Spike yawned.

He didn't remember much els after he brought that strange object home. He had not realized just how tired he was till he actually laid down and closed his eyes. Next thing he remembered was well... waking up... just now.

He suddenly remembered something els very important at that moment.

'oooh yeah! time to check the news'

Spike reached over the nightstand next to his bed and pulled out his smart phone out of the charger that it had been plugged in. He then activated it and went straight to the local news website. sure enough, there was something there.

'witnesses claim to have seen something crash off the coast of Newport Oregon, Authorities have went out but found nothing,'

Really...? How the hell could they have not found anything, that was a big jet. There should have been at least some debris found... or even bodies if the hadn't picked up on the actual wreckage lying beneath the ocean. The water off to the coast was deep yes, but sonar should be able to find anything. Ships that were about 6 miles below the surface have been found with sonar technology... so how did they not find anything? Maybe whatever it was had been incinerated to tiny atoms... that could have been possibly. There still had to be some trace evidence though.

Spike had heard about air craft that had crashed into the ocean and were never found. That hardly applied to huge modern state of the art passenger jet. They were well monitored nowadays; They had data boxes, tracking devices and just about anything anyone could think of (except more seat room in coach)... as a matter of fact the last major jet that had went missing (which happened somewhere over the ocean near Brazil that Spike could remember) was found shortly after. It had a very grim outcome though. There had been a couple of hundred people on board, but no one had survived. So it wouldn't surprise Spike if they would not find anyone alive in this crash here.

Spike kept reading through the rest of the article. The people who said they saw it gave the same exact detail Spike had seen, every bit of it accurate to a T... so hopefully Spike wasn't crazy or just overly tired that night and fell asleep at the wheel of his car.

Much to the Teen's dismay though, the article really didn't give much information at all aside from the eye witnesses accounts, it was mainly a bunch of old hoots reciting their theories on how it was aliens...

stupid...

Spike suddenly frowned. He reached under his pillow and sure enough, there it was, looking no different than it did the night he had found it; As he pulled it out with both hands the bright blue hieroglyphics glowed. The object looked so different in the morning sunlight, it was silver but had a curious orange tint of hue to it.

What is this thing...? gotta be some purpose to it... maybe some one put on the beach as a hoax?

Spike was wondering if those old hoots were right, as stupid as it was. The object looked almost too elaborate for a hoax because if it was... someone probably spent a lot of money to make it happen. The object had such unusual elements, nothing that he had ever learned about in school. It was things like this that he actually did enjoy studying in school too. He actually at one point had thought about being a geologist... but that was back in seventh grade. He very really lost interest for the subject but he was at a point in his life where he was exploring other possibilities. So it still wasn't out of the question.

Another word popped in his head,

'cryptozoology'

Spike didn't believe in ghosts, monsters or aliens at all. Sure he was fascinated as a little kid by them at one point but he was nearly an adult now, and as far as he was concerned those things were just apart of human imagination. They existed because people wanted something mysterious and exciting to believe in. No one has ever proved any of them ever existed... If they were real there would have been well... actual evidence to back them up. For one thing, a body perhaps? DNA? Who knows though, maybe one day somebody would have something to show for it, till then, he wasn't buying into it.

Spikes' thoughts were interrupted by an intruder at the edge of his door, one he did not see open his door...

"Spike!"

Spike could have sworn his heart almost flew out of chest. He quickly pulled the blanket covers over the object to cover it. Determined to cover it up and act like nothing had happened.

"Daniel! haven't you heard of knocking on peoples doors!?" the unhappy teenager snapped. he wasn't too happy about his brother bursting into his room, especially since he was trying to hide something that he clearly knew wasn't supposed to be in his house.

"Relax brother! don't get so hissy pissy at me," Daniel wrapped his arms around his chest and pouted. He changed his expression right away as he continued to speak, " Dad wants us to wash the car later on today,"

"kay," Spike replied, not even trying to hide his irritation because he was clearly not happy about his brother walking in... not even bothering to knock. That was one of Spikes pet peeves too, when people did something that he thought was rude. It just didn't slide well with him at all. If someone did something rude he desperately wanted to say 'excuse you...', but that never really happened. He just wasn't the confrontational type.

Daniel rubbed his little hands together and grinned, clearly not caring about his olders' brothers annoyance, "ooooh! whats that growling thing you have there Spike? I saw you bring it in last night,"

Spike frowned,

'nosey little bugger...'

Of course his plan to bring the object in without any notice didn't go as well as he had hoped... Its hard to keep secret around when you have nosey younger siblings in the house; It wasn't that Spike didn't like Daniel, he adored Daniel. The two of them had a seven year age difference but they grew up together in the same house hold. Daniel took the place of their Older Brother Buster who had moved out about seven years ago; At that time Spike had been about the same age as Daniel. It was very hard for him when Buster had moved out because he was fairly close to him. He and Buster grew up together and had a very tight knit bond... Spike had never cried so much in his life the day Buster hopped aboard his U-haul. Fast forward to now to seven years later, and here was Spike now. he had the 'big-brother-role' with Daniel that that Buster had with him. It made Spike wonder how Buster had dealt with his nosey ness at that time, because Spike did the exact thing to Buster as Daniel was doing to him now... such irony.

Spike wasn't entirely sure what he should do that moment, but he knew if he tried to hide that item Daniel would get their parents after him and it would be everyones secret... Actually, his mom would make him toss it out in a heart beat, no questions asked. So Spike just pulled it out of the covers.

He let out a defeated sigh, "please don't tell mom and dad about this Daniel..."

Daniel nodded, his eyes were still on the object... he was very entranced by it, it was almost like he was starring off into space. The young child came over and put his hand on the object. The hieroglyphs made themselves present once again with his touch,"whoaa... this is pretty cool..."

"yeah... too bad we don't know what it is," Spike bit his lip, a little nervous. He had quite a bit to think. He honestly wondered if he should have bought it in the house with him. Another thing he could have done was bury it out in the backyard. Only problem was the dogs though... they would find it. Probably chew on it which would put them at worse risk than he and Daniel were at. So that wasn't quite an option.

"So what are you gonna do with it Spike?" Daniel looked up at his older brother, a toothy grin plastered on his round face.

"I don't know, just keep it here for now?" Spike honestly wasn't sure either. What was he supposed to do with it?

Spike then gave Daniel a fairly stern look and spoke up, "Daniel, I know you like to go into my room and get into my stuff a lot but please, leave this thing alone, honestly I don't know if its dangerous or what... it shouldn't even be in my room, let alone the house."

"Kay," Daniel nodded. He seemed fairly calm about, unfazed by Spikes seriousness. That bothered Spike, because for what he knew, there could be some very serious consequences at stake. Sure a nine-year-old probably wouldn't take a situation like this seriously, but Spike was determined to make sure Daniel kept his word because dear heavens... who knows what will happen if he goes running around telling every kid at school.

"I really mean it Daniel, you cannot tell another soul about this," Spike made sure he sounded a little more stern that time. He wanted to make sure Daniel got the message and that he wasn't taking this lightly.

"I know I know Spike, I can hear just fine," Spike could have sworn his younger brother was rolled his eyes but he couldn't tell since Daniel was starring down at the object, clearly still infatuated with it. Like a hungry dog eyeing food.

'this going to be a long day...'


Duncan, Oklahoma

01:50, Central time

The gas station sat outside of the town. It usually drew travelers from the highway who needed to stop for gas, food, drinks or sometimes even the bathroom. There was always one employee (maybe sometimes two) at the gas station. At this time it was young woman named Julia Dillards' turn to take the register.

Julia was 18-years of age. She was about 5'11 and barley weighed one hundred pounds making her fairly underweight for height, frame and age (she probably fell more into the category of emaciated). She had long, curly, frizzy dark brown hair that she often wore in a single braid draped to her right shoulder. Her usual daily wardrobe was mainly some hand me downs, including tops, t-shirts, blouses, a giant army hoodie (It had once belonged to her dad when he was in the army) and well worn jeans that were generally 3-4 sizes too big (They were usually hand me downs from her mother when she was about the same age s Julia...). Her choice of footwear was not much better either. She often wore a pair of black Chuck taylor's that were probably even older than she was. Julia really didn't care much thought about her appearance though. She lived by the 'jeans should be no more than twenty dollars' rule. She didn't have the money to spare for a... wide variety wardrobe like many girls her age had. She didn't let it bother her though. She didn't ask for too much in life, just her family, some very good friends, a roof over her head and a good meal whenever she was hungry.

Julia was very down to earth. She enjoyed meeting people and often did make conversation with customers who came to the gas station. She may have been friendly and open, but she also had a short temperament too if she was provoked or threatened in any way. Whenever one of those rare instances did happen, she would get very vocal and go into attack mode. If someone also made a poor statement, she might try to to 'remedy' it as well. Some people would probably say she is the 'confrontational' or 'outspoken' type. She would probably say otherwise.

The young woman had just graduated high school over a year ago and had since then been attending Texas State University. She wanted to be a doctor, a trauma surgeon to specific. She wanted to do it so she could help people, that was her whole drive to being a surgeon. She didn't know if she would be able to continue going to school though. Not because it she couldn't take the classes, but of the mounting expenses. Tuition, books, living expenses, car expenses... you name it. school costs easily somewhere between fifty to forty thousand for her per a year. All the jobs she could get were all minimum wage and they weren't quite helping her; She had also gotten some scholarships while she was in high school, but not very big ones, that was also still better than nothing though. Every penny was a blessing.

Her parents had try to pitch in for her. Unfortunately the family was at the poverty line and could barley help themselves; The family had been struggling to make ends meet since the economy took a dive back in 2007. Her dad had his stable job of fifteen years swept away along with nearly everything they owned. Before the economy collapse, the family had been living in a lovely, humble and comfortable two story house in Houston Texas. They were by no means wealthy, even back then. They just had what they needed; food, clothes, a house and a little disposable income every now and then.

They had lost that lovely little house in Houston about nearly four years back and had been since living with the grandparents in their trailer home. The tiny trailor home was in a an RV camp in the city of Duncan Oklahoma. It very cramped and even more so since there was about eight people living in there now (not counting Julia herself) as well as a couple of dogs, plus some stray cats (yes they were stray, but the family grew attached to the cats and started treating them like they were their cats, feeding them and letting them in the house). The other people who lived in the tiny mobile home besides her grandparents and parents were her aunt and some of her cousins who had also fallen on hard times. Julia didn't mind most of them, She actually had a good friend with one of her aunts children named Ellinisha. She loved Ellinisha like a younger sister. but she couldn't stand Ellinishas' mother (who was also her aunt). Her auntie had a really bad drinking problem. She was a very mean drunk. She typically said very ugly things to the family on a regular basis as well as hit them sometimes. There had been a very nasty incident where she had punched her sister (Julia's mother) in the face just because she didn't give her the television remote. That did not sit well with Julia. At all. There wasn't really anything she could do about it though because her mother refused to issue any criminal charges against her.

She really wanted to get her family out of the mobile home. Now here she was, trying to support them and her school working at the 'graveyard shift' at a gas station almost out in the middle of nowhere. Actually it wasn't that bad. She did have some brush ins with some really odd customers before. Almost... very creepy customers. That was gonna stop her from the job though, she had to do it.

Julia wasn't unarmed. she kept a tiny little pistol tucked in her oversized army hoodie that her dad had given to her when she started work at the gas station. He told her that he didn't think it was safe for her to be working alone at a gas station at midnight and that some opportunist might come along and try to take advantage of her, so she should have something to defend herself with.

Or as he had basically told her...

'...here, If they try to do something to you, put a bullet through their balls..."

Julia thought it was funny at the time. But now she was actually pretty grateful for it because she felt a sense of security. It gave her a chance to fight back if she found herself in a dire predicament; In which she hoped she would never find herself in. She would really rathe not use the gun unless she absolutely needed to. The thought of putting a bullet through somebodies head didn't make her feel that good. Well, better them than her. She wasn't going to do nothing if she was in danger.

Julia had been so deep in thought that was startled by a ringing noise. the ringing that usually indicated someone had entered through the front door. The young woman peered up to acknowledge whoever had entered. The person who had entered was an old man. He was about in his late seventies or so. He looked fairly health for someone his age, didn't seem to have that much trouble walking, no glasses or hearing aids evident on him. He was actually wearing a very nice tailored suit too with matching polished black shoes.

Julia smiled warmly as she greeted him, "Hello,"

The man smiled back, "Hi, um excuse me miss, is there a bathroom I can use?"

Julia learned forward and pointed behind that man, "ahhh yeah! the door is right next to the beer cooler over there,"

"thank you miss," the man disappeared as fast as he could into the bathroom.

Julia looked outside at the parking lot to see if there were anymore els around. Closing time had to be very soon and she felt like she was going to fall asleep any minute. She hadn't paid much attention to the parking lot outside as she dozed off a little. What she saw outside in the parking lot was shocking, she literally had to pinch herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming or just seeing things.

Right outside the front door window was a car. Not just any car. It was bright cherry red Lamborghini. It looked as though it had just rolled off the assembly line.

A Lamborghini was something nobody ever saw in Duncan Oklahoma. ever.

'Now how could I have not seen that?' She was puzzled because it was an inconspicuous car, and she didn't even see it drive up to the store. She must have been very tired indeed; She couldn't help but notice It had a handicap sign on it, so it probably had to have belonged to that elder man. He didn't look handicap to her though.

Julia was starring at the car so intently she failed to notice that there was something out in the nearby fields watching the gas station; It wasn't just something, it was two beings, one red the other one yellow. Their bright fluorescent blue eyes glowed as they looked at the gas station, observing their surroundings for something. The beings found themselves interested in the Lamborghini too, but for very different reasons than Julia.

One of them scanned it with his eyes, and in a matter of mili-seconds folded itself in way that it took on the form of the bright red Lamborghini. Its transformation was fast and flawless, anyone looking at it would think it was an actual car.

The second one seemed hesitant and let out some rumbling as he spoke rather disdainfully in another language, one that would be almost impossible for any humans to understand or mimic. He transformed into the Lamborghini too, but he kept his bright and almost fluorescent yellow.

As the final one had finished his transformation the owner of the car, the old man, came out of the gas station. The elder man started his car very slowly and then as he finished backing out of the parking lot, he sped away.

By this time, Julia was no longer at the counter. now she was at the back of the store closing shop. It was already a few minutes past closing time but she let it slide so the man could use the bathroom. No harm in that; the young woman had already locked the front door as soon as the man left. she hadn't locked the back door yet though. That was to be her last stop because that was where she was going to exit there.

It took about a little over five minutes for Julia to get everything squared away. She made her way out the back door, locking it as she closed it behind her. Once that was done she started her walk across the long parking lot. As tiny as the gas station was, it had an enormous lot. Sure she could just park right up in front of the store but she usually parked further down to make it easier for her to pull out because the parking lot at the store was awfully close to the gas pumps and she wasn't about to be fined for parking in the handicapped parking spaces.

Her walk through the parking lot wasn't anything unusual. That was until she noticed some movement at the corner of her eye.

She quickly reached for in her hoodie pocket for her gun; With gun drawn she turned whipped around in a fraction of a second to confront whoever it was, ready to fire if they dared to do anything.

What she saw was no burglar, thug or even a human being at all, but only something that could possibly be some Sci-Fi thriller movie.

There was two huge robotic beings standing over the gas pumps, helping them selves to the fuel as it leaked on the ground. One of the robots was a bright red the other one was an even brighter yellow; Julia almost screamed. Luckily she managed to stop herself because if she had, they would have noticed her. She probably would be noticed at any moment though because she was standing out in the middle of the parking lot... under a damn street light that somehow happened to still be on even at the wee hours of two o' clock in the morning.

'Fuck...'

Julia found herself shaking uncontrollably. She was struggling to hold her gun and cursing away under her breath. she had never ever been so scrared in her life.

'Oh shit... you got to be kidding me'

Much to her dismay, one of them turned around and saw her, locking its bright blue glowing and almost alien eyes on her.

She felt her blood turn into pure adrenaline as fight or flight mode kicked in, and clearly it was flight mode that took hold. She dropped her gun and in a split of second, she sprinted as fast as she could to the mini mart she had been in just mere seconds ago; She did not dare to look behind her. That was another thing her dad had taught her.

'If you are running, never ever look back,'

Julia was by no means athletic, sure she was skinny but she was in awful cardiovascular shape. she could barley run a quarter of a mile without clunking out. However, at this moment, she found herself running at a speed that was almost inhumanely possible. Adrenaline was amazing.

The young terrified woman was at the back door in just seconds, but as she attempted to open the door, her panic grew.

'oooh fuck! its locked, quick open the damn door you piece of shit key!'

She had forgotten that she had locked the doors as she left. Oops. If Only she had forgotten to lock it as she left; She tried to retrieve the key and open it, but she wasn't quick enough. Something hard and metallic wrapped around her waist, and before she realized what had just happened, she was about a good fifteen to twenty feet or so off the ground.

One of them had plucked her off the ground. It was the red one.

It held her up to its face. From what she could tell it had It had a face. There were eyes, lips, nose and cheeks, all of them had almost very humanoid features to them. On top of that, it appeared to be fairly young. She could also make it out as being a male. well, only by studying its facial features. The body could tell a different story though.

His bright blue glowing eyes were starring straight into her dark brown eyes. They held no malice of any sort, as a matter of fact they almost seemed... curious; He didn't look like he was going to crush her in his hand either. The grip he had on her was actually fairly gentle, yet firm. That was some relief for her, not much though. She didn't know what he was capable of or just how dangerous he was.

Its a shame there was no survival guides to surviving extra terrestrials. Because hat would have been nice at the moment

She raised her hands up in surrender, hoping that maybe she could get him to let her go. Instead, he tilted its head a little bit. He then stared at her more carefully, squinting his eyes as it did so; She was taken aback as he suddenly grinned. It was a very... mischievous grin. That kind of scared her; Then he pulled up his free hand and tugged at her long, disastrous, brown frizzy hair. He seemed fascinated by her messy mane as he played with it. She raised her hands up and swatted its fingers away in annoyance and with the fact he starting to tug a little too hard on her hair. This gesture only made his grin widened in amusement; As She starred at his almost cheshire grin, she could actually see that he had some canines. That was interesting.

Her observation was interrupted by a sudden loud noise behind the red menace. If she didn't know any better, it almost seemed like some sort of snort.

The noise came from the almost forgotten yellow menace who had been standing behind Red the whole time. He had the opposite expression than that of its Red. His face had a rather annoyed and sour look. He was also leaning on one of the gas pumps with his arm and his legs were crossed in a impatient manner.

Yellow, just like red, was a very flamboyant color. Only difference was, it was even more flamboyant than Red and it was yellow. His color was notably bright even from the lack of light outside. His face was encased by some type of helm that had two long black and yellow striped panels sticking out, it was quite interesting looking.

Yellow let out a series of noises to the red one. It was communicating with Red, and it didn't sound very happy. She could tell this by the noises he was letting out the noises and his by his rather, hostile body language. Never the less, Red smirked and waved him off. Yellow gave him an even more displeased look.

Julia raised one her eyebrows up. These robots were nothing like ones she had seen in movies where they were portrayed as mindless creatures or spoke in monotone. These guys sure weren't speaking in monotone. They seemed to be anything but mindless as well.

The red one turned its attention back to her and hen turned over to the Yellow. Much to Julia and Yellow's dismay, (which was clearly written all over its face), red deposited her in Yellows' hand hand.

Red raised his hand at yellow and said a few things in his language. She didn't know what he was saying, but body language seemed to be saying he was trying to be reassuring to Yellow... probably trying to make sure he wasn't going to drop her. Or worse.

She felt yellow loosening his grip on her till he barley held her by a few inches of the back of her hoodie. She peered up at him. He did not look happy. At all.

Doing the best he could to distance her from himself, he drew his hand that held her as far away from his body as he could while starring at her like she had the plague or some real nasty disease. He made no effort to hide any contempt he had for her, that was for sure.

Her attention snapped away from him as she heard glass shattering.

She looked over to see what the source of noise was; From what she could see, Red one had broken the whole front door of the mini mart. He was down on all fours as he let his hands feel around for something in the shop. He rummaged through the building for what was a good five minutes/ It seemed forever to her because of the uncomfortable way yellow was holding her by her hoodie. She tried slipping out but her arms were stuck,.he probably did that on purpose to make sure she wouldn't fall out of her hoody and and scamper away. Not that she could outrun them if she managed to get away; The red one had caught her pretty easily in a matter of seconds.

Red suddenly chirped gleefully, Whatever he was looking for, he had found.

Red paused for a moment. Thats when Julia saw some small black cable came out of his fingers as he touched the object, which she could barley make it. She knew by his position that it either had to be the register or computer. She didn't think it was going to be the register though.

Reds' blue eyes were flashing as he sat there for about a minute. He suddenly smiled.

Yellow, who now lost all of his patience, (if he had any to began with) stormed over.

Before Julia knew it, she was roughly deposited on his Reds' cold, hard, metal shoulder; She yelped at the sudden impact as a she felt a sharp pain in her buttocks, "Hey! Do you mind!? That hurts!", She was pretty sure she was going to have a giant bruise down there.

Red seemed startled at his partners sudden outburst too; He shifted which made Julia nearly from his shoulder. Luckily, he seemed to be quick at reacting, and with little effort, he caught her before she slammed down on the asphalt, which was the last thing she needed since she already had a possible injury.

"Sunny! what the slag do you think you're doing!?"

Julia was completely taken aback. a few minutes ago he was talking in a completely different language, and now he just said something in english.

She yelped, "What!? You can talk!?"

Red looked over to the young woman in his hand, who was complete shock.

He grinned in amusement, "Well of course! What did you think? we're some sort of unintelligent lifeforms? Well Sunny probably is," he laughed. His yellow friend frowned and lifted an unamused eyebrow at him... or at least what looked like an eyebrow. He didn't understand the language red was talking in, but he had a clear cut idea what that he was mocking him.

Red just grinned at Yellows' expression. He turned his attention back to Julia and smiled almost... warmly at her.

Any remaining fear that Julia had was fading. So far Red seemed friendly to her and he didn't show any signs (well not yet) that he was going to harm her. If she didn't know any better he seemed be playfully harassing her for his own amusement. If she still didn't know any better, there seemed to be some hint of flirting too... that was even more bizarre to her. No one really did that to her. She didn't dress for it or did anything to draw that kinda of attention. Well, maybe when she was twelve to thirteen years old she did teeter toward it but she lost interest in it pretty quickly. Who knows, maybe Red was just simply being, friendly. He did have a very good temperament. Well so far he did.

Yellow was a completely different story from his him. Yellow clearly did not like her. She may have not understood him (well at the moment), but body language is far more powerful than words. His body language clearly said that she was some disgusting little vermin below his feet. He probably would have stepped on her if it had not been for Red.

Well, best thing I can do is keep him talking...

Julia spoke again, "Who are you? What do you and your... uh... friend want?"

His face brightened up, "My name is Sideswipe, but you can call me sides," he grinned for a quick second, showing those unusual canines again, and continued," Well, we found this place which happens to be a fuel stop. We were running low on energy so we decided we should get it here. plus on top of that, we still needed disguises. I actually found some that I liked, but Sunshine over there has such ridiculously high standards!" He emphasized those last three words rather jokingly, then he continued, "ooh, and Sunshine over there is my twin brother. His real designation is Sunstreaker. Watch out though, he hates being called Sunny or sunshine," There was that grin, yet again.

Sunstreaker gave his brother a dirty look. Even though he still didn't understand the language at the moment, he knew what his brother poking fun at him. Sunstreaker said something in his native language. She didn't know what it was he said, but Sideswipe was laughing. Sideswipe stopped laughing though and he said something in his native language to his brother. His brother crossed his arm over his chest and gave him a look that said, "really? are you serious?. Sideswipe nodded and gestured over to the counter in the store. Thats when Julia finally got a good look at what he was pointing at. It was the store computer.

Sunstreaker snorted, but he complied with whatever his brother was telling him and very slowly and reluctantly crouched down so he could get into the store. Before he moved in he checked himself to make sure his flawless polish was not scratched in any way . Then he did exactly what Sideswipe had done just mere minuted earlier. He reached for the computer and let some cables that came out of fingers connect to it.

Sideswipe turned his attention back to Julia, "so... what is your designation squishy?"

It took Julia a moment to realize he was asking her name. That was understandable because usually people say, 'whats your name?' not 'whats your designation?'. Never the less, she answered his question, "Julia"

Sideswipe gave a curious look. It was almost the kind of look a three-year-old gave that had as it was observing something that it found interesting, "Julia huh?... interesting designation, you squishies sure have some interesting ones..."

Julia quivered her lip a little bit, "Uh yeah... actually its a common name," That was true, she knew quite a few other girls (not even counting herself) named Julia or Julie. Not that it was a bad name, but sometimes she wished her parents gave her a more... unique name. Still, there was nothing wrong with it.

Julia then mustered herself to ask Sideswipe a question that she wanted to ask him from the moment he picked her off the ground, "Um... Sideswipe, you're not planning on keeping me here are you?, because I am really tired and need to go home"

It wasn't that she didn't like him or anything. She still wasn't still entirely convinced that she was out of danger. So she still was trying to find some means of hopefully... make it home back safely. It was true though, she was really tired. The feeling of fatigue was gradually coming over since the main rush of adrenaline (that gave her that miraculous dash) had faded.

Sideswipe turned away from her. He had a rather thoughtful look on his face as he pulled his digits from his free hand under his chin, "hmmmm, sorry, can't let you run off... we can't risk blowing our cover in anyway... I mean, not saying you're a dishonest squishy but... well... its protocol and safety," He sounded torn, but he was thinking it over carefully.

Julia frowned. If she could not get them to let her go, who knows what might happen... Sideswipe may have seemed nice (well to a degree) but he could be hiding something. She kept as calm as she could and continued her case with him, "I Won't tell anyone, I promise, I just wanna go home..."

Sideswipe smiled and... purred. It was almost like a giant cat.

"Well you can sleep inside of me, got the best interior your earth vehicles can possibly have,"

Julia was taken aback, she didn't quite expect that as a response... nor was she sure what to say to that. Not that she didn't have a problem with being rude (she called it being upfront and honest though) to people who provoked or aggrovated her; No. She had no problem telling people up front or being very blunt about it. If some punk said something rude or crude to her or her friends, she got right in their face and sternly told them off. There was an incident back in her freshman year of high school when a group of senior girls were picking on a friend of hers because she was overweight and autistic. As soon as Julia found out about it, she took no time in confronting the girls. Before she knew it, she become the target of their aggression. She ultimately got into a physical fight with one of the girls (who had yelled at her, calling her a slut) in the hall way. That got her a week worth of detention... but hey, they left her alone after that.

It wasn't that she was mean or anything. It was just a part of her personality. If she saw something happening she just couldn't sit back.

Julia didn't want to get snazzy with Sideswipe, well... not unless she wanted to persuade him to let her go. That was something she had heard from people who survived these type of situations. They would often be nice to their captor and play along, make friendly conversation and treat them like they were their trusted friends... no matter how bad it is. Julia was pretty sure if she was in a worse situation than this, she probably wouldn't survive.

And suddenly, her conversation with Sideswipe was rudely interrupted, "Why the slag would you let that turbo rat sleep in you? She is filthy and disgusting,"

Julia felt instant anger, and without thinking at all, turned around sharply and lashed out, "Excuse me!? I bathe everyday!". Well, at least she tried to. She usually had to use the very cold showers at the nearby camp grounds (and they were cold). She also did take an occasional dip in the lake sometimes, but only in the summer because it would be too cold in the fall and spring. It was completely frozen in the winter. Still, what she had was probably better (just barley) than people who lived out in the prairie in the 1800's. She recalled reading in a book that people often used a huge bucket and took turns bathing in it. She would rather have the icy showers than that.

Sunstreaker gave Julia a baleful look that would easily have scared most people. He then begin to advance toward her. He looked like he was going take a swing at her. Luckily, Sideswipe pulled her closer to him and raised his hand to stop his brother, "Whoa whoa Sunny! come on! We're not supposed to hurt any local life on any planet! Its a major Autobot Protocal! Slag, Ratchet will probably grind us into spare parts if you do so much as to lay a digit on her,"

"Well that protocal is a bunch of slag! and we don't even know if ratchet survived the fragging crash! He could have easily been incinerated in the wreck!"

This Caught Julias' attention. Something about a crash. So these two were probably more than likely stranded from what Sunstreaker was implying.

"Whoa back up! Did you say crash!?"

If Julia was hoping to learn anything from Sunstreaker, he wasn't gonna tell her a damn thing. He just gave her a sour look and folded his arms in a very arrogant and rude fashion, "Its none of your business fleshy,"

That did not sit well at all with her; In an almost mimicking gesture of what he had just did, she crossed her arms over her chest, and returned his sour look, "My name is not Fleshy, it is Julia, J-u-l-i-a, Julia, not very hard to say for you I hope not!?"

Sunstreaker snorted and rolled his optics, "whatever you say,"

Julia huffed and let out long and deep breathe that blew her bangs clear out of her face. She didn't like him when she first met him a minute ago and she was already becoming less and less fond of him. He was like one of those individuals that she usually got into confrontations with; Arrogant, obnoxious, snobby punks... oh you name it. She had no tolerance for people like that and had no problem making a case against them. Sadly thats how she got into trouble. What she was not remembering was that at that if Sunstreaker really wanted to, he could step on her.

The whole group was quiet for a few seconds.

ultimately, Sideswipe broke the uncomfortable silence, "Yeah, well... you see... we were in a major crash-"

Sunstreaker coughed vehemently, "Don't tell her anything you moron, its none of slagging her business,"

Sideswipe glared at her brother, "She is going to be coming along with us so I think it will be nice to tell her at least something. Wouldn't you agree Sunshine?"

Sunstreaker threw his hands up, clearly not happy with the way this argument was going, "Whatever! Its your mistake if anything happens! I'm just trying to do the right thing. Here, keep talking to her. I'm gonna be over at one of those pumps refueling!" With that, he marched off. Not even bothering to glance back at his brother or Julia.

Sideswipe huffed and rolled his optics, "He usually isn't this bad, but he has been a complete aft for the last few cycles... well, anyhow where was I..." Sideswipe paused for a moment, and much to Julias' surprise (and delight), he put her down on the ground. "Oh yeah! well you see, my brother and I were on a huge ship that crash- well actually it broke apart..."

Julia raised a curious eye brow and inclined further toward him, she didn't mean to interrupt Sideswipe, but she did, "What do you mean it broke apart...? Wouldn't you be dead if that happened?", It was only logical to assume that. From what Julia heard about Aircraft breaking apart in midair from say... a bomb or decompression explosion? people didn't survive that. If an aircraft broke apart in mid flight there would be no oxygen to sustain a person even if they did survive the bomb impact. She had learned that in one of her classes to pursue her dream as a doctor. Still... by studying Sideswipe, She was pretty sure he didn't need oxygen to survive. But he could have easily desinigrated on impact to earth. That would easily kill a person if Oxygen wasn't a problem. This was becoming more and more interesting to her.

Sideswipe answered her question, not bothered by the fact that she interrupted him, "This ship was deigned to protect against things like that, It can close emergency door any anywhere on aboard where it has been breached open and what not. For say, if a section of the ship broke off it can enclose itself self so that way the individuals on that piece have a better chance of surviving. There are also escape pods too... but no everyone can make it to those," That was something she never heard of any air or spacecraft able to do. If what he was saying was true, his kind of were very technologically advanced. She wouldn't doubt it though, because he was a robot.

Julia asked him another question, "How exactly did this ship you were on break apart?... well if you know what caused it," She didn't know if he was going to answer this question. She might have been going a little to far for his comfort... after all, he said he only wanted to tell some of it, not all of it.

Much to her surprise, Sideswipe did answer it. He had an uncomfortable look on his face plate as he looked up and bit his lip, "well... thing is... we didn't crash here alone, I don't mean just my brother and me. By that I mean our... uh... adversaries, well thats what Prowl calls them... whatever that means... so yeah, they are probably here with us too, unless by some miracle they all got slagged in the crash... but... uh... well... they're not exactly easy to kill,"

Even though Sideswipe wasn't entirely being straightforward at that moment (that didn't seem like something he would do though... well judging by his type of character), she knew he was telling her he had brought some enemies that were more than likely running around and about. Judging by the way he was telling it to her, they were probably very dangerous... even to her. That brought her some concern.

Julia tilted her head, "So you are saying that some um... not -so -friendly ones followed you here and that you currently are on the run from them?"

Sideswipe still kept his optics away from her as he continued, "Well what happened was, my brother and I were aboard that ship. That ship was carrying our commander and comrades. We went on it because our commander had told us that our planet couldn't possibly sustain us anymore. So we had to head out and find a new home or some place to colonize," Sideswipe paused for a moment and then gestured to a red mark on his chest. Julia would have not been able to see it if it wasn't outlined with white, "everyone on that ship was an autobot, like my brother and I,"

She nodded in response. He didn't quite answer the question she had asked him. Well not directly like she was hoping, but still, he was explaining something important. This answer of his was interesting because he was clearly saying that he and his brother were not alone. He was apart of an actual race and there were many more like him and his brother. He said he had friends and came from a planet.

"So yes, as Autobots We fight under Optimus Prime's command; He is actually a pretty nice guy... well anyhoo, there is another group called... deceptions", Sideswipe said the last word like he was swallowing a bitter bill, "The decepticons hear that we are leaving the planet. So what do they do? they come after us of course; They got on their biggest warship and go right for us. They caught up to us eventually and snagged our ship. Then one by one all those slaggers hopped aboard like they owned the place," Sideswipe let out a little cough, not making his dislike for these 'decepticons' so subtle, "They were overwhelming us... I thought we weren't gonna make it... but Optimus always knows what he his doing. I don't know what he did... but it saved us," Sideswipe began to look a little somber, "He may have saved us, but it clearly came with a huge price because we have no idea where everyone is or if they are even still are alive... on top of that, if Megatron is still alive, he could easily find us one by one and take us all out..."

"Megatron?" That was not a name that he had mentioned till now. He mocked the name Decepticons, but he didn't mock Megatron. There seem to be an etching fear in him as he said that name.

"yeah Megatron... he is the decepticon commander and tyrant. Probably the nastiest out of all of them... last one you would want to be face to face with in a dark alley, that is for sure," Sideswipe cringed.

"I see... so um... I am guessing you are looking around for the rest of your friends and your commander?", Julia slowly turned him away from Megatron, she would find a more appropriate time to ask him because she was still curious. He didn't seem like he wanted to say much about Megatron though.

"yep, hopefully if any of them are still alive... But hey, my brother and I are fine, so who knows," Sideswipe smiled and shrugged. He seem to ease a little bit.

Whatever fear Julia had of the situation had completely vanished. She was very certain at this point that Sideswipe had no intentions of harming her despite his brothers... questionable actions. She actually felt kinda of bad for him... he was in a very bad predicament. Worse than she was in her entire life. Crashed on a completely unfamiliar alien planet, all alone (well, he had his twin brother though)... no food or shelter... a very long way from home and family. She couldn't picture that happening to her.

Yes, Julia was could rigid when she found herself in unsettling situations... but she was still very empathetic.

She sighed, feeling defeated, not by the situation... but by herself, 'Well... so much for escaping...'

She looked back over to him, "I still need to go to my house to pick up some clothing and food... if thats okay with you,"

Sideswipe pondered for a moment, then smiled warmly, "yeah, sure, you can do that... just tell me where you live and I'll take you over there,"


And there we go.

I intended to have two major (maybe a third one) humans. Spike and Julia are supposed to be polar opposites. Spike is quiet and reserved, Julia is loud and outgoing. Spike lives in very well plush house right by the ocean while Julia lives in a cramped trailer home out in the countryside. Well, you get it. Hey, its fun that way.

Another note: Spike is referring to the Air France crash in the Atlantic off the coast of Brazil on Jun 1 2009.

And yes, I am also refereeing to the great market crash in 2007.

Next chapter... someone is going to be in some real deep water...