Out of The Blue: Part 4

Another week pasted after the day that Frankie told the autobot leader about what had happened in her dream. She'd stubbornly kept the details to her self, saying that it's not something that Optimus would be able to help her with, but told him that she was grateful for him being there for her. It quickly became clear to the leader that the young woman was quite troubled but there was nothing he saw that he had the right to do. Knowing that he had the answers that she wanted, made it that much more difficult to him as the days passed. To say that he was distracted would have been an understatement.

Which of course led to him not noticing several important things, first off was that there were several others in the base who had made the same connections as him and where on the verge of spilling the beans. Second, he failed to notice the moment when someone arrived out in the desert and began to lie in wait. Lie in wait and plan on how he was going to gain possession of the object of his own distractions. Which ultimately resulted in one final problem, the thing that had both the Leader and the intruder completely engrossed was the same thing. Or perhaps one should say the same person.

It was inevitable that all of this would come to a head eventually, and it did. One evening as Frankie stood outside the Autobot base and cursed at her truck as the thing refused to start.

"Come on you pile of scrap metal! START!!!" She did her level best to get the thing to turn over and called it a few more rude names.

The kids were getting a great show as all of them watched their quiet poised teacher turn into a raging monster as she thrashed and banged on the inside of the engine of the vehicle.

"Ya know," Carlos piped up, "I think it would be a good idea to not mention that we've learned most of those "Sentence modifiers" from Miss. B."

"No really?" Alexis rolled her eyes, "I was gonna go call the school board and tell them all about it." She shook her head, "Dweeb."

She kept right on; completely unaware of what was going on conversation wise between the kids, not to mention the Autobots who were also watching this spectacle.

"Wow," Sidswipe blinked, "I didn't think you could use them in those combinations!"

"You and me both," Hot shot admitted.

For some strange reason, Redalert found it immensely funny and was doing his best to not laugh at the performance. He wasn't the only one, Scavenger and Smokescreen thought it was priceless as well, and were making sure to get a good recording of all of this. Never know when one of them might need a favor from this strange girl and would have to use it as blackmail to get her to do what they wanted. As for Optimus, he was watching this in a strange amused way. It seemed like the more time the girl spent around them the more and more she came to confirm the Prime's Suspicion. He finally shook his head at that and told the others that he was going out to give the girl a ride home before she completely dismantled her truck. She was just pulling out the socket wrench when he walked up to her.

"Frankie, What in the universe are you doing to that poor inanimate object?"

"This piece of junk won't start Optimus!" She announced, "I'm trying to get the stupid thing working again."

"By calling every curse word under the sun?" he grinned with his voice, "Explain to me how that helps?"

"It makes ME feel better, that's how!" She snarked.

She finally sighed and tossed the socket on to the ground despondently, "Nothing! I can't get it to do any thing!"

"Just calm down will you? I'll get Redalert to take a look at it for you okay?"

She looked up at him, "you would?"

"Its not a problem, considering he usually has to stick one of us back together, I'm sure working on something simple like this will come as a refreshing break for him."

She let out a LONG loud sigh and nodded, "Well thank you then, but that leaves me with one more problem?"

"What that you just taught the kids every single swear word in your vocabulary?"

That was when it dawned on the teacher that she had indeed had an audience.

"Wha? OH NO!! No no no!!" She buried her face in her hands and turned several shades of magenta. "I can't believe I did that!"

"Don't worry about it; I'm sure none of them mind. In fact, Sideswipe and Hotshot told me to thank you for showing them some new combos."

This was followed by more blushing on the part of the girl. Prime finally took pity on her.

"Well I think I've embarrassed you enough for one day, how about I give you a ride back to your apartment."

"Tha.-that would be great Optimus." She blushed more "just let me get my bag."

While the leader transformed she snatched her stuff out of the truck and did her best to avoid making eye contact with the kids. Climbed up into the cab and did her level best to become transparent.

The kids waited till the truck pulled of with their teacher with in and then broke down in some of the loudest laughter that had ever been heard. It was some good long loud laughter but, the problem was that it attracted the attention of the other person who had been out there watching.

He pulled up in his altmode and watched as the red truck pulled away. He gunned his own motor for a moment and then took off after them.

Frankie was in the autobot leader's cab doing the best she could to not die of embarrassment, one hand over her eye and a look on her face that spoke volumes about what was going on in her head.

"What's wrong with me?!" She shook her head, "I can't believe I let those kids hear me make a fool of my self like that."

"I wouldn't let it get to you like that, honestly. It's not like every one hasn't let one slip at least once."

She made a face at him, "I bet you haven't."

"You'd never believe some of the things I have and haven't done my dear."

She had to grin over that, "Optimus, I hate to be blunt big guy but if I ever saw you cut loose I'd blow a fuse."

"That's low," He told her, "Robot humor."

"Consider it pay back for making me watch that Will Smith movie with the kids. Three laws my foot."

That was when it all broke loose. The two of them heard the noise about ten seconds before the second truck slammed into Optimus and sent him jack knifing off to one side of the road. Frankie had been wearing her seat belt but her head still snapped forward and banged into the steering wheel. The two of them spun a few more times and skidded to a stop in the desert.

The other vehicle vanished for the moment and Optimus was able to collect his wits for a few seconds. The silence lasted another moment or two and then the autobot began working on getting the attention of the woman that was still fastened into his driver's seat. She was still alive, that much he knew. But she hadn't moved or said any thing, meaning that some thing must have truly been wrong with her.

"Hey!" He got no response so he waited a few more seconds and then tried again, "HEY! Come on Frankie, You have to wake up!"

Finally she moved a bit and managed to make a noise, "Op…? Whahappen?"

"I have no idea, but I need you to get out. Can you do that?"

There was no more response and he thought for a second she had blacked out again until the door open and she all but fell out onto the ground. She was going to be black and blue in the morning, and had a smear of blood on her mouth from where she had bit her lip. But for the most part she managed to walk over and brace her self against a rock formation that lanced up out of the desert.

Prime transformed and took a good look around. He could see the spot where he'd been ran off the road, his own skid marks and those of some one else. There wasn't a whole lot more though.

"So who did that?" Frankie managed slightly more coherently than before.

"That would be me my dear." came an answer from behind them.

Both autobot and human turned around to see who it was. Optimus' mouth fell open underneath his mask and Frankie screamed.

"Good to see you again after so very long." The dark one smiled at them, "My dear, brother."