Transformers-Revenge of the Fallen

  It looked as though it was screwed into it.

  He squinted, trying to get a closer look even as he struggled to fight her off. “What is that? Does that say—Honda ? ”

  Moaning, she thrust herself forward against him and shoved her tongue into his mouth. At the same time, a second protrusion emerged from the back of her head. Thin, metallic, and quivering with a life of its own, it flicked upward. The tip of a hypodermic needle snapped out of the end as it snaked around in a wide arc, aiming for the back of Sam’s neck. Preoc­cupied with Alice’s tongue and other animated body parts, he didn’t see it.

  At which point the door swung wide to admit the just-arrived figure of Mikaela, carrying the now- securely locked metal storage bin by its handle. Be­fore the portal could open fully, the probing tendril swiftly retracted into the back of the skull of the female figure on the bed. Mikaela’s stunned reaction to the sight that greeted her was summed up in few words.

  “Great! Perfect, thank you, Sam ...”

  “Mikaela!” Fighting his way out from beneath the blonde, Sam struggled to get off the bed. “Okay, wait, this is not what it looks like. We were talking. The rest was just...”

  Alice regarded the intruder coolly. “Your girl­friend ? ”

  “Ex.” Pivoting, Mikaela stomped out the doorway.

  “Mikaela, wait, I. . . !” Sam started after her.

  Something thin, powerful, and unyielding whipped around his neck, cutting off the rest of his words. As he reached up to try and dislodge it, it yanked him backward toward the bed, spinning him around in the process. Trying to force his fingers beneath the metal coil, he saw that he was being held back by— her tongue. His eyes widened and he tried to shout, but all that emerged from beneath the choking cable was a desperate croak. Whipping him around, the coil slammed him into the far wall as a dainty hand at the terminus of an arm that had suddenly become ten feet long shoved the door shut behind the recent ar­rival.

  Or tried to. Having heard the noise, a frowning Mikaela had turned back to investigate. Another girl would have simply walked on, but Mikaela had heard too many similar noises in the past to let this one pass unnoticed. Of course it was probably noth­ing, just Sam’s new slut hammering him into the bed, but just in case .. .

  She pushed the door wide just in time to see the blonde’s flashing tongue-tentacle hurl Sam across the room. Reacting instinctively, Mikaela threw the only thing that was handy—the metal box. It struck the girl-thing’s head a glancing but hard blow, sending it swiveling around 180 degrees so that the creature was now staring directly back over her shoulder blades at the human female who had dared to inter­fere. Bouncing off the skull, the box went crashing out the window. An instant later and slightly out of

  breath, Leo arrived.

  “Sam, check it out—that Alice chick? Something is seriously ...”

  The sight of the girl in question brought him upshort. Perhaps it was the fact that her head was presently on backward.

  “. . ., weird,” Sam’s roommate finished as “Alice’s”

  face exploded into a mass of Medusa-like tentacles.

  The tentacle tipped with the hypo jabbed straight at Sam, who ducked just in time and made a dash for the doorway, yanking the door shut behind him. Fol­lowing the needle a handful of spikes shot forward, again just missing him as they exploded all the way through the wood. Shoving Mikaela and Leo ahead of him, Sam stumbled out into the hallway.

  Adrenaline replacing the oxygen he had already sacrificed in his dash from the common room, Leo screamed at his friend as they ran.

  “It’s a frickin’ metal she-beast robot monster! What the hell’s happening, Witwicky?”

  “She’s an alien robot!”

  His roommate’s eyes grew even wider. “What? WHAT? They’re here? They’re real?!”

  Sam nodded once as he tried to lengthen his stride, keeping pace with Mikaela. “They’re all real.n

  “Oh, God,” Leo moaned, “I can’t believe I almost had sex with her!”

  Behind them, the door to their room blew off its hinges as “Alice” strode through. There was no sign of flailing hypodermics, no hint of grappling metallic tentacles. Alice’s appearance had returned to normal— if one discounted the killer look in her eyes.

  She most definitely was not a transfer student from Wonderland.

  Instruments far more sensitive than human eyes and ears scanned the hallway in both directions. A girl approaching from the other stairwell looked askance at the destruction of the dorm room door. Encountering the gaze of the feminine creature stand­ing among the debris, she started to stutter some­thing, then very sensibly dropped everything she was carrying as she turned and ran screaming in the oppo­site direction.

  Her attention occupied elsewhere, Alice started off the other way, progressively increasing her speed.

  Out on the quad, the three escapees sprinted across a parking lot in the direction of the library. A glance over his shoulder revealed to the increasingly anxious Sam that his new girlfriend was still in pursuit. Her embrace was one he had no desire to relive.

  He and Leo flashed their student IDs so fast that the monitor at the library entrance had no time to check to see whether Mikaela had one. The youth started to protest, then shrugged and returned to the video game he was illegally playing on the hacked entryway computer.

  Leaving Security behind, the trio secreted them­selves as far back in the book stacks as possible, ig­noring stares from the occasional curious student. So unsettled was Leo that he did not even react to his proximity to Mikaela. For once, instead of trying to hold on to a girl he was struggling to hold on to his sanity.

  “Man, I just saw her on TV, she was a frickin’ Alice-in-Wonderland android! I mean, not like a close resemblance, but an exact double!”

  Mikaela nodded knowingly. “It’s called ‘trans­scanning.’ ”

  He blinked at her. “Say what?”

  “They scan our machines,” Sam explained as he crouched low and kept his attention focused on the far end of the aisle where they had taken refuge. “And adopt their shape and external characteristics.

  They prefer to use vehicles, but they can imitate any­thing.”

  Leo stared at him. “Dude—you have so been holding out on me!”

  From where she was settled in among Early Euro­pean History, Mikaela glared at the man she had come to warn. “I see you’re really missing me.” “Hey,” he protested, “she—her huge tongue . . .” He broke off and with great deliberation tried hard to throw up. “Couldn’t get her off,” he finally protested, wheezing. “Metal-strong. I’m the victim. Her breath,” he swallowed hard, his face screwed up in a look of utter disgust, “it was like jet fuel! I think she might’ve pierced my uvula. Check it out.”

  He spit, sputtering as he felt his tongue and the back of his mouth.

  She was only partly mollified. “You deserve it.”

  A touch of righteous indignation was beginning to replace Sam’s initial anxiety. “Hey, she tricked me.” He looked over at the half-paralyzed Leo. “Didn’t she trick me?”

  Shaking his head tersely, his roommate kept his gaze fastened on the far end of the aisle. “She violated your orifice with her nasty alien probe?”

  Sam turned back to Mikaela, arguing as much as pleading. “That’s why they’re called Decepticons. Be­cause they thrive on deception.”

  Her mouth twisted into a smirk. “That’s conve­nient.”

  It finally penetrated Leo’s terror that the being standing very close to him was not only warm, but possibly soft. He looked her up and down. “Wait, you’re a real chick, right?”

  Mikaela eyed him as if he was something foul that had suddenly been ejected from beneath the body of Wheels. “Who the hell’re you?”

  “I’m Leo Ponce de Leon Spitz. I’m the key to this! The aliens tracked me,” he was moaning. “They know I know too much, they want me silenced. I’m dead.”

  Mikaela’s disgust turned to pity, if
not quite under­standing. “They’re not after you, idiot.” She nodded at Sam. “They’re after him. ”

  “Could we just hide quietly for a second?” Sam pleaded, a moment too late.

  The stack behind them exploded, sending books flying in all directions as the now full-metal Decepti­con known as Alice smashed her way through. Cov­ering their heads, the trio fled around the back and down the next aisle as the relentless Decepticon came after them. Screaming students raced from the floor as Sam and his friends dove under reading tables in a desperate scramble to protect themselves while they tried to reach the exit.

  Behind them, Alice was picking up the heavy wooden tables and flinging them aside like cardboard as she pursued. Emerging from a graceful shoulder, a deceptively small barrel let loose with a plasma charge in the direction of Sam’s companions. It singed the air above their heads and blew a hole in the solid stone exterior wall. As the Decepticon took fresh aim, Sam scrambled to his feet and led the way through the still-smoking opening.

  Chaos dominated the parking lot as frightened stu­dents ran in all directions. Hastily started cars and pickups burned rubber as their panicked drivers ig­nored barriers, signs, and every traffic law in the state of New Jersey in their haste to flee the scene.

  As they ran, Mikaela tried the handle of every unoc­cupied car they passed. When one finally responded, she yanked open the door and threw herself behind the wheel.

  “Get in!”

  Sam piled in on the passenger side and joined her in ducking while Leo did a belly flop onto the rear seat and tried his best to bury his face in the upholstery.

  They stayed low for several minutes, listening to the cries of the slowly thinning crowd outside. Tenta­tively raising his head, Sam sneaked a cautious look back the way they had come. Some students contin­ued to dash about aimlessly while others, newly ar­rived, only added to the confusion as they struggled to make sense of what was happening.

  “I think you’re clear,” he muttered to Mikaela.

  She nodded and began to inspect her immediate surroundings. While the glove box offered no help, she found what she was looking for in the center con­sole. Using the small screwdriver she found there, she popped the cover panel off the ignition and began to strip the interior. Wires were pulled clear and shoved together. A spark, another, and then the engine rum­bled to life.

  From the rear seat, Leo was prompted by the noise to look up. “You know how to hot-wire a car? That is so hot Sam, how could you cheat on this girl?”

  Sam looked back. “Leo, shut up! “ ’Kaela, drive the car!”

  A few experimental revs indicated that it was not going to stall out on them. Putting the sedan in gear, she headed off slowly. As they cruised the edge of the parking lot past the damaged library, something on the lawn off to one side caught the light and her attention. Surrounded by broken glass, the metal storage bin lay on the lawn where it had landed. Its lid was still secured. She nodded in its di­rection.

  “Sam, grab that.”

  Another time, another place, he might have pro­tested. Might have sought explanation. But knowing Mikaela well enough to realize that she had to have a good and sound reason for making the request at this risky moment in time, he complied. The box was heavier than he had expected and he had to struggle to wrestle it back into the car.

  “Got it.” He studied it curiously. “What’s insi... ?”

  A metal tendril smashed through the windshield and began to coil venomously in the space between them, seeking a fleshy purchase. Sam and Leo screamed at her to drive, but Mikaela was already flooring the gas pedal as metal claws emerged in front of them, digging into the front hood.

  “Hang on!” Holding the wheel with one hand, she handed Sam the screwdriver.

  Sam’s eyes widened as he stared first at the small

  tool, then forward. “ ’Kaela, are you out of your... /”

  He concluded the sentence on a rising “mind!” as she slammed the car straight into a light pole. The im­pact dislodged the creature who had been clinging to the front of the vehicle. It also set off the driver’s- and passenger-side air bags, providing Sam with the rea­son she had passed him the screwdriver. As she threw the car into reverse, he jabbed first at his air bag and then at hers. Gas escaped in a rush, stinking up the in­terior of the car while flattening the two safety bal­loons.

  Her view ahead now restored, Mikaela once again gunned the engine.

  “Kiss this, bitch!”

  The twin jolts were more severe than expected as she drove over the battling Decepticon. Damaged but indefatigable, it struggled to rise and pursue.

  Sitting up in the backseat of the car, a seriously frazzled Leo stared out the rear window as the crum­pled monstrosity receded rapidly behind them. Only when it was completely out of sight and they were well down another road did he manage to collect himself sufficiently to give voice to the thoughts that were crashing around inside his head.

  “All right, Sam—start talking! From the top. Why are you guys so calm? Are you from the future? Did I send you back in time to save me? Well, save me!” His gaze fell on the car’s driver. “And I wanna know how you got a girl like that to look at you.”

  Eyes and attention locked on the road ahead, the subject of his inquiry still found time to respond.

  “Will you please . . . shut up!”

  Sam seconded the motion.

  Leo nodded to himself. “I’m just scared, okay?”

  Sam explained, “Okay, Leo, here’s how it is. There’s like ten terrible things they can do to you. Let’s start with death. That’s the first thing: death. And it just gets worse from there. They open up buses like a bag of chips. They blow through buildings. They take down planes. And if you ever hear one of them com­ing, I’m telling you, it’s already too la . . .” Sam’s words trailed off.

  Peering out the punctured windshield, Sam found himself squinting at something in the sky ahead. Re­flection off the shattered glass, or ... ? Then it was gone. He sat back, relieved. Just a reflection.

  The car went into a forced skid as the huge Russian heavylift chopper dropped out of the sky straight toward them. Mikaela’s desperate attempt to avoid crashing into it was followed by a deafening ripping sound as a steel talon the size of a couch smashed through the center of the roof and the car was lifted into the air. The impact popped the passenger-side door, and a frantic Sam had to wrap his arms around his seat belt to avoid being thrown out. It was impos­sible for them to maintain any kind of stability, be­cause the perforated vehicle kept swinging wildly from side to side as well as rotating in circles around the grasping metal hook.

  When it finally straightened and slid clear, the car dropped like a stone through a yawning hole in the roof of a long-shut foundry. Intervening beams and projecting walkways that had not echoed in years to the percussion of busy footfalls helped break their fall. As the car banged and rattled its way downward, Sam finally lost his grip and slid out of his seat belt, rolling to a halt on a second-floor landing.

  Amid a cloud of rising dust and splinters, the car fi­nally came to a stop—only to be split neatly down the miaaie oy a scytning made trie lengtn ot tne car itseit. As both equal halves of the vehicle fell over in oppo­site directions, the two remaining occupants unbuck­led themselves and managed to stumble clear.

  Retracting the shining blade that had cut the car in half, Starscream needed only half a stride to cut off their escape. His worst fears far exceeded, a para­lyzed Leo could only stand and stare. Mikaela, on the other hand, started to bolt to her right—only to be brought up short as another shape rose before her. Recognizing it, she stumbled backward until she bumped into Sam’s unmoving roommate. Leo was sufficiently shocked at seeing his nightmares become real that he did not even react to the contact.

  The sight of the gigantic figure looming directly in front of them was more than enough to choke off anything even faintly resembling a sophomoric dou­ble entendre.

  Ignoring them
, the metal colossus turned back toward the opening through which the car had fallen. Its attention was focused on the only creature on the entire planet who actually mattered.

  “Come here, boy!” Nearby, Starscream raised a threatening fist above Mikaela and Leo, who un­abashedly cowered behind her.

  Sam came running down the stairs from the floor on which he had landed. “Don’t hurt them, please!”

  The giant’s response was to reach out with a hand and flick the oncoming Sam into the air as easily as if he were an errant ant. Flying, tumbling head over heels, Sam landed hard on a cement slab. The impact stunned him. As he tried to rise, taloned fingers slammed into the concrete to pin him in place. An enormous, glaring face, all hard edges and sharp an­gles, descended to within a foot of his own.

  “Remember me? I remember you,” Megatron snarled.

  Barely able to move, with nowhere to run and no chance of escape, Sam could only gaze up into eyes that blazed back into his own with an inhuman feroc­ity.

  “You will pray for a sudden death, insect... while I. . . shall take my time.”

  Sam was in a panic. “No no, look, I know you’re pissed—I killed you, I’d be pissed too, you’re not in the wrong. It’s a valid point, but let’s work it out, clean slate, fresh start—I don’t know what I know, but I know you need to know what I know, you know?”

  A microscope on the table suddenly changed into a small, evil-looking robot, the Doctor. Multiple legs skittering along the concrete, the Doctor climbed up onto Sam’s chest and commenced a detailed, forth­right, and indelicate inspection of the prisoner. There was little the subject of the small but highly evolved Decepticon’s examination could do to forestall the poking, probing, and scanning.

  Metal fingers clicked together as the Doctor sig­naled to the waiting pack of insectlike robots. A flock of tiny winged machines came forward to hover above Sam’s upturned, pinioned face. As he looked on in horror, they deposited what looked like a worm on speed onto his upper chest. Instantly, it came writhing and humping its way upward. Clenching his jaw muscles so hard they throbbed, he shut his lips tight. As a gesture of defiance the effort proved futile. Approaching the sides of his head, a pair of menacing little machines reached out with small but powerful tendrils. Each one gripping the sides of his mouth, they pried it open enough for the worm-thing to slip inside. Then they released his face.