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That single energon cube wasn't lasting as long as Steve hoped it would. What made it worse was that he had only a vague sense of where he was supposed to be going, so he had no idea how he ought to be rationing the fuel.

Not to mention, the foliage was all green and soft and it all looked exactly the same! He couldn't keep track of where he was when there were no landmarks.

Well, at the very least, he knew the coordinates his mine was at, and he knew the coordinates of Rodrigo's mine. Logically, if he just kept going down and then left for as many kliks as the difference between those two numbers, he'd get in the general area eventually. It was only a matter of how many kliks each of these Earth coordinates happened to be, and he wasn't exactly sure how that converted. That was okay though, he would figure it out as he went. He just had to keep moving for now.

After the first few kliks, he'd decided it was too difficult to maneuver through all the plant life in his vehicle mode. Also, the shorter ones kept getting caught in his treads when he drove over them. So rather than deal with that, he had resigned himself to walking. Unfortunately, the terrain was rather steep and rocky at times as he headed down, so it was slow going.

After climbing down a particularly crumbly bit of rock, he finally noticed something different up ahead. He hurried forward and finally stopped on what appeared to be a path made out of black tar.

This must've been one of the humans' roads. There were some yellow lines marking the center of it and a metal guardrail on the opposite side. It was the only metal structure he'd seen so far, so it must've been humans.

Steve stomped his heel on the road to get a feel for it. It was definitely softer than the rocks he'd been traveling on before. Taking a moment to vent a bit, he stepped up to the side of the road with the guardrail. The ground took a sharp turn downwards from there, and it didn't look travel-friendly… So much for going straight the whole way.

Looking down at the road under his feet again, Steve vented quietly as he thought about what to do. Mostly, he wanted to take a chance and travel down this human path. It looked a lot easier, and this way he could travel in vehicle mode. However, he wouldn't know what to do if he ran into one of the humans. He knew next to nothing about them, and he didn't really want to have to worry about them. Besides that, he had no idea where this road even led to!

However, as he made one last glance over at the guardrail, a small rock came loose from the road. He watched it bounce once off the incline and then fall straight down. And it fell for a while. That made up his mind. He wasn't stupid; going down this cliff was a bad idea. He'd just have to adjust his plan a little bit... not that it was much of a plan to begin with. Transforming into vehicle mode, Steve started down the road.

He was glad he made this choice almost immediately. The road felt so much nicer on his treads than that awful Earth vegetation had. It wasn't smooth like the metal you might have found on a Cybertronian street, but maybe the humans preferred to use organic building materials, being organic themselves. He actually had no idea; they barely learned anything about the humans except to stay out of their sight. Anyway, he was just glad to be off that natural ground.

Now he just had to decide where to go from here. He could just follow the road as far as it went, but he didn't want to get too far off course. Although, it didn't seem like he had much of a choice at this point. Well he did, but he really didn't want to travel on that green stuff again.

As he continued to roll along, he started wondering more about things the humans had built. He knew they had cities, and they had interconnected network systems, so maybe if he got close enough to one he could pick up one of their wireless signals on his comm and figure out where he was. He might even be able to see how far he had to go. Oh, and directions. Directions would definitely help. He just wasn't sure how primitive their technology would be. It was a little risky to make a plan based on using it if he didn't know what it was capable of.

As he pondered about the humans and whether or not they would be of any help, he didn't notice that there was an intersection in the road up ahead. Nor did he notice the red sign with big letters declaring "STOP."

So rather than slow down, the mech went barreling through the intersection at top speed. He might not even have noticed the mistake if it weren't for the other car that was also trying to go through the intersection. The car crashed right into him and Steve was sent skidding off the road with a blue car indented into his left side!

His processor was hazy for a little bit after the initial impact, and he wasn't even sure what happened for a minute or so. Slag, did it hurt though! At last, he was jolted from his stupor at the sound of something slamming shut and a voice yelling. It took him a moment more, but once he regained his focus he realized there was a human approaching him! An actual, real, organic human! He had never seen one up close before. He had no idea what to do!

His first instinct was to remain perfectly still so as not to arouse suspicion, just like he'd been taught. It was a little late for that, unfortunately. This human already had him right in its crosshairs. Assuming it had crosshairs; Steve didn't actually know what kind of built-in weaponry they had…

It looked like he'd have to resort to the second thing they'd been taught: squish any humans who got too close.

He didn't really want to, but that was what they'd been taught, and this one was definitely too close. It was standing right next to him and rapping on his side like it was trying to get his attention. It was actually a little painful since that was the panel that had just been smashed in! If he was going to squish this thing, he'd better do it quick while it still didn't suspect anything.

He was just about to transform when he heard what the human was saying. He hadn't been paying attention before, but now he noticed that it was asking if he was alright. Actually not him, it was asking if the human it thought was inside him was alright, but all the same, at least it was concerned. It felt bad about hitting him… It was making him feel a little bad about wanting to squash the thing.

Then he thought of something else: maybe instead of killing it, he could use it! After all, the human would know where the roads on its own planet led, right? It might be able to lead him to the coordinates where Rodrigo's mine was… or at the very least give him some directions. This plan sounded a lot more pleasant than squishing the thing. Also, if it turned sour later on he could always go back to that first plan.

It was now circling around the front of the car, presumably to try his other not-smashed-in door, so Steve took the opportunity to inch forward suddenly, scaring the human and making it fall over with a surprised shout.

"Quit tappin' all over me, I'm fine!" he said.

After staring at him for more time than was really comfortable, it spoke up again. "That car… it… talks." It seemed to be talking more to itself than Steve, but he responded anyway.

"Of course I talk. I'm not just some car. I'm a Decepticon!"

"Decepti…? What?" The human stood up finally, though a bit shakily, and circled back around to its car. "I mean, you don't look like a regular car. Are you some kinda military vehicle?"

Now that was funny. If this human thought his mining alt mode looked like a soldiers' he couldn't imagine what he'd think of a real one like Frank. He kept his amusement to himself, though. The human probably wouldn't get the joke, anyway.

"I'm not military, I'm a miner. My name's Steve."

"Steve?"

"You got a problem with that?"

"No…" it glanced down at his crushed paneling again. "And… you're kinda dented up, but are you gonna be okay?"

Steve ruffled his plating a bit. It was sore, but a human car wouldn't be able to do too much damage to him, so he was sure there was no internal damage. "Yeah, I'll be okay."

"Good." The human nodded, but then its chassis puffed up a bit and suddenly it started yelling. "What the HELL is your problem, Steve?!"

Now it was Steve's turn to be startled. He hadn't expected the thing to get angry after he'd already revealed himself as a Decepticon. It looked back to the other car, pointing at the destroyed front end.

"My car's totaled! Why the hell did you go through that stop sign? I had the right of way."

"Right of-? What are you talking about?"

"You're supposed to stop at a stop sign! Who builds a talking, self-driving car that doesn't know how to follow simple traffic rules?!" The human reached into a pocket on its brown coat and pulled out a small rectangular box and pointed it where the cars met. "I don't know who you belong to, but I hope they have good insurance."

Steve slammed on the reverse and tore away from the wreckage, scraping his side paneling painfully as he did.

"HEY! Where do you think you're going?!"

"I don't belong to anybody, human!" Steve revved his engine angrily as the human ran up to him again.

"Oh yeah? Then who's gonna pay to get my car fixed? You?"

"I don't care about your car. I'm on an important mission."

"So you are military, then? Great! I'm never gonna get the government to pay for damages- those buncha crooks..."

"Look, I told you I'm not military! And I have nothing to do with your human government," Steve insisted, "and I… I need your help with my mission."

"Wait, what?" the human's demeanor changed suddenly, "Did you say you need my help?"

"I'm trying to get somewhere. I've got a set of coordinates but I don't know how to get to them. All my communications haven't been working since…" Steve paused, trying to decide just how much he should be telling his human. "Uh… well, I could use some help is all."

The human tiled his helm, looking up at Steve curiously. "What even are you?" it started running one of its servos through the long, black hair on its helm. "You talk just like a person… Is there some schmuck on a phone miles away who's controlling you just to mess with me?"

"Are you going to help me or not?"

"Not until you tell me what you actually are!"

"I already told you what I am! I'm a Decepticon."

"That word means nothing! What even is a Decepticon?"

"Well, it's… it's a…" Steve was starting to get frustrated with this human. He'd already somewhat revealed himself now, if it would make the thing help him, he might as well show it his root mode. Rolling backwards a bit so as not to catch the human up in his plates, he transformed. Once he had both pedes on the ground again, he looked down to gage the human's reaction. To say it was shocked would be an understatement.

Steve knelt down to get closer; it just felt like that was the polite thing to do now that he was so much taller. "I'm a Decepticon." Steve stated firmly, "So now that you know what I am, are you going to help me or not?"

The human just continued to stare up at him with that dumbfounded look for another minute longer. Finally, once it regained enough composure to close its mouth, it looked him over once more and gave a short nod.

"Okay. My name's Raoul… So... where is it you're going exactly?"