Chapter 8: Part 1

After finding Sam, Lennox had put a tension band around my torso where my ribs were broken.  He washed the cuts on my head and said he'd have to put stitches in.  He did so, but it hurt like crazy.  He led me back to my brother.

I walked into his arms as he stood up.  "Are you okay?"  I asked.

He nodded.  "Yeah," he said.  "You look like you could use some more medical attention."

"Yeah, trust me.  I have all I need," I said.  I smiled at Lennox when the door opened.

Agent Seymour Simmons walked in.  "Follow me," he said.  He just turned and walked out.

Lennox looked at his partner in the room.  Epps?  He's still with us?  I waited for Epps to walk out, me joining his side.

"Hey, Witwicky," Robert Epps said.  "Long time no see."

I nodded.  "Yeah," I said.  "It's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Just a year," he said.

I laughed.  "Anything interesting going on?"

"Just in a war with robots.  Nothing cool or anything," Epps said.  I could tell he was having a hard time holding in his excitement.

I looked ahead and saw Lennox following Simmons.  "Man, that Simmons guy really gets on my nerves.  Can I just eat him?"

"No, you can't eat him!"  Epps said.

"Dammit," I said.

Epps laughed.  "I miss having my little sister back in action."

I smiled.  He was my brother I never had.  "I missed being out there with you guys."

"Well, there was nothing to be happy about," he said.  "Just that we survived is all."

"Survived?  You were the NEST crew to get lost in the desert?"  I asked.

Epps nodded.  "Yeah," he said.  "Scariest thing in my life."

"No, it's not," I said in disbelief, still walking down the hallway.

"You're right.  Just between you and me, it's going on the Leviathan in Canada's Wonderland," he said.  "Whew!  That was scary."

"Are you serious?"  I asked.

"Deadly serious," he said.

We both laughed, Lennox looking back at us, wondering why we were laughing.  I watched Sam and Mikaela.  I'm glad he found her.  He really needed someone.  He was starting to go crazy.

"What you are about to see is extremely classified," Simmons shouted.  He opened the door and walked into a huge room.  I jogged up and stood beside Lennox in astonishment.

"What the hell is that?"  Lennox asked.

"That's a big-ass robot," I heard Epps reply from behind me.

"Damn right," I said.

"We think when he made his approach over the North Pole, our gravitational field screwed up his telemetry," Simmons said.

"How do you know that?"  I asked.

"Science," he replied.  "He crashed in the ice, probably a few thousand years ago.  We shipped him here to this facility in 1934.  We call him NBE One."

Sam spoke.  "Sir, I don't mean to correct you on everything you think you know, but, I mean, that's Megatron."

"That's why he looked familiar!"  I exclaimed from the opposite side of the pack. "Thanks, Sam!"

"Yeah," he replied.  "Megatron is the leader of the Decepticons."

"He's been in cryostasis since 1935," a man with a moustache and a blue suit said.  "Your great-great-grandfather made one of the greatest discoveries in the history of mankind."

Simmons explained more.  "Fact is, you're looking at the source of the modern age, the microchip, lasers, spaceflight, cars, all reversed engineered by studying him.  NBE One.  That's what we call it."

"Excuse me, sir," Lennox said.  "Did you not think to tell the United States military?  If this is classified, I think the military needs to know so that it's not a shock when these thirty foot robots start a war in the middle of the city."

The blue suited man answered.  "Until these events, we had no credible threat to national security."

"Well, you have one now!"  The president of the United States military said.

"So why earth?"  Epps asked from behind me.

"It's the All Spark," Sam replied.

"All Spark?  What is that?"  The president asked.

"Well, yeah, they came here looking for some sort of cube-looking thing," I said.  "Anyway, Mr. NBE One here, AKA Megatron, that's what they call him, who's pretty much the harbinger of death, wants to use the Cube to transform human technology to take over the universe.  That's what they intend to do anyway."

"Are you sure about that?"  Simmons asked.

"As positive as a proton," I said.

"Not sure how much more positive you can get, Witwicky," Lennox said.

"You guys know where it is, don't you?"  Sam asked.

Simmons stayed silent beside the blue suited man who said follow me.  So we did.

"You are about to see our crowned jewel," Simmons said, opening the only door to this room.  He stood to the one side as Sam went in, followed by Mikaela, then the president.  A blond girl who I didn't know was here stepped in, along with a black guy with a football jersey on.  Epps went in and I followed with Lennox behind me.

The suited man explained how old the Cube was.  "Carbon dating puts the Cube here around 10,000 BC.  The first Seven didn't find it until 1913.  They knew it was alien because of the matching hieroglyphics on the Cube as well as NBE One.  President Hoover had the dam built around it.  Four football fields thick of concrete.  A perfect way to hide its energy from being detected by anyone or any alien species on the outside."

"Wait, back up.  You said the dam hides the Cube's energy.  What kind exactly?"  The blond girl asked.

"Good question," the suited man said.

He led us to a room with a glass box standing in the middle.

Lennox looked at me like this was all crazy.  "Please, tell me you didn't know about this?"

"Sorry, mate.  I have a car that's a robot.  Kind of freaks me out a little bit," I said.

"That's actually my car," Sam said.  "And Simmons over there confiscated it."

"I'll make sure you get it back, Sam," Lennox said.

I elbowed Sam in the ribs.  "Perks of having your sister on the NEST team," I said.

"Yeah," Sam said.  "Along with being in fear incase she dies."

"She won't die.  Not on my watch," Lennox said.  He patted my shoulder and walked into the room.  I followed after Sam got in.

"They have to lock us in," Simmons said.

The door shut and locked.  I looked around the room.  The walls were looking like they were throbbing.  I could feel myself starting to sweat.

'Not this again,' I thought.  I stood towards the door near Epps and the guy wearing the football jersey.

"Oh, wow," Epps said.  He turned towards the door wall.  He saw scratches on the wall.  "What's that?  Freddy Krueger done been up in here or something?"

I chuckled nervously and looked at Lennox who noticed me backing up.  He looked around the room, looking for something.

I shook my head, telling him not to do anything.

He looked at me with an expression of helpfulness.  He wanted to help me.

I ignored him and tried to listen to what Simmons was saying.  I caught something about key alarms or cell phones.  I'm not sure which one.  Or maybe it was both.

"I got a phone," the guy with the jersey said.  He tossed it over to Simmons.

Simmons walked over to the box in the middle of the room. He opened a door and placed the cell phone in the box, closing it tight.  He handed everyone goggles, Captain Lennox taking two and walking over to me, handing me one.

"Breathe, Chick," William said.

I held onto his arm tightly.  I leaned into him for support and he gave it to me.  I was feeling light headed.  I breathed in, then out.  In.... Out.... In.... Out....

I closed my eyes, making the walls of the room disappear, making Will and I the only two people who exist in my little world.

"Better?"  Lennox asked, staring down on me.

I nodded.  "Thank you," I said, still wheezing a little bit.  "You always knew how to take care of me."

"I always will, Witwicky," he said.  He smiled and handed me to goggles.  He put his on and turned towards the glass.

I ignored what Simmons was saying and watched the flash in the box.  The phone inside the case was elevated and shaking.  It then popped and out came a little robot that transformed from a phone.  It ran to the side where Mikaela and Sam were standing and headbutted the glass.  It did the same for the other side.  It then got it's gun out and started shooting at the glass.

"Mean little sucker, huh?"  Simmons asked.

"Agent Simmons," I said.  "Not all robots are the bad guys.  You happened to confiscate one of the good ones, and there are limited good guys out there!  So I suggest you give me the car back and we'll be done here, alright?!"

Lennox looked over at me.  He shook his head.  He looked disappointed in me, but I couldn't tell.  He always looked like that.

"That thing is freaky!"  The blond girl exclaimed.

"Kind of like the itty-bitty Energizer Bunny from hell, huh?"  Simmons asked, ignoring me.

"I need to get out of here," I said lowly to myself.  I looked to Lennox with a concerned expression.  He noticed me and told me to wait one minute.

"He's breaking the box," Simmons said to the blue suited man.

There was a flash of black and the little robot inside the glass box fell to its back, dead.

I took off my goggles and handed them to Simmons.  "Are we going to discuss the car matter, Agent?"

"One minute, Ms. Witwicky!"  Simmons said, not angry but getting the outside guards to open the door.

I ran out, not knowing that there was a wall directly across the hallway.  I ran into it, leaning against it so I could catch my breath.  I sighed when Lennox placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You okay, soldier?"  Lennox asked.

I nodded.  "The air was just thinning," I said.

"Good," Lennox said.  "Let's get that car back."

The ground shook, Lennox falling into me.  Everyone staggered when there was an alarm blaring.  The lights flickered.

"Gentlemen, they know the Cube is here," the president said.

"Witwicky!  Epps!"  Lennox yelled down the hallway.  "Follow me!"

We both nodded and ran down the hall behind Lennox.  Everyone seemed to be following us, unsure of what to do.  Honestly, I wasn't sure what to do.

"Where's the arms room?"  Lennox asked Epps.

"How would I know?  I only got here when you did," Epps replied.

"Well you're the one with good guesses!"  Lennox exclaimed.

"Up one flight of stairs!"  Simmons yelled.

Lennox slid on the floor, turning onto the stairs.  I grabbed the railing and flung myself onto them, jogging up after Epps.

When we ran through the door, the suited man yelled to everyone in the very large room, "Get everyone to the NBE One chamber now!"

Lennox ran around what looking like a very high pool, but it was no pool.  He took my arm.  "Do you know what to do?"

I shook my head.  "No idea," I said to him, running out of breath.

"Follow Epps.  He'll show you what to do," William said.

We entered another room with tanks and other army vehicles.

I nodded.  Epps was jogging directly behind us.  "Come on, lil sis.  We got to get some amo," he said.

He ran and grabbed a box of amo.  He distributed boxes among boxes throughout different bags.  I grabbed different guns and handed them to my squad.

Lennox handed me a vest.  "Put everything you need in this vest.  Do not lose it.  It is your life.  It has a layer of bullet proof metal in it.  One layer.  That's it.  You get shot, the bullet won't go through you.  Just through the layer of metal."

I nodded and put it on.  Tightening it and putting two different types of amo in the pockets.  One for my SIG Sauer M11 in my holster and one for my M4A1 with a close quarter battle reciever Carbine that matches Captain Lennox's gun.  I know a lot about guns.

"That's good.  Get all the ammo you got.  Everything you can carry.  Bring it," Epps said to me.

I looked up and saw Sam.  "You're not actually going to fight Megatron are you?" He asked.

"If it's what Captain Lennox wants me to do, I'll do it.  Anything to protect you, Sam," I said.  I attached a strap onto my gun and swung it across my back, the barrel pointing to the ground.

Everyone stopped what they were doing when there was a crash.  The lights flickered on then off.

Sam walked over to Simmons, Mikaela and I following behind him.

"You got to take me to my car.  You have to take me to my car," he said.  "He's gonna know what to do with the Cube."

"Your car?  I told you.  It's confiscated," Simmons replied, loading his gun.

"Then unconfiscate it!"  I yelled at him.

"We do not know what'll happen if we let it near this thing," Simmons said.

"You don't know," Sam said.

"Maybe you know, but I don't know," Simmons said.

"You just want to sit here and wait and see what happens?"  Sam asked, raising his voice.

"I have people's lives at stake here, young man," Simmons said.

Lennox had had enough because he pushed Simmons back into the side of a truck.  "Take him to his car!"

Gun loaded and pointed at Lennox.  I raised my gun who had theirs pointed at my head.

"Drop it!"  Lennox warned.  He aimed at the guy beside him, his hand still on Simmons.

Epps elbowed a guy in the head and he fell to the floor.  He aimed his gun.

I tried to do the same, but the guy had taken out my leg, making me fall to the floor.  From me on my back, I still aimed at the guy standing above me.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"  The man in the blue suit exclaimed.

"Drop your weapon, soldier," Simmons said.  "There's an alien war going on and you're gonna shoot me?"

"You know, we didn't ask to be here," Lennox said.

I felt blood coming from my nose.  I didn't wipe it away because it would disrupt my aiming.

"I'm ordering you under S-Seven executive jurisdiction," Simmons said strictly.

"S-Seven don't exist," Epps said.

"Right.  And we don't take orders from people that don't exist," Lennox said.

"I'm gonna count to five, okay?  Or your lieutenants die," Simmons said.

"Well, I'm gonna count to three," Lennox said, turning his hand gun on Simmons' chest.

"Simmons?"  The president asked.

"Yes, sir?"  He replied.

"I'd do what he says.  Losing's really not an option for these guys," the President said.

"All right.  Okay," Simmons said after a minute of hesitation.  "Hey, you want to lay the fate of the world on the kid's Camaro?  That's cool."

Lennox removed the gun and put it in his holster.  He grabbed his stuff and then helped me up.  "You good?"  He asked.

"Yeah," I said, wiping the blood away from my nose.

"You took a pretty nasty blow to the face, Chick," Robert Epps said.  "That's what we need on our team."

"Well ya got me," I said.

***

Simmons took us to a room.  He opened the doors.  Bumblebee was being frozen.  His moans were heard from outside the room.  Sam ran interference with the people shooting the gas at Bee.

"Stop!  You got to stop!  Stop! Stop!  Stop!" Sam yelled.

The suited man in blue helped Sam.  "No, no, stop, stop, stop."

"Let him go!  Let him go!" I yelled.

My team had their guns ready.

"Are you okay?"  Sam asked Bumblebee.

Bee just stared at Sam with happiness.

"They didn't hurt you, right?"  Sam asked.

Bumblebee put his mask on.  It suited him.  It was yellow and had stripes on it.

Lennox looked at me as Bumblebee aimed his cannon at Simmons.

"Hey!"  I yelled at Bumblebee.  "Where are the others?"

Bumblebee adjusted his radio and the song 'I Feel It Coming' played.

‘I feel it coming.  I feel it coming babe’ was all that he played.

"They're on their way?"  I asked.

He nodded.

"Listen to me.  The Cube is here and the Decepticons are coming," Sam said.

Bumblebee swung his legs off the colossal table he was on, still aiming his cannon at everyone in the room.

"No, no, don't worry about them.  They're okay.  Right?"  Sam said.  "They're not going to hurt you."

Bumblebee was starting to come closer to Sam.  "Back up a little bit," Sam said.

I turned to everyone in the room who were starting to back away from Bee.  "He's friendly.  He's fine," I said.

"Okay, come on," Sam said.  "Put the guns down.  They're not gonna hurt you.  Here, come with me.  I'm gonna take you to the All Spark."

We all ran back to the small inspection room.  Bee stood below it, Sam and Mikaela standing beside Bee.

I stayed back with Lennox and Epps.  They were watching from the side lines.

Bee looked at the gigantic Cube in the room.  He touched it with both his hands.

"Okay, here we go.  He doing something.  He doing something," Epps said.

I chuckled.  "Relax," I said.  "He's fine."

There were a bunch of flashes at first then there were different noises of metal clashing together.  The Cube started to diminish.  Bee's hands didn't leave the side of it.

"Oh, my god," Mikaela whispered.

Bumblebee held the ten times smaller Cube in his hands.  He started to say something.  "Message from star fleet, Captain.  Let's get to it," he said in two different voices.

Lennox jumped down from the foot platform we were standing on.  "He's right.  We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hangar," he said.  He actually agreed with a robot.  "Mission City is twenty two miles away.  We're gonna sneak that Cube out of here and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city."

"Good!  Right," the president said.

"But we cannot make a stand without the Air Force," Lennox added.

"This place must have some kind of radio link," I said.

"Yes.  Shortwave, CB," the president said to Simmons.

"Right, yes," he said.

"Sir, you got to figure out some way to get the word out to them.  Let's move!"  Lennox yelled.  He turned and with his team, they headed out towards the exit.  "Witwicky!  Stay with your brother and that robot!  Keep in contact, soldier!"

"Yes, sir!"  I shouted back.

"All right, Sam!"  Lennox yelled.  "Get in the car!"

Bumblebee was already transformed and Sam and Mikaela were climbing inside.  Bumblebee sped towards me, Sam's window down.

Bumblebee stopped and Sam moved to the back.  I jumped in and Bumblebee drove off.  Through my radio on my shoulder, Lennox had said "Set a perimeter around the yellow vehicle!"

I checked behind us and saw Lennox following Bumblebee.

"Cube's okay?"  Sam asked.

It was at my feet.  "Yeah, it's fine," I said.

Bumblebee drove on the highway in the almost desert when I looked ahead and saw a truck with three other vehicles following it.  "There's Optimus," I said.

Optimus braked and turned around, following the three other vehicles behind us.  Jazz did the same along with Ratchet and Ironhide.  We drove as a unit, moving cars off the other side of the road.

***

We drove under bridges in the city when I looked behind us.  I saw an extra police car and extra military vehicles.

I clicked the button on my radio to contact Lennox.  "Did you happen to ask for back up?"  I asked.

A minute went by.  "No," Lennox said.

"Those are Deceptions!"  Sam said.

"They're decepticons, Captain," I said.

They drove other people off the road.  I looked to my left and saw Jazz driving beside me.  I smiled slightly, then looked over at Mikaela.  "There's a decepticon on the left side of the yellow vehicle, Lennox!"

I looked back and saw the military vehicle behind us transforming into a Decepticon.  It skated on it's hind tires.

"Optimus!"  Sam yelled.

Optimus changed into robot form in a flash.  He skidded to a stop, trying to catch his balance.

The Decepticon had grabbed Optimus' waist and flung them onto the bridge below the one we were on.

"What's happening?"  I asked Lennox.

"Police cruiser upcoming, Witwicky!"  Lennox yelled through the radio.

Bumblebee sped into Mission City, coming to the coordinates Lennox had given me.  He stopped and let us out.  I looked around, trying to find Lennox.  I ran over to him.

"One short wave radio," Lennox said.  "Use it instead of the one you have."  He handed me the bulky radio.

Lennox told me to hop on the back of his army truck.  I did so and he started driving.  I heard Lennox talking to Epps beside him.  He wanted planes for air cover and Black Hawks on station to extract the Cube.

Lennox stopped.  I jumped off the back of his truck and stood beside Epps.  Sam stood behind me with Mikaela near him.

"Air force has arrived!  Pop smoke!"  Lennox yelled.

***

(To be continued...)