Driven Pursuit
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or Predator. All unrecognizable characters belong only to me.
Chapter 1 : Fire's Transformation
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Was there anything that could have been done?
A young girl watched the flames take away her home as she sat alone in her pajamas, the cold dew of the morning biting at her bare feet. The fire licked the vinyl sheets, having already ravaged the inside. The only other person that had been within at the time was her mother. But she was gone now. And the child with the long brown hair and large hazel eyes knew no one else. At least, no one human. Standing up on wobbly legs, her burned hands gripped her teddy bear tightly against her chest, which was now missing a leg and an ear. After a few painful steps, the remote sound of sirens wailing in the distance against the sunrise could be heard. With her scrapped arm, the girl reached for the door handle of a car, the one sitting in her drive way. The door was always unlocked. She climbed in, and squeezed between the front seats to lay down on the banquet. Her teddy still close to her, she began drifting off into a deep sleep.
Silently, the vehicle backed out into the street and made its way out of the vicinity as the firefighters reached the dying flames of the house fire. No one knew of the disappearance of the little girl yet, and no neighbor had been aware of the incident. All that would be left to remember the child was a half-burned photo on the ground where there once had been a desk, her beautiful smile the grim reminder of a better past.
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15 years later.
A tall and slim woman walked along the sidewalk, the afternoon sun shining down upon her. Brown loose hair reaching her leather belt, the 22 years old made her way with confidence to the waterfront, where her car was parked. By now, a single look would have told anyone the thing was and old junker, nothing but a pile of scrap compared to the new vehicles of today. But the woman didn't care. This care was more than meet the eye.
Climbing in, she pulled down the mirror above her head to take a quick look at her face. The makeup was holding on. Good. Inserting the key in the ignition, the engine revved before she had time to turn the metal fragment.
''Impatient today, aren't we?'' she said, tapping the dashboard lightly.
No other sound than the rumbling of the motor answered her. She sat back in her seat, a hand on the steering wheel. The car turned from the parking lot to head for a less tourist-crowded part of the seaside. A few miles south was a sandy beach hidden between two rocky cliffs, out of sight of most of the inhabitants and passersby. Only a rare lost vacationer on canoe would find this place.
A small dirt road led all the way up above the secret beach, forgotten a long time ago by even the locals. Large pine trees bordered either side, their roots creating bumps in the narrow passageway. The woman saw a small doe jump a rusty fence before blending with the under-brush. The car rolled a little faster through the tight turns. The modest forest soon cleared up, giving way to a field of tall grasses, speckled by tall brown bushes swaying in the sea breeze.
She stopped the car, and retrieved the key. Without moving she looked out beyond the car's glass, and to the horizon. If she squinted, she would be able to make out the shape of the landmass on the other side of the sea. It was low tide now, and seagulls grew numerous, using that short period of time to find fish and crustaceans. The wind had died down since this morning.
Yet, she could not forget what day this was. 15 years ago she left her destroyed home at the age of 7, without money, clothes, shelter or anything, but her car. She could barely remember her mother's face…and at times, she would forget herself…
''Katelyn. I am 22 years old, I live in a rundown apartment with a bossy cat and work for an even bossier patron.'' she reminded herself aloud.
''I know that.'' came a gruff male voice.
Distracted, the girl simply patted the dashboard once more.
''Are we going?'' the voice continued.
…
''…yeah. C'mon.''
Kate left the coolness of the vehicle's interior and stretched herself in the sunlight. The wild grass reached up to her navel. A mechanical grinding was heard behind her, with the distinct sound of metal sliding upon itself following. Ignoring it, the girl walked over to the ledge. She could see the sand about 30 to 40 feet below, the footprints she had left behind the day before now washed away. Two booming steps slightly shook the ground, bringing a towering shadow above the woman. She looked up with a smile into the glow of a pair of red lends, which she learned to call 'optics'.
A metal hand reached down, bending the grass to beckon Kate onto it. The forearm was thick and covered in the same material of the same color as her old Nissan. One foot after the other, she stepped on the warm metal, a glove-covered hand holding on to the creature's thumb. He had been the one to care for her all that time. Oleum. She could still remember that fateful day when she first met him. At first, she had always believed that there had been something strange about that car…but until her mother showed her…
She muffled a scream when his digits came to surround her as he jumped the height of the cliffs. Would he ever give her some warning? Soon enough she was let down, and she noted the size of the hole his landing had made in the sand. Bigger than last time. Kate briefly wondered if he did that on purpose.
Finding a rock to sit on, the woman let her sandals fall of her feet as she pulled away her gloves. The robot had walked some distance away, taking flat stones from the nearest rock deposit washed in by the sea, and practiced making them skip on the water. He once had tossed one so far that it had bounced out of Kate's sight, but Oleum had affirmed that the stone had managed to leap over the waves a hundred and forty two times before sinking.
That mech. What could she have done without him. He even had managed to get a local guy to look her way a week ago…oh! She almost forgot. Kate had a date with him in an hour.
Motioning the machine over, he took her back up the cliff once she had put on her gloves and shoes. Transforming back into the beat-up vehicle, Oleum drove his friend away from the sea and into town. That ritual of coming and going to the beach was daily, and relatively safe. No one suspected a giant robot living amongst them.
But someone had noticed.
A pair of golden eyes shined in reflection of the sun's rays within the cover of a pine's large branches. A mix of clicks and growls preceded a soft chuckle that slowly grew into an evil gurgle. The deer had been right to run when it had. Too bad for Oleum and Kate, they weren't escaping the creature's ambitions.
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TBC…