The Witch and the Robot (ABANDONED STORY)

Chapter 5 - The Base

Driving to the Autobot base didn't take too long, but long enough for Alice to be concerned that she wouldn't make it home before her father, and he would begin wondering where she went. "Hey, it's really important that I make it back home before my father, I haven't ever been late, maybe we could do this another time, and I can give him a heads up that I won't be home before him. Can we maybe-TURN AROUND!" Alice shouted as they drove off the road, heading right for the face of a cliff. Alice began contemplating taking the fall off the bike instead of the impact before the rock would begin to move, revealing a doorway for them to enter through. Alice would stop clenching the seat for dear life and looked around as they slowed down, entering the base of the Autobots.

Alice looked around in awe, only having seen Arcee's small form, and even then, she hadn't stood to her full height and remained crouched. One at this massive console and two others gathered nearby, while two other kids stood on a platform, curious as to who else was being brought back to base. Miko seemed rather annoyed that it was an older student and simply rolled her eyes before returning to the couch, kicking her feet up and continuing the movie that she was watching in the meantime while nothing exciting was occurring. The Cybertronian at the console was orange and white and simply looked back with both curiosity and annoyance at the new human that sat on the back of Arcee, who slowly rolled to a stop before a large green bot and a smaller yellow and black one. Arcee waited for the two humans to get off before transforming herself and walking off to join the other two as another bot entered the large room.

The building was clearly repurposed into their base, but what it had been before was beyond Alice. The last bot to enter the room was even bigger than the other three, standing close to thirty feet tall, if not more, and was red, blue, and silver. He looked around at the other bots as if greeting them, his eyes lingering on Arcee's for a moment as if indicating that they needed to talk later, before looking down to the new human that was with Jack. Jack stood with Alice fearlessly, knowing that there was nothing to fear from these metal titans. The largest bot knelt down before them, though Alice averted her eyes from him, the energy he was producing was intense, and it actually was giving her a headache just from looking at him.

"Hey, they're not going to hurt you, they're here to protect us." Jack said, moving to calm Alice, but she would step away and shake her head, rubbing her temple before looking at Jack.

"It's not that. It's the energy he gives off. It's incredibly strong, it will take some getting used to if I want to look at him for too long." Alice explained. Though this confused the large bot some. He had never heard of a human being able to sense or see energies before, but it seemed that she could. Alice could see that he was strong of will, incorruptible by evil, a just, old soul. "I can see that he's an old soul," Alice said, looking up at him again and locking eyes with him for a moment. "he's pure of heart and strong of will, and clearly has done many great things, and seen a lot of tragedy. They all have." Alice would say as she looked around, beginning to get a better read on their energies the longer that she was in their presence.

"Indeed we have." The large Cybertronian said as he ignored her looking away, knowing that she was listening as she rubbed her head to try and get the pain to go away. "I am Optimus Prime, and we are Autonomous Robotic Organisms also known as Autobots. We have come to your world fighting a war for control over our planet, Cybertron, against the warmongering Decepticons. We have seen eons of war and tragedy, and each of us has lived through battles of different kinds, though now we are likely all that remains of our faction. We will fight to the last if there is even a chance of besting our enemies, we will take that chance." Optimus explained as he knelt there before the two humans, Alice looking up at him when she was able to, trying not to be too rude.

"I can see that you have unique gifts that other humans do not possess. This has me interested as to how exactly you discovered Arcee." Optimus said, intrigue lacing his baritone voice as he remained kneeling before the two humans. He had never seen something like this before in all their years of being on Earth, with and without humans around them. None had ever discovered them as she had.

"Well, I come from a long line of witches. I'm one as well, and I've been blessed with many potent gifts from my ancestors and the world around me." Alice explained briefly, looking at Optimus when she spoke before she needed a break again, starting to get used to his presence slowly, but she had to take it a little at a time. "I'm able to see and sense energies of living things, touching them helps, that's how I discovered Arcee. I was concerned about Jack and was admittedly trying to corner him so he would tell me what was wrong, and when I leaned over onto Arcee, I could sense that she was alive. I could barely see her energy before, and I would have dismissed it as heat waves if I hadn't put my hands on her." Alice explained further, taking deep breaths before and after looking at Optimus during her explanation.

Optimus would seem to take this into consideration, many people must have dismissed the energy as heat waves before unless this was a very rare gift that very few humans had. "I would like to hear more about this line of witches that you come from, and what that entails. If it can be used to discover us, we must know about it as soon as possible." Optimus said firmly as he slowly stood up again, looking at the other bots in the room. "Ratchet-" Optimus started, but he was met with a wave from the medic.

"Already on my research list." Ratchet said firmly, clearly not wanting to be disturbed in what he was doing and kept his speech brief.

"Everyone else, until we know exactly how this works, you are all to remain at the base or away from human populations." Optimus finished his orders, and the others would just nod, not wanting to question their leader's orders.

"How are we supposed to get home then? I need to get home before my dad does, otherwise, he'll be sending the cops looking for me. I've never been late before. That and I need to make dinner for him." Alice explained, shaking off her shock of the scenario and coming back to reality, she needed to get home, and soon.

"We can ground bridge you back to your place of residence, though it would be helpful if you could explain things to me in detail about your lineage and how you discovered these abilities." Optimus said, looking to Ratchet. She was their best bet at learning about what it was that allowed her to see through their disguises. Alice knew this too, knowing that the research was convoluted and different depending on one's views. There was really no set answer, and she was the only one who could easily explain that to them.

Alice let out a breath and sighed slightly, shaking her head a bit. "In short, there is no answer. Witchcraft is all about spiritual energy, I come from a line of witches that are devoted to the earth, we nurture the land we walk upon with our energy and tend to keep lush gardens to promote the greenery on the planet. It's not usually this complicated, but for my mother's side of the family, we've always been more potent, able to see energy and auras, and feel the vibrations of the earth, I even heard that my great-great-grandmother could make seeds sprout in her hand with her energy. I would be surprised if another human could see you the way I did." Alice explained, looking around at all the bots, being careful when she looked at Optimus. There was a lot to explain, but that was all she had time to do, as she needed to be getting home. "Look, I'll come back tomorrow if someone comes to get me and I'll explain things further. I'll just have to make up some excuse to tell my dad." Alice explained as she looked around for where she could get going. Ratchet was satisfied with her explanation for now and activated the bridge.

"Through here, that will take you to the residential area of Jasper." Ratchet explained, not being one for long goodbyes nor caring much about this new human just yet, as it took him time to warm up to any human, even Rafael. Alice would nod her thanks and run through it, not prepared for the nausea she would feel as she reached the other side of the swirling portal. She would have to hold it however as she began running home, seeing how late it already was. She was already going to be late to greet her father. She wasn't going to have time to make dinner, and her father was going to have to stay up if he wanted to eat anything before bed. She felt bad that she was inconveniencing her father, but she really didn't have a choice in the matter.