The Children Chapter 9

No answers, More questions

Ironhide stared up at Penny as her face slowly went white.. All she could think about is how Mike, her friend, repaired Ironhide. How he KNEW how to do it, Ironhide may be a toy but not even she had taken a peak into his insides. After the flash of light she assumed they had become actual robots, and if this was so then how would Mike have known how to fix alien technology?

"Penny," She was brought back to reality when Ratchet said her name.

"Do you know something about this?" He asked giving her a harsh look. She quietly shook her head, she didn't want to alarm them of her small realisation. After all Ironhide was unconscious the entire time Mike was around, so he didn't have the opportunity to make the connection between the two people. Come to think of it, if Ironhide was part of someone's collection why would he have just been left on the side of the road? All these questions were whizzing around in her head only confusing her further.

"I-I was just surprised that um... Ironhide knew his name" Penny said smiling slightly. Everyone there could tell her smile was forced, though none of them commented on it. Ratchet turned back to Ironhide looking him up and down once, attempting to locate the supposed tracker that had been placed on him.

"I'm going to have to open you up to find it" Ratchet stated. He obviously couldn't see it on the surface of the mechs metallic skin.

"Not now," Ironhide responded.

"Not with that damn decepticreep sittin on Penny's kitchen table" Ironhide continued glaring up at Penny slightly.

"Oh you don't have to worry about him, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe said they'd take care of him" Sky Linx said proudly. Ratchet didn't respond to this, even though he had been down there at the same time Sky Linx had.

"What do you mean by taken care of?" Penny asked struggling to her feet and heading for the door.

Nothing could have prepared Penny for what she was about to see when she walked into the kitchen. Thundercracker had been tied up in string that had previously been located in one of her kitchen drawers, and he had been hung from the top of the counter so his head was close to the ground. Magic marker was scrawled all over his body, most of it she couldn't understand but the rest was just rather rude pictures. Standing beside him was Sideswipe, he had a towel tied around his optics and in his hands was Penny's mothers wooden rolling pin.

"SIDESWIPE!" Penny said grabbing him before he could hit Thundercracker with the rolling pin.

"Awh," Sideswipe said as she took the towel off of his face.

"What were you thinking?" Penny responded putting him on the floor then gingerly lifting the blue-piñata-seeker onto the counter and untying him.

"We saw it on TV and thought it would be fun" Blaster said peeking out from the other side of the counter. The group of robots seemed to have scattered when they heard Penny coming down the stairs, and they were now sitting near the couch the TV switched on revealing some sort of teen drama.

"Is this really how ya human girls act?" Jazz said staring at the girl on the screen. She was wearing a short skirt and a guy was...oh lord. Penny left Thundercracker and grabbed the remote switching the channel to the news.

"and I thought you were supposed to be more mature because you were a commanding officer" She murmured giving him a look. There went any idea that having Jazz around would make things easier.

"Sorry ta disappoint babe but Prowl's the mature officer not me" He said smiling. Half of his optic band darkened for a second then lit back up as if he was winking at her. She rolled her eyes sighing she walked back over to the still offline Thundercracker, taking the sponge out of the sink she wiped all of the marker off of him so that he looked like he did when she left him. Glancing around the area again she realized almost all of the autobots were accounted for, minus the few which had remained upstairs. At this moment it hit her. Someone was missing.

"Boys, where's Grimlock?" Penny asked scanning the room again. He wasn't anywhere in sight.

"Oh he was being, problematic, when it came to the decepticon so I turned him offline" Ratchet said walking down the stairs, Ironhide wasnt too far behind him.

"Well where is he now?" She asked. She was concerned as to where they had stashed the poor dinobot. He may be loud and problematic but shoving him in odd places around her house was not her idea of a fun game of hide and seek.

"I shoved him in the closet" Ratchet responded simply. Penny laughed slightly, him being offline was probably the best anyway. He probably would have burnt the poor seeker or something.

"Ratchet...could you?" She said looking down at TC and stroking his face again. She felt somewhat responsible for him now, since she found him and brought him to her house. Ratchet nodded and called Sky Linx down the stairs, what he was doing up there she would never know. Ratchet climbed on his back and the largest of the transformers leaped up onto the table.

What happened next was a bit too fast for even Penny to comprehend. In order to give Ratchet some room Penny had taken a few steps away from the counter but the minute he switched on the blue seeker Thundercracker tackled Ratchet off of the counter causing him to make a painful clanging noise as he hit the ground. The blue seeker then stood up to assess the situation, automatically locating the weakest link he barrelled towards Penny as if to attack her. In a flash of yellow the most unexpected bot was standing in front of her causing the seeker to stop in his tracks.

"Come any closer Thundercracker and I'll slag you" Sunstreaker said as he pointed his blaster straight at him. Even though the yellow twin's height didn't surpass Penny's knee he still looked pretty menacing. It didn't take long for the other autobots to have their own weapons out, even though they all knew the jet was not armed. Penny stared into the red optics of the small seeker. They showed no bloodlust, or at least she wasn't seeing any. She stepped forward around her yellow companion and extended her hand to the seeker.

"Penny what do you think you're doing?" Sunstreaker said not liking the fact his hero efforts were going to waste. Penny didn't respond, she just stood there quietly her hand calmly extended. The atmosphere was very tense for at least a good five minutes before the decepticon decided to make his move. He stepped forward extending his own small black hand and put it in hers. Penny smiled softly towards him. She didn't know whether he would attack her the minute he had the chance to, but she felt the need to trust him.

"You can all put your weapons away now" Penny stated slowly letting go of the seeker's hand.

"He won't harm you"

After the incident of that morning the houses atmosphere had been way too tense and uncomfortable. All the autobots were brandishing their weapons as if a war was about to break out, but all their opponent did was sit on Penny's counter and stare at his hands. Penny couldn't really blame him, she was staring herself at him to be exact. She had been sitting on the couch with Blaster protectively at her side pretending to watch TV and it had been like this for a good 3-4 hours. Her shift at the restaurant only started at 7. She was beginning to wish it was sooner, mainly to escape the silence.

"Penny" A voice said, it took her a minute to realize who it was coming from since she was so lost in thought. It was Ratchet. The small medic had moved from his "post" under the counter and was now at her feet looking straight up at her.

"I think it would be best to take Thundercracker offline again" He stated the minute he realised he had eye contact with his new human companion. Penny's brow furrowed at that idea. She didn't like it.

"Would you like to be taken offline amidst enemy territory?" She asked her tone sounding rather neutral. This comment took Ratchet by surprise; he was used to Penny being a lot softer and didn't think she was really capable of such a tone of voice.

"I suppose not" He responded coolly glancing back over at their "prisoner." The fact he was here even set Ratchet on edge, making the current tension seem to multiply. Penny was starting to feel suffocated glancing down at her new hip implant didn't make her feel much better either. Blasters usually cheerful optics were filled with concern and maybe even a hint of anger. She couldn't stand it anymore. She stood up almost dragging Blaster with her. Marching over to TC she lifted him up, causing him to let out a surprised grunt.

"Look" She said harshly turning to face the rest of the room. The seeker made no movement to harm her or wriggle out of her grasp he just looked at her confused as to what she was doing.

"Does he LOOK like he's going to hurt me?" Penny asked. She felt like a little kid holding onto an old teddy bear her parents wanted to throw away. What frustrated her more was the lack of response from the stunned autobots. Sighing she held TC in one hand and walked out the door, if she couldn't relieve the tension she was at least going to remove the source of it. As she marched down the street she heard Blaster voice behind her.

"Ratchet let me pass. You can't expect me ta stay here and leave the girl alone with HIM" The familiar tape decks voice sounded almost desperate.

"She knows what she's doing" Ratchet responded. That was all she heard before she got out of earshot though she knew there was more protest from the other autobots. Hearing jets start up she looked down at the mechanical being still in her arms. She let him go to allow him to float on his own.

"I thought Ratchet disabled those" She mumbled to herself as she kept walking. She didn't know whether the seeker would follow her or if he would high tail it out of there. Frankly she didn't really care at the moment. Being outside felt good, it felt like someone had removed a plastic bag from her head and she could breathe again

"Where are you going?" A low voice asked, she turned her head to see the jet was easily keeping up with her.

"Anywhere but there" She said speeding up her pace.

"Why are you still here?" She asked stopping dead in her tracks.

"I'm in your debt. I am not permitted to leave until that debt is repaid" He stated, she was surprised by such little hatred she saw in his optics. She was starting to get good at reading the robot's emotions, this one seemed different then what she expected from a decepticon. She saw sadness in him, and almost a sense of peacefulness as he adjusted his thrusters so that he floated beside her.

"Why did you attack us?" She asked him. She realized she was out in the open in broad daylight but it didn't seem to make much of a difference at the moment. Thundercracker glanced down at the ground; Penny knew she probably wouldn't get the information easily.

"Before you start asking me questions maybe you should try and learn more about your allies, they haven't told you everything" He said looking at her coldly. She could only blink in response to this, what weren't the autobots telling her? Or was this merely a trick?

"Ever heard of a ship called the Arc?" He asked her. She nodded slowly and a smile seemed to perk on his lips.

"Ask your friends about it" He stated. Penny tried other questions to coax more information out of the small seeker but it didn't seem to matter what she asked she couldn't get him to speak again. The worst part was every time a car passed by they slowed down the drivers giving her the strangest looks until she yelled at them to move along. Sighing she attempted one last question.

"What do you know about a human named Mike?" She asked hopefully. She wanted to get some answers out of the decepticon but the more she got out of him the more questions arose.

"If I were you Mike isn't someone I would want to be too involved with" He stated, Penny was just relieved that he opened his mouth again to let anything other than a grunt out. This meant that Mike, whether this Mike was in fact her friend or not, knew about the existence of the decepticons.

"Can you tell me where he is?" She continued. This may of been pushing it a bit. Thundercracker gave her a rather interesting look at this question. It didn't seem to be that of confusion, his look almost mocked her. As if he was holding information he knew she needed just slightly out of her grasp.

"I don't think I should tell you information you already know" That seemed to be the last response he was willing to give her. His body language stated that he wasn't willing to talk much further, he was no longer facing her but instead watching the world around him. He seemed to become extremely interested in the flight path of a nearby butterfly. Penny sighed again, she had been sighing so much lately she had an odd fear that at some point she might hyperventilate. She hadn't found out much but, there was one thing she knew for sure: she was going to have a decepticon body guard until he repaid his debt he believed he owed her.

Hey everyone!
Its been a while
I hope you enjoyed this chapter of The Children :)
its a little bit slower because I have something big planned for the next chapter!
Thanks for reading!