A little under four hours later and Alex finally came to after a lot of twitching and groaning, having been roused by Jak's music slowly creeping up in volume.
"Finally," Jak commented, "About time you woke up. I was starting to get bored of your constant pained moaning. It gets wearing after the first hour or so."
"That's what happens when you're dreaming about mad Decepticons," Alex yawned loudly, stretching out as much as the car's cabin would allow him.
"I'm sure that was a fun experience for you," Jak bobbed up and down.
Alex just rolled his eyes, "You bet," he grunted, "We there yet?"
"Basically," Jak continued to bob up and down a little longer. Alex sighed and peered out the window into the half-light. A quick glance at the clock on Jak's dash told him that it was a little past nine in the evening, yet it was still fairly light outside, allowing Alex to see that the desert had almost come to an end, being replaced with sparse trees and high rocks and cliffs that were a distinctive orangey-red in colour.
"Where are we?" Alex asked eventually, his face still pressed up against the window, watching as the rocks and trees flew past.
"Southern Utah. Bryce Canyon National Park. You know the place?"
"Vaguely. Haven't been here before though," Alex nodded.
"Apparently it's pretty. And there are things called hoodoos, whatever they are," Jak snorted.
"Hoodoos? Where do you get this stuff from?" Alex frowned.
"Interwebs. I can access it when and wherever I want," he sounded smug.
"Oh, so you're not really all that clever," Alex rubbed his eyes absently, "You just quote from Wikipedia or something?"
"Everyone knows Wiki can be unreliable. I'm actually finding information direct from the National Park website, if you must know," Jak huffed.
"Swish swish, fancy," Alex commented, still staring out the window, admiring the various rock formations that he could see in the fading light, "Do I get to stay in a hotel tonight?"
"Apparently there's one right on the entrance to the proper National Park site, so I suppose so. I can try and clear it with Crossfire if you want, for both you and Bill. Separate rooms of course," he added.
"Like hell," Alex scowled.
Jak sniggered, "Ok, one room. It's cheaper that way anyway. Just don't you get any ideas."
Alex growled at him, folding his arms.
Jak continued to sound rather amused as he drifted slightly in the convoy, "Crossfire, Pulse and Freeway are going to meet up with the other Autobots straight away, but Tract, Drag and I will stay with you and Bill. Reaper will do the usual and float around watching the sky."
"Thank God for a bed, seriously," Alex sighed, "No offence to your seats or anything, but I look forward to a bed. Even if the Decepticons come and try to kill us, don't wake me up."
"I'll remember that," Jak muttered, continuing to lazily drift this way and that.
"Well, I mean, if we're in danger, then wake me up," Alex clarified quickly, half wondering if Jak really wouldn't wake him up if they were attacked.
"Yeah, I will, don't you worry. I'm not that stupid," Jak flashed his blinkers, and while Alex couldn't see them, he knew he was doing so, since the two little green lights on the dash flashed with them.
"Didn't say you were," Alex relaxed back in his seat, "And I know that you're thinking about turning this into a little bicker. Don't even try it."
"Aw Al, come on, man. Don't be so boring. I need to amuse myself. I can only ram Tract up the backside so many time before he puts a dent in my hood," Jak whined.
"I'm so glad we're nearly there," Alex sighed dramatically.
"Fed up with me already?" Jak sniggered, "Almost three days together. Think of the years we may be together. Hey, who knows, I can even pose as your car after the Decepticons get lost. Then we can be together forever."
"Oh God, no," Alex groaned, hiding his face in his hands, "The horror!"
"Love you too, Al."
"More or less than Bill?"
"She's hot. I love her body. But I love all of you," Jak adopted a soppy tone, "You make me feel complete."
"Stop it, before I hurl on your leather."
"Oh, that's so sweet, Al, you don't have to," Jak continued.
"Jak!" Alex thwacked the dash, even though he knew it didn't really achieve anything.
"I like it when you beat me like that, honey," Jak snorted.
"I hate you," Alex wound down the window, and before Jak could stop him, he'd stuck his head out, yelling out to Traction who was just in front of them, "Traction, would you please kill Jak for me!"
"Stop being such a pathetic baby, Alex!" Bill's voice came from where Freeway was trailing behind them.
He just ignored her and sat back in his seat, just in time to see Traction slam his break lights on , causing Jak to simply career into his backend with a sickening crunch.
"Traction!" Jak yelled angrily as the Ram casually appeared to shake himself off and carry on his way, virtually no marks on his paintwork. Alex didn't care that he nearly cracked his head open again when Jak hit Traction, too busy laughing immaturely at Jak.
"You are going down, Alex," Jak warned, "When you least expect it, you're going to be a mark on the pavement."
"Like you'd get a chance to do that," Alex ran a hand over his face, grinning, "I think you'd be the mark on the pavement."
"I'd like to see you try," Jak growled, revving his engine.
"I'll just ask Traction to take you down. He seems pretty good at that so far," Alex stifled another stream of laughter.
"Yeah, yeah, you laugh it up, human. You wait," Jak grumbled.
Alex shook his head, still rather amused at the simple action that wound Jak up so much. He ignored Jak as he dissolved into irritated mutterings about his paintwork and what he was going to do to Traction when he had the chance. Alex just continued to smile as he turned his attention back to watching the scenery though Jak's window
Eventually as Jak finally ceased to grumble and moan, they turned off the road they'd been on for a fair while, following a large sign that pointed to Bryce Canyon National Park, as well as the hotel Jak had mentioned being advertised underneath it as being the next turning on the right.
They didn't have to go far before they reached the hotel, the lights blindingly bright in the rapidly disappearing light, showing it to look a little like a motel, just with a large central lobby, which appeared to have both a general store as well as a shop that sold gifts to tourists, most likely at ridiculous prices. Hopefully they'd have food Alex could stock up on, maybe even a few t-shirts. And beer. How Alex craved alcohol all of a sudden.
Up ahead of them, Crossfire and Pulse pulled off the road, while Traction and Drag in front of them turned into the hotel. Jak followed them, almost clipping Traction's rear wing, obviously on purpose, as he swung around them into a parking space.
Behind them, Freeway pulled over behind Pulse and let Bill jump out, before the three vehicles moved off again, simply carrying on into the dark, a single bright light in the sky above them trailing after them, suggesting Reaper would follow them for now.
Once parked, Jak let Alex out of him without a word and he jumped out, patting Jak on the roof, "No hard feelings, buddy?"
"Yeah, sure, sure," Jak muttered, though he didn't sound as bitter as he had a few minutes earlier.
Alex smiled at him and shut the door before casually sauntering over to where Bill was waiting at the lobby entrance, watching Drag and Traction parking up beside Jak.
Bill didn't bother to greet him and just waved a hand at him in general, "Clothes, Alex? As lovely as your chest is, put it away."
He blushed, frowned then looked down, cursing loudly as he remembered his lack of shirt. Darting quickly back over to the parked Autobots, he went over to Drag, tapping on the window, "You have a shirt for me, yeah? Oh, and I hope you're feeling better after earlier," he added.
Drag appeared to be ignoring him for a little while, until he finally opened his driver's door, revealing a few shirts piled on his seat.
"You are a lifesaver," Alex smiled at him and leant in, grabbing one of the shirts and quickly tugged it on. He'd barely got out of the way before Drag slammed his door shut, narrowly missing catching Alex.
"Hey," Alex scowled at him, "Grumpy git."
There was another pause before suddenly the Aston Martin's alarm went off, the horn blaring, lights flashing, drawing all surrounding attention to the car, and subsequently Alex. A good number of people walking around the hotel site glanced his way, either tutting quietly or looking distinctly unimpressed. To make it even worse, Alex began to hammer on Drag's window, hissing at him angrily to shut up.
Bill looked like she wanted to intervene, however decided against it, turning away, running a hand through her hair as she intently studied a hanging basket of various brightly coloured flowers next to her.
Eventually someone who looked very much like an armed hotel security guard casually wandered up to Alex who now had his face pressed against Drag's window, the alarm still blaring.
"Sir?" he came to a halt next to Alex.
He detached his face from the glass and looked up, "Oh… Uh, hi."
"Is this your car?" the man asked.
"Uh. Yeah. I locked my keys in it and can't get them out now," Alex glanced at Jak, then Traction, wondering if they were yelling internally at Drag for drawing attention to them. He sure hoped they were. He didn't really like the fact that he looked like he was trying to break into an Aston Martin. He'd already broken into Drag once, as it was.
"Wouldn't it have been more productive to request assistance in the lobby rather than try to break into the car, sir?" the security guard raised his eyebrows questioningly.
"Probably," Alex admitted, knowing he looked oh so guilty and sounded extremely lame.
"I'm going to have to escort you to the front desk, sir. To check if this car is in fact yours as you claim it is," the security guard indicated the entrance to the lobby, next to where Bill was standing, looking around her in mild interest.
"I'm not even a registered guest. Yet," Alex added before even realising that he'd just managed to turn the hole he'd been digging for himself into a giant open mine. At least, he thought, he was wearing a shirt now. It could have been worse.
Or so he thought, until he heard, through all the racket his alarm was making, Drag click his parking brake off and begin to casually roll back down the slight slope they were on, straight into a rather large and ornate bush with a resounding crunch.
"Ok, now I didn't do that!" Alex insisted before the guard could say anything. The man just stared at Alex before taking his arm and beginning to pull him forcefully towards Bill and the lobby entrance.
Bill glanced at Alex briefly before once again hesitating, however this time she decided to act and she quickly jumped forward, blocking the guard's path.
"Oh, hello there," she smiled at him, casually flicking her hair over her shoulder, "I see you've found my… Husband," she said the word slightly too quickly so that it blurred into something almost unintelligible, "Has he managed to get the keys yet?"
"Ma'am?" the guard paused, frowning.
"The keys in our," she glanced at Drag briefly, "Vantage."
"DBS," Alex corrected her.
"Oh, of course," she shrugged, "Well, I managed to lock the keys in the car and sent him out to get them. Apparently he hasn't?" she blinked innocently at the guard.
He shook his head, looking a little stunned by Bill, "Your car also just rolled back into the front border, ma'am."
"What? Oh, damn, I forgot the brake," she shook her head before suddenly frowning, shoving a hand in her jeans pockets, rooting around a little before pulling out a set of keys Alex guessed belonged to her BMW she'd left God knows where in Las Vegas, "Well look what I just found! Apparently they weren't in the car. Did you even try the handle, darling?" she looked at Alex.
Alex blinked and then slowly shook his head, "I… No I didn't. Well that was stupid of me. I should have tried that."
The guard frowned, trying to get a good look at the keys Bill was holding rather tightly, trying to hide the BMW insignia on the sleek black design, "Well, ma'am, if you could please remove your car from the flower boarder?" he reluctantly released his grip on Alex's arm.
"Of course, straight away," she nodded, grabbing Alex's hand before hurrying across the car park to Drag in the bushes. Once she reached him, she fumbled with the cars, pretending to unlock him, Drag thankfully playing his part and falling silent, his blinkers flashing once in unison as if Bill had indeed unlocked him.
"You yell at him," Bill pushed Alex towards the Aston Martin.
"Thank you," Alex rolled his eyes and yanked open the driver's door, sliding into the seat with a sigh. He grunted quietly as he pulled the door shut behind him and prodded the steering wheel in front of him, "Seriously, that was stupid and irritating, Drag. I know you obviously have some serious attitude problems, but that's a sure fire way to get me into some serious trouble. Want me to be taken away from you guys? Wait. Don't answer that. You want me to be taken away from you guys and then killed? All because of you?"
Drag didn't verbally respond, but did start his engine and begin to creep up the slope slowly back into the parking space he'd been in. Bill purposefully began to fuss over the back of the car as he pulled out of the bushes, trying to keep up appearances for the guard watching them, despite the fact there wasn't a mark to be seen on Drag's pristine backside.