- Winner for Best Battle Sequence '04
A Special Touch
By: Sapphire
PG-13
Violence
Authoress's Note: This fic totals 148 pages and is in dedication to all my friends who feature in it. I have had to take a number of liberties in writing every one as characters, seeing as I'm imagining, based on my knowledge of that person, how they might react in the situations I create for them. There may be some inaccuracies, but please bear in mind that I tried to give everyone their own special moments and write them honestly and fairly. In some instances, I use the real names of a few of the characters, eg. Sara instead of Miss Special, where it has been appropriate. I did start this fic a few months ago, so some things might have changed (like how long someone's hair is etc.) during the time I've been writing it. Also, I was unable to include some of the newer members at bwint.net as they joined when I was halfway through the fic and it was too late to give them roles. That said, I hope that all who read this fic will enjoy it, especially those for whom it is meant.
Chapter
1
- Meetings
The air was chilled and cutting as he ran through the dark streets. Cracked lamps flickered erratically and long, strange shadows fell across the stone-grey pavement. Despite the cold, his wounds seemed to be burning, and warm, slimy mech fluid dribbled over his form and took to the air as he rushed down the next alley.
He was being chased, chased by the same monster which had caused him this pain, these injuries. He knew that if he was caught, he wouldn't get a second chance to escape him. After the battles, this part of town had been deserted. Its residents either fled or were killed, but he had stayed on, vowing to fight until the bitter end - and bitter it had become. The tall, bleak buildings loomed over him, seemingly puncturing through a visible layer of smog which hung near their tops like dirty clouds. Ahead of him, there was an end to this long alley, a way out. He ran, feeling the air bite him, listening to his own rasping breath. He left the alley and turned into a wide street. One of the moons hung crucified in the black night sky. There were no stars out tonight.
He could sense that his pursuer was gaining on him. His spark pulsed heavily in his chest, his body quivered with fear and desperation. He looked ahead and drew in a sharp breath as a large shadow spilled onto the road and instinctively he turned right, into another alley and away from the approaching darkness. There were no street lamps here and his cracked optics refused to switch successfully to infra red. He was alone. He continued to run, confused and unused to being unable to see. He realized too late that he had hit a dead end. He crashed into the wall, yelping in pain and fright, and twisted frantically around, sliding to his haunches where he gasped for air. Every part of him was crying out in physical and psychological agony. He needed to be quiet, otherwise he'd be found, but his torn body was uncontrollable as it shivered and shuddered, jerking him into letting out small cries and wheezes.
Gradually, he calmed himself down. A heavy lump seemed to be resting in his throat as now he struggled to breathe, to function normally. He just wanted to curl up and cease to exist. He became faintly aware of a small crackling coming from his wrist and he gazed down distantly at his communications link.
"Granite, come in. Granite..."
Something stirred within him and even before he glanced slowly upwards, he knew he was there. He sensed the change of light even in the depths of such darkness. The only light that reached the recesses of this alley came from the moon, but now a tall, large silhouette blocked most of the blue-grey light. A pair of deep green optics seemed to pierce through the distance between them. The Predacon's incinerating stare paralyzed him to such an extent, that he barely noticed the growing red laser beam, charging and illuminating the Predacon's form.
"Granite, come in!"
His eyes were wide, his body almost glued to the ground. In one last defeated motion, he brought his wrist to his lips.
"Agent Granite faces termination. Operation failed."
And then let his arms droop to the ground a second before the shot pummeled into him and killed him.
* * * *
There was a long and heavy silence in the Transformer base. Slowly, the Captain let out a quiet sigh and rose to his feet.
"There goes the last of our Top Agents," said Pelax, his 2nd Lieutenant.
"With all due respect sir, we can't beat these guys. They're just too strong!"
The Captain raised his hand and silenced the young Lieutenant and all eyes were on him. His loyal troops had defended this base as best as they could, lost family to this fight and yet they still looked to him to make things right again. Every strategy he had tried so far had failed and Cybertron was fast losing this war.
"I know, Lieutenant," he said eventually. He looked at his men.
"I need to talk to our scientist. He said he had something which could turn the tide in this war, and I think it's high time we paid attention to him."
They all nodded softly in agreement.
The Captain dismissed his men and walked into the laboratory.
Spenzak, the team scientist, was seated at his computer. He leapt to his feet and saluted.
"Captain, I'm glad you have come," he said with a mirthless smile.
The Captain folded his great grey arms across his chest and stared at Spenzak expectantly.
"All right, show me what you got."
Spenzak quickly got to work and loaded up some form of list on his computer screen.
"Take a look sir."
The Captain eyed the screen curiously, reading the list of names.
"These are human names. Your big idea is to use human agents, Spenzak?"
"Not just any humans, Captain. These are special humans, or they will be when we're done with them."
The Captain frowned and the scientist pulled out a chair for him.
"Please sit and let me explain it to you," he said.
Somewhat reluctantly, feeling that this was a waste of his time, the Captain seated himself and as the scientist explained his eyes widened in wonder. The plan was a mess, it was nearly certain to fail, and yet it still held promise. Being desperate and not knowing what else to try, the Captain gave the scientist the approval he needed to initiate the operation.
And so it began.
A chat had been scheduled and Nurann for one was not going to miss it.
When she entered the chat room on AIM, only she, Miss Special and Sapphire were on. But an hour later, that chat was in full swing and Sapphire was marveling to Miss Special on how many had come.
"Amber, me, you, Nurann, Hacker, Skyfire, Blackarachnia, Sharpshot, Lady Scale, Dannn, Pacerpaw, Varyn and Sinead are all on, Miss Special," Sapphire exclaimed.
"That makes...13 Woah!" Hacker typed.
"Yeah, and I've got Starath, Lady Venom, Cheetra and Kacheetah on with me in the bravenet chat as well," Sapph added.
Sapphire was a little sad that 'Blaze and Darkfire couldn't make it. Darkfire was simply not on and 'Blaze was at work.
"Weird how it worked out that ALL of us could make it on today, isn't it?" Varyn mentioned.
"Yeah. My doctor's appointment was cancelled for some reason, my mom said," Hacker noted.
"I was gonna go to the movies but my friend fell sick," Skyfire added.
It seemed that half of the people on had experienced some odd occurrence which led them to being on the net that day.
"Lady Venom's reason has to be the weirdest. All the power failed all over the city EXCEPT in her own house. So she didn't bother going anywhere today. But everywhere but her own house? Now that's odd," Sapphire said.
They all agreed, and chatted merrily amongst themselves until Skyfire noted Sharpshot had been very quiet.
"Hey Sharpshot? You there?"
No reply.
"He's probably multi-tasking," Pacerpaw said.
"Yeah. Btw, I liked that drawing of Ima, Pacer," Varyn said.
Pacer didn't reply.
"Uh, well, technically Ima *is* Pacer's character, but Skyfire drew her," Sapphire put in for her quiet Swedish friend.
"Varyn have you been to my board lately?" Amber asked.
Varyn didn't reply.
"Boy, a lot of people are multi-tasking! lol!" Hacker typed.
No one replied.
"Hey, guys?"
"Yeah, I'm still here," Miss Special said.
"Oh good. I wanted to ask you something," Hacker went on.
"Yes?"
Hacker didn't say anything more.
"Yo, Hacker? Hello?" Miss Special called.
The chat was quiet.
In California, Sara stared at her screen in wonder.
"How do I *always* manage to kill the chat?" she wondered, then typed that.
Still no one answered.
It was quiet for a long time and she tried individually instant-messaging people, but got no response.
"Maybe my AIM's going funky," she murmured.
Suddenly, the lights went out. The only glow emitted from her computer screen.
"MOM!" she yelled in frustration.
Silence.
"Ok," she growled, getting to her feet, "I'm getting sick of no one answering me!"
She stormed out of the room into the living area. It was pitch dark.
"Weird, it was afternoon a few minutes ago."
Outside the biggest, blackest storm Sara had ever seen was looming above her house. Had she been so oblivious?
Feeling a mite bit a frightened, she called out again.
"Mom...?"
"Your mommy's not here," a dark voice snarled.
She would have reacted with a shriek, and lunged for the nearest heavy object to throw and tried to knock down the scary guy with the voice, had he not hit her over the head with it first...
He awoke with a very bright light burning down on him.
"Am I dead?" Sharpshot asked aloud.
"No, you're quite alive," a strange voice answered.
Sharpshot blinked and tried to put an arm over his eyes, only to find them tied down.
"Am I in a hospital?" he tried. He was strangely very calm.
"Not really," the voice said.
"Then where the heck am I?" he sighed wearily, feeling sleep coming upon him.
There was a brief pause.
"On Cybertron."
Sharpshot snorted.
"Yeah, right..."
He fell asleep.
Varyn awoke in a rather different way. She awoke with a start, burst forward, felt her body jerk back and yelled.
"Get away from me!!!"
Three blurry figures seemed to move hurriedly away from her. Varyn's eyes were sore and she couldn't make out very much, except lots of light and those three figures.
"Calm down, Varyn," a soft voice said.
"Who are you? What do you want and why are there bonds holding me back?" Varyn demanded, still desperately trying to free her hands and rub at her eyes. She wanted to see!
"Varyn?" a teenage, female voice cried.
It seemed to be coming from her far left.
"Varyn, is that you?"
"Yes?" Varyn uttered less violently.
"Varyn! It's Sapphire!"
Varyn's heart skipped a beat.
"Sapph, where are you?" she called, feeling frustrated tears stinging her eyes.
"Varyn! Help me!" she sobbed.
Varyn struggled violently against her bonds, but to no avail.
"I can't Sapph, I'm all tied up."
The figures approached.
"Varyn!!! They're coming for me! Help!" she shrieked.
"Sapphire!!"
There was a guttural noise and then silence.
Varyn remained still, while she felt a prick on her arm and cold liquid flowing into her veins.
"Sapph..." she whispered, before sleep took her.
Some hours later, Sinead awoke in a large, circular, grey room.
She was lying on a soft bed and woke up feeling light-headed but very rested.
With a yawn, she dropped to her feet and rubbed her eyes.
When she opened them fully, she sighed gently. The room was full of beds, all with sleeping teenagers. Some she recognised.
The closest to her was Starath, who was clutching her pillow like a teddy bear.
A few beds away she noticed Nurannoniel stirring as well.
"I have SUCH a headache," a voice from behind her groaned. She turned to see a dark haired girl, very pretty, soothing the top of her head.
Sinead was about to call to her, when another voice made her turn.
"I have wings."
A boy in his late teens was standing in front of her, flexing a set of long red wings, tinged with silver. They were leathery and yet metallic, and while the rest of him appeared quite human, the wings looked rather real.
He was dressed in dark red pants and a red t-shirt with a grey symbol of some kind in the middle.
"Who are you?" Sinead asked.
"I'm Dannn."
"Dannn?! Dannn, it's Sinead!"
A high-pitched shriek came from the back of the large room.
"Did someone say Sinead?"
Nurann leapt off her bed and ran to Sinead, grabbing her and giving her a big hug. Sinead laughed and hugged her back.
"OOF! Nurann! You've got one strong hug!" Sinead choked, almost certain her bones were snapping. Nurann let go.
"Sorry! I don't usually hug that tightly! I'm just so happy to see you! Where are we?"
"That's what I'd like to know."
Lady Venom introduced herself, and then wondered why Sinead was staring at her.
"Lady V, those are some weird clothes you've got on," Dannn finally said.
Lady Venom looked down. She was dressed in tight silver pants and a low cut maroon top with odd symbols scattered down her shoulder sleeves in silver. She also noted she had extremely long, sharp nails that appeared to be made of steel.
"Yeah. They're not mine though."
Sinead looked herself over. She was dressed in normal gear which came as a relief. So was Nurann.
Gradually, the others began to awaken, and they all made their way to the center of the room where they introduced their human selves to each other and marveled over the strange appearances some of their Internet friends really had.
Starath was dressed in dark purple clothes with red steaks down her sides. Blackarachnia (the one with the headache) was in a tight black suit with golden symbols over her torso. Kacheetah was in a golden suit with turquoise wings. Cheetra appeared as she had drawn herself: tall and beautiful and cat-like. Lady Scale was silver from head to toe. Her hair was silver, her face painted silver, her body-tight suit was silver and she had very vicious and large extended claws on her hands and feet. Sinead stepped away from her nervously and she giggled, seeming very relaxed in her strange new body. One eye had a glass monocle over it, and the glass was tinted red.
Hacker was extremely beautiful and wore long turquoise and silver and purple robes, and she had massive metallic wings of that same turquoise colour. In comparison to her grand stature that she seemed to have, despite being quite slim and not very tall, her face was soft and welcoming.
Skyfire was tall and elegant, dressed in soft, dark grey pants and a shirt, with long eagle wings extending from his back. Amber was dressed all in black, with odd goggles on her face and a set of tools attached to her hips.
"I suddenly know how to fix a very complicated car," she declared.
"Always good," Miss Special said as she approached the circle.
Everyone turned to look at her.
Miss Special had been too irritated by the sore lump at the back of her head to actually notice that she now had long red hair, tipped in orange and finally yellow. She wore a tight pear-coloured top that had flames licking the sides, and three-quarter pants of the same nature. Her skin was a strange hue - peach and yet in certain lights, very white. She had sleek, hazel eyes and with them she glared at everyone.
"What are you all looking at? Hey, Dannn, are those wings?! No fair! I want wings!"
A deep voice came over a speaker mounted at the top of the large dome-like room.
"It's good to see you're all awake," the voice said.
"I'm hungry!" Amber cried.
The voice went on:
"Don't worry. You'll all be treated to a nice dinner and dessert. After which all this will be explained to you, and then you will go on a mission which will probably lead you to your deaths."
"Bummer," Hacker said.
"IF you don't pay attention to what we have to say to you. Dinner will be ready in ten minutes."
The voice went away and the others were left looking at each other.
"You know, I thought that being in a large dome-like room with people that are meant to be halfway across the world dressed in strange gear...would kinda freak me out," Starath said, "But it feels strangely normal."
Pacerpaw, dressed in an emerald dress, nodded fervently.
"Same here. I feel very calm."
"Yeah, but where are Sharpshot, Sapph and Varyn?" Sinead asked worriedly.
Just then, a door appeared and three people walked in. Well, rather they staggered.
Sharpshot was dressed in normal clothes, but Varyn and Sapphire looked quite different.
Varyn was helping Sapph along, although she looked pretty woozy herself.
"Apparently!" she yelled, "us three put up such a fight to being thipped off here, that they had to use two dothes...did I just sthlur? Drat, I did."
Varyn looked rather drunk, but she wasn't. She was coming out of yet a third dosage of drugs and Sapphire kept falling asleep on her side. Sharpshot looked very happy and skipped inside, then to his horror realized that he had skipped, and tried to regain a more macho posture.
"Bloody drugs," he growled. He sat next to Sinead on one of the beds, then fell backwards, snoring.
Varyn was dressed in soft, forest-green pants and a very natural, thin, silky beige top with raptor imprints on them. She had a black helmet on her head which looked hard and out-of-place amid all her soft clothes. Sapphire was exactly as Solar Blaze had drawn her, alike to Miss Special except with silver and blue flames, and long blue hair and green eyes.
"How you three are going to eat dinner in such a state beats me," Blackarachnia said.
Everyone had questions on their mind, but they were all feeling the effects of the drugs that had been used to knock them out, paralyze them and keep them asleep for the two day trip by a very fast ship from Earth to Cybertron. That was what was keeping them so calm, which was good, because until they walked into the dining room and saw out of the large window that they were indeed on another planet, they had all believed they were dreaming.
Chapter
2
- Getting to Know Yourself
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Starath had never dined gazing out on a war zone before. Especially not one on a foreign planet. As she looked out the huge window to her left, she could see a dark night above grey ground with a metallic lustre to its soil. Rubble and broken down machines lay scattered about, with one clear pathway leading through it all to the dome they were now in. On the horizon she could see a high wall with patrolling robots at its base.
The food was good. Warm and fresh and filling. She was eating some form of cake now for her dessert. She was sitting at one very long table that stretched from one side of the eating hall to the other and it was lined with all her friends in their various garments. They all ate as much as they could, having not eaten in two days. So far they had not seen anyone in the dome-base but each other, although most could make out the robots guarding the wall outside in the gloom. The food had already been waiting for them when they entered the room.
"Starath?"
She turned to see Sinead, smiling at her with a faint look of concern.
"Are you all right?"
"Yeah," she said, lowering her head. She blinked and then frowned. "Yeah, I think so."
Sinead stared at her worriedly.
She looked back up at her friend again. "It's just that...it's so unreal, isn't it? And yet I believe it. Every part of it. It's like I always knew at the back of my mind that it had to be real in some sense...but I never quite expected to, well, see it."
Sinead nodded thoughtfully. She knew what Starath was getting at. They had a very strange calmness holding control over them. Sinead suspected it to be the drugs they knew had been pumped into their bodies. Still, she couldn't shake the feeling that this was somehow normal.
"Ladies and gentlemen, so I believe the polite greeting goes," the voice over the speaker said.
Everybody glanced up and around.
"I see most of you have finished your dinner. I do hope you enjoyed it. But now we must get onto the important matters at hand and discuss why you are here."
The food in front of them shimmered and disappeared.
"Hey, I wasn't finished with that muffin!" Amber protested.
"But the question is, was the muffin really there?" Sharpshot noted, raising an eyebrow. No one else seemed too alarmed that their food had simply vanished.
The lights dimmed and a door slid open on the far end of the hall, which was indeed very large, empty and spacious. Light poured in and silhouetted the bot making an entrance. He walked towards them, casually and yet with poise. He was followed by two femmes. As they arrived at the table, their true size and structure was visible. They towered above them at ten feet. The male was coated in a dark grey with jet wings mounted on his back and engines and various other parts lining his huge body. The two femmes had motorcar alternate modes, as could be seen by their designs. One was blue, the other yellow. They were all smiling.
"Greetings, Project H."
The group of friends all looked at each other in confusion, except Miss Special.
"I don't like to be referred to as a project. Who are you and why do some of us look like..." She didn't know what to compare herself with.
He chuckled. "Direct and to the point. Which is why you'll be leader of the 2nd Platoon."
Miss Special was getting sick of riddles, but she smiled at the sound of importance "Leader of the 2nd Platoon" held.
"I won't keep you in suspense. My name is Spenzak. I am the scientist who enhanced your bodies. Some of you look normal, but that's because the transformation in you is internal. You cannot see it. You are a Project created to seek, destroy and conquer. All of you are a very specially selected group because you know so much about our race - Transformers."
He watched their expressions. They mostly stared at him in disbelief and, as the drugs wore off, some had a faint inkling of panic. Others fidgeted nervously, while some shook their heads with "yeah I know I'm dreaming now" looks on their faces. He had to prove to them this was for real. An idea sprung to mind.
His glance lowered as he caught the suspicious eye of Varyn. He stared at her intensely.
"Hello Varyn. You must be used to getting drugged and spaced out, as one might put it, because we needed to use three doses on your ugly body."
She stood up in anger: "Hey, bulko! Who you calling ugly?" she snarled.
"But you can't be that tough. You were no help to Sapphire when she screamed in agony for you. What a disappointment. I think you're a waste of time," he said mockingly.
An overwhelming rage filled Varyn as her body began to quiver and a searing heat attacked her skin.
"One more word out of you and I'll tear you to shreds," she growled. The others inched away from her. Her voice had grown deep and had a semi-metallic ring to it. Her eyes were very dark and focused and she seemed to be growing in stature.
"Varyn, it's ok," Sapphire peeped, trying to place a comforting hand on her arm.
"No, Sapphire, it's not. He just insulted me. I swore I'd protect you when you came to visit me," she said adamantly but with obvious emotion at the root of her fury.
"You're useless!" Spenzak laughed and suddenly hurled a bolt of energy that came from his hand, at Sapphire. It hit her in the chest and she yelped, tumbling backwards.
Varyn screamed and leapt onto the table.
"Hey!" Sinead cried angrily and Lady Venom and Miss Special rose to their feet.
"Just try that on me and you'll die before you know what hit you!" Lady Venom cried. Starath rushed to Sapphire's aid. She was lying on the floor sniveling.
"Aw, Sapph! Are you ok?" Sapphire looked up, tears running down her face.
"Starath...I'm fine. Just in shock. I'm not hurting." Starath hugged her and glared at Spenzak.
Varyn did not glare, she lunged. She did more than just lunge, she sprang six feet in the air and landed heavily on him with such force he fell backwards. She kicked him furiously, each thrust of her foot making visible dents on him. The two femmebots grabbed her by either side and she yelled in frustration as she felt her small frame in comparison to theirs, being lifted from the bot sprawled out on the floor. He looked up at her with a satisfied smirk.
"You bastard!" she screamed.
"Let her go!" Miss Special commanded, also feeling very, very hot. One of the femme bots took a knife and held it at Varyn's side. She looked directly at Miss Special with a mocking grin and thrust just the tip of the knife towards Varyn. Before the blade even touched the struggling young woman's skin, Miss Special's hands burst into flame and she instinctively tossed a massive fireball towards the femmebot, who screamed in pain as it hit her in the face and sent her crashing to the ground. Varyn was free and leapt back onto Spenzak, who'd just gotten up.
He tried to hold her back and just managed to keep her at arm's length. His voice lifted above the chaos of the room and commanded: "Stand down! STAND DOWN!" A sudden, heavy silence filled the room. Varyn stopped her attack, chest heaving, blood from her bare fists and feet making little rivers on the floor. He looked at Varyn gently and held up his hands in defense.
"Stop," he said calmly. Her hands fell at her sides as the warmth from her skin faded and a sudden peacefulness settled over her like a thin blanket. She suddenly understood.
He looked towards the group of humans and nodded very slightly.
"As tough as she is, there is no way the normal Varyn would have been able to inflict so much damage on a Transformer like me."
He looked towards Miss Special.
"And I'm sure you'll agree that although you admire Inferno, you were not capable of sending fireballs into the air until now, Sara."
She stared at her hands wide-eyed, still catching her breath after such an adrenaline rush.
Finally, he looked towards Sapphire, who was leaning against the wall with Starath at her side.
"And Sapphire, as a regular human, you'd be dead now. That shot I fired at you did nothing but knock the air out of you. There's hardly a mark on you."
Sapphire nodded, exhausted with shock.
"My point is, you are powerful now. I have taken the strengths of the Transformers you admired most, and of the characters you always wanted to be and were through your fan fiction and artwork. I've applied this to your once weak bodies to enhance you. You are effective, powerful and formidable..."
He once again stared at Varyn.
"Killing machines."
A silence of awe and wonder followed his words, but Sinead broke it, shaking her head vigorously.
"I am not a soldier. I won't kill for the sake of killing."
"Oh but you'll have to," he cut her off quickly.
"Because where we're taking you, you'll have to fight to survive."
He sat down on the table and rubbed his aching, dented arm.
Slowly, the others began to sit with him, while the blue femmebot tended to the yellow one, who, thanks to Miss Special, was lying in stasis lock on the floor.
"You see, Cybertron has been attacked by an invading army of aliens designed to take out robots. No matter what we've tried, we can't defeat them. They invade, take the form of the thing they kill and use it to destroy everything in their path. Which is what makes them so successful as conquerors. They came in the form of the last life form they conquered, which were things beyond our comprehension. Beings tall and slender and so incredibly powerful that they took out entire Cybertronian cities in days. But we could fight them, to an extent, while they were in that form. So they used their power of cloaking. Still, we managed to find ways to seek them out and fight them. Then they took the forms of Transformers..." he said shaking his head. "They took the forms of brothers, sisters, commanders, employers, advisers - people you trusted - and the killings grew and grew. Army bases were taken over, mineral sources were betrayed to them and suddenly!"
He made an explosive gesture with his hands.
"Suddenly, every Transformer you saw was a walking corpse, inhabited by this virus of a life-force. Only a few of us got away. What was left of our population was shipped to protected airbases. Don't get me wrong, there are still plenty left of us, but just less than half of the amount there were."
"Whoa..." Sharpshot muttered everyone's thought.
"We cannot fight them, but we found a weakness of theirs. They can only inhabit one straight form or another. But a hybrid - a mix of two completely different things - they can't take over. What we've done to you, is mixed you with Transformer, whilst still keeping your human structures. We've already tested this formula out, and she survived the aliens, although barely."
"Who? Who did you test?" Cheetra asked, alarmed.
"One known to you as 'Wicked Woman'. And she was wicked, in battle. She's currently recovering on another station. She made it clear to us that a hybrid like herself was better in force of numbers. Which is why we used all of you. Once split into teams, your mission is to locate the army bases of Cybertron, get back control over them and use the weapons therein to do what they're supposed to - destroy our own kind. If you stick together and fight as a team, you'll be able to overcome the aliens who even if they kill you, won't be able to inhabit your bodies."
He looked at Sinead and smiled sadly.
"In short, we need YOU, to survive."
Another long, stunned silence.
"So what do WE get out of this," Nurannoniel asked.
He stood up with an exasperated gesture. "I knew you'd ask this. If you refuse, we'll keep you in isolation until the enhancement on you wears off. Then you'll be powerless against us and we will kill you and replace you with others more willing. There are plenty of human transformer fans out there, you know. You just happened to be our first choice."
"First choice, but we don't have one. Great," Hacker murmured.
Spenzak shook his head with a smile: "However, it might comfort you to know that there is a nice surprise out of all this waiting for you, should you accomplish your first mission."
Skyfire looked up: "First...mission?"
Spenzak pressed a little button located on his shoulder and suddenly a hologram appeared in the middle of the table. It showed a war-beaten city, with jets and tanks moving about its perimeter.
Spenzak folded his arms and raised an eyebrow. "Your first mission is to infiltrate that city and locate the city's very important Army base. And survive doing so."
"Great. When do we start?" Pacerpaw asked.
The hologram disappeared and everyone looked at Spenzak.
"In a week. After you've completed your training session. You've all got special new powers, and the next few days you'll be getting to know yourselves all over again."
Chapter
3
-
Training
~
* ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Lady Scale stared at the target board in front of her. It was one hundred meters away and yet she could zoom in on it and read the fine print that even at close range a normal person would have to squint to read. It read "Shoot here, you sucker!"
She shook her head with a grin, charged up her monocle, and fired. She hit the bulls eye and fried a hole through it, so there was no more left of the annoying text that appeared, in various taunting and insulting forms, on every target board she had to shoot. She never lost her cool and so far she'd hit every target with absolute precision. She was only in her second day of training.
Around her, the others were practicing their new found powers. Lady Scale had a laser eye like TM2 Dinobot, and razor sharp claws that could shred anyone at close range. She was also armed with a powerful laser gun, strapped to her left thigh. Speed and accuracy were her specialties.
Not far from her, Cheetra was listening to Spenzak who had pulled her, Sinead, Nurann, Sharpshot and Pacerpaw into a group.
He was telling them that he was going to have to teach them their powers as they would not come so naturally as the others.
Cheetra had just discovered she had no power, but instead was compensated with incredible speed and agility and fighting skills and techniques that she simply woke up knowing, that would usually take years to master. All she needed were some lessons for her to exercise them and everything would start to come naturally from then on.
"You'll be a runner," Spenzak said, "and a very fast and stealthy one at that. It's a very important job, Cheetra. Treat it with respect."
She nodded and followed one of the femmebots to go to her training room. The dome was massive and had many special rooms for particular training events. At the moment she was in the main hall where target practice happened.
Sinead watched Cheetra go, but turned when she heard her name.
"Sinead, this is for you."
Spenzak pulled something out from a metal case he'd been carrying with him. It was a long, beautifully crafted silver sword.
Sinead's face lit up and he handed it to her with a smile.
"Oh, it's gorgeous," she breathed, watching how it glinted different shades of blue and grey in the light.
"And powerful," he added. "It's made of the strongest metal, it's solid and inside it is a vein of pure energon attached to electrodes that you have to squint to see. If you feel the handle of the sword, a kind of braille will be there. The electrodes react to your body temperature. If you get hot and anxious or angry, the sword's energon levels will power up with your mood and pack a stronger punch than your enemy would ever expect. Especially if he's a Transformer."
Sinead nodded, aware that she was immune to the energon, being organic. She was one of the only ones who could wield it, as others were more Transformer than she was.
She glanced up at Spenzak: "Do I have any other powers?"
He gently took her arm and led her away from the others, calling over his shoulder for them to wait for him. He took her to a table at the end of the main hall which had nothing on it.
"Give me your sword."
She handed it to him and he placed it on the clean metal table.
"Now look at it. Stare at it with all the focus you can muster."
"Ok," she said with a shrug and did just that. Nothing happened.
"Spenzak, it's--"
"Shh! Concentrate!"
She resumed staring at the sword. She looked so long and hard at it, that its shape became distorted and a grey mass of erratically moving dots swarmed over her eyes. She blinked and looked again toward the table. The sword flickered and disappeared.
"Hah!" she gasped and stepped backwards and the sword immediately re-appeared.
"What happened?!"
"You used your only power. You can make anything you focus on long enough, turn invisible. As long as you keep thinking about it, it will remain invisible, but as soon as you lose concentration, it will re-appear."
Her eyes were wide with surprise and she turned, mouth slightly open with wonder, at his next words.
"It may be your only power, but my oh my, you can imagine what a useful one it can be."
Sinead nodded slightly and stared at the sword, but it did not vanish, for her thoughts were elsewhere- wondering the capabilities she now had with such a power.
Spenzak left Sinead to practice and returned to the group.
"Nurann!"
"Yes?" she said perkily.
"Nurann, you can levitate and cause miniature earthquakes."
She blinked.
"I can?"
He nodded.
"How?"
Spenzak walked up to her, looming over her, and grabbed her shoulders.
"Hey!" she cried out in alarm. He lifted her off the ground and raised her small flailing body above his head.
"Hey!! Put me down!"
Sharpshot laughed and Pacerpaw suppressed a giggle.
"Happy flying," Spenzak said and Nurann felt a blast of panic hit her a second before he threw her with all his strength up into the air. She screamed, especially when she saw him step away from where she was destined to land. Not knowing what else to do, she crossed her legs in mid air and put her hands on her knees and yelled" "ohm!"
Spenzak roared with laughter as she fell like a cannonball towards the ground and then stopped a mere four centimeters before she hit it, and floated. The hairs on Nurann's arms were standing on end and her heart was beating a marathon. It took her a few seconds to recover.
"Was 'ohm' the magic word?"
Spenzak shook his head, still giggling. "No, panic was. You can't levitate unless you experience an intense and sudden emotion. If you don't leap into the air at that moment, you can channel that emotion into a pulse into the ground, causing a miniature earthquake. But I'll leave that up to you to discover, since the element of surprise from me can only be used once in a short space of time."
Nurann frowned but felt a queer little thrill of excitement go through her. She was still levitating, and it felt awesome!
"Sharpshot, all you need is this," Spenzak said as he took out a long, complicated looking gun from his metal case and tossed it to the teenage boy. Sharpshot grabbed it and marveled at it in his hands.
"It's the ultimate sniper gun. It can fire from distances unachieved by any sniper rifle on Earth and it can pack a punch that will take out even the toughest transformer with a single shot. Your power is not a power, but a gift. You have the sharpest eye in the west! You, my friend, will be your team's sniper."
"How fitting," Sharpshot remarked, in regard to his name. They obviously took what he called himself as a hint to what he wanted to be when they gave him this gift, although he wasn't sure exactly how they 'gave' it to him. For the moment, he didn't care.
"Will someone show me how to use this gun so I can get shooting?" he asked.
Spenzak pointed to a room on the far left. "Ask for Max, he'll be able to help you."
Sharpshot walked off, leaving Pacerpaw as the last of the group to learn of her new abilities.
"Gentle Jen," Spenzak chuckled softly. "You're very quiet."
"I'm observing all that is happening around me. It's quite a lot to take in," she said.
"I know. I also know how much you admire Rhinox, which is why I have given you his special ability to understand and be able to run any complicated Cybertronian computer your team may come across during your mission. You, Pacerpaw, are invaluable."
She nodded with a knowing smile. She had suspected that was her ability, especially since she had so many curious symbols floating about her head which she somehow understood.
"And just to give you the real Rhinox feel," he said with a grin, reaching for the last object in his metal case, "Here's a silver bag that you'll strap to your back, and in it..."
He gave it to her, and she unzipped it. She pulled out the weapon.
"A small but highly effective machine gun. Or, chain gun of doom, as you humans like to call it."
She laughed and held up the surprisingly light gun. It was teal in colour. It was easy to operate and in her silver bag she had a number of ammunition cartridges to use should she run out.
"Thank you," she said politely, but Spenzak could see that while she was flattered, she was also uneasy by the fact that she needed a weapon...and would eventually have to use it.
The day wore on and when it came to dinner time, everyone chatted excitedly among themselves about what new powers they had or about what they had discovered.
Skyfire could fly, along with Dannn, and both had wing missiles. Skyfire's worked much like Silverbolt's and Dannn had numerous little gun barrels loaded down the edges of his metallic red wings. They also both had laser guns strapped to their legs for extra power.
Varyn was capable of amazing strength when aggravated. Not only that, but when under pressure she could emit a defensive force-field that would protect her from incoming fire. She became so powerful that all she needed was a blaster-gun to accompany her - otherwise she could travel light and rely on her instincts for protection.
Starath's right arm powered up and she could fire a long charge of, you guessed it, purple laser-fire at her enemy. She also had shoulder mounted mini-cannons, like Megatron. She'd only recently discovered that the abnormal lumps on her back were not strange growths. They had only a few hours ago burst to become great mauve blade-wings. Her transformation had been slower than others, since she was the last to have the experiment, so when she awoke the wings were still forming. She was very glad they were wings and wished Spenzak had informed her earlier. She'd only mentioned it when they became unnervingly large, at first thinking they were just swellings. She'd made it her goal to get back at him for scaring her so much.
Lady Venom's claws were unbreakable and could slash through just about anything save Sinead's sword. She also had a very large RPG missile- launcher attached to her back. She'd initially struggled to walk with the darn thing but now she was getting used to the weight.
Amber, like Pacerpaw, had acquired skills. She was alike to Rattrap in knowledge of hacking and breaking into places. Not only that, but she had a toolkit to boot and a number of grenades, smoke bombs and scatter-bombs.
Hacker had extensive knowledge of karate. She had metal plating beneath her skin on her hands, arms, back, legs and feet so that she could fight a Transformer and actually seriously damage him if she struck him. She was the sister-fighter of Sapphire, who relied on her for up-front battle while at the back, Sapphire practiced her powers. Sapphire was telepathically capable of moving objects and sending hugely destructive pulses through the air to blast things back, effectively wrecking all the internal systems of weapons and machines, leaving the Transformer exposed to attack. That's when Hacker moved in and finished the job. They had to work together and Spenzak told them that it was imperative that they keep the other alive and protected as best as they possibly could.
Blackarachnia had gained all of the real Blackarachnia's fighting moves and had tiny gun barrels lodged in her fingers that, when needed, protruded from her skin and fired small but piercing silver pins, which had the tiniest amount of cyber-venom in each. Two pins would make a Transformer woozy, three would make him see double, four would put him in stasis lock and more than four would probably render him unconscious for days. Twenty was the number required to kill the average Transformer.
Kacheetah had a rocket/thruster attacked to the back of each of her calves and two more attached to her back so that she too could fly. When she cupped her hands together she could charge up and send off a power blast, much like Starath or Miss Special, except Miss Special shot fireballs.
Miss Special was, along with Varyn, the most powerful there. She had learnt today that she could surround herself in fire, scorching everyone and everything except herself. She could create and wield fire balls which she could hurtle at speeds up to 300 miles per hour and she could spontaneously set anything alight at the slightest touch or, if extremely upset, at a thought. She was to be leader of a platoon and this dinner session they were going to be divided up into teams.
"I wonder where Wicked Woman is," Varyn said as she forked a potato.
"Yeah, I hope they weren't too hard on her. She was the first one to be...'tested', as they like to put it," Skyfire said, looking a little worried.
"She's still in isolation. Is it that she's still recovering from her ordeal? 'Cause if she is then man, we're getting into some MAJOR trouble, here," Starath noted ominously. The others fell into silence.
Just then, the door opened and Spenzak made his usual proud entrance.
"Yeah yeah, we know you are. No need to swagger," Lady Venom called, rolling her eyes.
Spenzak stopped in front of the table and gave her a baleful look.
"You'd better learn to speak more respectfully to your superiors, Miss Venom. Especially since I am the one teaching you your survival skills."
"You're the one who made us look like this and you're the one putting us in a place where we'd have to use such skills," she pointed out, her tone sarcastic and contemptuous.
Spenzak shook his head and turned to face the others more generally.
"Besides from Varyn, who's still prodding her potatoes, I see most of you have finished dinner. Fear not, dessert will be served as usual, but not before I divide you up into your teams."
"Aw! But I'm desperate for chocolate cake!" Sapphire protested.
Spenzak turned to Sapphire with a sigh.
"Sapphire, with the amount of cake YOU eat at dinner, we might as well bake an entire one JUST for you."
A bright smile appeared on her face. "That'd be good!"
Spenzak dismissed her with a wave of his hand and started his speech.
"To make things simpler for you simple people of a simple race --"
"Nice flattering intro," Lady Venom muttered just loud enough to hear. Spenzak ignored her.
"-- I'm calling your teams T-A, and T-B"
"TB are my initials!" Sapphire piped.
"Cute," he said flatly, and continued.
"The people in T-A are the following: Team leader: Varyn. Her lieutenant is Starath. The rest are Sharpshot, Skyfire, Sapphire and Hacker, Pacerpaw, and Nurannoniel.
"Yay! Sky's in my group!" Sapphire cried and went on to give Skyfire a cuddle. He blushed and shrugged. "Sapph, you cuddle too much."
"I know."
"T-B is made up of the following people: Team leader: Miss Special. Her lieutenant is Sinead. Dannn, Lady Scale, Amber, Lady Venom, Blackarachnia and Kacheetah."
"What about me?" Cheetra asked.
"You're a runner, Cheetra, so you're part of both teams. In this hi-tech war, every radio or electronic message, even in code form, stands a good chance of being intercepted and deciphered. Which is why we resort to basics. You deliver messages physically by using your stealth and speed and, if she is able to, Sinead can cloak you as well. Because you are completely organic, you will not be recognized by any Cybertronian scanners."
Cheetra nodded and looked towards Sinead, who smiled and nodded too.
"Tomorrow, I will wake you all bright and early and give you your instructions and battle strategies. You will have a few more days of training and in the evenings I expect you to get together and learn those strategies and know them like your favourite song. The last thing you need is to stuff up and get someone, perhaps not even yourself, killed on your first mission."
Varyn dropped her fork and a heavy silence followed his words. His face had grown very grave.
"It is likely that some of you will die on a mission, but let's not make it the first." He looked towards the blue femmebot now known as Sheba.
"I think they can have dessert now." She nodded and went through to the kitchen. He looked back at everyone else and put on a brave but mirthless smile.
"Enjoy the rest of your meal...I'll see you in the morning."
With that, he walked out and left everyone staring after him.
"Well, that was cheerful," Nurann said eventually.
Varyn stabbed her potato and forced it to squeeze through the gaps in her fork, so it looked like it was going through a paper shredder. To add effect, she added a spurt of ketchup to it.
"Very."
Chapter Four
- Preparation
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~
It was the eve before they went into the city. They had completed their training program successfully and were now in two separate rooms, going over battle strategies.
Both teams were stressed out and anxious to know their plans one hundred percent. Failure to fully understand the mission would probably result in death, and they all knew that.
Varyn was at the head of the table. One bright light shone in true army style above the table, highlighting the battle plans (which was a computer-generated map) and casting everyone into shades of shadow.
She leaned forward and looked at her team.
"Listen, I know we've gone over this thing a hundred times already...and I know you're all gonna do good tomorrow...but I also know that you don't see a reason for treating me better or with more respect because I'm higher in rank. And I agree with you! I don't know much about military strategies or how to lead platoons. If anyone's got experience in terms of knowledge of war, it's Sapph."
"I know all the guns, ranks, divisions and army terms," Sapphire said with a little smile, although everyone could see, even in the shadows, how worried she looked.
"So what I'm driving at is this," Varyn continued. "I have been appointed leader and I know that I will do everything within my power to protect you and lead you to the best of my ability. I also know that I'll be needing ideas and advice at times. I am not going to act like some cocky commander and tell everyone to zip it when they have some criticism of my instructions. But I need to know you trust me. 'Cause without trust...we're not gonna get very far."
"I trust you," said Sharpshot, folding his arms with an adamant nod. "More than m'self in this matter. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes."
"I trust you too, Varyn," Skyfire declared with a supportive smile.
"Me too," added Sapphire.
"I'll trust you as long as you trust me, as your friend and lieutenant," Starath offered, looking intensely at Varyn.
Varyn's worn, hard expression softened and she nodded. "Of course I do, Starath."
Nurann and Hacker simultaneously said: "I trust you!" and then looked at each other and laughed.
Varyn looked about the room, glad to see that they were indeed bonding as a team. Her eyes fell on Pacerpaw.
"Pacer?"
She lifted her gaze and met Varyn's eyes.
"I won't deny that I am frightened. I don't want to fight, under anyone's command."
"Me neither," Varyn said sympathetically, "but we've no choice. I promise you this, though: I won't let anything happen to you as long as you're in my sights. You're our most precious asset as a computer technician and I'll not use you, under any circumstances, as a frontline soldier."
Pacerpaw sighed gently and lowered her eyes.
"I believe you."
"Good," Varyn said and moved away from the table. "If we weren't thousands of miles from a liquor and candy store, I'd say let just forget our troubles and get drunk...but that's just my wishful thinking," she smirked playfully.
"Gosh! And I just said I trusted this woman with my life!" Sharpshot exclaimed.
Varyn laughed and opened the door, allowing the others to empty out of the room and make their way to the sleeping hall.
Last to leave was Sapphire, who turned suddenly and gave Varyn a cuddle.
"I trust you more than I've ever trusted anything, Varyn," she said gently.
"I know you won't let any harm come to me."
"Of course, Sapph. Of course..."
A hollow feeling of fear and dread filled them both. Sapphire was absolutely terrified of fighting in a real war, as much as she was fascinated in the study of it. Varyn was terrified of messing up tomorrow; in truth she didn't care that much if she got hurt or worse...but the last thing she wanted to do was get anyone else hurt. She'd vowed to protect them, but she wasn't so sure she knew how.
Miss Special collapsed on her bed and let out a long, weary sigh. She'd just come from a difficult meeting. The air had been so tense as they went over their plans for tomorrow. She could see the fear in everyone's eyes and it was contagious. Up until now she'd forced the growing unease to the back of her mind, but now, on the eve of battle, she felt it dawning upon her. She could die tomorrow and get all her friends killed in the process.
She couldn't let that happen. No, she simply wouldn't let that happen.
She felt a little better when she remembered that Sinead was her lieutenant. A true warrior at heart, firm in her beliefs and with a strong love for all her friends, Sinead was a valuable team member. Miss Special knew that if for whatever reason she herself couldn't cope, Sinead could be trusted to take over.
While she may have been the most powerful (and she was still unsure why they chose her to bear this power-burden), she knew she wasn't the best leader. Or at least she didn't think so anyway. Why didn't they make Sinead or...or Lady Venom or even Sapphire with all her military knowledge into leaders? Did these Cybertronian scientists really know what they were doing? Basing rank on power seemed such a primitive system...
All these thoughts drifted through her troubled mind as she began to doze. She was awoken from her impending slumber by a cold, metallic hand.
She lurched upright, her fingertips warming to the point that little puffs of steam rose from them. Before her stood Spenzak, looking somewhat menacing in the gloom. Everyone was falling asleep or was already.
"What is it?" she hissed, annoyed at being startled.
"Come with me," Spenzak said, turning as he did. She got off her bed with a grumble. It was late and she really needed the sleep.
She followed him out of the sleeping hall, down the passageway, through a door she'd never seen, into another corridor and through yet another door. She stepped out into bitterly cold night air and in front of her she could see dark, rocky land of Cybertron, leading up to a high wall. The patrolling Transformers could still be seen by the dull lights of their optics and weapons.
It was the first time she'd come outdoors and she noticed immediately how the air somehow tasted different. The pressure was different and the winds were erratic and strange. They made a hollow moan as they whipped over the building and stirred the rubble outside. Two bright shining moons beamed down on them both.
She looked up at Spenzak. "Is this what you wanted to show me?"
"Look closer," he said. She stared back out into the darkness.
"I don't see anyth-"
She gasped. Spenzak was gone.
"Hey! Where'd you go?" she cried.
A small noise of footsteps made her spin on her heels and stare dumbly out.
"Spenzak!!"
His voice came from directly in front of her.
"Your heat and motion sensors are dead! There's an enemy in your proximity! What do you do?" he called.
A surge of panic and alarm shot through her, and then she relaxed a little, understanding that this was a test. He was trying to prepare her for the aliens who were capable, in their normal form, of being invisible.
She dropped to the ground, rolled, leapt back up again and yelled angrily: "Come and get me, freak'os!"
She heard Spenzak giggle and that gave away his position. She hurtled a small but substantial fireball in that direction. A cry of pain and a visible Spenzak followed. He had a singed but not badly damaged arm.
"Ouch!! You got me!" he yelped unhappily.
"So I did. I passed the test."
He shook his head.
"No you didn't. You cheated. You made me laugh - the alien would not laugh, in fact he'd probably do just what you asked him to do. Come and get you."
Miss Special sighed. "All right, switch back on your invisible-mode device thingamabob and I'll show you what I'm really made of."
He grinned briefly: "I'd like to see you try!" he said sarcastically, but added just before he went invisible with a slightly more serious face: "Just don't be too rough on me..."
Miss Special smiled at this hint of concern. He obviously had enough confidence in her to be scared of 'what she was really made of'.
She stood dead still and listened. It was totally quiet except for the little stirring winds. The winds....now that she listened properly, she could hear they were not erratic. They actually seemed to have a pattern. The moaning noise seemed to rise and fall in a definite rhythm. She tuned into this rhythm while her eyes moved slowly over her immediate surroundings. Suddenly, she sensed a slight change in the wind's strength to her left. It was weaker...
She turned sharply and tossed another fireball. Spenzak let out a cry and she heard a crash.
She stood still, facing the direction she heard the crash. He became visible once more and was kneeling on the ground, holding his stomach.
"Well...done..." he coughed, winded and slightly charred.
"You got me."
She walked over to him and offered him a hand. His own hand was three times the size of hers, but he took it anyway, surprised at her strength when she helped him to his feet.
Once he'd caught his breath, he asked: "How'd you know where I was? Lucky guess?"
Miss Special frowned for a second. "No."
She raised her right hand to the wind.
"Easy. I sensed a change in the amount of wind reaching my left side. You were obviously blocking it. You are very big, so it was like a small wall was suddenly put up, sheltering that side of me."
He shook his head with an amazed smile.
"Wonderful. I knew I'd made a good choice in you."
Miss Special opened her mouth to say something, but the words were not there. She closed her jaw and stared at the ground thoughtfully.
She felt Spenzak put the edge of his hand on her shoulder.
"Have more faith in yourself. You can do this. I believe in you, but you must believe in yourself."
He stared at her for a moment until she moved her head again and looked to the sky. The moonlight caught her red hair and pearl face, adding a depth to her young features that gave him the impression that she'd seen a lot more than your average teenager.