Old Friends, New Problems

Chapter 2

#Back at the scrap yard, before and during the chase# %Russell's POV%

Russell was bored. Completely and utterly bored. He didn't think it was possible for someone to be this bored. But, of course, he was wrong. He would've gone with the Autobots on patrol if they weren't already gone when he woke up. Why did the guys have to go on patrol so early in the morning anyway? Russell would've gone to the park to hang out with his friends, but they had left a few days ago to go visit their families. And he would hang out with Grimlock but the Dinobot was helping his dad rearrange things to make room for some more junk that was coming in tomorrow. Sighing again, Russell kicked a rock and turned to walk back into the yard.

"Hello?"

If humans could jump out of their skins, Russell would've done so that very moment. Whipping around, Russell saw the owner of the voice. It was a woman, probably in her early twenties, with long, jet-black hair done up in a pony tail. He couldn't see her eyes because they were hidden behind a pair of sunglasses. She had her hands up in surrender, and a small frown was on her face.

"Sorry," she said. "I didn't mean to startle you. I was just wondering if the scrap yard was open."

Russell let out a breath he hadn't known he was holding in and nodded. "Yeah, we're open." he said, then turned and motioned for her to follow. "Come on, I'll take you my dad."

"OK."

When the gate to the scrap yard opened (luckily Grimlock and Fixit weren't in sight), Russell gave a holler. "Hey, dad, we got a customer!"

His dad, Denny, walked out from behind a pile of washers, a smile on his face, and came towards them.

"Good afternoon," he greeted, holding his hand out. "Denny Clay, how may I help you today?"

The woman smiled at his dad and reached out and shook his hand. "Emily Seeker, it's good to meet you Mr. Clay." She pulled her hand away. "I was wondering if you had any welding equipment?"

His dad's smile widened. "We sure do! Follow me."

The woman, Emily, smiled and nodded, walking past Russell. That's when he noticed something strange on the woman's neck - three things, actually. The first being the silver chain around her neck - a necklace, perhaps? The second being the scar. It was noticeable against her already pale skin, which was strange to him. It started just an inch or so below her right ear, just underneath her jaw, and traveled diagonally down across her throat and collar bone before disappearing underneath her shirt. The third, and final, thing was that something appeared to be attached to the back of her neck. He couldn't see for sure because her hair blocked most of his sight, but it appeared to be a steel-gray circle of some kind.

Jogging after the two grownups, Russell slowed to a walk beside the woman. "I'm Russell." he said.

Emily smiled down at him. "It's nice to meet you, Russell."

Russell smiled back. "So, why do need welding equipment?" And how'd you get that scar. He added wordlessly.

Emily let out a small laugh, and rubbed the back of her head. "My niece accidentally broke some of my old equipment."

Russell looked at her curiously. "How?"

"She ran it over."

Russell opened his mouth to ask how her niece could accidentally run over her welding equipment, but his dad's voice broke in.

"Here we are!" he called.

Emily gave him another small and walked over to his dad to look at the equipment. Russell watched her go then headed deeper into the scrap yard to find Grimlock and Fixit. He found the two of them conversing in front of the computer console of the Alchemor. Grimlock was the first one to notice him. The green and black Dinobot stopped talking, smiled and waved as he came closer.

"Hey, Russell!"

Russell smiled up at the large bot. "Hey, Grimlock." Then looked down at Fixit. "Hey, Fixit."

"Mellow!-Pillow!-Hello, Russell!" replied Fixit, hitting his chest repeatedly.

By this time, Russell was used to the small Autobot's speech problem, but still found it funny (But he never laughed because he didn't want to upset the little orange bot).

"So, Russell, what's that human looking for?"

Russell looked up at Grimlock, and said, "Just some welding equipment because her niece broke some of hers."

Suddenly, they heard the gate closing and his dad was coming towards them a few moments later, head slightly down with a curious look etched on his face and he was rubbing his chin. Russell was immediately worried.

"You OK, dad?"

His dad must have been deep in thought, because his head jerked up and looked around before his gaze settled on Russell.

"Huh? Oh! Yeah, yeah, everything's fine, Rusty! It's just...that woman - Emily. There's something strange about her."

Russell cocked his head and raised a brow at his dad. "How?"

His dad shrugged his shoulders, hand still on his chin. "I don't know. I just got a funny feeling about her, that's all. Especially about what she said to me before she left."

"What'd she say?"

"'Like your friends, Mr. Clay, I'm not what I seem to be.'"

Now that got there attention.

Fixit was the next to speak. "Why'd she say that, Denny Clay?"

His dad looked at the minicon. "I asked her about the scar she had on her neck, and that's what she said to me."

Suddenly, Russell felt a chill run down his spine. Like he was being watched. Looking around, he saw nothing, so he just shrugged it off. If he had looked up at the 'broken' camera above the console, he would've seen that he was very, very wrong.