No Rest For The Weary

Eloise lived just outside Tranquility, twenty miles north-west of the cliff she loved to frequent. Her house was a small one story flat that sat on the road leading toward Portland. The night returned to its stillness as Ellie turned off the engine and stepped out of her car. A few steps and a jingle of her keys and she was inside, locking out the warmth of the late spring evening. As soon as she entered her house, she turned down the thermostat to a crisp seventy-two degrees before beginning her evening ritual before bed. She was totally engrossed in the task that she failed to notice that the darkness outside had disappeared as though the sun had been thrown high into the sky.



She was brought out of her trance when she started noticing the vibration under her feet. Going to the window, she pulled back the curtains just in time to be thrown to the ground as something massive hit the hills in the country side behind her house. For a few moments, Ellie was thrown around like she was inside a pinball machine. It almost felt like someone had put her into a paint shaker. The intense noise was suddenly replaced by an eerie silence. Pulling herself to her feet on an indiscriminate piece of over turned furniture, Ellie fished around in the cabinet for a flashlight.



Slowly, she stepped outside into the darkness, shining the light in front of her as she walked to the area where the objects had fallen. At first she had thought it was a plane crash and she had grabbed her cell phone and had already had the number dialed and her finger on the send button. Slowly she crept to the edge of the small crater. The air was still thick with dust, but she heard something strange coming from the crater. It sounded like clicking and whirring of metal and hydraulics working.



"Hello?" Ellie looked down into the first crater. The sound stopped as quickly as it started and she suddenly had a sickening feeling as a dark shape rose through the dust. It just kept growing taller and taller until it took up her entire field of vision. Then it looked at her. 'It has eyes?' She thought to herself, backing up as slowly as she could, not wanting to present herself as a target. But it was already too late and she knew it. The figure was already reaching for her with long, thin fingers. The strength in that hand was terrifying as those fingers closed around her waist in a none too gentle grip, lifting her off of the ground.



Within moments she was level with her captor, its eyes glowing what she felt was a hate filled red. The thing seemed to observe her for a moment, before its metallic maw drew back into a sickening impression of a grin. "Oh, God..." Ellie whispered, staring into those eyes. The being seemed to vibrate with laughter. It was laughing!



"Thank you, human." The voice sounded like nails being drawn down a chalk board. "However, Starscream will suffice." Ellie barely had a moment to comprehend what had happened before three more beings the size of the one holding her stepped out of the other craters, their eyes drawn to the figure hyperventilating in Starscream's hand. Two were of the same design as Starscream, wide at the shoulders and narrow at the waist with long talon like fingers. Their faces were twisted into varying degrees of grotesque amusement as Ellie tried to pull herself out of Starscream's grip. The fourth of the group seemed to remain detached from the entire situation, almost as though it were thinking hard.



"What is your designation?" Ellie jumped, not sure if she were trapped in some kind of nightmare or if the pizza she ate was coming back to haunt her. 'My designation?' She asked herself, not sure what it was asking. Its dead pan voice made it difficult to gage the meaning. Was he joking or serious? "What is your designation, flesh creature?"



"Eloise...Murdock," she answered, shrinking back as the dead pan mech leaned in for a better look. The next few seconds the tall beings seemed to converse in some sort of high pitched signal. There seemed to be a great deal of information exchanged between the beings as Starscream kept a tight grip on her waist.



"This flesh creature does not match the physical characteristics of the one you call 'Sam Witwicky', Starscream." The being holding her seemed to grow angry and his grip threatened to crush her.



"You will address me as Lord Starscream, Soundwave!" For a moment his optics flared dangerously at his subordinate.



"What...what do you want with Sam?" The question brought Starscream out of his murderous stare, his grip loosening until Ellie could breathe.



"You know whom we seek?" It asked, putting its face mere inches from Ellie's. Ellie gulped, on the verge of passing out.



"Maybe..." Starscream looked about ready to crush her. "That depends on what you want him for." Ellie stuttered out quickly, still not daring to look away from Starscream. This answer only served to amuse him.



"Soundwave? How long has it been since Ravage has had a play thing?"









"Wow, they landed out in the middle of no where," Mikaela commented, watching the smoke rising from the craters. They were the only people on the road this late at night for a good reason. Those around the area knew what had happened the last time objects came crashing toward the earth. Crescent City had almost been destroyed in the resulting battle. Most still would not accept the idea of alien beings living with them. Those people were more comfortable pointing their fingers at people who had not benefited one bit from the conflict. It was still hard for Sam and Mikaela to accept at times, but they just forgot that the autonomous robotic beings were not human.



The road began to curve toward the smoking craters, their view still not any better. The fact that there was no moonlight made it difficult to determine where the craters were, but a faint red glow in the dust cloud served to lead them straight toward them. Sam hoped that the four were Autobots. Since Optimus had sent the message nearly a year ago, Sam had been excited to meet more of the Autobots friends. He knew he shouldn't be getting this excited but the prospect was just too good not to think about.



Prime scanned for electronic identification signatures over and over again. He could not assume that because he could not read them that they were Decpticons. They could be Autobots who shut their EIDs off to avoid attention from enemies, or they could have been afraid that the transmission was a trap. The universe seemed so unfriendly to Autobots that the latter seemed more acceptable. Though when Optimus saw the red tinged light, his processor froze. He knew those shapes. He remembered the triangular shaped bodies as the Seekers from Cybertron, and more specifically; Starscream.



His processor was trying to build a strategy when he heard the scream. "Slag!" Iron Hide's hard bark put into words what Optimus was feeling. The Autobots poured on the speed as they heard the maniacal laughter of the three Seekers. As the Autobots drew closer, they could see a smaller form at the feet of the four Decpticons. It seemed to have something in its mouth, something with reddish brown hair and a look of utter horror on her face.



"Bumblebee! Stay back with Sam and Mikaela," Optimus ordered as he transformed while still speeding at nearly one hundred miles per hour. Iron Hide and Ratchet followed suit, leaving Bumblebee and the two teenagers. Sam opened the door, his eyes adjusting to the poor light. To the left of the warring mechs was a small house with a car port at the side. Under the car port was a navy blue Saturn he knew well. He recognized the voice of the woman screaming as three more mechs came rushing toward her. This was Ellie's house.



As Sam and Mikaela watched, Optimus led the charge, determined to shock the five Decpticons into dropping their human victim and concentrate on them. Ravage, resembling a monstrous feline had the woman by her left leg, dragging her bodily behind the three seekers to his master. The woman was clawing at the ground, looking for any purchase that would allow her to pull back. She found one in the root of a nearby tree and hung on for dear life as Ravage jerked his head from side to side, trying to dislodge his prey. Her grip was tenuous as the ground shook as the towering mechs around her got close enough for melee combat, their fists pummeling the three avian like mechs with frightening ferocity.



Ellie brought her right foot up and smashed it against the head of the monster holding her by her prosthetic leg. Apparently, it did not know that it was not her leg, because it seemed puzzled as to why she was not shrieking in pain. As she kicked it again in the face, it growled and pulled harder on her leg, Ellie's grip slipping on the root. "Let go of me!" Her foot connected with what she perceived as his eye, and the orb shattered in its socket. The beast yowled in pain, but would not let her leg out of its grip. Desperate to get away and to not be stepped on as the tallest of the mechs slammed its foot down not three feet from her head, Ellie swung her left arm around the root as she undid the buckles and straps that kept her prosthetic leg on.



Moments that seemed like hours passed before she could get the straps undone and the monster holding on to her went tumbling back into the crater from its own momentum like a person on the loosing end of a game of tug-of-war. Her left leg now useless, thanks to the beast's jaws, Ellie crawled to her right foot and started trying to hop out of the battle. She was stopped short as a talon like foot slammed to the ground in front of her, its owner regarding her with a sickening grin. Ellie dove forward as it reached for her. The large mech looked down around its feet as though it were chasing a roach rather than a human. The other mechs seemed to notice his trouble, one of them looking as though steam were issuing from where its ears should be. "Thundercracker! Stop playing with the human and kill it already!" Ellie eeped as the foot came down a mere six inches from her head.



Iron Hide had already given himself over to the battle. It had been far too long since he had had a valid reason for discharging his arm cannons and he gladly made up for lost time punching holes in Skywarp's black and purple shell. The bot fell to the ground, sending the humans off balance. Ellie nearly had her other leg crushed as she lost her balance and fell underneath the high arched heel of Thundercracker's foot. The mech seemed confused for a moment, looking around before he issued a howl of pain, his foot dripping a glowing blue substance that seemed to steam as it touched the ground. The blue Seeker hopped on one foot as the energon continued to pour out of the secondary line feeding the hydraulics in its ankle, its prey forgotten.



Ratchet dove forward, scooping the frightened female up before Ravage had a second chance with her. The Autobot ignored the human's curses and futile beating of his fingers as he carried her to Bumblebee as fast as his legs could carry him. "Ellie...ELLIE!" Ratchet's raised voice stopped any remaining resistance from the female. She seemed amazed that the being knew her name. Ratchet sighed and brought his volume down to normal levels. "Please understand that I mean no harm to you," Ratchet was relieved that the woman only nodded dumbly. He was not surprised to find that she was only half conscious. Though she had enough mental capacity left while her 'Fight or Flight' response was active to understand what he was telling her. "Stay with Sam and Mikaela, please," he added. Though his words were lost as Ellie passed out in his hands.



Optimus brought his foot back, punting the charge of Soundwave into the hands of its master. He knew that in the face of an all out battle that Starscream was a coward. The Seeker may have been a brilliant strategist and schemer, but in a fair fight he was useless. Self preservation seemed to have been given a priority over other functions. Including ensuring the safety of those under his command. "Retreat!" Iron Hide seemed to find the declaration amusing because he started throwing insults, none of which were repeatable in civilized company, at the retreating Decepticons. Soundwave gathered his charge in its crevice before transforming into a blue variation of a Naval CH-46D Sea Knight dual rotor helicopter, chasing after its cowardly brethren.



"Figures they wouldn't stay to play," grumbled Iron Hide, waving a dismissive hand at the retreating forms.



"At least we got to her before Ravage made her into a chew toy," Ratchet sounded relieved as he waved the other two mechs over to where he had the female laid down on the ground. "She managed to sever Thundercracker's secondary fuel line. Contact with the energon rendered her unconscious but she will not suffer any lasting damage."



"I told you I liked the human," Iron Hide seemed proud of the small female as he took a look at her prone form on the ground. "Lucky little thing, though. She could have been a sticky smear with those fragging idiots dancing like frightened protoforms."



Prime nodded, watching as Ratchet examined the female with a sensitive digit on her abdomen. "She has not been significantly damaged internally; however I am not comfortable with that gash on her right thigh." Ratchet reached into his side panel where he removed a reel of nearly invisible thread. His right hand transformed into a small long fingered hand. "Mikaela, please remove her jeans. I need access to close the gash before infection sets in." Mikaela forcefully turned Sam around before she did as Ratchet asked her to. Sam was left facing Bumblebee, sticking his hands in his pockets and whistling softly with is eyes skyward.



"I still find the act of suturing wounds fascinating," Ratchet seemed to like to speak to his audience as he worked on closing the long gash caused by a careless swipe of Ravage's paw. "The way human skin knits itself together by extending fibers to secure the opening closed is an ingenious use of resources." The medic seemed content to be the only one talking, his optics focused on the task at hand.



Nearly fifteen minutes had passed before the medic made the final stitch and cut the excess thread, leaving a rather beautifully small stitched strip about six inches long. "Beautiful, if I don't say so myself."



"You just did..." Iron hide commented dryly, earning him a reproving glance from the medic.



"I will let her wake in your cab then, Iron Hide. She will most likely be in a great deal of pain both from the cut and from the slight burns sustained from her contact with energon." Ratchet smiled when Iron Hide backed down, grumbling to himself as only diesel engine could. "Good, Sam, Mikaela, would you mind sitting the young lady in my cab? I have some water and Ibuprofen in the compartments and shall be able to..."



"Alright, already!" Iron Hide exclaimed. "Just get her in there before Ratchet reads off the dinner menu." Sam was the worst at controlling his amusement as he and Mikaela with Prime's help slid Ellie into Ratchet's cab. He let the two banter. None of their arguments came to blows, thankfully. Though they were a way for his soldiers to blow off steam. They treated each other like brothers, right down to their nit-picking. He chuckled as Iron Hide crossed his arms over his chest, looking all the world like the most bored bot in the universe. Though he could not hide the fact that he was watching how Sam and Mikaela were handling Ellie. "Easy with her leg, Sam," he rumbled. Despite his rough demeanor, the bot cared.