Ruby - Origins - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

Robot Wars

When Ruby realised that she wasn't being squished to death, she opened one eye and then the other. Her nose was about two inches from the robot's. If that metal lump was a nose. 

The robot eyed her with one of its huge, red orbs, "ROAR! Where is your wrist garment?"

The whole ground shook with its words. Ruby guessed by the deep tone of its voice, it was a he.

Quickly, she squeaked an answered, "I have no idea what you're talking about!"

She tried to glance sneakily at her right wrist to look at her silver bangle. She could feel it, cool and smooth, pressing against her skin, but she could not see it.

She scraped her hair from her face, to inspect her wrist more closely. It was definitely still there; she hit herself in the forehead with it. But it was completely invisible.

"Yes," he growled, "You know the one. You always wear it on your right wrist. WHERE is it!?" 

Ruby thought the sky would come crashing down, he was so loud.

"Alright, alright!" she cried, "So I do know what you're talking about. I still don't know where it is. I must have lost it."

Her fear was slowly ebbing away. The situation she was in was so insane it was almost funny.

"DON'T LIE!" The robot shouted; he squeezed her more tightly, forcing the air out of her lungs. She didn't answer.

"RAWH! You are frustrating me, fleshling!"

"Look, I've told you I don't know where it is, -and what did you just call me?"

Ruby had been thinking more and more, that this was all one huge joke; that she was being punked. But fleshling? Was that even a word?

"If you do not want to tell me the location, I will extract the information from you." 

The robot lowered Ruby back to the ground and pinned her down with needle-thin strands of metal. He moved his big head closer, leering at her and displaying two rows of dagger-like teeth.

Fear rose back up in Ruby's throat, and she could feel sharp pains in her shoulders. He projected a strange blue light onto her head. She closed her eyes, trying to block out the blinding light, but it still glared in her eye lids. 

Then it was gone; replaced with her own memories, which were being called forwards against her will. She could see her parents before they died, her horse, her friends and that time when she had won a talent contest at school. 

Her life was flashing before her eyes. But she didn't feel like she was close to death, like other people always did when they claimed this happened to them. Perhaps that head injury was worse than she'd thought. Perhaps she was hallucinating.

She inquisitively opened her eyes. The images she had seen in her mind were projected on the walls around her.

That robot was looking through her brain! Definitely not normal.

She struggled against his grip and the images flickered.

"Stay STILL!" he roared,

"NO!" she screamed back.

CRASH.

A black pickup truck drove through the wall. About time too, thought Ruby. Relief washed over her. The police were here, and the army too hopefully. The robot roared once more. 

But to Ruby's dismay, no body got out of the truck. Instead, it started to fall apart. At least, that's what it looked like at first. Instead, it turned into a big robot. Great. Now there were two of them.

Relief replaced with pure horror, Ruby stopped wriggling and stared at this new robot. It was smaller than the first, but bulky. It had huge black canons as big as her horse sticking out of its arms. It curled its hands into metal fists.

"Megatron," it snarled. Its voice was also deep; another he, then.

"Ironhide," The other growled back, with such intensity that Ruby felt like her teeth would fall out.

"Release her," said Ironhide.

"Or what," mocked Megatron, "You will attempt to put holes in me with your cannons? We both know that that will do no good."

"The others are on their way-" Ironhide began, but Megatron interrupted,

"Yes I know, the Decepticons will be here any moment."

"Is that an empty threat?" retorted Ironhide, a growl in his voice.

"Or is your word an empty threat Ironhide," Megatron cut in, "Because the autobots will not be here soon. Starscream has informed me of their location." His voice curled around certain words. Ruby shuddered.

"Starscream!" shouted Ironhide, "You're still relying on that cowardly piece of tin, even after what he did? Well, well I am surprised."

Megatron screamed with rage. He withdrew the strands of metal from Ruby, flinging her aside. She collided painfully with the wall. Spots of red to dance across her eyes. She blinked rapidly to get rid of them, clutching her head.

There was a mighty bang and the clashing of metal. Megatron leapt at Ironhide and they became locked in combat.

If Ruby thought she had seen some pretty crazy insane things today, nothing compared to this.

She stood rooted to the spot, headache forgotten, mouth open, absorbed in the battle. 

Ironhide fired six consecutive shots at Megatron, who deflected them all. He jumped into the air, and, flipping upside down, fired six more shots, before landing back on his big metal feet. 

One hit Megatron on his arm. A large shard of metal flew off him and clanged to the floor. He let out a shriek of pain, and transformed into a strange-looking fighter jet plane, so fast Ruby would have missed it if she had blinked. 

Megatron blasted into the sky and was immediately out of sight.

Ruby was so busy staring up at the bit of air space Megatron had just occupied, that she jumped a mile when she realized Ironhide was still there. She instinctively flinched away from him; the hairs on the back of her neck standing up.

"Do not be afraid," he said quietly, "I do not wish to harm you."

Ruby looked up at him, into his blue eyes, "Sorry, but what are you?"

Ironhide chuckled; at least that's what it sounded like to Ruby.

"I'm no good at explaining, we usually leave that for Optimus to do. I mainly shoot things."

"Er, cool?" said Ruby, not knowing how she was supposed to react to that.

"I am from the planet Cybertron."

"Oh, so you're like an alien?" Ruby swallowed nervously on the word 'alien'.

Ironhide made his chuckling-type noise again.

"That's what some of the other humans call us too. Now if I have gained your trust enough, would you come with me? We need to move from here immediately, if the Decepticons are really on their way. Which they are probably not, since that loser Megatron isn't here anymore."

"Um, okay," said Ruby, thinking it was probably best not to argue with these guys.

"Everything will be explained when we get back to base."

And before Ruby could ask about this base, Ironhide transformed back into the black pickup truck, with the doors open. Ruby sighed, rubbed her sore head, and climbed in.