Transformers: A Matter of Fate

TECHIES AND STRESS

CHAPTER 42

Techies and Stress

For the next few weeks, Mark spent a lot of time getting to know Alexis. Though none of the Autobots (other than Sideswipe) had met her yet, she had easily passed a background check. He learned quickly that she was a little on the poor side, but didn't act like it, and carried herself well for living in one of the crappier parts of town. For all intents and purposes, their friendship was much closer than his was with Maria, and the two often visited one another when they could. But they weren't dating, at least, not yet. After all, they were still getting to know each other, which left their friendship somewhat platonic.

That morning, he had agreed to meet Alexis at her small "hideout" at the edge of town. The girl, being a techie, had set up a little base of operations in a small abandoned building. There, she ran several forums, wrote multiple blogs, and somehow found time to hack her way into messing with others once in a while (all in good fun though, never nasty). Pushing the door to the building open as Sideswipe drove in beside him, Mark poked around the computers quietly. It was like a maze of computers that she had found in junk piles, and either fixed up or restored. The building itself was old, and musty, but kept up by Alexis enough that no one would really notice.

"Lexi," Mark shouted out as he held up a bag. "I brought McDonald's and the first season of Boy Meets World. I'm not sure what you want with the latter, but it was like five bucks at WalMart, so whatever." Poking her head out from behind a computer, the redhead waved slightly. "Seriously, what did you want with this? You do know i's for free on Youtube, right?"

"I wanted DVD-quality clips for a parody video," Alexis told him, removing the headphones from her ears. "I'm syncing it up with some Girl Meets World clips. And am going to do this two generation-wide "music vid" for "I Like Big Butts"," Mark snorted a bit as he tossed the girl the DVD. "Hey Sides," She greeted as Sideswipe transformed, being small enough not to hit the ceiling.

Sideswipe rolled towards the young techie. "Sweet! That sounds amusing," Sideswipe crouched down and looked at the computer screen. "Heh, is that an image of a dancing cat? What's that doing on KSI's main website?" He questioned.

"I got bored this morning," Alexis shrugged, leaning back as Mark approached them. "So, what's up Autobot boy? Anything cool and hip in the world of boring suits and alien wars?" Mark raised an eyebrow at her, holding back laughter. "What? I'm curious."

Mark shrugged his shoulders a bit, seating himself on one of the many desks. "Nothing, really," Mark replied with a sigh as he took out an egg mcmuffin from the bag. "They're still asking when we're going to start dating. Or at least when I'm going to introduce you to them," Alexis snorted, and looked back at him. "What? Am I that undesirable?" He asked with faux-hurt.

"You're the one that still hasn't asked, Savoy," Alexis told him in a gentle, but scolding tone. "And besides, I still haven't gotten my ride in the Ferrari. And I thought that was going to be our first date," Mark opened his mouth to explain that. "Yeah, yeah, I know that Mirage is stingy and chances are it's not happening. Have you even tried to convince him?" She asked.

Mark shook his head, picking a baseball off of the table and tossing it into the air. Sideswipe shrugged a little, and looked between the two of them. "You two still aren't saying you're dating yet?" Sideswipe asked with a hint of surprise. "Primus almighty, you two. I haven't even seen this much sexual tension since Sam and Mikaela. Or Sam and Carly for that matter," Mark stuck his tongue out at Sideswipe. "What?"

"Don't make this awkward, Sides," Mark replied, finishing off his breakfast. "We're taking this slow, like snails pace slow."

Alexis looked at Mark with a small smirk, and nodded her head a little. "Which is good. Because last time you jumped head first, the Maria incident happened," She told him rather bluntly, to which Mark frowned in response. "Come on, Mark, you know I'm not like that," She told him before turning to look at Sideswipe. "We'll call it dating when we're ready to. I'm just enjoying the ride we're on."