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all_transformers Mar. 25th, 2011 10:50 am)
white_aster posting in all_transformers Mar. 25th, 2011 10:50 am)Title: Warrior Goddess (multipart, part 1/?)
Characters: Mikaela-centric, also Ratchet and Ironhide, with bonus Sam and Bee and Sunstreaker. Possible Mikaela/Ratchet and/or Mikaela/Ironhide later. Possibly others. Mikaela's currently looking through the Autobot roster like it's a lunch menu....
Continuity: Bayverse/movieverse
Rating: PG-13ish now, maybe higher in later chapters.
Warnings/Notes: Bot!Mikaela AU, set post RotF. Very...transient character death. Will be spark-not-sticky if we ever get there.
-------
She hadn't even seen it coming. That was what she would always remember: that it had all happened so fast.
She'd stopped back into the shop to do paperwork, of all things. Sam had tried to coax her into coming home with him, but she wasn't sure if his heart was in it, and she had some estimates to get out first thing the next day, and taxes were going to be due in a week or so, and she had about a foot and a half of paperwork still sitting on her desk, and there was no way she could find time to work on it all during the day. Luckily, she was too busy actually fixing cars then, and ever since her dad had died, well...it'd all been hers. Shop and business and money and paperwork and taxes and lingering grief and all.
Still, she'd been okay. Not great and certainly not happy to be spending her evening with a beer and tax instructions rather than her man, but still. Not bad.
She'd gone in through the side door to the garage, shutting and locking it behind her. It wasn't the best neighborhood after dark, after all. She'd turned and started walking toward the office, weaving around the Challenger that Mr. Thatcher'd be picking up in the morning in the dark.
Later, she'd find out that the thieves had come in through the office and had already emptied the till and grabbed the shotgun she kept there for self-defense. Later, she'd realize that they'd found the safe under the workbench and broken it open, shoving the money into their pockets and leaving everything that didn't look valuable strewn across the garage floor. Later, she'd learn that they'd been spooked by her coming in and hid behind the Challenger.
Later, she'd learn that she'd been walking right toward one of them in the dark, when he, strung out and shaking, had shot her with two barrels of buckshot at point-blank range in the chest.
She'd jumped, at the noise more than anything. She'd tried to gasp and couldn't catch her breath. In the dark, she'd been confused more than anything, seeing nothing but dark shapes moving. A wave of vertigo swept over her, and she'd barely felt her knees, then the rest of her hit the floor.
Later, she'd find out that she had all but fallen on the canister with the Allspark in it, from where it'd rolled after being tossed on the floor. She hadn't felt it.
She hadn't felt much much of anything, other than surprise. She hadn't even had time to hurt before everything went black.
--------
INITIAL BOOT SEQUENCE: INITIATED
OS: ONLINE
MEMORY CORE: BOOTED...99.99995% FREE.
SYSTEMS CHECK...PRIMARY...SECONDARY: ....ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
SENSOR CHECK...PRIMARY...SECONDARY...TERTIARY: ...ALL SENSORS FUNCTIONAL....
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.005%
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: BOOTING IN POWERSAVE MODE
--------
She woke to darkness and confusion. Confusion, first. Where was she? What was going on? Why was it dark...and quiet? What...why couldn't she see?
EXTERNAL SENSORS ACTIVATED
"What the HELL?"
QUERY UNRECOGNIZED REPEAT QUERY Y/N?
"The fu--CHRIST!"
Suddenly, like a punch of information to the gut, she could see. She could see everything. She knew the ambient temperature, humidity, background radiation, and chemical composition of the air around her. She knew the ambient light levels, the shape of the room and everything in it. She detected electromagnetic waves flying all around her, everything from buzzing gamma and x-rays to UV to infrared and on into slow, lazy radio waves. She concentrated on one of them for a moment and got an earful of rapid-fire Spanish and a cheery jingle.
"Enough, enough, fuck!"
EXTERNAL SENSORS DEACTIVATED
"NO! Just...dial it back!"
EXTERNAL EM SENSORS ACTIVATED. SENSITIVITY: 60%
She looked around, cautiously, and quickly realized a few things through the confusion. First, she was in the garage. Second, she could see in 360 degrees. Third, her body was slumped on the floor, seeping the last of its heat into the concrete. Her face looked surprised, her hair a mess.
Her body. Her body that was over there while she was over here.
She stared at herself for a good long moment, trying to parse all of this. All right, she thought. I'm dead. I'm dead? Am I a ghost or something?
SYSTEMS CHECK: ... ... ...ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
"What does that mean?"
A long list flowed across her mind's eye, the knowledge falling into her mind in what should have been a blinding avalanche. There were tens of thousands of status reports, and she vaguely thought that there was no way she'd understand or remember them all, but she didn't have any trouble at all. She read them and started to understand.
She had 360 degree vision because she had EM sensors situated in all directions. She had a length of 197.7 inches, a width of 75.7 inches, an interior volume of 93.9 cubic feet (and she sensed a quick calculation being done in the back of her mind, as those dimensions were translated from some other units). She had a wheelbase of 116 inches.
She had a wheelbase. She had transformation circuits. She made the mistake of thinking too hard about those and felt parts she didn't even know she had starting to shift and whirl and reassemble and she quickly thought nonononononononoABORT until everything settled back down on its...her...wheels.
She was a 2010 Infernal Red Crystal Dodge Challenger. This, she thought, was the most bizarre self-image issue she'd ever had, and that was saying something.
Vaguely, she realized that she should probably be more concerned about all of this. Worried? Upset? Angry? Something? Could mechs (and she was a MECH or stuck in a mech or...a MECH!) be in shock?
SYSTEMS CHECK: ...
"Oh, shut up."
SYSTEMS CHECK: ABORTED
The garage was very quiet. Something in her dead body shifted.
Oh god, she needed to get out of here. Away from...that. She was confused. She was sure she was missing something. She felt oddly weak. She needed help.
That last brought up an image of Sam, of Bee, of Optimus, of Ratchet. YES. The Autobots. The Autobots would know what to do. She had to go to them.
She found the right command and, determined not to think too hard about it, turned over her engine. Her engine sounded good, if she did say so herself. She released her brakes, felt herself roll a bit, then applied them again. It wasn't too hard, she thought. Just like getting to know a new car from the driver's seat. With...a much better view around her. Right. No problem.
Her thinking was getting...odd. Vague. She had to get out of the garage. She had to get to the 'Bots.
...the garage door was down.
She didn't really want to ram through it, though she was pretty sure she could. That would make noise, and though this was a pretty deserted block at night, and though everyone seemed to have ignored the SHOTGUN BLAST, she didn't want to draw attention to herself. God, what would she do if someone came? Say oh, don't worry about that body on the floor, I'm not using it anymore?
She reined in her strangely scattered thoughts. (Was something wrong? AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.004% Oh.)
She needed to get out of the garage. She couldn't hit the button in this form, and she wasn't going to try to transform in here. She wouldn't fit. Her senses zeroed in on the door controls, and the analysis her sensors spat back out made her want to slap herself.
INITIATE LONGWAVE EM EMISSION: VARIABLE FREQUENCY
Halfway through the screech of radiowaves, the door started sliding up on its tracks. She felt like weeping with relief.
Yes, yes, yes, she thought, as she backed, oh so carefully, out, turning her wheels to align herself on the street. It...wasn't too hard. If she didn't think about it too hard. And she was finding it hard to think about anything too hard.
She started rolling down the street, slowly, carefully. She got to an intersection and paused. Which way? Where...where was she going? To the Autobots, yes, but how to get there?
She should know this, she thought. She should. Why didn't she? She stuffed down the panic at that thought, searching her memory. Which way was safety and friends?
She turned right. Then right again at the next intersection. Then forward, to a light. She took in the color of it, knowing that it meant something. Something about right and wrong, but she couldn't remember which was which. The cars streaming in front of her through the intersection had a green light. She had a red one. Green must mean permission to go. She waited until the cars stopped and her light turned green. She turned left.
Driving around all the other cars was completely nervewracking. There were so many of them, and they were moving so fast, and she knew there were rules to this, to moving on the streets like this, but she couldn't remember, and she was terrified of hurting someone. She was very aware of her width, her mass, her momentum. She settled for doing what everyone else seemed to be doing, and eventually her internal safety compass told her to head north, then east, through the maze of streets and buildings. She knew where to go, knew each turning when she saw it, though she couldn't picture it beforehand in her mind.
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.002%
She was very close. She knew it. She made one last turn, heading down a long, dusty road. There was a gate in the way, and men guarding it. That was all right, she thought. She expected them to be there. They would...they would be all right. She rolled up to the gate and stopped, waiting. That was what she was supposed to do here: wait.
Something was wrong. Not with the gate. With her. She...should know more than this. She really should, she thought. Why couldn't she think more than two steps ahead?
One of the men in the gatehouse looked over at her, blinking in surprise. She didn't quite understand why, though she knew she should, dammit. "Uh," he said. "ID?"
"I'm...Mikaela. I need...I need to see Ratchet. Or Bee. Or Optimus. Ironhide. Lennox. Sam. Anyone....really."
The man kept his eyes on her as he spoke urgently into the radio on his shoulder. ("We've got one UNBE at Gate 1, code yellow, request hard backup...." her sensors picked out of the air.) Other sensors picked up the speeding of his pulse, the increase in his respiration. He was afraid of her. She almost laughed. She felt like she could barely keep air in her tires, she was so tired.
More men came, 53 seconds later, jogging up with weapons and surrounding her. They were frightened of her, too, hearts thumping. She heard engines starting up, somewhere ahead, moving toward her. That...that was good, right? She thought she recognized the tune of those engines.
She was really, really tired. She just wanted...to...
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.001%
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: POWER SAFETY SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
She wasn't aware she'd shut off her EM sensors until the gate started opening, the sound almost drowned out by the roar of three engines and more behind. She onlined them again to see the wonderful, wonderful sight of Ironhide, followed by Optimus and Ratchet heading for her. They transformed right before the gate, the earth shaking beneath her tires as their feet came down on the pavement. Ironhide had his weapons up, charged, the whine of his capacitors registering to her sluggish sensors as a possible danger. Her system threw up a flurry of warnings that she batted down. "Iron...hide...."
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: POWER SAFETY SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
"That's my name. Stay right where you are, and state your designation," Ironhide growled, his cannon not moving from her.
"Help. I'm...." She wanted to reach out to him, to Optimus, who was right behind him, to Ratchet, who was scanning her, her failing systems told her, even as they spoke. That desire manifested in what was probably supposed to be one hand transforming from her undercarriage. She couldn't quite make it, her mass just shifting sluggishly, unbalancing her, making her front right side dip and Ironhide's cannon start to glow.
"FREEZE."
"I'm...Mikaelaaaa...."
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: POWER SAFETY SHUTDOWN INITIATED
Everything went black. Again.
Characters: Mikaela-centric, also Ratchet and Ironhide, with bonus Sam and Bee and Sunstreaker. Possible Mikaela/Ratchet and/or Mikaela/Ironhide later. Possibly others. Mikaela's currently looking through the Autobot roster like it's a lunch menu....
Continuity: Bayverse/movieverse
Rating: PG-13ish now, maybe higher in later chapters.
Warnings/Notes: Bot!Mikaela AU, set post RotF. Very...transient character death. Will be spark-not-sticky if we ever get there.
-------
She hadn't even seen it coming. That was what she would always remember: that it had all happened so fast.
She'd stopped back into the shop to do paperwork, of all things. Sam had tried to coax her into coming home with him, but she wasn't sure if his heart was in it, and she had some estimates to get out first thing the next day, and taxes were going to be due in a week or so, and she had about a foot and a half of paperwork still sitting on her desk, and there was no way she could find time to work on it all during the day. Luckily, she was too busy actually fixing cars then, and ever since her dad had died, well...it'd all been hers. Shop and business and money and paperwork and taxes and lingering grief and all.
Still, she'd been okay. Not great and certainly not happy to be spending her evening with a beer and tax instructions rather than her man, but still. Not bad.
She'd gone in through the side door to the garage, shutting and locking it behind her. It wasn't the best neighborhood after dark, after all. She'd turned and started walking toward the office, weaving around the Challenger that Mr. Thatcher'd be picking up in the morning in the dark.
Later, she'd find out that the thieves had come in through the office and had already emptied the till and grabbed the shotgun she kept there for self-defense. Later, she'd realize that they'd found the safe under the workbench and broken it open, shoving the money into their pockets and leaving everything that didn't look valuable strewn across the garage floor. Later, she'd learn that they'd been spooked by her coming in and hid behind the Challenger.
Later, she'd learn that she'd been walking right toward one of them in the dark, when he, strung out and shaking, had shot her with two barrels of buckshot at point-blank range in the chest.
She'd jumped, at the noise more than anything. She'd tried to gasp and couldn't catch her breath. In the dark, she'd been confused more than anything, seeing nothing but dark shapes moving. A wave of vertigo swept over her, and she'd barely felt her knees, then the rest of her hit the floor.
Later, she'd find out that she had all but fallen on the canister with the Allspark in it, from where it'd rolled after being tossed on the floor. She hadn't felt it.
She hadn't felt much much of anything, other than surprise. She hadn't even had time to hurt before everything went black.
--------
INITIAL BOOT SEQUENCE: INITIATED
OS: ONLINE
MEMORY CORE: BOOTED...99.99995% FREE.
SYSTEMS CHECK...PRIMARY...SECONDARY: ....ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
SENSOR CHECK...PRIMARY...SECONDARY...TERTIARY: ...ALL SENSORS FUNCTIONAL....
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.005%
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: BOOTING IN POWERSAVE MODE
--------
She woke to darkness and confusion. Confusion, first. Where was she? What was going on? Why was it dark...and quiet? What...why couldn't she see?
EXTERNAL SENSORS ACTIVATED
"What the HELL?"
QUERY UNRECOGNIZED REPEAT QUERY Y/N?
"The fu--CHRIST!"
Suddenly, like a punch of information to the gut, she could see. She could see everything. She knew the ambient temperature, humidity, background radiation, and chemical composition of the air around her. She knew the ambient light levels, the shape of the room and everything in it. She detected electromagnetic waves flying all around her, everything from buzzing gamma and x-rays to UV to infrared and on into slow, lazy radio waves. She concentrated on one of them for a moment and got an earful of rapid-fire Spanish and a cheery jingle.
"Enough, enough, fuck!"
EXTERNAL SENSORS DEACTIVATED
"NO! Just...dial it back!"
EXTERNAL EM SENSORS ACTIVATED. SENSITIVITY: 60%
She looked around, cautiously, and quickly realized a few things through the confusion. First, she was in the garage. Second, she could see in 360 degrees. Third, her body was slumped on the floor, seeping the last of its heat into the concrete. Her face looked surprised, her hair a mess.
Her body. Her body that was over there while she was over here.
She stared at herself for a good long moment, trying to parse all of this. All right, she thought. I'm dead. I'm dead? Am I a ghost or something?
SYSTEMS CHECK: ... ... ...ALL SYSTEMS FUNCTIONAL
"What does that mean?"
A long list flowed across her mind's eye, the knowledge falling into her mind in what should have been a blinding avalanche. There were tens of thousands of status reports, and she vaguely thought that there was no way she'd understand or remember them all, but she didn't have any trouble at all. She read them and started to understand.
She had 360 degree vision because she had EM sensors situated in all directions. She had a length of 197.7 inches, a width of 75.7 inches, an interior volume of 93.9 cubic feet (and she sensed a quick calculation being done in the back of her mind, as those dimensions were translated from some other units). She had a wheelbase of 116 inches.
She had a wheelbase. She had transformation circuits. She made the mistake of thinking too hard about those and felt parts she didn't even know she had starting to shift and whirl and reassemble and she quickly thought nonononononononoABORT until everything settled back down on its...her...wheels.
She was a 2010 Infernal Red Crystal Dodge Challenger. This, she thought, was the most bizarre self-image issue she'd ever had, and that was saying something.
Vaguely, she realized that she should probably be more concerned about all of this. Worried? Upset? Angry? Something? Could mechs (and she was a MECH or stuck in a mech or...a MECH!) be in shock?
SYSTEMS CHECK: ...
"Oh, shut up."
SYSTEMS CHECK: ABORTED
The garage was very quiet. Something in her dead body shifted.
Oh god, she needed to get out of here. Away from...that. She was confused. She was sure she was missing something. She felt oddly weak. She needed help.
That last brought up an image of Sam, of Bee, of Optimus, of Ratchet. YES. The Autobots. The Autobots would know what to do. She had to go to them.
She found the right command and, determined not to think too hard about it, turned over her engine. Her engine sounded good, if she did say so herself. She released her brakes, felt herself roll a bit, then applied them again. It wasn't too hard, she thought. Just like getting to know a new car from the driver's seat. With...a much better view around her. Right. No problem.
Her thinking was getting...odd. Vague. She had to get out of the garage. She had to get to the 'Bots.
...the garage door was down.
She didn't really want to ram through it, though she was pretty sure she could. That would make noise, and though this was a pretty deserted block at night, and though everyone seemed to have ignored the SHOTGUN BLAST, she didn't want to draw attention to herself. God, what would she do if someone came? Say oh, don't worry about that body on the floor, I'm not using it anymore?
She reined in her strangely scattered thoughts. (Was something wrong? AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.004% Oh.)
She needed to get out of the garage. She couldn't hit the button in this form, and she wasn't going to try to transform in here. She wouldn't fit. Her senses zeroed in on the door controls, and the analysis her sensors spat back out made her want to slap herself.
INITIATE LONGWAVE EM EMISSION: VARIABLE FREQUENCY
Halfway through the screech of radiowaves, the door started sliding up on its tracks. She felt like weeping with relief.
Yes, yes, yes, she thought, as she backed, oh so carefully, out, turning her wheels to align herself on the street. It...wasn't too hard. If she didn't think about it too hard. And she was finding it hard to think about anything too hard.
She started rolling down the street, slowly, carefully. She got to an intersection and paused. Which way? Where...where was she going? To the Autobots, yes, but how to get there?
She should know this, she thought. She should. Why didn't she? She stuffed down the panic at that thought, searching her memory. Which way was safety and friends?
She turned right. Then right again at the next intersection. Then forward, to a light. She took in the color of it, knowing that it meant something. Something about right and wrong, but she couldn't remember which was which. The cars streaming in front of her through the intersection had a green light. She had a red one. Green must mean permission to go. She waited until the cars stopped and her light turned green. She turned left.
Driving around all the other cars was completely nervewracking. There were so many of them, and they were moving so fast, and she knew there were rules to this, to moving on the streets like this, but she couldn't remember, and she was terrified of hurting someone. She was very aware of her width, her mass, her momentum. She settled for doing what everyone else seemed to be doing, and eventually her internal safety compass told her to head north, then east, through the maze of streets and buildings. She knew where to go, knew each turning when she saw it, though she couldn't picture it beforehand in her mind.
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.002%
She was very close. She knew it. She made one last turn, heading down a long, dusty road. There was a gate in the way, and men guarding it. That was all right, she thought. She expected them to be there. They would...they would be all right. She rolled up to the gate and stopped, waiting. That was what she was supposed to do here: wait.
Something was wrong. Not with the gate. With her. She...should know more than this. She really should, she thought. Why couldn't she think more than two steps ahead?
One of the men in the gatehouse looked over at her, blinking in surprise. She didn't quite understand why, though she knew she should, dammit. "Uh," he said. "ID?"
"I'm...Mikaela. I need...I need to see Ratchet. Or Bee. Or Optimus. Ironhide. Lennox. Sam. Anyone....really."
The man kept his eyes on her as he spoke urgently into the radio on his shoulder. ("We've got one UNBE at Gate 1, code yellow, request hard backup...." her sensors picked out of the air.) Other sensors picked up the speeding of his pulse, the increase in his respiration. He was afraid of her. She almost laughed. She felt like she could barely keep air in her tires, she was so tired.
More men came, 53 seconds later, jogging up with weapons and surrounding her. They were frightened of her, too, hearts thumping. She heard engines starting up, somewhere ahead, moving toward her. That...that was good, right? She thought she recognized the tune of those engines.
She was really, really tired. She just wanted...to...
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: ENERGON LEVELS: 0.001%
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: POWER SAFETY SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
She wasn't aware she'd shut off her EM sensors until the gate started opening, the sound almost drowned out by the roar of three engines and more behind. She onlined them again to see the wonderful, wonderful sight of Ironhide, followed by Optimus and Ratchet heading for her. They transformed right before the gate, the earth shaking beneath her tires as their feet came down on the pavement. Ironhide had his weapons up, charged, the whine of his capacitors registering to her sluggish sensors as a possible danger. Her system threw up a flurry of warnings that she batted down. "Iron...hide...."
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: POWER SAFETY SHUTDOWN IMMINENT
"That's my name. Stay right where you are, and state your designation," Ironhide growled, his cannon not moving from her.
"Help. I'm...." She wanted to reach out to him, to Optimus, who was right behind him, to Ratchet, who was scanning her, her failing systems told her, even as they spoke. That desire manifested in what was probably supposed to be one hand transforming from her undercarriage. She couldn't quite make it, her mass just shifting sluggishly, unbalancing her, making her front right side dip and Ironhide's cannon start to glow.
"FREEZE."
"I'm...Mikaelaaaa...."
AUTONOMIC SYSTEMS WARNING: POWER SAFETY SHUTDOWN INITIATED
Everything went black. Again.
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