Disclaimer: 'Transformers' belongs to Hasbro, Paramount and various other companies – characters from the film or any related merchandise do not belong to me and I am making no money out of this fiction from the characters or plot. Any original characters and ideas do belong to me and require permission to use elsewhere.
Rated T
Author's Note: Ok, finally Chapter 2. It's hard writing two stories that are taking place at the same time. Hopefully I was able to get everything straight. If you notice anything out of place let me know. I've proofed this story till my eyes were crossed so I'm sure I missed a few grammatical errors. Please read and review.
"Searching for answers"
It was late, very late and Maggie sat at her computer, exhausted yet focused in on deciphering the most recent codes sent from the recent alien arrivals. Maggie and her team had been able to determine that they were indeed Decepticons. Not only had new Decepticons arrived but they were communicating with Starscream. Sector 7 feared the worst and worked feverishly to contact the Autobots.
Maggie reached over for her coffee, she seemed to be drinking a lot of lately, and took a small sip. She had been so focused on her work that when her phone rang she nearly jumped out of her seat. She balanced the coffee cup quickly to prevent any drops of the staining liquid to reach her white skirt before setting it down and picking up the receiver.
"Maggie here," she said, wondering if there had been recent news on the Autobots.
"Agent Simmons here, some medical workers picked up three mine works near Durango, Colorado. From what I hear they were in bad shape and where claiming to have been abducted by their work equipment," Simmons said, accentuating the last part.
"What are you saying?" she asked.
"It seems we've found our five new Decepticons. The mine workers also said they were taken to the alien's space ship where they encountered giant robots. It seems, Ms. Maggie, that we've found our Decepticon base," he said, victoriously. "I have some more codes sent from that base. We believe they are up to something and we need to find out what it is they are planning."
Maggie's heart jumped. "Mikalea is out there!" she said, the worry evident in her voice.
"She is but we have her location and are currently monitoring her status. We've just sent out an agent to check on her," Simmons responded assuredly. "We also received a transmission a few minutes ago that we believe to be from the Autobots. We believe that the other lone alien arrival is an Autobot and this message was intended for it. We would like to know what the message said. I'm sending a runner down with it now. Let me know as soon as you crack it," he said.
"Fine, but once I've cracked it I want to get out there," she said quickly.
"We'll see," he said hanging up before Maggie could say anything else. He knew Maggie would argue with him if he stayed on the line to long.
Maggie sat back in her chair and sighed. A knock came at her door a few seconds later. An agent entered carrying a small device which he handed to Maggie. She carefully inserted into the machine next to her computer. Pulling her chair up to the monitor and running her fingers through her long blond hair, she prepared her self for the long night ahead.
The road wound through the rolling hills while parched desert surrounded them on both sides. Michelle sat in the passenger seat looking out the window listening to the hum of Hot Rod's finely tuned engine. They both had grown silent after their initial introduction.
Hot Rod would occasionally scan the area around him as he traveled. Prime had mentioned that they had encountered Decepticons and had warned him to be cautious. He feared that the Decepticons may have seen his entrance into earth's atmosphere and this concerned him. Getting Michelle to her desired location quickly and safely before he ran into trouble was his main objective. Only then could he proceed with his original plan of meeting up with his fellow Autobots.
While they had been driving Hot Rod had been researching the human female and their behavior. He discovered that they were not only caring and more passionate than most of their male counterparts but far more receptive and accepting of new experiences. They lived by a wait and see attitude verses the males, who usually shot first and asked questions later. He silently worked on researching the type of male that would be most pleasing to the female species. Scanning the internet he found several suitable images and pieced together a form that would be unique to him but extremely desirable to the human female.
"Hot Rod, why are you here again?" Michelle finally asked breaking the long silence.
"I'm here to locate my fellow Autobots," he said, 'had she forgotten their earlier conversation?'
"Oh Sorry, I remember you saying that. Well, how many are there of you here? And are there any of those Decept…whatever you said earlier….here on earth?" She asked.
"Well, there's only one of me but I believe four of my fellow Autobots, including my commander, here on earth," he said. He ran a quick reading on her vitals and everything seemed at their normal levels. He wondered if maybe her lapse in memory was due to the adrenaline rush of the earlier events.
"Are you feeling ok?" he asked concerned.
"I'm fine. I was just going over all that you had said earlier and it was just so much information. It's hard to remember it all… you know?" she said as she gazed out the window again. "Did they say where they were on earth?"
"Yes," he said, stopping short of giving the actual location.
Michelle didn't like the simple answer. "When was the last time you had heard from them?" She asked, feeling braver now that she knew he wasn't going to hurt her.
"Well it was quite a while ago. I believe it was several months ago in earth time," he said, finding it strange that she cared.
"Mmm, that was quite some time ago. Don't you think a lot could have happened since then?" she asked.
Hot Rod noticed a small spike in her vitals as she asked the last series of questions. "I'm not sure but I will find out soon," he answered, hiding the suspicion in his voice. She was a curious young woman he thought to himself.
Suddenly a flash in the side mirror caught her attention. "Uh Hot Rod, Are you going the speed limit?" she asked curiously.
"Yeh, I am. I see him. That's one of your security officers who monitor drivers on these highways," he responded as he began to slow and pull off to the side of the road.
Michelle squinted, staring intently through the mirror at the cop car that had pulled up behind them. The thought that she should move into the driver seat entered her mind. She carefully began to ease herself over the center gear shift but was stopped short by the light pressure of a warm hand as it rested dangerously high on her bare thigh. Inhaling quickly and letting out a yelp she turned to see whose hand it belong too. She sat paralyzed as her eyes met those of a twenty something young man sitting in the passenger seat. Her chest rose and fell rapidly as her eyes traveling slowly down to his soft chiseled lips, then up to his tousled light brown hair and then finally back to the strangers inviting blue eyes. A slight smile rose from the corner of his mouth as her eyes grew wide with surprise and fear.
"Michelle?" Hot Rod asked calmly.
He knew instantly that his research had paid off. Her reaction proved that he had chosen right for his hologram, an upgrade given to him before he left Cybertron. Her vitals had risen considerably, indicating her instant attraction to him. He knew now that he would be able to call upon any female when needed in order to get him to his destination. He would, of course, not abuse this power and only use it when it was safe to do so without harming any humans.
"Who…are…you?" She asked breathlessly.
"It's me, Hot Rod, you can relax now Michelle," he said, giving her thigh a gently shake.
Michelle inhaled deeply before reaching down and clapping her hand over his. "Stop that…," she said in a whisper. She struggled to speak as his touch sent unexpected sensations up and down her body – sensations she thought she'd never feel again.
"Hot Rod, you can't do that. You can't touch me there and… not like that," she said, lifting his hand from her thigh.
"Right, of course," he said, allowing her to remove his hand from her leg.
He had forgotten how highly sensitive humans were, especially females. He gazed at her with concern and found it hard to look away. He had clearly aroused her when he hadn't meant too and her reaction was captivating. He watched as her cheeks turned a soft red before she turned away to hide her reaction. Occasionally she shot him a sideways glance to see if he was still looking at her. He was.
"Hot Rod, you are making me nervous, could you stop that," she asked while looking out the passenger side window.
"I'm not scaring you, am I?" he asked. He didn't want her to be fearful of him. Part of him knew she was aroused but then part of him wondered if he may have frightened her a little too much.
"No, you're not scaring me. You just caught me a little off guard. What is going on here?" she asked finally turning slightly to face him and waving her arm towards him, indicating that she was referring to the image she was now seeing.
"This is my hologram. It allows me to take shape of the planets species to blend it better. I figured that this would be an appropriate time to use it," he said softly.
"Why do you feel so…real?" she asked curiously.
"It's a special upgraded hologram. We use to have just have hologram images that were only light particles but this form is more solid with other matters that allow us to appear more real.
"Lucky for me," she said sarcastically.
Hot Rod had almost forgotten about the police officer and turned just in time to see him approaching his driver side door. The tall officer bent down to get a better view the vehicles two occupant. Hot Rod shot him a smile.
"Hi there sir," he said cheerfully.
Michelle sighed, shaking her head at Hot Rod's happy little greeting. She snuck a quick glance at the officer trying to gage his current mood and probable response to his 'way to happy' offender.
She gave him a wave. "Hi there officer," she said nervously.
The officer was confused by the responses and worried that something else might be going on. "Is everything ok here?" he asked Michelle directly.
"Yes, everything is just fine, thank you," she responded.
"Officer, is there a problem?" Hot Rod asked curiously.
"Not really, I was just curious about your car. I've never seen a car like this before. Is this what they call a concept car?" the officer asked as his eyes darted around the interior.
Michelle watched him intently. She glanced at Hot Rod who seemed unsure of what a concept car was. She decided to help him out.
"Yes it is. We are just doing a quick test drive. You know how it in New Mexico. It's a great testing ground for cars like this," she said quickly.
"Well, why isn't covered then? Don't you worry that your competitors might have spies out here?" he asked.
"It is disguised. We decided to try a sort of reverse tactic by making it stand out so much that they'd assume it's a diversion instead of an actual test car," she said. She smiled, proud that she was able to come up with something so clever. No way was the cop going to question that.
"Ok. Well guess you have to do what you have to do," he said. "By the way what is your name?" he asked glancing at Hot Rod.
"Hot Rod," he said with a smile. Michelle quickly stifled a laugh as Hot Rod turned to towards her. "Are you ok?" he asked her.
"I'm fine," she said avoiding Hot Rod's confused gaze. "I'm Michelle," she added, offering her name up to the officer before he could question Hot Rod any further.
The officer paused for a moment meeting Michelle's glare and subtle shake her head. "Hot…Rod?" he said slowly, "that's an interesting name. Well then, Hot…Rod and Michelle, I'll let you two continue on your way. Please drive safely." The officer turned and walked quickly back to his car.
The subtle exchange did not go un-noticed by Hot Rod and his interest was peaked. Was she hiding something? He slowly pulled back out onto the highway.
"Wow that was close," Michelle said with a sigh as she sat back in her seat. "I was a little worried when he pulled us over."
"Why would you be worried?" Hot Rod asked curiously, "And why did you laugh?"
"You just never know out in these parts when you'll come across a crooked cop or maybe someone impersonating a cop. As for laughing I didn't mean too. But when you introduced yourself as Hot Rod I couldn't help myself. I don't know of a single human named Hot Rod and I can only imagine what was going through his mind. I'm surprised he handled it so calmly," she said chuckling to herself.
"Hot Rod isn't a normal name? But you call cars Hot Rods, why wouldn't it then be considered a common name?" he asked.
Michelle wasn't quite sure how to explain it to him without having to explain other things first. "Well he may have thought you to be an arrogant male since most males don't usually ad the word 'hot' before their name. Hot can mean many different things to us such as, hot can mean hot to the touch, like it can cause pain. Or it could be something very attractive. It which case people would say 'wow that's a hot car' or something along those lines," she said, trying her best to make it as clear and simple as possible for him to understand.
"I see. Well I'll have to leave out the hot next time and just say Rod," he said. He understood what she was saying. "I should have been able to catch that slight oversight. I really needed to be more careful next time," he said with disappointment.
"You'll get the hang of it," she said, patting his dash board gently.
Michelle sat back and reached into her purse. She pulled out a small bottle of water before taking a sip. She had to admit, Hot Rod was growing on her.
Hot Rod felt her little pat as she relaxed into the seat. As much as he tried to relax he couldn't. Warnings were going off in his processors as he thought back to the exchange between Micelle and the officer. Once again he sifted through the vast information of the internet and discovered that females where also very good actresses and had the ability to get what they wanted by using their looks. Maybe she was just trying to help him out by getting the officer to leave them alone. He relaxed a little at his discovery but he had to know for sure she could be trusted. He thought of Jazz, the master saboteur. He was very skilled at getting into anyone's CPU or head in this case. Hot Rod had under gone some training with him. He decided to put it to use. He had done enough research on females to know that his looks with a little seduction could get him any information he needed. He brought up his hologram and glanced over at Michelle. She jumped slightly.
"I thought you were done with that," she sighed.
"I thought maybe I'd practice using it for a bit," he said, quickly coming up with an explanation that she might not question.
She nodded and smiled back innocently, oblivious to what he had just planned.
The desert sky grew dark as night descended upon them. A light wind began to pick up and created small tornados of dust that would occasional dance across their path. Hot Rod blasted past them as he sped down the road, heading in a northwesterly direction.
"I believe we just past the Arizona border but it is still some distant to Flagstaff. Why don't you rest a bit," he offered. He reached out and gently placed his hand on her leg, pretending to do so out of habit. He felt her tense up.
"Hot Rod…," she started to say but stopped short and paused, her lips parted slightly as she gazed up at him, "I don't think I can rest. I don't mean to be rude but the seat doesn't recline and I'm starting to feel a bit stiff from sitting so long." She took a deep breath as she looked away from him out the window.
"Maybe there's a motel we can stop at up the road," he paused seeing the confusion in Michelle's face. "Is everything alright?" he asked, the guilty creeping up on him.
"Yes. It's just…," she felt embarrassed at the inability to control or even hide her emotions. "…it's nothing. I'm fine."
Hot Rod looked away for a moment before turning back to her again and in doing so his movement accidentally forced his hand to slide up further on her leg, pushing the hem of her skirt along with it. Michelle quickly reached down and grasped his hand, lifting it away from her body as she turned to face him with a mixture of emotions, so many that he wasn't able to immediately label them.
Michelle felt his finger tips brush up against her body. Startled she grabbed his hand. Her heart raced as guilt and desire wrapped their fingers around her. There was silence between them as she held his hand suspended out from her. She hadn't been prepared for this.
"Hot Rod, what did I say about touching me like that," she said, breathing heavily. She had trouble focusing on anything and her eyes darted around the interior as she tried to figure out what to do.
"Michelle, you seemed confused?" he asked. He could see her resolve weakening. Now was the time to question her further. "Who are you really?" he asked as he held tightly on to her hand. The more he thought about it, the more he realized she really hadn't provided much information about herself.
Michelle stiffened with fear and tried to pull her hand away but he refused to let go. "I already told you my name," she said nervously.
"Yes, you told me your name but I know nothing about you. We were you going again and why?" he asked more firmly.
She sighed, averting her gaze down towards her legs. "I'm going to Flagstaff to visit a friend who I haven't seen in years. That's all," she responded as she looked back up at him. She squinted slightly as he stared at her with a gently and inviting gaze. He wasn't smiling but it wasn't anger either.
"Where are you from? Do you have a home?" he asked, leaning in closer to her. He noticed that she squinted when she was being evasive in her responses. Deep in his inner core he made a mental note on the profile he was collecting in regards to her behavior pattern.
He reached over with his free hand and carefully rested it on her knee while pulling her closer with his other hand. He felt her warm quick breaths against his face as the sensors of his hologram registered each little molecule of carbon dioxide while his touch gathered her pulse rate and temperature.
She sat frozen in the seat. Guilt racked her body as every nerve screamed to be touched. "I….," but she couldn't finish. Through a plan to distract and desire she could no longer control, she leaned in and kissed his soft lips. Pressing firmly as she opened her mouth against his. It was the only thing she could think of doing to avoid further questioning. She told her self it was all part of the job, a job that she now seemed to be enjoying a little too much. The moment seemed to last forever before reality came rushing back into her psyche. She quickly pulled away.
"I can't do this," she said, rubbing her wrist across her furrowed brow as she breathed heavily. She glanced up briefly, as if praying to God for help, before turning back to face Hot Rod. "I have a boyfriend. I'm just taking a break from him. I needed to get away to think about our relationship. It's all stuff you wouldn't understand," she spouted out without so much as a breath and waving her hand at him before turning to stare out the window. "There are you happy now," she snapped. She took several deep breaths while she reached up to move a few stray hairs from her face.
Hot Rod was still skeptical. Her vitals indicated she wasn't being completely honest but decided to play along. Maybe she was telling him part of the truth but didn't trust him enough to tell him the rest. He turned off his hologram and moved silently along the road.
Michelle was relieved to have the hologram gone. She rubbed her hand against her hair before resting her head against the window.
"I detect a motel ahead. We can stop there and rest for the night," Hot Rod said. He felt bad for causing his human friend stress. "Michelle, I'm sorry for interrogating you but you had me concerned. I was told by my commander that the Decepticons weren't the only ones I needed to watch out for. I hope you understand."
"It's ok Hot Rod. You have to do what you have to do to protect yourself," she said, the exhaustion apparent in her voice.
They came quickly up to a sign that directed them down a smaller winding road. It wasn't too far off the main highway before they came upon a small building. There were very few cars parked out front. Hot Rod pulled up in front of the office so Michelle could get out and get herself a room. She did so quickly. Once she had paid he drove her over to the room where he parked out front to keep watch till morning.
"You going to hang out here?" she asked before stepping out.
"Yup, I'll be here. A promise is a promise. I'm taking you to Flagstaff like I said," he said.
"Well, I'll see you in the morning then," she said. She carefully stepped out and shut his door, walking over to her room. She entered, only looking back briefly, before leaving him alone.
He setup his monitors as he prepared to go into recharge. Just as he was about to go offline one of his sensor alarms went off. He was picking up a remote Cybertronian message. He adjusted his sensors to pick up a clearer signal. It took only a second before the voice of Scapper came through in a series of mechanical tones and clicks. He listened intently, recording it away in his memory. He fuel lines ran cold as he listened to their plans for earth and the annihilation of its inhabitants. Worry took hold as he learned that he was the lone Autobot on earth. He knew he had to contact his fellow Autobots and warn them of the situation on earth.
Quietly he pulled away from the motel and drove further down the road, deeper into the desert to find a more secluded place. He prepared his message and could only hope it would reach his commander in time.
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