Transformers: The Cross

Chapter 15 - Meltdown

Ok, wow. Two weeks without posting, but marching band season is over, and now I'm back. Without further ado, I present the next chapter.

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     As Miko explained several different ways she could think of to convince Optimus and Major Lennox to let me go home, I realized my foolish mistake: She didn't know I was from another dimension.

I munched on my cereal and pretended to listen, in a dreadful mood because even if she could somehow get her way and me through the ground bridge, I wouldn't truly be home. How could I tell her that home was a place where she potentially didn't exist?

As expected, my hopes were yet again, squashed. A long, low sigh seeped out of me, and the weight on my chest sunk deeper.

"...could go suck balls for all I care."

"Huh?" I asked, my interest suddenly piqued at her vulgar language.

"Nothing," Miko waved her hand dismissively, propping her head onto her hands. "Got off-topic. Anyway...I was thinking we should go visit Raphael today and see if he can find anything wrong with the GB. You know, like our own recon mission? We could be ninjas. The Ninjas of Diego Garcia."

She then proceeded to sing a brief theme song, and I looked around the cafeteria, shrinking from any attention she was bringing to our table in the corner. Despite how many burly men and women occupied the large space, no one turned their heads. All were engaged in light-hearted conversation and ate their breakfast happily, turning my first impression of this gray, bland building into a lively atmosphere.

Every table was filled to the brim with bodies. Yet Miko was able to claim a space at the end of our table; she told me it was a place reserved for 'the kids.'

"No?" she asked, and I was lost again. "Too much guitar?"

Oh. Her theme song.

"You should add some vocals," I suggested dryly. Miko grinned really wide at my response, obviously not catching on to my sarcasm. When her smile never disappeared, I began to worry if she was okay when I felt someone slide next to me.

Even through the light that reflected on his glasses, I could tell Raphael's eyes were squinted shut, and a frown adorned his young face. He sat there for a moment, staring at his food, steaming into his face, until I realized he was leaning forward.

I quickly thrust a hand out to stop him from getting a face full of scalding oatmeal, as I was sure he did not want to be woken up that way.

"Dude, how late did you stay up?"

"Three," he mumbled, gaining some sort of conscience. One of his small, lethargic hands reached for his spoon and he stirred his food, the other scratching his head of messy hair.

"What were you doing?"

"Porn."

I removed my hand from his shoulder.

"I didn't hear anything."

The boy shrugged, blowing on a spoonful of apple cinnamon flavored muck. Miko rolled her eyes. "Anyway, pornboy, you're just the person we wanted to see," she said, wiping a few strands of pink hair from her eyes, then wiggling her eyebrows at me.  

"Yeah?"

"We need info on the Ground Bridge. Anything wrong with it?"

One of my eyebrows arched. Real subtle, I thought. Either she trusted him to keep quiet or Rafael was smarter than I realized, and it was a pointless tactic to be secretive. Maybe both.