Eventually they reached the entrance to the park and a small wooden cabin situated in the middle of the road, which widened slightly to accommodate it. In front of them, Traction, then Bill and Freeway passed through a barrier system with ease. Alex internally braced himself to be stopped, however the park ranger at the cabin simply looked at the annual pass and waved them on through.
"Easy for a change," Alex sighed in relief.
"You think the ranger was going to leap out and shoot you?" Jak sniggered.
"I wouldn't be damned surprised," Alex grumbled quietly.
"You're getting paranoid, Al."
"Well excuse me if I can't ever look at another car or uniformed person in the same way. Hell, I bet I'll even think coffee machines might leap at me at any minute," he ran a hand over his face.
"Yup, paranoid," Jak repeated.
Alex sighed loudly and pressed his face against the glass again, watching as trees flashed past rapidly, "How far until we meet up with the guys?"
"They're at the quietest, most sheltered place in the park. It's called Paria View. Most tourists don't bother going there because it's over shadowed by more popular areas and they're rather visit Bryce Point for the oh so pretty views. It's almost in the middle of the park, and off a little bit."
"How far is it?"
"'Bout six and a half miles. We'll be there in no time."
"Glad to hear it. There anything I should know about these 'bots before we meet up with them?" Alex sat back in the seat with another sigh.
"There're four of them. You've got Gasket. He's a rough and tumble kind of guy, into the same things as Pulse and Traction. He's a pretty good mechanic, even though his work is a little patchy. I think he's cool with humans, treats them well. Then there's Torque, like Drag but without the serious attitude problem. Smooth, sleek and snazzy. He's laidback and cool. Flywheel is big in a chunky sense, like Tract. He's a no-nonsense guy, and would happily go into a Decepticon stronghold guns a blazing. He'd probably come out unscathed too. And then there's Kickdown, my old buddy. We're good mates, known each other forever. But we got split up when we got to Earth and put in separate teams. Can't wait to see him again. There used to be a leader like Crossfire, however he was killed in battle recently. Overhaul was pretty impressive, to say the least. Shame he got torn apart," Jak sighed, "Stupid Decepticons."
Alex grimaced slightly, "Nice."
"That's one way of putting it. Apparently they're up against equals, in the sense that there are four Decepticons. I know of Redline, but the others, Manifold, Drophead and Crankshaft must be new recruits. They've been trying to get to something in the centre of Bryce Canyon, down in the basin, but the Autobots have been successful in keeping them at bay. They're not entirely sure what it is, so we're going to help them take a look, since we can help defend at the same time," Jak explained.
"Do you guys even need to talk when in your natural forms?" Alex raised his eyebrows, "You constantly know what's going on."
"Crossfire filled us in last night. Our internal com is extremely useful for sharing information whenever we want or need it," Jak gave a small shrug.
"Fancy walky-talkies," Alex grunted.
"That have a rather good range," Jak agreed.
"Like interstellar range?"
"And some," Jak bobbed up and down lightly.
Alex sighed and nodded, "Don't you share any of your technology with humans?"
"Not if we can help it. As Crossfire likes to say, your capacity for war coupled with your primitive and destructive methods would wipe you out. We're not going to help you do that."
"Says the one who's locked in a war lasting millions of years that's destroying your home planet."
"Learn from our mistakes," Jak shrugged, "Simple as that."
"Just saying it's a bit rich coming from you," Alex shrugged too.
"I guessed, but y'know. We don't want you going the same way as us. You've got a lot of developing to do."
"You tell that to some people, they'd say we're fine as we are now."
Jak snorted, "I'm sure Pulse, Crossfire, anyone of the older guys would tell you to take a good look at you."
"You've been around few more million years longer than us," Alex reminded him.
"Hence why you're a young species and have room to grow. You're currently in the rebellious teenage stage of life, wars left right and centre. Hopefully you'll age and mellow out nicely, more successfully so than us."
"Hopefully," Alex echoed, nodding in agreement, propping up an elbow on the narrow window edge before resting his chin in his palm, once again staring out the window blankly. He'd never really been one for car rides, finding them boring and uneventful, so staring out the window was about the best way he could think of amusing himself. Apart from talking to Jak of course.
He watched as pine-like trees flashed past them, the occasional gap in them revealing either an expanse of orange rock and sand, the occasional tourist group, or the feature that Bryce Canyon got its name for; the canyon.
Although nowhere near the size of the Grand Canyon, the shear numbers of rock features were what gave it its beauty. The formations that Jak had correctly named as hoodoos were both mysterious and magical as they rose out of the canyon floor like clusters of spears, all of varying shapes and sizes, the wind having carved them into what Alex could see when he caught the odd glimpse. The rock ranged from a deep red, close to the colour of Jak's paintwork, to vibrant shocking oranges as well as the odd flash of white and cream, all swirled together into the canyon to create an extremely bright, seemingly unnatural phenomenon.
Alex was tempted to get Jak to drop him off so that he could try walking one of the trails down into the canyon to get a better look at the strange formations, however he knew that there'd be no way he'd be let out of an Autobot's sight, especially with a lurking Decepticon presence. Maybe once things were cleared up he'd be allowed a little look. A walk with Bill perhaps, or maybe even one of the Autobots. He was sure they'd be dwarfed and hidden amongst the rock features. Shame that Jak wouldn't be able to make it down there in his car form, because Alex would have betted a fair amount of money that hiking with Jak would be a laugh, to say the least.
Lost in his daydream and absent thoughts, Alex barely realised that they'd finally come to a halt in a concealed car park, which he guessed was empty of tourists' vehicles despite the number of cars currently there. Including the Autobots of Crossfire's team, there were ten of them, and he supposed Reaper was up above them somewhere getting great views of the canyon, no doubt.
Four cars that made their number up to ten were parked neatly over to one side, a medium duty tow truck nose-to-nose with the large fire truck that was Crossfire, the two of them obviously talking to each other. The other three cars, a deep blue Chevrolet Tahoe, a Mitsubishi Eclipse a similar dull orange to the surrounding rocks and new style Dodge Challenger in a far brighter orange, with twin central black racing stripes, were parked in a line facing the entrance to the car park through, which Jak had just entered as the last one to get there.
Alex had only just managed to take in all the Autobots when the Challenger suddenly started forward, buckling and twisting as he folded like origami into his natural form and bounded across to Jak.
"Oh man, it's so good to see you!" the 'bot Alex guessed was Kickdown greeted Jak with an enthusiastic tone that only Jak himself could match, "We even wound up getting complementary vehicles forms. Us and our muscled rides, eh?" he grinned at Jak, bending down slightly from a height Alex estimated was eighteen foot.
Jak rocked back on his suspension and lifted his nose up to Kickdown, Alex grimacing slightly as he was forced backwards, "Right back at you. Long time no see."
"Four Earth years, if I'm not mistaken," Kickdown nodded, "You gonna ditch the human riding in you and get on up, yo?"
Jak's hood lowered a bit, and he gave a quiet grunting sound, "No can do, Kick. For a start, I can't 'ditch' the human; he's my responsibility, my friend and is extremely precious. And secondly I haven't been able to stand up for three years now. Broken," he added in an undertone.
Kickdown's rather animated face frowned then his blue optical eyes widened in shock, "No way Jak, no way."
"Yes way. Stuck like this. And Pulse can't do damned thing 'bout it," Jak dropped back down onto his wheels.
"Let Gasket have a go, he'll mend you up easily," Kickdown shook his head.
"I'm sure he'd have a go, but if Pulse can't do it in three years, Gasket can't do it in three minutes. I've had to resign to the fact that I'm gonna have to stay like this forever," Jak flicked his windscreen wipers on once, which imitated the shaking of Kickdown's head.
"Aw Jak," Kickdown shifted himself into a crouching position that made it easier for him to look directly at Jak, "That sucks, man."
"Don't I know it," Jak shrugged, "Suppose it's not too bad though. I do get the responsibility of looking after the human."
"I take it it's the special one that Crossfire told us about?"
"That's the one," Jak agreed, "Get on out Al, let Kick and the others check you out. Bill from Freeway too."
Alex pulled a face, not wanting to get out of the comfort of the Mustang to be scrutinised over like he had been with Crossfire's team, then Freeway.
"Saw that," Jak didn't waste anytime in commenting.
"Shut it," Alex grunted, opening the door before taking a deep breath and slipping out.
"Good boy," Jak praised him patronisingly, receiving Alex slamming his door a little harder than normal in response.
Alex stuck by Jak as Kickdown leant closer to him and eyed him up, "Not as scrawny as some humans," he commented, "Still fragile and easy to break though."
"He's relatively sturdy," Jak shrugged.
"He'd have to be in order to ride with you," Kickdown grinned as he continued to eye up Alex. Behind him, excluding Gasket - the tow truck talking to Crossfire - the other two Autobots Alex didn't know buckled and twisted into their natural forms to get a look at Alex. He couldn't help but feel a little like a freak show, and even when Bill shuffled over to him, he still didn't feel comfortable at being stared at.
The largest of the three Autobots who resembled Traction in a way eyed up Alex and now Bill before sniffing, or whatever his equivalent was, "That's Fusion alright."
Alex was violently reminded of Sidelight claiming he could smell it too and couldn't help but flinch and back himself up against Jak. Apparently some Cybertronions had good senses of smell.
"Don't freak the human out, Flywheel," Kickdown straightened up and gave him a light shove.
"I was merely making an observation," Flywheel frowned at him.
"It apparently scared the human," the other smaller Autobot, who was around the same size as Drag, commented.
"Hmm," Flywheel fell to eyeing up Bill instead.
"Does he have a name?" the smallest one asked.
"Of course he does, Torque," once again Kickdown shoved the other 'bot.
"You have to stop with that habit," Torque grumbled, brushing his arm down where Kickdown had touched him.
"You know he is standing right in front of you," Jak commented loudly, "He can hear you. Ask him, not us, for his name."
Alex shuffled slightly and looked down at his feet as the three sets of bright eyes once again looked down at him.
"Name then?" Torque prompted.
"Alex," he muttered, glancing up briefly at the smallest of the Autobots.
"Nice to meet you Alex," he nodded in greeting, "Your friend?"
"No Fusion there," Flywheel sniffed again.
"Cut that out," Kickdown grunted.
Bill frowned slightly and looked up at Torque, "I'm Bill. I'm just keeping Alex company."
Behind Alex, Jak snorted loudly and rocked back and forth in amusement. Both Alex and Bill turned to give him identical deadly looks.
Luckily they were both saved from being stared at by the other group of Autobots when Pulse and Traction came over to join them in their humanoid forms. Flywheel didn't hide the fact that he was now looking Traction over, his eyes lingering on the various weapons scattered his body as he sized him up. To Alex, they seemed reasonably similar, their heights and builds almost identical and their faces the only thing that were different, however upon closer inspection, it appeared that Traction had far more technology about his person than Flywheel. For this reason, the lesser equipped of the two adopted a jealous and slightly huffy expression as he looked away from Traction who, while looking rather smug, casually flexed one of his arms. Pulse cast him a sideways glance but didn't bother to say anything, his attention caught by Gasket and Crossfire converting out of their vehicle forms too and moving over to them.
Alex peered between Traction and Pulse, looking for Drag and Freeway who he spotted standing a little way off together. Freeway looked like he was trying to engage Drag in a conversation, but Drag had his arms folded across his metallic chest, looking like he was ignoring the younger Autobot in favour of watching the entrance to car park as if he expected Decepticons to turn up and join in the party.
"It's good to see everyone here," Crossfire spoke up, drawing Alex's attention away from the two youngest Autobots, "Apart for Reaper who, as ever, is keeping a look out from above," he looked down at Alex who was squinting up at him now, "Did you two have a nice sleep?"
"Uh…" Alex glanced at Bill then shrugged, "It was ok, I suppose."
"Good," Crossfire gave a short nod before addressing them all, "Today we plan to split into two groups in order to determine what the Decepticons are after in the canyon. We will have those on the rim who will act as a lookout and be first to engage if they do arrive, and then the group who will look for the thing of interest. The teams are decided by each Autobot's unique abilities. Those who stay up here will be myself, Gasket, Flywheel, Traction and Jak."
"Hey what?" Jak cut in, "You're putting me with the fighters? I'm hardly as big as you guys nor heavily armed!"
"I'd like to see you make your way down into the canyon on those wheels," Gasket flicked at finger in his direction.
Jak made a loud huffing noise, "Fine, whatever. I get to be the usual decoy then?"
Crossfire nodded, "Of course."
"You do it so well too, Jak," Drag sounded almost like he was jeering as he smirked at the Mustang.
"One day, I'm going to bust you up big time," Jak grumbled quietly, receiving a loud laugh from Drag in response.
Crossfire shot Drag a warning glance and he quickly quietened down, allowing his leader to continue to speak, "The rest of you, that is to say Pulse, Torque, Dragstar, Freeway and Kickdown will go into the canyon. As the smallest of us all, you'll find it easier to hide and blend in with the natural features. Reaper will also cover you from above to avoid unwanted drop ins."
"And us?" Alex spoke up.
"Hmm," Crossfire looked thoughtful, "I'm not sure whether to keep you away from what the Decepticons seek or not. You'd be safer in the canyon, however due to it being slightly more open."
"I'll stay with Freeway," Bill said stubbornly, "I know he's capable of looking after us."
"Very well. Alex, you can go with Torque, he will look after you to the best of his ability," Crossfire nodded.
"You hear that Torque," Jak twisted his wheels in his direction, "'To the best of your ability'. He isn't even allowed to trip over a rock and graze himself. You guard him the whole time. That goes for anyone else who even just touches Al."
Torque shrugged, turning his palms skyward, "Of course Hijack."
"Good," he gave a resolute bob of acknowledgement.
"Is everyone clear on what you're to do?" Crossfire looked around at the assembled Autobots.
"You did go over it quite a number of times," Kickdown rolled his eyes.
"For a reason," Gasket nodded.
"Good," Crossfire inclined his head, "Revert to your vehicle forms and prepare to move out as soon as you're ready."