AN: WOO! Sorry for the long wait. Life has been crazy lately. But, we're nearing the end. Only a few chapters left and then I will start posting the sequel. Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think. ^^
Disclaimer: I own nothing but my two OC's and any changes to the plot of the movie you don't recognize.
Chapter 14: Of Reunions
"Message from Starfleet, Captain. Lets get to it."
Bee's proclamation was met with a flurry of activity. Captain Lennox took the lead. "He's right. We stay here, we're screwed with Megatron in the other hanger. Mission City is 22 miles away. We're gonna sneak that Cube out of here and we're gonna hide it somewhere in the city."
Secretary Keller immediately agreed. "Good! Right."
"But we cannot make a stand without the Air Force."
Keller nodded in agreement and then turned to Simmons. "This place must have some kind of radio link! Shortwave…CB."
"Right, yes."
Lennox interrupted them. "Sir, you got to figure out some way to get word out to them," he turned away then and motioned for his men. "Let's move!"
Andi listened as Keller and Simmons began discussing possible radios they could use. She then heard Lennox yell for Sam to get in a now transformed Bumblebee. She bit her lip as indecision coursed through her. On the one hand, she could go with Sam and Mikaela and help them protect the Cube…and see Axle. On the other hand, Glen and Maggie might need some help with getting a message out to the Air Force.
"Andi! C'mon!" She turned as she heard Sam call out to her and motion for her to get in the car. She shook her head and waved him off, telling him to go on ahead. He studied her for a moment before nodding and entering Bee.
Lennox was giving Secretary Keller last minute instructions and Andi knew she only had a few seconds to make up her mind before the decision was made for her. She turned to Glen then and noticed him staring at her. He shook his head and smiled. "Go ahead, girl."
She frowned. "You sure?"
"Yeah, I got this. I can tell you want to go. You won't be any good to us if you ain't concentrated on the here and now, anyway."
Andi smiled before hugging her friend. "Thanks, Glen. Good luck. I'll see you when this is all over."
He awkwardly patted her back, before pushing her away in the direction of Lennox and his men. "Yeah. Take care, Andi. Be careful."
"You to." She turned then and ran towards Lennox and his men who were preparing to leave. "Captain Lennox! I'm coming with you."
Lennox didn't even complain, he just nodded and pushed her into one of the military vehicles before preparing to enter the driver's side himself. "Set a perimeter around the yellow vehicle!" After yelling out a final order, he strapped himself in and led the military convoy out of the dam and away from Megatron.
They had been driving for some time now, and Andi had spent most of the time listening in on Lennox and Epps' impromptu strategy meeting in the front seat. They were currently arguing over the best way to have the helicopter come in and pick up the cube. For the most part, she drowned them out. Suddenly, the two men stopped arguing. She turned from her side view then, to look out the front window, and was shocked by what she saw. There, in the distance, driving towards them was the most beautiful sight Andi had seen all day. It was the Autobots. With Optimus in the lead, they were racing towards the military convoy. As the line of bots crested a hill, Andi caught her first glimpse of blue and white, and her heart clenched in her chest.
"Axle."
"Incoming. Possible bad guys. Prepare to fire only on my command." Andi panicked slightly as she heard Lennox's order to his munitions man sitting by the gun in the back. She turned on him, trying to get his attention, knowing that nothing good would come of him firing on the Autobots who were only there to help.
"Captain! Captain Lennox!" No response. "Lennox! Captain Lennox! WILL!"
"What?" he turned and shouted at her.
"Don't shoot! They're friends. They're the Autobots. That semi in the lead is Optimus Prime, he's Bumblebee's commander. They're here to help."
"You're sure?"
"Yes, of course I'm sure! I wouldn't stop you if I wasn't!"
He nodded in consent. "Alright. Stand down," he told the soldier in the back. "They're friendlies."
Andi released a great sigh of relief. Turning to her left, she watched as the Autobots passed them by and then proceeded to pull high speed u-turns and fall in line with the military convoy. She righted herself in her seat when she could no longer see Axle out of the back. Lennox and Epps had finished their strategy session and silence reigned for a time before Lennox spoke again. Andi jumped slightly when she realized he was talking to her.
"So, girl." She rolled her eyes.
"It's Andi."
"Right, Andi. So, I'm still interested to know how you kids got involved in all this."
She huffed in annoyance. That question was getting old, and she didn't feel like explaining everything right now. "It's a long and complex story," was all she said. Lennox wouldn't let it go.
"I get that Sam's involvement was seemingly inevitable, given who his great-grandfather was, but what about you girls? Are you just along for the ride?"
Andi sighed. He wasn't gonna drop it. "For Mikaela that's true. Me, not so much."
"Meaning?" Epps joined in.
She cringed in anticipation of their reactions to her next statement. "I may or may not have been housing one of the Autobots in my garage for the past month." Stunned silence.
"You…What?"
Sighing in resignation, she explained. "You saw that blue viper that passed us? His name's Axle. He's been living with me for a month. Yes, I realize I probably should have told someone. Yes, I know it was irresponsible for me not to. No, I'm not sorry. Any other questions?" There were none. The two men seemingly couldn't process the information she had given them. Which was fine with her. She didn't feel like justifying her actions to these men. Not now.
The rest of the ride to Mission City was spent in silence; that is until the Decepticons arrived. They were driving down the highway, heading into the heart of the city when the attack occurred. Andi turned and watched wide-eyed as a large military vehicle transformed and barreled through a city bus.
"Oh my,God." It was all she could say. Seconds later, Optimus transformed as well and turned to face their new adversary head on. The two bots met and clashed together before tumbling over the side of the raised highway to a lower tier. Through all this, the convoy didn't even slow down. If anything, Lennox sped up, in a hurry to find protection within city limits; hoping that the smaller streets and tall buildings would slow down the Decepticons long enough for them to evacuate the cube to a safe place.
Before long, they had entered the city limits, and were navigating their way toward the downtown area of Mission City. Andi noticed then that Lennox was scanning the fronts of the buildings as they went. "What are you looking for?" she asked him.
"Some place to get radios. Keep your eyes open, will ya?"
So she did, and as they moved along she scanned the stores for some type of electronics store or something as such. Then she saw it, ahead of them. Leaning forward over Lennox's shoulder, she pointed up the street. "There. That pawn shop might have something." He nodded and brought the convoy to a stop in front of Rhonda's Pawn Center. Jumping out of the car, he motioned for the rest of the cars to wait as he ran inside to see what he could find. It took several minutes, but eventually a very flustered Lennox exited the shop holding two hand held shortwave radios. They looked ancient.
He entered the car and thrust the radios into Epps arms. "Here, I got shortwave radios."
Andi noted with amusement that Epps looked utterly bewildered as he studied the radios. He looked incredulously over at Will as the car began moving again. "Wait. What am I supposed to do with these?"
"Well, use them! It's all we got!"
Epps frowned as he shot Lennox an annoyed look. "This is like RadioShack dinosaur radios or something, man. I'm only gonna get 20 or 30 miles out of these things." Andi coughed to cover up a laugh. Epps turned the radios on and began speaking into the receiver. "Are there any aircraft orbiting the city?"
Will drove for several more blocks before he found a street that he felt was secure enough to make a stand. He once again brought the convoy to a stop and had his men take up positions around Bumblebee. When the car came to a complete stop, Andi hopped out of the back and immediately made her way towards Axle, who had parked next to Bumblebee. She waved to Sam and Mikaela as she passed, but didn't stop to talk. She reached Axle, placed a hand on his hood, and before she could even open her mouth to talk, he beat her to it.
"Andrea! Are you all right? You're not hurt are you? I was worried." Several soldiers nearby jumped in surprise at the sudden voice coming from the parked blue viper. Andi saw them all take a subtle wary step away from Axle, as they eyed him as if he might possibly eat them at any moment.
She chuckled at their reactions. Smiling she patted Axle's hood before rubbing comforting circles over it. Had he been in his biped form, she would have hugged him. She grinned wider as she felt Axle's engine purring through the hood. She didn't know who was comforted more by the gesture, herself or him. "Hey, big guy. I'm fine. You okay? I was worried about you too."
"I'm better now," he sounded genuinely relieved to see her.
"You would not believe some of the stuff I've seen in the past few hours," she stated as she continued to run her hand over his hood in soothing circles.
"The All Spark?" he questioned.
"Yeah. And Megatron." As they conversed, Andi watched Lennox and his men running to and fro, trying to secure the area. Epps was still sending out commands over his self-proclaimed RadioShack dinosaur radios.
"Megatron? You saw him?" He sounded a lot less concerned than she thought he would be. His voice instead hardened and lacked any emotion. She realized then that she had heard this tone from him once before, when Motorhead had attacked them.
"Yup. He was a giant frozen popsicle at the time, but that was fine with me. He looked scary enough as a popsicle, I didn't need to see him that up close and personal while he was awake. Although, I imagine I'll see him awake soon enough. His cryostasis was failing when we left the dam. If he followed us, he'll be here before long." She shivered slightly at the thought. That was one meeting she would prefer to put off for as long as possible.
Axle didn't reply, but instead rumbled softly beneath her hand in a comforting manner. The rumbling reassured Andi that he was there and would protect her. She smiled in gratitude, and gave him two pats in thanks. It seemed then, that something was about to happen, because Lennox started shouting out orders.
"The Air Force has arrived. Pop smoke." The rangers around Bumblebee popped open green colored smoke-flares. As the green smoke billowed up around her, Andi could hardly see what was going on. She stepped away from Axle, towards Sam and Mikaela, to try and get a better view.
"What now?" Her murmured question seemed to echo through the air as silence encompassed those waiting and watching the skies.
AN: There you go, the beginning of the end. It was difficult to find an ok spot to end this chapter. I didn't want to get into the fighting just yet, so I felt here was the best place to end it.
Please review and let me know what you think, or what you would like to see from Andi and Axle in the future!