Spiritimus Prime: Greetings readers! This is one of my new stories that I'll be working on from now on. I'm sure you may have seen it in my Future Stories List in my profile. I'm know the title seems a little lame, but it was inspired by one of my favourite songs performed by one of my favourite bands. It would've been pronounced as 'See Who I Am' by Within Temptation, but since this is about more than one character, I changed the words to match it accordingly. I've written the plot out very carefully, and I'm sure that you'll enjoy it. I know that I'm still working on the next chapter for Guardian Angel and Little Shotty, but I thought I'd upload this for the heck of it. Yes, it's Armada AU with no Rad, Carlos, Alexis, Billy, or even that annoying fatso kid, Fred. I don't mind Alexis much, but the rest of the kids drive me up the wall. UGH! Just enjoy the introduction of my characters, it beats better than having really young kids hanging around giant alien robots... (winces) I hope you like it! :D

Chapter 1:

Meet the Gang

Beep, beep, beep, beep!

A fist appeared out of nowhere and slammed down on the digital alarm clock that screamed it’s good morning call. The clock was silenced as a dent formed on its top and the covers of the bed began to stir before the owner removed them and sat up. She rubbed her eyes tiredly, blinking from the results to clear the sleep from them, and then got out from her bed.

As Tristal Whiteman stood up, her waist length blonde hair fell over her face and she brushed it aside, only making the messiness worse than its previous state. Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and headed for a shower to take care of her personal hygiene, she smelt pretty badly, and she did not want to go to collage looking like a badly looking, and smelly, monster.

Within minutes of removing her pyjamas, she stepped into the shower and allowed the warm water to run down her skin and smoothed out her blonde hair, turning it from a fine yellow to a deep brown colour.

After the shower, Tristal got dressed, brushed her teeth and hair and headed downstairs. Despite the warmth from the shower, she still felt a little tired, but she knew that it was normal to go through the usual kind of things that happened to her every Monday morning. While she hated going to collage, she enjoyed spending quality time with her four childhood friends during the weekdays. The weekends, however, were not exciting because of work.

Tristal checked her watch and realised that she only had several minutes to get some of her belongings ready. Gritting her teeth in frustration, she rushed about the house trying to find the things that she would need. She hated it when she took so long to find the things that she needed for collage, especially when she could not remember where she put them.

After her search for several minutes, Tristal slapped her forehead. “Great job, you dolt,” she huffed angrily. “You left your stuff in the car.” Rolling her eyes, she dashed off out the garage to see if the tools were there.

Tristal approached her favourite blue Bentley Continental GT, unlocked it and searched around the front section of the car. No, they weren’t in there. She then checked the back section, but they also weren’t there either. So that left the back. Normally she was so organised when it came to work and collage, but today just wasn’t her lucky day.

Tristal lifted the boot and she breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God,” she whispered when she found her gear. Her favourite pencil case, folders, books, and a few other things that she needed for the day, were all there.

Taking out her things, Tristal placed them in the back section of the car. Suddenly, she stopped and growled. Not again! She needed the other gear for the end of the day! Frustrated again, but quickly taking a deep breath, she dashed back inside once more.

Tristal returned a few minutes later with a bag and she stashed it in the back alongside her collage things. “At least,” she mumbled, “I’m not that forgetful.” Getting into the car, she turned on the ignition and drove off towards Lincoln Collage. She could only hope that she wasn’t going to be late at all. Being late was extremely rare for her, and she was not going to ruin that reputation at all.

As Tristal parked her car in the car park, she took out her gear by putting it into an old school bag and hopped out. She locked the car up and headed towards the front of the building, hoping to at least see one of her friends there. As she approached, she checked the time of her watch and noticed that it was 8:20. She’d have an extra ten minutes to get acquainted with her friends before they would head off to their home classes and start the day at 9:00.

“Hey, Tristal!”

Tristal came to an abrupt halt and turned to see one of her best friends, a redhead with straight, neck length hair. She smiled warmly and waved her friend over. “Hey, Jessica,” she greeted and she glanced around. “Where are the rest of the gang?”

Jessica Kubrick was 18yrs old, stood at a height of 5’8 and had brown, cheerful eyes that sparkled to brighten the group’s mood, while Tristal was 19, standing at a height of 5’9 and had serious, blue eyes. Jessica wore a white shirt, black jeans, and black sneakers with white strips on the sides, and Tristal was wearing a violet plain shirt, a blue jacket to hide most of it, silver jeans, and white sneakers.

Jessica glanced behind her and frowned. “Strange,” she said thoughtfully. “Tara and Naira were right behind me a second ago.” She sighed and shrugged. “They probably went to go check out some good looking guys or something.”

“Oh leave them be, Jess,” said Tristal sternly. “They may have different views compared to ours since they’re a bit more into hot guys, but they’re still our friends. Now where is Lily?”

Jessica giggled before clearing her throat. “She’s late again,” she answered.

“Well she should set her alarm clock to the exact same time as mine,” Tristal said, shaking her head in amusement. “I’ll bet the batteries went dead again.”

“My thoughts exactly,” said Jessica, nodding in agreement, and she removed some of her red hair that had got in the way of her brown eyes and she took a closer look into Tristal’s blue ones. “I worry about her sometimes, but you know how she is.”

Tristal nodded in agreement until she looked over Jessica’s shoulder and saw two girls approaching from behind. One was 6’0 in height, had amber eyes that seemed to hold bitterness against the world, extremely short mousy brown hair, and was wearing a biker’s black jacket, a purple shirt like Tristal’s , black pants, and purple sneakers. The second stood at a height of 5’7, green eyes that held determination in them, orangey yellow, straight shoulder length hair, and she was wearing a red jacket, a blue shirt, white jeans and black sneakers.

“So there you are,” said Tristal calmly. “What were you two doing?”

“And who gave you the authority to ask that?” the tall girl asked a little coldly.

“Hey, Naira Wilson,” said Jessica, her voice seriously cold. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist.”

Tristal frowned. “Both of you knock it off or I’ll have to do it myself. I’m not in the mood for such irrational behaviour, and none of you are even helping this little situation that you’ve gotten yourselves in to,” she demanded, her own voice rising to nearly its maximum. “Now apologise, Jess, or I’ll make you.”

“Sorry, Naira,” Jessica mumbled.

“What was that?” Naira asked, putting a hand next to her ear and cupping it. “I didn’t hear you. Can you speak up please?”

This irritated Jessica, but she kept herself from swearing her head. “I said,” she repeated a little louder, “I’m sorry. Is that good enough for you?”

“Yeah, much better,” Naira said with a smirk, but she earned a glare from Tristal.

“And you will watch where you put that smart tongue of yours, Naira,” Tristal growled deeply.

“Whatever you say, Tris’,” Naira sniggered.

Tristal ignored that last statement. She and Tara didn’t mind Naira’s behaviour, but Jessica and Lily were still unsure of the friendship between them. Naira, who was always bitter and sarcastic, as well as rude, was one of the new-year students that had made very little friends at the beginning of the year. She’d missed a year of collage because of being homeschooled.

So Tara had decided to befriend Naira, despite her behaviour towards everyone, and had learned that Naira was lonely and only acted aggressively as a cover-up for her emotional life. This led to Tristal and her other two friends to also become friends with Naira and they helped her overcome her loneliness within the year. Since then, all five of them had been the best of friends. They had come to know each other better than they knew themselves.

“How long do we have before home class starts?” Jessica asked, her brown eyes turning to Tristal.

Tristal checked her watch. “Only five more minutes,” she replied.

“Damnit,” Tara Dobson growled. “If Lily Stephenson doesn’t get here soon, I’m gonna blow a vein before she even gets here, and we’ll be late for my favourite lesson of the day.”

“What’s so important about History anyway?” Jessica groaned. She didn’t like History at all. She always claimed that the lesson was too long and boring because of the teacher, Mr. Clark, would talk endless sentences about the Earth’s history or anything else based on culture and other boring things.

“Because,” Tara answered as she brushed her fringe out of her green eyes, “you can learn so much from our planet. Didn’t you hear the stories, about four million years ago, when a mysterious rock fell from the sky, but no one could ever find it?”

“No, I fell asleep during that lesson,” Jessica answered.

“Which resulted in you getting the embarrassment of your life,” Tristal finished with a smile. “You said pink ponies when Mr. Clark asked you where the mysterious rock was believed to have crashed.”

“Don’t remind me…” Jessica’s face flushed bright red.

“Then don’t say that History is boring,” said Tara with a smirk crossing her lips. “You can learn much from the past if you put your mind to it, you know?”

“When my eyes are not busy drooping,” Jessica said sarcastically.

“Sorry I’m late you guys!”

All four girls turned their heads in the direction of the voice to see an 18yr old girl that stood at a height of 5’8, with black, curly, shoulder length hair, and friendly blue eyes. She was also wearing a red sleeveless shirt, thin black pants, and blue sneakers.

“What took you so long?” Jessica asked. “Was your alarm clock not set correctly again?”

Lily pouted. “Haha, very funny,” she grumbled. “But yes, that’s exactly what happened.”

Tristal laughed kindly. “Don’t worry about it, Lil,” she said before the bell rang, signalling that it was time for home class. “Well girls, let’s go. I’m sure our teacher will be wondering where we are.”

The other four girls nodded and they headed inside to begin their day.

When the bell rang for lunch, all the students headed for the cafeteria to have their food, while four of the five friends had theirs from the section, Tristal was the only one who had brought her own. She had said, in the past, that she preferred the healthier food rather than the school food due to them serving up some unhealthy stuff.

As the five girls ate, Tristal halted herself from her meal. The other girls stopped and glanced at their leader, their eyes watching her carefully. Normally when one of their friends would do this, the whole group would stop and wait for the person, who was the one who stopped, to speak what was on their mind.

“Tris, what’s up?” Lily asked, lifting an eyebrow in confusion.

“I was wondering,” began Tristal, “if any of you guys are up for a little cave-exploring.”

The others glanced at each other in confusion and looked back at Tristal. “What do you mean ‘cave-exploring’?” Jessica asked.

“Well,” explained Tristal, “when I got back from work on Saturday, I decided to head to the mountain up in the desert not too far from our town. While I was up there, I came across a cave, so I made up my mind to explore it when I had the time. But since we don’t seem to have anything from collage, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take a look around.”

Jessica and the others looked at one another, thinking this over carefully. Finally, Lily spoke up. “I’m in for it! Cave-exploring is something I haven’t done before. What do you guys think?”

“Alright, I’m in as well,” said Jessica as a big grin crossed her face.

“Normally I would say no to such a silly thing, but why not? It will get me away from all the usual things I’m used to doing,” Naira laughed, nodding in agreement.

“Well if Naira’s going, then I might as well too,” Tara piped. “I haven’t done anything exciting since the camping trip last summer.”

“Then it’s settled then,” declared Tristal. “We’ll meet each other at the car park at the end of the day so that we can decide which car we’ll take to get us up to the desert.”

“But what about gear and other stuff in case something happens?” Tara asked.

“Don’t worry, Tara, I’m all prepared for that,” Tristal replied. “I have everything we need in the back of my Bentley.”

“And what about food in case we get hungry?” Lily asked.

“I guess I never really thought of that,” Tristal mumbled before her blue eyes brightened up. “How about you buy some from the cafeteria?”

“I guess I could do that, but you’ll owe me some money for this,” Lily huffed.

“I’m prepared for that.”

“Well you better be, because I could be getting lots of it.”

Tristal rolled her eyes playfully and smiled before the gang went back to their food. “So remember guys,” she said. “At the car park we’ll be meeting at.”

“Gotcha boss,” Jessica joked, causing Lily to nearly choke on her juice.

“Good one, Jess, I’ll be remembering that for a very long time,” Tara laughed.

Even if Naira found this amusing, she did not seem to be showing it at all.

When the bell rang for the end of lunch, all five friends bade each other farewell since the rest of their classes were separated. Tristal decided to stay behind to ensure that no one would leap out from behind her friends and try to bully them. Despite her being considered the leader of the group, she was fiercely protective of her friends, always making sure that no one would harm them or even touch them in an inappropriate way. She could’ve sworn she saw a boy eye Jessica from behind, and she shot him a death glare.

The boy, who caught her frightening stare, quickly removed his glance back to his friends.

Boys, Tristal thought and she rolled her eyes in annoyance. They’re always immature things that want one of my friends without their permission. Shaking her head, she turned and walked out the cafeteria, heading for her English lesson.

By the time the end of the day bell rang, all the students quickly rushed out to happily go home and do homework or have fun. Only five cars remained behind in the car park. One of them was a blue Bentley Continental GT. Its owner was leaning against its hood, waiting for her friends to come.

Finally, the other four girls showed up and Tristal beamed in happiness. “Are we ready to go?” she asked.

“Yup,” Jessica answered. “So which car will we be taking on the desert sands?”

“I think we’ll take Lily’s car, the Nissan Patrol 4WD. It has much better control and you won’t get bogged in the sand. And plus, it has more room than mine or yours, Tristal,” suggested Tara, who was twitching with excitement.

“Okay, what do you say, Lil?” Tristal asked, turning to the black-haired girl.

“I’d say ‘let’s do it’!” Lily laughed.

“Alright then,” Tristal laughed. “We’ll take our cars to the end of the road near the desert, and then get into Lily’s the rest of the way. Sound better than just leaving our cars locked up in the school?”

“You bet!” the others agreed.

“You got the food, Lily?”

“Of course I did, did you think I’d forget?” Lily asked, holding up two plastic bags that were filled with food and water.

“You forget to wake up at the correct time, so perhaps I thought that,” Naira said, earning a mocking glare from the second youngest of the group.

“Alright youse two, settle down now,” Tristal ordered, getting the two bickering girls’ attention. “I’ll go and get the bag, which contains the gear, from my car and leave it in Lily’s so that I won’t forget, and then we’ll leave.” She then turned and walked over to her car and unlocked it before getting the bag and then chucking it into the passenger side of the front of Lily’s car. “Alright, guys, let’s move out!” she ordered.

Within seconds, the five friends headed over to their cars and got in. Tristal’s was the first the leave since she knew the way to the desert, with Jessica following in her Chevrolet Camero, Lily in her Nissan Patrol, Naira in her Saleen S281, and Tara in her Chevrolet Corvette.

With Tristal in the lead, the five friends departed for the mountain. Little did they realise that the little exploration was going to change their lives forever.

Spiritimus Prime: Well, now that the human characters have been introduced, I can begin the really good stuff! XD So I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and please R&R, it makes me really happy to see reviews and know that people like it. :D Until those reviews come in, stay tunned! XD