Haven't updated this for a while . Even though I have thousands of words written :P Anyways, YOU, yes, YOU, the one looking at this, the one thinking about reading this word vomit below - I have a favour to ask of you. Even if you've not read the whole thing, if you've got an idea of the characters, could you make a comment with the name of your favourite character so far? I'm having a little thing with a friend over who's the most 'likable' of my Transformers guys, so this is me posing the questions, WHO'S YOUR FAVE?! :3 I'll lov you forever if you comment in order to answer :P I don't even need a reason, unless you want to say, a simple name is just as handy.
"Yeah, cool," Alex echoed, running a hand through his hair as he continued to study Jak's hologram self, looking for any flaws in anatomy or features.
"I'm damn hot, aren't I?" Jak leant an elbow on the window, the hologram flickering ever so slightly, "Think your girl would want me now?"
Alex hesitated before experimentally prodding Jak's holographic arm. He wasn't surprised when his finger passed straight through and all he wound up feeling was the cool metal of the Mustang's exterior.
"Ow," Jak smirked.
"Nah. She wouldn't want you. She can't kiss your pretty boy face," Alex shrugged lazily.
"Pretty boy? Look who that's coming from!" Jak snorted, the hologram slowly sliding out of focus before it flickered and disappeared.
"That all the flashing of your fancy human face you're going to do, hey? Realised I look better?" Alex nudged Jak.
"It's creepy. It feels so weird speaking through a human," Jak admitted.
"And speaking through a car…?" Alex raised his eyebrows.
"Different. One's organic, or is supposed to be, and the other's inorganic. Being inorganic is most natural and comfortable."
"You're just picky," Alex rolled his eyes.
"You're just jealous. I'm a hot car. I'm a hot human. And I used to be one hell of hot, armed Autobot. Face it, Al, some guys just can't help looking as good as I do," Jak shrugged.
"Hey what? Where did you get that from? I'm not jealous of being made of metal!" Alex shoved him.
"Sure, Al, sure," Jak sounded far from convinced.
Alex pulled a face at Jak wandering away from him, heading for Traction who was just putting the finishing touches to his Ram form. However Drag cut him off before he could reach him, sliding to a halt in front of him.
"Oh hi," Alex looked up at him, "You sort out the guy and his bimmer?"
Drag nodded, "He's back in his car. It'll look like he passed out or fell asleep at the wheel. Apart from the broken nose you gave him."
"He can just have hit his face on the wheel," Alex shrugged, not feeling that sympathetic for the man.
Drag shrugged too, "Do you mind if I just talk to you briefly?"
"Sure thing," Alex nodded.
"Somewhere a little more private?"
"If you call the open expanse around us private, then go ahead and find somewhere," Alex smiled slightly.
Drag just nodded and began to lead Alex into the desert, a little way away from the others. He eventually stopped when they were out of what must be Autobot earshot and looked down at him, not needing to really crouch down due to his shorter height.
"Well?" Alex looked up at him expectantly.
Drag studied him briefly before the blades that were concealed under the armour on his arms slid out and pointed themselves at Alex. He just blinked and took a step back, eyeing up the blades, which looked distinctly different from any human swords. Alex supposed they had to be super special to slice through Cybertronian metal.
"Hey now Drag. I know we got off to a bad start, and I'm not your best buddy or anything, but isn't this a bit… Counter productive? Killing me and all when you're supposed to be protecting me?"
Drag just shrugged and advanced on him, "Who said I was killing. I'm just aiming to maim."
"Oh, that's so much better," Alex gave a nervous laugh, wondering if Drag had fried a wire in his brain.
"It is," Drag smiled at him.
"Oh… Uh… JAK!" Alex yelled, scrambling backwards as Drag lunged for him suddenly, "This is not fair," he muttered as he tripped over a scrubby bush and was forced to duck out the way of a blade, "I was only just almost killed! JAK!" he shouted again when the Mustang hadn't appeared instantly to save him from the crazed Autobot.
Alex swore under his breath as he once again was forced to dart out the way as Drag went for him, one of his blades burying itself in the ground beside him with surprising ease, the rough desert ground putting up little to no resistance.
Alex glanced at Drag as he pulled the blade free and began to sprint towards the Autobots, yelling their names and shouting for help. He didn't want to look behind him, but he could hear Drag right behind him, spurring him on.
Eventually he could just about make out Traction quickly transforming into his humanoid form and began to pound towards them, Crossfire hot on his heels.
Just as he heard Drag leap at him from behind, Crossfire threw himself over Alex, grabbing Drag around the waist before throwing him to one side. Alex swore loudly in shock of Crossfire flying over him and stumbled in his panic, almost crashing headlong into Traction's foot, which appeared in front of him.
"Get behind me and stay there," Traction ordered him, taking a defensive stance, one arm up, the gun primed and ready as it followed Drag who was trying to get away from Crossfire. Alex didn't need telling twice as he scrabbled behind Traction, taking shelter behind one of his legs while he watched Crossfire laying into Drag who was yelling at him to get off and to screw his head on properly.
Traction gave a low grumble, "That's not Drag."
"What?" Alex looked up at him, "What do you mean?"
"I mean that Drag would never dare attack a human. Never," Traction shook his head, still focused on Crossfire as he tried to pin the struggling Drag, or whoever it was, to the ground. Freeway had run over to try and help as much as he could, attempting to grab the dangerous flailing limbs of the Drag impostor before Crossway lost any limbs to the lethal blades.
"Why I can't just blast its pitiful head off is beyond me," Traction muttered, using his free hand to fiddle impatiently with his gun, "We know what it is."
"You do?" Alex looked surprised.
Traction nodded, waiting until he was sure that the faux Drag was completely restrained before indicating that Alex should follow him. He did so, albeit rather hesitantly, making sure that he stuck close to Traction in case someone else went for him.
As they approached Crossfire and Freeway, Pulse came to meet them, Jak and Bill holding back a little way.
"Is it what I think it is?" Crossfire looked up to Pulse while he kept a hand clamped around the fake Drag's neck, holding him against the ground with impressive strength.
"Looks that way," Pulse agreed, "Let me just run some tests before you dispose of it."
"You don't need to run any tests," Traction shook his head, "That thing is not Drag and we all know it."
"I suppose so," Pulse muttered, "But shouldn't we just make sure?"
"I think Traction is right, we do know this isn't Dragstar," Crossfire glanced at Pulse, "For a start, Dragstar isn't responding when we try to get in contact with him, which means that he's been, to coin the human term, knocked out."
"Let me kill it so that we can be on our way and recover Drag," Traction kept his gun trained on the still struggling impostor.
"What is it exactly?" Alex frowned, peering around Traction's leg.
He glanced down at him and sighed, "There's a Cybertronian who claims he's neither aligned with the Autobots, nor Decepticons. However, his way of dealing with humans is more towards the Decepticons manners than ours. He never reveals himself, however builds these drones to do his dirty work for him. He controls them, much like a remote controlled vehicle, and if I'm right in believing, he can probably hear and see us right now, due to feeds coming back from this drone. His name is Parody, and he tries to infiltrate both the Autobots and Decepticons through means of making drones, which imitates one of us. We've had him doing it a few times recently with various Autobots, but this is the first one to attack us. Parody must have heard about you through various means and decided he wants you for himself."
"How did he knock Drag out?" Alex continued to frown.
"Most likely used a tailored EMP," Traction shrugged, "It's easy enough to know how it affects us if you are actually on of us."
"And then this one just took his place?" Alex looked to the fake Drag who had finally fallen still, Parody on the other end of it obviously listening to them.
Traction nodded, "Easy enough to remain undetected. Unless he does something so obviously out of character like trying to kill you."
"Has anyone ever seen Parody?" Alex asked.
"When we first encountered one of these things," Crossfire spoke up, "We thought it was Parody himself, and that he just liked to pretend to be one of us then change vehicle form and appearance. So we thought after we'd killed the first one, it would be over. However since there seem to be so many of them popping up on both sides, and after a little studying by Pulse, we worked out that they're basically just roughly made shells who lack a Spark, which would give them sentient life. Instead, Parody controls them as his puppets."
"To answer your question more directly, no," Pulse smiled at Alex slightly, "No one's ever seen Parody. We have no idea where he is."
Alex nodded slowly, "Weirdo."
"You said it, Al," Jak agreed loudly, "Not as bad as Sidelight, mind. He's bat shit."
"I wouldn't be surprised if they knew each other," Traction rolled his eyes.
"Question," Bill cut in, "How do we know that any of you," she indicated all the Autobots, "Aren't these drone things?"
"Dude, ask me anything. No drone could answer just any questions," Jak shrugged.
"I'd be able to tell fairly quickly by running a quick check," Pulse gave a light shrug, "Certain things, such as the absence of a Spark, sets them apart from us by quite a long shot."
"How come you didn't pick up Drag's impostor then?" Bill asked.
"I had no reason to scan him," Pulse shrugged.
"Fair enough," Bill admitted.
"I'll check everyone now, but I'm sure it's safe," Pulse added.
"Will you kill the impostor now?" Freeway asked from where he was still absently holding onto the drone's arm, looking between it and Crossfire.
Crossfire nodded and glanced at Traction, who smirked slightly, "My pleasure. It's almost like taking Drag out. I'll save this moment for those times when I just wish Drag would shut up and be quiet."
Crossfire raised his eyebrows, looking unimpressed.
Traction just shrugged and Jak snorted loudly, "Better than killing the real deal," he commented.
Crossfire looked like he wanted to say something, but he just shook his head, knowing that it probably wouldn't really achieve anything. Instead he moved out the way, shifting his grip on the drone from its neck to his chest, keeping it pinned to the ground. Traction strode towards them then bent over it, lining up his gun with the drone's head.
"One day it'll be your head I'm taking off, Parody," Traction directed his threat the drone before simply firing his gun once, the bright blue flash of energy-like ammunition finding its mark and the Drag impostor fell still, it's head almost having completely melted and disintegrated from the blast.
"Something satisfying about that," Jak sounded like he enjoyed watching Drag's head being destroyed.
"I know what you mean," Traction smiled at him, his gun flipping backwards on his arm to be replaced with his hand.
Crossfire just rolled his eyes. It was obvious to Alex that while he reprimanded Drag, he knew that he would be wasting his time trying with Traction and Jak. He straightened up from the fake Drag, Freeway mirroring him, "Pulse, Traction, see if you can salvage some of its parts. I'd say Freeway and Jak could go looking for Drag, but right now we need to stay together. Just keep an eye on your charges. Reaper can take a look instead."
"You got it," Jak bobbed up and down, casually making his way across the rough ground towards Alex. Once he was close enough, Alex leant on his roof, watching as Pulse and Traction leant over the damaged drone, talking quietly to one another as they began to pull it apart.
"Think Drag's ok?" he asked, glancing down at Jak.
"He'll be fine. Most likely left exactly where Parody's drone ditched him. Which is probably just a little way into the desert. Reaper will find and revive him in an instant," Jak nodded.
"It's that easy?" Alex raised his eyebrows.
"It should be. Usually it isn't, but hey, one can hope, right?" Jak bounced up and down lazily.
"Fair enough," Alex shrugged, "Let's just hope we don't get attacked by anyone, or anything, again today."
"You sure seemed to have livened things up a bit," Jak agreed, "Before we met you, days were a little boring. Maybe the odd Decepticon here and there. But in the past three days, we've had, let me see, five Decepticons, one drone and Freeway dropping out of the sky. Can't say there's no action now."
"I'm glad I make things a little more fun?" Alex didn't quite know whether to take that as a compliment or not.
"Yeah, you do," Jak once again sounded like he was smirking. Alex casually tapped his fingers on Jak's roof as he watched Traction straightening up with what looked like an arm and begin to wander away with it, pulling a few bits out and tossing them aside.
"That looks so nice," Alex commented.
"It would look even more interesting if it was a human arm," Jak snorted.
"Disgusting," Alex pulled a face.
Jak just snorted again, bobbing up and down as Traction came over to the, still carrying the arm.
"Something interesting?" Alex raised his eyebrows.
"Not really. Rather basic," he dangled it down in front of him, "The bare bones, so to speak."
Alex eyed it up, frowning slightly, "If you say so. I wouldn't really know. Just looks like a load of twisted metal to me," he shrugged.
"Oh, thanks Alex," Jak pretended to be offended, "I wouldn't expect you, of all people, to understand."
Traction rolled his eyes at Jak, smiling at Alex, "Trust me then, this is simple. This is complex," he tapped his own arm, which did indeed look like a denser tangle of wires and metal to Alex's untrained eyes.
"I'll take your word for it," he nodded. Traction inclined his head before moving away from them, over to Crossfire, where he immediately began to talk, once again waving the arm around.
Alex watched in mild amusement as Pulse joined in the discussion, "I didn't think it was such a big thing?"
Jak shrugged, "Crossfire likes to know, whatever it is. And those two tend to get very enthusiastic when tech's involved."
"So I gathered," Alex nodded.
"We'll be on our way in a minute," Jak commented, "Just let those three fiddle around. Reaper's found Drag, by the way," he added casually.
Alex rolled his eyes again, "Oh yeah? Forgot to mention it earlier?"
"Nah, just didn't see the point in saying yet. Drag ain't happy, I can tell you that though"
"I bet," Alex smiled slightly.
"In amongst the cursing that he's loudly broadcasting to us all, I think he managed to get you a new shirt," he shrugged.
"Because Parody's drone happened to have one on him?" Alex stared at the Mustang.
Jak snorted, "No way. He found it in that nosey guy's car. Thought you might like it."
"He stole it?"
"Borrowed. Drag likes to think of it as borrowed," Jak sounded like he was grinning.
"I'm sure he does," Alex raised his eyebrows, "But I'm hardly complaining. It saves me from having to go on a shopping trip with you in amongst fighting Decepticons."
"Oh man, I was looking forward to that!" Jak sniggered.
"I'm sure you were," Alex smiled at him slightly, patting him on the roof.
"Right," he looked away from Jak as Crossfire spoke up, drawing everyone's attention to him, "Reaper and Drag are waiting up this road for us and Pulse and Traction have finished what they were doing. We'll move out in five minutes. If anyone has any objections, do voice them."
"You really think we'd object to getting a move on?" Jak snorted, "We're getting bored here, all this action then suddenly stopping. Boring."
Crossfire just shook his head at Jak, smiling ever so slightly, before he began to make his way back towards the road, the others following. Freeway paused by Bill to fold back into his Jeep form to give her a lift before speeding after the others to catch up.
Alex gave a slightly irritated grunted before opening Jak's door and clambering in, "Soften the suspension. I'm not going to be shook up like last time we went off road, ok?"
"Sure thing, Al," Jak slammed the door for him before setting off, purposefully driving slowly and carefully, making sure that he avoided every small dip or rock. Alex rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to comment, since this was preferable to being thrown about the cabin.
Eventually they reached the road where everyone else was waiting for them; now back in their vehicle forms. Bill rolled her eyes and shook her head as Jak pulled along side her and Freeway, revving his engine suggestively. Alex slapped the dash and growled a quiet warning, before Crossfire began to lead them off, once again in a perfect single file.
Alex sighed loudly and shuffled himself into a more comfortable position in the drivers seat, glad that he didn't have to worry about actually driving. He closed his eyes contently, planning on getting a little shuteye, since he was feeling rather exhausted from the earlier events, and hadn't really slept properly for a couple of days. He felt himself just about to doze off, when Jak suddenly turned his music on, causing it to blare out around him, almost deafening him.
He moaned loudly in irritation and opened his eyes, beginning to beat Jak's steering wheel, "Switch it off, you moron! Some of us need sleep!"
"It's too quiet! And you'll probably just snore, which means it'll be annoying, so I'll drown it out with music," Jak insisted.
"I can't actually get to sleep with your music on. Switch it off. Wait until I'm snoring. Then you can switch it on if you really want. Please Jak, I'm dead on my feet," Alex ran a hand over his face.
"At least you have feet, right?" Jak grudgingly turned the music off, "And you can sleep too. I'd love an excuse to just shut down for a few hours ever now and then."
"I bet the others would love you to shut down for a while too," Alex commented, closing his eyes again, "Peace and quiet."
"Oh you shut up," Jak muttered, wiggling slightly on the road just enough to shift Alex in his seat and receive another slap on the wheel in response.
"Sleeping, starting now," Alex grunted, repositioning himself so that he could rest his head on the seatbelt just above his left shoulder.
Jak sighed loudly and fell silent, giving in to Alex's need for sleep, though occasionally he mumbled something quietly to himself, just to break the monotony of silence. Thankful for the quiet, Alex managed to drift off fairly quickly, and was only vaguely aware of stopping briefly when they came across Drag and Reaper. After that, Alex just dissolved into a dream world, full of manically laughing evil pink cars and huge metal claws ripping other vehicles to shreds.