Stealthblade followed the Autobots late into the night, as they picked up the equipment they needed. It became obvious to Stealthblade that the Volvo emergency vehicle was the medic by the way he scanned over the supplies. The Autobot nodded to Aero Prime approvingly, and they turned and left back for their base. Stealthblade eyed the girl within the convertible femme. She was obviously growing tired, and would surely be dropped off where she lived before the Autobots returned to base.
Just as Stealthblade's internal clock told him it was ten o'clock, the convertible femme peeled away with the girl and headed towards a large city. Stealthblade quickly followed them, and checked over his stealth mode to ensure it hadn't weakened as they had traveled.
The Autobot drove to the far edge of the city, and pulled up alongside a rather old looking building compared to the other structures. On the front, Stealthblade could barely read the sign Back View's Orphanage. She was an orphan?
Stealthblade hovered high above and watched as the black haired girl hopped out of the femme 'bot and gave the convertible a hug good-bye. The hug tore at Stealthblade, but he refused to break down into a mess of emotions. He still had a job to do.
The girl jogged up the Orphanage steps and ducked inside, while the Autobot drove away. Stealthblade shifted on his heat sensors and tracked the girl as she made her way to the back of the building, and slipped into her own private room, which Stealthblade was relieved to see. That would finally make things easier for him.
When he was sure he was out of the Autobot's detection range, he carefully transformed and landed at the back of the building, spying the girl's window. He hesitated as he lifted a finger to tap on the glass.
What if she screamed, or worse, contacted the Autobots?
Suck it up Stealth, it's not like the Autobots are close enough to do anything anyways. Stealthblade reassured himself.
Stealthblade kneeled down and gently tapped on the window pane with a clawed finger. It echoed louder than he had anticipated, and he tensed ready to dart.
A sleepy looking girl strode over to the window, and her honey brown eyes widened as she peered out at Stealthblade. Her mouth opened to scream, and Stealthblade hastily put a finger to where his lips were supposed to be.
"Don't!" Stealthblade whispered, mentally flinching at his dark and dangerous voice.
To his surprise the girl cracked the window open, but jumped back a couple feet.
"You're that Decepticon!" She exclaimed quietly.
"No, I'm not a Decepticon." Stealthblade replied shaking his head.
"But you've got their symbol on your shoulder." The black haired ten year old pointed out.
Stealthblade looked at the mark with distaste.
"You've got to believe me, I'm no Decepticon!" Stealthblade pleaded.
"Prove it." The girl stated, sounding suddenly brave.
Stealthblade let out a sigh. An explanation wasn't going to cut it right now. He rocked back so he was sitting in front of the girl, which would hopefully make him look less intimidating.
Let's see, I could remind her I saved her, but she could just protest that was probably a trick to soften her up. I could… Stealthblade stiffened.
Looking down at the Decepticon symbol emblazed on his shoulder, Stealthblade flexed his clawed hand. Before he could think about it he dug his fingers into the symbol, leaving deep scratched running through it. Stealthblade flattened his helm spikes in discomfort, but the mark didn't really hurt that bad, more like a slight bruise.
"There, you believe me now?" Stealthblade asked shakily as he absorbed the fact he just hurt himself.
"I, wow." The girl blinked in surprise.
Stealthblade placed a hand over the marks to get her to stop staring. She darted her eyes quickly back up to his visor.
"You're Stealthblade right?" She asked.
He nodded; slightly surprised that she knew his name.
"I thought you were one of the new elites made by Ultracon?" She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.
"Only my body was made by him." Stealthblade explained slowly.
"Huh, how's that possible?" She cocked her head.
"Ultracon can't create life, so he had to steal another being's." Stealthblade sighed.
"Steal, but then, what were you? An Autobot?" She questioned confused.
"Uh, no." Stealthblade looked away.
The girl stared at Stealthblade in silence, waiting for him to explain.
"I was err, like you." Stealthblade muttered.
"What? Wait, you were human?" Her mouth fell open in disbelief.
"Yeah." Stealthblade sighed.
"Hold on, then you're like, really young compared to the others." She rambled.
"I'm fifteen."
"Fifteen!?! Then you're only like, five years older than me!" Her mouth once again hung open.
"Well, my brother's eleven." Stealthblade murmured.
"Whoa, but how come you sound all grown up?" She asked curiously.
"This body, it's designed for a mature mind, so it kinda sped things up." He explained.
"So you really aren't a kid anymore?" She asked.
"Technically." Stealthblade sighed again.
"Gosh, I'm so sorry." The girl looked down at her feet shamefully.
Stealthblade's helm spikes rose curiously. She seemed completely sincere; maybe Stealthblade could get things to work out with her and join the Autobots.
"So erm, what about your brother, is he bad?" She looked up again.
"No, he's not, but I didn't want him being tracked down by Decepticons to." Stealthblade explained.
"Oh, you're a good brother." She commented.
"Maybe." Stealthblade looked away, uncertain if that were really true. He had left his brother all alone after all.
"Um, my name is Montana, by the way." The girl smiled weakly.
Stealthblade stiffened at her introduction, surprised she was being so open after just meeting.
"Nice to meet you." Stealthblade replied hastily and held out a pinky finger to shake the girls extended hand.
"Wow, your fingers are sharp!" Montana commented.
"Came with the body." Stealthblade laughed lightly, but his voice still sounded dark and eerie.
Montana managed a smile, though he could tell she was still frightened of him. Suddenly the light behind her bedroom door lit up, and Montana froze.
"Montana, you still up?" A hefty woman's voice called.
She turned back to Stealthblade frightened. He pointed to her bed and then went transparent, and in the dark of night, he was nearly invisible. Montana blinked in surprise and then hastily darted into her bed, managing to pull up the covers just as a heavy set woman opened the door, with a really bad haircut.
"Hmm, could have sworn I heard talking." She muttered and then resealed the door.
Montana waited until her large foot steps disappeared down back to the lady's room before getting back up. She sprang back to the window, and glanced around confused.
Stealthblade quickly turned off his transparency, making Montana jump in surprise.
"How did you do that?" She whispered in amazement.
"Uh…" Stealthblade struggled for words.
"Oh, right, sorry, I've just never seen a Transformer do that." Montana smiled weakly.
"Yeah, I guess not many of your friends are stealth soldiers." Stealthblade managed a chuckle, making Montana giggle as well.
"But why are you here?" She suddenly asked.
Stealthblade hesitated before answering. He had only just met her, and if he said he wanted to be an Autobot, he wasn't sure how'd she react. She'd be either extremely suspicious, or completely open. Stealthblade let out a shallow sigh.
"I uh, well I'm not a Decepticon so…" Stealthblade began.
Montana cocked her head looking confused.
"I mean I used to be human, and I wasn't a bad person then, so I never wanted to help Ultracon, and uh, well with this body I can't exactly walk away from everything, so I was wondering if I could join, well help, the Autobots." Stealthblade sagged after his explanation, not entirely happy with it.
Montana just blinked up at him for a moment, and then her eyes traveled back up to his scratched Decepticon symbol.
"You want to be an Autobot?" She asked.
"Well sorta…yeah." Stealthblade replied.
She raised an eyebrow in thought, and then a slight smile lit up her face.
"I don't see why you can't be one, but erm, I don't know what the others will say. I mean you did kinda shoot at them and stuff." Montana mumbled.
"But I never tried to kill them. It was mostly self defense, heck Ultracon noticed that!" Stealthblade exclaimed.
"Now that you mention it, on all the monitors, you never did hit anyone with your sniper rifle." Montana's face glowed with enlightenment.
"Monitors?" Stealthblade cocked his head confused.
"Yeah, the Autobots always record their battles in case something important happens in one and they need to review it." Montana explained.
"Really?"
Montana nodded, smiling slightly.
"Why, do the Decepticons not do that?"
Stealthblade shook his head. Not that he knew of anyways.
"Huh, I thought they'd surely do that too." Montana muttered more to herself.
Suddenly she let out a loud yawn, and rubbed her eyes wearily. Stealthblade chuckled lightly at her tired expression.
"Hey, it's past my bed time." She spat her tongue out defensively.
"No it's not that. I just forgot what it's like to yawn." Stealthblade murmured.
"What, oh right, you don't have a…" Montana stopped, looking ashamed of something. "How long have you been like this?"
"A Transformer? Almost a month." Stealthblade answered quietly.
"A whole month! But you only appeared like, a couple days ago!" Montana exclaimed.
"Ultracon wanted us fully trained before we revealed ourselves to the Autobots." Stealthblade explained.
"Oh. That makes sense." Montana nodded.
Then another yawn escaped her, and Stealthblade knew it was probably time for him to go.
"Hey, you should probably get some rest. Your friends will probably grow curious if you're exhausted tomorrow." Stealthblade's visor glowed slightly, rather than smiling.
Montana nodded before suddenly freezing.
"But what are you going to do?" She asked concerned.
"I'll drop by tomorrow night, how's that?" Stealthblade asked.
"Okay." She smiled.
Stealthblade then climbed back to his feet, a series of creaks escaping his metal body. Montana's brow furrowed suddenly worried.
"Are you okay?"
He nodded quickly. "Yeah, nothing my repair system can't handle." Stealthblade reassured.
Montana didn't look entirely convinced, but she let it drop and crawled into bed. Stealthblade began to creep away, but not before hearing Montana whisper good-bye. He froze, peering back into the window.
"Good night." He whispered, and then quickly disappeared out into the night sky, before Montana could even realize he was gone.
