CHAPTER ONE

Uncaring

*

Could this be it?

The dark Decepticon stumbled through the woods, his body heavily damaged from the fight he had just endured. He had been sent by Starscream to investigate an extremely high energy signature coming from the human town of Perth – which also happened to be overrun with Autobots, and all of them now had their scanner out searching for the unlucky Decepticon, Barricade.

Barricade might as well have been walking into a trap, as suddenly he had been surrounded by Autobots, one of which was the weapons specialist, Ironhide.

Barricade could hear the black Autobot shouting, something about not to let the Decepticon-scum get away.

Clenching his clawed fists, Barricade willed himself to keep moving forward, to not let himself get captured.

"Barricade to Starscream," Barricade tried. "Barricade to Starscream, come in!?" Barricade growled angrily when he realised that his communications had been damaged. There was no way to call for backup now.

The only way he'd survive was if he lost them, then transformed and get himself out of there – if he could still transform, that is.

*

She sat in maths class, her head on her desk as she tried to keep her violet eyes open. Her dark hair fell around her face like a curtain, her blue school dress was too big for her, and she was wearing a jumper even though it was summer.

She was Celestia Imperia, a sixteen year old year twelve student at St. Margaret's All-Girls School in Perth city, and school was the bane of her existence – as was home.

Neither place held any comfort for her, but at least in maths she could sleep, because that's what half the class was doing, and the blind teacher really didn't seem to notice.

Celestia's left hand held a pencil in it and, with the pencil, she sketched in a book. She was drawing something that reminded her of a robot, sort of. She wasn't really sure. She didn't really care.

Celestia was one of those people who had given up caring a long time ago. The only reason she kept herself alive was because of the faint hope that, next year, she was turning eighteen. She would finally be considered an adult and, as such, would be able to go out on her own.

That was the only day Celestia really cared about.

Other then that, anything else, Celestia didn't care. When she was around others, she didn't get upset, angry, embarrassed or happy. She came across as being terribly stoic, but she had good reasons to do so.

She rarely ever smiled but, when he did, it was like sunshine on a rainy day.

Her only releases, really, were drawing. That, and music. Celestia played the piano at school, she sung and also played multiple other instruments. She took language classes at school and spoke fluent Japanese and French, and she was at the top of all of her classes – she studied for no particular reason.

She was beyond caring what her parents thought about her. She was beyond caring what they did to her.

Only when the bell rang did Celstia raise her head, and collect her books slowly. Her classmates were used to this. None of them paid her any attention. The only ones who ever really did were the bitchy girls of the school who, thankfully, were not in her maths class that day.

With her usual stoic expression, Celstia left the classroom, and headed up to the sports centre where her English class was.

Once in the class, Celestia made a very unusual, snap decision, and decided to colour in the picture she had been drawing.

She made it black, with red markings, and bright red eyes. The robot, she decided, looked fairly evil, but that didn't matter.

Actually, he looked kind of cool.

"Celestia!" The English teacher wasn't as lenient as the maths teacher (for one, she wasn't blind), and confiscated the drawing.

She went to tear it up.

Not that Celestia actually cared – it didn't matter, until she realised that she wanted the pictures.

"I want the picture." Celestia said quietly, holding out her hand.

No one knew who was more shocked, Celestia or the teacher.

But, it didn't matter right then.

*

Barricade stumbled out of the woods, and into the sunlight. He didn't know where he was, and it didn't really matter, because the Autobots had found him.

How? How had they tracked him down so easily?

"Don't let him get away!" One of them, the medic Ratchet, said.

Ironhide fired his cannon, which caught Barricade squarely in the chest, and pushed the Decepticon back into a building.

"Be careful, Ironhide!" Ratchet scolded the weapons specialist, as humans began running and screaming, understandably panicking.

Barricade groaned, and that was when he heard Starscream's voice. "Barricade? Come in."

"Finally, Lord Starscream," Barricade said, bitterness creeping into his voice.

"Have you located the source of the power yet?"

"I have a few other things on my hands!" Barricade snapped, getting up and dodging heavy fire from all three Autobots – Ironhide, Ratchet and Jazz. "I need some back-up!"

…

"Lord Starscream?"

…

"Oh damn!" Barricade shouted, wondering what the frag was wrong with his communications devices these days! He aimed a shot at Jazz, but was hit from behind by Ratchet's cannon-fire.

Barricade was slammed into a nearby building, and felt his circuits begin to fail.

Yeah…they're definitely gonna take me offline today…damn… Barricade thought, glancing up at the sky, and closing his red optics for a few moments.

When he opened them again, everything had changed.

*

Celestia knew she should be running from this insanely unreal event – a giant robot attack. It was the kind of thing you only see in sci-fi movies, and video games.

She should really be running, and she should really be caring.

But, she didn't run – but she did care about something.

Three of the robots were ganging up on the fourth robot, who was outnumbered by these odds.

It just didn't seem fair.

Celestia frowned slightly. What had this robot done to deserve being hurt like this by three others? Even if he had done something really, really bad, this was hardly a fair fight.

It really wasn't fair.

"Any last words, Decepticon?"

What's a Decepticon?

"Yeah…it will take more then this, Autobot."

He's so brave…but what's an Autobot?

Celestia's hands began to shake, including the one holding the drawing she had snagged back from the teacher.

If he had cared to look, she would have seen that the paper was glowing.

She eventually looked down, just as the paper exploded in a burst of blue light, which travelled over to just in front of the hurt robot, and caused the other three to stop advancing on him.

The light expanded, taking the shape of a fifth robot. As the light began to fade, Celestia could make out the features of the robot, as the exact same ones as she had just finished drawing and colouring in.

He glared at the three standing robots as the light faded.

Celestia could only stare. He was the most amazing thing she had ever seen, and not many things amazed the quiet girl anymore.

But, a giant robot suddenly taking shape from a picture she had drawn…now that was amazing.

"Barricade," The new robot said in a voice that made Celestia's heart falter slightly. Not that she cared or knew why. "Transform and get out of here. I'll cover your escape."

Huh?

*

Barricade glanced around, before his red optics came to rest on Celestia.

She was standing there, with her unblinking violet eyes, staring at him with absolutely no expression on her face.

In an instant, Barricade felt some unexplainable force pulling him to stay, but why?

This human…she didn't look like other humans. Her eyes, for one thing, were like ultra-violet orbs of light. Her skin was pale, her dark hair shiny but unkempt. Her blue dress was two big for her, and masked whatever figure she might've had.

Still, he hesitated.

On her left cheek was a black tattoo, of a butterfly. Barricade knew about human tattoos, and how much it hurt to have one. How could a human so small put up with that much pain? Humans were weak creatures, after all.

Then, the moment passed, and Barricade transformed into an American-style Saleen S281 "Extreme" Mustang. He sped out onto the main road, and then heard the sound of changing metal behind him, knowing that whoever this Transformer was who had saved him, was now following him.

Barricade didn't know what had just happened, or why.

He didn't know who this newcomer was.

He didn't know who that human girl was, or why he had wanted to stay where she was.

Why should he care?

The most important thing now was to report back to "Lord" Starscream, and find out more about this newcomer…

*

For ten minutes after the robots left, the three had left quickly after the first two when the sound of police sirens had filled the air, Celestia just stood there, staring at the spot where the fifth robot had appeared.

"What…just happened?" She wondered.

Why should she care?