One In A Billion | Transformers Prime [1]

𝟎𝟎𝟐𝟎

The air grew colder and colder as time passed. I welcomed the wind as it gently blew my hair away from my face. I was sitting alone on a curb, in some random street filled with abandoned buildings as I watched cars blind me with headlights as they drove by. It had been several hours since my encounter with Vince and my anger was finally starting to die down. 

Despite aching all over I felt proud for defending myself against the bully. I'd always hated the way others took advantage of me when I was younger. Years ago, to the best of my memory, I had always been smaller, weaker than others. I grew up as a frail girl. Until a traumatic childhood experience changed me forever. 

Back in Russia, I was conditioned to train. I trained night and day until I bled, fighting enemy after enemy. I became a combatant. An assassin. An agent. A soldier conditioned to be deadly. And I knew that was more than enough to support myself without the help of someone else.

But Vince was a high school kid. What would happen if a grown man tried to attack me? I already knew the answer. 

A sigh passed my lips as I rested my swollen face onto the palm of my hand. Ratchet had said that he would be doing regular daily check-ups on my rib the moment I returned to base from school, so there was no doubt he and the other Autobots were looking for me right now. 

Miko, Jack, and Raf could be calling me right now too, but the voices in my head were louder than the buzzing emitting from my phone.

The wind suddenly stopped. I stretched gently, feeling out my ribs before wincing and looking at the sky. I'd lie and say I was fine. Wheeljack and the others didn't have to know what happened. Still, trying to hide my bruised and swollen face would be difficult. 

"I got hit by a bus?" I tested out the lie and cringed at how ridiculous it sounded.

"You got hit by a bus?" 

A low voice made me jump. The movement was so quick and sudden, sending pain so quickly down my body I yelped. I looked up with wide eyes, immediately spotting a young man with a rugged face adorned with a few days' worth of stubble. He had tousled silver hair that fell just to his ears. His familiar form was leaning against his sports car. 

How did I not hear him pull up?

"When did you get here?" I asked dumbly. 

I realized Wheeljack was in his holoform, something I was yet to get used to, as his electric blue eyes pierced through me.

"Just now," he replied, his eyes scanning the darkness around us. "Where have you been and what the frag are you doing out here?"

I shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant despite my battered appearance. "Thinking,"

"About?"

"...stuff," 

Wheeljack squinted, trying to discern my injuries in the dim light. "What happened to your face?" his gaze flickered down my body, "and your ribs?"

"I got hit by a bus?" I repeated, attempting an uneasy smile. Wheeljack shook his head, clearly not buying the story.

"That's ridiculous,"

"Right?" I let out a parched laugh. 

"Come on, get in the car," Wheeljack said, his tone leaving no room for argument. 

"But Ratchet..." I winced as I tried to move, my ribs protesting with sharp pain.  

"Doc won't kill you," he said with a wry grin. "Now, let me help you up."

✘✘✘

"I leave you alone for a mere day and you have already injured yourself again," Ratchet grumbled as his holoformed hands gently grabbed my face, turning it to one side.