Transformers Regenerated: Pax Cybertronia XIII, Chapter Two

CHAPTER TWO

Earth

Sari rang the doorbell to her own home for what had to have been the hundredth time. With ever passing minute of no answer, the more her anxiety began to increase. The fact that she was still exhausted from having flown all the way from Europe on thrusters built into her own body did not help matters, nor did the recent revelation that she was, in fact, some kind of human-Transformer. She still couldn’t believe such a thing now existed, and that she was the prime example of one.

After ringing the doorbell another seven or eight times, she finally convinced herself that her father was simply not at home. Where he could be, she had no idea; all she could think of now was to find a way to break into her own house without setting off any alarms. Isaac Sumdac was ten steps ahead of everyone in Detroit and had installed the best of the best in terms of security tech. She would have to somehow outsmart her own father if she had any hope of getting inside.

Stepping away from the door, she looked down at the mat placed in front of it. While she knew her dad would have done something far more complicated than to hide a key into the mat, she had to make sure she had checked every possible spot for some secret way inside before having to resort to brute force.

Bending down, she pulled off the doormat… and found a key laying right there.

Sari quietly sighed. Perhaps she had overestimated her father.

She picked up the key and unlocked her way into the house. Inside, everything was eerily still and quiet. Dust coated the furniture while paper and supplies littered the floor. For whatever reason, the maid-bots her father had made for the explicit purpose of taking care of his home while he was gone (or even while he was there) had failed to fulfill their programming. In fact, all of the weird robots she remembered living with while growing up — including her Tutor-Bot and pet “dog-bot” Sparkplug — were laying deactivated in different spots of the house, as if they had just ran out of fuel and were never recharged.

She knew her dad loved to go on vacations when he could and spent many hours at his offices… but how long had it been since he had lived here? She remembered the last time she had seen him in this house was right before she moved to California, which would have been a year ago. Had he just abandoned this house since then, not wishing to live here without her?

Knowing she wouldn’t get any answers by just standing around, Sari headed for the only place she could think of to find those answers: her father’s office. After carefully navigating her way through the maze of boxes and office supplies that dominated the office, she made her way to her dad’s computer and booted it up. Naturally, it prompted her for a password. Her mind was too unfocused for her to think of any likely passwords and she instead turned to rummaging through the desk. A vast majority of them were patents and paperwork associated with Sumdac Systems and its subsidiaries; nothing that would have been of interest to her.

As she tossed a stapled stack of boring paperwork to the side, a small sticky note flew out of it and landed on her feet. Picking it up, she began to read the string of numbers written upon the blue piece of paper.

12577. Use only for Project: Cadmus.

Sari had no idea what “Project: Cadmus” was or meant (though she quickly recognized that it was her family’s name spelled backwards), but she figured the number was good as any for a potential password. Returning to the computer, she inputted the digits before striking the enter key. To her surprise and relief, it went through and she was presented with her father’s desktop.

To her surprise and shock, it was nothing she expected from an ordinary desktop.

The background was all black and covered from corner to corner with folders and files, all with indecipherable names. How anyone could work with and find their way through such a setup, she had no idea, though obviously her father had found some way to manage with it. Not knowing where to begin, she randomly double-clicked on a folder only to be presented with even more files and folders. Clearly, Isaac Sumdac had done everything in his power to keep his secret projects secret.

Abandoning this endeavor, realizing it would be fruitless, she threw herself into her dad’s old, squeaky office chair and pulled out her phone. It had somehow survived everything she had gone through unscathed; simultaneously miraculous was the fact that it still had enough battery juice in it left to make a call. Without hesitation, she accessed her contacts and called the first name (after her father’s) on the list, silently praying that they were still alive.

*  *  *

“Darby, I would like to see you after class.”

Jack could barely hear the professor’s voice over the ringing of the bell and the ringing in his own head. So much had happened between now and the last time he had sat in this classroom that it was surreal that he was even back here to begin with. He was honestly surprised he hadn’t been dropped for having missed so many days of attendance, though Professor Colan’s mind was as much an enigma as everything surrounding the events of the past few weeks.

As the rest of the class filed out of the room, Professor Colan leaned against his desk, keeping his bespectacled eyes on Jack the entire time. It wasn’t until the whole room was empty save for the two of them did Colan finally speak.

“Did you enjoy your vacation?”

The incredibly thick layer of sarcasm in the instructor’s voice did not go unnoticed by Jack. Not really in the mood to challenge it, he shrugged. “I’ve had better.”

“Oh, I’m sure you have. You strike me as the kind of person who has exciting adventures every single day.”

Jack cleared his throat. “Not really. The past couple of weeks have just been… hectic.”

Colan arched an eyebrow. “Do tell. I am open-minded enough to consider the very remote possibility that any story you cook up may be convincing enough to be a satisfactory excuse.”

Jack closed his eyes as he sighed heavily. “Look, my friend went missing and—”

“Oh, yes, I know all about that. You think I haven’t heard that the daughter of the famous Isaac Sumdac who just so happens to be a student of this school has gone missing? Darby, I hear it every. Freaking. Day. People are already pointing fingers at the faculty for having done something to her or God knows what. She isn’t even in any of my classes and they’re swinging the Sword of Damocles over my head.”

Jack eyed the professor warily, uncertain where he was going with this conversation.

“Listen,” Colan went on, “I know you’re upset about your friend. I know it’s one of those things where you need to take some time to yourself and… regroup or whatever. However, you know that I’m not the type of teacher who accepts any kind of excuse, good or bad. If you miss class, you miss class and pay the consequences. I should have dropped you the moment you walked in today.”

“Why didn’t you?” Jack asked.

“Because I like your work, Darby. You’re one of my favorite students. You have submitted some of the best work I’ve seen in… well, at least since last semester. You know, there’s always that one person in every class who is just a god amongst men when it comes to a given subject.”

Jack sighed, his hands already on the straps of his backpack. “So I’m still in the class.”

“For now,” Colan said pointedly. “You’re still treading on thin ice. And who knows, I may change my mind tomorrow and kick your ass out of here as soon as I see your face. Point is, I’m doing something I’ve never done before and giving you a second chance. Don’t let it go to waste, Darby.”

“I won’t. Thank you, sir.” With that, Jack quickly got up and headed out of the class room, blowing out his breath as soon as he was far away enough. “God, what a nut job.”

“Hey, Jack.”

Jack turned around to see a blond girl in a white dress walking up to him, holding her textbooks to her chest. In any other circumstance, his heart probably would have been banging to the beat of a war drum; but today, his mind was focused on more pressing matters than the prospect of potential relationships.

“Hey, Alice,” he replied, waiting for her to catch up before walking alongside her down the hall.

“I haven’t seen you in a while,” she remarked.

“Yeah.” He shrugged, offering her no further elaboration.

He could feel her gaze on him as they continued walking. “I heard about Sari,” she said. “She was your friend, wasn’t she?”

“Yeah, she was.”

“Were you there when it happened?”

This brought Jack to a sudden stop as he turned around to look at Alice. “Pardon?”

“Were you there when it happened?” she repeated. “Both of you stopped attending classes around the same time, and now you’re back and she isn’t.”

Jack opened his mouth to say something but found no words. Without warning, Alice reached out and gently grabbed his arm.

“I’m not accusing you of anything,” she said quietly. “I’m just… a very inquisitive person. You know that, right?”

She flashed him a pearly white smile that bordered on the thin line between sincerity and phoniness. Jack wasn’t sure what to make of it and, frankly, wasn’t in the mood of trying to figure it out.

Slowly pulling his arm away from her, he said, “Listen, I’d love to catch up with you but I’ve gotta meet up with my dorm-mates. I promised them I would attend their next D&D session and—”

“Oh, I understand,” Alice replied. “Maybe some other time we could get together and… talk.”

Again, in a different life Jack would have been hearing alarm bells ringing in his head at the ever-so-slightly suggestive tone in her voice. Instead, he simply gave her a curt, “Yeah, see ya,” before continuing his walk down the hall. As he got to the staircase, a million things running through his mind, he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. Figuring it was Raf or someone else from the RP group, he pulled out his phone and answered it without reading the caller ID.

“Sorry, Raf, I know I’m running late. Professor Colan kept me around and—”

“Jack? It’s Sari.”

At this, Jack nearly missed a step and tripped down the stairs. Quickly recovering his balance, he moved away from the staircase and found a small alcove to stand in while other students walked on by. Holding the phone close to his ear, he said, “Sari? Is this really you? Where the hell are you? Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” Sari replied, though it didn’t sound like it in her voice. “I’m at my dad’s house in Detroit. I have no idea where he is. I—”

“How did you escape? That giant scorpion robot took you and—”

“It’s a very, very long story, Jack,” Sari said, sounding exhausted. “I was wondering if you’re still in contact with that Fowler guy. Maybe he could pick me up and bring me back to California so I can explain everything.”

“I think Raf can help with that; his mom is one of the few agents still working for him.” Jack exhaled loudly, running a hand through his hair. “I’m glad you’re all right, Sari. I was— we’ve all been very worried about you.”

He heard her sigh over the phone. “I know. I’ve been worried about myself, if I’m being honest,” she said with a slight chuckle. “My phone battery’s low, so I have to hang up now; I need to have enough juice for when Fowler or whoever calls.”

“Right, right. I understand. Talk to you soon, hopefully.”

“Hopefully.”

With that, the phone went silent. Jack blew out a breath of relief before preparing a text message to send to Raf. The sooner he got this ball rolling, the sooner this mess could be sorted out.

If at all, of course.