The Children Chapter 10

Some Truths are Better Left Untold

Penny stood on the driveway staring at her house; a small blue jet was floating beside her silently. She took a deep breath. This was it, she had made her decision, and she was going to get the answers she needed. Walking up to the door she flung it open rather roughly, startling a small red robot who had been sitting in the doorway. Penny looked at Blaster for only a few minutes before walking past him, jet still in tow. She hadn't completely decided on a plan of action but, for some strange reason, she made a beeline for the closet.

"Penny?" Blaster said standing at her heels. His gun was out but not pointed at anything for the moment.

"Not now Blaster" Penny responded as she found what she was looking for. She lifted up the lifeless form of Grimlock and brought him into the family room and practically dropped him in Ratchets lap.

"I don't want anyone else turned offline without their permission" She stated harshly bending down so that she was eye level with the medic who until this point had been watching the news, more about destroyed toy stores it seemed.

"Got it?" she asked to the shocked medic. Ratchet didn't respond he just nodded and flicked Grimlock back online.

"ME GRIMLOCK NO LIKE NAPS" He yelled the minute his optics were online. A spiral of flames blasted out from his throat, causing both Penny and Ratchet to jump back in shock. Luckily the flames only slightly singed the ceiling before the small dinosaur stopped spouting them. He seemed to have found something else much more interesting, his optics zeroed in on the form of Thundercracker who was still faithfully floating beside Penny. Growling fire began to build up in his mouth again. Thinking fast Penny put herself in between the Dinosaur and the decepticon in the hopes that he would rethink what he was doing if his human companion was in the line of fire.

"Grimlock" Penny said shakily

"This decepticon is under my protection, he will not be harmed. Do you understand?" Her voice was nowhere near as harsh as she wanted it to be, but it seemed to do the trick.

"We work with decepticons now? Me Grimlock never going to understand stupid humans" he stated before hoping off the couch. Penny sighed, again, her ribs seemed to be getting aggravated by the amount of movement she had been doing as well as by the stress she felt she was under. This gave her a moment to take a good look around, the twins were sitting up on the counter fooling around with some eggs they managed to get out of the fridge, Ratchet was of course on the couch with Grimlock below him who was trying to reach the remote placed on the coffee table in the middle of the room. Blaster had just walked in looking rather crestfallen and Jazz, Ironhide and Sky Lynx were nowhere to be found.

"Where are the others?" She asked directing her question towards Ratchet.

"They're in your room" He replied. The tone of voice he used was probably the coldest Penny had heard yet.

"Can you get them down here? I need to talk to all of you" Penny stated. She was well aware the autobots had some sort of radio system, or at least they did in the show. Of course she realized that it WAS a cartoon and right now these robots were real but, she couldn't help but revert to what she knew.

"I can" Blaster piped in nervously. Penny nodded at him as if to give him permission. Blasters optics went a very light shade of their normal blue for a few minutes then as they came back into focus Sky Lynx came bounding down the stairs, Ironhide and Jazz on his back.

"You rang?" Jazz said smiling brightly as if there wasn't a care in the world.

"Uh, yeah do you guys mind taking a seat?" Penny asked directing them to the couch.

"Sure babe" Jazz replied as Sky Lynx moved closer to the couch allowing the two smaller bots to climb up on it. As they did Ironhide glanced up at the ceiling.

"Grimlock. What the slag did ya do to Penny's ceiling?" He asked glaring at the dinobot who was getting increasingly frustrated by not being able to reach the remote.

"Me Grimlock redecorated" Ironhide didn't have a response for that one. Penny was about to start when she heard a splat coming from the kitchen.

"Oops, eh, Sorry about that Penny" The voice of a small red and black twin said as he peered over the side of the counter at a cracked egg now splattered all over the floor. Ignoring the egg Penny scooped up the two twins and plopped them down on the floor by the couch, much to Sunstreakers delight. He didn't seem to like being picked up too much. Penny looked at Thundercracker who just nodded and exited the room.

"Now that everyone is here" She started as she watched Sideswipe take a seat on Sky Lynx's back. Penny had never been good at public speaking and this was driving her nerves up the wall.

"Um, I have some questions to ask you guys, the first one concerning the Arc" She stated. Her audience seemed to shift nervously in their seats. Even Grimlock had gone quiet and stopped going after the remote, he was looking at Penny curiously. She glanced down at him slightly but then refocused her attention.

"Very simple, i want to know if its real." She stated. The entire room stayed silent, her question wasn't specifically directed toward anyone but the only person who moved to answer it was Grimlock, who was promptly scooped up by Sky Lynx and taken out back using the excuse that as "primitives" they needed exercise and were getting too restless and couldnt stay inside any longer.

"You might want to answer her question" Thundercracker had flown back in and perched on the kitchen counter looking at the autobots smugly. Finally Jazz stepped up.

"Penny , I hate to be the one to spoil this. You see, information such as that is classified." He stated in the most authoritative tone she had heard ever leave the black and white mechs mouth.

"Even if we could tell ya Penny, we wouldn't in the presence of that slagger" Ironhide chirped in gesturing his hand in the direction of Thundercracker. Penny looked at each of them her face shocked.

"So youre saying that even if he wasn't here, you wouldn't tell me?"

Penny slammed the dishes onto the counter after clearing them off the table. She was not in a good mood after the confrontation with her boys.

"You think alien robots would know who to trust..." She mumbled to herself as she headed to another table to take an order. Her mumbles had earned her a few strange looks from both her co-workers and the customers but she really didn't care at the moment.

"Hey there, are you ready to order?" She asked brightly to a table containing a small family of four. It took them a while to get everything sorted out and she had to erase and rewrite things as the families young kids kept changing their mind.

"Alright your order will be out in a bit" She said continuing her very forced smile and heading back to the kitchen. She hung up the order for the chef but before she could pull away a big muscular hand grabbed onto her wrist.

"Eh Penny" A gruff man said from the other side of the counter.

"Yes Moe?" She asked wincing slightly under the larger mans grip. He grabbed her so suddenly it has caused her to twist her body in a way it really did not want to twist.

"I noticed ya struggling with some of those dishes. I can talk to teh boys about takin over the heavy stuff if ya want. We don't need any more of them accidents" He said releasing her hand. She couldn't quiet place the accent that Moe used, his voice was low and he didn't speak that much. He did seem to tolerate her putting her stuff under his kitchen's island though.

"Thanks Moe, but I can handle things." She said sweetly then turned back to deal with more customers.

Penny stared up at the moonlit sky, stretching she inhaled through her nose letting it noisily out her mouth. It had been a really busy day she thought to herself as she continued her walk home. She was far enough from the restaurant that nobody she knew could see her any longer.

"Why do you humans put up with this?" A small blue jet asked floating alongside her. He had requested to come with her and since she was currently upset with all the autobots she had allowed him to tag along.

"Cause if I don't do the work someone else will have to" Penny responded glancing over at him. She had made him stay in her backpack until they got far enough away for her to let him out. She stared at the streets around her as well, she hated being on the late shifts like this. The streets were dark the houses were dark and she felt very alone. Pulling her backpack in front of her she checked the clock which she had attached to it. The numbers blinked 12:15pm.

"Gosh it's late" She mumbled heading down the next street. She only had about another 15min walk before she was home and despite the argument with her housemates earlier she was looking forward to being in the safety of her own home.

"Penny, not to alarm you but I believe we are being followed" Thundercracker said glancing behind him.

"My sensors are picking up another human lifeform which has been following us for some time" By this point he had climbed back into Penny's backpack. She had drilled him earlier about being seen my other humans. Penny spun around quickly to look behind her, almost knocking the small jet out of the bag again.

"I don't see anyone." She said glancing back at her bag. Penny truly believed the jets sensors were faulty until she began hearing some rustling in the bushes not to far away from her. Taking a few steps back she began to get chills down her spine. This was reminding her way too much of what her parents had always told her about pedophiles abducting young girls who were walking around alone.

"W-who's there?" She stuttered nervously her eyes becoming alert in an attempt to see, her only light source being that of the street lamps.

"Ok ok you caught me" A male voice said stepping out from the bushes. She would've been scared except for the fact she clearly recognised the form of her co-worker.

"Mike?" She asked staring at him. He had a few branches stuck in his brown hair and his clothing seemed to be ruffled. He was wearing a pair of jeans and a dark blue shirt, they both now were covered in burrs. Despite that he looked pretty good, that is until she was able to steal a glance at his hands. His left wrist was wrapped up in gauze.

"Mike what are you doing here? And what happened to your hand?" She asked flustered. After the entire Ironhide thing she wasn't too sure what to think of him.

"I got worried about you, I knew you had the late shift and I wanted to make sure you got home ok" He said shrugging slightly causing a twig to fall out of his hair. His light blue eyes were calm and cold, they didn't express the same careless emotions the rest of his body did.

"B-but you don't know where I live" She said giving him a strange look. She could hear Thundercracker mumbling something from the shelter of her backpack.

"I thought I'd deal with figuring that out later" He said sending a smile in her direction. Something inside her made her want to tell him not to come any closer and to just go home, but that was rude especially since he was being so nice to her.

"Mike I appreciate this really, but I do need to go home and I think I can make it on my own" She responded taking a few steps back from him. Suddenly he moved forward and hugged her causing more chills to run up and down her spine.

"Penny, I'm really worried for you" He said into her ear. For some reason she was starting to feel weaker under his grasp. Luckily something suddenly barrelled into the young man's legs, causing both Penny and Mike to topple back in opposite directions. This is when Penny realised how heavy her breathing had gotten and she was feeling exhausted all of the sudden.

"Don't. Touch. Her" A small red robot was now standing where Mike was only moments ago.

"Blaster?" She asked staring at him in shock. When in the world did he get there?

"I guess I forgot to mention his spark signature was also in the area" Thundercracker said as he climbed out of her backpack. Now that Blaster was here there was no need for the decepticon to conceal himself. Mike glared at the small robot's his blue eyes as cold as ever.

"You should stay out of places you don't belong" He said swiping his hand in an attempt to grab hold of Blaster. Penny climbed to her feet weakly almost falling back over from the strain, when had she gotten this tired? She wondered to herself. Moving one of her legs in front of Blaster she attempted to stop Mike from grabbing hold of him.

"...you doing?" She asked between breaths. He began laughing looking down at himself, when he looked back up at her his eyes were glowing.

"Can't you feel your energy being drained whenever I touch you? At first I took very little but now. Now more is needed" He said and lunged for her ankle as if to grab hold of it. This only resulted with a laser burn on his left arm causing him to keel back in pain. Blaster was now holding his gun still smoking from the previous blast and pointing it readily at the human.

"What did I say about not touching her?" Blaster growled in the most enraged voice she had ever heard the small tape deck use.

"Penny get out of here" Blaster said barely glancing back at her. The problem was she could barely move her feet, forget running back to her house.

"Blaster...I cant" She panted knowing full well she wouldn't be standing upright for much longer.

"Autobot, you worry about that human. I will protect your companion" Thundercracker said positioning himself close to her. Blaster turned to glare at the seeker but his attention was refocused when Mike got up to his feet.

"Alright but if you hurt her" Blaster started

"Just pay attention!" Thundercracker snarled as Mike lunged toward the small autobot missing him by only a few inches.

Author's notes:

Hey everyone ^-^

As promised here's the next chapter

Hope you enjoyed it!

I'm going to try and keep things going on a month-to-month basis
Basically that means a new chapter once a month
As long as school and life provides
I do hope to finish off this story this year =D
but there still is alot to come

Stay tuned!
Whitestreaker signing out~