Bryan sighed, sitting back in his seat and allowing himself to relax a little, only slightly tuning out the somewhat noisy steps made by the Autobots and the playful argument between Sam and Bumblebee going on at the moment.
It would appear that things were currently quieting down, almost to the point where at a glance you wouldn't think anything had happened since Mission City.
As if that was the case.
He opened one eye a little when the couch sunk down a little, smirking to himself when Kasey also let her head back a sighed heavily. He let his eyes close again, forcing his muscles to relax.
Just in time for his cell phone to ring.
His first mistake had been not looking at the caller ID when he flipped it open.
The second mistake of the call was answering it at all.
"Yah?"
"Is that anyway to greet your mother!?"
Bryan sputtered out, gaining the attention of just about everyone in the room. He quickly recovered, moving to an out-of-the-way corner of the room and cupping his hand around his mouth and the mouth piece. "Mom? W-w-what's wrong? Is it Dad?"
He could almost hear the smirk in her voice. "Your father is fine. Stubborn, but fine. His blood pressure is up again, so his doctor says we should take a vacation."
Bryan already knew the next sentence before his mother had a chance to get it out of her mouth.
"So we're flying out to see you!"
And for the second time in a ten minute period, Bryan, one of the smartest agents on the team, sputtered out at a loss for words.
"I'm actually calling you from the plane now. We're landing in just an hour, so be sure to pick us up! We'll be at the Jet Blue terminal."
Bryan shut the phone and turned around, realizing that all eyes were on him still.
"What was that about?" Maria asked, looking up from her card game with Ironhide's hologram.
Kasey was just grinning at him. "His parents are on their way here. The reaction is the same every time." Bryan just glared at her. "And since they hate riding in our police unit and they wouldn't fit in my car, chances are he's going to ask one of the Autobots to drive him."
If looks could kill, Kasey would have been long gone.
"Well don't take Ironhide, whatever you do, he wanted to 'terminate' my parents." Sam joking, trying his best to pretend to ignore the weapons specialist's glare.
"They were extremely irritating." Was the simple reply before he continued his card game.
"Right." Kasey laughed to herself, looking around the room. "So that eliminates Ironhide from the running. And no doubt his father is coming too, so we'd need someone with backseats."
"Which takes out Jazz and Optimus." Mei piped in, not looking up from where she was cleaning her pistol.
Kasey nodded. "Yup, and his mother hates riding in cop cars."
"Which also takes out Barricade." Mei added, looking up and grinning.
Kasey was grinning at Bryan while he sighed, defeated. "Which leaves, Bumblebee or Ratchet."
That statement had said Medic looking up from his workbench, Mikeala giggling to herself when he did.
Seeing the horrified look on Bryan's face, Bumblebee spoke next. "I would be happy to help you with your parents."
"So it's decided then." Kasey said, nodding before looking at Bryan.
"Well, shit, that was easy." Bryan growled, rolling his eyes at Kasey when she laughed at him.
"Anyway," Mei began, turning to Ironhide and Maria. "I need you two to do us all a favor. Since we have a little bit of downtime I want you two to make plans for and build is a weapon. Something new and powerful. Think you guys can pull it off?"
And just like that, several hundred kids were unleashed into a candy store.
xxxxxx
"Thanks for your help Bumblebee." Bryan said, sighing as he leaned on the roof of the Camaro, looking at the Airport doors, waiting for his parents to step out. Seeing them exit he waved them over, putting his head back down and whispering. "I apologize in advance."
Bumblebee rocked on his suspension as if to say it was okay. After all, he was able to deal with Sam's parents just fine. Then again, they knew what he was.
Bryan sighed, realizing what his parents were wearing. He gave them each a quick hug before helping them load their luggage into Bumblebee's trunk.
Climbing into the driver's seat, he pretended to start the engine, already counting down from five as he waited for the words he knew his mother was going to say.
"It's a very nice car, Bryan, but does it have to be so flashy?"
Bryan sighed; well at least he had apologized in advance.
xxxxxx
Will sighed, listening to one of the higher ups talk to him on the video communications link. He had arrived at the Autobot base a little while ago after finding out some rather, disturbing news. Having asked for answers, he was receiving them with the others standing around to listen in.
"...so, Simmons had my full authorization for his tests."
"And you didn't think we needed to know any of that?! It put the lives of all my men at risk, never mind the other teams attached! Besides, Simmons has no right experimenting on the Autobots, they are not here for our amusement or use, Major." Lennox barked back, clearing annoyed with the whole ordeal.
"The fact of the matter is, Lennox, that it was well worth the lives of you and your men." The major replied, obviously not phased by Will's outburst in the least.
"You and your men?" Mei echoed in the background, standing between Kasey and Ironhide's hologram. Ironhide found himself chuckling. "He thinks you're a man."
"I think he's an idiot." She snapped, glaring at the oversized screen.
"I know you're not a man." Kasey replied, laughing to herself.
Mei growled. "I think you're an idiot too."
Attention was turned back to Lennox and the Major.
"I am supposed to be made aware of any military intentions or concerns with the Autobots. The fact that you were hacking them without any kind of notice or consent is in direct violation of the treaty set down by the president himself! Do you realize that they could easily declare war on us?!"
"That is not my concern, Captain."
Will growled low under his breath. "The hell is isn't! It's like firing on a country with nuclear weapons and not expect it to use them!"
"Need I remind you of your rank, Captain. I don't need to explain myself to you. Your continued search and recon of Agent Simmons is to stop immediately, and all information turned up by your investigation is to be turned over to us immediately. Failure to do so will result in-"
Will had ended the call before the Major could finish.
"Bull-freakin-shit." Kasey growled, looking over at Lennox.
He was grinning.
"Don't worry. I have no intention of handing over anything and I don't plan to stop looking for Simmons and who he is working for. I will also see to it," Will said, turning to Optimus. "that the Major gets what he deserves for such acts of pure treason."
xxxxxx
"So what hotel did you guys book a reservation at?" Bryan asked, glancing at his Father in the passenger seat before looking at his Mother in the rear view mirror. His father snorted, glancing over at him. "Just like you to stick us in a hotel when we visit."
His Mother sighed, looking at the window. "Be nice Warren, our son is a very busy and obviously doesn't have room for us at his place."
Bryan forced himself not to roll his eyes, he was being tag teamed yet again.
"It's not like that. I'm in the middle of an important case and even I'm not in my apartment because of it. I mean, you guys can stay there if you want while you are here, but I won't be around there much."
"You're not staying at your apartment?" His Mother asked from the back. "Where are you staying then? I hope you're eating well."
"I'm eating fine, Mom." Bryan chuckled to himself. "I'm staying with some ah - coworkers. There isn't much room around there, so I doubt we'd be able to fit you guys in."
"So you're not even going to try then?" His Father asked, not bothering to look over.
Bryan sighed, shaking his head. "It's a lot more complicated then that." He replied, reaching for his cell phone when it started to ring. "Yah?"
"Hey, we need you back at the base, there's been a pretty big update." Kasey said, it was obvious to him she was enjoying the fact that she knew what he was going through.
"It'll be a little bit, I need to make sure my parents get settled in." Bryan replied, sighing when he heard Kasey talking with someone on the other end, a few laughs and giggles later she was back on the phone.
"So, bring them here then."
"What?!" Bryan shouted before he could stop himself.
"Bring - them - here." Kasey repeated. "I mean, lets face it Bryan, we both know that if you don't bring them here, your Father is just going to follow you here one day anyway."
Bryan knew she was right and he sighed because of it. The last time his parents had been in town, he had been working a case along side with the local FBI office, trying to track down some sort of religious cult that was stealing cars and nearly beating the driver's to death in the process.
The case had been going fine until his Father followed him to a meet.
"Still there?"
"Yah, I'm here..." Bryan paused. "Are you sure about this? Did you run it by the others?"
"You mean did I run it by Optimus?" Kasey asked, laughing softly. "Yah, I did. He says so long as you trust them enough to keep quiet, he does the same."
Bryan would have to remember to thank the Autobot leader later.
Defeated, he shook his head a little and moved into the far left lane to make a U-turn and head towards the base. "Alright, be there in fifteen." He said, hanging up his phone.
"Fine, you got your wish, Dad." Bryan sighed, making the U-turn and heading for the Autobot base.
xxxxxx
Simmons' interest had been perked to say the least. A report from one of his recon teams sent to keep an eye on those trying to track him down had reported that one of the officers had picked up two 'tourists' from the airport.
Grinning to himself he started making plans. With a little luck he would be able to take hostage the two tourists and forces the Autobots and Black Ops members to fall back and leave him alone long enough for him to get into a safe house and picked up by his officials.
But that would be with a lot of luck. The teams had already proven to be a force that he really didn't want to meet head on. They had, so far, tracked him down, shred his base of operations, and killed two of his senior staff. And it was obvious that they weren't going to go away on their own.
Extreme measures needed to be taken.
He knew right away where the weakest point would be for that team.
William Lennox. Or, to be more exactly, Lennox's family. Simmons knew that if he hit the Captains family, that he would waiver Lennox enough to where the Army Captain would most likely drop the case and leave him be. And while that didn't mean that the others would do the same, he knew it would have them looking over their shoulders.
However, the weakest link was also the most well guarded. Lennox's family was under constant guard by the Autobot Weapons Specialist: Ironhide. And that would prove difficult.
After going over footage from the Mission City incident and reading over reports. He had discovered that the Autobot war vet was very skilled, somewhat agile, and more deadly then the other Autobots combined. He would have to be careful with this one.
The hacking trick would work again. Since he knew his database at his other base of operations had been compromised during the raid, he knew that they would most likely know how to counter and hack, if not prevent it all together. No, he would have to do something else.
The attack on the yellow Viper, Sunstreaker, as he learned the robot's name was, had been successful. It would appear that the high caliber tracer ammo was enough to penetrate the armor and take out what allowed the robots to transform.
Again, another problem. It was obvious that Ironhide was armored fifty times over what the yellow assassin robot had been.
He needed a plan.
xxxxxx
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Bryan sighed, opening the hanger door and stepped into the main room. He was slightly relieved to see that the Autobots weren't around.
"Welcome back." Kasey greeted him with a cheeky grin, before looking back at Sunstreaker's current temporary form who was holding a football in his hands.
Bryan introduced his parents to everyone before turning back to Kasey.
"Where are the others?"
"Ironhide brought Will home and will be back in a little bit. Optimus is out at the outlook sending a message. Ratchet is still in his medbay, but he's locked himself in again thanks to Ironhide. Jazz took Sam to his house to grab some things, and Barricade is... well, Barricade; who knows where the hell he ended up."
Bryan looked over his shoulder to see his Mother whispering to his Father who grunted a little. "The only regular sounded one in that bunch was Jazz." His father said, looking around the hanger. "This is where you're staying? Doesn't seem like much."
Bryan sighed, rubbing his temples and glaring at Kasey.
Both of his parents looked up when they heard rather look footsteps coming from one of the hallways. Bryan sucked in a breath and held it when he realized Ratchet had left his medbay.
The Autobot CMO was fiddling with something in his hands when he entered the main hanger. He didn't even look up from his project as he reached up onto a shelf, looking up only long enough to find what he was looking for before grabbing it and walking back into his medbay.
Bryan glared at Kasey who, to her credit was trying her hardest not to laugh at his parent's expressions.
Bryan father leveled a glare with his son. "Mind explaining?"
Bryan chuckled uneasily. "Heh, I fight with giant robots?" He offered sheepishly, jabbing Kasey with his elbow when she started laughing. "Come on." Bryan sighed. "I'll take you to actually meet him."
xxxxxx
Bryan held the door open as his parents filed in behind him, watching as the yellow medic used his saw to make a few precise cuts into the Autobot shell he was working on. Mikeala was crouched a few feet away from him. Bryan's parents blinked when they noticed that she was completely ignoring the oversized saw the robot was using only a few feet away from her as she worked on welding another part of the form.
Ratchet, detecting the new human presence in his medbay didn't bother to look up from his work. "What do you want now?" He asked, only look up when Bryan cleared his throat.
Ratchet stopped his saw when he realized there were two new humans in his medbay.
Bryan shifted a little, not from the CMO's gaze, but from how weird he felt having to say his next sentence. "Mom, Dad, that is Ratchet, medical officer to the Autobots."