Hostile Territory

Written by: Okami

Chapter 4 – A New Friend

~

Who's got my back now?

When all we have left is deceptive

So disconnected

So what is the truth now?

Lyrics: Who's Got My Back Now_Creed

~

Authors Note: I do not own Robots in Disguise. I do however own Alana and Suzuki, therefore they can not be used anywhere other than this fanfic without my permission.

Helpful Hints:

****** - Means a change in scenery, or from Autobots to Decepticons

~~~ - Means a change in point of view but the same scenery

* * - Indicates a comlink conversation

******

"Did you succeed in gathering the necessary amount of energy?" Gigatron questioned, staring down at his second in command.

Skybyte laughed nervously but stared his leader in the optics. "Well, not exactly. You see we were attacked by the Autobots before we could acquire the energy. But we did manage to destroy one of the Autobot brothers," he added quickly.

Gigatron stared at his second in command as if the latter had just grown three heads. Regaining his composure, the Predacon leader cleared his throat and replied,

"Excellent work Skybyte-"

The shark threw Scourge a victorious sneer.

"-Now show me his remains."

Scourge's optics flared a bright red in satisfaction.

"His…his remains, sire?" the Predacon shark squeaked. "He, uh, fell into a ravine, so…I…uh, assumed the Autobot ceased functioning."

"You assumed? I want you to go back to that factory, find that Autobot, and bring back his head as proof of your accomplishment!" Gigatron ordered sharply.

"But, I-"

"Don't but me! Get going!"

"Y-Yes Gigatron," Skybyte replied, rising from his kneeling position.

~~~

Skybyte stomped through the halls of the Predacon base, energy pulsing rapidly in his circuits. He could not believe that he had to return to the oil plant and search for the head of an Autobot, one that he had seen die with his own two optics. Spotting the three other Predacons, he immediately recruited them for the assignment.

DarkScream, Slapper, and GasSkunk complained loudly about having to return to the plant. Despite their whining and complaints, they followed Skybyte to the factory in search of the eldest Autobot brother.

******

X-Brawn groaned softly as his pitiful amount of energon flowed through damaged circuits. He powered up as best he could and looked through blurry optics at his surroundings. Anyone get the number of that stampede? he thought to himself, trying to lift his head from the sandy ground. With his stomach in the sand and his legs half buried in the water, X-Brawn propped himself up on his elbows and looked around.

The sun shone brightly through the thick trees, birds whistled their lovely tunes, and tiny fish nipped teasingly at the Autobot's feet. A soft moan from the ground brought X-Brawn out of his peaceful daze. He looked down by his elbow and was surprised to see a young human curled up on the ground, her forest green hair billowing out behind her. She turned over so that she was now facing him, but did not wake.

"Tai, this is X-Brawn, can you hear me?" he called, attempting to use his comlink. Unfortunately, all he received was static and a jolt from the frayed wires. Guess not, he chuckled to himself. Remembering his injured arm, the Autobot lifted it to examine the damages. To his great surprise he found two pieces of dark blue fabric tied around the open gash, each one already soaked with leaking energon fluid.

A startled gasp brought him once again out of his trance, and he looked down at the thought-to-be-sleeping human, only now she was fully awake and staring wide-eyed up at him.

"Well howdy little lady," X-Brawn greeted. He gritted his teeth while attempting to ease into a sitting position. The Autobot managed to turn himself around and sit, with his legs spread out in front of him, facing the girl who had now moved waaay out of arms reach. A smile would have spread across his face except that he had a faceplate covering the mouth area.

X-Brawn, after some quick assessments of the female, noticed that her shorts were unusually frayed and a little uneven. He also observed a scratch across her cheek; the skin around the area appeared red and sore.

"Did you patch this up?" he asked gently, pointing to the wound on his arm.

The human stared at him suspiciously for a few moments before nodding slowly.

"Well, thank you. I'm X-Brawn; I'm an Autobot."

"I'm Alana," the teenager replied softly. Her brow furrowed slightly. "What's an Autobot?" she asked.

X-Brawn chuckled. "An Autobot is a robot from the planet Cybertron. We protect the humans and fight the Predacons, whose goal is to drain this planet of all its resources," he answered.

Alana, feeling a bit more comfortable, edged her way closer to the giant robot, but managed to keep herself far enough away in case she had to escape for any reason. The two carried on a very informative conversation, each one giving facts about themselves and receiving information from the other in return.

X-Brawn shook his head. "I can't believe anyone would do that ta their own kin. That's just downright disgraceful."

"Well, fighting evil robots from outer space doesn't seem like a fun filled life either," Alana chuckled.

"I guess not," the Autobot replied, his optics laughing silently.

Silence passed between the two for a while, neither one sure of what to say.

"Could you by any chance do somethin' for me?" X-Brawn asked slowly.

Alana looked at him cautiously. "Like what?" she said finally.

"Well, I need to contact my friends to tell them where I am, but my comlink's busted. Could you by any chance fix it?"

"Me?" Alana squeaked, blinking at the robot. "But, I don't know that much about circuits and stuff like that. I probably did only more damage by trying to fix the other stuff."

X-Brawn waved it away. "Don't sweat it. Besides, I'm already in bad shape. I don't think you could make it any worse."

About an hour later he regretted ever saying that. When the human said she might make things worse, she sure as heck was not kidding. It felt like every circuit was pumping rocks through his system and energon was replaced with mud.

"I'm so sorry," the teenager apologize for the millionth time, her face darkened with sadness. "I can never do anything right," she muttered to herself.

"Don't fret little lady," X-Brawn soothed, gritting his teeth against the sparks that flew from various joints. "You tried your best. That's all anyone can ask for."

Alana nodded silently, her head eyes gazing at the stone beneath her feet.