commander, he was a myth brought to life. The chill down your spine, the nightmare that woke you up in the middle of the night, a force of nature.  He was history’s greatest murderer, a title he wore with pride. So no, he did not fear death for they were one in the same. 

However, this situation is probably the worst possible way he could imagine dying. 

Failing to obtain the key to cosmic power despite it being just within his grasp, reduced to a size that even minicons tower above, defeated not just by an organic (Shameful in its own right) but a creature that wasn’t even combat trained and seemed to be a mere child. Thousands of excuses ran through his head. That he was low on power, that his stature weakened, he was blindsided. All worthless. Victory and defeat are decided by a mix of physicality and cunningness. His physical handicaps could have been surmounted if he had simply not underestimated the human. How disgraceful, if word got out of his failure, his legacy would not be that of the ultimate emperor of destruction, but of a fool who lost to a wretched human child. 

 

The embarrassment of defeat was the first feeling he had as he awakened.

 

As his circuits and servos powered up, he could tell he was still dry of energon, given the barest minimum amount of energy to function. The next thing he could tell was the weight on him. His legs were active but couldn’t move due to something pinning him down. Finally his optics were restored and he could scan his environment. He was still in the room he had been last he was online. Human decor always disgusted him but this was truly a repulsive chamber. Even ignoring the bizarre posters lining the walls, clothes were strewn about on the floor. Half eaten organic waste that humans called food could be seen on the desks and floor. A far cry from the clean and sterile environment of his current base. Megatron noticed light coming from outside the window

 

Looking behind him he saw what was weighing him down.  Two cinder blocks stacked on top of each other trapped his lower half. WIth his mass lessened, he didn’t have the strength to push himself up. Megatron was in a situation he hoped he would never be in again, at the mercy of another. The last thing he noticed was the cause of his awakening, the same piece of energon that awoke him the first time laid on the carpet only a few centimetres away. He reached his hand to consume.the energon but was batted away by a large (relative to his size) hockey stick.

 

“Oh no, you don’t get any more until I say so.” Nicole revealed herself, having hidden herself in the closet. Along with a fresh change into jeans and a new shirt, she was covered head to toe in old hockey equipment. She hadn’t used it since she was ten so it only covered half what it should , but it was the best she could find for armour. At least the helmet still fit her even if it was a bit snug. “I was right! That weird ass rock restores you.”

 

“Why have you reactivated me human?” While he much preferred not being stuck in stasis, he was not going to repay any debt the organic might have believed that created.

 

“Okay, first of all, stop calling me human. It sounds so corny the way you talk like a saturday morning cartoon. Watch the tone as well, I expect you to be a bit more grateful for me bringing you back.”

 

“I will be grateful once I get my hands on yo-” He was interrupted by Nicole smacking the hockey stick on him.

 

“I said watch the tone. I won, you lost, you listen. I could just bash you over and over again, but I’m sure you don’t want that now don’t you?” Nicole took a seat on a chair she set up earlier to interrogate the bot, resting one leg on top another. She wouldn’t admit it but she always wanted to be the bad cop in those police shows. Instead of a pedophile rapist however, she was staring down an action figure toy. Eh, it’ll do.

 

Megaron snarled at the teenager in defiance but started thinking through his options. As much as it pained him to admit it, he was bested by the human. Megatron was not delusional, he knew when the battle was lost, and while he was already plotting his revenge. He would respect his enemy’s momentary victory. Even if it was just temporary.

 

“Fine. What would you prefer I call you?” Megatron had to hold back a Human coming out of his gritted teeth.

 

“Nicole is fine. What was your name again? Mega Tom or something?” Nicole purposely mispronounced his name in order to get a rise out of him. Despite this absurd scenario, it was becoming obvious which buttons pissed off the talking action figure. 

 

“ MEGATRON! I am the leader of the Decepticons.”

 

“I don’t know what that is. Is it like your gang? Oh, is it the name of the toy aisle you’re from?” Nicole replied, words thick with a smug attitude.

 

“The Decepticons are the mightest faction in the universe. We are not toys, we are conquerors from the planet Cybertron .” Megatron fell for the insult but the new piece of info stopped any cunning retort Nicole had.

 

“Wait. Are you saying you’re a fucking alien?”

 

“Yes, we are from the planet Cybertron. A world far more advanced than your pitiful” - THUNK ” His gloating interrupted by another smack of the stick. “What was that?!”

 

“I told you to watch the tone, Now talk like a normal person.” Nicole didn't seem to pay much mind to her captive’s complaints. following another annoyed grunt Megatron continued his explanation.

 

“I am a Cybertronian from the planet Cybertron. An ancient and powerful civilization. I am the leader of the Decepticons, we have come to this planet in order to-” Megatron takes a second on what he should say. “- proooooTECT it from a rogue faction called the Autobots.” The tyrant was skilled in the art of manipulation, if the past must be distorted for a brighter future than so be it he always told himself. Megatron knew how easy the truth can be changed, and the power that comes with doing so.  “We have devoted ourselves to protecting all lifeforms in the universe, while the autobots are interested in complete technological supremacy.” Megatron couldn’t get a clear visual of Nicole’s face through the goalie mask, but he was confident in his ability to pluck the menta; strings of a simple organic.

 

“So what are you like superheroes? Like that shitty movie starring the addict from weird science?” 

 

“I do not know who that is, but… I suppose so. We wage our war amongst the stars. A battle lightyears away ended with me trapped in an unstable space bridge. The resulting damage has left me wounded and unable to return to my true form.” The last part was technically truthful, he simply omitted key details. “My fellow Decepticons are off-world and I have limited means to contact them. If I cannot reach my dear troops I fear that the Autobots will be victorious and take over the galaxy.” Megatron overacted his words. While he may have been trying to sincerely imitate his arch-nemesis, he acted more like an amateur theatre kid. Perhaps something inside prevented him from not mocking the autobot commander when he could. 

 

“Well.. that sucks for you?” Nicole responded in her usual bored tone. Megatron was frustrated that his deception did not seem to move the human into releasing him.

 

“Don’t you understand? I must reunite with my fellow Decepticons or your world will be destroyed!” Megatron pleaded. 

 

“Oh yeah I’m sure you tooootally wanna protect us, that’s why you were throwing razor blades at me.” Nicole threw the evidence at his face. This reminder of their initial encounter threw off Megatron’s act for a moment before he recomposed himself. 

 

“I was…taken off guard.” Megatron knew his lie was flimsy at best. He never planned on losing so having to make a positive first impression was the last thing on his mind. “I vow to not harm any human-”

 

“Bullshit!” Nicole stood up. “You threatened to grind my bones to dust which by the way, is (not even in the top fifty ways people threatened to kill me) you can make something more creative than this.” Nicole saw through the lies and deceit of the alien.  The shock of a tiny living robot trying to kill you made the revelation of it being an alien land numb to the sociopath. She knew she should be more shocked, but the first extraterrestrial lifeform she meets is just another angry man who wanted to kill her. She could find ten down in the mall alone. 

 

“I-I was-simply, i only wanted to- DAMN IT!” Megatron’s anger at his helplessness finally overflowed. He was so close to getting the Underbase. So close to completing his conquest! So close to defeating HIM once and for all. His long deserved victory hours ago was within his grasp and now he has been reduced to being mocked by a child. He was the dominator! He was the destroyer! He was MEGATRON! 

 

But all he was now was nothing but a punchline.

 

Megatron struggled against the weight of the blocks, trying to summon a fraction of the strength he should have with no avail. He barely managed to make it wobble, so after a few seconds of that he switched to trying to transform into his alt mode, but even that was pointless as not only were legs trapped, his energy was too low to complete the transformation. From Nicole’s perspective he seemed to be having a temper tantrum of some sorts. Nicole just silently watched the results of her successfully bringing out the truth from her invader.

 

Megatron cursed this situation, cursed this Nicole, cursed everyone who had gotten in his way. Never in a million years would he think he would fall at something so stupid. Usually when Megatron expressed his wrath, he would create devastation on a scale that could only be mimicked by a nuclear warhead. Now he could barely outmuscle a toddler. After a minute, his body fell against the carpet, out of options and humiliated. His only solace being that Starscream at least wasn’t here to see him at his lowest.

 

“Aw man, this is awesome. I get to watch you cry like a bitch on my floor.” Nicole’s words focused Megatron’s rage towards her. 

 

“RELEASE ME NOW, AND MAYBE, JUST MAYBE. I WILL SPARE YOUR LIFE WHEN I REDUCE THIS WHOLE PLANET TO ASHES!” Megatron tried his best to sound as threatening as possible, done putting up any pretense of friendliness. 

 

“Why the fuck should I!? How in any way would that benefit me? First you want to kill me, but you also want me to do shit for you? You really are just another fucking man.” Nicole approached Megatron and leaned over, not enough for Megatron to grab her but close enough he could get a better view of her face. Her eye had swollen from the sex toy hitting her eye, despite getting some much needed rest she was still as exhausted as ever and it showed. Through the exposed skin on her arms beneath the elbow pads had hastily wrapped bandages covered the wounds inflicted by the fight last night. Megatron couldn’t get any pleasure from the pain he had given though as the girl’s smug and demeaning attitude infuriated him to no end. 

 

“Me not killing you is what would benefit you. Now release me!” 

 

“Nuh uh. I need something in return, I don’t really give a shit about what you want or why you’re here. Blow the whole world up for all I care. But you would owe me and I expect something good in return for sending your ass to the compactor .” 

 

“Do not speak to me that way you-”

“I can beat the shit out of you! I will talk to you any goddamn way I want! Now tell me what you can give me if I let you go!’ 

 

Megatron considered his options. He could deny the creature the satisfaction of him bargaining for his freedom. However the quicker he got out, the quicker could resume his quest for the underbase. He lacked any of his usual capabilities and the clock was ticking so no matter how much it begrudged him, he would have to compromise.

 

“Alright fine, what do you want Nicole?”

 

Nicole thought for a few seconds before responding. In order to save face and not look like an idiot who didn’t think this far she blurted out something she usually always wants.

 

“Drugs.”

 

“Drugs?”

 

“Yeah drugs. Got any cool space crack I could try?”

 

“None that wouldn’t instantly kill you.” Megatron didn’t know what exactly “crack” was but he could understand what she wanted. Cybertronians have a plethora of substances they often abuse. Whether or not they used it as a form of coping for the war, or to make war even more enjoyable varied from person to person, though if Megatron caught any Decepticon slouching on the job with something like that he would make them an example to all of his underlings.

 

“Alright, uhhhhh how about you-” Nicole trailed off as she tried to find something else she wanted. The idea of overdosing on alien robot heroin did sound appealing, but she was still committed to her idea of figuring out why she felt so bad about abusing her Ari, a promise that felt like a lifetime ago after yesterday. The thoughts of what she wanted inevitably led back to one person: Her dad. Maybe it was still her being a little shell shocked, or perhaps reusing her old skating equipment made her nostalgic  but she couldn’t help but think about her childhood. How they used to watch old horror movies that were way too inappropriate for her age. How they used to talk shit about people at school. How He let her drink beer way too young. How he was…there. That’s all she really wanted, was someone there for her.

 

Until he wasn’t.

 

It was fucking bullshit. Why did he have to go away like that. The only man in her life she ever trusted even a little bit, and he fucking BLAMES her for his suicide? What the hell did she do? Was she really that fucking evil? She guessed so because ever since then she’s made it a point to be as apathetic and self-serving as possible. Nicoleism is what she called it. Never form any personal connections and live as hedonistically as possible. It was going great, she could manipulate all the male students and half of the adults into doing whatever she wanted. She had a good thing going until her and Ari broke up. Now she’s second guessing herself, doubting her own judgement. What happened? The whole point of her ideology was to stop feeling any regret or guilt she had, but recently she’s started to think maybe she might have made a wrong call somewhere. She couldn’t figure out when though, because it certainly wasn’t when she told every man she met to fuck off that’s for sure.

 

So what did she want? She guessed she wished her dad wasn’t a fucking asshole and didn’t kill himself, or at the very least he did something awful that she just hated him completely. Maybe if he didn’t, she wouldn’t be in this weird in-between of being proud to be a sociopath, and wanting to be a normal girl. She could just be one or the other no half-assed measures. She was gunning for sociopath, she wanted to be that. It was better than being a fucking punching bad for the world. She just wished it didn’t have to come at such a cost.  Why couldn’t it have been her mother, or hell, her brother. She didn’t give a fuck about either of them, especially her sibling. At least she had some fond memories of her mother when she was like five or some shit. She didn’t have a single positive experience with her piece of shit brother. He’s always been a creep and weirdo who didn’t do shit. When she became thirteen he especially got really fucking weird. Always talking about how she had grown up, or how she looks just like a porn star he likes. In fact, thinking on it, he was the reason she even saw her dad blow his fucking brains out. If he hadn’t pirated music, they wouldn’t have had to move, she wouldn’t have argued with her mom, she wouldn’t gone to her dad’s house right when he killed himself. IT WAS ALL HIS FUCKING FAULT!

 

God, she wished her brother was the one fucking killed himself, dying would be the only good thing he’s ever done for her.

 

Fuck, what was she even thinking about in the first place? Oh yeah. What could she make the tiny killer robot do for her.

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

“I know what I want.” Nicole spoke in a monotone voice. Assured in her next course of action.

 

“What is it hum- Nicole?” Megatron was glad to have finally gotten an answer, the girl was staring into space for a full minute.

 

“I want you to kill my brother.” Nicole was almost surprised at herself at how easy the words came out of her. She knew intentionally planning first degree murder was moral line she hadn’t crossed yet, but her brother was complete and total fucking scum who groomed thirteen year olds on the internet. So don’t judge her if the rush of killing Colbey also wanted to make her get rid of another one of the biggest creeps in her life. “My brother is a fat piece of shit who does nothing but play video games all day. I want you to kill him so I don’t have to be under the same roof as him.”

 

“An assassination? You want payment with blood.” Megatron had no qualms against the idea… this was more than within his comfort zone. He was just surprised a human child would think of something so cruel. He was almost impressed. Almost. “How will you want it done?”

 

“Untraceable to me, I want him dead but I don’t want to get my life ruined because of him AGAIN. I can help in the setting up but you’re the one doing the work. Murder seems like a real pain in the ass and a lot of work. You doing this would be fair for you trying to kill me.’ 

 

“Simple enough, however I will need assistance with two things before I can do that.” 

 

“What?”

 

“I will require access to a radio of some sort. A powerful one preferably, I do need to meet with the others of my race as soon as possible and it could be- “ Megatorn converted cybertronian units of time to earthlings in head. “-weeks until a message from earth reaches a Decepticon base.”

 

“I have a phone, will that work?” 

 

“Potentially. Though, I would have to modify it.” 

 

“Ugh, no, this is the only phone I got. I’ll find someone else’s for you. What’s the other thing you need?” 

 

“We need to locate more energon, you said there were more of those rocks just like this one?” Megatron pointed toward the glowing pebble out of reach . “If I am to survive I need more of this.” 

 

“So that shit keeps you alive?” Nicole was a little lost but she understood what he was saying. “How badly do you need it?”

 

“I could perhaps survive a few hours with what I have right now, but I can’t do what you ask if I don’t have enough energy.” This was a lie. Megatron was confident he could kill a human even without his weapons and strength. He just didn’t want to deal with the drowsiness he was suffering from the side effects of being low on power.” 

 

“How do I know that if we get more of this energon stuff you won’t just try and kill me?” Nicole may be in uncharted waters, but she wasn’t an idiot. She knew it was in her benefit to keep him as low as possible so he couldn’t blow her the fuck up. “How can I possibly trust you?”

 

“Truth be told, I probably would have betrayed you, but if all you need is for me to do something as trivial as killing a human I am more than willing to keep up my end of the bargain.” Megatron was being honest, while this Nicole still angered him greatly, he almost respected her attitude. He would honour this deal for now at least, having a partner is far preferable to being alone. Also, beneath his reasoning and tactical mind, he simply wanted to prove to himself he could kill a human in his state. No one has to know that detail though.

 

Nicole took off her goalie mask as a show of honesty. While she definitely hated the whole fighting for her life aspect, getting two pedophiles killed would make her fucking week. Maybe some would say this is a moral event horizon. Working with a evil tiny robot who wants to destroy the world kill your brother, but honestly fuck those people. Where were they when her brother was jerking off to children? Who gives a fuck how you get rid of a creep. At least she’s doing something to make the world a better place.

 

“Alright, that is good enough I guess. I’ll help you out, and in return you promise to kill my brother and not me. Deal?” Nicole  stuck her index finger out towards him, Megatron looked at it before realizing what she was trying to do. He grabbed her finger with his tiny hand and shaked.

 

“Deal.” 

 

Against all odds Megatron swallowed his pride. The stakes were too high, he was too close to victory. The Underbase was on this planet somewhere, and it would be his. Killing some obese organic is nothing to what he would do to achieve the Underbase’s power. 

“I think she’s waking up.” 

 

“Finally! How long do you people sleep?

 

“Shut it Hot Rod! Just get to cover.”

 

‘Jeez, alright!” 

 

Karen was awoken by the sound of people arguing. She could only recall breaking down on Kelly’s lawn after getting harassed, after that it was all a blur.  Karen opened her eyes and saw the  cloudy sky of early morning, then the faces of Jecka and Ari popped up from the left and right respectively. Jecka’s makeup had been wiped off and Ari had a bandage on her nose. 

 

“Karen, you're finally awake!” Jecka spoke up first and leaned down to hug the girl tightly. Karen appreciated the physical contact, but she was still confused where they were. She could feel a stretcher below her but the sky was a dead give away they weren’t at a hospital. Looking past Jecka’s shoulder she saw that they appeared to be in the local scrap yard. Bewildered by her location she looked around again to see that they were right next to an old rusted mixer truck. There was no one else there besides Ari and Jacka around them, even though she heard other voices. She was grateful for their concern but this whole situation seemed bizarre to Karen

 

“You really had us scared there.”  Ari said “How are you feeling?”

 

“Tired, mostly. What happened? I don’t remember anything except a bright light and then lots of screaming.” 

 

“It’s a very long story that I don’t even know where to begin to explain.” Jacka released the hug and took a step back. She analysed Karen’s skin and didn’t see any remaining traces of energon.  Karen took a step off the stretcher and wobbled, Jecka stood right next to her in case she fell. Soon she found her stability and looked around at their bizarre location. 

 

“Hey, um, guys? Why are we in the scrapyard? Shouldn’t we be at like, one of your houses or a hospital at least?” the longer she looked, the more confused Karen got. The section of the scrapyard seemed to be weirdly organised but not in any way that made sense. Random bits of machinery laid next to each other, Karen couldn’t recognize anything they would be used for. It felt weirdly alien. 

 

“Yeah, so about that. After you blacked out we called for help.” Ari took on the business of explaining what happened last night. “An ambulance picked us up, but instead of taking us to the hospital, we were taken here instead.”  Karen was more lost than ever.

 

“What? why? Are we okay? Are we safe? I've heard about emergency vehicles before. DID WE GET KIDNAPPED?” Karen could feel her heart racing and lungs pumping. She was on the verge of another panic attack until Jecka put her hand on her shoulder.  

 

“We haven’t been, don't worry. At least... not in the way you’re thinking of.” 

 

“What do you mean not in the way I’m thinking of? What other way is there to be kidnapped? What even happened to me?” Karen was getting frustrated at the lack of answers she was getting and the two other girls could notice. Jecka and Ari shared a look and nodded.

 

“Alright, wanna ease her into it or just get it over with?” Jecka spoke to Ari.

 

“I’d say we just call 'em in. No point in prolonging it.” 

 

“What are you guys talking about? Is this some prank or something? You know I don’t like pranks Jecka.” 

 

“It’s not I swear Karen it’s just… I don’t know how you’ll react.” Jecka was still cryptic in her answers which annoyed Karen further.

 

“JUST TELL ME!” Karen uncharacteristically raised her voice. Which spook Jecka an Ari.

 

“Alright we will, okay, sorry. Ari call ‘em in.”

 

“Why do I have to call them in?”

 

“Because you actually like them, now just call ‘em.”

 

“Ugh, fine.” With a huff Ari turned to the small hills of scrap and raised her hands to echo her voice.” YOU GUYS CAN COME OUT!” 

 

With that, a figure revealed itself from behind the junk pile. A giant red and white figure. Ratchet had hidden himself among the trash until the time was ready. Karen couldn’t process that revelation before two other figures revealed themselves. Hot rod popped greatly against the grey scrap behind him with his red and yellow colour scheme. Strongarm stood next to him contrasting with her blue and white colours. Karen stood there stunned at the three mechanical lifeforms in front of her. Ratchet took a knee in front of the nerd.

 

“Hello Karen. I am Ratchet, a medic from the planet cybertron. I was the one who saved your life last night. I know our appearances may be frightening but I can assure you we are friendly” Ratchet introduced himself. Karen didn;t respond so Ratchet took that as a sign to keep talking. “These two with me are Strongarm and Hot Rod. We have come to this planet to protect it from a tyrannical faction known as the Decepticons. We are the Autobots, and we stand our ground to prevent any innocent life destroyed in their crusade. Your friends Ari and Jecka helped me save your life last night as you suffered something known as energon poisoning.” Ratchet then recollects the events of last to Karen of how Jecka and Ari met him, the poor nerd just continued to silently absorb the story. 

 

After a few minutes, Ratchet was done explaining what had happened. Karen finally spoke up. 

 

“So you guys are aliens?”

 

“Yes” Ratchet answered

 

“You’re here to protect the planet?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“And I almost got killed by an alien fuel source.”

 

“Yes.’

 

…

 

“That’s. So. Fucking. Cool!” Karen’s face switched from emotionless to excitement. As she began asking Ratchet questions a million times per second. “Can you turn into anything? Are you their leader? Why is your name Ratchet? How old are you? How many of there are you? Do you find Go-Bots offensive? Do you find cars attractive? Do you have an Arch-Nemesis?-” The inquisitive girl just kept firing away as it was Ratchet’s turn to be overwhelmed today. While that was happening Ari walked over to Jecka’s side and whispered something to her. 

 

“looks like you’re the one who reacted the worst out of the three of us.” Ari said smugly 

 

“Oh my God, can we not do that right now? How am I supposed to react to meeting alien robots? Can you really blame a bitch for having a mini panic attack?” Jecka defended herself.

 

“I wouldn’t call it mini, you were pretty much unresponsive. You took it really hard and I was super worried for you.”

 

“Not worried enough to not be a bitch about it though apparently.” Jecka went through her pockets and pulled out an American spirits cig and put it to her lips.

 

“I’m nice enough to be concerned at the moment. I dislike you enough to call you a pussy after.” Oh right, they hated each other’s guts. How did Jecka forget about that? Actually meeting aliens was a pretty good excuse for forgetting. Jecka pulled out her lighter and lit up her cigarette. She only responded to Ari’s insult with an exhale of smoke and a stink eye. They both just stared at Karen and Ratchet’s Q&A session. 

While that was happening, Hot Rod walked past his fellow bot and and towards the onlookers. Jecka saw him coming towards her and Ari. and mentally prepared herself to deal with him. Out of these three robots he was easily her least favourite one. 

 

After Ratchet chewed out the two rookies for threatening Jecka they had tried to defend themselves. Saying they were just trying to see if the human was alright but her sudden movements freaked them out. After the scolding, the two young bots tried to apologize to Jecka but she wouldn’t have it. Not only did they point a blaster at her face, she was immediately put off by their personalities.   

 

The one called Strongarm was a total kiss ass. She’s quick to agree to anything that Ratchet said, and was almost brought to tears while they were being reprimanded. She tried being nice afterwards but still treated her and Ari like they were contaminated. Apparently the two rookies have been on this planet for only a week while Ratchet had been here for five years. So this planet is still unknown to them. Still, it’s just rude to treat her like an ugly stray dog, she’s the robot that transforms into a car, she’s the weird one here. Oh yeah, the alt mode definitely bugged her too. While from what we should gather the autobots weren’t exactly cops, but what Strongarm called her “Alt mode” was a police hummer. A stylised one but cop imagery still made her flinch ever since the run in with the mall cop. So it wasn’t likely that Strongarm and her would get along. Ari however seemed to take a liking to her, answering questions about earth while Ari gave her own to Strongarm.

 

Hot Rod however was a totally different story. A complete ass through and through. Ratchet barely wringed out an apology from him and even then it was a pathetic excuse of one. If Strongarm was a kiss ass, Hot Rod was a delinquent. He carried himself like he was hot shit and had an attitude about him that got on Jecka’s nerve. She didn’t have to question how gender works for robots because Hot Rod acted like one of those shitty jocks in the football team. You know the ones, the one who is hot and athletic and thinks that gives him free reign to just be a total ass to everyone. She dated a guy like that and the sheer arrogance he had made her end it pretty early. She refuses to date a man who thinks they’re hotter then her, she’s a fucking sex symbol in the making god damn it. If people are gonna objectify her at least give her a fucking five star review. Wait, why is she comparing an alien robot to her old ex? Fuck that’s another thing she didn’t like them; How weirdly human they are.

 

She always thought if aliens were real that they would either be those silly little grey guys like Roger from American Dad, or they would be completely unrecognizable to the human eye. She never anticipated them to be mechanical, but also how similar they acted as people. Ratchet was like an overworked father, Strongarm a teacher’s pet, Hot Rod a shitty ex. Besides the slight slight echo of their voice they sounded like people she’s met across her life. It didn’t make her more accepting of them though, instead it actually freaked her out. It gave her an uncanny feeling where  they sounded and acted human but everything about them so foreign. It made her uncomfortable how easy it was making conversation with them. 

 

She’s gonna have to though since Hot Rod just approached them and leaned forward. Just like those douchebags, they think people just love talking to them despite all evidence going against that idea.

 

“Your friend is quite chatty. From what you told us about her I thought she was gonna be like you hush.” He spoke with the cadence of a young man, one of the biggest reasons Jecka associated him with those jocks. His passive aggressive insults helped that connection as well.

 

“Yeah we were just talking about that.” Ari spoke to the bot. “It took her like an hour to speak to you guys.” 

 

“What the fuck is this? Are we just making fun of me going through a traumatizing event now?” Jecka couldn’t believe the disrespect she was getting from both Ari and the alien.

 

“Bitch I went through the same shit you did, and you didn’t see me curled up on the floor and crying.” Ari pointed out, much to Jecka’s annoyance,

 

“Yeah but like you know people handle trauma differently. Maybe you’re just jetlagged and when we get home you’ll break down and light yourself on fire because of forbidden knowledge or some shit.” 

 

“You wish. Besides that’s not how that works.”

 

“How do you know? You’ve never met a giant robot before.” 

 

“I haven't met a lot of humans, but from what I’ve heard you definitely took it the worst out of any humans the Autobots have met.” Hot Rod corroborated Ari’s point. “Besides like conspiracy nutjobs who were tracking us.”

 

“What the fuck? Why are you even siding with her?

 

“I’m not siding with anyone. Just pointing it out.” Hot Rod raised his hands “It’s nothing to be ashamed of, you just reacted poorly.”

 

“Yeah.” Ari said, trying to make her seem like she wasn’t being a total bitch right now.

 

“You shut the fuck up.” Jecka pointed at Ari before pointing at Hot Rod. “Why are you being a dick right now? Aren’t you part of some super noble faction that defends all that is good in the universe or whatever?”

 

“Hey, I’m helping in saving your world from a power hungry tyrant. I think that gives me a pass in yanking your chain a little.” 

 

“No the fuck it doesn’t. That’s what shit guys who joined the military say when they’re trying to convince you you should have sex with them. Being in a war or whatever doesn’t make you automatically a good person.” 

 

“Has that happened to you?” Ari asked. Ari was no stranger to getting hit on, but she didn't go out as much as Jecka. Especially in the club scene so she wasn’t as well informed on all the tactics creeps use.

 

“Like, three times. Like damn I didn’t know shooting kids gives you a free ticket to also hit on them back home. You can’t even tell anybody about them cause EVERYONE jumps to their defense saying “Oh, he just has PTSD” Okay? What does the P stand for? Pedophlie?” Before she could continue her rant Hot Rod did a fake cough to get their attention.

 

“Look, I didn’t mean anything by the joke.I mean no offence and I really am sorry about our first impression. But I’m sure once we get to know each other we’ll be thick as thieves.” Hot Rod said, confident in his prediction.

 

“Sure, whatever.” Jecka doubted and didn’t want that to happen, as she continued to watch Karen happily talk to Ratchet. It’s the happiest she’s seen Karen in a long long time. She was happy for the introvert. Genuinely.

 

She hoped she would never have to interact with these things called Cybertronians again. She was planning on burying this deep in her mind with drugs and sex to the point she would forget about it. For Karen though maybe this could be a sign that there was more to world than the mundane, even if it’s scary as fuck. Karen seemed to be embracing it wholeheartedly. That curious look she had when she was interested in something reminded her of their childhood. Where they would spend their time in Jecka’s bedroom where Karen would talk about the newest book she got while Jecka would read the latest comic she bought. They would ramble for hours enjoying their nerdy shit until her dad called them for dinner. She wouldn’t want to go back in time but she’s viewed those memories more fondly than ever recently 

 

Wait? Her dad.

 

OH FUCK

 

She didn’t call him to say she’ll be late!.

 

Last time she didn’t do that he said he would bend her knee 90 degrees forward!

 

He’s gonna kick her out!

 

OH FUCK HE”S GONNA KILL HER!

Notes:

Hey guys sorry for the wait again. Hope the chapter was worth the wait. Nicole is making a faustian deal with Megatron while Jecka is getting tired of the autobots shit. As always comments and feedbacks are appreciated.

Chapter 6: Deceptacon

Summary:

Nicole and Megatron have formed an uneasy alliance, the highschooler will have to deal with some familiar faces in order to get the energon for Megatron. Jecka returns homes and deals with her father.

Notes:

I'm alive, this fic isn't dead just had issues. Hope you enjoy.

If there is one thing Nicole regrets, it’s not getting a drivers licence. 

 

She lacked the motivation to ever get one since Jecka drove her everywhere. However, since that bridge has seemingly been burnt, she has had to rely on public transportation; making her regret her own laziness for the first time. The buses are almost always late, they are crammed as fuck, and all the looks men gave her pissed her off. They always always try to hide their leering gazes, pretending they aren’t staring at her ass. Imagining all the different ways they want to violate her. How it infuriated her that all s`he can do is sit and grit her teeth in response. So yeah, Nicole wasn’t the biggest fan of transit.

 

The only reason she was here was because she was low on options and short on time. Megatron wouldn't stop bitching that he needed something called energon. The only place Nicole could think of to look for the stuff was where she found it originally. Colbey’s house. 

 

While she knew the risks of the suspect returning to the scene of the crime, she really had no other options for getting the fuel. However her new partner in crime didn’t trust her enough to go out on her own to get it, and she didn’t trust him enough to leave him alone. So they eventually compromised on Megatron hiding out in her backpack. So here she was, on a bus heading straight back to her assailant's house not even twelve hours after escaping. The memory of last night bringing back the sting around her neck. 

 

She had done a pretty shit job covering the bruise on her neck, overdoing it on the makeup. Cosmetics were never her strong suit before Lake Braddock; she would just put some basic eyeliner and concealer on, most days though she would just go in all natural. That was before Jecka though.

 

During the early weeks of their friendship Jecka randomly asked Nicole what her makeup routine was. After Nicole’s disappointing answer Jecka started treating Nicole like a mannequin whenever they were at her house. Experimenting with blushes and foundation. If it was literally anyone else, Nicole wouldn’t even let them get close to treating her like a doll. But Jecka broke through Nicole’s walls as effortlessly as she used the brush on her. 

 

This ruminating on Jecka made Nicole wonder what the girl was doing right now. Probably just waking up from some hook-up she met at Kelly’s party. Probably some twenty three old college dropouts still hanging around high schoolers. Nicole unconsciously clenched her fist at the thought. Back when they still hung out Jecka would frequently describe the newest guy she got with. If he was an ugly middle aged guy the description would be brief, his purpose used up and only tolerable to look at while fucked up. Very occasionally though, Jecka would find some guy attractive though. Those conversations  were the worst to Nicole, the way she talked about the night, the way he held her, the way he kissed her. The way she liked it. It pissed her off how she would lower her standards to let those animals fuck her like that. One relationship infuriated Nicole so much they didn’t talk for a week straight. Jecka was upset she was disapproving of a man she found actually likable, but Nicole knew better than to think this relationship would last longer than a month. A belief she found vindication in as they broke up two weeks later. Nicole was merciful though, and Jecka only had to endure a few hours of “I told you so” and paying for lunch all week. 

 

That was then and this is now. Nicole could only imagine what that bimbo was degrading herself too. Even though Nicole has an alien robot in her backpack, her thoughts were still haunted by that whore and whatever piece of meat she’s attached herself to. Testing to see if you could kill someone you’ve never seen or met with just your thoughts alone as she waited for the bus to reach its destination. 

“Yeah, so Bon Jovi’s debut album didn’t really bring in an audience. It was “Slippery When Wet" where they really took off.” 

 

“I know who fucking Bon Jovi is! I’ve been on earth my entire life, unlike you!” Jecka couldn’t believe the audacity of her driver to lecture on music when he hasn’t even been on earth for a full year. Well driver isn’t the proper term. The car itself was condescending to her which was a first. She really wished she could have picked which autobot she got for a ride. 

 

After blurting out that she had to head home right away, Karen quickly remembered that she had to do a shift at the library at noon. After a few minutes of discussion they settled on Karen going with Strongarm, and Jecka going with Hot Rod. Jecka wanted to argue against it but Ari wanted to tag along with Strongarm wherever she went, and Jecka did not want ANYONE to meet her dad when he was pissed off. So she was stuck and didn’t want to delay coming home any longer. 

 

Unfortunately, her ride was more obnoxious than she initially thought it would be. First of all, his “alt mode” as the Cybertronians called it was tacky as hell. It was a red and yellow sports car with a massive spoiler in the back. It didn’t have any doors, instead a massive windshield that opened up for passengers. Jecka was starting to doubt the “In Disguise” part of Ratchet’s story. This car looked like it was from a hundred years in the future, or what someone thought that would like.

 

Second reason this sucks: the moment Jecka got in the car (or got in him but she would rather not think of it like that) he immediately started going off about human music as he seemed quite fond of it. Specifically songs from the 80’s were his favourite. They were currently listening to Bon Jovi’s “I’d die for you” which, by the way, overrated band in her opinion. Hot Rod couldn't stop talking about it the entire drive. Even though Jecka made it clear she didn't care and just wanted to go home.

 

“I’m just trying to engage in conversation with you. It’s been pretty one sided so far.”

 

“Yeah, maybe that should be a hint.” Jecka turned her head to the driver’s seat and finally made eye contact with “Hot Rod.” More specifically his holomatter avatar as he called it. Apparently every Autobot has this ability to make a hologram figure to help blend in. Ratchet’s was the EMS worker from earlier and Hot Rod’s was currently in the driving seat. 

 

His avatar resembled a young man in his early 20’s, he had tan skin and medium length dirty blonde hair.  He wore blue jeans and a burgundy red muscle shirt, along with a yellow sweatband straight from the 80’s. Jecka would call him a dork if the form wasn’t admittedly very attractive. He had a slim athletic build and the shirt helped show off his muscles. His features were sharp but still pleasant to look at, Jecka would honestly describe him as a pretty boy for lack of a better term. Still masculine, but definitely took care of himself. Well he WOULD take care of himself if he was real, a fact Jecka had to remind herself of.  It was off-putting to know the person in front of her wasn’t actually real. 

 

“We barely know each other, I’m trying to get to know you better.” the avatar smirked back at Jecka. “I haven’t had a lot of time to get to know you…” Hot Rod tries to remember the word. Jecka baffled that he could waffle about 80’s bands but not remember the species that made them off the top of his head ‘...Humans. I’ve mostly heard of this place from hearsay so I’m excited to know what all the hubbub is about.”

 

“Well you ain’t missing much, mostly just shitty people, living shitty lives, doing shitty…uh .. shit.” Jecka crossed her arms and slid in her seat. “Nothing interesting, especially compared to whatever’s going on with your war or whatever.” 

 

“You see that’s what I thought, there are tons of civilizations across the universe. All way more advanced than yours by the way.” If Jecka wasn’t so misanthropic she would take offense to that comment. “But our leader seems quite infatuated by your people. Not that he doesn’t love every organic species, he’s just really attached to your world in particular for some reason. So far though…,” He looked up and down at his human passenger, Jecka was loading up her insult on instinct, but let Hot Rod finish his observation. “Not really seeing it.”

 

“Excuse me! What does that mean?” Jecka raised her voice in defense.”What are you not seeing?” 

 

“Your people just don’t seem to be all that special, from what I’m seeing. Your people live super short lives, yet you just seem to waste all the time you have doing nothing.” He spoke casually, but his tone had definitely gotten more serious.”You all just….waste away.” Hot Rod spaced out for a brief moment as if he was recalling a memory until collecting himself and continuing. “You make great music though.”

 

“Okay sure, ninety nine percent of people suck. I agree. But like, come on, obviously you can see what’s special in me can’t you?” Jecka gestured at herself. Hot Rod took a second look and looked unimpressed. 

 

“Well I gotta get to know you first, before I can make that call. So far though, not a strong first impression.”

 

“You’re one to talk! You and your friend pointed a huge fucking gun at me! How am I the one fumbling on the first impression?” She didn’t care what their social etiquette was like on planet cyber-whatever, you don’t almost kill people going through a mental breakdown. He was just like every ex she’s ever had, always trying to push the blame on to her. 

 

“Okay, Okay I admit I didn’t do so hot either on the introductions front.” The avatar took his hands off the steering wheel to admit surrender, which for a split second caused Jecka to freak out-until she remembered that she was arguing with the car itself. “I messed up there. We seem to have gotten off on the wrong foot here.”

 

“You can say that again.”

 

“How about we start over? I’m Hot Rod, the most charming and dashing Autobot you’ll meet. ” The avatar put on a winning smile and extended its arm for a handshake. Jecka however had no interest in reintroducing herself, He was grating, annoying, and couldn’t take no for an answer. After he drops her off she hopes those Autobots leave her alone, she doesn’t want to deal with any of their shit anymore. All this sci-fi nonsense should stay in the pages of comic books and movies. Jecka does a soft sigh and tries to cool off. She was too tired and sober to deal with a guy this irritating, let alone him being a robot. 

 

“Look, just drop me off around the corner of my house. We're approaching it in a few minutes.” Turning his head towards the window. Hot Rod looks disappointed and puts down his arm. The holomatter avatars suddenly glitches and then disappears, seeming to finally get the message. Jecka stares at the urban environment and tries to tune out the world. Preparing for the verbal and possible physical assault her father will lay into her. He’s always been aggressive, but after the divorce he’s gotten exponentially worse. Wearing an outfit a little too revealing? She’s a whore, just like her mother. Grades aren’t good enough? She needs a few slaps to get her right in line. She doesn’t talk about it much, only Karen and Nicole are aware of her father’s abuse, even then they don’t know the full extent. Jecka is a master of cosmetology and is able to hide her bruises well. Anything that’s too severe to completely hide she chalks up to getting drunk and tripping. Sometimes she’s considered telling Nicole. To finally let it out, to have somebody finally understand what she’s going through, maybe even help her.

 

She never does though, because no one cares. Not the police, not the teachers, not her friends, and certainly not fucking Nicole. She knows no matter how much she screams, her cries will go unanswered. So what’s the point? She’s just the school slut and her father is an upstanding working man. What voice does she have?  All she can do is sit there and take it, the only comfort being her tear-soaked pillows late in the night. 

“Alright Woody, we’re here.”

 

“About time! Any longer and I would have extinguished you.” 

 

“I would like to see that.” Nicole chuckles to herself as Megatron awkwardly tries to climb out of her backpack. Knocking out a few spare papers she’ll never read in the process. After about a minute, he finally escaped the worn out bag and looked around for his coveted energon. Finding only gravel in the back alley of the street they were on. He angrily looked up at his human cohort and demanded an explanation. 

 

“Where is it HUMAN!? You promised me energon, and yet all I see is nothing but gravel.” Before he could continue his rant, Nicole kneeled and spoke up.

 

“Cool down. It’s nearby, but you’re gonna have to go at it alone from here. The place is surrounded by Police officers. I can get you closer but you’re gonna have to sneak in.” Megatron wanted to complain, but Nicole’s serious tone made it clear she wasn’t holding out on him. 

 

“So where is it?”

 

Nicole guides the tiny robot to the edge of the alley and shows him the situation. True to her word the destroyed building was a few houses down the street, surrounded by yellow tape and police cars. All that was left of the house was half the front wall and a few support beams, the fire had charred everything else. Two officers were chatting in front just out of earshot of the two.

 

“The glowing shit you want is in the back; at least it should be. You can probably sneak in through other houses.”

 

“I will need a distraction of some kind, there are two more organics next to the energon.” Nicole questioned how he could know that from this angle, but remembered their fight and how he found the razor blades, figuring that he must have some kind of scanner. “I can’t risk getting caught.” 

 

“Well, that’s not my problem now is it? I have a… history with the police. So If I even try and get close there is a non-zero percent chance I get my brains blown out.” Nicole put two fingers to her and mimed her hypothetical execution. “I almost died here yesterday. If it weren’t for you crashing in the yard, I would be Colbey’s stiff sex doll right now. Got no plans of dying anytime soon.”

 

Megatron scoffed at her excuses, it has been a while since someone disobeyed his commands. He will be sure to repay her insolence in full once he is back to proper maintenance. Until then he will have to…… compromise with this human. He did not have the time to argue, the underbase had to have been nearby and he must retrieve it before the Autobots.

 

“Fine, remain here until my return.” With a sneer, the Decepticon started scaling the walls of the house next to them. Nicole watched and had to admit that despite his clunky proportions, he moved with astounding athleticism. Before their departure, Megatron explained that his current form wasn’t his proper size, claiming that he normally towered over humans. Nicole didn’t really believe him and assumed he was just trying to be intimidating, but what did she know about cyber-whatevers? This whole thing felt like a bad fever dream. 

 

No, not a dream. She’s never felt more awake. Jecka leaving her, almost getting killed by her coach, meeting an honest-to-god alien. It definitely grabbed her attention more than anything else in high school. Still, the unreality of the past twenty four hours still didn’t quite feel real. Even now she still fully couldn’t process what exactly she’d been doing.

 

Fuck I need a cigaratte

 

Nicole crouched down and scavenged through her backpack for her spare pack of Marlboro. She definitely wasn’t as heavy of a smoker as her former blonde companion, who smoked about a pack a day, but it definitely did help ease some stress from time to time. After a few moments of shuffling she found what she was looking for. Only to then be met with frustration as the box of smokes appeared to be crushed.

 

Fuck, that dipshit must have stepped on them. He better pay me back if he ruined the whole pack,

 

As she opened the package, a quick glance elicited a groan from the teenager as over half the cigs left were bent and broken. “Fucking asshole.” She thought as she picked out one of the remaining smokes untouched. Getting her zip lighter out of her pocket she then spent a minute trying to get the stupid thing to work. Distracting her from a familiar figure approaching her. 

 

“Now what do we have here?”

Hot Rod thanked Primus as they finally reached their destination. He could deal with orbital bombardings, and battles that caused the atmospheres to burn up over night. The cold shoulder though? That was something he hated more than anything. The awkward silence was too much to handle as his passenger simply looked out at the suburban buildings. He couldn’t quite get a read on the organic. During their-admittedly crappy introductions the human was quite cagey on giving info on herself, only confirming three things. First, he knew her name was Jecka (Such an odd name even by human standards.) Second, he knew she was young for her species, about a quarter of an ano-cycle if his conversion was accurate. Third, she didn’t like him too much. That one he learned first. 

 

Okay, sure he didn’t give the best first impression, but having a gun pointed at his face was how he had met most of the people he knew, and he was almost friends with some of them. So honestly that really shouldn’t have been that much of an issue. Then again, these humans were perplexing to him. He’s interacted with the few humans back at base. But still his personal contact with the young species was limited. Only arriving a week ago he had been caught up to date on their brief history. A lifeform only having an average lifespan for one ano-cycle made him wonder if you can call them sentient in the first place. He would never dare say that out loud of course. He had been informed on how The Big Guy has taken to this world and its lifeforms. An autobot wouldn’t even dare leak lubricant in the wrong spot here if they didn’t want to get on the boss's bad side. Regardless, the young bot supposed this beat his last position of watching an outpost where the most exciting thing to happen was watching the stars fade out.

 

He must admit though, one aspect of human culture he quite enjoyed was their music. Especially that of the rock and punk variety as they labelled it, similar to the Cybertronian music genre of shock pop. It definitely made the patrols of these past Quad-cycles more tolerable. Jecka didn’t seem interested in his music tastes though. She didn't seem interested in anything about him, which feels weird considering she’s meeting a damn alien. Whatever though, she made it clear she doesn’t want anything to do with this operation anyway. 

 

“We’re coming up to the spot.’ The bot’s voice lacked the energy he previously had. He came to a stop just around the corner of her house as requested. Hot Rod’s windshield opened up, as it simultaneously functioned as the door to his vehicle form. He also reconstructed his holomatter form of the young man from earlier in the ride to maintain the illusion to any passerbys 

 

“Thanks.” Jecka said dryly as she awkwardly tried to leave the car. Going from a sitting position to vaulting over the car’s edge wasn’t exactly intuitive, and really made Jecka wonder why the robot chose this form. As she was about halfway out of the car, the holographic driver faked a cough to get the girl’s attention. 

 

“Hey so uh, before you go, I should probably let you know that we will still be in the area. We’ve still got a job to do, you know? Sooooooo- if you see something that can help us or just looks interesting. Give us a shout if you can.” 

 

Jecka put both feet on the ground and checked to make sure she hadn’t lost anything before responding to Hot Rod’s request. After confirming her phone, wallet, and keys were with her she looked at the hologram’s eyes. Jecka was disturbed by how lifelike they were, but knowing it was just a projection made by some fucking alien robot gave her the chills. The bright blue eyes seemed nothing more than a trap, something to deceive her into trusting him. She’s been tricked before, too many times to just say she wasn’t partially reasonable for being so trusting. She’s developed a knack for knowing what people’s intentions are. His goals obviously weren’t the typical plan of trying to get in bed with her, but the friendly nice guy act appeared to be literally universal. “Yeah, sorry but I’m gonna be steering as far away from you guys as I can.” The holomatter form put on a disappointed expression, as if it could predict what she was about to say. “Stay the fuck away from me.” 

 

Hot Rod was starting to get pretty annoyed at just how hostile she’s been all night. “You know you really aren't like someone who is meeting an alien for the first time in their life?” 

 

“Oh I’m sorry I didn’t know I wasn’t following the fucking proper procedures. Maybe I just don’t want to deal with all this bullshit in my life!” 

 

“I don’t know, I feel like if I was in your shoes I would think this whole thing is pretty damn cool instead of being so uppity about the whole thing.” 

 

“What the fuck are you talking about being in my shoes? You’re a fucking alien! You don’t know shit about humans, let alone me. I’m not a pet that you can just instantly impress. All you did was rattle on about music I don’t give a shit about.” 

 

“In the report it looked like you humans really liked it.” The holomatter seemed to sort of mumble to himself as if he realized how stupid his assumption that all humans like the same music was. 

 

This sent Jecka into a seething rage. “Oh My God! You really think we’re all the same do you?” Hot Rod was starting to run out of defenses he could make. “Learning about crappy music and shitty 80’s movies isn’t how you impress people. Jesus, it’s like talking to fucking Crispin again but worse!”

 

“Who?” 

 

“Nothing! Look, if you Autobots are as altruistic as you say you are, you’ll leave me the hell alone.” Jecka tried to emphasize her point by jumping up and grabbing the windshield to slam it down. Unfortunately for her, she simply lacked the strength to do so. So she just awkwardly hung on for a second and dropped back down.After a moment of awkward eye contact she just stomped away and yelled “FUCK!”

 

All Hot Rod could do was close the windshield and ruminate on the interaction. Maybe he was approaching this the wrong way. The standard report Autobots go through was a simple data upload to a new arrivals brain. An overview of their history, culture, traditions. Millennia of knowledge learnt in seconds. The autobots use this to blend in with the new environment and native species. Clearly though, Hot Rod was missing something here. But what was it?

 

He pondered this as he put his holomatter’s legs on the dashboard. Until he remembered he had to report to the old man. Using his internal radio he called Ratchet who quickly answered. 

 

“Human was successfully delivered, boss.” 

 

“Good, did you inform her to not tell anyone and to minimize contact with us for her own safety?” 

 

“No, but her last words were ‘stay the hell away from me’”  He put on a high pitched voice in a poor attempt to mimic the blonde. “So I think we’re good on the minimal contact front. And she didn’t seem super jazzed on us in general so I would say we’re in the clear.” ‘

 

“Sigh What did you say to her?”  Like a disappointed parent, Ratchet inquired what happened.

 

“Nothing! I was just trying to be cool with her. But she was just totally blowing me off the entire time. I was even trying to bond by talking about human music. You know, just trying to get down on her level. Did you know some humans don’t like the music they make here?” Ratchet was currently working on upgrading a scanner at the scrapyard they were based in. His hands were currently occupied with highly sensitive equipment, which was the only thing preventing him from face palming at what the rookie just said.

 

“Please tell me you didn’t try to explain human music to a human.”

 

”Well-I-I wouldn’t say I explained it to her. I just said a few of my own takes and dropped in some neat trivia here and there.” 

 

“Primus give me strength,” Ratchet muttered. “Anyway, I guess it’s good you scared her off. We need to avoid them for their own safety. Alpha Trion knows we have too many of them running around in HQ as it is. Speaking of, when Strongarm drops off the other humans, we’re gonna make the report to The Ark. We need to inform them of the damage the space bridge collapse did to this place.” 

 

“Yeah, yeah I’ll be there right away.” Hot Rod dispelled his avatar and prepared to head back to the scrapyard.

 

“Actually stay where you are, we haven’t done a deep scan of this section of town. I want a complete cybermap of the area to notice any disparities in the area.” 

 

“Uggggghhh come on! A deep scan takes forever and you do nothing. Get Strongarm to do it, she loves taking orders.”

“I’m not asking Strongarm, I'm asking you. Now get on with it!”

 

“But-”

 

“That’s an order! Ratchet out.” 

 

“Damn it.” Hot Rod knew he would get chewed out if he didn’t comply, and the medic already seemed in a bad mood. Begrudgingly, he started to initiate the deep scanning process. A near universal ability of Cybertonians was the ability to scan their surroundings. With X-ray, thermal, night vision, even to one lower dimension. Another quality Cybertronians had was that they had near photographic memory, at least subconsciously. It depends on the bot and quality of the brain module but a Cybertronian mind can contain more info then all the super computers on Earth combined. However even their processors have a limit. This is where a deep scan comes in, Deep scanning was recording every possible detail in a five hundred klik area. To the microbes, radio waves, to even one dimensional plane lower. Every single detail of the area would be accounted for. Now having perfect recollection of that information is too much even for the sharpest brain modules out there, so the scan is stored in a storage space that is attached to Autobot scouts. When the scan is complete it is stored in the unit, until it is uploaded into Cybermaps, perfect recordings of the environment that are critical for securing or exploring an alien world. 

 

Usually these are only used by the most elite of scouts, but the cargo of the space bridge is of utmost importance. So every bot assigned to retrieve it was given the deep scanning technology, in the hopes of assisting in the search. To be perfectly honest, Hot Rod didn’t really have any idea what they were looking for. It was probably explained to him by one of the old heads but he always zones out during briefings if they go past ten cycles. He would be too embarrassed to ask for another explanation. All he really knows is the name “The Underbase” He wasn’t too bothered by this because he just relied on Ratchet and Strongarm to do all the mental tasks in this recovery mission. Besides, the chances of it actually being here were slim to none. Percepter calculated 78 possible areas the target would land on this planet. Knowing his luck, he’s gonna miss out on all the action, again! 

 

Deep scans require nearly all of a Cybertronian’s processing functions. So the bot in question has to just stay in one place, usually for fifty cycles or so. An eternity for a young bot ready for action like Hot Rod. To kill time he did the only thing he can spare the energy to do, and that’s use his audio scanners to listen to anything nearby. Hopefully something will kill the time.

 

Gotta be something interesting happening in this town. 

 

As he turned on the scanner, he started picking up on hundreds of different sounds immediately.Usually this would be complete white noise to him, but with the deep scan attachment it could decipher and focus on every single one individually. The birds chirping as they fed their young. The sound of kids crashing on the ground and laughing even if it hurt as they enjoyed the playground. Dogs barking at cars passing by going on their routine walks.

 

Enjoying the moment, Hot Rod had to admit this type of serenity was new to him. In his life he’s only known three types of environments. Barracks where soldiers would play oil drinking games and get into friendly fights, a chaotic and claustrophobic atmosphere but comradery was thick in the air, at least to others. Hot Rod mostly spent those days alone as most of the chores were given to the rookies. The second was abandoned planets, empty either because they never had any life in the first place, or because war had caused the planet to go extinct. These were where the scouting missions he was assigned to usually happened. The last was the battlefield, unlike most Autobots, this was where Hot Rod loved being the most. Blaster bolts flying, scrap metal everywhere, Autobots and Decepticreeps going head to head. This is where Hot Rod could prove himself, could show that he’s not just some dumb kid, but a capable and even great warrior in the making. That’s where Hot Rod longed to be. The vets say he’s still just green and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. In his opinion though, four times on an active battlefield was plenty to get a feel for it.

 

Those were all the types of worlds Hot Rod had been too, until this planet. A world where people simply existed. One where the young woke up to go to school, the parents working mundane jobs, life continuing with no immediate threat. A concept foreign to the young bot. Every Mega Cycle, the threat of the Decepticons was an omnipresent threat. Even during R&R, every bot knew another battle was around the corner. Hot Rod didn’t complain though, this was all he’s ever known, and it beats standing around doing nothing. Seeing these humans live their lives in peace though, it made him think. Is this the peace they were fighting for? Is this why The Big Bot himself was so attached to this world? Because being honest, he found the whole thing really… disappointing. 

 

I hope that thought doesn’t make me a traitor or something?

 

As he was thinking about the consequences of such a thought, his scanner picked up a new conversation. One that immediately caught his attention. 

 

“WHERE THE FUCK WERE YOU JECKA!” 

 

“Fuck! I’m sorry my phone died and I hung out at Karen’s house!” Jecka defended herself, even with mentally preparing herself for her dad’s abuse, she couldn’t have predicted him being this angry at her. 

 

“Oh! Is that what we’re calling it now! You sleeping around like a FUCKING WHORE! GOD I’M SUCH A FAILURE OF A FATHER IF I LET YOU BECOME A FUCKING FLESHLIGHT FOR YOUR SCHOOL!”

 

Hot Rod had no idea what a fleshlight is but wow, he was really laying into her.  

 

“I DIDN’T SLEEP WITH ANYONE! WHY CAN”T YOU JUST BELIEVE ME FOR ONCE!”

 

“BECAUSE YOU’RE JUST LIKE YOUR MOTHER! So beautiful on the outside, but on the inside you’re a COCK SUCKING BITCH WHO KNOWS NO RESPECT!”  

 

As he listened in. he couldn’t help but feel a little justice had been served here. She kept refusing any of the kindness shown to her, and told him to stay the hell away from her. So honestly this was one entertaining show he just tuned into. 

 

“Fuck..” Jecka was barely holding back tears at this point. She didn’t even know why she was fighting them back. She had already given him the satisfaction of showing her fear. “Is that all I am to you now? Just Mom again?” 

 

“Yes. At every moment of your life, you have shown that instead of being a proper young lady. You would rather let the dirt and trash fuck you at every opportunity. Your grades have gone down, you’re constantly smoking. I found condoms in your dresser damn it!”

 

“Why the fuck were you in my dresser you CRE-”

 

All Hot Rod could hear was a thud and Jecka’s silence. This suddenly became a lot less fun for him. His audio scanner was able to pick up very faint and hoarse breathing. He was no expert, but he knew that she shouldn’t be making that noise. 

 

“Don’t you dare swear at your father! This is what I’m talking about, you don’t have a speck of respect or dignity in you. So you fill it with drugs, and cocks, and whatever else you stick inside yourself. I look at you and you know what I see? It’s not your mother.” He held to dramatize his point, with no fear of interruption as Jecka was currency on the ground. Barely able to breath as her father had socked her right in the stomach, knocking all the air out of her lungs. All she could do was lay there and desperately gasp for air. He had rarely ever hit this hard. 

 

“All I see is a disappointment. You think I view you as a replacement for your mother? I wish you were because then you would be good for something!” The words barely registered to Jecka as this type of interaction between the two had gotten more and more frequent. The words stung and she tried to not think too hard about what he was implying. All she was thinking about was that she couldn’t wear a crop top for  a few days. Somehow her father was able to detect his words not reaching her.

 

“LISTEN TO ME YOU LITTLE SHIT!” 

 

He yanked her by own hair, till she was on her knees. With a tight grip he held on as Jecka shrieked in pain, unable to get the words “LET GO” and “ow” out as she was still just just getting air into her lungs. 

 

“This isn’t like the last times, things won’t be business as usual. From here on out you're gonna listen to and do everything I tell you! You got that in your tiny brain!?” With every sentence he yanked on her hair to get his point across. So she understood the consequences if she kept disobeying 

 

Outside, Hot Rod was still listening in. This lecture had quickly become violent, and while he knew humans had a long history of settling differences through violence, Autobots are instructed not to interfere with other cultures. He couldn’t help but feel this wasn’t right. He started thinking of the situation he was in. Jecka was currently having a quite volcanic argument with her dad for something that admittedly wasn’t her fault. On the other hand, he was told to stay away and keep minimal contact, if he did nothing and left when the deep scan was complete he would probably never see her again. Which was fine by him because the human had done nothing but show contempt. He could just turn off his audio scanner and be off on his merry way. 

 

Basically, he could ignore orders and intervene, or stay here and do nothing.

 

Coming to his answer he had realized he had lied earlier. Cause there’s nothing he hates more than sitting around and doing nothing, 

“What do we have here?” 

 

Oh fuck.

 

Nicole instantly knew who had appeared behind, she thought she recognized him but couldn’t confirm. As she turned around she wondered how one girl can be so fucking unlucky.  

 

“Now what are you doing here missy?” The Mall Cop had seemingly been upgraded from school protection to muder investigation. How he did Nicole had no fucking idea, she also had no idea how to get out of this situation. This Cop is a fucking stonewall to her usual flirting, the one time she wished a man was a pedophile. This guy had one hell of a trigger finger.

 

“Hey what’s up officer? What a fine day we’re having.” 

 

What the fuck that’s like the most suspicious thing you could possibly say? 

 

“Actually it’s a terrible day, a man was just murdered in his home.” The Cop spoke with the same confidence as usual. “Now what exactly are you doing here Miss? Right next to a crime scene?” 

 

Alright Nicole, try and get your head in the game. You’ve been sloppy in your excuses these past few days. Okay. so you can’t say anything illegal obviously. Maybe say you’re waiting for your friend? Nah that’s too generic. But fuck what else can I say uhhhhh. 

 

Nicole’s head raced with ideas, she was getting a bad sense of Deja Vu from Colbey. God damn it, why can she think of anything? She supposed for now she’d try to deflect. 

 

“I had no idea a murder happened to her officer, who was the victim.” Playing up her ‘Nice girl’ voice wasn’t necessary but she was kind of desperate for something to work.

 

“Well I’m sorry to inform you but it appears to be your school’s gym teacher. I don’t know how well you knew him.” 

 

“Barely knew hi-” Catching herself being too nonchalant about his death “I mean, I never got to know the guy, he always kept a respectable distance away from the girl P.E students.’ 

 

“Odd thing to say, but yeah it’s a real tragedy.” The officer was being uncharacteristically empathetic. He was clearly trying to get something out of Nicole.  Something to sniff out so he could arrest out of suspicion. Or just fucking shoot her again. 

 

“How do you know it was a murder?” 

 

‘“Well as you can see, his entire house was destroyed and we found him in six different pieces. So yeah we’re pretty confident he was murdered.” Nicole could feel his suspicion. He was trying to bait her .She wouldn’t fall for it but she had to do something to get him off her ass.

 

“How do you know he was murdered and not just struck by that crazy lightning storm last night?”  

 

“That would be one hell of a lightning bolt.”

 

‘It was one hell of a storm.” 

 

Where the hell is that motherfucking Go-Bot. He’s not just gonna let me go though. Fuuuuck fuck fuck, what can I even do to get out of this situation in the first place? I definitely can’t run, I can’t just leave, and Megatron can’t kill him right next to the other officers, Shit shit shit shit why did it have to this guy of all fucking people???

 

Nicole started to sweat, she was starting to feel anxious. Her skin felt weird against her clothes, her heart was picking up. Her left leg where she was shot was starting to itch. It was itching really bad. 

 

“Now, answer my question. Why are you here?” 

 

“I was here because-because.” FUCK I really can’t think of a way out of this.

 

‘Nicole! Honey! There you are, I was looking all over for you. Don’t go running off like that.” 

 

Nicole was initially confused at the voice, it didn’t sound like anyone she knew. It was a male voice, an older voice. Nicole had to look behind the officer's shoulder, and what she saw stopped any train of thought she had. 

 

In the past 24 hours Nicole had seen some really insane shit. but this took the cake, Nicole thought she couldn't be surprised by anything. But she was genuinely stunned. She would think she was dreaming, but the pain in her leg reminded her this was reality. 

 

After all, she never expected to see her father standing right in front of her. 

Notes:

Comments and feedbacks are appreciated, I promise the next chapter won't take as long.