Chapter 25: Lunar Echoes and Earthly Complications
A sudden realization struck Talon. He could hear the music from the Transformer clearly.
This was impossible.
Sound requires a medium—solid, liquid, or gas. The moon's environment was a near-perfect vacuum.
Yet, he heard it perfectly.
He recalled an old scientific report about NASA converting the electromagnetic vibrations detected by the Voyager spacecraft into audible frequencies. Space wasn't an absolute vacuum; it was filled with sparse particles and plasma. Sound could travel here, not as pressure waves, but as electromagnetic oscillations.
He was stunned. His Titan-form ears were somehow perceiving and translating these vibrations into audible sound.
Experimenting, he focused his mind, tuning his hearing to other frequencies. A cacophony of cosmic noise flooded his senses—a chaotic, deafening roar of the universe. He quickly filtered it back to the familiar melody of the love song, the clarity a welcome relief.
Inside the Transformer, Mary had mastered the mental controls. She was like a child with a new toy, making the machine hop and skip across the lunar landscape, gleefully lifting and tossing small meteorites.
"This is amazing! It's like I'm a giant!" she cheered, her voice transmitted to him.
After a while, the strain of holding his breath became too much. Talon gestured to the Transformer. Optimus Prime, understanding, reconfigured into the truck form and opened the driver's side door.
Talon willed his body back to its human form. The instant cold was a brutal shock, a pain that would have killed his old self. His new Spider-resilience was the only thing that saved him. He scrambled inside, the door sealing behind him. Oxygen flooded the cabin, and he took a deep, grateful breath.
The partition lowered. Mary looked at him with concern. "Talon, are you okay?"
"I'm fine," he assured her, the thrill of the experience outweighing the discomfort.
"Good," she said, visibly relaxing.
"Let's drive for a while, then head back," Talon suggested.
Mary nodded. "Whatever you say."
The heavy truck sped across the moon's flat, dusty plains, its immense weight making obstacles trivial.
"Faster!" Mary yelled, her excitement peaking. "There's a ridge! Let's jump it!"
Talon indulged her, pushing the machine to its limits.
"Talon!" she cooed, her voice turning sweet. "Can we write something? A really big message on the moon? Please?"
Against his better judgment, he agreed. The Transformer lifted into the low lunar sky. Using its pulse cannons, Talon carefully carved a massive, kilometers-long message into the regolith: MARY WAS HERE.
The effort consumed over half of the Transformer's immense power reserves.
Seeing her name etched permanently on the lunar surface through the special glass, Mary was moved to tears.
"Mary? Why are you crying?" Talon asked, bewildered.
"I'm just... so touched," she wept. "Thank you, Talon. No one has ever done anything like this for me. You're the first."
Talon was taken aback. This wasn't part of the plan.
"It's late. We should head back," he stated, his tone shifting to business.
Mary nodded, sniffling. "Okay."
"Optimus Prime, return to Earth. Take us to Mary's home."
The journey back was swift. As dawn approached, the aircraft settled onto the roof of Mary's house. The canopy hissed open.
Mary made no move to leave.
"We're here," Talon prompted.
"I know," she whispered, looking down and fidgeting with her dress.
"Then you should go."
She looked up suddenly, her eyes filled with a desperate intensity. "Do you like me?"
Talon was speechless. He had never pursued her. Every action—rescuing her, the trip to the moon—was a calculated move to secure Spider-Man's cooperation. He never intended for this.
"Miss Watson, your boyfriend is Peter," he stated flatly.
"Peter was my boyfriend," she insisted. "But now I see he can't give me what I want. He can't give me romance, or security, or the life I deserve. But you can. You're powerful, you're brilliant, and you gave me the stars."
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