Chapter 7: Persistent

The day after Alexis' arrival was spent mainly trying to establish a decent place for her to stay and filling out large amounts of paperwork concerning said child. Serah insisted upon getting her enrolled in school as soon as possible, even though school didn't start for a another couple of weeks in their town. Apparently, the girl's mother had homeschooled her, though neither woman could even begin to think of how that turned out; they were both incredibly surprised that the girl could even read and speak properly after being stuck all day in a house with her mother. Elaine was adamant about cleaning Serah's house up and making it an acceptable place for the young girl to live, much to the homeowner's annoyance.

"There's nothing wrong with my house." Serah whined.

"There's plenty wrong with your house. And I will fix it or she will live with me and the giant alien robots. Starscream would be delighted to watch her, I'll bet." Elaine snapped back.

That pretty much ended the argument and the muscular woman let her smaller friend have her way with the place. Even though it meant completely clearing out one of the rooms, which before had served as a guest bedroom that looked like utter hell, it was well worth the effort. Elaine had made trips back and forth to the hardware store all day, Alexis in tow. The girl was extremely quiet but surprisingly helpful the entire time; the shop owner already completely adored her and offered to babysit. Elaine told him she'd give him a call, but didn't know whether or not a hardware store was a great place for a little girl and that it was ultimately up to her guardian to make that choice. Then again, her farm at the moment was an even worse spot with three large mechs running around.

"Well, everything's done as far as clearing the room out. Now we've gotta paint it." Elaine smiled down at the quiet girl. "We'll head down to the garage to pick out the colors. I've got lots and lots of paint."

Alexis gave a polite smile back and followed the woman to the building that was temporarily housing the seekers. At the moment, Starscream was the only one in there. It was a good thing Serah thought they were going to be in town all day; she'd have a massive heart attack if she knew where the two were at the moment.

"Elaine." The red seeker smirked. "I see that the youngling survived the night."

"Of course she did, Starscream. I'm not that incompetent." Elaine grinned back at him. "I even fed her this morning. See? She's fine."

Alexis tugged on Elaine's sleeve.

"Can I say hello to him too?" She quietly asked.

"Of course you can!" Elaine laughed.

"Miss Serah says he's a bad guy…"

"Just because he's the bad guy doesn't mean he's a bad guy. He's very nice. Go ahead and say hello if you'd like."

The poor kid looked a bit confused by that statement, but wandered up to the seeker anyway.

"Hello Mr. Starscream!" She smiled up at him.

"Um...hello, youngling." He replied, taking a step back.

Elaine almost laughed. She never would've thought of Starscream as awkward; he was graceful, cunning, and had a way with words most of the time. And yet, here he was, completely out of place trying to talk to a human child, like he was afraid to even move. Luckily, Skywarp chose to come walking in at the perfect time. He immediately noticed the small human next to Starscream's feet. The other woman walked out of his path to avoid getting stepped on. As much as she liked Skywarp, she didn't trust him to pay attention to where he was going while he was focused on something else. She'd have to talk to him about being especially careful around Alexis later on.

"Hey kiddo!" The purple mech walked over to her. "How are ya feeling?"

Alexis glanced at Elaine, who was about to speak when Starscream beat her to it.

"Youngling, this moron is Skywarp. Be careful around him. He's a bit clumsy and doesn't watch where he's going a majority of the time."

"Mr. Starscream, that's not a very nice thing to call your friend. You'll hurt his feelings. You should tell him you're sorry."

The older woman stood off to the side, laughing. Well, she didn't expect the shy child to outright scold someone fifty times her size…It was strange. She often wouldn't speak at all to other people. The only ones she opened up to so far were Serah and herself, and even then it was limited. Occasionally, they'd catch her speaking intently to Titan, as if she was telling the large doberman something very important. The dog would turn his head to the side and listen closely, then move forward to lick her face, ending the entire conversation and sending the girl into a giggling fit.

"I like her already!" Skywarp beamed, looking down at Alexis. "The two of us are going to be really good friends!"

Alexis smiled back up at him. Starscream shook his head.

"Great, just what we need." He mumbled. "Skywarp teaching pranks and idiocy to an impressionable young mind. Where is Thundercracker when you need him?"

"Well…" Elaine cut in. "I'd hate to break this up, but I've gotta get some paint and get going again. We've got a room to finish. Did you decide what color you wanted, Alexis? I've got just about all of them in the cabinet. You can paint your room whatever you'd like; it's yours."

Alexis thought about it for a moment, taking her time to really consider her options. She'd never had a room of her own before. The one at her mother's house had been in the laundry room with a small bed in the corner near the window. The house's small size made it impossible for her to have her own space. In the summer, it was hot and stuffy. In the winter, it was cold and she'd have to turn the dryer on to warm the room. The noise of the loud machine's spontaneous banging and groaning was enough to wake her several times during the night. The child didn't realize how nice it was to have a decent night's sleep until the previous night when she rested on Elaine's couch, warm and safe in a stranger's dwelling.

The little girl walked closer to Starscream, who immediately tensed up. She placed a small hand on his leg and looked back at Elaine.

"I like this color blue." She shyly answered. "And his red."

Elaine smiled.

"So, I'll find that color blue and a red that matches Starscream's paint for you. See any other colors you like?"

Alexis shook her head.

"Alright." The older woman held her hand out to the girl, who immediately bounded over and grabbed ahold of it. "We'll go get them and then we can paint your room for you."

The adult and child both gathered up the paint in some sort of basket and made their way back up to Elaine's truck, leaving the two seekers standing in the barn. Skywarp grinned at his Air Commander.

"Shut up, Skywarp."

"I didn't say anything, 'Screamer!"

"You were about to! And stop calling me that!"

Serah was finally finished with the monotonous task of filling out paperwork. Most of it had been faxed to the Clerk's office, where she sat at one of their ugly tables, in one of their uncomfortable, hideous chairs and proceeded to complete it. All of it. The lady at the desk, knowing Serah and hearing certain incidents the young woman had been involved in around town, eyed her cautiously the entire time.

The large redhead left the building and climbed into her Avalanche, debating what to do next. She knew Elaine would be determined to finish the room today, and was probably almost done with the project. When the brunette set her mind to something, she finished it in a very timely manner and was dedicated to making sure it was perfect. It was a trait that had served her well as a mechanic, and spilled over into everything else she did in her life.

Since the room was being taken care of and all the legal mumbo-jumbo was in order, there were only a couple of things left to do, one of them being the bane of Serah's existence; shopping. She hated shopping with a burning passion. It was mindless, tedious, and almost always a pain in the ass. They had one general store in town that served as a grocery and supply store. It had almost everything you could think of and was quite versatile as far as the inventory went. You could get gardening supplies, meat, birdseed, and Windex all in one trip and be overcharged mercilessly for your transaction. The gruff woman didn't even mind the price so much; it was the people. She always ran into other humans that seemed to make it their personal mission to hold her up and completely obliterate any thought of having a somewhat decent day. Much like the cigarette adventure with the Offensive Credit Card Tourist and the Crazy Lady Standing Outside The Store, everything was more complicated than it should have been.

Luckily for Serah, Elaine was a shopping genius. She clipped coupons like some sort of obsessive-compulsive basket case looking for a bargain, and she always had a card for every single store they stopped at. By the time she was done getting all of the things she needed, she more than likely had spent half the money most people did on the same purchases. The nearest city-like area was about 50 minutes away from the small town, but it contained almost every store they would need to outfit Alexis for school and her new home.

Serah put her truck in gear and began driving to her house. She'd have to go shopping at some point, but she'd be damned if she was going to do it by herself. Bringing Alexis to the city to go shopping without Elaine would end in disaster, not to mention cost her a small fortune since the poor kid didn't seem to have much in the way of possessions. The muscular woman sighed. She had no clue how the girl could be so sweet and polite, not to mention intelligent and articulate for her age, after the way she was treated for the years she had been alive. From what Serah could gather, the girl was a genius and should have been treasured, not abandoned and left behind. Both her and Elaine were determined to give the tiny girl the best life they could; it'd make them both feel like they had some other purpose than to simply plod through life as they were currently were. They could give back and do something positive that wasn't construction or working on equipment for once.

She was so lost in thought that she didn't notice the glaringly obvious, extremely expensive pair of cars parked in one of the parking areas at the local hardware store. How she managed to completely overlook two Lamborghinis that a small crowd of youngsters was practically drooling over was a mystery, and one that would surely come back to bite her in the ass later on.

Starscream was frustrated beyond belief. He didn't realize at first that his comm system had been damaged during their escape from the Nemesis, but it needed to be fixed ASAP if any of his plans were to be carried out. He'd already worked on himself and the two other seekers to mask their energy signatures as soon as he'd had the time. To other mechs, they would appear offline if tracked. They no longer had to worry about being found by any long range scanners and short-range ones would just report three lifeless shells if any other Cybertronians came close enough to actually scan them. Then again, it would be rather difficult to explain why three presumably dead forms were up and walking around, so the seekers had to exercise care and make sure they weren't spotted by either factions.

To make matters worse, they were running a bit low on energon again. The drained bit that Elaine had come across was dwindling in supply and, even running only the necessary systems they needed, fliers still needed a fairly large amount of energon to function properly.

Starscream would have to convert more fuel from the recently refilled tank on Elaine's property and hoped that such a large amount of gas being used at the farm would fly under the radar. He doubted it, and would have to ask the farm owner if there was another alternative they could pursue for the time being. First, he would get his comm link working again. He'd worry about the fuel later because, as pressing a matter as it was, finding shelter for his trine possibly among the Autobots, was more important at the moment. Much to Skywarp's dismay, they couldn't stay on Elaine's property forever. Time was running out and they'd soon have to move on.

On top of all of his worries, a youngling had been thrown into the mix. Starscream was an awful mech. He was well aware of that and had been for quite some time. He had done horrendous things to mechs in both factions, but one thing he could never bring himself to do was cause harm to any sparklings or younglings, no matter what species they were. Seeker protocols prevented that, and so did the mech's own personal views on the subject. When he was a scientist, he was always curious about organics and their worlds and would often tread carefully during his studies. His partner, Skyfire, was the same way. The two fliers thought that there was much they could learn by studying other species. Beyond that, they were both just fascinated with how things worked. Coming to this planet after the two factions had been warring for so long, sparked a long-hidden fascination within Starscream in the midst of all the conflict. He began to explore again, studying everything he could get his hands on, disguising his interest as a pursuit for more energon or more complex weaponry to use against the Autobots. It all came to a head when he'd found his old Academy partner buried beneath the ice. Megatron had not-so-carefully informed him that the shuttle would become a warrior for the Decepticons or be offlined otherwise. Starscream knew of the shuttle's pacifist views and gentle nature. It didn't work out in the end, as he suspected it wouldn't, and the seeker was forced to put aside any friendship he may have had with Skyfire and fire on him. Something inside the Air Commander had snapped the day he was forced to injure his friend. He found himself thankful that the Autobots had arrived and somehow rescued Skyfire from certain death. After getting back to the base and being brutally beaten for his failure, Starscream poured himself into his work, desperate to find an alternative to the senseless slaughtering and fighting. If he could find a way to naturally convert energon on this planet without destroying it and turning it into a lifeless shell, similar to what Cybertron had become, perhaps they could restore their home to its former glory. That had become Starscream's goal. And somehow, Megatron had found out, leading to his attempt to offline his Second in Command and the Command Trine. It didn't explain his off-lining of the other seekers though, and that was still a mystery that had yet to be unraveled.

The Air Commander, despite his disturbing acts of violence and downright nasty attitude towards others, didn't want to fight anymore. Thundercracker and Skywarp, the only other mechs that knew of his view on the war, shared his sentiments toward it. No one wanted to fight anymore, except for Megatron and his most loyal followers, who were fighting a senseless battle in their power-hungry quest to control everything they could get their blood-stained servos on. Those fools didn't realize that their conquest would only lead to more destruction. What were they to rule over when they were finished destroying and ruining every planet they touched? Conquering lifeless lands was pointless. The Decepticon leader, unfortunately, was too far gone and insane to acknowledge that.

With dimmed optics and a visibly agitated expression on his faceplates, Starscream returned his attention to the task at hand. He was not a failure and he refused to be looked down upon as one anymore. He would succeed this time, or die trying. When other mechs stood over his offlined frame, they could remember that his last moments had been spent trying to do something good for the entire Cybertronian race.

Sunstreaker growled and visibly shuddered as one of those filthy humans brushed up against him. He spoke via comm link to his twin, who was sitting beside him.

:: Sideswipe, if one more of these disgusting organics touches my paint job, I'm going to run them over. ::

:: Chill out, Sunshine. You know Optimus would have a fit if you even touched a human, let alone ran one over. Besides, do you know how nasty it would be to have to clean that off your underside? ::

The yellow lamborghini visibly shuddered at the thought. He was filthy from the unmanaged, poorly maintained highways in this puny little town and absolutely miserable to be put on such a pointless assignment. Optimus though, insisted that a team check it out after Red Alert reported a few odd colored jets going down. He was certain there were Decepticons in the area, though none had been spotted or reported by any humans yet. Sunstreaker had deemed it a waste of time and chalked it up to Red Alert's constant state of paranoia. Sideswipe, on the other hand, was more than happy to get out of the base and drive for a while. He wasn't nearly as vain or worried about his paint job as his brother was, though he did try to maintain a halfway decent appearance.

Sunstreaker was about to lose his patience when his scanners picked up something.

:: Sides, did you get that? ::

:: Yeah...residual energon signature. Seems like it was coming from that red truck that just passed by. I wonder what a human would be doing around energon… ::

:: Let's follow it and find out. The sooner we can get back to the Ark, the better. I need to buff out all these annoying little scratches I got on the way to this slagging pit-hole of a place. ::

The two brightly colored cars followed the red Avalanche through the town, taking side streets and a couple of other roads to avoid detection by the vehicle's owner. They came to a stop at a decent-sized dwelling on one of the less busy roads and parked around the corner from the house, scanners and audios tuned in on the truck and house. A tall, red haired woman with a muscular frame gracefully exited the truck and walked onto the house's porch, where she met with a smaller brunette and a child, both spattered with a bit of paint.

Serah met Elaine at the door.

"So, all that fricken' paperwork is done. I swear that most of it was pointless." Serah grumbled. "How's the room coming?"

"All painted. Just waiting for it to dry and opened the windows up to clear out the fumes."

"...Fumes? What the hell kind of paint did you use?"

"Regular house paint. Toward the end I airbrushed some really nice designs and details onto the wall though. You ought to see it. Looks great!"

"You airbrushed the walls?" Serah shook her head. "What the hell's the matter with you? You want to give the poor kid lung cancer?"

"Relax. I sent her out of the room while I was airbrushing. No harm done." Elaine rolled her eyes. "Between you and that damned red giant, I can't get any peace. If you'd both relax and realize that I'm not going to spontaneously kill the kid, things would go alot smoother."

"Don't compare me to that monster!"

"Why? You're both very much alike."

"If you weren't my best friend, I'd choke you."

"That's not very nice." Alexis piped up. "You shouldn't hurt your friends."

"She's right." Elaine grinned. "You really shouldn't hurt your friends."

Serah's eye twitched. She stood up a bit straighter and folded her arms across her chest.

"We need to do something else still. I need your help." She began. "Alexis is gonna need clothes and school supplies, and I need to get a bunch of groceries for the two of us."

"Okay. Well, I guess we'll go shopping tomorrow. It's too late today, and we're all tired. How about you two sleep at my place tonight? The house needs to air out and the paint needs to dry. We've gotta move the rest of the furniture into Alexis' room tomorrow anyway and it's not like she can sleep on your awful couch."

"Hey! My couch isn't awful!"

"Yes, yes it absolutely is." Elaine replied. "It's an abomination. Besides, don't you want to spend more time with me?"

"And risk having to hang out with your new friends?" Serah glared at the smaller woman. "I'll stay for one night, but only to make Alexis more comfortable and to also make sure you don't die in the middle of the night thanks to the interesting oversized dangerous company you decided to keep."

"Thanks!" Elaine smiled at her friend. "I'll get some dinner ready when we get home. Alexis, Titan needs a bath tonight. Would you like to help with that?"

Alexis perked right up while the doberman, who had been extremely quiet for most of the day, sneezed at his owner.

"Ew! Titan, we don't sneeze on people. It's nasty and impolite." His owner scolded him.

"Miss Elaine, may I go see Starscream when we get to your house?" Alexis inquired.

"That's up to Serah, but I certainly don't mind." The brunette tried to ignore the redhead's piercing glare.

"I'd rather you didn't." Serah replied. "But if you absolutely have to go see him, I'll go with you."

The larger woman looked to her best friend.

"And I'll take Titan and your precious shotgun with me too, just in case. I don't trust him and I don't care how nice he's been to you, Elaine. He is what he is, and even you can't change that. If he tries anything, you will take Alexis and run while I take his eyes out."

"He won't." Elaine scowled. "He isn't like that. You can't always believe what you hear or see on the news. He's not a monster, and neither are his brothers. They're hurt right now, and they need my help."

The doberman walked up to Elaine's truck. Elaine opened the door for him before climbing in and starting the vehicle. Serah locked up her house and led Alexis to her truck, picking the girl up so she wouldn't have to climb into it. Both women started to drive back to the farm, Serah grimacing at the thought of the small child's fascination with the dangerous Air Commander. She meant what she said about blinding him. She only wished she had an excuse and the proper equipment to be permanently rid of the threat he posed.

Sideswipe was the first to speak.

:: This is bad. This is very, very bad. I mean, who in their right mind would bring a youngling around that afthole? ::

:: The smaller one mentioned that they were injured. Think we could take them out, Sides? ::

:: ...Not yet. We were told to watch, not get into a fight. Let's see what they're up to before we go charging in. ::

Sunstreaker snarled loudly, displeased with his twin's answer.

:: Look, I'm not any happier than you are about this whole thing. If it were up to me, I'd offline all three of them. :: Sideswipe tried to reason with him. :: But there are humans involved, and we can't risk them getting hurt. If Screamer and his cronies try anything, then we'll try to step in and call for backup. But right now, we have to see what's going on first. ::

The Lamborghinis followed at a safe distance, keeping back a few hundred feet to avoid being spotted. When the two trucks turned onto a dirt road, they waited for them to disappear from sight, but kept them in scanner range. They'd have to be extremely careful when it came to following the women; they were exactly made for blending in.

"Sideswipe?"

"Yeah, Sunny?"

"Don't call me that!" The yellow frontliner snapped. "Why couldn't they send Bumblebee or Jazz out here? That would make a lot more sense."

"Because Optimus didn't think we'd actually find anything, and we're being punished."

"Yeah, no thanks to you…"

"Hey! You helped get the paint! Don't act like it was all my fault!"

"This entire situation is your fault...My paint job is going to be ruined by the time we're done here!"

Sideswipe sighed. This was going to be an awful mission, with or without the Seeker's involvement.