And Eyes 4
And Eyes That I Might See
Chapter 4
[Transformers 2007] The Autobots get cornered in a canyon after a Decepticon attack, along with a handful of humans. Unfortunately, one of them happens to be blind...
Characters/Pairings: Optimus Prime, Sam, Amanda (OC), Phenomena (OC); non-pairing.
Ratings and Warnings: Odd sense of humor, physical disabilities, G1 characters, OCs. T for language.
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
At FFnet
And Eyes: Chapter 4
“So, you mentioned a baby?” said Amanda. She was sitting against some sort of large rock or boulder with Sam, eating. Lunch had turned out to be a kind of iffy apple and a soggy sandwich, but she was appreciative none-the-less. She had been positively hollow.
“We found her along with an older woman. We don’t know her name, so it’s just ‘Baby’ right now. We-the three humans here already familiar with the Autobots-are looking after her. She’s with Mikaela and Sarah right now.”
“And, apparently, you have formula along with all the food.”
“Not… Exactly. Sarah’s feeding her.”
“Oh. Baby of her own?”
“Yeah, back home. Actually, it’s a miracle her husband hasn’t come barging in here already, looking for her.”
“Does he know what’s happened?”
“Definitely. Transformers are all Internet and text-message capable, apparently. It’s very handy.”
“…Does anybody know what’s happened to me?”
“We have your name, now, so the authorities have been informed. A few people pretty high up the chain of command have been told about the Autobots and everything, and so they know about the situation and are covering this all up. You’ll probably have to swear to secrecy before you go, but other than that everything should be fine. Nobody’ll ever know any better.”
“Except for me. And, if you’ll excuse me for saying so, this situation is making me perhaps a little paranoid.”
Sam paused for a second before answering.
“Oh,” he said, cryptically.
“What?” said Amanda. His tone hadn’t sounded particularly like he’d been responding to her.
“I think somebody else’s woken up. Hey there!”
“Hello,” said a new voice-young and female, Amanda guessed, probably about her age. It was quiet and subdued, but that didn’t mean much-assuming that the girl’d met the Autobots, ‘subdued’ could simply mean she was still bowled over in a state of shock.
“I’m Sam, and this is Amanda. She’s… Never mind. You met Mikaela and Sarah, right?”
“And Sideswipe.” So, yes, apparently this person had gotten the same introduction she
had, although probably with less initial disbelief, because of the visual. “He’s very… Red.” Amanda was guessing shock.
Amanda could hear the wince in Sam’s voice when he spoke. “I’m sorry. He seems to keep on being the first to meet people today-probably hanging around there on purpose, if I know him. Sorry. He’s very, um…”
“Very ‘um’ indeed,” said the newcomer, voice slightly faint. “I have to say, I’ve never been picked up instead of shaking hands with someone before. He’s lucky I didn’t actively vomit on him. I’m Phenomena Brooks.”
Amanda tried to fight back a laugh at her name and ended up with a choked snorting sound.
The girl sighed. “It’s my mother’s fault. I have no idea what she was thinking, and can only guess that she had no idea what it means. It’s a horrible name, I know, and I keep on meaning to change it, but I can never find the time, or find something to change it to. So please, please, don’t laugh. Or joke. Especially joke. I’ve heard them all already, trust me.” Her voice was still quiet, although considerably more passionate.
“Sit down and have a sandwich,” said Amanda. “They’re really not as bad as they taste.”
“What…?” said Sam.
“Well, I don’t think it’s going to kill me, so it can’t be as bad as they taste.”
“Mine’s not that bad,” he said, mild protestation in his voice.
“Lettuce shouldn’t taste like this,” said Amanda firmly.
There was rustling cloth and the newcomer was sitting down besides Amanda. “Amanda, right?” she asked. There was the brief sensation of two people reaching across her so that Sam could hand her some lunch, and then the noises of food being unwrapped and eaten hungrily.
“So, how’d you end up in this mess?” said Amanda finally.
There was a brief pause as Phenomena finished chewing and swallowed. “I was asleep,”
she said, sounding slightly embarrassed. “When I finally woke up, almost everyone had left for higher ground-figuratively speaking-and the… Decepticons, right? Decepticons were too close for me to leave, not to mention the risk of collateral damage from the fighting. I was told that they didn’t want to risk me ending up hurt or dead, and so they took me with them.”
“You’d think an organization apparently hell-bent on helping humanity would pick an area a little further away from delicate little human bodies to kick the shit out of each other,” muttered Amanda. Phenomena laughed slightly, and Sam made a mild noise of protestation. “And I have to say, you must sleep like a rock, Phenomena.” She managed-barely-to keep from smirking at the name again, although she was pretty sure it could still be heard in her voice.
“Not usually,” said the quiet girl.
“So what, then? If your part of the city was anything like mine, it must have been loud. And vibrating. It must have been quite the party…”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. I’m a med student.”
Amanda thought that her expression must have been quite a sight. “What?” said Sam.
“Doctor Phenomena,” she said, still managing to keep a straight face. Barely. Her control was wavering.
Phenomena sighed softly, still managing to convey extreme irritation with the gentle sound. “My mother was and is a mess,” she said. “I know it, she knows it, everyone who spends more than thirty seconds talking to her knows it. As a rebellious teenager, like any other teen, really, the only thing I could do that she hadn’t done and would be surprised, shocked or horrified by was to be quiet, mature and responsible. So I studied late every Friday and Saturday night, took to playing classical music at a reasonable volume during normal hours and took home straight A’s and joined the church youth group and History Day club. And now I’m studying to be a doctor because I like working hard and I want to help people.”
“Um,” said Amanda. There was a brief pause. “…I’m very sorry.”
“No, it’s nothing,” said Phenomena. “I’m pretty much used to it by now. It’s really not all that big of a deal. I’m just a little… stressed by all this.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Amanda fervently.
“It is kind of stressful, yeah,” said Sam. “And I don’t even know what it’s like to have something like this thrown at you all at once. At least it was all revealed in steps for me. Although I also ended up being told that my grandfather’s glasses were needed by aliens to save the world. And my first contact was my car turning into a giant robot. And he couldn’t talk so he couldn’t explain anything.”
“He couldn’t talk?” said Amanda, curious.
“Your grandfather’s glasses?” said Phenomena, incredulous.
“He’d had his voice box-well, the equivalent of it, anyways-damaged by Megatron, the Decepticon leader.” Amanda tried desperately to stifle a giggle at the name.
“That’s very-awe-inspiring,” she said. “In a wow-that-must-be-the-ultimate-in-bad-sci-fi sort of way.”
“He’s a lot scarier when you’ve actually faced him, Amanda. And Phenomena, everyone wanted my grandfather’s glasses because they had the location of the Allspark etched on them from where my grandfather had accidentally ended up activating some sort of thingy on Megatron when he found them exploring in the arctic. The Allspark creates mechanical life, and the Decepticons were going to use it to turn all the machines on earth alive so they’d kill all the humans, and the Autobots were trying to stop them. But it turns out that it’d been discovered by the government and they’d devoted an ultra-secret branch called Sector 7 to researching it, and they’d also found Megatron. Apparently most of our technological advances have come from him.”
“You’re right, it is like bad sci-fi.”
“I know! All we need is, let’s see, some sort of horrible alien parasite or disease and possibly a clever trick ending and we’d be golden. Also more hero-types and slightly less comic relief. And more cannon fodder.”
“Hey, I’m a hero-type,” said Sam, sounding amused.
“No, I think you’re comic relief too,” said Phenomena, sounding mildly amused.
“Comic relief doesn’t save the world,” he countered.
“Hmmm. He has a point, don’t you think, Amanda? …Amanda?”
“I thought I heard something,” said Amanda after a minute. “An engine, maybe.”
“Quite possibly,” said Sam. “There’s no normal vehicles here except for the ones Sarah and I-well, and Mikaela, too-drove on the way, but there’s most of the Autobots here on earth.”
Amanda shrugged. “I can’t hear it anymore,” she said finally.
“You must have very good hearing,” said Phenomena. “I couldn’t hear a thing-oh.”
“What?” said Amanda.
“Can’t you see...?”
“No, actually,” she said. “What is it?”
“Here we go again,” cut in Sam. “Not what, who.”
“Hello,” said a deep male voice above them-far above them, by Amanda’s estimation.
Besides her, Phenomena made a faint, startled squeaking noise.
“Hey,” said Sam agreeably. “Amanda, Phenomena, this is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Optimus, these are Phenomena Brooks and Amanda. Um, what was your last name, again, Amanda?”
“Riesing,” she said, possibly on automatic.
There was a short pause.
“…you’re blind?” said Phenomena.
“What?” said Optimus Prime.
“Yes,” said Amanda.
“I didn’t say it! This time it wasn’t me!” said Sam.
“I’m very sorry about this,” continued the Autobot leader after a minute. “Both of you shouldn’t have been involved, but we didn’t want to leave you to Decepticons, or collateral damage. We’re doing our best to get you back to safety. For what it’s worth, steps will be taken to insure that this doesn’t impact your life past these next few days.”
“…Yes, because giant alien transforming robots kidnapping you is something you can just forget and move on,” said Amanda, voice somewhere between caustic and incredulous.
“Amanda!” Sam hissed, elbowing her.
“I’m not sure I can deal with this,” Amanda said, voice shaky.
“Delayed shock,” identified Phenomena. “It’ll all probably end up hitting me eventually, too, and really sinking in-if I’m lucky it’ll be a slower process. I suppose not being able to see would make it worse.”
“Amanda,” said Optimus. “Do you have any sight at all?”
“No,” she blurted, sounding slightly panicky.
“I see. I’ll try to find some time that one of the-less intimidating Autobots can spend some time with you, to help you adjust. That offer extends to you as well, Phenomena.”
“Along the same lines,” said Sam, “do you think that you could get Sideswipe away from the impromptu human med center? He’s ‘greeted’ both Phenomena and Amanda, and I’m pretty sure he’s hanging out around there to get the chance to freak out the new humans.”
There was a sound remarkably like a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do, but-”
He was cut off by a high-pitched, hysterical scream coming from over where Amanda had woken up. She resisted an utterly inappropriate giggle.
“I should probably go check that out,” said Sam; there was the brush of his clothes against Amanda’s arm and the rustle of cloth as he stood up, and the sudden cold along her side as the wind he’d been blocking hit her.
“I’ll stay here, if it’s all the same,” said Amanda. “You’ll want to hurry, and I’d really rather not.”
“I’ll go,” said Phenomena, standing up. Amanda had the distinct impression that she wanted to stay with the one human who seemed to know what was going on and, more importantly, gave out explanations.
“I should go as well,” rumbled the voice above them-and it really was a nice voice, Amanda thought reflectively. Still with that odd distortion-probably because of metal vocal chords (or their corresponding part) instead of meat ones-but nice, rich and smooth. “Sideswipe’s more likely to listen to me than anyone else. Excepting Sunstreaker, of course.”
“Of course,” muttered Amanda. Sam nudged her again, this time with the toe of his shoe. Then, louder, she said “I’ll see you all later, then.”
“Bye,” said Phenomena, voice already fainter as she hurried after Sam, who was far enough that she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore.
“See you!” he called out, over his shoulder. After a short while there were more of those earth-rumbling collisions the Autobots probably called footsteps, moving away. She guessed that he’d needed to wait, to give Sam and Phenomena’s human legs enough time to work up a head start.
It was nice in the sun, though, warm and relaxing, although the wind was a little chill. Amanda shifted slightly so she was more towards the lee side of the rock, more out of the wind. The sun was almost a physical presence against her skin, coating it with syrupy heavy warmth. It was nice to just sit and do nothing-no giant aliens, no introductions, no explanations, no freaking out, no thinking. In fact, she could almost imagine that she was back home, sprawled in the puddle of sunlight her window let in on a clear fall afternoon, dozing off over the homework she was supposed to be doing but wasn’t…
Just before she fell asleep, she wondered if she could blame her exhaustion on whatever drugs the doctor-bot-Ratchet?-had given her.
--End Chapter 4--
Chapter 4
[Transformers 2007] The Autobots get cornered in a canyon after a Decepticon attack, along with a handful of humans. Unfortunately, one of them happens to be blind...
Characters/Pairings: Optimus Prime, Sam, Amanda (OC), Phenomena (OC); non-pairing.
Ratings and Warnings: Odd sense of humor, physical disabilities, G1 characters, OCs. T for language.
Previous Chapters:
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
At FFnet
And Eyes: Chapter 4
“So, you mentioned a baby?” said Amanda. She was sitting against some sort of large rock or boulder with Sam, eating. Lunch had turned out to be a kind of iffy apple and a soggy sandwich, but she was appreciative none-the-less. She had been positively hollow.
“We found her along with an older woman. We don’t know her name, so it’s just ‘Baby’ right now. We-the three humans here already familiar with the Autobots-are looking after her. She’s with Mikaela and Sarah right now.”
“And, apparently, you have formula along with all the food.”
“Not… Exactly. Sarah’s feeding her.”
“Oh. Baby of her own?”
“Yeah, back home. Actually, it’s a miracle her husband hasn’t come barging in here already, looking for her.”
“Does he know what’s happened?”
“Definitely. Transformers are all Internet and text-message capable, apparently. It’s very handy.”
“…Does anybody know what’s happened to me?”
“We have your name, now, so the authorities have been informed. A few people pretty high up the chain of command have been told about the Autobots and everything, and so they know about the situation and are covering this all up. You’ll probably have to swear to secrecy before you go, but other than that everything should be fine. Nobody’ll ever know any better.”
“Except for me. And, if you’ll excuse me for saying so, this situation is making me perhaps a little paranoid.”
Sam paused for a second before answering.
“Oh,” he said, cryptically.
“What?” said Amanda. His tone hadn’t sounded particularly like he’d been responding to her.
“I think somebody else’s woken up. Hey there!”
“Hello,” said a new voice-young and female, Amanda guessed, probably about her age. It was quiet and subdued, but that didn’t mean much-assuming that the girl’d met the Autobots, ‘subdued’ could simply mean she was still bowled over in a state of shock.
“I’m Sam, and this is Amanda. She’s… Never mind. You met Mikaela and Sarah, right?”
“And Sideswipe.” So, yes, apparently this person had gotten the same introduction she
had, although probably with less initial disbelief, because of the visual. “He’s very… Red.” Amanda was guessing shock.
Amanda could hear the wince in Sam’s voice when he spoke. “I’m sorry. He seems to keep on being the first to meet people today-probably hanging around there on purpose, if I know him. Sorry. He’s very, um…”
“Very ‘um’ indeed,” said the newcomer, voice slightly faint. “I have to say, I’ve never been picked up instead of shaking hands with someone before. He’s lucky I didn’t actively vomit on him. I’m Phenomena Brooks.”
Amanda tried to fight back a laugh at her name and ended up with a choked snorting sound.
The girl sighed. “It’s my mother’s fault. I have no idea what she was thinking, and can only guess that she had no idea what it means. It’s a horrible name, I know, and I keep on meaning to change it, but I can never find the time, or find something to change it to. So please, please, don’t laugh. Or joke. Especially joke. I’ve heard them all already, trust me.” Her voice was still quiet, although considerably more passionate.
“Sit down and have a sandwich,” said Amanda. “They’re really not as bad as they taste.”
“What…?” said Sam.
“Well, I don’t think it’s going to kill me, so it can’t be as bad as they taste.”
“Mine’s not that bad,” he said, mild protestation in his voice.
“Lettuce shouldn’t taste like this,” said Amanda firmly.
There was rustling cloth and the newcomer was sitting down besides Amanda. “Amanda, right?” she asked. There was the brief sensation of two people reaching across her so that Sam could hand her some lunch, and then the noises of food being unwrapped and eaten hungrily.
“So, how’d you end up in this mess?” said Amanda finally.
There was a brief pause as Phenomena finished chewing and swallowed. “I was asleep,”
she said, sounding slightly embarrassed. “When I finally woke up, almost everyone had left for higher ground-figuratively speaking-and the… Decepticons, right? Decepticons were too close for me to leave, not to mention the risk of collateral damage from the fighting. I was told that they didn’t want to risk me ending up hurt or dead, and so they took me with them.”
“You’d think an organization apparently hell-bent on helping humanity would pick an area a little further away from delicate little human bodies to kick the shit out of each other,” muttered Amanda. Phenomena laughed slightly, and Sam made a mild noise of protestation. “And I have to say, you must sleep like a rock, Phenomena.” She managed-barely-to keep from smirking at the name again, although she was pretty sure it could still be heard in her voice.
“Not usually,” said the quiet girl.
“So what, then? If your part of the city was anything like mine, it must have been loud. And vibrating. It must have been quite the party…”
“Oh, no, nothing like that. I’m a med student.”
Amanda thought that her expression must have been quite a sight. “What?” said Sam.
“Doctor Phenomena,” she said, still managing to keep a straight face. Barely. Her control was wavering.
Phenomena sighed softly, still managing to convey extreme irritation with the gentle sound. “My mother was and is a mess,” she said. “I know it, she knows it, everyone who spends more than thirty seconds talking to her knows it. As a rebellious teenager, like any other teen, really, the only thing I could do that she hadn’t done and would be surprised, shocked or horrified by was to be quiet, mature and responsible. So I studied late every Friday and Saturday night, took to playing classical music at a reasonable volume during normal hours and took home straight A’s and joined the church youth group and History Day club. And now I’m studying to be a doctor because I like working hard and I want to help people.”
“Um,” said Amanda. There was a brief pause. “…I’m very sorry.”
“No, it’s nothing,” said Phenomena. “I’m pretty much used to it by now. It’s really not all that big of a deal. I’m just a little… stressed by all this.”
“Yeah, me too,” said Amanda fervently.
“It is kind of stressful, yeah,” said Sam. “And I don’t even know what it’s like to have something like this thrown at you all at once. At least it was all revealed in steps for me. Although I also ended up being told that my grandfather’s glasses were needed by aliens to save the world. And my first contact was my car turning into a giant robot. And he couldn’t talk so he couldn’t explain anything.”
“He couldn’t talk?” said Amanda, curious.
“Your grandfather’s glasses?” said Phenomena, incredulous.
“He’d had his voice box-well, the equivalent of it, anyways-damaged by Megatron, the Decepticon leader.” Amanda tried desperately to stifle a giggle at the name.
“That’s very-awe-inspiring,” she said. “In a wow-that-must-be-the-ultimate-in-bad-sci-fi sort of way.”
“He’s a lot scarier when you’ve actually faced him, Amanda. And Phenomena, everyone wanted my grandfather’s glasses because they had the location of the Allspark etched on them from where my grandfather had accidentally ended up activating some sort of thingy on Megatron when he found them exploring in the arctic. The Allspark creates mechanical life, and the Decepticons were going to use it to turn all the machines on earth alive so they’d kill all the humans, and the Autobots were trying to stop them. But it turns out that it’d been discovered by the government and they’d devoted an ultra-secret branch called Sector 7 to researching it, and they’d also found Megatron. Apparently most of our technological advances have come from him.”
“You’re right, it is like bad sci-fi.”
“I know! All we need is, let’s see, some sort of horrible alien parasite or disease and possibly a clever trick ending and we’d be golden. Also more hero-types and slightly less comic relief. And more cannon fodder.”
“Hey, I’m a hero-type,” said Sam, sounding amused.
“No, I think you’re comic relief too,” said Phenomena, sounding mildly amused.
“Comic relief doesn’t save the world,” he countered.
“Hmmm. He has a point, don’t you think, Amanda? …Amanda?”
“I thought I heard something,” said Amanda after a minute. “An engine, maybe.”
“Quite possibly,” said Sam. “There’s no normal vehicles here except for the ones Sarah and I-well, and Mikaela, too-drove on the way, but there’s most of the Autobots here on earth.”
Amanda shrugged. “I can’t hear it anymore,” she said finally.
“You must have very good hearing,” said Phenomena. “I couldn’t hear a thing-oh.”
“What?” said Amanda.
“Can’t you see...?”
“No, actually,” she said. “What is it?”
“Here we go again,” cut in Sam. “Not what, who.”
“Hello,” said a deep male voice above them-far above them, by Amanda’s estimation.
Besides her, Phenomena made a faint, startled squeaking noise.
“Hey,” said Sam agreeably. “Amanda, Phenomena, this is Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. Optimus, these are Phenomena Brooks and Amanda. Um, what was your last name, again, Amanda?”
“Riesing,” she said, possibly on automatic.
There was a short pause.
“…you’re blind?” said Phenomena.
“What?” said Optimus Prime.
“Yes,” said Amanda.
“I didn’t say it! This time it wasn’t me!” said Sam.
“I’m very sorry about this,” continued the Autobot leader after a minute. “Both of you shouldn’t have been involved, but we didn’t want to leave you to Decepticons, or collateral damage. We’re doing our best to get you back to safety. For what it’s worth, steps will be taken to insure that this doesn’t impact your life past these next few days.”
“…Yes, because giant alien transforming robots kidnapping you is something you can just forget and move on,” said Amanda, voice somewhere between caustic and incredulous.
“Amanda!” Sam hissed, elbowing her.
“I’m not sure I can deal with this,” Amanda said, voice shaky.
“Delayed shock,” identified Phenomena. “It’ll all probably end up hitting me eventually, too, and really sinking in-if I’m lucky it’ll be a slower process. I suppose not being able to see would make it worse.”
“Amanda,” said Optimus. “Do you have any sight at all?”
“No,” she blurted, sounding slightly panicky.
“I see. I’ll try to find some time that one of the-less intimidating Autobots can spend some time with you, to help you adjust. That offer extends to you as well, Phenomena.”
“Along the same lines,” said Sam, “do you think that you could get Sideswipe away from the impromptu human med center? He’s ‘greeted’ both Phenomena and Amanda, and I’m pretty sure he’s hanging out around there to get the chance to freak out the new humans.”
There was a sound remarkably like a sigh. “I’ll see what I can do, but-”
He was cut off by a high-pitched, hysterical scream coming from over where Amanda had woken up. She resisted an utterly inappropriate giggle.
“I should probably go check that out,” said Sam; there was the brush of his clothes against Amanda’s arm and the rustle of cloth as he stood up, and the sudden cold along her side as the wind he’d been blocking hit her.
“I’ll stay here, if it’s all the same,” said Amanda. “You’ll want to hurry, and I’d really rather not.”
“I’ll go,” said Phenomena, standing up. Amanda had the distinct impression that she wanted to stay with the one human who seemed to know what was going on and, more importantly, gave out explanations.
“I should go as well,” rumbled the voice above them-and it really was a nice voice, Amanda thought reflectively. Still with that odd distortion-probably because of metal vocal chords (or their corresponding part) instead of meat ones-but nice, rich and smooth. “Sideswipe’s more likely to listen to me than anyone else. Excepting Sunstreaker, of course.”
“Of course,” muttered Amanda. Sam nudged her again, this time with the toe of his shoe. Then, louder, she said “I’ll see you all later, then.”
“Bye,” said Phenomena, voice already fainter as she hurried after Sam, who was far enough that she couldn’t hear his footsteps anymore.
“See you!” he called out, over his shoulder. After a short while there were more of those earth-rumbling collisions the Autobots probably called footsteps, moving away. She guessed that he’d needed to wait, to give Sam and Phenomena’s human legs enough time to work up a head start.
It was nice in the sun, though, warm and relaxing, although the wind was a little chill. Amanda shifted slightly so she was more towards the lee side of the rock, more out of the wind. The sun was almost a physical presence against her skin, coating it with syrupy heavy warmth. It was nice to just sit and do nothing-no giant aliens, no introductions, no explanations, no freaking out, no thinking. In fact, she could almost imagine that she was back home, sprawled in the puddle of sunlight her window let in on a clear fall afternoon, dozing off over the homework she was supposed to be doing but wasn’t…
Just before she fell asleep, she wondered if she could blame her exhaustion on whatever drugs the doctor-bot-Ratchet?-had given her.
--End Chapter 4--