A Twin for a Twin
A/N: Special thanks to Rainspiral, Mapeline Alycia Hood, precious92, Saphireblu987, and Lazyninja 09 for the reviews! Thanks to Lady of Dragons, Lazyninja 09, Ruby650, BFSF, and for the fav! Thanks to KimTheKat, , LunaeShark and Sora-Hana for the alerts! If you alerted, fav, and reviewed as well, your name comes out once.
Wow, pretty impressive that this fic went over the 200 hit mark! Thanks everyone! *smiles widely* On the plus side, I've gotten my last two chapters checked up (I suppose there's still plenty of mistakes I need to fix). I'm not sure about getting a beta though.
Edited: 8th September 2010 (For grammar, spelling, punctuation mistakes).
Beta Readers: Khalthar and LunaeShark
I really had fun writing up this chapter.
This chapter is longer than the last.
As usual...
Enjoy the Ride! *grins*
~ Chapter 3: Car-napped by an Alien, Fleshy Pet Problems~
Con man Log Entry 1.03: Unanticipated Trouble
Town outside of New Orleans, Louisiana, US.
At the end of the day, I met up Cathy and Dexter at the hotel. To our utter surprise and glory, it looks like Mikey was much greedier than we thought. He had $12.000 in that wallet of his! So it was 4 grand each after being split three ways, best reward we had in a while with lady luck on our side. As for the wallet, we auctioned it off on EBay. Never expected it to get about five hundred for it, must have been a new state- of-the-art wallet. The money was later on donated to charity, the best place to cover up our tracks.
The day after our heist, we all parted ways. Dexter set out for Vegas, Cathy went on her way to Washington, and my departure was in two days. It was the basic rule to any con, to never hang around at the scene of your crime. I was going to miss them, it had been fun to team up with them on a real con, not like the usual pranks we did as kids. They both told me if I got into any trouble or needed help, all I had to do was call.
Now, trouble for any Con man usually came from the authorities, rivals, people who wanted revenge on you because you conned on them, and people who wanted you dead because you are a Con man. Pretty dangerous, right?
I was in trouble. The worst part was, it was none that I had mentioned above.
I knew for the last few days that I was being followed. Even before we did the short con, but mostly I was convinced afterward. Call it an instinct, but it's easy to be sure if you got a hand mirror. Alarmingly, I was being followed by a possessed car. You heard me. A POSSESSED car. No driver, it moved on its own, and it was the VERY same Lambo I pimped at the garage. Only now, it had an ID number that belonged to no one. I checked. And…Don't get me started that it was an A.I. car. I had buddies in colleges, institutions, the gray market, the black market, and there's nothing like what I saw in the Lambo.
Who was I going to call for help? Ghostbusters? Or I could do the Dean and Sam thing from Supernatural, load some rock salt into a shotgun, shoot it, and pray it works while running. Then again… maybe not.
Seriously, I have enough problems as it is. No way was I going to engage that thing. The faster I get out of this town, the better.
I hope it doesn't get any worse.
Shit. Murphy's Law.
I shouldn't have written that.
~ Sky
Skyler replaced the curtains after inspecting the street from his hotel for what he figured was the 111th time that night.
He couldn't sleep, out of sleeping pills, and basically paranoid because he was certain that sunny yellow Lambo was out there somewhere. Well, who wouldn't be agitated if they knew were being followed? By humans, the paint job guy would understand and be a little bit calmer. But a car that moved by itself? Any normal person would freak. He wasn't a normal person and he was freaking out.
Come on, Sky. Just another eighteen hours or so.
His departure was due at 7 pm tomorrow at night. Skyler was starting to regret that he'd been a bit laid back when he ordered the bus ticket.
His gaze then shifted elsewhere. Skyler glanced helplessly at his now useless laptop. The bloody thing wasn't working at all. It was dead. He silently cursed himself that he didn't have a major backup to all the programs that he'd installed in it. Since most of them were made by him and Steve, he hadn't backed them up after he sold his CPU. Too much was on his mind to make backup plans by taking the laptop apart in a place where he had the right tools and resources, but that had to wait for later. His main focus was to get away from the town ASAP.
Restlessly, he laid down on his bed again, thinking over the options of getting an earlier bus ticket. Like tonight.
Would that really make a difference?
Skyler for once in his life wasn't sure of anything that night. There was a saying that patience was a virtue, and there was another saying that said delaying things was dangerous. Which to follow? Sighing, he erased his thoughts and went back to the main principles of being a con man. If one was in trouble, they would immediately get out of it. No questions, no complaints, no nothing. The only thing to do was to GET OUT.
Than get CAUGHT.
With a new resolve, Skyler jumped out of his bed, got everything he needed and owned in the room (minus his clothes), and stuffed it in his bag. As for clothes, he went to a local hypermarket down the road, got himself a jacket with a hood, gloves, and new clothes for traveling. He threw his old ones in the trash bin out on the streets. The Skyler that the town had known was no more.
Next, he checked out of the hotel, took a taxi, and told the driver to get to any travel bus agent that had midnight schedule taking him out of town, even if it wasn't straight to Kansas City. He still had a good deal of cash on him after the short con; he wasn't going to worry about expenses at least. Skyler knew this was probably the least planned thing he had done in a long time. He never liked it when a certain situation came up and the details were sketchy. He was used to knowing things in advance and almost always had plans for them. But perhaps if he did the unexpected for the possessed car, he could get away from it.
Praying to every god or great deity out there, Skyler hoped he could get away.
He prayed especially to Hermes, the messenger Greek God that was the patron and protector of liars and thieves...
"You're sure about this?" Epps asked the fifth time that day.
"Positive."
"We're not really butting into their personal territory are we?"
Will paused. "It is personal, the reason why he's been behaving oddly."
"And we ask their medic?" the other said hesitantly.
"Ironhide said so, and it's where we'll find the best answer. Since… he didn't want to answer it himself."
"Hope we get some answers. This case can get worse."
"So do I man, so do I."
Major William Lennox sighed. Months after the events in Egypt things in N.E.S.T had been like the stock exchange. There were many things the Major listed things off, many were good things, others were not so good things. Many good things had come in with Jazz coming back to life with the help of the Matrix of Leadership thanks to Sam Witwicky and the arrival of new Autobots coming in the last few months.
Their new addition of the Autobots consisted of Optimus' now second-in-command Prowl, another medic by the name of Red Alert, Ironhide's sparkmate Chromia, her sister Flareup, a rather odd scientist bot that had a tendency to blow up his inventions called Wheeljack, and finally Bluestreak, a bot that astounded many of the humans at the base that many were wondering how on earth the bot could keep on talking for disturbing long periods of time without stopping. Two more Autobots by the designation of Mirage and Hound were on their way in two days, and the news couldn't have been better. It was great to see the family of bots growing with bonds that the humans formed with them and there was a better chance in fighting the war against the Decepticons.
The not so good things came with the countless paper work that both William and Robert had to tackle through the day from the higher ups. As if fieldwork wasn't enough, there were times when they had to be dragged into the political side of things. They were thankful that General Morshower had done his best to keep many of the power hungry politicians away. Yet there was always a weed that was difficult to get rid of and kept constantly growing back.
Especially, when it came to a certain person who was Liaison to the Autobots, Director Theodore Galloway.
Well formally he was a director of sorts and a politician, but what made Lennox and Epps hate the man with a fiery passion was the fact he was the worst liaison in existence. And that was a fact that even the Autobots shared with everyone else in N.E.S.T. The man still had not forgiven Will after the incident where he fortunately but not intentionally had been tossed out of the plane because he pulled the parachute out of sheer panic. Will was lucky enough that after the incident that N.E.S.T. was back from its disbanded state and he was still on the job.
The fact that the man was part of the government that was intent on gaining the technology of a highly advanced race had not made things any easier. Galloway had cut budget after budget in trying to get the Transformers to comply, but Optimus Prime endured. Not satisfied that he couldn't get his way through the leader, the liaison had ideas that he could at least get his way from the other Autobots after failing miserably in going after their human supporters. Ironhide, Ratchet, Bumblebee, the twin scouts, and a few other bots were not interfered with because of their close human companions or they were not supposedly in his view worthy to pursue as a possibly easy target.
What Will and Epps never imagined was that Galloway targeted the most unlikely bot they could think of.
Sideswipe.
For the love of God, what was the man THINKING?
Consequences?
One left arm with broken bones in seven places. Ouch.
Damn lucky too. Many had expected the mech to cut the human in half with his infamous blades.
The Army Major was glad Galloway didn't end up dead in the first place, although he secretly wanted to make Galloway learn his lesson about messing with gigantic mechs.
Will was surprised at the mech's sudden outburst at the time for he did not understand what had put Sideswipe in a rather violent mood. The Autobots could get angry at times, but it was under Optimus' order that they were not to hurt humans. Thanks to the so-called politician being the 'tattle' tale that he was, Sideswipe was prosecuted on attacking a government official, Will had another pile of paperwork to handle, and Optimus Prime, plus Sam had to do some negotiations with the higher ups about Galloway's actions in deliberately instigating a fight.
Sergeant Robert Epps however had seen signs on how odd Sides was behaving in the last few months, considering he was the one that took responsibility for the bot although Sideswipe was not officially Epps' guardian. In training sessions Epps didn't have any problems with the mech, but during normal/off shifts Epps had noticed that since the new arrival of Autobots his mood was going downhill in a hurry. Clearly there was a disappointment in the bot, as if he was waiting for someone that was never going to come. Sideswipe began to speak less and became withdrawn, the fact that Bumblebee and the twins Mud Flap and Skids were now off the base guarding Sam and Leo was also affecting him.
Pretty much left in the dark as no bot was explaining anything, so they both agreed to take action and asked. Will had consistently asked Ironhide, but the large trigger happy weapons specialist seemed to be rather uneasy about explaining the cause so he only mentioned about asking their CMO, Ratchet, with circumstances they would do so during Sideswipe's patrol.
They headed to the building which housed the Med Bay.
Unluckily for Skyler, the so-called Greek god Athena, patron of wisdom, strength, strategy, craft, justice and skill was on the side of Sunstreaker.
Noticing that the beacon target was moving in his radar, the elder twin Autobot followed the marker with mounting excitement. The squishy was just full of surprises, and Sunny was now convinced it had unpredictable tendencies that kept him interested and away from the thoughts of other organic things on this planet. Sunstreaker by all counts was sure that the fleshling's real departure time was due in another 18 hours. Yet, since the signal was moving on route to a transportation area and Sunny was sure Skyler had not realized his deactivated laptop was implanted with a tracking tag.
Sunstreaker casually made his way around the streets, maneuvering expertly along a different route towards his confirmed target.
The fleshy was very cautious in that even during the times the warrior followed him, he would scuttle quickly off in another direction after he spotted Sunny from the hidden hand mirror he always held in his hand. He couldn't have gotten any better target than this and there was no other chance to get hold onto it once it left the town. It would be too conspicuous if his alt-form followed the bus all the way to where ever the fleshling was going… and Sunstreaker wasn't going to let go of his recently finished paint job so soon.
Try as you might fleshy, you can run all you like, but you cannot hide.
For one that lived for many eons, Sunstreaker had all the experience that no human could ever have fathomed in any if not all types of pranks planed to absolute perfection that occasionally had to deal with extremely difficult targets such as a certain weapons specialist and the CMO of the Autobots. He had made side plans in expecting that the organic might panic and try to get away before the real time of exodus. While the squishy was busy in preparation of getting ready for the show in the city central park, Sunny had made his own preparations in every single bus terminal that were the out-of-town exit points.
Although Sunstreaker was disgusted that he was going to have an organic in him very soon, perhaps it was better to speed up a few things.
I'll enjoy the chase while it lasts.
It wasn't like things were going to get easier after he nabbed the fleshing to get to Nevada. There was still that injured Decepticon around the area that he'd fought off when he originally landed outside the town to worry about. He had to keep the little organic alive if he ever were to engage the fraggin' glitched coward, if not he'd have to find another one with a less likely chance of getting a good one.
With haste, Sunny accelerated easily outmatching Skyler's taxi to the intended destination.
And there, he waited for his prey.
"So he's suffering with the absence of his twin?"
"Yes, Major Lennox," Optimus Prime replied. "It is without a doubt that his reactions and moods are affected in the absence of Sunstreaker."
"And every Autobot coming in who isn't Sunstreaker is making him give up hope," Epps sighed. "That's painful."
Lennox was now scratching his head at the immense explanation he just heard. Apparently Cybertronian twins had a sparks that were connected to each other, that was a vital part of a bond that was strong in a sense of emotions and even in a physical sense. All this time, Will never had taken to the fact that something like this was considered a serious thing by the Cybertronians. Who would be when your example of twins were Mud Flap and Skids? But he soon realized that all this time in working with the Autobots, by all counts Optimus never had separated the younger twins on any mission. Where Mud Flap was, Skids was there as well, no matter how much they fought with each other over words or punches in each others faces.
"If it is not a problem, sir, I suggest that Sideswipe take leave of his duties until appointed at the right time," Ratchet advised.
Sergeant Epps winced, "Are you sure? He's not gonna like that. Sides is a proud warrior, taking him off of duties is like declaring he's not useful anymore."
"His rather violent mood will rise," Ratchet pressed. "His discipline is great in training, but how long will it last?"
Optimus considered the situation briefly, but he would always wish to hear any more proposals in taking a middle decision that benefited all sides. "Do you have any other ideas, Will?"
Will shifted uncomfortably weighing his choices. "Perhaps we could still have him on duty, but call it a vacation away from the base."
"How do you intend to do that?" Epps asked.
"Well," Lennox sighed. "You both explained before that Sideswipe is more comfortable with the younger Autobots, he could stay with Bumblebee and the twins on guardian duty as a lookout. That way he can take leave away from the base; it still keeps him on duty and with Mirage and Hound coming soon, his post on base is filled in."
"Good idea," Epps concurred. "What do you think, Ratchet?"
"Considering we will be on the mainland when Mirage and Hound land on Earth, it is a good idea. As long as I can give him a good check-up once in a while I think the idea is acceptable," the medic reasoned. "Optimus?"
Sealing everyone's decision Optimus took the order, "Very well. We shall prepare everything to be accounted for."
Tick… tick… tick…
Tick… tick… tick…
Tick… tick… tick…
During what seemed to be the longest wait in his entire life, Skyler looked at the clock with an aggravating feeling. It felt like he'd be waiting an eternity for the bus would show up. The fact that the whole area was isolated with hardly any humans around had raised the tension like it was in a horror movie. The young man moved uncomfortably trying to calm himself down in what seemed to be the waiting area. But every now and then his thoughts would end up at the possessed Lamborghini.
That's it; I am sooo not watching any horror movies or series after this.
While it was spring, it was chilly that night. He looked at his hands to see they were starting to freeze, courtesy to his bad habit of have excess sweat coming from his hands when he was nervous or something that excited him. Deciding to warm them up, Skyler went to a warm drink vending machine across the road. He chose a canned drink of milk tea, contemplating the fact that it was probably for the best, since he could sleep off every crazy thing he'd been thinking of once he got into the midnight bus.
Half an hour later, Skyler was starting to realize that something was horribly wrong. He checked the time to find it was already 25 minutes past the time the bus should be at the terminal. So why wasn't the bus coming? And then a sudden grasp struck him.
-Flashback-
Skyler checked up on the available travel times for the out of town bus.
He opened up the site to find the monitor fuzzed up a bit. The young con man simply asked the admin who was beside him. "Are your monitors okay? You seem to have some sort of interference or something."
"What are you talking about?" the admin snapped. "We just got these state-of-the-art CPUs last week!"
As a sign of peace, Skyler backed off. "Fine, just saying…"
-Another Flashback-
"Bus terminal at this hour?" the Taxi driver asked shrewdly in confusion.
Skyler blinked. "Yeah, it's alright with you?"
"… Well. Ok, man. Your business. I just got to get you there right? I'm on it," the other shrugged.
-End of Flashback-
He had been hacked! There was never a midnight bus in the first place!
He was so focused on realizing everything that he didn't notice the place where he stopped on the dust road; a certain Lamborghini car was right in front of him. Its headlights when on full to alert the human of its worst nightmare.
Snapping the daylights out of him, Skyler gulped as looked to the source of the lights to find it was the car.
He looked…
He screamed…
He ran…
Sunstreaker certainly was enjoying chasing down the fleshling. He swished from side to side, sometimes he sped up just barely touching the human but enough to make the human know he was going to crash into him, and he made sure he got the human going where he wanted it to. Eventually they soon made it to their destination, an abandoned storage facility.
Out of breath, Skyler clumsily tripped over and expected the worst, to be run over.
But it never came.
Perplexed he looked over his shoulder and turned around to see the car was still active but had stopped in its place.
Gears shifted and turned, metal plating transforming into what it looked a 15 ft gigantic robot on wheels with twin blades and small cannon rifles just behind its shoulders. Its blue eyed optics stared hard at Skyler as it was looking at him and scanning him with interest.
Taking in the size, Skyler's reflex on flight had jumped back into gear with the adrenaline and made a run for it.
Sunstreaker sighed. He wasn't in the mood for introductions either.
The warrior bot simply skated off on his wheels chasing the terrified organic, gave a small nudge on the back of its neck, and it fainted.
"Troublesome noisy fleshy," Sunstreaker grumbled as he carefully tucked the unconscious human in one hand and picked up its bag. He carefully transformed so that he at the end had managed to put the organic inside him. This is just so disgusting. He put the seatbelt on it tying it up and closed his door. Next he drove away quietly while obeying the speed limits until he was out of the town.
At least the capturing is over; it was only a matter of time before the thing was going to wake up.
Another thing Sunstreaker wasn't looking forward to.
Dazedly, the brown haired dude woke up seeing the car clock indicating it was ten pm or something…
Car clock?
Wait…
Wasn't he on a bus?
Impulsively, Skyler looked around to find he was in the car! The POSSESSED robot car!
Just as he was going to get into a fit, his seatbelt tightened around him tying him down to the front seat.
"Don't move so much organic!" a voice boomed over the radios.
Skyler immediately stiffened, the fact that the steering wheel was moving on its own wasn't comforting either. Did it say organic?
Taking easy and steady breaths, he clamed himself down. Although his heart beat was anything but calm.
Silence.
Knowing it could talk in English, maybe he should communicate with it. Skyler then nervously asked, "S-So… W-what are you anyway?"
The answer was brief, "An Autonomous Robotic Organism from Cybertron."
Skyler blinked. That certainly was a mouthful.
"Why are you abducting me?" another question as his courage was starting to come back.
No answer.
The young con man even though he was still scared out of his wits, pondered what this alien was going to do with him. Think as he might, it seemed the alien was resistant to silent treatment. Or maybe it preferred Skyler not talking at all.
It wasn't until another half an hour later when Skyler broke the silence to ask a question, "Can you let me out in a while? It's a bit stiff in here."
Sunstreaker felt appalled replying to someone inside him. "And why should I let you out?"
"Well, you know, I might need to vomit." The paint job guy said without thinking.
The car halted so fast he crashed his head on the dash board.
Then Skyler plus his bag were unceremoniously ejected out of the door.
"What did you do that for?" Skyler shouted and snapped angrily nursing his sore head and soon he was feeling the pain in his back. Son of a b****, that f****** hurt.
"You WILL NOT vomit in me fleshling!"
"Ugh…" Skyler sat up still cursing about back pains. "Alright, alright. Yeesh. If you get me to a gas station once in a while then I won't. I got my needs you know."
"As long as you leave your disgusting organic matters to yourself," Sunny grumbled, as he again opened the door. "Get back in before I decide to squish you!"
Skyler got off the ground, dusted himself off, picked up his bag, and went into the car. Who knew that aliens have hygiene problems?
Later, at a gas station….
The young paint job con man ate his 'brunch' (breakfast 'n' lunch) at the cafeteria as he disdainfully looked out the window to see that the Lambo was watching him intently like vulture at a meal. It had managed to get a good deal of attention as many people were looking at it with very greedy, if not happy faces. It wasn't often that they would find one hanging around in areas like this and it was too good to be true to find one away from the main cities in America.
What did this robotic organism want from him anyway? Seriously, it was giving him a silent treatment all the way that Skyler did not think he could connect to it in any way. If anything, he just wanted to get away from it now knowing it had all the blades, cannons, and weapons that could easily kill him. Heck, all it needed to do was step on him and he was finished. He needed to get to Kansas City, not play hostage with some E.T. who gods knew what it wanted. Maybe an exit strategy was in order. Hmm…
Then something caught Skyler's attention…
That's an idea.
A few minutes after…
Sunstreaker briefly went into a recharge thinking that the fleshling was going to take a while to do the 'organic' business or whatever they did. He was somewhat annoyed with these other fleshbags who were around him and getting their pictures in front of him with cameras. He felt like rolling his optics. Of course if a fleshy tried to touch him he simply gave a static shock to them. He did NOT want to be touched by them, thank you very much.
Noticing the high security on the car, most of the people did back off a bit, but some still stubbornly took pictures. In another few minutes, Sunstreaker was getting restless. He scanned his tracker through out the gas station to find his taken fleshling.
To find out nothing.
A pause.
He scanned the whole gas station again…
To find the Skyler was no where in his radar but outside of it.
The reaction was instantaneous.
SLAG IT, FLESHY! I'M SO FRAGGING YOU TO THE PIT THAT YOU WILL WISH YOU WERE NEVER CREATED!
Meanwhile just a couple of miles away and an hour later…
"Aaaachoo! Hachoo! Hachoo!"
The con man wiped his nose. That couldn't be good, maybe a certain alien must have realized what was going on and was cursing his name.
Skyler walked on the long main road looking around for any cars.
He was now wearing a black leather jacket, blue jeans, a white shirt and black boots plus a black baseball cap, courtesy of bribing a random guy his age that had his size of clothes with two hundred dollars for the clothes switch. He still had his bag, but it was an affective disguise or what con men call the 'lookie-loo'. He managed to fool the bot by pretending to be someone else as he waltzed over to the other side of the station to hitch a ride on a farmer's truck without getting seen. It didn't take him really far, but far enough to be away from the alien robot.
Of course Skyler was actually having second thoughts of pulling a Houdini on the alien. Was it really wise to pull off something like that on gigantic robot that could easily squish you on the spot? Very unwise. Stupid even. He considered the fact that he was wanted alive, so the survival rate was high…but torture and the other stuff that aliens could do? Well, he was pretty screwed up on that one, if he got caught, and apparently that could happen as after passing by so many cars or trucks he hadn't gotten a hitch to ride.
It wasn't until another few minutes to half an hour before to his utter disappointment and he was facing it again.
The LP 570-4 Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera he pimped out just a few days ago.
Anyone would be thrilled to hitch a ride in one of course, unless… if it wasn't a robot alien that wanted to abduct you.
Surprise, surprise.
It was slowly crawling behind him now, but there were large dangerous growls and the rev of the engine was enough to make Skyler shudder in fear. Even if it was still in its car form it was scary. But he stubbornly walked on and ignored it.
Sunstreaker was furious. If only Optimus didn't have those stupid rules of not hurting humans, he would have just squished the little fragger and got another fleshling.
Sunny grumbled, "You will come with ME."
"No," the young man said clearly without glancing behind his back.
"Come back here, fleshy." It was a command.
"Says the robot that got tricked by the fleshy," Skyler bravely taunted as he rolled his eyes. He simply walked away.
Another revving growl was heard. But it soon turned into a mocking snide remark, "But you couldn't possibly search for whatever you're looking for or going on without the deactivated data, can you, organic?"
Skyler stopped dead on his tracks.
The laptop!
Shit. Why did it have to be super intelligent alien robot and not the tooth fairy?
It just had to hit the jackpot. Damn it!
Sunstreaker silently celebrated his victory upon the human. Take that fleshy!
"So you're the one who locked my laptop?" Skyler asked accusingly.
That pretty much explained the false footage and the malicious overriding software.
"Isn't that obvious organic?" the sarcasm coming from Sunstreaker's voice. "There's no getting that data back unless I unlock it."
The young man growled. Bastard!
The spiky dark brown-haired man sighed in frustration. His con man instincts were telling him that he really didn't have any choice in the matter if he was going to find his brother. Every delay was another setback in finding his brother. But what did this alien want from him? He was a thief and only a paint job guy for crying out loud! Skyler didn't have any relations to anything like Area 51 or Roswell or any other alien-obsessed organization. Muttering incoherent words and thinking the only way to get through this in one piece and not end up in an asylum for lunatics, he went back to the basic method of everything. Asking.
"Fine," he gave a sign of peace as he raised his hand up. In a manner of confusion even if he was pissed off, he held his temper in check. "What is that you want from me?"
"Show me the way to the military base of Nevada." the mech said irritably. "I can't get there with my navigation and communication systems offlined."
What was he? A tour guide? That was a couple of states away!
Digesting the information silently, Skyler still wasn't sure about doing it. He had other problems to deal with. "Why are you headed there?"
"Classified," the tone was stiff and there wasn't going to be any clues either.
That wasn't really helping things, but Skyler now knew that the alien was smart enough to know the tools of trade. Anything personal was always considered classified. The problem was, was this alien going to attack the military base in some take over the world plot or something? Stupid question, but probable with the weapons it had at its disposal. Still, he was a thief. Let the government deal with whatever they were going to face. It wasn't his business to get into some intergalactic fighting mess.
"What's in it for me?" Skyler sternly said making sure the alien knew he was serious. "A trade for a trade. I get something what I want, you get what you want."
Sunstreaker snorted. Finally the fleshling was starting to think right for once.
"I can get you to Kansas City faster than any transport you organics have. I am the epitome of the fastest of my kind on land. Finish whatever you want to do there, and you show me the way to Nevada."
The information that he was heading for Kansas City wasn't new to the alien which meant he indeed had been on Skyler's back like a hawk in the last few days. Possibly tagged him as a target too (although he wasn't sure how). But Skyler's ears perked up when he heard the part 'of my kind', which stated clearly there were more of them here. Of course, the con man side of him poked and prodded his head telling him to stay away from what was not his business, and focus on what made it his business. He shook his head to clear it. There just wasn't a luxury of time to make the logical decision with detailed facts.
What was the most important thing now?
Steve.
A pang was there in his heart, and this time he followed his emotions. Very dangerous and highly illegal for a con man, but it was the only thing he had left that he was really fighting for. On the contrary, perhaps heading to Nevada wasn't a bad idea at least. He could visit Uncle Reuben in Vegas and disappear from there.
The young man glanced at the car in front of him and said, "I want my laptop back to the way it was. You get me to Kansas City, I finish my things there, and I'm your personal guide to Nevada. Deal?"
There was a pause before the voice went out of radio, "Sealed."
Skyler nodded. "Good."
And with that, Sunstreaker opened his door, "Get in."
Another three more hours of silence…
It wasn't like the both of them had a conversation to strike up. Sunstreaker was happy he didn't pick up a fleshy femme as they had a tendency to yap a lot, silence was enough for him to get on with his job of getting the fleshy to Kansas City quickly and efficiently. As for Skyler it was perfectly fine as he had much to think about, as far as who he was going to get in touch with later on to find his brother.
And what the alien robot had said was true, he was fast.
Heh, understatement of the millennium.
UBER CRAZY FAST.
It felt like riding a non-stop jet powered roller coaster.
Skyler was a bit thankful he didn't have a heavy lunch, and dinner? Well, he'd have to miss it anyway… he didn't want to throw up in the car and get squished by the alien.
Looking at the night scenery which was a blur, they were probably out in the middle of nowhere, but still heading north towards Kansas City. If they kept going like this, they would be there in less than two days. Skyler wasn't going to complain about speed limits though, from what he figured every time the bot would move much slower was when the alien knew there were cops around. Once out of sight, then he just zoomed off without any worry.
His thoughts were disturbed when Sunstreaker made a sudden swerve off the road into the open and stopped behind a large rock formation.
"Huh?"
"WOAH!"
Again Skyler plus his bag were unceremoniously ejected out of the door.
This time around, he was able to roll over and didn't cause more pain to his back.
Crack.
Ok, it wasn't perfect. At least it wasn't a fall flat out on his back like last time.
Groaning in a bit of a pain, he got to his bearings on the ground and shifted himself up to see that the robot was in its true form. Skyler was about to complain, until there was a large screeching noise that continued with the sound of stimulating air vents, sonorous booms, and a sudden local earthquake. Being the smaller one, Skyler by reflex curled up into a ball and closed his ears in pain.
What the hell was going on?
Now the screech was gone, but the sounds of the booms and clicks had not.
As the young con man struggled to stand up, he soon saw the robot on the sprawled on ground and looked like he was clutching a part of him. Its heart?
Constrained to his spot in fear and concern, he couldn't do anything out of shock. Skyler then focused on the sounds of painful howls.
The first words or what seemed to be rather static were no language that Skyler heard of until…
"#$%$#$#$%…Sides… Sideswipe…ugh…" the robot alien groaned in pain.
By the looks of every part of the robot's body he was shutting down.
"Sideswipe?" Skyler blinked in confusion.
Just who was that?
Autobot Mission Log Entry 1.03: Difficult pet and Lock-downs
Planet Earth, On the roads, middle of nowhere.
I can't believe the fleshy had managed to fool out of me of all bots that I actually lost him for a moment! That was EMBARRASSING!
For some reason, I had somewhat regretted in selecting him as a target. Even if I did have a leash on him, he was dangerous. Especially when he had too much time to think. At least in the end we struck a trade for what we both wanted without getting into personal reasons. There was still hostility between us, but I'm not surprised and it doesn't matter. And there was still that 'Con on the loose. Pit, what have I gotten myself into? Every single thing was glitchin' one after the other.
The worst just had to happen during the night.
It was clear that Sides was calling out for me, he was in the same pain I was having because we couldn't connect. But I couldn't let the bond open, not a fragging chance. Now that Sides had somehow to managed to force himself through, if I wasn't careful Soundwave's thing could cause my brother's spark to enter a stasis lock. I couldn't care less about the damage it was doing to my own spark. As long as it didn't hurt him, it was better that way. Even if it meant that my body would end up in a lock-down.
As I crumbled down and my optics shutdown to the spasms of pain in my spark, I realized the organic was somehow welded to the spot, he wasn't moving or anything.
He didn't run away from me.
He just… stood there.
In sympathy?
But why?
After all I did to abduct him… he was still a full of questions.
~ Sunny.
TBC…
Cliffhanger…
So, it's a rough start for the two stubborn guys (both egoistic, a young con man + thief and warrior mech). As you can see, they have no respect for each other that even introductions can't make it in their mouths. Yup, no mentioning of name either … how will they fare against each other in the next chap?
Hmm… who knows? *grins evily*
Awesome thanks to Rainspiral for her review. It was an inspiration of her idea about Skyler's brief escape from Sunny.
Don't forget to drop off a review! I want to hear what you all think! *points the review button*