Alana was crouched down amidst the broken glass; none of it had hurt her which was a lucky break. She stayed crouched for a moment making sure that the danger was gone, after a while she stood up again and peered out of the window. The massive machine was destroying a house next to the school. She narrowed her eyes and tried to get a closer look at it, she was looking for the familiar red flash of the Autobot signet. When she saw nothing of the sort she knew immediately it was not a friendly robot. She did some quick thinking and decided she would do what she knew Optimus would do- and that was get her classmates to safety.

She whipped around and saw a destroyed classroom, the blast had knocked over a few nearby desks and kids were hiding at the end of the class room. All were looking at her wide eyed, Alana regarded them for a moment and then turned her head to look at Miss S. Miss S it seemed had been knocked out from the blast, Alana saw no blood. She knelt down and took a hold of one of Miss S' arms and tried to pull her to the back of the classroom. When she found that Miss S was heavier than she looked Alana sought help.

"David" she called to him softly, "help" she hissed. She tried once again to pull her teacher. When she saw that David wasn't moving to help her she tried again "David" she called again. David looked at her through his dust covered glasses and when Alana gestured towards Miss S he set a determined expression and crawled forward to help Alana.

When Bret and Harry saw what David was doing they too looked determined and also crawled to help their friends Alana and David. Once at the body of Miss S Bret and Alana grabbed an arm while Harry and David pulled at her other. Between the four of them they were able to pull their teacher away from the window to the back of the classroom. Once Alana made sure that their teacher was comfortable, then she crept up to the window again and saw that the bad robot had moved on. She watched it for a long while to make sure that it wasn't coming back and then rushed on over to her backpack.

The Autobots had given her a number she could call for such situations, they had put the number in her agenda along with Sam's, and she planned to call both numbers. Quickly she flipped her agenda open and began flipping to the right page when a hand was put on her shoulder. Gasping she whipped around only to see it was David.

"What are you doing?" David asked, he crouched down next to her.

"Calling for help" Alana told him as she found the right page. She crawled over to the phone and pulled it off the desk into her waiting lap. She pulled the phone of the hook and began to dial the number. It rang once and then was picked up.

"Alana?" Ratchet's voice came through the speaker. He sounded stressed and scared.

"Ratchet" Alana said his name in greeting.

"Thank Primus!" he sounded relived "Alana are you ok?" he asked; the stress was back.

Alana nodded but then remembered that Ratchet couldn't see her "Yup, I'm fine but Miss S…" she trailed off not sure of Miss S' condition.

Ratchet immediately went into doctor mode "Alana, I want you to listen to me very carefully, ok?"

"Ok" Alana took in a deep breath and listened.

"We are all coming, We'll be there soon, Ok" he didn't wait for her to answer "I need you to stay on the phone with me"

"Ok" Alana said.

"Good girl" Ratchet said "Now you're going to have to answer some questions for me. Is anyone other than Miss S hurt?" Ratchet asked.

Alana glanced on over to her classmates "Uh, Lucy's cheeks is bleeding" She said "And… Ricky is bleeding too" she said after a moment.

"Ok, is David there with you?" Ratchet asked.

"Yup" Alana said.

"Good, tell him to get some scissors" Ratchet instructed her.

"Ok" Alana looked up at David "David" He glanced at her when his name was called "Go get scissors" she told him. David nodded and did as he was told. Moments later he came back with the scissors. "Got them" she told Ratchet.

"Good" Ratchet said "Now Alana I want you to cut into the bottom part of your jean leg"

"Why?" Alana asked.

"Your going to bandage Ricky with this" Ratchet said.

"Oh, ok" Alana began to cut into the fabric of her jeans until she figured she had a good amount of fabric off her jean. Then by following instructions she and David were able to bandage Ricky's bleeding arm. Next they moved onto Lucy to whom they cleaned the wound and taped a folded over tissue to.

Ratchet kept the two children busy, busy enough not to notice the screams which were coming from outside, or the dull boom that would resonate when ever something was blown up. The Autobots were close now, driving at high speeds they were almost at the small town. From their position they could already see quite a bit of damage, smoke was coming from one building and another building had lost half of its siding, and the rest… well it seemed as if the rest had never even been there at all. There were faint craters in the earth to signify that a house had once stood there. And then beyond all of the destruction stood the destructor himself. Optimus had recognized him immediately.

"Be advised," he said "Its Shockwave"

"That slagger…" Ironhide growled "If he has hurt Alana I'll tear him to pieces" they had entered the destruction and continued to drive steadily towards Shockwave.

Alana had made sure that Miss S was safe, she had lifted her teachers head onto and elevated surface and had made sure she was breathing alright. But now as the class rumbled again from another after shock from the bad robot did she then begin to feel the first pangs of real fear. The fear she had felt before was like when one had watched a scary movie and was just experiencing the after shock. But now Alana felt true gut wrenching fear as another rumble came again. Knowing it would be her duty to keep an eye out on the robot she shakily crawled over to the window and peered out of it. The robot was making his way towards her again. His massive arm powered gun would flare up rapidly and then shot destroying a house or any other building. Occasionally he would aim at a human but the robot stuck mostly to buildings.

Then Alana saw them, her Autobots. They drove with Optimus leading them, Ironhide flanked his left and Ratchet on his right and Bumblebee drove behind them. And then they were no longer cars. Simultaneously all of them began to transform, metal shifted and limbs began to appear. Moments later they were the Autobots; they wasted no time with words. Shockwave had endangered Alana and in their opinion he deserved nothing but death.

It was Optimus who landed the first blow, with a solid punch to Shockwave's gut. The mech let out a low groaning sound and retaliated with a swinging punch of his own. Optimus didn't have enough time to react and was hit on the side of the head, as he stumbled away it was Ironhide who took his place. He landed two shots in on the shoulders and swung a punch before Shockwave could recover from the shots. Reeling back Shockwave managed to point his gun in the direction of Ironhide, and he mentally pulled the trigger.

Alana tightened her grip on the broken window sill, some of the remaining glass cut into her palms but she didn't notice. She heard a shot go off and let out a shriek when she saw Ironhide fall back.

"Ironhide!" she shouted, fear fogging her brain she leaned on her hand and the broken glass cut in even more. It was like slow motion watching Ironhide fall onto his backside, flames leaping from his chest. She watched his body hit the ground hard and lay still. "Ironhide!" She screamed again. Back in the classroom the students watched her with frightened expressions. Who was Ironhide? David's curiously got the better of him and he crawled next to Alana and peeked out of the window. He saw a large black robot laying on the ground, his gaze then shifted to the other robots who were standing, he saw a large red and blue robot bring out a glowing sword out of his hand and slice it through the other robots arms. A yellow bot then shot him with a hand gun while another yellow robot crept up from behind the purple robot and sliced him with a whirring saw.

"Woah…" he breathed.

"Ironhide!" Alana yelled "Get up!" she yelled. When Ironhide did not comply Alana let fear cloud her brain and did something incredibly stupid. She began to hoist herself over the window and was halfway out when David grabbed her.

"Alana!" he hissed "What are you doing?"

Alana pointed to the black robot "Ironhide" she said weakly, tears were running down her face.

"Stay here!" David told her "It's dangerous"

"No…" Alana moaned she shook her head franticly.

"Stay" David said trying his best to keep a hold on her wrist.

"No!" Alana shouted, she pulled violently out of his grasp and threw herself from the window. She landed in a heap on the ground and shakily got to her feet.

"Alana!" David shouted "Come back!" Alana ignored him and began to run towards Ironhide.

Her small legs carried her far and soon she was near his head, "Ironhide!" she shouted "Get up!" she cried. She put her bloody hands on one of his shoulders and pushed. "Get up!" she wailed.

Shockwave was injured to a point where he was starting to conclude that he might have to run away. With half an arm missing and many important wires cut he was just about to turn and run away when he heard a shout.

"Ironhide!" It was a small human child's voice. Dodging another blow from Ratchet he swung a punch at Optimus and slowly made his way to the black robot which was down. He saw the small girl crying and trying to revive Ironhide. He saw in the act of bending down and grabbing her when Ironhide's hand shot up and grabbed his arm.

"I don't think so" he growled. As he held onto Shockwave, a cannon came out of his arm, it was aimed directly at his spark. Shockwave attempted to pull away but Ironhide had a good grip, and it seemed he wasn't going to let go.

At the same instant that Ironhide fired into point blank range, Optimus stabbed Shockwave through the back. The Purple robots single eye widened into what looked like a shocked look and then his optic flickered and dulled and he collapsed to the ground.

Ironhide shook his head and groaned "I am getting to old for this" he muttered.

"You ok, Ironhide?" Optimus quickly kicked the Decepticon's remains away.

"Sure" Ironhide said as he sat up.

"Ironhide!" Alana called his name as he looked down she hastily hid her hands behind her back.

"Alana…" he gently picked her up around the middle and set her down in his open hand.

Ratchet leaned down and peered at the small girl in Ironhide's hand "are you ok?" he asked.

Alana nodded "Yup" she told him.

"Good." Optimus stood up and regarded Bumblebee "Bumblebee, I think you should pick up Sam"

"Yes sir!" Bumblebee turned around, transformed and drove off.

Optimus turned to Ratchet "Help Ironhide get back to the base and take care of him there. After he is tended to you may take care of our lesser wounds."

Ratchet nodded "What about you sir?" he asked.

"I'm going to bring this piece of scrap back to the base and we are going to try and get some information out of it." he said.

Alana frowned and looked around "Where is Fireflight?" she asked.

Optimus glanced up at the sky "He is making sure that there are no more Decepticon's"

"Oooh, ok!" Alana nodded as she was taken out of Ironhide's hand and put on Ratchet's shoulder. Ratchet then bent down and began to help Ironhide up.

"We should hurry" he said "We don't want any more humans to notice us" Alana looked around and finally noticed people running for the hills.

"What are they running from?" she asked as Ironhide got up, he let out a low groan and then turned his head slightly to see a group of humans heading down a pasture.

"Us" he replied simply.

"Why?" Alana asked.

Ratchet and Ironhide began to walk, "Because they think we are scary" Ratchet told her as they passed a mangled lamp post.

Alana frowned "Your not scary" she said.

Ironhide chuckled as they exited the town premises "your one of the few who thinks we aren't scary" he said.

"But your not!" Alana protested.

They reached the base a while later, Ironhide was led to the med-lab where he was forced to lay down and be inspected by Ratchet. Alana stayed on his shoulder as the medic leaned over Ironhide. Half an hour later, after Ratchet had tinkered and fixed he deemed Ironhide ready. He stood up straight after a moment and helped Ironhide back up.

"Thanks" Ironhide said looking gratefully toward Ratchet.

"It's my job bucket head" Ratchet gave him a shove "now get off my table" he made a motion to give him another shove when he noticed a liquid on Ironhide's shoulder. He quickly scanned it and found it to be blood. He paused and then plucked Alana off his shoulder. "You told me you were ok" he said.

Alana averted her eyes away from his optics and mumbled "I am"

"What's the matter with Alana?" Ironhide had gotten off the table and was staring at her with a worried look "what happened?" Ironhide wasn't sure if he could take it if Alana was injured, he had already been through quite a scare toady and didn't need another one.

"You're bleeding" Ratchet told her "Your blood's on Ironhide's shoulder" Ironhide stared at his shoulder in surprise and Alana began to shuffle her feet in his hand.

"It's a small cut" she told him.

"Show me your hands Alana" Ratchet brought her closer to his face.

"But-"

"Alana show me your hands" Ratchet said it more forcefully this time and the small girl felt she had no choice but to show her bloody hands. "Jeez Alana" Ratchet set the small girl down and activated his holoform, with his big hands he took her wrists and gently forced her to show her hands. His head snapped up towards Ironhide, "Get me a wet cloth" he all but snapped.

Ironhide stared at him for a moments and then rushed off to get the requested item.

As they waited Alana had a question "Ratchet, what's gonna happen to the town?"

"Optimus has some friends coming over to help clean up and cover up" Ratchet said as he scanned once of her hands- she was going to need a lot of bandages.

"Friends?"

"Yup"

"Who?"

"A man by the name of Captain Lennox"

"Oh… I see" Alana paused "is he nice?"

"I believe so" Ratchet said "He had a daughter, a few years older than you I think" Ironhide returned with the wet cloth and Alana's question's ceased as Ratchet pressed the cool cloth to her bloody hands.

"No!" Alana tried to wrench her hands away "Hurts!"

"Alana…" Ratchet tried once again to press the cloth to her hand but she scrambled away from him.

"No!" she cried again, tears flowed down her face.

"Alana, I need to clean the wound" Ratchet tried to move towards the girl but she curled up in a small ball trying to protect her hands from him. Ratchet sighed "Sweetheart…"

"No!" she wailed.

Ratchet glanced up at Ironhide "A little help…" he said. Ironhide nodded and activated his holoform as well. He walked on over to the small girl and picked her up, with one hand he held up her knees and with the other he support her back. She bowed her head and clenched her hands into little fists.

"Alana, you wont get better any other way" he tried to reason with her.

"Then I wont get better" she said stubbornly.

"Aww Alana" Ironhide began to rock her and Ratchet brushed away some hair that had fallen across her cheek.

"No" she said again.

"Alana, I'm going to hold you, ok? And Ratchet is going to clean your cuts" Ironhide told her. He was already setting himself on the cool surface of the table. He positioned Alana in between his legs and pressed her back against his chest, then he wrapped his strong arms around her hand gently forced her to extend her arms so that Ratchet could tend to them. Ratchet crouched in front of her and gently pressed the cloth against her hands. Alana hissed in pain and tried to recoil but Ironhide held her firmly. "It's almost over sweetheart" he said as Alana pushed herself against his chest trying to get away from the paining effects of the cloth. A few minutes later the cleaning was done, Alana relaxed in Ironhide's hold as Ratchet's holoform disappeared and he went off to find Band-Aids.

Ironhide was content to hold his little girl for the moment, she leaned back against him and Ironhide tightened his grip on her. They sat in a content silence until Ratchet came back. As he was bandaging her hands Bumblebee came in carrying Sam, he was sporting a large cut on his forehead and one of his arms looked really twisted.

"Ratchet!" Bumblebee placed Sam on the table gently "fix him!" he glanced down at his charge and his blue optics dimming. Ratchet gave Ironhide the bandages and told him to finish it while he took a look at Sam.

The cut Ratchet knew he could fix easily, it was the same with the arm, he knew what to do and he began to do it. First he scanned Sam's arm and figured out how he would set the break.

"Your lucky" Ratchet said as he took Sam's arm into his strong hands "The bone didn't shatter"

Sam looked down at his arm with gritted teeth "Lucky me." Ratchet gave Sam no warning when he began to set the bone. "HOLY-" Alana's ears were covered as Sam exploded into a steady stream of curses. A few minutes later Sam had his cast setting, he seemed a lot better but he still looked pale. With some effort he turned in his seated position to look on over at Alana who was also sitting. Ironhide's holoform had disappeared and he leaned on the table behind her. "So Alana…." Sam said.

"So…" Alana tilted her head.

"How close were you to the battle?" Sam asked.

"She ran right into it" Ratchet said with a grumpy look.

"You did!" Sam raised his eyebrows and gave Alana a look of awe "Well she's brave" he said.

"No she's-" Ironhide was interrupted by Alana

"How did you break your arm?" Alana asked trying to change the subject.

"Oh the roof of the store that I work at collapsed and caught my arm under it" Sam told her "Hurts like a Bi- uh… I mean like a broken arm" Sam quickly corrected at Ratchet's warning look.

Suddenly Optimus walked in, he was looking at the ground and talking to some one,

"Here we are" Optimus glanced up and saw everyone looking at him "Everyone I'm sure you remember Captain Lennox"

Alana held up her hand "I don't" she said looking at the man. His dark hair was messed up from lack off attention; he had a night's growth of beard on his face. He wore a heavy vest which was filled with all sorts of survival equipment.

"Ah yes, Lennox this is Alana, Alana this is Captain Lennox"