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Will trembled, bile rising— from gut to throat, only a matter of when it all came down. On his knees, hands clenched tightly onto his scratched and sodded knees, tears fell spilled from his eyes, lips quivering in —
What was it?
The stomps were louder than anything, felt them rattle his bones. Disturbed his heart beat, sending a jolt of — fear? terror? — through him, made it quicken its pace that he felt he soon would pass out— couldn't even get a sense of anything around him except himself and it. It had found him, whatever it was, followed him into his hiding spot — curse it, fragile nook and it hadn't been a good one, he knew it, but he had hoped it would at least take it off his trail for some time. But no matter where he went, its steps echoed through the woods, growing closer and closer no matter how fast he ran— can't even find an end to the woods either, can't find a small cave where it wouldn't fit as well, genuinely where was he?
And it knew there wasn't a hiding place for him, he's sure of it. What goes into such lengths to follow someone? Only mad monsters! This thing, hunk of metal, fire, orange— a titan! Taller than the trees, and all things alike. Then there was that awful wiring sound, screeching like the computers back at the lab or the fans— a malfunctioning fan. Made him flinch, tear back and press into the small nook he'd found— twitch in place, as if he were fighting back— no, this was no hallucination.
It had presented itself, found him. A hand had reached towards him, knowing exactly where he was, forcing him out of his hiding hole. And it had attempted to grab him— his entire body, Will evaded it— fitting through the gaps of what appeared to be a hand, if it had been a hand at all— and that had been all, couldn't get far from it. Will only got a small head start until he fell on the ground, fell down a hill. Ruined everything, if things had not been ruined before.
Will landed on his stomach, leaves sneaking their way up his mouth, as it had came up behind him. It probably didn't struggle like he did, probably a mere step for it, but what does he know? He'd been frozen, from head to toe, like he'd been before— except this time, he had not the faintest idea of what it was, what it wanted, if it even wanted him—
The trees bended at its will, the Earth practically shook— dirt rising and falling as it walked over him, leaves fell from trees.
It towers over him, Will cannot see its eyes.
—
So this was what Hot Rod had seen running from him! A human! Not native to the planet he's stuck on currently, unfortunately but honestly? Whatever, humans tended to be at places that didn't concern them, and that was a fact. Fact he can back up with years worth of experience.
The atmosphere in this planet, no name or records of it anywhere— he still hasn't figured out a name, but by the looks of it and messy readings he's gotten so far— it isn't surprising that the human is able to breathe normally, and move around as it would back on Earth, similar conditions, oxygen is abundant and clean, probably healthier, and a similar solar system (Hot Rod is only guessing that part, he didn't get a good look at it, but temperatures feel the same) to accommodate a human just fine.
Falling from his space ship, after being hit by a nasty storm of space debris— well, yeah, frag him. But there's a human involved now? Some things never change.
Human male, young looking- probably still not an adult and crazy scared! Jolly gee!
Hot Rod runs a small brief scan, as far as his sensors let him because whatever is prohibiting him from using his comms to call for help, is also not letting him run a full, clean scan. He's been around enough humans though, he doesn't need to do that much to know if its about to die or any other thing.
Once he figures that it's not necessary to run any further scans, he shrugs—to himself mostly— and crouches down, switching his language from Cybertronian to— ah, what language does this human even speak? He shouldn't judge based on Earth race customs.
Mech, this is harder than he expected. Hot Rod clears his voice-box, must have some dust in there from the crash, and goes through all possible languages. "你好。"
The human stays shaking, but Hot Rod zooms in into their reaction— nothing that suggests that they know Mandarin. They're still staring at his pedes like they're some sort of lifeline.
Okay. Fine. Hot Rod resets his vocalizer, leaning a bit closer, "¿Hola?" That seems to get a better reaction out of the tiny boy. Yay! He finally looked up, bit scared, looks like he might cry—Hot Rod keeps the smile to himself (he didn't), "Mi nombre es Hot Rod! No te preocupes, no te voy a lastimar!" He said that so softly, Springer might actually make fun of him for it!
The human is still not responding, breathing heavily. Hot Rod vents, letting his fans cool him a bit before he presses his dermas into a thin line. Then, because he really doesn't have any time to talk to a human as if he's taking care of a sparkling, he reaches forward and scoops the human right up. He grabs him, top half of the boys body, shaking off any of the dirt he'd scooped up— and sets him on his palm. Putting himself in a more comfortable position, not bent on the ground, and probably better for both of them, the human really was careless while running— practically slipped everywhere! Hot Rod is not that scary.
Hot Rod smiles sheepishly, optics trained on the human boy on his palm. "¿Por qué no me respondes? No tienes que tenerme miedo, soy amistoso!" He repeats for clarity, "Mira, nada mas te digo esto porque yo tambien estoy perdido en este maldito planeta y mi ovni esta todo roto y no tengo na de ene—" Hot Rod pauses, "—no tengo gasolina. Y honestamente, tu eres lo único que reconozco." Hot Rod tells it straight, "Pero no te preocupes, porque creo que lo puedo arreglar, soy mas inteligente que un perro, so." Damn, those trips to Dominican Republic probably helping, heh! He knew the trip was worth it.
—
Okay, what the fuck.
Will probably stopped shaking by now, he's still scared of course but—
What the fuck? Why did this— whatever it was— start speaking Spanish to him? And why was it, staring and smiling at him so much? Friendly? Hasn't hurt him, still scary, what the fuck was it— Shit— he could only understand the hello, not anything else. Was this metal thing only capable of speaking Spanish? Will thinks he also heard Mandarin in there, but— okay, so only Mandarin and Spanish?
It's eyes, really blue and bright— kinda mechanical—robot? Giant robot— real? — are still trained on him, and he's still talking and it's still creeping Will out but, it can talk, communicate— hasn't hurt him, yet. He can work with this. Maybe. This is new territory. Will stabilizes himself on the palm, red, he's so high up— and he's not trying to think of exactly how high—
"Hi?" Will croaks, and shit— his voice cracked like crazy there, and his heart skipped like various beats— not healthy, not healthy at all— but the robot brightens, kinda, the light in its- eyes? brightens, like actually lighten, like lighten like actual light bulbs. Okay.
The robot moves, and Will thinks he's done something wrong— and probably get thrown across the world, "Me entiendes! Ay, que bueno!"
It's so weird seeing a giant robot talk in Spanish. In real life. Yeah, sure. Will frowns nonetheless, making himself look as confused as possible, and as innocent as he can— the robot frowns immediately after he does, and it's totally not creepy. One wrong move and he could die, get crushed to death, eaten alive. He can't die, not without saying goodbye to his family at least— Will points to himself, "I— I don't understand- you!"
The weirdest thing happens—which is actually crazy because everything about this is already strange and, again, how is it even possible?— the only thing the giant can even say, or mutters is, "Oh."
Can robots say 'oh?'. Well, uh, seems like this one could.