𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐮𝐦 - A Transformers Story

Test Samples

Her hand grabbed the burner and flipped it on. She didn't know why she was there. A shadow was across the table from her, but it didn't resemble any one she had known then. It resembled Maria.

"It's not an element! It's mine! My project! You can have the rest!" Lola paced in front of the burner that seemed to burn higher and higher with each passing second. The shadow was disfigured to be a suffocating chokehold. Lola held the element over the burner with her bare hand. She didn't care if it burned and crawled up her arm. "It's mine! You can't take that from me! My idea to get a sample and test! Mine! You can't take that from me."

The last statement was a futile plea. Lola dropped to her knees and viewed the translucent crystal held between her charred fingers. It didn't hurt.

The shadow was standing behind her, placing a hand over her mouth. It wasn't Maria no more. Lola didn't know who was in the chemistry lab with her. She couldn't see anymore. She couldn't see her hands. Her feet.

The shadow released her and freed her to walk around the room. The doors were shut and no light came from the windows. The lighting came from the burner that she had turned on.

"Lola, this isn't real." Soundwave? But he wasn't in the chemistry lab either. Where did Maria go? She was supposed to be her lab partner. "You have to wake up. Where are you three?"

"I'm in the chemistry lab," Lola responded and searched the drawers for the source of the voice. The drawers were empty as was the rest of the classroom.

"No, where were you before this?" Soundwave tried again, his pattern of speech shifting. "You have to remember, please, Lola."

"I was in the chemistry lab," She stood in front of the burner once more, watching the flame dance back and forth. "And I am in the chemistry lab."

"No! This isn't real. Where were you before this!?" He sounded almost frustrated. But Lola didn't know what he was upset with. She was telling the truth. Her and Maria were testing the element on the plate by holding it to the burner. She was upset with Maria, Lola didn't remember why.

"I'm sorry," She didn't know why she was apologizing, but she was. She slid down to the floor and held her head in her knees. "I don't know. I thought I was in the chemistry lab. I am in the chemistry lab. Then I got mad at Maria and yelled at her. I'm sorry, Maria."

"Maria will forgive you."

"How do you know!? She could hate me. I don't like fighting," Her voice bounced off the walls and the flame of the burner shrunk. Lola was left in the dark except the small crystal glowing blue.

Energon wasn't blue. It was white. It was blue when it was heated and in the dark. Lola could feel fingers pressed into her flesh where her shoulders were. But nobody was behind her.

"Are you okay?"

"It's white." Lola stood up and wobbled towards the door. She had to get back to the mine. The mine? When was she in the mine?

"Scrap." Soundwave's voice was growing faint. "When you open your eyes, stay where you are. Okay?"

"My eyes are open."

~*~

"I can't find a location from her mind," Soundwave said after a beat of silence. Starscream was pissed. When the two (and sometimes three) didn't come back within ten minutes he was worried. But there were times that someone had to go to take a test after school and they ended up coming later.

But after the twenty minute mark Starscream was more than worried. He was pissed. Pissed was an understatement, actually. He could throw Navia from Earth to Cybertron, retrieve her, throw her again, and still be mad at her.

Starscream didn't have that many rules (he did, but they were reasonable) and Navia actively chose to break every single one of them.

"I swear I'll throw that girl to Cybertron when we find them." Autobots could have captured her and tortured her by now. Or the mine could have crushed her and Maria. Lola was obviously alive by some sorts since Soundwave could reach her mind.

"That wouldn't be very logical," Shockwave was attempting to pinpoint Maria's location through an unknown tracker. At this point, Starscream didn't care about the ethics of it.