Fair warning and disclaimer: I am not a hacker! Some of the things in this chapter are true, others are completely made up, and still others are bent truths. Please don't let that affect your view of the story! I hope you enjoy!
Special thanks to all my reviewers! While this story is complete, the next is not and it is extremely motivating and encouraging to read your comments. That and it helps me make the story better. So please, any and all comments/criticisms are welcome!
Oh and…
I Am Blueberry: Thank you so much for both your reviews! I'm glad even though it wasn't who you thought it was, you are still reading! I hope Axle doesn't disappoint.
Anonymous person: You made a good guess! I can honestly say, before I created Axle, I was planning to use Prowl. He's one of my favorite bots. ^^ I will also say, he may or may not make a cameo/appearance in this story and beyond. ^_-
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's and any changes to the movie you don't recognize.
Chapter 4: Of Searching and Hacking
Andi jolted awake when a loud screech reached her ears. "ANDREA ELIZABETH HAMMOND! GET DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!"
Stumbling out of bed, Andi made her way toward the stairs to the garage. "Guess the parental units are home. Nothing like waking up to yelling in the morning." Yawning, she descended the stairs to find her mother waiting, hands on hips, at the bottom. Her father was walking around Axle, examining him. "Welcome home. How was your trip?"
"Don't give me that, young lady! You can't talk your way around this. What is this car doing here? We're gone for one week and you go out and buy a car? A Dodge Viper at that!"
"Relax, Mom. It's not mine."
"It's not?" her dad sounded disappointed. Andi smiled slightly, it would be easy to convince him to allow Axle to stay, now she just needed to worry about her mom. Walking to Axle, she rested a reassuring hand on his hood.
"Nope, I'm car-sitting for a friend at work. He's going to be over-seas for a few months and needed someone to take care of his car. I knew we had space in the garage, so I offered. I didn't think it would be a problem. I would have asked, but it was real sudden. Besides, he's letting me use the car, so it makes life easier for everyone for a few months. You won't have to let me use your cars now that I have my own."
"She makes a good point, honey." Ah, dad, the voice of reason.
Her mother hesitated, weighing her options. "I guess it's alright. But you better be careful in this car! Understood?"
What, no extensive questioning? No details needed? This is easier than I thought. "Of course, Mom. I promise to be careful."
"Alright," her stance relaxed. "Do you have plans today, dear?"
"Yeah, Mom. A friend and I are going out in a little bit. I'll be back tonight."
"Okay, well get dressed and come inside to have some breakfast before you go."
"I'll be right in." Her mother nodded, kissed her on the cheek and headed towards the house. Her father, who had been admiring Axle the whole time, walked over to her and gave her a hug, and a kiss on the forehead.
"Hey, Dad. Welcome home. Your trip go well?"
"Sure did, kiddo. Everything been alright here?"
"Yup, same old, same old. Nothing new to report."
"Good to hear. Hurry inside, you can tell me more about your week. I want to hear all about it."
"Alright, alright. I'll be in in a minute." Her father released her and headed into the house. Andi leaned back against Axle, watching her father enter the back door of the house. A moment later, Axle spoke up.
"Your parents are…"
"Oblivious to everything?"
"No."
"Gullible?"
"I was going to say easily deceived, but I guess that works to."
"It's ok, Axe, no one is going to blame you for telling the truth," Andi chuckled. "But they love me and I love them, everything works out in the end."
"Axe?" He sounded confused.
"It's a nickname, like Andi. You don't mind do you? It just kind of slipped out."
"No, I don't mind."
"Good. And while we're on the topic of nicknames, call me Andi, okay? Most people do. The only people who call me Andrea anymore are my parents when I'm in trouble or they are trying to convince me to do something for them they know I won't like."
"Alright, Andi."
"Great. Listen I need to have breakfast with my parents, but then we can head out. Is that okay?"
"Of course."
"Alright, I'll be back."
Following breakfast, Andi grabbed her suped-up laptop with wireless connection, and her backup battery from her room and she and Axle left her house. They found a secluded area outside of town with a lot of tree cover. Parking, Axle opened his door for her to step out, and after she grabbed her bag, he began to shift.
Andi watched wide-eyed as Axle transformed. Parts of his car form slid open, moved back, twisted, unfolded, revolved, and spun until he stood before her in his new and improved bipedal form. "Whoa. That was impressive, but you look different from before."
"Once we take on our alternate modes, when we transform, parts of our new forms are still apparent. A bit of armor coating you could say."
She nodded in understanding. "Alright, let's get to work, shall we? Before I try hacking into any of the high security networks, I figured I'd start by performing general searches on the web. I'll check video sites, blogs, and news reports for any signs of unusual activity. It'll take a while, but it might provide some possible hits. That sound okay to you?"
"That sounds acceptable. I'm going to try scanning the surrounding areas with my sensors first. Then I'll follow you on the web when I'm finished." Their plan set, Axle sat down and leaned against one of the surrounding trees, his legs stretched out in front of him. Andi found a relatively comfortable spot on the ground, made a mental note to bring a blanket to sit on next time, and set to work searching the web.
This became their routine for the next week. Every day in the afternoon, Andi and Axle would travel to their secluded spot, then they would spend the rest of the day searching the web for possible activity. While Andi ran the searches, Axle would first scan the surrounding areas, then follow along either negating or confirming the possible activity reports. As the first week came to an end, the two agreed that it was time for Andi to start hacking systems to see what she could pull up.
It was during one of these hacking sessions that Axle began questioning Andi about her hobby. Currently, she was working on getting into military archives, searching over reports of unusual activity. Over the week, she had taken up sitting with her back resting against one of Axle's legs, her computer in her lap. This was for both comforts sake, and because they had found earlier in the week that Axle could provide power to her laptop so that she didn't have to worry about carrying around her extra batteries.
"Andi?"
"Hmm?"
"How did you get into hacking? It's not a normal hobby for young humans to have, is it?"
She stopped typing and looked up. "What brought this up?"
Axle shrugged, one of his many human characteristics that Andi found so amusing to watch. "I've been watching you. You are good, I can see that; so I was curious to how you got that way, especially being as young as you are."
"Hey, I'm not that young." Axle just stared levelly at her. "Alright fine, to the some odd million year old robot, I'm young. But in human years, I'm not a kid anymore. Anyway, how did I get into hacking? Well, it was by accident really, though I suspect that it was bound to happen."
She began typing again as she spoke. "I was ten the first time I saw a hack being completed. I was at a friend's house, her brother was supposed to be watching us, but instead he was playing around on his computer. So, being bored, we sat in his room and watched as he performed a hack from his computer. I was fascinated, and continued to watch even after my friend left the room to go do something else. I started asking him questions about what he was doing. After a while, when I refused to stop talking, he handed me this book that he had. It was an instruction manual on how to begin learning to read codex. He told me that if I was really interested, and wanted to someday get into hacking, I needed to learn the languages first. So I did."
"I grew up around computers, you see. With my parents running a software company, I'd been around them all my life. At ten I was probably as computer literate as a high school student would be, if not more so. My brain was like a sponge when it came to computer and math related subjects. As I studied the languages and codes, I found that I couldn't get enough of it.
"I was twelve when I performed my first hack, and have been hacking, writing programs, and such ever since. It's all just sort of come naturally to me. My friend's brother told me about some local groups to get in touch with to help me get started. There's a whole underground community for hackers, that I'm now very deeply involved with. It's a way of life, you know? A very complex way of life.
"You, learn early on, that there are two types of hackers. The first type, the true hacker, focuses on developing programs and solving problems. While we know how to hack systems, we never do it to be malicious. The second type, is what is known throughout the community as a 'cracker.' These self-proclaimed hackers are the ones who enter into systems and screw them up. Unfortunately, now a days, there are more crackers than hackers. Part of the reason for this is how addicting hacking really is. It's an obsession, really." She chuckled ruefully, "Hell, I could probably be called a national security risk in and of myself, I've hacked so many systems."
"I think I understand."
Andi shrugged. "There's not much to understand. I am who I am, and I can't change that. I'm really not that much different from you, in that aspect. You're a recon specialist, I'm a computer specialist. It's who we are."
Silence reigned for several minutes, interrupted only by he sounds of Andi typing. The typing stopped as she studied a piece of information on her screen. After several moments, she spoke. "Oh hey, listen to this. I think I've found something. About two months ago a helicopter went down in Afghanistan. The last transmission from the crew had the pilot calling for assistance, claiming they were under attack from some sort of unidentified object. When the helicopter was retrieved, there were what is described as 'massive claw marks' tearing into the sides of the craft. The blades had been snapped off, as well. All of this information has been classified as top secret. The 'official' reports stated that the helicopter was shot down." Pausing, she looked up at Axle, his expression was serious. "Well, what do you think?"
Axle didn't even hesitate before answering, his voice low and tinted with anger, a tone Andi had yet to hear from him. "I think that I can now be sure that I am not as alone on this planet as I originally believed."
"Decepticon?"
"Most definitely."
AN: Well, there you have it. We finally start to get a little more involved with the movie storyline. I hope you all enjoyed! Please, let me know what you think. Like it? Hate it? Love it? Is there anything I need to work on or change? Let me know!