Author's note : This one's a very belated birthday gift for anon_decepticon.

Chapter 1

Wildrider slewed off the road, crushing grass under his tires, and drove until he couldn't hear anything after he turned his stereo off. Not that he usually cared about police cars or Autobots getting in his way, but tonight that would be a distraction from what he had planned. He braked to a halt and popped a door open.

"Okay, here we are," he said.

"Great." Geri put one foot on the ground to get a feel of where they were, then climbed out of the passenger seat. She held on to the door for a moment, then let go, stretching a hand out as she moved a few cautious steps away. "Where exactly is here?"

"Edge of a national park, near the Santa Cruz Mountains." Wildrider transformed, trying to keep her more or less in his headlights as he did so. "And before it turns midnight, happy birthday!"

Geri had found a bench by the side of a dirt path, and she ran her palm over the seat before she sat down. "Thank you."

Wildrider grinned. "I'll bet you have no idea what your surprise present this year is gonna be."

"No, I really don't," Geri said, clasping her hands in her lap.

"Well, the surprise is…I don't have an actual present for you."

"Oh, thank God."

"What?" Wildrider said, startled.

"Uh, oh my God!" Geri sat up straighter. "You forgot my birthday present?"

"No, of course I didn't forget!" He'd never forgotten her birthday, and given the state of his memory, that was something to be proud of. "Give me some credit, kiddo. But I don't have an actual present for you because you haven't decided what it is yet."

Geri's brows went up. "Come again?"

"This year we're going anywhere you want. Like Disneyland."

"We are?"

"Yeah, that's your present." Wildrider couldn't help being pleased, because finally he'd found a gift she couldn't return. He'd also driven to a quiet secluded place so no one would interrupt them as she decided on their destination. "So c'mon, pick where you want to go."

Geri rubbed her fingers against the sides of her forehead. "Give me a moment to think about this. All right, we're going somewhere that doesn't involve stealing anything, harming anyone, breaking into any place or getting the police after us."

"So, the other side of the road?"

"Ha ha. I'm still thinking."

Wildrider fidgeted. "Well, just think of your favorite place. Maybe Disneyland?"

"I like going to the beach," Geri said.

"Oh, I can take you to the beach." He cheered up at once. Maybe he could build a Cybertronian-sized sandcastle and put her in it.

"But I didn't bring a bathing suit."

"No problem. You can skinny-dip."

Her mouth dropped open. "I'm not skinny-dipping in front of you!"

"Why not? I've seen naked humans before."

"You haven't seen me naked." Geri folded her arms. "And you're never going to."

Wildrider shifted his weight from foot to foot. "Actually, there was that one time when you were changing, and I needed to adjust my rear-view mirror…"

"Oh, God," Geri said, burying her face in her hands so the next words came out muffled. "I don't want to hear it. And we're not going to talk about skinny-dipping or nudity any more, all right?"

"Fine." Wildrider sat down on the grass, because obviously he was stuck here for a little while longer. "Where have you always wanted to go?"

"Japan," Geri said, "but obviously that's not an option." Wildrider reluctantly decided she was right, because he would have liked to see Japan for himself, but there was no way they'd get back early enough for Geri to slip back into her house unnoticed. "I like the science center."

"Great, we'll—"

"But it's closed at this time of night."

This really wasn't turning out to be as much fun as he'd thought it would be. "What about Disneyland? I'm sure that's still open."

"Why are you so keen on Disneyland?" Geri asked.

"Cause I always wanted to go there." He remembered it was her birthday, so there had to be some reason a Disneyland trip would be a present for her. "And you can ride in the teacups."

"I'm sixteen, not six."

Wildrider huffed. "You're a buzzkill, is what you are."

"Hey, I didn't ask you to bring me out here," Geri said defensively.

"Well, what else was I supposed to do for your—" Wildrider stopped as his radio pinged on the Stunticon channel. Great. With his luck tonight, it would turn out to be Motormaster ordering them all on an assignment.

"Hey, Wildrider," Breakdown said over the radio. "I was supposed to be on monitor duty, but Swindle must've torqued someone off—"

"Again," Dead End's smooth drawl cut in.

"—so he got stuck with it and we're on the road," Breakdown finished.

"ETA four minutes," Drag Strip said.

"Wait, you're all on your way here?" Wildrider thought he would almost have preferred Motormaster and the assignment.

"Wow," Drag Strip said, "can't put anything past you. Yeah, we thought we'd find you before we head out for some fun."

"What are you doing out there, anyway?" Breakdown asked. "Are you on an assignment?"

"Uh, no." Wildrider had never been able to lie convincingly on the spur of the moment, and his teammates usually saw through any such attempts.

"Great," Drag Strip said. "And we've got the whole night off."

"Awesome," Wildrider said, and closed the channel. Geri was giving him a puzzled look, because although she couldn't see, there was nothing wrong with her audials, and he'd gone very quiet there. "Sorry about this, kiddo, but the rest of the gang's on their way here."

"Your team?" She was on her feet at once. "Well, take me back home!"

"I can't. They'll wonder why I'm heading off at top speed and they'd follow me." There was no way he could evade them, even if he wanted to, because Dead End had far better radar and Drag Strip was faster. "It's okay, Motormaster's not with them."

"Oh, well, that makes everything all right then."

Wildrider shook his head. "Actually, it doesn't. Dead End wouldn't care if I'm hanging out with a human, but Breakdown and—"

"I was being sarcastic!" Geri looked as though she wanted to sink her face into her hands again. "All right, if I can't go back home, I need to hide until they're gone."

"Hide. Good idea!" Wildrider looked around and saw the perfect place. "I'm gonna need to pick you up, okay?"

She nodded, so he scooped her up carefully and carried her across a clearing to the nearest tree. When he put her down, she stumbled a little on ground made rough and uneven by roots, but caught herself with one hand against the tree trunk. Wildrider thought for a moment of putting her on a high branch, but decided against it—what if the branch broke and she fell? And with the way his night was going, she'd fall on one of the other Stunticons, who would squash her in an astrosecond.

"There's a big hole in the tree right in front of you," he said. "You can hide there."

"A hole?" Geri drew back. "There could be snakes inside!"

"You wanna take your chances with Drag Strip? Cause he hates your guts."

"Hi, snakes," Geri said, and climbed in. As Wildrider had hoped, she was completely out of sight. He stepped away from the tree, but before he could think of how to look busy, the sound of engines roared in the distance. Headlights glowed, hi-beams blazing through the night, and the other Stunticons drove into the clearing.