Just a quick little chapter; explaining why Lori was called to the hospital, and what was wrong with Fred. It'll probably be a few chapters before I Explain about Kicker and them; mostly 'cause it's sad and I don't wanna write it. Enjoy!

Shadows of Them

Revelation

Lori dragged her feet into Autobot headquarters, not looking at anyone, acting as if she was in another world. They couldn't possibly understand, she thought, still avoiding everyone's gaze. No one had even noticed the huge gold-and-purple sweater she was wearing- it was long enough to go down past her knees and clearly had been both worn out, and worn by someone with quite a stomach. Meanwhile, Kobe and Bud were laughing and joking with Jolt about meaningless nonsense. Oh what an oh-so-wonderful day to know giant robots who could never understand your problems; and one of them being practically your best friend.

Override glanced down at Lori, she seemed rather distant and pre-occupied; she'd been standing still for about ten minutes. "Lori? Are you alright?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah… I'm fine…"

Override folded her arms, "What's wrong "little sister"? I know you aren't alright. Why haven't you been here for the past few days?"

Tears fell down Lori's face, but she refused to answer.

"Lori? Why are your eyes leaking?" Jolt asked, concern in his voice.

"Yeah Lori, what's wrong? And why haven't you been at school?" Bud interjected.

"And why are you wearing your dad's sweater? It's almost 80 degrees out!" Kobe added.

She broke down at hearing him say "dad's". She was crying openly, not even able to see their shocked faces. She was choking on her own tears, barely muffling out, "My Dad…"

"What happened?" Override bent down, concerned for her "little sister".

"H-He had a heart attack a few-few days ago…" She somehow managed to say between sobs. "He-he's in the hospital s-still…" Override gawked, she didn't know the exact problem, but it was clear that Lori's father was very sick.

"Lori…" none of them knew what to say, and she was sobbing uncontrollably.

"Did the doctors say anything about his condition?" Red Alert asked, none of them knowing how long he'd been standing there.

"J-just that so long as he doesn't have another one or go into cardiac arrest that he should recover… but they said theirs always the chance that he… that he'll…" her sobs became worse, and she was clearly having trouble breathing because of it.

"Take deep breaths; if you lose consciousness and your father find out; you'll just add to his stress, and that won't help his condition any." Red Alert advised, remembering that Fred had once told him about this sort of thing. She nodded half-heartedly, trying to do as asked. Red Alert suddenly thought she looked remarkably alike Fred, an unexpected thought hitting him full force, but repressing it indefinitely.

After calming down, Lori pulled a small box out of the huge sweater pocket, hugging it slightly. "What's that Lori?" Kobe asked, desperate to change the subject, and curious.

"Something an old friend of my dad's gave me this morning… She said my dad asked her and her husband to make it because he was worried that I'd do the same thing they did when they were our age; I can't understand it though… And I'm kinda afraid to find out what she meant…"

"Well, you'll never know if you don't open it." Bud pointed out.

She let out a half-hearted smile, suddenly very glad she had such close friends. "You're right Bud; well… here goes nothing."

She opened the box tenderly, careful not to damage anything. Inside was a small cube shaped metal with seemingly hundreds of buttons; almost like just a bunch of strips of metal welded together. She turned it round and round finally finding a button that actually would push in. She tenderly poked it, and all the metal fell away in a blur; replaced by a tiny robot, small enough to fit in the palm of her hand more than easily, and looked like it had tiny wings. It stood up and smiled at Lori, and in a soft, delicate, distinctly feminine voice said tenderly, yet all too perky; "Hi-hi! You must be Lori; I'm Lazerbeak programming number 001; nice to meet you!"

Well? What do ya'll think? Short I know, but… meh. Review, don't review, I don't care; I have cookies!