A Pet Squishy

Dealing

A Pet Squishy

Chapter 13: "Dealing"

Lana watched the blue and orange flames of Thundercracker's thrusters wink out of sight and the great rumbling of his engines faded into lonely cricket chirps. He was gone. She was free. Slowly she brushed herself off and kept staring at the sky.

Now she knew what had been spoken—or at least she had a really good idea. Thundercracker had been ordered to get rid of her. For what reason she didn't know, but here she was on the outskirts of a city in the early evening, alone. The revelation of her freedom tried to seep into the concrete of her disbelief. Was she truly free or would he come storming back? She waited for several long moments but the sound of her master's engines never returned.

Still shell-shocked, Lana began walking toward the city just a mile or so away. She soon found a road and began following it. Her mind was so jumbled by the whole event. Every now and again she'd glance over her shoulder, expecting to see the towering form shadowing her—nothing but grass and a few trees. Lana walked on down the road until she happened upon a brightly lit convenience store. A family in their SUV was filling up at the gas pump and she could see a clerk reading behind the lonely counter inside.

Phone. Her mind registered the first step of what she should do. She needed to call someone. Her parents perhaps? No...first she needed to know the date. During her captivity she never figured out how long she'd been missing. Was it weeks or months? Or—perish the thought—a year? Had a missing person's report been filed? Was she posted on one of the countless store bulletin boards for missing people?

So many questions screaming for answers.

Figure out the date and where you are, THEN call.

Lana timidly walked into the convenience store and approached the man reading behind the counter.

"Help you?" he asked without looking up.

"Umm. What city is closest to here?"

He put down his car magazine and gave her a disbelieving stare, "Hucksby."

She was home after all. Her eyes darted around until they found the "If you were born on this date..." cigarette calendar. July 15. Lana leaned heavily against the counter. Five months. Five months she was gone. Had it truly been that long?

"Where's your phone?" she asked quietly.

The clerk pointed to the back and resumed reading. Lana dumbly moved toward it, picked up the phone, and dialed home. It rang twice.

"Hello?" her mom's voice sounded so foreign after so long, but so welcome to her ears.

Lana held back her crying, "Mom...it's me."

...

The next day on the Nemesis...

Thundercracker lifted another heavy metal part, bracing his legs against the platform while Hook connected it in place. The moment he had returned to the Nemesis, Starscream immediately set him to work for his contraband punishment. All night and into the next day he'd toiled, bearing heavy loads as the Constructicons refitted the Nemesis's drive core with newly made parts. The engine reconstruction was an ongoing process since the materials needed to reform the new parts as well as the Energon required were scarce and often ill-equipped to deal with the massive ship's specifications. Parts were continually being remade and rebuilt after each energy or resource raid. Often the fragile Earth materials used to reformat the engine were insufficient so trial and error was the only course of action.