She Changed

by WiEGoP

Riddles in Disguise, Episode 1. Chromia and Moonracer go to the planet Tlal to pick up some old friends. But not everything on the exotic planet is as peaceful as it seems and the team is forced to transform themselves in a way they had never expected.

1. Part 1

Episode One: She Changed

It is the year 1988. The Female Autobots, under the command of Elita One, have won a major victory over their Decepticon foes: The complete destruction of the Decepticon Space Bridge. Forced to rely on the shuttles to transport energon to Cybertron, and hindered on Earth and other planets by the Autobots' Humanoid Defense, Training, and Education Program, the Decepticons' energy supplies have become cripplingly low. The Autobot Commanders, Optimus Prime and Elita One, agree to exchange some of their forces; some will return to Cybertron and others will head for Earth as the Autobots prepare to retake Cybertron and crush the Decepticon menace once and for all.

* * *

"Skree…tap" Two hundred ninety-seven, Chromia counted silently.

"Skreeeeeeeka…tap" Two hundred ninety-eight.

"Skreeeeeeeeeeeeeekak…tap" Two hundred ninety-nine. Chromia glared at Moonracer who was sitting across the aisle. The green Autobot sharpshooter was staring out the window of the spaceship dragging her finger over and over on her armrest. Three hundred? Chromia waited. But the other Autobot seemed distracted from tapping -- for now -- by stars. She was staring very intently, perhaps expecting that at any moment one unchanging dot of light would suddenly go nova; entranced by the one in a billion chance that something interesting would happen. For the first time in eight hundred thousand seven hundred forty nine point two astroseconds there was silence in the spaceship. Chromia finally unclenched her fists.

She hadn't had time to ding all the dents out yet, and her manual digit hinges still creaked a little, but Firestar had still done an admirable job of patching Chromia up over the last couple….what was the Earth term? Chromia focused. It was a few sparks ahead of her primary processor, but now that it was quiet she knew it would come to her in a moment. It was one of the intermediary increments, longer than those Earth days, but shorter than Earth months or Earth years. She was chasing the word down her motherboard, and even though it was still flashing a few circuits ahead she knew that she would catch it soon. Oh, that's right it's….

"Skreeeeeeeeetaka…tap." Three hundred. Her fists clenched again with a rasping squeak. Tap consistently or don't tap at all! Chromia glared at Moonracer again, but kept her synthesizer clamped as the screechy sound of metal rubbing against metal echoed through the hold.

A deep mechanical voice rumbled through the whole ship, sounding everywhere at once."Tapping: Irritating. Cessation: Requested," Omega Supreme boomed, his normal monotone sounding unsettlingly close to annoyance. Moonracer jerked her hand up as if she had been touching white-hot steel, embarrassed that she had been caught scratching at the insides of their giant, living transport.

Then she gave a strangled, aggravated sigh, like an old shuttlecar shifting gears without putting on the brakes. "Are we almost there yet?" Moonracer nearly moaned, throwing her head back in frustration. Chromia didn't really want to answer her. She had already answered that question to the best of her ability too many times since they'd left Cybertron, and answering it again wouldn't get them to their destination any faster than asking it would. Instead, she stared out the window at the stars that didn't seem to move, though she knew that Omega had to be travelling close to maximum velocity.

"Chromia?"

The older Autobot had the strongest urge to smash the rather pointed part of her forehead against the porthole window. If she managed to break it the passenger compartment would be exposed to the vacuum of space, and there was no sound in space. That wouldn't stop her though, Chromia realized, grimly, not when we have radios. Still, if she didn't break the pane there was always the chance that the blow would knock her primary processor temporarily offline. A pretty good chance actually…

"Chromia?"

She turned. Moonracer had somehow soundlessly crossed the aisle and was sitting right next to her, peering at her with those bright blue optic sensors that even when she was bored and annoyed still radiated with a disgusting amount of perky, optimistic energy. "Chromia, do you know when we'll get there?"

I will not snap. I will not snap. Chromia repeated to herself as she eyed the enticingly thick and solid window pane. "No Moonracer." She said, her gears grinding with the effort of sounding casually annoyed rather than frustrated to the point of meltdown. "I don't know when we will be getting to Tlal." Moonracer slumped back in the seat. There was a long silence that Chromia would have enjoyed if she hadn't had the sinking suspicion that something was wrong. Moonracer never got this quiet, unless she was thinking. Thinking very hard. And Moonracer only thought very hard if she was too afraid to ask someone else for an answer. That someone else was almost always Chromia.

"Tlal," the Autobot car tentatively said at last, "Tlal is another name for Earth, right?"

It took Chromia a while to process what Moonracer was asking, which was probably for the best. The wait gave Moonracer time to realize that she had asked the wrong question. By the time Chromia had it figured out well enough to get angry Moonracer looked as disarmingly upset as a frightened Antillian Bumble Puppy. Chromia bit back the frustrated tirade welling up inside her, letting it out as one long, ragged sigh.

"No." She said flatly, though Moonracer had already gotten the message. Now be quiet and leave it at that, Chromia begged. But as much as the younger 'Bot wanted to avoid getting a verbal overhauling, she needed to satisfy her curiosity more.

"Chromia?..."

"Okay Moonracer," snapped the blue Autobot, cutting her off almost instantly. Chromia would have loved silence, but if someone had to talk you could bet your boron compressor she wasn't going to let it be Moonracer. "We are headed for Tlal, a planet that isn't Earth, to drop off some supplies, refuel, and pick up Perceptor and Seaspray. Omega can't make the journey to Cybertron and back to Earth without stopping to refuel. Elita briefed us on this before we left. So, you should have been paying attention."

"I was paying attention, or…I was…I tried to. I knew we we're headed for Earth eventually… For a 'brief' Elita had a lot to say to you, -- I was…distracted."

Chromia wagged her finger, "I'll say. I thought you were never gonna stop bothering those Airheadedbots."

"They're the Aerialbots…" Moonracer sulked, "And I'd never met them before. They seemed very nice, polite, humble. I wish they hadn't had to stay behind."

"You and your airplanes." Chromia muttered, looking out the window again. They appeared to be entering a star's system. Please let this be Tlal's system.

"Are there organic flesh creatures on Tlal?"

Chromia resigned herself to dredging up the entire briefing, not just the steps she was focused on, from her memory chips. She stared out the window pretending to be too irritated to speak while the information uploaded. Uncharacteristically, Moonracer waited silently. "Yes," Chromia started, spitting out information in short choppy sentences as it was recalled. "There are organic humanoid creatures on Tlal. They call themselves Tlalakans. Seaspray, Perceptor, Bumblebee, and Cosmos made contact with them three Earth years ago when they freed them from Decepticon slavery. Perceptor and Seaspray have returned many times to trade weapons and technology for energon. Elita said the people are very similar to the Earth humans. But their civilization is smaller and primitive. Seaspray says they are very friendly. Seaspray fought hard to have them included in the humanoid defense, training, and education program. He's the one who works closest with these Tlalakans, Elita says. But we're only planning on being there for a few hours. Omega already dropped off their supplies on the way to Cybertron." There, that has to be enough useless information, even for Moonracer.

"Why did Perceptor and Seaspray go along this time?"

Guessing at another 'Bot's motivation wasn't really her can of axel grease, so Chromia just shrugged with one arm. She was too tired of being annoyed to put any more effort into staying angry, but too stubborn to elaborate.

"Well if Perceptor's there it must be for science." Moonracer joked.

Chromia smiled. But only a little, she didn't want to encourage more conversation.

"Approaching: Tlal." Omega thundered to his two passengers. "Arrival Time: 328 astroseconds."

The two Autobots looked out the porthole as a gold and orange planet with four—no, five—moons swiftly grew closer. The reddish clouds made the planet look uninhabitable for most organic life, but the color came from the reflected light of the moons which tinted the swirling clouds of the upper atmosphere copper and yellow.

"Oooohhh" said Moonracer, "I'm so excited! I've never met organic flesh creatures before, have you?"

The view from the porthole now was only half space and half the gentle curve of the planet they were approaching. Chromia couldn't remember if she had ever met organic creatures, though she tried to trace her thoughts back to the last time she had left Cybertron. Have I ever left Cybertron? It must have been more than five million years ago at least. She kept quiet, and Moonracer was too distracted to notice that she hadn't answered. The ship shuddered as they entered the upper atmosphere and soon they were rapidly descending through the thick white clouds.

"Landing: Imminent. Passengers: Implement Landing Restraints."

As the two Female Autobots secured themselves, the ship broke through the cloud cover and Moonracer and Chromia got their first clear look at the surface of the planet. Omega passed high over a flat, grassy plateau that abruptly dropped off, ending in high cliffs. At the foot of the cliffs a thick forest of dark green trees spread over the lowlands, threaded through with twisting blue rivers. The dense jungle was peppered here and there with outcroppings of flat-topped mountains; rocky, steep, and barren of all vegetation. The giant Autobot spaceship followed the course of the largest river passing rapidly over miles of jungle until Chromia thought she could spot the forest's end.

Beyond the forest was a large bay surrounded by mountains, and beyond the mountains was a vast expanse of blue ocean. The wide river they followed emptied into the bay through a channel so straight that it must have been carved by sentients. On either side of the river's mouth was a beach that eventually gave way to rocky cliffs where the plateau met the ocean. Another river threaded one of these narrow bluffs, ending in a spectacular, stepped waterfall that fell into the lower valley before meeting the bay.

In the center of the bay, ringed by a protective dike, was the great floating city of the Tlalakans. Although it had been nearly destroyed over three years ago, sacrificed to free the planet from slavery, with Autobot assistance it had only taken a few months to completely rebuild. The platform the city rested on was packed with towers, temples, and tall stepped pyramids, all supported underwater by hundreds of massive stone pillars. Most of the tall, tan stone buildings had been brightly painted in geometric patterns of reds, blues, and yellows; as they had been centuries before Deceptitran had claimed the city as his own. Canals crisscrossed the pavement, connecting all parts of the city with the water. Countless bridges spanned the canals and connected buildings, sometimes hundreds of feet in the air.

If Chromia could have seen the city three years ago she would have been shocked by how much more alive it now seemed. The uniform dull tan had been replaced with a thousand different, colorful things. The docks that ringed the city were teeming with narrow gondolas. The streets, that three years ago had been almost empty except for little groups of droids and slaves, were now covered with tiny, vibrant, moving swarms of Tlalakans. There were Tlalakans in the doorways and Tlalakans in the walkways, and the waterways, and swimming in the bay with legs or fins. But the largest clot of Tlalakans waited by the landing pad that had been set up near the edge of the city.

Omega lurched slightly as he landed, multiple massive components unfolding from him and landing before his rocket mode, coming together to form his heavily armored landing gear. "Passengers: Disembark." he commanded, rather forcefully, as if he couldn't wait to be free of them. As they exited the ship Chromia was relieved to see Seaspray at the head of the assembled Tlalakans waiting at the bottom of Omega's boarding ramp. She didn't feel quite ready to wade through a sea of organic aliens without proper introductions first. Though neither of the Female Autobots knew the Naval Tactician that well, he was at least more familiar than the pink, squishy creatures that surrounded him.

"Chromia, Moonracer, Welcome to Tlal." Seaspray gargled, spreading his arms in a gesture of greeting above the surrounding aliens' heads. Chromia had forgotten what a strange voice the little Autobot had, and she only barely managed to hide her shock. She looked down, and gave an attempt at a gracious smile to the clumsy, bulky, motorboat. He only barely came up to her waist, and the tallest of the Tlalakans that surrounded him were only just taller than her knees.

"Thank you Seaspray," she replied, uncomfortable and unsure, but attempting to be diplomatic, "We're glad to be here. Please thank the Tlalakans for their hospitality." The Tlalakans seemed pleased by this, because the whole group of them cheered, and several started to wave their arms in the air, like they were trying to catch her attention. Moonracer crouched down to get a closer look at them as they swarmed around the docks like scraplets on a warm processor. Some of the men were already pulling wagons of pink, glowing energon cubes up Omega's ramp and into his cargo hold. As the pier became crowded many who had seen enough of the tall female robots jumped into the sea to escape the crush, swimming out into the shining blue waters of the bay in little schools.

"It will take a couple of hours to load up all of the energon," Seaspray explained. "We're still transporting it from the temple." He gestured proudly to a long line of dragon-headed gondolas stretching down the nearest canal, all loaded with stacks of cubes. "I'll be helping here, but if you would like to look around I'm sure that Alana will show you the city." Seaspray rested his hand on the shoulder of the female Tlalakan next to him, who gave the Female Autobots a friendly smile. There was a quality of brave confidence about Alana that Chromia in an instant unconsciously related to and respected, but the woman's eyes were welcoming and kind. She carried herself like a leader, and like a good leader who knows when to lead and when to follow.

"Oh! We would love to see the city." Moonracer said enthusiastically. She was now sitting cross-legged on the pier as a crowd of little Tlalakan children crawled over her legs. "Don't you want to see the city Chromia?" Chromia peered down the crowded street visualizing herself kicking and squishing the teeming clots of organic creatures as she tried to step around them. Her processor began to whirr uncomfortably fast as it was bombarded with new information. Clothes, structures, tools, motifs, scenery, glimpses of customs, size, shape, category and age all bottlenecked at one point in her mind to assault Chromia's jumbled databanks. Getting a grip, she forced herself to focus only on the next step, the problem at hand, letting most of the information her processor was trying to gather slip through unrecorded.

"Ahh…" She looked down at the Tlalakan woman. "Do you think it's safe?"

Alana nodded confidently. "We Tlalakans are used to being around robots. Don't worry Chromia, we won't let ourselves be stepped on, and I would only be too happy to show you and Moonracer around our city. But I think there was someone here who wanted to speak with you, Chromia." There was a clanging sound near Moonracer's foot and Alana stooped down near the light green Autobot to scoop up a tiny Tlalakan child.

"Who?" Chromia asked as Alana arranged the toddler on her hip. The little boy fascinated Moonracer who leaned in to examine him more closely.

"Oh look he's go.."

"He's waiting for you on the beach," Alana explained to Chromia as she turned a bit, shifting the boy to her other hip. "Just tell my brother Chac at the cart ferry to take you over."

"Yes, thank you, but who is it?"

Alana was scanning the crowd, "Hmm..oh…I hadn't met him before. This was his first time here. I… Mok!" She suddenly called out to one of the Tlalakan men; a rather important looking one who was directing the nearby gondolas. She ran over to him and put the boy in his arms. "Take this boy to his grandmother please." she asked him as the child began whining and reaching for her. Ignoring him she walked back into the long dark shadow of the female Autobots. "Sorry. That boy is too young to be out here in this crowd alone." she explained. "Now, where were we?"

"Who wants to talk to me?" Chromia asked again wondering what a "cart ferry" was.

Alana smiled, "Ironhide said he wanted you to find him when you landed. He went down to the beach this morning so I assume that's where he still is."

For a startling moment Chromia was intensely aware of everything around her: the space she occupied and her own body in it, the ground, the air, the light, the planet. Then, slowly, she eased into that name which was as familiar and comforting as the well worn grip of an old gun.

"Ironhide huh?" Chromia said, grinning nonchalantly. "Which way is this 'cart ferry', and how do I know Chac when I see him?"

Alana pointed. But before the Tlalakan woman could give further directions Chromia was transformed and weaving through the bustling aliens, who parted good-naturedly for the blue van. Alana grinned as the impatient vehicle's bumper disappeared into the crowd. Moonracer, meanwhile, had become distracted by a vendor selling hats.

"Can we start our tour now?" The Autobot female asked, reaching out with one large, white hand. On each finger tip was a brightly colored knitted cap.

"Moonracer, it would be an honor. " Alana replied, gesturing proudly at the lively city, "Shall we start with the temple?"

…

The skin on the old Tlalakan woman's arms hung down from her bones in loose flaps. As she waved them to emphasize a dramatic moment in the story she was telling the wrinkly flaps waved back and forth a bit. Her fingers were twisted with age and the veins and bones in her hands stood out as prominently as circuits on a microchip. Perceptor had estimated the Tlalakan elder's age in Earth human years to be approximately eighty-five, though he hadn't yet ascertained whether the Tlalakans aged at a different rate than Earth humans. The children and the adults all called the woman Toci, but no one had explained to Perceptor whether this was a title or the elder's name.

Organic creatures had always fascinated Perceptor. But few fascinated him more than these Tlalakans. They possessed a remarkable means of dissolving their bodies, and forming any new body they desired. Yet they still seemed to age. Whether this Well of Transformation they used lacked the effect to alter the aging process, or whether this was due to a conscious choice on the Tlalakans part Perceptor hadn't yet established. What he wouldn't give for a sample of that water. Perceptor was unaware of any similar phenomena existing on record and he would have given his main focusing lens just to be told how the water was able to effect such a change. But when he had expressed interest in studying The Well directly the Tlalakans had, diplomatically of course, asked him not to. Apparently the sea cave held some religious significance. Perceptor had, out of courtesy to his hosts, abided by their wishes. Though consumed by curiosity, he would have to find some other avenue of study during his brief tenure on Tlal.

And there were many. The intriguing parallels between the Tlalakans and certain Meso-American, Pre-Colombian cultures from Earth, for example. He was having trouble pinning down Tlalakan history with any certainty, a riddle which pleased him greatly. He was having some luck decoding some of the more enigmatic pictures on the walls of the oldest temples in the city. And he had gotten some leads on possible ancient sites on the mainland. But an older hieroglyphic script found only in the undersea city was as yet completely indecipherable. Some of their myths echoed those he had studied on Earth, but there were anomalies that bore no easy explanation; such as the narrative the old woman was currently imparting to the throng of children in the city's nursery.

"But The Person still wouldn't move." Toci continued, resting her wrinkled arms on her knees as she leaned forward on her seat, peering at the crowd of children sitting cross-legged on the floor around her. She glanced occasionally at the large red robot sitting behind them, filling up the whole back end of the room. "The Person just lay on the sea and didn't do anything at all." Her voice was low and reedy. The children were completely spellbound.

"The gods then thought for a long time. 'The Person will not move or do anything,' they said. 'The Person would not move for the light or the dark, the sun or the moon, the sea or the shore, the land or the sky. The whole world moves, but The Person still won't move or do anything. We must do something to make The Person move, or nothing will ever get done.'" The old woman smiled at Perceptor who nodded her on, completely absorbed. He had listened to many of Toci's stories over the years. She was flattered by his quiet and polite audience; though he often asked her strange questions about the stories afterward.

"So the gods took The Person and they broke The Person in half." She gestured as if snapping a stick. "And from that one person, they made two people. The gods made each of the people different. They made two different kinds of people. They made one into a Male Person, and one into a Female Person. Then they put the Male Person and the Female Person back on the earth, but far apart, to watch what they would do.

"And Children, oh, how they moved then!" She exclaimed, throwing her thin, wrinkled arms in the air. "Like Light and Dark they chased each other all around the world. Like the ground and the sky they reached out for each other. Like the sea and the shore they would climb forever to try and be closer. And like the moons and the sun they would sometimes hide from each other." The Tlalakan elder rested her hands on her lap and nodded at the children. "What I have told you is the truth, as my mother told me and her mother told my mother before me."

Perceptor leaned in closer. "Most intriguing," he murmured.

The sea swept its way up the shore darkening the water logged sand on the tide line. With a whisper like a faint roar the wave threw itself as far up the beach as it could, pausing a brief moment before it slipped back, trailing with it the sand and sea muck it pulled from the beaches. Some of that sea muck trailed its way around a large red metal foot, which completely resisted the strong pull of the waves as they sank away from the beach.

Ironhide hadn't found it yet, and he had been looking all morning. A thick cable extended from where the large red Autobot's fist would normally be. The sensor dish on the end of the cable made a faint humming sound as it scanned under the sand, but so far his powerful sonadar had detected no hint of the kind of shell he had been looking for. Ironhide was starting to get a little frustrated. He had seen Omega land in the city, but he had no idea how long it would take Chromia to find him. He did know that he was running out of time. He picked his way along the beach, keeping a keen eye out for any little critters that might get caught underfoot.

Then he saw her. The ferry had apparently dropped her off close to the river's mouth, because she was almost as far down the beach as she could get. The blue female Autobot was shuffling her way through the loose, dry sand farthest from the shore, watching her feet carefully. Ironhide quickly retracted his sonadar dish. He would have to find his shell another day. As he began making his way down the beach Chromia spotted him and waved, her long white arm flashing in the bright Tlalakan sunlight. Ironhide put on what he thought was his winningest lopsided smile and waved enthusiastically back.

When she gets in my servo's reach, I'm gonna give that she-bot the biggest bear hug of her existence, Ironhide said to himself as he began to eagerly shorten the distance between them. It had been three years since he'd last held her for a few seconds, and though 'Bots generally don't spend as much time fawning over each other as most organic species, the memory of their brief embrace had stuck with him like the scar from a fusion cannon, but a heck of a lot sweeter.

But…Er…Maybe just a little hug, Ironhide reconsidered as he got closer to the Female Autobot. It had been three years, and he had no way of knowing how she would react to such a lively organic-like embrace. He'd spent three years watching humans hug each other, and even do that kissing thing they seemed so fond of, but this was Chromia's first time off Cybertron. Ironhide remembered Kup's old rule, "The longer a 'Bot's around organics, the squishier he gets." Howsabout a firm handshake to start us off, and then we see how she takes it?…Yeah. Ironhide decided. A nice firm handshake.

They were finally close enough that Ironhide could have extended his arm to Chromia and offered her the not too firm but not too wimpy handshake he'd decided on a few astroseconds ago. Only he didn't extend his arm. The old Autobot just smiled and gestured weakly, "Ahhhh…Hey there Chromia." He offered lamely.

Chromia smiled at the battle-scarred 'Bot, pleased to watch him squirm a little by forcing him to be in the driver's seat. Let's let him run out of words completely before I take the wheel, Chromia decided.

"It's…Uhhh…It's nice to see you." Ironhide added, not so much uncomfortable with the silence as uncomfortable with Chromia's expectant smile. She wants me to say something…I just know it. But I don't know what it is she wants me to say.

"Yes." Chromia nodded. Ironhide inwardly groaned. For the sake of copper solenoids, Chromia! Give me more to work offa than 'yes.' He opened his mouth. He had to say something else.

"Aaaaaaaaahuuuu…." Was all that came out.

Chromia grinned and gave Ironhide a hearty clap on his square grey shoulder. The clang echoed through the trees and frightened several small creatures into flying away. "It's nice to see you too Ironhide, I guess," she said affectionately. "Now was there a reason you wanted to meet me out here in all this sandy stuff?" She gestured to the beach. "What do they call it?"

"Uhh..Sand." Ironhide answered. "And I wanted to meet ya out here…ahhh because…" Ironhide suddenly realized that without the shell he had been looking for he had even less to talk about than usual. "It's a nice planet, kinda like Earth. An I thought you should see it." The bulky red 'bot shifted his weight a little, grinding the sand under his foot plating. He gave Chromia a sheepish grin. I can trash talk in battle with the best of 'em, but this small talk is killin' me! Ironhide realized. Let's just get to the point here.

As he watched Chromia take in her surroundings the old red 'bot realized he didn't really know what the point was. He just knew he hadn't wanted to meet up with Chromia in the city surrounded by all those friendly but way too talkative Tlalkans. He did have things he wanted to tell her. Eventually. Sometime when he had all the words right. He wanted to tell her he'd missed her. He wanted to tell her that he'd thought of her. He wanted to tell her how relieved he'd been when he'd realized…

"Help! Gods please to send person to help!"

Chromia and Ironhide both stiffened as the low wail drifted from the jungle. "Help to me be sending please!" the pained cry came again, unmistakably organic in origin. Chromia looked up to Ironhide, whose face was grim with concern. She caught his eye and for the moment they didn't need words between them. Ironhide knew just what he needed to say, and this time it came easily. "Hang on there! We're coming to help!" he shouted as they dove into the jungle.

Chromia crashed through the forest, ignoring her surroundings except to avoid those trees too sturdy to easily smash through. So much of this jungle was just big leafy bushes that were crushed without much effort. Too dense to drive through though, she realized, and this ground… it's like running on half-set rubber. Ironhide was having a harder time. The old 'Bot had been designed for indestructibility, not speed. He'd been slow even in his younger days nearly ten million years ago. Chromia was far ahead of him by the time she reached the organic creature.

It looked like a Tlalakan, a male one, though there was something different about this one that Chromia couldn't quite upload. It was huddled beneath the huge leaves of a fern, shuddering and wheezing like a car with gunked up filters running on empty. When the Tlalakan saw the large blue Autobot approaching he tried retreating further into the fern, grunting with pain at the effort. He appeared to have some bright red substance oozing from his long, dark, tangled hair. Chromia knelt down next to the fern, leaning her arms on the ground to get a better look at the shivering creature.

"No! No! Not to be touching and taking of me! Away to stay!" The man screamed, pressing his back against a tree trunk. Ironhide finally caught up with Chromia and knelt beside her.

"Hey there, little fella. We're not gonna hurt ya." He said slowly, reaching out to the injured Tlalakan with an open hand, palm up, like a human coaxing a shy puppy.

"No! No! No!" the creature screamed as the large grey hand inched closer to him. He tried to get up, but his equilibrium circuits must have been disabled because he fell before he was halfway standing. He feebly batted at the giant hand that delicately encircled him, moaning as he struggled against trithyllium-steel alloy and carbon fibers. He was leaking clear organic coolant from all over his body, but as Ironhide slowly lifted the humanoid he noticed that the creature's skin felt cold. He also saw the red substance leaking from the man's head, but unlike Chromia, Ironhide knew what it was. He examined the half-conscious Tlalakan carefully.

"Chromia, this Tlalakan's hurt real bad." Ironhide said as he gently cradled the tiny fragile being, concern etched deep into his faceplates. "We need ta get him back to the city, and fast." Chromia nodded, staring at the strange man held so carefully in servos that could crush granite effortlessly. The two Autobots began moving quickly through the half squashed jungle; but this time Ironhide chose his steps very carefully so as not to jar the injured Tlalakan he carried close to his chest.

"No… not to taking back of me! No!" The man mumbled. "Not taken to be to a Megatron."

Chromia shot Ironhide a look. "Did he just say what I thought he just said?" she asked, hoping against hope that her audio receptors were glitched.

Ironhide stared grimly at the nearly unconscious Tlalakan in his hands. "No way that's good news." he muttered.

The Transformers will return right after these messages…

Fun Fact: David Wise, writer of such episodes as War Dawn and The Key to Vector Sigma, complains that Transformer's story editor Flint Dille 'gets all the arm candy'.

Source: personal experience, Botcon 2009