Sari POV

It was quiet in the car. Jasmyn was navigating across the sky, using some kind of GPS system. David was asleep, his body beginning to have an aura. I looked out the window, hoping to see something interesting. It was so BORING! Again, there was nothing but trees. Wait…a building took shape out of the shadows. It seemed out of place in the forest. The car slipped downward, landing silently right next to the building. Wait…this was the base? It looked nothing like what I was expecting. I was expecting a rundown building on the fringe of a city, just like the Autobots'. But this was all wood, in perfect condition, two stories tall. There was front door with an Autobot symbol on it. All in all it looked pretty good. But I soon saw that that was only the tip of the iceberg. The ground opened in front of the car, and we rolled silently underground. Some lights switched on, and I saw we were in a garage. There was a blue and red cab to a tractor trailer, a green SWAT assault vehicle, an out-of-use ambulance, and a little yellow subcompact. Jasmyn got out of the car and unloaded her motorbike from the back of the car. She motioned for me to get out and woke up David, making his aura fade. She walked over to a door at the side of the garage. David and I followed behind her. We stepped out into a massive control room. Computers were everywhere, half-made robots were lying on tables, and hand-held communication devices were just sitting there all over the room.

"Wow…" I said. "This place is huge!"

"Not really. We operate everything from here, though." Jasmyn answered. "Now, I think it's time for you to meet the team." She walked up to one of the consoles and pressed a couple buttons, then spoke into a microphone. "ALEX! MICHAEL! Get down here ASAP!" She pressed another button, and a door buzzed open.

In just a few minutes, a boy with windblown hair came zooming into the room. "HimynameisAlexI'mtheteam'smedic!" He said.

"What?" I was totally confused.

"Alex," Jasmyn admonished, "human word speed, please."

"Goooohhhtt eeeehhht. Hi, my name's Alex! I'm the team's medic!" repeated Alex.

Just then, another boy, big and muscular, ran in. "Hi!" he said. His voice was deep. "I'm Mike. Nice to meet you!"

Jasmyn walked over to the two boys. "Come on." She said "Let's go up to the house."

I was startled. The house? I thought this was a base. So, I asked. "The house? What's the house?"

David yawned, walking through the dimly lit room to stand next to Jasmyn. "It's where we live. You already have a room."

"Really! SO cool!" I squealed my excitement

Jasmyn rolled her eyes. "Let's go. The sky grows light, dawn will soon be breaking. And some of us need to sleep." Everyone moved to another door. Jasmyn waved her hand over it, and a keypad popped out. She rapidly typed in a series of numbers. Three scanners then folded out from around the door. Wow, this place has a lot of security. The scanners scanned Jasmyn's eye, fingerprint, and voice print. The doors then folded open, and everyone walked upstairs. We climbed a flight of stairs, came out another door and into a wide living room. Now that we were in a more brightly lit area, I really got a good look at everyone at the team. I guess I better describe them now, to save myself the trouble of doing it later.

David wore an electric blue jacket, matching his bright blue jeans. On his belt hung a sword in its sheath. His sneakers were a fire truck red, just like the t-shirt he wore under his jacket. His bright blue hair was spiked, framing his face in a unique way. His skin was tan, like he spent a lot of time running around outdoors. His eyes were the same color as mine. Come to think of it, everyone's eyes looked almost exactly like mine in color.

Jasmyn wore a black, long-sleeved motorcycle jacket. It was trimmed at the edges with gold, matching the arrows at the bottom of her sleeves. The jacket came down to mid-calf, extenuating her petite frame. Underneath that, she wore a black tank top and black cargo pants. She wore black boots, thick soled and high, reaching under the hem of her pants. Her black hair hung down to her waist. Complementing her brown skin, her eyes were slanted slightly. Her cheekbones were visible, reaching from her slight nose to her small ears. Two short, thin cylinders hung from her belt.

Mike wore an olive green tank top that matched his heavy boots. He wore hunting camo jeans, and a huge spiked ball and chain hung from his belt. His hair was thick, curly, and light brown. His skin was darker that David's, but lighter than mine and Jasmyn's. His eyes were kind, in seeming juxtaposition to his muscular build.

Alex wore a white track jacket, with matching pants. The red stripe running down the side of his pants matched the red tee he wore under his jacket. Under his arm, he carried a white motorcycle helmet with a red fin. His skin was very light, and his hair was light brown as well, longish and windblown , as if he spent all his time running headfirst into the wind while spraying hairspray on his head. Altogether, they made a pretty striking group.

David spoke up. "Alex, can you take Sari to her room? No dawdling, you guys need to get to sleep. We have a normal training schedule tomorrow."

The next morning

Detroit

Professor Sumdac yawned, walking down the hall to awaken his daughter. He wondered why she was sleeping this late. She usually was up earlier than him. Oh well, she was probably just tired. He knew the last few weeks had been hard on her, without her friends the Autobots. He arrived at her door and knocked. There was no answer. He knocked again, more loudly this time. Again, there was no answer. He knocked for a third time, rapping with all his might. There was not even a murmur or a shiver of movement in the room. How could she not have heard him? Sari was usually a rather light sleeper. He hit a button next to her door, the one that should open it. Nothing happened. He pressed it again, growing worried. Why was the door not responding? After ramming the offending button a few more times with his finger, he proceeded to whip out a few tools and set to work on the control panel. He used to know a young girl who would have fixed the panel quicker than you could blink… wait…there it was: the opener circuit was locked. He quickly fixed the circuit, and the door slid open. When the Professor looked in the room, his eyes grew wide. Sari's bed sheets were ripped and torn off her bed. One of the panels of glass in her window was shattered, shards lying in the room. Two daggers were stuck in the wall, pieces of white fabric hanging from them. Her jetpack was missing from its usual place by the bed. But most importantly, Sari wasn't there.

Professor Sumdac ran outside to the building computer screen. "Locate Sari Sumdac." He told it.

"Sari Sumdac is not in the building."

"When did she leave?"He practically screamed at the machine.

In an almost computerized ominous tone, it replied, "Sari Sumdac has not left the building."

The professor rushed frantically to his lab, where he typed in a long comm. code he had committed to memory. His screen flickered, and then became solid, showing the image of a well known friend: Optimus Prime. The blue 'bot looked surprised and concerned. "Professor! What's wrong? I gave you this comm. number as an emergency hot line."

"Sari is missing! I came into her room, and she was not there! Not only that, everything in her room was wrecked, and her jetpack was missing! Glass was everywhere, there were knives stuck in the wall… I don't know where she went!"

"Hmm…she isn't playing a trick or hiding somewhere?

"Yes! First, Sari would never do that to me. Second, I used the building computer location system, and it said she was not in the building, and then when I asked when she exited the building, it said she never left!"

"It sounds like this was the work of something more powerful that a normal human. I'll be there as soon as I can."

Florida

The Mechs' base

Sari POV

My room here was exactly like my old one, which was pretty cool. I went right to bed because whatever the training schedule here was, it sounded busy. I was awakened the next morning by a loud alarm blaring. I heard sounds of activity from the next rooms over. I was already dressed, so I just ran out into the hallway to see what was going on. I saw Alex, Mike, and David standing in front of their doors, all fully dressed. The only door that seemed unopened was Jasmyn's. That's strange. I took Jasmyn as the kind of person who would be up at, like, four o'clock or something. Then I heard a window creaking open, and Jasmyn swung in. "Good. Sari, thumbs up on being fully dressed immediately after alarm. You're the first new recruit we've had do that. Okay, room check! Everyone downstairs except for David." I followed Alex and went downstairs. About five minutes later, I heard David's footsteps on the stairs. He and Jasmyn walked into the room while I was wondering why I didn't hear her. No one could possibly be that silent.

They led me down to the kitchen where food was already laid out: bacon, pancakes, eggs, toast, and a bowl of assorted fruits. Everyone filled the seats and started piling their plates, and I took the empty one on the end.

Addressing Jasmyn, Alex asked snidely, "No bacon for you?" She rolled her eyes in disgust.

"So what if she doesn't like bacon?" I asked. Why was he ridiculing her like that?

David leaned over and quietly whispered, "She's a vegetarian." I made an "ooh" face and promptly shut up.

Alex spoke up "Which means she's totally weird in every way. As opposed to most ways"

A slight hint of a growl emanated from Jasmyn, and her eyes began to glow threateningly. Before anyone else saw, the glow faded. Alex took the time to shove three pieces of bacon into his mouth. We continued eating for about five more minutes when suddenly Alex yelled "Hey! Something's grabbing my-" His sentence was cut short by a blinding flash of blue light.

When the light cleared, Alex was sprawled on the ground about six feet away from the table, Mike (and I) looked pretty surprised, David was giving Jasmyn a look, and Jasmyn was eating like nothing ever happened. David sat down and explained to me that Jasmyn and Alex didn't get along very well. No duh.

Breakfast after that was uneventful.

After breakfast, everyone went downstairs into the control room. Mike and Alex each sat down at one of the monitors, and David sat with Alex. Jasmyn led me to a monitor, where she set up some kind of test. "Please try not to use your upgraded abilities to complete the tests. It'll taint the results." Ok, then. I didn't know how hard it would be to not use my techno-organic powers. I tried my best to keep my hands away from the computer. When I finished the tests, I looked up. Everyone seemed to be leaving. I started to leave with them, but Jasmyn held me back. She motioned to the chair I had been sitting in, and I sat down. She sat across from me. She began to speak "I know that many new techno organics have a lot of questions. Before we really get into your training and schooling, I think you should have yours answered." I was shocked. Here was someone who actually knew about us! I started asking questions. "What really are protoforms? Why did mine bond with my dad and not any other ones? How did it get in my dad's lab? Wh-" Jasmyn cut me off. "Slow down. What do you already know?" I told her about the protoforms, how my dad found me in his lab, and about how I was actually a Cybetronian. "Ok," she replied, "Sounds like I need to start pretty much from the beginning." I was fixated. She continued. "During the great wars, the Decepticons began to work on a secret project called "Project Techno". Of course, word leaked out, and the Autobots got a hold of the plans. They were for a race of protoforms that were made specifically for alien contact. Spies, hidden on other planets. The Autobots started working on a top confidential counter-attack. They called it "Project Mech". We were the result, the only five protoforms that were successful. That's why we call ourselves the "Mechs". It's a direct call to our Cybetronian heritage. Well, the idiots loaded us all on one ship, headed for a non-organic planet just outside our galaxy. But the ship's navigation system failed, and it crashed here, rocketing all the protoforms into orbit. One by one, we fell. David and I were first. Mike was second. You and Alex were last, you being the very last to make human contact. That's why we look like humans, because of the chameleon programming in our systems. Being one of us comes with some good things, like our powers, and some bad things. For example, we will get dreams about other techno-organics, especially the longer we've known them. The dreams are signals that have been broadcasted all over, and your dreams are picking them up. You'll get dreams about other Mechs' past and present, but never the future, because those "signals" haven't been "broadcasted". We can also get too emotional and overload our sparks. Also, if we upgrade before we're ready, we could lose control of our powers" Jasmyn gave me an accusing look, and I blushed. But about the rest, all I could say was, Wow.

Jasmyn POV

OK, she seemed to have taken that news pretty well. Now came the hard part. Telling her about the world, how hard it was to be one of us. A half-breed. How no one, not the humans, and certainly not those Cybertronian purebreds, would accept us. How her precious Autobots were either misinformed, or fakers. From my experience, I was thinking the latter. I spoke up. "

Sari…there's something I have to tell you. The purebreds couldn't care less about us. They think we're freaks, hideous melds of organic and machine. They wish we had never existed."

Then came a small detail I had overlooked: Sari had no idea what I was referring to when I mentioned the term "Purebreds".

"What are purebreds?" she asked innocently.

"Autobots," I replied, "Decepticons too. It's any and every purebred Cybertronian."

"Wait…" she paused, "You're saying the Autobots don't care about me? They totally do! They, like, took me in. When my father disappeared? They let me stay at their base! How can you even say that? That's, like so mean and stuff!"

I sighed. Slag, of course she would stick up for her pathetic purebred friends.

"You do understand that they did this for their own purposes? When they took you in, your father was with their mortal enemies, the Decepticons. You would stop at nothing to find your father, leading them straight to the Decepticons."

She sputtered for a moment, too angry with me to speak. And I hadn't even mentioned the humans yet. She addressed me.

"That's so not true!! Anyway, Bumblebee wanted to be my friend even before my father was captured and Megatron appeared and all that. Beat that!"

I replied calmly. "You were a contact on an alien planet they could not leave. Useful to them. If I am correct, they called you an "it". A mere plaything, a giant robot's toy. Only amusing as long as you were useful."

"Bu- but they protected us and stuff!"

"They needed your trust. How else would you give them access to important resources?"

Before she could reply indignantly, I continued. "They aren't the only ones. Humans aren't our best friends either. They see us as alien invaders, commonly."

"But I had humans as my friends, like my dad!"

"Your father is inconsequential, parental instinct is factor that we have put in. Fathers, mothers, and sometimes siblings are not to be counted as "friends". Outside of that group, did you have any human friends after you knew you were half Cybertronian?"

"Ummmm… no."

"Didn't think so."

"But still... how can you say humans hate us? I mean, I was kinda unsocialized even before the Autobots came."

"They believe we are a threat. They want to box us up and run a million tests on us. They want to turn us into animals."

"Dr. Haak, we're out of anesthetic. Continue?" "Why does it matter? She won't die on us, will you, little "Raven Mane"? Cut her open. And I don't want to hear her whimper, the pathetic little alien spawn" The surgeon's eyes were sad, as if he didn't want to hurt me. Unlike that monster, Haak. The sharp scalpel hit the nerves of my forearm. The last thing I remember before losing consciousness was the operation room filling with my screams.

"How do you know that?"

"Let's just say I have some firsthand experience."

Electricity was coursing through my body as the thin cables they ran through the too-big shirt and pants bumped against my skin. "Go faster, freak!" The harsh voice of Dr. Haak filled my ears. And at that moment, something inside of me broke. Whatever part of me that kept my sanity in this insane place stopped working. Mechanical thoughts began to fill my- aaah!

Problem- Pain. Cause: electricity from glass booth above processor-holder [human translation- head]. Solution: Destroy glass booth. Initiate destructive servo beams. Explosion registered. Register room. Problem- room is confining. Cause- opening panel pair is locked. Solution- destroy opening panel pair [human translation- door]. Initiate power servo swing. Opening panel pairs no longer registered as locked. Proceed.

Our session was over.