Chapter Seven

Oblivious Bait

It was late at night when the rumbling truck came to a full stop in the residential neighborhood in the California town of Tranquility. Somewhere a dog began barking. A rattling could then be heard as the dog began straining on its chain.

Optimus Prime finally turned off the external light and waited. For several days now a pair of unfamiliar humans had been persistently following him, all the way from Mission City to here. He had tried many tactics of eluding them, including hiding among other trucks and attempting to lose them on the highway, but nothing had worked so far. They didn't seem to want to quit. Humans were apparently very stubborn by nature.

Perhaps humans and Cybertronians weren't as different as he had originally thought.

He heard it before he saw it. A flashy, neon-orange Porsche crept around the corner and then parked at the end of the street. A medium-sized human and a short human got out of the vehicle and walked over to him.

Using his sensors, Optimus carefully determined the mood of the approaching humans, trying to discern their intentions. The short one was completely calm, but the other was what the humans would call a 'nervous wreck'. His eyes were shifting around, he was wringing his shirt hem in his hands, and overall acting very jittery, jumping at every crunch they made while walking on dry twigs and branches.

His friend had had enough. "Jack! Will you please calm down?" he hissed, causing his partner – Jack – to jump and yelp at the sound of his voice. "We aren't doing anything wrong! We're just giving the boss back his truck."

"Yeah, but I could've sworn I crashed it into a ditch… and there weren't flames on the side either last time." Jack said slowly, voice still shaking.

There was a momentary silence. "Call the boss. The point is we found a truck that fits his qualifications," the short one said. "We don't have to tell him it's not the original. Plus, you were drunk when you lost the truck, remember."

"You do that. Max would never believe me if I said I found the truck. I'll make sure that there's nobody inside the truck." Jack corrected. "Tell him you helped me find the truck okay?"

"Whatever." Optimus heard the short one mutter to himself as he headed back to the Porsche, presumably to get the 'boss' on the phone.

Jack peered into the cab, using a flashlight to look around the cab. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he leaped down from where he had been standing. He paced in front of Optimus, his anxiety levels skyrocketing as time wore on.

"Okay we got lucky. The boss was on his way to the headquarters in L.A. from a business meeting in Santa Rosa. He's willing to make a detour to get the truck back," the short human said, tucking the cell phone into his back pants pocket. "He's gonna be here in one hour."

"Good. One hour to work on our alibi. It'd be better to have a solid, logical, rehearsed story than a wimpy, improvised excuse." Jack said, nervously wringing his hands.

Optimus suppressed a sigh and decided to wait this one out. He had learned very quickly that one must have an extreme amount of patience when dealing with humans. One example was their language. It left plenty of room for misinterpretation, and it took the humans a while for to understand particular concepts, such as questions with no real answers. Then he reverted his attention back to the pair before him.

From what he was able to learn from these two, humans also had a dark side to their societies other than what was seen every day. Jack and his short friend, named Larry, were part of a group of humans called a 'gang'. This 'gang' apparently lived on the 'other side of the law', as human law enforcement officers called it. In other words, the gang dealt in the illegal activities that were available to them. Jack had the apparent misfortune of using and then completely wrecking the leader's personal 18-wheeler, and then claimed he lost it. In retaliation, the leader put a massive bounty on Jack's head, and Jack was rather adamant about returning the truck. Jack was fortunate in the sense that the leader was unaware of the fact that the original truck was actually destroyed.

Optimus prepared to contact Ironhide in case he needed immediate backup.

Soon, a sleek, black Rolls-Royce pulled up to them. Already Jack had frozen in his place and was visibly shaking. Larry was now anxious due to the fact he was about to tell an obvious lie to his master. The two of them put on what the humans called a 'brave face' and prepared to speak with their master.

Optimus admittedly was expecting someone a little more taller and dominant-looking from the exaggerated descriptions of him from Jack. In reality, Maxwell Cornipicus was a short, stout human with slicked-back hair and a permanent scowl etched onto his facial features. He glowered at the two original humans.

As Jack and Larry began to spill their story, Optimus became suddenly aware of multiple human presences behind him and on his side that was closest to the curb and darkness. His sensors revealed that all the humans were heavily-armed and were creeping towards the trio, careful to stay out of the light provided by the Rolls-Royce's headlights and the flashlights. There were also humans on the other side of the road and inside the jeep that had snuck up to them while the discussion was taking place. Each human was on full alert, prepared to react at a moment's notice.

Suddenly a siren ripped through the silence of the night and lights everywhere flicked on. Police cruisers came around the corner as the humans that were previously hiding leaped out of their hiding places and tackled Jack, Larry, and Max. It took about seven other humans to fully bring Max down, and they placed links of thick metal around the criminals' wrists, all the while ignoring the pleas of mercy from Jack.

"You are under arrest! Put your hands up above your head and face the truck!" a human from the jeep announced through a megaphone. The jeep's side was labeled 'SWAT TEAM', and more black-clothed humans were coming out from its back. Optimus winced when the three criminals were slammed against his side and the police began checking them for weapons while a fourth officer read them the Miranda Rights, a list of rights that the American Constitution apparently granted to them.

Yes, this was something Ironhide might have wanted to see.

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FBI Special Agent Peter Sadusky watched with grim satisfaction as the LA crime boss Maxwell 'Max' Cornipicus was hauled away and thrown into a FBI van. They had been hunting Max down for months ever since the crime spree happened in the major city in California. They finally got a break when one of Max's lackeys, 'Lucky' Jack, had accidentally driven the prized 18-wheeler into a ditch and made a run for it. The FBI quickly found an extremely similar 18-wheeler on the highway a few days after the Mission City fiasco, and tailed it, hoping to 'borrow' it for an operation to draw Max out. Just imagine their luck when they found Lucky Jack and Larry following it too for a similar purpose.

"Sir, what do we do with the truck?" asked one of the agents working with him.

Sadusky looked over the front, noting the lack of license plates. Then he spotted a special symbol on the front grille, usually where the manufacturer's logo went. He knew that symbol; the Secretary of Defense had sent out an email to FBI department heads, saying that any vehicles with that symbol were under government jurisdiction were to be left alone.

"Leave it be," he finally said. "I'll contact Keller to tell the owner we said thanks."

As the truck left, Sadusky swore that the vehicle honked in response to his earlier comment… even though he was pretty sure there was no driver.

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A/N: Here we go. Although I still have no Internet, I was at a friend's and decided to get this up. By the way, does anybody remember when and where in the movie Optimus got the scan for his truck form? ;-)