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Steve had never had a fast alt mode before. Being a miner, he was used to puttering along on treads or at the most some large, burly wheels. So for him, speeding along on these soft Earth roads in a new mode was actually somewhat of a thrill. He would have enjoyed it a lot more if Raoul didn't insist on keeping his fleshy, organic hands on his new steering wheel.

"I can drive myself, you know. You don't have to keep… touching me."

"Hey man, no offense, but you're the one who ran the stop sign before." Raoul sneered down at Steve's dashboard looking very smug. "So until you get an Earth driver's license, I'll do the actual driving around here."

Steve grumbled barely audible scoff through his vents but gave no other response. The human had a point; Steve didn't actually know what sort of rules they had about driving on this planet. It was probably better if Raoul helped him along. He didn't have to like it, of course.

Some time passed like this, and they drove along the wooded road in a somewhat awkward silence. Steve wasn't a huge fan of how quiet it had gotten since it gave him too much time to think about his predicament and worry for his friend, but he also didn't really like the idea of having to talk to the human. He couldn't think of anything to say. And he certainly didn't want Raoul asking more questions about him or the inner workings of the Decepticons... If he got back in contact with the 'Cons, or rather when he did, he didn't want to explain how he had spilled his guts to some random human.

He wouldn't have to suffer much longer, though; it seemed as though Raoul couldn't stand the silence either. After a long, painful sounding sigh, Raoul loosened his grip on Steve's steering wheel slightly.

"I shoulda brought the CDs from that car..." he grumbled, "We still got hours to go, and I'm dyin' of boredom here."

"What's a CD?" Steve asked. This was good. If they could talk about Earth things rather than Cybertronian things it would work out a lot better for him.

"It's a flat sorta disc that plays music." Raoul looked down again. "In fact, if I'd taken them, they'd go in right about... here." he pointed to a slot in Steve's dashboard.

"Whoa! You're not putting some weird Earth disc into me, okay?"

Raoul laughed at the suggestion, but quickly replied, "No don't worry. I didn't bring them anyway..." he kept looking down at the dash, though. "But does your radio work?"

"Do I have a radio?"

"Yeah, it's this one here." Raoul reached over and turned one of Steve's new knobs on his dashboard. As he did, Steve felt new systems spring to life: the short antenna on his frame started actively picking up the radio signals around him and he felt his speakers (which he didn't even realize he had until that moment) start emitting sound. He didn't intend for any of this to happen, but he couldn't help it. It still felt weird to be controlled like that. He wasn't sure he'd ever get used to it... not that he wanted to.

However, Raoul seemed pleased by the resulting sound and started bobbing his head slightly. "Awesome! I love this song."

"So... Earth music..." Steve started to speak, also somewhat listening to the sound still strangely coming from his own speakers. "I assume that's something you... like?"

"Of course, man!" Raoul said, "Music is like, my life!"

"Your life...?" Steve paused for a moment before continuing, "Oh! So you make music? Is that like your job?"

"Uhh, well…" the human turned his eyes away, "Not exactly… I mean, I do make music but it's not a full time gig or nothing…"

"Why not?"

"Because not everybody's that lucky, man!" Raoul sounded a little irritated by the question, "People don't get to live off their passions anymore. Most of us get stuck in jobs we hate just to get by."

Steve definitely understood that sentiment. On the Nemesis you had the option of either miner or soldier. If you were lucky you could get a cushy job in the command center but those positions rarely opened up. He almost said this out loud to continue the conversation, but then remembered he was trying to keep the topic away from the Decepticons. So instead he just hummed a quiet agreement and moved on.

"So what is your job, then?"

"Oh. Uhh…" Raoul's grip on Steve's steering wheel tightened suddenly. "You know, it's kind of boring to talk about. What about you? What sorta stuff do you do all day?"

Scrap. "Oh you know… mining stuff." Steve kept his answer as vague as possible. He'd already told the human too much about the mines.

"What're you guys mining for?"

"Er just… stuff."

"Stuff?" Raoul repeated, raising an eyebrow. "Hey man, it's cool if you don't wanna talk about your mines and junk. I know you're worried about your friend in one of 'em."

Steve didn't respond to this. That hadn't been the reason he had thought of, but now that Raoul had mentioned it, he didn't want to think about it for that reason either.

Raoul noticed his silence and was quick to change the subject. "So hey, you're an alien. Could you tell me about your planet? What's it like?"

"It's…" Steve was about to say 'dead' but he hesitated. He still hated thinking of Cybertron as just that one word. And this human didn't know any better, so he didn't have to describe it that way. "It's called Cybertron." He continued, "It's made completely out of metal. Everyone who lived there was too- plants and animals included."

"Cool. Do they all transform like you too?"

"Yeah most things there had two forms. Not that they were always vehicles or anything." Steve felt his mood lift just a bit. It was nice talking about Cybertron in this way, so he ignored the part of him that was still sad about discussing the topic. "In fact we even had a few cities that could transform!"

"Haha! What?!" Raoul laughed at this, "No way! You're making that up."

"Heh, no it's true!" Steve laughed as well, probably not helping his credibility on the matter. "For the most part though, people turned into vehicles. Unless they were something fancy like a fraggin' microscope or something."

"A microscope?" Raoul repeated this, looking both shocked and highly amused by the idea. "You got guys who turn into microscopes?!"

"Well I don't personally know anyone who does… or did. But yeah, there were scientists who turned into microscopes and stuff. I didn't live anywhere near where those kinds of people did though, so I only heard about that sorta thing."

Raoul nodded in understanding. "Yeah, not everyone has the chance to pal around with the big wigs."

"You're not kidding. Before I became a Decepticon I never even left my district… Not that I really could." Steve mumbled this last part, barely even meaning to say it aloud. Raoul picked up on it, though.

"Whattaya mean you couldn't leave?"

"Erm, well…" Steve paused for a moment, wondering if he should share this information with the human. After thinking it over for a moment, he decided that it was alright; this was sort of just like a history lesson, anyway. As long as he wasn't telling him anything relevant to their Earth operations it was probably fine. So he continued, "Before the Decepticons came around things weren't all that fair on Cybertron… Where I lived there were checkpoints and stuff to stop you from going into areas for classes higher than your own. They wanted to keep us separate."

"That sucks!" Raoul sounded actually offended by the idea. "So you had whole groups of you guys caged up in parts of the cities?"

"Yeah. It did suck." Steve was only barely able to stop himself from laughing about that slang word. It was a good one; he'd have to remember it for later. "That's why I joined the Decepticons. I didn't like how we were being treated and I knew the 'Cons weren't afraid to fight for what we wanted!"

"Hmm. Yeah, you don't seem like the type to just take crap lying down." Raoul smiled at this, "Good for you, man. Not everyone's that tough."

"Well everyone has a breaking point, I think. It just depends on the perso-" Steve hadn't really been paying attention to the road, but he paused mid-sentence as he did. They had reached a straight stretch of road, and in his mirrors he spotted a familiar looking car.

"That's…" he started to slow down. "That's a Vehicon!" About a quarter mile back, a dark purple muscle car was trailing behind him.

"A what?" Raoul looked back too.

"Another Decepticon." Steve said, "One of the soldiers… I guess they picked up my energon signal and came to see what I was doing."

He slowed even further to allow the other car to catch up, but rather draw closer to him, their speed dropped off considerably so they continued to trail far behind. Steve hesitated for a moment, a little confused as to why they were keeping their distance. However, before he could do anything else, two more identical vehicles came barreling around a corner up ahead and headed straight for Steve at top speed! The two cars were side by side taking up both lanes, so Steve had to swerve right off the road to avoid hitting them. He slammed on his brakes just in time to avoid going head-on into the line of trees.

Raoul, who had let out a rather undignified squeak when they left the road, was now gripping Steve's steering wheel so tight his hands were shaking.

"What the hell?!" he shouted, "I thought you said you knew these guys? Are they trying to kill you or something?!"

"I-I don't understand!" Steve cautiously shifted into reverse and backed away from the trees. "They're definitely Vehicons, but why would they-?"

As Steve turned back towards the road, he saw that the other cars, after they had gone zooming past him, had circled back around and were blocking him from getting back onto the pavement. Before he could even say or do anything about it, the first car caught up at last. It veered off the road and went right for him! Just as it was about to crash right into his side, the car transformed into a Vehicon who then proceeded to slam one of his pedes down on Steve's hood! Steve shifted into reverse and tried to back out from under him, but the weight on his front end was pushing his tires down into the soft dirt and preventing him from moving at all.

Then the other two transformed and pulled out their blasters. That was the last straw for Raoul; he unbuckled himself and practically leapt out of Steve's seat. Before he could get very far, the Vehicon holding Steve down reached over and scooped him up into his claws.

"Well well, what have we here?" he teased. Then he looked back down to Steve, transforming out his own blaster to point at the human. "Surrender yourself, or the human gets it, Autobot!"

"Oh! You think I'm-? Ha ha!" Suddenly it all clicked into place for Steve. Once it did, he couldn't stop himself from laughing. That didn't really help diffuse the situation, unfortunately, and the Vehicon just pressed down harder on Steve's hood.

"This some kind of joke to you?" he snarled.

Raoul didn't seem too pleased about his reaction either, and shouted, "What exactly about this is funny, Steve?!"

The three Vehicons each glanced over at Raoul, probably wondering what kind of Autobot is named 'Steve.' He thought he better clear up this misunderstanding before these 'Cons did any more damage.

"Look, I'm not an Autobot! I'm a Vehicon like you." Steve finally said, he shifted his front tires in an attempt to wiggle his way out from under the pede squishing him into the grass. "Just get off me and I'll show you."

The blasters of the two Vehicons on the road started to hum with charge as he spoke.

"You think we're stupid?" one of them said. She gestured at Steve's frame with her blaster, "No Vehicon has an alt mode like that."

"And Decepticons don't pal around with humans, either!" the other chimed in as well.

"I know! It's a long story, but just let me-" Finally, Steve managed to finagle it so his wheels had a better grip on the ground, and he slammed on his reverse and backed out from under the Vehicon's weight.

The three soldiers all trained their blasters on him, ready to fire, but Steve transformed immediately into his root mode and held up his servos in surrender.

"Look! See? I'm a Decepticon." He slowly indicated the insignia on his chassis.

After seeing that he did in fact have a 'Con badge rather than an Autobot one, the Vehicons hesitantly lowered their blasters. They were still eyeing him a bit suspiciously, though.

"Why do you look like that?" The one holding Raoul spoke up, "That's definitely not one of our designated vehicle modes. Especially not for a miner."

"I had to scan a new form after I left my mine." Steve explained, obviously relieved that they had finally lowered their weapons. Now that they had calmed down a bit, these 'Cons might actually be able to provide him with some answers. They were soldiers, so they might be one of the patrol units that had constant contact with the Nemesis.

He continued, "See, what happened was my mine lost communication with central command. We don't know why or how and they weren't giving us any answers, so I left… But you're a patrol, right? You have a stronger comm link. Could you contact the Nemesis for me? I need to know if my friend's mine is alright."

The Vehicons just stared at him for a moment without answering. Finally one of them on the road responded. "We're not a patrol; we came from a mine too."

The one next to her nodded in agreement, "The same thing happened to our mine... We were kinda hoping you were an Autobot. We were going to interrogate you to see if they… did something to the Nemesis."

So it wasn't just a fluke, then. The other mines had lost contact just like his. And that meant these 'Cons were just as in the dark as he was. No one said anything for a long moment as they all just stood there looking disappointed. It was a small voice that eventually broke the silence.

"Hey buddy! You wanna let me down now?!"

The Vehicon holding Raoul looked down at him as if just remembering he was there. "Oh. Right." He then placed him down on the ground, not very gently, which caused him to fall over. He proceeded to scramble onto his feet and back towards Steve, keeping his eyes locked suspiciously on the soldier.

"What's with the human anyway?" the Vehicon asked, gesturing down at Raoul.

"He's helping me find my way to a friend's mine." Steve explained. "I don't really know where anything is around here, so a human guide seemed like a good idea."

"Hmm. I guess that makes sense… Kind of weird to have one of those squishy things ride around in you, though." He shrugged and the other two nodded their agreement at his statement. "How'd you make the thing come along?"

"I didn't make him, we're kind of… uh…" Steve paused to think of the right word to describe the two of them. Nothing came to mind. As he hesitated, Raoul spoke up.

"I have my own reasons for riding with Steve." He said, and then he looked up at him. "And by the way, where's my stuff?! It was in your passenger seat!"

"Oh." Steve shifted his plates around a bit. "Oh yeah, it's still in there. I can feel it. Hang on." He transformed back into his vehicle mode and popped open his passenger door. As Raoul circled around to check on his things, the other Vehicons looked on curiously.

"You let it talk to you like that? So is he your pet or are you his?" one of them said mockingly. The others offered a quiet laugh at this comment.

Raoul shot an irritated glare at them, but Steve said nothing in response. They may have been Decepticon soldiers, but they were nothing like the ones he was friends with. They were nothing like Frank. That was clear just from the fact that they had abandoned their duties to their mine, something Frank had adamantly said that he would not do.

"Why did you three leave your mine?" Steve asked, "I mean, I'm looking for a friend. But what about you guys?"

The soldier in front shrugged his shoulder plates, "Well we weren't getting any answers, like you said, and a lot of us suspected that the Autobots were up to something. So we weren't about to wait around for the 'Bots to come crashing into our mine to kill everyone."

"Yeah. Most of us left, in fact." One of the others added, "I think only the foreman and a few others stayed behind… I mean, if the 'Bots did something to the Nemesis then the mines would be next, right?"

Steve felt his tank churn anxiously as they spoke. He'd thought something similar back in his own mine. Frank must have too, which is why he insisted on staying: to protect the mine. Suddenly Steve felt a pang of guilt for having left him.

"What is an Autobot?"

Steve noticed Raoul had stopped looking over his belongings and was looking at him curiously. The other Vehicons seemed a bit amused by the question, but it wasn't that strange of him to ask. Steve hadn't actually explained to the human about the war they were still fighting.

"Remember how I told you things kinda sucked back on Cybertron?" Steve explained, "Well, they're the ones we had to fight to change that."

"Hmm. They sound like jerks." Raoul said, slamming Steve's passenger door shut. Yet another neat slang term to remember.

Focusing back on the conversation at hand, Steve turned his attention to the Vehicons again. "So if you all just left… Where will you go now?"

"We don't have a specific plan. We just wanted to get away from the mines." The third one answered this time, "We just want to stay off the Autobots' radar for as long as we can."

Steve hesitated with his next question, "…You wouldn't happen to be from mine NTX-19, would you?"

"No… does it matter?"

Steve was a little relieved that the mine he was heading to might not be empty, but also a bit disappointed that they wouldn't know what the state of Rodrigo's mine was. "That's where I'm headed. It's the mine where my friend Rodrigo works." he explained.

"You're wasting your time."

"Why?" Steve tensed up as he waited for the reply. Maybe they did know something about the mine.

"Because if your friend is smart, he'll be long gone from that ticking time bomb!" The Vehicon said, "NTX-19 is one of the biggest mines we have; the 'Bots would've hit a place like that first."

"Well, that's where I'm going." Steve's tone as he said this was probably more aggressive than he had intended it to be, but he couldn't help it. These soldiers were really starting to grind his gears. "So if you'll excuse me… come on, Raoul."

Raoul shot one last glare up at the Vehicons and circled around, dropping into Steve's driver's seat. The door slammed shut and Steve took off down the road. He didn't get very far before realizing the soldiers were following him. One pulled up alongside him while the other two trailed behind.

"Hey, don't go off all mad like that! We didn't mean to upset you." She shouted, "Look, why don't you come with us? You're better off steering clear of the mines for a while. It'll be a lot easier this way, too. We can help each other out."

Steve slowed down just slightly for a moment, as if he were considering her offer. Raoul noticed him hesitating.

"Hey man, if you wanna give up on the mine thing, I understand…" he whispered, "It sounds like a lot of trouble."

At Raoul's words, Steve's engine revved angrily. "I won't give up!" he said loudly, "And I'm not afraid that it'll be difficult. Even if I fail, I still have to try! And none of you are going to talk me out of it!" With that, Steve sped up, zooming ahead past the Vehicon.

As he pulled away, she slowed down along with the other two soldiers. "Okay. Good luck-" She called after him. The three of them started to turn and head in the opposite direction.

"-you're gonna need it!"