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TF:G.E. Chapter 5

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Chapter 5: Almost…Halfway

For Unexpected Friends

(|)/
“From the north, down to the south, to the east side,
to the west coast where we ride…”
“Worldwide” – Blood Bought (Twzo, Oracle, Jocyph; from the Transformers Mix-Tape)
=|=

    I tossed.  I turned.
    “Will you quit squirming?” Cam asked of me while Beeper chimed musically along to music playing quietly in the background.
    “Even I can’t sit still after nine hours of driving,” I complained, rolling on my stomach.  The seat was laid back pretty much flat, allowing me to sleep a little, but I was still uncomfortably stiff from the lack of movement.
    “The less you move now, the sooner you get to move later,” Cam stated, sounding bored.  “Anyway, how do you think I feel?  My tires are hot and I’m stiff too.”
    I glared at the front of the car.  “You’re stiff?”
    “Yes.”
    “Ugh, how much more to go?”
    “Around eight hours.”
    I grabbed the back of the chair tightly and pressed my face into it.  I couldn’t remember sitting still for so long and not being able to sleep.  I was irritable - every time we stopped to fill up, the bots reminded me that I didn’t have time to spare for stretching my legs.  And so now I sat, upset that the day had gone so horribly wrong; in fact, my whole break from school was ruined by this…incident.  If only it was all a dream…
    Woo.  The sound of a police siren broke me from the hope that I might actually be asleep.  “What’d’ja do?” I asked. “How fast are we going?”
    A pause. “Faster than we’re supposed to be.  Hey, it wasn’t me- everyone else is going faster too! Plus, he flashed his lights at Grill…not,” Cam’s speech slowed down suddenly, “…me.”
    I sat up, and blearily looked out the front window into the lightening sky.  Grill was in front of us now because Cam kept speeding up and leaving him behind.  Soon I located the cop who had just passed us; it wasn’t what I expected.  Rather than a cop car, it was actually a K-9 Ford Explorer with New Mexico plates (since we were now traveling through that state).
    “Hurry up Grill! Speed up!” Cam urged Grill audibly.
    “So, I was right,” I heard an unfamiliar voice speak via Cam’s speakers.  It got its own little holo-screen, with equalizer and all, down below the screen with traveling information.  “Pull over!” The voice suddenly commanded.
    “Beeper!” Cam whined, “Close communications!”
    Grill’s and the unfamiliar voice’s equalizers closed, leaving one screen left: the fairly sized one floating in front of the steering wheel with remaining time, traveling velocity, and the map on it.
    “Who wazzat?” I asked tiredly, collapsing back onto the seat.
    “The cop,” Cam replied.  “It’s getting lighter out, and he probably noticed no one was inside Grill when we passed him.”
    “How did he talk to you though?”   My face was screwed up in an effort to shut out the light growing brighter throughout the sky.  I was so very frustrated on how everything seemed to be going wrong.
    “Grill’s getting off at the next exit…,” Cam stated warily as I felt us slowing down.
    That doesn’t answer my question, I thought doggedly.
    Soon, Cam had put the reclining seat up, so I was forced to sit up with it.  I wasn’t quite following what was happening, as my eyes opened and closed in a slow rhythm.  I saw us pass a small gas station.  I saw a lot of big conifers surrounding a pool.  And then we hit the rocks.  I was jerked back into consciousness as we drove over a dirt road, the airborne dust kicked up from Grill, and the cop who had slipped in between us, slowly falling back to the ground as we drove through it.  Suddenly, Cam came to a grinding halt, and a fwa-pinging noise resounded through the Camaro’s chassis.  I fell forward onto the dash, seeing as how I hadn’t put my seatbelt back on after the seat resumed its upward position.  I couldn’t really care less about why Cam had stopped.  I had never realized before how comfortable the dash could be…
    “Ow!” Cam exclaimed loudly. “Grill, I can’t clear this! Look, just stop, no one will see us!” Cam’s voice was much louder when you had your ear to the dash, which I was regretting doing as soon as I was forced awake again.  “C’mon, V,” Cam said, “You’ve gotta get up and out.”
    I didn’t move. Just leave me alone, I thought. I felt a tug on my shirt. A quiet beep.
    “C’mooooon, V,” Cam repeated, opening his door.  The chill morning air blew in and snapped me back awake momentarily.
    I got out, Beeper dangling on the hem of my shirt, then crawling up to my shoulder.  I saw the evergreens from before.  From the side we were on now however, you could hardly see through the foliage.  There were dense bushes growing untamed at the trees' bases.  Turning my attention back to Cam, on my other side, I saw him shut his door just before transforming.  “What are you doing?” I asked, voice raspy.  “What if-”
    “Calm down, wake up, no one will see us.”  Cam reassured me.
    I was about to protest, pointing at the black & white Explorer, until it’s rear drivers-side door opened, allowing a German Shepherd to come trundling out. It barked once at our general direction, then faced Grill, who was on his other side.  He barked a few times then whined.
    “Good job, Encephylon.” The voice came from the K-9vehicle and was the same voice I had heard when Cam was talking to Grill before….  The dog looked at the Explorer and whined some more.
    I stood gawking at the Ford and its dog.
    “Well, are you going to transform or not?” Cam asked, visibly annoyed.
    “Who?” The Explorer asked.
    “You,” Cam glared at the K-9 vehicle.
    “Why should I?”
    “What, you won’t talk to me face-to-face?”
    Without question, the Ford Explorer transformed, turning to face Cam and myself.  Grill stayed silently on the other side.  “Happy?” He said.
    “I dunno.  Why’d you pull us over? You’re wasting our time.”  Cam’s toe tapped the dirt impatiently.
    “I didn’t pull you over,” he pointed over his shoulder, towards Grill, “I pulled him over.”
    “OK, well, he’s with us.  What do you want? We’re in a hurry.”
    “I noticed.”  The Explorer said, unimpressed.  After a brief pause he queried, “You wouldn’t be following someone would you?”
    Cam seemed to be mulling over in his head whether or not to tell the cop.  I decided for him.
    “Yes,” I said.  “That’s why we’re in a hurry.”
    I waited for his response.  Cam huffed and held his arms akimbo.
   “I’m following someone as well,” he revealed, kneeling to pet his dog, which had taken a seat next to him.  “Encephylon here can track - us,” he pointed to Cam, Grill, and himself.
    “Transformers,” I said, rubbing the back of my head.
    “Yes,” he paused to look at me, “That’s what got my attention on him,” again he pointed to Grill, “and I noticed no driver.  Now, my reason for following - well, a little ways off the interstate a good distance back, I found a large gas station, completely demolished.  I saw the remains of a transformer there.  He was offline, and looked to be in bad shape.  Half of him was under some collapsed debris.  There was nothing I could do; already the police had much of the area covered, and a minute after I arrived, so did several helicopters.  Military by the looks of them.  By then I decided I would have to leave, which is when Encephylon told me which way to go.  I found some tracks along the way to the interstate, and made up my mind to find out who killed that transformer at the station.  I’ve been following ever since.”
    “You don’t think it’s us, do you?” Cam asked, suspicious.
    “No.  You don’t run on diesel.  It was a diesel fuel station, and there were evaporating trails of diesel along the tracks I’d found.”
    “Diesel,” Grill finally spoke.  “Looks like we’ve found your proof Camshaft.”
    I cringed at the thought of the loud diesel engine that mom’s truck ran on.  At least I didn’t have to try to sleep with that pounding through my head.
    Cam sank at the idea of evidence that Seether had been by here, and that an act of violence had been committed.  “Doesn’t mean I like it,” he said sadly.
    “Are we following the one and the same, then?”  The cop asked.
    “Sounds like it,” Cam conceded.
    Without further ado, the achromatic Ford continued, “My name’s Cougar, and you already know Encephylon.”  The Explorer drew near to us, offering his hand to Cam.
    “Cam,” the Camaro replied in a depressed manner, hardly moving.
    “V,” I said, offering my own hand slightly.  I shook Cougar’s finger.
    Beeper beeped a little bit on my shoulder, warily looking up at the 20-or-so foot tall robot.
    “Beeper?” Cougar asked. “Ahh, OK,” he said after Beeper replied.
    “And-” I began.
    “Grill,” the red Ford introduced.  “Forgive me for not transforming.  Saving energy.”
    “Right,” Cougar said, turning to the older Ford, “well, I think I have something for you then.” Despite his comment to Grill, he turned back to me, pulling out what looked like a credit card.  Offering it ( I was surprised his fingers had enough precision to pull it out of his being, let alone to keep hold of the tiny, slick piece of plastic), he said, “It’s a gas card.  My driver- poor guy, loved animals -he had a really bad memory…so I have a few more if need be….  They really shouldn’t have kept him in the force.” He shook his head as he finished.
    “Ah, I see-eh-yaaah,” I took the card, unable to hold back a yawn as the chillness of the morning faded with the first peak of the sun over the flat horizon.
    “Let’s hit the road then- we have some ground to cover,” Cam said dully, walking to the evergreens and peering around them.  He then went a bit further and transformed.  “I think I can make it over all this stuff-” There was dry brush littering the ground. “It’s the bigger rocks I can’t clear safely.” Silently, I stood, staring back at the Camaro.  “Well, let’s go,” he continued.  I slowly trudged to my car’s side, looking at the gas card.  It looked very similar to a credit card…
    The passenger door opened and I got inside, Beeper jumping immediately to the center console.  Outside, I heard Cougar transform and Grill start his engine.  The door shut and sounds were drowned out, so I peered out the big back window.  Encephylon hopped inside Cougar, the door shutting thereafter, and both Fords began to follow us back to the road and the interstate.


-o-
(Cam)

V drifted off again almost as soon as we’d hit the pavement, though, not before Beeper had insisted on being connected again.  So as we reached our peak speed on the interstate (Grill taking the lead again), Beeper opened a link between the four of us.
Beeper:  :Thx Cougar, ur interruption earlier made me realize I needed to find a way to make our signal private.  Can everyone communicate OK?:
Grill:  :Affirmative.:
Camshaft:  :You have to ask?:
Cougar:  :Yes.:
Beeper:  :Good.  This way, we can also keep the line open while around Raizer and Seether, and they won’t be able to get it.  It could give us the upper hand.:
Camshaft:  :You’re already thinking about that?  We still have another 7-8 hours left before we get there!:
Cougar:  :We have a destination then?  You know where he- they are going?:
Beeper:  :We think so.  What does Sephy say?:
Cougar:  :Sephy?:
Beeper:  :Ur dog.:
Cougar: :Oh, Encephylon.  He’s still got the scent…or whatever it is he follows.:
Beeper:  :OK, let me know if Cephy loses it or says it’s another direction, k?:
Cougar: :Understood.:
Camshaft:  :Where did the dog’s name come from?:
Cougar:  :Remember me saying how my owner loved animals?:
Camshaft: :Yea.:
Cougar:  Well, he has a lot of pets AND he works with many of his departments animals, so the names he chose had to become unique.  You couldn’t have five “Spots” running around.:
Cougar:  :That and I think odd names are easier for him to remember.:
Camshaft:  :Hmm.  And what about your name?:
Beeper:  :Cam!:
Grill:  :It’s rude to ask.:
Cougar:  :No, it’s alright.:
Cougar:  :I prefer felines to any other specie in the world- and the cougar happens to be my favorite.:
Camshaft: :Uh-huh…:


End Chapter Five~
Hoo-hah! I heard this chapter was funny, but had a bad ending. Sorry about the ending. It was dramatically different in the first draft, but I figured this was better. So...we meet Cougar! Hoohah. I have almost none of his design done, sadly. I should probably finish Cam and Grill first though, huh? lol.
Beeper's so cute! lol
Oh, and "Sephy" was not an intentional reference to any "Sephiroth" or "Sesshy" lol. His name was inspired from .Hack, actually.

Have at it! :)

EDIT: Erm, Tim, it looks like some of my edits didn't stay for some reason...I had to change the "make over" part again, (lol) but Encephylon's door was still fixed...Please reread and let me know if you fid any I missed?


Rest of the story: [link]

TF (c) Hasbro
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Tmblake09's avatar
Yay, I can't wait for chapter six!!!!! =D And I'm typing chapter 10 of mine now =D