cringes it's been forever and the chap is short. but i felt inspired, so... here! runs

Prowl cruised along the highway, flipping through channels on his radio and police scanner merrily

"You humans have an unexpectedly complicated law enforcement system, considering the high levels of crime your people seem to enjoy. It would seem there is either a crippling lack of effective leadership or an overabundance of professional criminals."

"It's probably both," I mumbled, my ears trained more on the scanner than on Prowl. As the scanner buzzed quickly through the frequencies I picked up only snippets, but after the arrival of all of those new decepticons I expected to hear a lot more about them very soon. I wasn't disappointed.

" – building was cut short when several unexplained explosions destroyed more than half of the building and construction equipment - "

Prowl habitually changed the station, but I could practically see his steering wheel stiffen as I leaned forward to switch the station back myself. He beat me to it.

"The construction foreman on site at the government funded lab in the Colorado Rocky Mountains claims to have seen large robotic creatures climb out of the wreckage of the destroyed buildings. They are similar in description to the robots of Mission City, and may be related to recent violent appearances in both Texas and California, as well as unconfirmed reports from Egypt and Russia. Officials say they will be investigating the sightings and corresponding with international authorities very closely. In other news, vegetables might be making you fat! Leading experts - "

"Egypt and Russia?" I asked.

"I believe Perceptor is the source of one of those sightings, but the other is a mystery to me."

"Skywarp left in a hurry, he may have been headed to one of those places…"

"It's likely. Both countries seem to have vast areas of uninhabited land, its possible that a damaged Cybertronian is hiding there. I hope Optimus has this information… We really must hurry back."

With that he switched on his lights and began accelerating. Glancing down at his speedometer, he quickly settled on 120 mph. I checked my seatbelt.

"You're a good driver right?"

Prowl's disembodied voice chuckled through the car. "I can keep track of countless warriors on a battlefield with no trouble and formulate battle strategies around each man's strengths and weaknesses in less than a second, Bravura. Maintaining stability for my own body is nothing." To emphasize he whipped around a couple of cars who had failed to notice him in time to get out of the way. I caught a glimpse of a shocked older man's face as we sailed around a minivan and felt a jolt at what I thought I saw looking straight through his car and out the other window.

"Prowl, I think if you can make a hologram for the wheel you need to make it right now," I whispered, unnecessarily quiet as I sank low in my seat. We were moving so fast whatever I may have seen was long out of sight, but I was still worried.

"What's wrong?" He was instantly alert, and I sighed in relief as a clean-cut middle-aged man with steel gray hair appeared in the driver's seat.

"I thought I saw someone in the trees back there… But maybe I'm just paranoid."

"Someone? Anyone in particular?"

"… I thought I saw Barricade in his alt... But I only saw him for a second. Maybe I'm wrong, he's supposed to be somewhere else right now."

"I didn't sense anything, but if he wasn't mobile it's possible he was able to silence his system's signals. I say we go on as planned. If he was there, he may have missed us. If it was Barricade and he did see us, we have more to worry about than just him. The Constructicons won't be far behind, but they'll have to catch us first."

"Do you mean those six decepticons back there? Why are they called the Constructicons?"

"There's a long story behind that, but essentially they were renowned builders back on Cybertron. They can also join together and form a much larger entity called Devastator. They are formidable, separately and as Devastator."

I twisted around in my seat and peeked behind us, looking for any sign of trouble, then scanned the sky as best I could. Nothing drew my attention, so I settled down and tried to trust Prowl's judgment. He would probably feel them coming, anyway.

I succumbed to my exhaustion at some point on our trip.

I was facing down the men who'd held me captive in Texas. The sight of them made my adrenaline spike, but two huge shadows loomed over me and I felt relief. On my left a black and purple foot stepped past me, on my right ruby red and yellow. Skywarp and Hotrod.

"You're just like me," they whispered together. I looked up, first into Skywarp's possessive stare and then into Hotrod's.

"After what they did to you…" Skywarp growled.

"We can help you." Hotrod murmured.

"Hurting you!"

"Every living thing has a right..."

I woke up again when the sun had been on its downward slant for a while. The clock on Prowl's dash read 5:12. I shivered and glanced at the climate control; Prowl had it on full blast, at the lowest temperature.

"It's freezing in here."

"I know."

"Well, do you mind if I turn it up?"

"Yes, I mind."

"... Why?"

"You may not know this, but going as fast as I have been, I'm putting off quite a bit more heat than your average human car. I'm trying to balance that out until we can reach a safe spot for the night. Can you tough it out?"

I hugged myself and tried to think about warmer things. "If it's gonna keep us safer, sure. But I'll need to pick up a coat if we do this much longer."

"Lucky for the both of us, we should be able to rendezvous with Ironhide by midday tomorrow. I chanced a quick communication while you were sleeping. It's why I'm adding the extra precaution."

I'd heard of Ironhide and he seemed like a formidable guy, so I wasn't complaining. A little extra firepower couldn't hurt, and he did fend off Barricade not so long ago…

I stretched as straight as I could to loosen up my muscles, and then curled up into a ball for warmth. Prowl still had the radio on, barely audible over the blast of the air conditioner.

"The suspects in the Camilla Phillips murder case have been brought into custody and charges have been filed. Court dates will be announced. Officials say-"

I shuddered and changed the station. I hadn't known my disappearance had meant anything to anyone.