Chapter 8

Prisoner

"Ha. Hiyaa. Ho-Ha!" Were all the noises that came from Maria as she demonstrated her new moves in front of the kids. Each jab and punch and side kick amazed the humans.

"Pretty nice moves, Maria. You must have practiced." Rad congratulated Maria, as she did a side kick.

"Thanks, Rad. Scavenger say's that if I keep this up, I might join the Autobots in no time." The kids however, knew that that would not happen. She was going to have to wait until she was older, but for now they could only watch.

"You think Optimus might agree to that, kid?" Billy asked, even though he allowed Fred to ask the questions, since Fred was much nicer.

"Well, I don't know. He might I guess." Maria answered. "He hasn't talked to me in a while. I wonder why."

Alexis stepped towards Maria, since she was the one who tried to sound optimistic.

"Optimus is the leader, you know. He has a whole lot of stuff he has to do. I'm pretty he will have some time for you soon."As if on cue, a familiar red, blue and silver mech came into the rec room, his gaze fixed on Maria.

"'Hey, Optimus. You should totally see Maria's moves." Carlos said, as Optimus walked over to the group. As Maria looked at the Prime, she noticed a look in his optics that seemed to tell her he wasn't too thrilled.

"I'm afraid you kids have to cut the fun short. Maria, you are not allowed to practice the form of combat with Scavenger." Prime ordered.

"What?" The kids and Maria exclaimed. Maria however, was more shocked. "Why? It's fun."

"It might be fun for you, but I do not see it in that perspective." Optimus replied, keeping a stern glance on her.

"How can you not see it in my per, uh, persectli, ooh, in my way. I just want to learn a thing or two, okay?" Maria protested.

"I know you want to keep yourself entertained,but I'm afraid that you will have to wait on combat training. When you are old enough, you can." Optimus answered, trying to sound assuring. Maria, not feeling the least bit assured, felt as if a string had been cut, and started to shake.

"So, it's the old 'You're-too-young-so-Wait 'till-you-are-older' trick, isn't it? You want me to wait for several stellar cycles, until I can do what ever I want?" She snapped, angrily.

Optimus couldn't beleive what he was hearing. The youngling look as if she had tossed out her sweet disposition, and was now, as the humans put it 'Bitchin' around'.

"And further more, you never let me go outside of the base. I want to see the earths grass, the earths dirt, the water, everything that earth has that Cybertron doesn't." Maria complained.

"I am trying to keep you safe. Suppose a Decepticon was out there. What would you do then?" Optimus countered. This left Maria's processor spinning wildly with anger, disappointment, and hurt.

"Keep me safe? Urgghhhh. I can't take this anymore." She turned with a scowl on her face plate, and was heading for the exit.

"Wait a moment. I did not give you permission to leave." Optimus stated, trying to grab her, but Maria quickly picked up the pace and yelled. "Just leave me alone!"

All was quiet and still. Optimus, feeling slightly annoyed of the younglings behavior to him, only shook his head in frustration and left. "What's gotten into them?" Fred asked.

"I'm not sure, but Maria sure seemed hurt." Rad said, staring into the direction of which Maria went. "Let's see if she's okay."

"Yeah. I've never seen her get upset so quickly." Alexis agreed.

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Following Rad, the kids left the rec room and soon came to a hallway, that showed a couple of doors. This was the hallway leading to each of the Autobots designated quarters. One the doors to the left stood open. Hearing huffs and puffs, the children automatically assumed that Maria was inside.

Entering inside, the humans found Maria pacing back and forth, breathing hard, and her cheek plates flushed bright red, in anger.

"Hey, girl. Are you alright?" Carlos asked, even though he knew she wasn't okay. Maria turned and saw she wasn't alone.

Sighing, she told them. "I just don't understand. Everything I do to get his attention, I somehow lose my privileges to do anything around here."

"It's not you, Maria. Maybe it's just that Optimus has never had younger robots around here. So he is just unsure about how to take care of you." Rad suggested. Alexis looked at him and added. "But the rest of the Autobots know how to care for her. Why shouldn't he. I mean, weren't they once kids, they should know how their parents cared for them?"

Sitting down on the berth, Maria thought about this, but then spoke again. "Why should everyone know how to care for me? I can take care of myself."

Rad saw that she was trying to change the subject, and summed up the courage to asked Maria a question he never even thought about asking. "Are you 'By polar'"?

"What's that"? Maria asked, since she didn't know about human disorders. Rad explained that by polar was a disorder that often gives people extreme mood swings.

"No. I'm just... different. I mean sometimes I have a short fuse, but that doesn't mean I'm by polar."

"Then why'd you get angry at 'big bot', when he told you to wait until you were old enough, to practice your fighting skills?" Billy countered. This, as you might have guessed, didn't help at all. In fact Maria began to feel angry again.

"I just don't want to be restricted to anything, okay. Jeez. I feel like a prisoner. Never doing what I want to do, and for what, just to have myself lose my privileges?"

"But that's just Optimus." Carlos tried to calm her down. "None of us are taking away your rights. Besides, I'm sure Optimus will change his mind, if you give him some time."

Maria was now starting to shake with frustration, until she couldn't take it any longer.

"I DON'T WANT TO GIVE HIM SOME TIME, AND I DON'T WANT TO GET TO KNOW HIM. I DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIM."

Jumping at the sudden volume increase in the younlgings voice, the kids stood silent, not knowing what else to say. Maria just huffed and puffed.

"Maria..." Rad spoke.

"Just go. I need sometime alone. By myself." Maria said turning her back to them. Seeing that she was stressed, the kids left the room, leaving Maria to battle with her thoughts.

"What's the matter with me? I would never treat my friends like that. Why am I letting my anger take control of me? I should know how to handle it. Why can't I just tell everyone about my condition? Will they understand or treat me like a robot with 'special needs'? I am not like that at all, but why won't I admit it? Why am I afraid to tell the truth" About my disorder, about my Dad? Nothing. I can't. I'm nothing but a coward. I'm an error. A malfunction. Just like what my Dad said. I'll never be an Autobot" She thought, and without even fighting it, she began to whimper and cry quietly.

(Oh dear, Now why would Optimus not allow Maria to practice fighting? And more importantly, why is Maria so upset? Is there something else to her that we don't know? Find out in the next chapters.)