A good eleven hours later, full of solid driving, Alex woke up with a loud grunt, almost hitting his head on the dash as he shot up from where he'd been sprawled across the driver and passenger's seats. Good thing the windows in this car were also tinted.
Alex couldn't help but wonder how the hell he'd managed to fall asleep with Jak's music blaring out, but he guessed he was just really tired. It looked to be about five in the morning, the sun just coming up behind him.
"You're awake? Good timing," Jak commented, lowering the music volume to speak.
Alex grunted quietly, resisting the urge to ask how a car would see both the road, all around and inside the cabin at the same time.
"We're just about there," he continued, sounding a little too forcefully cheerful.
"Great," Alex muttered, looking out of the windows, only to see… Nothing. Just desert, "Where is 'there' exactly?"
"Southern tip of Nevada, below Las Vegas. An old abandoned military station in the middle of the desert. NEST were kind enough to give it to us as a 'base of operations'," Jak explained, "It's hardly five star accommodation. Drag complains a lot. But hey, what doesn't the guy complain about?"
Alex just nodded vaguely, wondering where in the world, no, universe, an alien learnt to speak English in such a lazy and laid back fashion. Traction had a hint of distance about himself, despite being friendly enough, but it seemed to be more of a professional, almost military distance. But Jak didn't appear to have any of that.
A little way ahead of them, Alex watched as Traction turned off the main road onto a track that was barely visible.
"Off road time," Jak commented as they followed the truck off road, beginning to rumble over the rough surface. Alex was thrown all over the place and was forced to brace himself in his seat to avoid being smashed into the dash.
"Hard suspension, soften it please?" Alex grunted as they bounced over a tiny pothole, which sent shocked up Alex's back.
"Makes it more fun this way," Jak sounded like he was enjoying himself a little too much for Alex's liking.
"You don't have passengers often, do you?" Alex asked.
"You're my first," Jak replied proudly as they bounced after Traction, who looked as though the track was causing no problems for him. But then again, Rams were made to go off road after all.
Alex didn't bother to continue to conversation as they moved behind a rise in the ground, which sheltered them from view of the main road. They now came face to face with a large open hanger, most likely for aircraft, as well as a few other smaller structures, which was surrounded by a high metal fence, topped with razor wire.
If this was the Autobot's home, Alex couldn't help but wonder why they put up with it, it was far from homely. But then again, he had no idea what 'homely' was for an alien robot thing that could transform into various vehicles. Drag probably had a right to complain, but since he appeared to be some snooty English car, Alex probably should expect him to be picky.
They slowed as they approached the hanger, allowing Alex to make out a few inorganic shapes in the gloom of the building. He couldn't help but wonder if he was letting himself into a trap, but by now it was too late for him. He couldn't run for it, even if his life depended on it. Cars could out pace a human after all.
"Everyone's here now," Jak told him casually as they followed Traction into the hanger and pulled over to one side, allowing Alex's eyes to adjust to the dim light before he ran his gaze over the line of vehicles before him.
They were lined up neatly, all of them perfectly still, just as vehicles should be, seemingly in height order, the biggest, a helicopter, at one end, and Drag, the Aston Martin, at the other. However, Traction tagged onto that end, spoiling the height order. Alex was about to study the cars in more detail, able to identify them fairly easily, but Jak opened the door, breaking his concentration.
"Get out so that they can see you. Nothing will happen, don't worry," he reassured him.
He grunted quietly then sighed, slipping out of the seat, stepping out into the open.
As soon as he was out of the Mustang, Jak swung away from him, shutting his door as he bounced casually towards Traction, leaving Alex alone and feeling rather too exposed for his liking in the middle of the hanger.
Once again Alex went to look over the vehicles, but the largest one, beside the chopper, rolled forward, breaking the line.
To Alex, it just looked like a normal aerial fire truck, the kind with the huge ladder and special platform with a little bit of articulation behind the drivers came to allow for manoeuvrability. He didn't know if fire trucks had makes or models, so he just guessed it was some standard red and white truck. Alex couldn't help but envision it trampling him, however.
Just as he went to take a defensive step back, the fire truck began to split and buckle in various places, similar to how Traction had done in the alley previously. Alex stared, once again transfixed, only just registering as the other four also began to split apart, Jak rolling off to sulk.
After a lot of grinding and graunching of metal, Alex was forced to crane his neck as he took in the five humanoid Autobots, their variously coloured eyes fixed on him.
The one who'd been a fire truck mere moments ago took another step towards Alex. He guessed that he was at least twenty-five feet tall, only just fitting in the hanger. It bent down slightly to get a better look at Alex, luminous yellow eyes blinking at him until it straightened up again.
"My name is Crossfire," his voice seemed to resonate around them, again sounding different and unique. Those few words told Alex that this Autobot meant business, and was clearly the one in charge here, "This is my 'team'. We are autonomous robotic organisms. Autobots for short," he continued, "I'm sure Traction has told you at least something?" he glanced in Traction's direction, receiving a nod from him.
Alex nodded absently too, although he still felt out the loop, still barely knowing and understanding anything.
Crossfire looked back at Alex then turned to the others, beginning to point them out one by one, "You know Dragstar," he indicated Drag, the shortest of them all at about fourteen feet.
"Of course he does," Drag shrugged, "He stole me."
"Now Dragstar," Crossfire looked at him disapprovingly.
"It's Drag," he grunted in response, folding his arms, "You call me that, human," he looked at Alex with icy blue eyes, causing Alex to nod quickly.
Crossfire sighed and looked back at Alex, "You also know Traction," he paused to let Traction nod in acknowledgment again, before giving a brief salute, "And Hijack, otherwise known as Jak."
"We're good friends," Jak commented, "Eight hours driving forms some bonds, y'know?" the Mustang rocked back and forth on his suspension. Although he sounded casual, Alex detected a hint of jealously in his voice, guessing it was something yet again related to the other being able to revert to their natural form.
"And," Crossfire continued, "There's Pulse, our medic and mechanic," he indicated the robot next to Traction who'd previously been a Ford F250 kitted out to act as a emergency response fire paramedic vehicle in red and white, now standing at just a little taller than Traction, most likely twenty-two feet.
"Traction tells me he broke your communication device. Give it to me later and I'll fix it," Pulse offered, "I can fix anything."
"Almost everything," Jak huffed bitterly.
"I'm still trying, Jak, I haven't given up hope," Pulse sighed, shaking his head and closing his white eyes.
"It's been three years now," Jak muttered, turning away again.
Crossfire sighed too and decided to quickly finish introductions, "Lastly we have Reaper."
Alex looked over to the form that had replaced the Black Hawk helicopter. Dull grey lit eyes blinked at him as Reaper nodded a silent greeting.
"We though he couldn't speak at first," Pulse offered, "However it appeared he just chooses not to for some reason. He won't enlighten us."
Reaper gave a slight shrug and smile, allowing Alex to see two of the chopper blade from his previous form were flat against his back, while the remaining two stuck up over his shoulders in a similar fashion to twin katanas. In other words, Alex noticed he looked rather deadly. Silent, but deadly.
Crossfire ran his eyes over the Autobots before turning his attention back to Alex, "We've allowed you to become aware of our presence, only because of a turn in events. Dragstar shouldn't have spoken to you previously, however. We keep to ourselves, only occasionally coming in contact with Optimus Prime and the human organisation NEST. They make suggestions to us, but otherwise trust us to go about our own business. We're not as disruptive as they can be," Crossfire rolled his eyes, obviously referring to the recent event in Paris.
"So… What's the reason you want me?" Alex spoke for the first time he'd entered the hanger.
Crossfire gave a little humourless smile and knelt down to talk to him easier, "We don't want you, as such. The Decepticons, Doomsday and the others, want you. We've brought you to us to protect you from them. You've already had a close encounter with Doomsday's right hand, Envoy."
"Why do they want me," Alex frowned, looking confused, "I'm nothing special. Just a layabout."
"And a thief," Drag added casually.
"Shut up," Traction whacked the smaller Autobot in the shoulder, causing him to stumble backwards. As Drag fell over onto his backside, which caused quite a bit of noise, Alex vaguely noted that instead of rough feet like the others, Drag instead had the wheels from his Aston Martin form, which he supposed offered more speed and manoeuvrability.
"Watch it, Traction," Drag glared at him as he struggled back to his feet.
"Dragstar," Crossfire growled in warning, causing him to instantly mutter an apology. Crossfire nodded and continued to Alex, "We recently had to reassess what we've been doing during our time here on Earth. Drag noticed something when you were… Borrowing him," he chose his words carefully to avoid more arguing. Alex wondered if all groups of Autobots got on like this one. He supposed Optimus and NEST had to be slightly closer knit. Or it was just Drag being awkward.
"Notice what?" Alex asked, frowning once again, causing the gauze on his forehead to begin to irritate him. He rubbed it in irritation, instantly regretting it as he grazed the wound.
"Dragstar?" Crossfire looked at Drag expectantly.
The Autobot stepped forward as Crossfire straightened up and moved over to Jak. Being the smallest compared to the others, Alex didn't have to really look up that much. He guessed the smaller and lighter the vehicle form, the smaller they wound up being.
"You hit your head when I braked," Drag began, "Which you deserved," he added.
"Drag, you're as bad as those Decepticon bastards sometimes," Jak revved his engine threateningly, "Watch it or Doomsday, maybe even Megatron, will be trying to recruit you like some new protoform kid."
Drag just glared at him briefly, but looked a little put off by what the other Autobot had said all the same. Crossfire glanced at Jak too, but didn't say anything, allowing Drag to continue while he stayed silent.
Drag made a slightly strangled noise, which Alex guessed was him clearing his throat, before carrying on, "As I was saying, you hit your head. It drew blood, so I took you to hospital. However, after I dropped you off, I began to notice something that centred around the seat you'd been in."
"I'll cut in here to explain something," Pulse came in, "There's a metal compound which is valuable to the people of Cybertron, and it's used as a kind of medicine, for healing parts. In average quantities, it can bring back those from the brink of death. However, if enough is acquired, it can be used to make the user near immortal, healing and regenerating virtually instantly, before more wounds can occur. We call it Fusion."
Alex snorted quietly, "Original."
"And our names aren't," Jak sounded like he was grinning, obviously thinking the same thing.
Pulse just nodded, "The small deposit on Cybertron was used up fairly quickly, so we set out in search of it on nearby planets. Some planets were plentiful, while others had nothing at all. However, our recent presence on Earth made the Decepticons curious as to whether this planet harbours any. Geological surveys revealed nothing, however, its been found that a small, very small, number of humans have Fusion present in their blood, combined with some of their iron. As far as we know, it's harmless and has no known effects on the human, not like it does on our people."
"So what are you trying to say?" Alex cocked his head slightly.
"We thought it was carried by your brother," Drag took over again, "Hence why I was forced to pose as his car. However, apparently we got the wrong Sheppard."
Alex continued to look confused, looking at Pulse.
The Autobot shrugged, "Drag detected Fusion in your blood, Alex. The Decepticons will kill any human they get their hands on, but those with Fusion would suffer during the extraction process. Several have died already before Autobots could help. We nearly lost you too if Traction hadn't reached you in time. Now we're here to keep you safe."
"Obviously we can't go everywhere with you. That's why only one or two of us will be out in the open with you," Crossfire added, "Constant protection."
"I have an alien metal in my body which giant robots what to kill me for?" Alex blinked.
"In short, yeah. Think of it that way if it makes it better," Jak rolled over to him slowly.
"Oh right," Alex muttered absently, "And I have other, supposedly good, robots as babysitters?"
"Technically we're not robots," Pulse cut in, "We think for ourselves. Autonomous robots is about as close as you'll get, as Crossfire mentioned before."
"Don't confuse the human too much, Pulse," Drag snorted, "He processes things at a slow rate."
Traction gave a low grumbling growl, glancing his way.
"What?" Drag returned the look.
"You two, please," Crossfire muttered, "It's understandable Alex is a little confused."
Traction put his hands up and took a step back, "I'm not the one with human issues, nor issues in general. Drag's just easily wound up, namely by humans."
"I'll talk to him later," Crossfire just gave a short nod, ignoring Drag fold his arms and turn away from them.
Alex had fallen silent as he tried to wrap his head around what was happening. He'd just about got over cars turning into whatever the Autobots were, but to suddenly say he was some precious metal compound carrier was beginning to push things back into the land of make believe.
He ran his hand over his face, vaguely aware of Jak edging towards him again,
"Come on, this isn't all bad. We won't let the Decepticons get you," he nudged Alex behind that knees so that he sat down heavily on the Mustang's hood.
"Yeah, I know," Alex muttered ,sounding a little distant.
"It's all cool. You get to hang with us," Jak bounced up and down.
"Yeah," Alex repeated vaguely.
"Jak, leave him for a moment," Traction suggested, "Give him some room to breathe."
"Sure, sure," he gave his characteristic shrug, allowing Alex to get back to his feet before moving away slowly.
"Take your time Alex," Crossfire stepped away too and began to lead the Autobots across the hanger.
Alex sighed loudly and sat down on the floor, allowing himself to have a moment to begin to think things through again.