Thanks to Waterfront and Vigatus for reviews.

I was so screwed. Judging by Grimlock's grumbling of Swoop's name, he had correctly assumed that I was cause of all this mess. "Um, sorry Grimlock," I barely made out before Sludge interrupted me. "Not Kendra's fault. Kendra only teach how to paint. Then fight begin. Not her fault."

Everyone looked surprised by that. Except for Swoop. Freaking flier was grinning like crazy. Grimlock shifted back a bit, unsure how to react. "Fine. All still clean up. With human too." Seeing how I was expecting to get squished, that punishment didn't seem too bad.

All right, I took it back. Scrubbing the walls clean was ten times worse than getting squished into a pancake. At least it would have been quick. It was made even worse by Slag giving me dirty looks every few seconds. Apparently he didn't agree with Sludge's idea that it wasn't my fault. This was going to be a long day...

Several hours later...

Everything was finally cleaned off. The paper rolled up gently into another roll to look at later. The walls cleaner than they were before the paint mess. Only mess left was on the Dinobots themselves. "Do you want me to help?" I offered. Only Swoop took me up on that, judging by the way he perked up. "Kendra clean Swoop." "Outside." I said firmly. "Yes. Outside." I followed him out of the base, out in the middle of a forest. For some reason there was a hose out there. Don't question it, Kendra.

It took a couple tries, but eventually I got it working on spraying down Swoop. Most of the paint come off with the first couple sprays, but some of it was stubborn. I sighed. I picked up a sponge, making my way to the closest smear. I pressed down hard, scrubbing to get it off. Swoop, for some reason, started giggling. "Ticklish." He explained between chuckles. "Oh, are you?" I grinned, reminded of Alec's tickle attacks. My smile faded quickly.

The Dinobot noticed. "Kendra sad?" "I miss my brother." I admitted. "You have a brother?" "Yes, a brother. His name is Alec and I really miss him." The flier shifted back and forth. "Swoop sorry." "Excuse me?" "Sorry that took Kendra away from Alec." He clarified. Now was my chance. "Alec misses me too. You could find out where I live and take me home. Then I wouldn't be so sad."

"Will do that." Swoop agreed, but his eyes were...sad? Call me a sucker, but I fell for it. "Maybe just one more day with you guys and then you can come visit whenever you want, Swoop." My suggestion cheered him up so much that when he moved (almost danced, I say) I fell off him. "Ow..."

Grimlock was confused. He didn't understand the human at all. Or Swoop's apparent trust in her. Or most of all, Sludge standing up for her. The entire situation was perplexing. Even more so, the fact he was starting to admire the little femme's bravery in standing up for herself against beings many times her size.

Said femme walked into the room, arms full of...Autobots equipment. Even stranger, Swoop was right behind her, carrying some more. "Ok, everyone, we are going to play Super Smash Bros. Brawl, got it?" She announced to the Dinobots. "Why." Slag said flatly. "Because it'll be fun. Fun is good." With that, she started setting up what Grimlock now recognized as the Wii system from the Autobot recreation room.

One thing he knew for sure was he liked this human. Even more now since her stand against Slag.

The opening music played. It was time to teach the Dinobots the joys of video games. You're killing their brain cells. I dismissed the thought. I didn't think these guys had ever played before, judging by their curious fiddling with the over-sized controllers. They were boys, and pretty much every boy I knew, including my brother, enjoyed video gaming. They just had to get the hang of it.

"Who do you want to be?" All four of them exchanged glances after seeing what was on the screen. "I'm going to be Pikachu." I moved my cursor over and clicked on it. "What's a Pikachu?" "A yellow mouse that shoots lightning bolts." "I wanna be the pink ball!" Swoop, of course, was the first to volunteer. "I'll be the dragon-turtle." Slag decided. Bowser, of course. Sludge couldn't decide what he wanted so I just picked Link for him. At the last second, before we went to pick a stage to fight on, Swoop accidentally switched characters. "Ha, Swoop pretty girl!" "What pretty girl name?" Swoop questioned. "It's Zelda." "Like name. Zelda. Cool name."

Of course Slag had to butt in. "Human names stupid. Zelda stupid." That was going a little far. "Excuse me, at least I don't get the mental image of a piece of crap every time someone says my name." Everyone stopped a second to process the fact that I had just insulted Slag. "Grr. Human pay!" He showed his teeth at me, about to tear me to pieces, I imagined. "You can get revenge on me by beating up my Pikachu. Now let's fight." I said this too calmly, shaking inwardly at the fact that a really big mech seemed ready to kill me. "Unless you're scared?" Gosh girl, you really have a death wish.

Slag's eyes narrowed. "Slag beat itty bitty yellow mouse in game!" "Game on." Now hopefully to save my butt.

Laserbeak peeked out of the vent at the Dinobots below. She chirred softly to herself. Spying on the Autobots was her job, despite what others might think. Of all the Autobots, the ones that could possibly be the most unpredictable and violent were the Dinobots. No Decepticon could control them, and believe her, Megatron had tried.

On the flip side, the Autobots couldn't control the Dinobots either. The Dinobots fought for the Autobots, mostly because of their creators on said side. But the Autobots didn't outright control them. The Dinobots were independent of all others.

Which left the question of why they were listening to an organic. A puny human female, that Laserbeak had never seen before. Not in the company of Autobots like Chip Chase and Spike. A strange 'teenager', to use human slang, that somehow commanded these beserkers. Even Slag and Grimlock followed her direction. Where did she come from?

Laserbeak winced at a particularly loud triumphant shout. "Pretty lady turn into ninja!" "No fair!" "Ha! I just kicked your butt!" In aftermath of various yells, the Decepticon spy made her getaway.

After several rounds...

I watched them play more rounds, my back against Sludge. My notebook was opened and I was taking the opportunity to sketch some more Dinobot pictures. This time ones of my own interpretation. I smiled a little as another one of Snarl's and Slag's arguments started up again, this time over the stupidity of each others' characters. Almost absentmindedly, I drew a picture of the pair fighting physically, in their dino forms.

Then added a second one of Grimlock banging their heads together, inspired by Grimlock's shouting at them to get back to "fighting on game." There was more ideas flying around here than anywhere else I had ever been. Especially home. I shifted, made uneasy about the thought that technically I had been kidnapped by Swoop. And I was unlikely to ever see these guys again once I returned home. Earlier, I would have been cheering at the thought, only missing Swoop. Now...I would miss them all.

Grimlock, the leader who acted like he didn't care but really did. Sludge, the gentle giant that was incredibly loyal to his comrades. Snarl, whose indifference hid the fact that he didn't really know what he wanted in life. Slag, an aggressive mech who reminded me of what it must be like to have annoying older brother. And Swoop, a highly intelligent guy that was always looking for new possibilities. Someone may ask how I got these conclusions. My answer? I'm an artist! I had also seen similar behavior among Alec's own friends.

One question cycled through my mind. What would Alec think of meeting the Dinobots?