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]

Things haven't been 'normal' for Optimus Prime for thousands of years.

That said, he had gotten familiar with Earth; its people, its places, its way of working. And then their allies were, all at once, gone- the government they had come to trust shutting its doors, the organization they treated as equals dissolving. At first he had stayed in contact with them, as many as they good, but as weeks and months dragged on-

-it became rapidly clear that things were changing. And that once again, it would be necessary to remain in disguise.

So disguise he takes, with Bumblebee and the few other Autobots at his side. They spread out by necessity, only occasionally meeting up again for strategy meetings and the like- but it is becoming too dangerous to do so too often, and for too long. Because against all odds...

Something is hunting them.

Someone is hunting them.

Optimus Prime barely made it out of the last ordeal, but not without injuries. They force him to remain in altmode for now, a dingy old truck with none of the bold red and blue he had worn years ago. He finds a junkyard, a place which would normally cause him unease even knowing that none of these are his people- but now? Now it is hiding among the same, aged, beat-up, dusty old vehicles who will give him the cover he needs for his self-repair to take over.

The Autobot leader lets himself slip towards a healing stasis, conserving power and energy in what he can only hope will be as close to safety as he can get. For now.