Vaughan was in a deep sleep the next morning. With a light bed sheet as the only covering, she was asleep on her side, curled up into a ball. Of course she was unaware that she slept over her alarm clock going off. Twice. She only woke up when her mother barged in, realizing the time.
"Vaughan Witwickey get up!" she yelled.
Vaughan was scared out of her sleep, letting a yelp escape her lips as she shifted and fell off her bed. Luckily it wasn't a hard landing since she had carpet flooring. "Mom! Why'd you do that for?!"
"We slept in! You're flight leaves in an hour!" she said.
Vaughans eyes widened as she looked up at her alarm clock.
8:30am
She was supposed to wake up three hours ago and be at the airport one hour ago. "Aw crap!"
"Hurry and get dressed, I'll be in the car."
Her mother squrried out of the room as Vaughan quickly brushed her teeth, washed her face, and combed her hair before changing into her clothes. She grabbed her suitcase and made a B-line for the door. But once she stepped out of her room, she she stopped, realizing she forgot a few things. She came back inside, grabbing her iPhone and putting it in her pocket, grabbing her laptop handbag and placing it inside. But before she did that, she opened her latop and checked the progress on the upload.
100%
"Finally!" che cheered.
Thankfully her mother was waiting in the car so she didn't her her daughter scream. She was temptedto check how many views it had now. But she was in a hurry and it killed her on the inside to not find out of people liked this brand new work. She closed the laptop and stored it in her bag, putting the strap over her body and on her shoulder to carry it like a purse.
She took the letter she made for her dad and ran out the door, picking up her suitcase again and made her may down the stairs as quickly as she could. She pulled on her black leather boots and ran out the door, sliding the letter into the mailbox as she reached the bottom of the drive way.
She shoved her stuff in the backseat as she quickly got into the front passenger seat of her mothers van, buckling her seatbelt. "Ready?" asked her mother.
"Drive woman drive!" replied Vaughan. "We're late as it is!"
Her mother backed out of the drive way and drove full speed to the airport. They somehow managed to get by the morning traffic, which thankfully is calmer during the summer months with everyone already gone on their vacations.
For the duration of the ride, Vaughan recieved text messages from her friends wishing her a good trip to Mission City, be safe and have fun, and all that good stuff. Somehow she'd figure out a way to have fun when all she's going to do is work all day. At least she'd have Spike and Chip to hang out with after hours.
They reached the airport, parking in the departure section. Vaughan hooped out of the van and clawed her suitcase and laptop bag out of the back seat.
"Have fun, don't be tardy." said her mother.
"Love you too." replied Vaughan.
The two of them hugged before Vaughan grabbed her suitcase, put her laptop bag strap over her body and on her shoulder. She waved her mother goodbye as the woman drove away in the van and Vaughan bolted inside the large complex building.
She picked up her tickets and practically soared to the security station. She passed by rather quickly, except getting 'randomly' choosen to go through the x-ray machine. This happened to her everytime she went through security at the airport. Those new laws were starting to really annoy her.
When she was cleared to go, she picked up her stuff and ran up the escalator to the gates. She squrried through the halls, dodging and running past other passengers as she ran to her gate located at the otherside of the building.
Today was just not her day.
She made it to the end of the hallway and just made it in time. The staff let her aboard as she walked down the small tunnel and onto the plane. Vaughan decided to take this opportunity to check how many views her video had. She pulled out her laptop and opened it up. But just when she was about to open up internet explorer, the P.A. system came on.
"Passengers please turn off all electronics and prepare for take off."
"Seriously?!" Vaughan muttered angerly.
Vaughan put her laptop back in her bag and stowed it under the seat in front of her. She sighed as she laid back in her chair and looked out the small circular window, watching the plane as it backed out of its parking spot and slowly drove towards the runway. She listened to the safety video quitely. She didn't bother looking at the screen, she's seen it plenty of times before and has all the exits and such completely memorized.
What could she say, she's a flyer. Always has been since the day she was born. She felt her body tug as the plane increased it's speed and soared up into the air. Vaughan watched the plane soar through the air, looking up at the clouds. She loved flying. Even though most of the time she slept through most of the flights.
Speaking of which, with every bored second passing by, and the current plane she was on not having an TV screens to watch movies, Vaughan slowly fell asleep. Her head fell back into the pillow on her chair. Let's only hope she didn't snore during the flight.
********
After the long flight, the plane landed in Mission City, U.S.A.
"Great. Border check point. This will be 'fun'." Vaughan muttered. As the passengers left the plan, the flight attendance handed them bording papers to be filled in when they reach the check point.
She filled out the form and once the plane landed at its gate, the passengers were allowed to exit the large moving vehicle. Vaughan made her way through the halls of the airport and entered the border check point. "Just relax Vaughan." she thought to herself. "You've done this plenty of times before."
She walked over to a station, handing the security guard the paperwork she filled out. She tapped her foot against the floor, impatiently and nervously waiting for a response. "Working in the oil rigs?" he asked.
"Yes, with my uncle."
"Got a name?"
"Sparkplug. Sparkplug Witwickey."
The guard turned over to his computer and typed something onto the keyboard. All of a sudden her uncle's face and info came up on the screen, as the guard scrolled through it. He's doing a background check on Vaughan?! On her uncle?!
"You are good to go miss." said the guard as he gave her papers a stamp of approval and handed them back to Vaughan.
"Thank you." Vaughan walked across the hall with her belongs and entered a large room where various people waited to meet with the passengers.
"Vaughan! Over here!" called out a voice.
Vaughan caught sight of two people waving at her. One was a man who looked to be in his late thrities, early fourties. He had light brown hair with some white showing off at the sides, and brown eyes. The other was a teenaged boy who, surprisngly, is 14 years old. But he looks older and more mature for this age. They were both wearing faded white shirts, blue jeans, and yellow boots. Her uncle Sparkplug and cousin Spike.
"Spike! Sparkplug!" Vaughan ran over to them, pulling her suitcase along as she reached them, giving them both a great, big hug. "I missed you guys, so much."
"We missed you too Vaughan." replied Spike.
"How's your mother doing?" asked Sparkplug.
"Oh she's doing fine. Try to get me away from my music and freedom as usual." she teased.
"She's only doing it because she loves you." replied Sparkplug.
"She cares about me doing well in school. I respect that, but I still need my social time! I haven't had a big get together with my friends for over a year! Do you realize how sad that is?!" Vaughan asked.
"Very?" answered Spike.
"Yes! Very sad!" she stated.
"I'm sure once we get to work, it will take your mind off things." said Sparkplug. He picked up Vaughan's suitcase for her as the trio walked out of the building and towards his truck. He put the suitcase in the backseat as the three of us hooped into the front row. Sparkplug started up the van and it took off through the highway.
"So Spike, how was your exams?" Vaughan asked, making conversation.
"Tiring. I had five this year." he answered with an irritated sigh. "How about you?"
"Five? I only had two." she replied.
"Two?!" Spike said with shock. "I'm took more academic classes than you, that is so unfair!"
"Well once you get into high school, you'd be saying other wise." replied Vaughan.
The drive from the airport to the city's port seemed to take forever! Vaughan and Spike wouldn't stop talking about school, exchanging survival tips and what not. "So how's the social life?" asked Spike. "Got yourself a boyfriend?"
"Me? Oh no, not yet. Waiting for the right guy to come along. You know what I mean?" replied Vaughan.
"Sort of. Care to share?" said Spike.
"Well most of the time I feel that most boys at my school, except for the ones that are my friends, are complety jerks! They only like a girl for their looks, and all they want to do is make out! It makes me sick sometimes." explained Vaughan.
"Yeah, some of the girls at my school at that way too." replied Spike.
"Wait, wait, wait, hold on. Fourteen year old girls?! Aren't they still a little young for that?" Vaughan asked looking surprised.
"I never had to deal with that kind of stuff when I was between your kids age." said Sparkplug.
"That's because in your day, guys and girls did the dating thing right Uncle Sparkplug. They liked each other for their personalities and hobbies! Not if they looked hot, goregous, or if they're a great kisser!" replied Vaughan.
"Amen to that." spoke Spike.
"How much longer until we get to the port?" asked Vaughan.
"Just a few more minutes." answered Sparkplug. "How about some radio?"
"I got it dad." said Spike.
He turned on the radio and flipped through the channels to a certain radio station. The radio station host announced this new song that just recently came out and apparently it's gone viral since this morning. When the host began playing it, Vaughan could have sworn she nearly jumped out of her seat when she heard the familiar beats, drops, and voices of the song.
"Imma try it out! 'Kay!"
"That's my song...." she thought. "MY SONG IS ON THE RADIO!"
"I've never heard this before." said Spike. "But I like it."
The both of them bobbed their heads and danced in their seats to the beat of the song. Sparkplug was too focused on the road to join them, but he simply tapped his hand on the steering wheel, tapping it to the beat of the song.
The song on the radio helped passed the time as Sparkplug pulled the van up into the parking lot of the city port. A huge naval base ship sat in the docks, army men and workers of all kinds boarding the vessal.
"Dad when you said we were working on this, you weren't kidding." said Spike.
"This is awesome! We're working on that?!" asked Vaughan.
"That's right. Pretty exciting right?" answered Sparkplug.
"Heck ya!" Vaughan and Spike cheered.
The trio exited the vehicle and made their way to a large booth to pick up their supplies and hard hats. Once they had their stuff ready, they made their way up the bridge and inside the ship. They met with the captain of the ship who directed them to the top floor and deck of the ship. It was massive! One part of it carried small fighter planes, the other was an area for the oil rigs where Vaughan, her family members, and other people worked at.
"The ship will be departing soon. Everyone else has gotten started so I suggest you join them, help pass the time." said the captain.
"Yes sir." replied Sparkplug. "Come on kids."
Spike and Vaughan followed Sparkplug as they went to their work station, meeting with their co-workers. Some of them they've met before, some were new workers on the force entirely.
Within moments as they got to work, an alarm sounded and the giant ship began to leave the port slowly and in just merly a few minutes it were out of the city boarder and sailing for the open water of the ocean. Lovely. Vaughan just hoped she didn't get sea sick. She's never worked on a boat before. And she did not want to start barfing up a storm. Not now.
***********
After hours of working, Spike and Vaughan decided to take a short break and have some lunch. The two of them chatted, catching up on old times when they used to hang out all the time when they were kids. Back when Vaughan's dad was around before his first tour.
"Did you hear from your dad yet?" asked Spike.
"I sent him a letter this morning. Hopefully I'll hear from him in the next few days." answered Vaughan.
"Why not just send him an email?" Spike asked in reply.
"Can't for two reasons. The first reason being it's a safety and security precaution. Just in case the enemy might be hacking or tapping into our systems and learning our locations. And secondly, my dad doesn't even have an email." explained Vaughan.
"Not even a cell phone?" asked Spike.
"Oh he has one. Just never uses it." answered Vaughan.
"Well, I guess that's good for the phone bill." said Spike with a laugh.
Vaughan replied with a chuckle, setting her lunch down back in its box. "I guess it is."
"Spike! Vaughan!" called out Sparkplug. "Can you help me with something?"
"Sure thing dad!" replied Spike.
The two of them set their lunch boxes aside as they put their hard hats back on and walked over to Sparkplug at his work station. "What do you need?" asked Spike.
"I need you two to flush this thing out. Got it?" replied Sparkplug.
"On it. I'll get the bailor." said Spike.
He walked away for a moment, getting the part they needed for the task.
As the three of them worked, Vaughan heard a noise coming from over head. At first she thought it was just one of the miliatry jets in the sky, doing a quick fly by or something. As Vaughan worked, she took a quick glance at the sky, but didn't see a jet. She froze as her eyes widened and stayed locked on the actual object that was up in the sky.
Or should she say, objects.
"Um, uncle Sparkplug?" she asked nervously. "What's that?"
Sparkplug stopped working and followed Vaughan's gaze to see the strange things up in the sky. He looked up at them with disbelief, and soon Spike and the rest of the workers caught on, looking up as well.
"What is that up there?!" said Sparkplug.
They looked like giant robots. Some of them were miliatry jets but as they dove down towards the ship, the jets transformed into more giant robots. The first one to land was a robot with a white colour scheme with red side colours on the sides of his lower legs, had red optics, and a strange purple face like symbol embedded on his chest. He also had a large black cannon attached to his right arm.
"What is it?!" asked Sparkplug.
"What are they?!" asked Spike.
"Transforming robots?!" I yelled with fear.
The other works grabbed and picked up anything they could find from giant bolts, to crowbars and threw them at the giant robot. He seemed completely unfazed by the attacks like they were nothing to him. A second alien robot landed next to him. He had a red, white, and blue colour scheme with sniper looking weapons attached to both of his arms. As the robot landed beside his fellow robot, the grey robot picked up one of the large metal pipes and simply dropped it.
The pipe came rolling across the deck of the ship, the workers running away from it as they were forced to abandon ship and drop to the sea.
"Hey! Leave them alone!" yelled Vaughan.
She instantly covered her mouth after that. She hooped those robots didn't hear her. But what could she do? She was just telling them off for bullying her uncles friends. Then a third smaller robot came up from behind the trio. It had a dark blue colour scheme with wide red optics. It grabbed Uncle Sparkplug and pinned him to a wall.
"Stop! Let go of my dad!" yelled Spike.
Spike ran over to the robot in an attempt to free his father. He hit the robot in the back and his fist hit the metal skin of the robot with a 'CLANK'. Vaughan flinched at the noise, thinking it would hurt her cousin badly. The robot tensed as it turned around and faced Spike, his bloody red optics flashing in his direction.
Vaughan, not knowing what else to do, ran over to assist Spike, but with a simple move of the robots hand, it pushed Spike back, flying right into Vaughan. The force of the push from the small robot was so strong, that the two teens fell overboard and into the ocean!
With a scream, Vaughan crashed into the water, followed by her young cousin. She hated swimming in deep water. She knew she wouldn't be able to last long out in these deep waters. She heard a muffled yell as she watched one more body splash into the water. She felt two pairs of hands catching her by the shoulders and pulling her up.
She coughed and coughed as her uncle and cousin helped keep her a float, resting each of her arms around their necks. "Vaughan, Spike, are you two alright?" asked Sparkplug.
"I'm fine dad. I'm more worried about Vaughan." answered Spike.
"I'm fine." assured Vaughan.
As Vaughan looked back up at the ship she could have sworn she saw more giant robots fly in. "Great." she thought. "More robots to ruin my day."
She saw a set of purple blasts coming from the deck of the ship as the new group of robots landed onto the ship. "Wait, are they fighting them?" thought Vaughan. She couldn't see what was going on from where she was afloat, but she did hear the repeated sounds of blaster fire, metal hitting on metal, and a few yells and screams. "What is going on up there?" she asked.
"I have no idea." replied Spike.
She watched as the first group of robots hovering in the sky, some of them holding a pile of strange, thin, energy cubes. At least that's what she thought they were. She watched as one of the new robots emerged at the edge of the deck of the ship. He had a red and blue colour scheme with blue optics, a dark blue helmut, and a mouth guard.
"So long Prime. Have a nice swim." said the leader of the first group of robots.
He aimed his cannon and began firing onto the ship! He shot a multile holes on it's sides and it began sinking into the water as the sides exploded in a firey blaze. As it sank, the robot called Prime, and the rest of the new robots helpless slid down the side of the ship and crashed into the water. Huge parts of the ship were floating in the sea as the ship continued to sink. And if things couldn't get any worse....
"Here's something to keep you warm!"
The, evil robot, open fired on the gas tanks that were located on the deck and the ship exploded! The evil robot laughed menacingly as Vaughan screamed, Sparkplug sheilding her and his son from the falling debrey of the ship. A set of the metal beams crashed into the ocean, forming a cage around Vaughan and her family.
Sparkplug had an idea. From he and his kids saw, the new group of robots were fighting those bad robots. Which means, there might be a chance they could be good. Hopefully.... He was willing to try anything.
"Help!" he screamed. "We can't get out!"
"Somebody help us!" yelled Spike.
Their please for help caught the attention of the red and blue robot. He swam over and grabbed a hold of the metal beam set, trying to lift them up. As Vaughan watched, she caught a glimpse of the fire from the ship. "The fire is spreading!" And spreading it truely was. It formed a huge circle around the sinking ship, debrey, and the helpless soldiers and workers floating in the water.
"I-- Can't-- lift it!" said the red and blue robot. "Too heavy."
"Wait, it speaks english?!" thought Vaughan. The fire was beginning to spread even more, and the size of the flames grew bigger.
"Climb on to me, and keep your heads above water." said the robot.
With no other choice, Sparkplug helped Spike and Vaughan onto the robot before helping himself up. Vaughan looked around with horror as the fire continued the spread, the crying calls of the rest of the soldiers and oil workers who were swimming and hanging onto the debrey for dear life.
"Is this how it all ends?!" Vaughan thought.