Chapter 5

Grey Walls.

Cold. Very cold.

The senses that greeted Will as he awoke were the chilly air, the hard surface beneath him and the grey walls and pipes above him. 'Where…," for a moment Will was disoriented, not remembering then the flood came. Images and conversations of the past day slammed into his brain with painful speed.

Spilt coffee, whirling metal, burnt bodies, burnt orange…burnt orange…" Now he remembered.

The Cybertronian Sunstorm had kidnapped him. The burnt orange with hues of flame marked every part of the mech.

Will raised a hand and swiped it over his face, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. He looked down and remembered what he had looked like the last time he was awake. He remembered the cables, the lights, and the heat, oh he remembered the heat.

Now as he scanned every inch, there was no mark, no holes, not every a scrap upon his skin. His clothes were the only things bearing the signs of what had happened to him. Rips in the pants of both thighs, a gaping hole in the chest of his shirt. His long sleeves would have to be made into short sleeves if they were to be salvaged.

There was one more.

Will gentle probed the back of his head and neck, but everything felt fine, no lumps or bumps present. 'Where is Sunstorm," Will pondered as he began to sit up.

He made his was over to the door. As he opened it, a blast of icy wind hit him. The cold biting at every exposed surface and attacking his lungs as he inhaled the chilly air.

'Oh man what I wouldn't give to be warm.' Suddenly a warm sensation swelled in the pit of this stomach and radiated outward. It spread quickly and swept down his legs and out his arms. Even his neck and face were comfortable now against the frosty sting of nature's fury.

'What's going on,' Will wondered as he continued to advance outside the building. A few steps further and he noticed Sunstorm.

"I trust your upgrades are in working order. The environmental responders appear to be working well."

Will's jaw dropped for before it started working. "Environmental responders? You did what exactly to me? I want a straight answer, and I want it now." Will was getting madder, and he began to flush.

"Your emotional response is affecting your temperature output. I will have to make a finer adjustment." Sunstorm became stiff and before Will could give him a good piece of his mind, he got a piece of his own mind handed to him.

Of course it was seconds after Sunstorm had done a number on it. "What was that?", screamed an irate Will at Sunstorm. "Haven't you ever heard of privacy!"

Sunstorm high-mindedly replied, "Privacy would denote the need for secrets; you will have none from me. Therefore privacy is irrelevant in your position."

Now Will steamed, literally. The wisps of vapors were rising and disappearing into the air around him. Will clinched his fists several times in an effort to regain control.

He didn't believe it would be wise to antagonize Sunstorm too much, but oh how he wanted to so badly.

"O.K., Let's start over with why exactly you need me and why you did whatever it was that you did back in there." Will pointed back to the building to emphasize his point, his raised eyebrows stressing his articulation to Sunstorm.

The large mech shifted his gaze toward Will, the building, then back to Will. "Necessary. You are a vehicle by which I will be able to access areas of this planet, without such I could not move about permanently. There will also be times when stealth is required among the species of this planet that my current form can not provide. I will need your 'human' mobility as such I also had to ensure complete compliance with my directives. Since the durations of my objectives may take longer than your species normal functionality, a transference into a more durable substance was required. Your current form still mimics the human form, however the longevity and durability our in accord with my origins."

Shock.

Like the wall of a cresting wave pounding down upon a hapless victim in the surf, Will stared at Sunstorm before looking away. Looking anywhere but at the mech.

Will didn't know whether to laugh or cry at what he had heard. He looked at his hands, flexed his fingers and then ran his fingers through his hair.

It felt the same. His hands looked the same too. Will didn't feel any different.

No, wait. He did feel something.

It wasn't that is was painful or discomfort able. No, it was the pain and aches that were missing.

He hasn't noticed that they were gone. The sore back and stiff shoulder that would always announce their presence at the worst times, they weren't there anymore.

Instead, he felt nothing! No, not quite right.

He did feel it, but it was a feeling that hadn't been present in so long he almost missed it. He felt young again. Not in the sense of teenage vigor, but just that he didn't hurt anymore.

Joints moved freely without popping, and the whincing that came with each low bend. He reached down to touch his toes.

It was gone.

Human? Was he human?

He looked the same on the outside, he thought. Did that mean that he didn't look the same on the inside? Did he lose something? Anything that was important?

He shuddered at the implications forming in his mind. He knew that the only ones that could possibly answer them with any honesty would be Ironhide and Ratchet.

Yes, they would tell him what had happened because they would know what had been done to him. They would be familiar and know what to do to fix this. Now all he had to do was get back to his friends, especially Ironhide. Yeah, Ironhide would know what to do and get Ratchet to fix it. That's what friends would do for each other. Will relaxed a bit as his plan formulated in his head.

"You will not be requiring the assistance of your 'friends'. You don't need further alterations. Your upgrades will make maintenance checks less frequent thus no need to seek out past acquaintances," Sunstorm remarked.

'Geee, that makes me feel so much better that I don't need to see my friends," Will remarked with a sarcastic smile.

"Why would it matter?" Sunstorm replied with an air of curiosity.

"Why would it matt…Are you serious? "Man, I bet you are the life of the party with your friends," Will steamed as he inspected the outward countenance of Sunstorm.

Will heard the whirling of gears and optics as Sunstorm regarded him. Will received the impression he had just hit a sore spot with the mech. Will gathered it was the latter part of his comment that had struck a processor inside Sunstorm. He decided to take a chance and approached the imposing mech.

"You do know what friends are, don't you?"

"Yes, however they are not always necessary." Sunstorm continued to stare off into the sky in deep retrospective thought.

Will took a bold move and asked a more direction question. "Do you have any friends?" Will waited for a reply, "Sunstorm?"

The mech turned toward him again. "Friends are not required for my objectives. They are not necessary."

Before he would continue, Will jumped into his diatribe.

"Friends are needed even when you think they're not. When you don't think you need one, it's the time you really NEED one. Don't you have anyone?"

Sunstorm didn't reply to the question. 'Oh boy! He's going to be such a hard case,' Will pondered to himself. 'I'm going out on a limb here, but here goes.'

Meanwhile…

Ironhide had scoured all available data from the satellites, hoping to garner some intelligence as to where Sunstorm could be holding up with Will.

Whoooop!

Another dented surface on military tables as Ironhide received a negative report from the data. 'He has to be somewhere,' reasoned the seasoned strategist. 'I'm not giving up. I'll get Will back and when I do, if there's a hair out of place, Sunstorm is going to pay.'

Ironhide's cannons whirled and clicked as his anger rose. It blazed as firey as the morning sun that came inching above the horizon.

He had spent all his time searching for Sunstorm knowing that when he located the rogue mech, he would fine Will Lennox, his friend, his … It was hard to admit that the human had managed to find a place inside his spark chamber that hadn't had anyone to care about in many a countless vorns.

Both he and Optimus had, as well as many others, searched for Sunstorm but to no avail. It was if the mech and human had just disappeared.

For over a quartex, Ironhide had spent every waking astrosecond looking for them. A hand descended upon Ironhide's shoulder.

"You have tried everything you could old friend. We have to be patient and believe that we will find them." Optimus' eyes were heavy with concern as he stared into the face of his old friend.

"I've tried Optimus. I've tried everything I know to do, but it's not enough. I can't them," Ironhide conceded. His shoulder drooped even further than before. "It's like they disappeared into a black hole. I'm not even sure that… that Will is alive. You know what Sunstorm was like last time we encountered him. What if he…"

Optimus took hold of Ironhide by place both hands on his shoulders. "Don't talk of things we don't know yet as if they have happened. We don't know the fate of Will Lennox. We may not know for some time, but we will eventually learn it. Time is sometimes our worst enemy. A human month has pasted but we still have hope. It is the one thing that all of us have right now. Hope in the future Ironhide. Hope that all will be revealed and that we will bring Will Lennox home …one way or another."

The sad quality of Optimus' voice settled on Ironhide and made him quiver down to his shocks.

'one way or another' thought Ironhide.

He didn't want to have to bring Will home in any way but complete, whole, intact …alive.

Yes, most importantly it had to be alive. That was the only way which could ease the ladling pain in his spark. Ironhide nodded his understanding towards Optimus. He couldn't voice his thoughts just now fore he doubted it would come out right.

He turned back to the computer bay, turned back to begin again his vigil that might just lead them to Sunstorm and in turn Will Lennox.

Author's Note: Sorry so late updating, been sick and work piling up. I'll try to have another up Sunday night. I look forward to your reviews. They keep me going. :)

Quartex = one Earth month (source wiki)