Chapter four
Cheetor swished his tail impatiently. It had been nearly nine cycles since the appearance of the young human, and he couldn't wait to be able to talk to her! A real life human! He'd never been able to come close enough to an actual one other than watching the old history files on the ship relaying the tale of the great war. Excitement bubbled through his circuitry and he found he couldn't stay in the control room any longer. Quietly, he rose to his paws and began to sneak back towards the spare room of the ship in the west quarters. He wouldn't wake her up, just check-
"And just where do you think you're going?" The cheetah flinched, a little ashamed to have been caught. "J-just going to check on Rhona, she probably wouldn't know where to go once she wakes up," he offered a large innocent grin towards the giant rat bot who rose an optic ridge at the younger mech. "Yeah right, I wasn't born yesterday, ya know! You heard Optimus's orders! Leave her to recharge, sentinel will let us know of any signs of movement when she's up!" Cheetor's ears flopped back against his head and he sighed. Rhinox watched with amusement as the cat mech, and rat continued their discussion. He was possibly the only one on the craft, besides Optimus, who had ever come into close contact with a human before, albeit stella cycles ago. He could understand the crews curiosity, but he'd seen the distrust in the young human's face. Something had happened; it wasn't normal fear of being somewhere new that he'd seen in her eyes. And that bruise … Dinobot had told them in his usual aggressive manor that Terrorsaur had found a way into the base and that, having thought Cheetor was already destroyed on the other side of the transporter, it was best to send a bomb to the predacons in an attempt to sever the link, with any predacons that may try to stop it. What he had failed to mention was the human. That is until Cheetor had let out a shout as the girl had catapulted herself from his room and practically galloped out the ship. Only then did Dinobot offer any information on the human.
"Rhinox?" The brown mech shook himself from his thoughts to stare at the now transformed cat bot. The feline's golden optics softened curiously, awaiting the medics response. "You … ok? You've been quiet." Rhinox sighed, shaking his head. "I am fine, Cheetor. Just thinking." It was obvious Cheetor didn't buy it, but he chose not to comment. "We were just saying, how do humans refuel? It's not like they can eat energon … can they?" Rattrap guffawed, dropping his face into a golden servo, "You serious kitty cat? Go ahead, try offering her a nice energon crystal, you'll probably offline her and us along with it." Cheetor opened his mouth to respond but Rhinox beat him to it. "Rattrap's right, Cheetor. Humans can't process energon crystals like us mechs can. They eat from the wildlife, much like the animals of this planet do. We should really start scouting for some fruit or vegetation for our friend." Rhinox turned to the computer and began to scan the databases for known natural foods growing within the area. "How do you know so much about humans?" Dinobot's familiar sneer broke through the chatter as he entered the ship, transforming as the platform brought him level with the other maximals. His tone was suspicious. "After the great war, all medics were downloaded with a backup chip which contains basic medical care and needs of humans, should we ever encounter them again," Rhinox answered bluntly, continuing his search through the databases. "Pathetic. Those meat bags are a waste of space. It's a wonder they were even considered helpful during the great war," Dinobot seethed. "What's a matter choppaface? Scared a tiny organic girl might knock some sense in to your pred friends like they did your ancestors?" Rattrap teased. "On the contrary, I worry I may mistake her for an incompetent rodent such as yourself and attempt to keep her as a snack," the velociraptor bot pushed Rattrap back into his chair forcefully but before Rattrap could retaliate with his fist, sentinel beeped softly, attracting the attention of maximals. "Hm, it would appear our young friend is awake," Rhinox stated, pulling up a video image of the human beginning to stretch out her legs on the bed. "Ultra-gear! S-so I can introduce myself again?" Cheetor sought permission gingerly. Rhinox couldn't help but smirk as the excitement radiated off the young bot as if he'd found a new toy to play with. With a small nod from the rhino, Cheetor made towards the spare room with a small cheer before moving out of eye shot. "Oh, why are we allowing him to act like such an infant? The human only distracts from our main mission of destroying the predacons," Dinobot snorted, exasperatedly throwing his hands in the air. "What you fail to realise Dinobot is that humans are very good at surprising you," Rhinox snapped at the pessimistic bot. "That's partly the reason Megatron was defeated by the autobots in the first place. He underestimated them, as well." Dinobot merely hissed in response but did not offer a retaliation. Accepting Dinobot's silence, Rhinox turned back to his original search.
Meanwhile, Cheetor practically vibrated with anticipation and couldn't contain the broad grin across his face. Forcing himself to calm down, he finally found himself outside the girl's temporary room. Sucking air in through his ports, Cheetor knocked on the outside of the door and waited for an answer before entering. Shockingly, he was sure his audio receptors picked up a small gasp but no verbal reply like he'd expected. Fine tuning his receptors, he heard what he thought was the girl kicking and squirming before it died down, but he could hear the shaky breaths she involuntarily produced. Cheetor couldn't help but a feel a little sad for her. He hated anyone feeling grumpy or depressed really. That's why he was always joking and overly happy most of the time. It was too easy to find yourself feeling low, especially during war or in the middle of nowhere. Dinobot often commented on how immature the cat bot was but if it made the others smile even a little bit, he would carry on.
After a few moments of realising the girl was not going to answer, the feline debated entering the room regardless but stopped himself. He hated people entering his quarters without asking, he needed to express the same courtesy to others. "Hey Rhona? Are you awake in there? It's me, Cheetor!" The cat listened carefully for a few moments before finally hearing the tiny voice, "Cheetor? Why are you here?". "I came to see if you were ok, now can I come in or are we going to keep talking through a solid door?" Silence floated under the metal and Cheetor began to think she would turn him away until the faintest voice called out, "Ok, come in." Cheetor silently cheered before entering the code for the room. Rhona sat upright on the bed with the piece of fabric draped over her head. Two blue eyes peered through the curtains of her hair. She still looked pale and unsure, but her eyes seemed to be replaced with something else this time. Inquisitiveness? Cheetor moved slowly before seating himself on the furthest edge of the bed from the human. "How are you feeling?" Rhona paused briefly as she considered the question. "Sore. I feel a bit better for sleeping though. Did you-"Cheetor cocked his head when the girl turned away, refusing to finish her sentence. "Did I…?" he smiled, coaxing her to continue talking. Rhona cleared her throat. "I was going to ask did you sleep but then I don't suppose you robots need to," she trailed off and Cheetor noted how her cheeks began to turn rosy. "We sleep, but we call it recharge. We normally only need to recharge for a few hours before we're ready to go again." The blanket slipped further down the human's head and he couldn't help but be amazed by the colour of the hair on her head. He'd never seen pictures of humans with red hair before. Browns and yellows appeared to be more common from the data files he's read. A loud grumbling sound pulled Cheetor from his thoughts and soon it was him that was beginning to worry. "What was that?" Rhona couldn't help but look sheepish, "it's nothing, it's just my stomach-" "What do you mean? Are you hurt? Do I need to get Rhinox?" The feline had already begun to stand and edge towards the door until he began hearing something he'd not heard from the human before. She was giggling! "No! It's nothing wrong I promise!" She smiled, her hands resting over her abdomen. "I haven't eaten since yesterday morning, I'm just a bit hungry!" Relief flooded through Cheetor as he watched the girl erupt from her blanket cocoon. "Oh well I can help you find something! We can go exploring!" Rhona was ushered off the bed and out of the room before the golden bot overtook her like an excited puppy heading towards the control room. Rhona felt the corners of her mouth tilt upwards as she watched him practically bounce as he bounded out question after question. It was a little relieving hearing some of the questions he was asking her. It didn't make her feel silly anymore knowing he knew a similar amount about humans as she did about the robots! His enthusiasm was infectious as he continued to ask her other general questions about humans. How long do humans sleep for normally? Do you only sleep at night? How often do you need to eat? Rhona thought she would feel more overwhelmed by this but actually she couldn't help but relax around Cheetor. He was so easy to talk to. Her mind drifted to various memories of awkward silences when meeting new people at home; it had made her feel as if something was wrong with her for struggling to make friends with people or find something in common with them. Cheetor was very refreshing to be around, he was taking an active interest in her.
That doesn't mean he's your friend, though. Rhona's face blanched at the thought and she tried to shake way her cynical thoughts. She couldn't allow herself to get too close to the robots, despite how friendly they appeared. What Rhona needed was to find a way to get back to the portal, get home and just put all of this out of her mind! Her nose squished hard against a leathery wall eliciting a sharp hiss of pain and stars briefly filled her vision. Once the pain had subsided, Rhona inspected the wall only to see it belonged to the one person she would have been happy to avoid, glaring down at her. Dinobot. His sneer practically projected venom as he twisted to look down at her more closely and Rhona almost got the sense that he enjoyed making her feel intimidated. Despite the anxiety his stare was now causing in her stomach she couldn't bring herself to move.
"Hey, sleeping beauty! Good of you to join us!" Rhona stepped away from the giant predator and looked towards the source of the Brooklyn accent, seeing the grey rat bot sitting at a computer console. Rattrap, she corrected herself. She examined his fingers touching the different keys to play what looked like an electronic card game and briefly her heart sunk. Was that the console she had come through? Why was he not being sucked away like she and Terrorsaur had? Thinking about it, she hadn't seen any console in the room emanating the electrical white cloud like before, did that mean it had gone? Rhona twitched the corners of her mouth upwards briefly, realising she had not responded to the mech's greeting and not so subtly stepped around the meeting table to put space between herself and Dinobot. "C'mon Rhona, hop on! I'll take you on a tour!" Cheetor shifted to his cat mode, his grin still threatening to split his face in his animal form. He pounced, landing directly next to her and lowered much like the tiger bot had done for her to climb on to his back. "W-what? I'll break you," Rhona blurted, feeling a little embarrassed at the chuckle she received in response. "I'm stronger than I look you know!"
"Where exactly do you think you are going?" Dinobot spat, clicking his claw on the metal floor in a wordless challenge. She shuddered and involuntarily stepped back, feeling her arm against the soft fur of Cheetor's side. Unlike her, Cheetor didn't flinch, "Rhona needs to eat, we're going to find her some food" he announced, ignoring the threatening tone as if Dinobot had only asked Cheetor what his plans were for the day. "Optimus has not given you permission to leave, and I will not allow it!" This time Rhona noticed Cheetor's ears laid flatter against his head and he narrowed his eyes at the bigger mech. It was beginning to feel tense, and she was drawn to focus on the sharp claws of the raptor, curling and uncurling, ready to swipe. "Dinobot, that's enough." A large silverback gorilla walked on all fours into the console room, followed by Rhinox, his eyes swiping between the cat and the dinosaur clearly unimpressed by the display. He transformed and turned to face Rhona with a calmer expression. "Good morning," he smiled, and Rhona found she could only nod back. His expression immediately steeled again as he returned to the two in question, Cheetor at least had the decency to look mildly embarrassed, Dinobot showed no such courtesy. "We can't expect our new charge to go without food, Dinobot. But I agree, Cheetor going alone may be risky given our recent events," he stated diplomatically. Dinobot seemed to look visibly sick. "You cannot be serious! The predacons are out there, probably weak and ready for taking and your priority is to find food some useless bipedal mammal?" Rhona bulked at the last comment, she was clearly in something a lot deeper than just time travelling to a different dimension like she had been concerned about. The last thing she wanted was to get caught in the middle of it. Shakily she opened her mouth but was cut off by the cat, "We'll be fine big bot! We'll stay within the perimeter of sentinel and I can come back or call for back up at the first wiff of predacons!" Is he serious? Is it that dangerous out there? There was a pregnant pause before Optimus finally folded his arms and released a sigh, "alright Cheetor, you can help Rhona to find some food, on the one condition that you check in with us every quarter of a cycle with your coordinates." Rhona marvelled at the seriousness of Optimus' order, but it had clearly already gone in one ear and out the other as he let out a happy purring noise, scooping Rhona's leg over his shoulder blade. With a surprised squeal Rhona threw her arms around Cheetor's neck with barely enough time to brace as he already ran to the elevator before taking off at a sprint across the plains.
"How do you like this speed, Rhona? Too fast for you?" Cheetor laughed, clearly having fun as the girl clutched tighter. Once her initial fear of falling had gone, she found she was actually quite enjoying the ride! I mean, how many people can actually say they've got his close to a Cheetah!? The feeling ofwarm air brushed her cheeks and she smelt the sweet scents of the salty desert and dust that Cheetor kicked up with his paws. It felt like only a matter of minutes before they began to see grass and trees cropping up in the surrounding area and Cheetor slowed his pace to a languid walk. "Sorry about Dinobot, he's always got a metal rod up his butt, but he's not so bad once you get to know him," Cheetor stated allowing Rhona to climb off to begin walking next to him. Her knees wobbled but if Cheetor noticed he didn't mention anything. "If you say so," Rhona shrugged. "How did you guys even come to be here?" Cheetor almost looked sad for a minute before his ears pricked up, "hey listen, I can hear running water!" Momentarily her question was forgotten as she excitedly followed the cheetah like a lost puppy through the trees around her, eventually coming to a beautiful lagoon like pond with a small waterfall cascading down the side of the rock cliff. Rhona couldn't help but amazed at how the vibrant the colours of everything was! The mishmash of purples, pinks and oranges among the green vines and plants around the water. And it was so clean! The crystal blue of the water almost seemed like glass as she watched the sunlight bounce off of the shiny stones laying at the bottom of the lake. Rhona dived in with her hands, cupping the water to her mouth and almost drowning herself as she desperately sucked down the beautiful liquid. All the stress of the previous day's events felt like they washed away from her in that moment in that little place of paradise; the crackles of leaves broke Rhona's attention to see Cheetor dragging a branch of fruit which looked suspiciously like mangos. "Not really sure what these are but I saw some of the primates eating these." Rhona graciously thanked him, ripping off one of the pieces of fruit and feeling it's soft skin. It peeled pretty easily like a banana and the sweet smell of the fruit erupted as the skin was removed allowing it to escape. Hesitantly, she nibbled at the fruit. It tastes like kiwi fruit! It didn't take long for her to completely devour the fruit and begin on the next two, all the while Cheetor watched her, fascinated at the way she tore into the food. After finishing the fruit and feeling as if her tummy was beginning to bloat, she washed her hands and face back in the water feeling slightly happier now she was replenished.
"We originally were a group of explorers," Cheetor interjected when Rhona sat herself back on the warm grass next to him, she watched him intently as he stretched his paws out in front. "We would go to unknown planets to research and recon any information for Cybertron to make allies with or to learn from, it was pretty fun a lot of the time exploring unknown territories! But then Megatron, the leader of the predacons stole an artefact from Cybertron. Supposedly this artefact would be able to lead him to earth, but we weren't going to sit back and let him leave to destroy Earth like before." Cheetor dug his claws into the grass. Was he bitter? Had these predacons really caused so much trouble? Remembering back to Terrorsaur, Rhona could believe the predacons weren't a nice bunch to be around. She dreaded to think what their leader was like if that was just one of the followers she had encountered. "We followed them and ended up going through a worm hole, somehow ending up here. Originally, we thought this was Earth but there's a lot that doesn't match up with the details we had before of your home. Plus, the amount of raw energon here is nearly enough to kill us in our normal forms." Rhona's jaw snapped open. "Kill you? Is it that potent?" Cheetor raised an eyebrow, an action she thought she'd never see on a leopard in all her life but somehow, he had mastered it. "You really aren't from here are you!" With a flick of his tail Cheetor mounted back to all fours, indicating for her to follow. "So, what's it like where you're from? Does it look anything like here?" Rhona couldn't believe how intrigued he was about her, but then she supposed, had she not been forced here by that red dinosaur mech she would have shared in his excitement to learn as much as she could about them. She explained to Cheetor how she lived in a large, crowded city, not really any vegetation or open spaces like here, although she knew there were places more rural, London just wasn't one of those places. All the while that she walked with Cheetor, her mind continued to settle on the console within the maximals headquarters. If It was no longer glowing and the mechs were able to touch it without any concerns or problems, did that mean it wasn't working anymore? Would she never see her mum again? To be honest, it wasn't like she had anything waiting for her at home, other than her mum, but the idea of being swept away from her without being to call her made her feel … guilty.
"Hey, you ok there, Rhona?" She snapped her head up to see Cheetor at least a metre in front of her, turning back to look over his shoulder. Was that worry? She noted he was probably just thinking she was crazy considering she had just stopped in the middle of the desert, staring off into space. They can't honestly be that concerned about me. They just probably feel obligated to help me out. "Err, yeah sorry. Mind's somewhere else," she muttered, forcing her feet to continue walking to catch up with the feline. Something about the atmosphere between them told her he didn't quite believe her, but he didn't bring it up again. Instead, she listened as he called the base, letting them know their locations and that they would be returning shortly.
Eight eyes glared after the pair, hidden within the long leaves of the giant plants in the jungle before eight vast legs spindled their way out of the hiding place. "So…Terrorsaur was telling the truth … for once," he let loose a hissing maniacal laugh, practically drooling as he watched the girl leave after the cat. "Megatron will want to meet you my dear, I am sure of it!" Shooting his web to grip onto a branch of a nearby tree, the spider transformed, using the height of his new spot to watch as the pair disappeared. "Unless I find a way to get to you first, that is!"