Chapter 2: Windfall Part 2


All it took for Megatron to roughly break their stalemate, was a glance at the spot where the organics were. He let out a furious roar as he shoved Optimus away and pulled back, his optics narrowed and cold. "Those little fleshlings have taken my mini-con!" he snarled.

As troubling as it was going to be to try and convince the two organics he had no ill will for them or any other earth inhabitant, Optimus knew that Megatron gaining the mini-con panel would be far more disastrous. He glanced to his sides, and took note of the fact his two subordinates had arrived. "You're surrounded and outgunned. Surrender, Megatron."

The other mech scowled at him, fury written plainly across his faceplate as his fists clenched. "This is not over." He said darkly, and his form slowly began to warp away.

"No, it never is." Optimus said quietly. He straightened his back strut as his soldiers assembled before him. "I trust you've both arrived intact? No adverse effects?"

"Nah, but maybe one of the 'Cons hit a snag and showed up wrong; would explain why they ain't here." Hot Shot said.

"What about you, sir?" As their medic, Red Alert was likely already running a scan over them both regardless of what Optimus' answer would be, but with only the three of them having been able to be spared at the moment for this mission, morale would need to be kept.

"I am fine, Red Alert." Optimus replied, and paused a moment to allow the medic to check the results of his reading before he nodded and the red and blue bot continued, "Though before you both arrived, I found Megatron terrorizing two of the organic inhabitants. They left while we were pre-occupied, and took the mini-con panel with them."

Hot Shot grimaced at the news. "This is just great, how are we supposed to find these organics?"

Optimus pondered this as well, but knew that a few things had to be taken care of if they were to complete their mission and avoid further detection. "We'll deal with that when the time comes, for now we must do recon. Find a vehicle to scan, and try to locate a suitable base of operations. We will return to this spot in the next three cycles," he commanded, and his tone turn on a stern tone, "and it is imperative that we use discretion; no making contact until we are settled."

Red Alert nodded solemnly, but though Hot Shot looked ready to argue, he too nodded-if a bit reluctantly. Satisfied that his subordinates knew the severity of the situation, Optimus ordered them to move out.


Rad frowned as he curled up on his pillow. The apartment was eerily silent, and after receiving a clean bill of relative health from the emergency station set up at the clinic, Rachel had gone to check on her own parents. She'd reluctantly left him behind, but knew that likely dragging an exhausted pre-teen around wasn't exactly a wise decision if he got cranky enough to act out.

Before, Rad would have welcomed being left on his own, as even the hour after his own school and the time when Rachel's evening class ended, he enjoyed the time by himself. Now though, he just wanted someone to hug him, and a pillow made a poor substitute; he could clearly remember the fuss Alexis and Carlos' parents had made over them, the way his friends had been held by their parents and how relieved they had been to see them safe.

Rad felt guilty that he envied them, that he shouldn't feel this way as Rachel was doing what she could. It was still his choice not to go live with his aunt and uncle because of their precarious occupations; even if his mind viciously reminded him that Rachel was being paid to look after him, Rad liked to think that his cousin loved him as much as he loved her, and that the pay check was just to help with food. 'I shouldn't have run off.' He thought, sighing as he reluctantly sat up and looked over his Band-Aid ridden arms. 'I knew it was wrong, and now Rachel's probably rethinking her choice to let me stay.'

In the back of his mind, Rad felt a wash of sympathy that was not his own, and with it came once more the thoughts of what had happened after he'd had his cousin take the panel out of the ground. 'Mini-con. That does sound familiar.' He thought, as after panic and dread had faded once they got away from the hills and he realized they hadn't been followed, Rad began to wonder about the panel again. 'That giant robot wanted it, but why?'

Rad got off his bed and made his way out of his room towards the front foyer. Rachel hadn't known what to do with the plate, so she'd just tossed it in the closet by the door and told him she'd deal with it later. Rad bit his lip as he set his bike against the other wall and opened the closet door; he peered down at the floor where the panel laid haphazardly. 'It doesn't look like much, but that purple robot wouldn't have wanted it if there wasn't something special about it, right?'

Truthfully, Rad didn't have an answer, and he held the panel at arms-length as he stiffly lifted it off the floor. "What are you?" he muttered, brow furrowed as he examined the plate once more for any detail he might have missed the first time.

When the panel suddenly began to glow, Rad flinched as he dropped it and scurried back. He was filled with fear and fascination as he saw a small rainbow of colors emit from the panel; he had no idea what was happening, but the fact he thought he should know what this was didn't help alleviate his wariness.

Rad stumbled into the table in the kitchenette, cursing the fact that the apartment was too small for there to be a wall separating the hall and kitchen area or the living room. His eyes widened as a small robot appeared above the panel, and for a long moment they just stared at each other.

The robot tilted its head and its eyes blinked. "You did get big, Rad. You're even taller than me now."

Rad tensed, his fingers clutching at the chair in case he needed a makeshift weapon. "How do you know my name?"

The robot slumped, and Rad felt a bizarre sense of sadness that wasn't his own. "You don't remember? I waited so long to play with you-I thought we could have fun together!" It said and crossed its arms childishly.

"I want to play." Rad found himself saying, and his eyes widened as the robot jumped forward. He tensed again as two arms wrapped around him, but he was more surprised as he was lifted up and the robot twirled him around.

"I knew you would! This is going to be great!" The robot cheered. It set Rad down and the pre-teen's fear was replaced with bemusement.

How was Rad supposed to 'know' just who this was? Why did he think that should know? Somewhere deep inside the blond, he felt a joy he hadn't felt since he was a little kid; it made him think of his dream, the one that he always forgot when he woke. 'Was it even a dream? Did that really happen back then? Could I have met-' he stopped and blinked as it suddenly dawned on him. "You're name's High Wire, isn't it?"

The blue robot nodded its head rapidly. "That's right; you really had me thinking that you forgot about me. I could hear you in the cave, when someone called your name, and it just made me so happy that you finally found me!" It really did sound deliriously overjoyed, so much that Rad found himself feeling guilty about crushing its spirits.

"Well, you're gonna have to catch me up. I really didn't know you were there, or who you were; your name was from a dream I had." Rad explained.

High Wire paused, his form tensing abruptly. "You…don't remember me after all?" he asked and Rad slowly shook his head. The blond felt a sense of despair that was not his own, and he began to realize that as bizarre as it was the emotion could have been coming from the little bot. Just as quickly, the sadness was gone as High Wire straightened up and clasped his hands together hopefully. "That's okay; we can still get to know each other though, right?"

Guilt had Rad nodding along. "Yeah, sure, I don't see why not." He paused and bit his lips, wondering if their alleged previous encounter had anything to do with why he was able to feel High Wire's emotions. "How can I understand you? You're talking in beeps, but they sound like words in my head."

"Oh, it happened when I met you the first time." High Wire explained. "We mini-cons can form mental links with bulks-uh, that's what we call the big bots because they were, well, big."

Rad thought back to the two 'bulks' he and Rachel had encountered up in the bills. "There was this green and purple robot with antlers that wanted your, uh, plate I guess? Anyway, this red and blue bot showed up and called the other 'Megatron,' who said the others name was 'Prime.'"

High Wire shuddered. "I know, I could hear them. It's a good thing you ran; I certainly wouldn't have wanted you to get hurt."

"So they would have killed us." Rad said softly.

High Wire shook his head. "Megatron would have, but Optimus Prime, the other bot, wouldn't have. He's the reason me and the other mini-cons were able to get off Cybertron-their home world." He explained, and his tone became sheepish as he twiddled his 'thumbs' together. "I must admit, in my joy of you finding me, I forgot I was still connected to the systems of our ship, and so I accidently sent out the beacons which activated my fellow mini-cons as well as the signal that brought the bulks here."

Rad's lips twitched wryly. "So I guess we're both responsible; I made Rachel take you out of the dirt, while you got overexcited and goofed up."

High Wire nodded shyly, but then he paused and tilted his head once more. "Rachel? I remember her too, did she grow as well?"

"Well, yeah, she's nineteen." Rad replied. His brows furrowed as he realized the implications of what High Wire was saying. 'Why wouldn't Rachel say anything? Does she think it was just a dream too?' he frowned as he ran a hand through his hair, but jerked back when High Wire abruptly looked at his bike, and a white light was scanned over it. His jaw dropped as High Wire's entire form broke down and folded into a replica of his bicycle. "How did you do that?"

"We and the bulks can transform if we scan a vehicle mode. I must presume that I am one, right? This would be really embarrassing otherwise." High Wire explained sheepishly.

Rad nodded absently. "Yeah, it's called a bike. Rachel's totally gonna flip when she sees you."

High Wire reassembled himself back into his robot form. "I don't want Rachel to be jumping when she sees me. Perhaps I shouldn't introduce myself."

Rad shook his head. "No, it's okay; if Rachel already knows you, then she shouldn't be so freaked out. Those big bots spooked us, but you're even smaller than me. I promise it'll be alright when she gets back."

"Well, if you're sure, then I wouldn't mind seeing her again." High Wire replied.

"That's the spirit." Rad said, but paused as he heard a strange sound coming from down the hall. It was a strange, low growl; it sounded like a cat, but even that had Rad cautiously grabbing the broomstick leaning against the refrigerator. Rad slowly walked down the hall, but aside from a slight jerk from noticing High Wire following him, he continued on and grimaced as found that the sound was coming from Rachel's room. 'Oh crud.'

Rad debated whether he should go into the room, but he found that he couldn't in good conscience let some wild cat mess up his cousin's room. He glanced back at High Wire. "Stay here, and don't let anything out, okay?" he asked, and High Wire nodded solemnly.

The blond walked into the room, and his eyes roamed around the room closely. The window was closed, but Rad wasn't going to let that stop him as he made his way over to the curtains. He checked the locks, but whirled around when the growl came from the other side of the room. Rad looked at High Wire, who seemed just as confused before he pointed toward the drawer that was being held closed by the chair Rachel had put against it.

"It came from in there." he whispered.

Rad nodded and crept up to the chair; setting the broom against the bed, the blond removed the chair. He froze as the small slit in the drawer began to emit a glow which had Rad opening the compartment as he stared down at the pink book Rachel had received. "What is the deal with this book?" he asked himself aloud, flinching when the wing clasp on the lock suddenly clicked open.

"What is it?" High Wire asked as he came to stand beside Rad, peering around him at the pink book as well.

"It freaked Rachel out this morning, though I really don't know why it would." Rad explained, confusing lacing his tone as he opened the cover, and found a strangely familiar card greeting him. It said 'Return', and just like with High Wire, Rad felt something irritatingly familiar about it. He picked up the card, only to find another one underneath that High Wire picked up.

Rad set the book down on the bed as he took the card from the blue bot and tilted his head at it. It had the same pink border that the other cards had with the darker pink background, but in the center was a woman who seemed to lack a body from the chest down where she was holding two long tendrils of hair to her shoulders, where two tufts of what seemed to be fur extended into two moth-like wings overlapping over her nonexistent front. Her eyes were closed, and the only other color present beside the gold sun at the top and the star at the bottom, was the three thin, slanted upward wing shapes on both sides on her forehead that were orange.

Underneath the gold star was another banner with a different name on it. "Windy?" he questioned, brow furrowed.

The abrupt sensation of feeling like he was suffocating had him looking at High Wire in alarm; the little bot seemed unharmed, but he shrieked as he backpedalled and pointed at the card in Rad's hand, which had the blond looking down to see that it was glowing.

"What-" Before Rad could fully process just what was going on; a powerful wind flooded the room, which knocked Rad and Highwire off their feet and into the wall. The blond could hear a howling ring in his ears as a gale started to knock over the desk and chairs, the lamp on Rachel's nightstand crashing to the floor and he even heard her bed creak under the pressure.

In the center of it all, Rad could only stare as the pink book remained perfectly still as all the cards in it began to fly out and went through the roof and walls like it was nothing. A sharp sting in his finger had Rad turning to look at his hand as the card he was holding went flying off as well, taking the fierce wind with it, while leaving the blond with a wrecked room, and a paper cut.

"What…what was that? Does this happen much here?" High Wire sounded shocked, and it had Rad snapping out of his daze as he helped the mini-con stand back up.

"No, I don't know what that was." He answered. "Let me take care of this first, and then," he grimaced as he looked at the glass from the broken lamp and all the overturned furniture, "well, can I count on your to help me clean this up before Rachel gets back? I don't think she's gonna be too happy if she comes home to this mess."

"Can we pretend we're playing?"

"You won't let that go, will you?" Rad asked dryly. "Alright, just give me a minute." He said and hurried into the bathroom. He didn't like adding yet another Band-Aid to his already too large collection in one day, but even this one he had to own up to his own impulsiveness getting the better of him. 'Shouldn't have gone into Ray's room in the first place; how am I gonna explain this too her?'

Rad hoped he could explain High Wire's presence though, seeing as she apparently had been with him when their encounter with the blue bot had happened, but he wasn't optimistic for his logical-minded cousin to accept that there had been what felt like a hurricane in her bedroom and a bunch of cards had just vanished through the walls. 'Wonder where those cards went anyway.'

"Rad!" High Wire called frantically. "That pink thing is glowing!"

The blond's eyes widened as he hastily wrapped the Band-Aid around his finger before he rushed back into Rachel's room, stopping short as he saw that what High Wire said was the truth. The book was enveloped in a golden glow like when it had still been in the drawer, and Rad watched in surprise as a form began to rise up from the book.

It resembled a kiddified lion, with big round ears, a long tail that ended with a large white puffball at the tip, short stubby arms and legs, and yellow fur. The only thing not lion-like were the white wings on its back. When it opened its small, dark eyes and blinked, Rad blinked back as he felt High Wire's similar bemusement.

For a moment, there was utter silence.

The creature promptly broke it though when its eyes landed on High Wire. "What's a mecha doing here?! There not supposed to be real!"

High Wire tensed as he made a move to approach the lion, which Rad stopped him from doing. "Real, I'll show you real!" he snapped childishly.

"Not now, please don't start acting up." Rad said exasperated and he wondered if this was how Rachel felt when babysitting him during his younger years.

"You can understand this thing's beeps?" The creature asked.

Rad winced as High Wire let out a shrill set of chirps. "Don't call him a thing, his name's High Wire." He said and managed to get between them. "What are you though? You look like someone's plushy."

The creature's cheeks puffed out as its shoulders shook. "I am not!" he shouted and put its hands on his hips proudly. "I am Kerberos, the Beast of the Seal. I am one of the entrusted guardians who-" he abruptly stopped his tangent when his eyes locked onto the book. A strange gasp rang out, which sounded like a scream mixed with a choke as the creature flitted frantically over the empty book, its tiny hands held fearfully up to his face. "Oh no, this is not good! Not good at all!" he rounded on Rad suddenly, a fire in its miniscule eyes as it scowled at him. "Do you have any idea what you've done?!"

Rad pulled back, face pinched in anger at the accusation. "If you're going to be throwing around blame like that, maybe you should tell me what I've done exactly."

"You called out Windy's name, and then all the cards scattered." The creature said, its tone flat.

Rad blinked. "That's exactly what happened. If you knew what happened, why didn't you come out when they did?"

Now Kerberos seemed tense, one hand rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Um, well…" he mumbled something, but Rad just crossed his arms. "You see, I fell asleep," he said with immense embarrassment, "and I guess they wanted their revenge after all."

"What? Revenge on who?" Rad questioned, but Kerberos shook his head.

"Look, since you opened the book, you gotta help me round 'em back up. It's only fair."

Rad's brow twitched. "You can't be serious." He said. 'First all that stuff with the earthquake earlier and alien robots, but now I I'm supposed to help with this?' he thought incredulously. "Why can't you just go do it? You said you were the 'Beast of the Seal' so shouldn't you be able too?"

"Can't exactly do that in this form." Kerberos said sounding regretful. "Spent too many years using my magic to keep the cards contained. That's why I need you to become a Cardcaptor," he said and put his hands together yet another in a begging motion, "please? You'll be able to learn magic, and have awesome adventures; what more could a boy ask for?"

Rad raised a brow, but even without the sell, he knew what his answer was going to be. Guilt did many a thing to a conscience, and one of which was to try and atone for the wrong done. If this was what Rad had to do to help, then he was going to do it. "I guess it would be cool to have magic powers." He said, his tone hopefully optimistic.

Kerberos' attitude took a one-eighty as he pumped his fist into the air. "This is going to be great, you'll see!" he said and pointed at the book as the wing clasp glowed and a small sphere of light emerged from it. From what Rad could see of the thing inside, it resembled a key with bronze teeth, a pink circle at the end with a star in the center in the middle with two wings at the sides. "Little robot dude," he rolled his eyes when said robot crossed his arms irritably, "fine, High Wire-take a step to the side since I don't know how well your roboticness would interact with magic, and I really don't feel like finding out."

High Wire sighed as he walked over to the window, but seemed to self-consciously realize that he couldn't be seen by passer-byes on the side walk or in their cars, so he awkwardly shuffled next to the overturned desk instead.

Kerberos nodded and cleared his throat, spreading his arms in front of him as he closed his eyes. Around him, Rad flinched as everything seemed to darken except the key in front of him. "Key of the Seal," a glowing circle of a sun and crescent moon appeared underneath the key, "this boy will carry out the sacred promise. His name is…" he paused and his eyes snapped open wide in realization that he didn't know Rad's name.

"Um, it's Rad." The blond said, but Kerberos narrowed his eyes just as quickly in scrutiny, to which Rad added his rather reluctant admission of, "Bradley."

"Bradley." Kerberos continued without missing a beat. "I command you to bestow him with your magical powers." The glow from the key became blindingly bright, which had Rad trying to shield his sight from it. "Bradley, take the staff!" Kerberos ordered, with the blond marching forward to blindly grasp onto this staff. When he felt his hand clasp around something solid, the light abruptly died down and the pre-teen found himself holding a pink pole with the same pink top on it that the key form had. "I, Kerberos, name Bradley-Cardcaptor!"

Around them, Rad found the darkness lifting until he was back in Rachel's messy room. "Wow."

"Rad!" High Wire beeped worriedly as he ran up to the blond and began checking him over. "I didn't know what to think when you just stop being here! My sensors said that you were, but I couldn't see you, it's just like when I thought you were only a glitch in my programming!"

Rad patted the frantic bot on the back with one hand. "It's okay, I'm fine, and you're definitely not glitching." He didn't know if that was true or not, but it calmed High Wire down immensely, with his attention turning to the pink staff.

"How's that supposed to help you with 'magic' or whatever that yellow organic called it?"

"That's a good question." Rad murmured and turned his own attention to Kerberos. "How can I catch them with this?"

"Oh, believe me, the answer will come to you, just like with-" The guardian cut himself off suddenly, expression pensive. "You'll do great, just gotta believe you can. I know I do." He said smiling easily at the blond.

Rad stared at him flatly this time. 'Kinda hard not to when you're options are pretty much zero.' He thought, but reframed from saying it; he did agree to do this, and he tried to stay on the positive. "So I just go out and…then what?" Being hopeful was harder than he thought. "How am I supposed to find these cards if I don't know where to look?"

"That's where I can help you." Kerberos said and he snapped his fingers, with the book levitating up beside him. "I'll meditate to try and find the cards like this, but you should be able to feel their presence too if you happen to stumble across them."

"I guess that makes sense." Rad said dubiously. "Oh, can I call you something other than Kerberos? It's really a mouthful."

"It's Kero for short, just like I assume with your name?" Kero asked knowingly.

Rad flushed as he nodded, but when his eyes caught sight of the staff, he tilted his head. "How do I get it to shrink? Does it shrink?"

"'Course it can, just concentrate on it being that key from before." Kero explained.

Rad nodded and closed his eyes as he imagined in his mind holding a key, and he heard High Wire's beep of surprise just as he opened his eyes to find the key once more in the palm of his hand.

High Wire, who Rad could only guess had been silent as he took in the explanations from Kero, peered down at the miniature staff. "Things have gotten interesting."

"Can't argue with you there." Rad said wryly.

Kero furrowed his brow. "I don't get it, how can you understand him? All I hear is beeps and squeaks."

"Why you-!"

"Easy, High Wire." Rad said as he patted the mini-con on the back in placation before looking at Kero. "He explained earlier that we got some kind of mental bond. It's still pretty surreal, and now with magic cards out doing who-knows-what, I'm not so sure that I'm not going to wake up and find out everything was a dream."

"Oh, this is no dream, trust me on that." Kero said.

"I'm starting to see that." Rad said as he glanced around the still messy area, which only had him wincing as he didn't know how long this little interlude had been going on for. "Oh crud, Ray is probably gonna be back soon. We gotta get this room cleaned up."

"Would you look at that, I should really get started on trying to find those cards." Kero said as he began to float to the door, pink book trailing after him. "I'll leave you to your chores."

Rad rolled his eyes as he saw Kero flee to the blond's room and shut the door behind him. He looked back at High Wire as he put the key into his pocket for now. "Well, no sense in just standing around. Room's not gonna get clean on its own."


Leaning her forehead on the steering wheel of her car, Rachel let out a long sigh as she killed the engine. 'That was something.' She thought as she took a moment to reflect what had happened. Her ears were still ringing from her mother's relieved cry and her bones ached from the force of her parents' hug at her being alright; they (and Rad's parents when she called them using her parents' phone) were irritated that she'd left Rad alone, but at least understood she wanted him to get some rest.

It was only after she'd left their place that she realized she hadn't spoken to her mother about the pink book. Rachel leaned back against her seat as she glanced down at the paper bag of cupcakes Joy had bought before the earthquake hit- 'to help brighten Rad's mood', she'd said. Given that Rachel and Rad were going to be having another meal of dry cereal, the blonde thought this was at least adding variety to their food choices.

'No use in just staying out here, I gotta find out what that plate is.' She thought and grabbed the bag as she got out of her car. She hustled into the apartment complex and towards the staircase as the earthquake had knocked the power out for the time being; she hoped it came back on soon, as she wasn't sure how much of a shelf-life her keychain light had, or if she remembered where the candles were stored.

Gasping as she made it to their floor level, Rachel stumbled along the dark hallway with her mini-light and squinted against the plaques for her apartment. Rachel sighed in relief when she found it, the potted plant beside the door where she hid the extra key in plain view, and blinked against the sunlight bathing the room as she walked inside and locked the door behind her. "Rad? You up, my mom bought cupcakes." She raised a brow as Rad stumbled out of her room, and put her hands on her hips as he smiled sheepishly at her. "What were you doing in my room?"

"Oh, I, uh, well…" Rad rubbed the back of his neck. "I sorta found out what the plate was-totally by accident though!"

"Really?" Rachel knew there was something up, if by how obvious he was acting were any indication. "And just what is it?"

Rad poked his index fingers together with a nervous grin. "Promise you won't freak?" he asked, but Rachel stared at him sternly. He sighed. "Okay, fine," he turned slightly and called out, "you can come in, High Wire."

Rachel's eyes widened as she heard the name, and even as she saw a little blue robot walk out of her room, her mind was pulling out the images of a crazy dream she'd had when she was younger. It was so bizarre that she'd thought it could have been nothing else, and even now she just wanted something to make sense; giant robot aliens had shook her world up enough. "Just what is this?"

"His name is High Wire." Rad said, his cheeks puffing out in annoyance. "He told me that we met before, and I thought you'd know him since you were there too apparently."

"It was a dream though." Rachel protested, the gears in her mind struggling to continue working. She sat down on a chair at the table as she set the bag aside, her breathing becoming labored; she felt a lump vibrate in her front jean pocket, but ignored her phone for the mini-freak-out she was currently experiencing. "It was…it was…" she clutched at her head, but flinched when 'High Wire' walked up to her; his beeps and whoops were foreign to her, but the familiarity she had with it was disconcerting. "I don't know what you're saying."

'High Wire' blinked, pulling back as it turned and its beeping became frantic. Rad furrowed his brow, in apparent understanding.

"He says that you could understand him before. He doesn't know why you don't now, but he says he's sorry for putting you through this."

Rachel blinked this time, her breathing slowing down to a normal pace as she stared at the little robot. He was concerned? "This is all just a bit much." She started. "Before, I thought everything made sense, but aliens-" she stopped and the realization struck her hard. "Those bigger robots, they're after him, aren't they?"

"High Wire called them bulks, but while we were cleaning your room up I asked about the emblems they were wearing." Rad explained. "He said that the ones with the purple emblems were called Decepticons, and the ones with the red emblems were called Autobots. The red and blue robot who saved us from the purple and green one is an Autobot called Optimus."

"Decepticons bad, Autobots good." Rachel said absently as she still tried to wrap her mind around the concept. While she was not someone who thought things were clean cut like Rad or 'High Wire' seemed to be willing to believe, she wasn't about to get ungrateful about being saved. "Wait," Rachel said and narrowed her eyes suspiciously at Rad, "why were you cleaning my room?"

Her cousin coughed into his hand, his gaze looking anywhere but at her. "You see, when High Wire woke up, I freaked and ended up chasing him around with the broom. He went into your room and we kinda made a mess-even broke your lamp by accident while he tried to explain what he was."

"The purple one from before, he called you a mini-con, right?" Rachel asked High Wire, who nodded.

"Oh right," Rad said in realization, "High Wire said that one was called Megatron." He shuddered. "I'm really glad Carlos and Alexis weren't there to see him."

"Got that right." Rachel muttered. She had already spent the day trying to keep three kids calm during an earthquake; she might have snapped if she'd had to deal with three after an encounter with the third kind. The blonde cleared her throat as she took a moment to gather her thoughts, and tried to be as rational as possible in evaluating her options; first and foremost, Rad needed to be kept safe or it was her head. "We can't keep High Wire here."

"But-"

Rachel held up a hand. "No, he might be E.T., but you're not Elliot. If what High Wire said is true about the Autobots, then they're likelier to know how to take care of him, right?"

Rad looked at her mutinously. "I found him though." He said petulantly.

Rachel ran a hand through her hair down to her ponytail, but furrowed her brow when High Wire held a finger up to her, and to her surprise it began glowing. 'Maybe my E.T. comparison was more on the mark than I thought.' She mused, but couldn't help but be a bit cautious. "What's he doing?"

High Wire beeped and whooped, to which Rad translated. "He wants you to mental-link with him, so he can talk to you directly. He says it'll be easier."

"And talking is all there is? He won't be able to hear my thoughts or anything?" Rachel asked suspiciously, but Rad shook his head cautiously. The blonde was not enthused, but she decided to at least give the little robot the benefit of the doubt for the time being; it would let her ask her own questions she didn't want Rad around to hear. "Okay." She said and put her finger against High Wire's, but aside from the glow dying out, nothing felt any different. "Did it work?"

High Wire tilted his head. "Can you hear me now?"

Rachel's eyes widened at the two-tone echoes going through her mind; the beeps almost seemed to form their own translation in her mind. "Whoa! This is amazing."

"I am glad you think so, usually the bulks were either torn between awe or they freaked." High Wire said.

"It's not hard to see why." Rachel mused, but shook her head as she began to usher Rad to his room. "You, mister, should get some rest."

Rad dug his heels into the floor. "You can't take High Wire tonight, at least let him stay one night, please?" he put his hands together and looked up at her pleadingly.

Rachel tried to remain stern, but she found her heart melting as she was reminded of his younger years. 'I really should have built up some immunity to this.' She scolded herself. "He can stay for one night," she emphasized, "but tomorrow he goes back to the Autobots; I will not put you in danger, you hear me?"

Rad nodded reluctantly as he peered past her. "Can I have a cupcake?" he asked abruptly and Rachel let out a low groan. "What, you're grounding me for the weekend and want to take away one of the most awesome things that's ever happened to me-sorry about calling you that." He said with a quick amendment to the huffy little bot beside him.

High Wire turned away moodily as he continued on toward Rad's room. "Just for that, no playing."

Rachel couldn't help but snicker as she gestured for Rad to get the bag. "You can have one cupcake; don't wanna spoil your appetite for supper."

"Power's out, so that means we get to eat cereal-hooray." Rad said dryly.

Rachel softly rapped her knuckles on his head. "Watch it you, or I'll ground you for two weekends." She said and Rad's eyes widened before he fled toward his room. She shook her head in amusement, but looked sharply at the door when she heard a knock; she made sure High Wire had made it to Rad's room before she went to answer it. Peering through the peep-hole, she was pleasantly surprised to find a young dark-haired man standing on the other side of the door, pushing up his glasses while holding a flashlight with one hand and under his other arm was a pizza box.

"Rachel, you home? I hope you don't mind me dropping by."

The blonde contemplated answering as she cast a glance towards Rad's room, but couldn't just be so rude to her friend. "Hold on a minute." She called and hurried to her cousin's door and walked inside, but stopped short when she found Rad not only holding a yellow plush toy and a half-eaten cupcake, but her pink book was laid out in front of him on his bed spread.

"Uh, I can explain." Rad said wincing.

Rachel took the scene in, but decided not to comment. "We'll talk about why you thought you could take my stuff later, but right now Marty brought pizza over."

Rad's eyes lit up at the word, and he tossed the plushy at High Wire. "Clean it up, please." He said as he put the treat onto the nightstand beside his bed and rushed out of the room.

Rachel could hear Rad opening the door and greeting the graduate assistant as the blonde furrowed her brow at the icing surrounding the plush toy's mouth. "Don't tell me that Rad tried to feed that thing."

"Then I won't." High Wire stated matter-of-factly.

Rachel shook her head. "Whatever, just be quiet; we can't let anyone else know about you, okay?" she questioned, and the blue bot nodded solemnly. The blonde gave him a quick smile before closing the door behind her and meeting her cousin and their guest in the kitchen as Marty opened the pizza box. "I didn't know that the parlor would still be open."

"I swung by when I saw people going in and out, and I remembered that they don't use electric stoves to make the pizzas." Marty explained, smiling as he went to fetch three plates from the cupboard. "I hope it wasn't too much of an assumption on my part to get this."

"Are you kidding? Free pizza is always awesome!" Rad said as he eagerly accepted the slice of peperoni and cheese, and flushed in embarrassment when Marty raised a brow at his behavior.

Rachel shook her head in amusement as she sat down beside Rad while Marty took the third chair. She dug into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone to check on her messages, pausing as something resonated within her. "Oh, right, almost forgot I need to return your walkie-talkies." She said to Marty, smiling apologetically.

The man looked back at her with concern. "You and Rad were up in the mountains, right? I hope no one got hurt…" he trailed off as he took in Rad's scruffy appearance. "…er, hurt badly?"

Rad rubbed the back of his neck, cheeks reddening further. "I took a tumble when the quake hit, but nothing more than some scrapes here and there." he grinned ruefully. "I'll have plenty of time to recuperate over the weekend, that's for sure."

Rachel nodded solemnly. "Got that right, you took off when I explicitly said to stay with the group."

"Ah." Marty said in understanding. "Helping an elderly professor control a classroom of late teens to older is probably nothing compared to three rambunctious pre-teens."

"For the most part, I happened to luck out." Rachel said and she stared pointedly at Rad. "But this one thought it would be a good idea to run off."

Rad ducked down in his seat, face still beet red. "Can you please stop reminding me? I get it, I won't do it again. Promise."

Rachel didn't let up for a long moment, but sighed as she picked up a pizza slice of her own. "Alright."

She'd have enough to do tomorrow; she didn't need Rad acting out again.


Rad groaned as he rolled over onto his side, grimacing as he came back to awareness when he felt like there was a light being shined in his room, and the feeling of wind blowing through his hair settled over him. The apartment was eerily quiet as the power had yet to come back on, so the squeak High Wire made had his eyes snapping open.

The blond opened his mouth as he sat up, but the words died almost instantly as he found himself staring at the figure of a woman with extremely long blond hair and giving off a yellow glow. In his sleep addled state, it took Rad a moment to register why she looked so familiar. "Windy."

Kero, having taken sleeping at Rad's side for the night, floated up to meet the woman half-way. "You came back," he said, his tone soft and comforting, "are you still upset? I've made Rad here the new Cardcaptor, and I swear he's not gonna let us down."

Rad thought this was a lot of pressure to be placing on the shoulders of a twelve-year-old, but the desperate look Kero gave him as well the assessing look on Windy's face had him finding the resolve to nod. "That's right; I might not have the whole story, but I promise I'll do my best."

Windy stared at him, her features slowly morphing into a soft, tentatively hopeful smile. Her form lit up and it began to swish and twist until it all compacted into a glowing shell card. When the light faded, Rad saw Windy had reverted to the form he'd found her and the others in; he absently reached out when Windy floated down to him, and he stared at the name he'd vaguely noticed earlier before the craziness had set in.

"Kero, what's 'Sakura'?"

The yellow guardian froze, his eyes glancing off to the side. "That's not for tonight, but I would advise you to write your name-your real name onto the card if you don't want to catch Windy again. Same goes for the others."

"Couldn't I get them to revert to their card forms without having to be aggressive about it?" Rad asked.

"For some maybe, but there are aggressive ones and they won't be easy to talk down." Kero said and sighed heavily. "They were really angry about…well, again, not for tonight."

"Sometime soon I'd better get an explanation for why you're being so secretive." Rad said, his tone peeved. He rolled his eyes when Kero shrugged, but as the blond got off his bed, he noticed High Wire standing stock still in front of his closet. "What's wrong?"

"I…I knew that 'magic' was going to be involved," High Wire said dazedly, "I just never thought they'd have forms of their own."

Rad walked High Wire over to his bed and helped the little bot sit down. "Get some rest; I know I'm still trying to process things." He walked over to his desk as he heard High Wire beep something nondescript, a confusion in the back of Rad's mind conveying just how surreal the bot found this.

When Rad found a pen and wrote his name onto the card, he set it inside the book that Rachel had yet to talk to him about, and hoped that in the morning things would settle down.

For now though, he'd settle for getting some rest.


A/N: Okay, let's get this out of the way first; yes, I am aware of the fact I had Rachel understanding High Wire in the prologue, and now she had to mind-meld with him here to know what he's saying. We'll get to that explanation soon enough.

Because this is set in America, it makes sense to use the English versions of the spells for it. And as for High Wire seeing Windy at the end? Hopefully you'll buy into me saying that since alien robots aren't from earth they likely wouldn't be affected by the card's cloaking defense-or that Windy just didn't bother with cloaking herself, that could also be true.

I probably should have said this in the last chapter, but in the comic that Kelly actually appeared in, she's Alexis' niece instead of her cousin, though that is one of the few things I took liberties with because making her a cousin works out better.