The Children Chapter 13
Its a Start

"Penny we have a bit of a problem now" Ratchet said looking up at her. They were both standing inside the garage and staring down at the metal mass of Hound. His shell was now covered by a thick tarp, they couldn't risk the cosmic rust spreading to any of the others.

"Whats the problem? Are you infected or something" Penny said bending over to inspect the small medic. She had on a yellow apron and thick electrical gloves which were evidently meant for someone much larger then her. She had intended to try and reassemble Hound today and she wanted to be ready. This of course also meant she was ditching school, again. They were going to start calling soon if she didn't show up.

"It's not me, it's the fact that we don't have much material to put Hound back together with" Ratchet stated looking back and forth between Hound and the large pile of metal Penny's father had left in the garage. Ratchet had suggested they take apart her dad's car, but she couldn't bring herself to do it, her dad had been working on it for weeks before he left and he wanted to reveal it himself when he finished it. That wasn't going to happen now, but she hadn't bothered to look under the tarp.

"I guess we could go check the dump?" She suggested sitting down beside him and staring at the poor transformer. He creaked loudly as his body shuddered in an attempt to move.

"You guys are going through too much trouble for me" Hound stated. Penny was still trying to get used to the disembodied voice. She was used to the transformers voices coming from tiny vehicles. Having someone so large made things more difficult. Suddenly the garage creaked open further and an elderly man stepped in.

"Could I be of any use?" He said smiling. Penny gave him a very confused glance in response, he was wearing basically the same thing he wore last time they had met. This time his visit however was unwarranted.

"Sparkplug? What are you doing here?" She asked looking between him and Ratchet. She wasn't going to shoot down anyone who wished to help repair Hound, but after what Ironhide had said about leaving... She was beginning to feel over protective about her boys.

"I'm here to help Ratchet reassemble Hound, and you missy are going to school" He said softly smiling. Ratchet nodded slowly waving Sparkplug over and allowing him to inspect the wreckage.

"W-wait! I'm not going to school, not when Hound's like this" Penny responded sounding exasperated. She found Hound, she had brought him here, she didn't want Sparkplug to fix him up then take him away.

"Penny" Another voice said, looking down she saw Blaster was tugging gently on her pants. His optics looked calm and reassuring but when she moved to pick him up they turned harsh again. Right, she thought no picking up the autobots when Sparkplug is around.

"Sparkplug can help Hound, ya need to catch up with school work. I'll come to school with you" Blaster said smiling. She nodded back down at him sighing, she was going to need to give in to this at least this way she knew she wasn't going to lose Blaster as well.

"Alright" She said removing the gloves and the apron to reveal her normal clothing. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and black pants, it probably wasn't the best choice for vehicle work but she was too excited about fixing Hound to over think what she was wearing. Handing the gloves and apron to Sparkplug she smiled weakly.

"Take care of them ok?" She asked the only other human in the room. He gratefully took the equipment and smiled back nodding; they would be safe with him.

Penny creaked open her locker sighing as she removed the familiar red tape deck from the top shelf. School had felt like it lasted forever and she was getting antsy to return to her small friend. Hugging him to her chest she pulled out her backpack and put it on, locking her locker then walking out of the school.

"How was your day?" Blasters voice echoed from the speakers the minute they were out of range from any humans.

"Slow" She responded shifting the weight on her back. She had missed so much homework in the last few days, even though she hadn't been gone that long.

"I think I've fallen behind in schoolwork" Penny continued with a guilty smile. All she wanted to do was run home, she needed to know Hound's condition. Suddenly a car pulled up beside her and honked twice; looking in through the window she saw the face of Sparkplug smiling back out at her.

"Oh hi!" She said opening the door, he told her to get in and she complied sliding into the comfortable seats. She turned to put Blaster in the back but was surprised to see Grimlock and Ratchet sitting there.

"What's going on?" She asked them setting Blaster down beside Ratchet. The medic was sitting rather uncomfortably in the back seat beside the larger dinosaur, he had his arms crossed over his chest and it reminded Penny of a child. Grimlock was lying down asleep he didn't seem to be doing a lot lately.

"Were going to collect parts for Hound" Ratchet stated sending a glare in the direction of the dinobot. Penny looked at Blaster confused as to why they had taken Grimlock with them; this caused Blaster to transform into his robot form and looked back equally confused.

"Buckle up Penny," Sparkplug said cheerfully, turning in her seat she snapped the belt into the plug adjusting it so it sat comfortably on her chest. If it was too low it would interfere with her ribs.

"If your wondering we brought the brute back there just in case we need some muscle, you should see who's in the trunk!" Sparkplug said laughing Grimlock rolled over and mumbled something his sleep, it was barely audible but obvious as to what he was saying.

"Me Grimlock no brute, me king"

"A Trailer? You rented a trailer?" Penny said in shock. They were standing outside of the dump, piles of metal, dark green bags, and who knows what else was past a chain link fence beside them. Sitting there in clear view was a large U-Haul trailer. Well, it wasn't that large because it needed to be attached to Sparkplug's small car but, still.

"Well how else did you expect me to bring the parts back? We are rebuilding an entire cybertronian you know." He said as another scruffy man in overalls helped him hook the trailer up to his car.

"A Cyber-what?" The man said rubbing his scruffy brown moustache and adjusting his glasses.

"Oh don't worry about it, just some teenager lingo," Sparkplug responded as the trailer made a satisfying click into the hitch that had been installed on the back of Sparkplugs car. Something shuffled around in the trunk when the car shook slightly from the new attachment. The man didn't seem to notice.

"Alright just get it back to the shop by tomorrow and you should be fine. Remember anything damages this baby and you pay for it," The man warned patting the trailer in such a way that it could be seen as affection. He then walked over to the side of the road and climbed into a small black car and drove off into the distance.

"Here let me pop the trunk" Sparkplug said inserting his key into the hole in the back of his car. The second the trunk was open even the slightest bit a large white robot jumped out of it stretching out his legs happily. He then sniffed the air and shook his head uncomfortably.

"Why is it everything you humans due has such an unpleasant sent to it?" The robot asked in a rather self righteous tone.

"Its nice to see you two Sky Linx" Penny responded finally speaking up. The fact Sparkplug had openly talked about Cybertronians like they were nothing managed to cause her to shut up for a bit. She was a lot more secretive about anything involving the autobots.

"Penny can you come here?" Ratchet asked after struggling to swing open the cars back door. Penny nodded and walked over. Kneeling down to eyes level she gave Ratchet a quizzing look.

"Whats up Ratch?" She asked him quietly allowing Sky Linx and Sparkplug to enter the dump to look for parts on their own. It bugged her slightly how this dump just happened to have no guards outside of it and how they were just being allowed to do what they wanted, but she had to let some things slip her mind or she'd go crazy. Right now the major concern was Hound, or so she thought,

"Its Grimlock, you've probably noticed he's been sleeping a lot." Ratchet started. The small metal dinosaur was lying beside him on the seat. Optics dark the normally loud Reptile barely murmured, the only sign of life being his whistled breathing.

"I knew this was going to happen soon but I didn't know how soon...You see Grimlock is getting too low on energon to continue his current normal functions" He finished patting the tyrannosaurus rex's snout resulting in no reaction.

"Ratchet that doesn't make any sense." Penny started.

"Grimlock hasn't been awake that long and he doesn't move very often. What could have caused him to burn through it?"

Look what I found in the back of my computer

I forgot I wrote this xD
Well I do intend to continue this story now that I have the time to again :)
So I hope you guys will stick with me through it!

Thanks for reading and please review!

-Whitestreak