This was my lame contribution to the Flesh and Steel Natural Disasters Challenge. I just needed an excuse to write something with a tornado in it. Haha. It doth suck. Thanks to Sister_dear for pointing out my shitty POVs. I fixed what I could. LOL

Notes2: I don't' know Wheelie all that good, so please, ignore any OOCness. I storm chase as a hobby but I don't know shit about em, I just think they're pretty, so some facts are probably skewed. And I don't do beta's, so there's probably a lot of mistakes and crappy descriptions and such. Just go with it. LOL.

The Finger of God

pairing: Wheelie/Mikaela

challenge: Put a human and a mech in a situation where they have to survive or just tolerate some sort of natural disaster

"Faster! Go faster!"

"I'm trying!"

"Try harder."

Mikaela glared at her road companion, unconsciously reaching for a blowtorch that wasn't there. He gave her a look that was so victoriously smug that she was tempted to roll down the window and shove his little blue metal ass out onto the pavement and let Barricade have his way with him.

And oh, did that ever sound wrong.

Wheelie saw unvocalized threat in her features, and slumped in the seat. Satisfied, Mikaela went back to paying attention to the road and the flashing red and blue lights of their pursuer.

The Fucker had not let up in fifty miles, trailing casually behind them like he wasn't stalking them, and it didn't seem he'd be giving up anytime soon. Neither of them were sure what the hell he was doing. Barricade could have easily caught up to them anytime in the past hour or so, but he hadn't.

But he wasn't just following them either. Wheelie was sure this was vengeance for his going traitor, and Barricade's actions were mere terror tactics, just enough to scare them good before he went in for the kill.

"It's his way." Wheelie'd said, and Mikaela, though still not completely trusting the little Ex-Decepticon, believed him.

And to make matters worse, they were driving into one big scary fuck of a thunderstorm, and Mikaela didn't think Wheelie understood how dangerous this could be. Sure she was a Nevada girl, but she knew enough about the country, had family out here two states over, who told her about some of their nastier weather as a shock story during Christmas. Really, it was one of the reasons she came out here, not only to visit her vacationing family, but in the hope of witnessing some of the things her family had told her about. Microbursts, hailstorms, tornados... well, she hadn't seen a tornado yet, but right now, at this moment, the last thing she wanted to deal with is getting bashed by grapefruit sized hail and getting blown off the road. She just wanted to get the fuck away from Barricade and his big scary flail. Sightseeing was so not a priority.

So she kept driving and the little blue mech kept on her ass about it. The more angry she was the better she drove, so it was a good deal, though she didn't feel much appreciation for it at the time.

And then the rain got worse.

First, the big plops, fat rain, then steadily more windblown, almost horizontal, the kind that would almost feel like sand if she was outside, it was blowing so hard. She looked up out the sunroof and almost gaped at the churning black clouds.

"Ooooh!" came from Wheelie as he did the same, one little hand on Mikaela's thigh, supposedly for balance.

She didn't shake him off this time, too fascinated with the storm and scared from the chase to bother correcting the little mech. Ever since he humped her leg at the Smithsonian, he'd taken every chance he could get to touch her, and like the proud woman she was, she'd shake him off and give him shit. She'd had enough random groping in high school to last her a lifetime.

Instead, she slammed the pedal and sped up, sending him stumbling back into the seat and bounced off to the floor in a flurry of cuss words. She resisted the smile tugging at her lips and kept on going, checking the rear view mirror every five seconds or so. Barricade had been slowly catching up, then backing off so they nearly couldn't see him, then speeding up again, taking his time, playing with them. Now he was closer, and Mikaela couldn't go any faster without hydroplaning.

They were boned.

With a smart ass blip of his siren, Barricade put on a sudden burst of speed and tapped Mikaela's back bumper. Wheelie squealed, but the jolt only urged Mikaela to squeeze another couple mph out of her piece of shit car. "Fuck!"

The second hit was a little harder, and the back bumper rattled in place. Mikaela was starting to panic.

"Human."

Barricade hit them a third time, nearly causing Mikaela's head to bounce off the steering wheel, back tires skidding, bumper coming loose enough to start dragging on the pavement behind them. She corrected quickly and growled at everything.

"Femme."

The cop car fell back a little bit, and Mikaela prepared herself.

"MIKAELA!"

"WHAT?!"

If her eyes could shoot flames, Wheelie would be a pile of ashes on the seat, and he knew it. But his curiosity always got him in trouble, and that... swirling dust thing in the field was way too interesting to ignore.

"What is that?"

Mikaela followed his pointed finger and frowned.

Off to the left, in a field maybe three quarters of a mile away, was a huge dust cloud, black, and as she looked further up... oh... oh fucking shitting hell. So THAT'S what a tornado looks like. And it was a strong one if one could tell by how quickly that tool shed was destroyed and that tree was torn out of the ground.

Barricade took advantage of Mikaela's distraction and rammed them one final time, with enough strength to crumple the trunk. This time her head DID bounce off the steering wheel, then slammed hard against the driver's side window as the car skidded out completely. The heavy rain didn't help at all, tires slipping uselessly over the puddles as Mikaela and Wheelie screamed and spun.

The car skidded sideways to the edge of the road and flipped when rubber hit dirt, the car rolling onto the side, the roof, and came to a creaking rest on Mikaela's side, sending Wheelie flying down on top of Mikaela in a heap of twisted limbs. Neither of them could tell if the growling was from their struggling coughing engine, a victorious Barricade, or the blackened twister steadily ripping up the field towards them.

Mikaela's head spun, and took a moment to get her vision straight before groping half blind for her seat belt. Wheelie made himself useful despite feeling like slag himself, unclasped it for her, and began the climb up the seat and out of the shattered side window. Mikaela followed, dizzy, through the window and fell out of the car onto the dried grass and dirt. Wheelie skittered up next to her, shaking his head as if to clear it, jittering and bitching. Already debris flew at ungodly speeds around them, chunks of grass, wheat, and wooden boards presumably from a shredded barn or farmhouse.

Mikaela kept close to the ground, looking for their opponent on the road, waiting for his transformation and unfurling of his flail, at the same time trying to keep an eye on the tornado, which had already grown in size and volume, roaring in her ears and less than a half mile away. The heavily damaged car, their only shield from both Barricade and the growing vortex, began to rock and slide, threatening to roll over on top of them. She wasn't ready to abandon it yet, not until she could figure some shit out.

Her eyes finally fell on Barricade who, after having successfully rammed them off the road, turned himself around and transformed. He looked over a shoulder at the tornado, showing little concern, shrugged, and stalked down the embankment toward the crashed car and his two dizzy victims.

Wheelie screamed, tugging at his human companion's shorts, wincing at the mud and wet grass sticking to her limbs and hair, and the small trickle of blood from a cut on her forehead, and internally regretting his decision to abandon the Decepticons. He considered pleading with Barricade to take him back if only to save his Goddess's life.

He didn't have the chance to... Mikaela was no helpless maiden, and before he could take a step towards Barricade to start begging, she scrambled to her feet, grabbed him, and dashed away through the long grass. Wheelie felt Barricade's battle roar over the growling wind and tucked his head into Mikaela's shirt, proud of her spunk but dreading her inevitable death. Barricade would catch them in seconds, there was no hope.

CRUNCH

Mikaela looked over her shoulder at the sound of metal crumpling, and saw...'Is that a Jet-Ski?'...something good sized and metaltake out Barricade's legs, sweeping them out from underneath him, making him fall ungraciously to the dirt and grass. Wheelie's came out from hiding as his Goddess kept running, targeting a decrepit barn not too far away, and watched the shock trooper get dragged across the prairie, beaten by tree stumps, power poles, and whatever else happened to be flying around. He was amazed that his human even kept on her feet!

Barricade yowled as the tornado finally got the best of him, pulling him hard enough that he left claw marks in the dirt as it picked him completely off the ground and flung him away like he was no heavier than a tricycle. Wheelie lost sight of him after that, so he concentrated on urging his woman to run faster, harder, and get them to safety.

"DUCK!" He cried, and Mikaela obeyed out of instinct, narrowly avoiding disembowelment via flying rototiller, hitting the ground hard, then up on her feet almost instantly afterward, running faster as the barn got ever closer.

Outrunning a tornado was impossible, but Mikaela and her long (and fabulous, in Wheelie's not so humble opinion) legs were doing a damned fine job of it, and in what seemed like seconds she was pulling at the giant red doors, falling inside, and kicking them shut, just in time for a tree to scrape past just outside. A second later and she would have been plantfood.

The barrier between them and the tornado did nothing to dull the roar of destruction just outside, and they had mere seconds to find someplace to hunker down and pray. Wheelie watched the walls of the barn vibrate, already some boards coming loose and shaking in place under the force of the wind, which had surpassed 140 miles per hour by his measurements, and doubted there was any place to hide in here that would do them any good besides letting them live another three seconds. The thing looked ready to fall apart WITHOUT the whirlwind's help, rotting, full of straw, bird shit and a rickety loft, and rattling farm implements, pitchforks and the like, mounted on the wall. No way in the Pit did he want his woman in here when those things decided to take flight.

He dropped to the ground out of her grip and looked around just as frantically as she did, time running out quickly as the doors of the barn rumbled in place and the dusty single-pane windows bent inwards like liquid. To Mikaela it looked like a giant invisible fist pushing the glass in like it was nothing more than Saran Wrap.

"Aww fuck." They both muttered, then glanced at each other and grinned.

Her ears popped and the windows suddenly shattered under the pressure, shards flying at high speeds right toward her. She hit the floor almost immediately as the glass and wood flew, screaming when something embedded itself into her arm.

Wheelie zipped over as quickly as he could so he could check the wound, trying to keep on his feet as the wind swept through the barn, already knocking chunks of wood off the walls and sending those dangerous hand held tools to the ground. So ignorant of his surroundings and in his panic he tripped over something small and curved sticking out of the wood, landing in an undignified heap.

"Here!" Mikaela reached over and hooked an arm around him as he flailed, swept dirt and straw out of the way, and found a hatch. A storm-cellar! He'd tripped over the door handle!

It took her seconds to pull it open and drop down, not wary of the dark at all, hoping that she didn't land on anything pointy, taking Wheelie with her, clutched close. It wasn't too far a drop and she reached up on her toes and yanked thee door shut, then latched it as best she could in the dark. The cellar door was flimsy, the lock and hinges were rusty, she could even see daylight through the cracks and seams, but it was sure as shit better than being upstairs in her opinion.

Wheelie attached himself to her hip, shaking. "What now?"

It was darker than hell despite the light from the cracks, but Wheelie's optics did a relatively decent job of lighting up the place, not so much she could see everything but enough to see outlines of a shelf with some glass jars, a stool, and not much else but dirt and rotted wood.

All she could hear now was the howling wind and the scream of wood yanked from nails and cracking impact of heavy hard things smashing into and through the walls of the barn above. She could barely hear herself think, let alone the tiny whines and chitters coming from Wheelie or her own gasps and whimpers.

She sunk to the floor and scooted backwards until she found something solid, and curled herself into a ball, cold and wide-eyed and afraid, shaking as Wheelie climbed back up her legs, surprisingly calm, and wrapped his tiny arms around her head.

She let out another whimper when she heard the barn finally groan and collapse under the storm, the impact of the beams loud enough to leave her ears ringing and scared that their little hideout would splinter and drop onto them both. She covered her ears and squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable weight.

Wheelie tentatively touched her arm, and she reacted immediately, hooking that arm around him, curled herself around him silently, and waited. Shocked at her, but happy to be tucked into her warmth, he sent out a little humming vibration, hoping to keep her calm. She curled tighter around him and just sat there listening to the chaos above.

It was the miniature Cybertronian's turn to cringe as he heard something heavy and metallic scrape and drag heavily across the floor above, stop, then BANG down again right above them, cracking the flimsy wooden door in half, showing the faded and rusty yellow paint of a small tractor. His Goddess screamed as more and more things were either swept away or got caught on the tractor, putting an unbearable amount of weight on their cellar until the door completely disappeared and the tractor creaked, tipped and fell into their space, landing only three feet above the floor, hanging precariously there within arms reach.

Mikaela felt the ground shake and she took the brunt of the wind as the twister swept through and destroyed everything in it's path. Grass, dirt, and wood piled in on them and was picked up and swept away again, the small human trying to find anything to hang on to as her body is slowly lifted off the ground and pelted with gravel and grass and small bits of wood, the mech attached to her trying his best to shelter her but doing absolutely no good as he gripped her belt loops and hung on tight.

It seemed like hours, but the worst of it was over in seconds. The wind died down quickly enough to drop Mikaela hard to the ground, where she landed on her stomach and didn't move, quickly covered from head to toe in wet grass and more dirt, and pinned down by a twisted bicycle. The tractor had dropped another foot and most of the roof of the barn had crumbled and filled up what remained of the cellar door. Wheelie himself had been peppered with rocks and wood and wasn't exactly feeling that great himself, so once he knew his human was just unconscious and not dead and well out of immediate danger of getting sucked out of their cellar, he fell unconscious next to her.

Mikaela coughed dirt and sand and wetness as soon as she woke up, struggling to breathe right, limbs heavy and exhausted and somewhat sore. She spit out what came up, internally wincing at it's blackness. 'Fuck, I must have breathed in nothing but dirt to be coughing out that much,' she thought, and her throat felt as if it'd been sandblasted. She groaned at the ache in her lungs and legs and head, dizzy, disoriented, wondering what the fuck just happened. She felt worse than she did after Mission City, after Egypt, thoroughly beaten up and dirty and tired.

The mini-mystery was quickly solved as she realized she was sitting up... no, more like propped up, against a wet wall, long legs rested up on the wreckage of... a tractor? Oh yeah, the tornado.

I just can't get a break, can I? She thought humourlessly.

She moaned when she tried to move her arm, desperate to get to her feet, get moving, investigate...

"Don't move."

She froze, then looked down at her side, and found her little blue metal friend with a strip of fabric in his hands, glaring at her.

"Wheelie?"

He huffed and placed the fabric against her wound. She hissed at the sensation of course fabric against torn skin, and it was quickly removed.

"Sorry." he said regretfully and placed it back on the wound, the one caused by flying glass upstairs. It wasn't too serious, but he could not have blood on her. It seemed blasphemous to have it mar her skin. He'd already cleaned the wound on her head, the tear on her leg, and a few of the cuts on her arms. He was nearly finished, and had hoped she'd remain unconscious until he was done, but nope, his Warrior was tough, she had to come out of it early.

She understood what he was doing and remained still and silent for the next few minutes as he finished. Mikaela smiled slightly at him, laughing inside her head at his choice of dressing. 'He always wanted to see me with my shirt off', she thought as she saw the label on the strip of cloth he was now using to wipe away the dirt on her thigh, 'now's his chance!' She didn't even care that she was sitting in a dark hole with an ex-Decepticon in nothing but her bra and a torn pair of jean shorts. Though she was definitely curious how he got her shirt off in the first place.

Wheelie caught the smile and paused, tilting his head inquisitively at his woman, but on receiving no explanation, got back to cleaning her up. She'd be alright. Beaten up, would be sore for a few days, but alright. He'd never felt such relief. And he never had a doubt of how strong she was.

"How long was I out?" she groaned. Painful to talk.

Wheelie looked up at her, face practically glowing with the dusk-tinged light. "Half an hour."

She hums. "You okay?"

Wheelie felt his spark burn just a little at the sound of concern in her voice, then let it slide. Priorities. "Besides scuffed paint and a twisted wire or two, fine."

She hummed again, contented. "Thank you."

Wheelie nearly fainted from shock.

She thanks me? NOBODY thanks me!

He looked up at her in amazement, hand on her thigh (yes, he had to cop a feel or two where he could... when else would he get a chance without getting smacked for it?), and purred. She gave him a fond smile in return, and rested her head back against the wall.

He basked in her apparent concern for a minute before going back to checking her over for more injuries. Humans... so fragile, anything could hurt them. Though he had to make exception for that.... thing. It took Barricade down, it was no wonder it had torn up his Goddess.

A few minutes of silence and rest was apparently all she needed, and soon Wheelie found himself trying to convince her not to try climbing out of the hole they were in, knowing it was much too dangerous, unstable, too much risk of a full collapse, and there was no way he was going to put his woman in danger of being crushed under a tractor after all this! She insisted she could, and would, escape on her own.

He finally fell back on negotiation and logic.. 'Beautiful, but not too bright' was still his idea of her, and though that opinion shifted now and then, his Warrior was stubborn as hell when it came to being caged in any way, and smart decision or not, she would find a way to be free. He just had to find a logical way to present other options to her.

After a few more minutes of agitated arguing and more than a little pleading on Wheelie's behalf, Mikaela slumped, defeated, in the face of his plan.

"Fine."

He disliked the beaten tone in her voice, and wanted it gone, now.

Not sure how to do this without her smacking him one, he winged it, climbing carefully onto her lap and stood as carefully as he could away from any of her open wounds, reached up to her saddened face. His warrior never could stand defeat, or being some 'helpless maiden' as she called it. He had to rectify this.

On contact, Mikaela's blue eyes met his red, and Wheelie lost the power of speech. Everything he'd planned to say to make her feel better went right out the proverbial window at the power in those eyes. He'd been wrong. She wasn't defeated. His Warrior Goddess was NEVER defeated. Just... temporarily restrained, only to be more deadly when finally set loose again. Her eyes reflected pure fire.

Primus, what a turn-on.

He had to get away from her before he did something unforgivable.

Mikaela's confusion far outweighed her hurt pride, so when Wheelie hopped off her and sped up a fallen beam faster than she could say 'exhaust flush', she couldn't say or do a thing to stop him. That look in his optics...

"Wheelie?" She called, hissing when she sat straight, feeling that gross sting of skin being tugged. She checked the wound on her arm, the one that previously held a rather large chunk of busted window glass, and found it neatly stitched up... the hell? 'Christ, he must've used the thread in the shirt... resourceful little bastard.' She didn't want to think about how unclean it was, Ratchet would probably have both their heads for this, but she was grateful for the effort. What a sweet little guy.

He didn't answer her calls, sliding out from under the wreckage as carefully as possible. He was small, he was light, but the wreckage was near collapse and any small movement could bring it all down. His girl was down there alone now, no way would he let anything else happen to her.

'Wow, and I used to be a Decepticon...' Wheelie thought with a bit of amazement, that in such a short time he could convert so completely. He never liked how the Con's treated him, never really liked what they did, and now more than ever, he didn't share their opinion of blanket hate of all species considered 'beneath them'. Humans, he was beginning to believe, were the exception to the rule. Especially his Goddess.

He stared in awe at the utter destruction around him, the prairie swept clean of all obstructions except one high wooden beam of the barn and a ragged tree in the distance. The storm had mostly passed, and in the distance Wheelie could see blue sky.

"Wheelie?"

Right. Back to the task at hand. Freeing his Valkyrie. Yes. Perfect name for her.

As he started to drag some things out of the way, things that were way too big for him, pulling servos and wires out of place with the effort, he heard her underneath him doing what she could to do the same.

"Goddess, do not disturb the wreckage!"

"I know, I know." She growled impatiently, and he smiled.

Underground, Mikaela also smiled when she heard something large being dragged across the floor, accompanied by Wheelie-style cussing and something that sounded like his little foot connecting with solid wood.

After an hour of hard labour and a hell of a lot of cursing in both Cybertronian and English, Wheelie managed to move enough crap out of the way that his Goddess could climb free. And, as usual defying his advice, Mikaela had done her own work from underneath, which he admitted probably helped speed things up. No way could he have moved that beam by himself, strong as he was. They had a couple close calls though, most memorable was when the tractor came loose and almost rolled onto Mikaela. The poor femme had screamed and toppled back, but was uninjured, and the resulting hole in the debris was more beneficial than anything. Really sped things up!

"Alright, lets get the hell out of here." Mikaela called from below, and started her ascent.

Wheelie watched her climb, practically shaking in his armour every time her foot slipped or a splinter penetrated her skin, and when she was finally free on semi-solid ground, he couldn't help but completely glomp her.

Mikaela giggled and hugged the little mech to her. They rested together on the tattered floor for a few moments, neither really feeling like moving much, knowing that they should.

A question occurred to Mikaela as she glanced at her companion's red eyes. "Any sign of Barricade?"

"Dontcha think I'd 'a screamed like a femme if I HAD seen Barricade?"

"True." As would she. She looked down at the little hand on her boob and internally giggled again. Couldn't get enough of her, could he? "My hero." She joked quietly, giving him a pat.

When her caressing palm left a bloody streak across his armour, Wheelie growled. "You're bleeding again!"

"Meh." She shrugged.

Wheelie began muttering again and dug out a few remnants of Mikaela's shirt out of god knows where, had a seat next to her arm and began to wrap her hands. Mikaela smiled at him again.

"You're all scuffed up." She observed, also noting the sparking wire on his right side and the bent bits of armour on his left leg. She'd have to fix him up, give him some fresh paint when she got her hands on some tools. And, shit, she owed it to him now to fix his optic properly. Now more than ever she felt like an asshole for doing that to him and letting it stay that way for months on end. She wouldn't have done that to any human, why did she think it was okay to do that to a mech?

"I'll live." He cheeked, tying a rather fancy bow on her palm with a strip of her shirt, then went and worked on the other.

A siren whooped in the distance, and instinctively both Mikaela and Wheelie flattened on the floor and looked around for the blue and red lights. The highway was not too terribly far away and Mikaela huffed a sigh of relief when she saw it wasn't Barricade.

"Ratchet! About Primus-damned time!" Wheelie screeched, hopping to his feet as the yellow-green Hummer with the flashing yellow lights suddenly veered off the highway and lurched into the field.

Mikaela had no idea how he did it, but Ratchet DROVE like he was irritated as hell, projecting it across the field to them, and when he arrived and transformed the both of them were prepared to feel the sharp edge of his proverbial tongue. But when he looked down on the ragged pair, he slumped.

"I leave you two alone for ONE day..."

They immediately protested.

"Wasn't our fault!"

"Barricade came after us..."

"And there was this HUGE tornado..."

"We didn't exactly PLAN that!"

"QUIET!" He frowned down at them. "Mikaela, you shouldn't have moved. Primus knows if you have a concussion, and look at you! And YOU Wheelie, as if you weren't glitched already! Do you have ANY idea how difficult it is to repair a model as small as you? At least you had the sense to comm me. GET inside, BOTH of you!"

He transformed with a deep angered growl and the pair meekly climbed inside, both secretly grinning at his irritation.

His Valkyrie passed out almost immediately after laying on her side on the small gurney Ratchet had stashed away in the back, closely monitored by the still grumbling medic as he drove them towards civilization. Wheelie took advantage of the quiet as he always did, climbing up on the gurney with her, ignoring Ratchet's orders to leave her alone, and curled into the space between her knees and her chest. He let out a pleased purr when her arm came out and wrapped around his chassis, pulling him into her soft warm body. He took the chance and snuggled his head between her breasts, and fell into recharge thinking that he could really get used to this treatment.

Cheesy ending, no point at all to the story, but meh. :D It was fun to write.