But before we went anywhere, we all got to see the machine that made it all possible. Perceptor was already at the scene and he was very impressed by the machine.
"It's a bit bulky, but very efficient," he said as he dug through the computer driving the machine.
"So this machine turned you all in human beings?" I thought out loud as I walked around the big glass tank where they were held when their consciousness was extracted from their robot bodies.
"Technically speaking…" Perceptor looked up from the computer to give us a detailed lecture. "… they are not human beings but synthoids. Synthoids can be moulded from a biomimetic polymer-like material which can be programmed to assume human form, duplicating clothing, voice, and behavioural characteristics of the original subject. So that's why they can superficially pass for genuine human beings, exhibiting intelligence and autonomous personality."
We all stared at him with our mouths opened a bit.
"Yeah… I knew that…" Springer said when nobody said anything.
"What did he just say?" I asked Rodimus. "I just picked 'human', 'programmed', 'clothing', 'voice' and more 'human' and he ended with something about 'personality…"
"Hey, being the Autobot leader doesn't make me an expert in science terminology you know…" he replied. He just as baffled as I was.
Perceptor let out a sigh. He would have rolled his eyes if only if his optics would have allowed it.
"So how long will it take for you to figure out how this works and put us back into our own bodies?" Ultra Magnus wanted to know.
"Ow… a few hours… so you might as well take off with Alyx and have some fun," he suggested.
"Or we could help you," Ultra Magnus was not in any mood to go out again in this type of body.
Springer was about to say something similar but Arcee gave him the kind of look that would shut up any man – flesh or mechanical – so he swallowed what he wanted to say.
That's when Spike and Daniel showed up.
"Hi Arcee," Daniel said kinda shy. "So that's what you look like as a human being?"
She gave him a smile face to face for a change. "Hi Daniel."
"Technically speaking…" Perceptor looked up from his work again but the same look from Arcee that shut Springer up just now, silenced him as well. "Uhm… never mind." Quickly he turned his attention back to his work.
They felt a slight breeze blowing through their hair and looked to where it had come from.
"Where did Rodimus and Alyx go?" Arcee noticed they were missing.
"Off they go," Springer pointed at the exit where they just saw a beating wing and some tai feathers fly off.
We weren't going to wait until everybody was finally ready to take off so we used the distraction to get out of there.
It was still early in the evening, the sun was just starting to set, giving the sky a pinkish golden glow.
"Where are we going?" Rodimus asked when we flew high above the city.
"A store with some decent men's clothing," I said. "No offence."
"We didn't have much choice at the time," he explained his poor choice of clothing. "We were running for our lives and needed something more that the underwear – or whatever that was – what we wore."
I soared down into an alley to transform back without anybody seeing me. Using my device that materialized my outfits as I transformed back to my flesh or organic metal self I got into an appropriate outfit. Being a cute summers dress in an army green color, which looked real nice with my curly, fiery hair (orange/reddish with natural highlights). With that I had a cute little bag for some girl stuff.
The dress did show the spotted pattern that ran from my shoulders down to my lower back, narrowing down as it got lower. My long hair covered most of it though. Most humans weren't used to seeing people with jaguar spots on their skin. Not that I cared, but I didn't need the extra attention.
"Aren't you gonna be cold in that?" Rodimus wondered.
"Not with you around," I said with a somewhat shy smile. "And the weather is great, too."
Now I finally had him blushing and he felt it too.
"Are my cheeks flushing…? My face feels so warm all of a sudden…" he touched his cheeks with his fingers. "So that's what that feels like!"
It was so cute to see how he discovered this whole new world that had opened up for him.
He swung his arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer. "Let's find that store."
And there it was, a casual and stylish menswear store. I picked out a nice fitting summers denim pants, dark brown and nicely showing his cute butt.
To go with that he picked out a casual white shirt with long sleeves he rolled up to his biceps.
Luckily the store had shoes as well so he could get rid of those awful boots.
"This sure feels better," he said when we walked out the store.
"I thought it might," I grinned.
He swung his arm around my shoulders again. "You don't mind, do you?" he checked.
"Are you kiddin'?" I wrapped my arms around his waist and gave him a huge smile.
We walked around for a while, window shopping, like a couple of young love birds. Oh well, 'like', we WERE a couple of love birds!
"I think I'm getting hungry… my stomach is making the strangest sounds and feels kinda empty." He said as we walked along the pavement towards the centre of the city.
"Well, let's go get something to eat than. That shouldn't be so hard here."
"I don't know if I can handle this human food… Drath's girlfriend gave me a cup of coffee and that tasted awful."
"The bitch gave you coffee?!" I growled. "I should have knocked her out when I grabbed her! Or drove my claws into her flesh… I hate coffee… I totally can understand why you don't like it."
We came across the central park of the city. The same one where we walked around in chapter 11.
"Let's try something simple in quiet surroundings," I suggested when my eye caught a hot dog stand in the park and pulled him through the entrance.
"We can get food in the park?"
"How long have you been living among humans?" I pointed at the hotdog stand. "You can get food anywhere!"
"Oh, those… I've seen those before!" he recalled when he saw the stand, not far from the entrance.
I got us both a hotdog with everything on it. We ate it sitting on a bench at the large lake in the park. A gorgeous large weeping willow – with it's fresh green leaves and long, thin, hanging branches - gave us a nice cover from most other people walking past.
"You like the hotdog?" I asked Rodimus as he stashed it below his nose.
With his mouth full he nodded. He must have been starving… or at least it seemed that way. I grinned.
When we finished it I quickly ran back to the stand to get us some drinks. A coke and some juice without bubbles, cause I remembered how I responded when I tasted my first coke. (I heaved it right out again after taking a mouthful in, showering all over Prime's dashboard! He took me through the drive in, totally ignoring the 'height' signs. Well, at least he left the trailer behind on a parking lot…)
First I let him try the coke (coca cola coke, no white powdery shit, just to avoid misunderstandings). "Okay, try that one first, and take a small sip!" I handed him he bottle with a straw and took some steps back.
He gave me a wondering look. "What's that for?"
I grinned. "I remember what I did after my first coke."
Carefully he took a small sip from the straw and indeed, his response WAS like mine!! But he didn't spray me! I laughed out loud, holding my stomach with one hand and the juice in the other.
Rodimus gave me a frown so I tried to stop laughing. "Come on, I took a whole mouthful! And it came out the same way. On Dad's dashboard!"
"No WAY!" he laughed.
I nodded. "He wasn't amused… or angry for that matter." I gave him the juice and sat down on the bench again next to him.
"That's juice, no bubbles and all red fruits, nice and sweet."
He tried the juice, first a small sip and than some bigger ones. "That's better. Say, maybe I should try me a beer later?" he said out of the blue.
"A BEER?! And that kind of stuff you DO know?!" I took a huge sip from the coke, I was used to the taste by now and got to like it.
He shrugged his shoulders with a grin. "Spike likes to have a beer so every now and than."
I grinned. "That I've got to see, you drinking a beer."
He put one arm over the back of the bench and looked me in the eyes. "So what do you think of me in this form?"
I blinked with both eyes as I swallowed my last coke … he got my by surprise again… I felt my cheeks burn up AGAIN.
"Yeah… it's … it's yet another you..." I stammered. "Cute version… very cuddly version…"
"Hey, what can I say, I'm an all-around guy," he said with a grin.
I nodded, gazing into his gorgeous blue eyes, thinking about what I would do next. He was soooo kissable!
Luckily I didn't need to think very long cause his arm moved from the back of the bench to my shoulders and pulled me close… very close. When his lips touched mine I was sure I was gonna melt or something like that…
I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him right back cause those lips were soft and warm and … irresistible.
He looked up for a moment. "Whoooh… that's quit different… so intense…"
"Yeah, I know…" I grabbed his face and pulled his lips back on mine.
We must have been sitting there kissing, entangled in each other's arms for like at least ten minutes till it was rudely interrupted by my mobile. Not just letting go of that kiss just yet I got the mobile out of my bag and glanced onto the screen to see who has such lousy timing. Rodimus gave it a glance as well. Spike.
Reluctantly we broke off our kiss – but not the embrace - and I answered my mobile. "This better be good!" I said.
"Perceptor got the machine going, thought you'd like to know." He informed us.
Rodimus took my mobile. "Does that mean we have to get back right now?"
Short discussion on the other end with Perceptor.
"Not necessarily, the machine can do it's trick any time we want."
"Great, in that case I'll stick around in this body for a while longer. Call me when you need me, like if there's SERIOUS Decepti-trouble or an apocalypse. Later, Spike!" He pressed the red button on the mobile to end the conversation. "There."
I smiled with tingling eyes. "You are so amazing!"
"Thank you." He sealed that with a kiss. "So are you."
It was getting dark and chilly when the sun disappeared behind the horizon.
"How 'bout we take Daniel's advice he gave us last week?"
I gave him a questioning look.
"Get a room?"
"Oh, my, Rodimus," I cuddled up even closer. "Do you even know what that stands for exactly?"
"Hey, humans may not talk about that a lot around us, but I do watch tv," he said with a mysterious smile.
"Well, in that case I'll let you surprise me," I pressed a soft kiss on his lips and we got up to leave the park.
Don't worry, I won't use too much detail in the next chapter. I think… haven't made up my mind about that one...
