Margo waited until Optimus was out of the room before turning angrily to Bulkhead. "What the fuck did you do?"

"You're going to have to be a bit more specific. There're a lot of things-"

"I'm talking about this," Margo said, typing a few things into the monitor so a news article popped up, "OBVIOUSLY!"

Second coming? Jesus shows up, steals shoes, lectures, and leaves

"Nothing to do with me," Bulkhead said. "Maybe your deity really did steal someone's shoes and leave."

Margo's finger hit the video.

"Everything I have comes from Jesus! Even my shoes came from Jesus!"

Bulkhead's holoform suddenly materialized behind the preacher. "Excuse me, Bob, but can I have those shoes back?"

The preacher jumped out of his skin. "Jesus!"

"Yes?"

"Why are you here?"

"Because I need better shoes. My sandals are growing on me," Bulkhead gestured to his feet, where the sandals were in tatters, preactically falling apart.

The preacher got on his knees, untied his laces, and shakingly gave Bulkhead his shoes.

"By the way, you mistranslated the book. Gay people are valid. Paedophiles and their enablers are not, and I will not have them in positions of authority here."

"Of course, my lord."

"And also, change the church rules. Gay people are accepted and that's final, got it?"

"Yes, my lord."

Bulkhead nodded, and directed his holoform to fly out of a nearby opened window.

It stopped.

Margo's eyebrow raised. "I know perfectly well how to recognize voices, Bulkhead."

Bulkhead sighed. "Margo, I fought in a war to stop classism and discrimination with peace against people who wanted to stop classism and discrimination with violence. I don't need to see your world torn apart because of it too."

"I didn't miss Rule One. Abusing power for personal gain? Not allowed."

"Not for personal gain! You're not my charge."

"That's a fallacious argument. We both know you did it because I was upset."

"So what if I did?"

"'So what'? Rome wasn't built in a day! Homophobia is only just starting to recover from a two thousand year-old wound! Yes, this might help things along, but it wasn't your place, and society is changing to accommodate those changes."

"Then Rule One gets bent just this once."

Margo sighed. "That's not the way that works. People are starting to think this is the end of days."

"Let them. They'll figure it out in a while."

"But then that random preacher'll be mad you stole his shoes, and discrimination against LGBT people might get worse if they think this was nothing but a prank to make them think Jesus came down here and started to berate them for no reason. So bad that Jesus came to berate him. Not even Hitler got that fucking treatment! AND HE CAUSED THE FUCKING HOLOCAUST!"

"Then I'll just magically appear again."

"What happened to 'just this once'?"

"Not important."

"Yes, it's fucking important! I'll let it slide just this once, but if Optimus asks, I'm not keeping this from him - especially if it happens again."

Meanwhile, Jack was racing with Arcee against Violet, Vince's equally-terrible girlfriend, and had resolved to make her cry for the fact that she'd ever challenged Jack to a race. If only she had cried. It would have made their victory all the more satisfying.

"Dude!" said an excited Miko the next day. "Vroom-vroom-vroom! And the winner is..."

Jack looked around. "Miko, who told you?"

"Wait, what's going on?" Margo asked.

"You're kidding? It's all over school!"

"I'm suspended," she deadpanned.

"Riiiiiight," Miko dragged out. She pointed her thumb at Jack. "This blowhard got in a fight race with Violet."

"Oh. That bitch? Wasn't she suspended that one year for cutting off Rosa's hair, slapped her, and then tried to sue her for punching her back because she thought her boyfriend was cheating but she was just a paranoid, manipulative bitch? And then the judge threw the case out of court because there was video and there was this huge fallout with her old boyfriend because he was the one who recorded? And then she and her mom had to pay for Rosa's lawyer?"

"The very same," Raf said.

"Bitch. Kinda unsurprising Vince is so bad after being around her and his father so long."

"Yup."

Jack dragged Raf closer so they were all huddled together.

"You guys have to keep this on the DL, especially from Optimus."

Margo pulled away. "I'm not keeping this from him if he asks if you specifically went racing. Or if you do it a second time."

"Got it," Jack agreed.

He did not keep his word. Violet challenged him in front of Jack's crush, and he knew he would look like a wimp if he didn't, so he did.

Margo, however, kept hers, simply because she was in the bathroom taking a dump when Jack asked to borrow Bumblebee.

"Where's Bee?" she asked when she came back.

"Patrol," Bulkhead lied smoothly.

"I thought Optimus was doing that," Margo raised an eyebrow.

"No, he's out for a drive. Help relieve stress."

Margo shrugged, climbed up the ladder, and started reading from where she'd left off.

It was about halfway into Raf and Miko's fifteenth run-through of the racing game when Arcee started visibly looking around, and then turned to the children. "Has anyone seen Jack?"

Raf and Miko didn't answer. She looked up and saw the wincing on their faces.

"Bumblebee took him home before patrol," Bulkhead said nervously.

"They're racing, aren't they?" Arcee asked.

"Just this once," Raf said weakly.

The comm lines burst to life. "Guys, Knockout's here chasing us! I think he's mad I scratched his paint that one time!"

"Bee, do not engage," Arcee said. "Your first priority is keeping Jack safe until I get my hands on him."

Margo sighed and the scraplet curled on her legs shifted in its recharge, whirring and twitching like a puppy. "You guys are all fucking morons."

~?~

It was past one o'clock when Optimus came back from patrol, only to find the lights in the common room in Day Mode rather than Night Mode, and the children still here rather than at home.

In the back of his mind, he expected to find Margo here. She preferred being driven by her guardian rather than anyone else, and everyone else was still rather jittery around the scraplets. Miko and Raf? No, they were perfectly amenable to being driven around by bots other than their guardians. Bulkhead and Bumblebee usually stayed around to take them home. Wheeljack was asleep in his room, and Ratchet was off repairing some broken tool, but he hadn't seen any sign of the youngest three.

"Raf, Miko, Margo," Optimus called. "Do any of you know where the others have gone?"

Margo knew he'd gone out racing again. So fuck it, she was staying true to her word. "Jack's off racing with a bitch to win a girl so they can have naked fun time."

Raf yelped and Miko blushed to her roots.

Optimus blinked and his optics narrowed. "That would explain the disappearance of one of the autobots, but Arcee, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee are all gone. Why the other two?"

"Because they were being chased by a decepticon who doesn't like having his paint scratched, and Arcee's the mom friend," Margo said.

Optimus looked up their coordinates on the monitor. Bulkhead and Bumblebee's signals were next to a decepticon bio-signature Bulkhead kept identifying as 'Breakdown', and Arcee was following the decepticon Knockout. His digits flew, inputting the coordinates to assist Arcee as she was the only one alone and Breakdown appeared to be immobile.

Margo yawned and leaned further into her chair. "I don't have enough caffeine for this shit."

"Dude!" Miko kicked Margo's leg. "Why'd you tell him?"

"He's a coding expert and he's been their leader for centuries, Miko. He would have found out anyways. Better now than later, when they're balls-deep in trouble and Optimus can't do anything to help," Margo groaned. "Now shut the fuck up. I'm fucking tired."

She curled up, slumped against the chair, and cuddled up with her scraplet. She was asleep before Optimus got back, three minutes later, with a sheepish Bulkhead, and an Arcee who seemed to want to hide behind the gigantic Bulkhead.

Optimus picked up Margo, and transformed, leaving her in his front seat. His soft monotone voice didn't reach further than her sluggish brain processing the fact that the voice belonged to Optimus, and she didn't wake up since it wasn't loud. She was so asleep, she barely registered being picked up by Optimus's holoform and being carried inside through her window.

She did, however, notice when her host father started screaming the next morning for school time.

"I don't have school, fuckwit! I'm suspended, remember?"

"Oh, right. Fuck, I forgot."

She huffed and fell back asleep, pulling her blanket over her head to block out sound and light.

"Breakfast, then, ya little fucker!"

"No! Fuck off!"