The search and rescue vehicle drove slowly through the roads, carefully maneuvering around holes and dips that could wreck his suspension. One year of hiding from humans on Earth, and Ratchet figured he had a pretty good idea of the neighborhood.
It was a soft, quiet neighborhood. There were rumors of a vigilante that kept watch on this peaceful town, but it went largely ignored. Why would there be a vigilante here where the worst crime was when someone broke into the Mayors office to paint it pink?
The one tiny bank in the town was run by an old couple that everyone knew and liked; businesses were usually slow, but self-sufficient, and the kids spent their time out in the surrounding mountains.
There was some crime, but it was lower then normal.
It was a quiet town, which is why Ratchet was not expecting to feel a faint signal from an Autobot.
And not just any Autobot- but an Autobot thought to be dead for vorns.
Ratchet tore off in the direction of the signal, wondering if he was going to stumble upon some dead body buried underground.
The weak signal slowly, ever so slowly, grew stronger, until at last Ratchet was in front of a small home on the outskirts of town; it was deceptively normal looking. That was until one looked at it from an Autobots point of view.
State of the art security systems that no human knew about hummed softly, and Ratchet recognized this handiwork.
Red Alert.
"Red Alert?" He called out in cybertronian, letting the ancient language roll off his vocalizer. "Red Alert, are you here?"
Silence.
"Red Alert, I can recognize your handiwork you know. Either get out of here or I'll weld your aft to the ceiling!"
The security systems shut down, as a Lamborghini pulled out, the brilliant red and white paint muted by darkness. "R-Ratchet?" The Cybertronian was rusty; no surprise there.
"Red Alert. What in the name of the Pits are you doing here?"
The Lamborghini seemed to shrug, falling back into a human language. "When we were attacked, I managed to escape from getting tossed into the sun. After that I floated… until I landed on this planet."
Ratchet was a little surprised; not once had Red Alert demanded anything about information.
"Why are you still here Red Alert? Why haven't you gone back to Prime-"
"I don't want to." Red Alerts voice was impossibly calm. "I like my new life here Ratchet."
Well that blew the CPU. Red Alert enjoy something? "What?"
"For three human centuries I've been here Ratchet. I've done a lot of things, but I've decided; I like humans much better then Cybertronians."
Ratchet winced- why did it seem like a lot of the cybertronians agreed with what he was saying? Bumblebee and Sam, other Autobots that had found humans on their quest back to Prime and Earth liked staying with the humans much better then with other Autobots.
But Red Alert was what one considered a organicphobe. "I find that hard to believe. What did you do? Scramble your circuits?"
Red Alert bristled, and he snarled, "After seeing hundreds of generations of humans pass by, I have learned many things. It's not easy seeing everyone around you change so fast. And die so soon."
Ratchet backed away from the subject; while hundreds of Vorns may have passed, weapons were still lethal, and Red Alert still seemed slightly unbalanced. He might just decide to shoot at him just to keep him from spreading the word. "What are you doing here though Red Alert?"
"I'm traveling with a human companion. His name is Miles. The two of us are traveling around to see if some of the conspiracy theories humans have an be proven."
Well- Red didn't look as if he changed that much.
"And then what are you going to do Red? It has to have been a long time since you've had energon, or anything to eat."
"True, I have about another eighty human years left…" Red Alert mused; Ratchet wondered what had happened to make Red Alert mellow out so much. "But that's fine. This will be the last human I watch pass away."
"And are you satisfied with that? What about Inferno?"
"He's dead Ratchet." Red Alert laughed bitterly. "You know, that's the reason why I became attached to humans in the first place- I would turn off my sensor net except for my auditory receptors and pretend so easily that I was listening to Inferno."
Are you certain its not just Stockholm syndrome? Ratchet thought, but didn't say it out loud.
Red Alert seemed at peace with himself. It was the first time he hadn't seen the security director on edge about something, and quite frankly, he had to wonder if he was staring at the right 'bot.
"Either way, tomorrow morning I will be gone, so don't even try to tack me Ratchet." Aha, there was the paranoid security director he knew so well.
"How did you meet this Miles anyways?"
"Internet chatroom." Red Alert answered promptly. "It was friendship first chat. He was talking about how aliens were probably in high positions of the government- and he is right you know- and listed a very well put together list of conspiracy theories."
Red Alert sighed in bliss. "Last human. Last one." Red Alert began backing up. "Goodbye Ratchet. Please give my best regards to Optimus Prime."
"Red Alert-" Ratchet began, but it was too late, Red Alert had disappeared into the house, and is signature was fast fading- undoubtedly Red Alert was actively erasing it.
Words burned in his vocalizer. What happened to you? What happened to Inferno? Why are you being so unparanoid? Why don't you care that you're about to die-
"Why are you accepting your death so easily?" Ratchet snarled to the air, "You aren't the Red Alert I once knew. He never would've accepted such a thing like death."
"Easily?" Red Alerts voice drifted out of the darkness. "Oh, not easily, not easily at all. I fully intend to go down kicking and fighting. According to what I've seen- by the time Miles dies, Decepticons will be on the planet in force. I figure I'll die trying to protect his family. Protect-"
Red Alerts voice trailed off, before an almost amused note entered his voice. "Protect those weaker, and don't let the Decepticons overtake any planet. No worries Ratchet, I will help the fight; I just merely will do it from the shadows."
Ratchet smiled, all tension going out from him. Red Alert was still Red Alert. Just… milder. "So, why did your glitch finally go down?"
"Ah- After seeing organic reproduction methods and the outcomes, I decided no Decepticon measures up to something like that. The screaming- ohhh, that grates on the auditory receptors."
Ratchet grunted as he backed up, getting ready to leave. "Red Alert, I will see you later."
Red Alert said nothing, merely listening to the car sounds die away. A sleep tousled head popped out of a window. "Yo, Red? I thought that you were anxious to return to the Autobots."
"I still am. I'm merely… taking a vorn off for vacation or so." Red Alert mused out loud. "No worries- we'll discover the reason why your friend Sam is acting so oddly."
a/n: It's been what: a year since I've updated a story? This is a birthday fic for a friend. :D I hope you all enjoyed it; especially the friend. I know it leaves a lot of questions unanswered, but that's the point- it's taking place between the first and second movie just so you all know.