Meetings
Charlie was walking along the road Blackfire dropped her off at, she hadn't run into anyone yet. She didn't really know what direction she was walking in, but she figured she'd run into a car or a town eventually. Charlie looked up and sighed, she was getting nowhere fast. Suddenly she saw something streak across the sky and crash into the earth. She'd seen something like that before, but when?
"Oh!" Charlie took off in the direction of the crash, it looked exactly the same as when the twins arrived, it must be an autobot. When she arrived at where the thing crashed she saw the remains of a parking lot, well at least she found some form of civilization, she looked around and saw something running in between the trees. It looked like a transformer, but it didn't have any armor or color. She looked around the crater again and noticed a white and grey Datsun 28OZ, she looked back and saw two Datsuns. Huh? She walked over to the two cars, they were exactly the same except that on the grill of one of them was an autobot insignia. She blinked. He must think she was a civilian, but honestly, who wouldn't notice another car appearing just like that?
"Ummm, I'm not that stupid you know, that was kind of obvious. So, what's your name?" No answer, but she thought she saw the car twitch a little. She hmmmed.
"Are you looking for Optimus Prime? I am too, but I was captured and let off here, and now I'm lost." As soon as she mentioned Optimus's name, the car transformed into a white and grey transformer with two guns on his shoulders and a red crescent above his head. He was around the same height as the twins, and leaned down toward her eagerly.
"You know Optimus? I know Optimus! I was supposed to follow the transmission farther west but my signal jammed and I landed here instead. My name's Bluestreak, what's yours?" He said this all very quickly and Charlie blinked. He sounded like Alex when she was excited.
"Umm, I'm Charlie, and I'm a human femme." She decided to add the last part in case he got curious, he seemed the type. He looked at her in awe.
"An organic! Wow, you're short, you know what? We should go find Optimus together! How do you know him? I'm a sharpshooter, one of the best in the autobots! Hey, how does a little organic like you know Optimus?"
"Uhh, it's kind of a long story, we should get to the base first." He nodded and stood up straight.
"Yeah, uh…" He looked at her sheepishly. "Do you know where it is?" Charlie looked at him wearily. He talked a lot and didn't know where he was, she wondered what would have happened if she hadn't happened upon him.
"Kind of. It's about twenty miles out of town off this gravel road in this old mine." Bluestreak gasped excitedly.
"I know where that is!" She looked at him unbelievably.
"You do?" He nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah, come on let's go!" He transformed and opened his door for her and Charlie crawled in.
"How do you know where it is?"
"I saw it on my way in!"
"Oh okay!"
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Optimus was driving along the road heading back to the base, Alex sleeping fitfully inside of him. From accessing the internet, he could tell she was getting sick from being in the rain the night before, and he had noticed a long cut on her leg and some scrapes she must have got from the decepticons. There was no sign of Charlie, but he couldn't express his relief that the girl was alive. Ratchet would have a fit when he saw what state she was in, but she was still functioning, and that was more than any of them could ask for. She had passed out almost right away after she crawled inside him, and he had turned on the heat when he noticed she was shivering.
"Optimus to Jazz, do you copy?" But he didn't receive an answer. He had come up this way after sensing a disturbance, and something was jamming his signals. Blackfire's base was around here, but his first priority was getting Alex to Ratchet. He drove through the hills and waited for his communications to come back online. He hoped Hound or Jazz had found Charlie. Suddenly, a voice boomed over his radio.
"Hey Optimus, have you found them yet?" Sam was yelling into the radio, he hadn't quite gotten the hang of it yet. Bumblebee and he had arrived at the base that morning, only to discover it half destroyed and the two girls missing. They had immediately joined the rescue team, but were having about as much luck as the rest of them.
"I have located Alex and am returning to base, inform Ratchet to have the med bay prepared, she's in poor health."
"Will do Optimus." Optimus broke radio contact with Sam and tried hailing Jazz and Hound again, still no answer. He noticed Alex was beginning to wake up.
"Mmhp…Optimus?" Alex sat up. "What's going on?"
"We are heading back to the base, Alex how are you feeling?"
"Like I've been run over."
"Were you?" Alex would have laughed if she had the energy.
"No, I'm just feeling a bit under the weather. What's been going on?"
"The base has been attacked by Blackfire's faction, and has sustained heavy damage. Everyone not injured has been searching for you and Charlie. I am sorry."
"Why?"
"I have failed you Alex. I withheld information that both you and Charlie deserved to know, in doing so I lost your trust and drove you to leave the base, allowing you to be captured yet again. If I had simply told you the truth none of this would have happened to you."
"No. I over reacted. I shouldn't have left. I'm not hurt just a bit scraped up and sick. You didn't fail me Optimus. Have you found Charlie? We were separated." Alex decided to change the subject.
"No she is still MIA."
"Oh."
"Rest assured we will find her."
"I know you will." Alex yawned suddenly and started drifting back to sleep, there was just something about Optimus that she trusted even if he had lied to her, she felt safe around him. He sped up and turned onto the highway. He hoped Charlie was unharmed.
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"So your car is a decepticon and your friend was a prisoner of Soundwave's, you're under the autobots protection, you were kidnapped by your car, then the base was destroyed, your car brought you to the road and let you go, then you found me?" Charlie nodded.
"Yep, that about covers it." Bluestreak whistled.
"Wow, and you said another human boy destroyed Megatron?" She nodded again. "Wow, do you guys have superpowers or something? I can't believe an organic destroyed Megatron!" He started laughing.
"Yeah well, we're pretty resourceful" He swerved onto another road and Charlie gripped the seat. "Umm, are you sure this is the way?"
"Yeah, it's this way." Charlie looked around, it didn't look like the way to the base that she was used to, but she wasn't the super advanced alien robot, so she just let Bluestreak keep on driving.
"Hey Blue, before we go to the base can we get some food?"
"Okay what do humans eat?"
"McDonalds."
"Where do you get that?"
"Um…well…um…I know use your GPS!"
"I can't."
"How come?"
"My navigation systems were damaged in the crash that's one of the reasons I ended up here."
"So we're driving around in an unknown area, neither of us know where we're going and your navigation system doesn't work?"
"Don't worry I told you I knew where I was going." Charlie didn't say anything, it looked like no matter what species a guy was they would refuse to admit they were lost. Charlie got comfortable, she might be here for a while.
---
"Hold still, you need to get out of these wet clothes." Alex sighed and let Ratchet fuss over her. He had been like a mother hen since Optimus had brought her back to base, and she had received a warm welcome from Ironhide and Mirage, who had examined her even more closely than Ratchet had, and had held her up to his optics and stared at her until she was uncomfortable. Ratchet had then swooped in out of nowhere and grabbed her and insisted on getting her some warmer clothes and checking her cuts again.
"Hey, I thought this was trashed." She held up the sweatshirt and sweatpants Ratchet had handed her and grabbed the wholly socks he was holding.
"We managed to salvage some of your things. This is the warmest of your clothes I could find." She slipped them on unabashedly and piled her wet clothes on the floor. Ratchet was a doctor and a robot to boot, he wouldn't care, but when she had settled herself under the covers of the cot in his med bay, he was looking at her curiously.
"I thought females were more modest when exposing skin." Alex shrugged.
"Yeah, to other humans. Besides, you're a doctor." Ratchet nodded.
"I see. I noticed you have some bruising yet around your ribs and shoulders." Alex shifted and pulled her damp hair into a braid and curled up in the cot, then coughed noisily. Ratchet immediately scanned her again.
"You have a cold, and I am unable to do anything about it until young Sam returns with Bumblebee to go on a supply run." He shook his head, looking frustrated.
"Why can't you use that light thing like you did before?"
"It was damaged in battle, I haven't gotten it working properly yet. I will have Sam get you some medicine in town when they return, but for now you must sleep." Alex nodded and yawned.
"Yeah, okay."
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Optimus was about to leave the base and look for Charlie, when Mirage approached him.
"Optimus, sir."
"Yes, Mirage."
"I wish to be made Alex's primary guardian. Sunstreaker doesn't care about the girl, he will only continue to endanger her life and is not capable of protecting her properly. Sunstreaker only cares about himself and Sideswipe." Optimus regarded him, he knew Mirage had become protective of Alex after his first failure at guarding her, and he seemed to be increasingly concerned about her.
"Why do you think I assigned Sunstreaker to be her guardian, Mirage?"
"To give Ratchet some peace." Optimus chuckled.
"Affirmative, that was part of the reason, but not the whole reason. You're right, Sunstreaker only cares about himself and his brother, but he needs Alex. He needs to learn to care about others, I believe Alex will help him, I believe that they will help each other. Sunstreaker needs this responsibility if he is ever going to grow as a mech….Besides he is quite similar to you." Mirage was about to object but Optimus quieted him. "At first you did not care about the girl either. It was when her life was in your hands that you began to care about her, and Sunstreaker has had the same thing happen to him. He has endangered Alex's life and now I believe he will take his duty to protect his charge much more seriously. I am sorry Mirage, but Sunstreaker will remain her primary guardian. It will be good for him." Mirage wasn't happy about Optimus's decision, but he understood it. He and Sunstreaker were similar. Initially Mirage hadn't cared at all about the girl, but when he saw her in Soundwave's cell, he felt the overwhelming need to protect her and keep her safe.
"Very well Prime."
"Very good. Now I am going out to search for Charlie, help Wheeljack with the repairs." Optimus started walking away. "Oh and Mirage make sure he doesn't blow anything up." Mirage started laughing at that. Like that would happen.
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"Ummm, Blue?"
"Huh?"
"This isn't the base." Charlie looked up at the enormous four faces of their former presidents looking down at her. The base was nowhere near Mt. Rushmore.
"But I saw this too! They weren't very far apart!" Charlie sighed and pulled at her hair.
"That's because you were in the air, of course they looked closer together. Okay, when we headed to the base from town with Jazz, we went east, I think. This is not east, this is south."
"Oh." He shifted into gear and got back on the road.
"The good thing is I know how to get to my house from here. Turn left." He turned left onto the road she indicated and they were both quiet for awhile.
"Why do we need to go to your organic dwelling?"
"So I can get some stuff, then try and find the base, I think I could probably get there from my house." Bluestreak ohed.
"Good, because I need Ratchet to repair me, then I could really go for a good recharge, then of course I need to speak to Optimus, then----" Charlie sighed. This guy could talk forever.
"Yeah, okay I got ya."
"Oh okay, so what are earth dwellings like? The ones in Cybertron were like…they were like big warehouses, but usually soliders didn't have personal homes, they would live in military centers, near the end of the war everyone lived in them, unless they were a refugee, or they fled the planet. But then lots of us left to search for the all-spark, but it's gone now, and according to Optimus' message earth is to be our new home, but it's okay cause so far I like earth and I like humans, well you're the only human I've met so I like you. Do you like me? How many autobots have you met? Do you like them? I haven't seen another autobot in vorns. It'll be nice to see them again."
"Turn left. I like you, you're fun, I know nine autobots, well I met one over a screen so that's ten, but I know eleven transformers altogether excluding you. I like them, most can be very nice. I'm sure they'll be happy to see you too Blue."
"Blue's a good nickname I like it. Do you have a nickname Charlie? I read that humans like to give themselves nicknames. What else do humans like? I like…" Charlie sighed, if she wasn't so good at understanding fast talkers this would get old fast, but Bluestreak was cheery and it was nice to be around someone so optimistic, even if he did talk a mile a minute. They eventually reached her house and Bluestreak pulled into her driveway. She hadn't been home since she had first gotten her things from her house. It seemed like ages since she'd seen it again.
"This is where I live Bluestreak."
"It looks different from transformer dwellings."
"I bet." Charlie got out of Bluestreak and tried opening her front door, until she realized she locked it. Damn she forgot she did that and the keys were in her…backpack. Charlie hit her head. She was an idiot. She forgot Blackfire gave her, her backpack back, and that she had her cell phone in it, her cell phone she could've used to contact the autobots. Okay she couldn't let anyone know about this they would never let her live this down. "Um Bluestreak can you open your door for a second?"
"Sure!" Charlie grabbed hers and Alex's backpacks, she riffled through the pockets and found both cell phones. She took them both and threw them into her neighbor's backyard.
"Why did you do that?"
"Oh it's a human tradition, when you come home after a long time you throw your phone to bring good luck, but don't tell anyone okay or else my wish won't come true."
"Okay!" Charlie almost felt bad about lying to him, but there was no way in hell she was going to put up with all the shit Alex would give her if she told her about how she forgot she had a cell phone. Nope might as well tell her that Blackfire got rid of it. She pulled her keys out and went into her house, after telling Blue to hang tight, she wasn't sure if he knew what that meant, but he seemed eager to agree. She went into her house and grabbed a bit to eat, she was starving. After she was done eating she picked up her phone and tried calling Alex in order to have her pick her up, she looked outside when she heard a ringing, then it hit her. Boy was she dumb when she got captured of course she couldn't call Alex for a ride, she had her cell phone and she had thrown it in her neighbors yard, besides she didn't even know if Alex had been found yet. Damn, she was going to have to suck it up and call one of the autobots. Unless…
--
"Wow you do look beat up, here, I got you some meds." Sam gave Alex a bottle and used the cup on top to measure the dosage. She grimaced.
"It tastes terrible." Sam smoothed back his brown hair and reached into his beat up black backpack.
"I got some mountain dew?" He was going to hand it to her, but caught Ratchet's glare and withered.
"And I most certainly will not give it to you. You are far too sick, you should have some orange juice." Alex sighed. Ratchet was worse than her mother. Sam looked up and grinned as a yellow mech entered the room and danced over to them. "Hey Bee!" He began dancing with him and Alex giggled until they brushed up against one of Ratchet's medical tables, bumping his tools.
"Out!" They both pouted and gave Ratchet beaten puppy dog looks. He glared. "Fine, just stop dancing! Can't you two sit still for five minutes?" The two of them had barely been there for half an hour, and Alex was liking them more and more. Sam wasn't fazed by anything, and acted like he had seen it all before. She supposed he had. Bumblebee was adorable, and he and Sam were like two peas in a pod. She looked at them wistfully, she wished she could get a guardian like him. Instead she had been informed by Optimus that Sunstreaker will be her primary guardian to make up for the fact that he insulted her and failed to protect her when the base was attacked. She had pleaded with Optimus to reconsider.
"Can't you be my guardian instead?" But the large bot had smiled at her and shook his head.
"I would if I could, but I can't if a battle ever broke out again, I would be far too busy leading the autobots to be able to protect you properly, Sunstreaker will do a fine job, he just needs a second chance." Alex scoffed, there was no way Sunstreaker could do a good job protecting her, she'd just have to get Charlie to switch guardians with her.
---
"Oh, turn here!" Bluestreak took a sharp right causing Charlie to hit her head, she had decided she could find the base by herself, but she left the cells phones in her neighbors backyard and had been driving around with Bluestreak for about an hour trying to find the base. "Okay keep going. No, wait I was wrong this is how we get to the mall, go left." This had been going on for awhile.
"What's a mall?"
"Shopping center."
"Do humans like to shop?"
"The girls do. Oh wait take another left, I see a road." They turned onto it and Charlie frowned. "Maybe it was the other way." It was almost dark now, they had been searching all day. They were both getting frustrated, but neither one said anything. Charlie found another road she thought might lead to the base, when a pair of headlights flashed several times coming toward them. Charlie squinted.
"Is that who I think it is?"
"Jazz!" Bluestreak pulled a one eighty and Charlie squealed as she held onto his seat. Suddenly, Jazz's voice was heard over the radio.
"Bluestreak, hey man, what's happening? We weren't expectin you here!" Bluestreak was elated.
"I know! But my signal was jammed and I landed here, then I found this girl, her name's Charlie, she says she knows you, then neither of us could find the base, we've been looking for a long time, and---" But Jazz cut him off, laughing in delight.
"Charlie is with you? Thank goodness, we been looking everywhere for you girl." Charlie grinned.
"Hey Jazz, did you guys find Alex?"
"Optimus found her hours ago, she's at base recovering with Ratchet, hey you won't believe it, Sam and Bumblebee are here too, they've been helping us look for you girls." Charlie gasped.
"Really?" Bluestreak also revved his engine.
"Awesome!" Jazz laughed.
"Follow me, boy will Optimus be glad to see you two." Bluestreak followed Jazz back to base, all of them very relieved. They were only about ten miles from the base.
"See I knew it was close!" Jazz and Bluestreak drove into the base and Charlie whistled at all the damage. "Damn those D-cons did a number on this place." Charlie got out of Bluestreak and both he and Jazz transformed. Suddenly Charlie found herself in Jazz's hand being twirled around.
"I'm so glad you're back lil' lady, we were worried about you."
"I'm sorry Jazz I'll never run away from home again." They all laughed at that comment.
"Come on I know the doc will want to see you in the med bay as soon as possible."
"But Jazz I'm fine! Really I didn't get hurt at all, well my leg was already hurt, but it doesn't feel bad, my cast is fine! Don't make me go to Ratchet, if I see him twice in a few days, he'll go all crazy doctor on me and then he'll get angry. I don't want an angry lecture from Ratchet. Why don't you just say that you took me there, but Ratchet wasn't there, and by the time he was I got better? Yup that's a good plan, instead of going we can show Blue the base! Doesn't that sound like fun Blue?"
"Well actually I really need to get some of my systems repaired and a good recharge sounds nice and-"
"Oh you're no help." The expression on Bluestreak's face broke Charlie's heart, he looked like a kicked puppy that had been put out in the rain. "I didn't mean that Blue. I'd probably be dead in the woods and eaten by a bear if it wasn't for you. So thank you very much, I don't know what I would do if you hadn't been there." Bluestreak beamed at Charlie, he was easy to appease.
"Well let's go to the med bay." Charlie sighed and sat on Jazz's shoulder, might as well get this over with. Before they even opened the door they could hear a commotion. They walked in to see Ratchet chasing Bumblebee and Sam, who was clinging to the yellow bot's shoulder. Alex was laughing on her cot in the corner.
"Alex, you're okay!" Alex looked up as Charlie squirmed and Jazz set her next to her cot.
"You're okay, well actually, you look awful." Alex's dark blonde hair had been messed up and her braid hung over her shoulder. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she looked paler than usual. She sniffled and took a drink of her water.
"I got a cold from staying out in the rain." Charlie sat down on the side of the cot.
"Oh yeah, I was with Bluestreak then, he's a new arrival." She gestured to the white and grey bot that was greeting Sam and Bumblebee enthusiastically. Alex looked him over.
"What's he like?"
"Well, he talks fast, is pretty nice, has no sense of direction, and can't figure out that things aren't as close together as they appear from space." Alex blinked and nodded.
"I see." The bot in question bounced over to them, followed by Sam and Bumblebee.
"Hi, you must be Alex, Charlie told me about you, how are you, my name is Bluestreak, I'm new here." Alex looked at the excited bot, then looked back at Charlie.
"I see what you mean." She turned back to Bluestreak. "Yep, I'm Alex, I've been here for a couple of weeks, then I was captured again because decepticons like to capture me or something, now I'm sick and Ratchet won't leave me alone." Everyone stared except Charlie. She talked as fast as Bluestreak. The two of them proceeded to have a fast paced conversation and everyone blinked. Charlie shrugged.
"I'm used to it." She turned to Sam.
"You're that guy on the screen, I'm Charlie." Sam turned away from Alex and Bluestreak and held out his hand.
"Yep that's me, this is Bee, my guardian." Bumblebee bowed to her and she grinned.
"I've heard a lot about you guys…" Sam gasped and mock-fainted, Bumblebee catching him.
"Don't tell me these guys have been telling you bad stuff about us! We just like to have fun." He and Bumblebee gave each other high fives and Charlie shook her head.
"Actually they told us about how you defeated Megatron and that you guys were watching out for stray decepticons." They both straightened up, Sam looking sheepish.
"Yeah well, I got lucky."
"So how did you meet Bee anyway?"
"He's my car. I bought him."
"Oh my gosh! You're car was an alien robot? My car was an alien robot!"
"Really?"
"Yeah I thought he was a girl for five years and called her Nelly, but she's a he, and now he's trying to rule the decepticons and take over earth!" Sam stared at Charlie, she was unusually calm and sounded almost excited.
"Really?"
"Yeah!" Ratchet came over and scanned Charlie before Sam could say anything else.
"You are in need of sustenance, and your leg will need to be in that cast longer."
"Ah, really?"
"Yes, now go and eat before I force feed you."
"Jeez fine Ratch I'll go." She turned to Sam. "Want to come with?"
"Sure." Bumblebee picked Charlie up and headed to the door, Ratchet calling out to her.
"Make sure you stay away from Wheeljack for the next week, I have too much work to do to deal with anymore burns."
"Kay." Sam turned to Charlie.
"Why does he want you to stay away from Wheeljack?"
"He gives me gifts and they blow up in my face. I think I pissed him off and now he's trying to kill me."
"He's giving you gifts? Maybe he likes you!" Charlie stared at Bumblebee like he had grown a second head.
"That's crazy and ridiculous and would never happen. Can we go get some food now, please?" Bumblebee started out towards the door, but was stopped by Optimus. He held out a hand.
"I'm sorry, you can eat soon, but I must see everyone in the med bay right away." They looked at each other and went back to the med bay, Charlie going back to sit on Alex's bed, who was having another coughing fit. They both turned to look at the door and Ironhide, Mirage, Wheeljack, Jazz, Hound, and the twins entered. They crowded around the small bay and Sam came and sat next to Charlie on the cot. The girls glanced at the twins, Sideswipe was looking at the girls and trying to catch their eye, while Sunstreaker leaned against the wall looking unconcerned. Charlie continued to stare at them while Alex turned her attention to Mirage, who was staring at her. When she looked over at him, he nodded at her and she smiled at him. He was watching out for her after all. Sunstreaker observed this grumpily. But everyone turned when Optimus spoke.
"We've had a security breach, the decepticons know our location now and new security measures will have to be taken. The decepticons are increasing their activity now more then ever; we will have to be even more vigilant than usual…"
---
"What were you two fools thinking?! I specifically told you not to engage anyone!"
"But we were spotted!" Starscream lunged out and slammed Dirge into a wall.
"I told you not to be spotted!" He released the seeker and slapped a hand to his forehead.
"You idiots almost ruined everything!" But a twisted smirk appeared on his face.
"But Blackfire, that is a surprise. And with the triple changers no less." Dirge and Ramjet backed away, hoping he wouldn't notice them. He did.
"No, I'm not done with you two. Stay." He walked over to his control panel and pushed a button. A screen showed Soundwave and his ocean base, another showed the remains of Blackfire's base. He grinned.
"Phase two begins…….now."