Chapter 120

=0=Near the Administration Building

He walked out from his duties sauntering over to the mess hall. He was happy. Things were going his way. Daniels paid well and so did Nast. Daniels knew about Nast but Nast didn't know about Daniels. Playing both off against each other was good business. He was making a nest egg against the future, Nast was going to give him a job when his enlistment was up shortly, a position that would only enhance his value to Daniels and he was going to have the life he always wanted.

No harm, no foul.

The sun was warm on his face and he made his way with a smile. Behind him unseen and unheard Mirage followed standing close enough to watch and hear anything and everything. He'd been given the brief to be Inside Man's shadow. Day and night, every moment he was awake, Mirage was there.

Entering the building to join three other soldiers, he walked with them to lunch. Nearby, sitting on the ground in an out of the way spot Mirage waited invisible to everyone but Primus.

=0=Inside

They sat together eating lunch and talking about things, mostly home. Four young soldiers from a cross section of America, they enjoyed each others company. He was the western guy from Idaho, a guy who loved to fish, hunt, hike and camp. Entering the military was what his family did, sending soldiers to the services since before the Civil War. His family was hardworking and decent, wanting everything for their kids.

He was the youngest of four, the fourth one to enter the service and the first one to put his aspirations higher than a good job in a profession that would allow weekends off and an income great enough for the ubiquitous boat and pick up truck his family favored. None of the others would conceive of what he'd done but none of them wanted what he wanted. He wanted what he wanted now. Not later. Not in the next life.

Now.

They chatted about life back in the world and wondered what people would think about the sights here.

"These guys are something else. I wish we could take pictures. I'd love for people back home to know that I'm hanging out with gigantic thinking robots," a boy from Cincinnati said. "Can't find this shit in the old neighborhood."

"No," Inside Man said. "I think if more people could see and know them they would love them. I do. I respect them. Some of them more than others. The twins … those two are just … dangerous. But I like Sideswipe. He's easier than Sunstreaker. I think if Sunstreaker accidentally stepped on you he'd just shake you off and keep going."

The others nodded. "I love the way they roll. Their design is awesome. Have you seen them corner? I've seen Sideswipe turn on a 70 degree angle. No one should be able to stay upright," a young man from Florida said.

"His gyros must be awesome." Inside Man considered that. "There are people out there that would pay unlimited money to have one of them and take them apart."

"Parasites," the youngster from New York said with a sneer. "They'd take them apart, make weapons and sell them to our enemies. We'd end up being fried by laser cannons and melted by plasma weapons. Parasites."

"You don't believe in the free enterprise system?" Inside Man asked with a grin. "Someone's gotta make the stuff that people want to buy and someone's gotta get the designs to do it."

"By taking an Autobot apart?" the New Yorker asked. "By betraying an ally and killing them so some corporation gets to sell weapons to our enemies to kill us? Man, what's the matter with you?"

He shrugged. "I'm not sayin' its right. I'm just sayin' it happens."

"If someone lets it happen," the New York kid replied. "These guys are our allies and the fight like … machines," he said with a grin. "Pun intended. I like them. I love watching them. I only wish I could drive them. Have you ever seen so many sweet rides in one place at one time ever?"

"No. I love those Lamborghinis. But they scare the shit out of me. I've been reading up on them," the kid from Ohio said. "That yellow Lambo can go from 0-60 in 0.2 seconds. SECONDS!"

"I love the Camaro. I love muscle cars. And the Ferraris, the Ligier is sweet and the pickups. I love the Topkick pickups," the kid from Florida said. "The green and yellow one isn't around much but the black one … he's just bad ass."

"Yeah," the kid from New York replied. "Optimus … he's just so big he needs the truck alt form. Peterbilts are my favorite truck design. I like Macs but I think its because I like the bulldog hood ornaments."

"Prime has an Autobot head for his," Inside Man said. "I like looking for the designations. They all have them but you have to look."

"I like figuring out what they can do," Cincinnati said. "I hear that they can see for miles; some of them can make force fields and one of them can be invisible."

"Invisible?" Inside Man asked with surprise.

"Yeah," Cincinnati said. "That blue and white Ligier … he can be invisible."

"No shit?" Inside Man asked with astonishment.

"No shit," Cincinnati said. "It's a Ligier JS 43 and it won its formula 1 racing circuit in 1996. Vintage, elegant and class all the way."

Outside, Mirage smiled. /... classic … elegant … class … I like you, Cincinnati boy .../

"Invisible," Inside Man repeated softly almost to himself. Then he rejoined the conversation again.

Outside, analyzing the conversation Mirage came to the same conclusion that Inside Man did. He was a valuable commodity and the mercenaries who wanted one of them might find him among the most valuable.

=0=In Ops Center

:Jazz here:

:Hello, lover. I'm following our prey and he seems infatuated with my invisibility:

[Pause]

:How do ya know?:

:One of the more astute soldiers who was talking about my classic elegant and most classy alt form mentioned that he thought I might have that capability. Inside Man seemed smitten. Deeply:

Jazz grinned. :He has good taste:

:I agree: A smile reached Jazz even though he couldn't see it and he returned it in kind.

:I'll tell Optimus:

:Good. They're coming out. See you later:

:Count on it. Jazz out:

Mirage arose to watch as the small creatures walked out of the building. Two went back to the Administrative Building and two including Inside Man walked toward the Autobot HQ. He followed to one side pausing to let them catch up but he didn't miss a single word. Inside Man was talking to the Florida boy about cars.

Outside the Autobot Embassy cars were lounging in the sunshine. Most of them were exotic and built for speed and endurance. All of them conformed to the limitations imposed by the height and mass of the Autobots that inhabited them. None of them were chosen for prurient or speculative reasons. All of them were fast, big, well made, durable due to the bot's personal frames and enhanced. None of them were street quality vehicles, even the Topkick trucks that big bruisers like Ironhide chose or the Hummers like Ratchet. All of them were enhanced with things Detroit could only dream about and with speeds sometimes many tens of degrees what their normal counterparts could manage they were devastating in combat and could endure well past that of normal configurations.

They stood nearby admiring them, walking as close as they dared and for a moment it was as if two kids were admiring great cars at a show. But in the back of Mirage's mind they or at least one of them were predators checking out the prey.

When Bumblebee drove up and roared to a stop while getting hooted at over the internal comm link that no one but Autobots hear, they watched, then walking toward him as Sam, his mother and father got out with dogs in hand.

Calling out they came up, they introduced themselves as a friendly conversation took place. As they did Bumblebee transformed and taking leave walked inside. The two soldiers watched him with admiration, the fabulousness of his gleaming yellow alt form still glowing in his root configuration. His parents excused themselves and began to walk to the barracks where N.E.S.T. HQ was. Sam stayed with the soldiers through the rest of the afternoon and by nightfall had found two new friends.

Mirage who was making note of that considered if it was an asset or a loss. He would leave it up to Prowl and Prime. They would know. By the time it was nightfall the soldiers retired and Mirage was off duty until sunrise. He walked to the HQ to debrief and spend the rest of the night with Jazz.

=0=Sam and Inside Man

They walked along the beach talking about home. Both were western boys, both loved hot cars and both had girls that they cared about a lot. Inside Man liked Sam personally and enjoyed his company but Sam was also tight with the Autobots, being chauffeured around by one of the hottest full time. He didn't know why. Something to do with the Allspark, whatever that was, but he also knew he was the inside track for him to gather intel.

They talked about everything and by the time they got onto the subject of the Autobots Sam was comfortable and ready for friendship with someone besides his parents, his car and a couple of the other soldiers who were officers and busy. Being trapped on the island in the name of personal security had been hard even with the town, beaches that were world class and amenities for the population. After nearly three months 'captivity' he was ready for diversion.

"What are they like?" he asked looking up at the stars overhead.

"Fine. Normal. They're alien but familiar." Sam sat ironically on the stones that the Autobots used for their parties watching as the Pegasus constellation shifted overhead.

"But they're aliens," Inside Man replied. "I love them but they're alien. How do you relate?"

Sam considered that question then grinned. "I don't really. I just do." He thought a moment as he watched the moon's reflection on the still dark waters of the sea. "They make more effort to relate to us than we do to them. I find them mostly very comfortable because they take time and effort to learn about us, how to speak to us, what to do. I've really had to adapt so little that I didn't even notice it until you said something. I mean, I know they're aliens and can transform and all that. I mean, my CAR is an alien. But the day-to-day relating? I've had to do so little because they've already done so much."

He nodded. "I like them. I admire them. I hear one of them can be invisible."

"Mirage," Sam said unwittingly. "He's the formula one car, the Ligier. He's sort of hard to know. Hangs with Jazz. But he can be invisible. I've seen him do it. It's the coolest and weirdest thing I've ever seen."

"I would love to be able to do that," Inside Man said.

"Me, too," Sam said arising to stretch. "Let's go down here," he said pointing to a smooth beach near bigger rocks. "Its cool."

Inside Man nodded as the walked onward. They didn't know they weren't alone. They didn't know that Hound was nearby shadowing them, listening in to record every word. It bothered him that the enemy had managed to unwittingly co-opt Sam, their Allspark but he knew it wasn't Sam's fault. He was on their side. He was one of them. They would protect him the same as they would any other Autobot because to them he was one, too.

=0=Morning

The twins rolled out heading toward the firing range. They rolled slowly along soaking up the sun and admiring the shine on each others bodies. The night before had been rowdy and after whooping it up and a fling with Bluestreak they'd decided to buff each other to the nth degree.

Bluestreak, half in the bag and smiling over the idea of two beautiful Autobots enamored in amour over his body and soul lay in a stupor of satisfaction as they waxed and buffed him to a mirror finish. Falling into a stuperous sleep he wasn't aware that they did the same to each other until morning when the glare nearly blinded him.

"You two are too pretty," he said, walking down the corridor with them to the rec room and breakfast. "Honestly, I'm blinded by your beauty."

They both preened and smirked, their servos gripping Blue's. When they finished breakfast with Bluestreak heading for duty in the Ops Center, they decided to shoot something up 'fraggin' good' at the firing range. It was getting warmer and the sky overhead was devoid of clouds for once. Passing the merc's barracks they smiled as those sitting outside got up and went inside, giving up ground at the sight of the two most feared Autobots among them.

"FRAGGERS!" Sunstreaker called out as he paused before the barracks. He bent slightly to look into the windows."FRAGGIN' COWARDS!" He laughed aloud then rolled along with his brother who glanced back to see faces in the window.

Sunstreaker rolled backwards, his blades slipping in and out of his wrist guards. "SLAGGERS!"

Laughing together as the mercs stepped back from the window, they continued on and blew up a number of targets for about an hour.

Inside the barracks nine mercs watched them including the four who had left the patio when they came into view. It was sobering to watch them, two killing machines without an ounce of fear. They didn't know they were half in the bag, having celebrated their 'second decaorn anniversary' with the third mech who was their trine mate. They would never know that. That part of their life was theirs.

The mercs would know a lot about them. They would know that the twins were among the fiercest creatures the universe had thus shown to exist, that they were fearless and violent in a controlled explosion sort of way and that nothing a human could do or show would ever slow them down if they had to protect someone.

They wouldn't know that they were serious about protecting the Earth, that even if Sunstreaker didn't care for humans he would never hurt one without orders or a fraggin' good reason. That Optimus Prime considered them true blue and valiant. That they obeyed their commanders in combat and were prepared to sacrifice themselves for others, that they would cheat to win and that Bluestreak was the love of their shared and individual lives.

They would never know that. They would, however, know that to frag with one of them was a very, very bad idea.

As they rolled past giving hard looks of hatred to the barracks 'just because', the mercs counted their blessings. Given their behavior and even their orders to pick their moments to disrupt they were all lucky to be alive. Mirage, sitting nearby listening to Inside Man chat with his duty mates found himself smirking at their comments. /... if you only truly knew .../