Chapter 2

As you landed roughly on the other side of the sand dune the paved desert road came into sight. On it stood alone human and a bulky dark green mech. Transforming while still moving towards them, you jogged off the speed to stop on the black asphalt. "Solarcell" you said in greeting nodding your head at him, "and who mite you be?" You asked looking down at the dark haired human with goggles and a red bandana over his face.

The mech gave a rumble of laughter, "Flicker meet David Pine, David meet Flicker." The two of you exchanged a careful handshake.

"Nice ta meet ya" You couldn't identify the slight accent. David was a well muscled man standing at 5' 10'' and had a dark tan skin tone.

"I am sorry to tell you this but there are no human facilities, or water, and very little shelter out here." you stated calmly looking down at the human. Standing he was just below hip height, and at 13 feet yourself, you didn't stand high amongst the ranks

Solarcell laughed, and you glanced at him. "Flicker didn't Blaster tell you?" you shook your head. "Oh! Well Ratchet nearly blew a gasket when he found out you had been on earth for over a year and hadn't had a single check up, and the fact that you were out here by yourself didn't help his mode; so you're to report back to base as soon as possible. David is here on his governments' part and you will be taking him back to base with you."

You groaned holding your head, "Ratchet the Hatchet?"

"The one and only!" Your vents hissed; you'd be getting one pit of a tirade before leaving his medbay.

"Blaster probably laughing his aft off right now." You muttered to yourself, "I'll get even with him once Ratchet's done with me."

Finally exchanging tips of living in the desert and the quadrants of some possible bases that he could fit into, you said goodbye to Solarcell as he transformed into a large military hovercraft and drove out.

"So David, do you like music?" you questioned sitting down next to him. He looked up a little surprised. Sitting you were still a good foot taller than him.

"Loved it since I was little" with the bandana now around his neck and the goggles on his head, you saw the grin spread wide across his face.

"How about jumps, do you have any problem with me going off them?"

"The bigger the better!" he declared with a fist in the air.

Your engine rumbled with a chuckle, "We're going to get along great then." You told him happily, leaning forward as you shifted into your dune buggy alt. mode. To which David gave a whistle.

From research you did on the internet, you knew your alt. mode was drastically different from most buggies. The body and engine were well covered and hidden from sight with dirty black and orange armor, and the wheels, struts, and shocks were positioned well away from the body to give more handling and balance on uneven surfaces.

"I've never seen a buggy like this before." He circled your form, "did you make it up or is a concept buggy that I've never seen?" You shifted your wide tires nervously.

"A little bit of both, I hacked one of the companies that makes buggies and copied the layout plains. Then I modified them so it was more efficient." What would this human think of your actions?

"Nice!" He eagerly grabbed his two bags; stowed them in a covered compartment that your alt. mode had in the back, then strapped himself into the passenger seat. "Ready when you are," he said pulling the bandana almost up to the bridge of his nose and the goggles down.

"Wait a sec. here take this." You said popping open the small glove box.

"Wha'?"

Inside were two miniature headsets. David gently picked one up."So you can hear me and I can hear you over the wind and sand."

"K got it" he stated, wiggling the headset under the goggle band and bandana.

"Don't lose it! It took me a long time to make."

"Um . . . will do!" he shook his head to make sure it didn't fall out.

"Good, now were we . . ." and with that you put the pedal to the medal and speed off across the sands. David hollering in joy just as much as you.