"Whoa! What!? No!" I cried, throwing up my hands and taking a few very fast paces backwards, stumbling over my feet as I did so. "For the love of God, please don't shoot me! C'mon man, I like living!"

The other two humans, Sam and the girl were crying out in protest too, waving their arms like crazy. Oh good, they didn't want me to be blasted to smithereens either. What had I ever done to deserve this? I was good person, wasn't I? I paid my bills and my taxes, albeit a little reluctantly but still. I hadn't broken any laws of late, I hadn't killed anyone or assaulted them or whatever. I was twenty six, unmarried with an apartment, a car – well, I had a car – and I was about to start taking some courses so I could finally get a decent job. It was a few huge steps up from the lifestyle I had been raised in. What had I seriously done to deserve this? I had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and now I was going to die for it? It wasn't my fault the Pontiac-bot was a lunatic driver.

"Stop," The barked command from Optimus Prime was enough to get even me to stop moving. I froze to the spot like a deer in the headlights. I inched my head around so I could fleeting glance at the Autobot leader, all the while keeping the bulky black bot with the big arsed cannons in my sight. Please tell me he wasn't about to let this trigger-happy robot nutcase blow me up. "You know we don't kill innocents."

"I'm innocent," I announced, shaking my head frantically. "Very innocent. Innocent like a baby."

What? I'm not allowed to babble when I have an alien cannon staring me in the face?

"I was just having some fun," the black painted alien shrugged his shoulders before glancing at that Sam kid. "Your friend doesn't feel so lucky, punk. How 'bout you?"

My breathing relaxed and the absolute terror in my chest was gradually replaced with flaming indignation as Sam Witwicky swallowed thickly. This robot thought that was funny? It was a joke to him? Are these alien guys all pricks or have I just been remarkably lucky to have been unanimously picked as their source of entertainment for the evening?

"My weapons specialist, Ironhide," Prime introduced the coal coloured bot, exasperation clear in his metallic voice. Ironhide seemed the perfect name for the dark robot with the big guns. It seemed like grenades would bounce off him just as readily as criticism. Ironhide stowed his myriad of massive weapons away and gave a small, self-satisfied smirk as we feeble humans cowered in fear. I had a moment to wonder how funny it would be if I applied some magnetised learner drive 'L' plates onto his forehead, or his back. Somewhere he couldn't see it.

"Our medical officer, Ratchet," Optimus continued, gesturing to the bot who had taken the form of the search and rescue Hummer. He made a motion akin to sniffing and I wondered if they had olfactory senses like humans. A mere moment later my curiosity dissolved as I struggled to mask my laughter. I wasn't sure if doc-bot had a sense of humour or if he was just plain oblivious to the way humans address the topic of sex. That is to say, not at all in polite company.

"The boy's pheromone levels suggest he wants mate with the female," he said as though this had some kind of relevance to everything that was going on. I was suddenly extremely comfortable standing about two metres away from the 'happy' couple who scratched their heads and looked around awkwardly. I mean, I was blushing for crying out loud, and this had absolutely nothing to do with me.

"And you already know your guardian, Bumblebee," Optimus Prime continued as though absolutely nothing had happened. They were probably just confused about our reactions. They were robots after all. Anyway, the Camaro-bot, Bumblebee, was shadow-boxing like crazy and cranking some mean tunes.

"Check on the rep, yep second to none," were the lines that blared out of his stereo and I got the vague feeling that he was grinning like a schoolboy. It was hard to tell though, since he was the only one without a distinctive mouth.

"Bumblebee, right?" Sam repeated as though he may have misheard the huge metallic being. Suddenly the garish yellow and black paint job made so much more sense. It would have been weird if he was called Bumblebee and then he was blue and white or something. "So you're my guardian, huh?"

Great, the kid gets a guardian alien and I've had two try and kill me in the last hour. That's just, just not fair.

"His vocal processors were damaged in battle," Ratchet, the doc-bot said pointing a little red laser light at the other yellow bot. It must have tickled or hurt or something 'cause Bumblebee made a strangled coughing sound. "I'm still working on them."

One of these alien fellas that can't talk. He's automatically my favourite. Er, right after Optimus, who stopped his pal Ironhide from shooting me. Yeah, Optimus was top-bot. Sorry Bumblebee.

Sam nudged the girl next to him and she looked frustrated at him for a second but he was clearly insisting something. She gave him a blue-eyed glare and swallowed nervously, looking around at all of the Autobots, each of them towering over her.

"I'm – I'm Mikaela," she said, her eyes darting around. She seemed charged with anxiety. I could sympathise. She turned around to face me, almost looking at me pleadingly. "Who are you?"

Dammit, why'd I have to be last? How was I supposed to divert attention?

"Er, Bonnie. Bonnie Jones," I said, all eyes turning to me. I have a horrible nervous tick where I have to scratch my eyebrow and man, I was scratching it so crazily at that point someone probably thought I had fleas. Or a skin disorder or… yeah, never mind. Let's not go there.

"Bonnie, Mikaela, your presence is unfortunate," Way to make a girl feel wanted Optimus. Cheers. "We had hoped to retrieve the glasses with minimal human involvement in our affairs."

"I can un-involve myself," I gave a wavering smile and spun about, intending to march off and head straight to the nearest psychiatric ward. Only Ironhide stomped his stocky metallic leg down right in front of me and jostled me back towards the centre of the circle. I threw my hands up in a submissive gesture, putting myself right back where I came from next to the two teenagers. "Okay, apparently I'm involved. So, uh, what are these affairs of yours?"

I think it was safe to say that I was losing that sense of absolute terror I had possessed around that massive metal beings but a few moments previously. I mean, yeah sure, they were still scary as all hell, but Boss Bot didn't seem to want me dead and the others all looked like they were pretty loyal and all that, following his lead. Maybe they seriously just enjoyed messing with me, getting off on my evident waves of terror, and really it was only two of the five so far that had been horrid. Look at the bright side; I was still alive despite my fat mouth deciding that being rude to Jazz was a good idea.

"We are on Earth looking for the All Spark," Optimus Prime began, looking at us three itty-bitty little humans in a away that made me extremely self-conscious. Not of my appearance you see, but of my moral short comings. Yep, I could see why his soldiers were so loyal despite, you know, being soldiers. "And we must find it before Megatron."

Yeah, that doesn't sound good. If the Autobots are the good guys and I find them so downright terrifying, I could only imagine what an alien 'bad guy' looked like.

"Mega-wha?" Sam looked confused and a damn sight less scared than Mikaela or myself. Not cool man, showing us girls up like that.

Optimus seemed patient and understanding of our lack of knowledge as to whatever was going on, and for that I was eternally grateful. He turned towards an empty space of wall beside and I stared at it, trying to work out what was so special about this completely random section of bricks. Then light and images danced across the surface, near on scaring the panties off of me. I glanced back and saw that Optimus Prime was projecting it from his eyes.

Attract alien robot as a pet. Get free in-home theatre. Oh Lordy.

The projection showed a world of metal, stone and fire, a dark world filled with chaos that could be barely distinguished. The film was taking from a rise, above and behind whatever was happening. I had a brief though that Optimus had likely stood there and witnessed it himself.

"Our planet was once a powerful empire," He began, his voice taking on a timbre I had heard only once before. When my grandfather lay upon his deathbed and reminisced on the things he regretted, but had no power to change. "Peaceful and just. Until we were betrayed. By Megatron, leader of the Decepticons."

This guy sounds like a dick already. A truly peaceful and just world? It sounds like a paradise humans could only imagine. Our race just didn't understand the concepts. Why would anyone want to destroy that?

"All who defied them were destroyed. Our war finally consumed the planet, and the All Spark was lost to the stars,"

I cringed as a figure rose up amongst the images, hurling a weapon that laid low another bot which was trying to stealthily escape. The brief glimpse I had of Megatron did nothing to dissuade my growing fear of this creature, this monster, that I had never seen, and hopefully never would. He looked nothing like the Autobots around me. They had colour, emotion and seemed vaguely… human, for want of a better word. This Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, was completely alien and the very sight of him chilled me to the bones, though it was only a projection. His armour was dark, his eyes glowing red and feral, nothing like the cerulean ones the Autobots boasted.

"Megatron followed it to Earth," Huh, all the planets in the galaxy and it had to end up on the one with billions of oblivious, squishy humans. "Where Captain Witwicky found him."

Sam made a sound that was somewhere between disbelieving and enthralled. "My grandfather..?"

"It was an accident that intertwined our fates," Optimus said with a slight smile, shutting off the projection. He did not do so before I could see dozens of robot … corpses, lifeless and hanging, behind Megatron's daunting silhouette. Revulsion rose in my gut. If Megatron did that to his own people… what would he do to ours?

"Who was your grandfather? This Archibald Witwicky?" I asked, curiosity plaguing me like a contagious disease. I was becoming captivated by Optimus' story and the simple existence of these interstellar beings. It was gradually burning away the lingering terror and suspicion I held towards the bots.

"He was an arctic explorer," Sam said, turning to me. "One of the first men to explore the Arctic Circle. He ended up going mad, drawing crazy symbols no one had ever seen before."

I nodded in understanding, this portion of the tale suddenly making a whole lot more sense to me.

"Megatron crash landed before he could retrieve the Cube," Optimus said. By Cube, was he referring to the All Spark by an alternative name? I figured he was. Optimus didn't seem to notice the slip and carried on regardless. "He accidentally activated his navigation system. The coordinates to the Cube's location on Earth were imprinted on his glasses."

"How'd you know about his glasses?" Sam questioned, squinting up at the massive alien leader. There was a pause before Optimus said:

"EBay."

I very nearly died of laughter but managed to smother it at the last moment. It was such a mundane, everyday thing and yet hearing it in Optimus Prime's regal voice, heck, hearing it from a space alien, was just downright hilarious.

"EBay," Sam repeated almost disbelievingly. I was trying to work out why the glasses were on the auction site. Was he trying to peddle his ancestor's things? I almost squealed when I suddenly heard the bot called Ratchet speak up. His voice was a whole other tenor to Optimus' and, in truth, I had almost forgotten about the other Autobots entirely.

"If the Decepticons find the All Spark they will use its power to transform Earth's machines and build a new army," Remind me to find whoever sent that thing to our planet and kick his arse. I mean, out of all the uninhabited, lifeless planets out there, they had to pick this one? The one the midst of a technological boom?

"And the human race will be extinguished," Optimus finished. Well, no one can say he doesn't tell it like it is. It still wasn't a cheerful thought, but it was the unavoidable truth. After all the times the human race had attempted to destroy itself, that feat would be achieved by hostile members of a colossal, mechanical race.

A fire lit in the pit of my belly. The same fire that told everyone who ever said I couldn't do something to get stuffed. The same fire that had made me so resistant to conformity as a youth. The fire that had gone cold a while back. There was no way I was going to take the extinction of my race lying down, especially if no one else could do anything about since they simply didn't know what was coming for them. Once more I found that long dormant urge to fight and protect stirring, wrestling with the new side of me that pleaded with me to forgo everyone else and just save my own hide. It was a strange feeling, as though I was torn between two personalities, two sets of virtues; those that had served my family, and those that had served my own self when I was forced to walk into the world alone. It was a decision between what was right and what was easy, and I had no idea which way I was supposed to go.

"Sam Witwicky," Optimus said, standing tall and magnificent, the lights of the other Autobots shining off his paint and chrome. "You hold the key to Earth's survival.

Well hot damn, we were all screwed.

0o0o0o0o0

Author's Note

Apologies for the delay. This chapter has been sitting on 'very nearly finished' for the last few days. It's much longer in comparison to make up for it though. I have no excuses except that I am lazy and have been reading some awesome stories, and once I start reading I kinda become obsessed till I finish.

I'm going to keep you guys only a moment longer as I want to say a most sincere thanks to everyone was has favourited, followed and reviewed this story so far. As of the moment the stats are all sitting at 13 which I find hilarious and I apologise to anyone with triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number thirteen.)

I would like to thank the following for their reviews and general awesomeness: CarsCars2Fanatic, TatteredAngel42, HeartsGuardianSol, Reader103, Guest - Random Person, Guest- Wandering Yoda, ReiNyx, RoboDork97, Guest- The Random Guest, emzydatffan and crimsoneyedangel18. You guys are so awesome and so many of you responded to my replies, happy to chat away. Thanks guys, you make my day! There have been so many reviews on all three of the chapters that I haven't had a chance to commend any of you until now. So thank you, fanfic writing would not be enjoyable without you.

Author's note is long, so I will leave you. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you did ( or didn't) please review? Remember, if you giggle, you owe one.

Aether