Chapter Five: Star Struck

"—Perfect for any skin type—!"

"—Next on America's Most Wanted—"

"—No, Spike, it's too dangerous!"

"I have to, Carly!"

Blades glanced down at the small blonde boy beside him with a concerned expression, optical ridges furrowed. The helicopter-bot had invited Cody over to the living room portion of the bunker to watch some television, but the boy had been clicking through channels with the air of someone who was not all there, a frown etched into his features.

Wringing his servos, Blades hedged, "Cody, are you feeling okay?" The boy glanced up at him, and the television remained on a human soap opera.

"What do you mean, Blades?" Cody blinked, setting the remote down.

The helicopter-bot shrugged weakly. "I don't know...you seem…sad."

Cody looked away, fiddling with the remote in his hands. "Ah, not really, Blades. A bit disappointed, I guess, but nothing you should worry about." He met the bot's gaze with a smile, appeasing him somewhat. "Now, how about we watch Wheel of Fortune?"

"I'll make this brief, Chief Burns—why haven't you caught that demented speeder!?"

Charlie's gaze shifted from the police report in his hands to Mayor Lusky's flushed visage, and he sighed. "I already explained this to you, Mr. Mayor," he pointed out, setting the report down on his desk. "The speeder drove into the woods—even with our technology, I'm not about to send my team on a wild goose chase."

As the mayor sputtered, his meaty features tomato red, Chief Burns went on, raising his hands in a placating manner. "Believe me, Mayor, we'll find him there aren't many places he could run off to."

"W-well, what about the ferries?" Lusky fumed, clenching his fists. "That's how he got here in the first place, isn't it? No one owns a car that ostentatious in Griffin Rock!"

Chief Burns nodded. "Yes, that's the only way he could've arrived. Though, oddly enough, Captain Shaw never saw him board…"

"I don't care!" the rotund man seethed, shaking his fists. "He's a menace! His little rampage already cost us hundreds of dollars to repair!" Lusky took a deep breath before heading for the clear double doors of the police station. "Just find him, Chief Burns."

As the door feel closed behind the mayor, Charlie leaned back in his seat, folding his muscular arms over his chest as he watched his uninvited guest's silhouette depart.

"Of course, Mr. Mayor."

Frankie walked quickly across The Lab's never ending grounds, juggling an enormous sealed vat in her thin arms when her cell phone rang.

She groaned loudly but didn't slow her pace as she tremulously hefted the container to one arm with a grimace, fishing the phone from her pocket and sticking it between her ear and shoulder so she wouldn't drop her cargo. "Hello?" she muttered, regaining her grip on the vat, the liquid inside it sloshing against the sides.

"Frankie!" Cody greeted cheerily, "Hi."

The girl rolled her eyes at her best friend's lack of tact. "Yes, what is it, Cody? I'm a little busy..."

"Oh? Doing what?"

Frankie frantically searched for a viable excuse. "Oh…um… a project with my dad."

"Can I help?" Cody inquired eagerly.

"No!" she said quickly, but brought her voice down. "I mean, it's my own project. With just me."

"Oh," Cody started, his voice dropping with obvious disappointment, "Okay. I'll see you at school then."

Frankie groaned as she received at dial tone. "Great job, Francine," she grumbled, slipping the cell phone back into her pocket with another equal amount of hassle. "First he gets his birthday ruined by some speeder, and now you've hurt his feelings. What an awesome friend you are!"

She finally reached her destination, one of the final warehouses, and pushed the door open with a few nudges of her shoulder, still mumbling to herself. The giant robot within had his back to her and sparks flew from what he was working on.

"I didn't know humans talked to themselves!" the bot mused without turning around. "I guess you learn something new every day." Frankie sent his back a glower.

"Very funny," she chided sarcastically, planting the heavy vat onto the concrete, "anyway, I brought you the weird blue stuff you asked for."

The sparks instantly stopped and the robot whirled around, his mask sliding away to reveal a grin. "Ah, so the old man was able to refine it from the sample you gave him?" he affirmed, easily picking the container up and inserting it into a slot under the armor over his arm. Frankie nodded.

"Yeah. Daddy had a couple questions, but I just told him that I was trying to discover a new element," Frankie shrugged.

The burly white bot chuckled. "You organics are strange."

Frankie rolled her eyes. "You're one to talk, Wheeljack. Anyway, what're you working on?"

An excited look sparked his optics, and the girl quickly regretted the question as the Cybertronian grinned, turning back to pick up whatever he'd been working on the table behind him. "A layer of more durable armor," Wheeljack said over his shoulder, banging lightly on the battered metal covering his chest, "I took a beating from those 'Cons and I intend to return the favor."

Frankie rocked back on her heels, looking over the supplies that had accumulated since the bot's week of occupying the warehouse. "And your communicator?" she asked off-handedly.

Wheeljack snorted. "Fraggin' things fried. I'd have to get to my ship, which I believe is three states over, and across an ocean." He paused to glance down at his pitifully battered frame and grimaced. "And I'm in no shape to take that on. The 'Cons would leave me a grimy stain in the dirt."

The girl made a face. "You're sure optimistic."

Wheeljack shrugged, returning to his welding. "There's not much room for optimism when you're in a war."

"You're in a war?" Frankie echoed, brow furrowed. "You mean...these ''Cons' are the bad guys?"

Wheeljack guffawed with his back still to the child. "Yeah, kid. They're really bad guys."

Frankie was quiet for a moment, tapping a foot against the concrete as she brooded. "Why are you fighting?" she finally questioned.

The bot rolled his shoulders, as if shrugging off the question. "Lotta reasons. But in the end, we all lost."

"What do you mean?"

"We lost our planet," Wheeljack grunted, just as Frankie gasped and the doors to the warehouse were opened.

"Oh, is this what you've been doing, dear?"

Both Frankie and Wheeljack froze the welding stopping and the pair silenced before the girl turned rigidly to face her beaming father.

"Uh….what do you mean, Daddy?" she grinned innocently, vainly hoping that he didn't see the hulking robot behind her. No such luck.

"The bot," Doc Greene clarified, nodding towards Wheeljack who had frozen with his backside facing the humans. "That's why you asked for that odd liquid," the scientist realized, taking a few steps closer to the robot, his daughter nervously falling into step behind him, "it was a fuel source!" he exclaimed, grinning obliviously. "ingenious." He wrapped an arm around Frankie's shoulders, bringing her closer to him a one-armed hug as he happily observed Wheeljack. "I'm very proud of you, my dear."

"Um…yeah," Frankie coughed, "about that—"

"Oh, how did you do it!?" Doc Greene declared, moving away to look over the bot from all angles. "I mean, I know that you inherited my brains, but this is simply amazing, Frankie! Did you cannibalize what was left of Trex's extra parts, or—my, I can't even form a coherent sentence!" the scientist turned to meet his daughter's gaze, looking more like a kid in a candy store than anything else. "Could I take a look inside it?" he asked hopefully, oblivious to how Frankie and the bot abruptly went rigid. "I mean, this is almost exactly like Chief Burns' Rescue Bots, think of the possibilities—"

Frankie winced, seeing the growing and barely suppressed fury in Wheeljack's otherwise emotionless visage, quickly stepping in front of her father. "Uh, yeah, I don't think that's such a great idea, Daddy."

Doc Greene blinked. "Why not, my dear?"

Frankie faltered. "Oh…um…well…"

The scientist put a comforting gloved hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Do not worry, Frankie! Your bot will still be in perfect condition when I'm done, you have no need to worry. I am a professional you know."

Doc Greene took a step closer to Wheeljack, and Frankie caught something snap in the bot's gaze. Wheeljack glanced down, though the doctor didn't notice. "Don't even think about it, fleshy," he growled irately. Doc Greene jumped back with a yelp and slowly looked up at the behemoth glaring down at him.

"Uh…F-Frankie?" the scientist wavered, taking slow, cautious steps back to his daughter's side. "You bot…"

"He's not really mine, Daddy," Frankie grinned, before gesturing extravagantly in the bot's direction. "I introduce to you my friend, Wheeljack. He's an autonomous robotic organism from the planet Cybertron."