Title: Here We Go Now

Chapter: 9 of ?

Author: Minishini

Ratings: PG-13

Pairings: None in this part.

Summary: It's been twenty-four years since the battle to save earth. Sam and Mikaela are happily married, and have their own little family to care for. Their eldest daughter, Lori, is about to depart for college when shit hits the fan.

Disclaimer: Transformers and all that jazz is not mine, I wasn't even born when it was created, and therefore I claim no rights to any of it. So don't sue me, I'm a poor college student. Lori and Jason Witwicky, and Max Lennox are mine, however. So please do not use them unless you ask and are given permission in return. I also don't own the rights to any songs I use; they belong to their respective owners. And it has suddenly come to my attention that there is a female character in Transformers: Cybertron named Laurie. My character does not equal her, just to clarify (I had no idea Laurie in Cybertron existed).


Lori's eyes snapped open as her whole body suddenly became aware. She had never been as awake before as she was now. Body trembling, her senses seemed to be on high as she waited, and listened. The eerie quiet of the flame-lit world around her was only pierced by the sounds of electrical sparking; crackling flames, a deep rumbling roar, and a high pitched rambling voice.

"Bumbling Bee d-d-die," it cackled to itself before splitting off into a tirade of a foreign, robotic language.

Moving as slowly as she could, so as not to attract the creature's attention, Lori turned her head. She gasped audibly as she spotted Bumblebee, writhing in pain only a few yards away in a seemingly featureless void. His knees were shot up and sparking with damaged circuitry while metallic plates were visibly hanging from his robot frame. He was covered in soot, and dirt, and mud, and grime, and gods only knew what else. She tried to open her mouth to scream at the tiny silver robot darting all over Bee's body, but no sound came.

Bumblebee seemed to notice her just as the tiny robot did. His bright, glowing blue optics were wide in pain and fear as he tried to reach a hand out to her, tried with his last spark to protect her. The silver Decepticon was cackling madly now as it flipped a wrench in his tiny, agile hands. Lori couldn't hear what he was saying, all of her attention was focused on those bright blue optics.

A sharp pain bloomed in her leg as a large throwing star blossomed in her thigh. Lori fell to her knees as her legs refused to hold her weight. "Wa-wa-watch," the robot cackled merrily as it skipped up Bee's chassis. Lori felt the scream wrench from her throat, but still the world was silent as it slowed around that tiny robot. With a look of supreme glee, it lifted the wrench high about its head, and brought it down on Bee's optics.

Glass shattered. High, piercing robotic screams wrenched from Bee's vocal processors as his entire body bucked and twitched. Frenzy, the little silver Decepticon, was going ballistic tearing up circuitry and ripping away at any metal he could lay his paws on. Bee's face was a mess before he managed to gather the energy to charge one of his plasma hand cannons, and aimed it straight at his own head—

The world was thrown into stark relief for a brief moment. Lori was back in the front lawn of her college house. Flames were eating up the once bright green forest surrounding her property. Craters from gun and missile fire spotted the lawn. Ironhide, a huge black-and-gray robot, lay crumpled not too far from Bumblebee. A giant Decepticon was standing over him, snarling with blood thirst as Bumblebee let loose the charge from his cannon, effectively blowing Frenzy and his own head to pieces.

"No!" Lori screamed and bolted upright. Her heart was pummeling against the cage of her ribs as she panted and gasped for breath, her eyes wide and pupils dilated as she stared at her covered feet. A dream. It was just a dream…

"My database tells me you just suffered a nightmare, Lori Witwicky."

Slowly, still trying to throw off the shock of the dream, Lori turned her attention to the giant robot sitting by her side. The Autobot was looking at her with complete admiration as it leaned over her bed side. "Yeah," her voice was a harsh croak through cracked and dry lips.

"You humans are so…intriguing. I still do not fully understand your sleep processes, but it is absolutely fascinating," the robot was nodding and grinning eagerly as it leaned even closer to her. "What did you dream of? It must have been terrible, your heart rate is exceedingly high, and your perspiration—"

"Who are you?" she interrupted, not caring that she was being rude. From her limited experience with the Autobots, they didn't necessarily share the same mannerisms and social taboos as humans. Being blindingly blunt was a trait they all seemed to share.

The robot was still grinning as he sat down heavily, his giant silver-gray legs folding up underneath him. "I am called Hot Shot, that is as close of a translation as I can provide. I came to see after you in Sam Witwicky's stead."

Lori nodded absently and looked past the robot. The loud roaring in her ears hadn't been imagination after all, but was the loud purr of an aircraft carrier. All around her humans were moving from one station to the next as they tied down gear, checked their equipment, and monitored the giant forms of—Lori swore heatedly and tried to throw her blankets to the side.

"Nah-ah-ah," Hot Shot chuckled and gently pressed her back down on the cot with one finger. "Annabelle says you are not to leave the cot. I should have left you strapped in, but it did not look very comfortable…"

"Bee! Is Bee okay?" Lori was struggling underneath the weight of Hot Shot's finger to catch another glimpse of Bumblebee. What little she had seen of him did not look promising. He was lying stock still and tied down to the floor of the carrier. Hoist was looming over him, growling out directions to the human mechanics that crawled over Bee's dingy yellow chassis. "Why isn't he moving? What's wrong with him?"

Hot Shot sighed and shook his head disapprovingly. "Your vitals are spiking all over the place," he muttered, "maybe I should call a medic over…"

"What the hell is wrong with him!" she yelled and beat at Hot Shot's finger with tiny, fisted hands. The robot blinked at her in surprise, before easing back. "Just tell me!"

"He is merely in stasis," he murmured, still surprised at the fragile human's violent out burst. "Suffering injuries such as his would force any Cybertronian into regenerative rest." Humans were so incredible, Hot Shot thought as he watched the tiny female youngling glare up at him. There were so bold and aggressive for such little creatures…

"Is he going to be okay?"

Hot Shot only nodded before tilting his head to the side in curiosity. He had trouble believing the old arms specialists' report when Prime and his team had shown up at the site of the battle. But now he was starting to find it easier and easier to accept how much damage this little creature caused the Decepticons. "Ironhide has told us what happened. He told us how you off lined Frenzy, and taunted Barricade. What makes you risk your life so haphazardly for that of my comrades? You could have died."

Lori was glaring at him in a look that the internet deemed "murderous". Her delicate eyebrows were forked over a pair of deep brown eyes, her full lips set in a firm frown. "You wouldn't do the same?"

A smile tugged at Hot Shot's mechanical lips as he scanned the human youngling once again. She suffered numerous injuries that, by his standards, could have easily been avoided had she followed Bumblebee's orders. But like any Autobot would have done, she had gone back to the aid of her friends. She had done what Hot Shot had failed to do so many years ago, when he was forced to leave an injured Wheeljack in hostile territory… "I would have," Hot Shot's smile turned sad.

This little human was not so terribly different from him, after all.

"Bumblebee is my best friend," Lori's voice was still unsteady. Her nerves, now that she was awake, were still rattled from the battle that had nearly killed her Autobot guardian. "He would have died to protect me," she pressed on, ignoring her throat constricting and the tears burning her eyes, "I would do the same without hesitation."

Hot Shot's spark swelled with emotion at the youngling's words. It had been so long since he had seen such camaraderie from any creature, Autobot or Decepticon or alien alike. For centuries he had explored space on his own in search of the All Spark, with only the aggressive inhabitants of alien worlds to chase him off their planets and the thoughts of Wheeljack that still plagued him for company.

Once, Hot Shot would have given his life for Wheeljack's. And he was sure Wheeljack would have done the same. They were best friends, partners, and spark-bound in ways that only brothers or mates could be. To think Hot Shot's loyalty to his best mate would lead to the harsh severing of their friendship, and Wheeljack now craving to spill Hot Shot's antifreeze… And now thanks to that hatred, Wheeljack was currently in critical care on a second carrier.

"Then what don't you get?" Lori's harsh voice brought Hot Shot back to the present. "You think that I can't help out, right? That because of what I am I can't possibly be of use to—to—to fucking robots?"

"No," Hot Shot pressed her back down with a finger once more, and gently lifted her blanket back into place. Hot Shot had never assumed humans could not have made an impact in their affairs. He had seen one too many worlds where tiny creatures such as Lori Witwicky had nearly downed him without mishap. "I apologize if that is what I seem to be saying…"

"Forget it," Lori's tone suddenly dropped off as she turned her face away from Hot Shot. "Have you…have you heard anything from my dad or Optimus? About this whole thing?"

Hot Shot thought for a moment, trying to decide whether or not it was his place to tell the girl what little he had heard. "They…do not seem to think it safe for you to be outside of Nowhere anymore."

She nodded in quiet acceptance. "I agree…" she whispered so softly that Hot Shot's sensors had to struggle to catch her vocal pattern.

"You do not sound disappointed."

"I wouldn't ask them to keep putting me and other Autobots in danger," she spoke to the cold metal wall of the airplane. Hot Shot's optics caught the slight shudder in her small shoulders, and the discreet shuddering breath she tried to take. "This is like…twice now…that they've come for me. And this time, they were ready to kill me, or Bee, or even poor Ironhide."

Hot Shot frowned. Was he detecting moisture coming from the girl's optics? "You seem to be leaking saline fluids."

She gave a weak chuckle and sniffled, trying to hide even further into her army green blanket. "You're not supposed to notice that."

"Very well."

"I don't want to keep putting my family and friends in danger, Hot Shot," her voice trembled this time as she spoke. "The Decepticons are after me, and I don't know why. No one would tell me why, I thought…I thought I could still go to school. I didn't see a reason for me to stay back at Nowhere with all of you guys."

Hot Shot looked around nervously as the human youngling trembled again. Should he call a medic? He did not know why her body was reacting this way, or the cause of it. All he knew was that it was not a healthy state for a human to be in. "Sometimes, it takes learning a lesson the hard way to fully understand the depths of it," he replied absently as he scanned the carrier for the closest medic. "That is often the case for me."

Another weak laugh came from the small humanoid, and Hot Shot noticed that it seemed to help with her symptoms. A small part of his consciousness split off to surf the internet, searching for any results that were in common with Lori's actions.

"Chances are," he rumbled on, "is that if Optimus saw no problem in sending you to college, that he did not entirely understand the situation himself. Or he may have understood fully, and was willing to risk it for higher reasons… It is beyond me to guess what Optimus thinks." Hot Shot's consciousness got caught up in a particularly amusing website full of short videos before he redirected it. He would have to take another look at that site later… "My research says you are sad, depressed, down in the dumps, having the blues—"

"Well, you can't blame me," and like a spark Lori was angry again. She threw back her covers, shoved Hot Shot's alarmed hand away from her, and sat up. "If Optimus really knew that this could happen, why would he risk it? Why?"

Hot Shot frowned at the small human. "I do not know what Optimus thinks when he acts. You would have to ask him."

"Then maybe I will," she was still angry and directing the brunt of her emotions at Hot Shot. "I deserve to know what the hell is going on. I didn't press Optimus enough before I left for college; I'm not going to make that mistake again!"

Suddenly, the giant Autobot was grinning at Lori. "May I watch this confrontation?"

"What?" she looked dumbfounded and startled by the question.

"It is often humorous to watch someone confront Optimus."

Lori sighed and visibly relaxed on her cot. "You Autobots are really weird."

"Coming from a creature that excretes fluids from all over its body, I do not find that comment to be so true," and, as Hot Shot had intended it, Lori was laughing easily on her cot. If humor could affect these small humanoids so, Hot Shot would be sure to exploit it.


Okay, I apologize whole heartedly that this update took nearly...a week. face meets keyboard I've been busy studying for finals (read: PvPing in WoW) and some other random crap, and honestly I got a bit stuck on this chapter. Meet Chapter Point A to Point B Number 2. The next chapter or so is gonna have a lot of plot build up, and odd things happening, so I'm getting a bit antsy to get those up and going soon. Already half done with Chapter 10, so hopefully that'll be up later!

As always, feedback and constructive criticism is both loved and treasured! Thank you to all of you for your support! It's been a big help!

A/N: Hot Shot is going to be a little out of character for a while, methinks. You'll see more on it in the next few chapters. And once again, he is based off the TF: Armada series HOT SHOT. Not G1 HOT ROD or whatever other series.