Shadowfire

Chapter 11

Dedicated to @SirenixPrime for the lovely comment :)
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I arrived at Mikaela's dad's garage, sending my holoform inside to retrieve her.
"What're you doing here? What's going on?" She demanded as I bundled her into my alt form, she grabbed her handbag on the way.
"Decepticons stole the last cube shard, you and Sam might be in danger" she looked at me, eyes wide.
"That's not the last cube fragment"
"What?"
"Sam found one on the jacket he was wearing during the attack, he gave it to me" now it was my turn to gape, engaging my holoform so I could stare at her incredulously.
"And you didn't think this might be important for us to know?!" I demanded
"Um... I don't know... I guess?"
"Frag!" I hissed "did either you or Sam touch it?"
"Yeah Sam did, he told me not to, said he started seeing symbols"
"Holy Prime" I almost stalled, but instead I accelerated, weaving through the traffic dangerously.
"What? What is it?"
"Just be quiet Kayla, I need to talk to Bee. And NEST"
::Shadowfire to Bumblebee, come in Bee::
::Reading. What is it Shad?:: Bee and Hide had picked up on Jazz' nickname for me.
::Sam found another AllSpark shard, Mikaela has it. Sam touched it and reportedly started seeing symbols, we need to get him checked out by Ratchet. Be prepared for a Decepticon attack::
::Yessir. I'll inform NEST::
::ETA 15 minutes::
::I'll be there in 25::
::See you then. Shadowfire disengaging::

When we arrived at Sam's college I parked on the grass directly outside his dorm room, being directed by Mikaela. I engaged my holoform and we headed inside.
"There's something weird about that girl" I said, studying the blonde strutting along the corridor in front of us.
"Yeah she's a skank" Kayla said dismissively "anyway I'm still mad at Sam, being hunted by creepy ass alien robots again doesn't affect that"

We followed the girl into Sam's room and watched her approach him. Mikaela turned away in disgust.
"Cheating dirt bag, he's been away for what? Less than a week? Come on let's go, we'll let the Decepticons have him"
"Wait" I stopped her "look, Sam's fighting her"
"Doesn't look like it" she snorted derisively and went to pull away from me but I stopped her again.
"Because she's so much stronger than him, that thing isn't human Kayla" she looked at me quizzically.
"It's a Decepticon" I announced. I'd gotten better at distinguishing which side a cybertronian was on based off their energy signal, even though it had taken me a while to place what was off about her. Instantly Mikaela was on guard.
"Get it off him!" She hissed
"I can't, holoform remember" no matter how much I trained in my holoform it was still a projection and there were limits, taking on a non holoform cybertronian was out of the question.
"And she isn't a holoform?"
"As far as I can tell no, she seems to have some form of synthetic skin. We need to find a way to get her out to where I am" the robot girl pushed Sam onto his bed and straddled him, he made a noise of protest deep in his throat and started thrashing beneath her. Vaguely I noted Sam's door opening.
"Hey Sam- Woah! What the hell is this?"
"I know a way" Kayla said, stepping forward into the room and kicking the girl from the side, shoving her out the window. Instantly Sam sat up spitting to clear his mouth.
"Robotic extendable tongue" he gasped as he retched "put grease in my mouth"
"Dude was that an alien?" I turned to study the new arrival, Sam and Mikaela having their own conversation.
"Who are you?"
"Sam's roommate, Leo. You got a boyfriend?" I chuckled
"No" I tuned back into my friends heated discussion, ignoring the other human.
"Come on, you're lucky I'm not mad"
"Mad? She forced herself on me!"
"Do this later!" I snapped "get outside" I disengaged my holoform, spotting the pseudo-girl joining a crowd of people milling about. Sam and Mikayla ran out of the building, being followed by Leo, and the three of them slid into my waiting chassis. I took off, careening down the road. The 'Con turned, saw Sam in my interior and leapt onto my bonnet. I spun sideways.
"I can't transform here! There's a gun in the dash, someone shoot her!" Sam scrabbled through my glove compartment and seized the gun, emptying the magazine into the enemy Cybertronian. I winced as my windshield shattered. Somewhere in the distance people screamed. The Decepticon withdrew, transforming into a motorcycle and tearing away.
Bee arrived and immediately began pursuit, telling me to take care of Sam and that he'd rendezvous with me later.

"Alright" I began as I began heading back towards the NEST base and wanting to forestall any potential argument between the two humans.
"Hey hey hey. Look I know you guys are like totally calm or whatever but I'm freaking out!!" Leo exploded "what the hell was that thing man?!"
"You wanted the real deal now here it is" Sam said "that thing? Evil alien robot"
"They're after me for my site right? You're some undercover cop sent to protect me?" I laughed, there was no limits to this humans ego and self importance. Mikaela gave him a dirty look.
"It was after Sam. He blew up their leader so he's officially always on the evil alien's shit list" Leo gaped, but quickly regained his composure.
"Ok cool, so what've you got to do with this?" He asked me.
"I work for a secret government task force that deals with the alien threat" I told him.
"Cool, always had a thing for chicks in uniform" I rolled my eyes
"Alright well now you know, tell me where to drop you off. Someone'll come by in a few hours to make you sign a confidentiality contract" and Ironhide would threaten him halfway to Primus and back.
"What? No way chikita, I'm sticking with my buddy Sam on this one"
"Either you tell me where to get you or I'll leave you on the side of the road" I threatened.
"Just get out of the car Leo" Sam groaned.

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After dropping the nuisance off as close to his college as I would risk we headed to the NEST base.
"What happened Leah?!" Dad demanded as he saw my shattered windscreen. I explained the situation with the Decepticon as quickly as I could.
"Alright well we'll get that repaired after debrief" Dad began but I cut him off.
"I need to take Sam to see Ratchet, I think something happened to him when he touched that Cube shard" Lennox nodded and we made our way towards the med bay. 

After explaining the situation to Ratchet he began examining Sam, scanning him.
"You said you touched an AllSpark sliver?" He asked Sam, who nodded.
"It seems the knowledge stored in the Cube has downloaded itself into your brain" he said after a moment "it will need to be removed, or else you will be driven to madness. The human brain is not built to contain the wisdom of Cybertron"
"Oh god" Sam groaned, Mikaela clutching his hand tightly.
"We should be able to develop a way to safely download the information from your brain" Ratchet said, before he began muttering technical jargon to himself as he studied the scans of Sam's head.
"So how long should it take?" I asked, startling the medic.
"What? Oh right, no more than a week at most"
"So what do I do? Just wait while my brain disintegrates?!" Sam demanded.
"Yes I believe that would be the best course of action" Ratchet agreed, oblivious to the sarcasm.
"Come on, you can hang around the base for a while" I said, leading Sam out of the medbay and towards the debriefing room.
"I don't want to hang around an army base, I'm sick of all this alien crap, I just want to go to college like a normal kid" he whined as we entered the room.
"Well if you want to do that than we're gonna need one of the 'bots keeping an eye on you" Lennox said "and the best candidate seems to be you Leah, you have a holoform and you're good at blending in with humans" I groaned.
"Why is it always me?" He laughed
"Go on, go get some rest before tomorrow, college kid"