AN: The standard disclaimer applies, I am loosely using Amp Machines, Delphi, and other automotive / electrical parts company names. Do not own Transformers, and I have been dutifully informed to keep the wire cutters to myself, and the repairs to a minimum. All I have to say is Ratchet is such a kill joy. He'd be amazed what I am capable of…
This is my fic for a Halloween contest. Main bots you can expect to see.
Ironhide, Ratchet, Jazz, Bumblebee, Sideswipe, / OC civilian sassy southerner Kami Ford a wiring engineer. Need your Autobot / car rewired. She's your girl. With occasional appearances from Wheelie, Brains plus the Twins Mudflap and Skids
The is some language
There is nothing like a ghost story or two just to tease the human femme's imagination on All Hallows Eve. Seeing she thinks she is too old to celebrate Halloween any other way but working.
But suddenly work doesn't seem so important when strangers traveling to an out of town Halloween Masquerade Ball need recusing and shelter. Now with only slight prodding from Bumblebee, Kami and the other Autobots create their own Halloween Party for the four young children, so they won't miss another year of celebrating. Unbeknown to the bots and the one living human the others aren't living and haven't been for over twenty years. Do the two young adults know something about Kami even she doesn't know? Or is she only a living apparition to them, on This 'Dark and Stormy Night'?
"It was a dark and stormy night." She'd heard that line before and thought no kidding as another round of thunder and then lighting crashed across the sky. Turning she saw none other than Epps, a couple other guys from Lennox crew, Sideswipe and of all the other bots Bumblebee. Yeah this wasn't going to be good. It never was when they kept stealing glances in her direction.
She shrugged hoisting the harness she had been working on, up a little higher with the hopes she would be finishing this one up before she was either made to vacate her personal shop / home or leave off working on it due to the fast approaching electrical storm. If Ironhide got his way about it, she would have to leave.
The incoming bad weather spawned from two hurricanes just kept belching up rain and tornados one right after another. As of right now that was why Lennox's crew and several of the Autobots were currently in her personal area. It wasn't like they didn't come to her shop. They did, they were welcomed there, and in fact in true to her heritage southern style she always welcomed them. It had become legendary that the human femme always set a place for them at her table and if she didn't offer you anything. Iced tea in particular she was mad at you.
That was why she'd become a blended piece of the Autobots lives. She had been teasingly been referred to as Ratchets female counter part though she was a lot cuter by human standards and much gentler. She after all had been a civilian wiring engineer with the military, under contract of course but she'd proved her worth to the Autobots. Thus far she was the only human they had let intimately work on any of their kind.
Just to make sure she knew where everyone was she swiveled in her chair in the other direction until she could catch sight of Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet and Lennox. Nope it wasn't going to be good, she thought again going back to another branch on the harness running her fingers through the wires that still required termination. She gave the two groups one last thought. Yeah, they were trying to figure out where to send her and with whom to send her with the impending bad weather.
Ironhide always had one sensor dedicated to her whereabouts and any task she might be undertaking even if it was with another of his Autobot brethren. It wasn't that he didn't trust them he did, but this human femme much like the Lennox femmes just needed his protection. So he knew she'd paused checking her surroundings, or more accurately seeing who was where and was there any possible threat. Good girl. He smiled to himself.
Stealing one last glance in his direction she gave Ironhide a dirty look just for good measure, before turning back to her laborious task at hand. He on the other hand only snarled at her in return. She shrugged she could really get the last word in edge wise if she wanted too. All she had to do was stick her tongue out. It was that simple, at getting the last word. It drove him nuts. Instead she let that innocent smile creep across her lips as she popped both ear buds in and softly sung along to the music as she worked.
"Lennox make her go with you. Sideswipe and I will come along." Ironhide commanded.
Yeap! He wasn't in the mood to be playful, with the human femme.
Will only grimaced glancing up at the large form of Ironhide. He seriously thought he could just order her- Kami to go home with him to his family farm to weather out the impending storms.
Optimus shook his head. "Ironhide she is not going to be forced to leave her home."
Ironhide shrugged. "Fine, Lennox ask her to go home to your family with you. Then if she refuses, I will bring her along."
"Force you mean." Ratchet threw in. He held up a hand before Ironhide comeback. "I know, I am just as aware of the dangerous storms coming in as you are. But this is her home; this is where she feels the safest. As of right now I have to agree with Kami, she is just as safe here as she would be trying to go somewhere else."
Not to be deterred Ironhide mentioned the upcoming human holiday. "Remind her of this holiday All Hallows Eve."
"I did and you do not want me to repeat her long winded response." William Lennox gave a little shake just thinking about it. He would have sworn she'd even used at least one Cybertron dirty word on him, in native tongue no less. Yeah they were rubbing off on her.
Ironhide gave a little shrug Optimus, Lennox, and his men had been gone for well over an hour so yeah, apparently the human femme was going to weather the storms out exactly where she sat. Whether he liked it or not. And he didn't like it.
It didn't matter this still could be used as a teaching lesson for a certain recklessly flashy Autobot.
A private comm buzzed Ironhide's processors. "Reflecting how young and reckless you once were? When your only desire was war and to fight?"
Ironhide opened the private link to Ratchet. But held his peace for several more beats.
Finally he spoke. "He has potential, he just needs to learn to channel that energy without endangering everything."
"You see a younger version of you?"
Ironhide let his optics only slightly slide towards Jazz.
How the slag did the little silver ecowarrior know they were having this conversation and how had he joined in?
"No." He grumbled. "I see a good Autobot with much potential waging a personal war. If he isn't reined in he could become no better than a Decepticon."
"And?" Jazzed probed.
Ironhide glared at the wicked little bot as he took up a place near the human femme. He knew he would not hurt her. He was simply driving home yet another point.
"No!" Ironhide had responded over the comm.
Jazz flicked Ironhide a wicked little glint. He knew full well the large warriors view of the younger Autobots like Sideswipe and Bumblebee. He also knew his drive to protect the humans particularly their younglings and the femmes. And every ounce true to his nature he was always possessively on guard.
"No the young human femme has not made you soft at all, in fact you're a bigger pain in the stern now than before."
There would be retribution for that later, Ironhide mentally noted.
"So what do you propose for our eager young Sideswipe? I mean after all there isn't enough space for training and besides the other twins aren't back yet." Ratchet inquired through the comm.
"It is also raining, torrents." Jazz chimed in just to remind Ironhide he still hadn't closed the link.
Oh yes Jazz was on a roll.
Sideswipe watched Bumblebee and the human femme out of sure boredom. He knew full well why Optimus had heeded Ironhides request to leave him behind. He did have to admit he needed to learn more control after the last fiasco. If Ironhide had not came after his aft. Optimus would have probably off lined him and with good cause. He had not been any better than the Decepticon he had been after.
Bumblebee now there was a bot that loved to watch and enact with humans. Everything was one big fun learning experience. Even apparently when the humans tried deep freezing his aft he had taken little offense to it. If it had of been Sideswipe himself, oh he would still be pissed. But not Bumblebee, he was over it.
The femme Bumblebee watched showed little fear of him. He decided it was just mainly his bold combative nature that made her nervous. She'd even made efforts to interact with him. He acknowledged her, but he just wasn't as comfortable with her as with the military men he served with. What did you after all talk to the femmes of this planet about, she wasn't military and never really had been. So she would know nothing of combat strategy or combat itself. There for he had no reason to talk to her. Right?
The storm was moving faster now, gaining ground. Another wave of thunder rolled over and over. Soon, all too soon the lightning would begin popping around. The human femme only had maybe a matter of minutes possibly 25 or 30 minutes before it would be on them.
"Kami. Perhaps you should go ahead and finish up your task." Ratchet suggested as he turned listening to some distance sound still too far out for the human femme to hear or even begin to know of.
No he thought now she would not have that earlier figured time. She might have 5 minutes if the next coming strike didn't run the power line.
Too late it was running the line. She let out a little yelp as a power surge hit the old amp terminal crimping machine she'd been working. She jerked her foot away from its feed pedal and pulled her hands and the harness branch into her lap. She could only hope she wasn't touching anything for the electrical current to flow on through her. She really did not want to be shocked and she wasn't sure what it would do to one of the very near standing Autobots. Personally that was something she did not want to find out either.
A breaker snapped off causing the buzzing amp machine to go dead. Meaning that danger was over at least for a few minutes maybe.
Sideswipe watched on awe as the femme hopped up disabling other varying pieces of equipment. To him it really didn't make a lot of sense if the equipment wasn't automatous. He was beginning to see why Optimus said humans contradicting species.
"Well I guess work is over for the day." Bumblebee chirped out in a variety of radio voices.
"Oh indeed." Kami nodded as she begin pulling the large bulky harness into a large wooden crate.
"Kami, why do you persist at laboring towards this?" Ratchet sweep his open hand around the room indicating a motor block, still in its wooden crate, along with the transmission in another steel and wooden crate, and several crates of harnesses the human femme had been assembling.
She had moved over to a shelf returning unused items to little cubicles. She looked up at Ratchet without giving it a second thought she answered in only a way she could with that southern drawl.
"We have to build or construct our vehicles. So how do ya'." She paused looking for the correct wording or maybe she realized too late she'd slipped into her southern slang. Whatever it was she picked up right where she left off. "How do you create your kind?" She'd even given a little wave of her hand, indicating any one of the Autobots.
Ironhide almost choked. For some reason he just knew she was about to say reproduce. Jazz did choke up. Served the little smart-stern silver bot right. Ironhide thought darkly.
Bumblebee went wide eyed and so did Sideswipe. Kami on the other hand was waiting for an answer looking up at each of the bots trying to figure out why they all suddenly went quiet.
Ratchet recovered first. "I assure you it is not through such primitive forms of construction such as your undertaking. No it's a bit more complicated than that."
"Really?" She responded in a complete picture of human femme innocence.
Ironhide was mentally chiding her. No, No do not encourage him.
Ratchet arched one metal brow. "Yes, well you see with Cybertronians.."
That was when Bumblebee bumped the shelving and things began raining down, toward the fragile human femme.
Jazz had been the next closest so he'd sprang into action pulling the fleshling towards him covering her from anything that might have impaled her or otherwise harmed her in any other way. Most everything harmless bounced off Jazz plinking to the ground but there were a few bigger pieces of equipment that could possibly get close to the harming the fleshling. Sideswipe swatted them away.
During the raining down of parts and equipment the storm had settled in slamming the ground with tremors of electrical current and roaring thunder. Leaving most of what Ratchet had said unheard by the femme's ears. Ironhide was grateful for that. He wasn't sure about the younger of the bots though. Bumblebee had several millennia to go before he really had to get that talk, Sideswipe on the other hand- well he probably had input for Ratchet. That could get scary.
"Everyone okay? Bee, you alright, Jazz?" Kami inquired from beside Jazz.
"Alright. Sorry for the mess." Bumblebee chirped.
"All good, and you chica." Come Jazz's reply as he edged Kami out from behind him and safely clear of the shelving pasting her to Sideswipe where Ironhide would get ahold of her and chide her. For once Sideswipe was pleased it was not going to be him being chided, but then Ironhides chidings included a training lesson just to make sure the participant understood the point he was making. Sideswipe felt a twinge guilt for the poor fleshling, Ironhide wasn't above ripping a pound of metal off his fellow Autobots. So he wondered what he was going to do to her. She really didn't look like she could afford to lose a pound of metal never mind flesh.
"You!" Ironhide wagged a finger and snarled at Kami. "Do not encourage him."
She started to say something but he cut her off by wagging a finger at her again.
"Trust me, human life is much too short for you to be given an induction to verbal torture Ratchet style." Jazz murmured.
Ironhide nodded his agreement.
" 'Sides, 'you' are not old enough, for that talk anyway." Jazz added just to make sure she got the point.
She visibly blushed and snapped her opened mouth shut.
"Are we measuring that, by The Cube old or Ratchet old?" Sideswipe inquired as he joined the other two Autobots and left Ratchet to extract Bumblebee.
"I am hearing all of this." Ratchet snarled from where he had just about finished freeing Bumblebee.
Ratchet debated the merits of completing the spill, he'd began, but realized belatedly part of his audience was a young human femme. So perhaps it wasn't such a good idea after all to explain to her the finer points of how their young come about.
"No kidding." Jazzs slash of blue optics flashed towards Ratchet.
Apparently the cheeky little silver chatter bot had an open link to him too.
"Do not press your luck!" Ratchet rumbled as he stalked past the small cluster.
Over twenty years earlier in the same lonely stretch of highway, that the shop was now located on another harsh bout of weather belted out similar storms conditions. The rain, lightning, and wind made road visibly as good as impossible. But the group of deaf travelers pushed on with ever intention to either drive out of the horrible weather or finally find a safe shelter to weather it out.
It was already hard to communicate and drive, but now it was impossible. The driver had both hands glued to the steering wheel his eyes looking dead a head into the blinding nothingness of rain, wind and lightning.
A female aged approximately 20 years sat next to her mate the driver a young male who was about the same age as the female. In the back of the transport van, restless and weary of the storm, a group of four children took turns soothing the wailing infant nestled between them.
Though they were all deaf, both the girls and boys knew the baby was wailing by the way the mouth kept popping open and tears were streaming down the rosy colored chubby cheeks.
They kept trying to assure the baby they'd soon be to the Halloween Masquerade Ball, then everything would finally be alright. But infants even those born into deaf families do not understand signs meant to be reassuring. All they know is they are unhappy and they want to either stop hurting, be feed, changed, or rocked to sleep and currently the baby wasn't getting any of what it wanted.
The driver jerked against the wheel wrestling it, away from the swelling rain water flooding the roadway. But it didn't matter the road had melted away leaving a gaping maw of black nothingness filling with cold muddy water.
The van was suddenly going over, tumbling slowly, painfully into the black nothingness. Mouths flew open, as strangled unformed screams tumbled outward from the woman, as she tried to wrench herself loose to either reassure the children they would all be alright or to hold them in their final moments left on this earth before the rain stole away their lives.
Somehow she knew there was no need to comfort her mate. He was already gone. She'd felt his ghosted breath across her cheek as his neck snapped. His passing was instant. Now it was just her, and the five children ranging from a four year old girl, to her five year old brother to the eight year old boy and the ten year old girl, and of course her three week old baby daughter. And less she forget the cold wet water seeping into the van. She wanted to scream and wail. Why, why were they going to die like this? They'd escaped so much, now to be entombed in a hole with frigid swelling rain water.
She swept the brother and sister up to one side of her. A sad little pair they were, born into a family who wasn't ready for children and certainly not deaf ones. She reached out pulling the other boy and girl to her. The girl lost her hearing in an accident and the boy from Scarlet Fever. She looked on at her baby daughter, still safely strapped in a car seat. She had stopped crying but looked as though she would start wailing again any moment.
Present
Ratchet sighed, as another crash of thunder followed by the lightning made the human femme flinch, let out a little squeak, and inched just a little closer. "You have nothing to fear from the thunder. But now the lightning, do you not know the taller beings are at a greater risk of attracting lightning."
Ratchet was shortly rewarded with Kami's retreat from his side to plastic chair, where she curled up in it. She let her eyes sweep around the shop looking for something to do that wouldn't get her electrocuted and kept her from being bored. Maybe she should have taken Lennox and Epps up on the big Halloween Party the guys wives were cooking up, not that she would admit that to Ironhide. He would never cut her any slack over that one.
Letting her eyes roam around the shop she spotted Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Ironhide clustered together around a monitor. No wait the monitor was Brain, she realized as she heard him spitting out more data about another newly approaching round of thunderstorms.
She shifted letting her gaze go to the far corner of the shop where she thought she spotted rain sweeping under the bay door. That could only mean the run off drain was clogged and if that were the case. Well she was about to incur a whole lot of water damage she couldn't financially recover from without assistance, she was not about to ask for.
"Uhm ya'll." She spoke while checking out what she suspected was water.
Oh yes it was water. She grabbed a jacket.
"Hey guys." She stalked over to Ironhide. Jazz fell in beside her.
"Storms are getting heavier." Bumblebee chirped.
"Yeah, no kidding. I think we got a stopped up storm drain." Kami jerked her thumb back over a shoulder towards the offending water steadily growing in the floor.
Ironhide cut his optics in her direction and then on to the offending water. He grumbled something to Sideswipe about checking that drain out.
"Oh man, oh man." Jazz kept watching the radar. "We are about to get really slammed that looks like tornado cells."
Bumblebee nodded his agreement.
The wind slammed against the bay doors causing the smaller human door to slam close then swing back open.
Ironhide jerked to full attention. "Where is Kami?" He let his optics search around the building space, to no avail. Already his sensors were stretching out a little further touching the femme in question he was so concerned about.
"How the slag, did she get outside." He growled following behind Sideswipe as he'd already started toward the human sized open door.
If she just reached a little further she could almost touch the tree branch that was probably clogging up the drain or maybe not. She thought morosely as she watched another piece of tree covered in grass lodge into the branch.
Jazz clicked the locks off as Ironhide effortless shoved the bay doors open to the outside, the swelling storms, and just the in the distance the human femme he was searching for.
"Kami." Jazz called to her, but the wind ripped her name away never letting it reach the femmes ears.
"In coming." Sideswipe pointed to a drifting tree headed directly towards Kami. But she wouldn't see it, her back was turned.
"Sideswipe, Jazz-" Ironhide was already barking orders, as his cannons powered up. "Get her out of there, I am going to stop that tree."
No one saw the limb skimming along under the water, until it took her legs out from under her. She wasn't going to clean the drain out, oh no she was about to be sucked down into it. No her mind screamed she was going to drown, that was how she was going to die.
She slapped and reached out grabbing for anything to stop the pull of the water from taking her any closer to hungry consuming drain. She felt her elbow to her palm drag over asphalt, she gasp and sucked in half the filthy water going to the drain. Okay well maybe not half of it but her lungs were sure swearing to it.
Jazz and Sideswipe made their way toward the femme who was still unaware of the approaching danger. Suddenly she wasn't there, just like that the undercurrent had taken her. Jazz turned communicating with Ironhide to hold off firing the femme had been swept away.
Just a beat later
"Now" Jazz commanded Ironhide as he, the femme, and Sideswipe made their way safely back away from the swelling drain.
"Exactly what did you think you were doing?" Ratchet let a disapproving glare fall on Kami before looking at her arm.
She let her gaze slide to the other side of Ratchet. Ironhide was waiting albeit not too patiently to get his go at her, to the other side Jazz waited his arms akimbo. Beside him Sideswipes pose was almost the same.
She tipped her head back to find Bumblebee. She was certain he was frowning at her. Boy it was going to a long evening.
"I was going to clean the drain out, it wasn't that big of a deal." She tried to sound tough.
"No- Big – Deal?" Ratchet snapped. Wow, Kami didn't see that one coming, she was certain it would be Ironhide growling that at her. Though there was still time.
"You could have suffocated by submersion."
"Huh?" Nope Kami definitely did not see that one coming. Okay so maybe she'd rather explain to Ironhide her reasoning behind what she had done. At least she thought she knew how he would response.
Kami skulked up the stairs to her shower. She was cold, wet, tired, her chest still hurt, and whatever the balm was Ratchet took great pleasure in smearing on her arm was burning like a coal of fire. She thought infection be damned she wouldn't have that to worry about it and probably not her arm much longer if she didn't get that stuff off and soon.
Ironhide was right Ratchet took great pleasure in using medical treatments to inflict pain as punishment. She sighed okay, so truthfully he was only actually doing it for her own well-being but, he could have at least found something that didn't burn as bad. Like the elixir he had her to drink. It didn't burn, in fact her chest wasn't burning and had almost stopped hurting.
A couple of well resounding claps of thunder chased by brilliant lightning had her practically tumbling down the stairs. At least she was back in dry clothes even if she was still chilled to the bone.
"So there you are." Wheelie muttered as she neared Brains computer form.
"Yeah. I'm here. What'd you think I am crazy enough to suffer the wrath of them, again?"
She jerked her thumb towards Ironhide and Ratchet.
"Never know, your kind doesn't always exhibit all the smarts you boast of."
She wanted to pick a wrench up and whack him up side of the helm but, she didn't feel Ironhide or the others would approve of that action so instead she did the next best thing.
She showed him her hand, her pinky finger the only one extended.
"What? Seriously? Wrong finger." Wheelie scolded her.
She turned on him her eyes narrowed to slits. "The effort is only worth a feather. Not a full blown bird."
"That's my girl." Jazz cheered her.
It was a short lived cheer. Ratchet, whacked and chided him for teaching the human femme bad habits.
What Ratchet didn't realize was said human femme knew other signs for swear words and all without Jazz's aid.
"So what's going on, with the weather?"
"It's not the weather currently that concerns me." Ratchet eyed Kami.
She sat on the corner of one of the work benches, doing a little of her own eyeing.
"Seriously Ratchet, that burns. It hurts like… like hell."
"Are you whining?" Ironhide inquired.
She cut her eyes to him. Was he enjoying this?
"Yes. I am whining. That stuff hurts. I swear I have been stabbed before, that is a freaking cake walk to that." She pointed as Ratchet neared her with the dreaded balm.
"Why don't you go inflict your torture on someone else 'sides me."
"Let it be a lesson not to wash it off. It would have stopped burning shortly, now you have it to do all over again."
"Shortly? Like shortly what timeframe are we talking? Next week, next year? That hurts."
"What is the favorite human phrase, please Sideswipe?" He smoothed the balm from her elbow to her palm.
"Suck it up, cupcake!"
She was going to beat the brakes off Ironhide and Bumblebee both for laughing.
She was annoyed with the whole lot of them. Why didn't she just agree to at least go to base?
But her annoyance didn't last much longer as more storms moved in and Brains scanning systems went nuts.
"Hey anyone else seeing this?" Wheelie called out as Brain transferred the incoming data to the 32" flat screen Kami sometimes used for movie watching but more often used for studying wiring schematics.
"What is it?" Bumblebee chirped.
"Yeah, what is it?" Kami pushed between Bee and Sideswipe.
"Surveillance scans of a five mile radius. For defense purposes." Ironhide replied his optics following the unfolding events on the monitor.
"Five mile radius, defense. For what, or who?" Kami had went wide eyed. They scanned her home, her property. For what.
"For Decepticons, you don't think they wouldn't love to murder you?" Sideswipe spoke brashly. He meant to make her understand how many real dangers were actually out there.
She felt a goose walk across her grave. He was right, they would love nothing better than to kill her same as any of her human kind. But what put her at the top of their hit list was who she had chosen to aligned herself with.
Bumblebee felt the chill of fear run its course through her body. Both his and Sideswipes movements were stealthy as they repositioned to better protect her should the need suddenly arise.
Ironhide gave a pleasing nod. Sideswipe was getting better, though he already knew which one would go into combat and which one would run with the femme.
"So again, I ask what is it?"
"Looks like- fleshys. Brain zoom in closer." Sideswipe commanded.
Kami gasp. They were fleshys. No they were humans.
"Where are they exactly?" Her mind was already racing. The roads were flooding. She knew they could just as easily be swept away even in the van.
Brain zoomed in closer. The look of sheer fear etched onto the faces moved all the present Autobots.
"They are approximately two miles out."
"Ratchet, Ironhide. Please we can't leave them out there. They could be swept away." Kami turned seeking out the two Autobots she'd just called by name.
She was already searching for her keys to the brute of an old truck sitting outside.
Brain was still zooming in on the van, he'd never seen anything like these humans. They were solely communicating through hand gestures and they had smaller humans with them. No doubt offspring or younglings.
"Please, Ironhide." Kami was begging now. "They are deaf and have babies with them.. I mean ah, younglings." Her mind was racing trying to remember how Bumblebee explained what their babes and small children were called.
Sideswipe had never actually seen the fleshy tearing up in an emotional state until now. He could feel his mentor's emotional shift at the sight of the fleshys distress. He felt his on emotional state beginning to shift at the distress she was displaying as did every other Autobot in the room with her. He for one personally didn't like the feeling, it felt like what? Like a warm enveloping flood, pushing and ebbing at his spark. It was a disgusting feeling, he couldn't no he didn't want to describe. It made him feel- grr he didn't like the fleshy she was a mass of organic material that was fragging with his sensor chips.
Suddenly he'd thought darkly why had he plucked her from the drain. Frag Ironhide and his fleshy pet..er friend? He'd have to get away from her, or he'd be wanting his own before long. Ugh!
He now begin to understand why sometimes the fleshy would disappear off to her small personal space of a private room, alone. Or when she would wonder off alone to the tree out back or go for personal walks. She knew her emotional state effected them, and it heavily effected Ironhide in particular. Slag it, she was annoying.
"You cannot go out there by yourself, you will never make it." Ironhide reminded her.
She nodded swiping at tears that threaten to spill over.
"And I would like to remind you both they appear to be deaf not blind. So you must not expose yourself, unless it is dire circumstances." Ratchet added.
What was left to the private comms among the Autobots was that unless their current human femme was in danger no one was to break transformation.
What none of the Autobots present or the human femme they were keeping company with realized was all the occupants save one had died well over twenty years ago on this same lonely stretch of road. In another very similar storm.
In closing I must applaud you if you happened to notice there was 7 people in the van in the 20 yr ago scene. And now suddenly there are only 6 counted for when they are detected by Brains scanning. Those 6 are ghost- the seventh the infant didn't die in the flood. I would also like to point out Sideswipe is having difficultly deciding if he likes the human femme Kami or not, in the closing here he isn't to big of a fan of hers at the moment. Cause her tearful emotional state as you will well see effect the Autobots.