The age-old excuse of "I'm too busy". For me it was "I can't think of nothing for this!" Only half of that's true. I have some good stuff, I just need stuff to lead it up to that. So this is a short chapter, which I believe none of you deserve since I haven't done anything for this in such a long time.

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Chapter IX

Two months later, the three Autobots were enrolled into the same school as Dina and Isis; "Mr. Hayes" called back and said that the order was a misconstruction; Prowl was adopted to a man much like himself named Arnold Fredrickson; and the group even saw how much time Dina and Jazz were spending together that Bumblebee kept teasing them about getting married. Now we're here with Isis and her widower father before the school months start…

"You can't make me!" Isis whined.

"I'm your father, you need just two more years of high school, you're going school shopping," Blanks grunted. "Now get yer coat, and let's get in the truck!"

Isis crossed her arms and stuck out her lips. "I don't wanna!"

"Stop acting like a two-year old!" Blanks grabbed his daughter's arm, but she held onto the corner of the wall next to her.

"I don't wanna go!" she cried.

"Shh! Tone it down! The neighbor's will hear ya."

"Let them hear! HEY! SOMEONE OUT THERE?!"

"Isis Tiffany Blanks!" Blanks pulled on her arm again. The girl wasn't strong enough to hold on, so she had no choice but to let go and obey her dad.

"That's better. Now straighten up; don't make a scene at the store," he grumbled.

"You know me."

"That's what I mean."

Isis smirked and stepped outside towards the SUV. She strapped herself into the passenger seat and reached into her pocket to pull out her MP3. She tuned out her dad by listening to Noots. That song had enough guitar to plug out any parent. By the time they made it to the store, she was already listening to some other song by Van Halen. Her dad told her to get out by tapping on her arm. Groaning, she turned off her player and slammed the door as she got out.

Where are we? It's too dark to see. How long have we even been here? I can feel them. They move around with our friends. The Carriers… But Carriers have been dead for centuries. They died because those Decepticons kept harvesting them. How could they be here? On a place such as this?

"Jazz?" Kenny said as she stared up at him with those large and curious eyes. "What happened?"

The mech knew all too well what she was talking about. Why did he have to go and do that? He knew Kenny probably wouldn't be able to keep her mouth shut. But who could believe a little kid like her anyway.

So he started making up lies about how he was taken in for "government experimentation", and it was to make a super-army of metal soldiers. Once the project failed, he ran away and hoped that those crazy scientists wouldn't find him again. Was that good enough? he thought.

Oh…Okay!" Kenny skipped away to go play outside with her big brothers, leaving Jazz trying to recover from the stress that he felt. He wasn't as good as Prowl when making up lies -- which made him to believe he must have taken private lessons with Yoketron. Jazz always liked believing in the truth, so telling lies scared him a bit, as if it made him feel like a Decepticon. But he knew never to tell the truth about their origins to other organics. Only to Dina and Isis.

There was something strange about those girls, and it was bugging him, nagging him in the back of his mind. Prowl and Bumblebee probably felt it, too, but chose not to say anything. It seemed so weird, and almost hard to explain. He felt attracted to them (Dina, mostly), and felt he had to protect them from everything and everyone, even his own war side. Again, it was hard to explain.

But the three Autobots weren't the only ones that could feel it. Starscream and Blitzwing felt the same thing towards those girls, but not as strong. That's the only reason they saved their lives, was to keep them for themselves for…what? That was the only thing that bugged them, for what? It was grinding in the back of both Decepticon and Autobot minds. None had a clue to what and why. Which gave the Autobots even more reason to protect their friends.

"Fine, we're done shopping. Can we go now?" Isis whined. Blanks just ran his fingers through his hair as if that would calm him down (although he did that several times today in the last hour).

"If there's anything else you'd like, just tell me now, because we're not going until next week," he answered.

Isis had to think for a bit. Usually when you wanted something from the store, you couldn't think of it until later. But one of her favorite foods automatically popped into her head and she said "White cheddar popcorn!" She couldn't get enough of it. If you dare touched her white cheddar popcorn, she'd go crazy mad on you.

"Alright, white popcorn it is." Blanks put the binder he had in his hand into the bin and rolled off with the jittery Isis to the snack aisle. She raced ahead of him (eager to get it) and met someone on the way. Actually, she pretty much tackled into him.

"Ow! What the frag is your problem?!" shouted the person she just attacked. She lifted herself up by her arms and looked at him.

"Look, buddy! I--!" She stopped short as she stared into the eyes…dark red eyes. "Snow…"

"The name is Seth, you excuse of a girl!" shouted the boy. "Get off me!" He shoved her so she was laying flat on the floor. She stood back up and brushed off the dirt that was tracked by someone else's shoes.

"Oh yeah, that's how you treat a girl," she mumbled. Seth stared at her as if he would kill her, but the expression was wiped away as memory returned to his brain.

"You!" he said.

"Me nothing!" Isis snapped at him. "Snow--I mean, Seth, what the heck are you doing here?! I thought you were in the forest, looking for those fricking All Spark pieces for--mmph!" Seth covered her mouth.

"Do you mind, femme!" he hissed. "The All Spark is supposed to be secret to humans!"

Isis removed his hand from her mouth and hissed back. "Well, so much for secrets, Decepticon!"

Seth lifted a hand as if he would smack her, but lowered it as soon as he realized the public place he was in. He took a step closer and whispered in her ear.

"This planet will belong to him. You can't stop it."

"Yeah, sure, that scares me…" Isis remarked sarcastically. Seth growled lowly and walked on as he shoved a bag of her white cheddar popcorn into her hands.

"Stay out of my way." And he walked on. Isis turned to his back and stuck a tongue out at him.

"I'm-a beat his ass one day…" she mumbled. "I swear to God I will…"

"Isis!" her dad shouted from behind. She turned around and ran back to him, throwing the bag into the cart.

Seth walked back over to his partner, Blitzwing, who was now known to be Kurt. The strong boy's face had an insane grin on his face that wanted to stay, complimented by bright red eyes (if you looked close enough) and his skin taking on a sort of peach-grey texture.

"Thing's didn't go vell?" he chuckled.

"Mute it, Tri-Face," Seth grumbled.

"I think jou like 'er," Kurt teased. Seth grabbed him quickly by the throat and glared with piercing red eyes.

"Don't you dare imply such a thing," he snarled. Kurt gagged a while as if to ask his superior to release him. And seeing as they were in a place filled with organics, Seth had choice to allow Kurt to be freed. "Try that again and I'll personally put you through a trash compactor."

Kurt's face then took a more bluish color and the grin was gone. He looked serious this time. "Zen don't be so devensive" he replied. Seth was about to punch him until that one fact held him back.

"Just shut up…" He started walking side-by-side with him. "I hate shopping already…"