A/N: Just to make a couple of things clear, this story takes about five to six months after ROTF, in late February. And because I keep on forgetting the darn things:
Disclaimer: Transformers is copyright Hasbro. I only own the characters Kamellia and Quicksilver.
Nanoklik= one second
Breem= about 8 minutes
.: Bystander Chapter 2: Meetings:.
A slight breeze just barely stirred the air around Kai as she walked. She had headed towards the outskirts of town where there would be very little to no traffic. Few residences existed in the area as most-of the land was uncultivated; sparse fields that eventually turned into dry, brown dust. It was peaceful out here.
The teenager guessed it was getting close to midnight, but she was still wide awake. All those mornings sleeping in must have caught up with her, she mused. Kai stretched her arms and smiled. She was definitely glad she had decided to come out for a walk. Though if she thought about it, it probably wasn't the greatest idea to take a stroll alone at night where nobody else was around. Whatever. She could blame her lack of judgment on her adolescent brain.
It was then that a light caught her eye, causing her to pause and look towards the night sky. A meteor streaked through the star-sprinkled heavens, a fiery tail following behind it.
"Whoa." Kai looked up wide-eyed at the meteor, awed. She had never seen so close in her sixteen years. The large celestial object had passed overhead in mere seconds before disappearing from sight, and yet there was already an idea forming in the young girl's mind. It would be a rare opportunity to actually see a space rock up close before whoever took it for research or whatever they did with meteors (or would that be a meteorite now?), and it appeared as though the flaming rock would land very close by.
Smiling, Kai took off after it.
One of the worst things she hated about solo space traveling was re-entry. Dirt stilling clinging to her frame would be shaken loose into cracks, crevices and in between gears during the impact. It was irritating, uncomfortable, and itchy. It would be even worse if the landing site consisted of dirt itself.
Also, crashing into solid objects at high speed was not fun. Although it was not entirely painful, landing tended to jar stiff joints in a harsh manner. It often left her sore afterwards.
Shifting the many plates of her metal body, she stood fully upright in her bipedal mode. She stretched her stiff joints, grateful to be able to move freely again. She had spent far too much time traversing the vast expanse that was space.
She climbed out of the creator she had made while landing and took notice of her surroundings. She stood in a field filled with short, organic stalks; grass. No matter where she looked, there was more organic matter, from scrubby bushes to the taller, more slender trees. She had dealt with organic life before, but never in such large quantities. It covered the ground underneath her pedes in a thick carpet and continued as far as she could see in the darkness. Even the air was filled with organic life. Hundreds of tiny flying creatures darted in the air around her. If her small gather of information from the internet was anything to go by, these 'insects' were a mere iota of the creatures that made their home on this planet.
She was awed, overwhelmed that a planet smaller than her own home world of Cybertron could be so abundant with life, even if the vast majority was not sentient.
She shook her helm. Her amazement could wait for a later time; she had a job to do and she needed to focus. A dim light on the horizon caught her optics, indicating population nearby. She winced. Although she had wanted to land near the source of the signal she was following (which apparently was one of several) she did not mean to land so close to a populated area. From her cursory search on the World Wide Web, there was nothing that could fully prove her kind's existence. Well, on this planet at least, meaning she would have to stay unnoticed while on Earth. She just hoped she had not garnered any attention from landing so close the nearby population.
First the femme gathered her bearings, those same metal satellites she had encountered earlier supplying her with the information. She stood in the South-Western part of the United States of America. She snorted at the name. How clever. It was too plain and upfront for her tastes. Why couldn't they have chosen a more elegant name like Norway, China, or Haiti? United States sounded like a title, not a name. Simply America would have sufficed for her.
Despite her distaste for the name, the femme found herself pleasantly surprised to have landed so near to one of the signals' origins. Calculations, or plain luck, had landed her this close. Thank Primus she had not ended up in one of the enormous oceans or worse, stuck on another continent with no way to cross over.
The femme, however, would first have to choose a new designation for herself and find a suitable alternate mode before continuing her journey. Despite not wanting to grab the attention of humans, she would have to travel towards that small, populated area to find a new alt. mode. Apparently, the humans had to use machines called 'cars' or 'automobiles' to travel far distances. They were the ideal choice for an alt. mode. They were commonplace, had access to an enormous amount of areas, and they fit the femme's frame type; a grounder.
The femme began walking towards the town, hoping to find a place- a dealership as the humans called it- where she could find a vehicle mode suitable to her needs and styles. She also began translating her original Cybertronian name into human, playing around with word order and synonyms until she created a combination she liked as her new designation. She had also managed to locate several of those 'dealerships' on the eastern edge of the nearby town through the interne-
She stopped. Her scanners picked up something larger than the insects flying through the air. It was bigger. Much bigger. Human-sized. Frag.
About thirty feet in front of her stood a human. She guessed it was of the female gender, with wide eyes and a face framed by long cranial hair and staring clearly back at the femme.
The femme was nearly afraid as the human was; frame freezing as her processor reeled trying to work out a solution for this new situation. Should she turn in the other direction and run and hope the human did nothing? Slag, what was she supposed to do with her discovery? Take the human to the Prime if he even was on this planet?
Slowly the femme came up with a solution that would hopefully, hopefully, solve her predicament. This small human could jeopardize any operation that fellow 'bots may have established with the knowledge she now held. The femme knew nothing of protocols established on Earth. What if any humans who knew of their existence needed to be brought in front of her leader? If she let the human go now, she would have to track her down later, which would be fairly difficult considering there were nearly seven billion of the species living on the planet. And the femme knew far too little about Earth. A native guide would be extremely useful. She hated her decision but it looked as though she did not have much of a choice.
She would have to bring the human with her.
The femme regained her composure, and slowly began crouching towards the ground, trying to me as less intimidating as possible. She was treating the human like a scared petro-rabbit, trying not to frighten the creature away. As she neared her, the human stumbled backwards a few steps, looking as though she might flee.
The femme took a deep intake of air and spoke.
"Greetings. I am Quicksilver, an Autonomous Robotic Organism."
The small human appeared too stunned to reply, her face a mixture of shock and fear. She seemed to flounder for a response before awkwardly squeaking out, "Uh, hi?"
"I hail from the planet Cybertron," Quicksilver continued, ignoring the human's plight, who was suddenly not so distressed anymore as she cut off the femme by blurting out:
"You mean you're an alien?" Apparently the idea piqued the human's interest enough to gain some confidence and speak without hesitation. At least it did not look as though she were going to flee anymore.
"Yes. I am what you call an 'extraterrestrial'." Quicksilver replied. "What is your designation?"
The human's face screwed up in confusion. "My what?"
Quicksilver's optics narrowed slightly. Did the human not understand the term? The word was English. Perhaps it was not as common as she first thought it was.
"Your..." the femme looked for a suitable synonym, "Name. What is your name?"
"Oh, uh, Kamellia." The human replied, regaining her earlier uncertainty. Quicksilver found it amazing how fast this human's- Kamellia's- emotions seemed to change.
"Kamellia." Quicksilver echoed, "I believe I am going to need your assistance."
"M-my assistance?" Kamellia repeated incredulously. "You need my help?"
"Yes. I am new to this planet and I do not know it well enough. It would suit me best to travel with someone who knows Earth." Quicksilver stood slowly, rising to her full height of sixteen feet. The human stepped back again so she could look up at the femme with greater ease. "You do not have to come if you do not wish. I will not force you."
Quicksilver began walking, heading in the direction of the town. The ground trembled with each step of her pedes.
"Wait! Where are you going?" Kamellia called after her, catching up to the femme who had passed her in a surprisingly short amount of time. She was leaving already? She hadn't even waited for Kamellia's answer! Of course the human was curious and wanted to learn more before her new acquaintance left for places unknown. The idea to go with was unbearably tempting.
"I need to find a suitable alternate mode that would enable me to blend into your culture." She answered.
"Blend in? But you're huge!" Kamellia exclaimed, before adding "No offence."
"Why should I take offence? I am unnaturally large for a sentient being on your planet." The little human had confused Quicksilver. She was huge compared to humans and that was a fact. Why would it be insulting?
The two continued walking together, Kamellia overcoming her initial shyness. She would run ahead of Quicksilver, turn around and ask questions before she fell behind the femme's larger strides again. And by Primus did the girl have a lot of questions. Yes, Quicksilver was a robot and no, she was not just some machine-like exoskeleton controlled by a little green man (whatever that was supposed to mean). No, she was not here to abduct humans nor was she here to take part in an alien invasion. No, she did not travel in a ship and yes, she had been the 'meteor'. There were very few of her species left in space and yes, some were the same size as her but height and build varied greatly.
The cycle of question lasted for several breems before the two reached the very outskirts of the town. There were the few automobile dealerships that Quicksilver had planned her route according to. And so she began searching for an alternate mode.
"You're looking for a car?" Kamellia asked, watching the femme, finding the situation extremely odd.
"Yes. Ground travel suits me well."
"I can't believe I'm car shopping with an alien." The human muttered to herself, standing a good distance away, looking off in another direction. Quicksilver snorted, causing Kamellia's head to whip back towards the femme.
"You heard that?" she asked, shocked and slightly embarrassed.
"I did." Quicksilver said, smirking slightly. Apparently humans' hearing was not as sensitive as Cybertronians'. By this time, Quicksilver had narrowed down her vehicle choices based on mass and style. She knew she shouldn't be picky about her alt. mode, but she wanted to splurge this one time. She was not the most vain 'bot ever to exist, but she, like most others, did care about the appearance of her alt. mode and the armor that would form as a result. Plus, she had been stuck in her transition from for a very long time, so she felt she deserved to treat herself even if it did mean sacrifice a bit of discreetness. She was leaning towards the more expensive 'sports' cars.
It took Quicksilver a couple of nanokliks to realize her human companion was no longer near her. Caught in her decision making, she had not noticed the human wandering away. Quicksilver scanned the vicinity, hoping that the human hadn't decided to run off (which Quicksilver was surprised she did not try to do in the first place). Instead she found the young female looking at one of the dealership buildings holding some small, plastic device in front of her and aiming it towards a large window. The femme walked towards her, but Kamellia did not look towards the source of the heavy pede-steps, her attention focused slowly on the device, which appeared to have some sort of screen.
"May I ask what you are doing?" the femme inquired, stopping a small distance away. She was still worried of frightening the small human.
"I'm taking a picture." Kamellia answered. So the device was some sort of camera. It was small, but not as nearly convenient as the ones Cybertronians naturally had programmed in their processors.
"What are you photographing?"
"A Lamborghini Gallardo SE." The human stated happily. "I've wanted to get a picture for a while, but I doubt the owner's would like me hanging outside."
"It seems a little…expensive to be in this area." Quicksilver observed, already researching the car that stood just beyond a layer of glass. This site called 'Wikipedia' was already beginning to be very useful.
"I guess some really rich guy who lived in the area bought it. He sold it to the dealership right before he moved. Most people think it's because he might of lost a lot of money in the economy. But no one else can afford it, so it's just kind of sat here for a while." Kamellia explained, pocketing her camera device and looking up at Quicksilver. "Colors are kind of ugly though."
Quicksilver had to agree with the human on that. It appeared as though it used to be orange, based on the interior which was tailored to match the outside of the vehicle. However, it looked as though the previous owner had painted over the tangerine paint for a custom sage green and mustard yellow combination. Disgusting. Whoever he was, the owner had a horrible taste in colors.
The pattern of the two hues was not bad, and the car as a whole was gorgeous. It may have been slightly large for her frame, but Quicksilver had decided on which car she was going to scan. In a few nanokilks, she had the vehicle's specs and was already transforming, a new shell of armor beginning to cover her frame.
"Whoa! What the-!" Kamellia had been rather startled by the flurry of noises emitted from her companion as the femme practically folded inwards on herself. Soon enough, the human was staring at an exact replica of the Lamborghini still sitting inside the dealership.
Quicksilver shifted on her suspension a bit, familiarizing herself with her new alt. mode. She first wanted, however, to change that horrid paint job of hers. She activated her electronic paint to shift the colors to the ones she used to have on Cybertron. The electronic paint would take a while to fully set in and it was nowhere as good as a fresh coat of paint, but it would do for now.
Kamellia just stared dumbfounded, unsure on what had just occurred and how to react. She had just witnessed a giant, robotic alien change into a car, and watched as the paint shimmered and changed from green and yellow to purple and silver. Quicksilver had become a car.
"Is there any way that you're not superior to us humans?" she asked.
Quicksilver did not answer, but merely opened her driver's side door, giving view to the black, and now silver, interior.
"Are you coming?" the femme asked, her voice emanating from the car.
"Where?" Kamellia asked back, staring at the door open in invitation.
"To find my brethren."
A/N: Oooh, boy, I should have had this up weeks ago. I'm a terribly slow writer and there were quite a few days where I was unable to type this chapter up (which was originally going to be longer). I also saw DOTM and that put me in a mini-depression for a while. It was great, but I was sad about character deaths and it being the end of the movie-verse. I miss Mikaela :/ Carly didn't seem real enough to me.
Whatever. Reviews are loved!