1Thanks to GalacticPrime for motivation to write this chapter!

Now,

Onward and upward with the show!

She tried to scream, but her voice caught in her throat. Too fast, it was all happening to fast. The debris hurtled down towards her at an incredible speed, and she briefly thought that if death decided to fall towards her out of the sky, it would have wanted to take its time making an entrance.

There was a blur of something black, like a dark shadow flittering over to her. She pulled her arms up over her head in a feeble attempt to ward off the ton of falling metal as well as the dark shadow, but it had other plans as it covered her, shielding her vulnerable body from impending doom. Then, with a deafening crash, the debris slammed into the thing above her, causing it to grunt, then sliding off of its sides like water when it shifted after a moment or two.

She realized then that her savior was not a shadow, but in fact a large, black robot. It groaned slightly, lifting itself from it place directly over her so it could look down at her face from a more comfortable angle.

"Are you alright?" It asked. Its voice was deep, and it reminded her of the gentle rocking motion of the calm sea. It "lips"- or metal plates that could be confused for lips- moved in time with the words, but she saw that it had no tongue or human like teeth. Obviously somewhere in its "mouth" was a vocalizer. What captivated her though were its eyes. They were angular, in an almost stylized equivalent of an almond shaped human eye, shining a light sky blue. It-he- was so close to her that she could actually see through the transparent glass to the finely tuned mechanisms beneath, whirling an shifting serenely as he looked at her, the camera like "pupil" in the very center flicking back and forth, glowing peacefully like two blue candles.

For a moment she was too captivated to answer. She had never stopped to actually look at one of the robots before, beyond a quick glance to see if it was aiming a weapon at her.

"Female, can you hear me?"

That did it. The simple, impersonal word brought her out of her contemplative mood, and her mind closed down again on any thought of these creatures being anything other than programmed killing machines.

"Yes, I can here you quite clearly, robot." She growled. It looked at her curiously, or as much so as its immobile face could express. She suddenly realized why this one looked familiar. It was the same face she had seen before blacking out in the alley.

Opening her mouth to say something, she was interrupted once again when an alarm, out of no where started blaring at an unbearable volume. She clapped her hands to her ears with a weak cry, her brains seeming to be jarred around in her head.

"Will someone shut that thing up!" Someone else in the room yelled, voicing what she desperately wanted to.

"Teletron 1, turn that thing off will you!" Another yelled. It stopped almost immediately, but the silence it left behind rung just as loudly as when the alarm was still wailing.

"Explosive devices detected within the confines of the ship. Evacuation is suggested." Came a cool, computerized voice from the air.

"Gee, thank's for the heads up..." A third muttered venomously.

"Your welcome." The computer voice (Teletron 1 thingy, she assumed) responded pleasantly.

Looking over its shoulder at something she couldn't see, her two time rescuer pulled away from her, and she immediately sat up. Then, she noticed something odd.

"Teletron 1, contact Optimus Prime. Tell him we have a sit-" It started, before she let loose a loud shriek, causing the black bot to visibly flinch.

"What?" It asked her. She quickly crawled back away from it, scattering some debris off of the large table.

"DUH! I'm naked!" She huddled herself together, trying her very best to cover all relative areas, flushing darkly with embarrassment. The black robot appeared confused.

"It that a problem?" It asked, genuinely unknowing. She looked about ready to shout at the top of her lungs when the black and white robot from before interrupted on her behalf.

"Uh, Buster, could you possibly scrounge up something for our guest to wear before she turns homicidal?" She peaked around the edge of the table, and froze at the sight she saw.

A boy, a human boy, was standing not too far off, and when he looked up and saw her, he promptly turned beet red to his hair line and glanced away.

"Uh, sure..." And at a fast clip to anywhere but there, scurried away. Looking at the boy's retreating back, then turning to look at her, all optics focused on the embarrassed girl. She shivered, not with cold but with fear, as it was relatively warm in the enormous room. Though, suddenly (Thank God!) their attention was diverted when there was a short crackle of static, and then a voice was heard over the PA system, filling the room.

Prime here. What's going on, ShadowStriker? Teletron 1 has informed me that there was some sort of explosion near med-bay.

Med-bay, so that's where I am... She thought.

"Yes sir. We're not quite sure yet what happened, but Hound and Bumblebee are already on their way to check it out."

Wait, since when were those to sent off? I didn't hear it tell anyone... It must be some type of internal comm-link...

The disembodied voice- now known to belong to the leader of the Autobots, Optimus Prime- returned.

Were their any injuries?

"None, commander."

Good. I'll join up with you there momentarily. Over and out.

A moment later, Buster returned with some clothes in a bundle under his arm, and with a quick excuse of needing to go help Bumblebeeimmediately left, his face still bearing the complexion of a cherry.

The bundle was handed up to her, and while they had their backs to her, talking amongst themselves about who knows what, she quickly slipped into the pair of black cargo jeans and a baggy, much too big purple Raven's sweatshirt. Surprisingly though, the jeans were very comfortable and fit reasonable well, other than being boy jeans. And though she sincerely hoped they were clean, she suspected that they were.