The Fallen...?

Khronos only barked out one word: "RUN!"

Meredith bolted top speed, she didn't have the slightest clue where she was going, but she was running hard and fast to get away. NEST soldiers swarmed the city, evacuating the residents. This was a rural town, so whites like Meredith and currently Khronos would stick out like sore thumbs, espically since Khronos gave off a 'cons signal, and Meredith was registered in their list.

Khronos instantly pushed Meredith into a little hut, closing the door behind them as the Decepticon femme shielded her spark further.

"Dammit, how can I be so careless?" she hissed, looking around. "We've gotta get you to look like something else, Mer...my holoform can change identities, you...cannot." She made a face, then grabbed a few clothes from a folded pile on a dresser-like piece of furniture. "Put these on over your clothes to hide your face."

Meredith nodded, then glanced at the disgusting grimy clothes with disgust. She swallowed hard, wrapping the brown fabric around her head after slipping on the tunic. She gathered coffee beans, rubbing them on her skin, turning it darker wherever it touched.

Khronos nodded, and her form changed as well, becoming a woman a little over 5-and-a-half feet tall with short black hair, paler skin, and dark brown eyes.

Looking at Meredith, she said, "Ready?"

Meredith nodded, bringin the scarf to shadow her eyes as much as possible. Walking into the bright sunlight, they were spotted.

"Hey, I thought I cleared this area!" a soldier shouted at the two.

"You idiot!" another slapped the first on the head, obviously both were newer recruits. Even so, that did not dismiss caution.

Lennox came walking up, staring at the disguised Meredith and Khronos for a moment before glaring at the new recruits. "Get back into your formations, boys, I'll take it from here," he said.

Once they were gone, Lennox took them by their hands and said, speaking slowly since he had no clue if they spoke English or not, "C'mon, there isn't much time. We need to get you away from here."

Meredith nodded, pretending to speak broken English, "y-yes s-sir..." she looked down. A few moments later she realised her voice sounded CLEARLY of American dialect. Meredith felt her heart sank and prayed the Captian didn't notice the difference of voice.

Lennox did notice, but then again much of the village had been filled with American people, or at least English-speaking people; it wasn't uncommon for rural areas like this to have that kind of choppy dialect.

Meredith breathed a small sigh of relief, she relaxed and followed Lennox out of the villiage, still keeping her head down to the dirt.

Khronos decided to strike up conversation with Lennox.

"Why are you here?"

"National security, ma'am."

Her eyes narrowed. "But you are American..."

Lennox shrugged. "Your government called us in, and we responded."

Khronos nodded and left it at that until they reached a chopper, where more "refugees" were.

Meredith stopped before the chopper, refusing to go any further.

Lennox and Khronos turned to stare at her.

"What's wrong?" Lennox called.

Meredith stiffened, "I...uh..." her stomach panged on her, she winced.

Lennox noticed the hunger growl, and looked at Khronos, handing her a few of his MREs. "Here, take these. Maybe it'll help," he said, ushering them onto the chopper.

Sighing, Khronos looked at Mer and said telepathically, "I'll bring you back, don't worry."

"Thats not what I worry over Khro...remember what I told you when we met?" Meredith replied over the tendril, "NEST alliance or hootdangers, I don't like soldiers..."

Khronos sighed, nodding. "I know," she retorted. "But I'm here. You're safe."


...she noticed then that she was utterly, terrifyingly wrong.

Hardly 20 minutes later, after she'd coaxed Meredith onto the chopper, another Cybertronian signal coming their way. "Oooooh shit," she muttered, looking at Meredith. "Murphy's Law...sucks major ass."

Meredith whined internally, hearing the choping sound of a different helicopter. "Blackout..." she bowed her head, resting it on her clutched knees. Overdramatic much? Not really...

Lennox and the NEST team were still on the ground, and the chopper was already 30 miles away from the village...and with Blackout on their tails? Not a good sign.

"What do we do?" Meredith asked, not using names right now. She looked up to Khronos, childlike in nature still.

Khronos sighed, and replied softly, "I...am not sure, Meredith." She could have hacked the computer system on this chopper...but she highly doubted that would've done them much good.

She could also warp them...but something told her that would be a bad idea.

Meredith sighed, "Maybe we should just wait and hope he passes?"

Khronos shook her head, her voice lowering as she whispered, "I'm not sure what's going on...he won't respond to my COM pings. But I do know that if we don't do something another SOC-CENT incident might occur."

Meredith shivered at the thought, then spotted the 'con. "No way on Gods green Earth is that happening again..." she ran and jumped like a feline for the 'cons tailpiece.

Khronos grabbed Meredith and held her back. "I'll handle this, Meredith," she said. "He doesn't know you. He knows me. He'll surely kill you if you piss him off."