It was very late at night before Terra snuck into her foster home without her foster parents noticing. She didn't worry about them too much; she was nearly non-existent to them unless they needed a punching bag. With that in mind, she moved her small dresser in front of her bedroom door to make sure nobody tried to barge in or attempt to molest her in her sleep.
The next morning she was up and out of there before they woke up. She didn't go far before Hotshot pulled up to her and opened the passenger door.
"Need a ride?" he asked.
"That would be nice," she climbed in, throwing her school bag in the backseat. She closed the door and the yellow muscle car took off.
Thrust watched the duo speed down the road towards the human's center of learning. He was able to perform a scan on the human before the Autobot picked her up, and was rather surprised to find that Wheeljack had been correct. The human had something very similar to a Spark in her chest; right above her heart to be exact! He had to get his hands on her now!
Hotshot did curbside duty near the school, moving every so often to not attract attention. Since the Decepticons had tried again to obtain human hostages, it was decided that their human friends needed an escort while outside the base.
The final bell rang and students began to file out of the building, all going their separate directions. Rad, Carlos, and Alexis walked up to the road and Hotshot pulled up.
"Terra will be here in a minute," said Alexis. "She needed to see the nurse."
"Is she sick?" he asked concerned.
"Not really, she just—"
"Hey! Terra's in trouble!" Carlos pointed back up to the school. Terra was trying to pry herself out of a man's grip. The dude looked like he'd never seen a salad in his life, nor seen a shower. They could hear the man cuss Terra out, even though she didn't say anything back or do anything to protect herself. Alexis and Carlos got into the back seat while Rad got into the driver's seat.
"Terra!" Alexis called out, keeping the passenger door open.
Terra finally broke free and made a mad dash towards Hotshot. She jumped into the passenger seat and the muscle car Transformer sped off while closing the door. In the rear view mirror they could see the man get tackled down by two police officers.
"Uh…You wanna tell us what just happened?" asked Hotshot.
"Amiga! How long have you been putting up with that?" demanded Carlos. "Wasn't that your foster dad?"
"That was my foster dad," said Terra, "now he and his wife are facing criminal charges and jail time."
"So the nurse finally gathered enough evidence to prove they were abusing you?" asked Alexis. "That would explain why the police were there so fast if the school turned them in."
"Wait a minute! Back up and explain." Rad made a time-out gesture with his hands. "What exactly is going on?"
"Don't forget me, the robot in disguise that has no clue on what just happened and what you guys are talking about," said Hotshot.
They were all silent for a moment before Terra said, "I'll explain back at the base. I don't want to repeat myself more than once to the entire team."
Thrust cursed his luck and the disgusting human that delayed his mission. It appeared he would have to find another way to capture her, but for now he had to report back to the Decepticon base.
Terra and the boys of the human gang were on one of the catwalks in the command center with the rest of the Autobots. Alexis had gone off to take a call from her mother, but she knew what was about to be told so Terra saw no reason to delay the inevitable.
"So far I've only told this to two people: Alexis and her mother," Terra began. "Hotshot's already told you all about my foster father getting arrested at the school, and you all have expressed your concern about this. I haven't known all of you for long, but I believe I can trust you to tell no one else about this. What I'm about to tell you does not leave this base, clear?"
"Understood," said Optimus Prime and the rest of the Autobots acknowledged her request.
"We wouldn't tell anyone outside of the team anyway," said Rad.
"Yeah, this isn't something anyone else needs to know," chimed Carlos. "You can count on us, amiga."
"Our lips are sealed," said Billy while Fred nodded his head while still munching down on some potato chips.
"Alright," with their promise to keep this a secret, she began, "My full name is Terra Alpha, and I'm an orphan. No one knows who my biological parents were, or when I was born. I was found next to the highway not too far from this town with a bracelet on my ankle with my name written on it in two different languages. The first was in English, the other language is not recognized as any known language."
"Two languages?" mumbled Rad. "That's bizarre."
"Indeed. What makes it even more bizarre is that no one else in the world has my surname; I'm the only one on Earth with this name. Since no one could find anyone with that name and with no one coming forth to claim me, I was put in the foster system. My first foster family was a nice couple that raised me until I was ten years old, and then they had a kid of their own and sent me back. I was then taken in by my current foster family that is now facing criminal charges. This couple didn't want kids, but they took me in for the money the government would give them that was meant to help take care of me. It was around the first month after they took me in that I met Alexis; she helped me hide from my foster dad one day when he went on one of his drunken rages."
"They abused you?!" asked a shocked Red Alert. Apparently this was a foreign concept to most of the Autobots.
"Yes. I'm guessing this doesn't occur very often among Transformers?"
"It's nearly unheard of, but it does happen," said Optimus. "Please continue."
"Alexis's mother caught on to this and helped me out on many occasions, even going as far as to get the school to help gather evidence against my foster parents. The only reason it took four years to compile the evidence is because my social worker found signs of tampering in the government documents concerning my case."
"Wait, so they're not only facing child abuse charges, but also federal felony charges?" asked Rad.
"Felony?" asked Optimus and the rest of the Autobots looked equally confused.
"Let's just say they're never going to get a job when they get out of jail," said Carlos.
"And they will never be allowed to foster kids again," added Terra. "Since they're being arrested for such charges, I might end up going to another foster home—"
"Actually, she'll end up becoming my adopted sister," said Alexis when she came back in the room.
"Adopted?" Terra asked. "What are you talking about?"
"Your social worker called me to ask if you were okay," said Alexis with a broad smile. "She also told me that you'll be staying with me and my mom from now on. Mom applied to adopt you months ago and now we're waiting for the process to get finalized so she can be your legal guardian. Mom wasn't sure if she'd get approved to adopt you, but in light of what just happed, your social worker said I might get to call you my sister in a few days' time."
"Sister…" Terra's eyes were as wide as dish saucers and before they knew it she had fainted on the spot.