Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

I grabbed my board as I reached the road, waiting for the red hand to turn into a white person at the busy stoplight. As it finally did, I started walking across. Then the weirdest shit happened. The whole world sort of flickers, and for a second, I see completely different buildings. There are people where there weren’t a minute ago, and cars are driving past me like I’m not a pedestrian in the middle of an intersection. The scene flickers between normal and strange five or six times, then it sticks to normal. The car next to me honks, and I jump in alarm before I realize that the ‘you can cross without getting hit by a car now’ light has turned back into a red hand. I dart to where the sidewalk begins again and drop my board, taking off, pushing the flashes to the back of my mind. I’d been outside nearly all day, I was just dehydrated.
 
I headed down Main Street North, looking at the various small businesses and dilapidated buildings. I stumbled off my board as I ran over a place in the sidewalk that was little more than pebbles, nearly running into a man walking out of an eye doctor’s office. I mumbled an apology and moved off again, my cheeks flushing. I hated fucking up like that, especially in front of people. If Joe ever caught word, or saw me, he’d have endless bullying material.
 
I moved down the street for several blocks. Eventually I was in a part of downtown that was primarily skyscrapers and office complexes. There I quickly crossed and moved on. I had gotten about halfway down the block when the world flickered again. It was not unlike the overlay effect in Photoshop. If I squinted and focused just enough, I could make out reality behind the facade of rubble and smoke. Oh, don’t forget the giant effing robot that was coming towards me. What the hell?
 
Just like before, the world re-aligned and the ruins vanished. I stared blankly ahead, trying to piece together what the fuck was happening. I was seeing giant robots. Robots that clearly didn’t exist, or I would be a human flapjack at the moment. It was just the heat. I needed to get home, drink some water, take a cold shower, or maybe go to the pool. That sounded fun. I just needed to get out of this damn heat.
 
With new determination, I got back on my board and headed home. Not ten seconds later I passed the cinema and ran into a new obstacle. Joe. A middle schooler that seemed to think I was trash. Never mind the fact that I was in 10th grade. No. he was just sooo cool. His favorite past times were street hockey, hanging out with friends, and making my life a living nightmare. I couldn’t get on the school bus without him mimicking me in a high pitched voice, making fun of my clothes, or something equally stupid and immature.
 
So of course, on the day that I’m having some sort of heat-related hallucination, he just has to show up. With friends, too. Maybe I’d get lucky and he’d turn out to be part of my hallucination too.
 
“Hey midget!”
 
… or not.
 
“Leave me alone Joe.” I walked faster, hoping to pass him and avoid any further problems. Joe’s friend, Dylan or something, sticks out his arm to block my path. I glare at him, but it has no effect.
 
“Are you going over to a friend’s house? Oh, wait, you don’t have any,” Joe asks mockingly. I roll my eyes at him and try to go forward again, but Matt, another friend, pushes me back. I close my eyes and take deep breathes as I feel my temper peeking.
 
“No, Joe, I’m going home to my life, yah’ know, that thing you’ll never have?” I snap, pushing past Matt and Dylan. I don’t get more than two steps before one of them pulls my hood. I didn’t expect it, and end up on my ass. They laugh behind me, but I ignore them in favor of running off, my face hot and eyes stinging. I step into an alley between two buildings. I close my eyes and take deep breaths, trying to calm myself down before I end up crying. My throat aches with held back sobs, but I push them down. I hate letting anyone see my cry, unless I’m doing it to gain something. In that case, it’s rarely genuine anyways.
 
It’s in that moment of utter powerlessness that a wave seems to rip the air to shreds. I can see it coming, radiating out from the busier section of downtown like ripples in a pond. The air around it seems to sizzle with heat. Where it touches, the rubble that I had been seeing appears, constant and enduring. I barely had a second of warning before I’m slammed against the building behind me. My head hits the bricks with a heavy thwack! The last thing I remember is hearing muffled shouts before I lost myself to the alluring darkness.
 
OooOooO
 
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
 
A groan escapes my lips as I crack open my eyes. A harsh light violently attacks them. Wincing, I shut them again, this time groaning freely. Slowly, I begin making out that there’s noise around me. Lots of noise. I can hear shouts, clanging metal, and what might be the wheels of an old cart. Behind it all are the steady beeps and tones of machines. I cautiously open my eyes again, slowly blinking away the uncomfortable brightness as my eyes adjust.
 
I wish I hadn’t.
 
I was in a hospital. There were numerous beds next to one another in what was most likely a hallway at one time, but now reminds me of the scenes of hospitals in movies after natural disasters. All the beds are occupied, and nurses rush back and forth between beds, taking vitals, adjusting IVs, and dressing wounds. Many of them appear unconscious, while others are moaning or crying out. I feel my heart pounding in my chest, the beeping noise becoming more rapid. Instinctively I take deep breaths to slow it. The beeping noise seems to echo in my ears, and I can tell I’m starting to panic.
 
A nurse rushes over, and I want to cry. I’m being weak, letting a machine push me towards a panic attack. Logically, I know there isn’t anything to be scared of, other than what caused all these injuries in the first place. Illogically, I’m terrified by the sight of so many injured. Knowing that something managed to cause this much damage and pain in the place I thought to be safe is frightening. The injuries are sickening. The fact I’m here means I was hurt, which just makes me want to scream.
 
At some point I realize that the nurse is trying to talk to me, but I can’t hear her over the pounding in my ears. The machine-a heart rate monitor, I realize-continues to beep insistently, which is annoying me to no end. The nurse is patting my arm now, trying to get me to focus on her, but I can’t get my mind to do much of anything. Considering I can’t focus very well on a normal day, this doesn’t really alarm me. Then again, my thoughts are a whirlwind of chaos at the moment, and I really can’t think of anything in particular other than the utter fear that feels like it’s going to crush my heart.
 
The nurse shouts something, and I feel a prick in my arm. I want to scream at her to let me go. A dry cough comes out instead, and suddenly I can’t breathe. It feels like someone poured salt down my throat. Its dry and it hurts and oh god I need air.
 
I see a plastic mask heading towards my face. The world is getting fuzzy, and my heart is pounding light a snare instead of a bass in my ears. The machine resumes is steady beeping and I find myself able to breathe again. I look around and see a nurse holding an oxygen mask to my face, looking at me worriedly. I don’t understand her concern at first, until I remember I’m in a hospital. I want to laugh at myself, but that seemed like a bad idea. I reach up and pull the nurses hand away, trying to sit up. She pushes me back down.
 
“You need to rest.”
 
“I want to sit up. Please,” I add as an afterthought. She hesitates a moment, but relents and goes to the back of my bed, pushing the top up. I want to ask what happened to the fancy electric ones, but considering the number of people, I guess they were all being used by other patients.
 
The nurse walks away and I close my eyes. My head is throbbing slightly, and sharp stabbing pains wreak havoc in my right leg when I try to move it. I bend my left leg instead, which is sore, but doesn’t hurt like the other. I’m still uncomfortable and my stomach feels like it’s suffering from frost bite, but considering the others around me, I count myself lucky. It isn’t long before the sedative takes over and I fall asleep.

Chapter Text

“What do you mean I don’t live there?” I cried. The police officer, a heavy set middle aged man, frowned at me.

“You gave us the wrong address. The residents of the address you gave us are an elderly couple with no kids. The cell number you gave us was out of service. If this is a game, I want you to realize that there could be serious repercussions,” the officer explained. I huffed in exasperation, fighting to keep down my emotions.

“I’m not playing a game. I’m tired, sore, and sick of this damn hospital. I just want to go home,” I complained. “I’ve lived at that house for four years. I know my address. I didn’t give you the wrong one,” I continued. I was still in the hospital, though I had been moved into a room two days ago. I should have been home, though. They were trying to discharge me, but I was a minor, so they needed to contact my parents. The police had even been called to track them down. They hadn’t had any luck, and this was the third time I’d spoken to the police today. I just wanted to go home and curl up in my bed and watch Netflix.

“I’m sorry miss, but that was not your address,” the officer huffed. He was clearly irritated. I looked away from the officer and stared at the wall. I refused to let anyone see me cry. See me weak. I heard the sound of retreating footsteps and sighed in relief, glad to be alone so I could sort through my thoughts.

“Hello, Ms. Shade?”

I rubbed at my eyes before turning to face the man that stood in the doorway. He had on a suit and tie. He was fidgeting with the tie though, looking uncomfortable. Light brown hair rested above bright green eyes against sun kissed skin. A smile graced his features when he saw he had my attention, one that was obviously forced.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but we need to get a statement from everyone involved in the attack. Would you mind if I asked you a few questions?”

I shook my head in response. He stepped further into the room. Dragging a chair away from the wall and towards my bed, he sat down. He pulled a folder and legal pad out of a briefcase I hadn’t noticed before. Sorting through various papers until he deemed everything adequate, he looked up at me. I turned away at that point, favoring the wall.

“What do you remember about the attack in Mission City?”
I glared at the wall, as if I could blame it for what happened that day. “It was really hot out. Seemed like any other day, yah know. Then there was this sort of…flash, and all of a sudden the things around me look crushed or smashed or scorched. The next second, they’d be back to normal. It went on like that for several seconds, then stopped. Like I said, it was hot, so I brushed it off.”

The man nodded for me to continue, jotting down something, most likely notes, on his pad of paper.

“I moved on, and not far up the street it happened again. I saw…it was hot out, and it was probably just a trick of the light, but I could have sworn I’d seen…agiantrobot,” I mumbled quickly.

“Could you repeat that last part for me?” the man asked.

I took a deep breath, preparing for his laughter, wishing I’d thought ahead about what to tell people. “There appeared to be a giant robot just up the street, heading towards me. The flashes stopped before it got close.”

The man nodded, jotting this down, a speculative look on his face. “What happened next?”

“I ran into some…people, and ran away from them. I ended up in an alley up the street from the cinema. I was there for a few minutes when this shockwave. It was like a concussion from an explosion, you could see it moving through the air. It knocked me backwards when it reached me. I slammed into something and blacked out.”

The man finished writing this down before he looked up at me again. “Anything else?” I shook my head, pulling up the sheets to cover my shoulders and burying my face into them. The man spoke again, but I didn’t look up.

“I’ll most likely be in contact with you again. Don’t worry about the giant robot. Many of the Mission City witnesses are reporting seeing them. We believe the terrorists used a mass hallucinogen to scare the population.”

I nodded meekly, already drifting to sleep. I was emotionally drained, and I just wanted to be home.

Chapter Text

“Major Lennox, sir.”
 
Will looked up from his desk to the soldier in the doorway. The man held another stack of paper, and he had to bite back a groan. “Yes?”
 
“We’ve received a report that was flagged due to several inconsistencies. They thought you’d want to take a look at it.” Will nodded, and the man walked briskly over to him, handed him the papers, then stepped back respectfully.
 
“Who gave the statement?”
 
“A minor by the name of Laurel Shade.”
 
“Where was she found?”
 
“Only a block away from the center of the battle.” Will looked up at the soldier skeptically.
 
“And she survived?” The man nodded.
 
Will still looked skeptical. “What exactly were the discrepancies?”
 
“The timing of the overall events, and how she claims to have seen them. The events she described match up with the data we recovered from security feeds and other eye-witness reports. However, several things she should have also seen based on what we can gather of her positioning at the time, she never saw. The placing of the two events she did witness is off. The amount of time in between them is much longer than it should, even if she was in shock or another state of distress at the time,” the soldier explained.
 
“You said the way she claimed to have seen them was off as well,” Will noted.
 
The soldier nodded an affirmative before elaborating. “As you’ll read in the report, Ms. Shade claims to have seen the first event-which we have concluded is when Megatron was pursuing Mr. Witwicky through the streets while he was making his way towards the abandoned building for pick up- when her surroundings flickered. The second event, which we believe to be slightly after Mr. Witwicky pushed the AllSpark into Megatron’s hea-- er, spark, was described as a ‘shockwave’ that changed everything it passed. This matches up slightly with a few reports about the energy wave released by putting the Allspark into Megatron’s spark.
 
Lennox nodded, trying to digest this information. He’d have the agent do a follow up, make sure that Ms. Shade didn’t miss anything. If she still believed to have seen the events in the way she did, they’d have to take her in for more detailed and extensive questioning.
 
“Thank you, soldier. You’re dismissed,” Lennox gave the man a brief nod before digging into one of the many other reports on his desk. This was going to be a long week.
 

OoOoOoOoOoO

“I’m sorry to make you retell these events again, but we just need to make sure to didn’t leave anything out or possibly exaggerate any of your descriptions. Try and be as detailed as possible, but don’t be afraid to admit if you are unsure of something,” Mr. Carlson explained. Laurel huffed in exasperation. Laurel was perfectly fine not retelling the traumatic events that had taken place a little over a week ago and landed her in the hospital.

“Fine. I rode down Main street. At a crosswalk, while I was crossing, things suddenly looked different. Different buildings, different people, different cars, then they were back to the way they had been only seconds before. It flickered like that several times for a few seconds before things settled the way they’d been before the flashes started. I figured it was just really hot out and I hadn’t been drinking enough water. I kept going down Main for at least five minutes, until I came to the business district. I turned there and then the flashes happened again, and I saw a giant silver robot heading towards me, flickering in and out of view as the scenery changed, and this time the buildings were damaged, scorched, and some utterly destroyed. The flashes stopped and then it disappeared. Maybe a minute or two minutes later I was in an alley after dealing with some bullies from school. I noticed the shock wave like thing heading outwards, towards me, and changing the surroundings into the unfamiliar ruins as it passed. Then it reached me, threw me into a wall, and I passed out,” Laurel recounted.

Mr. Carlson looked upset before excusing himself. Laurel watched through the door as he made a call and started talking to whoever was on the other end. After a brief conversation he hung up and stepped back inside.

“Ms. Shade, can I ask why you haven’t been discharged yet?”

“My parents don’t seem to exist,” Laurel joked.

“I see,” Mr. Carlson mumbled, stepping out to repeat the phone process. He stepped back in once more and smiled falsely.

“I’ll return later today with transportation. We’ll be bringing you to one of our main buildings to do some more questions and try to locate your parents.”

Laurel nodded, not bothering to argue. It wasn’t like there was anything she could do that would make a difference.

OoOoOoOoO

“Why am I being taken to an office building again?”

“I never said it was an office building,” Mr. Carlson mused.

Laurel grumbled something about stuck up agents and looked out the window of the black SUV. Mr. Carlson had returned as promised only two hours later with a wheelchair and a duffel bag. She had been loaded into the waiting black SUV, and they had almost immediately started moving. The only pause had been to call someone and state that they were on their way, which wasn’t disconcerting at all when locked into a strange vehicle with complete strangers.

“You said it was one of your main buildings, and you’re wearing a suit, so I assumed it was some paper pushing office.”

The man sitting next to Carlson glanced back at her, a smile on his face. “Normally you’d be right, but due to certain circumstances we’re being ordered to take you somewhere with better accommodations.”

Laurel frowned at this new fact. They made it sound like she would be staying in a hotel or something. She despised hotels. “Like...”

“I’m afraid any information on the location or purpose of our destination is 100% classified. You don’t have anything to worry about though. Just sit back and relax until we reach our first stop,” the man next to Carlson assured her.

“First stop?”

The man chuckled. “You’ll fit right in.”

‘Great, there go my chances of relaxing’

Chapter Text

Laurel Shade looked out at the tarmac, watching as a fighter jet descended from the gray abyss that hung above the base. She tugged at the hem of the oversized black T-shirt she wore, studying the black truck. It had appeared over 20 minutes ago, rolling up next to a hangar, and had yet to move. Stranger yet, no driver had exited the vehicle. The soldiers she could see eyed the truck cautiously, but made no move to approach it. She didn’t see anything off about the truck. It was big and foreboding, a perfect truck to be paired with agents of clandestine affairs.

She supposed that was what made it stick out to her in the first place. Since arriving on the base nearly two weeks ago, it appeared only caring and friendly soldiers were stationed here. She had yet to meet anyone who wasn’t sympathetic to her predicament, nor anyone who criticized or judged her for any reason. Other than Carlson, who she discovered wasn’t normally stationed here in the first place, and who had ventured to stay back in California, the only one who’d been anywhere near unkind was the doctor who checked over her injuries and dressed her wounds in fresh bandages every other day or so, and he was merely grumpy. It made her wonder why a truck like that would be here.

It wasn’t the first strange vehicle she’d spied either. Twice on her way to or from the medical center, she’d spotted strange cars. One had been a blue semi with red flame decals. Now that had been a sight to see. If it had been a normal semi it wouldn’t have stood out so much, but she couldn’t imagine the military giving such a flashy paint job. The other had been an ice cream truck. There was no rational explanation for it. No story made any sense and dismissed its presence. It was just too strange.

So, Laurel studied the black truck. It didn’t stand out like the others, but the longer she watched, the stranger it seemed. After another ten minutes she heard footsteps in the hall outside her room. She didn’t bother turning from the window though, seeing as it could have been just another soldier passing through. She knew it wasn’t at the same time. They never walked this hallway unless it was to stop at the room they’d placed her in.

Sure enough, a knock signaled the visit of another soldier.

The door opened and she turned to see a brown haired man in the doorway. He smiled at her, not unlike other soldiers had. She managed to smile back weakly.

“’Afternoon, Ms. Shade. I was hoping you wouldn’t mind talking with someone for a few minutes,” he said.

“Whatever,” she sighed in return, facing him and hobbling over.

“All this getting to you?” he asked with a hint of concern in his voice.

“No. It’s the boredom. Don’t you have anything to do on this base? Books? Video games? Anything?”

The man chuckled at her. “We do, but I’m afraid we aren’t permitted to provide anything but the essentials due to risk of security breach.”

They turned a corner and headed down the main hallway, passing many soldiers on their way. “At my age video games are an essential. If I don’t see an X-box controller or Wii remote soon I’m going to die from high quality graphic and virtually simulated gore deprivation,” she huffed. He chuckled once more at her expense before they turned into a new hallway headed to a different branch of the compound.

“I don’t know about video games, but we might be able to requisition a book or two. Any preferences?”

“Do you mean genre or series or...”she trailed off.

“Book, author, series, genre, whatever. We might even be able to get some comic books if you’re into that,” he explained.

“Comic books? What are you going to do, raid a sci-fi convention?” she joked.

“Well, we’ve got ourselves quite the mix of people here. I’m sure one of them has a stash. Names Will, by the way, since you don’t seem keen on asking,” he introduced himself.

Laurel had the grace to looked embarrassed. “Sorry, I didn’t-er, I wasn’t trying to be rude, I just-”

“Don’t worry about it kid,” Will laughed, “I’m sure you were just enjoying a decent conversation after being cooped up on this base for two weeks.”

“It’s really been two weeks already?”

“Yup, and I’m afraid it doesn’t appear you’ll be leaving anytime soon.”

Any joy the conversation had brought was suddenly buried under the darker emotions the statement brought with it. The government was no closer to finding her parents, or perhaps they just had no intentions of releasing her at all. She had seen something she wasn’t supposed to, and they were just pulling every last piece of information out of her that they could before she was silenced. It wouldn’t be surprising, if all those movies were true, but she had really hoped the government wasn’t as black and white as people speculated.

“You alright?” Will asked, effectively claiming her attention.

“I’m good, though my legs acting up a little,” she lied, looking at the approaching doors of the medical center.

“I’m sure R-um, Doctor Miles would be happy to take a look at that for you.”

“Great.” Laurel looked at her hands, twiddling her thumbs while Will continued to push her through the medical facility. He stopped once they reached a room in the far back, near a pair of doors she would have thought led to an ambulance bay if it hadn’t been a military base. Military bases might have ambulances too, she mused silently. A man stepped out of the room, wearing green-blue scrubs and holding a tablet, though not of any make or model she was familiar with.

“Major Lennox,” the man greeted.

“You never said you were a major,” Laurel pointed out. The ‘major’ merely smiled at her humorously.

“You never asked,” he replied, walking away. She frowned at this realization, having liked the man’s friendly demeanor, but discovering he was a major made her wonder why he had taken her to the medical center. She was just a civilian after all, no one special.