Almost home. Some people like traveling but, shock, it's a pain. But I got an offer to answer a couple of challenges in Erroth City so I went. 12 shockin' cycles waitin' for two lousy fights! At least Windsong showed up for a few cycles or I would of gone mad. Her first time in Erroth too, so we went sight seeing. Broke the tedium for a while and then back to waiting. Couldn't even practice in the local gym. Have to be a member. Ah well. 5 more milicycles and I'll be in sight of the gates. Another 15 after that and I'll be relaxing at home. Hey, what's that? Better check it out.

Great Primus! I think it's a person! Or it used to be! What could of happened here? Wait, there's still an energy flow. It's alive! She.... I think it's a she. Ya, she. She's alive! Not for much longer though. Gotta get her help fast. Won't get there fast enough on foot. Better try something. Toss her up, transform, and she lands on top. "Sorry about the bump. I'll make it up to ya later." She can't have long. Better huff it.

I can see the gates. Scrap! What if she's not cleared for entrance? What the shock! Her power signature's so faint, the gates probably won't even pick it up. Blasting through like this, better say something. "Uh, we have nothing to declare!" Keep going. Shock! The Med center's too far. Better go to BZ's. Left. Right. Dodge that guy, turn, strait a bit. Thank Primus, there it is! Better get her inside fast!

Don't see him. Must be around back. "BZ!"

"Kid, what have I told you about calling me that?"

"Shock it! I've got an emergency here!" He'd better get out here quick!

"What could be so.... Scrap! Who or what is that?"

"Don't know. I found her outside the gates."

"Picking up strange girls? That's not like you."

"Shut up and help her!" "Alright! Put her down on the table. Now let's see if she still has a spark left." He works on her. Time passes and he still works on her. Not because she'll die but because I asked him to. Why'd I ask though? Scrap, why'd I even bother picking her up? I mean, I've seen people hurt on the street and always just walked by. None of my business so I leave it for someone else. That's just it though, isn't it? There was no one else. No crowds of onlookers, no one. If I didn't do something she would have died. Scrap, she still might. Probably best not to get attached.

"Shock!"

"What is it?" Scrap, she's in a bad way. With all the unsalvagable parts removed, she's barely half there. And I can't even be sure which half.

"Her memory core's been hit. I can repair the damage but there's no telling what's been lost."

Shock! If her memory core's been hit, there's no telling whether or not she'll even wake up! Even if she does, doesn't mean she'll be able to move. Something like that can really leave you messed up.

"Alright kid, she'll live. You wanna take her somewhere?"

"You do it. I've got enough creds and besides, till she wakes up I really don't know where to take her."

"Your choice kid. Let's see if she's got her schematics. Looks good. A couple of holes but I can play fill in the blanks.Go on kid. This'll take at least half a cycle and I don't need you hovering over me. I'll call you before sleeping beauty here, wakes up."

"Alright, cya Blackzone." I wanted to get outta here anyway. I just needed an excuse. Wouldn't do to have BZ think I was getting squeamish. Besides, I'm still not sure why I'm taking this so far. A walk home should help me work things out.

Scanning the skyline. Doesn't matter how hectic the city gets, the skyline always seems calm, peaceful. I could of dumped her more than a few times already. I could of dropped her at the gates. I could of taken her to the Med center. She wouldn't have made it when I bought her in, but now that she's stablised, it would have been fine. I mean, BZ won't even save someones life for free. He is a decepticon after all. A total overhall's gonna click off a lot of credits. Not that I really need them. I mean, fighting pays good. Better than I thought. But other than my new apartment, I don't really spend more than I did before. That's not the issue though. I still wanna know what wires crossed to make me feel so responsible for her. I dunno, maybe I'm just more Autobot than I thought.

Oh well. At least I'm home. 2 cycles before I left for Erroth, I moved into this place in Brown sector. A full quarter of the 77th and 78th floors. It's a heck of a lot closer to the Arena. The only problem is the distance to Skyclear. My old place was practicly across the street. That was hard to give up. Hehe, I guess I can commute to the bar stool.

Well I should get something to eat and check my messages. "Computer. Messages?"

"Welcome home. You have 5 messages."

"Play in order of arrival."

"Message 1- It's Blue. I'm not sure just when your getting back so this may be a little early." Ok. So when's the party. "I've got a canned party waiting at Skyclear for the victor, so be sure to send him, will ya? Oh, and you can come too. Cya!"

"Message 2- Hi Randis!" Hey Windsong. "I let Blue know you were getting back today. I've still got a couple of cycles before my next trip out, so I'll see you later at Blue's party. Hurry up and get there so we can run up your tab, okay? Later!"

"Message 3- This is a message from the L.E.A.. You were recorded traveling recklessly through the east gate. If you would like to dispute..."

"Next!" Shocking Law enforcement Agency. I'll dispute alright. I was only trying to save someones life. I knew it was more trouble than it was worth.

"Message 4- Fighter Randis. You have 3 challenges. Choose one to fight in 2 cycles. Chall...."

"Save to play later." I don't feel like choosing a match just yet.

"Message 5- This is a message from the L.E.A.. You...."

"Erase that one." 2 reckless driving fines? And I even had a legitemit excuse this time!

"You have no further messages"

That's good. I want to grab something to eat anyway. Doubt I've got anything stocked. I'll have to grab something from the energy converter. Shock this stuff is bland!

"Beep! Beep! Incoming call."

"Probably Blue. "On display."

"Hey kid."

It's BZ! "How is she?"

"Just fine." Thank Primus! "I'm keeping her offline 'till you get here. Figured you'd want to be the first one she sees."

"Thanks. I'll be there soon. Display off!" Great! Now I can finally find out who I rescued.

"So, you ran her signature yet?"

"Yep."

"So, come out with it! Who is she?"

"No entry."

Haha. "Very funny Blackzone. Now who is she?"

"I told ya. There's no entry."

"But that's not possible!" All Jharrans have there power signatures logged when they come online. From that point on you're in the system. Even if you're exiled, you're still in the system. You're just red flagged. "There is no way she couldn't have an entry."

"Well she's not. And your power signature don't change unless you replace everything but your spark and your memory core. So it ain't no glitch 'cause of the remodel!"

"So what does that mean?"

"The way I see it, there's two possibilities. One: she got an illegal total remodel, or two: she wasn't processed out of one of the city plants."

"C'mon. There aren't any plants outside the cities. Scrap, there's barely anything outside the cities!"

"Then that leaves option number one, which I doubt. You need some seriously restricted equipment to do a job that big, so it costs big. Besides, if you do something like that, they give you anew identity. Without it you're worse than exiled."

"Guess that leaves only one way to find out then. Switch her on and ask her." I'm not totally sure about this but I'm dying to know who she is! And this looks like the only way to find out.

"You sure about this, kid?"

"Do it." He turns some dials, pushes some buttons, and makes some adjustments before removing the diagnostic cables and closing her access panels.

"Cross your transistors, kid. Here goes nothin'"

Her central power comes back online. She's moving! She might be alright!

She sits up on the table, still a little groggy. "Are you okay?" She nods yes in response. "You were in a pretty bad way when I found you out there. What were you doing outside the gates anyway?" She thinks for a mili and shrugs. "Okay, so what's your name?" Another thoughtful look, and then she shrugs and smiles. "You can't remember your name?!" She shakes her head.

"I was afraid of this."

When BZ worries, I worry. "What is it?"

"When her memory core was hit, she lost memory. The only real way to find out how much is to quiz her about her past. That's not exactly an option here."

"Well, can you recover it?"

"Sorry kid, no retrieval possible. This isn't a simple erasure. The sections of memory have been physically removed. You can't recover what isn't there."

Shock! Imagine not knowing your own name! Well, maybe she can remember someone we can contact. "Alright then. Can you remember where your from?"

Again thoughtful, and then she shakes her head. Scrap! This is getting nowhere. Wait a mili, she's been awfully quiet. Actually, I don't think she's said a word so far.

"Are you sure you're alright?" She nods. "Then why don't you say something?" She opens her mouth, then stops, and a puzzled look crosses her face. "You can't talk, can you?" She nods, still looking puzzled. "Blackzone, did you screw up her vocal circuits or something?"

"Course not! I checked them before I called you. And I checked her intelligence circuits too. So it's not her hardware."

"So what else could it be?"

"Maybe the voice centers of her memory core were taken out. I'm not a medic kid, I don't know much about this sort of thing."

I look at her sitting on the table, barely fazed by this whole thing. I guess she just became my responsibility "You don't know who you are or where you're from, not to mention you're not registered and can't speak. Well if you're coming home with me, the first thing you need it a name. You've got a feline form, how about BlackCat?" She frowns. "Razor?" She crosses her arms and shakes her head. "Guess not."

"How about Whisper?" She smiles and nods. "Well then kids. If that's settled, may I suggest you get the young lady registered?"

"And just how do you propose we do that? Walk up to the council and say 'Hi, she'd like to register please.'?"

"Well I thought, since you don't seem to mind clicking off all your creds, you could go see a friend of mine who runs a 'registration' business. Which reminds me, you still owe me for the repair job on the young lady here."

"Alright, here's my chip. Now where can we find this friend of yours?"

"Thanks kid. You'll find him on the other side of red sector. Over in 10 block. You'll have to wait till tomorrow though. He isn't going to see you till I make an appointment for you."

"That's okay. I've got a party waiting for me tonight, anyway. Later Blackzone. C'mon Whisper." She waves at him as we leave.

"I guess you'll be staying at my place. At least you won't keep me up at night." She smiles. "Well follow me and I'll introduce you to some of my other friends." She transforms into her cat form to follow me. Strange, not many people go for animal forms except for high rank fighters. But I'm pretty sure I haven't heard of any fighters with cat forms. "Y'know, I think hanging around you is going to make me talk alot more." Whisper turns to look at me with her cat head. "Come on. Let's roll out."

"Last stop. Check your paws at the door and follow me." Whisper transforms and gives me a strange look. "It was a joke! Well, welcome to Skyclear."

"Hey Randis."

"Hey Roller. Ah, there's Blue. After you m'lady."

"Hey Randis, what took you so long? And what's this? A trophy? Or did you take me seriously and bring the winner?"

"I never take you seriously. Whisper, this is Blue. He's not so bad once you get to know him."

Blue elbows me. "Hey!" He bends down to kiss Whisper's hand. "An honor to meet you, fair lady." She giggles. "So where did you manage to run into Randis?"

"Actually I picked her up, half scrapped outside the gates so I brought her in for repair."

"And you hung around with this loser this long?" Whisper frowns at him. "You don't say much, do you?"

"Actually, she doesn't say anything. And there isn't much point in asking where she's from, either."

"Why's that?"

"When she was injured, her memory core was damaged. As far as we can tell, she lost her memory and the ability to speak. Hey! this is getting sad. This is supposed to be a victory party! Where are the drinks?"

"Well, I'll get one for Whisper, but unless I hear that you won, the party's cancelled." He smiles.

"Course I won. And your gonna grab me something to eat too. I got home and there was nothing left but the energy converter."

"Blegh! So you went hungry, right? I'll be back in a milicycle."

"So is this the Warrior's return party or do I have the wrong table?"

"Windsong!"

"I see you found someone to keep you company after I left."

"There's only you, Windsong. This is Whisper." Whisper smiles and nods. "She doesn't talk much. Whisper, this is Windsong. She'll make up for it." Windsong bangs me on the shoulder.

"Well your in a good mood tonight. Where are the drinks?"

"Blue's gone to get them. Ah, and here they are now!"

"Here we go. A round of enerbeer." He turns to Windsong. "I'm sorry miss, but this table's taken. Oops! You're lucky, there's one glass left."

"Well then, I guess I can just sit here."

"So Windsong, where's Deepscan tonight?"

"Out on assignment. He got promoted to head survayer while we were gone."

"Ya, good for him! It's about time he got a promotion."

Blue sneaks up behind Windsong and puts his hands on her shoulders. "The proud mother." Everyone laughs except Windsong.

"So what's your story, Whisper? How'd you meet Randis?"

Blue breaks in. "That's an easy one. She was sitting on the side of the road when Randis drove by and she said 'Please sir, could you find it in your spark to buy me a new body?'" He gets that coy face down pretty well.

"Hey! Let her tell me!"

"She can't!"

"Why not?"

"She can't speak, and she doesn't remember, right Whisper?" She nods. Blue won that round.

"Well then. If you don't remember anything, how about staring you're new life with a toast. To Whisper,"

"Hey, it's my party. Don't I get a toast?"

"Wait your turn fighter boy. To Whisper, and a start on her new life."

"'To Whisper!'"

"So I ask him, 'Where does the trailer go when you transform?'. So he says, 'You don't wanna know, but scrap! It sure hurts when it's full.'!"

"Oh groan! That was pretty bad Windsong."

"I dunno Blue. Whisper seems to like."

"That's just because she's never heard it before."

That's enough for me. "You two can argue all you want, but Whisper and I have to go home."

"What? It's still early!"

"Blue, it my seem early to you, but I've been up for almost two cycles already. I gotta log some down time."

"Alright, you can go. But you have to let me help you escort this young lady home." Whisper smiles and giggles.

"Hey!" Windsong stands up. "I'm a young lady too, you know. Why don't I get an escort?"

"You can take care of yourself." Blue tries to look charming.

"Ok. Leave me to go home myself..... all alone..... in the dark."

"Knew you'd understand. Randis, let's go. After you Whisper."

"Later Windsong."

"Cya Randis. Don't forget to scrap Blue for me, okay?"

"Just look at the moons, Whisper. they don't get this close very often." Blue's really going for Whisper! I've never seen him try so hard.

"You know Blue, the moons coming together is supposed to be a bad sign."

"I think he's right, don't you Kurgan?" The ally behind us!

"I believe so, Transmutor." Great Primus, no! -to be continued