Ep 2 - Big Dreams, gangsta (Flatline and so many regrets)

[Deleted]

<<Week 2, Day 7>>

"Ugh, we could be wasting the day at a movie right now." Miko skipped the last step off of the bus and landed on the hot sidewalk with a slap of boot heels. Behind her, Jack took a more sedate (and careful) step off.

"Yeah. That's why it would be called wasting time. We're here for a reason, Miko." Squinting in the bright glare of the day, Jack eyed the town with a wary eye. He was out, in another town with Miko. He knew what to expect. Nothing in the ordinary. That's not how Miko operated. Which is why he'd brought Raf along with him. He figured between the two of them, they'd be able to steer the girl in the right direction.

"I'm just saying they have a movie house. It's not even a block from here. I checked." Miko flashed a hopeful look at Raf as he joined them at the bus stop. The look he gave her was downright owlish before he mutely shook his head. "Aw, come on!"

"You said you needed to go to the library here to finish a report. A report you hadn't started and that is due this week," Raf softly reminded her. From the look on her face, the girl was cursing his memory.

"Yeah but...we could do it after the movie. Like a reward...in reverse."

"Nope."
"No."

Both males blinked and looked at each other, just as surprised by their chorus of negative replies. Raf was the first to grin before shoving his hands in his pockets. Miko wanted to stuff his head down into his shirt some days. This was one of them.

"Alright! Fine! We're missing a good chance here." She flung her hands up in a dramatic give in. "Lead on."

"Wait...you memorized where the theater is but not the library?" Jack's dark eyes narrowed enough to block out the glare of the sun overhead.

"Why nooo, of course not! It's this way..." Miko backed away from them, just a little too fidgety to make either of the boys feel comfortable about giving navigation control to her. After exchanging a glance between each other, the two set off after the Wrecker Lite. Down the street they trudged, Miko sneaking glances at the street signs the whole way.

[Flatline]

What was he!? Some common peon!?

Just an untrained drone that could be sent out to do trivial tasks!?

This assignment was a disgrace. It was belittling his very abilities, and insulting his skills as a medic and an upgrades manufacturer. He had once built hatchlings back in his day! High quality works of ART that lived and became full-fledged Cybertronian of their own! Shockwave had effectively used a surgeon's scalpel, to cut wood, and it was not the wisest decision as far as Flatline was concerned.

Oh but it was Shockwaves command... it was his order. It had to have some kind of logic behind it, the Commander was not foolish, yet... checking on beacons? That was simple. Any vehicon could drive out to the appointed spots, and essentially look to see if all the readouts were ok and nothing was flashing red on it. That is basically all he had to do, and it was frustrating.

Alas... Flatline WAS a bit of a suck up.

When he did something, he didn’t do it half way the majority of the time, a near perfectionist in one way or another. He wanted to show that appointing him to such a task was beneath him by completing it as soon as possible, and as effectively as possible. If he could shave an hour off of the allotted time? It would show how EFFICIENT he was! He could get recognition! He could be given better jobs once again!

Or just left sitting around.

A black hearse was parked on the side of the road, its style rather old compared to the more modern models being put out into rotation. It left the vehicle looking a bit out of place, like a collector had simply left it there in the open where it could be tampered with. Alas, it was being left well enough alone, sitting along the sidewalk beside where the children were walking.

At first Flatline didn’t notice the children, thinking they were just more nameless humans that were not worth his time. He was honestly quite busy stewing in inner frustration, that he would be unable to obtain an early ground bridge. All of his hurrying and rushing was for absolutely nothing. It made him wonder if the task wasn't so much to get the job completed, but was actually meant to get him away from the Nemesis for a bit.

The real question was, what could they be doing that they wouldn't want him around for? Or was he being paranoid?

The Decepticon simply settled into place, mulling over this turn of events in his own little world.

[Deleted]

It was official: Miko had no idea where she was going. Jack was actually surprised she hadn't led them to the movie house instead of just wondering around in what he suspected was endless loops. If he had to guess, Miko's strategy appeared to be overlapping streets until she finally ran into the library. It was amusing for the first five minutes. At the thirty minute mark, both of the males were starting to lag behind her.

"Miko, just admit you have no idea where the library is," Raf all but pleaded. He'd left his laptop at the base (the horror) and couldn't rely on good old fashioned google-fu to save them. His feet were starting to ache from all the walking on the hot sidewalk.

"It's gotta be here somewhere! This is the heart of the town!" Miko glared at the old, fairly industrial buildings towering over them. She had figured that the older the buildings, the closer to the heart they'd be. Which was right in theory...unless the town had dedicated itself to revitalizing the blink-and-you-miss-it township. Which meant leaving the antique buildings to molder and putting all the taxes toward building a series of new buildings and businesses toward the other side of town.

Jack rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his hair, ruffling the short strands. It was hot, they were all wilting under the sun, and he was more than ready to sit down in some shade and have a drink. Miko's cavalier can do attitude, while impressive, was draining as all get out.

"Let's just duck inside one of those shops and grab lunch. Before my shoes melt to the tarmac." Jack didn't bother waiting for the two of them. He jumped off the sidewalk and jaywalked across the road until he reached the other side. Miko and Raf trailed behind him like two ducklings. In one of the side roads, the hearse sat by itself. The only reason Jack stopped was because it was so out of place for such a shabby part of the town. "Whoa..."

Miko nearly walked into his back and ducked around him to see what had stopped him in his tracks. As it wasn't a monster truck or something with a lot of vroom under the hood, she was suitably less impressed. "Big deal. It's just a dead person wagon. You see em all the time."

"They don't make them like this one. This is an antique, Miko. I'm not even sure there were that many in this model."

"And what would you know about antique hearses, Jack?"

"Um, guys?" Raf was already reaching for the hem of their shirts to tug them away, his eyes glued on the rather notorious Decepticon emblem blinking in the sunlight from the grill.

[Flatline]

Flatline was in the middle of imagining Roulette fumbling through his personal lab when the humans came by. Initially he didn’t even pay them any heed, more concerned with his inner thoughts and worries. They were just a small group of the little fleshlings making their way down the otherwise abandoned street. The concept that Roulette could be messing with his projects took far more priority in his processor.

The amount of hate and ire he had for that femme was unmatched. He had worked with people he disliked before, he was no novice to just not meshing with someone's personality, but the sharpshooter was a new special kind of evil. She was not smart enough to hold real value in his opinion, and not stupid enough to be completely written off as useless drone work. She skirted and danced over the line with the consistency of a strobe light and-

And the humans were crossing the street at him.

Lazily Flatline let his consciousness drift back to the present, looking over at the organics that were making a beeline to the side of the road he was currently occupying. His first thought was that they were awfully tiny for humans, but then again he had only really interacted with one before. The owner to what he had scanned into his Alt-Mode was a lot larger than these three... the one male was tall enough, but was gangly and thin while the other two...

Slowly Flatline started to register their faces. He didn’t know the Autobot's pet's real well, he didn’t recognize them instantly, but a nagging familiarity made his attention remain and forced him to push their image through his processor a few times. It was while he did so the tallest of them had the gall to call him an antique.

Antique!? How dare they!

Flatline wasn't terribly versed in human machines, and never really bothered to learn much about them. He didn’t rely on an Alt-Mode very much, and was unsure if he should be offended or not. Antique implied he was old and beaten up on one hand, yet on the other it can apply to something that was taken care of well for ages. Who knows what, but he was flustered anyway, though this frustration ground to a dead halt when his processor shocked him with a sudden realization of WHO the humans were... which was done in tandem with them recognizing what he was as well.

Raf would not get the opportunity to say more on what he had discovered. He would not be allowed time to even process the full extent of their predicament. In the fraction of a moment Flatline had clarified that the streets were barren of any other life, as well as simultaneously reasoning that these WERE the children if they pointed out his Decepticon emblem ((No chance for mistaken identity)). It was with that the entire hearse lurched suddenly.

The black vehicle heaved back on its framework sharply, before surging up and forward to rip and tear away from the undercarriage that was mostly black and peeling open to reveal complex machinery and parts. With a hard slam a hand planted down near the trio, the spindly claws raking against the concrete and asphalt below, to leave shallow grooves and create a cringe worthy noise in the process.

With hands planted down on either side, the rest of the body unfurled from a near ball shape, splitting open much like an armadillo for slender legs to stretch out and place down onto the ground beneath it. It was only a few seconds, and the massive frame of the Decepticon loomed up overhead upon all fours, blotting out the light from hitting the children. It created an inky dark silhouette that was outlined in the bright days sun, the only thing to pierce out from this being the red eyes that focused down upon them. There was only a fraction of a moment in which he stared and watched them, the harpoons upon his back whirring and clicking fully into place, while the spine like protrusions down his back flicked up a couple times as if stretching from being inert so long.

Not wanting to give the tiny humans too much of an opportunity to run, Flatline lurched forward with a frustrated growl. His right hand raised up into the air, lulling out momentarily before slamming down towards Jack with the possibility of using far too much force than was expressly needed to restrain the fragile organic. But he was too slow, the human too fast, the claws instead raking against the concrete with a bang that made a nearby abandoned vehicle rattle in its shocks.

As much as a failure this was, he was destined to have far better luck with the small human as his secondary arms surged forward to clap around him. They weren't doing too well at escape, being compared to the others he didn't really even have legs. The claws wove together once getting a grip, and simultaneously wrenched Raf up off of the ground with the velocity of a fair ride gone horribly wrong. With him tucked near his chest secure, the entire mass of the Decepticon moved forward upon all fours, left primary arm then reaching to try to grab the female.

[Deleted]

In true, typical young adult fashion, the startled teens did what anyone would do when confronted with an enemy: they clung to each other and screamed. At least, Raf was sure they screamed. He wasn't so sure muffled between Jack and Miko's bodies. If anything, he let out a very disconcerted grunt of extreme do-not-want before the three of them parted, as if breaking from a huddle. Needless to say, the teens hadn't expected to meet a Decepticon in town.

Jack was already shoving Miko and Raf away, trying to shoo the momentary startlement out of them with more force than probably needed. Miko staggered away, nearly falling into a trashcan. From the way she recoiled, twisting her spine like a ballet dancer having a seizure, she might have been more disgusted by the rusty container than the actual Con. Raf tripped over his own feet and toppled over onto his hands and knees. Jack didn't have time to help him one bit as a large hand was slamming down toward with the force of a falling safe. Without hesitating, he rolled across the sidewalk and grit his teeth from the hard feel of cement catching at his shirt and skin. It felt bruising but no sting of broken skin harassed him.

Any sense of victory died out when he saw the Con snatch up Raf like a poorly operated crane fishing out a prize. The muffled sound the other male made Jack's stomach flip and he froze, unsure how to approach this openly bad situation. Across from him, splitting Flatline's attention in two directions, Miko crouched behind the trash can and glared with enough hatred to fuel a supernova. When a hand grabbed for her, she shoved the can toward the clawed mitt with extra force and scurried for more cover. Perhaps a parked car if she could get there.

Raf cringed in his temporary prison, trying to avoid touching the very hands holding him in place. His arms were trapped against his sides and all the wiggling didn't seem to be getting him anywhere.

[Flatline]

Flatline's secondary hands were small and nimble, able to assist and perform intricate surgeries on the smallest of wires. It meant that once he had a grip on Raf, the fingertips cycled down as snug as possible, without harming or crushing the little organic despite how fragile it was. This left Raf effectively caged into a metal harness, the black talons crisscrossing over one another, which was for the best considering the large mech was now in motion and being dropped from so high would be undesirable though not lethal.

Moving with such an extreme hunch to his gait it was borderline quadrupedal, Flatline zeroed in upon Miko as she shoved the trash can in his hand. The tin container screeched in protest as blades cut down into it and crushed it inwards with a crumpled clatter. It caused the contents to spew out, paper products and leftover food and other trash regurgitating into the sidewalk where the light currents from all the action caused it to whirl and spin into the street.

Casting the container aside with a low hiss, he pushed off of the ground enough to permit himself to take a larger step. He had seen where Miko was going, and he didn’t intend to give her a shelter. It is because of this the thin hoof like ped rammed down onto the ground before her, blocking off her path of immediate escape. While the toes of the foot were small enough she could probably hurdle them, he was counting on the action at least halting her with fear or apprehension of being stepped on.

With this diversion, he moved forward quickly, planting his left primary down upon the knuckles to stabilize his hunched posture and odd stance, while his right hand then swooped out at a low swing at Miko to try to grab her. For now, Jack was cast aside. Flatline was going for what he believed to be the next easiest target, and he assumed because the little female had shorter legs she would be unable to run as fast as the larger male counterpart. It is that which made Jack forgotten entirely, Flatline moving all his attentions to the female.

[Deleted]

Raf's family had been to a theme park or two in his day. Which was quite an undertaking given the fairly sizable family unit. Keeping the unit together was a little like herding cats in a room full of mice. They usually lost the older siblings to the temptation of friends leaving Raf with his mom and dad. Which wasn't a bad thing. Raf really did like his parent's company. They were solid, warm, loving people. They also liked roller coasters. Raf hated roller coasters and was too chicken to get on one. (The fact that he was solidly under the height restriction also helped him dodge what he felt was certain death.)

Being in the grip of a Decepticon while he grabbed and lunged after Miko was sort of like being on a theme park ride. Raf was now terribly certain that should he live, he was never going to get on a roller coaster for the rest of his life. Ever.

While the younger geek was holding his hands over his eyes, Miko was making a decent show of evading the Con. She was a master in dodge ball at school. (When the teacher made the mistake of letting the students play the banned game.) But the concussive force of the Con driving he feet down on the pavement in front of her made her stumble. Right into his leg. It was an awkward scrabbling moment that cost her precious seconds of righting herself. By the time she was trying to scramble away from the foot, a hand was sweeping for her. She flung herself across the oddly shaped appendage in the hopes of fleeing the immediate area. But the hand grabbing at her hit her foot and sent her splatting on her back right in front of the Con. She let out a breathy "Oof," and laid there for a moment, stunned by the hard smack to her back.

On the sidelines, Jack watched with a bevy of mixed feelings and an upset stomach. Too many thoughts went through his head as he tried to think on one solution to the problem. His first impulse was to grab the phone and call for help. Surely Arcee could get there in time. But as he dug in his pockets, he had the realization that Raf was still quite alive in that grasp and Miko, despite being in very real amounts of danger, wasn't actively being stepped on. The Con was trying to catch them and he already had one hostage. What would he do if Arcee showed up, guns a blazing?

While he doubted he was making the right decision, Jack had little time to reflect on the impulse to run toward Miko, while holding his hands up and giving the Con a 'I'm not armed, don't shoot' gesture. He could always call for help later. Best not to tip off the Con that they even had a way of calling any Autobots. For all he knew, this was a case of mistaken identity.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Don't hurt them!"

[Flatline]

Flatline's secondary arms were moving Raf precisely like the rides he was comparing them to. Each movement, each sharp lurch and twist of his body, was countered by the limbs that lagged behind and adjusted for the sudden motions so that the human wasn't completely whip-lashed and broken. It made the 'ride' smoother, though still swooped him around as the large Con traveled at a fast pace.

The ped that Miko had stumbled into lifted slightly off of the ground momentarily after she had bounced off of its surface. Hydraulics hissed and growled, weight pulling away to allow the large hoof like prong to peel off of the sidewalk. Tiny bits of grit and rubble fell between it and the ground below, before the weight was soundly put back down upon it with a solid crunch that obliterated what stones had been underneath. The moment weight was applied to this foot again; the con's massive body swooped overhead to blot out the sun and permit his primary hand to lash out.

A clip of a metaphorical wing, the snag of a limb, that was all that was needed for Miko to end up grounded, and Flatline was not going to squander the opportunity. His large primary hand raised, and swung down with violent force. At first it could have seemed like he was intending to crush her, swatting his hand down in an attempt to decimate the female's tiny frame as if she were nothing but an insect, but this was not the case.

Bladed fingertips jabbed down solidly around her, each of the hooked fingers creating a sort of cage to try to lock her down in place as they sheered into the ground below. Of course, Miko being Miko could probably crawl out between the gaps, or climb over the hooked thumb that was lying partly horizontal, but Flatline's digits would ideally slow her while he regarded the male.

Crimson optics flicked over instantly as Jack called out, and the rest of his body started to turn gradually in response. The actions were smooth, calculated, leaving his hand caged over Miko, while the secondary's supported Raf delicately and made the turn more tolerable. The ped that had been rammed down, lifted up once more only to stretch out and plant further again, permitting him to pivot about where Miko was in order to square off more with the male human.

He was eerily silent as he did this, ventilations slipping out from his internals that growled from the minor hustle and action that had occurred moments before. This sound was soon accompanied by real vocalizations, a low exhale of a hiss that caused his lips to part and peel back, exposing gnarled dente that were chipped and twisted into an uneven line.

"Hurt them? I have no desire to harm."

His voice was slick with a gritty edge that played out behind the initial vocalization, a calmness that clashed violently with the action that had just befallen them all moments prior. It was after he said this, he flexed his fingers inward. The bladed ends of his fingers that had been caged around Miko, now slipped free from their concrete encasement, the sharp tips closing inward to try to gently pinch onto her and lift her off the ground like a far more dexterous and powerful crane game.

"Come here human... let me hear your proposition on why they should be freed."

His red eyes remained locked on Jack now, intent, focused.

[Deleted]

Jack decided, right then and there, that he really didn't like this Decepticon. Not that he needed much reason to dislike the whole bunch of them but seeing the way the dude just snatched Raf up and caged Miko with his sharp claws... Jack tried not to wince when Miko tried squeezing from the grip. She was coming dangerously close to that sharp edges and the mom in Jack reared up to fuss at her. Luckily she rethought her strategy when the Con shifted and turned his focus on Jack. Once she settled down in her temporary prison (away from the sharp claws) Jack could almost breathe a sigh of relief. Almost. He kept envisioning that hand coming down with awful finality and-

From the punched feeling in his throat, he was fairly certain it was lodged there permanently. The Con deftly fished up Miko in his claws before she could wiggle free and the amount of curses she hurled at the monster was both creative and cringe worthy. Apparently someone had learned a few new words from the Wreckers. Bulkhead probably wouldn't be proud of her parrot like abilities.

"Come here human... let me hear your proposition on why they should be freed."

Nope.

Nope, so much nope.

He knew how that was going to go. That was the same tone a person would use to lure a kid into a van for a free bike. Not that that had ever happened to Jack before. Or anyone he knew. He wasn't going anywhere near that Con on his own free will. There was no way he knew what the Con's end game was but being what the creature was, it wasn't going to be a good thing. It was never just a good thing. Ever.

"You ah, seem to be hearing me just fine from right here. So I think I'll stay." His mind raced in stupid, irritating half thoughts that amounted to exactly nothing useful. When it came to making plans or even doing anything productive in danger, Jack was finding that at the moment he was useless! Without Arcee, he didn't have that bravado that usually popped up. He had no one to watch his back. And, with a sinking feeling in his gut, he realized he was the adult in this situation just because he was the oldest and the other alternative was Miko.

He had nothing.

"What do you want??" The cliche words slipped out of his mouth before he could help himself. But it was a vital question. Not that he expected the truth.

[Flatline]

There were some interesting word choices...

Flatline was alarmed by this, not because it scared him, but because he never thought that a small human would belt out something like that. It was sharp language that only meant something to Cybertronian, mixed with an air of vulgarity that almost had to be taught not created. It gave the large Cybertronian pause, but also confirmed everything he had already known.

These were definitely the children that the Autobots had as pets, and the Autobots really had some weird things they were teaching the runtlings.

Shifting his weight forward even more, Flatline lowered his body a bit so that he was once more upon all fours or... because of Miko more of a tripod. This gifted him a runners stance, so he could kick off as hard as he could into a sprint if the male human decided to try to make a run for it. It also gifted him a near animalistic look, though this was not intentional as he gradually approached.

Red eyes returned to their half lidded and calm state then, having shaken off the shock from the little female's outrage. At this point and time, both Miko and Raf were mute to him, and not worth a second thought. Each seemed to be secure in his grip, and he didn’t think their little enamel teeth could do anything even if they could wedge their faces somehow between joints to bite at wires.

"How do you know what we are?"

He was playing dumb, playing like he was only angry because these humans had recognized him for what he was. They had never seen him before, and he was new enough to the Nemesis that maybe they wouldn't have been taught. Then again... Flatline HAD injured Red Alert badly, and he was probably in their system now with that information. But... would the humans know this? Would they be any wiser?

"I don't want to hurt anyone, but you aren't supposed to know our kind exist."

He continued to approach, aiming to close the distance enough so he could swing his free hand around to grab if he chose. His voice relayed concern, a worried sadness weaving between the gritty hiss.

"-and the female knows our... er... terminology."

Play innocent.

Play dumb.

Feign gift the boy power.

[Deleted]

"I don't want to hurt anyone, but you aren't supposed to know our kind exist."

"He's lying, Jack! They always lie!!" Miko's shrill voice cut through the awkward silence between them and made Jack wince. He'd been mulling over what to do or say next but her yammering was distracting him. How could he focus to out think a Con when he was too worried Miko was going to get them all killed because she couldn't shut up?!

"Miko, that's not helping!" Jack felt himself snap out, voice tight with a myriad of flustered feelings. His hands twitched by his sides and he kept his gaze trained on the Con's face. It didn't escape him that the mech was moving into a position that didn't really bode well for the teen. At his best, Jack was fairly fast. But he couldn't outrun a car. And he certainly couldn't forgive himself for leaving the other two to their doom.

"Let's just all calm down." And let me think! How come it wasn't like this for the Autobots? They didn't have moments where futility was choking their thoughts and pulling them down. All Jack wanted to do was push back time and avoid this moment for the rest of his life.

Blessedly, Miko stopped snarling at the Con. It gave Jack a moment to figure out if he wanted to answer the Con's questions or not. He wasn't sure if the mech was lying or not. He didn't care if he was either way. All he wanted was for the enemy to put the other two down so he could feel like his heart wasn't lodged in between his tonsils.

"Can you just put them down. They're-you're going to hurt them. Whether you want to or not. They're small and fragile. They're just kids," Jack blushed and hated every second of it. His voice had cracked on the tail end of that sentence and he was realizing that he'd meant the words. No matter what he voiced to his mom or to the Autobots, at the moment, he realized that maybe they really were too young to be doing this. Intentional or not.

"Jack, look out!" Raf's small voice piped up, alerting the older teen to the proximity danger. Likely too late to react.

[Flatline]

Ah, and there went the female again.

When Jack called for them to all calm down, Flatline continued to play up the role that he had assigned himself. He furrowed his brows a bit to feign confusion, before he eased back his weight enough so that the digitigrade limbs folded against one another into a sort of sit that was akin to a dog. It was a somewhat awkward stance, the post that served as the ball of his foot jutting straight forward, but the two hoof like prongs of his toes remained flush with the ground.

The sitting stance with one hand placed down against the concrete may have appeared at ease and calm, but the truth of the matter was the Decepticon had all the tensile cables in his limbs taunt, and the hydraulics primed to launch himself forward. He was ready to turn his legs into makeshift springs fueled by motivation to do something good and earn possible praise for his skills... But Jack didn't need to know this.

Slowly, his helm lowered some, seemingly anxious or afraid, Flatline going so far as to flick his gaze off to the side a bit. He appeared nervous at the request, worried, not making direct eye contact with Jack.

The human male then made a mistake, and it would cost him.

Jack seemed to be distracted a moment, frustrated. His voice had cracked, and he appeared to be swimming in a sea of his own thoughts. It was a minor distraction, but one that the Decepticon easily picked up on, and one that he would have had to have been a fool to neglect. It is because of this, the preparation Flatline made moments prior went into place, and in one swooping movement he sprung forward, and his free arm had hooked around.

Oh, the littlest human had tried to warn.... he had done his best to call out and give his friend the help he needed to dodge, but it wasn't even close to being enough. The cry was too late, as it would only give a fraction of a second heads up before dark fingers scooped around Jack, and wrenched him clean off of the ground with a heaving motion... except... he wasn't held onto.

The grasp that should have clutched down snuggly and caged Jack into a solid grip, instead had merely swung up to launch him into the air into what would soon become a freefall. He would not be alone however in this unbuckled ride, for the very moment Jack's body left Flatline's palm, the other two had been thrown up nearby and freed entirely into the hands of gravity.

Everything happened fast then, where there had once been a recognizable shape of a Cybertronian, instead now stood a shifting myriad of parts and components that twisted and churned. The clanking metal snapped and ground beneath them so fast that it would effectively mulch their organic bodies if they were to fall down into it. Luckily, it was all timed, and before they would find their legs being ripped apart, the three would find themselves landing harshly with a thud onto a red platform.

A final clunk, a snarled hiss of mechanics, and the top hatch of the hearse finally snapped into place, blotting out the sun and plunging the trio into the instantaneous darkness of the Decepticon's interior.

The hearse may as well have been a prison vehicle all things considered, it's cab barren and empty save for the ridged frame that arched around them as a cage. Interior panels were all crimson and black, with chrome bars along the back hatch and side door that was locked down in place so securely that trying to claw at the manual unlock would do very little. The floor below that had caught their fall was a smoother fabric, but it was broken up in shape by over twelve chrome brackets that had multiple sockets fastened into it to secure a hearse down so it did not tumble or slide during transport.

Everything was dark, side windows appearing to not even exist at first, but in truth were just obscenely tinted, making the view outside dulled and diluted through a haze. Leading up to the front cab a thick panel of glass separated the storage area from the front seats, where the children may be able see the shift suddenly wrench into drive as the engine rumbled active. A moment later, and they would be driving down the road no matter how much they may be protesting, and how many colorful words Miko may throw around.

Flatline felt pleased with himself all things considered. He had captured for his team not only a valuable asset, but THREE of them that were bound to earn them some powerful influence. The Autobots seemed to be rather attached to their human friends all things considered, and the opportunity to save one alone could garner the Cons much in the way of leverage and push power. This would not only help the Cons, but it could help his own standing. This should be able to get him praise! Not... not that he NEEDED it... but... who wouldn't appreciate it right?...

The medic was basking in his own thoughts, turning up the radio to drown out all of the noises the filthy little organics were making. In short time he was swiftly driving down the highway that breached out into the wilderness, where other cars, other buildings, things that represented hope and help, were blurring away into the distance to be masked over by the dusty horizon line. He just was about to comm back to base to report what he had accomplished, before he received a comm himself, one that instantly changed everything.

Violently, as if every system in the hearse had rusted to a complete lock, the vehicle rammed onto its brakes. Rubber screamed against asphalt, brakes screeched in protest, and metal groaned while the old fashioned car ground to a halt that fishtailed at the end to pull a full 180 and end up stopped at the side of the road.

The radio had stopped, and silence hung over him like a heavy blanket that tried to suffocate everyone around. Dust trails from the near spin-out, curled and writhed out of the windows, billowing over the slick black paint that one could argue may be a couple slight shades closer to grey. If the children could read fields? They would be bombarded with stress and anxiety the likes of which were difficult to explain, instead, all they got was a quiet meek response of words that held real palpable fear. The worry vocalized put his previous acting to complete shame.

Mostly because it was real.

"...Uh oh..."

[Deleted]

Jack decided, some moments later while he laid there and groaned on his back under a pile of two other bodies, that he was going to have to work with Raf and Miko about communication. Because the three of them made a terrible team. Miko distracted the wrong targets. Raf needed to work on his timing. And Jack needed leadership skills or something. Was he too old to join the boy scouts?

Miko's elbow dug into his shoulder as she clambered around on top of him and Raf. The poor sprat between them laid lengthwise across Jack's knees making a cross out of their poorly aligned bodies. Miko rolled around and snarled around on the top of them until she righted herself. At the moment, resembling a mussy headed wolverine over a teenage girl. She was the first to recover and lung for the backdoor. Jack didn't have to get up to know that it was going to be locked. He was just counting his few blessings they were still alive.

"We're in the hearse." Raf's voice was absolutely quiet inside the interior. And while it didn't really illuminate anything they didn't already know, it seemed to add a pall onto their situation that much more. They were in a hearse. A Decepticon hearse. There was zero ways this could end well.

Miko laid on her back and kicked at the door, trying to budge it with brute strength she just didn't possess. Jack didn't see a reason to stop her and let her vent her frustration while he sat up and rubbed at his back. The landing had been harsh against the flat interior and his back ached along with his shoulder. Raf seemed no worse for the wear though he, somehow, seemed to shrink on himself during the ongoing imprisonment. They were being driven at this point and scenery was only growing more remote as time went on.

"It's ok," Jack spoke lowly and quickly. "One of us just grabs the phone and we call in for he-" His words were cut off into what sounded like a warped curse word as the vehicle slammed to a halt. The force of it flung the three of them against each other, Jack again being on the bottom, and against the barrier separating them from the front. Piled there in a tangle of limbs they nearly missed Flatline's quiet despairing tone.

"Ugh, now what?" Miko griped, rubbing at her head.

[Flatline]

Silence.

A soft patter of dust and grit settling after being dislodged, a light creak of metal easing after such a jarring motion, it seemed to make the air thick with the lack of any true speaking or noise coming from the Decepticon. There was no immediate reply, and Miko's grumbled words fell stagnant as if they had never even been uttered to begin with. It was only after a rather uncomfortable pause, that Flatline took the time to vocalize, his voice softer and quiet, genuinely concerned, though only because of fear for his own mesh..

"You three hurt in any way?..."

Passive, quiet, the meek voice from before was back, though this time it was real and not a fabrication. After he spoke these words, there was an audible clunk as all the locks in the back disengaged. He thought about ejecting the humans, since he knew they wouldn't want to be where they currently were, but he also knew he had thrown them around a lot and being able to do things on their own would offer them some power back after a fiasco of helplessness. Because of this he kept still, the side door and back hatch able to be opened with ease.

"What exactly would you three want to make this incident vanish?"

Flatline considered his own request for a moment, before adding on.

"People REALLY aren’t meant to know about us, but I don't want to hurt you, I panicked."

A lie. He wanted them to make a deal with him, without knowing how much leverage they had over him at this moment. He knew they knew that humans shouldn’t know about the Cybertronian, and he also knew that a human screaming about robot cars would be viewed as crazy, as such he hoped that their demands would be... simple... Maybe they would want to be driven somewhere, or told some kind of 'Decepticon Secret' that didn’t exist. Maybe they wanted to do something the rule-chewing Autobots wouldn't allow them to do, or some other nonsense.

Simple favors he could do to garner good will... What he didn’t want them to know is that they had him noosed so tightly that they could effectively shackle him to slavery out of fear of his own life.

"I am sorry?"

The word felt like acid on his tongue.

[Deleted]

For what was a long, terrifyingly silent few minutes the three kids just sat there in stunned silence. Crickets chirps. A plane flew by overhead. If a lone coyote could have howled, it would have. There was no comfort for Flatline to take from the three as they sat there in stunned silence, eyes partially wide and looked at each other.

That is until Miko opened her big mouth.

"ARE YOU KI-mmprrph!" The rest of her tirade, likely one that would have shown off more creative cursewords, was cut off by Jack's hand and combination body slam to take her down. Raf sat nearby with his hands on his knees and glanced from the front of the hearse to the two teens struggling with one another.

"We're ok," he mumbled and then winced at Jack's pained yelp. "I think Miko bit his hand, though." For a detached moment Raf reflected on how weird this was going. He'd been certain they were going to die. Or, at the very least, have something horrible happen to them. Torture? Did Decepticons torture kids? That felt like something they would do. But now they were parked in the middle of nowhere and a Con was apologizing to them. Either this was a very elaborate game or...the Con had goofed.

"Miko, would you listen for a minute?" Jack shook her head (possibly to get her teeth from digging into the meat of his palms further) and made her focus his eyes on him. "We are going to have a sane discussion so the big Con doesn't kill us." With that, he let go to convulsively wipe his hand on his shirt. Earugh.

"Why should we believe him?!" Miko hissed and sat up. Her hair was ruffled worse than before and her jaw hurt. With a twitchy glare at everyone involved, she rubbed her face but stayed mercifully quiet.

"She's got a point. You could be lying." Jack said it so casually but inside his stomach felt like it was trying to turn into a pretzel.