"This right here is the offices of our leader Optimus Prime, Intelligence Officer Prowl, Weapon's Specialist Hide and myself."
The tour was going well, Jazz had been showing Magnolia around and the place was larger than she initially thought. Lots of places to get lost if one wasn't careful. So far, they had seen the main hangar (of course), human section of the base, storage room and now were currently viewing the offices.
Magnolia had to admit that Jazz was very easy to talk to. He was kind of an open book and that was very nice. He answered all of her questions without hesitation and even made her laugh a couple times. His voice was pretty sexy too so that helped a lot. What? Robots can sound sexy, look at Cortana from Halo or Legion from Mass Effect.
"The heads work from here then."
"I guess so."
"What do you do?"
"Simply put, Second in Command."
Oh shnizzle! So, wait, she was being chaperoned by the second big dog? Holy hell.
"My guardian is Second in Command of the Autobots? You honor me."
"Nah girl, it's my honor to escort you around."
A smile was given at his reply making him swell with pride. She had a pretty smile, wonder how a grin would look.
As they walked to their next destination Magnolia began to think. Alien robots were here on Earth right? Their obvious enemies were these so called Decepticons. Why were they enemies? Was there some sort of beef? After being thrown off a skyscraper by one of them, she had a right to know.
"What's the deal between the Autobots and the Decepticons?"
"Long story. In short we are in the middle of a Civil War with them."
"Why?"
"Let's just say they had different opinions on how our Home Planet should be run. The cons believe through brutality, enslavement and ruthlessness our species will prosper. We disagree."
"Sounds like the philosophy of so many evil dictators in our history as well. I get wanting to fight back against that."
"This war…has cost us a lot."
No doubt. Wars usually do.
"Why are you all on Earth?"
"Before humans were taking their first steps, a Decepticon scientist- I use that term loosely- found an resource rich planet. Your planet. Energon is what sustains all life on Cybertron, with the war causing so much damage our planet no longer produces enough energon to keep us operating. We were forced to evacuate our people to other planets in the galaxy. We don't know where they went or if they made it to safety, but Earth was so plentiful that we couldn't allow Megatron and his fools to destroy this planet too."
The way Jazz spoke was slow, and he wavered a bit. As if he was remembering his previous struggles. The horrible things he must have seen and probably done. It was unfortunate, they were no different from humans when it came to fighting.
"I'm so sorry, truly I am. Couldn't even imagine the horrors of losing a planet."
"Thanks doll. Just hoping we can save humans from the same fate. Wherever Megatron is, trouble follows."
And here she thought Earth was some backwater planet. She was never a believer in aliens until now but even so, never would she have thought her planet would be so important. In a way it made her feel proud.
As they approached another corridor, Magnolia seemed confused by the giant steel wall blocking way. Seemed like heavy duty security with cameras on the ceiling and a panel plastered in the center. Sort of like a vault.
"Is that another storage unit?"
"Oh…nah. That's where Grimlock and his team stay."
"Why is their door so heavily guarded?"
"Eh Grim can be a lot to handle. Please don't go over there, nuthin good comes from them. They aren't a fan of humans."
"Can they even get out of there?"
"They could if they really tried but their respect for Optimus keeps them at bay."
Avoid thick steel door at all costs unless she wanted to die, noted. If the giant robots were worried about other giant robots on their team, then her initial fear of these guys was warranted.
"Let's head to the training room. Has a shooting range for humans."
A few minutes later
"The exits."
"The what?"
"The exits, where are they?"
Jazz hummed in thought as he leaned against the training room wall while Magnolia stood on the ground. The Autobot base didn't have any exits, at least not emergency ones. There was no reason to have them as the Ground Bridge was the main entrance and exit. Of course, they did have the giant rock door out front and the helicopter pad but that is mostly how Fowler chose to arrive.
Honestly, there wasn't much need for them.
"Thinkin bout it now…we don't have standard human exits."
"How did I get here?"
"Ground bridge."
"Meaning?"
"It's complicated but think of it as a way to travel anywhere at any given time on Earth."
"Wait, how is that…actually, never mind. I don't want to know."
Magnolia frowned at the fact that her potential escape would get 10 times more difficult. She needed to think.
Turning around, she stared at the shooting range in silence. There was a wide variety of firearms neatly racked and cased. Sadly, seems like they had not been used in a while. Next to the shooting range was the combat mat where gloves, practice hand to hand weaponry and other necessary combat gear was also placed on the wall. Weightlifting machinery, treadmills and other workout stations were conveniently placed in the large room. The restroom and showers were included for a quick scrub if necessary.
"Nest has it good here."
"Yeah, guess they do. Most of em are in here when they sleep over."
"Makes sense. Mind if I take a look at the shooting range?"
"No need to even ask. Mi casa es su casa."
"You speak Spanish?"
"I speak every language known to man darlin."
Magnolia scoffed as she made her way to the range. Of course, he did. Dude was a robot of massive intelligence.
Her hands grazed the rifles before moving over to the smaller handguns and shotguns. All familiar weapons to her, she has used most of these at least twice in her life.
"You know how to shoot?"
"Not as good as my stupid cousin, but I can hold my own."
Jazz laughed, "Prove it."
The time was 6:30pm when Ironhide returned from Captain Lennox's home. It was also the time where most of Team Prime returned from any missions or assignments around the globe. As he exited the ground bridge, he briefly greeted Ratchet who gruffly replied. The sounds of the others throughout the base could be heard and it made him smile.
"Ratchet, where's the human?"
"Does it look like I know? Who am I, the human police?"
"Forget I asked."
Walking away, Ironhide headed toward Will's room when he heard the medic speak once more. "When you find the female, inform her that I would like to see her in my med bay come the morning."
"Yeah."
Activating his com, Ironhide waited until the other side was answered.
:Yo Hide!:
:Jazz. You with the girl?:
:Sure am. In the training room:
Without answering back, he hung up and proceeded to his stomping grounds. Guess Jazz wanted to show off his skills.
The walk to the human's training room was merely a few steps down the hall as the human section of the base was pretty tight knit. However, as he grew closer Ironhide heard voices coming from the training room.
Peering in, the Weapon's Specialist saw heard the distinct sound of a human rifle echoing off the walls and it didn't take long to realize that a human was practicing.
But the only human currently on base was…
No way.
Finally making his way in, he turned to see Jazz grinning proudly as he clapped in delight. Primus it was her!
Feeling the presence of a stare, The SIC looked at Ironhide and eagerly waved him over.
"Hide my mech!"
"What the frag is going on?"
"Look for yourself. Turns out my charge has a mean aim."
Ironhide raised an optic ridge before looking down. To his shock, Magnolia stood at one of the stations. She was barefoot and earmuffs protecting her ears. Her shielded eyes were entirely focused on the task on shooting the dummy in the head.
Looking her over, he noted her stance was good and her grip was at an appropriate ease. The recoil didn't seem to do much damage.
He was impressed.
Prissy Princess could actually handle a weapon and make decent headshots.
With one last shot, Magnolia managed to hit her target directly in the face before putting the rifle down and taking the earmuffs off. She spun around to look at the two mechs behind her and took a bow of confidence.
"Have I proven myself Jazz?"
"I'm a fool for doubtin ya!"
Hazel eyes looked at Ironhide for a moment before she took a step back. He was one of the larger bots she's seen so far. Not as big as their leader but definitely the second largest.
"Shit."
"Oh right, Mag darlin meet my pal Ironhide. He's our weapon's specialist."
"Nice to meet you Ironhide."
The mech said nothing but nod before reaching into his chest compartment and pulling out a small box.
"From Sarah."
The food! Magnolia wiggled in delight as she reached out and grabbed the box. She couldn't believe it was still hot to the touch! This was fantastic. Sarah was the best!
"Thank you Ironhide, I'll be sure to pass on my thanks to Sarah in the morning."
Another nod and the mech turned to look at Jazz, "A word?"
Jazz's smirk fell into a straight line before looking down at his charge below. She was paying them no mind; her hands were currently stuffing her face with lasagna.
"Alright."
Walking to the other end of the room, the two stood near the entrance. "What's up?"
"Ratchet needs to see her in the morning."
"Oh, right. The exams."
"You already forgetting the main purpose of you befriending her?"
"Primus Hide, why do you make things seem so sinister? I am not befriending her to just get the Allspark info. I want to be her friend. You and Will are good pals so why can't I have one?"
"I don't find my charge physically appealing, that's the difference."
"You don't find any human attractive."
"Because they're not."
"Whatever. I'll get her to Ratchet in the morning."
Ironhide leaned to the side to see Magnolia patting her slightly bloated stomach and putting out a decent burp. While he's secretly been around Magnolia when she visited Will in the past, he'd never seen her act like that. She always appeared well put together.
Like Sarah.
Sarah was always classy, that woman couldn't be a slob even if she tried.
Come to think of it, has Sarah ever burped? Or passed gas? Made a mess? Geez Lex was luckier than he thought.
"She's strange."
Jazz quickly turned around just as Magnolia plopped in a chair, sprawled out like a blanket. He couldn't help but lightly chuckle at the scene. This chick has personality.
"I heard humans need a moment when they're hungry."
"You watch too much TV Jazz."
"I know."
Ever watch those Twix commercials? "Need a moment?" Yep. That's what Ironhide was referring to.