Smokescreen: McLaren MP4-12C

Danny: 15-year-old dead traumatized dumbass

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TW: Blood, non-graphicly-described injury, fear of being kidnapped, implied experimentation, shock collar, Mentions of war, and overall Danny Phantom angst! Have fun

Also Cybertonian lingo Translations at the end.

This was not how Smokescreen was expecting his night to go. All he wanted was a nice drive, to stretch his wheels and maybe go way over the speed limit (don't tell Prime). Speed limits were silly anyway: if humans didn't want him going that fast they shouldn't have designed his vehicle mode with the ability to go 200mph. But who cares about that out in the middle of nowhere anyway? He hadn't seen another vehicle in hours.

It was supposed to be a quiet night for him! No reprimanding by Optimus or any of the other bots who thought they were so much better than him, no aggravating wailing of Miko's guitar, no constant feeling of being cramped in his too-small room that's made smaller still by the fact that it is underground.

But either way, he's getting ahead of himself. After a bit longer of a drive and getting sucked into his thoughts, he heard a strange noise above him. Suddenly, a bright spotlight appeared and then another, shining over the arid wasteland that was this part of the planet. After a quick glance up, the racecar could see that it was a solid white helicopter. Strange color to be using in the middle of the night if you don't want attention. But Smokescreen didn't think that secrecy was what these guys were going for.

With the unfortunate realization that these guys might be cops or another variation of human authority, Smokescreen reluctantly slowed down to a more acceptable human speed limit. Then he saw another helicopter and then a large white truck pulling up behind him that he hadn't even noticed before. If these guys meant to be subtle they were failing miserably. "Who are these glitches?" He muttered under his breath, headlights flickering with the words.

Suddenly Smokey felt a prang in his frame. Were these humans after him? No… They had to have just accidentally intercepted him on their way to something. Something like… he glanced up — there was a truck stop only a little ways in front of him. Maybe if he pulled off there he would be able to tell if these humans were really after him or something else.

He pulled into the small pit stop for humans on long journeys. A place where they could buy food for themselves and fuel for their vehicles. He silently slid into a parking lot of some kind next to a small convenience store and shut off his lights. Waiting. The truck that was tailing him sailed right by and the helicopter continued doing its scouting. He let out a vent of relief.

He was about to turn his engine back on when suddenly a very bright human? Crashed into his door. Well, not crashed. More like went through his door. It was like the human had a phase shifter and could go through solid matter. Smokescreen's indoor lights flickered in surprise as he studied the human. They had white hair and green eyes and most importantly, didn't look too good.

He — the human appeared male with reference to Smokescreen's research — was curling into himself down on the cybertronian's floor mats on the passenger side. The back of his head thumped against the door as he leaned it back to look up at the roof. He was panting hard, similar to when he had seen Miko running for her life after she came out of hiding just to insult a con.

The human was holding an arm across his chest, trying to stop what Smokescreen could only describe as glowing green energon, or, he guessed, humans called it blood, but he had certainly never heard of it being that color before. The kid was coated in it though — it almost seemed like there was more on him than in him.

The sounds of another helicopter passed overhead and the kid flinched, looking up at the roof of the sportscar as if he was trying to see through it to tell what was going on. The kid then took a deep breath, and a white ring appeared around him and in a flash of light, he had transformed, momentarily stunning Smokescreen's optics. The kid now had black hair, blue eyes, and raggedy clothing. But most importantly, or most horrifically, Smokescreen had to say, the luminescent green substance had transformed into something dark red.

Now his back seat looked like a scene from one of those horror movies the human children liked to show him and Bee. The red, now slightly warm, substance felt really unnerving on his leather seats. The kid curled up impossibly tighter and Smokescreen adjusted the mirror to look at him more closely.

Smokescreen just stayed where he was, frozen in shock. This was not how he expected his night to go. After what felt like a mega-cycle, he could hear the helicopters move on and the vehicles start to drive away. He could also hear the kid whimpering on the floor, bordering on crying. Smokescreen now really had no idea what to do now.

He ran a scan of the kid, again, just like he did when he first jumped in the car. His heartbeat was impossibly slow, but that had been the same for almost an hour, so Smoke wasn't too worried. His temperature was the same deal: an all-time low for a normal human.

Smokescreen thought about what the others would say. A bleeding-out human needs a hospital, right? But A) How is he, a 24-foot-tall alien mech that transforms into a McLaren going to drop a kid off at a hospital? And B) Where the frag is he going to find this hospital in the middle of the desert?

Why not start with an introduction then? "Uh hey, kid?"

The kid in question was startled so hard that he slammed his head into the door with a responding thud that shook Smokescreen's frame. The kid didn't take time to show a reaction to the pain, only frantically looking around, trying to figure out where that voice came from. The kid looked terrified.

"No no, kid! It's okay, no one's in here with you, or- well, I guess there is me, but I mean, well, you're inside me? No, that's not right." The kid's eyes widened as he tried to listen. He looked around and eventually settled on staring at the radio.

"I-" The kid's voice cracked horribly, and it sounded so painful that Smokescreen winced at the sound in his audials. "I'm sorry," The kid tried to continue. "It was the only one here. I didn't know, I didn't mean-" He started breathing way faster, and Smokescreen was starting to realize quickly that he messed up. The kid started crying! He hasn't seen a human cry! He saw it in movies but the others didn't cry. What could he do? He didn't mean to scare the kid.

"I- Ah, I'm sorry kid," What does he say? "Are you hurt?" Smokescreen couldn't tell if the sound the kid made was a laugh or a sob.

The kid used one hand to vaguely gesture over his body. "What do you think?"

"Uh, right, stupid question." He eyed the kid again as he leaned back, closing his eyes, his breaths getting shallower. "Do I need to get you to a hospital?" The kid's reaction to that was extreme. He flung himself up onto the seat of the car and pushed himself as far away from the 'Radio' as possible before raising his hand to try yanking on the handle. Smokescreen made a split-second decision to lock his door before the kid was going to throw himself out onto the pavement. "Woah woah woah! Calm down, kid."

He continued frantically pulling at the handle, then looking up at the window when he realized it wasn't working, looking as if he was planning to punch through it. "Hey hey hey! Don't you dare break my window!" He had no idea how hard that would be to replace.

"You can't!" The kid cried out. "Please don't-… they… they'll find me," he said through ragged breaths

Smokescreen raised his optical ridge, "Who will find you?"

"Please." The kid sobbed, smearing a hand down his face, leaving long red streaks. It was a gruesome sight.

"Okay, okay, no hospital, but you're bleeding everywhere. I may not know much about humans but I know that stuff is supposed to stay inside of you."

"I can patch it." The kid hissed in pain as he sunk back down onto the floor mats. "Can you get me out of here? Please? No people."

Smokey let out a deep vent. "Sure thing, kid". He pulled out of his weird dark corner near the convenience and pulled slowly back out onto the main road. After a few minutes of driving the kid seemed to calm down, the dirt of the road making the car shake slightly. He gently rested his head on the seat, reached up patting it with one hand, and cringed. "Sorry about bleeding all over your seats, Mr. Car."

After hearing that Smokescreen also internally felt grief over the future hours of work it would take to clean out his cab. "It's Smokescreen, my designation is Smokescreen."

The kid hesitated for a moment. "…Danny."

Authors Notes:

Poor Danny is so out of it he just accepts that he is talking to a sentient car, and Smokescreen is very concerned and knows next to nothing about humans.

Beta Read by: Arvensia

Cybertronian lingo:

Mega-cycle x Human week
Optics x Eyes
Glitches x Bitches/crazy people
Con x Decepticon
Mech x Male cybertronian
Optical ridge x Eyebrow
Designation x Name
Vent x Breath