When they finally reached the military base, Sam entered the semi-cool hanger and collapsed to the floor. Mikaela and October walked around him, pushing their bikes in. October was in awe of the amount of security that went into the gates, three in total with barbed wire razor wire and concertina wire, yet the front gate was basically open. Well it opened and closed automatically with a different code put in for each of the three gates, but still. She glanced over at Mikaela as she settled her bike into place beside her friend's, wondering just what the other woman was getting her into.

Leaving the bikes just inside of the large hangar, Mikaela began to show October around. Being the shy girl that she was, October just stayed silent and took in everything her friend said. "You remember the attack on Mission City?" Mikaela asked her friend hesitantly as they headed towards a new room. October nodded, who could forget giant terrorist made robots nearly leveling a large city? "Well not everything they said on the news was true. There were two factions of robots, not just one. There are the Autobots and the Decepticons, kind of good versus bad, you know? The good guys won with only one severely injured man - bot, I mean - while the bad guys lost their leader and lost the battle.

"The Autobots are the good guys that won the fight. Me and Sam, well, we're their friends. If you want, we were thinking that you could be too." Mikaela chewed her lower lip as she waited to see how her friend would react. She was waiting for either the laughter or fear that this news might cause. What she got instead she hadn't expected at all.

"It's 'Sam and I', Mikaela, not 'me and Sam'. How many times do I have to go over this with you?" October said, voice soft but just a touch exasperated. Even Sam, who has been friends with the Autobots, was showing more interest in this news than she was. He was close to freaking out while yelling at her that she was crazy for being able to so easily accept this. He was convinced that no one in the world could be so calm learning about aliens and sentient robots and - "If they're the good guys then what do I have to worry about?" she asked, bold now as she fixed her gaze on Sam. That boldness left the moment they entered the next section of the hanger where the large robotic humanoids were waiting.

It wasn't the fact that everyone was large robotic beings that had her falling completely silent and staring at her boot-clad feet. It was the fact that they were all strangers, and she didn't know what to say or how to act in front of new people. Mikaela greeted the tallest one that stood in the hanger. "Optimus!" she called out, gaining not only his attention, but everyone else's too.

"Mikaela, where is Sam?" the giant bot asked, his voice a low and deep rumble. His eyes looked over the shorter new girl as he spoke, interested as he ever was to meet new humans. While Mikaela was average height for humans, she was very tiny compared to the thirty-two foot tall robot. So October, who stood four inches shorter than Mikaela's five feet, was smaller than anyone the Autobots had seen except for children. "This must be your friend, October Williams, that you had wished to introduce us to."

Mikaela knew that waiting for her female friend to say anything would waste so much time, so she spoke up for her. "Yeah, this is October. October this is Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots. Sam is laying on the floor in the first hanger, I'll go get him." Mikaela left the hanger and October trailed behind her, just watching her feet as if it was the first time she had ever seen them. She didn't want to be left alone back there. She was so shy and worried about being made fun of, even from these new robotic beings.

Ratchet crossed the hangar to step closer to his leader and friend, keeping his voice low but not quite a whisper as he said, "She's not afraid of us." It was as though he knew what Optimus wanted to know, a trait that the Prime had long come to appreciate from his old friend. "Or rather, she's not afraid of us in the way that everyone is thinking." That was all the old medic offered before returning to his medical bay. While no one was hurt or in need of repairs it never hurt to be on the safe side, especially with Mudflap and Skids' recent arrival. The two of them alone could cause enough damage for the entire Autobot faction. In addition, they also had their second - older, though not by much - set of twins, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe. The chances of someone being damaged in the next twenty-four hours rose to nearly eighty percent when those four shared a station.

Mikaela returned to the hangar with her friend and her boyfriend in tow, animatedly explaining something to the other female. Sam was leaning heavily on the short girl while complaining about being tired and not knowing how the girls could do it - riding their bikes that far and long in this weather. "Can one of you guys call 'Bee? He's probably still waiting in front of her house."

A large red bot nodded. His height was nothing compared to Optimus, but he still stood about twenty five or twenty six feet high, it was hard to tell from only five feet. His bulk made up for his lack of height, and if he were human October thought he might look like a bodybuilder, or one of those large guys that went to the gym daily and got their arms large enough to be the size of her waist. That was a small exaggeration, but who was there to judge her in her own mind?

When his large blue eyes turned to look at her, she flushed and looked back to the ground. There was no way he could have known what she was thinking, right? Mikaela hadn't said that they could read minds or anything, and how would that even work?

Her black boots stood out against the light gray of the floor, and she focused her eyes on that contrast, keeping herself from looking back up again. Her eyes traced over where her jeans were tucked into her knee high boots, and it made her feel different. She had never dressed like a normal person before, so whenever meeting someone knew she felt even more different, unacceptable most times. Sure these new people were large alien robots but that was not the point. People were expected to dress and act and speak a certain way, and she just never seemed to get the hang of it.

Sam was still leaning on her when he straightened. "The food!" he exclaimed, loud and high pitched. Startled, October jumped nearly a foot in the air. Literally, she had nearly jumped high enough to be of equal height to him. "Tobe's, go get the food!"

"My name is October," she muttered under her breath, but still she did as he told her and went to retrieve their food.

"I thought her designation was 'October', like your human month," Ironhide remarked, having caught her upset tone and softly mumbled words. "It seems that she would prefer it if you called her that." Ironhide didn't actually care, of course, but he figured he should make note of it himself as he turned away to fidget with his cannon more. They were supposed to be on good terms with the humans after all. He turned the safety on manually so there would be no chance of him shooting the small human when she came back; he wanted to show her his guns the same way he did with Sam and Mikaela when they first met. It was a very powerful feeling to bring them online, to hear them whine and feel them thrumming through his systems as he aimed them at a 'target' and watching how his 'opponent' cowered with fear. It might seem cruel, but he would never fire on someone that didn't have it coming, so to him it was all in good fun.

October returned with two food baskets and a third filled with drinks. As she walked into the hangar, there was a whirring sound right above her and she was bathed in bright blue light. "Like my canons?" Ironhide asked, his voice geared toward a menacing growl. All of the bots and her two friends knew that he wouldn't do anything, he just liked showing off. Optimus stepped forward though, worried about the young girl's reaction to this. He had told Ironhide that some humans might not see the humor, or be impressed, but his weapons specialist still did it every time.

Looking up, October was nearly blinded by the light. Her eyes quickly took in the large weapon that was close to twice her height in diameter, then her head fell forward and she scuffed her shoes anxiously. "Yes?" she offered, as though asking him if that's what he wanted to hear. Above the whirring noise, no other bot but him heard her.

He lowered his weapon, power leaving the cannon with a low whine, and watched her curiously. His helm tilted as he looked at her, calculating, curious, and confused. Honestly, he had expected, and even wanted, a girlish scream like the one that Sam had given off a year ago. October wasn't moving however, and she continued to stand there with her head down. Her hair may have been in a ponytail, but her face framing bangs weren't and they hid her face, hid the brown eyes that were trained on him closely.

"Come on, Toby. I'm hungry." Sam called almost exasperated.

Once again October grumbled, "October, what is so hard about that?" Though she still followed Sam and Mikaela to go eat.