TF- What Lies Beneath

"What Lies Beneath"
By Mike Priest

-

It was dark, dusty, and cold.  Those were the first sensations that struck Noah Acton when he opened his eyes.  After these feelings subsided, fear immediately swooped in and grabbed hold.  He shouldn't have been out here at this time of night.  He shouldn't have snuck out of his bedroom window and walked nearly four blocks away from his house.  He certainly shouldn't have been trying to spray-paint "Homework SUX" on a support beam under the old highway overpass.

He had just finished the "U" when the world came tumbling down.  Furious, unearthly sounds on the road overhead, then an explosion…and when Noah had looked up, death hurtling straight towards him.  A dark-green mass, growing larger and larger, until it encompassed the whole of his field of vision.  All Noah could do was fall to the ground, cover his head, and scream.

"Yuh…you okay there, little buddy?"

Noah forced down his terror and followed the voice, which seemed simultaneously near and very far at the same time.  He found himself looking at the head of a giant robot, upside-down and above him.  The robot had a lower jaw that nearly swallowed the rest of his face.  But its intimidating appearance was softened by the concern evident in the robot's gentle, blue optics.  Noah suddenly realized who and what he was looking at.

"You're…one of them Autobots, aren't you?  Uh…Bulkskull!"

"Bulk-head, actually.  Hi," the Autobot replied, looking a bit strained.

"What…what happened?"

"This Autobot trapped us here!!"

Noah turned to locate a second voice, this one shrill and accusatory.  He found it thanks to the two piercing red optics that shone in the blackness just a few meters beyond Bulkhead's face.  Bulkhead tilted his head up as far as he could to regard the voice.

"You're the one who attacked ME and brought this whole overpass down, you filthy Decepti-clone!"

"No I didn't, I was minding my own business when YOU attacked me and made us fall down here!"

Bulkhead made a frustrated sound and looked down again at the frightened boy he was shielding with his own body.

"Don't listen to this guy, kid.  Everything he says is a lie.  Good thing his arms are pinned, though.  Or else we'd be in even more trouble."

The aforementioned pinned liar struggled furiously for a moment, then bit back.

"I'm not pinned!  I can free myself whenever I want to.  And I don't want to right now!  I really don't want to right now!"

The string of lies was punctuated as the Decepticon squirmed a bit, causing more dust and debris to become unsettled.  But in the end, he was clearly unable to free himself.  He sunk his head back to the ground with an odd smile as he regarded Noah and Bulkhead.

"See?  I'm free.  Don't worry, I won't hurt you."

"Hugggh.  You Starscream clones are even more defective than the real thing!" Bulkhead groaned.

"I'm the real Starscream!  Who is perfect in every way!"   

"Just be quiet, willya?"

"I'm not talking right now!  I've been utterly silent this whole time!"

Bulkhead shook his head and regarded Noah again.  "Listen, little buddy.  I sent out a distress call and either the police or my friends'll pick it up and be along to get us outta here in no time."

Noah meekly nodded and spoke softly.  "My folks are gonna ground me for sneakin' out."

"Aw, they'll just be happy you're safe.  You probably won't get in trouble," Bulkhead offered sympathetically.

"Y-you really think so?" Noah asked.

The Starscream clone suddenly laughed, displaying a crooked grin.

"He's telling the truth, kid!"