Many of the men around them panicked, not used to being threatened by two giant robots, and opened fire on them, however the shots only ricocheted off both Autobots, showering everyone around them with crushed bullets. Traction bent down slightly and put his hand in front of Alex to protect him, but neither he, nor Drag responded at all to the attack on them, both keeping their defensive stances.
When they realised that both their weapons were ineffective and neither of the Autobots were returning the attack, the men hesitantly ceased fire and lowered their weapons.
"That's it, humans," Drag mirrored them, lowering his blades, his hands going to his sides. Traction straightened up, Alex being revealed with his arms folded, a smug look on his face.
Just then Jak suddenly shot into the scene, sliding to a halt in front of Alex before revving his engine, "I'm so getting in on this action."
Drag made an irritated noise and shook his head, looking away briefly.
"Hey, you gonna try it, bitches?" Jak continued to rev his engine, obviously trying to make up for his lack of intimidating attributes as a talking car.
The men glanced at each other, some raising their guns again, others looking like they really didn't want to be there.
Bill didn't know what to think, to be honest. She was completely thrown. Alex was awful at making friends, hence why she was the only one. Or at least she'd thought. Suddenly he'd befriended huge, giant, armed robots, and he was looking rather pleased with himself for doing so. Trust Alex to get along with things that didn't even come from Earth.
The sergeant who had taken a disliking to Alex was trying his hardest not to look too bothered by a talking Mustang, one twenty-one foot and another fourteen foot robot who were currently in front of him. Eventually he just shook his head and blinked hard, as if that might help, before looking at Alex, deciding that he'd rather deal with someone of his own species. He wasn't cleared for talking to aliens, which these things apparently were.
"Sir, if you could please step away from the things," he tried, forcing himself to keep looking at Alex.
"He's not going nowhere," Jak cut in before Alex could say anything, "You little toy soldiers turn around and walk away. While you're at it, have a chat with your superiors. You might be requiring a debriefing or two."
The sergeant ignored Jak, "Sir?" he prompted Alex.
Alex just shrugged, "You think you can make me step away?" he wandered forward and leant casually on Jak's roof, "These guys don't think you can," he couldn't help but grin, feeling more confident than he'd been for years. Funny what giant robots could instil in a human. Especially when they were on your side.
"Sir," another man appeared at the sergeants side, "There's a message from the General."
He nodded, taking the cell phone the man held out to him, putting it to his ear.
Alex strained to hear one side of the conversation, and he could feel Jak trying to lean on his suspension to get closer too, which was an unusual sensation to say the least.
Eventually the sergeant let the phone drop to his side, the brief, five-minute conversation having drained the colour out of his features.
"Well," the man took a deep breath, it obviously taking a lot for him to say what came next, "On your way then."
All heads around him turned to face him, looks of confusion passing over their faces.
"Just let them go," he muttered, "They're right. They're allowed to be here."
"You what?" Alex asked loudly.
"I was just informed briefly of the situation by the commander of your NEST organisation. We were wrong to open fire. On your way, please, before you draw more attention to yourself," the sergeant muttered.
"You asshole," Jak got there first, "Ass. Hole."
Alex just patted him on the roof before scowling at the sergeant and adding, "Dick."
"I don't know why you're with them, I have no orders not to shoot you," he snapped back.
"Don't even joke about it," Drag warned from behind Alex, flexing his hands casually.
The sergeant swallowed and turned away, walking away before he said something that would get him into some serious trouble.
Alex glanced behind him up at Drag, "Thanks," he nodded in appreciation.
Drag just grunted in response and looked away, pretending to be uninteresting in having a human's gratitude.
"And thank you, Alex," Traction looked down at him, "But we have to go now. Crossfire and Pulse have been waiting for us with Reaper. Needless to say Crossfire is a little disappointed in Jak."
"What? Me? It was Alex's idea!" Jak flashed his blinkers in protest.
"Tell that to Crossfire," Traction rolled his eyes as Drag walked a little way away where he dropping to his knees and twisting back into his Aston Martin guise, before going over to Freeway who was still where he'd been left.
"Hey, Al, since when did your girlfriend get here?" Jak commented as Traction began to move away to join the two others.
"Oh crap, her," Alex swore under his breath, looking over to Bill who was still staring at him, "For the record, she's not my girlfriend," he muttered, hesitating slightly before making his way around Jak, going over to her.
She just blinked at him, not knowing what to say.
Alex gave a nervous laugh, "Crazy that, yeah?"
"You could say that. Since when did you become friends with those things?" she waved a hand at the Autobots in general, "A drunken night out?"
"Not quite," he gave a lame smile, "Down a dark alley, actually."
Bill gave a loud sigh, shaking her head, "Only you."
"I'm special enough to be picked up by alien robots," Alex shrugged slightly, "Not my fault."
"Alien robots," Bill echoed.
"Autonomous robotic organisms," Alex repeated what Crossfire had told him, "Autobots for short."
"Whatever they are, they're still out of this world," she muttered.
"Totally. They have their own world, well, they used to. Something happened to it, I think," he shrugged casually.
"Alex, you're insane. Getting involved with things like this. I know you like thrills and you seem to lack boundaries, but this… This is something else. You're out of your depth," Bill looked at him, almost pleadingly, "Go home. Let these things go on without you. I'm sure they don't need you to tag along with you."
Jak then choose that moment to intervene with his usual style as he rolled over, bouncing slightly as he did so, "Excuse me pretty miss," he came to a halt next to Alex, facing Bill straight on, "But we do need Alex with us. In fact, some of us rather enjoy his company. If Alex wants human companionship, I'm sure there's room in me for you."
"Jak, that is sick! Stop sounding like such a creep," Alex kicked Jak's nearest wheel, "Sounds like you're coming onto her! "
"So what if I am?" Jak replied lazily.
"Oh God. Interspecies Jak!" Alex looked away in disgust before glancing at Bill, "I'm sorry about him. He's… A little odd."
Bill nodded vaguely, looking at Jak as if he might suddenly attack her, "I'm sure he is."
"I'm perfectly damn fine. Maybe a little broken, but nothing that can't be overcome," Jak insisted, "I'm perfectly functional," he flashed a single light as he winked at Bill.
Alex ran a hand over his face, "Sick," he muttered again.
Bill stared at Jak. Maybe one little comment she could let go, but… "As much as I'd love a muscular man to come onto me right now, I'd rather a scrawny muscle car kept its… wheels to itself."
"Sure, miss, well, you know where to find me if you want to reconsider," Jak winked again.
"Oh my God… Traction!" Alex turned away, looking for someone to help control Jak.
Traction, now back in his Ram guise rumbled over, stopping beside Alex.
"Tell Jak to stop, please?" he tried his best to sound like he wasn't whining, but it still seemed that way.
Traction turned his wheels towards Jak and there was a pause before Jak grumbled quietly and muttered, "Fine," before sulking off.
Alex looked back at Bill and casually swung his arms at his sides, "You'd like a guy to come on to you, you say?" he smiled at her.
"I said a muscular one," she replied in a deadpan tone, causing his smile to disappear instantly.
"Owned Alex! She positively owned you!" Jak yelled from where he'd gone over to Drag and Freeway.
Alex flicked up his middle finger and waved it over his shoulder in the Mustang's direction, not bothering to give a verbal response. Traction gave a quiet rumble and turned to follow Jak, obviously trying to hurry Alex up.
"Uh… So… Bill, I have to get going," Alex indicated the four cars gathered together, "I'll see you sometime soon, right?"
"Alex, if you think I'm letting you go with those things on your own, you're mistaken. I'm going with you," she shook her head.
"You what?" Alex blinked at her, "Uh, I think Jak was joking when he was offering for you to come with us."
"No I wasn't!" Jak shouted.
"Shut it, Mustang!" Alex yelled back.
"I'm sticking with you Alex, you can't get rid of me. If you won't let me come, I'm sure your friend, Jak is it? will give me a ride," she shrugged.
"I'm not letting you get near him," Alex muttered.
"Whatever you do, you can't stop me from coming," with that she strode past him, heading for the four Autobots.
"Uh…" Alex turned around and hurried after her, "I don't know if the leader of this group would want that?"
"Well you can just ask him, can't you?" Bill flicked her hair over her shoulder casually as she walked.
"Bill, come on, be reasonable!" Alex tried.
"You're never reasonable, I'm just taking a leaf out of your book," she shrugged, slowing as she reached Freeway and glanced over him, looking a little apprehensive again, but trying to hide it in front of Alex, "Does this one mind if I ride in him?"
"I do!" Jak protested.
"Uh, yeah, sure," Alex shrugged, deciding that maybe if he let Freeway look after her, with his clumsy personality, he might scare her away.
"Does he speak too?" Bill asked.
"Only in his natural humanoid state, like all the others apart from Jak. He can't change form, he's broken," Alex shrugged.
"It's nothing, doesn't stop me from being cool," Jak added instead of getting huffy as usual, "I'm still as slick as ever."
"So slick," Bill rolled her eyes, "The Jeep's name?"
"Freeway," Alex told her, "He's the one who destroyed half of Vegas," he added casually, wandering over to Jak.
Bill paled slightly, but she didn't say anything, opening Freeways door before climbing in, glad that he had his soft top down as a cooling breeze tossed her hair up around her face.
"You don't need to drive," Alex told her as he got into Jak's driver's seat, "Freeway's a very accomplished driver," he shut the door, hiding himself from her, and added, "When he learns what the brake is, that is."
"You're so nice to her, aren't you?" Jak commented as he revved his engine lightly.
"At least I'm not overly nice, like someone," Alex prodded the dash, "You're out of line there."
"Afraid I'm stealing your girl?" there was a hint of a smirk in his voice.
"No," Alex huffed, "She's not my girl. I'm not interested in her, she's a friend."
"Sure," Jak gave a quiet laugh.
"What do you know about relationships anyway?" Alex folded his arms.
"We do have them too, you know," Jak began to move off as Traction pulled away, the Autobots slipping into single file with Drag at the back.
Alex snorted loudly, "Robot sex."
"Real mature, Al. We have life partners. They're like your marriage, except we're stuck together forever, no divorce. And yes, we can have children, but I'm not going into the details, there are loads of ways that it can happen," Jak explained.
Alex just snorted again, "I'll get it out of you eventually."
"I wonder if you really want to know," Jak commented, "If you want more information, talk to Pulse. He's got a partner out there somewhere, she's not on Earth."
Alex raised his eyebrows in surprise, "Well, I wasn't expecting that."
"Think we're all young and single?" Jak sounded amused, "Don't be mistaken."
"You're just old and single?" Alex smirked.
"Some of us. Crossfire is old, or what is old to us. He's a few million years old. To compare, Tract's only a few hundred thousand, a little older than me. But still, that's not really that much."
"Whoa. That's a little older than I thought," Alex ran a hand through his hair.
"Oh yeah, Optimus Prime is well over four million, at least. I don't know the exact number," Jak shrugged, causing the cabin rise then fall and Alex to grab onto something for his safety.
"Impressive," Alex muttered as he shifted himself into a securer position in the seat, "What's the age order for you guys?"
"From oldest to youngest? Crossfire, Pulse, Reaper, Tract, me, Drag, and now Freeway. I'm guessing the newbie is around ten thousand, roughly," Jak sounded thoughtful.
"He seems like a sixteen year old," Alex frowned.
"That's pretty much our teenage years," Jak agreed, "Though to be honest, since we go on forever, age becomes nothing to us. We don't keep time like you humans."
Alex shrugged, "Comparatively, we're just a brief flash of life, so it's understandable that we try to control our time."
"Don't you go sounding too deep, Al, that's dangerous for you," Jak snorted in amusement.
Alex just rolled his eyes before twisting around his seat to see if Bill was doing ok with Freeway behind them.
She seemed to be a little put off by the steering wheel moving of its own accord in front of her, but otherwise appeared ok. Freeway hadn't crashed and exploded into a ball of flames just yet.
"Where we catching up with Crossfire and the other two?" Alex asked as he turned back around again.
"Where we were supposed to meet them before," Jak sounded a little sheepish.
"Ah," Alex smiled slightly and scratched his neck a little nervously, "Crossfire won't get angry with either of us will he?"
"He'd never get angry with you," Jak snorted again, "I'll probably just be a little reprimanded. If in doubt, I'll just shove some of the blame onto Drag. But Tract's bound to put in a good word."
"What about Bill tagging along?"
"The girlfriend? Uh, I don't know. He should be ok with it?" Jak shrugged again, tossing Alex around once more.
"She's not my girlfriend," Alex growled quietly, "How many times…?"
"Quite a few more."
"Great," he rolled his eyes, "Just don't say it in front of her. I don't want you chasing my only friend away."
"Hey! You're my buddy," Jak insisted.
"My only human friend," Alex sighed.
"I'll do my best to keep quiet. Though it's hardly my fault if something slips out, she is very good looking."
"Jak. Please," Alex ran a hand over his face, "For the sake of my good health, don't say anything like that ever again. While I know you're not just a car, hearing it from one just doesn't sit quite right in my mind."
"She's hawt," Jak sniggered.
Alex groaned loudly and hid his face in his hands, "Tell me when we get there. I'm not talking to you."
Jak continued to snigger quietly, muttering the odd thing here and there about Bill as he drove.
Alex just tried to block him out, praying that if Bill did stay with them for however long they were going to be together, that Jak would buck up his ideas and quit with all the comments. He knew that Jak was joking; at least he hoped he was, but he couldn't help but find them a little irritating. Maybe he was just getting a bit jealous, but he told himself that was ridiculous, because why would Alex find Jak coming onto Bill someway harmful to him?
Whatever it was, he'd better just get over it.