Chapter 3: Trip Down Learning Lane

AN: In the time-honoured art of ignoring school, I wrote a chapter instead of working on an essay.

Poor little Unknown. Since they don't actually know anything, they are pretty much running on autopilot, and that means that whatever happens to it at this stage impacts it greatly. So… not good.

"-comm.-"

vorn - 83 years

astrosecond - .382 seconds

Moving swiftly down the hall, my pointy legs skittered over the concrete. Little chirps and warbles flowed from my vocalizer, tucked away on my back after I had transformed.

This 'Frenzy' was sure difficult to find!

For a while, I'd been sure that the place I was running around had a way out. But it didn't seem like it, and my HUD was telling me I'd been running around for an awful long time.

Frenzy contacted me again, an edge of impatience in his tone. "-You nearly here?-"

I wasn't sure how to respond. While it was clear that he was waiting, impatiently, I had no idea how to get there. I told him that, and he swore at me. There was a crash from nearby, and I immediately travelled back towards the noise. Someone could be hurt, and need help!

I scanned as I got closer, and discovered no life signals. It was just a chunk of the roof, smashed all over the floor. Particles in the air were filling my vents. I backed away, and continued to move down the hall, trying to find Frenzy.

It was proving very difficult indeed. I practiced my linguistic skills as I travelled the halls, just in case I saw another strange organic.

"Hi!" I chirped. "I'm Unknown, do you know where Frenzy is?"

That sounded good, so I practiced it some more. Hopefully the humans wouldn't trip over me, or accidentally get some of their woven coverings on me – that last one had been impossible to get out of when they wrapped me up. I was sure it was an accident on their part.

A life signal filled my tiny little scanners, different than the organics I had spent three hundred astroseconds with. I squeaked happily. "Frenzy!"

There was a surprised sound from behind the door that I raced to, sending little squeaks on my communicating frequency to Frenzy. "-Open the door, open, open, open!-"

"-I'm not by a portal, you spastic glitch,-" he growled.

I wasn't a glitch, I was Unknown! I told him so, and he snarled, sending angry tones to me. I squeaked, terrified.

There was no way I was going to Frenzy now! He was scary! Maybe I should find the organic creatures again? Yeah.

Turning around, I started to scamper away when the door slipped open, and the life signal became much stronger. My optics scanned it, an immediate message displaying that it was an organic I didn't know, with dark tufts on its top and dark optics. I cocked my optics, brightening them at the organic behind the door.

It was different than Maggie, but I wasn't scared. Until it immediately yowled in a high decibel range, and something that I'd never heard came out. I was going to wait until it was done, but then it started firing metal pellets at me. A quick analysis as one hit the ground nearby concerned me. Those could really hurt me!

I moved backwards quickly, concerned that one of the hot rounds would hit me and fry all my systems, melting my thin armour together and offlining me.

"Careful, careful, careful," I gibbered wildly, calculating where all the shots were going and moving from the spot, still retreating.

Organic creatures were bad too!

I turned to optimize speed, keeping sensors focused on the trajectory of the projectiles, racing away. A corner, I needed a corner, needed a corner!

"Bad, bad, bad, bad organic! Next door stripper, mama's meatloaf, can't trust it, unknown, stay here, stay here, stay here!" I garbled, narrowly missing a limb being fried off from a close shot.

Then one did connect, and I let loose a squeal of feedback, shrieking in pain and hurt. All the nerve wires in that limb were fried, and it had melted on the spot.

"Bad, bad bad!" I squealed at an octave high enough to even hurt my own sensors.

The organic's top portion scrunched up tightly, and it raised the gun to cover its top instead. It took a moment to coordinate my remaining five limbs into something steady enough to race away on, but I needed to get away, before this crazed organic offlined me.

I used the time to race around a corner, and use my belly cannon to shoot out a small portal's covering. There was no way the larger organic could follow me into here!

In the smaller passage, I turned a corner, and kept going, processor blaring at me about the safety of what I was doing, and how I should be transformed, how it was safer around organics, how I needed to blend in and stay safe.

I travelled for another thirty thousand astroseconds, managing to find my way out, only to fall into another chemical mixture that my processor had no name for. It felt strange against the injured stump, but I wasn't complaining. The thicker mixture carried me with it, like I was weightless. It took another thousand astroseconds to haul myself out of the viscous, sucking mix and on to the floor again, once the fast-moving mixture had slowed down enough, and I had been sucked through another membrane. This was more like the ground I had been on, but not as flat. I didn't like how the grit covered me, seeping into every joint and filling my internals with the thick particles.

Then again, it covered me, so I was less visible! That was good!

I started travelling again, moving away from the mixture – it wouldn't do to fall back into that. Maybe I should find the Maggie organic? But the ones with it had tried to hurt me, and I did not want to be hurt again.

Frenzy contacted me. "-Where are you?-"

I didn't answer, some new-found caution screaming at me to run, far and fast, and hide, away from the organics and the massive metal compound creatures.

Extending my limited sensors, I could tell that the ground up ahead was much less rough, in a strip that lead the same direction I had been heading. Heading for it, I started to travel. My energy reserves had lowered after that strenuous action, and were now down to 39.739%. This was not good, I seemed to be running through energy with reckless abandon.

Something more energy efficient was needed for movement; something that could cover more ground at a faster pace. Yes.

I needed to conserve energy – where did I get more? Chattering to myself, I moved for the flat, and managed to make it there with minimal energy expenditure. It took more power to move with all the grit lining my circuits and limbs, and I was getting small error warnings on my HUD that I was overheating and that the grit was damaging delicate wires.

Moving to the flat, I tried to solve the problem of overheating. It took painstaking astroseconds to clear the grit and particles from my vents, using the delicate edge of a limb. It was difficult to contort them like that, but I managed.

There was a rumble through the ground, and I squeaked to myself in fear before scanning the area swiftly. I needed to be more careful – what if it was an organic that wanted to hurt me?

Something in me made me transform, screaming "Hide, hide, hide," in a shrill tone, alarm slathered over the thought.

Transform?

Transforming.

Mei stretched, bits of wispy black hair escaping her braid and blowing in her face as she blew out a sigh. Worst vacation ever. Osaka was way more interesting than this dirt-water-massive American dam thing, and that was saying something. She was definitely more of a Tokyo, big city type girl.

Unfortunately, it seemed like her parents were having the time of their lives, loving being in America, oh, it's so big, wow! Hah.

More like a snooze-fest. She missed Japanese food – although Las Vegas had been pretty cool. Her parents were too chicken to go there at night, when it really got interesting, and she didn't think she'd be able to sneak out and make it back.

She had the feeling that all the Americans were snickering at her family's pronounced accent, too. Joy.

Her father had stopped the car for a moment, to let them get out and stretch, and for her mother to take a whole card's worth of photos of the Colorado River. She hopped out, iPod playing jpop loudly in her head as she stretched. A glint of light caught her eye, and she tilted her head down to look at the black phone, little red heart decorated with white adding a girly touch. It was slightly dinged and dusty, but didn't look too rough – a few of the side panels were missing. Had it been dropped out of a car?

Curious, she picked it up, and then smirked. It still had decent battery charge left – over a third. She'd keep it and call her friends, back in Shinjuku. Poor sap who had owned this phone would hate getting that bill.

She tucked it into a pocket, and sauntered back towards the car. This trip was so boring! And Father wanted it to go on for another week? She'd go crazy!

I'd been nice and warm, tucked into the organic's woven covering. Part of me was feeling trapped, but the organic didn't know that I was alive, waiting, and I didn't want to reveal myself. Scans had shown nothing too dangerous in the moving metal contraption, but I didn't want to risk it.

I had no idea what they were saying, and no way to correct that.

Now, the organic had left me in the woven material, and it was dark. I crept out of the material, squeaked lightly, and waited for a response. The organics in the other room merely murmured, and I moved, scuttling out and under the door with some interesting transformation sequencing. After another door, I scampered along a hall, pincer pedes nearly tripping me up as I moved down a soft material. There was a long series of treacherous drops, but my processor assured me that I could take it easily. Each one jarred me, and I left a trail of particles behind me, shaken free of my frame by the rattling impacts.

A warning flashed on my HUD. 32.982% energy left.

There was a signal in the air that I was able to hack into with ease. Immediately, I knew the language I had been trying to use earlier – and realized that strippers and meatloaf didn't really belong in the same sentence.

A television! I had been in water – the Colorado River, close to this hotel. My processor felt satisfied with the new words.

I even knew who had picked me up. The daughter of the Hozukis, called Mei.

Time to leave, and somehow get some energy. There was electricity all around me, but that wasn't what I required – I required energon. How did I get some?

I used the strange, slow system that humans (not organics) used, and made a few posts on some of their websites, asking for energon.

A few things had confused me. What was I? According to their laughably slow Internet, I wasn't a human, animal, or cellphone – the thing I was masquerading as. I shouldn't be alive, and I most definitely was.

Why? What was going on? Within the span of a few hours, I felt immeasurably older, yet still panicking on the inside.

Without help, I'd be discovering what happened when I ran out of energy. And I didn't want to know – part of my processor was shrieking about going offline. I didn't want to find out.

Almost immediately, there was a response to one of my 'Energon Needed' posts.

A post, from someone known as 'yellowscout' that read: Energon? What's that?

I didn't know what it was, but my processor was telling me I needed it desperately. Accessing the post, I posted a quick reply. Energy, I think.

There was a small pause, in which I scanned everything in the room I was hiding in, looking for something faster that I could transform into. Ah! There! My HUD was telling me that it was compatible, and it definitely would move faster than the cellphone.

I scanned and transformed in a heartbeat, thumping off the table and landing on my back, transformed into the little tractor. Immediately, my HUD was bright red and brilliant in my vision.

6.402% energy. Shoot.

Initiating emergency shutdown.

My last thought before I went offline was that I should have checked how much that would have cost in energy. And that I would find out what 'offline' meant imminently.

Bumblebee was exhausted, from every joint to circuit. Ratchet had turned off his motor relays, and his pain sensors had also been shut off. The medic had completed field-repairs, and then moved to Optimus. Bumblebee didn't mind waiting for Ratchet - he had a lot to think about, and he was comfortable. There was no danger of him offlining suddenly. It would take orns for Ratchet to fully fix his legs, so he'd better get used to being patient.

A sigh left his vents. The battle with Megatron was finally over, and the AllSpark was gone. Forever.

No more.

Their race was doomed to extinction.

It still hadn't really settled in yet, and he wasn't sure when it would. Sam was only barely conscious, clinging to his arm and muttering nonsensical things about his legs. Mikaela was clutched to his other side.

He just wanted to take both the humans and recharge for a while – maybe a whole vorn. Yeah, that sounded good. Of course, it was then that a keyword he'd tagged for immediate notice pinged his HUD.

A handful of ads, on Craigslist, Kijiji, and ebay, asking if anyone was selling energon.

He posted something, immediately trying to hack the owner, and managed to get and IP address when they replied.

A quick message to Optimus Prime, about the situation. Prime sounded old when he replied.

"-I will send Ironhide to check it out,-" he replied, and Bumblebee could hear the exhaustion in his message. They were all exhausted, but someone posting about energon was too suspicious to pass up. What if it was a 'con? So, they'd send Ironhide. Jazz would have- a wave of hurt washed over him, and he tightened his grip on the two humans clinging to each other and him a little bit.

Primus, he was so grateful that they hadn't been killed.

Hazel trotted down the street, planning. She could feel the other part of her soul calling to her, calling like a wild beacon in the center of her being. Once she had that last scrap of herself, she could throw this organic frame off a cliff; dispose of it like the trash it was, and rise to her full power.

First order of business would be destroying all the Cybertronians – especially the Prime. He, who had the power to bind her and make her forget about her past.

A feral snarl curled her lips grotesquely wide, eyes glittering like obsidian chips.

No, she wouldn't destroy him. She'd possess him; take his frame for itself. With the power of a Prime at the AllSpark's disposal, there would be nothing that could stand against it.

Yes. It would be the most powerful, and reign over these puny meat-sacks like an immortal god. Until it got bored. Then, then… it would destroy and create Cybertronians at will. Cybertronians were so much fun to play with, pulling all their deepest, darkest desires to their main coding. Oh, the fun that could be had!

It could tell that there was only a few Cybertronians on this planet that were old enough to evade the coding that had been altered – five, that the AllSpark could feel. One was quickly getting further away.

It would take over, and rule, just like it was meant to.

But first. She needed to grab her passport – she had a trip to Egypt to schedule.

AN: Haaaaa… I love Unknown – starting to learn, and is trying to be cautious, but… pretty much failing. :) It'll get better at hiding, I think.