At that moment, the mechanical tentacle protruding from Alice's mouth tightened around Sam's throat, flinging him up and down. Sam struggled frantically in mid-air, limbs flailing. The room was a cacophony of crashing furniture and shattering glass.
"Hey, Sam, I'm telling you, you really should go after her—"
Leo's words died in his throat as he pushed open the door. He caught one look at the scene and hit the floor hard. "Whoa!!"
"Sam! Where's Alice? What the hell is this robot thing?!"
Robot?
Hearing Leo's shout, Mikaela, who had already reached the stairwell, pivoted and sprinted back. Seeing the nightmare inside the dorm, she immediately hurled the heavy iron toolbox she was carrying at Alice.
"Let him go!"
Whoosh—
Alice tilted her head, narrowly avoiding the metal box containing Wheelie, but the distraction was enough. Her grip loosened, and Sam tumbled out of the mechanical tentacle's grasp.
"Cough! Cough!"
Sam's face was a deep shade of crimson. He gasped, sucking in desperate lungfuls of air. He had never craved oxygen so much in his life.
"Sam, run!" Leo scrambled to his feet, staring in horror at what was rising behind his roommate.
"What?" Sam turned instinctively.
Then...
"AAAAARGH!"
The three of them scrambled out of the dorm in a panicked heap.
"Move! Please, move!" they screamed at the students lingering in the hallway, who watched them with bewildered expressions.
They burst out of the dormitory and sprinted toward the library. Behind them, Alice—having shifted back into her human exterior—was closing the gap with terrifying speed.
"She's coming! She's right there! She's a female alien!"
Treading up the library steps, Leo stole a glance back. His heart nearly stopped. He redoubled his efforts to keep up with Sam and Mikaela. They ducked inside the library, weaving through the stacks until they found a secluded shelf far from the crowds.
"Oh my god, I can't believe this. I literally dreamed about her last night!" Leo was vibrating with manic energy, his mouth running a mile a minute. "She must be here for my website. My site covers those alien robots. It all makes sense! It's my fault, bro. I brought this on you. This should have been happening to me, especially that part where you were alone with her—"
"Look at what you've done, Sam! Is this how you treat me?!" Mikaela's focus was entirely elsewhere. She began berating Sam's recent behavior. "Did you enjoy yourself? We are done! Finished!"
"It's only been three days! If I hadn't shown up, would you have—"
"Listen! Just listen!" Sam cut her off, his voice high and frantic. "Mikaela, I'm the victim here!"
"The victim? What part of you is hurt?!"
"Look! Right here!" Sam tilted his head back, revealing a deep, bruised red welt around his neck. "My throat looks like it was worked over by a wild heifer! And I still have the taste of diesel in my mouth!"
"What? You used tongue?!"
"I didn't! She did! That tongue was at least five feet long!"
"You did!"
"I didn't—"
BOOM!
A massive explosion rocked the library. Countless books were shredded into confetti, drifting down through the air like a paper snowfall.
"Run! She's got bombs!"
The entire library dissolved into pure chaos.
"Mikaela, you okay?"
"I'm fine, Sam."
"Stay sharp. She's here. We gotta move."
The three of them scrambled under a long study table. Fortunately, they had ducked just in time to avoid a collapsing bookshelf.
CRASH!
Another explosion. Alice was essentially firing a pulse cannon with every step, vaporizing anything in her path. A student with thick glasses, having lost them in the panic, stumbled blindly into Alice's path.
The next second: BOOM.
"Quick! Out this way!"
Taking advantage of the smoke, the trio escaped through a gaping hole Alice had blasted into the library's side wall and sprinted back toward the parking area.
"Get the box!" Mikaela pointed at the iron toolbox she had thrown earlier, which had smashed through a window and landed on the grass below.
She grabbed a stray brick, smashed the window of a white sedan, and climbed into the driver's seat.
"Get in! Now!"
"Leo!" Sam dove in, passing the retrieved box to Leo in the backseat.
Mikaela yanked a bundle of wires from beneath the steering column, frantically rubbing the leads together.
"God, you even know how to hotwire," Leo stared in awe. "That is so hot..."
"Faster, faster!"
"She's back! She's back!" Sam screamed from the passenger seat.
Directly ahead, the relentless figure appeared once more. Though Alice was a Pretender—a unit with combat power inferior even to a basic Decepticon grunt—she was still far beyond the capabilities of three unarmed humans.
Click-clack, click-clack.
The sound of her high heels on the asphalt was sharp and rhythmic. Finally, the engine of the white sedan coughed to life.
VROOM!
"Try this on for size!"
A ruthless glint flashed in Mikaela's eyes. She slammed the accelerator to the floor.
SCREECH—
Tires smoked as they spun against the pavement. The car didn't swerve; it headed straight for Alice at full speed.
"Oh my god! Jesus!" Sam and Leo braced themselves, gripping the handles and fumbling for seatbelts.
THUD.
The impact was visceral. Alice was launched into the air, spinning like a ragdoll for a dozen meters.
But Mikaela wasn't done with the alien robot that had been hunting them. She floored the gas again, jerking the wheel into a hard swerve.
CRUNCH—
The white sedan rolled directly over the mangled, sparking remains of the Pretender, dragging her for a short distance before peeling away.
"Is she dead?" Sam asked, hanging his head out the window to look back. "She's gotta be dead. Mikaela, do you think she was a Decepticon?"
"Probably. But she was also your new girlfriend."
"Please, drop it already. It's over."
"Is it? Because every time I look at your mouth, I think of her."
"Hey! Guys! Stop arguing!" Leo shouted from the back. "What's a Decepticon? Is that the robot's name?"
"No. She's a Decepticon. But she isn't the only one."
As they argued, the sedan sped into the distance, leaving behind a twisted, sparking chassis on the asphalt.
Alaska: Base One.
"My Lord, Soundwave's operation was a failure," Dirge reported, entering the transport ship and addressing Skygnaw.
Everything that had occurred at Mission City University had been monitored by Dirge in real-time. This surveillance had been active under Skygnaw's orders ever since Megatron left Earth two days prior. Knowing Sam was about to become the center of a storm, Skygnaw wasn't about to sit idly by.
"Give me the details, Dirge."
"Yes, My Lord." Dirge organized his thoughts. "Lord Soundwave deployed a Pretender to infiltrate the human boy's campus..."
A few moments later, after hearing the report, Skygnaw gave a casual nod. "Understood."
An armed Pretender, tasked with killing three unarmed humans, had been taken out in a counter-ambush. He could only conclude that Mikaela truly was a "main character"—brave and decisive.
"By the way, Dirge. Go find Blackarachnia. Ask her to come here."
"Yes, My Lord."
Once Dirge left, Skygnaw walked out of the ship. He looked at the jagged, scorched hole near the cargo ramp and felt a lingering headache. He somewhat regretted not bringing Blackarachnia with him to resurrect Megatron; perhaps she could have intercepted Starscream's missile.
The ship, having taken a direct hit from a Seeker-class cluster missile, had only just finished its internal diagnostic to determine which systems and components were offline. Advanced as it was, Cybertronian tech could be described as delicate. The parts were so intricate that a single failure point could ripple through the entire frame.
Currently, this damaged transport was little more than a glorified, grounded airplane.
Blackarachnia arrived quickly, her silhouette appearing on the horizon within minutes.
"Skygnaw, what do you need?" she asked, approaching the ship with curiosity. Since returning to Earth, she had stayed at Skygnaw's base. While she didn't follow every order blindly, she was happy to help with technical matters.
"I want you to evaluate the status of this ship," Skygnaw said, getting straight to the point. Blackarachnia had lived for tens of thousands of years and owned her own vessel; her expertise in aeronautics was far beyond his own.
"You're thinking of repairing it?" she asked, immediately catching his drift. She knew that when Skygnaw went to resurrect Megatron, he left in a stealth ship and returned with a gaping hole in his side. She had been busy having Scalpel install new weapon modules at the time and couldn't leave. She'd only heard later about the brawl between him and Starscream.
"Yes," Skygnaw nodded. "But if the resource cost is too high, I'll have to scrap it."
He didn't want to lose the ship, but he was a realist. Fixing a transport of this scale alone was a task he couldn't accomplish.
"Fine. Give me a moment."
Blackarachnia stepped into the cargo hold, moving through the ship with practiced ease as she began her expert inspection.