"Afraid of myself"
The question didn't seem to register in her head the way it was supposed to, instead she blankly stared at the weird group in front of heer. It was silent for a couple of moments, her stomach twisting up even more as she prepared herself for any form of violence they were looking to show. Though her staring didnt last long as she heard one of the humans start speaking, her attention quickly snapping onto him as he stared at the new teenager. "I know you" he breathed out, eyes scanning over her and seeing the fallen groceries behind her. "You're that smart girl at school, who moved up a couple of grades" he nodded his head as he remembered, the black haired teen next to him looking at him with confusion. "I don't quite remember your name though" he admitted, still looking somewhat frazzled and disheveled from previous events.
He had recognized her from seeing her in hallways, and the talk that circulated around the school about the girl who never really interacted with anyone nor did she ever talk either. Equuleus just tilted her head, knowing his voice was somewhat familiar but also knowing that she didn't really know him in a friend type of way. She let her face somewhat sour as he mentioned he didn't know her name but knew about her, "It is equuleus" she answered blankly, still intimidated by the robots hanging behind him.
The boy's eyes visibly widened as she told him from her name "Oh" he mumbled, eyes flickering from her to the ground in awkwardness. Before another awkward bout of silence could come up another robot stepped forward, its eyes staring at her with some sort of resigned face. "And why are you here young one" he questioned, his voice or rather she thought it was his voice was deep and hard to decipher what tone it held.
"I came here to see if someone was in need of help" she moved back as she made that statement, eyes currently roaming over the group and she pursed her lips. They didn't seem like the ideal group to have around, seeing as five of them didn't look particularly human and the boy looked like he was in some deep shit. "It looks like you aren't, so I guess I should be on my way" she tried excusing herself, coming forward to grab the cans that rolled a bit farther and she tried to get herself out of this situation as fast as she could.
"I believe that won't be possible" again, the red and blue robot spoke up once more.
"And why not?" she asked in a snippy tone, her eyes hardening and her stomach once again tensing as he revealed that piece of information. It seemed he had picked up on her tone seeing as his facial expression softened somewhat at that and he began talking in a more understanding fashion. "You have revealed yourself to us, and that puts you in danger to the people who are currently looking for us" he reasoned, his hand moving towards her subtly.
"That seems to not be my problem, I'm sure I can handle myself" was her quick reasoning, once again wishing that she had simply minded her business and had not tried to go and play hero to some random person.
The robot shook his head, once more telling her that it was off the table. "I'm afraid not little one, you will be in much danger if we were to leave you to go home on your own" he was unwilling to let her go that much was clear to equuleus. Not much a choice now considering she got her ass in this situation in the first place. She grumbled as she walked over, standing idly next to the other humans as she tried to ignore the curious looks on her form.
"Back to the problem at hand" The bigger bot resumed their previous conversation, her still not knowing their names. "Sam, do you have the glasses?" he questioned, his gaze full of determination and slight worry as he regarded the young man in front of him. She looked somewhat confused but did not open her mouth as she continued to listen. "I do," the boy proclaimed, "they're at my house," he assured them, seemingly somewhat confident in his information on where these glasses were.
She truly felt as if she had gotten herself stuck into something she had no business in while thinking and coming up with nothing about how to still get herself out of this mess. As they were about to leave she was told that she was going to be riding with the small gray boy named jazz, also being proclaimed as her guardian of sorts. She had walked over towards the gray bot, him showing her some sort of laid back happy expression. "Hey little lady, I'm the jazz man, what's your name?" he asked, nodding his head towards her. She shot him a covertly annoyed look and she thought about it for a couple of seconds before deciding to tell him her actual name. "Equuleus" she answered, looking away from him for a couple of seconds before returning to him.
"Equuleus is a great name" the compliment slipped out of his mouth and she squinted at him. Was he punking her? No one, unless they were heavily into stars and other space related things, would ever compliment her name and none of them ever really knew what it meant either.
"Thank you" though it sounded skeptical coming from her mouth.
He said nothing else, figuring she wasn't one for small talk once she showed him a couple of annoyed looks as he asked a couple of questions about herself. She had learned their names particularly quickly as she paid attention to what they were saying and who they addressed. The biggest one, the red and blue one, was named Optimus. The yellow one was named bumblebee and the green one was named ratchet, and the black one was named Ironhide. While the boy's name was Sam and the girl's name was Mikaela. She knew who jazz was so she didn't really have to listen in for that.
Apparently, they were looking for some sort of glasses, which supposedly held very important information that they currently needed.
"Can I go home? I have to put my groceries away" she asked out of the blue, crossing her arms as Optimus turned towards her and he solemnly shook his head.
"You are unable to do so, if they find out you saw us and the location we are headed to, they will spare nothing to get the information from you" he spared no detail in the underlying threat of "they will torture you" in what he said. She supposed she couldn't really argue with that seeing as she didn't like being tortured. The memories of her father resurfaced from deep in her mind, how he didn't care for her screams, how she cried, begged, kicked, and tried to free herself from what he was doing. She snapped out of her memories once she saw jazz get up from his spot and he was transforming into something.
She was surprised when she saw he transformed into a car, blinking as she stared at him but he opened his car door and his voice flowed smoothly from inside. "Hop in young lady, you're riding with the jazz man" his accent became quickly accustomed to her ears and she nodded as she got in. Before she could even move to put her seatbelt on, it slid over her and snapped quickly while her door closed at the same time. "Safety first, wouldn't want our resident femmling to get hurt" he joked, the car quickly following after the others and she was shocked for a couple of seconds before recovering. She didn't question what femmling meant but she had deduced it meant young one or something similar since he kept calling her little lady.
"I do have a question, what is a little lady of your age doing out so late without any adult accompanying her?" The question sounded particularly harmless, and to jazz, he knew it came out that way. Jazz was someone who came from a not-so-perfect background, he had slaughtered and killed many while also infiltrating when it was required. He had experience in perfecting himself to appear one way while thinking another, so Equuleus didn't pick up on anything else but as she answered.
"I was getting groceries" was simple and to the point.
"By yourself? Where are your creators?"
She blinked at that, creators? She thought for a simple few seconds before connecting the dots and seeing he was asking about her parents. "My aunt and her husband are currently on vacation" she responded in kind, eyes looking out towards the scenery that passed them by and she saw how the wheel basically turned itself as he drove. Jazz made no other comments for a couple of seconds before he did. "I see" he hummed out, no other observations aside from that coming out from him and she said nothing else. She knew it looked bad, a young girl with no parents and her only family who were in charge of her were out having fun in another country and continent without her. She was also walking out alone with no adult or someone who could protect her aside from herself, though no one else knew what she had or what her father made her to be so it only looked so much worse than it actually was.
Without saying anything they pulled into a nice-looking neighborhood and came into the backyard of a usual suburban-looking house, jazz let her out before he transformed into his human-like form. Equuleus looked around, Optimus telling the older two of the humans to go look for the glasses and to hurry before he turned towards the young African American female once more. "You are quite young" he spoke, his deep baritone voice shaking in her ears and she nodded.
"I am thirteen" she defended herself although not very convincingly. "And I am in the grade lower than your resident idiot over there" she pointed towards the house where Sam left. She heard a laugh coming from jazz, her eyes snapping over towards him and raising an eyebrow seeing as he found her funny.
"You are still fairly young, I am sure your parents are very worried about you" Optimus voiced once more and she turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. Her mouth moved before she could stop it.
"My mother is dead and my father is in jail, I'm sure my aunt and uncle who is currently vacationing in Europe are very worried about their niece voyaging around with alien robots" sarcasm dripped off of every word. All of the bots showed surprised expressions at those other than jazz who knew because she told him. Optimus showed a particular interest in that seeing as she was very young.
"You live by yourself?" he questioned, his eyes showing some sort of emotion that she couldn't place but she nodded anyway. "I know how to properly take care of myself without adult supervision" she urged, knowing not many adults thought that but she was sure she would be able to take very good care of herself. Optimus sighed at that and ratchet himself stepped in, "I'm sure you are a young one, but you shouldn't have to" his voice was soothing to her ears, one that would be used to comfort.
She made no sound of argument, eyes just narrowing as she looked away. These robots knew nothing of her and thought that her aunt was somehow endangering herself. She was able to go grocery shopping on her own, clean the house, tinker, and walk around the house without eggshells. She deemed that as a win but knew those around her thought of that as neglect, but because of how she was raised it had felt like heaven. She didn't suffer under the hand of anyone and she just shook her head and just let him have that idea, no idea about changing someone's thoughts when they weren't exactly looking to.
He quickly turned towards the house, abandoning their conversation for a moment as he checked in on sam. Equuleus turned towards jazz, seeing as he was having a small conversation with the other bot whose name was Ironhide. She walked over towards him, the bot lowering his voice as she did and she raised an eyebrow towards him, and the robot who was beside him let out a chuckle. "You have quite a personality young one" Ironhide commented, his eyes looking down at her and somehow she could detect some sort of warmth in them as he gazed at her.
"I simply just have an opinion" she pointed out, not exactly thinking she was someone who was especially interesting. He nodded at that and looked to be thinking about what to say in turn but the stumble of ratchet and a loud boom quickly overtook her attention as she turned around and raised an eyebrow at that. Ratchet looked dazed for a couple of moments like he was on some sort of high. "Oh that's tingly," he said and she knew something was wrong because ratchet looked like a man, oh erm robot who took things fairly seriously.
"Is he okay?" she asked, stepping closer but jazz had quickly stopped her although he himself was laughing.
"He's a fine little lady, although a little out of it" he reassured after recovering from his laughs.
After waiting a couple of moments she had decided to trust the silver mech before she turned back towards him, Sam coming to scold the bots and telling them to hide. They all took that seriously, the gray mech scooping Equuleus up and hiding in the shadows, her small body clutched very closely to his chest. She supposed she could have used her abilities but knew if she did it would raise some questions that would be unanswerable and she did not feel like exposing herself at this moment either. After his parents went back inside, it was quick to say that something was wrong as they and the bots heard some arguing going on inside the house.
"What's going on?" she asked slowly, eyes trying to peek around something of jazz's figure but she could not as her guardian hardened his eyes and kept her against him once more. "Nothing to worry your little helm about" he promised, shooting Ironhide a look and the mech nodded. Keeping her close to him, they saw a couple of vehicles roll off and Equuleus raised an eyebrow at that.
"Nothing huh?" she asked slowly, narrowing her eyes, and the robot himself shook his head at that. "Yes, nothing that requires you to look" and before he could say anything else, Optimus had commanded that they quickly follow. Jazz said nothing as he transformed around the young femmling and followed shortly after the bigger Autobot.
"I never know what's going on" she mumbled, sitting snugly in his passenger seat and jazz's voice flowed smoothly through his speaker.
"No need for you too, young femmling" and that didn't stop her from shooting a small glare toward the speaker either way.
"Not anymore"