Hola Bitcholas!!

I'm back from my vacation...I have missed you all so very much. So I'm going to get busy with this chapter.
It is very hard trying to write in a moving vehicle! xD

But anyway, finally after so many weeks it feels like...

Onward!

Chapter 16

You did not just give me the hand!

After all the hype and excitement from Barricade had died down, Tai was in desperate need of a shower and a change of clothes and a good round of fetch with Psyche. She was tired and sore, and not to mention extremely confused as to why her cuts and scrapes suddenly went Wolverine and healed themselves magically.

But unfortunately, a shower would have to wait...they still had to locate where the two energy signals were going to land and who they were.

She glanced over at Jazz and Blurr, who were staring down the dirt road although expecting Barricade to suddenly change his mind and come barreling back over to them and go insane once again.

'Guys...' She called up to them. 'He's gone now...let's move on shall we?' Shaking her head with a grin, she headed back inside to see Sam and Mikaela standing there watching her in amazement.

'What was that weirdness just now?' Sam asked with wide eyes, pointing outside and walking over to her.

'What weirdness?' She asked, pretending to sound confused but in reality, she was just messing with him. Those who knew her were very aware of this...especially Blurr.

'That!...you...Barricade...friends?' Sam gestured wildly. Mikaela glanced at him with a curved raised eyebrow.

'Okay Tonto...' Tai laughed. 'Don't hurt yourself!' She walked by him and bumped his shoulder with hers, nearly knocking him into Lennox. The major quickly stepped out of the way as the stumbling teen straightened himself up and followed his cousin into the hanger, grumbling about having a stroke and feeling his arteries clogging with stress.

Epps chuckled from behind him, his large muscled arms crossed around his chest. 'That girl is funny...' Giving his head a shake, he followed the three teens inside as well, leaving Lennox with the two over protective mechs. The looks that were on both of their faceplates were interesting and strangely human like to say the least.

Jazz had a look of an over protective jealous boyfriend while Blurr had the look of a concerned sibling or parent...He found the relationship between the bright blue mech and Tai to be very brother and sister.

Everyone else had figured that out already but Lennox really saw it now. He could have hit himself for being so harsh on Tai. She just wanted to help the injured robot, no matter what rank he belonged to. As far as she was concerned, he wasn't bad; he was just following orders from his commanding officer.

It was really impressive at how she had figured to use a motorcycle to bring him down. Maybe she would like to be a part of his team as a strategist or something.

He was jerked out of his thoughts by a fast approaching dark, blue car. After getting a closer look as it sped by, nearly plowing him over, he noticed the two Witwicky parents, a Chihuahua, a French bulldog, and a large black and white Great Dane had managed to squeeze into the medium sized car.

'Oh my god!' The shrill voice of Judy shrieked out of the open window as it pulled into the base. Both Sam and Tai cringed at the familiar noise; Tai felt her hair stand on end while Sam once again felt his right eye twitch.

The sounds of opening car doors reached their ears and the next thing they knew, they were being bombarded by three different wet, canine tongues of various sizes. Sam was being 'attacked' by Mojo and Frankie while Tai had her arms around Psyche's massive neck as the large dog stood on her hind legs and placed her huge paws on her owners shoulders.

'My baby booty boy!' Judy wailed, embracing her horrified son tightly to her chest as he sputtered and tried to get away but it was to no avail. 'We heard about what happened on the freeway!' Sam glanced over at the Autobots from where he was face was being squished against his mothers chest, which was very awkward to say the least.

'See guys, this is how parents react to the fruit of their loins fighting big, bad robots in the cold hard world...' He tried to explain, his voice muffled. Bumblebee couldn't help but find this completely hilarious...he started clicking and whirring with laughter.

'Oh quit bitching...' Tai laughed, her hand being mouthed by Psyche. 'You weren't even hurt...I was the one who looked like I was attacked by a herd of rabid squirrels...Ow, Psyche!' She laughed as her dog let go and ran over to Ratchet to hide behind one of his large legs. With a laugh, she started chasing after her dog, perfectly content with wanting to have some fun. Mojo and Frankie joined in as well. Ratchet in turn, started laughing and reached down to wiggle his large fingers at the three canines.

'Well I see she's dandy.' Ron chuckled as Sam finally managed to free himself from his mothers grasp but Judy wasn't done embracing anyone just yet. With another wail, she took off after Tai wanting to hug her niece to her like she did to her own son. Tai made an eeping noise than ran over to Optimus and latched onto his shin plating. He didn't help matters much when he effortlessly reached down and plucked the back of her shirt and placed her in front of her hysterical Aunt.

'You traitor!' She said loudly before being pressed to Judy's chest, having her hair kissed over and over again.

'Oh my little Tai-dye shirt...we thought we lost you...never been so scared...' She sobbed into Tai's dirty white blonde hair.

'Aunt Jude...!' Tai said in a loud muffled voice. 'I'm fine...really...' She glanced over at Blurr, silently begging for help but all he did was laugh and shrug his large shoulder panels.
She responded in kind with flipping him off which caused him to start laughing a weird robotic but oddly contagious laugh.

'Okay Judy...let the poor girl breathe!' Ron came forward and pried his wife off of his niece.

Judy was finally starting to compose herself and released Tai from her embrace. 'Alright...I'm fine now..' She sniffed, taking a deep breath.

Tai's hair was now sticking up every which way and she had lipstick marks all over her face, she wiped at the sticky red goo marks and managed to get most of them off. Blurr reached down and scooped her up in his hand causing her to yelp slightly in alarm and confusion. When she realized it was just her 'big brother', she laughed and waved cheerfully at him. Sam stood next to his parents and grinned at their reactions; Ron was laughing and smiling while Judy looked like she was about to have a stroke.

Blurr held her upside down in front of his face playfully but carefully. Even though Tai was tough and unafraid of him, she was still fragile and breakable compared to cybertronian younglings.

'Blurr, I'd put me down or I'm going to jab you in the optic again...' She laughed, clearly joking around with him, her legs kicking playfully

With a chuckle, he placed her down and flattened her hair with his large pointer digit, she sputtered and slapped at it playfully. Psyche, who seemed to just notice Blurr, barked loudly causing Glen and Maggie to jump about a foot off the ground. Apparently, they weren't used to such a huge dog.

The Great Dane bounded over to Blurr and nipped at his metal finger with her large jaws. Tai was always afraid she would break one of her teeth doing that, but Blurr was always careful.

'Ow,Psychecutitout!' He laughed as she continued to chew on his finger like it was her favorite chew toy.

Ironhide shuddered when he saw a puddle of saliva forming on the floor from the dog's large mouth. Disgusting... He thought to himself as Blurr finally extracted his finger from Psyche's mouth and gave it a good shake. Glen made a noise of disgust and indignation when a glob of spit landed right on his Lakers' jersey which caused Maggie to laugh at her friends expense.

'OhI'msosorry...' Blurr said, his own faceplates shining with mirth.

'That is easy to fix.' Ratchet said helpfully, stepping forward and turning on the air vents on his chest causing what felt like a small hurricane in Glen's direction. His face was so hilarious even Ironhide cracked a grin. His eyes were closed tightly as the flesh on his face rippled from the force of the air which was also causing his lips to flow back much like a horses.

After a couple of minutes, the flow of air stopped and Ratchet looked rather pleased with himself.

'There we go...all dry and somewhat clean.' The medic said.

Glen gave himself a shake and straightened his ruffled clothing. Everyone meanwhile was fighting back mad fits of laughter.

These robots were hilariously entertaining!

'Ratchet that seemed a little much.' Optimus said, trying to sound stern but was finding it quite difficult.

'What?' Ratchet asked incredulously.

'It's all good big guy!' Glen said, flattening his hair with a smile.

Tai than started giggling uncontrollably and gestured to Jazz, who kneeled down with a smirk. She than whispered something in his audio receptor and after a minute, they both started laughing like maniacs, not even bothering to muffle it. Sam and Mikaela glanced over at Bumblebee, who just shrugged and shook his head but after a minute Sam seemed to get the joke and he himself started laughing.

'I'm sorry...did I miss something?' Ratchet asked confused.

After a bit, the three laughing individuals composed themselves. Jazz's gears and hydralics were wheezing, Tai's face had tears of mirth streaming down her cheeks, and Sam was bright red.

'Oh...my ribs!' Tai yelled out, still laughing madly. Blurr shook his head with a grin on his faceplates, and with his large finger, gently poked his charge in the side. That caused her to laugh even more as her guardian started to tickle her carefully.

'Torture!' She yelled through her laughter as she ducked and danced around.
After a bit, he stopped.

'Can we get back to the matter at hand?' Ironhide sounded impatient and annoyed.

'Aw come on Ironass...' Tai said standing with her hands on her hips along with a smirk. 'Try laughing for once.'

'You trying to say somethin'?' Ironhide glared at the girl with his good optic. It was that glare that would send any other mech or person running like hell in the opposite direction. But of course, Tai just stood her ground, staring up at the black mech with a cheeky expression.

'Quite possibly...' She replied, avoiding Blurr's attempt to shut her up. 'Stop being such a hardaft...' She turned away from him to talk to the others.

Ironhide than did something completely out of character for him; he stuck his glossa at her and made an obnoxious face.

'I can see you out of the corner of my eye!' She snapped, glaring at the weapons specialist with her ice blue orbs.

'Alright alright that's enough!' Optimus intervened before Ironhide ended up stepping on Tai or before Tai would dissemble Ironhide cannons; either would cause very big problems for both parties.

'Alright, alright...sorry.' Tai rolled her eyes and blew her swish of bangs out of her face. 'So before our horrifying encounter of emotional turmoil started...what is the shiz O to the P?'

After hearing Optimus explain yet again and after reassuring the parental units that they would call as soon as they could, they all set out to the location where they believed the two new arrivals would land.

But the Autobots failed to mention it was six hours outside of Tranquility. Six hours!

Luckily, the bots who were carrying humans drove themselves so their organic friends could get some rest on the way. Jazz had actually asked if Tai could ride with him. That got her incredibly excited, but she had to make sure it was okay with her guardian a.k.a. her older brother.

'Can I Blurr?' She asked, smiling her famous I'll-be-your-best-friend smile.

After a couple moments of silence, his mouthplates stretched into a grin. 'Sure.' He said in his usual fast tone.

She pumped her fist into the air and let out a whooping 'Yes!' as the sounds of transforming metal rang in the air.

Glen and Maggie rode in Blurr with Psyche, who seemed to enjoy licking Glen's ear. Sam and Mikaela were riding in Bumblebee, while Lennox and Epps were with Ironhide.
Optimus was of course leading the way, his majestic truck form shining in the setting sun.

The only human who wasn't sleeping was Tai...she was tired but she couldn't seem to relax enough to actually close her eyes for a short nap.

Her mind was so full of thought and chaos it was giving her a small headache...especially the dream. Even though she told Blurr she couldn't remember it, the truth was...she did. What did it mean? Why were her blue eyes red? Why did her hand turn into a robotic claw?

'Whoo-hoo...Tai?' Jazz's voice crackled through her thoughts.

'Huh?' She snapped out of her daze and jumped slightly. She quickly put her hands back on his steering wheel so people wouldn't get suspicious.

'You alright babe?' He asked as they sped past Bumblebee with Sam asleep at the wheel, his mouth wide open. Tai shook her head with a grin at both Jazz calling her babe and Sam drooling all over himself.

'Yeah...I'm okay...just thinking...' She said. It's not like she didn't want to talk to him; she just didn't know what to say.

'Is it Barricade?' He asked, his voice turning harsh at the Decepticon's name.

'No...It's not that...' She stroked the dashboard, laughing when she felt the seat shudder. 'Oh, the vibrations tickling my feet!' She quoted from a video game she played quite often with Blurr and Sam.

'Tha' wasn't cool...' Jazz muttered jokingly.

'Sorry dude...' Tai laughed. She has secretly wanted to do that for a while now, so her apology was only half hearted.

'But seriously, you can always tal' to me..' He assured her as they continued speeding past everyone, even Optimus who honked his horn annoyed but Jazz honked back cheekily. He knew where he was going...hopefully.

'I know...' She said softly, leaning her back on the seat as she watched the stars up above, her hand still stroking the steering wheel.

6 hours later.

After what felt like days, they reached the destination...a junkyard, which was out in an incredibly small town.

Bumblebee switched on the radio to wake up the two humans; Sam snorted loudly as his eyes opened while Mikaela yawned loudly.

'It was Tai who put blue stuff in the shampoo!' Sam yelled as he woke up from a dream.

'So that's how she found out?' Tai's voice echoed from outside. Sam turned and nearly rammed his head on Bee's roof; Tai was staring at him through the window with Jazz and Blurr kneeling behind her.

'Buddha's giant man tits!' Sam cursed, blinking the remainder of sleep from his eyes.

'Come on guys, wakey wakey!' Tai stepped out of the way as Bee popped open the doors. Mikaela got out with ease and stretched with a sigh while Sam fell out flat on his face, moaning in annoyance and now pain.

'Smooth.' Tai and Jazz and Blurr said at the same time.

'Oh shut the hell up.' Sam snapped, getting up and brushing the dirt off of him. Bumblebee, who had just finished transforming, was playing many different types of laughing bytes that he somehow kept finding on the internet. 'Bee...you are not helping!'

Optimus was standing a few yards away from the group and was staring up at the sky, his optics especially glowing and blue. He looked somewhat sad.

Tai, who had stopped laughing at Sam, saw the look on his face and frowned. 'Hey guys...I'll be back.'

With Psyche at her heels, she walked over to where the Autobot commander was standing and leant against his leg like someone would to a giant tree.
'What's up?' She asked casually, looking up at him with a cheeky grin. Optimus looked down at the feel of something small leaning on his lower shin plating.

When he saw it was Tai, he smiled a very kind smile and with what felt like a small earthquake, sat down so he could talk to her better.

'Hello Tatyana.' He said in a soft tone. Tai frowned again when she thought she heard a hint of sadness in his tone.

'You seem depressed...and that's not good.' She pointed out, climbing up onto his knee and facing him, sitting with her legs swinging. 'I thought you'd be excited...two more members of your team are coming!' She said with an excited tone.

'Yes...I am very happy and relieved to know that, but there is one who will never arrive on Earth.' Once again, he looked up into the starry sky with a sad expression. She knew that look...she had had that look on many occasions when she would climb a tree and just look at the stars like she and her dad did when she was younger. Blurr included of course.

'Who's that?' She asked with a gentle tone.

'Her name was Elita-1...' He said in a voice full of sadness and remorse.

'Who was she? Was she...your sparkmate?' She asked curiously. Blurr had told her all about the Cybertronian way of marriage...a bonding of their spark, which lasted for all eternity. Not to different from marriage for humans...Tai found it amazing at how alike they were as a race.

'Yes...she was...' He looked down at the human girl sitting on his knee.

'Did something happen to her?'

Optimus went silent for a few minutes, Tai got worried that maybe she pushed things and opened her mouth to apologize but he cut her off.

'She was offlined back on Cybertron.' He explained, his optics cast downward. Tai mouth formed an O and she patted his hand, which was next to her.

'I'm sorry O.P...if you don't mind me asking, how did it happen? Why?'

'She was protecting our sparkling...from Megatron.' His optics darkened at the mention of the Decepticon Lord.

'You had a baby?' Tai asked with fascination.

Optimus nodded, continuing to look up at stars with a sad expression.

'She sent our sparkling away before Megatron got to her...I cannot help but hope that she is out there somewhere.'

'Your baby?' She asked. 'It was a girl? Did she have a name?'

He shook his head with a frown. 'We never had the chance to name her before she was sent away.'

'I'm really sorry dude.' Tai said with a sincere voice. 'She's probably out there somewhere, and you just don't know it. Who knows, she might even be right in front of you! After all, you dudes have some pretty good disguises!'

That managed to bring a smile to the commanders face. 'I sincerely hope you are right.'

She smiled and looked up at the stars herself, taking a deep breath of the night air. 'I miss my dad...' She suddenly said, keeping her eye on the brightest one. 'He was my best friend...he was my everything, and it's incredible how one minute you are alive and happy...than the next minute, the light in your eyes goes out.'

Optimus listened to her words. She seemed wise beyond her years, despite her silly personality.

'But whenever I blame myself or whatever, I just think of this...the ones we love never leave, they're always there.' She looked up at him. 'Even though you can't see them, they're always with you.' She pointed to her heart. 'Here.' And than she pointed to her head. 'And here...that's what my dad always told me.'

'Your father was very wise young Tatyana.' Optimus said with a kind smile. 'He would be so proud of the brave young woman you have become.'

Tai smiled up at him. There was that feeling again; every time she looked into his optics...it was like looking at her Dad.

'I really hope you find your daughter someday.' She patted his hand again and kept it there to comfort the big mech, even though her hand was just resting on his incredibly large thumb.

A bright light suddenly illuminated the area, making everyone look up. Two large balls of white fire zoomed over their heads and landed far down in the junkyard causing two small explosions.

'Whoa!' Tai leapt down and ran over to the group while Optimus stood up. 'Was that them?'

'Obviously!' Sam said with a smirk. Tai punched him in the shoulder.

Not wanting to wait anymore, Tai took off in the direction. 'Tai!' She heard Blurr, Jazz, and Sam say behind her.

'Come on Sam!' She called. 'Don't be such a pussy!' And with that, she disappeared behind two large piles of scrap metal.

'I can't handle this!' Sam rolled his eyes and took off after his reckless cousin. Bumblebee and Blurr looked at each other and with a nod to each other, they took off after their charges.

Holy crap...that is long! Gooo me!

I'm so sorry to have kept you all waiting and hopefully, this makes up for being gone so long.

Who do you think the two new bots are?

Review!