Transformers Era: Immortalis

In the Black Hills of South Dakota, the Autobot’s proximity alarm was going haywire.

Smokescreen clasped his servos to his head, and over the deafening wail and red lights, yelled at Ratchet, “Why is that thing going off?! There hasn’t been a single plane going over this place for five months!”

Ratchet, just as flustered, was trying to find out what was wrong. He scrambled from computer to computer, clicking on this and that, muttering to himself. Smokescreen huddled into the farthest corner of the room, waiting for the verdict—and for the racket to end.

But as the noise continued, Bumblebee stormed into the room. “Ratchet, turn that alarm off now!” he exclaimed. “I was just in the process of upgrading the servers!”

“Give me a minute, will you?!” the medic bellowed back. He turned back to the largest computer and opened up a new screen. It showed the surrounding ten-mile radius, sky and ground. The moment he checked the cameras, the alarm went off, and the base was filled with an eerie silence.

Smokescreen hustled over to the computers, and Bumblebee, whose interest was just as piqued, quickly followed. “So what is it, Doc?” they both asked.

Frowning thoughtfully, Ratchet pointed at the video feed, at a dark dot in the sky. “I’m not sure. It’s moving fast, but it couldn’t possibly be a normal passenger plane, which is all that’s ever passed over us before...”

“The government, I’ll bet,” Bumblebee growled. He still hadn’t forgotten—or forgiven—what the American government had done to him and his friend two years ago. His fists clenched as he watched the screen. The dot was growing bigger and bigger, and was starting to take on the shape of a black jet.

“Kinda small, isn’t it?” Smokescreen said.

And then, happening so suddenly that they all jumped, there was a beep. Ratchet glanced at the the computer to his left, muttered “What the...?” and then opened a file.

“Excuse me, is this the Autobot residence?” someone asked. They all jumped again, then looked at each other in alarm. The voice was definitely feminine, but none of them could recognize it any farther than that.

“Who the heck is this?” Smokescreen squawked.

There was a short pause on the other end. Then the femme said, “Oh... Oh... I was sort of hoping... you guys don’t recognize me?”

“And why should we?” Bumblebee asked. “Identify yourself!”

“It’s Stormy.”

A shocked silence filled the room. Aghast, Smokescreen looked at Bumblebee, nervously waiting for the explosion. But there wasn’t any. To his surprise, the larger mech seemed to have a glazed expression, his eyes staring into space, his mouth slightly open. For a moment, it appeared that he was going to fall to the floor in a dead faint.

Suddenly, though, Alloy popped up. He came into the room, peeling off his goggles, as he hollered, “Hey, Bee! I’ve been waiting for like, ten minutes down there with the servers! Are you coming back or what?”

“Alloy? Is that you?”

At the familiar voice, Alloy went white as a sheet. He accidentally let go of his goggles, and they snapped back against his head, almost making him ricochete into the wall. But he hardly noticed. His jaw dropped, and he was struck dumb for several seconds. His mouth formed a bunch of words, but none came out.

“Hello?”

Then Alloy snapped back into the earthly realm. He shot over to the computer—knocking Ratchet over in the process—and yelped, “Stormy?! That’s—how—what are you—what’re you doing here?!”

“Wow, you’re the first person who actually recognized me right away. I’m happy that someone remembers me.” She almost sounded dry. But then her voice brightened. “Anyway, I was just coming back from training—thought maybe that I could join your group again. Can you buzz me in?”

They could see that she was nearly to the base. Alloy leaned towards the computer, about to answer, but Bumblebee stuck a servo in front of him.

“And why should we let you in?” he asked coldly.

“Who’s this—? Wait, Bee? Is that really you?”

Her voice sounded happy and relieved, as if she hadn’t heard his question. But Bumblebee’s eyes grew steely, and he snapped, “If you have no important business here, I suggest you leave.”

“But—but I wanted to say hi. And join the group. I—I can’t come in?”

Before he could answer, Alloy shoved him away and said, “Stormy, the entrance is two klicks to your right, by the circle of pine trees. I’ll buzz you in when you get there.”

“Thanks, Alloy.”

Then the line went dead, and there was only static.

In a rage, Bumblebee whirled on him and yelled, “Why did you do that?! You know we can’t trust that freak! What she did to us two years ago—”

“—Is totally irrelevant,” Alloy argued, folding his arms over his chest in defiance. “That Ego dude was a complete creep, and we don’t even know if he was telling the truth. Stormy could have been totally framed for nothing! And even if she was what he said, she might have felt bad about it, and now she wants to make up for it! You can’t just go and hurt her like that. Give her a chance, man.”

Now Smokescreen stepped in. “He’s right, Bee. Maybe Stormy is sorry about that incident. Maybe she just wants to make up.”

Through gritted teeth and burning eyes, Bumblebee snarled, “Alright, but if that little weasel rats us out again, don’t say that I didn’t tell you.”

And with that, he whirled around and stalked out of the room and to the hall, down to the servers.

₪₪₪

As I reached the destined spot, where the pine trees grew in a circle, I transformed and lightly landed on the rocky surface, inside the ellipse. I straightened and waved away the cloud of dust that had suddenly puffed up. Some got inside my mouth, and I coughed.

Then I looked around. All around me were tall, healthy pines, concealing the clearing from any prying eyes in both the sky and the ground. The sunlight barely reached where I was standing, but that made it even more beautiful. I walked around, studying the rocks and plants around me.

I suddenly noticed a huge group of boulders on my right. They made one big pile, and they were standing almost all by themselves. Suspicious, I walked over to them, and then tapped a metal knuckle against the largest one. I instantly heard an odd-sounding clunk.

“I knew it,” I said to myself, grinning.

“Hey, Stormy! Over here!”

I whirled, and saw Alloy standing on top of a small cliff, grinning impishly as he gave me a wave.

“Made you think it was over there, didn’t I?” He got up and sauntered over, still beaming like smug monkey.

“Well, yeah. Wait, ‘I’?”

“Yup. I was the one to think up that. In case someone ever decides to drop in without warning.” He stopped in front of me, servos on his hips as he looked down at me. He was still wearing his black goggles, like when I last saw him, and his armor was still black and tan. But there was one small difference—no wait, a big difference. I nearly fell over trying to look at his face properly.

Without thinking, my jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh! Alloy, you’ve grown like—ten feet! You’re as tall as the other guys now! Have I been gone that long?”

Even while I spoke, the smile began to fade from his face. Nervously, he glanced over back at the base entrance, which was underneath the cliff he’d been sitting on. “W—e—l—l,” he slowly said, and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah, you’ve been gone for about two years—so how’ve you been?”

I felt my own happiness beginning to wilt. So he was trying to change the subject, was he? Rather despondently, I said, “I’ve been good, sort of. I mean, I knew you guys really don’t trust me anymore, and that was hard on me. That’s why I came back. I wanted to make up with you.”

I glanced up at him—he was nervously trying not to stare at the base entrance. I looked over, and then my spark caught in my throat.

Bumblebee was leaning against the cliff, arms folded over his chest, staring at me with a dangerously angry look in his eyes. He scoffed, and then stood up. “Do you really think I’m going to believe that?” he growled.

I felt my bottom lip tremble. Quickly, ashamed of how I was acting, I turned away and wiped my watery eyes. I heard Alloy talking to him, and then felt a servo on my shoulder. “Leave her alone, Bee!” he was saying angrily. “I told you that she wanted to just be friends with us again! So shut up already!”

“Don’t you tell me to shut up!” was the peeved answer. And then there was silence.

I glanced over my other shoulder, where Alloy wasn’t blocking my vision with his large frame. Bumblebee had disappeared. I assumed he’d gone back down to the base.

Alloy comfortingly patted me, and then said, “Why don’t we go meet the rest of the team? They’ll be happy to see you again, I’m sure.”

I nodded, ashamed of how much I acted like a baby. I guess I should have tried to grow some nerves of steel, too, I thought, remembering my training. “Sure, let’s go,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat.

“Okay, just follow my lead. It’s a little hazardous getting around,” he said, and gave an encouraging smile. He let his servo drop and walked towards the entrance, and I timidly followed him.

The tunnel was practically shaped like a ninety-degree angle. It went straight down for at least fifteen yards, and we had to climb a ladder to get to the bottom. When we reached it, I glanced around. The corridor we were in was lit up by dim green bars of light, attached to the tops of the walls, and seemed to go on for miles. Standing beside the ladder and squinting viciously in the small amount of light, I couldn’t see where it ended. And I had the oddest feeling of déjà vu. While I stood and looked on, Alloy was pushing a series of buttons, and I soon heard a grinding sound. I glanced up. The entrance was closing again.

Then he gestured for me to follow him. He walked down the corridor, whistling softly under his breath, and I went after him quickly, feeling a little spooked. The place was empty and silent and dark, and reminded me of a train tunnel. The only thing wrong with this comparison was that it was too narrow, and it lacked the rails.

I had only glanced behind me for a second when Alloy suddenly vanished. My instincts kicking in, I whirled in a circle, checking my surroundings. Nothing.

I took a step forward, back towards the entrance. Was this their plan? To kill me and get their revenge? I felt guilty for being so suspicious, but I had no idea if I could trust them or not. My teacher had said to be careful... Warily, I took another step toward the ladder.

“Hey. Over here,” a voice said, sounding peeved.

I nearly hit my head on the ceiling, when I heard him. Holding my chest, I wheezed and said, “Good grief, Alloy! You shouldn’t just—” I stopped mid-sentence when I saw who was standing at the corner.

Bumblebee glared embers at me. “Don’t thank me,” he snapped, whirling around on his heel, and turning the corner. Chagrined, I followed him—at a safe distance, of course. I glanced at his broad, hateful, hunched-over form. What had happened to him? How could he have once been so loveable—like a teddybear—and now so distant and cold? I felt overwhelmed with unhappiness, because I knew that I was the cause—and the object—of his hate.

I was so depressed by this thought that I forced myself to change the subject. I’d been taught that I couldn’t dwell on the past, and that guilt eats like a gangrenous sore. Glumly, I looked around.

The place was like a maze. It wasn’t a surprise that I had lost Alloy so easily—the corridor we were in was connected to other, just-as-dark corridors, and there were constant twists and turns. I decided that as soon as the others accepted me into the group, I would ask Alloy to give me a copy of the blueprints for this place. There was no way I could walk around without a map.

And even then I’d still probably get lost...

Uneasily, I glanced at Bumblebee. Throughout the whole walk, neither of us had said anything. With just one sentence, and then an absolutely cold muteness, he had snubbed me into silence. I wasn’t tempted to talk to him; even lagging behind by ten yards, I could practically feel a fiery aura surrounding him. To make matters worse, if I accidentally got to close, he would look over his shoulder and give me his most scalding look, an expression frightening enough to make Dynamo shift from foot to foot. If he could see, that is.

The walk to the main room took us at least five minutes. And by the time we reached it, so many thoughts had run through my head, that the number would make a math scientist scratch his head in bewilderment.

Bumblebee pulled open a huge metal sliding door, which was so quiet that I didn’t even notice it—until I smacked into it, anyway. Rubbing the spot where my nose should have been, I glared at his invisible back, and then opened the door myself. It took a good amount of muscle to do so.

Finally, I stepped into the room, still massaging the sore spot in my face. But I forgot about all that when I glanced up.

Almost everyone that I knew was standing there, staring at me. Some were looking on in disbelief, others with joy or suspicion. Momentarily, I just stood there, my servo still awkwardly hovering over my face. The one-second silence stretched out to five minutes.

Then I finally gave myself a mental kick, and gathered up the courage to speak. “H—hey, guys,” I said, nervously waving at them.

They only stared.

I could have kicked myself for real, but I ignored the urge to. Instead, I swallowed, and then humbly continued, “I’m sorry if I’ve hurt any of your feelings, for ratting you guys out. Really, I am. But I’ll be honest and say that I never worked for the government, never ever. The closest I’ve ever been to doing that was when it was Take-Your-Kid-To-Work Day, and my dad took my to the police station.” Oh my gosh, what was I saying? Now I just sounded like a mad fool. I felt my cheeks blaze; embarrassed, I hid my servos behind my back and stared down at the floor. But I forced myself to go on. “So can you please believe me? Even if you don’t forgive me for tattling on you, I’ll still feel better if you would just believe me when I say I wasn’t a government agent.”

For another few minutes, they were silent. My face bright blue, I studied the impossibly immaculate floor, and waited for them to unleash their anger on me.

At last, one of them did unleash their feelings—just not the kind I was expecting.

“I forgive you, Stormy,” Sentinel said, rather shyly. He stepped up, and without avoiding my gaze, gave me a big hug. He held me for a long time. I felt like I was about to cry from the waves of relief washing over me.

Then he let go and backed up. “Remember when I said sorry to you?” he said. “Well, I don’t owe you one anymore.” To show he had no hard feelings, he gave me a bashful grin.

“Thanks,” I whispered hoarsely.

But I was still disappointed. Other than Alloy and him, no one seemed very ready to trust me again. They remained silent, glancing at each other uneasily, or at the floor. Honestly, I couldn’t blame them for being wary—I hadn’t been able to forgive myself either, not for a long time. But at least they were all quiet about it. At least they were all thinking about it.

Well, almost all of them.

He had been so quiet, I’d forgotten him for that short while. But several minutes after my speech, after Sentinel had stepped up and accepted me again, he spoke. His voice was crueler than a blunt knife, absolutely soaked through with sarcasm.

“I’ll bet you weren’t the one to rat us out, either, hm?”

I shut my eyes tight and swallowed—hard. The temptation to turn and run away was killing me. But I knew that was exactly what he wanted, so I kept my mouth shut and stared balefully down at my toes. I heard movement, and the next thing I knew, he was looming over me, practically drowning me in his shadow. I hardly had the courage to look up at him. In size, he hadn’t changed a bit. In attitude... he was unrecognizable. His upper lip was curled in an ugly sneer as he stared me down.

“I asked you a question,” he growled.

I winced at the harshness in his voice. Man, this guy knows how to hold a grudge, I thought. I managed to swallow the lump in my throat, though. “I—I did tell them where you guys were hiding,” I murmured. “But I wouldn’t have, if—if they hadn’t forced me.”

He snorted contemptuously. “May I kindly ask how they forced you? No, wait, let me guess: did they threaten to kill you and defame your name in the agency?”

There was a shocked silence—mostly on my part.

“I swear this is going to turn into a vendetta any minute now,” someone muttered in the background. But I hardly noticed—I was too busy seeing red. You cruel, stupid b—

“You have no idea what they did to me,” I snarled. Tears threatened to fall, but I brushed them away and stepped up. He didn’t go backwards, and I couldn’t have cared less. In a rage, I tightened my fists and shouted, “You have no frickin’ reason to think I would rat you guys out just for money! You have no reason to assume I worked for the government! The guy that told you that crap was the guy that caught you!”

But my words didn’t even seem to make a dent in that thick wall I like to call his skull. He stared down at me emotionlessly—without a word.

If I had still been breathing at the time, I’d have been gasping for air. Quickly, I turned and said to Alloy, “Can you let me out of here? I think—I think I’ll just go. Save you guys from having this kind of trouble all the time.” I was ashamed of my outburst. There goes any chance of them accepting me again.

Alloy looked a bit stunned. Whether it was from my outburst, or from my question, I had no idea. But then the look in his face cleared, and he exclaimed, “Wait, you’re leaving already? But you just got here!”

I shook my head, trying not to look Bee in the eye and catch his overbearing smirk. “I can tell when I’m not wanted.”

Alloy looked over at the others. But they were silent, not sure whether they wanted me gone, or what. So he turned back to me, instantly making the decision for all of them. “But... but can’t you stay here? We’ll keep Bumblebee quiet and away from you. We can give you a room that’s really far from his.”

I was tempted to accept the offer, just to annoy him, but I pressed my lips together and shook my head again. “Sorry.”

“Well, what if I don’t let you out?” he asked, defiantly crossing his arms over his chest.

Before I could think of an answer, Bumblebee did. “Then I will,” he said. And with that, he pulled open the sliding door and stalked out of the room.

I stared after his fading back. He was absolutely the last person I wanted to be with, much less the one I would say good-bye to. But I didn’t have a choice, since he was also the only person who was actually willing to let me go. So, grudgingly, I followed him into the dark corridor, unable to say even a parting “Arrivederci!” to the others. I didn’t have the heart to.

By the time I reached the first corner, he had almost disappeared. I had to pick up my pace to catch up with him.

I slowed down beside him, ignoring another one of his burning glares. “Bumblebee,” I said, in a low voice, “why can’t you just believe me? I didn’t try to hurt you—you ought to know that.”

For a long while, he was silent. The only sound in the corridors was our footsteps. Glancing up at him, I assumed he was ignoring me again, seeing that contemptuous look on his face.

I sighed. “Please, just think about it, will you?”

“No.”

The abruptness caused me to wince—as if he had suddenly slapped me across the face. I turned my face away and saw that we were coming to the entrance of the base. Rudely, he shoved in front of me, and then pressed several buttons, and pulled down a lever. There was a grinding sound, and a pure, pale light spilled down through the hole, over us and across the floor. I gritted my teeth and prepared to climb up the ladder.

But before I did, I paused and turned to him. He was just as emotionless as before.

“Bumblebee,” I asked, “how did you feel when I was taken to the lab on the Decepticon ship?”

The question took him by surprise, but he tried not to show it. Without batting an eye, he replied, “I felt perfectly fine.”

I’d been expecting that. I took a deep breath, then said quietly, “Alright. Then riddle me this: when you were done choking me, you said you weren’t in your right mind.”

He didn’t look fazed. Swallowing hard, I went on, “So when will you be finished choking me again?”

I then turned, without waiting for an answer, and quickly climbed up the ladder and through the hole. I hit rocky ground and got to my feet. But before I walked away, I leaned down to look into the hole, at Bumblebee.

“Tell them I’m not coming back.”

I stepped away from the edge, whirling around gracefully on my toes, and transformed. I flew up into pale blue sky, never looking back.