Girl Like Me in a Place Like This

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Marie gritted her teeth as she spotted an intersection up ahead. Fortunately, she knew these roads fairly well. That said...this was going to suck. And possibly go very wrong. She waited until she was nearly on top of the intersection before slamming the breaks and jerking the bike left. As intended, it skidded sideways onto the next road, leaning dangerously. She nearly lost control, but, a sharp tug back to the right pulled it upright again and she again set off full throttle, a jet of black zipping across the desert.

Hopefully, they would be too busy with each other to demonstrate the same maneuverability. It might at least give her a bit of a lead. She came to the next intersection, a short ways down, and turned right, again headed in her original direction, running parallel to the other road.

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Now it was Smokescreen's turn to dodge around his attacks. His attacks alone probably wouldn't do that much harm, but they would still sting even for a larger Cybertronian such as Smokescreen. Not that he minded. Human or Autobot, either one was worth making some trouble and getting his fill of fun.

Though, as Forth was firing on his newest target, he could see from time to time as Smokescreen swerved the human was still going. Obviously she had every intention of getting the hell out of dodge and avoiding the strange alien creatures chasing her down. It gave the mini-Predacon some satisfaction to know he could make any form of impression on one of the fleshings at all. He knew for his size he wasn't entirely intimidating, specially when he was barely taller than the actual humans. But when he really got rolling, sometimes literally, he could be a menace. "Hmm, such a shame," He spoke as he watched Marie make a sharp turn down an intersection while Forth took a few more rapid shots towards Smokescreen.

But the Minicon soon came to a screeching halt and transformed to his dragon mode, eyeing the speedster, letting him race ahead. "You can't protect this planet forever Autobot, eventually something will draw you away. Not every planet can be placed under your direct protection." Forth informed the Elite Guardsman, making it quite clear even the Autobots couldn't handle everyone. Alas, his fun would have to come to end though seeming as Marie was already well ahead of them and Smokescreen's speed would make it difficult for him to entirely stay a step ahead.

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Victory.. screeeeeech!

Seemed that the Mini-Con had finally given up the chase and was gonna let both Smokescreen and the human go.  Smokescreen took a bit of pride in that, though he knew that the Mini-Con would just come back one day.  At least for now the human was safe.

...Where had the human gone, anyway?

Oh this wasn't good.  Sure, Smokescreen could let her be on her merry way, but what if she told someone?  What if she had pictures of him or the Mini-Con (not that he would've minded if it was a picture of him)?  Optimus and the others would freak out on him, and he'd likely have Agent Fowler's patriotic rants on loop for the next six hours straight.. and that's if he was lucky!  He needed to find out where the human had gone and catch up with her.

Smokescreen continued to cruise down the street, keeping an eye out for that familiar figure on the motorcycle.  This would have been so much easier if all Earth vehicles came standard with communication lines and such.

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After a few more miles at top speed, when she was sure neither of them were on her tail, Marie pulled over. Shaking, she crawled off the motorcycle, barely able to put the stand down. She ripped off her helmet and dropped it into the sand, hair falling messily from its haphazard bun to hang in green-streaked strands over her sweaty face. Shivering like it was seventy degrees cooler, she fell to her hands and knees in the dirt beside the road, stomach roiling, breath coming in quick, shallow gasps.

That thing had attacked her! What the hell was it! And that car! It had talked! And stood up! None of this made sense. The haze of her meds had worn off, leaving her in a state of shock that did nothing to aid her sickly body.

I'm gonna be sick...

She had been all over the world, seen a lot of weird things. But this...none of this was okay. She had to get home. She was probably just...hallucinating or something. She shouldn't be operating a motor vehicle...

The sound of an engine caused her to shakily look up.

There, coming down the road, was the car. Her eyes widened and she staggered to her feet. Shit, shit, shit...! There was no way she could outrun it now. Not in her present state. Still, she made the effort, stumbling to her motorcycle.

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As Smokescreen continued to drive, he kept on looking for any sign of the human girl as well as the motorcycle that she had been driving.  He had to find her so that he could prevent their secret from spilling and thus preventing getting the sternest of reprimands for not intentionally breaking the rules.  Most he had to do was make her promise not to tell, but he honestly didn't mind bringing her back to base or anything.

He was just about to make another turn when he spotted her.

The Elite Guardsmech pulled over to where she was, glad that she wasn't trying to run off, but.. she looked a bit scared.  "Hey, hey, hey!  Wait.  It's alright.  I'm not gonna hurt you."  He stayed in vehicle mode for now, that way he wouldn't draw extra attention to himself by transforming.  "The Mini-Con's gone and he's not gonna hurt you anymore.  My name's Smokescreen, by the way.  What's yours?"

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The car pulled up next to her and Marie began hyperventilating all over again. Oh god, it was there. It was back. She didn't see the other one, but, this one was enough. She froze where she was, staring at it, heart fluttering erratically in her chest. It had asked her name. That was not okay. No, cars did not do that.

"Please stop talking," she said, almost involuntarily, "Cars don't talk."

Her shoulders shook beneath her jacket as she struggled for air. What was this?

"Oh god, I survived tuberculosis and went crazy instead..."

Had she done something horrible to someone? Was this karma? Bad juju? Bad meds? She didn't know, but it was crazy and not happening, not happening, not happening...

The stress of the situation compiled and, with her irregular breathing as the catalyst, she began to cough. Deep, rasping hacks shook her entire body and doubled her over as she covered her mouth quickly. She was within the last stages of treatment, but, her body had not fully recovered, which meant that overdue stress could cause brief relapses.

When the fit was over, she crouched down to steady herself, trying to force her breathing back into regularity, her gaze remaining warily on the car.

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Did she... did she just tell him to stop talking?

Well that was a new one for Smokescreen.  He was used to the humans actually wanting him to talk all the live long day.

The human girl definitely seemed panicked however, even talking about something called tuberculosis?  Sounded like some fancy medical name that Ratchet would throw out in conversation, but he had absolutely know idea what it was.  As far as the Elite Guardsmech knew, it had something to do with surfers.  Hey, they said things like 'totally tubular' and stuff right?  Tuber?  Tubular?

..He tried.

Either way, the girl needed some help, and there was only so much that Smokescreen was able to do.  "Hey.. I know you don't want me to talk, but you don't look so good.  I can get you to a doctor.  I mean.. he doesn't know too much about human stuff, but he's learning.  I really can give you a ride.  I'm not gonna hurt you."

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Marie flinched involuntarily when the car talked again. Dammit. Why did it have to be so concerned? It could just...go away! Yes! That would be good. Its words took a moment to process. Then, she mentally paused.

"...A doctor?" that registered, at least, "I don't wanna go back to the hospital."

She was still on autopilot, mouth moving without a lot of thought going into it. She squinted at the car.

"What are you?"

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Good news!  There would be no hospital visit for Marie.

"Nope.  No hospital.  Just good old Ratchet the Hatchet.  I'm sure he'll be able to help you with.. whatever's going on."  Smokescreen knew nothing about human health and illnesses.  Just the Cybertronian ones.  He had no clue what to do in order to help her, but the idea that Ratchet might be able to do so was the only thing that he could think of.

Plus now that she knew he was a transforming alien robot.. he couldn't quite chance her revealing their existence to anyone.  He'd get so many wrenches thrown at him, and that'd just be from the medic's line of fire.

"What am I?  Well.. I'm the bot who just saved you~.  But if you wanna know more.. why don't we talk more on the way?  I can't exactly say too much out in the open."  Smokescreen transformed, opening up a car door.  He'd stay that way, waiting for the girl to climb on in.  "Look at it this way, you don't even have to drive~."

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Ratchet...the Hatchet.
It was a trap. The carand his hatchety friend were going to kill her. Yup. That was its play!
She thought for a moment, thoughts clearing at least a little with deep breaths. But...it had saved her from the cat thing...
She recoiled instinctively when the door opened, revealing an empty interior.
"Bot? Like...ro-bot?" she drew the two syllables out, squinting, "...How do I know that you and this Hatchet guy aren't like...going to eat my brains? They taste horrible, by the way, just want to put that out there..."
Definitely not at full mental capacity but, getting there.

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If anything, Smokescreen was just glad that he was getting the human female to talk. It just never dawned on him that maaaybe referring to Ratchet as a hatchet wasn't the greatest of ideas. He'd been used to Jack, Miko, and Raf already knowing what Cybertronians were like.

He never once stopped to think 'hey just how do you introduce yourself to a human that doesn't know what you are'.

Eh.. He was winging it~. Smokescreen felt he was doing a pretty good job of it.

He nodded excitedly at 'robot', even it if wasn't 100% accurate. If it was the best analogy she could come up with, it worked for him. "Brains..?" The Elite Guardsmech knew what a Cybertronian brain module looked like, but knew nothing of what a human one looks like. He didn't know anything about human anatomy come to think of it. "Naah. Brains are gross, and we don't eat humans either. Besides, we're the good guys! We're called Autobots, by the way. The cat thing you saw earlier? That was one of the Decepticons. They're the bad guys, and we're trying to stop them from taking over the world and such."

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This was still the strangest and most screwed up thing that had ever happened. Did the car just try to nod? Marie continued staring at the empty interior, half expecting some deranged, monstrous thing to jump out and drag her inside.

At least he said he didn't want to eat her brains. That was good. That aside, she had no idea what he was talking about. Auto-robots and Decepticrons. The hell was a Decepticron? Too much scifi stuff at once. Just like that, her nearly processing brain paused in its forward motion.

"So you're like, robot superheroes?" she did register the bit about stopping world takeover, "And you're fighting...robot Hitler?"

She paused again, trying to force herself to calm down and examine the situation. Sensei said that a panicked brain was a fighter's worst enemy. Breathe, breathe, breathe, think. Her brain's forward motion recovered. If it wanted to hurt her, it wouldn't have saved her, right? And it said it knew a doctor. As it was, she was already on the edge of a relapse and looking at a return trip to the hospital. And maybe it...or, he, would tell her what was going on...why that thing had attacked her....

Shakily, she stepped toward him, still not certain that she should actually trust him. One tremulous hand reached out when she was close enough, steadying herself against his side. A detached part of her realized that holy shit this was a really flashy talking car.

"Alright," she breathed, heart pumping hard somewhere up in her throat, her stomach quavering in fearful nausea, "I'll go see...the hatchet guy. Just...please be telling the truth about the good guy thing..."