Round One

By: Starath

PG-13 L

Author's Note: The Beast Wars and characters belong to Mainframe Entertainment and HASBRO. I belong to myself, Laurie belongs to herself, and whoever invented clam chowder should be crowned king. So says Starath :P Thank you for helping Laurie! You too, Lady V! *hugs* This fic is PG-13 for harsh language.

She didn’t remember how she got to her former school. It was a blur, as things usually are very early in the morning. She must’ve gotten up at 6 AM like she used to, then her father drove her to the community college, where he dropped her off and drove away. Christine vaguely remembered that she was here to look for a job because the school had resources she didn’t have at home. And maybe she would visit some of her old teachers. Yeah, she might as well, because it could easily be 4 o’clock in the afternoon before her father came to get her after he was done with work. The curse of the inability to drive strikes again…

Right now it was almost 8 in the morning. The community college was tucked in a tiny valley, and the main walkway that stretched in between all the buildings was shrouded with fog. She carefully walked down the stairs that led to the main walkway. Snow had been blown to either side and up against the buildings, but she didn’t trust these stairs. She never had. Her grip tightened on the railing. One step on a patch of unseen ice and she could go tumbling down to the bottom. Her breath quickened, releasing puffs of steam that added to the fog. She made it down without incident.

The campus seemed empty and completely silent. Christine knew it wasn’t though, because there were 8 o’clock classes that students attended. Within an hour the walkways would be alive with people as they left class and hurried to the next. The fog didn’t help either; nor the snow, because they muffled all sounds that would normally be crystal clear. Even the sparrows, which didn’t leave during winter, were muted. She couldn’t hear them at all as she passed the evergreen bushes the birds lived in. She could hardly see in front of her too. Pausing by a chain-link fence, her gloved hands snaked through the links as she tried to see through the fog. The school had started a construction project to add to a building already standing just before she graduated. She expected to see new concrete walls up, but didn’t, as she made out the yawning hole in the ground easily twenty feet deep. Odd. There were the beginnings of the building supports in the bottom of the hole, but that was it. Maybe the construction stopped for the winter? That didn’t make sense; since it had started in the fall and had gone through winter so far… so why stop now? Maybe one of my old teachers know, she thought.

Ahead of her was the Activities Building, where the gym and weight rooms were housed. At one time the building was hell on earth for her, but she had gotten through those struggles with success. Eager to get out of the cold and chilling fog, Christine hurried to the entrance doors and yanked them open. A blast of warm air hit her in reward as she stepped through and continued to the secondary entrance. She expected the bright lights to be on over the gymnasium floor, but they weren’t. She expected to hear booming music from the radio echoing through the room, but didn’t. Confused, Christine puzzled over this and remembered-the gym classes didn’t start until 9:00, so the gym wasn’t even open yet. So much for curling up on her corner bench to spend time here. The Counseling Center wasn’t open until 9:00 either, and that’s where she was going to go look at job opportunities. The lights were on down a flight of stairs that led to the locker and weight rooms. She heard the clank of metal upon metal, a familiar sound from the weight room. She frowned. No one was supposed to be in the weight rooms until 9:00 too. Shifting the weight of her backpack on her right shoulder Christine pulled off her winter gloves and stuffed them into her pocket before walking down the stairs.

The hallway was lit. She stepped up to the doorway of the first weight room. Its lights were on already, having been triggered by a motion sensor. The room was empty. Christine passed the doorway to get a look at the second weight room. It was dark. What had made the noise, then? That was the sound of someone moving the weights around. Her heart kicked up its pace. She’d seen no one in the hallways and she was standing in the only doorway into the weight rooms. Suddenly Rattrap’s worried voice spoke in her head:

“Man… perfect place for an ambush…”

Christine laughed out loud. Her nervous giggle echoed through the deserted room. She lived, breathed and adored Beast Wars. Now she was scaring herself with it. Still, the accuracy of the random quote struck her as funny.

“Nice timing, Rattrap. If only you were real…”

If only, indeed. She’d hoped and wished and prayed a million different ways for the Beast Wars to become real. So she had some adventure in her life. So she could meet the wonderful characters from it. So she could enter their world and leave hers behind, if only for a short time, because she had no motivation to do anything here. Yeah, she was supposed to have a job now. Yeah, she was supposed to be learning how to drive. Yeah, she was supposed to be preparing to attend school again in nine months. Yeah, she had pictures to draw and stories to write. But her mind was dull and slow. Bored. She had no motivation to do any of these things. She had nothing to focus on. It was all part of an abstract future, too far away to consider and too daunting to try and comprehend. Surely living in the Beast Wars would give her some motivation, some purpose?

Christine took one glance at the darkened weight room before leaving the lit room she was in. She stopped. Blinked. Had she just seen glowing green lights? No, not lights… optics. Emerald optics that narrowed, mocking her. There was another clank of metal, as if something massive had shifted its weight. Her throat went dry and she tore her eyes away from them. She looked again. They were gone. Pressing her hand to her chest, she willed her heart to slow down. For a moment she thought she saw Rampage. This wasn’t the first time she had scared herself like that; sometimes she saw the pink optics of Megatron in the dark, or felt the red optics of Depth Charge watching her. It was always scary, but somehow comforting, because she had taught herself to trust those two robots. But not Rampage. She found him an interesting character but he couldn’t ever be trustworthy. She imagined her version of Rampage to be an odd goofball; yet, no matter how hard she tried she could never convince herself that he could be tamed. He would her hurt her and enjoy doing so. Maybe it was a good thing the Beast Wars wasn’t real.

Christine left the weight room and went back outside to go to the Library Building. She rushed there in a hurry through the thick fog, not willing to admit to herself that she had scared herself silly. Comfort and familiarity is what she needed now. She went to the computer lab. There it had the Internet, which had all the comfortable places she knew.

Four hours later it was a little past noon. The only reason why Christine realized what time it was was because her stomach told her it was hungry and wanted food NOW. She sighed, logging off the computer and gathered up her winter coat and backpack. She always carried a backpack with her. Luckily she’d remembered to pack a lunch, along with a book, her drawing pad and writing folder just in case she wanted to use any of those things. But she hadn’t. She hadn’t looked into any job opportunities either. Again it was lack of motivation. Her stomach gurgled. She was certainly ready for lunch. She could go job searching later. After throwing on her coat and backpack she headed outside. The fog hadn’t left the campus yet. Dark grey clouds pressed down from the sky, keeping the fog pinned to the ground and blocking any sun from evaporating it. The campus was still eerily quiet. Aside from the three librarians, Christine had only seen a handful of people so far. Was it Friday? The campus always was quieter on Fridays. She counted off the days in her mind. No, it was Thursday. Perhaps there were simply no classes today? There had to be. It was the end of January. The last holiday was on the sixteenth. Weird.

It was a short walk from the Library Building to the College Center, in which the lunchroom and important college service offices lived. Pulling open the door she glanced over her shoulder and froze. Staring back at her through the fog, the large, hulking figure with bright green optics watched her.

No way, no way, no way…

She blinked. The shape vanished in the fog. She gulped, then realized she was gripping the door handle so tightly that her knuckles were white. She let go and shot through the doorway, not bothering to stop running until she was halfway through the lunchroom. Leaning against a soda vending machine, Christine tried to catch her breath. Scaring herself twice in the same day? I’m nuts, she concluded, I’ve finally lost what little sanity I had left, and now I’m seeing things. If that was really him I’ll eat my hat.

A loud squeal made her jump. “CHRISTINE!”

“GAH!” She clung to the vending machine for balance and turned around just in time to see a young woman running toward her. Well, this was unexpected…

“Laurie?”

“Yeeee!” She squeaked, hugging her. “Christine, why didn’t you tell me you were going to be here? How are you?”

“Oh, besides the fact that I keep scaring myself shitless, I’m fine.”

Laurie gave her a look of disapproval. “That’s not good for your health, you know.”

“Well, I try not to do it on purpose…” Christine smiled. “It’s good to see you too.”

“Yeah! Have you eaten lunch yet?” She waved her hands a nearby table with her meal spread out on it. “Would you like to dine with me?”

“Why certainly, it would be an honor, milady.” Christine did a half-bow and nearly fell on her face when her backpack slid down and smacked her on the head.

While listening to Laurie talk about school and life Christine found herself once again grateful that she had met her friend. She knew other people on the campus of course, but she only gave the title “friend” to Laurie. She was a stabilizer to Christine’s life, being both an audience and speaker so she could have some social interaction. Before she knew Laurie she had no one to spend time with and suffered because of it.

“So! Why are you here? You didn’t tell me you were coming back to the school!”

Christine answered after carefully peeling off the sealed metal lid of her microwaveable soup cup and snapping the plastic one over the opening. She took great care in not letting a single drop of clam chowder spill. She adored clam chowder.

“I’m here to use the job resources here. Just for today. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing, so I didn’t get to tell you. Sorry.”

“That’s okay. I’m just glad I caught you. I’ve scheduled myself so many classes I have to squeeze in my lunchtime.”

“Eating on the run, eh?”

“Yeah, sort of. I’ve already had my last class of the day, so I’ll be going home soon, whenever my mom gets here.”

“Oh. Well, we’ll make the most of it then.” Christine smiled at her. At least with her around I’ll have less of a chance freaking myself out… She stood up, carrying her soup cup and a spoon. “Gotta go put this in the microwave, I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” Laurie watched her go before returning to the difficult task of eating chocolate pudding with a fork, since she’d forgotten to bring a spoon again. She sighed and poked at the pudding cup.

Christine timed the microwave for a minute and forty-five seconds. The numbers began their countdown as the microwave lit up on the inside and hummed. Almost giddy with anticipation of the nice hot soup, she skipped into the café area to grab some napkins and two small packets of pepper to stash in her pockets. Behind the counter, in the kitchen, she saw pans of food cooking but didn’t see any of the cooks. Determined not to scare herself again, she decided that the cooks were out of her sight near the refrigerator and dishwasher. Yes, that made perfect sense. Across the café there was another doorway that led into a hallway, and the school store was on the opposite wall. The school store sold beef jerky sticks that Christine had gotten addicted to in the beginning of the last semester. They were only fifty cents apiece. Absentmindedly she touched her back pocket where her wallet sat and felt the outlines of several coins. Sure, what the heck, she had change!

Beep beep beep beep

The microwave went off. Christine spun on her heel. First thing’s first, take care of her beloved clam chowder! Opening the microwave she peeled off the cup’s plastic lid, stirred the soup, and reset it for forty-five more seconds. She stood there for a moment, torn between waiting for her soup to finish warming and going to the school store to buy some beef jerky sticks. Her desire for the beef jerky won out. Slipping her spoon into a napkin in her pocket, Christine bounced to the doorway and into the hallway, looking on either side to make sure she didn’t run into anyone. Besides Laurie she’d seen no one else in the lunchroom, but it was hard to break habits of courtesy. When she glanced to the right her feet froze onto the floor. There he was at the end on the hall. Standing there with no way he could have gotten in. Their gazes locked and held. He smiled a smile that said he’d known she would appear all along.

Rampage.

“L…LAAAAUUURIIIIE!” In a mad dash that nearly sent her stumbling into several cash registers, Christine ran through the café and into the other side of the lunchroom. At their table Laurie was already on her feet with a frightened look on her face.

“What? What’s the matter?” She demanded.

“Rampage!”

“What?”

“I saw Rampage!”

Laurie relaxed a bit. Christine had told her about the Beast Wars and the ‘bots who inhabited that world. Rampage was among the favorite characters she liked to tell stories about. “Yeah? Was he carrying a chicken again? Or did he say “boo” and scare you?”

“No, I mean, I saw him!” Grabbing her friend’s hand, she pulled her through the café and into the hallway. She kept Laurie behind her as if to protect her. They both looked to the right.

At an empty hallway.

Christine let go of Laurie’s hand and leaned against the wall, stunned. He had been RIGHT THERE! She hid her face in a hand and tried not to listen to her pounding heart. Laurie scanned both ends of the hallway and gave her a doubtful look. Christine attempted to defend herself.

“I know you think I’m crazy, and I am, but this time I’m not. He was standing right there! He looked at me!”

“And then said ‘boo’?”

“No, he didn’t say anything at all. He was there, I tell you!”

“Imaginary there or real there?”

“He was REAL!”

Laurie eyed her, then gently took her hand and patted it. “You should come sit down. I thought you looked tired today. Come on.”

“But…but…” Christine protested, allowing herself to be guided back to the lunch table anyway. Laurie made sure she sat down before asking, “What time did you go to bed?”

“Uh… at 2, I think.”

“And what time did you get up?”

“At 6.” Christine paused, realizing what her friend was getting at. “N-no! It’s not cuz I’m tired! I can’t help it; I’m a night person. I always stay up late. It’s not cuz I’m tired…” she repeated, then blinked sleepy eyes. She was tired. “I think…”

Laurie nodded sagely, as if that explained everything. “Your imagination is getting the better of you. Your scream was certainly real enough, though. Is your soup done?”

Soup? Oh, yes, the glorious clam chowder. Christine had forgotten all about it. She started to get up. “Yeah.”

“Stay sitting. I’ll get it for you.” Laurie said in a ‘I know what’s best’ tone, then left to get the soup.

“Okay.” She sat back down, leaning back so she could fish her spoon, napkins and pepper packets out of her pocket. Afterwards she sat forward and rested her head in her arms, gazing around the empty lunchroom. Not very many people must have used the room today. Most of the chairs are still hanging on the tables by their arms, she observed. Her attention wandered to the drapes framing the windows that gave a view to the hallway on the other side of the wall. She frowned. She always thought the red-and-orange drapes were ugly things. She let her eyes fall closed before prying them open again. Movement near one of the windows caught her eyes. She stiffened. Rampage’s emerald optics narrowed at her. He sneered. His voice entered her mind.

“Is that fear you are feeling, Maximal?”

She jerked upright. “Oh-my-GOD!”

Rubbing at her eyes, she looked again. He was gone, replaced by the pale-colored wall of the hallway. She ran her fingers through her hair, shaking her head. What a time to remember THAT quote! There were quick footsteps behind her, and Christine turned, fully expecting to see Rampage. Laurie held the soup-cup in both hands, setting it to the table.

“Are you okay? I heard you yell.” She said with concern, then added jokingly, “I was only gone for thirty seconds.”

“I… Yeah… I’m fine. Thank you.” Christine peeled off the cup’s lid and poured in the pepper, stirring it into the creamy white clam chowder. “I… I just thought I saw him again.”

“Oh.” Laurie sat down and poked at her pudding cup with the fork. She shook it at her friend. “Go to bed early tonight.”

“I plan on it.”

“And you shouldn’t watch Beast Wars so late at night, either.”

“Yeah, I know…” She grinned sheepishly. “Why worry about giving myself nightmares? I’m giving myself day-mares! Horray!”

While Laurie laughed Christine attacked the soup. It was so darn good! She made short work of the clam chowder as she had some cheese-flavored goldfish crackers and an apple too. She saved her chocolate-chip granola bar for last. Chocolate was always a good way to end a meal. Laurie agreed wholeheartedly, licking off her fingers because she’d given up on trying to eat chocolate pudding with a fork. Christine offered her some napkins and sat back in her chair, content. She felt better now that food was in her belly. Yeah, she must have been tired. She was just imagining Rampage; he wasn’t real…

He chose that moment to walk through the doorway at the end of the lunchroom.

Looking over Laurie’s shoulder she watched him. He moved with purpose, staring her down with a predator’s gaze.

“Let it grow. Consume you.”

Her breath caught in her throat. She exhaled with a whoosh, and her breathing sped up. One of the claws on Rampage’s back struck the side of a chair hanging from a table. It crashed to the floor.

“Feel it… Feel the FEAR!”

Laurie jumped at the sudden sound and arose halfway to her feet. “What was—WHOA!” Christine snatched their coats off their chairs before grabbing Laurie’s hand and racing to a door to the outside. “Christine!”

“He’s HERE!” She kicked the door open, crossed the patio and led Laurie down a flight of stairs.

“What?”

“I don’t know how or why, but Rampage is here!” She nearly screamed, pointing at the windows of the lunchroom. The side facing outdoors had no walls but large paned windows instead, so the room could get plenty of sunlight. Both young women turned to them. Besides the tables and chairs the room was empty. Frustrated, Christine stomped her foot.

“What the hell? He was RIGHT THERE! He made the chair fall! Damn you Rampage!”

The morning’s fog hadn’t burned off yet. Laurie shivered, putting on her winter coat. Her gaze went from the empty lunchroom to her friend, who was starting to shake with anger. She took the coat from her hands and threw it over Christine’s shoulders.

“Christine... Take three deep breaths.”

The reply was almost hysterical: “How can you expect me to breathe when he was right THERE! You can’t miss him! He’s like ten friggin’ feet tall! I bet he’s messing with my head, dammit! It doesn’t need any help being messed with—”

“Christine. You’re not breathing.”

“I don’t really WANT to breathe right now—”

Laurie stood in front of her to block her view of the lunchroom windows. “Breathe. One, two, three, breathe….”

With her source of vexation cut off from sight, Christine had to do so. She took several deep breaths, closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down. After a long moment of silence she opened her eyes. Laurie smiled at her.

“There. Do you feel better?”

“…Yeah.”

A loud ringtone from Laurie’s pocket made them both jump. Embarrassed, she stepped away and answered her cellphone.

“Hello? …Hi Mom. Okay… I’ll see you in a little while….Bye.” She stowed the cellphone in her coat pocket, turning to Christine. “Mom will be here to get me in about ten minutes.”

“Do you think she’d be willing to take me home?” She couldn’t help sounding hopefully pathetic.

“Not this time, no. We have to go to a church meeting.”

“…Slag.”

“C’mon, it’s cold out here. I have to get my stuff.”

Christine’s eyes shot up. “Go back in there?” She backed away. “Uh uh. No way.”

“Don’t be silly.” Laurie took her hand and pulled her to the lunchroom entrance. “You’re imagining things. Just tell yourself it’s your imagination.”

“But…” She was a little grateful for the warmth of the lunchroom, but wouldn’t admit it. While Laurie packed up her belongings, Christine cautiously approached the chair that had gotten knocked from hanging on the table. It was lying on its side. One of the legs was broken. On the seat’s back, a large piece of wood had been gauged out. The wooden shard was underneath the table. She retrieved it and called to Laurie.

“Come look at this!”

After shouldering her backpack she went to her. Christine waved the shard under her nose. “See? This is where he hit it! With one of his claws! It dug out a piece of wood!”

“Or that piece popped out when the chair hit the ground.”

Christine huffed. “Oh, sure, if you want to make sense!”

Laurie stared at her.

“It’s true! He’s so darn big he could hardly walk between the tables and chairs, so he knocked one down! I watched him do it!”

Laurie reached up and felt her friend’s forehead. “Hmm… you don’t feel warm, so you can’t be sick…”

Christine dropped the shard onto the table. “Can I just hide in the trunk of your van and have you take me to your house? I won’t mind!”

“Unfortunately I think my mom would notice if you did that.”

“Slag. Now I’m starting to think I’m crazy. Sheesh.” Picking up the chair, she set it on top of the table. She searched for the broken leg while Laurie checked her watch.

“Mom will be here any minute. I should go.”

Christine found the chair leg and stooped to pick it up. Then froze. It was smashed flat, like someone had stepped on it. She bobbed up like a water-dipping bird.

“Laurie…” She pointed down, but her friend was moving in to give a hug.

“I’ll talk to you later, okay? It was great to see you. You be sure to get some sleep, you hear me?” She let go, looking at Christine expectantly.

“But…”

“No buts! Sleep is good for you!”

She finally managed to say, “Okay. Can I wait outside with you at least?” The last part was a squeak.

Luckily Laurie agreed. They left the lunchroom together, traveling up the stairs to the second floor of the college center where they exited through doors that led them to the parking lot. Christine mentioned that the school seemed awfully empty, but Laurie said everyone had been in her classes. Maybe Christine was just missing the crowds. Yeah, but everywhere? She thought, deciding to keep that comment to herself. Through the thick white fog a dark purple van appeared and slid next to the curb. It was Laurie’s mother, so the friends hugged again and Christine watched the van drive away, swallowed up by the fog. Before going back inside she made use of a pay phone next to the entrance. She called her father to ask when he thought he could come get her. The sooner the better, she mentally grumbled, then was told he thought he’d be done with work after five o’clock, so it would be at least five-thirty when he could get to the school. They disconnected and she sighed. Alone again.

It was a little past one o’clock now, so Christine kept herself occupied by searching for jobs in the folders provided by the counseling center. The search quickly became old.

She refused to work at any kind of restaurant. There were a lot of jobs needing drivers, but she couldn’t drive yet. She had no skills or work experience in the fields of carpentry, dentistry, or toxic waste management. She was sure that last one had to be a spoof. “Tired of working at that desk job? Like fresh air and working with the earth? Not frightened by animals glowing in the dark? Then this job’s for you!” Riiiiight. Looking for a job was harder than she thought it would be. She’d settle for a secretary position or daycare assistant but there were no openings like that in the massive three-ring binders. She closed the last one and walked over to the shelf to stash it away.

Yawning, Christine wandered out of the Counseling Center area to where several dozen couches and chairs were spread out around a couple black tables. She went to the ledge that allowed her to look down to the lunchroom below. Leaning on the white brick, she stared down at the table that had the broken chair lying on it. She had seen Rampage. He knocked it over. Then disappeared without a slagging trace. There was no way he could have been able to do that. His giant size prevented him from being able to just run and hide. He wouldn’t anyway. He wasn’t like that.

…Or, there was the more rational explanation. The chair had fallen down by itself. She pushed the image of the smashed chair leg out of her mind. Maybe Laurie’s right, I’m just too tired. I’m seeing things. Grudgingly she went back to the table where her coat and backpack sat. She dragged them to one of the small blue squishy chairs, then pulled another chair until it was about six inches apart from the first. After taking off her boots she plopped down and set her feet on one chair, snuggling in her winter coat. This arrangement was much more comfortable than trying to rest on the couches. Soon enough Christine fell asleep.

“Come out, come out, it’s time to play!”

She jerked out of sleep with a start. She stretched, growling. Again with the random quotes! This was getting ridiculous. Christine cautiously opened one eye to check her surroundings. The room was quiet and there were no murderous crab-bots standing over her. Good. She checked her watch. Three twenty three.

“I might as well get up now, dammit…” She scooted upright and stretched again. Fumbling for her boots, she started lacing them up. Somehow she pinched her finger in one of the metal hooks where the boot strings went.

“Ow!”

“Your pain is lovely… but where is your terror?”

“Oh fer bootin’ up cold, would you SHUT UP, Rampage?” Christine snapped aloud, more to herself than anything else. She remembered random quotes often enough, but she was really getting sick of her wayward mind. “Enough with your quotes already! The least you could do is say something original!”

“I thought you’d never ask.”