A little wordy for one chapter, so I split it in half.
New encounters.
"That car is driving itself." Roadblock said, impressed.
"We have cars, motorcycles, trucks, semis, boats, aircraft, and space craft that can all drive themselves. You met a stereo that can talk and turn its' cassettes' into robotic organisms." Rosalie pointed out dryly. "A car that can drive itself is not unusual around here."
"You said space craft. Why would you say space craft?" Tunnel Rat asked nervously.
"Because Cosmos and Omega Supreme are space craft. Omega's away right now. But Cosmos is probably hanging around. You won't meet him until later." Rosalie explained as they walked with the little bots running ahead. A car engine purred into ear shot, a high performance engine, but no vehicle appeared.
"I heard a car, but where is it?" Tunnel Rat asked, getting really paranoid.
"It's Mirage. Jazz probably sent him as escort until Blue shows up." Rosalie said, unconcerned. "Mirage has a special ability. He can go about unseen. Unheard is another matter. When he activates his sound dampeners, it creates a high frequency whine that I and other women can hear, but it's close to inaudible to Mirage himself." she explained with an unconcerned shrug.
"So some ghost car is following us?" Roadblock asked sceptically.
"No, Mirage is following us with his electro-particle disruptor engaged. Watch how you speak to, and of, him. He is very high class and proper in his display of manners and class. He's not someone you piss off just cause you can. Uhh, side note, don't piss of Sunstreaker or and of the minibots. It never ends well." Rosalie said with an aggravated sigh as two small cars shot by, tires squealing on the slick metal floors, they were being followed by a large black truck that seemed to loom, rather than drive, in pursuit of the small cars. "Speak of the devil, Skids and Mudflap are minis, while Ironhide is warrior class. That truck is almost too small for him to use." Rosalie added, pursing her lips thoughtfully, making Tunnel Rat chuckle.
"You look like a fish when you do that." Tunnel Rat laughed.
"Whatever mole boy. You still digging in the dirt?" Rosalie asked acidly.
"Tunnel Rat here has saved our lives before." Roadblock pointed out, defending Tunnel Rat, but succeeding in making Rosalie spin around and grin wickedly at Tunnel Rat, while he groaned in realisation.
"Tunnel Rat? That's better than Mole-Boy!" Rosalie laughed hysterically for a moment. "Tunnel Rat, he. I'm going to get mileage out of that. A lot of mileage."
"It's my code name and it was Ripcords' dumb idea." Tunnel Rat protested, only to have Rosalie and Roadblock start chuckling at him.
They kept walking down silver and grey halls for another few minutes, occasionally looking down different halls that had been darkened to prevent unwanted attention. Tunnel Rats' paranoia was acting up something awful, until Rosalie told him that 'yes, the cameras' are watching us' and 'No, it's Red alerts' job to keep an eye on everything' After about fifteen minutes, they reached a large, open area, that only Rosalie called a room.
"Okay, so this is where you are going to meet Bluestreak. Rewind and Eject will translate what you don't understand, because I can't make parallels with some of their language and dialect differences. Oddly enough, slang comes through perfectly." Rosalie muttered and climbed up to the catwalks that ringed the large room. "Come on, you can't expect Blue to lay on the floor just to talk. He would, don't get me wrong, but I won't let that happen. He's too sweet and kind to admit to being put out." Rosalie said, most of what she was saying was going over Tunnel Rats' and Roadblocks' heads.
"So what's the deal with the scaffolds?" Roadblock asked, a little afraid of the answer.
"Up here, we're near eye level with some of the taller guys, over head with the minis and waist high with the biggest that can actually fit inside the room." Rosalie explained blandly, this was old news to her, so she didn't notice the reaction it had on her company. Eject and Rewind were swinging around the bars and handrails twenty feet above the floor and Roadblock made to grab Rewind when he slipped and almost fell to the ground.
"Kids really heavy." Roadblock grunted as he hauled Rewind up with effortless help from Eject.
"They both weigh close to three hundred pounds each in their root modes. I'm surprised you were able to lift him at all." Rosalie said, impressed.
"Couldn't have done it without this lil guy here helping'." Roadblock said as he patted Eject on the head. Eject warbled, a happy sound, at the touch and the praise.
"One thing you should know about the youngest ones, they love physical contact. They are symbiotic in their need for contact. It reassures them and comforts them. They're like opossums or marsupials in general. The older they get, the less contact they need." Rosalie said, charmed at the look on Ejects' face, it was one of extreme smugness and pleasure. "They don't grow out of the need for contact, even as adults, they require contact with at least two others. And don't let the warbling and clicking and general noise fool you. They're just talking in their language. They know every Earth language. Blaster and Jazz are fluent in most of them, simply because Blaster is head of Communications, and Jazz is Jazz." Rosalie said with a laugh as a burst of static laced with horrible electronic screeches came from the speakers on the walls.
"Was that Red Alert?" Tunnel Rat asked uneasily.
"Yep. He thinks I'm giving away sensitive information. Since you don't have your implants yet, you wouldn't have understood what he just said." Rosalie said with a grin as the static continued to hiss at them.
"Ooh! Strike out!" Eject laughed at the camera. Rewind was nattering on at the camera as well, just not in English..
"He spoke in English!" Tunnel Rat said, slightly shocked.
"Did I not just say they knew English? Or something along those lines?" Rosalie asked dryly.
"Score!" Eject shouted brightly and began laughing as Rewind looked smug. Both cassettes began their game of acrobatics again. A few minutes passed as Roadblock watched the little twins play and Tunnel Rat and Rosalie stood in awkward silence.
"Uhh, so how long have you been working here?" Tunnel Rat asked quietly.
"Some days it's too long and others, not long enough. But you want an almost exact estimate. Well, one night I was working in a factory, closing out, and a comet comes and slams into the building! Now, just for details sake, this was an animatronics factory. I was on the construction staff. We had just finished three months of work on a bunch of dinosaurs for a theme park. The comet slams into the building, front end was where reception and the labs were. Out back was building and testing. I was out back. I ran around front and, rising out of all the rubble, a robot, just like these ;little guys. Only this one was forty five feet tall. And to add to the problems at hand, two more comets slam down not twenty feet away. I was thrown into the giant robot by the concussive waves alone." Rosalie said with a sigh and rubbed her head. "And that wasn't the end of it, oh no, that would be too easy. I'm sitting on the robots foot as two more robots are looking at me like I'm dinner, and then more comets touch down. So now there are five of these things and sirens in the distance. The first one looks around, spots the animatronic dinosaurs and shoots a green light at them. Nothing happened and then I hear this weird sound, like music and machines at the same time. I look back at the robots, but they aren't robots anymore. They are dinosaurs, only silver, red and blue. The one I landed on, leaned done and said 'Me Grimlock. Who you little squishy?" I think I must have fainted then, cause I woke up here and Grimlock was all but eating another robot close to his size. He wanted to keep me, so their boss said I could stick around for a while. And since the Dinobots aren't allowed out where normal people can see them, they have to live on an island where no one can find them or even reach the island. They don't mind, they like it there." Rosalie finished up her story as two vehicles drove into the room. They both transformed and Tunnel Rat screamed in terror.
"Oh please! Smokescreen and Bluestreak aren't going to do anything to hurt you." Rosalie said annoyed at Tunnel Rat's reaction. "Though, Smokescreen's a gambler and may sell you off to the highest bettor. Bluestreak will just talk your ear off." Rosalie added with a smile at Bluestreak.