Vanguard

As I drove through the desert my eyes focused in on the silver band and its shiny blue stones. They sparkled in the light. I smiled at it, growing giddy as drove, feeling how close I was.

On the seat beside me, Jazzy sat recharging in his altmode, an iPhone 6+. I nudged him, waking him up.

“What?” he mumbled. Jazzy was not the easiest bot to pull out recharge, nor was he the nicest once you finally did.

I didn’t let his attitude faze me, however. “We’re close.”

He perked up, transforming and crawling up on the dash. “How close?”

“Real close.”

My heart was beating and my spark thrumming with an excitement.

It had been six months of Jazzy and myself on our own. Six months of nonstop moves. Six months of shitty part time jobs. Six months of my Cybertronian half and my human half shifting and melding.
Whereas before I was more of a patchwork being with certain sections of my body were metal while others were flesh, now I was more cohesive. According to the last scan I had done on me. My bones were now entirely covered in cybertanium, my organs had adapted to the newer part of my Cybertronian physiology, and my blood was now infused with energon. While it was cool and convenient on one hand, it had not been easy. The constant change was painful and while it had let up recently, it had not yet finished. Six months was about to end thanks to one message.

I was standing at the kitchen counter in my new shithole apartment, jamming a bowl of cheerios in my mouth, before I had to leave for work, when a high pitched frequency run in my commlink causing me to wince.

“Son of a bitch!” I swore, trying to dial it back. Jazzy seemed to be a similar state, trying to regulate his systems, where he was sitting on the counter. The ringing finally ceased and a voice that I was afraid that I would never hear again came over it.

“Calling all autobots
Calling all autobots”

“Jazzy!” I squealed.

The small bot looked up at me blue eyes wide with shock, relief and excitement.

“Text, Laura. Tell her that I appreciate all that she’s done for me, but my great aunt Bertha died, and I have to go to the funeral and in all honestly am never coming back.

I quickly threw what little I had unpacked back into my bag, and picked up Jazzy on the way. “We’re going on a road trip, bud,” I said, shutting and locking the door behind me.

For as excited as I was, I was also terrified. Who the fuck was left? We were being hunted and with success on the part of our hunters. Our numbers were dwindling.

I nearly jumped for joy at the sight of Optimus sitting there in his altmode. Hound was there, which excited me. He had arrived while we were still in N.E.S.T. purgatory. When we didn’t know if it was going to continue or if we were going to be disbanded.

There was a green bot that I had never met before, but I identified as Crosshairs. Same went for Drift.

Nothing compared however to finally seeing that ‘67 Camaro that I loved so much, sitting there. Bee activated his holoform. I stopped the car, snatched Jazzy up and sprinted over to him. He met me half way, picking me up and spinning me around. In the process, I had accidentally buried Jazzy in the back of Bee’s jacket. Oops.

“Who is that?”

“Is anyone going to say anything about the whole human thing going on here?” someone else asked.

“I fucking missed you,” I said, pressing my lips to his.

There were retching sounds. When Bee and I broke apart, I realized that if Jazzy would’ve actually required oxygen he would’ve been dead.

“Sorry, bud.”

I let him go, and released Bee. “Go ahead and transform,” I told him.

He smirked at me, holo fizzing out. The first whirl of his transformation caused my grin to widen. He walked over to the others and then put a digit down for Jazzy to climb on. Then he picked me up, setting me on his shoulder.

“Again. Who the hell is she?”

“Bee’s femme.” I smiled down at Ravage, who strode out from behind the green one. The second she was visible, Jazzy was clambering over to her, climbing up on to her back.

“I see how it is.”

I chuckled, rubbing Bee’s face plates. “You’re still his favorite,” I assured him.

“Brent and Bee,” she greeted. “Primus, I’m glad to see you two are alright.

“Back at ya Rav.”

“Human,” green repeated.

“Cool it Samuel L. Jackson. There aren’t any mother fucking snakes on this mother fucking plane.”

As soon as the last word left my mouth, Optimus opened his doors and three people got out.

“Or maybe there are,” I backtracked.

As soon as the three were clear, Optimus transformed, and wasted no time getting down to business.

“Humans have asked us to play by their rules. Well, the rules have just changed.”

Of course the happy reunion couldn’t last.

“Human beings, a bunch of back stabbing weasels,” Hound said, shedding the various weapons he war.

“Hound, find your inner compass. Loyalty is but a flower in the winds of temptation.”

“What the hell are you saying?”

“It’s a haiku.”

“Cute the crap, before I shove a grenade sown your throat.” Hound pulled a grenade and reached for Drift only to have a sword at his throat.

“Try it. You’ll be dead.”

“Oh pull it. Please do it.”

“Looks like a samurai and talks like a fortune cookie. I can’t help, but find this a tad bit racist,” I said.

“You know what? It’ll save us so much time,” Bee played throwing his hands up.

I glared at him holding on. “I know it’s been a while since I’ve been up here, but can you please refrain from dropping me?”

He at least was smart enough to look apologetic.

“Well raise your hand if you’re thoroughly disenchanted with our little Earth vacation.”

‘I’m disenchanted with that fucking trench coat,” I thought.

“So who’s the stowaways?” Crosshairs asked, pulling a gun on the three full blown humans. Hound joined him.

“Reminds me of when I first me Hide,” I said, fondly.

“Whoa. What’s with the guns?”

“Both of you, stop. They risked their lives for mine. We owe them.”

I easily navigated my way down Bee, landing on the ground with a thud. I walked over to the three.

“I’m Brent,” I introduced myself, putting a hand out to shake. “I’ve been involved in all this craziness since the fucking beginning. Please ignore the bots, when they’re like this. They’re partially paranoid, partially trying to show off their weapons.”

“Cade,” the oldest said, tentatively shaking my hand.

“What are you doing?”

“Unlike you insparked imbeciles, Brent is trying to make them feel more at ease, by displaying some type of civil behavior.”

“Listen, here decepticon-“

“She is not a con,” I snapped.

I turned back to the crew. “This is my daughter Tessa,” he introduced the girl. “And that’s Lucky Charms,” he jerked his thumb back towards the guy.

“His name is Shane,” Tessa corrected, glaring at her father. “And he’s my boyfriend.”

“Now I get it. I guess I better not make a magically delicious joke then.”

“Please don’t,” they chorused.

“Well, clearly you fucked up somewhere along the line, so since you’re here, you might as well get a proper introduction to the crew.”

“That,” I said starting with Ravage, “Is Ravage. The little one climbing her face plates is Jazzy. Jazzy is mine and Bee’s.” I pointed up at Bee. “This is Bumblebee, my fiancé.” I held up my hand and wiggled my fingers, so that the ring sparkled. “Hound, he liked things that go boom, Drift, Crosshairs, and you already know Prime. Any questions so far?”

“You’re engaged to a giant alien robot?”

“Problem with that, Lucky Charms?” I asked, my voice threatening.

“None. None at all,” he said, taking a step backwards.

“Good,” I walked back to Bee, leaning against his ped.

“I- Do you think we could set up camp or something. Find a place to sit, before we start sharing intel or whatever? This is a lot to take in.

“I second that,” I chimed.

We set up a camp for the night, all of us settling around a fire.

We were broken off into our own little groups for the most part. Drift sat quietly, sharpening his blades. I was sitting front of Bee, Jazzy on my lap. Ravage was to my right. Hound and Crosshairs were arguing about something and based on the glances that kept coming my way, I was pretty sure I knew what it was.

Bee’s scanners were on me. He and Ravage were discussing my current situation over the comm. I had turned it off and tuned it out.

“Brent, this must’ve been very hard to endure,” Ravage noted.

“Yeah, I can’t say that it’s been fun, no.”

“According to my scans, it’s almost complete a few more weeks and it’ll be over.”

“Thank fuck.”

“And you went through this on your own?”

I nodded. “We had to split some months ago.”

Bee winced. I sighed. I knew he blamed himself, but there was nothing that we could do. We’d gotten found and our best solution was to split. “I’m sure the strain on the bond didn’t help the healing process either.”

“So there are no signs of any others?” Prime asked.

I shook my head no. “None that I have come across. Of course that doesn’t mean that the others haven’t been contacted, but I wasn’t gonna risk them to ask.”

“Nada.”

“They’re picking us off one by one.”

“We’re the pathetic dirty five and you make six.”

The talk of our numbers was depressing, so I tuned into Cade, Tessa and Shane’s conversation.

“So that’s our best case scenario, autobot witness protection?”

“Hey Speed Racer, you’re free to leave at any time.”

“Well, for the record, Super Dad, I’m not hiding with you. I’m hiding with that big guy.” He pointed at Optimus.

I snorted. “Optimus is the best of us, is essentially everyway unless you count the opposite of everything good, because then we totally have him beat. However, I should let you know that he died once, and then I had to haul my ass through Egypt for some fucking pixie dust to bring his ass back to life and died in the process, so I would just take that into consideration.”

“You died?”

“What you mean like Nikki Sixx clinically dead for two minutes-“

“How long was I dead for? Bee?”

He was too busy arguing with Drift.

“Sensei, with your fate unknown, Bumblebee has held command.”

I think held command was over stating it. All Bee did was tell everyone to fucking scatter.

“Despite his complete and utter lack of anything resembling warrior discipline.”

I could feel Bee getting pissed off, but in all honesty, I was kind of amused. It was fun to watch Bee get riled up.

“He is like a child.”

“This child is about to kick your ass.” Bee got up and stomped over to Drift.

“Get ‘im, Bug!” I cheered, laughing.

“He brings us shame.”

Bee stomped on Drift’s sword, knocking it out of the way.

“Cage fight,” Hound called.

“My money’s on Drift,” Crosshairs called.

“Same,” Hound agreed.

“I got the bug,” Ravage chimed.

I looked at her surprised. Ravage wasn’t exactly one to take part in our stupid bets, especially on the side of the younger of the two,

Bumblebee started off strong, but eventually Drift got the better of him.

“What’s the matter with them?” Tessa asked.

“A bit of stir crazy, bit of helplessness, a lot of grief and frustration,” I responded.

“Am I the lone sage who sees through this puppy dog eyes act? It is beneath you.”

“Yes. I’ve been waiting for them all to dispatch each other, so that I could take charge with no trouble at all.”

I looked at Crosshairs like he’d lost his fucking mind. “I’m sorry who in the fuck do you think is gonna follow you?”

“No one. Just me reporting to me.”

“Sure looks like you’ve been missed,” Cade said to Optimus.

I shrugged. “They don’t really respect authority well,” I explained.

“Because you do?” Bee teased.

“Okay. We don’t respect authority well, myself included.”

“Autobots, lock down is hunting us and humans are helping,” Optimus stated.

“Well, I don’t know what the fuck Lockdown wants, but I would like to note that Chicago was a cluster fuck, and that if I wasn’t there and didn’t understand that it was human bull shit that caused it to happen, I would also be a pissed off human. Not as pissed off as the others, because ultimately everything had to happen to prevent Megatron and Sentinel from taking over the planet, but still a lot of people died.”

“You talk like you’re one of us,” Crosshairs chided.

“Listen I may not be an “autobot,” but I am family, you ignorant fuck, and unlike you, who apparently wants to watch the world fucking burn, which I’ve seen already, it’s not pretty, I want everyone to get their shit together. Now I remember a time, where we could all pick at each other and not kill each other. Can we try that? Chill on the murderous rage, and listen to what the fuck Optimus is trying to say.”

“As I was saying we need to know why.”

“Listen, I don’t know about why, but I have an idea about who.”

Cade hooked up some tech that he had stolen from the people hunting us and Drift projected it onto a rock face. The images were disgusting and horrifying.

“Look what happens here,” Cade focused in on one scene.

“Oh that’s Leadfoot,” Hound said sadly.

I shook my head. “Even that asshole didn’t deserve that.”

“Savages.” He put his helmet over his heart in a tribute.

“They rip them apart and later this this truck comes to haul them off, KSI, Kinetic Solutions. Defense Aerospace, government contracts. They designed this drone.”

“So these government guy just hunt you down and then pass you off to this KSI?”

“The company’s headquarters’ in Chicago,” Cade told us.

I groaned. “Of fucking course it is.”

“That’s where they could have been taken.”

“No way to get inside without a battle.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Hound.” I smirked and then looked at Tessa, Cade and Shane. Jazzy chirped from my shoulder.

“What are we just supposed to be partners now?” Tessa asked.

“Alright. Alright. I think I’ve gotten this speech down, I’ve given it so many times.”

I got up to talk face to face with Tessa. “In every situation, there are choices that we have to make. When I was in high school, I decided to get in a car. When we ended up in Egypt I decided that I was willing to die so that others could live. And when I was in Chicago, I decided that I was going to die standing rather than live on my knees. Now you have a choice. Tessa, you can quit being a little cry baby bitch, get your shit together and help us, or or and this is a big or, you can continue to wallow in yourself pity, hinder us all, jeopardizing not only us, but yourself and end up either dead or in jail for the rest of your obnoxious existence. If I were you, I’d pick getting my shit together.”

I stepped back and returned to my spot.

“Autobots, I have sworn to never kill humans.”

“Big mistake-“

“But, when I find out, who’s behind this he’s going to die.”

I felt a sick sense of satisfaction creep up my spine. Vengeance was going to be sweet.

We agreed to recharge in the desert that night with the agreement that after a nice recharge we would all head out in the morning. Be had transformed, and now I was sitting in his lap in the back seat, while Jazzy slept in the passenger’s seat. My head was resting on his shoulder, one arm wrapped around his neck, where it connected with the other. Bee’s arms were wrapped around my waist, fingers tapping against my hip. We sat there in silence for a while, before I broke it.

“So I have a question.”

“:.It’s bad. It’s bad. Really bad,” he commed.

“You could’ve at least let me ask,” I teased.

“:.You worry too much about me.”

“You need to be worried about. You like to go and do dumb shit.”

He chose not to argue with me, instead asking me how I was feeling.

“Sometimes bad. Sometimes good. Sometimes great. It just depends on the day.”

“:.So nothing’s changed?”

I shook my head.

He cycled his vents.

“No who worries too much?”

“:.I’ll always worry about you.” His hold on me tightened ever so slightly.

“Holy hell, I missed you,” I mumbled.

He responded by kissing my temple.