{That doesn't look good.}

Rick and Larry had opened up the garage, flooding the interior with bright morning light, but they had not yet begun work and were instead debating where to start when Bumblebee saw the searing green vehicle with black trim coming up the road, slowing as it approached the driveway.

Though neither human could understand what Bee said, Larry seemed to recognize the cadence of warning and looked up, then around. He almost immediately spotted the MECH vehicle.

"Stay here," he told Rick, then stepped from the shadows of the garage out into the sunlight and stood waiting for the car to come to him.

{Careful, Larry,} Bumblebee burred quietly.

Rick looked like he wanted to argue with his father, or at least question him, but something in either Larry or Bee's tone told him to obey and he stood quietly in the garage, placing a hand on one of Bumblebee's fenders as if to reassure Bee... or possibly himself.

When the green car pulled up, a man rolled down the window. Larry leaned in to speak with him. Bumblebee couldn't catch their words, but Larry's expression was one of a man suddenly in fear for his life, and he more than once glanced in the direction of the garage.

Bumblebee had been around enough to know when an evacuation was about to be ordered. How many times had places he'd been stationed at been compromised? How many times had he seen an Autobot commander's face acquire the expression Larry had now when he heard over the radio that the Decepticons had found them, broken through the defensive lines, and that they would be arriving any moment? He knew the look of prey when it knows the hunter has spotted it.

What he didn't understand was why Larry wore that expression as he turned to walk back to the garage. The green car in the driveway backed out and disappeared down the street, which further confused Bumblebee. Rick evidently saw the look on his father's face, but didn't know what it meant.

"Dad, what is it? What's wrong?"

Larry looked over his shoulder, as if expecting the MECH vehicle to suddenly return. Then he turned back to Rick and said, "You and your sister need to go for a drive in this car."

"What? Why?"

"Just go get her," when Rick hesitated, Larry practically shouted, "NOW, Rick."

Bewildered, but spurred into action by the urgency in his father's tone, Rick left the garage and hurried to the house. Larry watched him go, then turned to look at Bumblebee.

"I suppose you knew all along," Larry sighed.

{That MECH would never allow you to keep me here? Yes. I knew.}

"I got the okay from my boss, but I guess he didn't get the okay from his boss. Somehow, it went up the chain and... well, the long and the short of it is that they want you back."

{You said yourself MECH wants power. Did you really think an organization like them would let you have anything that they could use to give themselves an edge? Come on, Larry. You know better.}

"I'm going to assume you're scolding me for being an idiot," Larry said.

{Good guess.}

"Well I'm not so much an idiot that I don't know what they'd do to you if they ever got hold of you. I mean, I'm sure you remember what happened last time."

{I have some vague memory of that, yes...} Bumblebee muttered.

"Well, this time they would probably kill you. And... I can't let that happen."

Bumblebee knew Larry kept talking after that, trying to explain or perhaps excuse, but he heard none of it. He saw the deep lines of worry and defeat in Larry's face, heard the tone of resigned fear in his voice. Bumblebee knew these signs better than he knew his own name. Larry was going to have Rick and Fina drive Bumblebee away, while he stayed behind to deal with MECH himself. It was unlikely they would simply have a 'talk'. Not when something as valuable as Bumblebee was on the line.

Bumblebee didn't know what Larry was in the middle of saying when he interrupted, {You're going to stall them... and they're going to kill you. Larry, I can't let you do that. Not for any reason.}

"Don't worry," Larry said, "Rick and Fina will have you out of here long before then."

{It's not me I'm worried about. Larry, I can't let you do this,} Bumblebee knew that the new frantic note in his voice wouldn't help Larry understand him, but he couldn't remain silent.

"You'll be fine."

{Larry, no!}

"Look, don't you get it?" Larry snapped suddenly, "I won't just let them take you. But, if I try to stop them, they'll threaten my kids. Maybe you don't understand this, but MECH will kill them to get to you. I need you to get them out of here, somewhere safe. Even if I don't resist, they may kill me and my family anyway, because of what we know. It wouldn't be the first time MECH has killed one of its own 'for security reasons'. Don't think they wouldn't. You have no idea what they're capable of."

{I think I could make a good guess,} Bumblebee replied coolly.

Optimus had once compared the people of MECH to Decepticons. It was a comparison Bumblebee had never forgotten, and one which had proven extremely accurate in subsequent encounters. Bee believed Larry when he said that MECH would kill his family just because they'd become an inconvenience. And too, he understood the value humans placed upon children. The future of a world was something Bumblebee understood the value of better than Larry would ever know. On Earth, that future was the children. Without them, there would be no humanity. Children had to be protected at any cost, because within them lay all the possibilities the future had in store.

"Just listen to me," Larry said, "and don't fight Rick or Fina."

Hearing footfalls on the steps, Larry turned and was surprised to see Raf following Fina and Rick.

"Who's that?" Larry asked of Rick when the boy reached him.

"Says his name's Raf," Rick replied, "He was in Fina's room when I went to get her."

"Daddy, what's going on?" Fina asked.

"Just get in the car, sweetheart," Larry told her.

Frowning, she nevertheless obeyed, first waiting for Raf to climb in the back before settling herself in the passenger seat and watching through the windshield as Rick and his father talked. Bumblebee knew they were arguing. Rick was frightened because his father wouldn't explain things to him.

"Bumblebee," Raf spoke from the back seat, distracting him, "what's happening?"

{MECH is coming. They want me back,} Bumblebee replied quietly.

"We can't let that happen," Raf said hurriedly.

{No. Larry's sending his kids away with me. He wants to get them to safety.}

"But what about him? What about the other person in the house?" Raf must have seen Vera inside when he came out behind Rick and Fina, "What happens to them?"

{When they find out I'm not here, MECH will probably take Larry and Vera into custody for questioning. After that...} he trailed off.

Raf got the message and sat back heavily.

"What? What did he say?" Fina demanded.

Before Raf could answer, Rick got in the driver's seat, slamming the door behind him.

"Well?" Fina inquired sharply.

"Buckle up," Rick said, sighing and putting on his own seat belt, then whispered for only Bumblebee to hear, "For once, don't give me a hard time, okay? Just follow my lead and do as I tell you."

Bumblebee wasn't certain what that was supposed to mean, but he obediently started his engine and drove out onto the driveway. Rick started to check both ways on the street before pulling out, but he saw the wave of green and black MECH vehicles coming their way.

"Who are they?" Fina wanted to know.

"Bad guys," Rick replied.

"Go!" Raf exclaimed from the back seat, and Rick hit the accelerator.

Bumblebee shot out onto the street, tires slipping on the icy road before finding traction and launching him forward. The MECH vehicles attempted pursuit, but it was evident almost immediately that Bumblebee was the faster vehicle. In the rear view mirror, it was possible to see that some of the MECH vehicles had not pursued and instead stopped and turned into the driveway Bee had just left.

Larry put up his hands when a MECH operative exited his vehicle with a drawn weapon. Two more jogged up the steps to the house. As Bumblebee turned the corner onto the next street moments later, he could see that Vera was being dragged from the house between them. Bumblebee knew that MECH would interrogate Larry and Vera, trying to find out where their children were taking the Autobot. It was something neither Larry nor Vera could answer, because the 'where' had not been specified.

"We have to go back!" Fina screamed, but Rick ignored her until she pushed his shoulder, "They've got Mom and Dad! We have to go back for them!"

"And do what?!" Rick yelled back, then repeated more quietly, "And do what, Fina? What can we do?"

With MECH vehicles still on their tail, they had little choice but to keep going.

Fina, looking urgently over the back of her seat even though the scene at her house was now out of view, began to tremble. Then, resolutely, she turned to face the front and reached into her purse, which she'd picked up on the way out. She withdrew her phone.

"Fina, what are you doing?" Rick asked, but she ignored him and hit a number on speed dial.

A moment later, she was talking into the phone, "Eddy? Eddy, I'm sorry, but I need your help."

"Who's Eddy?" Raf asked of Bumblebee.

{Fina's friend. Boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend? Human relationships confuse me, Raf,} Bee answered.

"Me too," Raf replied.

{I don't know what she thinks Eddy could do for her. The only thing he's got is a fast car, and he borrowed that from her other friend-boyfriend-ex-boyfriend Mark. Actually, I think maybe he stole it.}

Raf nodded, then smiled slightly, "I think I know what she has in mind, Bee."

Raf recognized the maroon Noble as it swung in behind them. Though a little worse for wear cosmetically speaking, the super car seemed to almost pour itself onto the road like running liquid. It slid easily through the intersection and fell into place behind them evenly. Raf had always been a car fan, even before he'd met Bumblebee, and a Noble -even a damaged one- was a sight.

Deceptively ordinary in shape, the Noble was nonetheless eye catching. And Raf knew the power that lay under that normal surface. Perhaps more than any other car, the Noble required a skilled driver in a race, though it purred like a kitten on the road. It had few features, almost none at all to aid the driver in its control at high speeds. And it hit high speeds with breathtaking quickness and ease.

Rick noticed the Noble in the mirror and pulled to the side of the road. Their MECH pursuers were momentarily out of sight as they piled out of Bumblebee and met Eddy at the front of his vehicle.

"What do you want, Fina?" Eddy asked, scowling and leaning on the front of his car, "You said it was important, so why am I here?"

Raf listened as Rick and Fina attempted to explain that they were being chased. They didn't know the extent of why, only that it had to do with Bumblebee, and that they didn't want to be caught.

"So what do you expect me to do about it?" Eddy asked, "I'm no better a driver than Rick is, and you seem to have left your pursuers in the dust already."

"Not for long," Rick said.

"Well the Noble only seats two."

"I know that," Fina replied, "What we need is a distraction."

"How can I help?" it seemed to Raf that Eddy's hostility had melted rapidly, perhaps because he grasped that this was life or death and whatever issues he had with Rick and Fina could be put aside for now.

"We need to get the car out of sight," Fina said, "and then let them catch up to us."

"What good will that do?" Eddy wanted to know.

"They need to see one of us, Rick or I, getting into the Noble with you. They'll recognize us, and follow you. They want this car for some reason, and they want it bad. They'll think we left it somewhere to hide it from them."

"But we're actually..." Eddy prompted when she paused.

"We're actually going back. Well, two of us are. You can easily outrun them in the Noble, but don't do that too fast. Keep them on the string awhile. Then, whoever's left in the Urbana has a clear shot at following the rest of those cars to see where they take Mom and Dad."

"And do what?" Eddy asked, "It's not like you can rescue them yourself."

"Maybe not, but I can call the police with their location, right?"

"What do you mean 'I'?" Rick spoke up for the first time in awhile, "You're not going back."

"Ricky," Fina began.

"No."

"Hear me out," Fina told him, "Look, we both know I can't move fast. Whoever gets into the Noble needs to be clearly identified before they do that. Which means letting those guys get close. Besides, even one handed I'm a better driver than you on your best day."

"What about the kid?" Eddy inquired, nodding towards Raf.

"I go where Bumblebee goes," Raf asserted before anyone could say anything, "I'm not leaving him."

"All this for a car?" Eddy shook his head.

"All this for my best friend," Raf corrected.