CHAPTER TEN

Present

***

"Mrs. S, what happened!?" I cried, as she caught me in her arms and began to sob. "Mrs. S?" I asked, my voice muffled by her shoulder (she's only slightly taller than me – all of the Souls are short). "Did something happen to Karr?"

A policeman I didn't recognise came to the front door then, and asked: "Mrs. Souls, is this the only recent picture you have of your daughter?" He held up a framed photograph of Karr, taken only a few months ago of the two of us at the Disturbed concert (we won the tickets through a contest of some sort). The picture had been taken both of us sort of by surprise, so neither of us looked very good in it. I cringed.

Mrs. Souls nodded, and let me go. She said: "Yes officer. Kara…doesn't like having her picture taken." She admitted, sniffling a little and reaching into her pocket for a tissue.

That was true. I remembered how Karr had attacked the photographer after the picture had been taken.

"Please, find my daughter!" Mrs. Souls burst into tears again.

I gasped. "Karr's missing!?" My best friend!?

"Not just missing," Said a familiar voice, and Faren Zanders walked out of the living room, with a clipboard in his hand. "Kidnapped." I gasped. He nodded when he saw me. "Somehow, I'm not surprised you're involved." He told me, but I was too stunned to ask what that meant.

"Neither am I," Said a smooth voice from behind me, and I turned to see Bard Arice standing behind me, wearing the same thing he had been wearing the other night. He was looking to somewhere past me, maybe at the doorbell?

"Bout' time you got here," Faren mumbled. "Care to explain where you've been, Bard?"

"There was a four-eighty-two on the Kwinana Freeway," Bard said smoothly, finally turning his head to look at Faren, who just rolled his eyes.

Suddenly, a red Holden Commodore came screaming down the street. It was Karr's father's car. We all watched as it swung into the driveway, and hit the black and white Saleen Mustang police car parked there.

I'm sure my mouth dropped open. Everyone else's did, but for a different reason.

Bard flinched back like he'd been hit, and his sunglasses slipped down a little.

I glanced at him quickly, and I saw his eyes – they were blood red.

A Decepticon!

Suddenly, the pieces fell into place – the way he acted, stuttering when he called the yellow bug a car, and his name. Unscramble the letters in Bard Arice and you got…

"Barricade." I whispered, fear gripping me like an iron-clad fist.

His holoform turned to me with a small, knowing smile, and I began backing up.

"I-I'm late for school," I mumbled, backing down the driveway and nearly backing into Karr's dad, who was charging toward the house. "Please find Karr." I added quickly, before I turned and ran straight across the lawn, toward the road. I didn't know how I was going to get to school before Barricade got to me. And I'd seen from the movie just how dangerous he could be – I wasn't going to hang around to find out if he was the same (or worse) in real life!

Suddenly, the sound of a motorcycle engine could be heard, and I looked across the road to see a familiar black police motorcycle pulled up to the curb. Astride it was an olive-skinned black-haired male wearing dark sunglasses and a black leather jacket and jeans.

I have never been so incredibly relieved to see someone.

"Prowl!" I gasped, running over to him, and his holoform turned to look at me.

"Hop on." He said, extending a hand to me, which I looked doubtfully at. I've never ridden on a motorcycle before, and I was wearing a dress. Plus, this was Prowl – although I can't for the life of me say what that had to do with anything.

Prowl revved his engine impatiently. "Ella!"

I made my decision then, and grabbed the hand of his holoform. Suddenly, I found myself sitting behind said holoform, as the scenery flashed by me.

"Yikes!" I exclaimed, and grabbed onto the holoform's waist before I could think it through more carefully.

I only realised what I was doing when Prowl said, sceptically: "Are you okay?"

I blushed, realising I may have been holding on a bit too tightly. "Umm, fine. Just…fine…" I said, releasing my hold just a little bit, but still not all the way, because we were going very fast. But I still realised where we were headed. "Hey, Prowl, where are..?"

"I'm taking you to school," Prowl assured me, weaving his way through traffic. "But we're going to have to evade Barricade first. And we're picking someone up first."

"Who?" I asked, but I got my answer when, as we pulled onto another street, a smaller one, I caught sight of a short, dark-haired girl waiting for us on the side of the road.

She was wearing a dark blue dress with a white belt, and black ankle boots, and she was holding her thumb out as if hitchhiking, but there was something about her…

As we got closer to her, I could see that she had short spiky black hair, and she would've reminded me of Alice Cullen – had her eyes not been the same brilliant blue as any other Autobots.

"Chromia?" I guessed, and it really was a wild guess because she was as unfamiliar to me in holoform as Rosanna was.

"Yes." Prowl replied, as Chromia grabbed onto his holoform's extended hand as we passed her, and then she seemingly vanished.

Prowl held the same hand out to me as we turned onto a busier street and, curious, I took what was in the palm of it.

A deep blue MP3 Player with silver edges, and matching silver headphones. The Autobot symbol was emblazoned in silver in the corner, near the screen.

"Ah, Prowl..?"

"To replace the one that tried to take over the world?" He suggested, and I bit back a laugh at the irony of that.

But, I felt like I had to correct him on something. "Uh, he tried to kill me!" I informed him.

Prowl was silent for a moment and then, in a voice so soft you could hardly hear him, he said: "No, he'd never try anything like that."

"You wanna tell me why not?" I asked him.

"We're here." Was all Prowl would reply, as he pulled up out front of St. Josie's.

"That's not an answer!" I snapped, refusing to move.

"After school Ella." Prowl promised me. "And, don't worry about Barricade," He added, in a slightly darker tone. "We'll take care of him."

Despite the bright sun, and myself, I shuddered, the full impact of his words setting in.