User blog:GuacamoleCCXR/Guac's dumb fanfic thing - CHAPTER 6

''Author’s Notes: You need to be vaguely familiar with Aravis’ LMBWFF to get what is happening in this chapter. I guess you can read it without having acquired  that knowledge, but then some passages will appear less spectacular and understandable. ''

While Rollins was busy establishing connection with LED and Aravis was taking a look at what was likely going to be our future base, I decided that it might be a good idea to examine our surroundings a little further. Wandering along the shore of the lake I soon found out that the shape of the pool was less obvious than I first assumed. There was a sort bay to the left of the cave, which, however, was obscured by vegetation until you came close enough. I was looking at the shimmering water when I tripped over something. This came so unexpected that I barely managed to apply all the measures to lessen the probability of injuries that could result from the fall I knew (It’s a hockey thing) before landing on the sandy soil. The object I stumbled upon appeared to be a tree trunk lying on the ground. As I traced it with my eyes I saw that it pointed at a fresh tree stump, which looked a lot like it was just broken off by blunt force. I gulped, then focused my attention on the plants in front of me; these were all broken down as well. In fact, in an area of about ten square metres right next to the lake, not a single tree or bush looked anything close to being healthy and having kept their structural integrity, as though something rather heavy rolled over them. We didn’t see any of that before due to the dense forest either. I reckoned it would be best to let the rest of us know immediately.

Rollins just took off his helmet when he saw me jogging down the shore towards him.

“I’ve got something to show you,” I said, “you might not like it.”

Interestingly, the soldier just shrugged when he beheld the devastation, instead of, what I thought was more likely, telling me we need to evacuate immediately.

“You see,” he explained, “this looks like the work of something we’ll definitely see coming and thus we are going to be able to combat it. Invisible opponents are much more deadly.” Then he pointed at something I have not noticed before. “This over there looks like a well. Seems like a good idea to take our water over there instead of the lake itself from now on, don’t you think?”

After the soldier casually walked off towards the cave, telling me we’ll have to set out to meet the rest of the team half-way as they carry all the stuff here soon, I was left wondering just how hard it was to figure him out, but eventually, I followed him.

 Aravis, who was sitting some metres away from the lake, petting the ape, complained to me about how after quenching its initial thirst, it wouldn’t come close to the water at all and didn’t lose any of the restlessness, even after she let it climb around on the trees.

“I guess it’s still not used to its new surroundings.”

“Sure hope so.”

When Rollins was done marking the location so we would be able to return, we found ourselves fighting our way through the thick undergrowth of the forest once again. I was incredibly thankful for the fact that there seemed to be no large population of insects, otherwise these journeys would be even more inconvenient. Since the densest part of the green did not stretch itself far away from the water source, getting out didn’t prove to be as difficult of a task after all. I already started to rejoice over how fluent this ‘excursion’ was going, when a few rather peculiar observations made us stop in our tracks.

The peaceful quiet of the plains was rudely disrupted by the sounds of a car engine. I quickly spotted the matching cloud of raised dust, which was rapidly closing in on us.

“What’s happening now…?” I muttered, getting used to inconvenient encounters like this by then.

“It’s two cars. And… that might just be our old friend,” Rollins said.

Straining my eyes to see something inside the cloud, I indeed managed to recognise the outlines of the Russian jet.

“I’d still advise you to take cover, just in case. Doesn’t look like a friendly Sunday pick nick drive to me”, the soldier added. Unintentionally dropping the ape I was holding in my arms, I joined the others behind a rather large boulder. As the vehicles were coming closer I could finally identify that the first car to be black and wedge shaped, with something flashy pink on the sides.

<p class="MsoNormal">“That’s a…

<p class="MsoNormal">“… DeLorean,” Aravis finished in awe. “Not just any DeLorean at that. That’s the DeLorean of legend, the Guac-mobile.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“No freakin’ way.” Except the green shimmer behind the windscreen confirmed her statement.

<p class="MsoNormal">Focusing my attention on the second car, I saw that it was some sort of military off-roader covered in sand camouflage. Apparently, it was chasing the DeLorean across the plains. The jet, who was following the SUV at a sluggish speed (for Starscream’s standards, that is) did not yet intervene. As the DeLorean shot past the rock we were crouching behind, it made a violent U-turn. In the exact same moment, the jet boosted his power output and landed in front of the other car in his robot mode, leaving it just enough space to brake before colliding with the Transformer. As the SUV reached a low enough velocity, its two occupants jumped out, seeing as it was way too easy a target to hit, but they underestimated the jet’s capabilities. Before either of them was ready to fire their weapons, Starscream had already pulled his internal trigger. As a part of the armour on his chest shifted, two red laser beams darted out of it, neither missing their mark by a millimetre. Cowering from the noise of the shots, the ape crawled a little closer to Aravis.

<p class="MsoNormal">The robot then relaxed his position slightly and looked over to the DeLorean. That’s when the three of us came out of our hiding spot.

<p class="MsoNormal">“It’s you again,” Starscream said, eyeing Rollins and me.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Was that really necessary?” Aravis asked, looking over to the smouldering remains. The Transformer shrugged.

<p class="MsoNormal">“They were your enemies, weren’t they? You should be grateful.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“We could have at least questioned them before execution,” Rollins commented. “But at least we got the SUV undamaged. That is a huge find.” Just as he finished speaking the door of DeLorean, which was standing a few metres away and seemed to have been forgotten about so far, opened.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Sweet Luna, this isn’t happening,” Aravis whispered beside me, almost holding her breath.

<p class="MsoNormal">Before the girl in the car actually stepped out, she shut down the engine. Then, tentatively testing the ground with her left foot, she finally turned towards the door and got up. I gasped at the sight of her scorching fedora, which is pretty much the object of all my dreams.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Jeez, this sure isn’t the place for clothes like these,” she muttered, casually brushing her long, wavy hair out of her face and tossing her leather jacket back into the DeLorean. Then, having caught sight of us, she continued, “You don’t have to stare at me like that, you know.” Rollins shrugged and walked off towards the SUV, but Aravis and I were a little more difficult to distract. However, as the girl took a few steps towards us and our eyes met, we spoke up simultaneously.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hey, me.” Then, after a moment of hesitation, I smirked, while she seemed to examine me closely. Meeting up with R63 myself was quite a peculiar experience after all. The fact that the genderswap added a slice of drop-dead gorgeousness to her wasn’t making it in any less unsettling. Quickly dismissing the thought of dating myself that involuntarily appeared in my mind, I stepped back to ponder the situation. Meanwhile, my female counterpart decided to address Aravis instead.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Oh I’m sure I saw you before… you’re Aravis, right? Hah, nailed it,” she said, seeing the other girl’s nod.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I can’t believe I’m actually meeting you,” Aravis replied, still with rather wide eyes. R63 me (I need to come up with a distinguishable name for her) smirked.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Is it because I’m the Speciallest?” she asked. It dawned to me she can’t possibly know that she didn’t really exist and was just a figment of Aravis’ imagination… or did she?

<p class="MsoNormal">In the meantime, Starscream, who has been strangely silent until this moment finally made his move.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I didn’t just come here to save you from some amateurs, you know,” he stated, fixing his optics on me. Only now I saw that the panels around his wings and chest armour were badly scorched at some places. If that didn’t suffice to document just what he was doing when he wasn’t here with us, then the bullet holes surely did. “In fact, I want to make an offer.” This made Rollins listen up as well. I thought it better to talk to him before the Decepticon tried flying off again.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Hang on a second. Do you think I don’t know what you were up to while you were away from us? You tried fighting your way out of here on your own. Seems like something you’d do, doesn’t it?” The Transformer let go of a growl and his optics narrowed down to a slim lines of blazing orange. Seconds later, he eased his position a little.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I don’t owe you any explanations. But if you could just shut your mouth for a second and I could tell you something that will make you stop demanding any.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Rollins signalled me not to do anything funny. I sighed, preparing to hear what Starscream had to say.

<p class="MsoNormal">“I know where the enemy’s base is. They have the space bridge somewhere inside, but getting close enough by air or breaking in with force is not an option. It’s guarded to well. If you want to get out of here as quickly as possible, you will have to trust me on this,” he concluded, displaying his signature smirk once again. “But since I cannot get close, it’s probably up to you.”

<p class="MsoNormal">“We’ll think about it,” Rollins answered promptly, before I could think of a decent reply. “But first we should get the vehicles back to base. There’s enough tech in there to supply quite a few people,” he added, pointing at the armoured off-roader. “If can get the car back to the camp, we can load up all the rest of our things and finally establish a decent headquarter at the lake.”

<p class="MsoNormal">Having uttered some words of agreement, I had another look around. What I noticed was Guacamilla (I’ll go with that) staring at the Transformer; not even the blaze of her Unusual could overshadow the wide open eyes. Thinking to myself that luckily for her, their encounter wasn’t overshadowed by certain energised swords, I joined Rollins as he contacted the rest of our company about the change in plans.

<p class="MsoNormal">Just a few minutes later, when Rollins drove off in the SUV to meet up with LED and the rest, we hid the DeLorean by covering it with a few leaves (it was surprisingly inconspicuous) and, after convincing Guacamilla it was safe to leave her beloved ‘unusual’ car here, marched off towards to cave.

<p class="MsoNormal">“This place is almost as horrible as that rotten 80s town,” she complained, after we filled her in on what happened while journeying through the undergrowth. “And this totally isn’t the right place to wearing urban clothes.” Sighing, she added: “At least I got rid of certain individuals, cough Sadie. Actually, you probably don’t know who that is, in your weird parallel universe.” After I exchanged meaningful glances with Aravis, we finally stepped out of the dense trees and beheld the shimmering surface of the water. Except...

<p class="MsoNormal">… something didn’t feel right about it.

<p class="MsoNormal">Starscream already stood on the slim beach line and scanned the water intensely.

<p class="MsoNormal">“There is something in there, but my infrared sensors cannot grasp it…”

<p class="MsoNormal">At this point I could finally put my finger on what was off. Small ripples on the water, seemingly originating from some movement under the surface expanded outwards from the middle of the pool.

<p class="MsoNormal">“Stand back,” the Decepticon ordered, surprising us with his display of care. The rippling intensified.

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