DMK: …random, spurr of the moment…impulsive. Yeah, that's this fic alright. ^_^;;; But it will get better once everyone knows everyone else and all… o.o;; um, yeah, and as for the six Transformers whom showed up in the last chapter…
Sam: _ _;; must you ruin the surprise?
DMK: It's blatantly obvious, Scavey.
Sam: Don't CALL ME THAT!
Steven: HA!
Sam: *grumbling*
Steven: *tilts head like a puppy dog* …somebody needs a hug?
Sam: Oo; NONONO! NOT ME! *waves hands frantically in the air*
DMK: …amusing…we should get Matt, Orion, Chris, and Aaron in here, too… :D *screams can be heard from outside the room* ^_^;; Well, while I'll try to get them to join us, you can read the second chapter of the fic! ONWARD WE GO!
Chapter Two
Kay sat down after a lengthy but interesting lecture on the Civil War in the cafeteria, and was joined not long after by her cousin. "Hey! Caity! So how's the second semester treatin' ya?"
Caitlin smirked a little, remembering the chaotic lab experiment she, Aaron, and his friend Chris had been responsible for. She almost started to laugh when the mental image of Chris' smoke-black face with his bright green eyes standing out like emeralds in coal surfaced in her mind. "Great, great. Met some nice guys, too…"
"Same here. There's this new guy in my Wars class, Sam Greene…he seems like someone I would have known a long time ago…And he's not bad to look at, either…" She giggled immaturely for a moment.
"Oh yeah?" Caitlin grinned at her cheesily.
"Yeah."
"Funny…I got the same vibe from Aaron. Serious deja-vu…"
"Who?"
Caitlin turned a slight shade of red and hunched her shoulder slightly. "Aaron Redding. He's new in High Desert. So is his friend, Chris Stone."
"Oooooh, is someone prowling for boys?"
"N-No!" Caitlin exclaimed, blushing. "I am not-AHH!" Someone had run smack into her chair, sending her and her attacker into the tile. "..ow."
"Nice move, Sideswipe," A blonde haired, blue-eyed guy around the age of 21 said dryly to the one who had knocked Caitlin down.
She blinked. "'Sideswipe?'"
The guy beside her stood up and helped her to her feet quickly. "Sorry about that, really sorry, I'm just living up to my nickname…Real name's Steve Evans."
A bit numbly, Caitlin nodded towards him. "Hey. Name's-"
Kay interrupted, still amused at this scene. "He knows you. I told him and the others about you, too."
"Oh…" She looked beyond Steven, and saw a group, including both Chris and Aaron. But the nickname Sideswipe started to eat at her…could it be…?
Snapping her out of these sudden thoughts, the one who had called Steven 'Sideswipe' stepped forward. He was tall, appearing to be 21, but wasn't thickly built, and had bright blue eyes, and his face was framed by sandy blonde hair. A pair of sunglasses was pushed up above his forehead, lifting his long bangs out of his eyes.
"Sorry about my friend here," He said in a cocky voice. "He just rushes off sometimes. Oh, and I'm Tom Harrison, I heard about you and your cousin from Sam." Tom nodded over his shoulder to a tall strong-looking man, obviously the one Kay had mentioned.
"That's okay, but what's with the nickname?"
Tom froze, and laughed a bit nervously. "Well uhh, um…"
Caitlin raised an eyebrow, then looked at Steven curiously. "It's…got to do with my driving skills!" he blurted out quickly. "I…I uh, I ended up sideswiping another guy on the first day I got my license, five minutes into the drive…my friends have called me Sideswipe ever since."
Both of Cait's eyebrows went up at the story he had fabricated, but let it slide. There was no way the Transformers could have become human…right? "Oh. That sucks." Then, she noticed the rest of the group. Chris still had a bit of soot on his cheekbones, but aside from that, his face was relatively clean. "So Kay, you gonna introduce me to the rest of your buddies or what?"
"Oh, right…" She said a bit sheepishly. "Well, you've obviously met Steve and Sam, and this is Orion and Matt." She motioned to the other two. "Can't say I know the rest of your buddies, though…"
"Ah," Orion said a bit distantly. "Well then I suppose I should introduce them, too." He motioned to one of the moderately built men in the small group. His hair was a light shade of blonde that almost seemed white, with accents of gold at the tips. His eyes seemed a slate gray, but had faint traces of blue within. From Caitlin's speculation, he looked about the same age as Tom, 21. "This is Brandon Silver-"
"A bit of an enigma but he's alright for being almost mute." Another redhead chipped in.
"That would be Jason…" Brandon muttered in his quiet voice. Looking up at the tall, 25-year old that was Jason, Cait again felt a tinge of deja-vu. He had bright red hair, streaked with blonde, tied up in a red and gold bandana. He towered over Orion, but still didn't reach the height of Sam. On his face was a crooked grin, similar to that of Tom's.
"Well, nice to meet you, Jase," Kay said in a nearly identical cocky voice, at which Jason's face appeared disgruntled.
"God forbid you call them that," Another man started. "His name is just plain Jason…Even if it IS funny to see the look on his face…"
Caitlin looked his way. "And who might you be?"
"Oh…eh…the name's Sean…" He said less confidently. Upon first glance, he seemed to be nothing more than a stout, extremely muscular man, but his cornflower blue eyes glistened with a wiseness and kindness that seemed out of character. His hair was a soft brown, cut rather short as well. Guessing, Caitlin thought him to be around the age of 26 or so.
"Well, nice to meet you, Sean," she said, extending her hand out to him. Expecting a rough, hard handshake, she was surprised with his gentle grip. She was about to strike up a conversation when another young man around Tom and Brandon's age came running up.
"Sorry I'm late…" he panted. "I got turned around, and I lost Demoli-I mean Dan…and uh… Scott…I was in the Math wing with them."
"It's a closed campus…they can't be THAT lost," Chris said confidently. "Scott'll be able to find his way around." He then looked to the two cousins. "This is Jack. Jack, meet our new friends, Caitlin and Kay."
Jack smiled, even if he was a bit winded, and greeted them with a simple, "Hey." He was Tom's size and stature, and age as well, but had a slightly heavier build. His eyes were a dark teal with specks of gold throughout, and his hair was gold, with black, dyed tips. Then, after exchanging handshakes, he looked to Orion and Matt. "So, should we go look for Dan and Scott?"
"They'll be fine," Orion said quietly, trailing off slightly. "Now…what DO you do between classes…?"
Kay gave him a skeptical glance. "What-you've never been to college before?"
"Um…well…it was different than this school…" He stuttered.
"Right…well, you just hang around in the cafeteria or the plaza until the next bell rings…depending on the day, it's anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour."
"I see…and today…?"
"Well, we have about fifteen minutes left before the bell rings. Best thing to do is to grab a seat and shoot the breeze."
Agreeing, everyone took seats and began to compare schedules. And, within a few minutes, Caitlin had struck up a conversation with Aaron. "So, what do you have next?" He asked her albeit quietly.
"Me? …Anatomy and Physiology…you?"
"Same." He then jerked his thumb over to Chris, who was busy toying with his still-singed bangs. "So does he…but I think he's going to keep away from us when it involves any sort of science…"
Cait giggled. "But lord, that was funny…"
Steve's head popped up from studying his schedule. "What happened there?"
"Don't. Say it." Chris mumbled, grabbing his bangs with his fist in dejection.
"He nearly blew himself up in BioChem lab today," The two said in unison.
FLASHBACK TO BIOCHEMISTRY LAB…
Chris looked at a bottle of clear, seemingly normal liquid, peering at it boredly. Meanwhile, Caitlin and Aaron were combining a careful concoction, step by careful step. "Hey, lemme add this in!" he chirped in an almost giddy tone, lunging forward quickly.
Aaron blinked, and tried to grab him. "Chris! Not the Nitro-Glycerin!"
BOOM!
As the gray smoke cleared, Chris' face and chest were a soot-black, his green eyes shimmering like Emeralds in coal. Aaron was dusty, a light amount of dirt collecting on his bandana and shoulders. "Ow."
The rest of the students erupted into laughter, and the group was made to clean up the mess, both in their lab station, and on Chris. All of which, proved to be amusing.
Tom and Jason howled with laughter, slapping their knees and trying to contain themselves as best they could. Even Sam and Brandon couldn't help but join in at the hilarious story both Caitlin and Aaron retold to them. Matt's shoulders shook silently, while Orion and Sean both had highly amused grins on their faces.
"Good god! How many points did you get dinged for that maneuver?!" Steve managed while trying to calm himself down.
"He didn't lose any-it's his first day…" Caitlin defended weakly from the giggling fit she had been sent into. "But he'd better not try it again…"
"Bah…well how much time do we have?" Chris muttered lowly as he hunched over, clearly sore from the laugh his friends got from his ordeal.
"It should be going off…any time now." Kay responded.
As if on cue, the bell rang, and they all parted ways as they headed to their next classes.
_____
Later that night, as dusk was just falling, Caitlin sat by herself in the crisp autumn air, enjoying the brilliant colors of the Maple trees. Setting her books down beside her, she let a tiny, chilling breeze rustle her bangs. She began thinking about the day, and how well she seemed to make so many friends…she usually just kept one or two very close, while the rest were just acquaintances. But Aaron, Chris…even Steve, they had become close-knit over the course of only a day, like they had known each other for years…Even if Chris had random instances of insanity…
She sighed contentedly and looked at the wispy clouds that were turning bright orange, and watched the trees rustle in another soft gust of wind. On that breeze, came the sounds of a heated conversation…and she could instantly identify the voices of her new friends, Sam, Chris, Aaron, and Steve. Rising quietly, she followed the conversation to a small grove of trees on the campus, where the four were seated facing each other.
"Aw come on Red! We should tell them! They're our friends, anyways!" Steve started hotly.
"No. We can't."
"But why? I hate keeping all this stuff a secret…" He mumbled dejectedly.
'What…are they talking about…?' The 21-year-old wondered to herself. 'What does Aaron want to be kept a secret…?'
"Sideswipe, listen, if our cover were to be blown, who KNOWS who could find out? If Thrust and Sideways were to catch wind of it…" Sam began.
"…They'd slag us all." Chris finished flatly. "Great…but those human friends of yours could keep it underwraps, right? It's not like they'd go squeal to them if they knew…"
"It's not that easy, Cyclonus…" Aaron began. "Things…are a bit more complicated than you think…Scavenger can testify to that…"
Sam nodded quietly, and Chris interrupted again. "RedAlert, you know full well that you can't get attached to any human, right? I mean come on…one of these days that gas'll wear off and we'll be our great, wonderful, metal selves again…"
'My Lord…no wonder I felt like I knew them! They…they're…the Transformers! But how?! Why didn't they say anything?!' Caitlin's heart had risen in her throat from the surprise.
"True…but you wouldn't understand. You're a Decepticon, anyways…" Sam interrupted, then tilted his head. "We're not alone," he said in a hushed and terse tone.
Their heads snapped up quickly, their eyes searching around the loose stand of trees for their eavesdropper in the fading light. Cait hid behind the nearest oak tree, but she saw Aaron's gaze fall upon her shadowed form. "There!" They rose to 'greet' her, but that was enough.
She gasped, took a shaky step backwards, and ran.
_____
Caitlin burst into Kay's dorm room five minutes later, panting heavily, looking shaken. "Kay!! KAY! YOU WON'T BELIEVE THIS!"
Her cousin shot up in her beanbag chair at the disturbance. "What?!"
"Sam…Aaron…Chris…Steve…not…human…"
Kay's eyebrows shot up. "What the FRAG do you mean?"
"They're the Transformers!"
TBC
DMK: Okay…this REALLY REALLY REALLY made no sense…but on a good note… yay! The ballots are in! I had two reviewers who got it all right: Smackblade, and Navi-Zero!!! Congrats to you all! Oh, and for those of you who guessed, at least you tried, and kudos to that. Just to clear things up, I'll give you a rundown of who's who so far-
Sam: No need. They know who I am. And Steve, too.
Steve: T___T;; I shouldn't have asked about the hugs…
DMK: ANYWAY…the chapter took a turn I didn't know it would take, so you already know the names of most of the first five…If you HONESTLY needed to know, Orion is Optimus, and Matt is Megs… There. Me done. :D And the other newcomers are pretty obvious, too. But yay to the people who guessed them right!!!
Sean: Hey…what about me????
Jason: Yeah, and me?
Tom, Brandon, and Jack: Ditto!?
DMK: It's blatantly obvious…and the readers are smart enough to figure it out… But here's a hint…Demolisher and Starscream have yet to show up… :D Now, I must leave! Ciao!