Chapter Two

"There's an abandoned beach twenty kilometers north," Cheetor was calling from his console on the Axalon. "A little overgrown, it looks like."

"It don't look like anyone's been there for years," exclaimed Rattrap, his eyes briefly glazing over everything on the monitor. "It's all fenced off and stuff."

Optimus seemed distracted. He kept running a fleshy hand through his new, human hair and staring in a small mirror. "Seems to short to me," he was mumbling under his breath before he realized that his crewmates were watching him, waiting for the go-ahead to land. "Right. Set her down, put the cloaking device up. Wouldn't want any humans to notice us…there's a lot more of them now."

They did as they were told, and the four crewmembers of the Axalon stood shakily, each trying to get used to their new, seemingly flimsy legs. At least they were naturally bipedal. That made things a bit easier, but there still seemed to be various weight issues.

Cheetor was the first who was able to walk fluidly, with humanoid form. He seemed overly proud of himself and moved to help Rattrap get the hang of his tiny feet. Once they were walking steadily, the two of them decided to go see what advances humans had made in food. Optimus stopped them.

"You really can't go out there calling yourselves Cheetor and Rattrap," he sighed, hands crossed over a strong looking chest.

The two smaller bots stared. Rattrap looked annoyed, but Cheetor looked positively clueless. "Why, Big Bot? What's the problem?"

"You honestly think humans sport names like that?" Optimus narrowed his eyes.

"Uhh…"

"It was a rhetorical question, Spots," Rattrap was mumbling.

Cheetor clapped his hands together excitedly. "Then, I pick the name Matthew!"

"I'll go by Adam then," Rattrap added.

The two of them left in a hurry, leaving an awkwardly silent Optimus and Rhinox shifting, shuffling clumsy feet. When both Maximals could comfortably walk from one end of the Axalon to the other, they decided on names for themselves.

"I like David," Optimus said, waiting for Rhinox's feedback.

The other Maximal was slightly sarcastic in response. "I always thought you looked like a David," he chuckled. He ignored Optimus' glare and went on. "I like the name Tyrell. I saw it on a billboard as we landed. Thought it sounded good and manly."

There was one of those awkward silences in which both males decided what had been said was one of those things one man shouldn't say to another.

Rhinox volunteered to stay with the ship, commanding Sentinel to stand down as Optimus left the vicinity.

The car ride wasn't as bad as it could have been. Morgan liked the music that Michelle listened to, even if Sydney would have deemed it too vulgar for his second-grade ears. Michelle knew better than to talk about Sydney or Kevin in the car, as Morgan was still visibly upset over it—and rightfully so.

Thinking about it caused Michelle to grit her teeth, her fingers gripping the steering wheel a little bit harder than a human girl should have, and it seemed to indent the rubber a little bit. A surge of energy passed from her body into the car, giving the engine an extra kick that sent it safely through a yellow light.

She blushed in embarrassment, hoping that Morgan didn't notice. He didn't seem to. She parked on the curb and got out of the car, taking Morgan's hand to walk him inside. She knew that Sydney wanted to be here on his first day, but things interfered. "Hello," the teacher greeted them. She was young, thin, but wearing an ugly yellow apron that suggested that teaching was her social life as well as her career path.

"Are you…Morgan's mother?" the woman asked in utter disbelief.

"No, I'm his sister's best friend. I'm on his emergency contacts list, don't you worry about that." She knelt down and kissed Morgan's cheeks. "You be good now, all right? Sydney will be here to get you after school, honey, don't you worry."

They hugged again and she shooed him into the classroom, turning to walk away. She made it out to the car and got back in, sitting in the driver's seat and staring heatedly out the window. She'd have to be at work in fifteen minutes, so she started the car, beginning off slowly, calming her nerves.

The store was only a few blocks away from their school, but traffic was so horrible that she still arrived ten minutes late. She parked in her usual spot and snuck in the backdoor, clocking in and putting her nametag on. When she turned around, Ms. Beckett, her boss, was standing in front of her, hands on her ever expanding hips.

"Should I even ask if you checked the time before walking in here today, Michelle?" Beckett asked.

"No, I realize I'm late, ma'am. I had to drop Sydney's brother off at school today, and then I caught morning traffic-"

"Wait, where's Sydney? She's supposed to be in, too!"

"Sydney had to stop by the police office to file for a restraining order. Her boyfriend tried to kidnap Morgan last night, so Syd kicked him out."

Her boss stared at her. "I'd say…all right, I won't hassle you today, but you should come in Monday ten minutes early to make up for it."

"Yeah, yeah, that's all right! Don't worry about me, Miss Beckett, I'm a sister of my word."

When her boss seemed satisfied, she moved off to hassle the girls working in the men's department. Michelle slumped against the counter for a moment before the strangest bout of electrical interference made her circuits buzz.
"Ahh! Now what the jeezus was that?"

She spun around and went back to the doors and noticed something only her maximal eyes could have possibly seen. There was a disturbance in the atmosphere. The clouds seemed to smear right into the ocean, and she knew there was something wrong with that.

"Right down on old Desmond's beach, too," Michelle muttered. "Right on schedule, eh boys?"

They came twenty years after the Great War, just as Optimus said he would, to recover and Maximals that survived the stasis pod tragedy.

She glanced at the sparkly watch on her wrist and sighed, hoping that Sydney wasn't too much longer. She really wanted to get out there and see what all the commotion was about.