The Children Chapter 11
Old Friend

Just keep breathing. Penny thought to herself as she felt her own body hit the floor. She couldn't do anything to stop herself from the far too eminent darkness. She heard the voices of her friends yell out to her as she lost consciousness.

Penny awoke again with a start. Putting her hand up to her forehead she felt beads of sweat rolling down it. The bodily liquid had pretty much soaked through her clothes. Opening her eyes slowly she stared at an unfamiliar ceiling, squinting at it she tried to remember whether she recognized it or not. Her memories slowly came flooding back to her; she sat up and looked around an unfamiliar room. A look of concern plastered on her face.

"Oh you're awake, that's good" An elderly man stepped into the room carrying a basket of clothes. He was wearing a white t-shirt with a blue sweater vest over it. He bent down and placed the basket on the end of the bed, sitting in the chair beside it. His knees poked out of the holes in his worn jeans.

"You probably want to change, something in there should fit you" He continued pointing to the basket.

"W-wait, who are you? Where am I?" She stammered looking at him. There was nobody in her memory who matched the appearance of this elderly man. He was balding, his grey hair only sitting around his ears, and it was matted slightly giving the appearance of always wearing a hat.

"Oh of course! My names Sparkplug" He said gruffly, extending his hand out to the young girl. Penny took it nervously her hands sticking slightly to the old mans. She ignored the fact he wiped his hand on his pants after the wet handshake, she really did hate sweat.

"You're in my house. Now I must admit I never expected to hear from the autobots again after what happened but..." Penny just had to break in and stop him.

"Wait, again? Sparkplug...no way you aren't.."

"Do I need the hard hat and wrench to prove it to you?" He asked laughing. Penny just sat there mouth gaping open. She had never thought the humans from the cartoon were real people, but then again, if the autobots were real why not the humans?

"Anyway, get changed, maybe some of Carly's old clothing will fit you. We can talk more later. Bathroom is down the hall to the right. Feel free to use the shower." He said smiling.

"From the amount of sweat you've been giving off, I half expect you to use the shower" That last comment made Penny turn bright red. She probably looked a mess. The minute the old man stood up and left the room she began rifling through the clothing. There was pretty much everything she would need in there. Some of the clothing looked really old while others looked like it belonged to some kids. Maybe he has grandkids? She thought to herself remembering Daniel from the animated movie. Eventually she managed to pull something together walking down the white hallway with it and entering the bathroom. It was small and looked very clean. The walls were painted a light blue and there was a pile of fresh towels sitting on the white counter top. Taking a glance in the mirror she automatically felt disgusted with herself. She looked like she had been rolling in the dirt after leaving a lake.

Clean and standing back in the hallway she looked like she had been pulled out of an old movie. The light blue pants sat uncomfortably up around her stomach and the purple shirt has a sizable white belt around its midsection. Stepping out of the bathroom she almost tripped over something. When she saw what it was she almost burst into tears.

"Blaster" She said falling to the ground and clutching the small robot to her chest.

"Hey there babe." He said allowing her to hold him tightly. Penny was just so happy to see a familiar face.

"Blaster what happened? Wheres Mike? and Thundercracker?" She asked placing him back on the floor.

"Mikes' in the hospital and Thundercracker...i'm sorry Penny I just don't know" He finished shrugging his shoulders slightly causing him to look small and helpless. Penny sighed and nodded.

"How did I get here?" Was her next question. She needed answers. She needed to know what had happened to her as well as what Sparkplug meant when he had said something had happened which was the reason why he hadn't seen the autobots in a while.

"I believe the term is "calling in a favour" right?" Another voice said. Looking up she saw Sky Linx standing at the top of the stairs

"The others are waiting for you downstairs" He finished turning around and descending the spiral staircase to the main floor. Nervously Penny reached out to pick up Blaster, who immediately stepped away from her.

"Not this time babe, this guys an old friend. Don't want him thinking we've gone soft you know?" He said walking over to the stairs himself. Penny paused as she watched him, longing to grab hold of her small red friend to comfort her. Swallowing hard she nodded and stood up following him as he struggled down the steps. It would've been a lot easier for her to bring him down.

The layout of this house was significantly different to that of her own. The stairs led straight into the kitchen where Sparkplug was sitting at the table drinking some sort of hot liquid, her only assumption that it was tea. On the wall beside him was the door to the backyard which had a small light brown mat in front of it which had the words "Want inside? Wipe your feet" neatly stitched in black thread. The kitchen counter lined half of the walls and there was an island sitting in the middle. To the right there appeared to be a sitting area with a white fireplace. On the other side of the seating area was a delicately arched doorway, which lead off to another place in the house Penny couldn't make out where. Overall the place just looked really clean. Sparkplug looked up when he realised the fact Penny had spent a prolonged time standing at the bottom of his stairs, putting down his mug he waved her over.

"Come on over and take a seat," he said smiling and pointing to a chair beside him. In front of the chair there was a place that had a cover over it.

"Hope you like French toast" He said as she took her seat.

"You sure I can eat this?" she asked eyeing the cover. She hadn't had French toast since her parents had left and she felt guilty already for how hospitable he had been.

"Sure, I haven't had visitors in some time now; it's nice to have someone around. Sit, eat and we can talk" He finished picking up a piece of newspaper off of the table and opening it. She ignored the ironic image of an elderly man doing a crossword and removed the cover from the plate. She took her time as she started eating. Her eyes focussed on Blaster as she watched him struggle up onto the third chair which surrounded the rectangular table. He was too small to see up over the table while in the chair so he moved up onto the table, This caused Sky Linx to take the now empty chair.

"Where are the others?" She asked looking at the two of eight robots she had living in her house. Sparkplug raised his eyebrow at this remark.

"There are more? How curious. Who do you have?" He asked barely looking up from the crossword. The way he asked who she had sounded like he was requesting her to trade cards or something.

"Our army currently consists of Jazz, Grimlock, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, Ironhide, Ratchet, and of course Blaster and myself" Sky Linx responded for Penny causing Sparkplug to merely nod as if this was no big deal.

"You ended up with the fun ones" He said chuckling. Penny frowned she hadn't gotten her own answer but they had answered Sparkplugs question. Sparkplug looked up seeing her frustration and just smiled.

"Alright alright, we'll answer yours from now on. Blaster got a hold of me to come get you after they knocked Mike out. They didn't want you mixed up in the mess they left Mike in so I brought you here and called an ambulance. From what I could tell he just seemed to have energon poisoning but Blaster here insists otherwise." He finished telling his story and leaned back slightly in his chair.

"Thats about all I know about the situation. I have been told not to give you too much information about the past though." He stated giving Blaster a confused glance and refusing to say anymore. Penny nodded and sighed heavily.

"Can you take me home please?" She asked looking at the elderly gentleman. She had tons of questions for him but really all she wanted was to go home get into something that didn't make her feel like her ribs were going to collapse in on her and talk with Ratchet.

It didn't take long for her to arrive back at her house. Who knew a cartoon character lived so close by? She thought to herself smiling slightly. When she got out of the car and headed up to her door she found it was locked her eyes widening she realised she no longer had her backpack.

"Looking for this?" Sparkplug said removing her familiar bag from his trunk. It was stained slightly with energon and she swallowed hard when she realised there was also dark red stains. Quickly removing her house key from her bag she unlocked the door. Once open Grimlock jumped out causing Penny to let out a surprised squeak.

"You no come home last night, where you Penny been?" He asked growling at her slightly.

"Calm down Grimlock i'm pretty sure Penny had a very good reason for not..." Ratchet had stepped outside as well but his voice trailed off when he saw the elderly gentleman.

"Its been a while" Sparkplug said looking at the miniature version of Ratchet.

"Step in, both of you" Ratchet responded looking at the group.

It didn't take long for everyone to be caught up with what had happened in the last few days. Penny assisted the autobots in telling her story of how each and every one of them came to life from action figures and she also filled them in on what had happened with Mike. The answers she herself had obtained unfortunately were very few.

"Im going to leave now." Sparkplug stated standing at her door Penny nodded coming over to him.

"Thank you for everything you've done for me" She responded smiling and giving him a hug. She was now wearing a baggy blue t-shirt and jeans, much more comfortable then the outfit she had squeezed into earlier. He took her hand and smiled.

"Take care of yourself and them. Oh, if you ever wake up Bumblebee make sure to bring him over." He said and headed out the door. When he took his hand away there was a crumpled up piece of paper left in her hand. Closing her door she unfolded it carefully, on it was a set of co-ordinates and the words "Use this wisely" scribbled below it.

"What that?" Jazz asked. He had followed her to the door when Sparkplug had left.

"Just a good luck note" Penny lied smiling at him. Jazz just nodded smiling back.

"Sparkplugs a good guy" Jazz finished heading back into the other room. A movie was playing on her TV, must have been on one of the few channels she actually had.

"With great power comes great responsibility" One of the elderly characters said.

"This doesn't look right" Penny said out loud to herself. She had managed to mark the co-ordinates down on a map and figured out a bus route. It had taken forever to break free from the clutches of the autobots. They had become increasingly more protective of her ever since the incident with Mike.

"This really doesn't look right" She repeated to herself. Repeating things really didn't do her much good of course, especially when no one was there to listen to her complain. She was staring at a forest, that was it that was all that was there. Sighing heavily she leaned against a tree staring at the map again. She did get the co-ordinates right.

Maybe if I walk to exactly where it is? She thought as she moved into the forest. She felt a wave go over her when she got a few inches away from the point on the map. Looking up she saw a massive orange spaceship had materialized out of thin air. Letting out a loud gasp she squeaked.

"Its...its the ark!"

Hey there everyone!
I appreciate the patience you guys have had with me
I know I didnt submit a chapter last month, life is just crazy and unpredictable sometimes ^^;
Im planning to put up two chapters this month to make up for it
Chapter 12 has already been started because of that =D
Hope this one wasnt too slow for you!
Thanks for reading!
-Whitestreaker