A fragging picnic. That was what had the humans on the base coming alive, such cheerful chatter and excitement building that one would have thought their emancipation from the invasion of the Decepticon forces was taking place.

"Josh said you are to go with me, get in." Sideswipe belted out to the passing Alexis.

The red Lamborghini moved slowly forward, his tires stopping just short from the elaborate bumper tapping against the girl. Her eyes lifting, her brother smiled wide and waved his hand at his sister from where he was inside the other 'Bot. Sunstreaker reversed, rubber burning, tires shifting, car spinning around before charging out the garage's widening sliding door.

"She's with me." TC spoke. Taking hold of Alexis, he led her to their motorcycle.

"In that case, I would love a ride," the teenager Michael spoke up. He opened the door and slid in, his mouth still moving as the Autobot shifted into gear and reversed the entire length of the stretch of a garage before taking off even faster than his just departed brother. Thundercracker nearly smiled. He knew of the youth rather well from observation. The kid seemed to have a glitch: his mouth ran non-stop. Oxygen was hardly required for that one. And when he was around one of the Lamborghini twins, his conversation protocols went into overdrive, his excitement and awe such that it overwhelmed even the praise seeking Autobots.

"Ahh... I forgot my hat. I'll be right back," Alexis rushed off between the still emerging humans and disappeared.

Thundercracker wandered over to the bike and sat on its seat while he watched the creatures. A family strolled by him with a toddler that held gleefully to her parental unit's hands as she was swung back and forth, the mates gazing at one another with overstated happiness. The male nodded his head toward TC, the female smiling as she said a quick hello.

Family units. Those were the ones Megatron loved to go after, taking pleasure in tormenting one as the others watched on. Being as related Bots were hard to come by, TC could just guess of the pleasure his master was getting from the overly populated and more than related humans. Suddenly, that thought wasn't as easily dismissed as it usually was. Suddenly, as he shifted on the seat and his hands went slowly through his fabricated follicles, it made him downright uncomfortable.

"OK, I'm good. Let's go." Thundercracker felt Alexis' hands go around his waist, her body leaning a little against him as she adjusted what he now knew was a ponytail. Putting her cap on, she tapped her hands against the bike. "Timothy, did you hear me?"

Shaking himself back into a realm of reality, he started the motorcycle up. His thoughts drifted away when Alexis' grip steadily tightened along with the bike's quickening pace. He may have always resented grounders and their inadequacies, but now he got a livening thrill from riding on such a thing.

Not that the motorcycle really had anything to do with it.

Baseball. Frisbee. Water balloons. Burning fires and cooking meat. A clear lake and a bright sun. Laughter and smiles, more laughter and smiles, running and playing, happiness and a total lack of regard for the danger that could be out there.

Not that all of them weren't aware.

"So, what you are saying is that even though I can't see it or feel it, there is a protective shield above and around us?" Alexis asked of Sideswipe.

Unfortunately, the Autobot managed to get rid of the teenager Michael a lot sooner than Thundercracker had calculated. Alexis wandered over to the Autobot as her curiosity won out over their sudden freedom from the base.

Sideswipe got down on his knee plates, chassis proudly rising as he preened, his words marked with pronounced pleasure. He explained the workings of the Autobot shield, astonished when Alexis actually manged to understand some of what he said. But she was rather curious when it came to technology, something that was becoming identifiable the more time she spent with the technology infused Autobots. She took in everything as she asked questions.

"I myself am equipped with a smaller version of the cloaking field, my brother as well. Not only are we pleasing to look at but safe to be inside. And did I mention how fast I can go? Nothing can catch me... unless I wanted."

Not as impressed as the Autobot had obviously wanted, Alexis smiled uncertainly. One of the younglings ran up to her, a girl; the same one Thundercracker had seen in the garage. Thinking back, he had seen Alexis conversing with the family. The child happily tugged on Alexis' arm.

"Mommy said to ask if you would swim with me."

"Sure."

Small hand wrapping around Alexis', the two girls left the obviously disgruntled Autobot behind. Sideswipe was not pleased that a youngling had been able to draw away attention from himself. It just wasn't that Bot's day, a realization that finally did bring a low smile to TC's lips.

Until his eyes wandered back over to Alexis. He saw her disrobe and take her shirt off, a tightly formed, thinly strapped, smooth looking one was hidden underneath that showed off more than her humanity, but her female curved body as well. Pants taken off, shorts were on underneath, Alexis' pale skin exposed, she began to rub some sort of lubricant on her flesh.

His breath caught in his throat.

Standing there and watching that scene, his eyes shifted to take in the Autobot, who was staring at the female with openly displayed confusion. TC felt something snap within and a tight frown grew on his mouth as he jogged toward the girl, but not soon enough. After putting a protective tank top over what he discovered was a swimsuit, Alexis ran into the water. The toddler followed and a large weightless ball was tossed between them.

"Timothy, did you hear me?"

She was talking to him. He heard his name. But his concentration couldn't seem to stray from her extra show of flesh and the wetness of it. The way water trickled down the hollow of her throat and along the smooth curve of her shoulders, the luminosity that radiated off and drifted around the strange pitter-patter of his quickening heart.

"What?"

Slag. She was standing before him. Alexis was drenched, hair wet, skin damp, the smoothness of flesh sparkling under the dominating sun. His voice. So strange. So tight.

"Join us? Emily wants to say hi." Alexis pointed toward the five-year-old girl.

Defensively, he backed away and shook his head in the negative. The way his body was starting to react again, reason enough to instigate caution.

"I'll join you." A voice eagerly said behind TC.

Something hard bashed against his shoulder. The human Sideswipe tentatively walked into the water and then dove under. Reemerging, the two facades of humanity exchanged glances: one full of smirking pride, the other tense with agitation.

"Do you want one?" Alexis brought up her hand. She held a long strangely colored stretch of meat that was encased in a piece of bread; thick red and yellow liquid streaked down the length of it.

He wrinkled his nose, head shifting back along his shoulders. "And do what with it?"

Alexis covered her mouth and chuckled. "Eat it of course. Don't you like hot dogs?"

"Hot dogs? You eat your pets?"

Eyes turned toward him. Or at least the parental units of one Emily. Earlier, the five had settled down on a blanket and food was handed out. The slagging Autobot called away by his brother, Thundercracker was left alone with Alexis once more, or at least as much as he had managed so far.

The toddler's food was suddenly expelled out of her mouth as chewed up pieces of meaty flesh and bread met the blanket underneath.

"Mom? Did I just eat Molly?" Tears began to well, falling down the trembling child as she went to sit on her father's lap. "Daddy, is what Timmy said true?"

TC glanced over at Alexis. Alexis nodded her head as she jerked it, trying to tell him to act, but act how, he was unsure. Taking the initiative Alexis went to the toddler and patted her back softly.

"Tim just has an odd sense of humor. That wasn't dog meat, it made from the beef we managed to get a hold of last week."

Emily sniffled while pulling away from her dad to look up at Alexis. "What is beef made out of?"

The female parent lifted her hand up in the air, warning Alexis. Come to think of it, the cow that had been retrieved had been maintained by the bases' younglings, most of them probably unaware of the fate of the animal that they had treated as a pet.

"Who is Molly?" Alexis asked.

The youngling wiped her nose on her arm, an action that made TC cringe. She did it again.

"She was our dog." Emily hiccupped, smiled and then started to talk again. Her voice picked up in excitement as she told of her small pet, loud voice going on for some time.

And as the youngling began to talk about her cat with even greater length, Thundercracker reminded himself for the seventh time that he really needed to watch what he said around the humans, especially the ones that were not fully grown.

That internal recommendation was followed by strange incredulity from the circumstances that required such a precaution.

The kid fell asleep and the four adults talked among themselves. The parents were Mark and Patricia, or "Pat" as the female stated with friendly openness.

"I haven't been called Patricia since middle school. So..." Pat leaned against her husband. "How long have you two been together?"

Yes, a lot of humans had the innate ability of being blunt. A quality that Megatron might have respected. He, however, was missing something. For suddenly Alexis looked befuddled, Pat's tone of voice had pushed the simple words into a subtlety he wasn't deciphering correctly.

"For some time now. Alexis found me..." he went on a little, trying to be conversational if only for show alone.

"No, honey." The dark-haired woman chuckled and patted his hand. "I meant as a couple. The way you two get along, I thought that you two were dating, or as much as one can nowadays." She shrugged her shoulders and winked.

A list suddenly formed in Thundercracker's head.

One: He did not like being called honey.

Two: The woman had no right to pat his hand, let alone touch him.

Three: Never laugh at a Decepticon in human guise or not.

Four: Never patronize a Decepticon, or he may just forget that he is a human in guise.

"What you think about whatever relationship the two of us may or may not have, is not something you need to make idle assumptions about."

His critical, very acidic statement had the couple bursting into laughter as they shared knowing glances.

Alexis was silent on their way back. And tired, he could feel her languidness in the looseness of her limbs. Twice already he had to reposition her hands, pressing them against his body as he reminded her in the action to hold on.

Arriving back at base, she smiled yet again. Alexis had smiled much lately, and that day it was as if the sun was planted on the lines of her mouth.

"I'm taking a shower, and I think, calling it a night." She stepped closer. Two fingers gently drifted down his hand. "Thanks for today. I really had fun."

Five minutes later as he made his way back to his bunk, a sense of danger twisted through his holo-form, an instability rising that meant he didn't have much time to find a place, disable the technology and become himself.

Yet this time, as he rounded a corner and turned the holo-form off while his consciousness lifted, flew and pounced back into his Cybertronian form, the warning did not fade. A tension tightened his cabling and made his servos bend hard.

"Wakey, wakey, TC," Skywarp's head hovered over Thundercracker, a grin on his mouthpiece. "Time to come on-line... Starscream has found some Autobots," Warp added with exuberant glee.

Coordinates were relayed with a destination marked for eradication. But TC knew the coordinates, knew them well. For it was where he had just been.