Chapter 1

The dust was settling and everything was quiet. It seemed like the end to a story, but it wasn't. The battle, which had seemed to it's participants to have lasted days had lasted merely a few hours. The entire downtown of Mission City was in some form or another destroyed. From a chunk or two taken out of one side of a structure, to several buildings completely demolished- one from having two giant robots come crashing completely through them- it was in ruins.

Captain Lennox took a deep breath and looked at the four still functional mechs in front of him and the two seemingly random kids that had become embroiled in this as well. He'd seen a lot of war in the years that he'd been in the military; neighborhoods lain to waste, disturbingly empty twisted play grounds with blast craters around them, people who had been torn asunder, but now it was on his own soil. The signs that hug at odd angles or were partially blasted were in English and for familiar things like McDonalds and Macy's. Destruction was a horrible thing to witness no matter whose country it was, but there was a special pang for when it was your own backyard. People were coughing and fearfully creeping out of their hiding places, looking at their destroyed environment with disbelief. Some were crying and shaking, looking for answers to what had just transpired. He needed to get these kids and their giant friends the heck out of dodge before a mob did it for them.

Epps shrugged at him, indicating that their communications were still cut. That meant Lennox was still ranking officer and responsible for sorting things out. The aliens were getting antsy and had begun to mill about. The wide black one that had been a truck was peering at the sky line suspiciously as the largest, a big red and blue semi, gingerly touched their fallen comrade's body, head bent in sorrow. The green hummer was tending to the smallest, a yellow sports car, who was the most severely injured of the group and still alive. Each of them bore their own injuries, but the yellow one's legs were sheered off at the knee. The knee, did they have knees? They seemed to have humanoid joints when they were robots. But they were aliens. Didn't aliens have to be stranger than somehow, with multiple limbs and too many eyeballs?

Lennox hardened his heart as he heard the sirens start to wail. There was time to think about the dynamics of alien robots and monsters later when he was home with his wife in one arm and the kid in the other. They could watch Star Wars and pretend that robots were just scuttling tiny droids that spoke several million languages and took orders from whiney space pilots. "Alright people. We need to get these robots and the kids out of here."

Everyone stopped and looked at him. The bots seemed to have a military system of their own, ad recognized Lennox's authority. He looked at the surviving members of his team and felt good that at least he hadn't lost anymore of them today, "Okay, I need you to find me a truck or something to put all the de-" were they dead? Or did you say non-functioning? He gestured at the group as a whole, not making any distinction, "these uh, dead... robots into and take them for some sort of disposal or dismantling."

The huge black truck frowned and crossed his arms in answer as the kid stood up and waved his arms, "What?! No! You can't put Jazz in there like that!"

Lennox shook his head, "Now wait kid, Sam, right? We can't have these things sitting around here. They need to be out of here before someone walks over and just starts trying to take parts away."

The girl stood up, he could never remember her name. It started with an M. Mikaela. That was it. Her eyes were burning with frustrated tears and she was covered in grime. She flung out an arm that had been bloodied when she broke through the glass of a tow truck and pointed to the bots behind her, "They are not things, Captain. They are people. Okay, not people like you and me like humans, but they have feelings and... and are intelligent and have personalities. Just like us. And they have names." She pointed to each one in turn, "Ratchet, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Optimus Prime... and... and Jazz."

"Great, fine, nice to meet you guys. What's you're point?"

Mikaela's patience was at a complete end. The week had started out great with parties and finished projects and then it had gone down hill starting with breaking up with a boyfriend- which wasn't a bad idea in retrospect but hadn't been a real high point either- and ending in the middle of a giant alien robot war. Oh, and she'd had to steal a car. Something she'd swore she'd never do. "My point is that you can't just treat them like they're some crazy terminators or something! They-"

"Things like those destroyed the base I lived on," Mikaela wasn't the only one who was completely out of patience. "Things like those didn't leave anyone alive, just me and my men. Then they came after us and killed my soldiers. My friends." He was nose to nose with the girl now. Her eyes were wild and unnerved. He wondered if he'd ever have to yell at his daughter like this and hoped that he never did.

Sam backed Mikaela up, "But Captain, they're Autobots, not Decepticons. Jazz... Jazz died trying to keep Megatron from popping us like zits. I mean, come on, he deserves better than to be carted off with these assholes."

"Please," The largest robot, the one called Optimus Prime, bent down till he was at a level with the human captain. Optimus felt that he could reason with the captain, soldier to soldier. He groped around for words. So many things that a bot could instantly send from one to another that you couldn't with humans, "Jazz was our friend and compatriot, it would… wound us to see him carted away in such a manner."

"Yeah," Sam piped up. "It'd be like putting Superman in with Doomsday's body."

The captain and Mikaela looked at Sam blankly. Lennox looked at Epps who was nodding, "What? Dude's gotta point."

Surprisingly, it was Ironhide that spoke, "Captain, we have been fighting the Decepticons for millions of years. I have seen devastation of entire worlds and of my own world. I am a soldier also, I serve my people. I once believed that it was pointless to defend the humans because they were so violent," He looked at Optimus begrudgingly, "But I was wrong. Not all humans are the same, and neither are we."

Ratchet spoke up, "Besides which, I believe there's a chance I can fix Jazz."

The Autobots all swiveled to look at their medic. They had absolute faith in his ability to restore them when injured, but to restore a spark? He transmitted to them in private, \With the shard of the all-spark that Prime picked up I may be able to resurrect his spark. I downloaded a copy of his memory core to a data pad before he lost complete consciousness. Since his spark didn't cease to function from being totally destroyed, there's a chance I can repair it.\

The weary Lennox shook his head then rubbed his eyes. He tried to let the frustration drain out of him. He was tired, his men were tired, and these two kids were annoying and tired. Did robots get tired? The looming form of the Autobot leader spoke again, "I'd like to stay and keep an eye on the Decepticon's bodies, just in case Starscream returns for them."

Ratchet scanned Prime without giving prior warning and sent him a private comm. \I don't think that would be a good idea.\

Optimus flexed one fist impatiently. He knew that Ratchet wouldn't stop him for anything short of a major problem, but that didn't mean that he had to like it, \And why is that?\

The mech folded his arms and hunched his shoulders. His comm dripped with sarcasm. \Do you want me to make a list? I can send you one. It starts with stressed metal and ends with places your armor has been punctured with plenty of other concerns along the way.\

Cybertronians didn't have things like natural morphine to keep them from feeling pain after an injury, but they did have the semi conscious ability to turn off the pain receptors in most cases- or at least dampen them so that they could continue to function and fight. During the battle with Megatron, Prime had flipped quite a number of those switches to keep from collapsing. However, like a human's natural pain killers, the switches would eventually come back on and at that point he would be forced to rest. Optimus could already feel some of wounds beginning to ache. \What do you recommend then?\

Ratchet gave a mental shrug, \Let Ironhide and I stay with the Decepticon's bodies. He and I have taken less damage today than you have. When you get to the dam I want you and Bumblebee both to shut off for a little while and take some of the stress off.\

Ironhide patted Prime on the shoulder and said aloud, "One of these days you'll learn to duck and then you won't always be the worst for wear."

Optimus sighed. It was a long standing joke among them since before he was Prime that he didn't seem to know when to duck. His instinct was to put his massive bulk between his friends and his enemies, not duck and let the shot pass. He'd nearly gotten his spark handed to him on several occasions from his inability to avoid fire. "Very well, i you will hook up a trailer, I will carry those returning to the Dam."

Lennox nodded impatiently, unsure of what had just transpired between the aliens, "Great, okay. Epps you keep checking for a signal on those radio communicators, "He tossed one of the extra ones to the kids. "You two keep this with you just in case."

"You are not coming back to the Dam with us?" Optimus cocked his head.

"We've been shorter on sleep than this after battles just as fierce," though not as weird, Epps added mentally, "And... this is home turf. We got a chance to help people here who are going to need it, we're trained in that. You guys, the kids, you're not. Best to get y'all out of here."