Three Ring Circus

[Deleted]

Setting: Monument Valley, Arizona
Time frame: Flashback

He was not certain if it was sand, dust, or the wrath of some angered elder god looming cloud-like on the horizon, but any which way, it did not look pleasant nor beneficial to his health.

The winding, dirt road ambling among rock formations and past desert brush had been an inviting place at sunrise. An appealing hike through beautiful terrain, with good weather, sunshine, lizards, and sundry other points of interest to look upon. Sure, it was rather toasty out, but that was nothing Lukas could not handle, that and if his estimates were right, he would be back to the hotel once the heat of the day hit. The heat and traveling in it was also not something unknown to him, after a couple of weeks of traveling by foot and bargained rides.

The looming brown cloud rolling in fast from the horizon? That though was less than familiar and unpleasantly concerning. With as quickly as the storm was moving, finding shelter to ride it out became priority. Knowing that there was no chance of making it back to the hotel on foot before the storm reached him, and that there was no viable shelter behind him, he hustled onward up the curving road towards the nearest rock formations. Perhaps among them he could find a hiding spot away from being sandblasted by airborne grit and high speed winds.

The skies were already darkening overhead, and the wind was picking up, catching the loose dust off of the road and sending it airborne. He did not have much time.

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In the dust, in the middle of the sun-baked valley sat a rather intimidating looking truck. The rig, a dull black and gray, had been dyed by the red dust clinging wheels and wheel wells. Everything about the truck screamed faded, old, and hostile even with the engine quiet. In the middle of desert, the rig was more suited for than out of place in the hostile terrain.

Wildfire watched the brooding storm approach while listening to the local radio station. The storm was large, ugly, and moving at a fast click directly in her path. She wouldn't be able to outrun it at this point and using the extra fuel would be counter productive. Not when she was on small reserves since landing.

She'd only been on the planet for a small amount of time. Long enough to hide the remains of her crashed pod, find an alternate form to blend in, and to stumble over the local lifeforms. Her queries had only confused her more. The indigenous creatures that lived on the planet were odd and so were their customs. They obsessed over very trivial items.

But she had more to worry about than what the humans did with their time. She had to find a surviving member of her local faction, if there even was any still around. So far the femme had been playing it cautious and getting a feel for the planet. She had no way of knowing if the Decepticons weren't already entrenched in deep. For all she knew, this could be a trap. Or her fumbling about for her side could bring about the wrong faction. And then there was the endless fighting.

First things first, she had to sit out the storm. Every vent was closed up tight at the approach of the large wind storm looking on the horizon. It was very unlikely the highest winds could generate any damage outside of surface damage but she wasn't about to get a clogged engine on account of carelessness. So interested in the storm, that she wasn't paying attention to the rear and the approach of an easily overlooked small human. After all, they were all small and rather insignificant to her.

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With the storm pressing from behind, Lukas came up the road at a hurried trot, scanning the surroundings as he went for potential shelter. Being caught out completely vulnerable in the middle of a rolling storm of grit and dirt was not something the human particularly fancied. The storm had not even yet properly arrived, and he could already feel the wind tugging at his clothing and blowing sharp-edged across his ears and cheeks.

Trotting around a bend made blind by the rise of the embankment and desert growth, Lukas' plan to head off road to seek shelter among the rock formations was derailed by a spot of hope just up ahead.

A truck parked along the road.

Occupied or abandoned, with any luck the rig would be able to provide safety from the storm. Picking up his pace, he hustled towards the truck, hoping for an unlocked door or a sympathetic driver that would let him in. Coming up alongside the trailer towards he cab, he noted only in passing the worn look of it in his urgency to seek shelter. Muttering generic prayers to whomever may listen, the windblown human clambered up the side of the truck and gave the handle a tug.

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The edges of the storm carried balmy air and the first stirrings of sand that pecked against the worn metal of her plating. Itchy, but nothing worse than she'd ever been through. Still, the time it would take for the storm to pass would just be empty time she could be spent doing something more worthwhile. Primus knew what that might be, but even exploring the strange planet was better than sitting there. She'd ran across the term "a rolling stone gathers no moss" and was mildly repulsed by the very clear implication that if one sat still enough, they would be covered with organic things.

Wildfire wasn't particularly against alien life. But she wasn't particularly comfortable with such a...lively planet. From arrival to her scant wanderings about, she'd found nothing but an overabundance of life. How could one planet have too much life? There was things growing on things. Her metal body couldn't have felt more out of place and foreign. She didn't really feel like herself. She felt like-

There was something clinging to her. With a choke of surprise, the sound not unlike a engine grinding gears, she flinched and twitched the door. Not hard, but reflexively in the tell tale "get it off" gesture. Only after she'd done so, did she realize that there was a inhabitant there.

Oh no, I've killed it!

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The last thing Lukas expected when he tried the handle, was for the door to jostle via some unseen force. The unexpected movement was enough to startle the human, throw him off balance, and send him windmilling right off the side of the truck.

Thwump.

Lukas landed flat on his back in the dusty road, the plumes of dust his impact stirred up were blown along by the blustering wind. Stunned, he just laid there for a short time as his head spun, contemplating the angry sky overhead absently, and wondering if the door really had jumped under his hand.

It couldn't have. Maybe the wind had just caught it just right...

After a few moments for his addled self to sort out, he sat up almost abruptly with a huff and a groan. All right. That was going to smart come the morning. Or come now. Now was also an option. At least he did not clonk his head, that would have sucked. Pulling himself to his feet, Lukas regarded the truck with a heightened level of caution, before moving to clamber up the side again with the intention of trying the door handle just one more time.

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Under the heavy guise of the semi, Wildfire couldn't cringe. Her weight settled heavily, causing the solid frame to creak as she "eyed" the native. So it wasn't dead. That made things much easier on her in the long run. She doubted the stars shined down favorably on any mech who murdered alien life and then hid the body in a desolate landscape. She supposed she could have just left his body for the carrion creatures to get and therefore benefit everyone involved. Everyone, that is, but the native. However, thankfully, he was still moving on his own accord.

Now she just had to figure out what to do about his determination to seek shelter in her. The dominate lifeforms on the planet had odd thoughts about machinery in general and for all he knew, she was a derelict vessel abandoned to the storm. She certainly looked worn and left to let the weather do away with. While she wasn't rusted in any places (Primus forbid) her paint was all but faded to an afterthought. The chrome was dusty and only briefly shined in the quickly fading starlight.

She supposed she couldn't blame it for trying so hard to find cover. If it weren't for her general perusing of the weather report in the location (handy thing, these natives had) she would have given the storm a worried eye. On her planet, and some between here, there had been monstrous storms that could rip the armor from a mech. This was nothing but a bit of sand and dirt. Bothersome, but not threatening. But the native had very poor defense against the elements. Which was just poor planning on his part.

Huffing to herself, which was all but inaudible in the growing wind, she released the lock on her door. Inside, he'd find the cockpit surprisingly clean and well cared for. The ceiling of the cab embossed in Cybertronian designs while the trim inside was rather plain and well worn, if not comfortable. The Autobot symbol gleamed dully from center of the steering wheel.

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Thankfully, he was sturdy an resilient enough to not meet his end by flailing off the side of a large truck and splatting to the ground with utter lack of elegance. It would have been a end rather lacking in dignity, that was for certain.

The potential of having met his fate at falling off of a truck was not in the forefront of his mind currently. That place was taken up with the glee of the door opening to admit the now somewhat dusty human within. Glee enough that he let out a short wordless exclamation to broadcast just how thrilled he was to be out of the elements as he slid into the drivers side seat.

Tugging the door closed behind him, Lukas sunk into the seat, happy for this little bit of luck. Now to just wait out the storm, then hike back towards civilization. Relaxing, h watched dust blow across the windshield a moment, before glancing around at the cab. The contrast of the well kept interior to the rough exterior was a curious thing, and the unusual embossed designs moreso. Upon noticing the the symbols on the ceiling, he could not help but to reach up and run his fingers curiously over a few.

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Dust wasn't a problem internally. At least, not the little bit the human tracked inside. The cab wasn't exactly pristine. No matter how tightly she kept her doors, dust still trickled in from the outside through the vents. There was a fine coating of sand on the seats that was easily displaced by a casual brush of a hand.

Outside, the storm heralded its arrival by attacking the outside of the truck with a scritch of fine sand abrading the faded metal. It itched but other than the irritating sensation, Wildfire wasn't too worried about her well being. Storms on Cybertron had been far worse than this planet. The first time it had rained planet side, she'd fled for the nearest underpass to park under. But, pleasantly, she'd found the rain didn't try and burn holes through a body. One warm days, the warm drizzle was fairly nice and refreshing.

So no, a little sand and wind wasn't going to bother her. The human, however. That was problematic for several reasons. One of which was the questionable decision of letting the human take shelter in her. An unnecessary risk, but she'd felt bad for hitting him with her door. Though, he had brought it upon himself for just inviting himself on her. Hmph.

She was hyper aware of his movement across the seat. So much so that she forgot about the storm and focused on what he may or may not do. There wasn't much damage he could get up to inside the cab. And he didn't really weigh anything. Her scans didn't even acknowledge his scant self. She had to re-calibrate them just to get a bearing on him. According to the human's datanet, he was fairly underweight. Had she picked up a stray?

At the light trace of his finger she found herself cringing internally. Those were very personal glyphs that he had his hands on. She couldn't just come out and ask for him to stop. Hedging her odds, she flicked the radio until she found a suitable song that could subtly get the message across...through the cringe-worthy crooning of Hank Williams Jr.

"-don't give me no lines, and keep your hands to yourself."

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There was something to be said for standing out in the rain, enjoying the sound and feel of a good storm be it a passing shower or one full of rumbling thunder. Lukas himself had spent a number of storms under the rainfall, enjoying the feel of the weather around him. There was a sort of cleansing peace in such a thing, he thought. Dust storms on the other hand were only good for aggressive exfoliation and disgruntlement.

Protection from such less favorable elements was a grandly appreciated boon. If the truck had not been unlocked,he would have ended up beneath it in all likelyhood, huddled beneath the cab's belly, tucked against the tires and doing his best to keep form inhaling too much grit. The comfort of the cab was a much nicer option.

Of course, if he had any idea that the vehicle he had so crassly groped and clambered into was alive, he would have thought twice about is actions. To be fair though, worrying about if derelict trucks on the side of the road were secretly self-aware alien living robots was not a common concern for humans.

Lukas froze, mid-trace of a gylph over his head, as the radio blipped on with a particularly appropriately timed song snippet. For a few long moments, he barely so as much as breathed while he processed the goings-on. If that was not an omen nothing was.

"...All right then, haunted truck. Message received." The human muttered carefully and promptly sat on his hands and wondered if he had just discovered the reason why a vehicle such at this was abandoned on a desolate back road and what sort of malarkey he had just gotten himself into.

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The concept of ghosts and haunting escaped Wildfire. Not that she didn't understand the theory. Humans, however, seemed to lack the abilities or the awareness to perceive other worlds much less beings existing on other planes. However, all of this was moot. Wildfire wasn't haunted. But this was the easiest quantifying factor the human could understand at the moment unless she revealed herself. Which she could not.

Now that he wasn't running his hands around her interior, she could relax and let her attention slip back to the storm. It was unlikely to prove problematic for the both of them but the weather on this planet was tricky and ran in extremes at times. The radio continued to play, slipping to "golden oldies" whatever those were, as she relaxed into the embrace of the storm.

The wind whistled across the empty landscape and visibility dropped by staggering degrees. Even with her advanced sight, Wildfire wouldn't have been able to see anything through the nasty air. Every vent was snapped shut but the femme couldn't help but twitch against the onslaught of sand.

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Well, some humans could touch on the edges of such fickle metaphysical topics, but he was not one of them. Sure, he had a grandmother who thought she was a medium, though when she started claiming a cousin's new chihuahua puppy was a great uncle reincarnated everyone started to look at her a bit funny. Even if she had any touch of the mysticism, it hadn't passed on to him.

None the less, he had just been told off by a truck to stop touching everything. When trucks told you to stop touching everything, he was rather inclined to listen. He was small and breakable. He would not win in a fight against a possessed truck. Thus, he was going to sit there on his best behavior, hands in lap, not touching anything. No need to make the possessed truck angry. It had looked angry enough from the outside. No need to risk it further.

For a few long minutes he sat in silence, listening to to the storm outside, watching grit waft over the windshield in waves. It would have been oddly soothing, if it were not for the distraction of the truck.

"Some weather we are having." The words, meant to break the silence even if only briefly, felt lame before they even left his mouth.

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Wildfire had nothing better to do than to sit there, endure the onslaught and try and ignore the human. Which turned out impossible when he started trying to speak back to her. That gave her some inward pause while she tried to guess what had given her away. Surely the trick with the radio hadn't been that odd? Most humans rationalized the odd by ignoring it. This one was supposed to do the same.

He's nervous from the storm. Nothing more. But a quick scan of his body indicated no discernible rise in stress levels. If anything, he was fairly healthy and relaxed. Though he would need to refuel himself in a few cycles.

Perhaps he is just lonely. She could certainly sympathize. The vastness of space was empty of sociable life even if it was lovely. If she was stranded on her own planet, pinned in by a storm, she would certainly seek out the nearest contact. Or she would have if her planet wasn't a dead mass. The thought grated on her worse than the sandstorm.

This is stupid. But now that the thought was in her mind, it seemed like desperately good plan. She was low on fuel and her options were limited. She didn't have human credits to buy fuel and the thought of stealing was low class at best. She'd dedicated her career to guarding fuel. Resorting to stealing it at this stage was an irony too great to commit. But the human could provide if she could just persuade him into doing so...

It took her considerable time to cobble together a decent holoform. This wasn't exactly her forte. Couple inexperience with less practice and meager fuel to spare and she was left with...well, not a bad looking guise. She had been picky over any of the images she'd found on the human datanet as humans just looked so fragile to her. So several smaller frame had been rejected outright until she'd found the suitable body type that didn't look like it was made of something breakable. It just wouldn't stand up to anything touching it. And she'd have to remember to not go through her own frame with one of the limbs. And remember to "breathe" and "blink." The more she listed things she'd need to remember the more daunting this gamble seemed. Perhaps this was a bad idea.

-

"This isn't nice weather." The front part of the woman leaned out from the back of the truck, the rest of her body partially obscured from view. From what Lukas could see in the dim cab, she was fairly attractive with wavy hair and strong features. But what was possibly the most striking was the biceps. The woman appeared to be able to move the truck herself if she wanted to. Lukas apparently did have two tickets to the gun show.

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In all fairness, he had spoken partly out of some kind of awkward misplaced cheek, and not that he actually expected a response. Though given he believed he was sitting in a haunted truck, he imagined all of the rational bets were off. Honestly, if the weather outside didn't represent at best a nasty windburn and at worst a smothering death by dust inhalation and thus somewhat distracting, he would have been inclined to inspect his current shelter a bit more thoroughly despite the clear warning of "hands off!".

All in all he fell quiet after his commentary met no obvious response, he settling in to watch the storm beyond the windows and debate to himself just how long this was going to last. With any luck it would blow over quickly, and he could get on his way and leave the haunted rig to it's own devices without some living person meddling in it's business.

Lost to his thoughts and the soft shushing of dust outside as he was, the unexpected voice jostled him back to the present with a startle. Yelping inelegantly, he twisted about in the seat towards the striking and strong woman, eyes wide enough to see white all the way around.

"I did not think anyone was in here!" he exclaimed, as his heart slowly settled down from where it had crawled up into his throat in surprise. Well, scratch that nerve.

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Wildfire took a quick second to search for the signs of a human pump failure and the treatment before moving the holoform once more. It took some effort for the image not to flicker out when her attention was divided. Outside the cab, she probably wouldn't have been able to maintain a steady output of energy with less sensors and projectors to direct at the seemingly solid form.

"I am aware of this." She didn't step out from behind the seats and instead looked out through her own windshield, out into the storm. It was growing quite impressive out there. The sand was scratching at her already scuffed paint job but the minor irritation was easily forgotten in comparison to fussing over the interloper in her seats. "I left the doors unlocked on purpose."

Yes, of course she had. In the future she would be endeavoring to lock the doors. Something she honestly hadn't had to worry about since her Cybertron days. Organics on this planet were, apparently, quite curious and prone to fitting themselves into whatever space they could fit. A thought fit to send shudders down the spine.

"Tell me, h-" she 'breathed' out, nearly blundering over vernacular. "-how did you find yourself in the middle of nowhere and mercy to this storm?"

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His pulse, at least, was returning to a less startle-frazzled pace in the aftermath of the cab suddenly proving significantly more occupied than he originally thought. The risk of imminent pump failure seemed reasonably unlikely.

"Well, I am glad you did. Option "B" would have been crawling under the cab and that could have ended badly for both of us." He quipped, tone good natured if moderately frazzled, even as he turned his head to follow her gaze out the windshield. Curious, and driven by that pesky survival instinct it seemed.

The second question drew his attention back to her, he taking a moment to consider before answering.

"Sightseeing." The initial answer was simple and to the point before he settled in to elaborate further. "I hiked out here from the small hotel a couple miles back up the road, just to take in the landscape of the park for a while. The sandstorm was an unfortunate surprise, which makes me further grateful that you were parked here."

The abrupt thunk-and-bounce of something larger than sand bouncing off the hood of the truck derailed his train of thought briefly, he peering out the window again as if he could discern what mystery object had been without any luck. Could have been a cactus. Could have been a critter. Mysteries of the universe. After a moment, Lukas turned his attention again back to the woman.

"What about you? Any particular reason to be parked on the side of a dusty back road running through a national park?"