Post by The Pilot on Sept 14, 2007 12:31:14 GMT -5
he day was wearing on as their little lunchtime break wasn’t as short as either of them had anticipated. And Lauren was finding her partner’s response to interacting with giant robots to be nothing short of amusing. But she had to give him props; he was doing pretty well so far. He hadn’t run and scream in terror, or pissed his pants, or fainted, or been overly suspicious, but had taken pretty well to their presence over-all. His voice was a bit shaky when he first started talking, and it took him a while before he could get over how intricate their anatomies were and stop staring (something Lauren had to work on). Had it been almost any other situation, he might’ve wanted to study their mechanics a bit more.
Right now, however, Lauren had to try and ignore the rumbling of their footsteps behind them as she and Narthas led the company back out of the forest, searching for some Middle-earth-friendly things they could transform into. Narthas had suggested turning the remaining two into eagles, since giant birds, though extremely rare and usually a sign of aid from one of the Valar, were not an unheard of thing in Arda. Hound declined the invitation, saying his forte was not flying, but Airlock gladly accepted.
“Can you turn into a flying thing of sorts?” Lauren asked the slightly smaller bot. The Autobots remained in the cover of the trees when the two fleshlings walked out into the open of the plains.
“I can,” he said. “Are you sure it’s safe for us to be seen like this?”
“I don’t think anyone’s around for you to be seen by.”
After a great deal of hesitation and looking around, the three giant robots came out of hiding and stood out like sore thumbs against the flat land of the Mark. “It would make things so much easier if you could just transform into people,” Narthas said, sizing them up again now that the light was on them. Hound held out his right arm and the appendage there rearranged itself, folding out other pieces and putting away others, until a weapon of sorts appeared. It was a gigantic arm-cannon that glowed a yellowy orange, and it looked very deadly. The bot aimed at various things, before folding it away and replacing it with a hand once again.
“That gets too complicated,” said Hound. “It gets pretty hard once you want to fold yourself up into something that’s a fifth your size!” He held his hand parallel with the ground at Lauren’s height for emphasis. She came up just past his knee joint.
“He’s right,” Gasket said. “We’ll find a bird for Airlock here, and I donno… what would you suggest for Hound?”
Lauren smiled. “I think a wolf is appropriate,” she grinned.
“A giant dog?” Narthas interjected. “Are you kidding? He’d turn into a canine the size of a Clydesdale!”
“We’ll we’ve already got a bear the size of a minivan, and we’re gonna have an eagle the size Gwaihir, so what’s a big dog?”
“I don’t know about this plan. I think people are going to flee from you no matter what forms you take… you’re just too big for Middle-earth.”
“I’m sorry, but do we really have a choice?” said Gasket. “I mean, this is war we’re talking about. You need our help, whether you like it or not. And if it comes to it, the three of us have been ordered to call for support too.”
The elf was silent for a moment, and then sighed to himself. “I guess a few oversized forest critters is better than giant robots running amok.” He paused, turning to Lauren. “What do you think the good professor would say about this whole thing?”
“Do whatever we need to do to help keep the peace and preserve this Middle-earth for the generations to come.”
The five of them fell silent, but Lauren knew there was a meaning behind it. She knew they were all agreeing.
“Alright,” said the elf. “Let’s find this guy a bird.”
“There’s one.” Lauren shielded her eyes from the sun and pointed to a speck in the sky, circling high above them.
“That’s too far away to scan,” Airlock sighed. Or, the closest thing a robot could come to sighing.
A light went off in Lauren’s head. “Is your vehicle form something that flies?”
“Sure is.”
“Kay. Turn into your plane thing, fly up to the bird and scan it up there.”
“Not a bad idea…” Airlock stroked his chin and looked at the bird again. “But are you sure that I won’t be seen?”
“I don’t think so… we’re miles from the closest village.”
Airlock nodded. “Here goes,” he said, and took a mighty leap into the air. In the span of about two seconds, a million little things happened to his body that Lauren didn’t even have the brain power to comprehend. All she knew was that he went from being a four-limbed robotic organism to a thing that kind of resembled a space ship from that online MMO, Eve (or an x-wing from Star Wars) in a timeframe shorter than that would allow her to say “holy fucking shit”. The remaining four on the ground watched as Airlock flew upward with an ear-slaughtering whoosh, much like a jet, and aimed for the bird. Naturally, however, the creature saw this incoming thing and promptly began to flee in complete terror. Airlock was too fast for the bird though and caught up with it in a few moments, flying around it in an acute arc, and with a flash of light, he came back down, landing on two mechanical feet once again.
Lauren blinked at him, each eye independently. Her ears rung and a small muscle somewhere in her upper arm started to spasm. “Yeah kay see?” She turned to Narthas. “THAT was freakin’ cool.” She looked back up at Airlock and nodded at him. “Alright, let’s see how you pass as an organic.”
The bot remained standing as he changed. First things first. His chest split down the middle, and in went his arms. A second pair of legs, shorter this time, assembled in front of his humanoid pair, and then those folded back behind him, where other parts shifted here and there. A moment later and the body reshaped itself, his head sunk into the torso, and a new head was built on top of it. After that, a basic wing structure shot out from his backside, and the finishing mechanical touches were put into place.
“You’re not done yet, buddy!” Hound chuckled, watching his friend with amusement.
Not more than a few seconds passed before thousands of pale-blond filaments started to appear all over Airlock’s metallic body out of what Lauren assumed might have been microscopic pores of sorts. The filaments grew and filled in, becoming feathers, and soon the bot was complete in his transformation.
“How did I turn out?” The slightly mechanized voice didn’t come from the “bird’s” mouth, but instead from inside of its chest. Airlock flapped his new wings experimentally.
Lauren drew her sword and approached the Autobot, and hit him on the side of his chest with the blade. Sure enough, her ears didn’t meet with a soft thud, but rather a muted clang of metal.
“I think so long as no one gets too good a look at you, you’ll be alright.”
“Well, I’m glad that’s done with.” With that, he changed back. It took a bit longer to transform from his new body to his robot one than it did to go from robot to plane. Lauren supposed it would take some getting used to. Airlock’s robotic form was different than it was before. Now parts of him were covered in a light golden plumage and pieces of the bird could be still be seen, like the claws from his talons, peeking out from behind his ‘calves’.
“That was the easy part,” Gasket said. “Finding a suitable form for Hound here might not be as quick.”
Narthas nodded. “I highly doubt that a wolf would allow himself to get near enough to any of us long enough to be scanned.”
“Hmm…” Lauren scrunched up her face in thought. “Aha! I’ve got a plan. Narthas. Do you still have your jerky?”
“No… It’s probably lying on the ground near where Gasket found us.”
“Gasket, do you know where that is exactly?”
“I’ve got the coordinates right here.” He tapped the side of his head with an index finger.
“You gotta take us back.”
“Well… all right then.”
Hound looked around. “The two of you change, and I’ll follow with the fleshlings.” A few moments later, Narthas and Lauren were bracing themselves on Hound’s shoulders, and were following close behind Gasket. They reached the clearing where the two of them had stopped for lunch, and before long, Lauren had located the pouch of jerky Narthas had dropped.
“Now what?” the elf asked.
“Dig a tiger pit. There.” She pointed to a clear area in the trees. The bots changed back and proceeded to dig.
Narthas tapped her on the shoulder. “I’m going to go get our horses back. I can’t stand sitting on those guys anymore.”
She laughed. “Alright. Yeah, it would be nice to have our supplies too. We’ll be right here.”
He nodded and started to jog in the direction of the plains, whistling and calling out as he went: “Fearin! Miril!”
“Go go go!” she cheered, turning back to the team of Autbots. “Try to make it no bigger than like, 6 or 7 feet?”
“We’ll try,” said Hound. “Our hands aren’t quite as small as yours!” He was rather correct, actually. The span of their articulating, opposably-thumbed hands were about two feet across. But it seemed like in no time at all they dug a decently deep pit (deep enough so that SHE wouldn’t be able to get out without some trouble), which was just perfect.
“Good job guys. Kay, next we gotta find thin twigs to cover most of it with.” The four split up and by the time Lauren had gathered an armful, the other three got handfuls bigger than her bunch. They arranged the flimsiest branches across the pit, proceeded to cover that with a good layer of leaves, and then covered that with a sprinkle of dirt, then more dead leaves. Lauren stood back from their trap. “Not bad. If I didn’t know it was there, I’d probably fall right in.”
“And you’re going to use the meat as bait, right?” asked Gasket.
“Bingo.” She looked around for a good stick to skewer the meat on. She picked one up from the ground and began to stick as much meat as she could on it until there was a fairly large wad on one end. “Perfect… alright. Could one of you hold me over the pit so I can stick this on there?”
A small yelp escaped her when a pair of gigantic, cold mechanical hands gently grabbed her, lifted her up, and held her over the trap. Taking painstaking care not to make the whole thing collapse, she eased the stick into the false ground so that it stuck straight up, covered in meat. To the carnivores of the forest, it screamed “COME AND EAT ME.”
“Alright guys. Now we wait.”
They ended up leaving the cover of the forest again and loitering out in the open. After a while Narthas came back with both horses, and it took some convincing to get them to even come near the Autobots.
“So, tell us about this planet while we’re waiting,” Hound said. “We asked Gasket here if he knew, but he said he wasn’t into Lord of the Rings or anything, whatever that means.”
The girl and elf laughed. “Well, after reading 9 of Tolkien’s published works, I’ve come to the conclusion that either he intended that Arda remain in a state of technological ignorance, or that’s just how this world was meant to be and Tolkien wrote it how it was. I mean, if you look at the histories, not much has changed since the First Age, and Narthas here can attest to that. That’s really the only challenge to being here, or so I was told. We had to completely abandon anything that might clue the natives into thinking that we’re from somewhere far away, or we’re just crazy. For you guys, it sounds easier. Your fans don’t have to hide anything. I mean, you could waltz into the Star Wars universe and you’d fit right in! We, on the other hand, we have to take false names, false identities, and live out this completely different life. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because god knows I want to be here, but it’s a challenge. The only help we get is from a pamphlet.” She laughed.
“Well that doesn’t sound fair at all,” Hound said. “You know… what if we could keep trade open when all of this is done and behind us?”
“How would we do that?”
“Maybe a secret, but benign, mining operation. “
“Well, you’d have too look at the economics of it, first of all. Mithril is worth way more than just about any other resource found on this planet.”
“Hmm… well, think about it. We should see how this whole situation’s gonna turn out before we do anything, that’s for sure.”
And so the five of them talked for a good hour or two out on the plains before Lauren announced that she was going back to check on the trap. She crept along through the trees and brush slowly, trying not to grab the attention of any animals in the vicinity. To her great surprise, she looked upon a hole once more rather than a false ground. She bounded up to the edge and looked down into the pit to see not one, but two animals, and neither of them were wolves. “Well, damn,” she sighed to herself, resting her hands on her hips. Inside the pit and struggling furiously to get out was a wolverine, and a young cougar.
“Hound!” the girl yelled at the top of her lungs. “The trap sprung!” Soon enough, she felt the soft rumble of his feet as he got closer.
“Well, bless my circuit boards,” the bot said. “It really worked! What’s in there?” He stood over the pit and peered down inside. “So no wolf, huh?”
“Guess not.”
“Trapping a wolf is tough,” Narthas broke in. “They’re pretty wary about being too near to the edge of the forest, and they usually go in packs to. I’m really surprised you caught a cougar, though! Oh, well that’s why. He’s a young one.”
“You mind being a mountain lion?” Gasket asked Hound.
“Well, if I got a look like that pesky Ravage to get this job done, then I gotta do it.” He crouched down low over the pit, and the animals inside shrunk back in complete terror. A faint flash of light came from his blue optics as he analyzed the anatomy and DNA sequences of the creature. Not a second later he was done, and reached down to gently release the big cat. It fought him and bit him, but his metallic hand didn’t even flinch when he placed the cat back on the ground. The poor thing darted off faster than a lizard on hot sand. Hound reached in again and this time produced the wolverine, which was far more violent than the cougar. In a moment he was free to run for his life as well.
Narthas at this time looked up at the sky, and saw that the sun was in the western half of the heavens. “Alrighty guys. You’ve got your forms, now what do we do? Lauren and I have to get to Gondor ASAP.”
“We need to come with you,” Gasket said.
Narthas cocked an eyebrow at the robots towering over him. He gestured at all of them with a pointed finger before inhaling sharply and speaking. “You are not getting anywhere near the city. It’s just not going to happen.”
“We need to meet with this Alt Fen,” Airlock broke in.
Gasket sighed. “He’s right. We need to talk to him about mobilizing forces on his turf. We need to find out what he’s discovered about the Mithril, and the kind of armies these new bad guys plan on manufacturing. And keep in mind that these aren’t just droids they’re making. These machines are crude forms of life, with their own Sparks.”
“What… what are sparks.” The elf crossed his arms over his chest.
“They’re like souls,” Lauren said.
“Yes, that makes sense I suppose.” He paused to think for a moment. “Well, regardless. If you’re coming, we’re leaving.” The elf turned from them to go retrieve the horses, and Lauren nodded at the robots.
“Autbots,” Hound said. “Transform.”
In a flurry of movement, Lauren was no longer surrounded by giant machines, but giant animals. She darted out of the forest and onto the plains again, joining her companion and the two horses. “How long will it take us to get to Gondor from here?”
He was stroking Fearin’s nose. “I’d say about three days riding at a good gallop, if we don’t run into any more interruptions.”
Lauren nodded and glanced over her shoulder. The transformers were out of earshot still (or at least out of human earshot).
“You don’t really like them, do you?”
“If you lived here your entire life, for thousands of years, and suddenly all of this was happening, wouldn’t you be a little surprised, too?”
“Well, yeah…”
“We don’t have movies here, or cartoons, or fantasy and sci-fi books or internet here. “ He rubbed his eyes. “Besides, they remind me a little bit of The Fall.”
Lauren thought for a moment at what he was referring to, then it hit her. “Oh man, I’m sorry. They’re not bad guys, and you know that. They’re here to help us fight the guys that will do what Morgoth’s armies did back there in Gondolin.” Yes, Narthas was referring to the Dark Lord’s fiery machines of war that he unleashed upon the unsuspecting city way back in the First Age. She suspected that technology in and of itself didn’t bother him much, but the idea of sentient robots unnerved him. Especially evil ones.
“Yeah, I know. If this is what’s really going on, though, we need allies bad. Swords and arrows won’t do a damn thing against these machines and mind-reading disciples of hate and chaos. We need what they have.” He looked at Lauren but pointed at where the Autobots stood. “And they have knowledge that we don’t. They have numbers. They have secrecy—“
Lauren filled in the last one for him. “They have guns.”
Right now, however, Lauren had to try and ignore the rumbling of their footsteps behind them as she and Narthas led the company back out of the forest, searching for some Middle-earth-friendly things they could transform into. Narthas had suggested turning the remaining two into eagles, since giant birds, though extremely rare and usually a sign of aid from one of the Valar, were not an unheard of thing in Arda. Hound declined the invitation, saying his forte was not flying, but Airlock gladly accepted.
“Can you turn into a flying thing of sorts?” Lauren asked the slightly smaller bot. The Autobots remained in the cover of the trees when the two fleshlings walked out into the open of the plains.
“I can,” he said. “Are you sure it’s safe for us to be seen like this?”
“I don’t think anyone’s around for you to be seen by.”
After a great deal of hesitation and looking around, the three giant robots came out of hiding and stood out like sore thumbs against the flat land of the Mark. “It would make things so much easier if you could just transform into people,” Narthas said, sizing them up again now that the light was on them. Hound held out his right arm and the appendage there rearranged itself, folding out other pieces and putting away others, until a weapon of sorts appeared. It was a gigantic arm-cannon that glowed a yellowy orange, and it looked very deadly. The bot aimed at various things, before folding it away and replacing it with a hand once again.
“That gets too complicated,” said Hound. “It gets pretty hard once you want to fold yourself up into something that’s a fifth your size!” He held his hand parallel with the ground at Lauren’s height for emphasis. She came up just past his knee joint.
“He’s right,” Gasket said. “We’ll find a bird for Airlock here, and I donno… what would you suggest for Hound?”
Lauren smiled. “I think a wolf is appropriate,” she grinned.
“A giant dog?” Narthas interjected. “Are you kidding? He’d turn into a canine the size of a Clydesdale!”
“We’ll we’ve already got a bear the size of a minivan, and we’re gonna have an eagle the size Gwaihir, so what’s a big dog?”
“I don’t know about this plan. I think people are going to flee from you no matter what forms you take… you’re just too big for Middle-earth.”
“I’m sorry, but do we really have a choice?” said Gasket. “I mean, this is war we’re talking about. You need our help, whether you like it or not. And if it comes to it, the three of us have been ordered to call for support too.”
The elf was silent for a moment, and then sighed to himself. “I guess a few oversized forest critters is better than giant robots running amok.” He paused, turning to Lauren. “What do you think the good professor would say about this whole thing?”
“Do whatever we need to do to help keep the peace and preserve this Middle-earth for the generations to come.”
The five of them fell silent, but Lauren knew there was a meaning behind it. She knew they were all agreeing.
“Alright,” said the elf. “Let’s find this guy a bird.”
“There’s one.” Lauren shielded her eyes from the sun and pointed to a speck in the sky, circling high above them.
“That’s too far away to scan,” Airlock sighed. Or, the closest thing a robot could come to sighing.
A light went off in Lauren’s head. “Is your vehicle form something that flies?”
“Sure is.”
“Kay. Turn into your plane thing, fly up to the bird and scan it up there.”
“Not a bad idea…” Airlock stroked his chin and looked at the bird again. “But are you sure that I won’t be seen?”
“I don’t think so… we’re miles from the closest village.”
Airlock nodded. “Here goes,” he said, and took a mighty leap into the air. In the span of about two seconds, a million little things happened to his body that Lauren didn’t even have the brain power to comprehend. All she knew was that he went from being a four-limbed robotic organism to a thing that kind of resembled a space ship from that online MMO, Eve (or an x-wing from Star Wars) in a timeframe shorter than that would allow her to say “holy fucking shit”. The remaining four on the ground watched as Airlock flew upward with an ear-slaughtering whoosh, much like a jet, and aimed for the bird. Naturally, however, the creature saw this incoming thing and promptly began to flee in complete terror. Airlock was too fast for the bird though and caught up with it in a few moments, flying around it in an acute arc, and with a flash of light, he came back down, landing on two mechanical feet once again.
Lauren blinked at him, each eye independently. Her ears rung and a small muscle somewhere in her upper arm started to spasm. “Yeah kay see?” She turned to Narthas. “THAT was freakin’ cool.” She looked back up at Airlock and nodded at him. “Alright, let’s see how you pass as an organic.”
The bot remained standing as he changed. First things first. His chest split down the middle, and in went his arms. A second pair of legs, shorter this time, assembled in front of his humanoid pair, and then those folded back behind him, where other parts shifted here and there. A moment later and the body reshaped itself, his head sunk into the torso, and a new head was built on top of it. After that, a basic wing structure shot out from his backside, and the finishing mechanical touches were put into place.
“You’re not done yet, buddy!” Hound chuckled, watching his friend with amusement.
Not more than a few seconds passed before thousands of pale-blond filaments started to appear all over Airlock’s metallic body out of what Lauren assumed might have been microscopic pores of sorts. The filaments grew and filled in, becoming feathers, and soon the bot was complete in his transformation.
“How did I turn out?” The slightly mechanized voice didn’t come from the “bird’s” mouth, but instead from inside of its chest. Airlock flapped his new wings experimentally.
Lauren drew her sword and approached the Autobot, and hit him on the side of his chest with the blade. Sure enough, her ears didn’t meet with a soft thud, but rather a muted clang of metal.
“I think so long as no one gets too good a look at you, you’ll be alright.”
“Well, I’m glad that’s done with.” With that, he changed back. It took a bit longer to transform from his new body to his robot one than it did to go from robot to plane. Lauren supposed it would take some getting used to. Airlock’s robotic form was different than it was before. Now parts of him were covered in a light golden plumage and pieces of the bird could be still be seen, like the claws from his talons, peeking out from behind his ‘calves’.
“That was the easy part,” Gasket said. “Finding a suitable form for Hound here might not be as quick.”
Narthas nodded. “I highly doubt that a wolf would allow himself to get near enough to any of us long enough to be scanned.”
“Hmm…” Lauren scrunched up her face in thought. “Aha! I’ve got a plan. Narthas. Do you still have your jerky?”
“No… It’s probably lying on the ground near where Gasket found us.”
“Gasket, do you know where that is exactly?”
“I’ve got the coordinates right here.” He tapped the side of his head with an index finger.
“You gotta take us back.”
“Well… all right then.”
Hound looked around. “The two of you change, and I’ll follow with the fleshlings.” A few moments later, Narthas and Lauren were bracing themselves on Hound’s shoulders, and were following close behind Gasket. They reached the clearing where the two of them had stopped for lunch, and before long, Lauren had located the pouch of jerky Narthas had dropped.
“Now what?” the elf asked.
“Dig a tiger pit. There.” She pointed to a clear area in the trees. The bots changed back and proceeded to dig.
Narthas tapped her on the shoulder. “I’m going to go get our horses back. I can’t stand sitting on those guys anymore.”
She laughed. “Alright. Yeah, it would be nice to have our supplies too. We’ll be right here.”
He nodded and started to jog in the direction of the plains, whistling and calling out as he went: “Fearin! Miril!”
“Go go go!” she cheered, turning back to the team of Autbots. “Try to make it no bigger than like, 6 or 7 feet?”
“We’ll try,” said Hound. “Our hands aren’t quite as small as yours!” He was rather correct, actually. The span of their articulating, opposably-thumbed hands were about two feet across. But it seemed like in no time at all they dug a decently deep pit (deep enough so that SHE wouldn’t be able to get out without some trouble), which was just perfect.
“Good job guys. Kay, next we gotta find thin twigs to cover most of it with.” The four split up and by the time Lauren had gathered an armful, the other three got handfuls bigger than her bunch. They arranged the flimsiest branches across the pit, proceeded to cover that with a good layer of leaves, and then covered that with a sprinkle of dirt, then more dead leaves. Lauren stood back from their trap. “Not bad. If I didn’t know it was there, I’d probably fall right in.”
“And you’re going to use the meat as bait, right?” asked Gasket.
“Bingo.” She looked around for a good stick to skewer the meat on. She picked one up from the ground and began to stick as much meat as she could on it until there was a fairly large wad on one end. “Perfect… alright. Could one of you hold me over the pit so I can stick this on there?”
A small yelp escaped her when a pair of gigantic, cold mechanical hands gently grabbed her, lifted her up, and held her over the trap. Taking painstaking care not to make the whole thing collapse, she eased the stick into the false ground so that it stuck straight up, covered in meat. To the carnivores of the forest, it screamed “COME AND EAT ME.”
“Alright guys. Now we wait.”
They ended up leaving the cover of the forest again and loitering out in the open. After a while Narthas came back with both horses, and it took some convincing to get them to even come near the Autobots.
“So, tell us about this planet while we’re waiting,” Hound said. “We asked Gasket here if he knew, but he said he wasn’t into Lord of the Rings or anything, whatever that means.”
The girl and elf laughed. “Well, after reading 9 of Tolkien’s published works, I’ve come to the conclusion that either he intended that Arda remain in a state of technological ignorance, or that’s just how this world was meant to be and Tolkien wrote it how it was. I mean, if you look at the histories, not much has changed since the First Age, and Narthas here can attest to that. That’s really the only challenge to being here, or so I was told. We had to completely abandon anything that might clue the natives into thinking that we’re from somewhere far away, or we’re just crazy. For you guys, it sounds easier. Your fans don’t have to hide anything. I mean, you could waltz into the Star Wars universe and you’d fit right in! We, on the other hand, we have to take false names, false identities, and live out this completely different life. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, because god knows I want to be here, but it’s a challenge. The only help we get is from a pamphlet.” She laughed.
“Well that doesn’t sound fair at all,” Hound said. “You know… what if we could keep trade open when all of this is done and behind us?”
“How would we do that?”
“Maybe a secret, but benign, mining operation. “
“Well, you’d have too look at the economics of it, first of all. Mithril is worth way more than just about any other resource found on this planet.”
“Hmm… well, think about it. We should see how this whole situation’s gonna turn out before we do anything, that’s for sure.”
And so the five of them talked for a good hour or two out on the plains before Lauren announced that she was going back to check on the trap. She crept along through the trees and brush slowly, trying not to grab the attention of any animals in the vicinity. To her great surprise, she looked upon a hole once more rather than a false ground. She bounded up to the edge and looked down into the pit to see not one, but two animals, and neither of them were wolves. “Well, damn,” she sighed to herself, resting her hands on her hips. Inside the pit and struggling furiously to get out was a wolverine, and a young cougar.
“Hound!” the girl yelled at the top of her lungs. “The trap sprung!” Soon enough, she felt the soft rumble of his feet as he got closer.
“Well, bless my circuit boards,” the bot said. “It really worked! What’s in there?” He stood over the pit and peered down inside. “So no wolf, huh?”
“Guess not.”
“Trapping a wolf is tough,” Narthas broke in. “They’re pretty wary about being too near to the edge of the forest, and they usually go in packs to. I’m really surprised you caught a cougar, though! Oh, well that’s why. He’s a young one.”
“You mind being a mountain lion?” Gasket asked Hound.
“Well, if I got a look like that pesky Ravage to get this job done, then I gotta do it.” He crouched down low over the pit, and the animals inside shrunk back in complete terror. A faint flash of light came from his blue optics as he analyzed the anatomy and DNA sequences of the creature. Not a second later he was done, and reached down to gently release the big cat. It fought him and bit him, but his metallic hand didn’t even flinch when he placed the cat back on the ground. The poor thing darted off faster than a lizard on hot sand. Hound reached in again and this time produced the wolverine, which was far more violent than the cougar. In a moment he was free to run for his life as well.
Narthas at this time looked up at the sky, and saw that the sun was in the western half of the heavens. “Alrighty guys. You’ve got your forms, now what do we do? Lauren and I have to get to Gondor ASAP.”
“We need to come with you,” Gasket said.
Narthas cocked an eyebrow at the robots towering over him. He gestured at all of them with a pointed finger before inhaling sharply and speaking. “You are not getting anywhere near the city. It’s just not going to happen.”
“We need to meet with this Alt Fen,” Airlock broke in.
Gasket sighed. “He’s right. We need to talk to him about mobilizing forces on his turf. We need to find out what he’s discovered about the Mithril, and the kind of armies these new bad guys plan on manufacturing. And keep in mind that these aren’t just droids they’re making. These machines are crude forms of life, with their own Sparks.”
“What… what are sparks.” The elf crossed his arms over his chest.
“They’re like souls,” Lauren said.
“Yes, that makes sense I suppose.” He paused to think for a moment. “Well, regardless. If you’re coming, we’re leaving.” The elf turned from them to go retrieve the horses, and Lauren nodded at the robots.
“Autbots,” Hound said. “Transform.”
In a flurry of movement, Lauren was no longer surrounded by giant machines, but giant animals. She darted out of the forest and onto the plains again, joining her companion and the two horses. “How long will it take us to get to Gondor from here?”
He was stroking Fearin’s nose. “I’d say about three days riding at a good gallop, if we don’t run into any more interruptions.”
Lauren nodded and glanced over her shoulder. The transformers were out of earshot still (or at least out of human earshot).
“You don’t really like them, do you?”
“If you lived here your entire life, for thousands of years, and suddenly all of this was happening, wouldn’t you be a little surprised, too?”
“Well, yeah…”
“We don’t have movies here, or cartoons, or fantasy and sci-fi books or internet here. “ He rubbed his eyes. “Besides, they remind me a little bit of The Fall.”
Lauren thought for a moment at what he was referring to, then it hit her. “Oh man, I’m sorry. They’re not bad guys, and you know that. They’re here to help us fight the guys that will do what Morgoth’s armies did back there in Gondolin.” Yes, Narthas was referring to the Dark Lord’s fiery machines of war that he unleashed upon the unsuspecting city way back in the First Age. She suspected that technology in and of itself didn’t bother him much, but the idea of sentient robots unnerved him. Especially evil ones.
“Yeah, I know. If this is what’s really going on, though, we need allies bad. Swords and arrows won’t do a damn thing against these machines and mind-reading disciples of hate and chaos. We need what they have.” He looked at Lauren but pointed at where the Autobots stood. “And they have knowledge that we don’t. They have numbers. They have secrecy—“
Lauren filled in the last one for him. “They have guns.”
