"Is that young man one of yours?" Isaac asked Fanzone.

"Don't think so, but he seems to have a thing for your daughter," Fanzone observed, "All units, bring in the kid in the yellow jacket but don't harm the girl."

Several mini-copters flew into the garage and started firing stun lasers at Bumblebee.

"Hey! I'm on your side!" he insisted.

***************************************************************

Bulkhead launched his wrecking ball again, but this time the monster managed to grab and absorb it; however, it didn't stop at the ball and continued down the cable. Bulkhead was doing all he could to hold onto the handle.

"Guh! Uh, Optimus?! I've got a problem!" Bulkhead announced. Optimus grabbed onto the cable and helped Bulkhead pull.

"Prowl, mind lending a hand?!" Prowl, in response, sliced through the cable sending Bulkhead and Optimus flying backwards. Optimus gave him an annoyed look.

"What? He wouldn't let go," Prowl reminded.

"That's not the point Prowl. We're a team, and we need to act as one. We need to be able to trust each other," Optimus lectured.

"There's only one person I trust: me." Prowl leapt into the air and attacked with amazing speed and ferocity, but he misstepped and was grabbed and absorbed by a tentacle.

*************************************************************

Zap! Another copter-bot went down. But for every one Bumblebee shot, two seemed to take its place. Then, he saw something in the corner of his eye: Prowl had been sucked in by the monster.

"I'd love to stay longer," Bumblebee charged the stingers and fired several bolts at all the remaining droids, "but I've got a friend in need!" Bumblebee gave one last look at Sari and ran off.

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"Ratchet, we need backup!" Optimus announced on the com link.

"I'm busy!" he responded.

"NOW!"

"If you had bothered to scan the thing you're attacking, you'd have learned that its nanites are programmed to attack anything that it doesn't recognize!"

"That's very interesting, but how do we stop it?!"

"I can whip up an override program, but it'll take a short bit. Just hold him a little longer."

"Can do, but hurry it up!" Optimus clicked off the com link.

"'Hurry up?' At my age, this is as 'hurry it up' as it gets..."

***************************************************************

Sari popped out of the door to the roof of the car garage to get a better look at the spectacle below. The fat guy with the wrecking ball wacked at the giant. The axe guy sliced some tentacles. And Bumblebee was ducking, diving, and stinging. She could only marvel at the sheer coolness of what was happening below.

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"Ratchet to Prime, I've finished the override, but unfortunately you're gonna have to upload it manually." The scout drone flew down to Optimus and opened a hatch revealing an upload device shaped like a dagger.

"Anything else we need to know?" Optimus asked.

"It gets worse. The bug seems to have a buncha nanites in its head working like a brain. And it's heavily guarded so the only way to do it is to do it inside the head." As they spoke, the roach grabbed onto a small boat and began to absorb it.

"Uh, Optimus? What happens when that thing eats a whole boat?" Bulkhead worried.

"I don't want to wait long enough to find out," Optimus stated.

"So who we gonna get to put the override in that thing?" Bumblebee asked.

"Well, we'll need someone small, and fast," Optimus looked at Bumblebee. Bulkhead followed his look. Bumblebee glanced at both of them.

"Uh, heh heh," he gave a worried chuckle, "Why's everybody lookin' at me?"

"We'll keep the thing distracted while you activate the override," Optimus told him.

"But why's it got to be me?! How am I supposed to get up there anyway?!"

"You can do it little buddy, with a little speed and a big enough ramp," Bulkhead pointed to the top of the mass garage.

"Ya know? All things considered, fixing warp bridges wasn't too bad a gig," Bumblebee remarked. He activated a set of motorized wheels on the bottom of his heel and zoomed into the mass garage. A tentacle followed behind Bumblebee and tried to grab him but missed.

"Why's it goin' after Beebee?" Bulkhead wondered, "You think it hears us?" Optimus didn't answer and instead activated his axe's telescoping handle to pole vault twenty feet in the air to attack the roach. The roach counter attacked and knocked Optimus back to the ground.

"It's certainly getting smarter," he groaned, "smart like... Prowl." Then he realized something. "Bumblebee abort!"

"I can't! I'm almost there!" he responded. Meanwhile, Bulkhead and Optimus had been grabbed by the roach.

"The thing merged with Prowl's comlink! It's heard everything!" Optimus informed before being sucked in.

"Then listen to this!" Bumblebee burst out of the door to the mass garage's roof and launched himself over the edge. "You're going DOWN!" He flew over Sari's head, twenty feet through the air, and into the thing's mouth.

"Bumblebee!" Sari cried out. The monster returned to wreaking havoc, but then it stopped. It growled, then roared. But the roar wasn't angry, it was painful. The monster jerked and writhed until it suddenly exploded into a cloud of raining dust. Amongst the falling nanites were Bulkhead, Optimus, Bumblebee, and several scientists and police officers. After thirty seconds of recovery the three wake up to the sound of cheers.

"Hey, I was wondering where that went to!" Bulkhead happily picked up his wrecking ball and tied the cord of the ball and handle together. After he was sure there was current, he pressed a button on the handle and the wrecking ball mass shifted to the size of a baseball. He then attached it to his belt.

Meanwhile, Optimus had found Prowl.

"What happened?" Prowl groaned.

"We saved your life, whether you wanted it or not," Optimus told him. Then Prowl went unconscious again. "Prowl?" Optimus said, and then saw the Prowl was bleeding...

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