My eyes were blurry when I woke up. I blearily reached up to rub them, stretching out my legs at the same time. I finished waking up with a start after a jolt of pain went down my legs. Looking up with clearer eyes, I saw I was in a...bird-cage? A bird-cage, of all things? And my legs had just banged against the metal bars, signifying to anyone with a half a ear that their human prisoner was awake. Great.

"Ah, I see the fleshbag is awake at last." A big grey one grabbed the cage and swung it closer to his red eyes. I couldn't help it. I backed away until I hit my back against the bars. Telling by his smirk, the mech was amused my outright fear of him. "W-what do you want with m-me?" I barely made it out. His smirk grew even larger. "You don't need to know, insect." Without warning, he let go. I yelped as I was tossed all over the place with the cage's swinging.

After it had swung to a stop, I rubbed my head, glaring at the mech's disappearing back. If I had to guess, that would be Megatron, the biggest Decepticon jerk of all. Once he was completely gone, I shivered, wrapping my arms around my knees. This was completely terrifying. How would I survive?

"You giant robots are going to pay for what you've done-" "Whoa, ma'am. Calm down a bit." "I WILL NOT CALM DOWN!" A choked sniffle. "How can I when my daughter's been kidnapped by the Autobots again?" What? The answering Autobot double-checked his audios. Did she just say-? "Ma'am, as far as I know, there are no humans in the Ark at moment." A pause. "Where's my daughter then?"

Frenzy looked up at the cage hanging far above the metal floor. "What's with the human?" His twin shrugged. "Don't know. Boss wouldn't tell me." "He didn't?" "Well, he said 'Details: not important.', but that's basically the same thing." "Huh." Rumble shot a side glance at Frenzy. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Frenzy smiled, a kind of smile that meant trouble. "Sure am."

I sat there, bemoaning my fate. And maybe trying very hard not to cry. "What's it doing?" I sat up. Where -and who- was that voice coming from? "It's making a weird noise." "Let me see." Noise of some scuffle echoes around me. Finally, I can't take any more. "I am NOT making a weird noise."

Silence. "Whoa, did the squishy just talk?" A new voice spoke, sounding very similar to the first. Twins, maybe? "I'm not a squishy either." "Yes, you are." "No, I'm not." Before things got any worse, the first voice interceded. "Whoa, you're human, right?" "Yes?" "Humans are squishies. You are human. So, you're a squishy." He sounded very smug in his logic.

I snorted. "Yeah, so? Where did you even come up with a stupid nickname like 'squishy'?" "...you're right. Squishy's a stupid nickname." "Oh, the mighty Frenzy admits he's wrong." "Shut up, Rumble." Two robots came forward into my small circle of light. They were both exactly the same except that one was blue and the other red. "Twins." "Yep, we're twins." The second voice that had called the other Frenzy came from the blue, which meant... "You're Frenzy, and you're Rumble, right?" I pointed to each mech as I said their names.

They looked impressed. "Whoa, I didn't know squishies were that smart." Rumble spoke first. "Again, with the squishy. Stop that." The twins stared at me, so I softened it a bit. "Please?" "Why aren't you freaking out?" Frenzy. "Huh?" "You know, screaming. Laserbeak said that you were really loud once you saw Soundwave. And Ravage, but he doesn't really count" "I have no idea." Really, I didn't. None at all. Are you just scared to admit a phobia of giant robots to slightly smaller robots that don't trigger that phobia? The voice in my head really needed to stop talking.

They looked skeptic but didn't push. Time for a topic change. "Laserbeak and Ravage are...?" "Oh, Laserbeak's our sister. She looks like what you would call a bird. Ravage, he's a cat." Strange, the only animal mode ones I knew were the Dinobots...I wondered how they were doing?

Grimlock paced. Before, he could have taken this period of doing nothing but fighting here and there. But since Kendra, everything had changed. Swoop had told the rest of the Dinobots that Kendra said she really cared about them.

Normally the Dinobot leader would have just put it down as 'Swoop being too nice' (like always), but actions speak louder than words, as humans say. Kendra had actually kept her temper with the idiotic actions of Slag and Snarl, Sludge's clingy-ness, and Swoop's overall happy personality. She also had fun with them, not treated them like pests. Dangerous pests that could smash you through a wall.

Now she was gone. Something about how Swoop had grabbed her without permission from her creators, and she went back to them. Not that was surprising. Much. He blamed the Autobots. They had been having so much fun...

"You go in there and tell them." "No, you." "I'll let you have my ration of energon." "Not for all of the energon in the Ark." Bluestreak and Bumblebee. But what were they talking about?

Grimlock poked his head out of the room. "Tell me Grimlock what?" If it was possible for Cybertronians to go pale, the two would have accomplished it. They both ran for it in the opposite direction. Bluestreak was too slow. The Dinobot flicked his tail out, pinning Bluestreak to the wall as Bumblebee made his get-away. Putting his face close (maybe too close), he growled, "Tell what?" "Ah, Grimlock, um, er, I'm not sure how to break it to you..." Grimlock put more force behind his tail, effectively stopping the grey Autobot's attempt to wriggle free. "Now." "Well, Yourhumansgonemissing." Tighter. "Fine! Your human, Kendra, she's missing. and it looks like the Cons took her. And that's really, really bad."

Bluestreak dropped. He scrambled to his pedes, running as fast as he could. Not a moment too soon, for Grimlock began painting the ceiling in flames...

I shivered, dropping my hand to the back of my neck. "Cold, squishy?" Rumble asked, barely holding back a smirk. Jerk. "No, just a strange feeling that something really bad happened. Really, really bad." "That sounds stupid." "Have you ever felt it?" I shot back at Frenzy. "No? Then don't say it's stupid."

Both sets of red eyes widened. Frenzy broke the silence. "Whoa, Laserbeak was right. You are a tough squishy." "Tough against Dinobots, too." Rumble added. Wait, what? "What are you talking about?" The twins shifted nervously, clearly attempting to avoid my gaze. Frenzy spoke first again. "Well...you see, Laserbeak's in charge of spying on the Autobots. And she saw you with a bunch of Dinobots, not getting smushed."

Taking my silence for misunderstanding, he attempted to explain. "Smashed flat. Gooshy human guts everywhere." "That's pleasant." We sat there quietly for a few moments. It seemed like the twins were privately talking to each other, but it wasn't my business. I didn't need to talk to anyone...right? Nope, I didn't. Not at all.

::This squishy is really strange.:: ::Tell me about it.:: Frenzy heard the clear note of admiration in Rumble's com. ::You...like the squishy?:: ::What? No, not at all!:: The red Con scoffed at his brother's denial. ::Uh-huh. Sure, you don't.:: ::I don't!::

It collapsed into chaos quickly after there. They both started shoving each other, not caring about the human's shocked staring. Rumble was in the middle of pinning Frenzy down when the noise came. The effect was immediate. Both Cassettes made their way out of the cage and slide down. And not a moment too soon.

They scurried away, as the human's glance was drawn to the figure going through the door. Good luck, squishy.