Chapter 5

"So let me get this straight; you are an alien race called cybertronians, you come from a planet called Cybertron." Optimus Prime nodded and crossed his arms.

After the incident at the warehouse the white Porsche had driven off in the dessert. The car ride had been awfully quiet, considering all the questions she had racing around in her head. The adrenalin had worn off and her body hurt. Some of the wounds were bleeding but it was nothing serious. The car had introduced itself as Jazz and was playing some relaxing music after seeing the human didn't want to talk. Danni had strangely enough relaxed after this. Her head was pounding and her body demanded rest. There was nothing she could do to stop herself from drifting off into sleep.

"Also from that planet; are the Decepticons, who are here to find this Allspark-thing so that they can rebuild Cybertron under their rule, and eventually take over the universe" She heard someone sigh behind her, and Optimus nodded again.

When she had awoken the Porsche had asked her to get out, she did and… guess what? He transformed! Another giant robot was standing before her. Behind him was something that looked like a crashed ship of some sort. "Welcome to da' Autobot Headquaters."

"And you guys, are Autobots, the good guys who tries to stop Decepticons like… Burydock… was it?"

"Barricade" a black and white bot corrected in a monotone.

"Yeah whatever…okay, I understand the concept and all-… but why was the 'Barricade' after me?" Danni asked confusion clear in her voice.

Danni didn't know which she preferred, a quick death at an old warehouse, where she was bound to be found eventually. Or a death in a stinky desert, far away from civilization. She could feel how she got lightheaded, her world began spinning and it weren't long 'till it all turned black

Optimus seemed to ponder for a moment before answering "we do not yet know, but for your own safety and the safety of others, you are to stay at this base till we figured it out."

Danni stared up at him; his words were slowly starting to come across her normal fast brain. "Excuse me, but I have family, and school, I can't stay here!" she shouted maybe a bit more dramatic than intended. Optimus looked apologizing at her.

When she came to, she was surrounded by robots, all looming in over her. The medic had gotten worried when she had paled and had started to run some diagnosis. He had also yelled at the others and shooed them out of the room.

"I'm sorry that you feel that way, but we can't put any more humans in danger" he said trying to sound as reasonable and soft as possible. Danni got his point, but who was he to decide that?!

The medic robot had sat down across of her looking calm "Alright, I want you to try and relax. I understand that you are confused and scared, but we are not going to hurt you" he said looking at her with those superior eyes. Danni had leaned forward, catching her head in her hands "I just want to know what's going on, I don't understand anything of this."

"W-what about this Allspark-fragment-thing, Barricade kept yelling about it" She said desperately, trying to give them what they wanted so she could go home.

She was trying her hardest to hold back the tears; questions were tumbling around in her head. She couldn't find either head or tail in all this, if it wasn't for the headache and pain she would have been sure it was a dream. "P-please, just tell me what's going on" she begged letting the tears roll.

Optimus smiled at her; trying to assure her that things weren't as bad as I t seemed. "I'm sure that we can work it o-" "No! What won't my family say if I suddenly disappear?"

Prime sighed "If you go home now, not only you but also your family will be in danger"

"But he doesn't know where I liv- does he know where I live?" she asked them in terror, suddenly beginning to understand how dangerous this situation could become. The Prime nodded, a grim expression on his face "I'm afraid so".

When she had stopped crying her eyes out, the medic had introduced himself as Ratchet. He had then escorted her to an office where only a few robots were present. They had all given a quick introduction, Prowl, Jazz, Ratchet, Ironhide, Wheeljack and Mirage. She looked expectantly up at the bot in front of her. It was clear that he was someone important, but he didn't look at her like she was a nobody.

She looked nervously down, somewhat afraid of the giants around her. "My name is Optimus Prime, feel at ease young human, you are among friends" despise her insecurity she couldn't help but look up, she straightened her back "my name is Danni Elm."

From there Optimus had briefed her on the situation, explaining to her how's and why's, only managing to make her even more frustrated and desperate to get home.

The meeting had ended, Danni couldn't come up with any good enough reasons for her to go home and was now, stuck at the base. Ratchet who had stayed close to her all the time, lead her back towards the medbay. Danni held her gaze on her feet, feeling miserable and low in spirit.

"Yo!" The human slowly turned around to see Jazz walk over to her and the medic. The saboteur kneeled in front of her so he didn't seem so tall again. "I-I'm sorry about earlier, I guess it was just a bit more than I could handle" the human apologized, referring to earlier. "Nahh don't worry 'bout it dolly, we are cool!" Danni smiled a bit and Jazz grinned from ear-audio to audio. "And …thank you for saving me…" she looked down at her feet, clearly not sure what to say or do.

The saboteur lifted a finger at her "we want you to try and relax, while we sort this mess out. Think of it as a vacation, okay?" Danni smiled and nodded at him "yeah a vacation with a gigantic alien race…" she laughed nervously but Jazz's smile told her it was alright.

"Jazz your shift starts in ten kliks, you might want to hurry up." Another Black and white bot emerged from the doorway, he looked stiffly at them, like he saw them without seeing them. "Just a sec, Prowler!" Jazz yelled back in a sing-sang voice. Danni saw Prowl mumble something before turning and walking off.

"Don't look so pale dollface, he's always like that" Jazz eyes the third in command with a strange look. "Now I think it would be an idea if we kept moving, we still need to find a room for you to sleep in" Ratchet said, getting impatient. Danni snapped around and began following him again, waving discreetly at Jazz.

They didn't walk for long before they were in a recreation room. There were around 10 transformers in there chattering away over a cube of lilac liquid. Danni didn't ask any questions, but follow in behind him. "Alright listen up" the medic quickly drew all the attention "this femme here is Danni, she will be staying at the base for the next couple of days, I expect you to treat her nicely and not to bother her with all of your foolish ideas" he pointed at the human, and she saw most of the bots in the room grin.

The medic signaled for a small yellow bot to come, and he was soon saluted. "Bumblebee, Danni will need a place to sleep while she is here, can we place her with you?" The yellow bot looked surprised for a second before looking down at the human who slowly came out from behind Ratchet. "Sure thing Ratch, something else you need?"

"if you could please show her the way to the medbay later I would appreciate it, I want to make a checkup to make sure everything is fine after our little incident with Barricade" the medic said crossing his arms, "that's really not necessary, I'm feeling fine" Ratchet looked skeptically at her "I really am!"

"We will just have to see about that later" he said and walked back out of the rec room.

The minibot smiled brightly at her, and she couldn't help but feel a bit nervous. "Hello there! Name's Bumblebee, but please just Bee" he reached out a finger for her, and when she reached out with her own hand he gently shook it. Like a handshake. "Danni" she smiled.

"Hey that's the girl, whom Jazz and I saved yesterday."

Danni whirled around looking over at one of the tables; at the table was 3 other bots all different heights and weights. She recognized the one who spoke as Cliffjumper. "Hey human! Over here" when he made eye contact with her, he waved her closer. The blond looked up at Bumblebee before making her way over to the table "yes?"

"Don't worry, Cliff is just like that, he didn't really mean what he said" Bumblebee said, trying to lighten the mood in his quarters. For the moment Danni was lying face down on a make-shift bed that had been set up for her. Bee was trying to cheer her up after her conversation with Cliffjumper, which has resulted in Bee having to step in to stop them, politely excusing both Danni and himself. Danni had been silence under the whole monolog, taking the hurtful words without blinking.

But now, behind the closed doors of Bumblebee's quarters, she let go of the brave façade. "I don't know, he was telling the truth so…" she trailed off, letting the sentence hang.

Bumblebee walked over to her and waited for her to look at him before continuing. "Try not to think about him- you know, if you would like we could go for a ride? You know, go stretch our legs" he flashed a sincere smile and she couldn't help herself from smiling back. "Yeah, that's sounds great" she agreed.

Day had turned to night, when Bumblebee and Danni made their way outside. "Bumblebee was it, right?" the yellow robot nodded his head and transformed.

Danni sighed heavily as she entered the bot, feeling awkward with just being 'inside' him. "Is it alright for us to just leave like this?" she asked unsure, looking down at the steering wheel. Bumblebee slowly moved away from the base "as long as we don't go too far it should be alright."

The steady rumble of the engine was smoothing in any way, Danni leaned back in the seat and simply enjoyed the silence. So much had happened in almost no time. "This must be a dream…" she muttered. Messaging the space in between her eyes. She heard the car chuckle faintly but paid it no mind.

"This should be far enough" he said after some minutes, he came to a stop and opened the door for the human. The cold night wind hit the blond's bare legs the moment she got out. Instinctively she hugged herself, but gaped when she looked at the view. They were standing on a ledge and you could see all the way to the horizontal line. Millions of stars were out in the night sky, twinkling faintly. "Wow…" Bumblebee sat down beside her, watching her carefully.

A sad feature set over her face and she mimicked him by sitting down. "What do you think of this whole mess?" she asked not taking her eyes away from the sky. "Well, I don't know all the details but…" Danni looked up at him urging him to continue "I think that it will be alright, just give it some time."

It was what everybody had told her all day, but it was first now that it seemed to settle in. "I want to go home…" she looked back at the sky resting her head on her knees "I have a younger brother, Jeremy, it's my job to put him to bed… mom don't know how to do it right, he loves to cuddle before falling asleep, mom never do that" she said not really sure why.

Bumblebee sniggered "I take it you're not away from home much?" Danni shook her head, her body had begun to shiver because of the cold, Bumblebee took notice and stood up. "Let's go back to base; we need to go see Ratchet before we go to berth"

"Berth? Don't you mean bed?" she asked with a smile, also standing up, Bumblebee poke out his tongue at her, smirking, "Practically the same thing"