Escaping Reality

Chapter Six: Hide And Shriek

Everyone's heart stopped as they realized the Decepticons were on to them, yet no one was ready to fangirl at this time. Each knew the Decepticons, especially Starscream, were ruthless and wouldn't hesitate to squash a few humans, and the fact that the two were aware of their presence scared them all.
         Slowly, Starblade took a small breath as she whispered, "Do we ru-"
         Without warning, the building began to shake as ten clawed digits penetrated the ceiling above them and began to lift it up.
         "Scatter!" Midnight yelled, everyone breaking into teams of two as they split up. However, each was seen by the Decepticons when the ceiling in that area was ripped off, the sight of humans running for their lives being a rather amusing sight.
         "Ugh! Filthy humans!" Starscream growled, watching as each of them skittered out of sight.
Knockout, on the other hand, had frowned a little as he took a glance at his scanner, the mech rather puzzled at the results as well as what he had seen.
         "Strange. Only four out of eight of these humans are emanating life signals, all of which are cybertronian." The red mech then paused as he looked back down at the old abandoned building, though his expression became rather annoyed when Starscream snatched his scanner out of his servos to see for himself.
         "Impossible! The only other Decepticons in this area are you and me!" Starscream exclaimed incredulously.
         "Tell that to Lord Megatron when these signals stay online," Knockout retorted as he took back his scanner. "Now, it seems these strange humans are playing a little game of Hide and Shriek. Shall we play along, Commander Starscream?" said the mech with an evil smirk, Starscream returning the smile as he once again extended his talons.
         "Of course."

Meanwhile, everyone had taken cover, each group claiming a their own hiding place. The Twins, surprisingly, were closest to the Decepticons compared to the others, both able to take in everything the two cons had said while exchanging glances at Knockout's revealing comment.
         "Looks like they're tracking only the Decepticon fans somehow," whispered Starblade from next to her brother.
         "Which means they won't be tracking us since we're Autobot fans?" said Nightblade quietly as he peaked out from inside the closet, the male twin feeling slightly more confident speaking since only his sister was around at the moment. "But... That doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't they want to track us too..?"
         Starblade thought for a second, knowing her brother was right about one thing. While they do get annoyed with humans, the Decepticons would no doubt jump at the chance to kill an Autobot or its allies. Suddenly, her eyes widened as she came to a conclusion. "I don't think they can track us." When her brother gave her a confused look, she continued to explain, "Think about it. We all woke up this morning with at least some kind of physical changes, and all of us said we looked like our characters. What if-"
        Starblade immediately stopped talking and covered her head with her brother as the building shook, the sound of two girls' screams filling the air along with the evil chuckle of a certain heeled mech. It didn't take long for one of the screams to turn into defiant shouting, another screaming, "Owa!" which quickly caught the Twins off guard. Neither of them had heard that voice before, but both knew there was no time to think about that. Whoever was talking seemed to have tried to yell, well, they didn't know what the person was saying, exactly, though after a few seconds of thinking, they both immediately remembered Darkfin's Quotev name tag, which had stated that her real name was 'Zora.' That's when they knew what happened: Darkfin and possibly Titaniumwrench had gotten caught, therefore two out of six of their friends had already been captured.
         "Shut up, fleshling!" the two heard Starscream growl, Darkfin letting out a yelp before keeping silent. "Knockout! Where are the others?!"
         "Be patient, Starscream. I've got them right where I want them." Once again, the building shook, though this tremor was weaker than the previous one as well as seemed to be coming from the other side of the Quotev House. More screams were heard after that, though these were definitely fainter as they echoed around the halls.
         "Well well well, what have we here?" said Knockout in that sinister tone of his.
         "You'll never take me alive!" Starblade heard someone shout in defiance, the girl recognizing the voice as Midnight's despite how far away she was.
         "I don't think he cares!" Sasori's voice was then identified from far off, meaning half of their group had now been captured by the two cockiest Decepticons on the planet. This fact alone freaked out both twins, for even though they had figured out they wouldn't be tracked by the cons, the others most likely would be caught and the Twins would be left behind.
         "We have to do something," Starblade uttered, unaware that she was thinking aloud.
         "We can't do anything. We're just humans..." her brother reminded her with a sad tone of voice.
         At her brother's statement, Starblade snapped her fingers and got an idea, one that made her at least semi-hopeful that they'd have a chance against the Decepticons.
         "Night, you know how everything that's been happening since this morning is hinting that we're our characters? What if we're in our holoforms and we turn them off? Then we can help them!" Starblade exclaimed in a whisper-yell, the girl happy that she'd thought of a plan.
         "But we don't even have fighting experience!" Nightblade protested quietly, Starblade taking this into consideration before groaning to herself and shaking her head.
         "I can't believe I forgot that... But what else can we do? It won't take long before our friends are-"
         "Starscream! Surrender the humans. They are not a part of this war." Starblade and Nightblade paled a bit as they exchanged glances, both breaking into large grins at the sound of the familiar voice they had known since they were kids.
         "Prime," Starscream growled, both Twins swearing they heard Knockout mutter, "Scrap," from the other side of the Quotev House.
         "What are you doing here?!" snarled the heeled mech, Starblade finding the courage to peak out a bit from inside the closet.
         She couldn't see much due to half the view being blocked by the rest of the ceiling that was still up, but since the other half had fallen after getting part of it torn off, the girl had an okay enough view to be able to tell that Starscream was there along with Optimus and a few other Autobots. This development managed to give Starblade some hope that her friends wouldn't be captured; well, at least not all of them.
         "None of your business, Con," a femme's voice snapped, the Twins recognizing Arcee almost immediately. "Now put them down before things get ugly, now."
         At this, Starscream chuckled, a dark chuckle that sent shivers up Nightblade's spine as he peaked over his sister's shoulder to watch what was happening.
         "Feisty aren't you, Arcee. But these humans will serve a better purpose aboard the Nemesis," said Knockout, a growl erupting from Starscream's throat once he realized he'd been cut off.
         The Twins could both picture Optimus's optics narrowing at the Decepticons, both knowing that sooner or later, the Prime would announce an attack and try to take back their captured friends. However, they doubted he could rescue all of them, well, not at the moment at least.
         "If you will not surrender the humans, then we have no choice but to force you to do so." Without much warning, Optimus ordered an attack, though reminded them that there were hostages involved.
         While they couldn't see him well, they noticed Starscream moving from left to right in attempt to dodge Optimus's punch as he tried to grab the humans, his two hostages groaning as they began to get rather sick from all the movement. Knockout, on the other hand, just transformed and drove off from the sound of it, though it didn't surprise them that an Autobot had decided to pursue the medic.
         The Blade Twins watched the fight until the bots shifted outside of their vision, though they stayed put in order to keep out of harm's way. From what they could tell, Starscream seemed to be having a hard time trying to keep Optimus off his back. However, they'd temporarily forgotten that not only was Starscream ruthless, but he was a dirty player as well.
         "You want the human so bad, Prime?! Why don't you take it!" Starblade and Nightblade paled in shock as they heard a shrill scream off terror, both twins already knowing what had conspired: He'd thrown their friend.
         "Briell!" Darkfin screeched, yet her cries were cut off by the sound of transforming, followed by the sound of jet engines rocketing away. That's when the Twins knew they'd lost at least one friend to the Decepticons, and they both hoped they wouldn't lose another.
         Unable to stand not knowing exactly what had happened, Starblade practically forgot about remaining safe and bolted out of the closet, Nightblade yelling, "H-Hey!" as he ran after his sister. She might've been brave enough to leave their safe haven, but her brother wasn't exactly as brave as her in such dire situations like this. Then again, none of them have ever faced something like this before; after all, cybertronians didn't exist in their world.
         "Titanium!" Starblade called as she ran outside the Quotev House, the young girl capturing the attention of the remaining Autobots. Looking up to see Titaniumwrench peaking down at her from Optimus' servo confirmed she'd been right at assuming who'd been thrown.
         At the sight of the Autobots, Starblade slowed to a stop with her brother right behind her, the girl staring in awe at her heroes. While the only bots there at the moment were Optimus and Arcee, both were still very excited that they were standing in the presence of real live Autobots.
         "Looks like these three are also giving off Autobot life signals." The sound of Arcee's voice snapped Starblade out of her daze and caused her to take a glance at the two-wheeler, who was holding what appeared to be a scanner in her servos. "The fourth one's in that building."
         "Fourth one? Wait- No- Katrina!" Starblade then whipped around and dashed towards the Quotev House, Nightblade groaning a bit though turning around and jogging after her.
Hearing two sets of giant foot-steps, while weird, was rather reassuring to the Twins; it meant the Autobots were in close proximity to them, which made it highly unlikely that the Decepticons would be able to grab them unless they were up against Soundwave or Megatron.
         Reaching the Quotev House, Starblade slipped back inside while calling out to her fellow Autobot fan, Nightblade staying outside since he didn't feel like accidentally getting rubble dumped on his head.
         "She is your sister, is she not?" Nightblade looked up to see Optimus kneeling down nearby, the mech seeming to be trying to get on his level, so to speak.
         "Yeah... We're twins," the boy answered slowly, still rather intimidated by his presence.
Optimus hummed a bit before nodding, the leader seeming as though he were trying to make sense of what was happening almost as much as he was; then again, the Autobots were more in the dark about their situation than even the Decepticons at this point, so it was natural for him to ask questions about his strange group taking refuge in the middle of Kentucky.
         "I am Optimus Prime," the mech introduced, feeling the need to get them acquainted before practically interrogating him and his friends.
         "Cool, I guess. I'm Nightblade," answered the brunette, the Prime's expression changing to surprise for just a second before disappearing.
         "You have a cybertronian designation?" questioned the red and blue bot, Nightblade opening his mouth to explain himself right before he heard his sister yell, "Katrina!"
         "Looks like we found the fourth human," Arcee commented towards Optimus, said mech standing up whilst gently setting Titaniumwrench next to Nightblade.
         "Make that five!" Starblade called as she walked out of the building with a triumphant grin, Katrina following her lead along with their final survivor, Starjinx.
         "Five?" Arcee then frowned and checked the scanner, the femme furrowing her optic-ridges in confusion as she looked over her scanner. "Only four are showing up on my scanners."
         "Well I'm busted," Starjinx quietly joked to Katrina while slightly elbowing her friend, though stopped right when she caught sight of Titaniumwrench.
         "OMP Titanium!" Starjinx and Katrina raced over to their friend's aid as she got to her feet, the girl still looking rather shaken up after the battle.
         "You okay? I heard the cons nearly got you!" Katrina fretted, trying to be a comforting friend while also trying to give the girl her space.
         Titaniumwrench, while rather overwhelmed with all the attention she was receiving, nodded. However, her mind seemed to be elsewhere as she continued running a hand over her throat, her expression showing she was rather bewildered as she did so.
         "Something wrong with your voice box?" Starjinx asked automatically, the green-haired girl rather confused on what she was doing.
         Just then, Starblade recalled what had happened during the search, how someone had screamed as one of their friends had been grabbed. It was clear that Nightblade remembered that same moment too, for he quietly asked, "Was that you yelling...?"
         "Yelling? I thought she couldn't-"
         Titaniumwrench cut off Katrina as she blurted, "I an tal."
         Starjinx and Katrina stared in bewilderment, both rather confused as well as startled on what had just happened. This then prodded Starblade to speak.
        "Yes," said the brunette. "Titanium can talk."