No Rest For The Weary

Captain Lennox hopped down from the hummer, surveying the scene in front of him. Optimus had just finished his transformation and stood to the side while Iron Hide stood to the Autobot leader’s left. At the moment he looked as surly as ever crossing his arms over his chest and making an exaggerated effort to not look at Ratchet. The medic was just now pulling up to the clearing, his passenger side door opening. At the exact same time Bumblebee pulled up with Sam and Mikaela who promptly helped a young woman from Ratchet’s cab before the medic transformed and stood to Optimus’ right, Bumblebee taking up a position just behind Iron Hide.



Right behind Captain Lennox’s vehicle, another large hummer stopped, throwing dirt and gravel. Out of this vehicle stepped a rather burly looking Major, his salt and pepper gray hair stark against the green of his uniform. His face looked like weathered leather, deep wrinkles creasing the skin on either side of his eyes and mouth. He wore ribbons that denoted his service in Vietnam, Korea and the Gulf War along with other honors along side the crest that showed his achievements within the Army. From the passenger side of the hummer, bounded a rather severe looking Air Force Commander. Where the Major was smiling, his wife was stoic. She too wore numerous medals and ribbons, her ginger hair cut short and the straight backed posture of a professional solder. Not even first sight of the Autobots was enough to crack her demeanor. Not until, however, she spotted her daughter being helped by Sam and Mikaela as Ratchet re-checked the bandage on her right leg.



“Ellie!” The Commander took off at a full tilt run toward her daughter as her husband struggled behind. The cane in his hand may have marked him as a recent knee replacement patient, but he did not let that keep him back from wrapping his long arms around his wife and daughter as they shared a rather un-military like family reunion. “What happened? Where is your leg? Is that blood?” The questions poured out faster than could be answered as Ellie’s mother bombarded Ratchet with thank yous and kisses to the Autobot’s face.



“Erm…thank you, Commander Murdock.” It turned out that the stiff demeanor was only a put on. The two were the same as any doting parent, absolutely annoying! Ratchet stood up, quite happy to let Ellie's parents annoy the young woman to insanity with questions and hugs. Though their demeanor soon iced over again as soon as Captain Lennox came over to them, shaking Sam's hand hard enough dislodge him from Mikaela.



"I see you're keeping out of trouble..." The joke brought a blush from the boy and an eye roll from Mikaela, though she too was smiling. "And you must be Eloise Murdock..." Lennox paused as he looked at the shredded state of her jeans and the fact that she was not bleeding from where her left leg had been missing. She also had several oblong burns on her arms, though they looked to be nothing too serious. "Everyone make it alright, Ratchet?" Was it Will's imagination, or was Ratchet trying to rub lipstick off of his cheek?



"Sam and Mikaela were uninjured, however Eloise had to have a gash in her right leg sutured closed. Considering all she has been through in such a short time, she is surprisingly unharmed." Ratchet's 'tell it like it is' statement seemed to leave Ellie's parents unruffled. Though Ellie did wince slightly as her arm was gripped tighter by her mother. The two remained silent as Optimus knelt to get himself on eye level with Captain Lennox.



"It is good to see you, Captain. However I had hoped this meeting would have been arranged on better circumstances." The Autobot leader's eyes seemed to dim for a moment before coming back to their glowing blue. "Starscream has returned along with the rest of his Seekers. He has seemed to have been able to convince Soundwave to accompany him. Soundwave is loyal only to Megatron and would never follow Starscream unless Megatron's revival was in the deal."



"So how eager are these Decepticons to start their old antics?" Lennox looked about ready to fall over. Starscream was a pain in the rear end. Now there were two more like him and another that looked to be as powerful as Megatron. He was reminded of his own lapse of courage when Blackout had reappeared. 'We are so dead...'



"That would depend on how fast they are able to repair the damage they had taken." Ratchet seemed to smile at this, looking at Iron Hide with a barely concealed chuckle. "I doubt that Soundwave, talented as he is at repairing his fellow Decepticons, would have the ability to repair the damage to both Thundercracker and Skywarp in less than a week."



Iron Hide chuckled, drawing the human's attention his way. "Ellie severed a secondary fuel line to Thundercracker's foot when he tried to step on her." Ellie's mother made a rather un-Commander like squeak, her eyes growing wide. "There is little chance that they will be able to get the pnumatics working with more than a few minutes without Energon flowing into them." He laughed even harder at the confused looks on Sam and Mikaela's faces. "Ellie, here, has bought us quite a bit of time to prepare. I can see where you got your bravery from, Sam, other than your mother, of course." The entire group burst out laughing as an SUV pulled up to the surrounded clearing.



"Get the hell off of me! I want to see my son!" The Autobots turned their heads in unison, shrinking back from the oncoming Witwickey parents. It seemed that Judy Witwickey had made a reputation with the Autobots. Iron Hide started grumbling to himself as Optimus Prime made himself ready to take what ever the two would throw at him.



"Judy, I'm sure there is a good reason..."



"Oh hush! There is no good reason for him to be out so late at night!"



"It's Friday!"



"I don't care if it's Judgement Day! I don't want my son to get his ass flattened by rude robots!" Judy huffed as she stepped up to Sam, her cheeks red as she brushed her hair out of her eyes. "Oh, thank heavans your alright!" Judy wrapped her arms around her son, squeezing every last ounce of dignity out of him.



"Mom...Mom! Mikaela's here. Were all alright. STOP FRISKING ME!"



"I'm sorry, Sam. It's just been a weird night..." Judy sighed, her eyes going to Optimus who jumped slightly at the sudden attention.



"Good evening, Mrs. Witwickey." He attempted, looking as though he wanted nothing more than to shrink himself and crawl under a nearby rock. "I assure you that I have kept Sam out of any danger. Ratchet and Bumblebee stayed with him and Mikaela to make sure..."



"I know, I know." Judy waved her hand, sighing as she rubbed her head. "I worry about him, that's all."



"That's more than enough," Ron grumbled, turning toward Bumblebee. "Thank you for taking care of my son, Bumblebee. It's just with him going off to college next year...well, you know how it is."



Optimus sighed, stepping back to allow the Witwickey parents to make sure Sam and Mikaela were alright. With the way Judy was fussing over Mikaela one would think that the two had already been bonded. Optimus shifted his feet. In a way, the two had already bonded, though none of the Autobots wanted to be the ones to tell Judy that. Optimus especially.



"We got so worried when the police came to the house." Judy rushed, taking her son's head in her hands and turning it this way and that to make sure he was truly alright. Sam had long since stopped fighting and wore a petulant expression that he directed toward both Ellie and Mikaela. Though the two women were busy laughing themselves silly until Judy started talking again. "He was asking about you Sam. He seemed really egar to get his hands on you for some reason, he never would say. We were afraid that something had happened because he looked about ready to eat Mojo."



Sam stiffened, staring hard at his mother. "What did he look like?" Judy stopped, looking at Ron as though to confirm the officers description.



"Well...he was about...average height, average...he was just average." Ron sighed. "Why?"



"Well...there was something strange on the side of his car," Judy said slowly, taping her chin with her hand. "Instead of 'To serve and protect', it was 'To Punish and Enslave." Judy shrugged. "Maybe it was someone's idea of a prank and he thought Sam did it."



Sam and Captain Lennox's eyes met, Sam shaking his head. "No way..."



"Barricade," Iron Hide growled, charging his weapons as though he expected the Decepticon to pop up out of the trees at any second. Optimus exchanged a quick word with Bumblebee who immediately transformed into his alternate form and sped out of the clearing, leaving two very confused sets of parents.



"Who is 'Barricade'?" Judy voiced the question, looking side long at Optimus.



Sam exchanged a look with Mikaela, seeing his anxiety reflected back at him. "Mom, remember when I told you how Bumblebee beat the crap out of a cop car that tried to run me and Mikaela over? That was Barricade." Judy turned a few shades paler, her husband scrunched his face up in disbelief, mouthing a 'Police car' at Sam. "Yea, cop car. Really nasty too. I think he had this little pipsqueak with him but he was destroyed at the dam. I think that's why he wants to get to me, because I killed his partner and Megatron."



"And that is why the President and Defense Secretary Keller have ordered that all of us be put into protective custody." As soon as this left Captain Lennox's mouth, Judy and Ron started protesting, using everything from 'Who's going to feed Mojo?' to 'I still haven't gotten my gardens the way I want them!'. Lennox raised his hands to quiet the two down. "I said all of US. That includes me, my wife and daughter."



"Wait a minute," Ellie decided to make herself part of the particularly one sided conversation. "When Starscream was talking to me, he was asking if I knew where Sam was. Why couldn't they just look up his address in Google or something and go with that?"



"Because we made sure that no one could do that again since that is what got you into trouble in the first place." Captain Lennox snapped to attention as did Major and Commander Murdock, all three saluting Secretary Keller. "At ease..." Keller huffed, holding up one finger to forestall any questions. "Whew...The United States Government made it virtually impossible for anyone to find out where either Captain Lennox or the Witwickey's are located. Though it seems that these Decepticons have tried to circumvent our efforts at protecting you." Keller looked pointedly at Ellie. "And what relation might you be to Sam?"



"I used to baby-sit him," Ellie ignored Mikaela's giggles as she poked Sam in the ribs. "And I've pissed off their kitty and severed the fuel line to tweedle-dumb's foot."



"To say the least," Ratchet grunted as Iron Hide elbowed him in the side, his face filled with humor.



"Told you I liked her," Iron Hide chortled, his engine revving at the incredulous looks he received from Ellie's parents.







"Sit still, Thundercracker!" Scarscream bellowed, laughing as Soundwave missed with his plasma laser and almost welded Thundercracker's ankle to the table. "How pathetic! One of the Seekers taken down by a flesh creature and a rock!"



Thundercracker rolled his optics, gritting his dental apparatus in pain as Soundwave set to repairing the delicate valves and connections that supplied the pneumatics in his ankle joint with energy and lubricant. The systems had frozen so that the jet had to be forced out of his alternate transformation so that he could lay flat for the repairs. The only thing that kept his aft to the table was the image of that fleshling femme's broken body under his feet. Thundercracker swore roughly, earning him a reproving glance from Starscream.



Since Starscream had taken over command of the Decepticons, his insults and snide comments had more than doubled. It seemed that he would save these for when his underlings had to be repaired from the damage that was sustained when the Commander would flee from battle rather than make on the spot improvisations to his plans. Brilliant as he was at scheming, planning, and backstabbing; the Seeker had no business commanding anything more than a clean-up crew.



"And what would you do in my stead, oh fearless leader?" Thundercracker sneered at the look on Starscream's face. "Would you perhaps have turned and run the moment the female detached her own leg or brandished the rock?" Thundercracker knew that he was playing with plasma speaking to Starscream as he was, but he was sick of the lead Seeker's constant insults and biting retorts. "Perhaps you could warn us next time you wish to retreat so that we can scream like scared protoforms accordingly!"



Skywarp sat on the sidelines, preferring to watch rather than participate in the massacre about to happen. Soundwave, however brandished his arch wielder menacingly, glaring at the two Decepticons. "Fighting will not help our situation, Starscream." The new Commander snarled but bit his glossa. Now was not the time to, even kindly remind Soundwave of the proper way to address him. "We must wait until more arrive. We will not be able to combat the Autobots and fleshlings combined."



Starscream backed down, grumbling to himself in irritation. Tired of the scene, he turned his back on his subjects, casting his optics instead on the darkened coastline of Oregon. Had Starscream had his way, he would be broadcasting the Decepticon homing beacon loud enough for any bot within 30,000 light years to hear and have the entire armada come crashing down on this insignificant dirt ball. Starscream was deep in his own musings when he received a rather curious transmission. His mouth snaked up in a smile that would have made Death himself run screaming. There was only one kind of bot that had this particular type of beacon.



"Skywarp." The younger Seeker jumped at the sudden sound. "Accompany me on a 'rescue' mission." The way Starscream said 'rescue' piqued Skywarp's interest. "Now that the All-Spark has been destroyed and Vector Sigma has been disabled, there is only one way to produce new Decepticons." Skywarp's grin mirrored that of his Commander. "However, the first is mine..."