PART I: KATIE

Chapter I

 

It was nearly dawn, and Sprocket could tell this by the dew collecting on his hood, and then slowly dripping down his window shield. The neighborhood he currently lived in wasn’t too used to having what few transforming robots on the block as they did; they’d lived in fear of the Decepticons, who had taken over some fifteen-years ago, a little too long. A battle had waged and Sprocket’s little Autobot “army,” as he called them, had depleted only forty seven-percent of them; the Redwood area served as a Decepticon refuge, and the mostly Beast-formed bandits had taken back to the forest, plotting and developing—secretly and quietly. They hadn’t pulled anything big for the last six years, and it may be because of Sprocket’s army—they knew that Sprocket was once a war-hero back in his prime: he was still living on Cybertron as a Lt. Col. back then, and he had ties with very good men.

            Those days had past and a few thousand years had gone by…Now Sprocket was getting older and forgetful. Big Bertha, the little white, non-descript car of odd origins, said that back in the Big War days, Sprocket was caught and was a prisoner of war, and that he never spoke about what happened during that time, saying only that if it wasn’t for the main Autobot troops and the coming to power of Optimus Prime, he would still be in the fragging Decepticon death camps, pounding out metal for new armor…But life was good in Humboldt county, for the most part. Besides Bertha, some other Autobots had fledged out in the little communities along the coast; there was even a small base up at Trinidad Head, too; it was a beautiful little base, some two-hundred feet above the ocean, and Sprocket liked to visit often.

            The dew had settled inside the Subaru’s window-wipers, and he cleaned himself off with a flick. He was so sure of peace in this neighborhood that he didn’t hear the young, human woman come up to him. “Are you awake?” she whispered. Sprocket chuckled to try to hide the fact that, if he were in his transformed mode, he would have fallen over with a fright. “Katie? What is wrong?” the beige car that was Sprocket hummed back. “It’s four in the morning. I though you humans slept during this time of the day.” Katie grinned and pooled together the moist water on his hood with a finger. “I should say the same about you. Did you like the new energon we got you? It’s the new ‘skim’ kind.” Sprocket mused over this. He was, after all, energon-intolerant, and had to buy a special kind of fuel that, so far, didn’t have a name. “Skim?” he asked, his bumper rising as he transformed, feet replacing wheels and arms replacing doors. Katie smiled.

            “Are you sick?” the gravely-but-kind sounding Autobot asked his human companion. “I guess it depends on what you’d call sick,” she said shyly. Sprocket nodded. “You are sad, then?” She nodded. “Can we go to the Glen? I know the trees don’t suit a transforming-robot-alien…but I just need some quiet. I left mom a note saying I was with you. So she won’t worry. I hope that’s okay.” He smiled. “I would normally say no, and to get you back into bed; but you’ve captured my attention.” Behind his mouth-plate, Katie thought Sprocket was smiling. His hazel optic was glowing insightfully; the other one had been wielded shut from an old battle scar. “I can carry you there,” he said and gently picked the young woman up and placed her in his palm.

            “I’m only barefoot;” Katie challenged him. “You’ll get cold feet.” Sprocket chortled, taking that challenge. “It’s only across the street.” “You’ll give an old man a job to do.” He might have well just raised a victory flag. Katie cocked her head to the side and smiled, her sleep-mused hair tied back into a small bun. “You win.”