The Power Within - Transformers Prime (2)

Chapter Eight

  "Are you okay?" I asked in concern, striding to her side. She nodded, wincing slightly as she stood up.

  "I'm fine." She waved away my concern, then regarded me. "Your nose is bleeding."

  I pressed my fingers to underneath my nose, them coming away red. "I feel like this'll keep happening with you around."

  Her small smile was all the reply I needed before I turned to the group of fearful scientists huddled in the corner. "I'm calling this lab in to the military. If you all surrender and allow yourselves to be taken into custody quietly, I give you my word you'll be in for a much more enjoyable ride than those guards that tried to kill us."

  They nodded hurriedly, allowing themselves to be surrendered. I turned to Amanda, who had strode across the lab to grab the USB.

  "You should get out of here," I told her. "I can explain myself for being here, but if word gets out that a civilian was with me-"

  Her eyes narrowed. "Hardly a civilian."

  "Still." I gestured to the scientists. "They won't spill, but if you're caught here, you could be in trouble too. Not to mention I'd get fired."

  "Glad to hear you have your priorities straight." She shot me a brief grin before going somber again. "You'll be okay?"

  I nodded. "Worry about yourself."

  She rolled her eyes in amusement and then headed for the door, turning back just before she left. It looked like she was going to say something, but a second later she turned and walked out.

  Sighing, I pulled out my phone, calling the one person who was probably going to yell at me the most.

  "Agent Fowler? I've got a situation, more specifically one called MECH."

[Amanda]

  Sitting on the chair at the front porch, I watched the sun go down as the landscape around me quieted down, the near silence then pierced by the sound of a certain truck engine. Optimus appeared down the road that went by my house, turning into my driveway and pulling up to the house. He transformed and crouched in front of the house, eyes on me.

  "Hello, Amanda." He said.

  I gave him a wave. "Hey, Optimus. Fight any Cons?"

  He shook his head. "No. By the time we arrived at the energon mine, the Decepticons had abandoned it. Though we did manage to harvest an adequate amount of energon."

  "That's always good news." I shifted in my seat, ignoring the pain in my body as I did. "Did anything from your time with the Cons come back to you today?" We had been trying to piece together what had happened to Optimus while he lost his memory, his mind reverted back to its Orion Pax state, an opportunity Megatron could hardly allow to pass.

  A pause. "No. All I know of my stay aboard the Nemesis is what we already know."

  Bitterness and anger filled me as I thought about that, especially about the fact that Optimus had been branded with the Decepticon emblem instead of his Autobot one. Megatron had his nasty claws on the Prime for a few days and he took complete advantage of him.

  "Amanda." Optimus' collected voice cut through my thoughts. "Amanda, you're burning through your chair."

  That shot me to attention. I jumped out of my seat, turning to see that the armrests, which were metal, were melted away. My gaze then went to my arms, where I saw the receding silver dust along them, and I stifled a groan.