Chapter Text
The dawn was foggy and steam raised from the alley up against the buildings. As the sun started to cut through the night, the filth of the city's underbelly became visible. There was nothing pretty and romantic about this part of town, and almost anyone with an ounce of common sense would have stayed far, far away.
Two gang bangers that happened to stumble down that road, still engulfed in a drunken haze, believed they had hit some major jackpot when they noticed the bloodied woman. She passed out on the ground in a puddle of water that had drained nearby, but surrounded by brand new electronics.
"Aww yeah!" The man chuckled and poked at his partner "Lookie 'ere man. We have died and gone t' mother fuckin' heaven! Bitch and loot included!"
"Yo, shiiit.. Must be dreamin' man! We can make some serious cash on all this shit on the road. Bitch won't care." Added the other man and they moved together to her side. "Grab this shit dude.. fuck… you go get all that outta' 'ere and I'm gonna check to see if she's dead or some crap"
The man shuffled his way over to her and knelt down by her side, while his buddy started taking some of the appliances in his arms and pulling them out of the puddle that had gathered underneath. The first one looked over her barely clad frame, and a smile crept up his face. She laid there, unprotected, her hospital gown riding up almost all the way over her thighs. Her body was bruised, bloodied, and the tears in her arms where the needles had been were visible, as well. There were superficial wounds on her hips, her legs, the bottom of her feet, and pretty much everywhere there was exposed skin. She had little concept of how delicate that body really was.
His hand reached out and slowly started lifting her gown. Alcohol fueled, morbidly depraved curiosity was the only thing that had control of him.
Her eyes snapped open, pupils contracting rapidly. There was a quick growl that came from her throat. If she had ever been human, that was long gone, pushed down into the depths of her mind. There was nothing inside of her that resembled clear human consciousness, but simply primal animal instincts.
When her fingers closed around his throat with lightning speed, they sunk into his flesh. She could feel the tightness of his trachea, and before her eyes images flashed, images of her own body, of a human body, layer after layer unveiling before her. Hit here, break there, disarm and disable immediately. Then she pulled back. His half scream followed by gurgled and muffled sounds filled the alleyway. Then the crunch followed when her fingers sunk deeper through the flesh, and she ripped out his throat.
Wide eyed, gurgling, chocking on his own blood, the man tried to contain the fountain springing from his throat by scrambling back and holding both hands over the gaping wound. Blood was seeping from between his fingers, gushing down his clothes as he now thrashed around the alley and knocked tin cans and trash over in his path before he collapsed backwards against the filthy ground.
Karmela was not done.
"HOLY FUCK!" screamed his friend and dropped one of the blenders from his hand. "Bitch you crazy?! " he yelled and pulled out a .45 from the waistband of his shaggy pants. He aimed, hands trembling, and fired. It hit her square in the shoulder, nipped at her right lung and exited out the back.
The pain was sharp and her anger rose even more. Before he could let off another shot, the sound of gears, metal and levers began to rise in intensity behind him. He didn't even know what was going on before all the appliance shaped bots proceeded to climb all over him. They shot him, tore at him, clawed at his eyes, scurried all over his body as he fell to his knees. His screams lit up the dawn mixed with the sound of torn flesh and clothing.
Karmela saw her assailant still somewhat moving. She walked over to him, slowly, deliberately. Her stance was uneasy, not well balanced, as if a puppeteer was controlling a new doll for the first time.
Her eyes scanned him, a clear picture of his body appearing before her eyes. She knew where he was dying, why, and what all was still in one piece inside of him. A quick dismissive glance was cast towards the other man who now lay in pieces against the ground. The small bots were running around each carrying a piece and triumphantly played with what ever trophy they were able to grab. As her attention returned to the dying man before her, she plunged her hand straight into his stomach, right under the rib cage. Her nimble fingers traveled upwards, under the ribs, tearing though the tissue until she found the heart, still beating. Her hand curled up around it and pullsd in a swift jerk downwards. It followed by the immediate last exhale of the body under her, which told her she had accomplished her mission. Karmela pulled the heart out, still in her hand, and squeezed it as hard as she could. " No spark" she thought and cast it aside.
Frozen eyes turned to the blood dripping down her hand, her forearm, and then down to the ground. She wiped it onto her gown and looked at her shoulder. "Great" she thought to herself while inspecting the wound which was causing her quite some bleeding, and a bit of an issue breathing.
"We need to go now Bumblebee" Ratchet demanded and then motioned to the twins to follow along. Skids poked his head around the corner as well and nodded at the large autobot.
The medical officer had been tracking the unusual cybertronian like activity for the past day or so, and within the last 30 minutes it had gotten rather hot, and quite concerning. The signatures were clear, perfectly defined and they were enough to get Ratchet worried. The autobots had assembled in the large hangar and shifted back into their alt modes, waiting for him to share the coordinates.
Ratchet checked the location one more time and secured an uplink to the compound before snapping back into the alt form, then moving to the front of the pack. They all followed suit in a synchronized purr of motors, with respective holographic drivers appearing for each one of them.
The commotion had raised the interest of others around the shady neighborhood. Unfortunately for Karmela, a block party had taken place earlier, but by the time she crawled her way down the narrow street, all the partygoers were already passed out from either drugs, alcohol or a sublime mixture of both.
When four men walked around the corner, guns in hand, the sight they saw was something out of a horror movie. One friend of theirs laid dismembered and disemboweled against the building's filthy wall, while the other sported a torn neck and a gaping wound to the stomach.
The woman, whose dark long hair was now covered in blood, as well as most of her clothing and skin, stood over the latter and watched it in silence.
"Yo bitch!" called one of the guys and pointed the gun straight at her, an action quickly followed by everyone else gathered there.
Karmela looked up at him and extended her blood covered hand towards him. From the shadows, her bots sprung to life and jumped 2 of the men, while the one looking at her fired one shot, then another and another.
They struck her. It hit her legs, her arms, one more in the chest. The men began to fight the bots, some tore them apart, others shot them, and in the process gained plenty of impressive wounds themselves.
The pain finally settled in her mind. The spark within subsided briefly while it tried to control the damage that her body was taking ever so rapidly. It tried to repair on the fly but couldn't do that and keep the pain receptors dulled out. That concentration broke, that very desire to survive was replaced by complete confusion, fear, desperation.
Shot after shot, each bullet was tearing at her flesh. She fell to her knees and screamed. When the pressure inside her head seemed to subside, another energy burst sprung from her body, and a few more little bots jumped to life, out the windows of the surrounding buildings, and proceeded to terrorize the assailants below.
That madness finally sunk in. It settled so perfectly inside her. Her eyes were blood shot, her limbs did not want to function any more. She wanted to scream out loud, but she had torn the inside of her throat so badly when she pulled the breathing tubes out, that she had yet to heal from it.
Another blast radiated from her.
Blinding light.
Sound of mechanical beings swarming the street.
More people poured into the street and started to attack them – she saw that. She saw one of the men get dragged into a building by a group of small bots, two more were dead already, and the forth had ran away in pure terror.
"DO NOT FUCK WITH ME!" she thought. That was as human as she got, commanding a language her mind felt comfortable with.
Blast after blast of energy escaped her.
It was fortunate that her hospital was actually close to one of the NEST headquarters. This is how Ratchet, Bumblebee, Skids and Mudflap were able to get to her location this quickly.
She could see the large autobots get rolling in, one after another. They all felt that energy burst. Each time the wave was stronger, and each time she hurt more.
And then there was nothing but silence. Her human body finally gave in.
"Help me" she whispered to herself – her plea to her protector who had forsaken her.
Ratchet walked over and scooped her up in his servo. Quickly he scanned the female and grunted while Bumblebee and the others gathered around him to look at her.
"Aww man, she's messed up. Little sistah got some serious issues! Y'all felt that right? That hurt! " said Skidz before glancing at the minibots who had now pretty much caused an entire carnage down the street.
"We need to hurry back" Ratchet said and turned to the others "I have scanned the female and this body is dying rapidly. She has suffered multiple gunshot wounds, and whatever she did, her muscles are torn to pieces."
Ratchet handed her over to Bumblebee who tilted his helm and held her carefully. Once the medi bot was transformed back, Bee gently placed her inside the large ambulance, and sprung back into his own vehicle form.
"I will contact NEST immediately to dispatch Lennox here. Mudflap, Skids, contain these minibots, terminate if needed. This cannot get out of control more than it has.", Ratchet requested before setting out to return to base.
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