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alcesverdes) wrote2013-07-17 05:41 pm
[Crossover] Transformers: Prime / Fringe
3200 words
Timeline: Early second season for Fringe. Around the middle of the first season for Prime.
"Here we are," Peter said as he stepped out of the black van. "And it's all my fault."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," Olivia replied. She had already left the vehicle. The Fringe Science Team arrived to Jasper, Nevada a good half hour earlier than expected. They still had to find the hotel, but she needed to stretch her legs, after all that time on the airplane and the car. "Maybe we will find something worthy." She paused. "Peter, can you get now a more specific location of the computer we're looking for?"
Peter scratched his eyebrow. "That's the thing: I did it on a fluke the first time. I happened to have the right page opened at the right time with the right program opened while thinking the right sequence of keystrokes. One second later, all traces were already gone. I was very lucky to be able to point out this side of the country to begin with, never mind the town. And, while I’m giving my professional opinion, I still think there are other departments more suited to investigate this than us."
"I keep telling you both," Walter interrupted. "If it was a matter of simple image manipulation, why would anyone bother to replace them? You said so yourself, Peter: cleaning up every trace of anything on the Internet is hard to do and too much work. I have to believe you because I barely know anything about the Internet, and since I believe you, there has to be something about those vehicles without drivers for someone to take that much effort to hide them from the public eye. It could be anything from some kind of invisibility cloak to extraterrestrial technology. And I think finding this out is a good use of our time. Oh, good, an ice cream parlor," he added cheerfully when he saw one across the street. "I think I'll have one."
"One day, I'm going to find out how he convinced Broyles about this," Peter said as he followed his father. "I'll ask for directions to the hotel."
Olivia smiled back, nodding. She remained on the street, her eyes on the road. How Walter convinced Broyles about this investigation was a mystery, indeed. But a hacker who could delete all the information about specific files could be doing who knows what else on the side. Or later on. Someone had to check it out, that much was true, and apparently Walter thought they were having a slow month.
Peter had been trying to track this person for a while now—a hobby of sorts quite popular in certain underground forums—, and three days ago he had finally managed to pinpoint the area surrounding Jasper. He, then, celebrated his success within Walter's earshot. And here they were.
On the bright side, it was nice to take a case where there hadn't been any deaths. Yet. That they knew of. But if they could prevent any from happening, it would be all for the better.
Jasper seemed a quiet little town. Nevertheless, it was a fact that even quieter and nicer towns could have horrible, dark secrets. Anything could happen anywhere, even if she hoped it wasn't the case here. Nor anywhere else, for that matter.
A bell rang in the nearby school. Children came out from the building, providing the streets with sound and movement. Some kids walked home. Others were being picked up by their parents. Some of the older ones had their own vehicles. Olivia spotted a nice-looking blue motorcycle parked outside the school. Although the boy who went to it didn't look remarkable at all. Except that he didn't look like the kind of kid able to afford that kind of ride.
Then, a yellow muscle car showed up.
"Peter!" Olivia called.
Peter came out form the ice cream parlor holding some napkins. "What is it?"
"That car over there. Isn't that the one in the photographs?"
Peter frowned. "It does look like it. Do you think we should go ask?"
"Is it? Really?" Walter asked. There was strawberry ice cream on the tip of his nose. "You see, Peter? The tracking you did was very good!" he added, his voice full of pride.
Peter, in turn, handed him one of the napkins and told him to clean up.
One child, thick glasses, about twelve years old, got inside the yellow car on the passenger side. The door opened only for a second, but Olivia noticed no one else in the driving seat. The car drove off without anyone else getting inside.
"Let's follow it." Olivia said. She went back to the van and started the engine.
Walter clapped his hands. "How exciting! Are we engaging in a high-speed chase?"
"I hope not, Walter," Peter replied.
Olivia's eyes were on the yellow car ahead, but she still pictured clearly the look of disillusionment on the old man's face in her mind.
She kept a good distance from the yellow car, but soon it became clear she'd overestimated both the number of black vans in town and the volume of the traffic. That's what happens when you're used to big cities, she sighed.
The yellow car began to take weird turns, avoiding all red lights, even going through the same streets more than once. It was making sure they were following it.
Olivia only pressed harder. There was no visible driver, but someone smart enough was in control. And there was a child in there. He had gotten inside by his own free will, apparently, but how to tell?
When the yellow car found a way to hit the road, it hit it hard. Once freed from the restrictions of the town, Walter's dream of a high-speed chase came true.
The van didn't have anything on the power of the yellow car's engine, but the road was as flat as it was long, and the day was clear. Olivia wasn't going to lose it that easily. She kept on going, as fast as she could.
Olivia was so focused on the pursue of her target she gasped loudly when a huge, green metallic wall appeared out of nowhere.
"Olivia, look out!" Peter yelled at the exact same moment she hit the breaks. The van stopped before a crash, but just barely.
The metallic wall turned out to be a truck. A big, green truck with tinted windows, that showed up in the middle of the desert to stop them cold from following the yellow driverless car.
Olivia noticed Walter reassuring Peter that he was fine as she jumped down the vehicle, her gun at the ready. "FBI! Stop right there!" she ordered just as the green truck began to speed away. She didn't bother with another warning. Instead, she aimed at the truck's wheels. She was about to shoot when a blue motorcycle passed next to her, throwing her out of balance.
"Are you alright?" Peter asked.
"Yeah," Olivia said. She hadn't fallen down and wasn't hurt, so she picked herself up quickly. She looked around. There was no sign of neither the cars nor the motorcycle. "Where are they?"
"I have no idea."
Good, now they were in the middle of the desert with the distinct certainty that there was a handful of people involved who didn't want them poking their nose. Their unknown antagonists hadn't attack them per se, but the warning had been clear. She sighed and put her gun away.
"Did you see that?" Walter asked. He was as excited as only he could be. "After they got you distracted, they ran behind that rock over there." He pointed at their left.
"That rock is too narrow to hide them," Peter said.
"I know! Let me finish! When they went behind that rock, there was a flash of green light and now they're gone!"
Olivia looked at the ground. "Well, the tracks do point that way," she said, and began walking. The others followed. Walter carried a bag with some equipment.
The tracks did stop behind that rock. As Walter had said, the yellow car, the green truck and the blue motorcycle had just disappeared.
Walter began to take some measurements while Olivia sent the license numbers to Astrid. She didn't expect to find anything useful, but it didn't hurt to try.
"Did you find anything, Walter?" she asked.
"There is some residual energy but it's fading already. It'll be all gone by the time I get more precise equipment."
"What now?" Peter asked. "We've lost the element of surprise, and they've seen our faces. We're clearly at a disadvantage here."
"Maybe. But we've also seen something about them."
"You mean that kid? I'm going to go on a limb here and say that he does look nerdy enough to do the swapping."
"Looks aren't all. But yeah, I was thinking the same."
"Agent Dunham is right, Peter. Looks aren't all. Just look at you! You don't look like a nerd at all!" Walter said.
"Does that mean I'm a nerd, Walter?"
Walter shrugged. "Well…"
Peter looked at his father like he didn't know whether to feel flattered or annoyed or both. As usual.
"Come on," Olivia said. "We'll go back to the school and see what we can find out about those kids."
"Those kids?" Peter said.
"Yeah. I saw the one driving the motorcycle back in town, before he put on a helmet."
"Very well, then." Peter helped Walter into the van yet again. "Let's see what we can find."
*
A couple of hours later, the Fringe Team had gathered a great deal of information.
The kids in question, Rafael Esquivel and Jack Darby, were unlikely friends who began to hang around not that long ago, nobody knew why exactly. There was a third member in their group, a girl named Miko Nakadai, an exchange student, who—according to witnesses—was usually picked up from school by someone in a big, green truck with tinted windows. The three of them had been mostly loners until they became friends. Which was around the time Jack got the blue motorcycle. On top of that, young Esquivel was a computer genius, never seen without his laptop.
"I'm pretty sure the hacking began around that time too," Peter said, drinking the last of his milkshake through a straw. The group was in a small restaurant eating and discussing their next move. "Do we go to the parents?"
Olivia picked up one of the sheets of paper on the table. "I honestly doubt they know much, but we do have to talk with the children. Let's go to the Darbys first. The sooner the better, since they already saw us."
As they were leaving the restaurant, Astrid called. "The motorcycle is registered under the name of Jack Darby, a teenager of Jasper," she informed. "The other two cars are registered to a William Fowler. He's in the military. I sent you an e-mail with his more details about him."
Olivia winced inwardly. The army, just what they needed. Even if it only was this one guy, it wouldn't be pleasant.
"Thank you, Astrid, I'll check it out."
"Agent Dunham, may I speak with agent Farnsworth for a moment, please? It's important."
Olivia handed him the phone. "Sure."
And, thus, Walter began to give Astrid instructions he had just remembered for the proper care of Gene.
"I'm sure she already knows, Walter," Peter said. He tried to remove Olivia's phone from his father's grip—probably to apologize to Astrid—, but Walter waltzed away and gave one final instruction: Astrid was to look for a certain energy signature that could have appeared at random in random locations, possibly near Jasper, possibly not. She was to recruit Nina Sharp if necessary given the magnitude of the task. Walter said his goodbyes, reminded Astrid about milking the cow and hung up.
"Just a hunch," he said, giving Olivia his phone back. "I think that might be the frequency of the teleporter we faced earlier in the day, to have shown a green light." He hopped into the van. "Now, do we continue? Maybe we'll get another exciting high-speed chase!"
Two blocks away from the restaurant, Walter began to doze off. Olivia watched him nodding off in the rear mirror.
"I can take you back to the hotel," she said to Peter. "I'll handle the questioning."
"Are you sure," he asked.
"Poor Walter has had his share of excitement today, and this the boring part. Besides, there's something I need you to do for me, Peter."
Olivia told him about Fowler and asked him to get an interview with him as soon as possible.
Peter nodded. "Good. Leave that to me."
Next, after filled up the van's tank of gas, Olivia was one block away from the Darbys home when she saw the Darby boy and blue motorcycle coming down the same street on the opposite direction. They both stopped when they saw each other. Olivia considered stepping down from the van showing her hands saying she only wanted to talk when the motorcycle turned around and drove away.
It hadn't been the boy who made it turn. The motorcycle turned the handlebars on its own. The kid had barely enough time to hold onto it to avoid falling down to the ground. Olivia narrowed her eyes.
She apologized silently to Walter as her second high-speed chase of the day began.
*
It didn't take long for Olivia to realize the motorcycle was only leading her away from the house, not trying to escape. It wasn't going as fast as it could have, and it only took turns the bulkier van could take as well. Olivia wasn't willing to go straight into a trap, especially now that she was by herself, but things were getting murkier by the second. She needed answers and she would get them.
They soon were on the road again. Olivia payed attention all around her, to avoid being ambushed again. She knew chances were that would amount to nothing, given their abilities to teleport, but that was what she could do.
Ten minutes later, they were again in the middle of the desert. The motorcycle's friends hadn't showed up yet, and there hadn't been any green lights the likes Walter had described. It had been a while since the last time they'd met other vehicles, so it wasn't that. They were all alone.
Until an F-16 showed up.
Given recent developments, a military aircraft getting in the mix wasn't that surprising. Nor that it descended toward them. Then, the jet started shooting at the motorcycle.
That, of course, was nothing compared to when the jet transformed into a gray, bipedal robot as it landed in front of them.
"Well, well, Autobot," he said with a low voice that sounded male and too human-like for Olivia's taste. "How nice of you and your friends to show up when I'm having a bad day." He raised up his arm, were a missile was clearly visible, and aimed it at Olivia's van.
Before he could launch it, before Olivia could try to get out of the way, the blue motorcycle, sans the Darby boy, threw itself at full speed towards the robot, transformed into another robot and kicked him on the chest. The former motorcycle somersaulted backwards and landed gracefully before charging once more against the gray robot.
"We really need to get out of here," the Darby boy said as he ran to Olivia. The kid had a look on his face that was a weird mixture of being worried and of 'this is my daily life'.
"What about your friend?" Olivia asked. She almost said 'your motorcycle' instead, but something about the whole thing told her it would be rude somehow.
The boy turned his head towards the fight. "Don't worry about Arcee. She can handle herself. And help is on its way, but Starscream is dangerous."
A she. Now that he mentioned it, it made sense given her frame. She was also the best fighter of the two robots. Still, the gray one, Starscream, had his missiles—one in each arm—, and his long fingers—claws—seemed to be closer each time to hit on the mark. More importantly, Arcee had saved her even after she chased them and nearly shoot one of them earlier that day.
Olivia looked around and found a rock a few meters away, big enough to hide one person. "Go there and remain hidden," she said to the boy.
"What? But—"
"Go!" Olivia ordered, more harshly than before. "Now!"
This time, the boy complied.
Olivia went back into the van and started the engine one more time.
Neither robot expected the van. The one called Arcee figured out quickly that the vehicle wasn't aimed at her, and tried to distract Starscream and buy Olivia more time. When he noticed the van, he tried to jump away, his face twisted in surprise and maybe a little bit of panic. But it was too late.
Olivia registered two things before the impact: one, Starscream seemed to have forgotten he could fly, and two, he was wearing high heels.
After that, things got complicated.
Starscream fell on his side, grunting. Olivia jumped off the now flat-nosed and probably ruined van, aiming her gun at the robot's eye, the part that had the more chances of being the most fragile, now within reach. She was aware that it most likely didn't amount to anything, but she needed to do something. "Stay were you are," she said as firmly as she would to a human crook.
A click sounded behind her, and another voice, female now, said, "You heard her, Decepticon." It had to be Arcee. Olivia didn't turn around to check. The look on Starscream's face made it clear. He was too expressive for a robot. She wasn't sure if Walter not being there was a shame or a blessing.
It was right then that it began to dawn on Olivia what she had done. What she was doing. And she remembered why she was there to begin with. "Anyone wanting to shoot bystanders because of one lousy day gets a direct entry in my 'bad guys' book," Olivia said, addressing Arcee, "but we still need to talk."
"I guess there's no use to hiding anymore—" Arcee began, but a portal opened at their right. It was a portal, somewhat like the one Jones had opened, but in green. That had to be the help the Darby boy mentioned.
Except that the robots that came through began to shoot at Arcee.
"Scrap!" Arcee yelled, dodging the lasers and shooting some of her own from her arms to the newcomers.
Olivia lowered her guard, distracted by the chaos, realizing she needed to find cover. But when she tried to move away, Starscream grabbed her. She turned her head to see his cruel smile as he got up, although only for a second. "At least I won't leave empty handed," he said.
The next thing Olivia knew, she was in the cockpit of an F-16, one that flew directly to the still open green portal.
Part 2
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Aaaah quiero ver qué pasa XD
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Ya me voy a poner a eso :3!
wrong account lalala
pero apropiado pfff
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