Transformers: Partners

by CDrake

After the death of the Fallen at the hand of the last Prime, a human spy is caught breaking into NEST and interrogated, his captors suspecting sinister motives. Through a series of events, however, they find this young man fighting with them, finding new purpose among their ranks—and an unexpected partner. Above all, he proves to all that true family is more than blood and energon.

1. Brave New World

NEST regional installation, North Dakota

3 months before the death of the Fallen

A cold wind blew over the Black Hills of North Dakota, pushing dust and sand through the air of a seemingly abandoned military base tucked away from public view. The well-concealed guards toted fully loaded assault rifles, ready to riddle anything they didn't like with bullet-holes. The buildings were dark, lights extinguished on the outside and most of the inside. As a result, none of the guards or other military personnel noticed the passage of a living shadow through a small gap in their tight net of motion sensors and trip lasers into the base's interior.

The shadow moved silently, always sticking to cover and moving like the wind, drawing closer and closer to a building near the center of the base, one that housed a hardlink to NEST's intelligence mainframe. A few moments' time was enough for him to override the keycard system and corresponding electronic lock on the entrance, prompting him to slip inside noiselessly, hacking and looping the cameras as he went. Since the building was restricted to all but the highest-ranking personnel, there were no guards in the interior of the intelligence center, allowing his hack of the security system to make him, for all intents and purposes, invisible.

The shadow made his way to the mainframe access point, using credentials he had taken from a NEST officer a week earlier to get inside the room and activate the hardline server. Pressing the enter key once, he waited a few moments for the system to boot up, watching with intense, dark eyes as the screen turned on, a single point of light in its center yielding to a litany of green-tinted data and files that were invariably marked as some grade of classified. A pair of dark eyes drifted to the upper-left corner, where, no matter where in the mainframe the computer goes, there are always the words, "Networked Elements: Support and Transformers." As the shadow narrowed his eyes, his fingers danced over the keyboard, using the credentials of the officer to access one file in particular: Mission City.

What looked like a rifle-mounted camera showed a chaotic scene of battle, partially obscured by concrete dust and a flurry of moving bodies along a half-collapsed city street. When the picture finally stabilized, the intruder's eyes widened slightly in surprise, but not shock. Beyond the lense of the camera, the soldiers were fighting a single, gigantic robot with a .50 caliber minigun strapped to his right arm and a quad-barrelled missile launcher to his right shoulder. As they exchanged fire, the soldier holding the camera moved into a building, his commanding officer shouting orders at him. Freezing the video briefly, the dark eyes perused the blurry image for a moment before confirming that that officer and the man he'd stolen the access codes and credentials from were one in the same.

Hitting play again, he watched for a few more moments, fast-forwarding to see that the robot fired several missiles and hundreds more rounds at the soldiers, who all seemed too small for him to hit accurately. With that much firepower, he mused darkly, not sure it even needs to be accurate. When half the cafe they were hiding in collapsed, the commander, who he identified as a captain by the bars on his collar, seemed desperate, almost panicking as nothing they did seemed to make a dent. Suddenly, the camera turned, and another robot was being wheeled toward them from several blocks over, hitched to a tow truck going in reverse. The bot's hand was morphed into a cylindrical cannon, and its yellow and black body was heavily damaged, especially its missing legs.

As the new combatant was driven toward the attacking monstrosity, it fired twice, unleashing two bolts of concentrated plasma on the unsuspecting enemy. It fired again and again over the course of twenty seconds, a bee-like mask slamming down onto the front of its face as its shots became more and more furious, its shoulders deploying missile launchers and plasma rounds slamming critical points on the enemy, targeting its weapons and armor joints. Finally, as it got within twenty yards, the ally bot fired three times in rapid succession, all three rounds landing dead center, burning a hole straight through the enemy's chest.

Still stunned, the intruder closed the file and accessed another, larger database: NEST Operations. Clicking inside, he saw more camera videos, this time with several other allied robots and squads upon squads of black-clad soldiers working together to take out more red-eyed monsters over the course of the months that followed Mission City. He stroked his chin in thought as he stared at three video feeds side-by-side, all of them evidencing collaboration between these robotic creatures and humanity. A small, contemplative half-smile crept onto his face before he spoke a single word to himself.

"Interesting." Suddenly, interrupting his perusal, a red light flashed in the upper-right corner of the screen-an alarm. Gritting his teeth slightly, the shadow pulled out a USB drive that he had plugged into a side port of the computer, almost the entirety of the database now accessible from nearly any location now that he had built a backdoor into the otherwise closed system.

Hurrying, he closed down the terminal and made a quick exit from the mainframe room. The shouts of rushing soldiers reached his ears, and instead of walking out the same way he came in, the intruder rushed for the stairs, reaching the roof barely a minute later as a squad of soldiers swept through the building. One caught sight of his silhouette and shouted, causing him to break into a sprint toward one side of the six-story roof as they chased after him. As he approached the edge, one of the pursuing soldiers shouted for him to stop.

"You got nowhere to run!"

The shadow smiled. True, he thought, but he kept running full-tilt for the edge, not slowing down even to the last flurried steps as he leapt off the side. The infiltrator could imagine the looks on his pursuers' faces as he took the plunge, presumably to his death. His arms and legs extended outward in an "X" shape as he deployed a wingsuit, the sudden burst of lift and air resistance causing his drop to turn into a sharp glide, his arms sloping upward and causing him to rise slightly with the upward current. The soldiers in pursuit watched with wide-open mouths as he flew past their defenses, past their barracks, and glided straight over the base's wall.

They stared in disbelief, their target's silhouette lit up in the fading moonlight, as he sloped his arms downward and took a nose-dive off the side of the cliff the base was on.

…

Six months later

NEST regional installation, 6 miles outside of Pheonix, AZ

2 months after the death of the Fallen

"We got him!"

Major William Lennox snapped his attention to the analyst who just spoke and rushed over to him, leaning over his shoulder to peer at the computer screen.

"You sure," the commanding officer asked. The analyst responded with a single nod.

"Triangulating now." The entire room stood and stared at the analyst's station, whether they could see the screen or not, tension filling the crowded hangar as humans and several Autobots waited for the answer to a months-long question. The analyst's eyes widened slightly in realization and shock. "Sir, he's-"

"Here," Lennox finished for him, a sharp pang of fear reaching his gut as he rushed toward Ironhide. "He's inside the base! Ironhide!"

The black-painted Autobot nodded his head, needing no explanation as he transformed into a GMC Topkick and opened his passenger-side door. Lennox climbed in, rifle in hand, and slapped a hand on the Bot's dashboard, prompting him to drive out of the hangar at a breakneck speed, four other Autobots following closely along with several occupied NEST vehicles. Lennox's heart pounded in his chest as his nerves started going on overdrive. It had been five months since his credentials and access codes were stolen. Since he had been sent on two international combat missions within the space of a week, he hadn't even noticed they were missing until two days later, one day after they were used to access NEST's encrypted database from a regional site in North Dakota.

The moment he realized something was amiss, he heard about the break-in and ordered his credentials cancelled, but the damage was already done. He had somehow managed to code a remote backdoor into the system's base code. They couldn't remove it without taking the whole system offline and starting from scratch, a process that would have taken weeks, if not months. Despite the gigantic security risk it posed, the higher-ups and even Autobots had decided it was best to leave it be and simply monitor the backdoor for any intrusions, hoping to trace the source if he ever tried to access their systems again. Since then, they had been waiting patiently, waiting for the intruder to take another peek inside Pandora's box.

Everything in him asked, "Why now?" But as his Autobot friend drove him to the point of intrusion on the base, he realized he'd be able to get the answers from the source. Full-grown Decepticons, some of whom were millions of years old, couldn't outrun an Autobot on a good day, much less five Autobots and a half-dozen squads of high-strung NEST personnel. How well could a Pretender possibly do? Throughout the period between the first break-in and the current, they had all virtually dismissed the possibility of their intruder being anything but a Cybertronian, considering the effortless way he hacked into their security systems. Any other possibility seemed, frankly, impossible, or at the very least, highly improbable. But, as Sherlock Holmes once said, "When you remove the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be true."

Ironhide and a squad of NEST troopers burst into the building with the intrusion, rushing for the computer room on the second floor, weapons drawn and ready for whatever the Con threw at them. The humans, being the only ones small enough to proceed, stormed the room and confronted the intruder, who was seated with his back to them, fingers frozen over the keys of the computer, the shadows of the room concentrated over him as weak light streamed through the window.

"Freeze!" Lennox yelled out, rifle pointed at the chair's center mass, poised and ready to fire. "Show me your hands, now!" The infiltrator complied, slowly raising his human-looking hands into view, still facing away from them. "Turn around." He didn't move. "Turn around!"

Slowly, the chair swiveled toward the soldiers, revealing a man with black sunglasses on, the curved apparatus concealing his eyes and the surrounding areas, up to his eyebrows, while the shadows covered virtually everything else. A grim expression was on his face, and though Will couldn't see a gun on him, he knew how well Cybertronians could conceal weapons.

"Search him," he told one of his soldiers, who approached the intruder warily, gun lowering slowly as the rest of his squad covered him.

As his hands went for the man's jacket, the infiltrator moved faster than anyone could respond, putting the soldier between himself and the rest of the squad, one arm around his neck, the other holding his sidearm to the soldier's back.

"Let him go. You're only making this worse for yourself."

Will could've sworn he saw a shadowed smirk on the man's face as he shoved the soldier forward, pivoting sharply and leaping toward the window, crashing through the glass and falling two stories to roll on the base's tarmac. Lennox rushed to the window as the target climbed into a steel-colored Lamborghini Embolado, gunning the engine and screeching off as the soldier opened fire, landing a few shots on the car's bulletproof windows and hull. Cursing under his breath, Lennox rushed back toward the entrance, watching as Ironhide and the Autobots started the chase, already in pursuit.

The Lambo turned a corner, narrowly dodging fire from two NEST vehicles and causing them to crash into each other. The Bots split up to cut him off, but the driver was pushing his vehicle to the limits, making turns and maneuvers at angles and speeds most of the soldiers didn't think possible as he dodged his pursuers, ditching or slowing them down one after the next, until only the fastest Bots were still in the chase. Bumblebee and a new Bot, currently in a dark Cybertronian car mode, gave chase, matching every one of their quarry's moves until Bee saw his "partner" break off, seemingly leaving him to chase down the intruder alone. Chirping in annoyance, Bee kept the pressure on, the other driver picking up more speed as its driver-side window lowered.

The yellow bot saw a single human arm extend out the window, its hand holding a handgun and squeezing the trigger, sending a single bullet toward a short crane with a container carrying several crates of ammunition. The bullet, much to Bee's surprise, exploded on impact, shattering the chain and sending the container crashing toward the ground. It broke in half, sending crates of heavy ammunition tumbling out and forcing Bee to readjust. As he avoided a particularly heavy crate, a NEST vehicle cut in front of him, and despite his quick application of brakes, the Bot crashed straight into it.

Having finally lost his pursuers, the infiltrator breathed a heavy sigh of relief as he pulled onto an Arizona highway, too relieved to notice a charcoal-black car pull onto his road coming in the opposite direction. His eyes didn't realize the utterly foreign, alien design of the vehicle until it was too late. The car transformed within the space of a second, and a single, six-foot Cybertanium blade extended from his left arm as it swept toward the center of the Lambo. The vehicle's occupant threw his hands in front of his face as the nearly-indestructible weapon slashed a single, neat line through the center of his car, bisecting the expensive custom-job lengthwise.

The wreck slowly skidded to a halt as its former driver stared back at the Bot that had just robbed him of his wheels, watching as the seventeen-foot, blue-eyed fighter retracted the dagger and drew a large pistol-looking weapon from his right hip, walking calmly toward his side of the wreck. As the Bot's right hand gripped the weapon, his left ripped off the driver-side door, and he stepped back, watching as the half-car's occupant stepped out, hands up, shaking in such a slight degree that humans wouldn't be able to tell, but the Cybertronian could. Suddenly, the Autobot spoke.

"Jig's up, pal."

...

The sunglass-wearing young man stared upward, mouth slightly agape as he examined his catcher, whose voice reminded him vaguely of his own. The Bot's armor was contoured, the slightly jagged edges few and far in between and part of the overall beautiful aesthetic design of his chassis. The charcoal color complimented it well, and gave him an imposing presence, even though he wasn't as tall as some of the other Bots present. The Bot's head was shaped like his own, with crested ears that looked like metal wings protruding backward and up. His blue eyes glowed brightly as the human and Cybertronian had a momentary staring contest, Major Lennox's agitated voice slowly returning his thoughts to the present.

"Hey!" The kid's head snapped toward the source. "You listening to me?"

He nodded once in response.

Lennox seemed to relax slightly, still agitated but calming down as he got the intruder's attention. The major started pacing. "So who are you?" Silence. "What were you looking for in our mainframe? Why did you use my credentials to get access?" Still no response. Lennox gave out a sharp breath of exasperation and turned to Ratchet, who was present along with Optimus Prime and the infiltrator's catcher, Bee and Ironhide staying outside the hangar. "Ratchet, what is this guy?"

The old doctor gave out a sigh of his own. "For the third time, Major, he's...human, far as I can tell."

When Lennox turned back to the prisoner, he saw a half-smile on his face and gentle amusement in his dark eyes. Suddenly incensed, the major rushed toward his chair and slammed his hands on the arms, right next to where the captive's hands were tied. "You better start talking, or-"

"Or what?"

The whole room fell silent and stood at attention, these the first words their mysterious intruder had spoken. In response, the prisoner arched an eyebrow and gave a slight chuckle at the sudden silence.

"Looks like I have the floor, then," he said, turning to a stunned Lennox. "You want the truth, Major? You want to know who I am? Fine. But I want one guarantee." The soldier stared back at him, expressionless. "Zero disclosure outside NEST. No arrest, no trial, no nothing."

Will's eyebrows shot up. "Is that all?"

The seated man nodded in response. "There are some very nasty people who would move Heaven and Earth to see me dead. I'd like to avoid that, along with any unnecessary bloodshed."

Lennox glanced at Epps, who was standing six feet away, their surprised and curious expressions mirrored on each other's faces. Epps shrugged slightly. "All right, you've got my attention."

The prisoner visibly relaxed and nodded. "Okay, short version. My name is Caden Drake. I'm a spy, and I've been aware of the presence of an extraterrestrial race on Earth since about a month after the Mission City incident." Lennox gave Epps another surprised glance. "I didn't have much to verify my suspicions, or at least the details, until I found out the U.S. government was diverting massive amounts of funds into an unknown initiative, and you were involved somehow." He pointed at Will with a tied hand. "I took your credentials because I was afraid the security system of this new...division would be too tough for me to hack directly, and I was right. Whatever your alien friends-Autobots, if I'm correct-did to your cyber security systems, it was far more than I could break into.

"As for what I was looking for, I guess you could say...confirmation. Evidence. I have a penchant for knowing about dangerous government secrets, and this one-" he motioned to the Autobot-filled hangar with his tied hands, "-seemed to have made the top of the list."

"For what purpose?"

Caden narrowed his eyes at Lennox. "Knowledge."

"And?"

"That's it. I like to be informed, so I'm never caught off-guard when some 'Area 51' or Manhattan Project hits the fan and by extension the press. I don't like to have unanticipated threats. As a soldier, and one that had first contact with alien enemies, I think you understand what I mean."

Lennox gave Epps another look, gulping slightly as he remembered the hundreds of soldiers that died in the base attack in Qatar. Like the rest of the few survivors of that assault, he and Epps knew that if they'd had prior knowledge of the enemy and their capabilities, things could have, and likely would have, turned out differently. They both turned back to their prisoner, who had been waiting patiently, knowing that they'd need time to process his implication.

"Rest assured, all of you, that I have no intention of opposing you or your Autobot allies. It's a brave new world, and now that all of humankind knows of their existence, and that of the...OpFor, I'm sure there'll be plenty of skeptics and xenophobes without my assistance. Besides, anyone, human or alien, who's willing to fight to protect innocents, gets a rubber stamp in my book."

Lennox looked at Epps and Ironhide, shocked at their prisoner's almost apologetic explanation of himself and his intentions. As the major opened his mouth to speak to him again, a loud explosion rocked the entire base, causing the Autobots to rush for the oversized doors in alarm. Another explosion tore through the doors, sending almost a ton of sheet metal flying toward the human soldiers. Optimus reached out with both hands, snatching the flying wall out of the air and stopping it from crushing the humans as he threw it out the hole and brandished an ion blaster from his back. Bumblebee chirped frantically from outside, and Optimus effectively translated.

"Decepticons!"

Every soldier in the hangar drew weapons and re-formed into their squads, months of training kicking in as they prepared to engage their titanic enemies once again. As they did this, all of them, Autobots and Lennox included, completely forgot about Caden. When the thought finally crossed Will's mind, he stared back at an empty chair, the cuffs open and unoccupied, and his heart skipped a beat in fear before he turned his attention back to the battle outside.

"Lennox," Ironhide shouted, "this way!" The 20-foot Bot pulled a cannon off his back, his previous arm-mounted ones having been destroyed during their confrontation with Megatron and the Fallen in Egypt, raising it to a hangar wall and firing, making a hole large enough for both him and the soldiers to get through. As they stormed out the makeshift exit, the soldiers immediately came under fire, Ironhide's body shielding them from the worst of it as he returned explosive shots and plasma to the enemy. "Major, get indoors!"

Lennox nodded in response. "Move out, on me!" His squad formed up tightly as they all sprinted to another hangar, noticing at least three protoform Decepticons mounted on the roofs of the base's buildings, laying down automatic fire on anything that moved. The squad made it to the hangar without incident, ducking inside and catching their breath for a few seconds before opening a side door and getting a good look at the enemy contacts. There were now seven Decepticons in view, some protoform, some clearly with vehicle forms, all of them looking pissed and firing madly. "All right, on my mark, we open fire." He pointed to his eyes, then at a certain angle, so the whole squad could see which Con he meant: one on their level, firing a Cybertronian assault rifle and striding toward the hangar they had just left.

The Con hissed angrily in Cybertronian, gun firing in short bursts as Lennox gave his men a silent countdown. "Now!" All seven of them burst through the door and opened fire, targeting his joints, eyes, anything they knew to be a weakness. The Con roared in rage at the sudden assault, and readjusted to target the humans, who retreated inside the hangar when they lost the element of surprise. The Con slammed on the heavy metal wall, denting, then perforating it with his rifle, tearing through the human's cover as he burst through into a shower of gunfire.

A 40 mm grenade landed on his left arm, crippling the elbow and forcing the rifle to drop as the Con tried to lift it one-handed. He roared in pain as the soldiers unloaded their mags into him, taking out his optics, a leg, and severing his left arm entirely with another grenade round before leveling his rifle at his attackers. A burst of Cybertronian rounds sliced through a corporal and a crate behind him, Lennox screaming at his team to scatter, forcing the Con to fire in all directions. Before he could get off another salvo, Lennox looked to his right, being outside the enemy's immediate field of vision, to see Caden Drake pointing a rifle of unknown make or model in his direction.

The major froze in fear as a dark feeling settled in his stomach and all the explanations and assurances from earlier suddenly dried up. That is, until Caden shifted his aim ever so slightly and opened up in an automatic burst-right into the Con's injured neck. Will turned back to the enemy, a determined smile making its way to his lips as he and the rest of his squad concentrated their fire on the neck, severing it after one last salvo. Breathing heavily, they all turned to the new fighter and stared at Drake, who was looking at them all innocently.

"What?"

Before Lennox or any of the others could reply, another explosion rocked the base, and two more Cons peeked through the hole, yelling angrily in Cybertronian. "Scatter!" The squad and Caden obeyed, all moving in separate directions, not even bothering to return fire. Lennox and his men eventually came back together after escaping the hangar, doing a headcount of who was still alive. Then something crossed his mind. "Where's Drake?"

…

Caden kept on running, sprinting through a vehicle depot on his way to the base's barracks. When he finally came to a stop, he found his breathing and heart rate elevated, quite a feat for someone with his physiology. More rumbles and crashes came from close by, followed by the turning of gears and metal clanging that he'd already come to associate with Cybertronian transformations. When he heard a harsh metallic voice less than thirty feet away, something told him that the source was less than friendly. The red eyes that peered at him from a crouching body a second later confirmed his fears, and he broke off in the opposite direction, ducking behind a vehicle for cover as the Decepticon pummeled several cars with his weapon.

When the salvo stopped, the human made a break for it, making it fifty feet before he saw his attacker's partner, a Con who had wheels in his shoulders and ankles, level a weapon at him. Caden's eyes widened as he leapt sideways, narrowly avoiding a rail shot from the Con as a glowing energon sword went through his shoulders, the blade pointing diagonally downward from a much taller left-hand source. Optimus Prime slashed his blade out of the enemy's chassis and aimed an ion blaster in his right hand, firing rapidly at the Con on the other side of the vehicle depot. Caden fired at another Con who charged at Optimus, guns blazing, and earned the ire of his target as Optimus put the wide end of his sword between the human and the attacking robot, the blade blocking the shots.

Drake ran behind a set of empty barrels and fired on two more Cons at another angle, the hot noonday sun beating down on him and distorting his vision slightly over the distance. He ducked behind cover to reload, admiring his weapon as he exchanged mags. A-91 Daggertail. Assault rifle-SMG hybrid. Finest military assault tech I've ever had. Weight of an SMG with the stopping power of an assault rifle. His left hand reached over to the right side of his weapon, his fingers pulling back the slide and loading a round into the chamber. He smiled malevolently. And armor-piercing.

The young man popped out of cover and opened up on the enemy again, noting that the Prime was still laying down fire on anything in sight, dodging several missiles and automatic bursts intermittently. As he rolled underneath another missile, Optimus turned to Caden and fired with his left-hand blaster, suppressing the enemy as his baritone voice bellowed.

"Caden, run! They're after you!"

Drake's eyes widened in realization. Don't have to tell me twice, he thought belatedly as his body broke off at a sprint, rounding the corner of a building to put cover between him and the Cons. He ran for another hundred feet before suddenly feeling his feet lifted off the ground by a giant hand with a surprisingly gentle grip.

"Woah!" he yelled, as he was raised twenty feet into the air, looking around quickly to see Optimus holding him and covering him with his other hand, blocking fire as he ran away from the enemy. The Prime held the young spy close to his chest for a split-second before the familiar whirring and clanging of a transformation reached Caden's ears, his parts shifting and melding to land the spy in the driver's seat of his Peterbilt 379 form. "Woah," he said quietly. Shaking his head slightly, the spy was snapped out of his astonishment by sudden gunfire from behind them. Bullets pinged off Optimus' armored hull, and when Drake turned to look for the source, he could see five Decepticons in car form, weapons protruding from transformed sections of their vehicles.

Several more salvos hit Optimus, despite his evasive maneuvers, and Caden heard a pained grunt from the radio, correctly interpreting it as Optimus' voice. Enough of this. "Keep driving! I got this!" Caden opened the driver-side window and stuck his upper body out, rifle in hand as he fired at them, laying down suppressing fire on all of them before thinking tactically. If they were just cars, what would I do? A smirk came to his face, and he aimed at the front tire of one Con, unleashing a half-dozen rounds that eventually punctured the abnormally tough substance and caused it to spin out of control, crashing into another of the pursuers.

Caden kept this up for nearly ten minutes, the distance between them growing larger as Optimus drove them into Pheonix, hoping to hide the Decepticons' unexpected target. Finally, it seemed like they lost the enemy, and the Prime drove under a wide arch, shielding them from the baking sun and high visibility.

"Are you all right," he asked his human charge.

"Yeah, just outta ammo," Caden responded, dumping the last empty mag from his Daggertail on Prime's passenger seat. "So, Optimus, is it? Why would the Decepticons be after me?"

A puzzled rumble came from the engine and radio. "I was hoping you could tell me."

Caden shook his head, eyebrows knitted as he prepared to respond. Whatever he would have said was cut off by another explosion, followed by the sound of Optimus' gas pedal depressing completely as he sped out from under the arch. Drake didn't understand why he had suddenly moved from cover until the entire arch collapsed, and breathed a sigh of relief at the Bot's quick response.

"Looks like you just keep savin' my life. Even though everything I've done has made you suspicious."

"Suspicion of your intentions, perhaps, but not of your loyalties. It is apparent that the Decepticons have no love for you, nor you for them."

Caden gave a snort of agreement. "Got that right." A missile hit the road in front of them, and Prime turned into an alley, driving as fast as he could and turning onto another street to avoid an incoming salvo. "Are they shooting at us from the air?" He got his answer a second later when an F-22 descended on the intersection in front of them, transforming to reveal a nasty-looking Decepticon with a six-barreled missile launcher in place of his left hand. Optimus swerved wildly and ejected Caden from his cab as he transformed and took cover behind a building, narrowly avoiding a salvo of three missiles from the jet Con.

"It's Starscream!" he yelled, pulling an ion blaster from his back and peeking around the cover to take a shot at the Decepticon lieutenant, two more Seekers joining him from the air as backup. "Go, Caden, run! I'll hold them here!"

"Optimus," Drake said over the roar of their Cybertronian cannons, "thank you." After seeing the Autobot leader nod once in response, Caden broke off at a sprint, entering an alleyway and weaving through buildings as if he had a squad of assassins on his heels. Oh, no, he reminded himself, this is much worse. Cause they at least die when you shoot 'em. The spy was jolted out of his thoughts when a car on the street in front of him transformed and drew a gun on him. Caden turned sharply and ducked inside a building to avoid the shots, and made his way to the roof, unsurprised to see that the Con was already climbing the side of the building, trying to take a shot at him.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, sprinting for the side of the four-story building and leaping off, smashing through the third-story window of a neighboring building and rolling to cushion his fall. He glanced back to see the Con about to take a shot at him, and leapt for a nearby door as the rounds tore through the walls, missing him by inches.

"Clear the building!" he yelled to the tenants he passed as he leapt out a window on the third floor to a nearby roof, still running. As his feet slammed the ground, he drew his custom .45 caliber Sig Sauer and ejected the magazine, sliding it into his left pocket as he drew another and snapped it into the weapon, cocking it mid-sprint. The Con had caught up with him, and was running across the rooftops in hot pursuit when he raised his gun again. Caden leapt to another building and rolled on impact, spinning around to fire several shots from his pistol. Much to the Decepticon's surprise, the bullets exploded on impact, hitting his weapon dead in the barrel and irreparably jamming it.

Roaring in frustration, the Con resumed running after him, more than content to tear him apart barehanded, and Caden realized that a few explosive bullets wouldn't be enough to stop him at this range. He took off again, firing behind him periodically and hitting the robot more often than not, slowing him down if not stopping him. As he climbed the rooftop stairs of another building, the spy finally saw what he needed to even the odds and ran toward it, glancing behind to see the Decepticon simply jump up to his level and keep running. Running past an upright radio pole on his right, he snapped another clip of explosive bullets into his gun and leapt off the roof to another building, this time twisting midair to fire at the lower supports of the pole, causing it to buckle and fall.

Right onto the running Decepticon.

The enraged robot's head snapped sideways at the impact as he fell more than jumped to the roof Caden was falling toward, the spy turning back forward to roll on impact and turn mid-roll to face his enemy. The Con picked up the fallen pole and flung it toward the spy, who performed a free-running corkscrew over the horizontal pole, using his momentum to run straight at the rampaging robot, who brought his right fist rapidly downward toward Caden. Drake dashed forward, sliding on his knees between the Con's legs and rolling as his upper body pitched forward, twisting toward the enemy and drawing his pistol, then putting two shots into the back of his left knee.

The Decepticon roared in pain as he was crippled and Caden did the same to his other leg, thrashing wildly as he tried to kill the human. Reflexes at the peak of human potential, Caden did a backwards handspring and rolled under a horizontal swipe, rising to a crouch and aiming at the Con's neck, remembering his experience in the hangar and concentrating on that weak point. Drake unloaded all eight remaining explosive shots into the Decepticon's neck, severing his head as the pistol clicked empty. Several frantic breaths escaped his throat as he lowered the gun, more terrified than he had ever been in his entire life-and that was saying something.

Two clips of thrilithium-encased, high-explosive bullets. That's one expensive kill. As he checked his belt for more magazines, he scoffed. And everything I have in the way of robot-killers. He let the spent mag drop from his pistol and slid a clip of twelve normal .45 caliber bullets into it, the slide snapping shut as he hit the release. Like it'll make a difference. Caden strode toward the side of the building, dropping into a fire escape and cautiously making his way to the ground, noticing that nearly all sounds of battle had vanished and wondering if Optimus managed to fend off all of his other pursuers. A metal clang reached his ears as he rounded a corner.

Oh, like I'm ever that lucky. Staring at him were four Decepticons, all of whom surrounded and boxed him in, one of them drawing a weapon while engaging his comrades in harsh Cybertronian. As the conversation progressed for a few mere seconds, the Con's blood-red eyes turned back to Caden, and he clenched his fang-like metal teeth, hissing out something in Cybertronian that made the human's blood run cold. And then he raised the gun at him, and Drake's eyes widened as far as they could go as reality struck him. I'm going to die. After everything I've been through, survived, I'm going to die like this.

Caden's entire, eighteen-year life flashed in front of him. The news broadcast declaring his parents dead. The feel of a gorgeous brunette in his arms as she bled out. The body of his parents' killer lying limp, neck broken by his hand. The face of the man who gave the order against his parents. Reunification with the "dead" girl, the daughter of the same man. As the images faded, the alien gun warmed and he threw his arms in front of him, instinct overriding his intellectual knowledge that it would make no difference. He waited for the pain, for the darkness of death, but it never came.

Another, sharper metal clang rang through his ears, and his eyes darted upward to see a large metal blade protruding from his would-be killer's chest, sparks flying around the hole. Caden's eyes widened. The same blade that killed my car. He traced the angle of the Cybertanium blade to its source and saw the same charcoal-black bot leap through the air, another blade protruding from his left arm as his right hand reached for his hip, drawing the same pistol he'd seen the Autobot point at him before. Caden dashed for cover and ducked behind a nearby pillar, watching the titanic fight unfold before him.

The wing-helmed Autobot was tearing through the Decepticons with extraordinary skill and grace, something Caden hadn't even thought possible in a being so large, leaping toward one in a flying kick as he shot another through the shoulder. The round that came from his gun went straight through him, at such a high velocity that the weak armor at that joint gave way completely, severing the arm. The Bot ducked under a strike from a Con with an axe, slashing out his knee with his left-hand blade and holstering his gauss pistol as he broke into a roll toward the Decepticon who tried to kill Caden.

As he rose, the Bot twisted, tearing out the thrown blade in the Con's chest, and his pierced spark along with it as he engaged the last two Cons. He stabbed through the shoulders of the Con he'd just crippled and drove a hard knee into the back of his head, knocking it off his neck entirely, then grappled with the last enemy. Twisting out of the enemy robot's grip, the charcoal Bot finished him by thrusting half his right blade into the left side of the Con's neck and vice versa with his left, drawing them together and beheading him. The Autobot took a quick look around, verifying that his opponents were all dead before retracting his blades and walking over to Caden, who was staring at him in disbelief and admiration.

Incredible. Absolutely incredible.

"Are you all right," the Bot asked him in a professional, businesslike tone, his voice slightly deeper than last time.

The eighteen-year-old spy nodded. "Yeah, I'm good. That was amazing." He motioned to the dead Cons.

The Bot nodded sharply and transformed into his Cybertronian car form, the side passenger door opening. "I've already informed Optimus that you're alive and well," the master fighter said through the radio. "Everyone's very anxious to meet you when you're not chained to a chair."

Caden raised an eyebrow and suppressed a smile as he climbed in. Alien robots with a sense of humor. Guess I am that lucky. "Even Lennox?"

"Especially Lennox." They drove for a few minutes before Caden spoke up.

"So what happened to the rest of the Cons?"

"Tucked tail and ran back to Megatron when they realized we knew what they were after and started giving you cover. Megs isn't gonna be happy about that, especially if he sent this much manpower, including Starscream, to take you out. They'll want to hear a reason for that, too."

Caden nodded, then turned his mind to other matters, expression grim. "How many casualties?"

The Autobot's voice grew low and mournful. "About a dozen or so soldiers, maybe twenty civilians. No Autobot casualties. We were unprepared, but it's better than it could have been."

A wave of guilt rushed through Drake nonetheless, at all the lives lost just so this Megatron could get to him. "Well," he said halfheartedly, "that's something, I guess." For the rest of the ride, he was silent, and so was his driver, the latter seeming to understand what he was feeling. When they arrived, Optimus and the other Autobots were waiting for them in the command building, expressions neutral. When he got out of the car, his Autobot escort transformed and joined his comrades in their bipedal forms, all looking at him silently until Lennox stepped forward and spoke.

"I still don't know who you are, or where you came from, but you saved my life. Thank you." Will held out his hand, and Caden shook it with a nod after a second. "Not sure where this leaves you, but…" the major glanced at the Bots and his soldiers, "we'll figure something out."

Caden raised an eyebrow. "Please, don't mistake my intentions. I don't work for you. I don't want to work for you. I do want to work with you, with all of you." An awkward silence hung in the air for a few moments.

"If it is acceptable to our human partners," Optimus started in his mechanical baritone, "I will be more than happy to accept you into our ranks. You have proven to be no friend of the Decepticons, and more than capable of handling yourself in combat. I also monitored your flight from the Combaticon, how you attempted to save the humans around you by luring your pursuer away." This turned a few heads, and Caden raised his eyebrows. How did he do that? He wasn't there. "Most admirable."

Lennox turned back to Caden and hesitated a second before speaking again. "I'm sure the brass will be more than eager to take on someone with your talents as an, uh…" He stuttered at a loss for words until Caden finished his sentence.

"A consultant."

Lennox cocked his head and arched an eyebrow slightly in thought. "Perfect." He held out his hand again and Caden shook it without hesitation, maintaining the grip for a few seconds as Lennox spoke again. "Welcome to NEST."

The teen smiled. "Thank you, Major."

…

NEST regional installation, 6 miles outside of Pheonix, AZ

Caden stood in the wreckage hangar of the base, staring in mute sorrow at the bisected wreck in front of him. His steel-gray Lamborghini sat in front of him, or, rather, what was left of it. This was my first long-term stick-shift. Custom paint, custom engine, custom...everything. A real beauty of automotive engineering, if I may say so myself. Movement in his peripheral vision got his attention, but he barely gave the source a glance before he focused back on the wreck.

"We've met twice," Caden started, his voice neutral, "you've saved my life, and I still don't know your name."

"Hawk," the Bot replied in the same tone, causing Drake to look up at his helm, noting the significance of the wings for the first time. Suddenly, and without warning, Caden's face twisted into an ear-to-ear grin, which led almost immediately to hysterical laughter. Confused, Hawk looked at him in concern.

"Well, Hawk," Drake said between fits of laughter, "you owe me a new car." He kept laughing for a few more seconds before it calmed down and his grin faded to a slight curve. "Though I think saving my life more than makes up for it." When the Bot didn't respond, the spy thought he'd offended his rescuer and looked up to see Hawk instead looking at the wreck very intently, his eyes glowing even brighter and transmitting a series of beams over the bisected vehicle. When it ended, the charcoal-black Bot spoke.

"Who says I can't give you both?" Immediately, Hawk's plates began to shift in shape and color, the wheels and contoured panels shifting as his color shifted to the same steel-gray color as Caden's totaled Lambo. Caden grinned knowingly as his eyes widened in recognition, and Hawk transformed for the first time after the scan-right into his Lamborghini Embolado. The driver-side door opened, and Drake stepped in, seating himself in an exact replica of his car. And since he's an alien robot, I'm guessing he has a few upgrades of his own. Surprisingly, the Autobot let him handle the keys and stick, shifting to back out of the hangar.

"You okay letting me drive you," he asks the car.

"Of course. I know you won't do anything you wouldn't to your own car."

Caden smiled. "No, but I have to warn you, I'm a little rough with the shifter sometimes. And I like to go fast."

The Bot chuckled through the radio. "That makes two of us."

A determined smile settling on his face, Caden shifted into first gear and gunned the engine, accelerating at his Lambo's previous massive rate and shifting as needed to get up to nearly two-hundred miles an hour. He heard a gentle humming from the engine, the seats, the car's entire being, and took it as a sign of appreciation, as the spy seemed to be able to handle tight maneuvers and turns at high speeds that even Hawk would be hard-pressed to perform. It was less than three minutes before Caden looped his path back around the hot Arizona roads toward Pheonix and another four before he pulled into the drop-off loop at Pheonix Sky International Airport.

"So," Caden said as he braked to a stop, "I'll stay in touch."

The Autobot laughed. "You better, or I'll be forced to hunt you down and deliver your job offer personally."

"Well, I live near DC, so...unless you're willing to trek all that way, I doubt that'll happen."

"Might be more likely than you think. Heard some of the brass discussing moving our HQ to DC, since our current base is compromised, and Diego Garcia has been abandoned."

"Diego Garcia?"

"Long story."

Caden nodded slowly. "Gonna be a lot of those exchanged between us, I hope."

"Definitely. Can't wait to hear the long version of your 'short story.'"

Caden chuckled slightly. "No, it'll be a long version of a really long story." A moment or two passed before the spy checked his watch. "Well, anyway, I have a flight to catch. Make sure your leaders move NEST to DC. I meant what I said about you owing me a car. Mostly." They laughed together. "I'll see ya later, Hawk."

"Take care of yourself, Caden."

Caden gave him a final nod as he stepped out of the driver's seat and slammed the door shut behind him, walking to the curb of the entrance and watching as the living copy of his car drove away. A smile crept to his lips as he turned around and walked through the front doors of the airport, toward his flight and a new life that was so unlike anything he had ever experienced or expected. As he leaned back in his window seat, looking out the glass at the clouds zooming by, his thoughts kept drifting back to his new comrades.

Alien robots. Autobots. Maybe it was just wishful thinking, but he thought they were about as friendly as it gets with new people. On the upside, he had a new car. That talks-and fights like a demon. Like me. A friend? Maybe. Ally? Definitely. I just hope I can fully prove myself worthy of their trust. His expression darkened. And find out just why this "Megatron" wants me dead. A small, rueful smile reached his lips after a minute. This really is a brave new world.

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AN: Please review and recommend.

Musical Inspirations:

Transformers: AOE - Cemetery Wind: start - Optimus gets Caden to Phoenix, 3:00 - chase with Combaticon, 4:55 - rescue by Hawk