Chapter XI

Summer vacation was here. Andrew was excited to leave school, but Mary wasn't all that thrilled. She actually liked going to school. Over the summer she hardly spoke to her friends because they were away so much. Foster didn't like them leaving their schools either. Andrew and Mary usually brought home some new books from the library that was on the way from the bus stop to the house. He read a couple of things like Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, The Invisible Man, Oliver Twist, and Gulliver's Travel's. Foster was a sucker for the classics.

Andrew asked his dad millions of times if he could have George spend the night one time. George himself had been asking that question, so Andrew just passed it along. But Daniel's answer was always the same.

"We can't risk Foster being seen," he said.

"But George has already seen him!" Andrew would say back.

"I mean when his parents come to pick him up. They'll know something!"

"You're just paranoid because of those two robots back in Florida!" Andrew, like always, stomped up the stairs to his room and Foster would be at the top, sitting on the bar, listening to the conversation. He didn't take too fond of his dad's argument, either. George had kept him a secret for months now, what made this any different? Ever since Rumble and Frenzy had attacked them two months ago, Daniel had been acting strange and was about to place Foster under house arrest just for protection.

The green robot shifted his color to blend in as he walked down the stairs. He didn't want to know that his father could tell he was up there, and came to his side. The only flaw in this was that, when Daniel looked down, he could still see the sparkling's shadow. Foster noticed how Daniel had looked directly at him and began to run off into the kitchen.

"Foster!" Daniel shouted. The green baby ran on top of the island in the kitchen and accidentally rammed into the flour, making the bag rip apart and the powder fall on him, making his body a little more visible. "Foster, wait!"

Foster didn't want to listen and ran out to the back of the barn where Bud and Kenny were hooked up. Foster, knowing how to speak canine, told them too be quiet as he hosed himself down with the water hose and dried himself off by soaking in that summer sun and evaporating whatever liquid was left on him. Daniel ran outside and saw both huskies looking at him and the puddle of water left next to them. Why did this kid have to be a chameleon?

"Foster, wherever you are, I'm sorry," he started out. He kept looking around as if the child was going to somehow magically reappear before his eyes. "It's just that…I've already lost a member of the family, I don't want to lose another."

Amazingly so, Foster didn't know what Daniel was talking about. He didn't know about Crystal Dawson, the sweet, kind-hearted, honey-smooth wife of Daniel's and mother of Andrew and Mary. But curious to know, he walked back inside the house, still incognito.

Feeling as though something in Daniel's room would help, he started looking through it. He scanned the top shelves of his closet, dug through a couple of drawers, and then he found it. The old photo album. It was marked 2000-2007, the years. Foster opened it up to the first page. The earliest one he noticed was one of Mary, when she was just a year old, going through her first birthday. Andrew was two and standing ext to his sister, just eyeing that birthday cake in front of him. On the other side of Mary was Daniel, smiling and holding his baby girl. Foster didn't know Mary was actually that adorable, but it was nice to know what she looked like nine years ago. The caption under said Our Girl's Second Birthday.

He turned the page, skipping some photos, and looked at another where the kids were now three years older and standing in front of a waterfall, on top of a wooden observation point. There was a woman with light brown hair and next to her was Andrew and Mary. Below the picture, there was a caption that said Anna Ruby Falls. Remembering his studies, that waterfall was located in North Georgia. It was the most popular waterfall in the area.

The next page was the same brown-haired woman. There was a Christmas tree in the background and Mary watching as her brother took his turn opening a present. More like "tear it until there's nothing left", really. Under this picture had a caption written in another hand that Foster didn't recognize, in beautiful cursive, that said My Best Christmas.

Foster turned the page one more time, seeing yet another photo involving the woman. Daniel was right next to her and had his face turned to kiss the woman on the cheek. The green robot came to the conclusion that this was someone that Daniel loved a lot. The caption; My Heart and Soul, Crystal.

Crystal, eh? Well, why wasn't she here right now? Did she move on to someone else, her parents force her not to marry him, what? Feeling the eagerness build up inside, something told him to skip to the last page and look. But what it was scared him half to death. The picture was at a church. Daniel, Mary, Andrew, and Henry, standing in front of something, dressed in black, with their heads down. Foster took a look at the titled caption, complete with stressed handwriting and a tear drop mark.

Crystal's Funeral.

Foster forced out some purple tears that raced along down his face and onto the floor. Why didn't they ever tell him about Crystal? Was it too painful? How long had she actually been dead? Since that was the last picture, it had to be two years ago, in 2007. Crystal seemed to be a thing of beauty that Daniel could never replace. That's why Andrew and Mary didn't have a stepmother, because no one could ever be better than their real mother.

"What are you doing here?" said a voice behind him. Foster gasped and turned his head to see Daniel standing in front of his doorway. "I said, what are you doing here?"

"Why didn't you tell me? About her?" Foster pointed to that dreadful picture. Daniel began to cry and sat down on his bed. Foster ran up next to him and tried to comfort him by putting an arm on his back.

"It's okay," he said, trying to get a good look at the man's face. "Don't be sad."

"You sound just like her…" he cried. Foster's gears trilled a few times as he wiped away his father's tears.

"Can you tell me what happened?" he asked. Daniel took in a deep breath. Whenever he talked about his wife's death, it always brought him back to tears.

"Sunday, June 3rd, 2007," he sighed. "She was walking to the store. She never took the truck to do that, she liked looking at nature rather than passing straight by it…(sniff). She was just going to get Mimi's birthday cake, since it was the next day… On her way back…" Daniel started choking up. His face tensed as tears came back through his eyes. "On her way back, she was…killed…"

Foster's eyes went wide and curved a bit to show how sorry he was. He would never know how much Daniel was going through; it was just something you had to experience before you could understand.

"Some guy had gotten drunk with his buddies, refused to take a cab. He jumped the curb and…" He trailed off, not knowing what to say. Foster could tell what had happened and asked him not to say anything more.

"I'm sorry I had to put you through this again," he said.

"Don't," Daniel sobbed. "I should-a told you months ago… I just don't want you to leave."

"You don't want me to get hurt like Crystal? How come?"

"You just…remind me of her…" he said. "You teach the kids, you learn the way people should; by reading, you love nature more than tech (which I find odd), and just by how you talk brings her back here."

Foster smiled. He was glad he was being compared to Daniel's wife, honestly. That showed how bonded Daniel actually felt towards Foster and he understood his carefulness to the robot child not getting hurt in any way. Foster tried putting his arms around Daniel, to give him a hug, but they wouldn't reach that far. The man could hear the joints groaning as he reached and chuckled. Instead, he put Foster onto his lap and lowered his face down so the baby could put his arms around his neck instead. Daniel put his arms around the sparkling and hugged him.

"Thanks for keeping me," Foster cooed. Daniel sniffed one more time.

"You're welcome," he replied. The human and robot let go of their hug. "Now, we've got a sleepover to plan."

Foster's optics lit up like the Christmas tree in the picture and cheered as he jumped off Daniel's lap and ran to Andrew's room to tell his brother the good news. From his room, Daniel could hear his son cheering as well. The boy passed by the room and told his dad thanks as he did. Foster came by, nodded his head to his father, and skipped down the stairs to follow his brother.

Daniel picked up the photo album and skipped to that picture of him kissing Crystal on the cheek.

"Why did you make me say that?" he chuckled.

* * *

Andrew raced his friend back to the house, the backpacks weighing them both down. George, learning how to run with three textbooks on your back, ran right past Andrew and made it to the front porch. Andrew kept shouting and laughing and gasping for rematch, but George kept bragging sarcastically how he was more superior and crap. Once Andrew told him to shut up, the door opened and a little mechanical robot jumped on George's leg to hug him.

"Yay! You're here!" he cheered. George laughed and bent down next to Foster. "Welcome to the Dawson farm!"

"Glad to finally be here," George smiled. He patted Foster and the head and walked inside. Andrew showed him where he could put his stuff and gave him a tour around the house. First room he showed was Foster's. At your first glance, you'd think Foster was a bit of a slob. But all that was on the floor were books that were stacked up that wouldn't fit on the small bookshelf he had.

"If you ever feel like reading, ask him," Andrew joked. George looked down at the green robot.

"How do you even know which book is which? I mean, if you wanna see a specific one?" he asked.

"They're alphabetized!" the baby announced. He walked over to a stack and looked at the spine of the book. "This stack is letter L."

"So, if I wanna read The Lion King, how are you…?" he trailed off. Foster knew what he was going to say anyway. He picked up a large amount of books from that pile and picked one out from the ones that were still intact with the ground. He put the books back down and walked over to George to give him the book.

"There you go. The Lion King," he chirped.

"Yer just a little ball o' wonders, aren't ya?" George teased. Foster smiled so much that he had to close his eyes. Andrew moved him on down to the barn to show off his new horse.

"Hey, I got a trick question for ya," Andrew said, a grin on his face.

"Sure, go ahead," George said, hands on hips.

"Can you figure out what all the large horses have in common?"

George looked at the black, the brown, and the white horses. He knew the small brown-gold one was probably Mary's and didn't bother to try and guess the name yet. He kept looking a the other horses.

"Their names are--" Andrew pointed to each as he gave out the names. "--Quincy-Adams, Shakespeare, and Jackson. Two are related in some way, and the third is obvious."

George smiled, and tried his guess. "Quincy, Jackson, and Adams were the names of presidents. Shakespeare was also one of the old guys, but was around the…15th century?"

"Sixteenth," Andrew corrected. "That was good! People only guessed Shakespeare all the time, which I thought was pretty funny."

"Do I get to ride one?" he excitement in his eyes practically begged Andrew to ride a horse. The last time he ever ridden one was when he was five.

"Right now?" Andrew asked.

"Yeah! Right now!"

"I'll have to ask my dad first."

"Oh, yeah, that's cool. I understand."

Andrew and Mary were always taught to ask permission before anything. If you never told your parents where you were, that always was trouble. Then you sit in your room thinking "Why didn't I call him and say I was going to Victor's? Then I wouldn't be grounded for a week."

George waited inside the barn, petting the dogs. Andrew had already told a couple of stories about the huskies, so he knew their names by now. The white one had to be Ken and the black was Bud. He played with them for a bit until he heard a noise outside.

* * *

Just a few minutes ago, Foster was up in his room, looking at the clouds and figuring out what some looked like. There was one that looked like a dragon's head and another that seemed to be a circus elephant. There were even some clouds lined up to look like a mother duck with her babies.

But it all went black. He knew what this was and had no clue that it would happen again! This time, it was someone different. His face became a dark grey, his limbs blue, and his chest red and white. A helmet came across his head and wings like a jet emerged from the back, complete with a red stripe on each.

"The sparkling is mine to command!" said the voice of Foster's intruder. The baby tried to fight him off, but there was no way. "Prime will fall by my own servo! I will be the supreme ruler!" The voice was a little high-pitched, making Foster wonder if it was just a guy with vocal issues, or some girl with a sore throat. Either way, he could feel that one's darkness rising up.

Not able to control himself, he jumped out of the open window and landed with a large thud. Because of this new intruder, he hated the dirt, the sky, the air, everything that was organic.

George ran outside to see the little sparkling and his new colors. It scared the living crap out of him when the eyes suddenly turned red, to show the prowler's true dominance over the sparkling's body.

"Organic filth," the voice growled. To complete the process, two blue guns showed up on each arm, and one pointed to George's direction.

Feeling that fight-or-flight response, George chose the flight. He ran as fast as he could to the house and slammed the door shut as Foster nearly tore off the back of his shirt with a high-heat laser missile.

Foster's trespasser was angry. He hated everything about this place. He wanted it all to go in fire, burn away and never come back. He wanted the world to die, to end forever.

Get out of my body! the baby screamed inside his head. The prowler laughed.

"Why? So you can go back to living with humans that care so little about you?" he grinned.

Liar! Who are you?!

"I am the great Starscream."

Foster tried to think for a bit. He remembered this coloring from somewhere. He saw it in one of Frenzy's memories. It was the same mech that had stood at Megatron's side in the throne room. The one who looked like he was ready to kill his own leader.

"Your power of adaptation is truly astounding, I must say, Starscream continued. He looked at the servo he controlled. "Once someone takes control, your ability can't help but let them in. Oh, this makes it so much easier!"

Let go of me!

"Still trying?" Starscream laughed again. "Whatever makes you think that I would simply let you go? I'm here to finish what Megatron had started. That overgrown excuse of a Decepticon could never amount to what I have in store for you."

A shot was heard. It Starscream in the head, but he never flinched. He only growled and turned to see Henry holding up a rifle.

"Let go of him, Megatron!" he shouted.

"I am not Megatron, nor ever will be! I am Starscream; Ace of the Skies! You and your kind's incompetence will be your downfall!"

Run, Henry! Run!

"They can't hear you!" Starscream sang. Henry shot again, this time at the eye. Both Starscream and Foster had yelled in pain. "You seriously wouldn't harm the son of Optimus Prime, would you?" His smirk grew wider and really started to piss off Henry. The red glowing eyes had added to that smirk and he wanted so bad to shot him. But Starscream was right; he could never shoot Foster.

"The orb…"

Starscream heard. "I'll blow that thing to bits once it is in my sights! This sparkling is mine!"

But if you destroyed it, you wouldn't be able to harness power!

The seeker stopped and turned his head as if Foster was standing right beside him. "Pardon?"

The orb can contain power. With enough you could use it for anything.

"You're sharing information with me, Autobot?" Starscream was getting his suspicions. But, like always, his Decepticon desire for power got the best of him. "Where is the sphere?"

Let Henry get it. If he doesn't cooperate, force him.

"Hm, you're becoming more of a Decepticon with each passing day, little one." Starscream turned to the man holding the gun. "Get me the orb!"

"No!"

"NOW! Or I'll blow his entire place!" His guns pointed directly to the porch. It was a thing of gravity, really. Something above must fall if the level below had given out. Knowing this, Henry ran back inside to fetch the orb. Starscream turned his head again to speak to Foster. "I'm impressed with you, sparkling. What was your name again?"

Foster.

"Foster…Makes sense with an ability like yours. Adapt and adopt. Hm." Henry came back out, with Daniel and Mary following. "Is that your so-called 'sister'?"

Yeah, that's Mimi.

"So young."

"Starscream!" Henry said to get the mech's attention. His head had turned back to look at the man. Henry threw the blue orb into the air, and Starscream flew up to meet it. The orb started to glow brightly in the palm of his hand.

"Yes. The power. Mine! MINE! All will tremble before my presence! The Autobots will learn to fear me and Decepticons to obey! The power is mine!"

You don't have much a life, do you, Starscream? Or a brain for that matter!

"Quiet!"

Listen up here, dork. Wasn't this the same orb that took away Megatron last time he tried to overpower me?

Starscream's optics widened. He looked down at the orb and screamed. How could he have been so stupid?! He could already feel himself being drained from the sparkling's body and the color began to fade back to green.

"You tricked me!" he shouted.

Of course I did, you nut job, you! I am the sparkling of Prime, after all.

"CURSE YOU, AUTOBOT!"

With that, Starscream's last words were sucked out into the orb and he was sent back to his original body. Foster dropped down from midair and ran over to Daniel.

* * *

Back at the Decepticons' underwater base, Starscream fell backwards as his spirit finally caught up with him and pushed itself back into the form. His head started pounding as he tried to stand up, but fell back down. That sphere took a lot out of him.

"So how'd it go?" Rumble teased as he walked up into Starscream's vision.

"That's child's a menace," the seeker groaned.

* * *

"Dude, Foster, that was awesome! How'd you do that!" George cheered. His eyes were wide with the excitement and mouth open in surprise.

"My Christmas present from Mommy and Daddy," he said simply. George looked to Daniel.

"But I thought she died."

"No! Not here!" Foster laughed. "My real parents!"

"Whoa! You've seen them?!"

"No. But I want to! They'll be so proud of me!"

Andrew cut in. "Alright, the creepy guy's gone. Can we please have the rest of this night a normal one? My first sleepover this year and some other robot has to mess it up!"

"Bet I could beat in a race on those horses," George dared.

"You're on!"

xXx

Author's Note: Yes, this time it was Starscream's attempt at overtaking the boy.
Anyone know the relationship of the horse names before this chapter? (Besides Shakespeare?)
How many were crying at the photo album moment?

And how come the only person who sends reveiws to me is whitedino? ~