Nightmares and Monsters

Part 23

Previously in Chapter 22:

"The museum is going to be very angry. Very angry. We gotta catch that plane." Came the voice of Simmons from behind me as he looked at what had once been the Hanger Doors to the Museum. Nodding my head in agreement and thinking better of what I was about to do — considering it was crazy to even think about chasing after a 'Con bigger than me by something like 50 times — I ran after Jetfire, calling for him to stop and wait for us, that we could help him. At the speed he was walking at — which wasn't very fast mind you, he had a walking cane! — you'd think catching up with him would be easy... WRONG!

It was rather difficult — his steps were slow yes but he had extremely long legs. I was suddenly very grateful to my Military training that I wasn't out of breath chasing him. It didn't take me long to notice that the rest of the group had caught up with me and that I could hear the engines of Jazz, 'Bee and the minor twins coming up behind us, even though Jazz still had his Holoform next to me. I could tell that the conversation with Jetfire once everyone was standing still was going to be very interesting.

Now on to Chapter 23:

"Damn old coot sure can move when he wants to! Hope ah live ta be able ta do the same when ah'm older." I muttered to Jazz who just smirked - almost as if he knew something I didn't.

As soon as the rest of our little group arrived we watched as Jetfire started to rave to himself out loud, and it was safe to say that even I was confused about half the things he was talking about.

"Right. I'm on a mission." he said as he stamped his cane onto the ground and turned to face us

"Wait, wait, wait, wait!" came Sam's voice as he tried to stay out from under Jetfire's Pedes.

"What do you want?" came his cranky response, although to be fair to him if I was his age and had been woken up from 70 odd years of sleep then I too would be cranky. "Look, we just want to talk!" I said as I walked closer to Sam with Jazz a few steps behind me.

"I have no time to talk. I'm on a mission. I'm a mercenary doom-bringer. What planet am I on?" asked the old Seeker as he squinted down at us. "Earth." said Jazz beating everyone to the answer and I gave him a light-hearted slap on his arm in response.

"Earth? Terrible name for a planet. Might as well call it 'Dirt.' Planet 'Dirt.' Tell me, is that robot civil war still going on? Who's winning?" asked Jetfire as he looked around at all of us. This time it was Sam who responded to his question. "The Decepticons."

"Well, I changed sides to the Autobots." said Jetfire with quite a bit of determination in the way he said it. The look on Jazz's face was hilarious - almost as if he was gonna fritz in shock - although ta tell ya the truth... I wasn't far behind him so I asked the question I knew most of us were just dying to ask. "What do you mean, changed sides?"

"It's a choice. It's an intensely personal decision. So much negativity. Who wants to live a life filled with hate?" he replied and before anyone else could ask a question about it, the little Remote Controlled Alt. Mode Truck 'Con spoke up. "You mean you don't have to work for those miserable, freaking Decepticons?"

"If Decepticons had their way, they'd destroy the whole universe." replied the Elderly Seeker, who was beginning to act and remind me more and more of my own Grandfather - the type of Grandfather who would sit down with you and tell you stories about how things went when he was younger.

"I'm changing sides. I'm changing sides, too, warrior goddess. Who's your little Autobot?" came the voice of the little 'Con turned Autobot. I snickered though when Mikaela responded with a "You're cute." which only seemed to further make me snicker at what the lil' bot did next. "Name's Wheelie. Yeah. Say my name, say my name." as he proceeded to hump Mikaela's leg like a dog.

I decided to ignore the continuing by-play between Sam, Mikaela and Wheelie mainly because it was getting weird even for me and so I went and stood closer to Jazz's Holoform, who held me close in a secure embrace which made me feel safe and loved - he was grinning like a mad man because of it - even though I was somewhat tired from everything that had happened so far.

"I told you my name was Jetfire, so stop judging me." This is what shocked me from my thoughts as the old Seeker slammed his walking stick - which had been his front landing gear when he had been the Plane - into the ground as if to make a point about something. I noticed that Sam and the rest had taken a step backwards when he had done that, yet I knew somehow - and I think it had something to do with me being able to sense their Sparks energy - that he wouldn't intentionally hurt us in anyway.

"I have issues of my own. And it started with my mother! My ancestors have been here for centuries. My father, he was a wheel, the first wheel. Do you know what he transformed into?" By now Jetfire was going into a long-winded rant about his family history and such, but what happened next made me turn and laugh into Jazz's shoulder so as to muffle the sound. After I had regained control of myself I faced forward again just in time to see what happened next.

"(farts out parachute) Bollocks. My boosters are fried." said the old Mech as he fell over backwards. We walked closer to the Seeker as he laid on his back a bit trying to regain his equilibrium from falling over backwards, but Jazz and I walked the closest and I stood for a moment next to Jetfire's helm and I didn't flinch when the old Mech turned his optics in my direction.

"There is something different about you, Femme." he said in a quieter voice than before as he starred at me making Jazz growl lowly, "You don't feel like the other organics that are stood here... Wonder what it is that makes you different?" he murmured the last part as he looked between me and Jazz.

I never got to respond to his question as Sam had come closer, thus cutting off the so far one-sided conversation. "I think we can help each other. You know things I don't know. I know things you don't know, I do." Sam said to Jetfire before turning to me, "Hey Cali... Can I please borrow one of you blades?"

Quirking a brow at Sam I nodded slowly and handed him my boot knife, his one eye was twitching slightly, almost like a nervous tick, but if he was having the thing that happened - Bee had relayed to Jazz everything that had happened in the dorms after Sam had talked to him on the way away from the Battle in the Forest with Megadork - happening again he needed an outlet and we were surrounded by dirt.

"I could do this all day. It comes in waves, these vivid symbols. They're symbols, but they're in my mind. You see, all this is in my mind and Megatron wants what's in my mind. Him and someone called the Fallen." said Sam after roughly 10 minutes of carving the dirt with my knife before slamming the blade into the dirt as he finished the last symbol. I growled lowly at him for that and since he was distracted by his conversation with the Mech, I wiggled out of Jazz's embrace again and walked over a grabbed my knife out of the dirt and wiped it off before placing it back into my boot sheath.

"The Fallen? I know him." came Jetfire's response and then continued on his mini-rant, "He left me here to rust. The original Decepticon. He's terrible to work for. It's always apocalypse, chaos, crisis. These transcriptions, they were part of my mission, the Fallen's search. I remember now, for the Dagger's Tip, and the key."

"Slow down. The Dagger's Tip? The key? What are you talking about?" I asked since this was starting to confuse even me - darn me for zoning out whilst a conversation was going on, and add into the fact that Anubis was starting to stir in my pocket again, poor baby really needed to travel in Jazz's Alt. Mode more than my pocket.

What we were not expecting was for Jetfire to stand over us like a Vulture over a dead carcass and yell out, "No time to explain. Hold on, everybody! Stay still or you'll die!" Jazz's Holoform fizzled out at hearing that and transformed into his bipedal form to grab a hold of me before we were surrounded by a flash of intense bright light, and a scared chirp from Anubis as he was shook around in my pocket. All I could do was pray to whatever God or Goddess was listening, that we came out of this alive at the other end.

End Part 23