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Highways were said to be one of the many banes of any average persons life.
As it happened, that rule carried over to giant alien robots.
Optimus Prime rolled along the asphalt trails for the third time that hour, headlamps burning holes in the night. Further back along the rows of lanes, a black and yellow Camaro and black Topkick followed opposite him. Ironhide and Bumblebee had finished their own assigned patrol routes, and with nothing to do other than idle away at the base they had chosen to accompany their leader on his scout. They said nothing of Optimus' driving in circles nor his silence- best not to risk breaking his focus.
Optimus slowed his speed as he approached a familiar point on the highway, raised and bridging over a concrete ditch. It was here that he first saw the inconsistent scattered signal on his internal scanner during his first round. If he stopped his engine though, the signal disappeared completely. He recognised the effects of a signal scrambler, and the use of one of those could only mean one thing; Decepticon. Now it was a matter of tracking them down and luring them out...
Before Optimus could attempt anything though, a shadow shot out from underneath the road and right through the ditch, riding up along the sloping sides and jumping out onto grass edging the side road. It turned and accelerated towards the main highway, emerging from the shadows where the street light's glares couldn't reach. It skidded sideways right in front of Optimus, two wheels lifting off the ground as it leaned over from the force of the sudden change in direction. With a startled blare of his horn Optimus slammed down on his brake and violently lurched to a stop as the vehicle righted itself, all four wheels on the ground again and aligning itself for a straight cruise along the lane. Optimus took in a black paint job and golden rims before a plume of grit obscured his view, and when the cloud cleared the car had already given itself a generous head start. The signal was stable now, and telling of Decepticon origin. With a groan, Optimus gunned his accelerator.
"Autobots, I am in pursuit!" he relayed through his team's comm line. Ironhide and Bumblebee had caught up to him and flanked his chase.
"What've we got?" Bumblebee asked, swerving along the lane.
"Decepticon, using a signal scrambler."
"I got ya', Optimus," Ironhide growled over the line. "We can try boxing 'im in-" The rest of Ironhide's plan was lost to the Prime though, as he realised another little detail that the signal gave away.
"Ironhide, Bumblebee, back to base," he commanded, cutting off Ironhide's reel of tactics and Bumblebee's own suggestions.
"What?! But-"
"That's an order, Ironhide. I will take control of the situation," Optimus said confidently, and with audible sighs the two Autobots pulled back and reversed. Now only the Peterbilt and black Lamborghini remained on the highway this late at night.
"I thought they'd never leave," a sudden rich, feminine voice slashed through Optimus' radio, a new channel intruding in on his private comm line. Optimus' horn blared again in surprise, which smothered the accompanying chuckle. "You Autobots do like to keep a girl waiting..."
"Identify yourself, Decepticon," Optimus pinged back as he regained his composure, keeping a steady pace with the Lambo in front of him. A femme bot. Not so common amongst Cybertronians, and even rarer with the effects of war taking their universal toll on the population. Ironhide and Bumblebee were too far back to identify the subtle differences in her signal that revealed her gender-set, and Optimus knew that this encounter would require a... more delicate hand.
"Just a lonely little femme out for a drive..." she simpered in reply. "But if we must use labels, you can call me Airachnid. And you must be Optimus."
"What are you doing on earth, Airachnid?" Prime further questioned, catching up to the femme as she slowed slightly.
"This little planet has become quite the tourist spot; colour me curious about seeing what it had to offer." He could sense the smirk laced within her words, but before he could say anything she surged forward, spitting more gravel over him as her wheels spun. With a growl of frustration Optimus relented to another solo pursuit, the femme's laughter echoing around his cabin.
"Let's continue this conversation on the run, shall we?"
"That seems highly inconvenient."
"The thrill of the chase is worth it, though, don't you think?" she purred back cryptically, veering off down a ramp and up another connecting one, leading onto a further stretch of highway. Ahead Optimus spied a split lane- hidden by a bank of grass and trees- that would take him slightly in front of her when she emerged from the ramp, and sped towards it. A gleaming black hood rose from behind the steel barrier to his right and he violently twisted his steering wheel, bringing himself right on top of the femme in less than a klick. His front bumper caught her back wheels and she skidded to the side, Optimus also having trouble bringing his eighteen wheels to a stop. They were parked in the very centre of the highway, with Prime's whole length blocking the way ahead but the other lanes on either side left bare. She didn't try to accelerate away though.
"Is this the part where you haul me off to your cute little Autobot prison?" Airachnid broke into the silence, still sustaining her smirk. Optimus' engine revved from... something that he couldn't exactly place.
"Only if you intend to cause any harm to this planet, or its inhabitants."
"Oh, those humans I've seen scurrying around. Organic, weak... though their heads have a certain appeal to them." Her words send a disturbed shiver down Optimus' frame, and he just prayed that the femme couldn't see his discomfort as well as he felt it. "But enough about them, I am genuinely curious; what do you have planned for me?"
"Perhaps we could discuss that in more... able forms," Optimus replied to her strangely playful tone. Right now, his first priority was getting Airachnid detained and under watch. Whether she was working with Megatron or not, something about her told Optimus that he didn't want a creature like that wandering the planet.
"If you so desire. What's that earth saying again; Ladies first?" she chuckled as her panels, doors and frame suddenly shifted, whirring and re-configuring in a twisting mass of transforming metal. Optimus as well underwent the process, certain that there were no organic life signals in the vicinity. By the time his helm fully formed, the Lambo was replaced by a striking model of black curves, gold spikes, and a poisonous fanged grin. He didn't notice the glowing circles in her palms until he felt something smash against his torso. With a glance downwards he saw his red armour now bearing a white glob of... sticky material. With a pinch of his servo he pulled it off effortlessly. The femme's grin fell.
With an almost sorry expression Optimus spun the femme around, snapped her servos behind her back- which sprouted strange razor-tipped rods- and planted a ped on her lower back. She squirmed underneath the pressure pushing down in her, back legs frantically clawing at the air, trying to scrape something vital.
"You're a strong one, Prime," she admitted, her annoyed tone only thinly masking the admiration beneath. "But it's going to take more than that to make me your prisoner..."
Stubborn. Typical Decepticon. Optimus thought of what would subdue this femme. Techno-organic, by the looks of her. Before wasn't a signal scrambler, it was her biology at work. He had little experience of fighting techno-organics, but he'd heard enough tales to know that they liked to spring surprises on their opponents. And with her 'webbing' ineffective against him, she was sure to have other tricks. Just as well he had her restrained now. But the question still remained; what to do to truly reign her in?
As only a Prime could, he came to one conclusion.
"Very well."
Click
xx
"What's that truck doing out there?" William Lennox muttered with eyes glued to the series of screens in front of him; a dynamic view of Optimus zooming down the highway after a seemingly innocent black Lamborghini. Beside him Sam Witwicky stood and Seymour Simmons sat, the teenager twitching nervously while the other scowled. The other Autobots had returned to the base one Prime down, and explained the detection of a Decepticon signal on the roads to the impatient humans. The last thing they needed was more 'Cons on the loose. With Megatron in hiding, most of the Decepticons had gone under or completely off the radar. There was no telling how many of them were on Earth, or how many new were arriving each day. But at least they could scratch one renegade off the list.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute, why have they stopped?" Simmons asked worriedly, tapping his feet on the floor. Puzzled, Lennox looked back at the nearest screen. Sure enough, the pursuit had suddenly ceased, with the two stopped right in the centre of the road. Optimus was sideways across the middle lanes with the Lambo paused behind the makeshift-barricade. The stillness lasted for several minutes until...
"What the hell is he doing?!" Optimus' very public transformation now showed on the screen, with the Decepticon stood before him. Will groaned at the thought of all the paperwork he'd have to fill out if anyone just saw that. The Decepticon seemed to shoot something out of her- by the looks of her armour, or what little there was of it- palm, and it stuck harmlessly to Optimus. Will blinked, and the Decepticon was now pinned under Prime's foot, with her arms gripped behind her back. He grinned at the easy victory, and Sam whooped at Optimus. His praise, however, quickly shifted to cries of shock and anger.
"Wait wait wait, what- what are they do- No no no no NO! NO!" Sam yelled at the screen, snatching up a walkie talkie from a table and bellowing into it. "NO, Optimus, look, Optimus buddy, IS THAT WHAT IT THINK IT IS? IS THAT- DON'T YOU DARE, I SWEAR TO- LOOK, I DON'T KNOW HOW IT WORKS ON CYBERTRON, BUT HERE YOU CANNOT DO THAT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE RO- HE CUT ME OFF, THAT SON OF A BITCH!" He slammed the device back down, hyperventilating and hands pressing onto his head. Simmons took up bellows of promotion to Optimus'... dominance tactics.
Will was conflicted between confusion and the vibes of shock that were coming from Sam. "How... how do alien robots even have-"
"Who cares about the details?!" Simmons asked, chortling. "Whatever it is, he knows what he's doing- WOAAH LISTEN TO THAT!" A burst of scattered electronic sounds and unfortunately decipherable moaning came from the speakers, which made Sam whine even more in disgust.
"Strangely enough, I'm actually kinda trying NOT to, thank you very much!" he yelled, blocking his ears with his fingers and walking as far away from the screens as possible. "Ohmygodohmygodohmygooooood."
"I mean, are they like organic down there or do they have cables or som-"
"From the sounds of things, it's one damn big cable!" Simmons was overtaken with laughter as Sam experienced a mental breakdown in the background.
"AM I THE ONLY PERSON HERE FREAKING OUT ABOUT THE FACT THAT THERE ARE TWO VERY LARGE AND VERY DANGEROUS ROBOTS HAVING SEX IN PUBLIC?!"
"Did I hear freaking out? Who's freaking out, why are people freaking out?" The quick and cutting voice of Charlotte Mearing approached, stone-faced and disapproving. Will um-ed and ah-ed as he tried to explain what was occurring, before he simply pointed to the screen. Just when he didn't think she could look any more pointed, her face hardened ever so slightly at what she saw. She glared over at Seymour clutching his sides in laugh-induced pain. When he caught the steel in her eyes though, he instantly morphed his own into total bedroom-mode.
"If ya can't stop 'em, join 'em, honey."
The sound of a palm slapping hard against his face only just overcame Sam's ongoing nervous breakdown.