Even though I'd already seen it once, even though I'd been hoping for this to be real, I still felt an icy rush of adrenaline when the imposing Topkick began to convert into the alien robot. Ironhide. It really, truly was Ironhide!

I think I even squealed when his head came into view. I definitely recall hearing several snickers.

"Getting this on tape?" Lennox murmured to one of his men.

"Yes sir."

When the conversion was done, the mighty robot stretched for a moment and then leaned down so we were eye to eye. No one had made a single aggressive move in the last hour, but Ironhide putting his face in my personal space was a terror like no other. "Hello, Raquel. We meet at last. And in regards to saving your life, my pleasure."

I shakily laughed, and he straightened, looking pleased with himself. I just stared, awestruck.

"I'm told that humans sustain damage in their necks from looking up to me all the time. Perhaps you would be more comfortable up here?" He gestured toward some wooden scaffolding a good fifteen feet off the ground. It was a bad time for me to be afraid of heights, and an even worse time to be in heels. Well, at least I could remedy one thing. I slipped my shoes off and my gaze followed the line of the scaffolding to the stairs, but a large metal hand blocked my way. "May I give you a lift?"

I definitely squealed that time, to another round of snickers.

I waited, expecting him to pick me up King-Kong style, but at my hesitation, he said, "Well, come on, then. Climb aboard." Sitting in his hand, my feet dangling like I was a kid on a swing set, I clung to his thumb for dear life until my feet were parallel with the scaffolding. I'd touched him! He'd held me in the palm of his hand! If it hadn't been for the fifteen-foot fall, I just might have fainted.

Major Lennox reached the top of the scaffolding in the more conventional way and came to stand beside me.

Ironhide stood a little straighter. "So, Raquel. You know why you are here."

I felt vaguely like a child in the Principal's office. "You're shutting down my site."

"No, I'm not."

I eyed him dubiously, and he continued, "You're here because I want to ask you, as a personal favor, to voluntarily take down your site."

I crossed my arms, feeling childishly sullen. It was just so unfair to have Ironhide ask this of me, especially when he put it that way.

"Will you hear my reasons?" he asked, reading my expression.

"Sure," I grudgingly allowed.

"First is the safety of my fangirls."

"Please. Don't be patronizing."

"I'm not," he grunted. "Isn't it bad enough that I have Mission City on my spark?"

"On his conscience," Major Lennox clarified.

"Remember Shanghai?" he continued. "That could have been a real chemical spill. And that woman would have died."

"She took precautions."

"You're missing the point, Raquel. I have my hands full enough in battle. The last thing I need to worry about is having my admirers in the line of fire."

"So we'll be more careful, have tighter rules about obtaining video." Though, admittedly, that would mean far less footage.

"You think that will be enough?" Ironhide put his fists on his hips and harrumphed. He glared at me until I looked away, knowing he was right.

"And then," he continued, "there's the matter of my friend being hit in the headlight by a sledge-hammer."

"That wasn't my fault."

"You are the only ones, short of the US military, to have footage of every single one of our team's vehicle modes. Do you have any idea what kind of security risk that poses? That's how the evil robot's fangirls were able to find my friend, and you have it on display for every crackpot and conspiracy nut to see."

Despite the fact that it was Ironhide I was talking to, I started to get genuinely annoyed. "Do you have any idea how many sites bash you and your sidekicks? There are thousands! I've been to most of them, and none of them even entertain the idea that having you here might actually be a good thing. That's why I started my site! All they see are evil, alien monsters. I'm the only one who's defended you. I'm the only one who allows people to see you for the good guys you really are."

"We don't want people to see us for what we are," Ironhide exclaimed in frustration, his deep voice booming. "That's the whole problem. We choose these vehicle forms to blend in, to be invisible. We have a job to do, femme, and we can't do it if we're being chased by the fangirl paparazzi or are dodging sledgehammers – no matter who's wielding them. This isn't a game."

I pursed my lips, absolutely refusing to cry. "I only wanted justice for you."

Ironhide looked distinctly uncomfortable and glanced at the soldier beside me. "Um...Will, she's...can you...um...do something?"

Major Lennox pulled a clean handkerchief from his pocket and offered it to me. I took it with ill grace and dabbed at the corners of my eyes. Stupid tears.

"Mrs. Gutierrez-Ramon," the man said, "we understand the sentiment behind your website. What Ironhide's trying to say is that you'll do more for our cause by offering your quiet support than by broadcasting to the world where he is, what he looks like, and who he's with."

"Please, Raquel," Ironhide added, more comfortable now that I wasn't tearing up. "Take down your site. For me."

"Dammit," I growled. "You're ruthless."

"Will you?" Ironhide pressed.

I sighed, wavering.

"Voluntarily?" he added.

I looked heavenward, the tears starting up again. I could think of half a dozen ways in which this would never stick in court, if they tried to hold me to it through legal channels. But I knew in my heart that I couldn't deny Ironhide. If I agreed to this, then I agreed to it. "Yes," I grumbled, my heart breaking.

Ironhide all but beamed approval. "Thank you, Raquel."

I shrugged, not trusting my voice.

To the soldiers, Ironhide said, "You can stand down now." Then he extended his hand to me again.

I forced down the tears, determined to enjoy the last few minutes I'd have with him, and climbed into his palm. To my surprise, he didn't set me down, instead slowly walking across the hangar. "You've done me a great personal favor," he said. "Is there a favor you would ask of me in return?"

I looked at him sharply. "You're serious."

He looked at me like I was insulting him. "Of course."

I sat there, tears forgotten, jaw hanging open as I tried to gather my thoughts.

"How about I start by answering the 'Top Ten Questions for the BBB' from your site?"

"You've visited my site?" I breathed.

He grinned. "It's in my favorites."

I brushed away the last of the tears. Somehow, it didn't seem like as big of a sacrifice to take down my site knowing that Ironhide followed it. After all, he'd be losing a favorite, too.

"There's a smile from my fangirl," he said. Then with a sound suspiciously like a sigh, he said, "Let's see. The first one was the shortest. Boxers or Briefs?"

I blushed. "For the record, that was a poll, not my own, personal question."

He waved away my protests (with the other hand instead of the one I was sitting in, thankfully). "Doesn't matter. I'm sure you're curious, too."

I flushed to the ears. Yes, but I wasn't about to admit that to him.

"Had to look that one up," he admitted. "And it took even longer to find the appropriate response."

He waited until I finally blurted out, "Which is?"

Ironhide winked. "I go commando."

Blushing scarlet, I choked back a snigger and Ironhide chuckled. "Seriously, femme, did you fangirls pay any attention? We don't wear clothes."

"There was speculation about the armor…" I managed to mumble.

"I know. I read the thread. Load of slag."

I happily sighed again, realizing he'd been a part of my life all this time and I didn't know it. "Wait! Do you have a user account?"

"No, I wasn't allowed. But I visit the site several times a day. So…next question. 'Have you ever been bi-curious and is that even possible for a robot?' Who thought up this question anyway?" he grumbled.

"I believe it was BBBFanboy," I muttered, desperately trying to remember how many of the sexual questions were in the top ten. This could turn out to be a humiliating evening. "We were wondering since one of the motorcycles was blue."

Ironhide harrumphed. "Well to answer the question, we have no sexes, though we do have gender identities, and I'm a straight shooter."

The blush that had been fading burned on my cheeks again. I wondered if the pun was intentional or not and decided that after the 'commando' crack, it probably was. Gah, what a mental image!

"The answers to the third and fourth questions are related. 'How does a girl get into the Trio?' The Trio is actually one robot. When she converts, as you call it, the three bikes combine."

WOW! In all the dozens of threads devoted to the BBB's love life, it had never occurred to any of us that The Trio wasn't three individuals.

"As for 'Are you available, and if so, what do you look for in a girl?' I already have a femme, and she won my spark by scoring more kills than me in two consecutive battles and tying with me on the third."

"Is she the Trio?" I asked.

"No, the Trio is my sister-in-law, in human terms. And for the record, my mate is blue."

My mate. It sounded so…so primal. I found myself blushing again.

"Let's see…Question number five. 'Have you ever met Klingons/Jedis/Timelords/God?' No to all of the above, but we have a creator-god named Primus, and I hope it's a good, long time before I meet him."

I had to concur.

"The sixth question was, 'What is your favorite kill move?' In Mortal Kombat, it's Brutality, but in real life…" he lifted the arm opposite me and spun an enormous, ominous cannon. "…double cannon-blast to the spark."

I shakily laughed. Only once had one of us fangirls caught footage of those cannons in action, and it's not something you forget. Seeing that empty black barrel – even if it wasn't pointed at me – was enough to give me an adrenaline rush of fear.

"Seventh question: 'What's your sign?' Time doesn't translate well from my planet to yours. If you go by when we arrived on Earth, I'm an Aquarius, but in terms of personality, I'm definitely an Aries."

"I'm getting that vibe."

He chuckled. "I thought you were grateful I was a gung-ho, hardened warrior."

"I was. I mean, I am. But…"

Leaning in a little closer, he turned his bright blue eyes on me. "Yes?"

"Well, to be perfectly honest, you're rather intimidating."

He threw he head back and roared with laughter. "Good! I'd hate to disappoint you. Now where were we? Ah yes, question eight. 'You vs. Schwarzenegger for governor – who would win?" He harrumphed. "Me, hands down. Oh, wait. You have a democracy – never mind. I'd call it a draw."

I chuckled. He'd obviously rehearsed some of these, but at least in this case, the sentiment was genuine. "Yeah, not the most efficient way to run things, but history teaches us that scatterbrained governments tend to treat its citizens more justly than highly-efficient ones."

Ironhide cocked his head. "An interesting theory. I wonder what my leader would think of that."

"You have a leader?"

He rumbled a chuckle. "Yes. I'll tease him until he offlines about your mistake, though. He's Flaming Semi."

I colored again. "Yeah, there was a subversive movement on the message boards arguing that he was the real leader of your group. What about Search and Rescue? Does he rank higher or lower?"

"Neither, really. He's our medic. We don't go in for much of a hierarchy. We follow Flaming Semi because we want to. If he chooses a lieutenant and we trust Flaming Semi's judgment, then we follow the lieutenant, too. So…on to question number nine. 'What's your guilty pleasure?'" He eyed me closely and his voice dropped to a whisper. "Are you sure you want the answer to this one? Because if I tell you, and my enemies get their hands on you, you'll have to die before you divulge it."

I swallowed once and then tried to calculate the chances of his enemies ever bothering with an insignificant nobody like me. "I'm a lawyer," I said with surety. "I know all about confidentiality."

"Fine. But this is just between us. You never breathe a word about it. You carry it to your grave. Understand?"

Wide-eyed, I nodded.

"There's a two-year-old girl I enjoy babysitting."

"That's it?" I blurted out. "Just…babysitting?"

He glanced over his shoulder at the men congregated on the other side of the hangar, talking in a loose circle. "Not so loud. And it's not just babysitting. We make cookies and play dress-up and I blow bubbles for her. If my enemies found out, it would be humiliating. I'd have to single-handedly wipe out an entire squadron to ever have any respect again."

I shook with fits of silent giggles, trying to imagine how a twenty-foot-tall warrior robot made cookies with a two-year-old. And the mental image of him blowing bubbles…. "You are so full of it. But that's okay. You probably aren't allowed to tell me your real guilty pleasure. Please go on."

He shook his head and then sighed. "And last but not least. If you could change one thing about Mission City, what would it be?" Genuine sadness crept into his voice. "I actually have three answers to this one. One of my best friends died in that battle, so my knee-jerk answer would be that he lived. But then there were so many humans who died that day."

"A hundred and twelve," I said softly. "And another two hundred and forty-three injured."

He nodded. "So when I had a chance to think about it, I would change that, and spare their lives instead of Jazz's."

He was serious. If he could have changed one thing, it would have been to save us aliens instead of his own friend. I realized my jaw was hanging open, and I closed it. "And your third answer?"

"That it never happened. Our arch-enemy died that day, but so did any hope for rebuilding our home world. And our enemies continue to hunt us, so the war we thought was over isn't. In some ways, it would have been better to keep fighting if it meant we still had hope."

Sadness swelled in my chest at the way he said it. He wasn't despairing or hopeless, really. Just…stoic.

"So," he continued almost brusquely, his voice rising to its previous volume. "I've answered your Top Ten Questions. Is there anything else you'd like from me?"

I blushed to the ears. "Um…"

"Oh, come on, Raquel. I know there must be at least one more thing you want."

The military men looked over at us, and Lennox started ambling our way, grinning.

"…well…"

"You can ask me anything."

"Anything?"

He nodded.

Ducking my head, I said, "Can I give you a kiss?"

Ironhide sputtered in surprise. "A kiss?"

Lennox, who was close enough to overhear us, burst out laughing.

My cheeks were burning, but I sullenly groused, "You did say anything."

Through his chortling, the human explained, "He was hoping you'd ask for a demonstration of his cannons."

OH! I remembered then a post I'd made after HotFS had caught the footage of his massive weaponry. I'd said that before I died, I wanted to see his cannons in action for myself. "But we're inside."

"Hasn't stopped him before," Lennox grumbled. In a louder voice, he added, "You did ask for it, 'Hide."

"You can have a kiss, too, I suppose," the robot muttered, lifting me closer to his face. Feeling more than half-crazy, I unsteadily climbed to my feet, keeping a hand on the top of his thumb for balance. He held me up to what passed for his cheek – a large, round plate with an alien glyph on it. The height was dizzying, but in the back of my mind, I wondered what the glyph meant. I stored it away in my photographic memory so I could research it later. I wouldn't be surprised if the translation was somewhere out there on the internet. And then his massive face was close enough to touch. Leaning over as far as I could, I kissed the warm, smooth metal.

WOW! Sliding back down to sitting, I hugged his thumb and squealed again, kicking my feet in delight. I kissed Ironhide!

Ironhide's deep, rumbling chuckle echoed through the hangar, mingling with the humans' laughter. I guess even kick-ass alien robot warriors can be flattered.

"Now, fangirl, do you want to see my cannons in action or not? Unlike my enemies, it won't be the last thing you see before you die."

I looked up into his brilliant blue eyes, feeling like a kid on Christmas morning. "Really? Inside, though?"

"No, ma'am," Lennox said. "We've just been waiting for dark to use the bombing range."