Annabelle

All In A Day's Work

I stared at the mighty robot in front of me. An alien race saved me from my suicide attempt? Holy shit, what have I gotten myself into?

At first, my instincts took in, my breaths quickened, my heart rate went up. What were they going to do to me? But then my mind and common sense caught up with my emotions, slowing everything down. If they were going to hurt me, they wouldn’t have helped me. They wouldn’t have given me this bed to sleep on, they wouldn’t have tried to reason with me first.

“You’re not going to hurt me.” I stated out loud, making it in no way sound like a question. I wanted them to know that I knew.

“Correct, little one,” a new voice said from behind Ratchet. The voice was deep, and rumbled, like lightning...but in a way it was smooth, comforting. I instantly fell in love with it. “No harm will come to you here.” Out stepped another robot even taller than Ratchet. He was colored red and blue, as opposed to Ratchet’s white. “My name is Optimus Prime,” he almost smiled. “We are autonomous robotic organisms from the planet Cybertron.” From behind Optimus stepped six more of these things, all varying in height. Optimus was clearly the tallest. “I am the leader of the autobots. You’ve met our medical officer, Ratchet.” I smiled at the white robot, who was still eyeing me closely. “My scout, Bumblebee,” he gestured to the second smallest one in the room. “He is the one that found you and brought you here.”

I looked down at the one called Bumblebee. It made sense why he was called that, he had black and yellow coloring over his body. He looked down at me with these big, baby blue eyes.

“How do you do, young one?” he asked, his voice slightly impaired. “You had me worried for a long time. I haven’t recharged since I brought you in here,” he smiled slightly, then realized I didn’t know what he meant. “Recharging is like your human sleeping,” he added sheepishly.

“I’m doing fine, Mr. Bumblebee,” I smiled up at him. “Thank you, for saving my life.”

“My weapon’s specialist, Ironhide,” Optimus continued, gesturing to the second tallest, who was all black and had two very large cannons attached to his arms. “My first lieutenant, Jazz,” the smallest by just a bit, covered in gray with what looked to be sunglasses across his eyes. “Then finally, Wheeljack, Bulkhead, and Sideswipe.” Wheeljack was white with the tiniest bit of red and green here and there. Bulkhead was the biggest, not tallest, biggest, and was army green with white stripes and white stars. Sideswipe was blue, with numbers on his chest.

“How do you do boys?” I addressed them. “My name is Annabelle,”

“Your voice is so beautiful…” Bumblebee said, stepping closer to me. “Like bells.”

I laughed. “Some kids at school call me Bells,” I said. “If it’d be easier, you can call me that.” I actually preferred the nickname, but whatever these giant beings wanted to call me, they could.

“Little one,” Optimus demanded my attention back to him. “We have to discuss what we’re going to do with you.” I nodded, giving him my undivided attention. “Ratchet would like to keep you here for a few more days, regardless. But what happens after that is completely up to you. We can take you home after this, and go on as if nothing happened. Or… you can stay here with us. It’s up to you.”

The idea of staying here with the autobots sounded brilliant. They all seemed to like me, and I liked all of them. But what about mom?

“I don’t know…” I said outloud. “As much as I love you guys already...my mom...she has a temper.” I glanced down on my upper arm, which showed a perfect imprint of my mother’s hand in bruising.

“She won’t be able to harm you here,” Optimus said, anger plowing his way through his voice. “This is my home, our home. We will protect you here. And also anywhere you go. I cannot allow anymore harm to come to you. Not again.”

I smiled. That meant a lot to me. “Thanks,” I muttered, looking down. “I still need to tell them where I’m going...but if I walk in there, especially if she has a guy with her…”

“One of us will go with you,” Bumblebee spoke up. “Ratchet has invented holoforms that make us appear and act human.”

“The only two who have one are Optimus Prime and Ironhide,” Ratchet said, shooting Bumblebee a look.

“I would gladly go with her, if she so chooses,” Ironhide said, stepping up.

I nodded my head.

“Very well,” Optimus met my gaze. “As soon as Ratchet gives you the all clear you may go with Ironhide to get what you want. We have a large sum of human money here, get what you need so you may live here,” and with that, he turned and left. The others followed suit until everyone except Ratchet was gone.

“Thank you, Ratchet,” I said, looking up to him. “This means a lot to me.”

“Don’t mention it little lady,” he smiled, looking at the machines I was hooked up to. “All in a days work.”