Chapter 9: Odd Meetings
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"Full?"
"Yep!" Liza chirped happily, rubbing her satisfied stomach as they left the cafeteria.
Having a full tummy was completely foreign to her. She never thought she would experience such a warm feeling.
"Maybe sometime we could go out and get some ice cream?"
"Ice cream?" The girl questioned. "What's a ice cream?"
Lennox smiled and ruffled her messy hair. "Oh, you'll love it! It's sweet and cold and-"
"You humans eat cold food too? Your stomach doesn't hurt afterward?"
"Oh no," Lennox set a hand over his stomach as he barked out a laugh. "Some foods are meant to be eaten cold. Ice cream is a dessert so you have to eat it cold. I don't think you would like a steaming bowl of ice cream...well, I don't even think it would be considered ice cream at that point."
So...it was ok to eat raw food on this planet? But when mama and papa made her do it, it made her tummy hurt.
"So I won't get a stomachache if I eat it?"
The human shook his head and ruffled her hair once more. "Of course not, sport...unless you eat too much of it then that's when you should be worried about a stomachache."
"Ok. Where are we going?"
"We are going to see the Boss Bot and-"
"Who's Boss Bot?"
"Sorry, I meant Optimus. We're going to see Optimus." Lennox quickly corrected.
"Is he still here? Did he leave?"
"Well, he kinda lives here, kid."
Her mouth fell open. "But how? He's so big and the rooms are smaller than him! What if he knocks something down when he tries to lay down and go to sleep?"
Lennox smiled at her innocence. "You're right, the bots are a lot bigger than us so that's why they sleep in their alt mode in the Autobot hangar."
"Alt mode?"
"Y'know," He gestured funnily. "When they transform into their cars and trucks?"
"Ohhh...how do they do that?"
The man shrugged. "You're gonna have to ask one of them. I wonder how they do it sometimes too."
"Yo Lennox!"
The duo froze and turned to face two black and white mechs approaching, one had a big grin on his face and the other held an emotionless stare as he carried himself with the utmost grace and dignified stance.
"Hey, Jazz!"
"Hey, is that the alien girl we picked up? I'm Jazz. Your name's Liza, right?"
Slowly, she nodded as the visored mech kneeled and reached towards her with a finger. Confused by this gesture, she tilted her head to the side and hesitantly reached up to tap the tip of his finger, hurriedly dropping it back to her side.
He only smiled at her as he brought his arm to rest on his knee. "Ah'm still having a hard time believin' you shot down from the sky! Ya look so...human. Ya fit right in!"
She is not human, so why does everybody keep comparing them to her?
Her gaze shifted over to the other mech standing behind him. His firm eyes were focused on her as if he were studying her, trying to figure something out.
"Oh," Jazz followed her line of sight. "This is ma mate, Prowl!"
"Jazz." The mech protested softly.
He shrugged as he returned to his full height. "Wha? Ya want her to call you somethin else."
"I don't think it's wise to be disclosing such information to her when we hardly know her."
"Everybody knows we're mates. Why can't she?"
Did she seem threatening or scary? What did it take to convince them that she would not do anything wrong?
"I'm not a bad guy!" The girl huffed.
"What?" The couple ceased their bickering.
Liza crossed her arms and offered her best pout. "I said I'm not a bad guy! I won't do anything wrong!"
Prowl frowned. "How do we know you weren't followed or leading an army here?"
"Aw come on Prowl," Lennox defended. "She's just a little girl. Plus Optimus and Ratchet already confirmed that she wasn't a threat while she was in the Med-Bay with them."
"How do you know she doesn't contain a hidden power of some sort?"
Lennox shrugged and gestured funnily. "Ratch said something about some maximize or something."
"Yeah, maximize!"
The three mechs jumped when the girl shot up in height, bouncing excitedly as she towered over the human beside her. "See! I already showed it to Ratchet and Optimus!"
"Babe." Jazz reached around his mate to hold his weapon out of sight of the girl. "You're gonna scare her."
Liza didn't see Prowl return his blaster to its holster. "I'm assuming this is the power that Optimus and Ratchet were talking about."
She was no taller than the bottom of Jazz's chest.
"Yeah um," Lennox hurriedly picked himself up off the ground and dusted his clothes off. "I didn't expect her to get that big."
A smile returned to Jazz's face. "Well, at least we don't have to worry about squishin her. What else can ya do?"
The girl shrugged as the mech cautiously approached her. "That's it, I guess. I can't do anything else."
Prowl hummed as he took a step towards her. "Can you return to your normal size?"
Lennox yelped and nearly fell back again when she returned to her runt size. "Yep!"
"Wow, that's cool! If I make myself bigger like that I would go show Boss Bot who's boss." Jazz laughed.
"Liza," The army man choked and flailed his arms wildly. "You just shot up like a beanstalk and t-then you-that's not normal!"
"Oh," She held her head down in shame. "Do you not like it? I won't do it again."
"No, kid," He pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, guilt washing over him. "You're fine. Do it whenever...just...don't do it so suddenly. You nearly gave me a heart attack."
Her face scrunched up in confusion. "Your heart nearly attacked you?"
"No that's not-you know you just scared me, that's all."
"Oh, sorry."
"You're fine, kid. Hey, have one of you seen, Optimus?" Lennox called up to the two bots standing over them. "He wanted to talk to Liza after lunch."
"She can eat your human food?"
I rubbed my full tummy. "It was yummy."
"Right! It's kinda odd that an alien can eat human food. Ratch was kinda surprised too."
"Hmm," Jazz rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "She looks human, acts like a human, and eats like a human." Suddenly, the saboteur's visor lit up in the excitement and a dramatic gasp left his lips. "What if she can be-"
Prowl rolled his optics. "No Jazz, she cannot be a human spy."
"Buh-"
"The answer is no. Colonel, we will take her to Optimus." Prowl said, kneeling and offering Liza his hand.
"Prowler!"
"Cool. Thanks." Lennox helped her onto his palm and made sure she was stable before he left with a wave, leaving the girl in the couple's care. "Bye!"
As she was raised to chest level, she shifted slightly to stare curiously at the shorter black and white mech who continued to plead with his mate. "Buh, she could help with-"
"No, Jazz," Prowl said, turning on his heel, expecting Jazz to do the same.
"Hey, Liza."
She tilted her head. "Yea,"
"How would you feel to grow up and be a human spy?"
Her brows furrowed in confusion. "A...human spy? But I'm not human!"
"A valid point." The SIC stated.
"Buh ain't that the point of being a spy? Being someone you're not?"
"You're asking a child to go undercover and steal information from secret organizations."
"I said when she grows up!"
"She is much too young to understand such things."
"Ya don't know that!" Jazz pouted childishly, crossing his arms as he continued to stroll through the base by his mate's side. "Maybe she could be a part of a very intelligent species! Ah mean...look at the way she's talkin! She's four and talkin like a fully evolved human...just with an accent!"
"Well," Prowl eyed the small girl in his palm curiously. "You are not wrong. Liza, how exactly did you learn to talk so efficiently at a young age?"
She shrugged and gripped his thumb to steady herself. "Our parents didn't teach us anything so we kinda just learned ourselves."
Jazz perked up. "We? Who's we?"
She looked up at them with a sorrowful expression and turned around in Prowl's hand to face the opposite direction.
The two bots shared a look and wisely said nothing else.
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