Can't Run Away Forever

[illdriveyoushoot]

She takes the bus now, more often than not.

She'd sold her old bike, dragged her dad off for a 'new start'; pretty much vanished off the grid for a while. Mikaela had done as much as she'd been allowed to do, to get away and keep from being found.

Keep from being found by her friends, at least.

A part of her - the bitter part - is sometimes upset that they never did. That they never tried, never suspected. But then again, the way she had broken up with Sam, real and so very angry...

That same bitter part, while upset, isn't surprised she'd been so easily forgotten.

And then Chicago had happened, freedom had come with a price for everyone, and...

Well. Being left alone was more understandable, after that.

So now Mikaela takes the bus, to and from her little backwoods, podunk gas station/convenience store/one-car garage quick-e-mart, the best she can get on just a highschool degree in this economy, expunged record or not. She does register and occasional garage work, and she has a good shot at making manager in the spring. Her dad has his own place, finally, moving in with a woman with little patience and no tolerance for his crap.

She's too good for him, and Mikaela is happy for them.

But being on her own leaves her with too much time to think, and despite no lack of offers, hints, and the same old innuendos, she's had no one since Sam. She's lonely, and alone in a world where no one remembers or cares who she is or what she's given up.

In short, it sucks, and playing at 'normal' isn't at all what it's cracked up to be.

Comments

[oneshallstand]

Most of the day, for Optimus, is waiting as well- waiting, and when given an opportunity (he deliberately put himself in a position shielded against cameras), taking steps to dislodge himself. Slowly, as quietly as he can make it, and as night fully falls only then actually making some real progress.

When Mikaela texts him, he pulls up the map he'd looked at earlier- then responds with a general ETA. He's about a minute earlier than that, holomatter stubbornly back on as he follows her directions inside.

[illdriveyoushoot]

She rushes closing up the store as best as she can. The place is left a little messier than usual - but this is way more important that retail work. Disabling the garage cameras is easy enough - they only kick on when the motion sensors for the lights goes off, so Mikaela isn't worried and just turns them off entirely.

It's a temporary solution, of course. Who knows how long it will take her to even manage the most basic of repairs? But until then, she draws the blinds in the garage, opens the back bay door, and motions the already-arrived Optimus inside.

Now that he's not half buried under scrap, she can see more of him - and it's not a pretty sight.

"Damn. Optimus. Damn, what happened?"

[oneshallstand]

Not really, no. There's what looks like actually bullet holes in him, possibly by bullets that aren't even human-made. And as soon as he's inside, the hologram flickers off, Optimus hesitating a few moments more before starting to transform.

And if he looked unpretty before, this looks outright painful.

The Prime ends up in a crouch, vents cycling harshly as a bit of fluid leaks from a half-healed torn line. The problem with self-repair is that sometimes...it doesn't always work the way one would want, or simply not well enough.

But he seems stable, if nothing else, and surely that counts for something.

Leaning back, reaching for the leak, he looks down at his hand for a moment before back at Mikaela, clearly still uncomfortable with the whole situation. "We were attacked," he says simply, it being as good an explanation as any.

[illdriveyoushoot]

"Holy crap."

Mikaela's hands go up over her mouth in shock - and it's not solely because of Optimus' copious injuries. Just mostly.

The awed feeling of being up close to one of the guys again, when they transform - especially the big ones - especially Optimus - is something she'd thought she'd never see again.

God, she's missed this.

...Even if she never wants to see one of Optimus' transformations end up looking like that again, either.

"Yeah. Uh. I can see that."

She's at a loss for a long moment, not even sure where to start - before she gathers her wits along with a pile of tools, and clambers over to his side.

"Sit down already. What's most critical right now?" She eyes that leak, trying to trace the source and identify the type of fluid.

[oneshallstand]

He can sit. Sitting is good. Optimus's vents cycle one final time as he eases himself down, not-quite-hunched over but close. This is about as safe as he'll be; there's no point in him stressing, because if he's chosen poorly...

He'll know soon enough. (He can't not keep the thought in his processor, however small and poisonous it remains. He wants to be able to feel safe, but when enemies are coming from those he thought were friends...)

"Clearing out the debris," he says after some moments of thought. "There are...pieces, that I could not remove on my own."

[illdriveyoushoot]

Mikaela winces, Optimus' damage, obvious exhaustion, and the implied scope of his words painting a dire picture.

At least it gives her a place to start.

"Right."

She sorts through the tools and sets most of them aside in favor of shoving pliers, wire cutters, and a hammer into her belt, along with attaching a canvas bag for collecting precious bits of broken Cybertronian metal. Dragging over the shop vac, just in case, she stares up, eyeing Optimus's frame for a good place to start climbing.

"Alright I'm heading up."

Placing a careful hand on his shin, she began to pull herself up, gripping onto armor ridges and slipping over massive joints with the ease of quickly-recalled experience.

[oneshallstand]

Dim blue optics watch her prepare, and when she seems ready, he moves his other hand to assist her climb. He's not certain where she's going to start, but he can at least ensure a slip won't result in a painful fall.

Just a short one.

Long experience allows him to stay still even as pain prickles at him; especially with the knowledge that it will soon be relieved. But he does remain relatively quiet, signs of pain restricted to twitches of his facial expression - which, at times, is deliberately pointed away from his impromptu medic.

[illdriveyoushoot]

"Really wish I'd invested in some carabiner clips the first time around..."

Grunting out a thanks for the hand-lift, she aims for the source of that leak first, somewhere nearly under his right arm. Her goal may be to get the debris first, but clearing out the source of that wound.

Pulling on her gloves - some of their fluids weren't exactly protein-friendly - Mikaela nodded up toward the shiny-wet panels up on his side.

"Up here. Lift you arm up if you can, and gimme as much room as possible."

Even as she gives the order- no longer requests, unconciously mimicing her old, green mentor - she's already wiggling hands into the largest joint seam, eyeing Optimus' shrapnel-peppered internals.

"Ugh. You weren't kidding. This is gonna sting."

It's all the warning he gets before she starts plucking at the largest bits of scrap.

[oneshallstand]

The similarity isn't missed. Optimus simply acknowledges with a quiet 'mm', not even hesitating to raise that arm. It's a slightly shaky motion, but with a hand bracing itself on the ceiling-

-well, it braces him for that sting, so all that happens is his hand there clenching in to itself. Scratching the ceiling...well, that would be a bad idea.

"I- trust you are not out of practice."

Vain attempt at conversation? Vain attempt at conversation. If this is her garage, she's clearly kept her skills in some sort of fashion- even if the differences between Cybertronians and simple human vehicles is great, there's at least some similarities.

[illdriveyoushoot]

"With cars and trucks? Never."

Mikaela snorts, up to her neck in plating as she plucks handfuls of slagged shrapnel out of that is obviously a bullet hole.

A giant damn bullet hole.

"With you guys? Way more out of practice than I would like for something like this."

The first few handfuls of scrap she dumps in the sack clatter cleanly, but the more she gathers, the wetter it gets. Occasionally she has to pause to haul out a larger piece, giving Optimus warning when it has to be forcibly dislodged.

"Man, at this rate I'm gonna need a bucket."

She pulls out long enough to give Optimus a disapproving look, chucking another handful into the sack. Her head and shoulders vanish back inside, pliers in hand.

"You never did tell me about what 'cons you were fighting. Going near that line, now."

[oneshallstand]

A vague itch-pain accompanies the debris removal, but the relief that comes with it more than makes up for the discomfort. Even if it does occasionally cause new leaks; slow trickles of grease-like fluid that he only seems so concerned about. If they were larger leaks, he would worry: if they were more numerous, he might. A handful of slow ones while under repair...

They give at least a vague excuse to consider his next words carefully. How much does Mikaela- no. How much can...no, that doesn't suit either.

Optimus sighs heavily, shaking his head as he moves his hand away from the torn line.

"...I am not certain it was only Decepticons."

[illdriveyoushoot]

"...wait, what?"

Mikaela pauses, the core lump of the jagged ballistics shell clutched in a gloved hand. Pulling back, she gives Optimus a look.

"What else would it be?"

But her tone is one of dread rather than complete obliviousness. There are only a few options of what it really could be, and none of them are good.

[oneshallstand]

This is as hard for Optimus to say as it is no doubt for Mikaela to hear. And now he looks back at her, down at her, expression grim and serious.

"In the years since Chicago, ever since the dissolution of NEST- I have begun to receive scattered reports of my people under attack."

A pause.

"Some of those reports have humans as the aggressors, but I had been uncertain to their accuracy until now."

[illdriveyoushoot]

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!"

Mikaela chucks the scrapped shell down, where it lands unerringly in an empty oil pan with a clang. Waving a grime-covered hand, she twists in place, clinging to the side of Optimus' chest

"Too many things at once. NEST was dissolved? Why? Who's bright fucking idea was that? And which humans? Terrorists? Crazy fundies?"

Despite her precarious position, Mikaela manages to cock a leg up, the clean edge of a hand going to her hip.

"I still don't know what all happened with Chicago - they kinda classified a lot of the details about you guys and what went down after the blackout. Can you just...start at the beginning, maybe?"

[oneshallstand]

He probably should have started at the beginning, anyway.

Optimus' optics flicker again- not from loss of power, but from refocusing upon Mikaela as he considers how to structure it. The hand that was at the ceiling comes down slowly, half-spotting her again. She seems steady, and he's feeling...

Not so much better as, perhaps, settled. He's not fully relaxed, but it's as close as he could be. Even with the uneasy subject matter.

"After you left...we were more focused on the Decepticon activity, then looking deeper in to why you had left." Not quite excuse, but they /were/ diverted. "In our efforts, we discovered that the government had been withholding information from us, of Cybertronian artifacts upon Earth- and its moon as well. We then discovered a mech whom I had thought long lost- my mentor, Sentinel Prime."

He has to pause here. This is...hard.

"Though we were at first overjoyed with Sentinel's addition to our ranks, we were being deceived. Sentinel betrayed us all, killing Ironhide, and used Chicago as a point to try and revive Cybertron at the cost of Earth."

Somehow, someway, his voice remains steady. Too steady.

"We stopped him, but the surrounding events shattered most of the trust between the government and the Autobots. NEST was dissolved soon after, and we lost contact with most of our individual allies."

Trying to remember all the things she SHOULDN'T know is a pain lol

[illdriveyoushoot]

At this point, the mention of her departure and their lack of...focus...on it, is becoming more understandable. It doesn't please her, it never could, stomach twisting as her heart crawls up her throat- but it doesn't make her flinch.

But Mikaela is quick to forget her own issues as Optimus continues.

"The moon?" she asks, a little blankly, before everything just stops.

"-Ironhide?"

It comes out as a shocked cry, pliers dropping from nerveless fingers.

They'd survived the ship explosion, he should have been fine; nothing was supposed to happen to them after she left-!

And it is just a little too much. It really was good foresight that Optimus' hand is there, because her grip goes briefly slack with horror and the grease on her gloves- she slides down a good four feet of plating with a cry.

/pets

[oneshallstand]

He feels for her, he does. It must be a terrible shock. But while she's hearing about it- Optimus has lived through it, and only pauses long enough to ensure he's got her before continuing, in that quiet too-steady tone.

"Since then, we have scattered, tending to our own on our own. Sam is no longer in contact with Bumblebee, and Lennox..."

He exvents, hard.

"...William Lennox, as we understand, has been watching over his own and Epps' family after Epps disappeared. We could no longer keep them safe."

Or ourselves.

;3;

[illdriveyoushoot]

"Jesus-!"

Mikaela latches on to both Optimus' hand and the plating on his side, staring up with wide eyes.

"F-Fuck, fuck I'm fine, I'm fine just. Shit!"

Mikaela doesn't even notice that Optimus didn't ask if she was alright. Tugging off one of the gloves, she knuckles at her eyes, angry and upset and scared all at once.

Sam, she could almost understand, and is least concerned for. He'd been ready to ditch Bee and everyone else just for college. But if Epps had 'vanished'...

"Epps is dead too?"

Those soldiers wouldn't leave their own willingly. She knew that much about them.

[oneshallstand]

His face is bare, but there's a proverbial mask up. One that only allows for so much to come through; still, as he watches her so upset, his lips press together in the slightest of frowns.

"...we do not know."

He's kept himself from knowing. From being worried or concerned because he cannot afford to be. Not with his people on the run, their chances of escape slim to none; for all intents and purposes, they're trapped on a world that's turned upon them, and is now possinly hunting them.

The mask slips a bit more, and his optics flicker off.

"...I do not wish to put you in danger, despite your...unwilling exile. But..."

But it goes without saying that things have gotten very bad, as of late, and she may already have become a target if anyone finds out about this...

[illdriveyoushoot]

The non-answer makes her swear again, words muffled as she curls down between Optimus' hand and side, forehead bowed against metal.

It takes a long moment for her to process. All the times she'd imagined what it might be like to see everyone again, to find out what she'd missed...

Well. Mikaela had kind of hoped dealing with gossip about Sam's new girlfriend would be the worst of it.

Eventually, she snorts against blue paint.

"Ha, too late for that one."

She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand, roughly enough to leave her skin red.

"Been too late since I was seventeen, Optimus."

Despite the words, she gives the giant hand holding her as much of a squeeze as she can. Then Mikaela pulls back to climb back up Optimus' torso as steadily as she can manage.

"Like I said before, I didn't leave because I wanted to. If that hadn't of happened, I'd like to think I'd have been around until now."

A pause, hand freezing in midair.

"...Unless you got any more bombs to drop on me?"

[oneshallstand]

His finger comes up, very lightly touching her back in whatever comfort it can offer in return. He sometimes forgets how young the species is; seventeen years is a blink of the eye for them, and yet in the past decade they've been on Earth things have gone from bad to hopeful to hopeless to victory to pain and he is tired of these ups and downs. They've tugged him and his in so many directions that he almost just wishes it would stop so that he wouldn't have to endure it anymore.

He's altogether not sure how much more he can take.

Optimus follows Mikaela with his hand, ensuring that if she loses her grip again...she'll still have something to catch her. Because the next bomb he drops is a quiet admission;

"When we find the means, we will be leaving Earth."

[illdriveyoushoot]

Being comforted by a finger as tall as she is never, ever gets old.

Even if she can't really enjoy it now.

"I..."

Again, her long-held imaginings are forced to shift. When she'd last been among everyone regularly, Earth was going to be their new home. A sanctuary for their giant friends and allies, and a rallying point for the long-lost Autobots.

Even that has changed.

"But the Xanthium-"

Blew up. When they find the means, pay attention, Banes. She goes quiet.

"...where will you go? I may have been in the dark, information-wise, but everyone saw- saw what happened to the planet in the sky. It was Cybertron, wasn't it?"

She remembers that moment, clear as the sunny day she stood in the parking lot of their crappy apartment complex, neighbors screaming and panicking all around as the world appeared in the sky, looming like Armageddon.

She'd known what it was, down in her gut, and wasn't sure if her screaming as it vanished in a writhing vortex was triumph or some sick sort of relieved grief as a world seemed to die, sparing theirs.

[oneshallstand]

"Is gone."

No ships. No allies, no friends to ask who would be capable of delivering one to them. Their so-called new home has become a prison for them, one they can only hope to escape- soon.

As to where?

"...Sentinel Prime's attempts to revive Cybertron, as you saw, only ended in its absolute destruction."

We have no home.

Not even the remains of one.

And despite Optimus Prime's steady voice, with how he looks away once more, it's clear he is not unaffected by this knowledge- much less by having to impart such.

[illdriveyoushoot]

"...Optimus."

Mikaela doesn't know what to say. How could she? Their world was dead and who could really say 'I'm sorry about your planet' and have it mean much?

She climbs up to his shoulder, laying an open palm on an undamaged portion of chest plating.

"...I can't promise it will be alright. But I can promise I'll try and help it along. Somehow."

[oneshallstand]

It does have him look back down at her, audials twitching slightly as he regards her form. Another might ask, demand how someone so small could even think they could help.

Optimus, knowing better, only nods in acknowledgement/acceptance and offers the faintest of smiles.

"You already have."