Sparks

Official Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers, they belong to somebody else who isn't me. Obviously. Since I just said I didn't own them.

Author's Note: Thank you all for your reviews. Sorry the last chapter was so short...this one's a little longer, and more interesting. A note about the characters used, though - I've heard something about Barricade dying in the movie novelization, but since I haven't gotten around to reading that, and I actually like the guy a bit (Blame Landray Depth Charge's fanfic 'Collision' for that) I'm ignoring those rumours. Also, I apologize now for any mistakes in this chapter or future chapters regarding various Autobot/Decepticon personalities or abilities...I'm literally going off Wikipedia and a few episodes of the G1 animated series for them.

- Chapter Three: Yellow Camaros and Robot Genders -

Alex cursed as the same police car from two blocks ago cut her off again. Didn't the damn officer know how dangerous it was to cut off a truck? And he kept slipping in and out of her blind spots! As if to echo Alex's frustration, the horn on her truck mysteriously sounded itself, and Alex groaned, waiting for the car to signal her to pull over. But to her surprise, the police car sped off without so much as a flashing light. Alex sighed in relief, then smacked the dashboard of the truck and scowled.

The truck had been good at first, but the month that she'd had it had proven that the problem with the CB on her first trip turned out not to be an isolated incident - random things in the truck would turn on or off without any warning, and no matter how many mechanics she took it to, they couldn't find anything wrong with it. The only reason she hadn't decided to sell the truck was that none of the malfunctions were actually really problematic - they were all minor things, like the stereo failing as she entered city limits, or the windows rolling up after she'd turned on the air conditioning. The malfunctions were mostly just disconcerting, but there was one very irritating side affect to them - every painter she'd taken the truck to had gotten spooked by the malfunctions and refused to touch it. Alex didn't know if it was that people who chose to go into a career involving painting vehicles were more easily spooked, or if mechanics were just immune to the strange quirks of vehicles - what she did know was that she still had the tacky flame design.

Which, though she wouldn't admit it to anyone, was actually kind of growing on her.

Alex made a gleeful noise as she spotted the turn-off to the highway she wanted - she hadn't seen the police car since the truck's horn had blared on its own, but she wouldn't let herself relax until she was finally out of the bugger's jurisdiction. Not that being out of the city would stop the cop if he had a problem with her, but at least then she'd know he did and be able to call him on it. Fortunately, however, the cop was nowhere to be seen as she drove down the highway, heading east. Alex couldn't be more grateful, as she was supposed to be in Tranquility this evening for supper courtesy of Josh.

Reaching over, she flicked on the stereo again - which had mysteriously shut itself off when she'd entered the city limits again - and smiled as her current favourite CD began playing once more, then cranked up the bass. She'd discovered awhile ago that the truck had an excellent bass speaker somewhere - she had yet to discover where - and so for a change, she could be one of those annoying drivers who you could feel their stereo before you could see them. It was somehow more intimidating in a truck, too. She swore she'd scared the piss out of some poor sports car driver when he'd finally realized who he'd been having a bass-war with at an intersection during one of those rare times the stereo hadn't gone on the fritz inside a city.

She stopped for lunch at a truck stop with a restaurant six hours out of Tranquility, and as she was eating, she watched with amusement as a yellow Camaro with black racing stripes pulled into the lot and parked beside the trucks, its driver obviously not realizing that cars were supposed to park elsewhere to avoid any unpleasant accidents. Of course, when the driver stepped out, Alex understood - he couldn't be more than 18, probably thought he owned the parking lot. Well, maybe not - he didn't swagger as Alex would have expected him to on his way over to the restaurant, and actually waited to be seated as the sign asked. The hostess seated him at the table next to Alex, and when she heard that he was actually polite, she reconsidered her opinion of him - he was probably just ignorant of the parking rules of truck stops. So Alex decided to do him a favour and let him know.

"Cars usually don't park with the trucks, y'know. 'Specially not ones that small. They might get scratched...or worse." Alex said conversationally to the back of the boys head. He turned around and arched an eyebrow.

"I always thought that truck drivers had to be exceptionally good in order to handle such clunky vehicles. Or was that a threat for parking too near your truck?" he asked, and Alex arched an eyebrow in return. The boy had balls.

"No, just thought I'd let you know. Personally, I'd be extra careful just because I don't want my paint scratched. Damn painters keep refusing to paint over the tacky flame decal, so I don't think they'd be willing to fix any chips, either." Alex said.

"Flame...?" the boy seemed to choke for a moment, his eyes flicking out the window to her truck. "So that's...your truck that I...parked beside?" he asked in a strange tone, sounding almost as if he was trying desperately to avoid laughing, and Alex gave him a strange look.

"You see any other truck in the lot with that god-awful decal?" she asked.

"Uh - no, of course not." the boy replied hastily, and then was rescued from further questioning by the waitress coming to take his order. Once she was gone, though, he twisted around again. "So how long have you had that truck?" Alex eyed him suspiciously - why the hell did he want to know that? Alex shook her head - the boy had already proved himself to be polite, maybe he thought he needed to make polite conversation with her now.

"About a month." she replied.

"How's it running for you?" the boy asked, and Alex frowned slightly.

"Good. Got some weird glitches, but doesn't every vehicle?" she said, and then decided to turn the tables on him. "What about your car? Looks a little fancy for someone your age."

"Yeah, my parents would agree with you there. My mom thinks I'm gonna crash it, and my dad thinks I don't know how to take care of it." the boy said with a chuckle.

"And?" Alex asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Haven't yet and I've learned fast." the boy answered. "I've had it for about six months now, too - ever since some army ranger commandeered and crashed my first piece of crap Camaro in that whole...thing in Mission City, and then got the government to replace it with this one."

"You were in Mission City during that big disaster?" Alex asked, suddenly interested.

"Yeah, went up there to visit a few friends...then, next thing I know, there's an army ranger pulling me out of my car and telling me it's just been commandeered." the boy said with a shrug. "Next time I see it, it's pretty much got its back half blown off. Had a hell of a time getting home."

"I imagine. So was it really some sort of advanced technology that caused all that damage?" Alex asked intently.

"That's what the government says. I didn't really get a good look at anything - I just followed the crowds once my car had been commandeered. Figured I didn't want to be that idiot in the movies that always gets killed just because he didn't think there was any danger." the boy replied with a wry grin.

"Huh." Alex replied with a frown, and then resumed eating as the waitress brought the boys' food out. Except for exchanging goodbyes when Alex left, she and the boy said no more to each other, not even getting each other's names. Alex doubted she'd see him again, anyways.

Climbing into her truck, she found the radio playing softly, and she rolled her eyes before hauling a foot up to kick it. It flipped back to her CD and usual volume, and Alex nodded in satisfaction before starting the engine and pulling out, being careful not to nick the boy's Camaro. Out on the highway, Alex elected to turn off the air conditioning and open the window, turning the music to a volume just loud enough to be heard over the rushing of air. She could only hear a vague murmur from the CB that way, but it was enough that she could just listen for it and turn the music down when needed.

Cruising down the highway, happy to be heading home, with music playing and wind rushing in her ears, it was no wonder Alex didn't hear the jet engines until their owner decided to buzz her, and then the stereo once again mysteriously shut itself off just in time for her to start swearing as she braked. She reached for the CB, planning to turn it to a military frequency and give the F-22 pilot a piece of her mind, but she noticed to her consternation that the radio was off again, and when she tried to flip it back on, the switch was stuck. Alex frowned, and then froze as she felt the truck shift down and the wheel turning in her hand as if it had a will of its own. The truck swerved to the left, braking as it went, until it came to a complete stop, facing the opposite direction as it had previously been going. Amazingly, neither truck nor trailer had tipped over.

"What the...?" Alex started, and then yelped as the truck suddenly roared to life again and took off back the way it had come. She gave in and screamed as the jet buzzed the truck again, this time flying close enough for Alex to pick out the hatches on the bottom of it where the landing gear came out. Wildly, Alex thought that the pilot must have been freaking crazy to fly that close to the ground, let alone around a truck going at - Alex glanced down at the speedometer and her eyes widened - the needle was pressing against the right side of the dial, obviously beyond the maximum speed listed.

"Ooooh god," Alex moaned. "The painters were right, this truck IS possessed!" As if her words were a signal, the truck slammed on the brakes, and Alex jerked forward, only barely avoiding cracking her head on the steering wheel. Hearing the squeal of tires, she pulled her head up to look in the rear-view mirror, and saw the trailer and truck both sliding on the highway, the brakes locked up. Then she looked out the windshield, and that was when she knew something very, very strange was going on, because the police car from the city was heading straight for her, followed by...the yellow Camaro?

Alex blinked in surprise for a moment, before shaking herself and taking stock of the situation. It didn't take much to figure out that at the speed both her truck and the two oncoming cars were going, neither would be able to stop before crashing, especially with the truck's brakes locked up. So, trying not to think about just how much it was going to hurt, Alex popped her seatbelt, opened the truck door, and threw herself out.

She hit the side of the road and let out a roar of pain as she felt her shoulder dislocate as she slid along the ground. When she stopped, she tensed, waiting for the burning sensation bound to come from the scrapes her entire left side had just endured, and wasn't disappointed, gritting her teeth against another roar of pain. When it subsided to a mere throb, she levered herself up on her elbows to see just how much of a mess her truck was. What she saw make her blink - twice - before rubbing her eyes to be sure she wasn't seeing things.

Her truck was gone, the trailer propped up on the side of the road, and the police car and Camaro were nowhere to be seen. In their place, three giant freaking robots were having an all-out brawl, which, even as Alex watched, was joined by the F-22 that had buzzed her. What was even more disturbing was that the F-22 didn't just buzz the robots and shoot - no, it landed a short ways off from the brawling robots, then began changing, it's parts rearranging themselves until it looked somewhat like the other robots before it started hauling off on the biggest of the other robots.

With a sinking feeling after seeing what the F-22 had just done, Alex took a closer look at the other three robots. She tried to deny her suspicions when she saw the yellow and black color of the first robot, stubbornly insisted that it wasn't possible when she saw 'POLICE' written in bold letters on the arm of the second robot - and gave in and admitted defeat when she saw the flame decal on the third robot that the former F-22 was fighting.

Her truck had turned into a giant robot.

---

Optimus was more than a little surprised when Alexandra launched herself out of his driver's side door - he'd thought humans were a little too fragile for that - but was glad that she'd done it, as it allowed him to transform in time to take on Barricade. Behind the Decepticon, Bumblebee screeched to a halt and ejected Sam before transforming as well. He could hear Bumblebee instruct the boy to go check on Alexandra, and thus pushed her out of his mind for the duration of the fight, knowing Sam would explain things to her.

"There's a jet as well!" Optimus informed the smaller Autobot as he took a swing at Barricade, which the Decepticon barely dodged.

"Starscream left?" Bumblebee said questioningly as he came at Barricade from behind.

"It's not him!" Optimus replied as he knocked Barricade off balance with a punch. The Decepticon grabbed Bumblebee to keep himself upright, and then tried to swing the smaller Autobot around to use as a shield against Optimus. He got a point-blank shot from Bumblebee's cannon in his foot for the attempt. Optimus used Barricade's subsequent distraction scrapping with Bumblebee to get in a few shots at the jet, now coming around for another pass. It roared a few very impolite things at him in Cybertronian before landing and transforming, continuing its name-calling in English, with an oddly pronounced accent that the humans referred to as a southern drawl.

"Ah, hello Thundercracker." Optimus said, finally recognizing the voice despite the accent, and in response, the Decepticon smashed his fist into Optimus' chest, sending him staggering back a few dozen feet. The fight began in earnest after that - Barricade and Thundercracker weren't overly tough, but with Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Ratchet over an hour away at top speed, Optimus and Bumblebee were fighting without any hope for quick backup, and no reprieve - which meant they needed to finish this quickly, before one of the Decepticons got in a lucky punch or cannon shot.

It wasn't long before Thundercracker seemed to realize he was no match for Optimus on the ground, and began using his powers of flight to his advantage. He'd dive-bomb Optimus then fly out of reach, being just enough of a nuisance that Optimus couldn't help Bumblebee dispose of Barricade. Not that Bumblebee needed help - the smaller Autobot had let the Decepticon go once, but he seemed set to finish the job now.

Eventually, Optimus decided he'd had enough of Thundercracker dive-bombing him, and did the same with him as he'd done with Megatron in Mission City - as the jet Decepticon approached, Optimus leaped into the air and grabbed on. Thundercracker was not as large as Megatron, of course, and faltered under having Optimus' weight clinging to him. He tried to shake Optimus off, scrape him off on the ground, and finally went to the high reaches of the atmosphere at his top speed, his engines quite obviously straining, but apparently hoping the 'G-forces', as humans called them, would pulled Optimus off. The leader of the Autobots was not so easily shaken, however - Thundercracker must have realized it when Optimus gave him a solid punch in the face even with massive G-forces pulling him back down to earth.

"Friggin' hell!" the Decepticon growled, turning himself back towards the ground, then reformed himself mostly into robot mode and engaged Optimus in an aerial martial battle. He seemed a little more pissed off this time, and Optimus had to put all his effort into fighting him off and fighting back - while still holding on, since hitting the ground at this speed would HURT (and it would mean he'd have to listen to Ratchet swearing at him for doing 'stupid aerial stunts' for several weeks as he was fixed up).

Optimus didn't even pay attention to how close the ground was getting, so long as he was holding on to Thundercracker, and so it was somewhat of a surprise when he realized he could hear a human yelling something just before Thundercracker returned to his jet mode and pulled himself - and Optimus - out of the dive. Optimus glanced down and saw Alexandra and Sam standing no more than 20 feet away from where Bumblebee was severely beating Barricade, who...was standing on Alexandra's trailer. Optimus grimaced slightly before turning his attention back to Thundercracker - Lennox was going to love explaining to the government why they needed to pay for that.

Getting in a few more punches at the Decepticon, Optimus felt his back scrape the ground, and decided it was time to let go. He didn't really want to go on that ride into the atmosphere again - it had been tricky to hold on the first, and he didn't know if he could do it again. Fortunately, Thundercracker didn't seem to want to try, either, and as soon as Optimus let go, the Decepticon swerved away, then shot past the badly beaten Barricade and grabbing him, flying him away. Bumblebee screamed several rather violent threats to Barricade's Spark in Cybertronian after the retreating Decepticons, having almost finished off Barricade finally. Optimus put a hand on the smaller Autobot's shoulder, and he quieted, though his was clearly unhappy about Barricade getting away again.

With the battle over, Optimus turned his attention to Alexandra - who, as soon as he laid eyes on her, showed him her middle finger (a gesture he'd learned to interpret very quickly after his arrival on Earth) and started walking down the highway towards Tranquility. Optimus sighed - he'd known she'd probably be rather irritated when she found out, but he'd hoped it wouldn't be this bad. The destruction of her trailer probably hadn't helped.

"Sam?" he asked quietly, but the human boy shook his head and shrugged.

"She wouldn't listen to me." he said, and Optimus sighed again. Yes, the destruction of her trailer definitely hadn't helped.

---

After her realization that her truck was a giant robot, Alex wasn't even surprised when the boy from the truck stop approached her and offered a hand up.

"They're called Autobots, at least yours and mine -" he started, but Alex held up a hand as she watched the four giant robots fight, her trailer sitting precariously in the middle of them as they tore up the asphalt of the highway.

"I don't want to know." she said tiredly. "Not now. All I'm concerned about right now is how in hell I'm going to get that trailer to Tranquility by tonight with no truck and the highway torn up on either side of it."

"I'm sure Lennox can send some choppers to get it moved past the broken asphalt, and then you can just drive it into Tranquility." the boy said assuredly.

"With what?" Alex demanded. "My truck is a GIANT ROBOT."

"And he can change back into a truck once the fight is finished." was the patient reply. "If you'd let me explain -"

"Oh hell no!" Alex stated. "I'm not driving a truck that's really a giant robot."

"Why not?" the boy asked, arching an eyebrow.

"How do I know it's -"

"He." the boy corrected her, and Alex stared at him before throwing her hands up in the air and growling.

"Great, now it's got a gender." she said, then frowned as she saw the F-22 reform and start dive-bombing the robot that had once been her truck. Fortunately 'her' truck seemed to know how to deal with this, as after awhile it - he, she corrected with mental sarcasm - jumped up just as the jet was approaching and grabbed on, going along for the ride while continuing to beat on the jet.

"At least there's no building for him to be dragged through this time." the boy observed as he saw that happen.

"This time?" Alex couldn't help but ask curiously.

"Mission City." the boy replied succinctly, and Alex blinked. "They are advanced technology, and one of them did get away from the government." he added with amusement, and Alex glared at him, silently telling him to shut up, because she still didn't want to hear. There was a moment of silence, save for the sound of metal hitting metal as the robots battled, then the boy introduced himself. "I'm Sam Witwicky, by the way." he said, holding out a hand.

"Alex Morgan." Alex grudgingly replied, giving his hand a brief shake as she watched the jet, the once-her-truck robot still holding on, take off upwards into the atmosphere. When they were too small for her to discern any details, she looked back to the other two robots, and noticed nervously that the one that had been a police car was getting beaten back towards her trailer. She decided to go warn the robots off damaging the trailer, and started running towards them. Sam followed behind her, yelling at her to stop, but she didn't listen, picking up a rock as she scrambled onto the side of the highway. Pulling her arm back, she chucked the rock with all her strength at the police-car robot, and to her surprise, it looked down at her with irritation.

"Hey, stay away from my trailer, y'here me?" she yelled, but the robot didn't seem to care, returning to his fight with the robot that had once been Sam's Camaro. Growling in irritation, Alex picked up a chunk of asphalt and tried again, this time with the once-Camaro. She was again ignored. More irritated than ever as the robots moved even closer to her trailer, Alex picked up an even larger piece of asphalt and tried once more - but unfortunately, just as she went to throw the piece of highway at the robots, the once-Camaro delivered a blow to the once-Police-car that sent it tumbling to the ground - right on top of Alex.

She screamed as it came crashing down on top of her, and kept screaming even once she realized that by some miracle a part of the robot that had enough room for a human to stand in had landed on top of her, not only from fear, but because she felt like she was being electrocuted as blue energy crackled around and through her. The panicked thought that she was so going to beat the crap out of Sam's Camaro if she ended up losing her hair from this crossed her mind, but was quickly gone as the robot was pulled off her after only a few seconds. Her scream abruptly ended, and she sat down on the asphalt with a thump, eyes wide.

"Hey, you OK?" Sam asked with concern, scrambling over to where she was, and Alex nodded dumbly. Slowly, she turned her gaze up to the two robots, which were fighting again, and her eyes widened even further as she saw that they were now almost stepping on her trailer. She scrambled to her feet, but was too late, seeming to watch in slow motion as the police car robot's foot came crashing down on the top of her trailer. She was vaguely aware of yelling something as it happened, then just stared in stunned disbelief as the two robots continued to battle, standing on top of her trailer. Well, it was really more of the Camaro robot beating the shit out of the police car robot on top of her trailer, right up until the jet flew by and took the police car robot with it, flying off to the north at top speed.

In the silence, Alex looked from her trailer up to the robot that had once been her truck. After a moment, it looked back down at her, and without knowing or caring if it would understand the gesture, she flipped it the bird before starting the walk to Tranquility. No way in hell was she getting in either her truck or the yellow Camaro after what she'd just seen. She couldn't call for a ride, either, since her cell phone had been in the truck, and was probably only mashed circuitry by now.

It wasn't long, of course, before she heard the rumble of an engine, and 'her' truck rolled up beside her, matching her pace. She ignored it. And she ignored Sam as he and his Camaro replaced the truck after a little while and he tried to talk to her. She ignored them all the way back to Tranquility, where she found the nearest payphone and, glad that she'd adopted the habit of keeping spare change in her pocket, phoned her sister for a pick-up. Fortunately, the Camaro and truck were both gone when Beth got there.

"What happened, Alex? You look horrible." Beth said with concern as she drove.

"Bit of an accident on the road. Truck's totaled." Alex said flatly.

"Oh no, are you alright? Do you need me to take you to the hospital?" Beth immediately worried, and as if her words had triggered it, Alex's side began burning again from where she'd scraped it, and her shoulder let her know with a wave of white-hot pain that it was still dislocated.

"Uh, that might be best, actually." she said with a grimace. "I jumped out before the actual crash itself, but sliding along the ground kind of hurt." Beth pulled the car over and flicked on the car light, obviously deciding she needed to do a closer inspection of her sister.

"Look at me." she ordered, and Alex complied. Beth moved her finger around in front of Alex's eyes, and then leaned in to take a close look at them. "Well, you don't seem to be in shock, fortunately."

"I get too mad to go into shock. My trailer was smashed to hell. The truck ended up being fine, but those random glitches I told you about from before are out of hand now." Alex replied calmly, and Beth nodded, pulling back onto the road and heading for the hospital. The rest of the trip was silent as Alex sat back and brooded about what to do now - she needed to buy a new truck now, and someone was going to have to pay for that trailer, since she doubted the company she'd been hauling it for had giant robot insurance. At least Alex still had the money she'd been saving to buy a new truck - but there were still no dealerships in Tranquility, which meant she was going to have to fly out to another city and buy one there. Well, she knew a few good ones where the salesmen wouldn't give her a hard time, it shouldn't be too hard. Just as long as that damn truck and the kid and his Camaro stayed away from her.