I don't own anything to do with Transformers. Too bad.

Sunset came and Barricade didn't. Skywarp tried to reach him, but neither of the other two Decepticons responded. He decided to do a quick search of the highways nearby.

"I'll be right back. I'm only going on recon in a hundred mile radius of this point, it won't take long."

"But Skywarp, we're in the middle of nowhere. There could be bears or coyotes or something out there. What if-"

He cut me off. "I've done a bio scan of the area and there's nothing taller than your ankles out there. You'll be fine. Just stay here."

With that he transformed and shot off into the night sky, leaving me alone on the rocky point. I sighed resignedly and found a nice smooth place to lie down on, reclining on the warm rock, pillowing my head in my hands. The entire hill was radiating residual heat but the night was surprisingly cold and I was regretting my thin shirt.

I didn't have anything else to do, so I watched the stars. About half the sky was covered by a thick cloud cover, moving in at a steady pace. Thunder echoed from far way.

Just my luck, Skywarp leaves and a storm moves in. It would be just the best if it rains before he gets back.

To my overwhelming joy a fat raindrop plopped smack in the middle of my forehead. I groaned and moved under the scraggly tree, which offered absolutely no relief from the increasingly heavy shower. I hadn't had anything to drink in my short memory, so I took advantage of the rain and opened my mouth to catch what I could.

The shower rapidly turned into a deluge and my clothes now provided no protection from the cold. Steam was rising up from the cooling rocks and they were losing heat fast. Between the mist and the inky blackness of rain, I couldn't see anything. It would explain why what happened next was completely unexpected.

There was a loud roaring, like a 747 jet but worse, and a bright flare of light from the left before my little hill experienced what felt like a small explosion. A tiny rock pinged off my skull, but I was otherwise untouched by shrapnel. There was the added patter of gravel as the area settled in the falling rain

I shivered from residual fear and cold as the rain pelted me, but I got to my feet and edged a little closer to the steaming and smoking pile of rocks. There was what looked like a giant boulder lodged in the side of the rock.

I had barely started to say "A meteorite?" when the rock in the center of the mess begin to grind and shift mechanically. The sound was eerily familiar. I watched in uneasy silence while it rearranged itself into another robot, which wasn't exactly unexpected.

It stood up and started to take in its surroundings, apparently relaxed by the lack of lights or people. That is, until it saw me.

Its glowing blue eyes settled on me and parked it. Its entire demeanor changed in a flash to defensive as it crouched low and started to slide down the rocky hill.

I held up my hands as welcomingly as I could. "No, wait, please don't go."

It stopped. It watched me warily, took another icy look around, and then climbed back onto the wet rock face and sat down. Its eyes stayed on me.

Lightning flashed overhead and I took in its appearance. Dark in color like Skywarp, but much smaller, maybe as much as half his size. His eyes were bright electric blue, and he had a symbol on his chest. But something was wrong. Another ripple of lightning crossed the sky, and I saw that his symbol didn't match the Decepticon symbol on Skywarp.

"You aren't a Decepticon, are you?"

"No. I'm an Autobot." His voice was a much lighter metallic tenor than Skywarp's deep growl.

"Are you going to hurt me?"

"No."

I smiled at him. It was his voice; he just sounded friendly, and male. I decided to take advantage of being recently christened.

"My name's Bravura."

He slowly returned my smile. "I'm Hot Rod."

"Nice to meet you. If you don't mind my asking, why did you just crash land on top of me?"

He laughed, a sound much more comforting and kind than Skywarp's. Hot Rod's whole manner seemed so gentle in comparison.

"Pure coincidence, I promise. I tried to aim for an uninhabited area, but it's just my luck that I found you. And I would say it's very lucky that I landed here after all."

"Oh yeah? Why is that?"

"Because I met you." Maybe I was weak from exposure, but I couldn't help giggling. He was a flirt! "Now I have a question for you. What are you doing out here in the rain?"

I suddenly felt the icy cold of the rain all over again. "Oh. Uh. Well, you see, I-"

I didn't get to finish explaining to Hot Rod that I was here waiting for one of his enemies to come because Skywarp said it for me. Some kind of rocket shot into the wooded hill behind Hot Rod, just missing him. He was on his feet in a heartbeat and in another he was standing between me and the source of the rocket.

He's protecting me? He doesn't even know me...

I heard him coming in first, and then I saw the dim shape of Skywarp fly onto the peak of the next hill over. He was silhouetted against the sky mid-transformation by a blast of lightning behind him.

"Get away from the human, Autobot scrap!"

"Not a chance, Decepticon. Back off before I get nasty!"

With a fierce roar Skywarp launched from the hill and into Hot Rod. I just managed to get out of their way as they rolled across the rock and off the cliff face, down into the tree filled valley a few stories below. I rushed to the edge to see what was happening.

Hot Rod fired a bright blue blast at Skywarp, but it missed and blew apart the soaked trees. Skywarp returned fire, also missing, then dove in to tackle the smaller Autobot. They hit the ground with a bone-rattling thud. Without any warning Skywarp left Hot Rod on the ground, transforming and blasting up to hover in front of me, sliding his wing onto the plateau to position his body right against the cliff. The cockpit was open.

"Get in, Bravura."

"But he-"

"I said get in, so move before I throw you down the cliff with him! NOW!"

I spared one last glance at Hot Rod as he strained to get up. It hadn't been a fair fight. If we stayed, Skywarp might kill him. I leaped from the cliff into the cockpit. It instantly hissed shut and then we were blasting away through the heavy rain.

Edited March 9th, 2010